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American Morning

Rescuers Continue Searching for Survivors in California Mudslide; Another Case of Mad Cow Disease Hits Canada

Aired January 12, 2005 - 07:00   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: Trying to move a mountain by hand, the desperate search for signs of life in the La Conchita mudslide.
The effects so much bad weather now moving east. Taking down more homes in the process.

The rescue mission at the top of the world, townspeople in remote Alaska huddled without power while winds outside blow to 60 below.

Michael Chertoff, a man most Americans have never heard of, is he ready to keep us safe 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 on a Wednesday, 7 o'clock here in New York.

That work continues in California. The mountain that gave way and buried 15 homes in La Conchita. CNN's Rusty Dornin telling us rescuers now have found another victim in the past hour. We'll hear from her this morning. Also, we'll talk with the Ventura County Fire chief about the rescue efforts ongoing at this hour, there in California.

O'BRIEN: Also this morning, the tsunami relief in Asia. Religious leaders coming together to help the victims, not only with practical matters of recovery but also dealing with their spiritual doubts and fears. The archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been in the region. He is our guest this morning.

HEMMER: Also, Jack Cafferty, on a Wednesday.

Good morning, to you, Jack.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, how you doing?

The Iraqi election is less than three weeks away now. A couple of big debates going on. Should they be postponed, and if they're not, if they are held as scheduled on January 30, what will the results mean, if anything?

There's an indication now parts of the country are simply unfit for people to go and vote. We'll take a look at all this in a few minutes.

HEMMER: Yes, 19 days and counting. Thanks, Jack. Kelly Wallace with us as well, this morning, the headlines across town.

Kelly, good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill. And good morning, everyone.

"Now in the News": U.S. Marines are expanding tsunami relief efforts after word of a compromise. Work had been delayed for days because Indonesian officials objected to the presence of armed U.S. troops. A military official says U.S. Marines have now agreed to conduct humanitarian missions unarmed when on Indonesian soil.

In Fort Hood, Texas, the defense begins the case this morning in the military trial of Army Specialist Charles Graner. Army prosecutors rested their case yesterday against the accused ringleader of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

Jurors heard taped testimony from two detainees. One of them identified Specialist Graner as a, quote, "primary torturer". Court is set to resume in about two hours.

"CNN Security Watch": New warning measures being announced today to help pilots following a number of laser beam incidents. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta will outline steps pilots should take in the event their cockpit is flashed by a laser.

Included are ways for pilots to quickly notify law enforcement. The FBI is reportedly investigating at least a dozen cases of lasers beamed at aircraft since last month.

Stay tuned to CNN, day and night, for the most reliable news about your security.

And finally, some help for the remote Alaskan village of Kaktovik. A team arrived yesterday by helicopter to try and restore electricity. Residents have been without power since Sunday. A third of the town is apparently huddling together for warmth, this hour, in a maintenance building.

The severe weather is keeping the National Guard from flying supplies into the area. Heavy-duty vehicles are expected to bring food, water and propane to the town tomorrow.

That's a quick check of the headlines. Back to you, Bill. We'll see you in a few minutes.

HEMMER: OK, Kelly. Looking forward to that. Thanks, see you across town in a moment.

Meanwhile in California, hundreds of rescuers working through the night again, searching for signs of life beneath the rubble of massive mudslide in California. It's 4 o'clock in the morning in California. Rusty Dornin live again in La Conchita with the latest there.

Good morning to you, Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, this is an incredible operation; 600 rescue workers digging with their hands, with machines, using very technical listening devices and search dogs.

We do understand that about an hour ago, they pulled a seventh victim from that 30-foot pile of mud that came crashing down. And 13 people are still unaccounted for, including three children.

Now, the weather here is very clear. We can see the stars this morning. That was not the case earlier this week, when the Southern California and the West got clobbered.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN (voice over): Digging in desperation, searching for any signs of life. In La Conchita, California this neighborhood was destroyed when a hillside that was once a scenic backdrop to the seaside town came crashing down Monday.

Rescue crews worked night and day in a scramble to find survivors. At least 10 people have been pulled out of the mud alive.

CHIEF BOB ROPER, VENTURA COUNTY FIRE DEPT.: The rescue teams are going in they're finding voids still in the rubble pile that we believe are large enough that somebody could be in. As long as we're seeing that, then we hold out hope.

DORNIN: The rains came down in torrents for five days in Southern California, causing massive flooding, mudslides, and traffic nightmares. Near Topanga Canyon, this building-sized boulder plopped down on the highway. The only way anyone could make it budge was to blow it up.

