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April Jobless Numbers Out; Storms Hitting Plains Hard Today; Measles on the Rise

Aired May 02, 2008 - 09:00   ET

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

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Which, by the way, to couple of people who e-mailed in and said, hey, you should ask who is more electable. That's where to vote their conscience is, you know?
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Very good.

ROBERTS: Whatever your conscience tells you.

PHILLIPS: Go with your gut.

ROBERTS: Yes. To all of you who voted, thanks. We'll do it again next week.

And thanks for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. You're away for the next week.

PHILLIPS: That's right.

ROBERTS: During the golf tournament coming up. Good luck with that.

PHILLIPS: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

ROBERTS: I'll see you back in a week.

PHILLIPS: It's been great to be here. I look forward to coming back.

CNN NEWSROOM with Tony Harris and Fredricka Whitfield begins now.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Heidi is on maternity leave.

HARRIS: You will see events come into the NEWSROOM live on this Friday morning, May 2nd.

Here's what's on the rundown.

WHITFIELD: April jobless numbers are just out and there's a surprise.

HARRIS: Storms hitting the plains hard today. Homes flattened in the Kansas City suburbs. WHITFIELD: No vaccination? Measles on the rise, is a major outbreak ahead? Dr. Gupta's diagnosis, in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: All right. Let's get you started this morning. "Issue #1." A new, a clearer view now of the nation's economic health. Let's begin with jobs. The backbone of the economy just minutes ago a big shock. Employers last month cut fewer jobs than expected. Jobs were lost but fewer than expected.

April's unemployment dropped to 5 percent. That's a slight improvement for March. That figure, 5.1 percent.

Ali Velshi, with our money team, is analyzing the numbers. He'll join us with a closer look in just a minute.

In the meantime, a few other things we're watching. Next hour, factory orders for April, economists expect a slight increase. And gas prices down a bit this morning. That ends a string of 17 days of record prices. The national average a little more than $3.62 a gallon.

And let's go in-depth now on the unemployment numbers just released.

CNN senior business correspondent -- there he is -- Ali Velshi joins us now.

Ali, if you would, sir, break it down.

ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: All right. We were expecting two things to happen. We were expecting unemployment rate to go up and the number of jobs lost the fairly substantial. Neither of those things happened. The unemployment rate in the United States is now 5 percent. It's actually gone down.

Now look at the job loss numbers. We've seen more than 225,000 job lost. 232,000 this year until April. We were expecting that number to be about the same. It came in at 20,000, 20,000 jobs lost in April.

Now, Tony, job losses aren't a good thing. Most economists say we need to add 100,000 jobs a month. So we're nowhere clearer to where we should be. This isn't the thing you go out and say the economy is strong, but if you can break that trend of 75,000 to 80,000 jobs lost per month and we're just at 20,000, maybe that's a trend breaker.

Other things that are happening, Tony, the stock market. The Dow is at its highest point since the beginning of January and higher yet right now. The dollar is at its strongest level since February. They're giving oil away. It's $112 a barrel. 18th day -- you know, at 17 records of gas prices.

HARRIS: That's right. That's right.

VELSHI: You just talked about that. We didn't have a record today. It's not like it was a big deal. It's a thousandth of a dollar less than it was the day before. But the bottom line is, is there -- we look at trends. Has the trend stopped or is this just a pause in the storm?

HARRIS: No, that's a good point. And I guess we can go a little deeper into these numbers. I'm just sort of curious, and maybe we don't know yet. You'll just probably need a little time to figure it all out.

What sector saw the greatest...

VELSHI: Sure.

HARRIS: ...sort of decline in job loss? I guess that's the way to put it.

VELSHI: Yes, I do have that actually.

HARRIS: Oh OK.

VELSHI: And that is a very good point that you bring up. Thank you for doing that.

It is exactly the same thing we've been seeing for a few months. The jobs are lost in construction and manufacturing.

HARRIS: Yes. Yes.

VELSHI: Those are areas that are really suffering, and in this case, in retail. We started seeing retail jobs going down in November and December, which are supposed to be strong months for retail. That continues. So it's the places you'd expect...

HARRIS: Yes.

