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Sugar Refinery in Georgia Explodes and Burns; Deadly Shooting Rampage in Missouri; Can John McCain Woo Conservatives?; Devastation in Tennessee; Campus Shooting in Baton Rouge
Aired February 08, 2008 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Actually, she lip-synched to the song perform by this woman.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I cannot wait in 2008. Baby, you're the best candidate.
MOOS: Lip-synch so realistically that Obama's wife remarked that their 6-year-old seemed concerned asking, Daddy, you have mommy, right? At least mommy voted for Daddy.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, once again, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Stay informed all day and here's what's on the rundown. City council shooting. Police may give us new details at their briefing this morning. Five people and the gunman dead outside St. Louis.
COLLINS: The search for six people in Georgia. They are missing today after a sugar refinery exploded and burn.
HARRIS: President Bush on the ground shortly to see Tennessee's tornado damage, soothing the survivors today, Friday, February 8th. And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
We want to show you a live picture now of Port Wentworth in Georgia. That's very near Savannah. We are anticipating any moment now the start of a news conference and I'm wondering, we didn't get a little guidance from the control room. Has it actually started? Let's listen in.
MICHAEL BERKO, CHIEF OF THE METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPT.: My name is Michael Berko. I'm the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. With me -- with me -- I'll spell it later. Come on now, guys. With me I have Chief Middleton from the city of Savannah Fire Department, Chief Long from the Port Wentworth Fire Department, Captain David Merck. He is Commander David Merck. He is the captain of the port. Chief Smith from Thunderbolt who has been assisting with the operations overnight. What we're going to just mention here is obviously this operation is continuing. Let me back up. What you have is a unique situation here. The plant is situated in Metro Police jurisdiction. That's why the Metropolitan Police are involved. The plant is actually situated in the city of Port Wentworth's Fire District, so Chief Long has the lead on the fire operations, assisted by the city of Savannah. And in a moment I'm going to turn it to the fire chiefs because the fire ground operations are continuing.
What is really happening is at this point in the morning we have assessed the structure, the structure is very unsafe to enter, and so what we are doing is starting to remove debris very carefully with the assistance of some structural engineers. And this really has shifted from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.
We have briefed the families before we are speaking to you and we are working very closely with the company, the plant operators, and they are establishing support centers at the various hospitals as well as here to liaison with the families. With that I'm going to ask Chief Long to talk just a moment about his fire ground operations and then Chief Middleton.
CHIEF LONG, PORT WENTWORTH FIRE DEPT.: Good morning. We have three fire ground operations in progress at this time. One of them is involving a structure where there were absolutely no occupants during the time of the explosion. Another one is on the rear of the structure where the railroad cars were, and that's basically in containment. And the other one is near the front of the plant where we understand most of the workers were located at the time of the blast. Currently that fire ground operation is going on, and I appreciate it but I need to get back to it as soon as possible.
CHARLES MIDDLETON, SAVANNAH FIRE DEPT.: I'm Charles Middleton, city of Savannah. As Chief Long alluded to, we are engaged in fire ground operations right now. We switched from a regular water attack to a foam attack because of the devastation of the structure. There was some deep-seated fires, just trying to keep those contained overnight.
We have not started any recovery actions yet because of the instability of the building as well as the fact that we're still engaged in active firefighting. As Chief Long alluded to, we anticipate this process to move along so we can begin this recovery but we have to be very slow, very careful because we don't want to put out people in any more danger than absolutely necessary.
BERKO: Captain Merck is here from the port because obviously this is a port structure and involves the coast guard. I'm just going to ask Captain Merck, do you want to say something here or wait until inside?
HARRIS: OK. Let's break away from this for just a moment here and remind you that our Don Lemon is monitoring this news conference and will get more from that news conference from Don. I think probably the headline in all of this is that this is now being called a recovery operation. No longer a rescue operation. Important to note because six workers are still missing, still missing after that explosion and fire last night at that sugar refinery plant. Port Wentworth, Georgia, that's just outside of Savannah, dozens more critically injured. Again, we will get more from Don Lemon who is on the scene, a little bit later this morning in the NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: A deadly shooting rampage in a city hall in suburban St. Louis. Witnesses say it started with a man's grudge against the government and ended up with six people including the gunman, dead. Susan Roesgen is Kirkwood, Missouri this morning. Susan, are police still surrounding city hall this morning?
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boy, they sure are, Heidi. You can see -- maybe you can't quite see, but there's still yellow tape surrounding the entire block around city hall. I think that's probably because they are in the city council chambers where the shooting happened at about 7:00 last night and four of the victims were shot and killed. They were probably going over that room very carefully. And, of course, the back parking lot behind city hall where a police officer was shot and killed as well.
What we know still today is that Charles Thornton was apparently angry about something he had been angry at city hall for quite a while. He was well-known to the regulars here. And last night he just went on a shooting rampage.
