Hurricane Hunter Talks to CNN As He Flies Through Cat 5 Storm.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: OutFront next, the breaking news, a massive earthquake in Mexico City, at least 116 dead at this moment. This as a dangerous category 5 hurricane heads straight for Puerto Rico. We're on top of both of these breaking stories this hour. And Paul Manafort fighting back after our exclusive report that he was wire tapped. Trump's former campaign chairman now calling on the Department of Justice to release all of the intercepts. And "rocket man", Trump's nickname for Kim Jong-un giving Elton John a whole new following. Let's go OutFront. Good evening, I'm Erin Burnett. OutFront tonight, two major breaking stories at this hour. A powerful earthquake with a rising death toll, and that death toll has been rising very quickly over the past hour. This is the scene in Mexico City, a magnitude 7.1 quake struck there. Tall office buildings shaking, large pieces of debris, sheets of glass all, as you can see, crashing to the ground. The president of Mexico saying dozens of structures in Mexico City have been completely destroyed, collapsed, as you see on your screen. And the number of dead, as I said, tragically has been rising and very quickly. It was only 42 within the past hour or so, now, 116 known to be dead. An untold number are injured as they're searching in those collapsed buildings right now and hoping to save lives. Across the country, millions are without power. And this disaster coming as a monster category 5 hurricane is tearing across the Atlantic, about to make landfall again. Maria at this moment on a collision course with the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. Officials warning residents to evacuate or die. Maria is expected to make landfall in hours, packing sustained winds of 165 miles an hour. The National Weather Service predicts catastrophic damage for more than 3 million Americans on those islands. The storm right now with a life threatening combination of extremely high winds, storm surge, heavy rainfall, and massive flooding. Up to two feet of rain expected. That's a combination of Harvey and Irma in one. A lot to get to tonight. We want to begin with Paulina Gomez- Wulschner, OutFront tonight in Mexico City. Paulina, look, this happened on the anniversary of the massive earthquake in Mexico City. Stunning and jarring, and obviously massive damage and a death toll tonight.</s>PAULINA GOMEZ-WULSCHNER, CNN PRODUCER (via telephone): Good night, Erin. It was horrible. Just to feel the earth shaking once again, to feel that horrible earthquake hit Mexico in September 7th, once more, we got hit by this massive earthquake. The damage is over the city,</s>BURNETT: And of course, they are searching for more survivors right now. Paulina, thank you. I want to go straight to Ricardo Ramos who joins me on the phone. Ricardo, you're also in Mexico City, you were actually in a restaurant as this earthquake struck. You took a video of exactly what you saw. What did this feel like?</s>RICARDO RAMOS, WITNESSED EARTHQAUKE (via telephone): Hi, good afternoon. It was definitely a crazy experience. I was here for the earthquake that happened two weeks ago. But this one was much stronger due to the proximity right here. Basic instinct was just grabbing everything and heading out to the streets, making sure we were away from trees and electricity cables. And I believe it lasted over a minute. So it was definitely the scariest minute of my life, I will say that.</s>BURNETT: I mean, it's stunning when we look at these pictures. You know, what we are seeing, giant pieces of glass fall from buildings and the way that those lights were shaking at the restaurant you were in, that wasn't a sway. That was a very dramatic shake that we're seeing. I mean, how did that feel like? What went through your mind as all of a sudden, it started?</s>RAMOS (via telephone): Absolutely. Well, it's funny because they had a drill this morning. There's a drill they have been doing ever since the earthquake of the '80s. So at first, I thought it was a drill then I'm like wait a second, there was actual shaking. So, you don't really feel fear in the moment, just that instinct of grabbing things and making sure you find safety and everyone else is safe.</s>BURNETT: And after, as you ran out, as you say on instinct, you got out of that room where those lights are shaking. You now obviously, we understand, dozens of buildings have collapsed. The death toll right now, Ricardo, is 116. It has gone up very rapidly in the past hour. People could be trapped in some of these buildings. What kind of destruction have you seen as you have -- as you walked back from the restaurant, even?</s>RAMOS (via telephone): Yes, I mean, starting with the restaurant, the lights and the power went out right away. A lot of parts in the street, cracked buildings, glass on the floor from broken windows. I personally did not see any of the demolished buildings but it's definitely a lot to see. I had to walk all the way back from</s>BURNETT: All right, well, Ricardo, thank you very much. I mean, just amazing to look at these pictures.