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Post-Tropical Cyclone Ian Barrels through the Carolinas; Parts of Florida Destroyed after Ian's Rampage; Putin Engages in Nuclear Saber Rattling; Pyongyang Launches Two Short-Range Ballistic Missiles Saturday; Many States Do Not Require Disclosure of Property Flood Damage. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 01, 2022 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm Paula Newton.
In this hour thousands of Americans in the Carolinas are braving the wrath of a very powerful storm. Yes, it is still powerful. Post- tropical cyclone Ian is making its way inland at this hour after slamming into South Carolina as a hurricane.
Even though the storm has been downgraded, officials warn it still threatens the area with storm surges, heavy rain and strong winds. In fact, it has already caused considerable damage in parts of South Carolina.
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NEWTON (voice-over): You see it in this video. That storm ripping through a pier, causing part of it to collapse. Now it also submerged this neighborhood with a strong storm surge that, in fact, was several feet high.
It was so bad this man -- it was so bad this man had to wade through knee-deep water inside his own home. Thankfully, the water there is starting to recede and some areas in the state have been spared the worst.
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NEWTON (voice-over): But in Florida the damage has been severe. At least 45 people have now lost their lives and hundreds of homes have been turned, well, you see there just piles of debris. The Coast Guard is trying to rescue survivors and have managed to save over 275 people. President Joe Biden said more help is on the way.
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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's not just a crisis for Florida. It's an American crisis. My message to the people of South Carolina is simple. Please listen to all the warnings and directions from local officials and follow their instructions.
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NEWTON: Now sport fishing is a huge draw for many people who go to Florida's Gulf Coast. But it will take a while for those businesses to get up and running again. CNN's Bill Weir is in Ft. Myers and shows us the tangled mess of boats, vehicles and debris left behind by this storm.
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BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: These are shore birds and pelicans walking across wreckage in what used to be San Carlos harbor. It's seen better days, as you can see.
This is the destructive path of Ian. It came raking across here. A lot of the businesses here, of course, have to do with recreation here in paradise, kayak rentals, bait shops, completely split open by the wind.
But what's most striking about this particular spot is the boats that have been tossed into the mangroves across the street here. We have a bit of a bottleneck of human activity because this is the road to Ft. Myers beach. And the sheriff's department's not letting anybody on.
If you haven't seen any pictures of Ft. Myers Beach, this is why. There is a first and former law in Florida that's supposed to give us access when there's a state of emergency. But you got to feel for the sheriff's deputies just trying to manage the crowds here now that are piling in.
You've got journalists, first responders. You have residents who are just curious who are coming by. And that's creating this huge pile. But this is what I wanted to show you. This is across San Carlos Boulevard.
And just get a load of this. Just wanton, indiscriminate destruction. I think about how a family saves up their whole life to buy a boat. Or if you're a fisherman, you dream of being a captain one day and how perilous that is even in a good year sometimes.
But now what this will do to the maritime businesses around here, the insurance, the marine insurance companies that will have to deal with the aftermath of this. And this is what I really wanted to show you guys.
Look at this. I will always remember the sight of Captain Greg's boat, the Crackerjack, which is now parked on top of this Chevy Suburban.
You can hear the alarm going off inside the boat to alert the captain that something's wrong. It's heartbreaking in this setting. And then you've got laundry baskets up in the mangroves there, another bait shop over here.
And then you find stuff like this. Look at this. Just a random -- this is Nicholas Rollins' (ph) MGM Rewards card just sat down by the most violent storm to hit this part of the coast in history.
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WEIR: And meanwhile over here, you have the beeping of earth movers as they try to shove these grounded sail boats out of the way.
As we learn in Irma and Maria, cleanup can be as much of a man-made disaster as the hurricane itself, if not properly managed. We can only hope that all available resources will manage to un-jumble this mess as soon as possible for these poor folks.
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NEWTON: Thanks to Bill Weir there on the ground. After pounding Florida, Ian made a second landfall in South Carolina. Officials there are now assessing the damage. CNN's Nick Valencia is in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and filed this report for us.
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NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The worst of the hurricane appears to have come and gone here in Myrtle Beach.
