breaking news in japan. more than a dozen people are missing after a mudslide. plus -- >> there are definitely ways that we could demolish the building that will make sure to allow the search to continue but, again, this is going to take weeks. >> new worries about the safety of the site where a condo building collapsed in florida. and u.s. holiday weekend, travel as the covid delta variant spreads. live from cnn world headquarters

here in atlanta. i'm kim brunhuber. this is "cnn newsroom." this is cnn breaking news. we begin with breaking news right now from japan where authorities say at least 20 people are unaccounted for after a mudslide swept into the city of atami southwest of tokyo. let's bring in celina wang live from tokyo. celina, what's the latest? >> reporter: kim, exactly. we've learned that at least 20 people are missing as a mudslide hit this morning at 10:30 according to nhk. search and rescue is underway and the prefectural government has asked for addition 23458 support. no deaths have been reported yet. they have been searching for hours. and the video there, kim, is

absolutely devastating. you can see the mudslide engulfing homes. infrastructure, debris knocking down everything in its path. the residents there are shocked. they are concerned. atami city is 67 miles southwest of tokyo. the area that was hit by the mudslide includes hot springs, shopping streets and residential homes. as of 2 p.m. local time we've learned that more than 2,800 homes have lost power. we know an evacuation order has been issued in a wide area where the area was hardest hit and areas surrounding tokyo, kim. it's shocking to see that video. in one of the frames somebody was running for their lives. i remember a couple of years ago hundreds of people died in flooding and landslides. japan obviously has a long history of dealing with these types of problems. will that help in the response

here? >> reporter: well, kim, exactly. in 2018 more than 200 people died in catastrophic floods. japan is used to the annual rainy season, which we are currently in. that comes with floods and landslides. there are disaster prevention drilts that are held regularly across japan and right now the entire pacific coast region has been hammered by torrential rain which is what triggered the mudslide. the prime minister is concerned and has set up a task force to evaluate the damage. according to national broadcaster nhk weather officials are warning that there is much more and perhaps worse to come as they are expecting more rain. now still a devastating impact even though this is a country that is used to this. according to a government report, in 2020 they found that annually on average japan is hit by nearly 1.5 -- 1,500 landslides per year over the

past decade. that marks a significant increase from the ten years before that. according to this government report, it's because of global warming. kim? >> yeah, not the first time we hear these devastating effects of global warming. celina wang in tokyo, we'll come back to you as developments warrant. thank you so much for that. appreciate it. cnn meteorologist derek van dam joins us with more on the extreme weather conditions that led to the mudslide. you heard celina there. take us through this and more importantly, is there more to come? >> there is the potential of more mudslides coming forward. look at the latest satellite loop across the region. you can see a flare-up othver t same location, darker shade of purple and orange and yellow. did a bit of digging. this is just incredible. there was reported 780 million

inches of rain. this is in atani, japan. what's significant is the terrain that surrounds this area. 780 millimeters of rain in three days is more rainfall than london receives in its entire year. so a substantial amount of precip precipitation. they put out a 24 hour rainfall total. it's difficult to decipher but we'll unpack it for you here. here's tokyo to the north. i put the red dot there. there's atami. it's mountainous terrain. mount fuji to the south and west. mountainous terrain. you get rainfall totals in excess of 300 millimeters. that is a lot of rain in a short period of time. the soils unfortunately cannot handle that. it absorbs the precipitation eventually grabbing winds. the soil fails and the slope

slides down the mountain side. this was in reach of a populated area. showers and thunderstorms will continue on and off. this is the wet season. precipitation moving through with the latest forecast and latest computer totals, kim, showing an additional 50 to 100 millimeters. >> thanks so much. meteorologist derek van dam. we have new information on the condo collapse in surfside, florida. emergency order was issued friday to tear down the remaining structure. officials say the damaged building is unstable and poses a danger to search and rescue crews below. demolition is expected in the coming weeks. two more victims have been recovered from the rubble bringing the confirmed death toll 22. now there are concerns about bad weather on the horizon. we get the latest from cnn's brian todd in surfside. >> reporter: the miami-dade county mayor announced she signed an emergency order

