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CNN Sunday Morning
Powerful Earthquake Hits Turkey
Aired October 23, 2011 - 08:00 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 morning, everybody. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, this is your CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
And we start with a breaking story out of Turkey, the developments still coming in to us, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake, a major earthquake has hit near the area of Van. This is near Van, Turkey, which is the southeastern part of that country.
Here are some of the first pictures we are getting in. This is classified as a major earthquake, a 7.3 magnitude. That is the number we're getting from the USGS.
Now, some Turkish agencies actually putting the number at 6.6 magnitude. So, still, some discrepancies between the numbers but it's not important. Either way, it is a major earthquake.
We are expecting aftershocks. Many of those could be just as strong or stronger at times than the actual earthquake. These are, again, some of the first pictures. This thing struck just about an hour and 20 minutes ago, 1:40 in the afternoon local time there in Turkey.
The most up-to-date information we have for you puts the epicenter of this quake about a dozen or so miles from Van, Turkey. You see it on your map there. That is in a rural area where the epicenter is called Tabanli, this is close to the border of Iran and it's some 800 miles away east of Istanbul.
You also need to know, we are starting to get our first reports. We were on the air with you here about 30 minutes ago, giving you the very latest.
Since that time, we have more we can share with you that the Turkish news agency, a Turkish news agency is reporting there are, in fact, people who are trapped under collapsed buildings in Van. Again, that's coming to us from a Turkish news agency saying there are people trapped.
Again, we'll tell you more about this area here coming up. I have Reynolds Wolf standing by where he's going to tell you more about this area. This is an earthquake-prone area. People certainly are very familiar with earthquakes, so they're used to feeling shaking and rattling. But this is a 7.3 magnitude earthquake and that is a strong quake. Also, it was shallow, we're told, the epicenter. So, of course, the more shallow that an earthquake is, the potential for more damage in an area, the stronger it's going to feel to people.
We also have someone for us in Istanbul today who is going to be joining me now -- Andrew Finkel is with me.
Andrew, first, can you tell us more about this area for people who are not familiar? You're in Istanbul, of course. That's a ways away. But still, what can you tell us about the area of Van?
ANDREW FINKEL, JOURNALIST: Van is in the east of Turkey. It's a remote -- it's in a rural area. It's near the Iranian border. It's very different in character from Istanbul, which is a very built up, industrial area.
Some of you may recall there was a very serious, again, a 7.3 earthquake here in 1999. That was responsible for thousands and thousands of casualties. The sort of good news I suppose is that Van is a much less densely populated area but of course at the same time it's much more difficult to get services to there and there's a lot of sort of rural outlying villages which are more difficult to get to, T.J.
HOLMES: Are you hearing these reports as well, I believe it was a Turkish news agency reporting that, in fact, there are buildings that have collapsed and people are trapped right now? Comment on that.
And also, do you know how far outside of the region of Van and the immediate surrounding areas how far away people felt this quake?
FINKEL: Well, we do know buildings have collapsed inside itself the city of Van, but there are reports from a nearby town, Ercis, I'm sorry, Ercis, where they say there are casualties.
The mayor of Van at the moment is saying there are no reported casualties. But we do have reports of casualties from towns within the region.
As for the scope of the earthquake and where it was felt, it was felt in an enormous area. There's a slightly much larger town called Erzurum, not all that far from Van, where the quake was felt.
But it was felt widely in Iraq itself. We have reports that the tremors were felt even as far away as Iraq, which is a considerable distance away, T.J.
HOLMES: All right. Andrew Finkel for us there. We'll check back in with you. He's reporting for us from Istanbul, as we continue to look at pictures. Andrew, thank you so much.
And, Reynolds, let me bring you in as we continue to watch the pictures still new to us as they continue to come in. But people out in the streets, you often see this -- people go out into the street trying to figure out what's going on, the status of things, how many of those buildings did survive.
We are getting those reports, as we just heard Andrew say, buildings have, in fact, collapsed in Van and also reports from Turkish news media that people are trapped under those buildings.
I'm going to bring in Reynolds with more on the area and it's important worth noting we talk about the magnitude of quakes but depth of earthquakes is important as well.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Exactly, we talked about that earlier.
Let's also give people perspective, what you mentioned about the frequency of quakes in this area. You know that on May 5th of 1990, there was a quake in western Iran that struck, killing 50,000 people, injured about 60,000 people. So, again these people unfortunately no stranger in this region to this type of activity, the seismic activity.
Let me show you information that came in recently from the USGS. This is a nightmare. Let me show you.
