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Southeast Destruction; Space Shuttle Launch Delayed

Aired April 29, 2011 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: I --

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: I know you teared up.

BALDWIN: I was dabbing -- dabbing some tears.

KAYE: Okay, good. See? I'm not alone.

BALDWIN: No, I'm with you, and I surprised myself, because we've been talking about it a whole heck of a lot.

Randi Kaye, thank you so much.

By the way, of course, we will have much more on the royal wedding, in case you did not set your alarm, like Randi and I did. More on that through the next two hours.

Also, obviously, a big, big news day besides that, the big news coming down just this afternoon. The shuttle launch, Endeavour, is scrubbed. We will tell you why, when the next try could happen and if Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will stick around or not, because of, of course, her health. She is missing a piece of her skull. Will she stay, will she go home? Sanjay Gupta has some information from some of her doctors. He will be joining me in a matter of minutes.

Also, devastation across six states. Death toll now passing the 300 mark. We heard in the last hour from Mississippi's governor saying, describing the damage there as utter obliteration and an unprecedented outbreak. We have crews live on the ground there, plus Alabama and Tennessee.

And we are getting new details about those nine Americans shot and killed this week at an Afghanistan airport. An Afghan military soldier is accused of pulling the trigger. We will have a live report from the Pentagon coming up.

But I want to begin at the cape, Cape Canaveral, no launch today for the space shuttle Endeavour. A heater problem forced NASA to delay the blastoff for at least 72 hours. That is the latest word. The delay though does raise some questions about what happens now with recovering shooting victim Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Her husband is one of six astronauts heading up into space. He is also the commander of that entire mission and her doctors allowed her to travel from Houston to Florida to watch that launch today. I do want to bring in John Zarrella, who covers NASA and everything space for us. He is there at the Kennedy Space Center to talk about this now scrubbed shuttle mission.

And, John, I knows that NASA doesn't launch unless it is safe and it is ready, but what exactly happened? What was the issue with the heaters?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Well, the issue was that there are three auxiliary power units on board the shuttle.

And the bottom line is the propellant in those auxiliary power units, hydrazine, is very, very cold. And the auxiliary power units are literally used to steer the shuttle. You have to have them, or you can't steer the vehicle, the orbiter in space.

And you have to have the heaters in order keep that hydrazine from freezing. So they lost two heaters on three of the auxiliary power units. They tried to get them to restart, reboot them, could not do it. So they literally had to go ahead and shut it down and say that it is, 72-hour minimum turnaround time.

The astronauts, Brooke, were literally right here next to my right, just outside of the vehicle assembly building stopped in their vehicle and they turned around and went back to the operations checkout building, so that they could, you know, take their suits off and sit around like we are and wait until NASA makes a determination as to exactly to when they will be able to fly.

Brooke, the president is still here. In fact, he landed about 20 minutes ago. He and his family are touring one of the orbiter processing facilities inside there getting a look at the shuttle Atlantis -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Right. Tour to Kennedy went on with the president and the first family. John Zarrella, thank you. We will check back in with you.

Meantime, though, doctors in Houston, they are handling Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords' rehab. They cleared her to travel as I mentioned to Florida just this past Wednesday for the launch. But now that the shuttle is not going up today, there are questions about what that delay could mean.

Can Giffords continue her rehab while she is there on the ground in Florida or will she have to return to Houston before Endeavour actually takes off?

Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been in touch along with his team with Gabby Giffords' doctors. He will join me in about 20 minutes with an update there.

And even though the shuttle launch was scrubbed, the president, as John mentioned, did not cancel his plans to still continue from Alabama to Florida to the Kennedy Space Center.

And I do want to bring in White House correspondent Dan Lothian.

But, Dan, if I may, I do want to begin with the president's schedule. First this morning we know he hopped a flight to Alabama, to Tuscaloosa, one of the areas hardest hit because of the storms this week. He had spoken saying he had never seen devastation like this.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. I mean, it is one thing to see the video on television, these pictures, dramatic pictures. But it is quite another to be there in person.

And so the president and the first lady went to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, one of the hardest-hit cities, where they met with not only the governor, the mayor, other officials, but also with the victims who told them gripping stories about how they were able to escape with their lives, but many of them did lose everything.

