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American Morning

Four States Blasted by Swarm of Tornadoes; John McCain's New Campaign to Court Conservatives; Angelina Jolie One-On-One in Baghdad

Aired February 07, 2008 - 08:00   ET

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

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Devastating scope.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We could see our house flying over us and everything was gone.

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ROBERTS: Deeply personal loss.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said, Hon, you don't even have a toothpick or splinter left.

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ROBERTS: Live from four states blasted by a swarm of tornadoes.

All the right moves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will unite the party behind our conservative principles.

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ROBERTS: This morning, John McCain's new campaign to court conservatives. Can they be swayed?

Plus, CNN exclusive. Angelina Jolie, one-on-one in Baghdad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELINA JOLIE, U.N. GOODWILL AMBASSADOR: It's a very high number of people and in a very, very vulnerable situation.

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ROBERTS: Her goals for the people in the war zone on this AMERICAN MORNING.

And good morning. Thanks for being with us. Welcome back on this Thursday, February the 7th. A special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. I'm John Roberts live in Lafayette, Tennessee today.

Good morning, Alina.

ALINA CHO, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good morning to you, John. I'm Alina Cho in New York. Kiran has the morning off. And John, now that the sun has come out, you can really, really see the devastation there. And I know the search for survivors is on this morning, right?

ROBERTS: Yes. And I was talking to the mayor of the Macon County which is the county that Lafayette is in and it's the highest death toll from this storm. 13 people died in Macon County. They are still looking for people who may be trapped in the rubble. They think that they have got everybody now, but they just want to go through the homes one more time to make sure.

They still don't know how many structures were damaged here. They haven't even gotten around to that and they certainly haven't even come close to beginning the cleanup here. Typically, a couple of days after a tornado or hurricane, you'll start to hear those chainsaws as they're cutting up the trees. Haven't even begun to do that.

We're still waiting for a final number on how many tornadoes touched down. There were some 70 sightings between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. The final number -- it was probably about half of that, because people tend -- there tend to be multiple sightings of the same tornado.

At least 55 people are known dead at this point. That number could go up. 31 people killed here in Tennessee. Many of them in Macon County, some here in Lafayette. We keep hearing from people in the area just how fast this storm blew through. You know, Chad Myers on Super Tuesday evening was telling us that this storm system was moving to the east at about 55 miles an hour.

Live pictures now from Atkins, Arkansas. 13 people were killed. Four of those after a tornado cut a six-mile path near the small farm town. Seven killed in Kentucky. The path of destruction there estimated to be a 0.5 mile wide and 5 miles long.

And live pictures from Aldridge Grove, Alabama. Four people killed there. Three of those deaths came in that hard-hit area. You got to remember that this all, you know, started sort of in the -- along the Tennessee/Arkansas border there and that's about 200 miles -- a little more 200 miles away from where I am and then it's about 200 miles south as well.

So you've got an area 200 x 200 miles. It has been extremely affected by this storm system. And that is just an incredibly huge area. We've been talking with survivors all morning, including a woman named Pam Whitaker.

She was in a local hospital volunteering when the storm hit. She'd been evacuated and decided -- hey, I want to help out. I want to go do something. So she went to the hospital to volunteer. She learned at the hospital that night that she lost her house. In fact, she lost everything.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM WHITAKER, LOST HOME IN STORM: And I was helping to clean his feet off so they could see what cuts he had and he was telling about 64 Dockside (ph) Road. And I just went, why? That's my house. He said, Hon, you don't even have a toothpick or splinter left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Well, while Pam was talking to us, she wasn't wearing any shoes because she has none. She says at least she has her feet, but nothing to her name except 15 cents. She also had her foot broken while she was volunteering in the hospital, when she was run over by an X-ray machine.

This morning, the victims of these devastating tornadoes are picking up the pieces of their lives. We've been hearing some incredible stories this morning and many of those coming from about 150 miles west of us in Jackson, Tennessee. That's where the Union University got hit and those dorm buildings ripped apart. And that's where our Ed Lavandera is this morning.

Good morning, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. You know, when you walk around this campus, you really get a sense of the force and the fury with which this tornado came roaring through here. And it's really the only way to tell and get a sense of the magnitude of this storm, is by looking at what is left behind in the days after.

You know, one thing in particular. You always get a sense of when you see little weird things that happen in a tornado. Look at this little piece. You can't tell if it's a piece of tree or what -- blown right into the bumper of this car. Amazing. Just little moments like that, when you walk around and you see what this storm left behind is amazing.

