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Tornado Terror; Deadly Bus Crash in Atlanta

Aired March 02, 2007 - 12:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: We are preempting "YOUR WORLD TODAY" for continuing coverage of two big stories in the U.S.
I'm T.J. Holmes.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Betty Nguyen.

Tony and Heidi are off today.

HOLMES: And developments on the Atlanta bus crash and tornado outbreak still coming in to the NEWSROOM on this second day of March.

NGUYEN: A bus carrying a college baseball team from Ohio plunges off of an overpass. You see the video there. It ends up on an interstate highway in Atlanta.

HOLMES: Also, President Bush speaking live this hour about the tornado damage in the South, storms that killed 20 people and left small communities in shock.

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

We are waiting to hear from President Bush, expecting to hear from him at any moment. He's due to comment on the deadly storms that ripped through the southern United States. In fact, he's going to be visiting some of those devastating areas tomorrow.

We will have coverage of the president when he is ready to speak. We're keeping an eye on that in D.C.

NGUYEN: But in the meantime, here is the latest, beginning in southern Alabama.

Search crews worked through the night searching for anyone trapped in the rubble of Enterprise High School. The latest numbers, at least eight students dead and a ninth fatality confirmed in the town.

We do want to take you live to Washington now, and the president speaking about the storms that ripped through the nation last night.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... for those who lost their lives in the recent tragedies in those two states. Tomorrow I'm going down to Georgia and Alabama.

I go down with a heavy heart. I go down knowing full well that I'll be seeing people whose lives were turned upside down by the tornadoes. I'll do my very best to comfort them.

I ask our nation, for those who are prayerful, to give a prayer for the victims of the storms, and ask for the blessings that can come upon people and the comfort necessary to deal with the recent tragedy.

Thank you all very much.

NGUYEN: President Bush mentioning that he is going to be touring and speaking with those affected by the storms that ripped through Georgia and Alabama tomorrow. And of course CNN will be covering that when it happens.

HOLMES: And the president says he'll be going down with a -- with a heavy heart. And a lot of heavy hearts right now in Alabama. Search crews have worked through the night there, scouring through the rubble of Enterprise High School for any more victims that may have been trapped.

CNN's Susan Roesgen is in the southern Alabama town for us.

Hello, Susan.

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT: Hello, T.J.

I just spoke to the mayor of Enterprise, and he said he would be very honored if President Bush were to stop here at the high school, but he wishes it were under better circumstances.

Right now, the Alabama governor, Bob Riley, is here. He's taking a tour of the school, getting a look for himself at some of the destruction. And then you can see the camera crews set up behind me. They're getting ready to listen to his press briefing as soon as he comes out.

Again, I did talk to the mayor here. He says that in addition to this high school, between 150 to 150 homes in Enterprise, a small town of just 20,000 people, between 100 and 150 homes have either been damaged or completely destroyed.

He also said that he praises the staff of this high school here. Although eight students did die, he says that the staff here did everything by the book. Got the students into the hallways, got them to crouch down.

He says that even though eight students did die, many more could have died if the staff hadn't followed the normal procedures that they're supposed to follow. He said that he's very proud of them.

I asked him whether or not they were planning a memorial service. And he said it's really just too soon for that.

Now, there has been some cleanup here. We have several helicopters flying around. Some cleanup here already.

They're moving some of the debris out of the way. They've got some front-end loaders inside the interior of the school picking up those chunks of cement roof that crashed down on the students yesterday. They're doing some of that.

And again, we are waiting for Alabama governor Bob Riley to come out of the school and give us his assessment of what he's seen inside there today.

We've talk today several students, several parents here. You may have been able to see some of the wrecked cars in the parking lot. Some of the parents told me that they are glad they were not picking up their students from the school at about 1:00 yesterday, because they would not have been safe in their cars -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Susan Roesgen for us in Enterprise. And we are keeping an eye on that press conference that's supposed to happen any moment with the Alabama governor.

Thank you so much, Susan.

And we will bring you the press conference when it happens live.

NGUYEN: Well, the extent of the destruction from the storms in south Georgia becoming more apparent by the hour. Georgia governor Sonny Perdue has declared a state of emergency in six counties.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve has been surveying the damage in Americus, Georgia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The public works vehicles are here, a sign that the rebuilding has already begun here. Lots of trees down and broken. Ironically, a sign over there claiming this Tree City, USA. Not today.

A lot of traffic here because people are backed up behind a truck that's carrying in some new electric utility poles. Electricity still out to about half of the city of Americus, according to the sheriff's office.

