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Tornado Outbreak Kills at Least Eight; Interview With Missouri Governor Jay Nixon; Journey to the Ocean's Floor; At Least 3 Dead in Missouri Tornado; U.S. Plans for Syria Could Include Troops; Kentucky Tornado Warnings
Aired February 29, 2012 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Back to you live in the second hour in the NEWSROOM. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Breaking news here, south eastern states are under the gun as a dangerous storm is moving out of the west into places like Alabama, Tennessee, we're talking a lot out of Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi.
Here's what we know so far. Take a look at these pictures. And I tell you, having covered stories like this, looking at these pictures just doesn't really do it justice.
As far as fatalities go, eight people are confirmed dead after tornadoes have hit several Midwestern states, much of this happening in the wee hours, so people really just had mere minutes for any kind of warning to try to seek shelter, pitch dark out.
As far as these fatalities go, we know two of the deaths are in Missouri. Six are in Illinois, all of them in the town of Harrisburg in the southern part of the state. Southeastern Harrisburg, we're told, and I just spoke with the mayor minutes ago -- he told me really that was the area hardest hit.
But as we look at the pictures of devastation, really widespread. Some of these images, you see what used to be homes, structures. We saw one wall from the Harrisburg Med Center just totally wiped out. As we continue to follow this story here, let's move on. OK?
Now we're going to go to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon. He spoke a little while ago about the status of his state and the aftermath. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JAY NIXON (D), MISSOURI: I think put into context of a couple of things, first in the context of at least at this particular site here, no loss of life. That's for preparation and also for the emergency responders that were here to make a real difference for folks in the middle of the night and the middle of a storm. Just wonderful that training, it makes a serious and appropriate difference.
But this is a lot of damage. The insurance issues here, the property damage issues here are going to be significant, but the bottom line is Joplin is going to be a real sounding board for everybody else across our state, that you can rebuild, that you will rebuild, that you will stay calm during that. We're going to keep the rule of law. The bottom line is we are confident that Branson will be back bigger and better than ever.
QUESTION: Specifically what can you do to help Branson from a state level?
NIXON: At our level, we go through a four-step process. Right now we're in emergency response, making sure each one of the locals are backed up by what we have, that we keep the rule of law, that we begin to get the folks from SEMA down here to do the evaluations for dollars, that we organize all the various parts of this, that we make sure the first-responders working down here are backed up, protected, fed and clothed and whatnot, that we then begin the damage assessment that are here so that we can get dollars moving back into this region as quickly as possible.
QUESTION: Governor, do you think there is a Joplin effect, that people took this warning, these sirens (OFF-MIKE)
NIXON: I think people should take -- we saw this in a number of disasters across the country, quite frankly. I just came back from a National Governors meeting and we were talking about some of these issues.
I think people understand the early warning systems we have in place now are serious. We have seen lives saved across our state, whether it's Joplin or other areas in the country. I think people understand when these sirens go off, when people say go to the basement, the best thing to do is follow those plans to do it, and if you do, then you're here on a pretty day afterwards talking about rebuilding Branson, talking about another 11 to 12 million tourists coming here, instead of talking about the number of folks that have been lost.
Emergency preparation is a very, very important, serious part of what we have learned from a number of natural disasters we have had.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Governor Jay Nixon speaking just in the last hour there in Branson, Missouri.
Missouri, as we mentioned, already suffered two fatalities and really the story as it continues to move, six deaths in Harrisburg, Illinois, specifically, and now this is moving into the southeast.
BALDWIN: And we have Chad Myers standing by.
Chad, I just want to take a breath, because just taking in this story, it's tremendous because it's sort of twofold as I talk to you. One is the path of destruction. It's how fast this happened. Did people have warning? The damage on the ground right now, and two, it's where it's headed. First let's just begin with how huge was this storm? How big is the path of destruction? CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: They believe it was on the ground between six and seven miles. It was supposed to be at 2:00 Central time a National Weather Service press conference as well telling us that. They're still out there looking at that and may be delayed a few minutes. We will get that for thank as soon as we know, but probably a 150- to 160-mile-per-hour storm that knocked down that strip mall. Pretty significant.
There will be more storms like that tonight on the ground tonight after dark, probably even after you're sleeping. Those will be from parts of Ohio, back through Kentucky, West Virginia as well, down through Tennessee, and now a new watch box for Mississippi and parts of Alabama.
This is typical. For the springtime -- even though it's winter, it's close to spring, in the South and in the Southeast, storms go all night. They're keep rotating all night long. It doesn't really happen in Oklahoma and Kansas, Nebraska. Typically as the sun sets the storms die off. But not hear the Southeast. It's so moist, the air is so moist and so thick here that the storms keep going all night long.
