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Day 4 of World Cup; Girl Rescued in Oklahoma; Arkansas Death Toll: 20

Aired June 14, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: All right, another story that we're following, I want to take you all the way around the world to Johannesburg, Soccer City Stadium, the stadium in which the first game of the World Cup between Mexico and South Africa was played on Friday, the last game will be played on July 11th. I'm going to be there, but my good friend Isha Sesay is scoping out the joint so she knows exactly what I need to do when I get there. And I think she maybe got me one of those souvenir vuvuzelas, they call them.

Isha, and they are -- I thought they were going to be fun, and to me they seem like the world's most irritating thing right now after watching several World Cup matches.

Can you first tell me about this irritating buzzing sound that makes everybody think that their TV is broken?

ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, absolutely. That's all people can hear, Ali.

When they switch on the matches, they just here this buzzing sound. It's like a hive of bees buzzing in unison.

These troubles (ph) have really become the emblem of this World Cup. And they say they sound is like -- it's supposed to be a call to celebration, but, really, it's just become a call to annoyance, Ali.

And some of the footballers have been complaining. The world's best football player, Argentinean Lionel Messi, is saying that when he played in the match on Saturday against Nigeria, he felt as if he was deaf, effectively, because the noise was just all-consuming. Complaints by the French as well.

OK. So I hear you asking, what are the organizing committees saying? They are saying that the vuvuzelas, Ali, will not be banned. So you will hear them during the finals on July 11th, when you get here.

They say they're just part of the tournament and they give the tournament a distinctly African sound. And (INAUDIBLE) says we shouldn't try to Europeanize the World Cup Tournament -- Ali.

VELSHI: The distinctly African sound of bees, if you ask me.

But, nonetheless, U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard injured in Saturday's U.S./England game. Is he going to be better in time for Friday's match against Slovenia?

SESAY: Yes, absolutely. Our viewers may remember that he clashed with England's Emile Heskey in something like the 29th minute, got a boot to the chest. He was down for about three minutes on the pitch.

What we're getting, the very latest from the U.S. side of things, is that he has had a physical examination. They don't believe he needs any more testing, that he is improving day by day. And Ali, I'm sure you and all USA fans out there will be pleased to hear that the expectation is he will be fit to play in the match on Friday against Slovenia -- Ali.

VELSHI: All right, Isha. You have a fantastic time there. It's like you're having one.

We'll keep on checking in with you throughout the entire World Cup.

Isha Sesay in Johannesburg.

Let's take you back to the big story we're following right now in Oklahoma City.

Flash floods have plunged part of the town under water. Let's take a look at these pictures courtesy of KOCO, our affiliate there.

Ten more inches of rain. More is on the way.

Rescuers are looking for people who are trapped or have been swept downstream. We don't know if there are missing people yet.

This is KWTV and KOTV. There's a fan boat with rescuers setting out to help people out.

Here's what we do know.

The floods began early this morning. Water was -- there were a number of storms. They were sort of one behind another.

About six -- the water rose about a foot in about six hours. Many people have been rescued, including a 6-year-old this morning.

Now, if you're in the area, authorities are saying don't leave your home, do not evacuate. These waters are dangerous. Try and get up as high as you can.

Downtown areas and areas north of the city have the most damage. The storms are moving from southwest to northeast. The last one has moved out and waters are starting to recede. But there's another one coming in, it appears.

This is the worst flooding the city's seen in 25 years. Very, very unusual given how flat Oklahoma City actually is.

The story we are covering closely right now -- these are live pictures of a fan boat. There is a rescue under way of a girl who is stuck in a tree. The rescuers got stuck. Four rescuers got stuck. Their boat is immobilized.

Now, Kelly (ph), is this the group that's going to rescue those guys?

There's the girl on the left. OK, the girl is on the left. That's tape. She's pulled herself out and she's standing up waiting for her rescue.

She's rested herself. That was a few minutes ago, about 20 minutes ago. She's found herself in a safe spot.

Now, these guys are going to get the rescuers who went to get her, and they're going to get her. They have got a fan boat because the motorboat that was sent to get this girl got stuck because there was a low water area, or a dry area. Fan boats can move in very, very little water. That's why you see fan boats in the marshes down here in the Gulf Coast, because they don't affect anything below them. The fan pushes them forward.

So, this fan boat is on its way to get those rescuers, make sure they're OK. I think their priority is going to be getting this girl out of this tree because she's exhausted. She was swimming against the stream, some very heavy water, some very high wind, and there is another storm moving in at this point.

So, we are watching live pictures now. They should be to either the rescuers or the girl momentarily.

This was remarkable video. We'll show it to you again in a little box when we can, but this girl had been swimming and swimming and grabbing branches. And branches were breaking, and she kept on swimming from tree to cops (ph), to tree.

And, finally, she was able to -- OK, so there they've reached the other rescuers, it appears, who seem to be moving. And on the left is tape.

