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Path of Death in Central Florida; Suicide Truck Bombing in Baghdad; President Bush Addresses House Democrats; Bird Flu Found in British Turkey Farm

Aired February 03, 2007 - 16:00   ET

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

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, my mom is gone. My mom is gone!

OPERATOR: OK. Is your mom there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just send an ambulance! I don't know where she is!

OPERATOR: OK. Hold on a second, ma'am. Hold on. Hold on.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Desperate call to 911. Lives and homes lost. Florida storm survivors share their pain.

Market massacre. The death toll rises in a Baghdad bombing.

A bird flu outbreak. The lethal strain discovered closer now to the U.S.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

All that and more after this check of the headlines.

A major disaster in Florida. President Bush promises aid to the victims of violent storms which produced at least five tornadoes. Hundreds of homes shattered. And at last report, at least 20 people are dead along a lengthy path north of Orlando.

Newly-elected governor Charlie Crist viewed the damage today and canceled his plans to attend the Super Bowl in Miami.

In a moment, we'll get the story live from CNN's Rob Marciano in Lady Lake and CNN's Susan Roesgen in DeLand, Florida.

But first, the harrowing minutes and hours as the devastating storms roared through. CNN has obtained recordings of emergency phone calls placed in the predawn darkness Friday morning.

Here's CNN's T.J. Holmes on a disaster unfolding.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OPERATOR: Ma'am, listen to me. Listen to me. Did anybody get hurt?

T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): An emotional roller-coaster for so many. For this woman, despair...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mom's bed is gone.

OPERATOR: OK. Is your mom there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just send an ambulance! I don't know where she is!

HOLMES: ... turned to hope.

OPERATOR: Did you find her?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They said they found her, but I don't -- the whole House is gone. So something might be wrong with her.

HOLMES: The twister hit in the middle of the night. In some cases, no warning sirens. Nearly everyone was caught by surprise. Those on the road didn't see it coming.

OPERATOR: 911, what's your emergency?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm in an 18-wheeler and I've just been turned over by a tornado.

OPERATOR: What's the last cross street you remember seeing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, I couldn't tell you.

HOLMES: On Interstate 4, nearly half a dozen tractor-trailers also overturned.

OPERATOR: OK. Listen, we got the calls and we're on the way. We're sending people as fast as possible. OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

OPERATOR: OK.

HOLMES: The first source of comfort in the midst of the chaos.

I'm T.J. Holmes, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And now straight to the heart of the disaster. CNN's Susan Roesgen is live for us now in Volusia County -- Susan.

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Fredricka, tornadoes move fast, and it took just seconds for one to wipe out 135 years of family history.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ROESGEN (voice over): One hundred thirty-five years ago, Beth Thomas' (ph) great-great grandfather built this house by hand. Now Beth is carrying away what's left of it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My mother was born in the bedroom right up there. And I think the bed is still in there. I'm not sure. We'll have to see. I mean, the bed is there, but it may be crushed.

ROESGEN: The tornado flattened the second floor on to the first, flinging insulation into the trees like Spanish moss. Beth's 21-year- old son was in the house when the tornado hit.

(on camera): Let me show you how Beth's son got out early Friday morning. He was in what was a second-floor bedroom right through there. Beth says, in her words, God made a tent for him, a way for her son to crawl out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is just material things. I mean, that's not what's important. What's important is my son is alive and that we are OK, and God is taking care of us. And, you know, what can't be replaced just can't be replaced.

I mean, this is just -- this is just stuff. And it's not that important in the scheme of things.

ROESGEN: Beth's church is helping her haul away the debris, but she was ecstatic to find something she didn't expect to see.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The old letters and pictures in here.

ROESGEN: The family bible, almost as old as the house itself, a treasure the tornado didn't touch.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROESGEN: Now, Beth Thomas (ph) hasn't decided yet whether or not she will try to rebuild here -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Susan, I got an e-mail from Beth's insurance company, who says that they have already given her a check so that she can make that decision.

What about the other homes in the area? Are they gone as well? Her neighbors?

ROESGEN: Well, I'm very happy to hear about that, Fredricka, but the truth is, on either side of Beth's house, her neighbors on either side didn't have really any damage at all. Very, very limited damage, practically unscathed.

