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Hurricane Maria Makes Landfall in Puerto Rico; Earthquake Kills 216 in Mexico; Trump Threatens North Korea in U.N. Speech. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired September 20, 2017 - 07:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[07:00:13] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. We do begin with breaking news for you. Two deadly natural disasters to report this morning.

Hurricane Maria making landfall on Puerto Rico in just the past hour. The Category 4 storm packing 155-mile-per-hour winds. Maria is the most powerful hurricane to hit the island in nearly a century. Life- threatening winds and torrential rain are already pounding that island.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: And remember, you already have parts of that island all beat up from Hurricane Irma.

So let's go to Leyla Santiago. She is in Puerto Rico, in San Juan. Leyla, what's the latest from there?

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Chris, this is becoming just ferocious. I mean, these are winds that are taking down debris. Take a look around me. You can see limbs of trees that have come down, parts of roof that have come down. I want to take you up a little bit so you can see these palm trees that are being stripped of their leaves.

And let me take you a little further north so you can see these buildings. That is an apartment complex. And you can tell that those windows will not sustain these winds and this rain.

I can hear -- I can hear the roofing of buildings here in San Juan coming off. As I look in the distance, it is hard to see beyond several feet in front of me.

But, you know, one of the things that I think is very telling: we are surrounding right now at this hotel by first responders. And I asked one of them if he could compare this to others. He was here for Georgina; he was here for Hugo. And he said he has never seen anything like this right now.

Already, first responders tell me they are getting calls for rescue, but it is too difficult, too dangerous to go out there to help people. We haven't received any immediate reports of injuries at this hour. But we do know there are more than 11,000 people in shelters right now.

And of course, the big question is the power system: will it hold up given the infrastructure here in Puerto Rico? We are going to be keeping an eye on this. And as we get more information, we will certainly be bringing it to you.

But I tell you, right now it is the worst that I have seen. Alarms are already going off in the hotel room. People are already being moved out of their hotel rooms into other areas -- Alisyn and Chris.

CAMEROTA: Take cover, if you would. We'll get back to you as needed.

I mean, when things are flying around, even though, obviously, she's under a bit of, like, hotels or building shelter there, things fly around and you have no idea what could fly off the building and hit you. Leyla, thank you very much.

She was talking about the power grid. People there have been without power for something like two weeks now.

CUOMO: Already softened up by Irma. So that is going to create a compound concern. It also ends up really mitigates the ability of that government to respond to this. They're already tapped out.

CAMEROTA: So let's check on that, because CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is live in Palmas Del Mar. That is near where the eyewall made landfall in just the past minutes. What are you seeing, Nick?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is definitely the worst wind we've seen so far. It's starting to tear the tops of the roof off, there you can see, it seems to be flooded over the roof of the building where we are. Let me just get our cameraman give you a shot of this. It is quite extraordinary.

And as you were hearing from Chad earlier, it's quite clear that the eye of the storm is most intense. It's upon us now. This is the most ferocious we've seen. As I stand out here, we feel the wind kick out. You can taste the sea salt in your mouth.

And that siren, you may just be able to hear in the background was generated, we're told, by the hotel staff. Two of them stayed behind to look after the building. The rest evacuated. We're told the sirens are generated by a drop in pressure, the kind of drop in pressure that causes a storm like this, particularly when it's over warmer water. The warmth of the water provides the energy. It creates winds like this. And it is just extraordinary. I've never seen anything like this.

The ferocity, powering coming through and pulling away the awnings that were holding up quite well in the past hours. And now it's, yes, pulling up three, two.

[07:05:00] Alisyn, Chris, I'm guessing you can probably see that on our camera. Ends (ph) are floating up in the humidity. The most ferocious gust we've seen so far. They're not, at this point, looking down and seeing a flood surge. But the sea is being thrown at us here.

