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News Conference on Collapsed Condo; Condo Collapse in Florida; Shimon Wdowinski Is Interviewed about Collapsed Condo; Mariela Porras is Interviewed about Missing Friend; Harris Makes Trip to Border; Chauvin to be Sentenced Today. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired June 25, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

RAIDE JADALLAH, ASSISTANT CHIEF OF OPERATIONS, MIAMI-DADE FIRE RESCUE: And we start concentrating on those areas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last two. Sorry.

QUESTION: Chief, can you (INAUDIBLE)?

"New York Times."

(INAUDIBLE) how, I guess, the methodology used to locate the unaccounted people? Is it presumed that they are all physically inside the building or are you calling family and friends?

JADALLAH: So we couple that information with the information that we receive from the reunification center. So we utilize that number. So as I stated yesterday, the entire building, the portion that's still standing, was cleared by rescue crews. So at this point now all that -- all resources have been shifted to, you know, to the rubble, including from above and from below.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to have the gentleman with the "Associated Press," and we're done for the day.

QUESTION: OK.

There was a national TV report last night that you guys have made contact with somebody with a cell phone in the -- that turned out that's not correct?

JADALLAH: That's -- that's unfounded. That's not accurate.

QUESTION: Chief -- Chief, on a personal level, can you talk about the bravery -- can you talk about the bravery of your firefighters who were going in there not knowing if that rubble could shift, if there could be another collapse?

JADALLAH: This is the risk that we take. It's the risk versus benefit. Every time we have that belief that there's hope, you know, with personnel that are trapped, we do risk our -- our lives. It's, you know -- so -- so -- MAYOR DANIELLA LEVINE CAVA, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA: I just want to speak to this as well.

It's incredibly moving to be on-site with these safety personnel, fire rescue. They are totally, totally motivated to find people. They -- they have to be pulled off the shift. That is how motivated they are to continue their efforts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last -- last question.

QUESTION: Two questions. One, (INAUDIBLE) breakdown of the nationalities of the people who are unaccounted for and, secondly, when was the last time that someone was pulled out of there and physically what time was it that someone was pulled out alive?

CAVA: OK. Before -- I just want to make another point to this gentleman.

This work is being done at extreme risk to these individuals. Debris is falling on them as they do their work. We have structural engineers on-site to assure that they will not be injured. But they -- they are proceeding because they are so motivated and they are taking extraordinary risk on the scene every day.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) --

QUESTION: Are you able to confirm (INAUDIBLE).

CAVA: Yes, can I say that in Spanish?

That's fine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's going to -- she's going to repeat that in Spanish.

CAVA: OK.

(SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).

CAVA: (SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

And that's it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. We're good for the day.

(INAUDIBLE).

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We have been listening to this news conference. I'm here with Rosa Flores. It's tough to reconcile the images that we're seeing there and hearing what they're saying with the idea that there's people who are still trapped. That's what we're hearing.

One of the things that they also mentioned was that overnight they did hear sounds. It wasn't necessarily human voices, but they were sounds. They think that these were signs of life. But, you know, in these situations, it's just -- it's just very hard to tell.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, and that's hope for the families that are waiting at the reunification center because that's what they want to hear. They want signs that their loved one is alive.

Now, of course, they also mentioned that three more families heard that their loved ones have perished. And -- and you and I have been here all morning long. You've seen how these firefighters have been even peeling portions of this building, trying to get to these difficult areas. And it's painstaking work. It's dangerous.

GUPTA: It's -- it's -- they -- she talked about debris falling on them. I mean it is -- it is dangerous work for them as well. And that's a consideration. I mean you also have another fragment of the building here, which was also at risk of collapse. So this is the reality of what's happening on the ground here.

I want to bring in Shimon Wdowinski. He is a professor at the Institute of Environment at FIU, I believe.

Professor, thank you for joining us.

You know, I just want to start with this. This came as a shock to me. I have traveled around the world. I have seen building collapses in Haiti, in Pakistan, all these places around the world. Not used to seeing this happen just as a phenomenon here in the United States.

[08:35:01]

I've been listening to some of your comments. Do you think this was at all predictable?

SHIMON WDOWINSKI, STUDIED COLLAPSED BUILDING IN 1990s, SAYS IT WAS MOVING THEN: Well, it's -- I don't know if it's -- I don't know if the collapse, it was predictable. But we did, detectives (ph) at the building, moved in the 1990s. Now I think we have to distinguish between two things, if there was a -- a structural damage over there that could have (INAUDIBLE) in time before the building collapse and then what happens with this collapse or the -- the condition that led to this sudden collapse.

