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Erin Burnett Outfront
Typhoon Devastates Hundreds Of Thousands; Officials: As Many As 10,000 Feared Dead; Typhoon Survivors Searching For Food, Water; Newtown First Responder Could Lose His Job; Typhoon Damage "Worse Than Hell"; Dolphins Owner Speaks Out Incognito Controversy
Aired November 11, 2013 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: OUTFRONT next.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get international help to come here, now! This is really, really like bad, worse than hell.
BURNETT: Hundreds of thousands homeless and hungry in the Philippines. We go live to the scene of the typhoon.
Plus a Newtown cop says the massacre still haunts him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That day killed me inside.
BURNETT; Why his bosses want him fired.
And the NFL player at the center of a bullying controversy defends his actions.
INCOGNITO: A week before this went down, Jonathan Martin texted me on my phone: "I will murder your whole F-ing family."
BURNETT: Let's go OUTFRONT.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Walking against the rising tide. Tonight, hundreds of thousands fighting for their survival after an historic super storm.
Good evening, everyone. I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, a plea for help, hundreds of thousands in the Philippines desperately fighting to survive. They're searching for food and water, the basics needed to survive. In the aftermath of the devastation left by Superstorm Typhoon Haiyan, the biggest in human recorded history, here's what we know right now.
Officials say as many as 10,000 are feared dead, that number though, honestly no one has any clue right now. Decomposing bodies are everywhere, people walking down the streets covering their faces because of the smell on the side of the roads, in the water, under fields of debris bodies. More than 600,000 displaced after swaths of cities and towns were utterly destroyed.
Many still don't have any kind of communication or power making hunger grow. Aid workers in the meantime have been trying to get in emergency supplies including food and water and desperately needed fuel. The problem is transportation is almost impossible, and they haven't been able to get that to anybody.
Tacloban, a city of a quarter of a million people is in utter disarray tonight. The airport is still close, but remarkably it's still one of the few buildings that actually is standing in that city. That's where our Paula Hancocks is OUTFRONT tonight. I know, Paula, it was difficult for you to get there, for you to get around. What's the latest?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, it's been a very miserable night since the storm. Torrential rain is making a very situation even worse. Many people don't have homes. They are sleeping out in the open in this torrential rain, a very difficult situation. We drove just down the road toward the city and were surprised by what we saw. Now you may find some of these images quite disturbing, the pictures of this kind of natural disaster are really quite shocking.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS (voice-over): This sign refers to a very different time. Now all that greets visitors on the road to Tacloban is devastation.
(on camera): Three days on since the storm itself, there are still bodies by the side of the road. Now we can't show you the faces of these bodies, as it's just too graphic. You can still see the terror as the wave hit on the faces of these bodies and they're still here three days on. Some of them are crudely covered. Others are just open and have blackened skin from the sun.
Now the officials say that they're looking after the living, which is what you would understand, but they have to get rid of the bodies. This is a health issue for those people living and trying to survive around here. The stench is overpowering and of course, they have to start considering disease.
This is the Tacloban Convention Center. We're told by the locals that a lot of people came in here to try to protect themselves from the storm, but, as you can see, the water reached the second story. And the locals say anybody that was on the ground floor not expecting this storm surge simply didn't make it.
(voice-over): Many residents used this school as a shelter from the storm, but the water engulfed it. This resident says a lot of children died in here, only a few managed to survive. No one knows how many lost their lives. Down the road, a public well is being put to use.
ROSELDA SUMAPIT, VICTIM: Right now we don't have enough water, even though we are not sure that it is clean and safe, we still drink for it because we need to survive.
HANCOCKS: We see two trucks in two hours making their very slow way into the city at the heart of the devastation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HANCOCKS: Many survivors that we did speak to were asking us why the bodies weren't being removed. They said they have daily reminders of the hell they've been through already. They don't need to see the bodies in the same areas where they are trying to live -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right, Paula, thank you very much. It's incredibly powerful and horrific just to see that as you see those bodies. And that woman there, I mean, it seems to say it all. We're drinking the water because it's all we have even though you know with all those bodies that they could be risking their lives in doing so.
Our second look OUTFRONT is to look closely at Super Typhoon Haiyan's devastation. The United States tonight is moving an aircraft carrier and other U.S. Navy ships to the Philippines to assist with the rescue efforts. The U.S. is also providing $20 million in immediate assistance. The American Marines are on the ground and of course, a very long and historic relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines.
Three days though after surviving one of the strongest storms in recorded history, hundreds of thousands are still trying to grasp, when you saw this picture a moment ago, these were homes and buildings and schools and now everything is gone completely. CNN's Anna Coren is OUTFONT in Cebu where the rescue efforts at this moment are racing against time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Above the vast blue sea that separates the thousands of islands that make up the Philippines, a rescue mission is under way. We're traveling with the military to a remote group of islands devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan yet to be reached by authorities.
