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Much of Florida Facing Fire Risk From Drought; Missouri Flooding; Catalina Island Fire

Aired May 11, 2007 - 08:59   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Heidi Collins this morning.

Watch events come in to the NEWSROOM live this Friday, May 11th.

Here's what's on the rundown right now.

Catalina Island, well, call it fire island today. The U.S. Navy shipping fire trucks to the California resort. Residents and tourists going the other way, back to the mainland.

HARRIS: Well, check this guy. This is how you navigate streets in flooded Missouri towns. Major rivers cresting this weekend.

Live from the scene this hour.

WHITFIELD: And the senior class moves on today, trying to put last month's tragic campus rampage in the past.

Virginia Tech graduation -- in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: And at the top this hour, from north Florida to southern California, high temps and a little rain creating a recipe for disaster.

This is Santa Catalina Island, about 25 miles west of Los Angeles. Several homes there have burned and hundreds of people have heeded the warning to voluntarily evacuate. Now the military is helping to contain the wind-swept fire.

In less than one day, more than 4,000 acres have burned and fires are raging along the Georgia-Florida state line. Hundreds of homes have been evacuated, nearly 300 square miles have burned.

We have CNN correspondents posted along the fire lines.

Let's begin in the Southeast.

CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras is in Late City, Florida. She joins us by telephone.

Jacqui, how bad is it where you are?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's very bad, Tony. In fact, the fire is so aggressive, that firefighters are telling us they've never seen anything like this before. The fires just took off, just raging yesterday afternoon throughout the evening hours.

Now, since the late overnight and early this morning, they've gotten a little bit better of a handle on it. It's slowed down just a little bit because of the weather conditions. The wind, of course, calm at this hour and the humidity is high.

We have what we have an inversion in place right now, so it's trapping the smoke in the area, which is actually good for trying to help suppress the fire a little bit, but very bad for visibility. Visibility is down to less than a quarter of a mile, and it's so low that it's not allowing any aerial assaults to be taking place today.

We're in the city of Lake City right now, just south of I-10. The fire is within six miles of the interstate now, and it's spreading down towards the south and the west.

They're concerned that they may have to close I-10 if it gets any closer later on today. They'll be monitoring that very closely.

Along Highway 441, that is closed. People have been evacuated. As many as 600 families were evacuated last night.

The town of Taylor also has been evacuated. They're evaluating that situation. They think this fire might be pulling away from there and that people may be able to return to their homes. There's a meeting later on this afternoon at about 5:00 at the city store there where they're going to see if people are able to get back into their homes.

But this thing started on Saturday up in Georgia from a lightning strike, spread across the state line. It was at 45,000 acres yesterday afternoon, and at this hour, we don't know how many acres have burned since that time.

There's some estimates that it could have possibly doubled. Basically, firefighters have just been so busy trying to get a handle on the situation, once the sun came up, they may be able to evaluate things a little bit better.

HARRIS: Man.

JERAS: But at this time, we're waiting to find out how much more this has grown. But like I said, potentially up to 70,000 acres now.

HARRIS: Well, we knew it was bad. That's a pretty stark report there, Jacqui.

You've talked about 600 families evacuated so far. Might more evacuations be necessary?

JERAS: Well, they're watching Lake City very closely. If the fire ends up jumping I-10, this town will have to be evacuated as well.

The smoke is so thick, that a lot of people aren't wanting to stay around their homes anyway.

HARRIS: Yes.

JERAS: They also can't really get in and out anymore. They closed the ramps to the interstate, so nobody can get on or off at this time.

HARRIS: Wow. Jacqui Jeras on the phone with us from Lake City in Florida.

Jacqui, thank you.

WHITFIELD: It is very dry in the Southeast.

HARRIS: Oh, boy.

WHITFIELD: And it's also very dry out West.

Let's check in with Reynolds Wolf in the severe weather center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: Well, we are going to talk a bit more about California in a moment, but along the way, let's talk about some of the flooding that Reynolds was alluding to.

In Missouri right now it's a ghost town of sorts in some parts. Haunted memories resurfacing now as Missouri copes with devastating flooding there.

Pattonsburg and the great flood. Our Sean Callebs is there.

How is it looking, Sean?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, let me just set the scene for you here.

