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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Surfside Condo Collapse Death Toll Now 28, 117 Unaccounted For; Hong Kong Police Say They Have Thwarted Teen Terror Plot; Regional Passenger Plane Crashes in Eastern Russia; Bucks Star Doubtful for NBA Finals Opener. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired July 06, 2021 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:24]
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Laura Jarrett. It's Tuesday, July 6th. It's 5:00 a.m. here in New York.
And we begin this morning with the tragedy in Surfside, Florida, with another victim recovered from the rubble last night. That brings the death toll to 28 with 117 people still unaccounted for. Officials say search crews have now have safer access to the entire debris pile following Sunday night's demolition of what had remained of Champlain Tower South.
ROMANS: Now they are looking for voids, they are looking for anyone who might still be alive.
Pablo Rodriguez' mother and grandmother are among those still unaccounted for. He tells CNN that he is grateful to the search crews working under such dangerous conditions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PABLO RODRIGUEZ, SON OF SURFSIDE CONDO COLLAPSE VICTIM: The conditions they're under, there's just no words for how thankful we are for the work they're doing and for their families, for sharing them with us. It's definitely a physical and emotional toll on them, as bell. And as a family member, I want to thank them for continuing to look for my mom and my grandmother.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: CNN's Leyla Santiago is in Surfside with the latest more us this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Laura, 13 days after the building collapsed, officials say that the priority, the focus continues to be the search and rescue mission. Now, they are able to get access to a different part of the building after officials demolished what was still left standing last week. They've had to have some temporary pauses, because of lightning.
But the teams have been able to remove 4.8 million pounds of concrete from the pile, according to the Miami-Dade mayor. A block away from where all the debris is, we found a memorial, where you can actually still see dust in the air. We found people there that were just sobbing, pure, raw pain.
For some who had to muster up the courage just to visit the site, they so badly wanted to avoid. And while some say that the decision to demolish that building also took a little bit of hope with it, others are saying that they needed that to move forward.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wasn't able to come earlier because the site of the building still affected my greatly. And today because the building came down, I think I managed to make it all the way up to the memorial site.
SANTIAGO: And the investigation into that central question, what caused the building to collapse, continues today. The mayor, the Miami-Dade mayor saying that it is an investigation that is complicated -- Christine, Laura.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Leyla Santiago, thank you for that.
Tropical Storm Elsa passing over Cuba overnight, dumping heavy rain and now headed toward Florida. The storm lost some of its punch over Cuba, but it is expected to regain strength as it moves off the west coast of Florida.
In Key West, officials are preparing for Elsa. Tourists are already evacuating and cargo and commercial ships are being told to leave port. Do-it-yourself sandbagging stands are setting all along Florida's West Coast.
Let's go to meteorologist Tyler Mauldin and he's tracking the system.
I know there's a 5:00 a.m. update from the national hurricane center. What do we know?
TYLER MAULDIN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, the 5:00 a.m. update is in. And Tropical Storm Elsa, at the moment, Christine, is 50 miles to the south of Key West. It has winds of 60 miles per hour and the big update with the 5:00 a.m. advisory is that they've now issued a hurricane watch from just to the north of Sarasota, all the way to the north of Cedar Key. So from West Central Florida into the big bend of Florida is under a tornado watch.
The National Hurricane Center is saying that this system does have the potential of getting close to a category 1 status by the time it makes landfall up there across the west coast of Florida, as it comes tomorrow morning. As you can see here, we have heavy rainfall across the Florida
straits. And as this system pushes to the north, conditions are going to go downhill from south to north. We've had plenty in the way of thunderstorms on Monday and we've had more thunderstorms across Miami- Dade this morning. And we're going to continue to see that.
And in Surfside, we're going to see stormy, gusty squalls, as we go through Tuesday. Then Wednesday, Thursday, it's back to the typical south Florida rainy season weather down in Surfside.
Here's the updated cone for you. As Tropical Storm Elsa passes to the west of Key West, it's going to stay to the west of the west coast of Florida, right offshore, but notice that the system is going to gather strength to a 70-mile-an-hour storm before it makes landfall Saturday morning.