Now, today they have brought flowers, people have been coming by bringing flowers and balloons. I looked at the card on one bouquet and it read "we are praying for the mayor and for the city council" and it was signed simply from a citizen. People are bringing flowers and balloons.
Just a short while ago, I think actually when we were talking live last hour they were lowering the flags around city hall to half staff. There's a flag behind me now flying at half staff.
So, a lot of people here are grieving because last night, Charles Thornton went into the city council meeting and he started firing away. He shot and killed a police officer inside after he had already killed one outside. Then he went for the city public works director, he shot and killed him. Then a city councilwoman, shot and killed her. And then critically wounded both the mayor, Mayor Mike Swoboda.
Both are still in the hospital and intensive care. The one person who has come to the defense of Charles Thornton, the one that we know of is his brother Gerald. And he was actually out here this morning talking to reporters. He said that basically his brother was frustrated. Now, that's not quite the same tone that he took last night when he talked to reporters. His tone last night was that his brother had had enough.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GERALD THORNTON, GUNMAN'S BROTHER: The only way that I can put it in context that you might understand is that my brother went to war tonight with the people that were of the government that was putting torment and strife into his life, and he cope on it as best he could in the courts and they denied him access to the rights of protection and, therefore, he took it upon himself to go to war and end the issue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROESGEN: Now, we're waiting for a news conference to start here in about an hour. And we will cover that news conference and let you know what they say. Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, CNN's Susan Roesgen for us in Kirkwood, Missouri. Susan, thank you.
I want to take a moment to get to more news. Learning more about this strange possible theft as these two tankers. I want to get more information now from T.J. Holmes who is in the NEWSROOM.
T.J., do we know any more at this point?
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Actually, no, at this point on that particular story.
We will take you now to another story involving the tanker actually here, Heidi. This tanker, in fact, has shut down the beltway up in the D.C. area. Let's take you to this picture. We have a tanker fire here to tell you about on I-495 in the Springfield area. This is a tanker on fire that's on this highway that has pretty much shut it down at this point. Looking into this. Don't know about any injuries.
Don't know exactly what happened with this tanker. But on 495 between Eisenhower Avenue and Telegraph Road, certainly people in the D.C. area, really all over the country at this point familiar with the beltway. In particular what people talk about when they talk about the beltway, 495, pretty much circles Washington, D.C. But a tanker fire, this is a live picture. We have a live picture. You can see just pretty much a mess there. No word on any injuries, what caused it exactly. But a tanker on fire.
Of course, as you were saying there, Heidi, we were mentioning a couple of tankers we know of that are missing from Gainesville, Virginia. No word, no reason right now to believe the two are connected. It just so happens we have two stories today around the same area having to do with tankers. No indications this tanker is one of the two we know are missing. A couple of fuel tankers missing from a depot up there in the Gainesville area. But this is just happened to do with another tanker and this one is causing quite a mess on the beltway.
COLLINS: It's the tanker beat for T.J. Holmes this morning. All right, T.J. we'll keep it straight with you. Thanks so much.
HOLMES: All right. HARRIS: Getting a first-hand look, the governor of Ohio touring flood damage in the northwest part of the state this morning. This after days of rain and melting snow. People in areas like Finley and Defiance must feel like they just can't get a break here. Many are still getting their lives back together from historic floods back in August.
Remember those? Now this. Rivers spilling on to the city streets, homes full of water. Dozens of people evacuated. Cold temperatures and snow expected to turn the water into ice. Let's get a check of weather now. There's Reynolds Wolf for us in the severe weather center.
Good to see you, sir.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good to see you, guys, too.
You know if it's not one thing, it's something else. We are going to be dealing with a little bit of snowfall across parts of the Ohio Valley especially the northern half and places like Defiance. I mean, earlier, we had Rob out live and Rob Marciano saw the snow coming down everywhere. But we're expecting about a quarter of an inch of accumulation. So, it's really not going to add a great deal to the flooding conditions.
The problem is they don't need anything, but certainly it's not what they wanted to see, any precipitation at all but that's going to be in the mix. In fact, there's a 70 percent chance of getting to tomorrow and into the weekend. But nothing too significant. It's like to get five inches of rain on top of this. Something else we are going to be seeing other than the scattered flood warnings that we have throughout much of Ohio, into Indiana, southern Michigan. As far south as Bloomington, even down to Vince and Evansville. It has just been an absolute mess in terms of that rain.
Now the other issue that got a lot of cold air is going to be coming in. You have many of these communities without any power whatsoever. No means to really heat themselves. And look what's coming. It's like a runaway freight train just screeching its way from Canada and down into parts of the U.S., across the Midwest.
Temperatures dropping. These are not wind chill conditions, these are your surface temperatures into the tens to single digits in parts of the Ohio Valley. Zero conditions through places like, say, Chicago and of course northern plains looking in spots that will be ten degrees below zero.
