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Ash Cloud over Europe; Strike Plan for Iran; Goldman Sachs Accused of Fraud; Sticky Pedal Fine Accepted; Volcano Grounds Air Travel; L.A. Port Reduces its Air Pollution

Aired April 19, 2010 - 09:00   ET

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

T. J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello to everybody out there.

Here's a quick look at what we will be covering the next couple of hours.

We will never forget. I'm talking about the worst homegrown terror attack on U.S. soil. And now some 15 years later, Oklahoma City hasn't forgotten. The country hasn't forgotten. Can't forget. How can you forget images like that? Memorial services getting underway within the hour. We will have them for you live.

Also it has been blocking out travel and trade from Iceland, to Germany, to Russia, to all points in between and beyond -- really -- for the past several days. Gloom and plume some are calling it. But today, maybe there's a little bit of light at the end of the volcano.

Also Spirit Airlines has said it's going to start charging for some carry-on bags. You heard me right, folks. Carry-on bags. But at least five other airlines promised they won't do the same. We'll be talking about that this morning.

Like we say, there could be a glimmer of light shining through that volcanic ash cloud over Europe. Here is the latest on the massive disruption of air travel from Europe to Asia and America.

A short time ago, the Volcanic Ash Advisory Council in London -- they are a pretty big deal. They are keeping an eye on this thing happened the past several days. But the official word from them is that the eruption has, quote, "virtually ceased."

That's a good thing. The volcano had helped spewing more ash even after the big ash cloud they initially put out. So it says now it has virtually ceased. The agency overseeing European air space says 30 percent of flights are set to go ahead today.

Norway, Sweden, Austria, they have all opened portions, at least, of their air space and still thousands of travelers remained stranded by cancelled flights.

Britain is calling off the Royal Navy to help him some of their folks home. Plus an additional 80,000 seats are being added to Eurostar -- that's the train -- their London to Paris route.

Now we're hearing of people here in the U.S. desperate to get to Europe. CNN's Richard Quest might be among them. He is in New York.

Richard, your situation, first of all. Are you trying to get home first of all before you tell us about everybody else you're talking to up there?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I'm supposed to head back tonight. Of course, it's highly unlikely that the plane will go. And what that means for me and, indeed, many other travelers in similar situations, T.J., is that if yours is the plane that does fly and you had a confirmed seat on that plane, then of course you're at the front of the queue.

But once your plane becomes canceled and then you go to the back of the queue. The back of the line. So as of 8:00 tonight -- assuming it doesn't go, if it doesn't -- I'll be a refugee here along with the stranded, along with everybody else.

HOLMES: A refugee, as you say. How many are we talking about? And I guess the folks you're talking to and dealing with as well. It's one thing for a weather delay. You know the thing is going to -- weather is going to pass through at some point.

This seems to be a position -- situation a lot of people are in where you just don't exactly when things are going to open up?

QUEST: There are many variables here. And I'm not avoiding your question. The first and most important is what you're just telling viewers about the volcanic eruption seems to have ceased.

Now once that is done, then the air space can be declared safe and the flights can start again. Once that becomes clear, you have to look and see how many empty seats you have got to sort of get rid of the backlog.

Planes are already flying. If you look at the load factor of major U.S. carriers across the Atlantic, they were talking about load factors, 80, 82, 85 percent. Now even if we assume some people canceled flights, business travelers just didn't make the journey, those -- what it does mean is, ultimately, there won't be many seats left for backlogged passengers to take.

HOLMES: Goodness. Well, Richard, good luck to you and several thousands of others of your fellow travelers trying to get out of there as well. But always good to have you here in the States with us.

Richard, we'll talk to you again here soon.

We want to head over to where Richard is trying to get now. Paula Newton is at Heathrow Airport in London.

Paula, hello to you. I don't think you're trying to go anywhere at least right now. So that's a good thing. But now we're hearing that the British Navy is trying to get involved and help stranded passengers out? How are they going to do that? PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: You got that right, T.J. The British Naval Rescue, they are calling it, three ships, and I'm talking big naval ships here that will be headed to different places both in Spain and in the English Channel for two specific reasons.

