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American Morning
Urgent Rescue Operation After Incredible Mudslide in California; Security of the Nation's Railways
Aired January 11, 2005 - 08:00 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: An urgent rescue operation right now after this incredible mudslide in California. Officials think that some of those missing might still be alive.
Five days of rain and creeks are extremely dangerous. A tiny baby in the arms of rescuers pulled to safety the hard way.
And the snow in the mountains, dangerously deep and still coming down, like they've never seen before, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody.
8:00 here in New York.
Good to have you along with us today. The mud slide in California our top story this morning. Really incredible pictures, too. A mountainside giving way, rolling down onto a group of homes. Rescuers back at work as we speak. We've been talking to them throughout the morning here. They are hopeful that they have heard sounds of survivors. Much more on this story. And we'll also talk to one of the officials heading up California's emergency operations. They have a handful out there again today, so we'll get back there in southern California in a moment.
O'BRIEN: And when you hear the eyewitness reports about how there was no warning...
HEMMER: Oh, indeed, you're right.
O'BRIEN: ... the last time I guess it happened slow enough people could gather their stuff and get out. But now just boom like that.
HEMMER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Really scary stuff.
Also this morning, a CNN "Security Watch." Looking at what happened in that deadly train wreck in South Carolina. That was a rural area. Just how are America's cities protected from toxic chemicals on trains? We'll take a look at that.
HEMMER: All right, Jack, good morning to you again. JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.
It's nice to see you.
HEMMER: You, too.
CAFFERTY: Coming up in the "Cafferty File" in less than an hour, Rosie O'Donnell is mad again. Is this news? And passengers at India's international airport got to see more than just their flight information on those terminal TV screens.
HEMMER: Oh, yes?
O'BRIEN: Really?
HEMMER: A clue?
CAFFERTY: Really. No, nothing. I'm telling no more. That's it. My lips are sealed.
HEMMER: Fifty-five minutes away.
Thank you, Jack.
O'BRIEN: Some movie.
CAFFERTY: Huh?
O'BRIEN: A movie?
CAFFERTY: See, there you go again. Didn't we get into one of these yesterday?
HEMMER: All right. Stop.
O'BRIEN: I just said a movie.
CAFFERTY: Well, sort of.
HEMMER: Back to Kelly Wallace here looking at the headlines here this morning.
O'BRIEN: Well, thank you.
HEMMER: Hey Kelly -- good morning.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Always with a good tease.
O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
WALLACE: Good morning to you all.
Good morning again, everyone.
Now in the news, we're beginning in the Mideast. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he is planning to congratulate the new Palestinian president. Prime Minister Sharon told his cabinet earlier this morning he will call Mahmoud Abbas today and discuss scheduling a meeting in the near future. Abbas has said he wants to restart the Middle East peace process as quickly as possible following Sunday's elections.
There's now word four remaining British detainees will be released from the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. British Foreign Minister Jack Straw -- you're seeing live pictures there coming from London -- making that announcement before the House of Common sense just moments ago. The detention of British nationals at Guantanamo Bay has been a source of some tension between the United States and Great Britain.
In Fort Hood, Texas, military prosecutors could wrap up their case today against Army Specialist Charles Graner. Graner is accused of being the ringleader in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Jurors in the military trial are expected to watch videotaped testimony today from two former Iraqi detainees who say they were abused.
Graner's lawyers say he was following orders to soften up detainees before interrogation.
And in weather new, some roads in central and southern Ohio are under water this morning. A second straight week of heavy rainfall has caused the Ohio River to swell well above the flood stage. At least one person has been killed in a weather related incident.
Further west, a state of emergency has been declared for parts of Utah after flooding wiped out major roads. More rain is expected today.
Soledad and Bill, do you think there's a common word in the news today -- rain, rain.
O'BRIEN: Yes. And none of it wanted at this point.
HEMMER: A lot of, that's for sure.
WALLACE: Absolutely. Too much. Too much. Causing lots of problems.
O'BRIEN: Yes, clearly.
All right, Kelly, thanks a lot.
WALLACE: Sure.
O'BRIEN: Rescue workers are searching for as many as 20 people this morning in the town of La Cochita, north of Los Angeles. Ventura County officials say they may have been buried yesterday in a mud slide that killed three others.
CNN's Ted Rowlands covering the story for us in Ventura, California.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The desperate search continues here for survivors. Earlier this morning, an audible hit was heard, something was heard inside this debris pile in La Cochita. And rescuers are hopeful that somebody is still alive, possibly trapped in an air pocket here. They have been at it all night long, except for about a two hour window when the downpours came in and forced them to evacuate the scene. They're back at it now and thus far they're keeping their fingers crossed that this will continue. The weather is cooperating.
Search and rescue teams have been successful in pulling some people alive out of the debris rubble. Nine people have been pulled out. Some of them survived for hours and they're hoping that this is the case, as well. There is also a grim reality starting to surface here. Three people have been confirmed dead. But according to a firefighter who has been working the scene overnight, more are surely going to be found. Twenty-one people have been reported missing. Eyewitnesses say there could be up to 30 to 40 people dead or trapped inside this debris pile.
