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Recovery, Rebuilding in Oklahoma; Moore City Mayor Takes Action; Tornado Survivors Sad But Thankful; Jodi Arias Pleads for Her Life; Suspect Dead in Shootout with FBI; Oklahoma Tornadoes

Aired May 22, 2013 - 09:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Stay with our continuing live coverage of the tornado aftermath here in Moore, Oklahoma. A special edition of CNN NEWSROOM with Chris Cuomo picks up right now.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Carol Costello here in Atlanta.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Chris Cuomo here in Moore, Oklahoma.

COSTELLO: Take it away, Chris. Set the scene for us.

CUOMO: OK -- I am. Thank you very much, Carol. Just have a little bit of communications issues there.

We know what happened here on Monday, Carol. The question is now how quickly can the community come back? We're told from government officials that what they believe about those who lost their lives here, 24 people, nine children, those numbers are not expected to change.

Now the silver lining is that you remember the numbers had been higher, and the estimates have been even higher than that. So the adjustment to the numbers we have now is welcomed by everybody in the community. This has changed into recovery, from a search perspective in terms of what they are looking for, but also just in terms of the larger sense of how this community learns how to get back on its feet.

It's reaching out to each other. There's help coming from neighboring community, states, and all across the country. We keep directing people to go to CNN.com/impact so they can figure out how to help the people on the ground. The need is great right now and will continue for many months to come.

The news today, Carol, is that they believe that this area will be substantially searched by this evening and that's when we'll start to hear official information from the government about if there are any other casualties, if there are any other emerging situations, emerging situations they have to deal with here.

But right now on the ground it's a beautiful sunny day and there are many people who are coming out, and just trying to pick up what their lives again and figure out how to move forward.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CUOMO: And we're going to take you through the tornado's path from beginning to end. If you look down here, you're going to see a brown line, right, starts with this debris field, it starts going in this direction. That is actually the tornado's trail. And as you see, it's going to get much more dramatic as we get near a populated area. You literally can trace with your finger a line where the tornado went.

The path is completely obvious. It's about a block and a half wide and you notice it just by seeing everything that's destroyed. Everything that looks just like paper on the ground, those are homes, those are timbers, those are roves, those are cars. There are two major time components here. Sixteen minutes, that was the warning window before the tornado touched down and then a 10-minute window during which this went from heavy wind to a tornado having the ability to destroy everything in its path.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my God.

CUOMO: This is where the tornado was. Look at the difference between life and death, between losing everything and losing nothing. Over water, you'll see it looks like it disappears, then when it touches down on land again, the destruction resumes.

Right now we're flying at 2500 feet above the ground. Scientists say that debris from the tornado can get 10 times as high as we are right now into the air. Look at the trees. It looks like people pulled them up and laid them down, just like they were weeding their garden. But those are huge, old-growth pine trees.

Cars are just littered along the trail. They were never there. They weren't parked there. They tossed like toys.

When you look at the debris down there, you understand why search and rescue is so difficult and so time consuming. It's hard to get in these areas and once you do to find your way through those homes is literally like digging through a haystack.

One of the worst parts of this tornado's path is that it is one that this community has seen before, in 1999 and in 2003, there were terrible tornadoes here that carved almost the same path through this community.

This part of the community really shows you the randomness and intensity of the tornado. Some homes are just completely gone and then a block away, they have been spared and this part of the debris trail ends at a school where children lost their lives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: All right. So that's the look from above to give you some perspective about this. I want to bring in Nick Valencia right now because he has some new information about what's happening here on the ground.

Nick, what have you learned? NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Chris. We just ran into the mayor of Moore, and he told our CNN crew exclusively, and I want to get the language right on this, that he is going to try to pass an ordinance to require storm shelters or safe rooms in all new housing projects, including multifamily. He says that is a very big thing, and the multifamily, because that's not anywhere in the United States.

He says he's going to try to get through the debris cleanup first. He has to get four votes of a six-member council, but he told that to our crew just a short time ago. We tried to get him on camera, Chris, but as you can imagine the mayor of Moore, he says he's exhausted.

