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American Morning
San Bruno Burning; Koran Burning on Hold Again; Trump's Peace Offer
Aired September 10, 2010 - 08:00 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 was like an earthquake. A lot of rattling, and the noise was phenomenal. It was so loud. It just kept shaking, probably a good 10 minutes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: That's an explosion -- brilliant fireball rising 1,000 feet in the sky according to witness who is saw it. All of this -- a tragic situation in one San Bruno neighborhood this morning.
It's now 8:00, 5:00 in the morning Pacific Time. Good morning to you. It's September 10th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Good of you to be with us this morning.
We are following the breaking news out of San Bruno, California.
"The Los Angeles Times" now reporting six people have been killed in that massive gas explosion according to the San Bruno fire chief. And the fire chief, unfortunately, expects that death toll to rise as rescue and recovery crews get into more homes as the day progresses.
CHETRY: Yes. Right now, more than 170 homes are damaged or destroyed altogether and we're hearing that crews will be searching house to house, that process beginning any minute now.
Dan Simon joins us live on the phone in San Bruno this morning. We should explain, we had you live throughout the earlier part, but as the day has moved on, they've asked you guys to continue to move back a little bit more from the scene.
What's the latest?
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): That's right. The police department said they needed our space to make room for all their vehicles going in and out of the command center. So we'll be up shortly with the camera.
But really, what you are reporting, six now confirmed according to "The Los Angeles Times." But I have to tell you, you know, in speaking to firefighters who were there on the scene and we had a chance to look at the scene as well, you know, they were telling us all along that they anticipated the death toll to rise rapidly once they had an opportunity to go into some of these homes that they put out and really inspect things closely.
I think the best thing to do right now is just kind of show you what it looked like when I arrived on the scene shortly after firefighters got to that neighborhood.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIMON: There were early reports that a plane may have crashed into the hillside. Those reports were not true. But you can understand when you get here why some may have been under that impression. When fire crews got here, this neighborhood where we are was just totally engulfed in flames.
You can see right now firefighters, all they can really do is take a defensive stance, try to put out some of these flames and try to prevent some of the other homes from catching on fire.
Here's another vantage point of some homes that caught fire. You can see behind us, just four or five homes totally leveled. Fire crews are not doing anything over there.
A few minutes ago, we heard a very loud explosion. We didn't know what it was. It turned out to be this white station wagon, some kind of car explosion. So, that's another thing that crews out here have to deal with.
We are right next to what we think was ground zero. You can see behind me everything is completely leveled.
To give you an idea just how hot this fire was, I want to show you this. Look at the back of this white Volkswagen -- the heat just melting this taillight. And if you walk to the front, you can see that the explosion caused the concrete to travel a great distance. It's just lying here on the windshield of this car, a little chunk of it.
One the big problems firefighters are dealing with right now is the wind. You can see it on this crime scene tape just kind of blowing around and you can see it with this smoke. That's helping to spread the flames.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIMON: And it's clear that firefighters are making good progress as the night wears on here in San Bruno, California. You can see the image on your screen. That it appears that they made some good progress getting those flames out.
The latest that we heard, however, was 50 percent containment. When we get the next briefing, we are will assume that will rise, but that's the latest figure that we have. We are told that there was some sort of natural gas line eruption, that's what caused this fire to occur, this explosion. What happened, how that enormous gas main was compromised is really the question. Was there a construction going on in the area? Was there a build-up of pressure? Those are the questions that obviously we want to find out.
But nonetheless, just an incredible inferno that we all witnessed here and one firefighter I spoke to said, you know, this was -- it was the biggest fire he's ever seen in his career -- John and Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Dan Simon for us this morning on the phone and there's still no cause officially determined at this point. We did speak to Pacific Gas and Electric, a spokesperson. They did confirm that it was a rupture, but they said they're still looking into it.
Some people who live in the San Bruno neighborhood, though, have said that they've been complaining about the smell of gas for about three weeks leading up to the explosion and they don't think anything was done about it. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM GUTIERREZ, SAN BRUNO RESIDENT: It started around three weeks ago in my neighborhood. PG&E had come out. I was working on my garage. They had told me to shut the door, shut the garage, to go inside, that there was real heavy strong gases. After being in the neighborhood for a little bit, they packed up and left, but the real heavy smell was right down the street at the next stop sign. Every day after work, I smelled the heavy smell coming from the gutter and sewer right there.
