Bahamas Rescue Efforts Moving Slowly
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to look. Yes, everybody leave.</s>ANDERSON: Well tragic scenes like these unfolding in the Bahamas. Cars and homes submerged in water, people being rescued by their neighbors, and their showing the scale of the damage this hurricane has left on these islands. Well as the outer bands of hurricane Dorian bring rain and wind to parts of the U.S. east coast, the extent of the devastation in the Bahamas has become more painfully clear with every hour that passes. The storm was stalled over the northern Bahamas for nearly two days, leaving large areas under water. The Bahamian Prime Minister calling it a vicious, devastating storm. Well thousands of homes have been damaged or destroyed. Whole neighborhoods have quite simply disappeared. Seven deaths have been confirmed and there I'm afraid is a long list of missing persons. Hurricane damage in northern Bahamas so extensive that rescue efforts are moving very slowly. CNN's Patrick Oppmann is on the scene.</s>PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT(voice-over): One jet ski ride, one boat trip at a time, these Bahamians are saving the lives of their family, neighbors and complete strangers. They launched from a bridge that is now underwater. Theirs is a dangerous mission. Hurricane force winds are still raging here. Howard Armstrong was rescued after his house flooded to the ceiling. His house was one of hundreds lost as storm surged from Dorian swallowed whole neighborhoods. Armstrong's wife Lynn didn't make it.</s>HOWARD ARMSTRONG, SURVIVOR: It came over the roof. I would imagine 21 feet at least. We were doing all right until the water kept coming up and all of the appliances were going around the house like a washing machine. That's probably how I got hit with something in there. And my poor little wife got hypothermia, and she was standing on top of the kitchen cabinets until they disintegrated. And then I kept with her and then she just drowned on me.</s>OPPMANN (on camera): I'm so sorry.</s>ARMSTRONG: I know.</s>OPPMANN (voice-over): There's no power on Grand Bahama Island, no running water, sporadic cell service at best. Submerged cars block many roads. Maybe the last thing working is this all volunteer crew of boaters, risking their lives to save lives. Dorian fights them every trip they make. (on camera): People are coming. They're bringing their jet skis. They're bringing their boats. They're going to get their neighbors, they say. Everyone says they know of people. They say it is hard to navigate, because there are of course no more streets. And yet they are doing it. You don't see anybody from the government here. It is all very ad hoc. People coming with what they have. The jet skis they have they are dealing with horrible weather conditions. It is not safe to be out on a boat right now. It's not safe to be here at all. And yet they say they know there are people out there, people who have lost their lives out there, we are told. They've brought back at least one body and they say they will not stop until they get everybody. They have hours if not days of work ahead of them. (voice-over): While we were there winds hamper the jet ski and the rescuers have to halt their efforts. Rescuer, Rochenel Daniel says there isn't much time left.</s>ROCHENEL DANIEL, RESCUER: They are exhausted. Some we had to carry. Some couldn't even make it. Some we put on a jet ski. We turn the whole jet ski over, because they couldn't hold their weight. First one we found was my brother. He was clinging on to a tree and made it out safe. But we aren't able to locate his wife at the moment. We hope that she's OK. But the rescue goes on. We have a lot of people supporting us. Everybody working as a team here, you know. It's very hard. But we shall overcome.</s>OPPMANN (on camera): How are you doing? You made it. (voice-over): Dozens have been rescued but many more remain in total desperation. As they spend a third night waiting for salvation. Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Freeport, Bahamas.</s>ANDERSON: That's remarkable. Isn't it? Hurricane Dorian is now a category two storm moving northwards just off the coast of Florida. Let's bring in meteorologist Chad Myers. As this storm heads up the eastern coast of Florida, Chad, what are the biggest risks?