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North Carolina Historic Tornado Outbreak; New Air Traffic Control Rules; New Bill Calls Drug Cartels Terror Groups; One Year After the BP Oil Spill; Treasury Secretary: Congress Will Raise Debt Ceiling; Village Focuses on the Future; Ford Recalls Best-Selling Truck

Aired April 17, 2011 - 14:00   ET

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

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN ANCHOR: Good afternoon, everyone. So glad you could be here.

I'm Deborah Feyerick, in for Fredricka Whitfield.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's get you caught up on some of our top stories.

In North Carolina, tornado devastation that hasn't been seen in a quarter century. At least 23 deaths are reported across the state from the powerful storm system that started Thursday in the southern plains. Across the states, the death toll now, more than 40 people.

A state of emergency is in place across North Carolina. Among the hardest hit areas, Bertie County, where at least 11 deaths are now confirmed.

CNN's Catherine Callaway is one of those devastated neighborhoods.

Catherine, you've been driving around. You've been touring. What are you seeing?

CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We are in Bertie County in North Carolina, near a little community called Colerain.

Take a look behind me, Deborah. Can you believe it? There were several homes here, a couple of mobile homes, and a workshop. You can't even tell where the homes were located now.

And we have been touring this area with the county manager. His name is Zee Lamm.

And Mr. Lamb, we have 11 fatalities in this area alone.

ZEE LAMB, MANAGER, BERTIE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA: Yes, the community is devastated. We've had tornadoes in the past, we've had hurricanes, we've had floods, but we've never seen the loss of life that we're seeing here today.

CALLAWAY: You don't expect the death toll to rise, you say, but you have a number of people that were injured as well. You can tell by these homes. It's hard to believe just in this area that we had two or three survivors from these homes here, but they are in the hospital now.

LAMB: Right. Two of the residents from this area are in the hospital right now. We had over 50 people transported to hospitals. Some of them were then transported to a trauma center in Greenville, North Carolina, and they're in serious condition.

CALLAWAY: It's difficult to try to describe the devastation here, and the width and the length of the touchdown on this tornado. We're seeing about a half-mile wide. And how long?

LAMB: It was estimated about a half-mile to three-quarters of a mile wide, and it lasted for about six to eight, 10 miles through the county from a little town called Askewville to Colerain.

CALLAWAY: Well, we are sorry for your loss here, sir. I know it's been a long night for you. Thank you for joining us.

LAMB: Thank you.

CALLAWAY: And we want to tell you that this area behind us, a large part of this property, was owned by a gentleman named Charles Bond (ph), and he said that he actually received a phone call, Deborah, from his mother as the tornado was hitting. She did survive. She is in the hospital.

You can't even tell where his home was. This here is actually the floor of what used to be a home over here behind me. Behind that is a workshop. And if Tim Wall (ph), my photographer, will follow me, we want to show you this, Deborah.

Look at this car. This is actually a piece of wood that has lodged itself into the front windshield. That describes and shows very well the strength of the storm.

And I wanted to show you also something that we found here. One of the only things that we found that wasn't broken, we thought it was a bit ironic. It says "Home Sweet Home."

FEYERICK: Unbelievable.

CALLAWAY: So, some of the people we've talked to said they would rebuild, believe did or not, but there's nothing left. Like I said, the only thing I found was this plate.

FEYERICK: And that's what's so amazing, is just the randomness of these tornadoes. You never know which direction it's going to go, what's going to get hit, what's going to survive.

Do you have any sense, Catherine, that the hospitals able to manage that kind of patient surge that happened? Everybody being taken care of pretty well, as far as you understand?

CALLAWAY: Absolutely. And this community is very small, it's very rural. But as Mr. Lamb tells us, and as some of the owners told us here, they were here right after the tornado hit, helping each other, trying to salvage what they could, trying to get those to the hospital, even though it is rural. They were able to get them -- and that is not an easy task -- to the hospital, because you can imagine, many of these roads here were blocked by fallen trees and, as you can see, debris that was traveling and lodging itself into things.

So, complete devastation. Two Iraqi veterans here told Mr. Lamb that they had never seen devastation like this, even in Iraq, and it stretches for miles.

Back to you.

FEYERICK: Wow. Catherine Callaway, thank you so much. And we're looking forward to checking in with you a little later on. I know you've got a lot of great video. And we'll be back in touch with you in just a short while. Thanks so much.