We're in a student parking lot. In the distance, you see back there the dorms that we've been talking so much about over the last couple of days. And it's amazing to think still as you continue to walk around this campus and you see what has happened, that no one was killed on this campus. Two people died nearby in the county area, but here on this campus with those dorms full of students, no one died.

John?

ROBERTS: Ed Lavandera for us this morning. Ed, thanks.

About 200 miles south of our location lies of Aldridge Grove, Alabama. It's the same -- an enormous area that the storm hit. Rob Marciano was there with a look with the damage and where the rest of the extreme weather is today, because we're seeing more of it.

Thankfully, though, Rob, not in this area. And apparently, we don't have Rob. All right, well, we're going to send it back to New York. But before we do, I think we've got a camera over wandering around through the rubbles. Is it possible to take just a scene from that camera before we go here? Here we go.

This is the extent of the damage. This is only, maybe, about 50 to 100 yards away from where I am here -- in the town of Lafayette. And this is a scene that's just repeated street, after street, after street here as the tornado cut a path of destruction. And as I was saying before, they haven't even gotten an account of how many buildings were damaged or destroyed, let alone begin to clean up.

There literally is no one even here. A couple hearty souls whose homes were not completely destroyed have stuck at out here. They don't know how long they could do that because there is still no electricity and it's going to be some time before crews come in here and start to clean up process. Now, back to New York and here's Alina with more on this morning.

CHO: Hey, John, I have a quick question for your. I know, you've mentioned earlier that the tornadoes can hopscotch in these neighborhoods. But I'm wondering in that neighborhood where you are right now, is every house destroyed, demolished? I know the ones behind you is standing, but are there any homes that were spared?

ROBERTS: Well, you know, the mayor of Macon County, which is the county that Lafayette is in, was the hardest hit in terms of the death toll. They told me that the tornado first touched down in the southwest corner of this county. It hit that natural gas pumping station first. That's where we saw that incredible fire on Tuesday night. Flames shooting 300 to 400 feet up into the air.

He says he took an aerial tour of that area. He says literally from where the tornado touched down at that pumping station, all the way through here to Lafayette, there is just a solid path of destruction. Tornadoes typically will hopscotch a little bit. Touch down in one area and lift up and reform and touch down again. He says there's just a solid path of destruction about 20 miles as the crow flies from that pumping station in the southwest corner of Macon County all the way through here to Lafayette.

So they still haven't got an accurate assessment of just how much damage there is but it's going to be huge and it's going to take them a few days to get a real handle on that, Alina.

CHO: Wow, incredible and incredible to see it from the air, John. All right, thank you. We'll check back with you later.

A CNN exclusive this morning. Actress and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie is making a surprise visit to Baghdad, Iraq right now. These are brand new pictures of her visit. She's getting a firsthand look at refugees and says she wants to know why there isn't a better plan to help them. CNN's Arwa Damon caught up with her just a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANGELINA JOLIE, U.N. GOODWILL AMBASSADOR: This trip is to get a better picture of the internally displaced people and to discuss with the local government, with our government, with NGOs and with local people this situation and to try to understand what is happening, because there are over 2 million internally displaced people.

And there doesn't seem to be a real, coherent plan to help them and there's lots of, you know, goodwill and lots of discussion, but there seem to be a lot of -- you know, just a lot of talk at the moment and a lot of pieces need to be put together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: Jolie will attend several events in the Green Zone. Some 2.2 million refugees are displaced inside Iraq.

Breaking news this morning in the Benazir Bhutto assassination. Pakistani police have arrested two more people in connection with her murder. Four people have now been detained including a 15-year-old boy since the attack in December that killed Bhutto. Police have not said how the two arrested today are connected to the assassination. Pakistan's delayed elections are now set to take place a week from Monday.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in Afghanistan right now. She and the British foreign secretary made a rare trip outside the capital of Kabul to the front lines in Kandahar. The U.S. is calling on NATO allies to send more forces anticipating the Taliban's resurgent in the spring.

The economic stimulus plan is on hold again this morning. A vote last night blocked a Democratic back plan which would have expanded cash rebates to senior citizens and disabled veterans. The vote which is too short of the 60 needed to break a Republican filibuster. The stimulus package already passed the House and has been approved by the president.

We're just getting sales figures from Wal-Mart this morning. The nation's biggest retailer posted disappointing sales for the month. Same-store sales rose just half a percent, short of the company's projected 2 percent increase. Wal-Mart said people weren't redeeming their gift cards as expected. Even though, Wal-Mart already has the money for the gift cards, they don't count the sale until the cards are redeemed. That is standard.