But in Volusia County alone, about 500 homes and businesses were either damaged or destroyed. The good news here, Fredricka, was that there were only minor injuries and no one here in Volusia County was killed.

WHITFIELD: Well, that really is incredible. Now, what about power outages? We know that usually that's a big problem after a tornado of this magnitude to sweep through.

ROESGEN: It is so bad and can prevent a lot of people going home, even if their homes aren't damaged. What we understand now is that there were 100 power company trucks in Volusia County alone today working steadily to try to restore the power here. Still about 1,400 people who don't have power in Volusia County. But that's down from 45,000 right after the storm came through.

WHITFIELD: All right. Susan Roesgen, thanks so much, in Volusia.

And now to hard-hit Lake County, where stunned residents there are trying to reclaim pieces of their lives.

Our Rob Marciano is there.

And how are they making out? It's pretty devastating behind you.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is. And this is one of many areas in Lake County that was devastated by this twister that came through, literally wiping houses off their foundations.

They're calling this the worst natural disaster in Lake County history. And boy, I believe it.

Take a look at some of the debris that's behind. Well, first of all, this tree. This is what's called a long needle pine tree. Completely snapped.

I mean, the core of this, the trunk, is two and a half, three feet in diameter. So we are talking about mature pine and old-growth oak trees that have been snapped like toothpicks.

And then you see piles of debris like this. You see it either piled up from people who are trying to clear out their homes, or Mother Nature did this to some cases last night.

Think about what it takes to sift through the rubble when you are looking for survivors. It takes a specially trained crew to do that. And yesterday we went out with the Lake County Fire and Rescue Crew to see what life was like.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO (voice-over): The call came at 4:30 in the morning: A tornado had hit. There could be people trapped.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can take your crew right through there.

One of the first to arrive, Lieutenant Charles Blinco and his elite special ops squad from the Lake County Fire and Rescue, found this. This was Blinco's first tornado call. But he's no stranger to tragedy. He went to the Gulf when Katrina blew through. There destruction today in Florida looked sadly familiar. LIEUTENANT CHARLES BLINCO, LAKE COUNTY FIRE AND RESCUE: What you see here is what you had with Katrina over a much larger area.

MARCIANO: Blinco's Squad 76 searched what a few hours earlier were homes.

But the Sunshine and nearby Lady Lake mobile home parks were devastated, almost every home severely damaged. But, with no heavy equipment on site yet, they used the only tools they had, manpower. Moving sheets of metal, busting in doors, crawling through tight spaces, they hoped not to find the worst, a fatality.

After searching a home and finding no bodies, they marked it with an orange "X," meaning all clear. But, unfortunately, they did find some bodies. Three people died at Sunshine.

BLINCO: Now, unfortunately, you are going to find some people that have expired.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: And that number, as you know, is up to 20. This is the lead headline of the "St. Petersburg Times" -- "Path of Destruction."

The home that you are seeing there destroyed is the home that -- or what's left of the home behind me. You see ATVs there, and beyond that is a foundation.

The governor was so touched by the stories of the Suggs that live here, an elderly couple that survived, that he called in a bunch of inmates. And they came in, and with manpower and some heavy equipment, they cleared that foundation after -- after finding the valuables and giving them to their owners, they cleared it up and they are clearing out the lot themselves.

So they are definitely taking action here, Fredricka, be it inmates or fire and rescue crews, or just the police and fire department. And certainly the utility crews have been hard at work as well. They are on this what was -- what they are calling the worst national disaster here in Lake County since records have been kept.

So, it's bad news. But there's some serious action going on today. They are picking up the pieces pretty quickly -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Well, remarkable, too, Rob, is just seeing how the search and rescue teams are working under the kinds of conditions that exist right there. But now, at this hour, have they stopped those search and rescue efforts?

MARCIANO: Well, as you would imagine now, it is being more called a recovery operation. So, yes, there's still -- it is still ongoing to a lesser extent, but the hopes of finding any sort of survivors buried under rubble, it gets a little more limited. But it continues to go on. You know, it's a small community, and in rural communities like this, neighbors check on neighbors. And, you know, the Suggs that lived here certainly know their neighbors down the street, they know how many people lived there. And if they are all accounted for, well, boom, now you don't have to search that house anymore.