Yes, I agree with you that it's very unusual to see a building collapse in this way. It reminds me of building in countries where they have the earthquakes and the construction is not in good conditions. This is very unusual to see something like that here in our country or in my city where I live here.

GUPTA: Yes, I mean, you know, and you also keep in mind that hurricanes and significant weather events occur around here. And the buildings have with stood those, at least, you know, in recent years.

You talked about the fact that you saw evidence of sinking of the building going back. What does that mean exactly? How much sinking are we talking about? And how -- what was the evidence? WDOWINSKI: OK. I would like to correct, I use a term subsiding rather

than sinking because subsiding is the slow process that goes -- that something pushes a solid. Sinking is more when things is going into liquid.

So we noticed -- we analyzed data for projects that dealt with costal (ph) subsidence in order to understand the relations why we have so much flooding here in southeast Florida, especially Miami Beach. So we analyze the data and we found some pockets of subsidence.

Now, usually, if this subsidence isn't -- is -- it can be different processes that cause the subsidence. But if it's (INAUDIBLE), it's related to the ground. If it's localized, as in this case, it can be something that is associated with the building. Whether the building is moving inward into the ground, the foundation is not that good, it's hard to say, but it's a -- it was, in this case, the very localized signal that building -- and it means that it not necessarily the building moved into the ground, it can be that the building moved within itself if there were some kind of structural damage within the building.

And I'm talking about data that were collected by satellites in the 1990s from '93 to '99. So we notice that these changes over there, it's very subtle. It's 2 millimeter per year. But it's still can be detected by these satellites and emerging technology.

GUPTA: You know, I think that that raises the question, right, when you see something like this, you know, people are going to start sort of wondering, is this something that might happen in other buildings, maybe other buildings even in this area. When you say this is a localized phenomenon, should people feel that that indicates that other buildings in the area are not necessarily at risk?

WDOWINSKI: Well, I can say about movement because we analyze data sets that were collected in the 1990s. We are working on analyzing data sets from the last past -- the last five years. Then we're able to say more things about recent movements.

But it tells us that the building was moving 20 to 30 years ago. So it's not something that is new to the building that it moved. Now, the thing is that it reached a certain level, that it reached a catastrophic collapse, and I don't know if it's something that's unique to all the buildings. But definitely it will be good to see if there are any cracks in building, and if there are things that people should notice.

I mean we can run surveillance (ph) if we have all the resources for that, and then people need to go and check because we just can identify where we see movement of buildings. We do that in case of a -- when we try to detect sinkholes, when we are studying west central Florida. And we see buildings that also they show some movement and they are associated with cracks. And people have cracks in the building, they definitely should notice that and take care of that.

We can do this survey and see, given more special view and give information to city planners or city officials, but I think if there's (INAUDIBLE) of people to see if they have cracks, they need to take care of it.

[08:40:09]

It means that there's something compromised in the building.

GUPTA: Right. And I want to be clear that we don't know why this happened at this point. We're not trying to assign any intentionality. We are going to learn a lot. There's going to be a lot of lessons here, Professor, from you and from others.

Thanks so much for joining us.

The reality on the ground is that people are unaccounted for. And it's tough. Let me tell you, it is tough for people to try and reconcile what is happening here behind me with those missing folks. We're going to talk to someone who is missing a loved one, right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GUPTA: I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta here in Surfside, Florida. We're about a block away from this heartbreaking, devastating building collapse.

You can sort of see some of the images over the left shoulder here. It is very difficult to reconcile what we're seeing there with the fact that these search and rescue missions are underway.

The grim news now, four people have been confirmed to have died. There's 159 people who are unaccounted for.

The rain has picked up, making some of these search and rescue missions a little bit more challenged. And there are people -- there are people, so many people, who are still, obviously, potentially buried, unaccounted for.

[08:45:02]

I'm joined now by Mariela Porras.

Thank you for joining us.

MARIELA PORRAS, FRIEND OF MISSING SURFSIDE WOMAN AND FAMILY: My pleasure.

GUPTA: You know people who were in that building. Graciella (ph), daughter Estelle (ph), and their two elderly parents.

PORRAS: (INAUDIBLE). Yes.

GUPTA: These are friends of yours. Tell me what happened. You were hearing the news. Did you reach out to them?

