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Campbell Brown
Deadly Arkansas Flood; Rebuilding Louisiana's Wetlands
Aired June 11, 2010 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Campbell is off. I'm Candy Crowley.
We have got some breaking news tonight in the deadly Arkansas campground flood. There are fears that dozens of people could still be trapped there. I will talk to the governor of Arkansas in just a moment, and we will get the very latest.
Also tonight, could there be a huge new White House plan to spend billions rebuilding Louisiana's wetlands? On day 53 of the disaster in the Gulf, the spill is far worse than anyone thought, twice as big as original estimates, the equivalent of another Exxon Valdez every five days. I will talk to Congressman Ed Markey, who says the company has either been lying or is grossly incompetent.
And later: the California teenager who is stranded tonight on her sailboat in the Indian Ocean. Why was she ever allowed to sail around the world alone, and who pays for her rescue? Lots of news to get to tonight.
But we begin with our number-one story, the story that led all the network newscasts tonight, what is being described as a tsunami in the middle of the night at that campground in Arkansas.
Flash flooding swelled the Little Missouri River, washing away tents filled with sleeping campers, and killing at least 16 of them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Families that vacation at the campground in the Ouachita Mountains every year say they have never seen anything like it.
CHAD BANKS, SURVIVOR: The current was so strong that it literally took the tires off my rims on the front of my truck. That's how -- and we barely made it out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Chriss family has been coming here for 25 years. This time, they lost their dog and almost saw their son drown downstream.
ANGELA CHRIS, SURVIVOR: I have a 16-year-old that was floating down the river, saying, mama, daddy, help me. And all we had to do is -- we couldn't do nothing. We had to watch him float down. And thank God he lodged to a tree.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: So, these people were literally looking for high ground, as would be natural...
(CROSSTALK)
NICK HOFERT, SURVIVED ARKANSAS FLASH FLOOD: Yes, sir.
(CROSSTALK)
HOFERT: They were -- they were coming up from everywhere, yes, sir. And they -- I mean, it was like ants running from -- from water. I mean, it was bad.
And then they had split -- it happened so fast that they, like I said, lost their -- half of their family or lost somebody in their family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe just got back from a tour of the flood scene. He joins me now on the phone. Governor, can you just tell me what you know now of the situation as it stands tonight?
GOV. MIKE BEEBE (D), ARKANSAS: Well, we know of 16 confirmed deaths. There are several that are unaccounted for, and so search and rescue is still ongoing. And hopefully that won't be totally search and recovery.
We have virtually every asset you can have. This was a national area, a national forest area. So the federal folks are on the scene, but we also have all our state assets as well. We have state agencies, National Guard, state police. And then the local folks, the sheriff's offices are all involved in the search and hopefully rescue or if not recovery operations as we speak.
The water was just -- it came up very, very quickly. Apparently within a matter of about three hours, the river went from a three-foot level to 23 1/2 feet. So you can imagine. It's a mountainous area, where if your viewers can imagine, it's like a canyon where all that water comes down from the mountains and just goes and is funneled into a small area. And the river rose very quickly.
It happened at the worst possible time because it was between 2: 00 and 5: 00 in the morning. And obviously, all those campers were asleep. All those vacationers that were camping along that river were asleep. And so they -- they had no way to know. The weather service had issued a warning at 2: 00 a. m. , but unless you were awake with a radio, the odds are you never would have known that. And even then, we're not sure whether or not people would have reacted to it.
So it was just a horrible convergence of a number of events. And as a result of it, you see this huge loss of life.
CROWLEY: Governor, we have heard that there might have been up to 300 people in that area. It is that time of the year. People are out in the summer. Is there any way to get a precise number? Do people check in to this area? And do you have any idea, just a range of how many people are still missing? BEEBE: No. Those are pure estimates. And here is the reason why you don't know. It's twofold. First of all, the U.S. Forest Service does have a check-in place, and so there was a record of people who had checked in to that campsite. The problem is all those records were washed away with that same flood.
Secondly, there are huge areas that people camp in around that river area and in tributaries and bays and various other locations, that they don't actually go to the federal campsite to check in. So there is undoubtedly a number of people who were camped that never did check in, even if the records had been available.
So the combination of those two things suggests that there is no absolute way of knowing. It will be a number of days, obviously. There are vehicles with license plates. There are people who know that their loved ones were in that area camping. And so it will be a matter of hours and maybe days, and hopefully not much longer than that, to piece together the number of people who were in the area.