If you were in any of these states where the red boxes are, all the way down even toward Charlotte, and especially into Western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina, you may get some storms in the overnight hours. If you hear things going bump in the night, make sure you take some shelter.
The people last night did have a warning. There was a warning there, but if you didn't have a TV or radio on at 4:00 in the morning, you wouldn't have heard that. If you an NOAA weather radio, it may have go off, that's what it's supposed to do, but if you were just hoping to hear that siren outside typically you can't be woken up. Those sirens outside are made to tell you to go inside. That's all those are for.
BALDWIN: Especially when you're fast asleep at 4:30 in the morning as I know so many people were in Harrisburg, Illinois, specifically.
When you cover stories like these, it's just sort of stunning, the pictures, and in person it's tough to look at. When you mentioned as could be seeing pictures potentially like this now in the Southeastern states, specifically are you saying tornadoes, are we talking golf-ball-sized hail, are we talking winds?
MYERS: Yes, all of it, all of the above.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: I do believe that there will be tornadoes on the ground tonight., maybe not as big as the ones last night, but that certainly is the potential.
And there will be hail. Hail will dent your car, but it won't hurt your house and it won't hurt you, but even some of the winds yesterday were 70 or 80 miles per hour, and that could knock down part of your garage, and if you're in it or dogs are in it, be sure the pets are safe, too. This is a whole big thing. This is the entire family being safe. A night like tonight only happens 20 times a year. So take precautions.
BALDWIN: Chad Myers, thank you so much.
I was just getting some information in my ear, and that is the fact that the governor of Missouri, Governor Jay Nixon, is now on the phone with me.
Governor, we are thinking about all of you. We just played a little sound as I know you were peppered with questions from reporters earlier.
Mr. Governor, if you can, just set the scene for me. How bad is it?
NIXON: Well, we're here in Branson, Missouri, where the tornado stretched across almost nine miles right down central here in the entertainment zone of Branson.
There are hundreds of millions of dollars of physical damage, but the key here is folks were prepared. And I think it clearly saved lives. While we did lose lives across Missouri and had significant injuries here in Branson, even though there is a tremendous amount of property damage, Branson will secure this site.
We're finishing to go through each building to make sure there's no folks there, but the bottom line is it would appear here in Branson that while there is significant property damage, a nine-mile stretch of the strip here hit and hit hard, that we didn't lose any lives.
BALDWIN: We love hearing that people were prepared. Can you be more specific? What kind of plans were in place, preparations, alarms? What went right?
NIXON: Sirens went off, the alarms went off, the hotels got people into the basements.
Our firefighters and others were on alert. Our alert system worked here. I don't mean to minimize the long time -- the significant amount of damage, but the bottom line is the people of Branson are prepared to rebuild and welcome once again 11 million tourists into this mecca in the heartland here in the coming months and as the summer season starts again.
BALDWIN: Sir, we have heard two people in the state of Missouri have died. Is that the number you have at this hour?
NIXON: At this point, I can confirm three deaths.
BALDWIN: Three.
NIXON: The storm -- the series of storms went all the way from the Kansas border all the way over to the Illinois border. We had significant damage here in Branson, also a town called Buffalo where we had a fatality, town named (INAUDIBLE) where we had a fatality and then all the way over to near the Missouri-Illinois border in the Puxico, where we have had significant damage, and here in Branson with the incredible property damage.
So it's a wide-ranging series of storms that moved very quickly but caused serious and deadly damage across the state of Missouri.
BALDWIN: Sir, just to reiterate to our viewers as you just broke news for us, the kind of news I don't want to sit here and report, but the fact you are now saying three fatalities in the state of Missouri. We had initially two. You are saying that is now up to three.
Governor, what kind of help are you getting, and what kind of help do you need?
NIXON: Well, I have been meeting with local officials here in Branson. We also obviously have our state emergency management up and operating and was working hard this morning in Jeff City before I came down here.
The bottom line is we have our Highway Patrol, we have our Department of Public Safety, we have our state emergency management, we have our National Guard folks here with us. We're working hard to make sure we get a quick response and save lives if there are folks out there that are still in danger.
BALDWIN: Governor Nixon, thank you so much.
I am hearing on the loudspeaker. Guys, can we go with this? There is a news conference there in Harrisburg. Let's go. Let's take it live.
(BEGIN LIVE SPEECH)
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We took a tornado touchdown in the southwest part of Harrisburg.
We have traced it back to just outside of Carrier Mills. And I'm sure the Weather Service will touch on it in a few minutes, but we believe it went all the way toward Gallatin County. The most damage is here in Saline County.
