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ISIS' Abu Sayyaf Killed By U.S. Delta Special Force; U.S. Rushing Heavy Weapons And Ammunition Into Iraq; Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Sentenced To Death; New Mystery In Amtrak Crash; Severe Weather in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas; Study Shows That 26- Year-Old Men In Baltimore Make Significantly less Than Their Counterparts Across The Country. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired May 16, 2015 - 18:00   ET

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


[18:00:00] PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: 8:00 p.m. local time, about a quarter billion people. But at this hour, where you have a indication (INAUDIBLE) radar indication of some the radar algorithm showing the potential of the tornadoes across the area there on the eastern and western Oklahoma and eastern Texas, and tornado warning has been issued around Eric (ph), this is in Western Oklahoma right on i-40, so we are watching all of these as the evening progresses, Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Pedram, thanks very much.

JAVAHERI: Yes.

HARLOW: 6:00 eastern here on the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. It is the top of the hour and we begin with breaking news.

U.S. Special Forces have just fought hand to hand with the most brutal terrorists on earth. They rare an incredibly dangerous raid deep in ISIS controlled territory in Syria. It could shape the U.S.-led war on ISIS.

Also, details of what went down are remarkable. A U.S. official telling CNN that troops with the army's Delta Force stormed the target with osprey aircraft and Blackhawk helicopters. But within seconds of landing, they were fired upon. ISIS militants is doing something pretty unthinkable for most people, grabbing women and children and using them as human shields. But incredibly, we are told from the U.S. government that U.S. forces avoided killing any of the women or the children.

They did take out about a dozen ISIS fighters in this raid, one of them - one of the most wanted Abu Sayyaf, a leader responsible for a key ISIS revenue stream, oil. And instead of killing his wife, they captured her. They are interrogating her right now. They also took with them reams of ISIS intelligence, computers, laptops, mobile phones, and they did it with zero casualties, we are told.

Let's talk about it with Lieutenant colonel James Reese in just a moment. But I believe we have Barbara Starr at the Pentagon, is that right?

Joining me on the phone is Colonel James Reese, Delta Force commander and CNN global affairs analyst.

Colonel, thanks for being with us. When we look at this, how big of a target is this? I know that they didn't want to kill him. They wanted to capture him. But the fact that they have taken out Abu Sayyaf, how critical is that?

LT. COL. JAMES REESE (RET.), FORMER U.S. DELTA FORCE COMMANDER (via phone): Hi, Poppy, good evening. Yes, it is a big target, but again, the JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command in the special league Delta, this is what they are designed to do. And they are designed to get these high payoff targets to literally take down the network and their ability to launch from different areas of the world and to go into Syria, and show the combat power that we can put anywhere in the world. It is a pretty critical and pretty on inspiring operation especially that ISIS can see what we can do.

HARLOW: Can you talk about the role in terms of the financing ISIS? I mean, we know that he was someone with deep knowledge of and say over the operations in terms of how they would take over oil fields, sell that oil on the black market, but now that he has been killed, what happens to the ISIS money machine, the way it funds itself?

REESE: Right. Well, he was really part of some of the senior leadership that JSOC has been tracking as part of the ISIS senior leadership take down. What happens though is as over the year now as ISIS has been gradually tinged off whether it is from drone strikes or direct action fights or other senior leadership get killed in the battle in Iraq and Syria, you know, they have to go through a reorganization in the leadership.

And he was the guy that was managing all of the oil and the gas and exporting and handling the finances for that. But again, as they start to lose senior leadership, he started to take the over the other critical jobs. So what does this do? This -- again, if you are a business owner, and you walk in one day and you lose your CFO, you literally have to start looking and making and what it does is to slow down, and makes all of the other leadership deduct a critical analysis of what they have to do their job for.

So yes, it is a big hit, and it is a big disruption to the ISIS.

HARLOW: What about the fact that, you know, a lot of people look at this, and they say, is this mission creep, right? We have heard over and over no boots on the ground, no boots on the ground. There were boots on the ground in this operation albeit briefly. What does this tell you about the change of strategy?