Am I correct, Michael and Kelly (ph)?

The left is the earlier shot where we were identifying where this girl was. That's the cops (ph) of trees that she's in.

Now we've got two rescue boats headed toward her. She has climbed up on a branch. You can see her there. She's waving.

You see that was earlier. But she waved to tell the helicopter, I see you, I know you see me. The helicopter knows exactly where she was.

This is the news helicopter from WKTV. They told authorities where she was, but they also were able to say that authorities in a normal boat with an outboard motor may not be able to reach her because there was a dry patch. Now, that boat you're looking at in the front has a normal outboard motor. So, at some point, if there is a dry patch, it's not going to be able to go there. And now you see the boats diverging, which indicates to me that the fan boat is headed into the part which has less water -- because it can do that. The fan boat can operate in less water -- and it's heading toward the girl.

So, these guys are checking to see if the motorboat guys are OK, the motorboat rescuers are OK. Now they're going out to get this girl.

They know exactly where she is. She got stuck at an intersection, and the street sign was sticking up. So they could see the exact intersection where she was at, and then the helicopter followed her swimming, really, really struggling.

She seems to be a strong swimmer, because she was able to manage it. But you could see the expression on her face.

She was exhausted, and she was grabbing at branches that were breaking. She was pulling herself along. And, finally, she got some footing, she heard the helicopter. She knew they had found her, so she pulled herself to safety, she pulled herself above water.

That's where we believe she is right now. And this fan boat, any moment now, is going to reach her, and they are going to rescue her, assuming she is exactly where we last saw her.

The reason we lost sight of her is because the weather helicopter, the news helicopter, had to leave. There's a new storm system moving in. There were high winds, there was lightning, and it had to pull out. But now it appears that they are moving into the area.

My executive producer, Kelly (ph), is telling me -- she's listening in on this conversation. It sounds like the rescue team that you're looking at right now is communicating with the helicopter to say, where is she? Because I guess from ground level this looks -- there's the helicopter.

So, they're trying to coordinate. Where is this girl? She's kind of hidden in there.

The helicopter had a good picture of her, but that's because the helicopter is at a few thousand feet up. From ground level, it's going to be hard to find her. You can see that's pretty dense around there.

But they're in the neighborhood. The helicopter is going to now try and guide those rescuers right to her.

She climbed up, by the way. She climbed up a little way, not just at the water level. I guess fearful that that water would continue to rise. So she's up there a bit, and these guys are having some trouble finding her. But she was safe last we checked. She looked healthy and able- bodied. She looked exhausted, and she's probably cold, but the reality is she looked safe.

And we are going to try to find out where she is. The fan boat contains rescuers who are going to get her. And I think if we stick with this, we are going to see a rescue of this girl.

What a remarkable situation. We don't know where she came from. We don't know whether she was in a car or trying to escape a house.

But you can see there's dry land around it. And this is the problem with those motorboats. If there's dry land around it, you can't just send a boat with an outboard motor all over the place because it will run aground. So, we are just trying to get that picture reestablished as to where the fan boat is.

OK. This is a fourth boat now. This is a live picture of a fourth boat that is being launched in this particular rescue effort, another fan boat.

So, they're going out there. They're trying to get to this girl.

Again, the picture indicated that she looks safe. But she has to be exhausted. She's clutching to a branch.

She's got her whole body wrapped around it. She's just like a leopard. She's coiled around this branch, she's trying to get rest. She's been in the water for a long time. She's got to be cold.

There she is. There she is. You can see her. That's taped picture. Just so you know, that's the tape that we saw earlier.

You see how she's clutching to that thing? She's cold, she's resting, but she's above the water. And as long as she holds on there, they'll get to her.

But, from the level of the water, they're having trouble finding her. So, they have asked the helicopter who was on this for 10 or 15 minutes -- they knew exactly where she was -- to reestablish where she is.

I don't know whether that means the helicopter is going to go out there, because I don't know other than by going there and pointing to it, how they're going to indicate to her which tree it is. But you can see she's resting.

She seems to be secure. She seems to have got a good grip on whatever that is that she's on. And she should be waiting there.

She must be getting very cold. She knows help is on the way. She waved to the helicopter several time to indicate that she knows that they're on the way.

So here's the situation. We've got now -- the fourth boat is out there trying to find her. It's a fan boat, the boat with the outboard motor back, because it's not going to reach her. But at least they know the rescuers are safe.

Now they're going to try and find her. So we know there are at least two fan boats out there , there might be a third, looking for her. But they're just trying to identify where in that crowd of trees she actually is, because you can see the rushing water there. That was the force against which she was swimming.

And Kelly (ph), on the right, is that a live picture of that helicopter?

OK. So we now know that a helicopter is reengaged.

There's the fan boat. You just saw the helicopter. The helicopter is reengaged and is now -- I don't know if it's the same helicopter, but they are going to find this girl from the top.