Now you have to factor in the wind. One of the reasons you have to factor it in is because it will be very strong. It will make conditions feel even cooler. We're expecting conditions to be subzero today to the skin in places like Winnipeg, as far south as Pier, even into Sioux Falls checking at 20s, near 30 below zero is what it will feel like.
Same story for you in parts of Minneapolis. Green Bay, 43 below. Chicago, just merciless conditions out there. So, this weekend, if there's ever been a time to stay inside and huddle up, cuddle up, it's certainly this is the situation. It's going to be brutal for many people. No question about it.
HARRIS: You said it. All right. Reynolds, thank you.
COLLINS: Fewer candidates, more questions with Mitt Romney out now, can John McCain woo conservatives? We're live from the campaign trail, coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Welcome back, everybody.
Support and comfort from President Bush. Live pictures now coming to us out of our affiliate out of Nashville, Tennessee there. He has just landed in the area and will be getting a tour from Lafayette, Macon County, Tennessee, where there were at least 13 death -- pardon me, 14 deaths we have confirmed so far. Still assuming that some of those numbers may change as more of these search and rescue efforts are on going.
This morning, he's going to be visiting with survivors of this week's deadly tornado. We'll have more for you in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Republican presidential front-runner John McCain trying to seal the deal with conservatives after Mitt Romney suspends his campaign. Live now to Norfolk, Virginia, where McCain is campaigning today. Mary Snow is there.
Mary, good to see you. I'm wondering if any fine-tuning, refocusing of the McCain message expected today?
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Tony.
Right now, John McCain's message is on national security. He came to Norfolk this morning. And he's speaking right now, having a national security round-table. This, of course, after he made his case to conservatives Thursday in Washington, D.C. He did get some boos while he was there, but he acknowledged the differences that he has had with conservatives, particularly conservatives are upset with him over such issues as immigration. Also not initially supporting President Bush's tax cuts.
As Mitt Romney out of the race, it puts John McCain one step closer to sealing the republican nomination. And he is pressing to unify the republican party.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Surely, I have held other positions that have not met with wide spread agreement from conservatives. I won't pretend otherwise, nor would you permit me to forget it. On the issue of illegal immigration, a position which -- which ... (END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: You can hear the reaction just there yesterday when Senator McCain mentioned immigration. Taking a lot of heat from conservatives for supporting the immigration reform bill that many said would lead to amnesty. Senator McCain has since said that he has heard people's message about securing the borders first. Today though focusing on one of his stronger points in this state that has such a large military population. Virginia will be having a primary this coming Tuesday.
But when it comes to conservatives, Mike Huckabee, despite the daunting math in terms of delegates, is still sticking in the race. And he is hope that conservatives will come to his support. James Dobson, the leader of "focus on the family" did endorse Mike Huckabee. This just kind of underlying the anger some conservatives still have with John McCain -- Tony.
HARRIS: Wow, how much bending is John McCain going to have to do to take that 50/50 room and turn it into all cheers. Mary snow with John McCain in Virginia. Mary, good to see you. Thanks.
COLLINS: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama locked in an intense primary battle. Will it last until the democratic convention? That's the question.
CNN's Jim Acosta reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton nearly splitting the delegate count in the race for the democratic nomination, party leaders are ringing their hands in fear of something they haven't seen in a generation, essentially a tied ball game heading into the convention.
HOWARD DEAN, DNC CHAIRMAN: Now, I think we will have a nominee sometime in the middle of March or April. But if we don't, then we're going to have to make some kind of -- get the candidates to get together and make some kind of an arrangement because I don't think we can afford to have a broken convention. That would not be good news for either party.
ACOSTA: That's because unlike conventions of recent years when the party tickets were already established, Obama and Clinton could conceivably end up short of the 2,025 needed to secure the nomination. The job of putting somebody over the top would then follow the so- called super delegates. The nearly 800 party leaders who can technically cast their ballots got the candidate of their choice
DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: If 795 of my colleagues decide to select this election, I will quit the democratic party.
ACOSTA: Obama says it's way too early for that.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think we're going to get ahead of ourselves. You know, a month ago I don't think anybody anticipated all the twists and turns that have taken place. And so I don't think that we should be speculating now on what this race is going to look like a month from now.
ACOSTA: And it could get more complicated if Clinton seeks those delegates from Florida and Michigan that were disqualified but the democratic party after those states moved up their primaries.
One thing is clear, the longer they go at it, the more it will cost them. One day after disclosing she had loaned $5 billion of her own money to her campaign, Clinton announced she's raised nearly $6.5 million over the last 30 hours. Slightly less than the $7 million Obama raked in about the same time.
Democrats know full well what happened after the last two deadlocked conventions. Stevenson in 1952 and Thomas Dewey in 1958 both went on to lose the general elections.
