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Hurricane Milton's Path Of Destruction; Deadly Airstrikes In Central Beirut; Obama Campaigns For Harris; Interview with Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner Dennis Hassabis; Hurricane Milton Spawns Multiple "Supercharged" Tornadoes; Trapped in Rising Floodwaters; Saving the Fastest Animal in the World; Nadal Announces Retirement. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired October 11, 2024 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:09]
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome everyone. I appreciate your company. I'm Michael Holmes, coming up here on CNN Newsroom.
Streets turned into rivers. Communities in Florida find themselves starting over yet again, enduring the agony of two hurricanes in less than two weeks. Deadly airstrikes level buildings in a densely populated part of the Lebanese capital. And former U.S. President Barack Obama hits the campaign trail for vice president Kamala Harris.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta. This is CNN Newsroom with Michael Holmes.
HOLMES: 10 million people in Florida are facing the lingering dangerous conditions in the wake of Hurricane Milton. Have a look at the scene in Manasota Key this is about 50 kilometers south of where Milton made landfall on Wednesday night as a powerful category three storm. It unleashed an extraordinary storm surge and torrential rain and spawned a swarm of tornadoes before moving offshore over the Atlantic. The storm blamed for at least 15 deaths. Roughly a thousand people have been rescued so far. Search efforts are ongoing, thousands of National Guard and hundreds of emergency crews deployed.
In one remarkable rescue, the Coast Guard found a man Thursday clinging to a soft drink cooler approximately 50 kilometers off the coast after the storm disabled his fishing boat. Milton absolutely shredded the roof of Tropicana Field. As you can see there, that's the home of Tampa Bay's pro baseball team. The stadium was set to be a shelter for relief workers and others impacted by the hurricane. More than 2.6 million homes and businesses remain in the dark.
Hurricane Milton whipped up more than 30 reported tornadoes, oftentimes so quickly that residents had little time to react. At least nine tornadoes plowed through St. Lucie County, including three in less than 25 minutes, causing a deadly impact. CNN, Brian Todd is on the scene with the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SHERIFF KEITH PEARSON, ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FLORIDA: This is a 55 and
older community that's modular homes that multiple tornadoes came through and just destroyed.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): And the tornadoes came hours before Hurricane Milton even made landfall. At least six people were killed in St. Lucie County.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has been a tragic 24 hours.
TODD (voiceover): At least nine tornadoes confirmed in St. Lucie County alone. This video showing one of the twisters power.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are tornadoes popping off everywhere, across across our county.
TODD (voiceover): And this aerial video shows some of the damage. Homes torn apart or ripped in half, roofs gone, and fences tossed like paper.
JULIENE MARTIN-MORGANELLI, PRESIDENT, SUNNIER PALMS MEMBERS LODGE: I love all these people. They're like my family.
TODD: It's just -- it's --
MARTIN-MORGANELLI: And I just don't want people to have to come back to this is what a shame.
TODD (voiceover): And from the ground, a semi-truck shredded the bed of the truck flipped over twisted metal, wood, and other debris scattered around businesses and this St Lucie County Church lost part of its roof. The pastor telling us they will rebuild.
PASTOR LEO VOLIBRACHT, LAKEWOOD PARK METHODIST CHURCH, ST. LUCIE COUNTY: Our heart breaks for what's happening right now in our community and the people really.
TODD (voiceover): other buildings left in shambles. Take a look at this warehouse. And even sheriff's vehicles were crushed under a hangar.
PEARSON: It lifted up modular homes and tossed it like it was like it was garbage.
TODD (voiceover): Florida's governor Ron DeSantis made a stop in St. Lucie County on Thursday, confirming he spoke to President Biden on the phone.
RON DESANTIS, FLORIDA GOVERNOR: I appreciate being able to collaborate across the federal, state, and local governments and work together to put the people first.
TODD (voiceover): Which is good news for those people who are left with damage.
VOLIBRACHT: There's still hope. There's still hope in our world, and the community is here for you. You're not going through this alone.
TODD: I spoke with Jimmy Petronas, the Chief Financial Officer for the State of Florida, who is on-site here. He told us that state authorities are now working to try and to thwart an insurance scam that is targeting elderly people who live in that Spanish Lakes, Country Club Village neighborhood where those elderly people were killed. Petronas says predators are coming in and trying to con people elderly victims whose homes were damaged by the tornadoes, trying to con them into signing away their insurance claims.
