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Water-Logged Midwest Waits for Mississippi to Crest; Oil Prices Jump with Insurgent Attacks; Elian Gonzalez Back as Campaign Issue?

Aired June 21, 2008 - 16:59   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember finding out one person was pregnant. That was, like, incredible, 17.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Boy, what an amazing story. Reading, writing, and raising babies, why would a group of high school sophomores get pregnant on purpose?

Photo IDs required, you used to have the right to refuse, but not anymore. A new TSA policy starts today.

And more misery in the Midwest. New damage estimates out today, and more disaster declarations.

Hello, everyone. I'm Tony Harris in for Rick Sanchez. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. The muddy Mississippi is rising again, north of St. Louis. These pictures shot today in Lincoln County, Missouri, where up to 350 homes have flooded so far. After dropping several feet, the river has risen higher than expected today as it nears a crest below record levels, a bit of good news there. Crop damage assessments are far from complete. Here's a flooded cornfield west of St. Louis.

The state of Iowa said today crop losses could hit some $3 billion. We will all see the effects of all of this at the grocery store, to be sure. You can't envy these folks, can you? Iowans by the thousands are starting to clean up today. Officials in Cedar Rapids predict 96,000 tons of ruined possessions will have to be hauled to a dump. That's in Cedar Rapids alone.

Old Monroe, Louisiana -- that's Missouri, lies along highway 79 northwest of St. Louis. In the midst of the flooding there is CNN's Sandra Endo.

And, Sandra, give us a view from Old Monroe. I understand the river is higher there today than expected.

SANDRA ENDO, OLD MONROE, MISSOURI: Well, exactly, Tony. But actually overnight the water here actually went down about six inches. But we've seen it rise since then a couple of inches. But giving you a perspective of just the flooding there, take a look at the building and the door on that building is about 17 feet tall. So you can see where the water is on that. And actually a landscape company owns that building and they could not take out some heavy machinery there so luckily they've brought out a lot of their equipment, but still they're checking on that machinery. They said they just bought it three months ago, and that's completely ruined.

Now over on this side, there's also a cabinet-making company. The owner came by this morning to check on the water level. He's worried because with about a foot more of flooding, that's going to reach an electric box that he says will be completely ruined. Luckily for that owner, though, he did take away some of his merchandise from there.

So that is the good news. And also the good news also is that the crest is likely to be two to three feet less than predicted. So that's some good news. But take a look at what comes after the flooding. You have things like this that the river is just washing up right here. Old bottle, cans, things like that. Trash, this water is just mucky, filled with toxins.

You could see old tires right here as well. And that is a concern for FEMA. FEMA is saying that a lot of trash, a lot of debris is just coming down the river. So the cleanup crew and the cleanup activity will be a major effort. That's coming up next.

HARRIS: That is going to take some time. What a mess. Sandra Endo for us in Old Monroe, Missouri.

Now, if you would like to help the victims of the flooding in the Midwest, please go to our Web site, the "Impact Your World" page where you will find links to several organizations that are stepping in to offer some assistance. That's cnn.com/impact.

What about the thousands of flooded homeowners who didn't have flood insurance? And trust me, there are a lot of you out there in the same situation. Should we feel sorry for them? Of course we should. Who's to blame for the lack of coverage? We're going to discuss those questions a bit later this hour. Let me see if I can make this happen here. Let me turn to Jacqui Jeras in the Severe Weather Center.

And, Jacqui, give us a sense, if you would, we're always wondering when the Mississippi will begin crest in places like Old Monroe. Is that likely to happen tonight, maybe tomorrow?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Actually, probably late tomorrow into Monday morning.

HARRIS: Late tomorrow. OK.

JERAS: Yes, they actually already crested. And then the levee broke. So the river levels dropped down big-time by a couple of feet. But the actual big bubble of water from upstream hasn't completely arrived yet. So they're going to watch those levels go back up a little bit over the next day, day-and-a-half. And then they'll them continue... (CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: So definitely not out of the woods.

JERAS: Definitely not out of the woods yet. Yes. And I put this map together, as you can see, over my shoulder, kind of spelling out who is going to see what and when. Places like Canton and Quincy, they're cresting as we speak. And we're talking about a good 24 hours that the river is going to stay at its highest level.