authorizing demolition of the building. >> this was not a decision we made lightly and i know especially how difficult this is for the families who escaped the building and who have lost their homes and their belongings. the building poses a threat to public health and safety and bringing it down as quick a as possible is critical to protect our community. >> reporter: while the time line has not been set yet, two more victims recovered and thursday night heartbreaking discovery. the 7-year-old daughter of a miami city firefighter found in the rubble. the father was not part of the rescue but he was called over by his fellow rescuers when his daughter's remains were found. >> every night since this last wednesday has been immensely difficult for everybody, and particularly the families that have been impacted, but last night was uniquely different. it was truly different and more difficult for our first responders. >> reporter: new information

showing the champlain south condo board knew of severe concrete detear i don't remember yags months before the collapse. an engineering firm highlighted the pool structure as a problem area. they stated full restoration repair work could not be performed in part because it could destabilize the surrounding concrete and because the pool was to remain in service. meanwhile, the very similar high rise on the next block is getting further inspection. >> our building official in conjunction with our experts are getting ready to x-ray columns and do a deep dive, forensic study into the structure. >> if it's not disturbed -- >> reporter: alan kilsheimer says it's not clear if it is in imminent danger of collapse or if there is risk of heavy slabs falling. still, the possibility of that and the fact that some of the rubble has shifted is worrisome. >> should it be demolished? >> the bottom line is, there's

the emotional issue and there's the structural issue. most probably this portion of the building that you see the debris hanging from, that portion of the building most probably should be taken down. >> reporter: kilsheimer has been hired to investigate the collapse and the safety of other buildings. a key safety concern, a large column and big slab hanging from the open decimated facade. >> the hanging debris is unstable. >> reporter: another big worry, elsa, a storm that may be a hurricane when it approaches this area and hits this area. >> this area could see tropical storm force winds. >> the first thing i'd worry about, even if it's 40-mile-an-hour winds is debris getting blown off of this building. >> reporter: alan kilsheimer says it won't be until they can account for as many people as possible in the rubble. then after they demolish the

existing rubble, then after they can get into the rubble and painstakingly examine all of it. only after all of that can we begin to find out the cause of that collapse. all of that can take months he says and he's asking all of us to be patient. brian todd, cnn, surfside, florida. sweltering record high temperatures in parts of the pacific northwest this holiday weekend as more than 4 million people remain under heat warnings. in oregon 94 deaths related to the extreme weather. washington state reported at least 13 deaths in the seattle area alone. the situation is even more dire in canada. british columbia reported more than 700 deaths in the past week. that's three times more than normal. meanwhile, dozens of wildfires are burning in canada particularly in the bone dry western provinces. the minister of national defense says it is being provided in

edmonton, california. in the tiny town of linton, rescuers say they're looking for missing residents after most of the community burned to the ground earlier in the week. it happened after the town posted the highest temperature ever reported in canada. 121 degrees fahrenheit or 49 degrees celsius. u.s. air ports are expecting record travel over the july 4th weekend just as health officials are expecting an even bigger uptick in covid cases. experts are encouraging those travelers who aren't vaccinated to make sure they mask up. cnn's nick watt has more from los angeles. >> reporter: boy, was it crowded at lax this morning. holiday travel plus suspicious package this weekend expected to set pandemic era travel records. millions on the move. >> we are celebrating as a country at the same time as we

recognize the fact that we're in a serious situation for those who have not been vaccinated and the message is, get vaccinated. >> reporter: why? because of the delta variant. >> another wave could become a very real possibility. >> reporter: 506 new cases confirmed in los angeles county thursday. highest tally in more than two months. >> we have enough risk and enough unvaccinated people for delta to pose a threat to our recovery. masking up now could help prevent a resurgence in transmission. >> reporter: nationwide, still under half the population is fully vaccinated and the average new daily covid-19 case count up 10% in just the past week. >> i thought that we were going the right direction. we were seeing weeks and weeks of declining ineffect shuns. >> reporter: the cdc calls the delta variant hyper transmissible and it's being detected in all 50 states and d.c. >> currently approximately 1,000 counties in the united states

have vaccinations of less than 30%. >> reporter: largely in the southeast and midwest in arkansas, 99% of those killed by covid-19 since late january were unvaccinated. >> we expect to see increased transmission in these communities unless we can vaccinate more people now. >> reporter: johnson & johnson just joined pfizer and moderna confirming its vaccine does protect against the delta variant. >> one of the most sort of pleasantly surprising things is how well these vaccines are holding up against the variant, so far against all of them. >> reporter: here in california over the past few weeks the percentage of tests coming back positive has about doubled. it's still low, but it has about doubled. and more than 1/3 of those positive tests are the delta variant. nick watt, cnn, los angeles.