From the air, we can see the carnage, home after home, village after village. Nowhere has been spared. On the ground lie the injured with broken bones and internal bleeding. They've been waiting for days for a medical evacuation.
HILARIO DAVIDE, CEBU GOVERNOR: I haven't seen anything like this before. I -- I thought I'd only seen this on television.
COREN (on camera): There's a real sense of desperation here on the ground while the focus is on the sick and the injured and getting them to safety. The people of this hard-hit island need food and fresh water. They've been without it for days. And despite assurances from the government, it is yet to arrive. The problem facing authorities is logistics, getting the supplies to these hard-hit and remote areas and to the people who need it.
(on camera): This airfield in Cebu has become the staging ground for the country's biggest relief operation, C-130 Hercules fly in survivors, all shell shocked from what they've just lived through.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I cannot say anything yet. I'm in shock. I'm so sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of people were dead. Our friends are dead. Some of our family members are dead. So it's really devastating.
COREN (voice-over): As the death toll grows by the day, families here desperately wait for news of their loved ones.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am the only survivor of the family and I want to know if they are still alive.
COREN: Having had no contacts since the typhoon hit, many say hope is all they can hold onto.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: And holding on to that hope. And Ana, I see you there obviously it looks like it is pouring rain where you are and you are already talking about it being almost impossible for rescuers to get in. How is this additional rain hurting things?
COREN: Yes. We had an idea, Erin, that it was coming, but it is now pouring. It's only going to hamper the relief operation that is under way. As I said in the story, people desperately need food. They need clean water. They need medical supplies and of course, now they need shelter.
So speaking to the military today they said this is definitely going to slow things down and that is not good. These people in these hard- hit areas need these supplies yesterday. So really, it could be days, Erin, before they actually receive, receive that much-needed aid.
BURNETT: All right, well, Anna Coren, thank you very much. And of course to our Paula Hancocks too as you saw.
Still to come, we are going to continue our coverage of the typhoon in the devastated Philippines. We're going to go live to show you what happened when rescue workers tried to go in so you can see why the scale of the loss of life here could truly become unprecedented and also talk about what it would be like it a similar storm hit the United States because a storm like this made Sandy look like a tiny little speck.
Plus a police officer who responded to the Newtown massacre believes he has post-traumatic stress disorder. His superiors though say he should be fired, why?
And Sunday mail delivery could be on the way. We are going to tell you how. That's tonight's "Money and Power." We'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Our third story, OUTFRONT, ripple effects from Sandy Hook. It's nearly 11 months after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at that Newtown, Connecticut elementary school. And now a police officer who responded to the massacre says he's still too traumatized to go back to work. Now because he suffers from PTSD and not a physical wound, his job is in jeopardy. Susan Candiotti is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Officer Tom Bean, the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary left him on long-term disability, but not because he was hurt physically.
(on camera): What is your diagnosis?
OFFICER TOM BEAN, NEWTOWN POLICE DEPARTMENT: PTSD. I have PTSD.
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Post traumatic stress disorder was the last thing on his mind last December 14th. Officer Bean off duty that day dropped everything when he heard the call for help at Sandy Hook. He came face-to-face with the horror of seeing the bodies of 20 children and six adults. Some kids were still trapped when he got there.
BEAN: Nothing could prepare you for, for that. You know, you got teachers and students running out of a school. The worst possible scene you can think of, that they killed me inside.
CANDIOTTI: When the school was cleared, Officer Bean broke down in tears and that night he drank, a lot. In the days that followed, things quickly got worse.
BEAN: I had to stop at the store, and that's when I realized that I was deep, deep trouble. I looked at everybody this that store like they were going to kill me. I could not get out of that store fast enough.
CANDIOTTI: Describing himself in a fog, he thought about hurting himself.
BEAN: I was sitting there with a razor blade wanting to cut myself. I didn't want to kill myself, but I wanted to feel something. I -- I had no feeling, no sensation, nothing.
CANDIOTTI: After six months, Bean was put on long-term disability then a letter from the police chief confirmed he was permanently disabled and the Chief Michael Keyhole suggested possible termination.
(on camera): In Connecticut one of the problems is this, workers comp does cover physical injuries but not mental health care including post-traumatic stress, and a bill that would have made that possible didn't get very far in the legislature this year.
(voice-over): Bean says the city told him they could only afford to pay him two years of long-term disability because that's the length of their policy despite a police contract that covers the 12 years until he retires. But if he had lost an arm or a leg he says he could recover with full medical coverage.
