Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Sunday Morning
Cain Under Fire Over Abortion; Troops Home for the Holidays; Gadhafi Autopsy Results
Aired October 23, 2011 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good Sunday morning, everybody.
We are just getting this in to CNN. The autopsy results for former Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi. We'll tell you now what his official cause of death is. That's in just a moment.
Also this morning, Herman Cain had a rough night. He's been at the top of the recent polls, as you know, but he's now struggling to stay there. He took a lot of heat at a conservative gathering in Iowa about his 9-9-9 plan and about his stance on abortion.
Also, did you remember to duck while you were out last night? Another dead satellite falling out of the sky. This one, we're told, the size of a minivan. We think it's crashed back to earth. We just don't know where.
Also, we're going to be heading to Ft. Bliss this morning, where everybody is celebrating. You can imagine why. Their loved ones are coming home for good from Iraq in just 10 weeks.
Hello to you all. I'm T.J. Homes. And a special good morning to the men and women who are watching us right now on the American Forces Network all around the world. Thank you for being here and thank you for what you do. 6:00 a.m. here in Atlanta. 5:00 a.m. in Ft. Bliss. 3:00 a.m. in Arizona.
But we're going to start with Herman Cain this morning, under fire, once again, from his Republican rivals. This time for recent comments he made about abortion. And what a platform they had to take shots at him last night. A major gathering of conservatives, Christian conservatives, in Iowa. CNN political producer Shannon Travis is in Des Moines.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A big night here in Des Moines, Iowa, at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition. A gathering of about 1,000 Iowans, many of them Christian evangelicals. Six presidential candidates came to court their vote. Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain.
Herman Cain, he was on the hot seat because of comments that he made to our very own Piers Morgan earlier this week. He was talking about the issue of abortion. He made very clear, unequivocally, that he is pro-life, but he was asked about the -- what about in cases of rape or incest? And his answer was interpreted by some people as leaving some room that he would not support the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Well, Herman Cain basically tried to drive a stake in any doubts that he is, in fact, pro-life. Take a listen at what he told these attendees tonight.
HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will not sign any legislation that in any way allows the government to be involved in it. I would strengthen all of our current laws that prevent abortion. I believe that abortion should be clearly stated and illegal across this country. And I would work to defund Planned Parenthood and I would make sure that I appoint judges that will enforce the Constitution. No activist judges. And I would also make sure that we didn't allow any bureaucrats to get in the way in order to protect the life of the unborn.
TRAVIS: Herman Cain certainly hopes that that puts this controversy to rest. But not so fast. Rick Perry, the Texas governor, took to the stage and basically said that Herman Cain needs to explain himself further. And Michele Bachmann, well after her speech, she spoke to reporters and take a listen at her comparison between Herman Cain and President Obama.
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think it's very important that our candidate for the presidency is a pro- life candidate. We're a pro-life party. And the president of the United States says he is personally against abortion, but he doesn't believe that the government should be involved. And that is the statement that Mr. Cain made. And that's very disturbing for a lot of people. And it's very important that our candidate for president can clearly articulate that they are pro-life and that they believe that life deserves protection.
TRAVIS: These Christian evangelicals gathered here tonight will be very important in the Iowa caucuses and in the general election.
Shannon Travis, CNN, Des Moines.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Well, four minutes past the hour now. We'll stick with politics.
And it appears a crisis has been averted. You won't have to put off Christmas shopping in order to vote in a presidential primary. That is because Nevada has now flinched. They've backed down and moved their caucus into February.
Officials in Nevada, you may remember, had come under pressure from the Republican National Committee when they decided to move their caucus up to January 14th. Some Republican presidential candidates say because of that move, they'd actually boycott the January contest. And New Hampshire threatened to move its primary to December. Now here is how the Nevada GOP chairwoman, Amy Tarkanian, described the controversy when I talked to her just after Tuesday's Republican debate. Listen to what she told me then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMY TARKANIAN, NEVADA GOP CHAIRWOMAN: I'm still in communications with our governor, the RNC and the state executive board. But as of right now, we're on the 14th. As of now.
HOLMES: OK. As of now, but that is different from the answer you gave me just a few days ago when you said absolutely not on the table.
TARKANIAN: Correct. Uh-huh.
HOLMES: It is on the table, at least now, moving the caucuses?
TARKANIAN: I don't set the table at home.
HOLMES: Well, there's --
TARKANIAN: As of now, that's where we're at.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, the table has been cleared, it appears. So, here's where we are. February 4th, Nevada is now going to have the caucuses on that day. So they'll go after Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, as well as Florida. And we will check in once again with Amy Tarkanian, the GOP chairwoman out in Nevada. She'll be joining us at 8:45 Eastern Time talking about this caucus change. Why they decided to do it and the pressure they may have been under to move.
Also this morning, voters in Louisiana gave Governor Bobby Jindal a pretty big vote of confidence. He easily won re-election with around 66 percent of the vote. The Republican incumbent beat nine challengers. His next closest opponent finished with less than 20 percent of the vote.
The war in Iraq is officially coming to an end. President Obama announced that all U.S. troops would be home for the holidays, bringing an end to this nearly nine-year war. Listen now to the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: I join the president in thanking all those who served so bravely in Iraq, and particularly noting the thousands who lost their lives to bring this day to fruition. But even as our troops come home, the United States' commitment to Iraq's future as a secure, stable, democratic nation remains as strong as ever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Right now there are still around 39,000 U.S. service members in Iraq. Some of them there for a third, even fourth tour. Our Martin Savidge is at Ft. Bliss in Texas, where he had a chance to talk with the family members of some of these troops.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are coming home. Those are probably about the best words that any military base can hear and certainly here at Ft. Bliss in Texas, well, it's no different.
Rumors have been circulating for a while, but it wasn't until President Obama made the announcement that it was official, which means now that the 3,500 or so members of the 1st Armored Division that have been serving in Iraq will now be headed home no later than December 31st.
I was speaking with Denise Young. She got the news with other military spouses Friday.
DENISE YOUNG, HUSBAND COMING HOME: Everybody was yelling and screaming and clapping and crying. And, yes, it's very emotional.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Her husband John's a medic. It's his second deployment and Denise says this good-bye was harder than the first.
YOUNG: It's always a worry. Anytime he's gone, whether it's at a training exercise, especially, obviously, when he's in Iraq, because you don't know the situation they're going into.
SAVIDGE: For Brooke Trapnell, it's her first deployment. Well, actually for her husband Tyron. He's a logistics officer. She's thrilled he's coming back and thinks that it's time that everyone comes back from Iraq.
BROOKE TRAPNELL, HUSBAND COMING HOME: It's been too long. Definitely too long. I mean I can't say anything because a lot of his guys have been deployed four times over there and this is his first one, but I think it's time, definitely.
