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American Morning

Soldier's Dad Posts Video of Fort Bragg's Dismal Barracks; Virginia Suffers Severe Damage from Twisters; Fosamax Linked to Atrial Fibrillation

Aired April 29, 2008 - 07:00   ET

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


EDWARD FRAWLEY, SON STATIONED AT FORT BRAGG: My son when he was in Afghanistan reenlisted for four years, additional years. I supported that decision and I support it today, too.
I think that -- I got a call yesterday from General Dick Cody, who's the vice chief of the army. He's a four-star general and he talked to me for 30 minutes, and I believe what he said. He has two sons that have been deployed six times. One of them is still deployed.

He said he wouldn't want his sons coming back and going into these kinds of living conditions, and he just said somebody dropped a ball and they're going to fix it. I guarantee you they're going to fix.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And I -- yes, I can see that, too. I know General Cody well, and he's a man of his word. So we will hold them -- both of us we'll hold them accountable for that definitely.

FRAWLEY: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Let's just take one more look at part of what you shot and what aired on YouTube.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRAWLEY (voice-over): Here's a different one where the rags that were stuffed in the drain have been pulled out and sewer gas is coming into the building.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, I have to ask you. Is your son upset with you? What was his reaction with regard to you doing this and even talking to me today?

FRAWLEY: My son is in a tough situation because he wants to make the military his career. General Cody and the colonels -- I talked to Colonel Steve Lyons (ph) yesterday, guaranteed me this wouldn't come back on him. He had nothing to do with it.

He agrees that the pictures are accurate. He doesn't want his men living in conditions like that, and the army has done a lot in the last two weeks to go in there and fix these barracks up. It's hard to paint over mold. My son has painted these barracks three times in the last four years himself. General Cody said that they'll deal with this mold issue, and they've had plumbers in there to fix it. It's just, you know --

PHILLIPS: Well, and we know that mold can --

FRAWLEY: Who wants their sons living in that?

PHILLIPS: No, and mold is toxic. Understandable. I want to point out, too, that we did hear from Maj. Tom Earnhardt. He's a spokesperson for the 82nd Airborne Division. This is his quote. "The conditions depicted in Mr. Frawley's video are appalling and unacceptable, and we are addressing the concerns that he expressed. We acknowledge these conditions are not adequate by today's standards."

Just finally, do you have faith in the system not only there at the base but also in Cody that something now will be done?

FRAWLEY: Absolutely. 100 percent, I really do.

PHILLIPS: Well, we will follow up. Ed Frawley, it's great to see you come forward and actually do this because you're right those men hardly ever complain, and someone like you needed to step up and do something about it. We will definitely follow up. Thanks, Ed.

FRAWLEY: Thank you.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Two minutes after the hour, and breaking news for you this morning. Our first live look from above as the sun comes up over southeastern Virginia after three tornadoes struck. Two hundred people are hurt, 140 homes in total were hit.

The National Weather Service says they touched down in Suffolk, Colonial Heights and Brunswick County in southeastern Virginia. One tearing a 25-mile-long trail of destruction across the area. The destruction as always in the case of a tornado random, and in this case widespread.

Some houses disappeared. Others across the street spared. Our I-reporters were on the scene yesterday. On the job, they caught some remarkable pictures this morning. A funnel cloud as they were forming. One man talked about what it was like being nearly inside one.

BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While we were at the front of the storm, we noticed that the rain was starting to come down a little harder, and it started going side winding. And at that time, we started seeing stuff come off the roof. The roof was spiraling, and then we've seen some of the cars get lifted off the ground. It slammed down. It was the scariest thing I've ever seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: Amazingly despite all of the injuries and all of the damage, no storm-related deaths have been reported yet. Rob Marciano on the scene for us in Suffolk, Virginia. When you put eyes on the ground there, Rob, how are you struck by the scene?

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, to put it in the words of the mayor, who will be a guest here on AMERICAN MORNING in just a few minutes, folks here in this community feel absolutely blessed that you see this much damage and at this point in time no confirmed fatalities.

Over my left shoulder, this is where the tornado came through this community. Right through those woods, you see those trees that are split in two like toothpicks, then hit the edge of this brand new strip mall, and then just tore the guts out of this strip mall. And all the while not only tearing the windows and the walls out but tossing cars like toys, smashing their windows and flipping them outside down. What's left of this brand new structure is nothing more than insulation, a few support beams, and wires and air duct dangling from the ceiling.

One of many structures in this community completely damaged or destroyed by this tornado that spanned a length of 25 miles not more than 12 hours ago. They did get a warning from the National Weather Service, but this is hurricane country. And they're used to getting 12, 24 hour, three-day warning before a hurricane strikes. So this certainly took the community by surprise, John.

And from everybody we've talked to on the ground who has lived here, if not the last 10 or 20 years their whole life, they all say the same thing. This is like nothing they have ever seen here in southeast Virginia. Back up to you.

ROBERTS: Rob for us this morning in Suffolk, Virginia. Rob, thanks very much.

In southern California across the country this morning, a huge effort under way to contain a wildfire in the San Gabriel Mountains, about 15 miles northeast of Los Angeles. Overnight winds pushing flames past some containment lines. Some crews say the fires are burning dangerously close to some homes. At least 1,000 people have left their homes but only one building so far has been damaged.

