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CNN This Morning

Southern California Red Flag Warning Updates For Wednesday; Southern California Firefighters Brace For More Strong Winds; U.S. President Joe Biden's Final Days In Office. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired January 12, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

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[06:00:30]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Good morning. Welcome to CNN This Morning. It's Sunday, January 12th. I'm Victor Blackwell.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. I'm Amara Walker. Here's what we're working on for you this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNDIENTIFIED MALE: Two doors down, the house is gone. One door up, the house is gone. The house above me is gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Homeowners in Los Angeles County return to the rubble left by the fires that still are raging out of control this morning. Firefighters are making progress against several wildfires that have burned an area about two and a half times bigger than Manhattan. We are in the fire zone with the latest.

BLACKWELL: This is the last full week of President Joe Biden's administration. We're live at the White House with a look at Biden's to do list in the final days of his presidency.

WALKER: And a big week on Capitol Hill. President-elect Donald Trump's picks for attorney general and secretary of defense will be the first to sit for what are expected to be controversial confirmation hearings.

BLACKWELL: The space race between the two richest men in the world is heating up even more. We'll explain that a little later.

A red flag warning is back in effect through Wednesday in parts of California as firefighters prepare for the return of higher winds. They made some progress Saturday. They battled the four major fires in the Los Angeles county area.

Two are close to full containment, four. But the Palisades Fire is still growing. That one's only 11 percent contained. The mayor of Malibu says that fire has now wiped out a third of the eastern edge of his city. And people say they're not sure what to do next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like your heart's been ripped out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have everything, we have our life.

UNDIENTIFIED FEMALE: And stomped on and thrown away. And you're just trying to find a piece to put it back together.

UNDIENTIFIED MALE: Two doors down, the house is gone. One door up, the house is gone. The house above me is gone. The house is across the street. We're burning all day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: The Los Angeles police chief announced that the ATF will take the lead on a new investigative task force created to find out what sparked the Palisades Fire. At least 16 people have died in the Palisades and eaten fires.

Meanwhile, police are cracking down on looters in mandatory evacuation areas. The Los Angeles Police Department says it arrested 7 people in two days, including two looters who pretended to be firefighters.

Right now, firefighters hope a shift in the winds could push the fire back toward land that has already been burned. CNN's Stephanie Elam is near Los Angeles with a look at the firefighters preparations.

BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I want to draw your attention to this ridge line up here behind us, up there where you see a vehicle parked up on top of that sandy colored area. They have been bulldozing, making that broader, making that wider. And the reason why they're doing that is because they want to have a defensible space, a place where they can battle against the flames, were the fire to come this direction.

And we have gotten information that the winds will change direction and start to blow this way. Right now, the fire is burning out in this canyon here in Brentwood, California. But what they want to make sure is that it stays away from these homes that you see right here. All day Saturday, we've seen firefighters staged there behind these houses that are up against this ridge.

And obviously a lot of people like to live here where they've got this lovely, beautiful nature backdrop behind them. But this is also the downside of that, is just how close they are to this fire burning here, the Palisades Fire.

You can see as they have been doing all day. They've been fighting this fire from the sky. They've been dropping fire retardant. They've been dropping water to stop that forward movement. But as the winds change, the smoke starts to change. And so they have to change how they're fighting these blazes. But this is what they're continuing to do here to protect the houses

along this ridge here. Because obviously the first concern is to make sure that they keep people alive. And as I've been told, most of the people here did evacuate. The next thing that they're working on is keeping homes safe.

And so they have extra firefighters coming from all around the country, in fact, from several states and as well as Canada and Mexico here to help battle these blazes as we prepare for these higher winds over the next few days. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[06:05:00]

WALKER: All right, Stephanie Elam, thank you. Well, firefighters got a break Saturday, but winds are set to pick up again soon. CNN's Derek Van Dam joining us now with a look at the forecast. So we can talk about the winds, but also just how dry California has been.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, those winds are pushing around a tinderbox. Right. Ready to explode again. They've only had 3/100 of an inch since the start of their water year, which is October 1st. OK. They should have over four and a half inches. So representative of that is this little cup of water. Don't think volume, think depth. That's the amount of water that Los Angeles has had. It should be overflowing this cup with how much water they should normally have. January is their second wettest month of the entire year.

