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Deadly Drag Racing Stunt; Search for Missing Pregnant Woman; Palestinian Split

Aired June 18, 2007 - 11:00   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're with CNN. You're informed.
I'm Tony Harris.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Heidi Collins.

Developments keep coming in to the CNN NEWSROOM on Monday, June 18th.

Here's what's on the rundown.

Fast and furious. A flash flood overruns homes outside Fort Worth. One little girl loses her life. Dozens of families now homeless.

HARRIS: A drag race stunt goes out of control. Six people killed at a Tennessee charity event. We fill you in on what police had to say a short while ago.

Macau, Asia's Las Vegas and home to its version of the world series of poker. No card sharks here. You play with tiles.

Mahjong masters in the CNN NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: And at the top of this hour, a dangerous severe weather situation in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Overnight, torrential rains brought flash flooding. Two mobile home parks in Haltom City overrun, some families forced to the roofs of their homes to escape the high water.

A 4-year-old girl who was swept from her mother's arms. Her body was found this morning.

Haltom City had between four and five inches just within one hour. There are reports of some areas getting as much as 10 inches over the weekend. Flooding also forced parts of Interstate 35 at the Oklahoma-Texas state line to close.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: And we are getting some new details now in that deadly drag racing crash in Selmer, Tennessee. A news conference just this morning a few moments ago.

CNN's Sean Callebs is in Selmer. Sean, good morning to you.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.

Indeed, there's a certain degree of frustration, even outrage, in this community after the fatal accident over the weekend. In the nearby town of Jackson, the local district attorney general, as well as law enforcement officials from the state, the local, the county, were there to answer questions.

Now, the district attorney general, Mike Donovan, was the person everybody was looking to this morning. Will charges be filed against the driver of the car that ran off of Highway 45 into the crowd, killing six, injuring more than 15 people?

Well, the attorney general says at this point the investigation is just in its infancy. And right now, it's just too early to decide if criminal charges will be filed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE DONOVAN, DISTRICT ATTORNEY GENERAL: It was a complex scene. Many people were there. We are still in the midst of this ongoing investigation. Very preliminarily at this time, but we have some information about that.

I'll be reviewing all of that with officers and agents from these investigative departments. And as soon as they can get that information to me, we'll be making decisions about whether and what, if any, crime may be charged as a result of this.

But I want to thank them all for working so diligently and so well together in this. We certainly want the people of Selmer and McNairy County to know that we are doing everything that we can to address these issues regarding public safety and responsibility as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALLEBS: Now, the Tennessee Highway Patrol says word has come down from above that this investigation is going to be a state priority.

The driver of the race car that plowed off this road, Troy Critchley, has left the area. His home is in Texas. We are waiting a statement from AMS, the owners of that vehicle, the owners of the team where that accident occurred.

What happened? There was a parade here yesterday -- or Saturday -- part of a charitable event to raise money for the local hospital for children. And during a burnout, a stunt basically shown to show off for the crowd, the car lost control, veered off the road before slamming into a utility pole.

And if you look at that utility pole right now, at the base of it -- we have another camera aimed that way -- there are a number of flowers, crosses, candles from a candlelight vigil last night. Indeed, stuffed animals as well.

Now, the mayor of this town, Heidi, says he would like to see this event, Cars for Kids, continue without a pall cast over the event. But certainly that's going to be very, very difficult for this community to forget. This is a small community, and all of those who were killed were either in their late teens or early 20s -- Heidi.

COLLINS: It's just devastating.

Sean, I want to ask you a couple of quick questions.

You know, I've been in the infield for an IRL event. So, Indy Racing League obviously very different vehicles. But I have seen those burnouts that they do, you know, after the winner. It's kind of a tradition, the winner will do one of those burnouts and spin around.

I just wonder how many questions were asked -- and obviously this might be what's going on in the investigation -- about the organizing of that, and the public safety by way of all of those people standing along that road without any sort of barrier?

CALLEBS: You know, it seems from an outsider to look like an accident waiting to happen. Because if you look down this road, you can see all the skid marks where these muscle cars stopped, just came to a complete stop, and then would just drop the hammer and they'd accelerate and spin. Well, you can see it was right down in this area where the car lost control and went up.