REESE: Yes. There is no change of strategy. I mean, this is what the joint special operations command, when they formed delta forces 35 years, this is what they were formed the do. The president has decided that as we don't, as a U.S., do not want to put boots on the ground in Syria.

And when I hear boots on the ground and I have heard some other people say this could be a change of policy, I disagree. Boots on the ground mean we are going to actually put boots on the ground for a long period of time, we are going to sustain soldiers, and operations on the ground in another country that we really don't want to be in, and right now the Obama administration doesn't want to do that.

But when you take JSOC, and you do the force projection into an area of the world that is pretty much called non-permissive and you are able to strike and get out, that is exactly that force is supposed to do. The United States should be very proud that we have those types of forces, and it does not show mission creep or other boots on the ground.

[18:05:23] HARLOW: All right. Colonel James Reese, thanks so much.

And let's talk a little bit more about the group that carried this out, the U.S. men and women in arms services, the army delta force, involved in this mission. They are the army's elite counterterrorism experts. They were famously involved in the capture of Saddam Hussein where recently (INAUDIBLE) to the prisoner exchange involving the Taliban held soldiers, Bow Bergdahl, and another famous mission carried out by the Delta force is in 1993 battle of Mogadishu in Somalia that inspired Hollywood film "Black Hawk Down."

Let's bring in someone who is very good at breaking down ISIS and the way that they are organized their financed, because in many ways ISIS have a business model, they generate and spend millions and millions of dollars. And this higher up figure killed by the U.S. special operations forces overnight was known as someone who control a lot of their finances.

Kim Dozier joins me now. She is our global affairs analyst who has spent a lot of time in the region and writes for the "Daily Beast."

Kim, thanks for being here. Appreciate it.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Good to be here, Poppy.

HARLOW: I'm interested in what your sources have told you. You have been in touched with defense officials who have been able to tell you how critical they think Abu Sayyaf is. Because this isn't necessarily a name like al-Baghdadi that everyone knows, but this is apparently their money man.

DOZIER: Well, he is not one of the top four leaders that the U.S. and the coalition is still after. But he is one of the people that keeps the trains, the trucks running literally by keeping the soldiers paid, electricity and the water in on the various areas that ISIS controls. So that is the kind of person that you want to go after if you are looking for intelligence as to where the network is and how it operates.

I understand from senior administration officials that is one of the main selling points to President Obama when they met with him, and said that we unanimously recommend this, because even if we don't get him, he may die in the process, we know that there is a lot of electronic information there on the laptops, on cell phones that will help us to track down possibly everyone all of the way up to al- Baghdadi, himself, the head of ISIS. HARLOW: You have said that in terms of how he helped to finance them.

There are things that he oversaw that he was able to make sure happen, including buying ammunition in terms of fueling all of the vehicles that they use in the fight, keeping the lights on, keeping the water running, making sure security forces in ISIS-controlled territories are compensated. This is all stuff that seems the day-to-day, when you are talking about a war, but this is critical to keep ISIS progressing, who fills this hole now?

DOZIER: Well, that is one of the unfortunate patterns that we have seen in the past. The hole will probably be filled pretty fast. When U.S. forces attacked similar networks inside Iraq and inside Afghanistan, what they would eventually get to is a pattern of hitting several different targets a night, and what would you get from each target leads to the next one.

In this case, they have gone to one key target, they gotten important information, they are trying to exploit it right now. It could possibly lead to other raids very soon by the U.S. or by its partners in the region.

But at the same time, all of ISIS knows that this has happened now. They are getting rid of their cell phones. They are changing their communication methods. Some key figures are probably moving around to try to hide from any potential strikes.

So yes, it is a blow, but that is what these organizations have learned over time how to recover from.

HARLOW: His wife, Umm Sayyaf, was taken by U.S. forces. They are interrogating her. What if we typically seen with ISIS leaders in terms of how much information they share with the women in their lives, their wives? I mean, do you really think that she could have critical information specifically about the hostages held by ISIS?

DOZIER: Well, the White House has said on the record that they believe that she is part of the group, or they suspect she is part of the group. But you are right, women are not going to be looped into some of the top decision making. She will, however, have seen who is coming and going at that compound. And that could help the U.S. forces track down key figures. If she does identify photographs to the people that they are trying to figure out where does this person fit in the constellation of the ISIS network that is the kind of information you need to build a picture to carry out further strikes.