And though Hurricane Ian made landfall just south of us, it brought significant damage here in and around the area, particularly in North Myrtle Beach to the Cherry Grove pier, which was just wrecked by the heavy rain and significant wind that came with Hurricane Ian, portions of that pier floating into the Atlantic.
Now there was concerns here from local officials for localized flooding, especially along the coast. Some residents did get water inside their homes. And there was at least one rescue in the county.
Here along the coast where we were standing just hours ago, was underwater; all of that water has receded back into the ocean but the wind here continues to be a factor.
And perhaps the most dramatic scene that we saw throughout the day on Friday, there was a shrimp boat that seemingly appeared out of nowhere in the Atlantic, just getting hammered by those choppy waves. And initially it wasn't clear if there was anyone on that boat.
We did talk to the Horry County sheriff's office, who said it was yesterday -- or rather Thursday -- that the crew was evacuated by the Coast Guard. It was anchored down. But because of that severe weather it drifted ashore here.
Actually one person was arrested trying to climb into that boat. The cleanup continues in Horry County, in and around Myrtle Beach. And there's going to be a lot to clean up in the coming days-- Nick Valencia, CNN, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
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NEWTON: If you would like to safely and securely help people affected by Hurricane Ian who may be in need of shelter, food and water, please go to cnn.com/impact.
Russia is pushing ahead with its plans to annex nearly a fifth of Ukraine. But as soon as the annexation ceremony in Moscow was done, widespread condemnation followed.
Plus our coverage of the storm's devastating impact continues after a short break.
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NEWTON: Russia is moving ahead with its plan to carry out the largest forced annexation in Europe since World War II.
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NEWTON (voice-over): A large ceremony in Moscow on Friday, President Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of close to one-fifth of Ukraine. The move follows the so-called referenda in four partially occupied regions which the West dismissed as shams.
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NEWTON: Western nations made it clear the move will not be recognized. The U.S. and Britain, along with other G7 members, are already pushing for new sanctions on Moscow.
Now diplomatic tensions later spilled into the U.N. Security Council. Moscow vetoed a resolution that condemned the referenda and called for Russian forces to leave Ukraine. No other country voted against that measure.
Now the annexation announcement comes against the backdrop of serious setbacks for Mr. Putin, Russia's military failures in Ukraine and pushback against his military mobilization. As Matthew Chance reports, the Russian leader still has his military -- still says his military will prevail on the battlefield.
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VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA: (Speaking Russian). MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: "Victory will be hours," he shouts. President Putin vowing success in Ukraine soon after announcing a significant escalation in his war.
The invited crowd yelled their support back. But this carefully choreographed fervor is unlikely to be shared by many Russians still fleeing his call to arms.
Earlier from the Kremlin, Putin dramatically raised the stakes, annexing four more Ukrainian regions after his sham referenda showed huge, unlikely support for Moscow's rule.
PUTIN (through translator): People living in Luhansk and Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya are becoming our citizens forever.
CHANCE (voice-over): Putin said he wanted Kyiv to come to the negotiating table but that the fate of the occupied regions was not up for debate.
PUTIN (through translator): The choice of the people in the four provinces, we're not going to discuss. Russia is not going to betray it.
CHANCE (voice-over): His speech framing Russia's land grab as part of an existential battle. Ukraine's Western allies, he said, were determined to weaken his country. He declared any attack on the annexed areas would be an attack on Russia itself, vowing to use all the means at his disposal if Ukraine tries to reclaim them.
The announcement met with dutiful applause from Russia's political elite. But behind their stony glares, they must know how much this war is costing. On the battlefield, Russia is facing its worst setbacks since invading in February, while at home there's been wide protests against the mobilization of Russia's men to fight.
There's also the global condemnation, the U.S. imposing fresh sanctions against Russian officials, with other Western allies following suit. And in Ukraine, President Zelenskyy called Putin's move a farce and said Ukraine would accelerate its request to join NATO.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Today here in Kyiv, in the heart of our country, we are taking a decisive step for the security of the entire community of free nations.
Security has no alternatives but determination is needed to guarantee it. We are taking our decisive step by signing Ukraine's application for accelerated accession to NATO.
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CHANCE (voice-over): But in Red Square tonight, the stage managed celebrations are meant to send a powerful message at home and abroad that, no matter the criticism or the consequences, Putin's Russia is determined to take this path -- Matthew Chance, CNN, New York.
