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CNN Live Sunday

Fires Burning Across Oklahoma and Texas; West Coast Weather Problems; President Bush Returns to Washington; Wish for Peace in Baghdad; Young Man's Extreme Weight Loss; Dog's Reunion After Hurricane Rita

Aired January 01, 2006 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. All that and more but first a look at the top stories.
Heavy rains move into southern California after yesterday's flooding in the north where carnival ride of a rescue may have saved this woman's life. She was stuck in her car with flood water rising around her. The Coast Guard responded, got the woman pulled out and up to safety.

The Iraqi infant known as Baby Noor is now in Atlanta. A hospital official says the baby arrived here in good condition yesterday. An operation to fix the child's spinal abnormality is to occur in about a week. Baby Noor was found by U.S. soldiers during a raid on a home in Baghdad.

And the family of Farris Hassan tells CNN the boy will be back here in the U.S. tonight. Hassan is the Florida prep school student who turned up in Baghdad on Christmas Day because he was curious and hoped he could launch a career in journalism. His brother and uncles say he will arrive in Miami this evening.

Fires and flooding top the news this hour. On the West Coast, California, cannot catch a break from the wet weather. A second major storm is now pounding California where the ground is already saturated and flooded rivers have nowhere to go but up and over.

CNN is covering this major story on all fronts with Kareen Wynter in Napa, Sumi Das in Truckee and meteorologist Monica McNeal in the Weather Center.

Meanwhile in Texas, the prairie is again in flames. We want to first check in with Sparky Bean who's of the Eastland County, Texas, media relations. And Sparky, where are the fires where you are?

SPARKY BEAN, MEDIA RELATIONS, EASTLAND COUNTY (on phone): I'm calling actually from Abilene, Texas, which is kind of the center of what we call the big country. It's north central west Texas, if you will. And we have -- we've had up to 15 fires in our area. Most of those are contained but we've got a real problem over in Eastland County and that's the one you're speaking of.

WHITFIELD: And what is sparking, so to speak, these 15 fires in your area? BEAN: I'm sorry, say that one more time.

WHITFIELD: What has ignited these fires in your area?

BEAN: I'm not sure what the ignition source is. But what the problem is, we've got about a 10 percent humidity today. We've got 35 to 45 mile an hour gusts of wind and the temperature is very unseasonal. We were working at the lower 80s, which we're usually in the 40s or maybe 50s right now. So those three things combined with last spring, we had some wonderful rains which we have a lot of undergrowth and such this summer which is now dry. And it is just ready to go.

WHITFIELD: Wow. And how are your resources? How difficult has it been for your crews to battle these blazes?

BEAN: Well we went from a local resource to the county to the state. And now we're working on Federal resources. And so with a combination of all those folks, again the majority of everything is under control. However, Eastland County down around Carbon, Kokomo, New Hope, Lake Leon, that's kind of down south central Eastland Texas is where the problem, Eastland County rather is where the problem is.

WHITFIELD: What about the threat to residents there or farms or businesses?

BEAN: OK. Right now, we've evacuated 12 homes. The problem is that the fire is traveling northeast toward Kocomo and New Hope. So we've got anywhere from 30 up to 200 homes in danger as we speak. We're trying to get people to evacuate and leave before the fires get there because again with this wind and the low humidity, it's taxing our resources.

WHITFIELD: And are you finding any difficulty in conveying these evacuation suggestions to people?

BEAN: You know, the majority of the media, excuse me, the majority of everybody relies on the media. And unfortunately, this being a Sunday, a lot of our local media is shut down and automation. So we're looking for folks like you. If you all can help us to let those folks at Kocomo and New Hope in south Eastland County, you might need to evacuate now because that fire is not contained and it is headed your way.

WHITFIELD: All right, dangerous conditions there. Sparky Bean of Eastland County, Texas. Thanks so much for being with us and we wish you the best of luck on this. Let's check in with Monica McNeal in the weather center who's keeping a close watch on the conditions there as well as out west. And Monica, if you can hear me right now, let's talk -- all right. Well, we're having some problems with audio trying to connect up with Monica McNeal. But for now, let's check in out west in California in Napa where they have dealt with a number of overflowing rivers there causing a lot of mud slides and just a real mess. Kareen Wynter is there. Kareen?

KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Northern California took a real beating yesterday in the streams, the rivers, just a complete mess after the heavy rain. But this is what people woke up to this morning here in downtown Napa. You can see the Padilla family. They were gracious enough to let us in. They're actually hosing down the floor of their homes. There's so much mud in here. That's the only way to get it out. (INAUDIBLE) want to show you over here, all of their items, we were told a baby's crib, also this couch you see right there. You can see some of the line at the bottom where the flood waters reached yesterday. They're on their way to shipping that outside. And this is usually a clear area as well, Fredricka, according to the family. But you can see the shoes, the baby's backpack, all their personal items just destroyed by all of the rain that hit this area. A lot of the people who live in this community are elderly or they live alone and they really can't handle this job by themselves. We were surprised when we bumped into this group of youngsters here. Come on over. We don't bite. You can see they're covered from head to toe in mud. That's because they've been working hard all morning long volunteers from the area who came to help out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're just out -- we're out from the church, the Mormon Church and we just, we heard what was going on decided to come out and help the people out. Everybody lost everything and we're all high and dry. And it's the calling. It's what we do. It's what our church believes in.

WYNTER: Were you surprised when you came into this neighborhood and saw the destruction?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, we were here yesterday and I didn't think it was going to be that bad. We were chest high in water and had everything in it and this isn't even the worst part of town. Just a couple streets over is just mud up to your knees and it was bad. I didn't expect it to be that bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sewers were overflowing and stuff like that. And today, we're actually lucky. I actually have boots on. Yesterday it was just shoes. You just got to suck it up and go help people and that's what we're out doing.

WYNTER: And you're here to help, so we won't tie you up any further. Great job. We'll let you get back to work. And they're getting rained on. I'm getting rained on. The rain is coming down here, Fred. But the good news is that despite the water that we're getting right now, the water levels here have receded quite a bit. They're not a threat right now according to the city. So the second storm that's going to be moving through here while the rain will slow down that progress, it's not expected to be nearly as bad as yesterday.

WHITFIELD: That's good news. Kareen Wynter, thanks so much in Napa. The storm has already caused colossal mess in the mountains along interstate 80 which is the main highway from Sacramento to Reno, Nevada. Our Sumi Das is there in the very snowy Truckee, California. While it's really pretty, it sure has caused some problems hasn't it?

SUMI DAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It is absolutely beautiful though. It's important I think to take time out to enjoy the view. We are dealing with this nasty weather. The snow started falling about three hours ago and hasn't stopped since then. The Sierra Nevada hasn't really had much time to recover from the last storm that rolled through this area. As you mentioned Fredricka, that storm caused a massive mudslide on interstate 80 about five miles east of here. The freeway was shut down in both directions after those slides covered the highway in mud and rocks and it trapped six big rigs. Now, the cleanup has really been a nonstop operation for the California department of transportation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICER STEVE SKEEN, CALIF. HIGHWAY PATROL: We've been out here working 24 hours since the slide occurred. There's 15 trucks working around the clock to remove all the debris. There's over 250,000 yards of debris on the roadway that had to be trucked out of here. And after that, now it's a matter of finding the drains, reopening the drains so we can get the water off the roadway and clean up the roadway and make sure it's safe for traffic.

((END VIDEO CLIP)

DAS: Eastbound lanes were opened up a short while ago and the California Highway Patrol expects that the westbound lanes may be opened sometime later today. Now, there is another storm that we are starting to see signs of bearing down on the Sierra Nevada. The National Weather Service based in Reno has issued a winter storm warning that goes into effect at 4:00 p.m. local time in a couple of hours. It will last for 24 hours and is going to bring a lot of snow. The last storm really brought a lot of rain. We're expecting six to 12 inches of snow at the lake level in the Lake Tahoe basin area and then more snow at higher elevations up to two feet above 7,000 feet. And then the southern Sierra is going to get even more than that, three feet or more possibly. This could mean a long commute back home to the holiday travelers who are here for this holiday week between Christmas and New Year's. But in the meantime, we have seen a lot of skiers who are enjoying the last runs that they possibly can and seeing some people tossing around some snowballs. I actually had to dodge one earlier Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Sumi Das. Let's check in with Monica McNeal in the weather center with more on the big weather picture. Monica.

MONICA MCNEAL, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right. Maybe Sumi is just dodging snowballs but folks in California are going to be not able to dodge all of this rainfall. As we take a look at the big picture and show you what's going on on our surface map, you can see extensive cloud coverage. This is the system that's going to be pounding the southwest, central California and southwestern California. As you can take a look, there's an area of low pressure that's continuing to lift off toward the north mainly across the north Pacific, not really concerned with that portion of the system, more concerned with the southern half. That's where we're focusing most of our attention.