REPORTER: And for what you know, what did PG&E do about this? How long was this smell going on? What did they tell you to do?
GUTIERREZ: They told us nothing. I mean, I don't know how anybody can not repair a smell like that and not find that smell. Especially when you go into neighborhoods and there's other neighborhoods that have smelled the same smell really strong.
REPORTER: And for how long have you smelled this?
GUTIERREZ: For a good three weeks.
REPORTER: And what did they tell you to do?
GUTIERREZ: When they -- whey they came out, they said shut the door and go inside the house. And that was it. You can see as what happened. It's just ridiculous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: You can hear the frustration on the man's voice.
With so much damage done and so many homes and lives destroyed, there a lot of questions this morning for officials at PG&E, the utility that owns the gas line that ruptured and exploded.
Joining us on the phone right now is Blair Jones. He's the spokes person for PG&E.
So, Blair, I assume that you heard Tim Gutierrez there saying that he and other people in the neighborhood had been smelling a very strong smell of gas in the neighborhood for about three weeks coming from the area, the intersection, from the sewers as well.
What do you know about that? Was there indeed a gas leak in that area that may have gone on for days?
BLAIR JONES, SPOKESMAN, PACIFIC GAS & ELECTRIC CO. (via telephone): Well, John, thank you for having us on this morning.
I want to start by saying that our thought go out to everyone affected by this terrible situation. And our priority right now is working to make sure the area is safe. We have crews on the scene working with emergency officials so it is for them --
ROBERTS: Right.
JONES: -- to get into the area and do their job.
ROBERTS: I appreciate your concern about the residents in the neighborhood. But the question was, do you -- what can you say about the reports that gas was leaking in the area for a period of days if not weeks?
JONES: Right. And John we talked about earlier in your segment. You know, a cause yet to be determined, but we will be participating in a full investigation. And to your question there, that would be something to look at during the course of such an investigation.
Right now, our focus is, again, on helping to make sure the area is and restoring gas and electrical service quickly and safely as possible. But that would be something that would be looked at during the course of the investigation.
CHETRY: And have you gotten new information today? I'm sure that, you know, there many people wanting to know what's going on, especially people whose homes are ablaze, people who know someone who may have lost their lives or injured because of this. And also, I imagine, the emergency personnel, they just want to make sure that this can't happen again in another neighborhood.
JONES: Right. Well, again, you know, we are - we are early in -- still in the early stages of this incident. But we are, you know, working hand in hand with emergency officials to make sure that they can access the area. We are -- we'll be continuing to work with emergency officials and investigators to try to find out the cause that led to this and we're going to be continuing in that area to work to restore service as quickly and safely as possible.
We know our customers have concerns, so do we. And again, our thoughts are with everyone affected by this -- by this terrible situation.
ROBERTS: Right, Blair. I just want to press you on this point more time because Tim Gutierrez said the calls had been made to PG&E. Have you been able to, in the hours following this explosion, ascertain whether or not anybody had made a call to your utility to report a smell of gas in the area?
JONES: John, and again as I said, we'll be participating in the full investigation. That would be something to look at during the course of the investigation.
ROBERTS: Right. I understand. But have you been able to, in the last few hours, ascertain whether or not there were calls made to the utility?
JONES: And, again, John, like I said, that's something we'll be looking at in the course of the investigation. Right now, our focus is helping make sure the area is safe and that we can restore service quickly and safely as possible.
ROBERTS: All right. Blair, thanks so much for joining us on the phone this morning.
The Red Cross, by the way, is helping coordinate shelter and assistance for people affected by the fire. Their number: 1-888-443- 5722 -- 1-888-4-HELP-BAY.
CHETRY: If you live in San Bruno and you saw the explosion or you've been affected by the fire, you can send an iReport of photos or videos if you care to share them. It's at CNN.com/iReport.
