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American Morning
Special Edition, Part VII
Aired February 02, 2003 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAUL ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Thanks so much for joining us this morning. The nation and the world still coming to grips with a space age tragedy. It has been 25 hours since shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas, never making it back home after a 16-day scientific mission.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The debris field, we know, is enormous, some 200 miles long, 40 miles wide, southeastern U.S. We are waiting right now for a news briefing to get under way in Nacogdoches, Texas. CNN will bring you live coverage when that begins to find out what more we know today.
ZAHN: Meanwhile, we have reporters all over the place, including Daryn Kagan, who is at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Wolf Blitzer and Miles O'Brien at the Johnson Space Center in Texas. Good morning to you all.
We're going to start with you, Miles this morning. You were on the air when this tragic event took place yesterday and you can fire away right now. Good morning, Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: About 25 hours ago now, when this first came to pass, and as we told you earlier, Paula, I was telling folks on the air to go out and look outside and see that streaking comet across the continental United States, the space shuttle Columbia coming home. I thought they'd be seeing a thing of beauty, but they saw something entirely different.
Let's bring you up to date on where things are in the early stages of an investigation that's apt to last months and maybe perhaps even longer. And I'm told to toss it back to Paula.
ZAHN: All right. We will have to wait for details on that. In the meantime, let's see if Wolf Blitzer can join us from the Johnson Space Center -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, the officials here at the Johnson Space Center are getting ready for that next briefing, about three hours or so from now. It will presumably provide some additional details though, as Miles points out, this is a very, very early stage in this investigation. Most of the experts we've been speaking to say it will take months, maybe even a lot longer than that, to get to the bottom of what happened.
But there's a news conference under way in Nacogdoches, Texas, where a lot of the debris has fallen. Let's go there now live. (JOINED IN PROGRESS)
JUDGE SUE KENNEDY, NACOGDOCHES COUNTY, TEXAS: Hopefully, by the next press conference we'll be able to tell you what direction we are going to be getting from FEMA in regards to whether or not they want us to begin to pick up debris and catalog that debris. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to the sheriff and let him make a few comments. And, again, we will come back for questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, judge. Basically for those of you that were here at the 12:00 briefing last night, there's not a lot changed from the operation side of this, other than the fact that we have received additional support personnel throughout the state. DPS has sent in a number of troopers as long as the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission. The National Guardsmen are still stationed here and they brought in additional personnel as well.
In many local surrounding agencies that do not have debris in their counties are offering their assistance. We're utilizing all of this, in addition to our volunteer firemen and the other resources that have already been in place helping us secure some of these site locations.
Our plan throughout the day is we realize we cannot muster enough manpower to possibly post someone at every debris location that's already been reported, let alone the additional sites that will continue to come in throughout the day. Therefore, we are going to begin an analysis of how important each site is in terms of us posting a representative there. And we will basically make an assessment on whether or not we will man that site with a priority being given on specific sites that pose any type of potential hazard, any type of data or circuitry that data may be recorded or received from any other types of remains that may need to be recovered. Taking top priorities at all of those site locations assignments.
Beyond that, this is going to be a massive effort, and as Judge Kennedy pointed out and I will reiterate, we very much appreciate the response and the assistance that we have received from you and the press, as well as from our public that is responded to assisting us via the information that they're receiving from you. We also are going to ask that you, as the press, throughout the day, we know that you need to get information to relay back to your networks and to broadcast, and we're going to try to assist you in doing that. But we would ask that you not just go out on private property and try to stumble around on some of this. We will assign officers to carry you to specific, public access points that does have debris on site and we will allow you to get what footage you need from those public points without you having to go bother our local citizens that may have debris on their private properties. And if you'll cooperate with us, by the next briefing, we will have that assignment made and I'll have officers in place to try to carry you to some of those locations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, as the judge said, welcome to day two. Not a lot has changed since last night or the last briefing. I'd like to reiterate what has been said as far as debris. We'd like -- we want to caution people to call the numbers that have been given to report that and we will dispatch personnel out to that site.
