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Alabama Town Wiped Out; Slain U.S. Troops Returned Home; Syria Government Crackdown Intensifies; Miscommunication in Alabama About 3 Found Alive in Rubble; Police Confrontation in All-Night Atlanta Diner
Aired April 30, 2011 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Right now on CNN, death and destruction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Attention, a tornado warning has been issued.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Oh, my God. It's huge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The death toll sadly keeps going up in the tornado ravaged southeast. We'll have live reports from Alabama and check in on neighboring states as residents pick up the pieces of their lives.
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SUZANNA AUSBORN, HUSBAND KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN: What I really wanted was for it to be a mistake and for them to say, no, that's not your husband there, sorry. Let's undo this. But that didn't happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: It's a very emotional comment from a military wife after her husband is killed in Afghanistan in a bizarre shooting involving an Afghan pilot.
A burial crackdown by security forces in Syria. CNN's Arwa Damon will have a live report from that region. I'm Don Lemon. The news starts right now.
We begin, of course, in the tornado ravaged south three days after a huge swarm of deadly twisters plowed through six states, we're only just now beginning get a sense of a size of this disaster. As more victims recover from the mountains of debris, the death toll just keeps going up. As of right now, it is 337. That's make it the worst U.S. storm outbreak in 86 years. The deadliest was 1925 when tornadoes killed 747 in seven states. Disaster experts predict the insured losses will top $2 billion. They now declared federal areas, FEMA's personnel are already on the ground in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. So, let's get right to it now. CNN's Martin Savidge is in Hackleburg, Alabama there. Martin, I was there with you just yesterday and the day before. It's unbelievable. Where you are now, not much is standing in many towns, but where you are standing now, is there anything left?
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's some, but most of it is gone. That's the hardest thing in a small town. Let me show you highway 43 here. This is the main way that you get into Hackleburg. It's also the way that the tornado got into town. Came right down the highway. In fact, the police chief of the town was racing ahead of it. He finally realized he wasn't going to outrun it, he pulled over and dove into a culvert just to save his own life. And let me show you some of what that tornado did once it got to town. This is the debris fields here. It spreads for miles. It start on the outskirts and continues all the way to the east here. You get beyond the brown house in the background there and it took out the high school, it took out the middle school, took out the elementary school. The story right here is pretty amazing. This debris field, it was a house. A house that wasn't here. It was the house that was across a roadway over here, flew 50 yards in the air. Sheila Hunderman and four other members of her family were in that house, huddled in a closet as that house took off. Here's how she described the sensation.
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SHEILA HUNDERMAN, SURVIVED TORNADO: At first it felt as if you just hooked to something and just took off dragging it, the whole house. And then after that, it just felt like being in a dryer with lots of sticks and rocks and sand in your face and your eyes. And then everything just stopped.
SAVIDGE: Did you say anything, scream anything?
HUNDERMAN: Oh, my God, oh, my God. That's about all I could get out. And just, you know, just hang on, hang on.
SAVIDGE: And were you able to all hang on?
HUNDERMAN: We did all hang on. My son is 2, and he did come out of the huddle. And he landed probably about ten feet away from us, sitting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Everybody survived. There were serious injuries. Her mother-in-law has a broken back. Her husband has a broken collar bone and a number of other injuries. She herself has some serious cuts, but they're thankful to be alive even if the house that they were in looks like this. Twenty nine people died in this community alone, 34 I believe is in the county over all. Most of those who died were in this specific area. This was really with the mass casualties were for this community. They're overwhelmed, had to bring in a refrigerator truck just to store all the people who have died as a result. As I say, a small town, but now suffering in a very big way. Another very strange thing you see down on the way to town, you'll see out in the middle of the beautiful, grassy fields, automobiles in just a mangled state. And you realize they had been picked up off the highway, thrown several hundred yards, and fell from the sky.
LEMON: Martin Savidge in just one of many towns dealing with the very same thing. Martin, thank you so much for your reporting. And before Martin arrived in Hackleburg, he spent time in Smithville, Mississippi, which is about 30 miles to the southwest. That tiny town took a direct hit from the largest tornado on the Fujita scale. An EF-5. Thirteen people who calls Smithville home were killed. Martin spent time with the owner of the town's only grocery stores where there was nothing left to do now but to give away what remains there.
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SAVIDGE: At the Piggly-Wiggly store, it's a free for all. As in free for all. What the tornado didn't take of his family business of 30 years, Brian McGonagill is giving away.
