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Oil Cleanup Delayed By Storm; North Korea's Warning; Iowa Hit By Dam Break
Aired July 24, 2010 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank goodness it wasn't. Bonnie Schneider, thanks so much. Appreciate that.
All right. The threat from tropical depression Bonnie force the evacuation of several oil cleanup vessels in the gulf and that includes some of the big ones at the Deepwater Horizon site but tropical depression Bonnie has since faded, that's good news.
David Mattingly is live in St. Tamany Parish in Louisiana right now. So what's the latest on the movement of some of those ships?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, fortunately because the storm isn't what they thought it would be, some of those ships are now on their way back in. They expect to have that drilling operation up and going in the next 48 hours so they're trying to pick up right where they left off and try to lose as little time as possible as this storm continues to break apart.
But that doesn't mean that the storm won't be causing some problems because right here in the coastal areas of Louisiana, everyone's going to be watching the water. You notice it's a little bit choppy right now, this oil's going to do a couple of things.
It's going to break up in that chop in that surf, out there from the storm, but it's also going to be moving around a lot. And every time a tropical system comes in, it - the oil gets pushed through this waterway and toward Lake Pontchartrain which is back here behind me. So officials in Louisiana are going to be watching all up and down the coast to see where this storm moves that oil.
WHITFIELD: And so what, if anything, could they do to keep that oil from intruding?
MATTINGLY: Well, that's one of the big questions that's come up with all of this. Because when they thought a tropical storm might be heading this way, the Coast Guard put the order out to retrieve a lot of the equipment that they had out there. We actually have some video of some of the barges that were in this waterway to stop the oil being retrieved and taken inland.
We also have an example right where I'm standing here. You see all of this boom that's laid up, right here, ready to go? Well, that was brought in. Just sitting here, waiting, for this storm to pass so that they can take it right back out and sort of started a controversy here in Louisiana. Officials here say they want to make sure that all of this equipment that was taken out of water after the storm, they want to make sure it goes right back into it. So they're going to be asking those questions of the Coast Guard and of BP as soon as this storm, if you still want to call it a storm, gets out of here and then get back to the business of protecting themselves from this oil.
WHITFIELD: All right. David Mattingly, thanks so much.
Well, it is the biggest cleanup operation in the world, the oil recovery in that Gulf of Mexico. And getting started may be the toughest part of the job. While onboard the U.S. Coast Guard cutter "Elm," CNN's Rob Marciano shows us just how difficult it is.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): Once the barge was in place, we had to lash the two vessels together.
(on camera): We're just trying to tighten up this slack here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will slack out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no.
MARCIANO: Don't know if I'm helping but they need to make this as tight as possible. I can feel the tug pulling against me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're about as good as we're going to get there.
MARCIANO: And just doing that for 20 seconds. I'm exhausted, bro. We haven't even started. This whole process has taken hours. I mean, we're almost at - into the afternoon and we haven't skimmed a thing or even deployed any sort of skimming equipment.
It's given me a - a real appreciation for what these guys are doing every day. You think - you just come out here, you drop some boom and throw a vacuum cleaner on it and suck up the oil. There's so much more to it when you're talking about a project of this scope and a mess this big that needs to be cleaned up. It's painstakingly slow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARCIANO: The whole thing is slow, for sure. But they're doing one heck of a job, Fredricka. The past couple of weeks I've gotten the opportunity to embed with the Coast Guard skimmers, to embed with U.S. Fishing and Wildlife Service Search and Rescue folks and rehabilitating and releasing wildlife even cleaning up the beach at times.
The enormity of the project since this spill is mind-boggling and in an hour special tonight, previewing at 8:00, both Eastern and Pacific time, we're going to highlight the heroic effort, the people, the men and women that are getting it done here in the Gulf of Mexico. And invite all of America to tune in and show a little bit of gratitude to these folks who are cleaning up an amazingly beautiful piece of real estate here across the southeastern part of the United States.
That's 8:00 tonight and I think we replay it again tomorrow night. Fred, I know that you'll be tuning in.
WHITFIELD: Of course.
MARCIANO: You're probably set probably still have VCR, don't you? At least set the VCR.
WHITFIELD: Don't go slamming me on this on one.
MARCIANO: I'll give you some credit.