So it just hasn't fallen from the sky. So we're extremely dry. You return in the winds like we saw last week. And then what's going forward through this week. And we have critical fire weather from today right through Wednesday.

This is just representative of the next three days red flag warning that's only issued when the winds and the timberbox conditions on the ground are at perfect harmony. And we have that high fire risk gusting 20 to 30 today, picking up an intensity through the course of Monday, Tuesday and especially into Wednesday. This is important.

I want you to see how the winds gradually back off today but change directions more of an onshore component that could take embers back into areas that have already burned. Something to consider. Then the second and third round of Santa Ana winds pick up northeasterly direction. That's offshore winds. And that direction of wind is so critical and so important for those firefighters as they battle numerous out of control wildfires over western L.A. County. Where does it go from here?

There's certainly no rain to extinguish any of these flames that we currently have going. Victor, Amara.

BLACKWELL: All right, Derek, thanks for watching the force. Thanks so much. OK.

All right, thousands of people have been, as you know, forced to leave their homes only then to find out that those homes are later gone. And even with insurance, it'll be a long process to try to rebuild. And that includes Brent and Tasia Callum. Here's what they saw when they returned to their neighborhood.

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BRENT CALLUM, LOST ALTADENA HOME: It's a picture, baby. It's OK. It's just a house. Mr. Charles. Oh, he's did all that? Oh, no, he saved it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Brent and Tasia Callum are with us now. Thank you both for joining us this morning. You know, you're from Altadena, both sides of your family members are from Altadena. I just want to go back to that video. And Tasia could hear, you know, you in the background crying there. I mean, what was it like to watch your home go up in flames like that?

TASIA CALLUM, LOST ALTADENA HOME: It like unreal. It's like literally a nightmare. I was hoping that our house would still be standing and just to pull up to see our house just fully engulfed in flames is heartbreaking. You know, all the work we put in and just gone.

BLACKWELL: I read that you, this is your first home. You put a lot of work into making this house a home for your family. You were not at home when the fire started. Tell us about the evacuation process and then the ability to get back to see what we all see now.

T. CALLUM: The night before Tuesday night, we kind of were stayed at home kind of waiting just to see what the instructions were going to be. I think around 9:30, 10 o'clock, we got word that we over a loudspeaker that if you were in the area, you needed to evacuate. So we kind of grabbed maybe like pair of pajamas, one outfit. I still had the kids in house slippers. And we walked out not knowing that literally that would be the last time we would see our house.

And, you know, we drove down to his mom's house and we just kind of waited just to see if we heard anything. We did have a neighbor that stayed behind, so were keeping in contact with him. But it was scary. Like, initially seeing the flames on top of the mountain and then for as we left, the flames were completely -- had come all the way down the mountain by that time.

WALKER: How many children do you have? How old are they? And tell me, you know, how they've been handling all this.

T. CALLUM: We have two. We have a boy and a girl. Troy, he's 8 years old, and our daughter Nyla is 6. Honestly, I don't think that they've grasped the true concept of what's happened. I don't think that they realize that, like, we're not going back home. So it's -- they're handling it better than, I guess that, you know, we are, but working through it.

WALKER: One of them tried to stay positive right and mentioned that the chimney survived.

[06:10:03]

T. CALLUM: Yes. Our daughter, she -- we showed her a video and the only thing that we saw left was our chimney. And she said, you know, well, these are chimneys still up, so Santa can still drop off presents.

BLACKWELL: Brent, talk to me about the importance of Altadena to your family and rebuilding and going back home eventually.

B. CALLUM: Yes. Altadena is very important to myself and my family. My grandparents lived in Altadena. My wife's grandparents lived in Altadena. Both of our parents live in Altadena, we live in Altadena. And our children obviously live in Altadena. So it's four generations of people living in Altadena. This is home to us. We love it.

