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American Morning

Firefighters, Volunteers Rescue Victims of California Mudslides, Floods; Best-Case, Worst-Case Scenarios for Iraq Elections Explained; South Carolina Town Waits in Shelter for Toxic Train Cleanup

Aired January 11, 2005 - 09:00   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.


BILL HEMMER, CO-HOST: California soaked by relentless rains. Can it take much more today? Mountainsides now giving way and crushing down on the people and the homes below.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got friends buried in that hill right now. I mean, what can you do? I mean, we're up there with shovels digging.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: An urgent rescue operation at this hour. Officials are hopeful they have heard sounds from those trapped below.

Elsewhere in the state, rising waters bringing homes right off their foundations. And the snow in the mountains, too, getting deeper by the minute today again today. Another three feet expected in some places.

And the dramatic rescue. One of the smallest survivors to date: a tiny baby and a wild ride to safety on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Good morning, welcome, everybody. The weather, a huge story again this morning. California just inundated with rain.

This mudslide in La Conchita was the result of too much water. If we can show you those pics. Look at that, coming down way too fast. Now about 20 people are said to be missing, maybe buried in their houses. In just a few moments we'll talk again with authorities there, see how they're coming along with the rescue this morning.

HEMMER: Also this hour, Amber Frey is here today, our guest in the studio, talking about her relationship with Scott Peterson, the trial, the verdict, her life now. She also has a new book out. We'll ask her when it dawned upon her when Scott Peterson was involved with Laci's disappearance, and much more with that.

O'BRIEN: All right. Jack Cafferty, good morning. JACK CAFFERTY, CO-HOST: You've got the tsunami. You've got those floods in Southern California, those huge snows up in the mountains up North. Suppose somebody's trying to tell us something, with all this stuff going on?

O'BRIEN: That's -- doesn't it?

CAFFERTY: Somebody wrote a letter, said, "How long do you think it will be before foreign governments start offering aid to the California flood victims?" We'll be holding our breath for that.

Anyway, a 224-page report that absolutely blisters CBS News for its handling of the President Bush National Guard story. How much confidence do you have in mainstream media? AM@CNN.com. We'll read your e-mails in a few minutes.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's first get to the headlines. Kelly Wallace in for us this morning. Hello again.

KELLY WALLACE, ANCHOR: Hello again, and good morning again, everyone.

Now in the news, we begin in Iraq with a car bomb, killing at least six Iraqi police officers in the northern part of the country, the town of Tikrit. Four members of the Iraqi police force were also injured in that attack.

Iraqi security has been targeted in recent weeks ahead of elections set for the end of this month.

President Bush hinting the U.S. may possibly contribute more to the tsunami relief effort, but indicating it all depends on how the dollars are used. The president said yesterday the relief effort is entering its second phase in Southeast Asia and that it's important to closely monitor how and where all the money is spent. So far, the U.S. has pledged $350 million to efforts there.

News in the Middle East now. Palestinians say Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has telephoned Mahmoud Abbas to congratulate him on his election win as the new Palestinian president. They apparently spoke for about 10 minutes.

Earlier, Sharon said he believed the two would meet in the near future. Abbas has said he wants to restart the Middle East peace process as quickly as possible following this past Sunday's elections.

And the Alaskan National Guard will try again to fly in and restore power to the town of Kaktovik. These pictures from the North Slope area show abandoned cars and homes without lights. The town's power generator quit Sunday amid freezing temperatures and very strong winds.

Officials say the situation is not life threatening, but clearly they're monitoring it, trying to get power to all those people now.

HEMMER: Well, we can say it's cold. WALLACE: You can say -- I think I had read somewhere 70 degrees below zero...

HEMMER: No!

WALLACE: ... factoring in wind chill.

O'BRIEN: How can they say it's not life threatening if the people don't have any access to power?

HEMMER: A lot of folks in that part of the world get ready for this kind of stuff, believe it or not. Our best to them.

Thank you, Kelly.

Rescue officials in California now say they have heard signs possibly of survivors buried beneath debris after a massive mudslide yesterday north of L.A. Ted Rowlands, on the scene, filed this story a short time ago. Here's Ted.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 160 rescue workers searching and listening for survivors in a massive, 30- foot pile of mud and rubble. At least nine people have been pulled from the rubble. At least three of those were kept alive by pockets of air.

CHIEF BOB ROPER, VENTURA COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: People were in voids, like corners of the home, under a doorway, under some furniture. And so what it was, was the mud and the debris that collapsed the house and they had just this little cubicle that they were in. And so the crews were able to go in there, get that off of them.

ROWLANDS: In an instant, a rain-soaked hillside gave way, sending an avalanche of mud and debris into more than a dozen homes below.

BILL HARRISON, GOOD SAMARITAN: Just popped and just came rushing down like a freight train. And just plowed through, probably, over a dozen houses.