And again, as we said, all throughout yesterday, and we want to continue to express our sympathy for the families of the members of the space shuttle that were -- lost their lives and to keep them in our thoughts and prayers. That's all. Thank you.
KENNEDY: One other comment that I will make is that -- I'm sorry. Thank you for reminding me. We are -- some of you yesterday indicated an interest in being able to get together with some of the GPS teams that are coming in today. We are actually trying to negotiate that and get that in place. And hopefully by the end of this press conference, we will actually have a site identified that will be on public property, again, that a GPS team out of NASA will be going to that site. We'll give you directions on how to get there, so that you can follow the team out to that site if you want to get some news from them. So we're trying to get that coordinated and hopefully by the end of this meeting we'll be able to give you additional information on that.
Our next conference will be at 11:00. We're sticking with the two-hour schedule that we had yesterday unless we need to downsize that. By 11:00, hopefully we'll be able to give you some firmer information on what FEMA is going to do in directing our activities with regard to the debris. With that, we will entertain questions and I'll try to field them as best as I can. Yes, sir.
QUESTION: Thank you, judge.
KENNEDY: You're welcome.
QUESTION: Who is picking up the materials, specifically what agency? And where will that material be taken and at what time will that happen?
KENNEDY: OK, very good comprehensive question. At this point, nobody is picking up the material. We have been told by NASA that we are to identify and secure. And we are using GPS to plot those locations for NASA. Until we are told otherwise, that's what we will continue to do. If they tell us that they're going to pick it up -- at this point we've kind of been told that it will be a federal agency that will take on that responsibility to actually go out and pick up the debris. But we don't know which agency will do that. And hopefully by 11:00, we should have more information for you.
Who was next? Taking too long?
ZAHN: Judge Sue Kennedy bringing us up to date on what the local community there has to confront as they try to figure out how to coordinate the efforts of local groups as well as federal agents as the horrible process goes through of the search for the large pieces of debris, which fell not far from Nacogdoches.
Right now, we're going to check in with Maria Hinojosa, who is in another part of Texas that also got showered with some of this debris. And she's going to bring us up to date on what some of the local volunteers are doing at this hour. Good morning, Maria.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. It really is moving into a different phase of the search here in this area of Hemphill where much of the debris has been found and several human remains have also been found. Between 100 to 300 volunteers, all of them coordinated out of the central command post here in Hemphill, they will fan out into very rugged terrain, very complicated searches through hills and valleys, 250 square miles in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) National Forest. Those will include people from NASA, the FBI, U.S. Marshals, ATF, Secret Service, the Forest Service, the Department of Public Safety, local police and fire departments.
Now, this is also a no-fly area, but we have been told that helicopters from NASA and the U.S. Forest service will start circling as well.
Paula, this is difficult to talk about, but one of the areas that they are going to be using as a point for departure for this search will be a part -- human remains that were found on Route 96 South, literally in the middle of a country highway. These sites that have been spotted have been marked off in white. They have people who have literally been driving over these parts where some of these human remains have been found.
Now, also, something else that we have learned. There may be divers coming into this area to search parts of a Toledo Bend Reservoir. Reports that there may have been a piece of debris as large as a small compact car that was found. That part will not be retrieved today. They will go in to the reservoir and the EPA will retrieve it at some point, not today. It is expected to be marked by the GPS. That's what they're doing today when they go into this terrain. They're marking all of the pieces of debris so that later the EPA can come and retrieve that, which may not happen for several days.
There has also been some concern about the water quality. If this debris has fallen into the Toledo Bend Reservoir, this is the water supply for several counties here. The Texas Commission of Environmental Quality has said that there is no concern right now about the water quality.
A lot of continuing discussion about the fact that these pieces of debris should not be handled, should not be touched. But I can tell you I have seen people touching them. You see them. There -- it is on their front lawns. People feel that they're small enough pieces that they're harmless. I have actually seen people touching them. In some cases now that means some people in this area as a result have ended up in the hospital.