This morning, county board Chairman Jay Williams to the my here declared an emergency for the county, which opens up some assets for us at the state and federal level.
At this time, I want to introduce Harrisburg Mayor Eric Gregg to brief you on the actions going on here in the city.
ERIC GREGG, MAYOR OF HARRISBURG, ILLINOIS: This morning, the city of Harrisburg had a horrific event.
We have suffered the loss of lives. We have suffered many injuries, and we have suffered millions of dollars worth of damage.
But, first and foremost, the loss of our lives breaks my heart today. The outreach that's happened within this community the last few hours from other communities, from agencies, not only in Illinois but across the Midwest, has been very heartfelt and appreciated.
This is something that you never want to see happen in your community. We watched as it happened in Joplin, Missouri, last year. Several of our people from this area went there to help, and today we find ourselves in need. So, again, as mayor of this community, I'm very grateful and very appreciative of all the support we're getting from the top to the bottom.
I have been on the phone with the governor's office from 6:00 this morning until now and he's en route here as we speak. Many of our elected officials, Representative Brandon Phelps has driven in to be with us today. And I can't begin to tell you what this feels like as a mayor to sit here and talk about losing lives in a tornado.
When the sirens were going off this morning, I walked out of my home with my family. I looked, and it was eerily quiet and the sirens were blaring. And I had a heart -- just a gut feeling that something dreadfully was wrong. And unfortunately those thoughts come to pass and we have devastation in our community like we have never seen.
We can deal with floods, we can deal with lots of other things, but dealing with a tornado like this is heartbreaking. We are doing everything we can to protect this community. We are going to protect those that have been hurt, have been displaced, and we are going to take care of them. That is our mission, that is our task now.
We're making sure every man, woman and child is accounted for. We are now in search and recovery mode. I cannot begin to thank my own city staff, their work that's going to be going on not only from the time that this event happened this morning, but throughout this day and for many days to come.
We will rebuild this city. We will make this city stronger. This will not stop us. It will make us stronger. The agencies have stepped up, and they're going to continue to step up.
And at this time I'd like to ask Chief Bob Smith to come up and talk about exact plans of what we're doing moving forward. We're communicating constantly on what we're going to do in this city.
Chief Smith, thank you.
BOB SMITH, HARRISBURG POLICE CHIEF: I'm Chief Bob Smith with the Harrisburg Police Department, and I'm going to touch on the law enforcement side of the issues we have got at hand.
Starting this evening at 6:00 in the evening, we will be having a curfew that will be imposed upon the affected area inside our perimeter. The curfew will last until 6:00 a.m. in the morning.
We have an evacuation is something that Chief Summers is going to talk about here in a few minutes. I understand that it's already been completed or at least as far as we know completed. Again, we had six confirmed fatalities in the city limits of Harrisburg since the onset of this storm this morning.
We have command centers that we have established. We have one incident command center that is established here at the sheriff's department, and then we have secondary command centers and allocation distribution centers at Rural King and at the SIC Foundation building. One is for manpower, and the other is for equipment that we're storing in those areas.
And as soon as they're needed in an area and it's secured, then we will be sending those assets to that location. We have been issuing at Rural King as well work permits. Those can only be obtained at the Rural King facility. Charlie Will, who is the city treasurer, is in charge of that command center down there and he's the one that is issuing the permits.
No one will be allowed to work in Harrisburg unless they bring a form of identification and the proper paperwork and show it to him and he will issue a work permit. These things are done not to try to hamper the recovery process but to speed up the recovery process and also take care of our citizens here in Harrisburg.
We don't want agencies coming in promising things, taking money and not delivering. That's the reason why we put these work permits in place. There are no charge for the work permits. You just basically take your information down to Charlie Will at Rural King and he will take care of it from there.
We have 24/7 law enforcement protection that has been established and will be ongoing for as long as that need is in Harrisburg. We have had agencies from all over the state that have volunteered manpower. And they will be here. That is establishing our perimeter and also some policing of the outside areas of the perimeter.
We have donations. We have had an onslaught of calls about giving donations. At this point we're not really sure what to do with the monetary donations or the perishable donations. We're still trying to establish that, and the (INAUDIBLE) director and the Harrisburg (INAUDIBLE) director Rick Maudy (ph), we're going to try to coordinate somewhere where those things can be taken to and the monetary donations collected for those in our community that were affected.
We're asking that you refer all volunteer requests. I know there are a large of number of people out there calling every number they can find wanting to volunteer their time. And that just shows what a great part of the state that we live in that they're doing that.
We're asking that those that are going to volunteer, I have got a telephone number here for you to call. And they will put you on a list and will use you as an as-needed basis when an area is secured. That telephone number is 618-252-3732.
