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Floodwaters Rushing Across Parts of at Least Seven States; Will Michigan Redo its Presidential Primary?

Aired March 20, 2008 - 09:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Watch events come into the NEWSROOM live on Thursday, March 20th. Here's what's on the rundown.
Water, water everywhere. People from Missouri to Ohio get soaked by spring floods and there's more to come when rivers start cresting.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The Democrats' decision. Will Michigan redo its presidential primary? Today it looks like a deadline day. What's the holdup?

COLLINS: They skim the seas almost entirely underwater. Traffickers get creative. Drug subs, in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: Boy, at the top of this hour, across much of the country, the water rises. The misery deepens. Floodwaters are rushing across parts of at least seven states. Flood warnings are posted from Texas to Pennsylvania, and Arkansas to Ohio.

Real-time now, you want to see how bad the situation is in parts of the country, take a look at the situation right now in Eureka, Missouri. Our affiliate there providing these pictures of this pickup in trouble, needing an assist to get through the high water there on that road, which is essentially washed out. KMOV providing the pictures for us. Thousands of people have been evacuated. Boats are fanning out across neighborhoods searching for people trapped in their homes.

In many of those areas, the rain has stopped but the floodwaters continue to rise. At least 13 people have died. Several are missing. Dozens more have been pulled from fast-moving waters covering their neighborhood streets. One of the hardest hit states, Missouri. Again, these pictures on the left of your screen from KMOV, from Eureka, Missouri.

President Bush has already declare a major disaster there, but the worst may be yet to come, if you can believe it, with record-level flood surges expected tomorrow. My goodness.

COLLINS: And another state reeling from the relentless floodwaters -- Ohio. Much of the state is dealing with swamped homes and washed-out roads and rivers that are still rising and that is certainly the problem this morning.

CNN's Sean Callebs is on the scene in South Lebanon, it's just north of Cincinnati, and, Sean, we've been watching your pictures all morning long. I know you've got waders on, certainly, to be trudging through some of that water there.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, without question. I think folks in southwestern Ohio saw what happened in the Missouri area yesterday, and boy, here they've braced for the worst. Look down here. This is normally a very dry, little culvert area. But what's happening, Heidi, I'll give you a little lesson in engineering here. If you look behind me, this is a 304-acre soybean farm. Yesterday, 12 hours ago, under five, six feet of water.

Well, that water is now pouring back through down to this culvert right here and you can see where it's going down, and it flows into the Little Miami River. The Little Miami River jumped its banks yesterday. A number of people had to be evacuated here in rural Warren County, Ohio.

If there is a hint of good news out here this morning, they believe, they believe that the river has crested. They're not entirely sure, but that does not mean folks are out of the woods here yet. They're worried about what's going to happen downstream as these tributaries continue to flow in the Little Miami, the Miami river and then on into the Ohio, the Mississippi. It's just a recipe for disaster.

There's no rain, obviously, in the forecast right now. If you look, beautiful blue, sunny skies out here right now, but there is a chance of precipitation tomorrow. And there's nowhere for this water to go. They had a record wet month in February, record snowfall last week, and now all of this rain. A number of inches falling in just a matter of hour.

We don't know if anyone who lost his or her life here in this area. That's the good news. But so many evacuations. Right now people are just getting out doing the initial damage assessment. Where I'm standing is actual a road. You see the guardrail. Normally plenty of room for a car, but there's so much debris back up here, Heidi, it is going to take some time to clean up this area of southwestern Ohio. We know the storms have moved on into the east. And folks here just hoping, hoping, that they've dodged the worst of things.

COLLINS: Oh, I bet they are.

Hey, Sean, I'm just wondering about cleanup efforts, or ways to try and help keep these rivers from going over, and all of the flooding. I mean is there sandbagging that they're talking about? It always seems to be ridiculous to talk about sandbagging when you've flooding like that. But I just wonder what they're trying to do?

CALLEBS: Well, the big problem here, flash flooding. These tributaries get so -- they fill up so rapidly, so quickly. Where we're standing now, we talked to a gentleman who own a house not terribly far from here, he said he's lived here 20 years. Only three times the water has been in his front yard, and yesterday was the highest he had seen it, that he could remember. So it's not that they can sandbag, it's not that they're seeing levees or something like that, the threat of being breached, what happened is, it is backed up so fast, it just flooded areas.

A little good news to this farmer behind us. He has not planted his soybean crop yet. But he's just got to wait for this ground to dry out...

COLLINS: Sure.

CALLEBS: ...before he can get soybeans and move on with his livelihood.

COLLINS: Yes, it always takes so much patience in situations like this. It's tough.