And even though we suffered through this tragedy, we could not imagine leaving Altadena. This is the only place we really know and love. We are rebuilding once the time is right now.

WALKER: For those of, you know, the people out there who don't know the history of Altadena, this being the first middle class, you know, black community and your plans to return and why it's rooted in this history and why it's so important for you and your family to come back.

B. CALLUM: Yes. The history of Altadena is one of the -- a lot of Southern California was redlined, so this was the only place that African Americans could stay. So it's very important to us. There's lots of families, three generations, four generations in a home. So when were able to afford to buy or purchase a home, which we purchased our home during COVID during the pandemic, we -- once we got our money together, we made up our mind to buy a home.

It wasn't the prettiest home. It was a fixer upper. We put our all into it. We turned it all the way over. It was very nice and beautiful and we loved it. It was home. We felt so comfortable in it.

WALKER: Well, we are sorry to hear that. Just all that hard work you put into this home is now gone along with your community. We will be thinking of you and we do wish you the best. Brent and Tasia Callum, thank you for your time.

B. CALLUM: Thank you. We appreciate it. Also, we do have a GoFundMe account. We want to thank the emergency responders first and foremost. Thank you guys so much for all the help you're doing in our community and everywhere else in Southern California. And we also have a GoFundMe account. It's Rebuild Hope for Tasia Callum and Family. Thank you very much.

T. CALLUM: Thank you, guys.

WALKER: Thank you. And for more information on how you can help California wildfire victims, you can go to cnn.com/impact.

BLACKWELL: Still to come, President Biden will kick off his final week in office with speeches to wrap up a decades long political career. What he's expected to highlight, that's next.

WALKER: Plus, President-elect Donald Trump is announcing more new names for key roles as some of his cabinet picks gear up for Senate confirmation hearings this week. What we could expect to hear from them.

BLACKWELL: And a look at how survivors can begin to cope with the trauma of natural disasters as these wildfires burn through homes in Southern California.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I took my son. We ran to the car and he was scared. He was crying. I was scared. It's OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[06:18:10]

WALKER: Fire crews from several states and countries are on the front lines this morning battling those wildfires burning through parts of Los Angeles. Crews have made progress since the fires began six days ago, but Santa Ana wind conditions may pick up again on Monday.

BLACKWELL: The Palisades Fire is now at least 11 percent contained, but it's moving east toward Brentwood and other neighborhoods. The number of those killed now 16, but officials warn that number could go up as the full scope of the destruction becomes clear.

The Palisades, Eaton, Hearst and Kenneth fires have spread to more than 38,000 acres combined.

President Biden has a pair of speeches planned as heads into the final full week in office. The speeches will cap off Biden's 50 years in politics. He's likely to focus on what the White House sees as achievements both at home and abroad.

WALKER: And we got a preview on Friday as Biden celebrated a positive jobs report. His administration is the only one in American history to see new jobs created every single month of his four year term. CNN's Betsy Klein joining us now from the White House. Hi, Betsy. So walk us through the president's schedule in this last week of his presidency.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Good morning, Amara. Well, a very busy week ahead, his final week in office for President Biden as he has a pair of major speeches that are designed to both shore up his legacy of his presidency and also cap a political career spanning over half a century, starting with Monday when he delivers a major foreign policy speech at the State Department.

A White House official tells us that Biden will focus on his administration's work to strengthen America in the world. He will also talk about those efforts to bolster U.S. alliances abroad. And we can expect him to take aim at President-elect Donald Trump. [06:20:00]

One source telling us that he will detail how he is handing the next administration, quote, a stronger hand than he inherited. And this is a bookend speech. Biden first gave remarks laying out his foreign policy vision back in 2021, shortly after taking office at the State Department. Then on Wednesday, he will deliver a farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office, just the fifth time he's given an address from the Oval Office and really an effort there to lay out some of his achievements.

But what we still don't know about what he will do this week is whether he will hold that time honored tradition of a formal press conference before leaving office. Now, Biden lags significantly behind his modern predecessors in terms of news conferences.