One is to help those stranded travelers in mainland, in the continental Europe, go over to Britain and cross the English Channel. But the other thing is really interesting, T.J., is they're trying to create perhaps some sort of a hub in Spain so that travelers where the air space is now open -- so that travelers can get into Spain and then go north up to Britain and perhaps use one of those Royal Navy ships to do it.

They're extraordinary measures, T.J. Now this has gone far beyond the impact -- really -- of 9/11. The air carriers now asking for compensation. What has been so interesting, though, were these tests flights that have gone up. You've had at least four major airlines sent up flights into the air, have come back down and all come up with analysis that look, their engines are clean. They're engines are fine.

But then you have the government regulatory bodies fighting back and saying, look, we cannot declare that the skies are safe. You will have to wait for our green light -- T.J.

HOLMES: You're giving us an outlook there when it comes to planes. But what about trains and automobiles? A lot of people are looking for other options. And at least some of the trains there, the Eurostar mainly, are trying to add some seats and get people home.

NEWTON: Good news there, you know. In terms of it being on the roads where you're talking about -- you know, buses or cars, a lot of people doing some very creative things.

Trains, big news there. You know a lot of the trains have added extra capacity. And if you're watching right now, tomorrow you can book that train from Paris all the way up to London. And that's helping a lot of people out.

So again, just trying to get on continental Europe will help at this point. So any easing of that ash plume on mainland Europe will start to ease this backlog. It might even get Richard home -- T.J.

HOLMES: It might.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: I know you all want him back, don't you -- don't you, Paula?

Paula Newton for us there in London. Good to see you as always. Thank you so much.

Also I want to show you something. Something to take a look at here. This is the track here. This shows -- this is a Web site that usually shows all the air travel, the air traffic happening over Europe.

This thing usually is filled with a whole lot more of those yellow and blue dots that you see on your screen there. Air travel has been pretty much at a standstill. This is probably more than we've seen over the past several days.

So it is starting to improve. But still not nearly the amount of flights we're used to seeing over the air space in Europe. We'll continue to update that story throughout the next couple of hours here and of course, continuing on CNN, the disruption to air travel affecting business as well.

About 200 tons of produce spoiling at a warehouse in Kenya right now because it can't be exported to Europe.

CNN's Zane Verjee is in Kenya. She's among the thousands of people stranded there. She'll tell us about her situation and also that situation with the food coming up in just about half an hour.

And we're giving you a live picture here. This is the Oklahoma City Memorial, Oklahoma City. This is the site where we're going to see. And we can -- it's OK. We can go back to that live picture with maybe some adjustments there because we're getting ready.

That's the podium where the ceremony is going to take place. Several speakers are going to take to the stage but this the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. They are getting set for the ceremony to start. It's going to start at 9:55 Eastern Time. Local time there at 8:55.

But they're going to go and they're going to commemorate the moment when the bomb went off at the Murrah Federal Building there in Oklahoma City, which was at 9:02 Central Time, some 15 years ago. And it took the lives of 168 people, among them 19 children as well. Injured another 600 others.

But it forever changed the way that people in this country think about terrorism, domestic terrorism and what we are all no longer immune to. And we're all susceptible, too. So certainly changed the way of thinking.

That was the worst in this country's history, an act of domestic terrorism at the time. Of course, we saw the other bombing of the other -- the 9/11 attacks came some years after. But this was a homegrown terror that really got to people and shook people in this country and still reverberates through this country to this day.

We'll have live coverage of that event as it gets under way. But again another shot here. Those all the chairs. They have one chair for each of the victims. This was put in the very place, this memorial, where the Oklahoma City -- the Murrah Office Building was.

It was raised and this memorial put in its place. But there is a chair there for each person who was killed. And like I mentioned, 19 of the people killed in that bombing were children. They had just been dropped off for the day at the daycare center inside that federal building. Six of the classmates survived. Now we want to introduce you to one of them. This is the story of Chris Nguyen. And he's telling it in his own words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was a daycare center in the building. That daycare center would have been devastated.

