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Violence In Syria Continues; Interview With Costa Allegra Passenger; Cardon Students Return to School; New Tornado Threats; Dangerous Storms Hit Alabama; Backlash Against Rush Limbaugh; Church Leader Takes Care of Kids
Aired March 02, 2012 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio Seven, I'm Suzanne Malveaux. I want to get you up to speed for this Friday, March 2nd.
What you are about to see is so horrific. This is Syria. It is a gathering of protesters. It is in the city of Homs. Now, they're inside a covered building, chanting. They are voicing their anger, their frustration over the government. They have been protesting for some time.
Well, suddenly, something is fired into that crowd and explodes. I have to warn you, the video you are about to see, it is graphic and people are killed. It is horrific. It is bloody. It is chaotic.
A witness tells CNN that in that scene, what you are watching right there, 16 people died in that crowd. That witness says it was caused by a shell that was fired from Syrian military forces that are now surrounding that city.
We are allowing this video to play out so you can get a sense of what is taking place inside Syria in the city of Homs, the kind of chaos, the kind of fighting and the kind of determination that is taking place there from people who are trying to overthrow their government.
I want to bring in Nic Robertson. We know, Nic, that cameras, reporters are not allowed in Syria right now, but you're watching developments from neighboring Beirut in Lebanon.
You see this video and we can't imagine this here, taking place in this country when you have demonstrations, and all the sudden the shelling starts, the explosions, and people are dying all around you. What can you tell us about what happened earlier today in that video that we just saw?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was an anti- government rally, if you will, that had been forming. Friday's a typical day of protests in Syria where everyone who's associated with the opposition will come out and protest, typically, after the prayers in the noon or the middle of the day and that's what this is.
We understand this is in the small town near Homs called Rastan. That's where we believe that this shelling took place. But it's not the only killing today. Sixteen people directly targeted in an unconscious able, unbelievable, and unspeakable attack on civilians just protesting, shells, not bullets, but big artillery shells.
More people have been killed just north of there in Aleppo, four there. Another ten people killed just north of there in the area around Idlib in the very north of the country.
And elsewhere in Homs in the neighborhood of Baba Amr, 14 bodies have been found killed in the streets. That according to activists who've been perpetrated by government militias, the Shabab, there, government militias, whom they say have been going house to house taking out people and killing them, shooting them in the street there.
MALVEAUX: And, Nic, it is hard to understand or even get a grasp around what these people could be feeling when they are protesting the government.
Are they expecting that you are going to have snipers, that you're going to have shelling in a place where people are now gathering? Is this almost something where they know this is a life- or-death situation?
ROBERTSON: In many cases, they know that they could be tempting fate, but they also try to do this in safer locations, inside buildings. Sometimes demonstrations are often held at night. They're held in areas where snipers can't see in.
But they would not be expecting artillery shells to rain in down on them. And this is, essentially -- we saw yesterday the neighborhood of Baba Amr, the Free Syrian Army pull out of there, finally leaving 4,000 civilians behind. They said they could no longer defend them.
And what seems to be happening is Assad is taking the same tactics and now moving it to a new area, this area of Rastan is what we understand. So, the people of Rastan are now experiencing what the people of Baba Amr were experiencing.
Also, we know today that the government said that emergency services, Red Cross and Syrian Red Crescent could go in and aid those 4,000 people. Well, guess what? The convoy has been waiting in the city of Homs all day. They haven't been allowed in with their medical supplies, seven trucks of medical supplies, humanitarian supplies, blankets. All of that much needed. That's not been allowed in.
So, we're just seeing the same tactics replicated somewhere else. So, these people until now, they would not have been expecting artillery shells, but now they know they can expect that to come every day as it has in other places, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: They desperately need the help there. Obviously we're going to be following this, the situation, the dire situation, of those people inside of Syria and the new video, the carnage and just the tragedy of what is taking place on the ground close to what looks like is developing into a civil war inside that country. We're following breaking news on the weather front here. Chad has got the very latest. I understand there is a tornado that has touched down in -- is that true? Alabama?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, a couple of them, actually, are now moving into Tennessee. Not that far from Huntsville, Alabama. And this is going to be a dangerous day. This is going to be a dangerous day if you're from Illinois all the way into Georgia, as far west as Louisiana, as far north, probably, as west Virginia.
So, it's a big storm. We already have a couple of tornado-watch boxes which means conditions are ripe for storms that could contain tornadoes, but there are tornadoes on the ground. One near New Market, Alabama. That storm right there.
Let me get a little bit closer on this for you here. There it is, just north of Huntsville. That's New Market. The one there moving over the border with a tornado on the ground. That's Elora and Huntland, Tennessee. A little bit farther to the north, that's Hillsboro, Tennessee, and Hanging Limb, Tennessee, on the one that moved through Cookeville. Had a confirmation of some damage on that storm, as well.
Many of these storms will put down tornadoes today. You need to know your safety spots. You need to know where your children are. You need to know what to do when the alarm goes off, when the warning goes off because probably it will.
We probably could see 50 to 100 tornadoes on the ground today before this is all over. Let's hope nothing gets hit and no one gets hurt, but that's not likely. You need to take precautions. Make sure you have a safe place to go, the kids are ready to go. Make sure that safe house, a safe place in your house is ready to go today. It's not anything wrong with putting helmets on, motorcycle helmets, bicycle helmets, whatever it might be and covering yourself up when you hear warnings for your area.
MALVEAUX: All right, we'll be watching closely. Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: You're welcome.
