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Tornadoes Hit Southern United States; Georgia Drought
Aired October 20, 2007 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the crib had flipped over and the mattress was the only thing that saved the baby. The mattress was on top of the baby, but there was thousands of pounds worth of stuff wrapped over this baby. I don't know how he made it.
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BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: They are calling him a miracle baby. The boy ripped from his crib by deadly force of a tornado. We have the dramatic story of the search and his survival this hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Property owners want the water back on in the morning. It's $1,000.
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T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Woo! A lot. We'll talk about that some more. Extreme drought. Extreme measures. If you get caught wasting water, you will have to pay a hefty fine. So bad in some parts that people are turning in their own neighbors.
NGUYEN: And if you are afraid of heights, you may want to look away. It is quite a sight. We'll give you live pictures of a bridge jump that is happening right now.
HOLMES: Yeah, that's happening in West Virginia. We'll have a lot more details on that on bridge day. In the meantime, good morning to you all. This is the CNN NEWSROOM on this Saturday. What is it now, October the what?
NGUYEN: 20th,, I believe.
HOLMES: The year is flying by.
NGUYEN: Halloween just around the corner.
HOLMES: What are you going to be for Halloween?
NGUYEN: The holidays. What am I going to be?
Scary enough.
HOLMES: I didn't want to say anything. NGUYEN: Don't go there.
HOLMES: Hello, everyone, I'm T.J. Holmes.
NGUYEN: Hi, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen. Thanks for being with us today.
Well, knew this morning. A miracle after killer storms. At least eight Michigan counties slammed by violent weather late Tuesday. But the destruction in one rural county stands out. Out of all this devastation, what some are calling a miracle baby. After a frantic 10 minute search, a faint whimper, 14-month-old Blake was trapped beneath a big pile of debris. A neighbor describes how they found the little guy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the crib had flipped over and the mattress was the only thing that saved the baby. There was thousands of pounds worth of stuff wrap over this baby. I don't know how he made it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Last hour, we did have a chance to talk with the family about this horrifying ordeal and the very happy ending.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OPPERMAN: I jumped out of bed to go get the kids, and I didn't make it past the bed before the entertainment center and the dresser had started moving around. And I saw the roof come off the bathroom. There was no way to get to them. I just started screaming, and Michaela (ph) actually came out. I couldn't find Blake. Joe actually was the one who found him, and our neighbor.
SOYRING: Yeah. My neighbor Jeff and I, we ended up finding him under a pile of rubble about 45, 50 feet from the house.
It was probably about ten minutes after we had gotten Michaela, we actually went over to hurry neighbor's house to get out of the weather. Then me and my neighbor p gone outside with a flashlight looking around with him. It was still raining and windy really bad.
It was very scary. I mean, you know, to not know where he's at. You know, I didn't know -- trying not to think of the worst, but I didn't know if the tornado had taken him, where he could have possibly ended up because, you know -- it tore my heart out. I tell you, when we found him, when we heard him and we tore all the debris off and we found him under his mattress, it was the best feeling I've ever had.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: And he seems to be just fine today. For more on this story, you do want to stay with CNN throughout the day because we'll be checking back with the family as they try to pick up the pieces. HOLMES: Another big story we're following this morning. A major drought crisis in the Southeast. Less than 90 days until Atlanta's water pipes run dry. Residents under strict watering restrictions. Homeowners aren't allowed to water their lawns. And things getting pretty intense. In some areas, they will shut off all of your water if you get caught.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They come out and put pesticides on your lawn.
HOLMES (voice-over): Michael Grigs is on control. He's on the lookout for green grass, a sign that people are watering their lawns.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like this yard right here. Really, really green.
HOLMES: He's also checking water meters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should be no use on your irrigation meters.
HOLMES: Douglas County in suburban Atlanta is under a total outdoor watering ban. It's Grigs' job to find violators and take action immediately, shutting their water off. So far, nearly 20 households have had their water turned off.
PETER FROST, DOUGLAS CO. WATER AUTHORITY: Yeah, if property owners want the water back on in the morning, it's $1,000. If not, if they want to wait until we were able to schedule for the turn-on, then they'll only have to pay the trip charge, which is $25.
HOLMES: Future violations only get more expensive. A second violation is at least $350 and a third is $1,000. Peter Frost, the executive director of the local water and sewer authority says these drastic steps are necessary.
FROST: We're trying to stop our reservoir from getting into a critical condition.