He's expected to give this information to the media. We're standing by out here in front of city hall. He's expected to give that information to the media at the 1:00 p.m. press conference. But he decided to give us a tip-off to that first.

So, again, the mayor of Moore telling us he's going to try to pass that ordinance to require storm shelters or safe rooms in all new housing projects, including multifamily -- Chris.

CUOMO: Makes a lot of sense. Nick, obviously that's what we're hearing on the ground. Thank you for the reporting, appreciate it. We'll be back to you soon. Let us know if you learn anything else.

Another big perspective of what's happening on the ground here is what people did to get through it. And a special situations that people found themselves in.

Want to bring in Pamela Brown. You've been meeting people who are here. One mother in particular has quite a story.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely. She just had a C- section about five days before the tornado, and she was in her home when the tornado was coming directly toward her home. She said that she just rushed, got in her car and was basically in the fight for her life to save herself and her newborn baby.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): Candace Philips cradles her 6-day-old baby Connor in her arms. Overcome with emotion and gratitude for this moment.

CANDACE PHILIPS, ESCAPED DEADLY TORNADO: Yes, I was just wondering, you know, if I was going to be able to, you know, see him grow up. If the tornado was going to turn and come for us next there. If we were going to make it to the hospital at all.

BROWN: Candace, only had moments to grab her newborn baby boy and jump in her car when Monday's mammoth tornado carved a path of catastrophic destruction in Moore, Oklahoma.

PHILIPS: Fight or flight instinct. It's like, you either stand in there and stare at it in fear or you get in the car and go. And that's what we did. We were literally throwing things in the truck and jumping in, which was not easy five days after having a C-section. BROWN: Packed in the truck with her brother, mother, and little Connor sleeping in her arms, all she could see out the back window was this image captured on her brother's cell phone. A monster twister headed right toward them.

PHILIPS: This massive, dark gray, just swirling tornado, just barreling down behind us.

BROWN (on camera): And it looked at one point like it was right on the path to you.

PHILIPS: Yes, it did. It did.

BROWN (voice-over): Candy Knight and her boyfriend say they missed the tornado by mere seconds and watched as a 7-Eleven was leveled.

CANDY KNIGHT, TORNADO SURVIVOR: If I would have been 10 seconds slower, we would have gotten -- we would have been gone. I had my little 5-year-old between my legs on the floor. I -- we just barely, barely missed it.

BROWN: With so many left without homes, their resilience strengthened by their survival.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to be OK. We're going to get back. We are -- we're definitely Okies, and that's what we're known for. We'll come back, arms a swinging.

BROWN: Oklahoma's governor echoed that spirit with her own resolve.

GOV. MARY FALLIN (R), OKLAHOMA: We will rebuild. We have seen time and time again the strength of our people, the courage, the perseverance. We have come back much stronger after the tragedies we've been through.

PHILIPS: I know.

BROWN: As for Candace, her life uprooted, her home destroyed. She'll now be staying at temporary housing at the University of Oklahoma. Incredibly, though, she says she has no complaints.

PHILIPS: I'm just thankful I'm here and that there's, like, volunteers helping with everything. And that, you know, we have a place to go.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: And you can just imagine, Chris, how challenging that must be to have a newborn baby and not have a home to go to. But it's incredible to see her strength, her resilience. And that's really what we're seeing all over this town. So many people coming together and, you know, who have so much resolve.

CUOMO: Keep proving what they're able to make it through. And they say here that that's what defines the community of Moore, Oklahoma. And it also is window into the need. The need is very great. Today and every day going forward for months, and that's why we keep directing you to CNN.com/impact. Please go there and figure out how you can help the community with gift cards. The fire chief just told us if you live in the surrounding area or you're thinking of coming here to help lay hands on the situation, don't worry about that.