One official told me that that was the reason we haven't seen were raids like up until now. They didn't have good enough intelligence. But they have been there on the ground long enough that they are starting to build the picture that will make this probably a pattern to come.

[18:10:16] HARLOW: Kimberly Dozier, thanks so much. Good to have you on.

DOZIER: Thank you, Poppy. HARLOW: And after a quick break, we are going to talk more about the

blow to ISIS as well as this raid overnight, the Iraqi army pushing back ISIS fighters pretty significantly from the key city of Ramadi. We will bring you there for a live report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:14:29] HARLOW: The U.S. is rushing heavy weapons and ammunition into the Iraq in an attempt to aid Iraqi forces as they retry to take the key city of Ramadi from ISIS fighters. Sources say the ISIS assault unfolded Thursday. Iraqi forces are reportedly were pushed back as ISIS fighters poured into Ramadi behind the wave of armored bulldozers and suicide cops or bombers.

Ramadi is less than two hours from Baghdad. House speaker John Boehner said this week quote "I remain gravely concern on ISIL's assault on Ramadi that threatens the stability and sovereignty of Iraq which is vital to America's interests."

Journalist Mitchell Prothero covers Iraq and ISIS from McClatchy newspapers. He joins me now from Irbil.

Thanks for being here Mitchell. Let's begin with what you are hearing from the people of the ground there. You are in Irbil, but what are they are saying or what are your sources, you know, they are saying about Ramadi, whether it has indeed flip and the Iraqi security forces are getting more control there?

[18:15:25] MITCHELL PROTHERO, CORRESPONDENT, MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS: Well, I would not say that the Iraqi security forces here are in a particularly could position right now. They are just not in a terrible position, but a better one than they were yesterday. We have seen that these Islamic state fighters abandoned some of the government buildings that they took over yesterday in somewhat dramatically flying the black flag, and things like that.

But I'm told by the local residents that once they had established the public relations move sort of gutting the government buildings, they knew that they would be immediate airstrikes targets and then basically disperse into the civilian population group here for the bigger fight which is going to be, you know, for the control of the provincial capital of the largest province of Iraq. So they are looking to fight, they are looking to stay. We will have to wait to see how it unfolds.

HARLOW: Do you have a sense of what kind of weapons the U.S. is sending to the Iraqi forces to try to help them secure Ramadi?

PROTHERO: Well, the thing that we have been hearing, and something that sounds like make a lot of sense and can be very useful for the Iraqis is that they are looking using guided empty tank weapons in order to stop some of these suicide car bombers and armored bulldozer. You know, they (INAUDIBLE) were able to do a maneuver on, you know, Thursday night, where essentially armored bulldozers came up, pushed the blast walls and fortifications that were protecting lot of the Iraqi troops out of the way and immediately were followed by the way of heavily armored cars filled with explosives. So in order to keep - just to hit those types of, you know, tactics, you need to be able to hit them very accurately from a long distance much further than you would see just like the rocket-propelled grenade which is very common.

HARLOW: You have been reporting that ISIS is advancing on the cities of Baghdadi and Karma. If they are able to make ground there, how significant is that? How strategic are those towns when we compare them with Ramadi?

PROTHERO: Well, I mean, Ramadi is symbolic because it is the, you know, it is the provincial capital the Anbar province. But these are three of the last population centers that are really in government hands. If the three of them fall at this stage, you can pretty much say that, you know, all of al-Anbar is under the control of the Islamic state.

But one side problem, you know, the people haven't quite realize yet that I'm sure the Islamic states aware of is that if they are able to taker the town al-Baghdadi, then essentially the garrison of (INAUDIBLE), a major infrastructure project will be cut off the re- supply and essentially the siege. And that can turn into a much bigger problem that (INAUDIBLE) dam, you know, not only controls irrigation water, but also produces a lot of electricity. And the Iraqis have invested a lot of time and men into keeping it out of the Islamic states' hands. So it would be a big blow for that garrison.