Well, both Camp Lejeune and Fort Bragg sustained damage in the storms in North Carolina. We'll speak with Camp Lejeune's public affairs director in live interview just 20 minute from now.

Emergency crews are racing against the clock to save a trapped miner in northeast Idaho. The man was one of two working in a mine called Lucky Friday outside Mullan, Idaho, when part of the roof collapsed Friday. The other miner escaped.

Special digging equipment is being brought in to help the rescue effort. The trapped miner hasn't been heard from since the collapse.

And remote-controlled robots has entered one of the damaged reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power plant. These are picture of the robots, you can see there, opening the inner door to reactor 3. They're being used to gather the latest radiation, water and temperature readings.

And back in this country, the budget debate shifts to raising the debt ceiling. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said today that responsible lawmakers on both sides of the aisle realize that rejecting an increases could cause major problems.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIMOTHY GEITHNER, TREASURY SECRETARY: I want to make it perfectly clear that the Congress will raise the debt ceiling.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, "THIS WEEK WITH CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR": You're sure about that?

GEITHNER: Absolutely. And they recognize it, and they told the president that on Wednesday in the White House. I sat there with them and they said we recognize we have to do this and we're not going to play around with it, because we know that the risks would be catastrophic. And it's not something you can take too close to the edge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: The debt ceiling now standing at $14.3 trillion. Well, another air traffic controller caught sleeping on the job just as the FAA says enough is enough. Today, the government announced new air traffic control rules that will go into effect immediately.

Sandra Endo is following this from Washington.

Sandra, I'll tell you, I fly through airports several times a month. The thought that an air traffic controller could be sleeping, are we just seeing the tip of the iceberg?

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very disconcerting, Deborah, especially with so many travelers flying the friendly skies, supposedly. And there are a slew of new changes to tell you about today, and these changes are all an effort to crack down on controllers falling asleep on the job.

The FAA and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood are making immediate changes to the schedules for air traffic controllers to combat fatigue. Now, under these new guidelines announced today, controllers will now have a minimum of nine hours off between shifts instead of eight. They will no longer be able to swap shifts unless they have nine hours off in between, and controllers will not be able to work an unscheduled midnight shift following a day off. And there will be more FAA managers covering early morning and late night hours.

Now, in a one-on-one interview, Transportation Secretary LaHood vows to put an end to the problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAY LAHOOD, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: This is outrageous. As soon as I heard about these controllers sleeping, I expressed my outrage and talked about the fact that I wanted the controllers suspended, I want an investigation, and I want the public to know we will not allow controllers to sleep on the job. We simply will not. And I'm steamed about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ENDO: Now, tomorrow, FAA officials and the Air Traffic Controllers Union are starting a nationwide tour in Atlanta to talk to controllers to hear their concerns and to really hammer home the issue of safety -- Deb.

FEYERICK: This is such a grueling job when you think of the number of planes coming in and out of various airports, but it is striking to me that one of the changes is to put a second controller into the tower, especially on the overnight shift. That seems like something that you would just expect, and yet 26 airports didn't have that. Now they do.

Again, are these going to be measurable changes? Are they really going to make a difference? And why hasn't it been done sooner?

ENDO: Well, that's certainly the goal here. The transportation secretary is steamed over the issue. He is outraged, he says, that this happened so many times, reportedly seven times, since the start of the year. And he says there are going to be changes in place, and if those changes don't work, Deb, he says there will be more on the way. But as you mentioned, this is not a new problem.

In 2007, the National Transportation and Safety Board even recommended ways to combat fatigue that air traffic controllers have felt during their shifts. They recommended these shift changes as well. So, as to why these changes didn't happen sooner, or why they haven't worked, that is the big question. But the real thing the secretary pointed out is that changes are happening right now.

FEYERICK: All right, Sandy Endo. Thank you so much. A lot of good men and women working as air traffic controllers, but certainly a little bit disconcerting, those who are falling asleep on the job, shall we say.

Thanks so much.

ENDO: Sure.

FEYERICK: Well, should drug cartels be classified as terrorists? One congressman thinks so. We're going to sit down with him and talk to him in the NEWSROOM.

That's coming up next. You'll want to hear it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: Well, it's a major score for police in Mexico. A drug kingpin nicknamed "El Kilo" is in custody south of the border. He's reportedly a leader of a drug cartel operating near the Texas state line. He was linked to several mass graves that were recently found.

Meanwhile, nobody disputes that cartels in Mexico are responsible for countless murders, but a U.S. congressman says they're not just killers, part of a criminal enterprise, they're terrorists and should be treated that way.

