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Ida Brings Massive Flooding to New York City; Massive Flooding in NYC, Subway System Shut Down; Massive Flooding from Ida Kills 6 in NYC and New Jersey; Ida Spawn Numerous Destructive Tornadoes; New York and New Jersey Governors Declare States of Emergency from Ida Flooding. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired September 02, 2021 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[04:30:00]

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GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D-LA): Our people have taken a pretty good lick here from hurricane Ida. But our people are very resilient and strong as well. Having said that, we need all the help that we can get from the federal government, from the nonprofit sector, from the faith community. And certainly, from us at the state level working with our local partners as well.

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: And we'll continue to follow this breaking news as what is left of Ida wreaks havoc in the Northeast with torrential rain and flooding. We're live in New York next. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, all that water in New York City had to go somewhere. This person in Brooklyn says the historic flooding from Ida made it made its way through their basement toilet. I mean, look at that. New Yorkers are now under a state of emergency because of the record rainfall. With some stranded on flooded buses or subway cars, the city's transportation mostly shut down. The rain has moved on, but emergency crews are still trying to evacuate passengers stuck on the subway. Earlier CNN spoke to the Democratic nominee for mayor in New York City and here is what he had to say about the floods.

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ERIC ADAMS, DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE FOR MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY (via phone): For the first time in my life, Don, there just is a city that I saw the Brooklyn Bridge flooded on the inbound ramp. We tried to assist some of the motorists, but everything from our train stations to parts of Crown Heights, you're seeing a high level of water, flooding of cars, even the wind surge which is really outside the water lying areas. So, it is a real concern that we're experiencing during the storm.

[04:35:00] That's why we call it mother nature because this is still her planet and although we destroyed it by so many things that we have done, it's real, that global warming is here. Our role is to be able to respond to those emergencies so that people are not trapped in their homes or trapped in their vehicles or that we get emergency services where they are needed.

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BRUNHUBER: Our Shimon Prokupecz is in New York City with the latest. Shimon, I want to start with the sad news we're hearing about the number of people who have died during this event. I think six people. What more can you tell us?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, there's six people, five in the New York City area, and then one in the New Jersey area. The people in the New York City area lived in the outer boroughs -- Brooklyn and Queens. More of them died because of the flooding and then the rising water in their homes. They called police for help and I guess the police couldn't get there in time to rescue them. And so, they sadly died. And then one of those people here in New York City died after a building collapse, a partial building collapse is how the fire department described it. And so that person died as a result.

You know, you look at these communities in Queens and Brooklyn where these people died were some of the hardest hit communities from this torrential rain. I mean whether it was -- there was just no place for this water to go. We'll see if some of the drains, some of the storm drains that are in the street were clogged and so maybe that perhaps, you know, left the water no place to go or it was just too much water where the system got inundated. And so therefore really the water had nowhere to go but inside these people's homes.

And sadly, I'm sure -- you know, no one expected to be this bad and so quickly, right. We were expecting it to rain here, certainly we heard the warnings. We heard about the potential for all this rain, but just the way that this came in and how quickly, people were really surprised. And certainly, it appears that these people died in the flooding, they lived in basements.

So, it is not like the water went high up, but you know, enough went in their basements to kill them. And so, sadly the police responded. They were able to call police for help, police went there but could not save them. So that is what we know of those people.

And the other things that have been going on tonight with all the rescue efforts from the police and the fire department, people stuck in their cars, on the roofs of their cars and the number of calls that were coming in through the 911 system and that the police were responding to just has to be in the hundreds from all over the city. There is only so much that they can do. But luckily so far, we're not hearing of any fatalities out in their vehicles, at least not yet. But there's a lot of damaged vehicles, a lot of cars in the road that need to be moved. We don't yet know the damage to homes certainly so we'll have to see in the morning. And then obviously the other big story here has been the subway. And

so, that now is starting to come back up and starting to run again. So hopefully things can return to some normalcy. But obviously a tragedy out here tonight.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely heartbreaking. Shimon Prokupecz in New York, thanks so much.

And Shimon mentioned the massive rapid flooding took many people by surprise. As the rain started to ease rescue operations began. Here is the commissioner for emergency management in New York City.

