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New Day Saturday

Colorado Flooding; Flooding Strikes South and West; U.S. Sees Opening at Syria Talks; New Jersey Boardwalk Fire; Bleacher Report; Bus Crash in Ohio; U.N. Secretary-General Says There's 'Overwhelming' Evidence Chemical Weapons Were Used in Syria; Secretary Kerry, Foreign Minister Lavrov Negotiate Syria Deal

Aired September 14, 2013 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've never seen anything like this.

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VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Towns evacuated, whole roads washed away. We'll take you live to Colorado where torrential floods have now turned deadly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is just insult to injury.

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CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: It took months to rebuild, but just one night to destroy. Now clean-up begins of the carnage left by a massive fire along the Jersey shore.

BLACKWELL: And TV host Julie Chen opens up about the drastic surgery she had when she was told by a boss that she would never succeed without it.

PAUL: Well, aren't you up early. Good morning. I'm Christie Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. 6:00 here on the East Coast. This is NEW DAY SATURDAY.

Tragic start this morning.

PAUL: Oh, my gosh. Yes, let me tell you about this breaking news coming out of southwestern Ohio, first of all, this Greyhound bus.

BLACKWELL: Yes. The Greyhound bus with 52 people on board has crashed. It was on Interstate 75. Now, the crash happened near the town of Hamilton. I-75 is shut down around that crash site.

PAUL: Yes, we know at this point investigators say the bus turned over on to its roof. So, flipped all the way over. Thirty-three people were transported to local hospitals. That's the latest number we're hearing. No fatalities are reported. But it's not clear at this point what might have caused this crash. We'll, of course, be bringing you those details as we get them, but these are some of the first pictures we're getting. And if it looking a little funky to you, you know what that is, that's a corn field.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: This thing went 30 yards into a corn field.

BLACKWELL: And imagine no lights there. And these crews are trying to pull these 52 people out and get them to what we're seeing are four hospitals in the area. Again, we don't know what the cause of the crash was. Still too early to know that. But we'll continue to follow this story for you.

Now, you've heard the cliche, when it rains it pours. Unfortunately, that's true for Colorado because more rain today could add to the misery of the people already devastated by these massive floods in northern Colorado.

PAUL: Yes, the raging waters blamed for at least four deaths at this point. More than 170 people are still unaccounted for this hour.

BLACKWELL: In two towns cut off by these swollen waterways and debris, National Guard troops used helicopters and these high-water trucks to evacuate more than 800 people there. And a lot of the people, they've gone days without power, no running water.

PAUL: Yes. We know President Obama's declared an emergency for three counties around Boulder. That's allowed FEMA, of course, to launch its largest rescue deployment in Colorado history.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And it was a brief break in the rain Friday that helped the crews pluck these stranded residents -- look at this -- from their homes.

PAUL: Oh, the little guy.

BLACKWELL: And gave them - the weary families a chance to just tally their losses. Our Nick Valencia is in Longmont, Colorado, near Boulder.

Nick, I've been following your tweets online, of course, watching your reports on air, and this is just getting worse and worse for these families.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Victor and Christi, as you can tell, residents are still very much so dealing with the aftermath of the flooding here in Longmont, where I'm standing. At least 7,000 people have been evacuated. And in neighboring Boulder, you'll see residents there are still very much so picking up the pieces.

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VALENCIA (voice-over): Barb Vacek and her family share the story of a lot of those on their streets. But they say if it wasn't for their son, it could have been much worse. BARBARA VACEK, BOULDER RESIDENT: My son, who has autism, and as a result of that has strange sleeping hours, he came in and he said mom, dad, up in our master bedroom, and he said, water's coming from the toilet. We just thought he overflowed the toilet. And -

VALENCIA (on camera): You had no idea there was a torrential downpour outside? You had no idea that there was water?

VACEK: We knew that -- it rains places. You don't expect to have what we walked into.

VALENCIA (voice-over): What they walked into was this, a mixture of sewage and water spewing from their bathroom.

VACEK: I felt like Rose on the "Titanic," OK, because the water kept elevating higher and higher.

VALENCIA (on camera): All of this stuff here, this is all - this is all mud.

VACEK: This is all - it's all mud now because the water has been pumped out.

VALENCIA (voice-over): For hours, Vacek and her family rushed to save their family heirlooms. There just wasn't enough time.

VACEK: I did lose my family slides from my parents, who are deceased. My daughter's trying to salvage them. And I was the person entrusted with those, so my childhood's wiped out.

