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Dozens Dead in Southern Tornadoes; McCain Big GOP Winner, Clinton, Obama Split Delegates
Aired February 06, 2008 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A day after Super Tuesday, John McCain says he's the Republican to beat, but bragging rights with Democrats are still up for grabs, as is one of the states that voted yesterday.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Look at this. We were following it at our noon hour here, but the pictures -- man, oh man -- they just take your breath away. But even they don't tell the whole story. Horrible destruction, dozens of deaths from a spring-like band of tornadoes in four states. We're still learning how bad it is and just how many people may have died in all of this.
Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
LEMON: Boy, oh, boy, a terrifying night across the south as dozens of tornadoes slam into state after state, neighborhood after neighborhood. Thousands of lives are up-ended.
At least 50 people -- at least 50 people are dead, more than half of them in Tennessee. More than 100 others are hurt. Searchers fear more could be trapped under debris, and the danger, it is not over yet, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Take a look at these pictures right now in Memphis, Tennessee, we're getting in. Live pictures we're getting in, videotape. This is a bird's-eye view of the destruction that's playing out across the south right now.
You can see the survivors actually picking through the rubble of their homes, at least what's left of their homes. This is near Memphis, Tennessee. We can tell you right now at least 28 people have been confirmed dead in the state of Tennessee, 12 specifically in Macon County.
Rescue workers, I'm told, in rural areas have been going door-to- door, searching door-to-door, looking for more victims from the outcome of these severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.
Like we said, at least 28 people dead right now. The stories are horrifying. Roads and -- are blocked in those areas, and the damage you can see from here, subdivisions destroyed in a number of those rural areas throughout Tennessee. LEMON: You can see people -- I mean, can you imagine? I mean, just going through your stuff. We see there in the video, that is what's left of many people's homes.
You know, Macon County, Tennessee, it is northeast of Nashville on the Kentucky state line. And that's where we find CNN's Rusty Dornin.
See -- Rusty, unbelievable to see what these people are coming home to. Tell us what you're seeing around you.
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, no one really knows exactly how many people here are dead in Macon County. There was 12, as you said, last reported. And FEMA has been kicking people out of this area where we are so that they can go through the rubble and find out if there are any more people.
Now, we're at the Macon County, actually, veterinary hospital. Just show you the folks that have come to try to help clean up. They were able to rescue the animals that were inside here.
Now, if you just look here, you can see where it just literally sucked the wall off the side of the hospital building. The vet did tell me that she's got a 135-gallon fish tank that actually made it through. And just showing you the way these tornadoes work, parts of the building will be just fine.
Now, as you walk down you can see the rest of the building is intact, and then you can see the subdivision. Now, this came through about 10 p.m. last night, ripped through this subdivision area and, as you can see, just absolutely demolished everything, just splintered all of these homes.
There was a warehouse directly where the camera is pointing right now that was completely ripped off. You see -- you don't even see any parts of the roof, the walls or anything.
Now, when we first got to this area there were about, oh, 20, 25 people that were going through their homes and trying to get their stuff out and had found some of their animals. They were all kicked out by the sheriff's department and by FEMA, because they are so concerned about trying to go through these houses and try to find anyone else who might be in there.
So right now you've got neighbors that are coming out from all over to help folks here. There are about 20 people that have shown up to help her try to clean up the veterinary hospital. But there are a lot of people that can no longer get into their homes to find out what they could save.
Back to you, Don, Kyra.
LEMON: OK, Rusty. Just looking at some of the information, new information coming in as you were talking there, I'm not sure, Rusty, tell me if you know about this. There was an explosion near there last night? Is that correct? DORNIN: There was a gas plant where there was an explosion, but no one was hurt. There were no fatalities involved within that explosion.
But Macon County has just been sort of split in half, Don, from the devastation occurring from this tornado.
Now, I know we did speak to someone when we first touched down here, Jeff Stevens, who was inside his house with his family protecting them. Can we listen to that?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEFF STEVENS, RESIDENT: Well, I was sitting watching the ball game last night, about 10:15. The satellite went off, and I just started hearing a rumbling. Got to get my daughter off the couch. She was asleep. Got my wife out of bed. And within seconds the house was just destroyed.
We just ran into the hallway and laid down, laid on top of them, and ears started popping like you was in an airplane. And just debris started flying everywhere. It blew both ends of my house out. And I'm in better shape than a lot of my neighbors. It was bad.
DORNIN: Now, do you know if any of your neighbors have been hurt or anything like that?
STEVENS: Not for sure. I can't confirm that.
DORNIN: Now, is there anything to save in your house?
STEVENS: Sure, yes, there's several rooms of my house that are untouched. Not even a picture moved on the wall. And some rooms are just demolished. You know, walls are caved in from the outside in. Just -- so -- but we're lucky. We're one of the lucky ones.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DORNIN: Jeff Stevens was -- did go back with his family, and they were able to find two of their dogs that apparently had been -- are obviously freaked out by the storm. They found them in the garage, and they took them away.
Again, you just have a lot of these scenes everywhere throughout the town of Lafayette. Back to you.
LEMON: Rusty, doing a great job out there. And I'm glad you talked about that explosion, because they weren't sure if some of the deaths were attributed to that. But apparently, the explosion had nothing to do with the deaths. They believe now, at least the information that they have now, that all the deaths there were due to this tornado.
OK, Rusty, keep us on top of it. Again, great job there.
