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American Morning

Mountain Rescue; South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson in Critical Condition

Aired December 15, 2006 - 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, AMERICAN MORNING: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: I'm Miles O'Brien. We're glad you're with us.

We begin in the thin, cold air of Oregon's highest peak. And the discouraging news over night from the sheriff's office. Turns out there was not a cell phone signal as late as Tuesday from one of the climbers stranded on Mt. Hood. A wall of wicked weather could again stop rescuers from making a move to find the missing men. CNN's Chris Lawrence reports from the base of Mt. Hood in Oregon.

Chris, good morning.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN MORNING: Good morning, Miles. It's been one disappointment after another for the rescue team. Starting with this weather, which is like a brick wall that just won't let them climb any higher.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE (voice over): A beacon of hope in a grueling search for three missing climbers. Authorities say they detected a new cell phone signal on Tuesday from Kelly James, who was believed to be tucked in a snow cave near the summit.

FRANK JAMES, KELLY JAMES' BROTHER: My heart was in my throat when I heard that, because if it's true, it means that Kelly is alive and that he has his wits about him.

LAWRENCE: But there has been no sign of the other two, who apparently left the cave Saturday looking for help.

KAREN JAMES, KELLY JAMES' WIFE: Our spirits are still high. These are three of the most phenomenal men you could ever meet. They're smart, they're strong, and they care so deeply for one another.

LAWRENCE: The brutal weather, including avalanche warnings, kept even the most experienced rescue crews well below the 10,000-foot level where James is stuck.

DEPUTY CHRIS GUERTIN, HOOD RIVER CO. SHERIFF'S DEPT.: We don't really have much of an idea where Mr. Hall and Mr. Cooke are at right now. They could be at the top with Mr. James, they could be in a snow cave down lower. That's why we're kind of continuing at some of the lower-elevation searches, for a snow cave, or whatever signs we can come up with.

LAWRENCE: The U.S. military and FBI have joined the local search. Rescuers also have high-tech drones that could detect body heat. But hurricane force winds grounded the aerial search on Thursday, despite the grim conditions, Kelly James' wife is not giving up.

K. JAMES: My husband proposed to me on Mt. Rainier, and we're planning our 50th wedding anniversary there, so I know he's coming off this mountain.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE: The family was very encouraged by that ping, hoping it could be Kelly James, himself, turning the cell phone off and on. The sheriff's department says it was more likely that it was just a dying battery, or perhaps a roaming signal that momentarily hit a receiver -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Chris Lawrence, in Oregon. Thank you.

Coming up in this hour we'll talk to family members of the missing climbers about the search, and how they're holding out hope for their loved ones that they will come down off that mountain safe and sound.

That blizzard at Mt. Hood is just a side dish for a heaping plateful of epic weather across the Pacific Northwest. Those hurricane force winds leaving 350,000 electric customers in the dark this morning, in Oregon. Flooding bringing traffic to a crawl in Seattle. So far, three deaths blamed on the storm, which brings us to our severe weather expert, Chad Myers, with more.

Hello, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST, AMERICAN MORNING: And 40-foot waves in the Pacific. Good morning, Miles.

Blizzard warning now; that little white dot, right there, that would be the snow on top of Mt. Hood. Blizzard warning for that area this afternoon. That's what they need, more snow.

On top of now what is going to be colder air coming through. That colder air will, in fact, freeze that very wet snow. The new snow will not be sticking to the old snow. That's going to make glacier-type ice on top of that what snow will be, and that snow will be sliding; significant avalanche danger later on in the week, as well.

Salt Lake City, Denver, you guys are going to get it as well. The bigger story: The bigger story is that a lot of Nevada and right through Salt Lake City and the Benches, will pick up feet of snow. That forecast is coming up. Back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thank you. Some encouraging and stunning news this morning in the fight against breast cancer, the number of cases falling dramatically. And researchers think they may know why. From 2002 to 2003, the number of women who were diagnosed with all forms of breast cancer dropped by 7 percent. That's 14,000 cases. Now, if you just look at the most common types of breast cancer, those cases dropped by 15 percent.

If you take a look at the timing, the decline happened just after doctors started warning women that hormone replacement therapy might increase their breast cancer risk, so women millions of women stopped taking hormone replacement therapy for the symptoms of menopause.

Doctors say that, in turn, may have starved the cancer cells by not having the hormones in the body. They're fueled by hormones. We're going to talk to Sanjay Gupta about all of this, and really how significant this breakthrough could be, straight ahead this morning.