</s>TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Erin, and a lot of people evacuated to San Juan from the islands. We have new information now, it's kind of hard to fathom here because we thought Irma was this massive monster which it was, and now we got a storm that's getting stronger as the hours progress. We have a pinhole eye. It's not the larger storms that are always the most destructive. Sometimes the smaller an eye, more compact storm, the more ferocious they can be. Irma had an eye about 23 miles in diameter, this is 11 1/2. And look at the winds, two hours ago, they were 160, the last hour, 165. That would still make it the strongest hurricane ever to make landfall in Puerto Rico, and now we have just upped it to 175. This is amazing. You'll notice how compact they are. We call this an annular hurricane. Take a look, cannonball. This is going to create a world of problems. It's 70 miles now from Saint Croix, don't think they're going to take a landfall, but anything is possible. Hoping to get a secondary band on this radar. That would tell us as undergoing an eye wall replacement cycle. Why do we want that, because it can lose some strength when it goes through that process. That's the only thing that could be helpful to Saint Croix, U.S. British Virgin Islands which are getting -- pounded right now by the waves of rainfall, and for Puerto Rico. We're going to look at this little closer here because the track takes it right over Puerto Rico around 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning, shoots it up towards the Turks and Caicos, they're now under hurricane watch, Southeast Bahamas and then slide it up the coast, keeping it away from the shoreline. But we get in closer and you look at the path difference between Irma. Irma stays off the coast of Puerto Rico by 50, 55 miles and they still had a million people lose power. In fact, they've been in a recession since 2006. Unemployment is like 10.1 percent. Their massive labor force has been leaving, heading to the U.S. They need power and they're going to need more of it. This is a population density map. Notice the bright red, so that's where you have the higher population numbers. And this is San Juan, Erin, this is in the wrong place to be as the storm will really create a high force of wind there, knocking power out could be to the entire country.</s>BURNETT: I mean, Tom, it's stunning. And you talk about a storm that is, as you say, sort of a cannonball, so compact with that eye. And now the winds have gone from 165 to 175. Can it get stronger and stronger? I mean, the thing about this storm that has been so shocking is how quickly it has accelerated. I mean,</s>SATER: Yes, we saw this with Irma. I mean, in 15-hour time period, this jumped from a 1 to a 5. I mean, that's just outrageous. Since 1851 to last year, 2016, the number of category 5s that made landfall in the Lesser Antilles was zero. We've had two this month and we got a monster now bearing down on Saint Croix and Puerto Rico. We're next. We'll be watching it in the days ahead, but this is going to be a rough overnight period but a real rough day tomorrow because it won't be until tomorrow, late in the day, tomorrow evening that the system may finally take those tropical force winds, Erin away from Puerto Rico.</s>BURNETT: All right, thank you very much, Tom. And as we're tracking this, I want to go to Nick Paton Walsh because he is in Puerto Rico where that eye, that pinhole eye, Nick that you're hearing about is expected to slam into the island just hours from now. And, Nick, what are you feeling right at this moment.</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you can see obviously the rain has begun here in the last hour or so. It really picked up as the sky has darkened. We're still 12 hours away from pretty much right behind me on the coast here, the east coast, Palmar Del Mar is where I am in Puerto Rico where we're supposed to see first landfall, potentially 165 miles per hour, the storm, as you were hearing. And potentially will leave all of its energy on Puerto Rico at this point. It's supposed to go right across the land, through San Juan, the capital and then begin potentially to slow as it leaves the island itself. But you mentioned Hurricane Irma there, a billion dollars of damage, 46,000 people still now without power two weeks after that hit. That caused a glancing blow. This is going to go straight through the island itself. And we've seen water being rationed</s>BURNETT: And it's amazing when you're talking about 25 possible inches of rain, storm surge of 11 feet. A storm that is possibly going to end up being stronger as it strikes than of course Irma. So you're looking at Harvey and Irma in a sense combined. I mean, this is a monster of a storm. The warning where you are, Nick, evacuate or die. Are people heeding that?</s>PATON WALSH: Yes, as far as we can tell. I have seen some locals here who are clearly not running for their lives. It's hard to get a broader sense. We heard from the government earlier on today that they were seeing less in numbers in the shelters than they had perhaps expected. Maybe people have moved further inland. It's the flood risk areas that are most we're concerned about. Hurricane Irma took three lives. One in a traffic accident, one through electrocution, and one, somebody being moved to shelter. So, you know, people are more worried to think about what the water does with as it moves in huge</s>BURNETT: And where do you go during the actual -- as it strikes? I presume you'll move from where you are, or no?</s>PATON WALSH: Well, when we stop talking, yes, I'll probably move from here. But we got to move into probably the second floor in the buildings nearby. Trying to get a gauge between being able to see how the storm moves and keep ourselves further away from it. But I have to say, in the last hour or so, that we've seen the rains pick up and we are still a solid 12 hours away from the ferocity of the storm actually hitting. This is just the beginning.</s>BURNETT: All right, please stay safe. Nick, thank you. And next, breaking news. Paul Manafort making demands tonight about his intercepted phone calls after CNN reported he was wire tapped. Plus, President Trump calling Kim Jong-un "rocket man". How the nickname actually made it into Trump's teleprompter. His prepared speech to the world at the U.N. And a hurricane hunter who is actually flying into Maria at this hour going to join us from that flight live and tell us what the storm looks like.