HARLOW: Mitchell Prothero, thank so much for the reporting on the ground there from Irbil. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, the Boston marathon bomber is sentenced to death, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, but does it bring peace to the survivors? I spoke to one of them, Heather Abbott, who lost part of her left leg in the terror attack. Her resilience is remarkable. Her story is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:24:57] HARLOW: Condemned to death for his role in the Boston marathon bombings, a federal jury's unanimous decision that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should pay with his life for the 2013 terror attack. The pressure cooker bombs planted at the marathon killed three people, injured some 240 others, 17 people lost limbs, including my next guest, Heather Abbott. She lost her left leg below the knee. And I reported on her recovery and had the privilege of getting to know her over the past two years. Her spirit throughout has been absolutely remarkable. She helps other amputees obtain prosthetics through her foundation, is it the Heather Abbott foundation. You can find it online at heatherabbottfoundation.org.

Heather, thanks for being here.

HEATHER ABBOTT, BOSTON MARATHON SURVIVOR: Hi, Poppy. Thank you.

HARLOW: You testified at this trial. I wonder what the moment was like yesterday afternoon when you heard the verdict.

ABBOTT: I was definitely anxious to hear it and then it was -- I guess I was expecting I would feel some sort of emotion, but it was really just signed of sad. It didn't feel like something to celebrate.

HARLOW: You posted on facebook that the verdict does not bring you peace and that it makes you sad. You say the verdict, regardless of which one it turned out to be, does not bring me peace. You found peace and closure long before this.

ABBOTT: I did. I think I had been looking for something else throughout the process of this trial, but I didn't -- I didn't get any answers. I don't think I ever will. So I think when I look back over the last two years (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: Have you been talking to some of the other survivors? I mean, I know you guys are really a close-knit community. I wonder if you've spoken to them since the verdict came down and what the feeling is.

ABBOTT: I have. And we've talked but nobody really expressed their opinion of the verdict. It was more just expressions of support for each other.

HARLOW: You gave a commencement address yesterday. I know I spoke to you on the phone right after that and you were driving home. But tell me a little bit about what that -- leaving that commencement speech and then hearing the verdict brought to your mind, considering Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's age, college student. You just finished speaking with these college students.

ABBOTT: Yes. I couldn't help but think that he would be in the same shoes as a lot of those students I spoke with last night. And you know, how excited they were about their future, all that they had to look forward to. And you know, it sounds like at one point he was a very likeable person and very intelligent and I just wonder why he threw all those opportunities away and what went wrong.

HARLOW: We were showing some images, I think we can pull them up again, but some recent images of you at the launch of your foundation. Because I know the headlines today are about the verdict and about Tsarnaev. But really, the focus needs to be on the survivors like you and so many others. And frankly, the work you're doing is incredible. I mean, I couldn't imagine what I'd do if what happened to you happened to me. You've channeled it in this incredible positive way. Tell me about the foundation, what you're doing, what your goal is.

ABBOTT: Well, when I became an amputee, I was -- became vastly aware of the extremely high costs of prosthetic devices and the lack of insurance that covers them. And I couldn't help but think what if the whole world didn't know about me? What if I didn't lose my leg in the Boston marathon bombing and everyone wasn't reaching out to help. I bet there's a lot of people that are in that situation on the past two years. So the foundation is to help people obtain prosthetic devices that insurance doesn't typically cover like sports devices, high heel devices and hopefully that will help some other people the same way that I was able to. HARLOW: It's amazing work that you guys are doing, Heather Abbott. I

know you and I were joking about maybe running a 5k together, maybe not a whole marathon, but a 5k. Do you think we should do that still?

ABBOTT: I do. I think we should.

HARLOW: OK. I will come up and we'll do it in Newport, Rhode Island.

Heather, thank you so much. I appreciate it. And I'm just so impressed with your resilience and all you're doing for others. Thanks a lot, Heather.

ABBOTT: Thank you.

HARLOW: All right. You can help Heather's foundation if you want. You said they're trying to help others get prosthetics that are incredibly expensive. And a lot of these prosthetics that look like human limbs are not all covered by insurance. So if you want to help, you can go to heatherabbottfoundation.org for more information on how to give.