Take a look at all of the rainfall that's continuing to drive its way right along the coast, this area of dark green and yellows, some very heavy rainfall. It's going to be periods of heavy rainfall all day. At times, you could see one inch to an inch and a half per hour, mainly right along the coastal area, right along Santa Maria, right along the Santa Monica area, down into parts of Ventura County, Los Angeles County. That's where we're expecting to see three to five inches of rainfall between today and going into tomorrow. So we're really talking about a whole lot of rain. We're talking about coastal flooding, folks.

Take a look at Santa Monica. You're under a heavy thunderstorm. There's lightening with this activity and some heavy downpours and gusty winds is a serious condition, too for parts of the west. Now as we shift our attention to the middle of the country, a large area of low pressure that's just digging down into parts of Oklahoma is creating the problems in Texas with the dry conditions. You may be saying how. It's driving in some southwest winds and the relative humidity is extremely low, so when you have those combinations of high temperatures, that's what creates the fire danger. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, bad situation. Thanks so much Monica. Well, coming up next, car bombs rip through Baghdad. The latest on the casualties. And this year, Ukrainians could see their toughest winter ever. We'll tell you why right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: President Bush returned to Washington last hour from his Texas ranch. Before leaving, he visited with troops at a Texas military hospital. And he also had more to say about the government's domestic spying program. CNN's Elaine Quijano is standing at the White House with more on that. Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon to you Fredricka. That's right. President Bush is back here at the White House after that nearly week-long holiday break at his ranch in Crawford. He began the day, began the New Year really by visiting privately with about 51 wounded U.S. troops at the Brook Army Medical Center in San Antonio and while there, the president awarded nine purple hearts. The White House says that this was the 34th time President Bush has visited wounded service personnel. Afterwards, in a brief question and answer session with reporters, the president took the opportunity to again staunchly defend his authorization of a secret domestic surveillance program and the president also repeated his assertion that the disclosure of the program's existence has hurt national security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The fact that somebody leaked this program causes great harm to the United States. There's an enemy out there. They read newspapers. They listen to what you write. They listen to what you put on the air and they react. And we -- it seems logical to me, that if we know there's a phone number associated with al Qaeda and/or an al Qaeda affiliate and they're making phone calls, it makes sense to find out why. They attacked us before. They will attack us again if they can. And we're going to do everything we can to stop it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, critics though argue that the determination of sorting out who should be subject to monitoring should be made by a court. And some members of Congress have expressed a great deal of concern. They worry about civil liberties and privacy rights. The concerns expressed mostly by Democrats but also some Republicans, as well. In fact, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Arlen Specter says he plans to hold hearings on this issue early this year. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Elaine Quijano at the White House, thank you.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is playing hard ball with Ukraine. How his latest move is leaving Ukrainians out in the cold. And 2005 to 2006 in Iraq. Why the situation still looks the same.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The New Year arrived in Iraq today to the sound of bomb blasts. Over a three-hour span this morning, at least eight bombs exploded in Baghdad, reportedly wounding about a dozen people, including two Iraqi soldiers. In Kirkuk to the north, a car bomb exploded near a U.S. troop envoy that caused no injuries according to Iraqi police. From the U.S. military, no immediate comment on a report from a city north of Baghdad of possible U.S. casualties in a car bombing there.

What Iraqis want for the New Year will hardly come as a shock. CNN's Jennifer Eccleston spoke with three families in Baghdad and everyone said they would like to live in peace.

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Retired manager Timo George (ph) has one wish for 2006. To leave, he says, to leave Iraq. For two years, he and his daughter waited for calm to return to his central Baghdad neighborhood to his country. After two years of bombs and bullets, two years of fretting every time his daughter leaves home, enough is enough. The Christian family is seeking exile in Sweden.

TRANSLATOR: It's not an easy choice but I must make it for the sake of my daughter.

ECCLESTON: Timo leaves with a heavy heart. This is a country of his ancestors and a country of good friends like neighbor Hussein (ph) (INAUDIBLE) . Hussein is a trained hospital administrator. But jobs in that sector are hard to come by these days, especially for Sunnis, he says. So he works as a security guard. His wish for 2006?

TRANSLATOR: A better job, a better opportunity.

ECCLESTON: His mother Hannah, a different aspiration. Hussein needs to get married, she says, so he can take his mind off the troubles. For Rasha (ph), his sister, a defiant new year's resolution, a message to those who are trying to tear her country apart. To the terrorists who don't want Iraq to be stable and secure, in 2006 we will stand against you and we will carry on.