In the Sierra Nevada, people are still digging out from the heaviest snowfall since 1916.

The fury of the Western storms raged eastward. Here, a house in Santa Clara, Utah, crumbles into the river. In Arizona, it was a similar story. Flood waters trapping people in their homes and making roads impassable. Water, water everywhere. And as one forecaster put it, the winter is still young.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: And the cliff hangs ominously over the rescue workers here. We understand there is another crack a little farther down where there was a slide about 10 years ago. But as long as it's not raining, they feel that things are relatively safe.

This morning, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is scheduled to take a tour about 12:30 Eastern here, both aerially, and on the ground of the rescue operation.

We also understand that the names of the 13 that are unaccounted for may be distributed just in case one of those people may be on vacation or may be somewhere that someone didn't realize that they were out of town -- Bill.

HEMMER: Those aerial pictures, too, give us a much better idea of what they're dealing and facing there in California.

Rusty, thanks. Talk to you a bit later this morning.

Now, Soledad with more.

O'BRIEN: As rescuers search for victims we get a look at the scope of the mudslide. The picture from above, looking down, as Bill mentioned, on the neighborhood where 15 homes have been destroyed, and just as many more damaged. Look at that, the scope of the damage there.

You can see at the top of the photo, all the rescue vehicles have been called in, lined up along the Pacific Coast Highway. Bob Roper is the Ventura County fire chief and he joins us with the latest on the search for survivors.

Good morning, Mr. Roper. Thanks for being with us, Chief.

Rusty, we just heard mentioning, that someone has been pulled from the rubble within the last hour or so. Do you think in your heart, as the rescue efforts are going, that there could be more people trapped alive in that rubble?

ROPER: After talking with the rescuers, they continue to find voids under the mud, where some of the collapsed structures are creating these areas. As long as the rescuers continue to find these voids, we're holding out hope that we can find somebody still alive.

O'BRIEN: When was the last time that there was any indication that there was someone alive down there, a scratching or a tapping, or breathing picked up on your special equipment?

ROPER: Yesterday, about 6 o'clock Pacific Time.

O'BRIEN: We heard from Rusty that 13 people are still missing. You're going to distribute the names of those folks in case some are actually just out on vacation. Have you been able to confirm anywhere near that number as actually being spotted at the site, right before the mudslide came down?

ROPER: Not exactly. That's what the sheriff's detectives have been busily working on. All the leads that people keep calling in. There's an area that have a lot of visitors to it. It's a scenic spot on along the California coast, and we're not sure exactly. That's why the names will hopefully be distributed today so we can help verify who was here and who wasn't.

O'BRIEN: Chief, what's going on right now? Are your teams still working? We heard some 600 rescuers are on the scene. Are they still working, or have they stopped because, obviously, it's dark right now?

ROPER: No, we have lighting. They're working 24 hours nonstop. We have them working on rotating shifts, so work continues. Because if we find somebody, we gotta get to them quick.

O'BRIEN: At what point are you going to say this is no longer a rescue effort and now a recovery effort?

ROPER: Right now the rescuers are using the listening devices, the search cameras that penetrate the ground into these voids, and they keep digging. We're using search dogs. And as long as they keep finding some voids, some measure of hope, we're going to stay in the rescue operation. At the end of the day, we'll be reevaluating it and making some decisions for tomorrow.

O'BRIEN: Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper joining us this morning.

Good luck to you. Wish you the very best in your efforts to bring some folks out alive where you are. Thank you.

ROPER: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Bill?

HEMMER: Now to another new image from the tsunami disaster. The U.S. government released new animation showing the 9.0 magnitude quake that sparked that deadly tsunami. It sent a ripple effect through every ocean on the planet. The effects were eventually visible on both coasts of the U.S. We know the eventual outcome as well, 150,000 dead as a result in Southeast Asia.

A programming note, later tonight on "NewsNight," Aaron Brown devotes an entire hour to the topic of extreme weather, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornados, flooding. Is the earth trying to tell us something? That's tonight, 10:00 Eastern on CNN.

Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Time for a first check of the forecast. Chad Myers at the CNN Center with the latest look at the weather for us.

Good morning.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

HEMMER: A U.S. investigator is heading to Canada to investigate a new case of mad cow disease there. It's the second confirmed case in the western province of Alberta in less than a month. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more this morning at the CNN Center.

Sanjay, good morning, there.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Second case in two weeks out of Canada, now, obviously, a lot of people concerned about this. This cow was born in 1998. That's significant, because that is months after the feed ban went into effect in that part of the world. Here's what Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman had to say about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY MITCHELL, CANADIAN AGRICULTURE MINISTER: Although this animal was born prior to the -- was born after the commencement of the 1997 feed ban. Preliminary investigations indicates the most likely source of infection is contaminated feed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: That's obviously the Canadian agriculture minister.

