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American Morning
Tornado Devastates Lives in Kansas; Governor's Crash: Corzine Back to Work Today; Benchmarks for Iraq: Security by November?
Aired May 07, 2007 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Pain on the plains.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can prepare yourself all you want, but until you come home and see your house gone, it's hard.
ROBERTS: Nearly every home, every business, every life turned upside down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be a large task. You saw that, and saw the amount of homes that were down and the businesses were down. This is not going to be an easy recovery for this community.
ROBERTS: The toughest question: Can Greensburg ever come back?
On this AMERICAN MORNING.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And good morning to you. It is Monday, March the 7th.
I'm John Roberts with AMERICAN MORNING, live here in Greensburg, Kansas.
Good morning, Kiran.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good to see you, John.
And I'm Kiran Chetry, here in New York.
Thanks so much for joining us on this day.
We have been seeing pictures all morning of the destruction, but, John, you said yourself you've never seen anything like it. An entire town, 1,500 people literally wiped off the map by this destructive F5, the most powerful they come, tornado.
ROBERTS: Yes. I mean, we've certainly seen lots and lots of tornadoes and lots of hurricane destruction. Also seen earthquakes both here in the United States and overseas in Turkey, where large parts of towns have been leveled. But I've never been to one place where literally the entire town is just gone. And that's because at its widest point, Greensburg is about a mile wide.
This tornado was a mile and three-quarters in diameter, spinning at some 205 miles an hour. It cut a swath of destruction 22 miles long. And because it was moving very slowly from the time it hit the outskirts of town until the time it finally left, after ripping up everything in its wake, it was a full 15 to 20 minutes. So you can imagine the terror that people who were hiding in their basements or in their bathrooms were experiencing as this monster was going through.
We're going to be talking with a woman who went through that terror, a woman named Faye Hargadine. She's 80 years old, by herself in her home. She heard the tornado sirens go off.
She didn't have a basement, she had to hide in her bathroom. The house collapsed all around her. She screamed until her neighbors came to get her.
One story of survival here.
We're also going to be talking with the governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius, coming up. She's got some complaints that a lot of the equipment that the National Guard would use to help in the cleanup process here is over in Iraq. So they're really handicapped in their recovery efforts here -- Kiran.
CHETRY: That's right. And David Paulison from FEMA said they're going to try to fill in that gap with the Corps of Engineers and their equipment, but, you k now, until they can actually get the stuff out of there, they can't even get things like the trailers and these mobile homes in. So, a lot of challenges, and we're glad you're out there today, John, covering it for us first hand.
Also on our radar this morning, Jon Corzine, New Jersey governor, heads back to work today. He's not actually going there. He's actually going to be working in the governor's mansion. He still has a long recovery to go, but it's pretty miraculous that only about a month after nearly dying in a car crash he is back, head of New Jersey, once again.
Also, record gas prices. And when we say record, we're not kidding.
One California gas station, is an independently-owned gas station, is charging $4.24 for a gallon of regular. And across the country we've seen a huge spike in gas prices.
Why? And is there anything the government can do to try to ease the pressure many drivers are feeling as we head into the summer -- John.
ROBERTS: The sun expected to come up in about 15 to 20 minutes' time here in Greensburg. We'll get a better idea of the scope of the devastation here on day three of this disaster.
We've got team coverage of this for you this morning. CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano has been in the town all weekend. He's been surveying the devastation, as well as following the storms, which have just been just coming in line after line here. He'll tell you what's in store for today.
But first of all, let's start with Jeff Flock, who has also been here all weekend. He has been talking with a lot of people in the town, he's been surveying the damage and destruction.
Jeff, what have you been seeing? And sort of tell us what your observations of the weekend have been.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, when you hear the stories like you're going to hear later this hour, those first-hand tales, sometimes tough to put them together with where they took place. I want to walk you this morning through where this tornado hit, one of the farmhouses.
Perhaps -- I don't know, Joel (ph) if you can see this -- the fact that there is not -- as you point out, John, the sun is not yet up, but maybe you can see that there is no roof where once there was. You know, I have a sense if I walked through this, if we walked through with our cameras through what is left of this house, and I didn't say a word, it might even be more effective in that words really don't convey this.
We have got some lights up here, and maybe you see some shadows so that we can illuminate this. But I'm in the middle of the kitchen right now.
The Unruh (ph) family farmhouse. We'll meet those folks later today on AMERICAN MORNING. And they barely got into the basement. The roof came off this house, many of the walls no longer here.
You know, you look at this -- if you can come around here and maybe we can get enough light on to see this, this is -- this is the refrigerator. The door ripped open by the storm. And this is -- this is their refrigerator, this is their life that was going as normal before Friday.
I mean, things as simple as -- and I don't want to root around their stuff -- a bag of oranges sitting here on the counter in the kitchen. I mean, this -- this is their life sort of ripped apart here.
Before we get away, I do want to come give you one more peek. And next hour when we come back -- and it's hard to get through the debris here, but, Joel (ph), maybe you can get down -- we're going to take you down into that basement, John, where they managed to get down.