It's just down the road that we find the al Asawi (ph) family, all 18 of them, the bulk under the age of 10. They are a family of poor Shiites who rely on the donations of neighbors, Shiite, Sunni and Christian to survive. Abbas is the head of household. An army sergeant for 30 years, he lost his job when the Iraqi military was disbanded in 2003. He's yet to see a pension from the Shiite-led government. For 2006, a longing for unity and a plea to those who can help make that happen.

TRANSLATOR: My wish is to live together as Iraqis, not as Sunni or Shiite or whatever. My wish is that our newly elected government will bring this in the coming near.

ECCLESTON: One Baghdad neighborhood, three families, three variations of a universal new year's wish, that the coming year is better than the last. Jennifer Eccleston, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Other news from around the world now, Russia cuts off Ukraine. No more natural gas. Moscow had tried to quadruple the price. Ukraine refused and today the Russians made good on their threat to shut off the spigots that deliver one third of Ukraine's demand.

Officials in Yemen say kidnapers now have freed three Italian women, but they continue to hold two men. The officials say the kidnappers are trying to leverage their captives to gain the release of relatives being held for various crimes. In Syria, the ruling Baath party kicks out Syria's former vice president, Abdul Halim Khaddam. Now living in Paris, Khaddam said last week that Syrian President Bashar al-Asad threatened Lebanese statesman Rafiq Hariri months before Hariri's assassination.

And in Australia today, spectacular wildfires north of Sydney, flames as high as 100 feet sent dozens of residents fleeing and destroyed more than a handful of fire trucks. In Sydney today, it was 111 degrees, a record for New Year's Day.

Caught on tape. But it's not what it seems. This isn't your typical mall rip off. We'll take a closer look at these super shoplifters and some of the tricks they use to rob stores blind.

And a new weapon in the battle of the bulge. This time you can eat whatever you want. And we're not kidding. Stick around. We'll tell you how it works.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We're going to steal a look at an investigation that's one of the best of CNN for the past week. You saw it first on "PAULA ZAHN NOW," gangs that don't break the law in the streets. They do it at the mall.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Take a look at this surveillance video from a suburban shopping mall. This is no ordinary shoplifter. Just watch. One, two, three pairs of shoes, all stolen in less than a minute. Now watch this woman, different store, different day, same technique. While her partner acts as a lookout, she slips box after box of perfume into a bag. Police call it boosting, organized shoplifting carried out by trained gangs of professional thieves.

How much merchandise are we talking about at any one time in an hour?

DET. DAVID HILL, MONTGOMERY COUNTY POLICE: In an hour, we have made an apprehension where we recovered $40,000 worth of merchandise.

ZAHN: In a single hour?

HILL: Single hour.

ZAHN: Maryland detective David Hill heads the Montgomery County police retail theft unit.

HILL: Target high end stores.

ZAHN: We met Detective Hill at a mall but agreed not to mention which one. Stores are desperately afraid of drawing unwanted attention from gangs. So one person stealing, one person is doing surveillance. What are their roles?

HILL: You have collectors, packers, ones that take it to the car, others that are watching their bags to make sure they're not being followed by security.

ZAHN: Authorities say the gangs that have made the biggest dent are largely from Latin and South America. This man who we'll call Carlos says it's not unusual for his gang to hit seven malls in one day. He asked that we disguise his voice and face, afraid of retribution by those who run the criminal enterprise.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are very dangerous. They rob banks. They kidnap people. They're drug dealers. If you fail them or if you do something against them, yes, these people is dangerous.

ZAHN: Authorities don't know how many gangs there are or who runs them. Yet, police believe organized shoplifting has touched nearly every major retail chain in the country. Jill la Rocca (ph) is with the National Retail Federation, the group that represents many major store owners.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are targeting particular types of merchandise. They have an order list and they're going out and stealing what's on their order list.

ZAHN: You name it, police say they'll steal it. Jeans, lingerie, iPods, baby formula, over the counter drugs. The demand is endless. Stolen merchandise then sold online or at discount shops that fuel a black market. It looks like they've just been shopping in the mall.

Even with store clerks and shoppers around, it is surprisingly easy. Detective Hill showed us one of the tools they use. Boosting bags, ordinary shopping bags lined with foil to smuggle stolen merchandise out of a store.

This is regular aluminum foil?

HILL: Right.

