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American Morning

Wildfires Rage; Can John McCain Win the Election?; Maria Shriver Speaks Out About the Wildfires; A Peak at "Planet in Peril"

Aired October 23, 2007 - 07:00   ET

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

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Fire officials say 130 houses, entire neighborhoods, are ruined. The demise of one of those homes was caught on camera right before our eyes. It erupted into a huge fireball and crumbled into pieces.
With 300,000 people evacuated in and around San Diego, the problem becomes where to put them. Thousands are spending the night at Qualcomm Stadium. That's home to the San Diego Chargers. And then there are those who have no home to go back to.

For one local reporter there, there will never be a harder story to cover. His name is Larry Himmel. You probably have someone like him in your town, local neighborhood reporter who tracks down interesting people. He watched and reported as his home went completely up in flames. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY HIMMEL, REPORTS ON HIS BURNING HOME: On any given day, I would say welcome to my home, but this is what is left of my home, just outside the forest ranch area. The fire crews have fought valiantly to save every house on this hill, at least took a shot at it, and were nice enough to let us up here. That was our garage, the living room over there. There was a porch back there, the bedrooms. No pets left behind. Family out, cars out, safe. But you can see my hose right here valiantly trying to do something, but this is it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Larry Himmel reporting as his home went up in flames. He said on "LARRY KING LIVE" last night the hardest part is going to be bringing his family back to take a look at what's left.

The fires are so intense that you can see the smoke and flames from space. This is a satellite photo of what it looks like over the southwestern United States. Radar used by our meteorologists now picking up the smoke as if it was a band of rain clouds.

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHETRY: Now we're going to head over to Chris Lawrence. He's in Del Valle, California, with the latest on the situation there. We can see the ridge line behind you still flaming this morning, Chris.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kiran. I'm standing in an area with a highway on one side, I've got a small community of homes on the other, and then right behind me that mountain ridge. And you can see the flames are starting to creep over the hill. We are in an area north of Los Angeles where you have three major fires burning, and officials are telling us now that it's possible they could merge into one super fire within the next day or so. That could encompass well over 80,000 acres, and containment is not expected until at the very least Halloween.

Resources are spread out all over the state. Some of the firefighters who were up in Malibu have been sent up here. Another team from Malibu is on its way to Lake Arrowhead. The winds were so bad on our journey out to lake arrow head yesterday we saw not one but two semi trucks, 18-wheelers, flipped over on the highway. More than 130 homes have burned to the ground out there; 2,000 are still threatened. And as of last night, that fire was zero percent contained.

We spoke to several people who were going to shelters out in Lake Arrowhead, including one woman who told us there needs to be more education for homeowners about what they can do to better protect their homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CATHERINE BOLSOVER, EVACUEE: Know where your gas turnoff is. Make sure you shut all the doors in your house when you leave, because that can actually help save parts of the structure, or it may even -- because you're not having all the air available throughout the whole house. So it has built-in firewalls as you go down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: An assessment team heading up to Lake Arrowhead this morning to better get a handle on that situation. But again, as of last night, zero percent containment there -- Kiran.

CHETRY: And when we talked to some the guys on the fire lines this morning, they're still saying zero percent containment. So it really is unbelievable, an unbelievable fight out there in California.

Chris, thanks so much.

Also, coming up in our next half hour, we're going to talk with the first lady of California, Maria Shriver.

(NEWSBREAK)

CHETRY: Back to breaking news now. Wildfires raging in Southern California, and the dangers coming not just from the flames. We heard overnight that more than 200 firefighters being treated for smoke inhalation, and that is just in the San Diego area.

CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to talk about the risks.

Welcome, by the way. Good to see you.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Thank you.

CHETRY: You worry about the flames, but also it's this devastating smoke that has cleared out a lot the area.

GUPTA: I think from a medical standpoint it's probably even more significant. Children, older adults, people with certain health conditions very at risk both in the short term and long term. I think we have some images here which probably tell the story here.

Take a look. This is what with normally looks like. This is obviously Southern California. This is the coast. If you look over here, you see this obvious dense plume of smoke. Looks nice from the satellite, but this obviously contains a lot of particulate matter. And let me tell you, in the long run, you have the obvious problems, irritation of the eyes, maybe some breathing problems, coughing problems, which can last a while, even after the acute injury of the smoke.

