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Red River Continues to Rise; Tornado Hits Mississippi; From Commander to Ambassador; Pres. Obama Answers Your Questions; One Family's Story of Horror in Mexico
Aired March 26, 2009 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Red River rising to record levels and just two days to save a city. We go live to where volunteers are filling sandbags nonstop.
Virtual commander in chief. President Obama goes online this morning to answer your questions.
And son gets a shock, Soldier gets a squeeze. Early homecoming leaves tears of joy.
It is Thursday, March 26th. I'm Heidi Collins. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Townspeople, strangers and soldiers working as one to save Fargo, North Dakota. And there's not much time to lose, either, as the Red River rises into what the mayor calls unchartered territory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With the help of all these neat people here, I think we can do it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just something we should do as Americans, help other people out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The Red River could crest at a record 41 feet sometime on Saturday. So the dikes are going even higher to 43 feet. Evacuation plans are ready just in case. And to the nest near Bismarck -- demolition crews blasting away at the ice blocking parts of the Missouri River. Flooding there has forced more than a thousand people from their homes.
Our Rob Marciano has been watching all of these rising waters.
So -- have you ever seen anything like this before? We talked a little bit about the dynamite and the ice jams yesterday, but...
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. I know.
COLLINS: Unbelievable how fast that's all going up.
MARCIANO: I have, and the problem with it happening in the dead of winter like this, or at least with the melt and the ice, is that it's unpredictable and that's why they're trying to control those ice jams.
If you have one released that's unplanned, boom, you've got two feet of water going into a city...
COLLINS: Yes.
MARCIANO: ... which is what they thought happened yesterday afternoon but that managed to be a false alarm so that's good news.
COLLINS: Yes.
MARCIANO: I've got lots to cover. Want to get through a couple of iReports getting some great stuff in from some of our iReporters.
COLLINS: Good.
MARCIANO: We'll start you off with Dean Johnson who -- which is not ready yet. All right. Let's go to the maps.
COLLINS: We'll wait for that, though.
MARCIANO: All right.
COLLINS: Let's see what you have.
MARCIANO: Check this out, Heidi. Flood warnings, obviously, still in effect and on top of that, temperatures in the teens. So that's a problem. As far as where these river gauges are right now, they have come up a little bit.
If we could zoom into this area. There is Fargo. Red River heading this way and swelling. Right now, it's at 38 feet. That's well above major flood stage. Record stage is 40 and change. Now the forecast is to go to 41 feet by Saturday afternoon.
So, from what I hear on the ground, is they're -- they have the dikes and the sandbags built about 38 feet. Now they're hustling to try to get them to 41 feet and hopefully this forecast does not go -- does not get any worse.
All right. Back to this area which is seeing temperatures now in the teens. There's still some snow falling. That presents a problem as well. I mean you have to clear the snow off the sandbags before you put more sandbags on top of those sandbags because if snow gets in the middle there, they won't -- the sandbags won't quite seal. That's bad.
All right. Quick check on some of those iReports I was telling you about. There you go. There is Dean Johnson. There's the river on the rise. A number of these bridges are being set to close because they are going to be, if not the water lapping up, they're completely engulfed by the rising Red River there.
All right, next one up. Let's check that out. Next iReport. All right. A little bit of video there. I mean there quite a truckload, millions of sandbags being carted off. The volunteer effort is staggering.
I want to touch briefly on what's going on across the southeast. Tornado watches in effect. We had damaging storms through McGee, Mississippi overnight. We'll talk more about that and the potential threat for more storms today and, Heidi, a blizzard warning, believe it or not, posted for parts of Denver and the central plains. Lots of weather happening. That's' coming up in the next half hour.
COLLINS: Yes. Boy, no kidding. All right, Rob, let us know if we need to come back to you. We sure do appreciate that.
MARCIANO: You got it.
COLLINS: No time for a break in Fargo either. A lot more sandbags have to be filled and our Susan Roesgen is right in the middle of it. This is just a huge effort. I've been watching you a little bit this morning, Susan. Any idea how many people are there right now?
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hundreds, Heidi. And to give you an idea of how large a scale operation this is, there are literally thousands of sandbags. You see them lined up. They're still filling them. And the goal is half a million sandbags, Heidi, between now and Saturday morning.
The question is, can they do it?
COLLINS: Hey, Susan, I'm not sure how well you can hear me, because I know you are in a very, very large area there. And that shot that we have is just unbelievable. With all of those bags and people are trying to fill. Looks like we had a little bit of trouble with your piece.
But tell us, if you would, in talking with some of these people, what are they telling you? I mean, obviously, there's quite a scramble going on.