ZAHN: And most of those folks, Maria, that ended up in the hospital, were those with respiratory problems? What do officials say? They had somehow either touched the stuff or the fumes from the debris itself gave them some problems.
HINOJOSA: That's right. They may have touched it. We heard that some people didn't realize that they were burning, that they touched it, that they may have gotten burned, also from inhalation of some of the exhaust that was coming out of these pieces of debris that were landing in their front lawns. We have heard of eight people now who are in the Hemphill Hospital area that are being treated.
And one last thing, Paula, very sadly, the human remains that have been found in this area were taken to Lubbock, which is about 45 minutes away, escorted by the sheriffs. And they were taken to Lubbock because that's the closest area where they have a forensic medical examiner, taken by hearse with an escort -- Paula.
ZAHN: Awful! Awful to think about! Maria Hinojosa, thanks so much.
There is plenty of mourning going on this morning, particularly in India. Family and friends have gathered there to remember Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian-born woman in the space. And Dr. Manju Gupta was a classmate of hers. She joins us from New Delhi, India.
Thank you for joining us at this time of your grief. Explain to us how your country has reacted to this horrible, horrible news.
DR. MANJU GUPTA, FRIEND OF KALPANA CHAWLA: There is actually a lot of shock and such things are not expected, so it has left everyone numb. The reaction right now is one of numbness and shock. And I think it will take some time to sink in, the actual loss which has occurred.
ZAHN: I know you were very close to Astronaut Chawla. Is there anything you want to share with our audience about the depth of her desire to explore? She certainly was a very accomplished woman who succeeded in everything she ever tried.
GUPTA: There is this one particular incident which I would like to share to you. In hindsight, it is -- a lot of importance can be attached to it. When we were in school there was this science exhibition for which we were transforming a whole classroom into a part of the earth. And we were tracing the course of a river right down from the mountains to the delta and every one of us was worried about the buildings and the fields and the huts and everything. And it was her who -- Kalpana who said, "Why can't we transfer the ceiling into a sky and I'll make the constellations." So that was way back in 1976. Now -- on hindsight, it seems so important. It seems that she was destined to be there, among the stars. That is what her calling was.
ZAHN: What a beautiful story. We wanted to share with our audience now a little of what Kalpana had to say about her desire to pursue this career. Let's all listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KALPANA CHAWLA, MISSION SPECIALIST: That is something I have loved since I was 14, 15, you know, the engineering track and really wanted to know the nuts and bolts, how a system works. If this happens, what's going on? And then on some of these more intense periods of our orbit, the assent, when we do the on orbit maneuvering system burn to basically get to the orbit that we need to, and then the de-orbit burn we do to come back home and the entry routine and play a role in those. It's just tremendous. I have lived my life for that, in some sense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: And I guess Dr. Gupta, you said she's been wanting to live that dream for many, many years. Just a final thought about the amount of pride your fellow countrymen and countrywomen have in her heroism and her accomplishments.
GUPTA: She has really given name to the country. And the best part of her was that even when she reached for the stars, she stayed firmly rooted to the ground. That is what makes her great and that is what makes her stand apart from all the rest. That is how we want to remember her, as a humble, loving and very nice human being.
ZAHN: Well, you're very kind to share your thoughts with us at such a time of grief for your country and for your friends and for Kalpana's family. Thank you.
And Bill, before we go to the next break, I want to share with you something else she had to say. She said, "After you go to space once, you sort of get addicted. You want to have the same experience. That's precisely what I feel, especially the part about looking at the earth, looking at the stars. Doing it again is like having a good dream once again."
HEMMER: Wow! A good dream indeed.
In a moment here, we're going to talk to a gentleman who wrote a piece for "The New York Times" this morning about where the argument, where the debate, goes at this point moving forward. In fact, there was going to be some detail released tomorrow from the White House about the future for the budget for NASA. We'll talk about that and a whole lot more.