There certainly were a large number of people rescued. Early this morning, there were a large number of people that were rescued by federal officials, by park service officials, as well as by local sheriffs and state police officers, National Guardsmen and others who immediately came to the scene and started rescue operations.
CROWLEY: Governor, as I understand, and as the way you describe it, this is a fairly remote area. Would there be any way for survivors who may not yet be rescued to be signaling you? Is cell service available? Is there any way that they could be signaling any of these rescuers?
BEEBE: Well, cell service in that area is virtually nonexistent. It is truly remote. And that's the reason a lot of the people like to go there, is because they indeed are in a remote area and they are away from civilization. And a lot of times, that's the attraction for a lot of people that like to camp in the wilderness.
Now, what we have done is we have some portable cell phone towers that are being dispatched to the area so that if there are people with cell phones who are still stranded, what had previously been nonexistent cell phone service hopefully will be improved with the portable cell phone towers. But it's a very, very remote area.
But we have helicopters. We have people on horseback. Obviously all-terrain vehicles and people on foot, as well as in canoes and kayaks and watercraft, that are scouring a very large area that could potentially hold people who are still clinging to areas where the water has gone down and waiting for rescue attempts.
CROWLEY: Governor Mike Beebe of Arkansas, certainly one of the worst times to be governor, I'm sure. We thank you for giving us some of your time.
BEEBE: Absolutely.
CROWLEY: Now, I want to bring in our Chad Myers to tell us how this flood got so deadly so fast, seemingly with little or no warning.
Chad, can you tell us how this happened? It's like nine inches of rain turned into a 20-foot rise, a flood rise, right?
(CROSSTALK)
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right. And in Miami, in a flat place, a nine-inch rainfall make a nine-inch flood. But when you have mountains to catch it, on each side of the mountain, and all of the sudden that water funnels down into the valley, because gravity works, it always does, you take the rain and you put it from one top -- one ridge to the other ridge and you funnel it into the river, that river is going to go up.
And that's what happened here. If you look upstream, it's all just basically an entire basin. The basin is filling with water. The water is rushing down the hill, all the way into this river, and right into the campground that was there that we talked about here a little bit ago.
Let me show you what the governor was talking about in a minute here. Kind of a crude graphic, but it gets the work -- gets the job done. For the past seven days, the river has been at about three feet. In three hours, the river went to 23 feet. Now, here is what this river looks like. This is from Google Earth. This is on a normal day. This is what a three-foot looks like on this river. Consider this now 20 feet higher than this.
Consider what was just a tranquil just water trickling by your campsite all of the sudden into a 20-foot wall of water, a raging -- as you called it earlier, a raging basic tsunami, although not the technical term -- Candy.
CROWLEY: Chad, thank you so much, as always.
CNN will continue to watch over this, following the story tonight. We will bring you the very latest developments as we get them.
Up next: stunning news about the real amount of oil pouring into the Gulf. The amount spewing out these last seven weeks may be twice what we thought. The congressman who helped fight for your right to see these images joins me next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CROWLEY: Our number-one national story, as it has been for weeks, the disaster in the Gulf. As bad as everybody thought it was, we learned today the spill is much, much worse than first thought, at least twice as bad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Forty-two million gallons shooting up through that well from the beginning. Now we're talking about 89 million gallons of oil, more than eight times the Exxon Valdez disaster. IRA LEIFER, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA: No one should be shocked at whatever the number is. It's -- it's reality. And we have to address that safely.
ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN, NATIONAL INCIDENT COMMANDER: The fact of the matter is we're never going to know to a virtual certainty what that flow is until we can actually measure it through a pipe with no oil leakage, but in the meantime we need to continually refine these estimates.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: Those new flow estimates, of course, only adding to the outrage against BP.
Next week, CEO Tony Hayward goes before Congress for what will undoubtedly be a serious grilling from lawmakers, including the man chairing those hearings, Democratic Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts. I spoke with the congressman a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: You have been quite critical of BP, saying they have either been incompetent or they're lying. I want you to listen just for a minute to what Admiral Thad Allen had to say. He was asked today about BP and its CEO, Tony Hayward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: The fact of the matter is we have to have a cooperative productive relationship for this thing to work moving forward. When I talk to him, I asked for answers, I give them. You can characterize that as trust partnership cooperation, collaboration or whatever but this has to be a unified effort moving forward if we're going to get this thing solved.
QUESTION: So, yes?
ALLEN: If you can call that trust, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: Thad Allen, the administration's point man working with BP, working with Tony Hayward, trusts him. Is that such a leap?
REP. EDWARD MARKEY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: For me, it is.
CROWLEY: Why?
