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Severe Weather Across the Country; Floodwaters in North Dakota Rising; More Tornadoes for the Southeast

Aired March 28, 2009 - 11:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And we are looking at dangerous weather today, the upper Midwest bracing for record flooding as the Red River keeps rising. In parts of the southern plains, though, there's snow, ice, and drifts as high as is 11 feet. That has shut down some major highways. A spring blizzard is blamed for at least two deaths and there are more tornado threats in the Deep South. We want to take you right now to Fargo, North Dakota because Susan Roesgen joins us there live and Susan there's a lot of worry and there's a lot of waiting as the Red River -- they're watching it closely. That thing is going to be cresting shortly.

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, some time either today Betty or maybe early tomorrow and we're also looking at a lot of work. You see behind me there, the last bit of daylight still left that will soon be closed off by this mud dike that they have been building this morning. This is a secondary dike and those homes on the other side will basically be isolated in the next hour or so. When they fill up that last little gap there, then the people on that side, we just talked to a guy in fact who went to get some groceries, he climbed over it with a backpack to get groceries in it. Because once they finish filling that hole there, then that means that those homes are between the first dike and the second dike.

So we talked to a man who's in there who said, look, how do you feel about the idea that if the water comes over the first dike, he's right up against the Red River there and goes through here, it won't be able to go anywhere else and your home will be swamped. Why would you and your neighbors stand for that? Why didn't you fight the city over that. And this is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN SOISETH, HOMEOWNER: Well, there's not much of an alternative, there's not much we can do about that. They obviously can't build a dike back here. There's no time to do that. So if we lose our homes for the sake of the city, the rest of the city, that's the way it has to be. I don't want the rest of the city to suffer because of where we're located.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ROESGEN: Isn't that a great attitude? You really hear a lot of that here in Fargo, well, you know, I did the best I could to save my house, but more important is the greater good to the city. Just under 100,000 people live here in Fargo, they do believe that they have done enough to try to hold back the Red River and if it doesn't crest any higher than 42 feet, they think they will be ok.

But Betty as I pointed out earlier, normally the river is at 14 feet, the normal flood stage is actually 18 feet. So when you're talking 42 feet, you can see how much higher it is than normal and again, they have got a day or so before they know what the actual crest will be. And once it gets there, it will stay at that height for four or five days at least, perhaps as long as a week. Betty?

NGUYEN: Yeah, there's not a lot to work with, we're talking maybe a foot or two and as we heard from CNN Radio's Steve Kastenbaum earlier, you may even get some more snow in the coming days and that's absolutely what the folks there do not need. Susan Roesgen joining us live. Thank you Susan.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: We focused a lot of our coverage on Fargo, that's on the west bank of the Red River there, but if you head to the other side, you'll find Moorhead, Minnesota and that's where you'll also find our Reynolds Wolf who's there as well. Reynolds again, rightly so, we have been focusing a lot of attention on Fargo, what are the concerns there in Moorhead as well?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Same concerns. We're talking about two different cities, we're talking about Moorhead, we're talking about Fargo, two different cities, one big river. The same crisis. We're talking about that Red River where again as Susan mentioned there's that possibility it may crest up to 42 feet. And some forecasters have it on Monday and Tuesday maybe going even higher.

One of the common things that connects the two cities happens to be bridges. We have a series of one. As we step right here, I want to show you this bridge in particular. Take a look at this down here, I'm going to step over here for a moment. Move away some of the snow, and you can read this was made back in 1937, some 40 years after the big flood back in 1897 where the waters got up to 40.1 feet. Obviously this tops that record breaker. If you'll look over here on this side of the railing, Steve I don't know what kind of vantage shot you can get, but notice some of the trees you see right off past those light poles. Just about a week ago, people ere able to walk down there, spread a blanket and have lunch and watch the water go by. Now obviously the water has gone higher, we can expect it to go up a bit more and many people, both sides of this river, putting up the sandbags still, keeping a sharp eye on many of the levees.

A few of them, the National Guard is actually going out and inspecting some of these at least twice an hour. Some places they're even doing it a bit more. The other thing you notice, if you look off here in the distance, you'll notice an odd-shaped building way off over there that has two white spires. Looks almost like a castle or something. That is a local cultural center and inside that cultural center, they have a Viking ship. In these kinds of conditions that might be a mode of transportation to consider, especially in the coming days.

