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American Morning
More Tornadoes Touching Down in States in South; Candidates Moving on From Super Tuesday
Aired February 06, 2008 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: First, we are following a developing extreme weather in the south and the number of dead continuing to climb this morning as more reports are coming in -- of just how devastating this line of tornadoes that move through four states and counting has become.
45 people killed across the south. This is a situation that has touched many states. Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas, not to mention Mississippi. Tornado watches and warnings have been in effect over the past 24 hours. In fact, Rob Marciano telling us reports of 60 tornadoes sighted touching down in the last 12 hours alone and reports within the last half hour of another touchdown in Alabama. We're tracking all of it very closely.
The damage was extensive in Arkansas as well. In fact, this is what it looks like in Clinton, Arkansas. We'll show you that shot in a minute. This actually is a live picture of Memphis, Tennessee right now. But this is another picture. 70 miles north of Little Rock, where you can see uprooted trees. Homes destroyed as well and the twisters also set off a powerful explosion at a gas plant.
One official saying these flames rose nearly 500 feet into the air. Even though these are dramatic pictures, no one injured in that blast or the fire following it. They have now been able to put it out. We also have reports of hospitals. Power being knocked out. Some of the hospitals in the area on generator, right now.
AMERICAN MORNING is watching all of the extreme weather and Ed Lavandera is standing by live. He is at Union University. This is in Jackson, Tennessee about 90 miles east of Memphis and one of the hardest hit areas. Our Rob Marciano also tracking where these deadly storms are headed now and who could be hit next. We start, though, with Ed.
Explain for us what they're this morning as light comes up and just trying to get a closer look at the damage.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, this is really our first chance to really give you a daylight view of what has happened here on this campus. The storm came from this way. If you look over there, one of the first buildings on the far west side of the campus, the rooftop essentially, ripped off a large portion of that, the storm coming through here. You can see this parking lot here, with a dozens of cars flipped over, blown over in the wind and of course the tornado making its way this way and crashing into. This is one of the men's dorms. The women's dorm is just down beyond there. It has been a devastating, wicked night here across Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): In Tennessee.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just took the house and everything, and my horses and my dogs.
LAVANDERA: In Arkansas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I have left is my front porch.
LAVANDERA: And in other parts of the south, many people lost their homes in an instant when killer tornadoes roared through on Tuesday night. Among the dead, an 11-year-old girl and her parents, victims of a powerful twister that hit their home in Atkins, Arkansas. In Memphis, Tennessee, three people were killed when part of a warehouse collapsed on them. Three more people died in Kentucky when their mobile home park was hit by a storm.
Throughout the region, twisters and severe storms tore through buildings, ripped down power lines and even caused a gas explosion. In Memphis, people were evacuated from the Hickory Ridge Mall after the roof collapsed from strong winds at the sears store.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All of a sudden it started shaking, (INAUDIBLE), things falling. In about 6 seconds, then it was so quiet.
LAVANDERA: Authorities say the full extent of damage to the region won't be known until later today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: And an ominous look here, to the sky here this morning as well, as you can see it. I don't know if you can tell how quickly these cloud lines are moving across, over top of us here, in Jackson, Tennessee. But as crews here continue to work, they have been combing through the debris here, throughout the evening, in the darkness and they say that they have been able to clear everything out and that they are confident that there is no one else who might be trapped inside these buildings behind me.
Kiran?
CHETRY: Ed Lavandera, thank you.
Our Rob Marciano tracking all of this extreme weather from the weather update desk right now. And Rob, you've been talking about these reports of tornado sightings throughout the past 12 hours. What's the latest?
(WEATHER REPORT)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Now, it's running nine minutes after the hour. The Democratic race for the White House has been taken to a whole new level this morning. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama battled for every last delegate on Super Tuesday. Clinton won eight states. Arkansas, Arizona, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Barack Obama won 13 states in all. Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and Utah. He rallied supporters in his home town of Chicago. Exit polls showed Obama lost on the issues of the economy and health care but won with voters on Iraq.
So, here's how the delegate counts stands this morning. Hillary Clinton now projected to have 825. Barack Obama, a little more than 100 back at 732.
Kiran?
CHETRY: And on the Republican side, Senator John McCain's lead growing this morning, as we get more on those vote counts in. McCain winning nine states including his home state of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York as well as Oklahoma.
Also, a disappointing night for Mitt Romney. He lost the big prizes and he now plans to meet with advisers to figure out the future of his campaign. He spoke last night and said it's certainly not over. He won Alaska. He won Colorado as well as his own state of Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Utah. Despite the letdown, Romney told his supporters it is not over yet. Romney has been touting himself as the conservative alternative to John McCain but he does have some major ground to make up when you take a look at the delegate count.