MALVEAUX: High school kids are back in class today in Chardon, Ohio. That is where three students were shot to death on Monday. A teenager, also a student there, is now charged with their murder.
Well, last night was basketball night for Chardon High. The first game since the deadly shooting. Their opponents from Madison High School wore special t-shirts to show support.
A nationwide man hunt is on the way for an armored truck driver who allegedly killed his partner and made off with more than $2 million. Authorities say that Kenneth Conias, Jr., looked into extradition laws in Canada and Mexico, but police still believe that's he's here in the United States. His partner was found shot to death inside the armored truck in Pittsburgh yesterday. Almost 1-in-4 homeowners now with mortgages owes more than what their home is worth. That's according to a new report from CoreLogic. So, we are talking about more than 11 million homes. The number bumped up last year because of the falling home prices.
Hackers with Chinese Internet addresses were able to seize control of NASA computers. A new report details the security breach at NASA that happened last November. Well, an official says the hackers gained access to sensitive files as well as employee credentials and had full functioning control over the computers. It was one of 13 successful hacking attacks NASA reported last year.
All right, so, here's your chance to "Talk Back." One of the big stories of the day, gas prices. What do you think should be done about what we're looking at here, all these high gas prices? They've climbed for more than 24 straight days.
Right now the national average is around $3.74 a gallon and folks watching the oil industry, they say we might be paying as much as $5 a gallon by the summer. So, higher gas prices, they're impacting just about all of us here. Earlier this week, I was in Arizona. Met a hot air balloon guy, small business owner who says when the gas prices go up, propane used to fly the balloon also goes up, too.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN FLANAGAN, OWNER, 2FLYUS.COM: It seems like whenever the gas prices go up that propane prices shoot up as well. Just a few years ago, we were less than -- we were about $1.85 a gallon and, now, it's 2.$2.99 a gallon, just like kind of overnight.
MALVEAUX: How long have you been doing this?
FLANAGAN: I've been flying hot air balloons for 28 years now, so I've been one of the luckiest guys around.
MALVEAUX: So, the bottom line? How does that affect your profit?
FLANAGAN: It kind of takes any profit away. So, right now, I'd say most companies are operating at break-even.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: All right, so, what's the answer? The solution? Energy maverick, T. Boone Pickens, says that America has got the cheapest energy in the world. We shouldn't be whining about $5 a gallon gas.
So, he says the United States desperately needs an energy plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
T. BOONE PICKENS, ENERGY INVESTOR: We have enough now to get control of our energy destiny in this country because we have vast reserves of natural gas. When you move your trucks, I'm interested in trucks. I'm not interested in your car so much, but I want the 8 million 18-wheelers over to natural gas.
When you do that you'll cut out 3 million barrels a day imports. Well, 3 million barrels a day off of OPEC is 60 percent of what we import from them. We could accomplish that with 8 million trucks. And you can do it within five years. All you need now is leadership.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: All right, so where is the leadership? President Obama, he's asking Congress to end billions of subsidies to oil industries, instead give incentives to find clean energy technologies.
Republicans in Congress are saying it's not going to bring down gas prices. GOP presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, says he can get gas to $2.50 a gallon, but can one person really impact the global price of crude oil?
So, we want to hear from you. What do you think? What should be done about high gas prices? Leave your thoughts at facebook.com/SuzanneCNN. I'm going to share some of them later in the hour.
Here's a rundown on some of the stories we are covering.
First, the Red Cross gets permission to deliver food and medicine to syrians caught in a humanitarian crisis.
And we're also going to talk to a cruise ship passenger who spent the last four days on a ship with no working bathrooms. Ugh.
Then, conservative commentator, Rush Limbaugh calls a college student a slut. when he weighs in on the debate over birth control. That student says he's gone too far.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: They're cleaning up from one round of storms, facing the threat of more severe weather. People in the areas hit hard by these deadly tornadoes and storms this week are at risk of another outbreak today.
Want to get the latest on the recovery and the forecast. Sandra Endo is in Harrisburg, Illinois. It is one of the areas that was hit the hardest. Chad Myers is tracking the storms.
Want to start with you, Chad. What areas are we looking at today that are high at risk?
MYERS: Right here. New Market, Alabama. It's not a big town. Maybe a couple, 300 people, but you need to take cover right now. A tornado emergency is issued for you with a tornado. A large and deadly tornado on the ground right now heading into this northeastern part of Alabama. New Market, the town that we're most concerned about.
Here's the Doppler signature. We have one color here, blue. One color, red. The red, think of it like your stop lights. That means you can only see the cars leaving. So, the wind is leaving here.
The wind is coming here. That rotation indicates, obviously, a tornado is on the ground. Because this is an awful lot of rotation here. And we do have it confirmed by police. This was Meridianville. This is kind of like Moores Mill, already damage being reported there by the police.
But in New Market you have to take cover right now. There's no time left.
MALVEAUX: All right, Chad, thank you.
Cleanup is just beginning from this week's tornadoes and storms. Sandra Endo has part of the story from Harrisburg, Illinois.
Sandra, the devastation absolutely unbelievable. People have so much work ahead. People lost their lives, their family members. But you can see people are pulling together to try to pick up the pieces of their lives.
What are you seeing on the ground now? Just how extensive is this job?
SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very extensive, Suzanne. When you think about the magnitude of the destruction, you can just take a look for yourself at the storm that came through here Wednesday and the damage it did to this community. The hardest hit community in Harrisburg, here.
