Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Women's Basketball Success Story; Tornado On The Ground In Texas; Eyewitness to University Shooting; Supreme Court OK's Strip Search; Tornadoes In Dallas And Fort Worth Area
Aired April 03, 2012 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Suzanne Malveaux, thank you so much.
Got a lot of news unfolding this hour. Want to begin with "Rapid Fire." Roll it.
Want to begin here first with the president. President Obama slamming Republican Paul Ryan, his whole budget plan, calling it today social Darwinism.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is a Trojan horse disguised as deficit reduction plans. It is really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. It is thinly veiled social Darwinism. It is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everybody who's willing to work for it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The president is advocating what he called today shared responsibility through higher taxes on the wealthy.
We want to turn now to Chad Myers, who's watching some damage here. The aftermath now. We're talking a tornado warning, where, around Dallas?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, just south of Dallas and south of Ft. Worth. Two separate warnings. Two separate tornadoes. That's why I know usually you hear it Tarrant or it's Dallas County, but this time it's both. There are two separate tornado warnings for two separate counties. We have damage near Cleburne with this storm that's moving right over the National Weather Service Doppler weather radar. It doesn't show up very well because it's right under the radar, but that storm has a tornado on the ground near Burleson and moving to the northeast at about 25 miles per hour.
This storm here, that storm right there, that's the Dallas storm. That's Dallas County. Moving up just from about 35 E, right up 35 E into southern Dallas County. That storm has a tornado signature on it. Don't have any confirmation yet that there's damage with this storm, but both storms right now are getting bigger, they both have been rotating and they both have significant possibilities of damage on the ground heading into DFW. There's a picture from cbsdfw.com. I could see it earlier. I had a great view of it earlier. It is now completely almost obscured. There's rain. There's hail. And some of these storms, Brooke, even -- obviously the tornado is more significant, but have hail the size of tennis balls today with these storms already. And it's just the beginning.
BALDWIN: Ominous skies. Chad Myers, I know you and Sean (ph) and the weather center, you'll all over it.
MYERS: Absolutely.
BALDWIN: By the way, send me a tweet if you're in the area @brookebcnn. Tell me what you see out our window. Stay safe.
Meantime, more new unfolding now. Dick Cheney out of the hospital. The former vice president had a heart transplant 10 days ago at the Inova Fairfax Hospital Heart and Vascular Institute. And he thanked the doctors and staff for his care. He also expressed a, quote, "deep gratitude" to the donor and the donor's family. Cheney was on the waiting list for a heart transplant for nearly two years.
And we are minutes away from hearing from a transgender Miss Universe contestant who is now being allowed to compete in Canada after all. Donald Trump, who owns the Miss Universe organization, has now explained the reason for this whole about face. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, OWNER, MISS UNIVERSE ORGANIZATION: Well, we went by the laws of Canada and the laws of the United States. And those laws say that she should be allowed to enter the pageant. So she will be entering the Miss Canada Pageant. But we went strictly by the laws.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The she here is Jenna Talackova. She and her attorney, Gloria Allred, are slated to speak about the decision in just about 25 or so minutes from now. Talackova was originally disqualified because she wasn't considered a naturally born female.
And the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch is now stepping down as chairman of British broadcasting giant BSkyB. You might remember this. It was James Murdoch, who was last summer's huge news, "The News of the World" phone hacking scandal. A tabloid which he shut down. Murdoch has consistently denied about the scale of spying that went on, which included eavesdropping on celebrities, politicians and even victims of crimes.
Key al Qaeda websites are apparently down. In fact, terrorist experts say five al Qaeda discussion and training sites have been down now for 11 days. Why? They're not quite sure. But some experts say it's possible al Qaeda has fallen victim to a cyber attack, perhaps by hackers or a government. No one has claimed responsibility for knocking the al Qaeda sites offline. But apparently there is still an al Qaeda-related site up and running. Take a look at this picture. It has popped up on several jihadist websites. New York Police and the FBI, they're trying to figure out where this came from originally. You see it. It shows the city with words "al Qaeda, coming soon again in New York." An FBI spokesperson stresses there is no specific or credible threat to New York.
The U.S. is offering a huge bounty for the alleged mastermind of this, the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, India. You saw the video. It was of Sara Sidner. She was sort of ducking for cover there right after that explosion at the Taj Hotel. The reward for the man behind the attacks, as much as $10 million. The U.S. is looking, they say, for a Pakistani man. Remember, 166 people died in those attacks in Mumbai.