PORRAS: Well, I -- I opened my phone and, you know, naturally I'm looking at the news. That's something I do every morning. And I sent Graciella a message because I know it's Surfside area. I know she lives here. And I didn't get a response. At that point I let it go. But then, as I'm looking at the news and -- and looking at the building more closely, I'm like, wait a minute, that's her building. So I texted her again. I start trying to call her. The phone goes straight to voice mail. It doesn't ring at all.

I've called her multiple times, text messaged her, no response, which isn't like her. We -- we always communicate regularly. And there's always a response. So I've not heard from her since I started texting her, 7:45 a.m. But I did learn that the building collapsed at 1:45 a.m. So -- and I went to the reunification site and they were still unaccounted for yesterday around 6:30 p.m.

GUPTA: We're putting some pictures of Graciella and Estelle on the screen. It's been some 30 -- 31 hours now since the building collapsed. Tell us about your friends. How did you know them? What kind of people are they?

PORRAS: She's an amazing mother. Her whole world revolves around that little girl. She was a very -- she is a very talented photographer. She kind of stepped away from doing that and was recently working to get her real estate license since real estate is kind of the way to go right now. She is just a wonderful person trying to always, you know, do the right thing and trying to change laws to protect children and the family court concept, very passionate about these things. Just a kind heart.

GUPTA: Can you tell us a little about this community? People all over the world are hearing about Surfside, Florida, for the first time. You live in the area. You live in Miami, my understanding is, but what does this --

PORRAS: I live in Fort Lauderdale.

GUPTA: You live in Fort Lauderdale.

PORRAS: Yes.

GUPTA: What is this community like?

PORRAS: From my understanding, and from the times that I've been here visiting Graciella, it's a nice, upscale, you know, area. I know there is a -- it's a highly Jewish community, but there's also like a little bit of a melting pot. Other, you know, there's Argentinians, Peruvians. It's, you know, very eclectic.

GUPTA: Have you been communicating with officials? I mean how are you going about getting information?

PORRAS: I actually drove to the reunification site yesterday. I called the hotline that they provided, but I'm finding that all you can do there is basically, you know, report a missing person.

Somebody had already reported them. So the -- my next step yesterday was to go to the reunification site and I went up to the desk and I, you know, I asked, I know she was in unit 501, and they said that they were still unaccounted for.

GUPTA: Was there any sense ever, did the possibility of, you know, poor building design or anything, any concerns about safety ever come up?

PORRAS: I've been here with my child who is six years old. Our kids played together in the pool. It's inconceivable. I have no idea how this could happen. Like, I just don't understand how something like this could happen. It's not a, you know, the building's not that old. It seems solid. I don't understand. I don't understand.

GUPTA: How are you doing? I mean I don't even know how to ask the question. What is the emotion now? Are you (INAUDIBLE).

PORRAS: ((INAUDIBLE) I vacillate between hope and heartbroken. You know, a little girl. I'm a parent. My friend, you know, I know she's been through a lot, as have I. And then I'm hopeful, but then nighttime comes -- yesterday at night, the rain. You start thinking, you know, if they are alive down there, like, what's going on? Like, you know, how -- how buried are they in there? Is there -- is there a possibility that they're alive? Like, truthfully, look at this mess. I mean, what are the chances?

GUPTA: It's -- I feel the same way, you vacillate. They're doing incredible work, these search and rescue. They heard sounds overnight, you know? So 30 hours in, people have been rescued around the world in longer timeframes than that. So, we're here.

PORRAS: I keep reading the news and I keep trying to, you know, find, you know, pieces of information. I saw that there was a mother and little girl that were pulled out, but they had to amputate the mother's leg.

[08:50:01]

That gave me hope. But I later learned that the little girl was 12 years old, so it can't possibly be my friend and her daughter.

GUPTA: Oh, I'm so sorry, you know, you're going through this. I appreciate you talking to us because I think it's really important to tell the stories of people who are left (ph), understand this community, understand what happened here. So, thank you and please keep checking in with us.

PORRAS: Thank you. I appreciate it and thank you for putting their names out there and their pictures out there. And hopefully some family members pop up.

Thank you.

GUPTA: Yes. Thank you.

Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Sanjay, thank you so much for that interview.

We'll be back in just a moment with our special coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KEILAR: Vice President Kamala Harris is on her way to El Paso, Texas, for a tour of the southern border. She has been tasked with President -- by President Biden to tackle the border crisis and has come under fire for not visiting the area sooner.

Let's get now to Ed Lavandera, who is covering this.

Ed, tell us the latest. What are we expecting?

[08:55:03]

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brianna.