What's even more concerning, though, is people sort of come in, Kiran, sort of coughing, saying I feel a little irritated, and the doctor may say, you know what, you're doing OK. You send them home, and they can develop airway swelling later on down the road so profound that you can't even get a breathing tube down into that area.

You can, again, some of the smoke over here. This obviously flipped 90 degrees. But this smoke can cause problems both in the short term and the long term. So if you're having significant problems, get to the doctor earlier before you develop that significant airway swelling.

CHETRY: You know, and we're talking a huge amount of evacuations, 300,000 people, a ton of people, the largest in San Diego County. So what do you do to protect yourself in the meantime? I mean, if you're in one of these large areas, should you wear a mask?

GUPTA: Well, you know, it's interesting about masks, because we talked a lot about masks with regard to bioterrorism. It's all dependent on particulate size. The particulate size of this matter that you see floating around here is too small, quite simply. So most masks, even the N-95 that we talk so much about, really won't work in this situation. The particulate matter from the smoke can just get through the mask and still cause the problems that we were just talking about.

Your best bet, and which is hard for a lot of people to acknowledge, is to just stay indoors. Or if you even smell the smoke, to try and get out of it, because smelling will be the first sign before it starts to cause the irritation to the eyes, to the nucosa (ph) in your nose and your sinuses, and certainly to your throat as well.

CHETRY: Man, and firefighters, though, do have professional-type masks that do filter that out?

GUPTA: That's right. So these are masks that both sort of circulate air, so it's using its own sort of circulation. Most of them do, you hope -- we're trying to look at some of these images. I hope they're getting that kind of equipment to all the firefighters who need it because this can be problematic for a long time to come.

CHETRY: Yes, it just looks so devastating. These are people who out on the fire lines for sometimes 12 hours at a time, sleeping a little bit and getting right back out there.

GUPTA: I know, remarkable.

CHETRY: All right, Sanjay, we'll check in with you a little later as well. Thank you.

GUPTA: All right, thanks, Kiran.

(NEWSBREAK)

ROBERTS: Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, CNN's own Christiane Amanpour. From war zones to world leaders, this morning getting honor from the queen, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. Some of the best shots coming to you from i-reporters Who are in the middle of this California firestorm.

Now this one comes to us. It's in Canyon Country. It's from Brian Ortiz. This is about 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, and the fire burned across that entire hill. Brian said the firefighters, though, did a great job saving businesses and homes that were in harm's way.

Here's another one. And the sky literally lit up red. This is from Brenda Waller, also out of Canyon Country. It's shot -- she took pictures of her family and her neighbors battling the flames with garden hoses right up to their doorsteps. And there you see the porch almost and some of the other pictures using hoses. In some cases it works, and in some cases, as we saw from the reporter who was reporting on his own home loss, the hoses, of course, can't do anything.

We also have some shots now from Mark Brooks, a view out of the window of a commercial airliner. Now, it took him a moment to realize that he wasn't looking at a cloud. No, this is actually a massive plume of gray smoke. Incredible pictures coming to us from the i- Reporters, bringing us closer to the scene of devastation in Southern California.

If you would like to send an i-Report, please head to our Web site. We're at CNN.com/ireport.

And of course we ask that you don't put yourself in danger at any time when shooting these pictures.

ROBERTS: Seventeen minutes after the hour. Ali Velshi here Minding Your Business. Countrywide Mortgage, it's CEO under a microscope. But today a plan to help out some mortgage holders.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Countrywide is going to -- you know, we're in this earnings period, so we're getting these report cards from companies. Guess what, we're going to get a really tough one from Countrywide on Friday.

But ahead of that, it is announcing that it is offering some aid to people who have mortgages with Countrywide. About 80,000 people, $16 billion worth of loans. Here's how it's going to look -- 10,000 borrowers who are in default with Countrywide are going to get an opportunity to have their rate rolled back to where it was before they were in default. Another 20,000 who were at risk of default will have to negotiate a modified rate. The first group is going to get an automatic rate reduction. The second group of 20,000 has to negotiate it. And the largest group of 50,000 will get an offer to refinance into a loan that makes them prime from subprime.

The way to qualify for that last bunch is if you haven't missed any of your payments, even though you are subprime. So about 80,000 people with $16 billion of loans at Countrywide will get some ability to refinance or lower their rate. The issue here now is that Countrywide is the largest. Will this follow with other mortgage lenders? At this point, it's in the interest of these companies to try and not have people default.