VALENCIA: Right now, her guilt outweighs her grief, she says. She's still uncertain where to go from here.

VACEK: I called USAA and they said, you know, you don't have flood insurance. And I don't -- is this a flood? I -- you know, or is it - you know, just coming in from the toilet? Is this something from the city? All I know is that, you know, I've got three kids living in this house and I've got to -- you know, this is all contaminated.

VALENCIA: The Vaceks say they haven't slept much since the storm. And with another round of rain set for the weekend, they probably won't anytime soon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: And Victor and Christi, to add insult to injury, the Vaceks had just moved into that house this summer. They had moved away from Kansas, where they were living, they say, in tornado alley. They have convinced their children that Colorado was safer, only for something like this to happen.

Victor and Christi.

BLACKWELL: Wow, there was a collective ahh when we saw that video of the toilet there in that bathroom. Nick Valencia --

PAUL: Oh, that poor woman.

VALENCIA: It's awful, isn't it, just to look at that.

BLACKWELL: It's terrible. Nick Valencia, keeping up with the flooding in Boulder, Colorado. Thank you for that.

PAUL: Also out of Colorado, two women who tweeted that they were stranded on Long's Peek have managed to hike to safety, I'm happy to tell you. Flooding and heavy rain had kept rescue crews from reaching that couple. But apparently they got stuck by snow and ice while they were hiking early Thursday at more than 1,300 feet. The women were not hurt, thankfully, though they had been at risk for hypothermia.

BLACKWELL: Let's head south to New Mexico, where flooding in three counties there has forced the governor to declare a state of emergency. Floodwaters caused evacuations in Eddy, Sierra and San Miguel Counties. Hundreds have been evacuated by both air and ground after the bridges and the roads - and we've seen this also in Colorado -- completely washed out. The governor's order provides state funds to help local officials and for the National Guard to help as well.

PAUL: We should point out, Colorado and New Mexico aren't the only states facing flooding.

BLACKWELL: Yes, Texas has its hands full, too. Alexandra Steele is here with more.

Alexandra, I mean they're just piling up now and they need a break.

ALEXANDRA STEELE, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you know, it's all part of the same system, Colorado, New Mexico and then southwest Texas as well. You know, one interesting point is inland flooding, the biggest weather-killer there is, more than tornadoes or hurricanes. And also the National Weather Service from Colorado, in their daily briefings, called this biblical, the amount of rain. And you can see why.

Here's the water vapor image. And all what you really need to know, where it's brown, that's dry air. And where you're seeing these bright color, the white and the pinks and the purples, that's where there's the most moisture. So the problem is - and here's the synoptic scenario -- what we've got is this jet stream that's going all the way like this, well elevated to the north. And under the jet stream is this area of low pressure, but it's a cutoff low, so it's independently has nothing behind it to push it out. Usually with weather, kind of the jet stream moves these highs and lows. But the problem, and we've seen a lot more of this with our changing climate in the last couple of years, this independent cutoff low has nothing to move it, so it's been sitting, ensconced the same area, just dumping all this rain.

But finally we will see a pattern change. So the worst is over for the areas, but still, in the next two days, we will see more scattered rain showers. And when the ground like this is so saturated, even if you've got another inch of rain, or a half an inch of rain, you'll automatically see instant flooding. Here's a look at some of the numbers we've seen to give us perspective. Boulder, Colorado, just the last couple of days, over 11.5 inches. On average, for the month of September, they have 1.6 inches. So they certainly don't see this amount of rain. Six inches, fast-moving water will knock a person off their feet. Six inches also reaches the bottom of your car, can move your car and food your car. Eighteen inches can even lift an SUV. Two feet of rushing water can push an SUV downstream. So, water is so incredibly powerful. And that's what we've seen.

Big pictures, no matter where you are around the country, again, more scattered storms there. In the northeast, though, a whole different perspective, clear skies, beautiful condition skies, but about 20 degrees colder from just last week alone. So real cooler air feeling it this morning, you're walking out. Taste of fall, even in the southeast.

PAUL: We'll take it here. Alexandra Steele, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Certainly.

STEELE: Sure.

BLACKWELL: Well, on to the crisis in Syria. Thanks to an open microphone, we now know that the U.N. weapons inspects are set to present their formal report - and everybody's been waiting for this -- on Syria on Monday morning.