CNN's Rafael Romo reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, SR. LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR (voice-over): Should Mexican drug cartels be considered terrorist organizations? Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican, says they should. And not only that, McCaul has introduced a bill that would add Mexico's six dominant cartels to the State Department's Foreign Terrorist Organizations list. This would allow law enforcement agencies to have increased powers to limit cartels' financial property and travel interests, and impose harsher punishment on anyone who provides material support to cartels.

Responding to the bill in a letter to "The Dallas Morning News," Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan fired back, saying, "If you label these organizations as terrorists, you will have to start calling drug consumers in the U.S. financiers of terrorist organizations and gun dealers providers of material support to terrorists." "Otherwise," the ambassador wrote, "you really sound as if you want to have your cake and eat it, too."

At a House Judiciary Committee hearing last month, FBI Director Robert Mueller expressed concern about the danger imposed by the cartels.

ROBERT MUELLER, FBI DIRECTOR: The extreme violence across our Southwest border continues to impact the United States as we saw the murders last March of American consulate workers in Juarez, Mexico, and a shooting last month of two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Mexico.

ROMO: Consular employee Lesley Enriquez and her husband, Arthur Redelfs, were shot and killed in Juarez, Mexico, by gangs affiliated with a drug cartel, according to Mexican authorities. ICE agent Jaime Zapata was killed and another agent injured in February when they were ambushed on a highway in central Mexico.

JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Now, we remain very concerned about drug cartel violence in Mexico, and we must vigorously guard against potential spillover effects into the United States.

ROMO (on camera): Mexican officials have repeatedly said that drug cartels are neither an insurgency nor terrorist organizations, because their purpose is neither to destabilize the government nor promote a political ideology. Their level of cruelty is unprecedented, but they don't hate a particular group. Their only motive, Mexican authorities say, is hard, cold cash.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: And one of the folks you saw in that story who wants those drug cartels officially designated as foreign terrorist organizations, he is Republican Congressman Michael McCaul of Texas.

Congressman, thank you so much for joining us.

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R), TEXAS: Thank you, Deborah.

FEYERICK: I want to ask you -- you're a former prosecutor -- what do you gain by defining a drug cartel, which is a criminal enterprise, as a terrorist organization like al Qaeda or, for example, the Taliban? What do you gain?

MCCAUL: Well, let me say first, this is not without precedent. President Clinton designated the FARC in the 1990s down in Colombia as a foreign terrorist organization, and it worked. It gives us greater penalties in terms of the ability to go after these drug cartel members, a 15-year enhancement on their sentencing. We can seize their bank assets here in the United States, and we can deport them even if they're here legally.

But I think, most importantly, it sends a bold statement to the drug cartels that they're going beyond just being a criminal enterprise and now really are acting as terrorists. And so it would open up the idea that we can treat these drug cartels just like we go after al Qaeda and Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations. And I think it gives us a greater ability to work with Mexico more in a joint military fashion.

FEYERICK: Though, Mexico, with all due respect, is not particularly keen on this. What they point out is that, look, drug dealers, drug cartels, they do not operate in any sort of a vacuum. There are the people who buy the drugs, there are the people who deal the drugs.

Are those people going to be arrested and charged with military support of a terrorist organization? Do we change the laws here in the U.S. to make that happen as well?

MCCAUL: Not at all. I respect the ambassador. He's a friend of mine, but he's completely misconstrued the intent of this legislation.

It's not to go after the casual drug users, it's to go after the members of the drug cartels. And "The Dallas Morning News" piece that you mentioned wrote an editorial supporting my position, saying, "McCaul gets it." And I think I do.

I think in addition to what we're doing with this foreign terrorist organization designation, we need to look at what worked in Colombia in terms of joint intelligence, joint military operation to eradicate these very, very dangerous drug cartel members. And when you look at their tactics, the gruesome decapitations, the burning people alive, it goes beyond that, also, to a political movement in terms of assassinations.

When you look under federal law, the definition of "terrorism," it says to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or government by kidnapping and assassinations. That is precisely what the drug cartels do.

They kidnap. They've assassinated 12 mayors down in Mexico, governors. They're going after political leaders, and they are trying to corrupt and buy off members of their Congress as well. So don't tell me this isn't a political movement as well. It really is.

FEYERICK: Now, you are about to hold hearings on the U.S. role in Mexican war against the drug trade. Do you think that the U.S. should be changing its tactics? Because, clearly, it is a big threat to the southern border. We're seeing crime spill in to areas of the United States that almost reflect what's going on in Mexico.