Jim Acosta, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Get ready for another round of races. Are you tired yet? Imagine how the candidates feel. There are primaries this weekend in Louisiana, Kansas, Nebraska, Washington state, and Maine. Then on Tuesday, it's Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
HARRIS: Well, how do you hang on to your money when the economy goes south? Personal finance editor Gerri Willis drops by to answer your e-mail questions.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Take a moment to check out the big board now. Dow Jones industrial average is down about 4 points sitting at 12,242. Yesterday went up about 14 points. All of this really people are waiting to see the effect if there's going to be any very immediately that is, in lieu of the fact that Congress has sealed their deal on these rebates that everybody is going to be getting. $170 billion plan to sort of boost the economy if you will. That's the big news. NASDAQ, I understand, is up, 17.5 or so. We will continue to watch the numbers for you throughout the morning.
HARRIS: Where's my check? I want fast cash, cash in hand. Oh, hi. Fatter check.
Fatter check, it's Friday. The eagle flies. Whether wrestling, the bears on Wall Street, Gerri, are staring down a recession. You have questions about your finances. CNN personal finance editor Gerri Willis with answers. Sorry, Gerri, it's Friday. I want the session to end.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: I know. Well, I'll do what I can but I can't promise you anything right now.
HARRIS: Very good. We've got e-mails. Ready to dive in here? WILLIS: OK.
HARRIS: Very good. Hey, we got some e-mails. Dive in here.
WILLIS: Let's do the e-mails. We have great questions.
HARRIS: We really do. Lawrence writes, oh, Gerri, "does opening or closing a savings or checking account change my credit score? The credit agencies and FICO will not give a straight answer."
WILLIS: Well, a great question, Lawrence. But look, your FICO score does not take into account whether you open or close a savings or checking account. In fact, it does not look at any other assets, you may have or even your income. However, your credit report does look at what kind of debt you have, how timely your payments are and how long you've been managing credit. For more info on what's included in your score, go to myfico.com.
HARRIS: Boy, you need to sort of make that one of your favorites, myfico.com.
WILLIS: That's right.
HARRIS: June in Pennsylvania has a question for you, Gerri. "I have a simple IRA at my former place of employment. That business is not doing well. I want to move my IRA as quickly as possible, but have no idea where to move it.
WILLIS: Well, first, explain for the rest of the viewers. A simple IRA is just a traditional IRA that your employer can contribute to. Smaller companies typically use these. And, June, there are two things you can do with the money that's in there. First if you have a 401(k) at your new job, you can roll over the old IRA into it or set up your own individual roll over IRA and investment company like Vanguard or Fidelity.
You may consider investing this roll over IRA and put it in a target date retirement account that automatically rebalances your portfolio according to when you're going to retire. It's important that you do a direct rollover though. You don't want you money in your old account to touch your fingers during the transfer otherwise you're going to be taxed. Penalized on top of that if you're not 59 1/2 years old. So, do it the right way.
HARRIS: And that's a heavy tax, isn't? It really is.
WILLIS: Yes, it's not pretty.
HARRIS: Moira has a question for you. I am 35 years old with my 401(k) invested in a target retirement account with 90 percent allocated in stocks. I had losses for the first time in the last quarter. Should I reallocate to a less aggressive mix or keep it as is?
WILLIS: Well, we were just talking about target retirement accounts. Well, you know, as we've been saying, it's difficult to watch your 401(k) lose value. But the bottom line is that you don't want to invest emotionally. Getting out of these stocks when they're at the lows is a sure recipe for losing money.
Instead, pick a time somewhere in the future. Look at your asset allocation, if you still think you have too many stocks, begin to shift your allocation but slowly and over a few months. Hey, Moira, you're young enough to ride out the bumps in this market. And in fact, they're going to tell you, most people don't realize this.
But financial advisers typically recommend that even that when if you're on the cusp of retirement. You have at least half of your portfolio in stocks. You're going to be retired a long time. You'll need the returns of stocks even if you're just about to retire. You want to keep that in mind.
HARRIS: That is smart, smart, smart, Gerri. Wayne writes, "I am concerned, Gerri, about the possibility -- I love this question -- I'm concerned about the possibility of super inflation here in the U.S., is it possible to put, say, oh, 100k into a Canadian bank and keep it in Canadian dollars without any legal repercussions?
WILLIS: Well, Wayne, you can put your money in a Canadian account. That's not a problem. But there are rules about how you do it. First off, you have to report this to the IRS if that amount is over $10,000. And you're going to have to pay taxes on any interest you earn. Plus, let's say you put in $100,000 into a Canadian bank, the U.S. dollar falls, as it has, when you convert those Canadian dollars into U.S. dollars, you're going to pay taxes on the gain. They get you coming, they get you going.
HARRIS: Wow. All right, Gerri, great questions from you at home and I want to drive everyone to the big "OPEN HOUSE" show this weekend. We have coming up?