Hannibal, Missouri, looking for a crest come Sunday. Clarksville, looking at it on Monday morning. And, St. Louis, we're expecting moderate flooding here, not major flooding. You're at about your highest level and you're going to stay pretty steady here over the next several days.

Now, what about additional rain in the forecast? You can see those showers and thundershowers popping up in northwestern Iowa. This eventually is going to make its way down into parts of Missouri. But the amounts of precip is going to stay relatively minimal. So we don't think it's going to aggravate the situation.

SPC, by the way, the Storm Prediction Center, watching this area right here for the potential of severe weather developing in the next couple of hours. So we might see some yellow boxes over there just like we're seeing here across parts of the Ohio Valley. There you can see a new watch just issued for eastern parts Ohio extending over towards the Pittsburgh area.

Our other big weather story today is the heat. Look at some of the heat indices right now, 108 is what your body feels like right now due to the combined effects of the heat and humidity in Phoenix, 105 in Vegas. Look at Fresno at 99, Sacramento up there at 96 degrees.

We also have some heat advisories in effect across the San Francisco area, even on the coast you're going to see temperatures feeling well into the 90s. And there you can see our warnings.

Our iReporters, thank you for them. They've done a tremendous job in the past couple of weeks giving us iReports from places we haven't been able to get all of our crews out to. This one you can see from David Manning, this is from Quincy, Illinois. He's actually from Rockford but does business regularly in Quincy, and took these photos from his hotel.

And we have got a picture coming in from St. Louis, Missouri. Look at the casino, the high water there. You can barely see the stop sign. This is from Sean Haley. And then Cathy Seltzer from Keokuk, Iowa, where the river has crested and is receding. We'll watch for those waters begin to go down.

Thanks to our iReporters. Continue to send them to us, please, cnn.com/ireport. But of course, safety always number one. Make sure you're safe when you do it. And then send them on in and we'll try and get them on the air.

HARRIS: Appreciate it, Jacqui. See you a little later in the hour, thank you.

And last we heard from the Bay Area of Northern California, wildfires that had burnt more than 600 acres and several homes, was almost contained. Yesterday some 2,000 people in Santa Cruz County south of San Francisco were ordered out and a six-mile stretch of highway 1 was shut down for hours. More than 600 firefighters are on the job.

Oil producers and consumers are gathering in Saudi Arabia for an international conference on oil. And the finger-pointing over prices has already begun. Delegates from 36 nations will attend. The U.S. energy secretary said today the reason for high oil prices is pretty simple. He says oil production has not kept up with demand. But Saudi officials say the reason is more complex. They say a number of factors including speculators and currency fluctuations are also to blame.

Oil industry experts say about 120,000 barrels of oil per day could be out of the supply thanks to a pipeline breach in Nigeria. It forced Chevron to suspend its onshore oil production there. Nigerian media reported that militants sabotaged a pipeline in the Niger Delta. Chevron says it shut down production to protect the environment.

The price of crude oil has climbed to all-time highs and some people say there's a connection between oil and terror that folks should be paying even more attention to. CNN's Kelli Arena has that story.

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KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Oil is the life blood of the Western economy. Terrorists and other militant groups are going for the jugular.

STEPHEN LEEB, LEEB CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: They don't have to worry about taking American lives. I guess maybe that's a bright spot, all they have to do is cut off oil, and this economy really, really suffers.

ARENA: Violent attacks in Nigeria, explosions in Iraq, all put pressure on oil prices here in the United States. Pipelines run thousands of miles over sparsely populated terrain. They're easy to attack but difficult and expensive to protect.

ALI KOKNAR, GLOBAL SECURITY ANALYST: The key behind this seems to be the rising oil prices. It basically feeds the insurgents, the terrorists who attack the oil supply. The more valuable it is, the better idea it is from their perspective to attack it.

ARENA: The Institute for the Analysis of Global Security estimates that attacks around the globe cut at least 2 million barrels a day from world oil supplies and pushed prices up about $40. Attacks are obviously not the only reason that oil prices are up, but the tiniest glitch these days can send prices soaring.

JIM LACAMP, RBC WEALTH MANAGEMENT: Any time a pipeline is affected, any time any production gets shut down, you see oil prices jump up $1 or $2 a barrel just because there is no slack in the system.

ARENA: That wasn't always the case. The oil market used to have wiggle room to deal with occasional supply disruptions, but supply today is tight, making the U.S. and other countries vulnerable.