South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson is in critical condition this morning, but some really good news. He's responding to his wife's voice, and has not need any additional surgeries since Thursday. That's really encouraging news from his doctor.

Let's get right to CNN's Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash, who is live on Capitol Hill.

Of course, Dana, this all in the context of a big question mark about the balance of power if, in fact, the senator could not resume his duties.

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN MORNING: That's right, this is really hitting the capitol on a couple of levels.

First of all, Soledad, on a personal level, the brain hemorrhage of a 59-year-old senator has been a gut-wrenching reminder here just of how precious and precarious life is. But as you mentioned on a political level, it's another reminder, especially for Democrats about their one-vote majority and how precarious and tenuous that is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BASH (voice over): The incoming majority leader tried to sound optimistic.

SEN. HARRY REID, (D-NV): We're all praying for a full recovery. We're confident that will be the case.

BASH: The capitol physician announced surgery to remove blood from Senator Tim Johnson's brain was successful. And former Senator Tom Daschle emerged from the hospital telling CNN he's confident his friend will be able to return to work.

TOM DASCHLE, FMR. U.S. SENATOR: It looks encouraging, yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no way he's going to give up his seat, I would assume? DASCHLE: No need to.

BASH: But there is little information about the South Dakota Democrat's prognosis. So no relief from the uncertainty gripping the capitol as to whether Senate Democrats will be able to hold on to narrow majority they won in November. The "what ifs" are unavoidable.

If Johnson's Democratic seat were to become vacant, South Dakota's governor, a Republican, would pick a replacement to serve out his term. If he picked a fellow Republican, the Democrats would loose their 51-49 majority. The Senate would become evenly split, 50/50. Since the vice president casts tie-breaking votes in the Senate, Republicans would then be in control. The Senate's Democratic leader dismissed any talk his party could lose power.

REID: There isn't a thing that's changed. The Republicans selected their committees yesterday. We've completed ours. I have a very busy schedule today going ahead and getting ready for next year.

BASH: The fact is, the only way a governor can replace a sitting senator is if he dies or if he resigns.

JAMES THURBER, AMERICAN UNIVERSITY: Senators can serve indefinitely, even though they're gravely ill. We've had lost of examples of that. No way to legally remove them unless they're convicted of high crimes and treason.

BASH: In 1969 another South Dakota senator Carl Munt, suffered a stroke and refused to resign. He ended up serving four years without casting a vote. The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joe Biden, had surgery for a brain aneurysm in 1988 and did not come to work for seven months.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Now, even in this age of bitter partisanship, the Senate is still quite a tight-knit club. That's why Republicans won't even discuss the idea of regaining the majority because of Senator Johnson's ailment. Not even in private, Soledad. One GOP senator told us, late yesterday, that any talk of replacing Senator Johnson is, quote, "ghoulish".

S. O'BRIEN: It is. And it's kind of crass. I mean, frankly, every one really should be sort crossing their fingers and hoping for his recovery.

BASH: And they are.

S. O'BRIEN: Because he's very sick. Our hearts go out to his family, too, at this time. Thank you, Dana for the update on his condition.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissing a key recommendation from that Baker-Hamilton Iraq panel; Rice rejecting their call for the U.S. to start talking to Syria and Iran. Rice telling "The Washington Post", the U.S. doesn't want Syria to gain influence in Lebanon. Or Iran to build nuclear weapons in exchange for peace in Iraq.

New this morning, Iraq's vice president asking the U.S. to set a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq. Tariq al- Hashimi saying the timetable should be flexible, but America's done its job and needs to turn things over to the Iraqis.

Uncle Sam wants you. The Army admitting it's at a breaking point. The men in charge, General Peter Schoomaker, saying the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are stretching the ranks dangerously thin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. PETER SCHOOMAKER, U.S. ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF: As it currently stands the Army is incapable of generating and sustaining the required forces to wage the global war on terror, and fulfill all other operational requirements, without its components active Guard and Reserve working together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Schoomaker wants to make it easier to call Reserves troops onto the front lines. He's also telling Congress he'd like to add 6,000 to 7,000 active duty soldiers a year. No small request. Each time the Army adds 10,000 troops, it costs taxpayers about a billion dollars.

There will always be unknown, unknowns, but here is a known, known at the Pentagon today. It is Donald Rumsfeld's last day in the office. The president and members of America's military on hand to salute him today. Elaine Quijano at the White House this morning with more -- Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN MORNING: Good morning, Miles.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld really became a lightning rod for criticism over the Iraq war. And now, just over a month, after President Bush announced that he was stepping down, the Pentagon today will say farewell to the Defense secretary in a former military honors ceremony.