And just take a look. This used to be a strip mall, but, clearly, it has just been leveled to the ground. And cleanup crews now, Suzanne, are racing against the clock because they're anticipating more bad weather for today.
But the sheriff here says that he is calling off a lot of the volunteers who have come to help this community because here's why. Take a look at this loose debris all over the ground, piles of it. Nails jutting out from studs.
They're worried that if a storm comes and picks up the wind, which it has kicked up in the last half hour or so, this stuff is going to just fly through the air like daggers.
And we saw a lot of the destruction and devastation, communities trying to come together to clean up and pick up what they can before this anticipated storm.
And you can see the path of destruction, this tornado tore through this community and those residents there in the distance are cleaning up right now, Suzanne, trying to salvage what they can. And they say they are bracing for more to come.
MALVEAUX: And Sandra ...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) (UNKNOWN): This is the living area. Great room. Or was. As you can see, they tore out brick block out of the fireplace. I think my father-in-law was in here on the floor when the wall came through a little bit here on him.
The next door lady got it much worse, even. She was tossed in the air for a little bit. I saw her yesterday. She's alive. That's the good thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENDO: When you hear about residents tossed in the air, Just to give you an idea, Suzanne, of the sheer force of 180 mile per hour winds that tore through here Wednesday, take a look at this truck. It has just toppled over because of the wind.
And also the wind just sheering and crushing metal appliances like this one. This used to be an appliance store here. So, you can tell the cleanup effort is going to take days and weeks to come.
Suzanne?
MALVEAUX: And, Sandra, it must just be so gut wrenching, the fact that people there are now anticipating more severe weather ahead. How are they coping?
ENDO: Absolutely. We took a look at the residents there that have completely have destroyed their homes because of these tornadoes. And they are putting over tarps from the areas that they can save.
And they're trying to get important papers, pictures that they're trying to salvage because they don't want those rains to destroy even more of their homes.
MALVEAUX: Thank you so much, Sandra. We've got to go directly to Chad. I understand that there's a tornado that is heading to a school right now.
Chad, what do you know?
MYERS: Yes, well, it's Buckhorn High School, the middle school area. It's the same storm I was talking about going to New Market because they're right together.
But here's what I want you to understand, people, that I don't want you going to get your children when you hear a tornado because the children are going to be much better off in the school than in your car as you're going to pick them up.
So, the school officials know what to do. They know where to put these children and you're much better off not being in your car and not having the children with you in your car when the tornado hits.
So, this is going to take place all day long. We're going to be talking about storms headed toward schools. People are going to panic. Please don't panic. Please don't panic. We do know already now just in my ear that the Buckhorn High School has damage already being reported by a spotter. So there's a lot going on there. Police officials going on there. It's going to be a tough day now that we know that a school got hit, obviously a school that was in session.
MALVEAUX: So, Chad, we know that there was a tornado that actually hit a school in that area that you were just warning folks about.
MYERS: Right. Just south of New Market. And, Sarah (ph), go ahead and zoom into this storm here. This is the storm. It had a little better rotation just a little bit ago, but if you click one more time, we should be able to find the town of New Market. That's not showing up. There it is.
So, here's the town of New Market. Buckhorn High School, middle school complex right about there and the storm did roll just to the south of New Market itself. And that would take it right across that campus.
MALVEAUX: And where is that, again, Chad? Can you explain in Alabama? Where is that?
MYERS: Yes. Extreme northeastern Alabama. So, we're talking about -- you'd see Georgia, Chattanooga, and then Huntsville. So, right there, that storm right there, is the one that will eventually cross over and move into Tennessee.
And there are a couple other storms here to the north of Chattanooga that are also rotating where we had tornadoes confirmed earlier.
We're going to talk about these tornadoes all day long. But it's best to keep a radio on. The best thing to do is to have a NOAA weather radio. If you don't have one yet, you've got a couple hours if you're living in other areas than here. Go pick one up. And the local fire department will help you program it if you can't figure it out.
MALVEAUX: Chad, do we have any idea? It might be too early in the day to know this, but are these the kind of tornadoes we're talking about that have the power and punch that we saw in the last 24, 48 hours in that same area?
MYERS: Yes. They do now. Right now, they have that power because they're all by themselves. And I talk about this big dog, little dog thing.
If you put one big dog and one bowl of food, the dog stays big. You have one bowl of food, but 30 dogs have to share that one bowl of food, the dogs don't get as big. They don't get fat because there's not as much food to go around.
When you only have one cell out there, one storm by itself, it gets to be the big dog and eat all of the moisture, eat all the energy.
Now, later today, there'll be many more storms bouncing around and they'll be all sharing that moisture and they won't be so big. But these, right now, could be easily EF3 or EF4 tornadoes. Yes, 150, 200 miles per hour.
MALVEAUX: If you're in that area, what should you do? Essentially be taking cover?
MYERS: Well, yes. The first thing to do is take care of yourself. Take care of your pets. Make sure they're inside.
These storms are well warned. These storms were -- we had 15 to 20 minutes warning to get this stuff done. Get yourself inside. Get yourself inside a safe place. Stay away from windows.
If you can see the outside you're in the wrong place. You want to be in a room that doesn't have any windows. If you don't have that the best place to be is usually in the center part of your house or in the strongest part of your house, the lowest level you can. If you have a basement, basements are always better. You always want to be below ground, if you can be.
If you don't, if you live on a slab, find the center part of your house and get down as low as you can. Cover yourself with blankets. Put a motorcycle helmet on.