PHILLIPS: The "Most Politics in the Morning." One week to the primaries in North Carolina and Indiana. A new CNN/National Democratic poll of polls shows Barack Obama leading Hillary Clinton by four points. She closed an 11-point gap since winning Pennsylvania last week. Now, if the election were held today, a poll out this morning from "AP"-Ipsos shows that Clinton would beat the presumptive Republican nominee John McCain by nine points. Barack Obama in a statistical tie with McCain.

John McCain will talk about his health care plan on the campaign trail in Florida today. He wants to offer families a $5,000 tax credit to help buy insurance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've made it very clear that what I want is for families to make decisions about their health care, not government. And that's the fundamental difference between myself and Senator Obama and Senator Clinton. They want the government to make the decisions. I want the families to make the decisions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: McCain says that his plan will force companies to respond with better service at a lower cost. Democrats say his plan won't help the average family, and it's very similar to what the Bush administration wants.

Now, Hillary Clinton says that she supports a plan to lift the federal tax on gas from Memorial Day to Labor Day and shift that burden to oil companies earning huge profits. Clinton says her proposal is similar to John McCain's except that she'd pay for her tax break and not "raid the highway trust fund." Obama opposes a gas tax holiday saying it would just weaken funding for highways and bridges.

Now, Barack Obama is trying to distance himself from his former pastor this morning. Once again, Reverend Jeremiah Wright stood by some of his controversial statements criticizing the U.S. government as imperialist and suggesting that the U.S. government is capable of inventing the AIDS virus to wage genocide against minorities. Obama told voters in North Carolina he doesn't agree.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Certainly what the last three days indicate is that we're not coordinating with him, right? You know, he's obviously free to speak his mind, but I just want to emphasize this is my former pastor. They don't represent what this campaign is about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Wright also says that the attacks on him were an "attack on the black church."

ROBERTS: Breaking news out of Afghanistan to tell you about this morning. U.S. Marines launching a ground and air assault on Taliban militants overnight in southern Afghanistan. Several hundred marines pushed into the town of Garmser. It's part of a coalition effort to drive militants out of one of the most violent provinces in southern Afghanistan. It is the first mission for U.S. Marines in the region in years.

The United Nations announcing emergency measures overnight to fight the global food crisis. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will head a task force, bringing together heads of U.N. agencies. He says the first priority is finding more than $700 million for the World Food Programme. The United Nations estimates that up to 100 million of the world's poorest people now need food saying the cost of staple foods are at least 50 percent higher than they were this time last year.

PHILLIPS: Dramatic new numbers in this morning about Americans losing their homes to foreclosure. Ali Velshi has that for us next.

And months of recovery ahead after seconds of extreme weather. We're going to talk to the mayor of Suffolk, Virginia, the morning after this tornado touched down. Straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Wow. Home foreclosure rates jumped 112 percent.

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: More than double where they were last year. That's a real number. That's not some sort of a weird way of looking at it.

PHILLIPS: I was going to say put it in perspective because honestly I wouldn't know how big that is.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Yes. Well -- right. Well, OK, I will do that for you. Let's talk about the foreclosures that we've already had in 2008. That's just since the beginning of this year. Six hundred fifty- thousand homes are at some point in the foreclosure process, and that is 112 percent higher than the same three-month period last year. So that's more than double.

One in 194 homes in the United States is in foreclosure. That's an increase. And 156,000 homes have been repossessed this year alone. Forty-six states had separate increases in the foreclosure rate. Let's take a look at where the highest or the hardest hit states are.

Nevada continues to top that list with one in 54 homes in foreclosure and, by the way, that's an increase. California, one in 78. Arizona, one in 95. Florida, one in 97. These are states where there was a lot of growth and speculative activity in the housing -- in the buildup of housing prices.

Let's take a look where the lowest foreclosure rates are in the country. Vermont, you almost think that number is exceptionally strange, one in 103,000. North Dakota, about one in 6,000. West Virginia, one in 6,000. South Dakota, one in 5,000. Just look at that.

South Dakota, one in 5,513 versus Nevada, one in 54. It's a hundred times worse in Nevada than it is in South Dakota. So those are the numbers on foreclosure which tells us that this foreclosure issue, this foreclosure crisis continues to grow. We don't have any sense of how it tapers off. It's the kind of thing --

ROBERTS: How long until it tapers off?

VELSHI: Right. Does it like -- does it sort of just suddenly come to an end because it's all out of the system, or does it start to taper off? You know, and if the estimates range whether it will go to the end of this year or go into next year, hopefully that ends soon. That's sort of the heart of this economic downturn.

ROBERTS: Ali, thanks very much.

VELSHI: All right.

ROBERTS: Millions take it to help treat osteoporosis. Now, there is word of a risky side effect on the heart. We're paging our Dr. Gupta just ahead here on AMERICAN MORNING.