I also want to remind our viewers, we're going to talk to a student at Union University in Jackson, Mississippi. That's where some 50 -- Jackson, Tennessee, I should say, where some 50 students had to be taken to the hospital. Some of them had to be dug out from the rubble. We'll talk to a student in just a bit.
PHILLIPS: Well, CNN's Dan Lothian is in Arkansas, where 13 people are dead, three from one family. It's a heartbreaking day for people in Atkins -- Dan.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it really is a heartbreaking day. You know, we've been out here all morning. And one of the things that we always see whenever we cover these kinds of stories on tornadoes is that, typically, there are homes that are spared. The tornadoes kind of bounces around a neighborhood, and you'll see some that are wiped out, others that are still there.
This particular case, as you spin around here in this particular community, all of these homes have either been heavily damaged or destroyed.
Right behind me, a very sad story there. The family that lives there, they lived not far away up the street a few years ago, and that home was destroyed by fire. Now they move here, and this home is destroyed by a tornado.
Right next to them -- and of course we're having a lot of activity that's moved in here. Power trucks, some of the cleanup crews are already coming in here and doing a lot of work. But right behind that you just see a lot of rubble. It's hard to imagine that we had three homes there from three generations of one family, the Martin family. The sons, the great-grandmother and grandfather were inside one of the homes when the tornadoes came roaring through.
Now another thing I want to point out is, you know, this kind of shows you the power of the tornado. Take a look up in the trees. You see this gives you a good indication of which way the tornado was coming. As it came across and it just bends, it just rips across the top of these trees, and then hits the houses, wipes it out, keeps on moving. Everything that was in the path of this tornado is destroyed.
Difficult for the people who have essentially lost everything. But we've been watching throughout the morning, families are coming by, having sort of that stare on their faces as they look and realize that, just a few hours ago, they had a home; now it is all gone.
So they're going through their homes. They're looking for pictures. They're pulling out some furniture, leaving with clothing, whatever it is that they can recover as they try to move on.
But at least for the -- for the family here, they're telling us that they don't know if they'll be able to move on. It's been such a difficult, traumatic experience for them. They don't know if they'll ever be able to rebuild here -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Dan Lothian, we'll stay in close contact with you there in Atkins, Arkansas. Dan, thanks.
Let's get to Jacqui Jeras now in the weather center. She's tracking those deadly storms for us.
Jacqui, what are you finding out.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, we just have new information in that part of the tornado watch has been cancelled early. So we just have a little sliver here left from about Warner Robins, extending down through Tallahassee, down to the Gulf Coast here. And it's this main line that we're still concerned about producing that threat of tornados.
In addition to that, we can see some excessive wind beyond 60 miles per hour. A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for Randolph and Carroll counties. There you can see that storm highlighted. And also very intense thunderstorm right now over Americus, Georgia. So be aware that you could have some damaging winds, even without a tornado warning. So take the severe thunderstorm warning very seriously, as well.
You can see how long this line is. Starts out in the Gulf of Mexico and goes all through Georgia.
We're also concerned about some development right here across parts of Kentucky. The storm prediction center is potentially -- will be issuing a watch there in the next couple of hours. And then the mid-Atlantic states could see some stronger thunderstorms later on this afternoon -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui. We're getting some video in now from one of our affiliates, WMC, out of Tennessee. Take a look at these live pictures. This is Jackson, Tennessee.
Not quite sure of the exact location, but Jacqui, we were talking about the fact that Union University, a Baptist university there in Jackson, was hit hard in this area by this tornado. At least eight people were trapped in a damaged dorm. And then rescuers had to come actually dig them out of there.
The school's news director said that 51 students had been sent to the hospital, and nine had injuries that were classified as serious.
Right now we're just seeing folks going through and surveying the damage in a parking lot not far from there. Don't know if they're looking for survivors or injured or what exactly is going on. They've got their hardhats on. But you can see the destruction of the cars in this parking lot.
We're actually going to talk to a student that survived the tornado that went through this area in Jackson, Tennessee, a student from Union University. He said that he was knocked out, woke up and all he could see was sky within that dormitory that he was.
But Jacqui, with regard to Jackson, what kind of details, information, do you have of weather in that area, the weather that did touch down there?
JERAS: Right. This happened last evening. It happened after dark. And it's actually amazing to me that, thus far, we haven't had any fatalities. When you look at this damage, and you know that there were students in the dorm rooms. I've seen some video of some of the walls completely knocked out of this. So that is indicative of an incredibly powerful tornado.
There you can see on the map behind me, there is Memphis and the Jackson area is right about in here. And look at all the clusters of tornadoes, too, right within this area. An incredible outbreak yesterday.
These were very large tornadoes. They were a long track. They stayed on the ground for a very long period of time. And that's why we've seen so much destruction.
And of course the National Weather Service is going to be out today on the ground, looking at the damage that they've seen, and they're going to be looking at video just like this. They're going to get up into helicopters, and they're going to look at what kind of damage has been done. They're going to look at the direction that things have fallen down or that maybe the trees have been twisted. And they're going to make their assessment and determine just how powerful this tornado was. And they're also going to determine how wide it was and just how long that track was.
So of course we'll be in close contact with them once they get that analysis. Of course, we'll pass that along to you.
But this was certainly, I would say, at least an F-3, what we would call a major tornado that blew through this area. And thankfully, hopefully, we can keep that down to just injured and nothing serious.