Now, the city has sanctioned this. They encouraged drivers to do this. It's unclear if there had ever been a car this powerful in this event before.

But this is a car that can go from zero to 200 in a matter of seconds. So even losing control for just an instant, if you look how -- you know, this is a four-lane road, but it's only so big. You veer off just a little bit, lose control at that speed, and sadly it's all over. And that's exactly what happened.

COLLINS: Right. And quickly, Sean, you may not know the answer to this. I'm just curious, do you have any idea if the people who were standing there watching this, who were involved in the parade and just as spectators, had any idea that this particular stunt was going to be performed?

CALLEBS: Oh, yes. Everybody knew that this was going to happen. This is what draws the people here.

We talked to the towns folk. They do this every year. But according to the locals, they said there had never been a car this powerful before.

COLLINS: Yes.

CALLEBS: They just love speed. They love big machines. But boy, you see the frailty of a human body compared to a mammoth machine like that in a very, very, very graphic way. COLLINS: Absolutely.

All right. Sean Callebs reporting for us live from Selmer, Tennessee.

Sean, thank you.

HARRIS: To Ohio now, where a woman who is nine months pregnant is missing. Right now a search is under way. So far, police have only her little boy and a deepening mystery.

CNN's Jim Acosta is covering the story in Canton, Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATTY PORTER, MISSING WOMAN'S MOTHER: We don't know what's happened, and I -- I just want my daughter back.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Police in Stark County, Ohio, near Canton, are searching for 26-year-old Jessie Marie Davis. The pregnant single mother who's due to give birth any day vanished last week. On Friday, her mother Jessie's 2-year-old son home alone and signs of possible foul play in her daughter's bedroom.

PORTER: Her comforter was off and her mattress was pushed over, her nightstand was knocked over, the lamp was knocked over. And somebody poured bleach all over her carpet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there is an element of foul play involved in this case. We have not had any clues of where she might be or who may be responsible for what happened to her.

ACOSTA: While investigators continue to search for those clues, friends and family have posted flyers with the hope Jessie is live alive.

JANE DAVIS, MISSING WOMAN'S SISTER: It hurts my heart because I -- I mean, you know, she is the one you look up to. She's your big sister, and she's such a strong person. And you can't imagine that anything would ever happen to her. You know, she didn't have any enemies. She didn't -- she has never done anything wrong.

ACOSTA: Police have questioned the father of Davis' son, who investigators believe is also the father of the child she is carrying. He's also a local police officer and married to another woman. But police stress neither he nor his wife are suspects.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: CNN's Jim Acosta joins us now from Canton, Ohio.

And Jim, what is the family saying about the father of the unborn baby?

ACOSTA: Right now, Tony, they're not saying much of anything. Actually, we ran into the mother of Jessie Davis outside the sheriff's department here this morning and asked her about the unusual dynamic that was going on within this family. And they simply had no comment, except to say that they felt that Jessie did not have any enemies.

And I think they wanted us to infer from that that there was no bad blood between Jessie Davis and the father of her children and that gentleman's wife, who is also apparently been talked to by investigators. At this point, the family really just doesn't want to bring any of that into it. And really, the police are saying they're not suspects. So I guess the family's take on it is that it's not -- it's not relevant.

HARRIS: And nothing really firm in terms of new leads or clues to her disappearance?

ACOSTA: It's baffling. They said that they looked all weekend long, canvassing this neighborhood, surrounding neighborhoods, had canines out scouring the area. And so far, nothing has turned up, so the police say. At this point, they're really just going by what Jessie's son is saying to police about what he saw and hoping that somebody will just see this picture of this young lady out there and call the authorities.

HARRIS: CNN's Jim Acosta for us in Canton, Ohio.

Jim, thank you.

COLLINS: Want to take a moment to bring you some live pictures now of Gainesville, Texas. We've been following this story and these storms in Texas all morning long for you. Let's go ahead and take a look and listen in to what's happening there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here is the scene from Gainesville. This is due north from Dallas, right up 35 as you get close to the border with Oklahoma.