They drop the paperwork and they con people into signing away their claims. These predators are then billing the insurance companies for that money and siphoning money directly away from the victims. Brian, Todd, CNN, St. Lucie County, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: The rescue and recovery efforts are ongoing more than 24 hours after Hurricane Milton made landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast. CNN, Isabella Rosales rode along on an airboat as officials helped people trapped by floodwaters in Tampa and Hillsborough County.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISABELLA ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm on an airboat right now with Sheriff Chad Chronister, and we're seeing people like right there, if we can push in, you know, up on the second floor of these apartment complexes. We've been seeing people wading through the waters. Let's switch the camera over here to my other side. Do you see right there? Cars underwater. This is all from torrential rainfall. This is not storm surge. This is not an evacuation area. This is something completely unexpected for this area.
[01:05:28]
Let me introduce you to Sheriff Chad Chronister. Sheriff, 33 years ago, you were a rookie. This was your district, known as university area. Now it's uptown. Have you ever seen anything like this?
CHAD CHRONISTER, SHERIFF OF HILSBOROUGH COUNTY, FLORIDA: This is where I started. This is where I fell in love with this community. I've never seen flooding like this. We had people that evacuated here to make sure they were safe. They listened. They came here. 135 elderly, disabled individuals that we rescued earlier. They came here. They were evacuated from Bradenton to stay safe.
This is a neighborhood that doesn't have a lot. They have very little, and the very little they had, they've lost everything. We have water four feet up into their first floor here. This is a heavily Latino community. Their church is gone. Their cars are gone. Again, they don't live paycheck to paycheck. These are people that live day to day, and they have nothing.
ROSALES: I can tell because I've known you for many years. You're getting choked up right now. What are you going through? CHRONISTER: Your heart shatters for these people. We did a bunch of rescues. We took them to a shelter. The female that you saw that we passed, she was waving me down. I made her promise me, if it got too deep or she got tired, we'd come back and get her. She broke down and hugged me for five minutes.
She was I don't have a lot. I take care of my grandmother. I evacuated my grandmother, and I'm left with nothing. We've lost everything. We have no furniture. There was five feet of water in there. I mean, how does this not shatter your heart?
ROSALES: The assisted living facility, I saw those residents out, a lot of them evacuating with no shoes. Their feet on the concrete. They were cold. They went through so much hours of waiting in the water. What are the stories that you're hearing?
CHRONISTER: Yes. You're exactly right. They were literally living in four to five feet of water. And these are individuals that can't walk. They're sitting in chairs and four feet, the panic started to sink in, and they're like, hey, we got to get out of here. They thought the water would subside, and it didn't. It's not like storm surge, where it got worse, but these flood waters 16 inches of water, and this is the result and heavily saturated area.
The floodwaters that we were talking about that we were so worried about. This water has nowhere to go. Their homes are flooded. They have nowhere to go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: CNN's Isabelle Rosales. There are now officials in Tampa say first responders found residents of an assisted living facility in floodwaters up to their wastes. At least 135 people were rescued from that site.
Joining me now is Dr. Matthew Gerber, Chair of ShelterBox USA, with more than many years of experience deploying to disaster and conflict zones. Thanks for being with us, Doctor.
Now, obviously, human life is the priority, but do you have a sense yet of the scale of damage done by Milton? I mean, you went through it yourself.
DR. MATTHEW GERBER, CHAIR, SHELTERBOX USA, TAMPA FLORIDA: I did. Michael, thanks so much for having me on. I actually weathered Milton here in Tampa proper, and I got to see the full fury of the storm. Even though it was downgraded, the storm doubled in size, and I can tell you, there was still plenty of destruction that left in its wake.
HOLMES: Yes. You have, as I said, extensive previous disaster relief experience. What did you see overnight, and how does it compare with what you've seen before?
GERBER: Yes. So last night, what I experienced was a pretty astonishing amount of wind and rain. I'm talking destiny, rain that literally vibrated the windows, and it was so thunderous you can feel it in this steel and concrete building. But to be honest, I didn't realize the full force of the destruction until the morning when I was out.
And I can tell you, Michael, compared to other major earthquakes and tsunamis that I've seen, the devastation I saw in St. Pete was practically on par with some of the worst disasters I've seen in 22 years.
HOLMES: Wow. That's saying something. And Milton was the third storm of the year for Florida. There was Francine, Helene, of course, and now Milton. And that's only happened in five other hurricane seasons since, you know, the 1800s.
