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Oklahoma Authorities Give Press Briefing; Jody Arias Trial Winding Down; Jodi Arias Addresses Jury.

Aired May 21, 2013 - 13:30   ET

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


MARY FALLIN, (R), GOVERNOR OF OKLAHOMA: We are working hard right now to try to get a more accurate count of the loss of life. And we hope to have better numbers on that.

Our Department of Transportation has pulled together over 400 people throughout the state that are on standby to bring in various bulldozers and equipment. When the time comes that we need to begin the process of helping to clear the roads better, certainly to keep those safe -- and we will be certainly allowing people to do what they need to do to get their valuable possessions through the lost property that they have experienced, but we will also have the resources available to be able to begin clearing at some point in time in the future.

OG&E is working hard to restore power. We have had 38,000 residents at this point in time that are without power, 20,000 in Moore, and Oklahoma City. So we're working to get that power back up. One of the other challenges that we have faced throughout the time period has been the problems with communications, with cell service, and telephone lines that have been town. And AT&T and Verizon have set up mobile units to allow better communication for us. The Department of Agriculture and Forestry has also brought in heavy equipment to help when the time comes with debris clearing.

And I just want to add that for those that are calling and offering help and resources, please make contact with our various charities through the Red Cross for donations or volunteer help, and also the Salvation Army. They're the best source to give information to.

I'll turn it over to Administrator Fugate.

Thank you so very much for coming to Oklahoma. We really appreciate your help.

CRAIG FUGATE, DIRECTOR, FEMA: Thank you, Governor.

Let's be clear, FEMA's job is to support the team and the team's been working since the tornado struck. Local fire, police, volunteers, governors called out, the National Guard. The primary response is disaster is being led by the governor, the local officials and the first responders. Our job is to support. It's unfortunate that we are once again seeing what tornadoes can do. But you're also seeing what investment in public safety and the commitment of training and exercise does when disaster does strike.

So let's get practical stuff out here for the public.

Those people that have been affected, you've had losses due to the storm, go ahead and call 1-800-621-FEMA. The governor asked last night, the president made the declaration -- this was a quick turnaround but it's because of the devastation and the evidence of how bad it was that the president concurred and issued that last night. So it's important that people start registering. A lot of people are staying with friends and family, some probably staying in their cars right now. We can provide some assistance, rental assistance. We want to get people a place to stay. So the first step is register so we can start assistance. 800-621-FEMA or go with mobile device, if they have co connectivity go to disasterassistance.gov and register online as well.

The second thing is, you have towers down because of the power outages. Unless emergency, use text messaging. Allow people that need to get through to get through. You can relieve congestion by using text messaging. If it's not an emergency, stay off the phones until the system come back up.

Third, let people know you're OK. One of the challenges with this type of event is, because the devastation is so bad, it's difficult to get a handle on how many people may be missing. So if you have -- you did live in the areas, you were impacted, let people know you're OK so we're not looking for people that we don't need to be looking for.

As the governor points out, they're going through debris. We're going to keep looking until everybody's found. You can help by letting people know you're OK. Red Cross does have a safe and wellness site where you can check in and check on people. So let people know you're OK.

The last thing, as the governor said, if you're not in the area and you want to help, the best way to help is to give generously to the volunteer organizations that are active in disasters. There's a variety of folks from Red Cross, Salvation Army, Southern Baptist that do great work and they can definitely use your contributions. But if you're not in the area, the best way to help, send help through those organizations. That is our -- that's the lesson we've learned time and time again, that stuff isn't as great as it is cash when it comes to longer-term needs for a lot of folks that have lost everything.

Thank you.

ALBERT ASHWOOD, SAFETY DIRECTOR, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: My name is Albert Ashwood. I'm the safety director of Emergency Management. I would like to reiterate what Craig said. Whether it's the federal government or the state government, we have a simple job, that's to support our local jurisdictions, to make sure they have everything that we have to offer to help them get through this emergency phase of this disaster, and to help to effectively respond.

We will also begin recovery as has already been stated. We're looking at setting up assistance centers, or an area we can have many assistance centers to help out with the various individuals, somewhere to go to. Some of the challenges have to do especially with getting the message out, communications. It's easy to stand up and talk about mobile apps that we have or talk about calling 1-800-621-FEMA or going to websites. But if you've lost electricity and phone is dead and don't know where to go or what to do, we have to go old-school method. We'll be looking at flyers, things like that so we can get the - message out to people who are in the debris and trying to stay with their property and trying to get back into their property so we can get that message to them. We'll be working on that throughout the day, supporting local jurisdictions and making sure they have everything they need.

I'd like to introduce at this time Fire Chief Moore.

Come on up, sir.