Cook County, the town of Gainesville, the flash flooding is significant. And there are rescues going on right now. You have got police going in boats door to door, checking on residents.

HD (ph) Chopper 8 is in Gainesville this morning. This is a live look. And we are talking with pilot Troy Bush (ph) -- Troy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Justin (ph), this area is just devastated. We started out actually in Sherman, worked our way this way. Parts of 75 completely under water, parts of Highway 82 completely under water.

The entire east side of downtown Gainesville -- it's what you're looking at right now -- completely under water. There is no traffic in or out of this town because all of the major roads are under water.

Being from Texas myself, I never complained about rain, but I think we're at a point where enough is enough. This town is just -- it's just amazing.

Probably a good one-third of downtown is under water. That's what you're looking at at this point.

We are going to be covering some rescues that are going on. You can see some boats there in your picture right now looking for some folks. And like you said earlier, they are going door to door, checking on folks, checking on the elderly, making sure that everyone is accounted for.

We'll stay on top of these rescues and on top of any updates live from HD (ph) Chopper 8.

I'm Troy Bush (ph), Channel 8 News.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's get to you the CNN newsroom right now. T.J. Holmes is there following a developing story.

And T.J., this is an Amber Alert, and this one is particularly frightening.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Good morning to you there, Tony.

This is out of Maryland, Montgomery County specifically. And what's happening there, police are on the lookout for that vehicle. And specifically on the lookout for who may be in it -- a father and his two kids.

Now, they were last seen on Saturday, but there's an 8-year-old and 10-year-old who are believed to be with their father, a 43-year- old man by the name of Navid Ektorafi (ph). He's with his children Enis (ph) and Juliette (ph). But the concern here is that police say he called some relatives and said that he threatened to kill himself and the two children.

So right now, police have put out what they call an urgent lookout. They're not officially terming it an Amber Alert just yet. Different criteria for some of these cases.

But right now, still, they have all the authorities in that area looking. An urgent lookout.

A silver Honda CRV-EX is what they're believed to be in with the Maryland tags that you are seeing there. And they're believed to possibly be heading to the Ocean City, Maryland, area. An unknown location there, but possibly heading to that direction.

But right now, the concern is that did he call, according to authorities, did call some other relatives and threatened to kill himself, the 8-year-old son, and also the 10-year-old daughter. Don't know anything else about the circumstances, the mother, if anything was going on with the family, or anything like that, or why he may have made that threat.

But right now, certainly a lot of concern. And police on the lookout for that vehicle and these three individuals, and certainly the son and the daughter.

So certainly a scary time there for a lot of folks, the family. But keeping an eye out. And we're hoping to get a good resolution to this story here -- Tony.

HARRIS: Urgent lookout, or Amber Alert, it is a serious situation. And we know you're following it for us. T.J., thanks.

HOLMES: All right, Tony.

HARRIS: Thank you.

COLLINS: This morning, remembering a tragedy but trying to heal at the same time. Today Virginia Tech reopened the building where a gunman went on a bloody rampage. Norris Hall, closed since the April massacre, will never again be used for classrooms. Instead, offices and laboratories will fill the space.

Seung-Hui Cho killed 30 people in Norris Hall before killing himself.

HARRIS: Fierce fighting in Lebanon. The military pulls out heavy artillery against an al Qaeda-inspired militant group.

The latest coming up in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: A deadly secret about insulin and weight loss. Why some diabetics are going so far as to put their lives on the line.

Details in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: A changing political climate in the Middle East. An aide says President Bush called Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas this morning. Mr. Bush reportedly pledged his support to President Abbas and says he is open to resuming Middle East peace talks.

This follows Hamas' takeover of Gaza last week. That led to President Abbas dissolving the National Security Council and forming a new temporary West Bank government that does not include Hamas.

Now the European Union says it will resume direct aid to the Palestinian government in the West Bank. The U.S. is poised to do the same. The U.S. considers Hamas a terrorist organization.

The new Palestinian government faces big challenges, including a question of legitimacy raised from Gaza.