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NEWTON: Now as Mr. Putin declares annexation of Moscow, the Ukrainian president, you were just hearing there, is praising more progress on the battlefield. Ukrainian officials say Russian troops are now trapped in the eastern city of Lyman.
This after reports Ukrainian troops were close to encircling the city. President Zelenskyy said his troops will eventually free the entire country.
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ZELENSKYY (through translator): We must liberate our entire land. And this will be the best proof that international law and human values cannot be broken by any terrorist state, even one as insolent as Russia.
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NEWTON: Now meantime the death toll from an attack on a humanitarian convoy in Zaporizhzhya has grown to at least 30 people. Ukraine says 88 others were wounded in the Russian strike. And we want to warn you now the images you're about to see are graphic.
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NEWTON (voice-over): The strike happened Friday at a used car market, where vehicles were gathering to go into Russian held territory. President Zelenskyy says Russia fired 16 missiles on the area, although it's unclear how many hit the convoy. Ukraine says there were no military targets there.
DENIS MONASTYRSKYI, UKRAINIAN INTERNAL AFFAIRS MINISTER (through translator): You can take a look around here. There is not one military object, no piled equipment and there never was. Every day, only civilians come here, getting ready to go to temporarily occupied territories.
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MONASTYRSKYI (through translator): They're older people, women with children and families.
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NEWTON: Now U.S. President Joe Biden isn't mincing words when it comes to the recent leaks in the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines. He called them a deliberate act of sabotage but stopped short of directly accusing Moscow.
It's the first time the president clearly asserted the leaks were a result of foul play. On Monday, leaks were discovered in the pipelines which are meant to bring Russian natural gas to Europe. Investigations by European authorities determined that powerful
underwater explosions had occurred just before the pipelines burst in several places. And we will continue to follow that story and will give you more later in the show.
Coming up now for us, how one boat captain in Ft. Myers decided to ride out Hurricane Ian aboard his floating hotel and ended up on dry land.
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NEWTON: And a warm welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Paula Newton. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM.
The loss of life and property from Hurricane Ian are so staggering along Florida's Gulf Coast that no one can yet quantify just how devastating it truly is. Countless vacation homes, hotels, businesses, boats, vehicles simply vanished after the category 4 storm made landfall Wednesday.
One analysis predicts the insured losses in the state will be nearly $50 billion. Tragically, Florida's death toll continues to climb as search and rescue teams continue to comb through mountains of debris. So far, at least 45 storm related fatalities have been confirmed in Florida.
But officials fear the final tally could be in the hundreds. Ian is now a post-tropical cyclone after making landfall in South Carolina. CNN has met and spoken with many Floridians who lived through past hurricanes.
And they all say almost universally that Ian was much worse. One man says he rode out the storm on his boat but it was incredibly dicey. Our Randi Kaye has his story.
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RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Have you ever seen a storm like this?
MIKE STACZEK, HOTEL BOAT OWNER: No, not this big. Seen hurricanes but nothing like this.
KAYE (voice-over): When Hurricane Ian hit Ft. Myers Beach, boat captain Mike Staczek was in for the ride of his life.
STACZEK: It was surreal. It was very surreal.
KAYE (voice-over): Mike had decided to ride out the storm on his boat docked at this Ft. Myers Beach marina. It is made of steel and has a generator so we thought it would be safer than home. Mike showed me video of what he saw as the hurricane gained strength.
STACZEK: So here's the one with the -- you'll see the building that collapsed over there. You'll get to see at the minute. You can see I was running the engine, holding the boat in place. It should be a minute, there's the building.
KAYE: Wow. It's just right in the water.
STACZEK: Yes.
KAYE (voice-over): He tied the boat he was on to another large boat he owned, both weighed about 50 tons, he says but even that was no match for hurricane Ian.
At about 3:00 AM, all of a sudden Mike was lifted up by the force of the water and the wind.
STACZEK: We didn't actually get dragged around until the very, very end.
KAYE: What was that feeling like being carried along as the storm was going?
STACZEK: Just really, we knew it was out of our control at that point. So we just figured we knew -- we were happy we were blown inland, because we knew we'd wind up over land not out in water that we will be sinking and be in real danger. So you just couldn't see anything.
