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Avalanche on Everest; Georgia Man Missing in Nepal; Gangs Threaten Police; Baltimore Protests. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 27, 2015 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: For our viewers in North America, "NEWSROOM" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go on this Monday afternoon. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.

And we have to begin with Nepal. Nepal, a country that is now in survival mode is -- as I come to you live here from New York, there is every expectation that people are still trapped under piles of debris two days now after this 7.8 magnitude quake absolutely flattened massive parts of this country and surrounding areas and shifted its capital 10 feet in 30 seconds. An incredible moment of hope as a little boy is found alive underneath this building that crumbled on top of him.

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BALDWIN: You heard the cheers, the celebrations here as this man is pulled out alive. This is 48 hours after he was buried. But for every one of these scenes, every one of these survival tales, there's more and more bodies. Right now, almost 4,000 people are known to be dead. But with many remote villages still unreachable, including the epicenter there, the number of victims is expected to surge.

And so is the humanitarian crisis here. Nepal already one of the poorest nations in the entire world is overflowing with the injured. And medical supplies, they are dwindling and dwindling very quickly, as in wood to burn the bodies to cremate these bodies. Families now resorting to mass burials. Many people are now living outside. They're huddled in tents, tormented by powerful aftershocks from this quake. Fifty of them and counting. These people terrified these tremors could bring down more buildings.

The earthquake and its aftershocks also triggering massive avalanches on Mt. Everest and engulfing climbers in walls of snow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go! Go! Go! (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Come under my jacket. Come under my jacket. Are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You all right? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Takes your breath away, doesn't it? Climbers are still being airlifted off of Mt. Everest. But we now know at least 17 climbers did not survive. Among them, four Americans.

On the phone with me right now is Jon Kedrowski. He's an American doctor who's helping some of the injured at Mt. Everest base camp.

And, Jon, I mean talking to you all the way from here in New York to Nepal, can you hear me, sir?

JON KEDROWSKI (ph): Yes, loud and clear, Brooke. How are you doing? We've got a beautiful night here at Everest base camp. Stars in the sky and thins are OK right now.

BALDWIN: Stars in the sky. I'm sure grateful to be alive and OK for you. And again, I mean, I've just recently been reading about Everest base camp myself. I mean you're still -- what are you at, like 17,500, 18,000 feet?

KEDROWSKI: Yes, we're -- we're pretty high up, 5,400 meters. You have the oxygen content here is about half the amount of sea level and so it's a tough environment to be in. Beautiful but dangerous.

BALDWIN: Can you just tell me, Jon, how much of base camp has been evacuated and what you're seeing right now?

KEDROWSKI: Well, right now probably about 70 percent of the roughly I'd say 1,000 people, if you count climbers and support team and cooks and everybody that sort of comes to help with the season, I'd say about 70 percent of those have already gone and headed down the valley. Today the remainder of the people above base camp were rescued and brought down. There actually is about 10 or 12 more people that you just don't have enough time with helicopters to get them down. But then, in the last 48 hours, the majority of people have left, packed up and started hiking down for the (INAUDIBLE) for the three to five day trek to (INAUDIBLE) to try to fly to Kathmandu to then try to fly home. But, of course, as you've been reporting, the country is under a state of emergency right now with what has occurred with the earthquake a few days ago.

BALDWIN: Jon, can you just tell me where you were when this quake hit, when these avalanches happened there on Mt. Everest? Were you north of base camp and did you see people who were injured?

[14:05:06] KEDROWSKI: Yes. I was at base camp because I was here to climb as well and we were just sort of on about a three or four day rest in base camp and I was -- and I was just sitting in the dining tent and this -- this base camp is huge. I mean it's -- it's about the size of a small town. You get about 1,000 residents for the course of about an eight week climbing season. And so it stretches out for about a mile from the bottom to the glacier towards the top of the (INAUDIBLE) glacier right below the ice thaw (ph). And our camp is situated at the top of the town, so to speak, and so we were out of the zone of where the (INAUDIBLE) and ice thaw (ph) came down (INAUDIBLE) giant sort of hurricane force sonic blast that blasted across the glacier and destroyed about 40 percent of the camp.