The feed ban in 1997, fall of 1997, there could have still been some protein from cow parts that got into the feed. Cows may have eaten that and that is one way they may have become infected. That is the prevailing theory at this point.

The concern, though, obviously is that if -- no one is saying this cow, or any of the other cows that we have heard about recently, entered into the food supply. If they did, there's a concern that humans could get something known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. And that is a concern, that is sort of the human mad cow disease.

About 150 people worldwide, most of them in the U.K, have obtained this over the years. Nobody very recently.

But officials, again, say none of the meat from these cows entered the food supply.

Just a brief history on it, because we've been talking about mad cow quite a bit. It was May of 2003 that the first cow in Canada actually diagnosed with positive for mad cow disease; the infectious agent that causes that.

December of 2003, in the United States, we covered that story the first cow in Washington, that cow originally came from Canada. And then again, Bill, two cows in the last two weeks.

HEMMER: With respect to your last answer then, Sanjay, hypothetically speaking, if an infected cow gets into the food supply, what's the likelihood of an individual acquiring this human form of mad cow disease?

GUPTA: The best data that they have is out of the U.K.; people remember the spread of mad cow some years ago. What they figured out, and it is based on sort of loose data, is that about one in 10 billion servings, very, very rare. So, one chance of infection out of 10 billion servings of meat in terms of acquiring the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, also known as the human form of mad cow, Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Sanjay. Clearing it up, there.

Thank you, Doctor Sanjay Gupta, at the CNN Center.

Soledad. O'BRIEN: The tsunamis left many asking the question why. Some people believe the disaster was punishment from a higher power. One religious leader shares his opinion with us this morning.

HEMMER: Also, the violence forcing a more realistic approach to Iraq's elections. If that is the case in Iraq, we'll tell you how expectations may have been lowered.

O'BRIEN: The president takes another stab at picking a Homeland Security chief. Is there anything in this nominee's background that could haunt him? We'll look at that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A "CNN Security Watch" now. President Bush's choice to head the Homeland Security Department. The question, as Michael Chertoff heads toward confirmation hearings, does the federal appeals court judge have what it takes to keep America safe? Joining us this morning, from Washington, Jeff Stein, the editor of "The Congressional Quarterly"

Nice to see you, Jeff. Thanks for being with us.

JEFF STEIN, EDITOR, "THE CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY": Nice to be here today.

O'BRIEN: Who is Michael Chertoff? Give us a little sense of his background.

STEIN: He walks softly, carries a big stick. He's a career prosecutor. He's a fine lawyer. He's worked very closely with a lot of federal agencies in his prosecutions of the mob.

Of course, in the days, weeks, and few years after 9/11, he was very aggressive in what you might call preventive justice, in devising innovative -- you might say, legal theories to round up immigrants who could be a threat to the United States.

He's a very tough, inside player. He's not well known outside of Washington, but he's well known inside Washington and that's where it counts.

O'BRIEN: Any indication in that resume, which even his critics say is a nice, solid resume. Any indication he has the practical experience to keep Americans safe?

STEIN: When you run the criminal division of the Justice Department, you have a lot of experience of knocking heads together and getting various local, state, and federal authorities working together. The prosecution of the mob, for example, this is very tricky area. He also had to navigate some very rough seas in the days after 9/11 at the Justice Department.

So, that gives him a lot of experience. But nobody can be really prepared to run the Homeland Security Department, which is a shotgun marriage of 22 agencies. It's nearly dysfunctional in some ways. It has to play in a very rough schoolyard with the FBI and the CIA, and the White House and the Pentagon, who are not under his control.

And I think he can't imagine yet how difficult this job is going to be. It's going to take his first week in office and I think he'll be confirmed easily. His first week in office, I think he'll be slapping his forehead and saying "My god, nobody told me it was this bad."

O'BRIEN: No, PR, buzz. Obviously, lost of PR, much of it negative, from Bernard Kerrick's nomination. A big upside, outside of that? Any upside to having somebody who flies under the radar?

STEIN: Yeah, he's not a guy who call as lot of attention to himself. That's good. His major challenge in Washington is going to be working with Congress, which is a nightmare of oversight. There's just scores of committees that want a piece of the action, of Homeland Security. And a lot of committee chairmen who do not want to give up power to consolidated Homeland Security committees.