ROESGEN: You know, what I'm finding, Heidi, is you've got everybody here. You've got the football team who -- you know, nobody thinks this is a lark but the football team is getting an incredible workout here. North Dakota State University. It'll tell you, they've had eight championships here in the Fargo Dome, nothing as important as this.
Also, Heidi, I've talked to several people who are out of work. A guy came from Minneapolis in the Minneapolis area. He said he didn't have a job. He had lost his job in pharmaceutical sales so he decided to come here because he has plenty of time on his hands.
We've people, Heidi, who are homeowners, whose own homes are in danger but they are here anyway. This is a real community effort and they are going to try to get it. If they can't get that half a million between now and Saturday, the mayor of Fargo has done what he said he didn't want to do which is draw up an evacuation plan. He really didn't want to have to do that but then they found out that the river here was going to crest at historical level, hasn't been as high since 1987. I think it's going to crest on Saturday at 41 feet and so they'll try to beat that. They're going to try to build the levees up even higher. Build the dikes up as far as 33 feet. That's the safety zone.
And the question is can they build them up in this much time? Because you don't just put more sandbags on top of the dikes that you already have. You have to build the base out. The base of the sandbags of a dyke has to be basically double of what the height is. So if you've got four feet then it has to be eight feet at the bottom. So you can imagine they're trying to build these things up.
COLLINS: Sure.
ROESGEN: A lot more work than just throwing individual sandbags on. So, Heidi, it is a huge effort here. Nobody is complaining. People are glad to be here and they hope it works.
COLLINS: All right, and Susan, we're going to keep an eye on this incredible shot that you have there, of all of those people working so very hard to get up to that magic 43 feet which is what they're trying to do to sort of contain this thing the best that they can.
Susan Roesgen for us right there in the middle of all sandbagging going on in Fargo, North Dakota. Thank you, Susan.
Just minutes ago, want to get to this story, as well this morning. New numbers measuring the recession. Quite simply, bad news gets even worse. The nation's Gross Domestic Product, that is the value of all products and services, dropped even more than expected.
New number crunching shows at the end of 2008 the economy contracted at 6.3 percent. That's slightly worse than the earlier estimate of 6.2 percent. Excuse me. In fact, it's the worst decline since 1982.
CNN's Christine Romans is joining us from New York now to explain. It definitely makes you gasp a little bit.
Christine, what does it really mean, though, when we look at a number like this?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It means the economy is doing the poorest performance since the beginning of the 1980s which was a pretty poor performance for the U.S. economy. When you look within these numbers as you pointed out quite rightly, it measures everything in the economy.
Everything is declining except for government spending. That's the only area that is showing strength. That's because the government is trying to make up for all of the losses elsewhere in the economy, trying to hold things up and so is pumping a lot of money in and spending money. So that's the only bright spot there. But exports, you know, companies spending on equipment, software, investing in your home and the housing market, all of these things that we use to measure the economy are declining here at a pace, frankly, that many economists have been caught by surprise.
Every time we take a look at this fourth quarter number, it's a little worse than the time before when the government measured it. So now we have the final reading and it looks like 6.3 percent was the decline for the economy in the fourth quarter.
The question is, it's a rearview mirror, Heidi. The question is, is the first quarter as bad? We just don't know that yet.
COLLINS: Yes. Yes. I bet we don't. Weekly jobless numbers are out, too, though. What do they tell us?
ROMANS: And we know the words to this song, frankly, by heart at this point, right? We know that 652,000 people signed up for unemployment benefits the most recent week for the very first time. And we know that a record number of people are continuing to get unemployment claims, 5.56 million people are getting unemployment checks every week and that is -- that's a number that is, frankly, alarming in an economy.
It shows you exactly what those numbers from the fourth quarter show us is that it's weak here and companies are continuing to lay off workers, laying them off quite quickly. And one thing that we're looking at these numbers, too, is that second number I showed you, that 5.56 million.
COLLINS: Right.
ROMANS: What that means, is it means people are being laid off and they're not finding another job. It's showing you that it's taking much, much longer to get another job and that's a sign of a weak labor market. This is the new reality. We -- you and I have talked about this before, I think.
COLLINS: Yes, we sure have.
ROMANS: You know, these are not meant to make people despondent about what's happening in the economy by any stretch of the imagination. It means, you know, looks for small business. Look for consulting. Look for re-training.
COLLINS: Come up with a plan. Yes. Yes.
ROMANS: Come up -- time for a plan because we are going to see numbers like this for the foreseeable future.
COLLINS: Yes. And being patient is certainly not something that I don't think is in very many people's vocabulary right now.
ROMANS: Right.
COLLINS: All right. CNN's Christine Romans, thank you.
The nation's financial crisis, it has cost taxpayers trillions of dollar and now one of President Obama's top money men wants to make sure it can't happen again. Next hour, Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled plans to expand the power of government watchdogs.
