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Relatives Search For Loved Ones; Town's Only Hospital Destroyed; Tornado Touches Mets Pitcher; Florida Man Killed by FBI Agent ID'd; Three Women Freed in Cleveland "Happy and Safe"; Anthony Weiner Wants a Second Chance; IRS Official Takes the Fifth

Aired May 22, 2013 - 12:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. You're looking at aerials of Moore, Oklahoma. We're going to have a lot more from this vantage point in just a few minutes.

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Anderson Cooper. We are live from Moore, Oklahoma. This is our special coverage of the EF-5 tornado that carved a 17-mile path through this area.

There's a lot going on today. The medical examiner's office now lists 10 children among the 24 people killed in Monday's tornado. Two of them were infants, four and seven months old. The mayor of Moore says the death toll is not expected to rise. So now people in this devastated community must focus on both rebuilding their lives and burying their dead. It is a tough road to recovery. People here are leaning on faith and family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GOV. TODD LAMB (R), OKLAHOMA: Yes, amongst the rubble and amongst the devastation, families huddled together pulling things out of the rubble, smiling the best they can. There's still tragedy. We lost life here. But families are picking themselves up. They're strong. They're resilient. A very, very strong faith. And we're going to move on. We have hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Oklahoma's emergency management office says that about 10,000 people were directly impacted by Monday's tornado. Right now FEMA has more than 400 personnel on the ground here trying to support the response, trying to make sure survivors get the federal assistance made available by the disaster declaration signed by President Obama.

Now, the White House says that the president is being updated on the tornado response throughout the day today. Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano actually is going to come today to get a firsthand look at the destruction. And we're going to hear from her in a live news conference in about an hour. As I said, there's a lot to bring you up-to-date on.

From the air, you can actually trace the tornado's 17-mile path of devastation. The lieutenant governor compared it to a giant lawn mower blade cutting its way across the community. The storm, as you know, destroyed 2,400 homes, uprooted huge trees like they were weeds, cars have been tossed about. Chris Cuomo got an aerial view. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now we're flying at 2,500 feet above the ground. Scientists say the debris from the tornado (INAUDIBLE) ten 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 there, just like they were weeding their garden. But those are huge, old grove (ph) pine trees. Cars are just littered along the trail. They weren't never there. They weren't parked here. They were tossed like toys. You literally can trace with your finger a line where the tornado went.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Those state officials say that insurance claims from the tornado will probably top $2 billion. Those are early estimates. The mayor says he does not expect the death toll to climb, as I mentioned. But some people have not been able to reach loved ones since the tornado struck and they are anxious to try to get in contact with them. Nick Valencia joins us for that.

So, Nick, you've been talking to people who are trying to reach relatives in the area. What are you hearing from them?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, this disaster in Oklahoma hasn't just impacted residents here, it's also impacted residents in other states. Yesterday I spoke by phone to a woman in Gleason, Tennessee, who has not been able to get in touch with her sister since the storm hit on Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERICA SANDOVAL, SISTER MISSING AFTER TORNADO (voice-over): My mind is everywhere. I was -- my boss actually pulled up the site. And she did that for me because I can't think straight. And I'm kind of in a fog. I just - I don't want to believe that. I don't. But it - you know, I can't reach her. I can't find her. I don't know where she is. And I don't know if she could get to me or get a hold of me or anything to let me know that she's OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: To complicate matters even more for people like Erica Sandoval, traditional lines of communication are spotty at best. It could very well be, Anderson, that her sister is in one of the shelters in neighboring counties, but so far she hasn't been able to get in touch with her.

COOPER: And it is important to point out because officials here are saying they believe most people have been accounted for, just about. They don't believe the death toll is going to rise any more. So this just could - you know, there's a lot of people displaced, staying at friends' houses. Their home phones have been destroyed.

VALENCIA: Right.

COOPER: So it could just be they haven't gotten -- been able to get in touch.