ROBERTS: These refis, are they still going to be ARMs, adjustable rate mortgages?

VELSHI: No, they're going to -- this is the question, depending on what category your in, you're going to get a rollback, you might get another adjustable rate, but it is an opportunity for people to try and get out of the situation they're in. You're not going to get away without paying fees, though. They are going to charge you to do this. So it's not fantastic, but it might help some people stay in their homes.

ROBERTS: Ali, thanks. We'll see you again soon.

(NEWSBREAK)

CHETRY: Coming up on American morning, John McCain in the hot seat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am prepared. I am prepared, no on-the-job training.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: The senator says he's ready for the White House, but is it too little, too late for him to pick up steam? How will he convince voters he's the best candidate? We'll ask Senator McCain live, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ROBERTS: Breaking news this morning here on CNN. Just a heartbreaking story in Southern California, from Santa Barbara all the way to the Mexican border, as thousands and thousands of acres of hillside and canyon and hundreds of homes up in flames. Our Chris Lawrence is in Del Valle, California. He joins us now live.

Chris, is there any hope for relief today for those poor people who are losing so much as every hour passes here this morning?

LAWRENCE: Not from the weather. It's going to be hot. The humidity is going to be in single digits. So weatherwise, it's going to be the same we've had the last couple of days.

Where I'm standing right now, I've got the highway on one side. I've got a small community of homes and Magic Mountain Amusement Park on the other. And there you've got part of the Magic Fire burning right on the mountain ridge there. You can see the flames starting to creep over the hillside there.

Now the danger is that that fire has the potential to merge with two other fires also burning north of Los Angeles, which could create one super fire that could encompass well over 80,000 acres. That is something that officials are going to be keeping their eye on over the next 24 to 36 hours.

Now, there is competition for resources, because these fires are so spread out and so intense across the state of California. One of the teams that was working the Malibu fire has been moved up here to the Santa Clarita area, and we've also learned that another team that was down there is heading over to lake arrowhead at some point this morning. When we were driving out to lake arrowhead yesterday, the winds were so intense, we saw 18-wheelers that were flipped over on the highway from the winds.

And when we get out there, you can see the damage that the fire did there. More than 130 homes burned to the ground. More than 2,000 are still threatened out in Lake Arrowhead, and as of this morning, that fire was zero percent contained.

Again, that is a fire that some of the officials are going to be taking a look at. We saw well over 1,000 people at just one of the shelters out there. Many of the people just had absolutely nowhere to go after mandatory evacuations went into effect -- John.

ROBERTS: Chris, looking at some of those pictures, it's like looking into the mouth of an enormous volcano. I noticed this morning, while there's a little breeze there, you're not getting buffeted around as much as you were yesterday. Is there any hope that the winds might not be as bad today as the they were the last couple?

LAWRENCE: There's always the hope the winds could die down a lot. One of the problems that we saw with the Malibu fire is, when you have those gusts that kick up about 60 miles an hour, some of these embers were getting blown a half mile, three-quarters of a mile away, and with the drought that we're in -- I think it's been about eight years of drought now here in Southern California -- with that severe drought, and this being the driest season on record, when those embers got blown by those really fierce winds, it caused these little firestorms to pop up all over the place, and that is a very difficult thing for firefighters to get a handle on because, as they're fighting a fire on one flank, all of a sudden there's another fire that pops up behind them or to the left or to the right.

So any time the winds die down, it is good news for the firefighters working the line.

ROBERTS: Just an unbelievable scene there. Good work you're doing there this morning, Chris Lawrence for us in Del Valle, California. Thanks, Chris. We'll check back with you soon.

CHETRY: And Marie Osmond, by the way, got a little light on her feet last night on "Dancing With the Stars." The 48-year-old mother of eight collapsed after the first dance of the night. She was doing the samba, of courser a high-energy dance. She was OK for a little while afterward, and then during the judging, let's see what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. We're going to take a commercial break. We'll be right back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: There was a little bit of laughter from the audience. Maybe they thought it was a joke at first, and then they realized, no, she had actually passed out. Well, they went to commercial. After the break, Osmond was back on her feet, saying that this happens to her once in a while when she gets winded. Osmond refused to see a doctor until she got her scores. She got 21 out of 30 for her samba.