SCOTT RUSZCZYK, PRESIDEENT, NEWTOWN POICE UNION: The Newtown Police Department who did respond that day did their job. They lived up to their end of the contract. It's now time for the town to live up to their end. CANDIOTTI: Connecticut is one of only a few states that doesn't cover PTSD. Potentially expensive, yes, but unless that changes, some say there may be dangerous consequences.
JOE ARESIMOWICZ, CONNECTICUT HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: The last thing you ever want is a first responder getting ready to enter a situation, thinking to themselves, jeez, I wonder what long-term harm this is going to do to me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Now you talk about potentially expensive. How much money - taxpayers watching - how much money would they be on the hook for if they paid for everything?
CANDIOTTI: In this particular case, until he reaches retirement, we're talking about $350,000, because it's about 12, 13 years before he retires.
BURNETT: So significant amount of money, some might say. Others would say, look, this is just a mental injury as opposed to a physical one. And if a physical is covered, this should be too. What does the chief of police say?
CANDIOTTI: You know, I reached out to him several times as well as other city officials. Crickets. I didn't hear anything back.
BURNETT: Really? Nothing at all? Well, Susan Candiotti, thank you very much. And we look forward to your feedback on that piece.
And now our Money and Power story tonight, Sunday delivery in time for the holidays. Amazon reaching a deal with the U.S. Postal Service that will have postal workers delivered Amazon packages on Sundays. Great for the postal service, Amazon and you? Or simply too good to be true. Christine Romans is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Imagining ordering a backpack you're your kid on Friday, having it in time to pack Sunday night for school on Monday morning. Amazon.com teaming up with the U.S. Postal Service for Sunday deliveries. For Amazon prime members, that means free two-day deliveries on Sunday. For other Amazon shoppers, it will be offered at no additional cost. So standard shipping rates will apply, which means free shipping if you buy $35 or more of stuff.
It starts this Sunday in the New York and L.A. areas. Amazon says it may expand to Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, and Phoenix next year. With 18 shopping days until Black Friday, it turns up the heat on Amazon's competitors. UPS doesn't deliver on Sundays. Fed Ex has very limited Sunday options. And the U.S. Postal Service until now has delivered packages for an extra fee.
Now this gives the postal service a nice piece of business because package delivery is more profitable than first-class mail delivery. The postal service lost nearly $16 billion last year. They have talked about scaling back mail delivery.
It also shows the power of online shopping. Customers want quick deliveries with minimal shipping costs. U.S. online retail sales expected to reach $370 billion by 2017. This holiday season, every second counts. There are six fewer shopping days, so retailers are looking at every possible way to boost profits. About half the year's profits come between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Christine Romans, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Pretty amazing. Half the profits in just those few weeks.
Still to come, our breaking news coverage of the supertyphoon in the Philippines continues. Ahead, a report you just can't miss. A special report, a CNN correspondent in the eye of the storm in Tacloban in the center there, ends up saving a family who was also in the eye of the storm. You're going to see that special report.
And an OUTFRONT investigation into what would happen if a super typhoon hit the United States mainland.
Plus, a bank robbery spree comes to an end. A married couple accused of robbing 15 banks.
Plus, a bride charged with pushing her groom off a cliff to his death. A new detail tonight: what she may have done to his face before the push.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Our fourth story OUTFRONT, not quite Bonnie and Clyde. A Florida couple facing federal charges tonight for an alleged bank robbing spree. Officials say the couple you see there, husband and wife, used disguises to rob more than a dozen banks in the past year.
OUTFRONT tonight, David Mattingly. David, kind of an incredible story. Some people kind of look back on Bonnie and Clyde. You've been looking into this, though. How did this couple pull this off for so long at so many banks?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Emanuel and Carol Lewis are a married couple. They live in Tampa, Florida. And authorities say they followed a pretty simple formula for ripping off banks, and they were able to do this more than a dozen times in two different states.
Take a look at this map here that shows they weren't working very far from home in most cases. Most of the bank robberies occurring in the I-4 corridor there between Tampa and Orlando. Just a couple others in central Florida. Two others also in Alabama.
But the way they would do it, according to federal agents, Mr. Williams would go into the bank wearing disguise. He would hand a note to the teller saying I have a gun, be quick, give me the money. Then he would take the money, get out of there. And according to agents, he went to a waiting car that possibly was driven by Mrs. Williams.
Now every time they did this, they left behind some little piece of electronic evidence that was able to give agents the path to this arrest that they made last week. And what they were doing, they were looking at surveillance cameras not just inside the banks but at businesses outside the banks as well. On one of those cameras, they saw Mr. Williams running from the bank to a waiting vehicle. They were then able to track that vehicle and match it to photos that were taken at a tollbooth on the Florida turnpike.