Baseball great Roger Clemens and his former trainer and now nemesis, Brian McNamee, will be on Capitol Hill today. McNamee is being deposed by congressional steroid investigators. He's reportedly turned over syringes and other physical evidence his lawyers say will prove Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs.

Clemens denies the allegations and has filed a defamation suit against McNamee. Clemens today meets with the members of the House Committee holding a public hearing next week on steroids and baseball. Both Clemens and McNamee will testify. A major diabetes and heart disease study is halted after some of the participants died unexpectedly. Adults with Type II Diabetes were receiving this intense therapy to reduce their blood sugar levels. Elizabeth Cohen is at the medical update desk with more on this. So Elizabeth, what happened?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alina that is exactly the question. A lot of people are asking this morning. They said -- they're saying, this therapy was supposed to help diabetics, but instead it appears to have possibly killed them. The folks getting this new therapy, they died by a much wider margin than the other folks. There were 54 extra deaths in the new therapy group. That's a lot. And they can't quite figure out what's happened.

But let's talk about what this new therapy is. It was very intensive. It's a group in the experimental part of this study. They were doing all sorts of very intensive treatments whereas folks in standards treatment might take one drug for blood pressure. The folks in the experimental group were taking several. They were taking multiple insulin injections. They were taking more cholesterol drugs than usual and they were taking more drugs in higher doses to lower their blood sugar levels. And an agent cancelled this experiment because they said clearly this was not working.

But what's important to know here is not to panic. Nobody out there in the general public is doing this therapy. It was experimental and only being done in this particular study.

Alina?

CHO: Elizabeth, you know, my mother has Type II Diabetes. She takes a little bit of medication. She exercises more. She goes to the doctor regularly. She's been told she's fine, really. This seems like pretty intense therapy. So do we know how these patients died? Was it the combination of those drugs?

COHEN: You know what, Alina, doctors would love to know the answer to that. The way that they put it to us was clearly, this was just too much stress on these people. It was just too stressful. We thought that we were helping them by giving them extra blood pressure drugs, more cholesterol drugs, and more insulin drugs. But apparently that wasn't quite how it happened. They just kept using the word "more stressful."

CHO: Elizabeth Cohen with that important news. Elizabeth, thank you.

John?

ROBERTS: Alina, thanks. Republican frontrunner John McCain addresses a conservative political action conference today in Washington. What is their problem with him and can he win them over? We'll ask the conference chairman. That's just ahead.

And they are still coming to terms with the devastation here in Tennessee. For many people, decades of memories wiped out in an instant.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got in the basement. I told my wife, I said I don't know how much of the house was gone. Part of it was gone.

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ROBERTS: Coming up, survivor stories in their own words. We are live from Tennessee, Arkansas and Alabama, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: I want to take a moment here and give you a different perspective on some of the destruction here in Lafayette. You can walk around entire neighborhoods and not see much left standing. The house behind me here and you can see this is the way that these tornadoes work.

Ripped the roof off, destroyed half the structure, left the other structure pretty much intact and as it came through this way, totally destroyed the garage that was behind the home. Ripped the roofs off of houses over there. Took all of the leaves, of course, off the trees. And if I can just swing around over here, you can see that it's just a path of destruction and a huge debris field lying in this area between houses. And if we can just pan right over here to this -- careful of that wire there.

Here's a house that was completely leveled. This was not a wooden -- that was a wooden frame home, but it was also bricked. So it wasn't like a flimsy kind of structure that easily succumbed to the wind. This was a pretty solid house made out of brick and mortar and just completely taken down by this storm as it went right through here.

We spent yesterday, when we got on the ground, we've been doing it again this morning, talking to lots of folks who rode out this storm. Some people who like, like a family who lives here who lost everything and others who barely escaped with their lives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LOUIE TUCKER, TORNADO VICTIM: That boy (INAUDIBLE) part of it was inside his house.

ROBERTS (voice-over): Louie Tucker can be considered one of the lucky ones in Lafayette. The tornado vaporized his garage and tore up his roof, but amazingly, left most of the house he's lived in for 38 years intact.

TUCKER: I've never heard nothing like it, really. I never heard nothing like it.

ROBERTS: Could you hear pieces of the house coming off?

TUCKER: We got in the basement. I told my wife, I said -- I don't know how much of the house is gone, but part of it is gone.