ROBERTS: So she went to see the doctor because of those scores?

CHETRY: Not too bad.

ROBERTS: Real trooper, though, hanging in there.

CHETRY: Yes, she really is. So good luck to her.

Well, here's a story coming up that you can't miss. It's the incredible disappearing island. It's part of our "PLANET IN PERIL" special that airs tonight, 9:00 p.m. on CNN. Dr. Sanjay Gupta went to the South Pacific to investigate this phenomenon.

ROBERTS: We'll have that story. Senator John McCain, and commander of the British empire Christiane Amanpour, all when AMERICAN MORNING comes back.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Breaking news this morning on this AMERICAN MORNING, Tuesday, the 23rd of October. Good day to you. Thanks for being with us. I'm John Roberts.

CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. And you know this is what one father said as he took his wife and his two children to a shelter in southern California, "it looks like we're in hell."

Right now, more than a dozen massive wildfires continuing to spread, many of them zero containment despite the valiant efforts of firefighters working round the clock. These fires stretched from Santa Barbara all the way down to the Mexican border, more than 400 square miles still burning. Thousands of homes are in their path, and hundreds have already burned to the ground.

In fact, there's a virtual ring of fire surrounding San Diego. 300,000 people have been told to evacuate the area. It's been called the largest evacuation in the county's history. And thousands spent the night in local high schools as well as fairgrounds, of course, Qualcomm Stadium, home of the Chargers, and even in their cars.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

VOICE OF H.T. LINKE, RED CROSS: It's one of the thousands of shelters we have opened in San Diego county right now. This one is called the Mira Mesa Shelter. It's at a high school here. A very large indoor gymnasium, which right now is filled wall to wall with people on cots and air mattresses and some who brought their own bedding.

What I should also tell you is that there are another several hundred people outside the shelter. They set up their own tents, or they're in their recreational vehicles or they're even in their cars that they have come here to the shelter. They're getting food and water from us, but they're either staying outside, many of them with pets or in their cars or somewhere else.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CHETRY: President Bush has authorized FEMA to step in and help. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger also calling up 1,500 California national guardsmen to help fight the fires. 200 of them are actually coming off the border to assist in the firefight, and another 100 firefighters are coming in from neighboring Nevada.

In Stevenson Ranch, about 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, the fire there 20 percent contained. It broke out near Magic Mountain and quickly grew to 1,200 acres yesterday, coming right into some people's backyards. People in the immediate path of that fire were ordered to leave. So far, they say no buildings have been burned.

And a look now at Ramona, northeast of San Diego, where the entire town was evacuated, all 36,000 people ordered out. There was no word yet on the exact number of homes destroyed there. This is one of the areas also hit back in 2003 by the Cedar fire.

ROBERTS: Also new this morning, President Bush is going to lay out his strategy for the war on terror in a speech today. He will cover a wide range of issues, including military operations, the Patriot Act, terrorist surveillance, and also his missile defense plan.

Turkey's foreign minister is in Baghdad for crisis talks today. He is trying to get the Iraqis to crack down on Kurdish rebels who ambushed and killed 12 Turkish troops over the weekend. Meanwhile, the foreign minister has rejected a conditional ceasefire officer from the PKK rebels, saying the Turkish government does not deal with terrorists.

She was once sworn to silence. Her blown cover became a national scandal surrounding the war on Iraq and her husband's criticism of it. Now a former covert CIA agent is speaking out. Valerie Plame gave her first primetime interview on "Larry King Live" last night along with her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VALERIE PLAME-WILSON, FORMER CIA AGENT: When this all started, we had, at that time, 3 1/2-year-old twins. And, you know, there's nothing like children to keep you from toxic self-absorption.

LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Do you bear the bitterness -- and I guess that's the only word for it that your wife bears toward this White House.

AMBASSADOR JOE WILSON, HUSBAND OF VALERIE PLAME: Well, I think bitterness is probably the wrong word. I think its disappointment and, frankly, anger that this administration would actually betray the national security of our country for a purely political vendetta. I think it's -- they're trying to scare Americans from doing what one does in a democracy, hold your government, hold your administration to account for its words and deeds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Plame's new book "Fair Game" talks about her life in the CIA and what she believes was retaliation by the Bush administration for her husband's accusation that's it misled the American people. Plame will be our guest live on AMERICAN MORNING tomorrow -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Well, it's certainly been a busy couple of days for presidential hopeful John McCain. The Arizona republican courted social conservatives in Washington over the weekend, also wrapping up with a debate in Florida. And then today, he's in New Hampshire where he's filing paperwork for the state's primary ballot.