PAUL: And the thing is, in these comments that he thought were private, U.N. Chief Ban Ki-Moon says he believes the findings will overwhelming show chemical weapons were used on August 21st, and he also says Syria's leader has committed many crimes against humanity and would be held accountable.

BLACKWELL: In Geneva this morning, U.S. and Russian talks on Syria's chemical weapons are on overtime now. They're extended now into a third day. And we're expecting remarks from Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart anytime now.

PAUL: A senior State Department official, in fact, says if there wasn't an opening, Kerry wouldn't still be at the table.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: I will say on behalf of the United States that President Obama is deeply committed to a negotiated solution with respect to Syria. And we know that Russia is likewise.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: We know that Secretary of State John Kerry and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, they're speaking now, and we'll dip into that in a moment. But CNN's senior international correspondent Matthew Chance, he's in Geneva there.

Matthew, do we know which issues have been resolved and which are still the sticking points?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you mentioned, the U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry, and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, are now giving a briefing as to what actually they've been discussing and what they've agreed on in these intensive three days of talks taking place here in the Swiss city of Geneva. The big roadblock, of course, all along throughout this was the threat of the United States to carry out air strikes, carry out military intervention in Syria if it didn't comply with its commitments to abandon its chemical weapons. That now has, at least in terms of the Security Council Resolution, been taken off the table. That essentially opened the way for a broader sort of agreements on the technical aspects. Very complex, how to get so many chemical weapons, controlled by Bashar al Assad, into the control of the international community and to ultimately decommission them.

Again, that was the biggest obstacle. Other obstacles as well they've been discussing. You'll have to listen to what they have to say to get a picture of what actually has been resolved.

PAUL: Well, Matthew, I know Secretary Kerry plans to travel to Israel tomorrow. Do we know, you know, what this plan is?

CHANCE: Well, this is, for the most part, related to his efforts to restart the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. That, of course, starts last month. There have been a number of obstacles in the way of that as well, not least the building -- the announcement that Israel will build more homes in its various settlements in the West Bank. And so they're going to be discussing that first and foremost.

But, clearly, that Syria is going to be another point on their agenda. The outcome of these talks here in Geneva, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, will be very keen to hear from John Kerry about what was discussed there and what's agreed, because they have their own security concerns, of course. They have their own border with Syria, so they're going to be listening very intently on what's been discussed and what's been agreed between the Russians and the United States.

PAUL: All right, Matthew Chance, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Well, Senator John McCain hot under the collar over Russian President Vladimir Putin's op-ed in "The New York Times" this week. Putin took some - several not so subtle digs, let's say, at the U.S. and now McCain may get a chance to respond. According to Foreign Policy's blog, "The Cable," Russian's historic newspaper, "Pravda," has offered to publish an op-ed from McCain. Now, a McCain spokesman says the senator will be reaching out to "Pravda" with a submission.

BLACKWELL: Still to come, flames take down what was put back after Superstorm Sandy. I mean this is heartbreaking, all that this area has gone through, now this.

PAUL: Yes.

BLACKWELL: A live report on the monster fire that has hit the Jersey shore.

PAUL: Good heavens.

Also rapper Kanye West might live his girlfriend Kim, but it's no secret he doesn't love the media. Up next, why he could face jail time after one heated scuffle.

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PAUL: Oh, good morning. All of you getting your shut eye and hopefully waking up with us here. In New York, a beautiful day for all of you in the big apple, 72 degrees with the sun coming up over the horizon there right now. Just so grateful to have your company for NEW DAY with CNN.

BLACKWELL: Sixteen minutes after the hour now.

Difficult time for business owners on the New Jersey boardwalk. They know all about starting over.

PAUL: Yes, but, gosh, no one expected to do it twice in less than a year. We're talking about this monster fire -- let me show you the pictures -- that ravaged through dozens of stores along the Jersey shore. Yes, the same places that just recovered from Superstorm Sandy last October. Flames traveled four blocks up the boardwalk. Reporter Margaret Conley spoke with one man who's picking up the pieces for a second time now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Optimism that the boardwalk was stronger than the storm. Less than a year later, livelihoods have been destroyed again. Residents are in shock after they watch their businesses burn to ash.

CHRIS DENNIS, OWNER, SHOOT THE GEEK: There was nothing I could do. There was no --

CONLEY: Chris Dennis, owner of Shoot the Geek amusement store (ph) that opened on the boardwalk in 1992, lost at least $40,000 in merchandise from Superstorm Sandy. He'll have to start from scratch to rebuilt and estimate damages from the fire are at least another $30,000. Seeing the damage up close for the first time since the fire, he says this time the damage will take longer to repair.