CHRIS NGUYEN, OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING SURVIVOR: When I see the pictures of me in the hospital in the bed, I see, like, a little boy covered in blood. And it's unbelievable.

I'm Chris Wynne. I'm 20 years old and a sophomore at O.U.

Terrorism is terrorism no matter where it comes from. The only thing I do know is that I was in the bathroom. That's what I've been told. I don't remember it myself. I got cushioned maybe by some of the wall block. (INAUDIBLE) heavy debris. So maybe that's what helped save me.

I think about the other parents, all the other daycare children and families. I felt guilty almost. I was given, like, a gift, you might say. And if I don't make something of my life, to succeed and, like, I want to make a difference of some kind, then I would have wasted my life.

That just dishonors those who died because who knows what they could have been with their lives. But they don't have that chance.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And throughout this morning, we'll continue. A look back and also going to be looking at -- looking ahead. Also, looking at where we are right now. This is just giving you an idea of some of the events that are lined up. This is going to happen near the end of the hour, like I said, 9:55 Eastern Time, the ceremonies begin.

Then at 10:02 Eastern Time -- that's 9:02 in Oklahoma -- it's 168 seconds of silence in honor of the 168 people killed.

And Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will be delivering remarks. So stay tuned for that.

Is there a plan? A new plan, new options for bombing Iran? The U.S. military checking out nuclear targets and giving the president some options just in case.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Severe Weather Center. We are dealing with all things flight related, be it ash or the space shuttle, which just got scrubbed for today due to weather.

We'll talk about chances for tomorrow's landing and the national forecast when the CNN NEWSROOM comes right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Keeping all options open on Iran, the Pentagon updating their plans in targeting possibly Iran's nuclear sites just in case diplomacy and sanctions don't work.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now live.

Barbara, good morning to you. And this was a -- it's seemingly an extraordinary back and forth and tit for tat almost the defense secretary was having with the "New York Times."

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, indeed, T.J., "The New York Times" published this story saying that Secretary Gates sent a secret memo to the White House saying that decisions needed to be made by Iran.

At first the Pentagon wouldn't even acknowledge that the memo had been written, let alone sent. Late last night an official statement from Defense Secretary Gates acknowledging that he had sent a memo to the White House saying, "The New York Times" got it wrong.

But, in fact, the secretary acknowledging that he wrote that a number of decisions needed to now be made in the coming weeks and months about options for Iran if, in fact, the president was to decide to order a military strike if diplomacy didn't work.

Everyone hopes diplomacy works. That's the track everyone is on. But nonetheless, what we now know is that for the last several weeks, the U.S. military, in fact, has been updating military options to give the president more military options, updated information about potential targets, and Iran's nuclear program if the president decided at some point that he wanted to go ahead with a military strike.

So what are we really talking about, T.J.? Target by target, nuclear site by nuclear site laying out where these are, what kind of weapons would have to be used to destroy them, what kind of inadvertent civilian casualties there may be, what the latest intelligence is about everyone of these sites.

Getting it all ready to go just in case the president wants it. But even the U.S. military says a military strike would not be decisive. It would only set Iran back. They still have to find a way to make Iran change its mind about its nuclear path -- T.J.

HOLMES: And Barbara, you hit on there some of the things they have to keep in mind with these military options. You have to keep in fact civilian casualties, the exact targets also. But what about the considerations for the strength of Iran's military and resistance that we could possibly face?

STARR: Well, you know, you hit the nail on the head right there with resistance. Late last year, Iran's military actually reorganized a bit and shifted their air defense operations around so that they are very focused now on those nuclear sites, protecting the air space around those nuclear sites against an attack by perhaps U.S. war planes or even Israeli war planes.

Radars, forces, all the air defense capability now focused on those nuclear sites. And that is one of the key factors that the U.S. military is taking into account, looking at how the Iranians are trying to protect their air space and how you would get past all of that defense -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right, Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon.

Barbara, thank you as always.

All right. We'll turn over to Rob Marciano. Are we talking -- so I assume this big ash cloud and a big part of this, we need some wind to blow this thing out of here, I assume, right? Are we getting it? Are we getting the push we need to get this going?