And that's going to be very tough job, because the Department of Homeland Security needs a lot more money to put in place the technology, the high-technology that they're using for border control, for transportation control, and so on. And there's a lot of civil liberties questions about shaking down people at airports and borders and rounding up immigrants and so on.

He's going to need all the political skill, the quiet political skills he can muster to be a successful Homeland Security director. I don't think he's going to be the kind of a friendly face of Homeland Security you might say that Tom Ridge was. And Tom Ridge did not escape from this job unscathed, as you know.

O'BRIEN: Are you suggesting in any way that he's in over his head in this job?

STEIN: No, I'm not at all. He's a very smart guy. And I think he's going to do as well as anyone could in this job. Outside of other governors who might be extraordinarily equipped to handle this empire of agencies, I think running the criminal division of the Justice Department equips him as well as anyone could be equipped.

Remember, he's going to have to work very closely with the Justice Department, where he used to work, where his friend Alberto Gonzalez will probably be ensconced very shortly. And with the FBI, which he's worked with before. He's got a lot of ammo in his gun to successfully, do well in this job.

O'BRIEN: Jeff Stein of "The Congressional Quarterly," joining us this morning. Thanks, Jeff. Nice to see you.

STEIN: Thank you, Soledad.

HEMMER: I a moment, here, if you thought your iPod was out of your price range, listen up. Andy explains, "Minding Your Business" in a moment, right after this, on AMERICAN MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Welcome back, everybody. Cheaper computers, cheaper iPods, Apple's got it going on. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."

Drew, good morning.

ANDREW SERWER, COLUMNIST, "FORTUNE": Good morning.

We previewed this yesterday. It's in all the papers this morning. Apple rolling out a couple hot new products. They hope they will be hot. Steve Jobs, the coolest CEO in America? Is he? Probably.

Wearing black, here at Mac world, there he is. That's the new iPod shuffle, the size of a pack of gum. It's a mini iPod, costs 99 bucks, holds 120 songs. There's no screen on it. It connects with a USB port. So you plug it into the side of your computer there.

And I think the whole thing that it doesn't have a screen might be a problem for some people. I don't like that. I like to see what's playing. It randomly goes through songs. You put 120 four-minute songs on it.

I don't know, we'll have to see.

HEMMER: You know, Dell is coming out with their own -- what, Microsoft is challenging it. Are they making any headway?

SERWER: No. The iPod's market share is increasing month by month, which is amazing, because it's 85 percent or 90 percent. They have truly captivated and captured this market. They also rolled out a new little PC, the Mini Mac. The Mini Me, it's tiny. It's $499, which is a low-price PC. It doesn't have a keyboard, screen or mouse.

HEMMER: Is it a computer?

SERWER: Those are extra. Those cost extra.

O'BRIEN: A screen?

SERWER: No, doesn't have a screen. So it's really not $499. Of course, Steve Jobs always likes to have buzz. He always likes to have celebrities. This time, he trotted out John Maher. John "Mumbles" Maher. So I guess the iPod is a mumble land or wonderland or whatever that song is.

HEMMER: "The Finest Wonderland". That's the song, right?

SERWER: No, "Your Body's a Wonderland."

(CROSS TALK)

SERWER: You didn't know that one?

CAFFERTY: Leave it to you to figure that one out. SERWER: Well, thank you, Jack. Nice to see you this morning, too.

Anyway, that's it. That's the new stuff out.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: Question of the day?

CAFFERTY: Got those elections coming up, less than three weeks away in Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi acknowledged for the first time yesterday, pockets of the countries too dangerous for people to vote.

In the last month, the sharp increase in insurgent attacks, Iraqi police officers, security forces and government officials being murdered. There's more. Iraq's largest mainstream Sunni party has withdrawn now from the current interim government and Sunni leaders say they'll boycott the election.

The Sunnis make up 20 percent of Iraq's population. That is 4.5 million people. Here's the question. Will the results of a January 30 election in Iraq be legitimate? Am@cnn.com is the e-mail address.

O'BRIEN: Excellent question. I thought that was kin of shocking when we saw that story cross yesterday.

CAFFERTY: Yes, tough stuff.

O'BRIEN: We'll have an election, but not everybody's going to vote.

Thanks, Jack.

Time now for a Wednesday dose of "90 Second Pop."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MALE SINGER): My baby don't mess around because she loves me so, and this I know for sure.

O'BRIEN: Move over Brad and Jen, there's a new dream couple in town. A bizarre love affair captures America's hearts and eyes.