Among the expected proposals setting a limit on risk-taking of companies considered vital for to the nation's economy. Those are firms like AIG deemed too big to fail. Large firms would have more cash reserves on hand and the government would be given the power to take over non-banking financial institutions like troubled insurance giant AIG.
We'll take a closer look at these efforts to better protect your money. Will they actually work? Emory University professor Jeffrey Rosensweig is going to be joining us next hour to talk a little bit more about that.
Well this has never happened before. A little over two hours from now, President Obama takes your questions on the Internet. He's holding an online town hall meeting. It will be all about economy and what's being done to fix it.
Want to go ahead and check in with our White House correspondent now, Suzanne Malveaux.
So, Suzanne, he used the Web extensively during the presidential campaign, of course. We talked about that a lot. Is this sort of just an extension of that?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is. It's an experiment. And viewers should know they've got 19 more minutes left to actually submit a question to the president before they run out of time. Nineteen more minutes.
But it really is a way to get to those who are more Internet savvy, young, who are eager, part of that grassroots movement that he attracted in the campaign. He wants to reach those folks. And so you simply go to WhiteHouse.gov and you submit a question to the president. There is a tally as well and you can vote for your most popular or favorite question that somebody else perhaps has submitted.
And White House says that they are going to select the most popular. So we'll see if that happens because there are some tough questions. But my producer Emily, she's been tracking this site and it's changing minute for minute.
I want to give you a tally. Seventy-six thousand people have submitted questions, 84,000 questions. And then this is the number, Heidi, that's incredible here. This is three million votes that were cast regarding these questions. So these are people who are saying, you know, I like this, I like that. These are the kind of things you want to hear from the president.
COLLINS: So was did you say? Seventy-six thousand people, but 84,000 questions? Some people are asking more than one question. It sounds just like the White House press pool.
MALVEAUX: Yes.
COLLINS: I don't know. Always shooting for that second question.
All right, Suzanne, what sort of questions specifically are they asking, though? Is it mostly the economy?
MALVEAUX: Well, there are 11 different categories so there are different kinds of things. If you're going to health care reform, one thing that is popping up quite popular is whether or not the president would consider legalizing marijuana. Why is it illegal? That's a popular one.
Jobs, there's somebody who is saying why are you -- are you going to penalize these executives who get these big bonuses? What are you going to do about that?
And then another one, education, very big.
A lot of popular questions from college students, graduate students who are saying, one person saying that they're getting an obscene amount of debt. How are they going to deal with that kind of debt?
So it ranges. It's a -- you know, a wide range of questions here that are being posed to the president.
COLLINS: All right. Suzanne Malveaux, we'll be watching. Thanks so much.
MALVEAUX: Thanks.
COLLINS: The president is promoting it on Twitter. We'll look -- ahead to President Obama's virtual town hall and how the White House is changing the way it delivers its message.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.
COLLINS: As a candidate, Barack Obama promised change. That apparently includes how he is delivering his message now that he is president.
CNN's Jim Acosta explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And if you are worried and have a lot of questions.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mr. President, you've got mail, actually thousands of questions screaming into the White House Web site for a virtual town hall meeting featuring the commander in chief.
OBAMA: This is an experiment but it's also an exciting opportunity for me to look at a computer and get a snapshot of what Americans across the country care about.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The exercise is to open up the White House and see what happens.
ACOSTA: The administration's director of new media, Meghan Phillips, says the president will answer the questions rated most popular by visitors to WhiteHouse.gov.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would give President Obama high marks for tonight's speech.
ACOSTA: Some questions will be on video much like those iReports on CNN.
(On camera): Because you know, some people are going to ask, well, they're going to sort out the really tough ones they're going to sort out. They don't want any of those to get in there. Is that going to happen?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. I think that the president is at his best answering tough questions.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Take this one from Jerry in Texas. "Why can't the government break up large companies like AIG into smaller companies like the phone company was back in the '80s?" Or Misty Lee from Rhode Island, "Why do I have to be to the point of foreclosure to get any help with my mortgage?"
OBAMA: Is (INAUDIBLE) here from (INAUDIBLE)?
ACOSTA: It's another example of the president going over the heads of the traditional media, as he did at this week's news conference when he bypassed the major newspapers in favor of niche media outlets like "Ebony" magazine and "Stars and Stripes."
HOWARD KURTZ, WASHINGTON POST: There are some bruised egos after President Obama declined to call on "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", "The Wall Street Journal", the "L.A. Times."
A lot of people expected President Obama to conduct a YouTube presidency. And he would be crazy not to take advantage of the big following that he has online.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our next call is Peter Elton of Westbrook, Oregon.