MARCIANO: We've had this strong, kind of narrow jet stream last week that has weakened a little bit and spread out. That's good news. The other piece of good news is that the eruption, as of the last advisory has pretty much ceased, at least for now. So that's the first bit of good news that we've had as far as getting the amount of ash to be thrown into the air to at least diminish if not stop entirely.

We'll see if that is a long-term prognosis over the next few hours. But right now, the volcano has at least temporarily ceased erupting.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: Yes, that is about to get under way. I believe the main part is about 40 minutes away. And the weather is cooperating.

MARCIANO: Yes, that's great. It's great -- I think everybody has Patriots Day --

HOLMES: Yes.

MARCIANO: -- off up there in Boston. So it's a great day to have you --

HOLMES: Just Massachusetts and, what, Maine have Patriots' Day, I believe? We've got to work on that in Georgia.

MARCIANO: Yes, we do. That's exactly -- let's put that in front of the state legislator.

HOLMES: All right, Rob. Appreciate you as always.

And he just mentioned Discovery that had to scrap it for today because of the weather. There is a lovely picture of it. They're trying to make their way home. This isn't because of ash this time. It's actually because of the weather.

Give you updates and exactly when they're going to try to bring that thing home tomorrow. Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Survivors still being pulled from the rubble in China. Those videos we bring to you now from the area hit by the deadly earthquake. One of the people found today was a 4-year-old girl.

Most of the rescue crews, actually they're starting to move out. Now here we are five days after the quake, the state media puts the death toll at 1944. Another 12,000 injured. Food, aid, and portable toilets are now finally getting to some of the victims who are now living in makeshift tent cities.

It is one of those moments. We can all remember where we were when we got word that the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City had been hit with the bomb. A lot of questions about what had happened that day. Now we now. It was homegrown terror. And 168 people were killed that day including 19 children.

You're looking at a live picture of what stands in its place now, in place of that Murrah building. This is the Oklahoma City Memorial. 168 chairs you see there on the lawn to represent each of the people who were killed that day.

We are standing by, getting ready for a ceremony to take place there. Set to start about 30 minutes from now, about 8:55 Central Time, 9:55 Eastern. At that point, they are going to stop and observe 168 seconds of silence, one for each person who was killed that day at the very time of that bombing, which is 10:02 Eastern Time, again 9:02 Central, there in Oklahoma.

We will be dipping into that ceremony throughout the next hour and a half here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It's all in business, perception is often the reality. And nothing is more valuable than trust. So it's kind of hard to really measure just how damaging this next story could be.

Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs now facing allegations of fraud. Even Britain's prime minister is accusing the firm of moral bankruptcy. So what does this mean about a company that was bailed out with billions of your tax dollars?

Christine Romans, are you kidding me?

(LAUGHTER)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm not kidding. The SEC on Friday came out and charged this big -- it almost seemed, you know, this firm was impervious to some of the -- some of the slings and arrows over the last year.

It made $36 million a day, $13.4 billion for the year when the rest of the company was reeling. And now the SEC says that this company committed fraud when it took -- it made a derivatives contract, a derivatives vehicle, that they stuffed it with mortgages that were likely to decline and they let somebody who was going to bet against that vehicle help hand pick what was going to go in there. And then they sold it to investors.

And they did not say who had helped pick the mortgages that were going to be put in that vehicle and that it was simply unfair, and the SEC says fraud and illegal.

Here's what Goldman Sachs said. Goldman says, "The SEC charges are completely unfounded in law and in fact and we will vigorously contest them and defend the firm and its reputation."

A quick note here. The company got hammered on Friday on the stock market. Its stocks fell so sharply that it wiped out $12 billion of the value of this company. That is more than it received in bailout money in the heat of the crisis. I think it got $10 billion in bailout money and paid it back.

And then the market punished it on Friday by a tune -- to the tune of $12 billion. So this is just beginning, T.J. This story is just beginning. The fraud charges were Friday. The drama has built all weekend. There are concerns the SEC is going after other companies. There are a lot of people who are saying, could this have been a one-time, one of kind of event?