HOLMES: This is the county's reservoir or what's left of it. And like most in the Southeast U.S., it's drying up. Because of the low levels, the water district is now piping in 60 percent of its water from a neighboring county. But that water supply is also nearly gone. For now, authorities are making plans and doing what they can to keep the water they have from going down the drain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really pretty when it's on but it don't need to be on right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Here's another way to get an idea of what some people are facing. This, lovely lakefront property. This is what it's supposed to look like when this area gets enough rain. Let's take you to this same property. NGUYEN: Can you believe it?
HOLMES: You thought you had lakefront property. That's what you have now.
NGUYEN: Now you are mowing your backyard.
HOLMES: You are mowing your lake.
Photos were taken by one of our producers here Rick Martin. Put them together and the same spot, same picture, same area, but the water is gone. This is what has happened to East Point Reservoir in Douglas County, Georgia. Barely a trickle. I don't know if you can call it a trickle even there on the other side. That gives you a better idea.
NGUYEN: I got a few drops the other day. Nothing to amount to anything. Reynolds Wolf joins us now from the CNN severe weather center. Any chance we'll get some kind of relief in the Southeast?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No.
I wish I had better words for you and told you we're going to have all our fortunes change and have some decent rainfall. Might get scattered showers by Monday and Tuesday. It's not going to help the situation. You are looking at an image we have from the USGS, which is our drought monitoring map. Any place you see the reds or even the maroons indicates the exceptional drought, the extreme drought through parts of the Carolinas back into Tennessee. Look at Alabama. You think Georgia has it bad. Nearly top to bottom throughout the state of Alabama. It's just a dire situation.
And hopefully the rain chances again will increase by the time we get to next week.
(WEATHER REPORT)
NGUYEN: All right. We'll check in your shortly.
HOLMES: Thanks, Reynolds. And folks right there, you've noticed something a little different there at the bottom of the screen. CNN has changed colors a bit. We're not just having fun. We're going green here at CNN with that logo, that's because for the whole week, going to be digging deeper on environmental issues covering stories that affect everybody. Every single one of us from the air we breathe to the fuel we use. It all coincides with the premiere of "Planet in Peril."
That's a special report from Anderson Cooper, with Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin. That's Tuesday and Wednesday at 9:00 Eastern only on CNN.
NGUYEN: David Copperfield is under federal scrutiny this morning. A Seattle woman says Copperfield sexual assaulted her. But Copperfield strongly denies that allegation. CNN's Ted Rowlands has more now from Las Vegas. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first sign of trouble came when FBI agents searched the Las Vegas warehouse of magician David Copperfield, where he keeps his collection of magic props and more. The agents took a computer hard drive and camera memory chips in an affiliate KLAS reported, as well as $2 million that had been stashed inside a safe. Federal agents also searched the MGM Hotel where Copperfield has been performing.
DAVID CHESNOFF, COPPERFIELD ATTORNEY: He's dealing with it the proper way and even performed his show the other evening while that was occurring because he said he wasn't going to disappoint his fans. But he's very, very concerned in the sense that his reputation is being impugned.
ROWLANDS: Law enforcement sources tell CNN he FBI is investigating sexual assault allegations against Copperfield. His lawyer says he's confident that whoever is making the claims is making them up.
CHESNOFF: We haven't even been told officially through the law enforcement, the name of anybody. But since it wouldn't matter really what the name is because it's categorically denied as a false accusation, an impossible kind of claim.
ROWLANDS: Seattle police say a woman claims the incident took place this summer in the Bahamas. Police there say they have no record of a complaint against Copperfield.
(on camera): Copperfield lives part time here in Las Vegas performing at the MGM Grand. His next performance, though, is scheduled for next week in Indonesia. According to his lawyer, nobody has told him he can't leave the country during this investigation.
(voice-over): The FBI declined to comment on the investigation saying only that the Las Vegas searches are part of a Seattle-based investigation. Copperfield's lawyer says he's confident that when the FBI concludes their investigation, the accusations will disappear. Ted Rowlands, CNN, Las Vegas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: We'll have more on that story but in the meantime, when it comes to presidential primaries, New Hampshire always goes first. Why and does it really make sense? We're keeping them honest.
HOLMES: Also, we're going slumming. Literally. The new travel trend called poorism. We'll show you what this is all about.
NGUYEN: And leapin' lizards. What was this guy strolling around an L.A. suburb? The cops are still rubbing their eyes. We're going to explain. It's all ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: New Hampshire working hard to keep its place as the nation's first presidential primary state. But who chose the Granite State as the nation's touchstone in the first place? CNN's Joe Johns keeping them honest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Republican Congressman Tom Tancredo shows up at the New Hampshire State Capitol to pay his $1,000 fee and get on the ballot in what, for nearly a century, has been the nation's first presidential primary.