GARY BIRD (ph), CHIEF, MOORE FIRE DEPARTMENT: Hi, I'm Gary Bird (ph). I'm fire chief for the city of Moore. Just some updated information. We kept over 200 responders in the field last night. We stayed at school overnight, going through the school, and stayed in several different locations back and forth, changing men out, and we had to pull off several times because of weather, lightning, but we went back out. We are out. We started with the primary search yesterday and the secondary search. We made it through, I will say, most of the structures, vehicles, homes. But the ones we didn't make in through yesterday we'll make it through today and a second and third time. We'll be through every damaged piece of property in this city at least three times before we're done. And we hope to be done by dark tonight.

And I want to thank everyone that has come in to help from all over Oklahoma and all over the nation to help the city of Moore.

Thank you.

JERRY STILLINGS, CHIEF, MOORE POLICE DEPARTMENT: Jerry Stillings, chief of police here in Moore. Again I want to thank the other agencies. We could not have done this without them and continue to do this without them. We have 75 static posts that we have officers stationed at, and we obviously couldn't do that on our own without these other agencies.

The one thing I just want to emphasize is that we have to have people out of those affected areas so that we can do our work and get it done sooner so that we can shrink the perimeter and let people back in.

And the other issue is, please, try to stay away from 4th Street and 19th Street when driving. It's just bogging us down. We can't -- we've had traffic jams. If you don't belong in the area, please stay away from those areas. Santa Fe's the same way -- telephone, telephone road. So those are -- have caused big issues for us. And if we can get the public to cooperate, if you -- there's not -- there isn't anything that you can do there at this time. And there are a lot of safety issues there. So, if you will give us time, let the search and rescue take place, we can get you in there a lot quicker.

Thank you.

FALLIN: General Deering?

MAJ. GEN. MILES DEERING, ADJUTANT GENERAL OF OKLAHOMA: I'm Major General Miles Deering. I'm the adjutant general of Oklahoma. And I just want to say, first of all, it's an honor to support the first responders, and that's what we're here for, is to support the first responders and fill gaps in the capabilities that they have with either our resources or the resources we can reach out and gather to support this effort. And it's just been a phenomenal effort thus far. But it's going to be a long time before we totally heal from this and recover. But we're here to support.

Thank you.

FALLIN: Mr. Thompson?

MIKE THOMPSON, CABINET SECRETARY FOR SAFETY AND SECURITY: I'm Mike Thompson. I'm Governor Fallin's cabinet secretary for safety and security. Fro the sake of brevity, I'll echo what the police chief said. If you don't have a reason to be in the affected area, avoid it. We want to be sensitive to the people looking for their lost ones and loved ones and trying to look at the area here, but it's still just slows down the recovery efforts. So if you don't need to be here, please avoid this area and let us do our work.

We're going to be here as long as we need to get this community back. We're going to be sensitive to the people that were affected by this loss. Until we know collectively we've got a tough job ahead of us and we're going to be here to help the community as long as it takes.

FALLIN: Mayor Lewis?

GLENN LEWIS, MAYOR OF MOORE, OKLAHOMA: First of all, I'd like to say thank you for everyone who is here today. I apologize, air conditioner's not working. We're on generator power. So just bear with us.

A lot of thank-yous to say. First and foremost, the president of the United States, who sent me a FEMA director. I couldn't do without him. The governor, who has been here on site every since this happened. And I just appreciate her and her staff. All of the city employees, all of the other agencies that have come from all over, we appreciate their support and assistance. I want to say thank you to the city of Oklahoma City, the city of Norman. Without them, we wouldn't do it.

And this has been quite an experience. I was the actual mayor here in May 3, 1999. So this is not my first rodeo with this. But it doesn't get any easier, especially with the loss of life.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Mayor Cornett, who will answer questions in a little bit.

Thank you. MICK CORNETT, MAYOR OF OKLAHOMA CITY: First, I want to commend the city of Moore and the resources that they have put into this. This could easily have overwhelmed an ordinary group of public safety officials. They have not only been up to the task but I think have performed valiantly and were immediately on the scene.

There are, you know, a number of organizations that deserve some level of mention including the media, whose technology provided excellent warning and saved hundreds of lives.

I was able to tour the site this morning. One of the takeaways that a person sees in that situation is that no one could possibly have survived this. And yet we know they did. We know people crawled out of the rubble and we're talking levels of debris that's four-foot high as far as you can see. We're talking about cars that are upside down and school books and children's toys and trees without bark. This was the storm of storms. And the fact that so many lives have been spared, I think, is a great testament to the technology, media public safety officials whom have been mentioned, largely from the city of Moore and the city of Oklahoma City but larger, other municipalities and county officials as well.

I do have one bit of new information to pass along. It appears that we have the power restored to the water treatment plant, if not by now, in the next few minutes. It takes a little bit of while for the pressure to build up in the system so residents who expect water, power to increase throughout the afternoon. We could be at full usage later today. Wouldn't be a bad idea to use less water than is necessary for the next few minutes, next few hours. But the system should be back up and running very, very soon.