>> and the delta variant of the coronavirus is driving case surges around the world. ahead on cnn we'll talk to a medical expert about the highly transmissible strain and the threat it poses. plus, the u.s. has almost taken all of its troops out of afghanistan leaving the rights of millions of girls and women at risk. that's on top of a civil war. ahead on cnn.

america's commander in afghanistan warns that the station in terms of security there is, quote, not good following the most significant step yet in the withdrawal of u.s. forces. now there are growing concerns that america's leaving behind a country no safer nor more stable than when its troops first arrived. cnn's anna koran is in the afghan capitol. >> reporter: the vast might of the u.s. military transformed this dusty airstrip into a miniature city and the nucleus of america's longest war. ultimately that might could not transform afghanistan. friday morning nearly 20 years after u.s. soldiers captured

bagram airbase, the last u.s. service men and women left. a nation not left strong, prosperous and secure and over 100,000 afghan civilians according to the united nations. many of those fallen soldiers repatriated from these runways. now in the position of afghan government forces as they continue their lonely fight with the taliban. they are the only ones who will consider friday's u.s. departure a victory. >> the security situation is not good right now. that's something that's recognized by the afghan security forces and they're making the appropriate adjustments as we move forward. >> reporter: taliban fighters have seized back the country americans have fought to liberate. they will remain as few as 600

u.s. troops here to provide security for american diplomats. >> we intend to maintain a diplomatic presence in kabul. that is something that is important to us given our desire to have a continued partnership with the afghan government and crucially with the afghan people. >> reporter: their forever war will continue as joe biden wades out of the mire. bush, obama and trump each bouncing in and out of bagram saying it will never be a haven of terrorism. those terrorists long since rooted out and destroyed. now no guaranteed that violent extremists won't enter the vacuum left by the united states as the last american soldiers out of afghanistan return to a nation that has long waited to

welcome them home. anna koran, cnn, kabul. >> and nic robertson joins us live from london. a bleak picture painted there bianna koran. it sounds as though the withdrawal from bagram didn't go entirely smoothly in terms of the coordination with the local government. what more do we know about that? i'm curious if you think that signals more troubles ahead in terms of the security handover. >> reporter: for operational reasons the u.s. military kept a very care ifful lid on when the were transferring out of bagram. that was a target. for the united states military, it was important to keep operational security. therefore, details of precisely when they were leaving and any handover so that they didn't hand a propaganda opportunity to

the taliban to land a mortar or rocket or have any kind of, you know, distraction during a handover ceremony. we don't know why there appeared to be sort of a lack of public coordination over this, but that -- i think the security situation on the ground speaks to the need for the united states not to telegraph to their enemy what has happened. what it does more broadly, you know, this was the huge operating base. this does sort of define an end of an era although we understand the drawdown will be completed by the end of august. it does seem that the large amount of forces that were going to leave have left and are very much in the tail end phase of this. the signal it sends to the afghan people and to the politicians is one that is deeply concerning because they see that the taliban are taking

advantage of the situation on the ground, not only taking advantage. the u.s. had negotiated with the taliban, the taliban wouldn't attack u.s. forces. as they draw down and drew down that the taliban attack afghan forces in a sweeping offensive in the north. >> now you've covered afghanistan and the region extensively. what does it mean for neighboring countries, pakistan, for instance? how might they be involved in terms of security and also possibly dealing with any influx of refugees that might be fleeing the taliban? >> reporter: instability in afghanistan means instability for its neighbors. you have to look in the northern border for tajikistan. they have now seized, controlled, operate. they were forced across the

border into tajikistan. there's already a knock on effect in tajikistan. theytaliban. this is used for trade and they are taking care of afghan national army troops. for pakistan, the situation is a lot more complex. there are many more polish tisch s -- politicians and they believe they are behind the taliban's strategy, behind a lot of their planning and aiding them in training. this is something that pakistan absolutely and categorically denies. they have been putting up a wire fence across the border crossings, between afghanistan and pakistan they clearly fear what would be a potential large scale civil war in afghanistan

spilling over to them in terms of refugees. it's widely believed one of the taliban's objectives is to cut the main highway between kabul and pakistan. it's a trade situation. every bordering country stands to be effected. >> so many knock-on effects as you say. always appreciate your analysis. cnn's nic robertson from london. thank you so much. so now the question, what will happen to women and girls in afghanistan once u.s. forces are gone? we have the interim co -directo of the women's rights division. joining from islamabad, pakistan. thank you so much for being with us. even before the u. s. troops left, attacks were increasing. tell us what you're seeing.