WHITFIELD: Yes, OK. I'm just going to watch it live, how about that? 8:00 tonight.
MARCIANO: All right.
WHITFIELD: And again tomorrow "Rescue: Saving the Gulf." All right, thanks so much. Rob Marciano, I appreciate that.
All right. International security forces in Afghanistan are searching for two American service members who went missing near Kabul. CNN's Atia Abawi joins us now from Kabul.
ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. Yes, two U.S. service members went missing on Friday afternoon, according to both NATO and Afghan officials. ISAF is saying that those two U.S. service members went missing on Friday and an investigation is under way but that's all of the information that they would give but according to an Afghan intelligence official, he says that these two men were actually abducted in Logar province.
Logar actually borders the capital of Kabul province just to the south and, Fredricka, as we've been hearing for the last several months, all that we really talk about lately is southern Afghanistan. That's Helmand and Kandahar provinces because of their strong Taliban influences, but what isn't talked about very much is eastern Afghanistan, particularly those provinces that border Kabul, including Logar that has a very strong Taliban influence. And it's permeated with Taliban fighters.
What we're trying to figure out right now with both ISAF as well as Afghan officials is why these two U.S. service members were in Logar province by themselves and what we hear is the fact that they weren't even in the military vehicle that they were actually in an armored vehicle.
WHITFIELD: Very curious. All right. Atia Abawi, thanks so much from Kabul for that update.
All right. This story reminds us that it has been just over a year since the disappearance of Specialist Bo Bergdahl. Until now, he was the only U.S. service member believed to be taken by the Taliban. He disappeared after wandering off base in Patika province, also in eastern Afghanistan. He has been seen in videos released by the Taliban. The military says they're still searching, however, for Specialist Bergdahl.
And a warning from North Korea, just a day before the U.S. is scheduled to begin joint military exercises with the south, how serious is this latest threat? We'll talk with a long-time expert in the region.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: North Korea is upping their threat level over planned U.S. South Korea military exercises this weekend. The state-run news agency says the north will, "legitimately counter with its powerful nuclear deterrence." The military drills in South Korea are scheduled to start tomorrow.
So Mike Chinoy is a former CNN senior Asian correspondent and the author of "Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korea Nuclear Crisis." He's joining us right now from Los Angeles. Good to see you.
MIKE CHINOY, FMR. CNN SENIOR ASIAN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: So, Mike what should we expect from these military exercises?
CHINOY: Well, these exercises have a number of goals. They're designed, primarily, to deter North Korea in the wake of the North Korean sinking of that South Korean naval vessel in late March. They were also intended to help South Korea improve its anti-submarine warfare capabilities, and the North Koreans are very angry about the exercises.
One of the patterns, if you look at North Korean behavior over many years, is that they respond to pressure and coercion by upping the ante. And at the moment, it's really rhetorical. There's all kinds of very bellicose language coming from Pyongyang. Whether they're going to actually do anything aiming at the exercises, I doubt.
But it's not impossible that we'll see them begin to reactivate their nuclear to try to make more plutonium or stage a missile test or maybe even lay the ground for another nuclear test.
WHITFIELD: So when the north says, there will be a nuclear deterrent, you believe that more likely than not that's a bluff.
CHINOY: Well, they're not going to put a nuclear warhead on a missile and fire it at anyone but they do have this nuclear program and one of the cards in Kim Jong-Il's deck at the moment, is to try and restart the Yong Bong nuclear reactor and make more weapons grade plutonium. They Only have enough for a few bombs at moment and that's one thing they haven't done.
They could also as I mentioned stage another nuclear test or they could find another way to ratchet up tensions without targeting the exercise itself. They've shown themselves to be pretty clever at sort of asymmetrical warfare. So I wouldn't rule out at continuing increasing tensions in the coming weeks. WHITFIELD: And so what does the North actually achieve by this? I mean, it's already very isolated but by whether it is to bluff or it is just to kind of flex the muscles, what does it really achieve?
CHINOY: North Korea is in a very complicated situation right now. Its leader, Kim Jong-Il, is old and ailing and he's trying to lay the groundwork for his son, Kim Jong-Un to succeed him and there are a lot of speculation that in September there's a big meeting that will formalize the succession process and so what the North Koreans, I think, are trying to signal is, "leave us alone, don't try to coerce us, because if you do, we have ways in making your life uncomfortable."