All right. Sean Callebs for us this morning, South Lebanon, Ohio. Sean, thank you.

HARRIS: Boy, let's get a check of the severe weather. There he is, Reynolds Wolf in the severe weather center.

And Reynolds, we're talking about spring, the first full day of spring is tomorrow, but spring arrived this morning. This is the time when we see these systems collide. As weather moves, spring is in and we've got a collision of fronts and there we go.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know. I know. I mean what was it? A less than a week ago, we're dealing with the tornadoes?

HARRIS: That's right.

WOLF: Now we're dealing with the flooding situations.

COLLINS: But I'm still dealing with them today.

WOLF: Oh yes.

COLLINS: Given all the crashing blast that we should maybe explain in case it comes through the microphones?

WOLF: Absolutely. Here's...

COLLINS: Just seconds before we came to you?

WOLF: Right. There's every chance, ladies and gentlemen, at home, we might hear some booming noises. And that's not from our explosive personalities here. It's actually pieces of glass that have been 100 feet above...

COLLINS: Yes.

WOLF: ...the ceiling here that are actually coming down. They're clearing out some stuff so that we can all be safe and continue broadcasting and share these stories with you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: I'm going with the calendar. We're in the bright yellow.

WOLF: Why not?

COLLINS: It's spring.

HARRIS: There you go.

COLLINS: Yes?

WOLF: Look good. It's good.

COLLINS: Reynolds, thank you very much.

WOLF: You bet.

COLLINS: Well, as you know, when the weather becomes the news we love to see your i-Reports. Just go to CNN.com and click on i-Report or type i-Report@CNN.com into your cell phone. Of course, as always, please stay safe in doing so.

HARRIS: Talk about a do-over deadline. Michigan state lawmakers scrambling to agree on a primary revote today. They're heading out for a two-week recess. Once they get back, look, there's not enough time to put an election together. The current plan calls for re-doing the Democratic primary June 3rd. Michigan could be crucial in the fight for delegates between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

The Obama camp has raised concerns about any revote, but Clinton says Obama should back up his rhetoric and empower the people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am urging him to match those words with actions. To make sure the people of Michigan and Florida have a voice and a vote in this election.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Senator Clinton, I have to say on this, has been completely disingenuous. She said when still trying to compete with -- for votes in Iowa and New Hampshire that Michigan and Florida wouldn't count.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Well, here's the story. Michigan and Florida moved up their primaries in violation of party rules. So their delegates were disqualified. Florida has decided against the do-over.

COLLINS: The Democratic candidates looking ahead to the May presidential primaries now. After campaigning in North Carolina, Barack Obama hits West Virginia today. He gives a speech on Iraq and on the economy in about two hours. The West Virginia primary is May 13th.

Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail in Indiana later today. That state's primary is May 6th. Clinton holds a town hall meeting focusing on the economy and attends a rally tonight. For Republican John McCain, the latest stop is London. He met today with British Prime Minister Gordon brown. McCain is on week- long trip to the Middle East and Europe as part of a congressional delegation.

HARRIS: Behind the scenes on the campaign trail, CNN's Anderson Cooper got to travel with Barack Obama yesterday. We picked up Anderson's journal as the campaign plane is about to land in Charlotte.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): The atmosphere is surprisingly loose. There's music playing, personal photos taped to overhead luggage bins. When we land we're not surprised to find Senator Obama working but what he's working on does surprise us.

(On camera): Everyone back there is kind of thinking you're writing another speech or something. But here you are (INAUDIBLE)...

OBAMA: A little higher (INAUDIBLE)

ANDERSON: What -- how do you see this playing out? I mean how long do you expect to be doing this?

OBAMA: You mean the campaign?

ANDERSON: Yes.

OBAMA: You know that the last contest scheduled is in early June, and I thought that actually Governor Bredesen of Tennessee had an interesting proposal which was, as soon as we finish with the last primary, the superdelegates should schedule to get together, whatever remaining ones are uncommitted and go ahead and make a decision. That would probably be the best way to ensure that there's at least a couple of months before the convention.

ANDERSON: Sp you don't see any knockout punch in terms of popular vote in the primary?

OBAMA: You know, I don't anticipate at this point. I mean, Senator Clinton has been very tenacious. We feel very confident that we're going to have one more state, we'll have a higher portion of the popular vote, and I think we're going to have more pledged delegates, but there's nothing in the rules that say she can't continue on as long as she wants to.

Ready to go? Who's introducing me?

