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Tornado Hits Missouri; President Obama Visits Ireland

Aired May 23, 2011 - 15:00   ET

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

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good to be here for the next two hours.

We're going to show you how this happened, 6:00 p.m. Central time, Joplin, Missouri. Take a look. That's the sights and the sounds of a town being decimated. What you see right there, the early stage of a deadly tornado. It would grow to more than a half-mile- wide, went right through the center of Joplin, Missouri, the population there 50,000. This is Joplin, Missouri, this morning.

As of this hour, the death toll now reaching 89 -- as many as one in three buildings sustaining significant damage. That includes one of the city's main hospitals. The National Guard, on patrol, a state of emergency in effect. And rescue teams, they keep searching today, this afternoon, all through the day for survivors, Joplin, Missouri, the latest victim of a volatile wave of turbulent springtime weather.

CNN's Brian Todd right there in the thick of it -- Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Drew, rescue teams are combing through grid by grid, house by house in this city.

The houses that are left are severely damaged, but, frankly, in this part of the city, not many houses are left. You mentioned about a third of the houses in this downtown area were severely damaged.

And by that, you can pretty much take to mean flattened. Behind me, you can see maybe some of the wreckage of some of them that is left. Now the weather is complicating things, as these teams go through the grids of this city on foot mostly and pick through this.

The lightning has been rolling in, thunder, rain all day long. It has made their job much, much more difficult. They're trying to find people who might still be trapped in some of these areas, some of these pockets. But, again, the window for that is closing. The weather is very bad. The death toll may in fact go up. We have heard that from officials all day, that you can expect it to maybe go up as they just begin the painstaking work of combing through the wreckage here.

They're warning people now, don't be so quick to go back to your homes, not only because of the weather, because the lightning strikes that are still going on might spark fires. They have had reports of fires throughout the city since the tornado, gas leaks, but downed power lines frankly are all over the place. We have been stepping around them all day. So, Drew, you can see behind me, this is still very treacherous work around here.

GRIFFIN: Brian, like you, we have been waiting to get updates from officials on what we hope is a death toll that will not rise and what we hope is a survivors' story of people coming out of the rubble.

I have not seeing either one budge. I'm not seeing any reports of survivors being rescued, nor am I seeing any movement on the death toll. What is actually happening there in the search for people?

TODD: I think that you may not have been seeing much of it budge in the last few hours because it has been such a difficult process because of the weather.

It slows everybody down, from the search rescue teams to the canine teams to the fire departments who are going around. They're trying to also get people into shelters. That's been a very slow process, because people have been walking around kind of shell- shocked. We just talked to a Red Cross official who says, look, we have the room. You all have got to come to the shelter.

But not a lot of people have so far. It's a city really trying to get its arms around just what has happened here. We may get some information in the next hour. They're supposed to hold a news conference at about 4:00 p.m. Eastern time, Drew. We may get some updated numbers.

GRIFFIN: Brian, we will look for that from you as this story continues to develop.

Meantime, the people who were living through this are being the best reporters on the ground in terms of what was happening. One of them is a sports reporter who found himself in the thick of the biggest news story of Joplin's history, more or less, sports reporter Ryan Atkinson of "The Joplin Globe."

Moments after the twister struck, he and a colleague had to climb through a car and shot these pictures that you see right now.

Ryan is on the phone with us now.

And I understand, Ryan, you were actually in the newsroom when this struck. Just tell us about that moment.

RYAN ATKINSON, "THE JOPLIN GLOBE": Yes, we were in the newsroom.

Luckily, the newsroom, the "Joplin Globe" newsroom is in the downtown area, the part that wasn't affected. But we headed down to the basement, kind of skeleton crew on a Sunday evening. But there wasn't many of us there. But once we kind of felt it all was clear, me and a friend, a colleague, a news reporter jumped in his car and headed to St. John's. We heard there was some damage there and really weren't sure what to expect.