Well, the vice president is expected to land here in El Paso in about an hour and a half. It will be a four-hour visit. And this will be her first visit to the U.S./Mexico border region since she was appointed as the border czar by President Biden. And, as you mentioned, she's come under a great deal of fire for not visiting the border soon enough.

And there's also some criticism as to exactly the location that she has picked for this visit. Some critics saying that the vice president would have been better served going to the Rio Grande Valley, which has really been the ground zero of the recent spike in migration numbers here along the U.S./Mexico border. But the vice president's team pushing back on that criticism, saying that El Paso is highly representative of all border issues, is also the ground zero and the birthplace of many of the Trump era immigration policies that they say they are trying forcefully to roll back as quickly as possible.

But they're also getting criticism from the left, even people who are supportive of the Biden administration, saying that in many immigration issues, that the Biden administration simply is not moving fast enough.

But the vice president is scheduled to land here in about an hour and a half and it will be a four-hour visit, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Ed, we know you'll be following it.

Ed Lavandera, thank you so much.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: In just a few hours, former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin will be sentenced for killing George Floyd. He was convicted in April on three counts, including second degree murder. Now Chauvin, who pressed his knee against Floyd's back and neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds faces perhaps decades in prison.

CNN's Omar Jimenez has more from Minneapolis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Find the defendant guilty -- OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): It's been more than two months since Derek Chauvin was found guilty on charges of second degree unintentional murder, second degree manslaughter, and third degree murder. Now a final punctuation in the state's case against the former Minneapolis Police officer, the sentencing.

MARY MORIARTY, FORMER CHIEF PUBLIC DEFENDER, HENNEPIN COUNTY: When Chauvin was convicted, I would describe it as a collective sense of relief. This could be a blueprint. It's a good first step. But it's only a first step. At the time he was convicted, there were many in the community that did not believe he would be convicted up until that jury came back.

JIMENEZ: The general sentencing guidelines for someone with no criminal history, like Chauvin, only go as high as 15 years for second degree murder. But, in May, Judge Peter Cahill ruled Chauvin abused his position of trust and authority, treated George Floyd with particular cruelty, children were present during the offense and Chauvin committed the crime as a group with the active participation of at least three other people. All factors that could give Chauvin a lengthier prison sentence than what the state guidelines lay out. Over Judge Peter Cahill's last 13 years, he's sentenced six people convicted of second degree murder to prison terms ranging from 12.5 years, all the way up to the statutory maximum of 40. Prosecutors are asking for 30, writing in an early June memo, it would properly account for the profound impact of the defendant's conduct on the victim, the victim's family and the community.

REV. AL SHARPTON, ACTIVIST: So let us pray. Dear God --

JIMENEZ: And for the Floyd family, it's the close to a major chapter, but not the end.

TERRENCE FLOYD, GEORGE FLOYD'S BROTHER: His legacy will not be a knee on his neck. You see people noticing what's going on, and they're not going to sleep on it, they're staying woke, because they don't want it to happen to them.

JIMENEZ: And the defense for Chauvin could still appeal.

JIMENEZ (on camera): Are you worried about an appeal?

KEITH ELLISON, MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL: You ask the critical question, am I worried about it. I'm sufficiently concerned.

JIMENEZ (voice over): Even still, there are two federal cases that await Chauvin post sentencing stemming from Floyd and a separate 2017 incident allegedly involving a teenager. The question remains what the long-term impact of 9 minutes and 29 seconds will be for decades to come.

MORIARTY: I think how we look back at this will depend on, did we have an opportunity that we didn't take advantage of, or did we really have a reckoning here and buckle down and figure out how to fix a system that's been broken.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George Floyd!

CROWD: George Floyd!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George Floyd!

CROWD: George Floyd!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ: And a little of what to expect when things begin later today.

We'll likely hear from the George Floyd family about how this murder impacted them. We'll get the judge's opinion on this case. And we may even hear from Derek Chauvin himself before he's sentenced. He'll then have 90 days to appeal.

John.

BERMAN: Whether or not he chooses to speak could have an impact on the ultimate sentence.

Omar Jimenez for us in Minneapolis, thank you very much.

In the meantime, we are getting more news in from Surfside, Florida, where we now have four confirmed deaths in the collapse of that building. The Miami-Dade mayor just told us that there are 159 people still unaccounted for.

[09:00:03]

KEILAR: It's a big number. It's increased. And so we are going to keep an eye on this, of course, throughout the day, what is unfolding right now in Surfside, Florida.

CNN special coverage continues right now.