This storm heading straight for rhode island, parts of the eyewall already on shore and were seeing the storm move to shore as we speak. More than 1500 people under Tropical Weather alerts right now concerned about storm surge in the harbors and the bays of rhode island, new york and massachusetts. Concerns about flooding in the coming hours and widespread Power Outages because were talking about a part of the United States not used to seeing Tropical Weather barrelling into shore. Storm surge as well. Were going live in a moment to Derek Van Dam who is in newport, rhode island who can give us a sense of whats happening on the coast. But first lets go to Allison Chinchar for the latest on the track. Allison, any updates from the National Hurricane center . Weve got several, in fact. Were learning it is moving very, very close to shore. Landfall is expected imminently here. What were also seeing is that little bit of downpush in wind. The winds are at 60 miles an hour, gusting to 70 miles an hour. Look at the expanse of that storm. Look how wide the storms really stretch from this particular storm. Once it makes landfall, it is expected to move a little farther inland before making a sharp turn to the east back over the open atlantic. In the short term, however, we still anticipate very heavy rainfall, very gusty winds, and we already started seeing these heavy bands of rain really for the last several hours over states like new jersey, new york, connecticut, even rhode island. Again, rhode island getting very gusty winds just in the last hour or so. Storm surge still going to be a big factor for some spots. Looking at some of these numbers, newport picking up storm surge around montauk. It was about 2 feet. Those numbers could change throughout the day today. Flash flood watches are in effect for numerous states. Those are likely to stick around for the rest of the day today, because heavy rainfall is still expected. The thing to note for a lot of these areas, theyve already had a tremendous amount of rain and now were adding on top of it. For example, cranberry, new jersey, about 8 inches of rain, glenbrook with 6 inches and central park 5 inches of rain. Were likely to get another 2 inches, but some spots could have another 6 inches on top of what you already have, which is why you have those flash flood watches in effect. Wind gust also very strong. Rhode island picking up, even massachusetts around 60 Miles Per Hour . The thing to note, too, is that thats triggering a lot of Power Outages. That ground is completely saturated, not just from this storm, but remember earlier in the week, these areas got hit by the remnants of fred. So theyve had a tremendous amount of rain in a short period of time. It only takes wind gusts about 40 to 60 Miles Per Hour in those saturated conditions to bring down trees and power lines. Across several states, youre looking at about 30,000 people without power already, and as those conditions worsen, that number is likely going to tick back up as well. Brian, one final thing to note, delays and cancellations. We already have a couple hundred of them around boston, new york, even including philadelphia, so do make sure you check if you have some travel plans in or out of any of these cities. Allison, thank you. Back to you shortly. Lets go to Derek Van Dam as close to the center of the storm. Hes in newport, rhode island. Whats the weather like . A blustery rhode island, too, brian. Were probably one to two hours away from the closest approach of hurricane henri. Every moment or so we get blasted by strong gusts of wind, just verifying what allison talked about with 60mileanhour gusts. We had a report of 69 miles an hour. Look at the ripples there just fanning out and a lot of the boats just taking the brunt of this storm in the Newport Harbor where im currently located. You can see them swaying about, and a lot of the captains here, the owners of the ships we were speaking to earlier today, they have had to put extra lines down just to secure their property. We talk about Power Outages within rhode island specifically, with wind gusts in excess of 60 Miles Per Hour, that saturated soil that allison was talking about. I expect the Power Outage Number to spike quickly because were already at 20,000, which is the most significant in terms of Power Outages across the new england coastline. But really, Tropical Storm conditions verifying here within rhode island as henri makes its closest approach. We still have another few hours to go. Were on the dry side of the storm, but we do know that heavier rainfall is located across the northwestern sections of this storm. You can feel the wind just about to pick up here in just a moment, and you can also hear it, that ominous noise as the wind wraps itself around some of the masts of the taller ships located here within Newport Harbor. Its going to be a long day here, to say the least. Brian, back to you. Derek, thanks. Well get back to you soon as well. Now to the story behind the story in afghanistan. Clarissa ward and her team members have been the eyes and ears for much of the world for much of the past week. I know you have been watching just like i have been. And i know a lot of you have been worried about Clarissa Ward and her crew as well. I feel like many viewers let out a giant exhale when they heard that ward was on a flight Leaving Kabul on friday. It is a perilous story to cover and it will continue to be covered by journalists in afghanistan and out. But for the time being, clarissa is at home, and i want to bring her in now for her first interview since she was able to leave kabul. Clarissa, thank you for coming on. Thank you for having me, brian. I know youre home in france after weeks in afghanistan. What was the moment like when you were able to get home and see your family . I mean, you know, at this stage, honestly, im so exhausted and so kind of overwhelmed by everything ive witnessed over the last week or so that it was absolutely a wonderful feeling to hug my little boys and