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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Plains & Midwest Bracing For More Heavy Rain; Trump Returning from Japan Visit; NYT: Trump Hardening Assault on Climate Science; Mount Everest Death Toll Up to 11; Burnout Now A Medical Diagnosis. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired May 28, 2019 - 04:30   ET

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

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[04:30:55] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Another burst of tornadoes punishes the Midwest. Ohio and Indiana hit hard overnight and more flooding could further devastate Oklahoma.

DAVE BRIGGS, CNN ANCHOR: Short-term research for long-term problems, the White House tried to mislead the public about climate change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RIZZA ALEE, MOUNTAIN CLIMBER: It has become a death race there. And people are pushing themselves, who were not even capable of doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A traffic jam at the world's highest peak. An American is now the 11th climber to die on Everest this year.

BRIGGS: And if you're feeling burned out at work, you're not alone. Burnout is now an actual medical diagnosis. Hopefully, we can come up with the cure in the next hour and a half.

ROMANS: I was going to say, the prescription is what, get a new job? I'm not sure.

BRIGGS: Take a vacation.

Welcome back to EARLY START, everybody. I'm Dave Briggs.

ROMANS: And I'm Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour this Tuesday morning.

And the tornadoes just keep on coming. At least 449 of them reported in the month of May. The latest target, Dayton, Ohio, two tornadoes touching down there Monday night, three miles and 30 minutes apart. Dayton has lost power to both water plants and pump stations. Officials are asking citizens now to conserve water. Snowplows were brought in to move debris out of the streets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOSHUA THOMAS, TORNADO SURVIVOR: I heard whistles, like a train was coming through. I told my fiance to get inside the tub. Next thing I know, windows was breaking, I heard a lot of debris flying around and just stuff crashing, and glass just everywhere back there right now. It's really terrible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: So far, no reports of injuries or fatalities in the Dayton area. A local church was badly damaged and its steeple and roof winding up in the street. The tornado hitting when children were inside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to say it's an act of god that there were no injuries with the young people that were inside the church, even though the church received structural damage, that can be replaced.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The city of Celina, Ohio, was also hit by a tornado last night. Seven people were hurt. There's significant damage.

Mayor Jeff Hazel tells CNN affiliate WHIO, power is out for the entire city with door-to-door checks underway right now. We're also getting reports of considerable damage in Pendleton, Indiana. Pendleton Heights High School now serving as a shelter for those who have been displaced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole town is devastated. Trees are down on almost every street in the town.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: That was a terrified voice of Ben Smith, an Iowa State meteorology student who captured footage of a possible micro burst in Yorkville, Illinois.

Take a look at this hailstorm, pelting the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn. It's part of a much broader outbreak throughout the Midwest.

CNN's Pedram Javaheri live in the weather center with a look at all of this.

Pedram, good morning.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.

Yes, Dave, this is an incredible run of severe weather. I believe I heard Christine talking about 450 tornadoes so far in the month of May. I looked into a 30-day period, we have exceeded 500 reports, you see about 51 coming in across portions of Midwest and central plains in the past 24 hours, and in the last 12 days, over 328 reports of tornadoes.

But again, notice the area of coverage. Some 17 states impacted by this. It's not an isolated pocket of the country. It's a pretty expansive area of the country, dealing with severe operations. We have every single day in a 12-day span but the last time, only four times in recorded history have had this many tornadoes in a 30-day period, going back to 1950.

So, again, you think about we're talking about tornadoes often recently, well, it's quite a rare event taking place here. In Dayton, Ohio, of course, one of the tornadoes touching down at 11:07 local time, the debris ball coming in north of town telling us quite a bit of damage done across this region as Christine noted using snowplows to remove the degree off Interstate 75. And, of course, with the damage in place, we now know of at least 93 percent of Montgomery County where Dayton is located still without power at this hour.

[04:35:06] So, again, an incredible run of severe weather here, and storms beginning to finally taper off, and you notice it took a good six to seven hours post sunset to lose some of this energy that was in place. Thunderstorms quieting down, wet weather beginning to taper off. Another round of it expected going in towards the afternoon hours, guys, the daytime heating across the Midwest.

ROMANS: All right. Thank you so much for that. Pedram, we'll continue to watch that all day.