One thing that Susan touched on is something I feel compelled to do the same thing. People in this area have got a great spirit about them. There's that Midwestern can-do attitude where they look at this crisis and they are concerned, don't get me wrong, it's not a laise fare kind of attitude. No they're very concerned but they look at this realistically and they're up to the task and they're working very hard.

You see these fellows over here, they're keeping a sharp eye on this bridge. You notice a lot of the roads here all knocked off, all closed off. We're lucky enough to be here and they're hoping that in the coming days those waters are going to rise, more roads are going to open, then they can get things back to normal. But right now spirits are high, people are doing what they can, neighbor helping neighbor, it's a beautiful thing to see as this river, choked with ice as it is, continues it's march to the north. Let's send it back to you guys.

HOLMES: All right, Reynolds we appreciate you and we'll keep an eye on this if they decide to take your advice and use a Viking ship to help out in this emergency. Reynolds, appreciate you as always, buddy.

WOLF: Absolutely.

NGUYEN: Boy, wouldn't that be a sight.

Well, hopefully they won't need that. From spring flooding to spring blizzards now, winter storm watches and warnings are causing big problems for much of the southern plains. The storms have brought up to a foot of snow from Oklahoma to Kansas and the Texas panhandle. The weather has shut down major highways and piled snow drifts as high as 11 feet. At least two weather related traffic deaths were reported in Kansas and Oklahoma. Schools and government offices, well they do remain closed and hundreds of travelers have been stranded. The National Guard was called out in the Texas panhandle and Oklahoma's governor has actually declared a state of emergency for much of that state.

Tornadoes are in the forecast in the southeast again today. Look at this video, a really scary sight caught on tape over Hope Mills, North Carolina yesterday. Those cars were headed in the direction of that storm. This funnel cloud was spotted over interstate 95. The National Weather Service is now confirming two tornadoes touched down in North Carolina on Friday. And the storm damage, well, it is quite evident in nearby Robeson County. Look at this, dozens of homes were damaged in and around the greater Fayetteville area. Fortunately though only a few reported injuries, but boy that funnel cloud was huge.

HOLMES: It's strange sometimes to see people driving toward -- who knows where they were going. It was just that vantage point that we had.

NGUYEN: But still, getting out of that storm's way quickly.

HOLMES: Just an ominous sight there. A lot of i-Reports from our viewers out there in the flood threat in North Dakota. Of course we'll be keeping an eye on it. NGUYEN: Yeah, we want to show you some right now. These pictures are from Kyle Martin in Bismarck. He was one of the volunteers filling sandbags at the civic center this week to stop potential flooding from the swollen Missouri River.

HOLMES: It's nice to see everybody working together. Volunteers, soldiers, everybody side by side, just an awesome sight to see. Everybody did their part trying to help save that city.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: The president has promised more federal help for the Fargo area, 15 helicopters, more troops on the way. He's also called Fargo's mayor to ask for what he needs. So the president had this message this morning for the people of Fargo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: I'll continue to monitor the situation carefully. We will do what must be done to help in concert with state and local a agencies and nonprofit organizations and volunteers who are doing so much to aid the response effort. For in moments like these, we are reminded that the power of nature to disrupt lives and endanger communities. But we're also reminded of the power of individuals to make a difference.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: A lot of people out there want to make a difference right about now. You can help. There are a lot of agencies, a lot of organizations who are trying to help the people there and you can help in other ways and we can help you find out. We have got links to a lot of charities on our web page, cnn.com/impact. Find out how to impact your world.

And Obama now, next week, the president will be meeting with world leaders to discuss the global economic crisis during his first presidential trip overseas. But today his budget plan is getting flak from the senator who turned down the commerce secretary's job. Our Kate Bolduan at the White House. And Kate we were talking about this, it's so strange what a difference a couple of days make, right? He was this close to being a member of the cabinet and now he is just all out assault on the president's budget.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRRESPONDENT: Well, he said when he came out to turn the position back down, he said he just had differences with the administration that he couldn't reconcile and it's clear when you see this radio address today, this weekly republican response to the president, Senator Judd Gregg, he's a ranking member, the top republican on the senate budget committee. He says he appreciates what the president is trying to do to turn around the economy, but, and that's a big but, he and other lawmakers on both sides of the aisle continue to express some major concerns over the short and long- term price of this budget and what effect it will have on our nation's debt. Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JUDD GREGG, (R) NEW HAMPSHIRE: In the next five years, President Obama's budget will double the national debt. In the next 10 years, it will triple the national debt. To say this another way, if you take all the debt of our country run up by all of our presidents, from George Washington through George W. Bush, the total debt over all those 200 plus years since we started as a nation, it is President Obama's plan to double that debt in just the first five years that he is in office.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: President Obama will be heading to Capitol Hill Monday to meet with house democrats, this could be seen as a part two of last week President Obama headed to Capitol Hill to meet with senate democrats, no doubt continuing to make his case and push for whatever final form this budget takes as his budget priorities remain intact in the writing.