DENNIS: Sandy wasn't bad. We were able to get back in business as soon as we had a boardwalk in front of us. The cleanup wasn't nearly as bad. This -- well, if you look at my building right now, clearly it's going to have to be cleaned up a lot. There's nothing left except for a shell and it's not even a whole shell in its entirety.

CONLEY: Chris' (INAUDIBLE) was just a few feet away from where the firefighters built the trench that stopped the fire from spreading.

CONLEY (on camera): So the fire was travelling underneath the boardwalk? DENNIS: Yes. Well, the fire -- the fire traveled under the boardwalk. They got it contained to a certain point, but once it was in my building, they couldn't get down to the basement to put the fire out in the building because it would have just been unsafe for them.

CONLEY: And what was in the basement?

DENNIS: My plush merchandise and everything else. A lot of valuable stuff that, you know, was conducive for me to run my business.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Now, he's got to start over again. Margaret Conley, she's live with us from Seaside Heights.

Margaret, Christi and I were just talking, this thing moved. I mean, we have never seen a fire spread so quickly. Do we know how this started?

CONLEY: Yes, Christi and Victor, the winds did not help this situation here. They picked up and they made the fire spread really, really fast. We don't know what caused the fire yet. We do know that investigators are on the ground. They're actually going through the destruction that you can see behind me right now. They're sorting everything into separate piles and going through all the evidence. The Ocean County prosecutors are take the lead on this. And we hear that we may not know what caused this fire for days.

BLACKWELL: Wow. Hopefully they get some help soon, I mean, to have to build over a second time in less than a year.

PAUL: Oh, my gosh.

BLACKWELL: Margaret Conley there in Seaside Heights, thank you.

PAUL: Yes, bless their hearts.

All right, still to come on NEW DAY, it was 1977 when Voyager One launched into space. Three decades later, another major milestone, the extreme boundary it just broke.

BLACKWELL: Plus, worlds will collide back here on earth when Alabama takes on Texas A&M today. It is a game of revenge, of respect, and, of course, bragging rights in college football.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Twenty-three minutes after the hour now. Good to have you with us on this NEW DAY.

Voyager One has made history again. The NASA spacecraft that blasted off 36 years ago this month is now the first human made object to leave the Heliosphere. Now, what's a Heliosphere? I'm glad you asked. That's the magnetic boundary that separates our solar system from the rest of the galaxy. PAUL: Turning into Bill Nye the Science Guy this morning. It's as far as anything from earth has ever traveled, to put that in a perspective for you. NASA says Voyager One is 11.7 billion -- yes with a "b" -- billion miles away. And it is expected to communicate with earth up until 2025. So a lot yet to learn.

BLACKWELL: It is finally here. The most anticipated, most hyped college football game of the year.

PAUL: Last-minute tickets to see Alabama and Texas A&M, Super Bowl prices, people. We're talking in the thousands.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: Joe Carter is here with this morning's "Bleacher Report."

JOE CARTER, BLEACHER REPORT: I mean these are astonishing numbers.

PAUL: Oh, my gosh.

CARTER: I looked this morning on, you know, like the popular ticket broker sites like Stubhub.

PAUL: Yes.

CARTER: So you're looking at end zone seats. These are not even like 50 yard line seats. End zone seats -

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CARTER: Two of them, $5,000. $5,000. It's obviously the biggest college football game of the year. I mean right now it is. And all eyes, of courses, today, are going to be on Johnny Manziel, the Heisman trophy winner. You remember last year when these guys played, "Johnny Football" was born when the Aggies jumped out to that quick 20-point lead and ultimately handed Alabama their only loss of last season. And the big challenge today for Texas A&M is obviously to prove that last year's win was no fluke. Now, Alabama is trying to do what no team has ever done in the modern era, and that's win back to back to back national championships.

Jim Furyk, did you see what he did yesterday? He shot a 59 at the BMW Championship. He actually had one bogie, 11 birdie and his eagle came right here. Now, 59 is a crazy low number. In the history of the PGA tour, only five golfers have ever shot a 59. Furyk, of course, is the sixth. He's the first to do it with a bogey on the scorecard. He's tide for the lead today. Third round action starts in a little while.

Now, trending this morning on bleacherreport.com --

(VIDEO CLIP)

CARTER: Now, that's Charlie (ph) and he's -- he's a vendor, hot dog seller at the Detroit Tigers stadium and he's lost his job. He's been fired for, get this, hating ketchup.

