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Texans Return to Charred Homes; Tornado Slams St. Louis Airport; Coalition Air Strikes in Tripoli
Aired April 23, 2011 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Right now on CNN:
A tornado takes dead aim at an airport.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down! Go back inside!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Passengers scrambled as a twister slams into the airport at St. Louis. And for miles around, hundreds of homes damaged or destroyed.
Tonight, it's not over. Active tornado watches right now. We have team coverage for you.
Plus --
(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)
LEMON: Demonstrators under attack in Syria. Government forces open fire and kill at least 10 people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: What was the moment, I should ask, I'm sure there was, that you realized, oh, my gosh, this is turning into something that no one expected?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson amid the chaos and in the line of fire as Egyptians and Libyans rise up against their governments. A reporter's notebook, the stories behind the stories you saw right here on CNN. It's going to happen this hour.
I'm Don Lemon. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
The most powerful tornado to hit St. Louis in more than four decades. A view from a surveillance camera inside St. Louis airport at the moment it hit. People just barely getting to cover as the gusts whipped through the hallway there. The tornado's winds reached 166 miles per hour, or more. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down! Go back inside!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: As you can imagine, panic inside the terminal as a tornado bear down. Passengers running from the terrifying sight and those large windows coming right at them. he airport is operating at a very limited capacity, only a handful of incoming flights.
A live report from the airport just seconds away here on CNN.
You know, the airport wasn't the only spot to take a pounding. Nine communities, impacted, 750 homes damaged. Some of them blasted to splinters.
Incredibly, no reports of deaths or serious injuries. People had a 34-minute warning ahead of that tornado.
The National Weather Service says the twister was a powerful EF-4.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WES BROWNING, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: The public did what we have told them to do. They had a plan in place. They talked to their families. They were all in the basement. They came out without a scratch.
I've talked to numerous families who went down in the basement, not a scratch. They come out, there's nothing left -- an amazing story of victory over this tornado.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Now, as promised live to the airport and CNN's Dan Simon. He's standing by.
Dan, the images we have seen from this are both amazing and eerie at the same time, aren't they?
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Really is, Don.
And let me tell you where we are. We are here at the main terminal. This is what it looks like when you pull up. You can see all these glasses or all these windows have basically been blasted out.
What crews are doing right now, as can you see some of them up there, they're knocking out these windows that have cracks in them. You can see there on the ground all those windows there just waiting to be cleaned up. Crews have been out here all day trying to get the airport basically in working order.
And a little while ago, authorities said they were optimistic that they could actually get some flights in tonight and they think they can be about 70 percent operational tomorrow. The key to getting the airport operational of course is getting the power back.
And that's really true for most of this community. We can't really understate how much of this community has been devastated, Don. The tornado cut through several communities, 750 homes damaged, many of them destroyed.
At this point, crews are still assessing the damage, trying to clean up the roads, trying to get this area passable so utility crews can get in there and get the power back.
But right now, they're dealing with a number of things. There are a number of people who are dislodged. The Red Cross, of course, has set up several shelters.
And so, that's the situation we're dealing with right now -- still a bit tenuous and crews still trying to assess all the damage, Don.
LEMON: Hey, Dan. You know, I know that airport, I lived there for a while. You're standing in the main terminal of the airport. That was damaged. What about the other parts of the airport?
SIMON: Concourse C, which actually has four airlines, including American, had so much debris that they really don't know when they're going to get that concourse back up. There is a vacant concourse, Concourse B. There's nothing in there right now, so they can move those airlines over there on a temporary basis.
But, you know, you've seen some of this surveillance video, and you've seen some of this debris come in. It just looked like a wind tunnel. You had all this debris sort of come in through the various concourses, all these windows breaking
But, you know, it's really amazing, the fact you had the safety glass that nobody was really seriously hurt. And that's really true throughout the community, only minor injuries. And crews say the reason why nobody was seriously injured or died, it's because people really heeded the safety warnings.
In this case, the media did their job. They alerted everybody, and the folks went to the basements. And that's why you're not dealing with any significant injuries, Don.
LEMON: All right. Dan Simon at Lambert Field in St. Louis -- thank you very much for that.
And for details on the strength of the tornado and how many tornadoes were spotted, let's turn to our meteorologist, Bonnie Schneider, in the CNN severe weather center.
Bonnie, the St. Louis airport -- it is in near a suburb. It's not far from the city, a very dense area. I mean, it could have had much, much more damage. It could have been, you know, dire consequences.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely, Don. And I think part of the reason we didn't see that, as you heard from the officials, people had their family disaster plan in place. I can't emphasize enough how important that is.