Of course the big story here is the hospital which is behind me, severely damaged by this tornado. You can see the windows out, some of the facades down. You go to the back of the building, you see some walls down.

There's sort of a pebble roofing up there. And there were cars that were parked about 100 yards away from that hospital that have dents from those pebbles that flew off the roof in that wind.

Also, we saw a two-by-four imbedded into concrete up there. That's how fast the wind was moving in this part of town.

There's a lot of rebuilding to be done here, not just the hospital, not just the electricity. Also the homes.

You can see over here this pile of rubble. At about 9:00 last night that was a House. It was an A-frame over there. Now you can see it's just a pile of lumber. Just so much to be done. This city really hard hit, this county hard hit. Two people died here, nine overall in the state of Georgia. A terrible toll that they paid.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Americus, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And while we're keeping a close eye on the weather situation, we're also keeping an eye on the major story of the day, which was just a terrifying scene in Atlanta.

A bus -- there it is -- carrying a college baseball team, it plunged off a bridge and slammed on to the interstate. It landed right there, as you see, across that interstate. Six people were killed, 29 were injured, six of them critically.

Investigators are still trying to piece this thing together. But here's an idea what may have happened and how this accident may have occurred.

Authorities and witnesses say the bus was traveling in an HOV lane. Now, it then left the interstate in an HOV exit lane that was leading to the bridge. The bus apparently couldn't stop at the top of the ramp.

That's where you see there -- it's kind of easy to get confused if you don't know the area where the HOV lane -- the exit lane there just leads right up in to that. And that's what happens, it appears, and the bus went right off that bridge. One of the players, one of the injured players, he spoke out just a short time ago, and he gave an emotional account of that crash.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

A.J. RAMTHUN, BLUFFTON BASEBALL PLAYER: I was involved on the bus accident this morning. Pretty much, I just wanted to -- I wanted to give my heartfelt -- to the families, to the baseball players involved, my teammates. I understand four of them are deceased, and I just wanted to say -- I just wish there is something I could do to the families who lost their loved ones.

This is something that's not going to leave the guys who are on that bus this morning. This is going to be with us forever.

And we've been living together, practicing together, and just -- we've been a family for the past five months. And it's just -- something like this morning really makes you think twice about life. And I don't -- I just wanted to say -- I just wanted to give my condolences to the families who suffered losses. I just wish there was something we could do.

QUESTION: Can you tell us your recollection of the crash?

RAMTHUN: Sorry?

QUESTION: Can you tell us what you remember of the crash?

RAMTHUN: I was asleep, like most of the guys on the bus were. It was roughly 4:00 in the morning.

All I remember, as I woke up, I woke up as soon as the bus hit the overpass wall. And that's when I looked up, and the bus landed on the left side, which is the side I was sitting on. And I just looked out and saw the road coming up after me.

And it was just -- that's all. I remember our catcher, Kurt Schroeder (ph), tapped me on the head, seeing if I was awake, telling me we needed to get out because there was gas all over the place. And that's about it.

QUESTION: Do you remember, was there a plan to pull off the highway at that point or were you just driving through?

RAMTHUN: We were supposed to be driving all the way through. The next time we were supposed to stop was supposed to be 8:00 this morning for breakfast. So...

QUESTION: Sir, can you discuss your injuries, how you're feeling right now?

RAMTHUN: I'm -- I'm one of the lucky ones. I broke my collarbone. I had to get stitches in my ear and my -- both corners of my eyes. And my finger was ripped to the bone, but, I mean, I was lucky that I'm feeling fine.

I -- you know, I'm going to heal. Cuts and bruises are going to go away. But, I mean, there's just some things -- my older brother, he's on the team as well. He got trapped underneath the bus.

He has hip damage. It's just -- you know, he might not recover from that. And I don't know how to come up to some of these guys and say "I'm sorry" while I'm standing. You know?

It's just not a lot you can do.

QUESTION: Have you spoken to your parents?

RAMTHUN: I spoke to my mom and dad. I spoke to my mom as soon as it happened, and my dad was still off at work. And I eventually go hold of my dad as well at -- while I was at the hospital, and he will be coming down to take me back home.

QUESTION: Where are you from, what town?

RAMTHUN: I'm from Springfield, Ohio.

QUESTION: Will you describe the scene on the bus after the impact, just you all trying to get out and trying to manage what was going on.

RAMTHUN: The guys who walked away uninjured, pretty much, they -- they were really selfless about it. They helped other people. I told you earlier, Kurt Schroeder (ph) helped me off the bus. One of the guys I drove here with, another patient from the other hospital, one of the guys, he got hit pretty hard, but he helped him out of the bus.