Living in this part of the country, we're used to confirmed reports of funnel clouds and stuff like that, but never it turns anything drastic. And the closer we got to the hospital district, just the worse it got and the more our hearts sank.

GRIFFIN: And as I was reading the pre-interview notes, four or five people in the newsroom actually had their houses destroyed in this. It's very personal to the people there in the -- in the newsroom of "The Globe."

ATKINSON: Yes, it was. Mine was one of them. I just got back about five minutes ago to my parents' house from finally going and seeing it and salvaging what we could out of it.

I'm -- I feel pretty lucky. The house, it's irreparable. But I was able to get some stuff out of it, some clothes and stuff. But, yes, some other people in the newsroom had it much worse than I did. And they came in. They didn't have anywhere to go. But they came in and worked and put out a pretty dang good section that will kind of be part of Joplin's history now.

GRIFFIN: Your story is going to be magnified by hundreds of people in the same situation. I'm wondering, what, Ryan, is your first step now on the road to recovery? Where are you going to be living the next few weeks?

ATKINSON: I'm lucky. I'm fortunate.

I have family close, about 25 minutes away in Pittsburg, Kansas. I can shack up with my parents for a while. I'm fortunate. I don't know -- I don't know how to put myself in the shoes of the people that don't have a place to go. And I don't know what they're supposed to do now.

I mean, you know, I'm lucky. I don't have to start looking for a place to live here shortly. There's going to be hundreds of people trying to find a place to live here shortly. And I just don't know how you go about trying to get everything back in order.

GRIFFIN: Well, we will certainly follow the story. Thank you for joining us, Ryan Atkinson of "The Joplin Globe," a sports reporter smack-dab in the middle of a big, big news story.

Ryan, thanks. And we wish you luck.

Keep it right here. We're going to find out what's going on in Joplin right now at the news conference that Brian Todd just mentioned. And we're going to bring you that when it happens. We will have that for you live.

We keep hearing from eyewitnesses how fast the storm came, little warning, the twister camouflaged by rain and hail. Now there's even more bad weather expected over the next few days. Chad Myers in the CNN Weather Center is next.

And President Obama crosses the pond to get in touch with his Irish roots and an Irish beverage. He had to take off early, though. We will tell you why. The U.S. president is getting rock star treatment in Dublin. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Chad Myers getting some analysis on this storm just into you.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

GRIFFIN: Just the velocity is incredible.

MYERS: Jack Hayes (ph) on the line right now on a phone call for all the media outlets to call in. And I was literally on that call until about 30 seconds ago, when I walked over here.

The storm now considered an EF-4 tornado, 190 to 198 miles per hour. But the survey keeps going. That's the lowest amount it could be. With a couple more miles per hour, it could be that rare EF-5 tornado. But right now, they're going to go up with 198. You get above that, you're at EF-5, the biggest, deadliest tornado possible -- 500 people have been injured, still 89 fatalities.

But they do expect that number to rise. This year so far, it has been the ninth deadliest year for tornadoes ever on record, 453 people dead. The biggest, in 1925, believe it or not, 794 people died. Now, you have to understand the population density in 1924, 1925, 1926 was not what it is now. We did not have people in centers, in big cities like this. People were out on their farms.

There were six, 10 people on each farmstead. A farmstead was two miles away from each other. So, to lose almost 800 people 85 years ago, that was an amazing year. This year so far, though, 1,000 tornadoes, officially 1,000 tornadoes already, with a start -- that almost started with zero for the first three months.

And the busiest season 2004, with 1,800 tornadoes that year. Do you remember the hurricane season of 2004? Because I choose to forget that season, as I was in the field for 12 separate named storms, big, big hurricane season that year. And let's hope that one doesn't lead to another, lead to another, lead to another, because it certainly could as.

The end of La Nina out in the Pacific Ocean, it can cause events like we're seeing today and yesterday and obviously in Alabama as well.

GRIFFIN: Right.

I have seen some comparative analysis being done to match that very thing.

MYERS: Yes.