And meantime, the California explosion and fire could end up meaning travel delays for the area beyond San Bruno. As we said, it's just a couple of miles from San Francisco International Airport. Our Rob is monitoring all of the conditions there and he's going to join us live next.
ROBERTS: Also coming up: another big story that we've been following for days now, the Koran-burning that was scheduled for tomorrow temporarily at least on hold.
We're going to hear from the Imam Muhammad Musri. He's the man who apparently brokered the deal to stop the Koran-burning last night.
But Terry Jones, the pastor who said that he's going to burn 200 copies of the Koran tomorrow says, well, not so fast. The deal may not be in place and this thing may still be on. So, we'll find out what that's all about.
Ten minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANDREW ROSENBERG, PROVIDING MEDICAL HELP FOR SAN BRUNO FIRE: A fairly decent group of doctors that have shown up, we have general surgeons. We have anesthesiologists. We have psychiatrists. We can pretty much handle everything. A lot of nurses have come in and ancillary help, respiratory therapy. So, we have enough staff here to pretty much man what seems to be coming in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: We have been following the breaking news out of San Bruno, California, down near the San Francisco airport. "The Los Angeles Times" now reporting that six people were killed in that gas explosion and fire happening just about 6:00 last night Pacific Time. One hundred and seventy homes, 170, either damaged or totally gone.
The San Bruno fire chief is telling "The L.A. Times" the crews are just now beginning to get in and search for more victims. The flames were too big and too hot for most of the night for them to get near it.
CHETRY: Well, smoke from the fire is expected to cause airport delays as well this morning at nearby San Francisco International Airport, about two miles away.
Rob Marciano is in the extreme weather center this morning.
It's just such a tragedy. And the repercussions are going to be felt beyond this neighborhood today as we find out whether or not the weather is going to be impacted because of these flames.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, as you mentioned, the airport is really close there. So, they put out an advisory saying that they think there will be some delays because of the smoke. How long those delays are, we'll have to wait and see. But certainly in the morning, we could see delays of up to or over an hour until things get a little bit more back to normal.
We do have lighter winds this morning. We had light winds yesterday. But during the afternoon this time of year, you'll get to see sea breeze to kick, the marine layer kicks out, and these winds can easily go from one to three miles an hour to -- well, up to 21 miles an hour in San Francisco and San Bruno. You have 14 miles an hour yesterday at 6:00 in Oakland.
So, this was bad timing for this explosion to happen right around 6:00 because at 2:00 and 3:00, the winds were much, much lighter. Between 5:00 and 10:00, winds were sustained at 20, 21 miles an hour and at times gusting higher than that. And the day before that, we had similar conditions, although more severe.
I suspect today will have similar conditions but not quite as severe as yesterday, but winds very, very light right now. And this is due to any sort of larger weather system. It's just kind of the local microclimate that happen there September. We get into October, and things are getting a little bit more quiet with more sustained sunshine.
So, that's the deal with the weather. No system weather system that rolled through. There's no rain that's helping the situation there. It looks like most of the fires are under control there. A little bit later, we'll talk more about the Colorado fire in Boulder still burning, and we do expect windy conditions there. What's left over is Tropical Storm Hermine, which is creating heavy rain across the mid- section of the country.
And tropical depression now, Igor, has weakened at least for the time being. Forecast strengthen, and now, the new forecast track does shift a little bit further south which keeps it on a trajectory aiming at a little bit more towards the U.S. than we ever going to be thought. So, a reason to be a little bit nervous there. We'll talk more about that. This is one of the - we're reaching the peak of hurricane season right now. I'm trying to be optimistic with that, but that only means that we'll be busy for the next month -- guys.
ROBERTS: And the storms as we know can be compressions (ph), Rob?
MARCIANO: Hmmm.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks.
MARCIANO: All right, guys.
CHETRY: At last check, the Koran burning has been canceled. We're going to hear from Imam Musri (ph). He's the man who apparently helped bring that about by getting through in some way to Reverend Terry Jones. We're going to in again on the story in just a moment. It's 16-and-a-half minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Nineteen minutes past the hour right now. Florida pastor's Koran burning or at least threat to do it on 9/11 is apparently off again this morning. Reverend Terry Jones now says he will not burn the Muslim holy book tomorrow and that he hopes he still gets his meeting with the developers of the Islamic center and mosque near Ground Zero.