So what more needs to be done from a U.S. perspective to keep this drug war out?

MCCAUL: That was a great point. Not only is this a crisis in Mexico and a national security threat to the Mexican government, it is to the United States as well. And I think we need to start taking it more seriously.

When I asked the Department of Defense, State Department and Homeland Security, what is our strategy down in Mexico to win this, to help Mexico win the war against the drug cartels, what is the plan? There really wasn't an answer to that fundamental question.

And I think we need a more comprehensive strategy, something like what we did in Colombia. And certainly on this side of the border, we need to start providing greater technology down there and more manpower to respond to the technology to secure this border once and for all.

The American people are tired of this story. They're tired of hearing about the killings both in Mexico, our agents being shot, one killed down there recently, and then the recent threats to our law enforcement on this side of the border.

FEYERICK: OK. Yes. Sure.

All right. Well, Congressman Michael McCaul, thank you so much for joining us. Clearly, it will be interesting to see how this moves through Congress. Thanks so much. Really appreciate your time.

MCCAUL: Thank you, Deborah. I appreciate it.

FEYERICK: Take care.

Well, we're getting new pictures in from the tornado devastation in North Carolina. Take a look there. We're going to have that on the other side of the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: Now back to the aftermath of those powerful storms that have killed more than 40 people in several southeastern states. North Carolina got hit especially hard at the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base. Homes were damaged, people were hurt.

Joining us now by phone, Nat Fahy. He's the public affairs director at the base.

First of all, sir, can you hear us?

NAT FAHY, PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIRECTOR, CAMP LEJEUNE: Yes, I can.

FEYERICK: There you go.

We want to know, the people there, what were the extent of the injuries? How were they treated?

FAHY: Yes. Right now we've had no fatalities, thankfully, but our sympathies do go out to the other counties who weren't so fortunate.

We have confirmed nine base residents who were admitted to base and area hospitals with minor injuries, most of them cuts and bruises. However, we have one 23-month-old boy who was airlifted to Pitt Memorial Hospital in Greenville due to multiple trauma injuries. That's about the extent of the injuries thus far.

FEYERICK: How does this interrupt the operations there at the base?

FAHY: Well, this occurred Saturday night, so, again, we have officials on the scene right now evaluating some of the structural damage. It was all pretty much confined to the base residential area called Tarawa Terrace, so it's probably not going to affect military operations as much as it's going to disrupt a lot of families right now.

FEYERICK: It's interesting, because when we think of military families, we also think of them being especially prepared.

Do you prepare your folks for the possibility, the eventuality that something like this is going to happen?

FAHY: Well, I think if you come from North Carolina, or have lived here for quite some time, you're used to the hurricanes that occasionally impact this area. This is a known hurricane zone.

Our base routinely prepares for emergency operations. As you are probably aware, we did have a wildfire about two-and-a-half weeks ago, so we're just coming off that, where about 9,500 acres of mostly ranges were burned on our base. So we're coming off of that operation, and now it's somewhat unfortunate we got hit with this as well.

FEYERICK: Sure. Like a lot of other counties, clearly a lot of work ahead to get that back up and running.

Nat Fahy, public affairs director, Camp Lejeune.

Thanks so much. We appreciate you taking a couple of moments from your day to speak with us.

FAHY: You bet.

FEYERICK: Well, this week marks the anniversary of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. How many gallons of oil went into the water? Was it 180 million, 195 million, 205 million, or 215 million?

The answer, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: So we asked before the break, do you know how many gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico because of the BP oil disaster: 180 million, 195 million, 205 million, or 215 million? Well, the answer, 205 million gallons.

We'll take you to the Louisiana coast in just a moment, but first, let's get you caught up on some of our top stories here.

Well, devastating scenes across North Carolina as powerful storms pounded that state. At least 23 deaths are reported.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just told everybody to get down, cover up, get into your cubbyholes, get into a tight space, and make sure to get away from the windows. That's the best thing to do. (END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: Those storms were part of a system that formed Thursday in Oklahoma. More than 40 people have been killed across six states.

And 10-man crews are working around the clock to save a trapped miner in northeast Idaho. The miner has not been heard from since part of the roof of the mine called Lucky Friday outside Mullan, Idaho, collapsed Friday.

Another miner escaped. Special digging equipment has been brought in. Crews are trying to cut through 25 feet of debris. They've stopped to reinforce the roof.