GRIFFIN: Now, the hurricane forecast has come out and said -- they said, what, 10 possible -- 10 hurricanes hitting --

(CROSSTALK) MYERS: Twelve to 18.

GRIFFIN: Twelve to 18.

MYERS: Twelve to 18 named storms, and that should only be 11. So, they're above on that.

GRIFFIN: Right.

MYERS: More hurricanes than normal and certainly more hurricanes than normal. There's warm water. There's a lack of shear. Don't know that they're going to hit anything.

If you remember, last year was a big year for hurricanes.

GRIFFIN: Yes.

MYERS: But they all turned, they all curved, they all curved. They all made big runs at Bermuda. They never came toward America.

GRIFFIN: Chad, let me ask you about the intensity. This storm, does it compare with the Alabama storms?

MYERS: Yes.

GRIFFIN: Are these just more intense than we have seen?

MYERS: Two storms that we had, Tuscaloosa and this storm, for some people that were not in a basement, depends when the house was built, people like -- that were in a shelter that may not have been tied down very well, if you were inside that and not in the basement, this storm and the Tuscaloosa storm, they were not survivable. You could not survive even if you did everything right. You were going to be killed by the sheer trauma of being hit by the walls of your house as the house literally leaves its foundation.

We have seen scar after scar of where there was a slab, where there used to be a house. Now there's just nothing left, except some plumbing pipes sticking up and some concrete left. Where were the people? Those were the people that were killed.

(CROSSTALK)

GRIFFIN: What do you do? Do you get out of your house and look for a ditch?

MYERS: No. No, you don't. You need to stay in your home and hope for the best.

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: The best thing you could do is to get one of those safe rooms that you can buy now for a few thousand dollars. They're not cheap. But they're made of Kevlar. You bolt them down to your frame.

Or you dig a hole in your front yard or your backyard and you make that old-fashioned storm cellar that we have seen so many times in so many movies. People save themselves in storm cellars, root cellars, whatever you call it. But for people to survive in 198-mile- per-hour wind, you need to be below ground.

GRIFFIN: Incredible strength, 190 miles. Thanks, Chad.

Getting new information all the time here.

Check out this video, not the smoothest trip for President Obama. That's the limo. It's called the Beast, right, because it's loaded with features to keep the president of the United States safe. Oh, stuck, stuck, ladies and gentlemen, not moving stuck. What in the --

Also, we're waiting on a briefing about rescue and recovery operations after those deadly twisters in Missouri. Our team's on the ground there and we're going to bring that to you live. Thanks, Jeb (ph).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: President Obama beginning a six-day, four-country European swing, first stop, mostly a personal one.

This is -- well, no, that's not the small town -- pub where -- in Moneygall, Ireland, population less than 300 people. But that's where the president went. Genealogists traced his president's mother's side ancestry to that little town, believed to be the birthplace of his great-great-great-grandfather. He and the first lady popped into the pub and wet their whistles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: That looks good. It's just one day in Ireland for the president. He goes to Britain next to attend a G8 meeting in France and then spend one day in Poland before returning stateside.

Mr. Obama's schedule changed a little bit today, ash from the erupting volcano in Iceland forcing Air Force One to depart just a little earlier for London than they had anticipated.

And before we move on, one moment from the president's Irish trip likely will linger longer than his small town visit. Watch this. I mean, I got to tell you, I can see the reaction Gloria Borger's face right now in our satellite image. That is the White House limousine flying the official flag of the president. He's in that car, the car too long to clear the curb outside the U.S. Embassy in Dublin.

It is stuck, folks. The Secret Service and Irish security forces quickly shield the scene from view while the occupants switched cars. The stuck limo sat there for about 15 minutes. A Secret Service spokesmen says the president and first lady were not in that car and they found another exit. And they blame it on a slight miscalculation?

I'm going to check that out, Gloria.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Talk about a speed bump.

GRIFFIN: Sure looked like he was in the car to me.

BORGER: Yes, it gives new definition to speed bump, doesn't it?

GRIFFIN: Oh, man.