And if you fly Allegiant Air, you're going to be paying up. Paying a new fee. The carrier will charge you up to $35 just to put your carry- on luggage in the overhead bin. You heard me, carry-on. You can still bring a personal item, but if it doesn't fit under the seat in front of you, it's going to cost you. The new fee goes into effect tomorrow. Allegiant is the second U.S. carrier to charge a carry-on fee. Spirit Air has been doing it for two years now.
And Neil Patrick Harris will be hosting the Tony Awards again this year. You know Harris, he's a TV sitcom and Broadway actor himself. He's also producing this year's Tony's for CBS. The show airs June 10th.
And we have a lot more for you here on this Tuesday over the course of the next two hours. Watch this.
A former student tells police he was bullied and picked on and now this 43-year-old is accused of shooting his classmates execution style. We're going to talk to an eyewitness who was in the middle of the chaos.
I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.
A judge declares a mistrial after a killer says he had an affair with the prosecutor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you not say you killed my sister!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: We're on the case.
Heads roll after your taxpayer cash paid for a clown, a mind reader and a lavish party in Vegas, all for government workers.
Plus, if you are in handcuffs, police can now strip search you, for any type of arrest.
And Carney Wilson opens up about her second bypass surgery and a very pregnant Jessica Simpson reveals her weight gain. Is the criticism against them fair? We're talking weight, because it's trending.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: I want to continue talking weather here. It's a breaking weather situation. Guys, let's just go ahead and pull up those live pictures of this ominous sky. You can't see a whole heck of a lot over Dallas. It seems to get grayer and grayer. We were talking -- and I'm going to bring Chad Myers in, who's hustling over to the -- to what you're about to show me.
MYERS: Yes.
BALDWIN: Tell me exactly where these tornado warnings are in effect.
MYERS: Well, a couple of storms now that we know that are moving into DFW, both with tornados on the ground confirmed. One near Cleburne, that has moved up towards Burleson. It has now moved a little bit farther to the north. That would be about Glenn Heights and then Oak Grove over here.
This storm is right on -- this is 35 W. This is 35 E. So literally both storms right along the two separate interstates. Thirty-five goes all the way south to San Antonio. It meets back up here across by the DFW Airport and goes back up into Oklahoma City. But for a time, 35 splits. The west portion and the east portion. And, ironically, these storms are paralleling the interstates perfectly. One moving right up into eastern Ft. Worth and one on the ground moving into southern Dallas.
Just over the line into Dallas County right now. You need to take cover. You need to get the kids, the pets, the cars, everything you can inside. But make sure you are personally safe with these storms. Get to the lowest level. Most homes here don't have basements. The first floor is just fine. Get inside into a kitchen, into a closet, into a bathroom, somewhere close without too many windows. You don't want to be able to see the outside, because if that window breaks, it can cut you. Closets are great. Bathrooms are great usually. A lot of people go into the bathtub because they are so strong. Cover yourself, get out of the way and certainly get inside.
BALDWIN: Chad Myers, great advice. Keep us posted. We'll come back to you.
Meantime, I do want to take you back quickly to that horrible situation out of Oakland, California. Take a look. You're going to see the scene of what was a mass shooting. Seven people killed by a disgruntled former student at a vocational ed school. These are the forensic unites. They're actually on the scene now. But this was yesterday right around this time. Absolute chaos. Shots ringing out. People running in all directions. Today we now have more facts about the story, beginning with this. A possible motive.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF HOWARD JORDAN, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, POLICE: We do know that he was upset at administrators at the school. We do know that he was upset with several students here because of the way he was treated when he was enrolled here two months ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Now here's something else we can tell you today. The alleged shooter reportedly fled that vo ed school in the car of one of the victims. Drove five miles to this Safeway grocery store, walked up to customer service and turned himself in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LISA RESLER, WITNESSED SUSPECT'S ARREST: He did look a little bit distraught and he did look like he was a little bit sweaty and a little bit discombobulated. He looked at me and I think he went directly, right when you walk into the Safeway, there's restrooms right to the left of that store entrance. I didn't see him after that. When I was coming out of the store, however, I did see him arrested in front of the store.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: I can now tell you the name of the gunman. We can't show his face because we don't yet have a mug shot. But the alleged killer here is 43-year-old One L. Goh, described as a Korean national. He allegedly entered this trade school, Oikos University, looking for an unidentified administrator. He actually didn't find that administrator, but he did find a school secretary. And he lined up the secretary and a group of nursing students. Then the gunmen allegedly said, I'm going to kill you all. Seven people dead, three wounded in Oakland, California.