SAVIDGE: Morgan Herrera can't wait to see her husband Leonardo. Neither can apparently their nearly two-year-old, Elio (ph).
SAVIDGE (on camera): When you heard the news about now your husband's deployment apparently being a lot shorter than you thought it was going to be.
MORGAN HERRERA, HUSBAND COMING HOME: We were ecstatic. Very happy.
ELIO HERRERA, FATHER COMING HOME: Byea (ph).
SAVIDGE: Thank you very much.
HERRERA: I mean I'm -- we're just happy, excited, ready for him to come home.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): By the way, Denise Young never really felt far from her husband. She took one of his old uniforms and made it into a purse. You could say he never left her side.
SAVIDGE (on camera): Where did you get the idea?
YOUNG: I had seen, you know, I just -- I'm a purse -- I love purses and so I said, let me cut this up and see what I can make.
SAVIDGE: And while the families here are prepare to celebrate, everyone also realizes that the Iraq War had a cost. And it was a high one. At least 52 soldiers from Ft. Bliss died in Iraq. And then on top of that, there are another 5,000 soldiers from here that are serving currently in Afghanistan. For them, and their families, their worries and that war are far from over.
Martin Savidge, CNN, Ft. Bliss, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Also, news we're just getting in this morning. The autopsy on former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi has been completed. Our Dan Rivers is joining me now. He is in the capital of Tripoli.
And, Dan, no real surprises here about the autopsy results.
DAN RIVERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes, that's right. I mean we haven't got the full results of the autopsy, but what we're told by the chief pathologist, Dr. Othman el-Zentani, he told us that the autopsy on Moammar Gadhafi, his son and the defense minister, Abu Baker Yunis, has been completed. Gadhafi, he said, was killed by a gunshot wound to the head, but we have no detail about whether that was a gunshot wound that was inflicted at close range or whether that was, as the NTC is suggesting, from the crossfire.
The detailed report, we'll told, will be handed to the attorney general's office here. And we then may get some more detail about exactly what they think happened. We're told it was performed at Misrata Hospital and that officials from the prosecution's office, hospital officials, were present. But no independent international officials were present during the autopsy, which is what the U.N. and other bodies were pressuring for.
And we're now told that the body will be returned to the same place where I saw them yesterday, in a -- which is essentially a market outside of Misrata where the public had been tune (ph) up to look at the body of Moammar Gadhafi.
HOLMES: Dan, what happens -- you talk about how the public has been viewing the body, but what about the family? Do you know of any plans for the family to get the body of Gadhafi?
RIVERS: Well, we certainly heard reports that the family had asked for the body to be handed over, but there's no clarity on whether that will happen or whether, as had been suggested earlier, that they would just bury Gadhafi's body in secret somewhere. I think they're slightly kind of stuck as to what to do because, on the one hand, they don't want a sort of shrine to Gadhafi be created at his grave. But on the other hand, they don't want to appear too callous and to insensitive to his tribe, the al Gadhafi tribe, which, you know, potentially is going to be hugely alienated and angered if his body is not handed over.
So they're in a difficult spot. And, you know, at the moment, all we know is that the body is going back on public display, completely contrary to Islamic tradition here that would dictate that the body is buried, you know, as soon as possible, within 24 hours of the death. Well, that time frame has come and gone. And we have no clarity on what they're going to do next.
HOLMES: All right, Dan Rivers for us in Tripoli. We'll check in with you again. Thanks so much. This autopsy comes as Libyans are celebrating freedom from the former dictator. Look and listen.
Celebrations popping up in Benghazi. All across the country, really, as Libya's transitional government expected to officially declare itself liberated. The ceremony is set to begin in just a few hours. It comes after 42 years of iron-fist rule by Colonel Gadhafi. His corpse has been on display, as you just heard Dan Rivers describing, in a Misrata meat locker. We still don't know when or where he'll be buried. He was killed Thursday, as you know, after being captured by rebel fighters near his hometown of Sirte.
We will go back live to Tripoli, as well as Benghazi, later this hour for Libya's national liberation day. Again, that's coming up about 20 minutes from now.
Another note here for you from the continent there, the African continent. U.S. officials warning Americans in Kenya of a possible terrorist attack there. And they're urging Americans to delay any plans to travel to Kenya. The threat apparently comes from the al Qaeda-linked group al Shabaab. It follows a recent decision by Kenya's government to send troops into neighboring Somalia to search for al Shabaab members. Islamic militants are suspected in a string of kidnappings. Also worth noting that al Shabaab has been on the U.S. State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.
Well, we're at 14 minutes past the hour. And it's big NFL Sunday. The Chicago Bears, Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a game today. But it won't be in Chicago. It won't be in Tampa Bay. It's in London. The NFL trying to sell NFL football to the Brits. Is that a tough sell, though?
Also this morning, we are once again bobbing and weaving and looking out for space junk falling out of the sky. It could actually be in your backyard right now. Take a peek. But, yes, another, Reynolds, another busted, broken satellite. Do they -- they think this is on the ground now, though, right?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They do think that it possibly made landfall. Landfall. It sounds like I'm using hurricane jargon. Between 9:45 and 10:15 Eastern. Perhaps even landing in the Indian Ocean. That would be (INAUDIBLE).
Let's see exactly where -- we'll talk about that coming up in a few minutes. But speaking of the ocean, more like the Caribbean Sea, we've got a big storm we're following out there. Not a named storm yet, but a disturbance that could be named within the next 48 hours or so. We'll have more on that coming up in a few moments. You're watching CNN SUNDAY. Really.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Sixteen minutes past the hour.
Reynolds, it's OK, you can look (ph).
WOLF: Are you sure?
HOLMES: Yes, it's OK. Right before we went on the air, they just told Reynolds, get -- step back. Get out of T.J.'s shot.
WOLF: I hear it all the time at home. So, I mean, it's -- I'm kind of used to it. I mean it's not a big deal, trust me.
HOLMES: But, here we go. Here we go. It was just a few weeks ago we were talking about one satellite falling out of the sky.
WOLF: Right.
HOLMES: Now we've got a second one. This one's a little smaller, but still a pretty big sucker.
WOLF: Absolutely. I mean 2.7 tons.
HOLMES: Yes.
WOLF: That's a big thing. It was launched back in 1986 and it was a -- we refer to it as a German satellite, but, you know what, the U.S. and the Brits also helped out. They launched it. It was up there for about a decade or so and it was basically an x-ray telescope that was designed to help us understand the origins of the universe.
HOLMES: OK.