BORGER: I mean, ooh, not a good --

GRIFFIN: You know how tightly controlled that is, too. Somebody's going to have some kind of explaining to do.

BORGER: Yes. That is -- that is a big car, though. That is one big car, yes.

GRIFFIN: Yes, that is a big car. And that was a big bump.

BORGER: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: Well, listen, you have got some major, unbelievable political news nobody saw coming.

BORGER: Unbelievable. Nobody -- except everybody.

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: Tim Pawlenty --

BORGER: Tim Pawlenty.

GRIFFIN: -- former two-term governor of Minnesota, he's in, huh?

BORGER: Right.

He's -- right, former two-term governor, 51 years old. He's sort of what -- I was talking to one Republican today who called him the tortoise in the race, the slow and steady candidate who offends nobody in the Republican Party. He's a fiscal conservative. He's evangelical. And he's got a good story to tell, first person in his family to graduate college, worked his way through law school, and an all-around guy that people like in the Republican Party.

I think the question about him is whether he's inspirational enough. But, as you know, this is a very long race. And if he's the tortoise, you kind of never know how he's going to be able to build his candidacy.

GRIFFIN: Well, let's -- let's listen to how he started, because he did take a little swipe at the president. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM PAWLENTY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Fluffy promises of hope and change, they don't buy our groceries, make our mortgage payments, put gas in our car, or pay for our children's school clothes or other needs.

So, in my campaign, I'm going to take a different approach. I'm going to tell you the truth. And the truth is, Washington, D.C., is broken. Our country's going --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: I mean, I have kind of heard that before. I know he says it's a new approach.

BORGER: Right.

GRIFFIN: But is this an approach that could work or does it poll well?

BORGER: Well, you know, he's going to be -- he's calling himself the truth-teller in the campaign. And when you talk to Republicans, they say, look, the more stark you can make the contrast with Barack Obama as a Republican, the better off you will be.

You can't make this kind of a mushy race. You have to make it a race between clear choices, because you have to give people a reason to fire the current president of the United States. So -- so, what Tim Pawlenty is doing is, he's saying, you know what? I'm going to tell you the things that we need to do because it's not easy. We need to make these tough choices. And Barack Obama isn't going to tell you the tough things that I am.

For example, he came out today and said that, some time in the future, he wants to raise the Social Security retirement age. That's something people have talked about a lot. But give him credit for coming out and actually saying it. He also wants to means-test cost- of-living adjustments in the future and Social Security, which means that wealthier Social Security recipients may not get as much of a bump up.

And he was in Iowa and said he wants to phase out those ethanol subsidies. So, you know, speaking truth in the state of Iowa may not get him some extra votes, but it may get him respect within the Republican Party to a certain degree.

GRIFFIN: Yes. I mean, he goes to Iowa. He tells the corn growers no more ethanol subsidies or we're going to cut them.

BORGER: Right.

GRIFFIN: He's supposed to go to Wall Street, right? No more bailouts.

BORGER: Yes.

GRIFFIN: He also said this:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAWLENTY: I'm going to tell young people the truth that over time, and for them only, we're going to have to gradually raise the Social Security retirement age. And I'm also going to tell the truth to wealthy seniors, that we're going to have to means-test Social Security's annual cost-of-living adjustment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: I can already hear the Democrats saying he's going to cut grandma's pay.

BORGER: Right. Oh, no, you won't, right.

GRIFFIN: He's going to kick the farmers off the farm they have owned for 100 years.

BORGER: Right.

GRIFFIN: He's going to ruin the future of your child.

BORGER: Well, you know, we -- yes, well, and we have seen it on the Medicare issue --

GRIFFIN: Right.

BORGER: -- which, by the way, the Republicans used against the Democrats in the midterm election. But if you look at the polling on an issue like Social Security, not Medicare, lots of people believe that there's a little more give in the Social Security issue because there's a generational issue here, that younger voters will say, some time down the road OK, maybe I'll retire at 72, instead of 67. And they can deal with that.