Put your child in a baby seat. Put them in the car seat. Put her in the car seat because, if that baby gets jostled around, that car seat, there's a lot of protection. That's what it's made for, if you get jostled around in a car crash. That's why there are baby seats. That's the safest thing for your child as well.
MALVEAUX: All right, Chad, thanks. We're going to be following this throughout the morning, throughout the afternoon. This is going to be a very big story.
We're looking at severe weather hitting some of those same areas from earlier in the week and these do look like they are powerful tornadoes.
MYERS: They are.
MALVEAUX: Thank you, Chad.
Well, imagine four days with no running water, little food, nothing but miles and miles of ocean surrounding you.
My next guest and almost 1,000 others, that's what life was like aboard the "Costa Allegra." It's a cruise ship that lost power after an engine room fire earlier in the week. The ship finally reached land yesterday in the Seychelles Islands.
Joining me by phone from the Seychelles, Gordon Bradwell. He is one of the ship's passengers. Gordon, this is unbelievable, I'm sure, what you've been through here. A lot of us have been imaging what it would be like to be in your position. Can you tell us what it was like to be on that ship with no electricity, no water for days?
GORDON BRADWELL, "COSTA ALLEGRA" PASSENGER: Suzanne, I'm having difficulty in hearing you.
MALVEAUX: Can you tell us, Gordon, what it was like to be on the ship in those conditions? What were the conditions like?
BRADWELL: Well, they were rather stringent, obviously. We were without fresh water. We were without plumbing. We could not take showers. We could not flush the toilets.
We had absolutely no air-conditioning whatsoever. The ship was almost four days without power or any electricity. It was completely dark at night. So, it was a basic human existence.
MALVEAUX: And did you stay in your cabin in your rooms or was it too hot? What was it like inside those cabins?
BRADWELL: In many cases, the temperature within the cabins both day and night were in excess of 110 degrees Fahrenheit. So, most of the passengers had to sleep on the very top deck of the ship.
MALVEAUX: And what were the conditions like? You say that they did not have working toilet facilities. How did you bathe? How did you manage that?
BRADWELL: Well, there was no bathing. And one of the great joys that I experienced when I got off of the ship yesterday was to be able to take a shower and shave.
But there were no bathing possibilities. The toilets had to be used, but they were not pleasant after having being used without the possibility of flush toilets. So, as I say, existence was rather primitive.
MALVEAUX: Did you eat? Were you able to eat or drink at all?
BRADWELL: We were able to have a subsistence diet. Morning, noon and night. Lunch, breakfast and dinner consisted of dry sandwiches, white bread with perhaps a slice of cheese or a slice of meat in between.
The cruise line was able to provide enough fresh water, so we were very fortunate there. We had fruit juices and fresh bottled water. As far as food is concerned, mostly dry sandwiches with some food that was flown in each day by helicopter.
MALVEAUX: And, Gordon, I know you're off the ship. That you are on the island of Seychelles. That's a beautiful place, but I've got to ask you, would you do a cruise again?
BRADWELL: Oh, yes. That's not a problem. This is just one of those aberrations, of course, that will occur every once in a while. It is certainly not anything to deter a seasoned traveler from doing it again, no. That's not a problem.
MALVEAUX: All right, well, you're a good sport about it, Gordon. I understand you're headed to the Sudan. So, best of luck to you in your travels and, hopefully, you'll get there safely without any incidents. Thanks again, Gordon. Good to see you.
We are going to go to severe weather. It is happening throughout the country. But in particular states, Alabama being one of them, where we already know that a tornado has touched down and has actually hit an area school. We're going to have more of the information after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: I want to bring you to Chad Myers. More severe weather that is breaking throughout the country.
Chad, first of all, tell us what you know that's taking place right now on the ground.
MYERS: Well, I know we focused on Alabama because we had that tornado on the ground right through that high school south of New Market, Alabama. That's in the northeast corner, extreme northeastern corner of Alabama, actually not that far from -- maybe 50 miles from Chattanooga.
But I want you to - look, let's just broaden our focus a little bit because, even though that was one storm and it was on the ground, there are going to be more storms.
And, even right now, right there, would be Harrisburg, Illinois. Remember that town from all weekend? Well, that's the same cell, right there. That little box? That has boxed up with a tornado potential for that area.
So, people that got hit over the weekend and a couple days ago are going to get hit again as these storms continue to fire. Even though we have a red box here, tornado watch box here and one down there in parts of Tennessee. I expect we could get 10 to 15 watch boxes today covering up almost the entire Tennessee and Ohio Valley, possibly all the way down to the gulf coast.
MALVEAUX: A watch box. Does that mean that a tornado is likely to hit or it's going to hit? What does that mean exactly?
MYERS: Great question. My mother has lived with a meteorologist for 48 years. Trying to tell her what watch and warning, what they mean, and she still doesn't get it. So that's OK.
A tornado watch is a big area probably the size of a state. It is issued, this watch is issued for hours and hours, sometimes 10 hours long. That's a watch. That means conditions are favorable that a storm might fire up, that might rotate, that might go on the ground. That's what all those mights are. That's what the watch box means. The warning is when the sirens go off. It's a tiny little area, small as a county. These warnings are only for about 15 to 30 minutes. The warning means either a tornado has been spotted on the ground or a tornado is indicated by the rotation of the Doppler radar that they're seeing and saying that's enough rotation. That's past the threshold. The whole storm is rotating. A tornado could be on the ground right now. So warning is the worst thing. The warning is the longest word compared to watch. Warning is the longest one. Warning is the bad one.