Is this how Wall Street works? Somebody stands in the middle and makes money on all sides, and people don't even know how the deck is stacked? Is that fair? That's one of the reasons why the stock market fell on Friday and is expected to fall again today.

HOLMES: You know what? No matter what, Goldman Sachs, they might be 100 percent right, and they didn't do anything wrong. Even if that's the case, nobody believes that.

I mean just people have a perception that these guys on Wall Street are out to get you. So in that sense, could this be helpful up in Washington now since we're talking about this huge push for regulatory reform?

ROMANS: Yes.

HOLMES: Could this be one thing that Democrats can point to and that sure enough, everybody is going to -- the public will get behind that?

ROMANS: Yes. For months the complaint has been that the Obama administration didn't have leverage anymore. It had squandered the leverage of the immediacy of the financial crisis and didn't get its regulatory reforms through because it was worried about health reform, the stimulus and a lot of other things.

Now this, many people -- especially Democrats -- are saying, is the fire that reminds you, hey, we got to fix the rules of the road so this doesn't happen again. So you're absolutely right. This -- many supporters of financial reform are saying this is something that helps their case. HOLMES: All right. Christine Romans, thank you as always for breaking this stuff down. Always unfortunate --

ROMANS: Sure.

HOLMES: -- you have to be the bearer of bad news sometimes and the ugliness on Wall Street but you do it with such a lovely face. We appreciate it as always. Thanks so much.

ROMANS: Thank you.

HOLMES: Let's turn --

ROMANS: Bye, T.J.

HOLMES: -- to Stephanie Elam now. Stephanie is keeping an eye on things as well. She is in New York.

Stephanie, you just heard Christine kind of talking about the SEC could be going after -- the government going after other companies. And could this now -- what is this going to do on Wall Street with, I guess, some others that might be shaking in their boots?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's the thing, T.J. Exactly what Christine was saying is exactly what's going to happen today on Wall Street because you hear these sort of fears. The big fear is, is this going to spread to other companies?

People don't see this usually as an isolated event. Wall Street does not like uncertainty. So we are expecting to see more caution today. We'll probably start off with a drop. However, we're not anticipating the kind of drop that we saw on Friday.

Christine talking about how the Dow fell over 100 points on Friday. We're not expecting that today.

Now Wall Street is worried about this Goldman Sachs story. No doubt about it. It's a big company to go after. And fraud is a really big word. The fear being what will happen if the SEC starts charging other firms and whether that will seriously dent stocks?

And what -- if that were to happen, what will happen to the bank's earnings? And also, most importantly -- and referenced this, T.J. -- what would happen to their reputation? So that's something we'll be looking at.

Now you take a look at Goldman Sachs and then you take a look at Citigroup and it's a different picture. Right now there are signs of strength there. The bank shattered Wall Street's expectations earning $4.4 billion over the past three months.

And like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, which reported last week, Citi is benefiting from strong trading revenue and a declining credit cost. Citi's CEO still cautious about the economy but investors are sending the bank's stock up more than 2 percent right now. So that's helping out. However, smaller banks still having a tough time out there The FDIC closed eight banks this past weekend, Washington and California and Massachusetts and Florida and Michigan. So far this year, 50 banks have been closed.

All right. So, we did hear the early numbers there. I mean, we did hear the bell there, so we should be able to take a look at the numbers here and see what we're doing. I'm looking at red here, but it's not showing not much of a number, so I am still seeing a downward movement here. The S&P is down slightly.

The Dow is now down, there you go, I got the number, down six points here for the Dow. So, we're looking at a slightly lower open as we go. Nasdaq, off five points right now, 2476.

Also, as you mentioned, that airline stocks, as we're talking about there with our good friend, Richard Quest, from CNN international. They are under pressure today because they stand to lose so much money, millions of dollars from those disruption of flights to Europe, which may even keep Richard Quest in the building for a little bit longer. So, it should be an interesting time for out here.

HOLMES: Yes, luck you, guys. And forgive me, I went right to the business at the top. Didn't say hello. How you doing? Good to see you, Stephanie.

ELAM: Hey, good to see you, too, T.J. Thank you for that.