And joining me now on the phone, eyewitness to these killings, Art Richards (ph). He was there on the scene. Shot some shaky video.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, hello.
BALDWIN: OK, forgive me, Art, stand by. We're going to go to you.
But I want to go first to live pictures in Dallas. Live tornado on the ground. Take a look at this with me. Chad Myers.
MYERS: I'm here.
BALDWIN: Live pictures. Take a look at this. Where exactly -- obviously this is coming from the website of our Dallas affiliate, WFAA. We are looking live at a tornado. Do we know specifically where this is?
MYERS: This is Glenn Heights, Texas. This is Dallas County, Texas, from our affiliate WFAA. This storm has been on the ground now for about 10 minutes. It has moved up right along the I-35 E corridor. Now, there's another tornado on the ground on the I-35 corridor, right up near Spinks Airport. That's in parts of Ft. Worth. Just the south and the southeastern sections of Ft. Worth, right along I-35.
This tornado we're looking at right now is 35 E. It has moved over and out of Johnson and Ellis and then on up now into Dallas County. BALDWIN: Can I just --
MYERS: And this is going to approach the downtown Dallas Airport, in downtown Dallas, and even towards Love Field in the next 10 to 15 minutes.
BALDWIN: Can I just interject just to notice. You see all these people passing by presumably on this I-35 corridor, passing on by a tornado. Do they not see this?
MYERS: This is 34 E. They see it. They see it off to the east. You know, and if you live it, you live this -- I lived in Oklahoma City many, many years. You take a look at this and you realize it's not going to hit you, you feel safe. But, in fact, these storms can and do turn left and turn right.
This one has been moving to the north-northeast at 25 miles per hour. And this storm, right now, is getting larger. That is at least 120- mile-per-hour tornado on the ground, moving from south Dallas County right on up into Dallas proper. This is going to be -- and this storm is not getting any weaker and this storm has nothing to fight with. This storm could be on the ground for a very long time.
A severe thunderstorm watch was issued many hours ago, upgraded to a tornado watch about an hour ago, which means tornadoes could occur. Well, clearly now, this is a tornado warning. Tornados are occurring in both Tarrant and in Dallas County. An amazing shot here from our affiliate WFAA in Dallas.
BALDWIN: Chad, what should people be doing if they are in and around this area? If they're watching this tornado?
MYERS: Get inside, get down, get under something. Get inside. First thing, pets, kids, you, inside. Next, get inside, away from windows. A closet is great. Make sure there aren't bowling balls above you in the closet though. You know, something storing heavy above you, you don't want that. You take pillows with you. If you have kids, children, small children, toddlers, you can put them in car seats, because car seats are made to protect toddlers and infants from impact -- from impact in cars.
BALDWIN: Chad, look at the -- look at the picture.
MYERS: Yes.
BALDWIN: Can you tell me what we're looking at? Is it -- you see sort of like this chunk of tornado on the left hand side of the screen. Forgive me my lack of technical terms. But then on the right side, it almost seems like something else is spinning off of it.
MYERS: Yes, no, the real tornado is under the "ea" in breaking news.
BALDWIN: OK.
MYERS: Over there on the left. It's going to eventually maybe get off of our screen if the person here with the camera doesn't pan a little bit to the left. There's a small little something. I believe that's just a little (INAUDIBLE) as part of the wall cloud that's now above that bush or that tree.
BALDWIN: OK.
MYERS: That is not the tornado. The tornado is now moving to the left and off the screen here.
BALDWIN: Behind the trees?
MYERS: Behind that -- behind that tree. And now he is going to --
BALDWIN: Oh --
MYERS: There he is, going to get out of the car and probably turn around so he can actually move it. And so here you get a better feel for it as it has now turned, although it is now obscured by that -- another hunk of trees there.
And this is now moving up. This is the 35 E corridor. This is 35 East. We also know -- I don't want to forget about the people in Ft. Worth. There is a tornado on the ground right along I-35 W, just to the east of I-35 W --
BALDWIN: Thirty-five West.
