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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
At Least 120 Dead, 160+ Missing After Texas Floods; Scrutiny Over FEMA's Response Under Noem; Ukraine Recovery Conference Underway In Rome; Trump Announces 50 Percent Tariff On Copper Imports To U.S. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired July 10, 2025 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:41]
MIN JUNG LEE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers, joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm MJ Lee. Rahel Solomon is off.
It's Thursday, July 10th, 5:00 a.m. here in Washington.
And straight ahead on EARLY START.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Search and rescue teams are on day six of this exhaustive search.
REPORTER: Questions remain about how much officials were prepared, how much officials anticipated here in Texas in the lead up to the storms.
PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: New internal policy enacted by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem requiring her personal approval on any expense above $100,000.
KRISTI NOEM, DHS SECRETARY: We're cutting through the paperwork of the old FEMA, streamlining it, much like your vision of how FEMA should operate.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Italy is hosting this Thursday and Friday the fourth Ukraine recovery conference.
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump also talked about potentially sending more patriot missiles to Ukraine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC)
LEE: It's early morning in Kerr County, Texas, where recovery efforts are set to continue in the coming hours following the deadly flash flooding there over the weekend. Officials report at least 120 people have died in the floods, and more than 160 people remain missing. Volunteer rescue crews say searching for victims along the Guadalupe
River could take days, if not weeks, but crews are already feeling the mental toll of the disaster.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF DANA BACCUS, INGRAM FIRE DEPARTMENT: I saw RVs being slammed up against trees and literally exploding. I saw children floating in the water begging for help that we could not reach, and that that takes it out of you.
TAMMY LANDIN, RETIRED FIREFIGHTER: At the time you deal with it, later on, it's going to hit everybody. I was born and raised here. Pretty bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: New questions are emerging about the local emergency alert systems. CNN affiliate KSAT reports that ahead of the flooding, a local firefighter asked for a warning to be sent to the public. But Kerr County officials took nearly six hours to do so.
The county sheriff says answers to those questions must be answered in time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF LARRY LEITHA, KERR COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: I believe those questions need to be answered to the family of the missed loved ones, to the public, you know, to the people that put me in this office, those need doing. And I want that answer. And we're going to get that answer.
And I know that's going to be asked over and over. Please understand that, you know, we don't have -- we're not running. We're not going to hide from anything. That's going to be checked into at a later time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: Multiple officials tell CNN inside FEMA that they were ready to deploy search and rescue teams and other lifesaving resources to Texas over the weekend, but new protocols forced them to wait more than three days after the flooding began. Those officials point to a new internal policy enacted by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, requiring her personal approval on any expense above $100,000. Officials say that that threshold means executive sign off is necessary for relatively small expenditures, given that disaster response costs often soar into the billions.
Here's how Secretary Noem relayed the agency's progress to President Trump on Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTI NOEM, DHS SECRETARY: We're still there in presence, and FEMA has been deployed, and were cutting through the paperwork of the old FEMA streamlining it, much like your vision of how FEMA should operate. And it's been a much better response to help these families get through this terrible situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: And the mayor of hard-hit, Kerrville, Texas, says he was not invited to participate in a weather forecast call with state officials ahead of the impending storm.
CNN's Shimon Prokupecz has the details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Questions remain about how much officials were prepared, how much officials anticipated here in Texas in the lead up to the storms. What we know is that on July 3rd, the lieutenant governor here in Texas says that there was a conference call and county judges and city mayors were invited into the call to talk about the potential weather forecast.
[05:05:04]
But what we learned on Wednesday was that the city mayor was never part of that call.
That is what he told us in a press conference. It's also not entirely clear if the county judge, who is the leading political figure in this county, if he was on that call. And what exactly did the emergency management folks here know about the storm, and how much did they anticipate it, and how much were they prepared?
Now, the sheriff says he understands that answers are needed and that they're going to get to that at some point. But for now, they are focused on recovering the bodies and dealing with the families.
Shimon Prokupecz, CNN, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE: Ali Mostafavi is a professor of civil engineering at Texas A&M University. He joins us now from College Station, Texas.
Ali, it is really great to have you this morning. You know, in the aftermath of the Central Texas flash floods, there have been some really serious questions about Kerr County's flood warning systems and whether its adequate enough. I understand that your view is that it simply is not. Tell us why.
ALI MOSTAFAVI, PROFESSOR OF CIVIL ENGINEERING, TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY: Good morning, MJ, and thanks for having me.
Absolutely. Based on what we are hearing about the performance of the flood warning system, this -- what was in place was not adequate. And let me explain what I mean by flood warning system. It's a pipeline from prediction of the hazard all the way to getting the information into the hands of people way ahead of time to get out of harm's way.
And based on what we are hearing, you know, this pipeline didn't work as intended. And there has to be an upgrade in the flood warning system to avoid future disasters like this.
LEE: Yeah. And, you know, the national weather service did put out a number of warnings early Friday morning as the situation got more dire, but it's not clear what kind of reach those warnings had, especially in remote areas with limited cell service. Not to mention, we know that some of those attending Camp Mystic weren't allowed to have phones with them.