>> yeah. i think the deterioration and situation has been much faster than any of us have anticipated and faster than afghans anticipated. as you say, that's included a series of intentional targeted attacks against civilians and those civilians have sometimes been women and girls who seem to be targeted because of their gender, sometimes it's been against ethnic and religious minorities, against journalists, aide workers. so i think there's a very alarming picture developing. >> and your organization has called for a u.n. fact finding mission precisely on this issue, which would be a pretty big challenge given the insecurity in the country. i saw you wrote the u.n. should clearly communicate to perpetrators that attack and killing civilians has consequences. what would those consequences actually be? how would anybody be held accountable exactly? >> well, war crimes and crimes

against humanity are illegal and people should be prosecuted against them. the situation we're in at the moment unfortunately is that the afghan government is pretty much making no real pretense of trying to investigate these crimes, even when they're being held in government run areas, including the horrific recent attack on a girls school in kabul. we feel and the 19 other human rights organizations that signed on to that letter feel that there is a request that's been made by the afghanistan human rights commission for a u.n. fact finding mission which is the only viable way forward in terms of not having some visibility but making them realize there will be consequences. >> you mentioned the girls school in kabul. a lot of great work has been done in afghanistan, especially when it comes to the welfare of rights of women and girls. i've seen it myself.

it's hugely empowering that women have made huge gains in professional fields, politics, schooling and so on. will there be any lasting legacy of that good work or do you expect that most or all of those gains to be largely lost? >> i mean, of course there's a legacy. if you educate a girl, you've changed her life and her family's life forever, but, you know, i agree with you fully about the important gains that they made. those gains happen because women and girls and many who support them saw an opportunity in the last 20 years and took it. but unfortunately in the kind of attacks that i was talking about a moment ago, the women and girls who went out and got an education and joined, you know, the work force and took leadership positions are exactly the people who are being targeted. so i think there's an intentional effort to try to dismantle that kind of progress.

i'm very frustrated by the way that the u.s. and other troop contributing nations seem to be responding with a shrug. >> yeah. even before the u.s. troops again have totally withdrawn, afghanistan has been singled out for its record on human trafficking and the government and security forces are even allegedly complicit there. how much worse do you think that will get once withdrawal is complete? >> well, there's a growing sense of lawlessness, you know? and that's going to make it a space where all kinds of things can happen, including human trafficking and other abuses. and so i guess the question is what, if anything, will the international community try to do and what, if anything, will they do to try to help the afghan government to provide some rule of law. >> yeah. so many unanswerable questions

right now but thank you so much for highlighting some of these issues for us. heather barr from human rights watch. really appreciate it. the delta variant of the coronavirus is forcing lockdowns in countries around the world and pushing case numbers sharply up. after the break we'll talk to a medical expert about the risks. plus, one woman gets the chance to thank the man who saved her from the florida condo collapse. bring you their reunion ahead. >> i hear boom and my bed shake and i see my apartment is shaking.

i would've called yesterday. but... i could've called yesterday. but... i should've called yesterday, but... would've, could've, should've. we hear that a lot. hi. i'm jonathan, an insurance professional and manager here at colonial penn life insurance company. sometimes, people put off calling about life insurance. before you know it, another year has passed. and when they do call, they say, "i wish i'd called sooner." call right now for free information on the $9.95 plan. are you between age 50 and 85? you can get whole life insurance with options starting at just $9.95 a month. do i have to answer health questions to get it? there are no health questions. you cannot be turned down for any health reason, past or present. how long does this policy last? our $9.95 plan is permanent protection.

can my rate increase later? never. once you're insured, your rate is locked in for life. you can get whole life insurance with options starting at just $9.95 a month. have you thought about life insurance but put it off? don't regret what you didn't do yesterday. call now and feel great about saying yes today. (announcer) call now and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. [ "me and you" by barry louis polisar ] ♪ me and you just singing on the train ♪ ♪ me and you listening to the rain ♪ ♪ me and you we are the same ♪