And, you know, they had this door shut and they thought they were good, but, of course, the door stayed shut, but the roof did not stay. The rest of the house began to come apart, so they began to get debris down into the basement.
They managed to survive reasonably well, but an extraordinary story. And as you've said, everyone has a story there this morning. And we look forward it hearing them all because they're all fascinating -- John. ROBERTS: You can -- you can just imagine, Jeff, when you got a monster storm like that raging outside your house, you're hiding down in the basement, you see the door battering back and forth against the wind like that, and all of a sudon the roof comes off. You have got to feel like it's all over for you.
FLOCK: That's the thing. They started to see this debris come flying down through the well of that stairwell.
You know, you don't know if you're done at that point. You don't know if you're done.
And these people have lived here their whole life, never had a tornado come over them. Had never had to go to the basement before. Here they are, 60 years old, and it happens.
ROBERTS: Well, those people, Jeff, were fortunate enough to have a basement. Coming up in just a few minutes on AMERICAN MORNING, we'll talk to a woman who doesn't have a basement, who had to ride out the storm through -- in her bathroom as the house came down around her. Faye Hargadine is going to be joining us, 80 years old. This is obviously the worst that she has ever seen -- Kiran.
CHETRY: And really, it's miraculous when you think about it, that only nine people lost their lives, because of the fact that this -- this tornado just rushed through the town. Twenty minutes, and so many people didn't have time to get anywhere.
ROBERTS: Yes. There was -- there was a pretty good warning, though. They had 30 minutes, which -- you know, when you look back in the history of tornado coverage, 30 minutes can be an extraordinarily long period of time.
There are some people we have talked to who have had 30 seconds, or some who have had no warning at all. So, everything seemed to work right out here.
There were, obviously, though, some people who didn't get a chance to flee. And also, the question is, if you're going to flee, where are you going to flee to?
So, you know, nine people dead, obviously a tremendous tragedy here. But it could have been -- could have been far, far worse.
CHETRY: Right. John, thanks.
Well, New Jersey governor Jon Corzine goes back to work as of 9:00 this morning. So he's got two more hours. And we're already hearing from him about his recovery. Corzine broke more than a dozen bones when the speeding SUV he was in last crashed last month.
AMERICAN MORNING'S Alina Cho has an update for us now on how the governor's doing as he heads back to work.
Well, he's not really heading back. He's going to be in the mansion working. ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It's really remarkable when you consider that it's just three and a half weeks after the accident, Kiran.
You know, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is not quite walking on his own yet, but he is heading back to work today. As Kiran mentioned, he's working from the governor's mansion, not the state house -- that's in Princeton. It will allow effectively be a satellite office which will allow him to work and recover at the same time.
Now, Corzine is getting physical therapy three times a day, still. He had three operations and was just released from hospital a week ago today. Over the weekend, Governor Corzine gave interviews to newspapers in New Jersey and to The Associated Press about his recovery.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GOV. JON CORZINE (D), NEW JERSEY: My physical strength is coming back. Couldn't feel better sitting outside breathing fresh air and knowing that I'm going to be able to recuperate from these injuries.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
CHETRY: And we also read that he doesn't really remember much about the accident. Does he remember being hit?
CHO: He does. He remembers working on some papers in the car, Kiran. Then he remembers the impact. He said he rembers being in a lot of pain, obviously. He also remembers the helicopter ride to the hospital and fearing that he might not make it out alive.
He knows he set a bad example by not wearing his seatbelt. He's paid that $46 fine because, of course, it's against the law. And he says he will try very hard to set the right example as he moves forward.
Another important point Corzine's spokesman wanted us to make is that he told us the governor will be paying all of his medical bills, which will easily run in the six figures, out of his own pocket. Now, that includes everything from that helicopter transport, to the strawberry milkshakes and the cheeseburgers. It is one way that the governor is showing the people of New Jersey that he is very sorry for what happened.
Obviously, very contrite. We saw that in that news conference last week.
CHETRY: Yes. You really did a double take when you saw him come out. First of all, he looked so good for someone that we had been hearing all month that almost died, but for that wheelchair.
CHO: Right.
CHETRY: And then secondly, that he got very emotional. CHO: He did. He was emotional, he was contrite. He showed a lot of candor.
And I asked his spokesman yesterday -- I said, "Listen, were there any discussions about how he would handle that when he left the hospital?" And they said, no. You know, we knew that he would come out and say a few words, but nobody expected him to be as contrite, to show that kind of candor.
It surprised a lot of people. But his aides say that is the real Jon Corzine that you saw there outside the hospital last week.
CHETRY: Well, we're glad he's back at work and we hope he's back 100 percent soon.
CHO: It is one big step toward a total recovery -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Alina, thanks so much.
CHO: Sure.
CHETRY: John.
ROBERTS: Hey, we want to introduce you to one brave, thankful and very lucky lady. Eighty-year-old Faye Hargadine is a life-long resident of Greensburg, Kansas. She used to work as a city clerk here. She has been retired since 1992.