Here in Pattonsburg, the water a couple days ago was about up to here, so it's receded somewhat quickly. But this town is probably unlike almost any other hit by this year's flooding.

The reason, after the devastating floods back in 1993, the 400 or so resident who lived here simply picked up and moved. I don't mean the people left. They took their homes and everything. The homes that weren't taken were basically leveled.

Let me tell you a little bit about the historical setting in this.

Well, firstly, this is a McCormick Farmall. This is a tractor that was built back in 1948. And when this tractor was built, that year, probably the heyday for people who lived here in Pattonsburg.

There were about a thousand residents at that time. Man, have things changed if you just look around me.

Now, why did they move? Well, the federal government stepped in and actually providing some $12 million to allow the people to move all their structures in and take it down the road a little bit, where it's safe.

If you look out, there are still eight people -- eight, you got that right -- who still live in this town. There's one. Lee Warford lives in that house out there. And if you look, kind of hidden in the trees just down the way, that's a Methodist church.

Now, the town moved. They just abandoned that church and built a new one.

We also have some historical pictures, because we're driving down Main Street. I want to show you these pictures, because look how things have changed.

Some of these photos date back to the 1940s, some to 1993, during the year of the big flood. But virtually everybody, just a handful of people, left here.

And if you look straight ahead, that's another church, an old Baptist church, but now it has been renovated somewhat. And on the weekends it's just the scene of a big jamboree. So, people come from miles around as often as they can to enjoy that.

If you look just to my left here, City Hall. This was built in 1941. And at that time, Walter Warford was the mayor.

Now, when the town shut down and moved away, it was Michael's grandson who was the mayor. So they saw the construction of this and they saw it leave as well.

One final note. This building is now being leased but it's a phenomenal sum of $1 a year. The individual just has to keep the grounds as clean as possible, but the landscape has changed here.

And Fredricka, really, it's a unique story, but not solely unique. There are a handful of towns in the flood plain of Mississippi and Missouri rivers, where the federal government did step in and offer people the chance to leave.

They figured, look, we're spending this much money every year rebuilding these towns. Let's just get them to higher ground and see if they can make a go of it there. And many have.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, we appreciate you taking us back, and at the same time bringing us to the present day and what folks are dealing with right now.

Sean Callebs, thanks so much.

HARRIS: Now let's travel off the coast to California. CNN's Ted Rowlands is on Catalina Island, west of Los Angeles. And Ted, give us the latest on that fire there. And we know that the Navy is shipping fire trucks to Catalina Island. When might that help arrive?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That help has arrived, Tony, arrived overnight. The U.S. Navy shuttled, using their hovercraft, L.A. County Fire personnel and equipment. They also shuttled personnel via helicopter from Oceanside, California, near the -- near Camp Pendleton.

Let's show you now that the sun has just come up here on Catalina Island, it is very, very calm. A stark difference of what we saw last night, where it was very chaotic and the flames were bearing down on this town.

You can see behind the houses -- although there's a lot of smoke, it's very difficult to see -- you can see some smoke billowing up in certain areas. That's where the fire is. It's just behind these houses.

The good news is that the wind has died down tremendously overnight, meaning this fire has really laid down. The moisture is up as well. This is going to give firefighters a chance, a window here to really attack.

We just saw the first helicopter make its first drop of the morning. So the air assault has begun here on this fire. And the key, of course, is to take advantage of this window that Mother Nature is providing firefighters to try to get a hold of this.

Obviously, you can see if you look at that -- the smoke back there and the proximity to all of these homes, about 3,000 people live in Avalon, which is the city on Catalina Island. Those folks very nervous and crossing their fingers, really, that the firefighters will be able to get the upper hand on this and that the winds will not pick up.

Yesterday, the major problem not only the dry conditions here, but the wind gusts, up to 20 miles an hour. It moved this fire extremely quickly and created a very chaotic scene.

Where we are now, where it's very calm, they were shuttling thousands of people off the island. In excess of 3,000 people have been ferried off the island. All night long they had ferries, mainly tourists.

Most locals are here, and they want to stay here and see this thing out. But right now, some relative calm, and a lot of people with their fingers crossed, Tony, that they can really attack this during this -- during this window of calm.

HARRIS: Yes. That leads me right to my question. How optimistic are firefighters, Ted, that they can take this window of opportunity and gain containment, actual containment of this fire?

