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British Soldier Attacked in London; Obama to Visit Moore, Oklahoma; Survivor Stories from the Oklahoma Tornado; How to Improve Tornado Warning Times; Sports Players, Teams Help Tornado Victims.

Aired May 22, 2013 - 13:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news. A man believed to be a British soldier was killed. Two other men, possibly his attackers, have been taken to a hospital after an incident outside an army barracks in southeast London. The details pretty sketchy, but we are told the British prime minister's office is now convening an emergency committee to investigate what actually happened.

I want to bring in Atika Shubert, joining us live here.

What do we know Atika?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN.COM: I'm going to run you through what we think happened after talking to eyewitnesses and police statements. Basically, a little after 2:00 in the afternoon, it appears two men in a car attempted to run over what is believed to be an off-duty British soldier who was on the pavement. Once they hit him, they got out of the car and began to hack at him with either a machete or meat cleaver, several knives. According to eyewitnesses, they then dragged him out into the middle of the road. Police were called and arrived at the scene and an armed unit was able to shoot the two attackers, injure them. They are now in hospital.

The victim, we do not know who he was, but he was wearing a "Help for Heroes" T-shirt. This is a British charity that helps wounded veterans.

And we are right nearby the royal artillery barracks. A local M.P. says they believe he is an off-duty British soldier.

And as you point out, the British prime minister has now called an emergency cabinet meeting. And our government sources are telling us that they are treating this as a suspected terrorist attack -- Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: Atika, do we have any sense of motivation? Did they go after this British soldier because they knew he was a soldier? Is that why the government is involved here? Or does this seem random?

SHUBERT: I think that's definitely a part of it the fact they believe it was an off-duty British soldier that was targeted. We don't know anything about attackers what their motivation may or may not have been. We have heard from other attacks in the past, specifically in 2007m there was a plot uncovered to kidnap a British Muslim soldier and then behead him. The people that were planning to carry out that attack were actually convicted of the plot. And it was never carried out. This may be one of the things being factored into the discussion, but we simply do not know at this point what the motivation may be. Is it political? Is it not? All we know is government sources are saying they believe it is a suspected terrorist attack.

MALVEAUX: Atika, I'm assuming that nobody has claimed responsibility at this point? Is that right?

SHUBERT: Nobody has claimed responsibility. But I want to mention something that's quite disturbing. We have been hearing multiple reports that the attackers either filmed it themselves or were asking people to photograph and film the attack.

MALVEAUX: All right.

SHUBERT: It's a grisly and gruesome detail, but we're waiting to hear more details on that.

BLITZER: Atika Shubert, thank you very much.

We're going to take a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: This just coming in to the CNN NEWSROOM. The White House has just announced President Obama will be coming here to Moore, Oklahoma, on Sunday. This coming Sunday, May 26th. Obviously, he'll want to see what's going on, but also, presumably, he'll be participating in some sort of memorial service. This Sunday, Memorial Day weekend, the president will be coming here to the Oklahoma City area. The White House has just informed all of us of that.

In the meantime, we're getting incredible stories of survival during the tornado. Jodi Osentowski-Pickle hid in the cellar of her home with five of her six kids as the storm hit. Her 8-week-old baby was one of them. Jodi and her kids and her finance, they are all here with me right now.

Jodi, you have a lovely family. We're really happy you're here. Tell us what it was like as you cradle your young child.

JODI OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE, TORNADO SURVIVOR: I just got phone calls, my mom, everybody was just like you need to go home and get the cellar, I've got the kids. We've had tornado precautions before with the kids. And we got in the storm cellar and it was so hot in there. We were trying to have phone service to see what was going on. I didn't know that the tornado had even touched down or hit or anything. Sirens would go off and on and this and that. And then all of a sudden, it got really quiet and I heard my neighbor talking, and then it got the hail and then it got so loud. And we just held onto each other. And I could see daylight through my cellar where it wasn't sealed. It didn't even know if I had it latched. I was praying to God I had it latched all the way. And the kids --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: It was latched?

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: It was latched, definitely. The girls held on to the little ones and I held on to the baby. And the tornado just -- when it came through it was so loud. All of our heads were down and we were hunkered together and just praying. Then all of a sudden a loud bang hit the cellar and later I found that it was our deck. Our deck flipped over on top of our cellar. And I believe that is what kept the door from opening because the whole thing was shaking. And then I told my daughter to start screaming through the vent because we couldn't hear anything. We smelled gas. And I heard my neighbor. She's got five babies. She's here with her five babies. I know she's here. I know she's here. And he's like, "Help, help, I know they're here." He said he saw a woman laying on the ground over where my driveway was and he thought it was me. I saw him yesterday. And he just hugged me. He thought it was me and our babies. He said, I just started digging and digging through rubble when I saw the cellar door and I heard your daughter screaming help. And he called for the medical staff down on the medical building down south of my house. He called them, "Help, help," screaming help. And five men, the door opened and there's my neighbor and men in scrubs, and they just pulled my kids one by one out of the cellar and handed me the baby.