The manpower is adequate. What's needed are other resources. So CNN.com/impact. Figure out how you can help.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back here in a special edition of NEWSROOM, a hospital ripped to shreds by the tornado. No one was seriously hurt. But we're going to hear from an E.R. doctor whose quick thinking may have helped save lives.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Twelve minutes past the hour. I'm Carol Costello. We'll have more of our special coverage out of Oklahoma in just a moment, but first, a man who died last night in a shootout with an FBI agent at his home was being investigated for a possible link to the Boston marathon bombings.

Khasuen Taramov says federal investigators have been questioning him and a man named Ibragim Todashev since shortly after the attack and have been watching both men, quote, "pretty much every day."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KHASUEN TARAMOV, FRIEND OF SUSPECT: One day they started questioning us right -- the next day after the bombing. Not the bombing, after they found out that the bombers were Chechens, and they started following us, watching us, the older brother, he knew him back like two years ago. Back when he was used to live in Boston and he knew him. And he didn't -- he wasn't real close friends, he just happened to know him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: An FBI spokesman tells CNN the agent shot Todashev in self- defense.

To the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial now with the latest controversy involves snacks. Lawyers for Jackson's relatives objected when defense attorney gave a bailiff a bag of mints to give to the jury. They claim the candy could influence jurors if they knew where the mints came from. The sides agreed only to provide snacks anonymously. The Jacksons are suing concert promoter AEG Live which hired the doctor convicted in Jackson's death.

In just a few minutes, we expect an IRS official to appear before a House panel investigating the IRS tax scandal. Lois Lerner is expected to plead the Fifth and not testify. Lerner oversees requests for tax-exempt status. The IRS, as you know, is under criminal investigation for targeting conservative groups that applied for that status. Lerner is accused of lying to Congress about her knowledge of the matter.

And as soon as next month, the full Senate is expected to consider a sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration policies. That's after a key committee approved a bill. The measure creates a 13-year path to citizenship, raises the cap on visas for highly skilled workers and strengthens border security.

And it is official. Anthony Weiner is indeed running for mayor of New York City. The former congressman who resigned in 2011 after lying about lewd online photos, launched his campaign with this online ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY WEINER, FORMER NEW YORK REPRESENTATIVE: Look, I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down. But I've also learned some tough lessons. I'm running for mayor because I've been fighting for the middle class no struggling to make it my entire life. And I hope I get a second chance to work for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: His wife appears on that ad, by the way. A new poll out this morning from Quinnipiac University has Weiner running second among Democrats. The city council president, Christine Quinn, leads the pack.

A fund set up to help the three women rescued in Cleveland this month has reached $650,000. There have been 6,800 individual donations to the Cleveland coverage funds.

A letter from the attorneys representing the women reads in part, "Heartfelt thanks to well wishers and supporter for everything you are doing. That 'everything' now includes perhaps the greatest gift of all -- the space and time to reconnect with their families, recover and rebuild their lives and so they say again, 'Thank you. Thank you so much.'"

Today, jurors in the Jodi Arias trial will deliberate whether she should get the death penalty. That special coverage here on CNN starting at 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

Among the reasons why Arias says the jury should spare her life, she says, she'll recycle, sell t-shirts, donate her hair to cancer survivors and start a prison book club.

Here is more from CNN's Casey Wian.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jodi Arias began her plea for her life with an acknowledgment, the pain she has caused the family of Travis Alexander, the former boyfriend she brutally murdered in 2008.

JODI ARIAS, CONVICTED MURDERER: Nothing drove that point for me more than when I heard them speak last week. I never meant to cause them so much pain.

To this day, I can hardly believe I was capable of such violence, but I know that I was. And for that, I'm going to be sorry for the rest of my life.

WIAN (on-camera): The rest of Arias' statement to the jury was in sharp contrast to the interview she gave to a local reporter minutes after her conviction, then she spoke of suicide and said she would prefer the death penalty.

ARIAS: I know then that if I'd got life instead of death, I could become employed, self-reliant. I didn't know if I got life, there were many things I can do to affect positive change and contribute in a meaningful way.

In prison, there are programs I can start and people I can help.