WOLF: And did so for about 10 years or so. Then we got to about '89 or so, the Germans said, hey, something's not working. It's not working that well at all, so they just kind of left it up there. It's been up there for over a decade spinning around uselessly. Just spinning around and around. Now, it just fell out of orbit and possibly did so between, again the numbers, 9:45 and 10:15 Eastern Time. So if you happen to look out and see something flying through the sky, bits and pieces of it, well, yes, could possibly be part of that satellite.
HOLMES: Where do they think this sucker was going to come down?
WOLF: They're thinking perhaps the Indian Ocean.
HOLMES: OK.
WOLF: But, again, this is a -- when this thing -- when -- they're going to go back through the atmosphere, it's a very hostile environment. These things are going to breaks up in a multitude of pieces. Some of these could be smaller than your coffee cup. Some could be even smaller than that. But some could be fairly large, several hundred pounds. So you just hope they don't, you know, fall onto people.
HOLMES: I don't know why -- you all give me the number. But for whatever reason, I get nervous when I hear there's a satellite falling out of the sky and you all tell me, yes, it's one in whatever billion chance you're going to get hit. I can't help but for some reason be nervous.
WOLF: We need to make a satellite umbrella. Something strong enough to withstand a piece of satellite that's going to be several hundred pounds.
Hey, you know, and speaking of some really heavy stuff, there was actually some large hail that fell in parts of Oklahoma just yesterday. And one of the reasons why is because of an area of low pressure that was drifting through parts of Oklahoma. We've got video for you. And there you see it right there. Well, you've got a little hailstone. Then next to it, a little element of America's pass time. And just a little size comparison there. Yes, it can do a lot of damage. In fact, if you've ever been to parts of Texas or Oklahoma or even Nebraska, they actually have hail sales. Automobiles that actually are damaged by hailstones and you can get a pretty good deal if you don't mind a car that's all dimpled and stuff.
All right, let's talk about more of that hail and possibly more hail we might see this morning. Maybe some small stuff. Well, maybe this area of low pressure that's just cruising its way from Oklahoma, back into portions of Arkansas and into Louisiana. And where we have this thing setting up, we've got that area of low pressure right about -- come on, let's get this thing working. Here we go. Got that low setting up right here. But a lot of wind that's also popping up right here. So if you happen to be in Shreveport, over towards Baton Rouge, get ready. You're going to have the combination of the wind and the rain.
And the big weathermaker, as I mentioned, right here. Easy to see. This area of low pressure. Morning showers can be expected. That's going to eventually move into Arkansas -- not Arkansas but into places like say Mississippi, Alabama, maybe even parts of the Florida panhandle.
Also rain in the central and western half of the Great Lakes. Cool and dry for you in the Northeast. Back towards the west, very sunny.
And I'll tell you something else we're going to be seeing out there. A little bit of that marine layer that should last through about midmorning before dissipating. Seventy-three in Albuquerque, 83 your high in Dallas, 77 in Kansas City, 62 in Minneapolis, 85 in Houston and 78 in New Orleans. Back out along the eastern seaboard, 66 in Washington. New York with 60. Very quickly, as you wrap things up, here's the tropical outlook. We're watching this area of disturbed weather just east of Central America. Right now the National Hurricane Center giving this about a 70 percent chance of further development. We'll keep a sharp eye on it for you.
T.J., that's the latest. Let's pitch it back over to you.
HOLMES: All right, Reynolds, thank you, kind sir.
We're at 19 minutes past the hour now. And hundreds of people paid their final respects Saturday to one of IndyCar's most talented and most popular drivers, Dan Wheldon. He was killed in that horrific crash at the Indy 300 in Las Vegas last Sunday. A funeral was held for him at the First Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg Friday. His fellow IndyCar drivers were all pallbearers. IndyCar is holding a public service today to celebrate his life. Wheldon was a two-time Indianapolis 500 winner. He was 33 years old.
We turn now to the World Series, where some are describing it as one of the greatest performances in World Series history. And it came from Mr. Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals. They have now taken a 2-1 lead over the Texas Rangers. But listen to the night he had. Three home runs. You're hearing me right. Three home runs, brought in six runs, five hits altogether. Only Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson have ever hit that many homers in a World Series game.
Also a big game today for the NFL. But the game is not happening in Chicago or in Tampa Bay. The two teams that are participating. It's actually happening in London. They are heading over because this is the fifth regular season game that has been held over in London since 2007. This is part of the NFL's drive to try to export the game to other countries. The NFL commissioner says having teams play overseas periodically will help grow the fan base.
We're at 21 minutes past the hour now. And a five-year-old missing child, been missing almost two weeks now, and some, including in her family, are openly questioning why the case is not getting more national attention. Part of my conversation with the missing child's grandmother is just ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Twenty-three minutes past the hour now.
And tomorrow will mark 20 days since baby Lisa disappeared from her home in Kansas City. Police now saying the cadaver dog that was searching the home reportedly made a positive hit for the scent of a body. The 11-month-old child disappeared from her home. The dog discovered that scent on the floor of the parents' bedroom. Lisa's mother, Deborah Bradley, admits now that she was drunk the night her baby vanished. She says releasing the information about the cadaver dog's find will only derail the search for whoever took her.
Also, another case of a missing child. Maybe not getting the same kind of attention as baby Lisa. But a vigil in Arizona overnight may help. At least they're hoping will help bring attention and find five- year-old Jhessye Shockley. She disappeared almost two weeks ago now while her mother was out running errands and her older siblings were supposed to be watching her. Police are now counting on an $11,000 reward to help generate some information about little Jhessye. The search of the neighborhood has surrounded up nothing. And yesterday Jhessye's grandmother told me she's not happy with how the police have been handling the case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHIRLEY JOHNSON, MISSING GIRL'S GRANDMOTHER: There's no way that you should stop looking for a five-year-old child that come up missing after two days. When I first arrived from California, I was so happy. I saw the command post and all this activity was going on. But not once did I see somebody going through that house, which I just assumed they probably did before I got there. But I -- they were just sitting at this command post all day, every day.
And then after the day after I got there, they just left, you know. They told me they was in and moving the command post. But you don't stop looking for a child after two days, take an Amber Alert down after two days and just -- and we don't hear anything else from anyone for over a week until I just was outraged about it and started speaking out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, she openly is wondering why baby Jhessye's case has not gotten more attention. Certainly gotten some attention on a local level, but she said it hasn't gotten any national attention. I put the question of why to the president of "Peas in their Pods." It's a non- profit group that helps find missing minority children. On this program yesterday, she said it's important to appoint someone to aggressively lobby for media attention.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GAETANE BORDERS, PRESIDENT, "PEAS IN THEIR PODS": As you heard from the grandmother, Shirley, she really has been going after the press and trying to get support. And she's gotten it, but it has taken a lot of energy. So that's one of the thing that we tell families, too, you really should appoint somebody to be your point person that will do the leg work, because it is -- it is something that really needs to be done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now Gaetane Borders there said other relevant facts about family members in the case are also important. And in this particular case of baby Jhessye, her mother had actually spent time in prison for child abuse. But still, Borders says the focus should stay on the child right now.