Just a few minutes ago, I talked to the Saline County state's attorney, and he has assured me that that anyone caught inside our perimeter or doing any looting or junking, which is taking the aluminum from the buildings and things, that is caught doing that will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Thank you. Chief Summer?
BILL SUMMERS, HARRISBURG FIRE CHIEF: Good afternoon. My name is Bill Summers. I'm the fire chief of the city of Harrisburg.
I would like to thank the surrounding towns that come to our aid a while ago. It's been a long morning, but we had rescue teams from every town in our area. They worked very hard. And we were able to rescue a lot of people. We did have some fatalities which we couldn't control.
But we did and were able to get a lot of people out of the houses. It's just unreal, it's like a war zone, if you haven't seen that area there. And right now as I look at the crowd, I'm seeing numerous (INAUDIBLE) trucks headed our way. We're getting all the help that we were promised. And really appreciate it to everybody that is in the area. We want to tell you that we appreciate the help that's been given to the city of Harrisburg.
(END LIVE SPEECH)
BALDWIN: So you have just heard from a number of officials.
These are the folks and they're not going to be getting a lot of sleep in the coming days. We just heard from the fire chief and he basically said he's been out and about rescuing some of these folks, pulling them out of homes.
Described what you're looking at here as a war zone. Essentially they are creating this perimeter around the sort of epicenter of the area hardest hit. That's just so they can continue to do their job. If there are people trapped, if they need rescuing, as I mentioned, they are in search and recovery mode, just so they can do that and also to keep some of the looters out.
We are hearing again, the same number is holding in Missouri -- excuse me -- Illinois as far as fatalities go, six fatalities there. I spoke just a moment ago with the governor of Missouri. And he told me three fatalities. So total number as of this hour here is nine.
We just want to invite your pictures here of the storms. You can always head to iReport.com, again iReport.com. Please stay safe as you take some of these pictures. But we would love to share them with our viewers here on air, photos, videos, iReport.com.
And part of this story here, as you're seeing places just leveled. This is where med center. This is the Harrisburg Med Center. And you can see this where a wall should be. Walls completely demolished. I spoke to a nurse who was actually working a 12-hour shift. She was there, she took the pictures. She's going to tell us what she saw, what she heard.
That's next, breaking news on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Back to our breaking story.
This tornado hit Harrisburg, Illinois, right around 5:00 this morning local time. A lot of people were still in bed and still asleep. Few people heard the sirens, had a chance to seek some sort of shelter, but there was one woman I spoke with last hour, she was working. She was at the Harrisburg Medical Center. She was working a 12-hour shift, and just before she was about to leave, this tornado hit.
She took pictures as one entire wall of this med center gone. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANE HARPER, TORNADO VICTIM: Well, it was somewhere between around 4:30 when we got the warning and the announcement was made over the loudspeakers to go into tornado disaster mode.
So the patients started getting moved out of the rooms that had facing windows and into the middle of the building, into the radiology suite which, you know, radiology equipment is big and heavy, and so that part of the hospital is very well reinforced.
And I think it was right about quarter to 5:00 when I really couldn't hear the tornado so much as I heard the explosion when the windows blew out and the wall came out. And I was about 10 feet -- I'm sorry?
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: I just want to interject and just say this is one of the pictures you took, and we're looking at a hospital bed. Do you know if anybody was in that bed when the twister hit?
HARPER: No.
BALDWIN: No. Good.
HARPER: That whole wing had been evacuated and the patients moved to radiology before the tornado hit.
BALDWIN: OK, continue, please continue your description.
HARPER: And the electronic door on the south side was taken out, ceiling tiles started falling.
There was this white/gray kind of mist that rained down from the ceiling. We started getting water. All the fire alarms went off, the power went out and all the electric doors closed, and it was total chaos for a little while, but the staff was just incredible.
They were very efficient getting all the patients moved to safety, and the one room that you can see in that photograph that has no outside wall, I found that when I was checking those rooms to make sure everybody was out of them.
BALDWIN: Jane, what did it sound like when it hit?
HARPER: Well, you know, they say a tornado sounds like a freight train, and I sort of heard something that wasn't really as loud as I would have expected. What I really heard was the explosion when the walls came out and the windows came out.
BALDWIN: So what has happened to the patients? You mentioned there was a tornado and you went into tornado disaster mode, so obviously as you mentioned staff at this med center very much so prepared for events like this. Where are the patients that were evacuated? Is this hospital still up and running, just in different wings? What's the status?
HARPER: Well, I can't really officially comment on that because I'm not the public relations person for the hospital.