ROWLANDS: Crews were in the area at the time of the slide as the residents ran for cover. Firefighters tried frantically to rescue survivors. They plan to keep searching, but there is concern about the possibility that there may be another slide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The geologists are concerned that that mud flow may start pushing more of the hill down and as it released part of that hill, the other parts of the hill that are unstable then may also start sliding down.

ROWLANDS: Homeowners were in the process of being evacuated when the hillside gave way. La Conchita, a seaside community between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, has a history of mudslides. The most significant one until now was in 1995 when nine homes were destroyed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Again, Ted Rowlands reporting there in Southern California.

The latest word as we gathered a short time ago out of Southern California, 20 people now listed as missing. That number may go higher or lower as day breaks there, now 6 a.m. local time.

Also, we are told that they have picked up what's described as a tapping, and they're using these sensors right now to determine whether or not there are survivors trapped alive beneath that mud. As soon as we get more, again, on that story, we'll give it to you.

More now with Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING I spoke with Bill Harbison. He lives in the area. He was able to pull two victims to safety. Here's his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL HARBISON, MUDSLIDE RESCUER: I was just about to take a tour of the neighborhood, riding my bicycle around and look at the small little mudslides that happened overnight.

And I just stepped outside my door and I heard this noise, almost like a pop. And I looked up and I saw the entire -- entire mountainside just come down and just race through part of our little town here.

O'BRIEN: How many homes were in the path of that -- of that slide?

HARBISON: Probably about 15 or so. It was about two blocks wide and about half a block deep.

O'BRIEN: What did you do?

HARBISON: I immediately raced my bike around the corner and just jumped on in, started calling out for people, climbing through the wreckage, climbing through the mud and all the rubble. Calling out for people until I found a little area that had two women trapped deep within what I guess used to be their homes. And I started calling out for more help.

O'BRIEN: Two women, one I think was a kind of a girl and one was a little bit of an older woman. How far apart were they? Were they mother, daughter? Were they in the same house at one point that then got crushed?

HARBISON: You know, I hadn't actually met them before. I think they were neighbors. I don't believe that they were a family. And they were maybe -- maybe 25 feet apart from each other. But they were close enough that I could kind of talk to both of them at the same time while I was working on one, trying to get one free.

O'BRIEN: Could you see them both, or were they just -- you could just hear where they were?

HARBISON: No, I could just hear where they were. They were completely buried underneath just an unbelievable amount of wreckage, broken glass, you know, live power lines.

O'BRIEN: So what did you do?

HARBISON: I just started digging. I called for help, and some other gentlemen came and helped me, one of my neighbors here in La Conchita. And we just started bit by bit tearing -- you know, tearing boards out of the way, throwing pieces of broken glass, basically digging through people's -- what were their prized possessions just to get to them.

O'BRIEN: How long did it take before you were able to reach them?

HARBISON: You know, I -- I really don't know. It seemed like an eternity to me.

O'BRIEN: Rescue workers showed up. What were they able to do? Did you have them out by then? Did you have them kind of out by then?

HARBISON: Yes. The first one, the young girl, I was able to -- we were able to pull her out. And she was fabulous. She was able to help out quite a bit in getting herself out once we were able to remove quite a bit of the wreckage.

And so I put her on my back and carried her out, piggyback and handed her off to someone else. And then jumped back in, looking for another woman and this time a couple law enforcement officers were with me helping. And we were just digging and digging, and I finally found the second woman, got down to her, was actually able to, you know, look her in the eyes, make eye contact and hold her hand and say, "I'm here. We're not going to leave you. We're going to get you out."

And right around that time, the professionals, the rescue team had come, fire department with all their tools and all their training and good equipment. I wasn't exactly dressed for the occasion.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That was Bill Harbison, a man who helped rescue two mudslide victims. I was talking to him a little bit earlier on AMERICAN MORNING.

Another rescue to talk about: some desperate moments for a California mom and her baby. They were trapped by the raging floodwaters. There was a rescue attempt. It was caught on tape. And then suddenly -- take a look -- it made a big turn for the worse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Daring and dramatic moments in Southern California. A two-month-old baby rescued from raging floodwaters, not once but twice. It happened in San Dimas.

All seemed to be going well in the first rescue attempt, but watch: the inflatable raft carrying the rescuer, the mother and her baby suddenly overturns, throwing all three into the water.

Luckily, another rescuer rushed in and was able to reach them. He grabbed the baby, fighting through knee-deep water to get back to dry land.

CAPT. SAM MALDONADO, U.S. FOREST SERVICE: Her and the baby again were again taken under. Then I was trying to yell at her as she was moving downstream, "Hold the baby up; hold the baby up."

And every time I would say that, she'd actually listen and she would try to get the baby up. But it was -- it was quite hard for her.

O'BRIEN: Officials say the infant's body temperature dropped to 90 degrees. He was quickly put into warm clothing and taken to a hospital, where he's expected to make a full recovery.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Flash flood warnings now in effect for all of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, as well -- Bill.

