EXCERPT:
VELSHI: “Governor, this morning you were touring flood damages in upstate New York which is becoming quite serious. You actually witnessed and we are showing some video of it, a baby and family being rescued while you were assessing the damage. Can you give us an update on the flooding situation and what you saw?”
CUOMO: “Ali, anyone who questions extreme weather and climate change is just delusional at this point. We have seen in the State of New York what everyone has seen, we have seen these weather patterns that we never had before. We didn’t have hurricanes, we didn't have super storms, we didn't have tornadoes. This is a storm that came up just over night and dropped about five inches of rain. It was literally a matter of life and death for people. I was at one of the sites this morning, the river overcame its banks with five inches of water, run through a residential neighborhood. The streets looked like rivers themselves. People were trapped in their homes. The one home you were mentioning, people were afraid the house itself was going to be swept away and luckily we train with the swift water rescue teams and they literally took five people out of the home including an infant, but it was a very dangerous and precarious situation. Thank God we have the best first responders I believe in the United States and everyone got off safely. But this is a recurrent pattern and anyone who is still in denial is making a serious mistake.”