Now, officials here say that President Bush will make remarks at that ceremony, praising Secretary Rumsfeld for his leadership during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. But also praising the secretary's efforts to transform the military's fighting capability.

And Secretary Rumsfeld, himself, actually began saying his good- byes a few days ago. He made a surprise visit to Iraq, saying farewell to the troops there. He's technically going to remain at his post, as Defense secretary, through the weekend. His successor, Dr. Robert Gates, is not due to be sworn until Monday -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano at the White House, thank you. Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Hot, hot, hot. We're not talking about the weather, of course. But we're talking about Wall Street. The Dow opening at a new, all-time high. Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business" this morning.

Good morning, Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN MORNING: Good morning, Soledad.

The Dow has closed yesterday at its 20th all-time high for the year. We're looking at some fantastic levels, a good week, no Fed moves, strong retail sales. A lot of good things happening is not just in the United States. We had record closings in China, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, yesterday, as well.

But that sunny weather on Wall Street? There might be some clouds in sight. This morning we're going to get an inflation report. And inflation, if it's higher, does tend to spook markets.

We also have a couple of other problems. Both Apple and Dell have delayed the filing of their financial reports. That's always a problem. Take a look at tech stocks today to see what happens there.

We do have reports that a Shell oil facility in Nigeria has been taken over by rebels. And that's pretty serious. It happens from time to time, but Nigeria is a big producer of oil for the world. So we'll keep an eye on that, might not be as sunny today, but we are heading in with another record.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Ali. Thank you very much.

Happening this morning, some new rules to prevent terrorists from using trains as a way to attack the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security is tightening rules for railcars that are carrying toxic chemicals. Homeland Security is expected to recommend today, more inspections, more secure rail yards and doesn't recommend that trains carrying toxic freight be rerouted so they avoid major cities.

It's an all clear for e. Coli at Taco Bell. The outbreak that sickened 71 people, apparently has run its course. Government health inspectors suspect now that the bacteria was spread by tainted lettuce. The investigation, though, is not over.

In New York City -- take a look at this, it's caught on tape. No, that's not it. Let's get the right videotape, for a second. There we go.

See this little puff of smoke here. The bullet goes right through the wall. This is the night that cops -- police officers shot and killed 23-year-old Sean Bell just hours before his wedding. This is surveillance videotape from inside a Queens train station, only about a half a block away from where that shooting -- but you see that puff of smoke that's the bullet going right through. You can see a guy waiting at the train station, drops his bag, takes off. Then the next shot, you see the officers grab their weapons and head right outside to see who has opened fire. They didn't realize at the time, of course, that this was the 50 shots that were being fired into Sean Bell's car. Amazingly enough, nobody in the train station was seriously hurt. But that's incredible.

M. O'BRIEN: That's remarkable footage.

S. O'BRIEN: You know what I found remarkable? To see the police officers -- you know, the guy -- who is there waiting, drops his bag and runs. The police officers immediately --

M. O'BRIEN: Right to it.

S. O'BRIEN: Without flinching, hands on their holsters and go right towards it. I just think that's --

M. O'BRIEN: Every instinct in your body is to run away from that, and yet, they go to it.

S. O'BRIEN: Yeah, pretty scary.

M. O'BRIEN: Anyway, that's their job.

Coming up, more on that nasty storm pounding the Northwest. Severe weather expert Chad Myers has a forecast for you.

Plus, a closer look at the stunning decline in breast cancer rates. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will help us make sense of those numbers ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: It's 16 minutes past the hour. Let's get a check of the forecast.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: A closer look this morning at one of our top stories. It could be a top story for the year. A dramatic drop, to tell you about, in the number of breast cancer cases. Down 15 percent, if you look at the most common form of breast cancer. Let's get right to Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Atlanta this morning.

Sanjay, that's a significant -- I mean, that's a huge drop by anybody's count. Why?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT, AMERICAN MORNING: Well, it is a huge drop. We think it's mainly due to the decrease in hormone replacement therapy. And this is big news.

Between 1975 and 2000, you almost steadily had an increase in breast cancer cases. And then as you pointed out, Soledad, you had this significant drop off in 2003, a couple of years after there was a decrease in women taking hormone replacement therapy. So, 14 to 15 percent for some of the most common types of breast cancer, those are the estrogen positive breast cancers. And if you look at women who are older, 50 or older, you've got your greatest reductions overall. So some potential good news. But it looks like you can tie it all back to the decrease in hormone replacement therapy. You know, the number of prescriptions cut by almost half within a year of that study coming out, showing the risks of hormone replacement therapy.