REP. TOM TANCREDO, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is the kind of situation where somebody like me, somebody who does not have hundreds of millions of dollars of personal wealth, can still make a difference because you can still get to every little cafe.
JOHNS: And if he can do well in the nation's first primary, Tancredo instantly becomes a viable national candidate. But get this, it's possible that for the first time in 90 years, no one knows when the New Hampshire presidential primary will be held. Will it be January or early December? Bill Gardner is the New Hampshire secretary of state. He gets to decide.
(on camera): So when is the primary going to be?
BILL GARDNER, NEW HAMPSHIRE SECRETARY OF STATE: I don't know.
JOHNS: You don't know? You haven't decided yet even in your own brain?
GARDNER: No.
JOHNS (voice-over): He's being coy about the date so that other states won't jump ahead of New Hampshire, which begs the question, keeping them honest, who appointed New Hampshire king of the presidential primary calendar anyway? Answer -- New Hampshire did. It's been holding the nation's first presidential primary since 1916, and in 1975, it passed a law saying it had to be first. New Hampshire says it should have an outsized role in nominating the president simply because it is so small. It is easy to get around and meet most of the voters who take politics very seriously.
GARDNER: Grassroots speak here. And it's retail politics. And that's the tradition. And it's not easy to just replicate that or tow it to some other place.
JOHNS: And you really don't hear the candidates complaining about this setup.
TANCREDO: It's good for Tom Tancredo. It's good for our campaign. It works for me. It's great.
JOHNS (voice over): So it's great for the candidates, but what about the rest of the country? When you look at the demographics of it, New Hampshire doesn't always come across as a clean-cut cross section of the USA.
To be fair, average income levels here, percentages of people with high school educations, the ratio of blue collar to white collar workers roughly track the national averages.
But when it comes to race and ethnicity, it's a different story. About two percent of the New Hampshire population is Hispanic. While the national average is more than 14 percent. Does that matter in a presidential race? It could. Tom Tancredo's key issue is immigration, and a lot of Hispanics aren't exactly enthralled with his views.
TANCREDO: Look at the attack on our own culture that is occurring as a result of massive immigration, illegal immigration in particular.
JOHNS: Just about one percent of the New Hampshire population is African American, compared to almost 13 percent nationally. Ninety six percent of the population is white, compared to 80 percent across the country. Some people like Debbie Dingell, wife of Democratic Congressman John Dingell of Michigan, argue that a larger state with a different mix of people ought to have more influence in an election year.
DEBORAH DINGELL, WIFE OF REP. DINGELL: New Hampshire doesn't have the ordained right. And the fact of the matter is it doesn't reflect the diversity of this country.
JOHNS: But don't hold your breath. The political parties are fighting tooth and nail to keep their retail politics just the way it is. Joe Johns, CNN, Manchester, New Hampshire.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Well, the polls are open right now across Louisiana. Voters there are choosing their next governor. And there are a dozen candidates vying to replace Democrat Kathleen Blanco. She announced earlier this year she would not run again. Now the clear front-runner is Republican Congressman Bobby Jindal. He finished second to Blanco last time. If no candidate gets 50 percent of the vote, there will be a run-off election next month.
HOLMES: Of course, he played parenthood for laughs on his long running sitcom, bugt Bill Cosby, he is not kidding around about the importance of family in the real world.
NGUYEN: And parents better listen up. Don't give your child cold and cough medicine before you see the latest warnings. Medical news that you need to know. That's coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Up first here, got a few quick hits. Investigators in Thailand have been granted permission to hold an accused pedophile for 12 days. Christopher Paul Neil was arrested yesterday. Also rapper T.I. will remain in an Atlanta jail for several more days at least. A judge has refused to rule right away on his bond hearing. T.I.'s real name, Clifford Harris, was arrested a week ago on federal gun charges. His next hearing coming up on Friday.
Also, Republican Senator Sam Brownback has dropped out of the presidential race. The Kansas conservative had a bit trouble raising money and support for his campaign.
NGUYEN: Let's talk about Bill Cosby now. For decades he's made people laugh. Lately he's been delivering serious comments about problems facing the African American community, such as racism, black on black crime and the weakening of families. Cosby and Dr. Alvin Poussaint have written a book called "Come On, People." And they talked about it on CNN's LARRY KING LIVE.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL COSBY, COMEDIAN AND EDUCATOR: I sat here with you over the decades and we've talked about racism and the problems there. Now given that, we then look at problems going on in the home. We look at the way a child will behave without a father, the way a child will behave without character corrections, the way parents will behave without character corrections. And this generational problem going on. So there's no way that I ever said this doesn't exist. What I have said is that if we strengthen ourselves with the same tools that every successful group of people have used, then we will succeed.