The helicopter is going to identify exactly where she is. They're going to hover over that spot. The fan boat's going to get to her.

We've got to be very close right now, because you can see this helicopter is slowing down. The helicopter is hovering very closely, they're trying to find her.

We don't have a shot from the helicopter, so we don't know what the helicopter is seeing. There we go. There we go.

We've got workers -- who are these guys, now? These are rescuers -- this was -- I told you there were four boats. This is one of them where they got in there and their boat disappeared somewhere. Their boat got submerged.

So, now these are rescuers that have to be helped. These were guys who were out there trying to get this girl. They had to do the same thing.

Everybody's just got to hold on to a branch. And, by the way, if for some reason you're on a cell phone, and you're in Oklahoma City, and this happens to you, grab a branch. It seems to be working. Just make sure it's a good one.

Look at the winds though. The helicopter is stirring it up, but there are some winds out there.

So, the helicopter has identified the rescuers so far. I guess they're going to get the fan boat to get these guys.

And now they're -- Kelly (ph), do you know if they're asking where the girl is, too?

OK. So this is -- you've got all the information we have at the moment.

There are rescuers and this girl. They are stuck not too far from each other. A bunch of them are all hanging onto branches.

The helicopter has identified -- so you see we're looking from one helicopter to another at the moment. There we go. There's the fan boat approaching that first group of rescuers. OK?

So, problem number one is just about solved. We're going to get these rescuers. I don't know whether they're going to put them on the fan boat or they're going to tell them, you guys are fine, hang out there, we're going to get the girl.

There's fan boat number one, helicopter number two. So, what you've got in the sky right now, two helicopters, two fan boats in the water, and one set of rescuers. We don't know where their boat is. We think they were in an outboard motorboat that got stuck.

So -- OK. All right.

So, what we've got is we've got one helicopter that you're getting the shot from, courtesy of KOCO. The second helicopter is a spotter. They're helping find where the girl is.

So, we found these guys. We are trying to find out now where the girl is. She can't be too far from here.

Last we saw, she was safe, she was holding onto this branch. She was resting on it. The fan boats are going to be the way to get her out of there, because the area she's in, there's a dry patch in between.

I don't know enough about fan boats to know what they do if it's really completely dry. I think they need some water in which to operate, but they need less water than outboard motors do. And outboards stir everything up underneath. So that's why fan boats are often used in places like this where there might be some entanglements, some trees, or things like that.

Let's listen in to what the helicopter is saying.

All right. So, we're still trying to figure out how these rescuers are getting on that fan boat. There's a rope that they sent out, so it's sort of like a tow line. They'll get these guys out. These guys will pull themselves to the boat.

We're going to keep the audio up so we can hear what they're describing. So, this is a rescue of the rescuers.

All right. We're not hearing a whole lot of communication, but you can see these guys are in there.

You can see they've got the rescuers into their boat -- oh, there we go. That is the girl. There we go.

We got her. She's safe. She is in the boat. She looks fine. She looks like she's happy to get the relaxation.

She's got a life preserver on. They got her into the boat, and that story has ended beautifully.

She was struggling against that water, swimming from cops (ph) of trees to cops (ph) of trees. She was struggling upstream. She looked like she was getting tired.

Branches were breaking that she was grabbing. And finally, she got her hands around something and she climbed aboard. And they've got them all.

They've got the guys who went out to rescue her and got stuck. They've got her. They're all in that little raft. They look safe.

I've got to say, I'd choose a bigger raft, but that doesn't seem to be the priority at the moment. These guys look like everybody is happy to have everybody else. And they are pulling out -- this is the Oklahoma City Fire.

This girl was spotted by the KWTV helicopter, and they kept an eye on her. She waved at them. She knew that they had found her.

That's her on the left earlier, struggling against the water, trying to find a place to hold on to, grabbing at things, having them sort of break off, be set back a little bit. She found herself to safety. They found her. And this story ends very, very happily here.

We don't know what else is going on in Oklahoma in terms of other rescues, other people who might be waiting for rescue in a tree, but fascinating to find out what her story is, how she got there, and what it felt like to have to swim into that mess and hold on to a tree. And now she is all right.

The boat's leaving. They're heading back out to safety. And the rescuers are going to go out and see if they can find anybody else.

But at the moment, they are all on their way back to safety. Great ending to a very, very tense situation in Oklahoma City, where there's been over 10 inches of rain in the last six hours. The river levels have increased.

There are your fan boats. There's the outboard. A happy ending to that story.

Oh, wow. All right. Let's listen in to KWTV.

I'm hearing those guys talking about what's going on. Have we got that?

It sounds like they're making some tracks now. They're able to actually get some speed. They sort of ran into a tree as they first came out of that mess, but now it looks like they're actually getting some speed.

All right. We're watching this rescue take place.