HOLMES: You're doing a great job on your bottom line on the weekend, by the way. We know the (ph) great job, and we look forward to seeing you on that show some more.

ELAM: Thank you.

HOLMES: So, thank you. We'll check in with you again. Good to see you.

ELAM: All right. Thanks, T.J.

HOLMES: All right. It's a record fine that Toyota says it will not fight. The company officials indicate they'll sign the appropriate paperwork, later this morning, accepting the government's proposed $16.4 million fine for failing to promptly notify the government of its sticky pedal problem. A senior transportation department official adds the agreement does not release the automaker from any potential criminal or civil liability related to the defect. Toyota will have 30 days to pay that fine.

It's caused all kinds of trouble across the globe. Now, our Gary Tuchman is taking us for a flight over that Icelandic volcano. He is looking right into the eye of this thing. It's extraordinary pictures you haven't seen before. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: All right. I want to give you breaking news just getting in from Iraq. According to Nouri al-Maliki, the country's prime minister, two major militant figures have been killed there. One is the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. The other is the leader of an umbrella group to that with a larger group called the Islamic State of Iraq. You see where we're getting the word that they were killed in a security operation in Al-Anbar Province in Iraq. Again, two major, two key figure in the insurgency there, the al Qaeda and Iraq leader and also believed the Islamic of Iraq had been killed according to the prime minister.

Of course, so much fighting and so much attention has been focused on what is happening in Afghanistan right. But the fighting still, of course, does continue, the struggle still continues in Iraq in a lot of ways. And we have seen an uptick in violence number of deadly bombings that came after the March 7th elections there, the parliamentary elections, which, by the way, still haven't been worked out. There was concerned whether or not Iraqi security forces were going to be able to secure and continue to secure that country as U.S. military officials were about to pull troops out and get down to levels of about 50,000 by the end of the summer.

So, at least, this would be a positive and a good thing for the fight if you will against the insurgency there. Two major, two key figures, the al Qaeda and Iraq head and also the Islamic State of Iraq, that insurgency leader, both killed. We'll keep an eye on that. If more information pops out, we'll bring that certainly to you.

We want to turn back to what we've been keeping an eye on the past. Coming up on a week now, we've been keeping an eye on this volcanic ash cloud. There may be a silver lining into it. We can't see it just yet, though, but maybe, this thing is starting to clear a bit. We're hoping. Today, safety experts considering the possibility of reopening some more air space over Europe. A few dozen test flights have shown that much of the continent may be safe for air travel. Austria, Sweden and Finland have already re-opened at least some of their air space.

In short time ago, experts monitoring the volcano and Iceland, say the eruption has, quote, "virtually ceased." No way of knowing whether that will last or if it's just temporary and this thing starts spewing again. The cost of the paralysis, huge. Industry trade group says the world's airlines are losing a total of at least $200 million every single day.

The volcano has managed to keep athletes, soldiers, vacationers, business people, students, even diplomats from getting to where they're trying to go. It's also keeping goods from getting to the markets, goods that are just sitting up and rotting. CNN's Zain Verjee has one story from Nairobi, Kenya.

Zain, tell us, of course, about this food sitting up and we don't want food and money to go to waste like that, but update me on your situation as well. When were you supposed to be heading back home to London and when do you anticipate you will be able to head back now? ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have no idea when I'll be able to get back to London. I was supposed to leave Thursday, but I was here on holiday. It got extended because of this crisis, but I'm not complaining because I'm happy to be home with my family and here in Kenya.

What is an unhappy situation, though, is what's happening to the export market here. I mean, T.J., imagine if you went to the grocery shop and you didn't find any of this stuff, fresh vegetables? This is what's happening in parts of the U.K. and Europe, because it is all sitting right here.

Kenya is a major exporter. What's been happening today is that people have just been dumping fresh vegetables and good salads like this all over the place because it's rotting out in the sun. And it really doesn't have a longer shelf life anymore. I've been talking to so many workers here, T.J., and they say that they are really worried about their jobs now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE (voice-over): Lucy Wanjiku (ph) may be out of a job if grounded planes in Kenya don't take off soon.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm still worried about this.