And a kind of "they told two friends and they told two friends and so on and so on," helping out the fire and rescue crews determine whether or not they need to search anymore. They are getting closer to whether they need to search more or not. The recovery efforts are still ongoing.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And we heard from the governor earlier, who said, you know, they are seeing a lot of people helping people. And lots of goodness has been made out of a very disastrous situation.

Rob Marciano -- go ahead.

MARCIANO: No doubt about that. And, you know, they are God- fearing folk here, Fredricka. And the first people that were on the scene to help the Suggs here were their friends and family members and members of their church groups.

So, neighbors helping neighbors and tight communities like this. I'm always amazed at the power of the human spirit when something like this happens. It's awe-inspiring, for that matter -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Yes, it really does help a lot.

Rob Marciano, thank you so much, coming to us from Lake County.

Meantime, let's check in with Jacqui Jeras.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: Remarkable pictures, too, of the tornadoes' aftermath. Our special coverage continues, including a live interview with a member of the team set to rebuild parts of central Florida.

Plus, the deadly bird flu virus spreads. Is the lethal strain closing in on the U.S.? We'll have a live report.

And bombing in Baghdad. The target, Saturday shoppers. The results, devastating.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A suicide bomber targeted Saturday shoppers in Baghdad today with devastating results. Officials say 128 people were killed, 373 others injured.

We get the details now from CNN's Arwa Damon in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is the deadliest attack to hit the capital this year. More than 120 Iraqis killed, hundreds more wounded when a suicide bomber drove a dump truck packed with 1,000 kilograms, 2,200 pounds of explosives, driving his vehicle into a central Baghdad marketplace. The attack timed to hit when the marketplace would be at its busiest, just before sunset, as Iraqis are doing their last-minute shopping.

The attack utterly devastating. At least 10 buildings in the area completely collapsed. That, according to Iraqi officials. Stalls, shops, vehicles, completely damaged.

The blast was felt and heard throughout most of the capital. The wounded in such high numbers that Iraqi hospitals in the area, unable to take in any more casualties, were forced to redirect the injured to other locations.

At this point, no claim of responsibility. This is a fairly mixed area -- Sunni, Shia and Kurds. But as an example of the magnitude of this attack, it is the deadliest since the Sadr City blast that took place at the end of November. That attack left some 200 Iraqis dead, but that was six car bombs. Here in this attack, we are talking about a single suicide bomber, one vehicle packed with, again, 1,000 kilograms, 2,200 pounds of explosiving, wracking utter destruction.

Now, there has been a disturbing increase in suicide bombings, especially in the capital over the last few weeks, something that is of increasing concern to both U.S. and Iraqi officials as they do try to move forward with both the Iraqi government's and the U.S. administration's new plan to secure the capital.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And now help is on the way. Relief groups moving into Florida to help the tornado victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This would have been the entrance here.

BILL YORK, ENGINEER CONTRACTOR, FLASH.ORG: This would have been the entrance.

WILLIS: Right here. Here's where you would have come through the front door. Right into the house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And now everyone is surveying the damage. We will take you on a walking tour of one neighborhood now flattened.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For a minute there, it just got -- it seemed like not even a minute, maybe a second, and got very, very quiet. And then all of a sudden, bam! Just a big, big explosion. And, you know, I didn't know what was going on, to tell you the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Mobile homes especially vulnerable in a severe storm. There are devices that can provide some protection, but when it comes to extremely vicious storms like the ones that hit Florida, even the most prepared home can be easily overwhelmed

Reporting from Lake County, Florida, CNN's Gerri Willis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIS: We're seeing some real devastation here that -- some of which might have been preventable, right?

YORK: It's possible. Unfortunately, tie-down straps are broken on a number of these.

WILLIS: What's a tie-down strap?

YORK: A tie-down strap is the metal strap that goes down into the ground, into an anchor, that goes up either to the bottom of the mobile home or over the top of the unit.

WILLIS: And they're metal. They are what they sound like?

YORK: They're a lightweight metal strap typically used in construction of all types, not just manufactured housing.

WILLIS: Trees are down. People's kitchens, utensils, food scattered everywhere, obviously. This is real devastation.

I want to -- I want to bring you down here so we can take a look at what was this house.

YORK: OK.

WILLIS: So, this is the trailer that was lifted and spun over upside down, now lying here upside down.

YORK: That's the one that was sitting right here.

WILLIS: And it's completely destroyed. I mean, take a look in this window here.