BLITZER: This little baby right here?

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: Yes.

Handed me the baby and was, like, give us the baby, give us the kids, and we're going to get you to safety. They took us down, it was mud and water and gas.

BLITZER: Just a few blocks from here?

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: Yeah, actually, we're over off of southeast Sixth Street right where highland east junior high school is. We took a direct hit.

BLITZER: Your house is you say it's gone.

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: Just rubble.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: The whole neighborhood?

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: Not the whole neighborhood. Our street. Our street is just -- the neighbors across had their roofs and things, and it's just amazing to me that -- the damage. But our house was just destroyed. My minivan's in my kitchen, on top of my kitchen.

(CROSSTALK)

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: It just mangled it and crushed it right on top of my kitchen. My Tahoe is two houses over, behind the neighbor's pool. It's just devastating.

BLITZER: But the kids are OK?

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: All the kids are alive. My 14-year-old was on lockdown in his junior high school.

BLITZER: He's OK?

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: He's OK. We had to get through power lines and get across and it took us about 45 minutes. It felt like a lifetime to get to him. I just waited in the parking lot for somebody and --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Where are you now?

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: We're with my mom in Tuttle. Just the overflow of people who are trying to help us. "King Fisher" set up a -- "King Fisher Times" ran an ad for us this morning. We didn't know. Just so unbelievable. My daughters have -- they are just my heroes. They helped me with these little babies. And my neighbor, Paul, I just -- I saw him yesterday and he just hugged me and he started crying and he said, I didn't even care about anything else but you and your babies. It's just overwhelming.

BLITZER: It is.

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: Just been overwhelming. I'm exhausted. I went yesterday just trying to find pictures. I was trying to get a hold of my fiancee. He was out of town.

BLITZER: They let you get back to your house?

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: We got back in. I don't know that they let us.

BLITZER: Did you find anything?

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: Pictures, clothes.

BLITZER: You find some albums?

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: We found some albums, pictures. These ladies showed up out of nowhere and was helping me dig for pictures in the pouring rain yesterday morning. We were freezing. We were muddy. I wanted to find my baby pictures. I have boxes. But none of that matters. I mean, my kids are alive. We wouldn't have survived had we not gotten in that cellar. It was a split-second decision. I almost didn't.

BLITZER: There aren't a whole lot of cellars in this area.

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: No. We're the only one.

BLITZER: This is one of the rare houses that has a cellar.

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: We're the only one on our street. My neighbor that survived and got us out of the rubble, he had a safe room and he said it still -- tried to pull him out of the safe room. But nobody else down our street had a cellar. Thank god they weren't home. But the lady who was, she didn't make it, a couple houses down. It's just devastating. We thought we rescued our dog yesterday.

BLITZER: Is the dog OK?

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: The dog was in the kennel. I put her in the kennel in the room and I was just like, son, I'm so sorry. And then we pulled her out of the rubble yesterday and she was just perfect. It's just amazing. The house is just mangled and there she is in the kennel. She didn't even use the restroom in it.

(LAUGHTER)

She got out and I fell in the mud with her. It's just amazing.

BLITZER: Thank you so much for sharing your story. Good luck to you --

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: Thank you. Thank you.

BLITZER: -- to the kids, the whole family.

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: The over-pouring of the public and the people trying to help us and food and it's the little things. It's the little things. I mean, we had the clothes on our backs. I had somebody show up from Texas yesterday with a truckload --

BLITZER: Really?

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: -- of clothes and diapers. An 8-week-old and the kids. Randy White -- is that his name? He showed up with a truckload of strangers. To me, my aunt knew him. He brought three outfits a piece and some shoes and things for my kids. That's all I've needed was just things for the kids. It's just been so overwhelming.

BLITZER: Good luck to you.

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: Thank you so much.

BLITZER: And I'm so impressed.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He slept through the whole interview.

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: He was amazing. My kids were amazing through this. Just so good.

BLITZER: You got great kids.

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: Thank you so much.

BLITZER: Thank you very much.

All right, Jodi, we'll talk later.

OSENTOWSKI-PICKLE: Thank you very much.

BLITZER: By the way, if you want to help those affected by the tornado, including Jodi and her wonderful family, you can do so. Go to CNN.com/impact. That's where you can impact your world.

We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The people in the path of this tornado on Monday had very little time to get to safety and brace for the impact of this really powerful storm, just a few minutes before the official tornado warnings and the moment the storm started tearing up towns near Oklahoma City. One important part of the aftermath is trying to figure out how to make warning times longer and whether a better heads-up in this case would have saved lives.

George Howell is here with me, looking at this part of the story.

What are you finding out about this?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we experienced this -- our crew experienced it firsthand. We were in Shawnee, Oklahoma. That's the town that got hit the day before with the EF-4 tornado. We had to take shelter. We heard those sirens, took shelter underground.