We'll have more news back in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:32:17] HARLOW: New details are now coming to light about the daring U.S. mission which killed the key ISIS leader and also potentially means a lot more intelligence gained for the United States.

Sources telling CNN that about 100 U.S. troops were involved from different branches of the military, some two dozen army delta force operatives were ferried into eastern Syria by black hawks and V22 ospreys. They fierce battle erupted and they converged on a residential building killing about a dozen ISIS fighters. No U.S. troops were killed or wounded, we are told. And the apparent goal was to capture ISIS' financial leader Abu Sayyaf. He was killed instead in hand to hand combat.

Let's talk about this in a significant opinion particular with CNN contributor, Michael Weiss, who is an authority on ISIS' book, "ISIS, inside the army of terror."

Let's begin with who this is? What do we know about Abu Sayyaf and how important he is?

MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, up until today, in fact, his role in this (INAUDIBLE) of ISIS was not considered to be all that great. In fact, if you talk to ISIS analysts who studied the terror organization, in some cases even members of the organizations itself, his name is not one of the ones that comes up so frequently. He wasn't even on the U.S. treasury department sanction list, just to give you a sense of how the U.S. was treating him, at least publicly so.

So the idea that he is a very high-level financial sort of operator within ISIS could be very well be the case. The Pentagon certainly seems to be pushing this line. Or it could be as I suggested and I as I have seen some of the reports, he was either not the primary target or was one of many targets, and some of those other ones might have gotten away.

I am surprised if this guy was hit only because of his --- his apparent stature as the oil minister or the oil emir for the very fact that by the Pentagon's own admission ISIS' oil revenue has precipitously declined.

HARLOW: So why make the calculation that you risk these U.S. lives?

WEISS: Now, the haul of intelligence certainly makes more sense to me. The way you go after senior level officials when you have an active military presence on the ground which, of course, we don't have in either Syria or Iraq. So there is this, again, a sort of aberration of the norm. The way you go after the senior guys is you collect, you snuff or you capture the middle level guys and then you take all their documents and their data.

HARLOW: But it appears is what they did here.

WEISS: Yes.

HARLOW: And it appears that-I mean, they say they were able to gain, we know, laptops, mobile phones. So still to be seen who much intelligence they get from it, but how much do you think they will get or how much does ISIS keep on these?

WEISS: Well, this is an interesting question. I mean, if his role is as significant as the government has said, then, quite a lot will have been confiscated. I'm actually hearing in the last few hours, his role as a possible coordinator or wrangler of some of the American hostages may have been the more precipitating factor in this.

[18:35:10] HARLOW: And that is how where his wife comes in because Umm Sayyaf, his wife, was actually captured by U.S. forces. She is being interrogated and sources are telling our Evan Perez that he and his wife, they believe have deep knowledge of ISIS' hostage holdings.

WEISS: Yes. And it would in this case, I think, unless the government is sort of not telling us that there are more American hostages being held by ISIS. And that there is no public evidence to suggest that is the case. But again, this would be almost an emotional retaliation, right, going after the guy who may have been a leading figure in the captivity and then execution of American citizens. If the goal is to bring him back and bought into a New York courthouse and put him on a public trial, that I can understand. And in fact, the one hostage I'm told to he might have had the most closest relationship with was Kayla Mueller, the last one to be killed in the rather tragic circumstances several months ago. So again, I am waiting to see how this story kind of evolved in the next few days.

HARLOW: Yes. But again, if this is indeed the fact of it is the U.S. government is saying that there were no casualties, no army forces wounded, then, this is really textbook operations. WEISS: Delta force knows what they are doing. And again, they can

maneuver inside of Syria. They have done it before.

HARLOW: Michael Weiss, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Coming up, next, there is a new mystery in this crash of that Amtrak train in Philadelphia. Is something hit - well, clearly, something hit the train's windshield just before the crash, but was it intentional? We will have a live report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:41:09] HARLOW: All right. We are continuing to follow two major developments in Tuesday's deadly Amtrak derailment. One of three engineers interviewed by the NTSB says the locomotive engineer onboard that train reported his windshield had been struck by an object. Passengers aboard in Acela train and a separate septa train on that same corridor on that same night had similar things happen to their train. You can see it in the images there, all three trains hit by something, but what was it?