We're at 26 minutes past the hour now and police have arrested a mother and her boyfriend, accusing them of locking a developmentally disabled teenager in a filthy trailer. The boy lived with animals and may have been neglected for years. That is ahead.
Also this morning, country singer Loretta Lynn is in the hospital. A hospital in Kentucky. And had to cancel a couple of concerts. We'll tell you how she's doing this morning.
Stay with us on this CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, at the bottom of the hour now. Give you a look at some of the stories making news across country.
We'll start in Colorado, Erie, Colorado, where a mother and her boyfriend are in jail, accused of keeping a 14-year-old boy locked in a filthy trailer. The boy is developmentally disabled. Police say he lived with dogs, ducks, other birds. He was rarely fed, they say, just once a day in most cases. He may have been neglected for years according to the investigators. The suspects now facing child abuse charges.
Turning to Kentucky now where country singer Loretta Lynn is in the hospital with pneumonia. She had to cancel a concert there last night and doctors say she needs some rest. She's 76 years old, a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Best known for that signature song "Coal Miner's Daughter."
Also, Cate Edwards married her long time boyfriend in a ceremony in Raleigh, North Carolina, yesterday. She is the daughter of former presidential candidate John Edwards. As you know, his political career ended in scandal. He walked his daughter down the aisle at the ceremony, and it's a ceremony that her mother, who died of breast cancer last year, helped plan.
All right. Thirty-one minutes past the hour now.
Festivities that have been decades in the making. We'll take you live to Libya for the nationwide celebration as the war torn country is set to declare today as its National Day of Liberation. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: We are just past the bottom of the hour on the CNN SUNDAY MORNING. I'm T.J. Holmes. Thank you for spending part of your day here with us.
And it's a day that dawns a new era in Libya. The North African nation puts 42 years of Moammar Gadhafi's dictatorship behind them. Here's what we know, this morning at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Time, Libya's National Transitional Council will hold a ceremony where they're expected to formally declare the country's liberation.
But the announcement comes as questions escalate surrounding the death of Moammar Gadhafi, whose body has been on display in refrigerated cooler in Misrata. Within the last hour, we've gotten word on an autopsy on Gadhafi has been completed. No surprise. The pathologist is saying that Gadhafi died from a gunshot wound to the head.
After Libya's immediate future, a spokesman for the NTC says elections and the drafting of a constitution are in the works and so as rebuilding the nation's life blood industry, oil. NTC chairman says Libya is already producing 300,000 barrels of oil daily, a huge change from its months' old civil war when hardly any oil was being produced.
More now on the celebrations today. CNN's Dan Rivers on the line with me in the Capital of Tripoli and CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is live for us in Benghazi this morning where the uprising against Gadhafi actually began.
Nick, let me start with you. How does it look so far and what will we expect to see over the next few hours?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, great anticipation here in Central Benghazi, not far away from one of the key attacks on a Gadhafi compound that began the revolution. We're hearing in the celebration gunfire and sirens as police begin to clamp down on this area to make it secure for that key speech.
In just five hours' time in which the leading figure of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, will declare this country independent. A key moment, frankly, which marks the second phase, perhaps a harder road almost for Libya as it has to retain unity in the months and years ahead to spend that vast resources from the oil, from frozen assets of the Gadhafi regime abroad, to try to put this country on a road to progress after this rather horrible eight months of war - T.J.
HOLMES: And, Nick, this is certainly going to be symbolic, what we're going to see today, but as a practical matter, does this mark a transition as well?
PATON WALSH: Absolutely. I mean, I think there's going to begin a domestic political fight here for power. Mustafa Jalil giving the speech. We'll clearly see his political position (INAUDIBLE). There's going to be severe immediate challenges for the interim government here, many wounded to deal with, large numbers of men in military uniforms, rebel fighters around me who are still armed who need to be assimilated into the Security Forces, or found work elsewhere.
And then that big task of rebuilding a city after the damage of this war, using those billions of dollars held abroad and the billions of dollars available from the oil this country can sell on a daily basis to bring the country into some kind of improved future.
So people see the strife and sacrifice of the past few months translating into better lives in the immediate future - T.J.
HOLMES: And one last thing just on Benghazi, we know Tripoli is the capital, but Benghazi plays such a pivotal role and it simply was the - was the capital of the rebellion that - that rose up against Gadhafi. What will Benghazi, what is Benghazi's future? PATON WALSH: It will obviously hold that place in Libyans' memories. Of course, people are wondering why the key celebration, the key speech is being held here and that does raise the question of unity in the months ahead. Tripoli being the capital, this being the capital of revolution, already people talking about the different sacrifices made by different cities in this months' long war and people trying to secure their place post rebellion in some recognition of the sacrifices made.
So, certainly, yes, the concerns about unity amongst the Libyan people in the months ahead paramount as celebrations occur here in the capital of the revolution, not in the capital of the country, Tripoli - T.J.
HOLMES: All right, Nick Paton Walsh for us in Benghazi, thank you so much. We'll keep an eye on what's happening in Libya this morning just hours away from the celebrations on their day of liberation.
We're 39 minutes past the hour now. We'll turn back to the U.S. and specialty license plates are being pushed for once again in Texas. And these plates are offensive to a lot of drivers and lawmakers because, well, you can see there, it bears the confederate flag, similar tags are already on the road in at least nine other states, and now Texas could be next.
And also this morning, President Obama, as we look ahead this week, President Obama will be heading out west. He's going to be spending some time on the Hollywood hot seat. You want to see it? Have to tune in late.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, 43 minutes past the hour at this CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
Voters in Louisiana gave a pretty big vote of confidence to their Governor, Bobby Jindal. He was easily re-elected. Got around 66 percent of the vote. The Republican incumbent beat nine challengers. His closest opponent finished with less than 20 percent of the vote.
And it will be a full calendar for the Republican presidential candidates this week. Our Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser with a look.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hey. Good morning, T.J.
Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry Tuesday unveils another part of his plan to boost the economy and create jobs. The Texas governor will propose a flat tax during a speech in the early voting State of South Carolina.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK PERRY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Scrapping the three million words of the current tax code, starting over with something simpler, a flat tax.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEINHAUSER: Perry, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich will all separately be in New Hampshire this week to officially register to get their name on the ballot in the state that holds first in the nation primary.