FEYERICK: Regular aluminum foil. So somebody's put in a lot of work just to make it this one bag.

HILL: Oh, yes. And that does is when they walk out of the store, with merchandise that has sensors on it, the alarms will not be activated.

FEYERICK: The bag also boosts the thieves' efficiency.

(on camera): Then I go over here and looking at the jeans, and then I can very easily take it ...

HILL: Come over.

FEYERICK: Put it in the bag.

HILL: Drop it right in.

FEYERICK: While you pick it up, this is interesting, you pick it up and you can effectively walk out.

HILL: Walk out. Unless I want more. And they are going to want this full.

FEYERICK(voice-over): This video command center in a major department store invited us to see the recent hit by a shoplifting gang. The woman in the white looked back at her colleague.

HILL: Uh-huh. She gives the okay. The coast is clear.

FEYERICK: Here's how it works. While partner trails her, the woman in white picks up a black shirt. She holds it up to block the security camera loading the bag with perfume. She passes the perfume to a third woman who switches it to a different bag. And walks out of the store.

HILL: Over 40 items of perfume were taken and it was just under $3,000. Recovery was made.

FEYERICK: Not bad for eight minutes of work.

HILL: Not bad at all.

FEYERICK: These women were caught but even when police make arrests, most of these thefts are treated as misdemeanors. The criminals get no more than 30 days in prison. Stephen Chaikin prosecutes organized crime in Montgomery County, Maryland.

STEPHEN CHAIKIN, PROSECUTOR, MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD: When they get into the court system with multiple names and ID numbers, it is often hard to know who we're dealing with. And sometimes they bond out, they get out of jail, we never see them again.

FEYERICK: The other reason shoplifting has turned epidemic, because of their competitiveness, stores are notoriously secretive. Sometimes even refusing to alert mall security or a store next door. That's now changing.

(on camera): So basically, this data base allows the stores to talk to each other.

LAROCCA: Absolutely.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Stores joined together for a national crime database, retailers that are targeted can now post information like the type of crime, where and how it was committed and a description of the criminal.

LAROCCA: We need to be able to go after these individuals. We need to put them behind bars for their crimes and we need to keep them out of the stores.

FEYERICK: Carlos, who was recently arrested and is now awaiting trial, says it's not so much the individual but the gang leaders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These people, I don't think they're going to stop.

FEYERICK: And even stores and police acknowledge it will take a very long time to bring organized shoplifting under control. Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And you can watch PAULA ZAHN NOW weekdays at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

Meantime, we continue to watch the very volatile situation in Oklahoma and in Texas where a number of fires are popping up in various parts, and what's not helping the situation is that it's very dry and it's also very windy. Monica McNeal is in the weather center. And Monica, what is that folks are up against here?

MCNEAL: Well, right now, I just checked the latest conditions in Oklahoma City. Get this, the winds are about 31 miles per hour but they're gusting up to 40 miles per hour. And when you have winds that strong, coming out of the southwest, that's what fuels the fire.

Let me show you what I'm talking about. There is an area of low pressure that's just sitting over Oklahoma City. And it's helping to drive in these very strong gusty winds out of the southwest. And also adding fuel to the fire. It's already very dry. They've had extremely dry conditions there for a long period of time. And when you have these very strong winds driving out of the south and west, the air is already dry. On top of that, the relative humidity is extremely low. And then, when you factor in the fact that these temperatures are very, very warm at this time of the year, we're talking about temperatures in the 60s and the 70s and in the 80s, unseasonably warm for this time of year, that also creates a problem.

Take a look at the temperature right now in Dallas. It's 82 degrees. You can certainly see this dome of very warm air as it continues to surge more toward the north into parts of Oklahoma. Temperatures in the upper 70s, close to the 80s. So you've got very, very warm temperatures, Fredricka. Winds coming in out of the south and west. And they're gusting up to about 40 miles per hour and you've got the ground that's already been dry. They haven't had rain in days. In a long time. So that's a big part of the problem.

WHITFIELD: Yeah. It really is pretty serious. All right. Thank you so much.

Well, officials and firefighters particularly throughout the Oklahoma City area are keeping a close watch on many of these wildfires that have popped up, especially since they are concerned that they may threaten some residential areas. When we get more on that, we'll be able to bring that to you.