It was just -- it was what you expect out of any college team, just more concern for others than you have about yourself. And guys passing up the opportunity to get on a squad and go to the hospital so that other people who were seriously injured could go.

Coach Miller (ph), he had to go to the hospital. We had a guy back off the squad and say, "Take Coach Miller (ph)." And it's just what you would expect. You know, even in a situation like that, when you're this tightly-knit, it's -- you don't care about yourself after that.

QUESTION: A.J., what caused the injuries to your face? What was it that caused it?

RAMTHUN: I was sitting on the window seat. So...

QUESTION: It was the window?

RAMTHUN: Yes, it was the window.

QUESTION: A.J., describe what you saw and what you heard (INAUDIBLE).

RAMTHUN: I didn't really -- I don't really have a whole lot of memory of exactly what started first, but the first thing I heard was Kurt (ph) telling me to get off the bus, there was gas everywhere.

I heard some guys crying, "I'm stuck. I'm stuck."

I walked by Coach Grandey, who is now in stable condition, but at that time he was -- he was horrible -- he was so bad off. And I tried to help him up, and that's when I realized my shoulder was hurt. And I told the coach he was just going to have to sit there and wait for the medics to get there.

And Kurt (ph) tried to help him up as well. But our coach is a big guy. He's not -- it was just chaos in my mind. But...

QUESTION: Were you aware where your brother was at that point?

RAMTHUN: No, I had no idea. I thought -- you know, I saw Kurt Schroeder (ph). He was sitting back by where my brother was. He got up and walked off the bus.

I thought maybe Mike was already out. I sat there for a good 10 minutes, and then I realized my brother is not out. I haven't seen my brother.

And then one of his friends said that Mike was stuck underneath the bus. And it was about 9:00 this morning before I even knew he was all right or anything, so...

QUESTION: Have you able to see your brother?

RAMTHUN: I'm on my way after this. So...

QUESTION: A.J., what was it like inside of the hospital? (INAUDIBLE) what are the guys doing?

RAMTHUN: I haven't been in there yet. I came from -- is it Peabody?

QUESTION: Piedmont.

RAMTHUN: Piedmont. I just came from there. I'm going up to meet my teammates. I just wanted to give my condolences to the families first.

QUESTION: A.J., just to confirm, you guys were sleeping?

RAMTHUN: Yes, we were all sleeping.

QUESTION: And you weren't expected to stop in Atlanta, you were expected to stop for breakfast in a couple hours from there?

RAMTHUN: Yes. Correct.

QUESTION: Tell us how fast the medical crews got there.

RAMTHUN: It was instant.

(CROSSTALK)

RAMTHUN: It was instant. It was -- I live in Ohio, and it's impressive if somebody gets there within 10, 20 minutes after an accident. Here, it was maybe five at most.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: There you heard A.J. Ramthum, a baseball player on that team, who was on the bus at the time when it plunged over the bridge. Lucky to be alive today.

He has a broken collarbone and some stitches in his ears and on the sides of his eyes. But really, just sending a heartfelt condolence out to the families of those who did not survive this accident.

Looking at a live picture right now. The accident still causing backups on the freeway here.

This is Interstate 75, near downtown Atlanta. And it's probably going to be like this for quite some time.

Of course, we're going to keep following this story. We're going to get an update, in fact, on the players who were taken to the hospital after that bus just drove off of an Atlanta bridge.

That's coming up right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Don't miss it.

HOLMES: Also, Taliban takedown, possibly. Terror suspected captured in Afghanistan. Details just ahead here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We want to head back to Grady Memorial Hospital, where some 19 of the injured in that charter bus accident that was carrying a college baseball team, 19 of the injured have been taken there to be treated.

Our Drew Griffin was there.

And Drew, we saw you there a short time ago at that press conference, that emotional press conference, where one of the players actually spoke.

Update us on what he had to say and also the conditions that we know about the players that are there.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., he did fill in some of the holes about this accident. Said that he and his teammates were sleeping on the bus when the crash actually is what woke him up.

He said they were not expected to stop at all in Atlanta. They were going to stop for breakfast at 8:00 in the morning. That would be two hours from the time of the accident. So that's clearing up some of the picture of what may have happened.

Of course, we know that the bus driver is dead, so we might not know all of the specifics about what happened. But it's clearing up the picture.

As for the students here, three remain in critical condition, the other 16 among the walking wounded, like the one that came in and talked to us, A.J. Ramthun. They have injuries that are mild to moderate. The other three are in critical condition, and in some stage of recovering from surgery.