Estimated fatalities, you look at this graph, and it shows the population, the number of fatalities that you could have in this certain circumstance. There is a belief that there's a 33 percent chance that you could have a number of fatalities when all is said and done in a situation like this, we're not talking injuries, we're talking estimated fatalities between 10,000 and 100,000 people. There's a 33 percent chance. This is again a nightmare scenario.
Now, in terms of injuries, 34 percent chance -- I'm sorry, estimated economic losses a 34 percent chance you'd have anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000. These are -- I'm sorry -- estimate in millions, so that's something else to consider.
Big question many of you may be having, why in the world do you have this activity in this part of the world?
It's actually very simple. Land masses on our planet are made up of what we refer to as tectonic plates. They're always moving. They move very, very slowly, though. They move about at the same growth of say a fingernail.
But what happens in this situation -- Mark Hulani (ph) is our photojournalist. Mark, I'm going to get down there just a little bit.
I want to show people a few lines I'm going to draw right here in these few spots, this is called the North Anatoli Fault and the South Anatoli Fault -- very similar to the fault lines you have like the San Andreas fault in California.
A couple of places we're keeping a sharp eye -- this is the Anatoli Plate. They called this A.P., very important to call this, this is called the Arabian Plate that you have in this direction.
Remember I said these things are always moving. This one you have and this one over her always wants to surge off to the west. This one moves to the northwest.
So, plain and simple you have a lot of friction created in parts of the region mainly along this fault line and of course you have another fault line to the north in this area. So, just keep in mind, the proximity of the faults, the proximity of where you have the two plates coming together and then you look right here at the epicenter of where we happened to have the earthquake right here.
Let's zoom in if we can a little bit. Monica O'Connor is our producer. Monica, let's zoom in on the region if we have an opportunity.
And where you see the area where you have the orange, that is the epicenter, the absolute epicenter. But now, we're having some aftershocks that are popping up north of Van. This is the latest one, 5.6. That one just occurred.
Let's also pull out a little bit and show one of the other huge fears that we have, is that concerns the body of water we see to the immediate west. Very carefully, you take a look at this body of water, this is Lake Van. When you have something like this that occurs, you'll have seismic waves that could create a ripple in the water, very, very big waves that could destroy communities that might be settled along that lake.
Too early to say exactly what's happened, T.J. But again, we're talking about the potential of a nightmare scenario. Back to you.
HOLMES: All right. Reynolds, stay with me here.
And we can take the video full -- and Deidre, we're all seeing this for the first time. We can rerack this here and show it to you on the full screen. But we were telling you reports of damage - excuse us for that there, we're depending on this live feed. There is once again for you.
But you can see some of the damage and it is going to be -- at least from some of these pictures, extensive. We did get the reports at least that buildings had collapsed in Van, and that people were indeed trapped. These are the first pictures we're actually seeing of it.
So, there is damage, extensive damage. You can see some of these buildings that have collapsed. But again, this happened only about an hour and a half ago and we are getting this new video in and we are seeing it for the first time just as you are. Many people are going out into the streets.
Reynolds was just giving us an idea of the possible economic impact. I don't know, Reynolds, if you have, as well -- just how many people live in this particular region. I saw several different estimates, don't know if you all have that or not as well. But it's certainly a lot of people are going to be impacted by what we are seeing.
So, again, folks, this is the first we are seeing from the region, the video of damage, some of the earlier video we saw had people out in the streets. It looked like some of the buildings had made it through OK, but certainly these are pictures from a different area and giving a different story.
But you see the people out in the streets, certainly shaken, devastated. You see the damage to that car there as well. A lot of kids and women crying, people out in the street, but the reports are that people are, in fact, trapped -- trapped.
Wow, look at that. People are trapped under some of those buildings that have collapsed in Van.
Again, just an hour and a half ago, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake that has struck in the southeastern part of Turkey.
We will continue to follow this still breaking story and share with you all of the info we get, and also, all of the pictures that continue to come in.
But a quick break, Reynolds and I will be right back. It's 10 past the hour.
We are following this breaking story just happen an hour and a half ago, 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Turkey, reports for people trapped under collapsed buildings.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: We're at 12 minutes past the hour.
Following the breaking story out of Turkey this morning. You're seeing the shaking going on -- some of the first video we're getting after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit the southeastern part of Turkey, again, about an hour and a half ago. Turkish state television reporting that there are people trapped under buildings in the rubble, buildings that have collapsed in the province of Van. This is where the epicenter of this earthquake is, just outside of Van, just about a dozen miles or so.