LEEB: This is a problem of just epic proportions, and the terrorists recognize it and if we want to basically preserve our way of life, I'm not trying to sound overly dramatic here, we have to recognize it, too.

ARENA: Experts say the answer is simple and complicated at the same time. The U.S. needs to reduce its dependence on oil.

Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Gloucester, Massachusetts, where the book and the movie "The Perfect Storm" were set, now a perfect storm of loneliness, peer pressure and insecurity might have driven some Gloucester girls to get pregnant together.

And big drama in Little Havana. Eight years after losing their fight to keep Elian Gonzalez in the United States, his relatives are still laying blame and the target might surprise you. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama climbing higher in the polls in a new CNN poll of polls, an average of several surveys. Senator Obama has 46 percent, that's 6 percentage points above his Republican rival Senator John McCain, and a 2-point gain over our last poll of polls, 14 percent are uncommitted.

Senator Obama taking swipes at his Republican opponents today. At a meeting of mayors in Miami, Obama accused Senator McCain of focusing on tax breaks for corporations and wealthy Americans and ignoring the budget deficits many cities are facing. Obama also talked about the flooding in the Midwest. He accused McCain of opposing legislation to fund levees and flood control programs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When it comes to rebuilding America's essential but crumbling infrastructure, we need to do more, not less. Cities across the Midwest are under water right now or are courting disaster not just because of weather but because we failed to protect them. Maintaining our levees and dams isn't pork barrel spending. It's an urgent priority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: John McCain's camp firing back, a spokesman called Senator Obama's comments "beyond the pale." Tucker Bounds says Obama opposed an amendment that Senator McCain co-sponsored that he says would have prioritized flood control spending over other spending projects in the bill.

Now yesterday McCain tackled trade issues during a speech in Canada. McCain defended NAFTA, the free trade agreement that most businesses support but many unions oppose, McCain says the deal has created millions of jobs.

Elian Gonzalez may be long gone from Miami's Little Havana, but his American uncle won't let anyone forget what happened. The controversy surrounding his return to Cuba eight years ago has resurfaced on the campaign trail.

CNN's Susan Candiotti reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Elian Gonzalez may be long gone from Miami's Little Havana, but his American great-uncle won't let anyone forget what happened, lease least of all Senator Barack Obama.

DELFIN GONZALEZ, ELIAN'S GREAT UNCLE (through translator): I want him to change his advisers. They won't give him good advice.

CANDIOTTI: Back in front of the house, now museum where Elian used to live, his uncle who speaks little English said Obama should "reconsider two of his advisers." First, Eric Holder, who used to be a deputy under former Attorney General Janet Reno, who ordered Elian's return to his father in Cuba. Holder is now helping Obama choose a running mate.

Second, campaign adviser Gregory Craig, a well-known Washington lawyer. Craig represented Elian's father in his successful effort to get his son back. For some Cubans, that can never be forgiven.

RUBY FERIA, GONZALEZ FAMILY SPOKESMAN: It is clear that since that day, Elian is a trophy in the hands of the Castro brothers.

CANDIOTTI: This week, 14-year-old Elian appeared on Cuban TV as the newest member of the Young Communist Union, the small group outside Elian's house then attacked Obama for his position on Cuba. The problem is, they got it wrong.

FERIA: Barack Obama represents a very dangerous alliance with the Castro regime.

CANDIOTTI: The fact is, Obama, like Republican John McCain, supports the decades-old trade embargo. However, Obama favors lifting travel restrictions for family visits to Cuba, McCain does not. But that kind of misinformation can spread like wildfire, mainly among Miami's Spanish-speaking community.

Despite this flap, the latest Quinnipiac poll gives Obama a comfortable double-digit lead among Florida Hispanic voters, 53 to 43 percent say they would vote or are leaning toward Obama over McCain.

(on camera): What prompted Elian's relative to stage a news conference remains unclear. Some who know him don't doubt his sincerity, but wonder whether someone suggested he do it on the eve of Obama's appearance in Miami. The Florida GOP says it did not help him in any way. And Delfin Gonzalez says no one put him up to it.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: There was a time no picture ID used to mean a more intense security search, but you could still get on the plane. But now if you don't have an ID, forget about it. Are you ready for the new TSA rules?