VALENCIA: Yes, that's exactly right. And we posed that to Erica Sandoval. She said, you know, she's hoping for the best. She has a motto in her family that no news is good news. And, interestingly enough, she didn't even realize that she had a sister until 2001. Her father was in the Navy and fathered a child in the Philippines. This woman - this woman, Sandy, her sister, called and contacted her out of the blue in 2001. It was a twist of fate, she said, that brought them together. She's hoping that the same twist of fate brings her back in her life.

COOPER: You know, a lot of -- I've been getting a lot of e-mails and tweets from people asking about why there aren't more tornado shelters or safe rooms in this area. I know you talked with the mayor about that today. What'd he say?

VALENCIA: In an off camera interview, the mayor of Moore spoke to us exclusively. Glenn Lewis told us as soon as the cleanup process is complete, he plans to propose an ordinance that would require all new housing developments to have either a safe room or a shelter. Coincidentally, Anderson, Glenn Lewis was also the mayor of Moore in 1999 when that devastating tornado shredded through the community. He posed similar ordinances back then. And because of that, there were housing complexes here that survived the brunt of the damage. But because the neighborhood that we saw that was leveled by this tornado, because it was an older community, it was - it didn't have the same housing codes. So that could explain exactly why we saw the devastation we saw there.

Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, a lot of old houses weren't required to put in storm shelters. They are pretty costly, so a lot of people there just simply forgo the expense. Nick, I appreciate the reporting.

The disaster in the tornado zone was made worse when the only hospital in the town of Moore took a direct hit. It's right behind me. This is what's left of the Moore Medical Center. About 30 patients and staffers were inside when the tornado hit, as well as a couple of hundred people who ran inside for shelter. And they rode out the storm. The building - I mean it came apart around them. Amazingly, when you look at it, it's incredible that no one was hurt inside, no patients, no staff members, nobody.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me now.

You've been talking to the woman, the doctor, who was in charge of getting everybody safe in there.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, you know, like you heard so many times, they didn't have very much warning. Just about 10 minutes or so. They'd been watching television. I believe they got what's called a code black, which basically means the tornado's definitely coming.

So several things happen at once. They move patents and staff to the interior of the hospital away from glass, which is what everyone's told to do. Also take mattresses and blankets, covered their heads. But then they simultaneously have to think about evacuation after the storm passes through and then set up a triage area in the parking lot as well for injuries that are coming in.

COOPER: (INAUDIBLE).

GUPTA: So all these things are happening literally within minutes. This woman is 34 years old and she's -- her name is Stephanie Barnhart, and she was the one who sort of put that action plan together. You know, it's interesting, she's lives in Oklahoma. She's lived here her whole life. She knows tornadoes. But there's nothing that could prepare her quite like - you know, what she saw, you know, on Monday. It's just a totally different thing.

COOPER: Yes. We're outside the medical center now. I mean, it's amazing no one was hurt when you look at it. Because, I mean, I don't know, was a whole floor ripped off or just the exterior structure? It looks like the exterior structure.

GUPTA: Yes, but the interior part of that second floor is completely demolished as well and you have ceiling tiles. You know, there's little things that she told me that I found were interesting. You have something that's very heavy, for example, on the second floor, that's not a place you want to be on the first floor because it could drop through the floor onto you. So there's some (INAUDIBLE) considerations. It really is remarkable. I was talking to a storm assessment person yesterday as well who said he just could not believe based on looking at that sort of damage that there weren't -

COOPER: And they were putting, you were saying, mattresses on patients so that they didn't get head wounds.

GUPTA: Yes. That's one of the big things. You know, you obviously want to protect your head. But to patients who may not be feeling well or able to do this themselves, to be able to give them some protection. And you're hearing not just from the hospital, but all over the number of brain and head injuries was astonishingly and thankfully low. Maybe just because of that (INAUDIBLE) training.

COOPER: And there are already - I mean we've been watching it today, they're already trying to clear up this area around. They've got some recovery service vehicles already in here. They're taking out some of the cars. It's obviously going to be a long time before that medical center is up and running again.