PAUL: So it's not his singing?

CARTER: Now - yes, the singing - well, singing's part of his act. But reports are that he's a strong crusader for only putting mustard on your hot dog and fans were complaining over and over that when they asked for ketchup, Charlie would come - become very combative, if you will. So my thing is, guys, you can only have one schtick (ph), either be the singing guy or be the anti-ketchup guy, but you can't have both.

PAUL: He'll get a job in Chicago, because that's how - Chicago's militant about no ketchup on hot dogs.

CARTER: It is a little strange.

BLACKWELL: You know, in Baltimore, we put kraut on it, sauerkraut on a hot dog.

PAUL: Yes.

CARTER: With ketchup?

BLACKWELL: Yes.

PAUL: I don't know about that.

BLACKWELL: I think the singing is a bigger problem.

CARTER: The singing - the singing's not great.

BLACKWELL: All right, Joe Carter, thank you.

PAUL: All right. Coming up, talk about a free ride. How one airline's mistake turned out to be a traveler's lucky break.

BLACKWELL: Talk about traveling, one man might have been better off paying full price for a trip to Europe. Ahead, how a balloonist's dream of crossing the Atlantic went pop.

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PAUL: Half past the hour now. We hope that you are on time this morning if you've got an agenda. I'm Christi Paul. We're so glad to have you with us.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Let's start with five things you need to know for your new day. Up first, a bus carrying dozens of people flipped on a highway in southwestern Ohio. This crash happened near the town of Hamilton. Now, we're still waiting to learn about how many people were injured or about the possible cause of the crash. Still a little early to find that. But we'll bring you those details when we get them.

PAUL: Number two, an open mike catches unvarnished comments on Syria from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. He says U.N. weapons inspectors will present the report on Monday. And Ban says it will, "overwhelmingly" show a chemical weapons attack did occur on August 21st. It didn't say, though, who was behind it.

BLACKWELL: This is one of those, why didn't anybody call me stories. Number three ...

(LAUGHTER)

BLACKWELL: United's mistake turned into a lucky break for travelers. The airline says it will honor those free fare tickets. A rep says human error led to United selling tickets for as low as five dollars, charging just airport and security fees. The mistake lasted on its Website for about two hours. And only applied to those domestic flights.

PAUL: I wonder if a human error still has his or her job.

BLACKWELL: No, unemployed human.

PAUL: Number four, Biden 2016 maybe? Well, the vice president's headed to Iowa this weekend. Once again, sparking speculation he'll make another bid for the White House. Now, remember, he's run twice before in 1988 and in 2008. It has not, though, said whether he plans on trying again, just to be clear.

BLACKWELL: Number five now, 39-year-old man, he is an American, is giving up on his attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean while suspended from 370 helium balloons. His name is Jonathan Trappe. He was just 12 hours into this trip when he landed in Newfoundland. Trappe spent two years preparing for the flight. Five people have died in similar attempts.

PAUL: Well, let's take you back to Colorado, because it's been such an exhausting week for them. The state has obviously seen natural disasters before. That's nothing new.

BLACKWELL: But flooding on a scale like this with even the National Weather Service calling the rain biblical. That's something on a totally different level.

PAUL: Yeah, and we know that four people, they are reporting now, have died in this. So, there are a lot of people that are just grateful to be here and be able to clean up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is just mind-boggling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have less than a half an hour to try to get all our belongings together. All accessibility to getting out of our homes as the roads have collapsed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At first, you think maybe it's a distant thunder. And then you realize that this rumbling and banging actually very large rocks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought there was a tornado. Lightning was going crazy. I mean it was - it was like a movie. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is unbelievable. I've never seen that much hail in one place.

STEPHANIE LIDDICK, RESCUED FROM FLOOD: It was the most terrifying moment of my life. When it first started taking on water. Now, I was OK for a minute. But then it rose to about sea high. And it started filling the cup holders.

MERLE CORDOVA, SAVED FAMILY FROM FLOOD: When she was waving at me. And I realized all that water flows down to a lake.

LIDDICK: And we didn't have a choice. It was time to get out of the car.

GOV. JOHN NICKENLOOPER, (D) COLORADO: You got to recognize that this water is filled with debris and sand. And it is almost like liquid cement. And it can - even just a foot and a half of water can knock people over. And you can be swept away.