And as you pointed out, the president saying that he had not seen anything quite like that. It will take quite some time for the people of Alabama and others across the South who have been pummeled by a series of tornadoes to recover, but President Obama offered help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to just make a commitment to the communities here that we are going to do everything we can to help these communities rebuild.

We can't bring those who have been lost back. They're alongside God at this point. We can help maybe a little bit with the families dealing with the grief of having a loved one lost. But the property damage, which is obviously extensive, that's something that we can do something about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Before flying to Alabama, the president issued a disaster declaration. That means that federal funds will be freed up to help some of the hardest hit cities and -- counties, rather, in Alabama -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Dan, let me ask you what he is doing right now, because, as you mentioned, he is still there at the cape. What is he and the first family doing? And also keeping in mind it is his administration who has really tightened the purse strings on NASA, still really a lot of questions about U.S. missions into space as we go forward. How -- if you even know, how has his reception been at the Kennedy Space Center?

LOTHIAN: That's right. Well, the president is quite a distance from away where we are right now, so I have not a chance to gauge the overall reception to the president's visit. But you bring up two good points.

First of all, there is a lot of controversy surrounding the NASA program, a lot of people concerned that the Obama administration has not done enough to come up with a plan B, what to do in order to continue the race into space beyond the space shuttle missions, which is -- this one is the second to last one, so a lot of controversy about the Obama administration not spending enough money on NASA.

But secondly what they are doing right now, the first family touring one of the orbiter facilities. That's where the space shuttles are maintained. They're also tested there. I'm also told by one of the pool reporters traveling with the president that they will get a chance to inspect some of the landing gear of the space shuttles, in one of the space shuttles in there, so a chance to kind of get up close with these huge space shuttles, but no doubt, a disappointment.

We were all expecting this afternoon to see liftoff back there behind me, but now we will have to wait until Monday and it is unclear at this point whether or not President Obama will be back for that. Highly unlikely.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: There was an audible sigh when everyone hear at CNN learned that the launch was scrubbed and I can only imagine the hundreds of thousands of people who went to see that and are now disappointed, but better luck hopefully come Monday.

Dan Lothian, thank you so much.

And as Dan just reported, President Obama says he has never seen anything like this in terms of the devastation there in Alabama.

Our Reynolds Wolf is right in the middle of it. Our Alabama native, meteorologist here, he will join me live next.

And then now that the shuttle launch has been postponed, what happens to this woman? What happens to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords? Does she head back to Houston, back to that rehabilitation center, or can she stay close to her husband in Florida until Endeavour actually takes off? Sanjay Gupta will have an update coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Breaking news here into CNN. I want to get to Reynolds Wolf here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in just a moment, but we are learning some new details about that fatal shooting in a Kabul airport in Afghanistan from just this past Wednesday. You remember nine Americans were killed, eight of whom were eight U.S. military officers. One was an American civilian.

Let's go straight to the Pentagon and Barbara Starr.

And, Barbara, what are you hearing?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, CNN has obtained preliminary results of the investigation into this very tragic shooting on Wednesday.

The families have been now notified. The names are being released by the Pentagon, but the preliminary results of the investigation show that all of the military members had their weapons, they had ammunition. What is not clear is how and if they were able to even try to defend themselves against this gunman.

The preliminary ballistics analysis we are told shows that at least two weapons in that room were indeed fired, one, of course, being the gunman, another weapon fired. The preliminary results also show that the gunman was wounded, left the room with a trail of blood and went off to some other part of the building and died there. They don't know whether he committed suicide or died of his wounds.

But, Brooke, the major issue the families are still seeking answers to, although the troops had their weapons, although they had ammunition, how is it that a single gunman was able to kill them and somebody fired back, but they were not able to kill the gunman before he killed nine Americans? Very troubling and a lot of answers still to be had, but we have a little more detail now, Brooke.

BALDWIN: A little bit more detail, but still, as you mentioned, those families wondering why, why this would happen. Barbara Starr, thank you for the preliminary information from the Pentagon.

And now I do want to take you back to the devastation across six different states. Talking tornadoes. Here is what we know today. The National Guard is out in Alabama and we have just received a crucial piece of data on the historic weather system that ravaged the South this week. It came as news to us. And I will pass that along to you momentarily. It is quite a bit of news, but first we have just gotten in this new video.

Look at this me, pictures. This was shot late this afternoon in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This was shot by the media pool from a van in the president's motorcade. So this is the view that the president saw passing along all the devastation, the wreckage when he toured Tuscaloosa today.