It happened -- the epicenter at least in a rural area known as Tabanli. That's close to the border with Iran, the epicenter about 780 miles east of Istanbul.
The Turkish earthquake monitoring center classifies this as slightly weaker than the 7.3. They are saying it's a 6.6. Either way, 6.6 or 7.3, this is a major, major earthquake.
There are aftershocks reported, some of them significant, at least over 6.0, some of the reports we're seeing. Some of the reports were seeing, some of them smaller. But a number of aftershocks have already hit.
We are following this story closely. We'll continue to update you throughout this hour.
I do want to make a transition now -- at 13 minutes past the hour back -- to politics in this country.
And Herman Cain once again coming under fire from his Republican rivals, this time it's not about his 9-9-9 tax plan. Instead, it's about the issue of abortion and comments he made this week that left some questions about his pro-life position. At a major gathering of Christian conservatives in Iowa he tried to clarify.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would not sign any legislation that 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 illegal across the 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 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.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
HOLMES: Six of the eight Republican candidates were there at the Faith and Freedom Coalition's banquet in Des Moines. It was an important forum for the candidates to reach out to their Christian conservative base.
Mitt Romney, though, was not there. He was campaigning in New Hampshire instead -- and that did not go unnoticed by at least one of his rivals.
(BEGIN VIJDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Why is this an important event for you to be at today?
PERRY: Absolutely.
REPORTER: Why is it important?
PERRY: It's Iowa, the first in the nation, you got to be here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman also skipped out on the Iowa event.
Well, we think possibly they've gotten this whole dust-up worked out between Nevada and New Hampshire. Have you been following this? They didn't know exactly when they were going to have the Nevada caucuses.
You might remember the dust-up in that they moved their caucuses up to January 14th. That caused a problem for New Hampshire, because New Hampshire couldn't squeeze their date between Iowa, which was going on January 3rd, and January 14th, when Nevada said they were going to go.
Well, they have now succumbed to pressure, Nevada has, and they decided to move their caucus now into February. So, it appears it is going to be now on February 4th, and we do think the crisis has been averted.
So, now in January, you're going to see -- there you go -- February 4th is Nevada. So, we're going to have Iowa, South Carolina, New Hampshire, as well as Florida all going first before the Nevada caucuses February 14th.
Now, I talked to Amy Tarkanian, who is head of the GOP out in Nevada. She told me last week when I was out there in Las Vegas there's absolutely no way we'll change from our January 14th caucus date. Well, it has changed. And we're going to ask her about it coming up in 30 minutes. She'll be my guest live here 8:45 Eastern Time. Amy Tarkanian, the head of the Nevada GOP, will be here talking about what pressure she might have gotten to move that date.
We're 16 minutes past the hour.
And voters in Louisiana, they gave Governor Bobby Jindal a vote of confidence. He easily won reelection with about 66 percent of the vote. The Republican incumbent beat out nine challengers.
And we are continuing to follow what's happening in Turkey, and the new pictures coming in to us. We did get reports from Turkish-run television that buildings collapsed and that people trapped in the rubble. Well, it appears now we're getting confirmation of our own from the pictures we're seeing that no doubt buildings have collapsed. But it looks like people are working maybe to get others out who could be trapped.
We're following the latest developments of a 7.3 magnitude quake that has hit southeastern Turkey. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Twenty minutes past the hour now. Yes, it's an NFL Sunday. And today, we're exporting football, the NFL making a push for the games to find a worldwide market, getting tested when the bears and buccaneers go to London to play.
Pedro Pinto from CNN International joins us now from the stadium where this game is going to take place.
Good to see you. How are they receiving our game of football over there?
PEDRO PINTO, CNN INTERNATIONAL: T.J., this is the fifth consecutive year that the NFL has set up shop here in London for a regular season game. And I have to tell you, the excitement level is at a fever pitch because Wembley Stadium, one of the most famous stadiums in the world of soccer, fills its capacity to receive these two NFL teams. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Chicago Bears will be playing here in about five hours, a little less than that, and I can tell you there's a tailgating party just around the corner.
And that's a little bit of a novelty here, you really don't see that before soccer games, fans milling around, partying together and soaking up the atmosphere, leading up to kickoff here during the week, I can tell you that both teams were pretty media-friendly, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers arrived here Monday. They got to take in some sightseeing, went to check out Big Len, London bridge, made it to the city center, and interacted a lot with fans.
The Chicago Bears really didn't have much time to do that because they only touched down on Friday morning. And I can tell you that a lot of the players were pretty jet-lagged when they were talking to the media and I think they would rather still be asleep for a few hours before having to say how excited they were to be here.