ANDERSON (voice over): In Charlotte, the crowd is bigger and Senator Obama clearly feeds on their energy. The themes are familiar. Change, Iraq, the economy, but perhaps the biggest applause he received is when he mentioned his speech on race. Afterwards, we speak with him back stage.

(On camera): Earlier today you said you weren't sure demographically how your speech yesterday is going to play. What is your gut telling you? I mean, out there, you were talking about it, got a lot of applause. What's your gut telling, you know, more than 24 hours now later?

OBAMA: My gut tells me that the people who are not going to be voting for me are not going to be voting for me after this speech and even if they think that I made some good points, there are other reasons why they're not going to vote for me. They think we should be staying in Iraq, or they think that I haven't been in Washington long enough. I think the people who are supporting me are continuing to support me.

ANDERSON: At the end of a day like, I mean, what do you do? How do you decompress?

OBAMA: Well, you know, I'm going to really have a relaxing evening going to a couple fundraisers, and then I fall asleep, although I try to watch "A.C. 360" at all times.

ANDERSON: Oh. Please. I don't need your -- I don't need your pandering.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: OK. You can hear more from Barack Obama on CNN tonight. He is the guest on "LARRY KING LIVE" 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

COLLINS: The economy on the front burner. The broiling markets is set to open in less than 30 minutes. We, of course, are watching them for you. Maybe we should just leave it like that. With the dot, dot, dot, nothing up there?

HARRIS: Yes.

COLLINS: Oil prices, as you probably already know, down again this morning. We'll give below the $100 a barrel mark. Also on our radar, the index of leading economic indicators, the predictor, of course, of where the economy is headed. So we've got those numbers for you coming up next hour.

HARRIS: The military called it the surge. Now get ready for the pause. New info on troop withdrawals. Live to the Pentagon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. Boy, soggy start to spring, and there's more to come for the Midwest. Live to the extreme weather center in just minutes. Keep it here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: More on a possible time-out in Iraq. CNN has learned new information about a plan for a pause in additional troop withdrawals.

CNN's Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon.

Barbara, good morning. What are you hearing?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, this morning as we speak, General David Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, is briefing Defense Secretary Robert Gates via teleconference, video teleconference from Iraq on his proposal for additional troop withdrawals from Iraq. That briefing is going on right now. General Petraeus will be briefing the president on Monday, and on Wednesday the president will be here at Pentagon to hear the recommendations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

So what is the bottom line? Many of the sources, military sources we are talking to are telling us now that this pause is most likely to be a four to six-week pause in any additional troop withdrawals that will begin in July. Of course, it is in July that the last of the so-called surge troops are going to leave Iraq and come back home. So they want a pause at that time so they can stop, assess what's going on security wise in the country, and see whether or not they can then recommend more troop withdrawals.

But one of the things that the Joint Chiefs and the military is very much looking forward it to is they are going to make a recommendations that those grueling 15-month tours on the ground, indeed this summer, be cut back to 12 months. That's something that the chiefs want very badly to happen. The troops really need to have that shorter tour of duty, Tony.

HARRIS: Barbara, I know General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker are due in Washington soon. I'm wondering about the political implications of this move, this pause?

STARR: Oh, timing is everything, Tony. You bet. You know, General Petraeus is now scheduled to testify on all of this, these withdrawal plans, before Congress on April 8th and 9th, but who are on the committees he's going to be testifying before?

HARRIS: Yes.

STARR: Senate Armed Service, Senators Clinton and Senator McCain, Senate Foreign Relations, Senator Obama. So look for plenty of fireworks there.

And just go back a minute and think about that calendar, Tony. Four to six weeks in after the July troops come home.

HARRIS: You got it.

STARR: What does that take you into?

HARRIS: You got it.

STARR: Democratic and Republican conventions. It's going to be a very Iraq-interesting summer, Tony.

HARRIS: Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us. Barbara, great to see you. Thank you.

STARR: Sure.

HARRIS: Vice President Cheney on the ground in Afghanistan this morning. He met with Afghan president Hamid Karzai during the unannounced visit. Afghanistan faces rising threats from al Qaeda and the Taliban militants. Cheney says the U.S. will ask for more help from NATO. The vice president is on a ten-day trip to the Mideast. He was in Iraq earlier this week.

COLLINS: Now to "Your Health." Sleepwalking, some 4 percent of us actually do it, but doctors really don't know why. A new study might actually provide a clue or two.

Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here now to tell us a little bit more about this.

All right. So this study reveals what about why we sleepwalk?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It reveal as completely counterintuitive reason. I don't think most people would guess that this is what can trigger sleepwalking in some people and it's actually the being deep sleep deprived can trigger sleepwalking. Isn't that strange? So people who are already genetically predisposed to sleepwalking, if you deprive them of sleep it will make them sleepwalk. So yet another reason why you shouldn't be sleep deprived.

