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More Rain, Wind & Mud for California; Growing Up on Prescription Meds; Cancer Clue in Your Hands; A New Look at Lightning; Stranded in Moscow; Reflecting on the BP Oil Spill; "ER" Vets Saving Lives All Right; Murkowski to Make History Next Week

Aired December 29, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, take a look here, what we're seeing out in Los Angeles. They've had some wet weather. This a live picture you're seeing courtesy of one of our -- not sure who is bringing us this picture, but thank you whoever is bringing it. But a live picture to show you here. It's been kind of wet out there in Los Angeles.

And thanks to our folks at the bureau, forgive me, they are providing this picture to us, our CNN folks out on the West Coast. Hello to you all.

Been wet out there. We've been talking about the northeast. The snow has been getting a lot of the headlines the past week it seems like almost. But in California, they've had headlines of their own weather problems. Snow, yes, in the mountains, but mainly it's been rain and mud.

In particular, we're talking about the town of Highland. This is just east of Los Angeles, at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains. Lost some five homes in mudslides just before Christmas. A new storm bearing down today.

Casey Wian is standing by for us there.

Please, give us the update. How is their situation?

CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., how would you like it if this was your driveway? I mean, look at this situation.

We're talking a week after heavy rains hit this community of Highland, and we still have crews here who are dealing with this incredibly saturated ground. We've only had about a half to an inch of rain in this community so far today, but because the ground is so saturated, water is continuing to puddle on these streets, as you can see.

You can also talk -- you want to talk about paying your debt to society? We've got members of the California Department of Corrections, inmates here who are volunteers, who fight fires, but they also come to situations like this and help clean up these operations. And we've had -- you've got to excuse this piece of heavy equipment that's moving some of this earth that's gotten into our shot right now. And he'll be out of the way as soon as this pedestrian goes. But they have deployed 150,000 sandbags throughout this community.

We just visited one of these residents just down the street here, at the end of the street. We aren't able to get you a live picture there because of the cabling situation and all the work that goes on, but she's got five feet of mud in her back yard. She's got a chain link fence, and the ground is now above the top of her chain link fence.

You are really seeing quite a bit of damage. What's amazing is that there have been no fatalities, no significant injuries. There have been 23 rescues over the past week or so, but so far authorities here say they have been able to avoid what could have been disastrous consequences.

Now, the rain is continuing to fall here. It's fairly light. They think they've been through the worst of the storm, but because the ground is so wet, they still don't know -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Casey Wian reporting for us there.

Casey, we appreciate you.

Want to bring in Chad Myers, keeping an eye on things.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: All right. Let's give you some statistics here. It's kind of amazing when we were first reading up on these today in the newsroom.

The statistics have to do with our young people, kids. Just about one out of four kids you pass by on the street, the grocery store, see in the schools, one out of four of them are taking some kind of prescription drug on a regular basis. Maybe even every day.

That number, according to Medco. That's the largest U.S. manager of prescription drug benefits. And it's also being reported in "The Wall Street Journal" today.

Now, we're not just talking asthma inhalers or ADHD pills, things you would first think about, though there are plenty of those to go around. Parents filled more than 45 million asthma prescriptions for kids and teens in 2009, 28 million for young kids under 10 years old. Prescriptions for hyperactivity meds topped 24 million last year, most of those to older kids.

But I want to give you a look now at what else our kids are taking out there.

Now, using research from the firm IMS Health, The Journal reports more than 9.6 million prescriptions were filled last year for kids, antidepressants. More than a million of those were kids younger than the age of 10.

Also, we have a number for anti-hypertensive. Did you hear this? In 2009, more than five million prescriptions for these were filled for kids who can't even legally drink beer. We're talking about young kids here, really young folks.

Joining me now to try to shed some light on all of this is Dr. Charles Sophy. He's a psychiatrist and medical director for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.

Doctor, thank you for being here.

Do we jump to a natural conclusion that we're overmedicating our kids?

DR. CHARLES SOPHY, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, L.A. COUNTY DEPT. OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES: No, we don't do that.

HOLMES: No?

SOPHY: We don't do that, because we are in an age where it's really wonderful that we have these abilities and these tools to be able to diagnose appropriately, early intervention, better outcomes. So we don't want to jump to that conclusion.