BRIAN MCGONAGILL, OWNER, PIGGLY-WIGGLY: This stuff here, this is all being given away. Yes.
SAVIDGE: Why?
MCGONAGILL: It's what you do in a small-town community. Help people out. They are real good people in this small town, and they all want to help each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: So, they are helping themselves. Charities, ordinary people, whoever. And it's not as though he can afford the loss. On the contrary, he's very worried about the future for his store and his town.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MCGONAGILL: This store has been pulverized. Totally devastated. Total loss.
SAVIDGE: What do you think as a businessman?
MCGONAGILL: It's scary. You know, there's nothing to come back to in this town. I'm sure all the businesses that are now having that same thought, too. I was actually at my home.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): Like any good grocer, he knows his customers, especially now.
(on camera) And you know, I guess, who lives, who dies, and who has made it out well and who hasn't.
MCGONAGILL: Unfortunately, yes. Yes. I know a lot of people that's passed, so it hurts. But home is home. You know, it's what we have to do.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): It's not all sadness. He jokes his office has a great view.
(on camera) I mean, can you laugh a little bit?
MCGONAGILL: You have to, because I'm all cried out.
SAVIDGE: This is the meat locker.
(voice-over) Then he takes me to the back of the store, to the meat locker, where four employees and a customer sought shelter just as McGonagill had told them to do. The destruction outside came within inches. But no closer.
MCGONAGILL: This wall, you can see how it's buckled in, but all the block wall fell in, and it's scary.
SAVIDGE: And now, you understand why Brian McGonagill doesn't mind so much all he's lost.
MCGONAGILL: That's why we want people to have.
SAVIDGE: He's just glad for what was saved.
MCGONAGILL: We made it through okay.
SAVIDGE: Martin Savidge, CNN, Smithville, Mississippi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: You know, the victims of the deadly tornadoes across the southeast could really use your help. And to find out how you can make a difference, make sure you visit our impact to your world page at cnn.com/impact.
This week's destructive storms represent just the latest outbreaks of extreme weather that includes other deadly tornadoes. Flooding in the Midwest and wildfires in Texas. Tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern, we'll examine why such extreme weather is happening now and so often. A CNN Newsroom special report coming up 7:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
And still to come this hour, our coverage of the deadly southern tornadoes continues with when we go to Mobile, Alabama. We go out with the fire departments there, the search and rescue team. They're outside Birmingham, searching through the rubble for signs of life. That's ahead right here on CNN but first, this.
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AUSBORN: I wanted to come to Dover last night to see my husband or feel his presence one last time. I wanted to salute him one last time.
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A widow of war. The wife of an army major talks about his death just this week in of all places an airport, by of all people, someone we're there to help. And many of you have been asking for information on social media. You can reach out to us on twitter, on Facebook on cnn.com/don. And on Foursquare.com. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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AUSBORN: So, as we got closer to his casket coming off the airplane, reality set in that really, it's him. He's never coming back.
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LEMON: A widow's pain. Her husband, one of nine Americans gunned down in Afghanistan this week. Their bodies now back on American soil, flown to Dover Air Base in Delaware in the early hours of the morning. Eight of those killed were air force personnel. And you're looking at pictures of some of them right now. And here are the names of the others. The ninth person killed was an American contractor. NATO says, an Afghan pilot, a man who supposed to be on the same side, opened fire on the victims inside the Kabul airport. This is the scene outside the airport after it happened on Wednesday. Investigators are still sorting through the details. The biggest question, how a gunman allegedly got the drop on all these armed troops? Well, Suzanna Ausborn husband Major Jeffrey Ausborn was one of the nine Americans gunned down. She was there when his flag-draped coffin was returned home. Afterwards, Suzanna spoke exclusively to CNN.
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AUSBORN: I would like to remember my husband as fighting for his country, doing what he loved. He loved being a pilot, but most importantly was how he treated us, how he treated his family. He was so kind and compassionate and loving and patient. We never wanted him to be gone. Because of this, we were afraid. But we also felt like this assignment, he was going to be safe. He was going to instruct pilots how to fly their airplane. He wasn't -- he wasn't in a job where he was out in a -- shooting at people. He was training them. And he enjoyed it. So we really felt that he was safe, that he would make it home. Never in a million years did it enter my mind that he wouldn't make it home.