She's seen tornadoes in the area. She knows the amount of devastation.
But Faye, on Friday night -- and I'm going to speak up a little bit because Faye lost everything in this tornado, including her glasses and her hearing aids.
So I'll speak up so you can hear me properly.
Take me back to Friday night. What happened?
FAYE HARGADINE, SURVIVOR: I had been swimming at the pool for exercise. I came home and had a pain in my back. And I shut down everything in the house and turned off all the electricity and went to bed on a heat pad.
ROBERTS: So what time was that?
HARGADINE: Probably about 8:30.
ROBERTS: And then what happened next?
HARGADINE: And then I heard the roar of the tornado coming. I had been told that the tornado had passed over the area. So, I felt safe.
ROBERTS: Were there any sirens or anything?
HARGADINE: Oh, yes, all the time. It is right down the street from me.
ROBERTS: So you heard the roar of the tornado.
HARGADINE: Oh, all the time.
ROBERTS: Now, we should point out, you don't have a basement.
HARGADINE: No.
ROBERTS: Jeff Flock was talking about a family that hid out in their basement. So where did you go to try to ride out the tornado?
HARGADINE: When I heard the roar, I immediately got out of bed and was going to my bathroom. I got as far as the bedroom door.
The sheet rock hit me, it came down and hit my shoulder -- and my shoulder had saved my face. It hit my hands, and I sank to the floor, and I was trapped in a child's rocker.
ROBERTS: Oh, my goodness.
HARGADINE: Right? My face and everything. And a recliner chair was in back of me, and I got back under that.
ROBERTS: So you were sort of hiding underneath the reclining chair and against a rocker. Let me see your hands here. How bad -- you got some scratches here, but, I mean, you came out of this pretty unscathed for what happened.
HARGADINE: Oh, I did. It's wonderful. Wonderful. The lord -- I prayed to God to help me.
ROBERTS: Did you realize at the time what was happening?
HARGADINE: Yes, I did. I knew. And I knew it was a bad choice on my part.
ROBERTS: Bad choice to stay in the house?
HARGADINE: Oh, yes. I should have gone to my neighbors. They had a basement.
ROBERTS: Did the whole house come down around you?
HARGADINE: No. No, just the -- just the roof came off. But in my house I have all sheet rock and a lot of installation, and that came down.
ROBERTS: So what happened after that? You started screaming for help?
HARGADINE: No. I was trapped in this corner, and I was curled up, and it took me a while to get my legs back under me and everything.
And then I saw a light out in the street and I stood up and began yelling. The windows in my porch were broke out. And so the neighbor lady came with a light, and she got another lady, and they got me out of the house. They pulled me out of the window.
ROBERTS: You are so lucky when you consider what happened to other people in this town.
HARGADINE: Oh, I am.
ROBERTS: Eighty years living in this town. Tornadoes have never -- I mean, something this big has never hit this town directly.
There have been some near misses, some within 10, 30 miles away. You know about that big F5 that hit in Oklahoma City back in 1999.
HARGADINE: Oh, yes.
ROBERTS: But did you ever think anything like this would ever -- I mean, you're a life-long Kansan. You've got to live with this stuff. But here it happened.
HARGADINE: I was raised in a big brick home with a basement, and my folks were never real excited about storms. So I'm pretty calm.
ROBERTS: Wow. Well, we're glad you're here. We're glad that fast action of your neighbors got you out of the house.
HARGADINE: Yes.
ROBERTS: One very brave, very lucky lady.
HARGADINE: Thank you. And I have been lucky to have my family come rescue me. And my cousin took me to her home.
ROBERTS: And we should point out that everything that you're wearing...
HARGADINE: Everything is borrowed.
ROBERTS: I guess minus the jewelry.
HARGADINE: Oh, no, the jewelry was borrowed.
ROBERTS: The jewelry was borrowed as well.
HARGADINE: Everything's borrowed.
ROBERTS: You've got some fine neighbors who are helping out.
HARGADINE: I only have my own upper plate.
ROBERTS: Thank you for sharing that, Faye.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Faye Hargadine, survivor of this hurricane. Amazing story. Faye, thanks for joining us -- Kiran.
HARGADINE: Thank you.
CHETRY: And she looks wonderful. She looks amazingly well, as you said, for everything she's been through.
ROBERTS: She does.
CHETRY: And it's those small things that you don't think about when you talk about needing to help people rebuild. You said her glasses and her hearing aids. So, she's going to need new.
ROBERTS: Absolutely. Everything gone. Everything is gone.
CHETRY: All right, John. Thanks so much.
Well, coming up, energy drinks, they're packed with caffeine, among other things. And are they safe for kids? Because kids really love drinking them. We're going to get a look.
Also, we're going to take a look at the storm through the eyes of storm chasers and I-Reporters.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: There's new violence again this morning in Iraq. Two suicide car bombings killing 20 people in Ramadi.
Now, this follows the deaths of eight U.S. troops over the weekend. Six of them in the Diyala province.