And in charge of a town that was just turned upside down by a tornado last night. We'll talk with the mayor of Suffolk, Virginia, about the situation on the ground. And as you can see, it's pretty chaotic, and what people need right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's 15 minutes after the hour. We're watching breaking news this morning after three tornadoes ripped through southeastern Virginia reducing homes to rubble in many areas. Officials say more than 200 people were injured in Suffolk, Virginia. It was the area that was hardest hit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's an amazing sound. You know what it is when you first hear it. It's this sucking sound and it's like a train wreck coming through, and it keeps going higher and higher. You just know what it is, and all you can do is sit there. You just -- there's nothing you can do about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: That's how it was described by people who went through it. Now, it's time for the clean up and recovery.

Joining us now is the mayor of the city of Suffolk, Linda Johnson. Mayor Johnson, thanks for being with us this morning. We could see immediately behind you there that incredibly chaotic scene this morning. Can you give us sort of the big picture of what you're facing today?

MAYOR LINDA JOHNSON, SUFFOLK, VIRGINIA: Well, we have a lot of cleanup to do today. Obviously you can see we have a tremendous amount of property damage in our city. We are blessed though that to date we do not have any casualties. We have had some injuries, most of them are minor.

So, in many ways we are blessed. However, we have three areas that did receive tremendous damage, and we will be assessing that throughout the day.

ROBERTS: Do you have any reports of people missing? I mean, could see we see fatalities as the day wears on?

JOHNSON: We don't right now, know of any. Again, we're just beginning. As the light comes up here, we're going to start assessing throughout the day and we hope that our record stays as it is.

ROBERTS: Wow. I mean, it would be just extraordinary to see that level of damage and no fatalities. How many people do you have living in shelters?

JOHNSON: Well, as of yesterday evening, we had about 100. I'm sure some more probably filtered in during the night. We will have our shelter open as long as necessary, and we will start having limited access back into some of the neighborhoods so that people can see their property. However, they probably will not be staying there.

ROBERTS: You know, our meteorologist, Rob Marciano, who you probably run into there I'm sure, has been reminding us this morning that you're used to seeing hurricanes on occasion, but tornadoes are fairly rare for that part of the country.

I live in the northern part of Virginia, and we got one just a little east of there in College Park, Maryland, a few years ago. I remember how unusual that was. Were you prepared for something like this? How much warning did you get?

JOHNSON: Well, we were talking about that earlier this morning. We actually had about three minutes as far as being on the radar, and you're absolutely right, John. Hurricanes are expected here, and you have a couple of days normally to watch them. This was just out of the blue and the people were very, very surprised. Not something that we see here very often. And in my 44 years of living here, I've never seen anything like this.

ROBERTS: Did you have any kind of ground warning system, or was it just you got the word from the weather service and anybody who happened to be watching, listening to the radio, or had one of those NOAA weather radios got the warning?

JOHNSON: Well, actually I believe our preparedness people did have the three minutes. But again, I was watching it on TV, saw the cells coming through, certainly had no idea that it was going to land on top of us. And it is very extensive as you can see around me today.

ROBERTS: So Governor Kaine has declared a state of emergency there. What are you most in need of today? I mean, if you're calling out for help, if anybody could help, what do you need?

JOHNSON: Actually we are, again, blessed. We have all of our neighboring cities here. The state police are here. They all came in yesterday evening. We had rescue squads coming out of all the other cities and counties. So we really have the resources that we need.

We're just asking our citizens to be patient and understanding that we have to get these areas safe and secure for their benefit. We want to make sure that our responders and our citizens all come out of this safe.

ROBERTS: Well, good luck --

JOHNSON: Mainly we need time and just the work.

ROBERTS: Well, good luck with it, Mayor Johnson. You've got a large task ahead of you, and it's just amazing that nobody was killed in all of that. Mayor Linda Johnson from Suffolk, Virginia. Mayor, thanks for being with us this morning.

JOHNSON: Thank you for having me.

ROBERTS: Kyra?

PHILLIPS: You're watching the "Most News in the Morning," and dramatic images now as firefighters head into a towering inferno just minutes after a deadly blast.

Patients take it for their bones, but there's now a risk to their hearts. We're paging Dr. Sanjay Gupta about Fosamax. Hey, Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Kyra. It's very interesting. A drug that is typically used to prevent bone fractures possibly causing an irregular heartbeat. What is going on here? We've been looking into it. We'll have it for you on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: New research is pointing to the possibility that drugs used to treat osteoporosis could cause serious heart problems. University of Washington doctors found that women who take the drug Fosamax have an 86 percent higher risk of having an irregular heartbeat than those who don't take it. Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joining us this morning. Sanjay, how dangerous is it to have irregular heartbeats?

GUPTA: Well, it can be a problem, but in the vast majority of people who have this irregular heartbeat known as atrial fibrillation, it's not that serious. And in the likelihood of you developing it while taking Fosamax, while it's higher, it's still not that high. So this should be some reassurance.

What you're looking at there is essentially what atrial fibrillation is. You have several chambers in the heart, four chambers in the heart. The top two chambers are called the atria. Sometimes they don't pump very effectively and that is called fibrillation.

People may experience a racing heart. They can actually feel that. They may feel fatigued. In the more serious cases, it could cause a stroke. So again, that's a fairly rare thing for people to have serious problems like that.