HOLMES: He's going to be talking about his priorities this week what has he got coming up?

BOLDUAN: This is a big week, so just bare with me while we run through this. It's a very busy week for the president. The economy, the global economy and security are issue number one. The president's going to be making his first international trip heading to London for the G-20 summit. It sounds like a flashy name, but it's an important group of members. These are countries that represent more than 85 percent of the global economy. So you can be clear, you can clearly understand that the global economy and how all these countries are going to work together to bring everyone out and get growing again in terms of global economy, they're going to be talking about that.

The president will also be heading to France to the NATO summit and making stops as well in Prague and Turkey. We just got off a conference call with White House officials, T.J., that was almost an hour long, but really to sum up, they said bottom line the priorities moving into this week as they head overseas are one restoring global economic growth, pursuing economic regulatory reform so this type of global crisis doesn't happen again, and also the issue of Pakistan and Afghanistan are going to be a central focus when they're talking security with NATO leaders. So a very big week, still the economy, but now talking global this week. T.J.?

HOLMES: That's why you said bear with you, you had a lot of stuff to get through there. A lot of stuff there, we need to get it all in. Important week for the president coming up. Kate Bolduan we appreciate you as always.

BOLDUAN: Of course.

NGUYEN: Afghan President Hamid Karzai weighs in on President Obama's new plan for the war in Afghanistan.

HOLMES: Also, a little later, the escalating violence in Mexico, money, guns, troops. What's needed to fight against the violent cartels. We are on the front lines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: There is praise this morning for President Obama's new plan for Afghanistan. The president laid out details yesterday of a plan to defeat al Qaeda terrorists in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. And it calls for 4,000 new troops focusing on training Afghanistan's army and police force. It also calls for increased aid. Afghan leader Hamid Karzai weighed in this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRES. HAMID KARZAI, AFGHANISTAN: This is better than we were expecting as a matter of fact and we back it and we hope to go forward to a full implementation.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: And Pakistan's president also praised the new plan this morning. President Obama committed 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan last month and the pentagon says those additions will bring the total for U.S. troops in the country to more than 60,000.

All right, now we want to turn our focus to Mexico's drug wars. A U.S. congressional delegation in Mexico says lawmakers want to provide the country with more money to fight violent drug cartels.

HOLMES: Already Mexico has received $700 million from Washington to wage its war against those brutal drug gangs. CNN's Anderson Cooper now, he spent the day with soldiers on the front line of that fight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Early in the morning, Mexican soldiers prepare for yet another day on the front lines of the drug war. This unit of 600 soldiers arrived in Juarez one month ago, there are 7,000 Mexican soldiers already deployed here, 45,000 throughout the country.

(On camera): Mexico's President Felipe Calderon two years ago realized he wasn't able to battle these cartels with local police forces, even with the federal police, corruption is just too widespread among the police, so that's why he's called in the military which is widely respected in Mexico.

(Voice-over): Widely respected and heavily armed. But they're still outgunned by the drug cartels.

(On camera): The vast majority of the weapons that the drug cartels are using come from the United States. Mexican authorities say as much as 95 percent of the weapons they seize that drug cartels are using are actually originally bought in the United States and then smuggled back here into Mexico.

(Voice-over): The U.S. has promised to do more to stop the flow of guns and cash into Mexico, but that's little consolation for these Mexican soldiers who are putting their lives on the line.

(On camera): Every day Mexican military units are on patrol in the streets of Juarez. They drive around in the backs of pick-up trucks. The military has essentially taken over the city of Juarez and they have been able to stop some of the violence, the death toll is down dramatically. The question is how long can these military units remain deployed here.

(Voice-over): At the height of the violence this past February, as many as 10 people a day were getting killed in Juarez. Now Jose Reyes the mayor says only about three or four people are murdered here each week.