MARKEY: I believe that -- well, I believe that BP has either been lying or grossly incompetent from the very beginning.
Remember, going back a couple of years ago, they had to do a probabilistic risk assessment of the likelihood of an accident. And they reached a conclusion that the likelihood was zero. BP represented that the rig could never sink. They're now saying that there are no underwater plumes of oil and chemicals that are floating under the surface in the Gulf.
I just don't think there is any reason to really trust them, because I do believe that they are trying to limit their liability, rather than protecting the livability of the Gulf.
CROWLEY: Congressman, there is some question now as to whether it's all that productive to be beating up on BP so much. Again, I want you to listen to something. This was New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who really did stick up for BP this morning, at least in one way. Here is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), MAYOR OF NEW YORK: We're going after the heads of some of these companies. The guy that runs BP didn't exactly go down there and blow up the well. And what is more, if you want him to fix it, and they're the only ones with the expertise, I think I might wait to look -- assign blame.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: Mayor Bloomberg is a pretty good businessman. He has been through a couple of crises in his life, both business and governmental.
Are we a little quick to be piling on BP at this point? What is in it for them to be lying?
MARKEY: Look it, look ii, the chairman of AIG and Lehman Brothers, in doing probabilistic risk assessments, both determined that there was zero risk that their companies could ever collapse. Are they responsible or not? I would say they are.
The same thing is true here with BP. This wasn't something that just happened overnight. This is as a result of a long pattern of decisions made by BP that led to the point where the safety guidelines were being violated, where the representations made to the public with regard to the safety capacity to shut down the well, to ensure that it would not sink, that there would be no plumes under the water, that there would be proper response capacity to insure that the spill would not spread, none of that was true.
(CROSSTALK)
CROWLEY: So, you don't think they -- I'm sorry. You don't think that people, the human beings that run BP, that work for BP, you don't think they give a whit about safety, about the men who died, about the people whose livelihoods are now threatened? You just don't think they cared, in the name of profit?
MARKEY: I think that they engaged in boosterism, which led to complacency, and complacency leads to disaster. This is a disaster. They cut corners on safety whenever they could. They tried to turn their watchdog regulatory agency into a lap dog wherever they could.
Unfortunately, they were too successful. And for their bottom line, for their shareholders, if they didn't have to spend the money on safety, if they didn't have to spend the money on preparation for cleaning up the spill, they did not do so.
And we see it every day in the faces of those people who live in the Gulf. And criticism of the CEO of this company is warranted day in and day out, and no one should spare a word in being critical.
CROWLEY: Congressman Ed Markey, this story unfortunately doesn't seem to be going away any time soon. We will talk to you again, I'm sure. Thank you so much.
MARKEY: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: To let you know, we have a standing invitation for a BP rep to appear on this program. So far, after 53 days, no one from the company has done so. A BP spokesman today blamed it on -- quote -- "logistics."
Coming up: word of what could be a major breakthrough in the Gulf Coast cleanup. Does President Obama have a new plan to get the region back on its feet?
Also, politicians and pundits rush to BP's defense -- why some Brits are calling outrage over the oil spill disgraceful, crude, even bigoted. The BP backlash -- next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CROWLEY: One of the regular guests on this show who we have turned to throughout this oil spill crisis, historian Doug Brinkley, revealed what could be a major development in the government's response.
Brinkley told my colleague "A.C. 360" anchor Anderson Cooper that a highly placed administration source told him that President Obama plans to unveil a massive recovery plan for the coast during his return visit to the Gulf region next week. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "ANDERSON COOPER 360")
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: they are going to come out with a large Gulf recovery act.
This is a turning point. There is an appetite on Capitol Hill for Gulf recovery act. The Mississippi River is going to have to be redirected into the marshlands. And BP and Transocean and other, you know, operations, Cameron, other companies are going to have to pay up to $10 billion and $15 billion for breaking national acts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: With me now, Nicholas Wapshott, former New York bureau chief for "The Times of London" and author of "Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher: A Political Marriage," also Peter Beinart, senior political writer for TheDailyBeast.com and author of "The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris," and CNN political contributor James Carville.
James, I want to start with you.
We are now hearing about a Gulf recovery act. Basically, it sounds to me like from your lips to the administration's ears. This is the kind of thing that you have been talking about now, well, for more than the past 50 days, really, something that you have been talking about for years.
JAMES CARVILLE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. Hallelujah. Amen. Thank you, President Obama. We love you, if this is true. We love this proposal.