Now, securing every province of Iraq is one of the benchmarks that President Bush laid out when explaining his new security plan. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To establish its authority, the Iraqi government plans to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: All this week we're going to be taking a look at the benchmarks set for Iraq and whether or not these are realistic goals.
CNN's Arwa Damon is in Baghdad, and she joins us now.
So, again, the president saying that the Iraqi government needs to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November.
Do you see it happening, Arwa?
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, anyone who you speak to here who is involved in the training of the Iraqi security force will flat out tell you that that is not feasible. The training of the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police is still an ongoing process.
This is a very young military, young police force, only been in existence for some four years right now, and they are still in need of even the basic types of training. You cannot compare an Iraqi soldier's ability to an American soldier's ability to secure any part of the country, really.
So, even if this hand-over does end up happening in six months, it really would just be an act of symbolism. The Iraqis are still very much dependent on their American counterparts, and there are concerns here on the ground that with this intensified pressure to hand over to the Iraqis, who are really only setting up the Iraqi security forces for failure -- in fact, one senior American military commander flat out said that if the Iraqi government really thought that its own forces could be responsible for securing all of Iraq in six months, they were hallucinating -- Kiran.
CHETRY: You know, some of it, as you said, is that they're new and they need some more time for training, but some of it, you just wonder how are you going to solve problems with attrition, with people that are on the payroll but don't show up?
DAMON: That's right. In fact, the numbers of the Iraqi security forces that are currently trained are at about over 330,000, including army and police. But realistically speaking, those numbers can be misleading.
At any point in time, only about 75 percent of the units are filled due to issues like attrition. Aside from that, there is also the reality that the Iraqis still need training in things like logistics and getting ammunition and food supplies out to the units on the front line.
Just to give you one example, during one of the battles that took place on Haifa Street in January, the Iraqi army unit that was there ran out of ammunition. And when they called in for backup, when they called in for a resupply, that resupply was not provided to them by their own Iraqi army higher chain of command. And eight Iraqi army officers ended up dying simply because they ran out of bullets.
I mean, there is an enormous amount of work to be done here, really, before the Iraqis are going to be capable of handling the situation here on their own. And the Americans will tell you that it is getting better, they are getting better, but it's just going to take more time.
CHETRY: Wow. All right. Well, thanks for the insight, Arwa.
And tomorrow we're going to be taking a look at another one of the benchmarks laid out, the oil benchmark. How soon can the government agree on a plan to split the profits? That would mean everyday Iraqis would get a share of the oil wealth. We'll going to talk about that tomorrow -- John.
ROBERTS: Kiran, thanks very much.
Kathleen Sebelius is the governor of Kansas. She's also the chairwoman of the Democratic Governors Conference. S he has been looking after the disaster here in Greensburg since it happened on Friday night. She joins us now live.
Can you update us -- where are we on search and rescue efforts? When do you switch form search and rescue into cleanup operations?
GOV. KATHLEEN SEBELIUS (D), KANSAS: Well, cleanup had to begin almost right away so we can get the roads clear for people to come back. Starting at 8:00 this morning, the residents are going to be allowed back in. And many of them have not seen this in the daylight, and they're in for...
ROBERTS: It's something to see.
SEBELIUS: ... a shock.
Yesterday, the day was spent on search and rescue, as well as on Saturday, trying to identify any victims who might be left. Unfortunately, two additional victims were found yesterday, and we're now up to nine deaths in this area. One additional death in Kansas at a different part of the state from the storm.
We still may have more. The rubble in some places is so deep that even with dogs and the operations going on...
ROBERTS: And as you can see, I mean, just behind us here, we have got vehicles piled on top of rubble, piled on top of more rubble.
SEBELIUS: And as you know, you can look in any direction and all you can see is devastation.
ROBERTS: We spoke with your (INAUDIBLE) general, Major General Bunting, a little while ago. You have illuminated a problem that you've got here in terms of the National Guard's ability to be able to react to this crisis because of the Iraq war.
What's going on?
SEBELIUS: Well, states all over the country are not only missing personnel, National Guard troops are -- about 40 percent of the troops on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan -- but we're missing the equipment. When the troops get deployed, the equipment goes with them.
So, here in Kansas, about 50 percent of our trucks are gone. We need trucks. We're missing Humvees, we're missing all kinds of equipment that can help us respond to this kind of emergency.
ROBERTS: So how is that going to hamper efforts both in the recovery and the rebuilding? SEBELIUS: Well, as you travel around Greensburg, you'll see that the city and county trucks were destroyed. They -- the storm hit them, as well as anything...
ROBERTS: Fire trucks and everything is gone.
SEBELIUS: So we're borrowing equipment from around, but National Guard are our first responders. They don't have the equipment they need to come in. And it will just make it that much slower.
ROBERTS: Have you asked for help from other states?
SEBELIUS: We are reaching out to other states, and a lot of offers are coming in. What we are going to establish is sort of a virtual inventory so that people can put on our inventory what they have. And as we need it, we'll put it down.
ROBERTS: We heard a couple of the federal politicians say over the weekend that this is not going to be another Katrina. That you're going to make sure that everybody stays focused on Greensburg to the point that it can actually recover and rebuild.