Know where you'll go if a tornado warning is issued and also have a point person in another city, far away, a relative or friend, that in case the family is separated, you all contact that person and this way everyone can be accounted for. Just a little bit of advice since we are in severe weather season.
We'll take a look at an EF-4 tornado -- 166-200. Those are three- second wind gusts -- 200-mile-per-hour wind gusts. It is possible. Right now, just preliminary reports as survey teams are on the ground, at least four of them, we had some reports just a few miles away from the airport that right now, this is looking like an EF-4. We'll get the report as we go over the next couple days, but it certainly was damaging and devastating, absolutely.
Well, I want to show you what things are looking like right now. We have a tornado watch that's in effect just for the rest of the hour. It's actually diminished since our last report. You can see it's kind of caved in here in the Kentucky area, meaning the threat is further east. So, we're watching for tornadic activity to work its way through Kentucky, possibly in Ohio.
No warnings are in place right now. There is a severe thunderstorm watch across West Virginia. And remember, a watch is important, too. It means that a tornado or severe thunderstorm can occur.
So, you should be prepared. Have your NOAA weather radio on and always be ready, as I mentioned, with that disaster plan and also an emergency supply kit as well, just in case you do have to evacuate quickly due to severe weather.
Severe thunderstorms are erupting just where we don't want them, south of St. Louis. And the problem is as we go forward, over the next few days, what we're tracking here is a threat for major flooding. Look at all the flood watches and warnings posted across Kentucky, Cincinnati -- and Ohio and Kentucky have already seen a lot of rain. We have some pictures to show you of the flooding that's been occurring.
The problem is, this is Ohio and a lot of places are underwater. The problem is more rain is coming. Our computer models are forecasting things to get much, much worse.
Wow, look at this. On our scale here, the purple and white, 10 inches to 12 inches of rain. This is over a five-day period. Don, this is going to be devastating for parts of Illinois, Kentucky and Ohio and Indiana as well, because it's just so much rain, the ground is saturated. So, we're going to have a lot of issues with flooding as we go into the rest of this week.
LEMON: All right. Bonnie Schneider, thank you very much. Stand by, because we're going to be needing you throughout the evening here on CNN.
And still ahead --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really did think that I would go and start bawling when I saw it, but it's just so -- it's just so gone. There's nothing really to cry over.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Those pictures are unbelievable. Victims of the devastating wildfires in Texas return home. But for many, nothing there is left, as you can see.
And Princess Diana didn't live to see her first born get married. Why the seating arrangement at Prince William's wedding next week means some of Diana's family may not see it either.
And reach out to us on social media. We're on Twitter, Facebook, CNN.com/Don and on Foursquare.com as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: On the corner of Hellsgate and Hellsgate Loop, unbelievable. That ferocious firestorm in Texas has turned about just every pocket of the state. Exhausted firefighters have done their best to corral the flames and they say they have contained about a fourth of that blaze.
One of the hardest-hit areas where fire destroyed nearly 200 homes in Palo Pinto County. Residents are trickling back in to see what if anything is left behind.
CNN's Patrick Oppmann is there -- Patrick.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, days after wildfires ripped through one Texas community, residents are finally seeing the aftermath up close.
(voice-over): Hundreds of evacuees wait in a line stretching miles, worried and frustrated, trying to check on their homes.
RUDY EVENSON, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: We're allowing residents from four of the affected communities around P.K. Lake to go back in and check on the status of their property just for a few hours today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What can I do here? I'm free to go or what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
OPPMANN: Residents from this wildfire-ravaged corner of Texas brace themselves for more heart-breaking news.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to take a bunch of pictures for the insurance and then start sifting, and see if there's anything we can put in some of our tubs and bring back home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not knowing is the hardest part. We love coming out here and it's just a beautiful lake and it's just hard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tying to just see what we can salvage, if there's anything to salvage.
OPPMANN: When they finally get back, a burned out moonscape awaits them where many homes once were. Some fires burned hot enough here to leave rivers of metal in their wake.
SHERIFF IRA MERCER, PALO PINTO COUNTY, TEXAS: This is an event that's going to mark time in our history. It's something that's going to change forever the looks and the community itself. I mean, it will be life before the fire and life after the fire.
OPPMANN: For Peter and Carolyn Bennis, there's no going home.
CAROYLN BENNIS, LOST HOME IN FIRE: I kept saying to myself, you can't prepare yourself for this, you know? And you really can't. And I really did think that I would go and start bawling when I saw it, but it's just so -- it's just so gone. There's nothing really to cry over.