MYERS: Spinks Airport right there. Yes, 35 West and 35 East. Interstate 35 splits as it goes through Dallas. Part of it goes through DFW, Dallas -- it goes through Ft. Worth. The other side goes through Dallas Proper. The tornado you're seeing on the ground -- and it will come out from behind the trees there in just a moment -- that tornado is the I-35 East tornado as it moves into Dallas, into eventually right up I-35, will move it right into downtown Dallas.
This has always been the biggest fear of putting cities in tornado alley. You always wonder what's going to happen when a tornado finally hits the town. Because it will. Tornado and cities, they don't get along because there's not that many cities compared to open land. But eventually, tornadoes will hit cities and this one is now moving into Dallas.
BALDWIN: Yes, no, I'm sorry, Chad, I'm having a conversation with someone in my ear. As we look at this tornado and I'm remembering, you know, very recently you and I, essentially going two hours wall to wall on other tornadoes in other states, how does this compare with those other tornadoes? We were talking F-4 not too long ago. Compare that to what we're looking at now here in the Dallas area.
MYERS: This is not Henryville. Not yet.
BALDWIN: Thank goodness.
MYERS: This is not 165 mile per hour tornado. It's hard to see. There is some rain on the lens now. It's a little bit obscured by the trees. But I don't see a wedge tornadoes on the ground producing 165 mile per hour winds. But, Brooke -- BALDWIN: You said this is 125?
MYERS: One twenty, one twenty-five. That is still a very significant tornado on the ground in a city. If a 120 mile per hour storm runs through a corn field, you don't get damage. When you get that kind of a storm, the same storm into a place with that populated area, where people now, they're stuck in their cars, their red lights are stuck. You know you've got basically gridlock trying to get out of the way of this thing now that you're in the city.
You do not want to go out and look at this thing. You want to be inside your home. Don't be any kind of a hero with i-Reports and go take pictures. We want you inside and safe. These tornados are out ahead of the line. They're all by themselves. They are super cellular. I believe the Ft. Worth tornado is probably bigger than this one. And so that one now that's just to the east of 35 W on the ground, northeast of Spinks Airport, that's on the ground, probably a little bit larger. That may be approaching the western suburbs of Arlington, Texas. If you're anywhere along that Ft. Worth, Arlington corridor, please take cover right now.
BALDWIN: OK.
MYERS: This is the Dallas storm, I-35 East moving across the highway here. We'll eventually --
BALDWIN: You can see the rain really coming down.
MYERS: Yes. Right now they are in the backside of the storm. They are now -- they have missed the hail core, which is north of them. The rotation was there for a while. And we will keep up (INAUDIBLE) as soon as we can get the next picture on from something on the grounds like this, that was -- that was amazing video. Amazing footage. You need to take cover right now both the cities of Dallas and Ft. Worth. Typically we say one or the other. There are two separate tornadoes on the ground, Brooke.
BALDWIN: As soon as we can get pictures, as you mentioned that was I- 35 East, Dallas County. As soon as we see Ft. Worth, I-35 West, we'll bring that.
Chad Myers, thank you so much for your expertise, as always. We'll talk here again in just a moment.
Meantime, I do want to jog back to the story, Oakland, California. Talk about specifically what happened at this university. And joining me now by phone, eyewitness to some of this chaos that happened just yesterday, Art Richards. Art was there at the scene. And he actually shot some shaky video that we're going to be showing you here.
And, Art, so you were there -- from what I understand, you were there. You were going to pick up a friend and you were something like 10 minutes early just across the sheet from where the shooting happened. Tell me, what was the first thing you heard? What was the first thing you saw? ART RICHARDS (voice-over): Well, like I was selling you colleague over here on the ground, I was just -- I thought it was a car accident. I only seen a couple cop cars. You know, and so (INAUDIBLE), you know, I was early, you know, (INAUDIBLE) rubber her neck. Me and one other guy, no one around. And we happened to look towards our left and there was a young lady sort of in the bushes behind a tree. And she looked sketchy like she was scared or -- we thought she was on drugs or something. But she came out finally and said, I've been shot.
BALDWIN: She was injured.
RICHARDS: Yes. So I was like, what?: What are you talking about? She showed us her arm. And a good little -- a piece -- a chunk of her arm was missing on the lower right arm on her right side. And so I was like, what is going on? So she told me someone -- one of her classmates or former classmates went into the school and started shooting. And she said that she seen with her own eyes point blank range one of her classmates get shot in the chest and in the head.