Time is of the essence. Crews continue to work around the clock, desperately hoping that they can find somebody alive.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Ventura, California.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HEMMER: Ted, thanks for that.
We'll get back to Ted throughout the morning here and let you know what we find out.
Again, if there is an audible hit, some sort of sound coming from beneath that mud, we'll get you back there on that developing story in southern California.
The same part of the country now and a very close call and a double rescue for a baby in San Dimas Canyon. A rescuer had a mother and her child in a raft when the raft flipped over in some fast moving water. The rescuer was able to grab hold of the baby. A firefighter without any safety harness got in the water, got them both to safety. The baby's body temperature fell to 90 degrees, but everyone, fortunately, came through OK. Only eight weeks old for that baby, said to be doing OK today. Great news there.
Back to Chad.
There is still precipitation out West -- Chad, good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.
You know, it was really, it was weird to watch that raft moving very slowly and then when it let go and they were really moving, that water was doing 30 or 40 miles per hour and they were racing downstream to get him. Finally now the rain showers, Bill, are over. Most of the rain for L.A. and San Diego today is very, very light and the storm moves to the east.
But look at some of these rainfall totals. Beverly Hills, almost a foot of rain since Thursday. And then you get up into the mountains, where these rescues are taking place, 25 inches of rain. Obviously north of there snow. Look at some of these season snow totals: Kirkwood, 390 inches of snow so far; Sierra at Tahoe, 317. That's a year's worth of snow already and it's, well, only the beginning of January.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Well, when this California storm does finally end, there'll be lots of critical situations to deal with.
Frank McCarton is the chief deputy director of California's Emergency Services.
He's in Sacramento this morning.
Nice to see you, sir.
Thanks for being with us.
FRANK MCCARTON, CALIFORNIA EMERGENCY SERVICES: Good morning, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Good morning.
I want to get some information from you -- if you're aware of it, of any -- any further details about this audible hit that's been spoken about out of La Cochita area in that mud slide there? We're told something like 20 people still missing.
What's the latest on that?
MCCARTON: The latest is exactly what you're reporting, is right up to date. We have had confirmed three deaths in reference to that. There was a hit that they were getting throughout the morning, through the early morning hours here in California. They also -- we also had to evacuation that area due to the fact that we had some heavy rains that came through and it was unsafe for the rescue workers to work.
So there was a time frame there that we did have to evacuation that area.
But right now there is -- we're getting reports from the command post that there is a hit and they're looking for that person.
O'BRIEN: I know that the search was called off and it's going to be back on, I guess, when the sun finally rises out on the West Coast.
Why was it called off? Was it just too dark, or as it seems like you're alluding to, it was just out and out too dangerous for the rescue workers?
MCCARTON: Well, with the heavy rain that we were getting, Soledad, it really became a problem with a secondary collapse. The incident commander made a decision that he called it off.
We are back searching right now with the Ventura County officials looking for victims.
O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of whether or not all of this, in your mind, qualifies for a state of emergency in these areas. I mean they're obviously devastated. And I would be curious to know how much money are we talking about to recover and repair in this area?
MCCARTON: You know, Soledad, right now our officials, as the rain ends, will be able to get our disaster assistance folks onto the ground from the state. They will do assessments for the areas that have requested.
Ventura County is one of the counties that have requested. L.A. County has also requested a state of emergency, and with a declaration from the governor.
So we will be looking at those particular locations, sending our specialists out and being able to see if we're going to need further assistance from the fishing also.
O'BRIEN: What other areas are you looking into? And how many folks are homeless in all of this at this point?
MCCARTON: The numbers vary based on the evacuations that we had. We did have, in Santa Barbara, over 100 homes that were evacuated due to a mobile home area. But it all depends on the area that we're looking at. Ventura County was one of them, like I said. L.A. County has proclaimed, asked for a state of emergency, Santa Barbara County. And I imagine as we go throughout the day today, those will continue to come into our office.
O'BRIEN: What about long-term? I mean obviously this happens, I think, in this area a lot. People go back and rebuild on sites that are just unstable. I mean this is a site, La Cochita, certainly, where there have been mudslides, significant mudslides in the past.
What's the plan to keep this from happening again?
MCCARTON: Well, you're absolutely correct. In '92 and '95 there were mudslides in that area. We, as emergency managers, have to work with the local government, with the state and the federal government, to come up with a mitigation plan for those type of areas so those areas become safe if we go forward. So we'll have to look at what those areas, at how to mitigate those particular problems.
O'BRIEN: How -- forgive me for jumping in there, but how do you mitigate it? I understand in La Cochita they had a little retaining wall. But you're talking about, at least in the last slide -- I'm sure the numbers aren't in for this slide -- 600,000 tons of debris. I mean, a little retaining wall, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that that's not going to hold all that mud and debris and stuff back.
So what sorts of things are on the table when it comes to mitigation?