BALDWIN: So have you been seeing people coming and going, those coming, those who are able to get back down to base camp and hopefully get out of there who are injured? Can you just describe some of the injuries you've been seeing?

KEDROWSKI: Yes. I already (INAUDIBLE) -- you know, this wasn't your traditional avalanche because the earthquake triggered like a giant ice fall coming down. Then that ice fall actually collide with a land mass adjacent to the glacier and to the base camp and so it wasn't like snow (ph) burying people. It was more like this air compressed blast that came across and so the injuries are more -- something that you might see out of the Midwest when you have like a tornado or even like hurricane force winds. Tents being blown over.

Equipment and dining tents and tables and chairs, things like that and debris being blown across a glacier, then people being sort of in the track of that and so people got hit by, you know, tent poles and equipment and rocks and things like that and so you have head injuries and even some, you know, like impalements from poles and people getting knocked (ph) up in their tents and sort of tossed across the glacier. And there are even like people's belongings being sent hundreds of yards away. And so really just sort of a bizarre phenomenon all triggered by the earthquake initially.

BALDWIN: My God. And here you are, Jon, at base camp. Final question to you. I mean are you staying put? Are you -- are you going to try this? Are you going to continue climbing? I know some people this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity despite the devastation, or are you getting out of there?

KEDROWSKI: Yes, I was here in 2012 and actually summited Mt. Everest then. And, so for me, going back up is an easy decision to not go. And really the earthquake also destroyed the route through the (INAUDIBLE) ice fall and knocked down a lot of ice blocks and destroyed the route and the ability to move through there, hence the reason why about 60 people were rescued from the upper camps and brought down because they weren't able to climb down on their own. And so the season here is effectively closed. Nobody will be climbing Everest from this side this season.

So, yes, now it's sort of the decision has been made to sort of stick around. Myself and the people that are -- were more fortunate and very lucky to get through this event, we're sort of staying here for a few days to help with some of the people that are either injured or just that need a place to have, you know, food and shelter for now. It doesn't really do us any good to hike down the valley because about, you know, 1,000 people, including other trekkers that are here, because it's a real (ph) touristy season, are sort of down in some of the villages and some of the villages have even been sort of, as you mentioned at the top of the show, cut off from outside and so people -- people are sleeping outside. A lot of the villages are very full and to capacity and it's sort of better to be up here. We have all the food we need and we have all the support we need for now. And until things sort of get opened up, we won't start trekking down to the lower valley to try to fly out of here.

BALDWIN: You're a good man to be able to stick around and try to help people as best as you can. I mean just absolute tragedy amidst, as you point out, absolute beauty here, Mt. Everest. Jon Kedrowski, thank you so much for calling in from Mt. Everest base camp. I appreciate you.

At the moment, 17 lives, as we mention a second ago, 17 lives have been lost on the Everest. And across the Himalayas, others are still missing. So let me bring in Brooks Emanuel, whose father was trekking in Nepal when this quake hit.

Nice to have you on, sir, welcome.

BROOKS EMANUEL, FATHER IS MISSING IN NEPAL AFTER EARTHQUAKE: Thanks.

BALDWIN: I hope this, obviously, has a happy ending for you and your family.

EMANUEL: Me too.

BALDWIN: And my fingers are crossed for your dad. What's the latest you've heard, any news?