my husband and my parents. But theres also just a sense of, like, its just like collapse, basically. Its like finally i can just let go and collapse. And hopefully get some good sleep for the first time in many days. Lets talk about the experience of Leaving Kabul, leaving afghanistan and then well go back to what the past week has been like. We have some video we can show of getting on board the plane in afghanistan, Lisa Amineaving th country. Can you describe for us what this journey was like . Essentially theres hundreds of you. Its the middle of the night, its incredibly loud. You walk along the airfield. There is hot air being blown at you from all the different engines on the runway, and you are crammed onto this enormous c17. Everybody has to stand and face forward because youre like sardines packed in there, and then at a certain point, everybody sits down in unison so that there is room for everyone to sit. But youre not really able to you can sort of just about sit crosslegged, and youre sort of looking around and people are just so scared, brian. People are asking, where are we going . What happens next . I cant my phone doesnt work, who do i contact . How will i find the rest of my family . And because im a wersternweste with my crew, so everyone is asking us these questions as if we might know the answers in terms of what happens next, when theyll get out, where theyll go and what will happen to the people left behind. Then the engines start and youre off, and everyone is sitting sort of huddled together, People Holding onto each other, people collapsed with exhaustion. Its just this very, very strange sense of relief but also sadness and guilt, guilt like why do we get to leave . Why are we so lucky and fortunate . And tens of thousands of others are still pressing to try to get into that airport to try to get out safely. And you landed in doha and cutter. I know there was a delay. You had to get a covid test. I have to admit i laughed a bit when i heard that. Youre coming out of this dangerous country and now you have to get a covid test. What was that Processing Situation like in doha . It has to be said that what the qataris are doing and what they have been trying to do is incredible. They are completely inundated and overwhelmed. They were originally asked to take several hundred. They got 600 in the first plane load, thousands since. Theyve been trying to process them. Theyve been trying to get them housing. Theyve been trying to feed them, to make sure they have medical attention, the medicines that they need. So many people with diabetes and heart issues are arriving without their proper medication. And so theyve really been struggling. On top of that, theyre launching their own evacuation efforts, a girls school, a Boarding School they managed to evacuate. But because they are so inundated, there are cases where the c17s will sit on the runway for six hours as the process unfolds of trying to put all these people through the system. And obviously, thats pretty much a nightmare because its over 100 degrees, very high levels of humidity. From there we got off the plane, we had to do a covid test, and as you said, its sort of that reminder of, oh, wow, covid. We had all sort of forgotten about covid for a few weeks, because when youre in this heartache and this chaos in afghanistan, the normalcy of the rest of the world feels a million miles away. And from there the qataris were incredibly gracious. They expedited those tests for us so we were able to get on planes and go to our respective homes around the world. But for those afghans who were on the plane for us, some of them have gone to the u. S. , including our coworker, and i cant even tell you how good it was to see him get on that plane and were trying to comfort him and tell him its going to be okay. Thank goodness he got on the plane, so thats good news. Thank god. You and i sunday a week ago were talking in this hour when the capital fell to the taliban. Was that the scariest day . Was there a day that was the worst or the most perilous for you and your team . I think, you know, whenever youre covering conflict, the thing that generates the most fear other than someone literally sort of putting a gun in your face is uncertainty, like real profound uncertainty. We woke up that monday morning having no idea what to expect. And on a sort of everyday logistical level, that was challenging, because obviously our local staff did not come to the house that day because they were incredibly fearful which meant we really didnt have any food, so for a couple of days, we were just sort of eating eggs and nuts. So there is the kind of logistical considerations, and then there are the very Real Security considerations, and there was a lot of talk on those first days about organizing an evacuation, and i sat with brent swales and William Bonnet who were all part of the same team and we said, listen, do we want to evacuate . We dont know whats going to happen. Is there going to be housetohouse fighting . Is there going to be car bombs . Are there going to be resistance . Are the taliban going to come and start purging all westerners . You just dont know what to expect. But we sat and had this conversation, and i think we just all felt we had to see this through, we had to stay on this story. We had enough experience dealing with the taliban over the past weeks, and for me, years, that we felt confident that it was in their interest to allow us to do our jobs and with some degree of safety. So we all made the decision to stay, and im very glad that we did. So the decision to stay, and then how did you decide when to leave . Was it as conditions worsened on the street . We all remember when brent was confronted and almost pistolwhipped. Yeah. Actually, honestly, the decision to leave, i think, was mostly a product of the fact that we were all absolutely exhausted. We had been in afghanistan for three weeks working 19hour days. Its certainly been one of the most intense stories ive ever covered, and i think