I wanted to come to Dover last night to see my husband or feel his presence one last time. I wanted to salute him one last time. I wanted -- what I really wanted was for it to be a mistake and for them to say, no, that's not your husband there, sorry. Let's undo this. But that didn't happen. And so as we got closer to his casket coming off the airplane, reality set in that really, it's him. He's never coming back. But I did feel very special to be part of that ceremony.
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LEMON: Suzanna Ausborn, when we come right back.
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UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: You wake up and it's just gone. Everything's just completely vanished. Everything you knew your whole life. You home, your town, your loved ones gone in a matter of seconds. Your life changed forever. How do you move past it? Our psychologist Wendy Walsh offers advice to survivors of the storm. That's next.
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LEMON: How long did you lived here?
MACOLEE MUHAMMAD, TORNADO SURVIVOR: Eleven years.
LEMON: Eleven years?
MUHAMMAD: Yes, sir.
LEMON: And?
MUHAMMAD: And it's gone. It's destroyed. I moved all the way from Colorado here to live here. I don't have anything.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Macolee Muhammad is one of the hundreds who made it out alive after tornadoes tore apart the south this week. Many say their neighborhoods look like war zones, what's left of them, at least. And like survivors of war, these people are at risk of some serious mental health problems.
I want to bring in our psychologist, Dr. Wendy Walsh. She joins me from Los Angeles. Wendy, thank you for joining us. I'm thinking, you know, the prime concern for the storm victims has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Are there sign of it? Are you seeing sign of it in these people?
DR. WENDY WALSH, PSYCHOLOGIST: I mean, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is an interesting thing because it affects some people more than others. The things to watch for are like having dreams or memories constantly occurring. Things we call flashbacks which are hallucinations or delusions that the event is actually happening again. And even things like environmental cues like the wind changes and the weather changes and you start to have a lot of anxiety and distress.
LEMON: Yes.
WALSH: But, yes, I'm sure a lot of people in the south are going to be affected by it.
LEMON: Yes, you know, and it's amazing. I'm going to ask you this too since we're talking about PTSD and I think that these people may be the ones who might have it most because CNN is confirming a -- through Mark Kelly, he's a public information officer for the Jefferson County EMA, that three individuals officials were found alive today in Concord, Alabama. So, it is been, you know, three, four days since that tornado ripped through. And if they're found alive, they're buried beneath rubble. And these are probably the people who will have at least be more prone to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
WALSH: It may be a long road back emotionally for them. It reminds me of some of the survivor stories out of the earthquake in Haiti, you know, that lasts six or eight days buried. And it's phenomenal the strength of the human spirit sometimes to get through this stuff.
LEMON: OK. Dr. Wendy, can you stand by? We want to go to the Alabama governor now holding a press conference talking about those survivors that I just mentioned, let's listen.
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GOV. ROBERT BENTLEY (R), ALABAMA: The state of Alabama last week, the good news, that we just heard is we thought we were in the recovery mode. But we now have found that we have found some that are alive in Concord. And we have found three people alive in Concord, which is up in Jefferson County. In fact, we were up there yesterday in that area. And there's massive destruction up there, so I can see how someone could be hidden under a slab in a basement. And that's where these were found. So at least we can today announce some good news. We have been touring the state. We obviously cannot reach every place every day, but we have done the best we can do to get to the areas that have been affected across the state.
We could not go, but we have sent members of our cabinet to represent us at all places across the state. But we will visit every place. We in the governor's office and I personally will visit all of the places that have been affected, and especially places where we have had loss of life. So we continue to do that, and we will continue to reach that goal, ever how long it takes us to do it. We have visited today, areas in Franklin County and in Marion County, which have been very hard-hit.
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LEMON: And that is Alabama Governor Robert Bentley saying they have found three people alive in a basement. Days after the tornado ripped through that area. I want to bring in again psychologist Dr. Wendy Walsh. Dr. Wendy, unbelievable, and the chances are, chances are they could still find people even days from now. I know that it's still a search and rescue operation, but it's going to change over very soon, but they could still find people. So, not only for the people who have been found but for their loved ones and friends and neighbors as well, this is extremely traumatic.