Meanwhile, the man whose job they want, President Barack Obama, he's in the west holding re-election fundraisers in Denver, San Francisco and Los Angeles. And while in L.A., the president joins Jay Leno as a guest on "The Tonight Show" - T.J.
HOLMES: All the excitement on the presidential campaign trail providing a lot of fresh material for the late night comedians including, of course, Jon Stewart. Take a look at this one.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART": The real fireworks came when the two silverbacks, Romney and Perry, went mano- a-mano on the subject of people whose native tongue gave us the phrase mano-a-mano.
PERRY: Mitt, you lose all of your standing for my perspective because you hired illegals in your home and you knew for - about it for a year.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think I've ever hired an illegal in my life. And so I'm afraid - I'm looking forward to finding your facts on that because that just doesn't -
PERRY: I'll tell you what the facts are. You had -
ROMNEY: Rick, again, I'm speaking. I'm speaking.
STEWART: Did he just put - are they allowed to use their hands? You're not allowed to use your hands.
Oh, I would hate to be able to zoom in right now and see what's going on inside Rick Perry's head.
To be fair, to be fair, from what I understand that is the clip that is always playing inside Rick Perry's head.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And, Reynolds, this - we shouldn't - it's funny the way Jon Stewart did it. But it should not be any moment in any presidential debate -
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
HOLMES: -- where you actually think that two of the candidates could come to blows and I was there in Vegas and I saw that moment, I held my breath. I thought this is about to happen. These two are about to come to blows. I just knew it was about to happen.
WOLF: You know, where was that in Vegas?
HOLMES: They're having it at the Venetian.
WOLF: Now, do they ever have - is there ever any boxing that occurs?
HOLMES: They don't do boxing there usually.
WOLF: But they do it in the town.
HOLMES: On the Vegas Strip, always.
WOLF: What an appropriate place.
HOLMES: You know, it's perfect.
WOLF: Absolutely. But, I mean, you know, it is - it was interesting. It was spellbinding. I mean, you can't tell me you couldn't look away from it, from what was happening. It was an amazing thing to see. But, yes, something that doesn't really belong in politics.
HOLMES: Yes. It was kind of ugly. Anything ugly on that map? That's kind of ugly.
WOLF: Some of that other stuff?
HOLMES: Yes.
WOLF: There is some ugly stuff to share with people.
What we're watching right now, of course, is some development, potential development in the Caribbean Sea. You know, the hurricane season is going to last all the way through November 30th and we're watching this pocket of deep convection that we have. In fact, as we take a look at it, there is a chance this may actually strengthen a bit. In fact, the National Hurricane Center is giving us about a 70 percent chance for further development.
And as we take a look at the computer models, the spaghetti models, some of them now in agreement showing this moving a little bit more to the west, eventually going towards Belize and right up to the Yucatan Peninsula.
Now, this can somehow maintain its structure, which is hard to do with these storms, by Friday morning, a couple of models bringing it all the way in across the Yucatan Peninsula and into the Gulf of Mexico. A lot is going to happen between now and next Friday, so we're going to watch it for you very carefully.
Seeing now we see plain as day as the heavy rainfall moving right towards the Gulf Coast and into the Deep South from Shreveport, southward to Houston. Get ready for the splash and dash showers. You certainly had some rain in Dallas last night and also some large hail in places like Oklahoma. We can expect those to pretty much stick around through a good part of the morning.
Rain for the Central and Western Great Lakes and the Pacific Northwest, plenty of sunshine out west and beautiful, beautiful cool day for you in parts of the northeast, where highs very quickly as we wrap things up, 66 in Washington; 60 in New York; 77, Kansas City; 73 in Albuquerque and 80 degrees in San Francisco.
T.J., up to you.
HOLMES: Did you say splash and dash? I heard -
WOLF: Splash and dash showers, yes.
HOLMES: What does that mean?
WOLF: Means basically light precipitation, not the heavy gully washers. Just giving you all kinds of vernacular this morning. Yes, but just like little rain drops here and there. Splash and dash, quick moving showers.
HOLMES: OK. That was a new one.
WOLF: It's that thumbs up or thumbs down?
HOLMES: No, I like it. I like it a lot.
WOLF: OK. Well, good to know.
HOLMES: Good stuff.
WOLF: All right. Cool.
HOLMES: Thank you, Reynolds.
All right. Twelve minutes until the top of the hour now.
We're going to turn to Texas where a controversial issue is back. It's back on the table. It's the renewed push to allow vanity plates that bear the Confederate Flag. Here is what the plates would look like.
A critical vote to allow these plates could come as early as next month. The proposal was sponsored by a Texan Land Commissioner, Texas Land Commissioner, who's backed by the sons of confederate veterans. They already have permission for the plates in nine other states.
But in Houston, lawmakers including Congresswoman Sheila Jackson held a rally to appeal directly to Governor Rick Perry to make sure Texas does not become one of the states to allow these plates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D), TEXAS: I would indicate to you that the appropriate call that we make today is for the governor of the State of Texas to encourage and ask his board, the Texas Motor Vehicle Board, to vote no or to not bring up any action that would promote a state action issued license plate that has the symbol of the Confederate Flag.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, a vote on the issue last April ended in a tie. This could, as you know, become a campaign issue now for Governor Rick Perry, who, as you know, is running for president.
But what do you think about it? Want to hear your comments this morning about this issue. Hit us up on twitter, @TJHOLMES. Again, what do you think of the controversy - should it be a controversy? Should it be allowed, the Confederate Flag on vanity plates? People have the right to do that? Have any problem with that? Let us know, again, on Twitter @TJHOLMES.
When an earthquake hit Haiti early last year, U.S. troops arrived to help evacuate and care for the wounded. Now some of them have arrived here to thank those same service members. That story next in our "Passport."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: About seven minutes until the top of the hour now.
Take a look at this video and the folks you're going to be seeing here are from Haiti. They were all injured and severely in many cases as you can see in last year's earthquake.
But they haven't let it slow them down. They actually arrived in the U.S. last week to say thank you to the United States.
Nadia Bilchik here with me with our "Morning Passport." And a lot of people on our team were really fascinated by this video and really, really wanted to make sure we got this story.
NADIA BILCHIK, CNN EDITORIAL PRODUCER: And isn't it a heartwarming story?
HOLMES: Yes.
BILCHIK: Here you have these Haitian amputees who have formed a soccer team called Team Zarian. And Zarian actually is a tarantula. And why a tarantula is they say that a tarantula, when wounded, can still fight back.
And here you're watching Zarian, the National Amputee Soccer Team of Haiti with wounded service members here in the United States of America, inspiring them, showing them various moves, showing them what to do. And people who witnessed this said the energy was extraordinary.