♪ me and you have all the fame we need ♪ ♪ indeed, you and me are we ♪ ♪ me and you singing in the park ♪ ♪ me and you, we're waiting for the dark ♪

welcome back to all of you watching us here in the united states, canada and and the world, i'm kim brunhuber. this is "cnn newsroom." global health authorities say looser restrictions, variants and low vaccination coverage are putting europe at risk for a new wave of the pandemic in august. case numbers are already rising in several european nations in the last week. infections rose 10% but a new german study finds mixing different kinds of vaccines can provide strong protection against the virus. researchers says a dose of the astrazeneca vaccine and mrna vaccines which is pfizer and moderna can provide a superior immune response. this idea of mixing and matching, it seemed at first it was being proposed out of necessity. now it might actually be preferable. what's behind this? >> reporter: yeah. absolutely, kim. this is the strongest

recommendation we've seen in the world for mixing and matching vaccines. some have done it, as you say, out of necessity. here it wasn't the case in europe when there were safety concerns over the astrazeneca vaccine and some under 50s, under 60s who had received a first dose of that were then advised to get a dose of a different vaccine such as pfizer. that was out of necessity. canada said based on scientific evidence we could mix and match. now germany is saying we should mix and match. angela merkel, the german chancellor, has done just that. i know scientists. what our viewers need to know is this. there are different vaccine platforms, different technologies that trigger your immune system in different ways. they are founding now almost incon throw verse bring that if you use -- if you mix and match your immune system is being

triggered in different ways for the first dose and second dose. that gives you an overall stronger response so you're better able to fight the coronavirus. germany is going to be doing it and the european medicines agency hasn't taken a position. all of the scientific body of evidence points strongly towards mixing and matching. you may see europe moving more and more towards this. >> now a few days ago an e.u. committee said the euro 2020 soccer tournament crowds are, quote, a recipe for disaster. now we're seeing more evidence that may be true. there will be more matches today but the crowds in italy will be a little different. take us through what's happening? >> well, you're not going to see as many british football fans at the game even though it's england ukraine being played this afternoon.

italy is enforcing strictly the rule that it had in place for a little while now on u.k. travelers and the rule is they have a strict five-day quarantine. they are concerned people will fly in, not respect the policy and as a result italy has canceled -- asked uefa to cancel for the u.k. ticket holders. now it is beyond a doubt that these euro events are creating clusters and are creating infections. we saw that with scotland's reported covid numbers just last week. they said upwards of 1300 people who had traveled from scott lapped to england for the england/scotland game came back with covid. it's not necessarily, kim, happening at the game because usually you can't just walk into

those arenas. you need to have been fully vaccinated and show a negative covid test. it's the things happening before and after the game. for all of those reasons italy has decided to limit the number of u.k. ticket holders who are able to watch the game. >> thanks so much, cyril vanier, london. let's bring in serg yoes mo moskos. thanks so much for joining us. i want to elaborate on what we're hearing there. we're seeing the delta variant become more and more prevalent in the u.s. nothing like what you're seeing in the u.k. where it represents 99% of the cases. we're watching what's happening here. it seems like it's a test case of how a country handles a spike of a more transmissible variant without imposing new restrictions. it looks like the government is going to go ahead with ending

the lockdown july 19th. is that a mistake given what we're seeing? >> yes. it's a critical mistake because i think what's going to happen to individuals in the medium and long term, we haven't got a clue what the vaccine does in that period of time -- not the vaccine, the virus, what it does in that period of time. we are assuming here as a country that it's fine to get infected, it's fine to get maybe mild sim tolls, it's fine to have this virus in our community. a lot of people are not convinced that we have sufficient data to support that herd immunity concept by the back door, by the children especially into the nation. i think this is a very bad idea. >> yeah. speaking of children, i mean, that's a subject you've been sort of looking into a lot and

especially when it comes to long covid. what more are we learning about the effects in children? >> so, again, the studies in children are actually very top level. they will look at the amount of antibody, they will look at the amount of symptoms that children may present with. the information about long covid is coming out of the adult population. what we've seen is we have people that are half, more than half of individuals that are symptomatic of the disease sustaining symptoms for a very long time, months up to a year. some of those symptoms can be extremely debilitating. the mechanism that explains this debilitation frankly problems with the heart, damage to the heart tissue. that's physical damage to the heart tissue. likewise, physical damage to the brain. we're also seeing physical