And older voters would say, you know what? That's not affecting me. And if it's OK with my children, then it's fine with me. And same goes for means-testing Social Security benefits. So, there may be a little bit more give in Social Security than in Medicare, because Medicare's a little -- is a little tougher, because people worry about their parents' medical benefits and they also worry about their own medical benefits in the future.

They may have retirement plans, some people, but they may not have medical plans for when they age. That's a tougher nut to crack.

GRIFFIN: Yes, Gloria, just one quick question about Mitch Daniels, a guy from Indiana. Not a whole lot of people know him.

BORGER: No.

GRIFFIN: But a lot of people wanted to get him in the race. He says, officially, he's out. Do we know why? BORGER: Well, I think we have to take him at his word that it was personal reasons. It was very well known that his wife was conflicted about him running.

And, in the end, he made it very clear that she and their daughters decided that he shouldn't run. He was clearly the establishment candidate. They felt that he could bring the issue of how we need to control the debt outside the party, as well as inside the party. But, you know, I have been covering politics long enough, Drew. Don't underestimate the establishment's ability to pick a new favorite candidate.

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: Oh, yes.

BORGER: So, they will do that pretty soon. And they have got some choices there, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Jon Huntsman. Who knows.

GRIFFIN: 'Tis early, but that field is firming up, isn't it? Thanks, Gloria.

BORGER: It's not that early.

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: That's right. It is not.

All right, Gloria Borger, thanks for all that.

Hey, when is a foot a deadly weapon? That's -- that's no joke. It's one of the new angles we're looking at in the case of the baseball fan beaten into a coma. It happened outside Dodgers Stadium after opening day, and now an arrest. That's all next.

Plus, a killer tornado tears apart a town, leaving behind a six- mile path of destruction.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whatever -- whatever that guy hit my son with, Bryan was unconscious before he hit the ground, so he had no way to protect his head. He -- his forehead just hit the concrete.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Police have arrested a man suspected in the beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow. Found out what the suspect was covering up that eventually led to his capture.

First, though, a few of today's top stories:

Take a look at a plume of ash and dust and whatever else is spewing out of a fully erupting volcano. This is in Iceland, where Europe's most active volcano woke up again on Saturday, big headache for the aviation industry, all of Iceland's airspace closed. Nobody can fly anywhere near this stuff. It lies right in the U.S.-European commercial flight path.

The ash cloud could reach Britain and the rest of Europe as soon as tomorrow. President Obama left Ireland early because of that.

They're counting the votes in Spain today, election weekend and people packed public spaces in Madrid and Barcelona, using the occasion to protest high unemployment in Spain and the political establishment in general. Spain has the highest unemployment rate in Western Europe, 21 percent.

Early results show the ruling Socialist Party with a very poor showing. That's expected to be the case in next year's national election.

And at least 10 members of Pakistan's military are dead after last night's militant attack on a Navy base in Karachi, the Pakistani Taliban claiming responsibility, saying they sent the gunmen with grenades into that base because Pakistani forces kill innocent civilians, taking orders from the United States. Police say some of the attackers were killed in the firefight and some of them escaped.

We're not going far from the deadly storms in southwest Missouri. And right now, Joplin is hunkering down for even more storms. In a close-knit community like this, a town of about 50,000, many of the first journalists on the scene are iReporters who share videos and pictures with us.

One iReporter has an absolutely chilling story to share, his aunt and uncle among the dead, his aunt's last words posted on Facebook, "Oh, my God."

They just returned from a family trip to Disney World, one last summer vacation before their hometown ripped apart by this storm. And as the focus turns to recovery and mourning, our iReporter tells us, in a town the size of Joplin, everyone will know someone who died.

Zack Tusinger (ph) joins me live in the next hour with more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: A quarter-million-dollar reward brings all sorts of fraudulent tipsters out of the woodwork, but it was indeed a tip that led to an arrest in a crime that sent shivers down the spine of any sports fan. The unprovoked beating seven weeks ago of a San Francisco Giants fan named Bryan Stow outside Dodgers stadium in Los Angeles.