CNN's Atika Shubert explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas used his emergency powers to override parliament and swear in a new government under the leadership of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. Approving a cabinet stacked with political independence, neither Hamas nor Fatah, Abbas expressed his hope to reunite Gaza and the West Bank under one rule. "This government will fully shoulder its responsibilities," he said, "not only in the West Bank, but in all the homeland, including wounded Gaza."

But Hamas leaders in Gaza immediately rejected the new government.

AHMED YOUSEF, HAMAS SPOKESMAN: Emergency government, it's illegal. So we are still stand in the right side based on the constitution. What has been taken is out of jurisdiction of President Abbas. It's out of -- beyond his authority.

SHUBERT: In Gaza, residents rushed to stores to stock up on food and basic necessities, fearful supplies would be cut off as political pressure intensifies on Hamas. That may depend on Israel, controlling the gateways in and out of Gaza.

A private Israeli company has already cut off the fuel supply to the isolated coastal strip. That could bring Gaza to a standstill, stopping not only traffic, but the fuel generators that many residents and hospitals rely on for electricity.

Both the U.S. and Israel have indicated they would support the new Palestinian government with desperately-needed cash, while isolating Hamas. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet with U.S. President George Bush this week to discuss what he described as a new opportunity in the Palestinian political divide.

Complicating matters, Katyusha rockets launched from inside Lebanon. Two landed in an industrial area of northern Israel on Sunday, causing light damage and no injuries. The third landed inside Lebanon, near a U.N. forces observation post.

Hezbollah has denied responsibility. Israel suspects Palestinian militants in Lebanon. With the region already a powder keg, Palestinians now fear the worst.

SAEB ERAKAT, PALESTINIAN LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL: I see a catastrophe. I see the separation of Gaza and the West Bank. We have an (INAUDIBLE), and I believe there are some in this bigger region here who are exploiting the Palestinian situation.

SHUBERT (on camera): The new Palestinian government is faced with a dilemma, how to get aid to the 1.5 million residents in Gaza while still keeping the pressure on Hamas. All without appearing to do the bidding of the U.S. and Israel.

Atika Shubert, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE) COLLINS: Fresh attacks in Lebanon. The army advancing on militant positions at a Palestinian refugee camp outside of Tripoli. Tanks and heavy artillery backing up those troops on the ground.

At least three soldiers were killed in the latest round of fighting. More than 130 people have died since clashes sparked in May between Lebanese security forces and the Fatah al-Islam group.

HARRIS: Violent attacks in Iraq, where the everyday chore of getting gasoline turns deadly.

The story in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: A fatal highway stunt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

It came around, hit the lamp post, slid over, hit the people on the four wheeler and there was bodies everywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Tragedy in Tennessee. Ahead in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: New pictures of the disastrous deluge, the small town outside Dallas Ft. Worth under water. A developing story, incredible scenes to show you in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Good morning once again, I'm Heidi Collins.

HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. Welcome back everyone, in the CNN NEWSROOM. New video this morning from that overnight severe weather in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. I'm wondering, are these new pictures, guys let me know, are these from the Dallas area? Live pictures now just in. Heidi just saw these in the monitor just a moment ago. We were able to turn those around for you. Torrential rains brought flash flooding to two mobile home parks in Haltom City. Pictures that we have been showing you throughout the day, some families forced to the roofs of their homes to escape the high water. A four -year-old girl swept from her mother's arms, her body was found this morning. Haltom City had up to five inches of rain in an hour. There are some reports of some areas getting as much as 10 inches over the weekend. Flooding also forcing parts of interstate-35 at the Oklahoma Texas state line to close. These are live pictures and just a real mess.

COLLINS: Absolutely and as Chad's been telling us, the area of Haltom City is looking good and back to normal today. This, however now, Gainesville, Texas and just look at that. I mean, the whole place completely flooded, nowhere for that water to go, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, the problem is, this rain happened probably four or five hours later than the Haltom City rain. That water is Haltom City has already run off. Even some of the radar estimates over Haltom City is about three to four inches. This area up here, six to eight inches. So the scope and the scale of how much rain is here is really amazing. My producer was telling me something but I didn't quite get it. Go ahead. There we go. Let's go back to that downtown again obviously this is a rural area, a little bit at least but downtown, not spared by any means. This is the railroad crossing there, the gates are down. Power has been out for many areas here.

