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American Morning

Violent Storms Striking Midwest; Fire Near Ft. Worth Triples in Size; Boozy Beverage Controversy; America's Addiction

Aired April 20, 2011 - 08:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Eight o'clock here in New York. I'm Kiran Chetry.

We're following violent weather on the move yet again. Severe storms knocking out power across the Midwest. The threat of tornadoes is still looming this morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Trouble for Toyota.

I'm Christine Romans.

The automaker is forced to scale back production of its U.S. We'll have details on how long the cuts are expected to last.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: And it comes in all kinds of fruity flavors. It's stronger than beer.

I'm Ali Velshi.

Colt 45 new Blast is blurring the line between soft drinks and the hard stuff. Some parents are not happy about it -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(MUSIC)

CHETRY: Got you.

Well, good morning. It is Wednesday. It's April 20th. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING.

It's also one year since the Gulf oil spill. And imagine all that's happened on the Gulf Coast since then.

ROMANS: And a major round of weather too that we're watching here today. After a week of violent rain and tornadoes up first, another round of dangerous weather on the move right now. The Midwest, right now, we are watching, is getting hit hard. There are reports of tornadoes touching down, power outages across the region.

The amateur video -- this amateur video showing a funnel cloud touching down in Bowling Green, Missouri, where witnesses say it destroyed one home and two barns.

Troy Kehoe from affiliate from WISH has a look at the damage left behind in Indiana this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TROY KEHOE, WISH REPORTER: Good morning, guys. Yes, we put an awful lot of miles on the car overnight going from place to another, and nowhere did we find more impressive damage than here in Crawfordsville.

Take a look at the base of this tree ripped out of the ground by those winds. It is nearly as tall as I am laying on its side. The important and impressive part certainly of this is the diameter of this tree drunk, it is absolutely massive. And neighbors here said it made a massive thud as it came down in the winds last night, very narrowly missing this house.

And this neighborhood is certainly far from alone in all of this. About a mile away on Main Street, winds were so strong that they ripped off entire sections of roof from a family dollar store, shingles and electric lines littering the street in that area. Further downtown, windows blown out in the PNC Bank building, which also houses newspaper offices, we're told.

One worker there telling us that papers inside were blowing around like they were being sucked into a vacuum cleaner as those winds whipped through the open window as after it was broken. Downtown is also hit by power outages overnight. Now, the good news there -- most of those have been restored at this point.

But the most widespread damage remains this morning and that is from all of those trees. Some of them, as we learned, became very close calls as crews did all they could to keep up.

And with daylight now out, a lot of those crews are working as feverishly as they can to try and clean this up. We have also seen a number of people coming out from their homes now to look at the damage, try and survey it for the first time in the daylight. Many of them couldn't see very much last night because, frankly, there was no power here. And in many spots, including this neighborhood here, that remains the case this morning.

Duke Energy crews have been out trying to restore power where they can. But that has been a challenge because many of these are small transmission lines here. And so, they are restoring power essentially, home to home, one at a time.

A lot of questions remaining from those folks this morning as well -- was this, perhaps, a tornado that caused this, maybe straight line winds. We'll have to check with the National Weather Service as they come out to assess this damage later today before we will know the answer to that question.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: And, you know, straight line winds can often look like a tornado when you're looking at the damage the next day. Bit, you know, 100-year-old trees like that knocked over. I guarantee you, there will be -- Jacqui Jeras, there will be chainsaws buzzing and humming and the smell of gasoline in the air as they are carving up these trees, trying to get them out of the streets and away from power lines today.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, this was so widespread yesterday evening and last night, guys. Take a look at the Google Earth map right there. All those blue icons that you see on there, those are the wind damage reports, the red ones there. That's the tornado report.

So, there were like 32 tornado reports yesterday. And, of course, these numbers could change. But there was 100 times that in terms of wind damage reports. So, yes, lots of chainsaws, lots of people cleaning it up.

And it really is hard to get that power back out on to thousands of people because it's spotty. You know, it wasn't one big transformer that got blown out.

The area we are concerned about at this hour is the Deep South, northern parts of Alabama into Georgia. A new severe thunderstorm watch has just been issued. That line has a history of producing 60- mile-per-hour-plus winds. So, this is really extreme. This is going to eventually be making its way into the Atlanta metro area later on this morning.

There you can se the system as a whole. Everything is kind of focused on the South now. It's weakened along the northern tier. So, those storms have been decaying. That's some good news.

But it could fire up once again later on this afternoon as we get that daytime heating.