CROWLEY: So, this sounds like it is actually sort of beyond, as far as I understand it -- and, obviously, nothing has been announced yet, so, heaven only knows I don't want to speak for White House, but it sounds as though we are talking about something that will deal with the consumption of land and the use of land down there that has so hurt, not just Louisiana, but the rest of the Gulf states.
CARVILLE: Yes. If that is what he is talking about, it absolutely would. And this is something that is so needed. We lose the size of Manhattan every year down here.
And the implications of this are just enormous. And as a result of this tragedy, if this focus -- this president does something like this, then he may be headed to Mount Rushmore.
(LAUGHTER)
CROWLEY: Maybe he can get one of those states to turn Democratic in 2012 if he does that. But we will talk about that later.
(CROSSTALK)
CARVILLE: I would sure help him in Louisiana, if this is what he does, absolutely.
(LAUGHTER)
CROWLEY: OK.
Peter, listen, here is the problem. You know, great old idea, let's say everybody is behind it, but the economy is terrible. Everybody already thinks the government is overspending. Is there the political will to get this kind of fund together? It seems to me obviously that they will be taxing oil companies and that sort of thing. But this sort of thing always ends up with some sort of government expense. Can it fly?
PETER BEINART, THEDAILYBEAST.COM: Yes, and the danger is -- you saw this with Hurricane Katrina, too. You remember in the aftermath, there were this big talk about a Tennessee Valley Authority for the Gulf, after that, some kind of Marshall Plan. As then, sometimes, as you get further away from it and, frankly, the news coverage turns to other things, then some of the urgency tends to run out. And even if big promises are made, they're not followed through on.
But I think the advantage here is that you actually, unlike in the past administration, have an administration in place that believes that government can do good and big things. The Republicans may not believe that, but, on the other hand, there are a lot of Republican members of Congress from this region who may overlook their general anti-government sentiment in this regard.
And if I think if you can -- if Obama can make something of a success in this, it will be another part of his larger agenda, along with health care and the stimulus, to try to show Americans that actually government can make significant, important changes for the good in society.
CROWLEY: Nicholas, I want to turn to you.
Up to now, BP has been leading the cleanup effort. Of course, that hasn't stopped the administration ripping into them. Now some of the people are saying, enough is enough.
Listen to what House Republican Whip Eric Cantor told "The Financial Times."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ERIC CANTOR (R-VA), HOUSE MINORITY WHIP: What we're seeing out of the administration, which has been utter outrage, blame, villainization, cursing on TV about what is going on.
QUESTION: You're referring to the kick ass, the kick ass...
(CROSSTALK)
CANTOR: Right. And, instead of that, let's try and have some level-headed leadership. How does that help? There is going to be plenty of time for demonizing, punishing, what have you. OK. We have got to stop the gushing of oil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CROWLEY: So, these are the guys you are relying on to do the cleanup. And you're sort of going after them. We heard Mayor Bloomberg say something pretty similar, well, there will be plenty of time to figure out exactly what happened and who is exactly to blame.
Is it the best strategy, and tell us a little bit about the British reaction.
NICHOLAS WAPSHOTT, FORMER BUREAU CHIEF, "THE TIMES OF LONDON": Well, the British are feeling pretty bruised right now. It's unfortunate that the word British of course is in the name of the company. As somebody said to me, imagine what would happen if it was called French petroleum. It would be even worse.
(LAUGHTER)
WAPSHOTT: But the problem is, of course, that this is a worldwide economy we live in now. It's called British Petroleum, but it's 40 percent owned by the Brits, but it's 40 percent owned by American investors.
Of the 80,000 people working for BP, 30,000 of them are working in America. So, it's American jobs, too, which are being sacrificed here in terms of victimization of this.
CROWLEY: You have had some amazing headlines. We know that it's a British company. We also know that, tomorrow, the president is going to be talking to the new British prime minister.
All right, just a sampling of headlines, "Obama Behaving Disgracefully Over BP." "Backlash Grows to Anti-British Rhetoric." "Barack Obama's Anti-British Prejudice."
Wow.
WAPSHOTT: Wow, yes.
CROWLEY: It's really a good thing it isn't the French.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
CROWLEY: What -- what -- realistically, these are two close allies. This can't do much harm to the relationship.
WAPSHOTT: Absolutely. Britain is America's strongest ally when it comes to the military. We -- America can depend upon no one else as they can depend upon the Brits, as they did in Iraq.
And, so, it seems a little -- I think it's upset some people back at home. You know, they think that, somehow, this has been unfairly victimized. But, hey, this is the real world, and this is real politics. When somebody is back at home getting in trouble, you know, we kick as, too.