WALSH: It's extremely traumatic. And yes, more people can be found, and we have to hold out hope as they're still digging through. And it's also important to remember that, you know, PTSD has really good results when you get treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapies Don are great especially something that they call prolonged exposure therapy. When they actually ask people to go back, visit those memories, engage those memories, make positive outcomes, instead of just avoiding these stocks. So, there is definitely hope. LEMON: Yes. And not to mention the ups and downs of this because it's so sad, and then you may think your loved one is gone, and then you realized your loved one is still here. Even though it's good news, there still that up and down that you have to deal with, and you're also dealing with loss all around you as well, doctor.
WALSH: Yes. It's tough. It's really, really tough.
LEMON: Dr. Wendy Walsh, thank you very much. Again, the breaking news here on CNN, three people have been found alive in Alabama, in the Concord area, which is near Birmingham, Alabama. And the governor, the governor there giving the good news at a press conference now live again. Thanks to Dr. Wendy Walsh.
LEMON: Imagine fearing just walking out of your front door. That is the case right now in Syria as government forces are bearing down on anyone who is opposing the regime. A live report on the other side of this break.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICHARD ST. DENIS, CNN HERO: In Mexico, people with disabilities who can't get around have no options. Their world is the four walls of their house.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: It's really hard for me to go very far with my crutches.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: It makes me really sad to see my son this way. He is 19.
DENIS: When someone has a disability, the whole family has to pitch in to help them if they don't have the money, the care that they provide for them is the very basic care.
My name is Richard St. Denis, I take wheelchairs to people in Mexico who can't afford them but really need them. In 1976, I broke my back skiing and severed my spinal cord. I see what happened to me as an opportunity to help other people with disabilities. We collect used wheelchairs from the United States. To help us distribute the wheelchairs, a lot of people with disabilities work with us.
I think this chair we have for him might be perfect.
We make sure the wheelchairs meet the needs of the person who receives it.
Race car, hot rod.
We teach them how to use it. Mobility means being independent and more active.
Someone said, Richard, I want to thank you for giving up your legs so we could have a better quality of life. When I see them happy, seeing their self-confidence, I know people's lives are getting better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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LEMON: Gunfire, empty streets, it's all becoming too common in the Middle East as a wave of rebellion continues. These scenes, we believe, are from Daraa, Syria. Although CNN cannot confirm this. The fighting between the regime and rebels there truly gotten so bad, witnesses tell us breaking curfew may cost you your live. And CNN's Arwa Damon is live in Amman, Jordan with the latest on the situation in Syria right now. So, Arwa, why have government forces become so intense?
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, it most certainly would appear that a part of the regime campaign, what the eye witnesses are telling us to be true, it's a campaign to try to cramp down on the uprising because it began in Daraa, and that is where we're seeing this military crackdown. It would seem as that if the regime is trying to make an example of that area and the stories that we hear coming out of there. You pick an image of the situation that is worsening by the day, it's not by the hour. What we now know from eye witnesses again who's information we cannot independently verify as -- continues to be denied, is that security personnel has -- a key mosque in Daraa, it is the mosque around which the demonstrations would have seemed to have originally originated from six weeks ago.
A curfew is imposing the city. And according to eye witnesses, tanks are shelling residential areas, and we hear ongoing stories about snipers being stationed on rooftops, about how people are too afraid to even venture outside because anybody could be shot. We hear stories of how bodies in the streets are now bloating because people have been unable to collect them. They're that afraid of being shot by snipers.
And we continue to hear even the bodies that have been collected. People aren't able to bury them in the cemetery because that, according to eyewitnesses, is also occupied by security forces.
There are severe shortages in this area, according to eye witnesses. Water and electricity cut offs since the military crackdown began on Monday. And they're now telling us a severe food shortage, basics, like baby milk. We're hearing an ongoing plea for international help, for somebody could intervene to prevent what they say is going to be a massacre.
Just yesterday, we were on the border between Jordan and Syria, and there we saw just one example of what it's like to be struck on the Jordanian side of the border, knowing that your loved ones in Bahrain could possibly be shot at any moment.
DON LEMON, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: And Arwa --
DAMON: Men and women collapsed on the sidewalk, crying.
LEMON: Arwa, thank you.
(CROSSTALK) LEMON: Arwa, we have some breaking news. I hate to cut you off, but thank you for your reporting there.
Listen, we're following breaking news out of Alabama. We're getting word that survivors -- survivors have just been found buried in the rubble of a town destroyed by a tornado three days ago.