So, what is the best remedy for reaching people who don't have access to cell phones or cell service?
MOSTAFAVI: Absolutely. The remedy is using flood sirens, and especially in rural areas. And those flood sirens have been shown to be very effective to inform the public.
Actually, you know, the neighboring county of Kerr County had some of those flood sirens in effect, and those help people to get out of the ways of flooding way ahead of time and saved lives in neighboring counties.
LEE: And something else I wanted to ask you about are the gauges on the river in Kerr County. They showed that the Guadalupe River level rose as much as 30 feet within a few hours Friday morning.
Explain to us how those gauges work and how the information from them are meant to be interpreted in a situation like that?
MOSTAFAVI: Absolutely. Those flood gauges are meant to measure the water flow, both height and speed of the water in and monitor that in real time. And those are absolutely one of the most important components of flood warning system.
In our view, the number of flood gauges in that area is not adequate, especially for flash flooding. We need more real-time flood gauges that can be integrated into flood warning system and can then be interpreted into sirens that inform the public.
So, definitely in upgrading the flood warning system, it's absolutely essential to have more real time flood sensors and flood gauges in place to be able to monitor the situation in real time and inform the public.
LEE: And I know you do research around artificial intelligence and disaster informatics. Are there ways that you think I could be used as a tool to help prepare a community like this one, ahead of a disaster like this one?
MOSTAFAVI: Absolutely. One of the challenges that emergency management processes are facing is significant amount of information and, you know, limited resources and short amount of time and artificial intelligence can play an important role here to help humans and collaborate with humans to digest significant amount of information for flood sensors from weather data interpret those and streamline the process of, you know, data to public messaging information so that this information is processed faster and messaging is sent to the public faster.
[05:10:00]
We are talking about minutes, ten minutes. You know, earlier warning can save lives, and artificial intelligence has the potential to streamline and expedite the flood preparedness processes, for sure.
LEE: Ali Mostafavi, thank you so much for having this important discussion with us.
MOSTAFAVI: Thanks for having me, MJ.
And further west in the state of New Mexico, officials say everyone is accounted for after deadly floods there that killed three people on Tuesday. The area has gone through forest fires and flooding in the past year, and residents have hardly had any time to recover.
Natasha Chen has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These terrifying images emerged in New Mexico as the Rio Ruidoso swelled from under two feet to over 20 feet in less than one hour. It came on the heels of devastatingly deadly floods in Texas. This one claimed at least three lives, including two children.
CHIEF STEVEN MINNER, RUIDOSO POLICE: All three victims were reported missing from the same area, which was an RV park, and they were all found downriver anywhere from a quarter mile to two miles down the river.
CHEN: Emergency crews made dozens of swift water rescues. Businesses like this trading post were destroyed.
Kaitlyn Carpenter was on her motorcycle and says she pulled over to take shelter when the intense downpour started.
KAITLYN CARPENTER, WITNESSED FLOODING: It kind of just went from bad to worse. The flood started and then a really big flood just came like a wall of flood.
Oh my gosh. Oh, look. Oh., no.
CHEN: She started filming the devastation, then saw a close friends house being whisked away by the rushing river.
CARPENTER: She's actually out of town right now, so it was kind of heartbreaking to be filming and then to see my best friend's house, that I have memories in.
CHEN: The catastrophic flooding occurred in an area scorched by wildfires last summer. CARPENTER: There's no trees anymore to soak up all the water running
off of the mountain.
CHEN: Since June of last year, there have been at least 12 separate flash flood emergencies like this one in the area. Putting residents in extreme swings from fires to floods.
CARPENTER: It just got worse because there's nothing to soak up any of the water.
CHEN: Natasha Chen, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEE: World leaders are gathering at two major summits this hour to help Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to speak later at the Ukraine recovery conference in Rome. Plus, the leaders of the UK and France are hosting a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing near London. We'll have the details on both events ahead.
And underwater streets and flash flood warnings in parts of North Carolina, while the state braces for more thunderstorms and heavy rain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:17:13]
LEE: International efforts to help Ukraine are underway right now at two major meetings in Europe. First, there's the Ukraine recovery conference happening in Rome. It's focused on a whole of society approach to helping Ukraine with governments, international groups, businesses and civil society working together.
We expect to hear from host country Italy's prime minister, as well as the European commission president and of course, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
And meanwhile, in London, the U.K. and France are hosting a meeting of the coalition of the willing. Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron are set to speak with allies and partners in a video conference later today. President Macron arrived just a short time ago.
Our Ben Wedeman is following the Ukraine recovery conference in Rome and joins us now by phone.
Ben, as this recovery summit starts to get underway, do the leaders there have specific deliverables that they are hoping to get out of it.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, certainly from a European perspective, they are hoping to really stress the European role in the post-war recovery of Ukraine, which, according to some estimates, is going to cost $500 billion. And certainly, for Europe, there's an urgency to play a large part in that recovery effort. But of course, this is an interesting conference because this is the
fourth of its kind, the fourth, the Ukraine recovery conference to take place. But the first one to take place during the second term of President Donald Trump. So, they will be very interested in engaging the amount of interest or enthusiasm by the Americans in this effort.