In two weeks the same area went from Hurricane prep to hurricane recovery to hurricane prep again and now recovery. How much does that double whammy? How much does it make things worse?
[01:10:02]
GERBER: It's a force multiplier, Michael. To be totally honest, I was astonished at how many buildings were still remaining and how many had been flattened from Hurricane Helene. The piles of basically everyone's earthly belongings, piled up in their front yards as they had gutted their homes following Helene, all of these piles became like projectiles through the full force of wind from Hurricane Milton last night.
So they were flying around. They were breaking windows I saw in St. Pete this morning, where the wind from Milton had literally pried off the roofs of homes like a tin can. So hurricane Helene, what it didn't destroy. It weakened. And in some cases, Hurricane Milton came in and finished off the job.
HOLMES: That's a good way of putting it. I mean, ShelterBox, you know, I've dealt with you guys before. You do such great and important work in times of crisis. What are the needs right now in these sorts of situations?
GERBER: Yes. So the most critical needs I've seen this morning and even following Helene. Thankfully, we live in a country where there's where there's reasonable infrastructure, people are able to find the proper shelter that they need. But where they still need a lot of help and even more so after last night, is really in the cleanup the debris.
We're talking the storm surge left behind, in some cases, heat of mud inside people's homes. They also need materials to rebuild and to safely remove a lot of the debris and refuge from their home. So where it's possible, these people want to be able to start construction and repairs, but they're simply not able to get the supplies.
HOLMES: Yes. Yes. And to that point, obviously, there are government agencies, FEMA, even the National Guard, and so on. But what role, what important role do groups like yours do in these sorts of situations? I mean, what sort of gaps can you fill from what the big organization are doing? GERBER: Yes. Great question, Michael. So typically, when we respond to natural disasters, climate disasters, or conflicts, we're able to go in and fill a very specific need in these developing countries, because, like you said they don't have FEMA. So we can go with emergency shelter, water filtration, mosquito nets, solar power. But here what we see is by us supporting our primary international partner, Rotary International, and their distribution of local Rotary clubs around the world, and in this case, from the Carolinas down to Florida, we're able to actually empower them to find the solutions that make the most sense for their individual communities. It doesn't make sense for ShelterBox to send in tents when these people have emergency shelter already. But maybe we can supply the Rotary clubs with funds they need for customized solutions in their community.
HOLMES: Yes. Well, your organization is one that does great work. I'm glad you're okay. Long road ahead for your part of the country. Dr. Matthew Gerber, thanks so much.
GERBER: Michael, thanks for putting the spotlight on our area. We really appreciate it.
HOLMES: To the Middle East and now where Lebanese authorities say the latest Israeli strikes on central Beirut have killed at least 22 people. More than a hundred others were wounded. Witnesses tell CNN that an entire four-story building filled with recently displaced people collapsed. Rescue workers have been digging through the rubble, trying to find survivors and the remains of victims.
Hezbollah says a senior official who managed the group's domestic and international affairs was the target, but that he survived the attack. Israel's Prime Minister says Lebanon is nearing the abyss of a war that could bring the kind of destruction seen in Gaza, but some parts of southern Lebanon have already been turned to such rubble as CNN. Ben Wedeman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You have to walk carefully through the rubble, all that remains of three buildings and Tyre demolished by Israeli bombs. Neighbors say the bombing killed at least five people, including women and children. The Arabic spokesman for the Israeli military will occasionally over Twitter or X put out evacuation orders for specific buildings in Beirut before they're struck. Here in Tyre, there have been no warnings.
For 35 years Baha has run a small clothing shop next door, now in shambles. History is repeating itself. She says, a three-story building fell over our heads during the 1982 Israeli invasion. This ancient city is just 12 miles or 19 kilometers from the border with Israel. Most of the residents have fled north. Those who stayed behind live under constant threat.
It was terrifying. The missile hit and it collapsed, says 70-year-old Mahdad (ph), describing another Israeli strike that destroyed multiple homes in Tyre's old city. For more than half a century, every generation has witnessed destruction and death. [01:15:16]
We're used to it, says Mahdad's neighbor Youssef (ph), we're used to wars, we've seen wars. Going back to the days of the Phoenicians, Tyre has looked to the sea now a forbidden zone. Israel has warned people to stay off the beaches and fishermen not to take their boats out. So in Tyre's port, Abu Ibrahim sits and smokes his water pipe.