OPPMANN (on camera): You're a little bit shocked.
BENNIS: Yes,, you just -- you just drive up and go, really? How did this happen? Because last Saturday it was there.
OPPMANN (voice-over): All that's left now of their home of five years is ashes. The fire consumed everything the couple had there. But it's a home they say they will rebuild.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: CNN's Patrick Oppmann.
In other news, big brother is watching you, or in this case your iPhone is watching you. How it happens and how you can stop it.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALASDAIR ALLAN, SR. RESEARCHER, UNIV. OF EXETER: Personally, I'm not particularly concerned myself. I don't think people should panic. But I don't think that this necessary to keep the data in the phone and people should be aware of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That's one of the guys who discovered something very disturbing about a phone that a lot of you have in your pockets right now. I even have it. It's in my brief case somewhere.
Apple's iPhone has been tracking users' movements without their knowledge.
So, I want to bring in Nilay Patel. He's the managing editor of ThisIsMyNext.com.
OK. So, how is Apple collecting this information? And more importantly, why?
NILAY PATEL, THISISMYNEXT.COM: Well, you know, I think the thing is, to be clear, it's not Apple that's collecting the information. There's a certain amount of location data from your iPhone that Apple anonymously collects, you know, to serve ads and do things. But they're very up front about that.
The problem here is that the phone itself stores kind of all the locations that you've been to since you've had the phone, months, years in some cases. And it's on the phone, and it's on your computer -- any computer that the sync the phone to, in a way that's easy to get to. You know, these guys have developed an app called iPhone Tracker that just run on your map, it shows you everywhere your phone has been over time. You can map your travels, you know, over the past few months and that's what's troubling.
It's troubling, you know, that there's already so much data in your phone. Your e-mail, your Facebook, your banking, and now, there's this bit of data about everywhere you've been that I don't think users were anticipating and it's there and easy to get to.
LEMON: How -- Nilay, can you get rid of it? Can you just delete it? Or is it there forever?
PATEL: Well, you know, I think that's on Apple to change the way the phone stores the data and change how much data and how easy it is to get to. You know, if you are basic user, the thing you should do right now is you should open your iTunes, the one you sync your iPhone for and click "encrypt backups." That will keep people from getting at it.
If you're more advanced user, you can jail break your phone, you can run software that Apple doesn't approve and run an app called UnTrackered, which will kind of erase as it goes.
But that's -- you know, you have to be a little more paranoid. I think in the short term, if you just encrypt your iTunes backups and, you know, keep an eye on where your phone is and make sure you don't lose it, you'll be fine.
LEMON: It's not that --
PATEL: You know, in the larger context --
LEMON: Go ahead.
PATEL: You know, I'm saying, in the larger context, you know, every phone kind of does this. I think that's where you're getting to --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: It's natural, because the Android phones, they track you and I'm not sure about BlackBerrys. But Google's Android, they'll track as well. So, it's not unique.
PATEL: Right. You know, Androids don't it. They don't store as much data. It's a little bit better. They only store, you know, maybe a month or so of data. It's not clear.
I think the bigger conversation everybody needs to have is we all have these devices that are so smart, they know so much about us -- how much really do we want them to know. And, you know, the manufacturers devices need to be really up front with the customer about how much data they're storing.
And when it comes to location, I think people are -- you know, they're precious about where they are and the data about where they are. That can be used in a lot of ways by, you know, people, good and bad, in your life.
And I think the companies should be really careful about location data when it comes to the phone.
LEMON: Nilay Patel, good information. Thank you very much. I hope Apple doesn't mind you told people how to jail break their phone. But that's OK, you didn't say it, you did.
(LAUGHTER)
PATEL: It's out there. If you're really worried, you've got to do it.
LEMON: All right.
PATEL: Thanks.
LEMON: Have a good one.
OK. London is bustling with royal wedding enthusiasts trying to get a glimpse of where William and Kate will tie the knot. But controversy is brewing about the seating chart and who's been pushed to the back of the church.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: I know everybody's excited. Let's talk about the royal wedding.
London's Westminster Abbey is buzzing with activity as the final touches are being made for Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding just six days from now. It's warmer than normal for this time of year, but that didn't keep crowds of people from coming to the abbey to get a glimpse of where the royal couple will tie the knot.