HEMMER: That is the worst news at this point. More rain expected. Back to Chad Myers at the CNN Center.

Chad, good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: It just keeps on going there, doesn't it? Over and over again. Thank you, Chad.

Again today we have another amazing story of survival after the tsunami disaster. An Indonesian man was rescued Monday off the coast of Malaysia. He was adrift for two weeks in the Indian Ocean. He's 21 years young. His name is Ari Afrizal, and he described his ordeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARI AFRIZAL, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR (through translator): The first day I clung to a piece of wood. The second day I retrieved a small fishing boat, but it was leaking. I was in the small boat for four days before I managed to get on a raft.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HEMMER: Wow, what a story of survival, too. Ari says he ate coconut pulp that was floating on the ocean's surface just to survive. Fourteen days at sea. He's alive. Remarkable.

O'BRIEN: Sure is.

Amber Frey, of course, the star witness of the Scott Peterson trial, well, now, Frey is telling all about her affair, the guilty verdict and life after the trial. She's going to join us live in just a little bit.

HEMMER: Also the dangerous task of cleaning up that toxic leak in South Carolina. How long will that take? And when can people go back to their homes there?

O'BRIEN: Plus, violence threatening Iraq's elections again. One group might be ready with a back door deal to save the vote. That story is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

We're getting word that at 10 a.m. this morning President Bush at the White House will make formal his announcement for the nominee for homeland security secretary. We're expecting that right at the top of the hour, at 10 a.m. Of course, when that happens, we will bring that to you live right here on CNN -- Bill.

HEMMER: In the meantime, Iraq's interim prime minister today announcing that, quote, pockets of voters in Iraq will not be able to take part in elections now slated for the 30th of January, all due to security concerns.

A new CNN poll shows 71 percent of Americans, when asked, think that peace and stability is unlikely in the coming year. More than half think a democratic government is unlikely, as well.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the "Washington Post" recently back from the region. He came back in October; spent a better part of two years, though, in Iraq. He's back with us today.

And good morning to you.

RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN, "WASHINGTON POST": Good morning.

HEMMER: Welcome back here to AMERICAN MORNING.

We are looking this election right now, about 21 days in the calendar away. Give us a baseline. Best-case scenario for these elections on the 30th is what?

CHANDRASEKARAN: Best-case scenario is that this campaign of violence that we've been seeing leading up to the elections starts to abate. That the elections can take place somewhat peacefully. That -- we know that the Shiite Muslims, largely in the southern part of Iraq and the Kurds in the north will come out to vote in force. But the best-case scenario is that Sunnis, particularly in Baghdad, decide to come out and vote and to exercise their democratic rights. And I think that is a very, very best case scenario.

The realistic scenario will probably be something very different than that. It will largely involve residents of Baghdad and particularly other very violence-wracked Sunni areas, the Anbar province to the west, home to Falluja and Ramadi, and up to the north the cities of Tikrit, Samarra and the big city of Mosul. Perhaps there, we'll see some very low turnout.

HEMMER: Yes. So that's the Sunni question on the table. What is the worst-case scenario that you see at this point, three weeks away?

CHANDRASEKARAN: The worst-case scenario really is that it's a very violent day, that if polling stations are attacked by insurgents in this continuing and escalating campaign of violence, that large numbers of Iraqis stay home, particularly in Baghdad and these other cities like Mosul and Ramadi, and that the net result is a national assembly that has a disproportionately large representation of Shiites and of Kurds and a disproportionately smaller representation of Sunnis.

And that has the impact, potentially, of furthering the feelings of resentment and frustration members of Iraq's Sunni minority feel. It could take a bad situation right now and potentially make it worse, because they'll feel shut out.

HEMMER: Let's take that worst-case scenario and try to see where we can gain improvement with three weeks and counting right now. Are there negotiations right now with these Sunni leaders in those four central provinces to get them on board before the vote goes down?

CHANDRASEKARAN: Yes. Members of Iraq's interim government and, in fact, some leaders of Iraq's Shiite majority, some influential clerics are trying to reach out to Sunni leaders and trying to get some of them to rescind their boycotts of the election, some of them to participate in these polls.

But that's -- it's a very daunting task. And just -- just over the weekend, we heard that the entire 13-member electoral commission from al-Anbar Province has resigned because of security issues. So while they try to take one step forward, it may be that, you know, they're sort of taking two steps back here.

HEMMER: Well, there is a mountain of issues to tackle over the next 20 days. Hope you come back and help us through it, OK? Rajiv, thanks. Rajiv Chandrasekaran from the "Washington Post" there down in Washington, appreciate it -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Toxic chlorine still being unloaded from that tanker rail car in South Carolina. Five thousand people have been out of their homes since Thursday's train crash. Heidi Collins near the scene in Aiken, South Carolina, for us today.