But the plan, as I understood it when I left this morning, was to send everybody home that could be discharged, transfer everybody that couldn't because they have an engineer coming in to look at the building and see what repairs need to be done before they can go back and service our patients.
BALDWIN: And just finally a question to you. Are you doing OK?
HARPER: Oh, yes.
It was kind of rough for a while, but, you know, everything sort of kicks in automatically, and I have worked -- I worked on a trauma service for many years, and they drilled us over and over and over again on disaster management. And so things just kind of automatically jump in.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: And, again, that was Jane Harper, nurse practitioner of all people who know how to react in an emergency situation. Certainly, it is a nurse.
I want to go to Chad Myers.
Chad, as we talk about this tornado, specifically the Harrisburg, Illinois, tornado, it is now officially rated as an EF-4. That is enhanced Fujita 4. Put that into perspective for me.
MYERS: Yes. And as Jacqui Jeras first reported it and then you heard it from the National Weather Service, EF-4 is about a 170-mile- per-hour tornado.
Back in the olden days, when I went to school, that would be considered an F-3 tornado, not an F-4. They enhanced the F-scale because they have to tinker with something. At 166 to about 200, you're looking at this EF-3 to EF-4, and then 5 starts at 200, a very intense tornado. No matter what, whether the number is F or EF or whatever it might be.
But the enhanced Fujita as a devastating tornado at about 170 miles per hour. This storm was 200 yards wide, 600 feet wide, two football fields being plowed over by a 160- to 170-mile-an-hour tornado. And it went about -- as you heard from the governor, about nine miles.
BALDWIN: Chad Myers, thank you so much for the explainer. I just wanted to get the perspective of what an EF-4 really entailed. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.
We're going to get back to this breaking story in just a moment.
But, first, happening right now, CNN is watching history unfold, Hollywood director James Cameron trying to reach the deepest part of the ocean floor. I'm talking seven miles underwater. But there's more to this. This is actually a race. Philippe Cousteau is going to walk me through it, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: I want to tell you about this race to the deepest part of the ocean, a world that only two sets of eyes, two sets, had ever seen before.
At the helm of this whole effort, the director of the two biggest blockbusters of all time, James Cameron. And CNN has exclusive access as he is trying to reach the Challenger Deep seven miles down into the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench, the most remote place on Earth. James Cameron wants to be the very first person to make this dive solo in his one-man watercraft. And the depth, the danger here of this cannot be overstated.
Just a couple reference points for you. First the Titanic, a ship that Cameron knows very well. It rests about 13,000 feet below the ocean's surface. Folks, that is one-third of the distance he is planning on diving. Just look at this graphic.
In fact, Mount Everest, this is what put into perspective for me. Mount Everest is more than 3,000 feet shorter than the length of the dive. So if you flip Mt. Everest upside down in the ocean, it won't reach where he's trying to go. The deep has long held Cameron's fascination as anyone who has ever seen. 1989's movie, remember, "The Abyss," knows. But this time, there are no special effects, no yelling "cut" to the crew. Cameron, he does have little competition from this guy, billionaire Richard Branson, also has lone team working on a solo dive to the challenger deep. And the X-Prize Foundation, they're going to give a little bit of a purse, $10 million, to the team who gets there first.
Right now, it appears James Cameron is closer. He's been doing test dives off Papua New Guinea, and CNN is the only news network with team onboard James Cameron's ship. In fact, our crew includes Jason Carroll, so he's going to be filing reports as this whole thing gets underway. Two other men, we mentioned two sets of eyes made it to the Challenger Deep, actually did it together, that was back in 1960. U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard, made the seven mile journey down in this 50-feet watercraft.
Look at this thing. It was the first ever dive to the deepest part of the ocean and the last until now.
And I want to bring in a man I know who has ocean in his veins. He is CNN special correspondent and environmentalist Phillipe Cousteau.
Phillipe, nice to have you back on.
PHILIPPE COUSTEAU, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Talking about these two guys who did this in 1960. You actually knew Don Walsh. And technology -- first, so many questions for you. First, the technology has changed significantly since then, yes?
COUSTEAU: Yes, it has. And you know, the Bathyscaphe Trieste, that was the name of the vessel that they took down on January 23rd 1960 was revolutionary at the time, made global headlines and it took them several hours, over four hours to descend, and they only spent about 20 minutes at the bottom and then went straight back up. So it's very different than what's planned this time around.
BALDWIN: So is the point to go down, say, you touch the ground and then pop back up? Is that ultimately the prize? Or there are more to this?