John McCain with 619. Mitt Romney at 269. And we just spoke with Mike Huckabee this morning, who says, don't count me out either winning a spate of the states in the south with 175 total delegates at this point. He's still around, he says, and he says, it looks like he's not going anywhere. Shocking his opponents last night with key Bible Belt wins. Huckabee taking five states including his home state of Arkansas. We talked to them earlier on AMERICAN MORNING and asked him, who does he think the real conservative in the race is?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE HUCKABEE, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm the conservative, period. If you look at consistency on second amendment, lower taxes, if you look at consistency on human life amendment, marriage amendment, strong national defense, things that matter to conservatives. Those are not views that I just invented in order to run for president. Those are the views that I have had and have actually done something about during 10 1/2 years as a governor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Exit polls showing the evangelical voter did give Huckabee a boost in the Super Tuesday races.
John?
ROBERTS: We are focusing on the issues this morning, Kiran. Democratic voters who said the economy and the war were most important to them. How did those voters break down? CNN's senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, is looking at the exit polling data for us this morning and it tells us an awful lot.
Bill?
BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It does indeed. There were some issues for Clintons, some issues for Obama. Primarily, the economy, the number one issue to Democrats -- that paid off for Hillary Clinton. She led Barack Obama 52-43. He did pretty well, but Clinton, the name Clinton usually means to Democrat. You remember the '90s, good economy, and that worked for Hillary Clinton.
On the other hand, the second most important issue for Democrats, the war in Iraq. And that was good for Barack Obama by about the same margin, 53-42. That was a very passionate issue to a lot -- to those (INAUDIBLE).
ROBERTS: So, is this a sign that his attacks against Clinton, on her vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq in 2002, are actually gaining some traction?
SCHNEIDER: Yes. That's exactly what it means, because you saw him at the debate. Some of the most tensed moments of that debate in Los Angeles were when he criticized her and her vote to authorize the war.
But finally, there's one characteristic on which Obama does stand out. Who's most likely to unite the country? These were Democrats in all of the primary states, and even though Clinton had the edge in the votes, they said by a considerable margin, Obama was more likely to unite the country.
ROBERTS: Well, he does say on the campaign trail, I'm the uniter. We remember George Bush saying that in the year 2000 as well. What about Democrats? How did voters break for them? No, I mean, the Republicans. It's been a long night.
SCHNEIDER: McCain won the Republican vote, but among Republicans actually, he did not win the conservative vote. Southern conservatives voted for Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. John McCain only got 26 percent. Very poor showing among southern conservatives and now look at the vote among non-southern conservatives. There they are.
Mitt Romney again, led the field of John McCain second, Mike Huckabee third. McCain's good fortune is, though he lost the conservative vote, which is a big problem for him, he had two opponents, Huckabee and Romney, claiming the conservative vote, and happiness in politics is a divided opposition.
ROBERTS: There you go. So now, Hillary Clinton and John McCain are the frontrunners in terms of delegates and they both face a common problem.
SCHNEIDER: Common problem is they both have to fight political movements. Vernon Jordan told Hillary Clinton yesterday, it's tough to fight a political movement. That's what Barack Obama is leaning. A lot of anti-war, upper middle class liberals allied with African- American voters, who passionately believe in Barack Obama. That's a very tough fight.
And John McCain is fighting movement, too. The conservative movement, which is very wary of him. He claims to be part of that movement but they don't entirely trust him it appears. At least, the conservatives around the country didn't vote for him. So they both have to contend with a wary political movement that's passionate.
ROBERTS: Next set of contests coming up Saturday. We'll see what impact February 5th has on them. Bill Schneider, as always thanks.
SCHNEIDER: OK.
ROBERTS: Kiran?
CHETRY: Tracking breaking news, weather-wise this morning as well. More tornadoes touching down in states in the south. Rob Marciano tells us there has been more than 60 reports in the last 12 hours alone. You're looking at aerial shots right now coming to us out of Memphis, Tennessee.
Tennessee, a state hit hard. More than 20 people killed. In fact, 24 confirmed fatalities in that state alone. We're going to get an update on where these deadly storms are right now and where they're headed coming up.
Also, the candidates moving on from Super Tuesday. But what did last night's voting tell them, about who they need to reach out to? Were they connected on the issues? We're going to take a look at some of the challenges ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our time has come. Our movement is real. And change is coming to America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, Super Tuesday did little to clear the political landscape. John Dickerson, our political analyst and chief political correspondent for slate.com, joins us right now.
We're talking a little bit about the Democrats first of all. The delegate lead Hillary Clinton has right now, not that enormous. As you take a look at, you know, some of the states that she took. Barack Obama actually took more states. She got more delegates. So where does that leave them this morning? JOHN DICKERSON, SLATE.COM: Well, it leaves them in some confusion. Because if you talk to the Obama campaign, they say -- no, the delegate count actually favors Obama. But what we know about the race right now is no matter where it comes it's quite close. It's very, very close between these two and its going to last quite a while. A month or maybe even longer.