And much of the waterlogged Midwest is bracing for yet another round of heavy rain. The Arkansas River in Tulsa --Tulsa, Oklahoma, near a record crest. The River Spirit Casino and Resort in Tulsa has been closed almost a week because of flooding. Water is overtaking the pool deck, the tiki bar, the spa. The casino says more than 1,600 employees are still being paid throughout the closure.

The Tulsa county sheriff's office posted these photos showing dramatic flooding. The president spoke with Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt from Japan vowing assistance. The governor says his state is not out of the woods yet.

More now from CNN's Ed Lavandera in West Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dave and Christine, the governor of Oklahoma has issued a state of emergency. You can see behind me why. We are nearly a mile away from the banks of the Arkansas River and this is how far the flood waters have come. We arrived in this neighborhood in West Tulsa, and there was a roadblock here.

Most of these homes are taking on anywhere from two to six feet of water as you make your way back there toward the river. The concern is not just in Tulsa but also downstream into western Arkansas, the Fort Smith, Arkansas, area, where the fear and concerns of flooding, and really what emergency officials are concerned about is the levee system and whether or not it will be able to withstand the pressure from all of these flood waters.

But this is just another day here in what has been a long week of severe weather from Texas to Chicago to Wyoming, all over the central part of this country, severe weather, tornadoes, and flood waters really taking a toll on the central region of the United States -- Dave and Christine.

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BRIGGS: Ed Lavandera there in Tulsa.

President Trump wheels up from Japan on his way back to the United States. He used the Memorial Day address aboard a Navy ship to thank the troops. He also questioned advances in technology and asking sailors if they preferred steam or electric-based aircraft catapults.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, steam has only worked for about 65 years perfectly. Steam or electric. Ready? Steam? Electric?

They're always coming up with new ideas. They're making planes so complex you can't fly them. We all want innovation, but it's too much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: That sure sounded like a shot at Boeing.

But the big takeaway from the president's trip to Japan is North Korea and Mr. Trump's efforts to get Kim Jong-un to denuclearize. The president finding himself increasingly isolated, siding with Kim over his own national security adviser when it comes to North Korea's rocket launches.

Let's go live to Tokyo and bring in CNN's Ivan Watson.

And the president as we have seen him before just unable to criticize the Kim regime here and say that these recent launches are somehow negative.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, he is all in when it comes to his historic personal diplomacy with Kim Jong-un. The problem, then, comes up, though, when his own evaluation of something like the May 9th launch by North Korea of two short range ballistic missiles, it's when President Trump's analysis of that doesn't match up with his Japanese ally nor his own national security adviser.

So that gives you an end result of during one of the meetings here of four individuals, the president, John Bolton, his NSA adviser, the Japanese prime minister and the Japanese national security adviser, President Trump was the only person in that room who did not agree with the others that the launch of those two short range ballistic missiles were violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.

So, there is a dissonance there. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, he pulled out all the stops. He was out there to flatter President Trump, to celebrate a very strong alliance that goes back generations between Japan and the U.S., and by all accounts, it looked like it worked. President Trump appeared delighted to walk into a standing ovation in a stadium for a sumo tournament. He loved the honor and the flattery of being the first foreign leader to meet Japan's newly enthroned emperor.

But amid this demonstration of unity, there were also these moments where the two leaders did not agree, though President Trump made a concession to Japan to postpone some trade talks until after his ally, Shinzo Abe, has elections in July for the upper house of the Japanese legislature -- Christine, Dave.

[04:40:21] ROMANS: All right. Ivan Watson for us in Tokyo, where it is 5:40 in the evening. Thanks, Ivan.

All right. The Trump administration is hardening its assault on climate science. According to "The New York Times", the president is planning to limit climate science projections in federal studies until 2040, instead of projecting all the way up to the end of the century. The move effectively eliminates reporting on worst climate change's case scenarios, and scientists warn it will present the public with an incomplete and falsely optimistic picture.

BRIGGS: This appears to be an effort to influence the conclusions of the next national climate assessment. The president has purportedly proposed a new climate review panel headed by William Happer. Happer, a physicist known for defending the virtues of carbon dioxide and is compared demonizing carbon dioxide to Hitler's treatment of the Jews. The president has already rolled back environmental regulations and pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord.