And that has always been their normal response to external pressure, to sort of hunker down and say, whatever you can dish out, we can dish out just as much.
WHITFIELD: At the same time, are there some dangers that come with the South and the U.S. carrying out these military drills?
CHINOY: Absolutely. The danger here is that there's no channel open for diplomacy or dialogue with North Korea. You've got muscle flexing on the South Korean and U.S. side, you've got bellicose rhetoric and threats on the North Korean side, and nobody is talking about how to get back to negotiations.
In the end, the North Koreans don't want a war because they'll be destroyed. But they know that the U.S. bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan, can't really afford things to get out of control on the Korean peninsula, and the danger, with all of this muscle flexing and all of these military exercises is a firefight, a miscalculation, an accident of some small-scale episode could spiral out of control. And you could get a dangerous cycle of escalation, so there's no question there are risks here.
WHITFIELD: Mike Chinoy, a former senior correspondent for CNN and author of "Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korea Nuclear Crisis." Good to see you, from L.A..
Well it's a story of state secrets, spies and loyalty. This time on the big screen. We'll find out how Angelina Jolie measures up in her new movie "Salt."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN FREEMAN, ACTOR: Hi, I'm Morgan Freeman and we could make an impact for hurricane relief. Here's something.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now.
International forces in Afghanistan are searching for two American service members missing near Kabul. An Afghan intelligence source tells CNN that the missing troops were captured by militants. The military is trying to figure out why they left their Kabul compound in a non-military armored vehicle.
Progressive activists are gathering in Las Vegas this weekend. The Net Roots Nation Convention is an opportunity for groups to exchange ideas and strategies. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Harry Reid are among today's speakers. President Obama appeared today in a taped message to the group.
And ships evacuated from oil cleanup jobs in the gulf because of that storm named Bonnie are now heading back today. National incident commander, Thad Allen, says most of the 10 to 15 vessels that were at the site will be back on the scene within the next 24 hours. Bonnie is now a tropical depression and it's weakening even further.
Massive amounts of rain have caused a dam to break in Iowa. The 700 residents of the town of Hopkinton had to be evacuated in fact when the sirens actually sounded. Residents were told they had five minutes, just five minutes to leave. The town of Monticello is under a flood warning now. Iowa's governor has deployed the national guard to the area.
All right. Now playing, Angelina Jolie in full-on action mode. And a best-selling children's book hits the big screen, Pete Hammond is film critic for "Box Office" magazine. He's joining us live from Los Angeles. Hey, Pete, how are you?
PETE HAMMOND, "BOX OFFICE" MAGAZINE: Hi, Fredricka. How are you?
WHITFIELD: I'm doing pretty good. OK. So Angelina Jolie she took a little time off and now she's in "Salt" and she seems to like these kind of gritty films. It seems to be her thing. Let's take a look and listen to "Salt."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There she is. All teams southbound, toward the bridge.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Salt.
On the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have to find my husband. Please. Don't shoot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last chance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody's setting me up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't make me put you down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the ground. We'll sort this down I promise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got to bring you in, Salt. Salt, face-down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody's going to try to kill the Russian president, you know that. Do something about that. That's what you should be worried about.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go in and run.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't do anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Whoa! So we're on the edge of our seats there. Pete, did you like this?
HAMMOND: I really did. I really liked this movie a lot. I think it's just non-stop action. It's kind of like the "Bourne Ultimatum" with Angelina Jolie. It's sort of her "Bourne" movie and you know, interestingly enough, it was originally written for a man. Tom Cruise was thinking about doing it for a while until he thought it was too much like "Mission Impossible." They rewrote it for her and she just kills in this movie. She is sensational.
WHITFIELD: Literally.
HAMMOND: And did most of her own stunts.
WHITFIELD: Yes, she seems to like that. And I guess that's very effective too. That kind of raises her stock, right?
HAMMOND: Yes, it does. You know she's been in a lot of action movies before "Wanted," "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." The "Lara Croft" pictures. She's proven this. I think after "Salt" though she's the number one action star in the world, male and female.
WHITFIELD: Oh my god. Really? Topping Tom Cruise.