However, we do want parents and doctors to take a good look at how they're diagnosing, making sure if they need a second opinion, they get one, that we're going about it the right way, so that if we do end up using medication as an option in treatment, that it is the right option and the best option, and that we keep a close relationship. There are many things before medicine we can try also. So looking at all of those things before we end on medicine is also another path we should be taking.

HOLMES: So, Doctor, you said we're not overmedicating necessarily. So what does this tell us about the health, then, of our children?

SOPHY: Well, it tells us that we're really able in this newer age to be able to diagnose illnesses earlier -- depressions -- children get depressed -- attention deficit disorders; learning disorders; mood disorders; anxiety disorders. That's what it's telling us, that we have moved and progressed through medicine in such a great way, that we can diagnose these things and we should be treating them.

With medicine? No, not always. But maybe that's an option. And if it is, to go about it very carefully.

HOLMES: Well, you know, Doctor, so many people will jump to that conclusion, that we're overmedicating. That's an easy way out. Just give the kids some pills if they're acting up. Are we not paying enough attention and looking for another alternative to giving the kid medicine?

SOPHY: Absolutely. I think that is a missing link here, that there are steps before medicine.

The diagnosing is an absolute benefit for the whole world because we're able to do that. But jumping to the step of medicine isn't always the next appropriate step after you get a diagnosis.

That's the key we have to learn from this. We have to go through the appropriate steps, look at all of the options. There are many treatment options that are non-medicinal. There is acupuncture, there's herbal medications, there's difference things out there to look at.

So really looking at that broad spectrum before you land on medicine is the message.

HOLMES: All right. What is -- are we putting our kids in some way, Doctor, in danger? Parts of these reports, and certainly out of "The Wall Street Journal" as well, examined the idea that so many of these drugs weren't necessarily meant for young people, for kids, and necessarily tested on young people and on kids.

Do we not really know the effect that some of these prescription drugs are going to be having long term on our kids?

SOPHY: I think you're absolutely right, we don't have enough studies in children that will tell us long-term effects of medications. That's why if you do land on medicine as your treatment option and modality, you really need to build a tight relationship with that treating physician so that you're able to go back and forth.

Almost on a daily basis with some of my patients when I start them on medicine, I'm constantly in contact with parents, with teachers, whoever is part of that team so that we are tracking it tightly. That's the key, because we don't have a lot of information on longevity with these kids and meds.

HOLMES: And one more thing here, Doctor. I certainly don't want to attack the integrity of so many good doctors out there, but there's also a thought that sometimes doctors will take that easy out, and there's so much as far as marketing for these drugs.

And we know the health care industry, yes, in fact, is a business and it's out there to make money. But what can be said about -- does that play a role, in your opinion, in some way, that doctors feel some pressure to sell some of this stuff, and some of these companies are really good at marketing these drugs?

SOPHY: Well, I think the pressure on the doc oftentimes is to make their patient feel better. And sometimes some of the patients are just making mom and dad feel better because we're doing something. Sometimes the pressure comes from the school saying Johnny can't come back unless we medicate him or he's under treatment.

So there's pressures from all areas. And yes, sometimes from the medication companies and the drug companies. But at the end of the day, it's up to mom and dad. And you have the ultimate control. And if you're feeling pressure or uncomfortable about that medication decision, get a second opinion.

HOLMES: All right. Dr. Charles Sophy, good information. And you ended on the exact note there. Parents, take the responsibility. They need to do the research on their own, extensively, and ask the rights.

But Doctor, thank you so much for taking the time with us today.

SOPHY: Thank you.

HOLMES: All right.

Well, coming up, still another medical story to tell you about here. The diagnosis? You might be able to find right there on your hands. The risk of cancer maybe can be told in your ring finger.

We'll explain this coming up, an odd connection, just after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. For centuries, people have done palm reading, trying to find out your fate by having your palm read. Now we have a rather intriguing study from the U.K. It's found a possible link between the length of your fingers and your prostate cancer risk.

Our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us now with these details.

Elizabeth, hello to you.