What is going on here? You have this medication that is typically used to prevent bone fractures, and bone fractures obviously a serious thing especially in the elderly. If you break a hip, for example, it often means that a person is going to be bedridden for some time. So it's something you significantly want to prevent. But they found that women who took this medication, Fosamax, there was about a 6.5 percent chance of developing atrial fibrillation, as compared to about four percent in the general population. So something is happening as a result of this medication, whether it's raising calcium levels, whether it's metabolizing protein in a special way, it seems to increase the likelihood of atrial fibrillation.

PHILLIPS: And so, if you're taking Fosamax, what do you do now?

GUPTA: Well, again, you know, for the vast majority of people this is not going to be a problem. I think the best advice is if you're someone who is at risk of having some sort of heart trouble, if you've had atrial fibrillation in the past, for example, then you may want to talk to your doctor possibly about discontinuing this particular medication. But don't do it on your own because fractures, again, are such a huge problem.

If you're someone who's never had problems with the heart and you have been doing OK on the medication, there's probably no need to worry. Now, there are other alternatives as well for people who are concerned about fractures. Vitamin supplements, specifically vitamin D supplements. Weight-bearing exercises.

You know, Kyra, I tell my mom this all the time. And I think a lot of older women as they get older don't think about lifting weights, doing stuff like that. Doing some sort of weight-resistance training actually seems to ward off some of the early signs of osteoporosis, and then hormone therapy. We talk a lot about this.

But you remember, Kyra, that it was actually thought that it would do lots of wonderful things for the body, women who took hormone replacement therapy. It does seem to ward off osteoporosis. It could have other risks as we know, breast cancer, for example. So talk to your doctor about the possibility of that as well.

PHILLIPS: Well, I had to chuckle because you and I have the same conversations with our mothers, and I actually did get my mom going on the weight-training and it lasted about a week. And then when I went home, there you have it. Now, I'm checking in on her. You know, I need you to call her.

GUPTA: I'll give her a call. Absolutely.

PHILLIPS: Take it. You know she loves you. Sanjay Gupta, thanks.

GUPTA: Thanks, Kyra.

ROBERTS: It's coming up on 24 minutes after the hour now. Jimmy Carter at odds with the Bush administration over the path to peace in the Middle East. He sits down to talk with us about that. And his special tribute to his remarkable mother, Lillian, in a new book. That's coming up next.

And a live look right now from the Air and Space Museum in Washington. Unmanned aircraft used in the front lines on the war on terror and the war on crime. But what happens if those aircraft without pilots get lost in the sky? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Former President Jimmy Carter got Israel and Egypt to sign the historic Camp David Peace Accords nearly 30 years ago. But President Carter's latest trips to the Middle East and visits with the militant group Hamas had not been met with similar success. Lots to talk about with Jimmy Carter this morning, including his new book which is called "A Remarkable Mother," a tribute to his mother Lillian.

President Carter, great to see you. Thanks for coming in today.

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's good to be with you, John.

ROBERTS: So your mother was a popular and well-known figure back in the 1970s...

CARTER: That's right.

ROBERTS: ... particularly around the campaign and while you were in the White House.

CARTER: She was a full-time campaigner for me. One of the reasons I was elected.

ROBERTS: As detailed in the book. She passed in 1983.

CARTER: Yes.

ROBERTS: It's 25 years since then. Why this book? Why now?

CARTER: Well, mother has still exemplifies the finest aspects of America. She, during the segregation days, refused to be segregated. So she nursed and took care of our black neighbors. All of -- in fact, all of our neighbors were black.

And then later when she was 70 years old, she went to be in the Peace Corps in India, still trying to serve poor people who are black. She was almost like an untouchable. And her counsel and her funny remarks and her service as you might say the first lady of -- first mother of America, so I think in many ways my mother exemplifies the finest aspects of America.

ROBERTS: She was such a dynamic woman. What's the greatest life lesson that she taught you either growing up or once you became an adult, and how did you apply that in your life?

CARTER: Well, for instance, when she was 70 years old she wrote in her diary if I had one advice to give to my children, it would be do what you think is right, adventurous, exciting, challenging, gratifying, and don't give a damn what anybody says about you. So I think that's one of the advices of my mother among many others that I remember very well.

ROBERTS: So did that philosophy apply to your recent trip to the Middle East?

CARTER: Well, I think it's applied to my whole life. You know, I've done the best I could. I sometimes have done some controversial things. Some have been successful, some not. But I always remember that my mother is, you know, kind of right there with me.

ROBERTS: Well, you said -- you said in previous interviews that your mother would have approved of your trip to the Middle East to meet with Hamas.

CARTER: I don't think there's any doubt about it.

ROBERTS: But certainly a lot of other people didn't.

CARTER: Well, she reached out to scorned people, distorted people, condemned people, poverty-stricken people, suffering people. And Hamas, as many people in Israel know, entered the campaign for parliament in January of 2006 with the full approval of the United States and Israel and the other party, Fatah, and they won in a fair, honest, square election. But then, the United States and Israel decided they didn't want to have a united government with Palestine combined and united, so they condemned Hamas as a terrorist organization.

ROBERTS: But meeting with Khaled Mashaal (ph)...

CARTER: Yes.

ROBERTS: ... who is the spiritual leader of Hamas, is that in essence meeting with the people who are trying to govern in Gaza, or does that take it to a different level? Because this is what --

CARTER: Well, we met with the people --

ROBERTS: This is part of what so upset Israel.