And we last saw him address the press in a dedicated setting back in July when he was facing questions about his candidacy. So it's been a long time since held a press conference. We'll be watching that.

We'll also be watching whether he uses that presidential power to deliver any last minute pardons or commutations. He said in an interview published earlier this week that he is leaving the door open to those preemptive pardons. So we'll be watching whether he does that.

And he's also doing that work of governing, as we've seen with this wildfire response, obviously going to be a very lengthy federal response across the federal government that he is handing off to Trump in just eight days from now. But all of this comes just a couple of days after the president eulogized former President Jimmy Carter.

And in those remarks, Biden said that Carter established a model post presidency by making a powerful difference as a private citizen. So we'll be watching to see how Biden intends to use his post presidency in the coming days, any hints he can give us. But he also told reporters that he does not intend to be out of sight or out of mind in the coming months and years ahead. Back to you.

WALKER: All right, Betsy Klein, thanks so much. Life force there at the White House. Joining me now, CNN senior politics writer Zach Wolf. Zach, good morning. Thanks for joining us. Let's start with President Biden's last foreign policy speech on Monday at the State Department.

He began his first term by declaring that America is back. Right. And I'm sure that message is haunting some Democrats now. How significant will this last foreign policy speech be for a man who spent much of his five decade career focused on America's standing in the world?

ZACHARY WOLF, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER: Well, and indeed, it was a big pitch that he made to voters back in, you know, when he ran for the White House to begin with was to undo the Trump legacy. So now that voters have gone back to Trump, it's almost a repudiation of Biden. So he'll be making this argument that, you know, somehow his four in office are not a blip and that he can, you know, carry on. You know, he made NATO such a big part of his or defending NATO, such

a big part of his administration, you know, defending Ukraine. These are things that Trump has questioned. So voters clearly, you know, essentially went in a different direction. So we'll have to see what Biden says. But, you know, it's a very uncomfortable moment, I would think, for him.

WALKER: Yes. Especially as, you know, much of his legacy may be unraveled by the next administration. Zach, the Senate confirmation hearings will begin this week and perhaps one of President-elect Trump's most controversial picks, Pete Hegseth for defense Secretary, he'll be in the hot seat on Tuesday.

As you know, there have been many questions and concerns about his, you know, these allegations of excessive drinking, his treatment of women, extramarital affairs, what have you. How contentious do you expect the line of questioning to get?

WOLF: I think in particular with Hegseth, it could get very contentious. And we need to keep an eye on some of these Republican senators. You know, they have a 53 seat majority. They can afford to lose a couple of senators and still get President-elect Trump's nominees through.

But, you know, particularly with Hegseth, he is so controversial. His lack of experience leading large organizations, the questions about his drinking, you know, the questions about ability to lead these organizations, it's going to be very difficult, I think, for him.

Democrats who are grasping for some, you know, sort of visibility at this time are going to, you know, this is their opportunity, their one real opportunity to make their questions about these nominees, you know, land with the public.

So I think that look for the Democrats what they say, but really look for what the Republicans are doing. Does he get any difficult questions from Republicans? Can President Trump use his, you know, his stature? This is his moment of peak power, you know, in the country and with the Republican Party. Can he use that to bring these people over the line? It seems like probably, yes, but we'll just have to see.

[06:25:02]

WALKER: And perhaps this moment of peak power for Trump might be reflected in the way that some of his picks answer the questions in the hearing. Because eight years ago, what we saw were many of Trump's nominees defending their own views, even if it opposed Trump's, you know, when it came to Russia or the Iran nuclear deal.

But this time around, I'd imagine it's going to be quite different. I mean, do you expect that we're going to see Trump's pair to be fully in lockstep when it comes to Trump's agenda and his positions?

WOLF: Yes, I view this as sort of the ultimate loyalty test in a lot of ways. How closely can they align themselves with what Trump has said, with what Trump wants? And, you know, that seems to be the real question going forward. It's not how, you know, they can modulate their loyalty to Trump, it's how loudly they can preach their loyalty to Trump.