You know, it's just -- it's a mess. The furniture is on the ceiling essentially. The carpeting has been pulled down. It's open to the wind, to the water, to all the elements, and we see the contents of their kitchen sitting outside in the front yard.

It's just a mess. YORK: And, you know, not to dwell on it all the time, but here's the tie-down strap from this corner. It goes up to what was the bottom of the unit right there.

WILLIS: So, I mean, obviously, everything these people owned is outside in the yard now instead of inside the home. And you can even see the insulation here.

YORK: Right.

WILLIS: And it's getting wet. That becomes a mold problem, doesn't it?

YORK: Well, it does if the home were going to be savable, but this home's going to the trash dumpster.

WILLIS: It's done.

YORK: It's done.

WILLIS: There's no hope for this house.

YORK: There's no way. And interestingly enough, back to the tie-down straps, you see the strap inside the wall underneath the aluminum? It goes up over the top. This one held, but the unit still blew apart.

WILLIS: And you can see these...

YORK: Those are...

WILLIS: ... like a foot interval, a foot and a half interval.

YORK: That's where the roof is tied to the walls. The ones that go over the top go up through the walls, and they should be on about five-foot centers.

WILLIS: OK.

YORK: So, you know, here's one right next to one that blew apart.

WILLIS: Right.

YORK: And on the other side, they blew apart. So this one stayed, but it still was destroyed, and this is 2 x 4 construction.

WILLIS: Which is what it's supposed to be.

YORK: What it's supposed to be.

WILLIS: All right. But, you know, what's amazing to me is you see the siding that's been ripped away by the winds here.

YORK: Right.

WILLIS: All of the siding. It looks like wallpaper maybe down here, chairs, cushions from some kind of seating.

It's just heartbreaking really to see. I mean, look, you know, all these small things...

YORK: All the little keepsakes.

WILLIS: ... that people think of as being their home.

So here we see a big hole where something was.

YORK: Here we see a big hole where we can see the concrete blocks that the home was mounted -- sitting on top of. We saw on the side, that tie-down strap again that went over the top of the unit. It broke. The anchor appears to even be gone from over here.

WILLIS: Do you think this was a house, or was this a garage?

YORK: Oh, this was a House, because I think the garage was right over here. The car's off the driveway into where the house was.

WILLIS: So it was lifted up and moved as well, just as the house was.

YORK: It was lifted up. Yes.

WILLIS: This would have been the entrance right here.

YORK: This would have been the entrance.

WILLIS: Right here. Here's where you would have come through the front door right into the house. And you can get a sense here of the size and the shape of it.

YORK: Yes.

WILLIS: Now, this one did have straps.

YORK: It had some anyway that we see. We don't see an awful lot of them. That's a little surprising.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Pretty devastating images.

Well, the people of central Florida are trying to move ahead despite all of that.

Up next in the NEWSROOM, how people hope the to get back on their feet.

Plus, angels on wheels pack up and head south. What the American Red Cross can do.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: 911 tapes from frantic callers caught in the deadly storms that raked central Florida Friday have been released. Just listen to the fear.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole building is just gone!

911 OPERATOR: OK. Just calm down. Are you injured? Is anyone with you injured? I need to know of any injuries. Are you injured at all?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I stepped on some nails and my lip is bleeding! I don't know (INAUDIBLE)

911 OPERATOR: OK. Calm down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The roof fell on my head!

911 OPERATOR: OK.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The tornado is the first natural disaster for Charlie Crist to deal with as Florida's new governor. Today the governor and FEMA director David Paulison assessed the response and the recovery efforts in the four counties declared disaster areas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. CHARLIE CRIST (R), FLORIDA: The local level has responded in an extraordinary way -- local law enforcement, firefighters. The state has been incredibly active. We came in yesterday, and it's this kind of response that Floridians are used to because under our former governor, Governor Bush, there's been a great response team put into place. They're all still there, working very hard, and we're doing all we can to make sure they get every ounce of aid that they need.