Also, thousands of homes under water and uninsured. So what now? We'll take a closer look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Today is the first day of a new TSA policy at U.S. airports. People who will fully refuse to show identification will no longer be able to get on planes.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Nick Kloiber is not your average traveler. He flies about once a month. And when he does, he does something unthinkable to most of us, he refuses a routine security request.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ID, sir?

NICK KLOIBER, PRIVACY ADVOCATE: No thank you.

MESERVE: He will not show transportation security officers his identification.

KLOIBER: I shouldn't really have to show my ID to travel in my own country, and I will gladly go through the secondary screening to ensure that I am not a threat to anybody. But as for who I am, that's really none of their business.

MESERVE: Under current TSA policy, a traveler does not have to show an ID if they are willing to undergo a more intense security search. But that changes on Saturday. Passengers who willfully refuse to provide identification at checkpoints will no longer be allowed to fly.

KIP HAWLEY, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMIN.: We need to be able to stop somebody who we know is a terrorist from getting on the plane, and it's not too much to ask -- to say, just tell us who you are.

MESERVE: But civil liberties advocates say U.S. citizens should not have to show documents to travel within their own country.

JIM HARRISON, THE IDENTITY PROJECT: The TSA is incrementally chipping away at the freedoms that Americans have, and the freedoms that we're talking about here are the fundamental right to travel.

MESERVE: Although airlines check travelers' names against terror watch lists, the TSA says its document examinations provide another layer of security and turn up people traveling with fake IDs every week.

HAWLEY: To us, it's not a philosophical argument. There are people trying to do harm, take down planes, and we can't let them have a vulnerability.

MESERVE (on camera): People who say their IDs have been lost or stolen can still fly if they give the TSA information that will help verify their identity. But critics say a terrorist could bluff their way through security and still get on an airplane.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Reagan National Airport.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: It is no secret, as gasoline prices have risen, the value of those gas-guzzling vehicles has plunged. And as Deborah Feyerick shows us, eco-friendly hybrids are enjoying a new boom.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Allen Machado (ph) handles Internet car sales for Loman Ford in Woodbridge, New Jersey. When a customer came in looking to trade his Toyota Prius hybrid, Machado immediately posted it on eBay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I started the bid at $15,000.

FEYERICK: The car, with 30,000 miles and a small dent in the hood, sold for nearly $24,000.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was on the lot less than a week.

FEYERICK (on camera): Really? Is that quick turn-around for a car?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very quick turnaround, yes.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Joe Abutel, who owns Manhattan Autoshop (ph) made the winning bid.

JOE ABUTEL, PRIUS OWNER: I got three other e-mails from guys that had lost, asking if I was willing to sell it to them a little over what I had won it for.

FEYERICK: Abutel, who says he spent about $2,400 on gas last month to fuel his Hummer, says he turned to eBay after he had no luck trying to buy a new Prius. (on camera): A year ago, you could get a deal on a Prius. Not anymore. The demand is so high, expect to pay full sticker price and wait three to four months for delivery.

(voice-over): Toyota dealer Frank Caputo (ph) has a wait list, more than 100 people with a deposit on a Prius hybrid.

(on camera): Have you ever see a list like this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not on one particular line of cars, no.

FEYERICK (voice-over): And that's just in the last two months as gas prices have spiked. Problem is, Toyota maxed out on the number of batteries it can make for its hybrids, some of which run 50 miles to the gallon.

Honda makes a hybrid and has also developed a limited number of natural gas and hydrogen fuel cell cars, the problem there, you have to drive miles to find a fuel pump.

CHRIS NAUGHTON, AMERICAN HONDA MOTOR CO.: Infrastructure has to be developed so that you have a place to fuel the car and also the supply network.

FEYERICK: Which means driving green may require a bigger commitment than just saving green. Though admittedly, new Prius owner Joe Abutel says he's coming around.

ABUTEL: Leaving my kid a little bit of an ozone layer isn't such a bad thing either.

FEYERICK: Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: The economy, it is "ISSUE #1." And we will bring you all the latest financial news weekdays at noon Eastern. It is information you need on the mortgage meltdown, the credit crunch, and so much more. "ISSUE #1" at noon.