S. O'BRIEN: But that still means millions of women are still taking hormone replacement therapy. What do you think happens now? Do their doctors say, for the rest of you, who are not convinced, this is the clear sign that this should be stopped?

GUPTA: This has been one of the most interesting stories to cover as a reporter. Because this is difficult and what you're asking is a difficult question. I think as a result of the reporting on your show today, there will be a further decrease in the number of women taking hormone replacement therapy.

Because doctors and patients alike will say it does work. You do decrease breast cancer cases by stopping this therapy. But there are lots of women out there for which hormone replacement therapy is still absolutely necessary to relieve some of the awful symptoms they get going through menopause. And this is the only thing that works for them.

And it's a balance, Soledad. One doctor put it to me, I thought, in a pretty good way. Eating a cheeseburger is bad for you, could potentially lead to a lifetime of heart disease. One cheeseburger is probably not going to be bad, sort of the same thing in terms of risks and benefits with hormone replacement therapy. If you have to take it, take the smallest doses for the shortest possible time.

S. O'BRIEN: Of course, the question, then becomes -- I mean, because it seems like this is a pretty clear indication of a link between hormones and certain types of cancer. So do women who are taking other medicines, that have hormones like birth control pills, or even other ones, saying, wow, I might also have a link because of the birth control pill/cancer -- rather the hormone/cancer link. Does that follow necessarily?

GUPTA: It can follow. There's a lot of discussion about birth control pills specifically. Most researchers will put birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy in different categories, for a couple reasons.

One is the dosing is very different. We know that smaller doses of the hormones, whether they be in birth control pills, or not, tend to be less of a risk as far as breast cancer goes. But also the women who take birth control pills tend to be younger. So, you have a different population of people altogether.

There are reformulations of birth control pills all the time trying to find the smallest does that still possibly works, because of these risks. But, Soledad, what we do know, is while I think it's still too early to say for sure, if you continue to decrease hormone replacement therapy, you're going to stop breast cancers. We do know these hormones fuel breast cancers. So, it can possibly fuel a tumor that is small or cause a tumor to grow in the first place.

S. O'BRIEN: Got it. Sanjay Gupta, wow, this is a big story. Thanks for talking with us, Sanjay, appreciate it.

GUPTA: It's nice to give good news every now and then, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: I know. Isn't it? And sort of clear. Because it was interesting -- I don't know if we have the time to talk about this -- but for black women, who don't take as much hormone replacement therapy, they actually don't have as many cases of breast cancer. It almost seems, again, to confirm the findings.

GUPTA: That might be a another link that, you know, we had previously unexplored.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Sanjay, thanks.

Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, we're "Minding Your Business".

Also, he helped make household names of Mick Jagger, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and so many others, a look back at the man with the golden ear on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN MOVIE CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very proud of the work that we've done here together, but Atlantic has done pretty good money-wise, by my records, haven't they?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we've done very well, Ray.

(END MOVIE CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: That's a scene from the movie "Ray", with the actor Curtis Armstrong playing and portraying the music pioneer, Ahmet Ertegun. Ertegun died on Thursday. He was 83 years old. He had been in a coma since a fall, in October, when he hit his head. He was at a Rolling Stones concert. He immigrated from Turkey.

He discovered some of the biggest names in American music, when he founded Atlantic Records, back in 1947. Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin. Here's a little musical sample for you.

(MUSIC MONTAGE)

S. O'BRIEN: Rolling stones, one of the groups he discovered or produced or popularized. The list of people from years and years ago, to today, Tori Amiss (ph), Phil Collins, the Blues Brothers, Stevie Knicks, Pete Townsend, Alman Brothers, Led Zeppelin, the Coasters, Percy Sledge, Otis Redding, Bet Midler, Bobby Darrin.

M. O'BRIEN: Some of these acts are going to be really big some day. Don't you think?

(LAUGHTER)

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, he was all right with picking them.

M. O'BRIEN: Yeah, really. Jeeze, unbelievable.

S. O'BRIEN: An Atlantic spokesman says that Ertegun is going to be buried in his native Turkey. Apparently, he used to say he had two passions, one was music and the other was Turkish politics.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow. And they don't call that Byzantine for nothing. All right, what an ear.

Oil prices on the rise, and while you may think that's good news for oil companies, it's not that simple. It's 25 minutes past the hour, which means Ali Velshi time.

Hello, Ali.

