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Midwest Flooding Devastates Farms; President Bush Challenges Congress to Lift Drilling Ban

Aired June 18, 2008 - 15:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's basically like losing your job and not knowing when you're going to get back and trying to think ahead to what it's going to take to clean up and recover from this also.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you see that guy? He is a farmer. He should be on a tractor. Instead, he is in a boat. His crops are under water. Financially, he is up a creek. And he is not alone. The midwestern flooding is now a national disaster.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: And that grimace isn't because of a bad shot. If you kept your eye on the ball, you might have missed it. Tiger Woods played hurt at the U.S. Open. But he won't play at all for the rest of the season. Ray D'Alessio joins us from CNN Sports on what this means for the world's best player and the PGA Tour.

Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, live in New York.

LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon, live here at the CNN World Headquarters here Atlanta.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: And ahead this hour, we are waiting for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain. He is scheduled to talk about energy and the economy. It's happening at the Missouri State University in Springfield. We will have more once that speech begins.

And with public outrage rising along with gas prices, the stage is set for a battle over offshore oil drilling. President Bush today challenged Congress to lift the 27-year-old moratorium on drilling along the U.S. coastline. He also called again for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If Congressional leaders leave for the Fourth of July recess without taking action they will need to explain why $4-a-gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act. And Americans will rightly ask how high oil -- or how high gas prices have to rise before the Democratic-controlled Congress will do something about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Democrats want to keep the offshore drilling plan in -- or ban, rather, in place. And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says that lifting the ban would benefit the oil industry, not consumers. Another Democrat argues that oil companies need to do more drilling in areas where it's already allowed. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETER DEFAZIO (D), OREGON: Come on, guys. They are not developing what they have now. There is 20 years' supply out there underneath their idle leases that could double our domestic protection. And plain and simple, they haven't developed it. And then, when they're done with that, then we can have a debate about more leasing in other places.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: More politics in just a moment.

But, first, we have some breaking news to tell you about. Remember that levee break we told you about in Meyer, Illinois? New video into the CNN NEWSROOM for the first time.

Our Chad Myers joins us to talk about it.

This video, Chad, courtesy first of our affiliate WGEM. Tell us about this levee break. Let's look at this.

(CROSSTALK)

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: On the other side of the river is Canton. And on this side is Meyer, Illinois. And, as the levee broke overnight, again, this is what we were talking about, overtopped and then finally a failure, the water pouring now, pouring off to the east.

And that's relieving some of the pressure off to the west around Canton. And so, the more populated area is around Canton. Well, that would make sense that they would have a higher levee on the populated side than on the agricultural side. But the town of Meyer got completely in the way of this.

There was another break near the Indian Grave Drainage District, four breaks overnight altogether. And the actual -- the Weather Service, NOAA, now saying, because of these two breaks, an updated forecast of the Mississippi River will cause the lead flood crests falling short of the '93 records and falling short of the forecast given before these levee breaks happened, great news for people downriver, terrible news if you live right here where this WGEM family put up all these great pictures for us. They have just come in on the computer. It's an amazing place.

That's who we do that. It's called FTP.

LEMON: Right. MYERS: They send it on the computer. It's a slow process. But it comes over. They put it in. They get it over the Internet. We take it. We decompress it, and we get it right to you immediately.

LEMON: Absolutely amazing.

I don't know, Chad, if we have a couple more of those pictures. But it's just amazing to see that. And this is, again, new video into the CNN NEWSROOM that we are seeing here for the first time. If we can get some of those pictures back, because I would like our viewers to see a little bit more of that.

We saw the pictures this morning, Chad, of the pigs that were on top of those roofs and floating down the river.

MYERS: Yes.

LEMON: And then, boy oh boy, look at this. If you want to know the misery and what people are dealing with in the Midwest, especially our farmers -- and this is going to affect our economy -- it's all showing up right here, right here. You see it before your very eyes, Chad.

MYERS: We will work something up on Google Earth for you. Canton, Missouri on the left bank, obviously Meyer, Illinois, on the right, and Meyer, Illinois.

Oh, we got it. There we go. Let me -- this is going to be a little bit not as smooth as we could draw it up if we did it all at one time. But I will take you right down into the town of Meyer. There's Canton. You can see it right there. There's a lot of more people here in Canton than over here in the town of Meyer. And that break right there -- and there was near the -- reading it off the wire here -- that Meyer was near the lake -- Lima Lake Drainage District. Also, there was another one in Marion County as well.