So all these little bits finally add up to seal the deal. They were also able to look at cell phone tower records to find out that the couple had been using their cell phones in areas where these banks were also being robbed. They then put them under actual surveillance and found out that their movements and their whereabouts also were coinciding with these bank robberies. So one thing led to another here as they continued with this spree that dates back to last December.
BURNETT: Pretty incredible when you think about it and how they were able to piece all of that together. And I guess how they were able to get away with it for so long. Sort of seems like it harkens back to the past. But we're talking about right here right now.
Well, David Mattingly, thank you.
And still to come, the latest information from the Philippines. Hundreds of thousands displaced by the massive typhoon. We're going to go live to the scene, the special report of one family's life saved in the eye of the storm.
And we look at how prepared is America is for a similar catastrophe. What a super hurricane would do to the city of Miami. We'll show you the building, show you exactly what would happen with these 235-mile- per-hour winds.
And an NFL player accused of racism and bullying. Richie Incognito speaks out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHIE INCOGNITO, MIAMI DOLPHINS PLAYER: It sounds like I'm a racist pig. It sounds like I'm a meathead, it sounds a lot of things that it's not. And I wanted to clear the air just by saying I'm a good person. My actions were coming from a place of love.
(END VIDEO CLIP
BURNETT: The owner of the team just held a news conference a short time ago, and we'll tell you exactly what he said. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BURNETT: Welcome back to the second half of OUTFRONT. Some grim news on Obamacare tonight. Fewer than 50,000 people have successfully enrolled in the health insurance plan on healthcare.gov. This is according to "The Wall Street Journal." A Health and Human Services spokeswoman declined to confirm those numbers to CNN. But senior administration official tells us the final data for the first month of open enrollment is still being prepared. At least 345,000 people have completed application, but it's unclear whether they intend to formally enroll.
Still, the numbers tonight are a bit of a scary indicator since the administration's target by the end of November was 800,000 people formally, fully enrolled, 16 times the number reported by "The Wall Street Journal."
Well, today the U.N. making an agreement with Iran that gives inspectors, quote, "managed access" to the country's nuclear facilities. The problem is managed access is not real, unfettered, full, clear access. And in the wake of a failed deal on the country's nuclear program over the weekend, some are questioning Iran's agenda, including Senator Lindsey Graham. He tells our Candy Crowley he doesn't trust the nation's leaders on this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: We believe that sanctions and the threat of military force is the only thing that's going to bring the Iranians to the table.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: On Wednesday, Secretary of State John Kerry will brief the Senate Banking Committee. That testimony will set the baseline for possible additional sanctions against Iran.
While blindfolded and then murdered. New developments tonight in the case of a Montana newlyweds alleged murder. According to court documents released today, Jordan Linn Graham may have blindfolded her husband before pushing him off the cliff to his death. It's unclear why her husband would have agreed to be blindfolded, given the situation, because according to Graham, the situation was that she sand her new husband were arguing at Glacier National Park, things got physical and she pushed him, she says, accidentally off the cliff.
Her lawyer said the blindfold theory hardly seems plausible. They want the case dismissed.
And our fifth story OUTFRONT: the devastation beyond belief around the world in the Philippines. It is our stop story tonight: hundreds of thousands searching for food and water tonight after being hit with the biggest storm recorded in history. Super Typhoon Haiyan hit Friday, as many as 10,000 are feared dead.
But as I've been emphasizing, given the lack of access to so many areas at this point, it is virtually impossible to give you a full number. We can tell you at least 600,000 are displaced. The storm left a path of destruction which stretches across the entire island nation.
Andrew Steven is at the airport in Tacloban, which is one of the hardest hit areas. When you look at the map of Philippines, that's right where the storm went through. Andrew's OUTFRONT tonight.
Andrew, what's the latest there? I know it's been raining a bit and obviously it's Tuesday morning where you are.
ANDREW STEVENS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Erin. Tuesday morning. And it has absolutely been pouring for the last 12 hours or so which has made just complicated everything. It slows everything down. And time is something which the people here just don't have.
At the airport here, it's absolute devastation right here. A lot of people, hundreds of people are here at the moment. Most of them are trying to get out.
A lot of them are coming here just to get some food and freshwater. That's the key at the moment. Food and freshwater. It has been a nightmare for the residents of this region, of this coastal strip for the past four days.
Take a look at how things have unfolded.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVENS (voice-over): Overnight, a weakened Haiyan, still carrying winds of more than 90 miles an hour battered the coasts of Northern Vietnam and Southern China just days after the typhoon struck the Philippines with apocalyptic force. The massive storm, stretching 300 miles wide, smashed through cities and its close to 200-mile-an-hour winds and storm surge swept these gigantic ships onto land.