But this is going to be the convergent zone where they're going to bring all of these students together from the various hospitals. And that is why A.J. came to this hospital. He was going in to see his brother, who was also being treated her.

And let's take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAMTHUN: I just wanted to say I just wish there's something I could do to the families who lost their loved ones. This is something that's not going to leave the guys who were on that bus this morning. This is going to be with us forever.

And we've been living together, practicing together, and just -- we've been a family for the past five months. And it's just, something like this morning really makes you think twice about life.

(END VIDEO CLIP) GRIFFIN: That's from an 18-year-old freshman of this university, a second baseman. His brother was pinned in the bus, he says, and has a hip injury. That's who he was coming to see.

The hospital here, Grady, has cleared out an entire ward. That's where they're going to allow all of these baseball players to collect until they can either be released to their families or admitted into the hospital for further observation.

But again, three critical, 16 mild to moderate injuries who are still being evaluated -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Drew Griffin standing by there for us, keeping an eye on things at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Drew, thank you so much.

NGUYEN: And we do want to let you know that AirTran is offering free flights between Atlanta and Ohio to the family members of those bus crash victims. Those families can find out more information by calling the airline.

Take this number down. It is 1-800-247-8726, or 1-800-AIRTRAN. And what you need to do is ask for the Bluffton University coordinator.

We do have on the phone with us Pastor James Rissler with the Atlanta Mennonite Fellowship Church here.

And as we well know, Bluffton University is affiliated with the Mennonite Church.

Pastor, talk to me about what you're hoping to help and offer to the victims of this bus crash.

PASTOR JAMES RISSLER, ATLANTA MENNONITE FELLOWSHIP: We've been in communication with an information director at Bluffton and with a campus minister from Bluffton University who first contacted us. And we've basically offered to help in any ways that would be of help to them, so -- housing or transportation. Our communities are certainly in prayer for the affected.

NGUYEN: Have any of the students, the coaches, the university, have they reached out to you with any specifics that they're in need of at this time?

RISSLER: It sounds like the Bluffton community is still processing logistics and how to best make use of us, so we've been in dialogue throughout the day. But we don't know specifics yet about how we'll be able to facilitate that.

NGUYEN: Well, do you plan on going to the hospital at any point and speaking with those students?

RISSLER: Both I and the pastor of the other Mennonite congregation here in Atlanta Mennonite (INAUDIBLE), have contacted the hospitals and passed on our information so that if any students would like a Mennonite pastor to be present with them, we would be happy to do that. But the chaplains at this hospital has asked that unless individuals contact us, that we wait to go there. They have very good spiritual care staffs there as well.

NGUYEN: All right. James Rissler, the pastor at the Atlanta Mennonite Fellowship Church.

We appreciate your time, and, you know, extending your hand to help those involved in this accident.

Thank you.

HOLMES: Well, an Alabama city in chaos and a high school community reeling from a deadly tornado. You will hear from some of the students a little later in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We want to head now live to Enterprise, Alabama. You're seeing Governor Riley there with his back to the microphones right now. We're expecting to hear from him.

He's been touring some of that damage there in Enterprise. That's where eight students were killed at a high school, 10 people all together killed in Alabama by those deadly tornadoes that ripped through.

Here now, Governor Bob Riley. He's actually been walking through, touring some of the damage. Expecting to hear from him.

And expecting as well -- we did hear that I believe a state of emergency has been declared in several counties where the tornadoes hit. But he has been surveying some of that damage, walking through the high school, walking through some other areas. And expecting to hear from him what he saw and what he thinks.

Again, Governor Bob Riley. It looks like he's making sure everybody is set before he gets going. But again, this is where the high school is. Eight students we know were killed at Enterprise High School.

We'll go ahead and listen to the governor.

GOV. BOB RILEY (R), ALABAMA: Good morning, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I've got a few comments, and then we'll take questions.

You can't walk through this school and wonder why. You can't -- you have to ask yourself, you know, why do certain things like this happen? But we know they always will occur.

But of everything that I've seen today -- and the damage is truly remarkable -- I mean, someone asked me a moment ago to sum it up. It's horrific. But I can't do -- I can't say enough about the principal, about the teachers, about the superintendent of education here and what they did. The loss of life yesterday was tragic. And we're going to do everything that we can to make sure that we take care of these families and give them everything that they need, including our prayers. But on the other end, if you walk through this building, I truly am amazed that we didn't have more loss of life.

I told the principal, you can do everything right and still have this occur. You can do everything exactly right and still lose a life. I think what they did yesterday -- and I told someone this morning, I wish, and I hope that if I had been in their place, I would have done as good a job as they did.