VELSHI: ...to see job losses in an economic downturn.

HARRIS: That's breaking it down.

Ali, appreciate it. Thank you.

VELSHI: OK.

HARRIS: And keep watching CNN. Our money team has your covered, whether it's jobs, debt, housing or your savings. Join us for a special report. We love the show. It's called "ISSUE #1, THE ECONOMY." All this weekend at noon Eastern only on CNN.

WHITFIELD: Extreme weather pounding the Midwest. Just take a look at these pictures out of Kansas City, Missouri. Severe storms with hurricane force winds. Hail and heavy rain moved through the states this morning damaging at least 200 houses. Some homes turned into piles of rubble, as you see right there. Owners standing outside looking absolutely stunned. The devastation also shocking to an affiliate reporter surveying the damage from his helicopter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNNY ROWLANDS, KMBC PILOT: This is pretty amazing from the air. As you can see, again, we talked about the National Weather Service trying to determine if these were straight line winds or what. That is a north -- actually from the south to the north. Pull -- tilt down just a little bit for me there, Luke. And you can see, there's the foundation of that house that was under construction.

Nothing left on the foundation at all. Pushed to the north as we're circling overhead now kind of looking to the east. You can see damage to the houses either side of that. And we'll pull back and show you that extensive damage to the house right behind that as you'll see down and to the left, which would be just to the north of that house.

Also, we'll pan now to the -- just go ahead and tilt up. Across the street and you'll see damage to some houses in a cul-de-sac there. Now this -- some of the streets up here, 108th, 110th, North Donnelly, and, of course, 291 Highway, as you may have heard, is shut down here as -- about two miles to the north and west of I-35 because of all the damage and all the debris.

So, extensive damage to a lot of the homes here. Almost anywhere I look along this path of probably 100 yards wide or so, we're seeing fences down, damage to roofs, and that looks like it comes from the, again, southwest to northeast, the most extensive damage right there where you see the house completely off its foundation that was under construction, into the other house and still -- I'll get this to get out of the way for you here - and still damaged to the north and east there.

Very localized though.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Wow, some houses just obliterated there as you could see. Fire officials report, however, no serious injuries. At least two suspected tornadoes ripped through parts of Oklahoma yesterday. A funnel cloud captured in this video, one suspected twister was believed to be 100 yards wide. Several homes and buildings were damaged. No reports of any injuries there either. About 3,000 power outages are reported across the state.

And there's more. More rough weather to the north. In Kansas. Deafening hail, the size of quarters covering roads and yards. Winds of up to 70 miles an hour tore up roofs and knocked down power lines and trees.

HARRIS: Look at that.

WHITFIELD: It's unbelievable there. Well, let's get back to the Kansas area, Kansas City area, officials on the ground now surveying the damage in these hard-hit Missouri neighborhoods.

Joining us by phone, Joe Vitale with the Kansas City Fire Department. All right. Glad you could be with us. Your reaction to the devastation that you've witnessed.

JOE VITALE, KANSAS CITY, MO. FIRE DEPT.: Good morning.

The good thing about all of this is there were only a few injuries and they were minor in nature. So that is a very good thing to be thankful for at this point.

WHITFIELD: So what are the greatest needs right now as you try to respond to those who have lost just about everything?

VITALE: Well, at this point in time, the greatest need or the immediate need, shelter, food, clothing, items of that nature. I do believe most of the residents had family and/or friends to go and stay with. Those who need assistance outside of that, the Red Cross has responded to the -- two particular neighborhoods that were hit here and they will be assisting families with, again, immediate needs at this point.

WHITFIELD: And Joe, this is the time of year when these kind of spring storms powered and fueled by tornadoes like this is really expected in the whole tornado alley area. What about here? Do folks here now how to brace? Are they prepared for this kind of occurrence?

VITALE: You know, I believe so. People acted in a very orderly fashion here today or this morning. You know, neighbors help neighbors. Friends help friends. Families come in for support. The biggest thing they can do, you can't prevent it, you try to minimize the amount of hurt it can do to you. You take shelter and you're prepared in that regard. And now you pick up and you go on and you work to restore things.