PHILLIPS: Jacqui, thanks so much.
Live pictures, once again, from our affiliate, WMC, out of Jackson, Tennessee. Want to thank you for these live aerials.
We are following, of course, the deaths and the injuries from Tennessee to Arkansas to Kentucky and Alabama as those severe storms and tornadoes have taken at least 52 lives today.
LEMON: And as we look at these live pictures coming in now from Tennessee, we want to go to Kentucky and, specifically, the governor of Kentucky, Governor Steve Beshear.
Governor, I understand you've been touring parts of your state. At last report, seven people have died.
GOV. STEVE BESHEAR (D), KENTUCKY: Yes. We've had seven casualties confirmed and several injured. We've obviously had a lot of property damage also as these high winds and embedded tornadoes swept through Kentucky.
I've declared a state of emergency here. I talked to President Bush this morning, and he assured us of all the assistance that the federal government could give us. We are touring some of the -- some of the worst-hit areas today by helicopter and getting in and talking to the local officials and making sure that we are giving them every bit of assistance that they need.
LEMON: OK. Governor, and also, since you've been touring again the state of emergency, tell us what you're seeing as you -- as you tour these -- your state.
BESHEAR: Well, obviously, the high winds wreaked havoc, both on the land and on buildings that were in its way. You can, from the air, basically see just a -- just a line that these tornadoes came up and, in the path of it, there is nothing left; and on either side of it, things are standing just like nothing has happened. So it's an amazing picture to see.
LEMON: Yes. What are -- what are people telling you there, the residents of Kentucky?
BESHEAR: Well, we have -- we've had great response here. The local officials were out immediately and going door-to-door, making sure that we located people. There have been some stories of some amazing rescues, of folks that were found and walked away after being trapped underneath rubble.
LEMON: Yes.
BESHEAR: And so people are working very hard, and we're having a lot of success in just getting on top of things and making sure that people are safe and the ones that are injured are getting treatment. And obviously, as I said, we've had seven casualties, also.
LEMON: Well -- well, Governor, we certainly wish you the best there, and we -- you know, our hearts go out to everyone who's affected by this. Thank you for joining us today.
BESHEAR: Thank you.
LEMON: And when weather becomes the news, count on CNN to bring it to you first. And if you see severe weather happening in your area, make sure you send us an I-Report. Go to CNN.com and click on I-Report, or type IReport@CNN.com right into your cell phone and share your photos or video.
PHILLIPS: Much more ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM on these tornadoes and this: children trained as terrorists. We're going to show you chilling new video of young boys being trained by al Qaeda. The tape was seized by the U.S. military in Iraq.
LEMON: And we now know what killed actor Heath Ledger. The drug tests are in, and the findings are out in the open.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We have new pictures coming into the CNN NEWSROOM all day. As a matter of fact, these are live. They're from Jackson, Tennessee, courtesy of our affiliate, WMC. Just so you know, in Tennessee alone, 28 confirmed fatalities so far. Twelve of them are in Macon County, where you saw our Rusty Dornin just a little bit earlier.
Jackson, Tennessee, also is home to Union University, where many of their students had to be taken to the hospital. Some of them had to be rescued from under rubble.
But again, 28 people confirmed dead so far in Tennessee. That state there, just much of it wiped out by this tornado.
And this is the dormitories you're looking at, at Union University here, this all taken moments ago, new video in to the CNN -- into the CNN NEWSROOM. You can see there -- can you imagine the chaos and what these students were dealing with when all of a sudden this thing comes roaring through? But take a look. There's the video. That just happened moments ago here.
PHILLIPS: We're actually going to talk to a student in just a short bit. We're trying to get him transferred into the phone lines right now. Aaron Gilbert, a student there at Union University.
And apparently, he had been inside the Waters Complex when it collapsed. He was not trapped, but he did watch emergency officials work to free those that he said were trapped inside a bathroom, actually, inside that complex. One of the students was actually his roommate. He said that his roommate's legs were trapped beneath the rubble.
He said that, when it did collapse, he just looked up and all he could see was the sky. There was sort of a surreal experience. But he got out unscathed. He did witness everything. We're going to talk to him just in a little bit on the phone.
LEMON: In the meantime, as we monitor those storm pictures now, we want to talk about the race for the White House. One day after Super Tuesday, as the smoke clears, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are both celebrating wins across the country with one state, New Mexico, still too close to call.
Clinton came out on top in eight states, including the big prize, which is California, and her home state of New York. She also won American Samoa. Obama won 13 states, including his home state, Illinois.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think it would be a problem if Senator Clinton's voters disliked me, or my voters disliked Senator Clinton. I don't think that's the case. I think that our voters are passionate about bringing about change.
And the numbers that I mentioned earlier, the 10 million people choosing Democratic ballots versus 6 million choosing Republican, indicates the degree to which the Democratic nominee, I think, will be able to consolidate the Democratic base and, if I'm the nominee, bring independence and some Republicans into that base in order to do extraordinarily well in -- in the general election.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Together we're going to take back America, because I see an America where our economy works for everyone, not just those at the top, where prosperity is shared, and we create good jobs that stay right here in America. I see an America where we stand up to the oil companies and the oil-producing countries, where we launch a clean energy revolution and finally confront the climate crisis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Republican frontrunner John McCain emerged from Super Tuesday even further out in front with wins in nine states, including California and New York. Mike Huckabee won five states, four in the heart of the south.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Do we have a lot of work to do to unite the entire party? Sure. I've been involved in many, many campaigns, and after the campaigns are over, you've always got the task of uniting the party behind the nominee, whether it be a congressional race or whether it be a Senate race or whether it be a presidential race.