(On camera): How concerned are you about your own security? I mean you have bodyguards all around us right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have been threatened and I am concerned and I do take those threats seriously.

COOPER: Your chief of police resigned under threat?

MAYOR JOSE REYES, JUAREZ, MEXICO: Yes. And that week when I was threatened seven police officers were killed. So the threats are real.

COOPER (voice-over): Mayor Reyes has already fired half his police force because of suspicions they were corrupt.

(On camera): Do you trust your police force now?

REYES: Not absolutely, there are still some bad elements there, we need to weed them out, the corruption took place in the last 15 years in Juarez and it has grown and we have to take measures.

COOPER: How tough is that trying to figure out who's a corrupt police officer and who's not?

REYES: It's incredibly difficult.

COOPER (voice-over): Until corruption is curtailed and Mexico rebuilds it's local and federal police, it will be impossible to eliminate the power of the drug cartels and impossible to remove the military from the front lines of this fight.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right, lights out tonight, and we're not just talking about when you go to bed. It's all for the sake of saving the planet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Five, four, three, two, one!

(END OF VIDEO CLIP) NGUYEN: Yeah, it may look like New Year's Eve, but folks, we know it's March. Come on this event is set for tonight though and it is Earth Hour, the blackout designed to make a difference and we are going to show you how you can take part.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, earth hour is coming. You don't have a lot of time left to get ready for it.

NGUYEN: It's tonight.

HOLMES: Do you even know what I'm talking about? A lot of people do not know this. It's still pretty new. It happens tonight at 8:30, you're supposed to turn everything off, all your unneeded lights and what not. Leave your TV on to CNN preferably.

NGUYEN: Absolutely, you can't turn that off. But you know earlier this morning I talked to the men behind this push, Earth Hour Ambassador Actor Edward Norton and World Wildlife Fund CEO Carter Roberts. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Let me start with you Carter, some 2,700 cities, 80 countries around the world going dark for Earth Hour tonight. What kind of a difference is this going to make?

CARTER ROBERTS, CEO, WORLD WILDLIFE FUND: We're going to have 100 million people around the world basically sending a message that climate change is real and we need to take action now and the world is watching to see what America is going to do. Because if America acts on climate change, the world will follow.

NGUYEN: Edward, let me ask you this, what inspired you to become the U.S. ambassador for Earth Hour?

EDWARD NORTON, EARTH HOUR AMBASSADOR: Well, I think it's difficult to dispute that the issue of climate change is going to be the issue of this era. I think in 100 or 1,000 years when people look back and define the legacy of this era, it's going to be how we responded to this revelation that we were altering natural systems of the planet in a way that couldn't sustain our civilization.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: So Earth Hour, tonight, 8:00 p.m., wherever you are, local time. A lot of the critics say, look, this is a publicity stunt, it's one hour of one day. But the guys that we spoke with said you know what, it's all about awareness. If it makes people think about using less electricity, reducing that carbon footprint, why not do it.

HOLMES: It's not suppose to actually save that much energy tonight, but it's a pretty dramatic way to make the point. Turn your lights off feel a little bit better out there folks. NGUYEN: Just for an hour.

HOLMES: Stay here with us, we're going to have a quick update coming up on the flooding situation in Fargo that's coming your way in just a second.

NGUYEN: Also our Reynolds Wolf has a look at how things are on the other side of the Red River.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome back. It is 31 past the hour, here's what's happening right now. President Obama pays tribute to the volunteers who filled those millions of sandbags in Fargo. In his weekly address, the president said his administration is working closely with officials from the Dakotas and Minnesota to respond to the flooding.

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And also thousands of people have left Fargo as the water rises. The Red River is just under 41 feet now. Most of the levees are at 43 feet and we are getting some new information about this water level. Karen McGinnis keeping an eye on things for us. Karen, this is a significant update for us here. Explain to us what we're just finding out about this water level.

KAREN MCGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is a very significant update. Let me just kind of explain the graphic behind me. I apologize this is probably not the best graphic. This is a hydrograph, we're going to update our special graphic. But here you can see, it looks as if the National Weather Service, the forecast office for the river levels is saying that the river is at 40.82. There could be a few fluctuations we think over the next 12 hours or so. But you can see significantly that the trend is leveling off, and look at this, it goes downward.