It will be interesting to see which team is better prepared, whether it's the Bears coming on top of the game or the Buccaneers who have been here so many days. As far as the fans are concerned, they've been telling us that they are thrilled to be this close to the top NFL stars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm really excited, this is an opportunity of the lifetime to meet all of the players today and get autographs and get more involved with the game straight from America. So, it's great.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More of it, need more of it. It's the best sport in the world. We need more of it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been to every game since it's been here and every year around October it's the excitement of going to Wembley and watching some proper NFL stars play. And I just can't wait for the game to start. My signs are ready and everything, if you see in the crowd jumping up and down, that's me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PINTO: The fact that this game has been such a success, T.J., for the last five years means that the NFL is actually considering bringing a team over here and having a team in Europe. There has been pretty positive reception from the coaches and the players so far. It will be interesting to see whether this can happen in a five to ten- year period, having a team based here in Europe and London would be the top choice for that, if, indeed, it happens.
HOLMES: All right. Pedro Pinto for us there in London -- thank you as always.
We're 23 past the hour. A quick break and we're back on this CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Twenty-four minutes past the hour.
We are following this breaking story out of Turkey, a major earthquake larger than a 7.2 magnitude quake, and these are some of the new pictures that continue to come into us. We got the earlier reports from Turkish media that buildings had collapsed in this area of Van. This is in the southeastern part of the country of Turkey. We got the reports that buildings have collapsed and now we are getting the video confirmation of it now.
You see emergency workers and we have seen and you'll probably see in the video here in a moment just citizens who are using shovels, using their hands in some situations, digging through that rubble. The reports are that people are indeed trapped and it appears from a lot of the video we're getting that many of these citizens are trying to dig out and maybe get people who are trapped.
We don't have reports just yet but we can expect them, reports of injuries and no reports of deaths, just yet, but this is a powerful, powerful earthquake. Different reports of the magnitude. Initially, it was a 7.3. Reynolds is going to have an update on that in a moment but Turkish news agencies were reporting it was a 6.6. Either way, this is a strong earthquake which has seen some major aftershocks already.
And this is the video I was talking about a moment ago. You saw people there with shovels literally trying to dig out from some of the buildings that have collapsed.
And, Reynolds, you had the update for me. USGS making a slight adjustment to the magnitude of the earthquake.
WOLF: Precisely, they dropped it to 7.2. You know, it's not unusual, some say what, they changed the numbers? They often will do this. It's almost the equivalent when you have a tornado that moves through the area, you'll have different meteorologists that go through and survey the damage and they'll decide what it is.
Well, they have new information again, 7.3 to 7.2. Let's give you a better indication of what this area was like. You see some of this damage on one part of the screen, the people sifting through the wreckage.
Now, if we can on Google Earth, Monica O'Connor, is our weather producer. Monica, if we can zoom in just a little bit to give people an idea of what happens to be like with this landscape is like. You'll notice that it's a very mountainous region. As we zoom in a bit, here's the community of Van -- part of it almost a pastoral setting, a lot of town squares in a few places, a lot of small almost park-like settings.
But back in the mountains, if you look right here towards the top of the screen, Mark Hulani (ph), is the man behind the camera. Mark, show me this dot -- that is where the epicenter took place, an you'll see a lot of mountains in this area. The hope is that these mountains were able to absorb quite a bit of the shock waves, if you will. But unfortunately, I don't think that's going to be the case. Certainly when you have something of the magnitude of say a 7.2, you're still going to have widespread damage.
A little bit farther off towards the west, you're going to see Lake Van. Again, another concern that we have is the populations that you have of people that live near the water. People, hey, you know, there's a lot of people living in this area that again fishing in Lake Van. There is a community at the far end of the lake that gives us tremendous concern.
The reason for that plain and simple is because when you have the big shock waves that move through the water is displaced. We're going to have water rushing. The big fear is you're going to have immense waves that will be moving in the direction of Tadvan (ph), right towards the very end. So, we're going to have to watch that for you very carefully. This is actually part of the Tectonic Plate that you have in Turkey that is actually very slowly moving off towards the west.
At the same time, you have the Arabian Plate, which is far to the south, that is forcing upward, and right along that frontal boundary -- not frontal boundary -- that fault line, if you will, confusing in meteorological terms my geology, we're doing this on the fly, folks, that's where you're going to have that zone, very similar to the San Andreas Fault that you find in California.