ACOSTA: The concept isn't totally new. Back in the '70s, "Saturday Night Live" envisioned President Carter taking calls on talk radio.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, you did some orange sunshine, Peter. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very good of you to know that, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay inside and listen to some music, OK? Do you have any Allman Brothers?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now members of the Bush administration did take questions online from Americans during the Bush administration but President Bush never took part in the discussion.
As for Mr. Obama's Webinar, well, we can tell you that a small live audience inside the White House that, yes, will include members of the traditional news media, will be standing by to witness what will be a bit of history in the making, sort of a fireside chat from those FDR days. This time, gone viral - Heidi.
COLLINS: But most importantly, Jim, will the Allman brothers be there?
ACOSTA: Actually, you know what? I checked. The Allman Brothers will be at the Beacon Theater tonight...
COLLINS: I know!
ACOSTA: ... in Manhattan. They are still around.
COLLINS: Yes, they're always there around St. Patrick's Day. Yes.
ACOSTA: I tell you. But President Obama probably feeling like a rambling man these days.
COLLINS: Oh you're good. You're good. A true fan.
ACOSTA: That's it.
COLLINS: All right. We totally digressed.
ACOSTA: Yes.
COLLINS: So we will be watching all this. It's pretty historic. Thanks so much, Jim Acosta today.
ACOSTA: You bet.
COLLINS: Again, later this morning, we are going to be checking in on President Obama's town hall meeting on the economy scheduled at 11:30 Eastern and 8:30 Pacific.
COLLINS: At the bottom of the hour, CNN's Josh Levs will show us some of the 70,000 online questions the president might answer -- that's just a few minutes from now -- at 9:30 Eastern, 6:30 Pacific.
A family's vacation to Mexico turns terrifying when masked gunmen surround their car. And from there, things only got worse. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Secretary Hillary Clinton is spending a second day in Mexico. Today in Monterey not far from the U.S. border, that's where the U.S. consulate was attacked in October. It is also where Americans arrested a leading drug cartel kingpin yesterday.
Clinton is on a two-day trip to Mexico to talk about trade and the growing drug violence on both sides of the border. CNN's foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty sat down with Secretary Clinton in Mexico City to talk about the immediate threats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: How dangerous to the security of the United States is the violence that's going on in the border?
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: You know, it's not an immediate problem. It's a terrible law enforcement problem. We have some of our cities along the border where the violence has washed over and people are being killed and kidnapped.
So we do have a law enforcement problem. But this is more about trying to act pro actively. You know, why would we want this to go on, especially when President Calderon and the Mexican government are doing everything they know to do to try to defeat this violence?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: One American family may disagree with Secretary Clinton. Their annual vacation to Mexico turned to horror when masked gunmen ambushed their car, took them into the desert and left them scared for their lives.
CNN's Randi Kaye has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBRA HALL, KIDNAPPED IN MEXICO: We're not anyone to them.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Debra and Chris Hall don't sleep very well, though it's better now. Nightmares that used to keep them awake for days, now keep them up for hours.
D. HALL: They first got in the truck and opened the back door. Our sons said, "oh, God. Please, no, God."
And if I live to be a hundred, I will always hear that tone in his voice.
KAYE: Debra and her husband live near San Diego and for years since their teens they've been driving into Mexico to vacation but they will never go back again, not now. Not after their last trip.
(on camera): The Halls were driving along this road in Mexico just about seven miles from the U.S. border. It was a cold foggy November night shortly before midnight when they suddenly saw flashing lights in their rearview mirror.
They thought it was police so they pulled over. Within seconds they were surrounded by ten masked gunmen all dressed in black pointing guns at their heads.
D. HALL: And they said, "We're getting in. Shut up. Put your heads down, we're going to kill you."
KAYE (voice-over): The halls were pulling a camper that was covered with race car stickers and the gunman demanded to know where the race car was. A prize that could have been traded for cash or drugs.
(on camera): The Halls say their abductors drove them about a mile or so into the hills. They demanded jewelry, including Debra's wedding ring, and they ripped the radio and navigation system out of their truck. Then they told them all to kneel face down in a ditch.
(voice-over): The gunman covered them with a sleeping bag.
D. HALL: I thought they were going to kill us then. They were covering us up with a sleeping bag so that they wouldn't get blood on them.
CHRIS HALL, KIDNAPPED IN MEXICO: I tried to cover my daughter with my body to protect her.
KAYE (on camera): Did you talk to her?
C. HALL: Yes.
KAYE: What did you say?
C. HALL: I just kept telling her, "Sorry."
DIVINIA HALL, KIDNAPPED IN MEXICO: I really thought we weren't coming home. And I was kind of facing my own mortality. I was OK with the fact that I was with them and that if it was my time to go, it was my time to go and at least I was with my family and I knew that they knew I loved them and I knew that they loved me, too.