ROBERTS: Jones insists that he was promised that meeting in New York City, and that he was lied to by the man who helped brokered the deal. Imam Muhammad MUSRI, the director of the Islamic Society of Central Florida. We asked Imam Musri if he could try to set the record straight for us a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Who is telling the truth here?
IMAM MUHAMMAD MUSRI, DIRECTOR, ISLAMIC SOCIETY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA: Of course, I am. I have not made that promise, and I made it very clear to him, I have no control over the project in New York. I'm just a mediator here. And I promised him to set up the meeting and take him along and pay for it.
But no guarantee that I can move that mosque. It's not my decision. So, he stretched it and exaggerated once he was in front of the cameras that became to him the center, the face-saving gesture that he wanted to connect the two together and barter, but that's not what I offered him.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: Just to clarify here and make sure that we're absolutely clear on all of this, Pastor Jones says he was promised in that meeting that the mosque would be moved. Not just the meeting, but the mosque would be moved, and Imam Musri says no. I never promised with him the mosque will be moved.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: I have no control over that.
CHETRY: That's right. And he also said he's going to take him on a plane and fly to New York City whether a meeting actually happens remains to be seen.
ROBERTS: Because Imam Musri told us just a little while ago that, in fact, the meeting had not yet been set. So, this is still very fluid situation, I guess, as what you could call it.
CHETRY: And there's someone else throwing themselves in the frame now. It's Donald Trump. He apparently is weighing in on the Islamic center controversy in Lower Manhattan by offering to buy out the majority landowner who said no. He said an offer to one of the eight investors in the property saying that he would buy the site at 45 Park place for the price paid plus 25 percent, on top of that, all cash. The investor's lawyer said it wasn't even considered, calling it a pathetic attempt to get publicity.
ROBERTS: Did it work?
CHETRY: Donald Trump will be on Larry King Monday night. Is it a stunt or did he somehow think that he could get a serious offer out of this? We're going to talk to him. We're going to hear from him when he appears on Larry King, Monday, 9:00 p.m. eastern.
ROBERTS: All right. So, potentially some good news coming to us out of Iran this morning. An Iranian officials say they may release American hiker, Sarah Shourd, as soon as tomorrow. Shourd and two men have been held in Iran for more than a year after they were accused of illegally crossing into Iran. The hiker's mothers insist they're all in a scent (ph) they're asking for all three to be freed at the same time.
But we should point out that Sarah Shourd has been having health problems for months now. So, it's probably a compassionate release because of that.
We're also still monitoring the breaking news out of San Bruno, California this morning. A massive explosion and fire pretty much levels an entire neighborhood. A live report coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our main concern as public officials here making sure our citizens are safe.
ROBERTS (voice-over): State of emergency in the San Francisco suburb. A powerful gas transmission line explosion sparking a deadly inferno. More than 170 homes have been damaged or destroyed. Heat hot enough to crack car windshields blocks away and melt the taillights right off of the back of some vehicles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: And we want to give you an idea now and just the scope of the devastation in San Bruno with some before and after shots. This is a Google Earth street view of the intersection where we're hearing from officials of the explosion took place at Claremont and Glenview Drive. Before the explosion, you can see the neatly lined upscale three-line streets and homes there.
Check out the intersection after the explosion. It looks like it was bombed. We're told by witnesses that there's a crater 15 feet deep, 30 feet wide. That's actually just video. That's not a street map, but they're also talking about the crater being filled with water and also reportedly a jagged 24-inch wide natural gas pipe just simply sticking out of the street.
ROBERTS: Firefighters in San Bruno are just now getting into that neighborhood to take a look around for more victims, but we might not know for hours how bad things really are. Our Dan Simon got on the scene shortly after the explosion. He got a look at it from a number of different vantage points. Here's what he saw in the wee hours of this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There were early reports that a plane may have crashed into the hillside. Those reports were not true, but you can understand when you get here why some may have been under that impression. When fire crews got here, this neighborhood where we are was just totally engulfed in flames. You can see right now firefighters, all they can really do is take it offensive stance, try to put out some of these flames, and try to prevent some of the other homes from catching on fire.