SHERIFF JOE PELLE, BOULDER COUNTY, COLORADO: Boulder County is experiencing a disaster today that is broad in scope and very dangerous in nature.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once the rescuers got on top of the car, they shouted at to us that they hear banging. And so that gave us just great hope.

PELLE: We know that we've lost lives. We've lost roads.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are a whole bunch of roads in Jamestown that all look like rivers.

PELLE: We've lost bridges.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's this bridge that goes over the river, that's going up to Estes, and the water right now is going over the bridge and under it at the same time.

PELLE: We've lost homes, cars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a pretty good mudslide that missed the house.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKSTONE: They need to start cleaning up, of course. There's so much to do. First, though, they need a break, meteorologist Alexandra Steele is here with more. Is a break on its way sometime soon?

ALEXANDRA STEELE, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, not really. I mean, the worst is over for the most part. But you know - you know why, when you see those images, the National Weather Service calling this biblical. Historic on so many fronts. And let me show you why this is happening. This is the water vapor. This is kind of what we meteorologists use to look at the atmosphere. But I'm showing you because it's pretty illustrative. You see where it's darker brown, that's where the air is dry. But see where - see these bright white cloud tops, that's where there is a lot of moisture in the air. And as this moisture feed coming right up from New Mexico to Colorado. So, a few reasons why this has been so historic, synoptically, you know, when you see the "H"s and the "L"s on the map, this is an area of low pressure. But unlike the usual areas of low pressure we see, the jet stream you can see way to the north here. It's allowing the temperatures to be warm, but it's also allowing this low to be cut off.

So, kind of like you're pushing someone, you can push someone in front of you because there's nothing to push this. That's the problem. So it's acting on its own and it's independent, so it's not moving anywhere. But finally, we're going to see this area of low pressure begin to move. So, this area of low pressure has been stuck there. Just an inundation of moisture. And when you see those pictures you see the topography, of course, in Colorado and New Mexico and it's so mountainous. And we call that orographic lifting. Because the air gets lifted, and like a sponge. Now, you can squeeze a sponge a little bit, and a little water comes out, or you can just go and all the water drains out. And that's what happens. All the water comes out because the air is lifted and squeezed out with all the moisture.

So there will be some relief. But, you know, we've seen 11 to 15 inches, so even just a few more inches in this area, the ground is so saturated that the flooding will continue. Forecast for Boulder - rain today, rain tomorrow, on the whole, maybe one or two more inches. They've seen 11 inches thus far. And they only see on average for the month of September 1.6. So, look at this, they've seen almost a foot - even those reports of more than that, so you get the perspective really how dramatic this is.

All right, other than Colorado, there's what's happening there. The northwest is dry. But it's the northeast. The cold front moved through. Temperatures were in the 90s last week. 20 degrees cooler today. And a cold start if you're walking out the door this morning. Cooler than certainly we've seen, guys.

PAUL: Already, Alexandra Steele, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Announcer: This is CNN Breaking News.

BLACKWELL: And this is just minutes old. Just into CNN, Secretary of State John Kerry announced the U.S. and Russia have agreed on a plan for Syria to give up those chemical weapons.

PAUL: CNN's senior international correspondent Matthew Chance in Geneva right now. OK, Matthew, what have you learned about this plan?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, very, very fast developments here taking place in Geneva with a joint press conference being given, of course, the past few minutes by John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. They've agreed a substantial number of measures, it seems, on how best Syria's chemical weapons can be placed under international control and ultimately destroyed. They've agreed, first of all, this is a big sticking point on the amount of chemical weapons that were in the control of Syria, it's got one of the biggest stockpiles of chemical weapons in the world. There were different assessments by the Russians and the United States about how much needed to be taken away from Syria. They've come to an agreement on that. They've also come to an agreement crucially on a time line because there were lots of concerns, particularly in the United States and other countries, its allies, that this would be used as a delaying tactic. This whole process of disarmament, would be used as a delaying tactic to Syria - by Syria to buy itself time. They brought forward the time line. Usually it's about 30 days, that, for instance, a country has to declare its stockpiles and its production facilities. That's been reduced down to a week. They've also said, called upon all parties in Syria, but particularly the government, according to John Kerry of Syria, to provide immediate and unfettered access to inspect this. Because once the list of all the chemical weapons stockpiles has been submitted, that has to be verified by international inspectors, by U.N. inspectors where we're going to see those inspectors, according to this announcement on the ground in Syria no later than November. They've also adopted extraordinary measures, because normally, of course, the complex and technical task of getting rid of tank chemical weapons, can take not just many months, but many years. And they've brought that forward. They say they reserve the right to take chemical weapons out of the country of Syria to be destroyed elsewhere, if they deemed that's necessary to do. Now, of course, there is the issue of consequences. That was the big road block all along. The weather - the weather - there would be any serious military consequences for Syria's noncompliance. It seems that in the event of non-compliance, it would be referred to the Security Council to debate what consequences there would be.