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Was he unfairly criticized Dr. Poussaint? There was a lot of uproar.
DR, ALVIN POUSSAINT, CO-AUTHOR, "COME ON PEOPLE": I think he was unfairly criticized because I think he -- Bill has always recognized racism. He speaks about it. He's always spoken to me about it. He's been involved in civil rights. You know, that's very clear. So I think people are trying to set him up by saying, he's letting society off the hook. He doesn't believe that there's any racism and all the blame is on black people for the conditions they suffered today.
I don't think he was saying that. I think he was saying, yes, we've got to -- we're in a tough situation, but our struggle has always been about being and getting by and succeeding against the odds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Tune in for LARRY KING tonight. Larry's guest will be Eric Clapton who will talk about his battle with addiction. That's tonight, 9:00 Eastern.
HOLMES: Nooses, seems like we've been hearing a lot about them. They are of course a symbol of hate and terror. Since the Jena 6 controversy, they've appeared in at least 13 places around the country. A CNN special investigation looks into recent incidents involving nooses. Listen to one man who says he was a victim of an attack. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLES HICKMAN, ATTACK VICTIM: One of the supervisors told me that someone was looking for me. He was actually in the rest room. And I went in there and not knowing what was going on. I walked through the door. That's when they grabbed me and put the noose around my neck and started choking me with it. And I am struggling trying to get free. And I was about out of it. I couldn't breathe. I just almost choked out.
And at that time, I thought I was actually going to -- I wasn't going to make it out of there alive.
I think about it every day. Every day because it should have never happened. I am there working. I didn't know. I want to cry. I'm kind of holding it back. I never knew that that was going to happen to me at that time, but it happened, and you can't turn it back. It happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And you can watch our special "The Noose, an American Nightmare." CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT report. That's Tuesday night at 8:00 Eastern Time.
NGUYEN: Something a bit frightening. A superbug strikes a New York college. We have details on the latest outbreak as a very dangerous strain.
Also, who is on first. Never mind that. Second base gets two Kansas teens in trouble.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We thought that would be a great way to market to kids and to get them thinking about breast cancer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The T-shirt in question included a sexual innuendo.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Yeah. The shirt hits the fan over an edgy slogan. You do not want to miss this story. Stick around.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS MCGINNIS, EXPEDIA.COM: If you are booking travel for thanksgiving now, you'll be lucky to get a seat, let alone a deal if you are traveling during peak days. So now is the time to book holiday travel whether it's for Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's. Let's look at Thanksgiving first. The most crowded highest priced days are the typical days. The Wednesday before and the Sunday and Monday afterwards.
You are most likely it find the best deals and the smallest crowd if you are willing to travel on Thanksgiving afternoon when everyone wants to be home watching football and eating turkey. Also the Friday after Thanksgiving is a good day.
For Christmas, the most pricey days are the Friday, Saturday and Sunday before. If you are looking for a really good deal, may want to travel on Christmas Eve. Also a very good time to travel is Christmas morning.
By the afternoon on Christmas Day, it's actually one of the busier holiday travel days. The week between Christmas and New Year's is busy nearly every single day. Try to travel on New Year's morning. This is when you'll find the smallest crowds and the best deals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Thank you, Betty. Yes, I am OK.
NGUYEN: Good.
HOLMES: Welcome back to you all. Glad you can be here with us this morning. I'm T.J. Holmes.
NGUYEN: Yes, good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen. Topping our news this morning, there's a terrible drought crisis in the Southeast. In less than 90 days, Atlanta could run out of drinking water. And Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue wants to reduce the amount of water his state is sending to Florida and Alabama. He's asking a federal judge to make that happen.
HOLMES: Also, wildlife conservation on the agenda today for President Bush. He's visiting Maryland's Eastern Shore this morning. Minutes ago, he signed an executive order to protect the striped bass and other fish.
NGUYEN: Well, as military goof-ups go, this one is pretty bad. Back in August, an Air Force B-52 flew across the country with six live nuclear missiles strapped to the wings. The crew had no idea. Lots of people, some at commander level, are being held responsible. Military officials tell CNN the bomber wing commander at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota has been relieved of duty, as have three group and squadron commanders. We're going to learn more when the secretary of the air force, the defense secretary, and the chairman of the joint chiefs brief reporters a little later this afternoon. We're following this case very closely from the Pentagon.
HOLMES: And a warning for parents this morning. A key FDA advisory panel is now recommending children under 6 years old not take common over-the-counter cold and cough medicines. That includes medicines containing antihistamines, decongestants, also antitussives, as well as others.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JOHN JENKINS, DIR., FDA OFFICE OF NEW DRUGS: What I think parents should take away from this at this time is, as always, they should carefully follow the directions on the labeling of over-the- counter products and use the products as directed. They should pay close attention to the ingredients that are in the product to make sure that they are not using the same ingredient in multiple products, which might lead to a potential overdose situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, the panel concluded that the medicines have not been proven to be beneficial to children that young.