HAMMOND: Yes. Tom Cruise is getting a little long in the tooth for this kind of thing. He's good but she's sleet. She makes it work and plus she's got in this role there's an emotional under core. I mean you really root for her and I think that's key to keeping an audience involved you know when there's one chase after another and a lot of gun play and everything that goes on in this movie. And it's an "as- salt" if I can play on the title of the movie in its own way.
WHITFIELD: She's adding a little spice to that salt too, OK. And now -
HAMMOND: I'd say.
WHITFIELD: And what about "Ramona and Beezus."
HAMMOND: Yes.
WHITFIELD: Am I saying that right?
HAMMOND: Ramona and Beezus.
WHITFIELD: Yes. This is very cute. At least, it looks really cute and of course a lot of folks have followed the books for so long. So let's take a peek that this clip and see if you like.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Royal peanut butter. There's a bit of magic in every job.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that one of your favorites? That's the rack they we have to get you into because those TV can take millions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think they could be in a commercial like that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sure, you'd make a great frog.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hold still, I'm almost done.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's picture-perfect, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's be realistic, Ramona. This is a curling iron, not a magic wand. But all things considered I'd say you never looked better.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love it. Thanks, Beezus.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: OK. Very believable sisters in your view, do you like it, is it cute?
HAMMOND: Yes. You know what, it's cute. There's only one possible audience for this film and that is 10-year-old girls and their mothers. And interestingly enough, this was based on a book that came out first in 1955. It has taken them 55 years to get this to the screen and you know, it's sort of - looks like something from the '50s.
They almost should have called it "Leave it to Ramona." It has that "Leave it to Beaver" kind of feel and it's very - it's cute, though. The girl, Ramona is wonderful. Joey King, she's so vibrant and alive and I think that the target audience of young girls is going to eat this up. They'll like it and plus Selena Gomez who is very hot is her older sister.
WHITFIELD: So talented that little girl. My goodness, she's got a clothing line. She's singing and acting too. Oh, you gave this a B minus. That's pretty nice.
HAMMOND: I did. I gave it a Beezus' minus. You know -
WHITFIELD: Oh, oh.
HAMMOND: It's good. I wouldn't recommend this movie for everybody. I think it's really targeted towards young girls, and for them, yes, it's a good, solid "B," it's above average, but barely and you know they'll enjoy it.
WHITFIELD: All right. High grades, "A-minus" for "Salt" and "B- Minus" for this one too. All right. Pete Hammond, thanks so much, appreciate it, from "Box Office" magazine.
HAMMOND: Absolutely. Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Appreciate it. Coming to us from L.A..
OK. Again we want to update you on a story that we continue to watch. This coming out of Iowa, a dam has broken near the town of Monticello. It has led to the evacuation of a town of Hopkinton. And we're hoping to hear from the governor of Iowa momentarily to give us an idea of just how serious this is.
Sirens had been sounded. Residents told to leave and all of that took place as a result of this dam breaking. Hopefully the governor will be joining us momentarily
Meantime, until a week ago, Shirley Sherrod lived a fairly quiet life in Georgia. Now she's the center of a national debate that is ongoing. Don Lemon is going to be joining us in a moment because he is going to be setting up a documentary that'll be taking place later on this evening about this woman who was the woman behind the controversy, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. All kinds of extreme weather here today. Let's go to Bonnie Schneider. Now we're talking about some potential tornadic activity in New York?
SCHNEIDER: That's right, we were talking about tornado warnings in Erie, Pennsylvania, at least in the county of Eerie. Now that storm has moved a little bit farther to the west. We'll zoom on that now and we're talking about Tatagua (ph) County, in western New York. Now this tornado warning is in effect until 5:00 o'clock. So it doesn't have too much longer to go. A tornado has not been spotted but it is the same thunderstorm set that has really producing some rotation. So the potential is there for a tornado to drop down at anytime. So take cover if you're in that part of Upstate New York, right near the Pennsylvania border.
Another place we're watching, of course, is the Chicago area and then down through areas of central Illinois. And a severe thunderstorm watch is in place but I tell you, the big story for Chicago has been all the rain that's been falling. Some places got nine inches of rain.