The number is 36 -- 36 people in this college town were killed, 36 people out of more than 300 who lost their lives across the South. Now, I want to show you another picture. This is the radar. This is past radar and I want you to look at the red box down -- you see it in the -- it's kind of moving in the lower left-hand side of the screen, moving up.

Now, information -- based on the information from the National Weather Service, our weather producer, Sean Morris, has just managed to isolate the epic supercell that brought much of the damage all the way from Mississippi to Tennessee.

So, the Weather Service is telling us today that these aerial surveys, which we are trying to get for you, they show a continuous path of catastrophic damage from this one single cell, one cell. Great job to Sean Morris over there for allowing us to show you that to put it in perspective.

Also, something that caught our eye this morning was the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, saying as bad as the pictures are and let's look at more pictures here, as bad as these pictures may be, there is no way to grasp what happened unless you are walking through it and seeing it for yourself.

Someone who is seeing it who was born and raised in Alabama, our own Reynolds Wolf down there in Tuscaloosa.

And, Reynolds, the latest number -- and unfortunately these numbers keep going up and up. But the latest number of fatalities I'm getting now in Alabama 228, just devastation.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wow. Unfortunately, we are probably going to see these numbers rise up over the next couple of days. It is just one of those horrible things.

And everywhere you happen to look here in Tuscaloosa, you see more of it. We have been showing you the last couple of days some of the devastation with the houses. Of course, you talked about the lives lost. When you look at the yards in horrible shape, the vehicles too. You see a couple here ,this truck. And then you check out this SUV.

Normally this SUVs are safe structures in times of all weather, but tornadoes are always the exception. Something more I want you to check out. Check out this license plate, KKD-NUT, KKD-NUT. To be more specific, that stands for Krispy Kreme doughnut. That car belongs to this man.

This is Evan Smith. Evan Smith owns Krispy Kreme here in Tuscaloosa.

Sir, you have been here for 38 years of your life. Have you ever seen anything like this?

EVAN SMITH, KRISPY KREME STORE OWNER: It is unbelievable. Sitting home even watching it on CNN, but once you get out here and see it in live, you can't appreciate the damage. It is unbelievable.

WOLF: Well, Evan, when did you first hear about this; when did you first hear that a storm was coming to Tuscaloosa and possibly a tornado?

SMITH: We had plenty of leeway. I'm going to say we had 45 minutes knowing it was coming through Greene County. We were able to call the employees, say get in a safe place and thank God for that because they all survived and the building is destroyed.

WOLF: Now, and speaking of your building, you can see it over here. John, I don't know if you can pan off a little bit and show that brick building.

Now, if you can, Evan, you were able to call your building, speak to your employees and warn them?

SMITH: Yes, I called them and let told them to get in a safe place, lock the doors. And they wasn't really taking it serious. And they all thanked me later, saying you saved our life by calling and telling us to get somewhere.

WOLF: Well, not only did you have employees. You had a relative that was in the building, right? SMITH: I did. My little cousin Marty was in here. He actually was not supposed to be at work that day. So that's why I called. I thought, well, let me them give him the heads up, but he rode out the storm out too with them.

WOLF: Now, before you showed up, you had an idea. People had sent you images what you might expect, but still it did not fully prepare you, did it?

SMITH: It didn't. I was receiving pictures of the store. And I was like, they are sending me the wrong picture.

And then when I got down here the next morning, because I could not get there that night, it was unbelievable devastation.

WOLF: Amazing.

SMITH: All these houses, community, it's unbelievable.

WOLF: Well, hopefully, we will get a chance to speak to you later on and certainly tomorrow.

And let me show you something else. Brooke, if you look over, here's one of his trucks actually that was picked up by the strong winds now possibly in excess of 200, maybe 300 miles per hour.

BALDWIN: Look at that.

WOLF: I know, right?

And then on the other side, John, I don't know if we can step over here for a little bit. You see the front of this house. Earlier, we spoke to the homeowner who was actually in the bathroom when the tornado came through. Guess what came through his front window and in through his den? Another Krispy Kreme truck.

This vehicle went through his house. We was actually trapped inside the bathroom, had the presence of mind to get up for just a moment, open up the door, and just in time to see this vehicle, this one right here go right through his den. Amazing.