GUPTA: Yes, even her - Dr. Barnhart's car, several of the doctors' cars have flipped over.

COOPER: Right. GUPTA: Ended up in the ambulance basin inside the hospital. So, obviously, this hospital won't be working for a while. But she was working immediately the next morning at another hospital taking care of some of the injured.

COOPER: It is extraordinary with the death toll being 24. I mean 24 lost - you know, 24 people lost their lives and it's a terrible, terrible tragedy. But when you see the level of devastation, when you see the wide path of this storm, it really could have been so much worse.

GUPTA: Yes, you know, and I think it's going to be an interesting sort of case study. Again, I was talking to some of the docs and storm assessment people about, you know, the things that didn't go right and the things that did here. But, you know, as you point out, it's a terrible number to think about, but it could have been worse and why was it as low as it was? What seemed to really work for the people here and how could that be extended to other places around the country?

COOPER: One of the things the governor was talking about is, she was very thankful for the media basically getting the word out about the hurricane - I mean about the tornado. People had at least 16 minutes. But in some places, you know, there had been hours of kind of warning a big storm was coming.

GUPTA: Yes, and it's, as you know, having covered these, it's very hard to predict. But people do seem to heed the warnings a little bit more so here.

COOPER: Yes.

GUPTA: I mean certainly in hospitals, but in other places as well. So that probably helped.

COOPER: Sanjay, it's good to have you here. Thanks very much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

COOPER: Coming up, a lot of well-known people lending a hand to the victims here in Moore, Oklahoma, including New York Mets pitcher Jeremy Hefner. He's going to explain his connection to the area next as our special coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back to our continuing coverage live from Moore, Oklahoma.

You know, across the nation, so many people have family and friends struggling with the aftermath of the tornado here. New York Mets pitcher Jeremy Hefner grew up just a mile from where the tornado hit the hardest. He watched the TV coverage, like everybody else, of the storm. He was in the dugout before Monday night's game against the Cincinnati Reds. For two years Hefner attended Briarwood Elementary School. The tornado ripped the roof off that school, tore it apart. Thankfully, everyone in that school survived.

Jeremy Hefner joins me now on the phone from New York. He's getting ready for his game against the Reds in about an hour.

Jeremy, thanks very much for talking to us. First of all, how is your family doing? Your relatives who are still here?

JEREMY HEFNER, NEW YORK METS PITCHER (via telephone): Yes, they're doing well. Thanks for having me. You know I had most of my dad's family lives in that area and thankfully everyone's safe and all their homes are safe as well.

COOPER: What was it when -- when you heard the news, when you were watching the images on TV, to know this area so well, what was that like?

HEFNER: You know, I was really - it was helpless. It was gut- wrenching. And I wanted to be there. I wanted to be there to help my fellow Oklahomans. And, you know, I was really sad that I couldn't be there in that moment. And -- but the way the first responders responded and civilians, the way they went into the school and tried to help those kids, I mean that just shows the type of people that are in Oklahoma.

COOPER: And, you know, last night I interviewed a teacher from Briarwood Elementary who was just amazing. She got all the kids underneath their desks. She had them playing music and playing a game during the tornado, trying to kind of drown out the sound of it with musical instruments and a lot of parents really credit her with saving them. Do you remember when you were in school here safety measures in place at your schools? Did you have drills and stuff?

HEFNER: Absolutely. I think it's kind of all over the state. But, you know, getting in the hallway of the classroom and kneeling down and putting their head between your legs and I remember doing that all the time, you know, because -- especially - especially this time of year with the way this is tornado season and that type of thing, taking those measures to keep us safe.

COOPER: Well, I know there's a lot of -- obviously the needs in this community are going to be great for a long time to come and there's a lot of folks talking about doing kind of fundraisers and stuff. I'm sure that's something you'll want to be involved with down the road. And I appreciate you calling us today. Thanks, Jeremy.

HEFNER: Yes, absolutely. Thanks for having me.