And we have an iReport that we can go to now to show you what it was like last night with flooded streets. It was just a complete mess across much of Chicago and really that's what we're looking at right now. This iReport, that you're looking at was sent to us, of flooded streets in Chicago, by Tony Awad of Waukegan. And he said he was actually looking for dessert in the evening and he was driving around Deversy (ph) and Polanski, in the Avondale area. And that is where he saw these flooded cars, flooded streets with cars and people were just stranded. So very serious situation in Chicago.
A lot of people were stranded and also flights were stranded as well, and people, passengers, who were trying to get to destinations in Milwaukee had to be diverted.
So here is how it shapes up right now. It is not raining in Chicago at this hour, but there is a lot of runoff from all of the rain that's been falling. So that is why we have the flash food watches in place.
We're also tracking the extreme heat across a good portion of the mid- Atlantic and the South, as well as the North. It's 97 in New York City right now. It's 100 degrees in Washington. Dulles Airport recorded a record warm, low temperature, if you can follow that. It dropped down to only 78 degrees this morning. Normally the temperature is 74 in the overnight hours. And it doesn't even get cool at night.
So Fredricka, we're not looking at a cool down until Monday or Tuesday for much of this region.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Oh boy.
SCHNEIDER: When that front, that is bringing the storms, that will push through, it will just take another day or two.
WHITFIELD: Do we feel like this has been an unusual summer? It has been-
(CROSS TALK)
SCHNEIDER: I think it has been a long stretch of hot weather, absolutely.
WHITFIELD: Yeah, yeah, brutal hot weather. This is the kind of stuff have to stay in the shade, or stay in the air-conditioning, get the fan going, something, to that effect to stay safe, right?
All right, Bonnie Schneider, thanks so much.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
WHITFIELD: All right, still no word yet on whether Shirley Sherrod, which is-you know her name has become kind of a household name because of all that took place earlier this week. No idea whether she's going to return to the Department of Agriculture. She was forced to resign. You know the story by now, because of misleading comments that suggested that she discriminated against a white farm couple. But those charges were discredited after the couple came to her defense saying, she actually helped save their farm.
Well, Sherrod was reunited with that couple, right there, as you see right there, Roger and Eloise Spooner at a Georgia restaurant yesterday. There were lots of hug, smiles, you see right there a great embrace. The Spooners say that back when Sherrod rescued them, they never expected that they would one day be able to return the favor.
So, who is Shirley Sherrod? You've come to know her name, but do you feel like you really know who she is? Well, Don Lemon went looking for answers. And he's got a special that's on tonight beginning at 7:00 o'clock, and then again at 10:00 o'clock. The woman behind this controversy.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah. And you know, we think that we know so much about her.
WHITFIELD: Yeah.
LEMON: Because we've seen her so much on the news, but I found her background, Fred, fascinating. When we talk about, this we talk about the people who -- our parents and our grandparents.
WHITFIELD: Yeah.
LEMON: We stand on their shoulders, right? They're the unsung civil rights leaders and I call them -- I like to call them the greatest generation of civil rights leaders. So there are people who have stories, thousands of people who have stories like Shirley Sherrod, and her husband, and her family, but she happens to be in a position- and she has a platform now to tell those stories.
WHITFIELD: Right.
LEMON: But the one I think that we discussed I think that touched her the most, that she was most emotional about, was the death of her father in 1965.
WHITFIELD: That kind of was a catalyst for her-for her emotionally.
LEMON: Yeah.
WHITFIELD: About where she was. What place she was in, in this country.
LEMON: At 17 years old, she's got sisters. Her sister had integrated the high school. She had one brother, who was on the way. The dad never got meet brother. He was so excited about having a son. His name is Jose Miller, her dad. He was so excited about having a son and then he never got to see the son. She said she was in school, the principal calls her into the office. And says, I have to tell you something. He tells her first, and then she has to tell her sisters. And we I talked about as I interviewed her. Take a look, Fred, and then we'll talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHIRLEY SHERROD, FMR. GA. DIR., RURAL DEVELOPMENT, USDA: And they argued about it and according to the others, my father told him, we don't have to continue arguing, we'll just go to court. And he was walking to his truck to leave. He turned around to say something, the man shot him right up here.
LEMON: In the back?
SHERROD: No in the front. You see, when my father turned around to say something else, that's when he shot him. And see, black people were not supposed to speak up, you know? And defend themselves with white folks. Now, that was going on -- that happened, also the student on the Violent Coordinating Committee --
LEMON: I want to stick with that. So he shot your dad.