We're inside a concrete structure that's holding up very well, as is our signal and our satellite, which is remarkable, frankly. But look at that wind: 175 miles an hour, they were saying. Being thrown (ph) in Puerto Rico. You can hear the other parts of the building being torn apart now.

(UNINTELLIGIBLE) This may be the worst of it. It might come. We've been standing in something like this, force as possible. Obviously, we can't be away from our concrete structure, or we'll get blown away like the trees we're seeing here. But this is -- we don't know the wind speeds here right now, but estimated of 175 miles an hour. It would make this the worst in, possibly, Puerto Rico's history. I've never seen anything like this.

I'm going to pause here so you can see the ferocity again.

CAMEROTA: We can see it, and we can feel it. I mean, we can feel it, thanks to your reporting. I don't think that, if we were standing there, we'd feel the ferocity more than what we're seeing with you being lashed there. It is so intense.

WALSH: Alisyn, it's extraordinary here, the amount of salty taste in your mouth and in your eyes. Absolutely ferocious.

CUOMO: Believe me, if you're where he is, you'd feel it a lot more.

CAMEROTA: I feel it right now. Viscerally. Viscerally, I feel it.

CUOMO: Yes, take it viscerally versus literally. Getting salt spray in the face of that water is another part of the problem. It's a problem for vegetation. It's a problem for the buildings and the duration of this.

You know, Chad Myers, we should bring you in to discuss what the impact is of this experience on these structures. Nick and his team are doing the best. They're staying in a concrete hotel. That's good.

But when you're looking at these images, this is San Juan now, OK? This is not getting it as badly yet as where Nick was on the southeastern corner of the island. But this type of duration of this kind of intensity and potential storm surge. And you keep telling us it's the water that kills you, what do you make of the situation so far?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Being concerned for Nick and the rest of the people that live in that Humacao area. The winds are going to shift directions here in the next 15 or 20 minutes. And they will be just as ferocious. But they're going to come from a different direction. So all the debris that has flown one way will now be blown back at Nick.

So Nick, I need you to make sure you have a corner to get around when that wind actually does change direction. This is the radar out of San Juan. It broke about an hour and fifteen

minutes ago. The radar's sight right there. An outer band got to that sight and just knocked the radar out. So now, we believe the eye is right there, Nick, on that side.

Nick is trying to talk. I'm going to toss back to you, Chris, and we'll let him go.

CUOMO: All right. Nick, how are you doing right now?

WALSH: Yes, we're fine. Thank you, Chris.

Sorry, just hearing that warning, we're trying to (UNINTELLIGIBLE). It is clear now the roof was starting to be torn apart. This is the worst of the winds we've seen and the minimal damage we saw in the building and around it, and obviously, it could have been worse.

The question we have to ask ourselves, though, is how long is this going to go on for? Because seeing the vegetation being torn apart, as well, right now, we just don't know quite what's happening outside of our field of vision, which you can see is very limited because of the volume of water.

The thing is that we haven't seen the flood -- flash flooding surge. And they are warning for that to expire in about an hour and 25 minutes. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) We have no idea, really, what's going to come of it in the hours ahead, but the idea of the winds changing (UNINTELLIGIBLE) massively, but we are in a pretty good concrete structure here, Chris.

CAMEROTA: So Nick, let's try to get that answered for you.

Chad, if you're still standing by, Nick wants to know how long this is going on for? I know you had told us it's a slow-moving storm. What's the answer?

[07:10:03] MYERS: Nick started feeling the -- really, the effects about five hours ago. They will not go away for another hour and a half. So that's six and a half hours near an eye wall, and then the wind shifts direction. As the wind will come in from the south and then finally from the southwest. So that's why I'm so concerned about that debris blowing back toward Nick and the crew. He's not out of it for an hour and a half. It's going to be just like this and sometimes worse for 90 minutes.

CAMEROTA: And Chad, what about the rainfall total? You had already warned about the storm surge to expect there, I think, between six and nine feet. What are you expecting for the rainfall?