Here's another vantage point at some homes that caught fire. You can see behind us just four or five homes totally leveled. Fire crews are not doing anything over there. A few minutes ago, we heard very loud explosions. We didn't know what it was. It turned out to be this white station wagon, some kind of car explosion. So, that's another thing that crews out here have to deal with.
We are right next to what we think was Ground Zero. You can see behind me, everything is completely leveled. To give you an idea just how hot this fire was, we want to show you this. Look at the back of this white Volkswagen. The heat is just melting this tail light.
And if we walk to the front, you can see that the explosion caused the concrete to travel at great distances just lying here on the windshield of this car, a little chunk of it. One of the big problems firefighters are dealing with right now is the wind. We can see it on this crime scene tape, just kind of blowing around and you can see it with a smoke. That's helping to spread the flames.
Coming to you now from the parking lot of a shopping mall, you can see this Red Cross disaster bus that has been set up behind me. This had been a place for victims or evacuees to come to get some food, to get the latest information from authorities. One thing that they're asking the evacuees to do is to come to this location or go to one of the shelters that's been set up and give their address. Let them know that they're okay.
That is one of the ways, at least, that's one of the things that they want them to do to ascertain how many people got out safely. But bottom line is, we're really not going to know the full extent of the fatalities until crews can actually get inside these homes. Once you have daylight and once they feel totally confident that the flames are out and they can go into these homes safely and just search them one by one for possible victims.
But again, the latest information we have and this coming from the "Los Angeles Times," eight fatalities. But as we've been talking to firefighters all night long, they still expect that number to go up -- John Kiran.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Dan, we saw your reporting from the fire while the blaze was still ongoing a few hours ago. Let's contrast that now with some pictures coming in from our affiliate, KTVU, and get you to describe what it's like on the scene there now. It would appear from these area shots that the fires are mostly if not all out.
SIMON: That are is good news. We were told it was 50 percent containment, but that was when the winds were pretty intense. As we have gotten well past midnight and now into the early morning hours, the winds seem to have died down, giving firefighters the opportunity to get the upper hand.
Also it was crucial to stop the flow of gas, and that was probably the decisive that enabled them to get the upper hand and also have some of that residual gas burn off if you will and really get the upper hand.
CHETRY: We're checking in with Rob Marciano and he said two to six mile and hour winds today in store for the area, so he said that it should give firefighters a break. But as we saw from the picture, they have been able to put the fires out. Dan Simon for us, I know you are getting information by the minute as they moved to the new coordination site. Thanks so much.
ROBERTS: We understand too that the National Transportation Safety Board which is the regulatory investigative agency and launched a go team to figure out what it was that happened that led to the gas explosion because residents said they smelled gas in the area for some three weeks.
CHETRY: A lot of questions about it. We pressed the PG&E spokesman twice when he joined, but he didn't seem willing to get a lot of information out about that yet, but it seems that will come to light. These people claim they made phone calls that is monitored and documented by utilities. We will see what comes of that.
ROBERTS: The Red Cross is helping to coordinate shelter and assistance for people affected by the fire. If you need help, there is the number for you. It's 888-443-5722.
CHETRY: If you live in San Bruno or have been affected by the fire and want to share photos or videos, logon to CNN.com/ireport and upload.
ROBERTS: So the latest on this Koran burning. Pastor Terry Jones said last night, I have a deal and it's off. But he found out maybe the deal wasn't the deal he thought that it was, and so now he is saying maybe it's back on again. And then he is saying no, it's still off.
But what are the political ramifications of all this that is the White House is getting so involved in this tiny little church that has fewer than 50 congregates?
CHETRY: The president had to respond and the secretary of state and secretary of defense.
ROBERTS: The secretary of defense calling the pastor yesterday.
But then again, if you don't call, what are the ramifications that this goes forward? We'll talk about the political drama associated with this with James Carville coming right up. It's 33 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's now 37 minutes after the hour.