We go to sea so we can eat, he tells me, now we can't. How can we eat? An old man deprived of his sea. Ben Wedeman, CNN Tyre Southern Lebanon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Iran's President is scheduled to meet his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin in Turkmenistan in the day ahead those talks, following an Israeli security Cabinet meeting where officials tell CNN a vote was expected on how to respond to Iran's missile strikes last week. Tehran launched around 200 ballistic missiles last Tuesday targeting Tel Aviv and various military sites most were intercepted by Israel and the U.S., although some did get through.
Iran's foreign minister is on a diplomatic mission, meanwhile, to enlist the support of Gulf Arab states ahead of the possible Israeli strikes on Iran. He visited Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. Our regional diplomat telling CNN the United Arab Emirates will not allow its airspace to be used for any attack against Iran.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reports at least 28 people, meanwhile, have been killed by an Israeli attack in central Gaza. The aid group says dozens of others were wounded at the school, which was being used as a shelter. Like so many others, the Israeli military claims that Hamas were operating a command and control center at the site, as they often do.
Gaza Civil defense officials report a separate attack killed at least six people at a clinic housing displaced people in northern Gaza. The IDF told CNN it wasn't aware of a strike on the clinic, but said a targeted strike, as they put it, hit Hamas terrorists, as they described them nearby.
Still to come on the program, Barack Obama hits the campaign trail for Kamala Harris while Donald Trump insults a city in front of its voters. That's coming up.
Also, Ukraine's President pushing a victory plan, but his diplomatic skills may be put to their toughest test in the coming hours. We'll fill you in when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:20:00]
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: To have interest payments on car loans be tax deductible. That is the latest in a series of costly tax cuts that he has been offering. But he argued and suggested, really, that it would help car makers as well as consumers dealing with high prices.
He also said that he wants to revisit his own 2020 trade agreement with Mexico and Canada. And said that he wants to renegotiate it so that Mexico has more tariffs imposed on it for any cars that they are making in their country. But to get back to his criticism of Detroit, at one point, he argued that Detroit is a developing city. He said, "It is more developing than most places in China," calling it a once great city. And then he also used the city to characterize what he argued would -- would happen to the rest of the country should Kamala Harris win in November? Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think anything that we're talking about today is high on her list. The whole country is going to be like you want to know the truth, it will be like Detroit. Our whole country will end up being like Detroit if she's your president. We're a developing nation too. Just take a look at Detroit. Detroit's a developing -- Detroit's a developing area, hell of a lot more than most places in China.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TREENE: Now, Donald Trump has been critical of Detroit in the past. But the reason these comments were so striking not only because he was in Detroit while saying this, but also because Detroit is Michigan's largest city. And we know Michigan is one of those three crucial blue wall states that he is campaigning in aggressively ahead of November. Of course, he won Michigan in 2016 but lost it to Joe Biden in 2020. And when I talked to Donald Trump's senior advisers, they tell me that this, out of those three blue wall states, which also include Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, that they feel the most confident about their chances here in Michigan. So I keep an eye on that as we look ahead to November 5th. Alayna Treene, CNN, Detroit, Michigan.
[01:25:24]
HOLMES: The Ukrainian President is trying to sell his victory plan to European allies as Russia makes grinding progress on the front lines. Volodymyr Zelenskyy met a string of European and NATO leaders on Thursday, including the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. In the next hour, Mr. Zelensky is expected at the Vatican before heading for Germany later in the day. As Melissa Bell reports, he will have a tough sell to make in Berlin.
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A whistle-stop tour of European capitals at which President Zelenskyy has been outlining his victory plan to allies, something he had done in Washington before he had been due to present it as well in Randstein, Germany, as part of a summit on Ukraine over the weekend canceled because of President Biden needing to stay in the U.S. because of hurricane Milton. Instead a whistle-stop tour, not just to outline that plan, but to continue to put pressure on Western allies for their continued support of Ukraine. Here in Paris, a meeting with President Emmanuel Macron, so the French President speak to Vladimir Zelenskyy about his visit in the East of France said yesterday to meet with some of the Ukrainian soldiers that are being trained by the French military there, support that he pledged would be ongoing.