BALDWIN: Wow. So she had seen this. You see her in the bushes, frightened. A piece of her arm missing. And then you pull out your cell phone video. We're looking at some of the pictures. You saw the EMTs putting some of the folks in the backs of ambulances. Did you hear --Art, did you hear gunshots?
RICHARDS: Yes.
BALDWIN: How many?
RICHARDS: About 10 minutes later, behind me, across the grass, about 30 feet there was an Asian guy standing there, an onlooker. I didn't know he was behind us. Police kind of (INAUDIBLE), get down on the ground and, you know, put your hands behind your back, handcuffed him, escorted him to the -- to the patrol car they put the young lady in that got shot. And, you know, for an ID. And it looked like she said that wasn't him.
BALDWIN: That was or was not?
RICHARDS: So as that was taking place, gunshots rang out and it sounded like, you know, there was a gun battle of some sort. And you hear glass breaking. And, you know, I get down. Everybody's getting down. So I'm -- everything's happening so fast. I'm like, wow, this is real. This -- something big is going on.
BALDWIN: Were people screaming? Describe what you were hearing outside of the school.
RICHARDS: Say it one more time.
BALDWIN: Were people screaming? As you're describing getting down on the ground, I mean was it just sheer panic at this point in time?
RICHARDS: Yes, there was panic, there was chaos. Police was running, hiding behind cars, running towards the school. You know, I just -- me and the other individual panicked (ph), got on the ground, you know, hid behind a little bushy area by a tree.
BALDWIN: Can you describe -- how much do you know about this particular university or just even this part of Oakland, the community? Is this something you would ever expect to see, to happen here?
RICHARDS: Well, Oakland is known, you know, for, you know, high crime rate. You know, it's a rough city. But nothing horrific like this has happened that I've seen or, you know, and it was just -- it wasn't a good sight or a situation, you know. It was just -- it was not good at all.
BALDWIN: Art Richards, I thank you for calling in, I thank you for sharing your video. Unbelievable what happened there just yesterday. Again, the shooter is now in custody. Thank you, sir, for calling in. We really appreciate it.
Now, you might have missed this one, but I think you need to know that you can be strip searched if for any reason at all you end up going to jail. You don't need to be suspected of carrying drugs, don't need to be suspected of being armed. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy writing for this 5-4 majority said this. Let me quote him. "Every detainee who will be admitted to the general jail population may be required to undergo a close visual inspection while undressed."
That is a decision announced just yesterday. Anyone heading to jail can be strip searched for any reason. And joining me now from New York, CNN's senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
So, Jeff Toobin, let me -- so I have this correct. Anyone headed to jail can be strip searched for any reason at all.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: That's absolute right. And now it's important to say, the Supreme Court doesn't require this. They don't say that every person must be strip searched. But basically the theme of the decision is, it's up to the police department. They have to be responsible for their own safety, for the safety of the other inmates. So they have a free hand to take this extreme step, even if someone is arrested for a traffic violation or something really, really minor.
BALDWIN: So to hit the point home even further, go with me here.
TOOBIN: Sure.
BALDWIN: I'm out walking my dog. I have a little pug. I'm out walking my pug. I've let this pug off leash. Let's say even though there's a sign that says not to. An officer comes up to me. Maybe I say something I shouldn't. I get a little mouthy. Maybe the cop's in a bad mood. I get hauled off. Maybe even strip searched because my dog was off the leash. Could that be possible?
TOOBIN: See, that's absolutely right. The point is not the nature of the offense. The point is the risk of people in prison. As Kennedy points out in the opinion, he says, look, you know, it has been determined historically that lots of people arrested for minor offenses turn out to be guilty of very dangerous things. Probably not you and your pug, but they don't want to create a rule that limits the police in any way.
Now it's important to emphasize that there are four dissenting justice here. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote the dissent. And he said, in essence, this is crazy. We have to have some rule of reason here that some crimes are simply too minor to merit this kind of treatment. But they lost.
BALDWIN: Let me jump in. we pulled a little bit of that dissenting opinion. Let me, again, this is Justice Breyer, quote him. He called the ruling, quote, "a serious affront to human dignity and to individual privacy." We've also seen the suggestions that this could even violate international law. Toobin, is that true?
TOOBIN: Well, you know, those are matters of opinion. Does it violate people's dignity? I mean a lot of people would say yes. Some people, including the majority, would say no. International law is a very controversial issue of whether that should even apply in the Supreme Court. Stephen Breyer thinks, yes. Antonin Scalia thinks no. In any case, the bottom line here is very clear that this is now in the sole discretion of the police.