This community is close-knit. They're resilient. They're going to come back. We have all of the assets at the federal level and state level to make sure whatever they're going to need in the next few days, we're going to try to accommodate every need.

They need some time now. It's going to take a day or two in order to kind of put all of this in perspective.

Someone asked me this morning, "Do you need another code? Do you need to get kids out of the school when a hurricane or tornado is coming?" You know, no one can ever answer that.

But I do know one thing. What they did yesterday saved a lot of kids. They saved lives yesterday.

One other comment. I never cease to be amazed by these communities that come together. When we flew over today in a helicopter, there must be a thousand or 1,500 or 2,000 people that are on every roof that's been damaged and every yard that has debris. There are people coming from all over the state, from all over this county to help people that they don't even know. And I think it really is a testament to enterprise and to their leadership.

One other thing -- leadership comes in all different forms, sizes and packages. But I hope the people of this county, and I hope the people of Enterprise understand what great leadership was shown yesterday by the mayor, by the city council, by their local EMA. They really did respond in a way that was incredible.

I don't know how many of you have had an opportunity to actually look at some of the devastation and see the wall that fell. But how the rescue people go in there and be able to do what they did was truly remarkable.

And I just want to compliment all of the county officials, Senator Holly, Representative Spicer, the mayor of the council, everyone that's been involved. These things are going to happen. We can't turn the clock back.

But now I think everyone is just dedicated to making sure that we try to remove any impediment that they may have going forward to getting their life back to normal. We brought all of our education people down, our public safety people today. They are going to stay. They are going to continue to work on this. I think we'll come up with a pretty good gameplan.

I know our Congressman, Terry Everett, flew in with me today. I know he has talked to the White House this morning. He's been in contact with FEMA. And I'm going to ask the Congressman to come up and say a few words.

REP. TERRY EVERETT (R), ALABAMA Governor, thank you very much.

First of all, I want to very much concur with everything that you've said about how this was handled locally. And we never know how we will react when we get in situations like this. But apparently the folks here in Enterprise reacted very, very well. The federal government stands behind the state in funding. The delegation has already sent a letter to the president to back up your request for emergency funding.

And then finally, governor, you've pretty much said exactly what I wanted to say, and that's congratulate everybody that was involved in this. And I want to say how much we appreciate you as governor. We know how many times, unfortunately, you've had to go through this type of situation, and what a great job you've done each time.

And then just finally, something you touched on, you said this city will be back. When you say the city of Enterprise, it actually has two meanings. The city of Enterprise has two meanings. It means that there's a city named Enterprise, and there's an enterprising city.

Thank you very much, governor.

RILEY: Thank you.

Ladies and gentlemen, any questions?

QUESTION: Could the schools done anything differently that might have saved the lives of students?

RILEY: I do not believe, and I've gone through everything that transpired from the time they first got their warning yesterday. I think what the school did is exactly what I would have done if I had been here. I think they saved a lot of lives by doing what they did.

There are certain things that are going to happen that's going to cause a loss of life that we can't control, and that's what happened yesterday.

QUESTION: When will the federal funds -- when is the earliest that we might we be see federal funds here?

RILEY: We've got all of FEMA's people here today. Our EMA people are doing assessments today. You have to reach a certain level. I talked to Dave Paulison this morning. He said. get that to me. We will make a declaration just as soon as we get the numbers.

You know, Dr. Morton and I had this discussion coming down here. I never want to take that decision-making authority away from the principal and the local superintendent.

You have to remember, that if we had let the school out early, a lot of these kids would have gone home. They wouldn't have had any parents there. They would have been alone. There are a lot of these children that would have gone into facilities that probably aren't as structurally sound as here. Again, based on what they knew at the time yesterday, based on the decisions that they made, I think they were totally right.

We've had estimates today, but I assured the superintendent this morning, they have insurance here; we're going to see what the insurance is going to do, but we're going to get the school back up. And I told him, you figure out what you need. You call us, let us worry about providing the funds and getting whatever you need. We want to get these kids back to a sense of normalcy just as quickly as we can.

We've got different options, whether it's video conferencing, distance-learning capabilities, whether we need to bring in some modular units. We'll be doing that over the next few days.

But I just want this community and I want this school system to understand, first thing we have to do is take care of the kids. Second thing we have to do is make sure that these parents understand how tragic we understand this is. Third thing we have to do is try to get them back into a sense of normalcy just as quickly as possible.

QUESTION: Anything for the families who lost their children? What will the state do for them or can the state do for them?