ROMANS: All right. The number of measles cases in the U.S. this year has now grown to 940 in 26 states. That is 60 more cases than last week, and just 26 shy of surpassing the 25-year high set in 1994. Maine and New Mexico are new to the list of states with confirmed measles cases. Maine becoming the fourth state in the nation to prohibit people from opting out of vaccination for religious and philosophical reasons, joining California, West Virginia and Mississippi.

BRIGGS: Burnout at work is real. Just ask your doctor. According to the World Health Organization, burnout is now a legitimate medical diagnosis. It even appears in the WHO's handbook. The symptoms include feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance from a job or negative feelings about a job and reduced production at work. Doctors are urged to first rule out anxiety and mood disorders before diagnoses workplace burnout.

I think we just checked that first box, exhaustion, that's it.

ROMANS: What's the prescription? A new boss, a new job.

BRIGGS: Stand by as we search for a cure.

ROMANS: What are you going to do about it?

All right. Forty-two minutes past the hour.

A CNN exclusive, German chancellor, Angela Merkel, what she says about European election and dark forces going mainstream.

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[04:46:48] BRIGGS: German Chancellor Angela Merkel says dark forces are finding mainstream support in her country and other parts of the world, and there is work to be done to face up to them.

Merkel sat down for an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour one day after nationalists failed to live up to predicted surge in support in the European elections. After 13 years as chancellor, Merkel shouldered a lot of the blame for Europe's populist wave because of her handling of the refugee crisis.

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CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: What do you answer to the people who say that, you know, it was a great Germany, but these dark demons have risen again?

ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR (through translator): Germany can and will not uncouple itself from developments we see all over the world. We see this in Germany as well, but in Germany, obviously, they always have to be seen in a certain context, and the context of our past, which means we have to be that much more vigilant than others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Recently, German Jews were warned by a leading government official not to wear yarmulkes or skullcaps in public because of a rise in anti-Semitic attacks. Merkel says there is not a single synagogue, school for Jewish kids in Germany that does not need to be guarded by police.

ROMANS: All right. An American climber has died on Mount Everest. That brings the death toll to 11 this year. A 62-year-old attorney, Christopher John Kulish of Colorado, died Monday after reaching the top of Everest. His family said he died doing what he loved. He is survived by his mother and younger siblings.

There are growing concerns about overcrowding. Last week, crowds were stuck in a line to the summit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEE: It has become a death race there because there was a massive traffic jam and people are pushing themselves, were not even capable of doing it. They try to do it, they try to summit. And instead of summiting, they kill themselves. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: All right. So, CNN's Arwa Damon was just at Everest base camp and she joins us live. She's in Nepal.

Why -- what are you hearing on the mountain? Why are there so many people trying to summit here? Why are the lines so long?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a real combination of things. Every single climber has that one goal of trying to reach the peak of Everest because they want to see how far they can challenge themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally. The issue right now is that based on what we're hearing on the ground, what we are hearing from Sherpas who are on the mountain who have years of experience is a number of climbers who are coming through don't have the skill set to be able to handle a mountain like Mount Everest, and perhaps most importantly, they don't know how to listen to their bodies.

Trying to climb Mount Everest is a very fine balance of taking calculated risks but also knowing when your body is quite literally telling you enough. That photograph that has gone viral showing that long line of climbers waiting during that crush to reach the summit, that was taken in an area called the Death Zone.

[04:50:01] And it's called that for a reason. It's because when you're up at that altitude, you don't have enough oxygen. When you take a breath there, the amount of oxygen that you take in is a third of what you would be taking at sea level. That's why people carry up tanks of oxygen with them. That's why they try to calculate how much time they're actually going to be spending at this significantly high altitude and so when you have those hours long waits, some say yes, that had an impact on this year's death toll.

People don't die, though, for the most part when they're going up to the top. Most of those who died made it to the summit. It was when they were coming back down that their bodies succumb to altitude sickness. You don't have enough oxygen, your body, your organs started degrading, they can't function anymore, people fall asleep, sleep into a coma, and they never wake up again.

