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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Six Dead, Hundreds Unaccounted For; Syria Weapons Report; Peyton Wins Manning Bowl 3

Aired September 16, 2013 - 05:30   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Look at that. Thousands stranded this morning waiting to be rescued as the death toll there rises.

ZORAIDA SAMBOLIN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Did the Syrian government use chemical weapons to slaughter its own people. Well, today, a U.N. report will reveal what inspectors found on the ground.

BERMAN: Salvaging a cruise ship wrecked. Live pictures right now as cruise attempt to upright that 114,000-ton ship, that's the one that cap-sized more than a year ago killing dozens. Can they actually do this? We're going to go there live.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAMBOLIN (on-camera): All right. Good morning to you. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Zoraida Sambolin.

BERMAN (on-camera): Great to see you this morning. I'm John Berman. Thirty-one minutes after the hour.

We want to go straight now to Colorado where overnight, residents had been facing the very last thing that they wanted to see, more rain. Still, more flash flood warnings and still more evacuations from the state and still reeling from days of torrential rain and devastating flooding that has forced thousands of people from their homes.

There is a desperate effort this morning to try and reach the stranded, locate more than 1,200 unaccounted for and free the people trapped by those waters. George Howell reports from Boulder this morning.

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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Entire neighborhoods gone under water. The flooding so widespread, officials haven't begun to estimate the full extent of the damage. Over the weekend, President Obama declaring a major disaster in the state, while the state's governor touring the devastation, his helicopter rescuing seven people along the way.

GOV. JOHN HICKENLOOPER, (D) COLORADO: We're going to rebuild better than it was before.

HOWELL: But Mother Nature isn't helping rescue efforts. Clouds and heavy rain grounded air rescue missions Sunday. More than a thousand people have yet to be evacuated. And with roads and bridges crumbling under the deluge, for some, rescue fight air is the only way out.

LT. COL. MITCH UTTERBACK, COLORADO NATIONAL GUARD: I think what we have going on here in the last 24 hours is the greatest number of Americans rescued by helicopters since hurricane Katrina.

HOWELL: Entire neighborhoods like this one in Jamestown isolated. Cities like Aurora already plagued by flooding contending with hail that pummeled the area over the weekend. Officials in Boulder County alone say they will need an estimated $150 million to repair more than 100 miles of lost roadway and between 20 and 30 bridges. Scene in Colorado is devastating, but not hopeless.

SHERIFF JUSTIN SMITH, LARIMER COUNTY, COLORADO: The question I had is how can we ever recover from this? And I know exactly inch-by-inch, mile-by-mile, community-by-community.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAMBOLIN: All right. That was George Howell reporting. And so, the big question is, what is in store for Colorado today? Indra Petersons is watching the forecast for us. What's going to happen?

INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, we will have thunderstorms in the forecast but a big difference compared to last week and we'll kind of compare the two here. What we look at last week was this huge pattern when we talked about all of this southerly moisture and then you had all that tropical moisture with an easterly wind. So, it's banking up against the rocky there.

And that's the reason we were talking about this unbelievable amount of flooding in the region. Now, we're starting to see that pattern change a little bit. That's good news. Unfortunately, in between the two, we'll still get the thunderstorms today and then they'll start to back off. The reason we're going to see them back off, though, is dry air is moving and exactly what they need.

You can actually see in the water vapor satellite we're already starting to see a little bit of that action. We'll continue to see that dry air as we move throughout the rest of the week. In fact, it looks like a dry forecast from pretty much Wednesday on and that's the great news. Other big story today, we have a lot of tropical moisture to be talking about in Mexico. I mean, heavy potential for flooding here.

Remnants now of Manuel is there from the pacific, but we combine that now with Ingrid which is also making its way in from the Atlantic. Currently, we have hurricane at 75 miles per hour winds. Unfortunately, when you combine the two of these, we're talking about anywhere from even 10 to 15 inches of rain, possibly 25 inches of rain into the mountains any time see something like that. You talk about devastating flooding concerns, also Brownsville and Corpus Christi. We'll be talking about maybe two to three inches of rain in that region, but really devastating for Mexico over there.