But that's the town right there you're seeing on that video, the town that is completely inundated now with waters from the Mississippi -- Don.

LEMON: Chad Myers, thank you very much for that.

And, of course, we're going to continue to follow this. You see really this devastating video, again, this new just into the CNN NEWSROOM.

And we're working really as frantically as we can to get you the best pictures here and the newest video. And it's kind of tough to get in sometimes, because, as you can imagine, that area is inundated with water. And the technology getting in and out of there, not so good right now, as you can understand.

We are going to move on and talk about more of this, because no matter where the floods have been, where they are, or where they're going, our CNN correspondents are there in the field. They're in the water. Our Allan Chernoff is in Oakville, Iowa. He's been out in a boat bringing us brand-new pictures of that devastation. Sean Callebs is in Des Moines County, where people are trying to save their communities. And our Reynolds Wolf is in Quincy, Illinois, where they're bracing for the worst, and Reynolds Wolf rolling up his sleeves, helping out there as well.

Let's get right to it now. Allan Chernoff joins us now.

And we want to know, Allan, what is going on with you. You have been talking about how far it's going to affect the economy, a virtual ripple effect here, Allan.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: No doubt about it. We will all be affected eventually, of course, the farmers affected most of all.

And you can see why right behind me, this sea of water covering a cornfield, covering soy beans, going seven miles back. Chad was talking before about the levees. The levee over at the Iowa River seven miles back broke on Saturday. By Sunday morning, water was flooding in all over.

And, right now -- we were out earlier today, 10 feet of water out there. And we're talking about more than 21 square miles of farmland here, not only corn and soybeans, livestock as well. We have got a few hog barns right over there.

We shot earlier today some hogs that were stuck on top of a barn. Tragically, there are other hogs, dead hogs, in the water, floating in the water inside some of these barns. But the farmers have done everything they can to rescue them. Indeed, from these barns, 20,000 hogs, they say, were rescued just a few days ago.

So, they have been working mighty hard after investing so much of course into the crops and into their livestock.

Let's learn more about the situation now from Sean Callebs -- Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Allan.

We're here on a water-soaked levee about 10 miles north of the town of Burlington. You saw those horrific flooding images from Illinois. These sandbags and the heroic work by volunteers and the National Guard keeping the Mississippi River from crashing through.

And what's at stake? Well, Allan talked about the flooding in the farmland where he is. If the levee would had given way, all of this would have been under water. But you know what? It didn't. There are volunteers that are up and down this levee, checking it to make sure there aren't any really weak spots.

But you know what? All of this is going downstream. And that's where we find my good friend Reynolds Wolf.

Reynolds, are they prepared for this?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's the reason why they're putting all these bags together.

Sean, we weather people like numbers. I am going to give you some numbers. Try 5,000 on for size -- 5,000 bags is what they're sending out here at this sandbag facility every hour. You want bigger numbers, I will give you bigger numbers.

Since February 13, they put out over a million sandbags in this location. This is a process that we have seen all across parts of the Midwest.

Right now, I'm with some of America's finest. We have got some reservists here. They have been working very hard. They have been here since sunup. They will be here until sundown.

And we have got this fellow with us.

Sir, what's your name?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Seth Hagen (ph).

WOLF: Seth, you're a veteran. You have been overseas, haven't you?

Yes, sir.

WOLF: How does this service compare with what you have done overseas?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we're both really proud to serve. But it's nice to be able to help out people who are sort of our neighbors, because that's kind of what the Guard was set up for. And we're really proud to do it. They help us out and support us a lot. So we're just really happy to be able to do that, help out our neighbors and fellow Illinoisans.

WOLF: I'm blown away by the energy and the morale you guys have. No one is tired. No one is slacking any work whatsoever. Everyone is working really hard.

And then it seems like -- let me break the point here a little bit -- it seems like you guys are just cheered up, can't wait for another truck to come in, another load of bags to go out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right. We're very excited. We're motivated to do this. Everybody has had a 100 percent, go-get-them kind of spirit, working with the civilians, and us doing it. A lot of these people are 90 percent civilians. And then they do this traditionally. So, they're all just really happy to be here. And attitude is really great, and swapping out teamwork, all that kind of stuff that we do to help each other out.