BALDWIN: OK.
TOOBIN: Now, Justice Kennedy left a little but of right --
BALDWIN: Jeff Toobin, forgive me.
TOOBIN: Oh, sorry.
BALDWIN: Yes, forgive me. I've got to interrupt you. We've got to jump back. Thank you, by the way. I've got to jump back to this tornado coverage. We're going to dip into, who is it, Angie (ph), FAA, WFAA's coverage here. Chad Myers watching along. Let's just listen to what they're doing here in Dallas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, you know, what I would guess, you know, a pretty good distance away, but yet these wires are being torn off these transformers, you know, even with the storm not being right next to it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, Gary, once again we're going to stay with this picture, but I know we have Chief Mike Moon, please correct me if I'm wrong, and my apologies, the chief in Lancaster (ph).
And, chief, what can you tell us that you're seeing there right now?
I know that we're going to try that again here in just a moment. Gary, let's hang with me here.
We continue to watch a large tornado on the ground right now. And, Adam, let's put on Viper if we can. I want to look at this. We're going to keep this picture here, but I want to be able to look out of the corner of my eye at Viper and have a few more locations that I can give folks here for this Dallas County storm. There's where our tornado is right now, southeastern Dallas County. Another large tornado is on the ground moving towards you and Arlington. This Arlington storm, a large tornado --
BALDWIN: So that was FAA. This is WDFW, another affiliate.
And, Chad, you and I can -- here's another shot from WFAA. Obviously it's sort of switching on and off. We're just going to go with this back and forth here. And I'm just seeing a lot of gray, Chad Myers.
MYERS: Well, here's the deal. We have two tornadoes on the ground. One going into Arlington, Texas.
BALDWIN: OK.
MYERS: A large tornado near Kennedale move into Arlington, Lake Arlington, western Arlington. Maybe eventually, 20 minutes from now, into Euless, Texas. If you're in that line, you need to take cover now. A large and dangerous tornado is on the ground.
BALDWIN: (INAUDIBLE) the funnel.
MYERS: The storm you're looking at right now, hard to see because it's gray on gray, but it's there. This is Hutchins towards Piedmont Edition, and eventually towards Mesquite, Texas. This is Dallas County, not Fort Worth County. We have two simultaneously rotating storms side by side rolling up 35-E and 35-E slightly east now of both of those highways.
This storm has been on the ground for a very long time, as it has moved up through Hutchins. It will eventually kind of run on up through the river there. Every time you see a flash, I just saw one there to the right of the tornado.
That is a power line being ripped from its pole or it's a transformer exploding. Because we know that this is on the ground doing damage, tearing things up, people need to take cover in Dallas County and also in Terrant County.
Dallas County, I'm talking Hutchins, Piedmont Edition and up towards Mesquite. That's going across I-20 and eventually across I-30. And if you go here, that's the 35-E.
That's the 35-E storm. On the west side, not even in this picture, but another major tornado on the ground near Lake Canondale, Lake Arlington and also into Arlington, Texas, itself. You need to be taking cover immediately.
BALDWIN: You can see a couple of homes. It looks like homes in the area. I know it's tough to see. I'm squinting along with you.
But there's most definitely a twister here. I was just told that we had Ed Lavandera, a correspondent out of Dallas. He is on the ground.
He's in a car. We're working to get communication with him so we can describe sort of what this thing looks like in person. Debris in the funnel cloud, you mentioned seeing perhaps a power source flickering, ripping it along with it.
Is this the same twister you were talking about earlier? Is this one over 125 miles per hour, been on the ground 10 or 15 minutes?
MYERS: Yes.
BALDWIN: Goodness.
MYERS: This is the storm that moved on up. For a time, we had a storm down near Cleburn and that's the one that moved into Terrant County. It was the first one on the ground. It actually had damage reported, homes destroyed and it's moved up into the Arlington, Texas area, a little bit to the south, west of Arlington, Texas.
This storm, which now you can really begin to see this picture. This is the Dallas County storm. In a little bit of a ruralish area because the river runs right through this area, and eventually it will get into the Piedmont Edition area, which is much more populated than what you're seeing right now.
There's debris in the air. I need you to be if you're in the eastern Dallas County, anywhere east of I-35-E, I-20 area, you need to be in your basement if you have one. If you need to be inside your home, if you do not have a basement on your first floor.