And, you notice the Team Zarian, when we take a look at the video, the ones wearing khaki and the others are the service members, but, again, the skill to play soccer and when they actually play soccer, they do it with only one leg. They take off the prosthetic and they use the crutches. So there you're looking at the video at Walter Reed and various other places where Team Zarian is encouraging and inspiring others.
But I want to have you listen to a sound bite from one of the team members of Team Zarian as to why they have such gratitude toward the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CEDIEU FORTILIS, SOCCER COACH: Most of the Haitians who can live life right now because of these soldiers. They came with the boat, the big ship, into the boat. They take all the worst people we have in (INAUDIBLE) they bring them on to the boat. They make the surgery for them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BILCHIK: So we know thousands of people lost limbs and were injured in last year's earthquake, but the gratitude of the Haitians to the Americans and one particular organization called Healing Haiti's Children's Program gave limbs to these soccer players and to many others and then gave them a year of physical therapy.
So enormous gratitude there for U.S. involvement in helping Haiti's - Haitians heal. And just such an inspirational story. Here you're seeing soldiers bringing supplies to Haiti. Just enormous gratitude and just a story of inspiration on a physical level, on a spiritual level, and just inspiring in every single way.
HOLMES: The team, do they travel around, bringing goodwill?
BILCHIK: Yes. The team had been sponsored, travel around, show the amputees what to do.
HOLMES: That's great.
BILCHIK: And what - people who were there, T.J., just said their energy, their spirit, having lost limbs, now many of the people in the Zarian Soccer Team were soccer players before.
HOLMES: Right.
BILCHIK: So imagine being an athlete and then losing a limb and finding a way to rekindle that and inspire others, rather extraordinary and apparently very skillful and quite a formidable team.
HOLMES: You have to be. Now, they're doing it as they make it look easy, but no doubt that is extremely difficult to do.
Nadia Bilchik, so glad we were able to share this story this morning. Thank you so much.
We're just about a few minutes to the top of the hour. I want you to stick around, because we're going to strike up the band. Because it's time to quit. One guy was fed up with his boss, he walked out with a bang. You're going to see the video, the greatest way to quit your job ever is coming up. Also this morning, they are just hammering Herman. His rivals took turns battering the newly minted frontrunner at a big event in Iowa. But that's not all they talked about. The highlights ahead. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, as we get close to the top of the hour now, we have all been there, right? You want to go out in style from your job. You just want to go off on your boss and just do something over the top, but then you don't do it, because you might need the reference or, you know, you don't want to burn some of those bridges.
But, as Jeanne Moos now reports, and you need to see this, one guy went through with what we've all wanted to do before, and now he is a huge internet star.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you're mad at management.
JOEY DEFRANCESCO, QUITS HIS JOB WITH A BAND: They hated me and I hated them.
MOOS: And you want to quit your job as a hotel room server, imagine sneaking in a brass band and serving this to your boss --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys, what is this? Guys, all of you out, right now.
DEFRANCESCO: Jared (ph) I'm here to tell you that I'm quitting.
(MUSIC)
MOOS: Joey DeFrancesco says he had just finished his last 13- hour day at the Marriott Renaissance Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island. After three- and-a-half years of butting heads with bosses and helping to organize a union --
They treat us like (EXPLETIVE DELETED) here.
MOOS: -- he decided to live his fantasy.
DEFRANCESCO: To tell their boss to shove it, or to push back in this big way.
MOOS: Joey's a member of the What Cheer? band. He used his access code to bring a dozen or so band members through the employee entrance to stake out his boss' office.
And now "Joey Quits" is a YouTube sensation. "Quits like a champion."
Joey says his hotel sources tell him that after the band left, management called police. But no action has been taken against him. The hotel would only say, "We take the health and satisfaction of our employees very seriously," going on to cite nice things management has done like an "Iron Chef" competition for employees and Housekeeping Week.
The last time we saw a musical resignation was in the movie, "That thing you do."
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, "THAT THING YOU DO")
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I quit. I quit. I quit, Mr. White.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS: We've seen a happy resignation presented on a cake, and a spicy "I Quit" when a Taco Bell employee near Buffalo rearranged the letters on the sign. At least he punctuated his expletive with a smiley face.
To those who told Joey, now you'll never get a reference --
DEFRANCESCO: I wasn't going to get a reference anyway, you know? I organized a union. They hate me anyway.
MOOS (on camera): Joey already has a new job, though his new boss doesn't want him to say where, but it's a job where his degree in history could come in handy.
(voice-over): Over at ABC, they labeled Joey's exit the "I Quit Polka." Actually, it's a Serbian song, and now, Joey's a hit in Serbia. I guess if he can do it --
DEFRANCESCO: Jared, I'm here to tell you that I'm quitting.
MOOS (on camera): -- CNN, I'm here to tell you that I'm -- staying.
(voice-over): Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: We definitely don't recommend that you try that -- certainly not here at CNN. I would have been hauled out by police.
But just a few minutes past the hour now, and we're going to start this hour of CNN SUNDAY MORNING with Herman Cain.
You know, it's tough being the front-runner sometimes. And he's come under fire once again from his Republican rivals this time for recent comments he made about abortion -- making some people question whether he was truly a pro-life advocate.
And the platform to take shots at him, well, it was a major gathering of Christian conservatives in Iowa. Potential voters crowded into the Faith and Freedom Coalition's banquet to hear from the Republican presidential candidates.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
REP. MICHELE BACHMANN (R-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Number one, on abortion on demand, I would be fully supportive of a federal constitutional amendment to define life from beginning -- conception. I believe in life from conception until natural death. And I would support all pro-life language that comes across my desk.
HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would not sign any legislation that in any way allowed the government to be involved in it. I would strengthen all of our current laws that prevent abortion. I believe that abortion should be clearly stated and illegal across this country. And I would work to defund Planned Parenthood and I will make sure I appoint judges that will enforce the Constitution. No activist judges. And I would also make sure we didn't allow any bureaucrats to get in the way in order to protect the life of the unborn.
GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is a liberal canard to say I am personally pro-life, but government should stay out of that decision. If that is your view, you are not pro-life. You are pro having your cake and eating it, too.
RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I call it my zero- zero-zero plan, because zero is better than nine. But it -- it zeroes -- it zeroes out the corporate tax for manufacturers. It zeroes out repatriated profits on taxes on repatriated profits that come back into the country. It zeroes out every regulation that affects manufacturers that cause over $100 million. It will create jobs in this country.
REP. RON PAUL (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We now face a horrendous problem because we do not believe in honest money anymore. The most significant and most threatening event today to us as a consequence of this lack of understanding of the value of family and civil rights and the Constitution is what has driven us to what we call the debt -- the sovereign debt problem. It's worldwide. This debt is so huge, it is bigger than anything that has ever happened in the world. And it's threatening our breakdown of our society.