And that will be interesting to see, you know, with Hegseth for sure, but also with people like RFK, who has had such different views than Trump on so many issues, but is now aligned with him and, you know, looking to join his administration.

WALKER: Zach, you recently wrote a piece on cnn.com about the confirmation process, how it works, and you noted that a nominee being rejected by a vote in the Senate is extremely rare. I think it's only happened once before, but we've also seen presidents in the past use recess appointments to push their nominees through. Trump has been calling for the Senate to allow for these recess appointments. Could you just walk us through how that would work and how complicated or easy it is to get this done?

WOLF: It would be really complicated for that to happen. Trump's called for that. But essentially the Senate, after the Obama administration, the Senate basically stopped taking long enough recesses in order to make these recess appointments. So he would have to get buy in from Senate Republican leaders to essentially stop working for a number of days, you know, in order to make this happen.

And that's seems --

WALKER: That's the number of days. Is it 10 days?

WOLF: That's right.

WALKER: OK.

WOLF: That was as a result of a Supreme Court decision from the Obama administration. So, you know, senators would essentially have to basically take a, you know, a break in order to do that. And we've heard less of that in recent weeks after he initially floated it. But it seems extremely unlikely to me.

WALKER: Zach Wolf, appreciate you joining us this morning. Thanks so much.

BLACKWELL: Still to come, a look at how Canada and Mexico are helping California firefighters battle the deadly wildfires across the state.

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[06:32:15]

WALKER: In other headlines we're following this morning, we have learned from a court filing that Special Counsel Jack Smith officially resigned from his role at the Justice Department, Friday. Focus now shifts to the legal fight over the release of his final report on the cases involving President-elect Donald Trump.

Attorney General Merrick Garland says he may release the part of the report dealing with election subversion by tomorrow. Smith had been investigating Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents and his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Trump and his former co-defendants are battling in court to keep the report from being made public.

President Biden has awarded Pope Francis the Presidential Medal of Freedom with distinction. According to the White House, this is the only time the president has bestowed this special recognition on anyone during his presidency. It is the country's highest civilian honor.

The President had planned to present the award in person in Rome but had to cancel the trip to monitor the deadly wildfires in California.

But Jeff Bezos is upping the ante in this space race with Elon Musk. Bezos' rocket company, Blue Origin, will try again to launch its New Glenn rocket tomorrow morning. Plans for the uncrewed launch this morning were scrubbed due to weather.

The New Glenn would be the first rocket to send a vehicle into orbit for the company, which is crucial to be able to compete with Elon Musk's SpaceX. This rocket packs more than double the power of SpaceX's workhorse, the Falcon 9 rocket.

BLACKWELL: Turning now to the wildfires tearing through Los Angeles County. The number of those killed is now 16, and officials say that they're concerned that the winds could help the fires grow. The firefighters are getting some help from Mexico and Canada.

CNN's Gustavo Valdes has more on the reinforcements that are arriving and the conditions they're facing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUSTAVO VALDES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor and Amara. The situation Saturday was complicated for the firefighters after the Palisades fire started to expand into another residential area.

Thankfully, the winds were not strong enough, so they were able to at least temporarily get a hold of the flames and they didn't expand. But fire officials warned that the situation can worsen in the next few days as they are expecting that the fires will pick up again and that could create a problem for this group of firefighters that over the weekend are getting extra help from our neighbors north and south of the border. Both Canada and Mexico have sent firefighters that are going to start assisting on fire control duties.

[06:35:00]

Sunday, Governor Gavin Newsom was at the airport welcoming the Mexican firefighters and other Mexican personnel who came to assist in these fires. He was very thankful. He says any assistance helps, especially with the forecast. As I mentioned, they expect that the winds might pick up and that could create another problem.

Now, for many residents that haven't been able to return to their houses, to their neighborhoods, to see what is left from their houses. If their houses survived at all, they're very frustrated. They haven't been able to get past the checkpoints that are protecting the area. I spoke Saturday with a lady who said that they had to evacuate actually as soon as they saw the first smoke because they had a respiratory condition. They leaved Altadena.