ROWLANDS: Well, containment may take a while, because although this is just one edge of it, the fire -- we saw it coming in -- is huge. And it extends far back into the island.

The key is to save the property. And I think now that the reinforcements are here, they've got to be confident, as long as the winds are as they are now, which is very calm.

I mean, there's really no wind right now. So it's a huge window. And like I said, we just started to see the air assault on this. I suspect that they'll be able to take advantage of this window and really attack it.

HARRIS: Ted Rowlands on Catalina Island for us this morning.

Ted, thank you.

WHITFIELD: Iraq beyond the violence, behind the scenes. Correspondent Michael Holmes on his latest tour of duty. "Months of Mayhem" is the name of this CNN Special Investigations Unit production. A preview of that in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: Their old lives destroyed when their husbands were killed in battle. Now they're making new lives for themselves and new looks for movie stars.

Details in the NEWSROOM.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's graduation day at Virginia Tech, but the pomp and circumstance will be somber and subdued.

I'm Jim Acosta. That story coming up in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: Fists fly at the Boston Pops. Today, meet the man who says he was on the receiving end, the business end of all this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And tells me, "Hit me again. I'm going to throw you over the balcony."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Oh, boy.

HARRIS: Oh, man.

WHITFIELD: Them were fighting words.

HARRIS: You see that fistful of hair there and everything going on? Well, it is the symphony hall smackdown.

The follow-up coming up for you here in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: OK, Fred. Let's take everyone back out to Catalina Island, west of Los Angeles, and take a look at these pictures. Just some more pretty dramatic pictures coming to us here courtesy of our affiliate KABC in Los Angeles of the fire in the canyons there, as you can see.

Ted Rowlands reporting just a couple of minutes ago that firefighters believe they can take this window of opportunity provided them by the winds dying down, laying down a bit, to get in and do some really hard work, and get a better handle on containing the fire and protecting homes along the island.

So, that is the situation. We are going to continue to watch for you right here in the NEWSROOM.

WHITFIELD: And interesting, too, how Ted was saying that that exodus...

HARRIS: Yes.

WHITFIELD: ... of folks we were seeing, mostly tourists, because the residents want to stay and keep an eye on their properties there.

HARRIS: Protect their homes. Yes.

WHITFIELD: All right. We're going to continue to watch the situation there at Catalina Island, just west of L.A.

Meantime, focusing on a bright future, reflecting on a tragic past. Thousands of Virginia Tech students are doing both today. They graduate tonight, just 25 days after a gunman's deadly rampage.

Here's CNN's Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA (voice over): Set in this rolling countryside, the scene for this year's commencement at Virginia Tech is almost picture- perfect. Almost will have to do this year. Everybody will be missing somebody.

BRICE BRADFORD, GRADUATING SENIOR: It's really hard to feel accomplished or self-congratulatory right now when you know that there should be a dozen or so other people walking across the stage with you that aren't even alive anymore.

ACOSTA: Many, including graduating senior Brice Bradford, will remember Ryan Clark, the larger-than-life student everyone called "Stack," and a fellow member of the school's marching band.

BRADFORD: He was the spirit of the band. The band's the spirit of the school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Having a five-minute walk from here to Burris Hall with him turned into a two-hour meet-and-greet, because literally he knew so many people on campus. He'd walk two steps, meet somebody else.

ACOSTA: The marching band's director, David McKee (ph), will present Clark's uniform to the slain senior's family at graduation. He says Stack would have wanted this weekend to remain a celebration. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stack would want us to dance. He'd want us to smile at one another. He'd want us to greet one another.

He's not a guy we're going to replace. You don't replace any of these people.

ACOSTA: Ad the campus is still mourning them. At Tech's student center, banners willed with signatures from colleges across the country are everywhere. And at commencement, the university plans to hand out school rings to the families of the slain graduates.

PROF. NIKKI GIOVANNI, VIRGINIA TECH: I'm not seeing a whole lot of joy. I'm seeing the sadness that is going to surround this occasion.

ACOSTA: The school's renowned poet, Nikki Giovanni, is reminding her graduates to take time to heal.

GIOVANNI: People say move forward. But we haven't moved backwards. So what...

ACOSTA (on camera): What does that mean, you haven't moved backwards?