Police had to sort through false tips before they got the real deal from the parole officer assigned to a guy named Giovanni Ramirez. Ramirez was arrested yesterday. He's been held now on $1 million bond. Stow's mother talked to reporters last hour in San Francisco. Let's listen to her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANN STOW, BEATEN GIANT FAN'S MOTHER: He said, "Ann, I wanted to give you some information before you hear it on the news." And at that time my heart just dropped. "We have taken into custody one of the suspects." He wanted us to hear it.

Needless to say, I called my daughters. They got on their cell phones and sent out text to family and friends to let them know. So it was a very emotional day yesterday. We were very excited that that piece of the puzzle -- one of the pieces had been put in place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Joel Rubin has been covering this case for the "Los Angeles Times." Joe, how did this big break come about?

JOEL RUBIN, "LOS ANGELES TIMES" STAFF WRITER: We're still trying to put together all the details of the story. What we do know is that a parole agent, two parole agents that may have been involved in this suspect's case started suspecting that he bore a resemblance to the descriptions being released by the LAPD, the sketches and the descriptions of tattoos and facial features, and at some point along the way in the course of that seven-week investigation came forward and communicated those suspicions to the LAPD detectives working on the case.

GRIFFIN: That highlights a more disturbing part of your reporting the fact that this guy had parole agents, means he was quote-unquote "in the system," attempted robbery in 1988, firing a weapon in a public place in 2005, and apparently free to go to a dodgers game and allegedly kick this guy in the head seven weeks ago.

RUBIN: Yes, we're still trying to put together the string of prior convictions and what this guy's criminal past was. But he does have a checkered past. He's a documented gang member. We're still many the early stages of trying to figure out why he was on parole now so that he was visiting with his parole agent.

We know that he was not living at the place where he told parole agents he was registered to live, which in and of itself is a violation of parole situations often. So, you know, he's still a lot of blanks to fill in on this guy's past, but it's fair to say he was not the nicest guy in the world.

GRIFFIN: He was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. What are police saying, or the D.A. saying the weapon was?

RUBIN: My understanding is and we're still trying to clarify this, since Bryan Stow allegedly fell to the ground and then was kicked repeatedly by one or both of the assailants they are considering the assailants' feet as the deadly weapons.

GRIFFIN: Joel Rubin, "Los Angeles Times," reporting on that arrest. Joel, thank you so much.

RUBIN: Thanks. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: You don't believe that there's an insurance scam going on?

SHERIFF SIGIFREDO GONZALEZ, ZAPATA COUNTY, TEXAS: Where's the body?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: The sheriff says he thinks he knows how Tiffany Hartley's husband died. But this crime on Falcon Lake in Texas hasn't been solved. Now a congressman demanding answers, too. That's coming up.

Plus, a first person account of the deadly tornado in Missouri. We're going to show you the entire unedited video shot inside a gas station freezer. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: We've told you about the tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri. At last word 89 people dead, another in a string of catastrophic twisters to hit the country this year.

Now we're about to take you as close as you'd ever want to get to experience something like this. You're not going to see much, but what you'll see is taken from cell phone video shot from a back of a Joplin convenient store with 20 customers inside first huddling, then running into a freezer. It starts about two minutes before the tornado actually hits.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where do you want me to put everybody? On the inside hallway or back towards the beer cooler?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Quit saying that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At least probably ten or 12.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's probably 18 or 19.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They said there was one on the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No they haven't yet. The sirens aren't going.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they did.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is getting real.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that the tornado?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody get down. Huddle on the ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay right here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hear stuff breaking in the back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can we go in the cooler now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go. Go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're good. We're good. I think we're going to do it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love everyone. I love you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Heavenly father. Thank you, Jesus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Somebody's on my back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're OK. We're OK. We're OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you guys OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is anyone under me? Is anyone under me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to call somebody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's passing over. Keep still.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Heavenly father.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What should I call?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay calm. Stay calm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm right here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm OK. I'm OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to put less weight on him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am, are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's glass in here. Be careful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that you right below me? That's not someone else?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not moving anywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The structure of the building may not be safe to move yet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: "Somebody's on my back. Is anyone under me? We're OK." It turns out they all were OK though they had to climb out of holes punched in that cooler in a convenient store. It's just amazing to hear a survival as they climbed out into a town that was decimated by that tornado.