COUSTEAU: Well, the time in 1960 -- you know what, in 1960 that really was the goal. Nobody had been down there. They were trying to understand what exists at the bottom of the ocean? Since then we have placed 12 people on the moon. I think a lot of folks out there have a misunderstanding that we understands, we know about the ocean, when the truth is we've barely scratched the surface.
And so now, I understand that Cameron is planning on spending six hours exploring this area, providing vital insight into science, geological science, biological science existing in the deepest part of the ocean that we know virtually nothing about.
BALDWIN: So I guess you wouldn't know the answer to my question as far as what he could find the 7 miles deep. No one really knows. Do we have an idea what's lurking down there?
COUSTEAU: Well, we do have somewhat of an idea. Certainly when Don Walsh and Jacques Piccard went down in 1960, they did record footage of fish, certain fish and some flounder. So we do know there are some vertebrates down there. We have sense some unmanned vessels down there. A couple of them since that period of time. But we don't know a lot. We do know, though, is that at that depth the temperature is just above freezing, it's pitch black, the pressure is absolutely enormous, like 8,000 elephants standing on top of a car. So the pressure is crushing, and those species that do exist down there are likely animals like bivalves, clams, mollusks, crabs, certain species of fish and who knows what else. There could be all sorts of other creatures, giant squid and other very large creatures that might exist down there. We really know virtually nothing about this part of the world.
BALDWIN: So as you're mentioning 8,000 elephants on a car is some sort of analogy as to the pressure. I mean, all I can think about my ears popping and feeling so close in on this thing. I mean, this has to be very dangerous.
COUSTEAU: Well, it is very dangerous. It's actually, believe it or not, Brooke, harder for people to live underwater than it is to live into space. And, you know, we think about it on a jetliner. We travel about 35,000, 36,000 feet all the time. Going up in the air is not nearly as difficult as it is going under water at that depth. And the pressure is just tremendous. But there is incredible scientific knowledge that can come from that exploration.
Of course, the oceans, as I said, we've barely scratched the surface. And for James to be able to go down there and begin to do biological and chemical and theological research, begin to understand how the oceans work, how there are carbon sink that regulates our climate. We certainly had gotten a lot of valuable scientific and health benefits from our exploration to the ocean. AZT, an early treatment for HIV, treatments of breast cancer have been derived from the ocean. So we have a lot to learn, that's a very valuable scientific significant in this type of exploration.
BALDWIN: Seven miles underneath and we have never really seen what could be down there.
Phillipe Cousteau, thank you so much.
As we mentioned, Jason Carroll along with James Cameron. James Cameron doing the deep sea diving. But we'll have those pictures.
Philippe, thank you so much.
We want to get back to our breaking story. Of course, the devastating tornadoes that have killed eight people in the Midwest. Three, we have learned from the governor, three in Missouri, six in Harrisburg, Illinois.
You're looking at more pictures. We're getting new video here on national desk working so, so hard, to effort in from our affiliates different pieces of video such as this car underneath this tree that was just topped over. I'm sure because of the wind there. This is Elizabeth Town, Kentucky.
One of the other cities devastated by these storms, Branson, Missouri. And coming up next, we'll talk to the mayor, the mayor of Branson about the damage they're seeing -- next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: So far nine people have died, three in the State of Missouri, six in Illinois, specifically Harrisburg, Illinois, because of these horrendous tornadoes that ripped through many, many small towns, really in the middle of the night, very early this morning. And as we continue to watch, they are now headed south-eastward.
I want to focus specifically on Missouri. I talked to the governor a couple minutes ago. Now we have the Mayor Branson on the line.
Raeanne Presley, I know you told me in the commercial break, you have lived in this town for 40 years. Just describe for me what you're seeing, describe the destruction.
MAYOR RAEANNE PRESLEY, BRANSON, MISSOURI (via telephone): Well, it's a beautiful, sunny day here in the Ozarks, and unfortunately it marred by some destruction of a tornado that hit us overnight. And that makes us very sad, but we are getting through it.
BALDWIN: The governor mentioned to me that the tornado ran along the ground, I want to say, nine miles, he said. Can you be more specific as far as what this thing hit? How many neighborhoods are wiped out? Do you even know yet?
PRESLEY: Well, yes, we are beginning to do more detailed assessments. It did travel a path through Branson that was along a lot of our commercial districts, so we did have some damage through some hotels and some of our attractions. We did have one neighborhood damaged, but we did not have a large amount of residential structures damaged.
BALDWIN: What is concern number 1 for you right now?
PRESLEY: Well, certainly just to make certain that the people who are struggling -- we have no power right now, we want to make certain that people who have had roofs and damage to their homes that they are safely sheltered. And then we want to make certain that our businesses are protected for the evening, and then want to work with them to make certain that they can rebuild.