MCCARTON: Well, we look at -- you know, I'm not an engineer. The engineers and the geologists will be able to help us out with that. But basically it's probably, it would be a way of taking that material that comes off that on a fall like that and being able to push it down into a river or into a safe way of getting it out of the way. I'm not a geologist. We'd have to work with them to work that through.
O'BRIEN: And of course...
MCCARTON: But there are ways of mitigating it.
O'BRIEN: ... all discussions that will follow after, hopefully, you're able to rescue some of these folks who are hopefully still trapped just alive and they can be rescued, certainly in La Cochita area.
Thank you very much for being with us this morning.
MCCARTON: Thank you, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Frank McCarton, the chief deputy director of California emergency services.
We appreciate it -- Bill.
HEMMER: From California now to South Carolina. Residents there are still out of their homes today after last week's deadly train wreck. On Monday, workers began pumping chlorine from the train's damaged cars and a cloud of chlorine gas had engulfed the town of Graniteville last week, killing nine. Two hundred and forty others were sick by it. About 5,500 now still evacuated out of that area.
A live report on the investigation ahead on our next hour here this morning.
Meanwhile, though, in today's CNN "Security Watch," hazards on the railroads. If the same type of toxic train wreck that happened in South Carolina took place in a major American city, that's the scenario.
Here's Joe Johns this morning looking into that for us.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An accidental release of chlorine gas from a train going through Washington, D.C. -- potentially deadly to thousands and crippling to the government. It is, for now, not much of a concern.
We invited former railroad administration official George Gavalla to the nation's capital to help assess railroad security just days before the inauguration. The big fear? That terrorists could blow up a tank car full of deadly chemicals. A security gap was easy to find.
(on camera): This is the extent of security here.
(voice-over): A gate next to a track just blocks from the Capitol wide open.
(on camera): Is there, by your estimation, any sign at all that this place is being policed by railway employees?
GEORGE GAVALLA, FORMER RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, at the moment, no. I guess it depends on how long we actually stay here.
JOHNS (voice-over): After a citizen called to report us, police showed up. Forty minutes after we arrived, they kicked us out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys really can't be up here.
JOHNS: The rail company, CSX, won't comment on what substances it transports and by which routes, so as not to tip off terrorists. But after the Madrid train bombings, pressure from local officials led CSX to voluntarily reroute the most dangerous chemicals around Washington, according to D.C. Councilmember Carol Schwartz.
Schwartz tried to make the rerouting a law, but now says the voluntary action is working.
CAROL SCHWARTZ, WASHINGTON COUNCILWOMAN: Of course, I would prefer that it be a mandate. But as long as it's being done, I feel like the intent of the legislation is being accomplished.
JOHNS: Good news for Washington, says Gavalla.
GAVALLA: Some of the most dangerous commodities are being rerouted away from the District. That's certainly the safest course that can be taken.
JOHNS: But rerouting means higher risk for surrounding communities, a hard fact. When it comes to protecting urban populations from railway disasters, one city's safety can end up putting others in more danger.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HEMMER: Another note for you. Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security. Later today, at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, live coverage down in D.C. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, a news conference there on the security surrounding this month's presidential inauguration. That is nine days from today, next Thursday, and we will be there down in D.C. here on AMERICAN MORNING.
O'BRIEN: Well, it's never too late to start saving for your retirement. Your first step? How about throwing away your budget? Sounds contradictory, doesn't it? But we will explain.
HEMMER: Also, Indonesia bearing witness to an unprecedented relief effort. But is that campaign now showing signs of strain? We'll look into that.
O'BRIEN: And a tiny corner of America coping with a painful loss a half world away. How one law maker is reaching out to hometown heroes ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: The man behind the best selling "Finish Rich" book series says it is never too late to start planning for your financial future.
He's got a new book out now. It tells you how to spend less, save more and make up for lost time. It's called "Start Late, Finish Rich." It sounds good.
David Bach is here to tell us -- he was with us here yesterday to fill us in on whether or not how good it is out there.
You say the first thing is throw away the budget.
How do you go away making a savings plan for yourself?
DAVID BACH, AUTHOR, "START LATE, FINISH RICH": We know budgets don't work for a fact. Nobody does it. Nobody sticks to them. So here's what you want to do. In the new year, the first person who's got to get paid is you. And you step in line for your paycheck. So that means this. Walk into your benefits department today and sign up to keep one hour day of your gross income. Now, most Americans, the first three hours, they get to work at nine and they work until 12 to 12:30 to pay their taxes.
I want you to do the opposite. I want you to step in line and get your 9:00 to 10:00 hour of income for you. That's 12 1/2 percent of your gross income. The average American is saving only 22 minutes of their income. So here's how to find this money, because people say, David, I don't have the money.
HEMMER: Right.
BACH: The "Wall Street Journal" this week said that the average American will get a raise of nearly 4 percent. This year, instead of just getting that extra money and then spending it, go into the benefits department and say take my raise and put that raise in my retirement account. If the average person would do this for two more years, they'd be saving three, four or five times more than the average American. And that would catch you up. You'd have hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings at retirement time.