[05:05:00]
The cone here is only telling you where the center of the storm is going to go. It doesn't encompass all the impacts that come from this system. The system -- the impacts could be felt way to the east, up the peninsula of Florida, as we go through Tuesday and on into Wednesday. You can see, it's a very lopsided storm here, guys, where you can see some tornadoes up the peninsula of Florida, as we go through today and tomorrow. We could see storm surge and extremely, extremely heavy rainfall.
ROMANS: All right. Tyler, thank you so much for that update. Keep us posted on Elsa.
MAULDIN: You got it.
ROMANS: Laura?
JARRETT: All right. What should have been a long weekend of great celebration now leaves more grieving families. Across the U.S., at least 150 people killed by gun violence in more than 400 shootings. That's according to the Gun Violence Archive.
In New York City, there were 26 victims and 21 shootings, from Friday through Sunday. That's actually down from the same period last year, despite an overall increase in recent gun violence in this city.
In Chicago, meanwhile, 83 people were shot, 14 killed. Among the injured, two Chicago police officers and two little girls age 5 and 6. One of those killed was a private in the Illinois National Guard.
ROMANS: In Fort Worth, Texas, eight people were hurt after an argument led to a shoot-out near a car wash. In Toledo, Ohio, a 17 year old was killed and 11 other people were injured at a shooting at a large block party. And in Norfolk, Virginia, four children were shot Friday afternoon, including three teens and a 6-year-old girl now reported in stable condition. Police have charged a 15-year-old boy in connection with that shooting.
All right. More pain at the pump. Gas prices rising and could keep rising. OPEC and its allies, including Russia, known as OPEC Plus canceled its meeting Monday, dashing hopes for an agreement to increase oil production to bring prices down. Rent crude is trading above $77 a barrel. Last week, oil finished above $75 a barrel for the first time in three years. It's an incredible recovery from crude prices from their crash in April of 2020. Oil has rebounded as pandemic restrictions ease and demand for gas and jet fuel increases as the economy roars back to life.
The OPEC drama comes as Americans are back on the roads and paying the highest gas prices in seven years. The average price of a gallon of regular is $3.13. That's up 44 percent from last year. Wall Street analysts say only OPEC plus can come to the rescue by pumping more oil to meet this surging post-COVID demand.
No new date for a meeting has been announced. And people are taking to the roads. We've seen that this weekend. We know this summer will be the summer of road rips, in part because car rental prices are so high. A lot of people are driving their own cars and foregoing the air travel and renting a car when it's 500 bucks a day.
JARRETT: Yeah, I have one coming up in August. It's sky high compared to last year.
All right. Just into CNN, high school students in Hong Kong arrested for ties to an alleged terrorism plot. We are live in Hong Kong. That's next.
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[05:22:18]
ROMANS: Welcome back.
Police in Hong Kong arresting nine people overnight. Six of them, six of them are high school students. Authorities claim they're connected to a homegrown terrorist plot to bomb courts, railways, and tunnels.
CNN's Kristie Lu Stout is live for us this morning in Hong Kong.
Kristie, what are Hong Kong officials saying about this alleged plot?
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Christine, very concerning developments here in Hong Kong this day. Hong Kong police say that they thwarted a suspected terror plot after arresting nine individuals, including high school students. Six teenagers were arrested on suspicion of terrorist offenses under the national security law.
Now, according to the Hong Kong police, they say that the nine individuals had rented a hostel where they were planning to make these homemade bombs. Hong Kong police said they were planning to target public facilities across the city, including public transits, courts, and even the cross-harbor tunnels.
Police also found an operations manual, in which there were plans to stage an attack using these bombs in early July. But the police also add that no bombs were made, no bombs were found.
Of these individuals, five are male, four are female, six are high school students. Again, these are teenagers. They were all linked to a Hong Kong independence organization.