I have just been on the phone with emergency management there. They say there may be interesting information there. Possibly a contradiction in the information we were just given. But, again, the initial official reports and from the governor -- you say the governor say it live, that three people were found in Concord, Alabama, near Birmingham, Alabama. And we're working to get the emergency management on the phone right now.
A live report coming up, or at least he'll join us live on the other side of the break when we get him on the phone. Back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, breaking news here on CNN, as we reported, and the governor of Alabama stated there were some victims found in Concord, Alabama, which is in Jefferson County, in Birmingham, Alabama.
Mark Kelly is with the Jefferson County emergency management. He's a public information officer. He joins us now live by telephone.
Mark, it was said three people were found, but you're saying there is information that you need to update us on?
MARK KELLY, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, JEFFERSON COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: That report, unfortunately, is not true. No one was found. We had earlier confirmed that, based on information we had received from some of our people working in the field. We followed up on it, and have discovered it is not, in fact, the case.
LEMON: Initially, you thought it was. The way it is -- I don't know if you have a monitor, if you're listening to us, Mark, if you're listening to us live or have it up. If you do, if you can turn it down so --
KELLY: Yes, we do.
LEMON: Turn it down so that we don't get this feedback.
So these people weren't found, but you said between the time it got from the field, to you, and the governor, there was miscommunication about it. Can you explain more?
KELLY: We had received information from the field that three survivors had been found. About 20 minutes ago, we received that information, which gave us a lot of hope here, a lot of brief moment of cheer in the emergency operation center. I received a call from the local newspaper, "The Birmingham News," and I confirmed that information based on what we knew, but as we continued to follow up on it, we found it was not, in fact, the case. LEMON: Yes, and listen, then the emotion, up and down, up and down there. And this was probably -- gave people a brief moment of thinking there was some good news.
And Mark is on the phone now. He mentioned "The Birmingham News." This was the day after the storm, saying, "Epic Destruction." It sums it up.
Mark, I spent a lot of time with you on the ground in Jefferson County, particularly in Forestdale. Can you tell us about -- we talked about the emotions, up and down. How are people dealing with this now? How are they dealing three days after this tornado went through?
KELLY: Well, the thing that has been really inspiring and amazing is just the level of response that we have had, not just from our own community but really from around the country. Donations coming in. Volunteers coming in, offers of help. It makes our job a lot easier. It makes this situation a lot more tolerable.
But as you mentioned, there are a lot of ups and downs. We were really thrilled to get what we thought was some great news. But it turned out not to be case. But I can tell you the recovery is well under way, and we continue to be -- support of our own recovery and from folks around the country.
LEMON: Mark, I want to say that our Rob Marciano is there. He's covering for us there. As you and I walked around Forestdale the other day -- he's in Tuscaloosa, but he's been covering Forestdale and many other areas.
When I was there in Forestdale, they said that, in the area, perhaps cities in that area, there were still 20 to 30 people possibly still unaccounted for. Doesn't mean they're dead. They just -- they haven't found them or maybe they haven't checked in. And that they found a couple of bodies in that particular area. Could you update us on that?
KELLY: Yes, we had heard that report as well, but that is unconfirmed at this time.
LEMON: OK. So lots of emotion going on again. An initial report that was given out by the emergency management in Jefferson County, Alabama, turns out not to be true. And the governor also said it in a press conference this miscommunication, as you can imagine, in these situations, there are -- there's a lot of information going back and forth, and things change very quickly.
Again, Mark Kelly, who is a public information officer, joining us now, saying that it is not, indeed, the case that three survivors were found in the rubble in Concord, Alabama.
Mark Kelly, thank you so much. Get back to us as you get new information, OK?
KELLY: Thanks for your time. We will. LEMON: Meantime, we want to get to our Rob Marciano who is joining us now on the ground. He is in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Rob, man, oh, man. We thought it was good news just for a bit. And we said that they were finding survivors. Have you heard of anybody being uncovered in the rubble where you are?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, not in the past two days, certainly, Don. You know we spent the day, or at least the morning, with search and rescue crews that were based in Jefferson County. When we got word, as you did, coming into the news room that there were three people found alive, we all looked around at each other like, my goodness, that's nearly miraculous, considering what the guys on the ground were telling us today, as we were going out to do some search and rescue.
