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Tornado Destroys Kansas Town
Aired May 05, 2007 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MELISSA LONG, CNN ANCHOR: Storm chasers get dangerously close to two tornadoes, we're going to show you more of this amazing video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I believe that 95 percent of the homes are gone. And all of my downtown is gone. My home's gone. My staff's homes are gone. We've got to the find a way to make it work.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: That's the city administrator who says his town is gone. Unbelievable devastation from that same weather system as killer storms hit the heartland. Hello I'm Melissa Long in today for Fredericka Whitfield and you are in the NEWSROOM.
One small town is left shattered. A monster tornado system ravaged that small town of Greensburg, Kansas, killing at least six people in that community and one elsewhere in the region. Greensburg officials are estimating 95 percent of their town has been wiped out. And with the dawn, a new reality in the search for survivors today. Twisters also turned up debris in northwest Oklahoma. You can see this one forming before touchdown in Arnett last night. Then shortly after a second tornado damaged two buildings and a home. But the good news, no one there was hurt.
While most were running from the tornado, a few people were trying to get as close as possible. Friday in Oklahoma, a couple of storm chasers got way too close. Here's that video.
(INAUDIBLE)
Don't get in an accident.
Oh, my god. Hey, stop we're good -- oh, no. --
Get in.
Shut your door. Shut your door. Ok. Go. Back up. Back up!
We're ok. We're ok.
Calm down.
We're good hold on.
Listen to the roar! Look at -- [ inaudible ].
I got it. Hear that? Oh, no, those are structures. Oh, no. No. Wow! Can you hear that? Don't move!
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: It's amazing video. Earlier I spoke with a storm chaser Joel Taylor. He was one of the guys who captured those images.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOEL TAYLOR, TORNADO STORM CHASER: I have my bachelor's degree in meteorology. I don't do work in it, but -- other than the storm chasing. This time of year pretty much we drop everything else to make sure we're out on the plains chasing the storms.
LONG: Joel, this video is pretty amazing. Do you think you got too close?
TAYLOR: Yeah, I do. You probably want to be about 50 to 100 yards farther away. We were coming at the tornado from the north and I was actually filming and Reed was driving. Usually it's the other way around. I was watching through the camera and I look up and the tornado through the camera, it doesn't look as close as it is in real life. And look up and then Reed slammed on the brakes as we're coming up to it. And then we actually switch positions. By the time we got done doing that, the tornado was pretty much 50 yards right in front of us.
LONG: In the background on this tape you can hear one of the local radio personalities encouraging people not to do exactly what you were doing. Were you hearing that?
TAYLOR: Yeah, we were hearing it. It's one of -- you know we've been chasing for about 10 years each. If people don't know what's going on, definitely, you do not want them out there. They need to be taking cover. And really we were a little closer than we should have been. Things got a little out of hand there for a second. We were able to correct for it and luckily nothing bad happened.
LONG: This shows the amazing power of mother nature. You said you've been studying storms, chasing them for a decade. Now how does this compare to other storms you've experienced?
TAYLOR: This is probably some of the best stuff we've gotten. The tornado itself, I mean it's a smaller tornado but it's very, very violent. There at the bottom as you see just the debris just whirling around it. We've seen bigger tornadoes but just the feel of this one -- you can hear the roar there and it sounds like a waterfall in the background, just as that tornado's doing damage.
LONG: At any point did you fear for your safety?
TAYLOR: If you listen to the video, you can hear our voices get pretty high. Yeah I think we were both a little nervous there for a second.
LONG: Was that the adrenaline kicking in or was that truly you were worried about your own safety?
TAYLOR: Well I was a little worried about our own safety because it was literally right in front of us and it was moving north towards us. We were able to get the car in reverse and I just started backing up and able to gain a little ground.
LONG: These pictures are wild. So many people that have been through a tornado will say it sounded like a freight train. Is that the best description you can give?
TAYLOR: We think more like a jet engine or a waterfall when you're real close. I mean it's really loud and that one was almost deafening. It was just so loud. I think a waterfall, just a real large waterfall is probably the closest we've come.
LONG: All right, young guy, did you call your family to tell them what you've been doing yesterday?
TAYLOR: Yeah, they know what we do and they watch us a lot. My dad has actually been with me a few times. He really likes it. My mom kind of doesn't want to know about it.