The wind was howling and we knew we were in the parking lot. We didn't know where we were going to stop.
KAYE (voice-over): In the end, after a wild 15 hours, Mike and his boats, which were still tied together, landed in a street. And while they aren't a total loss, Ian sure took a chunk out of this boat Mike used for his business, a floating hotel.
STACZEK: That's cabin six, actually. It was one of the nicest cabin. It had a private deck. And you're just looking at -- the wind did that but that wasn't even from a hit. That was -- we were just watching the wind, as it got more and more, it started peeling the side back and pulled it right off.
KAYE: Pulled it right off.
STACZEK: Yes.
KAYE: So for now Mike is staying on the boat he was on during the storm. He does have a generator on it and he does have water on it but he would like to get it back into the water as soon as possible.
That's because, one, it's not insured so he would like to get it back in the water. And also it's leaning against that power pole right there and he said the electric company, if they deem that his boat is in the way of restoring power, they will destroy it -- Randi Kaye, CNN, Ft. Myers Beach, Florida.
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NEWTON: Now Ian made its second U.S. landfall near Georgetown, South Carolina, Friday as a category 1 hurricane. And that was with destructive winds and life threatening storm surges.
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NEWTON (voice-over): Now power is being restored to impacted areas as officials assess the damage. And shelters where people took refuge from the storm in Charleston County are set to close Saturday afternoon. Although the storm has weakened as it moves further inland, the governors of South and North Carolina say risks remain.
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GOV. HENRY MCMASTER (R-SC): This is not as bad as it could have been. A lot of prayers have been answered. But I would ask people don't quit yet because it's still coming.
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GOV. ROY COOPER (D-NC): Flash floods are a concern and that's why we want people to go ahead and stay off the roads, to also listen to their local officials. They would be the ones to make a determination whether someone needed to evacuate an area.
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NEWTON: Now earlier I spoke about the impact of the storm with Myrtle Beach emergency management director. I asked him about the damage he's seen so far and if the worst is now over.
TRAVIS GLATKI, MYRTLE BEACH EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR: You know, it seems like we fared out pretty well.
There's obviously some damages to properties alongside our beachside community. The closer you get to the ocean, the more severe the damage is. Inland, we were able to escape the majority of the problems. There were some power issues, utility issues. But for the most part, the majority of Myrtle Beach survived pretty well, I thought.
NEWTON: Yes, and it's incredible you say that when we, you know, just showed pictures of homes that are on stilts but still they have been inundated with water.
What was the main issue today?
Was it the flooding?
Was it power? Is it still power?
How's the water situation coming together in the community?
GLATKI: So from basically the beginning of the week, when we found out whether it was the tropical storm or hurricane coming at us, our biggest concern was coastal flooding and the storm surge.
Unfortunately, that became a reality. I believe our storm surge actually got all the way up to 6 feet, which is some of the highest in recorded history for Myrtle Beach.
When you put that in with the heavy rain, high tide was at 11 o'clock this morning, the storm hit us at 2:00. Just the way timing worked out, you know, the coastal flooding really became our major issue.
Obviously the power and utilities throughout Myrtle Beach was always a concern. But those companies, I've got to give it to them, they were on it. So we expect to be close to 100 percent probably by midnight today so ...
NEWTON: Incredible. One of the pictures we're looking at now is the Apache Pier, which did not survive, I take it.
Has that happened before?
GLATKI: Yes, we have a history with our piers, not just with Myrtle Beach but north and south of us. They sustain damage every hurricane.
But you know, the more severe damage that comes from hurricanes like this, where you get that tropical storm surge, that flooding, you know, and, unfortunately, it's the cost of doing business, of having a pier all the way out there in the ocean without any protection around it.
NEWTON: Well, I've walked that pier. It is lovely and hopefully to be rebuilt very soon. I did not realize it was at historic levels today, the storm surge.
And having said that, you've been working on plans for years in your career in terms of mitigation, right?
GLATKI: Yes.
NEWTON: I'm going to lean on your experience here.
What have you learned about what has been this unprecedented menace that is Hurricane Ian?
GLATKI: So the big thing for us is, you know, every year, starting in March, our department is out there, community reach, public education, because a lot of people aren't familiar with hurricanes.