So, the Mid-Atlantic States, Washington, D.C., up towards Baltimore, even maybe Philly, needs to watch out for the threat of strong winds later tonight. And, yes, that snow that you can see there across parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin as well, so maybe you got about three to six inches overall.

So, winter is still kind of lingering across parts of the North. I hate it when that happens this time of the year.

VELSHI: Jacqui, a little earlier. You heard the joke that Christine made about how we say Louisville. Did you know that? Did you know the answer her whole Louisville being not the capital of Kentucky?

ROMANS: Let me refresh everyone's memory for the joke. The joke is how do you pronounce the capital of Kentucky, Louisville or Louisville? And then whatever somebody says, you say, well, it's actually Frankfort. That's the joke.

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: How hilarious is that. I can't stop laughing in the inside.

VELSHI: It's actually funnier in a moment.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: Jacqui, thank you very much.

JERAS: Sure.

VELSHI: Good to see you.

CHETRY: Well, to Texas now where there has been close to a dozen new wildfires popping up since yesterday. They've got residents and inmates of prisons being moved out of one town. It's one of the largest wildfires triples in size.

This is the town of Palo Pinto, which is only about an hour and a half from Fort Worth. And that's where our Ed Lavandera is right now.

So, as I understood it, they are bringing in firefighters from Dallas as well to assist in this effort.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's just one of the few places. I mean, they've got firefighters around all over -- from all over covering this fire near Possum Kingdom lake, which is to the north of -- northwest of where we are right here.

But those fires were being pushed in towards Palo Pinto late yesterday afternoon. And that's why they were urging people around here to begin evacuating. They even took away the inmates here at the Palo Pinto jail and took them away last night. They were dousing these buildings with water as well as a precaution.

It's pretty interesting as these fires kick up in the late afternoons. You really see the ash and embers flying across the sky.

And this is really a series of four or five rather large fires that are kind of merging into one big one. And it has jumped into size. It's scorched more than 150,000 acres so far. We expect those numbers to go up. And at last count, the Texas Forest Service says they had only contained about 4 percent of it.

And this is just one of the big major fires. There are about four others that are more than 100,000 acres that are being burned across the state as well. So, as you can imagine, crews being diverted to every corner of the state to battle all these wildfires.

CHETRY: All right. Ed Lavandera for us on the fire line -- it's just -- those pictures are astounding and to know that tripled in size in just a day, it's quite scary. Thanks, Ed.

ROMANS: Meanwhile, another story we have been following for weeks now. Western power is considering putting troops on Libyan soil. (INAUDIBLE) by a military stalemate, Britain is already sending advisers to advise the rebels. And the European Union says it is prepared to deploy soldiers to escort humanitarian aid -- a move leader Moammar Gadhafi says would be an act of war.

VELSHI: Ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will be held responsible for the killing of protesters during 18 days of demonstrations that led to his down fall. A fact-finding commission report stated it's unclear if he gave an official order or simply turned a blind eye. Eight hundred and forty-six people were killed, more than 6,400 others were injured in Egypt's historic revolution.

CHETRY: House Speaker John Boehner in Afghanistan. He sat down with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. The "AFP" reporting that Karzai pressed the speaker to scale back military operations that he says cause civilian casualties.

ROMANS: New and serious concerns this morning about the state of air travel in the U.S., after an involving First Lady Michelle Obama's plane. After a quick trip to New York City on Monday where she and the vice president's wife appeared on ABC's "The View," they boarded with their staff on military's 737 to head home. The mistake involving their flight apparently made by air traffic controllers at a regional radar facility before handing control over to Andrews Air Force Base.

Here's what happened. They apparently let the first lady's plane get within three miles of a 200-ton military cargo jet that was also landing. You can't be that close apparently because of the wash, right, from this humongous military plane. The required separation is five miles apart. The first lady's plane had to abort its landing, circled the airport.

The FAA released a statement saying it's investigating this incident. The Boeing 737 landed safely after executing the go-around. And the FAA also insisting that the aircraft were never in any danger.

VELSHI: In Boston, a JetBlue plane was hit by a small truck, according to the FAA. The plane was parked at a gate when the truck backed into it. Most of the passengers were already off the plane at the time. A 90-year-old woman did suffer a minor leg injury when she fell out of her wheelchair.

CHETRY: Well, more relief for air travelers, at least that's the hope, after the Department of Transportation added new rules to help out passengers. Under the new guidelines, if an airline loses your bag, they also have to refund your baggage fee. If you're involuntary bumped from an overbook flight, you should receive a refund for double the value of your ticket up to $800.

Also, new rules also say that there are no tarmac delays if more than four hours allowed for international flights. You may remember those domestic flights had that time limit in effect. But then, some of those international planes were left sitting on the tarmac. So, now, it extends to those flights as well.