VELSHI: Good to see you, folks.

We like records on the stock market. We don't necessarily like oil price records. We're not anywhere near a record, but oil is coming up to $63 a barrel for Light Sweet crude. Yesterday there was a big increase in the price of oil, over $1 because OPEC says it might be cutting production.

But the bigger problem, over night, we're hearing about a Nigerian Shell plant that's been taken over by rebels. We know that there is sort of a lot of activity in Nigeria, in that way, but it's a bad time for this to happen.

First of all, Nigeria is the world's sixth largest oil producer. Secondly, that OPEC meeting, is in Nigeria, right now. There does seem to be a feeling among OPEC countries that they want oil to stay above $60 a barrel. Right now, we're at $62, and change, but in pre- market trading oil has already started moving higher and we may see it move higher a little later on today.

One of the things is that the U.S. is the largest consumer of oil in the world and the oil supplies in the U.S. are the highest they've been for this time of year since 1988. As we've been hearing from Chad, the weather is not bad. Estimates for a normal to mild winter means there's not a great fear.

Right now, we're looking at oil at above $63 a barrel for the day. We'll keep you posted on that, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Ali.

Coming up, the latest on the search for the climbers missing in Oregon. We'll talk live with the families and find out what they're hearing from rescue crews.

What color is your parachute? Next time a pilot asks you to fly in a small plane, you might want to ask that question.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: No way out, hurricane force winds blocking rescuers from reaching three stranded climbers on Mt. Hood. Their families still holding out hope.

M. O'BRIEN: That severe weather in the mountains also making a mess on the ground in the pacific northwest, streets flooded, electricity lost for many. Chad Myers tells us if there's any relief in sight.

S. O'BRIEN: And a breast cancer break through, the likely reason that fewer women are getting the disease on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Welcome everybody, it's Friday, December 15th, I'm Soledad O'Brien.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm Miles O'Brien, thanks for being with us. Happening this morning, the end of an era at the Pentagon, a ceremony today for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the president to attend. Robert Gates succeeds Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary officially on Monday morning.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissing a key recommendation from that Baker-Hamilton Iraq panel. Rice rejecting their call for the U.S. to start talking to Syria and Iran. Rice telling the "Washington Post" the U.S. doesn't want Syria to gain influence in Lebanon or Iran to build a nuclear bomb in exchange for peace.

Across the pond this morning, Prince William is "passing out," that's Brit speak for graduating from the elite Sand Hurst Military Academy. His father Prince Charles and his grand mom Queen Elizabeth on hand for the ceremony, happening as we speak. William now headed for months of combat training. Unlikely, however, he'll ever serve on the front lines of a war zone.

S. O'BRIEN: Rescuers say they're going to keep working through the weekend to try to find those three missing climbers on Mt. Hood, they're facing blizzard and avalanche warnings and the ground searches aren't expected to begin again until tomorrow. This is videotape that one of the rescuers shot on Wednesday when the conditions were significantly better than they are today. Kelly James and Jerry Cooke and Brian Hall have been missing since last weekend. This morning we're joined by Kelly's wife Karen James, Jerry's wife Michaela Cooke and Angela Hall is Brian Hall's sister.

Ladies, I thank you for talking with us and more so, I should tell you, we are keeping our fingers crossed and praying very hard that you're going to get some very good news as soon as possible. Karen, I'm going to start with you if I can. I know that you spoke to your husband on Sunday. You've got four kids and your boys got a chance to talk to him first and then he talked to you. Did you have any indication at all that he was injured or that there would be a reason that he'd be separated from the other two climbers?

KAREN JAMES, WIFE OF KELLY JAMES: Yes, we do know that there was something wrong because when Jason said, you know, dad, are you ok? He said no. And Brian and Kelly are just inseparable. And Nico had become such a dear friend. These are guys that don't separate. We know that something happened and when the boys asked, you know, dad, where is Brian? He said, well, Brian went down, he's in town getting help and where is Nico? Nico's on a plane. And that's because he had a plane flight and he thought he was going home to Michaela at that time.

S. O'BRIEN: Michaela we know that there was a second attempt to make a phone call and then there was word that maybe even on Tuesday there was a pickup of this ping. It now looks, at least according to the sheriff that that ping may have been actually the cell phone dying. Are you still hopeful? I mean, the weather conditions as you've seen are so dreadful. The rescuers can't make it up the mountain, almost white out conditions. It's weather wise, terrible, terrible news. Are you still hopeful that you're going to get some good news out of this?