And again, I want to spread my thanks to Governor Fallin and her staff and, of course, to the federal officials who have come here in our hour of need and been with us.

Thank you all.

(INAUDIBLE)

BILL CITTY, CHIEF, OKLAHOMA POLICE DEPARTMENT: Chief Citty with the Oakland City Police Department. As usual, the response has been overwhelming by all of the partner agencies in public safety, all of the volunteer agencies, the state, local, federal, it's just overwhelming, as usual. We come to expect that. We've obviously dealt with this in the past.

Right now, Oklahoma City in and of itself, which has a much bigger task than Moore has -- the area affected is only eight square miles, and that's with moderate to really extreme damage. There's about four square miles that we have cordoned off. That area's cordoned off with people only right now at this point, we're only allowing owners, homeowners to go into the areas to try to get to their homes to see if they can salvage some things that they may be able to. But those are the only ones allowed in those areas. We will be in that area, in those areas, securing those areas for quite some time. Probably for a week to two weeks, just to protect property and make sure everybody has the opportunity to get back to their -- get back to their property, do what they need to do.

We have -- in Oklahoma City, we've had a confirmed four deaths. I think overall, the medical examiner has actually confirmed 24 deaths. But four of those are in Oklahoma City, remainder would be in Moore. Obviously, as the governor spoke, there could be obviously others in the coming days. The search is still going on, heavily in Moore because they have a larger area to cover. So we could expect more possibly. So we have 24 right now. There could be more.

All of the people reported missing, initially, last night, about 48, all of those have been actually found, except for I think a few left in Moore that they are working on to try to locate that have not.

If there is still somebody out there, if there's anybody out there, citizens that have not found loved ones we ask them to go ahead and call us 297-1129 and at least report that and let us have the opportunity, maybe, to locate them.

Again, I want to thank the media for their cooperation and all of the state, local agencies that have worked together to rally, make a tragic event handled as well as possible.

So thank you.

KEITH BRYANT, CHIEF, OKLAHOMA CITY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Keith Bryant, fire chief, Oklahoma City Fire Department. Just to add to what chief of city said about the operations in Oklahoma City, as the storm was forming yesterday, we activated the state's urban search-and-rescue task force. We actually had those assets and those personnel assembling as the storm was approaching Oklahoma City. So therefore, when the storm did strike we could have those personnel and assets in place very, very quickly to start beginning search and rescue operations.

As of last night, about midnight, we had completed a primary and secondary search of the affected areas in Oklahoma City. The task force set up a base of operations next to Briarwood (ph) Elementary School and they continued to operate out of there.

Currently, what we are doing is going through the list of registered storm shelters in the affected area in Oklahoma City and double- checking those to make sure anybody that may have been in a storm shelter and wasn't able to get out. Other than that we an Oklahoma City fire department task force that is dedicated to the affected area. If any fires were to break out, emergency medical needs arose, we are there so we can respond very quickly to that area.

And again, working just with the state task force in that area to make sure that we thoroughly search the area and, again, be able to respond quickly to anything that may arise since the storm occurred last night.

DARRY STACY, CLEVELAND COUNTY COMMISSIONER: Good afternoon, I'm Cleveland County commissioner, Darry Stacy, and this is county commissioner, Rod Cleveland. First of all, I want you to know, we grieve with our fellow residents of Cleveland County for the loss of life and the -- those injured. Absolutely devastating. We have -- it's been a rough few days for Cleveland County. As you know, we started on Sunday, and it initially we had storms and tornadoes hit the east side of our county. Our crews have been out 24/7 since that time. And we have been involved in absolutely aspect of that from cleanup, search and rescue, to we're opening up in Cleveland County at our fair grounds so we can take livestock there. But every kind of aspect that you can think of we're trying to be involved and help the residents.

We're going to be in this until the very end. This is our county. We will heal together. As you've heard this is a resilient county and the citizens here in Moore and Norman have been through this before and know what to do. We'll be together until the end and heal together.

Thank you.

ROD CLEVELAND, CLEVELAND COUNTY COMMISSIONER: One of the main concerns that we have is sheltering the people that lost their homes. Contact Red Cross. I've been in contact with them. They have a number of shelters available. There are shelters in Norman that's available. They have food and water. One of them is Journey Church trying to coordinate, Harvest Church in Norman.

The other thing is, it's like I said, Commissioner Stacy, the fair grounds of Cleveland County, the foundation and Moore shelter, the Moore animal shelter is set up there to take pets and help with food and cleanup for their pets. So we appreciate all your help.

Thank you.