WHITFIELD: Pretty remarkable that there are no reports of major injuries. Just looking again at these images from office buildings to homes where the damage is severe.

VITALE: It is. I mean, you have areas where all you have are foundations left. Homes that were blown off of their foundations, rooftops blown off. Two neighborhoods, in particular, extensive damages to the homes that were struck and there are homes on the next block over that are untouched. I guess as it happens in these type of situations.

WHITFIELD: All right. Joe Vitale of Kansas City Fire Department. Thanks so much for your time and all the best in the recovery efforts.

Good news that no serious injuries, which is so hard to believe when you look at that kind of devastations.

HARRIS: Can I tell you something? You just made me think of this. And can we take a moment and think, not only our weather team, the National Weather Service and meteorologists all across the country, you're looking at that situation in Kansas City, you're looking at the situation but a few days ago in Virginia, Suffolk, in particular, and in both of those stories no major injuries, no major injuries, no loss of life, thankfully, and it just seems, Reynolds, that we are really on top of our game in terms of getting people the information they need in a timely fashion.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, it was the technology. I mean, remember years ago we wouldn't give or at least announce a tornado warning until someone had actually sighted a tornado. Now...

HARRIS: That's right. Yes.

WOLF: ...we, of course, have Doppler-indicated tornado warnings where we go ahead and we announce the warnings even if there is no sign, no actually physical -- really evidence of the tornado being on the ground. But it's just that advanced time. Just a few minutes can make a world of difference. That certainly was the situation in places like Virginia and it certainly seems to be the case in parts of the Central Plains.

Take a look at this video at one side of the screen. This comes from KNBC in Kansas City. What's so amazing about some of these videos is what you see in the -- the damage is so incredibly random in many of these suburbs, in many of these neighborhoods. You'll see one home that is just completely smashed and was just obliterated, but then right across the street the homes appear to be in pristine condition.

Now what's going to happen over the next couple of hours, you're going to have people from the local National Weather Service that are go to go up in helicopters and take some aerial observations and then according to what they say they will determine as to whether these are tornadoes or straight line winds.

Either way, at this point it really doesn't matter. You've got lives that are affected and you get plenty of damage.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: It (INAUDIBLE) through the weekend again.

HARRIS: Again.

WOLF: Could happen, you bet.

WHITFIELD: It always seems to hit the weekend in a lot of areas.

HARRIS: Glad you're there. Reynolds, appreciate it. Thank you.

And again, when the weather becomes the news, it certainly is now and it will be throughout the day, it seems, Go to CNN.com, click on iReport or type ireport@CNN.com into your cell phone.

Give us those images, those stories, and as always be safe.

A town nearly flattened by a fierce twister rises from the rubble with a whole new vision. The story minutes from now in the CNN NEWSROOM. WHITFIELD: Two big primaries just now four days away. The race is tight between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama ahead of the votes in North Carolina and Indiana.

Dan Lothian with the Election Express in Indianapolis.

Dan, what you got?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, so much excitement, right?

WHITFIELD: A lot.

LOTHIAN: You know, this -- that's right. You know the poll, this national poll showing that this race really is just a dead heat. CNN Opinion Research Poll talking to registered Democrats shows that Senator Barack Obama is at 46 percent, Senator Clinton at 45 percent. You might remember that in mid March senator Obama was ahead by seven points.

Both of the Democratic candidates continue to focus on the issues. They're talking a lot about gas prices. They're talking about the economy and about health care. But there's still a lot of focus about superdelegates. And we saw yesterday that big defection by Joe Andrew who was a Clinton superdelegate is now an Obama superdelegate.

This morning he was on "AMERICAN MORNING" talking with Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of the Clinton campaign, talking about who now has the edge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE ANDREW, FMR. DNC CHMN., SUPPORTING OBAMA: No question, Barack Obama has got not only the momentum, more importantly, he's got the delegate count. And at the end of the day what matters is who's got the most delegates. And no matter what happens in this process over the next month, Barack Obama is going to be ahead in delegates.