HEMMER: And here we are in January. It's a perfect time of the year to start thinking of that exact thing.
BACH: It's a perfect time. HEMMER: You say keep your svgs plan boring.
BACH: Yes.
HEMMER: What do you mean?
BACH: When you're starting late, people try to catch up fast. So what they do is they go for the secret stock tip. They swing from the fences, the grand slam. Start late, finish rich creates a boring investment plan. I call it the perfect pie. Here's what -- and anybody can do this, OK? This is easy.
Whatever your assets are, you want it one third in real estate, one third in stocks -- that could be a diversified mutual fund -- and one third in guaranteed investments, CDs or bonds, something that's very safe.
HEMMER: Let me stop you there. How do people go about investing in real estate? Do you go out and buy property? I'm assuming that's the answer.
BACH: Obviously you can buy your own home. You can also buy rental properties. But a lot of people who are watching this don't want to deal with tenants or plumbing. So how do you buy real estate without the hassles?
Two ways, and I cover it in "Start Late, Finish Rich" -- real estate mutual funds and what's called a REIT -- real equity investment trust. These investments, what these are, these are companies that go out and invest in real estate. So they may invest in shopping centers or they may invest in office buildings or they may invest in apartment buildings. You invest in the real estate mutual fund or the REIT that's doing all of that work and you get the up side of the real estate, you get dividends -- they're paying seven, eight, nine, in some cases 10 percent -- without all the hassle.
And here's one thing people should know. REITs, which I cover in detail in "Start Late, Finish Rich," have outperformed the stock market for 25 years.
HEMMER: Really?
BACH: Now, how is that for a boring investment that works?
HEMMER: I would say that that is a boring investment that does work. I think the point you make, though, is good to repeat again. You have to get on base. Don't go for the home run, but get yourself on base.
BACH: You know, if you just get singles year in and year out, you get to be wealthy. If you go for the home runs, you have strike outs. When it comes to your money, you can't afford to strike out. The secret to getting rich is not losing your money.
HEMMER: No strike outs here.
Thank you, David.
Good to see you.
BACH: Yes.
Good to see you.
HEMMER: David Bach, "Start Late, Finish Rich."
BACH: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Well, something old is new again in the fight against cancer. Thousands of patients could benefit. We're "Paging Dr. Gupta" just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Back to the shakeup at CBS that we've been talking about this morning.
The Tiffany network catching some attention from a competing network's late night host.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO," COURTESY NBC)
JAY LENO, HOST: President Bush kept a promise. Remember he said he would create jobs? Well, he's done just that over at CBS News. He created four more jobs. Four people have been fired from CBS over the Dan Rather report on President Bush's National Guard scandal. Yes. The network said the four employees were fired for sloppy reporting and incompetent facts checking. But the good news? Today all four of them got hired by the "New York Times." So that's very exciting about that, very exciting about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: That's kind of funny. It's the topic, too.
HEMMER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Of yours, especially.
CAFFERTY: Yes. Well, we're just kind of wondering how much impact this thing might have on the credibility of the mainstream media at large.
The question we're asking is how much confidence do you have in the mainstream news media in this country with the CBS developments as kind of a backdrop.
Linda in Boston writes: "I have confidence in the mainstream news media, but I take it with a grain of salt seasoned with a bit of annoyance at the dearth of international and political news in relation to the amount of smaltzy, sensational stories of personal tragedy and entertainment news."
Liz in New York writes: "I don't have that much confidence in the news media because it's hard to tell what is fact, what is opinion and what has been planted by the government. I prefer to read the papers."
Guy in Atlanta: "The flap at CBS has not changed my opinion or confidence in the news media. I have always allowed for a fudge factor or a margin of error from the media, particularly any sensationalized report."
And Rich in Kansas City writes: "Like most, I see bias only when I disagree with it. So I say the "F" word news network is biased. Conservatives say the same of CBS. At least we have Jack Cafferty, who everybody agrees is biased."
HEMMER: The populist. The man of the people.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, they say if everybody hates you, you're doing it right, right?
HEMMER: You know, the thing that Dick Thornburg has said in every interview is the thing that surprised him the most is that from the time they got that story and the time it aired, about six days had passed in the middle of a heated presidential race.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: But did that report determine whether or not the documents were fake? Did they prove that or was that their mission or not?
CAFFERTY: Oh, I think that was established when they finally decided to go on the air and do a mea culpa on the story.
O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) going in. Right.
CAFFERTY: The crime, as I see it, isn't so much the fact that they made a mistake in accepting these documents as real. They defended a phony story for more than a week after it aired. That's the problem. It was described in the report as a Nixonian response to allegations that the documents were false.
The documents were proven false shortly after the thing was on the air. But they insisted, and Dan Rather was out front on that part of it, they insisted that it was a legit story long after the house of cards had come down.
O'BRIEN: It wasn't.
All right, Jack, thank you.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Well, the relief effort pushes forward in Southeast Asia. But are there signs that it's starting to crack under the strain? A look at that is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired January 11, 2005 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: An urgent rescue operation right now after this incredible mudslide in California. Officials think that some of those missing might still be alive.