NGUYEN: Health officials in New Rochelle, New York, are on the lookout for new cases of a drug resistant Staph infection. That after 10 members of an Iona College sports team were infected, and one student was hospitalized but has been released. It is the same strain of Staph infection that led to the death of a teen in Virginia this week. The county health commissioner says the Iona outbreak is under control.
Open wounds, exposure to medical equipment, major ways anybody can develop a deadly superbug infection. But what is a superbug? CNN's Fredricka Whitfield has the facts.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Infections caused by a germ that spreads rapidly through hospitals and nursing homes now kills more Americans than AIDS. The drug-resistant germ is called methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
Researchers estimate that MRSA infected more than 94,000 people in just one year in 2005. And an estimated 19,000, nearly one in every five, died. Compared to some 17,000 deaths from AIDS. Researchers say the bacteria can be brought into health care facilities by patients and visitors who may show no symptoms.
While many infections are hospital-related, MRSA is also popping up in prisons, gyms and crowded urban neighborhoods. Researchers began to see drug-resistant variants of Staph bacteria beginning in the 1960s.
Medical experts attribute the emergence of the so-called superbug to three factors: the indiscriminate use of antibiotics; patients failing to use all their prescribed antibiotics; and the use of antibiotics in animal feed. In each instance, a bacteria is not completely obliterated, which can lead to mutations that are resistant to standard antibiotics.
MRSA infections are highest among the elderly, African-Americans, and people who have chronic diseases. They spend more time in hospitals, increasing their exposure. The MRSA study was conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and publishes in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Well, spreading the word about breast cancer. A couple of Kansas teens wanted to do that. And it's a good thing, right? They were doing it with colorful T-shirts and a baseball metaphor. But the shirts striking out with school officials. The latest from Tracy Crockett of our affiliate KWCH.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRACY CROCKETT (voice-over): Each year, seniors here at Salina Central High School choose a service project. This year, Jessica Sheahon and Haley Wenthe decided to raise money for breast cancer research.
JESSICA SHEAHON, PROHIBITED FROM SELLING SHIRTS: It really hits close to home. Both of our mothers had breast cancer, and we just wanted a way that -- we just wanted to pick an issue that is really prevalent today.
HALEY WENTHE, PROHIBITED FROM SELLING SHIRTS: To me, it's just something in honor of her memory and that I know she would be extremely proud of.
CROCKETT: That's the reason the two started telling T-shirts.
SHEAHON: We thought that that would be a great way to market to kids and to get them thinking about breast cancer.
CROCKETT: However, the school disagreed. They were told they couldn't sell them or wear them on campus.
PRINCIPAL STAN VAUGHN, SALINA CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL: The T-shirt in question included a sexual innuendo that we felt was inappropriate for school. It was not a message that we wanted to convey in school.
CROCKETT: Principal Stan Vaughn says the school supports what the students are doing, however it cannot endorse the T-shirt. But some students disagree.
JENNIFER LASH ELLE, SUPPORTS BANNED T-SHIRTS: I think that if girls can wear shirts that imply sexual messages, they should be able to wear breast cancer shirts. They're trying to do it for a good cause.
CASSIE WERNER, SUPPORTS BANNED T-SHIRTS: I think it's a great idea, it promotes a great cause in a light-hearted way rather than putting this many women die a year from breast cancer.
ELLIOT SCHRADER, SUPPORTS BANNED T-SHIRTS: I think it's just kind of sad that the administration has neglected to see how important it is and how the T-shirts are kind of just a useful tool to get the word out.
CROCKETT (on camera): Despite not being able to sell the shirts at Friday night's football game, these shirts are selling like hot cakes. Just after school, the girls got home and found 400 orders waiting on their e-mail account. Now, the girls are trying to keep up with all the orders.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Well -- and the idea here for the shirts, to let you know, not an original idea from the girls. It's the trademark of a Pennsylvania group named for a mother who died from breast cancer last year.
NGUYEN: Well, exploitation, or is this just a dose of reality? It's a new twist on tourism. And it's actually called "poorism." It offers an eye-opening view of poverty around the world. And we're going to show you how it works.
HOLMES: Also, also going to show you a low-speed chase through the streets of Miami. It's a big round-up still ahead here in the CNN NEWSROOM."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: We're taking you here live to Governor Sonny Perdue of Georgia, talking about the drought crisis happening here.