And when you have that, you have the potential of having all kinds of seismic activity. So, again, no stranger at all for people in this region to have some kind of tremors, even earthquakes. In 1990, you had an earthquake that struck western Iran that actually killed some 50,000 people, some injuries to some 60,000 people, so not unheard of.
What's unfortunate is that, in this part of the world, we're going to get little trickles of information in at a time. Just a little bit here and there. If you happen to be familiar with the country, this is very different in this part of the world from the other end of Turkey. If you think of Istanbul, that's a little more of a metropolitan area, different type of topography altogether. This area bit more isolated.
And as we get the information, again, we fear -- we have got tremendous fear that it may be dire, especially as we make our way through the midday hours.
Some of the estimates from the USGS in terms of the potential damage -- take a look at the numbers. This is what we were showing you earlier today. I want you to really focus on this. This is the estimated fatalities that we could have in a situation like this, when you have a 7.2 earthquake in this region, this kind of topography, the fear is that we could have fatalities at least 32 percent chance of ranging anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000. We're not talking about just injuries, we're talking about fatalities. I would imagine that if you're going to have injuries, they would be considerably more. And then when you look at the estimated economic losses, this is in U.S. dollars, could range anywhere from -- 10,000 to 100,000. That's actually in millions. So, again, very big in terms of lives lost and certainly financial damage just almost incomprehensible.
T.J., that's the latest we've got for you. Let's pitch it right back to you, sir.
HOLMES: All right. Reynolds, thank you so much and please, rest assured to our viewers we will not be going to far away from this story, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, reports of buildings that have collapsed and people trapped underneath. The effort is going on right now to try to get some of those people out.
We will follow this closely, but at the bottom of the hour, stay with me because just in a moment, we're going to turn to our "Faces of Faith" segment for today. And we have a special guest who's going to be in studio with me. Danny Wuerffel, he won a Heisman Trophy playing in the SEC, went on to the NFL. But that was nothing compared to what he is battling right now.
Stay with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, 33 minutes past the hour now. Welcome back to this CNN SUNDAY MORNING. I'm T.J. Holmes.
We want to turn to our "Faces of Faith" segment this morning and Danny Wuerffel, that name probably sounds familiar to you for a lot of reasons. He's a Heisman Trophy winner, a former NFL quarterback, achieved a lot of great things, of course, out there on the field as an athlete. But now he's executive director of Desire Street Ministries achieving even greater things through his Christian faith.
His faith is being tested right now because he's been diagnosed with a disorder known as Guillain-Barre syndrome and he is here in studio with me now.
Good to have you here, a Florida Gator -- Arkansas Razorback, it's a little difficult at times but no. Really thank you for being here. Explain exactly what this syndrome is and how you found out you had a problem.
DANNY WUERFFEL, 1996 HEISMAN TROPHY WINNER: Well what it is you get some sort of thing happening in your body and then your immune system gets mixed messages and instead of fighting that, which for me was a stomach bug --
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: Yes.
WUERFFEL: -- it actually starts attacks your nervous system. So you start feeling symptoms of paralysis and your legs working and arms started to get weak and numb and just a really kind of scary and difficult thing.
HOLMES: Now that would be tough for anybody but for a guy who has competed at the levels you competed on and been an athlete all your life, even though you've been out of the game, I assume you're still active and stayed in shape. What's it like to have something that makes you weak and not able to do what you're used to doing?
WUERFFEL: I mean that's been the biggest struggle I think, as you're so used to of pushing through whatever the challenge is, you know, whether it's getting through more play time with your kids or running through Florida State or Arkansas's defense you make a way. And the hard thing is to not be able to turn that gear on and do it.
And in fact, so often you'll not be able to do any of the things that you want to do and early on, especially to be helpless. And that's a real tough thing to have to face.
HOLMES: Does that test your faith or does that make your faith even stronger, when something like this comes up? I read something that you had wrote and you talk about your son I believe being impatient when you started praying. Or like what's taking so long? And you had -- a kind of had the same thing like, lord what's taking so long for me to get through this?
WUERFFEL: Yes, well you certainly, in America we want everything to be right; we want to be healthy, wealthy, happy, no pain.
HOLMES: Yes.
WUERFFEL: You know and in fact one of the great verses that we love as Christians is "I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength."
HOLMES: Yes.
WUERFFEL: But the strange thing as that verse is at the end of the passage that actually where he's saying I can be content in good or bad times, in plenty and want and I think the challenge to accept the tough things, the painful things is something we try to avoid but I'm convinced that that's the doorway to deeper life, to deeper intimacy with the Lord. And so it's been -- it's been tough. I don't want to minimize that.