Five days of rain and creeks are extremely dangerous. A tiny baby in the arms of rescuers pulled to safety the hard way.
And the snow in the mountains, dangerously deep and still coming down, like they've never seen before, on this AMERICAN MORNING.
ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Bill Hemmer.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody.
8:00 here in New York.
Good to have you along with us today. The mud slide in California our top story this morning. Really incredible pictures, too. A mountainside giving way, rolling down onto a group of homes. Rescuers back at work as we speak. We've been talking to them throughout the morning here. They are hopeful that they have heard sounds of survivors. Much more on this story. And we'll also talk to one of the officials heading up California's emergency operations. They have a handful out there again today, so we'll get back there in southern California in a moment.
O'BRIEN: And when you hear the eyewitness reports about how there was no warning...
HEMMER: Oh, indeed, you're right.
O'BRIEN: ... the last time I guess it happened slow enough people could gather their stuff and get out. But now just boom like that.
HEMMER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Really scary stuff.
Also this morning, a CNN "Security Watch." Looking at what happened in that deadly train wreck in South Carolina. That was a rural area. Just how are America's cities protected from toxic chemicals on trains? We'll take a look at that.
HEMMER: All right, Jack, good morning to you again. JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Bill.
It's nice to see you.
HEMMER: You, too.
CAFFERTY: Coming up in the "Cafferty File" in less than an hour, Rosie O'Donnell is mad again. Is this news? And passengers at India's international airport got to see more than just their flight information on those terminal TV screens.
HEMMER: Oh, yes?
O'BRIEN: Really?
HEMMER: A clue?
CAFFERTY: Really. No, nothing. I'm telling no more. That's it. My lips are sealed.
HEMMER: Fifty-five minutes away.
Thank you, Jack.
O'BRIEN: Some movie.
CAFFERTY: Huh?
O'BRIEN: A movie?
CAFFERTY: See, there you go again. Didn't we get into one of these yesterday?
HEMMER: All right. Stop.
O'BRIEN: I just said a movie.
CAFFERTY: Well, sort of.
HEMMER: Back to Kelly Wallace here looking at the headlines here this morning.
O'BRIEN: Well, thank you.
HEMMER: Hey Kelly -- good morning.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Always with a good tease.
O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
WALLACE: Good morning to you all.
Good morning again, everyone.
Now in the news, we're beginning in the Mideast. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says he is planning to congratulate the new Palestinian president. Prime Minister Sharon told his cabinet earlier this morning he will call Mahmoud Abbas today and discuss scheduling a meeting in the near future. Abbas has said he wants to restart the Middle East peace process as quickly as possible following Sunday's elections.
There's now word four remaining British detainees will be released from the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. British Foreign Minister Jack Straw -- you're seeing live pictures there coming from London -- making that announcement before the House of Common sense just moments ago. The detention of British nationals at Guantanamo Bay has been a source of some tension between the United States and Great Britain.
In Fort Hood, Texas, military prosecutors could wrap up their case today against Army Specialist Charles Graner. Graner is accused of being the ringleader in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal. Jurors in the military trial are expected to watch videotaped testimony today from two former Iraqi detainees who say they were abused.
Graner's lawyers say he was following orders to soften up detainees before interrogation.
And in weather new, some roads in central and southern Ohio are under water this morning. A second straight week of heavy rainfall has caused the Ohio River to swell well above the flood stage. At least one person has been killed in a weather related incident.
Further west, a state of emergency has been declared for parts of Utah after flooding wiped out major roads. More rain is expected today.
Soledad and Bill, do you think there's a common word in the news today -- rain, rain.
O'BRIEN: Yes. And none of it wanted at this point.
HEMMER: A lot of, that's for sure.
WALLACE: Absolutely. Too much. Too much. Causing lots of problems.
O'BRIEN: Yes, clearly.
All right, Kelly, thanks a lot.
WALLACE: Sure.
O'BRIEN: Rescue workers are searching for as many as 20 people this morning in the town of La Cochita, north of Los Angeles. Ventura County officials say they may have been buried yesterday in a mud slide that killed three others.
CNN's Ted Rowlands covering the story for us in Ventura, California.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The desperate search continues here for survivors. Earlier this morning, an audible hit was heard, something was heard inside this debris pile in La Cochita. And rescuers are hopeful that somebody is still alive, possibly trapped in an air pocket here. They have been at it all night long, except for about a two hour window when the downpours came in and forced them to evacuate the scene. They're back at it now and thus far they're keeping their fingers crossed that this will continue. The weather is cooperating.
Search and rescue teams have been successful in pulling some people alive out of the debris rubble. Nine people have been pulled out. Some of them survived for hours and they're hoping that this is the case, as well. There is also a grim reality starting to surface here. Three people have been confirmed dead. But according to a firefighter who has been working the scene overnight, more are surely going to be found. Twenty-one people have been reported missing. Eyewitnesses say there could be up to 30 to 40 people dead or trapped inside this debris pile.