CHETRY: We heard from Howard Dean as well. What exactly is it -- the Democratic Party wants to happen right now?
DICKERSON: Well, the Democratic Party wants everybody have a role and for everybody to be happy at the end of this process. And if you look at exit polling, you do see that voters basically say they'll be happy with either candidate, which is quite good for the Democratic Party.
CHETRY: I'm just wondering in terms of that, they seem so close on many of the issues. I mean, talk about mandate versus no mandate when it comes to universal health care. But when you talk about who it benefits, does it benefit the Democratic Party at this point to have them split and there's not one single target coming from the other side as we head in closer to the general election?
DICKERSON: Well, the Democratic Party -- the problem with the Democratic Party is if this gets ugly. And if because they're close on the issues and because neither has broken out that one of the two of them takes a real swing at the other and if you start to get a breakdown along racial and gender lines, which can get very ugly, very fast, and if the Republicans really are picking their nominee in John McCain, he has a period of time to kind of relax while the Democrats tear each other apart.
CHETRY: Super Delegates at the National Convention explain in lay people's term, how this works, who they are and what impact they could have on the race?
DICKERSON: Two kinds of delegates. There are the delegates that are -- they come from actual voting and human beings and regular voters picking them and then there is the super delegates. Party big wigs, elected officials. Now, this is a part of the arcane of Democratic Party politics. The super delegates are in there, because they are supposed to be a part of the process that kind of puts a little bit of a brake on the massive hoards who rush to the polls.
The problem in this case is that -- where the potential problem is that Hillary Clinton has more super delegates. You could have a situation, at the convention, where Obama has won the pledge delegates from the actual voting but Clinton has more super delegates. Then he would get into a fight where the Obama supporters who say -- hey, what happened to the notion of one vote, you know, representing the actual people? Why are these party big wigs had playing a role here? The Clinton folks, of course, would say -- no, these are the rules. We played by them and I'm sorry, we won.
CHETRY: Let's push the Republican side for a minute. We certainly had John McCain coming out, as what appeared to be the big winner last night. I mean, he got the most state. He got the most delegates. The question now is who does he continue to compete with down the line as we saw a surprise surge for Mike Huckabee taking five states in the south?
DICKERSON: Well, he hopes to compete both with Huckabee and Romney and that was the beauty for him last night -- is that he basically the opposition split. Also, has some -- there has some benefits for him in primaries coming up because some of them are open primaries, that means independents can vote and Democrats which has benefited him in the past.
So, he has to basically hope that his two rivals stay in the race, continue to split the vote and then he gets on that glide path. He's got twice as many delegates as his opponent and so, it's looking quite good for him right now.
CHETRY: He does have the problem with the conservatives. There's been a lot of outspoken criticism of John McCain coming from the conservative talk radio set and others. Can he win them over or does he need to write them off and can he?
DICKERSON: Well, he can't write them off, but he also can win them over. This is the dilemma for him. I think what he needs to do and what he's going to try to do is say -- look -- he recognizes there's some hardcore group that just isn't going to join up with them.
But he needs to say to that sliver, here's where we can agree. Now we need to unite. Because we have an opportunity here to really come together, be a Republican Party that is in sync while the Democrats are off, still having their fight. And this gives us an election, because the Republicans are in bad shape, generally, in this election. And so they need to get united, people argue.
CHETRY: John Dickerson, always great to see you. Thanks for being with us.
DICKERSON: Thanks.
ROBERTS: Well, we continue to follow the breaking news down south. Terrible day. Deadly tornadoes across several states last night continuing today. Just in, I-report pictures from a student who survived. The devastation through his eyes. That's coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Continuing to follow the latest right now on the devastation in the south. 45 people now killed in these storms that struck in four states. There are deaths in four states. It hit many more, but Tennessee, boy, the hardest hit now. We're getting 24 confirmed fatalities. Arkansas 13 people were killed there. In Kentucky 7 were killed and one killed in Alabama, that was in Lawrence County. And no one's in the clear yet.
Rob Marciano has been tracking these storms for us this morning, where there have been watches and warnings still in effect, as well as people calling in to report tornado sightings.
Rob?
(WEATHER REPORT)
CHETRY: Rob, thank you. We want to go live now to Brooke Sanders. She's from our affiliate WMC in Memphis, right outside of the severely damaged Hickory Ridge Mall.
We showed you some aerial pictures and chopper shots. There they are again of the mall. You can see the Macy's Store right there and you can see a lot of the damage in the area.
Brooke, what is the latest?