It is the German leg of the Ukrainian President's tour that's likely to be the most difficult though already. President Zelensky under a great deal of pressure for the outlook for 2025 not just because of the forthcoming American election. But of course, also because Olaf Scholz (ph) government is expected to halve its military spending to Ukraine in 2025. Fears over what that could mean, not just for President Zelenskyy's hope of pushing his victory plan, but also of withstanding the continued pressure that comes from Russian forces, specifically in the east of the Country. Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
HOLMES: Well, some stunning casualty numbers for Russia in its war on Ukraine. A Senior U.S. Defense Official says more than 600,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded since the beginning of the war. September was an especially brutal month for those troops. The official says more Russian forces were killed or wounded last month than at any other period of the war. The official adding that most of the Russian casualties of the two-and-a-half-year-long campaign were in eastern Ukraine, where tens of thousands of troops are packed into a very small area. The U.S. official also says Ukraine has destroyed, sunk, or damaged at least 32 Russian naval vessels in the Black Sea, and has destroyed two-thirds of Russia's pre-war number of tanks.
Now in the midst of so much conflict, the announcement of the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize is due in a matter of hours. So how is the prize decided? Let's take a quick look.
Nominations come from lawmakers from around the world, including university professors, previous Nobel laureates, heads of state, and from members of the Nobel Committee. The deadline for nominations was January the 31st. The Nobel Committee does not provide names but this year there are 286 candidates, 89 of which are organizations, and 197 individuals. And one of them will be named as the new Nobel Peace Prize winner by the Nobel Committee in Oslo, Norway at 11 a.m. That is 5 a.m. Eastern Time in the U.S. We will bring that to you live here on CNN.
Now, a winner of this year's Nobel Prize for chemistry says he hopes to inspire people to focus on AI that can help the world. CNN's Anna Stewart caught up with Demis Hassabis, the CEO of Google DeepMind, and asked him if the news of his win has sunk in.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEMIS HASSABIS, CEO DEEPMIND TECHNOLOGIES: To be honest, it hasn't at all. It still seems like a dream, really, and -- and it's very surreal. And it still -- it still is today.
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think it's interesting with this application, because this is one of those applications of AI that people may not even know about. They may not know that a drug or a treatment they have in the future is the result of AlphaFold. Do you wish that there was less conversation, less focus on AI chatbots and more focus here?
HASSABIS: Well, I think it's -- I mean, I think that's what's great about this recognition as well from the Nobel committee, is it does shine a spotlight on other types of AI that. Happening that are not chatbots like you said, that are still making a massive impact in the world, but maybe in more specialized areas like science or biology or medicine. And I hope it inspires many other people to work on those types of AI systems that can help the world, you know, be of huge benefit in these -- in these other ways.
STEWART: You know, it's interesting. You're so positive when you talk about AI despite the risks. But there are some AI pioneers like Joshua Bengio or Geoffrey Hinton who are much gloomier about the outlook. Is your sense that overall, AI will be a force for good?
HASSABIS: Yes, of course. So I'm in the middle ground. I mean, there are people on both extremes, I would say that are very worried about the risks and focus mostly on those, and then there are others that are, you know, saying there's nothing to worry about. You know, I'm not in either of those camps, really. I think that there's a lot of unknowns, is what I would say. So I'm not actually -- I'm actually very optimistic we're going to solve the problems, given enough time and enough smart people working on it.
STEWART: AI is taking the prize for physics and chemistry in terms of the Nobel Prize. Do you think I'll ever get the peace prize?
HASSABIS: I can't see how that could be possible anytime soon. But you know, never say never.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Still to come, a single mother in Tampa, Florida shares the terrifying story being trapped in rising floodwaters and how she made it out alive.
[01:31:31]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: More now on one of our top stories.
As officials in Florida continue to assess the damage and the losses from Hurricane Milton, according to CNN's tally, the death toll from the storm has risen to 15 across six counties.
Hours of fierce winds and heavy rains knocking down trees and power lines, more than 2.6 million homes and businesses still without power across the state according to poweroutage.us.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says nearly 1,000 people have been rescued since Milton made landfall. More than 100 animals have also been brought to safety.
Well, as Hurricane Milton was making landfall on Friday, it spawned numerous tornados across southern Florida. Experts say these twisters were quote, "supercharged" compared to the ones typically seen during hurricanes.
CNN's Jason Carroll with more on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've been tracking Milton's wreckage throughout the state to try and get a better assessment of its path of destruction.
[01:34:51]
CARROLL: And what is already clear, much of the damage occurred from a record number of tornadoes. Some of the tornadic activity caught on camera in places like St. Lucie. St. Lucie hit with nine tornadoes, three of them striking in just 25 minutes.
Florida had the most tornado warnings ever in a single day. At least 126 issued by the National Weather Service and it was 15 confirmed touchdowns.