So every guy out there needs to take a peek at their hands and check out what?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, really, I'm picturing people all across the country, men going like this and looking at their hands, because this is really an intriguing finding. What it means is another question. And we'll get to that later.

But what these researchers in Britain found, T.J., is that they looked at hundreds of men, and they looked at the size, the length, of their index and their ring fingers, their fingers on other side of the middle finger. And what they found is that when the ring finger was longer than the index finger, that those men were more likely to get prostate cancer. If the reverse was true, and the index finger was longer than the ring finger, then they were 33 percent less likely to get prostate cancer.

It's kind of odd, isn't it?

HOLMES: OK. Elizabeth, is there a logical explanation for this? COHEN: There is not a truly firm explanation for this, T.J. But what there is, is a theory. So, since we don't have a good explanation, we'll go with the theory.

The theory is that doctors know -- they found that men who have prostate cancer have higher levels of testosterone running around in their bodies. Now, another thing that some studies have found is that when a mom has high levels of testosterone in her body when she's pregnant with a little boy, that those little boys also tend to have higher ring fingers.

And so that's where you get lots of testosterone in uterus, exposed to it, that may mean that later on they're going to have lots of testosterone in their bodies, which we know puts them at a higher risk for prostate cancer. So that's the theory. But again, it's just a theory now, which is why men who have these longer ring fingers should not be freaking out.

HOLMES: OK. We shouldn't freak out, but what should we do?

COHEN: All right. What you should do, no matter what length your fingers are, is you need to talk to your doctor about screening for prostate cancer, because different men are going to make different decisions, not based on their fingers, but based on their family history and other factors.

So what you need to do is first go to CNN.com/empoweredpatient. We have a whole article there about what questions you need to ask your doctor. And also, four doctors tell you what they decided to do for their own prostate screening for themselves.

And then call your doctor and make an appointment, and talk to them about prostate cancer screening. I know it's not men's favorite topic, but it's really important.

HOLMES: It's not at all, but it is critically important. And, yes, I have the longer ring finger on my hand, and several other risk factors in my background, but I'm on it. I took my health more seriously this year, in part due to some of your reporting.

So thank you so much.

COHEN: Well, thank you. Well, T.J., when I get back to Atlanta, I'm going to make sure you made that appointment.

HOLMES: All right then. Please do.

COHEN: OK.

HOLMES: Stay on me. All right, Elizabeth. Thank you so much, as always.

COHEN: Thanks.

HOLMES: Thanks so much. Well, I've got a bit of news that on a normal day might not be breaking news, but it's a big deal right now. All New York runways and airports are open. That's a big deal, because they have not been for quite some time.

Now, we are trying to get back on our way to having normal schedules, trying to get back on our way to having so many of those backlogged passengers getting to where they need to be.

As you know, this all started on Saturday, Christmas Day. That huge storm dropped inches, in some cases feet of snow, on many places around the Northeast. Shutdown airports in the New York area at some points.

We have had horror stories about people being canceled, can't get a flight until days later, people being stuck on airplanes for up to 11 hours after they land. All kinds of issues.

Well, maybe we are on our way now. After 20,000 flights had to be canceled since last Saturday because of this storm, well, now everything is at least open.

Now, not everything is on schedule again. Not everything is hunky-dory. But this is at least putting us on the right track.

All the runways are open at the New York airports -- LaGuardia, JFK, Newark, as well, thrown in there. But maybe we can get some people on their way and get back to normal after that huge storm just essentially shut us down, especially around the time a lot of people were trying to travel for the holidays.

We're going to turn back now in a moment to the president's holiday travel. He's on vacation, as you know, but he's still thinking about something that happened at last year's vacation, something that kind of ticked the president off.

We'll tell you what was done to correct that problem during this current holiday schedule. Our Ed Henry standing by with the scoop from Hawaii. We'll talk to him in just a moment.

Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC)

HOLMES: Ah. Ed Henry's theme song is playing right there. As you see, a beautiful shot from Hawaii, where our Ed Henry is standing by. He's of course covering the president.

Ed, hello to you once again.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm going to miss that music.

HOLMES: Yes. You're going to miss it? HENRY: Yes. Well, when it -- it's nice when you kind of toss to me with that music. I'm going to miss when it's just back at the White House and it's freezing cold.