WOLF: Thank you so much for your service to the country. Appreciate it. But, see, that's not it. We're not just seeing just reservists. We're seeing people of all ages from across the spectrum here. The amazing thing about it, so many of these people are from places that are far away. They're not directly part of this community. Yet, still, they lend a hand.

What is incredible is, we have got a group of a lot of younger people have been putting up sandbags from trucks like this. This is one of the trucks that is going to come in and dump a load of sand. And then as soon as this is dumped, you are going to see a swarm of people almost like anti-Semitism begin to put these bags together. Then another truck comes along, sends them off. And it really doesn't matter where specifically they go. They're just all going to a common place, a place that is fighting back these floodwaters of the Mississippi.

Now, thankfully, here in Quincy, it's a pretty good situation, because the city is located on top of a bluff. And, as so, we're protected from the waters. But it still makes for a very good staging area. So, when all this sand comes out, these fellows are going to be doing what they can to help out.

Sir, if you don't mind me asking, where are you from?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Utah.

WOLF: How old are you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twenty.

WOLF: Twenty. Most 20-year-olds in America I think at this time of the year would be out at the beach having a great time. But you're here helping your fellow man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right, serving away.

WOLF: So, how long have you guys been here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Quincy?

WOLF: Quincy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Been here since about 10:00, 11:00. What time is it?

(LAUGHTER)

WOLF: Nonstop work. Nonstop work. OK. Guys, thanks so much.

We are going to keep checking back in with you and showing you just this great story. We talked in the last hour how this has gone from being a weather story to kind of a story about the human spirit, people helping people, and not a better example of what we have seen here today in Quincy, Illinois, certainly the very best America has right now, a beautiful thing to see.

(CROSSTALK)

WOLF: ... back to you.

LEMON: And, Reynolds, you know what? It's such great stuff out there. I could do the whole show with you. If your cameraman can pan around, I saw some kids there. It doesn't really matter how old you are. They can use every single bit of help they can. He's got a shovel.

WOLF: We see this youngster right here.

LEMON: Yes. Look, they're all out there.

WOLF: Hey, look at this. If you don't mind me, let's put the shovel right here. Look, the shovel is almost as tall as he is.

(LAUGHTER)

WOLF: You working hard today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

WOLF: Yes. He's working real hard.

(LAUGHTER)

WOLF: We are, too. Let's send it back to you in the studio.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Yes, very nice.

Reynolds Wolf, amazing work there. Thank you so much. Thanks for talking to those guys. We appreciate all their efforts.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: And we want to tell you, here at CNN, so many disasters, so many victims. If you would like to help, but don't know where to start. well, we have made it easy for you. CNN has set up a Web Page, "Impact Your World," devoted to disaster relief. That's what it's devoted to.

Just log on CNN.com/impact and follow the links to a variety of agencies. It's very easy once you get to the Web site. You can help impact your world -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, Monday's U.S. Open victory will be Tiger Woods' last win of the season. He announced today that he plans reconstructive surgery for that torn knee ligament. Woods says that he has had the injury for months. And he hoped that the surgery that he had in April would allow him to finish the season.

Well, he also reveals that he has a double stress fracture in his left leg. Doctors have told him his long-term prognosis is good, but rehabilitation and training is necessary. And, as you probably know, Woods played through the pain to win the U.S. open in a dramatic playoff over the weekend.

And we will have more on Tiger's injury and what it means for the rest of his career later coming up in the hour.

And running for the White House. How do things stand with nearly five months to go? Our Bill Schneider has new poll numbers for us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Leading our Political Ticker, a new poll concerning the wives of the likely major party nominees. Pew Research finds that Americans have heard more about Michelle Obama than Cindy McCain, but not necessarily in a good way. About a quarter say the coverage of Barack Obama's wife has been mostly negative. She's been in the spotlight more during the campaign.

And, today, she co-hosted "The View."

Well, John McCain's wife did "The View" earlier. Only 7 percent in the Pew poll consider her media coverage mostly negative.

Hillary and Barack Obama have a sit-down next week with some of Clinton's biggest financial backers. They have been invited to a meeting with both senators in Washington and asked to bring their checkbooks.

A letter from Clinton's finance director urges Clinton supporters to give $2,300, the maximum allowed, to Obama's campaign.