So certainly a busy few days for you, John McCain. Great to see you, Senator. Joining us live now from Concord, New Hampshire, this morning.

JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Kiran, good to be with you.

CHETRY: I want to ask you, you participated in this values voter summit that took place in Washington, and they also did a straw poll, and you finished last, in fact, only getting 81 votes. That really boiled down to about one percent. Can you win the election without the support of social conservatives?

MCCAIN: Oh, sure, and I have good relationship with a lot of social conservatives, with a lot of people in the pro life movement and around the country and people like Pastor John Hagey (ph) and many others. So straw polls, I don't think I've won a single straw poll in my career, and I didn't expect to start then.

CHETRY: So you're not too worried about the results of that. Huckabee coming in at about 27 percent, almost winning that straw poll.

MCCAIN: Well, look, straw polls are the most fleeting aspects of political life. I respect them, and people want to join in them. We didn't want to. I was pleased with the reception and the warmth of the reception that I got to my speech to that group, and I'll continue to move up in the polls as we are. Campaign is going very well. Everybody else is moving down, and I'm moving up, and I'm very happy with where we are.

CHETRY: Thanks in part to you, it was a very fiery debate that took place actually in Florida a couple of days ago. And there were some verbal sparring that took place between you and Mitt Romney. In fact, he taking a few hits for his changing stance on abortion. But he also took the opportunity to fire back at you a little bit on "Face the Nation." Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: McCain among them, he's changed his views relating to immigration in certain ways. He's changed his views on Roe v. Wade. He's changed his view. He's voted against the Bush tax cuts, and now he's in favor of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: How do you respond to that, Senator?

MCCAIN: Well, as I said, Governor Romney has been spending the last year trying to fool the people about his record. I'm not going to let him fool the people about mine. Mine is a consistent, conservative record. I've not changed my positions.

And by the way, he mentioned immigration and a couple other issues. That's the position he used to hold but this is all about vision. It's all about record. It's all about ability to convince the voters that I'm the best to both lead the nation, a reliable conservative, and the polls also indicate that I am the most capable of defeating Senator Clinton in the general election. I'm very happy with where we are and where we're going, but my record is very clear of a consistent conservative.

CHETRY: You're right. So interestingly enough, even though you're running third in some of the national polls, you do the best in a head to head match-up, at least according to RealClear Politics, against Hillary Clinton. The problem though is that your campaign is still struggling with money issues. Have you made a call yet about whether or not you're going to accept federal matching funds?

MCCAIN: No. But our campaign is going fine, Kiran. I've never won a campaign on money. If it was all about money, then we should shut everything down now because obviously Governor Romney has put in, I don't know, $10 or $20 million, whatever it is, of his own money into it. But this is about campaign and I'm up here in New Hampshire, to town hall meetings. I was outspent by huge amounts in 2000, and we almost won that one. Money's never been a factor. If it were the factor, then I shouldn't be in the race because there's rich people in the race.

So, we're doing fine. I'm very happy with our campaign. We're moving up in the polls. The turnout at the town hall meetings are excellent. And I'm very happy with where we are, and I'm very happy about my performance in the last few debates. A lot of republicans watch the debates even if the Red Sox are playing.

CHETRY: All right. So that at this point, you are not going to be taking federal matching funds?

MCCAIN: We haven't made a decision. We'll make a decision. Stay tuned.

CHETRY: We will, of course. We're always glad to have you with us. Senator John McCain, thanks for talking with us this morning.

MCCAIN: Thanks for having me on.

ROBERTS: Coming up now to 39 minutes after the hour. Just a short time ago, CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour was officially invested as a commander of the British Empire at Buckingham Palace. The prestigious award recognizes outstanding contributions in the service of the country in the honoree's profession, in this case, journalism.

Christiane joins us now from Buckingham Palace. Christiane, we just looked at the pictures there of the Queen pinning the award on that lovely outfit that you're wearing today. What was it like? Because this is, this is an honor that is afforded with rare occasion, particularly to someone in our profession.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes. And I'm very proud, obviously. You can see that this is the medal, the cross shape, and the ribbon that was pinned on to my lapel. It says "For God and for the empire." And the queen was there. She did the investiture.

