Transcripts For CNNW CNN Tonight With Don Lemon 20170913 : v

CNNW CNN Tonight With Don Lemon September 13, 2017

Im john vause, this is newsroom l. A. What was Hurricane Irma is now bringing showers to starts of the u. S. South. But the record breaking storm has left behind a trail of destruction, which could mean years of rebuilding in caribbean and florida. Irma killed 38 people in the caribbean and 17 in the united states. Those in the florida keys are seeing widespread destruction. Millions of people across the state are without power. Caribbean islands are trying to assess the catastrophic damage caused by irma. Widespread power outages, flooded neighborhoods and in some places there are reports of looting by armed gangs. More than three days after irma lit florida, many are going back to their homes in the keys. Kim la followed one couple as they returned home. Reporter waiting throughout the night. The line of cars stretching and growing as dawn breaks. Zmri want to go home. I want to see my home. I want to see that we have a home. Reporter heidi and allen, out of their key largo house since irma hit. Fear and anxiety growing by the minute as they wait. My house, where i pay taxes and im not allowed to get in here. I spent five days on the [ bleep ] road. Reporter before tempers flare even more, 7 00 a. M. , the first roadblock comes down. The evacuated returning home for the First Time Since the hurricane. Cars moving down u. S. 1, the only highway in or out of the florida keys. If you had to describe in a few words how you feel about all this, what would it be . Frustrated, angry. The whole situation, watching the news and not knowing whats going on with your house and everything. Your life. Reporter you can see damage throughout key largo, plantation and island marada. But theyre luck y compared to the lower keys. Theyre trying to look beyond the destroyed business. Things arent looking great right now. Were trying to clean up, to the best we can. Reporter while the residents of some keys got their annalses tod answers today, others did not. This is the new roadblock, another obstacle they have to wait for to get past. Beyond the roadblock, search and rescue continues. How desperate are they . Its going to be a while. Reporter back in key largo, allen and heidi get the first look at their home. Oh, my god, the roof. Reporter irma toppled tees, a boat on their house. But the damage limited to one corner of the roof and their boat. Inside, its dry. Seeing the house are you okay . Right now, im okay. Right now, my family is okay. Im okay. Reporter kyung lah, cnn. Lee road out the storm with his family in south carolina, returning to the home on tuesday. Tell us about the moment when you pulled up and saw your house for the first time. What state is it in . It was a very shocking moment to see a house you live in and grow up in that you love so dearly, be in such terrible condition. We got there and you cant enter the house because the car cant enter the house because theres a tree blocking the roadway. Once you walk around that, theres a tree blocking knock over the fence on both entrances to the fence. Theres another tree that fell of top of the roof and did some considerable damage to the roof. The damage sounds pretty extensive. And i know you have a farming business also, growing fruit. I know that was hit pretty bad. Give us a sense of the damage there. We grow different tropical fruits, star fruit, mangos, avocados. The hurricane came and a lo of the trees, they fell and the crops were lost. And if the tree didnt fall, the crops, theyre gone and cannot be used. Its very sad to see that, as its 500,000 loss. A pretty devastating blow to the business. Talk to me about how you are doing in terms of processing all of this. Has it sunk in how quickly everything changed . I mean, still processing. Im still thinking about, you know, what im going to do tomorrow . What am i going to do the next day . About how i can move forward with this. We want to clean up everything. Make sure that everything is cleared out. And then, regarding the business, were just going to have to start from square one possibly and try to get things going again. You know, i cant even imagine, as you say, the devastation is on the personal front. Its also happened to your business on the commercial front. Theres so much literal damage and the dollar price tag that goes with it. Where do you even begin . You say you want to clean up. Whats the first step you take . I mean, there really is no specific first step. Theres no simple a, b, and c plan to deal with it the were going to start with square one. There is no government cram pro that helps farmers with disasters like this in hurricanes. So, it will be difficult. Well, hoour heart goes out t you and your family. Youre going through an incredible amount of suffering as are thousands and thousands of people. We wish you the very, very best. We will stay in touch to see how youre getting on. We wish you the best of luck. Thank you. Pedram jef harry joins us now. Millions of people without electricity in sweltering heat. You look outside, look at the temperatures, middle 80s. The factors that your body spands to heat are air temperature and physical activity. A lot of people are trying to get to their property. You put that together its a recipe for disaster. Ill break this down. Key west, areas impacted, the weather stations are knocked out in key west. Work your way into the caribbean. Observations in the British Virgin islands, also not are reporting because of the severity of the tomorrow. Look at the temperatures. Pushing in the mid and upper 90s. 4. 3 million customers without power in florida. Were talking 10 million, 16 Million People without power. You think about the state of florida, over 3 Million People over age 65. 