ROMANS: All right. Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, it got a little uncomfortable. The president scolding a local reporter after things got a little testy in an interview. We're going to have the tape for you.

VELSHI: And up next, environmentalist Philippe Cousteau live from the Louisiana coast on the damage that's been done to wildlife in the Gulf one year after the BP oil spill.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: April 20th of last year -- it's a day we will always remember. Today is the one-year anniversary.

ROMANS: Yes. Watching the rig burn and trying to find some contacts and scope for what was happening, even as it was unfolding. We just didn't know that we'd still be talking about disaster.

VELSHI: And, by the way, that day, we thought possibly one of the worst things that was going to happen was the terrible news we have that 11 people had been killed. What we didn't know was the effect that this was going to have, that the tragedy was going to have -- 4.9 million barrels of crude oil were discharged into the sea. Add it to the mix, 1.8 million gallons of dispersants, chemical dispersants, that were used to break up that oil.

ROMANS: They were just hosing at that, remember? Now, not all of these facilities -- or fatalities, rather, could be positively linked to the spill. But more than 6,000 birds have died, along with more than 600 sea turtles, more than 157 mammals, many of them baby dolphins.

Philippe Cousteau is an environmentalist and CNN special correspondent and good friend of the show. He's in Grand Isle, Louisiana, this morning.

Wow. I mean, let's talk about the fatalities of the animals first, because, you know, I know the scientists and the government, quite frankly, are trying to figure out what is -- what is natural, what number of, you know, bottlenose dolphins, baby dolphins normally wash up on the shore and what is the impact of what's been happening, the complex reaction that's happening in the Gulf.

What's your best sense of that, Philippe?

PHILLIPPE COUSTEAU, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, from years past, there's about a 90 percent increase -- certainly at least in sea turtles and marine mammal deaths. And the thing to remember is that there's a multiplier effect here. In terms of birds, it's about eight times the amount of birds that we find, that we think are actually affected. For marine mammals, it can be up to 50 times.

So, it's really hard to get a handle on exactly how many animals have died this year versus last year. But every indication is that it's a considerable amount more.

VELSHI: Philippe, and you're talking about mammals that don't wash up on the shore. You don't find on land but may have gotten into the water and just dropped to the bottom. The other point that you make is that there could be a generational effect. What's the effect? If these mammals and birds make it, are they out of the woods for the next few generations or is there something that passes down to them?

COUSTEAU: The feed is going in and out here, Ali. Can you repeat that, please?

VELSHI: What happens to future generations of animals? Are they affected by this, as well?

ROMANS: I think we lost Philippe. Yes, we're having some trouble from down there, but Philippe Cousteau, of course, is a CNN contributor. He was also saying that when we're talking to him before, this is concern about Red Snappers is leashing (ph). The dolphins have been washing up that we've been telling you about.

And he says when you see big animals suffering, it's a good indication that the younger, smaller animals farther down the food chain are not doing very well at all. So, multiple different kind of reactions that you get concerned about.

VELSHI: And one of the other things is that we haven't gotten to a point where if this were to happen again, we could actually solve the problem. We still don't have a clean-up mechanism in place.

ROMANS: Well, he and other guest have pointed out, too, that there has been nothing changed. Congress hasn't changed anything. There's been no new safeguards. You know, the impact has all been about, will we be doing more drilling? How will we be doing more drilling? Will there be more permits that will be allowed to drill more oil? But environmentalists still concerned overall.

VELSHI: We got Philippe back. Philippe, are you there? Are you with us? Can you hear me? Good to get you back here.

COUSTEAU: I've got you, Ali. Thank you.

VELSHI: Philippe, let's talk a little minute. What we were saying is what is the effect on -- is there any effect on animals that are not alive today? In other words, are there affects on future generations of mammals and birds?

COUSTEAU: Well, that's one of the big concerns, Ali. We were out with oyster men in Louisiana a few days ago, and every year, typically, they have mature oysters that are harvesting, but they find what are called spats, baby oysters that about the size of my thumb, and they should be covering those oysters so we're told. And this year, we went out looking and couldn't find any of them.

So, there's a lot of concern because one drop of oil is toxic. It's about one part per billion. So, it's like one drop in a swimming, an Olympic size swimming pool is deadly toxic to larvae and fish eggs. And the problem with the oil spill last year as it came at couldn't come at a worse time. It came in the spring when all the fish eggs are spawning. The larvae is in the ocean, swimming around that will become future generations, and that oil is deadly toxic to them.