And many other people as well with varying other awards they were honored with. All sorts of services across all sorts of professions across this country. And this award was first instituted by King George V back in 1917 just before the beginning of the first World War. And it was quite moving. The last recipients of the awards today were British soldiers and marines for their work, recognizing their work in the current wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

So it was really a special occasion. Obviously, I'm incredibly thrilled and very proud. But it's so invested and so steeped in tradition, and an honor really. It's great to be part of this.

ROBERTS: I mean, you've got to be so proud. Is this the pinnacle of your journalistic career or is this another mile post along the way?

AMANPOUR: No, this is just fantastic. You know, many people don't know that I'm actually English. I'm half English, half Iranian. I've given my career to an American company CNN, so I feel very, very multi-national, if you like. And so personally, as a British subject, this is very nice for my British half. It's great. I'm part of this incredible tradition that has been going now from 1917.

And as I say, when you see the other people who are up here getting these awards, and particularly the Victoria Cross, the highest military award, was given to one of the soldiers today. It was very moving to be part of all of this. And the Queen herself is unbelievable, so gracious, so, you know, good at what she does. It's incredible.

ROBERTS: Well, Christiane, we're all very, very proud of you. Congratulations today on being invested as a commander of the British empire.

AMANPOUR: Thank you.

ROBERTS: We hope to see you here stateside one of these days too.

AMANPOUR: You will.

ROBERTS: All right. Take care. Christiane Amanpour for us in Buckingham Palace -- Kiran.

CHETRY: Yes. She looks great.

Well, ahead on our "Planet in Peril" series, we're going to take you to one South Pacific paradise that's literally sinking into the ocean. Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

Also, more breaking news, the fight to save thousands of homes being threatened by raging wildfires in California. A live look right now. And we just got word actually from our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr that marines now making an offer for a battalion, about 800 marines from Camp Pendleton to head and help out with the fire lines, according to one U.S. military official. So, they're trying to get all hands on deck as this devastating rash of wildfires threatens thousands of homes and residents in southern California. We'll be right back.

We're also going to be talking to the first lady of California about the situation, Maria Shriver joins us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: As we said, Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego is one of the primary shelters for people forced out of their homes by the fires. It's now a temporary home for thousands of people. Some estimates putting that number at 10,000. Sean McGough is one of those people. He woke up in the middle of the night to the sight of the fire closing in on his house. He joins us now from Qualcomm Stadium.

Sean, tell us, you were out in the east county, which is, I guess, near El Cajon, right?. What was it like early this morning when you were roused out of bed?

SEAN MCGOUGH, FORCED TO LEAVE HIS HOME: Right, I was woken up out of bed at 2:00 in the morning by my mother-in-law. She called us and informed us the fires were moving in. We thought that she, being a mother-in-law, was panicking, so we turned on the news, and we seen the fires were, they were telling people it was coming down the Mt. San Miguel right by our home. I went outside to see the mountain engulfed in flames with a trail, at what appeared at least three miles long coming down.

When I went to bed at midnight, it was nothing in the east county that was any immediate threat. I watched the news all the way to midnight. Two hours later is when we got the news we needed to get out of our home.

ROBERTS: Sometimes giving into an overwhelming sense of alarm. In this case, it sounds like she was right. How strong was the wind blowing? You know, we've heard a lot of stories, Sean, that this firestorm of embers that leads the fire, and that's why it advances so quickly. What did you see on that front?

MCGOUGH: Well, in the Spring Valley area, the winds wasn't blowing as hard as it was yesterday. Yesterday it was at this time yesterday in the evening, it was blowing really, really hard. The winds were gushing, but not quite at the same speed as it was yesterday or in some of the other areas in San Diego County right now.

ROBERTS: So what's the situation there at Qualcomm Stadium? The last time we saw anything like this was at the Superdome in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina. Any idea how many people are there? What's the sort of situation that you've got inside?

MCGOUGH: You know, there's thousands of people here right now. They're being very, they're taking care of people as they walk in. They're being very friendly and courteous as far as getting people food and drinks and shelters. I had just walked in. Again, I just woke out of bed not too long ago. We grabbed our cat and the boys and woke them up out of bed and grabbed some of our personal belongings, pictures, memories, and threw them in the car as quick as we could and got out of there.