EMANUEL: No, we haven't heard anything. He's in a very remote area, so he's with a guide -- a very expert guide named Dilly Magar (ph), and one porter. They drove from Kathmandu to Siab (ph) -- I always mess this up, Siabrubensi (ph) on Thursday and he told us Thursday night, was the last we heard from him, that they were leaving at 6:00 a.m. for the first day of their trek and they were hiking from there to Lama (ph) Hotel (ph). And so Saturday they were going to hike from -- on their itinerary from -- which is the day of the quake, from Lama Hotel to Gora Tobeli (ph). And since the quake hit around noon, we're optimistic because it would have meant that they were on the trail between Lama Hotel and Gora Tobeli. So they'd be out in the open.

[14:10:18] BALDWIN: Right.

EMANUEL: So we haven't heard anything. I've been very active on social media and people have been spreading it everywhere and I've been getting contacted by tons of people. But the news out of Langtang (ph), which is the park that he's in, is very -- there's very little coming out and very little communications.

BALDWIN: I mean that's the -- it's the challenge under the best circumstances to even communicate with people in this part of the world, right?

EMANUEL: Right.

BALDWIN: So then you add in earthquake.

EMANUEL: Yes. BALDWIN: It's -- I imagine it's pretty trying for you and your family.

EMANUEL: It -- it is. It's -- I mean it's very trying. But it also is a reason to be optimistic because we know it's going to be impossible to get communications out. So we are very optimistic.

BALDWIN: So maybe the no news is good news piece.

EMANUEL: Yes. I mean people -- we are -- you know, news of people who have been unaccounted for is trickling in. We haven't heard about my dad or Dilly (ph) yet. But we, you know, we are optimistic that Dilly may have decided that like once things started to hunker down and maybe wait a few days. At the same time, we're aware that there are some dangers.

You know, obviously, there have been landslides in that area. We don't know about the portion where they are. And so that's, obviously, a danger they could have been injured by the actual earthquake and need help or, even if they're safe now they -- you don't carry food on these treks, you maybe carry some energy bars, but you stop at these tea houses along the way. That's where you get rest and get food. So they're not going to have like days and days' worth of food.

So what we're hoping is that the rescue efforts will go into Langtang. And there's a village called Langtang that apparent -- that we're hearing was destroyed, which is -- he's actually a little farther from there. But the whole Langtang area, there are people all over it, some of whom are -- we know are waiting from Twitter to be rescued and some like my dad that we haven't heard from yet.

BALDWIN: He -- so he met Dilly, this guide, because he had been, what, a couple of years ago?

EMANUEL: Yes, two or three years ago my mom and dad went together. My parents are awesome. They like --

BALDWIN: They must have loved it.

EMANUEL: Yes. They went for about a month. My mom will hate me for saying this, but she said she loved it, which she said. Oh, there's my dad. She said -- that's my nephew, by the way.

BALDWIN: Oh.

EMANUEL: She said if -- if she had known how hard it was she wouldn't have gone, but she came back in like the best shape of her life, which is just amazing. They both did. And so he wanted to go back and do even more. And so they went with a group called World Expeditions then and their guide was Dilly and they developed a real friendship with him, stayed with his family and have stayed in touch. And so then my dad planned this trip this time just with him and so it was Dilly and him and a porter.

BALDWIN: Maybe they got to a tea house. Maybe they got to the village and they have no connection. Brooks Emanuel, keep in close contact with us because we want to be able to update everyone and tell everyone hopefully that -- when you know your dad's a-OK.

EMANUEL: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: And the guide as well.

EMANUEL: And I will say for other people who are there, like I said, we want rescuers to go in. There's also -- I can give you my Twitter later because there have been tweets of specific locations there where people are known to be waiting for rescue so maybe you guys can share that later.

BALDWIN: Absolutely. We'll talk in commercial break.

EMANUEL: Thanks.

BALDWIN: Thank you very much.

And I know a lot of you are sitting there wondering how you can help what's happened, the Nepalese people. Just go to cnn.com/impact, cnn.com/impact for that, Impact Your World.