How are you going to do that?
SEBELIUS: Well, I think we've got a great opportunity. Kansans are resilient, first of all. Folks are already talking about, "How fast can I come back in? Where can I live while I rebuild, put up my business?"
State assistance, federal assistance is on its way, but, also, I think we have an opportunity to rebuild an entire rural community. I think eyes of America are on us, and I'm going to ask for help and support from everybody who believes that rural America needs to thrive and survive. We got a shock here.
ROBERTS: Interesting word. I would see it as more of a challenge than an opportunity, but that's...
SEBELIUS: Well, I think it's a great opportunity to rebuild a community. And I can guarantee you that folks of Greensburg are not going anywhere. They want to relocate.
I just talked to the high school principal. Graduation was supposed to be Saturday the 12th. It's going to be moved a week, but they want to do it right here in Greensburg, and I want to come out and participate.
ROBERTS: Well, Governor, good luck in your -- in your efforts. We'll keep -- we'll keep watching and we'll make sure that people don't forget this story.
SEBELIUS: Thanks very much.
ROBERTS: Governor Kathleen Sebelius, governor of Kansas -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right, John. Thanks so much.
Coming up, how dangerous are those energy drinks packed with caffeine and other things? Well, our consumer reporter, Greg Hunter, actually hooked himself up to a heart monitor after drinking some of the drinks that are popular with the kids, and the results are pretty startling.
Also, where is the most expensive gas in the country? You probably feel it's wherever you get it, right? But check this out -- $4.24 a gallon in some places.
Why are prices so high so soon? We're going to take a look.
Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 28 minutes past the hour. Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business".
And this morning, we're talking gas.
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, you know, as you said, the highest gas prices most people think are where they pay them. Let's give you a perspective on this.
Gas prices hit the highest price that we've ever paid for them across the country. National average is all the way up to $3.07. There's some examples.
Now, I always say, what do I care what gas is in Las Vegas? Because I don't buy my gas in Las Vegas. But it gives you some sense of the range.
Atlanta, $2.94; Las Vegas, $3.12; San Francisco, $3.49. You were talking to somebody also in California at a gas station who is charging $4.25 for gas. This is -- this is pretty high.
Now, there are a couple of problems going on. One is we use a lot of gas. Two is, we have a lot of refinery outages right now. And Chuck Schumer and others are kind of concerned as to why these refineries are just not kept up to snuff and why we're not building new refineries.
But we should remind people, when you're going and you're filling up this gas right now, don't be too mad at the gas station owner. People always say, well, that can't be -- how come their gas prices went up? They didn't just get that gas.
CHETRY: Right.
VELSHI: The gas stations pay what the distributor tells them to pay. They put a little markup on that. It is little. I am telling you, a gas station that sells coffee makes more money on their coffee and their convenience store than they do on their gasoline.
CHETRY: That's what they say. But the other thing about these refineries, apparently there's just so many regulations.
VELSHI: You can't build them.
CHETRY: We always ask, why aren't they building more?
VELSHI: It's next to impossible to build refineries. Lots of EPA regulations.
It's a good question as to whether the oil companies are going through the necessary efforts to build them. But the fact is, it's not easy to build one. One we've been following in Arizona, 10 years they've been trying to get a permit, just got turned down once again last week. So no more refineries out there. Either we got to use less gas or we got to produce more of it.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: We just got to keep paying.
VELSHI: Or you got to keep paying. That's exactly right.
CHETRY: Ali, thanks so much.
We have the top stories of the hour coming up in just a couple minutes. We're going to be back to John Roberts in Greensburg, Kansas today. We're going to talk with the storm chasers who shot some of the most amazing pictures you may ever see. It really brings us closer to a tornado than some of us ever want to get. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: The sun coming up on a Monday morning on Greensburg, Kansas, day three of the devastation here, an F-5 tornado, the strongest possible. Winds of 205 miles an hour went through this town on Friday night, cutting a swath of destruction that didn't just go through the town. It literally swallowed the entire town up because the tornado was bigger than the town.
Good morning, it's Monday, May 7th. I'm John Roberts. As we continue our live coverage with AMERICAN MORNING here in Greensburg, Kansas. Good morning, Kiran.
CHETRY: Good morning. I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York. 1.7 miles was the radius of that tornado and as you said the town of 1,500. But, you know, when you spoke with the woman earlier, Faye, who everything she had on was borrowed and she was still sitting out there with you talking this morning and just thanking God that she was alive. It really is a testament to the resilience of the people in that town that amid all this destruction, they are finding hope.
ROBERTS: That is the first time that she has appeared in this town since she left on Friday night. When her neighbors rescued her from her house that had collapsed all around her, obviously they drove out of Greensburg. She just came back this morning. She's going to have an opportunity for the first time today to see what her house really looked like because it was dark when she left and this will be her first opportunity to see it in the light of day. As it will be for so many other residents of this town who will be allowed back in at about 8:00 Kansas time this morning for the first time since that tornado hit.