WIAN (voice-over): Arias promised among other things to continue her practice of donating hair to cancer victims and to teach Spanish, sign language and reading to other inmates. One surprise, she displayed the T-shirt she's been selling to raise money for domestic violence victims even though the jury rejected her claims that she killed Alexander in self-defense.

ARIAS: Some people may not believe that I am a survivor of domestic violence. They're entitled to their opinion. I'm supporting this cause because it's very, very important to me.

WIAN: As convicted killer, Jodi Arias, waits for a jury to decide if she will be executed or sentenced to life in prison, she's sat for a new round of media interviews.

REPORTER: You had ample opportunities to apologize to Travis Alexander's family. It doesn't seem like you did it today. Why didn't you apologize to them?

ARIAS: I did apologize to them in my allocution.

REPORTER: I never heard you say I'm sorry.

ARIAS: I don't think I used those two words. But, I feel that I conveyed my remorse. And if I didn't adequately convey it, then I regret that. But --

REPORTER: You want to do it now?

ARIAS: Well, there's nothing I can do to take back what I did. I wish that I could. I really, really wish that I could.

WIAN: Earlier Tuesday, she began pleading for the jury to spare her life by acknowledging the pain she has caused the family of Travis Alexander, the former boyfriend she brutally murdered in 2008.

Without any mitigation witnesses testifying on her behalf, it was entirely left to Arias to appeal for mercy by showing her artwork and family photos. ARIAS: Every time I've had the thought or desire to commit suicide, there's one element that is always -- almost always caused me to waver. They're sitting right over there. They're my family.

Either way, I'm going to spend the rest of my life in prison. It'll either be shortened or not. If it's shortened, the people who will hurt the most are my family. I'm asking you please, please don't do that to them.

WIAN: Alexander's Family watched in silence. Their faces saying everything.

Casey Wian, CNN, Phoenix.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: All right. More information on the breaking news I told you about moments ago. A U.S. law enforcement official with direct knowledge of the Boston marathon case, a man killed this morning in a shoot-out in Orlando with an FBI agent was being investigated for links to the Boston bombing suspects.

Let's bring in CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti.

Who is this man?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, it's unclear the link that has been made. But according to the law enforcement official, that's what the FBI was looking at. They learned early on through investigative leads that led them to this man in Orlando, because they said they had information that he knew the Tsarnaev brothers, both of them, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar. That's why they were taking a look at them for a good month now after the bombing.

What led to the shooting, we're not sure. Other than to say that a source tells us that the FBI shot this man in self-defense. So, that's what's being looked at now.

And as part of the FBI protocol, a special team going to Orlando today to begin investigating what led to the shooting.

COSTELLO: Susan, was the man killed Chechen?

CANDIOTTI: Yes, that is another link that apparently not only did this man know the Tsarnaev brothers, but he was also from Chechnya, the same general region where the Tsarnaev brothers had come from. Now, you heard from a friend earlier today who said that his friend knew -- who was the man shot -- knew nothing any bombing details, anything at all and acknowledged that his friend had been followed for about a month.

COSTELLO: There were some reports of a local affiliate that this man and another man were going to leave the country. Is that true from what you know from your sources?

CANDIOTTI: Something that I am looking into. But the friend is putting out that information. I'm told that the person who was shot was a legal resident of the United States and had been living here since 2008 or so, and used to live in Boston. And used to live in Boston, that is key, because, of course, that's where the Tsarnaev family had lived.

COSTELLO: Interesting.

OK, Susan, I know you will continue to dig.

Susan Candiotti reporting live this morning.

Still ahead on THE NEWSROOM, the quick thinking and brave action of some of elementary school teachers saved lives on Monday afternoon. We'll introduce you to one of those teachers and bring you her harrowing tale and the surprising way she kept the kids calm.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Moore Medical Center, one of the strongest buildings in this community. No one seriously hurt inside. Now, that's partly because of the quick thinking by E.R. Dr. Stephanie Barnhart. She spoke to CNN's Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: On call in a hospital that was in the middle of one of the biggest tornadoes in U.S. history and everybody did well inside your hospital. How are you feeling about that today?