GIOVANNI: We haven't. We haven't moved backwards.

We -- here we stand. We just have to find a way to continue to wrap the love around ourselves.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And Jim Acosta now joining us live.

Boy, this is so bittersweet, so difficult, but I loved what the one student had to say, which was it is hard to be self-celebratory right now. At the same time, you know, there is something that this campus wants to celebrate, the fact that they are trying so hard to move on. It's a conflict everyone is dealing with.

ACOSTA: That's right, Fredricka. That's really what's happening here.

This is part -- this is part graduation, and this also part remembrance. And one of the things that we'll be seeing today is the slain students will be honored with posthumous degrees. And then tonight, during the graduation ceremony, we will see each of the victims, both students and professors, have their images projected onto the jumbo screen at the stadium behind us. So, the pomp and circumstance will certainly be somber and subdued.

WHITFIELD: And, you know, Jim, while they're dealing with these kind of conflicting emotions, security is still something that that campus, that the entire state has been grappling with. So, in an event like this, when there are so many more people who are going to be in attendance and so much more focus being placed on this kind of a commencement ceremony, what about security? Is that paramount? ACOSTA: Well, yes. And you would think that the folks here would, you know, come to the realization that lightning is not going to strike twice this evening, but they are worried about security.

There are jittery nerves here on campus. And because there are going to be about 30,000 people here, including 3,500 graduating seniors, and not to mention retired General John Abizaid giving the commencement address, the university is warning people to expect long lines. They will be searching bags. This will be almost like Super Bowl-type security happening here this evening, and the people that we're talking to say they welcome it.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jim Acosta, thanks so much, from the Virginia Tech campus.

HARRIS: A father confesses to killing his young son. So, why would he be released from jail?

That story ahead for you in the NEWSROOM. You won't believe it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Tornadoes, flooding and fire. This week Mother Nature is making her mark. Here's a quick look right now.

The death toll has climbed to 12 from tornadoes that hit Kansas. Some 95 percent of the town of Greensburg was destroyed, but the mayor is vowing to rebuild.

In northwest Missouri, dozens of levees were topped or breached after torrential rains there. The floodwaters are receding in some areas along the Missouri River. That's good news. In other places, the river has yet to crest, however.

And fires have scorched picturesque parts of southern California. Hundreds of people have been evacuated from Santa Catalina Island, while a fire that started earlier this week in Los Angeles' Griffith Park is still not officially out.

HARRIS: He agreed to talk. Now he's ready to walk. A father admits killing his young son and hiding the body, yet he is likely to get out of jail today after serving just 20 months.

CNN's Allan Chernoff now on why the child's desperate mother agreed to a plea deal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The murder of 2-year-old Curtis McCoy was the first chapter of this long-running tragedy. Curtis was killed in 1989. For 16 years, the case was unsolved.

When Curtis McCoy went missing, he had been visiting his father, Curtis Williams, who lived in New Jersey, apart from the boy's mother. (on camera): Williams told police he was shopping with his son here in downtown Newark on November 18th of 1989. When he reached back to grab his son's hand, he said all he touched was air. Little Curtis was gone.

(voice over): Curtis's mother says she couldn't believe the story.

LA SHAWN MCCOY, CURTIS MCCOY'S MOTHER: All he told me was he didn't know. "Where is little Curtis? What happened?" "I don't know." Never cried on the phone, never said he was sorry.

CHERNOFF: La Shawn was persistent, and finally found a police officer who cracked the cold case.

Williams and his girlfriend, Sabitha Moore (ph), were charged with murder. Moore (ph), under an immunity grant, said Williams had beaten his son to death and then buried the body. But where?

La Shawn said she had to find out from Williams where Curtis was buried.

MCCOY: "Why don't you just say this is what happened and this is where he is? And be a man and stand up and face your punishment. This is your child. This is not somebody else's child. This is your child."

CHERNOFF: Prosecutor Debra Simon (ph) told La Shawn McCoy that gaining a confession from Williams was the only chance of possibly finding the body. La Shawn, desperate, agreed to a plea that would allow Williams to be freed after time served, now 20 months, in return for his confession.