His on again, off again plan to burn copies of the Koran is apparently now on hold. Florida pastor Terry Jones set off a worldwide firestorm by announcing a Koran-burning event tomorrow, the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
But did the White House make the right move getting involved in the controversy? Joining us from New Orleans this morning showing his sunny optimism for his hometown Saints after they won the season opener against the Minnesota Vikings and Brett Favre last night, 14-9, CNN political contributor and Democratic strategist James Carville.
Good morning, James. Feeling good today?
JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning. A good win, a lot of parading here.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Let me ask you, let's talk about this guy, Terry Jones, this planned Koran burning event tomorrow. The president weighed in on this and Hillary Clinton and General David Petraeus and Secretary Robert Gates actually phoned this guy. How did the White House play this?
CARVILLE: It had become an international story. One shouldn't do TV after a football game all night and probably had one too many, but I have to say, some things in this country -- I don't know what it is. They are out of control. They want to go to war with a billion and a half Muslims? How idiotic can you be?
This guy and some guy in Dallas talking about pedophilia and the whole thing in New York, and of course they are just ginning this stuff up like you can't believe.
And I think the policymakers in the country and whatever element they are saying however small it might be, are saying, why are we doing this? The generals are saying look, this is very hurtful to what's going on and it's not our values and not what we are doing. I'm at a loss to explain this.
This clown guy has a $300,000 house in Slidell right across the lake from New Orleans, and all he's doing is trying to jack up his contributions which I guess he has done successfully and be on TV. Maybe the president said we haven't handled it right. Some things you don't have to cover.
ROBERTS: Did the White House handle this correctly? You wonder, should the secretary of defense be calling a guy from this tiny little church that's got 50 congregates in the church who elevated himself into a global debate. But is the secretary of defense suggesting that he can save the life of one American, is it not worth a stupid phone call?
CARVILLE: I agree, but ahead of that, General Petraeus said something. Obviously he is the commander there and people are coming up and they were probably having intelligence that they pushed. General Petraeus thought it was with a sufficient magnitude that he should say something.
And the guy kept going through it, and maybe General Petraeus asked Secretary Gates, we have to say something and stop this. This is a potential -- not only a danger to the troops, but it frankly makes my country look like a pack of idiots. It's embarrassing.
ROBERTS: Secretary Gates suggested that why not make one phone call if you can potentially save the life of one American service member.
But what does is it say that a guy who as we said is the pastor, self- appointed pastor of this tiny little church with 50 congregates, can command the global debate the way he has over the past couple of weeks?
CARVILLE: You know, John, that is a superb question. I tried to answer it in my mind and here we are with the things we have going wrong. And something like this happens, and you are right. It commands a global debate and has an effect on people's opinions and has an effect on my opinion of us. And I really don't have a good answer other than to tell you I find the whole thing utterly distressing. It's just sickening.
And I think the press, maybe us, maybe we're at fault. Maybe the administration could have handled it better, I don't know. Maybe this guy is just out looking for how many crazy people we can find, and somebody will say look at all the attention he got. I will do something crazier.
They are not only endangering people, but the image of a nation. I don't know. It's just bad and stupid.
ROBERTS: On that point, the media has been criticized, for what it's worth, for giving this guy a national platform and megaphone to talk about his plan. But the flipside is what if this fellow had gone ahead and done this tomorrow and the video was posted on YouTube?
The fact that he was actually given air time and brought this to attention and allowed people like General Petraeus and Secretary Gates and Secretary Clinton and the president to say whoa, hang on, bad idea here. What would have been worse, putting him on television ahead of it, or waiting until it happened and seeing it go out on YouTube?
CARVILLE: That's why I said earlier, I don't have the answer. You are right, I don't know that if what the media and I guess I should include myself in that. By bringing attention, maybe that's the best course.
But I suspect with the professional news people would say at CNN, it's news, and we can't decide and it's not up to us to decide whether to run it or not. And obviously it is news that people are interested in because we keep running the story and people keep talking about it.
I just think that when you have something like this that the country -- this guy, it's the guy in Dallas and all of the stuff that you see in New York, there is a part of this country that is willing to do anything to try to start a war with a billion and a half people.
And somebody needs to sit down and really contemplate the consequences of that. This is absurd. You can imagine if it's World War II, my grandmother was a five-star mom. If somebody would have done something like that to harm our boys overseas, that would not have gone very well. I promise you.