ROBERTS: Oh, sorry.

Across Macon County, more than a dozen people died. And recovery workers think the toll could go higher. In this neighborhood, they brought in dogs to look for one of the missing. The person lived in a mobile home across the street that was flattened. Rescuers fear the swirling winds may have blown the victim a hundred yards into this pond.

ROBERTS (on camera): The path of this storm cut a swath of destruction. People who've lived in these parts for a long time say they can't ever remember seeing before.

Unlike tornadoes that we see all across this region every year, this one was incredibly capricious. Totally destroying some homes and leaving others almost completely intact. And people that we talked to said it was the speed of this storm that really surprised them.

(voice-over): Louie Tucker and his wife knew there was bad weather in the area. They'd heard the forecast, but there are no warning sirens in Lafayette. And the tornado was on in a heart beat.

TUCKER: The television didn't go off until just about the time it happened.

ROBERTS: And you scrambled down the basement after that?

TUCKER: Yes. We've seen all that red back in yonder where the pipeline was on fire.

ROBERTS: Oh, my goodness.

TUCKER: And it started roaring.

ROBERTS: Louie is used to rebuilding. He worked for the power company here and has seen his fair share of rough weather and big trouble. But when it hits home, your home, even experienced hands can tremble.

TUCKER: I've worked through tornadoes, vast storms, floods, but I've never been affected like this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: Louis emotional not just for what happened to him and his wife and their home but for his entire community. He just lived one street away from where I am, and obviously, this is a small town. A lot of people know each other. So he most likely knows the owner of this home and knows what they're going to be going through in the next days and weeks.

Alina?

CHO: All right, John. And it is, in times like these, that that community and those communities in that region come together. So that is one heartwarming aspect of this. All right, we'll check back with you later.

Coming up, what does John McCain have to do to win over conservatives? We're going to ask the chairman of the conservative conference where McCain is speaking today.

Also, the death of Heath Ledger from a lethal mix of prescription drugs. He was taking drugs a lot of people take. Sleeping pills, anxiety medication. What you need to know before filling your next prescription. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: A little music. 23 minutes after the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. You're looking live there at the Washington Hilton. The National Prayer Breakfast, the 56th annual. President Bush expected to take the podium momentarily. If we get that, we will dip into it briefly. Laura Bush among those people there today. 2,700 people there. Mr. Bush expected to make remarks momentarily again at the National Prayer Breakfast. We'll take you there live when it happens.

Meanwhile, John McCain heads into the line of fire this morning, trying to win over conservatives who think he's not one of them. What does he need to say and what do they want to hear?

CHO: Hey, good morning to you, John. I'm Alina Cho, here in New York. Kiran Chetry has the morning off.

As we see at first light there, you can really see the destruction. Really, I know you've said no home in your neighborhood was lost, was spared rather.

ROBERTS: No, no home in this neighborhood was spared. You know, these storms, as we said earlier, are capricious. They will completely take some structures and leave others either entirely or mostly intact. And we see that pattern here in this neighborhood here that we're in. There are homes that are destroyed. A home behind my here I would assume would be uninhabitable. The roof has been ripped off, one of the walls ripped down, every window blown out from the inside as the low pressure just kind of creates an explosive force from the inside that shatters everything going out.

We've been talking to a lot of folks this morning who rode out the storm, survived it, some of them lost everything unfortunately. No people who lost their lives. Linda Howard was inside her home when the tornado hit. She says that a call from her daughter may have saved her life. Linda and her daughters, Connie Gann and Sheila Roark joins us now. You're not from Lafayette though, you're from north of here. Exactly, where is your home, Linda?

LINDA HOWARD, TORNADO SURVIVOR: Like seven miles out toward the Kentucky line.

ROBERTS: And it's a little bit more of a rural neighborhood as well?

HOWARD: Yes, it is. ROBERTS: I wouldn't say this is suburban but it's definitely a community with higher density. So, take me back to Tuesday night as that storm system was coming through. Where were you? What were you hearing? What were you thinking?

HOWARD: Well, of course, I had seen across the screen that the thunderstorms and tornado warning was announced, and Connie, my daughter, called me and said, it's already touched down in the Brighton area. So, please, get in the hole. So I did. And it wasn't long.

ROBERTS: What were you thinking at that point, Connie? Because we should point out, you live about 1,000 feet away from your mom?