Williams admitted he beat the boy to death and then buried him here in Jersey City under the New Jersey Turnpike, a confession that held up under a polygraph test. Authorities dug up this entire area, but 17 years after the murder they failed to find any remains.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Iraq, beyond the violence, and behind the scenes. Correspondent Michael Holmes on his latest tour of duty. "Month of Mayhem," a CNN Special Investigations Unit production, a preview straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Smoke on the water -- wildfires raging from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. We begin off the coast of southern California.

Evacuations underway on Catalina Island. Several homes have burned as flames raced across more than 4,000 acres. The military joining the firefighting efforts. In the southeastern portion of the United States, fires race across tender, dry brush. nearly 300 square miles have burned in Georgia and Florida.

To Reynolds Wolf again and the Severe Weather Center -- and, Reynolds, if you would, talk to us about the situation there, Catalina Island.

Ted Rowlands telling us about conditions that might allow firefighters to perhaps get an upper hand today.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, they may get a little bit of a -- of a break out there.

One of the biggest problems you have with Catalina Island is, first and foremost, you have an island that is right in the middle of the California current. What happens is you have that water that's very, very cool and the island itself heats up pretty quickly. So you have all that air right over the island that continues to rise up. And as it does, you have to have air that will replace it. So that comes in, that sea breeze. And that sea breeze is what fans the flames.

Here's some images that we have compliments of KADC out of Catalina Island. It is a great little island, a beautiful place, rolling hills, a good spot. Avalon is a great place to go and have a great dinner or lunch. They've got the glass bottom boats. A wonderful place.

But today they should get a little bit of a break. They're expecting a little bit more moisture to move through, and that may help drop these flames. Plus, we're not expecting the winds to be quite as strong.

Now, when you get to Florida, though, an entirely different situation. Now we've got Andrea, a subtropical depression that is right off the coast, still bringing in those winds out of the northeast. And they're going to continue much of the day, only about 20 miles per hour or so.

But even then, when you have a fire situation and a lot of dry foliage out there, you don't need any wind at all. But that wind is going to continue and it's going to help spread those flames. I would expect to continue to see that smoke travel its way as far south as Orlando, even into West Palm, as far south as Key West. It's a mess, to say the least -- back to you.

HARRIS: OK, Reynolds.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

WOLF: You bet.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Paying for the Iraq War on the installment plan -- the idea faces an uncertain future in the Senate and a veto threat from the president.

Last night, the House approved a bill to pay for the war, but only through July. Money to fund it through September would hinge on a good progress report.

President Bush says he'll veto any piecemeal spending approach, but he's showing some flexibility -- now willing to accept benchmarks in the bill.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One message I have heard from people from both parties is that the idea of benchmarks makes sense. And I agree. It makes sense to have benchmarks as a part of -- of our discussion on how to go forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Democrats say Iraq must face consequences for not meeting the benchmarks.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says otherwise it's a "meaningless blank check."

Well, Month of Mayhem -- it's the story of CNN's Michael Holmes' latest assignment in Iraq. You can see the special investigations unit report this weekend.

Right now here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You don't know what to expect when you go back in, but, at the same time, you do. And this time going back, snipers have all of a sudden become a really big issue.

(VIDEOTAPE FROM STREET FIGHTING IN BAGHDAD)

HOLMES: Instead of maybe looking there, a lot of people are looking up now, looking at windows and rooftops and things like that.

The other thing that had changed appreciably was the size and the sophistication of the roadside bombs, the use of these explosively formed projectiles, which are savage, brutal, deadly roadside bombs.

These are not like normal bombs. They're what they call shake charges and they fire out a ball of molten copper which will cut through Abrams tank armor, let alone a Humvee.

Most people -- soldiers and a lot of reporters, too -- we've put our names -- I've got my name and blood type in Arabic and English on my helmet, and I have it, also, on a piece of tape.

The soldiers still do dog tags. And the interesting thing with the soldiers, a lot of them will wear one dog tag around their neck and you'll see one in the laces of their boots. And the reason for that is because of the bombs. You can have your head blown off or you can have your leg blown off and, well, you've got a tag at either end.

One of the other problems, when I first started going to Baghdad, which was right, you know, during the war and at the end of the war, we would walk around the streets and talk to people and interview people and go to restaurants and stuff. But now you can't. That's just the way Baghdad is now.