Just take a listen now to what John Kerry had to say speaking to reporters here in Geneva.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We have reached a shared assessment of the amount and type of chemical weapons possessed by the Assad regime. And we are committed to the rapid assumption of control by the international community of those weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHANCE: There you are. So that was John Kerry there saying that some agreement has been made with Russia. They don't always see eye to eye, of course, Russia and the United states. Though, on this issue, today, they appear to be speaking with one voice.

BLACKSTONE: All right, Matthew Chance in Geneva on the breaking news of the agreement between Secretary of State Kerry and foreign minister Sergey Lavrov of Russia. Thank you.

PAUL: Coming up on "New Day," Prince William leaving the Royal Air Force after more than seven years of service. What's the new dad up to next, though? We know. We'll tell you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PAUL: Grab your coffee and sit back relaxing now. We want to let you take a look at what happened in around the world. First of all, let's go to New Delhi where a court has sentenced four men to death for that horrific rape and murder of a 23-year old woman. CNN's Sumnima Udas is there with the story. Sumnima.

SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The court has just sentenced all four men to death, but these protesters here say that's not enough. They want the juvenile suspect, (inaudible) only given three years in a correction home. They want him to be given the death sentence as well. Now, earlier inside that court, the judge said when crime in India against women is on the rise. The court cannot ignore it. (inaudible). Defense lawyers have said they will appeal to a higher court and the parents of the victim have said they're very happy with the sentencing. And that justice has finally been served. Back to you, Christi.

PAUL: Sumnima Udas, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Now let's get to CNN's David McKenzie in Beijing who has more on a billionaire who you might never have heard of, but who considers himself the next Steve Jobs.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Some say Apple's latest iPhone fell a bit flat but there's a company here in China creating a lot of buzz. It's called Xiaomi. And they're trying to corner the smartphone market. It's just a few years. They've surpassed Apple sales. Their CEO Lei Jun is called the Steve Jobs of China, and he says the key to dominance is software and not hardware. Now, they are trying to move on to the global market, they might dominate in years to come, but for now, some critics say it's just an imitation iPhone. Christi, back to you.

PAUL: All right. David McKenzie, thank you so much. And finally, Max Foster in London who has more on what's next for Prince William after his announcement that he's leaving the military. Hey, Max.

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The queen's in her 80s. And she's coming back at this on her public works, so there's more pressure on Prince William to step in. And over the next year, he's certainly going to do that. We're going to see a lot more of him because he's leaving the military. And he won't take up another job somewhere in the public sector, probably, until next year. So, expect to see lots more of him working with his charities, particularly the conservation ones. Also out and about more with the royal family and potentially with his newborn son as well, Prince George. Christi.

PAUL: All right, Max Foster, thank you so much, Max, we appreciate it. And make sure to tune in or set your DVRs. Sunday night, CNN is giving you quite a look, a close one, of Prince William in a new documentary. Don't miss Prince William's passion. New father, new hope. Tomorrow night, 10:00 P.M., Eastern and Pacific, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Christi. Coming up, rapper Kanye West, oh, he's in some trouble after an airport fight ended with a photographer being sent to a hospital and now West could find himself in jail. And have you had enough of this lady, that's Miley Cyrus, or now there's an app for that, actually, it's a plug-in. We've got details coming up.

(CB)

BLACKWELL: Nine minutes till the top of the hour. Rapper Kanye West, he's not shy about his dislike of the paparazzi.

PAUL: Really?

BLACKWELL: Yeah, not really. And, you know, he could face jail time after a scuffle in July with a photographer. At happened at LAX, the Lost Angeles International Airport, and here's the story from police. West attacked a man after he tried to take pictures of him leaving the airport. Now, the photographer was taken to a hospital. West, who set off to kick off his tour next month, he could face at least six months if convicted. That would put a damper on the tour, I think.

PAUL: Yeah, I think people who bought tickets would be none too happy at this point.

BLACKWELL: Pop star starts off this week's popcorn.

PAUL: Yeah, that's our list of entertainment headlines. CNN's Nischelle Turner has the lowdown. Nischelle.