COOPER: All right, have a good game. Jeremy Hefner, pitcher for the New York Mets.

Country star Toby Keith is also from Moore. He was there this past weekend. Here's what he had to say about the disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOBY KEITH, COUNTRY SINGER: When we grow up in tornadoes, the people are resilient, prepared as well as you can be. And they'll bounce back. It's a catastrophe, but they'll rebound and be proud again and bounce right back. They're amazing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: He's back here now. I'm going to talk with him tonight on "AC 360" at 8:00, also at 10:00 Eastern time.

Coming up, we're going to switch gears to our census watch in the Jodi Arias case. You're looking at pictures the convicted murderer showed in her final statement to the jury. We'll talk about that ahead, a lot more. We'll be right back.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERRY MOSLEY, CONTROL FLOW, INC.: It was scary, and I just -- I'm glad I'm Christian, but it was scary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That was Jerry Mosley. You're looking at what's left of the oil company he owns here in Moore, Oklahoma, wiped out with debris just about everywhere.

He's not alone certainly. This is a reality for a lot of people living in this Oklahoma City suburb.

Welcome back to our special coverage. I'm Anderson Cooper. We've got a lot to tell you about in this hour.

We're going to get back to our tornado coverage in just a minute, but I want to go to Suzanne Malveaux just taking a look at some other headlines from our CNN NEWSROOM. Suzanne?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Anderson.

A Florida man shot and killed by an FBI agent overnight. This happened -- was being investigated for a possible connection to the Boston bombings. A U.S. law enforcement source says that the man identified as Ibragim Todashev was from Chechnya and he knew both the Tsarnaev brothers.

I want to bring in Susan Candiotti. Susan, tell us what we know about this guy and his connection to the bombers, the alleged bombers?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Here's what we're learning from our sources, Suzanne. We're learning that the man who was shot in Florida belonged to a martial arts web forum and a website. And this is the same website that another Chechen rebel also belonged to.

This Chechen rebel that I'm talking about was killed last year in the Chechen region and back at the same time when the older of the two Tsarnaev brothers who are, of course, suspects in the bombing investigation, when Tamerlan was in Russia. So he was there at the same time Plotnikov was killed.

And for the longest time, the FBI has been looking into whether Plotnikov had any meeting with Tsarnaev or might have radicalized him while he was there. So the question then becomes, therefore, they're looking at any friends, anyone else who might have had a connection to Tsarnaev.

And that's -- they found out along ago, at least a month ago, that there was a possible connection there to see whether there was any linkage to the bombing investigation.

So by the time they interviewed this man last night, according to my sources, there was some kind of confrontation and being described as a violent one.

And that is when the FBI now says on the record that there was a confrontation that took place and that the FBI ultimately was -- they were injured but killed this man, Todashev, that they were questioning.

Now a source tells me that the FBI says that the shooting took place; it was self-defense. So now you have a separate team looking into how all of that came about.

Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: Susan, I imagine they probably wanted information, needed information from that connection there. What does this mean for the bombing investigation now that this individual is dead?

CANDIOTTI: Well, of course, that is the question. So they'll keep looking at him because, according to my sources, this man had a -- allegedly had a connection between himself and both Tsarnaev brothers, so that means that Dzhokhar, who is currently, of course, in prison hospital, might also be able to provide some additional information down the road.

And also, we know that not only the FBI was in Florida questioning this man, but also the Massachusetts state police. That is significant because the Massachusetts state police has also been investigating a possible link between Tamerlan, the older brother, Tsarnaev and an unsolved triple murder that took place in the Boston area years ago to see whether there was any linkage there.

MALVEAUX: All right. Susan, thank you. Appreciate it.

Happy and safe, that is how attorneys describe Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight, these, of course. the three women who were rescued earlier this month in that home in Cleveland, being held captive for about a decade.

Well, Ariel Castro, he is charged with kidnapping and raping these women.

In a letter from their attorneys, the women issued their first public message. "Amanda, Gina and Michelle want you to know they are all doing well. They are happy and safe and continue to heal, a process that requires time and privacy."