HOLMES: Yes.
WUERFFEL: But it's also been one of the best things that's ever happened to me.
HOLMES: And you say that and in part because this forced you frankly sit down for a second. You can't be out and so busy and so caught up. This gave you a chance to sit down and reflect.
WUERFFEL: Yes, I think we get so caught up in the pace and it's just everywhere around us, we all do it. HOLMES: Right.
WUERFFEL: The strings are going so fast, you don't know how fast you're going. And I thought for sure I was doing fine, balanced and boundaries and all these things. And being forced to sit down and slow down and look back it's really helped me realize how much energy I was burning in so many places that maybe weren't the most important, so you know, it's a tough thing to be ill but if it can help you kind of reprioritize and get focused and re-energize on the most important things, what a blessing.
HOLMES: Last thing here. Tell me about your ministry work. I assume -- I shouldn't assume maybe but as a star high school athlete, college athlete, did you see this as your life, the ministry work that you are doing now?
WUERFFEL: I didn't. It was my time in New Orleans when I got to see just some -- some really tough things that I wasn't really had been exposed to and things that shouldn't be, especially in our country.
And so I got involved in Desire Street and Hurricane Katrina has forced us and given us the opportunity to work in several neighborhoods. And so what we do is we come alongside grassroots leaders that live in their communities and we empower them so that they can be the ones that make the change. Our vision is to develop 12 thriving sustainable urban ministries in the next five years.
HOLMES: All right, and what are the doctors telling you as far as your prognosis moving forward?
WUERFFEL: Well the first -- the doctor I saw is a 70-year-old Korean and he said "You're the football player." And I said yes. He said "No football for you for a while." I said "I'm done." He said "Oh, this is good."
Really I should have full recovery with my reflexes. It's just a matter of time with energy.
HOLMES: Yes.
WUERFFEL: Fatigue could be six months, another year, it's hard to say, but whatever it is, I trust that the lord is good and he'll take me through it.
HOLMES: Congratulations really on the work you're doing. I have been a fan. I've admired you, even though you played for Florida. Still, I always admired how you handled yourself out there on the field.
But good talking to you. Good luck with the ministry and really with your health down the road. It sounds like you're going to be ok.
WUERFFEL: Thank you.
HOLMES: Thanks so much. And if you'd like to read more about Danny Wuerffel's story you can go to our belief blog cnn.com/belief. You can also share your thoughts there as well.
Well, we're up on 38 minutes past the hour. "STATE OF THE UNION" with our Candy Crowley coming up at the top of the hour, just 20 minutes from now. But before we get to that, she's going to come here and join me live. That's next with a preview of what you'll see today. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right, 41 minutes past the hour now.
Now, let's say good morning to our Candy Crowley, she's coming up at the top of the hour with "STATE OF THE UNION." Candy, always good to see you.
And you get guests -- you get two guests on one Sunday. I've been trying for years to get these guests on my show. And they won't ever stop by. But you've got the Secretary of State and the Vice President.
Let's start with Secretary Clinton first of all. I assume a big topic of discussion, what's happening in Libya and the fall of Moammar Gadhafi.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": Sure. I mean, we had two major pieces of history pass through this week and one was the death of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya and the other was for sure troops are coming out of -- U.S. troops are coming out of Iraq.
HOLMES: Yes.
CROWLEY: So the Arab world is shifting, and obviously getting the Secretary of State on to talk about Libya, to talk about the way Moammar Gadhafi died, to talk about what's next for Libya, and also what's next for Iraq, so two really big subjects, which the U.S. has a lot at stake.
HOLMES: Yes, two big subjects with -- like I mentioned two big guests, again both of them people we'll see on your show here in just a few minutes. The other being the Vice President, you got to spend some time with him as well.
CROWLEY: I did. Well, we actually were up in New Hampshire with him. He was up there campaigning and believe it or not submitting the papers so that President Obama can run in the New Hampshire primary. They were due this past week.
So we went up there and followed him around. He's so totally in his element when he's out talking to people. He is a very gregarious, fun-loving guy who really seems to enjoy being out there on the campaign trail.
So we wanted to talk a little politics, a little policy. He's always -- he's always a great interview.
HOLMES: And did I hear that right, he went up there to drop off some paperwork for the President?
CROWLEY: That's right. It was symbolic, but indeed he did, and said at the time, well, gee, you know, I got it wrong the first two times because you know, Joe Biden has run twice for President so he filed the papers for the President so that the President can run in the New Hampshire primary.