And I've spent my political career in doing that, and I'm confident we will do that with the Republican Party now.
MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What we did last night was win in states where a Republican has to win in order to capture the White House, and we did it going against the headwinds of talk radio and the pundits saying that I had simply disappeared, I wasn't even relevant, didn't matter. And people had to go out and vote for me and vote, really, in the wind of all of that kind of noise that they were hearing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: For Mitt Romney, a less than Super Tuesday. He's been meeting today with his campaign advisors to plot his way forward. Romney picked up -- picked up wins in seven states but fell far behind in delegates.
PHILLIPS: The all-important delegate count. Somebody will have to get 2,025 delegates to win the Democratic nomination. Here's where things stand right now. Let's take a look at the Democratic delegate totals.
OK. We don't have those numbers, but we'll have them in a moment. And then we'll also look at the Republican side, too. The magic number is 1,191. The race stands for (UNINTELLIGIBLE) candidates.
All right. Here you go. Delegates to date, right there, Clinton 483. Total of 726. Obama, total 636. Now let's take a look at the -- where the race stands for the GOP candidates. There we go: McCain, a total of 567. Romney, 239. Huckabee, 154.
Well, no rest for the weary. The presidential candidates are getting ready for another round of nominating contests coming up Saturday: the Kansas Republican caucuses, Nebraska's Democratic caucuses, Washington state's caucuses and the Louisiana primary. On tap three days later, primaries in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.
And if California is any indication, Barack Obama faces an uphill battle to draw Hispanic votes away from Hillary Clinton. We're going to talk more about that with our political roundtable at the bottom of the hour.
And if you'd like to see the complete breakdown of how America voted state by state, check out CNN's election center at CNNpolitics.com. You can also see the contest ahead, analysis and much more at the CNNpolitics.com.
LEMON: We're following breaking weather news here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Tennessee may have gotten much of the brunt of the storm, these storms that rolled through last night, with 28 people confirmed dead so far.
Much, much more on the town of Jackson, where Union University is and where students had to be rescued. We're going to try and talk to one of those students, coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Many states in the south dealing with some severe weather. We're going to continue to follow that and bring you the very latest on that breaking news as soon as we get more on it.
Now we're going to talk about stocks. They're making some modest gains after the biggest sell-off of the year. Susan Lisovicz on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with the very latest on that.
Hi, Susan.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. And I actually wanted to touch back on the top story of the day, those terrible tornadoes. One of the big companies that trades here at the NYSE is FedEx, the huge shipping company. And it says it is fully operational. Just very, very minor damage. It's based in Memphis, Tennessee.
It says that it did have some flight delays, about nine, due to the storms in the area but the bulk of its -- of the flights coming after 10 p.m. tonight. So basically, FedEx saying that it's fine, and its shares are doing fine, too. FedEx shares are up about 2 percent.
The rest of the market is doing pretty well, too. Not quite up as sharply, but remember, we're coming off a terrible day, the worst in about a year for the major indices. The Dow, in fact, has given up about nearly 1,000 points this year. The NASDAQ is down about 19 percent since its peak last October. So it's getting very close, uncomfortably close, to what is called a bear market, a 20-percent drop or more.
Plus midway through the session, we've got a nice rebound. It's not explosive, but it's a nice rebound. Check it out. The Dow right now up 53 points. The NASDAQ is up 13 points.
And one of the factors, one of the positive factors today, is some good corporate earnings. Disney, the best performing of the Dow 30, its shares up better than 5 percent. Its earnings for the last quarter and its profit exceeded Wall Street's estimates.
Hannah Montana and "High School Musical," they -- you know, they appeal to kids, but those translate into big, big profits for Disney, as well as ESPN and its theme parks did well.
Time Warner, the parent company of this fine network, also resulting its quarterly results in line with Wall Street's estimates, indicating -- indications from the company that it may sell part of its AOL unit. Also, spin off more of Time Warner Cable. According to sources within the company, may also cut about 100 corporate jobs.
Time Warner shares are up 3.5 percent. And Disney, as I mentioned, is also doing nicely -- Don.
LEMON: And you're talking about those strong corporate earnings, but is that enough to shake off the bad news that we heard yesterday?
LISOVICZ: You know, coming off of what we saw over the last couple of days, you might want to see something that was a little bit more convincing. And having said that, Don, I mean, we're not seeing that. It was kind of a shaky rally in the morning and it's modest at best. But it is, in fact, a rally.
We got more bad news from the housing sector. Toll Brothers, the nation's largest home builder, big luxury home builder, reporting its first -- well in a preliminary -- reporting its results, giving us an indication of what it's going to report. And what it looks like is a sharp decline in sales. In fact, the company saying it's not seeing much light at the end of the tunnel and looking at an additional $300 million in write-downs.
The fact that the company says it's still not seeing much optimism there certainly is not optimistic for the housing sector. So that's unfortunate. But Toll Brothers shares are flat.
Don, back to you.
LEMON: All right, Susan, thank you very much.