The attorneys added that if you would like to help the women, they suggest donate to the Cleveland Courage Fund. It's going to allow the lawyers to set up trusts for women as well as Amanda Berry's daughter.

We are also keeping a close eye -- this is Phoenix, Arizona, the courtroom there. That, of course, where Jodi Arias will soon find out whether or not she's going to be sentenced to death.

Jurors resume deliberations -- that's happening in about 40 minutes or so -- after Arias was found guilty of murdering her ex-boyfriend two weeks ago. She said she'd prefer death over life in prison. Since then she's changed her mind and, yesterday, asked the jury to spare her life. She explained why in a jailhouse interview with a Phoenix TV station. Just listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TROY HAYDEN, KSAZ ANCHOR: You told me two weeks ago that you'd rather die than go to jail for life, go to prison for life. Was that a lie?

JODI ARIAS, CONVICTED MURDERER: No. I meant that when I said it.

HAYDEN: So what happened?

ARIAS: Well, the same day I was convicted I received a visit from my family. And one of my cousins really drove it home for me and told me how much it would affect them if I did anything to myself or that sort of thing. So I think they were afraid that I was going to do something.

HAYDEN: So your family changed your mind? So you didn't do it for you, you did it for them?

ARIAS: I did. Because I felt that by asking for death it's like asking for assisted suicide. And I didn't want to do that to my family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Arias told the jury she could actually be a benefit to society by teaching illiterate prisoners to read. She said that and starting a recycling program in prison. So there you go.

Anthony Weiner asking New Yorkers to give him a second chance. The disgraced former Democratic congressman has announced he is running for mayor of New York City. Made the announcement on YouTube.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY WEINER, FORMER CONGRESSMAN: 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 and those struggling to make it my entire life. (END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Weiner resigned from the House in 2011 after admitting he sent lewd photos of himself to several women.

Well, two polls suggest that he would jump to second place in the mayoral race among Democrats, but he trails frontrunner Christine Quinn by double digits.

The IRS official who heads up a division accused of targeting conservative groups has now taken Fifth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LOIS LERNER, DIRECTOR, EXEMPT ORGANIZATIONS UNIT IRS: I've been advised by my counsel to assert my constitutional right not to testify or answer questions related to the subject matter of this hearing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Lois Lerner refused to testify, but she did say she did nothing wrong.

The panel is looking into allegations that the IRS put conservative political organizations under extra scrutiny when they sought tax exemptions.

That's it for me. We're going to go back to Anderson Cooper in Moore, Oklahoma.

COOPER: Hey, Suzanne, thanks very much.

You can see actually a disaster team truck being brought in here. There's a lot of these kind of these recovery services that have already started to come, already kind of the rebuilding recovery process as well underway.

This is the medical center behind me that was really destroyed, just kind of the outer envelope of it just ripped to shreds. They're already starting to try to clean up the area, try to take out some of the crushed cars all around there.

Survivors of the deadly tornado that hit Joplin, Missouri, two years ago today are in Moore offering some advice. What they're saying, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Take a look at these pictures that NASA released of the tornado that hit the Oklahoma City area. Gives you an idea of just the size of this massive twister.

Welcome back to our special coverage. I'm Anderson Cooper, live in Moore, Oklahoma.

This tornado-ravaged city is shifting into recovery mode. We're seeing much better weather today, which is certainly a big blessing here, critical to the recovery. Yesterday there was lightning and thunder and driving rain for several hours.

As you know 24 people are confirmed dead, 2,400 homes damaged or destroyed.

FEMA's got a big presence here to try to make survivors get the federal assistance they need.

Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano is going to hold a news conference here in Moore about 30 minutes from now with the Oklahoma governor, Mary Fallon. We'll, of course, bring that to you live.

Of the 24 people who died, we now know that 10 of them were children, so that percentage has raised. And seven of those kids were killed at their school in a classroom not in the basement as officials were earlier saying.