for all of us we thought, okay, if were going to keep doing justice to this story, we need probably a fresh set of eyes on it, and, you know, my colleagues our colleagues sam kylie and nick creaver are on the ground doing incredible work. Thats the beauty of working somewhere like cnn is that its a big team and we all have to take turns to make sure we give it our full energy and all of the heart that we can muster. To that point, i was rereading your book on all fronts earlier this week because i have it at home. I was flipping through the pages reading about your experiences in afghanistan in the past. You write about your first trip with the taliban, i think it was two years ago, and you worried about getting access. I wonder if those trips in the past helped you this time around, that you were anyone to embed different moments with the journalists. I think it helped, brian, because at many points the taliban is this incredibly powerful, dark militant force. For myself having spent some time with them and embedded with them in their own territory, you have a better understanding of how to deal with them, how to engage with them, how to behave in a way that they might be more receptive to. I think it definitely did something to mitigate the fear factor a little bit, because while i am not trying to downplay the danger that the taliban can and does pose to so many right now, i also understood that they wanted to be seen as pragmatic, they wanted to be seen as politically mature, they wanted to be seen as protecting the rights of journalists and other parties involved. So i think that it gave me just a little more confidence and courage when it came to marching up to them on the streets and confronting them about things like womens rights. Right, right. And, you know, about that, you mentioned we were talking about getting home and you being with your kids today. I have two young kids, you have two young kids, weve talked about this in the past. I wonder how do you square it . How do you square it in your mind . Im sure there is a part of you that still feels like youre in kabul right now and thinking about the children that you saw, the parents you saw desperately trying to hand off their children to the military officials. How do you reckon with it . I honestly think people always theyre like, whats the hardest part of this job . It must be that you get scared, and its not. Honestly, the hardest part of the job is the guilt. Because i get to walk away. When i get too tired, i get to walk away at the end of the day, goat a plane, hug my kids, be with my family, sleep, eat, and why is that . Just because i have a little blue passport and other people dont. And i dont think that gets any easier, and i dont think you ever get used to that, and especially as a mother this time. That day at the airport 14 hours in the Scorching Sun and watching these women try to find a private place to breastfeed, using these little bits of cardboard to fan their babies, hearing and seeing these images of people throwing their babies across the razor wire. I mean, if that doesnt rip your heart out and haunt you and make you question everything in this life, then i dont know what will, but the bottom line is, in order to keep doing this job, you have to live with it and accept it and embrace it and thank god for it, but you cant let it get you down to the point where you cant keep doing the work. Keep doing the work, right. Clarissa, thank you for your courageous coverage, and i hope you can get some sleep. Thank you, brian. Thanks. Now to another side of the story. The urgent effort to evacuate afghans who worked for western Media Outlets throughout the country. These are local reporters im talking about, interpreters, assistance. Theyre known as local stringers and newsrooms would be lost without them. Ward was just talking about local staffers who would make food in the kitchen. From kabul to doha to london to d. C. Have been struggling to get people out of afghanistan. They worked together and went public to get u. S. Government help this week. The journalists said that effort is finally complete. Other u. S. Efforts have been doing this without saying anything publicly. I can now report that cnn quietly helped ten afghan colleagues leave the country in the past few days. Many other newsrooms are working on the same thing. This is from what im hearing, this is excruciating and emotionally draining work, but it is necessary work. So as journalists evacuate and exit afghanistan, how will the world know whats going on inside the country under taliban rule . As the Washington Post put it, how to cover afghanistan now . For answers, lets go inside tola news, afghanistans television network. Tola news has committed to independent coverage, but will they be able to do so . The head of tola news, what are your kabul employees experiencing day to day now that the taliban has taken over . Well, we have multiple challenges. First and foremost, we have a lot of our colleagues actually at the airport attempting to leave. So we have to hire people, we have no hire new people, we have to keep the business going, and at the same time we have to manage the new regime in time, the taliban. We met with them a couple times. They actually dropped by yesterday and discussed how they intend keeping media free, and they intend respecting womens rights, so for us, i mean, every single day is a new thing, so we just have to manage things on a daytoday basis. For now your channel is still up and running, so they havent just come in and shut you down. Is that because theyre trying to portray themselves to the world as more moderate . I think so. I think they have to win hearts and minds inside afghanistan. They have to endear themselves to the international community. Theyll definitely need international assistance, and they probably have limited band width. They have so many other things to deal with. We keep Hearing Stories and accounts of journalists being targeted, journalists being harassed in the country. Hav