BALDWIN: Where were you this morning, Raeanne, when this thing hit?
PRESLEY: Well, during the tornado, I was in my basement. The sirens went off in plenty of time. And we have had advance warning that the storm was coming. That was good, and I think led to very few injuries. And so we are very grateful for that.
BALDWIN: You know, I know we talk about tornadoes. How could we forget, you know, Joplin, specifically, and now we're talking Branson. Has the town of Branson, how many times have you had to deal with a tornado of this magnitude?
PRESLEY: Well, we were talking about that. It's been many, many years and we've never had a tornado that anyone can remember that hit so many structures in our community. So we have been blessed. And Joplin was a reminder, of course. I think that was at the top of the mind and probably led to people wisely seeking shelter last night which led to, as i said, to less injuries.
BALDWIN: Raeanne Presley, we're thinking about you all. I appreciate you calling in. Best to you in this next couple of days. Thank you so much.
PRESLEY: Well, thank you. And I encouraged people to come back to Branson. They can always find out more of ExploreBranson.com and we will be open for business.
BALDWIN: That's what the governor said. Thank you so much.
Meantime, developing this hour, we are hearing the pentagon is pushing ahead with plans if military action is necessary in Syria, and all of this coming as fears grow that the regime, the Assad regime may soon be launching a ground invasion there. We're live at the Pentagon -- next.
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BALDWIN: We're not going to go too far from the breaking news in the tornado in the Midwest and now headed towards the southeast. But I do want to pause and take a look at some other stories here today.
We have to focus on Syria. Syria and the besieged City of Homs say they fear a full-scale invasion by government troops. And for the first time today, helicopter gunships fired on parts of the city and ground troops entered the off-targeted neighborhood known as Baba Amir.
And I want you to hold that thought, because CNN has learn that while the world continues to look for a response here to this crisis, planning for possible military action is picking up speed at the Pentagon. And I want to go straight there to our correspondent, Barbara Starr.
Barbara, we keep hearing that none of the options is all that good, but specifically what are the options being considered right now.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, none of them are very good in the eyes of the U.S. administration at this point, Brooke. They're getting the planning up to speed if, if, the president was to ask -- to execute some options here.
What are they looking at? What do they mean when they say we have a full range of options that the U.S. military could execute? Well, it ranges from everything to arming the opposition, which is considered unlikely right now, because nobody really knows who the opposition really represents, to outright military action, U.S. military intervention.
At the other end of the scale, you just have to look at the pictures today. Helicopters, gunships, ground troops pounding away at civilians. Very, very tough for any kind of U.S. or allied combat action on the ground there. The Syrians have a very significant air defense, surface-to-air missile system, very hard to do anything there. Possible humanitarian relief supplies. That's other option, being staged in neighboring Turkey or Jordan. That might be one of the intermediate steps they could take.
But right now, officials tell us here, even as they continue planning, they refine their plans, they begin to look at what units they have, what equipment they have, what they could tell the president. All of these options look very troublesome, Brooke.
BALDWIN: As we talk about options, Barbara, is the planning of the Pentagon, is it farther along that if the president, you know, called up tomorrow and said, give me a list of options, would that list be ready to go?
STARR: Yes. By all accounts. That is exactly -- you hit the nail on the head, Brooke. That is what the military is doing right now, putting together that list so if the president asks, they are ready.
You know, the U.S. military says we don't sit around and wait to be asked by the president. We know we need to plan all this. We know we need to look at it. We need to be ready to hand him a set of options and explain to him what the art of the possible is so that if President Obama wants to proceed, they will be ready to go.
But, you know, i don't think you can say it enough times. It's a huge if. This would be, of course, the president's decision to make. And the U.S. position remains very clear at this point. They want to see international action. They want the Arab league nations to get involved. And the real hope is that diplomatic pressure, sanctions and all of that will get Bashar al-Assad's regime to change its course of action, but look, it doesn't look very likely right now, does it?
BALDWIN: It doesn't. It doesn't. Barbara Starr, thank you.
Back to our breaking news and this weather. We are now hearing of new warnings in Kentucky. Kentucky here after tornado ripped through the region. Stay right with me.
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BALDWIN: Back to our breaking story. And we are looking at this together, here, courtesy of our affiliate WAVE.
Look at this. Live pictures. This is Hodgenville, Kentucky. And clearly, an entire roof gone off the top of this home. Car -- perhaps that was the garage. I don't know if the car was moved. Let stay on these pictures.