And Congressman William Jefferson plans to face voters in November before he faces a jury in December. The Louisiana Democrat says that he still has power on Capitol Hill, despite being charged with corruption. Jefferson has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of soliciting more than a half-a-million dollars in bribes.

LEMON: Well, four-and-a-half months from Election Day, how is the race for the president shaping up? Four-and-a-half months out, can we tell? Our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, he joins us now.

Bill has number -- I don't know. Is it fair to say you have been reading the tea leaves, and you're going to enlighten us, Bill?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I'm going to try. We have found there is some swinging going on in the three largest swing states.

New Quinnipiac University polls in Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania all show that, since he claimed the Democratic nomination this month, Barack Obama has swung into the lead. Obama leads McCain by six points in Ohio, as you can see, 12 points in Pennsylvania. In Florida, Obama is four points up, not quite significant. But it's a turnaround from last month, when McCain led Obama by four.

In fact, all three states show a swing to the Democrat, even though Obama lost all three of those primaries to Hillary Clinton. And those swings are giving us a new electoral map for the 2008 election. What does that map look like?

We're going to unveil it on "THE SITUATION ROOM" next hour -- Don.

LEMON: Oh, I was looking forward to seeing that. Now I have got to watch "THE SITUATION ROOM," like everybody else, right?

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: All right. Thank you very much for that, Bill.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead: when coming home stinks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROCHELLE CHARNOWSKI, RESIDENT OF CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA: I think the worst part is the smell. It definitely stinks. That's for sure.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Stinks is an understatement. The smell is nearly unbearable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Returning to the floodwaters in Cedar Rapids.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well, in the tug-of-war over a $35 billion military contract, Boeing now has a powerful ally. Back in February, the contract for 17 aerial refueling tankers went to a joint venture between Northrop Grumman pond and Airbus. Airbus is based in Europe. And Boeing backers argue a U.S. company should have got the preference.

Now, based on technical issues, the Government Accountability Office is recommending a new competition. The Air Force says it will review the report.

(BUSINESS REPORT)

LEMON: Well, despite miles of sandbags and thousands of people trying to save their homes, the Midwest remains on the brink of a record flooding disaster. We're live in the flood zone and then the Severe Weather Center.

PHILLIPS: And Tiger Woods out of the season. We are going to have more Tiger's injury and what it means for the rest of his career. That's later this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, live at the CNN World Headquarters in New York.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Did you like how I played that one off?

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: That was pretty good. You almost got it.

PHILLIPS: I'm so used to saying Atlanta.

LEMON: Do you know what? Yesterday, you said you were in Atlanta. And I said, oh, just let it go, because it was serious news.

Kyra's in Atlanta. And I'm Don Lemon live here at the world headquarters in Atlanta.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: It's 3:28 Eastern time. Here are some of the stories that we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM.

The world's number-one golfer out for the rest of the year. Tiger Woods says that he has a major knee injury and stress fracture in his left leg. He played through the pain to win the U.S. Open Monday, though, in that dramatic playoff with Rocco Mediate.

PHILLIPS: President Bush renewing his call for Congress to lift a 27-year ban on offshore oil drilling. Mr. Bush says that Americans need a break from high gas and oil prices. Congressional Democrats have already rejected the president's request.

And floodwaters swamp the Midwest. The government says 20 to 30 more Mississippi River levees could overflow in the coming days. Most of the levees in serious danger protect farmland. They're not heavily populated areas.

LEMON: Let's talk more about that first story that Kyra talked about.

Tiger Woods, the world's best golfer, some say the best ever, will be sidelined until next year, facing surgery and a long rehab.

Let's bring in our Ray D'Alessio of CNN Sports. He's been following this entire story, really has become bit of a controversy here.

So, this injury, let's talk about it, not a new injury. So, the question is, Ray, how did it get to this point?

RAY D'ALESSIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what is really interesting, Don, because it was revealed on Tiger's Web site that he originally suffered this ACL injury last year, last summer as a matter of fact, after the British Open, which would have been some time in July. So basically he has been playing on this for almost a year now.

Tiger saying that he wanted to opt-out of surgery back then, wanted to try to play through the pain, which he did. He won tournaments after that. And then in April, after the Masters, he finished second at the Masters, he decided, hey, let's go ahead and have some arthroscopic surgery to clean out the knee a little bit, maybe give me some relief here. Went ahead and did that.