So, there's a lot of concern that the successive generations of fish and oysters and shrimp have been heavily impacted by the oil spill, but they're so small. It's really, really hard to tell at this point. Of course, in Exxon Valdez, it took three years for the herring fishery to collapse due to an effect on their immune system. We're already seeing that and Red Snapper here, large lesions, affected immune systems. So, it is hard to tell what's to come, but we need to prepare for the worst.

VELSHI: Philippe, thanks for your work. Philippe Cousteau, environmentalist and CNN's special correspondent joining us from Grand Isle, Louisiana.

CHETRY: All right. Well, it looks like Four Loko is the concern of last year. You may remember that was the drink that had a lot of alcohol as well as caffeine in it. Many said it was being marketed to kids. Well, now, there is a new line of a free booze from Colt 45 makers that could be the next thing to temp teens and to anger politicians and parents. It's called "Blast." We have a live report coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: All right. It's fruity, it's potent, past brewing company launches its newest alcoholic beverage called "Blast."

VELSHI: We have some right here for you.

ROMANS: There you go.

VELSHI: That's one, right?

ROMANS: It's a big can. It's 12 percent alcohol.

CHETRY: This is 50 milliliters shy of a bottle of wine, and it's stirring up a lot of controversy because people say that the design, the flavoring, and the celebrity sponsors actually targets young kids. So, our Jason Carroll looked into this. They were upset about Four Loko. Some of that pressure work, right, because they did change the --

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: It has a lot of alcohol in it and it looks cartoon on the front.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And, you know, it's got some critics, you know, really questioning who this company is exactly targeting. Are they targeting young people? Are they targeting young people in urban areas? You know, the company behind "Blast" says its marketing focuses on drinking but doing it responsibly. Critics say the packaging proves, otherwise, and they're calling this new product a cocktail on training wheels.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (voice-over): A slick online ad campaign featuring rapper, Snoop Dogg, colorful packaging, flavors like raspberry watermelon, a combination the creator of "Blast Colt 45" a new malt liquor drink, is betting will be a hit, but watchdog groups questioning who the creator, Pabst Brewing Company, is really targeting.

JORGE CASTILLO, MARIN INSTITUTE: They are targeting young people, mostly because the way their packaged and bright colors, attractive colors to young people, teenagers.

CARROLL: "Blast" packs a powerful punch, a 23-ounce can contains 12 percent alcohol, twice the amount found in Colt 45 malt liquor. The young adults we spoke to --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really does look like it's marketed to children.

CARROLL: Told us the marketing to them is clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks like something that would definitely cater to the younger generation.

CARROLL: Pabst defended their product in a statement saying, "Blast is only meant to be consumed by those above legal drinking age. The alcohol content of Blast is clearly marked on its packaging. We are encouraging consumers to consider mixing Blast with other beverages or enjoy it over ice."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Blast" by Colt 45.

CARROLL: This video from an internal Pabst webcast gives more insight into the marketing behind "Blast."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The opportunity is ripe. For new products with higher alcohol --

CARROLL: The video, Pabst says, contained proprietary information was later removed from YouTube. New York City councilman, Robert Jackson, wrote to Snoop Dogg asking him not to endorse "Blast," and that's not the only letter he wrote.

ROBERT JACKSON, NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN: What we're trying to say to the industry is let's not market to our little kids. Let's market to responsible adults. And that's why I wrote to the state liquor authority asking them to look at this.

CARROLL: Jackson says "Blast" deserves the same scrutiny, another alcoholic beverage, Four Loko came under. Four Loko combined alcohol and caffeine. It was pulled from shelves. The drink is back without the caffeine but has a level of alcohol to match a can of "Blast."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (on-camera): And we reached out to Snoop Dogg for his comment about endorsing "Blast," but his representatives did not get back to us. Watchdog groups are asking Pabst Brewing Company to reduce the size of "Blast" cans to 12 ounces and 6 percent alcohol that way, they say, if it is consumed, it's done a little more safely. We'll have to see if that happens.

VELSHI: What are we achieving by that?

CHETRY: I get it. I get it.

VELSHI: What is it?

CHETRY: Because what if they just took an entire bottle of wine and put it in a can like this and you were just walking down the street chugging it. I mean, that's --

VELSHI: OK. I'm one of these guys who thinks tricking people into having 100-calorie packs is ridiculous too because -

(CROSSTALK)

CHETRY: But this is tricking people.

VELSHI: It says right here on the top, 12 percent alcohol by volume. We know that's more than beer.

CHETRY: And it says, we I.D. Right there.

CARROLL: But after you start to drink a little of that, the 12 percent --

ROMANS: Are you going to put it back in the refrigerator so you can drink it a little bit later.