TERRY MCAULIFFE, FMR. DNC CHMN., SUPPORTING CLINTON: We just won Texas, we won Ohio, we just won Pennsylvania. We feel very good about where we are. Clearly this upcoming, Hillary has got momentum on her side. Thirty generals just came out and endorsed her. The polls, just look at every poll over the last four days, Hillary Clinton now beating John McCain, beating Senator Obama. It's exciting, momentum is with Hillary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Senator Clinton will be spending the day campaigning in North Carolina. Senator Obama will be there later on in the day. But we'll be having a press conference this morning here in Indianapolis where people will be focusing on the economy --Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: OK. And that's exactly what people want to hear.

All right. Dan Lothian. LOTHIAN: That's right.

WHITFIELD: Thank you.

LOTHIAN: That's right.

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much from Indianapolis.

HARRIS: For Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, every delegate counts. So let's take a look at what's at stake in Tuesday's primaries. Indiana, 72 delegates up for grabs for the Democrats. It is the second largest delegate prize left in the presidential race. The biggest remaining prize, North Carolina, Clinton and Obama are competing for 115 delegates there.

Don't forget Guam, the tiny U.S. territory, playing a role in deciding the Democratic nomination, the Guam. Democratic caucuses are tomorrow. Four delegates are on the line. Where exactly is Guam? It is a tiny...

WHITFIELD: It isn't Las Vegas.

HARRIS: ...tiny spec in the Pacific Ocean, about 5800 miles west of San Francisco.

And find more on the candidates at CNNpolitics.com. CNNpolitics.com is your source for everything political.

WHITFIELD: Measles, guess what, it's on the rise. Why are there so many new cases? Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta making a house call, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF: Hi, folks. We come back. I'm Reynolds Wolf from the CNN Weather Center with the very latest on our weather situation in parts of Arkansas where you have a tornado warning that is now in effect. This just in. For parts of the counties of Conway, Fogger, Cleveland and Van Buren County in north central Arkansas, this was just posted by the National Weather Service. Tornado will be near Damascus around 8:30. Greers Ferry Lake, Post Oak, and Greers Ferry around 8:50.

Now keep in mind this has a tightening impact of eight which means pretty likely that we have got something on the ground at this point. So this may be a tornado on the ground. As I mentioned, moving to the northeast. Fairly quick path of people in the storm path roughly around -- nearly 7,000, by 8:26 should be in Damascus.

Just over the past hour we've had just 61 strikes. Fairly early in the hour. So there is a great deal of activity with this storm. Fairly intense and one of many that we're probably going to be dealing with throughout the morning and midday hours.

Again, that is the latest we've got for you. Tornado warnings in effect now for parts of Arkansas.

We'll have more coming up right here on CNN. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Breaking news, revealing developments, see for yourself in the CNN NEWSROOM.

WHITFIELD: Part of Harvard University evacuated this morning due to an underground electrical fire. Smoke and flames shot out of several manholes in the Harvard Square area. The university's Holyoke Center, which includes the Student Health Care Center, was evacuated and traffic was also diverted. Hundreds of people lost power. No reports of injuries. University officials say classes were not disrupted.

And reports this morning a deal to compensate victims of last summer's Minneapolis Bridge collapse. The $38 million deal worked out by Minnesota lawmakers overnight. An attorney for several victims say that the deal would provide up to $400,000 for each victim. The attorney says there is also $12.6 million for the most seriously injured.

Interstate 35 West Bridge collapsed August 1st. Thirteen people were killed, 145 others injured. Federal investigators suspect a design flaw and weight of construction equipment were to blame.

HARRIS: And now to your health. The measles, eradicated, finally wiped out. The CDC told us that eight years ago. Well, not so fast. Sixty-four cases of measles popped up in the United States in the first four months of this year. A compelling argument for vaccinations?

CNN chief medical correspondent -- there he is -- Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us from New York.

Sanjay, great to see you. Here's the question. Got a couple for you. How do the measles virus actually make its way back into the United States?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, well, exactly as you said. We're starting to see some of the ramifications of people not getting vaccinated so exactly to your point. People will travel around the world. There are considered measles hot spots around the world, maybe surprising to some people, Switzerland, the UK, Israel, Italy. Those are place where the measles exist.