1 in 20 is over 80 years old. If humidity is extreme, the sweating doesnt happen efficiently. Its the kids and the elderly you have to be careful with. If you look at a multiday event, some going three days without electricity. The cumulative effect of heat on the body is most dangerous when it comes to these weather patterns. It will be a while before the electricity is fully restored. Pedram, thank you. The destruction and despair in the caribbean is unprecedented. Residents are struggling to cope with irmas aftermath. Many last everything when the hurricane hit. Now, theyre stranded, running low on food and other supplies. Carissa moore has more on the devastation on the island of gue guadeloupe. Reporter not a day went by, she says, without us thinking that we were lucky to live on this idyllic island. Today, it is just complete chaos. Six days after irma pummeled st. Martin, Officials Say more than 90 of the buildings on the island are damaged or destroyed. Food and water are still scarce. Power remains out for most. Thousands of tourists were stranded for days. It was horrifying. Absolutely horrifying. Never been that scared in my life. Reporter the desperation has led to looting and violence, with reports not yet confirmed by cnn, of armed men roaming the streets. Dr. Lochlan and kayann mcclay were on the island when the storm struck. They had to stand strong against looters. Military is trying to control chaos, but nothing is safe after dark. Lots of looting. I was on patrol last night with machete until the sun came up. And its the same on the hardhit Caribbean Opinion on the Virgin Islands, one resident told cnn the situation is only getting worse. The supermarket here, doubled the prices. The gas stations have doubled the prices. So, were running out of cash. Its just scary. And i was at a gas station trying to buy gas from a guy on a motorbike. A scooter came up and pulled out a gun. Reporter help has been slow to arrive to many of the islands where people are struggling to get by daytobday. And full recovery may be years away. Chrarissa ward, cnn, guadeloupe. Thanks so much being with us. Your experience with irma sounds like a nightmare. Tell us what you and your family went through when the storm hit. It was, honestly, really, really devastating and saddening. I literally said to my family five minutes ago, i thought i was in a bad dream. Now, im on the neighboring island of st. Croix. I escaped what went on at st. Thomas. It is sad to see the devastation. A lot of roofs are off. People are trying to survive with whats there and what they have on the island, you know, were so secluded and in the middle of nowhere. Its hard to just kind of get everything that we can. You know . Just because everyones just trying to survive. But for me, just the experience, the start of the storm started around 12 00, 1 00 on wednesday. And the beginning of the storm was strong winds. The shudders and the windows of the porch that my moms house, where she was living, it flew away right away. We had to go into the bathroom, the bathtub for 18 hours, waiting out the storm until the morning, around like 4 00 or 5 00, when the winds finally stopped. I think when i got out of the bathroom and i looked out on the porch and i saw everything around me, i started crying because i didnt realize how bad this was. And i was just thinking in my head, everyone else that went through this, you know, i at least have a roof over my head. But i knew some people didnt at all. I saw finally two days later, when i drove around the island. A lot of places were gone. Completely collapsed homes. And everywhere is completely brown. Thats i think is the worst thing, too. Its brown, not green anymore. The brown, the the signifies death. Everything is just covered up. Yeah. I knew that go ahead, julian. You were about to mention the coast guard, actually. Where my mom lives, there were trees and power lines that were down. The coast guard came and cut down the tree that was blocking our driveway. We finally got out on friday, saturday, to see what was going on around st. Thomas. But they calm in and red cross was around the area, as well. People are coming in and trying to help everyone get by. But its just the power i dont think will be back on for a very, very long time. The power lines are down everywhere. How is your mom doing . Shes all right. Shes in survival mode now. I think its just finally were on st. Croix, now, which didnt get hit as bad as st. Thomas. It looks completely green over here, to me was the drastic change of, like, seeing just brown everywhere and devastation. And now, coming to st. Croix, which is a bit they didnt get hit. And looks like Nothing Happened here. Now, were just trying to regroup and get our minds off of just seeing, you know, devastation everywhere. The devastation. Your mothers house, you mentioned the porch just blowing off. What is the extent of the damage to your mothers house . And what are the prospects for rebuilding and going back . Well, she has to get new doors for her porch doors. And the concrete around the porch blew away. Rebuilding that and putting up the sliding doors. Getting a new bed. And getting new furniture. All of the furniture inside of the home, since the windows were exposed, it got a foot of water flood in. So, everything was wet inside. Getting new furniture. Getting a new wall built. The interior walls were gone because the wind blew them away. The only the only standing structures were the bathroom and the kitchen. Thats all . That was all, yeah. The wall came out. And everything is just wet on the inside. So sh, talk to me about your sense of the federal and local authorities response to this. How satisfied are you with what youve seen and youve heard in terms of how quickly they came to your aid and just getting necessary supplies in to people . Ive been listening to the local news. And ive not heard great things about people trying to get food and supplies. We are lucky to have friends and family nearby that had plenty of food and water. Im