KAYE (voice-over): They were face-down in a ditch waiting to be executed. Time passed slowly. Until, suddenly, the Halls realized they were alone. The gunmen had left in their truck. It took them two hours to walk to a town. Baha Police drove them back across the border.
(on camera): The Halls had no money and no I.D. when they got to this McDonald's on the U.S. side of the border. They told me someone gave them a quarter so they could use a pay phone and call a relative to pick them up.
(voice-over): They filed a report with the San Diego Police and this one with the Mexican consulate. But the men who terrorized the family were never caught. Even worse, the gunmen know where they live. They stole their drivers' licenses.
Aware that cartel hit men are striking on the U.S. side of the border, they don't feel safe. It's as if fear is always stalking them. And still, they feel like they lost much more.
(on camera): You'll never go back?
D. HALL: No, no way. No way. No way. And that is sad.
KAYE (voice-over): The country they loved stolen from them in the middle of the night on a Mexican highway.
Randi Kaye, CNN, on the U.S./Mexico border.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Be sure to tune in tonight for an "AC360" special report, "THE WAR NEXT DOOR." Anderson Cooper reports live from the U.S./Mexican border with more on Americans being targeted by drug cartels. That comes your way tonight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern here on CNN.
All of the big economic reports this week have come in better than expected. Today, we get the biggest one of all, Gross Domestic Product. Not really the case there.
Stephanie Elam at the New York Stock Exchange now with the numbers and a look at how it is affecting stocks.
Good morning to you, Stephanie.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.
Yes, you take a look at the headline number and it's bad. But it's not as bad as expected. So stocks are actually set to open higher here today.
In the final three months of the year the economy shrank at an annual pace of 6.3 percent. That's the steepest drop in 26 years and a bit worse than the government estimated just last month.
A separate report showing continuing claims for unemployment benefits hit a ninth straight record high nearly 5.6 million showing it's taking people a lot longer time to find a job. Something a lot of people know about. New jobless claims also rose to 652,000.
Also some job cuts to tell you about today. This time IBM. Big blue reported plans to cut 5,000 positions or about 4 percent of its work force. "The Wall Street Journal" also says many of the jobs will be moved to India.
But the government has a plan to prevent another financial collapse. Later this morning, Treasury secretary Tim Geithner is expected to reveal new proposals to control nonbank financial institutions. Companies like AIG. He'll testify before the House Financial Services Committee seeking broader authority to prevent future financial collapse.
So we're getting close here. We got about 15 seconds until the markets open up but we are looking at stronger gains today. We've already been up about 20 percent I think so far in the last few weeks here. So the Dow is set to open to the plus side here today. And then the S&P 500 is now up more than 10 percent this month.
So if that holds it would be the best month in more than 20 years. And there we go, the Dow up two points already. So we are off, out the gates to the plus side, Heidi.
COLLINS: All right. We're watching very closely as usual. Stephanie, thank you. We'll check back later on.
From commander to diplomat. President Obama picked to be the next ambassador to Afghanistan taking on lawmakers at his confirmation hearing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Heidi Collins.
COLLINS: Very quickly, we want to get you updated on even more weather that we are talking about today. Rob Marciano, a very busy guy in our severe weather center juggling a lot of dangerous stuff.
We've been talking about North Dakota, Rob, but right now, we want to let everybody know about what we're learning that may have happened because we're not sure yet, but a couple of tornadoes that we believe blew through just southeast of Jackson, Mississippi?
MARCIANO: Yes. And Simpson County there. It happened overnight. They also had a tornado rolled through parts of Mississippi yesterday afternoon. And now, this is the fresh video we're getting in from our affiliate WAPT.
You know, we don't -- we don't go on record as confirming this is a tornado because it happened at night until, you know, a storm survey team goes out there. But I can tell you this -- that doesn't look to be straight-line wind damage, especially when you're talking about this new information just coming in.
According to our affiliate WAPT, they're estimating destruction of 60 homes there. And you see the wide swath there of damage across that area. So not only homes that are completely destroyed, but, obviously, the foliage and branches off of decades old trees. That's always a sign that it likely was some sort of tornado that rolled through there. And there were tornado warnings that were issued around that time. So it's likely that that was the case.
COLLINS: Yes. And I'm understanding here, too, just to give people an idea of that video that we just looked at, Rob, from the Mississippi Emergency Management folks who have been talking to CNN. Apparently, it's a church.
We saw some grave sites, too, there. But this is the Corinth Baptist Church in Simpson County. Apparently, it's completely destroyed. Only the front doors are still standing. They also don't know about the possible injuries. We know two people have been taken, air-lifted, as you said, to the medical center in Jackson.