BALDWIN: It is amazing. And it is one thing for us to look at these pictures on television, quite another for the folks who live there to live through it.

Reynolds Wolf, thank you so much.

And when we come back, a man who survived, but is still in the hospital. He was at a restaurant when the tornado struck this past week. He is going to call in right now. And I will ask him what happened to him and why he is now in the hospital with so many other victims in Alabama.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Now to at least a sliver of positive news. We are getting word here that rescue workers in Virginia have just found a man who survived a tornado there. The Department of Emergency Management in this part of Virginia says he has been taken to the hospital for treatment. He is an elderly man. It is not clear exactly where he was, how injured he is, but as soon as we get more information on this man, we will pass that along on to you.

But, now, joining us me the phone from Fort Payne, Alabama, tornado survivor Everett Hufstedler. And I know you go by Scottie. Scottie is in the hospital there with injuries he sustained in the tornado from Wednesday night.

And, Scottie, I'm glad you're all right.

If you can, sir, take me back to Wednesday night. I know you were in a restaurant, in the Huddle House. Tell me where in Alabama you were when this storm blew through.

EVERETT "SCOTTIE" HUFSTEDLER: In Northeast Alabama in DeKalb County. There's a -- we're the same group Alabama is from, Fort Payne, about seven miles outside of that.

BALDWIN: And you were in the Huddle House. I understand you were there. You left. You came back to check on everyone because you knew the storm was coming. And as you were there, you got smacked.

HUFSTEDLER: I got smashed.

BALDWIN: What happened?

HUFSTEDLER: Well, they said the storm would be coming in about 10 minutes, but it didn't last for 10 minutes. It didn't take that long.

And luckily, the two waitresses and another young gentleman that I was expecting to be there, thank goodness they had gone to a church with somebody else.

BALDWIN: But what about you, Scottie? You got hit. You have a cracked pelvis. You are sitting in the hospital as you are talking to me right now.

HUFSTEDLER: Yes, ma'am. I'm laying here in a bed. And I had got hit by a table. Then there was a huge machine. And that huge machine, it tried to throw it out the door. It didn't make it, but it broke the door up above on top of it. So...

BALDWIN: You can't get up, you can't get down?

HUFSTEDLER: I can't get up, I get down, can't get around. Even if I could get up, I can't walk on my right leg.

BALDWIN: And all of this happening at this restaurant where across the street, there was a civic center.

(CROSSTALK)

HUFSTEDLER: That is the DeKalb County Schools Coliseum, civic center.

BALDWIN: More than two dozen deaths reported right around there.

HUFSTEDLER: That's right. Well, we said -- 35 is what we said altogether.

BALDWIN: Do you feel lucky?

HUFSTEDLER: No, I'm not lucky, honey. That is the name of my bowling team.

(LAUGHTER)

HUFSTEDLER: But I feel blessed. Not I feel blessed. I am blessed.

BALDWIN: What about your home, Scottie?

HUFSTEDLER: Yes, I don't know. I haven't been able to see it, but they tell me the roof is about half, three-quarters gone. And I don't know about the rest of it.

BALDWIN: Do you stay? Do you stay? Do you rebuild? Do you leave?

HUFSTEDLER: No, I'm going to stay. I'm going to rebuild, whatever it takes. This is my home. I have been here for a long time.

BALDWIN: How long? How long are you going to be in the hospital?

HUFSTEDLER: Well, they just started physical therapy today. So, of course, here it is Friday, so I have Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. And they are going to do it twice Monday. So, we will see how we go. I am going to try to push it all I can to try to get out.

BALDWIN: Scottie, we thank you for calling in. And I wish you well, sir.

HUFSTEDLER: Hey, this wind was -- this wind blowing through that restaurant was about 190 miles per hour.

BALDWIN: That is what knocked you on the ground and cracked your pelvis.

HUFSTEDLER: That is what knocked me on the ground.

BALDWIN: I know. Thank you, sir. We wish you well, Everett Hufstedler, calling in from his hospital bed. Thank you.

And if you are one of the many people who is trying to help these folks in these six different states, you can go to CNN.com/impact. There you will find all kinds of organizations and ways you can help those in need. Once just go to CNN.com/impact.

And Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, she was at the launch site today to see her husband take off, he was to be commander of the Endeavour. But now there is a delay. So what does that mean for her medical situation? Dr. Sanjay has all kinds of insights. He is coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Endeavour's crew, including Commander Mark Kelly, will be able to spend a little bit more time with their families after today's Endeavour launch was scrubbed.