WILLIS: We are talking about the stimulus package, the check you're - so looking in the mail. We have some info on that. And you know, don't look for it right now is the bottom line. But we're going to tell you about what it means for you, your wallet, your family, what you should do with it. It's all good stuff. So join us at 9:30 right here on CNN. We will be talking about the check in the mail.
HARRIS: I need my dollars. All right. Gerri, have a great weekend.
WILLIS: You, too.
HARRIS: Thanks.
COLLINS: Hard to defend at the "Super Bowl." Not a team but a solo shooter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a special event like this, especially "Super Bowl," lone wolves are one of the things that scares us the most. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Isn't that the truth? Planned massacre revealed, in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Good morning once again, everybody. 10:30 Eastern Time now on a Friday afternoon. That's a good thing. I'm Heidi Collins.
HARRIS: It's still morning, Heidi.
COLLINS: I know. It feels like afternoon, though. How long have we been on?
HARRIS: Well, how about it? Given the last 24 hours for you, I can imagine so.
COLLINS: I am a little ...
HARRIS: We're going to steal a couple of minutes here just to talk to you, Heidi, about your experiences in Lafayette, Tennessee yesterday. You get into Tennessee and you start off in Hendersonville and you make your way up to Lafayette. And tell me about the moment when you start to see some of the destruction from the tornadoes?
COLLINS: Yes, I mean, the reason why we had to stay in Hendersonville, which is about another 40 minutes or so away from the area that we were in, Lafayette, was because all of the hotels, you know, had been taken up by residents. They were kind enough to give out as many rooms as they had. And even in Hendersonville, that far away, there were several people in our hotel who had lost their homes.
So look, I mean, this is why, this is the damage now. Just unbelievable where we were standing yesterday. I think this is some of the video that we shot. It was across the street from we're where our location was. This is just someone's backyard. There's a car there and a pickup truck a little further back, completely demolished. There's even a boat that we saw in the back of that home that was overturned. You see all the toys there. And just the debris. I mean, look at that. There's a couch, a chair.
There was at one point, I think we'll show it there, a pillow that was forced out the window. You see that? Look at that, a couch pillow. And then the trees. They're really -- and I said it several times yesterday, it was barren land. I mean, granted this was pretty rural area, but still, plenty of homes out there and just absolutely no landscape left.
I had an opportunity to go a little further away, closer to where the shelter was for all of the people in that area, which was at the National Guard Armory there. And then there was another valley down below, and I took some i-Reports if you will, from a person who is already a reporter for the network, but I had my cell phone and snapped some of these shots. And really, everywhere you looked were these humongous tree just snapped in half. These were a couple of guys that I talked to who were at their mother's home starting very early on. This was before we were even on the air yesterday, this was about 8:30 Eastern Time, 7:30 their time, just trying to clear away some of the debris. They had built a fire in a trash can and were throwing as much of it as they could inside.
HARRIS: So that is the scene of the destruction.
COLLINS: Yes.
HARRIS: The debris field and the pulverized buildings, and homes and lives. But I'm curious about the people. A couple of different impressions you shared with us yesterday of folks who were clearly in just a bad emotional state. And other folks who seemed determined to get it going through sheer willpower and get their lives back together. I'll never forget the guy you interviewed with the eye. Clearly he had been through something with these storms.
COLLINS: He said actually -- there he is now, James Kruger, and he was obviously wounded in the face there by some flying debris. He was actually pinned down on the floor of his home. He says it was God holding him down, saving him and telling me he needed to go on and make some things right in his life. That's what he told me several times.
There he is. And, yes, he came out alive obviously, but when he woke up, there was nothing left of his home except a dirt floor. I mean, the floor was even taken out from underneath him, or at least around where he was. Incredible story.
The Gonzales family, this is a family where they had picked up and moved from New Orleans after Katrina because they lost everything in Katrina and had moved, believe it or not, to Lafayette, Tennessee. And there they are, Steve Gonzales and his family, two kids and a wife.
You know he was remarkably resilient, even that early on, possibly still in a state of shock. But they were one of the first people to get into the shelter, because they said, you know what, we have seen the power of Mother Nature and we're getting out of here right now. And they were in their homes when the initial storm came through but immediately ...
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: Yes, that was really strong. What was the story -- you visited one of the fast food restaurants, right?
COLLINS: Yes, we went to go get a bunch of food for the crew, because you know, everybody had been out there so long. And while we were inside talking to a lot of people, the fast food restaurant was another thing. They gave as much food as they possibly could to the Red Cross to give out to people who had, obviously, no refrigerators or anyway to cook anything.
And while we were inside, I had a gentleman who said, you know, my daughter was very worried, obviously, about her children in all of this. So what she did, she took either three or four children, young children, raced out to the garage, had them put their bike helmets on and then got into the bathtub.
And I thought that was, you know, very, very quick thinking, because as we saw, even though everyone was very happy with the amount of warning time that you had, it still happened pretty darn quickly. And to be able to have that forethought was really sharp.