I'm not sure why they put everybody on to this raft with the outboard, because that's the one that got them into a problem in the first place. But that seems to have been the easiest way to rescue this girl. And for the moment, they seem to have been successful.

Everybody seems to be getting out in good time. They're obviously taking a different route than they took in, because they had a dry spot, and that boat couldn't actually operate in that dry spot, which is why they sent those fan boats in, in the first place. But it looks like they're fine. It looks like they know how to get out of there.

They've got her. You can sort of see her. It's hard to see in that whole group, but she's closer to the front of the boat.

But she looks OK. They don't seem to be administering any treatment to her.

See, that's the problem. That's where it becomes dry road. So they're going to get out there and they're going to have to get a vehicle to get her the rest of the way, because that outboard is going to stop working any moment now as they come up to dry road.

But now they can walk it. So they're good.

She seems to be strong enough. She was swimming, so I'm sure she's exhausted and cold, but she seems to have her strength about her.

So, they've gone as far as they can go. I imagine there will be a vehicle driving up any moment now to pick her up.

There she is. Yes, she looks fine. She looks like this is easy for her compared to what she was doing 45 minutes ago, swimming to try and get her bearings.

Curious. We don't know anything about her. We don't know whether she drove into this, whether she was trying to escape from her home that was flooding.

We have no idea what the situation is, but there's the other helicopter that was helping locate her. And she is rescued. They are going to get her.

I imagine they'll put one of those thermal blankets on her at some point so that she warms up a little bit, because she was soaking wet. She was completely up to her neck in water.

A little bit of congratulations going around for these guys doing a job well done. The rescuers are out. This is courtesy of KWTV.

That was the helicopter, KWTV's helicopter, which spotted her, reported her to the authorities. Told them exactly where she was, sent them to her, but also said because of that dry patch, that boat was going to get stuck. That's exactly what happened. The rescuers' boat got stuck, so they sent out a couple of fan boats and rescued the rescuers. They then put this girl into the rescuers' boat, and now she's there. And you can see her on the right side of the screen.

She's in the green T-shirt. She's looking this direction now. She seems fine to me. She seems like she's in great shape.

She's been through a harrowing experience. She looked tired. She looked a little bit frightened from the shots we could tell.

I think a lot of people are curious as to exactly what's going through her mind, but she seems OK right now. They're leading her off to what appears to be either the helicopter we just saw that helped spot her, or a vehicle that's going to take her away.

The second helicopter was brought in, because when the rescuers went out there in the fan boats, the foliage was so thick, they couldn't really get a sense of where she was, because the only picture we had of her was from the air, from the helicopter. So, they couldn't see her.

So, the helicopters came back in to give some sense of where she was. And clearly, that actually happened quite quickly, because we didn't see that. And the next thing I saw, she was being rescued. I almost missed that while they were looking.

But it looks like she's getting into the helicopter. And she is going to have a remarkable, marvelous story of a miracle to tell all those around her, because it did look a little spotty for a second there.

I don't know where the helicopter is taking her next, but she is safe, the rescuers are safe. This is one story that has ended well.

By the way, there have been 20 or 30 stories -- I don't know, Kelly (ph), what the number is -- but there have been 20 or 30 rescues today by authorities, emergency managers in Oklahoma City. They've done a great job after this flash flooding came in.

Bonnie was telling us that there's still danger of another storm coming in, which is why those helicopters were wary about continuing to fly. But it looks like everybody's OK in this scene, and they're about to take off with that young lady.

We'll take a break and we'll get more information on this, find out exactly what happened. And, by the way, if there's anybody else out there that needs a rescue, we'll continue our coverage on CNN when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. It's good when there's a good outcome like the one we just saw, that girl rescued from the flooding in Oklahoma City. There are still rescues under way in Oklahoma City because of that flooding.

Go back to Friday. There was flash flooding in western Arkansas. A wall of water roared through a western Arkansas campground on Friday. Today, the death toll continues to rise.

CNN's Catherine Callaway joins me from Langley, Arkansas.

Catherine, what's the update? What's the situation in Arkansas?

CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know now that 20 bodies have been found. And I was just told that that body found this morning was that of a very young child. And that means that seven children were lost in this disaster.

And we have to try to remember that there were also 30 rescue, like you've been showing has been taking place in Oklahoma. But now, as you said, the death toll up to 20 now. And seven of those were indeed children.

We are wondering where they are in the search process right now. We know that a lot of the search teams have just returned. But when I ask officials, they say, "No, we're still out there." And there are hundreds of searchers.

So, they've been working in two-hour increments, Ali, because it is just so hot, the conditions are just so difficult to get through, that this may just be this group leaving and another group coming in to get some fresh legs in there and continue to search.

VELSHI: Catherine, this was not a campground that sort of had records of people coming in or going out with rangers and things like that. What's our best estimate as to when people have called in and said that they've got -- that somebody's missing, might be in there, what's our best estimate about how many people we might be looking for?