CNN caught up with some American tourists who say they prefer a preview instead of the event itself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The world definitely needs it, and it's exciting to be here. Everybody's very excited, people are happy. So, it's a great atmosphere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I'm excited for them, but I'm here as a tourist. So, I'm trying to avoid the royal wedding so that the people from England can have their time with the royals. And we Americans will come in and see the beautiful sights and then boogie out of town.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm pretty excited. I didn't want to be here on the day because it would be way too busy. But I'm having my mom tape it for me, even though I'm going to be in the U.K. when it's on.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
LEMON: The guest list has been released. It includes high profile names like Sir Elton John, David and Victoria Beckham and film director guy Richie.
Details on where everyone will be seated were also made public and some might say the late Princess Diana's family is being snub the by their seating arrangement. The Spencer family won't be sitting on the groom's side. Instead, they will be on the bride's side, in the section behind the Middleton family seated with William and Kate's friends.
Vicious weather rocks the Midwest. As the sun goes down, hundreds of families in Missouri sift through what little is left, after a massive tornado ripped through less than 24 hours ago.
And a reporter's notebook from our very own Nic Robertson. This was a camera he and his cameraman were using in the hotel when Eman al- Obeidy burst in and told them she had been roughed up and raped by Moammar Gadhafi's henchman. This is the camera they broke. It's in pieces. Look at that. Nic Robertson, reporter's notebook, his talk with me, coming up in moments right here on CNN.
But, first, a new literacy project is using unusual methods to get kids interested in writing, including a store that resembles a pirate ship and a row of published books made by the students themselves.
CNN's education contributor Steve Perry has this and more in this week's "Perry's Principles."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR (voice-over): Eight-Two-Six National is a literacy organization with eight chapters across the country. Today, we're at the original location in San Francisco called 826 Valencia. Here, kids get tutoring, attend creative writing workshops and watch their own books get published.
STUDENT: What are you doing there? There you go!
PERRY: And did I also mention it's a pirate supply store? These kids are writing a story for a grumpy pirate named Mr. Blue.
STUDENT: We promise to make it right story. Can we please try?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope so, it better be a good story. It better be exciting and suspenseful!
PERRY: Eight-Two-Six Valencia also offers one-on-one tutoring in any subject students need help with, host field trips and has a special focus on working with students whose parents don't speak English at home. But today, they're all about creative writing.
STUDENT: Or it could be a crocodile mixed with an iguana.
PERRY (on camera): And you are helping kids in this community use writing to do what?
GERALD RICHARDS, CEO, 826 NATIONAL: It all begins with writing. And so, you have to build from that sort of basis. And so the students that we work with, if their writing is great, it follows everything else they'll do from English to math to science.
PERRY: And how much are they paying for this?
RICHARDS: It's all free.
PERRY: Wow.
RICHARDS: Yes.
PERRY: How do you pay for that?
RICHARDS: A lot of fundraising.
PERRY: Yes.
RICHARDS: A lot of goodwill from the community. We work with a lot of foundations and corporations.
PERRY: Eight-Two-Six Valencia has nearly 1,700 active volunteers from all different types of careers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, you think that's going to be a good story so far?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of potential there. I like what I'm hearing so far.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Excellent. All right. Let's get back to work, guys.
PERRY: Steve Perry, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down! Get down! Go back inside!
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: The sounds of extreme winds whipping around outside a terminal, passengers running for cover as a tornado slams the St. Louis airport. It's the most powerful tornado in the city in more than four decades. Winds reached as high as 160 miles per hour. Some passengers were stuck on planes when it tore through.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROSS TAYLOR, ON PLANE WHEN TORNADO STRUCK: When we look out next to us, and see the plane and the gate, you know, right to our left, just immediately slides about 15 or 20 yards away from the gate. At that point everyone on our plane just immediately started streaming for the exit. Luckily we were still connected to the gate so we were able to run off. By the time you get to the terminal, we got to the terminal, lights were out, there was glass everywhere. It was just open, there was blood everywhere from where people had been cut.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The airport was just one of the spots that got hit hard. Nine communities are impacted, 750 homes damaged. Some of them obliterated, but there are no reports of deaths or serious injuries. The governor has declared a state of emergency.
I want to check our top stories right now. No letup in the brutal month-long government crackdown in Syria. Witnesses tell CNN security forces opened fire from rooftops today killing 10 protesters who turned out to mourn dozens killed on Friday.
Yesterday's crackdown was one of Syria's bloodiest battles yet. Nearly 80 people were killed after security forces and demonstrators clashed in several cities.
Yemen's embattled leader could soon be stepping down. A government official says President Ali Abdullah Saleh has agreed in principle to turn over power within 30 days. Yemen's neighboring Persian Gulf nations brokered the agreement which grants complete immunity for Saleh and members of his regime. But Saleh has yet to sign a deal.