Early estimates, as many as 10,000 may have died and over a quarter of a million people are left homeless.
A half a mile from the shoreline where our CNN crew was sheltering, the surge was waist deep as we rescued a family trapped in their hotel room.
MAGINA FERNANDEZ, LOST HOME AND BUSINESS: Get international help to come here now. Not tomorrow, now. This is really, really like bad, bad, worse than hell.
STEVENS: The aftermath, a humanitarian crisis of enormous scope. Rescue workers began the grim task of finding the dead in the rubble.
MAR ROXAS, PHILIPPINE INTERIOR SECRETARY: It's really horrific. It's a great human tragedy.
STEVENS: In the city of Coron, Haiyan ripped the roof from a building where many people were sheltering.
MAYOR ALFRED ROMUALDEZ, TACLOBAN, PHILIPPINES: I have not spoken to anyone who hasn't lost someone, a relative, most of them. STEVENS: Officials estimate most of the housing on Leyte Island was damaged or destroyed. The U.S. is flying in emergency shelters and supplies for thousands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will help them in their need.
STEVENS: And in the hard hit city of Tacloban, storm victims with no food, shelter or water rushed to the demolished airport desperate for supplies.
PRES. BENIGNO AQUINO, PHILIPPINES: The priority has to be the food.
STEVENS: Cebu City received a batch of rice and canned foods Sunday. But delivering aid to the many other remote communities is a huge challenge. While in Tacloban, key roads are impassable and communications are severed.
The only functioning medical facility can't admit any more patients.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're afraid of being robbed.
STEVENS: Thousands breaking into grocery and hardware stores increasingly desperate for food and water. Haiyan leaving an entire city on edge.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: And, Andrew, just watching that and watching some of the coverage, you know, Paula Hancocks was showing some of the bodies on the street and describing how horrible it is with the public health concern, with the stench, with the blackened bodies. I mean, just horrible things to even imagine that you're having to see every minute.
But how bad do you think this is going to get? Being how difficult it is to get aid, given those bodies and the decomposition, given the poisoning of the water. I mean, could we be about to see a whole another wave of people being sick or losing their lives in the aftermath here?
STEVENS: I've been speaking to the Red Cross about this, Erin, and that is their biggest fear, that there are still bodies everywhere. There are so many places that we haven't heard from. We don't know what's going on there, what sort of destruction's been caused up and down the coast.
The Red Cross has been saying to me, you know, the aspect of the disease. Bodies are still pretty much everywhere. We came from the airport yesterday. And we saw dozens of bodies.
So that is the biggest fear. Yes, there could be another wave. It's going to be difficult to establish for some time I suspect just how many people we are talking about, because it's important to remember, a lot of the residents of this area were told to evacuate before the storm came.
They are used to severe weather here. Many did heed those warnings, but many didn't, either. They didn't see a problem.
But nobody, nobody thought about the damage, the devastation that would be caused by the storm surge made by the wall of water. And that's what the killer has been.
So, all along this strip, so along this strip, hundreds of kilometers along the coastal strip, there is complete devastation. We don't know what is under that devastation yet, if there are bodies still there. That becomes the real high risk area -- disease, and disease can sweep through here very, very quickly.
That is why supplies are so critically desperate. And that is why -- we keep on talking about this, getting supplies and starting to meet the desperate needs of these people.
BURNETT: Andrew, thank you very much.
All right. Well, our sixth point OUTFRONT is what if Haiyan hit the United States. When you look at the scope here, it gives you a sense. I mean, you can't imagine what this would be like.
You know, the United States, something like hurricane Sandy or Katrina are seen as so horrific -- they were, but they pale in comparison to this one, 10,000 feared dead.
If you just look at this map right now, that's just -- if you took Haiyan and put it on the coastal United States as you see stretching from Canada down to Florida. Philippines is used to these kinds of massive typhoons, and look at the damage this has done on an unprecedented scale.
So, what if a super typhoon like Haiyan hit the United States?
To give you an idea, as I showed you, that was the super imposed image. But when you talk about some of these wind speeds, 235 miles an hour, there is nothing going to be like that -- that's a category five. Katrina hit much, much weaker than that and I believe about 120 miles an hour.
Tom Foreman is OUTFRONT.
So, Tom, I guess the question is -- the United States, is it prepared?
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No. That's the simple answer, because it's almost impossible to imagine being prepared for something like this.
We've been trying to figure out the true scope of a storm like this all day long. Just imagine if this had hit Florida down here, effectively stretching from one end to the other. What might be affected?