Could a promise to get pregnant explain a spike in moms-to-be at one high school? The story, coming up in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And happening right now, the levee and flood watch intensifies for a number of Mississippi River towns such as Hannibal, Missouri, and Quincy, Illinois. Higher-than-projected river crests are coming sooner than expected. Rising water levels are giving towns like Quincy renewed reason to stuff sandbags. The city's water supply and waste treatment plant are threatened by the rising Mississippi River. The National Weather Service now says forecast models, listen to this, did not properly account for the three rain-swollen Iowa rivers that feed into the Mississippi.

One Mississippi River town sitting high and dry is Valmeyer, Illinois. The entire community was relocated after the 1993 flood so history would not repeat itself. Not there at least. CNN's Ed Lavandera is there a mile away and 400 feet higher.

Ed, seems to make all the difference.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It does make a difference, Tony, especially when we drive around town today and instead of people worrying about floods we saw them barbecuing and mowing their lawns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Fifteen years hasn't erased this reminder of the past, a fading rooftop marker showing where floodwaters reached in Valmeyer, Illinois, during the 1993 floods which buried this bedroom community 30 miles from St. Louis.

Back then, Valmeyer sat close to the Mississippi River, almost every home was destroyed, floodwaters were 15 feet deep. It took more than two months for the water to recede. Eric Seidler will never forget what happened to his home.

ERIC SEIDLER, VALMEYER RESIDENT: The flood pretty much washed the house down the river. So it was destroyed.

LAVANDERA: Worried that another flood would destroy Valmeyer again, city leaders started looking for higher ground.

(on camera): About six months after the floodwaters receded from down here, the town of Valmeyer was on the move. Today it sits more than a mile away and, more importantly, 400 feet higher, way up there on top of that bluff.

DENNIS KNABLOCH, FMR. MAYOR, VALMEYER: The only possibility that we had to keep the town alive was to look at possible relocation.

LAVANDERA: Dennis Knabloch helped spearhead the city's move. It cost $45 million to turn almost 300 acres of cornfield into the new and improved city of Valmeyer. FEMA paid for 75 percent of the cost. There's a new school, new streets, emergency services building, and brand new homes everywhere you look.

KNABLOCH: We knew that physically it was not going to be the same town, but what we hoped to do was recreate the spirit of the town.

LAVANDERA: From the Seidlers' backyard, you can look down to where Valmeyer used to sit. It's a ghost town now. And with the Mississippi River flooding again, this is right where they want to be.

SEIDLER: We're certainly safe up here, we're a couple hundred feet in elevation higher.

LAVANDERA: And that's why this little town likes to say they're rising to new heights.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LAVANDERA: Tony, you heard the former mayor, Mr. Knabloch, talking about how what they had to do to move the city was, in essence, the only way to save the city. The population of the town back then was 900 people. There was some talk that many people wouldn't move back there, would move away essentially. Today, the town has grown to a population of 1,200 -- Tony.

HARRIS: Wow, what a story. All right. Ed Lavandera for us, good to see you, Ed. Thanks, man.

So many homeowners living along the Mississippi River are left with expenses far over their heads, their homes ruined. Turns out the vast majority don't have flood insurance. Why is that? We looked into it.

BVT

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My whole entire life is gone. I don't know what we're going to do.

HARRIS (voice-over): Variations on a theme.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They said because it ace flood they're not going to help us.

RON BILSLAND, CEDAR RAPIDS RESIDENT: We purchased the house last spring, and when we went to get the loan we were told that we didn't need flood insurance so we didn't purchase any. Now it's going to have to work a little bit more overtime and try to get a loan.

HARRIS: No insurance. Big problem. Some homeowners don't know floods aren't covered by most insurance policies. And banks don't require it unless you finance a home in an area they define as a high risk. Bottom line -- homeowners don't purchase it because they don't have to.

DAVID MAURSTAD, FEMA ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR: When a lender or an insurance agent says, you know, you're outside the high-risk area, you're just in the low to moderate risk area, so you're not required to have a flood insurance policy. People then hear that as saying, I don't need a flood insurance policy. That's part of the communication that we need to work with.

HARRIS: The federal government only requires it if you live in a so-called 100-year flood plane. That's a region with a 1 percent chance of being flooded within a year.

The percentage of Midwest homes covered by flood insurance is in the single digits, despite two widespread and devastating floods in recent history.