CALLAWAY: They can't even estimate it at this point. The numbers that we were hearing before -- and I'm sure you heard them, too -- anywhere from 10 to 30 -- I mean, the numbers were crazy -- were because of phone calls that they were getting saying, we haven't heard from so and so, we haven't heard from them.

Right now, they're saying, officially, they do not have anyone missing, officially, because of the body found today. But, yes, ,they're still looking, because it would be so difficult to find anyone in this situation.

But the fact that it's downstream, too, the fact that that the waters were so high, some 20 feet -- and sadly, Ali, we saw entire families wiped away in this and washed away in this. So, he told me today that we may never know just exactly how many people. But they're hoping they found today the last victim. And we hope that, too.

VELSHI: Chad Myers was telling us families were just camping by the river, which is what you do if you're camping.

CALLAWAY: Yes, you do.

VELSHI: And these waters go so fast, you see rain, you don't know that your river is all of a sudden going to rise several feet.

CALLAWAY: No. I wish I could explain to you or could articulate how beautiful this area is. We drove as far as we could, and we hiked down with one of the search teams yesterday. And you're actually hiking down to the river like a valley.

And it's beautiful there. The river is there. And you look at it, and you look up and you realize the water was 20 feet above you.

And you would see debris and pieces of buildings and limbs, parts of trees stuck up in trees. And then you've got debris up there. You've got debris down here, wrapped around other trees. It is really an impossible situation to find bodies in.

VELSHI: All right. Catherine, thanks very much.

Catherine Callaway is in Langley, Arkansas. We're continuing to cover that flooding.

That's the flooding I thought we were going to cover today, until we got this flooding in Oklahoma City going on right now.

We're going to have a live report from Oklahoma City when we get back, and some sense of whether that weather is going to break in Oklahoma City, whether they're going to get a break and those waters are going to recede, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We're following this weather in Oklahoma. I'm in Mobile Bay, Alabama, by the way, which is why I'm out here. We're here with the CNN Express and I'm covering the economic effect of this oil spill on people in this region. We'll be having more about later. But right now the story that before us is the situation in Oklahoma City, the flooding that has been going on all day.

So I want to go to Mark Opgrande a reporter with our affiliate KOCO. Are you still on Ski Island, Mark--

MARK OPGRANDE, KOCO REPORTER. Yes Ali, I'm on Ski Island right now which is just in northwest Oklahoma City. In fact I'll take your around-- this is what we've been watching all day. This is the dam right here. It's 220 feet across. It' s right in northwest Oklahoma City if you're familiar with this area. And there's about 140 houses behind it and numerous houses in front of it. For a while there, they were trying to wonder about the integrity of this dam.

I just talked to the engineer a little while ago and he just tells me that it did exactly what it's supposed to do although there's a lot of water coming across. It went all the way downstream, In fact you can see Marck Prickland (ph) my photographer here panning down. Underneath that road which is closed.. It goes off into another housing addition. Good news is I'm told no houses over there are flooded yet. But the bad news is, it kind of started to rain again. In fact it's been raining all day. In fact you've been watching about 9 1/2 to 10 inches of rain in the Oklahoma City metro today. That shatters the old record on today which was about 3 1/2.

A number of rescuers-- water rescues taking place this afternoon. In fact the girl that was-had to be clung to a tree this afternoon. They actually had rescuers come out on boat, in and they had to be rescued as well.

Just numerous rescues, too many to count. But the good news is rain started to slow down later this afternoon. The bad new is we could have more rain coming and going throughout the afternoon. And again, as I said, this is a place called Ski Island. Which predominantly it floods a lot around here. But what I've told by the engineers in that this right here is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. It is supposed to.

VELSHI: I find that fascinating, Mark. That's fascinating to me that that everything we're seeing is a dam actually working the way it's supposed to. But if you get caught in the water on the downside of that dam, you're still in trouble.

I think it's important to know that when 10 inches of rain comes down, that makes a difference.

If you're 10 inches and you're on top of a hill versus 10 inches in a river or in a valley that's where those flash floods-floods really start to matter. Mark, we hope that holds out and we hope -- we know there's another band coming in.

We hope that Oklahoma City gets a break but we'll keep coming back to you, Mark Opgrande of our affiliate KOCO in Oklahoma. That's the Ski Island Dam and that's holding, and yet you're seeing everything seeing.

All right hey, (INADUBILE) take a break when we come back. Celebrity cook Paula Deen she's got a new project, this time it is outside the kitchen. Very very special project . I'm going to talk to her about it when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Who doesn't know Paula Peen? If you don't, know Paula Deen you want to. In fact, you don't even need to know her, fact is, you just want to eat her food. She has started-she's a world renowned chef. You've seen her on TV there she is. But here's the thing, we're not just talking to her about that, which would be amazing enough.