You hear warning for your town, you need to take cover. You hear watch for your area, that means get things ready. Make sure the basement's clear. Make sure you have everything ready in case a warning is issued -- Suzanne?
MALVEAUX: All right. Chad, thank you. We're going to come back to you as soon as we've got more information. Thanks again, Chad.
Rush Limbaugh making a living by making some pretty outrageous comments. But the backlash over his latest remarks reaches all the way to Capitol Hill. The fallout over calling a young woman a slut.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Obscene, vicious, an attack on all women -- that is just some of the reaction to incendiary comments by Rush Limbaugh in the political fight over women, contraceptives and religion. Limbaugh said this about a young woman who testified before a panel, calling for access to birth control as part of health care.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUSH LIMBAUGH, CONSERVATIVE RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: What does it say about the college co-ed, Susan Fluke? Who goes before a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex. What does that make her? It makes her a slut, right? Makes her a prostitute. She wants to be paid to have sex. She's having so much sex, she can't afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We're the pimps.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: All right. So on his program yesterday, he takes it one step further.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIMBAUGH: So Ms. Fluke, and the rest of you Femi Nazis, here's the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. And I'll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Well, now the woman who was the focus of Limbaugh's tirade, she is speaking out. Georgetown law student, Sandra Fluke, appeared on "The Ed Show" on MSNBC.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ED SCHULTZ, HOST, THE ED SHOW: Based on what Limbaugh said, what doesn't he know that he needs to know?
SANDRA FLUKE, GEORGETOWN LAW STUDENT: I think what's been said publicly today is, all he needs to know, is that this is really inappropriate. This is outside the bounds of civil discourse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: The backlash over his remarks reaches all the way to Capitol Hill. Angry Democrats, they're calling on Republican leaders now to respond.
Dana Bash is following the story for us.
Dana, I understand you have new information regarding Speaker Boehner involved in this controversy.
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You just said that Democrats have been calling on the House speaker and other Republican leaders to respond. Well, we first reported this morning that the speaker actually is doing just that. Take a look at this. Through Speaker Boehner's spokesman, he says, "The speaker obviously believes the use of those words was inappropriate. As is trying to raise money off the situation."
Those words, he's talking about obviously, are Rush Limbaugh's which you just played. And the fact that the speaker is calling on Rush Limbaugh -- calling Rush Limbaugh inappropriate is a pretty big deal. You don't really have Republican leaders doing that with regard to one of the most successful mouthpieces of their party.
But the second part of his statement is interesting as well -- Suzanne? Saying that trying to raise money off the situation is inappropriate. He's talking about Democrats who have, in their effort to really put a spotlight on this issue, sent a fundraising note, trying to raise money from their donors on this whole issue. Not just about Sandra Fluke but the broader issue as well of -- of contraception and access to contraception for women.
MALVEAUX: Yes. So how could this play out? I know there's a larger debate and the Senate rejected an amendment regarding this. How does this connect to Limbaugh and these comments that are being made? How are lawmakers actually dealing with this?
BASH: It connects very much. As you said, this issue is front and center in front of Congress, just yesterday in the Senate. The Senate actually rejected -- it was a Republican measure that would have overturned the heart of this, which is the Obama administration's rule that says that employers must provide free access to contraception.
We have been reporting for some time that religious affiliated institutions say that that flies in the face of what they believe in. So this measure would have effectively exempted those institutions. That measure failed. But there was a lot of discussion about this on the floor of the senate and more broadly on Capitol Hill.
Look, Republicans are calling this an issue about religious freedom, the First Amendment. Democrats say, no way, this is simply about women's health and Republicans attacking women's health.
MALVEAUX: Dana, finally, do we think this is the kind of debate that's going to have some legs? That it will last for a while? Or is this thing kind of going to go away?
BASH: Well, when you have people like Rush Limbaugh keeping the story alive, if you talk to Democrats, they are -- when you talk about the pure raw politics of this, they couldn't be happier. Not with what he said, but happier with the idea of keeping this alive.
Because they believe that although there was some backlash against the president from some Democrats about this whole rule to begin with, you look at the way the Democrats have handled this on Capitol Hill. They clearly believe that this is a big plus to trying to get women in particular riled up and motivated this election year. Women who might not have been, you know, that enthusiastic about going back to the polls for Barack Obama. And not just Democrats, Independent women. Bring them back to the Democratic side.
On the Republican side, they clearly believe this is a way to gin up their base in saying, look at those Democrats. They're attacking our liberty. It's, again, the heavy hand of government coming down on us.
MALVEAUX: All right. Hopefully, we will be seeing this issue play out time and time again.
Thank you, Dana. Appreciate it.
Women trying to get pregnant often blame themselves if they can't conceive. Well, it turns out that men are the problem half the time. Meet one couple who knows this all too well. And what they did about it.
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MALVEAUX: We're getting new video now from an affiliate, WAFF, from Huntsville, Alabama. We're looking at damage that was done from a tornado that just hit. I want to listen in to what the newscast is saying about what they know.
(BEGIN LIVE FEED)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER, WAFF: Looking at and assessing some of the damage in the neighborhood. You can see it's going to be a lot of cleanup in this area.
UNIDENTIFIED ANCHOR, WAFF: Thanks a lot, Carla. We continue to find -- look for more information about any possible injuries or people trapped in homes. We've had that on down the road with that storm as it moved toward Meridianville.
Let's continue to track the storms up here to the north in Jackson County. The tornado warning continues there. You should stay in your shelter, north of Hytop, in the Hytop area towards Lake View and Sherwood. Here's the state line into Tennessee. This storm still a very dangerous storm with the potential for golf ball-size hail and a tornado.