This is what it looked like, for example, driving through places like Fort Pierce today. You can see that there are destroyed buildings everywhere, debris still on the ground.
Weather experts say these tornadoes were different. They say they were supercharged, meaning that they were more powerful and lasted longer once they were on the ground.
We've also heard so much about storm surge. Places like Fort Myers and Naples, for example, experienced more than five feet of storm surge, water flooding the first floors of businesses and homes.
By day, for example, this is what it looked like in places like Punta Gorda. There were boats all over the place on land where they should not be; places like in a park, on sidewalks. Once again, showing the power of storm surge during its worst.
And now an overview of some of the flooding and its aftermath. Keep in mind some spots in Florida saw a month's worth of rain in a single day -- more than 18 inches in St. Petersburg, more than 14 inches in Clearwater Beach.
Rescues like this one taking place today, for example, this teenager got stuck in the water, needed some help getting out. He thought he could make his way through but ran into trouble, needed rescuing by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department. He's going to be ok.
There's also aerial footage from that very same sheriff's department showing more people being rescued. They were also trapped in their homes, needed help getting out this morning due to those high floodwaters.
And while this was definitely not the worst-case scenario there in Florida, is still so much destruction and loss of life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Jason Carroll there. Now some of the people that had to be rescued during the storm include a single mother and her four young children. Based on an official guidance, the family was sheltering in place at home just east of Tampa because they were not under an evacuation order where they were.
Amber Henry shared her videos with CNN of the floodwaters in her home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMBER HENRY, RESCUED DURING THE STORM: We literally on the sink. We're on top of the sink. Look at the whole house. The house -- look at the house. Look, we're on top of the oven. Look at the house. It's done.
Come help us. Help us. Help us.
This water is cold. It's gone up the cabinets. Look how deep it is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The family was rescued by a local news crew after she called to them from an open window.
Amber Henry told CNN's Erin Burnett she was terrified of dying and leaving her children to fend for themselves.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Around 10:00, that's when I see water seeping in. I was getting buckets and putting it down to drain, but then the house literally ate us with water.
Me and my children had to get on top of the couch. And when the couch got submerged in the water, I began to look out the window, seeing water come into the house.
I was terrified because I heard transformers go off and I just knew that me and my children were going to be electrocuted and we're just going to die right then and there.
All I could do is pray? And I had to be brave and my daughter, she's 10-years-old and she's about to be 11 and she told me mom, her birthday's on the 21st and she told me, mom, I don't want to die for my birthday.
I was terrified. My own car, her uncle drives trucks and she was like, can he come get us due to him being in a high state. But he was very far away.
I have a four-year-old and a five-year-old and they are two small children. And it's like I couldn't even hold both of them. I'm a single mom I have nothing but me and my children.
We were dark. We were in cold. I was afraid of snakes. I was afraid of being electrocuted and I was afraid to actually be the one that pass away and then my kids have to suffer. It was very terrifying. So when I seen the refrigerator float, I got on top of the oven and I
just seen the water pouring and I just told my children we have to get out of here.
I did see a semi-truck in the yard. So we were literally going to ride the storm in the truck. But then I just say, you know what, I'm going to go to the neighbors house. I know they're not home and I had to break in that house just to get higher level.
it was very scary. It felt like a movie, a worst nightmare -- the worst nightmare. And I'm so glad that I'm actually able to talk about it right now.
[01:39:47]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: I know. I mean, it is a miracle. I can only imagine -- that you know, you're changed forever by a moment where you realize how fragile life is and your children, my God.
So when you go to your neighbor's house and I know you mentioned (INAUDIBLE) to go there to break in to get to higher ground. I believe there was like a floatie or something like that, right, that your kids were able to get on --
HENRY: Yes.
BURNETT: -- and it was at that moment that the local news crew happens to come by, you had a video of that moment, the moment when all of a sudden you had hope.
I'll play what you shared with us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: I see somebody. Hold on, I see somebody.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.
HENRY: Hello.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.
HENRY: If you guys can call 911 I'm trapped in the house with four kids. Yes, with four babies. Thank you so much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Amber, and that local news crew they filmed you as you were calling out for help. And gosh, what was that moment like when you realized after worrying that you were going to die, believing that you could die, that somebody was there.
HENRY: I don't know what made me open up that window, but I am so glad I did because they could have finished that story and packed up and left. I don't know what made me but when I've seen someone standing in the middle of the road, I knew it was my blessing and I had no other choice.