Time is of the essence. Crews continue to work around the clock, desperately hoping that they can find somebody alive.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Ventura, California.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HEMMER: Ted, thanks for that.
We'll get back to Ted throughout the morning here and let you know what we find out.
Again, if there is an audible hit, some sort of sound coming from beneath that mud, we'll get you back there on that developing story in southern California.
The same part of the country now and a very close call and a double rescue for a baby in San Dimas Canyon. A rescuer had a mother and her child in a raft when the raft flipped over in some fast moving water. The rescuer was able to grab hold of the baby. A firefighter without any safety harness got in the water, got them both to safety. The baby's body temperature fell to 90 degrees, but everyone, fortunately, came through OK. Only eight weeks old for that baby, said to be doing OK today. Great news there.
Back to Chad.
There is still precipitation out West -- Chad, good morning.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.
You know, it was really, it was weird to watch that raft moving very slowly and then when it let go and they were really moving, that water was doing 30 or 40 miles per hour and they were racing downstream to get him. Finally now the rain showers, Bill, are over. Most of the rain for L.A. and San Diego today is very, very light and the storm moves to the east.
But look at some of these rainfall totals. Beverly Hills, almost a foot of rain since Thursday. And then you get up into the mountains, where these rescues are taking place, 25 inches of rain. Obviously north of there snow. Look at some of these season snow totals: Kirkwood, 390 inches of snow so far; Sierra at Tahoe, 317. That's a year's worth of snow already and it's, well, only the beginning of January.
(WEATHER REPORT)
O'BRIEN: Well, when this California storm does finally end, there'll be lots of critical situations to deal with.
Frank McCarton is the chief deputy director of California's Emergency Services.
He's in Sacramento this morning.
Nice to see you, sir.
Thanks for being with us.
FRANK MCCARTON, CALIFORNIA EMERGENCY SERVICES: Good morning, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Good morning.
I want to get some information from you -- if you're aware of it, of any -- any further details about this audible hit that's been spoken about out of La Cochita area in that mud slide there? We're told something like 20 people still missing.
What's the latest on that?
MCCARTON: The latest is exactly what you're reporting, is right up to date. We have had confirmed three deaths in reference to that. There was a hit that they were getting throughout the morning, through the early morning hours here in California. They also -- we also had to evacuation that area due to the fact that we had some heavy rains that came through and it was unsafe for the rescue workers to work.
So there was a time frame there that we did have to evacuation that area.
But right now there is -- we're getting reports from the command post that there is a hit and they're looking for that person.
O'BRIEN: I know that the search was called off and it's going to be back on, I guess, when the sun finally rises out on the West Coast.
Why was it called off? Was it just too dark, or as it seems like you're alluding to, it was just out and out too dangerous for the rescue workers?
MCCARTON: Well, with the heavy rain that we were getting, Soledad, it really became a problem with a secondary collapse. The incident commander made a decision that he called it off.
We are back searching right now with the Ventura County officials looking for victims.
O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of whether or not all of this, in your mind, qualifies for a state of emergency in these areas. I mean they're obviously devastated. And I would be curious to know how much money are we talking about to recover and repair in this area?
MCCARTON: You know, Soledad, right now our officials, as the rain ends, will be able to get our disaster assistance folks onto the ground from the state. They will do assessments for the areas that have requested.
Ventura County is one of the counties that have requested. L.A. County has also requested a state of emergency, and with a declaration from the governor.
So we will be looking at those particular locations, sending our specialists out and being able to see if we're going to need further assistance from the fishing also.
O'BRIEN: What other areas are you looking into? And how many folks are homeless in all of this at this point?
MCCARTON: The numbers vary based on the evacuations that we had. We did have, in Santa Barbara, over 100 homes that were evacuated due to a mobile home area. But it all depends on the area that we're looking at. Ventura County was one of them, like I said. L.A. County has proclaimed, asked for a state of emergency, Santa Barbara County. And I imagine as we go throughout the day today, those will continue to come into our office.
O'BRIEN: What about long-term? I mean obviously this happens, I think, in this area a lot. People go back and rebuild on sites that are just unstable. I mean this is a site, La Cochita, certainly, where there have been mudslides, significant mudslides in the past.
What's the plan to keep this from happening again?
MCCARTON: Well, you're absolutely correct. In '92 and '95 there were mudslides in that area. We, as emergency managers, have to work with the local government, with the state and the federal government, to come up with a mitigation plan for those type of areas so those areas become safe if we go forward. So we'll have to look at what those areas, at how to mitigate those particular problems.
O'BRIEN: How -- forgive me for jumping in there, but how do you mitigate it? I understand in La Cochita they had a little retaining wall. But you're talking about, at least in the last slide -- I'm sure the numbers aren't in for this slide -- 600,000 tons of debris. I mean, a little retaining wall, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that that's not going to hold all that mud and debris and stuff back.
So what sorts of things are on the table when it comes to mitigation?
MCCARTON: Well, we look at -- you know, I'm not an engineer. The engineers and the geologists will be able to help us out with that. But basically it's probably, it would be a way of taking that material that comes off that on a fall like that and being able to push it down into a river or into a safe way of getting it out of the way. I'm not a geologist. We'd have to work with them to work that through.