PHILLIPS: Arkansas, west and middle Tennessee, Kentucky insane nighttime storms that pushed over buildings, flipped over cars and trucks and raked away everything lighter. This shopping mall in Memphis is torn apart. Giant panes of glass smashed against twisted door frames and beams. Four hundred miles away, in central Alabama, morning light revealed a horrible scene. Debris and piles of wreckage that were homes just hours before.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My sister lived next door to them. It done damage to her home. It done damage to my mom's home. And it brought mine completely out, as you see. By the grace of God, we'll get through it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: One tornado took dead aim at the university campus in Jackson, Tennessee. It ripped apart dormitories, leaving some students trapped. CNN's Sean Callebs has made his way to Union University. He joins us now with the very latest from there.
Look -- are those dorms behind you? Is that what it is?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly, Don. Over my left shoulder here, the splintered structure of last night housed dozens of students. And looking at it, you can only imagine the horror that those kids had to go through.
But about eight or nine were hurt. But, thankfully, none of those injuries were life threatening. In fact, no lives were lost here on this campus, even though it took a direct hit.
Look at the cars. They're tossed around as if they're toys. Windows blown out. Debris everywhere. And as terrifying as it is to look at this, imagine driving at the height of the storm, not knowing that there was a twister bearing down on you because it was dark. Well, that's exactly what happened to James Baskin and his family. And listen to what he had to endure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES BASKIN, JACKSON RESIDENT: We were leaving the restaurant from over there and got to that intersection at the light and it just hit us. It just blew all the glass out and swooped us up in the air. And the next thing I know, we were flipping and flying and landed over here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: He said it only took a matter of seconds, but, boy, it was a time in his life that he and his family will never forget.
And think about it. Yesterday about this time, Don, all the weather forecasters, CNN, were talking about, look, conditions were ripe right through the heart of tornado alley. We had the cold coming down from the north, all kinds of muggy air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. This is the time of the year we begin to worry about tornadoes. But perhaps no one thought it was going to be at punishing as it was. Dozens of deaths. Hundreds of people injured. And, really, I can tell you that there are emergency crews, first responders. They are out right now. They're going to neighborhoods, suburban areas, where homes are just flattened. They can't even go house-to-house. They're going rubble-to-rubble, Don, trying to make sure that people are not trapped in there. Trying to make sure everyone is accounted for.
LEMON: All right, Sean Callebs, Jackson, Tennessee. And, Sean, you're exactly right. Chad Myers talked about this all of yesterday. Thank you for that report.
PHILLIPS: The power behind these storms is shocking. Aaron Gilbert was there when it happened, when his dorm collapsed around him. Aaron's on the phone with me now as we continue to look at this video and the live pictures of exactly where Sean Callebs is.
Aaron, I know that you were among a number of students in the Waters Complex. Tell me what that is. Is that a dorm? And what do you remember? What did you see? Give me as much detail as possible.
AARON GILBERT, SURVIVED KILLER STORM: Actually, I was in the Waters Commons. It's the meeting place where the RA desk is around the dorm. Me and my roommate were going to check on everybody. We made sure everyone was in the downstairs rooms and in the bathrooms. And then we ran to the girls complex to make sure the girl RAs were OK.
Then we saw the clouds starting to drop and things started to pick up and we ran across to the -- back to the Waters Commons. Then we saw the clouds starting to drop. And I called my boss, the RD, Mario Cobo (ph), over to look at everything. When he ran over, we opened the door and the wind picked up really big and we started yelling, everyone go inside and get in the hallway.
We ran and got in the hallway of the Waters Commons and then my roommate yelled out, "I got to go shut the door! We forgot to shut the door! It won't shut itself." And then as soon as he said that, my boss got in the hallway with us and then it was as if everything blew up.
It's -- I mean like the building imploded on itself and me and some other guys were sitting there in the fetal position and a door had fell on top of us and wedged itself between the wall and us, stopping the ceiling from coming down on us. And we -- my ears pressurized and we heard the windows bust out.
And then I waited and then I realized what was going on and I remember that my roommate and my friend had run out to go shut that door. And so after everything was over we started yelling for them and he was screaming and he was under -- he was trapped under about two layers of concrete. And we went over there and found him and we waited until a fire crew got there so they could find him.
Then we found out there was about seven soccer players or so trapped -- what used to be the bathroom area. And we waited then. And then me and another friend went and assessed the damages to made sure everyone was out before we came back to try to help as much as we could.
PHILLIPS: Wow. So everybody was OK though? Everybody was breathing?
GILBERT: Yes, everyone was breathing. They were talking. Another one of my friends that was next to my roommate was yelling. We couldn't even see him. He just said, don't forget about me. I'm under here. We just kept talking to him, making sure that we weren't leaving him. And we couldn't even see him at all. He couldn't even see our lights.
PHILLIPS: Now, Aaron, has everyone been accounted for, do you know?
GILBERT: Yes, everybody I know of. I talked to my roommate who was trapped and they got him out. He was released from the hospital about 4:30 in the morning. He said he was about one of the last to leave of the people that were trapped.
PHILLIPS: So no deaths that you know of?
GILBERT: No, no deaths that I know of.
PHILLIPS: Wow. So had you ever trained -- any of you guys ever trained for this before?
GILBERT: They just gave us certain protocol that when there was a tornado warning or watch and the sirens went off, there's a certain button we push to make a siren go off in the dorms. And then as RAs, we're supposed to go around to all the upstairs rooms and make sure that everyone moves to the downstairs and goes to the bathroom if it gets really bad.