SAMBOLIN: All right. Thank you, Indra.

PETERSONS: Sure.

SAMBOLIN: It is 34 minutes past the hour. Now to Syria and a major development just a few hours from now. The U.N. Security Council this morning is expected to get its first look at what weapons inspectors think happened near Damascus in August. This is a much anticipated and sometimes controversial report that many nations say is crucial to deciding how involved the rest of the world should be in what is happening in Syria.

Of course, the Obama administration says the August event was a gas attack orchestrated by the Assad regime. Nick Paton Walsh has the very latest.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a comment that set the tone for a suddenly very busy day ahead at the U.N. as chief (INAUDIBLE) wasn't on camera Friday, but still said this among the vital U.N. inspectors report on Syria.

BAN KI-MOON, U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL: I believe that the report will be overwhelming -- overwhelming report that the chemical weapons was used even though I cannot publicly say at this time.

WALSH: Ban Ki-moon added Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, had committed many crimes against humanity and would face, eventually, quote, a process of accountability. As possible, Ban Ki-moon had seen the finish report when he spoke one official telling me it was likely complete by then.

The U.N. inspector's report on the 21st of August, attacks will be presented to the U.N. Security Council at 11:00 a.m. Monday in enough detail for others to perhaps work out who was behind the attacks, though, it's not the inspectors' job to do so.

Syria has officially now joined the chemical weapons convention the U.N. declared Saturday, whose rules mean it must declare all of those weapons by mid-November. That's that's not fast enough for the United States or Russia who agreed in Geneva that Syria must tell all in a week.

And in Syria's first major comments on the deal, its information minister talking to TV news (ph) it said it wants to wait for a U.N. resolution to set the timing of its disarmament. So, now, another round of negotiations begins, perhaps, past, perhaps, tortuous to find a wording for a resolution that can back up what was agreed in Geneva between America and Russia. Still on the table for those talks, a diplomat tells me will the resolution blame Assad and demand a trial for those who ordered the attacks and will its wording suggest force can be used if Syria violates its terms.

Russia won't like any of that. Again, eyes back on this building. Weeks ago dismissed is paralyzed and irrelevant.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAMBOLIN: Our thanks to Nick.

Thirty-seven minutes past the hour. A North Carolina police officer is facing charges this morning for shooting and killing an unarmed 24- year-old who may have only been looking for help.

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SAMBOLIN (voice-over): Police say Jonathan Farrell (ph) went to a hem home in Charlotte early Saturday and started banging on the door. He had survived a serious car accident, but the homeowner concerned, called police.

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CHIEF RODNEY MONROE, CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG POLICE DEPARTMENT: As the officers approached him just to determine if, in fact, he is the individual, what's going on, he just immediately takes off and runs toward a particular officer and that officer attempted to retreat but, at the same time, fired his weapon. He is pretty shook up. It's devastating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAMBOLIN: The he in that statement there is Officer Randall Caric (ph). He fired his gun and he's now facing voluntary manslaughter charges after his own police department said that he used excessive force. The victim, Jonathan Farrell (ph), had only recently moved to Charlotte. He had played football at Florida A&M University.

BERMAN (voice-over): We're hearing this morning from the parents of a four-year-old Louisiana boy who died after contracting a brain-eating ameba that was found in the water supply in St. Bernard Parish. Drake Smith Jr. came down with the parasite earlier this summer and died within days. He'd been playing on a slip and slide before he got sick and his parents say that he was so energetic, they always thought he would get better.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

APRIL SMITH, MOTHER: A very happy child. It's hard to see your child lay there. (INAUDIBLE).