And so, really, the only way we can get contact with local people is to use our own Iraqi staff. And they're fantastic and risk their lives for us every day. Or you embed with the military.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: And Michael Holmes with us now -- all right, Michael, you've been to Iraq eight times.

At what point do you say to yourself, you know, what I'm pressing my luck with each assignment?

HOLMES: Well, I think it was probably the third or fourth time I went there that we pressed our luck too far, in a way. We got ambushed, of course, and we had two of our own killed and one wounded just south of Baghdad.

And I've been back a few times since then.

But you're right, I mean in the back of your mind you think every time you go back, your odds of something else happening do grow. But, you know, as a journalist I just -- I actually feel lucky that I get to go and see this story up close...

WHITFIELD: Yes.

HOLMES: ... and get to then come back and anchor on CNN International with a better knowledge of what's going on.

And so I'll go back again. I know I will. You know, my kids don't like it and, you know, my wife doesn't like it very much, either. But they understand it and they understand it's important that the story be told.

WHITFIELD: Right.

And, as you're telling that story, oftentimes when we head to dangerous areas like this in pursuit of the story, you're thinking about the story. You're thinking about logistically how you're going to be able to tell the story.

It's only when you get back that you, perhaps, assess wait a minute, what I just did was crazy or where I was was crazy.

You know, do you feel like, you know, take that knowledge with you with each assignment, however? HOLMES: I think, you know, when I go there I -- I -- when you're actually there, you're obviously well aware of the risks. And stuff is happening every day. I mean a lot of stuff doesn't even make to air, which is partly what this documentary is about.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

HOLMES: We're showing a lot of the stuff that doesn't get to air, because so much is happening.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

HOLMES: And, you know, you'll hear bombs every day.

But when you're there, I don't know, you feel safer than I know my family is looking at it from a distance. But, you know, it's a calculated risk and it is a risk. Safety is, you know, a relative term when you're in Baghdad.

WHITFIELD: So, in the piece we just saw a clip -- or at least a clip of it -- you talk about some of the scenes that you've noticed have evolved over time, whether it's the sophistication of the IEDs, etc.

Now, what about the point of view of the Iraqis? When you talk with them, have you noticed that their attitude is evolving?

Perhaps they are a little bit more reticent to the American presence or they embrace it more.

What are you finding now?

HOLMES: No, they're -- they're more reticent because they feel that from day one of the invasion, their lives changed for the worse, not the better. You know, and what was promised was not delivered.

And, you know, these are smart people, most of them. And they hear the president say Iraq is a base for Al Qaeda. And they say, well, they weren't here. Al Qaeda wasn't here until you invaded us. And they say they hear talk of democracy -- and they will say -- and I have Iraqis say this to me all the time -- well, who are our allies in the Middle East?

The Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the Jordanians, the Egyptians -- these are not democratic countries with great human rights records themselves.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

HOLMES: And they say what is a democracy in the Middle East?

Well, in the Palestinian Territories there was a free and fair election, but you didn't like who won, so you don't recognize the government.

So they're very cynical about the U.S. from a political standpoint. And their lives -- their day to day lives are so hard and so fraught with danger -- I'll tell you one thing just quickly. I made a point every time I've met with an Iraqi, which was a lot on this last trip. I asked whether their kids went to school. And we talked about the good news stuff, the reconstruction and things like that.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

HOLMES: Well, you know, a lot of them went to a school that was being rebuilt.

And I said, well, where are the kids?

None of them go to school. I must have spoken to 100 Iraqis...

WHITFIELD: Because it's too unsafe...

HOLMES: Too unsafe...

WHITFIELD: ... to actually transit to school.

HOLMES: Parents don't want to send their kids to school because of the dangers.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

HOLMES: I must have spoken to 100 Iraqis who said no, my kids do not go to school.

And I spoke to a U.S. Army captain who is responsible for reconstruction -- I won't mention where, because he would get into trouble.

But he said he had $20 million in his pocket that he was authorized to spend in this area. He couldn't do it. He couldn't spend the money because it would be blown up the next day.

WHITFIELD: Oh, boy.

HOLMES: It's sad. It's sad.

WHITFIELD: It is sad.

HOLMES: And I'd love to be the bearer of better news, but at the moment it's tough.