BROOKE SANDERS, WMC REPORTER: Well, I can tell you right now, they're keeping everyone far away from that mall. They are very worried about the soundness of the structure. I don't know if you saw the video earlier, but literally a wall of the Sears store was blown out yesterday by the tornado.
If you take a look behind me, you can see that the police are there. They are blocking off the mall area. They are trying to keep as much traffic off the main road over here, because of downed power lines. Power is still out in this area. People are -- the only place that has power, it seems to me, is this McDonald's that's next door to us and people have been walking here just to actually charge up phones so they can call loved ones and tell them they are OK.
CHETRY: Brooke, you're showing us some of the pictures and you just referred to that Sears store. And yes, we can see it there in the area. This is Shelby County. This is an area, according to our reporting, they had one fatality there. One person was killed. I'm not sure about the number of injuries but nearby Macon County had 10 people killed.
And it just also shows you, just how random it is. Some of the areas destroyed and other buildings right nearby standing. What is the advice being given out right now to people that live in that area?
SANDERS: Well, they're telling everybody to, you know, pretty much cooperate with law enforcement. Now that there is the light of day, they are going to start letting people back in, to check out the damage to their buildings and homes. We did have three deaths here in Shelby County and actually at a warehouse, where 18 wheelers were actually picked up and thrown into that building.
And the death toll just seems to keep growing. We have in more Eastern Tennessee, there is a gas plant that caught fire about 10:00 last night and it's still not determined how many people were hurt there.
CHETRY: All right. They're still trying to figure out that situation. We knew that people were put out -- the fire was put out and they said that they were no any employees there. But, boy, some scary moments, if you saw the pictures of the gas and the flames 500 feet into the air. Brooke, thank you for that reporting.
We're going to take a quick break and when we come back, we're going to talk more about -- actually, we're going to go to, John, right now with more on these deadly storms.
Hey, John.
ROBERTS: All right, Kiran. And typically when catastrophe like this strikes, we have a lot of people out there with their cell phone cameras. Also, their portable VCRs and portable camcorders who submit reports into i-report for us. Our Veronica de la Cruz has been looking into some of those this morning. She joins us now. What are we seeing today?
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: You know, a lot has been coming in to us. Lots of i-reports. And we're going to focus on Union, Tennessee, about 90 miles from Memphis where we just spoke way with a reporter. You know, Union University, one of the places really hit hard by the series of tornadoes that have been sweeping the south. 13 students there trapped in the wreckage, all have been rescued. Luckily, although about nine of them still in the hospital this morning. We were able to get a firsthand look at all the damage through the eyes of one of our i-reporters. This was sent to us by university student Mark Hinman.
You see a lot of damage and devastation there on the ground. Another photo will you see one of the students just kind of standing amidst all of the wreckage. There he is standing amongst all the damage to his dorm room. You know, we've been checking on the university's website, and it's been down throughout the night. At the last moment we checked, it was still down. Other things we've been looking at, facebook.com. That is another place online where university students from Union have gathered. They have been posting their own images.
Here are 20 different photos, 20 different posted online. There you see a car has flipped over, strewn about. A lot of the students there just -- just shocked as rescue crews moved in to move them out of the area but a lot of them coming together. We spoke with one of the students who said that the police are asking that the students kind of stay away, stay out of the area. Our I-reported Mark there, the one who sent us those i-reports earlier saying that is the situation on the ground there.
We also had a chance to check the blogs. We wanted to read you one of the blogs posted to this blogger from the Sassy Southerner. She says "I listen in horror as police called for ambulances. I listened and still am listening to them search house to house for survivors. I heard the police relays they were performing CPR on someone and a few minutes later I hear them summon the coroner."
So, again, shocking first hand account. All of that coming from the web this morning. But our i-reporters there on the scene really helping us tell the story. We would like to ask you if you are out there with your camera, please do be careful. But if you can, send us an i-report by logging on to CNN.com. You can click on the i-report logo.
ROBERTS: Yes. we always we see so many fascinating reports from these people who have gone through these horrors. And obviously with the extent and the power of the storms a lot of people out there this morning who got a big story to tell. Veronica, thanks. Kiran.