We haven't had additional reports we still have a tornado on the ground. We'll always continue to monitor, of course, the scanner traffic. National Weather Service, the chat from the weather service, gives us instant messages here from the Jackson County EMA. There again, hands are full here. Probably going to see some mutual aid out there with assistance from one county to another with the -- with the search and rescue out there that continues in parts of Limestone County and into Madison County.
Let's go to Jeff Castle. What's the latest from the Storm Tracking Center -- Jeff?
JEFF CASTLE, METEOROLOGIST, WAFF: Yes, Brad, actually, this just came out. Tornado warning does continue for Franklin County, Tennessee, and Jackson County, Alabama, until 11:00. National Weather Service Doppler radar continued to indicate a tornado near Jericho or about 14 miles south of Winchester, moving east now at 45 miles per hour. Again, this is a storm just out of the Hytop area. I'm going to switch over to weather service radar, which should give us just a slightly better view.
(END LIVE FEED)
UNIDENTIFIED ANCHOR, WAFF: Want to go to Hovet Dixon. He just rode out the storm in the suburb of Huntsville. He is on the line with us.
Can you hear us?
HOVET DIXON, ALABAMA STORM WITNESS (voice-over): Yes, I can.
MALVEAUX: What happened?
DIXON: Actually, I guess about an hour ago, I was sitting here working doing some homework on my computer. All of the sudden, the power went off, all but my television. The power went off on the computer. I immediately got breaking news that there was a tornado in the path. And it actually hit in less than probably about, I'd say, five miles from my area. It touched down first in east Limestone County, which is pretty much similar to the path that it traveled back on April 27th of last year. So it came and hit all the areas in my particular area. I immediately took cover. Went in my daughter's closet. Grabbed my home phone, my cell phone and kind of took cover and kind of followed the news blogs on my cell phone.
MALVEAUX: Were you by yourself in the closet?
DIXON: Yes. I was home alone.
MALVEAUX: And when this tornado hit, what did you experience? What did you hear? What did you see?
DIXON: One of the things, one of the key things that let me know it was serious was the loud wind. It almost seemed like, as if it was trying to lift my roof off the actual -- off its frame. Then the windows were rattling. I immediately kind of pulled my front door closed and I locked the front door and ran to my daughter's closet and got in the closet and kind of took the tornado position and positioned myself where I could actually follow the actual news blogs on my cell phone.
MALVEAUX: So you were actually able to read your cell phone as this tornado was passing over top?
DIXON: Yes, ma'am. It was in and out for us, the signal. So I would get a dead network here and there. When it did kick back in, it would automatically have the news blogs on. Ironically, my television in the living room was the only television that was on in the house. Kind of stayed on. From a distance, I was kind of listening for the news from the front room, from the closet. So it kind of gave the sirens. Of course, you heard all the sirens. You heard the ambulance sirens and police sirens and things of that nature that were in the area. It kind of gave me an idea this definitely was kind of like deja vu of what occurred here last year.
MALVEAUX: You were in your daughter's closet. You're basically scrunched down in this position here trying to follow the blogs. How did you know when it was all over? When you came out of the closet, what did you actually see?
DIXON: It was that quiet calm. It immediately stopped. Of course, the real heavy downpour of rain. I kind of opened the closet and turned on the television in my daughter's room. They had kind of gave me an idea that it was out in Meridianville, probably about 15, 20 miles away from my area in which I live. So that kind of gave me an idea that it was pushing away from where I was. So I kind of followed it, turned back on the television, went in the little room and walked outside. Several neighbors were out assessing their homes. No severe damage. Just judging by what I see on the television, the damage they have reported is not too far from where I live.
MALVEAUX: When you emerged from the closet, your home was not that damaged? What did -- did you see any kind of structural damage?
DIXON: Yes. All kind of debris that was in the yard as if it was blown from other areas, people's trash cans and things of that nature, of course, garbage cans turned over and all of that. I think down the street my neighbor had one tree that may have -- a small tree that had kind of blown over. I did attempt to leave to go get my daughters from school. Of course, as I left, police were out. Ambulances were out. Pretty much personnel that was out. They asked me to return back to my home and give it about 30 minutes before I attempted to go check my daughters out.
MALVEAUX: Do you know if your daughters are safe, Hovet?
DIXON: Yes. They're fine. They reported all schools on television. They're fine. I did have an opportunity to get through at that particular school, personnel at that school that said all is well. I definitely know the panic that sets in when it comes to that. A lot of times we have the misconception that school is not the safest place to be. Me, in my experience, as an administrator, I do have faith that where they are, probably safer than where I am at here at my home.
MALVEAUX: Hovet, thank you so much. Glad to hear that you are safe.
I want to go to Mark Smith. He's a church leader in the same town -- Oh, we just lost the church leader, I understand. But we will get back to him as soon as we get him.
A group of students are huddled together inside of a church. They are taking cover. And inside the same place where that tornado just hit in Huntsville, where we had just talked to Hovet Dixon, where he actually too cover. As soon as we're able to make that connection, get him back on the line, we will talk to him and see how those kids are doing and see how they are riding this out.
And in the meantime, I want to go to Chad to tell us where we believe the tornado is.
What's the path of this, and how big is this thing now?