NISCHELLE TURNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, good morning, Victor and Christi. Now, this week, it's chats for charity, Oprah's phobias and no more Miley. Let's start with that, shall we? Our number four story, do you often find yourself wishing that Miley could, in fact, stop? Well, now, there's an app for that. It's a google chrome plug- in that blocks all things Miley Cyrus by replacing them with hashtags. Yeah, no more Miley, if you don't want it.

Number three this morning, Oprah Winfrey's biggest fear confession. And you know what, it's not what you think. Oprah opened up in the October issue of her magazine saying that she's afraid of balloons. She admitted being around balloons, quote, really freaks me out. And that the sound of them popping reminds her of gunfire. She said it's a fear that she had to face. Yeah.

Number two, how much is a sitdown with "Twilight's" Kristen Stewart worth? About a half million dollars, you think? Harvery Weinstein says, he convinced an unnamed heir prince to donate that sum to charity for a 15 minutes chat with the star. Really? A half of million dollars for 15 minutes? Well, look, it's all going to charity, so I just have to say OK.

Our number one story today Julie Chen's stunning confession that she had plastic surgery to fix her, quote, Asian eyes. She revealed her surgery on "The Talk" admitting, that she got the procedure after a news director and an agent told her that her eyes would limit her success. Gosh, they've come so far, and to hear something like that. Victor, Christi, back to you.

BLACKWELL: All right, thank you, Nischelle.

PAUL: Yeah, you say something like that these days, and there's a lawsuit waiting to happen.

BLACKWELL: I'm surprised there wasn't one then.

PAUL: Again, yeah, I was, too. Hey, coming up, you know, this could be the worst year for the measles in nearly two decades. We're going to tell you why the highly contagious disease seems to be coming back with a vengeance.

BLACKWELL: And if you thought your childhood treehouse was cool. Oh, it was nothing. Compared to this, wait until you see the sky-high log cabin, one man in Kentucky built.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY LENO: Hey, can you tell I'm ...

(APPLAUSE)

LENO: Can you tell I've lost some weight. I'm on that new Obama diet.

(LAUGHTER)

LENO: Yeah. Every day, I let Vladimir Putin eat my lunch. Yeah, that's how it works. That's how it works.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

LENO: Did you see this in the paper, Russian President Vladimir Putin wrote an op-ed piece in "The New York Times" where he took some punch- ups on President Obama. He's now using American media to criticize the president. And after reading it today, Fox offered him his own show.

(LAUGHTER)

LENO: So, I thought that was interesting.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: They can say anything they want on most, can't they?

BLACKWELL: Freedom of the hour.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: That will be hour.

BLACKWELL: Now until (inaudible) you say whatever you want. PAUL: Yeah, we can't do that. But it is time for today's "Must See Moment." and proof, might I tell you that there really is a record for everything.

BLACKWELL: Yes. A goat has won fame for the farthest distance skateboarding by a goat. There's a record for that.

(LAUGHTER)

BLACKWELL: Guinness World Records authenticated a record by Happy - help, Happy, 118 feet.

PAUL: An incredible distance if you think. You know, most goats don't skate.

BLACKWELL: They don't.

PAUL: No.

BLACKWELL: They're more - they are swimmers, really?

PAUL: Happy's owner said she's become a bit of a diva since setting the record. Though she does look quite comfortable, doesn't she?

BLACKWELL: Yeah, I haven't gotten an 118 feet on a skateboard, I think I got eight feet, and bruised my pelvis. Can you bruise your pelvis? I think I have. Other records, which leave us shaking our heads, includes lowest limbo skater.

PAUL: Biggest vacuum cleaner collection. Really?

BLACKWELL: And smallest dog. Tiny, tiny dogs. And finally, look at this, a proud grandfather in Olden County, Kentucky, he's built a playhouse for his granddaughter. But it's no ordinary playhouse, it's a 12 by 12 log cabin that sits atop a 50-foot corn silo.

PAUL: How does she get up there, is what I'm wondering and - if I was her mom, I'd be a little concerned about this. Rusty Combs has been thinking about it for years, though, so when Kiley was born 20 months ago, he decided now, it's time to follow through. We saw her face, so we can understand that. That (inaudible) anything. But Kiley's clubhouse featured lights, running water, air conditioning and one spectacular view.

BLACKWELL: Thanks for starting your morning with us.

PAUL: Next hour of "NEW DAY" starts right now!