Take a listen to what the man in charge said this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. JOHN TILLMAN, MOBILE, ALABAMA FIRE & RESCUE DEPT.: Today, we're searching areas that we had left. We finished it up today. The rest of the day, we'll be checking addresses the reports they had missing people in areas that haven't confirmed, talked to or anything, so we're going to go back and check those areas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: He went on to say that, you know, off the record, on day three, it's becoming more of a recovery mission, although they all remain hopeful that they can find some folks who are alive, that they can be rescued. That didn't happen today.
We did get a report that there was a strong odor being scented. We ran over with some rescue dogs and cadaver dogs, and they did some digging. It had been a home where a deceased victim yesterday was pulled out of the rubble, but there still were some pets that were in there, and some of those, I'm happy to tell you, were found alive.
The destruction behind me, Don, there's -- no really better than when you left it. What has improved is the roads are a little more clear. There's a little more order on the streets. There is help coming in, but private residences like this, up and down through Tuscaloosa -- and I should say there are smaller communities between Tuscaloosa and Birmingham that are completely leveled, even more so than this. Residents themselves have to come in here and clean it up themselves or wait for an insurance check. That's a long, long painful wait, as you can imagine. Flyovers continue --
LEMON: That's our Rob Marciano reporting from Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
As you can imagine, with all that's going on, it's hard to get service there, satellite service as well as cell phone service there as well.
Rob Marciano is going to join us again at 7:00, because this week's destructive storms represent the latest outbreak of extreme weather, including other deadly tornadoes, flooding in the Midwest and wildfires in Texas. So tonight, at 7:00 p.m. eastern, we'll examine why such extreme weather is happening now and so often.
And you know the whole controversy over global warming? We'll talk about that, too. Does it have anything to do with it? A "CNN NEWSROOM" special report, coming up 7:00 p.m. eastern.
In the meantime, police confront a group of customers in an all-night diner. And you won't believe what happened. It was all caught on tape. We'll show you and we'll talk about it with our very own Sunny Hostin, coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Breaking news. Let's go back to the Alabama governor taking questions. Remember our breaking news that three people were found? As it turns out, that wasn't true.
Let's listen in.
ROBERT BENTLEY, GOVERNOR OF ALABAMA: OK, thank you.
OK, thank you all very much.
LEMON: Well, the governor, again, just finished wrapping up a press conference again.
Again, as he said here -- we took it live -- that three people were found in concord, Alabama. It turned out not to be the case. And we also had the Jefferson County emergency officer live on the air confirming the same thing that there were some conflicting reports when it came to three people being found. We'll continue to follow that bit of developing news for you.
Now this on CNN --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SHOUTING).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: A rough night at a diner last weekend right here in Atlanta.
So let's talk about it with our own Sunny Hostin. She's a contributor to "In Session" on our sister network TruTV.
Sunny, let's watch more of this video. It happened very early last Sunday morning. And it got posted on YouTube, of course.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(SHOUTING)
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: So here's what's going on. A police officer confronting three women. Witnesses saying the group was being loud. But they deny it. And you see the scuffle that breaks out. Looks like the officer, one of the women, takes swings at each other before the officer moves in.
Sunny, what do you make of this chaos?
SUNNY HOSTIN, LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR, IN SESSION: It looks really chaotic. I have watched it dozens of times. I have actually asked one of my former police officer friends -- you know who he is. And I asked him to watch to watch it as well. We have both come to the same place. This is an ugly, ugly incident. We never want to see a police officer striking a woman, punching a woman in the face. But the question is, was the force excessive? In my view, Don, it was not. What we see is an off-duty police officer, who was employed by IHOP and trying to effectuate an arrest, because women were being very loud, being very boisterous. Another patron, as you see right here, gets involved and obstructs justice, obstructs his arrest.
LEMON: Sunny, can I jump in right -- real quick?
HOSTIN: And she pushes him first.
LEMON: You say you don't want to see a police officer striking a woman in the face. But is there a double standard? If we saw them doing it to a man, might we not have this --
HOSTIN: Yes.
LEMON: -- initial visceral response, oh, my gosh, a woman is struck?
HOSTIN: Yes, yes. And that is something I spoke to a friend with. If this was a man, would this have gone viral? No, I don't think so. Because if a man were jumping over a table and jumping at a police officer and grabbing at a police officer and got punched in the face, that wouldn't be a big deal. But because it's a woman in a dress being punched by an officer, people are going to be concerned.