MYERS: The surge there should be just north of Palmas Del Mar on up toward El Conquistador, where you just interviewed that storm chaser. I think the rainfall easily -- when you get this, there's five inches of rain coming down in one hour. And Chris, you experienced this in Naples, where you said where did the water come from? It only rained for an hour. Yes, it rained five inches in that hour. And that's the intensity

they're seeing there. So easily 20 inches on the mountaintops, through El Yungue. And now I want you just to take a notice here while we hope that Nick is out of the way. The northern part of the storm -- that's the eye right there -- the northern part of the eye wall is rotating into San Juan. So I think our pictures from San Juan will get pretty extreme in the next 15 or so minutes.

CUOMO: All right, Nick, you know this. Your experience being in these kinds of situations. But just to review the highlights from Chad. As you know, the wind is going to change direction. So you're going to have to rethink your position. You're going to have a moment of calm that can last a few minutes with that eyewall. But as you know, you have the back end of the storm to deal with afterwards. And this is a slow-moving storm. So you've got some hours of this in front of you.

How does it seem to be holding up outside that window?

WALSH: Each time I'm trying to put my head around the corner of this wall, I have to immediately retract it because of the sheer wall of water that comes around, all salt water. That's an indication, really, of how much the sea is being involved here. I'm sure we may see a more level rise down there now. The tree is torn out of the ground. You see that.

I have to say, we're here in a very heavily supported concrete structure. There are about ten walls in all between me and the outside world back in that direction. So we're in a relatively safe place. But those people not in structures like this, the warnings have been going out for hours to get away from flood-risk areas like this, from wooden buildings. They must be in an incredibly perilous situation.

Cell phones gave us that flash flood warning until about 8:30. That's a couple of hours, 4:30 to where that starts flooding. Ninety minutes, essentially, Chad, for the strongest bit of the storm to continue. If it does change direction, we're pretty well secured. We've got about 40 pounds (ph) here, walls all around us here.

Certainly, I've never seen anything quite so violent. Extraordinary. And persistent. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) picked up -- Chris, impossible to tell really, where we sit in all this, apart from we hope this must be as bad as it gets.

CAMEROTA: We hear the alarms going off behind Nick speaking there. And just, again, the intensity of what Nick is hearing. Nick, you've got another hour and a half of these kinds of conditions. Obviously, we'll check back with you as often as possible. Please take cover. Be careful during this time. Wowza.

OK. Our next guest rode out Hurricane Maria as it slammed into the island of St. Croix. Joining us now to tell her story is Jody Goodrich.

Jody, thanks so much for being here. Tell us what you've just experienced in St. Croix.

JODY GOODRICH, HURRICANE SURVIVOR (via phone): Good morning. How are you?

CAMEROTA: Doing well. How about you?

GOODRICH: We're all good and safe here. That's what's important. The house is still standing, for the most part. We lost part of a patio roof. Many trees and branches are completely gone.

Looking around the valley, you know, lots of leaves and everything blown off the trees, similar to what happened in Hugo. But I still see a lot of buildings on the north shore standing.

My neighbor's house has lost almost their entire roof. And as soon as I get off the phone with you and it's safe, I'm walking down the hill to check on them, because nobody's heard from them yet. We're a little worried about them.

Reports are that the south shore, Frederick said, is really bad. There were posts going through Facebook all night long, people asking for help, telling us their roofs have blown off. They're crowding in pantries and bathrooms with children and whatnot, begging for help. And obviously, there's not a lot that first responders could do.

The governor did a great job. He was on the radio, constantly updating the folks all night long. You know, he warned everybody to be safe and batten down. And we didn't have much time for the storm.

[07:15:10] But it was pretty rough. We thought we were going to lose it the a few times in the middle of the night. It didn't let up until 4 in the morning. And we're still receiving rain and bands and lightning and high gusty winds at this point in time.

CAMEROTA: That is really scary, particularly since you were trying to ride out the storm, as I understand it, with your mom, who is 82 years old.