PHILLIPS: Now is the university just completely flattened? Is it just the dorms? I mean we're getting bits and pieces of video here, so I'm seeing some things still standing. But, for the most part, it looks like everything's flattened. What can you tell me?
GILBERT: Mainly I think the residential area is probably the worst of it. It just looks like White Hall (ph) and Jimmy's Hall (ph), the two largest buildings, just had some major roof damage and then it seems like the dormitories were the worst hit as it went across campus.
PHILLIPS: Wow. Now, first of all, I want to commend you for going over to the female complexes and making sure they're OK. You're a true gentleman. That takes a lot of guts to not only look after yourself and your friends, but also to check on the females as well. Did everybody kind of congregate together in one area or did everybody just sort of go to where they thought was a safe spot hoping that they would be OK?
GILBERT: When -- before the storm hit, you mean?
PHILLIPS: Yes.
GILBERT: Yes, everyone just -- they tried to go into the bathroom area. I mean, I've heard lots of stories of people saying they tried to shut the door and the tornado shut the door for them and then they just remember everything going crazy. Some people -- I mean mainly most of the people made it to the bathrooms by the time it hit. And then there was a few of us in the complex -- in the commons when that happened.
PHILLIPS: And what are you being told now with regard to classes, school? You know, is everybody headed home? Are you there kind of waiting to see what instructions -- I mean what's next?
GILBERT: Well, they told -- we'd really like to go get some of our stuff. Try to salvage what we can because we just have the clothes that we were wearing. And we would like to go back. They said that we won't probably be able to go back until tomorrow. Maybe even Friday. But if we can, if possible, they said just to go home for right now.
And so a lot of people that I'm with are worried because they live a little bit farther than I do and they can't just come back, you know, on a whim to get their stuff. And they're just afraid they're going to lose all that. And the only thing else I've been told is that classes at the earliest will start back on the 18th.
PHILLIPS: OK. The 18th. And where are you staying now, Aaron?
GILBERT: I'm at Dr. Kevin Cooney's (ph) house. He's one of the professors at Union.
PHILLIPS: So are a lot of the professors taking students in? Is everybody pitching in, in the community?
GILBERT: Yes. Yes. It was -- I mean after it was over, there was churches there with their buses transporting people out. At first I went to Pabarat's (ph) Baptist Church where I was taken until the next storm passed. Then Dr. Cooney came and picked some of us up because he said he had some power still at his house and some beds for us to sleep on. And other students went elsewhere.
PHILLIPS: So I noticed -- I was read through information about you. You're majoring in Biblical studies. I'm guessing that you got into quite a spiritual conversation with fellow classmates.
GILBERT: Yes, ma'am. Yes. I remember talking to one of my good friends, who is also -- he's a theology major. And we were talking about how we just -- I mean we really felt the hand of God and, for one thing, just how powerful he is and just the reality of everything. And then after that, after it was over, we just felt the grace of God. Just how I mean, one thing I noticed is that where all the people were trapped, there was little pockets keeping them -- anything from harming them or falling on them.
I mean the seven guys that were trapped in what used to be a bathroom. And from what I've heard, there's nothing -- not even a scratch on them. One of my friends who was also trapped next to my roommate, he said a couch had went on top of him and stopped everything from falling on him. So, I mean, it was definitely the grace of God there.
PHILLIPS: Well, that's a confirmation of faith, that is for sure. Aaron Gilbert, just to look at this destruction and know that you're alive and that there have been no deaths reported. Aaron Gilbert, a student there at Union University.
Keep in touch with us, Aaron, and let us know how everything's going, will you?
GILBERT: All right. I will.
PHILLIPS: Appreciate it. Pictures out of Jackson, Tennessee, there, Union University.
LEMON: Yes, it's just amazing. And for him to keep his cool like that under those circumstances.
All right. We're going to move on now and talk about politics here. Latino voters, they're a growing force in American politics. So did they line up as expected in the Clinton/Obama race yesterday? We'll ask our panel of experts.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Super Tuesday gave John McCain a commanding lead in the GOP presidential race. But for the Democrats, it's looking more like a fight right down to the finish. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are still very close in the delegate race after yesterday's contest in 22 states.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our time has come. Our movement is real. And change is coming to America.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We know what we need is someone ready on day one to solve our problems and seize those opportunities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Joining us now with their take, Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez in New York, and Democratic commentator Carl Jeffers in Los Angeles. I sound like, you know, I'm MCing a fight or something. In one corner, we've got this person. But that's kind of how it is with these races as far as it goes.
Hey, you know what I want to ask from you, Leslie? Let's talk about the Latino vote real quick.
LESLIE SANCHEZ, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Sure.
LEMON: Did that make all of the difference for Hillary Clinton in California and probably several other states? Did that get her over the edge?
SANCHEZ: Definitely so. Latino voters are proving to be swing voters. They are open-minded, independent. The base of support that she's earning is definitely older Hispanics, people that are part of the established kind of Democratic primary process. But that being said, these are critical states that have an emerging Hispanic population that wants to get engaged.
LEMON: OK. So on the Democratic side, Latinos (ph) favored Hillary Clinton, which helped her in California and then also in Arizona. Why not in -- I'm going to let you talk about this first, Leslie, and then we'll get Carl to jump in. Is there some sort of a chasm or something between African-American voters and Latino voters? Why don't they support Barack Obama as much as they support Hillary Clinton?