VERJEE: Canceled flights to the U.K. and Europe mean Lucy may not be needed to pack fresh vegetables for export every day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What will I do? What will I have in my house because I rely on these things. It's one that gives me money.

VERJEE: Lucy just has to look across the room at Vegpro Limited, normally buzzing with workers. The area is now suddenly silence because thousands are not working. Exporting horticulture is Kenya's highest foreign exchange earner, more than $1 billion a year according to Kenyan industry analysts.

(on-camera): Just look at the amount of fresh vegetables stuck here at the airport. This one company alone is something like 200 tons lying around, things like red chilies, green chilies, broccoli, asparagus, onions, pea, stir fries, and these are things that you see on shelves in Britain as well as another parts of Europe and with running things around here. Have you ever seen it this bad?

EDWARD KARANU, VEGPRO OPERATIONS MANAGER: Not at all. I've been here for eight years. I've seen real severe floods. I've seen severe droughts. I haven't seen anything like this in my life here. This is a catastrophe, so to speak, because it doesn't have an end time.

VERJEE (voice-over): No one here knows when the trucks will hit the road again and shuttle fresh goods. Johnnie McMillan tells me he is ready for the worst-case scenario.

(on-camera): What is going to happen to all the fresh produce? JOHNNIE MCMILLAN, VEGPRO OPERATIONS MANAGER: We only got two choices. We either can give it away to farmers for cattle feed so at least we make some use of it and the second thing that we'll do is we'll take it back to our farms and compost it so they can use it in the future.

VERJEE (voice-over): Also a victim, top quality Kenyan roses, flesh cut flowers from farms like these are flown to Europe every day. The long wait is killing them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For us as a company along, we currently are looking at a backlog of around 2 million stems across our four farms and here in Nairobi.

VERJEE: Industry insiders at Nairobi main network (ph) say Kenya is losing more than 3 million export dollars a day because of this crisis. While Lucy waits, she prays for Iceland's volcanic ash clouds to creep away and the skies to open to save her and the more than 1.5 million Kenyans that depend on this industry.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE: There is a tiny bit of good news, T.J., for the company here. They just found out just a short while ago that two planes are going to take off, only carrying cargo. One is going to France and another is going to Spain.

So, what you are seeing there is a little bit of activity. They're hustling to get those boxes of fresh fish on those planes where they're supposed to leave in just a few hours, T.J.

HOLMES: A teensy bit of good news as you say is good news. And good luck to you getting back to London, but like you said, can't complain if you're stuck and get some more time with family. So you enjoy. Appreciate it.

Good to see you, Zain. Thanks so much.

Coming up next hour, another story about the volcano stranding people. Parents are stuck in Europe, parents whose four kids are waiting for them to come home. They've been talking to their kids via Skype. That's getting old as well. I've talked to this couple yesterday on the air. The lady broke down crying because she misses her kids so much. The community, though, is helping out with the kids until mom and dad get home.

Stay with us.

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HOLMES: We've been talking a lot about this volcano in Iceland and all the problems it's caused for travelers in Europe.

Well, our Gary Tuchman is actually in Iceland where that volcano is. And he took a helicopter trip over the erupting volcano that has caused all these problems. And he got some video and a vantage point you have just got to see.

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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When you're on the wrong side of the Iceland volcano, the ash turns a sunny day into a dark, foreboding one. This is what we saw during a drive just to the east of the volcano.

It all depends on which way the wind blows. When we flew to the west of the volcano, we were just a few hundred feet away from it. But the skies were clear. The wind was blowing the other way.

(on camera): Looking at this volcano eruption this close up is both awe-inspiring and frightening. It has been quiet, (INAUDIBLE). This volcano stopped in (INAUDIBLE) and had been doing so for about two years. It's hard to imagine the economic catastrophe if it lasted that long now.

(voice-over): We then paid a visit to the south side of Iceland where we went to a farm and saw the volcano's huge plume heading menacingly towards us. Farmer Olafur Eggertsson wasn't sure what to expect.

OLAFUR EGGERTSSON, 3RD GENERATION FARMER (through translator): I don't know. You don't know. There is no way to know.

