Simultaneous Disasters Happening in the World; Irma's Wrath One Week after Harvey's Devastation; Mexico's Coastal State Shook by 8.1 Earthquake.
NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to CNN Newsroom. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen. And we are following two major national disasters right now. A monstrous hurricane is tearing through the Caribbean and making beeline for Florida. We'll have more on that shortly. But first, this happened in the past hour. A magnitude 8.1. Earthquake struck off the coast of Mexico and that the epicenter of the state at Chiapas there. The governor says two people there were killed the house collapsed on them, tremors were felt as far away as Mexico City even though that's 1000 kilometers to the northwest. Part of that city are without power now. This amateur video shows streetlights violently shaking on an overpass. And officials confirmed there is a tsunami from this quake, the largest wave so far has been less than 1 meter high. We have Jay David, an eye witnessed joining us on the line now. He is in Mexico City. Jay, thank you for talking with us. First of all, what did you experience in Mexico City?</s>JAY DAVID, WITNESSED EARTHQUAKE IN MEXICO: So, I'm staying here at the Hyatt Regency in Polanco, Mexico City, so it's really tall like 40 storeys, 700 rooms. And as we're getting for bed when the earthquake happened. And then first in my bed started to shake violently and I knew right away what was happening. Then the fixtures of my room started moving, the clothes hangers, the light fixers, even the drinks at the mini bar. Then there is this creaking sound that at the hotel's way from side to side. It almost sounded like a creaking wood. And it felt like it's between 30 seconds to a minute before the vibrations stop inside my hotel room. It's pretty scary.</s>ALLEN: You're from the Philippines, is that correct, Jay?</s>DAVID: Yes. I was born in the Philippines and live in California for nine years, so I'm used of.</s>ALLEN: yes, I guess.</s>DAVID: Yes, this one in Mexico City was pretty scary when it was happening. It's definitely on my top five.</s>ALLEN: Well, and you're 1,000 kilometers away so we can't imagine what the people there in Chiapas state experience.</s>DAVIDZ: Yes, I went down to the lobby 30 minutes ago -- to 30 minutes ago. There was full of people in their pajamas and blankets probably spending the night in the lobby (Inaudible) to sleep beds than be at their hotel rooms. It was that scary.</s>ALLEN: Yes. And tell us again how long did it last?</s>DAVID: It seems like it was 30 seconds -- 30 seconds to a minute before the vibration stop. You know, this is a fairly tall hotel so maybe what took a wobble for the vibration and the swaying to stop.</s>ALLEN: Are you going to stay in the hotel?</s>DAVID: Yes, we're back to my -- back to my hotel room and probably sleep it off.</s>ALLEN: All right. Jay David...</s>DAVID: I talk to the staff if this is OK.</s>ALLEN: All right. Well, Jay David, thank you so much for talking with us. We appreciate it. We're glad you're safe. Joining me now on the line is Gonzalo Segundo, he is in Chiapas. Gonzalo, what can you tell you tell us, what did you experienced?</s>GONZALO SEGUNDO, CHIAPAS RESIDENT: Hi. Good night.</s>ALLEN: Yes, Gonzalo, can you hear me?</s>SEGUNDO: We are alive. That's the good thing. So what can I say? I could never feel something worse before in my life than tonight. It was a very strong experience. We have experienced earthquake before but not like this. It was so intense and talking about maximum time and also the intensity.</s>ALLEN: Where were you, Gonzalo when it happened?</s>SEGUNDO: I was already in bed. I'm watching my place so we are expecting to have a tranquil life every night but suddenly you can start (Inaudible) the room where of the (Inaudible) and suddenly everything breaks apart. Glasses and furniture and everything and then while you have to -- you have to stay out from bed, walk to the street and that's awful. Because that's not the condition and we finish (Inaudible). And especially when we find with your neighbors in different situation. Just parking, glasses, breaking down everything - everything is like you don't know what.</s>ALLEN: Can you repeat that, Gonzalo? Gonzalo, can you still hear me? All right, that was Gonzalo Segundo. I want to one repeat again what he said. He has been in hurricane, excuse me, earthquakes before -- we have two major stories going on. He's been on earthquakes before but he said he has never in his life experienced anything like he just did the past hour experiencing this earthquake that struck just off the coast of Chiapas. He is in Chiapas and we hope to reestablish communication with him later this hour. Also, producer Paulina Gomez-Wulschner felt the earthquake from Mexico City. Again that's 1000 kilometers away from where Gonzalo was. She spoke with CNN earlier and described what she experienced.</s>PAULINA GOMEZ-WULSCHNER, PRODUCER: I was coming home and I was listening to the radio so I started to hear the alarm that it sounded an (Inaudible) through speakers so I knew it was coming. Because yesterday we had a false alarm also. Everybody was alerted yesterday (Inaudible). I park my car and you know, it was in the middle of the street with a bunch of people, they were very scared, everybody was very scared. Actually I went outside to check what's going and they don't want to go back to their homes because they are afraid of their abrupt death. And (Inaudible) Chiapas state which is close to the Guatemala border and authorities expect to have replicas here in Mexico City so they are recommending to stay in safe places and if you are going to your home make sure you don't any (Inaudible) with the gas and your house is in good condition because replicas are going to happen. It was a very, very strong earthquake. One of the stronger -- strongest out here. And I'm going to tell you I was here in 1985 when that earthquake collapse Mexico City.