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Millions of Texans Suffer in Widespread Power Catastrophe; Over 100 Million American Facing Winter Weather Alert; Biden Pushes COVID Relief Plan, Previews Other Priorities; Serena Falls to Osaka in Australian Open Semifinals. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired February 18, 2021 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:23]
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to our viewers in the United States, all around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Laura Jarrett. It's Thursday, February 18th. It's 5:00 a.m. here in New York. It's 4:00 a.m. in Texas where we begin this morning, with a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the United States.
Millions of people in Texas waking up to day four of freezing weather, but this is about way more than just the weather. They're facing brutal conditions, no power, no water, in some places no heat and no one fully accepting responsibility.
One family north of Austin without power since Monday has been rationing oxygen tanks for their 5-month-old baby boy born premature just home from the hospital. They built a make shift heater from a pot on bricks. The family is boiling bottled water because there's no water pressure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDGE LINA HIDALGO (D), HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS: This is no longer just an emergency. It's clear that it is a disaster. We've seen a cascade of effects that have turned what is already a dire situation into something much worse. Residents are frustrated. They're angry. They are cold. What they're enduring and continue to endure is heartbreaking.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: In the town of Del Rio, along the border Mexico, the wastewater plant is offline. Officials are begging residents, do not flush your toilets. Panic buying across the state leaving supermarket shelves bare. The state agriculture commissioner says they're, quote, looking at a food supply chain problem like we have never seen before.
Nearly 12 million Texans facing water service disruptions this morning. Look at that. Nearly 1/4 of the state is under orders to boil tap water before drinking it but you can't boil water if your stove doesn't work because the power is out.
JARRETT: And it's not only the physical toll, the out-of-pocket expenses are soaring including this man helping his mom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EISAC RIOS, HELPING HIS MOM DEAL WITH SKYROCKETING POWR BILL: For Sunday alone, she used 70 kilowatts and it was $146. For Monday, she used 70 kilowatts, she spent $573.
UNIDENTIIFED MALE: How much?
RIOS: Five hundred seventy-three dollars. For one day.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Look at that, the disaster also hurting efforts to fight the pandemic. Of course, Houston, the fourth most populous city in the country, was closing all of its vaccination sites due to the weather. At least 30 states are experiencing vaccine delays as the weather hold up shipments, through distribution hubs in Memphis and Louisville.
ROMANS: Now, there's a hint of good news here. The number of Texas power customers with their lights out dropped from 3 million customers yesterday to 1 million today. Remember, each customer is actually several people. So the outages are still widespread here.
How much longer will this nightmare last?
CNN's Ed Lavandera on the ground for us in Dallas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Laura, millions of Texans are once again spending a third night in frigid cold temperatures across the state. And unfortunately, there is no clear time line as to exactly when the electrical systems will be fully restored here in this state.
State power grid officials say they're hoping that in the next day or two, that all of the power plants that have been adversely affected by this winter storm will be able to get their systems back up and running once again generating the power needed to warm up millions of homes across the state. But quite frankly, there is not a clear timeline about when that's going to happen. In warmer temperatures above freezing are not expected to be here until this weekend.
So this is an event that could take longer to get out of than originally anticipated. And the finger pointing and the political blame games continue. The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, is blaming ERCOT, which is the state power grid system, saying they need to be investigated and that executives need to resign. ERCOT officials are saying that what they have done in these power outages, forcing these power outages to millions of Texans has spared a greater problem. If they hadn't done what they did, the entire state would be in a blackout -- Christine and Laura. (END VIDEOTAPE)
JARRETT: Ed, thank you so much.
There have been 37 weather related deaths across eight states since last Thursday. More than 100 million Americans from Texas to New England are under some winter weather alert. Now there's a tornado watch for parts of the southeast.
Let's bring in meteorologist Derek Van Dam.
Derek, what is the latest at this hour?
[05:05:01]
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, Laura, not only are we seek the economical and humanitarian challenges unfold very our eyes, but there's also a hidden challenge here that's -- we're starting to notice. The ecological disaster, the potential of fish kills being warned from the Louisiana Wildlife and Game (ph) Department.