They'll go there. This is a very contagious thing, as you know, Tony, and they bring it back.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

GUPTA: Who's at risk? People who haven't been vaccinated, for the most part. In fact, the 64 you just mentioned, all but one of them hadn't received their vaccinations. Now to be fair, some of them are simply too young, which is why they haven't received it. Two of thirds of them hadn't received it because of personal belief exemptions. Take a look at the map. Nine states now reporting measles. Eight years ago they said this thing was done. Twenty-three cases in New York state, 22 of them in New York City specifically. So you get a sense that it tends to occur in clusters. And again, some of the ramifications of people not getting vaccinated.

HARRIS: Well, Sanjay, let's -- maybe a measles 101 question here. How would a parent be able to tell if their child has the measles?

GUPTA: You know, if you ask that question 20, 30 years ago everyone would know the answer because there were millions of cases of measles.

HARRIS: Yes.

GUPTA: Now they are pretty rare. So it is worth going through again. It can start off very much looking like a cold. People may have runny nose, they may have fever, they may have the body aches. What is sort of tell-tale about this thing is the rash, as many people know.

We have pictures of that. Take a look. It sort of starts off on the face and then gradually makes its way down the trunk.

Poor kid.

HARRIS: Yes.

GUPTA: He just looks miserable. And people are miserable when they get this. But that's sort of a very tell-tale sort of thing. People are often very fatigued. They may have a lot of discomfort as a result of the rash itself. But that is what it looks like. If it's -- if people are cared for well, it's something that comes and goes. But it can be more serious. Can have some disastrous side effects. In rare cases lead to death as well, Tony.

HARRIS: And one more quick one here, maybe a bit of a history lesson, Sanjay. Weren't the measles just a huge epidemic in this country before the vaccine was released?

GUPTA: Yes. I mean, you know, so if you want to sort of trace the effectiveness of the vaccine, we talk about this thing known as MMR, measles, mumps, rubella.

HARRIS: That's right. That' right.

GUPTA: You get that between 12 and 15 months of age. Before that, three to four million people infected every year. Take a look at that, 400 to 500 deaths. That tens of thousands of people hospitalized. And as I mentioned, people might develop some chronic long-term effects from this as well. So that's the way it used to be.

Again, you know, they felt they had this licked about a decade ago and it's back. You know, there are places around the country where they do have measles and some of those are cases that are making their way to the United States now.

HARRIS: There he is, Dr. Sanjay Gupta for us in New York. Have a great weekend, Sanjay. Good to see you.

GUPTA: And to you as well, Tony. Take care.

HARRIS: Yes, sir.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, you're in the NEWSROOM. Hello, everyone. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Barack Obama's ex-pastor back in the spotlight again making his mark this week. The Reverend Jeremiah Wright's latest appearance has prompted Obama to condemn his remarks. Obama says he was outraged and, quote, "saddened by the spectacle.' Wright spoke at the National Press Club and at an NAACP dinner this week.

Wright seemed to suggest that the government could be responsible for the spread of AIDS in the black community and he equated some U.S. wartime efforts with terrorism.

HARRIS: Extreme weather pounding the Midwest. Just take a look at these pictures out of Kansas City, Missouri. Severe storms with hurricane force winds, hail, heavy rain moved through the state this morning, damaging at least 200 homes, if you can believe it, homes and businesses. Some homes turned into piles of rubble. Owners standing outside looking absolutely stunned at the devastation.

Also shocking to an affiliate reporter surveying the damage from his helicopter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROWLANDS: This is pretty amazing from the air. As you can see, again, we talked about the National Weather Service trying to determine if these were straight line winds or what. That is a -- actually from the south to the north. Tilt down just a little bit for me there, Luke. You can see, there's the foundation of that house that was under construction.

Nothing left on the foundation at all. Pushed to the north as we're circling overhead now kind of looking to the east, you can see damage to the houses either side of that. And we'll pull back and show you that extensive damage to the house right behind that as you'll see down and to the left, which would be just to the north of that house.