Obviously you get that much water in a downtown area. And look at that. That literally is downtown Gainesville. It looks like a city official or a county worker there with that truck trying to move through it and they were backing boats in, trying to get some high- water rescues in there. People were stranded in their vehicles. The problem with a lot of this rain happened just before sunrise. It was still dark. People didn't see it happening, didn't see it coming, knew it was raining. It rained heavily. It rained just for hours in this area from Gainesville over to Sherman and down south. In some of the areas we're watching it, literally, this was 6:00 this morning and our mouths were open. Wow, how can it rain four inches an hour? That's tropical rainfall like you can't even see across the street. And then it would rain in the same spot like that for two hours. And we knew that things were going to get out of hand in a hurry. Obviously, they did. A couple of lives lost this morning. But so far, no new reports of anybody like -- anything like that happening up here in north Texas. We're talking about the area -- here's Denton, here's Valley View, Gainesville right up there, Sherman, Dennison and this entire area here filled in with a lot of rain in the overnight areas.

I'm going to switch a view to a completely different radar picture. It's going to look a lot different. What it is is actually the adding up of the rainfall. Here's where most of our video is from this morning. Actually where those fatalities were, from Haltom City and that was only in the red, only in the red at three inches of rainfall overnight. You get up here toward Keller and for that matter, Trophy Club, this here is the pink, that's pushing six inches of rain and then Denton and then farther to the north, keeps adding up and adding up and adding up, finally the rain stopped. Most of the rain now moving on up into Oklahoma or east of this area. Spread it out a little bit, it's not so bad. But when you get a storm that just doesn't want to move, that's when you get the flooding.

COLLINS: Yikes. Unbelievable.

MYERS: These pictures are still coming in from WFAA. They've been really instrumental in us getting this video on the air because we've been up there with their helicopter. And you can just see the water trying to run off now. It just can't go anywhere. It's been raining in Texas now for weeks now and the ground is saturated. So any time it rains, the water comes up. And this is basically an agricultural area, too. You would think at least some of it could soak in when you have all the concrete of what was Ft. Worth and north Ft. Worth. That's going to run off a lot. This ran off -- I think this guy was trying to back the boat in far enough to get it to float to go help out but I don't know...

COLLINS: It's too small it seems like. MYERS: You don't have a ramp so you can't get the boat in more water than the truck and you don't want to get the truck in too much more water or else you got it in the oil pan.

COLLINS: I'm sure you already said it, just remind us what the folks of Gainesville and in this area anyway can expect for the next couple days?

MYERS: Most of the rainfall, Heidi, has moved off to the east. That's some great news. This is something that you need to be very careful about. When you get some swift water like this and you lose your feet, you lose your feet, just one step, you step in a hole or a pothole or whatever it might be or maybe that road is not even there because it might have got washed away and then you're floating and you're moving. This isn't moving that quickly but if the water is moving quickly, you're putting yourself in jeopardy. Unless you're just evacuating your house and you have to do this, don't. There's no reason to walk through that and go play around with it. There's nothing to see and the water is never all that clean. Things always end up in the water that you don't want to be touching or tasting or anything like that so some dangerous water. Just turn around if you see water like this and the weather service says, this is a kind of rhyme they make, turn around, don't drown. It's not worth it.

COLLINS: It's a good one. And obviously reminding everybody, we learned a few moments ago, that rescue crews are have to go door to door by boat obviously you can see from that situation to make sure that people are OK getting out of their homes and elderly people not in harm's way. We'll of course continue to follow this situation. Those pictures coming in from WFAA, Gainesville, Texas.

Meanwhile, 18 years without a problem and now tragedy this morning. The search for answers in Selmer, Tennessee. Six young people were killed during a drag racing stunt at a charity car show. More than a dozen others were hurt. The scene on tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God! Oh, my God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: The stunt, a crowd pleaser at the annual event, what went wrong. Officials talked about the investigation just a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE DONOVAN, DISTRICT ATTORNEY GENERAL: It was a complex scene. Many people were there. We are still in the midst of this ongoing investigation. Very preliminarily at this time, we have some information about that. I'll be reviewing all of that with officers and agents from these investigative departments. And as soon as they can get that information to me, we'll be making decisions about whether and what, if any, crime may be charged as a result of this. But I want to thank them all for working so diligently and so well together in this. We certainly want the people of Selmer and McNamara County to know that we are doing everything that we can to address these issues regarding public safety and responsibility as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: All of the victims who died in the crash were young people in their teens and 20s.