CHETRY: That's right, to see if there is anything they can salvage and then they have to leave again because they need to clear out everything else that was destroyed.
We're also going to be seeing record gas prices. We're going to meet a gas station owner who may be selling the most expensive gas in the country. She says, don't blame her, she's not making any money either, but we're going to talk about why gas prices are on the rise and they seem to be happening so much earlier in the season because the summer hits are just going to go up from there.
Also they seem to be everywhere you look, in fact, even more popular than regular soft drinks it seems these days. Are the energy drinks that started off the Red Bull and now it's just taken off? It's a very, very lucrative industry and they're big with the teens, but are they also dangerous for teens? Our Greg Hunter is going to be taking a look. We actually hooked him up to an EKG machine, John, after he imbibed on some of these energy drinks and, apparently, the results are not pretty.
ROBERTS: Well, don't get an EKG anywhere near me because I pounded down two or three of those already this morning. It has been a long night and a early morning, Kiran. We want to bring in CNN meteorologist and correspondent Rob Marciano who has been in the area all weekend long. He followed the track of the storms and the storms that have been coming through this area ever since and he's also been surveying some of the devastation. We keep coming back to this idea, Rob, that we've seen the damage and the destruction from tornadoes across the Midwest, down in the south, even in Florida we've seen the damage from hurricanes, fire, earthquakes and I have never seen anything like this.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I think you really, you hit the nail on the head when you say we have rarely ever seen an entire town wiped out, like we've seen here. A comparable tornado to this one would be back in May 1999 in Moore, Oklahoma where an F-5 went through that town. There were over 40 fatalities. But this entire town because of its size and then the incredible size of the tornado, that's where we ran into problems.
ROBERTS: The tornado was actually larger than the town itself.
MARCIANO: That's the easy explanation as to why the entire town is pretty much demolished. The National Weather Service is responsible for not only warning the people, but after the fact they're responsible for going out and actually surveying the damage. Yesterday I went out with an expert to talk just about that. The National Weather Service office out of Dodge City and here's what the storm surveyor had to tell me.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: Larry, what was your first thought when you came on site here?
LARRY RUTHI, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: I was kind of surprised at the magnitude of the damage when I came into town. There's just not much left.
MARCIANO: You look around and seemingly things are indiscernible. You have to have lived in this town to pick out what something might be. When you look at structures like this over here built with not just brick veneer, but actual brick and mortar, what is this kind of damage telling you about how strong the storm was?
RUTHI: With the damage that we're getting to these very old buildings that have been here for in many cases 100 years are close to it, probably what I'm seeing here is high end EF-3 or low end EF-4 damage, probably close to EF-4 damage to the buildings.
MARCIANO: So EF-4, we're talking 170, 18 180-mile-an-hour winds. What have you rated this storm? This damage you think is an EF-4, but the storm as a whole, you've graded it, what?
RUTHI: An EF-5.
MARCIANO: An EF-5.
RUTHI: Yes and we used the high school, if you've been down to the high school, that was one of the indicators we used to push us over the edge of an EF-5 rating. The whole south half of (INAUDIBLE) high school was just completely gone, folded in on itself. Two-story brick structure, extremely sturdy. That really impressed me with the magnitude of the damage we had.
MARCIANO: How wide was this tornado?
RUTHI: About 1.7 miles.
MARCIANO: That's huge.
RUTHI: It's extremely huge and they had another tornado that developed after this concluded. Friday night was a night of extremely wide and devastating tornadoes. Everything just came together perfectly for that to occur.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: EF-5 tornados with winds of over 200 miles per hour are incredibly rare. As a matter of fact, they represent only about 1 percent of all tornadoes that we get throughout the year here in the U.S. The last time a tornado this bad hit Kansas was over 17 years ago and even though this is tornado alley, the is the time of year when you get destruction like this, John, it's hard to take in.
ROBERTS: Rob, I was talking with the major general from the National Guard, the adjutant general of the state. He said the way that they could tell the tornado was so powerful was it took the third floor clean off of the high school here, bricks and mortar high school that was built in 1938 and has survived all kind of storms since then. This one came along and literally just leveled it. Rob Marciano, thanks very much.
It was a real weekend of storms, not only here in Kansas, but also down in Oklahoma, some incredible pictures taken by a couple storm chasers who have been at this for a number of years. In Ellis County, Oklahoma, take a look at this. This is like a scene out of the movie, "Twister." Remember, where they got so close to the bottom of the tornadoes. That was all special effects. This is real life. We want to introduce you to the guys who chased this storm. Joining us from Oklahoma City right now, Reed Timmer was the cameraman who shot these incredible pictures. Joel Taylor was the brave guy or some might say the crazy guy who was behind the wheel of the car. They join us now. Reed, Joel, what was that experience like for you?
REED TIMMER, STORM CHASER: It was crazy. Initially we were near Dodge City and then we started heading south towards the storm. And as we were punching through the core, we saw the tornado on the ground and it was skinny and it appeared to be moving slow. Actually, I was driving at first, but normally Joel drives and then as I was coming at it from the north, we realized that it was moving up the road and then as we were within about 100 yards from it, we saw it was a very violent tornado. And that's when Joel said, enough is enough, we're too close. I don't think he's ever going to let me drive again.