GOV. SONNY PERDUE (R), GEORGIA: ... they have access to clean water.
I want to thank our congressional delegation for introducing legislation on their end this week to exempt the state from these EPA requirements, and I want to thank Congressman Deal and Congressman Linder for being here today to show their support in order to save Georgians from the crisis that we face.
Also, I want to thank our lieutenant governor, Casey Cagle, who has proved to be a strong partner in the fight to save Georgia's water supply. I want to thank him for his efforts, as well as the legislators, both house and senate, that stand behind me this morning.
I'm confident that we will emerge from this disaster stronger than before with a solution that will benefit all of Georgia.
HOLMES: All right. Again, just listening in briefly here to Governor Sonny Perdue of Georgia. But he -- his office has really come down. He has even asked a federal judge to jump in and force the Army Corps of Engineers to stop the amount of -- curb the amount of water that they are actually draining from the Georgia reservoirs and redirecting some of that water to Alabama and Florida.
He's asking a judge to jump in and stop that and is really blaming the Corps of Engineers for making a disaster even worse through some of the practices they are doing there. So again, that's Governor Sonny Perdue of Georgia with really some fighting words, if you will, some strong words for the Army Corps of Engineers.
We'll continue to monitor what he's saying there. Going to be a lot more this morning and certainly this afternoon in the CNN NEWSROOM about what's happening with Governor Perdue and really a crisis situation happening in the Southeast with the drought. Also, want to let you know, folks, you may have noticed in the bottom of your screen there that logo. It's usually not that color. It's usually red, I believe it is, right? But it's green right now, that CNN logo, because CNN digging deeper in on environmental issues. And we're going green for the week. It all coincides with the premiere of our special report "Planet in Peril" that airs next Tuesday and Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.
Now naturally, the CNN Web site has plenty of interesting content to go with "Planet in Peril." And again, Mr. Josh Levs wearing a couple of hats for us. Mr. Reality sometimes, but right now you are Mr. Dot-com.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A little big of both.
HOLMES: What's happening?
LEVS: Yes, actually, it kind of fits together, because we were just hearing about Georgia and the struggle there. And yet, we are looking at "Planet in Peril" these days. And in a way, it is a reminder of how rich in resources our nation really is. I mean, we're not used to as a nation being without water or even having that fear. But other parts of the world really are. You know, one thing I really like about the dot-com portion of what's going on with "Planet in Peril," as you've been hearing a lot about, let's show you the main screen now.
You can't miss it. Go to cnn.com. Take a look at the main screen. Now what you are going to see is not what you are used to seeing. Usually you hear "Planet in Peril." you are used to thinking, OK, ice shelves falling, I know about that.
Well, what we have got there is a rotating globe of the entire world showing you some things you don't know about, what is happened in Central Africa where the drought there has drained Lake Chad to only 10 percent of what it was.
Over in Southeast Asia, we're looking at the animal trafficking and how that is changing the economy in the region. There's about a dozen hot spots all over the world. You can learn a lot about that in advance of or along with watching this special when it starts, as you can see on your screen, Tuesday night at 9:00. A worldwide investigation.
But also, there's a chance on this site to have a little fun. I want to show you now some outtakes of this special that they have put there. Let's listen in.
There's the shot we've got of Anderson. There's another one where Anderson tries to make a point. I guess you can't quite hear it. It's coming up here. Whatever, watch it online. You'll hear it better. He attempts to make a point and then says, ah, I got nothing.
Anyway, they are having fun with it, there's a lot of videos that you can watch. There's a lot of background that you can watch. And I encourage you to check out the site, especially in advance of the special, because you know, this whole world is what they are really looking at, not just the images that you are used to seeing.
I think a lot of it is really striking and it could make you interested in what we've got coming up. T.J., that, of course, is up there. One more thing I will tell you about, I-Reports. People can send in what they are doing to be green and also their takes on the things that they are seeing there. People are able to share their ideas, their views, the new things that they've tried to try to help the environment, right there at cnn.com.
HOLMES: All right. We want to let folks know, Anderson did not sleep through the special, OK? It's hard work.
LEVS: No, of course, it's an outtake. And he chose to put it there and it's funny, that's all.
HOLMES: It is hard work trying to get that thing together. A lot of work...
(CROSSTALK)
LEVS: That's why he fell asleep on the plane. There you go.
HOLMES: Yes. All right. We appreciate it, Josh.
Also, folks, we're talking about this morning the extreme drought conditions in the Southeast. Just showed you a minute ago, dipped in to hear Governor Sonny Perdue of Georgia talking at Lake Lanier, a lake that is pretty much drying up. It supplies all of the water really to the Atlanta metro area that's in dire straits right now.