HOLMES: That's a good Vice President. They have all kinds of duties. They're supposed to serve at the pleasure of the President, right.
CROWLEY: And he does.
HOLMES: The President hands you papers and go drop this off, that's what you do.
All right, Candy and we really missed you in Las Vegas for the debate last week.
CROWLEY: Well, I missed you, too. I watched you. You did a great job.
HOLMES: We'll, I appreciate you as always. We're going to be watching you do your great job here in just a few minutes top of the hour Candy Crowley 9:00 Eastern time, "STATE OF THE UNION". You heard her two big interviews: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and also the Vice President Joe Biden, both on Candy's show.
Candy, have a good one.
Well, also coming up in just a moment, it seems the crisis has been averted. You know the dust-up between New Hampshire and Nevada over when they're going to have their primary and caucus.
Well, the woman who was at the center of that dust-up, Amy Tarkanian, the head of the GOP out in Nevada; she will be my guest here in just a moment.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, calendar crisis averted, we think. Nevada had backed down; they flinched, moved the caucus into February. You may remember this dust up. Earlier this month the party changed the caucus date to January 14th, they wanted to make sure Nevada was a key player in the early voting process. Well, then New Hampshire started talking about shifting its primary to early or mid-December to save its first in the nation primary status.
Well, I spoke with the Nevada GOP chairwoman, Amy Tarkanian last week while we were all out in Vegas for the debate about a possible change in Nevada. Listen to what she said then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMY TARKANIAN, CHAIRWOMAN, NEVADA GOP: 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 -- as of now.
HOLMES: 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. It is on the table at least now moving the caucuses?
TARKANIAN: I don't set the table at home. As of now, that's where we're at.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right, Amy Tarkanian on the line with me now and you're laughing already. When you told me you don't set the table at home, I knew then something's up. No, just a couple of days before what we just played you told me, no way. It's not going to happen. Amy, what changed?
TARKANIAN (via telephone): Right, well, we do have a central committee and they -- you know, quite honestly, they were just so frustrated and disgusted by everything that's going on with the chain of events that started with Florida and following with New Hampshire.
Point blank they wanted their delegates back so I called the RNC and I said look at this point in the game can we have our delegates back and they said yes. So that's what we did. We went right back to February 4th. We're still first in the west, and we have our delegates back.
HOLMES: Amy you said the committee is what they wanted, some of your committee out there. Is this what you wanted or did you want to keep the 14th?
TARKANIAN: I do represent the people here in Nevada, so I point blank went back to what the people wanted, and that's what we are representing.
HOLMES: We're talking about what the people want and I'm asking what you wanted.
TARKANIAN: No. T.J., I'm the voice of the people, so that's exactly what I'm supposed to represent and that's what I'm doing.
HOLMES: Ok, well it sounds like this might have been against your wishes and again, I sat there and talked to you in Vegas and you looked me in the eye and I think you had the courage of your convictions at the time, you really wanted that 14th date. Why not the 17th, which was discussed as well, pushing it back three days which would have allowed New Hampshire to go the second week of January? Was the 17th a date that was talked about? TARKANIAN: No, that's not an option, because we need to have a Saturday for our caucus. A number of our candidates, you know, they've already had their places picked out. We need to have a full day and Saturday always the point of the week for us.
HOLMES: Amy, how much pressure did you come under? Because when we talked on Tuesday I knew that Santorum at least and I think some other candidates -- Santorum expressed to you he wasn't going to come out there and be a part of the caucus and a lot of people were, I assume, putting some pressure behind the scenes on to you move this date. How much was it?
TARKANIAN: You know, it wasn't really about pressure. Quite honestly I think it was more about distraction. This turned into a debacle, if you will, which is unfortunate, and we just need to move forward. I felt no pressure. It was just a matter of fact that it was distraction.
HOLMES: Have you talked yet to the New Hampshire secretary of state? You all kind of trading barbs in the media and you had some words for each other, if you will, but have you all made up?
TARKANIAN: I don't -- no.
HOLMES: You have not.
TARKANIAN: No.
HOLMES: Would you like to?
TARKANIAN: No, but the New Hampshire GOP, though, and myself, we get along very well.
HOLMES: But it sounds like there's still a bit of bad blood between the Nevada GOP and the secretary of state of New Hampshire.
TARKANIAN: No.
HOLMES: Ok. I don't want to put words in your mouth. You can tell me.
TARKANIAN: There's no bad blood. Quite honestly, we took the vote yesterday so I still have plenty of time to call the New Hampshire secretary of state. In fact, you know what; T.J., if you'd like, I can call them tomorrow.