DAVID PAULISON, FEMA DIRECTOR: I had my staff work through the night. We got it to the president this morning. And I just received a call from the White House that the president has signed the declaration for public assistance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And where is the American Red Cross? Well, volunteers apparently are already mobilizing to help the relief efforts in Florida. Today in Raleigh, North Carolina, a group of Red Cross workers began gathering for the trip to Florida. Additional Red Cross volunteers from North Carolina will head out this weekend. They're trained to help with everything from feeding to disaster assessment. Red Cross relief workers from Virginia are also headed to Florida, their mission to lend a helping hand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH ZIMMERMAN, MANASSAS, VIRGINIA, RESIDENT: ... trying to assist them in getting back to some form of normalcy, and in that process, helping them feel better about themselves, and you know, the situation that they're in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: President Bush has declared four Florida counties disaster areas. That will free up federal funds for storm victims. He talked about recovery efforts during a speech to House Democrats in Williamsburg, Virginia, today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE WALKER BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: On the way in, we spent a little time talking about Florida. And I talked to the governor yesterday. The Speaker was concerned, as am I, to make sure that the folks get the help they need down there. And Madam Speaker, you and I and every member here shares concerns for those whose lives were turned upside-down by that storm. And as I told you earlier and told the governor, whatever federal response is needed, we will make it quick and sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And President Bush tackled another serious issue at the Democrats' annual retreat. For that, let's go live to the White House and CNN White House correspondent Elaine Quijano -- Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Fredricka. That's right, in another side of his new political reality, President Bush today struck a conciliatory tone as he made that rare appearance before the House Democrats, who are having their annual retreat in Williamsburg, Virginia. The president focused largely on domestic issues, areas of possible cooperation with Democrats, including immigration, energy and education. In his public comments, he made only a passing mention of his new Iraq plans, to send thousands of additional U.S. troops to Iraq. That plan, though, of course, has run into a wall of opposition not just from Democrats, but even from some Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: I listened to many members here. I listened to members of my own party. I listened to the military and came up with a plan that I generally believe has the best chance of succeeding. I do know we agree on some things, and that is that the Maliki government is going to have to show strong leadership.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, in a closed session, senior Democratic aides say that the president did acknowledge the toll of the American -- of the war in Iraq on the American people, calling it, quote, "ugly and depressing," talking about the war and the effect of war. Now, even though as the president received a cordial welcome at that retreat in Virginia, just up the highway in Washington, presidential candidate and new Mexico governor Bill Richardson slammed the president over Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D-NM), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The war in Iraq is not the disease. Iraq is a symptom. The disease is arrogance.

When it comes to this president -- when it come to this president, I don't know how someone can be so blind to the hurt and anguish in this country and so deaf to the will of the people. This is not presidential greatness, this is a great tragedy. America is better than this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, meantime, as the political debate over Iraq continues today, another reminder of the difficulties facing the Bush administration, as well as the Iraqi government, that deadly bombing in Baghdad, the White House issuing a written statement in reaction, calling the attack an atrocity and pledging that the U.S. will continue to support the Iraqi government and Iraq's security forces -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And Elaine, Iraq a hot-button issue. And so is immigration. And I understand the president had a few remarks about immunity.

QUIJANO: That's right. In that closed session, Fredricka, it was interesting to note -- immigration, of course, has been a very deeply divisive issue within the Republican Party. And at one point, the president, in talking about that, was asked about that, said basically, Look, you're not the only ones that have taken political heat over this issue, the president -- just paraphrasing now -- according to a senior Democratic aide, saying something to the effect of, You're not the only ones with arrows in your back over this issue -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Elaine Quijano at the White House. Thank you so much.

And of course, we are committed to letting you know what's going on in central Florida in the wake of the devastating tornadoes. So a $20 or $30 investment -- could that have saved lives in Florida?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what the alarm sounds like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The critical importance of a weather radio straight ahead. Plus, a new bird flu outbreak? The lethal strain discovered closer now to the U.S. We'll have a live report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

911 OPERATOR: 911. What's your emergency?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, I'm in an 18-wheeler, and it's been turned over by a tornado.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So these are some of the frantic 911 calls made by terrified Florida residents during the storms. They paint a pretty dramatic picture of how frightening the whole experience really must have been for so many people there. These deadly Florida storms terrorized residents of The Villages, which happens to be one of the nation's largest retirement communities. It's in Lady Lake, Florida, and damage in the retirement village is very severe.

Joining me now is Captain Dan Hickey with The Villages Public Safety Department. So Captain, give me an idea just how devastating the damage was for The Villages.