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The process of recovery economically is not that difficult. I predict to you that late on election night, as it is clear that Obama has been defeated, and that the Democratic Senate has been defeated, late that night the recovery will begin.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HOLMES: Well, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman were not at the Iowa event. Romney was campaigning in New Hampshire instead.
Well, six minutes past the hour. It appears that maybe the crisis has been averted. You won't have to put off Christmas shopping in order to go vote in a presidential primary.
That is because Nevada has flinched. They backed down, moved it caucus now into February. Officials in Nevada, you may remember, had come under pressure from the Republican National Committee when they decided to move their caucus up to January 14th. Some of the Republican presidential candidates said they'd actually boycott the January contest and New Hampshire threatened to move its primary into December.
Here is how Nevada GOP Chairwoman Amy Tarkanian described the controversy when I talked to her shortly after last Tuesday's Republican debate in Vegas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMY TARKANIAN, NEVADA GOP CHAIRWOMAN: I'm still in communications with our governor, the RNC, and the state executive board. But as of right now, we are on the 14th.
HOLMES: OK.
TARKANIAN: As of now.
HOLMES: As of now. But that is different from the answer you gave me a few days ago when you said absolutely not on the table.
TARKANIAN: Yes.
HOLMES: It is on the table at least now moving the caucuses?
TARKANIAN: I don't set the tables at home. As of now, that's where we're at.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Where we're at appears the table has been cleared. So, here is where we are. February 4th, Nevada has moved their caucus to February 4th so they'll now go after Iowa, which will go first on the 3rd, and then New Hampshire, which is expected to pick up January 10th, is not for sure yet. Also, South Carolina going on the 21st and then Florida, which really threw this whole thing into flux when they moved theirs up to January 31st. So, there you have the calendar now.
And Amy Tarkanian, the GOP chairwoman out in Nevada, is going to join me once again this morning, 8:45 Eastern Time, to talk about moving that date, why they did it and where the pressure was coming from.
Also, Thailand is experiencing its worst flooding in more than half a century. The water is not going anywhere anytime soon. We're live in Bangkok.
It's eight past the hour on this CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Eleven minutes past the hour.
News we're just getting in about an earthquake in the eastern part of Turkey this morning, the southeastern part of Turkey. I'm going to be bringing in Reynolds Wolf in.
And, Reynolds, I want -- go ahead and actually show your picture, because you can show us the location. But a 7.3 magnitude quake, just about 20 miles northeast of the city of Van. So, give us an idea of where this place is. And, again, when you talk about 7.3, that's a big earthquake.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is. It is a major earthquake. I got to tell you, this is not an anomaly worldwide.
Is this something very serious? Oh, absolutely. This is a major earthquake. But earthquakes have happened in this region before. OK?
You have to see this area that's shaded in red. That is the epicenter in far eastern Turkey. You've got Georgia to the North. You got Armenia. You got Azerbaijan. Further to the south, you got Iraq.
So, this is very close to the tri-border area of Iran, Iraq and, of course, Turkey, right in this area. No reports as of yet with regard to damage. But, of course, those reports at times often come slowly.
But I can tell you that this is anywhere from again a 7.3, there may be some aftershocks. We'll take a look at some video that's just being fed in now. Again, this is stuff that is just fresh. We're looking at it for the very first time. We're sharing it with you.
And you can see, obviously, after this thing takes place, you remember the earthquake we had on the Eastern Seaboard, a lot of confusion? Well, guess what, same thing happens here. You have about 134 magnitude 7.0 earthquakes that happened a year worldwide. And when they do, of course, it's going to cause a wild reaction right here.
You can obviously see people walking around. They're obviously checking the structure of their buildings. A lot of people getting out, the big fear is that when you have some of these initial shocks, T.J., is that it can cause some damage, some unseen at first, but if you have an aftershock that's even slightly smaller, still like a 6.7, 6.5, that may be enough to cause a building that doesn't appear to be weakened, it may be enough to cause the building to collapse altogether.
And that's the big fear is if you're out in the open, you should be OK, but if you happen to be in a building, a structure with some kind of damage to it, of course, there is the fear that it is going to just fall like, say, a house of cards, so to speak. So, it's something that bears watching and, certainly, we will definitely have -- I'm not saying we might, I'm saying we will have aftershocks in this region. We'll keep you up to speed on that. HOLMES: If we can, go ahead, Deidre, rerack that video for us if you can, and we're seeing this video, Reynolds, for the first time with our viewers. This is just coming in to us from CNN Turkey.
And from the video we're seeing here, you don't see a lot of damage. But this is what people naturally do. They go outside when an earthquake takes place. And this is one area we're seeing, many other areas, maybe there's more damage -- and we haven't gotten these reports of damage and injury just yet.
But something also key here, Reynolds, to remember, and we don't know the depth, that's so important. You hear about an earthquake being this strong, I haven't seen on the information yet from Geological survey, but the depending on the depth of an earthquake, it can be more damaging than others, even though 7.3 might sound like a huge, very powerful earthquake -- well, depending on how deep it was, the epicenter, it may not be as bad as it sounds quite frankly.
WOLF: New information just came in -- 4.5. That's your depth. That's the depth of this. So, yes, there is the possibility of substantial damage. Obviously, we're seeing this video. It is really not, at this point, something that we're going to be seeing right away.
But, of course, that information may come in pretty soon. This is our quake map. Take a look at this. The USGS shake map in eastern Turkey.
You see the places where you have the violent, heavy shaking place right near the epicenter. But then when you move away a little bit, this may be hard for you to see. You've got smaller communities. I'm going to try to dot some of this out for you -- one community on the other side of this body, where this lake is over here, certainly not right on top of a population cluster. But that doesn't mean you can't have some damage in places that are far beyond.
I mean, just, again, we use our own experience. You remember when we had the earthquake on the Eastern Seaboard. There are people in Atlanta, Georgia, that were far away from the epicenter that were feeling a little bit of the shaking. So, certainly, Washington, D.C. Certainly, obviously, the nation's capitol was getting some of it.
And where you see here, obviously, some video being fed in. You're seeing some of the furniture that's being toppled over, a lot of windows rattling. You see the window treatments shaking a little bit.
And then when you see the people, they're doing what people do, hey, are you OK? You're simply going from door to door, neighbor to neighbor, asking people their condition, how are they doing, watching out for relatives and friends. Certainly a frightening prospect, T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Reynolds, thank you so much. Again, this information just coming in to us and some of the video coming in to us. We'll continue to collect information because we know we're going to get updates literally by the minute here and we will pass them on to our viewers.
Reynolds, thank you so much.
We'll certainly be checking in with him again.
It's 16 minutes past the hour.