HOLMES: Well, let me know how that conversation goes and Miss Tarkanian, as I let you go, I don't want to be talking to you here next week now, and you tell me this date has changed. So this is final?
TARKANIAN: No, the date cannot change from here on out, no. We are done. The central committee took the vote.
HOLMES: All right. But I've heard that before from you, Miss Tarkanian. TARKANIAN: I know.
HOLMES: All right. Amy Tarkanian, for us out there in Nevada. Thank you for getting up early and hopping on the line. Thank you so much. And of course, I'm sure we will be in touch. Thanks so much. That's Amy Tarkanian --
TARKANIAN: Absolutely, I appreciate it. Thank you.
HOLMES: All right, the head of the GOP out there in Nevada.
As we get close to the top of the hour now, the world population is going up, the birth rate in the U.S. actually going down. What's behind the baby slump as it's called here in the states?
Stay with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Next week, the earth's population will reach 7 billion and while babies are born worldwide every five seconds, the birth rate in the U.S. is actually going down. Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more in this week's "Health for Her".
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Any parent can tell you that kids could be expensive and as the economy has gotten worse, people are choosing to have fewer children. If you compare 2007 when the economy was doing well with 2010, we're talking about 300,000 fewer children.
Take a look at this graph and you can see the correlation. On the far left in 2002 until 2007, things were doing pretty well, and that number is going up, up, up; people were choosing to have more children. It hit its peak in 2007 with the highest birth rate in that time period and then it's been coming down ever since.
And here is exactly how expensive children can be. It costs between $8,000 and $20,000 a year to raise a child, depending upon, well, how fancy the clothes are, whether they go to private or public school -- all of that. If you look at the numbers this way from birth to 18, the cost of raising a child is between $206,000 and $477,000 with housing, food and child care being the biggest expenses.
Now, it seems that a lot of women are saying, I think we're going to delay this or we're not going to have a child right now and, of course, that makes a lot of sense for a lot of families but also remember if you think oh I'll just have children when we've got more money in our bank account, that could be a little problematic. You may be so old that you need fertility treatments, and that can cost a lot of money.
Back to you.
HOLMES: All right. As we get close to the top of the hour, Reynolds Wolf will join me here in just a moment and we're going to give you the very latest on this huge earthquake, stronger -- 7.2 was the magnitude that has been assigned by the USGS and a desperate search is under way to find people trapped under collapsed buildings.
Stay with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, "STATE OF THE UNION" with Candy Crowley coming up in just two minutes, her guests today will be the Secretary of State as well as the Vice President.
But let me give you an update and Reynolds is joining me for this, this powerful 7.2 magnitude quake that hat hit southeastern Turkey, the epicenter just about 12 miles northeast of the city of Van. Turkish government reporting at least seven aftershocks; the most powerful earthquake they've seen in at least a decade.
And Reynolds you've been saying this morning, this is an earthquake-prone area. Some of the videos we're seeing, reports of collapsed buildings, people digging through the rubble, trying to find any survivors, but again, Reynolds, this is an earthquake-prone area.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, absolutely. It is a place that's been dealing with them as long as you've had people living there, as long as you've had the tectonic plates moving, you've had this kind of possibility of damage. Obviously with a lot of people there living in that area, some places, I guess Van possibly population over 1 million people.
We have this chart that we want to share with you, this is the estimated fatality alert from the USGS. And right now we've got about a 64 percent chance of fatalities, not injuries but fatalities ranging anywhere from 1 to 100,000. In terms of cost, well, the USGS is following that also; potential damage in terms of dollars, U.S. dollars, about a 34 percent chance of being anywhere from $10 billion to $100 billion worth of damage.
T.J. was talking about how they have the initial quake and of course, they've had quite a few aftershocks. As we zoom in, you'll see the spot where they've been dealing with a 7.2 quake, the big one that we've been referring to.
We may be seeing more of these aftershocks on throughout the day. As we zoom in a bit more you'll notice this is a town that's actually quite beautiful. We've already seen, of course, the reports of the damage. We've seen quite a bit of it. More information will be coming to us, I'm sure T.J. throughout the day.
HOLMES: All right Reynolds. Thank you so much.
And to our viewers, thank you so much for spending part of your weekend with us here on this CNN SATURDAY and SUNDAY MORNING.
Right now, I'm going to hand it over to "STATE OF THE UNION" with Candy Crowley. Her guests today: the Secretary of State as well as Vice President Biden.