COLLINS: I guess I feel like I'm not too surprise by that. I mean when you think about, you know, fitful sleep it usually happens after -- I mean, for me anyway, when I'm overtired.

COHEN: See, I thought if you were sleep deprived, you will just sleep so soundly that nothing would get you out of bed but apparently not.

COLLINS: See, now, this is evidence that I have been more sleep deprived than you. Well, you know, complain about that

What are the effects, though? When we talk about sleep deprivation, it does become pretty surprising how these affects really can -- almost attack your body.

COHEN: Really, it can affect you from head to toe. I mean sleep deprivation doesn't just make you grumpy and apparently doesn't just make sleepwalk. It can have all sorts of effects. First of all, it can make you gain weight. There are lots of studies that show that people who don't get enough sleep tend to eat too much. It can also really impair your memory. Your brain just doesn't work the way it does when it's rested and it can also cause poor driving. Lots of studies that show that many, many accidents are caused by sleep deprivation.

COLLINS: Yes, nodding off.

COHEN: Yes. COLLINS: Very scary. And busy schedules, too, can often be a part of this, right?

COHEN: Right. Busy schedules, you can't get into bed. And then when you do get into bed, you can't fall asleep.

So let's talk about a couple of tips for when for those few precious hours that you do have to sleep, how do you get a good night's sleep? Something many of us can relate to sitting up here. First of all, don't just hit the bed and expect to fall asleep. Unwind first. Read something. You don't read something stressful. Read something nice and calming and fun. Take the time to unwind.

If you're laying in bed then, for 15 minute, either when you go sleep or in the middle night, if you're up for 15 minutes, just get out of bed. Don't just lie there for more than 15 minutes. If you're not asleep after 15 minutes, it's not happening.

COLLINS: Really?

COHEN: Get up, read a book. Do something relaxing. Sort of get yourself back into the mood and then get back into bed. But don't just sit there and sort of squirm around for hours. Just get out of bed.

COLLINS: Go take a shot of Jack Daniels or...

COHEN: I'm not recommending that officially. OK? I'm a medical correspondent.

COLLINS: You're not?

COHEN: I'm not. I'm not suggesting someone go drink, but, you know, warm milk.

COLLINS: Warm milk.

COHEN: Warm milk.

COLLINS: There you go. Yes. Yes. All right. Very good.

COHEN: Warm bath, too.

COLLINS: Warm bath. Sounds great.

COHEN: Together. Not in the milk, but drink the milk while you're bathing.

COLLINS: Now we completely confused everybody.

All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

HARRIS: Eating pizza. Will that help?

COLLINS: With your Jack Daniels?

HARRIS: Yes. Forget about watching your waistline. Why you should start watching your wallet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Economic indicators. Oil, employment, Wall Street. But what about pizza prices? I'm sure that factors in.

Here's CNN's Allan Chernoff.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Gold Medal brand flour seems more golden than ever to pizzeria owner Joe Vicari.

JOE VICARI, OWNER, MARIELLA PIZZA: Yes. It's like a gold. Yes.

CHERNOFF: The pizza dough that Joe and his temporary apprentice need is suddenly more precious than ever, because the flour from which it's made now costs $37 for a 50-pound bag, a price that has more than doubled in the past month.

VICARI: I can never believe how much go up, the flour. (INAUDIBLE). I can't believe it. That's so much money.

CHERNOFF: Vicari raised the price of a slice up to $2.50 earlier this year after the cost of cheese jumped. If flour keeps climbing, Joe says, he'll have to hike it again.

VICARI: Over here people come to buy pizza, I mean, the working people. How much are going to rise the pizza now? It probably go up to over $40 and then have to raise.

CHERNOFF (on camera): Prices for all kinds of baked goods are going to be heading up, and that's all because of the rapid rise in the cost of a bag of flour, which is the result of wheat trading near an all-time high.

(Voice over): The price of wheat is now 2 1/2 times what it was just a year ago. Why? Huge demand for ethanol has farmers planting more corn to produce the fuel when they could be growing wheat. And the dollar is sinking to a record low is making U.S. wheat relatively cheap for foreigners. As a result, nearly 60 percent of the wheat harvested last year is being exported, leaving wheat supplies here at the lowest level since the end of World War II, another factor pushing prices skyward.

It's killing us. It's killing us.

CHERNOFF: So bakery owner Frank Karalis plans to raise the price of every item on his menu next week.