(LAUGHTER)
CROWLEY: James, you were among the first to sort of implore the president to show that he is in charge, to say to BP "I'm your daddy," I believe is the quote.
CARVILLE: Right. Yes, yes, absolutely.
(CROSSTALK)
CROWLEY: Is he going about this the right way? Do you feel like he ought to ease up a little?
CARVILLE: Of course not. Of course not.
And it has nothing to do with -- if it's a British company. The reaction would be the same. We're not anti-British. We love the British. And as far as Congressman Cantor and Mayor Bloomberg go, they're serious people. Just think for a moment. Eleven people were blown up. They were operating the rig unsafely. They had 700 violations against it.
Their application, it looks like they just copied -- just took it from something in Alaska. They won't approve anybody. They're keeping our media out. They're not reimbursing people. They're nickel-and-diming everybody down here. And we're not supposed to criticize them? I mean, that's patently absurd on its face.
CROWLEY: Peter Beinart, James Carville, Nicholas Wapshott, thank you all for much for joining us. I appreciate it.
CARVILLE: Thank you.
CROWLEY: Still ahead, if the spill is dragging President Obama down, it seems to be lifting up another politician -- why some say Bobby Jindal's leadership in the Gulf could put him back on top in the 2012 race for the White House -- that story next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CROWLEY: For all the finger-pointing in the wake of the oil spill, one man is getting almost universal praise. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. Whether battling BP, challenging the president, or reassuring local residents, Jindal's efforts are winning high marks with voters and Republican Party leaders.
Tonight, CNN's Jessica Yellin reports on the former GOP wiz kid suddenly back in the national spotlight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATL. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even before oil hit Louisiana shores, Governor Bobby Jindal was front and center, taking on BP.
GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: I share these concerns that BP's current resources are not adequate.
YELLIN: Demanding action.
JINDAL: We need more urgency. We need a better plan.
YELLIN: And getting results.
JINDAL: We have just received word from the White House that they are going to require, they are going to require BP to fund the five remaining segments.
(APPLAUSE)
YELLIN: This week, he laid into President Obama.
JINDAL: We've got a clear message for the White House, a clear message for the president, a clear message for the federal government. We want them to do their jobs.
YELLIN: It seems Governor Bobby Jindal, once a rising Republican star, is back.
REIHAM SALAM, CONSERVATIVE ANALYST: Here's a guy who understands the nitty-gritty of policy issues down to the very granular level. And when it comes to berating federal officials, when it comes to actually knowing the nuts and bolts of a crisis situation like this one, that's where Bobby Jindal comes off the strongest.
YELLIN: Quite a turnaround. Remember just last year Jindal's national career was on life support after he delivered a disastrous Republican response to the president's State of the Union speech.
JINDAL: To solve our current problems, Washington must lead. But the way to lead is not to raise taxes, not to just put more money and power in the hands of Washington politicians.
YELLIN: Even conservative pundits panned it as amateurish, insane, a disaster for the party. And the jokes comparing him to Kenneth the page from NBC's "30 Rock" began.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need to talk to you about an urgent page- related matter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YELLIN: These days signs point to political redemption, maybe even a run for president? That's something he dismissed in an interview with John King.
JINDAL: I've got my hands full down here. We've got to protect our state. We've got plenty of work to do in Louisiana.
YELLIN: At just 39 years old, Jindal has plenty of time to think about the future, which is exactly what analysts say he needs.
(on camera): What should he do next?
SALAM: Well, I think that he has actually a pretty good plan. What he ought to do is build up his credentials at home and run for reelection in 2011, and keep his powder dry.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
YELLIN: Now, Candy, the political calendar would make it tough for him to run for president in 2012. That's because, as you know, first he has to be reelected governor in November of 2011. And if he were to run for president, he'd have to start campaigning the very next month. So it really seems far more likely that if he does run, he'd wait at least until 2016, although we've both seen stranger things happen -- Candy.
CROWLEY: We have indeed. Jessica Yellin, thanks.
Back with me to look at Bobby Jindal's reversal of fortune, Peter Beinart and James Carville.
James, is Bobby Jindal back? Has he redeemed himself?
JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think he's done a good job. I've been out with him and I think he's -- people in the state feel like that he'd been, you know, articulate and talking about the things that we need. The truth of the matter is the state doesn't have a lot of resources to deal with something of this magnitude. It's really the federal government as the same thing it was the fact in Katrina. That's why we have the federal government. I've never understood these people that say that they want to cripple the federal government here.