Hey, Heidi. Good morning.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

You know, we were standing outside of the First Presbyterian Church. And the reason that we're here today is to get a little bit of a look about the people who are getting assistance now directly from Norfolk Southern Railroad. Of course, that was the train that crashed in Graniteville, South Carolina.

So right behind me here, you can see this line of people. They're coming here in order to get checks from the railroad for anything from food, shelter, clothes, medical care, any medicines that they had to go out and buy. The railroad is trying to reach out to these people and help them out and giving them assistance in order to do so.

They've cut about 2,500 checks. The amount of money is not known in all that. But about 2,500 people that they have helped here so far.

You may remember, of course, Thursday was when it all first happened. That train crash, the chlorine leaked after it smashed into another train car early, early Thursday morning. So we're talking about six days now that these folks have been out of their homes.

Should also give you an update on what's happening with the investigation. The NTSB has wrapped up their onsite investigation. They say they still have lots of work to do, though. They'll be doing that out of Washington, D.C.

Thirty-three people still in the hospital. They really don't have any idea when they're going to go back.

So as you can imagine -- here you are looking at the site of the train wreck now. Still lots of work to be done offloading those two chlorine cars. That's a very, very slow process. So because of that, people just don't know when they'll be able to go back. They don't know when the schools are going to reopen. And it's pretty tough to be out of your home, not knowing when you can return.

O'BRIEN: Heidi, some interesting...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make sure everything is safe and they give us the go ahead, you know, to go back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With us not being able to go home and get what we already have, it kind of costs extra when you have to just run out and get everything right on the spot.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COLLINS: So as you can see, people still displaced and just really don't know when -- originally, they had been told over the weekend that they might be able to go back to their homes on Wednesday, being tomorrow, but now that has been sort of wiped off the slate.

And investigators and officials here say they just don't want to work on a timeframe at all.

So today that chlorine gas from the remaining two cars will be offloaded. And hopefully, we'll know more a little bit later on about how they're going to be able to get back and when.

O'BRIEN: That must be very frustrating for the folks there. Heidi Collins for us. Heidi, thanks -- Bill.

HEMMER: Again, the president to announce at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, about 40 minutes from now at the White House, his homeland security nominee. Certainly, live coverage here on CNN when that happens.

Also in a moment, we have flooding in the south, a blizzard in the north and California just keeps getting pounded. What's up today? We'll find out in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Back with Jack and the question of the day.

CAFFERTY: Thank you, Soledad.

In the end it took 224 pages to fully describe how CBS News blew it big time when it came to the President Bush National Guard story. Four people have lost their jobs. Dan Rather is leaving the anchor chair of "The CBS Evening News." The broadcast ratings, already in third place, fell further as a result of the report.

And media credibility overall has been on the decline, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. And this latest development at CBS probably won't help.

Here's the question -- are we in a subway stop here or something? I think we are.

O'BRIEN: Just the noise of everybody. Everybody shhh! Jack's talking.

CAFFERTY: The question is this: how much confidence do you have in the mainstream news media? Here are some of the answers.

Jim in Geneva, Ohio: "I have confidence in the news media. I watch CNN's AMERICAN MORNING and 'The Daily Show' with Jon Stewart. In between the two, I get a pretty good view of what's going on in the world."

HEMMER: Averaging it out, Jim.

CAFFERTY: Jan in Chicago: "Jack, in light of media consolidation, I no longer have faith the mainstream stream media will report stories that truly challenge the establishment. Instead, we're fed a constant barrage of inane court proceedings, rescue footage and the stories about the hardships of celebrities."

Stan in Champagne, Illinois: "I have very little confidence in the news media, mainstream or not. You are all too lazy or too influenced by high dollar advertisers to investigate anything. Don't go pointing your fingers at CBS. You're all guilty."

O'BRIEN: Ouch.

CAFFERTY: And Bill in Sussex, New Jersey: "I haven't watched mainstream network anything in so long I'm beginning to think about them as any source, let alone news. By the way, I've noticed that we look somewhat alike, think much alike and are aging alike. To spare the world, one of us should off himself."

Go ahead, Bill.

HEMMER: You first.

CAFFERTY: After you, buddy.

HEMMER: What was that phrase that you...

O'BRIEN: What kind of a sick person writes that?

HEMMER: ... was that "myopic zeal" was the report? Which kind of went to the whole competition thing.

CAFFERTY: The race to be first. They had a big story. They wanted to get it on the air. The report very critical of that, yes, myopic zeal.

And then the, quote, "Nixonian defense of the story" for more than a week afterwards when the authenticity of those documents were very much in question and yet they still stood behind the story and continued to...

HEMMER: It's good to be fast. Better to be right.

CAFFERTY: Well, yes, that's the old story. Right? Get it fast but make sure it's right before you put it on the air.

HEMMER: One more batch of these, eh?

CAFFERTY: Yes. We do have one more.

HEMMER: Thanks.