Here's the thing. The average amount of time, the average time to prepare, it's about 13 to 14 minutes. In this case, we know from the National Weather Service that as this tornado formed, people had 16 minutes. But we learned this. In this area, Wolf, where this heavily populated area, they had 30 minutes to prepare. 30 minutes. And that made a big difference in getting people either out of the way of the storm or underground as it came through. They say that it worked this time.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: In this particular case, where those heavily populated areas had 30 minutes --

RICK SMITH, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: Right.

HOWELL: -- did the system work in your opinion?

SMITH: I think it did. I mean, it never is a complete success if we have any fatalities, but it worked about as well as it could. I mean, we had talked specifically about times of day. There was a tornado watch in effect well before. We identified the area specifically south of Interstate 40, east of Interstate 44 that was prime for tornadoes, including the Oklahoma City metro area. We had graphics on our web page saying the storms are going to develop between 1:00 and 2:00 p.m. People saw some of that. People took that seriously. I think it did make a difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: So, Wolf, here's the thing. Look, on the gulf coast, they're prepared for hurricanes. In Chicago, they're prepared for snow. Here, they're prepared for tornadoes. Most people have the NOAA weather radios. Most people watch the local affiliates, and the affiliates have helicopters flying by the tornadoes. That's what they do here. So people are more weather savvy. They know what to do and take every minute -- they make sure they take advantage of every minute.

BLITZER: Let me bring Chad into this conversation. Chad Myers is joining us.

Chad, there has got to be some technology, as George points out, in the works that will advance -- give a better advance notification to folks that a tornado is on the way.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, Wolf, this worked. People that were four miles west of New Castle had five, 10 minutes notice, five on the ground. But then it got much bigger. This storm exploded. I don't see how we get better than this. This storm went from nothing to an EF-4 on the ground in 10 minutes.

Now, I just want to give you an idea. This is one of the pictures you can find on dotcom, amazing picture here. This house here, some shingles gone. This is probably EF-1 damage. Then is the roof is gone. That's EF-2. The roof and the walls are gone. That's EF-3. And then the house next door, EF-4. That's how quickly things can change from one part of the neighborhood to another. That's how quickly this storm developed as well. If you were in the core of the storm, you received winds of over 200 miles per hour. This went from nothing, not a tornado on the ground, to over 167 miles per hour in 10 minutes. That's a hard forecast.

Let me tell you, the weather service did a fantastic job. They warned people. When the weather service forecast fails is when it sounds like this. Storm spotters report a tornado on the ground. That's a fail. That means it is already on the ground. This was a success -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Good point. Excellent point, Chad. Thanks very much.

George, thanks to you as well.

HOWELL: Absolutely.

BLITZER: We'll check in with both of you later in "The Situation Room" as well.

Oklahoma tornado, Superstorm Sandy, is the weather becoming more violent? Piers Morgan will take a special look at that part of the story later tonight. "Piers Morgan Live," 9:00 p.m. eastern.

Still ahead here in the CNN NEWSROOM," the NBA star, Kevin Durant, makes a huge donation to help his adopted home state recover. We'll have much more on that, and what else the sports world is doing to help all the folks here in Oklahoma. We'll have that and more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The Oklahoma City Thunder star, Kevin Durant, is joining the tornado relief effort in a major way. He's donating $1 million to help those affected by the storm.

Andy Scholes has details in today's "Bleacher Report."

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: Good afternoon, Wolf.

Kevin Durant is originally from Washington, D.C., but he now calls Oklahoma City home. And when Durant saw the destruction in Moore, Oklahoma, he was eager to help his new hometown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN DURANT, OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER BASKETBALL STAR: I call it my home city now. Tough to go through. But we're a city that comes together. We'll bounce back from this. And, you know, it's tough. It's tough now, but the sun is going to shine soon. We got to stick together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: The American Red Cross said the $1 million gift from Durant's foundation is meant to match other donations and be an incentive for more people to give. Durant's team, the Thunder, also announced a $1 million donation as did the NBA and players union. Check out bleacherreport.com for more on Durant's donation.

Oklahoma City native, Matt Kemp, is also pitching in to help also. He says he'll donate $1,000 to his hometown for every home run he hits for the Dodgers for the next three months. He tweeted on Tuesday, "I'm giving $1,000 for tonight's home run and every home run until the all-star break for the victims of my hometown in OKC."

Oklahoma Sooners football program was directly affected by Monday's devastating tornadoes. Both a graduate assistant and a team-strength coach had their homes destroyed in the tragedy yesterday. Sooners head coach, Bob Stoops, spent some time with the displaced victims from the Oklahoma tornado. The campus in Norman is 10 miles from nearby Moore. The university is providing housing for some of the victims of the tragedy.

That will do it for the "Bleacher Report."

Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: Andy, thanks very much.

That's it for me. I'll be back later today, 5:00 p.m. eastern, in "The Situation Room." Jake Tapper and Brooke Baldwin, they continue CNN's special coverage of the Oklahoma tornadoes right after this.

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