But the bottom line is, what is an officer supposed to do? This is an officer that has to make quick judgments to calm the situation. And the legal definition is whether the police officer reasonably believed that such force was necessary to accomplish a legitimate police purpose. In this case, an arrest. Bottom line, the department is saying they're going to investigate. They have 10 days do it. And I think he's probably going to be found to have acted appropriately.
LEMON: I'm glad you mentioned that. And I think it's incumbent upon us because we're even talking about this, I want to mention the Atlanta Police Department's response. The Atlanta police on Friday upgraded the charge against one of the women to felony obstruction, OK, Sunny? And all three women face several other charges. The main officer in the altercation has been placed on administrator duty, as we have mentioned. So here is a statement by Atlanta police as they work to resolve this within 10 days. They say, "Use of force by police officers is a matter the department takes very seriously, and the Office of Personal Standards investigation will determine if the officer acted within established guidelines."
Sunny, we see what the police are up against here, but, again, it may be something different. We have a very different initial response when we see a man striking a woman, even though the person may be breaking the law and they need to be subdued.
HOSTIN: True.
LEMON: Sunny Hostin from True Session -- "In session" on TruTV.
(LAUGHTER)
HOSTIN: "In Session," formerly Court TV.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: "In Session" on TruTV.
(LAUGHTER)
That's OK. We're all in the family.
We appreciate you joining us.
(LAUGHTER)
HOSTIN: That's right.
LEMON: Thank you, Sunny.
HOSTIN: Thanks.
LEMON: Enjoy your weekend.
OK, first, we want to tell you about this on CNN. Despite glimmers of home in some sectors of the economy, when it comes to real estate, times are still very tough. What can you do if your house is on the market?
Our Christine Romans has some tips for you in tonight's edition of "Smart is the New Rich."
(SMART IS THE NEW RICH)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(THE HUMAN FACTOR)
LEMON: Sanjay, thank you very much.
John Legend, Sean Penn and Elyssa Milano, they will all be there. We'll take you live to the red carpet next. But it's not Hollywood. It's Washington. The White House Correspondents Dinner gets underway soon, and we have your front-row seat.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: The nation's capital gets glitzier. Can I say glammier? I'm making that word up. Tonight, our Lisa Desjardins is at the annual White House Correspondent's Dinner where politics and celebrities collide.
Speaking of glitz and glam, there she is.
What's going on, Lisa?
LISA DESJARDIN: Hey. Yes, they make up a lot of words here in Washington.
I don't know. I've got to tell you, Don, this is a pretty strange event. This is almost like the Vatican hosting a heavy metal rock fest.
(LAUGHTER)
Hollywood celebrities mixing with politicians.
So far, we've seen Sean Penn come on through. He didn't stop to talk to us. When he wants to talk, he'll give us a call. We also saw Laura Logan from CBS make an appearance here. And just a few minutes ago, we talked to Congressman Barney Frank, talking debt ceiling with him.
It will it be interesting to see how some of these celebrities respond to politics, how much attention they're paying. It really is a weird mix up here, Don.
I don't know, who do you want to see? I can read you the list. What questions would you ask these guys?
LEMON: I would ask them about -- I don't know.
(LAUGHTER)
I'd ask each and every one of them to show me their birth certificates.
OK, thank you, Lisa Desjardins.
(LAUGHTER)
We will be watching.
DESJARDINS: See you, Don.
LEMON: So, remember, we can expect President Obama to speak during the 10:00 eastern hour and he'll be followed by Seth Myers, of "Saturday Night Live." And you can watch it live, all of it, right here with me in the "CNN NEWSROOM." You're not going to miss any of it.
Before we get out of here, our top story this hour, a false moment of hope in the tornado destruction in the southeast, earlier this hour. An emergency official for Jefferson County, Alabama, told CNN that three victims had been found alive after they'd been trapped for three days. But moments later, he retracted the statement live right here on our air.
Dramatic satellite images show the path the Wednesday's tornado took through Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This National Weather Service says the tornado was part of a supercell that lasted more than seven hours and covered nearly 400 miles, from Mississippi all the way to North Carolina. Can you believe it? The death toll from the storms now stands at 337.
I want to tell you this. One hour from now, at 7:00 p.m. eastern, extreme weather, it is a "CNN NEWSROOM" special report. From this week's deadly tornado outbreak to flooding in the Midwest and wildfires in Texas, we'll examine why such extreme weather is happening right now and so often. Make sure you join us.
I'm Don Lemon in the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer begins right now.