GOODRICH: Yes.

CAMEROTA: And your 63-year-old neighbor and your dogs. So in the -- in the throes of it, what was that like?

GOODRICH: Well, she was nervous, of course. My mom went through Hugo, so she just kept, you know, envisioning similar stuff happening. And I don't think that it's quite as bad, but obviously, we can't really tell, because we can't even leave the house and won't be able to drive around for some time. The driveway is completely impassable.

So overall, I know she's grateful. That's the whole reason why I came down here. I came own here from Arizona on June 2 to spend the hurricane season with my mom, knowing that, you know, it's getting more difficult for her. And I know she's grateful that I was here and our neighbor Terry was here. It's was definitely comforting.

And our storm shutters broke open at one point in the middle of the night, and Terry and I used mops and canes and ropes and tied it shut and, you know, battened it down again. And I sat in the kitchen for a long time, just watching our roof lift up away from the foundation and up and down, dancing, swearing it was going to blow off, but she held on.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. That's scary to have to watch that all night and not know what's going to happen.

You also described what it sounded like at the height of the storm. What was that?

GOODRICH: It was just -- I mean, you just thought everything was coming at you. You didn't know if it was a car, it was a tree. We have lost palm trees. Our barbecue is almost over, toppled halfway down. We've lost -- you know, it's mostly a whole patio roof crashed down with cinder block walls. You know, awnings with metal poles were banging around. Lights are -- you know, everything. It's just all over the yard. It's just -- you just didn't know what was going to come at you. You didn't know if the windows were going to break through.

And you know, we were downstairs for most of the night, from like midnight until 3 in the morning. It just didn't stop. It just kept going and going. You're, like, sitting there going when is this going to end? And with it being at nighttime, it just makes it so much scarier.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

GOODRICH: You can't see what's coming at you, you know?

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. I mean, yes. We can only imagine how scary all of that that you're describing is. But Jody, thanks so much for taking time. I'm sure that your mom was very happy that you went down and rode this out with her. And thanks so much for explaining it for us. Obviously, you're going to have a big clean up, but we're happy that you're all safe.

GOODRICH: Yes. We just hope everybody, again, on our Virgin Islands and St. Croix are safe and our sister islands out there, and San Juan, going through this, too. I hope, you know, everybody weathers the storm as we move forward.

CAMEROTA: We do, too. Thanks so much, Jody.

GOODRICH: OK. Thank you.

CUOMO: All right. You've got a lot of families connected to these commonwealths and territories of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Puerto Rico, obviously, a commonwealth of the U.S.

So joining us now from Washington is U.S. Virgin Islands delegate, Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett. Stacey, thank you for joining us. Appreciate it. A lot of lives lost, a lot of damage.

What do people need to know about what Maria and Irma, this combined toll have done to the islands?

REP. STACEY PLASKETT (D), U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS: Well, thanks so much. We just finished cleanup. And are beginning -- actually beginning the cleanup from Irma on the islands of St. Thomas and St. John, which were heavily damaged. We lost our hospital on St. Thomas. Most of the utilities were lost on that island. And we really saw the island of St. Croix as being the base during the recovery.

Now with Maria, a Category 5, hitting the island of St. Croix, we're just beginning to get reports on what that damage is going to look like on that island.

The wall was maybe 10 miles off the southern coast of St. Croix. So 175 miles -- miles per hour winds gusting through the island of St. Croix. We're hearing about loss of roofs, the loss of buildings, people trapped. Getting calls about individuals, elders who have had heart attacks during this hurricane. This is going to be a tremendous work for the Virgin Islands. And we already have disparity in terms of our treatments, along with Puerto Rico and how we receive federal funding.

So the post-FEMA recovery funds, the tax reliefs that are going to come, are going to be enormously important. As you can see from this devastation, we're also going to have lost our tourist season for this year on all of these islands. So the economic damages are going to be catastrophic at this time.