NASA engineers will be spending at least the next 72 hours fixing this glitch with regard to the shuttle's heating system. But they also have to drain Endeavour's external fuel tank and refill it before the next attempt, which we are hearing would not be earlier than Monday 2:30-3:00 p.m. Eastern.

Now, when Endeavour finally does lift off, Gabrielle Giffords, Congresswoman Giffords, hopes to be there watching, even today's launch was scrubbed today. It marks a milestone for the wounded Arizona congresswoman. She was determined to be there today at Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, to see her husband, Commander Mark Kelly, lift off into space.

Giffords was shot in the brain back in January, January 8, when a gunman opened fire in Tucson, Arizona. Six people were killed in that massacre. And weeks later, she left that Tucson hospital headed to Houston to that rehabilitation center, TIRR Rehabilitation, to begin rehab January 21.

Now, Wednesday, Giffords' doctors cleared her to travel to Florida for the launch, where she was today.

And our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is here.

And I know you are working on this special and we will talk about it, but I do want to begin, because so much any people -- it was like question number one, when does the shuttle go back up and question number two, what happens to Gabby Giffords?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it was a big decision obviously for the doctors, the staff at TIRR, where she has been getting her rehab, to let her go. They just made that decision these past few days.

So it was a decision that takes a lot of things into account. One of them is, they want to get her back there as quickly as possible. She is still considered an inpatient at that rehab hospital. And you want to be getting rehab as frequently as possible.

That is part of the overall recovery here. So this is a balance. I'm sure the doctors are probably deciding right now, but I think -- my guess is they want to err on the side of having her in Houston as much as possible.

BALDWIN: They could not rehab in Florida?

GUPTA: They could do some rehab in Florida. And that might be part of it. It is obviously going to be better at an inpatient facility. The therapists that she has been working with now for some time are there, all of that.

So I think it's going to be a balance. She does not have sort of acute medical needs, concerns about blood pressure, infections. So it is not an absolute, but I think they might want to err on the side of making sure she is not falling behind.

BALDWIN: OK. And I do want to get this -- this piece of video here, because we know when Gabrielle Giffords arrived in Florida, she was wearing a protective helmet, since part of her skull was removed after her shooting in the brain, or brain injury. And I know you perform , Mr. Neurosurgeon, many, many complicated operations yourself, and so you are going to take us into this inside look of the OR for this. Let's talk on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The operation that Congresswoman Giffords had done is a pretty commonly performed one by neurosurgeons. It's called a craniectomy, and that is where you remove one half of the skull here on the side of the brain. Why you do this is to decrease the swelling.

What we heard about Congresswoman Giffords is she had a bullet wound that entered on the left side and exited over here. Not much to do about the bullet injury, but you want to decrease the swelling as quickly as possible. You do it with a series of drills where you make holes in the skull and take another drill-here to actually connect the dots with the various holes.

The goal is to get the bone off, again, while minimizing damage to the brain underneath, and take that bone off as quickly as possible. Now, with the brain unlike other organs in the body, it really has no place to swell if it is injured. The only place is down here, and that is what is called a herniation, and that is what can be devastating neurologically and even lead to death.

This bone, interestingly, gets stored, saved. It is put in a refrigerator to put back in at a later time. Congresswoman Giffords will have the skin closed a at this time and she will have a little concavity there, and she may wear a helmet until this is put in place. But until then, she can fly around or move around and the risk of infection is minimal. And when the bone comes back in, she will look cosmetically very close to what she was before.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, can you help explain this, and I know you have this skull here to demonstrate.

GUPTA: Well, the brain, you are giving it a place to swell. It has an injury, and it will be swollen as a result. You want the give it room. That is all you are basically doing here. It is just mechanical. What people are surprised by is that the bone can stay off for a period of time and someone can be perfectly fine.

BALDWIN: Thus the helmet. GUPTA: Yes, to protect the outer layers of the brain and the brain, itself, and as far as the functioning goes, it should not be different.

BALDWIN: But this area has to be fairly soft, right?

GUPTA: Yes.