damage to bloodline to the tissues in the body. it is doing fine and will repair it itself. we don't know how long the virus is happening and let the children be infected is potentially -- i can't promise this, but it is potentially a recipe for getting some 10% or more of the population on the future generations of this country to be unable to contribute fully to society to put it mildly. >> yeah. that will be hugely problematic as you say. here in the u.s. less than half the country is fully vaccinated. according to the survey, most of the adults who plan to get vaccinated have already done that. something i hear very often from people who are vaccinated, they

say, you know, well, people don't want to get vaccinated, they get sick, that's on them. as some experts are explaining, these unvaccinated people are potential variant factories in the words of one disease expert. explain how this works and how this might end up affecting those who have been vaccinated. >> okay. it's really simple. the reason why we have the so-called u.k. variant and the delta variant from india is because people were allowing the virus to replicate. now we can have literally hundreds of billions of the virus in one individual person that is copying it. that is basically infected. as this goes along, copies itself, it has a chance of making errors. those give rise to the variant. some might give the virus an advantage, some might give it a

disadvantage. if one of those erroneous viruses have an advantage and skip to the next person, now we're starting to see the transmission change of a new potential variant. is it of interest? is it of concern? time will tell. we won't know. the more transmission is allowed to happen in the population the more chances are that we will get a variant that will cause a problem or to overcoming the vaccine barrier. this is why it's so important to understand that the vaccination protects hospitalization. it protects from death. it doesn't necessarily protect you from catching the virus. you may get very mild symptoms. you -- amongst the population that has been vaccinated, it has a physical barrier it needs to overcome. if it jumps over the barrier to

the next person who is vaccinated, then it has the ability to starve itself. that's how we're going to lose the efficacy of the vaccines. that means we will find ourselves in a situation where when we see the exponential growth of variants if they come, by the time we do something about it, it will take a minimum of six months to get mrna vaccines ready to go into public and the health systems will be overwhelmed. we don't want that. this is why people like me and other virologists say, we need the vaccination. absolutely we need the vaccination but we also need to stop transmission f. it doesn't breathe, if it doesn't spread to people, that's the threat, it won't be able to spread. that's what we're asking for. >> you're fighting an uphill

battle as we open up and more and more people become more resistant to taking those measures. anyway, thank you so much for bringing all of that information to us. really appreciate it. thanks again. >> you're very welcome. a piece of pre-pandemic life makes a comeback during the independence day weekend in the u.s. holiday travel roars back, but so do long airport lines and jammed highways. that's next. stay with us. gena® rapid wrinkle repair® smooths the look of fine lines in 1-week, deep wrinkles in 4. so you can kiss wrinkles goodbye! neutrogena®

-hey. -hi. whoa, nice car. thanks, yeah. i actually got a great deal on it too, although my interest rate is awful. have you checked your credit? i got like a free score from some app or something like that. but lenders don't even use that score. creditrepair.com has a free credit snapshot that can show you exactly what's happening with your credit score. and killing my interest rates. well, great seats though. -thank you. -like really. just knowing your score won't improve it. instead, work to actually fix your credit with creditrepair.com.

ah! my helicopter has better wifi than this. you thinking what i am? great time. don't worry i have the best internet people. hello xfinity. get me xfi pronto. that was fast. yep. now we just self-install. and we're back baby. do more of what you love when you upgrade to xfinity xfi. baby ninjas? i love it.

americans are on the move this weekend. record number of travelers expected to hit the road for the july 4th holiday. as pete munteen reports, airlines can't keep up with the demand for people who want to get away. >> reporter: the july 4th travel rush will look more like normal. the tsa says numbers at some airports, nashville and myrtle

beach, are higher than 2019 prepandemic. they screen about 2.15 million people across the country on thursday. we will see if friday sets the new pandemic era air travel records. united airlines thinks monday will be the busiest day in the last 16 months. airlines got smaller. fewer planes staffed by fewer workers. that makes it hard to back up. flight aware says airlines canceled flights. 10,000 flights on thursday. all of this means the vast majority of americans will elect to drive. aaa says 43 million americans will hit the road. that number higher than two years ago. what's so interesting is that aaa, the real problems began on monday. i triple a.