Then we see him at the U.S. Open this week playing through the pain. And actually, two weeks before the U.S. Open is when they found the stress fracture -- a double, double stress fracture.

LEMON: And I'm glad you mentioned playing through that pain, because, you know, Larry Smith was out there. He had a sit-down with Tiger Woods. And he actually asked him about playing through this pain. Let's take a listen and we'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY SMITH, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: You haven't wanted to talk about the knee and the severity of the soreness. The day after Father's Day, did your dad, with his military background instill that play-through-the-pain, no excuses attitude?

TIGER WOODS, PRO GOLFER: Never have any excuses. You just play. If you're showing up, you give everything you've got. And that's just, you know, the way he was and how far he raised me. You just go. And I know he would have called me a stubborn ass. And I say, well, the apple didn't fall too far away from the tree either. So that's how we always used to jab at each other, but just a complete understanding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

D'ALESSIO: You look at him there, Don, you've got to think how much pain he must have been in following those four or five days, actually, of just grueling 19 holes, you know, playing the 19 holes on Monday. To me -- knowing now what we know as far as the ACL injury and this double stress fracture, to me that has got to be the greatest single performance in a major we've ever seen.

LEMON: Yes, I know, most people's games aren't that good, even if they don't have an injury. And again, let's talk about this playing through, because is it true -- and he said, the A- word, that his dad wouldn't want him to do it. Did doctors tell him not to play with this?

D'ALESSIO: We've heard that and as a matter of fact, we've put in some calls to doctor that did the surgery, and the person who answered our phone call said, OK, the doctor, he is traveling, he's not here, and even if he was here, we can't give you any kind of information because of the doctor/patient confidentiality.

So no confirmation on that whatsoever. But it would not surprise us -- listening to what Tiger just said, it would not surprise me, because, again, he has got the attitude, no pain, no gain, and he wanted to win this U.S. Open.

LEMON: Yes. And I remember when Tiger Woods -- when he first started winning and he started getting those green jackets and we're talking about, you know, an African-American playing golf, whatever, he has become the gold standard when to measuring golf players. What does this mean for the game of golf and really professionally for Tiger Woods?

D'ALESSIO: Well, obviously we're not going to see him now in next month's British Open. We're not going to see him at the PGA Championship this year either, in order to defend his championship, because he won it last year, the PGA, he did.

And then, even further down the road, you look at September, he'll miss the Ryder Cup in September. So obviously when Tiger misses golf tournaments, ratings go down. And so it's going to have a huge impact on the game of golf.

LEMON: It's kind of like you. When you're not on our air, our ratings go down...

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: ... come over here and play with us a little.

D'ALESSIO: That's why I love anchoring with you, Don, you always treat me so good.

LEMON: All right, Ray.

Ray D'Alessio, we appreciate you joining us. Thank you, sir -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: OK. You know, that's Ray's excuse. Every time Ray has a bad golf game, oh, my knee.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: ... can't drive it off the tee.

D'ALESSIO: How many miles away is she and she still gives me this?

LEMON: No, she said she was in Atlanta, and I think I screwed it up as well. We're not sure. Where are you...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: It's like Max Headroom, we don't know where she is.

D'ALESSIO: When they asked me to come up here, I said, Kyra's not going to be there, is she? They're like, no, no, she's in New York. I'm like, fine. I'll come do it. And they still bring her in.

But, Kyra, you play golf.

PHILLIPS: You know, Ray, just because I beat you on the golf course, don't take it out on me.

D'ALESSIO: And you've got to agree with me, Kyra, I mean, you and I have played golf, you know what it is, what kind of torque on the body. For him to play through this pain, it's incredible.

PHILLIPS: Oh, it's amazing. Hip, knee, and it does, it affects your game, especially someone like Tiger who's such a perfectionist. I mean, a bruise would probably affect his game, you know?

(LAUGHTER)

D'ALESSIO: A broken nail affects her game.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Have you seen her nails? They don't really exist. She's not the nail kind of girl.

D'ALESSIO: He has got to get the sexist cracks in there. OK, Ray, I'll remember that, buddy.

LEMON: All right. Kyra, I know you have got some breaking news. Take it away, thanks.

PHILLIPS: That's right. Ray will play from the red tees, I'll play from the white. See you guys soon.