I knew that there was an outlet. I was calling the sheriff department for hours, but no one can come out to help me. So when I did see a person, it was so magical and I just said this is -- this is our time. We're going to die trying to get so that person. Me and my children will die trying to get out of this mess.
BURNETT: Amber, what happens now. When do you go home?
HENRY: I don't have a home. I'm currently homeless right now. My car is submerged underwater. I'm pretty sure its floating right now. I have nothing. The only thing -- me and my children didn't even have shoes. The only thing that we had were wet clothes on the backs.
I lost my social security number. I lost my birth certificate. I lost everything. I gained courage. And I gained strength. And I'm just trying -- I don't even have a plan, but I'm taking day by day.
And I just have to do that, have to restart over again. I have to start my whole life over again.
BURNETT: Amber, thank you very much. I am so sorry. I know and hope everyone will hear everything you said. And thank you very much for even being able to speak and share all of that. I don't know how you have the strength.
HENRY: You're welcome. Yes, ma'am. Thank you.
I don't know how I have the strength but I'm getting there.
Thank you. Nothing is worse than this. Nothing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Still to come here on the program, Elon Musk promising a new era in autonomous driving. When we come back, the Tesla CEO unveils new self-driving cyber cab.
And see how conservationists in the Midwest U.S. brought the fastest animal on earth back from the brink of extinction.
We'll be right back.
[01:43:14]
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HOLMES: Birds of prey including hawks, falcons and vultures help maintain healthy ecosystems by keeping other animal populations in check. Today on "Call to Earth", we'll see how conservations brought the fastest bird on the planet back from the brink of extinction and the risks they take to keep tabs on them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is Bluff Country, an area in the Midwest, U.S. along the Mississippi River known for its steep cliffs and rugged landscape.
Part of the Mississippi Flyway, one of the largest North American bird migration routes, it's also where one particular keystone species had almost vanished.
JOHN HOWE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, RAPTOR RESOURCE PROJECT: Monitoring raptors and specifically here peregrine falcons is very important right now. We've basically succeeded and bringing back a population of raptors that was nearly gone from the continental United States.
There are other threats that are coming out right now. We've got climate change that's creeping up. Monitoring I think is key in making sure that this population that we successfully brought back, is it doing well?
CHATTERLEY: The widespread use of the pesticide DDT during the mid- 20th century was one of the biggest culprits in the decline of the apex predator's population.
HOWE: DDT and its metabolite DDE led to the thinning of the egg shells and crushing of eggs before they could even hatch.
CHATTERLEY: In 1970, the peregrine falcon was one of the first to be listed as endangered on the Endangered Species Conservation Act. And two years later, DDT was banned.
In the 1980s conservationist Bob Anderson established the Raptor Resource Project and began to reintroduce the peregrine falcon to the Midwest.
HOWE: There was a breeding project where they released 18 falcons down at Effigy Mounds National Monument. It was from a rock-lined hatch box so it was used to simulate the Bluffs that they wanted the falcons to come back and find.
So they did that 1998 and 1999.
CHATTERLEY: The project was deemed a success and today the group is back to check on them.
HOWE: Were ready.
CHATTERLEY: And hopefully place ID bands (ph) on the young falcons which can be a precarious task.
AMY RIES, STAFF, RAPTOR RESOURCE PROJECT: So we're going down to find a young, get them, put them in a kennel and haul them up top to band them. A little bit more safely than we'd be able to do on the cliff.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
DAVID KESTER, FIELD RESEARCHER, RAPTOR RESOURCE PROJECT: He was such a good bird (INAUDIBLE). Had a marker band on it, which is like a social security number for each bird, individually. And then we also put an auxiliary marker on it. it's just a way of knowing who is where as this population has been growing.
CHATTERLEY: Once banded, the babies are then returned back to their nest.
While the peregrine falcon was removed from the federal endangered species list in 1999, continuing to monitor them helps to keep a pulse on the surrounding ecosystem.
KESTER: They're like the canary in the mine where, you know, how things are going with the top of the food chain is telling you how everything is going, you know, all the way through the system.
HOWE: It's one of the most amazing and successful recoveries of species and population right here in the U.S. So we've made a lot of progress there by helping people understand that they need to be careful and we need to be thoughtful.
That's a very important story.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Fantastic. Let us know what you're doing to answer the call with hashtag "Call to Earth".
I'll be right back.