Plus, will tongues be wagging when we see what the Bush twins wear for dad's big day? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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Aired January 12, 2005 - 07:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Trying to move a mountain by hand, the desperate search for signs of life in the La Conchita mudslide.
The effects so much bad weather now moving east. Taking down more homes in the process.

The rescue mission at the top of the world, townspeople in remote Alaska huddled without power while winds outside blow to 60 below.

Michael Chertoff, a man most Americans have never heard of, is he ready to keep us safe 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 on a Wednesday, 7 o'clock here in New York.

That work continues in California. The mountain that gave way and buried 15 homes in La Conchita. CNN's Rusty Dornin telling us rescuers now have found another victim in the past hour. We'll hear from her this morning. Also, we'll talk with the Ventura County Fire chief about the rescue efforts ongoing at this hour, there in California.

O'BRIEN: Also this morning, the tsunami relief in Asia. Religious leaders coming together to help the victims, not only with practical matters of recovery but also dealing with their spiritual doubts and fears. The archbishop of Washington, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has been in the region. He is our guest this morning.

HEMMER: Also, Jack Cafferty, on a Wednesday.

Good morning, to you, Jack.

JACK CAFFERTY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bill, how you doing?

The Iraqi election is less than three weeks away now. A couple of big debates going on. Should they be postponed, and if they're not, if they are held as scheduled on January 30, what will the results mean, if anything?

There's an indication now parts of the country are simply unfit for people to go and vote. We'll take a look at all this in a few minutes.

HEMMER: Yes, 19 days and counting. Thanks, Jack. Kelly Wallace with us as well, this morning, the headlines across town.

Kelly, good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Good morning, Bill. And good morning, everyone.

"Now in the News": U.S. Marines are expanding tsunami relief efforts after word of a compromise. Work had been delayed for days because Indonesian officials objected to the presence of armed U.S. troops. A military official says U.S. Marines have now agreed to conduct humanitarian missions unarmed when on Indonesian soil.

In Fort Hood, Texas, the defense begins the case this morning in the military trial of Army Specialist Charles Graner. Army prosecutors rested their case yesterday against the accused ringleader of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

Jurors heard taped testimony from two detainees. One of them identified Specialist Graner as a, quote, "primary torturer". Court is set to resume in about two hours.

"CNN Security Watch": New warning measures being announced today to help pilots following a number of laser beam incidents. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta will outline steps pilots should take in the event their cockpit is flashed by a laser.

Included are ways for pilots to quickly notify law enforcement. The FBI is reportedly investigating at least a dozen cases of lasers beamed at aircraft since last month.

Stay tuned to CNN, day and night, for the most reliable news about your security.

And finally, some help for the remote Alaskan village of Kaktovik. A team arrived yesterday by helicopter to try and restore electricity. Residents have been without power since Sunday. A third of the town is apparently huddling together for warmth, this hour, in a maintenance building.

The severe weather is keeping the National Guard from flying supplies into the area. Heavy-duty vehicles are expected to bring food, water and propane to the town tomorrow.

That's a quick check of the headlines. Back to you, Bill. We'll see you in a few minutes.

HEMMER: OK, Kelly. Looking forward to that. Thanks, see you across town in a moment.

Meanwhile in California, hundreds of rescuers working through the night again, searching for signs of life beneath the rubble of massive mudslide in California. It's 4 o'clock in the morning in California. Rusty Dornin live again in La Conchita with the latest there.

Good morning to you, Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, this is an incredible operation; 600 rescue workers digging with their hands, with machines, using very technical listening devices and search dogs.

We do understand that about an hour ago, they pulled a seventh victim from that 30-foot pile of mud that came crashing down. And 13 people are still unaccounted for, including three children.

Now, the weather here is very clear. We can see the stars this morning. That was not the case earlier this week, when the Southern California and the West got clobbered.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN (voice over): Digging in desperation, searching for any signs of life. In La Conchita, California this neighborhood was destroyed when a hillside that was once a scenic backdrop to the seaside town came crashing down Monday.

Rescue crews worked night and day in a scramble to find survivors. At least 10 people have been pulled out of the mud alive.

CHIEF BOB ROPER, VENTURA COUNTY FIRE DEPT.: The rescue teams are going in they're finding voids still in the rubble pile that we believe are large enough that somebody could be in. As long as we're seeing that, then we hold out hope.

DORNIN: The rains came down in torrents for five days in Southern California, causing massive flooding, mudslides, and traffic nightmares. Near Topanga Canyon, this building-sized boulder plopped down on the highway. The only way anyone could make it budge was to blow it up.

In the Sierra Nevada, people are still digging out from the heaviest snowfall since 1916.