But yes, I think he has done a good job. He's been very articulate about what the state needs. And he's been smart the way he's handled this.
CROWLEY: Well, and Peter, James brings up really the biggest problem for a conservative small government kind of governor. Can you translate the profile he has in this gulf crisis into becoming a national political figure, even though we know as a conservative you're kind of for smaller government?
PETER BEINART, DAILYBEAST.COM: I think right now in this semi psychotic tea party moment in the Republican Party, the answer is probably no. But I think over the longer term, if the Republican Party is ever going to actually get back into the White House, they are going to have to have national politicians who are associated with government confidence. And being associated with government confidence and being associated with government confidence in doing something like this is incompatible with the idea of basically trying to eliminate the regulatory apparatus of government. So I think eventually after the Republican Party, frankly, loses another presidential election or two, I think they probably will start to look for people like Bobby Jindal who have the reputation for government competence. Remember, that's essentially what destroyed the presidency of George W. Bush.
CROWLEY: Peter Beinart and James Carville doing double duty for us tonight.
CARVILLE: Right.
CROWLEY: Thank you very much.
Next, a survivor of the deadly Deepwater Horizon explosion speaks out. The terrifying ordeal, and new accusations of profit before safety in the days before the blast.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CROWLEY: With all the awful news coming out of the gulf, we're also hearing amazing stories of survival from the oil rig explosion itself. One worker describes how all hell broke loose as he was sleeping. CNN's Abbie Boudreau reports on his frightening hours and the wife waiting at home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Never did they think their new marriage would be tested like this. And so soon. Six months after their wedding, Sara Stone would find herself waiting to find out if her husband were dead or alive.
SARA STONE, STEPHEN'S WIFE: My phone call was that there has been an emergency evacuation on the rig. There's nothing else that we can tell you at this point. I did not know what was happening until I went home and I turned on the TV and saw that the rig was on fire.
BOUDREAU: Stephen Stone was scheduled to head home. He had one more day on the rig. He'd already spent 20 days on the Deepwater Horizon as a Transocean employee. And after working a 12-hour shift, he was in his room, sound asleep.
(on camera): So you were sleeping and the explosion woke you up?
STEPHEN STONE, TRANSOCEAN EMPLOYEE: Yes.
BOUDREAU: And then what do you remember next?
STEPHEN STONE: Just running. I didn't see any of the flames until I got outside.
BOUDREAU: Did you think that it could be over?
STEPHEN STONE: Yes, I mean, you can't really see anything like that and not expect possibly to die. So it was kind of wait for it, you know.
BOUDREAU: Can you explain what goes through your mind when you're thinking that everything is out of your control at that moment?
STEPHEN STONE: Just sadness. Just thought about her. Just, you know, braced for impact.
BOUDREAU (voice-over): Stephen had made it to a lifeboat, and then to a nearby supply vessel. For eight hours, he watched the oil rig burn. Back in Houston, his wife Sara was calling hospitals, hoping her husband wasn't injured or worse.
S. STONE: I finally was able to get a hold of the emergency response team. And they informed me that he was on the OK list, that where they'd be taken to.
BOUDREAU: She took the first flight out, but 10 hours later, still no word. Fifteen hours would turn into 20. S. STONE: The main question that all of us had was, are they really on that boat? You know, why can't we speak to them?
BOUDREAU: Finally, 28 hours after the explosion, Sara was reunited with her husband.
(on camera): What was that moment like?
S. STONE: It started out as the worst day of my life, and it ended up as the best. So I couldn't -- I think we probably hugged each other for as long as we could.
BOUDREAU (voice-over): Safe and reunited, Steven began to replay the events leading up to the disaster in his mind.
STEPHEN STONE: At least four times I can remember maybe four or five where we had to stop drilling and like pump down pretty much the ceiling (ph).
BOUDREAU: He says they may have been drilling too fast where the well was unstable, which caused cracks to form in the rock they were drilling into. He says more precautions should have been taken. Stephen says he tried to be safe on the rig. He says there were even times where he stopped operations to make things safer. But there were consequences.
STEPHEN STONE: I had been called in to talk to one of the senior guys for Transocean. They were saying my work performance was slipping. And I was like -- you know, I always thought I tried to pace myself. You know, we're in here 12 hours. Try to pace yourself and not wear yourself out and think about what I'm doing and work safe, you know. As soon as I said that, it was like, well, don't use safety as a crutch.
BOUDREAU (on camera): So safety is important up until the project gets slowed down, and then all of a sudden not so much?