CAPT. DAN HICKEY, THE VILLAGES PUBLIC SAFETY DEPT.: We had about 1,200 homes that were impacted by the storm. The impact was anywhere from severe to moderate damage. We brought in a search and rescue team, a USAR (ph) team, state of Florida team. And they brought in some resources all the way from Alachua County, Gainesville, stuff like that. We brought in probably about 40, 50 responders that actually came in and was able to search all 1,200 -- actually, they touched 1,500 homes in The Villages, made sure nobody was trapped. Believe it or not...

WHITFIELD: And did you find anyone trapped?

HICKEY: No, we did not. And that's the -- the ironic part of that. Of all of those homes that were impacted, we only had some very minor injuries. We had no fatalities, and that's real important to get out to the folks, that we had no fatalities in The Villages.

WHITFIELD: And that really is quite remarkable because at least six deaths did take place in the Lady Lake area, and we're glad to hear that none of those casualties took place right there in The Villages. So for a majority of your residents, many of them retired, a lot of them very vulnerable and on certain medicines, as well, how are you able to meet their needs, since so many people lost everything?

HICKEY: Well, the residents in The Villages, we basically, you know, constantly update them, keep them informed in case of an emergency what to do. So these folks knew that when the storm was ready to hit, that they were to seek shelter in their home. As soon as the storm cleared, they able to self-evacuate themselves. They actually took belongings with them. We placed them in a safe zone for a little bit. And then we have an ambassador program in The Villages, where residents actually open up their homes for people that have been impacted. So our shelters have been very low numbers, if not empty.

BROWN: So it is good to hear from you that you say a lot of the residents there really do feel like they were well-informed, that they weren't caught off guard, like so many others in other counties.

WHITFIELD: Well, the other fortunate thing for us the time of day it happened, striking us at 3:30 in the morning. The residents were not up. They weren't getting active, going out for the morning walks or their runs, and so they were already in their homes and in their shelters. The affected area in The Villages that was struck, those homes are only about a year-and-a-half old, so they're built the new hurricane-type standards. So they really held up real well.

WHITFIELD: Oh, well, that is great to hear. Captain Dan Hickey with The Villages Public Safety Department, we appreciate your time. And best of luck to you, as well as everyone else who lives in the community to get back on their feet.

HICKEY: Thank you very much.

WHITFIELD: And much more of the devastation from the storms in central Florida straight ahead in the newsroom. Rick Sanchez is here now with a preview of what's to come.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we're expecting more video, and as it comes in, we're going to be sharing with viewers. More information, as well. I'm also going to be having a conversation with some lawmakers at 5:00 o'clock. The conversation is about Florida. You know, it seems like Florida is getting hit by a lot of disasters lately. You know, we go through the hurricanes, but also pictures like this as a result of some of the tornadoes. And you begin to wonder, Well, what's going on in the state? It has a lot to do with development, some would say overdevelopment. I mean, Florida's been exploding, Fredricka, when it comes to real estate.

WHITFIELD: For years, but especially in the past couple of years.

SANCHEZ: They're selling townhouses for $300,000 or $400,000.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SANCHEZ: And so close to the next one...

WHITFIELD: That's at the low end.

SANCHEZ: Oh, yes. Yes.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SANCHEZ: I mean, and your neighbor, you can hear their toilet flush. I mean, they're that close to each other. So it comes to -- you know, it sounds -- it's reasonable to suspect that when a storm or a tornado goes through there, it's going to do this kind of damage.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SANCHEZ: You know, four or five years ago, this would have been going through an area where there were no homes, and we wouldn't be doing this story. Today we're doing the story because there's just so much development...

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SANCHEZ: ... that it can't help but almost hit some of these communities (INAUDIBLE)

WHITFIELD: So the density of the population, you have a storm like this, consequently, you're going to have...

SANCHEZ: A lot more people affected.

WHITFIELD: ... a high casualty rate.

SANCHEZ: Whereas Florida's always been affected by a lot of tornadoes, but they were never in the news.

WHITFIELD: Right.

SANCHEZ: Well, they're going to be in the news now because of all the development.

There's something else we're doing tonight at 10:00 o'clock -- interesting story. If you go to CNN.com, you'll find it, unbelievable story that everybody seems to be interested in, a baby mummified. It's been there for 50 years. Suddenly, it's this big CSI (ph) secret. Nobody seems to be able...