A national church held a special service today for a missing nursing student. Twenty-year-old Holly Bobo disappeared from her home last week. Police say her brother last saw her being led into the woods by a man dressed in camouflage. The pastor today said attendance was down because a lot of parishioners are helping with the search for the young lady.

This is a long, long overdue military honor for a U.S. Army officer who went missing during World War II. The remains of 2nd Lieutenant Martin Murray were buried yesterday in Massachusetts, 68 years after his B-24 crew crashed on a Pacific island. The Pentagon positively put his name to some human remains found there in 2007.

Pope Benedict XVI ushered in Holy Week today with a Palm Sunday blessing at the Palms and a procession in a jam-packed St. Peter's Square. Later, the pontiff presided over an outdoor mass.

And all Toyota plants in Japan will be back on line starting tomorrow, but the automaker only plans to operate them at half capacity until early June. It's still having a lot of trouble getting parts to build new cars. A lot of Toyota plants shut down after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "RIO")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your macaw is a very special bird. Lou (ph) is the last male of his kind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a kind?

(END VIDEO CLIP, "RIO")

FEYERICK: The new 3-D animated movie "Rio" flew off with the box office this weekend. The film about birds on a Brazilian adventure took in an estimated $40 million. It's the biggest opening weekend for any film in the U.S. this year.

The sequel "Scream IV" came in second, with just over $19 million, and "Hop" took third with just over $11 million.

Nearly a year after the catastrophic BP oil spill in the Gulf, much of the oil is gone. Heavy machinery and workers have cleaned beaches for months, so how did they do?

Well, CNN's Rob Marciano gives us a progress report from the Gulf.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It was a year ago this week when the deepwater horizon rig exploded about 15 miles southeast of the Louisiana coastline, spewing over 200,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

It's been a long 12 months working on that spill, cleaning it up. That job is not done.

(voice-over): The U.S. Coast Guard leads a reduced, but still formidable clean-up force.

COMMANDER DAN LAUER, DEPUTY INCIDENT COMMANDER, USCG: The height in July, we were approaching somewhere around 48,000 responders. Today we are just probably under about 2,000 responders.

MARCIANO: Now, after a long year, progress is visible in the water and on the shore.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This auger picks up the sand from the beach at a prescribed depth.

MARCIANO: In Alabama and Florida, these land sharks have been deep- cleaning the sand all winter long.

(on camera): It's amazing how clean that is.

TOM MAHAN, FLORIDA DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, BP: It's beautiful. Florida beaches are spectacular.

MARCIANO (voice-over): The goal is to get the beaches back to their pre-oil spill beauty. But layers of oil still exist deep in the sand, and these machines are only allowed to dig down six inches in this wildlife-protected area.

(on camera): So there's a lot more going on in the sand.

MAHAN: It is. It's very alive. It's a very active substrate. It's very diverse. What we can see is a lot of other critters, literally, that are below us that will dry this whole system.

MARCIANO: These shores are also nesting grounds for some protected shore birds and endangered turtles. I got to handle a few sea turtles rescued from the oil spill last year. They are truly remarkable creatures.

(on camera): Turtles that are born on this beach, do they come back and nest on this beach?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's pretty amazing. They imprints in this area by virtue of when they hatch.

MARCIANO: So they don't really have a choice. This is their nesting ground oil or not, they're going to come back here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is their habitat and home absolutely.

MARCIANO (voice-over): The beach is also shared by tourists who will see less of everything this summer.

MAHAN: The visitors who come to the beach will see beach and won't see people in vest and equipment and shovels coming along and cleaning. We will do enough inspection to make sure the beaches are clean, but that's all they'll see.

MARCIANO: The heavy equipment will be pulled, too. Environmentalists are somewhat encouraged.

JASON CASE, FLORIDA ENVIRONMENTAL COORDINATOR: I do feel good about the partnership and the progress that we've made. I don't think the job is done, though, by any means.

MARCIANO: Nowhere is that more evident than in Louisiana's marshes at the heart of this fragile ecosystem. Here thick oil still remains and the cleanup will go on for months, if not years.

(on camera): These beaches looked phenomenal compared to a year ago, but the story on wildlife, the impact from the oil spill, that continues.

Just this January 1st, there had been a huge number of dead dolphins and turtles that have washed up on these beaches possibly linked to the oil spill. What's going to happen to wildlife in the next 12 months, the next decade? We still don't know. Rob Marciano, CNN, Gulf Shores, Alabama.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: And as the nation prepares to mark the first anniversary since the disaster, CNN is going to bring you an in-depth look at the Gulf oil spill. Look for CNN's special reports throughout all of our programming this week.