Well, housing and businesses for starters. According to the Census Bureau, about 19 million people live here. There are more than 400,000 businesses. The aerospace industry is huge. And don't forget, tourism which draws 60 million visitors a year, all of that gets affected.
Beyond that, the port of Miami is massive the one of the busiest in the nation. It handles more than half of all cargo coming to or going to Latin America and the Caribbean. In addition, it's the busiest port on the planet for cruise ships, air travel. Miami airport moves more cargo than any other airport this side of the earth and it has more international cargo flights.
Bear in mind, we're only talking about Miami right here. Agriculture -- Florida is a huge producer of citrus, but it also turns out more than a billion dollars of other things like vegetables and melons and ornamental plants and livestock.
Add all of this up and you're talking about $735 billion worth of production a year, giving this state the fourth largest economy in the country. And every bit of that, if you had a storm this big come through would be and could be effective.
BURNETT: I mean, totally destroyed. What about the numbers, I mean, Tom, of the dead, when you're looking at the Philippines?
You just heard Andrew Steven's report, a lot of people did evacuate because they're used to these storms hitting with regularity, although not of this strength. But we're talking 10,000 plus. N one has any idea, bodies on the streets.
I would imagine people would think that couldn't happen in the United States, but it could.
FOREMAN: Well, look what happened with Hurricane Katrina. People were warned a great deal ahead of time, and yet people were caught in it.
And I want you to look at the state of Florida and see what would happen here. If you had a storm like this come in, and let's say that everything 45 feet above sea level or below was flooded in some fashion by either torrential rains or storm surge coming up, look what happens to the state of Florida in terms of how much land mass gets affected.
All of this goes under water at some point. And even if the waters recede and it comes back this is wreckage, wreckage, wreckage. It's unbelievable the damage that would be done if this happened, Erin.
There's no question as much as you try to evacuate people. There would be huge loss of life. And even if you could get everybody out, with that kind of damage, you would end up with somewhere around, add up these places along, just the counties that are completely under water, and you will have more than 11 million people with no homes, no businesses, no roads.
And this would be a national catastrophe, even in one of the wealthiest countries of the world if a storm of that size came and hit Florida.
BURNETT: That's a perspective that means everything, 11 million of 19 million.
Thanks very much to you, Tom Foreman, a sobering reality when you look and you think oh, well, this is happening somewhere else in another country, in a poor country -- no. No, it could happen here. Just horrific.
Be sure to stay tuned "AC360" tonight, Anderson is going to be live from Manila with the latest on the rescue efforts and now working and getting his cameras up in operating conditions there as you can imagine, incredibly difficult.
Still to come, the NFL player accused of racism and bullying for texts he sent to a teammate. Richie Incognito speaks out for the first time, saying he was harassed too.
And yes, the scandal grows, yes, because it's possible around the mayor of Toronto. CNN's newest anchor went to Toronto to see for himself. He's OUTFRONT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Our seventh story OUTFRONT, just moments ago the owner of the Miami Dolphins spoke out for the first time about the scandal involving his team.
Joe Carter is OUTFRONT in Tampa where the team plays tonight, their first game without both Incognito and Martin.
And, Joe, the team's owner held a press conference just a few moments ago, finally, addressing this debacle. What did they say?
JOE CARTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I can tell you what, Erin -- having the owner go on the road and hold a press conference before Monday night football gives you a scope of how big this story has become.
The big news to come out of the press conference this evening is that Stephen Ross, the owner of the Miami Dolphins, will meet with Jonathan Martin face-to-face on Wednesday at an undisclosed location, but he said he really wants to get to the bottom of this situation. He wants to hear Jonathan Martin's side of the story. He said the two have been communicating over the past week via text message, that he cares about Jonathan Martin not just as a football player but also as a man.
And he described this entire situation, obviously how embarrassed he is by it but he also described as a complete nightmare.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN ROSS, OWNER, MIAMI DOLPHINS: One thing that will not change, there will not be racial slurs or bullying in that workplace, in that locker room and outside the locker room.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARTER: Now, obviously, Erin, the big talker today was what Richie Incognito, the accused bully said yesterday on FOX. Obviously, a lot of opinions out there about what he said to Jay Glazer about the way he was treated, about the way he treated Jonathan Martin, how it was out of love, that those vulgar or harassing text messages and voicemails were done out of love.
Obviously, there are a lot of varying opinions, but he just said bottom line, Richie Incognito, that he let a lot of things in that locker room with Jonathan Martin just get too far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHIE INCOGNITO, MIAMI DOLPHINS: It sounds like I'm a racist pig. It sounds like I'm a meat head. It sounds a lot of things that it's not. And I want to clear the air just by saying I'm a good person. My actions were coming from a place of love.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARTER: Now, obviously, we heard from a lot of people, the one we have not heard from, Erin, is Jonathan Martin himself. Fox Sports is reporting that Jonathan Martin will not do a sit-down interview, but that he'll send his side of the story via a video message. So, that's what we're expecting next, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Joe, thank you very much.