DRAKE SMITH, SR., FATHER: I thought he was going to pull through, but day-by-day, it kept getting worse and worse. If I would have known, he wouldn't have been playing.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: The Parish officials now say the chlorine has been added to the water supply to hopefully kill off the ameba. Drake Smith's parents say, be careful, pay attention to where your children are playing so they do not get sick as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN (on-camera): Sad.

SAMBOLIN (on-camera): Oh my gosh. Terribly sad.

Thirty-nine minutes past the hour.

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SAMBOLIN (voice-over): Run down and risky? A new "Associated Press" analysis of federal bridge data finds many are close to failure. And many of those in the worst shape carry millions of drivers each and every day like the Brooklyn Bridge, the Frederick Douglas Bridge in Washington, D.c., and the main avenue bridge in Cleveland.

Overall, the A.P. analyses also found more than 65,000 bridges are structurally deficient. Another, nearly 21,000 are at risk of collapse and nearly 8,000 fall in both of those categories.

BERMAN (voice-over): Vice President Joe Biden stoking speculation about a possible 2016 run. This is what happens when you go to Iowa, folks.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: -- Iowa senator, Tom Harkin's annual stake fry fundraiser. Mr. Biden had some fun with the press.

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JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's amazing when you come to speak at the steak fry, a whole lot of people seem to take notice. I don't know why the hell that is. You've attracted the entire national press corps here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That's what happens, like I said, when you happen to be in Iowa. The vice president also talked about what he called his seamless partnership with President Obama, specifically, their effort to rebuild the middle class. He also credited President Obama's leadership or what he called President Obama's leadership for the U.S.-Russia accord meant to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons.

SAMBOLIN: The investigation continues this morning until last week's devastating fire along the Jersey Shore. Dozens of businesses were destroyed by that blaze in Seaside Heights and Seaside Park, New Jersey. Today, Governor Chris Christie is expected to meet with residents and with businesses that were impacted by that fire.

Investigators are asking the public to come forward with any pictures or any video that they may have taken before the blaze started.

BERMAN: And from Atlantic City, a picture so remarkable we just had to show it to you again. Congratulations this morning to Miss New York, she was Miss New York, now, she's Miss America. Nina Davuluri, in fact, the new Miss America 2013 and why are we showing you this again? Because --

SAMBOLIN: She's amazingly talented.

BERMAN: Check out her talent in this Bollywood inspired number. She is Indian-America, the first Miss America of Indian descent. She grew up in Syracuse. This dance, just let it sync in for a moment. Miss America like teens, two thousand teens (ph). I was never a fan of Miss America, but now, I'm glad they -- you know, they have it.

(LAUGHTER)

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SAMBOLIN (on-camera): She is a lovely, lovely girl. I have to tell you, there's a downside to this story to her win. Head on to (ph) CNN.com if you're interested. So, Miss America crowns first winner of Indian descent racist tweet --

BERMAN: (on-camera): That's just stupid people.

SAMBOLIN: It is stupid people. So, if you want to read more of that, it's on CNN.com.

BERMAN: Forger the stupid people, watch the awesome dance.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: That's my advice to you.

SAMBOLIN: All right. So coming up, salvaging a cap-sized cruise ship, not any cruise ship, not just any cruise ship. Live pictures right now of the "Costa Concordia." There's an attempt to turn it upright off the coast of Italy. And the big question, 114,000 tons, can the crew keep the wrecked ship in one piece? Barbie Nadeau is live right after the break.

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BERMAN: Forty-five minutes after the hour. Under way this morning off the Italian coast, the painstaking process of righting the "Costa Concordia," that is the cruise liner that ran aground more than a year ago killing 32 people. Barbie Nadeau is in Italy this morning for us. Barbie, how are things going right now and how do they intend to get this ship upright?

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're cautiously optimistic. They say they started about three hours late this morning after an incredible sea storm last night, lightning and thunder, anyone who's on the island, you know, woke up this morning thinking there's no way they're going to do this today. Seas are calm. Skies are bright, you know, blue.