Well, have you ever been waiting for flying cars and space tourism to enter the high-tech decade? Get ready. The future is now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: Well, flying cars, high schools and shopping centers in the sky, all futuristic inventions featured on space age cartoon "The Jetsons." They're not quite a reality just yet, but we are getting closer than ever.

Marc Saltzman shares some futuristic creations that are in the works right now. First of all, let's talk about smart homes. We're going to have like kitchens that cook for you?

MARC SALTZMAN, SYNDICATED TECHNOLOGY WRITER: Soon enough, Deb, that's right. We are going to have homes that are going to be a lot smarter, more automated, more energy efficient with domestic robots just like "The Jetsons."

This is a clip here from a great video on YouTube called "A Day Made of Glass." It's from the folks at Corning and they're showing interactive glass surfaces. So imagine brushing your teeth in the morning, looking in the mirror and you're getting your messages, you're looking at your calendar appointments. It's all touch-based.

You could see videos and photos then you go to the kitchen to make some breakfast. Grandma calls on the video phone to speak to the kids. You drop your smart phone down on the countertop and the kids can then twist and turn that video and make it full screen.

There's really going to be, you know, dozens if not hundreds of interactive touch screens throughout the homes from tablets to TVs to really any surface that's going to make the home a lot smarter and you know, entertainment and communication at your fingertips.

FEYERICK: Right, so just in case you weren't getting enough information as it is, now at least you can see it when you're brushing your teeth. Well, look, we saw flying cars in "The Jetsons" and back to the future. Are we going to see something like that? It's all sort of Tom Cruise.

SALTZMAN: Well, yes, we are going to see that soon. In fact, a Massachusetts-based company called "Terafujia" is already taking pre- orders for $10,000 a pop. These are flying cars. This one is called the "Transition."

This is a street-legal aircraft that lets you, you know, park it in your garage at night in your home then you can drive down to the airport, press a button to extend its wings and then you can take to the friendly skies. You do need a pilot's license, of course, which the company says you can get for about -- for as low as 20 hours of actual air time.

So this is -- by the way, just in case of emergency, in mid-flight, there is a full vehicle parachute that can be deployed just in case so pretty neat stuff from "Terafujia." I think they're going to go for about a couple hundred grand, but they haven't yet committed to a specific price.

FEYERICK: Interesting. Not clear how high those get, but at least if the wings don't work, you can still drive to your destination. I guess, there is some consolation in that.

Finally, this past Tuesday, we marked the 50th anniversary of the first human space flight, now we're talking about space tourism. Are we going to get to go there?

SALTZMAN: Absolutely, maybe not in our generation, but our kids' generation. Now, they are taking pre-orders with companies like "Virgin Galactic" by Sir Richard Branson, for $20,000 - as low as $20,000 for a deposit.

Now this will let you go up about 100 -- I believe it's 100 kilometers into space or 328,000 feet above the earth. You can take a look at our planet. You can enjoy true weightlessness.

This is coming. It is coming soon. Space tourism is poised to be a big deal this century, but probably not for a few more years. But it's certainly exciting and you know, something I really hope to see in my lifetime.

FEYERICK: Well, I saw a couple of planets Venus, Jupiter and Mars through a telescope. That was pretty amazing. Being able to get even closer, that's going to be even more extraordinary. Marc Saltzman, thanks so much. Always appreciate you look at the latest.

SALTZMAN: Thanks, Deb.

FEYERICK: Well, CNN crews are still in Japan covering the devastation of the earthquake and tsunami. Just ahead, the choice of a fishing town that saved its future.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: Well, time for a CNN Equals Politics update. We're keeping an eye on all the latest headlines on the cnnpolitics.com desk. Here's what crossing right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK (voice-over): Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner says Congress will raise the debt ceiling above $14 trillion. He says both Democratic and Republican leaders told President Obama their plans last week after recognizing there is no alternative to increasing the amount of money the federal government can borrow.

House Speaker John Boehner and other members of Congress made a surprise visit to Iraq this weekend. They met with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and discussed strategic and political cooperation between Iraq and the U.S.

And Sarah Palin is taking members of her own party to task for not making deeper spending cuts. At a Tea Party rally in Wisconsin this weekend, Palin challenged Republican leaders to, quote, "fight like a girl." She made a comment while pointing members of a women's college hockey team who were in the crowd.