LONG: I'm not sure I blame her. Joel Taylor, thanks so much.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: Joel Taylor, again, one of the storm chasers who captured that video. That was from Arnett, Oklahoma. It's very scary right now, those are the ominous words from the city administrator in another community, Greensburg, Kansas. A tornado believed to be a half mile wide stripped the town of just about everything including the water tower. At least seven people are dead across two counties, dozens wounded and there are worries the weather could deliver another blow. A short while ago we heard from the Kansas Emergency Management.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS WADE, KANSAS CITY MANAGEMENT: We've done our primary and secondary searches. We feel very good about the point we're at. We're planning for the next part. We're also planning for the other threat of significant weather this afternoon. That's one of the reasons we've held off on allowing citizens in and we're going to hold off on having citizens come in. With the structural damage right now, there is no way we can allow people to come back in with the threat of more significant weather. I think the message right now needs to be, as long as we can, it's to keep people out. It's to make sure that people are aware this is a significant -- this is the most significant emergency the state of Kansas has faced in a long, long time. And we're dealing with it as best we can, but know that, you know, as much as we are dealing with it and planning for it and planning for the next part, that we need the general public's cooperation as much as possible. (END OF VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: And that town of Greensburg, Kansas is essentially not recognizable after its encounter with a deadly tornado. KSNW's Josh Witsman surveyed the damage and spoke with a community leader.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOSH WITSMAN, KSNW: We are starting to get some light on this situation here in Greensburg where the search and rescue operation still continues. Joining me now is Steve Hewitt, the city administrator for Greensburg. Steve, what do we have going on here? Obviously the town has been evacuated and we are in the middle of that search and rescue.
STEVE HEWITT, GREENSBURG CITY ADMINISTRATOR: Yes, the search and rescue continues. We want to make sure that we can find everybody. It's an unsafe area right now so we evacuated everybody. We've sent people to Havilland and Mullen Ville, Kansas, just 10 miles away. The Red Cross is handling that situation at Havilland High School, Barkley College and Mullen Ville High School. Folks who are looking for individuals, family members, they can all 620-672-3651. They should be able to help you. We've had 50 different people have been sent to the hospital at this point in time. So we continue the search and rescue. We will not reopen the town until we know it's safe for the residents to come back. At this point in time we'll just continue that and hopefully not find any more folks out there, but we continue to search.
WITSMAN: Obviously, probably some panicked families out there that maybe haven't heard from loved ones. Probably the best advice is to go to the Red Cross. I mean everyone has been taken to shelter.
HEWITT: Absolutely, I would just call that number. You know they'll try to help you, folks that may have checked in, or were there. You know, you can also contact Pratt Regional Medical Center, that's what a lot of the folks at the hospital were sent and some other areas as well. You know, just call the Red Cross, and I think they'll help you a lot. We continue to search for folks that are still trapped. And it was quite a storm. So we continue to work hard today and hopefully the light will help us find folks.
WITSMAN: Talk about the damage, I mean obviously the town pretty devastated. What was your reaction to first seeing what had happened or what was left behind?
HEWITT: Well, I think it's, it was quite shocking, really, and heartbreaking, also. Our complete downtown is destroyed. City hall is destroyed. And then you start to worry about family and friends, and so you know, in a personal sense I was also very scared. My family, we made it through it. My house was destroyed as well, but we'll rebuild, we'll find a way to rebuild the city. It's going to take time right now, and we need to find folks that are still trapped and we'll assess the damage and begin to work as best we can to bring our community back.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
LONG: Some amazing devastation. Jacqui Jeras is watching the weather systems not only from yesterday that caused all that damage but I understand there is reason for concern today.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely, we could see Greensburg happen again today, unfortunately, Melissa. We have several tornado watches which are already in effect. These bottom two that include much of central Nebraska as well as much of central Kansas and on into Oklahoma, these are what we call PDS watches or a particularly dangerous situation where we could see those very large wedge tornadoes on the ground causing more massive destruction. We have two confirmed tornadoes at this time. This first one is in Custer County, Nebraska. There you can see right near the county line. A tornado has been spotted on the ground. And this is very near highway 47. We also have some reports of power lines down in that area. This tornado is moving up to the north at 35 miles per hour and it is very near the town of Arnold at this time. So, again, Custer County under a tornado warning. Also some very large hail, potentially as big as baseballs could be coming out of this storm at this time. There you can see 19 strikes of lightning associated with this storm also. We're going to take you over to the west there into Colorado. This one, Sterling. The public reporting a tornado here. This is in Logan County. And then a brand new warning just issued in the last two minutes, this is for Yuma County, this one is a Doppler radar indicated tornado, but it could happen at any time.