These images sent to us overnight from a viewer in Louisiana. This is just a few miles from the gulf coast in Louisiana, one of the bayous completely frozen over. That shows you just how expensive and how far south this arctic blast of air, a very long duration arctic blast of air has spread.
In fact, it has stunned, cold-stunned sea turtles along the Gulf Coast, record cold. We're talking about over 2,500 record low temperatures since the beginning of the month. That is a long time to set those record lows.
Now, check this out. We've seen some improvement with the energy demand in Texas. Just under 1 million customers without power at the moment, but without power, without electricity, water pumps don't work. So, about 141 counties right now reporting water disruptions. That's out of 254 counties in the entire state of Texas.
We're talking about temperature today running 20, 30, even upwards of 40 degrees below where they should be this time of year. But there is some silver lining here. Temperatures are going to improve. Look at this. We're going to jump above average as we jump into early parts of next week. Now it moves across the mid-Atlantic. This is an area we're concerned with the major icing. Heads up, Raleigh to D.C. potential of 1/4 to half an inch of ice on top of sleet and eight inches of snow from New York northward.
Back to you, Laura.
JARRETT: All right. Derek, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
ROMANS: Another winter storm moving along the coast here. Now the winter storms hammering business across the central U.S., especially in Texas, disrupting many sectors trying to recover from the pandemic. The storms, likely the costliest in years, with business impact similar to a major hurricane. Hundreds of businesses big and small forced to close up shop. For many, it will be days before they can reopen.
The airline industry dealing with thousands of canceled flights nationwide. American, Southwest, and United have major hubs in Texas. Auto production in the region has also stalled. General Motors and Toyota plants remain closed Wednesday. Nissan kept its plants in Texas and Mississippi closed on Wednesday.
JARRETT: Yeah, the storm and freezing weather hitting oil and gas production hard. Refineries and other operations were forced to close across the region.
CNN's John Defterios joins us from Abu Dhabi this morning.
John, producing power in cold weather happens all the time, think of Alaska, Canada, Norway, a bunch of places.
What happened in Texas was different. Explain why.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, they like isolation, Laura. They're fiercely independent. They thought they had so much energy, oil, gas, wind, solar, they thought they didn't need the national grid. And this has proven to snap back on them.
They're so desperate overnight, the regulator in Texas was suggesting they may have to go to rolling blackouts as a near-term solution. That's how bad it is. And that old adage, you know, is basically hope for the best but plan for the worst. That doesn't apply to the energy system in Texas, that is for sure.
I'll tell you what, it's a supply and demand, pretty simple, that it went to deregulated market, it's good for consumer prices if there's nothing wrong, but it doesn't allow for planning and investment. So, they were planning for a spike of 70 giga watts here onto the system in the winter, 40 percent of that collapsed and contrary to the naysayers who said this was all about solar and wind power freezing up, that was the case, but that wasn't the majority.
It was gas, coal, nuclear which gave out right now. And I talked about this independence. They're going to have to think about tapping into the national grid. And without the power, Texas is the biggest producer for oil in the United States. U.S. normally produces 10 million a day, it's down 4 million as a result.
And we see international prices crossing $65 earlier in the day and crossing $61 in the U.S. that means that prices at the pump will go up as well, Laura and Christine. That's the reality during this crisis.
The system, by the way, is prepared for heavy heat in the summer, not the climate change and the extreme arctic cold that we're seeing today.
JARRETT: Yeah. I think so important to point out, this is not about the wind turbines, right? That's not where most of their energy is coming from.
All right. John, thanks so much. ROMANS: Yeah. And you're starting people already talking about $3 a
gallon gasoline because of this. So, watch this space.
The severe winter weather forcing President Biden to postpone his scheduled trip to Michigan today. He had planned to tour a Pfizer vaccine manufacturing facility and tout his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan.
CNN's Daniella Diaz live on Capitol Hill.
Good morning, Daniella.