She has joined a campaign to provide meat to food banks across the country. I want to talk to her about this initiative, what she's doing, how it's working. Paula, welcome to our show. Tell me what you're up to. PAULA DEEN, AMERICAN COOK: Thank you, Ali, so much. Well you know I'm partners with Smithfield and they are the king of pork. And these are such generous people. They've always quietly taken care of food banks.

But I'll tell you what Ali, we've really got a problem here in America. And it might not be the problem that one thinks of.

It is the working hungry that's having problems, people that have jobs, trying to take care of themselves. So Smithfield and I --

VELSHI: These are people we've heard of who have to go to -- sorry to interrupt you. These are the working poor, the working hungry, they have to go to food banks.

DEEN: Right right. And that's very scary. You know it's not the man on the street that comes up maybe knocks on your car window at a red light. It's not that person at all, but families who are trying to help themselves and to better themselves.

But by the time they get to the grocery line, honey, that check has shrunk. It has shrunk.

VELSHI: Tell me what you're doing, what your involvement is, how do you get involved in this.

DEEN: Ali well we have made a commitment, Smithfield and I have made a commitment that over the next two to three years, we're going to feed over 20 million people.

Right now, we're around 8 million. So like last week, I was in Memphis, Tennessee, and Nashville, Tennessee, and Smithfield and I left 70,000 pounds of protein to the food banks.

And you know Americans -- they're generous people, but not every day does food banks get protein like that. And course our little children need that protein to develop their minds and their bodies.

VELSHI: Paula,-- we have a whole

DEEN: --Part of this.

VELSHI: We have a whole different problem going on right behind me. You can't see it now. But two minutes ago, there were a couple of shrimpers out here a couple of shrimp boats. I know you were down here, first of all you know a lot about seafood in this country. And you were down here over Memorial Day. For these oysterman for these shripmers, for the crabbers for these fisherman. What do you see happening?

DEEN: You know, it's just devastating. It's so frightening. And you're right. My husband and I was there to help raise money Memorial weekend for the fishermen, just for the fishermen because their way of life has been all of a sudden taken away from them. And they don't know any other way of life. This is generation after generation of fishermen. And it is scary. And I, too, have a vested interest in the seafood. My brother and I own Uncle Bubba's Oyster House here in Savannah. So we depend on the sea for the wonderful foods that we serve I guess. So you know it's scary. It is really scary. And you're there Ali, seeing it firsthand, is that right?

VELSHI: That's right. And that's actually we're seeing it on our screen right now. That's a live picture form where I am. And you're seeing a shrimp boat, then you're seeing the booms laid out right over it.

Because where I am Paula, the oil hasn't hit Mobile Bay yet. But just a couple of miles out, there is oil out there and there are pelicans and we've seen the seafood out there.

This is a tragedy on so many levels. But you've-you've lived in Savannah so you understand the people who make their lives out of the sea. This is--the effect on them, the long-term economic effect on them is going to be longer than some media will be out here covering the story.

DEEN: How long do you think it will be, Ali? it's frightening.

VELSHI: You look at these guys. They're affected by the dispersant, they're affected by the oil. This could be a generation of seafood that's affected until something revitalizes it. And That's going to affect us all. And you just talked about the proteins and what we pay for food.

This is going to go, move its way well in from where we are.

DEEN: Yes, yes. It's very frightening. And hopefully BP is taking care of the situation.

VELSHI: The president is here talking to them and hopefully that's going to be the case. Paula, it's such a pleasure to have you on the show. And I love Savannah and I'm hoping to come up there pretty soon from Atlanta and partake in the restaurant.

But thank you for the great work you're doing with Smithfield's and getting some proteins out to the working poor.

DEEN: Thank you so much. And tell everybody-thank you tell them I sent best dishes to them and they're in our prayers. Thank you.

VELSHI: Thank you, Paula Deen. Great to see you. All right we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, I'm in Mobile Bay, if you look on a map you know where that is. We're, just south of Mobile, Alabama, on the west side of the bay. Drive a few miles over there and you got Pensacola Florida. That is where Ed Henry is staking it out. Because he's always somewhere where the president is and the president is on his way and Ed is going to tell us what he is doing. If I wave to him maybe he'll see me. But I'll see him on the other side of this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Quick look at the Dow up about 26, 27 points right now, 10, 237. Every day we go to our senior White House Correspondent on the "Stakeout", Ed Henry. And he happens to be just mere miles away from where I am right now.

The reason we're here we're talking to people about the economy and how this oil spill is affecting them, particularly if they work in the oil industry or the or fish industry.

But the president is here as well. The president is a little bit west of me or that's where he started.

And he is headed east to Pensacola, Florida. And Ed is always, because it's a "Stakeout" you go to be there first, Ed is there where the president is going to be. Ed, it's kind of warm down here.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: It is really warm here. You can see that. I'm squinting because the sun is so strong. A lot of people on the beach behind me, some people here in this restaurant The Dock behind me as well enjoying the sun and surf.