FRANK KARALIS, EUROPAN BAKERY CAFÉ: Someone's going to come in here and buy it for some $2 at the market and we're paying $2.50 for it, they're not going to like that.

CHERNOFF: So if you've been thinking about going on a low-carb diet, this might be a very good time to try it out. Allan Chernoff, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: OK. You know what I'm going to say here, right?

HARRIS: What are you saying?

COLLINS: Low-carb diet or gluten-free diet?

HARRIS: Oh yes, yes.

COLLINS: Then you don't eat the wheat or the flour.

HARRIS: Yes, yes, yes.

COLLINS: Love the wheat farmers, but I'm just...

HARRIS: Warn me. So I'm not slouching here. Thank you.

COLLINS: By the way, keep watching CNN all this week because our money team has a very special report on your money. We've been doing it all week long, going very well and some really interesting topics for you.

HARRIS: Yes.

COLLINS: "ISSUE #1," the economy. That's at noon Eastern only on CNN.

HARRIS: And still to come in the NEWSROOM, drug runners get clever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The traffickers are always trying to outwit us. They've got a lot of money. If this become successful or more successful, they'll continue to use it until we get a handle on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Skimming the seas, dodging the radar, in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: New York stock exchange. Let's get started, the business day that is. We've been going in the NEWSROOM, three hours. Do we need to recap yesterday and the roller coaster ride of the Dow? Do we need to? Let's go there. After a big run-up on Tuesday, 440 points or so. Yesterday what a sell-off, 293 points. The Dow begins today at 1,299. Appears 20 be a sluggish start. This is good news right out of the gate. The Dow up 45 points. We are following the markets with Stephanie Elam throughout the morning here in the NEWSROOM.

Just past a half hour, welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Heidi Collins. Across much of the country, floodwaters are rushing across at least seven different states. Flood warnings posted from Texas to Pennsylvania, Ohio to Arkansas. Storms have dumped as much as a foot of rain in some areas. Thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes. Dozens more have been rescued from cars swallowed by the rushing waters. At least 13 people have died. Several, in fact, are still missing. One of the hardest-hit states, Missouri. President Bush has declared a major disaster there. The worst may be yet to come, with record-level flood surges. Those are not expected, though, until tomorrow.

HARRIS: So Reynolds Wolf, if you would, help our friends there in Ohio and Missouri. Boy, if you can't tell them when it's all going to end and the waters will start to recede, maybe good advice on how to navigate, get off the roads and stay off the roads?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. You know you were talking about roads. That's a key thing that so many people are dealing with in Missouri. Look at the map behind me, Tony. Take a look. Every spot, we happen to see red popping up on the map especially into areas like Cape Girardeau. We've got some closures, widespread closures of freeways, of back roads, of county roads. It is just a nasty situation we're seeing there at this point and hoping things will get better. We have to wait for the floodwaters to begin to recede.

Let's go over to the weather maps. As we do so we'll push this over a little bit and also need to clear out the red markings -- thank you, producer Shawn. We have some scattered showers now. They are falling right over the Mississippi River at this point. We're not expecting to see additional precipitation at this time. But look at rain that's already gone. This is really just mind-boggling, when you look at the sheer numbers what happened with the storm event. Cape Girardeau, over a foot of rainfall. Same story in Mountain Home, Arkansas. And in Evansville, Mount Vernon, impressive amounts, even into Hamilton, Ohio, 4.90.

So rain's on the ground, people are flooded. They really be careful, especially in many places like on the roads. This happens to be ironically enough flood safety awareness week. Here are a couple of tidbits for you. Road beds may be washed out under floodwaters. You never want to drive through flooded roadways. Many people rescued from vehicles driving through these area, which you shouldn't do. Avoid areas already flooded. Especially if waiter is flowing fast and the harder at night, hard to recognize flood dangers.

It's not tough enough to travel on the roads below, tough in the skies above. Right now we've got some delays on the eastern seaboard. Into the Ohio Valley, right now causing issues in New York City and back into Newark, where we have delays in both spots up to an hour to an hour and 50 minutes in places like New York City. And Cincinnati, rough going in parts of the area, where the ground is saturated. Still lovely with the sun coming out. This shot compliments of WLWT. All right, guys. Back to you. COLLINS: Hey Reynolds, what's the saying? Turn around, don't drown.

WOLF: Turn around, don't drown. Great advice. We should all listen to it. Especially those in Missouri right now.

COLLINS: Absolutely.

HARRIS: So once you turn around and you're out of harm's way, will you please grab your cell phone, all of these fancy cell phones have the cameras. I-report that.

COLLINS: Yeah.