HOLMES: You know what? Why can't we keep it when you get back to the White House? You know?

HENRY: That would be fun. Let's you and I do that.

HOLMES: We can keep it, Ed.

What's there not to like really about a Hawaiian vacation? But we're finding out that there was something about the president's Hawaiian vacation last year he wasn't so crazy about, and he got it corrected this time.

HENRY: Yes. Oh, absolutely.

You saw "The New York Times" piece today that was sort of laying out how last year, the president was pretty upset that his communications were not that secure once the underwear bomber struck on Christmas Day, threw things into chaos here. You'll remember we were reporting live around the clock about it.

And I spoke yesterday to Ben Rhodes, one of the president's national security aides, who was telling me some of these very same details that you see this morning, which is basically that the president said fix it, and they have. And basically, the White House staff has now come up with a system where the president's beach rental on the other side of Oahu has basically the same capabilities as the White House Situation Room has in terms of secure phones, secure video.

He can have a link up with the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, national security adviser, you name it, all from the beach house there across the island. But even more fascinating, perhaps, is that White House staff here at the hotel, on Waikiki Beach, they have the same capabilities as well.

And the first tip-off I had to this was the fact that down in one of these hotel hallways, they've got a lot of people walking in and out of all hours of the day, kind of trying to be a little bit anonymous, some security aides. Until they walk over to a big giant paper shredder in the middle of the hotel hallway, putting papers in there after they briefed the president.

So, you don't see a lot of paper shredders in your average Holiday Inn. And so that's usually a tip-off that there's a little something more going on there behind those closed doors.

HOLMES: Glad you were able to piece that together, but you haven't been able, frankly, to know good etiquette when it comes to being a guest of somebody's place. You have gone and upset the locals.

Why, Ed? HENRY: Oh. Well, you know, I think I haven't upset the locals. I upset the local paper, maybe.

I don't know. I've got this editorial that says, "Reporting Live in My Hawaiian Shirt," and they refer to on-camera staffers. They wouldn't even name me or any of the other TV correspondents here.

But they're complaining a little bit that we've been calling them Hawaiian shirts and not Aloha shirts, but also saying that our news reports are, in their words, fluff. But for the tourism industry, any live shot with palm trees in the background is all good.

Now, I mentioned last hour, this is the same newspaper that had a big story about ahi tuna on their front page yesterday. Yes, it definitely affects the local economy here. But then they said that we're not going all the way to where the president is hanging out there in Kailua, on the other side of the island, when, in fact, we are.

We're doing our live shots from here because Waikiki Beach is obviously much more amenable to having a big group of people, all the media here, all the White House staff who are staying here as well, by the way. The president just got a little rental on the other side of the island. It's not like we're going to be traipsing through his back yard.

But we do have reporters, a pool of reporters, a smaller group, that every day goes over there to his rental, follows him all around just to make sure nothing crazy happens. And so I just wanted to make sure they get the facts straight.

But it's all in fun, really, because they end their editorial by saying, look, they're happy if all the reporters pay their hotel bills, they pay the taxes that go to the tourism folks, and then basically spend a lot of money. And we've been doing that, especially with these shirts. You know, just trying to prop up the local economy.

And based on what I'm reading in the local paper, it looks like the economy here is doing a little bit better here than other parts of the country. So I guess all is good for them. Hang loose.

HOLMES: Yes, all in good fun. It's all fun and games until you get that pat-down on the way out of the airport there as you leave.

HENRY: Oh, yes. You know, they may be watching me. They may be doing that.

HOLMES: Ed, good to see you as always, buddy. I'll talk to you again here soon.

HENRY: That little New Year's surprise. Happy New Year.

HOLMES: All right. Thanks, Ed.

(NEWSBREAK) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Coming up on the bottom of the hour here now.

Hear that good news, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: What's that?

HOLMES: All the runways open in New York.

MYERS: Yes.

HOLMES: Great news.

MYERS: Great news.

HOLMES: Maybe that's going to put us on our way.

MYERS: Because at a time yesterday, LaGuardia was using the same runway to take off and land. And then you can never get as many planes in and out as you like. Right? So that really doesn't work very well.