Other than the defendant, she was the biggest star of the Scott Peterson case. Amber Frey is now talking. She'll be live in our studio in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired January 11, 2005 - 09:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CO-HOST: California soaked by relentless rains. Can it take much more today? Mountainsides now giving way and crushing down on the people and the homes below.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got friends buried in that hill right now. I mean, what can you do? I mean, we're up there with shovels digging.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HEMMER: An urgent rescue operation at this hour. Officials are hopeful they have heard sounds from those trapped below.

Elsewhere in the state, rising waters bringing homes right off their foundations. And the snow in the mountains, too, getting deeper by the minute today again today. Another three feet expected in some places.

And the dramatic rescue. One of the smallest survivors to date: a tiny baby and a wild ride to safety on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Bill Hemmer and Soledad O'Brien.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Good morning, welcome, everybody. The weather, a huge story again this morning. California just inundated with rain.

This mudslide in La Conchita was the result of too much water. If we can show you those pics. Look at that, coming down way too fast. Now about 20 people are said to be missing, maybe buried in their houses. In just a few moments we'll talk again with authorities there, see how they're coming along with the rescue this morning.

HEMMER: Also this hour, Amber Frey is here today, our guest in the studio, talking about her relationship with Scott Peterson, the trial, the verdict, her life now. She also has a new book out. We'll ask her when it dawned upon her when Scott Peterson was involved with Laci's disappearance, and much more with that.

O'BRIEN: All right. Jack Cafferty, good morning. JACK CAFFERTY, CO-HOST: You've got the tsunami. You've got those floods in Southern California, those huge snows up in the mountains up North. Suppose somebody's trying to tell us something, with all this stuff going on?

O'BRIEN: That's -- doesn't it?

CAFFERTY: Somebody wrote a letter, said, "How long do you think it will be before foreign governments start offering aid to the California flood victims?" We'll be holding our breath for that.

Anyway, a 224-page report that absolutely blisters CBS News for its handling of the President Bush National Guard story. How much confidence do you have in mainstream media? AM@CNN.com. We'll read your e-mails in a few minutes.

O'BRIEN: All right. Let's first get to the headlines. Kelly Wallace in for us this morning. Hello again.

KELLY WALLACE, ANCHOR: Hello again, and good morning again, everyone.

Now in the news, we begin in Iraq with a car bomb, killing at least six Iraqi police officers in the northern part of the country, the town of Tikrit. Four members of the Iraqi police force were also injured in that attack.

Iraqi security has been targeted in recent weeks ahead of elections set for the end of this month.

President Bush hinting the U.S. may possibly contribute more to the tsunami relief effort, but indicating it all depends on how the dollars are used. The president said yesterday the relief effort is entering its second phase in Southeast Asia and that it's important to closely monitor how and where all the money is spent. So far, the U.S. has pledged $350 million to efforts there.

News in the Middle East now. Palestinians say Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has telephoned Mahmoud Abbas to congratulate him on his election win as the new Palestinian president. They apparently spoke for about 10 minutes.

Earlier, Sharon said he believed the two would meet in the near future. Abbas has said he wants to restart the Middle East peace process as quickly as possible following this past Sunday's elections.

And the Alaskan National Guard will try again to fly in and restore power to the town of Kaktovik. These pictures from the North Slope area show abandoned cars and homes without lights. The town's power generator quit Sunday amid freezing temperatures and very strong winds.

Officials say the situation is not life threatening, but clearly they're monitoring it, trying to get power to all those people now.

HEMMER: Well, we can say it's cold. WALLACE: You can say -- I think I had read somewhere 70 degrees below zero...

HEMMER: No!

WALLACE: ... factoring in wind chill.

O'BRIEN: How can they say it's not life threatening if the people don't have any access to power?

HEMMER: A lot of folks in that part of the world get ready for this kind of stuff, believe it or not. Our best to them.

Thank you, Kelly.

Rescue officials in California now say they have heard signs possibly of survivors buried beneath debris after a massive mudslide yesterday north of L.A. Ted Rowlands, on the scene, filed this story a short time ago. Here's Ted.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): More than 160 rescue workers searching and listening for survivors in a massive, 30- foot pile of mud and rubble. At least nine people have been pulled from the rubble. At least three of those were kept alive by pockets of air.

CHIEF BOB ROPER, VENTURA COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: People were in voids, like corners of the home, under a doorway, under some furniture. And so what it was, was the mud and the debris that collapsed the house and they had just this little cubicle that they were in. And so the crews were able to go in there, get that off of them.

ROWLANDS: In an instant, a rain-soaked hillside gave way, sending an avalanche of mud and debris into more than a dozen homes below.

BILL HARRISON, GOOD SAMARITAN: Just popped and just came rushing down like a freight train. And just plowed through, probably, over a dozen houses.

ROWLANDS: Crews were in the area at the time of the slide as the residents ran for cover. Firefighters tried frantically to rescue survivors. They plan to keep searching, but there is concern about the possibility that there may be another slide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The geologists are concerned that that mud flow may start pushing more of the hill down and as it released part of that hill, the other parts of the hill that are unstable then may also start sliding down.