O'BRIEN: And of course...
MCCARTON: But there are ways of mitigating it.
O'BRIEN: ... all discussions that will follow after, hopefully, you're able to rescue some of these folks who are hopefully still trapped just alive and they can be rescued, certainly in La Cochita area.
Thank you very much for being with us this morning.
MCCARTON: Thank you, Soledad.
O'BRIEN: Frank McCarton, the chief deputy director of California emergency services.
We appreciate it -- Bill.
HEMMER: From California now to South Carolina. Residents there are still out of their homes today after last week's deadly train wreck. On Monday, workers began pumping chlorine from the train's damaged cars and a cloud of chlorine gas had engulfed the town of Graniteville last week, killing nine. Two hundred and forty others were sick by it. About 5,500 now still evacuated out of that area.
A live report on the investigation ahead on our next hour here this morning.
Meanwhile, though, in today's CNN "Security Watch," hazards on the railroads. If the same type of toxic train wreck that happened in South Carolina took place in a major American city, that's the scenario.
Here's Joe Johns this morning looking into that for us.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An accidental release of chlorine gas from a train going through Washington, D.C. -- potentially deadly to thousands and crippling to the government. It is, for now, not much of a concern.
We invited former railroad administration official George Gavalla to the nation's capital to help assess railroad security just days before the inauguration. The big fear? That terrorists could blow up a tank car full of deadly chemicals. A security gap was easy to find.
(on camera): This is the extent of security here.
(voice-over): A gate next to a track just blocks from the Capitol wide open.
(on camera): Is there, by your estimation, any sign at all that this place is being policed by railway employees?
GEORGE GAVALLA, FORMER RAILROAD ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, at the moment, no. I guess it depends on how long we actually stay here.
JOHNS (voice-over): After a citizen called to report us, police showed up. Forty minutes after we arrived, they kicked us out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys really can't be up here.
JOHNS: The rail company, CSX, won't comment on what substances it transports and by which routes, so as not to tip off terrorists. But after the Madrid train bombings, pressure from local officials led CSX to voluntarily reroute the most dangerous chemicals around Washington, according to D.C. Councilmember Carol Schwartz.
Schwartz tried to make the rerouting a law, but now says the voluntary action is working.
CAROL SCHWARTZ, WASHINGTON COUNCILWOMAN: Of course, I would prefer that it be a mandate. But as long as it's being done, I feel like the intent of the legislation is being accomplished.
JOHNS: Good news for Washington, says Gavalla.
GAVALLA: Some of the most dangerous commodities are being rerouted away from the District. That's certainly the safest course that can be taken.
JOHNS: But rerouting means higher risk for surrounding communities, a hard fact. When it comes to protecting urban populations from railway disasters, one city's safety can end up putting others in more danger.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
HEMMER: Another note for you. Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security. Later today, at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, live coverage down in D.C. Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge, a news conference there on the security surrounding this month's presidential inauguration. That is nine days from today, next Thursday, and we will be there down in D.C. here on AMERICAN MORNING.
O'BRIEN: Well, it's never too late to start saving for your retirement. Your first step? How about throwing away your budget? Sounds contradictory, doesn't it? But we will explain.
HEMMER: Also, Indonesia bearing witness to an unprecedented relief effort. But is that campaign now showing signs of strain? We'll look into that.
O'BRIEN: And a tiny corner of America coping with a painful loss a half world away. How one law maker is reaching out to hometown heroes ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HEMMER: The man behind the best selling "Finish Rich" book series says it is never too late to start planning for your financial future.
He's got a new book out now. It tells you how to spend less, save more and make up for lost time. It's called "Start Late, Finish Rich." It sounds good.
David Bach is here to tell us -- he was with us here yesterday to fill us in on whether or not how good it is out there.
You say the first thing is throw away the budget.
How do you go away making a savings plan for yourself?
DAVID BACH, AUTHOR, "START LATE, FINISH RICH": We know budgets don't work for a fact. Nobody does it. Nobody sticks to them. So here's what you want to do. In the new year, the first person who's got to get paid is you. And you step in line for your paycheck. So that means this. Walk into your benefits department today and sign up to keep one hour day of your gross income. Now, most Americans, the first three hours, they get to work at nine and they work until 12 to 12:30 to pay their taxes.
I want you to do the opposite. I want you to step in line and get your 9:00 to 10:00 hour of income for you. That's 12 1/2 percent of your gross income. The average American is saving only 22 minutes of their income. So here's how to find this money, because people say, David, I don't have the money.
HEMMER: Right.
BACH: The "Wall Street Journal" this week said that the average American will get a raise of nearly 4 percent. This year, instead of just getting that extra money and then spending it, go into the benefits department and say take my raise and put that raise in my retirement account. If the average person would do this for two more years, they'd be saving three, four or five times more than the average American. And that would catch you up. You'd have hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings at retirement time.