CARROLL: But also, I think if you ask the average young person what does 12 percent of alcohol actually mean, they're not going to really have a clue.

VELSHI: I think kids know more.

CARROLL: They know it's high.

VELSHI: Yes.

CARROLL: But I'm not quite sure they would be able to judge how high.

VELSHI: If they don't have "Blast" and it doesn't have a colorful can, a kid who wants to drink a lot is still going to figure out. I mean, I'm not that old but kids knew how to drink when I was a kid.

CARROLL: Yes, they still do.

VELSHI: Yes.

CARROLL: And you know, there is another serious point here, too, which is that, you know, the thought is that they are targeting, you know, young people in urban areas with this type of packaging, with the sugar and, you know, using Snoop Dogg as an endorser.

VELSHI: It's a good topic. It certainly was hot with Four Loko. It's going to be hot again.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks, Jason.

VELSHI: Jason, we'll see. All right.

CHETRY: A Dallas TV reporter is making some national headlines this morning after getting into a bit of a tense exchange with President Obama. We have some of those moments on camera to show you coming up.

VELSHI: Plus, first lady Michelle Obama's plane involved in a mid-air close call. A live report from the White House up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS (voice-over): We're watching live pictures right now from KTVI. You're looking at devastation in the Midwest. Severe storms tearing through overnight. This is near Girard, Illinois. Roofs torn off, farms totaled in this town, reports of tornadoes touching down, and power knocked out across the region. These pictures are from KTVI.

These are live aerials that we've been watching, and we got some amazing video that shows the extent of the damage. You can see the telltale signs of tornadoes. That pink insulation sucked out of roofs and walls and wrapped around trees like cotton candy. This is video right here, but you can see farm buildings have been leveled. Homes, the roofs have been ripped off. It has been an amazing series of devastation in the Midwest over the past week or so and North Carolina too with these powerful storms that have raged through here. Tornado- like weather and straight like winds too.

CHETRY: And a record number of tornadoes, 20 something in North Carolina.

VELSHI: This that we are looking at, by the way, is due north of St. Louis. It is on the Illinois side of the river. It is straight north of St. Louis. It is a suburb of St. Louis.

ROMANS: Daylight breaks in the Midwest, now we are getting the first clear images and pictures of just exactly what happened there.

VELSHI: Particularly violent storms that we have seen, it's quite remarkable. It is not just storms. We also have wildfires.

ROMANS: That's right, a wild fire tripling in size within 70 miles of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. That huge blaze is threatening 600 homes and forcing the evacuation of the town of Palo Pinto. Dozens of wildfires have destroyed 170 homes across the state.

A plane carrying the first lady forced to abort their landing. An air traffic controller allowed the aircraft to get too close to a massive military cargo jet.

VELSHI: They are saying nobody was in danger.

President Obama getting into a somewhat testy exchange with a Dallas TV reporter during a sit-down interview at the White House. The questions on Monday ranged from immigration reform to why the president is so unpopular in the Lone Star state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why do you think you are so unpopular in Texas?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Texas has always been a pretty Republican state for historic reasons. If what you are telling me is that Texas is a conservative state, you are absolutely right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was the shuttle not awarded to Houston because of politics?

OBAMA: I just said that was wrong. We had nothing to do with it. There was a whole commission and a whole process. That's how the decision was made.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You weren't personally involved in the decision?

OBAMA: I just said that wasn't true.

Let me finish my answers when you are doing that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: It does make you --

ROMANS: Typically, he is very cool. You could tell he was irritated by this.

CHETRY: You feel bad because you have a certain amount of time and you want to ask what you want to ask and the president obviously wants to finish what he is saying. The clock is ticking away.

VELSHI: It could effectively eat up your time.

CHETRY: The notoriously long answers of president, by the end, you forget what you answered.

VELSHI: What did he say in the end, let me finish my answers. Play that last couple of seconds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Let me finish my answers next time when you are doing that, all right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Let me finish my answers next time.

ROMANS: The one bright spot for the reporter, he is going to get an interview again, next time. What if he said, I'm never going to talk to you again.

It's been exactly a year since the offshore rig explosion in the gulf of Mexico that now is famous having caused America's worst oil spill ever. The disaster has taken a toll on big oil two. Up next Poppy Harlow takes us 150 miles out to sea for a look at life on board Shell oil's largest offshore rig.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Exactly a year ago today, an oil rig right there exploded, killing 11 people and triggering the worst oil spill in U.S. history. The fallout, by the way, is still being felt. Here is some video that we saw earlier this week on the shores of Alabama. People are still out there. Hoping tourists come back to the beach this summer. There wasn't much action last year as you know, because that oil was still flowing.