MICHAELA COOKE, WIFE OF JERRY COOKE: Yes, we're all very hopeful. The weather is discouraging, but we are just surrounded here by a tremendous amount of love and support, and everyone is keeping us strong, and everyone is optimistic, so we're very much hopeful.

S. O'BRIEN: Angela, I know, I heard you say before that, you know, when people refer to the men as hikers, and you said, no, no, no, they're mountaineers. They are serious about this, which is really very good news, actually, for their safety and security. Tell me what you think that they are prepared for. I know they've been doing this for a long time, all of them.

ANGELA HALL, SISTER OF BRIAN HALL: Well, they are prepared to do whatever they need to do until the weather passes and until the weather breaks for them. They're prepared to build a snow cave and hunker down and withstand the winds and be protected from the winds and keep themselves warm and keep themselves in high spirits. This isn't the first time that these men have faced really harsh conditions. They've done this kind of thing before on other mountains with much harsher conditions in terms of colder temperatures and more exposure. And so, you know, we're just really confident that they're doing exactly what it takes to hang in their right now.

S. O'BRIEN: Karen, I see you nodding your head while Angela's describing all of that. I heard you say that you got engaged, I think, on Mt. Rainier and you expect to go back for your anniversary. I'm curious, did you ever have discussions about, listen, if things get bad honey, you know here's what I'm prepared to do, don't worry, I'm going to be able to take care of myself.

JAMES: Oh, as a wife, of course you do. And the one thing, you know, that I take so much comfort in is that I know, and these gals do too, is that my husband loves me and the kids more than life itself. And we know that these boys are fighting. They're fighting so hard to do everything they can to get down to us. And that's what we take -- because they're not quitters. Kelly has this thing in our house, you can't say "can't". And that's just how they are. And so we know that their number one goal right now is to hunker down, make it through it and come back to us.

S. O'BRIEN: Well we are all praying for their safe return. I hope we're talking about a great reunion when we chat next. Karen James, Michaela Cooke and Angela Hall, thank you for talking with us. We're going to keep our fingers crossed too.

JAMES: Thank you.

COOKE: Thank you.

HALL: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: The weather on top of the mountain obviously at this time of year is very, very extreme. You've seen some of the pictures of course about those gusting winds. But to get a real sense of what it's like, what the climbers and what the rescuers are facing now, we wanted to send Rick Sanchez to the top of Loveland Path in Colorado to experience what those gusting winds are like. Here is this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): There are places on earth where you feel God's fury, but I can't imagine any of them being any worse than this. What we're feeling right now, we're about -- almost 12,000 feet. This is the continental divide. I've been in enough hurricanes to know what hurricane force gusts, if not winds, feel like. This is easily at least 60-mile-an-hour gusts that are blowing through here. At times it's difficult to stand up. It's a biting cold. It's hard to see. In fact, it's down right painful. The question now is if you are stuck in these conditions, what do you do? How do you survive?

(voice-over): We've elicited the help of two renowned mountaineering experts who teach the first order of business is to build a snow cave. Without it, you will not survive.

PHIL POWERS, AMERICAN ALPINE CLUB: We would just get in there, into that cave, get on our backs, insulate ourselves from the snow and stay warm, huddle close together all night.

SANCHEZ: Even in a snow cave you could still get slammed by an avalanche, but experienced mountaineers avoid it by taking into account both slope and snow density when figuring out where to camp.

MICHAEL ALKAITIS, AMERICAN MOUNTAIN GUIDES ASSOC.: We can't see the top of that peak. Look straight up there, because of this wind, you can't see it.

SANCHEZ: But could that start an avalanche at any time?

ALKAITIS: It's not tall enough right now to start an avalanche, if it did slide, it has no energy.

SANCHEZ: But by far the biggest killer is the weather itself. Within hours of being exposed, mountaineers can suffer hypothermia which causes them to become strangely delusional.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you'd eventually become (INAUDIBLE), think that the snow is really warm and soft and lay down and go to sleep forever.

SANCHEZ: It is why some victims are found disrobed. They actually believe it's warm in freezing weather. Experts, who recommend not going into these conditions without a shovel, a backpack, a headlamp, a compact stove to melt water and at least a sleeping bag, say even with these items, under extreme conditions, you'll still only be able to hold on for so long. Rick Sanchez, CNN, Loveland Pass, Colorado.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Rick, he'll do anything. That report first aired on "ANDERSON COOPER 360". Coming up, the stunning decline in breast cancer rates. Dr. Sanjay Gupta breaks down why it's happening. Plus, an update on the condition of Senator Tim Johnson, still recovering from brain surgery this morning. He may be showing some signs of improvement though. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Happening today, Nintendo, following up on a story we first told you about here on AMERICAN MORNING, they're recalling millions of straps attached to the controllers for the Wii product, wildly popular this year. As we showed you last week, it's easy to break the strap and the controllers are crashing into TVs and in some cases have injured players.