A major victory today for Libyan rebels in the key coastal city of Misrata. Opposition leaders say they've successfully pushed Gadhafi forces out of the city's center. They've also regained the critical port there. Libya's government admits its soldiers are retreating but vows tribal fighters will remain. A rebel spokesman says Gadhafi is simply trying to disguise his army's defeat there.
Well, events across the Middle East have been so explosive and fast moving it's sometimes hard to step back and take in the big picture. CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson has been in the thick of all these stories as they have swept across the Arab world. He was there for the first allied coalition fighting and he was also there for Imam (INAUDIBLE) - take a look at this. This is a camera inside of that hotel that was virtually annihilated by Moammar Gadhafi forces.
But our Nic Robertson, I sat down with him and talked about his experiences and close calls to bring historic breaking news to CNN viewers around the world. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: You started out in Egypt. Did you have any idea, Nic, when you started in Egypt with what might be a revolution that you'd end up where you ended up?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not really. I mean, when we were in Egypt, it was sort of what was going on, and we even went to a funeral of someone who burnt themselves but there was no big spark, if you will, at the funeral. There was no sort of massive people coming out on the streets, just a few family members.
So even though this Egyptian man had sort of emulated what the Tunisian street vendor had done, setting himself on fire, it didn't create a big ground movement and the people I was talking to in Egypt were saying, "What the Tunisians have done is broke that barrier of fear."
LEMON: Yes.
ROBERTSON: And that was as far as it was going. The Egyptians could see it, but they hadn't done it themselves.
LEMON: What was the moment, I should ask you, because I'm sure there was, that you realized, oh, my gosh. This is turning into something that no one expected.
ROBERTSON: I have to say, I was in Beirut and I was watching Ben Wedeman on the air and I could hear in Ben's voice on the 25th of January what he was witnessing on the streets, in the center of Cairo.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Basically, the crowds and protesters have taken over Tahrir Square, the heart of Cairo.
ROBERTSON: All these people. And I was thinking about the interviews that I'd done in Cairo and the people I'd talked to. And what Ben was saying was suddenly matching what they were saying. People had lost their fear. No one could imagine a scenario just a few days earlier. We'd been shut down by police on the streets of Cairo for just shooting a standup. No one could imagine people coming up, and taking to the streets and running in the face of the police, running against the police.
So I think that was it. It was the expression in Ben Wedeman's voice that I think convinced me above what we've seen already that it was really happening.
LEMON: And much was made about journalists being roughed up. And you had your moments as well as other journalists. Was it frightening? Do you think too much been made out of it? Is that what we do, we go into danger and have the possibility of being roughed up. What do you make of that moment?
ROBERTSON: I think when we get roughed up by government forces I think we have to call it for what it is. And the situations that we were in in Alexandria, which was sort of outside of Tahrir Square in the center of Cairo, where I think people had a far worse time, you know, Anderson Cooper and others had a far worse time at the hands of sort of government loyalists there.
What we experienced was on a smaller scale but it was very intimidating. I mean these people looked like everyone else on the street. You think you're in a crowd full of people who are out there protesting against the government. And suddenly they're not. Suddenly they're taking you away down the street and you don't know where you're going, and you can't stop it happening. We were lucky, we didn't really have any sort of physical blows laid on us.
LEMON: Yes.
ROBERTSON: There actually was one time, I can't remember did get beaten up.
LEMON: So Hosni Mubarak, are people satisfied now with the way things are or - ?
ROBERTSON: Some are, some aren't. Some are saying "Look, give time." And these are some of the leaders in the revolution, too, give time for the army to create the space to have the elections. Let's trust them on this and others are saying "Look, the army is part of the institution here. We need them to take more steps and take these steps more quickly. Essentially, we don't trust them." It seems at the moment that the weight is with the people are saying, "Let the process play out."
And in reality, if there's going to be a steady transition to democracy, perhaps taking it a slightly slower pace will be better. But that's not satisfactory for everyone. They're afraid of the old days when they say we'll do it and then they don't.
LEMON: Yes, but you think about the way that they've lived there. Building a democracy is not going to happen overnight. You may have a revolution, you can have a coup, you can have an uprising, which will happen very quickly but building a democracy does not happen.
ROBERTSON: Everyone knows they want to go vote for the guy they like but who do they like, and can they trust them, and which political party and who are his allies and what's he going to stand for. So suddenly all these questions pop to the forefront because you haven't had to ask them before. There's been one choice and it's been the leadership pretty much.