SANCHEZ: I think it's generational. I think a lot of people want to say that that's going to be the case and in some communities, some niches of the Hispanic community, that may be so. But look at how diverse the Hispanic community is. Twenty-three different nations, multiple languages. If you're looking at the facts, she got support from elderly or more senior Hispanic and newer immigrants. She was out moving a message of (INAUDIBLE) with the United Farm Workers, which is the 1960s civil rights movement that doesn't apply (ph) and really connect with young -- what I would call young bloods, mainstream, economically conservative Hispanics who are very interesting in John McCain and Barack Obama.
LEMON: Carl.
CARL JEFFERS, DEMOCRATIC COMMENTATOR: Well, I think that we're being very generous here in toning down the degree of the schism here. The reality is, there are major problems in the country between African-Americans and Hispanics that go beyond really just the politics. You have gang wars in Texas and in California. You have the competition for jobs. You have a situation where both groups have generally been at the bottom of the ladder, socially, economically, and politically.
So the opportunity for one to perhaps reach to the very top as a nominee for president of the United States may, in fact, engender some jealousy or resentment by the other. It would be the same if Villaraigosa, the most perhaps popular Hispanic public official in the country, the mayor of Los Angeles, if he was running for president, the Hispanic vote would be going 80 percent to Villaraigosa and Hillary Clinton would be getting 80 percent.
LEMON: Go ahead, Leslie.
SANCHEZ: No, I don't think -- that's not at all the case. You know, Hispanics have clearly proven they don't do it just on race, they do it on personality. They don't believe in party I.D. labels. They're going to be the people that split ticket. These are folks you have to build a relationship. So just because somebody's Hispanic or African-American does not mean they're going to vote necessarily (INAUDIBLE). I don't buy into that. LEMON: Do you think that -- real quick because we want to move on -- do you think that she would have won those states without Hispanic support?
SANCHEZ: I do not at all. Not at all.
LEMON: You don't. OK. All right. Let me ask you . . .
JEFFERS: Well, that just proves my point though, Don, because the Hispanic vote, despite what Leslie says, is, in fact, lined up both because of the racial makeup and because they do have -- she is right about one thing, they do have a proven track record . . .
LEMON: OK. Hang on. Hang on.
SANCHEZ: It's the true is she had name I.D. I mean Barack Obama does not have the long-standing name I.D. or legacy you need in the Hispanic community and endorsements. Endorsements are big.
LEMON: I think you've met our match. I think both of us probably met our match.
So, listen. Hey, listen, I don't have my information here. If we can go -- we have some graphics that I want to go through. You guys roll those graphics and then we can talk about -- it's not just the Latino votes, we're talking about as it comes to white voters. Hillary Clinton, 51 percent of the white vote, Barack Obama 43 percent. Real quickly, Carl, surprising?
JEFFERS: No, that's not surprising, because I think that that gap will actually increase and become more pronounced as we go forward in the primary race. In California, though, Barack Obama won white voters and he won young voters. Hillary Clinton won Asian-Americans, a group that no one's been talking about much, and she won Hispanics. Hispanics have been traditionally Democratic. But this time if John McCain is the Republican nominee and Barack Obama's on the ticket, match or no match with Leslie, I can assure you that this guy will clearly be competitive.
LEMON: We've been focused talking -- we've been talking a lot about white voters, African-American voters and clearly, as you said, Asian voters, Latino voters.
And then also on that, I think, Hillary Clinton got -- Barack Obama got 81 percent of the African-American vote, and then Hillary Clinton made up the rest. Let's look at Latino voters 61 percent for Clinton and then 38 percent for Barack Obama there.
OK. Let's talk about the GOP numbers here. Mike Huckabee seems to be sort of the surprise in all of this. No one thought he was going to do as well as -- at least if you look at the pundits, or if you at least look at the other candidates, did not think he was going to do as well as he did. And probably Mitt Romney is the one going, hey, what happened?
SANCHEZ: I would say that that's very true. You know, what Governor Huckabee does is he evangelizes voters. He has a constituency that is very much based on a grass-roots operation that is mobilized on the themes and social values he talks about. You cannot discount that. I think that's something that John McCain and Huckabee both have is grass-roots operations. When McCain was getting those endorsements from the governors, they were able to mobilize in those competitive states.
LEMON: Carl, what does this mean for Mitt Romney? I mean might he be thinking -- obviously he is probably the only one in this, or one of the only ones -- actually, the only one on the Republican side because McCain had run out of money and Huckabee not a multi- millionaire like he is. Romney, what do you think? Is he going to use his own money to stay in this race or do you think this may be done for him?
JEFFERS: Well, it's interesting, Don, because Mitt Romney has actually already invested $35 million of his own money in this race. And none of them expected that Mike Huckabee would remain in the race to this degree to actually be hurting Mitt Romney versus hurting John McCain, and that's what's happening. A funny thing occurred to me last night watching Mitt Romney give his acceptance speech and his wife was standing there beside him. I think you're looking at that right now. And at one point he says, "the only thing that we know for sure is that the campaign continues on," and everyone applauded. And I said to myself, gee, his wife is thinking there, yes, "that's right." Then she's thinking, "is he out of his mind?" I mean . . .
SANCHEZ: You see that look (ph). You cannot . . .
JEFFERS: Because unless these conservatives like Rush Limbaugh and Hannity and all of them want to step up to the plate and provide some of their money, the fact is, Romney does have encouragement to go forward, but I don't know that he feels that he is going to be worth it in terms of (INAUDIBLE).