Let me just tell you about BP. It has given the state $16 million in tourism to help the region recover. Last June at the peak of the disaster 37 percent of the Gulf of Mexico was off limits for fishing, more than 88,000 square miles of ocean. It is all reopened now. The final 1,000 square miles right here, which was the area immediately around the Deep Water Horizon has just been declared safe, just opened to fishing again yesterday.

Because of the spill and the fishing bans that it caused, Louisiana's shrimp supply, we were just talking about that earlier in the show, Louisiana's shrimp supply, crabs in this case, down 37 percent last year, crab supply down 39 percent, oysters down 49 percent. Now, today, in New Orleans federal officials are going to hold a news conference to present updates on the safety of gulf seafood and get some sense of whether or not there is going to be some improvement and what kind of -- what the fishermen and the oystermen and the shrimpers can expect from the government because a lot were saying last year was a banner year and they lost it.

CHETRY: It would have been a banner year.

ROMANS: The shrimper Dean Blancher told us, for ten years, they have been fighting, dumping products into the U.S. and fighting to keep gulf shrimp as a viable industry and within a week, because of this oil spill they lost ten years of gains, and that's been very frustrating for them.

CHETRY: Big oil is also feeling the impact of this spill in a pretty big way. Drilling moratoriums, you remember, those were in effects. They mean that many production sites are still offline.

ROMANS: CNN Money's Poppy Harlow took a chopper 150 miles into the Gulf to spend a day on one of Shell oil's biggest deep water platforms. She joins us with an exclusive report. Hi, Poppy. POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: We talked so much about the impact on the fishermen and the economy, but this has had a big impact on big oil. They have started moving some of the deep water platforms to other parts of the world because the regulations have gotten stiffer here. It has been so hard to get the drilling permits.

We went really deep into the Gulf to a massive platform as big as two football fields and five high to spend the day on the platform and see what life is like for the people that work in this industry and also take a look at how much of this oil is back online and how much is still off-line one year after the Gulf oil disaster. Take a look at what we found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: We are on the mars platform, about 150 miles out from the coast of New Orleans. Below us, there are 24 different wells drilling thousands and thousands of feet down into the gulf. So oil production here goes on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It never stops.

Overall, what would you say that the spill here in the Gulf a year ago has cost shell in terms of idle production?

MARVIN ODOM, PRESIDENT, SHELL OIL COMPANY: It is a difficult thing to say exactly. I can tell you it is at least hundreds of millions of dollars. I can put it in production terms. When I look at my business in the Gulf of Mexico for 2011, we will produce an average of about 50,000 barrels a day less than we would have without the moratorium.

HARLOW: What is this showing us?

WOODY WOODWARD, OFFSHORE MANAGER, SHELL OIL: How many barrels we are pumping to town through this one meter.

HARLOW: How many of barrels a day go out?

WOODWARD: Out of mars as a whole about 90,000 barrels.

HARLOW: Shell monitors their deep water drilling around the clock and says it can help prevent disasters like the Gulf oil spill.

We basically have one station operating monitoring drilling in the Gulf.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, this is the only drilling rig we have active in the Gulf, drilling injector at the mars platform. We don't have any other active drilling rigs.

HARLOW: It took months to plug the hole after the BP spill. Do you have to prove now that you have the technology to plug that hole pretty quickly if that were to happen on one of your rigs?

ODOM: We have to prove we have the capability to cap the well, cap and contain it and we have the ability to respond in the very unlikely event it was to occur again.

HARLOW: What is the biggest misconception about deep water drilling?

ODOM: I think the thing I worry about most, it relates back to the spill. That's, I think, where most of people's perceptions come from now. I think there was a perception that built up during part of the response to that spill that said doesn't the industry actually have the technology to do this? Should we be down there? The answer is, yes, with he do.

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HARLOW: Bottom line, the oil industry says we are back to work somewhat in the gulf. We do have the technology need to cap these wells if we do see an explosion. For big oil companies, they spent $1 billion for the containment system. It is amazing to think we do not have that now.

But I also asked shell's president about the relationship with Washington. He said, "Well, I'll call it frequent." It took them five months to get a permit they just got to drill a new well in the Gulf. As I said, they are moving production elsewhere because it is easier to drill elsewhere. That means American jobs.

But when you look at a recent CNN poll, this is interesting, 69 percent of folks are in favor of expanding deep water drilling. That is up from 49 percent right after the spill. Look at gas prices. I think folks are correlating this and saying, look, we have the oil here. Let's drill more here.