CHETRY: Well, next to the democratic race for the White House. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama still battling for every last delegate from the super Tuesday states. If you take a look at the breakdowns. Hillary Clinton winning eight states including Arkansas, Arizona, the big state of California as well as Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma and Tennessee. And she told her supporters where she sees this race heading next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), 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)
CHETRY: Well, Barack Obama won 13 states, and those include Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois. He won Kansas as well, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota and Utah. And then in his hometown of Chicago rallying supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The polls are just closing in California and -- and the votes are still being counted in cities and towns across America. But there is one thing -- you know I love you back. But -- but there is one thing on this February night that we do not need the final results to know. Our time has come.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, exit polls showing Obama lost on the issues of economy and health care but won with voters on the Iraq issue. So, how does the delegate count breakdown for Barack Obama? 732 as of now. 93 delegates behind Hillary Clinton with 825. On the republican side, Senator John McCain's lead growing after the super Tuesday showing. He won nine states and that included his home state of Arizona, won the big one -- California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, presidential bellwether most year, New Jersey, New York and Oklahoma.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I promise you if I am so fortunate to win your nomination, I will work hard to ensure that the conservative philosophy and principles of our great party, principles that have done so well by the country we love, will again win the votes of a majority of the American people and defeat any candidate our friends on the other side nominate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, a disappointing night for Mitt Romney. He lost the big prize and now plans to meet with advisers to figure out the future of his campaign but he did racked up wins in Alaska, Colorado, his home state of Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota and Utah. And despite the letdown, Romney told his supporters it's no over yet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think there's some people who thought it was all going to be done tonight. But it's not all done tonight. We're going to keep on battling, we're going to go all the way to the convention. We're going to win this thing and get into the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Romney has been touting himself as the conservative alternative to John McCain but he does have major ground to make up now.
If you take a look at the delegate count, he has 269. McCain has 619, and Mike Huckabee has 175. So the democrats still up in the air. The republicans though are not ready to declare a nominee clearly either but it means that the primaries and the caucuses coming up are suddenly more important than ever. Chief national correspondent John King joins us now with more on the breakdown. Great job last night, painting the picture for us. And what are we looking to now as we head past super Tuesday?
JOHN KING, CNN, CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's start with the democrats. And first, let's start with the overview. The states you see pulsating, are the states, Kiran, that voted last night. So, this is where we are as of this morning. All these white states have yet to vote. 16 or 17 states depending on what they're doing. The democrats, the republicans. Here we are, this February 5th, let's move out a little bit.
Here's what's coming up right here. You got Louisiana, a state down in the south. You've got over here Kansas and Nebraska. That's just republicans. Kansas, forget that for the democrats, and then way out in Washington state, caucuses out there. Remember, Barack Obama has been doing well in caucuses. So, watch the Washington caucuses for that. Now, let's move forward a little bit. That's on the 9th. Then on the 10th, again, the main democratic caucuses up here in northern New England. Barack Obama has been performing well in caucuses. If he's going to keep up in the delegate hunt, there's a match there. Here's the next big thing we look at, here big. Nothing's big compared to super Tuesday, mind you, but what you might call the Potomac primary. CHETRY: Right, tiny state but a lot of people live there.
KING: Right. Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., you know democratic states, Virginia, trending democratic, Maryland the big democratic state, come November usually. That's the next big one. The Potomac primary there, we've cleared that out and then you come over here, you have Hawaii. I see a diner with somebody's name from AMERICAN MORNING in Hawaii waiting for it. And you come up here to Wisconsin and the Washington primary as well.
So, as you move out, not until you get down here, March 4th. Let me clear this. You get big states again -- Ohio and Texas. So you can pick up as you go. It's a delegate race on the democratic side stays this close, you pick up, you pick up, and then you come to a big day on March 4th and we have Texas, Ohio, and then Vermont and then Rhode Island tucked in. So, that's the democrat lock.
I want to go back to look at the republicans now. Again, check out the map. And let's do a quick look by region first. Mitt Romney does well out here in the mountain west. Guess what? Not many targets of opportunity left. The mountain west is starting to fill in. Mike Huckabee does well in the south, Mississippi, Louisiana still in play. Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina still in play. Now, let's clear it and watch out how they play out. The republican side, let's get rid of the colors there. On the republican side as well, again, Kansas coming up there. Washington state up there. Then the states and you come through here.
CHETRY: You just said the Virgin Islands up as well. Well, I think, John wants to go there, too.
KING: The Virgin Islands.
CHETRY: He needs to continue the trek.
KING: I'm all over that one.
And this will be interesting. The next big one next Tuesday. You have Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.. In the general election, Maryland is generally democratic. Washington, D.C., forget about it. It's democratic. Virginia is a very interesting state. Traditionally, republican in November but trending blue. We're trending more and more democratic. This will be quite a battleground here in the sense that you have conservatives evangelicals, like Mike Huckabee get. You have military installation like John McCain gets, if Mitt Romney stays and wants to re-assert himself next Tuesday in Virginia, we'll be his test to the say, see, I'm the conservative republican.
CHETRY: And how many delegates in Virginia?
KING: I don't have that number in front of me. That's a great question. We have to go to the big map to see that. We can find it by going to the delegate map and we come down the road to Virginia. 121 total delegates. That's the democratic side and on the republican side, 63 total delegates. So you can find it all right here in the magic wall as it's come to be called. But as you know, if you notice, the country is starting to fill in.
CHETRY: Right.