The Nepalese government has come under criticism with the number of permits they issued. It says that those allegations are baseless. You have the issue of inexperienced climbers. You have the issue of some climbing organizations just wanting to get their clients to the top, trying to push them through.

But then there's also the burden of responsibility on climbers themselves, and I can tell you having been at base camp when we were there for two hours, it makes such a difference when that oxygen level that we're normally used to isn't available to you. Just short distances are exhausting. Your fingers start to tingle. You feel very lightheaded.

And so, one of the most important things we're hearing about when trying to do these kinds of summits, these kinds of climbs is ensuring that you're getting enough oxygen. Fortunately, with these crowds that we're seeing, with this backlog, it doesn't seem like people are able to take the precautions that they need.

ROMANS: Fascinating, we're so fortunate to have you there talking to climbers and talking to the, you know, people who are equipping the climbers to find out really what's happening on Everest.

All right. Arwa Damon, thank you for that.

BRIGGS: Really surprising that they are refusing to do anything about the permits. That eleven matches the last two years combined already.

ROMANS: Yes.

All right. A new Gillette ad features a milestone between a transgender son and his father. CNN Business has the details, next.

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[04:56:39] BRIGGS: Four-fifty-six Eastern Time.

And the hiker who was rescued after 17 days in a forest in Maui making her first public appearance since the ordeal Monday. Amanda Eller sitting wheelchair because of leg injuries smiled and greeted dozens of well-wishers at an event organized by her family to thank the people who found her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANDA ELLER, SURVIVED 17 DAYS IN MAUI FOREST: I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know what I was getting closer to. The only thing I could do was trust.

I had nothing else to go by. I didn't have a compass. I didn't have a phone. I didn't have a shirt. I'm a girl who got lost in the woods and you guys showed up hard. Like this is true aloha, and I have lived here for four years, and I have never experienced anything like this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: The 35-year-old yoga instructor survived on berries, river water and by all appearances, pure grit. Amanda is still recovering but plans to share her harrowing story of survival at a news conference later today.

Just another night at the office for James Holzhauer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX TREBEK, "JEOPARDY" HOST: Did he risk enough, 58,000. That looks pretty good to me.

JAMES HOLZHAUER: Not the record.

TREBEK: Not the record, no, $130, 022. And now, a 28-day total of $2,195,557.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIGGS: Holzhauer's 28th straight "Jeopardy" win, and 130,000 just shy of the single game record he set just last month. Holzhauer getting awfully close to Ken Jennings jeopardy record of more than $2.5 million. Jennings did it in over 74 games.

ROMANS: All right. Let's get a check on CNN Business this morning. Take a look at global markets, you can see a mixed performance a little bit higher for the Asian markets but European markets have closed down or opened down a little bit here on Wall Street. Futures just nudging lower here.

Wall Street finished higher on Friday but for the week was still down due to trade war fears. The Dow declined .7 percent, the longest losing slump since June 2011. The S&P 500 lost 1.2 percent on the week, the Nasdaq fell 2.4 percent.

In the race for electric and self-driving cars, Renault is thinking about a merger with Fiat Chrysler. If completed, they would create the world's third largest car maker and reshape the global auto industry. It's the latest example of how automakers are looking to more partnerships as they face pressures of a quickly changing industry. Renault is already a member of the world's biggest alliance with Nissan and Mitsubishi. It's not clear how a merger with Fiat Chrysler would affect that alliance.

All right. A young man's first shave is a milestone, and for transgender man, Samson Brown, it was memorable for several reasons.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, don't be scared. Shaving is about being confident.

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ROMANS: Brown shared this experience with his father in an ad for Gillette. The video shows Brown standing in front of a bathroom mirror as his father coaches him. Gillette shared the video with the caption: Whenever, wherever, however it happens, your first shave is special.

It now has close to a million views. Gillette had another socially relevant ad earlier this year. It's "We Believe" ad, addressed several issues like toxic masculinity, sexual harassment and #MeToo.

BRIGGS: I don't think I ever had that moment with my father where he teaches me how to shave.

ROMANS: You haven't had a moment with a razor in a long time, apparently.

BRIGGS: Excellent point.

ROMANS: Somebody get Briggs a razor.

BRIGGS: Who needs a razor? Sorry, Gillette.

EARLY START continues right now.

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