VELSHI: The fishermen, either they themselves or their families depend on working in the oil in the off-season. As much as oil wrecked their livelihood, they don't want the drilling to stop.

HARLOW: One interesting thing, 160 men and women live on that rig, two weeks on, two weeks off. These are very, very high-paying jobs. One thing Shell told me, they did not lay off almost any of their employees after the spill. They said, we trained them, they are like a family. They work together. They trust each other. There is good demand for those jobs. They paid them. They were losing millions of dollars a day keeping these workers.

VELSHI: A lot of guys in the bayou say the oil companies did right by them despite the fact that they spilled the oil in the first place. They eat well on those rigs.

HARLOW: It was great food. It is like a little hotel in the ocean.

VELSHI: And when you land on a rig, you notice, there are firefighters with hoses in their hands in four corners as you land your helicopter. It is a little weird. What's going to happen?

CHETRY: Leave your lighter at home. Poppy Harlow, thanks so much. Coming up, America's deadly addiction to drugs. Things have changed. You remember everybody talking about the crack wars and how terrible it was in the 80s, the black tar heroin epidemic of the 70s. They say what we are dealing with now when it comes to prescription pain killers is worse than both combined. We will talk about that coming up. It's 44 minutes past the hour.

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ROMANS: A lot going down this morning. Here's what you need to know to start your day.

Roofs ripped off homes in Illinois. The Sheriffs now confirming that a tornado ripped through the town and destroyed two homes. New video also coming in of storm damage in central Ohio, reports of more tornadoes touching down and thousands of people without power across the Midwest right now.

Firefighters in Dallas now rushing to a wild fire that has tripled in size in just a day. It's 70 miles now from Dallas - Ft. Worth and is threatening 600 homes.

Toyota, scaling back production here in the U.S. because of a lack of supplies after last month's earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The automaker says between now and June 3rd, production will run at 50 percent on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays. The company will halt productions -- production on Monday and Friday.

The iPhone 5 rumors are growing. Reuters reporting the new Smartphone will begin shipping in September. It's expected to be faster but look the same as the current iPhone.

You're caught up on the day's headlines, AMERICAN MORNING is back right after the break.

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JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm meteorologist, Jacqui Jeras. It was a sleepless night for many people across the middle Mississippi River Valley and Ohio River Valley. More severe weather causing a lot of damage here, 32 reports of tornadoes but more than 100 times bad for severe wind damage reports. A lot of chainsaws buzzing out there as trees are down and thousands of people are without power.

The storm system itself is starting to weaken as it progresses off to the east. That's a little bit of good news but the severe weather threat still remains, especially here in the Deep South where thunderstorms could produce wind gusts around 60 miles an hour. So that is damaging winds and you can see that squall line now just west of the Atlanta metro area for today.

As we take a look at the flood risk across the mid-Atlantic, those storms came in and brought you between one to five inches of rain in the last three days. So many rivers without their banks, be very, very careful driving through this area today, especially right along I-70 and southward in Indiana and Ohio. Officials there are telling us that the flooding in the upcoming week could be as bad as what you already saw in the month of March. And we know that was terrible.

Air travel today, 30 minutes delays already in Philadelphia as well as New York City. Expect a lot of these delays today up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

If you're wondering why I'm wearing a blue bracelet today, check out my Facebook page, also on Twitter.

AMERICAN MORNING is going to be back right after this break.

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CHETRY: It's 51 minutes past the hour right now.

There was a big push this week going on at the White House, the drug czar, to stop a troubling trend, and that's America's growing addiction to prescription pain killers. It's had deadly consequences, between 1999 and 2006, the number of drug overdoses in this country more than doubled from 11,000 a year to more than 26,000 a year. And a lot of that, much of that, in fact, they say, is linked to prescription drugs like oxycodone and methadone.

Kent Robertshaw is an addiction specialist and assistant professor at Columbia Medical School right here in New York. And he used to run the Smither's Drug and Alcohol Treatment Center. Dr. Robertshaw, thanks for being with us this morning.

DR. KENT ROBERTSHAW, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA MEDICAL SCHOOL: It's good to be here.

CHETRY: So we talk about this stat out of the White House that more people have now unintentionally overdosed on these prescription opiates than people who overdose during the epidemic of crack cocaine in the '80s or the black tar heroin epidemic of the '70s combined. How have we become a nation of people addicted to pain pills?

ROBERTSHAW: Well, I think that there's been a change in the prescription pattern of doctors. I think that the evidence shows that there's five times more prescriptions for opiate medication in 1997 than let's say 1985.