MEYERS: If it is still on the ground, it's now into Tennessee. It's crossing over the border into the west of Chattanooga. But we are getting reports now -- and these are coming in slowly -- but towns, cities, and counties are thinking about releasing their children from school so they can go home. Huntsville City is going to release kindergarten at 1 00 and everybody else at 1:30. If you have kids in school, you don't want kids home alone, right? And there's nobody there. So if you hear about this, you've got to call a neighbor, hey, when my son gets off the bus, make sure he goes to your house. I can't. I'll be home when I can but I'm at work yet. We're not there yet. Go ahead.
MALVEAUX: I just want to interrupt if I can, Chad. I want to talk to our affiliate, WAFF. They're talking about what is happening on the ground?
CHRISTINE PAE, REPORTER, WAFF: -- tree that fell down on the ground. I talked to sheriff deputies and they say that along Patterson Lane there has been eight or nine homes damaged. Thankfully, there are no reported injuries at this time. We are also seeing some downed power lines and right now it's pretty tame. We haven't seen any rain or hail or anything like that. Just earlier, when my photographer and I were driving up here, we saw a wall passed by through Polaski (ph) Pike, near the Toyota plant. But everything seems to be clear in this particular area. I also talked to some people with their homes damaged and one woman told me that she was -- she did not have a shelter so she went straight to her bathtub and -- thankfully, she was OK. All of her pets are with her. She's doing fine. So we'll have the very latest updates for you the moment we get them.
Check online at WAFF.com for the updates as well.
For now, reporting live in Tony, Christine Pae, WAFF, 48 News.
UNIDENTIFIED ANCHOR: Thank you.
Things are calming down temporarily. Let's -- OK. We're going to go back out to Carla. Carla, who was out there in east Limestone area.
Carla, what do you have for us now?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER, WAFF: I am actually here at the intersection of Fords Chapel and Cherita (ph) Lane. You can see this neighborhood right behind me here. Fortunately, I was able to talk to a few neighbors not too long ago and they were just talking about how everything sounded when the storm went through. One lady said she was coming back from the gym and everything was fine. She could hear the siren go of but there was no rain. As soon as she went into the house, it sounded like an airplane came over her home. It happened twice. It came in two waves. And so it was just very scary for this neighborhood.
Again, this is kind of the same neighborhood hit during April 27th. They say they are all fine but lots of trees down. But lots of trees down. You can see behind me a power line is down as well. So this road is blocked. You can see the caution tape police put up as well. Actually, I'm here in the parking lot of Ford Chapel's Church, and the teachers here are asking parents of the preschool and kindergarten classes, if they can, to pick up their children. I can see the parents up there now as they take the little ones with them to take them to a safer place. Again, if you have a child here at Ford's chapel, pick them up now.
Some of the neighbors, again, here in the neighborhood at Ford's Chapel and Cherita (ph) Lane, they were telling me that they are OK but they are worried about their neighbors one block up the street here. It's the neighborhood still rebuilding from April 27th. They got hit again. Some of their friends live in the neighboring neighborhood. Hopefully, later, once we can get through this area, we can check on that neighborhood as well.
But, again, lots of debris in the roads. I haven't heard of anyone being hurt. So that's a good thing. But it looks like the clean-up process begins once again -- Jeff?
UNIDENTIFIED ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, Carla.
I'm looking at weather situations. Things are calming down for the moment but we don't expect that that is going to continue. Looks like these storms are likely going to move out and maybe last until 3:00, 4:00 this afternoon before we get more development.
Watching very closely a cold front coming from the west, and that will bring another round of severe weather as we take you into the latter part of this afternoon and this evening. Again, things are not going to be over by a long shot, even though they may quiet down temporarily.
A tornado warning until 11:00 with Jackson County in Tennessee. You can see that is north of Scottsboro. That is left of a storm that moved through Meridianville and, prior to that, we had one that moved through the limestone area.
MALVEAUX: I want to bring in Mark Smith. He's in a chuck leader. He is on the phone. He is in a church with 90 kids. I believe they are preschoolers that are in a basement. This is out of Harvest, Alabama.
Can you hear me, Mark?
MARK SMITH (voice-over): Yes.
Mark, tell us, are you safe? Are the kids safe? What is happening?
SMITH: Yes, everybody is safe at this point. The kids are in the process of being released to their parents. It appears that the storm went through the first half like it did in April, through the southeast part of our church I stead of the northwest corner of the playground and some of the portable buildings have some damage but most of the damage has houses to the southwest of us, including the church and the developments in that area. There's telephone lines down, trees snapped off, et cetera.
MALVEAUX: Mark, if you would, take me from the time that you first realized that you had to gather those kids to get them into the basement. How did you hear the warnings and how did you make that happen?
SMITH: Well, the mother staff directors made that happen. I wasn't actually here at the church when the storm went through. I came up as soon as I heard that there was issues. So the mother staff directors have tornado protocol or any thunderstorm protocol where they will usher all the children to the basement which is an underground concrete structure with a floor above it. So it's a safe place and it's opened to the community and we had quite a few community members come and take refuge there.
MALVEAUX: And how long were they in the basement as this storm passed over?
SMITH: Well, from any time that there is a tornado warning until that is lifted. So I don't know the exact time but I would imagine it was well over an hour, maybe close to two hours.
MALVEAUX: How are the kids doing now? SMITH: From what I can tell, the kids are just fine. The adults are a little rattled since we just went through this last April. This isn't nearly to the extent of last April but it still is not a settling thing.
MALVEAUX: This is the second time that your church has been hit. Is that right?
SMITH: Yes. April 27th last year it went through and took out three of the four buildings on the church property including the 203- year-old chapel.