ROWLANDS: Homeowners were in the process of being evacuated when the hillside gave way. La Conchita, a seaside community between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, has a history of mudslides. The most significant one until now was in 1995 when nine homes were destroyed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Again, Ted Rowlands reporting there in Southern California.

The latest word as we gathered a short time ago out of Southern California, 20 people now listed as missing. That number may go higher or lower as day breaks there, now 6 a.m. local time.

Also, we are told that they have picked up what's described as a tapping, and they're using these sensors right now to determine whether or not there are survivors trapped alive beneath that mud. As soon as we get more, again, on that story, we'll give it to you.

More now with Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Earlier on AMERICAN MORNING I spoke with Bill Harbison. He lives in the area. He was able to pull two victims to safety. Here's his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL HARBISON, MUDSLIDE RESCUER: I was just about to take a tour of the neighborhood, riding my bicycle around and look at the small little mudslides that happened overnight.

And I just stepped outside my door and I heard this noise, almost like a pop. And I looked up and I saw the entire -- entire mountainside just come down and just race through part of our little town here.

O'BRIEN: How many homes were in the path of that -- of that slide?

HARBISON: Probably about 15 or so. It was about two blocks wide and about half a block deep.

O'BRIEN: What did you do?

HARBISON: I immediately raced my bike around the corner and just jumped on in, started calling out for people, climbing through the wreckage, climbing through the mud and all the rubble. Calling out for people until I found a little area that had two women trapped deep within what I guess used to be their homes. And I started calling out for more help.

O'BRIEN: Two women, one I think was a kind of a girl and one was a little bit of an older woman. How far apart were they? Were they mother, daughter? Were they in the same house at one point that then got crushed?

HARBISON: You know, I hadn't actually met them before. I think they were neighbors. I don't believe that they were a family. And they were maybe -- maybe 25 feet apart from each other. But they were close enough that I could kind of talk to both of them at the same time while I was working on one, trying to get one free.

O'BRIEN: Could you see them both, or were they just -- you could just hear where they were?

HARBISON: No, I could just hear where they were. They were completely buried underneath just an unbelievable amount of wreckage, broken glass, you know, live power lines.

O'BRIEN: So what did you do?

HARBISON: I just started digging. I called for help, and some other gentlemen came and helped me, one of my neighbors here in La Conchita. And we just started bit by bit tearing -- you know, tearing boards out of the way, throwing pieces of broken glass, basically digging through people's -- what were their prized possessions just to get to them.

O'BRIEN: How long did it take before you were able to reach them?

HARBISON: You know, I -- I really don't know. It seemed like an eternity to me.

O'BRIEN: Rescue workers showed up. What were they able to do? Did you have them out by then? Did you have them kind of out by then?

HARBISON: Yes. The first one, the young girl, I was able to -- we were able to pull her out. And she was fabulous. She was able to help out quite a bit in getting herself out once we were able to remove quite a bit of the wreckage.

And so I put her on my back and carried her out, piggyback and handed her off to someone else. And then jumped back in, looking for another woman and this time a couple law enforcement officers were with me helping. And we were just digging and digging, and I finally found the second woman, got down to her, was actually able to, you know, look her in the eyes, make eye contact and hold her hand and say, "I'm here. We're not going to leave you. We're going to get you out."

And right around that time, the professionals, the rescue team had come, fire department with all their tools and all their training and good equipment. I wasn't exactly dressed for the occasion.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: That was Bill Harbison, a man who helped rescue two mudslide victims. I was talking to him a little bit earlier on AMERICAN MORNING.

Another rescue to talk about: some desperate moments for a California mom and her baby. They were trapped by the raging floodwaters. There was a rescue attempt. It was caught on tape. And then suddenly -- take a look -- it made a big turn for the worse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN (voice-over): Daring and dramatic moments in Southern California. A two-month-old baby rescued from raging floodwaters, not once but twice. It happened in San Dimas.

All seemed to be going well in the first rescue attempt, but watch: the inflatable raft carrying the rescuer, the mother and her baby suddenly overturns, throwing all three into the water.

Luckily, another rescuer rushed in and was able to reach them. He grabbed the baby, fighting through knee-deep water to get back to dry land.

CAPT. SAM MALDONADO, U.S. FOREST SERVICE: Her and the baby again were again taken under. Then I was trying to yell at her as she was moving downstream, "Hold the baby up; hold the baby up."

And every time I would say that, she'd actually listen and she would try to get the baby up. But it was -- it was quite hard for her.

O'BRIEN: Officials say the infant's body temperature dropped to 90 degrees. He was quickly put into warm clothing and taken to a hospital, where he's expected to make a full recovery.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HEMMER: Flash flood warnings now in effect for all of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, as well -- Bill.

HEMMER: That is the worst news at this point. More rain expected. Back to Chad Myers at the CNN Center.