Into central parts of Kansas, the orange boxes here you see are where we have severe thunderstorm warnings as opposed to tornado warnings. Large hail and damaging winds will be the greatest threat but take a look at this. Here's Dodge City. We have a couple of thunderstorms lined up here just off to the west and here's Greensburg, yeah, the area that got hit so hard last night. These storms are pushing off to the east-northeast and we could be seeing strong to severe thunderstorms in this area again, including the threat of tornadoes. They are under a tornado watch at this hour. So a very dangerous situation setting up here this afternoon. We'll be keeping things very closely watched here in the CNN severe weather center.
LONG: All right Jacqui, and just quickly, we always use the terms watch and warning and people, I think it confuses them.
JERAS: Watch means conditions are favorable to happen. Those are the big red boxes that you see right here. And these are really long watches, too, by the way, Melissa. These are in effect until 10:00 local time. So this is going on all afternoon and all night. So watch means it's possible, could happen. Warning means it's happening now and you need to take cover immediately.
LONG: All right Jacqui, thanks for clarifying. We appreciate it. We'll talk to you a little bit later.
Now that town has been torn apart. The people of Greensburg, Kansas, are now looking to try to put their lives back together. We will bring you the latest on the search and the recovery efforts as well as a look at some of history's most devastating storms in 10 minutes from now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our young people are in such a crisis of lack of love, lack of interest, lack of hope, lack of heroes.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
LONG: CNN went looking for heroes. We're going to bring you this man's story and why we think he fits the bill. Stay with the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LONG: The latest now on our top story on this Saturday. Devastation as far as the eye can see in parts of southern Kansas. Small town of Greensburg bore the brunt of the severe weather that swept across that region yesterday. In much of Greensburg, there's really nothing left. Ninety-five percent of the town destroyed or heavily damaged. The storms killed at least seven people in two counties both in Kansas and a neighboring community about 30 miles from Greensburg. Hundreds more are now homeless. CNN's Josh Levs has been looking into storms and looking into the worst storms in history.
JOSHUA LEVS: Yeah, you know the kind of video we're seeing today it's all too familiar, isn't it. Those of you who have watched CNN over the years especially those of you who live in that big section of the country called tornado alley. You know all about this. So what we've been doing today as she's saying, trying to put what you're seeing today in some context by telling you some facts about tornadoes and the worst ones in history. You know why there are so many in America? Because this country has more than any other country in the world. We are indeed considered the world's tornado capital. And you know what's really interesting? Second after us you have to go all the way to the other side of the world. Second after the U.S. is Australia. We get about 1,000 a year, which leads to about 60 deaths a year. When we looked at the average for recent years, it's about 60 deaths a year from the national weather service. And as I said, tornado alley, that includes a good part of the Midwest and the south. All right, let's look back folks. Let's look at some history here. The worst ever, according to the national weather service, shoots back to 1925 when there was this tornado disaster that hit three states and killed nearly 700 people. After that, go back even further. 1840 when more than 300 people died in Natchez, Mississippi and 1896 in St. Louis.
Now, as you're looking at those numbers, let me point out something. It's not necessarily that tornadoes have gotten less strong. It's that today houses are stronger, buildings are stronger. Fewer people die because society has changed. So still they are as powerful as they ever were. No, it's true. Take a look at one more thing. I want to show you the costliest storms because in the wake, you know we're doing our job, we're telling you how many people may have died and been injured. But these also economically affect a community for years or decades. The worst ever according to the national weather service was in 1973. It cost that community in Georgia $5.2 billion when you adjust for today's inflation. It's a mind-boggling amount, $5.2 billion. All the figures you're seeing here are in today's dollars. 1966 in Topeka, it ended up costing $1.4 billion. And then third down there, 1970, Lubbock, Texas again more than a billion. So you know most of right now, one thing we still have no idea of is the economic impact that today's storms could put on Kansas.
LONG: Well the city administrator saying 95 percent of his town is crushed. So, we'll be getting the numbers in the days to come. Josh Levs, thanks so much.
LEVS: You got it, thanks.
LONG: Of course everybody needs a hero but especially children. That is the message of one man who has made it his mission to help the young people of his community. Ahead, his story in our special series "CNN Heroes."