ROBERTS: Sean McGough for us this morning outside Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. Hey, all the best to you and your family. I hope things work out well for you. I hope that when you get back out there, the house is still there. Appreciate you joining us this morning. Thanks.

MCGOUGH: Thank you. Appreciate it.

ROBERTS: Kiran.

CHETRY: We've been talking about all of this wicked weather going on, and we're getting word now of a tornado that touched down in Florida. Our Jacqui Jeras is standing by live at the CNN Extreme Weather Center. She's going to bring us up to date on what we're hearing about that.

Hi, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Kiran.

We've got a tornado warning in effect right now. This is for Escambia County in northwestern Florida and then also for Baldwin County in south western parts of Alabama. This is a cell we're concerned about, and we do have a report of a possible tornado that did touchdown in the town of Lilian. So, a very dangerous situation and we think this is likely a water spout that made its way onshore moving to the north and east around 25 miles per hour.

We did have a tornado watch in effect across the entire area. That has since expired. We're not anticipating widespread tornadoes over the next couple of hours. If we get any watches, of course, we will bring them along to you. One isolated cell with rotation with it at this time. You need to be seeking shelter now.

Of course, if you remember, the Pensacola area got hit hard just about a week ago. Unfortunately, they're looking at some real nasty weather here yet this morning. Also, the possibility of a little bit of flash flooding going on with this as the rainfall rates are very heavy, and we could be seeing as much as an inch per hour in this very steady line -- Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. And some of the video we saw was also from Alabama. They were also dealing with that same system that caused some damage there as well. Jacqui, we'll check in with you a little later. Thank you.

ROBERTS: Eleven minutes to the top of the hour. Thirteen countries, four continents, an eye-opening experience that you don't want to miss. It's our "Planet in Peril" special that begins tonight here on CNN at 9:00 Eastern. We uncovered a lot about our changing world.

Here's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here now to take us to the Carteret Islands in the South Pacific. And the problem here is that the islands are actually shrinking.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: They are shrinking and as a result, you have what are called the first environmental refugees in the world. Quite frankly, I didn't know a lot about this until I started investigating. These people are being forced to evacuate their homes now. It's not something happening in the future. I felt it's very interesting that we obviously went there. It's a place that you see about 100 miles east of Papa New Guinea, and this is some of what we found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): We're flying back to the Carteret Islands in the South Pacific to try and solve the mystery. Why the islands here are disappearing. Is it rising sea levels? Harvesting of coral? Or something else entirely?

After two days here, there was only one place left to explore, under water. Chief Bernard takes us out by boat to the coral reef. He tells us we're the first journalists to dive the reef. With dive gear and tanks, we head down 60 feet. What we see is startling, a gray landscape with little marine life. Healthy coral reefs act as protective barriers to islands, helping slow destructive storm surges while providing food and shelter for marine life.

This reef is dying. Which means less protection from storms and fewer fish to eat. So from the air, we could look down at the coral, and it certainly looked like a lot of it was dead, but we actually just dove down. When we got down there, we saw evidence of what seemed to be bleaching, but actually it's entire sheets of coral that seem to be completely dead and washed out. There was some evidence of live coral, but what's interesting is that some of that appeared to be dying in the process as well.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA: The amazing thing as well is how much of this is sort of non-intuitive. First of all, those islands you just saw there expected to be gone, completely submerged by 2015. That's relatively quick but also just the sort of non-intuitive thing.

So, the water sort of flushes over the island. It ruins the farmland. They can't grow their own crops. Therefore, they are actually, people starved to death on these islands.

But also, what used to be sort of tropical diseases, malaria has now become the number one killer on this island where it wasn't that rampant before because there were not that many mosquitoes out there. You get the swamp lands now on these islands.

ROBERTS: Rising sea levels the only thing to blame for the islands sinking?

GUPTA: Again, as we investigate, it's so interesting because rising seas for sure but exactly why. We found out they used to dynamite fish in this area that need so many mouths to feed. That probably destroyed the coral reef, which is the protective barrier to the island. That could be part of it.

Also, as we looked at the geography of this area, this is a natural old volcanic chain. If you study volcanic chains over history, they tend to rise and then subside back into the sea. These things are all a factor here. I think it's happening faster than ever before, but there's lots of different factors at play here.