Also, there is other news. Back to Heidi Collins at the CNN Center when our coverage continues. Also the question we'll be asking now -- should the shuttle program be scrapped and replaced with something new? The future for space travel with our guest as our special Sunday edition coverage continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: We've talked a lot this morning about what confronts the investigators and volunteers as they go about the very painful task of combing through some of the debris that has been spread around a couple hundred miles, square miles that is. We're going to check in with Cindy Garza, which is our local affiliate from Houston, KPRC-TV, who joins us from Nacogdoches with an update on that. Good morning.
CINDY GARZA, KPRC CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Right now, officials here in Nacogdoches are discussing just that, resuming their search. They are holding a news conference right now.
Now, we do understand that the Army is also bringing in more help. They're bringing in more soldiers. They're bringing in more guardsmen and more choppers to pick up the debris. As you can see, this is one of the bigger pieces here in Nacogdoches that fell here in downtown. They are guarding that 24/7. They are waiting for NASA officials to come here to collect it and take it away.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARZA (voice-over): There are at least 1,300 debris sites in Nacogdoches County. More than 800 pieces of wreckage have been found so far and four unconfirmed reports of human remains.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our initial mapping is showing like an eight- mile wide area across our county, which is 40, 45 miles long.
GARZA: The Army is sending choppers and soldiers, National Guardsmen to locate the wreckage and guard it. Each piece of wreckage has to be identified until NASA can map it.
KENNEDY: NASA is struggling with the same thing that we're struggling with here in trying to determine how they are going to handle a debris field that covers approximately five counties.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I saw this floating down the sky. And it was floating like a leaf instead of a hunk of metal.
GARZA: Allison Haley (ph) had just heard about the shuttle explosion. Then minutes later, she actually saw pieces of it falling from the sky.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was like surely that's not what that is. There's no way. I caught it about the wires right there and just watched it float down like this.
GARZA: All over east Texas bits, pieces and even chunks of metal and ceramic fell out of the atmosphere. And in this small town of Nacogdoches, as somber as the news, is the debris can be seen everywhere and it's quite a spectacle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the officers drove back here and found it, and it was smoldering. It was much more of a snow white this morning. Over the day, it's kind of turned a little more charcoal gray.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looked like a big cinder block.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looked like a half a cinder block. It was like brown and she said that when she first got there it was smoking. GARZA: Makeshift memorials are everywhere, a small reminder of the lives lost and a small town making history.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GARZA: We're back live now here in Nacogdoches. As you can see, people are still gathering here at the site where the debris fell, bringing little mementos, making a makeshift shrine again, reminding everyone of the seven lives lost. And they're all saying prayers. Also, there are a lot of church services here in Nacogdoches.
I'd also like to show you all a flag here right behind me, also a makeshift memorial. A man from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, brought that here yesterday. He drove it six hours and placed it here around 10:45 last night.
We are live here in Nacogdoches. I'm Cindy Garza. Now back to you.
ZAHN: Thanks so much, Cindy. We appreciate that live update. We're going to take a short break. On the other side, we want to bring to you some of the other news that might be of some interest to you. Please stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: And that wraps it up for Bill and me and the rest of our team.
HEMMER: For now.
ZAHN: We worked hard over night to bring you the last three hours or three and a half hours of television. We will be back at the top of the hour. And up ahead, right out of this break, profiling the lives of the seven astronauts who perished on board Columbia hosted by Bruce Burkhardt.
(NEWSBREAK)
ZAHN: Well, we kind of fibbed a little, didn't we?
HEMMER: Yes, we did.
ZAHN: We said we wouldn't be back until the top of the hour, but here we are a minute later.
HEMMER: Yes. Listen, we're going to check out for about 30 minutes time, but in a moment here, Bruce Burkhardt, he is your host for the next 30 minutes, a special edition of "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," looking exclusively at the lives of the seven Americans lost yesterday. Six Americans and one Israeli. See you again in 30 minutes.