WHITFIELD: What?

SANCHEZ: ... to figure out why the baby's there. Did it have something to do with the people who found it? Nobody knows. We're pouring into it. We're doing a two-part series and a conversation, part of our special tonight.

WHITFIELD: Creepy.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Creepy, but I'm intrigued.

SANCHEZ: Yes. See? We got you.

WHITFIELD: I am.

SANCHEZ: And all those other people.

WHITFIELD: I'll be watching.

SANCHEZ: Thanks.

WHITFIELD: All right, Rick, thanks a lot.

SANCHEZ: Call me, tell me what you think.

WHITFIELD: I'll give you a call. The bird flu -- well, it continues. It spread through Europe. Today, officials in Britain confirmed an outbreak of a deadly strain on a turkey farm north of London. Right now, officials are scrambling to contain it. Our Adrian Finighan is live with the details at -- not just called a farm but instead a plant, as well, as you described earlier, Adrian.

ADRIAN FINIGHAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's more of a sort of a factory, I suppose you could call it, Fredricka. Some 2,500 people work here. We're in the rural community of Holton in Suffolk, some 130 kilometers northeast of London. There's not a lot out here but farms and a few isolated communities and this massive plant -- 2,600 birds here at this plant came down with bird flu. They died. They were in one shed at this big plant. The remaining 160,000 birds are now having to be culled.

Public health officials have put into force some measures that they hope is going to stop the spread of this virus. They put a three-kilometer exclusion zone right around the plant, a 10-kilometer surveillance zone in which all poultry will be monitored for signs of the disease.

And the latest news from here is that authorities have now placed further restrictions on the movement of poultry, and they have said that all domestic poultry has to be isolated now from wild birds. That means that any chicken runs have to be covered, for instance, to stop bird droppings going through and that poultry that people may keep at home -- they're not -- it's not allowed to have its drinking water shared by wild birds. So that has to be -- measures have to be put in place for that.

But as I said, 500 people who work here at this plant particularly concerned. Public health officials, though, have moved to play down the risk to human health. The race is on at the moment, though, to contain this isolated outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of this virus, the first time that we've had an outbreak on this scale here in Britain -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: No doubt about it. Everyone wants it contained there, for sure. Adrian Finighan, thanks so much.

And back to our top story here in the States. The stories are very compelling coming out of central Florida. Up next, more poignant moments of a community putting itself back together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Framework here was laying on top of it. That's what had her pinned down. But she was laying on her back on the mattresses. And I just got to her, hugged her, lifted this up, and she got out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: The pictures, the homes here in shambles, family treasures, a lifetime spent collecting now scattered about among other debris. The images coming out of Florida are heart-wrenching. Our Soledad O'Brien shows us more on the storm's rage through Lake County.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All morning long, we have been at the home -- or I should say what's left of the home -- of this man, Gene Suggs (ph). Tell me a little bit about what happened -- - 3:00 o'clock in the morning. What kind of a warning did you get?

GENE SUGGS, TORNADO VICTIM: We were both sound asleep. And the roof went off first. I was pelted with hail and cold rain. Just beyond this wall was a bedroom. The wall was coming down, and the -- the power of this wind picked me up, the mattress and all, and pushed this side into that wall. And then we -- the wall came down on me with the mattress under me.

O'BRIEN: This is your wife's bedroom. She was in this room here, and that's the bed she was in. What happened to her?

SUGGS: The mattress was on the bed and she was on top of it. She was on top of the bed.

O'BRIEN: But the ceiling was gone. The roof was gone.

SUGGS: The roof -- just like -- it was all just like it is now. This framework here was laying on top of her. That's what had her pinned down. But she was laying on her back, on the mattresses. And I just got to her, hugged her, and lifted this up, and she got out.

O'BRIEN: Ken and Colin Denbeck (ph) are neighbors of Gene Suggs. You met Gene just a moment ago when he took us through his home. Well, they were here on the scene, helping him for a long time pick up the pieces.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the neighbors called and said that they found Gene and Edna wandering in the back yard and that their house was completely gone. And so we had my wife load up coffee and biscuits, and we just came up with coffee and started helping them pick up the pieces.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you see things to do, you just do it. I mean, we just had to look for their stuff. We found their teeth and their glasses and their pocketbooks and their credit cards and important papers.