Twenty one passengers injured in the crash are still hospitalized, eight people died in the derailment. And today, the federal railroad administration demanded Amtrak beef up the technology by installing circuits to control speed along the northeast corridor as well as installing safety features that could apply brakes automatically.

Short time ago, Amtrak issued this response. Quote "Amtrak's overarching goal is to provide safe and secure rail passenger travel. We will immediately implement the federal railroad administration's directives to further improve passenger train safety along the northeast corridor."

Let's go straight to our Rene Marsh. She is live for us in Philadelphia.

Rene, let's talk first about how three separate trains on the same night, on the same corridor, busy northeast corridor, could be struck by something. It just seems like too much of a coincidence, to not be intentional? I know that's that they are investigating.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVERNMENT REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Right. And now they are looking at all this to really try to get to the bottom of whether Amtrak 188 was also hit. We do know that when the reporters were making the connection, Philadelphia's mayor came out and said they were not connected. But after the NTSB received this new information just yesterday from this assistant conductor who said that she thought that she heard the engineer of Amtrak 188 say that the train had been truck as well, now NTSB investigators are taking a closer look at the windshield of the train, and specifically a circular shatter pattern on the lower left-hand side of the windshield. The FBI has been called in to do forensic analysis.

This is all matters because NTSB essentially wants to know all of the factors that may have contributed to this derailment. So they want to get to the bottom of that. This is perhaps distract the engineer. But that still leaves a question of if Amtrak 188 was hit, why was the train accelerating? Why would it not stop or slow down like the septa train did? So it is still raises that question. And that is why it is going to be so important for them to analyze the train's recorders as well as analyze the brakes to determine if there are any mechanical failures that are also contributed to this, Poppy.

HARLOW: Why is it that all trains, and all of these routes do not have that mandated technology that is in some places a PTC, to slow them down if they are going 106 miles an hour into a curve where you are only supposed to be going 50 miles an hours. It feels like an air travel that would be mandatory for any airplane you get on to have a safety precaution like that, why not all of these trains?

MARSH: Well, we know that Congress has mandated that all of the nation's railways have what is called positive train control which is what you are talking about here, and essentially, it would allow using GPS and wireless radio to monitor the train's positioning. It would know what the speed limit is in a certain area of track. And if a train was going too fast, it would be able to slow down and even stop a train. So Congress has mandated that all of the nation's railways have it by the end of 2015. So they do have some time.

But, you know, I did have some time with Amtrak's CEO, and he said to me that, look, we plan on doing this by the end of the year, but my question was, why wasn't it done yet. His answer was that it is a matter of cost as well as time. It takes time, and it is a very complex piece of technology.

[18:45:17] HARLOW: But he also said as you know, Rene, that if it were in place, he does not believe this would not have happened, and eight people wouldn't have died an 200-plus wouldn't have been injured with 21 still hospitalized.

Rene Marsh, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Meantime, I want to go overseas where searchers in Nepal have located all eight bodies from that U.S. Marine Corps helicopter that crashed in Nepal this week. Six U.S. marines and two Nepalese soldiers were aboard that chopper. It was disappeared Tuesday while on a rescue mission and in a relief mission. Searchers found the wreckage Friday on the slopes of the mountain east of Katmandu. But as CNN's Will Ripley explains bringing them home is proving very difficult.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Still plenty of day time flight hours left, the crew members sit idle at this American command post at the Katmandu airport. Weather conditions near the marine helicopter crash site 21 miles east are getting worse by the minute.

If you look over here, you can see that almost all of the American helicopters are grounded right now, because they simply can't get to that area. It is too the dangerous.

On Thursday, we flew over the rugged mountainous terrain east of Katmandu. We saw villages devastated by the earthquakes. Villages full of the people the marines were trying to help. Six U.S. marines and two Nepalese soldiers died in these mountains. The Nepalese army says their bodies still lie amongst the wreckage at the crash site.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were courageous. They were selfless individuals.