pete munteen, cnn, ragan national airport. >> we'll be right back. please stay with us. hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor? sure, he's the 76-year-old guy who still runs marathons, right? sadly, not anymore. wow. so sudden. um, we're not about to have the "we need life insurance" conversation again, are we? no, we're having the "we're getting coverage so we don't have to worry about it" conversation.

so you're calling about the $9.95 a month plan -from colonial penn? -i am. we put it off long enough. we are getting that $9.95 plan, today. (jonathan) is it time for you to call about the $9.95 plan? i'm jonathan from colonial penn life insurance company. sometimes we just need a reminder not to take today for granted. if you're age 50 to 85, you can get guaranteed acceptance whole life insurance starting at just $9.95 a month. there are no health questions so you can't be turned down for any health reason. the $9.95 plan is colonial penn's number one most popular whole life plan. options start at just $9.95 a month. that's less than 35 cents a day. your rate can never go up. it's locked in for life. call today for free information. and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner, so call now. (soft music) ♪

hello, colonial penn?

are you a christian author with a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today!

. last two survivors got back together to recount their narrow escape. cnn's randi kaye has this. >> i hear boom and my bed shake and i see my apartment is shaking. >> reporter: when champlain towers shook in the middle of the night, esther was in the bed. she quickly made her way from unit 5089 to the stairwell. soon alfredo lopez spotted her. he and his family had escaped apartment 605. >> esther told me her knee was bothering her, she wanted to stop. i told her stopping is not an option, you know? >> reporter: there was no way you were going to let her stay? >> no. just didn't even occur to me. she's a human being.

>> reporter: she couldn't walk so alfredo picked her up, tossed her over his shoulder and carried her down. >> i don't know how many flights of stairs. it couldn't be that many because i'm not that strong. >> he just picked me up. he just picked me up. >> reporter: esther and alfredo haven't seen each other since that terrible night when he saved her life and we brought them together. >> how are you? >> i'm so happy. >> i'm so happy, too. i'm so happy to see you and, you know, we made it out, you know? that's what's important, right? >> yes. yes. that's important. i'm so happy. someone is watching. >> yes. absolutely. esther, it just wasn't our time. >> reporter: together they recounted their chance meeting and their narrow escape. >> in that minute you don't talk, you don't say anything. let's run, let's run, let's run. let's go. >> reporter: they made it to the

garage but they still weren't out of danger. the garage ceiling had collapsed and water was ankle deep. >> there was one car pancaked on top of another car that was pancaked on top of a huge slap of concrete. >> reporter: after they cleared the garage he put her over his shoulder again and carried her to safety on the beach. what do you think of somebody this would do that? >> you know, you need to help each other in bad times, too. remember, everybody have a bad time. but i can tell you -- >> reporter: it's just so beautiful that they helped you. >> in bad times you help everybody. whoever comes to my door and need help, i give it to them. >> reporter: how lucky do you

feel today? >> i know i'm lucky. very lucky to be here with my fa family. >> reporter: that night alfredo and esther lost everything they owned but they escaped with their lives and a friendship that is sure to endure. >> you make me very happy. >> reporter: randi kaye, cnn, surfside, florida. >> i'm kim brunhuber. i'll be back in just a moment with more "cnn newsroom." please stay with us. it's the most comfortable, dually-adjustable, foot-warming, temperature-balancing proven quality night sleep we've ever made. the new queen sleep number 360 c2 smart bed is only $899. plus free premium delivery when you add a base. ends monday.

it's a simple fact: nothing kills more germs on more surfaces than lysol spray. it's a simple fact: it even kills the covid-19 virus. science supports these simple facts. there's only one true lysol. lysol. what it takes to protect. ♪♪ i'm steven, i'm 52, and i'm a makeup artist. i met my husband in 2002. i miss those eyes. do you think you could fall in love again? i'm so ready, you know? so, what do you see when you look at yourself?

i see a really long life lived of vast experiences. botox® cosmetic is fda approved to temporarily make frown lines, crow's feet and forehead lines look better. the effects of botox® cosmetic may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness may be a sign of a life-threatening condition. do not receive botox® cosmetic if you have a skin infection. side effects may include allergic reactions, injection site pain, headache, eyebrow, eyelid drooping, and eyelid swelling. tell your doctor about your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions, and medications including botulinum toxins as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. see for yourself at botoxcosmetic.com ♪