Jacqui Jeras, I want to bring you in. And if you can, just, goodness, look at this. This is just, you know, we say it time and time again, it's just kind of unreal. JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: This is the storm, if you were watching earlier, Brooke, around noon, 1:00, that we were out live on the air, which showing you the Doppler radar that we thought was showing debris. And there's the ground truth of that. It was an incredibly strong storm that intensified, move right through this area. In fact it got hit almost twice in the Hodgenville Area. Western Kentucky hit very hard late morning to early afternoon with these lines of storms as they went through.
BALDWIN: But you look at the pictures, though, and you can see, now that they have pulled out, some of the homes are just fine. That's typical of a zigzagging tornado.
JERAS: That's a lot of what we've been seen today. You know, we haven't seen really why, you know, those wedge or stovepipe tornadoes that stay on the ground for a long period of time. These are storms that have lasted a long time, but they drop a tornado, they bring it back up, and you know, 200 yards wide when we've been talking about monster tornadoes in the plains, right? They can be as much as a mile wide. So these are very different tornadoes. This is hillier terrain. They are more hopper, skipper, jumper type tornadoes than something that's just going to create a huge lawn mower type of swath that would move on through there.
But, yes, a lot of devastation, and so very, very sad. I didn't hear of any injuries in that one, by the way. So let's hope that continues to hold true as they assess the situation in Hodgenville, Kentucky.
BALDWIN: As far as the latest damage assessment, what do you know?
JERAS: Well, we have three reports now from the National Weather Service confirming tornadoes and confirming intensity. And a couple of them are preliminary, which basically means it could change, OK? And the big one that we are talking about there is the one in Harrisburg, in Illinois. The National Weather Service says it was an EF-4 with winds around 170 miles per hour.
So here's the enhanced Fujita scale, starting with zero going up to five. And we consider a 3 to be a major tornado, and so we certainly topped that one there in Harrisburg.
Now two other tornadoes confirmed. The one in Kansas in Harveyville. That is an EF-2 with winds around 110 to 130 miles per hour. And then it was also an EF-2 in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. And that's the video that you're seeing right there rolling on your screen right next to me.
So even an EF-2 tornado which is lower on the scale can cause extensive damage. It can cause injuries. It can cause fatalities. And it can cause an extensive amount of damage to homes and buildings where they're just not liveable.
So, unfortunately, we were seeing some very strong tornadoes. Now we do have one warning that's still in effect here. And I just want to mention this one, because it is kind of a strong rotator that's been sticking around for a while, and this is McCreary in Wayne County, Kentucky.
And here you can see right here, that's the state line between Kentucky and Tennessee. And the other thing I want to mention to is this storms had been moving so fast, Brooke, we're talking 50, 60 miles an hour. You know, that huge driving down the interstate, right, that fast. So you can't outrun them or you can't get away from them. You've got seek shelter and get to the safe place. And we've got many watches and warnings still in effect. I know we're going to "THE SITUATION ROOM." My computer is getting locked up.
BALDWIN: It's OK. It's low. We'll get it juiced back up for, Wolf, at the top of the hour. But, Jacqui, I really appreciate that. Thank you so much.
JERAS: Sure.
BALDWIN: And our thanks to our affiliates for giving us these pictures.
Meantime, switching gears, though, breaking this afternoon as well, former team heartthrob and "Monkees" star Davy Jones has died. We are getting brand-new information -- next.
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BALDWIN: He was the baby face member of the 60s band, "The Monkees."
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BALDWIN: Davy Jones died today in Florida from an apparent heart attack. He was 66 years of age. And he was the voice behind the hit "Day Dream Believer." You can see from this video here we pulled from YouTube. And the band had all kinds of hits. "Last Train to Clarksville" and "I'm a Believer."
Chopper in ground, rescue units are working to rescue five hikers on a mountainside outside Phoenix. And CNN affiliate KNXV is reporting a boulder broke loose, hit some of the teens, one of whom may have suffered a broken leg. The rescue is happening along an unmarked trail in the White Tank Mountains. Video there.
BALDWIN: Tiger Woods brushing off questions about a reported wish to join the military. In an upcoming book, his former swing coach claims Woods considered enlisting as a Navy SEAL and train with combat troops at Fort Bragg. Woods' agent said the book is burdened by, quote, unquote, "armchair psychology."
And as we continue to watch the breaking news here out of the Midwest, again, just to quickly recap, nine deaths in total. I spoke with the governor of Missouri not too long ago, he confirmed three deaths in his state. Six deaths, specifically, in Harrisburg, Illinois. I know Wolf Blitzer is going to continue to watch this and cover the other stories of the day here. Thank you so much for watching me. Stay with us in the breaking news here at CNN.
Wolf Blitzer and "THE SITUATION ROOM" begins right now.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S THE SITUATION ROOM: Thanks very much.