So there's been an epidemic of doctors who have been writing prescriptions for opiates for chronic pain that wasn't true 15 or 20 years ago.

CHETRY: Why is that? You say that back in -- there was a turning point in the mid-90s and that the use of pain killers in the mid-90's increased tenfold. What changed?

ROBERTSHAW: Well, I think that the drug manufacturers came out and said that these newer kinds of prescription medications that are long-reacting are safer and less able to cause problems with addiction and misuse. And obviously, the numbers that we're seeing -- we're seeing that that's absolutely not true.

CHETRY: The bottom line is if you're a doctor and you are prescribing let's say Vicodin or Oxycontin to somebody, is there a good chance that you may unwittingly be eventually prescribing something to a person who is going to become addicted to it?

ROBERTSHAW: Absolutely, the doctors, you know, studies would show that they don't ask the kind of questions that you need to ask about prior history of substance abuse or addiction problems. That a third of doctors don't even ask the patient about previous history of treatment or other ways to treat the pain syndrome. So the doctors are responsible for not screening and educating patients about how addictive these medications are.

CHETRY: I want to ask you about this because this is just alarming. When hear about -- people talk a lot about these pill mills in Florida specifically.

ROBERTSHAW: Yes.

CHETRY: And what this means is you can just go to this clinic, almost walk in to the clinic and say you have pain and get a prescription. According to this data, which I thought was astounding, they say right now that 85 percent of all oxycodone pills in the nation are prescribed in the state of Florida. And that they call this the Oxycontin Express. From the East Coast and in Appalachia people are literally taking buses to Florida to get pills.

How has this not been tackled yet? How is this not -- that they haven't been a cracked down on this?

ROBERTSHAW: Well I think -- I think at a statewide level like New York and many states has a monitoring system. And my understanding is that Barack Obama is coming out saying that all 50 states and there should be a federal policy that these medications need to be monitored.

And in the state of Florida, there is no checks and balance, there is no monitoring about how the prescriptions are being prescribed by certain doctors who clearly just give out these things like Tic-Tacs and then there is no monitoring of the patients. That they go to different doctors and go to different clinics and get double, triple up on their pain medication.

So the state of Florida needs to have that kind of monitoring system in place.

CHETRY: Well, they claim they're going to be cracking down of this. And they are saying that some of these changes are going to be made. But in the meantime, when they talk about possibly adding to doctors' education over this, getting doctors trained better, there is some resistance to that in the medical field.

The opposite argument is, listen, we're -- pain is a very subjective thing and if we have to feel like everybody who we are prescribing pain pills to needs to feel like they are a potential addict, that also not fair for people suffering.

ROBERTSHAW: Well, I think that the monitoring system shouldn't be a problem for legitimate doctors who do the evaluation for pain and also offer different alternatives for pain treatment, like physical therapy, relaxation. There is -- there is something about opiates where patients give up other kinds of -- I would argue more healthy ways and better ways to address the underlying pain syndromes.

So I would say the doctors and patients shouldn't be in any danger if they are prescribed correctly and used correctly, that they shouldn't worry about the state of the government overseeing it.

CHETRY: The people understand that a lot of these medications are basically synthetic forms of heroin. I mean they're synthetic heroin. We wouldn't be that quick to hand out heroin to people. I guess the question I have is why are we so quick to prescribe this medication knowing that there are devastating consequences once you're addicted to opiates?

ROBERTSHAW: Yes. I think that, again, they're getting to type (ph) that 50 percent of people feel that these prescription medications are safer. And as you're saying, these opiate medications are identical to heroin.

They work the same way. They have the same addictive qualities where over time you become tolerant on it. And it no longer works as well and you need higher, higher dose. And obviously Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger, all these people died of prescription drug overdoses.

CHETRY: All right. Well, a very, very interesting topic; one that obviously we are going to be hearing more about.

Dr. Kent Robertshaw, great to see you this morning as always.

ROBERTSHAW: Nice to be here.

CHETRY: Let's take a quick break. It's 56 minutes past the hour.

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ROMANS: All right. That's going to do it for us, another busy day. We are going to hand it off.

VELSHI: There'll be a lot of stuff reminding you about what happened in the Gulf of Mexico and where things stand a year after the oil spill.

CHETRY: Absolutely. Let's hand it over to CNN's Carol Costello. Good morning Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Good morning. I am still drinking coffee. It's my third cup. But you all understand that. CHETRY: Sure. You know, I know.

VELSHI: We do.

CHETRY: When we came in 10 seconds early, you need that last sip. I hear you.

COSTELLO: I do. I have it right here. Thanks, have a great day.