BALDWIN: You can see debris flying around. Look at this, one, two, trailer homes. Three, four, power, power, power, unbelievable. Live picture, watching a tornado ripping apart RVs in Dallas County, Texas.
MYERS: And you can see the swirl, you can see the rotation. What's closest to us is going from left to right, picking up the trees, picking up those homes. They may have been actually semitrailers.
BALDWIN: Tractor trailers, thank goodness. Hopefully there's no one in them sitting in a field.
MYERS: Didn't quite see any tractors attached to them, but you can begin to see the devastation that could happen when even a small tornado. This is not Henryville. This is not the stuff that rolled through Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee last week, two weeks ago. But this is still very dangerous.
BALDWIN: Look at that --
MYERS: It just picked those things up. That has to be 130-mile-an- hour storm to do something like that maybe even getting stronger. And here's the rub, Brooke, these storms have nothing to get in their way. They are literally by themselves, they are super cell.
BALDWIN: Look at that.
MYERS: That is a tractor trailer in the air.
BALDWIN: I mean, how heavy is a tractor trailer would you guess?
MYERS: I would say in the neighborhood of 15,000 pounds empty. Look how high that went in the air and you have to imagine the potential. Now this is going into homes. This is going into areas where people are actual living.
This is why you need to be on the first floor. If you don't know your neighbor on the first floor and you're living in an apartment, start knocking on doors. You do not want to be on the top floor of anything at this point in time in Dallas or in Tarrant County.
BALDWIN: Look at those cars precariously close to the storm.
MYERS: I honestly have never seen a tractor trailer picked up like that before.
BALDWIN: I have certainly never seen this, 10,000, 15,000 pounds in the air. We do have Ed Lavandera on the phone. Ed Lavandera before we talk about anything you're seeing, please tell me that you are in a safe location.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes, I'm actually fine, Brooke, thanks for saying that. Trying to make my way or start heading down towards that area as best as we can. It's interesting, I'm closer to the downtown Dallas area, which is probably about 20 miles or so from the images that you're seeing there live on television.
And the rain has just started to fall here in the area where I'm at. So it seems to be rather isolated, although from the radar images that I'm seeing on my phone, the storm and the heaviest of it is definitely beginning to move through.
They've been sending out warnings throughout the day that this line of severe weather was going to head through the Dallas Fort Worth area. So I think a lot of people getting the word that was happening or to be prepared for it.
But the rain now starting to come down heavier and it kind of makes being able to seen on the roadways more difficult. This is a part of town where people heed the words of caution to be as safe as they possibly can at this point. Hopefully, these storms won't stay on the ground for a terribly long time -- Brooke.
BALDWIN: We have been looking -- Ed, thank you very much. Please travel safely. We, again, live pictures because of -- thanks to WFAA has the signal up.
In case you're just now joining us. Chad Myers and I are sitting here watching live pictures along with you. We're talking two tornadoes in the Dallas County and the Fort Worth area. Specifically this one as we've been watching it traveling along the ground, just picking up, like a teeny little toy.
These different pieces of tractor trailers and just tossing them in circles through the air. We're going to work on reracking that video for you and playing it again if you missed it. OK, let's go ahead and roll it. Roll it guys. We'll watch this as we saw the tornado move through moments ago. This is the beginning. The first two start to go. Keep your eyes on the chain. You see the flashes. This is power -- power sources. And in a moment, you will see several of these fly through the air. Do 360s before landing back on the ground.
MYERS: Hundreds of feet in the sky, Brooke. And this is the storm that's moving into the eastern parts of Dallas, Dallas County. We're talking about Piedmont Edition and eventually turned Mesquite.
If you're in this area, you need to take cover now. There's a even bigger storm on the ground with something I'm seeing called a debris ball, which is literally a ball on the radar created by debris in the sky. And that storm is moving into Arlington, Texas. We've all heard of Arlington. We know the Texas Rangers.
BALDWIN: Look at this.
MYERS: There you go and this is just the beginning.
BROOKE: Hundreds of feet.
MYERS: That's the beginning. Stay with this because these trailers get picked up again, if not the same ones, different ones and lifted in the sky. They're about 80 feet long in themselves. So there you go.
BALDWIN: Unreal.
MYERS: There it goes.
BALDWIN: There it goes in the middle of the screen.
MYERS: It's like a train that someone threw across the room.