CONNIE GANN, DAUGHTER: Yes, I live on her farm. When they gave it out, I heard it on the scanner and of course, automatically thought we needed to take cover. So, I just, Mama didn't have a scanner. So -- she didn't know it actually touch down in the Lafayette area. So, I just felt I needed to call her and told her to take cover.

ROBERTS: So, you phoned her up, and you say get to the middle of the house, get there right now.

GANN: Yes, I did. And then, my family and I took cover also.

ROBERTS: So, you're in the middle of the house, Linda. What happened?

HOWARD: I laid down in the hall, which I felt was the most safest place, and it wasn't long until I heard the wind. You know, increasing, and then I started hearing glass, which was wind just coming through. Then the walls came -- closing in on me. Not crushing me, but closing in on me and then shortly, when it lightened I looked up and I realized my whole roof was gone.

ROBERTS: The roof was gone and the house was collapsing in on you.

HOWARD: Right, right.

ROBERTS: So you're 1,000 feet away, you look out the window what do you see?

GANN: Well, of course we waited for the quietness, and so the first thing I did, was first look out the back window, which would be down to my mother's house. I couldn't see anything until the lightning. When it lit up the sky I could see that Mama's house was gone.

ROBERTS: So, you saw this ghostly light and nothing --

GANN: I saw nothing. Yes. Naturally, I thought the worst. We started trying to get out and get to her, but we couldn't get out our road. Our road was closed. There was power lines down. So we just got in the truck, we actually got stuck in the field trying to get out. So, we just got out of the truck and ran down the main road.

ROBERTS: So what was the extent -- compared to what we see behind us here what was the extent of the destruction?

GANN: Well, we couldn't see that good. It was so dark. We had flashlights but --

ROBERTS: But you thought the worse --

GANN: I thought the worst. Yes, my son and I, of course, my husband, too, we all thought the worst.

ROBERTS: But you weren't gone. Where were you?

HOWARD: I was still in the hallway. And a good neighbor, Danny Carter, helped me to get out, and then I had no light, no flashlight or anything. And he said, what do you want to do? I said, I'll go up Connie's. He said, let me walk you, because there's power lines down and all kinds of debris. I realized they were coming towards me and very emotional, because they felt the worst.

ROBERTS: Did you have any injuries or --

HOWARD: I had no scratches. Not even one scratch.

ROBERTS: So, the whole house came down around you?

HOWARD: Right. That wall that came, coming towards me was about the only thing that was standing.

ROBERTS: Wow. I mean, there is testament to this idea of, get to the center of the house when the storm --

HOWARD: That's right.

ROBERTS: So, Sheila, you're 100 miles away during all this. Were you watching the storm system on television at that time?

SHEILA ROARK, MOTHER SURVIVED TORNADO: Actually, I had gone to bed early and my sister called just before 11:00 and said we had a tornado, and I don't know about mom, her house is gone. I immediately started to pray. I was worried for her life and spent a few minutes calling friends and not knowing what was going on with her, and -- but then she called back and said Mama was alive, and I couldn't get to them, because the weather was so bad, and I had a 100-mile drive. I couldn't get there. They had no power. We found out there was another storm coming in, and tried to -- went to a friend's house that had a basement and I kept calling them to tell them when it was supposed to hit Lafayette again.

ROBERTS: It must have been terrifying for all of you.

HOWARD: The word we got, yes.

ROBERTS: You being inside, and you seeing from the outside and you not knowing. ROARK: Feeling helpless, not being able to get here.

ROBERTS: We got word, I'm sorry, Lind...

HOWARD: We got word another one was coming through, worst than what we'd had, and when you have been through that and you're thinking, it's worst than this? So we went to a neighbor's house that had a basement.

ROBERTS: I take it you've lived around these parts for some time?

HOWARD: We have. Moved to the house since '79.

ROBERTS: Ever seen anything like this before?

HOWARD: No. I don't think so.

ROBERTS: It's not typical tornado territory. You can see it once in a while.

HOWARD: That's right. Occasionally.

ROBERTS: So what do you do now? The house is gone. Do you rebuild?

HOWARD: Yes, I will rebuild. Also I own a lot here locally, but it's also out 52 where they also got destroyed. So, I said, either place I had been I would have gotten it. So, yes, I will build back.

ROBERTS: Well, good luck, folks. Thanks for coming by to talk to us. Linda Howard, Connie Gann, Sheila Roark.

HOWARD: Thank you so much.

GANN: Thank you so much.

ROBERTS: Good to see you. So happy that everything worked out for you. I'm sure it was terrifying.