You may remember, the earlier part of the morning, we were looking at this ticking up once again to about 42 feet overnight Sunday into Monday. This is dramatically different from that in that it stays below 41 feet, those levees are built to withstand 43 feet. They never thought they would see anything like this. We're seeing two significant floods, there's been many floods across this area. Let's go ahead and show that Fargo area and some of the river gauges and that sort of thing. Fargo's got 90,000 plus folks. On Thursday the river rose 2 1/2 feet. That was in one day. On Friday it rose one foot. Today it looks like it's has leveled out. They have not seen any precipitation and it looks like the cold temperatures are preventing that from melting off very rapidly because the temperatures are well below that freezing mark.

So these are some of the river gauges, where you see the purple ones, that's where we have got major flooding. What happens downstream? Now downstream is up towards Canada. That's the way this river flows. What we're looking at in Grand Forks is a crest maybe around 52, but I think that's going to be adjusted as well. They're still seeing major flooding there, but Fargo and Moorhead, Minnesota have been the two cities we have been focused on because it looked like it was going to be all-time record setting. It is record setting right now, but it doesn't look like it's going to be that 42, 43 feet T.J. and Betty like we were looking at the last several days. Back to you.

NGUYEN: That is some good news. I do want to clarify this, has it already crested then, if we're looking at these levels leveling off?

MCGINNIS: Don't pin me down too hard on this. I think what may happen is we'll see these little slight fluctuations, now depending on what that is going to be, is it going to tick up maybe a tenth of a foot, then we'll have to say that the river really hasn't crested. We'll have to start to see the trend really going down, but it's looks like it has leveled off. Betty, I hope that answers your question.

NGUYEN: It does, but it also depends on the weather and we were speaking with CNN Radio's Steve Kastenbaum earlier and he says they may get a little more snow in the coming days, is that true?

MCGINNIS: Yes, we're watching another weather system eject out of the northwest. It's going to make its way across the northern tier states, it does look like Monday could be a snow day for them. But the trend is for those temperatures to remain below freezing. So we're not going to see that rapid melt off like we have seen. The reason that we've seen all this is they saw heavy or late or early rainfall. Then they saw powerful snowstorm, 17 inches just this past month alone. So this is why we're seeing such a potentially deadly situation.

NGUYEN: So with that snow, there's the potential of it rising again and maybe cresting at a higher level.

MCGINNIS: I don't think we're going to see it very significant.

NGUYEN: So this may be it, perhaps. We're not going to pin you down to that just yet. But we're looking very closely at the possibility.

For days we have been watching people fight to save cities along that Red River.

HOLMES: Our Reynolds Wolf made his way along that river as well. But he's on the Minnesota side. I don't know if Reynolds can hear me there. Reynolds, you got me, buddy.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I sure do man. We're seeing some interesting action over here. We're going to shift gears a little bit and show you something over here, this airboat with a couple of officials that are going around taking a look. Now, so perfectly, as soon as we go on the air, he's hidden behind a tree. But an airboat that you typically see going through maybe the Okeepanoke swamp maybe in the everglades, they're going out and perusing the river. Actually it's very safe vehicle to use in a tide like this because we have a lot of stuff that's floating in this river. Speaking of this river, we're standing on a bridge that spans the river, going from Moorhead which is right behind me, back over to Fargo, see a couple of guys here working on the bridge. These are hydrologists and often on the weekends we'll talk about stories where we'll mention unusual jobs that people do. Well for the job of a hydrologist on a day like today they need special equipment. This truck that you see right behind me has got some neat equipment. On that truck, you'll going to see an emblem that kind of looks like a zebco 202, you've got like your, you'll notice a spool, it would be kind of like the pole and then in the back of it, you see a couple of things too, almost like fishing lines, but I'm telling you you're not going to catch any large mouth bass with something like that.

What that does is that kind of measures the discharge and the stream flow as everything courses its way to the north. Although we have some good news as we mentioned just moments ago with Karen telling us that the river's not going to go much higher. We still have a lot of concern in many places up and down this stretch of river as it makes its way up towards Canada. The biggest concern we have is that we're hoping that those levees, those dikes remain solid. That they're able to hold back that water. And there is that concern the National Guard, as I mentioned earlier, has been going out and inspecting many of these, making sure that everything is in tiptop shape until the waters go down. That's the latest we've got here standing, actually I guess you could say between the cities. Let's send it back to you.

HOLMES: All right, Reynolds we appreciate you, thank you, sir.