General David Petraeus, a smart man, a scholar of counterinsurgency. And he's doing some very positive things there. But to me and a lot of other people who have been there a lot, these are great ideas that should have been done a couple of years ago.

WHITFIELD: And these are the state of affairs.

Michael Holmes,, thanks so much for courageous reporting each time that you go.

this time we get to see it encapsulated in this special CNN Investigations Units report "Month of Mayhem."

HOLMES: Yes.

And have a good day.

WHITFIELD: It's incredible, all weekend long -- Saturday and Sunday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Michael, thanks so much.

HARRIS: Yes, if we could, let's button up some of Michael's reporting here with some news just into CNN.

Over the last few weeks, we have been telling you about the new security plan, obviously, for Baghdad, but, also, the corresponding, it seems, up tick of violence in Diyala Province, seeming to suggest that the -- the violence has simply moved to the next province.

Just a short time ago, a Pentagon -- in a Pentagon briefing that is going on right now and continues right now -- we heard from General -- Major General Benjamin Mixon responding to a question about the availability of troops to handle the up tick of violence in Diyala Province.

Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. BENJAMIN MIXON, COMMANDER, MULTINATIONAL DIVISION- NORTH: I have enough soldiers in my area of Nineveh Province, Saladin Province and also Kirkuk Province to provide that security and to conduct operations with those divisions in that area and to move them forward.

I do not have enough soldiers right now in Diyala Province to get that security situation moving. We have plans to put additional forces in that area. I can't discuss the details of that. We have put additional forces in there over the last couple of months, an additional Stryker battalion. but I'm going to need additional forces in Diyala Province to get that situation to a more acceptable level so the Iraqi security forces will be able, in the future, to handle that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK.

Let's get you to the Pentagon now.

Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is with us -- Barbara, if you would, put this bit of information from the major general into context for us.

BARBARA STARR, PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Tony, listening to this briefing that's just concluded a few minutes ago, I was, frankly, stunned to hear such candor from General Mixon. He is well known to very be -- much speak his mind, but this really laid it on the line. Very candidly saying he does not have enough U.S. troops.

What General Mixon has in Diyala Province, which is in, of course, eastern Iraq, bordering the area with Iran, he has a reinforced brigade of about 3,500 U.S. troops and something like 10,000 Iraqi security forces.

But what he is dealing with in Diyala Province, next to Baghdad, this is the hotspot. This is where many of the insurgents from Baghdad have moved, to the northeast, to Diyala Province. Attacks are on the rise. Violence is on the rise. The local Iraqi security forces are struggling. The Iraqi provincial government is struggling.

And General Mixon laying it on the line. He does not have enough troops to deal with this situation.

What he went on to say is he has requested more troops, that they are being made available to him, as they become available, more U.S. troops.

But, look, Tony, we are just a couple of weeks away from the last U.S. brigade going into Iraq as part of the increased troop levels, part of what the administration calls "the surge." It's almost complete and still this general is saying he doesn't have enough troops.

And let me tell you, I expect later in the day that the Pentagon response to General Mixon's candor will be something like well, all the generals, you know, they always want more troops. They always say they can use more.

They do say that. But General Mixon here being very candid, very specific about Diyala Province, saying he needs more U.S. boots on the ground, plain and simple.

Tony?

HARRIS: A big whoa -- a big whoa moment here.

Barbara, why don't we leave it here for now.

I think we both need to take a moment -- all of us need to take a moment and think about what we've just heard here.

And let's talk again at the top of the hour.

STARR: You bet.

HARRIS: OK, Barbara.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT) WHITFIELD: All right, something else we are following, this one a huge shocker. This one will really have you on the edge of your seat. A woman in distress, a trooper to the rescue, a split second decision saving both their lives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I just bear hugged her and we went over the barricade. I believe that's how it happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Whew -- roadside hero straight ahead in THE NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: About 20 miles off the Southern California coast is Catalina Island. These are live pictures right now, where parts of that island burning -- 4,000 acre plus wildfire that is now threatening properties there, as well as just simply the landscape there.

A number of tourists, mostly, have been evacuating that island. Some residents who are saying they're going to try and hold down the fort, try to protect their properties.

Meantime, the U.S. military is also assisting in fighting the blazes there.

We're going to continue to watch it into the next hour.