RIPLEY: Their commander is pledging to continue the humanitarian mission and learn why the marine chopper went down. Their families are beginning to share the stories.

TERRI NORGEN, MOTHER OF PILOT: I love you, Chris. I'm proud of you.

RIPLEY: In Wichita, Kansas, the parents of captain of Chris Norgen, the pilot of the helicopter called him an overachiever who loved sports, life, and his family.

NORGEN: I love him with my heart and strength and love, and I am proud of him.

RIPLEY: Lance corporal Jake Hog from Phoenix, Arizona was a combat photographer. His cousin tells CNN affiliate KTVK, Hog was documenting the earthquake relief efforts.

My name is Captain Lucas Zefich and we stand with Nepal.

RIPLEY: Captain Dustin Lucas Zefich was just featured in this department of defense video describing the U.S. mission.

ZEFICH: And so, we were able to deliver some rice, potatoes and tarps up to smaller villages of Katmandu areas that are more difficult to get to via any sort of ground transportation.

RIPLEY: These men and the others added to the growing list of earthquake-related casualties. Eight heroes who gave their lives for the people of Nepal.

Will Ripley, CNN, Katmandu Nepal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Will, thank you for that report.

Quick Break. We are back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:52:05] HARLOW: We are taking a look at the live images out of western Oklahoma, part of the area where there is a really severe weather in Oklahoma, in parts of Texas and in Kansas.

Let's go straight to our Pedram Javaheri. He joins me now from CNN's weather center.

I know you have been looking at this all day. There had been tornado watches. So are things getting worse? JAVAHERI: Yes, absolutely. The last few minutes there, Poppy, we are

seeing tornado warnings issued. And this one is impacting some 21,000 people, western Oklahoma. This El City i-40 run right through this region. If you are Beckham, Custard County, Washita County, this is an area that warning in place. We know warning tornado on the ground on interstate 40, again extreme western Oklahoma, 21,000 people in the Path of the storms. So, here in this region, the storms are certain mean business. The best time right now is to get to the lowest point of your home, away from windows.

Farther to the south, another tornado warning in place and you can actually pick up what we call the hook echo in line. Right here, you can see inflow of the storms hitting right there on the radar signature, pretty impressive storm instead again. This is across the cities of (INAUDIBLE) and also Elmore (ph) and also Tipton as well across western Oklahoma about a thousand people in line for this. And then the storm will progress farther to the east, already produced two reports of tornadoes. We know this particular set up will add two more to it and then you kind of broaden the horizon here. We are watching for over two million people, Poppy, that have tornado watches.

So these regions, some of these storms will fire up potentially additional tornados, if you don't see that straight line winds. We have seen those in access of 60 miles per hour. And then large damaging hail. In fact, in this country, over a billion dollars per year, the property and crop damage because of hail and the storm. If this does produce tornados, more than likely it will put down significant of hail. So Oklahoma City, one and a half million people until midnight, local time, in line for the area of severe weather. And again, the ingredients and prime locations tornado alley the heart of this. So we will watch this and follow the latest, Poppy, as we head on to the evening hours here.

HARLOW: Pedram, thank you very much. Keep a close eye on it for us. We will come back to you shortly.

Also this, world is colliding with wealthy (INAUDIBLE) in Baltimore this weekend for the Preakness, a horse race with a $1.5 million purse hosted by a city where young adults earn almost 20 percent less than the national average.

Baltimore's young man make even less, you know, with 30 percent less. Take a look at the numbers there on your screen. The city also tops the five toughest cities in the nation for children to escape poverty.

Let's talk about the study. It was a Harvard study and let's talk about it as one of the men who studied it, Nathaniel Hendren joins me now from Harvard.

Thanks for being with me, sir. I appreciate it.

Thanks for having me on.

HARLOW: Look, it is really interesting, because the headline here on CNN Money article on this is where poor kids stay poor. And what you found is that in Baltimore, specifically, 26-year-old men make a significant amount less than their 26-year-old counterparts across the country, and it make you scratch your head and say, why? Why is this happening in Baltimore? Do we know the driver?