The fury of the Western storms raged eastward. Here, a house in Santa Clara, Utah, crumbles into the river. In Arizona, it was a similar story. Flood waters trapping people in their homes and making roads impassable. Water, water everywhere. And as one forecaster put it, the winter is still young.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: And the cliff hangs ominously over the rescue workers here. We understand there is another crack a little farther down where there was a slide about 10 years ago. But as long as it's not raining, they feel that things are relatively safe.

This morning, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is scheduled to take a tour about 12:30 Eastern here, both aerially, and on the ground of the rescue operation.

We also understand that the names of the 13 that are unaccounted for may be distributed just in case one of those people may be on vacation or may be somewhere that someone didn't realize that they were out of town -- Bill.

HEMMER: Those aerial pictures, too, give us a much better idea of what they're dealing and facing there in California.

Rusty, thanks. Talk to you a bit later this morning.

Now, Soledad with more.

O'BRIEN: As rescuers search for victims we get a look at the scope of the mudslide. The picture from above, looking down, as Bill mentioned, on the neighborhood where 15 homes have been destroyed, and just as many more damaged. Look at that, the scope of the damage there.

You can see at the top of the photo, all the rescue vehicles have been called in, lined up along the Pacific Coast Highway. Bob Roper is the Ventura County fire chief and he joins us with the latest on the search for survivors.

Good morning, Mr. Roper. Thanks for being with us, Chief.

Rusty, we just heard mentioning, that someone has been pulled from the rubble within the last hour or so. Do you think in your heart, as the rescue efforts are going, that there could be more people trapped alive in that rubble?

ROPER: After talking with the rescuers, they continue to find voids under the mud, where some of the collapsed structures are creating these areas. As long as the rescuers continue to find these voids, we're holding out hope that we can find somebody still alive.

O'BRIEN: When was the last time that there was any indication that there was someone alive down there, a scratching or a tapping, or breathing picked up on your special equipment?

ROPER: Yesterday, about 6 o'clock Pacific Time.

O'BRIEN: We heard from Rusty that 13 people are still missing. You're going to distribute the names of those folks in case some are actually just out on vacation. Have you been able to confirm anywhere near that number as actually being spotted at the site, right before the mudslide came down?

ROPER: Not exactly. That's what the sheriff's detectives have been busily working on. All the leads that people keep calling in. There's an area that have a lot of visitors to it. It's a scenic spot on along the California coast, and we're not sure exactly. That's why the names will hopefully be distributed today so we can help verify who was here and who wasn't.

O'BRIEN: Chief, what's going on right now? Are your teams still working? We heard some 600 rescuers are on the scene. Are they still working, or have they stopped because, obviously, it's dark right now?

ROPER: No, we have lighting. They're working 24 hours nonstop. We have them working on rotating shifts, so work continues. Because if we find somebody, we gotta get to them quick.

O'BRIEN: At what point are you going to say this is no longer a rescue effort and now a recovery effort?

ROPER: Right now the rescuers are using the listening devices, the search cameras that penetrate the ground into these voids, and they keep digging. We're using search dogs. And as long as they keep finding some voids, some measure of hope, we're going to stay in the rescue operation. At the end of the day, we'll be reevaluating it and making some decisions for tomorrow.

O'BRIEN: Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper joining us this morning.

Good luck to you. Wish you the very best in your efforts to bring some folks out alive where you are. Thank you.

ROPER: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Bill?

HEMMER: Now to another new image from the tsunami disaster. The U.S. government released new animation showing the 9.0 magnitude quake that sparked that deadly tsunami. It sent a ripple effect through every ocean on the planet. The effects were eventually visible on both coasts of the U.S. We know the eventual outcome as well, 150,000 dead as a result in Southeast Asia.

A programming note, later tonight on "NewsNight," Aaron Brown devotes an entire hour to the topic of extreme weather, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornados, flooding. Is the earth trying to tell us something? That's tonight, 10:00 Eastern on CNN.

Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Time for a first check of the forecast. Chad Myers at the CNN Center with the latest look at the weather for us.

Good morning.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

HEMMER: A U.S. investigator is heading to Canada to investigate a new case of mad cow disease there. It's the second confirmed case in the western province of Alberta in less than a month. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more this morning at the CNN Center.

Sanjay, good morning, there.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

Second case in two weeks out of Canada, now, obviously, a lot of people concerned about this. This cow was born in 1998. That's significant, because that is months after the feed ban went into effect in that part of the world. Here's what Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman had to say about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDY MITCHELL, CANADIAN AGRICULTURE MINISTER: Although this animal was born prior to the -- was born after the commencement of the 1997 feed ban. Preliminary investigations indicates the most likely source of infection is contaminated feed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: That's obviously the Canadian agriculture minister.