But, obviously, when you look at damage like that, those numbers could certainly change.
MARCIANO: Another piece of information here. A spokesperson from McGee General Hospital told our affiliate news channel 12 that the emergency room there is full. The Jackson University Medical Center is preparing to receive patients. So as far as the injuries go, Heidi, they won't go on -- they won't tell us a number, but it certainly alludes to the fact and given the video, and that it's happened at night, and people's homes destroyed, I would suspect that number would grow higher.
While we're on this topic, I do want to touch on what's going on right now, because there is a dangerous situation happening across the southeast. This is the line that brought the storms to Mississippi overnight. It is rapidly moving to the east. We got a tornado watch that's in effect for parts of Florida Panhandle, southeastern Alabama and western parts of Georgia until 2:00 this afternoon, and there's still -- there's actually a tornado warning out for the next few minutes for -- actually down around Mobile.
But looks like most of the -- most turbulent weather is down around Mobile towards Pensacola, and there's a couple of tornado warnings -- radar-indicated tornado warnings that have been posted for those areas as this squall line continues to head towards Dothan and towards Tallahassee and Destin, Florida.
So, still a fairly dangerous situation happening right now. And then on top of that, Heidi, we have a good chance of everything recharging as another piece of energy comes out of the Rockies tonight. So the plains, including Texas and Oklahoma, will be under the gun again later today and tonight. And then, the same area likely tomorrow, we'll also see another batch of severe weather. So we'll continue to see -- follow what's going on in McGee. Certainly, disturbing pictures this morning.
COLLINS: Yes, no kidding. No kidding. All right, Rob, I know you have an awful lot going on with this whole situation, and also North Dakota and the Red River so just let us know, as I always say. If we need to come back to you, we certainly will.
Rob Marciano, thanks so much, in this severe weather center this morning.
MARCIANO: All right.
COLLINS: President Obama's point man on Afghanistan facing questions on Capitol Hill. Confirmation hearings taking place this hour for Lieutenant General Carl Eikenberry to be the next ambassador to Afghanistan. He was once a top U.S. commander in the country, and knows the players very well.
We want to get live now to CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.
So Barbara, it is unusual to have a military leader move, kind of from the trenches into ambassadorship?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, not unprecedented, but pretty unusual, Heidi. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee at this hour getting under way for those confirmation hearings for Lieutenant General Carl Eikenberry, the former top U.S. commander in Afghanistan.
The understanding is he will retire from the military upon confirmation to take the post as ambassador. But make no mistake. He has spent a lot of time in Afghanistan. Very familiar with the ground. He has walked through city streets across that country, knows the tribal leaders, knows the problems of that country.
And he comes to the post, of course, just as President Obama is about to unveil the new U.S.-Afghanistan strategy, how to fight the growing insurgency, and how to get billions of dollars of aid into Afghanistan to try and help improve the security situation there. That's going to be his job as the new top diplomat - Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes. And, you know, people may not realize, you know, they think of a general as someone who sits sort of way up here.
But really, when you look at the structure of how they define their jobs, they do spent an awful lot of time, as you said, getting to know the players and the tribal leaders in this particular conflict. I mean, you actually know this general from being in Afghanistan yourself.
STARR: I have to tell you, yes, I do. On several trips to Afghanistan, I traveled around the country with General Eikenberry, walking on streets, going from town-to-town, village-to-village.
During the period, he was in command, 2005 to 2007, he had quite a reputation for doing just what you see right there. No helmet, no vest, no weapon. He would simply take people, go out on the street, go from shopkeeper to shopkeeper, going in with his translators talking to them, trying to get a feel for the ground.
COLLINS: Yes.
STARR: I want to share one anecdote with everybody on one of our trips, as we talked through the city of Gardez, he engaged in quite a conversation with some Afghan men, and I was there. And I was told afterwards that General Eikenberry negotiated my way out of a marriage proposal with some of those local Afghan men.
COLLINS: Really?
STARR: Yes. Really, just...
COLLINS: Really?
STARR: Yes. I found that out afterwards. But it really just goes to show he's very much a hands-on person. He doesn't like being bottled up, but he comes to this at a very difficult time. Of course, the insurgency is growing, the violence is growing. COLLINS: Just last night.
(CROSSTALK)
STARR: Many people will tell you, you know, vital to get more security force in there, but equally vital to get some diplomatic initiatives going, and that's going to be now his main job - Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, no question. All right, Barbara, we will watch that closely as well.
CNN's Barbara Starr, our Pentagon correspondent.
President Obama plug-in and in touch in a couple of hours. The president is doing something we've never seen before, taking your questions online at Internet town hall. It's another chance for him to pitch his $3.6 trillion dollar budget.
People have been submitting and voting on questions at the whitehouse.gov Web site. The president will answer some of those popular questions.