MAURSTAD: Property that we're seeing being flooded in the Midwest right now, people can buy a flood insurance policy for as little as $10 to $15 a month.

HARRIS: $10 to $15 a month. Is that true? Steve Ellis is with Taxpayers for Common Sense. He also works on the Mississippi River and coastal issues.

Steve, boy, is that true? Is it that inexpensive to buy flood insurance?

STEVE ELLIS, TAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE: Certainly, if you're not in one of the high-risk areas, the rate goes down in the area protected by a levee or other structure. People are learning that a levee is not a promise you'll never flood. It's protection from flooding from certain levels.

HARRIS: Let's talk about some of these more risky areas. Should banks do a better job of informing people of the risk? Or does the responsibility ultimately rest with the home buyers to know the environment, know where they're buying the home, know the risks of that land, the property, and make a better-informed decision?

ELLIS: Certainly, there is a buyer beware. You need to know your property, where it's the flood risk or anything else going on there. And then, secondly, I do think that the industry as a whole and your -- not just your mortgage lender but also your insurance agent should be doing a better job informing you. It's generally just a policy rider that goes on your normal homeowner's insurance policy.

HARRIS: I keep hearing that folks should make an informed decision, and I get that. But I also hear that the maps used to determine the risk areas, the high flood-prone areas, that those maps are outdated. Is that true?

ELLIS: Well, the maps are certainly outdated and they're trying to update those. Those are things that need to be going forward.

But you still can be making informed decisions. They don't change that dramatically. Really, if a lot of communities, people are either trying to get a levee or some sort of protection so that you're outside the 100-year flood plane and you don't have to flood insurance. What we've done in a lot of areas is dumbed down the flood protection to that 100-year level, which is clearly not adequate, so people don't have to buy flood insurance.

HARRIS: Let's take a big step backward, back to 1993. And I'm wondering about the lessons that were learned and taken to heart. Have a listen -- this is Adolphus Busch with the Great Rivers Habitat Alliance. And then I've got a question for you, Steve.

ELLIS: Sure.

BVC

ADOLPHUS BUSCH, GREAT RIVERS HABITATE ALLIANCE: After the '93 flood, we were told, of course, that there would be no more levees, no more projects, no more development in the flood planes because everybody had learned their lesson. That went on for a few years. But of course, people soon forgot again and the development started.

EVC

HARRIS: So, Steve, try this as a proposition. We are putting more communities and more homes at risk because we are building more and more levees and, in the process, creating a greater risk of even more spectacular flooding.

ELLIS: Well, no, absolutely. Essentially, what we are doing is -- it's not just the federal government in building the levees. It's also community that's are zoning and allowing development in these high-risk areas.

Mr. Busch is absolutely correct in the fact that the half-life of a natural disaster is very brief. So the time to take advantage and learn the lessons and try to make strong systematic changes are right now because it's costing us, every one of these floods, not just the individual costs and the homeowner cost but the federal government costs.

HARRIS: Steve, if I'm flooded out right now but my home is not a total loss, how easy or difficult will it be for me now to get flood insurance for a home that has been severely damaged by a flood?

ELLIS: Well, I mean, you can get flood insurance pretty much right away, but it isn't going to take effect for a disaster that has already occurred.

HARRIS: Sure.

ELLIS: Now, what can happen, though, is that if you don't -- if a community is not part of the flood insurance program, they can opt in, even after the disaster, which will then allow you to get disaster payments. So Congress just approved -- the House just approved $2.7 billion to send out to the Midwest so some of that money would be able to trickle through.

HARRIS: Terrific. Steve Ellis with us this evening. Steve, great to talk to you. Thank you for your time.

If you would like to help victims of the flooding in the Midwest, please go to our "Impact Your World" web page where you will find links to several organizations stepping in to offer assistance. That's at cnn.com/impact.

For the first time in 14 years, the teen pregnancy rate nationwide has increased. That's according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But people living in Gloucester, Massachusetts, didn't need a study to tell them that. The number of high school girls having babies more than quadrupled this year.

As CNN's Randi Kaye reports, the girls may have chosen to get pregnant together.

BVT

RANDI KAYE, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): High school is hard enough so why would a group of girls from Gloucester, Massachusetts, a fishing village outside Boston, choose to get pregnant? In all, 17 girls are having babies, some at young as 15. Not one of them is married.