So we have basically six, seven months dedicated specifically to hurricanes, trying to educate people. Throughout the week leading up to this, our public works team was out there, making sure drainage was working.
Our beachside coordinators were making sure that the beach was protected as much as possible. You know, as great as it is living on the beach, sometimes, you know, bad things happen.
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NEWTON: And our thanks there to Travis Glatki, for -- thankfully the situation not as bad as it could have been in Myrtle Beach.
Now warnings for Pyongyang amid its ongoing missile tests. South Korea says the launches jeopardize the peace and safety of the entire world. We'll have the latest in a live report.
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NEWTON: Russia is moving ahead with its plan to carry out the largest forced annexation in Europe since World War II.
At a large ceremony in Moscow Friday, president Vladimir Putin announced the annexation of close to one-fifth of Ukraine. And the move follows so-called referenda in four partially occupied regions, which the West dismissed as shams.
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NEWTON: Joining me now from Kyiv is Luke Harding, the foreign correspondent for "The Guardian" newspaper.
Good to have you weigh in on this. You're also the author of the upcoming book, "Invasion: The Inside Story of Russia's Bloody War and Ukraine's Fight for Survival."
And quite a fight it is.
I mean, given your expertise in Russia what do you see here as the end game as far as Putin has calculated?
And I mean calculated because we had the bellicose speech, the spectacle. But clearly there is a strategy behind this.
LUKE HARDING, "THE GUARDIAN": Well, there is a strategy but it keeps on changing. And I think the speech yesterday, which was full of fiery anti-Western rhetoric, was a sign of weakness.
And what you have to remember is Russia is losing on the battlefields. And, you know, as recently in the east of Ukraine, where Russian troops are going backwards, and so I think what Putin is trying to do is sort of bank his gains to consolidate his position by sending in more troops. We've seen a huge mobilization, up to 1 million men, who have been
thrown into the front line. But also most importantly to shore up his position domestically because the reality is, actually, this war at home is becoming increasingly unpopular.
NEWTON: I want to get more to that point. He's been stumbling his way through this effort in Ukraine. The draft has obviously hit a nerve.
Even if we don't see clear signs of it yet, which of the power brokers in Russia do you believe are most likely to motivate something, even if it falls short of getting -- you know, taking Putin out of office?
HARDING: Yes, it's such an appealing scenario, the sort of film script version where there's some kind of coup and Putin is taken away and we get a new start, a new leader and so on.
It's interesting that president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where I am in Kyiv, said yesterday in the wake of his speech, that no negotiations with Moscow are possible and that Ukraine would wait until there's a new Russian president.
I mean, the problem is that that could be quite a long time. And actually, the people who might remove him, you know, the oligarchs, for example, or the generals of the security services, I mean they're all either terrified or they're locked in.
They're kind of part of the state. So for the moment, I think the Western world, the United States, my country, the U.K. --
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HARDING: -- we are just going to have to contain this difficult, aggressive revisionist Russia. And, of course, I expect we will see more episodes of sabotage from Russia in the weeks ahead. I think it's not about Ukraine as Putin sees it; it's a war with the entire West.
NEWTON: There is no proof they sabotaged the pipelines. But of course, the West says it'll investigate and get to the bottom of it, figuratively and literally. But certainly a chilling development.
You're in Ukraine now and certainly President Zelenskyy's response to this has been interesting, especially when it comes to how much they are throwing at the counteroffensive in both the east and the south.
I mean since you're there, what do you think is possible right now?
HARDING: Yes, I mean, that's a very interesting question. I was last month -- in September I was touring the whole area that Ukraine recently liberated. It's the Kharkiv region in the northeast.
And they did a kind of stunning counteroffensive that went more quickly than I think pretty much anyone had thought, including inside Ukraine itself. In the south, they've been sort of chewing away at Russian positions around the city of Kherson.
But what we have now is we have a really interesting situation around the city of Lyman, where about 5,500 Russian troops are practically encircled by Ukrainian forces. And this is a paradox.
We have a big speech in Moscow -- these lands are ours forever -- we see retreats. We see disarray. And we see Russian weakness.
So I think the next few weeks will be pivotal. When it gets to be winter, it's quite hard to fight. But I expect Ukraine to make more gains in the east and probably smaller gains in the south.