</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I think the real risk today would be that the eyewall would hit Charleston or maybe up towards Myrtle Beach. And the eyewall is about 100 miles per hour. I want to take you back to what the people experienced over the Bahamas. Because it's really going to be -- is going to be a 50-50 shot whether the people were more injured and killed by the 185 miles per hour, 298 kilometer per hour winds, or that five-meter to six-meter storm surge. Because water will kill you faster than the wind will. We know that there were people here on great Abaco -- right in the middle - - that had their homes essentially destroyed by the initial eyewall. And that was about 2:00 in the afternoon. We'll wait for this to come around. It's about a 40-hour loop. Here comes the eye at 298 kilometers an hour. When that I was over the Marsh Harbor, the people that had their homes destroyed, they had a few minutes to get out of that destroyed house . Find a house that didn't get destroyed and get in it instead for the second eyewall as it was coming around. So we've heard these harrowing stories, where people were trying to drive around, looking for the next strongest building, because the one that they were in was completely destroyed. And then we realized that all of a sudden, the water was coming up, and you saw pictures there of the people that were carrying their dogs away, and dogs are swimming. They were trying to get away from even the owners, because they were scared as well. And that water kept coming up and up and up. All of a sudden, you have six meters of water on a house that's sitting on the ground, it's over the top of the roof. People were climbing into their attics, hoping that that would be the next way out. But there was no way out from there when the water kept going up. This is really going to be bad. I'm going to toss back to you -- Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Chad's at the weather center for you. And we keep one eye on that storm as we discover just what has been going on in the Bahamas. Let's get you to Nicolas Soames. This is the grandson of Winston Churchill who has lost the Tory whip. He is now in the House of Commons as an independent MP. Let's listen in.</s>NICOLAS SOAMES, BRITISH INDEPENDENT MP: -- seeks to avert the immediate risk of a disaster of a no Brexit exit on the 31st of October, and that thereby seeks to give the government and this House a further opportunity to achieve a resolution of this profoundly difficult issue. Mr. Speaker, contrary to the Prime Minister's assertion, it does not deprive him of ability or flexibility to achieve a negotiated settlement with the European Union on the 17th of October. But it does ensure that if he should fail as with his current demands, I think he is likely to do so, then there will be time for him to rethink his remarks. Mr. Speaker, I am not standing at the next election.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well my right Honorable friend except for me what I think is a view shared, not just from these benches, but across the house, that that will be a great loss to our party.</s>I SOAMES: I am very, very grateful to my right honorable friend for whom I have such high regard. Mr. Speaker, I'm not standing in the next election, and I am vast approaching the end of 37 years' service to this House, at which I have been proud and honored beyond words to be a member. I am truly very sad that it should end in this way, and it is my fervent hope this House will rediscover the spirit of compromise, humility and understanding that will enable us finally to push ahead with the vital work in the interest of the whole country. That is inevitably had to be so sad and neglected whilst we have devoted so much time to wrestling with Brexit. I urge the house to support this bill.</s>SPEAKER: Mr. Stephen Gethins.</s>STEPHEN GETHINS, BRITISH MP, SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And can I congratulate the member</s>ANDERSON: Let's take you away from House of Commons and outside to Abbington Green where Max is standing by. Nicholas Soames who voted against the government last night, he said with a heavy heart. And yet suggesting that he hopes that Britain will come out of this sort of unscathed. Who knows at this point -- Max.</s>FOSTER: Well in that moment he is also urging his fellow members of Parliament to support the bill that's going through right now, which would effectively block Boris Johnson's Brexit strategy. As he said, he has been involved in politics for 37 years. He is the grandson of Winston Churchill, who was one of the founding fathers many people would argue of the modern form of the European Union as well. So for him to go, this grandee of the party is a huge blow to many in the Conservative Party. And it's actually the one part of Boris Johnson's Brexit strategy which really is back firing today it seems. Because many in his party are very unhappy with the way him and his chief adviser have treated many of the grandees of the party just this morning, one of them being dismissed by a text even. We'll continue to follow. But it certainly looks as though this bill is going to pass. And then we hand over to Boris Johnson and wait to see how he's going to get this snap election organized. We know there are some maneuverings behind the scenes. Back in a moment.