Coming up, Isaac Duncan shared that video from us from inside the convenience store, and he tells us that he did come out safe and OK. We'll probably be hearing from him as the days come forward.

A young couple out for a day on the lake, and before the day was over the husband was dead. That was in September. This killing on the U.S.-Mexico border still unsolved. Why? One member of Congress wants to know and I'm talking to him. Keep it here.

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GRIFFIN: Developing news up on Capitol Hill regards the question of whether the president can continue sending trips to Libya without congressional approval. Dana Bash reporting on this. Dana, what's the latest?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The latest, Drew, is CNN as obtained this congressional resolution, a bipartisan resolution from Senators John Kerry and John McCain which if goes forward would be the first time Congress would speak out on the Libyan mission, which has been going on for two months.

You remember last week the president basically missed -- he did miss a deadline under the war powers act which said he had to get congressional authorization for the mission in Libya or else troops have to come home.

This resolution does not, does not specifically give authorization from Congress, but does say that the U.S. Congress supports the mission. And the key line in the short resolution is just that, says the Congress supports the limited use of military force by the United States in Libya as part of the NATO mission.

So we're trying to find out exactly when and if the Senate Democrats in particular will go forward with this resolution. I talked to Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, this morning and he said that they had not yet decided. But the fact that Senator Kerry and McCain are releasing this afternoon, will be expected to do so in five minutes, is an indication that they will move forward.

Also, this is the specific resolution that President Obama said that he supports late on Friday through after it was clear that he was going to miss this legal deadline for him to get Congressional authorization. He said at least he wants Congress to say that they support the mission. So this is the first time that we're seeing this language and the first time that Congress will act.

GRIFFIN: Quickly for our viewers, this shows by partisan support for what the president has been doing. There has been bipartisan opposition of this as well. Is this what you are holding in your hand enough to close the issue?

BASH: Well, there certainly has been a lot of bipartisan support, you're right. There is opposition but probably support will outweigh the opposition. What we're hearing last week is more anger, not so much whether the mission was correct, but anger about the fact that Congress had not acted.

As you know, Drew, members of the Congress on the right and left don't come together very much anymore. But on this issue we heard from both parties if they were pretty upset that Congress had let the Congress go on with this mission for more than two months without acting. They said that Congress was shrinking its constitutional duties.

Dana Bash, thanks from Capitol Hill, thank you for the developing news.

Now to the violence on the Mexican-U.S. border and one congressman's resolve to solve the murder of an American jet skier. Just earlier this month the Mexican Navy killed 12 members of the dangerous Zeta gang in a shootout on Falcon Lake where American David Hartley disappeared in December. His wife Tiffany says that he was shot and killed by Mexican pirates who fired on the couple while they were riding jet skis.

Now Congressman Ted Poe of Texas wants the U.S. to pressure Mexico to solve this crime. He joins me from Washington in a moment, congressman. But first, the story of David and Tiffany Hartley allegedly out for a sightseeing trip September 30th when a Texas sheriff now is telling CNN the couple wandered directly into a drug deal and became targets. Here is what Sheriff Sigi Gonzalez told CNN in this investigative documentary.