SANCHEZ: Well, I don't think we should be interpreting . . .
LEMON: Leslie, I've got five seconds, Leslie. So real quick.
SANCHEZ: You cannot discount the amount of support that Governor Romney has received. Yes, he's got a lot of conservatives who are frustrated in the process. They're letting their voices be heard, both with a Huckabee and a Romney. So it's (INAUDIBLE).
LEMON: I gave you eight seconds there. All right. We have to run though. Thank you. You guys are great. Thank you so much for breaking that down for us. Leslie Sanchez and also Carl Jeffers right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
JEFFERS: Good to see you again, Don.
LEMON: Good to see you. You guys stop fighting. I'm going to separate you two next time. Oh, you are separate.
JEFFERS: Oh, we're fine. I love Leslie. That was great. LEMON: All right. If you'd like to see the complete breakdown of how America voted state-by-state, check out CNN's Election Center at CNNpolitics.com. You can also see the contests ahead, analysis and much, much more -- CNNpolitics.com.
PHILLIPS: An official cause of death for Heath Ledger. Find out what the medical examiner found in the actor's system.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: We'll have news from Madison (ph) in just a moment, but first we want to update you on the death toll from these deadly storms that rolled through last night. Rolled through Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama. It claimed at least 52 lives, we are told. Twenty-eight in Tennessee, 13 in Arkansas, seven in Kentucky, four in Alabama. This devastating video in to the CNN NEWSROOM, you're looking, happening all over the south. We're going to continue to update you on this throughout the day right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
PHILLIPS: Answers finally in the death of actor Heath Ledger. The New York City medical examiner says that Ledger had six prescription drugs in his system. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here with the details.
Pretty sad when you think about it.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is so sad. It is so sad. I mean, it's not clear why he had these drugs. It's not clear if they were prescribed to him or to somebody else an he borrowed them. None of that is clear.
But what the medical examiner does know is he said it was an accidental death. Six drugs, as Kyra said. Two of the drugs, sleep medications, two anti-anxiety drugs and two pain killers. And when you hear the names, you'll know them. Things like Hydrocodone and Oxycodone, Xanax, Valium. So these are drugs that a lot of people use. And when they're used alone and at the right dosage, they can be very effective drugs. When you put them together, basically they tell your brain stem to go to sleep and your brain stem is what tells your heart to beat and your lungs to breathe. So he just took them and probably had a very quiet and peaceful death.
PHILLIPS: How do they know it wasn't suicide?
COHEN: That is a great question. And we asked a pathologist, who's not involved with this case. And he said, look, when you're investigating something like this, if there's no suicide note, and he never said anything about suicide to a friend in the days preceding what happened, you have to call it accidental because have you no proof that it's suicide. But really you would have to have been in his head when he did what he did to know what he was trying to do. Was this recreational? Was he trying to get high? Was he just trying to get some rest and he thought this was the way to do it? Was he trying to kill himself? It's impossible to really know.
PHILLIPS: How common is this death by prescription and no illegal drugs involved?
COHEN: The pathologist I talked to said it is surprisingly common. And they said a lot of times people think, oh, prescription drugs, a doctor gave them to me. They come in a bottle with a label. I got them at a pharmacy. I didn't get them on the street. And they underestimate how powerful these drugs are. Well, these six drugs in combination, as we've seen, are very, very powerful and people forget that these are drugs.
PHILLIPS: Right. And what's the other side of the story? Why do people even need a sleeping pill and a pain pill and an anti- anxiety pill. I mean it says so much about our lives and the way we live and everything.
COHEN: It's very true. It's very true. That is the saddest part of all, why did he feel like he needed all those.
PHILLIPS: Yes. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks.
COHEN: Thanks.
LEMON: When those killer storms bore down, some people broke out their cameras. And we have some wild images from people caught in the worst of these storms.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Time now to see what's clicking at CNN.com. Some of our most watched videos. Natalee Holloway's father responds to that shocking footage of suspect Joran van der Sloot. He told Nancy Grace he was shell shocked by the hidden camera.
Lots of surfers are hot doggers. But this one is a pretty cool -- gosh. Reminds me of the squirrel thing on "Anchorman."
PHILLIPS: Hang 20.
LEMON: She regularly hangs 10 with her dad in the waves off the coast of Peru.
And on the offensive against his public defender, an inmate belts his lawyer in the face in court, knocking him unconscious. The whole thing was caught on tape.
Link to all of those top 10 list from the front page at cnn.com. The next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky are all to aware of what tornadoes can do. But these were monster tornadoes in the middle of winter.
PHILLIPS: And they left monstrous damage. With more than 50 people dead, we've got crews and cameras all over the south. We'll have the numbers, the details and the pictures seem to get worse by the hour.
Hello, everyone, I'm Kyra Phillips at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
LEMON: Wow, those pictures, unbelievable.
I'm Don Lemon. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
PHILLIPS: Well, those storms smashed into Union University in west Tennessee and left very little standing. But don't take my word for it. Aaron Gilbert was there when it happen, when his dorm collapsed around him and he joined us on the phone from Jackson just a few minutes ago right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AARON GILBERT: Actually, I was in the Waters Commons. It was -- it's the meeting place where the RA desk is around the dorm. Me and my roommate were going to check on everybody. We made sure everyone was in the downstairs rooms and in the bathrooms. And then we ran to the girl's complex to make sure the girl RA
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