O'BRIEN: We're joined by Governor Charlie Crist. And you've seen this sight over and over again. You've done a tour. How does it look to you?

CRIST: The devastation is incredible, but these people are resilient. And I talked to Mr. Suggs this morning, as you mentioned, and his spirit and his demeanor are amazing. But that's what Floridians do. They always pick themselves back up. We're used to this in Florida, unfortunately, with the hurricanes that we've had over the past few years.

O'BRIEN: I want to show you some pictures now, a little bit of progress. You can see inmates from the Marian (ph) County jail. About 55 of them have actually come out, and they're helping some of the people here, not only this house, which is Mr. Suggs's house, but also behind him, as well. There's just lots of debris, and they've been doing -- you know, cutting down trees and trying to clean up a little bit.

What are you going to do now? What do you do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They -- we -- our insurance company was here. They flew from Ft. Lauderdale. And this is another part of the miracle. They said this was total damage. They gave me a check, a big check. Now, we got to declare some other things, but just nothing is -- everything went -- very, very well. And only it could be profiled (ph) by God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Just an idea of what people are up against. Jacqui Jeras, you know, tough going there, for sure.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. And you know, they don't have sirens there in that county, so they're -- even though the warning was in effect, they didn't hear anything go off.

However, if you have one of these, this will wake you up in the middle of the night and could save your life when a tornado comes near your home. Find out about NOAA weather radio or all-hazards weather radio and even how it can help you if you don't live in Tornado Alley. That's coming up in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: So no tornado sirens in the four counties that were hit in central Florida. But Jacqui Jeras in the Weather Center, we know that some folks had weather radios and how helpful they were for them.

JERAS: Absolutely. You know, that was the one thing. When storms come in the middle of the night, people are sleeping. So unless you have the sirens, which may not even wake you up anyway, depending how hard of a sleeper you are, you need to have a NOAA weather radio. And you can put it on the night table right next to your bed, and this will go off and wake you up, I guarantee you -- it's loud enough to do that -- in middle of the night. They even have technology where you can put an adaptor on here and it will shake your bed, for people who are hard of hearing. So this can help absolutely, everybody.

So Fredricka, I'm going to put you on the spot here because I was really surprised -- and everybody else in the control room, too, if we can see them. Do you have one?

WHITFIELD: I don't. But after listening to your report earlier today, I'm getting one.

JERAS: Who else in the control room has one? Anybody? Thumbs down. Everybody's thumbs -- see, you guys -- that's so...

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: I want one.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: ... especially after you said it's so easy to get...

JERAS: It is.

WHITFIELD: ... just $20, $30, maybe, you know...

JERAS: That's right.

WHITFIELD: ... there are more expensive ones, Radio Shack or a store like that.

JERAS: That's right. Radio Shack. You can get them on line. I even was just surfing the Internet to see where else you can get them -- Amazon.com. You can even go there and just order them from home. Do it right now because this should be as common in your house as, say, a smoke detector or maybe a carbon monoxide detector and can save your life just easily.

Now, the old ones and the cheap ones, by the way, that are like $20, they'll go off and they'll wake you up for every severe thunderstorm warning, every tornado warning, flash flood warning, coastal flood warning...

WHITFIELD: I'm sold. I'm sold.

JERAS: You might not want to wake up if you don't live near the beach for a coastal flood warning. So I suggest that you get -- it's called SAME technology, OK? It says S-A-M-E on there. So that specific area, it will only go off for your specific county for the warnings that you want. So this is a real lifesaver. Go out this weekend and get one with a battery update.

WHITFIELD: All right. Great advice. I am getting one right away. Thank you.

Our Rick Sanchez is going to continue the momentum here as we go into the newsroom. Rick, a former Floridian, I hope you had one maybe when you lived in Florida.

SANCHEZ: Never did. As a matter of fact, I didn't hear about them until we moved here to Georgia. By the way...

WHITFIELD: Well, your family in Florida now knows.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Exactly.

WHITFIELD: To get one.

SANCHEZ: Thanks. It's good information. And I didn't think they were so inexpensive.

WHITFIELD: I know.

SANCHEZ: Thanks, Fred. Here we go.

WHITFIELD: (INAUDIBLE) excuse.

SANCHEZ: We'll start with this. I'm Rick Sanchez from the newsroom.

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