ZAHN: Thanks again for joining us.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired February 2, 2003 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAUL ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Thanks so much for joining us this morning. The nation and the world still coming to grips with a space age tragedy. It has been 25 hours since shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas, never making it back home after a 16-day scientific mission.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The debris field, we know, is enormous, some 200 miles long, 40 miles wide, southeastern U.S. We are waiting right now for a news briefing to get under way in Nacogdoches, Texas. CNN will bring you live coverage when that begins to find out what more we know today.
ZAHN: Meanwhile, we have reporters all over the place, including Daryn Kagan, who is at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Wolf Blitzer and Miles O'Brien at the Johnson Space Center in Texas. Good morning to you all.
We're going to start with you, Miles this morning. You were on the air when this tragic event took place yesterday and you can fire away right now. Good morning, Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: About 25 hours ago now, when this first came to pass, and as we told you earlier, Paula, I was telling folks on the air to go out and look outside and see that streaking comet across the continental United States, the space shuttle Columbia coming home. I thought they'd be seeing a thing of beauty, but they saw something entirely different.
Let's bring you up to date on where things are in the early stages of an investigation that's apt to last months and maybe perhaps even longer. And I'm told to toss it back to Paula.
ZAHN: All right. We will have to wait for details on that. In the meantime, let's see if Wolf Blitzer can join us from the Johnson Space Center -- Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, the officials here at the Johnson Space Center are getting ready for that next briefing, about three hours or so from now. It will presumably provide some additional details though, as Miles points out, this is a very, very early stage in this investigation. Most of the experts we've been speaking to say it will take months, maybe even a lot longer than that, to get to the bottom of what happened.
But there's a news conference under way in Nacogdoches, Texas, where a lot of the debris has fallen. Let's go there now live. (JOINED IN PROGRESS)
JUDGE SUE KENNEDY, NACOGDOCHES COUNTY, TEXAS: Hopefully, by the next press conference we'll be able to tell you what direction we are going to be getting from FEMA in regards to whether or not they want us to begin to pick up debris and catalog that debris. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to the sheriff and let him make a few comments. And, again, we will come back for questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, judge. Basically for those of you that were here at the 12:00 briefing last night, there's not a lot changed from the operation side of this, other than the fact that we have received additional support personnel throughout the state. DPS has sent in a number of troopers as long as the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission. The National Guardsmen are still stationed here and they brought in additional personnel as well.
In many local surrounding agencies that do not have debris in their counties are offering their assistance. We're utilizing all of this, in addition to our volunteer firemen and the other resources that have already been in place helping us secure some of these site locations.
Our plan throughout the day is we realize we cannot muster enough manpower to possibly post someone at every debris location that's already been reported, let alone the additional sites that will continue to come in throughout the day. Therefore, we are going to begin an analysis of how important each site is in terms of us posting a representative there. And we will basically make an assessment on whether or not we will man that site with a priority being given on specific sites that pose any type of potential hazard, any type of data or circuitry that data may be recorded or received from any other types of remains that may need to be recovered. Taking top priorities at all of those site locations assignments.
Beyond that, this is going to be a massive effort, and as Judge Kennedy pointed out and I will reiterate, we very much appreciate the response and the assistance that we have received from you and the press, as well as from our public that is responded to assisting us via the information that they're receiving from you. We also are going to ask that you, as the press, throughout the day, we know that you need to get information to relay back to your networks and to broadcast, and we're going to try to assist you in doing that. But we would ask that you not just go out on private property and try to stumble around on some of this. We will assign officers to carry you to specific, public access points that does have debris on site and we will allow you to get what footage you need from those public points without you having to go bother our local citizens that may have debris on their private properties. And if you'll cooperate with us, by the next briefing, we will have that assignment made and I'll have officers in place to try to carry you to some of those locations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, as the judge said, welcome to day two. Not a lot has changed since last night or the last briefing. I'd like to reiterate what has been said as far as debris. We'd like -- we want to caution people to call the numbers that have been given to report that and we will dispatch personnel out to that site.