And later, perhaps the anti-hero in the eyes of many parents, Paris Hilton facing prison time after a judge who wasn't impressed with her behavior. You're watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LONG: In Germany, there's a war under way that doesn't involve tanks, guns, bombs or missiles. Instead, it is a war that hopes to save a wonder of nature. CNN's Frederik Pleitgen reports from Germany's one remaining glacier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tourists on Germany's (INAUDIBLE) mountain don't realize they're looking at a battlefield. Authorities here are fighting to save Germany's last glacier, a battle they know they can't win, one in which they can only buy time. Christian Moser is helping to set up what's called a glare shield to try and protect the glacier. Moser says he's pitching in even though he's given up hope of saving it.
CHRISTIAN MOSER, WORKER: I don't think my grandchildren, if I have some, will ever be able to see the glacier. It's just melting too fast Moser says.
PLEITGEN: The glare shield is a set of tarpaulins held together by ropes and wooden planks to deflect sunlight from the glacier and also to keep corrosive summer rain off the ice. The workers here are doing more than just putting up the sun shield. As you see there still is a lot of snow on the glacier and the reason for that is that the workers here over the past couple of weeks have been pushing snow on to the slope and they hope that some of the snow will turn to ice and reinforce this glacier. But even Manfred Haas, the man in charge of setting up the shield, says he believes the efforts are having only limited effects. How much can this do?
MANFRED HAAS, MOUNTAINEER: Maybe five to 10 years. We don't know really. PLEITGEN: Every year, this glacier melts a little more. The ice becomes a little thinner. The glacier has lost almost half its original size in the last 100 years, and meteorologists predict in just 20 years' time, it will be gone.
HARALD KUNSTMANN, CLIMATE RESEARCHER: It does not help to preserve the glacier in the long run.
PLEITGEN: The end of the glacier will endanger the economy of this entire region in Germany. It's a ski slope in the winter and an alpine tourist attraction in the summer. So the men and women on the (INAUDIBLE) mountain fight on, even though they know that no matter what they do their efforts to stall the ice melt are futile and that in just a few years the last glacier in Germany will be history. Fredrick Pleitgen, CNN, on the (INAUDIBLE) mountain, Germany.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LONG: It is Saturday afternoon, 2:25 in the afternoon eastern time. Of course we have been following the devastating storms. Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas is bringing us up to date on the devastation in his community.
SEN. PAT ROBERTS, (R) KANSAS: Expedite the consideration of the emergency disaster declaration. That triggers a whole series of programs that the government will come in with FEMA, will come in with rural development agencies, will provide assistance to individuals and obviously to local individuals. So that letter has gone. We've had a response already from the White House expressing great sorrow and prayers. And I would like now to turn it over to Congressman (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well as the senator said, this is really devastating. It's very moving to see what tragedy has struck here. And we're here because it's important that the folks here know that we're not going to let a disaster happen like happened in Katrina, following Katrina. We're going to make sure that the federal government moves forward, that we get the clean-up -- first of all, take care of the people and then take care of the clean-up and help this city rebuild. We give our sympathies to all the families involved, especially those who lost loved ones, who lost their dreams, lost their hopes. I can imagine that memories have just flown away, pictures and notebooks. We grieve with them. But we're here because, with Pat's leadership, we've been able to get information to the White House and try to get the wheels of government turning more quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you tell us what you've seen so far? Where have you been and describe what you've been seeing.
ROBERTS: Well, headquarters -- if we can call it that, is at the courthouse and the courthouse was spared. Pretty much everything else is gone. Big damage to the hospital, as you know, with the patients transferred over to Pratt and to Dodge. One of the biggest problems we have right now as a top priority is to determine if there are any more that suffered a fatality. And that -- that number I guess now is up to nine. We hope and pray that that's it. The next big chore is to provide water. So there will be bottled water. The warning is for people not to drink from any tap water. But if you go over by the courthouse -- and I hope they will allow you to do that quickly -- it reminds you of the pictures that you saw after World War II with Nagasaki and Hiroshima. It just looks like ground zero. I delivered a commencement speech at the high school not too many years back, and it was a very solid structure. It's gone. So when you see something like that and the level of destruction, you're amazed at the power of mother nature. Mother nature can be a pretty devastating thing. And as Todd said, we grieve for the families, but I will tell you one thing. Greensburg will be back.
LONG: Senator Pat Roberts there live giving his comments on the devastation in the community of Greensburg. The governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius is joining us live on the line. Governor, thanks so much for your time.
GOV. KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, KANSAS: Glad to talk to you Melissa.
LONG: We just heard Senator Roberts say that there has been an increase in the number of fatalities to nine. Are you able to confirm that?