Meantime, in addition to continuing our coverage on the Midwest fires, after the break, we'll take another look what's taking place in California.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: And we continue to monitor the situation of grassfires popping up in various parts of Texas, as well as Oklahoma. And now the Associated Press is reporting that just outside of Oklahoma City, these grassfires are threatening a major shopping mall. And officials are also concerned about some nearby apartment buildings and a Wal-Mart, but we don't know exactly what the area is called. Near Oklahoma City. But just that officials there are keeping a close watch on a shopping mall as well as apartments that may be threatened by some of these wildfires.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I'm to succeed in building a new house without getting a divorce. You know how I keep hearing horrible stories about how you have these terrible disagreements over what you're picking. And there's a lot to pick. So keep your fingers crossed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to get in better shape. I'm going to be more punctual and I'm going to cook my family nutritious meals instead of eating fast food.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, a lot of people of course, hope to eat better and lose weight in the year ahead. But in this best of report, we find out that healthy habits can be a matter of life or death. Earlier this year, we introduced you to a morbidly obese teenager. Today he is literally half the man he used to be. Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman in a story you first saw on Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Terry Henry weighed almost 11 pounds when he was born. Fifteen years later, he was one of the heaviest teenagers in the world, just shy of 600 pounds. Hard to believe this is the same guy.

(on camera): How much do you weigh now?

TERRY HENRY, TEENAGER WHO LOST A LOT OF WEIGHT: I weigh 252 pounds now.

TUCHMAN: I mean, two thirds of you is gone.

HENRY: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has to make it look like a complete book.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Terry, who is from Texas, goes to the world's only boarding school for obese and overweight teenagers.

HENRY: Make it like King Kong.

TUCHMAN: We met him a half year ago when we visited the Academy of the Sierras is in Reedley, California for the first time. At that point, he was 85 pounds heavier than now.

(on camera): How are you able to even know how much you weighed? The scales don't go that high.

HENRY: I go on a cattle scale.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): His life had been debilitating. But his 18 months at the school have not. He learned to enjoy academics. He's been taught to exercise properly.

HENRY: Give me some onions and some sauce on it.

TUCHMAN: And he's now dedicated to healthy foods. Most importantly, how the change his life style and mental outlook and it's all led to a total loss of 339 pounds. Much to the delight of the school's clinical director.

MOLLY CARMEL, CLINICAL DIRECTOR, ACADEMY OF THE SIERRAS: I think it's probably in my career, most of the most amazing things that I'll ever see happen.

TUCHMAN: Terry hopes to lose another 50 pounds, a good part of which will come from necessary body tuck surgery for his loose skin.

HENRY: The other day I woke up, I'm like feeling around and I'm like I feel a hipbone. I'm like, whose hipbone is that?

TUCHMAN (on camera): Terry's weight loss coincides with gains, a gain of confidence and self esteem, a gain of knowledge on how to stay healthy and a gain of a girlfriend. Liz Steven, academy student who has lost 80 pounds is the first serious girlfriend Terry's ever had.

How does that make you feel, going through this, losing the weight, changing your appearance the type of person you are, and now having a serious girlfriend?

HENRY: Makes me feel like I'm living a lie.

TUCHMAN: But a good lie?

HENRY: Yeah. It is a real good lie.

TUCHMAN: And this is an especially good day. Because while his classmates jog along the grape fields in the San Joaquin Valley, Terry's mother has arrived for a visit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Didn't I tell you that there was always a really awesome person living inside there?

TUCHMAN: She can be there for his graduation.

CARMEL: We are all really proud of you. I think I speak for everybody when we're glad you're going but you are going to be genuinely missed and we love you very much.

TUCHMAN: Terry is given the opportunity to say some final words to the other 70 students. Who look at him with a little envy and a lot of hopefulness.

HENRY: I came here a low self esteem, superly (ph) morbidly obese, angry morbid teenager barely making it through life. Being here is one of the hardest things I have ever done and my success is one of my greatest accomplishments. I was one of the biggest people in the world. Not many people live older than their 20s who are as big as I was. People thought that even the idea of me losing this much weight was so absurd, it was fallacy. I proved them wrong, though.

TUCHMAN: He paid tribute to his new girlfriend.

HENRY: You have let me over come my fears about relationships and taught me to love again.

TUCHMAN: And then, gave his final words as an Academy of the Sierras student.

HENRY: The secret to success is never give up. Believe in yourself. And you will move mountains.

TUCHMAN: Terry Henry will resume his education at a regular boarding school in New Hampshire. His new life is now underway. Hundreds of pounds lighter, infinitely happier. Gary Tuchman, CNN, Reedley, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITMAN: And a reminder that story first aired on CNN's "ANDERSON COOPER 360." And you can watch Anderson every weeknight at 10:00 Eastern, 7:00 Pacific right here on CNN.