And again, as we said, all throughout yesterday, and we want to continue to express our sympathy for the families of the members of the space shuttle that were -- lost their lives and to keep them in our thoughts and prayers. That's all. Thank you.
KENNEDY: One other comment that I will make is that -- I'm sorry. Thank you for reminding me. We are -- some of you yesterday indicated an interest in being able to get together with some of the GPS teams that are coming in today. We are actually trying to negotiate that and get that in place. And hopefully by the end of this press conference, we will actually have a site identified that will be on public property, again, that a GPS team out of NASA will be going to that site. We'll give you directions on how to get there, so that you can follow the team out to that site if you want to get some news from them. So we're trying to get that coordinated and hopefully by the end of this meeting we'll be able to give you additional information on that.
Our next conference will be at 11:00. We're sticking with the two-hour schedule that we had yesterday unless we need to downsize that. By 11:00, hopefully we'll be able to give you some firmer information on what FEMA is going to do in directing our activities with regard to the debris. With that, we will entertain questions and I'll try to field them as best as I can. Yes, sir.
QUESTION: Thank you, judge.
KENNEDY: You're welcome.
QUESTION: Who is picking up the materials, specifically what agency? And where will that material be taken and at what time will that happen?
KENNEDY: OK, very good comprehensive question. At this point, nobody is picking up the material. We have been told by NASA that we are to identify and secure. And we are using GPS to plot those locations for NASA. Until we are told otherwise, that's what we will continue to do. If they tell us that they're going to pick it up -- at this point we've kind of been told that it will be a federal agency that will take on that responsibility to actually go out and pick up the debris. But we don't know which agency will do that. And hopefully by 11:00, we should have more information for you.
Who was next? Taking too long?
ZAHN: Judge Sue Kennedy bringing us up to date on what the local community there has to confront as they try to figure out how to coordinate the efforts of local groups as well as federal agents as the horrible process goes through of the search for the large pieces of debris, which fell not far from Nacogdoches.
Right now, we're going to check in with Maria Hinojosa, who is in another part of Texas that also got showered with some of this debris. And she's going to bring us up to date on what some of the local volunteers are doing at this hour. Good morning, Maria.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula. It really is moving into a different phase of the search here in this area of Hemphill where much of the debris has been found and several human remains have also been found. Between 100 to 300 volunteers, all of them coordinated out of the central command post here in Hemphill, they will fan out into very rugged terrain, very complicated searches through hills and valleys, 250 square miles in the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) National Forest. Those will include people from NASA, the FBI, U.S. Marshals, ATF, Secret Service, the Forest Service, the Department of Public Safety, local police and fire departments.
Now, this is also a no-fly area, but we have been told that helicopters from NASA and the U.S. Forest service will start circling as well.
Paula, this is difficult to talk about, but one of the areas that they are going to be using as a point for departure for this search will be a part -- human remains that were found on Route 96 South, literally in the middle of a country highway. These sites that have been spotted have been marked off in white. They have people who have literally been driving over these parts where some of these human remains have been found.
Now, also, something else that we have learned. There may be divers coming into this area to search parts of a Toledo Bend Reservoir. Reports that there may have been a piece of debris as large as a small compact car that was found. That part will not be retrieved today. They will go in to the reservoir and the EPA will retrieve it at some point, not today. It is expected to be marked by the GPS. That's what they're doing today when they go into this terrain. They're marking all of the pieces of debris so that later the EPA can come and retrieve that, which may not happen for several days.
There has also been some concern about the water quality. If this debris has fallen into the Toledo Bend Reservoir, this is the water supply for several counties here. The Texas Commission of Environmental Quality has said that there is no concern right now about the water quality.
A lot of continuing discussion about the fact that these pieces of debris should not be handled, should not be touched. But I can tell you I have seen people touching them. You see them. There -- it is on their front lawns. People feel that they're small enough pieces that they're harmless. I have actually seen people touching them. In some cases now that means some people in this area as a result have ended up in the hospital.