Our Josh Levs, in fact, is here with a look ahead at that.
Hey there, Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Heidi. It's interesting. You know, we've been looking at the numbers today.
COLLINS: Yes.
LEVS: Well, they've jumped just in the last couple of minutes. The chance to submit questions ended at 9:30. They are now, we're told, the showing here more than 100,000 -- actually, more than 102,000 different questions were submitted for that event today.
Obviously, percentage-wise, it's going to be a tiny little bit, but I guess you've got 91,000 people who submitted more than 102,000 questions and cast 3.5 million votes.
All right, let me talk to you through this. Because this is very interesting and unique, what he's doing today. This is the main page of whitehouse.gov. When the event starts at 11:30, you're going to see a link to it here. And they have been explaining, you could post your questions and vote on the economy -- and vote on submissions from others.
Now, this is the trick. And this is where I'm going to be watching for today. How much of a cue does he really take from one of the most popular questions?
For example, one of the most popular ones listed here. "How do you plan to restore education as a right and core cultural value in American?" Let's pan to the right. This is how they are determining what's popular. People have been able to vote. You can see here more than 6,000 people like this question, but then they've got over here, more than a thousand people who don't like this question. And for all sorts of questions, Heidi, you are seeing that voting system. And the most popular ones end up at the top of the lists.
For example, a lot of talk this morning about this one. "Will you consider decriminalizing the recreational/medical use of marijuana?" One of the most popular. So we're watching out for this today, Heidi. And we'll see which of the most popular he goes for.
COLLINS: All right. We are watching it. It is pretty interesting.
What kind of information does the Web site collect about the people submitting these questions, though? Any idea?
LEVS: Yes. You know, it's very interesting. And this is part of the political power of what he's doing. In order to submit a question, you're expected to register, which includes your name, your contact information, your e-mail address.
The White House has been doing this a lot, and they get a reservoir of contact information. When they want to reach out to people, when they want to get people to help push the president's legislation, all they need to do is send out a blast e-mail to all the people who have registered at this Web site. Today's event is another way to get tens of thousands of people registering so they can reach them when they need them.
COLLINS: All right. Yes, it's pretty cool.
LEVS: Yes.
COLLINS: We're going to be watching.
LEVS: You got it, Heidi.
COLLINS: A lot of questions to answer. We'll see how many he was able to get to, I guess.
Josh, thank you.
LEVS: OK.
COLLINS: Another first for the president. The Univision Television Network says President Obama will give a bilingual speech on a popular music award show tonight. The network says he will appear via video and give a message that inspires hope and encourages civic engagement. Univision is the leading Spanish language broadcaster in the U.S. reaching 97 percent of Hispanic households.
The nation's financial crisis, it has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars. And now, one of the President Obama's top money man wants to make sure it can't happen again. Next hour, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveils plans to expand the power of government watchdogs.
Among the expected proposals, setting a limit on risk-taking at companies considered vital to the nation's economy. Those are firms like AIG deemed too big to fail. Large firms would have to -- would have more cash reserves on hand. And the government would be given the power to take over non-banking financial institutions like troubled insurance giant AIG.
We will take a closer look at these efforts to better protect your money. Will they work? Emory University Professor Jeffrey Rosensweig is going to be joining us next hour to talk about that.
An emotional reunion. A soldier serving in Iraq has reunited with his kids back home. And nobody can hold back the tears.
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COLLINS: A store clerk goes after a would-be shoplifter and gets more than she expected. It happened at a mall in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Surveillance video shows a woman leaving the store with a full shopping bag, and then, the clerk dressed in white comes up from behind her and tries to grab the bag. The clerk got punched, though, she did get the bag; the other woman got away. Ouch.
A surprise of a lifetime for a couple of elementary school children in Florida. Their dad came back from Iraq earlier than expected and dropped in on them at school. And nobody could hold back their emotions.
More now from Kimberly Houk of our affiliate WKMG.
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KIMBERLY HOUK, WKMG CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sitting in math class, working on problems. It's just another day at Meadow Woods Elementary School for fifth-grader Luis Otero, until in walked a smiling soldier who hasn't seen his son for an entire year.
SGT. PABLO OTERO, BACK HOME FROM IRAQ: Leo? It's OK. I missed you.
I'm trying to hold back my tears. I was there, trying to hold back my tears.
HOUK: With tears continually rolling down his cheeks, this young boy holds on to his dad. A soldier who just completed his second tour of duty in Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: And he protects our country.
OTERO: I definitely wanted to tell him how much I missed him and I love him.
HOUK: An emotional reunion, but that was just the beginning. Take a look at Sergeant Pablo Otero, also surprises his 10-year-old daughter. UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: Daddy!