HARRIS: Concerned in Canton, Ohio this morning, a woman missing. Jessie Davis is nine months' pregnant. She's not been seen in days. Her mother says she went to check on her on Friday and found Davis ' two-year-old son home alone. A police officer says there is foul play involved in this case. According to authorities, a Canton police officer is the father of the two-year old and probably the father of the baby Davis is carrying. That officer is married to another woman. Police stress that neither the officer nor his wife are suspects.

COLLINS: Caught in the crossfire, children among the dead after a coalition air strike in Afghanistan. Details ahead in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: The international space station's computer is getting a critical test this morning. That story in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: "Your World Today" coming up at the top of the hour about 15 minutes from now. Rosemary Church standing by. Rosemary, good morning.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you both, great to see you. A lot going on across the globe today. We start in the Middle East where an economic life line is being thrown to the new Palestinian government. That's being offered by the west. But with Hamas controlling Gaza and Fatah controlling the west bank, who's really in charge? And could this mean a three-state solution? We'll have a live report on that. And protesters in Italy demanding why a convicted Nazi mass murderer can leave his home to go to work.

And victory for David Beckham at the end of his roller coaster season. He eyes a new adventure in the United States. More and more people here in the U.S. talking about David Beckham. Of course, his wife, Posh, we'll have that. And lots and lots of other stories, too, right across the world here on "Your World Today" coming up in just a few minutes on CNN. Back to you both. Hope you'll stick with us.

HARRIS: Absolutely, count on it. Thanks Rosemary.

COLLINS: Thanks Rosemary. Unexpected targets, seven children killed in the coalition air strike in Afghanistan. The attack was launched on a suspected al Qaeda compound in Paktika (ph) province southeast of the capital of Kabul. The U.S. military says several al Qaeda militants were also killed in the air strike. A coalition spokesman blamed al Qaeda for the children's death.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VOICE OF ARMY MAJ. CHRIS BELCHER, COALTION SPOKESMAN: We had -- there were - (INAUDIBLE) surveilling the building or surrounding the compound all day. The information we got from (INAUDIBLE) the children who survived is that they were prevented from leaving the building. The people we had who were doing the surveillance did not seem them children and we would not have targeted them.

COLLINS: The U.S. military says they are saddened by the children's deaths.

HARRIS: Want to get you to suburban Dallas right now. Take a look at these pictures. Gainesville, Texas, a rescue happening right now. You see that one person being pulled from the roof and in the water and OK it looks. Then there's the pooch right there on the roof. That will happen, that rescue will happen in just a moment, we can imagine. Again, this is what we are seeing in Texas right now in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.

COLLINS: A child, too.

HARRIS: And a little child?

COLLINS: A little boy, yes.

As we continue to take a look at these amazing pictures throughout the morning from not an organized storm system that produced all this rain, but just cells as Chad has been telling us that just burst on the scene and provided all of this rain to Haltom City and other surrounding suburbs in the Dallas Ft. Worth area. What are you seeing?

COLLINS: There's another child coming out.

HARRIS: This kind of scene, we're seeing more and more play out this morning as the rain, at least for now, as you can see, has stopped. There is so much on the ground there and nowhere apparently for it all to go. And a rescue that we wanted to show you taking place right now. That's in Gainesville, Texas, downtown Gainesville. Boy, just inundated by water. We've got some of those pictures. Maybe we'll show you in just a bit. But it looks like the dog...

COLLINS: It looks like he may jump at any moment. But obviously they are trying to get the house cleared and get all those people on those hovercraft and get them to safety first.

HARRIS: Yes.

COLLINS: Boy, oh, boy, that is unbelievable.

HARRIS: We will sort of monitor that situation. We'll turn tape, once we see the dog make the jump to safety here, at least that's what we think might happen.