This is just unfortunate. It makes us look -- unfortunately sometimes you get judged by the dumbest clown in the country, and I'm fearful that's what's happening to this country. And I think people are saying it's a great country and they were founded on all these freedoms and everything else and they had their problems, but they wanted to be tolerant and freedom-loving people, and what's wrong them?
I don't know, it's very, very disheartening. This guy is just a clown, but he's a clown that is causing a lot of people a lot of trouble. ROBERTS: We will keep watching to see which way is goes in the next 24 hours. James, it's great to see you and great to have you up late after a football game after having perhaps one too many, because it makes you more feisty if that were possible.
CARVILLE: I don't know about feisty, but we are going to do the best we can with it.
ROBERTS: Great to see you. Thanks.
CHETRY: We have been following this morning breaking news. A devastating explosion taking place in a community not far from San Francisco International Airport in the little are of San Bruno. There still problems as they try to figure out if more people did not survive this. It's being reported now according to the "L.A. Times," eight people killed in the explosion. We will find out more as the day goes on. We'll be right back. It's 45 minutes past the hour.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are definitely a lot of people who need shelter and who will probably need shelter -- additional people will be coming to us we expect.
But I think people are so much in shock that they're talking about, "I need something tonight. Give me a place to go think and lay down." So I'm sure tomorrow we're going to have all the Red Cross volunteers during the day that we can out in force talking to these people and seeing what they need.
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KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: It's unimaginable that an explosion would just rip through your neighborhood while you were sitting at home making dinner which is what happened to these people in San Bruno and volunteers are already trying to help them; they've lost everything.
We continue to follow breaking news from this San Francisco suburb where a gas explosion and then resulting fire damaged or destroyed at least 170 homes. Flames seen shooting through the air, witnesses describe the slow roar of the gas bubbling from underground saying that at one point they thought it was actually a plane that hit the neighborhood.
The San Bruno fire chief telling the "L.A. Times" that eight people are now dead. Crews are just beginning to go in and search for victims and officials fear that the number of dead will rise. The NTSB has now sent it's quick response team the so-called "Go Team" to the scene. While it is not transportation-related, the agency does investigate explosions where gas lines are thought to have played a role.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, a lot of people probably at airports in the eastern Central Time Zones, places like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Chicago waiting to take off for San Francisco, the smoke from these fires is going to cause any delays for those people who are traveling.
Rob Marciano in the Extreme Weather Center for us this morning -- Rob, what's the prognosis?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, the official advisory is to prepare for delays. Although at 6:00 a.m. now are just coming up on -- say I'm on the West Coast, we have no word that there are delays or any sort of ground stoppages at San Francisco Airport.
The visibility I can tell you at the airport is relatively good. So if there is smoke at -- more of the flight level or in the glide path, then we may have some issues. But hopefully, keep your fingers crossed it won't be horrible.
Right now, the winds are light, but yesterday it was a different story all together with the winds at 6:00 at 21 miles an hour sustained both in San Bruno and in San Francisco. You know, this time of the year we get the marine layer in the morning and then once that burns up you can get a pretty good sea breeze kicking in the afternoon.
And this was probably the worst time that could possibly -- you could possibly have an explosion of this nature. Because winds at 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon were nil and then all of a sudden 4:00 or 5:00 it kicked up to by 21 miles an hour. The day before they were -- were even more extreme and today should be a little bit less extreme, but still we'll see afternoon sea breezes and then for the most part clear skies.
Windy conditions across part of the Inner Mountain West and then heavy rainfall expected across the central part of the country. As I mentioned, we'll probably see some delays at least in the morning from San Francisco. We'll keep you posted on that and maybe some wind delays in the New York City area. Miami, Orlando, on Fort Lauderdale will see afternoon thunderstorms.
These thunderstorms rolling across (INAUDIBLE) right now and getting into Ohio River Valley, this is a kind of leftovers of Tropical Storm Hermine. We are trying to wring all these moisture out and there's been a ton of it; over a foot of rain fall in Texas almost, a foot of rain in parts of Arkansas and Oklahoma with rescues happening yesterday with flash flooding.