Now, we do know that last night that Keith Kellogg, the U.S. Trump administration envoy for Ukraine and Russia, did meet with President Zelenskyy and certainly President Zelenskyy is hoping to get some sort of reassurance that the United States is going to follow a somewhat more stable and predictable position regarding assistance to Ukraine. After that, confusion over the suspension of the delivery of defensive weapons to the Ukraine by the United States.
But in general, I think the focus here is going to be on the European role in trying to provide the kind of help Ukraine is going to desperately need in the post-war era.
LEE: All right. Ben Wedeman in Rome, thank you.
And let's bring in CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson in London, where the leaders of the UK and France are hosting the Coalition of the Willing.
What's at the top of the agenda for this UK-France summit? And talk to us about the significance of the timing, too.
[05:20:02]
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, this is the sort of third day of President Macrons state visit to the U.K. And really, it starts to get more intensely political. You know, bilaterally, the conversation really is centering around relations, but specifically about the irregular migration, the small boats that come across the channel almost on a daily basis and is a political millstone for both these leaders over, over how to tackle this irregular migration. So that's on one side.
But I think the focus shifts later in the day to that Ukraine Coalition of the Willing and remembering, it was Starmer and Macron who both stepped up in the days after that disastrous Oval Office meeting between President Zelenskyy and President Trump back in February. And really, they stepped up to spearhead European support for Ukraine in what appeared to be a very isolationist position by the United States, which potentially this week, we've heard is being reversed, that there are going to be continued weapons, supplies, defensive missiles, everything that Ukraine wants or some of what Ukraine wants at least to defend its population from these massive drone onslaughts that we've seen recently.
But what will come of substance out of this meeting? Look, I think it's important that we see or it is seen that these two Ukraine meetings happen sort of side by side in parallel. But I think there will be more symbolism than substance. If we remember in those early days in March, the summits that Starmer and Macron had were attended in person. This will be virtual. But the backdrop will be symbolic as well. It will speak to European military cohesion. The Europeans defending, stepping up and defending their, you know, their sphere of the world, if you will, which has been a common complaint coming from this particular White House.
So, I think there will be strong symbolism from the location, but perhaps not real headline issues, but the narrative will be there. The continued support for the Ukraine, the importance of that support and maybe something on substance. But we're not seeing anything trailed by either side on the substance so far. And typically, we would expect that by now.
LEE: Nic Robertson in London, thank you so much.
President Trump is warning more countries that they'll soon be hit with hefty new tariffs. We'll have the details on that.
Plus, some tense moments as Trump's top diplomat comes face to face with foreign ministers whose countries are now threatened by those very tariffs.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:27:15]
LEE: The U.S. president announced an array of new tariffs on Wednesday that include a 50 percent levy on copper imports to the U.S. He says America will once again build a dominant copper industry. The metal is a key component in defense equipment, semiconductors and batteries.
Donald Trump is also going after Brazil, threatening a crippling 50 percent tariff, in part because of what he calls a witch hunt against Jair Bolsonaro, the right wing former president who has boasted about his closeness to President Trump. He's currently on trial for allegedly trying to stage a coup, and Trump sent out another round of tariff letters to multiple countries on Wednesday, with rates of up to 30 percent on goods that they export to the U.S. The latest recipients include the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Moldova, Brunei, Algeria, Libya and Iraq. The new tariffs go into effect on August 1st unless trade deals are reached.
Tariff tensions have been looming over a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Donald Trump's top diplomat, Marco Rubio, is likely facing questions and frustrations during talks with its ASEAN counterparts. He's been meeting with the Malaysian foreign minister, whose country was told on Monday that it would face a 25 percent tariff on its exports to the U.S. Eight of the 10 ASEAN countries will be hit with new U.S. tariffs on August 1st if no trade deals are reached, and if the deadline holds.
And Wall Street continues to shake off any concerns about Donald Trump's tariff threats. U.S. stocks rose on Wednesday, powered by big tech, with A.I. chip maker Nvidia becoming the first company ever to reach $4 trillion in market value. The Nasdaq closed at a fresh record high. And here's a look at the U.S. futures. The Dow, S&P and Nasdaq are all
expected to open lower today.
And I want to bring in now, Megan Messerly, the White House reporter for "Politico".
Megan, it is really good to have you.
And I want to start with tariffs. You know another day, another set of letters from President Trump to various countries making threats of new tariff rates, as we saw there.
Late last night, Trump also formally announced a 50 percent tariff on copper imports. I know you've been covering this issue closely, and I wonder if you could just take us inside the president's head on all of this.
What is he hoping will happen in the big picture? What is the White House's strategy?
MEGAN MESSERLY, THE WHITE HOUSE REPORTER FOR "POLITICO": The biggest thing, I think to think about here is how the president really views tariffs as leverage and how he views them as one related to trade and protecting domestic industry. But he also views it as a cudgel to get his way with foreign governments. If you remember this whole reciprocal tariff battle started.