Meantime, we want to keep you posted on the grassfires taking place in parts of Oklahoma. We want to join our affiliate KOCO in Oklahoma to listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe the neighborhood network to show the wind speeds we've seen and what we're dealing with right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. Let's start with the highest wind speeds we've had. Outside of thunderstorms, this is about as strong as I have seen the winds recorded with our neighborhood network. That's 60 mile per hour winds here at the weather center and also at the Brick Town Ballpark. Crossroads Mall has had a 51 mile per hour wind gust, same thing, Quail Springs Mall and 54 Mathis Brothers, Oklahoma City Community College at 56.

Now, gusts are those winds that will increase for maybe 15 or 20 seconds. A sustained wind is that wind that is going to, you know, be blowing for a considerable amount of time. That's what we're looking at there. Mathis Brothers a sustained wind southwest at around 30, gusting up to near 40 miles per hour. We have a sustained wind here at the weather center about 30 miles per hour.

WHITFIELD: All right. You've been listening to live coverage out of KOCO out of Oklahoma talking about the wildfires there taking place. And according to the Associated Press and our affiliate there, they also talk about how they're threatening a shopping mall and apartment building in the region.

Meantime, Texas is experiencing a very similar situation of some spontaneous grassfires taking place. We have tape that has just come in from Lubbock, Texas, which demonstrates the kinds of winds they're dealing with. And this is making it so difficult for the firefighters to fight the blazes. They're dealing with dry conditions, low humidity and gusty winds. Pretty tremendous stuff.

Carol Lin is here to take us into the next hour. We know the weather conditions, weather it be in the west coast, California, whether it be in Texas, all of that is certainly a factor throughout the evening.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. People starting off their year with evacuations and the threat of fire and flooding. We're going to be covering all that in our developing story but we're also going to be talking more about President Bush's comments about the NSA wiretapping of civilians. He said today, look, if no one from al Qaeda is calling you, you don't have anything to worry about.

I'm going to be talking with our senior political analyst Bill Schneider about that at 6:00. And then at 10:00 tonight, Farris Hassan is supposed to be coming home to Florida this hour. So we're all over there and we're going to hear the full story because he's actually going to be talking with reporters. That's what we expect.

WHITFIELD: That's good to hear. Everyone wants to hear his version of events. We've heard from everybody else about what his experience was like but haven't heard it from him.

LIN: No.

WHITFIELD: Can you imagine your son grows up to suddenly go off to a war zone because he was curious and wanted to do some humanitarian work?

LIN: And used his own money to boot.

WHITFIELD: You bet. He's got a big story to tell.

LIN: Yeah.

WHITFIELD: We'll be listening and watching. Thanks a lot, Carol. Coming up next, an update on a furry friend found by a CNN crew the day after Rita hit. A bittersweet reunion when CNN continues.

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WHITFIELD: More on this developing story of grassfire in Texas and in Oklahoma right now. Right now you're looking at new pictures coming in out of Lubbock, Texas, where we're witnessing a farm there that has been engulfed in these grassfires that are spontaneously dotting the map. Many officials say right now it's inexplicable. They don't know the cause of these grassfires but they're certainly causing a lot problems and they're kicking up and being fueled by the weather conditions. It's so dry there and in Lubbock, there are high wind warnings in effect. And that's only helping to blow some of the flames and the sparks, helping to spread the fire.

Now, in our final best of story today, separation and reunion. The hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast in 2005 left families of all kinds dealing with painful separations. It also gave some of our colleague a chance to bring loved ones together. You first saw Miles O'Brien tell the story on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

I think there is a dog in here. We're going to go in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): It was the morning after Hurricane Rita. We had just weathered the storm at the police station when shortly after dawn we heard a whimper amid the wreckage of a storage shed.

(on camera): There we go. There he is. Oh. Don't let him go. Don't let him go. He's OK. He's just scared and wet.

(voice over): It was a spontaneous moment which later provided some grist for Jon Stewart.

(on camera): And we'll make sure that the dog gets back to its rightful owner.

JON STEWART, "THE DAILY SHOW": This story has a happy ending. Miles O'Brien was adopted by a nice family in Baton Rouge.

O'BRIEN (voice over): The truth is, for producer Dana Garrett, it was love at first sight.

GARRETT: When she came out of that crate she was so forlorn looking. And she just crawled into my lap. And honestly, if she had had arms to hug me, she would have. She just crawled up and pressed against me and was just so sweet. And I really just fell in love with her immediately.