SEBELIUS: That's my understanding. But what we know -- and it's one of the reasons I was asked not to come until tomorrow, is that search and rescue is under way as we speak. They're trying to clear the area and we still unfortunately don't know how many people are actually going to be confirmed as fatalities. We know in addition to the nine that there are a number of people very critically injured, but we're still searching for residents of Greensburg.
LONG: I understand it's a small community, about 1400 people, and that that search may have been compromised today because essentially the communication lines are down.
SEBELIUS: That's true. And cell phone contact in this area of the state has never been very strong, so one of our legislative leaders actually lives in Greensburg. He and his daughter survived the tornado, but he's had a tough time just trying to relay information back and forth because the cell phone keeps going dead.
LONG: Earlier we heard an emergency official say -- let me directly quote him -- this is the most significant emergency state that Kansas has faced in a long, long time. Is that your thought?
SEBELIUS: It is, Melissa. And one of the things -- we're a state used to dealing with natural disasters. We have resilient community members, fabulous first responders. But one of the difficulties is that this entire community was wiped out. So it isn't like we can transfer people from one area to another. They really have to seek help from surrounding communities. Everything's gone. So we haven't seen anything like this in a very long time.
LONG: The pictures are a wonderful way for us to try to understand exactly what that community is going through. But when you say the community is entirely wiped out, when we hear the city administrator saying earlier that Main Street is gone, it's really hard to try to wrap your head around that and understand exactly what that means.
SEBELIUS: Well, it is. It's basically that there is no business left. There are very few homes left unscathed. There is no school, no hospital, no grocery store. Everything you can think of that makes up a town has disappeared except the people. And we have very strong, very wonderful communities, lots of friends and neighbors. And we're going to do everything at the state and national level to help them recover as quickly as possible.
LONG: I'm not sure if you found out about the devastation last night when it just happened in the 9:00 hour or if you've learned so much more with day break today and as we've learned the information today. What was your reaction when you found out just how bad it is?
SEBELIUS: Well, we knew -- this storm actually had very good warning, so people knew it was coming and knew it was likely to be a direct hit. But you always hope that those reports are wrong. And during the course of the night, the reports were, unfortunately, accurately confirmed. And today the adjutant general is on the ground. The National Guard -- we have about 50 people who are moving folks to safety, doing the search and rescue mission. I plan to be there throughout much of the day tomorrow. And we've already been in touch with the -- I had a phone call this morning with FEMA director David Paulson, who has promised expedited help. We're playing a little phone tag right now with the White House, who the president is trying to be in touch. So what I'm grateful for is people who are standing by ready, willing and able to help, but right now we are -- we're trying to find who's left. We're trying to make sure everybody is in a safe place tonight, gets a little rest. And tomorrow the tough job of rebuilding will begin.
LONG: Governor, you mentioned FEMA, Mr. Paulson, the president. What do you want from the federal government? What do you need from the federal government right now?
SEBELIUS: Well, I think what we need is help and support to stand behind this community. We've declared a disaster already last night in Kiawah County, that will trigger a lot of state mechanisms. The faster FEMA can be on the ground -- and I know Dick Hainje, who is regional administrator, is there as we speak trying to be supportive and helpful. It's everything from low-interest loans to clean-up assistance to getting people checks cut as quickly as possible so they can begin to rebuild their lives. We have state agencies who are already under alert, so we can help get everything from birth certificates to driver's licenses reissued quickly. When you think about everything being gone, people need ID, they need clothes, they need food, they need shelter. And so this is a full community effort to try and get people the essentials they need to get from day to day and then help with rebuilding, which is where FEMA will come in.
LONG: Governor, you mentioned that you'll be in that area tomorrow. Hope to connect with you again tomorrow to find out more about this devastation, plans for the federal government to help out and any updates on the rescue effort. If you'll be in touch with us, we'd really appreciate it.
SEBELIUS: I would be glad to Melissa. And if people can just keep the citizens of Kansas, the survivors and particularly those who have lost loved ones in their thoughts and prayers, that would be enormously helpful.
LONG: Governor, thank you so much for your time during this demanding time for you and this difficult time for that community. We appreciate your time today.
SEBELIUS: Good to visit with you. Thank you.