TUCHMAN: But Olafur and his family had to evacuate. And now, they do know. Olafur's 2,500 acre farm is now covered in ash. And it's not a fine granular ash; it's muck and mud that blankets the fields where he was about to plant his wheat and oats. It covers what used to be the red roofs of his house and barns.

EGGERTSSON (through translator): Why would this happen to such a beautiful place? What are we being punished for?

TUCHMAN (on camera): Every speck (ph) of Olafur's farm is now under ash, the only way to characterize how much ash there is to describe it in tons. Olafur's family has owned this farm for 104 years. The volcano has been quiet for about 190 years. So they've never experienced anything like this before.

(voice-over): Olafur doesn't know what it will take to make this farm workable again. He's grateful his cattle seem to be healthy. But knows there's not much he can do now to clean up the mess, because the ash could come back at any time.

EGGERTSSON (through translator): This has been in my family for three generations; me, my father, my grandfather. That's why it hurts so much.

TUCHMAN: Government assistance will be available but probably only after the crisis is over. Olafur and his family always knew the nearby volcano could hurt them. They just hoped it would be quiet for another century or two.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Hvolsvollur, Iceland. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: We're going to turn next to the port of Los Angeles. The water, of course, there, the life line, but the air has been the focus. We'll tell you about a big effort now to help clean up its act.

Also, the shot heard around the world on this day, 1775. That's when the American militia met the British head on in Lexington and Concord. The battle started the American Revolution.

1982 astronaut Sally Ride was picked to be the first American woman in space. She went into the space twice on the shuttle "Challenger", once in '83 and again in 1984.

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HOLMES: We have looked at a lot -- a lot of small individual efforts to go green, but what happens when we start talking about much bigger business and much bigger problems? Out on the West Coast the port of Los Angeles is one of the busiest in the world and yet they are finding ways to reduce their impact on the environment. In today's green solutions in focus, our photo journalist Gabe Ramirez takes us there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GERALDINE KNATZ, PORT OF LOS ANGELES: The port of Los Angeles is the largest container port in the United States. So no matter where you live in the United States, you have things that you wear, in your home that came through our port complex.

MELISSA LIN PERRELLA, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: I would say about a decade ago, the ports weren't even acknowledging that they created an air pollution problem for local residents. We've seen higher rates of childhood asthma, cancer clusters, premature deaths linked to diesel pollution that's created by all the ships and trucks and trains that visit our ports daily.

They actually produce more smog-forming pollution than all six million cars in the region.

KNATZ: When all of a sudden it was shown that we could be affecting human health, that's when the whole thing changed. That's when expansion at this port came to a grinding halt. We realized we're going to have to eliminate health risk of port operations on the community.

PERRELLA: And ever since that time, I think the port and NRDC have been able to move together more collaboratively in trying to address the air pollution problem there.

KNATZ: A ship that sits at the berth spews out a ton of emissions a day. If we hook them to shore side electrical power, there is a huge savings in emissions for the local community. We have reduced the emissions from trucks coming in and out of this port by 80 percent.

So what is the truck of the future? It's an all electric truck with enough battery life that it can operate in port drayage and not be disruptive to our customers' business.

We are also in the process of installing solar panels on everything that's flat in the port. Working with our neighboring port in Long Beach, we built the first hybrid tugboat ever in the world and it is in this port in operation.

At the end of 2008 we had reduced the emissions of sulfur oxides by 32 percent and diesel particulates by 19 percent. That we could allow a port customer to grow, to double their volume but essentially produce less pollution in the future than they are today with a much lower volume; we have shown that it can be done.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And in observation of Earth Day, CNN photojournalists are looking at solutions to environmental issues and the people who are trying to make a difference before it's too late. The award- winning In Focus Team tells the stories of these people and the impact they're having in their neighborhood and beyond.

You can watch it unfold on "GREEN SOLUTIONS IN FOCUS" Saturday, April 24th at 3:00 Eastern.

Well, they are armed and ready, but are they on target. CNN takes you deep inside an American militia group. Should the rest of us be worried? Yes, America's armed discontent in focus next hour.

Stay here.

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