There you see what looks like Flight Explorer, Flight Tracker. I mean, we have literally 6,000 planes on that map right there. A little bit less because we're only showing the northeast corridor.

And the brown planes -- my producer asked, "What are the brown planes?" And I jokingly said, "UPS."

But, in fact, the brown planes are the ones that are on approach. So when you see that map and see them blue, they're flying high in the sky. When they turn gray, that means they are lower and they are about to land wherever that airport would be.

HOLMES: Very good info.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: All right. Going "Off the Radar." Even as I tease this one before the break, it had me scratching my head. Lightning from the inside, out?

MYERS: Kind of.

HOLMES: Kind of.

MYERS: Did you know that x-rays come out of a lightning bolt?

HOLMES: Did not know that.

MYERS: Did not know that. Well, neither did I until today. I always kind of thought it was in that whole shaft when the lightning was coming down. You know, it's so hot in the middle there. No. The x-ray part of the lightning bolt itself only comes from the top, the tip top of the lightning coming down. There's the camera right there. There is a tower that they built. They're going to send a rocket right off into a space, and then -- during a thunderstorm -- and then lightning is going to come down and strike this. So they actually -- they induced a lightning strike.

HOLMES: You can do that?

MYERS: They did. Don't do it at home.

HOLMES: Is that safe?

MYERS: Don't try this at home. We are professionals. They are professionals.

But now this is only -- this is a very coarse tape, but this is what the lightning strike looked like. There are only 30 pixels -- you know what a pixel is now because everybody has these big high-def TVs. This is a low, low def TV, but only 2.5 microseconds. This lightning volt will so fast coming down, but this frame can take 10 million frames per second.

HOLMES: What is all this?

MYERS: The white part right here. Here's the lightning strike, right there. The lightning bolt coming down and the light is the x- ray. The x-ray almost I guess you want to call the radiation. It's coming out of a lightning strike.

We thought for a while that the x-ray would -- the radiation was coming out of the entire lightning bolt itself. Now it turns out that's not the case. With this camera, with a 1,500 pound camera they sent out there.

You could see it from here. They found with this lightning strike as it came down, the x-ray part of the lightning strike was only at the very tippy part as it came down lightning bolt. Brand new stuff. Dustin Hill took these pictures.

HOLMES: Who are these folks who create a lightning bolt?

MYERS: Justin Dwyer took the video. Who are these people? They smarter than us.

HOLMES: That could be anybody, man. Chad, appreciate you, buddy. Thanks so much.

Coming up we're going to tell you about a country that's been gripped in a drug war fueled by an endless supply of guns, But they only have one gun shop in their entire country. We'll take you there "Globe Trekking."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back. At the bottom of the hour here we're getting information to us, a breaking story coming to us south of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Did I hear right though?

This was landing in Chicago, this plane? Do I have that right? Out of Chicago landing in Jackson Hole. There here we go. It was an American Airlines flight going from Chicago to Jackson Hole. It's apparently now run off the runway. We don't have much information beyond that coming to us from American Airlines right now.

We do know some 175 passengers were on board this plane, a couple of pilots and a few flight attendants, at least four flight attendants so a crew of at least six and 175 passengers. It's run off the runway. We don't have more information as far as why, but this was flight 2252, American Airlines jet 2252, from Chicago to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, has run of the runway.

We do not know the extent of damage to that plane. We do not know right now anything about possible damages. I will try to get a hold of Chad Myers here in a second to see if there was any weather situation possibly in that particular area, but we don't know that right now either so we don't know the cause.

Again, don't know the extent of the damage possibly to this plane, but an American Airlines jet 2252. American Airlines flight 2252 from Chicago to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, just hearing from American Airlines, has run off the runway.

We're working the story, working the phones to try to get more information about the damage to that plane possibly and also any possible injuries, but 175 passengers on board. Chad is, I believe, keeping an eye on any weather situation necessarily happening in Jackson Hole right now?

MYERS: Well, there's definitely a winter storm warning on the mountain and this is a very difficult airport to get into and different airport to get out of as you do circles to get out of this basically hole, called Jackson Hole. OK, they got the name right.