But I'm told by the owner here that business is off 40 percent just in the last few weeks because they're trying to send the message that, look they're sort, of people are scared off from coming here right now.

They say, look, the water-if you look behind me, water, it looks almost like it's the Caribbean. It's blue here, a little green more to the center out beyond this truck. It's beautiful out here because the oil is not here yet.

But there's a fear that just in the next few days, the oil will arrive. And in fact, if you look -- I have this woman Priscilla who just came down to the beach. She lives about a mile from the beach. And Priscilla tell us what you found in your backyard.

PRISCILLA CLARK, RESIDENT: Well I went out to go fishing in my kayak and this was floating all over the place and it was getting in the grass beds and big old clumps of it about a quarter of a mile.

HENRY: So Ali, the fear here and talking to people just out on the beach talking to the business owner here, they think it's a matter of time before this beach will either be shut down or they'll be questions about whether it should be shut down.

Because they think this oil is obviously bound for this beach one way or another. They feel like they've already been hurt in the first round here and they're worried that once the oil arrives, it's going to get that much worse.

VELSHI: Now Ed, this is the president's fourth trip to the Gulf region, he's meeting with people with businesses. He just actually had some comments -- he met with some business owners.

What it can he accomplish on this trip that's different from the others that are going -- that's going to be reassuring to people who live here and are like that business owner you just talked about who says business is down 40 percent? What can come of this?

HENRY: : In talking to senior White House aides, what they're saying is that the president believes we're now at a stage in this crisis where he has enough information to sort of lay out a battle plan in the days ahead and give people who have been really confused not just in this region but around the country as to what's next.

Finally give them some sort of battle plan moving forward. I can tell you, the business owner here, Bruce Parrish (ph), he's actually the general manager (INAUDBILE) but he's a general manager. He was telling me a short time ago that he voted for then candidate Obama in the primaries over Hillary Clinton and then voted as well in the general election in 2008 for Barack Obama but said he's having second thoughts.

He now wishes he voted for Secretary Clinton because he basically believes that President Obama hasn't taken command of the situation. This is an opportunity tomorrow night, from the Oval Office. The first time he'll be delivering an address to the American people from the Oval Office, a chance to convince the American people, people like this general manager behind me, that look he does have command of the situation and that the U.S. government can eventually turn this around, Ali.

VELSHI: And remind us because people like us really glum on to these things. But for the average person how big is a deal is it that the president is doing this primetime address tomorrow night?

HENRY: It's huge. I mean the only time he's done something like this is when he was pushing his health care plan, when he was talking about the economic crisis at the very beginning in the first 100 days. That's the only times before that he's really grabbed this had kind of megaphone, a megaphone that only a president has.

That gives you an idea of the stakes for him number one. And number two what I'm finding from local people here, one of the things they're outraged about is there are a lot of signs on some of the restaurants along the way into Pensacola Beach saying, Mr. President, activate FEMA.

And what they're talking about is the fact that FEMA has technically not been activated to deal with an emergency because the oil's not here yet.

And what locals are saying is, that look, the Coast Guard is in command but essentially they're tied up dealing with the oil leak out there and their authority ends at the water's edge and locals here want FEMA to be activated now.

We'll see whether president moves forward on that. One other quick thing the president is going to talk a little more about tomorrow of course is setting up this fund, this escrow fund to make sure they have got money from BP and put that aside in case BP were to lose more money, in case it were to go bankrupt, make sure money is set aside.

That obviously is being welcomed here. Small businesspeople here I'm talking to here like The Dock. There's another guy down the way dockside beach service he's selling sunscreen and sunglasses and the like. He says his business is down 30 percent and he's getting ready to file a claim with BP because his business has just been decimated Ali.

VELSHI: And less so where you are but over here where I am in Alabama, and Mississippi and then over in Louisiana, the issue is really a double-edged sword because people want BP -- want to make sure BP steps up, BP pays for everything that went wrong.

At the same time, a lot of people around here are concerned about the moratorium on drilling. So much of the money in these communities not just comes from seafood and shrimping and crabbing and oysters and fish. It comes from oil. So a lot of people very conflicted about how mad they want to be at the oil companies and how badly they want the oil companies punished.

HENRY: : You're right. And there's a divide within this very region, where you are around Mississippi, around Alabama. When I was in Louisiana, Grand Isle last week with the president, a lot of people there want to see offshore drilling continue.

And you're right, they're upset about the moratorium because that's their way of life. Florida, much different deal. And that's where the president will be sleeping here tonight. And he is coming out we're told, buy locals he's coming out on this beach tomorrow. People here in Florida don't want the offshore drilling to continue because they don't really get any economic benefit out of it.

Instead, they've gotten some of the pain of the oil coming this way. So there's a divide in this region. Florida, I don't need to remind you, very politically pivotal state. The president realizes he needs to come here and talk to the people here directly, his first time he's now been to Mississippi, Alabama and eventually Florida. He's on the previous trips, as you ,know the region its only been Louisiana Ali.