HOWARD: We're thankful. God was watching over me.

ROBERTS: Sure was. Alina.

CHO: All right. John, thank you.

We wanted to bring you a story that just in to us here at CNN. Live pictures of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Afghanistan this morning. She is traveling with the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband. Rice says she sees progress there despite the Taliban's effort to disrupt NATO's efforts. The Taliban often, there's a resurgence in the spring. Afghanistan often called the forgotten war. This is a rare visit, by the way, outside of the capitol of Kabul. There you see Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai there also addressing reporters. As I mentioned, a rare visit outside the capitol of Kabul. They went to the front lines of Kandahar. We are watching this story very closely.

Meantime, the presidential candidates are now focused on the next round of primaries and the getting their message out to the voters including a new push for Senator John McCain today. John Dickerson is our political analyst and chief political correspondent for slate.com. Good to see you again, John. As you know, this is a very big day for John McCain coming out of super Tuesday. He's finally calling himself the front-runner. Let's take a look at the delegate count. John McCain now at 680. Mitt Romney at 270. Mike Huckabee in third at 176. As you well know McCain is facing a big test today. He's going before an important conservative group. We talked to that head of the group, just a moment ago. He seemed to be open to hearing from McCain and wants to hear him on a different level, I think. Are we going to hear a different McCain today?

JOHN DICKERSON, CNN, POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, not so different that it imperils McCain's brand which is the self-styled truth teller and straight talker. I think what McCain will do is talk about the positions he's taken in this race -- on judges, on the war, on spending, how he will promote those conservative positions going into the November elections and in his possible presidency, and he'll also do, of course, a little history lesson on how long he has been a conservative. He'll mention Ronald Reagan probably more times than any of us can stand, and he'll talk about how he's been a conservative for a very long time, and try to remind a lot of the folks in the audience that on a lot of their key issues, he's actually been with them.

CHO: Well, as you well know, John McCain has done quite well so far without the conservative base, if will you. I mean he's gotten a lot of support from independents. So if he is the nominee, can he win in November without groups like CPAC?

DICKERSON: Well, it's a little tricky speculating in the election, that knocks conventional wisdom on its head so many times. You know, McCain has great appeal with independents and moderates in the middle, so to speak. And I think also McCain can make a case, perhaps not publicly, but his advisers can certainly make a case to conservatives, where are you going to go? On the question of judges, who will appoint the next supreme court justice? Do you want a democrat to do it? Or would you want a republican to be appointing that next supreme court justice? That's very important to social conservatives. On issues of national defense, McCain has a very long and strong record that all defense conservatives would approve of, and that matches up as far as conservatives are concerned against any of the democratic candidates. So if they really want to have a full and frank discussion with conservatives, you know, the McCain campaign does have some ammunition.

CHO: John Dickerson of slate.com. John, thank you.

Toxicology reports on actor Heath Ledger showed six different drugs in his system when he died. All of them legal. A lot of people take them. What you need to know before filling you next prescription. That's just ahead. Plus tornados on a path of destruction across five states affecting tens of thousands of lives. As we've seen, each person has a story of loss and survival. All of them asking, what they do now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TROY: What do we do now? We don't really know.

CHO: John's emotional interview with a father and daughter from Tennessee. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's coming up now on 17 minutes to the top of the hour. We're here in Lafayette, Tennessee, a town that was devastated in an instant by this line of tornadoes that crashed through the midsouth area. It's a similar story all around us for hundreds of miles. I'm talking hundreds of miles, 200 mimes west of here, 200 miles south of us.

In the last hour, we spoke with Macon County deputy sheriff, his name Troy Griggs and with his daughter Lauren along with him. His entire family lost their homes to the tornadoes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TROY GRIGGS, MACON COUNTY, DEPUTY SHERIFF: Never seen anything like this. I've heard about it in other places, but I've never seen anything or experienced anything like this.

My wife sat down last night and got to talking about it, what do we do now? We don't really know. I mean -- only thing that we know, salvage what we can, try to rebuild or buy. That's the only thing I know to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Obviously difficult for him and his family, who is going to take his young daughter Lauren to show her what was left of his house. Apparently there's nothing left of his house. But he says despite losing everything, he is thankful that everyone in his family survived.