We don't expect to see a ton of rain with this now that it's beginning to wind itself out, but nonetheless it will be raining heavily at times across the Ohio valley.
Northern Plains and then Inner Mountain west, this is a system that's rolling through Wyoming and Montana right now. And that will kick up winds again across the Boulder area where that fire is now at about 30 percent contained. They are still struggling with the weather and the terrain of course.
Winds today could gust to 30 miles an hour. Humidities will once again be low. So a red flag warning in effect for the remainder of today.
What's going on with the tropics? This is Tropical Storm Igor, was a tropical storm; and now it's been downgraded to a depression. It will probably be kick up back to tropical storm status. It's getting a little bit better organized and it is still way out there.
This is the official forecast track for the National Hurricane Center which brings it to Category one status. So it should become a hurricane sometime over the weekend or the beginning of next week and continue to track south of the subtropical ridge which means it'll be going in a westerly direction and get somewhere near the Leeward Islands middle toward end of next week. And even by then we might not have to worry about this.
So we're watching Igor, Julia would be next on the dock if there are some things percolating in the Caribbean which may be something more to worry about and we'll watch both of these systems very carefully.
John and Kiran, back up to you.
CHETRY: Thanks.
ROBERTS: Rob thanks so much. Great to have you on the case this morning.
Coming up on eight minutes to the top of the hour. We'll be right back after this. Stay with us.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning. Fifty-four minutes past the hour now.
This week's CNN Hero is a 74-year-old grandmother who is providing a safe haven in an extremely dangerous part of the world.
Take a look.
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GUADALUPE ARIZPE DE LA VEGA, MEDICAL MARVEL: Juarez was a very nice place. And now nobody can go out. In one weekend, 51 were killed. In this moment of crisis, people have to have a secure place where healing goes on.
My name is Guadalupe Arizpe De La Vega and I started the Hospital De La Familia and is in downtown Juarez.
I go to Juarez sometimes five times in a week. We have been working there for 37 years with the community. Every day we have from 800 to 1,000 people. Some of them can pay, some cannot pay, but we don't turn anybody away. I want the violence to stop, everybody is affected. People have been paralyzed by the fear.
Our hospital has not been touched. Our doctors have not been kidnapped. This is a miracle, believe me. Everybody knows that's a place for healing, for loving, for empowering people.
I believe that health is the most important of human rights. Life is all about empowering people. It's very important to have an institution giving them hope for the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Well, to nominate someone that you think is changing the world, go to cnn.com/amfix. We're going to take a quick break, we're coming back in just a couple of minutes.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like an earthquake and a lot of rattling and the noise was phenomenal. It was so loud. It just kept shaking probably a good 10 minutes.
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ROBERTS: An eyewitness describing what it was like when that gas main -- a 24-inch gas main blew last night just after 6:00 Pacific Time in the town of San Bruno. There you see in our double box what it looked like on the upper right after the explosion and what it looks like now.
Most of the fires are out because Pacific Gas and Electric managed to turn off the gas and firefighters seemed to have gotten the upper hand on this, at least for the moment.
CHETRY: Yes, so now it will be coming up on 12 hours since this explosion happened. They are just getting a chance to go door-to-door in the burned out neighborhood and check on whether or not anyone else perished unfortunately. The latest number we have is six people -- so a little bit of correction there -- six people according to the fire chief telling the "L.A. Times". There were fears among firefighters and rescuers that that number would rise as they got into more of those burnt-out homes.
ROBERTS: Yes, but to give you an idea of the size and the scope of this explosion, 170 homes -- that's 170 either damaged or destroyed by this massive explosion. You can see it's a crater 30 feet wide about 15 feet deep. This is a huge gas main and it just went up in this amazing explosion last night.
CHETRY: We understand the NTSB is there or heading to the scene to help investigate why.
So that's going to do it for us. Thanks for getting up early with us for a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
Continue the conversation on today's stories by heading to our blog, cnn.com/amfix. We hope you have a wonderful weekend.
ROBERTS: Yes. We'll see you back here again on Monday. Meantime the news continues on CNN with Kyra Phillips in the "CNN NEWSROOM". Good morning Kyra.