CARTER: We met with the people that are governing in Gaza, and then -- and we met them in Cairo. And then, they came over to Syria the next day to consider all the six requests that I made to Hamas. And basically, they complied with all six of them. My main thing was to have a cease-fire that applied to Gaza because a lot of suffering is going on there. And they agreed to a cease-fire and proposed it. Israel rejected it.

ROBERTS: Mr. President, with respect, if the trip was so successful, how was it that Dan Gillerman, who's the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, said of your trip, "You went to the region with soiled hands and came back with bloody hands after shaking the hand of the leader of Hamas"?

CARTER: I don't know Mr. Gillerman, but he's been condemned by his own government and Jerusalem and also by the United States ambassador to Israel. So I don't know him. I don't really care to comment on what he said.

ROBERTS: Right. But you have -- I mean, there's no question that, you know, back in the heady days of peace between Egypt and Israel you were right there at Camp David in the middle of all of this, but lately your relationship with Israel particularly after the publication of your last book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," has stirred a lot of emotions and put you at odds with Israel.

CARTER: Well, to some degree. The decision of the leaders of Israel's government, the prime minister and the defense minister, was not to meet with me, but I met with a group of elders, about 12 of the most prominent people in Israel.

As a matter of fact, the week before I got there the Israeli people who know about what happened with Hamas in a public opinion poll, 64 percent of them, two-thirds of them said that Israel should be negotiating directly with Hamas. So all the Israeli people know what happened, and unfortunately, the government is complying with the United States pressure and they're complying with it, I think, in an erroneous way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN, ANCHOR: Despite the criticisms from the State Department that they urged and warned President Carter, urged him not to go, warned him about this meeting. He says they never said that to me and he does seem to be staying true to his mother's lesson of ...

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Don't worry about what people think.

ROBERTS: Do what you want to do and don't worry about what people think.

PHILLIPS: Seeing any type of impact weeks later from this?

ROBERTS: There doesn't appear to have been at this point, but you know, such is the case in the Middle East. Two steps -- one step forward, two steps back. Progress is slow.

PHILLIPS: You've been there, you've covered it, you know that well.

ROBERTS: It's very difficult. Just like the gordon (ph), you'll never get it on time. It was great to sit down with him anyway. We want to know what you think about all of this. Our "Quick Vote" question this morning, should former President Jimmy Carter have met with Hamas? Right now, 67 percent of you say yes, and 33 percent say no. Cast your vote at cnn.com/am. We'll tally your votes throughout the morning. We're also asking for your e-mails today. Was the trip a good idea? Was it harmful to U.S. policy. Send us an e-mail at cnn.com/am. We'll be reading some of those coming up in about 25 minutes time here.

PHILLIPS: breaking news this morning. Miles of damage, hundreds of people hurt from three tornadoes in southeastern Virginia. New pictures now just coming in this morning over Suffolk, Virginia, just south of Richmond. As many as 140 homes were told were either damaged or destroyed. I-reporters actually caught remarkable pictures including these from I-reporter William Bernstein Jr. of funnel clouds as they were forming. Witnesses say it was one of the scariest things they have ever seen or heard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's scary to see all this and just realize you were just not even 150 feet away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As soon as I saw the car fly up in the air, we started high tailing it to the back of the store. And that was the scariest thing I've ever seen. It shook the building. Shoes were falling over. It was really, really scary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Virginia Governor Tim Kaine has now declared a state of emergency. Alina Cho joins us now with other stories making news this morning.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, guys. Good morning, again.

PHILLIPS: Hello.

ROBERTS: Good morning.

CHO: Good morning, everybody. And new this morning, there is word today that Afghan President Hamid Karzai knew about a plot to kill him before that failed attack on Sunday. Afghanistan's intelligence chief is speaking out this morning saying the plot was formed last month. That gunmen rented a room 45 days before the attack and used it to open fire. President Karzai was unharmed, but three people were killed in that attack.

Incredible images this morning from inside a fiery Georgia refinery just minutes after it exploded. The blast you may recall happened back in February. A camera mounted on the helmet of a firefighter actually captured these images. It shows the men making their way through smoldering twisted metal and fractured concrete. They were trying their best to stay together while looking for survivors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look out, fellas!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep a visual of each other, all right?

You all go that way, we'll go this way. Keep a visual on each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHO: 13 workers were killed in the blast. Six men are still in the hospital with severe burns.

Just into CNN this morning. Record profits reported for Europe's largest oil company. We're talking about Royal Dutch Shell, and that company is reporting profits of $9 billion in the first quarter. That's thanks in part to rising crude oil prices. It marks a 25 percent increase in first quarter earnings. Analysts call Shell's performance impressive.

And, well, some people marry for love, some for money, how about health insurance. The Kaiser family foundation poll just out today says 7 percent of Americans decide to get hitched just so they can have health insurance benefits via their spouse. We'll we hope they like each other, too. The president of the Kaiser Group says 7 percent may be a small number but it shows how health care is having an impact not only on family budgets but also life decisions. I'll say. The study also found that Americans are more concerned with health care costs than they are about housing, food, and credit card bills. So it's how old are you, what do you do for a living, and do you have health insurance by the way?

PHILLIPS: I think it could be way more expensive to pay for a divorce than just pay the health insurance costs on a monthly basis, depending on who you are.