The feed ban in 1997, fall of 1997, there could have still been some protein from cow parts that got into the feed. Cows may have eaten that and that is one way they may have become infected. That is the prevailing theory at this point.

The concern, though, obviously is that if -- no one is saying this cow, or any of the other cows that we have heard about recently, entered into the food supply. If they did, there's a concern that humans could get something known as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. And that is a concern, that is sort of the human mad cow disease.

About 150 people worldwide, most of them in the U.K, have obtained this over the years. Nobody very recently.

But officials, again, say none of the meat from these cows entered the food supply.

Just a brief history on it, because we've been talking about mad cow quite a bit. It was May of 2003 that the first cow in Canada actually diagnosed with positive for mad cow disease; the infectious agent that causes that.

December of 2003, in the United States, we covered that story the first cow in Washington, that cow originally came from Canada. And then again, Bill, two cows in the last two weeks.

HEMMER: With respect to your last answer then, Sanjay, hypothetically speaking, if an infected cow gets into the food supply, what's the likelihood of an individual acquiring this human form of mad cow disease?

GUPTA: The best data that they have is out of the U.K.; people remember the spread of mad cow some years ago. What they figured out, and it is based on sort of loose data, is that about one in 10 billion servings, very, very rare. So, one chance of infection out of 10 billion servings of meat in terms of acquiring the variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, also known as the human form of mad cow, Bill.

HEMMER: All right, Sanjay. Clearing it up, there.

Thank you, Doctor Sanjay Gupta, at the CNN Center.

Soledad. O'BRIEN: The tsunamis left many asking the question why. Some people believe the disaster was punishment from a higher power. One religious leader shares his opinion with us this morning.

HEMMER: Also, the violence forcing a more realistic approach to Iraq's elections. If that is the case in Iraq, we'll tell you how expectations may have been lowered.

O'BRIEN: The president takes another stab at picking a Homeland Security chief. Is there anything in this nominee's background that could haunt him? We'll look at that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: A "CNN Security Watch" now. President Bush's choice to head the Homeland Security Department. The question, as Michael Chertoff heads toward confirmation hearings, does the federal appeals court judge have what it takes to keep America safe? Joining us this morning, from Washington, Jeff Stein, the editor of "The Congressional Quarterly"

Nice to see you, Jeff. Thanks for being with us.

JEFF STEIN, EDITOR, "THE CONGRESSIONAL QUARTERLY": Nice to be here today.

O'BRIEN: Who is Michael Chertoff? Give us a little sense of his background.

STEIN: He walks softly, carries a big stick. He's a career prosecutor. He's a fine lawyer. He's worked very closely with a lot of federal agencies in his prosecutions of the mob.

Of course, in the days, weeks, and few years after 9/11, he was very aggressive in what you might call preventive justice, in devising innovative -- you might say, legal theories to round up immigrants who could be a threat to the United States.

He's a very tough, inside player. He's not well known outside of Washington, but he's well known inside Washington and that's where it counts.

O'BRIEN: Any indication in that resume, which even his critics say is a nice, solid resume. Any indication he has the practical experience to keep Americans safe?

STEIN: When you run the criminal division of the Justice Department, you have a lot of experience of knocking heads together and getting various local, state, and federal authorities working together. The prosecution of the mob, for example, this is very tricky area. He also had to navigate some very rough seas in the days after 9/11 at the Justice Department.

So, that gives him a lot of experience. But nobody can be really prepared to run the Homeland Security Department, which is a shotgun marriage of 22 agencies. It's nearly dysfunctional in some ways. It has to play in a very rough schoolyard with the FBI and the CIA, and the White House and the Pentagon, who are not under his control.

And I think he can't imagine yet how difficult this job is going to be. It's going to take his first week in office and I think he'll be confirmed easily. His first week in office, I think he'll be slapping his forehead and saying "My god, nobody told me it was this bad."

O'BRIEN: No, PR, buzz. Obviously, lost of PR, much of it negative, from Bernard Kerrick's nomination. A big upside, outside of that? Any upside to having somebody who flies under the radar?

STEIN: Yeah, he's not a guy who call as lot of attention to himself. That's good. His major challenge in Washington is going to be working with Congress, which is a nightmare of oversight. There's just scores of committees that want a piece of the action, of Homeland Security. And a lot of committee chairmen who do not want to give up power to consolidated Homeland Security committees.