So, they were told their house was gone. I was able to get their address and get there. And via a cell phone, I showed her the live images of her burned down house. She couldn't believe what she was seeing. She said they had lived there for over six years. She couldn't even find her room. It was a two-story home and all that was left were the stairs going up to nothing.

And that is a situation that repeats over and over and over. And many here fear that the danger is still present and these fires might continue.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, Gustavo Valdes, thank you so much.

And there are a lot of families, so many, thousands that are experiencing what Gustavo was just talking about as these wildfires continue to decimate neighborhoods. People have lost their livelihoods, their homes, family members.

Next, I'll talk to an expert about how survivors can cope with all that trauma.

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[06:41:36]

WALKER: Well right now, firefighters are preparing for the return of gusty winds in their battle against the deadly Los Angeles wildfires after making progress in containing them on Saturday.

BLACKWELL: A lot of families in L.A. are affected by the fires. Tell CNN about what they faced leaving those flames and the heartbreaking return home to find their homes are just gone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I took my son. We ran to the car and he was scared. He was crying. I was scared.

It's OK (INAUDIBLE).

Trying to, you know, be calm and try to get out of the Palisades as fast as we could.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I dropped to my knees and I just started praying. Please God, please just save my house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm ready to jump into the ocean. All the firemen, they got the hell out of here. They evacuated quickly. I should have followed suit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We started piling up the torahs in the back of my car. I checked with my husband. I couldn't see him. There was so much smoke. I checked with him. Do you have all of them? And he said, I think so. And we just left.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he was walking around with his lantern in the house. Chase and I were talking to him. We were on FaceTime. And he said he'll be fine. I'll be here when you guys come back. He was in his bed when I found him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was so fast. A friend was able to go to the neighborhood once it had completely burned down and send us a video. And that's when we found out for sure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The idea of trying to figure out where we're going to be for the next month, where we're going to have this baby. We had so many friends and a massive support group there that I was really planning to lean on. And losing them is like it's almost harder than losing a home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I probably only have a dozen or so homes in my census track. It's like half the town is gone. It's just too overwhelming. We're just living with clothes on our back and lucky to have friends that are bringing us in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think everybody just needs to understand that they've done their best. And, you know, as long as they're with their family and they have their lives, you know, life is long. And I think we have that to look forward to.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: You know, the trauma from these fires will affect hundreds of thousands of people in Los Angeles and likely beyond. When the fires are contained, they could be among the most costly and significant urban fires in American history.

So how are the people there in Los Angeles and elsewhere supposed to cope with the trauma they faced?

Joining me now is licensed clinical social worker and Executive Director of Resources for Resilience, Ann DuPre Rogers. Ann DuPre, thank you for being with me.

First, let me start here with for the people who are aware that this trauma could have a physical, emotional, mental effect, what behaviors, what symptoms should they look for, be on the lookout for in themselves to know that they have to address the trauma?

ANN DUPRE ROGERS, LICENSED CLINICAL SOCIAL WORKER: So, folks have been through an overwhelmingly stressful event and it is really normal to be feeling a whole range of emotions and it's really normal to be having a whole range of behaviors.

Our nervous systems get thrown completely out of balance when these kinds of events happen. Our brains put us, for our own safety in the moment, put us into either fight or flight or freeze. And those states are helpful kind of in the midst of the disaster. But what we don't want is to stay in those states, fight, flight, or freeze for long periods of time. Over time, that can be where the trauma can get stuck and we can have problems.

[06:45:30]

So, I want people to understand if they're feeling really anxious, irritable, angry, numb, disconnected, shut down, those are actually really normal reactions to a really not normal event. If over time, if, you know, several weeks from now, people are still feeling like they have so much energy, it's stuck in their nervous system. They can't sleep, they can't settle, they can't calm down. They're kind of in this heightened state all the time.