NGUYEN: So many people have been working 24/7 to save cities along that river and everyone is just bone tired, but no one is giving up. Leon Schlafmann, the head of emergency management in Fargo joins us now by phone. Let me ask you, maybe you can help clarify this, Leon, we're trying to figure out whether the river has crested as of yet.

VOICE OF LEON SCHLAFMANN, EMERGENCY MANAGER: What we're seeing here with the charts and we're getting this information just like you are now. It looks like it probably has as far as the first time crest and it's going to continue to go down. We probably will expect another crest, but it won't be to the record that we're looking at right now.

NGUYEN: Ok, so does that mean you're out of the woods? Because we spoke with the mayor a little bit earlier, the mayor of Fargo who says as long as you stay under 42 feet, you've got a chance.

SCHLAFMANN: We've kept all our defenses to 43 feet and we're pretty confident at 42, but we're by no means out of the woods. That is a lot of water pressure put on our first line of defense there and we want to be successful for all our neighborhoods and all our communities to keep that water out. So we got a lot of work ahead of us, but we're breathing a little easier today.

NGUYEN: What are you doing right now, what kind of work is under way? SCHLAFMANN: Right now we're still buttoning up some of our secondary levee systems so if we do have a breach in any of them, that if we do lose a couple of homes or a few homes but we don't lose any major neighborhoods. We try and protect the infrastructure of the city. Now we're just kind of monitoring the dikes for leaks and attacking them like we would any other fire or police or hostage call, we hit it hard right away with sandbags, forcing them to stop what we can see.

NGUYEN: We're looking at video on the right-hand side of our screen of just that water there and how much it has risen. Have you lost any homes as of yet?

SCHLAFMANN: We have lost a couple of homes that very kind of outside of our primary protection and inside the city of Fargo, we're pretty fortunate, so far we have got a lot of dry area, we have been very successful in Fargo. I can't say that for the rest of our metro area, we have lost a lot of homes in the Moorhead side and to the south of us and even to the north of us now, we're starting to lose a few. But within the city of Fargo where I'm at we're very successful so far.

NGUYEN: All right, but no loss of life or injuries at this point?

SCHLAFMANN: At this time we have had minor incidents related to the flood, but not to the flooding.

NGUYEN: That is good to hear. Ok, Leon Schlafmann head of the emergency management in Fargo, Leon, best of luck to you, hopefully this thing has already crested, we're talking about the Red River. But we'll have to wait a little bit longer to see if that indeed is a fact. We're watching it very closely nonetheless and wishing you the best. Thank you.

SCHLAFMANN: Thank you.

HOLMES: His word there, it's, they're breathing a little easier. That's how he phrases it and he's there, so that sounds good.

NGUYEN: Absolutely.

HOLMES: A lot of agencies, a lot of people are mobilizing, trying to help out right about now in the flood zone. You can help out too, we have links to a number of charities on our web page.

NGUYEN: All you have to do is go to cnn.com/impact and it's all right there for you.

HOLMES: Also, the state of black America, we have been talking about this morning, is it any better now with President Obama in place at the White House?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: America still has a serious racial divide. At least that's according to a new report that's just coming out. It's called the Annual State of Black America report. It was just released this week and this is what it shows, that blacks are twice as likely to be unemployed, three times as likely to live in poverty and more than six times as likely to be incarcerated as opposed to whites in this country. I spoke with Mark Morial, he's the president of the National Urban League that issued the annual report.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: What is the one thing you would point to in this report to get everybody's attention and let them know that they need to be paying attention to this report?

MARK MORIAL, PRES. & CEO, NATL. URBAN LEAGUE: I think the low graduation rate amongst African-American children is an area that really affects the nation at large. Because African-American children and Latino children are going to make up a larger part of the workforce in the 21st century. So we have got to make sure we invest in them, we lead them, we lift them up, we create the best schools in the world in order to be able to have an economy in the 21st century.

HOLMES: Where is the sense of personal responsibility? Yes it helps to get help from the government, to get help from other entities to help build the communities up. Where does the responsibility lie with the black communities?

MORIAL: It ranks right up there with the government's responsibility, with the community's responsibility and with personal responsibility. We embrace the idea that it's not either or, T.J., it's a combination of both to make this nation and to make black America stronger and more self sufficient.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The report included 31 specific recommendations, President Obama has said the way to help minorities is by improving education, employment and health care for all Americans.