SHERROD: Yes.
LEMON: Did he go to court?
SHERROD: No. He was never, ever prosecuted. The white grand jury in Baker County refused to indict him.
LEMON: Why?
SHERROD: They were white. They could make that decision. And know that nothing would ever happen. We tried suing him, but any lawsuit starts there in the county, and you don't -- you still had those same white men who were the jury.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: So she talks about the man who killed her father. They the property, the farm abutted another farm. Some the cows, they believe, got mixed up and so they had this argument over whose cow, you know, who owned which cow? And the man shot him as he walked -- the man came to his house and shot him as he walked away. And I went to the field and talked about that with her. It's a very fascinating story, Fred.
WHITFIELD: And she felt like she had many reasons in which to be angry, clearly very hurt, the family was, you know, was very deeply hurt by all of this. And this anguish for so many years, but during that speech with the NAACP, that local chapter, she talked about that, being a turning point.
LEMON: That was her turning point. And she said when her father died, the night she went home, she went to the bathroom and she looked out at the moon, and she said she prayed and God spoke to her. These are her words and she made a commitment then to stay because she wanted to leave the South and she wanted to help black farmers, especially, and then she had that epiphany with Mr. Spooner that it wasn't about black and white, that it was about poor people, the haves and the have-nots.
WHITFIELD: It's an extraordinary story. And her story really can be so duplicated so many times-
LEMON: Yes.
WHITFIELD: a-in this country. But she's the one right now, who, like you said, has this platform and so, tonight at 7:00 o'clock, 10:00 o'clock, we get a chance to hear more of that story with this platform.
LEMON: And after that, I want to tell you, make sure you stay tuned because we're going to talk about the president and she believes how -- she talks about the tightrope that the president has to walk about race. And she thinks she can help him out with that, so it'll be interesting tonight.
WHITFIELD: Does she reveal anymore about whether she'd want to return to working for the USDA-or in some other capacity, the government?
LEMON: We talked about her life, but she shared some things with me that I'll share with the audience after our special.
WHITFIELD: Good. We'll look for that. Don Lemon, appreciate that.
LEMON: Thanks, Fred.
WHITFIELD: This other story that we've been tell you about, that has unfolded within the last 30 minutes or so. A dam breaking near Monticello, Iowa, Governor Chet Culver is actually on the phone with us now.
Governor, this dam-breaking has led to the evacuation of so many people in a community there. Give me an idea of where we are with this dam break, how serious is it?
GOV. CHET CULVER, IOWA: Well, we are in the northeast part of the state of Iowa. Delhi is about 20 miles northwest of Monticello, there is also the community of Hoppington, between Delhi and Monticello. So the good news is that the local officials have done a great job moving people out of the way, monitoring the flood levels. But it is -- you know, a very sad situation. You're talking about a catastrophic break in the dam. So that has never happened before. And you know once again here in the Midwest and in Iowa, we're dealing with, you know, record flood levels in certain parts of our state.
WHITFIELD: And so you say this is a catastrophic break in the dam. A, what do you suppose caused this break?
CULVER: Oh, just you know too early to tell but, you know, too much water. We've had record flooding in this part of Iowa again this summer. We had nearly 10 inches in that Delhi area and to the north of there in a 12-hour period. So just too much water for the dam to hold and you know it's very sad for those homeowners and businesses that will be you know, impacted. And that, you know, it's tough for those folks.
But we're doing all that we can to help provide assistance. We've called in the National Guard. We've opened the emergency operations center in Des Moines. And everyone, you know, citizens are rallying and helping each other and we'll get through it.
WHITFIELD: And at this point, Governor, is there any way in telling just how extensive the damage is to homes, clearly homes along the waterway are probably underwater that the point. But how far, how wide-reaching is this flooding as a result of the dam break?
CULVER: Well, we're still assessing that. Again, the good news is we had plenty of time in terms of evacuation notice. Early this morning there was some real concern about the dam. And so there were warnings issued and notification given to those in the flood plane. But the other good news is, as you're not talking about a highly concentrated area, in terms of residential homes. So you know that's a blessing I think at this point.
WHITFIELD: That's good.