Also, we'll pan now to the -- just go ahead and tilt up -- across the street and you will see damage to some houses in a cul-de-sac there. Now this -- some of the streets up here, 108th, 110th, North Donnelly, and, of course, 291 Highway, as you may have heard, is shut down here as -- about two miles to the north and west of I-35 because of all the damage and all the debris. So extensive damage to a lot of the homes here. Almost anywhere I look along this path of probably 100 yards wide or so, we're seeing fences down, damage to roofs, and that looks like it comes from the, again, southwest to northeast, the most extensive damage right there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: All right. Boy, let me just grab a quick note. Fire officials report no serious injuries. That's obviously the great news. The mayor of Kansas City, Mark Funkhouser, is on the line with us.

Mr. Mayor, thanks for your time this morning. We were just listening to Johnny Rowlands. He's a chopper pilot for one of your local affiliates, KMBC, describing some of the devastation on the ground. Can you give us your description of what you've witnessed, what you've been able to see in however much of a tour you've been able to take this morning?

MAYOR MARK FUNKHOUSER, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI: Well, I'm -- I'm -- this damage happened in far north of the city. I live -- on the highway as we speak. I've been talking to the fire chief and other folks. And I'm heading up there so I haven't seen it yet.

HARRIS: Yes.

FUNKHOUSER: Other than -- you know, other than just trees down and so forth and limbs down, which are a lot, you know, throughout the city.

HARRIS: What else are you getting in terms of reporting from your fire chief and other officials as to the extent of the damage and the challenge ahead for the city and the individuals impacted by this?

FUNKHOUSER: Well, obviously, for the individuals, I mean, some of them, you know, for businesses and homes that have been destroyed, not just in Kansas City but I hear in Independence and in Gladstone, some of the surrounding communities also. For them, it's a substantial thing. I don't yet know how much it's going to impact the city government. I'm waiting for reports from our (INAUDIBLE) services and our city manager.

HARRIS: I'm just sort of curious. Have you personally lived through -- I don't know how long you've been a resident of the city. Something suggests to me that you've been there a long time. Have you seen anything quite like what is being described to you and the pictures that maybe you've seen? Does this compare to anything that comes to mind?

FUNKHOUSER: Yes, you know, we've had some significant damage in the past. Of course, back in the '50s when we had the Ruskin Heights Tornado, that was huge, and a lot of people were killed. You know, we've had, May 4th, a couple of years ago, very -- what happens with these things, is very targeted. One or two houses will get destroyed. This sounds like it's wider. There's more houses damaged and destroyed. But again, compared to normal this is a real low amount of injuries.

HARRIS: Really is.

FUNKHOUSER: And that's a good thing. One of the things that we've done is we've put it -- we upgraded our siren system. I heard sirens all night of tornado warnings, and apparently it's worked.

HARRIS: Well, Mr. Mayor, I want to give you an opportunity to go and be with your people and help them in any way that you can. But we want to thank you for your time this morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: This is what it's like with tornadic activity as it happens, but what happens afterwards? Well, the people of Greensburg, Kansas can tell you all about it. They know all too well how devastating a storm can be. A year ago Sunday a deadly F-5 tornado nearly blew their town off the map.

Joining us now from Greensburg, CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano. So how are things looking? Are they rebuilding, recovering rather quickly, considering?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, you know, when you look at what had happened last year, any sort of progress is pretty quick progress. When you look at those aerials of Kansas City and some of that destruction, it just reminds me of what some of the areas looked like a year ago when this town completely flattened, 95 percent of the homes and structures damaged or completely destroyed when the F-5 came through.

So they were given a clean slate. They pulled up their bootstraps and said, we're going to rebuild. And not only are we going to rebuild, but we're going to rebuild right.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO (voice-over): A massive tornado, almost two miles wide, tears through a tiny town. Almost nothing is left. One year later residents understand that how they rebuild will determine the town's future. And Greensburg is, well, going green. Windmills are popping up like the winter wheat, and even conservative farmers are getting on board.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All you have to say to them is if you can save $200 an month on your utility bill by harnessing this wind, what do you think?

MARCIANO: Here green has no political party.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think it's red or blue to be green. I think green is green. And green makes sense. It also saves you green. That's the other thing.