NEWTON: And that leads us to the logical question of Putin's threats, right?
He now says these are a part of Russia forever.
If Ukraine does manage to take over more of those parts of Eastern Ukraine or even in the south, what do you think we should make of Putin's threats when it comes to using nuclear weapons?
HARDING: Yes, it's a spooky question. And actually, sitting here in Kyiv, it feels especially spooky. Certainly people are talking about. They're thinking about it. But the Zelenskyy government has been quite calm. They say it's a bluff.
And my take, for what it's worth, is that I actually think that Putin is something of a coward. If you look at these images of him, from throughout the epidemic, even now, you know, the defining image of the recent Putin presidency is a small man, sitting at a very long table, an awful long way away from the person that he's talking to.
And I think actually what Putin cares about is his survival. He wants to stay in power, he wants to stay alive. And deep down, I think he's terrified of what the Biden administration might do and some kind of mighty American response.
Now we don't know the shape of that. That hasn't been spelled out. But I think it figures, looms large in Putin's mind.
NEWTON: And it likely goes back to what you said originally to us, the fact a lot of what's going on now is for domestic consumption. And he wants to make sure he can shore up support within his own borders. Luke Harding from Kyiv for us, appreciate it.
HARDING: Thank you.
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NEWTON: Now for the second time this year, Burkina Faso's government has been overthrown in a coup. The military announced the dismissal of previous junta chief, President Paul-Henri Damiba.
Now the new leader is army captain Ibrahim Traore, who has suspended the constitution, closed the borders and declared, in fact, a nightly curfew. The announcement caps a day that began with gunfire in the capital, an explosion near the presidential palace and interruptions during state TV programming.
South Korea is accusing Pyongyang of serious provocations that threaten the Korean Peninsula and indeed the entire world after North Korea test-fired two short range ballistic missiles early Saturday.
U.S. military officials say there's no immediate threat to U.S. territory. North Korea has conducted, we will remind you, similar tests in the past couple of days. Pyongyang launched missiles before and after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Korean demilitarized zone Thursday.
Senior international correspondent Will Ripley has been following all of this from Taipei and joins us now with more.
North Korea is obviously trying to get the world's attention, right, firing more ballistic missiles this year than it has in a decade.
But in terms of the threat, how are officials assessing it?
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and when you say that, I mean in a decade combined. I mean, this is unprecedented, how many missile launches have occurred.
And with the frequency we're seeing, four tests just in the last week and several of those tests, including today, with more than one ballistic missile, ballistic missiles that the Japanese military believes followed an irregular trajectory, which analysts tell me essentially means these could be the kind of weapons that can change course, which makes them really difficult to track and almost impossible to shoot down.
So certainly the threat exists. The threat is real.
Does the threat feel as big today as it felt, you know, during the fire and fury period with the former U.S. president Trump and Kim exchanging fiery rhetoric?
No, because there's so much more happening in the world right now. You just talked about one of the many, you know, flashpoints that exists in the world.
And so North Korea, even though they're launching missile after missile and are believed to be really at any stage ready to just push the bottom for a nuclear test if they want to, they're not getting the same sort of attention or response, if you will, than in the past.
But it doesn't mean the threat is the same or even elevated versus what it was several years ago, Paula.
NEWTON: So much we don't know, of course, about what goes on in North Korea and that's not for saying you haven't tried. Certainly for many, many years, you've been on top of story.
But I wonder what you make now about the South Korean response, right?
They have a new president there. He's quite hawkish. He told our Fareed Zakaria just last week that North Korea remains a major threat, an existential one to South Korea. So I wonder what you make of that posture.
RIPLEY: And not just South Korea but one might argue Japan where there are more than 50,000 troops based. And even the mainland United States as North Korea continues to perfect its intercontinental ballistic missile technology.
But North Korea has always said they're not interested in any sort of, you know, first strike, although they're certainly not ruling that out and even made changes to their laws and constitution to basically solidify themselves as a nuclear weapons state.
When the Vice President Kamala Harris was at the demilitarized zone and she was looking through the binoculars at the North Korean soldiers on the other side, who were looking back at her.