LONG: Now as she has been telling you, as the governor has been telling you, that Kansas town has essentially been wiped out by a tornado. We're going to update the damage reports and get the latest on the death toll when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LONG: It is now early afternoon in Greensburg, Kansas. And the community of just 1400 has been crushed by tornadoes that tore through their community in the evening hours on Friday. We have spoken with the governor just before the break and she brought us up to date telling us that there are now nine fatalities confirmed related to the storms that passed through, not only her state of Kansas but also into Oklahoma. It was a fierce storm system. We've been relying of course on our affiliates from Wichita, Kansas, which is just a short distance from the community of Greensburg. Once again, let's check in with our affiliate Anne Meyer from station KSNW.
ANNE MEYER, KSNW: Well we still haven't gotten that media briefing. In fact, we haven't gotten an update in the last hour but I can tell you a steady stream of cars have been in and out along highway 54 here, that rescue and recovery effort still under way. But I want to bring in now Congressman Jerry Moran, he just got here to the scene. He's been with folks in Havilland over at the shelter there. I know you haven't seen the ground damage yet, you're waiting to take a tour. But you did talk to some folks who survived this. What are you hearing from them?
REP. JERRY MORAN, (R) KANSAS: Very serious and destructive storm. Kiowa County and Greensburg have and they're facing significant challenges. And just here on the east edge of Greensburg, you can see, as your viewers can see, how serious this storm was. I've heard very compelling stories, people who are looking for a 2- year-old, a person who drove here from McPherson looking for their elderly uncle. So there's a lot of uncertainty that still remains here in Greensburg. And I'm soon going to have the opportunity to visit the city with the (INAUDIBLE) general as we take a look along with Senator Roberts to find out what that damage is and make sure we're prepared to get federal emergency assistance into this community.
MEYER: Let's talk about that a little bit, clearly a lot of activity happening here but you're already making some moves in Washington to get some help here as well. MORAN: Well I know many of the people who live in this community. I've represented them either in the state legislature in Congress now for 15 years. These are people that are friends and clearly acquaintances that we care a lot about. Already we've started the step, the congressional delegation has a letter ready, has been signed by all of us, ready to go to the president as soon as the governor requests a disaster declaration. We're ready to weigh in and encourage the president to respond and act quickly. And we hope what that means is a very prompt reply by the president, which means that FEMA could get in here and begin helping with the clean-up, with improving infrastructure, getting power and sewer and water and lights all back in service. Clearly this is a community that has a lot of strong will to see that good things happen to meet the challenge, but this is going to be a tremendous hill to climb and we want all the federal help that we can get. The good news is we've already seen so much volunteer activity. The folks, the Red Cross and others from all across Kansas at the shelters this morning when I was in Havilland. This is a community, as I know it well, they will work in every way together to make sure that good things come from this very serious circumstance.
MEYER: Certainly our state is no stranger to tornadoes in the past. I know you haven't been to ground zero yet, but put this in perspective. How devastating of a tornado is this, with what we've seen before?
MORAN: Well I've lived in Kansas my entire life. We grew up knowing that there are tornados in the area but it's usually out in the country, it's usually a farmstead, an outbuilding. Even my most recent example, this is Hoisington, clearly a very devastating storm there, years to recover. But everything that I've heard and seen this morning tells me that this is a tornado that hit the core center of town. The loss of the schools, loss of Main Street, downtown buildings, merchants, that's a very difficult thing to recover from. And it's amazing to me that I still see at least a small smile on the faces of people who live here in Greensburg.
MEYER: Well certainly, I know you haven't seen it firsthand but are you a little afraid from the stories you're hearing of what you might see in there?
MORAN: Everyone has told me to be prepared for how devastating this storm is. Despite what you have seen even on television, that when you see it, you'll be amazed at the destruction.