</s>ALLEN: We'll continue to follow developments and talk with more that experience earthquake there in Mexico. We want to turn now to hurricane Irma. People in South Florida have just about 48 hours to get out of the way or suffer the consequences. A category five storm is one of the largest and most powerful ever recorded. The latest forecast show it's heading straight for Miami. State officials are frantically trying to persuade people to leave now while they can.</s>ROMAN GASTESI, COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR, MONROE COUNTY: You might as well leave now what you have a chance because when you dial 911 you will not get an answer.</s>ALLEN: Meteorologist Karen Maginnis is tracking Irma's path for us. There she is.</s>ALLEN: Thanks, Karen. Well, survivors of hurricane Irma are sharing their terrifying experience as a dangerous storm ripped through their homes. Josephine Gumbs-Connor says she can barely recognize Anguilla after all of the damage. Here's how she described the magnitude.</s>JOSEPHINE GUMS-CONNOR, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: This was a few hours of such intensity that you worry, you literally worry then you listen to the people in Anguilla. When you talk to people on the road everybody has story. Who wasn't holding down a door, who was witnessing, you know, projectiles coming to their house. I, for example, have seen a situation in which concrete and rebar was sliced - sliced. Anguilla is a completely different place at the moment. If you talk about, for example, essential services, hospital. One hospital on the island its lost. A good portion of its roof. One police station on this station on this island it lost its roof. The court house lost its roof. The prisons has lost its roof. All our schools are totally very damaged. They are basically open shelves and open to (Inaudible). Our churches seriously damage. And we have, you know, we pride ourselves on one church that was built back in 1830, one of the oldest churches here in Anguilla completely destroyed and it's a shell. It's just the magnitude is just -- I keep saying incomprehensible because that's what we're seeing on ground.</s>ALLEN: And that's one person on one island talking about the wrath of Irma. Thousands of people are now evacuating their homes as hurricane Irma makes its way toward Florida but some are staying behind getting ready to ride out this dangerous category five storm. They're boarding up their homes and getting all the supplies they can find it. Let's get more about that now from our Isa Soares. She is live for us in Miami, Florida. We can tell the winds picking up there. Isa, question is, how many have stayed behind, any idea?</s>ISA SOARES, INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT, CNN: Well, let me give you a sense of really if I just show you in Miami Beach. And if I can just pan, get the camera to pan down just on this area. This would have been an area, Natalie, that would have been packed right here with people in bars really drinking and eating and would have been buzzing at this time but it's absolutely empty. Having said that, I have seen people walking their jobs, I have seen people in their bicycles but it very much feels like this is an empty city. It's very desolate in many ways. And what I see coming in is just long queues, long line of people trying to get out. Whether you're talking there about preparations in some food and supplies, going to a supermarket today many of the aisles were absolutely empty. Some of the shelves most of them are water but also crackers or bread, they were empty. And then we saw very long lines of people waiting to go north to get out of here get away from the eye of the storm and get away from danger. And those cues were around petrol stations. That is the real choking point here. People want to be prepared not just for the hurricane that's coming in the next two days or so, but also what may lie ahead because who knows how long if they are going to be without electricity as many are suggesting. Many are suggesting how long that may be. So what we have seen is the police escorting fuel tanks, Natalie to these Keys petrol stations that line the route north to try and keep the fuels flowing so that people can move out of this area much quickly. Meanwhile, those who were staying here they've been taken to shelters. Thirteen additional shelters have been created around Miami and those are mostly mainland that's an additional to another eight shelters. Some are 650,000 people have been evacuated and the majority I believe they say seem to be heeding those warnings. So, although I did speak to a restaurant owner in the last hour or so, Natalie, who basically said to me, look, I'm staying, quote, "I'm trying to help those who were staying behind but as they get closer I will of course keep an eye on the storm and really leave. But for the moment I'm providing help for those who really can't help themselves, Natalie.</s>ALLEN: We need a lot of that in the next couple of days, won't they?</s>SOARES: Indeed.</s>ALLEN: Isa Soares for us, thank you so much, Isa, there in Miami. Well, many hurricane Irma victims are in need of assistance shelter and other critical supplies. If you'd like to help log on to our web site cnn.com/impact and donate to a charity working on this mission. And still ahead here, the president's son meets with Senate