And then she kind of used the same cliche language to talk about North Korea, brutal dictatorship and complete nuclearization, well, that doesn't really reflect the reality on the ground in Pyongyang, where they've now invested so much in their nuclear program, they have so little trust in the U.S. after the botched diplomatic efforts by the former U.S. president Donald Trump, most notably in Hanoi, when he walked out and left them hanging with the lunch table set.
And no one was left there to sit and eat with them. That was the end of the diplomatic options at that stage. What North Korea wants now is to be recognized as a nuclear weapons state.
You mentioned the South Korean response. For the first time in five years on Friday, that South Korea, Japan and the United States engaging in trilateral anti-submarine exercises.
That is a sign -- and also they resumed live fire exercises in South Korea this year as well, that things are really ratcheting up, tensions are ratcheting up and you have South Korea saying they're willing to respond if North Korea fires first.
NEWTON: Yes, a lot going on in that region, especially as the United States tries to simultaneously deal with so many crises. Will Ripley, appreciate it. Thanks so much.
Now with Hurricane Ian destroying so many homes in the United States, home buyers are often left in the dark about how vulnerable flooding of their properties are and what sellers are withholding. That story next.
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NEWTON: Hurricane Ian brought torrential flooding, rains to parts of the southeastern United States. But Florida and at least 20 other states don't require home sellers to actually disclose past flooding or flood damage to potential buyers.
As CNN's Rene Marsh reports, that's putting millions of Americans at risk of ending up underwater in more ways than one.
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JACKIE JONES, PROPERTY OWNER: Even now, on a bright sunny day, its psychologically traumatic for me because I'm on constant alert, waiting, dreading the next rainfall.
RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Jackie Jones moved into her Reedsville, Georgia, home four years ago, she had no idea rain in the forecast would also mean her property would flood. Heavy rain caused this February 2020 flooding and one month later, Jones says more rain caused more flooding.
JONES: The water was literally over three feet high. Up at the house at the window seals where it got to it was almost four feet.
MARSH (voice-over): No one told Jones the biggest financial investment she was making her new home was prone to flooding. FEMA maps say the risk is low and her home state of Georgia does not have flood disclosure laws that require home sellers to reveal flood history.
JONES: If I had better information, up to date information, accurate information I would not have purchase this house. So now I'm trapped in a 30-year mortgage I can't get out of.
MARSH (voice-over): Jones is not alone, the Natural Resources Defense Council tracks state flood disclosure laws and says the majority of states either have inadequate laws or none at all, leaving homebuyers completely in the dark as climate change supercharges rainfall storms and floods.
ROB MOORE, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: If you're buying a home in the majority of states, you're not going to be told up front about past flood damages.
MARSH (voice-over): The Natural Resources Defense Council data shows a whopping 21 states including flood prone states like Florida and West Virginia have no flood disclosure requirements.
One study estimates that homebuyers can incur tens of thousands of dollars over the course of their mortgage if they purchase a previously flooded home.
MOORE: We are talking about some of the most populous states in the nation that lack adequate disclosure laws. We're talking about Florida, states like New York and New Jersey.
MARSH (voice-over): As climate change makes severe flooding more intense and more frequent, especially in low lying places like Florida, NRDC says there's even more urgency --
[01:55:00] MARSH (voice-over): -- for federal flood disclosure laws similar to the Lead Disclosure Act, which requires homeowners to tell buyers if there are lead hazards in a home.
In the meantime, real estate tech company Redfin is trying to fill the information void by making flood risk data available with listings based on climate projections, information that would have protected Jackie Jones from unknowingly buying a flood prone home.
JONES: If you don't know how you supposed to make informed decision, you can't, something's got to change. Something's got to change.
MARSH: Population growth is exploding in many hurricane-prone areas and that means the number of Americans left in the dark because of nondisclosure is skyrocketing, too. Just last year, two bills that call for federal flood disclosure laws were introduced in Congress but they have not passed.
In the meantime, home buyers and renters should ask pointed questions about the properties they're considering, because, even in states that don't require disclosure, sellers cannot misrepresent what they do know about a property's flood history -- Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.
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NEWTON: And thank you for joining us. I'm Paula Newton. Stay with us as CNN NEWSROOM continues in just a moment. We'll have the latest on Hurricane Ian.