It was snowing with three-quarters mile visibility and 27 degrees. So there clearly may have been a problem with braking on the runway, although men and women in trucks literally drive out there on the runway and try to skid a car or a truck to see what the braking is like.

And then they'll know whether they have to put down the snow melt or whether they have to plow, whatever they have to do. So this is normally taken care of. When you have visibility of three-quarters of a mile, the pilot may have been a little built too far down the runway to get it slowed down to get all the way off the end. Also, we don't know whether it was taking off or landing. We assume landing, right, because that's what we've been told.

HOLMES: Did we have that right? Which one is it? It was landing. It was from Chicago landing in Jackson Hole. Do I have that right, Kelly? Yes, that is the case. It was landing. It was attempting to land.

MYERS: Attempting to land. So you would assume as it runs off, runs off the end of the runway, although with only these words coming in our head it could have just been coming off and went off the runway as it was turning, it missed the turnoff lane and it's in some little piece of mud over here.

There's a whole bunch of things. We can't take any assumptions on what this thing did or whether the plane is in trouble or any injuries or not. What would typically happen would be that the plane would come in with the visibility, it would try to land.

There would be braking problems. The braking wouldn't happen in time and the plane end up on the end in the catch fence basically or the catch ditch over here. There's a lot of sand to catch a plane.

HOLMES: How does this sound now? We're getting word what they're trying to do is get busses out there to get people off. They're trying to clear some snow apparently. They do have some accumulation out there. They're trying to clear a path to get busses out there to get people off.

That would suggest that maybe this wasn't a major incident. Any time a plane runs off a runway that's serious and major. Maybe not major injuries or damage to that particular plane, but like you said might have been stuck in something or veered to the right or ran off the end. We don't know necessarily.

MYERS: Correct. Off the runway means a lot of different things to people. All you think of is it went too far. It can go this way or this way or miss the turnoff lane. That's irrelevant.

But a plane that does go off is not going to be towed back. You're going to take the busses out and get the people off and then move the plane empty rather than move it full of passengers.

HOLMES: Appreciate you being ready quick getting the weather for us. Thank you so much for us. Again to our viewers there, keeping an eye on that. But again running off the runway according to American Airlines, this plane going from Chicago to Jackson Hole as it was trying to land there, ran off the runway. Don't know the extent of the damage or injuries necessarily, but we do know they're trying to get busses out there to the people and get them off that particular plane.

If we get more information, we will pass that along to you. Want to go "Globe Trekking" for you now. Our first stop is going to be Mexico. The government reporting nearly 12,500 people have been killed in drug-related violence this year. More than 30,000 have died in the drug war since President Felipe Calderon took office 12 years ago including 15 killed at a car wash back in October. You see some of the pictures here.

Mexico has only one, however, gun store in the entire country. It's in Mexico City. "Washington Post" reporting that it's operated and staffed by the Mexican military on a military base. To get inside, listen to this, potential buyers must present a valid I.D. and pass through a metal detector. You have to yield to a security want, surrender cell phones and cameras. But that's not it. Listen to this as well. They also have to submit references, present proof that their income has been earned honestly. Also, their record must be free of any criminal charges. Their military obligations if any completed with honor as well.

The Mexican government says it's captured more than 93,000 weapons the past four years and 90 percent have been smuggled from the U.S. how could that happen?

Well, compare Mexico's one gun shop to the more than 6,600 federally licensed firearm dealers in the U.S. at least 14 million guns are believed to have been sold to this country last year alone.

Up next here, devastating flooding taking place in Australia right now. The state government has declared the area a disaster zone, the map here showing you the hardest-hit areas. All 300 residents of the town of Theodore have been evacuated and more than 1,000 in the state have been forced to flee their homes.

Also some major flooding now headed for the City of Rockhampton in the coast and also central city of Emerald combined. The two have about 65,000 residents. Weather is expected to clear up over the next 48 hours but heavy rain that's fallen already has built up water in certain areas. Flood warnings remain in effect in several areas as well.

Now, let's turn to Moscow. They've had a snowstorm or two over there as well. They've been hit pretty hard. The capital's largest airport back to normal after a massive snowstorm slammed much of the country and brought air traffic to a standstill across much of Europe.