Another devastated town, Aldrich Grove, Alabama. It's about 200 mimes south of here. Our Rob Marciano looking at damage there and where the storms are headed today and also some bad weather moving into the Pacific northwest. Good morning, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, John. This scene here now that the sun is coming up, reminiscent to what we saw last night as the sun was coming down. I'm standing in the rubble of what used to be a home. Unfortunately, the very home where three people lost their lives. A mother, father and a teenage son. That refrigerator is where the mother and the father were found. The son was found in a field a little bit farther away. The entire house swept off its foundation more than 100 yards behind me, and the trail of debris, and that's all you could really call it. You can't really make too many things out. The entire house, demolished, pushed across this road. They've cleared much of this road now, but look what this house is left. It's up against this tree. The roof pinned up against those branches embedded within that tree and stuck there even at this hour.

Brick houses obviously holding up a little it better. There was an elderly woman in that home. She has a broken arm, cuts and bruises but we're told that she's OK. 80 to 90 homes in this county damaged or completely destroyed. A total of four fatalities including the three here in Alabama. Two major tornados coming through here, a little over 24 hours ago, one of which in the northeast corner of this state, already officially an EF-4 tornadoes. Those are winds close to 200 miles an hour. This, unofficially is an EF-3.

I talked to the meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service. He is bringing a team of rapid response team out here is to officially take a look at this and may very well be upgraded to an EF- 4. But they came across the state over 100 miles from the time they entered the state until the time they left it, tornado warnings were up and they were warned well ahead of time, but in this county, in this spot, there are no sirens. So that word, albeit well ahead of time, was only getting out by local TV and radio, and, well, the folks who got hurt or lost their lives may never have heard the warning, just the storm coming up the path.

This is unusual for this time of year, no doubt about that. Usually, it happens a little bit farther to the south. There are some studies that suggest that La Nina agitated the atmosphere enough to maybe trigger these a little bit earlier in the season, like we're seeing now. But Alabama has had its share of major tornadoes, but this is really the worst they've seen since at least 1989. More deaths occurred in 1971 when they had over 120. So it can happen, but nonetheless, John, when it does, it still punches you in the gut to see this kind of damage and see what it does to people's lives. In this case, with over 50 lives lost, it's been quite an event. No doubt about it. Back over to you.

ROBERTS: It certainly has. And you can see by the raw emotion of some of the folks that we've been talking to this morning, just heavily impacted they were. Do you want to do something about the damage and destruction? We talked with the mayor of Macon County who says he needs help. Here's your chance to impact your world. Go to cnn.com/impact, to find out how can you make a difference in those lives of those tragically torn apart by the extreme weather.

Of course, our coverage of the aftermath of these tornadoes doesn't end when AMERICAN MORNING goes off the air. CNN NEWSROOM just minutes away now. My colleague, Heidi Collins also on the ground here in Tennessee. Good morning.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN, ANCHOR: Yes, good morning, John. Oh boy, you've seen it for yourself as you walk around the grounds of Lafayette. It is absolutely unbelievable. It is like a war zone. You always hear that when you hear about a tornado, but until you are in it, until you see it for yourself, there's no other way to describe it than that. I just came from the shelter here with several people who have spent the night, because of this. Because of what you see behind you. They have no homes left. Many of them still concerned about family members who haven't been able to get in touch.

All of the radio stations, all of the television stations here trying to raise money and really trying to help out there fellow community. I've also come from an area beyond where we are now, sort of a valley, if you will, where I saw livestock. The ranchers are out this morning trying to feed their livestock, trying to calm them down a bit, and, John I found this horse that had been standing apparently in the same spot ever since this tornado hit. Haven't moved. Shell shocked.

ROBERTS: I think I saw that same horse last evening. Down in the hollow near a tree?

COLLINS: That's right. Yes. So, even the animals are feeling it. Obviously, most importantly are the residents of this community and all the others across the state of Tennessee with the worst damage.

ROBERTS: We should mention that FEMA director David Paulson will be here later on today. President Bush expected to visit Tennessee tomorrow. So, help is probably on the way. All right, Heidi. We'll see you in a few minutes, top of the hour. Alina.

CHO: All right. Thanks, John.

News overnight from the parents of Britney Spears. She's bee released from the hospital and her parents say her life is at risk. We'll have more on that in a moment.

And toxicology reports on actor Heath Ledger shows six different drugs in his system when he died. All of them legal. A lot of people take them. What you need to know before filling your next prescription. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: Welcome back. You don't know her story. Chaka Kahn opens up.

CHAKA KHAN, SINGER: In my 20s, I was on a runaway carriage. No reins. And now I got both reins.