HARRIS: What we want to you do, of course, stay safe, but go to CNN.com, click on I-report or type I-report into your cell phone.

COLLINS: Or something like that.

HARRIS: Right. Send us an I-report if can you and we'll try to get those on the air. We'll send them over to Reynolds.

COLLINS: Give us an idea what's going on out there. Thank you, Reynolds. We'll check back later.

Meanwhile, under sea drug running. Traffickers going below the surface to smuggle in huge amounts of cocaine. CNN's Jeanne Meserve reports on the mission to bust them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A high-speed chase on the high seas. In this video obtained exclusively by CNN, Coast Guardsmen on a Navy boat chase a semi-submersible vessel riding almost completely underwater. It's suspected cargo, tons of cocaine. This is far off the coast of South America, part of a growing trend. Between 2001 and 2007, there were 23 known smuggling cases involving semi-submersibles. The coast guard projects 85 this year, 120 the year after that, because they do the job for the traffickers.

ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN, COMMANDANT, U.S. COAST GUARD: They're very low profile. Very hard to pick up with radar. They go very slow and don't leave a wake.

MESERVE: And they are sometimes camouflaged with blue paint. Built in the jungles of Colombia for about a million dollars apiece, new models can travel hundreds of miles without refueling, at speeds as high as 12 knots and can carry as much as 12 metric tons of cocaine. Once made of fiberglass, many are now made of steel making them more sea worthy. Some can even be navigated by remote control.

FRANKIE SHROYER, DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMIN.: The traffickers are always trying to outwit us. They have a lot of money, and become more successful, they'll continue to use it until we get a handle on it.

MESERVE: Authorities say they often get good intelligence about semi-submersibles but don't always have the resources to respond. When they are successful, the crew of the semi-submersible usually bails out, scuttling the vessel and drugs, making the prosecution difficult. That could change.

SHROYER: We're actually working with Congress right now to pass legislation to make these operations illegal in and of itself.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: An believable story, Jeanne. Jeanne Meserve joining us from Coast Guard headquarters. I imagine authorities are also worried that these vessels could carry more than drugs?

MESERVE: That's correct. Right now they're being seen mostly in the pacific. They're carrying drugs from Colombia up to Central America or Mexico. But authorities are worried that at some point they might sail directly to the U.S., and that they could carry not just cocaine but maybe other dangerous kinds of cargo. Heidi?

COLLINS: Quickly, Jeanne, curious about the one line in your package there that talked about remote controlled vessels? Is this similar to what we know in the air as the predator drone?

MESERVE: Well, they say that they've gotten intelligence reports that some of these things can be operated by devices like cell phones. The authorities I spoke to didn't want to give me a lot of specifics. This is all intelligence matters but those are the kinds of things they're seeing, all very disturbing trends.

COLLINS: We know you'll stay on top of that story for us. Thanks, CNN's Jeanne Meserve at Coast Guard headquarters this morning. Thanks, Jeanne.

HARRIS: Barack Obama on offense. Declaring the Iraq war has made the U.S. less safe and arguing he's the candidate who can end it. CNN's Candy Crowley reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fifth anniversary of the war in Iraq finds democrats wrestling with the central question that began their '08 campaign. Who can best end the war, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama?

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So ask yourselves, who do you trust to end a war or someone who opposed the war from the beginning, or someone who started opposing it when they started preparing a run for presidency?

CROWLEY: In Fayetteville, North Carolina not far from Fort Bragg, Obama argued his campaign with a job with no more awesome power than that of commander in chief. He argued he had the judgment to be against the Iraq war from the beginning and Clinton did not. His argument now incorporates the presumptive republican nominee.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Continue to be concerned about Iranian taking the al Qaeda.

OBAMA: Just yesterday we heard Senator McCain confuse Sunni and Shia, Iran and al Qaeda. Maybe that is why he voted to go to war, with a country that had no al Qaeda ties. Maybe that is why he completely failed to understand that the war in Iraq has done more to embolden America's enemies than any strategic this to that we have made in decades.

CROWLEY: Criticized as naive by McCain, Clinton, and George Bush, Obama took every opportunity to link the three together arguing that their support of the war has made the country less safe.

OBAMA: We have a security gap when candidates say they will follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell but refuse to follow him where he is. What we need in our next commander in chief, not a stubborn refusal to accept reality or empty rhetoric about 3:00 a.m. phone calls.

CROWLEY: A Clinton campaign spokesperson shot back that Obama took practically no action to end the war before he started his white house run.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: A McCain strategist tells Candy, McCain wants to remove U.S. troops from Iraq when U.S. interests are secure.