CULVER: And we've had time to get people out of the way. But we're right in the middle of it. And we're monitoring it very closely. And we just don't want any loss of life and we want to avoid and prevent as many injuries as possible. And so far, we've been able to do that, which is -- which again, is a very good thing.
WHITFIELD: Iowa Governor Chet Culver, thanks so much. We wish you all of the best. Of course we'll keep tabs with you and your emergency response people throughout the evening.
So once again, a dam break there near Lake Deli. And it has led to extensive evacuations, lots of damage of residences, as well as businesses, as you heard right there from the governor. We'll have much more straight after this.
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WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now.
Oil containment vessels are moving back into place in the Gulf. They were evacuated because of the threat of high winds from now Tropical Depression Bonnie. Well, National Incident Commander Thad Allen says this is going to be a familiar dance throughout hurricane season.
And a desperate search is under way for American troops missing in Afghanistan. An Afghan intelligence source tells cnn that the missing service members were captured by militants in Logar Province. It happened after the service members left their compound near Kabul in a nonmilitary armored vehicle.
And North Korea is now threatening to use their nuclear capabilities as a response to joint U.S. and South Korean military exercises. This is a step up from North Korea's earlier threat, where they just promised a physical response. Those drills are scheduled to start tomorrow on both South Korean coasts.
All right, losing weight, everyone's been through something where they want to. Well, it's a constant battle for millions of Americans. New research shows that 38 states now have adult obesity rates above 25 percent. So why can't more people shred those unwanted pounds? Our next guest blames a myriad of misconceptions about dieting and weight loss. He is fitness and nutrition expert Kelly Huggins.
So, Kelly, you call yourself sort of a myth buster.
KELLY HUGGINS, NUTRITIONIST, FITNESS EXPERT: Yes.
WHITFIELD: There's a lot of stuff out there.
HUGGINS: Yes.
WHITFIELD: And people have hang-ups now as a result.
HUGGINS: Yes, they do. I was watching Doctor Gupta actually a couple weeks, where I see this information here, but you know, in 28 states you know, obesity has increased. And you know the CDC has been paying attention to you know obesity -- the obesity epidemic since the early '80s.
WHITFIELD: Yeah.
HUGGINS: And you know so I have to ask myself this question, and that is, you know you've got all of these different weight loss products. You know, programs, diets and all of these things.
WHITFIELD: And you can do it in so many days, 10 days, 10 pounds, 10 days out of here. You say, no way?
HUGGINS: No way, because you know, for one, this right here is what a pound of fat looks like.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
HUGGINS: There's 3,500 calories in a pound of fat. So say your resting metabolism is 1,700 calories, that's on a good day, OK. You know, it is impossible for you to lose a pound or more a day when you see a lot of these things that says you know you will lose 10 pounds in 10 days or --
WHITFIELD: Sometimes that ends up being water, right?
HUGGINS: Exactly. At first it's water weight, you know, because for every gram of carbohydrate-initially, a lot of these diets are about cutting out carbohydrates. So for every gram of carb that you have you have 2.4 grams of water that's attached to it, so there is some of the weight that you lose. The other thing is that you have digestive matter. So you start eating less and so you start to eliminate that. Then you have less weight. I mean, you know, weight is nothing more than gravity pulling an object toward earth. I could put you on the moon and you'll weigh 16 percent of what you weigh here, but nothing else changes, whether it's Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, or body fat composition.
WHITFIELD: So, when I hear 10 pounds, 10 days, you say forget, out of there. When I hear carbs are bad for you, stay away from carbs, you say, not necessarily the case.
HUGGINS: Carbs are very-
WHITFIELD: Good carbs, bad carbs. Right?
HUGGINS: Carbs is your primary source of fuel. You need carbohydrates in order to not fuel just your body but your brain as well. I know that there are some advocates out there that say, for example, the Atkins diet is a very popular diet for people to go on and cut out carbohydrates. And they'll say, yeah, you can create what is known as Ketone bodies, in order to get past what is known as the blood brain barrier. But that's not what the body wants to do because what begins to happen is you start to break down muscle as a source of energy as well, in order to get the primary energy that it needs, that it requires.
WHITFIELD: Is it ever too late to get into shape? Because there's that you know? It's just too late. You're past that point.