DR. STEPHANIE BARNHART, EMERGENCY ROOM, OU MEDICAL: I don't think it's hit me really. I don't -- I can't feel like I can take any credit for that. I just, like I said, I was just doing my job, knew what I had to do, but I can't even imagine. I can't even -- you know, it is very emotional, because I'm like, wow, that everybody did get out.

But, yes, words can't even describe, you know, how you feel. And I do keep getting, you know, a lot of thank yous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: I'm joined now by CNN's chief medical correspondent.

Sanjay, first, how did you find this doctor as a person?

GUPTA: You know, I know a lot of doctors in these various communities. So, when a story like this is happening, Chris, a lot of times I start calling people that I know who work at these trauma center and quickly get an idea of who was where at the time, and just like you, you know, shoe leather reporting, making the calls, asking them what they saw, what had happened to them. And in this case, she was the emergency room doctor, sort of in charge at that time. They didn't get a lot of notice she told me. You know, they were watching television, just like everyone else, and then there was sort of an all call. Code black as they called that came over. And at that point, she sort of went into action.

Thirty-four years old. She lived in Oklahoma her whole life, seen a lot of tornadoes, but nothing like this as she told. So, I think you were saying, in some ways, preparation met the circumstance here.

CUOMO: Definition of luck, when preparation meets opportunity.

Does it ever cease to amaze you how people rise to the challenge in the situation?

GUPTA: No, it doesn't. You know, I'll tell you, as a doc obviously, a lot of theoretical learning you do in the classroom, you hear from your mentor's experiences and things like that, but when a situation happens like this, you never experienced this before, so are you putting together all of these various facet of your training and hoping they all come together.

She knew the basics to get people away from glass, put them in the center of the building. The secondary wave of injuries, from shrapnel, for example, flying through the ground. You and I have dealt with this from war zones. She stripped mattresses off of beds, threw (ph) them over patients' heads, to try and prevent brain injuries. That was one of her biggest concerns.

Afterward, still possibly storms in the area, got to get people out. There's no second floor anymore. So, now, you are obviously in a risky situation for yourself and at the same time still being the health care provider.

Also, those patients coming in. You can't take care of them at the hospital. Set up triage in the parking lot. So, all of these happening, and all of it within minutes, you know, for her and her mind putting all together.

CUOMO: Like Boston, the marathon bombing, the heroic acts of medical professionals probably made a significant difference in loss of life.

GUPTA: I think everybody that looked at that hospital said, there had to be have been people injured if not killed in there. I mean, there's just no -- any engineer, any structural persons, storm assessment teams. But I think because of the fast acting, smart thinking, that was avoided in that situation.

CUOMO: Now, very important point that you told me before, and certainly worth repeating, under the heading of "it's not over yet", there are injuries that are sustainable in situations like this that you may not see right away, true?

GUPTA: Certainly for people's own physical bodies, just from the injuries, the primary wave of injuries, sometimes you can have injuries inside your body without any external obvious signs. So, people who have any kind of symptoms, abdominal pain or things like that, don't blow that off. That's something you probably should still get checked at and doctors are warning about that.

But, also, you know, half of tornado related injuries. It was true in '99 here, it was true after Joplin, half of the injuries occur after the storm. People walking around in the debris. We saw the fire chief coming to talk to us stepped on a nail. That sort of continues to happen.

Minor perhaps, but can be quite significant as well.

CUOMO: Also important, your kids. Often we're told I think you are told me, kids usually show the way they are going with head injuries, stuff like this. But in situations like this, you need to pay closer attention to your children because --

GUPTA: Well, in the first few days afterward, it may seem like everything is OK. They're not talking about it, they seem to be playing with their friends, doing normal things.

With kids, we've seen this in other natural disasters, and also in war zones, it can be delayed. More delayed. They don't process as quickly sometimes, especially young children. So, a few days from now, if children seemed to be acting out unusually, poor sleep, poor eating, those things can be little red flags.

I'll tell you, after Newtown, I think you and I talked about this, poor sleep in the first few days is one of the greatest predictors of how a child's emotional help is going to be in response to an incident like this.