Arizona Senator John McCain traveling in Iraq and renewing calls to deploy thousands more U.S. troops in that country. Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: One of our top stories this morning, that remarkable and very encouraging study about breast cancer. Researchers say the number of cases of breast cancer dropping by 7 percent overall. And if you look specifically at the most common form of breast cancer dropping by 15 percent. What's the link to women on hormone replacement therapy? Let's get right to Dr. Sanjay Gupta at the CNN Center in Atlanta with some of the details. Walk me through how this study works Sanjay?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, it is good news, as you said, Soledad. You talked about hormone replacement therapy so much over the past few years and doctors obviously advising based on a study that we should decrease the amount of hormone replacement therapy being given. One of the biggest reasons they were saying for that is that it seemed to be fueling breast cancer. What we're seeing now for the first time at least for one year's worth of data, is that it does seem to actually be reversing the trend. Between 1975 and 2000, almost steadily Soledad, you had an increase in breast cancer cases. Now for the first time you have a decrease and a significant one at that in breast cancer cases and it appears to be, at least at this point, linked to the fact that hormone replacement therapy has gone down, that estrogen no longer in the women's system to fuel these breast cancers. Obviously very good news.

S. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a question, Sanjay. The timing is really what seems to have tipped investigators off. Is that right?

GUPTA: Yeah. I mean, you know in 2001 is when you had a lot of the data showing the hormone replacement therapy was a problem. Now you're looking at data from 2003 showing that new breast cancer cases went down by 7 percent. So shortly after the decrease in hormone replacement therapy prescriptions.

S. O'BRIEN: Sanjay Gupta for us this morning. Thank you Sanjay.

GUPTA: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles?

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: You know they still did the spacewalk yesterday. I was asking NASA about this and they said that basically, while it was a pretty busy solar storm, wasn't at their threshold for canceling the spacewalk. Of course they're not protected out there.

S. O'BRIEN: Those pictures are beautiful.

M. O'BRIEN: Yeah.

S. O'BRIEN: Wow. Here's a look at what's ahead this morning.

Wow. We'll tell you this morning about a lifeline when your small plane is going down. We'll show you about parachutes for planes that can turn tragedies into happy landings. We'll talk to some lucky pilots too.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: A lot of people would never set foot in a small airplane, they think they're too dangerous and there's no doubt they are not nearly as safe as an airliner. But these days more and more little planes have a safety device like that. It changes the safety equation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): It was a beautiful day for flying. Ernst Koone of Noose Germany was piloting his small two seater a thousand feet above some idyllic French countryside near the town of Gap(ph). In an instant, it became a pilot's worst nightmare. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw an airplane climbing right toward him.

KOONE: So what I did, pull a little bit, so then you see the video, something happened. I believe it was a rope in my propeller.

M. O'BRIEN: It sure was. He was ensnared in a cable used by a plane towing a glider. He was dropping like a stone. So what did he do?

KOONE: The first, I did was switch off the engine and immediately afterwards, pulled the parachute.

M. O'BRIEN: A parachute not just for him, but for his whole plane. He wafted into an orchard and walked away without a scratch.

KOONE: I can't understand how it was so, but it was so. It was a moment which I think very, very much adrenaline.

M. O'BRIEN: Ernst was saved by a rocket propelled parachute system for airplanes made by ballistic recovery systems of St. Paul, Minnesota. The company claims the chutes have saved 199 lives.

JOHN GILMORE, VP, SR5 PARACHUTES: The technology over 25 years has grown from hand gliding industry, (INAUDIBLE) sport industry ultra lights to really current single-engine four-passenger aircraft.

M. O'BRIEN: Cirrus Designs is the first company to build general aviation airplanes with VRS parachutes as standard equipment. Cirrus owner Lionel Morrison is sure glad he had it four years ago when a piece of his wing fell off in mid flight.

LIONEL MORRISON, SMALL PLANE PILOT: I got the plane under control after losing almost 1,000 feet in altitude, was able to take it to a remote area where I deployed the parachute and, of course, floated to safety and you know the rest is history.