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GRIFFIN: Zapata County Sheriff Sigi Gonzalez now believes the Hartley's not only wandered into a war but arrived on the Mexican side of Falcon Lake at the exact moment a cartel was about to move a large amount of marijuana. Up on a bluff, the spotters, his sources told him, caught the first glimpse of a glitch in a drug deal. SHERIFF SIGIFREDO GONZALEZ, ZAPATA COUNTY, TEXAS: That area is notorious for crossing or storing thousands of pounds of marijuana. We've known that for a long time. That information is what I have relayed to federal officials, local official. We are all aware that that area is used as an area that they hide tons of minute.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Based on your sources and your intelligence, when they began to encroach on what would be a drug deal, they were looked upon as potentially --

GONZALEZ: As threats. And that is why they were given instructions to go ahead and shoot at them.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): The sheriff now tells CNN that eyewitnesses have come forward to him, witnesses he says who claim to know what happened here that day. They describe a military style attack -- three boats, several shooters, and hundreds of rounds being fired at two jet skiers.

GONZALEZ: The shot that killed David Hartley was an unlucky shot.

GRIFFIN (on camera): You don't believe that the Hartleys are drug dealers?

GONZALEZ: No.

GRIFFIN: You don't believe that there is an insurance scam going on?

GONZALEZ: Where's the body?

GRIFFIN: You don't believe that Tiffany Hartley herself may have executed her husband?

GONZALEZ: I don't think so.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): And now even more evidence Tiffany Hartley is telling the truth, a surveillance photo taken that very afternoon one hour after the attack.

GONZALEZ: You notice in front of the boat, you see bundles of marijuana there.

GRIFFIN: It shows a small boat and a group of men, one with a green shirt, one shirt black fitting the description given by Tiffany Hartley, and what Gonzalez says is a bale of marijuana in the bow.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Sheriff, I mean, I've got to ask you, is that possible, that Mexico is going to find, catch, adjudicate the killers in what is a lawless part of Mexico?

GONZALEZ: I really cannot answer that. But I can tell you, that based on their past record, I think they have somewhat of a zero solvency rate and zero conviction rate.

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GRIFFIN: Congressman Ted Poe is joining us from Washington. Congressman -- zero conviction rate. What can the U.S. do to try to get some justice for tiffany heartily?

REP. TED POE, (R) TEXAS: The federal government, justice department has told me that they have turned over the lead investigation to Sheriff Gonzales. So they are not even actively involved in the case. They need to be active in pressuring the Mexican government to solve this matter.

Now, 111 Americans were murdered in Mexico last year. To my knowledge, none of these cases have been solved. The Mexican government quit investigating the Hartley murder when the lone Mexican investigator was beheaded. They are basically doing nothing. Our federal government is being quiet. Tiffany Hartley and I met last week, and she is very concerned that she gets no information from the federal government on what they are doing to pressure Mexico to solve this murder. Meanwhile, Sheriff Gonzales has the lone responsibility to figure this out.

GRIFFIN: He can try to figure it all he wants but this killing, and if it was a killing -- and the reason I say if because we don't have a body yet, that this killing happened in Mexico outside of the sheriff's jurisdiction. It seems that the U.S. Department of Justice giving the authority of the Zapata county sheriff is meaningless.

POE: You are exactly correct. Sheriff Gonzalez can't go into Mexico. All he can do is work from the Mexican side where Tiffany Hartley escaped from the Zeta cartel.

So we need -- the federal government, that's their job to work with the Mexican government to solve the Hartley murder. Right now it seems to be very quiet on what is taking place between the two governments to solve David Hartley's murder.

GRIFFIN: Congressman, can I ask you why?

POE: I'm not sure of the real reason. There's political reasons I'm aware of. The Mexican government has in the past historically been reluctant to allow the American law enforcement side to help them in these cases. They feel like it's an infringement on their responsibility.

But they are not able to solve most of these cases. 35,000 Mexican nationals killed last year. We don't know how many of those cases have been solved. They need our help. They don't want our help. It's important that the justice department along with the state department work with the Mexican government to solve this murder.

GRIFFIN: Texas Congressman Ted Poe, thank you.

POE: Thank you, Drew.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have debris on the ground over here, debris on the ground. It's coming up north.

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POE: Unreal, the people who chase storms for a living. I'm going to talk to the woman in the car who tracked the storm with her husband who did the talking as it moved through Joplin. That's next.

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