Coming up next, much more on our special live coverage here on CNN of this devastating earthquake in Nepal. We will take you live to this underground lab to talk to a seismologist who can talk a little bit more about the science behind all of this and why you can't actually predict earthquakes. He says, yes, there were some warning signs, that a big one, as we've been hearing, was going to happen. And we'll talk to a man whose family is in Nepal, what they are hearing about the search-and-rescue efforts and how the people here relying on one another for survival.

We will also go to Baltimore this hour where the funeral of Freddie Gray is underway. A lot happening on this Monday. You're watching CNN's special live coverage. We will be right back.

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[14:18:24] BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

As mourners today gathered to pay their final respect to Freddie Gray, the Baltimore man who died after he was arrested now two weeks ago, police officers in that city found themselves now facing a new threat. After a weekend of protests, some of which turned violent against police, Baltimore Police now say they have gotten a quote/unquote "credible threat" that local gangs are now working together to, quote, "take out law enforcement officers."

Brian Todd, I'm coming straight to you in Baltimore. That is incredibly worrisome. What are you hearing?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are hearing about this threat, Brooke. And just in the last few minutes, we've noticed that the police have kind of increased their presence here around police headquarters in downtown Baltimore. You see more officers stationed outside. They wouldn't even let us inside to try to talk to police officials about this threat and about what's going on with the security surrounding the protest.

But as you mentioned, they did just release information a short time ago this afternoon saying they have a credible threat that members of various gangs, and these are gangs that are normally rivals with one another, including local versions of the Bloods and Crips and a gang called the Black Guerilla Family, that those gangs have teamed up to target police, to, quote, take out, as you said. That's in the release. They said the words "take out" police. And so they believe this is a credible threat. They are increasing some security for -- at least some security coordinance (ph) involving police around the city.

Not far from here, in the western precinct, where some of the protests have been going on, they have extended the security perimeter a little bit outward from that. So this is a worrisome development here in Baltimore, especially coming on the heels of Saturday night's demonstrations that did turn violent. They -- the police have said that outside agitators were responsible for that. Interestingly enough, out of the 30 some people who they arrested, only about three or four were from out of town, but the police have said that just because the people were not arrested from out of town doesn't mean that there weren't outside agitators stirring up violence, Brooke. So that's another factor that enters into the security situation on the ground here in Baltimore today.

[14:20:29] BALDWIN: I want to talk to a delegate and get his reaction to this credible threat now. Brian Todd, thank you, in Baltimore.

Let's move on because really now for more than a week we've been hearing about Freddie Gray's death. And, today, his loved ones celebrated his life as they laid him to rest here.

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BALDWIN: These images from his funeral come in stark contrast to the video seen around the world now of Gray in agony, legs limp as Baltimore Police officers arrested him on April 12th. The 25-year-old man died a week later, his spinal cord severed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. JAMAL BRYANT, GAVE EULOGY AT FREDDIE GRAY'S FUNERAL: We don't know why it is that he died. It could have been from excessive force by the police department of wrong (ph). We don't know whether or not, I have absolutely no idea, if it was because he didn't have on a seat belt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Among the mourners there at the funeral, there she is, the mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Also the White House sent three representatives. There were also family members of others who have died after police encounters, including Eric Garner. Gray's family asked for a break in protests today. Nearly all the demonstrations had been peaceful until Saturday. You see this scene, when Baltimore police arrested 35 people. Brian Todd mentioned only three or four were actually from out of town, six officers were injured.

Joining me now Keith Haynes. He's the deputy majority whip in Maryland's house of delegates, who has been at the service this afternoon for Freddie Gray, joins me here.

Delegate Haynes, welcome.

KEITH HAYNES (D), DEPUTY MAJORITY WHIP, MARYLAND HOUSE: Thank you. Good afternoon.

BALDWIN: Good afternoon to you. You know, first, I have to get you just to respond to what we're now reporting on from Baltimore Police, this credible threat, that multiple gangs in your city want to take out police. What more do you know about that?