All right. We want to take you live now to where John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is speaking at the Plaster Student Union at Missouri State University in Springfield. He's been talking about the economy, the energy, he has been talking about seven minutes or so. Here's the beginning of his speech.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The fact is, people have been worrying, talking about America's energy problems since long before the students here were even born. A lot of folks in Washington are still talking about it too. Talking is what they do.

But this nation can't afford to put serious -- off serious energy reform any longer. For the sake of our economy, for the sake of our environment, and for the sake of our national security, we need to get it done. And we need to get it done right.

All across this state and nation, people are hurting: small farmers, truckers, taxi drivers unable to cover their costs. Small business owners are struggling to meet their payrolls. The cost of living is rising. And the value of a paycheck is falling.

All of this in large part because the price of oil is too high and the supply of oil too uncertain. Working Americans rightly believe their government has a duty to finally assure the energy security of this country, finally.

Even one extra penny at the pump costs our people a total of $1 billion more in a single year. And there are other costs to our economy as well. Like the effect of our oil imports on our trade deficit. Petroleum-related imports came to $331 billion last year. And the bill keeps rising and rising.

We are actually borrowing from foreign lenders to buy oil from foreign producers. That's unacceptable. Over time, in interest payments, we have lost trillions of dollars that could have been better invested in American enterprises.

The sum effect of these international deficits is a weaker dollar that undermines confidence in the American economy. The weak dollar is a further tax on the economy in the form of higher prices for everything we import, including oil itself. And we wind up caught between the rock of slower growth and the hard place of inflation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, something else hurting the economy right now, those floodwaters in the Midwest. As a matter of fact, John McCain is going to be heading to Iowa tomorrow to assess the flood damage. And we've been getting new video in from Iowa throughout the morning and afternoon where floodwaters are engulfing homes, farms and crops, as you can see right here.

And it might be their homes, their farms, and their crops, but it's going to affect your wallet. Let's get straight to CNN's senior correspondent Allan Chernoff. He's right there in Oakville, Iowa.

And, Allan, you'll probably be there when the presumptive presidential nominee heads to the area to assess the damage. You might be able to give him a brief.

CHERNOFF: Kyra, when John McCain comes, he's going to see something astounding, a cornfield looking like this, just filled with water, going on for miles and miles and miles. Indeed, seven miles, all the way to the Iowa River. That's where the levee broke and that's where the water came through.

And consider, we're also near the Mississippi. The levees have not broken there just yet. The Mississippi, three miles down. But the farmers here had invested so much. We spoke with one farmer earlier today who put in $1 million into growing his corn and soybeans back here. And now, just about all of it is wasted and he is devastated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIRK SIEGLE, FARMER: That's basically like losing your job and not knowing when you're going to get back. And trying to think ahead to what it's going to take to clean up and recover from this also. It's just very disturbing to me. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: Disturbing as well to his dad, whose home is out here. His dad, Richard, has been living out here for 47 years. We were on a boat this morning and we went right by his home and looked at the roof and the flag flying above. And that was about all that you could see. He said he never imagined the home could be filled with water.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD SIEGLE, FARMER: Don't know where to start. Don't know where to start. It just depends what Mother Nature does, when the water goes out, whether they get the levee repaired.

CHERNOFF: Mother Nature can be cruel indeed. And as if it's not enough to lose your crops, to lose your home, the family is actually unable right now to sell the grain that they were at least able to rescue from their silos, they can't sell the grain right now because the Mississippi is shut down for shipping, so the grain processors are not buying grain at the moment. That of course will change once the Mississippi eases up.

Now another tragedy to tell you about, a lot of livestock still out there trapped. We did see some pigs stuck on the roof of a barn earlier today, three little pigs actually, and it was quite sad. Even sadder to see some of the pigs floating, dead pigs floating in the water inside of some of these barns.

Behind me there are three or four pig barns right over there. And this has been a supreme effort by the farmers. They've cleared out just about all the livestock, 20,000 pigs, they tell me, taken from those barns that you can see right beyond me. It has really been a huge effort. And they are still trying to come out to rescue those that remain.

Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Hey, you bring up a great point. It's not just the individuals that live in the area, but also the livestock. The environmental impact is going to take a tremendous hit on the economy. Allan Chernoff, thanks so much.

We've been talking about the overtopping, the breaching, the leaking, the seeping, we're talking about the levees in the Midwest, and they're in big trouble. Two more have actually fallen short in Illinois today, flooding thousands of acres of farmland. And the Army Corps of Engineers says as many as 30 others are in danger. So can they be saved? Well, I asked the man in charge.