HUGGINS: Right, understand as we get older, for one, between the ages of 25 to 60 years of age, we lose half a percent of our lean muscle mass annually. And then after age 60, we lose 1 percent annually, so there's only a few ways to reverse that. One is to make sure that you're eating enough, but the other thing is that you have to do resistance training as well as cardiovascular exercise, in order to maintain that muscle mass.
WHITFIELD: And resistance training, not to be confused with weight training. Because some folks think that weight training-especially I hear a lot of ladies, who say I don't want to bulk up, do this weight training stuff.
HUGGINS: What I'll say is initially, yes, you may increase the lean muscle mass and I see it all the time with a lot of my clientele. They initially when they get involved into a weight training program maybe sometimes they gain some weight. But for every pound of lean muscle mass that you create you burn an additional 25 to 50 calories at rest. So what begins to happen is your lean muscle mass is going to support your metabolism and muscle is the only physical location that utilizes fat as energy.
WHITFIELD: And muscle weighs more than this, right?
HUGGINS: Exactly, exactly and it takes up less space than this, too.
WHITFIELD: Wow. Kelly Huggins, thanks so much. Lots of myths out there, folks getting kind of tied down.
HUGGINS: Absolutely.
WHITFIELD: All of the stuff that you hear, you are just breaking it down for us and helping us out.
HUGGINS: Thanks for having me.
WHITFIELD: Appreciate it.
HUGGINS: See you soon.
WHITFIELD: All right. Wiped out after Katrina, residents along one Gulf Coast town decide to make recovery and rebuilding a family activity.
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WHITFIELD: Welcome back. We're following a dam break near Monticello, Iowa. You're looking at the aerial images that have come in from our affiliate there. Evacuations have been ordered. All this, they believe this dam may have broken as a result of so much rain; at least 10 inches of rain in one particular experience in recent days. And it has simply stressed out area there. The governor says they're going to continue to watch. Evacuation's under way. And they're expecting some catastrophic damage as a result.
All right, meantime, parts of the Gulf Coast are still recovering from Hurricane Katrina five years after the storm hit. One Mississippi town is building back up, and in the process, making children a priority. Here's CNN's Tom Foreman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The children are riding the waves again around the battered shores of Waveland. No community was hit harder than by Katrina and none has been more mindful of the fact that children suffered just as much as adults. Caroline Collins can attest to that. She remembers her father staying through the storm and returning to find him amid the wreckage.
CAROLINE COLLINS, YOUTH LEADER: Coming home and like seeing him when I walked in the door, I remember kissing all of us on the head.
FOREMAN: So from the start, this town has focused on the recovery of children as much as the return of adults, because as Mayor Tommy Longo puts it, more than business, more than government --
MAYOR TOMMY LONGO, WAVELAND, MISSISSIPPI: The families are the heart and soul of your community.
FOREMAN: As a result, some of the earliest recovery projects here were family oriented. Baseball fields and parks, a community center, a new library, new schools, and safe places for children and their parents to retreat from the devastation and debris. It's an ongoing process. At St. Claire's Church, still in a temporary building, a new youth group has just been started. Beth Gruzinskas is an organizer and she has never had any doubts about staying.
BETH GRUZINSKAS, PARENT LEADER: I have lived here my whole life. This is where I belong, and this is where my children belong, and my family. And there was no question that we were going to rebuild.
FOREMAN: And plenty of young people are fully committed to helping.
COLLINS: We want the best for the community. Because we love it just as much as all of the adults do.
FOREMAN (On camera): Still, it's an ongoing process. Convincing adults to deal with terrible things like a great storm or a catastrophic oil spill is one thing, persuading them to expose their children to it is something else.
(voice over): But this town made that a priority and it still is.
(On camera): As a parent, what do you want other parents to know about your town?
LONGO: That it's -- that it's safe. It is a safe environment. I want them to know that they need to come home.
FOREMAN (voice over): And he should know, he has seven children all still growing up right here in their hometown. Tom Foreman, CNN, Waveland, Mississippi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks for being with me this afternoon. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Stay tuned for more news with Don Lemon. He's talking about the white flight, no not white flight from cities to suburbs, this white flight is happening on the Internet.
Don will also introduce you do an Asian-American who just graduated from Harvard University. And is now in the NBA; that all starts after this.
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