HEMMER: And here we are in January. It's a perfect time of the year to start thinking of that exact thing.
BACH: It's a perfect time. HEMMER: You say keep your svgs plan boring.
BACH: Yes.
HEMMER: What do you mean?
BACH: When you're starting late, people try to catch up fast. So what they do is they go for the secret stock tip. They swing from the fences, the grand slam. Start late, finish rich creates a boring investment plan. I call it the perfect pie. Here's what -- and anybody can do this, OK? This is easy.
Whatever your assets are, you want it one third in real estate, one third in stocks -- that could be a diversified mutual fund -- and one third in guaranteed investments, CDs or bonds, something that's very safe.
HEMMER: Let me stop you there. How do people go about investing in real estate? Do you go out and buy property? I'm assuming that's the answer.
BACH: Obviously you can buy your own home. You can also buy rental properties. But a lot of people who are watching this don't want to deal with tenants or plumbing. So how do you buy real estate without the hassles?
Two ways, and I cover it in "Start Late, Finish Rich" -- real estate mutual funds and what's called a REIT -- real equity investment trust. These investments, what these are, these are companies that go out and invest in real estate. So they may invest in shopping centers or they may invest in office buildings or they may invest in apartment buildings. You invest in the real estate mutual fund or the REIT that's doing all of that work and you get the up side of the real estate, you get dividends -- they're paying seven, eight, nine, in some cases 10 percent -- without all the hassle.
And here's one thing people should know. REITs, which I cover in detail in "Start Late, Finish Rich," have outperformed the stock market for 25 years.
HEMMER: Really?
BACH: Now, how is that for a boring investment that works?
HEMMER: I would say that that is a boring investment that does work. I think the point you make, though, is good to repeat again. You have to get on base. Don't go for the home run, but get yourself on base.
BACH: You know, if you just get singles year in and year out, you get to be wealthy. If you go for the home runs, you have strike outs. When it comes to your money, you can't afford to strike out. The secret to getting rich is not losing your money.
HEMMER: No strike outs here.
Thank you, David.
Good to see you.
BACH: Yes.
Good to see you.
HEMMER: David Bach, "Start Late, Finish Rich."
BACH: Thank you.
O'BRIEN: Well, something old is new again in the fight against cancer. Thousands of patients could benefit. We're "Paging Dr. Gupta" just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Back to the shakeup at CBS that we've been talking about this morning.
The Tiffany network catching some attention from a competing network's late night host.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO," COURTESY NBC)
JAY LENO, HOST: President Bush kept a promise. Remember he said he would create jobs? Well, he's done just that over at CBS News. He created four more jobs. Four people have been fired from CBS over the Dan Rather report on President Bush's National Guard scandal. Yes. The network said the four employees were fired for sloppy reporting and incompetent facts checking. But the good news? Today all four of them got hired by the "New York Times." So that's very exciting about that, very exciting about that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: That's kind of funny. It's the topic, too.
HEMMER: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Of yours, especially.
CAFFERTY: Yes. Well, we're just kind of wondering how much impact this thing might have on the credibility of the mainstream media at large.
The question we're asking is how much confidence do you have in the mainstream news media in this country with the CBS developments as kind of a backdrop.
Linda in Boston writes: "I have confidence in the mainstream news media, but I take it with a grain of salt seasoned with a bit of annoyance at the dearth of international and political news in relation to the amount of smaltzy, sensational stories of personal tragedy and entertainment news."
Liz in New York writes: "I don't have that much confidence in the news media because it's hard to tell what is fact, what is opinion and what has been planted by the government. I prefer to read the papers."
Guy in Atlanta: "The flap at CBS has not changed my opinion or confidence in the news media. I have always allowed for a fudge factor or a margin of error from the media, particularly any sensationalized report."
And Rich in Kansas City writes: "Like most, I see bias only when I disagree with it. So I say the "F" word news network is biased. Conservatives say the same of CBS. At least we have Jack Cafferty, who everybody agrees is biased."
HEMMER: The populist. The man of the people.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, they say if everybody hates you, you're doing it right, right?
HEMMER: You know, the thing that Dick Thornburg has said in every interview is the thing that surprised him the most is that from the time they got that story and the time it aired, about six days had passed in the middle of a heated presidential race.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
HEMMER: But did that report determine whether or not the documents were fake? Did they prove that or was that their mission or not?
CAFFERTY: Oh, I think that was established when they finally decided to go on the air and do a mea culpa on the story.
O'BRIEN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) going in. Right.
CAFFERTY: The crime, as I see it, isn't so much the fact that they made a mistake in accepting these documents as real. They defended a phony story for more than a week after it aired. That's the problem. It was described in the report as a Nixonian response to allegations that the documents were false.
The documents were proven false shortly after the thing was on the air. But they insisted, and Dan Rather was out front on that part of it, they insisted that it was a legit story long after the house of cards had come down.
O'BRIEN: It wasn't.
All right, Jack, thank you.
CAFFERTY: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Well, the relief effort pushes forward in Southeast Asia. But are there signs that it's starting to crack under the strain? A look at that is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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