Let us now turn to Thailand, where it may take four to six weeks we're told for floodwaters to recede there. That's according to the prime minister. The country is experiencing its worst flooding in some 50 years.
Our Paula Hancocks is joining us live this morning from the capital of Bangkok.
And, please, give us some perspective of just how bad is it.
PAUL HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., this has been going on for a couple of months now already. And we were at the flood relief headquarters earlier today and they said it will be at least a couple of weeks before the situation even starts to get better. More suburbs in Bangkok, mainly in the north, are being submerged in water over the past couple of days, seeing people having to move out because the water has risen from ankle level to waist level within just a matter of hours.
Now, of course, the prime minister and also many of the officials are still saying that they are confident they can keep central Bangkok safe. We just spoke to the Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra a little earlier on, and she told us that was confident that the drainage situation in Bangkok was going to be OK and they were actually going to be able to keep the business district dry.
But, of course, that doesn't help those who are in the suburbs themselves. And there is a lot of misery there. Thousands of people have had to leave their home. There's at least 110,000 evacuees at this point, many of them living in tents. In domestic airports, for example, the arrivals hall and departure hall turned into an evacuation center and it could go on for a couple more weeks.
The expectation is these waters will not recede for a month or a month and a half -- T.J.
HOLMES: And you mentioned how many people had been evacuated. But what are the latest numbers you're getting in terms of the number of people who may be injured and seeking treatment, but also the number of deaths we have seen because of this flooding.
HANCOCKS: Well, the death toll at this point is over 350 people. And we know that many people have also obviously been injured.
Now, there are many people still trying to evacuate areas as different suburbs are being submerged in water, those people are trying to move to airports, they're trying to move to schools which have been turned into evacuation centers. Now, one spot of bright news, farther north -- obviously, this isn't just Bangkok this is happening in. This is happening across the whole of the central and northern Thailand. Further the north, the waters do appear to be receding somewhat. But, of course, all that water has to go somewhere. And it's coming south, it's coming towards Bangkok and this is why these Bangkok suburbs are being hit at this point -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Paula Hancocks for us there in Bangkok, thank you so much.
We're at 19 minutes past the hour. Stay with us on this CNN SUNDAY MORNING, following a lot of stories for you this morning, including that breaking story out of Turkey, where we're getting word of a 7.3 magnitude earthquake.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Twenty-two minutes past the hour.
We're following still this breaking story out of Turkey this morning where there has been a 7.3 magnitude earthquake that hit the southeastern part of that country. You're seeing video just coming to us on the right side of your screen. This is from our CNN Turkey there.
But this is what naturally happens as I bring in our Reynolds Wolf who has been watching this with me and has a lot of new information for us.
But we're seeing, Reynolds, these pictures, we're sharing -- frankly, folks, I'm seeing these pictures for the first time along with you. This is just coming in to us. And video is coming from seven different parts of the region, for the most part what we had seen, a lot of shaking, some things falling off walls, some shelves, things falling over from inside someone's home.
But his appeared to be a little more of a chaotic scene, Reynolds, than we saw before. But give us some perspective on this region, first of all, Reynolds. But also on just how powerful an earthquake this is -- a 7.3. People can go often and quickly back to a Haiti wake, which is a 7.0, I do believe.
WOLF: A 7.0. I mean, just to give you some perspective, the one that we had back in 1989 in San Francisco, 6.0. Now, the one that affected Japan, that caused the giant tsunami, that was a 9.0.
So, this is not quite as strong, 7.3. Keep in mind, this is an area that is really no stranger to having these seismic events. So these are people that if they're walking down the street and feel a tremor, it's certainly not something that's uncommon. This however again, as I mentioned, is a major quake.
You see the video that's coming in. You see a little bit of smoke, dust, not quite sure what that might be. Is it from possibly a fire? Too early to tell at this point.
But I can tell you, there is a lot of confusion there. A lot of folks milling around, trying to determine how much damage they might have. And as I was telling T.J. earlier and as I'll share wit you, when you have something like this that strikes a populated area and you have these tall buildings, it's very difficult to say how much damage you actually have.
There could be water damage from broken pipes. At the same time, you have a building that may not appear damaged, but if you have another thing that strikes, that would be, of course, an aftershock that's like 7.0 or even a 6.5, that might be enough to cause a tall building to topple over.
Now, we're going to zoom in and show you this area. This is the spot where we happen to have the epicenter. Let's -- if we can, Monica O'Connor, is our producer -- Monica, if we can zoom in a little bit, just give you an idea of the land that we have -- very rocky area. Part of the hope is that with the extremely large rocky areas, that it was going to help absorb some of it.
The problem that we're seeing though if look at the community of Van and you look back over to this lake, this lake is actually called Lake Van. And then over on this side, you have an area Latvan (ph), a small community.
The big fear is that you may other communities around a lake like this, when you have a seismic event, it creates a displacement of water, in a spot Lake Van. So, you have the potential of having something very similar to a tsunami that might be affecting some of these communities. Hard to say right now. We don't have any information yet, but I'm sure we're going to get it within the hour or perhaps even sooner -- T.J.
HOLMES: New information is coming to us literally by the minute here. So, Reynolds, thank you.
We'll update you on this story -- but a 7.3 magnitude earthquake, a major quake, has now rocked the southeastern part of Turkey, in the area of Van. We are just starting to get the reports in and the new video in. We're still waiting on any reports of major damage, injuries or possibly deaths.
But we are all over this breaking story for you this morning. Stay with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, as we come up on the bottom of the hour, let's just go right to this video. We're getting new video in.
It's showing more of a chaotic scene in Turkey where we have seen a 7.3 magnitude earthquake, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. That is a major earthquake, folks.
And some of the video we're getting in shows more of a chaotic scene out on the streets. We have seen several people, small children crying, people kind of frantic right now. We're waiting to get the reports in. Again, we're just getting this information in, new video in. But we're waiting to get the reports of possible injury, possible damage as well.
And as Reynolds was saying, in our last 40 seconds here, Reynolds, this is an area -- these folks are used to earthquakes, but still a 7.3 is going to rattle you.
WOLF: Yes, I don't care where you're from -- if you're in an earthquake prone area, if you're a seismic -- very seismic active region, this is something that's going to really -- you're going to take notice. And, obviously, you're seeing people out and about. They're just trying to reconnect with others.
This is -- when this happens, what happens quite often, T.J., the power is out, no other means of communication. For many of these people other than seeing each other face to face. That's what they're trying to do.
HOLMES: All right. Well, we're going to try to collect more information about this quake. Again, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake, a major quake in Turkey, the southeastern part of the country.
I'll be back at top of the hour with more live news and an update on what's happening in Turkey.