Up until today thousands of passengers were stranded at Moscow's largest airport. The count is down to 600. Adding to the problem a complete power outage shut down the airport on Sunday. About 139 flights were canceled today.

At one point, look at this, tempers got so hot that passengers staged a demonstration yelling and clapping hands saying. They said they were fed up with poor conditions, lack of information and long lines.

The Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out at the Airport Transportation Ministry saying the airports didn't handle this whole thing well. He said what upset him the most was how passengers were treated.

Coming up, it's the most searched word for phrase of 2010 on Google and Yahoo! Can you guess? Not Miley Cyrus or Lady Gaga. The BP oil spill. We'll take a quick look back at part of our coverage of this huge story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, the BP oil spill, it dominated our news coverage for months here at CNN and it was here at CNN that we were the first to gain TV access to the government's clean-up tank. Our own Allan Chernoff takes a look back at this unprecedented event.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Allan Chernoff. The biggest story of the year had to be the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. As soon as it happened, I wondered how were they going to clean up that mess? I wanted to show viewers exactly what BP was going to have to do.

So I gained access to the government's oil spill test tank where the energy industry actually practices for such accidents. It was the very first time TV cameras had ever been permitted into that high security facility. I also investigated the industry's safety record, particularly with regard to the blowout preventers that are supposed to prevent a blowout.

They're supposed to be fail-safe. Our investigation showed that indeed the oil industry knew blowout preventers didn't have a good record of reliability. Now the industry is working to try to improve those blowout preventers to ensure that a Deepwater Horizon accident never happens again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Coming up, don't you just hate it when you try to crawl through a hole, not so sure you can fit and get stuck and can't get back out? We'll have a case in point right after a quick break. Stick around

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. I talked to you about of before the break about getting stuck somewhere. You thought the hole was big enough to get through and couldn't get back out. Not talking about a human being. Talking about a dog.

We always see some kind of a rescue of some kind of some animal doing something it shouldn't be doing. We don't see this too often however. That is rebel, the dog's name, a German shepherd got his head through a hole. Got stuck in the wall at his owner's house in Southern California.

Don't know why he stuck his head through there. Pushed his head through an 18 inch hole. Couldn't get back out. Nobody was home to help. So the neighbors did what any good neighbor would do. They pulled out their camera and started taking pictures of the dog. No, they actually called animal services. It took them about half an hour to wriggle him out of there. I don't know what they did to get him out but they finally got him out. We're told he's doing just fine.

Now, emergencies maybe like that one, they don't just happen in the middle of the day. When your pet's life is on the line, it may be 3:00 in the morning, where are you supposed to turn. Our photojournalist Bob Crowley takes us inside the Massachusetts Emergency animal hospital as the overnight staff scrambles to save lives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE This place is where things can happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: here pets that don't really have any hope find some hope.

DR. JONATHAN W. BALL, VETERINARIAN: It's a nice team environment working the overnights because you're all in it together and it's usually the same few people, but we do see a fair number of highly critical patients for sure. This is our ICU. This is staffed by at least one doctor 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where do you want to get the machine?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a super intern here which means I've done an internship.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She walked over and collapsed.

BALL: Can I get a bucket or something?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I worked in emergency medicine for a year. That's what I liked and so I came back to do a second internship.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on. She's coming off the table.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody get the anesthesia machine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody is here because they love what they do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Better. Thank you.

SHANNON WEAVER, EMERGENCY AND CLINICAL CARE TECHNICIAN: One of the ECC technicians here. I've been here a little over four years. I've always been a night owl. I would much rather be here at this hour of the day than 7 or 8 in the morning.

I know, baby. This is a little kitten probably only a couple days old that someone found. We need to give him heat. He can't keep his body temperature regulated. One of our co-workers is going to take him home. If he's meowing you know you're in good shape. She's almost done with her first liter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, having a lot of episodes.

WEAVER: So her owners are going to come in, so put her to sleep.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. But we want to try to support her until they get here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

WEATHER: It's not easy. It's sad. He's only 8 years old. So I'm just glad that his family is going to be able to come in and be with him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lay back down. You're OK.