And he's there talking about the situation. And he's really putting a lot of emphasis and blame, if you will, on the Army Corps of Engineers for some of their practices. Here now we just turned around this bit of sound. This sound bite from him with some strong words for the Army Corps of Engineers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PERDUE: I have declared an emergency in 85 of Georgia's counties due to the threat of water supply in the northern part of our state. Drought is a natural disaster. We are experiencing the single worst drought in north Georgia's history. On top of that, we are also mired in a frustrating manmade disaster of federal bureaucracy.
The actions of the Corps of Engineers and the Fish and Wildlife Services are not only irresponsible, I believe they are downright dangerous. And Georgia cannot stand for this negligence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: As you heard there, dangerous practices, a natural disaster made worse, a manmade disaster now. And what the Corps has been doing is draining some of the reservoirs in Georgia and redirecting some of that water to Florida and also Alabama and the governor is trying to get that stopped.
So a lot more to come on really what has become a dangerous and a crisis situation for the Southeast -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Really does give new meaning to "Planet in Peril." And right now we want to tell you about a new twist on poverty. You've heard of luxury tourism, right? You know, fabulous hotels, private islands, multimillion dollar resorts. But there's a new trend in travel called "poorism."
These are tours that take you into slums of some of the world's biggest cities to show you how people live, work and play. Kevin Doyle of Conde Nast Traveler has taken three poverty tours. And he joins me now from New York this morning.
Thanks for being with us.
KEVIN DOYLE, CONDE NAST TRAVELER: Good morning, Betty, thank you.
NGUYEN: Good to see you. OK. Poorism, some people may have never heard about this. Talk to us about how this works.
DOYLE: Well, poorism or slum tourism is something that has actually been around for a while. But it's getting a lot more attention. For instance, in Rio de Janeiro, they've offered slum tours for years. In South Africa you could tour the townships for a long time. But now in India, especially, it's getting a lot more attention.
So it's the idea that by going to a place and seeing how the local population lives, oftentimes in very poverty stricken places, you get a more meaningful experience.
NGUYEN: You know, in your article, you pretty much pose this question. Are we at a point where reality TV has warped our vision of the world that we'd actually pay to see people living in poverty? I mean, is this exploitive in any way?
DOYLE: You know, that was certainly my opinion before I experienced it. I thought it sounded terribly exploitive, voyeuristic, and basically like these companies were making money by showcasing people's misery. So I -- you know, because this is something that has been getting a lot more media attention, I thought we owed it to our readers to find out what the story really is.
And so I went to India and took several of these slum tours. And what I found was something entirely different from what I anticipated.
NGUYEN: Well, let's take a look at some of the pictures of what you were able to see on this tour -- actually three of them. The first pictures that we're going to show is really just one that just shows the squalid conditions in which people live. This is reality for much of the world.
DOYLE: Yes, that's true. You know, this slum in Mumbai, Dharavi Slum, is less than a square mile in size. And about a million people live there. There's no garbage collection. So the canal that runs through the slum is completely filled with garbage. And every open space is filled with putrefying garbage, which, the children use as, say, a soccer field. So it is very eye-opening and very disturbing.
There's also, though, a tremendous amount of industry taking place in this slum. More than $600 million a year. So you see potters and textile manufacturers and clothing manufacturers and people working, you know, in recycling projects. So there is a tremendous amount of industry there.
NGUYEN: We've got another picture. It shows some of the children that you met. Is that what these tours do? They let you get in to the areas where people, you know, just living in poverty- stricken conditions, but yet you get a real sense of people on the ground. It's not like a slicked over, here are the main spots in a city, come take a look. I mean, this is real life.
DOYLE: Yes, this is real life. And actually, you know, it was a real privilege to be able to go into this community, because that's what it is, and to meet -- I met many, many people who were happy to talk to me about their lives. They wanted to talk to me about a relocation program that the city is planning, basically to wipe out the slum, to replace it with high-rise office buildings and shopping malls.
They are going to give all of the slum dwellers a place to live, but they'll no longer have jobs. So it was a real connection on a basic human level that I didn't expect. And it was a real opportunity for information exchange.
NGUYEN: Absolutely. And as you mentioned, there are many of these poorism tours, whether it be South Africa, South America, even I heard New York offered some of them as well. So when someone is looking for it, very quickly, what's the best place to go and make sure that you get a really good tour operator who is not exploiting the people on the ground?
DOYLE: You can look online, you can also look in travel guides. I think the most important thing is to make sure that the company you choose is actually doing something to give back to the community.