In the latest political news, you know where to go, cnnpolitics.com.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: Well, we're going to be looking at what the weather -- there is a long clean-up ahead, and Karen, when I look at all this, the tornadoes here, the tornadoes there, I've never seen anything like that.

KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: These were in not remote areas, not across farm land, these were populated areas. About 240-plus tornado reports that have come into the Storm Prediction Center, and I just want to show you this Google earth. This kind of puts this into perspective.

Here is the state of North Carolina. That cluster of tornadoes you've been seeing all morning, all day, have come out of this Greensborough, high point, Raleigh, North Carolina area, but towards the coast near Edenton, also near the coast of Virginia in counties such as Glouster, Dimwitty and Isle of White. A lot of areas there, but also South Carolina.

As I mentioned, these are populated areas so take a look at the video, this coming from Channel 14 Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAGINNIS (voice-over): These are not insignificant homes. Look at the site of this house. It looks like you're looking into a bedroom with a bed in there. This neighborhood, seemingly one house, minor damage. Another house knocked off of its foundation. A roof taken off of this home. A number of fatalities coming out of North Carolina. In total from the three-day -- this is incredible. I have to point that out.

The car with the tree that looked like it was a spear thrown through the window of that automobile, but already some 40 reports of fatalities all the way from Oklahoma and Arkansas into North Carolina and Virginia. Not an insignificant home we're looking at here.

These are 3, 4, 5,000-square-foot homes it looks like and they were tossed around like toothpicks. Let's go to Hartnett and Bladen Counties in North Carolina as well. Lots of damage having been reported here. They'll send out National Weather Service storm surveying crews and estimate what this may be.

They're saying already an EF-3 tornado report from one of these systems that raked across east, central North Carolina. Glasgow, Virginia. That's along the eastern coast of Virginia. Take a look at these, these are new images coming in, aerial pictures from our affiliate there, and it looks like total devastation.

We'll continue to see some of these survey results anywhere from EF-0, which is at the bottom of the scale to EF-5. Just to give you some idea, back in 2003, there was a two-day total of 400 tornado reports. In three days we had 240-plus tornadoes reported from Oklahoma to North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MAGINNIS: I want to show you this quickly. The radar imagery, we stop right here. Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro, all the way down between Columbia, South Carolina.

We knew this was going to happen. Richmond, Petersburg, Norfolk, Raleigh into Berkeley County, South Carolina, had some damage reports coming out of there.

You can see extending all the way up from Richmond to Norfolk, Deborah. A path of destruction and now is the clean-up and the mourning of those who passed away in the storm.

FEYERICK: It's going to be a huge cleanup and we heard three quarters of a mile for one of those tornadoes. Karen Maginnis, thanks so much. We'll be checking in with you momentarily again.

Well, over the past month, we've all seen images from Japan that we simply can't get out of our minds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK (voice-over): Take a look at this one, a brilliant sunset looking over a fishing village devastated by the tsunami. It was sent to us by I-Reporter Michael Shiffler. He lives in Hawaii, but has been helping with recovery efforts in northern Japan since the March 1lth earthquake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: CNN's Martin Savidge also arrived in Japan just the day after the tsunami. He's witnessed both despair and determination, and in one fishing village, he found respect for the sea and worries about a nuclear neighbor.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The road to Ureso is narrow and decorated with disaster. But it appeared we had finally found a village, by some miracle, spared from the tsunami.

We were wrong. Ureso, population 400, was pulverized. Homes, businesses, and a dozen lives lost, but its fleet of fishing boats sat safely at anchor.

YUKITOSHI WATANABE, TOWN ELDER (through translation): As soon as the earthquake stopped, we heard a big tsunami was coming so we run down and took the boats offshore at full speed.

SAVIDGE: This fishing village may have been destroyed, but its future was saved. Ureso and the ocean have been neighbors for generations.

But aren't people afraid of the sea now, I asked? To answer, Watanabe takes me on a steep climb to the village shrine, where, after he pays his respects and rings the bell, behind the temple he showed me some flashing lights through the trees.

Ureso's other neighbor, the Oginawa nuclear power plant. This, he says, is what villagers fear most. I get scared whenever I hear something goes wrong at the plant, he says. Because things made by human beings can go wrong. It's been running here 20 years and in the next ten years, I'm sure something will go wrong.