Meantime, checking the clothes bin and finding green in Greenville. A good heart at good will in THE NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Pod casting music there, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Yes. I like it. It's snappy.

HARRIS: Are you on the pod casting with me today?

WHITFIELD: Yes, I am.

HARRIS: You are?

OK.

Good.

WHITFIELD: Uh-huh.

HARRIS: I'm just trying to direct people to the pod cast because it's so much fun. They'll enjoy it.

WHITFIELD: It's fantastic. HARRIS: They can take us...

WHITFIELD: Stay informed.

HARRIS: Absolutely every moment of...

WHITFIELD: Wherever, whenever.

HARRIS: That's it.

Download the pod cast right onto your iPod. The CNN NEWSROOM pod cast available to you 24/7 on your iPod.

WHITFIELD: Love it.

Well, a Utah state trooper is one woman's hero this morning. When push came to shove, literally, the trooper's quick thinking saved both their lives. Here is Sam Penrod with affiliate KSL.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SAM PENROD, KSL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): UHP Trooper Bryce Ivie stopped to help a woman change a flat tire along I-15 in Orem. At the same time, a man who investigators believe was on drugs, suddenly slammed into the back of the trooper's truck.

TROOPER BRYCE IVIE, UTAH HIGHWAY PATROL: I think I just kind of -- I don't know, I think I just bear hugged her and we went over the barricade. I believe that's how it happened.

PENROD: Had Trooper Ivie not got himself and the 25-year-old woman out of the way, crash investigators believe they both would have been killed. Both the trooper's truck and the woman's car were shoved more than 30 feet down the shoulder of the freeway by the speeding SUV.

IVIE: A thousand things go through your mind. You know, the first thing I thought of is, you know what?

I've got to get me and this female, the driver of the passenger car, out of the way so we're not injured.

After that, my initial instinct after that was to disable the vehicle from leaving the scene and to prevent any further damage.

PENROD: Ivie says the driver of the SUV, 29-year-old Richard Barrett, was so out of it that he had to climb in and take the keys out of the car.

The woman Ivie saved praised his actions on the ksl.com comment board. Jihae Song writes: "If it wasn't for the officer, the person that crashed into us would have hit my car and hit me, and who knows what would have happened? I froze when I saw the truck coming towards us."

The trooper still insists he was only doing his job. IVIE: It's my job to -- to protect -- to protect not only myself, but the citizens of this state out there. So it was just sense -- it was just second nature to protect her, as well as myself.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: Man.

HARRIS: Isn't that a story?

WHITFIELD: A close call.

HARRIS: Boy.

We are watching the situation -- a California resort island a raging inferno today. Catalina burning, in THE NEWSROOM.

And it is all about discovery for one...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: It is all about discovery for one former Microsoft executive.

His new challenge?

Finding inventions.

CNN's Ali Velshi shows us how he found life after work.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Discovery drives everything with Nathan Myhrvold. Discovery of dinosaur bones on the fossil hunts that he finances. Discovery of new subjects for the photographs he takes. And his latest quest -- discovering inventions.

NATHAN MYHRVOLD, FOUNDER, INTELLECTUAL VENTURES: Our basic idea is that we invest in invention. And we do this a bunch of ways. We make our own inventions and we also invest in others'

VELSHI: Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures is bankrolling inventors he hopes are the Thomas Edisons of the 21st century. He amassed a fortune during his 14 years at Microsoft, retiring as chief technology officer in 2000. And now the self-described hardcore nerd wants to fill what he calls a void in the market.

MYHRVOLD: Almost no one has a business card that says inventor. Almost no business focuses people on saying what I want you to do is to invent new things as your primary job.

And so our idea is actually pretty simple. It's, hey, if we focus on that full-time, we've got to be able to do better at it than if we do it as a sideline.

VELSHI: Myhrvold has recruited 44 inventors so far. He says they're patenting about 450 ideas a year. He gave us a first look at the invention lab he's building in a Seattle suburb, outfitted primarily with things he bought from online auctions.

MYHRVOLD: It's a Ford racing engine.

VELSHI: And he's still enjoying the discovery process, even though they don't have a major hit yet.

MYHRVOLD: I love what we're doing right now. Because this is a long-term business, if it wasn't fun in the short run, none of that other stuff would actually matter.

VELSHI: Ali Velshi, CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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