COLLINS: A push for freedom in Tibet spreads to other Chinese provinces. Tibet's exiled spiritual leader says he can't stop the movement even after offering to step down if violence persists.

DALAI LAMA, EXILED TIBETAN SPIRITUAL LEADER: I told them very clearly the consequences. How I can say, how -- how can? These people also are determined.

COLLINS: Tibetan exile groups say at least 80 people have died in violence clashes with Chinese security forces. China puts the number at 13.

HARRIS: New pictures we want to show you now out of Eureka, Missouri. We showed you pictures at the top of the hour of a pickup truck in trouble being towed from a flooded road and look at these pictures. It looks like perhaps there's is a rescue operation under way. Not quite sure of that, but we'll keep an eye on it.

We've been telling you throughout the morning, the Midwest, my goodness, floodwaters in seven states right now. We're talking about Missouri, Ohio, Arkansas. It goes on and on and on. Just an idea here from these pictures from KMOV, just how high the water is. And the number of homes and roads in distress right now. Again, we want to keep an eye on this situation, and Reynolds Wolf is in the severe weather center for us. We'll update pictures and information throughout the morning here in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Frightening video now out of Buenos Aires, Argentina. An 82-year-old man punches the pedal sending his car into reverse on to a busy sidewalk. Tables and customers a like in this path. One man was killed, four others injured. The man was taken to jail. He told the judge he had mechanical problems and lost control of hits car.

HARRIS: Wouldn't it be great if iTunes was free? Coming up, Veronica De La Cruz explains why that idea may not be as farfetched as it sounds.

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COLLINS: Quickly, we want to get you back to one of our top stories of the day certainly and that is once again the weather. Look at Eureka, Missouri and our affiliate sending like pictures. What we've learned about this particular situation that we're watching, with these two gentlemen in a boat there. They are apparently looking for a couple of dogs that perhaps someone saw and they have now gone back -- see the dog there? I see him. Look on the left-hand side. A black dog there who is probably terrified. There's the other one. That's good. Maybe they can get them into the boat and get them out of there. There you see the spotlight on the dogs. We do always like to see a bit of good news in situations like this, but, boy, oh, boy, are they dealing with this in low-lying areas, west of St. Louis and also most of southern Missouri, talking about Eureka, if you happen to know these areas. A lot of people evacuating.

Certainly there has been death as well. We've been following the story all morning long. In fact, Reynolds Wolf has been tracking the situation today. Talking about how much rain you're getting, because it takes so long to dissipate. It has nowhere to go.

WOLF: It doesn't. One thing you have to think, parts of the state have had up to a foot of rainfall. And all that soaking rain has got to feed its way into creeks and rivers and eventually into areas like that, and these guys are drawing a bit of humanity. Trying to help the poor animals stuck on what is now a creek bank. Kind of interesting scenario. Reaching for the dog, dog wagging his tail thinking, I don't know you guys. I don't know you guys at all. Hopefully they'll get the dogs back to they're rightful owner. We should see over the next couple days floodwaters begin to decrease dramatically.

COLLINS: No question, Reynolds. When were you speaking treats, they just need a little doggy treat. Sorry. I'm fascinated by the pictures.

WOLF: Absolutely.

COLLINS: We will keep our eye on this one for you. Eureka, Missouri, our affiliate picture, KMOV. Reynolds, thank you.

WOLF: Any time.

HARRIS: You might be able to download songs off iTunes for free. Well, that's the buzz, anyway. Our Veronica De La Cruz checks the web this morning, and has some answers. Good morning. VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you Tony. . Nice to see you. You're right. It is a buzz. Did reach out to Apple and the company has declined to comment, but they are reportedly in talks to make iTunes free, and here's how it could work. Customers will be able to download whatever they want from the huge library. There is a catch. You must be willing to shell out extra for a so-called premium iPod, of course, because there is not yet confirmation this is even true, we're not sure how much more it will cost you but it hinges on the way Apple shares profit with a major record label, by the way, the labels are also not comments on whether or not there truly is a deal here. We are waiting. With bated breath.

HARRIS: Yeah. What's going on here? We've reached out to Apple. I know you have. Have we placed a call about jobs? This is CNN after all.

DE LA CRUZ: Got them on hold right here. Hang on.

HARRIS: Got them on hold. I have to ask you, why would Apple even want to offer a deal like this?

DE LA CRUZ: I'll get to that in a second, but I want to get back to the rumors. We're kind of fascinated with all the reporting going on. The "Financial Times," that is where we heard it first. Now it's all over the Internet and Apple is considering a prescription plan for users, others say selling iPods with pre-loaded songs. We don't have any confirmation yet at this point.