KING: Still McCain still not there yet, but to stop him, is going to take pretty daunting math. If you look at the democratic side, these are projections, democratic side still roughly even. So, as we go through these states now, here's what you're going to keep an eye on in the finish line and see who's inching over.
CHETRY: You're right. Much closer on the democratic side.
KING: Much, much.
CHETRY: So - and the intention was for a lot of these states to still have relevance as we head, you know, as we head further away from those first caucuses and primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire. It looks like to be the case, at least this year.
KING: And people are -- you go to their states, 20, 30 years since my state's been relevant in the nominating process. They're excited about it and a lot of excitement still to come.
CHETRY: We'll be watching. Love the smart screen. John King, great job. Thank you. John.
ROBERTS: And if we cover the Virginia primary, well I'll be at a diner just outside my front door. Not bad.
40 minutes after the hour. As you saw here on AMERICAN MORNING just minutes ago, daybreak has given us a shocking new view of the damage caused by deadly tornadoes in the south. You can see a tree slicing right through a home there in Tennessee. That's in Memphis. At least 45 people killed in four states now and the death toll keeps on going up. We started the morning at 27. Now up to 45. Two dorms collapsed at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee. 13 students said to be pulled out of the rubble. We spoke with one student who said despite the destruction, everyone made it out alive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CANDRA PENNINGTON, SURVIVED TORNADO: It's devastating to look out at the daylight now and see the damage and just to see how blessed we are to have made it through. It truly is a miracle that 1,200 students made it through this and there were no fatalities and no critical injuries.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And so the storms have now cleared Arkansas, the western part of Tennessee as well as Mississippi, on into eastern Alabama, heading into Georgia now. Rob Marciano tracking it for us from Atlanta. Rob, how close to the bull's eye are you there?
MARCIANO: Well, we're in it. Atlanta southward towards the Gulf of Mexico is where the latest watch box has been issued. There you see the northern half of it pop up as we roll this loop. More immediate concern though is a fresh tornado warning out in Cleburne County in east central Alabama. This is the same cell that had a tornado warning out for southern Talladega county and continues to march up towards the Georgia border.
Here's i-20, so here's where the rotation is spotted on the Doppler radar, that's not confirmed a touchdown, although we've had some of those this morning. This is just indicated on the Doppler about to cross highway 20. This is in affect until 9:00 Eastern, 8:00 Central. Abernathy and Fruit Hurst, some of the towns that are in the path of this storm, continuing to fire up north. Also, into Knoxville, you're in this tornado watch that is about to be expired but heading into Morrisville, into Pigeon Forge, I believe Dolly Parton's hangout is up there as well. This is all heading up to the east. Certainly some rough weather with that.
Although no tornado warnings out far north at the moment. A sliver of moisture. But this is the key. This is part of the reason that we're getting these storms to pop. Moisture from the Gulf of Mexico hitting extreme heat for this time of year and then a bigger storm system that continues to push off towards the cell. There's your tornado watch that is in effect until 2:00 today. John, but the threat actually extends eastward and northward. Here's a swathe, the storm prediction center thinks is the risk for severe storms will taking place today and as far north as Washington, D.C.. So, everybody, I want to keep an eye in the sky and keep it tuned here.
ROBERTS: So, Rob as the storms move east out of Chattanooga and Knoxville. They're going to go up into the Smoky Mountains before getting into west Virginia and on to the western part of Virginia itself, might they be elevation take some of the punch out of the storms?
MARCIANO: Typically the rougher terrain will not allow the wind profile to be as smooth and allow these tornadoes to develop, so you don't see tornadoes quite as much in extremely mountainous terrain. And the other thing is you get over the other side of the Appalachians and you get into a different air mass. Ad it starts to get a little bit of Atlantic influence, but sometimes that can agitate them even more. So, these micro scale events and mezzo scale events are sometimes difficult to predict. So, we'll just have to keep an eye on it. John.
ROBERTS: All right. Rob, we'll continue to watch that this morning. Thanks for the update.
Had Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama split the democratic vote so evenly, that they'll be fighting all the way to the convention? Will take a look at how the candidates have to do to get the nomination. That's coming up, and a warning about several different kinds of fish today. Why the government says some of those caught off the coast of Texas could be toxic. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I see an America where we don't just provide health care for some people or for most people but for every single man and woman and child with no one left out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, health care one of the issues helping Hillary Clinton get a bigger share of the women's vote. Last night's results showed that Barack Obama is appealing, though to a wide swathe of voters. Senior political correspondent Candy Crowley joins us now with more on breaking down the states. Obama won more, 13 versus 8. She got more delegates and in the end, how did it break down?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, in the end, you each have bragging rights. You look and both of them won kind of across the country. So, there's no kind of regional differential. They both did well in a number of categories of voters. We came out where we were in a lot of ways. I had somebody say to me last night in the Clinton campaign, you know, we should all get our money back and start again tomorrow morning. So we're pretty much right where we were before all of this balderraul (ph).