[01:49:46]
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HOLMES: One person is dead after an accident inside a tourist mine in the U.S. state of Colorado and nearly two dozen people had to be rescued. The group became stranded when an elevator malfunctioned during a tour of the gold mine. And for roughly six hours they were stuck at the bottom of the cold deep mine, just about 300 meters below ground.
That would freak you out, wouldn't it? The people trapped did have water, blankets, chairs, and a radio, but no access to bathrooms. The temperature was about 50 degrees Fahrenheit or ten degrees Celsius.
No word yet on what caused the accident.
Elon Musk has unveiled his vision for the future of autonomous cars. The Tesla CEO showing off his cyber cab, robo-taxi on Thursday as part of the "We, Robot" event in Los Angeles. The self-driving vehicle has no steering wheel or pedals. Why would it, there's no one sitting up front?
Musk rode in the futuristic car during the event, which was live streamed to millions of viewers on, guess where, X.
He also introduced Tesla's robo-van, which he says is capable of carrying up to 20 people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA: What happens if you need a vehicle that is bigger than a Model Y?
The robo-van. The robo-van is -- this is -- we're going to make this. And it's going to look like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Musk said the cyber cab should be in production by 2026.
Well, it's the end of an era for tennis fans worldwide with Spanish great Rafael Nadal announcing his upcoming retirement.
CNN's Patrick Snell with that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORTS ANCHOR: Rafael Nadal sealed his first Grand Slam title at just 19, winning the French Open on his favorite clay-court surface in 2005. The first of a record 14 men's singles crown at Roland Garros, where even his greatest rivals have the utmost respect for him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was not clay my problem. I think it was Rafa my problem.
SNELL: His last grand slam triumph came in 2022. Fittingly, again at Roland Garros. Nadal overcoming debilitating pain in his foot to beat Norway's Casper Ruud and bite into the famed Coop De Mousquetaire one last time.
RAFAEL NADAL, TENNIS LEGEND: In some way, I know, I am an important part of the history of the sport, you know. And that makes me feel proud, happy.
SNELL: Throughout his career, Nadal battled a series of foot, knee, and wrist injuries; setbacks that helped shape perspectives when he was fit and healthy.
NADAL: It's true that when you are coming back after low moments later it's more special, it's more emotional.
But I always know that that's not forever.
SNELL: Nadal, Djokovic and Swiss legend Roger Federer thrilled fans during an unprecedented golden era of dominance for the sports' big three.
NADAL: We did beautiful things together and important things for our sport. And in terms of professional tennis history, think we pushed each other to be better.
[01:54:45] SNELL: And nobody who saw Nadal's classic 2008 Wimbledon final victory against Federer will ever forget it. An epic five-set marathon regarded as one of the greatest matches ever played.
There were the emotional moments too, as Nadal shared with CNN in 2010 after injury problems and the end of his parents' marriage a year earlier forced him to take a break from the sport.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you ever doubt that you are going to make that comeback? How hard did you work?
NADAL: Sure I have doubts like everybody, you know. In that moment I didn't know if I'm going to be all the time at my best.
SNELL: Nadal, who also won two Australian Open and two Wimbledon crowns along with four U.S. Open titles, would movingly wear his heart on his sleeve in 2022 when Federer announced his retirement from the sport at the Laver Cup. Once rivals now close friends, both men emotionally holding hands as they fought back tears.
Nadal won a total of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, at the time, a man's (ph) record. 16 of those triumphs were overseen by his coach and uncle Toni Nadal, who introduced to then three-year-old Rafa to the sport.
Rafa Nadal won over 90 times on the ATP tour. He was also twice an Olympic gold medalist. Always a class act on and off the court, Nadal is rightly regarded as the greatest clay-court player of all time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: What a legend.
Well, an intense solar storm is making the Northern Lights visible much farther south than usual. People up and down the eastern United States are getting a stunning light show in some places. That image there captured in New Jersey of all places.
Even when auroras cannot be seen with the naked eye, photos of the night sky can capture intense colors. Farther up the coast in Maine, a woman captured this video, curtains of color appearing when the sun's energy interacts with the earth's atmosphere.
In Massachusetts meteorologist say Thursday's weather was perfect for a light show. Stunning images also being seen this week in Canada, England, Germany, and Finland.
Thanks for spending part of your day with me.
I'm Michael Holmes.
CNN NEWSROOM continues with my friend and colleague Kim Brunhuber in just a moment.
So stick around for that.
[01:57:05]
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