For more, here is the senior superintendent of Hong Kong police.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE LI, SENIOR SUPERINTENDENT, HONG KONG POLICE FORCE (through translator): To establish a homemade lab, to manufacture improvised explosive devices the middle of a busy city is very insane. I think everyone would agree with that. It's very irresponsible. It's very painful see young people getting involved. It's a heinous act to lure young people into participating in this kind of activity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STOUT: Now, these terrorists here in Hong Kong coincide with these ongoing claims by the leadership here in Hong Kong that terrorism remains a threat in the city, despite the national security law. In fact, we heard from Hong Kong's top leader, the chief executive, Carrie Lam, earlier this day. She warned of underground terrorist activity and blamed both domestic and external influences -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Kristie Lou, thank you so much for that.
Laura?
JARRETT: New, overnight, a passenger plane has crashed in the northeastern part of Russia with at least 28 people believed to be onboard.
CNN's Matthew Chance is live in Moscow with the very latest.
Matthew, good morning.
Bring us up to speed. Have they located the crash site yet?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, Laura, I have to say, it's such a remote area. So many time zones. Maybe 11 time zones away from Moscow, the Russian capital, that it's very difficult to get information that's confirmed. Details are very sketchy. We've had reports from Russian state media saying they have located or they may have located the crash site in the sea of the far eastern coast of Russia, right over there in eastern Siberia.
[05:15:12]
But other reports suggest that may not be the case. What we do know is that the small turbo problem passenger plane that was lost from radar just a few hours ago was carrying 22 passengers and another six crew, although there's even some dispute over that.
It disappeared from the radar as it was coming into land in a small town in that far eastern region of Russia's very remote Far East. I think it's 39 years old, according to the reports we've had. I mean, this is a very old type of aircraft that was the backbone of the Russian aviation industry.
But obviously, much of the fleet and the various regional airlines and the national airline have been updated many times since then. But, you know, as is the case across Russia, there is still, you know, kind of vestiges of that old soviet era sort of aviation, still operating, still carrying passengers.
And this is one example of that. And I think it underlines a sort of broader point. As we try to get more details about what actually happened, you know, where the plane has actually gone down, it underlines a broader problem about the aviation industry in Russia, how it is still kind of deeply flawed. You see some of the highest level of aviation accidents in this country, in the industrialized world.
And so, clearly, there's a problem. And this is the latest iteration of that, Laura.
JARRETT: All right, Matthew. Keep us updated as you get more information on this. Appreciate it.
Also this morning, dozens of people are still missing after that deadly tsunami-like mud slide in central Japan. Torrential rains triggered the devastating slide, killing at least four people and destroying more than 100 homes in the coastal city of Atami.
CNN's Blake Essig has more on the search for survivors and some incredible, dramatic video showing the moment the left side swept through the city.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): After several days of torrential rain, the possibility of another landslide remains high. That is part of the reason roadblocks like the one behind me has been set up to keep people away from the disaster area.
(voice-over): It's hard to imagine anyone, in its path could have survived. A horrifying scene captured by residents on cell phone video.
YUJI SHIMA, MUDSLIDE SURVIVOR (through translator): The mudslide looked like a tsunami. It was like a big wave that made a thunderous noise and came crashing down onto the ground.
ESSIG: It happened Saturday morning, a torrent of mud and water sent crashing through part of the city. This is what was left behind. A path of death and destruction turning what was once a residential area in the seaside city of Atami into a wasteland.
Atami city officials say 130 homes have been destroyed, either buried or swept away. As of Monday, hundreds are sheltering in evacuation centers and dozens more have either been reported missing or unaccounted for.
SURVIVOR (through translator): I just really want to see my husband again no matter how he is found.
ESSIG: This woman, who didn't want to be named, says her husband is one of those missing people. She hasn't heard from him since the landslide swept through the city. While she says her home wasn't washed away, neighbors say her husband, who was outside at the time, likely was.
SURVIVOR (through translator): There was a smaller mudslide in the morning. I think my husband was checking for updates on the news around it, but then the huge one happened. I haven't been able to reach him since.
ESSIG: In the days that have followed, despite bad weather and the constant threat of another landslide search and rescue crews' frantic search for any signs of life continues.