And that's going to be very tough job, because the Department of Homeland Security needs a lot more money to put in place the technology, the high-technology that they're using for border control, for transportation control, and so on. And there's a lot of civil liberties questions about shaking down people at airports and borders and rounding up immigrants and so on.

He's going to need all the political skill, the quiet political skills he can muster to be a successful Homeland Security director. I don't think he's going to be the kind of a friendly face of Homeland Security you might say that Tom Ridge was. And Tom Ridge did not escape from this job unscathed, as you know.

O'BRIEN: Are you suggesting in any way that he's in over his head in this job?

STEIN: No, I'm not at all. He's a very smart guy. And I think he's going to do as well as anyone could in this job. Outside of other governors who might be extraordinarily equipped to handle this empire of agencies, I think running the criminal division of the Justice Department equips him as well as anyone could be equipped.

Remember, he's going to have to work very closely with the Justice Department, where he used to work, where his friend Alberto Gonzalez will probably be ensconced very shortly. And with the FBI, which he's worked with before. He's got a lot of ammo in his gun to successfully, do well in this job.

O'BRIEN: Jeff Stein of "The Congressional Quarterly," joining us this morning. Thanks, Jeff. Nice to see you.

STEIN: Thank you, Soledad.

HEMMER: I a moment, here, if you thought your iPod was out of your price range, listen up. Andy explains, "Minding Your Business" in a moment, right after this, on AMERICAN MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HEMMER: Welcome back, everybody. Cheaper computers, cheaper iPods, Apple's got it going on. Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."

Drew, good morning.

ANDREW SERWER, COLUMNIST, "FORTUNE": Good morning.

We previewed this yesterday. It's in all the papers this morning. Apple rolling out a couple hot new products. They hope they will be hot. Steve Jobs, the coolest CEO in America? Is he? Probably.

Wearing black, here at Mac world, there he is. That's the new iPod shuffle, the size of a pack of gum. It's a mini iPod, costs 99 bucks, holds 120 songs. There's no screen on it. It connects with a USB port. So you plug it into the side of your computer there.

And I think the whole thing that it doesn't have a screen might be a problem for some people. I don't like that. I like to see what's playing. It randomly goes through songs. You put 120 four-minute songs on it.

I don't know, we'll have to see.

HEMMER: You know, Dell is coming out with their own -- what, Microsoft is challenging it. Are they making any headway?

SERWER: No. The iPod's market share is increasing month by month, which is amazing, because it's 85 percent or 90 percent. They have truly captivated and captured this market. They also rolled out a new little PC, the Mini Mac. The Mini Me, it's tiny. It's $499, which is a low-price PC. It doesn't have a keyboard, screen or mouse.

HEMMER: Is it a computer?

SERWER: Those are extra. Those cost extra.

O'BRIEN: A screen?

SERWER: No, doesn't have a screen. So it's really not $499. Of course, Steve Jobs always likes to have buzz. He always likes to have celebrities. This time, he trotted out John Maher. John "Mumbles" Maher. So I guess the iPod is a mumble land or wonderland or whatever that song is.

HEMMER: "The Finest Wonderland". That's the song, right?

SERWER: No, "Your Body's a Wonderland."

(CROSS TALK)

SERWER: You didn't know that one?

CAFFERTY: Leave it to you to figure that one out. SERWER: Well, thank you, Jack. Nice to see you this morning, too.

Anyway, that's it. That's the new stuff out.

HEMMER: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: Question of the day?

CAFFERTY: Got those elections coming up, less than three weeks away in Iraq. Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi acknowledged for the first time yesterday, pockets of the countries too dangerous for people to vote.

In the last month, the sharp increase in insurgent attacks, Iraqi police officers, security forces and government officials being murdered. There's more. Iraq's largest mainstream Sunni party has withdrawn now from the current interim government and Sunni leaders say they'll boycott the election.

The Sunnis make up 20 percent of Iraq's population. That is 4.5 million people. Here's the question. Will the results of a January 30 election in Iraq be legitimate? Am@cnn.com is the e-mail address.

O'BRIEN: Excellent question. I thought that was kin of shocking when we saw that story cross yesterday.

CAFFERTY: Yes, tough stuff.

O'BRIEN: We'll have an election, but not everybody's going to vote.

Thanks, Jack.

Time now for a Wednesday dose of "90 Second Pop."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MALE SINGER): My baby don't mess around because she loves me so, and this I know for sure.

O'BRIEN: Move over Brad and Jen, there's a new dream couple in town. A bizarre love affair captures America's hearts and eyes.

Plus, will tongues be wagging when we see what the Bush twins wear for dad's big day? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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