Chad, good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HEMMER: It just keeps on going there, doesn't it? Over and over again. Thank you, Chad.

Again today we have another amazing story of survival after the tsunami disaster. An Indonesian man was rescued Monday off the coast of Malaysia. He was adrift for two weeks in the Indian Ocean. He's 21 years young. His name is Ari Afrizal, and he described his ordeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARI AFRIZAL, TSUNAMI SURVIVOR (through translator): The first day I clung to a piece of wood. The second day I retrieved a small fishing boat, but it was leaking. I was in the small boat for four days before I managed to get on a raft.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HEMMER: Wow, what a story of survival, too. Ari says he ate coconut pulp that was floating on the ocean's surface just to survive. Fourteen days at sea. He's alive. Remarkable.

O'BRIEN: Sure is.

Amber Frey, of course, the star witness of the Scott Peterson trial, well, now, Frey is telling all about her affair, the guilty verdict and life after the trial. She's going to join us live in just a little bit.

HEMMER: Also the dangerous task of cleaning up that toxic leak in South Carolina. How long will that take? And when can people go back to their homes there?

O'BRIEN: Plus, violence threatening Iraq's elections again. One group might be ready with a back door deal to save the vote. That story is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

We're getting word that at 10 a.m. this morning President Bush at the White House will make formal his announcement for the nominee for homeland security secretary. We're expecting that right at the top of the hour, at 10 a.m. Of course, when that happens, we will bring that to you live right here on CNN -- Bill.

HEMMER: In the meantime, Iraq's interim prime minister today announcing that, quote, pockets of voters in Iraq will not be able to take part in elections now slated for the 30th of January, all due to security concerns.

A new CNN poll shows 71 percent of Americans, when asked, think that peace and stability is unlikely in the coming year. More than half think a democratic government is unlikely, as well.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the "Washington Post" recently back from the region. He came back in October; spent a better part of two years, though, in Iraq. He's back with us today.

And good morning to you.

RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN, "WASHINGTON POST": Good morning.

HEMMER: Welcome back here to AMERICAN MORNING.

We are looking this election right now, about 21 days in the calendar away. Give us a baseline. Best-case scenario for these elections on the 30th is what?

CHANDRASEKARAN: Best-case scenario is that this campaign of violence that we've been seeing leading up to the elections starts to abate. That the elections can take place somewhat peacefully. That -- we know that the Shiite Muslims, largely in the southern part of Iraq and the Kurds in the north will come out to vote in force. But the best-case scenario is that Sunnis, particularly in Baghdad, decide to come out and vote and to exercise their democratic rights. And I think that is a very, very best case scenario.

The realistic scenario will probably be something very different than that. It will largely involve residents of Baghdad and particularly other very violence-wracked Sunni areas, the Anbar province to the west, home to Falluja and Ramadi, and up to the north the cities of Tikrit, Samarra and the big city of Mosul. Perhaps there, we'll see some very low turnout.

HEMMER: Yes. So that's the Sunni question on the table. What is the worst-case scenario that you see at this point, three weeks away?

CHANDRASEKARAN: The worst-case scenario really is that it's a very violent day, that if polling stations are attacked by insurgents in this continuing and escalating campaign of violence, that large numbers of Iraqis stay home, particularly in Baghdad and these other cities like Mosul and Ramadi, and that the net result is a national assembly that has a disproportionately large representation of Shiites and of Kurds and a disproportionately smaller representation of Sunnis.

And that has the impact, potentially, of furthering the feelings of resentment and frustration members of Iraq's Sunni minority feel. It could take a bad situation right now and potentially make it worse, because they'll feel shut out.

HEMMER: Let's take that worst-case scenario and try to see where we can gain improvement with three weeks and counting right now. Are there negotiations right now with these Sunni leaders in those four central provinces to get them on board before the vote goes down?

CHANDRASEKARAN: Yes. Members of Iraq's interim government and, in fact, some leaders of Iraq's Shiite majority, some influential clerics are trying to reach out to Sunni leaders and trying to get some of them to rescind their boycotts of the election, some of them to participate in these polls.

But that's -- it's a very daunting task. And just -- just over the weekend, we heard that the entire 13-member electoral commission from al-Anbar Province has resigned because of security issues. So while they try to take one step forward, it may be that, you know, they're sort of taking two steps back here.

HEMMER: Well, there is a mountain of issues to tackle over the next 20 days. Hope you come back and help us through it, OK? Rajiv, thanks. Rajiv Chandrasekaran from the "Washington Post" there down in Washington, appreciate it -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Toxic chlorine still being unloaded from that tanker rail car in South Carolina. Five thousand people have been out of their homes since Thursday's train crash. Heidi Collins near the scene in Aiken, South Carolina, for us today.

Hey, Heidi. Good morning.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

You know, we were standing outside of the First Presbyterian Church. And the reason that we're here today is to get a little bit of a look about the people who are getting assistance now directly from Norfolk Southern Railroad. Of course, that was the train that crashed in Graniteville, South Carolina.