HAYNES: Well, first of all, Brooke, let me say that since -- over a little bit over a week ago we've had protests throughout the city of the district which I represent and they have been peaceful. Unfortunately, at the end of a peaceful demonstration or protest in front of city hall on Saturday, a handful of people, a significantly handful of people, wanted to take it in a different direction and create some disturbing violence on Saturday night.

We have finished or concluded the funeral service here for Mr. Gray, and I think while we were actually leaving the services, that we became aware that there was a credible threat that was being reported by the police department.

BALDWIN: I understand.

HAYNES: I do know that some buildings downtown have put into process an early shutdown or closure in response to that threat that's being disseminated throughout the downtown area as well.

BALDWIN: So I'm hearing you that you're just sort of learning about this as you are getting out of this funeral.

HAYNES: Right.

BALDWIN: But -- so let me just ask you to respond as a man from Baltimore.

HAYNES: Sure.

BALDWIN: A man who, you know, represents this area, who knows this area --

HAYNES: Sure.

BALDWIN: To hear that there are now rival gang members coming together, apparently, according to police, to take out police officers. I mean this has gone too far.

HAYNES: This -- this is -- it is disturbing. It's tremendously disturbing. Let me simply say that whenever you have organizations, groups, individuals who have an agenda to harm other individuals, and in this case take out the police department, that is disturbing. That is not what we want to have going on in the city of Baltimore at any time, not just this time. And to understand that that threat, which is supposedly a credible threat, that rival gangs have come together over this issue is a cause for us to be really concerned about public safety and welfare in the city, not just in my district.

And so we are cautioning and urging calm, safety precautions, and this is not about more violence but it's about getting to the bottom of the Freddie Gray incident, but also a broader discussion on how we build better relations between the community and the police department and better resources to the individuals that are in those communities where they are lacking.

[14:25:02] BALDWIN: On that note, you were -- you attended this funeral. The family asking, you know, the city of Baltimore, please, no demonstrations. You know, keep the peace. What message did you walk away with?

HAYNES: I walked away -- well, first of all, let me say that today's funeral was an emotional service. A lot of people from across this country, noted individuals as well, came to mourn Freddie Gray, as well as individuals from the community and across the city.

The message that I walked away with, and I think was a common theme, is that we want to see peace. We do not want to see violence. And justice deserves to be -- to be rendered at the end of the day however the facts come out. At -- I think one of the things that we walk away from is that this is just not about Mr. Gray, but there needs to be a broader discussion beyond Mr. Gray's death on how do we, number one, begin to heal as a city and a district and, number two, how do we build better relationships between the city, communities and the police department and how do we address and get to the root cause of the race issues that we know are in existence.

BALDWIN: To me, though, just quickly, I mean, you know, I talked to too many people about this and it -- when you talk to these people they say, this should go beyond discussion. I mean you're a delegate. There needs be change.

HAYNES: Well, you're absolutely right. And let me simply say that we just finished a legislating session and -- a couple of weeks ago here in the state of Maryland. Were -- many individuals, the legislative black caucus, various delegates and senators in the Baltimore city delegation went with an agenda to address some of the issues that -- legally that we thought would help our situation here in Baltimore city, from body cameras, to appointing a -- creating a special prosecutor when there are situations that arise like this, to do an impartial investigation, to strengthening our civilian review board that we have in the city of Baltimore and a whole litany of legislation that we hope would pass to give us the tools that we need to help the community address these issues.

BALDWIN: OK.

HAYNES: So I see that -- that we -- we will continue to work on that throughout the summer when we -- you know, we reconvene back in January again.

BALDWIN: OK. Well, we'll follow up with you. Delegate Keith Haynes, thank you so much, in Baltimore.

HAYNES: Thank you.

BALDWIN: We'll take you back to Baltimore in just a little bit.

Back to our massive story here we're covering out of Nepal. Seismologists detected warning signs of this earthquake there. Up next, we'll actually take you live to an underground lab where they look into the size of earthquakes. What these scientists look for, next.

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