[18:50:03] NATHANIEL HENDREN, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Well, you know, I think we don't know the exact driver. What our study documents is that children that grew up in Baltimore earn less today, because of the fact that they grew up in Baltimore as opposed to the having grown up in another city in America. And so what we have argued is that the impact of Baltimore is having and other cities like Charlotte and many other urban areas in the south especially are producing the lower outcomes for lower income kids.

HARLOW: But I think it is interesting, because in your study, you look at Due Paige, Illinois, outside of Chicago, and you said have found the opposite thing. You found that their poor children raised there have the best shot of climbing the economic ladder. And that they -- children from poor families there grow up to earn 15 percent more than the average person by age 26. Why is it different there?

HENDREN: That's right. So you know, across the United States, we do see areas that are doing really good things for kids children from poor backgrounds. And we find that there are really five characteristics of places that are really improving kids' outcomes, those are places that on average have higher quality education k-12 education system, they have stronger family structure and more two- parent households, their communities has stronger sort of engagement. There is also generally less presidential and economic segregation and also less income inequality.

So those are the characteristics of the places that seem to be doing things very well. But we don't know exactly why any particular place is improving mobility. But those are the factors that we really explored.

HARLOW: One of the things you also found that fascinated me is that it actually impacts neighborhoods, neighborhoods where these kids are growing up, going to school. matters more for boys than it does for little girls.

HENDREN: That is right. So, you know, going back to the Baltimore versus Du Paige comparison that you were making, if you just take a low income boy say born to the family that is earning below median income, and you imagine that they grew up in Baltimore as opposed to Du Paige county, the western suburbs of Chicago, we would expect them to be earning 50 percent less as a result of growing up in Baltimore as a low income boy, whereas that difference is just 30 percent for low income girls.

HARLOW: So part of the reason you do these studies is to effect change, and to advise policy makers, right? This is something that the lawmakers look at when they are talking about what kind of funding should go somewhere and what should that money be used for. And one of the things that you touched on here is voucher for housing or section eight housing, right? And you talk about found how critical that was found to be for - especially for families with young children?

HENDREN: That's right. So as a companion study, we re-analyze this experiment that gave housing vouchers to low income families and give them the opportunity to move to better neighborhood. And what we showed is that those vouchers provided to families with young kids, improved and increased the earnings of those kids by 30 percent. It also increased their likelihood of attending college, they attended better colleges, and they were less likely to have out of wedlock births as young adults. And so, we see the impact of these housing vouchers as improving these kids' outcome that have wide range of measures.

HARLOW: So what does it mean for the government in the long run, right, because anyone no matter what your sort of political affiliation is, does not like to see the money wasted? So there are the arguments that if you just dumped money into a place and it is not kept track of, if it is not allocated in effective way, then that's a waste of money, right?

And yet, you also write, I heard people in Baltimore calling for it, I heard people in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where I was yesterday, calling for more funding for some of these really effective programs.

What did you find in the end in terms of how much the government benefit if some of these programs stayed in place, net-net?

HENDREN: That is right. If you look at the long run and you look at the tax revenue that these children whose families got this opportunity to move to better neighborhoods, we see significant increases in the amount of taxes these kids are paying today every year. So if you take the long-run view on these policies, on these policies to improve upward mobility, the cost benefit analysis looks radically different. In fact, we think these vouchers for these low income families actually paid for themselves.

HARLOW: The argument has been made by some that what you cannot do is you cannot put all of these poor families in the same place. You have to mix them and you have seen the cities that is entering article in the Atlantic written about Minneapolis where I am from, where you see some cities where they really effectively not kept them all in the same place, right, so they have neighborhoods that are different socioeconomic level. Does that make a significant difference in your mind?

HENDREN: Yes. So if you look across area places that are really improving outcomes of low income kids are less segregated and tend to have a greater mixing of kids from different backgrounds growing up next to each other. Now, we don't know if that is sort of the toggle or the important factor, but it is certainly striking as you look across the United States that pattern is as exactly as you have described.

HARLOW: Yes. It is a fascinating study. And I encourage people to look at it. Nathaniel Hendren, thanks so much for joining me to talk about it. It is important issue. Appreciate it.

HENDREN: Thanks for having me.