Everything is going as planned. They started three hours late, but they really don't have a deadline. They say it will take about 12 hours but it can go into two days if it has to. Once they start the process of rotating this ship, they cannot stop. That's the most important thing. In the first four hours, they have total control.

After that gravity takes over and all they can do is try to counterbalance gravity with these giant boxes, the buoyancy boxes (ph) called (INAUDIBLE) that they will fill with air as at they hit the water. They can use -- or fill it with water as they hit the water. They can use compressed air to try to control the water and try to keep that ship from uprighting itself too quickly.

But at this point, you know, they're optimistic. They say it's going as planned and they believe that by the end of the week, by the end of the day, by you know, the next couple of days. The ship will be back in the right position.

BERMAN: An amazing picture as we're looking at it right now. Barbie Nadeau for us in Italy this morning. Thanks so much.

SAMBOLIN: Boy, that's a massive effort there. All right. Let's take a look what's coming up on "NEW DAY." Chris Cuomo and Kate Bolduan join us this morning. Good morning.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys. Happy Monday.

SAMBOLIN: Happy Monday.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're going to start with the focus on Colorado because the situation there is actually getting worse. I know there's some fatigue and it seems like all this flooding we get, we don't get it. There are over a thousand people unaccounted for. Towns are getting cut off. The rains aren't stopping. So, we're going to take you there and see what rescuers are dealing with and we're going to get reports from on the ground and experts weighing in to see which way the situation could go. The next couple of days are critical.

BOLDUAN: And amazing amount of people that are not accounted for still this morning. It's really amazing.

And we also have this for you coming up on the show. A "NEW DAY" exclusive, a former college football player from Florida shot and killed by police in North Carolina. He was not armed and he was apparently just looking for help after a car accident. So, why did police then open fire? His family clearly searching for answers this morning and they're going to join us live to discuss.

SAMBOLIN: A tragic story.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

SAMBOLIN: Thank you. We'll see you here shortly. And coming up, it was brother versus brother, Manning versus Manning for the third time. The ultimate grudge match. So, who was on top? We'll tell you in the "Bleacher Report" coming up next.

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BERMAN: All right, folks. It is, in fact, official. The Seattle Seahawks are really, really good.

SAMBOLIN: Seattle made a statement to the rest of the NFL with a dominating win over the San Francisco 49ers. Boo hoo. Joe Carter has more in the "Bleacher Report."

JOE CARTER, BLEACHER REPORT: Hey. Good morning, guys. Yes. I was a little surprised by this outcome. I thought it would be much closer game, but it was unusual night all together. There was actually a one hour lightning delay and a five to nothing halftime score. It was football, not baseball. And it was really Seattle's defense that looked elite.

I mean, a lot of has been said about their quarterback, about the running back, and about the Seattle offense, but it was their defense that dominated what many believe is the best offense in the NFC. 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, threw three interceptions. That's as many as he threw all of last season.

The offense finished with five turnovers in all and no touchdowns. And appropriately, Seattle's Richard Sherman celebrates the big win by dancing with the cheerleaders.

Eli Manning, you know, he may have more Super Bowl rings, but head-to- head, Peyton Manning is now 3-0 against his younger brother. Yesterday's game wasn't even close. Eli Manning threw three interceptions. He now leads the league with seven total. As for Peyton and the Broncos, well, just another 40-point win.

And you know, unless, these two teams meet in the Super Bowl, this is the last time we'll see the Manning Brothers play each other.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Strange feeling. It's not like beating another team. It's probably not quite as enjoyable as it would be if you were, you know, beating somebody else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARTER: All right. Get this. Ravens quarterback, Joe Flacco, skipped the birth of his second child to play the Cleveland Browns? That's right. Wife, Dana, gave birth an hour before kickoff. He actually got the news during pregame warm-ups when he was pulled off the field and handed a cell phone. Bad husband? Good teammate?