BALDWIN: And any fears of infections? What if --

GUPTA: Well, the skin is closed so infection fear is low. And there is not anymore so of a fear than anything else in the head. That bone or bone substitute will eventually go back and then you will have a normal contour to the head again. Right now, she may have a little depression in area of the head, but it will grow back at some point.

BALDWIN: How does that injury impact her going forward?

GUPTA: Well, it is interesting and I find it fascinating. Le left sided brain injury is going to control the right side of the body. Look for weakness in the right leg, right arm. For example, she is learning to write with her left hand.

BALDWIN: She used to be a righty, and now she is a lefty.

GUPTA: Right. They are teaching her that, and also speech as you mentioned. Speech is a sort of vague term, but it means the ability to understand speech, your ability to express yourself and not just with the spoken word but with gestures and writing and all sorts of communication.

We know that she has always been responsive and able to understand and now she is speaking in the declarative sentences or group of sentences like awesome when she was told to go and I love you to her husband, so she is getting more and more of that back.

BALDWIN: And also, her husband was reading a "New York Times" article and he was reading over paragraphs and she caught him on that.

GUPTA: Yes.

BALDWIN: And anything else that we need to know in regards to her moving forward?

GUPTA: Well, right now her ability to travel and do the things that she is doing may seem surprising to a lot of people, but you can travel like this and continue the rehab and that stuff with that bone missing. It is a long process still in terms of the recovery and people recover for months if not years after something like this, so it will come in small steps as opposed to sea changes.

BALDWIN: We wish her well. It is amazing, and amazing what doctors can do with this kind of injury.

GUPTA: Yes, it is. BALDWIN: I do want to pass this on, the information about your special. You can hear the revealing and exclusive details as you have been in touch with some of her doctors or the extraordinary efforts minute-by-minutes that went into saving Gabby Giffords and you can watch that may 8th, 7:00 eastern right here on CNN, a special Sanjay Gupta report. Thank you for coming on.

GUPTA: Yes, thank you.

BALDWIN: And Don Lemon toured a hard hit neighborhood in Alabama neighborhood and connected with people and tell their tornado survival stories.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It is a bit of good news now, and we are getting word that rescue workers in Virginia have found a man who survived the tornadoes there. The Department of Emergency Management says that he has been taken to the hospital for treatment. It is not clear where he was, how injured he is, but as soon as we get more information on that, and we are making phone calls, we want to pass that on to you.

And we have managed to get crews tone Mississippi and also Tennessee. We will speak with them later, but right now we have a report from a neighborhood outside of Birmingham, Alabama, and here is CNN's Don Lemon.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A grim assignment -- looking for tornado victims under the debris.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody we find is a survivor.

LEMON: For survivors, the worst part is not recognizing the place you call home all your life.

LEMON (on camera): When you look around here, what do you think, Evelyn?

EVELYN ULLMAN, TORNADO SURVIVOR: Ooh. You know, I don't even -- I can't even put that into words. It is unreal. It looks like a third world country, a place that has been strategically hit by war.

LEMON (voice-over): No strategy behind the storm, just random carnage out of nowhere.

LEMON (on camera): How did you get out?

VICTORIA RUDOLPH, TORNADO SURVIVOR: Right there. We came out through here. We crawled, and got over those bricks and he helped me get out of here and how we got out, I don't know, but we got out.

LEMON (voice-over): Some say it is a wonder that anyone survived.

LEMON (on camera): What were you saying? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Help, help," but they couldn't hear me. Finally, they came to the back. Then they called me and I told them that -- and they said she is in the back. They said watch out, because the gas, and the gas was seeping.

LEMON: You were under the stove and the gas was going?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I was on the steps and all of that was on me.

LEMON: Did you think you would make out?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I asked god, if this is my time, please just let me come home to visit you.

LEMON (voice-over): At the top of the hill, this home was one of the first hit.

MACOLEE MUHAMMAD, TORNADO SURVIVOR: And the tornado just came in and stopped on top of my house. I was trying to get out but the wind was shaking the bathroom door so bad, I was just afraid and I was holding on to stay inside.

It is destroyed. I moved all of the way from Colorado to live here. I don't have anything left, sir. Most of this is sentimental to me because it is my mother's and I have done had it for 40 years and I can't get any of it back. I can't get any of it back. My pictures is gone, all of my mother's stuff. She handed it down to me. It is gone. It is just gone. It is utterly devastating. I don't know how to do this. I don't have anything. This is all I got.