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LT. GEN. ROBERT VAN ANTWERP, U.S. ARMY CHIEF OF ENGINEERS: We have 250 people out with the local folks that are looking at the levees. We have a way of predicting using the National Weather Service predictions, and we know the levee heights. So we're able to go in and say where we think a levee might be overtopped and by how much.

If it was a foot, I guarantee you those great Americans are out there right now filling sandbags. We've issued 13 million sandbags out, enough to stretch from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. end to end. So there's a lot of hard work going. There will be some places where it will be much more than a foot. And probably -- and what our warning will do is say those are areas where you must evacuate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The corps of engineers says that 20 levees have overflowed so far this week.

LEMON: And you know, Kyra, CNN iReporters are all over the flood zone as well as our reporters. They're documenting the devastation. Their videos, their pictures, and their stories are pouring in right now. And our Jacqui Jeras, she joins us now from our iReport desk to share some of those amazing stories with us.

We've really had great iReporters.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We have. Yes. From standing water to the inside of homes and businesses after the floodwaters have receded, this time around, we're going to give you a nice tour of what floodwaters do to transportation around Fort Madison, Iowa. We want to thank iReporter John Wentzien for sending us these photos here.

And the first one you can see, that one is a riverboat. That is the Catfish Bend Riverboat Casino. That one is certainly moored there. It's right there on the river. But you can see how wide out that river goes. The casino itself so far doing OK. But sometimes the water can be strong enough to push it off its moorings. And so you have got to watch out for that.

This picture, you can see, something we don't want anybody to do at home, is to drive through the floodwaters. That's the number one way that most people are killed during a flood event like this. And there you can see the locomotive on the tracks there. But just ahead of it, it's not going anywhere.

Now we have a couple of other iReports that we want to show you from the Cedar Rapids area. You might be looking at that picture and saying, what is that? That is an historic organ. And this comes to us from the Paramount Theatre in Cedar Rapids. And Neal Marple took these photos for us. And he's going to join us now on the phone.

Neal, good afternoon.

Are you there, Neal?

NEAL MARPLE, IREPORTER: Yes, I am. Can you hear me?

JERAS: Yes. I can hear you. Good afternoon. Tell us a little bit about this organ and what happened.

MARPLE: Well, the picture that you see, you're looking at, were taken yesterday evening around 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. This is the Paramount Theatre, which is about an 1,800-feet theater built in 1928 in downtown Cedar Rapids. The organ, which you see overturned there, that is the original Wurlitzer theater pipe organ that was built with the theater. And they have been together ever since 1928.

That instrument and the theater and another theater in Cedar Rapids represent two of only 40 theater organ instruments in the entire world that remain in their original installation and in original condition. So we have since pulled the organ out of the theater. And we're sad to report that it did not make it very well during today's (INAUDIBLE).

JERAS: Absolutely. So that is really a big loss, a part of history that is gone for your community.

MARPLE: Yes, it really is. There are many people around this community who grew up, who are in their 70s and 80s now, who have been around as long as they can remember coming to this theater. It's the home of the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra, it's a performing arts center for the entire city and the region. And it really does hold a special place in the city's history.

JERAS: All right. Neal Marple, thanks for joining us this afternoon. A part of Cedar Rapids history lost now that the organ is gone there. But much of the city is going to start that recovery process now that those waters are starting to go down -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Jacqui, thank you very much. Jacqui Jeras, following the story of our iReporters for us.

And you know, our personal finance editor, Gerri Willis, she has some consumer tips on her blog. It's on CNN.com. She has advice for you on a number of subjects. There she is on our Web page now. The latest entry, buying flood insurance and what you need to do to keep your home safe. The address is CNN.com/tips -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, what's going on down there where cameras are not allowed? Well, a human rights group claims evidence of prisoner abuse and torture. We'll tell you about it.

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LEMON: Well, in just a few hours, no more fighting across the Israeli/Gaza border. That's the plan anyway. Ceasefire deals are famously fragile in the Middle East and hopes aren't soaring for this one. But Israelis are holding out olive branches to Syria and Lebanon, as well, offering talks on land and other issues long fought over by all three countries.

It doesn't look like the eve of a ceasefire today. Militants in Gaza shot rockets into Israel, prompting an air strike in return. Israel and Hamas leaders say starting tomorrow, they will stop shooting for six months.