COLLINS: He's a lab. He can swim, we hope.

HARRIS: Yes. COLLINS: Meanwhile, who is the titan of tiles? Mahjong and they are the masters, too. They're facing off in a million dollar tournament. World series final coming up in the NEWSROOM.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ali Velshi at the New York Stock Exchange. You might be excited about a new transfer to a new city but it could cost you big bucks. I'm going to have the latest rundown of the world's most expensive cities to transfer to. Coming up, you're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Continuing to watch this story coming out of Texas, in particular, Gainesville, Texas. We just want to show you once again one of the rescues that was conducted. As we've been reporting, rescuers going door to door with a hovercraft and other vehicles. This here, you see a woman being taken from the roof. She's OK. The water doesn't look to be very deep there. Do need to get those people out of the water which I imagine by now is getting pretty contaminated, quite a bit of debris probably floating in it. You also see eventually here two children, pretty small children, too, being loaded into that hovercraft vehicle and being taken to safety. I'm sure there will be questions about the dog on the roof as well. The black lab, we know that they did take those folks away. We are continuing to watch these stories. More people in different parts but not too far away from that last rescue kind of walking around in the water, which we and Chad, of course, always advise, just don't do that. Try to stay where you know the water is certainly not rushing. You never know what could happen certainly.

HARRIS: To business news now. If your boss wants you to transfer to Moscow or London, make sure you also get a nice raise. Ali Velshi is at the New York Stock Exchange and he has got the latest list of the world's most expensive cities. Ali, good morning.

VELSHI: Good morning to you, sir. I'm going to Moscow in a couple of weeks but it looks like I'm not going to be staying because I've read this report and when it comes to pricey places, Moscow tops the list again. Those reports according to human resources firm Mercer. I got to tell you, this is about ex-pats so they're measuring luxury. A luxury two bedroom in Russia, will run you four grand a month. A CD will cost you 25 bucks, an international newspaper more than $6. London as you mentioned moves into the number two spot because of higher rent and a stronger British pound. Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong round out the top five. They look at the cost of housing, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. And as I say, it's based on the cost of living for expatriates who go to those cities to work and it uses the cost of living in New York as a baseline.

HARRIS: Well speaking of New York, the big apple, didn't it make the top 10 last year?

VELSHI: Yeah and it fell. It actually is number 15 now.

HARRIS: How did that happen? VELSHI: Unbelievable. The only other North American city, the only other American city to make the top 50 was LA. It's number 42 on the list. So I thought it was expensive here. I'm going to have to stop complaining about it.

HARRIS: There you go.

VELSHI: Let's take a look at what markets are doing Tony. Right now the which started off strong today are down. We're off about seven points on the Dow right now to 13,632. The Nasdaq is down, so is the S&P 500. There's some takeover talk/ We're still worried about interest rates and Alcoa is leading the blue chips. It's up more than 2.5 percent on rumor of a possible takeover bid by BHB Viliton (ph). SO that's what we're looking at right now. We'll keep you posted on it. I guess I'm going to stay here in New York.

HARRIS: Yes. Yes, do that. We like you there.

VELSHI: Too expense to move.

HARRIS: Go to Moscow, take a visit and come on back.

VELSHI: I will do that.

HARRIS: All right Ali, appreciate it.

COLLINS: The international space station's computer is getting a critical test this morning. We'll tell you all about it, coming up in the NEWSROOM.

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COLLINS: Both the shuttle and the international space station possibly closer to going their separate ways. A final critical test of the station's troublesome computers is under way right now. They're making sure the computers are good to go after going down last week. Meanwhile, the shuttle astronauts are packing up for the trip home. If all goes well with the test they are set to undock tomorrow. Landing is planned for Thursday.

HARRIS: CNN NEWSROOM continues one hour from now with continuing coverage of the flooding and rescue efforts north of Dallas. These pictures from the Gainesville are. South areas Heidi with more than 10 inches of rain in the past 24 hours. Live coverage available right now by the way at cnn.com/pipeline.

COLLINS: Meanwhile, "Your World Today" is next with news happing across the globe and here at home. I'm Heidi Collins.

HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris.

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