ROBERTS: Yeah, as I said, it's like that movie where they came up to the tornado. They said, I think we're too close, better put it in reverse. How worried were you that this thing could suddenly take a little bit of a turn and come right for you?
JOEL TAYLOR, STORM CHASER: Initially when we switched spots I was actually very, very worried that we weren't going to be able to back up quick enough and avoid the tornado. As soon as I got back in, the tires actually spun out as I hit the gas to go backwards and we finally ended up driving backwards about 40 miles an hour and put a little distance between us and the tornado.
ROBERTS: You guys have been doing this for how long now?
TAYLOR: About 10 years.
ROBERTS: And is this the closest that you've ever come?
TIMMER: This is definitely the closest we've ever come to a tornado because this one was perfect to do so because it was moving slow and it was very small. But that can be deceiving, because it was still extremely violent. You could see trees getting ripped out of the ground and this is definitely the closest we've come to any tornado.
ROBERTS: There's one point there on the tape where you hear you guys say, oh, my God, it just hit a structure. You saw it destroy a couple of buildings? TAYLOR: We think there was a barn that it hit and then that debris just got caught up in the tornado and there was actually a piece of debris that we can count going around the tornado about four times. And it's a good that this tornado wasn't in a more populated area. We're very thankful for that because you can see it was very violent and if this had hit structures, they almost certainly would have been destroyed. So we're very thankful for that.
ROBERTS: Those are just incredible pictures. As you hear the audio track on the tape you guys yelling at each other, obviously a high-adrenaline moment, a little bit of anxiety. Thankfully you didn't see any flying cows or any flying tanker trucks. But certainly you got closer to a tornado than anybody I've ever seen. Congratulations, gentlemen, if that's what you're looking for. Reed Timmer, Joel Taylor from Oklahoma City, our storm chasers this morning. Thanks for joining us, appreciate it, guys.
CHETRY: Well, John, those two certainly don't need the adrenaline rush, but many people do, which is why they drink those energy drinks that are packed with caffeine, as well as other ingredients that promise to keep you buzzing. Well, our Greg Hunter is on the story today.
GREG HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soft drink sales have been declining for years. What's replacing them? Things like Red Bull, energy drinks. Are they good for you? We'll talk about that as AMERICAN MORNING continues.
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CHETRY: Energy drinks are now a multi-billion dollar business, but doctors and nutritionists are concerned about the potential health risks, particularly for teenagers. AMERICAN MORNING's Greg Hunter is taking a closer look for us today. He's live at a supermarket right here in New York City. Hi, Greg.
HUNTER: Hey, Kiran. You know, energy drinks used to be a niche product, for people like truck drivers, but now, teenagers are drinking them more and more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTER (voice-over): In the span of a week, 18 Doherty High School students in Colorado Springs reported becoming sick after drinking an energy drink called Spike Shooter.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fell over.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I went to the hospital.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aching stomach.
HUNTER: Principal Jill Martin became so alarmed, she banned the drink on campus and convinced the nearby convenient store to pull it off the shelves. DR. JILL MARTIN, DOHERTY H.S. PRINCIPAL: If this product is so potent that you have to read the instructions and consider whether to drink it or not, something is wrong.
HUNTER: The label warns those under 18 and anyone with health concerns should not use. Despite the warning, 14-year-old Rachel Woodrow, a diabetic drank one can and started shaking. Two days later she was hospitalized for a seizure. Rachel's parents say doctors told them the drink increased her metabolism and may have triggered the seizure. Rachel admits, she didn't read the label.
RACHEL WOODROW, STUDENT: I thought it would make me feel hyper and everything, but I did not think it was going to cause me to have a seizure.
HUNTER: Another student wanted to get a little hyper by drinking Spike Shooter. Instead --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My stomach started to cramp up. I had a headache and I started vomiting.
HUNTER: The manufacturer of Spike Shooter called the Colorado cases isolated incidents of what they call abuse of minors drinking too much Spike and said they've received zero complaints nationwide since then. They added, Spike continues to be proactive in working with retailers to ensure that all energy drinks, including Spike, are consumed responsibly. Most energy drinks contain significant amounts of caffeine, although some energy drinks like Red Bull have even less caffeine than a cup of coffee. An eight ounce cup of coffee has anywhere from 80 to 130 milligrams of caffeine, an 8.3 ounce can of Red bull, 80 milligrams, an 8 ounce can of Red Line, 250 milligrams, an 8.4 ounce of Spike Shooter, 300 milligrams of caffeine.
I try to work out three to four days a week. I wanted to see what would happen if I drank one can of Spike Shooter which along with caffeine, has supplements like yohimbine, thought by some to enhance sexual performance. I drink a few cups of coffee every day and I have a healthy heart history.
We're going to get a printout of your heart.