LEMON: All right. So if we can jump forward to Libya, right? The allied coalition get involved. You're standing there, you're on a balcony and I can tell you probably had not had much sleep and you said, "Don, they're starting the bombing," and you can hear it in the background and I'm talking to you and there's a delay and we're stepping on each other. What's that moment like?
ROBERTSON: It's a pretty incredible moment because you sort of know that it was going to come but you don't know how it's going to be and how it's going to play out. So you're aware of the immediacy of what's happening. How many bombs are dropping? Where's the anti- aircraft gunfire coming? How long is it going to go on for?
But you know, are we in danger here? We're probably not because this building isn't a target. Those are immediate things. Then you're thinking, OK, what is the population's reaction going to be? Because there are people here that are going to be angry by it. Is Gadhafi going to enable these people and say, why don't you storm the hotel where all these journalists we've been talking about on state television, us, foreign journalists, why don't you storm the hotel and show them how angry you feel. Or is Gadhafi going to take the line of, everyone just sit tight. We can weather through this.
So you're kind of wondering how it's all going to play out. And that night in the early hours of the morning there was a protester came right into the hotel and the security guards wouldn't let us out, were letting people come in and protest in the middle of the hotel. It's worrying, because really that was the biggest threat to us there. An angry mob that's uncontrolled and unrestrained.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Our Nic Robertson.
OK, so listen. These are just pieces of the camera. This really is a sort of symbol of the danger and what those journalists face over there. You've heard Nic what he said about the risks. The woman who ignited a clash in which these camera, these pieces of camera were a casualty there, coming up next. We'll tell you about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: You just heard our Nic Robertson talk about the risks of covering the uprisings in the Middle East amid highly charged and emotional crowds. This is the camera that he and his photographer were carrying during one story. This is how it should look but it was all broken apart by Moammar Gadhafi's henchmen when someone, a woman, burst into the hotel and said she had been roughed up by Gadhafi forces and raped.
And in my conversation with Nic Robertson, he recounts the event that led up to that altercation. But first, the night coalition forces launched their first air strikes against Gadhafi, Nic covered those moments live on this show.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: You were among the first, if not the first, to report on the air strikes and to bring that to the American public. Live.
ROBERTSON: That's our job. I mean, I'd gone to bed and then I heard the anti-aircraft gunfire start and the cameraman was in another room.
LEMON: Who's your photographer again?
ROBERTSON: Haleila (ph) Abdullah. LEMON: Great job. He did a great job.
ROBERTSON: He did an awesome job. I mean, he was absolutely incredible. We couldn't have done what we did without him. He speaks Arabic. He's got an excellent editorial head on his shoulders. He's a great guy, a great asset.
LEMON: He knew what -
ROBERTSON: Well, he was in his room setting up, because he heard this. He got the camera out and he was setting up to go live with our transmission equipment to do that. I was in my room and I could hear it. I remembered back to 2003 in Baghdad hearing are the first bombs coming in then, and calling through the international desk to get the story on the air.
And I was - my cell phones were dead because the government cut those services off. I was trying to use the hotel phone, and then I realized that I could, I still had internet in my room so I could Skype. So I was connecting here to Atlanta through Skype. Got put through to the show, and then I think you were saying, "Well, let us hear what's going on?" and I think by that stage I'd opened my balcony doors, I'd taken my laptop outside on to the balcony because it was wireless internet, and so my computer was open and then you could hear the noise of everything going on.
And then I realized, you were saying "Wait a minute, wait a minute, you got live pictures coming in" and that made me realize, Haleil's got his camera up and running. I got to get there. I think I said, "OK, give me like a minute to move. I put my shirt on and then raced down the hall." That's the first time I've relived that moment.
LEMON: Yes. That was a great moment and that moment has replayed, it's all over the internet, and we said it was perhaps one of the most dramatic moments of the conflict. Imam al Abattie (ph) goes into the hotel and causes quite just a raucous, quite a stir around the world.
And, really, because if she'd been allowed to speak to the journalists, probably we would have heard her story and it would have made headlines, but it wouldn't have made headlines in the way that it did, because the government enforcers came in, took her away. Hotel staff pulled a knife on her, a bag was put over her head, she was taken away. This just told everyone, everything they feared about the regime, that it was there, that it was stifling the voice of decent. This was all happening if you spoke up against the government. This is what everyone thought and feared and here it was playing out in front of our eyes.
LEMON: Was it a decision on her part to go to that hotel and do it that way and not just grant an interview? She knew that journalists are staying there, you were staying there. She kind of knew what she was doing.