MARCIANO: For the Estes, the fourth-generation family business is a John Deere dealership, and the tornado hit them especially hard. MIKE ESTES, BTI GREENSBURG: Steel twisted inside a brick and the miles per hour that it had to have to pick combines up that weighed 20,000 pounds-plus, and that equipment that headed right into harvest is gone.

MARCIANO: Rebuilding the new John Deere site is just getting started. And you got it, it's going to be green.

ESTES: Below us hydronic in-floor heating. We put hydronic heating in here so that the heat will be radiant from the base of the floor up.

MARCIANO (on camera): And is that more efficient than your other...

ESTES: Much, much more efficient.

When we drain the oil out of our machines, it's going to go into the tank. That tank will then house the oil that's going to be burned that will heat the water on this floor.

At present, that particular windmill is powering this job site.

MARCIANO: Is that right?

ESTES: Yes.

MARCIANO (voice-over): When it's completed more than half of the dealership's electricity will come from the wind.

ESTES: My grand dad would -- trust me, he liked to save energy. And he was an environmentally conscious person, as was my dad. Farmers are environmentalists.

MARCIANO: And farmers here hope to turn their town's tragedy into an environmental triumph.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: They are well on their way for sure. But don't get me wrong, it is a long go. It has been a tough go. At Boy Scouts of America, you better believe they're environmentalists as well. This building built in 1935. It's one of the many that, you know, still lies in ruins, still likes in rubble.

But just beyond that, check out that building right there. That's going to be the community center. It's also going to be an arts center. Designed and built by Kansas University architecture students. And they wanted to be lead certified platinum status. And that's the toughest environmental and energy efficiency status you can have. The siding of that, the wood, they took from an old armory that was being tore down. Everything else was donated. It's powered by windmills. The runoff from the water also gets down and is naturally clean before it goes down into the water table.

And that's not the only building trying for this lead platinum status, they want many of the buildings here in Greensburg to be that way. They want Greensburg to be the greenest town in America, and from what I've seen so far, Tony and Fredricka, they're well on their way.

WHITFIELD: Wow, so it's from tragedy to now the model city for this country. I mean, do they think much about that, whether they want to indeed be the influence for the rest of the country?

MARCIANO: They certainly want to lead by example. They want this to be the greenest town in America. They want it to be a tourist attraction for that reason. And more importantly, really, for the families here. Rural communities across America, the youth have taken off to where the jobs are. But they want this community to be cool. They want the younger generation to stay, and already the buzz we're sensing that may very well happen.

WHITFIELD: Wow, what an incredible investment. All right, Rob Marciano, thanks so much -- Tony.

HARRIS: And still to come in the NEWSROOM this morning, could a college student's killing had been stopped? A 911 operator hangs up on a victim.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

HARRIS: Do you feel like your credit card company has been taking you to the cleaners? Well, the feds say they want to crack down a bit. Federal regulators plan to tackle what they call unfair and deceptive practices in the credit industry. One goal allowing you more time to pay credit card bills. The fed also wants to stop companies from bumping up interest rates on balances you accumulated at lower interest rates. That's important. Sometimes today the Federal Reserve board is expected to sign off on the plan.

Parallel Investigations into the killing of the University of Wisconsin student: Who killed her, and why was there no response to her 911 call?

Reporter Brendan Conway of affiliate WISN has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENDAN CONWAY, WISN REPORTER (voice-over): According to new information from the Madison Police Department, Britney Zimmerman may have spent her final moments waiting for help from 911. Investigators say the 21-year-old U.W. student, who was stabbed and beaten to death in her off-campus apartment, called 911 the day she died. But emergency operators never contacted police. Officials with the 911 center says Zimmerman's call was silent, but police tell a much different story, saying it was a call for help.

CHIEF NOBLE WRAY, MADISON, WISCONSIN POLICE: It would be accurate to state that there is evidence contained in the call which should have resulted in a Madison police officer being dispatched. CONWAY: According to police, not only did the 911 operator fail to contact them, she also didn't call Zimmerman back, which is policy.

JOE NORWICK, DIR., DANE CO. PUBLIC SAFETY COMMUNICATIONS: Dispatch proceed to answer another 911 call that was waiting to be answered.