CHETRY: They were referred to as a Groundhog Day. Six more weeks of not winter but six more weeks of the campaign being similar. You know, we talked with Howard Dean earlier about this situation. He puts a happy face on this. But is there anything in the democratic party about the delay in finding a nominee or getting to that point and perhaps some of the in-fighting that could hurt both of them along the way?
CROWLEY: I think you have two tiers here. You have voters who are delighted in all these states that it actually matters. We saw the Virginians going out to vote a week early. So, you know, they're excited about it. You have the voters but you also have sort of the upper tier of the democratic party. A, they'd like to bring the party together, because it looks like the republicans may be coalescing and B - it's about money. The more money you have to spend here the less time you have to raise money for the fall campaign. So there are a couple of things that, you know, the party elite would like to get done, but obviously from what we're seeing, the voters aren't in that big a hurry.
CHETRY: So many million people more feel relevant this time around because of that. Could there be some advantage in not having a target? The GOP sort of has a moving target right now, if you will, because they haven't decided on one candidate on the democratic side to attack?
CROWLEY: Sure. I mean I think there is always it. But right now the republicans, we should say, are still involved in each other. When you're the front-runner, when you're John McCain you're always aiming over to the other side. But when you're Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee, it's still kind of inter-party warfare at this point.
CHETRY: It was interesting because I did see a Mitt Romney ad criticizing Hillary, and saying she's never run this, she's never run this. And I thought to myself, isn't that a bit early for that? Speaking of the GOP, by the way. What goes on now? Clear that John McCain was the winner last night and he certainly is able to celebrate the victory and call himself the front-runner, but the problem is how many conservatives did not choose John McCain and that was split between Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. How's that going to play out?
CROWKEY: As long as that remains the case, then I think John McCain remains the front-runner. If he can get across the goal lines, then his big task is going to be to go back to all those people who didn't vote for him and do what he's begun to do now, which is to say I really am one of you. To kind of get rid of that distrust that they have of him. It's not the social issues that has to do with federal judges. It has to do with campaign finance reform but you know the overall unease among conservatives is they don't quite trust him. They think he's a little too bit much of a maverick and he might not be with them. So, he's got to somehow go back and say, I'm OK.
CHETRY: And then as we look at who decides to bow out it seems as though there's more pressure on Mitt Romney, that he has more to lose than Mike Huckabee doesn't necessarily have to make that call even though he's behind both of them in the delegate count?
CROWLEY: Right. And because at this point, Huckabee's running a shoestring campaign, so he is not going into huge amounts of debt. He's getting money coming in because he has some true believers and Mitt Romney has been writing checks to himself. So, you know, at some point you have to stop and think if it's worth it. But clearly, he's going on. It's not as though he doesn't have delegates to continue this fight.
CHETRY: Candy Crowley, good to see you. Thanks.
ROBERTS: 10 minutes now to the top of the hour. CNN NEWSROOM just minutes away. Tony Harris at the CNN Center with a look at what's ahead. And Tony, I guess, you're leading the storms this morning?
TONY HARRIS, CNN, ANCHOR: Absolutely, John. Good to see you. Tornado outbreak. On the NEWSROOM rundown for you this morning, searchers going house to house, door to door looking for more storm victims. More than 40 people are killed cross the south. Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, split super Tuesday delegates. John McCain more than half way to the republican nomination. And here we go again. Asian markets dive after the Dow's biggest percentage loss in almost a year. We stay on top of Wall Street today. A busy, busy morning for you in the CNN NEWSROOM. We get started at the top of the hour. John, back to you.
ROBERTS: Tony, thanks very much.
More on the storms now. Sheriff Gene Mitchell from Lawrence County is on the telephone with us. He's apparently on the highway out in the field in Fairfield, Alabama, where the tornadoes just ripped through. Sheriff, can you hear me all right? VOICE OF SHERIFF GENE MITCHELL, LAWRENCE COUNTY, ALABAMA: Yes, I can hear you fine.
ROBERTS: Sheriff, do me a favor. Walk me through what happened this morning. When did the chaos start, how bad was it there where you are?
MITCHELL: We had a tornado somewhere in the neighborhood of 3:00, approximately, that was a very devastating tornado that came through. It just destroyed everything in its path, and we -- we've had numerous houses destroyed. We have some fatalities, I don't know how many at this time, but we're still trying to get everybody accounted.
ROBERTS: We have one fatality, Sheriff, there in Lawrence County. CNN confirmed one. Do you believe that there are multiple?
MITCHELL: Yes. I think there'll be more than that. But I won't know that until we get everything confirmed, but I think that we're going to have more than that.