HARRIS: Yes, a woman and a bathtub.
COLLINS: Yes. Yes. I think we have some video. Helen Hessen (ph), now county commissioner out there, believe or not, she's a very popular woman. Everybody loves Helen. She said, you know, I'm not afraid of an old storm. And then she said, well, that was before. I am now. That's her bed. She was actually -- that's in the next room over from the bathroom where she was. She was on the cell phone with her daughter the entire time throughout this storm, daughter talking her through everything. Mom, get in the bathtub, get in the bathtub.
Behind us there you can see the bathtub. She said if I had stayed in the bathtub, Heidi, I would have been killed. Because when you look inside you see all of the tile, the ceramic tile, that just blew off the walls and then the brick that you behind her blew inside. She crawled out of the bathtub and into a tiny closet in her bathroom, still on the phone with her daughter. Her daughter saying stay calm, mama, stay calm, mama, everything will be fine. And sure enough, her granddaughter found her in the closet under all this debris still on the phone.
HARRIS: And then there was the moment as if we scripted it and planned it for television at the very end, yes, the sound of the saws firing up to get at the hard work of, you know, clearing the area.
COLLINS: Yes, we're going to hear those buzzsaws and that sound of things being cleared up for a very, very long time with the amount of debris that I saw. And the president, of course, going to that same exact area, Macon County, today. Hopefully going to be able to talk to with some people there, and certainly the rescuers as well. Great, great job, by all accounts.
HARRIS: Great pictures, Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, thanks.
I want to get to this story now, too. More from Mother Nature. Rising rivers, flooded streets and days of rain and melting snow making life miserable across parts of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
CNN's Rob Marciano is in northwest Ohio now, where dozens of people in Defiance are now out of their homes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heavy rain here in northwest Ohio have brought many of the rivers up and over their flood banks. We are in Defiance on Auglaize Street next to the Auglaize River which today, one in the same. Take a look at this top shot, give you an idea of the expanse of the flooding here. You can see where the Auglaize (ph) meets the Maumee (ph), tries to make it's way into Lake Eerie, well downstream. You also see snow on top of rooftops of houses that are surrounded by water, a surreal scene for sure.
Sixty-nine homes here have been evacuated, their power, their gas has been cut off. Many are in shelters with friends and family.
The river forecast to crest today and slowly fall below floodstage over the weekend. But we're going to get a tremendous amount of cold air, so we certainly want the river to get out of here before that bitterly cold air moves in here Saturday and Sunday night. Either way, it will be a long cleanup for sure after this historic flood.
Rob Marciano, CNN, Defiance, Ohio.
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COLLINS: Wow.
Well, it's not "The Sopranos." A real life mob bust net 62 reputed wiseguys.
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COLLINS: More money in your pocket. President Bush says he'll sign the $167 billion economic-stimulus package sent to him by Congress. That means checks going out to you in May. The bill calls for most individual wage earners to receive $300 to $600. It's $600 to $1200 for couples, plus $300 for a child. The low-income and elderly disabled veterans were added to the package. They will get $300 checks. All of this designed to encourage spending and give the economy a boost.
(BUSINESS HEADLINES)
COLLINS: Quickly, in fact, we want to get to the story with T.J. Holmes. He's watching it for us out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Please, T.J., tell us what you know about this shooting at a college?
HOLMES: This is Louisiana Technical College, a live picture, the first we're getting here, showing the scene as we're seeing it ourselves. The Louisiana Technical College is the name of it. A shooting there.
According to our affiliate a few people have been shot. Police telling them at least two or three other people have been shot and the shooter in this case was a female. This female apparently shot herself, again, according to our affiliate. Don't know exactly right now the condition of the shooter, this female, and don't know exactly where she is. If she is in fact in police custody, if she, in fact, is being treated somewhere, we do not know.
Again, live picture here, Louisiana Technical College out of Baton Rouge, described as a vocational, and career training and education center with several campuses around the state there. But Louisiana Technical College is the name of it.
We don't know if this person is affiliated in any way, shape or form with the school and whether or not this person, the shooter, is a student. But what we're seeing here now, at least on the screen, the word we're getting, is that this person is a student, the female is a student. And again, a female shooter in this particular case. Multiple victims described by police. At least two others, possibly a third. Don't know the conditions of those two other people. No word that we're getting from anyone that anyone has died in this particular shooting.
But apparently this happened somewhere around 8:30 this morning, which would have been less than an hour ago Louisiana time, local time there in Baton Rouge. But we don't know all of the circumstances surrounding this shooting. But the word is, guys, that this was a female student, a female student opening fire at the campus of Louisiana Technical College, and has wounded at least two, maybe three other people. Don't know their conditions.
Also then she then shot herself. We don't know her condition, what kind of shape she is or even where she is at this point. We don't have that word. But this is what we're getting, a live picture here. We can see some folks gathered, a few police officers, police cars, police units set up there. It appears and looks like others from the campus as well. But a female student opening fire on a college campus, Louisiana Technical College. Again, a vocational training, career training and educational center, as it's described as.