HUNTER: A heart doctor hooked me up to an EKG and measured my vital signs before and after drinking Spike Shooter. Before, normal, 45 minutes later, my blood pressure went up significantly. The doctor also noticed I developed a slight, irregular heart beat.
DR. RAYMONDA RASTEGAR, CARDIOLOGIST: In healthy individuals they may be able to tolerate them and people who have heart disease, it's not advisable.
HUNTER: The manufacturer of Spike Shooter declined to comment on our test. Some drinks have yohimbine, guarane, a natural-type of caffeine, (INAUDIBLE) and ginseng, just a few of the herbal supplements not regulated by the FDA.
MOLLY MORGAN: We don't know how they truly affect your bodies. HUNTER: Nutritionist Molly Morgan wants more research on the effects of these ingredients.
MORGAN: There's little to no information. What is the threshold? How much is too much?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HUNTER: One thing to point out, there are no laws like you have with tobacco and alcohol that stop underage kid from using them. They can use energy drinks totally legally. On the D'Agostino's market, they're one of the oldest chains in New York City and they've seen trends rise and fall and what they're seeing falling right now are the sales of soft drinks. What is replacing them? Energy drinks like Red Bull and others. That's what's keeping the soft drink industry afloat nationwide. Kiran.
CHETRY: We hope you learned your lesson. Are you feeling better?
HUNTER: I am feeling better. I was really jittery about that drink but I'm not sick.
CHETRY: All right, good, stick to your coffee, at least for now. Thanks, Greg.
Coming up, we're going to be live in Greensburg, Kansas. There is almost nothing left of the town after an F-5 tornado. Residents there are returning this morning and the big question, when will they be able to rebuild?
Also coming up next, gas prices reaching record levels and when we say record, we mean it. $4.24 a gallon for regular unleaded? We're going to take you to where they are the most expensive in America. We're going to meet a gas station owner who says she simply has no choice. There she is. Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: You may need a loan to fill up at a gas station in Mendocino, California. A gallon of self serve regular is going for $4.24 a gallon. The station's owner Judy Schlafer joins us now to explain what's going on. This is the highest in the nation, Judy. I'm sure it's not something you're proud of. What's going on?
JUDY SCHLAFER, OWNER, SCHLAFER'S AUTOMOTIVE: What's going on? Well, every time I turn around, the price goes up on me. When you're buying fuel, you try and buy it when it's low because if you buy it when it's high, then you can't really lower your gas prices.
CHETRY: You're in an unfortunate position because you're one of a dying breed really of independent gas station owners. You don't get the, I guess, the perks of buying in bulk. So, how does that hurt your business?
SCHLAFER: Well, if you could buy direct, that's why you have a resale license in California, you would hope that you could get it a little cheaper, but what happens is it comes directly from Chevron's place down there, the docks and Redwood Oil, who is a jobber, picks it up for me and brings it up to me. They have to make, you know, a profit, as well.
CHETRY: Are you making any money?
SCHAFLER: I make a few cents here and there. It takes an awful lot of money to stay within the realm of what the state asks me to do. I had to put in new pumps or actually go out of business and they're about $80,000.
CHETRY: As we understand it, you're trying to sell because it is difficult to make a living doing this. Now, let me ask you this, do you have gas stations nearby you? Do people actually stop at yours knowing that it is so much more expensive?
SCHAFLER: Yes, I do have customers. They like the Chevron (INAUDIBLE) that's in it. It makes the engine burn a lot better and a lot cleaner.
CHETRY: So there's other gas stations, what about 13 miles from you?
SCHAFLER: Yes. Uh-huh. South and north.
CHETRY: Sometimes you find people stopping there and only filling up a few bucks, right? So they can just get on to somewhere else.
SCHAFLER: Yes, Kiran. Yes and that's OK. I understand that some people who don't have the money and, myself, I have to buy it at the same price is what I'm selling it at my pump, as well.
CHETRY: It's a situation now where we wonder because we're in the spring, what happens when summer comes and people are doing any more traveling?
SCHAFLER: You know, Kiran, I don't know where this is going. If the price drops to me after I've bought an expensive load, I can't drop my price right then and there because I have bought the expense of it and if I do and I -- it's well over $3 to me right now as a dealer.
CHETRY: Right. Well, everyone's feeling the pinch of this, for sure, including the gas station owners and, Judy, thanks so much for joining us today and sharing a little bit of your story.
SCHAFLER: OK, Kiran, thank you very much.
CHETRY: John?
ROBERTS: Kiran, just looking through the rubble of what was a building here, one of hundreds and hundreds of buildings that have been destroyed here in Greensburg, picking a couple of old glories here out of the rubble. This building was a bricks and mortar structure. You can see that the wall came completely down here. Here's the bricks. The roadway just a little bit in front of me here and here is a car that was on the side of the road, picked up by the tornado, thrown into this building as it came down, thrown into the other building. This car is banged up and shot up as any car that I've ever seen in the war in Iraq. We'll be back with more survivor stories from here in Greensburg, Kansas. More stories about the desire to rebuild here as well after an F-5 tornado literally tears this town apart. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning is on CNN.
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