Let the debate begin. Anyway, Flacco delivered in his own way by scoring this touchdown and pulling off a 14-6 win over the Browns. And trending this morning on BleacherReport.com, here's something you won't see again anytime soon. The Boston Red Sox honoring a New York Yankee, Mariano Rivera, in his final game at Fenway Park was presented with all kinds of goodies. There were several, several nice moments during the pre-game tribute by the players, but perhaps, the most surprising moment, at least, in my opinion, was how well the Boston crowd showered Rivera with love.

I mean, a standing ovation. They were respectful during the whole tribute. I liked that a lot. And you know, he didn't get into game last night, but the Red Sox did end up winning 9-2 sweep. Berman, way to go, man Way to go. Your Boston fans have a lot of respect.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: I think we all respect greatness. And there's no question, he is the greatest relief pitcher. I think one of the top five baseball players of all time and seemingly a very good guy, too.

CARTER: It could have went really wrong, though, but it went so right the whole night.

BERMAN: It did. It was fantastic, including the sweep which was the most important part of all.

CARTER: Exactly.

SAMBOLIN: I'm still having a problem with Flacco missing the birth of his second child.

BERMAN: That's a big deal.

SAMBOLIN: We'll talk about something else. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAMBOLIN: Sadly, we are out of time. That is it for EARLY START. It is time for "NEW DAY."

BERMAN: Chris and Kate, take it away.

BOLDUAN: All right. Thank you guys very much.

CUOMO: Good morning to all of you. It is time for "NEW DAY."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HICKENLOOPER: We're going to come back. Rebuild better than it was.

CUOMO: Catastrophe in Colorado. More than a thousand unaccounted for as towns are cut off by rain that still hasn't stopped. We're covering it all.

BOLDUAN: Dangerous shootout. Police open fire on a crowded street near Time Square. Two innocent bystanders hit, and the whole thing was caught on camera. MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Happening now, a massive unprecedented effort under way trying to lift the Costa Concordia that doomed cruise liner from off the Italian coast. We're live as it happens.

CUOMO: Your "NEW DAY" starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is "NEW DAY" with Chris Cuomo, Kate Bolduan, and Michaela Pereira.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to "NEW DAY." It's Monday, September 16th, six o'clock in the east. We have some great picture to show you this morning. You know what that is? That is the Costa Concordia submerged off the Italian coast since January 2012. Just hours ago, they finally started the process of lifting it out of the water, an operation more than a year in the making.

Now, you look at that, you think, they can't raise that. You may be right. We're going to bring you a live report with all the challenges they face coming up.

BOLDUAN: There are a lot of challenges with something about size. That's for sure. We're also following new developments on the deal with Syria. Secretary of state, John Kerry, is in France at this hour, meeting with his counterpart there. This, after hammering out a deal over the weekend to destroy Syria's chemical weapons.

But the question this morning is, of course, will the deal work? We'll talk about it all with Republican senator, John McCain, will be joining us live in studio coming up.

PEREIRA: You don't need me to tell you football and Sunday is definitely bag (ph). We have two stories of family and football crashing into each other. Peyton, the older brother, one the Manning bowl, with it is younger brother, Eli. We're going to hear from both of them coming up.

But also, get this, super bowl champ, Joe Flacco, won yesterday, too, but he missed the birth of his son in order to make that game. We'll get the reaction from him and from his teammates coming up.

CUOMO: That one will get lots of --

PEREIRA: Lot of chatter.

CUOMO: All right. Up first this morning, we want to tell you about this natural disaster of epic proportions unfolding right now in Colorado. Take a look at these stunning pictures. Homes under water, 3,000 damaged or destroyed, roads washed away, six people dead, more than 1,200 unaccounted for. Two thousand people have already been rescued by air. One member of the National Guard says it's the most people rescued by helicopter since hurricane Katrina. The struggles continue.