The U.S. military believes a "murderous thug supported by Iran" carried out yesterday's horrific car bombing in Baghdad. Sixty-three people, some of them children, died when a minibus packed with explosives blew up in bus stop near a crowded outdoor market in the mainly Shiite neighborhood.

Today brings world of another car bomb, this one in the northern city of Mosul. More than a dozen people, all civilians, reported hurt in a region where U.S. and Iraqi forces have been focusing on al Qaeda in Iraq.

PHILLIPS: And listen to these very strong words. The Bush administration committed war crimes when handling suspected terrorists. That's a retired U.S. Army two-star general that made this report. It's part of a larger report that was made public today on the treatment of terror suspects in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay.

Now medical and human rights groups examined 11 former inmates and said they found evidence of mental and bodily abuse: beatings, electrocutions, even sexual assault. One of the doctors says that he and colleagues saw "clear physical and psychological evidence of torture and abuse, often causing lasting suffering." The group has several demands for the Bush administration, one of which is a formal apology to detainees.

So who pulled those so-called aggressive interrogations? Well, a senior U.S. senator reveals for the first time that when the rulebooks were being written, some Pentagon legal types had strong objections to the treatment being proposed. Senator Carl Levin says that when the U.S. handles prisoners harshly, the ultimate effect is negative.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: SEER techniques are based on abusive tactics used by our enemies. If we use those same techniques offensively against detainees, it says to the world that they have America's stamp of the approval. That puts our troops at greater risk of being abused if they are captured. It also weakens our moral authority and harms our efforts to attract allies to our side in the fight against terrorism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Levin heads the Senate Armed Services Committee. And he says despite objections, the Pentagon's general counsel advised then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that harsh interrogation was legally justified.

LEMON: Coming up, caught on tape. A police officer gets a bit rough with a young suspect. The repercussion straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM. Look at that.

PHILLIPS: And he's accused of repeatedly raping a little girl...

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LEMON: Right now a case many will find despicable. For four years a man rapes a little girl, beginning when she was 5 years old, and posts the images on the Internet. Police say it all happened in this house in northwest Georgia where 38-year-old James Bartholomew Huskey lived.

Federal authorities caught up with him Monday after a two-year manhunt that began with a tip from Australia. He is behind bars. His two children are now in protective custody.

We take you now to Kalamazoo, Michigan, with where a police officer is off the job temporarily. And the acting police chief has apologized to the suspect. In-house police video shows the officer slamming the teenager's head into the wall while escorting him to the booking room. The 16-year-old reportedly suffered injuries to his face and damage to three teeth. His family has hired an attorney.

PHILLIPS: And straight ahead, the Dow dropping below the 12,000 mark for the first time since March today. Any chance of a last- minute rally? We'll have the closing bell and a wrap of all of the action on Wall Street straight ahead.

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PHILLIPS: All right. Time now to check in with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, he is standing by with in "THE "SITUATION ROOM" to tell us what's coming up at the top of the hour.

Hey, Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Kyra, thanks very much. Lots coming up, including the presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, they actually sat next to each other today for more than 90 minutes. We're going to bring you the circumstances surrounding that.

Also, President Bush says it's time to start drilling for oil off America's coast. How would that affect historic gas prices? We'll talk about it with Governor Bill Richardson, an Obama supporter. Also talk about it with Rob Portman, a McCain supporter.

Then, Michelle Obama getting an image makeover for the general election? They're treating her more like a candidate than a spouse, in fact. We'll tell you what's going on.

And water is spilling over levees along the Mississippi River, flooding homes and farms. We'll go live where residents right now are racing to save their homes and their lives.

All that, Kyra and Don, and a lot more coming up right here in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

PHILLIPS: All right. Wolf, see you tomorrow.

BLITZER: Thank you.

LEMON: Hey, Kyra, before we get there, I have some visitors here. They're in town for a special UNICEF benefit that we're going to -- say hi, wave to the world. This is your big debut. OK. So say hi. There you go. You're on TV.

PHILLIPS: They're our new replacements. LEMON: Absolutely. They look great too without makeup. So they have got one up on us.

The closing bell is about to ring on Wall Street.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

LEMON: That's going to do it for us.

PHILLIPS: That's right.

Let's take it now to Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

We'll see you back here tomorrow.