VELSHI: This is politically complicated, this is environmentally complicated, it's economically complicated. And Ed, we're miles away form each other but we're not going to be able to sort of enjoy ourselves as we would as if we were on a vacation because there's a lot of work to do on this one, a lot of work to do here in the Gulf Coats.

Ed henry on "The Stakeout" with the president just up the road from me in Pensacola, Florida. I'm in Mobile Bay, Alabama. The president moving his way from Mississippi through Alabama into Florida as part of his fourth trip through the Gulf coast. OK "Word Play" is in the forecast in just a moment. Yes we've got the inspiration for today's term from the folks in our weather department when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We've been following breaking news out of Oklahoma city, swamped by raging flash floods. Now we've witnessed some dramatic rescues, including a young woman plucked from a tree after swimming there.

This is a picture of her now. (INAUDBILE) see her she's being put into that boat. We followed this play-by-play. What a remarkable miraculous rescue for her.

But more rain is expected tonight. A flash flood watch has been extended across the central part of the state through 7:00 A.M central time tomorrow, 8:00 A.M. Eastern.

In Arkansas, a 20th body has been found from last week's flash flood that swept through a campground in the western part of the state. Among the victims, seven children.

Crews continue to search for more possible victims although they don't have official word of more people who are missing.

CNN'S Casey Wian talked to one of the survivors of last weeks' flooding in Arkansas.. He's got her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CASEY WIAN CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over):: Angela Chriss will never forget how she and eight family members escaped the Arkansas campgrounds flash flood.

ANGLEA CHRISS SURVIVOR: We just climbed a tree as fast as we could we just happened to be awake. My son 23-year-old son come running down. He was camping about 100 feet from us and said, momma and daddy, the water is rising, it's rising fast something' happened it just the rain causing it, something has caused the gush coming down.

Please whatever y'all do, get in a tree now. The most devastating part was seeing my 16-year-old floating by hollering, help, I'm drowning. Momma and daddy please help me. And we were in that tree 40, feet up and that was your flesh and blood. And it's worse, it's bad enough all the other people that screaming and floating underneath us, screaming for their lives. We were just helpless. When he went past us, about probably 200 yards past us, he grabbed a hold of a tree and that's how he survived.

WIAN:: They held on for several hours, all but certain they were going to die.

(on camera) Here we are four days after the event, you're still pretty banged up. Your leg is bruised. You're having trouble walking.

CHRISS: This is stuff that will heal. I feel like I just want to tell the world that those people that perished, they're the true heroes. A lot of them -- I mean it's just the guilt, I guess, having to live and to know that we all survived. And I know the Lord -- we were here for a purpose. We survived for a purpose because everybody around us perished.

WIAN (voice over): The Chriss family was four days into a planned month-long trip. All they've been able to salvage is in the back of this pick-up.

CHRISS: We went home with $10 million worth -- because we come back with all our family members. Don't get me wrong I don't ever want people thinking that you know I'm complaining about nothing like that. But -- I'm sorry.

WIAN: Casey Wian, CNN, Langley, Arkansas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Now today's "Word Play" idea comes straight out of our severe weather center we heard Jacqui Jeras and Bonnie Schneider talk about it all day. A back building thunderstorm. What is that? It's a series of heavy rain cores in a system that seems to remain stationary or even move backwards.

Why is that? Well because the system is generating new development, new cells, not on the usual downside of the storm but on the upside.

The upwind side. In other words, it's going into the wind. The up-wind side, usually the south or the southwest edge of the storm. Well they're seeing that right now in the Oklahoma city area. These back-building storms dumping almost 10 inches of rain and setting off flash floods and more rain expected overnight.

All right I'm spending the week in the Gulf coast. I'm going to tell you more about where I'm heading on the CNN Express and why, in my "XYZ" coming up next.

(COMMERICLA BREAK)

VELSHI Time now for the "XYZ" of it. I'm in the Gulf coast this week I'm travelling with the CNN Express. There are a lot of us down here, so why am I here?

Well we do something a little bit differently with the CNN Express. We drive in and we talk to people in places where, well there aren't officials and there aren't visits by the president and there aren't BP officials. And we're not actually watching the oil-rescuing operation. We're talking to people about how their lives are affected by this oil spill. And they're affected in many different ways.

One of them is those people who make their living out of the Gulf coast. And out the waters here. The fishing, the shrimping, the oystering, the crabbing. There are those who work in oil, who are losing their livelihood because of the moratorium on oil.

Because so many people are fearful about what's happening out here. So for the next few days, I'm going to be traveling through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, talking to people, talking to families, talking to small businesses about how this is all taking a toll on them just years after trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina. That's my job here that's what I'll be doing. If you see our CNN express, stop us because we want to talk to you. I'm trying now for Drew Griffin and Rick's list.