RILEY: You know, all life is precious. But there's something about losing the life of a child that is distinctly different than losing that of an adult. I told someone a moment ago, it's a process that you go through, and these families are going through it today. And they said, are you going to go see the families? I said, today they just need their loved ones around them. They need to let this process evolve. I do want to talk to them, but I want them to know today that this community, this state, as the mayor said a moment ago, this country is praying for them; they have them in their thoughts. We've had calls from all over the United States. And we can't bring back that child. But we can do everything that we can to help them through this process.

QUESTION: What do you say the folks who responded...

RILEY: Our military is incredible. I was in Iraq last year, and I watched these guys over there. Their level of training, their level of expertise is the best in the world. And what they did yesterday, I mean literally within minutes, if not hours, to come in and respond to the needs here. I told the president when I talked to him yesterday, you need to compliment the people at Fort Rucker. They were true lifesavers yesterday in every sense of the word, and I'm sure he will.

QUESTION: There are eight children who died here. This may not be a question for you. What is the plan to release their names and pictures or any information about them so we can tell the public who these people are?

RILEY: Mayor, come up and speak.

MYR. KENNETH BOSWELL, ENTERPRISE ALABAMA: We have no plans to release those names in respect of the families. We ask that the press respect the families' rights concerning the death of their child. Our condolences goes out to the families of the children that has passed away. And we ask that you respect that.

I'd like to take and extend my thanks to the governor for all that he's done.

I can't say enough about the National Guard. Fort Rucker, I agree, hands down, second to none.

To our state troopers, they came in and literally took and helped us secure this city last night, to protect our citizens and to make sure that their property was taken care of.

It's going to be a long recovery period, but I guarantee you this -- this community, there's a unified community. It's a city of progress. It was great before this happened; it'll be greater after it's all over.

QUESTION: President Bush is supposed to come tomorrow, is my understanding. Will you meet with him. And if so, what will you say?

BOSWELL: I don't know that at this point in time, ma'am. I don't even know he's going to be here. That's news to me. I heard it earlier today. If he does come we'll welcome him with open arms.

QUESTION: Is there any consideration to reassessing letting kids out of school earlier as a result of this?

BOSWELL: At this point in time, we will take into consideration what we always have. Whatever the business at hand is and the task orders, we have a wonderful school administration. They have done everything right. They did it by the book. And this is text book responses. There is nothing that you can do to prepare for an act of God of this nature. The devastation, the force, you can't prepare for that. There's no way. These people have done it absolutely right. Let me tell you, it could have been worse if they had not reacted and responded as quickly as they did. So my hats off to it. And I'm glad my child went to school here and my child's life was in their hands during that time.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

BOSWELL: I'm sorry? We are in the process. Dr. Reece (ph) and I are working together at this point and we are working at a feverish pace to make sure we get these children back in school as soon as possible and create some normalcy for our children. Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me take a shot at that. When you ask a question like that, I think it begs the question, if you let them out earlier, would they have been in some of these houses that have been completely destroyed and even more children have been killed?

QUESTION: Aren't their storm shelters for schools and facilities around the state? Is that something to consider?

RILEY: You know, I don't know that you can prepare for any contingency. I just don't think you can. Given an option of doing what they did yesterday, putting the kids in the hall, making them sit in the hall in the safest part of the building, when you have a level 4 hurricane hit that hallway, there's nothing you can do.

But again, they were probably more protected in that hallway than they would have been at home, or in a mobile home if they had gone home to that. So I want the decision to stay at the local level. These people know these kids. They love these kids. They work with these kids every day. They are going to do everything that they can possibly do to protect them and they did.

QUESTION: Could you give us your impression of what you saw here today and describe it for us? What came to mind?

RILEY: You know, you can't look at it without just understanding the sheer force of nature. I mean, what mother nature did here yesterday, is just horrific. That you can take an automobile and pick it up and toss is around like it was a Leggo toy. I mean, I've never seen anything quite like this. We've seen hurricanes. But to see the level of devastation and the force of the wind yesterday and what it did to these structures, is almost unbelievable.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you all. Thank you.

RILEY: Thank you.

HOLMES: And again, we've been hearing the recap there, and just an idea of the devastation as seen through the eyes of Governor Bob Riley, who has been taking a tour of Enterprise High School. Said really just amazed that there wasn't more loss of life.

He's promising certainly to give as much help from the state as possible to the area, really promising them that. And we'll really accommodate any need that they may have. But these are some of the newest pictures, the newest video we've been seeing from the scene there in Enterprise. Again, one of the main areas of devastation was no doubt the Enterprise High School, where eight students were killed, another two were killed in Alabama as well.