One man who dedicated his life to making sure Americans know the history of the black American experience passed away this week. He was the distinguished southern historian John Hope Franklin. He marched with Martin Luther King and fought for civil rights much of his life. He died at the age of 94.

On the line with me now, long time friend and mentee of Franklin's, John White, sir we appreciate you spending some time with us here. In all the coverage that you have seen since your friend's death, what is the thing that you think has been underreported, what are we missing about him that you know?

JOHN WHITE, FRIEND, JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN: Well, I'm speaking from England and as you know, his death has been widely reported here and those who knew him and those who wrote about him knew that he was not only a major scholar and in fact probably led the whole field of what we now call African-American history. But throughout his life he was a social activist, he believed that that was an equally important role for a man of learning and his concern was with minorities, with the oppressed and not just with African-Americans.

HOLMES: How much in his work, I guess certainly his work is renowned and revered in a way that no other scholar out there really has. But how much of his work was really influenced and how was he able to have an edge on other people who were studying the same topic of the history of the south because he went through so much of the history of the south?

WHITE: Yeah I think so. He was a pioneer and as pioneers always face hard times. And John Hope Franklin as a young man in the 1940's did his research, it was often difficult for him to get into libraries. It was difficult for him when he worked in Washington, D.C. to get a meal in the cafeterias. I mean he knew about this first hand. Not only did he know about these things in the larger American society of the time, but he also knew about it within his own historical profession, where he also helped defend desegregation.

HOLMES: And last thing here, did he have a sense -- you knew him like not a lot of people did. You knew him for a long, long time. Did he have a sense of his own greatness, if you will? Did he get a sense of just how big of a deal he was and how did he take that?

WHITE: Well, I think he did, it would be hard not to, really if you went to his house and you went to his basement and you saw like 130 degrees on the wall, yeah he had a pretty good idea. But he was the most charming and in the best sense of the word the most charismatic and the most generous man I've known. And many of my colleagues would say the same thing. And the last thing I'd say is any of your viewers and listeners they want to know more about this man, they haven't got time to read the books, look on the website, see some of the interviews. See John Hope telling it like it really was.

HOLMES: John White, sir, I am so glad we could get you on the phone today and you could share a little insight about this great man. Thank you so much and you take care there across the pond.

WHITE: It's been my pleasure.

HOLMES: Again, talked about his good friend and mentor, John Hope Franklin. John Hope, they all called him, all his close friends did. But glad we could get him on.

NGUYEN: Absolutely.

HOLMES: We haven't been talking about him enough this past week.

NGUYEN: No, but to hear a friend talk about him and just that relationship that they had, it just brings it to a new level.

HOLMES: A new level. All right, we're glad we could get him on. Also something we saw this week on a totally different note here. Oh, yeah, it was d-day for that guy. Don't know if you know the face, you probably know the music and if you have kids they certainly know it as well. One of the biggest stars in the music industry sentenced. He will be gone for a year. My sit down with rapper T.I.

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HOLMES: Well, he actually has more arrests than he does Grammy Awards. I'm talking about T.I. here, one of the biggest stars on the planet. If you don't know him, your kids do. But he is going to be going to prison, just found out yesterday, it is official he is going to be going to prison sentenced to a year and a day for some weapons charges. I sat down with him, one of his last interviews before his sentencing day, talked to him about just about everything and also, is he a changed man, really?

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HOLMES (voice-over): This is Clifford Harris as a free man, better known as rapper T.I., he's been at the top of the music world for years now. His sixth album, "Paper Trail" was one of the top- selling albums of 2008 and his fourth straight to go platinum.

He picked up his most recent Grammy Award in February. He's also on Forbes list of highest-paid hip-hop stars. So what's next for T.I.? Prison.

(On camera): How many times have you been arrested? Do you have a good count?

T.I., RECORDING ARTIST: You know what? I don't have an actual factual number.

HOLMES: Ok.

T.I.: So I won't, you know, I won't just throw speculative, you know, speculative numbers out there.

HOLMES: Ok. I will throw one out there that I read that somebody decided to do a count and they said 32. Would you argue with that too much one way or another?

T.I.: I cannot confirm nor deny.

HOLMES: It's been more than once or twice. But his latest arrest in 2007 threatened to end his career and put him in jail for up to 30 years. He was busted in his hometown of Atlanta trying to buy machine guns and silencers hours before he was set to perform at the B.E.T. Awards.