So right behind me here, you can see this line of people. They're coming here in order to get checks from the railroad for anything from food, shelter, clothes, medical care, any medicines that they had to go out and buy. The railroad is trying to reach out to these people and help them out and giving them assistance in order to do so.

They've cut about 2,500 checks. The amount of money is not known in all that. But about 2,500 people that they have helped here so far.

You may remember, of course, Thursday was when it all first happened. That train crash, the chlorine leaked after it smashed into another train car early, early Thursday morning. So we're talking about six days now that these folks have been out of their homes.

Should also give you an update on what's happening with the investigation. The NTSB has wrapped up their onsite investigation. They say they still have lots of work to do, though. They'll be doing that out of Washington, D.C.

Thirty-three people still in the hospital. They really don't have any idea when they're going to go back.

So as you can imagine -- here you are looking at the site of the train wreck now. Still lots of work to be done offloading those two chlorine cars. That's a very, very slow process. So because of that, people just don't know when they'll be able to go back. They don't know when the schools are going to reopen. And it's pretty tough to be out of your home, not knowing when you can return.

O'BRIEN: Heidi, some interesting...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make sure everything is safe and they give us the go ahead, you know, to go back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With us not being able to go home and get what we already have, it kind of costs extra when you have to just run out and get everything right on the spot.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COLLINS: So as you can see, people still displaced and just really don't know when -- originally, they had been told over the weekend that they might be able to go back to their homes on Wednesday, being tomorrow, but now that has been sort of wiped off the slate.

And investigators and officials here say they just don't want to work on a timeframe at all.

So today that chlorine gas from the remaining two cars will be offloaded. And hopefully, we'll know more a little bit later on about how they're going to be able to get back and when.

O'BRIEN: That must be very frustrating for the folks there. Heidi Collins for us. Heidi, thanks -- Bill.

HEMMER: Again, the president to announce at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, about 40 minutes from now at the White House, his homeland security nominee. Certainly, live coverage here on CNN when that happens.

Also in a moment, we have flooding in the south, a blizzard in the north and California just keeps getting pounded. What's up today? We'll find out in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Back with Jack and the question of the day.

CAFFERTY: Thank you, Soledad.

In the end it took 224 pages to fully describe how CBS News blew it big time when it came to the President Bush National Guard story. Four people have lost their jobs. Dan Rather is leaving the anchor chair of "The CBS Evening News." The broadcast ratings, already in third place, fell further as a result of the report.

And media credibility overall has been on the decline, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. And this latest development at CBS probably won't help.

Here's the question -- are we in a subway stop here or something? I think we are.

O'BRIEN: Just the noise of everybody. Everybody shhh! Jack's talking.

CAFFERTY: The question is this: how much confidence do you have in the mainstream news media? Here are some of the answers.

Jim in Geneva, Ohio: "I have confidence in the news media. I watch CNN's AMERICAN MORNING and 'The Daily Show' with Jon Stewart. In between the two, I get a pretty good view of what's going on in the world."

HEMMER: Averaging it out, Jim.

CAFFERTY: Jan in Chicago: "Jack, in light of media consolidation, I no longer have faith the mainstream stream media will report stories that truly challenge the establishment. Instead, we're fed a constant barrage of inane court proceedings, rescue footage and the stories about the hardships of celebrities."

Stan in Champagne, Illinois: "I have very little confidence in the news media, mainstream or not. You are all too lazy or too influenced by high dollar advertisers to investigate anything. Don't go pointing your fingers at CBS. You're all guilty."

O'BRIEN: Ouch.

CAFFERTY: And Bill in Sussex, New Jersey: "I haven't watched mainstream network anything in so long I'm beginning to think about them as any source, let alone news. By the way, I've noticed that we look somewhat alike, think much alike and are aging alike. To spare the world, one of us should off himself."

Go ahead, Bill.

HEMMER: You first.

CAFFERTY: After you, buddy.

HEMMER: What was that phrase that you...

O'BRIEN: What kind of a sick person writes that?

HEMMER: ... was that "myopic zeal" was the report? Which kind of went to the whole competition thing.

CAFFERTY: The race to be first. They had a big story. They wanted to get it on the air. The report very critical of that, yes, myopic zeal.

And then the, quote, "Nixonian defense of the story" for more than a week afterwards when the authenticity of those documents were very much in question and yet they still stood behind the story and continued to...

HEMMER: It's good to be fast. Better to be right.

CAFFERTY: Well, yes, that's the old story. Right? Get it fast but make sure it's right before you put it on the air.

HEMMER: One more batch of these, eh?

CAFFERTY: Yes. We do have one more.

HEMMER: Thanks.

Other than the defendant, she was the biggest star of the Scott Peterson case. Amber Frey is now talking. She'll be live in our studio in a moment here on AMERICAN MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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