CHO: Her Grammy nod. Her Broadway debut. Her struggles revealed. Lola one-on-one with a music legend, tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: That's tomorrow. Right now, Britney Spears out of the hospital this morning, but her parents say her life is in danger. Spears left UCLA Medical Center Wednesday afternoon without that police motorcade that escorted her there last week, but with the paparazzi swarming, of course. Spears' parents released a statement last night it read in part, "we are deeply concerned about her safety and vulnerability and we believe her life is presently at risk." They say there's a court order in place to protect Britney that's "blatantly disregarded."

We've learned that actor Heath Ledger died of an accidental overdose. Six different drugs in his system including sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication. Drugs a lot of Americans take. Andrew Wainwright is an addiction expert. He joins us now right here in the studio. So, we do know how this toxicology report that says a combination of pills killed Heath Ledger, two sleep medications, two anti-anxiety drugs, two painkillers. So my question is this -- is it possible that Ledger took the normal dosage for each of these drugs, but it was just the combination that proved to be too much?

ANDREW WAINWRIGHT, ADDITION INTERVENTION RESOURCES: It's entirely possible. Here's what I think. I think that if he had just one doctor managing this, no one doctor would have prescribed all of these medications at one time. I think clearly all the drugs were contraindicated to one another. So, if you're taking all of these drugs, if you took them, for example, right now, let's call 911, I don't think there's a chance that you'd wake up.

CHO: Well, I think you mentioned, touched on an important point which is that no one doctor gave him all of these prescriptions, because is it safe to say it's highly unusual for one person to have all of these pills at the same time?

WAINWRIGHT: Unfortunately, it's not unusual in America today. I think that we live in a very medicated society. Prescriptions are easy. Doctors write a lot of prescriptions. We take a lot of prescriptions. I think the difficult piece is we think that they are just pills and they're not going to harm us and they're going to do what we intend them to do. When taken in combination, I absolutely expect this kind of deadly effect. If we actually read the labels, I can tell you it's hard for me to even read these labels. It says don't take alcohol. Don't drive heavy machinery. It also says everything else is contraindicated.

CHO: I want to ready something because Heath Ledger's father came out with a statement saying "Heath's accidental death serves as a caution to the hidden dangers of combining prescription medication, even at low dosage." Of course, his death has been ruled accidental, but about 7 million people are abusing prescription drugs. That's about an 80% increase from 2000. Why is this problem on the rise so much?

WAINWRIGHT: Well, a couple reasons. Addiction intervention resources for the last five years, our data has shown exactly the same thing. A rise in prescription drug abuse across all ages and across men and women. The reason why, I think a number of things. The drug companies put out a lot of new drugs, a lot of which work and they're very efficacious. The doctors prescribe these drugs for the uses that they're intended and unfortunately they're are more and more readily available. You can get drugs off the internet, you can get drugs from multiple doctors, and it's not a high barrier entry for any of that.

CHO: And a lot of young people unfortunately abusing. Heath Ledger is just 28 years old. Addiction expert Andrew Wainwright, we thank you for joining us with your perspective on this.

Here's quick look at what CNN NEWSROOM is working on for the top of the hour.

TONY HARRIS, CNN, ANCHOR: See these stories in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Tornado toll. More than 50 dead. 1,000 homes destroyed in Tennessee alone.

A Utah couple stranded in the snow for 12 days.

Bad weather may hold up today's launch of the shuttle "Atlantis."

The Secretary of State in Afghanistan.

Angelina Jolie in Iraq. The exclusive CNN interview.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Katie, what was it like in jail?

HARRIS: And the dethroned Miss Nevada, arrested.

NEWSROOM just minutes away at the top of the hour on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: That's going to wrap it up for us here on this AMERICAN MORNING but the news continues for Alina Cho in New York, I'm John Roberts. I want to bring in my colleague Heidi Collins who will take it from here. Good morning, Heidi.

COLLINS: Good morning to you, John. And good morning everybody, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Heidi Collins. Good morning from Lafayette, Tennessee.

HARRIS: And good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris in Atlanta, watching events coming to the NEWSROOM live on Thursday, February 7th. Here's what's on the rundown. We are live from the tornado zone, 55 dead across five states, in Tennessee, 1,000 homes mowed down.

COLLINS: Actress Angelina Jolie on a U.N. mission to Iraq. The exclusive CNN interview.

HARRIS: A top Homeland security official and the photos she didn't want you to see. Halloween pictures magically re-appear in the CNN NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Good morning once again, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins standing here in what's left of Tennessee, Macon County to be exact.

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