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JOHN SCRIVANI, COMMISSIONER, NEW YORK CITY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT (via phone): We're seeing a lot of what you are showing on the screen, right? We're seeing a lot of flooding citywide. We're seeing unfortunately people's basements are being flooded. You know, people are getting stuck in their cars across the city. This came in, you know, fast and furious and obviously, you know, the city has difficulty absorbing that much water in a short period of time.

And as you're showing now on the screen, we're seeing a lot of subway impacts. So, we're lucky that the water is starting to subside, the rain is starting to let up and we could really start to get ahead of this overnight.

We're out rescuing people in the street out of their cars. We've had a few people that we've had to rescue out of basements. You know, unfortunately this came in so fast that, you know, people -- we tried to tell people ahead of time don't drive into flooded areas but I believe that this happened so quickly that people really didn't anticipate it and got stuck.

[04:40:00]

So, we have police department and the fire department out there with high wheeled vehicles really getting in there and getting those people out as fast as they can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right, have a look at this. You are looking at people being rescued from the floodwaters in Philadelphia. You can see emergency crews there using rafts to reach people who have been stranded or trapped. Unbelievable scenes there.

Well, at least one death has been reported in New Jersey because of the catastrophic flooding. The mayor of Passaic says a man in his 70s died after the car he was riding in was engulfed by the sudden torrent. And two others in the car were rescued.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yo, this is crazy. There is really a tornado out here. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Well, in addition to the rain and floods, the storm has spun off several tornadoes. This multi-vortex tornado appeared this Burlington Township, New Jersey just outside of Philadelphia. And look at this, at least one other tornado ripped through southern New Jersey damaging or destroying a number of homes. One resident couldn't believe the instantaneous destruction. Listen to this.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is like a warzone. The one house over there, there is nothing left of it.

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BRUNHUBER: All right, meteorologist Pedram Javaheri joins us now for the latest on the conditions. Pedram, I mean, we were looking at records falling, what, ten days ago and already setting new records now.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, once again exactly, you know, that was something that we had not seen since records began in the 1800s across New York City and incredible to think just about ten days later we bust that record by a significant amount with what happened here in the last several hours. And the last breath of this storm thankfully finally beginning to push away from the United States in the next couple hours. But I still think parts of Massachusetts and also portions of Connecticut and Rhode Island could still see some heavy rainfall but we're beginning to see it push offshore in the next few hours. So good news there.

There's still a tornado watch still in effect. We've seen at least five reports of tornadoes in the last several hours and wouldn't be surprised if the system spins up another one. So, we're going to keep that in mind here with a lot of rotations still in the atmosphere. But as many as 70 million Americans are underneath flood alerts during this entire event.

Flood warnings that are indicated in red. On the northern fringe of this you notice New York City now the top five wettest days all-time taking place. September 1 certainly going to go into the record books. 7 inches of rainfall coming down in Central Park in three hours, upwards of 5 inches fell in Central Park, that is a 500-year rain event taking place in the last several hours in New York City.

And again, the National Weather Service across this region issuing their first flash flood emergency. Of course, that has since been expired. But when you see flash flood emergencies, these are as rare a product in the weather service because it means that imminent flooding is occurring, water rescues are taking place and catastrophic and life-threatening flooding is also in place. All of this was taking place across portions of New York and New Jersey into Pennsylvania as well.

As far as severe weather, almost 50 severe weather reports in the last several hours, five of them tornadoes. The New Jersey tornado very rare to see a tornado in New Jersey. They average two per year and this one coming in in the last several hours was their 11th of 2021. An incredible run of active and severe weather in the region. And again, the storm system we think by 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning will really quickly moves out of here. Back behind it cloudy skies, Kim, and later on this afternoon sunshine across really a devastated area and kind of where we began a few days ago on the Gulf Coast, to where it ends here along the Northeast, really speaks to the historic nature of hurricane Ida as it moves into the record books now.

BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely incredible. All right, thanks so much, Pedram Javaheri, appreciate it.

And we have much more on CNN NEWSROOM, stay with us.

[04:45:00]

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BRUNHUBER: All right, let's give you an update on our breaking news. Police say six people in New York and New Jersey have died as a result of major flash flooding that has been inundating the Northeastern U.S. Remnants of hurricane Ida dumped record amounts of rain across the region.