Are you ever going to feel a sense of safety that you don't feel like you need to protect yourself or carry a gun?

T.I.: I've made it through some very extreme circumstances and I didn't always have firearms to protect me and I'm still here. So if I was supposed to be gone I would've been gone.

HOLMES: So you're telling me you've come to a place of peace and that paranoia has subsided?

T.I.: Absolutely.

HOLMES: You don't feel the need for it anymore to be carrying guns.

T.I.: Absolutely.

HOLMES: He pleaded guilty to weapons charges in March of last year. His plea deal allowed him to delay his jail sentence for 12 months, but he's been far from a free man.

Is that you? Yeah.

T.I.: I'm actually doing an interview with CNN. As soon as I'm finished, I'll change the battery.

HOLMES: Our conversation was interrupted by his ankle monitor telling him he had five minutes to change the battery. Also part of his plea deal, 1,000 hours of community service. Much of that community service talking to kids around the country about his success and failures.

A lot of young people you know, of course, idolize you, look up to you in a lot of ways. Should they? Should they look up to you?

T.I..: You shouldn't take the things that I've gone through and the negative parts of my life and admire me for that, you know? If anything, admire me for how I've accepted responsibility for the part I played in placing myself in these situations and what I've done to recover from it.

HOLMES: What assurance can you give that over time, once you get out of jail, you can prove to people that you have changed and this is totally different. But right now what can you say to people that lets them know that he's learned his lesson.

T.I.: I can't say any words to convince you that I have changed. That I have learned a lesson. That comes with time.

(END OF VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. That time, a year and a day as we know. He's supposed to report on May 19th. He can turn himself in that day.

NGUYEN: That's kind of controversial because he was up for possibly 30 years, right?

HOLMES: 30 years. The prosecution, also the judge in the case really were criticized for allowing this deal saying he got special privileges because he was a superstar. The judge allowed the deal because he said hey, I wanted to try an experiment here, maybe more judges should do this instead of just -- He called it an experiment, said that in the courtroom yesterday, instead of just throwing some young men in jail, maybe rehabilitate them, give them a chance at redemption and maybe some good came out of it. He reached thousands and thousands of kids in that community service he was required to do and he did it, he said he enjoyed it and said it was really a great experience to do that.

NGUYEN: We'll see how the experiment goes. HOLMES: Experiment works.

NGUYEN: All right, well the NEWSROOM is no experiment. In fact it continues at the top of the hour with Fredricka Whitfield. Hey Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: And I was waiting for you to say something like -- and another experiment.

NGUYEN: Absolutely not.

WHITFIELD: Ok, well coming up in the noon hour, more on that experiment bank, our legal eagles, Avery Friedman and Richard Herman will be delving into the sentence of T.I., heard in your piece. We're talking 30 years versus a year, what's just? And then tackling tuition. Speaking about just, when we look at tuition these days of colleges averaging 25 to $30,000 a year? Tackling tuition 101. That's what we're focusing on in the 4:00 p.m. hour.

We're looking for your e-mails and your i.-Reports. Are you ready to pay for your child's education. If your kid is not graduating perhaps high school this year and off to college next year, have you been planning along the way for your child when that day comes. Any guesses on how much it may cost me and my family for a now 4-year-old to go to college when he's ready at 18? Think about it. How much should we save?

NGUYEN: $60,000 $75,000.

WHITFIELD: Are you kidding me?

NGUYEN: Much more than that?

WHITFIELD: Let's quadruple that.

NGUYEN: Get out of here.

WHITFIELD: No kidding. I thought maybe $300,000, more than quadrupled, we're talking in the area of a half million dollars.

NGUYEN: Where are you sending this child to school even for a state school, state universities?

WHITFIELD: No, we're going for the gusto. We're going big.

NGUYEN: Yeah, shoot high.

WHITFIELD: But any way, join us in the 4:00 hour and you can be part of that experiment, figure out how much will it cost.

HOLMES: We will see you then.

NGUYEN: Hopefully he gets scholarships.

WHITFIELD: Weekends@cnn.com or -- I know! I'm the last to join your club, Facebook. Fredricka Whitfield/cnn. NGUYEN: Glad to have you.

WHITFIELD: Scary isn't it?

NGUYEN: All right. Thank you, Fred. And she will be right back because the CNN NEWSROOM will be right after this break. Stay tuned for that, lots to come.

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