STEPHEN STONE: When they start losing money, they were always kind of in a rush because that's what's making the money for the rig. That's when mistakes were more likely to happen is when people are rushing.
BOUDREAU (voice-over): Stephen doesn't think he'll step foot on an oil rig ever again. He is just glad he grabbed the one most important possession he had on the Deepwater Horizon before it sank.
S. STONE: This amazing person, you know just decided to go get his wedding ring from his room. I mean, it's just kind of really blown my mind as far as who he is.
STEPHEN STONE: Newly married. It's important, you know. Out of all the things I had out there, this is the most important to me, you know.
(END VIDEOTAPE) BOUDREAU: Stephen still officially works for Transocean, but he's filed a lawsuit against them and the other oil companies who operated on the rig. Transocean has not responded to the specific allegations in court. The other companies named in the suit have either denied the allegations or have also not formally responded. We contacted Transocean and BP. They both turned down our request for an interview and have not responded to our request for comment.
Abbie Boudreau, CNN, Atlanta.
CROWLEY: Coming up, a teenager sailing around the world is stranded at sea tonight. When will help arrive, and why was she allowed to take the dangerous journey alone in the first place?
And the latest on that flash flood that leveled an Arkansas campground. At least 16 people were killed. Dozens are still missing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CROWLEY: Still ahead, the dramatic rescue of a 16-year-old lost at sea. A look at what went wrong, and who will pay for the rescue.
But first, Joe Johns is here with some of the other stories we're following tonight -- Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Candy. At least 16 people died in an Arkansas campground after a wall of water came down on them in the middle of the night. Dozens are missing. The Red Cross says there could have been as many as 300 people in the campground when the heavy rains flooded the area. A short time ago, Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe appearing on this program told us the records of those staying at the campground were lost in the flood, and that portable cell phone towers are being brought in to try to connect with the survivors in the remote wilderness.
Joran van der Sloot was charged today with first-degree murder and robbery in the death of 21-year-old Peruvian Stephany Flores. The Dutch native confessed to the murder earlier this week. He also told officials he knows what happened to Natalee Holloway, the American teen who disappeared in Aruba five years ago, but he'll only reveal that information to Aruban police.
And the World Cup, the planet's greatest and most watched sports spectacle is now underway in South Africa. Screaming fans. The month-long tournament marks the World Cup's first ever visit to the continent of Africa. World champion Italy will be defending the title they won four years ago. Tomorrow, the United States faces Great Britain. Now, Candy, that should be a pretty interesting match-up, wouldn't you think?
CROWLEY: Absolutely. You know, even if you're not into soccer, you can really get drawn into this over the next month or so. It looks exciting.
JOHNS: There is no question, it's mesmerizing. You can't stop watching.
CROWLEY: It is, it is. In the meantime we'll work, but we'll watch where we are. Thanks.
JOHNS: You bet.
CROWLEY: Coming up, a teenager lost at sea, found, but yet to be rescued. She's just barely old enough to have a driver's permit. Yet she's navigating a solo sailing trip around the world. We'll have the latest next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CROWLEY: Tonight, rescue teams are racing to reach a 16-year-old sailor whose boat is adrift in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Abby Sunderland was on a mission to become the youngest person to sail around the world alone. It was not to be.
Abby's journey began in Marina del Rey, California in January. Last month, she sailed past Cape Town, South Africa. But yesterday she hit rough waters and sent out a distress signal. Now a rescue ship is on its way to save her. And so with her seemingly safe, the big question tonight is for her parents. What were they thinking? CNN's Ted Rowlands reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This photo taken by an Australian search and rescue team shows Abby Sunderland's stranded boat in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The boat is damaged, but Abby is inside, alive and well. Wonderful news for her family who spent almost 18 excruciating hours waiting to find out if Abby was OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're absolutely over the moon. We're very, very happy. And we're very excited that the Australian search and rescue jumped on this right away.
ROWLANDS (on camera): The question many people have is how did a 16-year-old end up all by herself in the middle of the Indian Ocean?
(voice-over): The answer with her parents' blessing. Listen to Abby's mother.
MARIANNE SUNDERLAND, MOTHER: We know the risks that are involved. And you know, with technology, the choice of boat, having a meteorologist following her trip and guiding her, routing her, you minimize as many risks as you can, and you know, you know there's always a possibility of some kind of accident, like Abby had.
ROWLANDS: Abby isn't the only Sunderland child to make this trip. Her parents also let their teenaged son Zac sail around the world just last year. The video log of his journey highlights the dangers of the open seas.