ROBERTS: Wow, amazing stuff. Sanjay, thanks very much. We'll see you again soon. You're coming back in just a few minutes as well. By the way, if you've got a question for Dr. Gupta about global warming and your health, e-mail us cnn.com/am. Sanjay will be back to answer your questions tomorrow on "AMERICAN MORNING.

And also ahead, we have more breaking news this morning. Firefighters battling it out on the front lines. The scramble to save thousands of homes threatened by raging wildfires. Looks like the marines are going to get into it now and try to help out as well. They need as many people as possible who are trained, who understand just how difficult and how quickly things can change.

We're also going to be talking with the first lady of California, Maria Shriver. She's going to be joining us to talk more about the situation in southern California. Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Back to our breaking news this morning, wildfires in southern California and the fight this morning to save thousands of homes. More than a dozen uncontained fires are spreading from Santa Barbara all the way down south to the Mexico border and getting more dangerous by the minute. So far, at least 655 homes destroyed, 424 square miles up in smoke. 300,000 people ordered to leave their homes.

We're joined now by the first lady of California, Maria Shriver. She's got a conference that's going on today of spouses of presidential candidate. Ms. Shriver, we wanted to ask you, first of all, what are your thoughts about the fire and the situation that people in southern California finds themselves in today?

MARIA SHRIVER, CALIFORNIA FIRST LADY: Well, good morning.

Obviously, this is a tragic day for California. This is day three of the fires, as you well know. This started Sunday morning with fires in Malibu, and, obviously, the devastation devastates all of us who consider California home.

So we have, as you mentioned, several hundred homes have been lost, thousands more are threatened. We're trying to encourage people to follow directions, to stay calm, to stay off our roads, let firefighters do their job. There are lots of ways Californians and really the rest of the nation can help us. At californiavolunteers.org, they can log on there and find out what kind of help is need.

Here at the conference, where we have 14,000 women gathering today, we're going to take that energy, raise some money, direct people to be part of the solution here in California because even though this is in one area, this affects all of us who live here, obviously.

ROBERTS: Right. Are you getting enough help on the federal level to battle these flames and to house the people who have been either evacuated from their homes or who have lost their homes?

SHRIVER: Well, certainly several hundred thousands people evacuated. I know my husband spoke with President Bush several times yesterday. Secretary Chertoff is now on the ground. He said the federal government has been very helpful. We have the marines now being deployed out of Camp Pendleton. San Diego is a military area.

My husband has deployed about 1,500 National Guard. We have the best firefighters in the nation. Nevada has stepped up to help us with other firefighters. And I'm sure other neighboring states will also step in as California has stepped in for other states when they've had national disasters.

ROBERTS: Obviously, the fire is going to be a topic at this summit here of spouses of presidential candidates. You've got Elizabeth Edwards, Michelle Obama, Cindy McCain and Ann Romney all attending today. What else do you hope, Ms. Shriver, comes out of this conference?

SHRIVER: Well, this conference is really about a day of empowering people to be architects of change in their own lives. Those presidential spouses are really extraordinary women, and never before in the history of presidential politics have the spouses, I call them the partners, gathered together from both parties.

Actually, they've never gathered together from one party. And I'm hopeful that the women that are gathered here, and there are some men, will understand what it takes when someone in your family runs for president that you too also serve. I hope that panel is enlightening and inspiring, but also Prime Minister Blair is here to talk with Thomas Friedman about leadership. They'll also include Arnold, who will be at an evacuation center, to talk about what it's like to be leading in a moment of crisis.

There's a lot of breakout sessions, and the whole goal is for people to see themselves as part of the solution in their own lives. When we have a moment like this in the state, people are often curious as to what they can do, how can they be part of the solution? How can we come together? I talk a lot about the power of "we," and you will see it here today in California. Companies coming together, sending money for cots, sending blankets in, sending food.

One of the sponsors here, Safeway, sent truckloads of food to the evacuees last night. This is a coming together to see how we can also help our fellow Californians.

ROBERTS: Well, we wish you a lot of luck in the conference, not only illuminated in the issues that will come up in this presidential campaign but also getting some help to the people there in southern California who so desperately need it. The first lady of California, Maria Shriver.

SHRIVER: Thanks.

ROBERTS: Thanks for being with us this morning. All right, talk to you again soon.

An epic battle with mother nature.

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