ZAHN: And most of those folks, Maria, that ended up in the hospital, were those with respiratory problems? What do officials say? They had somehow either touched the stuff or the fumes from the debris itself gave them some problems.
HINOJOSA: That's right. They may have touched it. We heard that some people didn't realize that they were burning, that they touched it, that they may have gotten burned, also from inhalation of some of the exhaust that was coming out of these pieces of debris that were landing in their front lawns. We have heard of eight people now who are in the Hemphill Hospital area that are being treated.
And one last thing, Paula, very sadly, the human remains that have been found in this area were taken to Lubbock, which is about 45 minutes away, escorted by the sheriffs. And they were taken to Lubbock because that's the closest area where they have a forensic medical examiner, taken by hearse with an escort -- Paula.
ZAHN: Awful! Awful to think about! Maria Hinojosa, thanks so much.
There is plenty of mourning going on this morning, particularly in India. Family and friends have gathered there to remember Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian-born woman in the space. And Dr. Manju Gupta was a classmate of hers. She joins us from New Delhi, India.
Thank you for joining us at this time of your grief. Explain to us how your country has reacted to this horrible, horrible news.
DR. MANJU GUPTA, FRIEND OF KALPANA CHAWLA: There is actually a lot of shock and such things are not expected, so it has left everyone numb. The reaction right now is one of numbness and shock. And I think it will take some time to sink in, the actual loss which has occurred.
ZAHN: I know you were very close to Astronaut Chawla. Is there anything you want to share with our audience about the depth of her desire to explore? She certainly was a very accomplished woman who succeeded in everything she ever tried.
GUPTA: There is this one particular incident which I would like to share to you. In hindsight, it is -- a lot of importance can be attached to it. When we were in school there was this science exhibition for which we were transforming a whole classroom into a part of the earth. And we were tracing the course of a river right down from the mountains to the delta and every one of us was worried about the buildings and the fields and the huts and everything. And it was her who -- Kalpana who said, "Why can't we transfer the ceiling into a sky and I'll make the constellations." So that was way back in 1976. Now -- on hindsight, it seems so important. It seems that she was destined to be there, among the stars. That is what her calling was.
ZAHN: What a beautiful story. We wanted to share with our audience now a little of what Kalpana had to say about her desire to pursue this career. Let's all listen.
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KALPANA CHAWLA, MISSION SPECIALIST: That is something I have loved since I was 14, 15, you know, the engineering track and really wanted to know the nuts and bolts, how a system works. If this happens, what's going on? And then on some of these more intense periods of our orbit, the assent, when we do the on orbit maneuvering system burn to basically get to the orbit that we need to, and then the de-orbit burn we do to come back home and the entry routine and play a role in those. It's just tremendous. I have lived my life for that, in some sense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: And I guess Dr. Gupta, you said she's been wanting to live that dream for many, many years. Just a final thought about the amount of pride your fellow countrymen and countrywomen have in her heroism and her accomplishments.
GUPTA: She has really given name to the country. And the best part of her was that even when she reached for the stars, she stayed firmly rooted to the ground. That is what makes her great and that is what makes her stand apart from all the rest. That is how we want to remember her, as a humble, loving and very nice human being.
ZAHN: Well, you're very kind to share your thoughts with us at such a time of grief for your country and for your friends and for Kalpana's family. Thank you.
And Bill, before we go to the next break, I want to share with you something else she had to say. She said, "After you go to space once, you sort of get addicted. You want to have the same experience. That's precisely what I feel, especially the part about looking at the earth, looking at the stars. Doing it again is like having a good dream once again."
HEMMER: Wow! A good dream indeed.
In a moment here, we're going to talk to a gentleman who wrote a piece for "The New York Times" this morning about where the argument, where the debate, goes at this point moving forward. In fact, there was going to be some detail released tomorrow from the White House about the future for the budget for NASA. We'll talk about that and a whole lot more.