WEAVER: His outcome isn't so great, but I was here and I was petting him and I feel like maybe I comforted him a little bit and that's why I do it. I don't think I'll ever get tired of that, as hard as the job is. But there are good days too. The kitten - holding the kitten will make me smile later.

Things like this make the day better and had a couple really awful things happen. Then you get a few little guys like this and it makes it OK.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. Well, coming up in a moment we're going to turn to politics. Winning an election is hard enough. But the way she did it, she did it the hard way. Yes, we're talking about that senator from Alaska who is now set to make history. That and a whole lot more in our political update.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back to the CNN lounge where we're now going to turn to talk about one tough politician set to make history next week, the comeback of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. It's time for our CNN political update.

For that, let's turn to our congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar in Washington. Hello there, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This unsettled Senate race, I guess it's about time it wraps up as the new Congress is set to begin here in Washington next week. You'll recall Lisa Murkowski is the Republican who lost her primary to her challenger and then she staged a writing campaign.

It appears she's finally poised to wrap this up. That would make her the first senator to win by write-in since 1954 when we saw Strom Thurmond do it. Also on the Political Ticker veteran Charlie Rangel, he has started a legal defense fund to get money obviously for his legal defense, for his legal bills.

You'll recall that he was censured by the full House of Representatives, a pretty serious fork this. I think violating veteran Democrat Charles Rangel has started a legal defense fund to get money obviously for his legal defense, for his legal bills.

You'll recall he was censured by the full House of Representatives, a pretty serious punishment there, for ethics violations. This was just recently. Ethics violations including failing to pay taxes on a rental income on a villa in the Dominican Republic.

A Republican group has filed a new complaint. A new complaint with the FEC alleging that Rangel used campaign donations to pay for his legal fees, which is a no-no and a Rangel source says even though they're insisting he did nothing wrong, these allegations have to be answered and that's going to take money.

This is my personal favorite story on the CNN Political Ticker. It has to do with Twitter. You use Twitter. I use Twitter. But the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Corey Booker, he's really been sort of using Twitter for some pretty interesting stuff. He's got a lot of snow bounds residents. He says that he's been tweeting and been using Twitter to get snowbound residents diaper, food. That even to get help to a pregnant woman.

And he's just been kind of lighting up his Twitter feed saying to one resident, if you're stuck dm -- which is direct message -- me your number. Another resident tweeted that there was sort of inadequately cleared roads around a hospital and he tweeted back, I've sent a team to do this. It's pretty interesting how he's using this.

HOLMES: It's a great story and they will thank him maybe one day, the voters there, at the voting booth. All right. Thank you so much. Good to see you as always. The next political update from our political team just one hour away.

Also coming up, can one athlete's appeal help save his nation from civil war once again? A desperate situation in "XYZ."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: One of my favorite stories from this year's World Cup was Didier Drogba and the team from the African nation of Ivory Coast.

Drogba was credited with helping in years of civil war, his country back in '06, by making impassioned pleas on TV for his countrymen to put down their arms. Well, after years of relative peace, the country and the team were on the world stage at the World Cup in a different light.

Drogba now making a plea to his countrymen once again after last month's presidential election has led to fear that the nation is once again on the brink of civil war.

The incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, he lost, according to the vote count and to international observers, but his ally who runs the Constitutional Council overturned the independent results, declared Gbagbo the winner. Gbagbo has held his own inauguration ceremony, refuses to give up power. Now you have two presidents with two groups of armed supporters.

And sadly, this is not a surprising story in Africa where leaders hold on to power and civil war seems the norm. Mugabe and Zimbabwe comes to mind, as well conflicts in the DRC, Sierra Leon, Angola, Sudan -- you name it, just goes on and on.

The problems in Africa, of course, are deep rooted, complex, well documented. Solutions have been elusive. But I was struck by a quote from a Swedish diplomat in a weekend "New York Times" article. And he said, quote, "In Africa, when you are president, you have everything. And when you are not, you have nothing."

Until Africa has a crop of leaders whose elections lead to prosperity for someone other than themselves, the story in Cote d'Ivoire will be repeated, maybe forever.

It's time for Brooke Baldwin in the CNN NEWSROOM now.