ROBERTS: As you said, Sheriff, just about everything this tornado hit came down or was severely damaged. Is there any way you can gauge what level the storm was? We're led to understand that these storms may sort of be in the range of an F-3, maybe even a low F-4, which is a very powerful storm.
MITCHELL: Yes. I would think that it's more in the range of F-4, because where it hit, it didn't leave anything. Trees, houses or anything. It took down, you know, 100-year-old trees. It just twisted them off, 20, 30 feet in the air.
ROBERTS: You know, we're just beginning to get pictures in now of much of the devastation outside of the urban areas. How densely or sparsely populated is the area of Lawrence County there?
MITCHELL: It's -- it's in the rural area where it hit, but it came angling across the county. Of course it crossed several roads, and each place that it crossed roads, you know, it downed houses and some house trailers. You know, other buildings, but it was devastating, whatever it hit. Whatever it hit, it took away.
ROBERTS: Wow. The pictures that we're seeing this morning are just incredible and the path of destruction, just so wide all the way from Arkansas to eastern Tennessee and across Alabama and now into Georgia there. You said that you believe that there may be multiple fatalities which means that not everyone is accounted for at this point. What are your emergency crews doing right now?
MITCHELL: At this time, because we're going through the rubble. Still trying to find people, and got to identify and you know, locate everybody that's supposed to be there. And then find out from friend and neighbors if they're not there, you know, where they are.
ROBERTS: Right. MITCHELL: Just account for them one way or the other. One other thing. I had said that Fairfield, Alabama. Actually, it's Fairfield community in Lawrence County.
ROBERTS: OK. Got you. Question, do you know how many people are homeless today? What's the level that you need from outside agencies in order to take care of folks there?
MITCHELL: According, to put a number on it, we'll have, we may have 20, 30, and that could go up. It's hard to say at this time, because I haven't seen all of it. We've been working since then just to get people out and get them to the hospitals.
ROBERTS: All right.
MITCHELL: We really haven't surveyed all the damage to know what we've got.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, Sheriff Gene Mitchell joining us this morning from Lawrence County, Alabama. Sheriff, thanks very much. Good luck to you today. Obviously by these pictures you've got a tremendous amount of work in front of you. Appreciate you taking the time, sir.
Our I-reporters are on the scene covering the damage from that string of deadly southern tornadoes. Our Veronica de la Cruz has got those pictures for you. Just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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ROBERTS: Of course, the breaking news that we're following this morning, deadly storms moving across the midsouth there into Alabama, eastern Tennessee and Georgia right now. We're getting all kinds of i-reports in this morning from people who are on the ground and who went through this devastation. Veronica de la Cruz has got some more of that for us. Veronica, good morning.
VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN, INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. We have been tracking the storm online. Not just through our I- reporters, we've also been looking at the web. And I wanted to show you something that we found at Facebook. There is page there, John, dedicated to the Union University students and one of the members has posted these images that we're looking at now. A lot of the damage. There you can see in the photos. The cars just strewn about. A lot of them flipped over on their sides. Take a look at the roof there. One of the members there posting at least 20 photos. I want to mention to you, John, you know the membership on that page jumped from 360 members to about 405, literally, you know, over the course of a few hours. We've also been checking the university's website, which remains down at the time.
Again, a lot of the damage there. I know that one of the dorm rooms was ripped to shreds. There you see all the students coming together to help out in the rescue process. 13 students trapped in the rubble all have been rescued. We're hearing that nine do remain in the hospital at this time. So, again, we got these images off of facebook.com. But not just facebook.com contributing to our coverage this morning. We're also looking at pictures from our i-reporters. This coming from Kevin Kern in Memphis, Tennessee. This is a photo of some of the damage at a mall near his house. Kevin says that he is a former television reporter and he couldn't help but run out and grab his camera. So, again, we would like to see i-reports. You can do so by logging on to cnn.com and click on the i-report logo. But again, I cannot stress you do have to be careful. You know, it is just so important to us.
ROBERTS: Absolutely.
Tremendous amount of interest on what's going on there. I'm heading down after the show. So, you'll your first hand on the ground look tomorrow.
DE LA CRUZ: You be careful as well.
ROBERTS: Definitely. We'll be right back after this. Stay with us.
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ROBERTS: Well, thanks so much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'll be down somewhere in the storm zone tomorrow, perhaps Tennessee.
CHETRY: That's right. And you want to stay with CNN. We're continuing coverage of this devastating line of storms and tornadoes that ripped through the south. CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris and Heidi Collins begins right now.
HARRIS: And good morning, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN, ANCHOR: Hi, there everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. Watch events come into the NEWSROOM live on Wednesday, February 6. Here's what's on the rundown. Tornado terror in the south. Dozens of people killed. The storm still on the move this morning.
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