After several weeks, that would be where it's time to really think, OK, I might need to get some more help or a shutdown state that gets stuck where I'm not really able to function, go out and about, take care of things.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

ROGERS: Yes. Right now, it makes sense to not be able to take care of things, right? We're not really in a place for decision-making, planning, organizing, knowing how to fill out paperwork. Things like that is hard right now. It will get easier.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And what should people do? You know, for the people who are displaced, some of those are mental health professionals who would otherwise be able to help people who are calling for some assistance. You told my producer about something called rapid reset. What is that?

ROGERS: Yes. So we teach, and anyone can do these, quick little, what we call nervous system reset tools, things that we can do in the moment for about 20, 30 seconds that right now can help settle my stress response or sort of help my nervous system settle out of that fight, flight, freeze place, at least for the next little while. And they're simple things. I can show you a couple.

One of them is to, this is a really simple one, and I can demonstrate on the video. You cross your arms kind of like this and place your hands at whatever height feels good and just tap side to side, either slowly or fast, whatever feels right. And just notice what happens in your body and in your thoughts, but in your body when you tap.

And often, I don't know if you can see, it helps me sort of take a bigger breath. My voice might've dropped a little bit. I had some kind of anxiety in my chest. It sort of begins to settle. It's super simple, but it helps kind of stimulate parts of our brain to get the message.

All right, I'm OK right now. I'm OK right now.

Another one we can do, these are just super simple, quick things, but they help communicate to the part of our brain that needs to get the message.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

ROGERS: You're safe enough right now. You weren't safe, you're safe enough now. So, like taking a sip of water, noticing how it feels.

BLACKWELL: And these are things that in the moment, you know, as I said, you may not be able to reach someone who is a reliable source for this type of coping mechanism, reassurance. And these are things that we can do alone to help ourselves cope --

ROGERS: Right.

BLACKWELL: -- through these moments.

Ann DuPre Rogers, thank you so much for the information and the tools and for being with us this morning.

All right, tonight, a special hour on the deadly fires in Los Angeles and the people who are facing unthinkable tragedy. Join Anderson Cooper for "THE WHOLE STORY" tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

WALKER: All right, still to come, Ukraine says they have captured two North Koreans who've been fighting alongside Russian troops, but the two soldiers are reportedly saying.

That's next.

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[06:53:57]

WALKER: This morning, we're following new developments in the Russia- Ukraine war. Ukrainian forces say they have captured two North Korean soldiers during operations in Russia's Kursk region.

Now, CNN cannot independently verify their claim, and we have blurred their faces in this video.

BLACKWELL: President Volodymyr Zelensky says this is the first time Ukraine has captured soldiers from North Korea since they joined the war.

CNN's Melissa Bell has more.

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MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Ukraine has released footage that it says shows a man two North Korean soldiers captured wounded in the Kursk region these last few days. What the video appears to show, and CNN can't independently authenticate it, nor indeed confirm the nationalities of the men it shows. What the video shows are not just those, what Ukraine says are those captured soldiers, but also the Russian ID that was found on one of them. Ukrainian Secret Service is saying that the men say they had been brought to Russia on the understanding they were being trained there and found themselves in frontline combat instead.

[06:54:00]

We don't know much about the circumstances of their capture bar what President Zelensky has said, that it was a difficult thing to achieve given the Russian forces' tendency to execute wounded soldiers in order that they can't end up in enemy hands.

What the Ukrainian secret services are saying, though, is that these two men are the first captured North Korean soldiers. And, of course that is important since Ukrainians are trying to figure out exactly how many North Korean soldiers there are currently fighting in Kursk. Remember also the scene of very fierce fighting all the more since the latest push by Ukrainian forces to try and make what progress they can there in their attempt to keep that front active that Russians can't resupply the Eastern Front, where the fighting, of course, continues as well.

A capture that will be important for the Ukrainians in trying to figure out not just the numbers of North Korean soldiers currently fighting in Kursk, but the nature of their training and readiness for battle.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, Melissa, thank you.

Still to come next hour, we'll go live to California for the latest on the deadly wildfire.

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