CHRISTOPHER FARMER, SUPERINTENDENT, GLOUCESTER SCHOOL DISTRICT: It's profoundly disturbing.

KAYE: High school administrators are reeling after learning there may have been some sort of pregnancy pact. Even more shocking, the superintendent believes at least one girl had sex with a 24-year- old homeless man just to be part of the group.

The pact is so secretive, we couldn't even find out the girls' names.

This man told us the girls tried to convince his stepdaughter to get pregnant, too.

TED SORENSON, STEP-FATHER OF GLOUCESTER TEEN: There was a tremendous amount of negative peer pressure for as many girls as possible to join in pact. Luckily, my step-daughter was smart or scared enough to say no.

KAYE (on camera): School officials first began to take notice last October when so many girls started showing up at the nurse's office to find out if they were pregnant. The nurse reportedly gave as many as 150 pregnancy tests.

(voice-over): The superintendent says the girls went back over and over until they got the results they wanted.

FARMER: There was some talk of high-fives and that kind of thing.

KAYE: Amanda Ireland, who just graduated from Gloucester High had a baby her freshman year. She knows one of the girls in the alleged pregnancy pact.

AMANDA IRELAND, GLOUCESTER H.S. GRAD & TEEN MOTHER: I asked her if she was keeping the baby and she said yes.

KAYE: The superintendent says a handful of the girls have already delivered. Ireland can't understand why anyone would choose to get pregnant so young.

IRELAND: It's definitely not all peaches and cream.

KAYE: The superintendent says the men who fathered the children are not students, older, in their 20s. If the girls agree to name them, he says, they could face statutory rape charges.

And there's more -- the school's doctor has resigned after coming under fire for handing out contraceptives. It's against district policy.

DR. BRIAN ORR, CLINIC'S MEDICAL DIRECTOR: We were on our way to trying to do things that any parent, any adult, any community would want, decreasing the initiation of having sex and decreasing the number of sexual partners.

KAYE: Also, sex education is only taught freshman year.

(on camera): Why isn't it offered beyond that?

FARMER: Well, we are very poorly funded by the state of Massachusetts.

KAYE (voice-over): Plus, with the economy so weak here and parents scrambling to make money, this mother of five says children may not be getting enough attention at home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think parents are so busy trying to make money to survive that in this economy there's -- they're not focused on their children.

FARMER: Others blame Hollywood movies like Juno (ph) that glamorize teen pregnancy.

BVC

ACOTR: You're pregnant?

ACTOR: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And if it is any consolation, I have heartburn that is radiating in my kneecaps.

ACTOR: I didn't even know you were sexually active.

EVC

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It ruins their whole lives. It affects these children. Who is going to take care of the children? Who's going to be responsible for these children for the rest of their lives?

KAYE: It's a question many here wish the girls in the pregnancy pact had had asked themselves nine months ago.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Gloucester, Massachusetts.

EVT

HARRIS: Clubbers scrambled to get out as police work their way in. 12 are killed in a stampede at a Mexican nightclub.

Also ahead, when disaster strikes, he's ready to role. He's our "CNN Hero." You will meet him, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You know, the Olympic torch appeared to make a triumphant pass through Tibet today, but you can't always judge by appearances. In a triumph of stage craft, the Chinese government cleared the route of locals, lined it with hand-picked spectators, filled it with soldiers and police and kept reporters on a very short leash. The almost six-mile course connected two former palaces of the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959. Some of his fellow exiles protected the spectacle in India today with a mock torch run. They want the world to remember the cause of Tibetan independence, a cause that led to deadly demonstrations in Tibet this past March.

A police raid on a nightclub in Mexico City set off a deadly stampede. Authorities tell CNN a dozen people were trampled to death, among them three officers and two teenagers. The cops were acting on reports that drugs and alcohol were being serve to minors, which in Mexico, is anybody under 18. 39 people are under arrest, including the club's owner. But Mexico City's mayor says police deserve some of the blame.

As record high floodwaters and breached levees force thousands from their homes across the Midwest, this week's "CNN Hero" was on the scene to help. That is no surprise. If fact, when disasters of any kind hit cities and towns across America, Tad Aguglia is ready to roll.

(CNN HERO)

HARRIS: You know, it was a CNN viewer like you who told us about Tad. In fact, this year all of our "CNN heroes" are extraordinary people you have nominated on our website. Just go to cnn.com/heroes right now. If you know someone who deserves to be a hero, tell us about them. You never know. You could see your hero right here on CNN.