thinking about the people who cant rely on the people around them. Getting supplies, its kind of its hard. Theres lines everywhere. Gas stations, grocery stores. And theres a lot of federal agents on different places, you know, protecting those businesses. So, people arent looting. People i guess the communication, you know, with locals and all these different people coming in, its not i guess they arent not to say theyre not helping. But its not theyre not communicating in a way thats respectful to the locals. Its a bit forceful, which ive heard on the radio and seen firsthand with federal agents everywhere. You did mention loolt iting. I have to pick up on that. How widespread is it . What are you hearing about the crime there on st. Thomas . I know some local authorities are pushing back against that. Those reports are out there. Yeah. No, its definitely happening. A lot of businesses i saw had broken windows. They were gone inside. The looting is happening. The police theres a curfew. They have a restriction when people can be out on the road. Thats kind of protecting businesses in a way, so you have people on the road between 12 00 and 6 00. Between the other times, theres people out, you know, just trying to see what they can find in different businesses. Thats why theres a prominence of federal agents in businesses. Theyre protecting gas stations from having gas or food supply warehouses so they can sustain themselves with the food they have and people arent looting. Yeah. It is a desperate situation. Tensions are running julien, we are pleased you are safe with your mother on stst. St. Croix. Thank you for speaking to us. I want to bring awareness to my islands. Were in a desperate situation here. Were part of the u. S. I hope people can Pay Attention to whats going of here. Well check in with you and continue to follow up on your progress. Hope to speak to you soon. Thank you so much. Have a good night. Wow. Okay. Well take a short break. When we come back, after days of criticism of too little, too slow, european leaders are promising to rebuild their caribbean territories after irmas devastation. European leaders are coming under fire for reacting too slowly for care of the caribbean territories. Macron was looking at the devastation. He outlined the priorities for recovery. Its difficult and what i want to do is to have a very fast recovery. So, were trying to fix the situation regarding health, education, access to water, energy and medical. Meantime, u. K. Secretary franz john sson visited a mility base where he defended his governments response. We feel for the suffering. Most fairminded people, looking at the deployment the u. K. Has made. This is the biggest deployment that weve seen since libya. You have a thousand rooms in the area. More than 50 Police Officers. More Police Officers are coming in tonight. Huge numbers of supplies coming in. Live to nina de santos in london where it is 7 23 on a wednesday morning. Theres a thousand soldiers in the region, 50 policemen. What else is the government doing . That doesnt sound like a big mobilization at this point. Remember that the u. K. Doesnt have Permanent Naval bases on these islands because of the they ware governed. Theyre overseaser territories. Where macron is dealing with, because theyre part of french territory. They have military facilities that i can store things at. The u. K. Is in a different predicament. Over the last few days, we heard that defense coming from the Foreign Office and number 10 downing street, john. But they are doing what they can to make sure that people get access to as much clean Drinking Water as they can. Thats obviously an immediate priority, as well as food, shelter, and security because across a number of these, particularly the British Virgin islands that bore the brunt of this storm, the issue of looting and security is in the forefront of peoples minds. A number of homes on these islands are inhabitable, as well. Shelter kits are being provided to islands like anguilla, where 90 of the Housing Stock is said to be dangerous or uninhabitable. Tortola will get help for security to prevent looting. Hms ocean will have 15,000 i gene kits and 10,000 buckets for water. But it will take ten days to get all the way over there to the other side of the world, john. Okay. Yeah. Its a long way. Nina, thank you. Nina dos santos live for us in london. Lets have a quick break. Kate baldwin is coming up for our viewers in asia. 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Its just 11 30 here on a tuesday night. North korea is condemning the u. N. Sanctions against the country as a heinous provocation. They are meant to put a cho chokehold on north koreas economy. Emmanuel macron promises to rebuild territories devastated by Hurricane Irma in the caribbean. Irma struck the caribbean as a category 5 hurricane last week, killing at least 38 people. Its statemented 90 of homes in the florida keys were damages or destroyed by Hurricane Irma. Come have restarted returning to the island chain. The death toll in the state stands at 12. Satellite images from nasa have a unique view of the destruction irma left across the caribbean. On the top, you can see what the u. S. And British Virgin islandses looked like before. Most of the vegetation has been uprooted. This is a sidebyside. Irma changed its color. And this is barbuda and antigua. Adam joins us from st. John in the u. S. Virgin islands. Adam, thank you for taking time to talk with us. There is clearly an immediate need for water, food and shelter. How can the islands rebuild . The first step will be removing the rubble and debris. But how do they do that . Exactly, john. Theres a significant challenge we have from debris management. Theres ongoing life safety issues that were handling. The biggest challenge is not just debroidebris, but getting off of the island because

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