New York City subway system flooded and a number of people had to be rescued. The storm is now moving into New England. All right, let's go back to CNN's Mark Morales in Brooklyn, New York. Mark, obvious to say the city wasn't built to deal with anything remotely like this. I have a friend who has been bailing out his basement for the past couple of hours. I'm sure thousands are doing the same. Give us a sense of where things stand where you are and how residents are coping with all of this.

MARK MORALES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTER: Right, and it's very similar to your friend. I mean, that's the scene that has been multiplied all over this city. You either had people dealing who were dealing with floods in their basements or you have what we had here at this intersection here in Brooklyn. The water was at such a high level it almost looked like it was a river out here.

I mean, if you notice behind me, you'll see a couple SUVs that are just kind of strewn about here. I mean, these were cars that were left in the roadway because the water level got too high and it became too dangerous for the drivers to stay in those vehicles. We're talking about water getting up to the driver's side window to the point where someone had to evacuate their vehicle. And it is not just those two cars. Because there's even a third car over a little bit further on. And if you can hear a little bit, you can hear little ringing sound, that's coming from a building that is further down the block. More remnants and more damage from what we saw from this storm.

And at this intersection, what we saw here happened at a number of intersections in Brooklyn, in the Bronx, in Queens on major thoroughfares, on the roadways like the Brooklyn Queens Expressway or the Cross Bronx Expressway. You're talking about major areas where traffic had to shut down because the flooding became unyielding.

BRUNHUBER: Obviously -- well, it seems like the rain has stopped and the water has receded generally. But how long is it going to take -- we only have about 30 seconds left, but how long will it take to sort of get the city back again? I imagine that it's still going to chaos later this morning.

MORALES: Right. And that's what it's up to city officials to sort of figure out in the next coming hours. Because it will be rush hour, people are going to have to get to work and it will be about getting the subways back online. Making sure that the roadways are clear. Making sure that these vehicles for vehicles that are stuck are out of the roadways. And a big thing is going to be assessing the damage that was left by a lot of these cars and making sure that everything is up and running.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. All right, lot of chaos still ahead, but I hope everybody remains safe out there. Mark Morales in Brooklyn, New York, thanks so much, appreciate it.

[04:50:00]

All right, let's give you an update now in the breaking news in the Northeastern United States. This is a look at what the baggage area at the airport in Newark, New Jersey look like late last night. Now we don't know what it looks like at this hour. There was also flooding in airport terminals. At one point the airport shut down all flights but officials say they have resumed limited operations. Newark had a record 8 inches of rain on Wednesday.

Governors of New York and New Jersey have declared states of emergency because of massive flooding. Now this is a flooded intersection in Queens, New York. You can see that fire truck preventing vehicles from driving into the floodwaters. The region has been slammed by remnants of hurricane Ida killing at least five people in New York and another in New Jersey.

The flooding prompted New York City to essentially shut down its subway system. The city's ban on non-emergency travel is scheduled to end at the top of this hour. And here is a look at the flooding in Short Hills, New Jersey.

[04:55:00]

The state has seen rising water and even tornadoes in the past 12 hours.

CNN's Brian Stelter says that the area isn't used to getting this kind of severe weather.

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BRIAN STELTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In towns, city, counties that are not built for this, not equipped for this amount of rainfall this fast a appeared of period of time. Of course, we're talking the remnants of Ida crashing into Louisiana a couple a few days ago and has been soaking the United States ever since. And the same kind of infrastructure problems we saw in Louisiana we are now seeing in New Jersey and New York.

Earlier today tornadoes south of where I'm located closer to Philadelphia, but in New Jersey, we saw tornadoes also in Annapolis, Maryland. So multiple twisters kicked up by remnants of Ida. But the real biggest story as you said is the flooding, 4 inches of rain in many areas and more localized 6, 8, 10 inches of rain in some pockets in some neighborhoods.

And that is why we're seeing so many pictures of cars submerged of people needing rescues. And those rescues are still happening right now in different stretches of the 95 corridor. Anybody who has been to the Northeast knows the 95 corridor up and down from Boston to New York to Washington, that's really where the focus of this rain has been and where the problem areas have been.

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BRUNHUBER: And stay with CNN throughout the day for the very latest on this storm in the Northeast as it moves farther into New England and the Canadian Maritimes.

I'm Kim Brunhuber at CNN Center in Atlanta. Our coverage continues on "EARLY START" after this quick break. Stay with us.

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