With this trip now canceled, how is the president going to try to keep up momentum for his rescue plan?
DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Good morning.
Now, even though Congress is out this week, Democratic lawmakers are working behind the scenes to finalize the final details of Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 package.
[05:10:04]
But lawmakers are rushing to get this through before unemployment benefits run out in mid-March. The Republicans have criticized this legislation. They think this money is too much considering that they were already two stimulus packages that passed last year and say there's no need for a massive package like $1.9 trillion.
But this is not stopping Biden from making his most public pitch yet to Republicans yesterday in the Oval Office, arguing that he's confused why they're not signing on to support the legislation. He's arguing why this will help millions of Americans.
Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Those who oppose the plan, what don't they like? Don't they want to help people with nutrition? Don't they want to help people be able to pay their mortgage? Don't they want to help people get their unemployment insurance? Don't they want to make sure that people are able to stay in their homes without being thrown out of their homes in the middle of this God awful pandemic? What don't they like?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DIAZ: So as you heard there, Biden is making this argument to Republicans hoping they sign on to support this package. The other part of this is Biden needs all 50 Democratic senators to sign on to support this legislation because they're trying to pass this using budget reconciliation, which means they need a simple majority in the Senate.
So, even if one or two senators do not sign on to support this legislation on the Democratic side, that could be warning signs for Biden but this is a priority for Biden. This is a priority for Congress and they're working diligently to finalize this behind the scenes. And the House will likely vote on this as soon as next week -- guys.
ROMANS: And this idea -- this idea of some Republicans, Daniella, that, you know, already so much has been done. The head of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank in this tweet yesterday reminding the world the conditions are fragile. What is the real unemployment rate she says?
Not 6.3 percent. Millions are on unemployment benefits. Lines at food banks. Countless workers out of the labor force taking care of their families instead.
The Fed chief recently has said the unemployment rate is really more like 10 percent. So, you can hear this urgency from economists and experts saying, don't get too caught up on what's already been spent. A lot more needs to be done.
Thank you so much for that, Daniella.
Laura?
JARRETT: All right. Still ahead, coronavirus variants could reverse a lot of the recent progress we've seen. Now the White House is putting big money behind efforts to track them.
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[05:16:36]
JARRETT: If you felt like 2020 was so brutal that it took a year off your life, well, you'd be right. The average life expectancy in the United States dropped a full year. According to the CDC, the average life expectancy is 77.8 years, a level seen back in 2006.
Now, experts say the pandemic is a significant factor here. Also, drug overdoses and, of course, the racial inequities also coming into play. Black Americans saw their life expectancy fall three times more than white Americans.
ROMANS: The Biden administration plans to invest $200 million to identify emerging coronavirus variants. The CDC now says those variants could lead to a rapid rise in cases reversing recent progress here yet the U.S. lags behind other countries in tracking variants. More than 1.6 million vaccine doses are now being given each day but a big mix-up in Pennsylvania means 100,000 people are going to have to wait.
CNN has the pandemic covered coast to coast.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jean Casarez in New York. The Pennsylvania Department of Health is saying that approximately
200,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine being reserved for second doses was inadvertently given, administered to people as the first dose vaccine.
Now the health secretary saying because of this, there is not enough vaccine to give to everyone who is eligible. They're not saying who did this. They're not saying how it happened except the sent of health is saying that it was due to structural issues. Of note, the Pfizer vaccine is not impacted.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Stephanie Elam in Los Angeles.
MGM resorts is betting on the return of the Las Vegas Strip, so much so that beginning March 3rd, they are going to resume 24/7 operations at the Mandalay Bay, Park MGM and the Mirage. They're seeing increased demand for the properties and are encouraged by the fact that the coronavirus case numbers are dropping as the vaccination numbers are starting to increase.
Throughout the pandemic, the hotels have been selectively shutting down mid week because there just wasn't enough demand. But at this point, MGM Resorts says it's bringing back some of their live shows even at this point starting this month and next.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: I'm Bianna Golodryga in New York.