Ten is the total there. But certainly a lot of focus has been put on the high school, and the governor gave, I guess words of encouragement, some reassuring words, some talk about if the right thing was done. Should schools have let out a little earlier and what not.

But the governor did say you can do absolutely everything right. But you just can't predict what a storm is going to do and still have a tragedy. So you can absolutely do everything right. And he certainly gave words of encouragement to the officials, to the school officials, to the parents of the students. These are new pictures we're bringing you from Enterprise.

NGUYEN: As you look at the damage, it's really hard to imagine the storm that rolled through the area and caused all of that destruction. But in fact, we do have some video of that storm.

Jason Collins, one of our iReporters captured it on his cell phone. And he took these picture in fact from a McDonald's parking lot about two miles away from Enterprise High School. But just look at the magnitude of how big this storm is at it rolls across this area in Enterprise.

Collins said the tornado really just passed over the high school and was moving over Highway 84 when he took this video. And he says that you can see large debris on the ground and in the air where he was. Also power lines were snapping and flashing as the tornado passed through.

What a massive tornado that is. I do want to give you a little bit information about Collins. He is OK. He did take this with some safety. Indeed, he's a flight student at Fort Rucker, which is not too far away. In fact, Fort Rucker helped with the recovery and the search efforts there. And Collins home was not damaged in the storm. He is one of the lucky ones because as you mentioned, T.J., eight students guy died in that storm. Nine people in total in Alabama.

And I also want to show you other pictures that are coming in from the iReporters, and these are so valuable to us because they give another look the damage there. And just imagine this car flipping over and into a house there. It just shows the strength of the storm like this. And of course other people picking up the pieces and trying to help in the recovery efforts there.

It's going to be a long day, a long next few weeks and possibly even months as people just walk around and try to not only help their neighbors, but try to recover what they can from what's left of a storm that just really ravaged this town.

And it's going to take a lot of time, it's going to take a lot of effort. But that effort is underway today as well as the grief for those who were killed in this deadly, deadly storm that not only affected Alabama but Georgia as well, killing several people in Georgia.

We should hear a little bit later today, hopefully, maybe within the next few days as to the strength of the storms. And that gives a better indication as to why so much damage occurred -- T.J.

HOLMES: Well, we've looked at those amazing pictures. Also just another horrible picture we're seeing today out of Atlanta. This is -- that's the scene we've been seeing all day. This is after that charter bus there that was carrying college baseball players from a small college in Ohio, it dumped off of an overpass and onto a highway.

If you can imagine, that school there is just in shock after this accident. They were carrying actually players and staff from the Bluffton University baseball team. Those players, they all plunged off the Atlanta overpass, crashed onto interstate 75, a main artery here through in Atlanta. Six people were killed. Four of them were students. Also killed were the driver and his wife.

Twenty-nine others were also injured. Six of them we do know were injured critically. Police say the driver apparently mistook an interstate exit lane for an HOV lane. That exit lane leads to the overpass and leads to the bridge. When the bus reached the top it failed to stop, careened off the other side. Our Don Lemon was out at the scene earlier today and walks us through what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: This is I-75 where it happened. You can see that's the HOV lane. One way is the HOV exit-only lane to the right here. And then to the left is the HOV lane continuing south on I-75. He came up this ramp, went through the stop sign that you see right here and then once he got here, it appears he realized, from the skid marks, he realizes from here that he's on the exit ramp and not continuing on the interstate.

Tries to take a sharp turn this way, but couldn't do it in time. And as you can see from the marks here on the wall, it appears the bus scraped up against this wall. He sheered the top of the fence and then went over the side. There is another barricade there that carries some sort of piping from one side of the interstate to the other, he even went over that and back on to I-75 southbound.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right and Don joins us here. That helps us there, taking to the scene like that. But he must have hit that wall hard to turn and flip like that.

LEMON: And you know what, everyone T.J. says, how did this happen? I don't understand the HOV lane. If you look at that, the HOV lane in the center of the interstate and then you have an HOV only exit. There it is right there.

So we don't know if this is what happened. But it's easy to get confused if you don't know that area roadway. So that animation is an indication of exactly what happened.

Again, we don't know where the confusion was. But the exit is on the left side of the interstate instead of the right side of the interstate, and it's HOV-only exit. And so you see when if he got to the top of that ramp and realized, oh, my goodness, I'm not on the interstate anymore. So then he tried to make a hard right. And you see where the bus didn't go flying over that overpass, it sort of flipped over.

And then again, as I showed you from the video there, there is another barrier there, but it's really just to carry pipes, piping, I don't know what it is, water or what have you, across the interstate there. So you would think that may have stopped him. So he must have been going at a pretty high rate of speed for him to just flip over on the side like that.