So, for instance, one of the companies that I used partners with an NGO. They offer English classes twice a day to anyone who wants to come, any of the slum dwellers who want to come. At night, they offer electrician courses and they give 80 percent of their profits back to NGOs. So they are making a real commitment to actually giving back to the community.
NGUYEN: So you really do have to do your research and make sure that people are giving back and it is making a difference. Kevin Doyle with Conde Nast Traveler, thanks for your time. We appreciate it.
DOYLE: Thank you very much.
NGUYEN: T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Betty, well, the plot thickens. "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling drops a bombshell and confirms rumors that have been swirling around for months.
Also 911 calls about a gator loose in California. This was not a crank call. This unusual story still ahead here in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Time to talk about "The WaterCooler" today. Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling reveals that the headmaster of Hogwarts is actually gay.
HOLMES: Rowling outed Albus Dumbledore in response to a question from a young fan about whether the master wizard ever finds true love. She responded that Dumbledore actually fell in love with one of the wizards there, one of his rival wizards that he defeated in a battle. He beat the guy and that's the person he's sweet on apparently is what she's saying.
NGUYEN: And so now we know.
HOLMES: Now we know.
NGUYEN: All right. Well, hey, police in Miami had to become cowboys, shall we say, for a few hours the other night to round up a wayward cow. What they couldn't figure out is how this cow got out.
HOLMES: Yes, they eventually discovered that the roaming bovine had found a gap in the barbed wire fence just down the road.
NGUYEN: Nine-one-one calls about loose gators may be routine in Florida, but in California, it is called a crank call.
HOLMES: Yes, and a 911 dispatcher thought that's what she had in Thousand Oaks. She didn't believe that the alligator story was true. So police did indeed find that, two-and-a-half-foot reptile wandering around in one neighborhood.
NGUYEN: Well, a deputy was able to get the gator's mouth taped shut and then hauled him in. I wonder what charges he booked him on.
Anyway, still ahead, high school students during the day. Paparazzi at night. We're going to talk to two teens about their unusual after-school gig.
HOLMES: Also, a deadly superbug killed a high school student this week. Coming up at noon, we'll talk with someone who survived the infection.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. It's that time for us to head up to New York and check in with Kiran Chetry to see what's happening next week on "AMERICAN MORNING."
Hello, there, Kiran.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, T.J. Great to see you, as always. Well, we're keeping a close watch on the rising price of oil and how you can cut your fuel costs. Everybody else (INAUDIBLE) taking care of your tires could help, making sure they are properly inflated and that they are wearing evenly. It actually helps improve your gas mileage.
But, T.J., do you know how -- I guess, the old wives' tail about how you are supposed to check the treads on your tires?
HOLMES: Yes. I can't usually remember which coin, but I'm told you are supposed to use a coin and if you can see the head then you are good or something like that. But you are supposed to use a coin in the thread.
CHETRY: Well, you stick a penny in, if you can see Lincoln's head.
HOLMES: It's a penny.
CHETRY: If you can see all of Lincoln's head, maybe it's time to change your tires. Well, that is what we thought too. But now they are saying that it may be time to retire the penny test. And we're going to show you what they are recommending that maybe you've heard about. It's using nitrogen to help fill your tires. So is that worth the cost? On Monday, our Greg Hunter is going to be looking at that for you.
HOLMES: All right. We'll look forward to nitrogen in the tires. That's different. But we'll see what happens.
Also, you had -- I don't know if this is the right way to phrase it, a fancy new ride that you checked out, Kiran, is that right?
CHETRY: That's right. I had a chance to check out the new smart car, test drive it on the streets of New York City. This thing is only eight feet-eight inches long and five feet wide. It gives you about 40 miles to the gallon. All over Europe, very popular. And it's coming to the U.S. by early next year. But does it really save you a lot on your gas bill? Does it have enough space? And is it safe. So we're going to take a look at all of that and whether or not some of these mini cars that are making it on the market are worth it.
That, by the way, T.J., will set you back $12,000. You would look so great picking up the ladies in your eight-by-six-foot car.
HOLMES: You know, I just need to throw some Ds (ph) on it, we'll be all right. Kiran, thank you so much. We look forward to seeing you next week on "AMERICAN MORNING."
And folks, of course, you know, you can catch Kiran and John, of course, Monday through Friday starting at 6:00 a.m.
It is Saturday, October 12th, I do believe.
NGUYEN: Twentieth.
HOLMES: Oh yes. It is the 20th. NGUYEN: That's all right. I got your back.
HOLMES: That was, what, a week ago?
NGUYEN: Yes.
HOLMES: All right. Betty, I'm so glad you are here.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: So glad you all are here as well in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm T.J. Holmes.
NGUYEN: Hello, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen.
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