ROBERTSON: The government officials say why didn't she go to the police station? Well, of course, she wasn't going to the police station because there was people at the check point that she alleges that picked her up and raped her. So she was never going to go to a police station and say this because this story would go nowhere.
And that's why she came. And I realized when I met her about two weeks later that this is a very strong lady. That she's full of passion. She believes in what she's doing, and she's not going to be put down. I mean, I saw her talking face to face with one of Gadhafi's sons and answering back to him. Most people would not do that.
LEMON: Where does that come from on her part?
ROBERTSON: You know she's trained as a lawyer. She's clearly come from a family where women are, you know, enabled. You know, some women in the Muslim culture are not given such a strong voice in a family, but clearly she had in her family, and she felt empowered to speak.
LEMON: Does she represent in that part of the world the sort of, the fear as we said, about Egypt, that barrier slowly being broken down, that people feel they can come forward and talk?
ROBERTSON: She got to a point where she lost everything. I mean she'd been violated. She lost her dignity. She lost her honor. Her family had lost their honor. I mean, this is a very conservative Muslim society that's still very tribal. I mean, a woman can be killed for that easily and it wouldn't be her fault. She would just be killed because she has brought dishonor on the family. That's how it would be viewed.
So I think that she in some ways is sort of an exception because she was willing to stand up. But it was because she'd lost everything. She had nothing else to lose. She could, you know, she was strong enough character, but there was no going back for her. Whatever she did it wasn't going to get any worse.
LEMON: It's interesting. She cared so much that she didn't care anymore, right?
ROBERTSON: Exactly.
LEMON: Is she going to be OK? How is she doing?
ROBERTSON: We don't know. She's still - she's still in Tripoli. She can't leave the city. She still faces people calling her names, taking her to the police when she's out on the street. The police can't do anything. They don't have charges outstanding against her. Is she going to get her case heard in court and bring these alleged rapists to trial? It seems unlikely. There are some in the government that say that's what should happen. There are others who are saying that she should be allowed to leave and go and join her family. But she's become essentially I think a pawn in a much bigger political military game that's being played out now, and she's suffering for it.
LEMON: Americans would say, why doesn't she leave? Why doesn't she come to America? She would have a safe haven here. Why doesn't she go to another country with safe haven? ROBERTSON: She tried to and she got to the border and she was turned around and brought back. When you drive through the border from Tripoli, you go through 20, 30, 40 check points. I lost count and I was trying to count. I lost count of how many check points you go through. But not only do they check your passport but they check you have travel documents and you're authorized to drive through the border. She just wouldn't get there without government permission.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: One bombing target in Tripoli ignited a war of words between CNN and Fox News. You'll hear what happened and how Nic Robertson fought back against what he said were flat out lies by Fox. Just ahead.
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LEMON: Listen, as Nic Robertson pushes back hard against a competitor who falsely accused him of being used by the Gadhafi regime as a human shield after Moammar Gadhafi's compound was bombed by NATO forces.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTSON: For them to say and call this - to say they didn't go and for them to call this and say this was government propaganda to hold us there as human shields when they didn't even leave the hotel - the correspondent didn't leave the hotel and didn't go see for himself is ridiculous.
LEMON: Let's talk about going inside Gadhafi's compound. That caused a bit of a spark, didn't it?
ROBERTSON: It did.
LEMON: There was controversy. With you here, do you want to talk about it? The whole Fox thing. You were all over with the Fox News thing.
ROBERTSON: You know I don't like distracting from the story that we are doing. We're journalists and we're there to cover the story and we shouldn't be a part of the story. I felt at that moment in time Fox crossed the line. They lied about the situation, maybe unwittingly but they lied about it. But they lied about what happened. And I really felt that they should be called out on that. I didn't want to talk about it again afterwards and I think we are much better moving on.
LEMON: And you moved on. You said your piece and you moved on. Now that you're back.
ROBERTSON: I think we laid a marker down. That's all.
LEMON: Yes. Now that you're back, I just wanted to ask you, do you think (INAUDIBLE)?
ROBERTSON: I think we laid a marker down) at that point that they need to get their facts right. It's that simple. And the rest of us will just carry on and do good journalism.
LEMON: End of story. So let's talk about going inside of the compound. What's that like? You get a call. Do they come round you guys up? What happened?
ROBERTSON: They have a P.A. system in the hotel. And you know, it just got to be the P.A. system itself got to be a bit of a joke because it would ding-dong at 2:00 in the morning, come to a press conference. But this time I think it was 11:30 at night, somewhere around that and they said, the bus is going to leave, we're going to take you somewhere to see something. So we didn't know where we were going or what we were going to see but we did know that the bombs had just fallen and we heard some falling sound as if they were coming from Gadhafi's palace compound area.