HOLMES: And that area as well, this is probably the first time this driver ever saw that intersection, ever seen that. But if you're going, whatever he's going, 60 miles-an-hour, 70 miles-an-hour, it looks like there's just a simple little stop sign. And it looks like a busy area. Does it seem like an area like it would come up on you? Is it busy?

LEMON: It's just there -- Northside Drive -- if you're from Atlanta, you know sort of the area, 75, 85 then the loop that takes you around the perimeter.

But it's just a normal interstate. It's just a normal -- the only thing that would be confusing, again, is if you don't know the Atlanta or Georgia interstates, and you don't know that HOV lane is there. That is an HOV-only exit.

How many -- not very often -- it does happen sometimes, but usually exits are on the right side of the interstate. And an HOV exit usually takes you to another part of the interstate where you can start to exit, again from the right side.

But so assuming here and we're assuming as many folks are -- I don't think investigators actually know what happened, but we're assuming that he may have been confused by that. And then, again, before dawn, 5:40 in the morning, right, apparently they had started out very early, and according I think to one of the people who was on the bus, he said they weren't supposed to stop until 8:00, maybe for a breakfast break or a potty break, or whatever they were supposed to do.

So this was 5:40 in the morning. And people I've interviewed there said you know, they were in traffic and at first they thought it was like a jack knifed tractor trailer. And then all of the sudden, they see people getting out of the emergency hatch from the bus, bloodied, dazed, confused, cold, asking for blankets.

And so there you have it. But then also, there are reports, and again, until the investigation is completely finished, we won't know. There are reports that the bus may have teetered for a bit and some people may have gotten out. And this is according to eyewitnesses, that people may have gotten out on that ramp before the bus flipped over.

We don't know for sure, but I'm just saying. This is according to eyewitnesses. So there you go. That's all we know. That's the bus being taken there. And when we were looking at this bus, it doesn't appear to be, from the accident, it doesn't appear to be that much damage. There you go right there.

So if you're going at a high rate of speed and you get into the wrong lane right there, a couple hundred feet, you realize you've done the wrong thing, you don't have very much time to react.

HOLMES: All right well Don, I know you guys are going to have a lot more coming up at 1:00 in the P.M. NEWSROOM. But thank you for that insight and a lot of information. But this looks like a tragic, tragic mistake.

LEMON: It is, it's tragic. Whether it was a mistake or not, who knows what happened, either way around. It's terrible, six people died. And I know you have to run. But just getting there, you saw the triage center was right under the overpass. So you saw the bodies and you saw the luggage and what have you from the bus being taken, because the luggage rack I guess opened up when the bus went over the side. So it's just a sad situation all around.

NGUYEN: It truly is, because we can try to rationalize all we want about why it happened and how it happened. But bottom line is there are families grieving today, including Bluffton University. It's a tight knit campus. We're going to take you live there next. Stay with the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: I want to take you now to the campus of Bluffton University where six of the baseball players have died in that accident in Atlanta today. I want to go to affiliate reporter for WTVG, his name is Zach Ottenstein. Zach, talk to us how about how many of the students are still grieving today about this.

ZACH OTTENSTEIN, WTVG REPORTER: Oh Betty, they certainly are. And this point, we've had several vigil prayer services here on the campus. Bluffton University is a Mennonite university and a small campus at that, about 1,500 students here at the university. They are all grieving today.

On smaller campuses like this one, everybody just seems to know each other, whether it's through a friend or directly. And all of those students today are grieving. This is a religious university again where prayer happens frequently here amongst the community. They are really emphasizing that faith here today as every student grieves and speaks to one another.

They are still trying to get information about their friends, people they care about so much and find out how they're doing. We do know about those who have passed away. But the conditions of others here is still sketchy. People here have had their cell phones literally glued to their ear today as they try to get that information from friends, from loved ones, from girlfriends, boyfriends, family. They are just trying to figure out that information.

The university here is providing extra counseling services. Today was supposed to be the final day before spring break. And for those students who were planning to leave, many have delayed or canceled that trip as they intend to stay here and grieve with their community.

NGUYEN: Absolutely, and it's grieving that will take place for quite some time as many more learn about what has happened today. Zach Ottenstein with WTVG, we appreciate it.

HOLMES: And the NEWSROOM continues with Don Lemon and Fredricka Whitfield at the top of the hour. Thank you for being with us. I'm T.J. Holmes here with Betty Nguyen. Thank you for being with us and they will continue the coverage of our big, big stories at the top of the hour. Don't go anywhere, just a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)y

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