MEYER: Congressman Moran, thank you for giving us some time today. Again, he is waiting to go into the devastated area along with Senator Pat Roberts. They're waiting to take a tour with incident commanders to really get a true sense of how bad the devastation is. We have some video to show you of some of the damage that we've seen. Again, homes completely destroyed, leveled to their foundation, trees ripped of their bark. Nothing left but just the core of those trees. And we're talking blocks and blocks. Again, from reports we're hearing, that the tornado that came through here was about a mile in width and it just tore through the center of town. There's literally nothing left except for some peripheral buildings on the east and west side of the city. Now earlier today we did talk to someone who was injured in this storm. He talked about what he saw when that storm came through.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARY GOODMAN, INJURED GREENSBURG RESIDENT: The sirens went off. We had about 30 minutes, 20 to 30 minutes worth of sirens. So it was more than enough warning ahead of time. We started to go downstairs and then the lights -- the electricity went off. And about 10 minutes after the electricity went off is when the hail came real hard. And then it was just coming straight down as I looked outside. And then here came the tornado. There was no warning, but the warning sirens were enough. We were already downstairs. And it lasted for well over a minute and that's a long time for a tornado. And they say it was over a mile swathe on the width of the tornado.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
MEYER: Gary Goodman lost his home, his businesses. His son lost his business as well as his home. He hasn't seen the damage since he left his home this morning, they survived. He's still waiting to get in. It's going to take a while for residents actually to get back in this community. It is on lockdown right now. They're keeping residents away in shelters just to make sure that this area is safe. They have rescue personnel still doing searches of the community, trying to make sure that there are no one left. Let me update you on the fatalities again. Six fatalities here in Kiowa County and one Stafford County sheriff's deputy is also confirmed dead. So a total of seven, although from the last report that we got, we anticipate that that number may go higher. They're still doing search and rescue operations and it didn't look good. When we were given the heads up, we weren't given an update necessarily but they just thought that they might indeed run into or find, unfortunately, some more victims in this case. Again, we anticipate having an update from those folks any minute now. They've been updating us every hour. It's a little later than what we anticipated. But I don't know, if we can look around here Mary, as you can see, we're right on 54. And as you can see, you know cars are coming through here. They've cleared off that area pretty well. Here on the eastern side of town buildings are still standing. There are still some structures that didn't get as much damage as clearly they did downtown. But again everything downtown from what we're being told and what you've seen yourself is completely devastated. It's going to take a long time to rebuild this community. Those efforts are already under way as Congressman Jerry Moran just said, they are working to get the support needed both from Congress and the state to get the money and resources here for folks in this area to get them on the rebuilding track. We will stay out here and continue our live coverage throughout the day and will bring you that updated information from the incident commander as soon as they get here to the scene to get you the very latest information.
LONG: And that report from our affiliate KSNW. Want to bring you the very latest. According to state officials, the governor of Kansas, there are now nine fatalities associated with the storms that tore through Kansas and into Oklahoma last night. A lot of assistance will be needed in Greensburg, Kansas, of course, as the town tries to move on. The FEMA regional administrator, Dick Hainje is now on the phone with us from Kansas City, Missouri. Thanks so much for your time today, we appreciate it.
DICK HAINJE, FEMA REGIONAL ADMINISTRATOR: Good to be with you.
LONG: Now are you in Kansas City or have you now arrived in Greensburg?
HAINJE: I'm in Kansas city. We have people in Topeka with the state EOC and teams en route.
LONG: Ok, so tell me about the process you now need to go through to help this community.
HAINJE: We have -- we start working with the state immediately to just see if there's some unmet needs that they have, that they can identify right away that we could help with, no matter what happens with disaster declarations. We've been making those contacts all along. That's been going fine. As they've gathered more information, they've indicated to us that there will be a request and we're prepared for that. And we are also basically staging and preparing different assets to be of assistance as soon as they're asked for.
LONG: You said you've been communicating with so many of your colleagues within FEMA. Now of course communication lines are essentially down in Greensburg, so how do you go about communicating what they're seeing there back to where you are?
HAINJE: I've been talking to the adjutant general from time to time in Greensburg itself, the adjutant general of Kansas and he's the one that I've been talking with about on the ground information there.
LONG: You've been hearing the news perhaps by listening to our reports, or also hearing the latest news of course from your colleagues and your team. What do you think?
HAINJE: This is a really huge one. There's a lot of issues. Sometimes we get the super outbreaks where there's 100 or more tornadoes. It's a little bit different from that. It's rare that a community gets impacted and all its infrastructure, the city buildings and the schools and the business district and the housing. In this part of the country, we've actually had quite a few incidents where a town was devastated in its business district or in part of the town. When you lose the whole town like that, then you really have to look at your housing issues and you have to look at alternatives to that. You have to look at what the community's plan is to recover.
LONG: You have some difficult work ahead. Thanks so much for joining us. Dick Hainje, FEMA regional administrator. We appreciate your thoughts and your time today.
HAINJE: Thank you.
LONG: Of course everybody needs a hero but especially children. And that is the message of one man who has made it his mission to help the young people of his community. Ahead, his story in our special series "CNN Heroes."
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LONG: Now we present to you part of our continuing series of reports that you'll see on CNN called "CNN Heroes." Today you're about to meet a man who's using sports and music to help young people in the community where he grew up.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHELLE DE JESUS: Dear Mr. Boone, my name is Michelle de Jesus and I'm in the fourth grade. This neighborhood that I live in is not a good scene to me. I see a lot of crime and dangerous things in this neighborhood.