ZAC SUNDERLAND, BROTHER: I've just been through my first big squall out here. And it was crazy. It was pouring with rain for like five minutes, and pouring is like filling up the cockpit, water getting everywhere. The whole boat just got soaked.
ROWLANDS: Zac Sunderland had no doubt his sister was ready for the journey.
Z. SUNDERLAND: She is a very good sailor. She's obviously got what it takes. She's a single hand, you know, that inner desire to just push through the hard times. And yes, I mean, crazy stuff happens, especially in the Indian Ocean, the southern Indian Ocean. And so there's nothing you can really do about it.
ABBY SUNDERLAND, SAILOR: It's designed for speed and safety.
ROWLANDS: Abby, no surprise, sounded pretty confident herself when she set out. Here she is giving a tour of her boat, "Wild Eyes," for "Soundings," a boating Web site. For a while it was smooth sailing. But Thursday, about 2,000 miles off the coast of Madagascar, Abby hit a storm. First her satellite phone failed. Then she activated two distress beacons.
JEFF CASHER, SUPPORT TEAM: Now we know we've got a real problem. What is it? Is she OK? Is she hurt? Is the boat sinking?
ROWLANDS: At the time the nearest boat from Abby's location was more than 40 hours away. So Australian search and rescue chartered a Qantas airbus passenger jet to locate Abby. They talked to her by radio and found out she was OK. Several vessels are heading to the area where Abby's boat is drifting. As it stands now, the Australian government has volunteered to pay for Abby's safe return, and that's not sitting well with some Aussie taxpayers.
PETER STEFANOVIC, CH. 9 AUSTRALIA: A lot of Australians are really annoyed that they have to pay for a recovery mission that probably shouldn't have happened in the first place.
ROWLANDS: And this is how one family's adventure turns into a costly international rescue effort.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Thousand Oaks, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: "LARRY KING LIVE" starts in just a few minutes but up next, "The Right Stuff." You may not recognize her name, but you're about to find out how a remarkable athlete broke a barrier and made history, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CROWLEY: Every Friday we try to select someone who stands out from the week's event, someone with the right stuff. Tonight, we choose an athlete who has made history. She's won every major competition in her sport, and broke a gender barrier by winning one of the most prestigious men's competitions in their league. Simply put, she's taken the sport of bowling by storm. So why doesn't anybody know her name?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLY KULICK, WON MEN'S PROFESSIONAL BOWLING ASSOCIATION TITLE: Hi. I'm Kelly Kulick. I'm the first woman ever to win the Men's Professional Bowling Association title.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Kulick celebrates history.
KULICK: This year has been one magic ride. It's almost like every time I win, I want to go to Disney World.
One time, one time, yes.
KULICK: In the past year alone, I think I've won a total of six titles. I won the USBC Queens.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go. She's done it. Kelly Kulick has won her second Queens title.
KULICK: I won the women's U.S. Open. The two major championships women have the opportunity to compete in each year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about that. Kelly Kulick's accomplishment, unprecedented in women's bowling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been a remarkable role. And she doesn't seem to be losing momentum. She's just completely destroyed the competition now in some very important tournaments.
KULICK: The sweetest victory probably would have to be the Tournament of Champions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's see if she can do it.
KULICK: To be the first woman eligible to bowl in it is already the victory, but then to win it was just the true fairy tale story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about that, America.
KULICK: Once I was in the final match, I guess every athlete has that moment in their career when they're in the zone. And I was the most focused. I was the most determined.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not. Why not.
KULICK: The crowd was standing on its seat. The moment I released the ball, you could just hear them come on, Kelly, come on, ball. They wanted to knock down the pins themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Put a whooping on the boys.
KULICK: Everyone says go grab the trophy, go grab the trophy. And the first thing I did was run over to my mother. For you. I love you. And I handed it to her, and I said I love you. And I said this is for you.
Thank you. All the sportswriters, all the media coverage that I gained said you should have sponsors knocking at your door. You should have agents just tearing the door down to get to you. Not one of them contacted me.
FILIP BONDY, SPORTS REPORTER, "NY DAILY NEWS": Yes, you would think here's an attractive woman who's gone and defeated the men in the biggest stage that is available to them, and yet we haven't seen the breakthrough endorser yet. Wheaties, Nike, Adidas, there are all sorts of potential endorsers out there. How hard is it really to watch this tape to see her grasping the bowling ball on that last roll and saying, you know, this is history.
KULICK: I've always dreamed of a year like the one I've had. It really has been a magic carpet ride. And I just hope it never ends.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CROWLEY: That's it. "LARRY KING LIVE" starts right now.