And, of course, Richie Incognito also saying Jonathan Martin threatened to kill him and his family. So, so many questions about what really happened here.
Thanks to Joe, reporting as we said live from outside the game tonight.
And our eighth story OUTFRONT: oh, Canada. Until recently, you were best known for the good life, things like maple syrup, free health care. In fact, Canada stood for the clean life, you know, kind of like if America took a shower and got exfoliated, what would come out.
It's all changed when Toronto's embattled mayor, Rob Ford, grabbed international headlines for this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ROB FORD, TORONTO: Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine, but no -- do I? Am I an addict? No. Have I tried it? Probably in one of my drunken stupors.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Ford addressing the public yet again, saying, quote, "I'm not going anywhere," meaning, I'm not leaving my job.
OUTFRONT tonight, CNN's newest anchor, Bill Weir.
I just got to say, welcome to CNN. It's great to have you.
BILL WEIR, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN. So great to be here. Thanks for having me in. And when I saw this story I was -- I was barely unpacked. I thought, we've got to go north. I mean, it's like a Tom Wolfe novel. So, we had to head up to our northern neighbors, get to know some people and see how many layers there are in this whole onion yarn, figure out how this guy got elected in the first place. Not only how he could survive, but get re-elected.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WEIR (voice-over): You know, it is hard to find politicians who are unintentionally funnier than the comedians who mock them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rob Ford, you're talking trash right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are you getting this?
WEIR: But then, Rob Ford is unlike any politician anywhere.
FORD: I was very, very inebriated.
WEIR: And it's all the more vivid because this is Canada, a place so (INAUDIBLE), so friendly, one assumes that up here, crack is just a sound made in hockey.
(on camera): Is Canadian crack maple flavored? How was it different?
JIM JOHNSON, TORONTO RESIDENT: I'm a wrong guy to ask.
WEIR (voice-over): And see more proof walking into Toronto City hall, there are no metal detectors here, no security, you can stroll right in, go past the baby-sitting visiting records, oh, and join scandal scrum. And just a few feet away, they're giving away free health care -- even to pesky Americans.
(on camera): Do I get a lollipop?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, you do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you're from the States, right?
WEIR: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How much would you pay if you went to your own doctor for a flu shots?
WEIR: Seventy-five dollars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seventy-five bucks.
WEIR: See, while we're shocked at their mayor, this guy is shocked that we actually have to pay for flu shots.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, you got yours free on Canada.
WEIR: Canadians are far superior human beings. Have you heard that today? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well --
WEIR: Until we look up there.
(voice-over): So how did a guy like him get elected in a place like this?
Well, in the late '90s, the bursting bustling metropolis downtown observed the blue collar suburbs into city elections. And after almost a decade of liberal rule, Rob Ford ran as a good old Canuck, a fiscal hawk who would show those bicycle-loving, free-spending liberals downtown a thing or two.
FORD: It's time to stop the gravy train.
WEIR: But while he stayed on message, it was a messy campaign.
ADRIENNE BATRAS, FORMER FORD PRESS SECRETARY: Our candidate, candidate Ford at the time had been caught on tape having a conversation with a drug addict where he was prepared to go buy him OxyContin.
WEIR: Adrienne Batras ran Ford's communication on that campaign, and even she was stunned when after every gaffe and scandal, his poll numbers went up.
BATRAS: People were tired of a tax and spend liberal mayor. Suburbs wanted in, and that was Rob Ford.
WEIR (on camera): OK, and he is the guy you want to have a beer with?
BATRAS: Yes -- well, or a few.
(LAUGHTER)
WEIR (voice-over): And while Mayor McCrack turned city hall into a global punch line, just imagine what it is like to be Rob Ford's runner up.
GEORGE SMITHERMAN, FORMER TORONTO MAYORAL CANDIDATE: That was at the highest moment of the Tea Party.
WEIR: His name was George Smitherman. And in 2010, everyone knew him as the very liberal, openly gay deputy premier, who had presided over the botched rollout of e-health, a plan to modernize the national health care system. Sound familiar? Yes, they even used one of the same contractors, CGI, that brought us Healthcare.gov.
SMITHERMAN: The right wing will probably tell you there is a conspiracy and a billion dollars went missing. None of that -- none of that is true.
WEIR: Now, here is the bizarre part, when Smitherman admitted to a drug addiction to unspecified party drugs in the '90s, Ford supporters pounced. SMITHERMAN: His supporters stood in line and asked me about my fitness for office, that's the most stinging bit of it for me on a personal level.