Tainted tomatoes making hundreds of people sick. The search for the source of the salmonella is next in the "NEWSROOM."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Impacting American dinner tables, salmonella-tainted tomatoes. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says the current outbreak has made some 552 people sick in 32 states. FDA investigators are en route to Florida and Mexico following leads on how the produce may have been contaminated. Inspectors are checking farms, packing sheds, and warehouses.

American beef returning to South Korea dinner tables. South Korea announced it will lift its ban on U.S. beef imports after suppliers agreed to send only meat from younger cattle. Older animals are believed to be at risk for Mad Cow Disease. South Korea banned imports in 2003 after Mad Cow was discovered here. A deal in April that lifted the ban with no age restrictions triggered weeks of protests. Demonstrators took to the streets of Seoul again today saying the plan didn't offer enough protection.

Many American families are feeling the economic pinch because of high gas and food prices. That means eating healthy is often an afterthought.

In today's "Fit Nation" report, Dr. Sanjay Gupta shows us there is a way to eat healthy on a tight budget.

(FIT NATION) HARRIS: In the middle of all of the flooding misery, one town takes time out to help a couple keep an important date.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You know, if it escaped your notice that this is the first full day of summer, you didn't start the day in Stonehenge. Ironically, the sight where the solstice, the sacred event, is one of the least summery places you'll find. Sunrise was a dreary affair, drizzly, chilly, but special all the same to the pilgrims who spend the night in the ancient stone circle southwest of London.

No one really knows why the site was built all those years ago, nor what, if anything, it has to do with the seasons. Hello?

Their plans were made months ago. Then the rains came and threatened to wash away their big day.

But Danielle Ritter was determined to marry her National Guard soldier, record flood or not. So she travelled 180 miles across Iowa to where Specialist Curtis White was helping flood victims. And the town of Columbus Junction was more than happy to take a moment to help them celebrate.

BVC

SPECIALIST CURTIS WHILE, GROOM: They needed something positive to come out of this and something to bring the whole community together. You know, I guess we're helping each other.

UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: They've done it all. You have flowers, a cake. Everything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those whom God has joined together let no one, come hell or high water, ever separate.

EVC

HARRIS: That's good. The people in Columbus Junction say helping the couple was the least they could do after the National Guard came to their rescue last weekend.

Talk about two big bundles of joy. Newborn twins in North Carolina tipping the scales at a combined 23 pounds and 1 ounce. Abigail Rose Maynard and Shawn William Maynard were born two minutes apart at a hospital in Winston-Salem this weekend. They are believed to be the second-heaviest born in the United States.

Getting caught up on all the latest developments in the presidential race, watch "This Week in Politics with Tom Foreman.

TOM FOREMAN, HOST, "THIS WEEK IN POLITICS": Like rival wild caters in search of a live well, Barack Obama and John McCain are going head to head. Yes, they have ideas about where and whether to look for oil, but the real battle is for boats. And both sides are hoping for an electoral gusher in the battleground states. So who will be stud duck, and what the heck is a stud duck anyway? We'll tell you right after we look at "What's in the News" right now.

HARRIS: Hello again, everyone. I'm Tony Harris in the CNN Center in Atlanta.

Now in the news, touch talk today in the presidential race. Barack Obama taking a swipe at his Republican opponent. John McCain lashing back. Obama accuses McCain of ignoring many cities' budget problems and he's too caught up in tax breaks for rich people. McCain's people calling all of that hog wash. And on anther subject, they say the Republican senator pushed flood control spending, which Obama opposed.

The Mighty Mississippi, the Muddy Mississippi. River water rising near St. Louis today. About 350 homes halfway or completely under water in Lincoln County, Missouri. After dropping several feet, the river rose higher than expected today. It's still not at record levels. That's a bit of relief.

Hundreds of new lightning-sparked wildfires are reported in northern California. They are in wilderness areas. New fires also reported near Monterey and could affect areas near Lake Tahoe.

Meanwhile, a wildfire near Watsonville has burned more than 600 acres and several homes. That blaze is almost contained after the efforts of more than 600 firefighters.

I'm Tony Harris. Now back to Tom Foreman and "This Week in Politics."