CUOMO: What are you looking at in terms of recovery timeline? Sure, this season is going to be a tough haul to get anything ready in time. But what about next season?

[07:20:05] PLASKETT: Well, you know, that's the hope of Virgin Islanders. We're enormously resilient. You look at someone like one of our greatest basketball players, Tim Duncan. Since before Hurricane Hugo, who was an Olympic, studying for the Olympics in swimming, and since there was no swimming pool after that, became a basketball player. So we adapt and we change.

But in this instance, we're going to need the federal government's support. We're looking at some of the appropriations that are coming right now. The cuts that we are going to be receiving. And that can't sustain us. We're going to need an injection of support, private sector support, public/private partnerships to be able to grow our islands so that we can make the next season.

We know we're going to be out of power on all three islands for several months. Hopefully, we'll be able to get ourselves back up and running before the spring and then start the rebuilding at that time and see where we go from there.

This is an opportunity. Chris, as you can see throughout the Caribbean, there's devastation. And this is an opportunity for the United States that the Virgin Islands, that San Juan can really be the beacon of light in the Caribbean at this time. And that's going to need the support of the federal government. CUOMO: Absolutely. In a big way. And there are all these budget

battles going on about FEMA, especially dealing with power and temporary powers. You said weeks or even months without power. That is such a punishing, punishing reality for people on the ground.

Stacey, we'll stay on it. Please, Congresswoman, feel free to give us updates as necessary. See us as a resource.

PLASKETT: If I may...

CUOMO: Please.

PLASKETT: ... I just want to let people know that if you have family and they are trapped, please call 340-773-2244 or 340-774-2244. That is the Emergency Management Agency. The phones are still working. And once they get that information and the winds have died down sufficiently, they will get first responders out to you.

CUOMO: Stacey, I'll tweet it out. Give me the number again.

PLASKETT: That's 340-773-2244. Or 340-774-2244.

CUOMO: OK.

PLASKETT: Thanks so much.

CUOMO: Thank you. And please come to us with information as you get it.

PLASKETT: Thank you.

CUOMO: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. We have more breaking news. A powerful earthquake in Mexico City where the death toll is now soaring to more than 200 people. This was a 7.1-magnitude quake, and at this hour, there is a frantic search for survivors.

CNN's Rosa Flores is in Mexico City. She's at the scene of a collapsed office building where one of those searches is underway. What's happening, Rosa?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, death, destruction and despair in Mexico City this morning as these intense search-and-rescue missions continue.

Dozens of buildings have collapsed here in Mexico City. The one that you see behind me is one of them. This is an office building. There are dozens of people here waiting to hear if their loved ones will be, indeed, rescued from this building.

From talking to first responders, they tell me that about 28 to 30 people have already been rescued. But as you can see, this rescue effort continues. There are first responders going through the rubble, dancing a very delicate dance of trying to save people without causing greater harm. Now, one of the things that we've been hearing here from people who

have been waiting for hours, some of them in tears with swollen eyes, they say that every now and then, the first responders ask for a moment of silence, because they're trying to listen for signs of life, and they're trying to follow those signs of life.

Now, this is Mexico City. We're about 75 miles from the epicenter of this horrible earthquake. That just gives you an idea of the magnitude.

There have been school closings in seven states. The Mexican government has issued a -- what's equivalent to a disaster declaration in the United States that allows federal resources to come in. More than 3,400 soldiers have been deployed to all of the areas that have been impacted by this terrible earthquake. And Alisyn and Chris, from talking to some of the people here, they are desperate.

CAMEROTA: OK. Look, obviously, there's lots of complications with technology because of all this breaking news in these natural disasters. We'll check back with Rosa.

And of course, we're going to stay on all of this breaking news. I mean, this massive hurricane is hitting Puerto Rico as we speak. So we'll go back to that as soon as we can.