MALVEAUX: It's got to do something to your nerves.
SMITH: Yes. I think it does something to everybody's nerves.
MALVEAUX: And right now the parents -- give us some information here. Their kids are safe. Where can they be picked up? Should they be picked up now?
SMITH: Yes. Several of the roads leading into here are blocked off because of damage. I know that the road between Sparkman High School and Highway 53 is closed off because the storms went through there. However, you can get to forge chapel road and turn up to the high school. You can also get there from the west. The parents are coming in behind the church and take picking up their kids here in front of the church because there are telephone polls on the chapel road.
MALVEAUX: Have you heard from any parents about whether or not these kids are coming home to homes that are damaged or even destroyed?
SMITH: I haven't heard anything about that yet.
MALVEAUX: And the kids, I guess, are they being fed and comforted or are they running around?
SMITH: No, it's always orderly. The directors are very experienced. So I'm sure the kids, other than, you know, hearing talk from the parents, they really -- you know, everything is pretty much regular. So they are fine. Like I said, they are in the process of being sent home.
MALVEAUX: And, Mark, just finally here, when you look outside of the church, what are you seeing?
SMITH: A lot of the playground toys thrown around, picnic table benches thrown around, chairs. The fence is down. The pavilion back behind the church, on another person's property, is destroyed. There are some houses just to the south that have parts of roofs missing and like I said a lot of trees and telephone lines down.
MALVEAUX: All right. Well, Mark, again, we thank you for watching. Keep a good eye overall of those kids, the preschool program. Obviously, very lucky that there is not significant damage there, that the kids are all safe.
And you do say that it is safe to get to the church and to pick up the kids. That's the best thing to do at this time?
SMITH: Yes.
MALVEAUX: All right. Mark Smith, thank you very much. We appreciate it. We'll be getting back to you to see how all of that works out for those families.
I want to bring in Chad again.
Chad, what do we know about the latest reports of tornadoes on the ground and where they hit so far?
MYERS: Well, where they hit was just to the north and the northwest of Huntsville. That's where they touched down. They traveled north of Huntsville into this New Market area, near the Buckhorn High School. We know that the high school was hit, slightly hit. There are vehicles damaged outside and windows in the building that are blown out.
But as we know right now, no injuries to that school. It's kind of a high school/middle school complex. No injuries at all. Everyone was inside and in a safe place. So, that's good.
Right now, I don't have one storm on the ground officially reported confirmed. We have tornado warnings because some of these storms are still rotating. But it takes a threshold to get a tornado to come down.
Just because a storm is rotating, if you look it and you can se it spinning doesn't mean that a tornado is going to come out of that storm. It has to keep going faster and faster and that momentum gets that -- like the ice skater spinning on one foot. She get that momentum in the middle and then the tornado can fallout the bottom.
So right now, this is a storm that moves across Alabama. This is hi top Alabama, this is Georgia and here is Chattanooga right there, downtown Chattanooga, the aquarium will be right there. The biggest storm that we know of is right here to the west of Chattanooga, should travel to the north of Chattanooga up here.
But if you remember, what he was talking about, this was a very hard hit area when Tuscaloosa was hit, Birmingham was hit. These storms kept going in this area. And that's the damage that she's talking about.
So there's the storm. When you see these storms moving on the radar and they go back and they move and they move, that's only to show you the direction that they are going. Obviously, they're not really going back and traveling. The last frame that you see will always be the current frame when they go backwards to the southwest. That's the oldest frame and then the newest frame here.
So, you see whether it's coming at you or not, because it would make a difference if you're living here and the storm was coming this way. So, that's why we show you that animation.
MALVEAUX: And, Chad, do we have any sense of how big these tornadoes are, the ones that we're talking about today?
MYERS: Well, I'm afraid what we're seeing on TV from WFAA, the other, FAY (ph), affiliates there in Huntsville, they don't have the worst damage yet. They got the first damage, that's the crazy part about being in a newsroom. You hear about damage and you send your crews out, but that storm got much bigger that what you're showing right there.
They're going to have to break these crews down, get all the trucks back ands put all the stuff back in the truck and drive to the bigger damage which I think is still to the east, because what you're seeing here is 50, 80, 100 mile-per-hour winds. I believe this storm got much more intense to the east of about 10 or 20 miles and you're going to find significantly bigger damage to the east of where you're seeing it here on up towards the Mooresville area and New Market where it was on the ground and it easily could have been, from my Doppler estimate, could have been easily 140 mile per hour storm.
MALVEAUX: Chad, how do we know -- how you do anticipate whether or not the storm, the tornadoes are getting bigger and growing and becoming more severe? You see the damage on the ground there, but you're saying that you believe it's going to be a lot worse than some of those other areas?
MYERS: Well, the Doppler radars now are so sophisticated. They are going different directions, they have different signals. This is not your -- this is not your grandfather's radar.
It's a new radar system that can actually find debris in the air. It knows the difference. The radar will tell you the difference between raindrops falling down and pieces of installation or threes and limbs and all these stuff flying in the air. And it's called a debris ball.
You see on the air, on the radar. It looks like a ball. That's the tornado itself. It's picking up stuff, throwing it in the air, and throwing it out later.
And we did see debris balls east of here, debris in the air. Debris just doesn't get in the air because of wind blowing it up. It needs to be sucked off the ground by a tornado and that's what happened east of here.
MALVEAUX: All right. Chad, we're going to have much more on severe weather and tornadoes, storms that are hitting the area. Thanks again, Chad. We're going to have much more on that as we get more news.