O'BRIEN: No tags, no phone number on the crate. And police said if the owner did not materialize soon the dog would be put to sleep.

GARRETT: Especially having rescued her, I just thought, you know, I can't let that happen.

O'BRIEN: A week passed. No one came forward. Dana and the dog left town together to Dana's home in New York. She named her Sunny. She made fast friends, canine and human alike.

It was a happy ending. Or so it seemed.

MISTY MCCOURTNEY, RESCUED DOG'S OWNER: Hey, is my mom there?

O'BRIEN: Enter Misty McCourtney, the dog's rightful owner. The 17-year-old adopted the puppy when she was only 4 weeks old, named her Nevaeh. That's heaven spelled backwards.

MCCOURTNEY: We end up taking her home the first night we got her. She couldn't eat on her own, so we bottle-fed her.

O'BRIEN: Misty had been frantically trying to track the dog down. She finally got the story from police. And six weeks after we rescued the dog, Dana got the call she feared.

GARRETT: I knew at that point that I was so attached that I wasn't going to be able to just put her in a crate and put her on a plane and ship her back home.

O'BRIEN: So Dana drove her back 1,300 miles to Misty's new home with her dad in Nebraska.

Here she is.

MCCOURTNEY: Nevaeh, hi there, baby. Oh my god. Oh, you're getting me all dirty, but I don't care.

GARRETT: She saw Misty and she was happy. But then it kicked in, and you could see when she really realized who it was. And she got so excited and just started whimpering and scampering around. And it just made me feel so good that she recognized her and was really happy to see her.

MCCOURTNEY: I just feel really, really excited that she's here. And I want to thank you so much for bringing her back. I'm really happy you brought her back.

O'BRIEN: A bittersweet end to the tale of the pup-struck producer, the grateful owner and a well-loved pooch. Miles O'Brien, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And be sure to join Miles and Soledad O'Brien weekday mornings at 6:00 a.m. Eastern for CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

Now, new pictures coming in out of Guthrie, Oklahoma where there too, there are these grassfires taking place. And earlier when some grassfires struck in the Guthrie area it had shut down parts of the Kilpatrick Turnpike and the traffic headed north and southbound on I- 35 were also affected. And apparently, according to the Associated Press, at least two houses have been destroyed.

Right now, we're not sure if the pictures that we're seeing would document that yet other homes or buildings or structures are being destroyed, as well. But you are seeing something fully engulfed. Monica McNeal is in the weather center. And Monica, we are seeing a lot of widespread destruction and serious threats taking place from Texas to Oklahoma all as a result of these very dry windy conditions.

MCNEAL: Right, you know what, also, is playing a big part is the lack of sufficient rainfall over recent weeks. And the low deficit of rainfall over the past couple of months. When you couple that with a very dry and dormant vegetation, these fires can spark from everything. After the ground has been so very dry from no rainfall over an extended period of time, anything can help spark a fire, fireworks, a car starting, engines, any of those things really do contribute to this problem.

WHITFIELD: That's a terrible situation. And you know, while we talk about these fires, still officials say they're not really clear if it's a common denominator sparking all these fires or if there are different factors coming into play. It really is putting a big stress on these firefighter teams and mechanisms because we're talking about areas that are so widespread and in some cases very remote.

MCNEAL: Right. Exactly. And you know what? Something else I want to point out with the very dry ground, the extreme drought, that's a big problem. You've got the strong winds. Those southwest winds are really hammering and really hampering their efforts. And then when you factor in the dry air, you have humidity between 10 and 15 percent and something else very important, the dew point. You may hear us talk about the dew point a lot. The dew point right now is 21 percent. That means that there is absolutely no moisture in the air, Fredricka

WHITFIELD: And Monica, this is really odd. We're talking about this time of year, this is the kind of scene we expect to see in the summer but not at the start of the year.

MCNEAL: Exactly. Exactly. And also what's factoring in as well, these temperatures. We've got unseasonably warm temperatures for this time of the year. We're talking about temperatures right now in Oklahoma City, it's 72 degrees at the beginning of January. You know, so we're in winter with these extensive warm temperatures.

WHITFIELD: All right. Monica McNeal, thank you so much. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We're going to continue our commitment to look into these fires in Oklahoma as well as Texas and of course, the other situation, the polar opposite of too much water, too much rain out in California. We're going to continue to look at that. Carol Lin is up next in the next hour.

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