Let me go ahead and get to you why they would do something like this. Critics say that Apple's flooded the market so badly they needed to do something else to keep up their record sales. This could be a response to a new offer from Nokia. Later this year Nokia will launch a cell phone that comes pre-loaded with music. When you buy this phone, you get a one-year pass to their music library. Apparently that's where you can download as many songs onto your phone as you'd like. You can keep them after the year is up. And they'll only play on the Nokia cell phone. So this is probably in response to all that. Wouldn't you think?

HARRIS: This feels like, remember all the rumors Apple would have a big announcement about the Beatles library? Remember that?

DE LA CRUZ: Yeah. They seem to do everything that way. They just want to create some buzz.

HARRIS: Yeah.

DE LA CRUZ: Create buzz.

HARRIS: All right. Great see you. Thank you, lady.

DE LA CRUZ: Good to see you.

COLLINS: The rain comes down. The flood warnings go up. Live pictures coming to you from Eureka, Missouri, as we're trying to watch these two dogs be rescued and taken into that boat. They are certainly feeding them as many treats as possible. I've been watching on the monitors. Just inches from getting inside that boat.

HARRIS: Get in, already!

COLLINS: Tails wagging. We're keeping our eyes on that and, of course, the rest of Missouri in the middle of the country. We'll be back here in the CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Want to get back to some of these pictures coming in from our affiliate in Eureka, Missouri, an area very hard-hit by the flooding that's been happening there. KMOV sending us these pictures. We've just kind of been keeping an eye on this dog rescue that's going on. We now have one dog in the boat. The other has a leash on. Could be a couple seconds away from both being taken off that island that formed. Certainly much more to talk about here there. It has been -- there's been death in the area and certainly some people are still missing all across this region, and many, many more evacuated from their homes.

I want to take an opportunity to talk with Deputy Chief Randy Gable of the Eureka fire don't give us a little more perspective on the area as a whole. Deputy chief, tell us a little more about what you have seen. I know you've just recently, in fact, come back from a rescue operation of your own?

DEP. CHIEF RANDY GABLE, EUREKA, MISSOURI FIRE DEPT.: Yeah. We have had several this morning where some people drove into water where they misjudged it. We tell everybody not to drive into high water, but have had several people that drove into high water and we've will to go out and retrieve them from their vehicles.

COLLINS: Talk to us a bit about, in case people aren't familiar with the area, how big Eureka is, how much of the area has been affected by this incredible flooding?

GABLE: Well, the city of Eureka is just in our fire district encompassing it as well as areas around it, about 82 square miles. We have two rivers that merge here. The big river, Merrimack River, both end up actually going into the Mississippi. They both have been raising in the last few days or so. When we started to have road closure, which was not unexpected. We've had floods before and know what roads will close eventually. We expect more over the course of today and tomorrow. So those -- those are things that are expected, and we try to forewarn a lot of the residents to be prepared for that and to caution people not to drive into the high waters.

COLLINS: Boy that is certainly the key, and I'll say it again. Sources from our meteorology department, turn around, don't drown. It's just not worth it. I think of anything, unless it's an emergency situation, where you would just continue on into waters that you can't see the bottom of.

GABLE: Absolutely. We encourage people not to drive into them, and if, as this morning, one of the rescues turned out to be some people had, water had risen around their home. Their home was okay, but the roads out of their home was not and they tried to drive out, which is what the problem ended up being. They misjudged the water level, and became stuck, and then trapped. And the two women and some of the animals and their furniture and everything became trapped in the water as well.

COLLINS: Yes well quickly a good point you make. There are evacuations going on. What are people supposed to do? Where do they go if the roads aren't passable?

GABLE: We put out signal, voluntary evacuations, orders, or advisories I should say, to people that, if they are going to be in areas where they're going to either be in jeopardy or if they're going to be blocked in, to go ahead and move out now, if they still ca and seek shelter either with friends or family. If they're really -- if they're in need of some place, the American Red Cross will help those as well. There are local numbers to call into the St. Louis area to call in the Red Cross.

COLLINS: Quickly. We are absolutely out of time here. You're still dealing with missing people in your area?

GABLE: We're not. We're not having that problem nap was further south of here, but we're just deal wig people that are becoming isolated and people misjudging things, and making bad decisions. So we encourage everybody not to drive in the high water.

COLLINS: Absolutely. We can't make that point enough. Thanks for your time. Randy Gable, deputy chief of Eureka's fire department. Thank you again.

HARRIS: Tough economic times to be sure, but what's ahead? New numbers out today. We'll have them for you in just a minute in the NEWSROOM.

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