OTERO: How are you, baby?
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: My brother -- we thought he was coming on Saturday, but now he is here.
HOUK: At first glance, he can't believe how much they've changed.
OTERO: A lot different. A year has done a lot to them. She's got new glasses. He's got braces. You know? Grew up a few inches. Yes, a lot has changed over the year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to be a soldier, too?
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why are you guys crying?
UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: It's for the joy.
HOUK: A joy for his children who've had to live without their dad. A soldier who now gets to focus on being a father, as he walks away, hand-in-hand with his children who won't let go.
In Orlando, I'm Kimberly Houk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Well, just because you are getting older doesn't mean your brain has to. We want to give you some tips on keeping your noggin in shape.
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COLLINS: Very quickly now, we have a whole lot of weather that we have been following today. Specifically, in North Dakota and the flooding. And now, Rob Marciano is joining us to talk more about some of these tornadoes and warnings that are sort of popping up in the southeast.
MARCIANO: Yes, there's been a couple of radar-indicated tornadoes. We told you about them earlier, and whenever one pops up in Poppy County, Alabama, including the city of Enterprise, which got hit two years ago with a bad one there, we get a little bit concerned. So we want to touch base on what's going on there. This tornado watch in effect until 2:00, but a tornado warning for parts of Coffee County, including Enterprise, including Ozark right about there -- oh, I'm sorry, right about there.
And also, a tornado warning for parts of the Florida Panhandle, including Escambia Country until 10:15. All these storms moving to the east at about 35 miles an hour. So that's where most of the action is happening. These are radar-indicated right now, Heidi, so no reports of tornadoes on the ground. But, obviously, this particular weather system capable of doing damage as we are seeing now from the video that's coming in from McGee, Mississippi, with upwards of 60 homes destroyed and people injured there. So this is a dangerous situation for the Florida Panhandle, Escambia County, including Fort Walt Beach and Navarre Beach, and also for Coffee County, including the cities of Ozark and Enterprise, Alabama. We'll keep you posted throughout the morning.
COLLINS: Boy, and what an awful place for that to get hit again. You mentioned Enterprise High School. Everybody remembers that story back in March 2007. I was just looking here to remind myself as well that eight people were killed at that school from an F-4. I think it was, Rob.
MARCIANO: Yes, it was big. This one doesn't look to be a super cell-type of situation, but certainly a storm that could be doing some damage. Hopefully it's not a storm that's where the tornado is touching the ground, but right now, the radar is showing it, at least some rotation within the clouds.
COLLINS: Yes. And when you have been through something like that, I can't imagine how terrified they must be there. We'll stay on top of that with you, Rob. Thanks so much.
MARCIANO: All right.
COLLINS: There are some little things you can do to make your brain more powerful as you age. CNN's Judy Fortin has the story on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JUDY FORTIN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The human brain is an amazing thing. Made up of billions of neurons, it's still a marvel to those who study it.
DR. GERRY STEFANATOS, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: More complex than the galaxy. It's quite remarkable that it all develops and works as well as it does in most of us.
FORTIN: As we get older, the loss of some brain function and neurons is normal. But there are things you can do to slow down the process.
Moving is key. If you're young and active, keep it up. Certain physical activities improve blood flow, which helps the brain stay healthy.
STEFANATOS: Not all exercise helps, but aerobic exercise.
FORTIN: And be good to your body. Stop smoking to avoid stroke, and eat healthy. Your diet can make the difference. Try foods like oily fish, which are filled with omega 3 fatty acids, that are known to keep the brain sharp. Also, get a good night sleep.
STEFANATOS: Sleep is very important for essentially consolidating new memories. A good night sleep is essential. FORTIN: Do you enjoy hanging out with friends and family? Studies have shown those in middle-age who stay socially active are less likely to develop dementia or Alzheimer's as they get older. And relax.
Scottish researchers have found that stress is a major cause of depression and Alzheimer's. Because stress hormones called Cortisol shrink a part of the brain known as the hippocampus, which causes memory lapses. So chill out.
And watch your blood pressure numbers, especially as you get into your 40s and 50s. Phil Grosser was only 56 when he had a stroke.
PHIL GROSSER, STROKE PATIENT: I had no ability at all to talk. I wasn't saying any words. I was trying to use my hands to express whatever it was I was trying to say.
FORTIN: After a year of mental exercises with a therapist, doctors have actually rewired his brain around the damaged area, making it possible for him to speak and live a normal life again.
STEFANATOS: We can actually rewire the brain by exposing patients to particular kinds of experiences.
FORTIN: And here's the really good news.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: G58.
FORTIN: If you keep stimulating your brain in new areas, you can actually make your brain more powerful in your 50s and beyond than it ever was before.
Judy Fortin, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