CHO: Let's hope there's love in there somewhere, too. Right?

PHILLIPS: Healthy relationships.

ROBERTS: An indication of how badly some people are getting squeezed.

CHO: That's right.

PHILLIPS: Get out the check.

CHO: You're right about that.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Alina.

CHO: You bet.

PHILLIPS: Well, they're a staple in the military. Now more unmanned aerial vehicles are being used by civilian agencies to help fight fires and secure the border. And some say that raises risks in the air and on the ground. The National Transportation Safety Board is meeting about it today. And CNN's Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve joins us now from the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, right under some of those unmanned planes. Jeanne, what kind of danger do these planes pose? Hopefully no one is up there spying on you.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: No. These are not flying. They're suspended. But, Kyra, there's nothing that illustrates the issue here like the story of one crash. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): They can fly for hours and hours without refueling, spotting everything from illegal border crossers to forest fires. But do unmanned aerial vehicles pose a threat to people on the ground and in the air? Case in point, the crash of a Customs and Border Protection UAV near the Arizona-Mexico border after its ground based operator lost contact.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It crashed so close between our house and our neighbor's house across the way.

MESERVE: No one was hurt, but think what might have happened. The Predator UAV was programmed to loiter in its assigned air space if the operator on the ground lost contact. But the student operator in charge that day accidentally cut off its fuel and the UAV now lost in the skies glided into public air space, air space open to other planes cruising 30 miles before it crashed.

PHIL BOYER, AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOT ASSN: Believe me, even a 40-pound vehicle in the air can cause substantial damage and take out a small airplane flying in the same air space.

MESERVE: Despite the potential danger, neither the pilot nor air traffic controllers ever declare an emergency as they were required to do and the student pilot was inexperienced having flown that model predator for only 27 hours. His instructor at the time of the crash was in another building.

MICHAEL KOSTELNIK, U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDERS PROTECTION: It was a pilot error. And had nothing to do with the contractor and manning and training and all those kinds of things. It had nothing to do with the UAV.

MESERVE: But the N.T.S.B. says that accident and the way it was handled shows that rules governing unmanned aircraft must be tightened.

MARK ROSENKER, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: We have to treat these types of devices exactly like we treat aircraft. We have to take them as seriously. We have to operate them as skillfully.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: The military's use of UAVs has been so successful that this exhibit has opened at the Air and Space Museum. But just down the street the National Transportation Safety Board is meeting today to talk about some of the issues revolving around using them domestically, doing some planning, doing some preparations hopefully to avoid potential disaster. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And we'll follow it. Jeanne Meserve, thanks so much.

ROBERTS: Coming up on 38 minutes after the hour now. Airfares take flight. Now United matches Delta's latest fare increase. Find out why merger mania is all abounding in the airline industry. And could it send fares even further in to the sky, next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Well, more talk about airline mergers, more airfare hikes coming your way. It's all good news this morning. And Ali Velshi here with more on that.

ALI VELSHI, CNN, SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: There's one perspective in which airline mergers are good news and that the airlines can survive and maybe they'll be around to take you where you need to go. The newest merger talk is between U.S. Airways and United. Now, this is not confirmed by either of the two airlines but there are sources reporting that those two airlines are fairly advanced in merger talks. Now, this is interesting because we were under the impression or the world who watches airlines is under the impression that Continental and United were fairly advanced in their merger talks and then we heard yesterday that Continental said forget it we're not merging with anybody for the moment. So, United and U.S. Airways might be merging. U.s. Airways and America West merged a couple of years ago. And what was not really seen as the most seamless merger shall we say but now with United and U.S. Airways, you have even more chances to get your luggage lost. Airfares are up again.

ROBERTS: Like said, it's all good news.

VELSHI: It's all good news. Yes, but they will be more efficient about it. We have another airfare increase. Again, this is hard to keep track of whether this is new or not. This is new. Delta initiated an increase yesterday of between $10 and $40 round trip. United Airlines this morning has matched that increase. Now, we have to see whether American, Continental, Northwest, and U.S. Airways match that or match it on at least the same routes, and that's what determines whether or not that airfare increase is successful.

There have been 14 attempts. This is the 14th attempt to raise airfares this year. Nine of them have been successful. We're on track for 40 increases this year at the current pace that we're going. Much of that is to do with fuel costs. So, a lot of airline analysts say never mind how the merger of airlines affects your airfare, fuel is really what going to get you.

ROBERTS: You think with the price of fuel, they've got to raise their prices.

VELSHI: It's their single biggest expense now. And that's by the way, why these mergers are becoming important because there's nowhere else they can save money so they try and merge and cut back office costs, but again these costs --

ROBERTS: Maybe they can cut down on the elaborate meals they're serving.

VELSHI: That's what I'm thinking. It's like you know what, leave out the third course.

PHILLIPS: Have you had those special mojitos on Delta?

VELSHI: Yes. That's right.

PHILLIPS: They're pumping it up.

VELSHI: Just give me a little Coke in a plastic cup. Yes.

ROBERTS: Ali, thanks.

PHILLIPS: Well, extreme damage in southeastern Virginia. Much serious story. We're turning to tornadoes sparing some homes and totally crushing others. You see the pictures here. Rob Marciano is live on the scene for us in Suffolk, Virginia.