But certainly working to get more detail on this one, certainly the condition of the shooter and also the condition of the victims. But a female student opening fire at the school there in baton rouge -- guys.
COLLINS: Yes, I'm just trying to look here, T.J., and see. We do know that it is, in fact, someone who is a current student, huh?
HOLMES: That is the word that we are being told here, that it is a student at the school. We don't know the age of the student at the school, and don't know, again, it's so new, possibly what might have been going on and how it kind of went down on campus, if this was outside, if this was in a classroom actually, we don't know that at all. But kind of -- we see school shootings unfortunately in this country, something we've become accustomed to seeing, but we're not accustomed to it being a female shooter.
This is kind, I guess, a new part of the story and jumps out at you that it, in fact, a female shoot, that has shot two people and possibly a third. Don't know their conditions. But we don't know as well, Heidi, where the shooter is right now. If the shooter is wounded, we would assume that the shooter possibly not getting too far, might be in custody at this point, might be treated that the point somewhere at a hospital. But a shooter apparently shot herself as well. So real early here in trying to get details about where everybody is and how this thing went down, and we are certainly working it right now, Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, and of course we don't know whether or not that was a fatal wound as she apparently shot herself. Looking at some of the stuff coming in from our affiliates here, too, apparently just one little other detail. The police are saying, again, according to our affiliates in the area that this happened around 8:30 this morning.
So, boy, a lot more to learn about this as we continue to look at these live pictures from our affiliate WAFB in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Obviously they are -- I'm not sure what they're doing. It looks like attending to someone there on the scene on the scene, on the ground.
And as T.J. has been mentioning, at least a couple of victims, it says in this report I'm looking at again, from our affiliate WAFB, multiple victims. Not sure what may have caused this obviously. Very early on in all of this as we continue to look at these reports just now coming in to the CNN NEWSROOM.
We do know the Louisiana Technical College is the scene of what's happened. This is some new video now sort of from a different angle. You see all of the police responding. At least five cars there that we can see. Everybody trying to get their reports and gather up as much evidence. Obviously, eyewitness reports are going to be crucial to finding out what happened here earlier this morning in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
We will stay on top of this story for you and update you just as soon as we get more information.
HARRIS: I want to take you now to Missouri. Our Susan Roesgen is following the story there of the shooting at a city council meeting last night.
Susan, I understand you have someone with you right now.
ROESGEN: Yes, this is Gerald Thornton, the brother of Charles Thornton, the gunman who was shot dead last night by the police.
And the big question I think everyone's asking today, Gerald, is what set your brother off? Not last night, but way back in the beginning. This has been going on for a couple of years, we understand. What is the -- what was his beef with the city government?
GERALD THORNTON, BROTHER OF BROTHER OF ALLEGED GUNMAN: Initially, when a person is denied their constitutional protection, that is the beef that would bring about a reaction of trying to straighten that.
ROESGEN: So what was it? What was the government and he at odds about?
THORNTON: Everything that they have spoke to the media prior about the tickets that he was supposedly had received.
ROESGEN: Tickets for what?
THORNTON: They consider that they had ordinance violations done by him. And he felt he hadn't.
ROESGEN: As a business owner?
THORNTON: As a business owner and operator.
ROESGEN: And what exactly had he done that the city didn't like and that he, in turn, you know, blamed the city for?
THORNTON: Those ordinances are written down and they have their own statement as to what they are.
ROESGEN: Gerald, I'm just not getting the sense here, I don't think viewers are getting a sense really either of what this was all about. What was he frustrated about exactly? Something to do with his business?
THORNTON: It's a frustration and I said that he is filled with the understanding that his constitutional protection was not ...
ROESGEN: OK, well, let's move on to last night then. You were the last person to see your brother. Did you know that he had a gun and that he was coming here?
THORNTON: I wasn't the last person to see him, but I was one of the last and seeing him when he left the home. And I did not know that he had a weapon and I never knew him to have a weapon.
ROESGEN: Did he say anything about coming to city hall last night?
THORNTON: No, he didn't, but I saw one of his signs that he normally use in protesting, so I knew he was going out to protest. I didn't pay any attention to the actual day because the city of Kirkwood has certain days of the month that they have these city council meetings.
ROESGEN: You know, a friend of his has said that your brother was increasingly angry over the last few months. Did you notice a change in him in mentally? Was he starting to be unstable?
THORNTON: Again, when someone speaks of a person saying something, I tend to want to fall away from that because I don't know the issue that was said and as far as you repeating it, the only thing I can say is my brother, he thought long and hard on trying to solve the issues that were brought to his doorstep.
ROESGEN: And those issues were?
THORNTON: He was fined unjustly, he was ticketed unjustly.
ROESGEN: For? THORNTON: He was -- for a violations of the ordinances that they said were ...