We were guessing that's where we were going but even the people taking us on the bus, the (INAUDIBLE) didn't seem to know. So there was so much traffic on the road that night because everyone that was sort of a Gadhafi supporter was coming out in their streets, hooting their horns, waving their green flags, showing their support for Gadhafi and defiance in the face of all the bombing which is quite a spectacle to see. I mean, it's quite amazing.
LEMON: You're not naive. You know the possibilities that there could be a bombing or some sort of strike while you're there. You get that.
ROBERTSON: Yes. I was in Iraq in 2003. We know what governments will try and do and we know the dangers that you can be in from air strikes.
LEMON: But you're there to get the story so you went to see.
ROBERTSON: We went to see. They took us into the compound. We had been there before. We went through several layers of security to go in. And they took us to the building and even before we got to the building we didn't know what we were going to see. But once we got through security, got in, walked up to the building and then we could see, OK, this looks like it's been struck by a couple of missiles and little bit later, 10 minutes later maybe, after we were taking quite a few pictures, then a government spokesman comes up, who is standing by all the rubble. And we did an interview with him.
Then after another 10 minutes or so, they took us to Gadhafi's tent which was very close to the building that was hit. We had a couple of minutes there by the tent, which they wanted to show us basically this was how close it was to Gadhafi's famous tent. And then that was it. We were sort of taken away.
LEMON: So as you go in, tell us what we are seeing in the video that you sent back that you and your cameraman are doing.
ROBERTSON: We didn't start rolling until we got right up on the building itself. It's dark and there are a lot of people standing in front of it. The only lighting is the lighting from the camera light. So there is a small light. You're not getting an overall picture, but you can see that the building has collapsed. The front part collapsed and the roof collapsed down so it's at an angle.
LEMON: How big?
ROBERTSON: Four stories high, heavy concrete. You can see two puncture holes in the roof and the roof collapsed down two or three stories like this. There is a sort of lower level on this side that doesn't have a lot of destruction. This end of the building isn't heavily destroyed and this end isn't heavily destroyed. There were so many people crowded around the front section where the main destruction was and I said, let's go inside the sort of right hand end of the building. We did a couple of sort of walk and talks inside there with the sort of minimal destruction inside that building.
LEMON: And I notice as you're walking through people are looking at you, and they're actually showing you some of the equipment they believe -
ROBERTSON: That's right. When we went on sort of on the left-hand end of the building, we went on sort of the lower area and I climbed over the wall and you could see the end of the room and you could see people were passing out pieces of still-hot - what seemed to be missile fragments. That turned out be missile fragments. We could look at the serial numbers and examine them more closely in daylight later. But it was clear these were parts of what seemed to be a cruise missile. (INAUDIBLE)
LEMON: Was there some nefarious behavior on the part of Gadhafi and his militia going on inside? Was there a war effort being generated from there?
ROBERTSON: A command and control, I think, was how the Pentagon later described what the building may have been. It wasn't possible for us to see that. If you imagine a building in three parts, a center and two end parts, the end parts were relatively undamaged and the center was completely collapsed, which showed me that these were precision munitions fired accurately but designed to have low collateral damage.
I have seen huge craters blown in the ground in the middle of buildings before. This wasn't that type of bomb. It seemed to be more of a message but it did leave the rest of the building intact. The rest of the building didn't appear to have what sort of what I would expect from command and control which would be at least be monitors of some kind, phone lines, wires, cables. There wasn't a complex array of antennas on the roof.
And journalists who were there present at the time had been to that building several days earlier because they were used as a glorified tea house or waiting room to go and meet Gadhafi in the tent nearby. So you know, it appeared to us to be what these other journalists thought it was which was just a holding room where you would sit, with VIPs would sit and wait before they would go meet Gadhafi.
It seemed very much to me on the ground at the time, and analyzing it subsequently, a message - a very personal, direct message to Gadhafi. We've got precision weapons. If we see you, we might be able to take you out.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Next, a St. Louis tornado. We have new information about efforts to restore flights to the airport.
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LEMON: Quick update on the story for you now. The most powerful tornado to hit St. Louis in more than four decades. An EF-4. Seven hundred fifty homes damaged or destroyed. The airport got slammed, too. Only a handful of incoming flights this evening. Incredibly no reports of deaths, nor serious injuries.
I'm Don Lemon in the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. See you back here at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.