PHILLIPS: Hi, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Kyra. Sun coming up now. And you get a greater view of the damage. What you see behind me, a completely destroyed strip mall, one of many strictures destroyed or at least damaged. A live weather report from the tornado zone coming up when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARCIANO: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Rob Marciano. Live in Suffolk, Virginia, where just over 12 hours ago a strong tornado ripped through this area at about 45 miles an hour. Over my left shoulder, you can see the beginnings of where this thing hit this brand new strip mall. Behind that the trees and snapped in two and then it just gutted this new structure here tearing all the stores out, and any cars that were parked here completely flipped over. Almost like toys. Unbelievable scene here. One of three tornadoes that ripped through southeast parts of Virginia. 200 injuries. Miraculously as of right now no confirmed reports of any fatalities.

Search and rescue crews will be out today. We certainly hope that number remains at zero. Meanwhile, this storm continues to strengthen as it heads up the eastern seaboard. The northeast, New England especially, will continue to see some rain, some of which could very well be heavy at times. There's the radar scope there. And this thing will dry out at least here and we'll chill down. That's the other big weather story. Very cold air driving to the south and east from Missouri all the way here to the mid-Atlantic over the next 12 to 24 hours. They should have drier weather here, John, as they slowly begin to assess the damage and pick up the pieces. It will be weeks, if not months, of recovery certainly here in Suffolk, Virginia. Back up to you.

ROBERTS: It's so unusual, Rob, that the tornado touched down there. As you said in the past they're used to hurricanes, but not tornadoes. Rob Marciano for us this morning in Suffolk. Rob, thanks.

Let's bring in Dr. Sanjay Gupta now. 200 people hurt in the tornado as we've been reporting this morning. And Sanjay, the hospital there in Suffolk nearly hit by a tornado. How are they doing now? Are they able to cope with all these injuries, all the incoming?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, it sounds like. They're the only hospital really of that size in that area, Sentara Obici. They saw about 70 to 75 patients they say over those several hours. Most of the people were triaged in the emergency room and then did not need to be admitted. So, they were let go from the hospital. Cuts, minor broken bones, things like that. There were three patients, John, that we know were admitted, one with a head injury, one with a chest injury, and one with both a head and a chest injury. The way that they did this is, it's interesting, they sort of set up these triage areas within the emergency room, and basically quickly assessed who would need to go where. Did they need to stay in the hospital? Did they need to be rushed to the operating room? Or what did they need specifically?

That's essentially how disaster management took place. We also know, for example, that a lot of injuries may still continue to filter in over the next couple of days. So, they're prepared for that. But it sounds like they handled things appropriately. They had a few broken windows there but were able to continue operations throughout.

ROBERTS: All right. Sanjay Gupta for us this morning. Still remarkable that nobody was killed in that twister, series of twisters actually. Sanjay, thanks.

GUPTA: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Gas prices hit another record high overnight. Shell oil is reporting record profits, so what can you do? Two brothers say they figured out a way to get you more miles per gallon with a tricked out hybrid. We're going to meet them and the spinners on the wheels, too, straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Coming up, we're talking one-on-one with former President Jimmy Carter this morning. Actually John is. He has a new book out about his mother, Miss Lillian, and recently traveled to the Middle East to meet with the leaders of Hamas. Mr. Carter believes open communication with the group is necessary to establish peace in the Middle East. Both the U.S. and Israel consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization.

Now, we want to know what you think. Should former president Jimmy Carter have met with Hamas? Right now, 61 percent of you say yes, 39 percent say no. You can still cast your vote at cnn.com/am. We're going to tally your votes throughout the morning. Also, we've been reading a lot of e-mails.

This one coming in from Jackie in Cheboygan, Michigan. She writes "Mr. Carter has done what our government fails to do, negotiate. We cannot fight or protect ourselves against what lies in the dark no matter what our beliefs and we have to live in the world with others and we're much better off knowing what we live with." ROBERTS: Jennifer from Toronto, Ontario, says "Jimmy Carter should not have met with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal. What would the response be if he has met with Osama Bin Laden. The biggest obstacle to Palestinian independence is its leadership, which is interested in attacking Israel rather than improving the lives of its citizens."

PHILLIPS: and this e-mail from Edward from Milton, Delaware "although former President Carter marches to his own steps these days, he is a lot smarter than all the geniuses in this administration. And after all, we wanted free and fair elections in the Palestinian Elections, and Hamas won. So, we have to deal with them at some point.

If you want to send us you're e-mail, just go to cnn.com/am.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS (voice-over): Pick up game. One week to North Carolina and Indiana. An endorsement next hour for Hillary Clinton. But is her husband hurting the party he once led?

The superdelegate who asked Bill Clinton to just chill, joins us live.

Plus, civil war and the so-called dream ticket.

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I think it's extremely unlikely.

ROBERTS: One-on-one with former President Jimmy Carter.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: And welcome back to the most news in the morning. Another new record for gas prices this morning, the 15th straight day. The AMERICAN MORNING gas gauge now showing $3.61 as the new national average according to AAA. Gas was at $3.29 a month ago and $2.95 last year.