WEIR: But some of the proud citizens of Ford nation these days -- fitness for office is a relative term.
(on camera): Would you vote for him again if this all blew over?
KURT ELLUL, TORONTO RESIDENT: I think so.
WEIR: Yes?
ELLUL: Yes.
JOHNSON: He has done what he said he would do.
WEIR (voice-over): Although some wished to voice their support anonymously.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you rather have somebody taking your money and lying to the people or just having somebody smoke crack?
WEIR: But back in the city, flavors of Ford frustration run the gamut.
REX MURPHY, CBC COMMENTATOR: He should say now, good-bye, I'm sorry and go home.
WEIR: There are sober calls for his exit on the top national newscast, and tears from the federal finance minister.
JIM FLAHERTY, FORD FAMILY FRIEND: He will have to -- the mayor will have -- at the end of the day, he has to make his own decision.
WEIR (on camera): He'd say that he is only leaving office on a stretcher or in cuffs?
SMITHERMAN: I think so.
WEIR (voice-over): Toronto police could soon release more damning video or wiretap related to his friend and driver now accused of drug dealing. And then there were the men in that notorious crack house photo, two were shot in March, one killed, another about to go on trial.
(on camera): They were suspected members of a gang called the Dixon City Bloods that operates in the high rise, low income apartment, home to a lot of Somali and Pakistani immigrants.
(voice-over): And when you meet the kids who live here, the easy crack jokes stick in your throat.
(on camera): So he came here knocking on doors?
ABDI RKAR, TORONTO COMMUNITY ORGANIZAR: Yes. Yes, everybody knows that.
WEIR (voice-over): This community organizer says Mayor Ford asked for his vote in the hours before the last election but he didn't give it, because he said he has to scrounge for donated computers, just to find a way to keep kids away from gangs and the crack pipe.
RKAR: I never see bad helper or good helper. I never see him at all.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WEIR: A lot of folks in that immigrant community angry that they were tarred with the Rob Ford brush. Interestingly, he used to coach some of those kids in football until he was fired over the summer. The second time he was fired from coaching.
We'll see if he gets fired from his mayoral job if another video drops. But he says he is digging in, not going anywhere.
BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you very much, Bill Weir. And again, welcome.
WEIR: Good to be here. Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Still to come, an "I.D.E.A." for Veterans Day.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: On Veterans Day, an "I.D.E.A." for those who served.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT (voice-over): Two men in uniform serving in the United States. Sergeant Scott Young survived two tours of duty. Staff Sergeant Alonzo Lunsford survived the deadliest shooting on a military base in U.S. history. He was shot seven times.
STAFF SGT. ALONZO LUNSFORD, U.S. ARMY (RET): This was the (INAUDIBLE), last one went through my body.
BURNETT: Both haunted by their experiences and diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder, now turning to the same place for treatment, K9s for Warriors.
K9s for Warriors is an exclusive program that rescues dogs from shelters and trains them to be service dogs for people suffering from PTSD. It's here in this four bedroom house in Florida that veterans learn to readjust to every day life with the help of a service dog.
SERGEANT SCOTT YOUNG, U.S. ARMY (RET.): The dog makes me feel safe. When you're on the battle field, you have buddies, the guy to the left, your guy to the right. She's my partner.
SHARI DUVAL, FOUNDER, K9S FOR WARRIORS: It's a win/win for both the dog and the warrior.
BURNETT: Sixty-eight-year-old Shari Duval had the idea to start K9s for Warriors when her son Brett (ph) returned home with PTSD after serving in Iraq. Duval noticed that when her son was around dogs, he was back to his old self-cracking jokes, relaxed, happy.
DUVAL: He felt comfortable around the dogs. It would take his mind off of what he had seen and what he had been through.
BURNETT: Young wasn't sure what worked for Brett would work for him, but today he credits this dog, Whisky, with saving his life.
YOUNG: I was skeptical at first because I never had a dog. Once I got the dog, about the second day, like a light came on and everything changed.
BURNETT: Before meeting Whisky, Young could barely leave his house. Now, he doesn't think about suicide. He thinks about the future.
YOUNG: Now, I go out, no problem, if I start to get stressed out or having an anxiety attack, I just pet her and relax and that takes all the anxiety away.
BURNETT: Sergeant Alonzo Lunsford is counting on the program to do the same for him. He's just days away from meeting his service dog, an Irish wolf hound named Bomber.
LUNSFORD: I'm very excited because this is something I know in long term has a huge benefit.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: In honor of all those who served.
Thanks for watching.
"AC 360" with Wolf Blitzer starts now.