GARY COX, DIRECTOR, OKLAHOMA CITY HEALTH DEPARTMENT: My name is Gary Cox, the director of the Oklahoma City Health Department. Our job in public health is to keep people healthy and well and prevent further loss of life and further disease.

We're doing a number of efforts along that line with our partner, Blue Cross, Blue Shield. We will have three mobile vans giving tetanus shots to those that might be doing a cleanup and have injuries, puncture wounds or other wounds, so those will be available in Oklahoma City and Oklahoma County and available in Cleveland County if needed.

We are working with restaurants, food establishments, with the try to help them have safe food and get the restaurants and get them open and safe food for the public for those that have lost power.

For food safety, if power has been lost in the areas where it has been lost, food really maintains safe between two and four hours in the refrigerator, if it is in the freezer, probably closer to 24 hours. Of course, we always say, if in doubt, throw it out. Just keep everybody as healthy, as well, and prevent disease and death if we can.

Thank you.

(END LIVE FEED)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We have been getting a complete briefing of what is going on here in Oklahoma. It is really awful. Behind me what was once a hospital, a medical facility right outside of Oklahoma City. I just drove in from the airport and I must say it is heartbreaking to see the devastation in this area.

You heard the governor, Mary Fallin, brief us on the casualties. Craig Fugate, the FEMA administrator, is here, sent by the president of the United States. 24 confirmed dead. Of those, nine children are dead. 237 people reported injured.

We are going to take a quick break. Resume our special coverage here from Oklahoma. This devastation is awful.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. We are also watching what is happening in Phoenix. Jodi Arias, the trial winding down. We will find out fairly soon whether she will get the death penalty or life in prison.

We'll get back to the coverage here in Moore, Oklahoma, in a moment.

But Ashleigh Banfield is in Phoenix for us.

Ashleigh, set the scene. What's about to happen? It looks like she is about to make a statement.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right. I can just tell you that we have waited over an hour and a half for the process to begin. Jodi Arias has just stood up in the courtroom. There was an issue with a witness, who was supposed to be one of her mitigation witnesses, who backed out at the 11th hour, Patricia Womack.

Let's listen in as Jodi Arias approaches the podium to address this jury. We don't know if she is going to ask for them to spare her life or for them to give her death. Let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ms. Arias, please wait to begin. One of the jurors needs to have a new head set.

You may proceed.

JODI ARIAS, ON TRIAL FOR MURDER: Several months back, while the first days of this trial was on going, my mom visited me like she had been doing every week since trial began. She told me after leaving the courthouse she was idling at the stop light and looked at the car next to her and Travis' siblings were in that car. My mom and I were silent for a few moments when she finally voiced exactly what I was thinking. She said, I know they are going through hell. Yet nothing drove that point home for me more than when I heard them speak last week. I never meant to cause them so much pain. When Steven said she read on Travis' card that it said "Call Steven" and that he had never got that call I know that is because of me. And when Samantha showed us the last picture that she took with Travis I know that is because of me that that will always be the last picture that she will ever take with Travis.

Throughout this trial I have avoided looking at Travis' family for a variety of reasons that I will not go to. I wondered, where is his grandma. Is she here? I didn't learn until last week what happened to her. Samantha said that Travis was the glue to their family. Around Thanksgiving in 2007 Travis called me. He was really upset. He said his grandmother was ill and frail and that he didn't know if she was going to make it. He said he didn't know what the family would do if she didn't make it because she was the glue to the family. To know that they are both gone and to know that I may have inadvertently induced her passing destroys me.

Every time I have had the thought or desire to commit suicide there is one element that has almost always caused me to waiver. They are sitting right over there. They are my family. At times, I lost track of that element. For example, the incident I testified to when I took my razor apart at the jail. I managed to convince myself that they would get over the pain with time and that in the long run I was doing them a favor by unburdening them of my presence in their lives. I wrote a bunch of them good-bye letters addressed specifically to each person. And in the letters I didn't focus so much on explanations but on how much and why I loved each of them.

And then I wrote a general explanatory letter to help them understand my decision. At that time, I saw it as taking myself off of life support. I didn't know a lot of anything about prison at that time and I didn't think it was fair to expect my family to have to support me for the rest of my life. I didn't know then that if I got life instead of death I could become employed and self-reliant. I didn't know there were many things I can do to contribute in a meaningful way. In prison, there are programs I can start and people I can help and programs that I can continue to participate in.

I'll share a few examples that I thought of. A few months before trial, and by that I mean jury selection, my hair was past my waist and I donated it to Locks of Love, a nonprofit, which creates wigs for cancer patients who lost their hair. In fact, that was my third donation to that organization since I was arrested. If I'm allowed to live in prison, I will continue to donate to that organization for the rest of my life.

Over the years I've spent in incarceration, I received many requests from women to teach them Spanish or American Sign Language. Because my case was pending, I just didn't have the time.