Also, there is other news. Back to Heidi Collins at the CNN Center when our coverage continues. Also the question we'll be asking now -- should the shuttle program be scrapped and replaced with something new? The future for space travel with our guest as our special Sunday edition coverage continues after this.
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ZAHN: We've talked a lot this morning about what confronts the investigators and volunteers as they go about the very painful task of combing through some of the debris that has been spread around a couple hundred miles, square miles that is. We're going to check in with Cindy Garza, which is our local affiliate from Houston, KPRC-TV, who joins us from Nacogdoches with an update on that. Good morning.
CINDY GARZA, KPRC CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Right now, officials here in Nacogdoches are discussing just that, resuming their search. They are holding a news conference right now.
Now, we do understand that the Army is also bringing in more help. They're bringing in more soldiers. They're bringing in more guardsmen and more choppers to pick up the debris. As you can see, this is one of the bigger pieces here in Nacogdoches that fell here in downtown. They are guarding that 24/7. They are waiting for NASA officials to come here to collect it and take it away.
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GARZA (voice-over): There are at least 1,300 debris sites in Nacogdoches County. More than 800 pieces of wreckage have been found so far and four unconfirmed reports of human remains.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our initial mapping is showing like an eight- mile wide area across our county, which is 40, 45 miles long.
GARZA: The Army is sending choppers and soldiers, National Guardsmen to locate the wreckage and guard it. Each piece of wreckage has to be identified until NASA can map it.
KENNEDY: NASA is struggling with the same thing that we're struggling with here in trying to determine how they are going to handle a debris field that covers approximately five counties.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I saw this floating down the sky. And it was floating like a leaf instead of a hunk of metal.
GARZA: Allison Haley (ph) had just heard about the shuttle explosion. Then minutes later, she actually saw pieces of it falling from the sky.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was like surely that's not what that is. There's no way. I caught it about the wires right there and just watched it float down like this.
GARZA: All over east Texas bits, pieces and even chunks of metal and ceramic fell out of the atmosphere. And in this small town of Nacogdoches, as somber as the news, is the debris can be seen everywhere and it's quite a spectacle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the officers drove back here and found it, and it was smoldering. It was much more of a snow white this morning. Over the day, it's kind of turned a little more charcoal gray.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looked like a big cinder block.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It looked like a half a cinder block. It was like brown and she said that when she first got there it was smoking. GARZA: Makeshift memorials are everywhere, a small reminder of the lives lost and a small town making history.
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GARZA: We're back live now here in Nacogdoches. As you can see, people are still gathering here at the site where the debris fell, bringing little mementos, making a makeshift shrine again, reminding everyone of the seven lives lost. And they're all saying prayers. Also, there are a lot of church services here in Nacogdoches.
I'd also like to show you all a flag here right behind me, also a makeshift memorial. A man from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, brought that here yesterday. He drove it six hours and placed it here around 10:45 last night.
We are live here in Nacogdoches. I'm Cindy Garza. Now back to you.
ZAHN: Thanks so much, Cindy. We appreciate that live update. We're going to take a short break. On the other side, we want to bring to you some of the other news that might be of some interest to you. Please stay with us.
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ZAHN: And that wraps it up for Bill and me and the rest of our team.
HEMMER: For now.
ZAHN: We worked hard over night to bring you the last three hours or three and a half hours of television. We will be back at the top of the hour. And up ahead, right out of this break, profiling the lives of the seven astronauts who perished on board Columbia hosted by Bruce Burkhardt.
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ZAHN: Well, we kind of fibbed a little, didn't we?
HEMMER: Yes, we did.
ZAHN: We said we wouldn't be back until the top of the hour, but here we are a minute later.
HEMMER: Yes. Listen, we're going to check out for about 30 minutes time, but in a moment here, Bruce Burkhardt, he is your host for the next 30 minutes, a special edition of "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," looking exclusively at the lives of the seven Americans lost yesterday. Six Americans and one Israeli. See you again in 30 minutes.
ZAHN: Thanks again for joining us.
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