So far more than two dozen people stranded inside of have been rescued. On the ground, crews sift through debris, can be heard using chainsaws to cut their way through the wreckage and are even using dogs to squeeze inside partially collapsed buildings.
From the sky, drones and helicopters are being used to survey the devastation while the coast guard scours the coastline. A search for survivors in a place where the odds of finding them are increasingly slim.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ESSIG (on camera): The governor of Shizuoka says that the prefecture will investigate the cause of this landslide as some residents believe was man-made. One theory that will be investigated is whether it was caused by housing and development projects at a deforested area above Atami area that possibly reduced the mountain's ability to retain water.
Blake Essig, CNN, Atami, Japan.
JARRETT: Those pictures are incredible.
ROMANS: They really are.
All right. The hockey community this morning reeling after the tragic death of a young goalie in a fireworks accident. The details, next.
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[05:24:19]
ROMANS: Welcome back.
A tragic Fourth of July accident claims the life of an NHL goalie.
Carolyn Manno has more on this morning's "Bleacher Report". What happened?
CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Good morning.
This is a really difficult history. The hockey world continuing to mourn the loss of Matiss Kivlenieks. He played for four years in the Columbus Blue Jacket organization and also played in several international tournaments for his native Latvia, including this year's world champions.
The 24-year-old was in an outdoor hot tub with a group of people in Michigan on Sunday night when police say a set of fireworks malfunctioned, sending a mortar directly toward them, and according to the local medical examiner, Kivlenieks died by chest trauma caused by the mortar blast. The tragedy has been ruled an accident.
[05:25:00]
The Blue Jackets issuing a statement which read: Kivi was an outstanding young man who greeted every day and everyone with a smile. And the impact he had during his four years with our organization will not be forgotten.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: The National Hockey League family mourns the tragic passing of Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Matiss Kivlenieks. We extend our deepest sympathies to his family, friends, and teammates during this difficult time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANNO: The Canadiens and lightning holding a moment of silence in his honor prior to game four of the Stanley Cup final in Montreal. The Canadiens needed a win to avoid elimination and did just that.
Josh Anderson picking up the loose puck in front of the game. Montreal avoiding a Stanley Cup streak with 3-2 overtime win. The lightning leaving this series 3-1. Game five is in Tampa on Wednesday.
Game one of the NBA finals is in Phoenix with the Suns hosting the Bucks. The big question is the health of Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo. Giannis hyper extended his left knee in game four against the Hawks. Coach Mike Budenholzer is saying that the star is making good progress but still listed as doubtful for game one.
And it's a big day one for of the Bucks owners, Aaron Rodgers, who will be teeing off for charity with Bryson DeChambeau against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady later on this afternoon in the match. It has been a notable off-season for the Packers quarterback, from his public rift with his team, to getting engaged, and even hosted "Jeopardy". But when Rodgers spoke with us on the conference call yesterday, he told us that he's spent most of the off-season working on keeping a positive frame of mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AARON RODGERS, GREEN BAY PACKERS QUARTERBACK: I'm very thankful for the opportunity to work on my mental health and, you know, I haven't dealt with bouts of depression or anything, that I think for whatever are okay to talk about when you talk about mental. That's just been really think about, what puts me in the best frame of mind, what habits can I form that allow me to feel most in my body, most present, happiest? And that's what I've been doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MANNO: So, some insight there on what he's been going through. You can watch the match today beginning at 5:00 Eastern on our sister network on TNT. And if the rest of that call was any indication, the trash talk from Aaron Rodgers should be phenomenal. He even failed me fake news at one point.
JARRETT: Oh, boy.
MANNO: Nobody is safe on the conference call. It's going to be a lot of fun this afternoon.
ROMANS: All right. Real news Carolyn Manno, thank you so much.
JARRETT: Thanks, Carolyn.
ROMANS: Aaron Rodgers, be nice to Carolyn.
JARRETT: All right. Coming up, more than 125 cases of coronavirus traced back to a summer camp in Texas. How health officials are dealing with the fallout.
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