Citing learning disruption due to COVID-19, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed a law suspending letter grading in state schools for the remainder of the year. He also signed an executive order calling for the state's board of education to study the extent of student learning loss throughout the pandemic. While students will continue to receive letter grades, schools themselves will not be graded based on standardized testing.
ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Alexandra Field in New York.
Additional steps now to ease restrictions here in New York state. The governor announcing that indoor amusement parks can start to reopen on March 26th at 25 percent capacity. Rides and features that don't allow for social distancing will remain shut down.
Outdoor amusement parks can begin to open up on April 9th at 33 percent capacity. As for summer camps, the governor says camps can plan to reopen this summer so long as they have proper testing protocols in place.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JARRETT: Thanks to all our correspondents for those updates.
[05:20:00]
Well, too late for Mardi gras? But bars in New Orleans will be allowed to partially reopen tomorrow. They can operate at 25 percent capacity as long as they close by 11 p.m. and the rate of positive cases stays low.
Thankfully, it seems most partiers got the message this year. This striking side by side, you can see, shows a very French quarter during Mardi gras in 2020 and the empty streets this week.
ROMANS: All right. That extreme weather in Texas forcing big changes in the world of sports.
That plus big news overnight from the Australian Open, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: You really can't overstate the misery in Texas this morning. And Texans are entering, waking up to their fourth day of mass power outages related to that deadly winter storm.
[05:25:05]
The Dallas Mavericks coach says this is not the time to play the game.
Andy Scholes has this morning's "Bleacher Report".
Andy, you got a lot of family in Texas. Everyone okay?
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine, I'll tell you, I mean, the situation is not good there right now.
You know, my parents are older. My dad's 80. My mom is in her 70s. They had power for like six hours out of the past 48 hours. It's really getting cold in their house. Water pressure is also not good.
Many of my friends are dealing with the same thing. A lot of people are going to other people's house who do have power only for that person to then lose power. Many of my friends say it's way worse than many of the hurricanes they've dealt with because of how cold it is and they never thought that they'd be dealing with something like this in the state of Texas.
Now, of course, the sports world is also being impacted by what's going on there. More than a dozen games have been postponed this week due to the extreme weather and power outages, including last night's schedule game between the Mavericks and the Pistons.
Mavs coach Rick Carlisle says the focus right now should be on people helping each other.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK CARLISLE, DALLAS MAVERICKS HEAD COACH: I don't like the public finger pointing that's going on with regard to the energy situation. You know, this should be about solutions and not blame. To me the important thing is to work through all of it. You know, always hoping for the best but being ready for more surprises.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SCHOLES: All right. Huge match at the Australian, late last night, about 7,500 fans back in attendance for the first time to see the semifinal showdown between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka. This one, all Osaka. The three-time grand slam winner blowing away Serena, winning in straight sets improving to 3-1 against her childhood hero. She was relishing every moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAOMI OSAKA, 3-TIME GRAND SLAM WINNER: I don't know if there's any little kids out here today, but I was a little kid watching her play and just to be on the court playing against her for me is a dream.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Now here's moments. Serena walking off the court waving to the crowd. Clearly emotional. Then she's going to put her hands over her heart leading many to wonder what the future is for the 23-time grand slam winner. She's just one shy of tying the all-time record.
After the match, Serena was asked if that was her farewell to the Aussie Open?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SERENA WILLIAMS, 23-TIME GRAND SLAM WINNER: I don't know if I ever say farewell. I wouldn't tell anyone. So --
REPORTER: Was it just one of those bad days at the office?
WILLIAMS: I don't know. I'm done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Yeah, Laura. Serena, 39 years old now. Really emotional there. Who knows if that was the last --
(CROSSTALK)
JARRETT: She can't be done. I think she was just touched by the moment.
SCHOLES: We'll wait and see.
JARRETT: All right, Andy. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.
SCHOLES: All right.
JARRETT: All right. Still ahead, the power is out, the water is off, the heat is spotty. A week of agony for millions in Texas and more harsh weather is on the way.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