THABITI BOONE: I am from East New York Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York. Like many young people that come from this community, you have no chance, there is no hope, no joy to go to school. My name is Thabiti Boone and I chose a different path. My father didn't want to be a father. My mom was too young at that time to take me out of the hospital. So I was stuck in the middle with no direction. My life could have been, I'm angry, I want to fight the world, I have an attitude. But something said, you know what, I'm going to make a difference. I'm going to make it out of here and I'm going to be one of the ones to come back.
DE JESUS: Mr. Boone, you make learning fun for us. By you coming back, it shows my classmates and me that you care about us and our education.
BOONE: Our young people are in such a crisis of lack of love, lack of interest, lack of hope, lack of heroes. The read to succeed program is a unique program that connects sports, entertainment and hip-hop to self development and success through the importance of reading, bam, that's it. So students have to read on a continuous basis. They have to learn how to do oral presentations, stand in front of the classroom, develop confidence.
DE JESUS: This program taught me and my classmates that we can be anything in life if we just work hard.
BOONE: You may want to dream to be an athlete or an entertainer but at the end of the day that may not be what you're supposed to be. But let's have a program that teach you how to self discover many gifts and talents.
DE JESUS: Thank you so much. You are like a father to us. We love you so much. Sincerely, Michelle De Jesus.
BOONE: Never accept underachievement. There's a piece of who you are that's connected to where you came from. So if you go and don't come back, you're walking around half dead.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
LONG: And, again, if you know a hero, go to our website cnn.com/heroes. There are new tornado warnings in the Greensburg area. Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras will tell you where the danger is next in the NEWSROOM.
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LONG: The breaking news, the big story we've been following, the devastation from yesterday's tornado which tore through the community of Greensburg, Kansas. The latest from state officials, nine people dead and a city administrator saying 95 percent of his community is gone, 95 percent of the homes, all the businesses gone. How strong of a storm was this? Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is watching the storm systems from today and, also, we have to wonder just how wide was this storm. I heard someone saying it could be a mile wide?
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I heard half a mile wide potentially, but of course the national weather service crew is out there and they're assessing the damage and they're going to determine just how large of a tornado it was, how long the path was, whether or not there were multiple (inaudible) with this tornado. It could have been one big tornado with a couple little ones coming out of it as well. So once we get that report of course we'll bring that along to you. But right now our immediate concern is all of the severe weather right here in the heartland. Look at these watches lined up from Texas extending all the way up into South Dakota. These two watches in particular we're very concerned about. They're PDS watches, that means particularly dangerous situation or pretty darn scary, really, to you and me because look at this line just erupting right now. Any of these individual cells that we see here all have the potential that they could start twisting if they develop just right and they get that spin occurring. Now, we do have a possible tornado on the ground right now. This one has a history of producing a tornado in Arnold. This is in Nebraska. A warning on it for Blaine and for Custer county. Here you can see the town of Dunning it's just to the north and east of there where we expect the rotation to be. A tornado could come out of this cell at any time.
It has a history of producing a tornado in addition to some large hail and damaging winds. We could see golf ball size hail coming out of this storm, not to mention all that lightning. Look at that, that's until the top of the hour that we have that warning in place at this time. We've also been watching some spinners coming in out of northeastern parts of Colorado. We'll go over there and tell you about the warnings that we have in effect for Logan county, possible tornado on the ground there. We had a report near Sterling, about half an hour ago. And then also Yuma county, Colorado, is under a warning at this time. There you go. Now we're getting our radar back into that area. Here's Sterling. There's the cell of concern. This is the one that produced the tornado earlier, but they're watching both of these cells for possible tornadoes right now. There you can see the Yuma county one which is pushing on up to the north. This is what we call a high risk tornado day. Melissa we only get maybe a handful of these a year. So this is going to be an unbelievable day. We expect this to be a very busy afternoon and evening. In fact, some of this may be going on through the overnight hours. So make sure you've got your NOA weather radio on and handy and you're alert of your conditions today. LONG: All right and of course we'll keep everybody posted on this high risk day. We appreciate it Jacqui, talk to you next hour. Again, I'm Melissa Long at the CNN Center and coming up next, the war on terror is usually identified as the fights in Iraq and Afghanistan, but what about the dangers closer to home. CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT - We Were Warned: Edge of Danger -- Edge of Disaster, that's coming up next. You're watching CNN.
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