But there's all sorts of things happening in politics on the international stage that we need to talk about, as well. Because President Trump went where no American president has gone before in his first speech to the General Assembly at the U.N. The president threatened to, quote, "totally destroy" North Korea if provoked.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:25:04] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States has great strength and patience. But if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Joining us now to discuss this is CNN national security analyst General Michael Hayden. Mr. Hayden was previously the director of the CIA, as well as the NSA.

General, thanks so much for being here. What did you think of President Trump's speech?

MICHAEL HAYDEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, you know, actually, Alisyn, it was fairly complex. Now, there's been a lot of emphasis on the style, which was confrontational, combative, nationalistic. And I think that was an important message.

I think what we learned is that the export version of President Trump looks an awful lot like the domestic version. And so you get this kind of over-the-top language with regard to North Korea, Rocket Man, total destruction.

But if you sit and you read the speech, I think there's some important distinctions here. In that part of the speech, and I think this is critical, the president used that very aggressive language which, frankly, I think was a bit excessive, in terms of defense against a North Korean attack.

But when he got over here to talk about the denuclearization of the peninsula, he emphasized diplomatic means, economic means, political means, political isolation. And so for the first time we got the president, frankly, sounding a little bit like Secretary Mattis, who's been really tough. But he's also made a clear distinction between responding to an attack and then working to cap the North Korean nuclear program.

CUOMO: Well, and that's why, on the diplomatic front, what has been said by the president and people around him about the Iran deal looms large. Make the connection to why what the U.S. does with respect to whether or not they should stay in the Iran deal, what's your take on that? And how that projects onto the North Korea situation.

HAYDEN: Sure. Sure, Chris. And that was the other real substantive, concrete, specific part of the speech, where he really criticized the Iranian deal as an embarrassment to the United States and so on. And again, I think the language is a bit over the top.

Now, truth in lending here, I wasn't a real big fan of the deal. But I don't think it's a good idea for our going in there now and, frankly, what the president threatened was to decertify the deal for us to walk away from it.

Look, if the off-ramp over here, because we don't want to go to war in northeast Asia, if the off-ramp over here is negotiations with the United States, why are you over here trying to prove to the world that the United States is not a stable negotiating partner? That we would walk away from a deal made by the previous administration?

CAMEROTA: And do you feel like these -- a speech like this does move the needle somehow? And do you think that what the president said did sway some other leaders' thinking?

HAYDEN: You know, I was thinking about that, Alisyn. And I think there are maybe three groups, two of them pretty small. You've got a couple of groups over here, the Iranians and the North Koreans, who really got some messages there and were totally opposed. And frankly, their chiefs of delegation didn't even show up.

And then you have Benjamin Netanyahu over here, who was in the seats cheering the president on.

I think for the vast majority of the General Assembly, they left the meeting yesterday still unclear about presidential policy. You know, the president ran more on attitude than he did on specific policy directions. We kind of that had that yesterday in the U.N. General Assembly.

So I think a lot of folks in there were made a bit nervous, because not all the ambiguity was cleared up by the president's speech.

CUOMO: Let's get your take on what's happening with the special counsel, Mueller, and the revelation that Manafort had a FISA warrant, maybe multiple warrants on him. What do you make of the scope of that?

HAYDEN: Yes. Obviously, it's very important, Chris. And kudos to the network for coming out with that story a couple of days ago. But you know, I'm trying to focus on the fine print to get the actual clarity as to what is really going on here.

Now, Chris, there are two kinds of warrants that the U.S. government can go get in order to listen to the conversations of an American. And sometimes our language isn't quite precise.

And so I really would like to know, I'd really like to ask the question, was this a warrant we got for criminal purposes, which suggests this is just part of that long money-laundering relationship with the Ukrainian government thing? Or did we get a warrant because we believed Mr. Manafort to be the agent of a foreign power, which then suggests we've got a much warmer trail in terms of collaboration with the Russians?

My instincts -- my instincts are it's over here. It's a criminal warrant for activity not directly related to the campaign. But I think that's a big question.