M. O'BRIEN: Lionel is pretty sure that chute saved his life.

MORRISON: Obviously without the parachute, I would have had no choice but to try to land it, and I just don't know how that would have turned out.

M. O'BRIEN: Lionel is back in the air again with an identical plane. And Ernst rebuilt his little bird himself. And of course, installed a new chute before he took flight again.

Do you think that you are alive today because of that parachute?

KOONE: Yes, 100 percent, 100 percent.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Those chutes cost about $3,000 to $20,000, depending on the airplane.

S. O'BRIEN: Which is not too expensive.

M. O'BRIEN: Well especially when you consider -- versus the cost of the airplane, versus --

S. O'BRIEN: Your life.

M. O'BRIEN: The cost of your life, yeah.

S. O'BRIEN: So how come they don't have something like that for the big jetliners or is it just they're too big, that you couldn't do it?

M. O'BRIEN: Yeah, too big, too heavy. They would just require a huge number of parachutes. The thinking is that there's so many more layers of redundancy in safety in an airliner that it's unnecessary to have that weight penalty and cost penalty. You still want one.

S. O'BRIEN: Well you know how you started with people who are afraid to fly --

I M. O'BRIEN: Yeah, there you are.

S. O'BRIEN: I'm definitely afraid of little planes, and I'm not so happy with the big planes sometimes.

M. O'BRIEN: So you're not going to come on my plane are you?

S. O'BRIEN: Not a chance, ever. No O'Brien and O'Brien in the O'Brien plane.

M. O'BRIEN: Ok. Not now, not ever. All right, well the top stories are ahead, including Donald Rumsfeld's last day on the job. We'll look back at the legacy one of the most controversial defense secretaries ever.

And in Oregon, whiteout conditions and gusts as high as 120 miles an hour. That's hurricane force, making things right now impossible for rescuers to get anywhere near those three missing climbers. We'll tell you when rescuers expect their efforts to resume, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Oil is moving markets today, but it might be delayed in getting to you if the weather's got anything to do with it. It is almost the top of the hour. Let's check in with Ali who is "Minding your Business". Good morning?

ALI VELSHI: Good morning Soledad. So we've got oil nearing $63 a barrel because of some problems in Nigeria, because OPEC is talking about cutting production. But we have a home-grown problem, a whole lot of crude oil that should be getting to refineries in Houston is stuck in the gulf of Mexico, in the Houston shipping channel. It's a 53-mile channel which starts at Texas City, Texas and goes into Houston. It's a two-way channel, ships come in, drop off the crude oil, take other stuff out. It is closed. Only about two ships got through it yesterday and then overnight the people who run the shipping channel closed it because there's too much fog there. Obviously, this is not a live shot because right now there's fog. It's closed the place down. There are about 45 ships lined up at Texas City waiting to get in. About 32 ships waiting to get out. The authorities there say that they might be able to open it one way some time later today. But the fog, the sea fog that's there, could be holding it back for three or four days. That's a bit of a problem because that's not about oil supply in the world, that's about oil that has to get to American refineries which have to move at full throttle in order to get oil supplies and gasoline to Americans. So that's something worth watching. We have several reasons why we might see oil prices higher today. Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much Ali. Appreciate that.

And we've got to tell you about this story. This story, a lot of people are interested in this. The worlds tallest man with presumably --

S. O'BRIEN: How tall is he?

M. O'BRIEN: He's 7'9". He's a herdsman. He doesn't need a dog, he just uses his arms to do the herding. He's got three-foot-long arms and he was called in to help out some poor dolphins that had eaten some plastic held in captivity. And they couldn't get it out, they tried all kinds of implements to do that. Look at that arm. That is some arm with some reach. So they called him in, he reaches in -- got to wonder what that felt like, right?

S. O'BRIEN: Eew.

M. O'BRIEN: Eew is right. Pulled out the plastic, saving the two dolphins. Number one on our website still. His name is Bao Xishun.

S. O'BRIEN: How do you think that worked? I mean he's the go-to guy any time there's something people need to reach? Like do they just call Bao Xishun in and say now its dolphins, come on by?

M. O'BRIEN: Apparently so.

S. O'BRIEN: Good for him.

M. O'BRIEN: So if anything's trapped behind your refrigerator, call him, give him a call.

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up at the top of the hour, let's get right to Chad for a look at the stories that he's watching this morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Change of the guard, farewell ceremonies today for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as the army's top general warns, the army's at a breaking point.

S. O'BRIEN: Also this morning, new found hope, fewer women are being diagnosed with breast cancer and doctors think they know why. We'll talk to Sanjay straight ahead.

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