Something did go wrong just last week. During an aftershock, there were minor leaks of radioactive water never considered a danger. But the villagers fear dates back to the 1980s when the Oginawa plant was built. To this day, signs reading no nuclear power plant are posted on the village road and the disaster at another nuclear plant, Fukushima Daiichi has only made more concerns for their nuke next door even worse.

FUSAKO ENDO, LIVES IN YORISO, JAPAN (through translation): The power plant is getting old. I'm scared if something like Fukushima were to happen here.

SAVIDGE: The worries of a woman sitting in an evacuation center, her home in ruins. Despite all they've seen and all they've lost, when it comes to neighbors, the villagers would much rather take their chances with this scene. Martin Savidge, CNN, Ureso, Japan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: Before he left Japan this morning, I had a chance to talk to Marty and get his impressions about this monumental disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: It just never ceases to shock me of the kind of stuff you see, whether it's massive boats that are a mile or two away from shore, whether it's automobiles that have been picked up and put on top of five-story buildings, whether you try to even wrap your mind around the fact that you had a wall of water that in some cases was over 115 feet high. And then on top of that, of course, is a death toll that continues to rise.

So I think all of that really just weighs on your mind as you go into all these different communities. And even a month later, they had made tremendous progress, and I'm not putting anybody down by saying this, but even a month later, you go into some of these areas and you almost feel as if you're arriving the day after. There is just so much yet to be done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: And at 4:00 p.m. Eastern right here in the CNN NEWSROOM, Marty talks about the people he's met and the things the country still needs so desperately.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FEYERICK: Well, author Greg Mortenson is standing by his best-selling book, you may have read it, "Three Cups of Tea." The book recounts more of his travels in Afghanistan and Pakistan including being rescued by villagers while climbing the world's second highest mountain on earth K-2.

And upcoming "60 Minutes" investigation alleges he claims in the book are false. Another bestselling author and mountain climber, John Crackhour tells the CBS news program, quote, "it's a beautiful story and it's a lie."

Crackhour is the former donor to Mortenson's charity, which spawned by the book. The charity improves girls' education in Pakistan and Afghanistan. CNN reached out to both men for comments, there was no immediate response.

And refocusing on customers, another auto recall and a major hiring day for a fast food chain. Our money team is watching it all. Let's go first to Alison Kosik.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Deb. Wal-Mart is trying to win back customers after almost two years of declining sales. It announced plans to add 8,500 items to store shelves, check competitor's prices more often and press suppliers to lower their prices.

The government is finding 14 big banks an undisclosed amount because of last year's debacle. The banks allegedly signed off on proposals without checking the paperwork. Citi Group, Bank of America, HSBC and others will be fined. They also have to figure out which homeowners were injured and then pay them back. Stephanie --

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Alison. Ford is recalling more than 1 million trucks. Most of them are F150s built between 2003 and 2006. That's the best selling truck in the U.S. A wrong with the wiring can cause the airbag to unexpectedly deploy.

Amazon is releasing a new cheaper kindle, but it's cheaper for a reason. The new kindle with special offers is just that, an e-reader that comes with advertisements on the home screen. It goes for $114, $25 cheaper than its ad-free counterpart. Poppy Harlow has a look what's coming up on Wall Street, Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Thanks, Steph. We have a big week ahead. CitiGroup, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Apple, Yahoo and a lot of bigger companies are reporting their quarterly earnings this week. Also on deck, several major housing reports set to be released. All of this in just four days because the market are closed on Friday for Good Friday.

Also coming up, Toyota says it will restart production in Japan on Monday, but it's only going to be for a few days and lines will be operating at half the capacity because Toyota is still accessing the parts shortage.

Finally, McDonald's holds a massive hiring event on Tuesday. The restaurant is looking to add some 50,000 full-time workers. Back to you in Atlanta.

FEYERICK: Poppy, Stephanie, Alison, thanks so much, ladies.

And playing politics with your money. Can Democrats and Republicans compromise on how to deal with the company's huge debt?

First, let's take a look at some of our top stories. Entire neighborhoods in several southeastern states look like war zones after powerful storms rip through the region.

More than 40 people have been killed. Many of the deaths happen in Bertie County in North Carolina. There are reports of numerous injuries.

If you're mailing your tax return to Uncle Sam this weekend, it's going to cost you more. While the first class stamps still 44 cents. As of yesterday, the rate for first class parcel post, those heavier letters now a little higher. It will also cost more to send a postcard.

I'm Deb Feyerick. I'll be back in just an hour. "YOUR MONEY" starts right now.