LEMON: They have got their live, but nowhere to live.

Don Lemon, CNN, Forestdale, Alabama.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The newly minted duke and duchess of Cambridge have left Clarence House for the big throw0down at Buckingham Palace this evening. The queen has cleared out. The queen has left the building which means it is party time for the young royals and for any guests who plans to dance the night away quite literally as in all night long. Prince Harry is hosting a breakfast.

And so how many of you actually set your alarming or maybe you didn't go to bed and got up in the wee hours of this morning to watch the royal wedding? I did. In case you missed it. Here are the highlights from the dress to the double kiss on the balcony. Watch this with me.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC) ROWAN WILLIAMS, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY: Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of god and in the face of this congregation to join together this man and this woman in holy matrimony, which is an honorable estate instituted of god, himself, signifying unto us the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his church.

I, William Arthur Philip Louie, take thee Catherine Elizabeth, for my wedded wife to have from this day forward for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and the until death do us part according to god's holy law, and to thee I give thee my trophy.

I, Catherine Elizabeth, take thee William Arthur Philip Louie, for my wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to god's holy law, and thereto I give thee my trophy.

With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee honor, and all my worldly goods with thee I share.

I pronounce that they be man and wife, in the name of the son, the father, and the holy ghost, amen.

(MUSIC)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: If you cannot get enough of the pomp and pageantry of the royal wedding, join CNN a little later for a special edition on "Piers Morgan Tonight." Piers will he all of the highlights of the day right here on CNN.

And calling all you space geeks, you are all set for blastoff today, including lots of people tweeting from the launch site. There he is, Seth Green, through the power of Twitter we have found him. I will speak to Seth about this massive tweet-up coming up after the break.

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BALDWIN: Scrubbing today's Endeavor shuttle launch must be a huge disappointment, not just for the hundreds of thousands of people who showed up who wanted to see it in person, but for a specific group, 150 space geeks at a tweet-up hosted by NASA. They were supposed to get to watch Endeavor's launch up close.

Included in that group of 150 actor Seth Green attending to the massive tweet-up, tweeting up a storm, minute by minute here. Many of you recognize Seth from the movie "Austin Powers." Certainly know his voice. He's Chris Griffin on TV's "Family Guy." Seth Green, through the power of Twitter, we were able to have you find our CNN trucks so we could do this interview which is pretty amazing. It was scrubbed today. You and your 149 fellow tweets, were you pretty bummed? SETH GREEN, ACTOR: I'm sure everyone is disappointed but safety is really first with something like this. I think people really forget the sheer gravity and I implausibility of sending human beings on a rocket into space. You want to make sure that things go correctly. Years and years over doing this successfully, you learn that you don't take any chances. And they would never send a mission off unless they were certain to do everything that they could to prevent any accidents.

BALDWIN: Check, and recheck, and check some more is right. We know you as a writer and funny guy. But space geek, I didn't know. When did this happen?

GREEN: I've always been a space enthusiast. I can't understand why people are not interested in exploring off the planet, especially when we've been able to over tens and 20s of years. We've been able to explore more about the world around us, from basic things, having to do with the weather to putting satellites in the sky so you and I can communicate so people could talk on their cellular phones. All of this stuff is as a result of our telephone.

BALDWIN: We've been following you on Twitter. You've been pretty active and you have met many, many people which I'm sure you equate to astronauts. We have a couple of pictures from some of the different guys that you've met. Not this one. But who have you met? Here's Leland Melvin. Who have you met and what has it been like?

GREEN: We've met several of the astronauts that we've been following on Twitter. We met Steve Swanson. We were supposed to meet Doug Lelock (ph) but he was held back in Houston. It's a thrill to get to meet these incredibly brave soldiers who have dedicated their lives to bettering the human race.

BALDWIN: What's your --

GREEN: These go out in space. They fall off the space station and there's nothing below them.

BALDWIN: I'm a space geek right there along with you. What is your take from being there, a, and, b, will you stay down there? Are you headed back whenever Endeavor does launch?

GREEN: We're hoping to stay. It's been rescheduled for Monday. If that sticks, we will stay around for it. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity so I'm going to do whatever I can to see it. But even if we don't get to see the launch, just being here and meeting all of these people is unbelievable.

BALDWIN: Seth Green, thank you. Have fun. I'm jealous. Thank you.

GREEN: Thank you so much.