Well, with those prices wouldn't it be into is to drive to work without burning a drop of gas? Earlier this year on AMERICAN MORNING we told you about a company that found a way to make a car that could drive 40 miles on only electricity. It was designed by aerospace engineers at a cost of millions of dollars.

PHILLIPS: I guess, it doesn't take an aerospace engineer to develop something like that now. Now, two brothers, Chris and Andrew Ewert have done something similar in their parents garage. Turning their Toyota Prius into a plug in hybrid that they say gets more than 100 miles per gallon. Chris and Andrew, well, they're going to show us how they did it. They join us now live inside that garage in Wheaten, Illinois. Chris and Andrew, great to see you guys.

CHRIS AND ANDREW EWERT, INVENT 100 MPG HYBRID: Thanks for having us.

PHILLIPS: All right. Tell us how the idea came about.

CHRIS EWERT: Well, it was just something, you know, I needed to buy a car, and I wanted to do something different. I didn't like what oil is doing in the world, and I had heard about a plug-in hybrid and you couldn't buy one at the time so we decided to make one.

ROBERTS: So, Chris. What kind of technology did you use? How did you have the expertise to do this, and what exactly did you put into that car to make it work?

CHRIS EWERT: Well, what we did is we took an additional battery pack and we just increased the size of the battery that was in the car. Actually, we added a second pack, and we added a plug to it and so you just plug the car in and then you can drive the car for the first 15, 20 miles or so depending on the size of the battery and -- on electricity. And then, once you're done with that it switches back to being a gasoline car.

PHILLIPS: So, Andrew, what's the background that you guys have? Did you learn how to work on cars in the family or did you guys just sort of experiment, learn this in school, in shop?

ANDREW EWERT: No. Actually neither one of us really had any real background in cars. My brother is kind of an electrical engineer and I was the software engineer. I'm a college student studying computer science, so I did the software. Chris did the electrical engineering.

PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh. How much money do you think you've saved?

CHRIS EWERT: Well, I mean, this is kind of an investment at this point. We estimate that the conversion cost us about $3,000 up front. So again that is kind of a little bit of an investment.

ROBERTS: Yes.

CHRIS EWERT: But I mean this is kind of -- we did this as a statement, you know, trying to say this is possible and that this is something that people can do, and it's a real practical solution.

ROBERTS: So, what is it, Chris, it's the idea that if two brothers in their parents' garage with a couple or $3,000 can invent a car that gets 100 miles to the gallon certainly that's multimillion dollars companies with their billion dollar plants should be able to do the same thing?

CHRIS EWERT: Exactly. I mean, if we can build in our garage, certainly the automakers can do it and they can do it a lot better than we can do it.

ROBERTS: How long did the whole concept take you, you know, from sort of planning stage, research, planning stage all the way until you had that car? CHRIS EWERT: It's been almost about two years. It's kind of still an ongoing process. We're still working on it, making it work better, but, yes, I mean, about a year of research and then a couple of months to build the initial thing and now we're just making it work better.

ROBERTS: And you built one for your parents as well?

CHRIS EWERT: We did. Yes. We just finished working on that.

PHILLIPS: So I want to know if any automotive companies have contacted you, e-mailed you, reached out because obviously word travels fast with things like this. Andrew?

ANDREW EWERT: Well, we haven't had any contact with major automotive companies, but I mean there are major car companies that are looking to do plug-in hybrids. They're developing their own plug in hybrids. So, I mean this idea, they are looking into this idea, but I mean I guess they just -- not as quickly as we would like.

PHILLIPS: What about your own business?

ANDREW EWERT: Well, we're not really looking to make a business out of this. Again, our primary goal for this is to get big companies to do this because they can do this better than we can. I mean, and cheaper, too. We're really interested in getting this to catch on.

ROBERTS: Guys, real quick, what's the performance like? Is it like an elaborate golf cart or does it actually move?

CHRIS EWERT: It moves. I mean, it moves the same speed that a regular Prius wood. In fact, it actually works a little bit better. You get a little bit more acceleration with the bigger battery. Not much but a little bit.

ROBERTS: Way to go, guys. Congratulations.

PHILLIPS: They're the Wright Brothers of 2008.

ROBERTS: American innovation. American innovation at work. It's great to see.

PHILLIPS: Now, work on the airplanes guys because tickets are getting way too high.

CHRIS EWERT: A very nice project.

PHILLIPS: Hybrid airplanes.

ROBERTS: Andres and Chris Ewert, thanks for being with us. Congratulations. We'll see how far this goes.

ANDREW EWERT: Thanks.

CHRIS EWERT: Thank you. ROBERTS: All right. Just crossing the top of the hour. Extreme weather and it's aftermath this morning after three tornadoes plowed through parts of southeastern Virginia. 200 people are hurt. 140 homes were hit. The National Weather Service says they touched down in Suffolk, Colonial Heights in Brunswick County. The destruction random and widespread. Some houses disappeared, others across the street were spared. Amazingly, no storm related deaths have been reported yet.

Our Rob Marciano live at the scene for us in Suffolk, Virginia, one of the hardest hit areas. Rob, you take a look at that scene and you wonder where the heck do they start today?

MARCIANO: You're right about that. It's a little bit overwhelming but they are certainly counting their blessings this morning, John.