CONWAY: Both police and the county-run 911 system are pointing the finger at each other. Police say they should have been notified of the call, while 911 officials blame the police department's policy of only responding to 911 calls if they know it's an emergency.

NORWICK: 911 Center has notified the Madison Police Department on several occasions and other agencies in the county that it is willing and able immediately to begin dispatching officers to these types of calls.

WRAY: The Madison Police Department was not notified of the call, and no officer was sent.

CONWAY (on camera): The 911 operator at the center of all of this has not been disciplined. Authorities say there is an internal investigation under way, and that should be done soon.

Reporting from Madison, Brendan Conway, WISN 12 News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And the 911 center director says between 10 and 15 percent of the calls received are hang-up calls.

HARRIS: Debra Jeanne Palfrey, the D.C. Madam found dead in her mother's backyard. What the blogs are saying about it, next in the NEWSROOM.

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(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: OK, Arkansas, Texas being hit, and Missouri was hit, but still on radar.

Governor Matt Blunt is with us now on the phone to give us an idea, Mr. Governor, how you are able to manage, how your state is able to manage and help the folks kind of rebound for what just hit.

GOV. MATT BLUNT, MISSOURI: Sure. Well, Missourians who need assistance should call 211. They can learn about some of the available services. We did have some significant damage around Gladstone, Missouri, and North Kansas City, Liberty, with 20 Missouri homes destroyed, 250 that had at least moderate damage.

Very fortunate though. We don't have a large number of injuries. No fatalities. So even though this storm hit in the middle of the night, we were very, very fortunate that we don't have more Missourians injured. It's making its way across our state. I'm actually in st. Louis right now where the storm system is crossing the St. Louis region.

WHITFIELD: So how do you brace for more, any other potential hits, just like this one overnight?

BLUNT: You know, one of our concerns is with the heavy rainfall. We have had a tremendous amount of rain, as you know. There's been significant flooding. We have a lot of ground that is really just absolutely saturated. So even an inch or two of rain can create some flash flooding. So we'll be monitoring that situation very closely. I was in southeast Missouri yesterday. Still a lot of water on the ground. So there definitely are some challenges because of this storm system.

WHITFIELD: Well, certainly some challenges. So the wind damage is not the only thing. Potentially the flooding and what could come, damage that could come from that flash flooding that you described. So the folks in Missouri, you all have done this before, meaning you've dealt with natural disasters, whether it be of this magnitude or greater before. However, folks still might feel like they were caught off guard. How were folks there, you know, dealing with this?

BLUNT: Yes, I think Missourians are resilient people, and they're helping one another, and local law enforcement is working with the state highway patrol and other emergency responders to help those that need assistance. So this i-- s the worst of Mother Nature always brings out the best of the people in our state.

WHITFIELD: So even though you talk about 20 homes destroyed, what are the needs in general? How do you meet those needs? And is strictly on a state basis, or will you need to ask for federal assistance?

BLUNT: We have actually some existing executive orders that authorize our state assets to provides assistance. I don't know at this point if we'll need a federal declaration. It's possible we'll have to do our damage assessments and see if we qualify for some federal assistance. It's not as bad as other emergencies that we've had to respond to. So it could be that we will not actually need federal assistance. So we'll have to do a full evaluation before we ask the federal government for help.

WHITFIELD: Great. All right, Governor Matt Blunt of Missouri, thanks so much. All the best in your recovery efforts and rebuilding efforts. And thankfully, no reports of major injuries, as you underscore. Thanks so much.

HARRIS: Is it a series of unconnected drownings or serial murder by a gang of psychopaths? Two former detectives blame the "Smiley Face Killers."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Hello again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Heidi Collins. HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris. Stay informed all day in the CNN NEWSROOM. Here's what's on the rundown. Tornadoes on the ground right now in Arkansas. This is Kansas City. People there taking a hard look at storm damage today.

WHITFIELD: Issue No. 1: More Americans hold on to their job in April than expected. The surprise numbers on unemployment.

HARRIS: Primary countdown: Four days to Indiana and North Carolina. The race getting tighter today, Friday, May 2nd. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(WEATHER REPORT)