ROESGEN: Just one final question, Gerald. And we have a freight train going past here at city hall, if you're wondering what the noise is. I just want to try to get a sense from you, how do you feel about the people who were killed last night? You said last night, and we have already shown this interview, that your brother went to war and that he was justified in going to war with this government. How do you feel about the victims today?
THORNTON: War has more than a victim on one side. It has victims on both sides because that is what war is. I feel saddened by all persons of war because they try to solve those problems with violence. And that's what war is. Once the violence has reached a point where communications of talk come back into the light of the issues, that is when the people can get back to sensibility.
ROESGEN: OK, all right, Gerald, I'm going to speak to you some more.
Heidi and Tony, I'm going to talk to Gerald off camera and try to get just a better sense here of what exactly might have ...
COLLINS: Yes.
ROESGEN: ...motivated his brother last night. Give it back to you now.
HARRIS: Well, Susan, before we let you go, I mean, you just have to ask Gerald, for me, it appears that he is standing there justifying, coming up with a rationale for what happened last night. It just seems, pardon me, unconscionable at this point. Does he understand the way this sounds? Is he sensitive to it at all?
ROESGEN: Gerald, I have just heard from Tony Harris, the anchor in Atlanta, and he says, boy, it sounds like you're really defending and almost justifying the actions of your brother. Tony wants to know, do you seriously understand, comprehend what your brother did last night and do you find it acceptable?
THORNTON: You asked a multitude of questions right there. One, I would say that my brother chose to do what he did, and I'm an individual who choose to do what I do.
ROESGEN: Did he choose to do the right thing, to kill five people and critically wound two others?
THORNTON: When you go into what I said was war and that my brother was doing ...
ROESGEN: You mean fines and city penalties and issues about business rights justifies murder?
THORNTON: When you say murder, you are saying that ...
HARRIS: OK.
THORNTON: ...he was unjustified in what he was doing. So, that is your intent on what he did.
HARRIS: All right, all right, Susan, this is insane.
THORNTON: But when you asked me, I'm saying that war ...
HARRIS: Susan, Susan, Susan ...
ROESGEN: Thank you, Gerald.
HARRIS: Susan, that's absolutely -- that -- I'll let you do -- I'll let you conduct your interview, but that's enough of that on the air. Susan Roesgen for us. And now, he's smirking. I don't know what's going on here.
Susan, thank you.
COLLINS: We're going to go off that topic and on to another. Senator John McCain speaking live now in Norfolk, Virginia. Let's go ahead and listen in for a moment. It looks as though he might be taking some questions from people in the audience there. Once again, coming to us out of Norfolk, Virginia.
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SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, actually I'm hoping that with the success that that commitment will lesson over time and the Iraqi military take over more and more of the responsibilities and us be able to move our military into more supportive roles and, as is happening in Mosul as we speak, and gradually withdraw.
And so, I think I can make a convincing argument that a date for withdrawal is a victory for al Qaeda. And I think the American people would then have to pay a very heavy price in American blood and treasure if that were the case.
Yes, sir? Yes, sir?
QUESTION: You talked a lot about Afghanistan this morning. If you were president, how would you actually go about (INAUDIBLE)?
MCCAIN: I'll go over and sit down with them. I'll go over and sit down with them. And by the way, it's not just presence, it's also a command structure there that -- that's not nearly as efficient as -- it's more of a dual structure that we would want to fix as well.
Yes, sir?
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)
MCCAIN: Yes, sir, I do. And I think the greatest good will that's engendered is through missions like the ones you and the USS Kearsarge carried out. I think after we all know after a number of natural disasters that have taken place throughout the world, when the United States military has quickly arrived on the scene and given the help and assistance that no other nation is capable of providing, then it's engendered very good will.
And it goes back to the struggle against al Qaeda, which is at the end of the day, also an ideological one. And the more things that we can do such as you all and your crew and your command have accomplished, will help us overall in the struggle against radical Islamic extremism.
Thank you very much. Thanks for coming today.
COLLINS: There you go, John McCain, Senator John McCain for us in Norfolk, Virginia. They're holding a little bit of a round-table discussion with several people gathered there. Security round-table gathering, to be more specific.
We're going to follow all the campaigns -- all of the campaigners left, anyway, as we continue throughout the morning here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
HARRIS: And good morning again, everyone, you're with CNN. You're informed.
I'm Tony Harris.
COLLINS: Hi there, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.
Developments keep coming into the CNN NEWSROOM on Friday, the 8th of February. Here's what's on the rundown. Breaking news from Louisiana, a student opens fire at a technical college in Baton Rouge. Several people shot.
HARRIS: Police about to update us live on the city hall shooting outside St. Louis. Six dead, including this man, the suspect.
COLLINS: New in the last hour, six people now presumed dead in Georgia. A sugar refinery explodes and burns in the NEWSROOM.
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