BALDWIN: Light as a feather, it seems. Instead 10,000 pounds likely tossed around in the tornado. This is just one tornado. As we look at these unbelievable pictures here, where exactly is the tornado because obviously that's the wind carrying it?
MYERS: Yes, the tornado is in the background, spinning in its direction, picking up things. It's almost -- it's obscured because of how gray it is there.
And you don't want to be out to look for these things because there are rain showers around. There are clouds and hail and that maybe obscured by the rain. You may not be able to see it.
Sometimes people want to go out and look for these Texas type tornadoes because there's nothing else out there. You can see them. Sometimes you cannot see them coming. Arlington, Texas, I'm very concerned for you.
Please, if you know someone if Arlington, Texas, make sure they're safe. This is going to be a devastating event.
BALDWIN: Live pictures now. Back to live. MYERS: This is the Dallas, but then again, because you see how there's a bit of farm land here. The bottom left of the screen is the bridge where the river runs down below. So there's not many people living in the river valley as there will be.
As this continues on the ground, eventually, if it is, maybe it's not on the ground anymore. As it gets up towards Mesquite, a much more populated densely populated area here.
BALDWIN: So you see some of the flashes, perhaps, I don't know if that would be lightning or not. We don't appear to see a twister, a funnel in this picture, but it's somewhere.
MYERS: It's hard to know what the helicopter pilot could do and what he couldn't do. Obviously, you have a very fragile flying instrument in the air. You can't always be at the right place to see the funnel there. He maybe on the back side of that little rain wrap event there in Dallas County.
BALDWIN: Lieutenant Tim Jones on the phone, Johnson County Sheriff's Department. Sir, tell me where you are and what you're seeing?
LT. TIM JONES, JOHNSON COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE (via telephone): We are located southwest of the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex. And we have in our area just a couple of homes that have been damaged. A lot of outbuildings that have been damaged. We have no injuries to humans. We do have some livestock injuries. We have a lot of trees and items like that down, but that's it.
BALDWIN: OK, so you're seeing trees, some homes, livestock damage. In your neck of the woods, has this thing totally passed through?
JONES: I'm sorry, I missed that.
BALDWIN: Has the storm -- and again, we're looking back at these pictures at this trailer complex where you're going to see some of these tossed around in the air. Sir, has the storm passed through where you are in Johnson County?
JONES: Yes, it has. It's passed our area, going up towards Fort Worth, towards Dallas.
BALDWIN: What are you in communication with your counterparts in Dallas, Fort Worth? What kind of damage are they reporting, do you know?
JONES: I'm not sure. We're just taking care of our area at this point.
BALDWIN: Is this the kind of thing that you're all accustomed to. Do you have warnings or sirens?
JONES: We do have sirens and the sirens were reactivated.
BALDWIN: They were activated. What message do you want to get out here for folks who do still have power here on national television? What would you like to communicate to them in Johnson Country?
JONES: I would like people to fully understand that when the sirens go off or if their weather radio goes off then it tells them to seek cover, to seek cover immediately. Don't assume it's just another one that's going to pass you by. Take appropriate action to save your lives and loved ones.
BALDWIN: Lt. Tim Jones, Johnson County sheriff. Sir, we appreciate you calling in and let us know. If you have any update as far as damage goes, but we really appreciate it, sir. This is tape from a moment ago. Go ahead, Chad.
MYERS: I think it's very important what he just said. This may not be the last cell.
BALDWIN: So we could see more.
MYERS: Absolutely. There is more weather to the west of what just caused this. There are more storms to the west, mainly hail makers to the west. But being outside in the two-inch hailstone, it will do an awful lot of damage to you, your loved ones, your car and your pets. So make sure everyone is inside.
BALDWIN: So I'm being told, these pictures that we now see crystal clear in the light, this is what we're looking at a matter of minutes ago when we saw trailers tossed about.
It looks like to be some massive facility. These are thousands and thousands of pounds in weight and they were tossed around in this massive, what looks like some sort of parking lot for these trailers. Just unreal. I'm almost speechless looking at this.
MYERS: This was down here Hutchins. This was as the storm came up 35-E, that was coming out of Johnson County. We're talking to the person there from Johnson County. This storm was on the ground for at least 10 miles before it actually hit this parking lot.
You know, that there were men and women working in this facility because it's still only the 1:30 hour there local time. There are people there. There are buildings that are damaged.
And clearly, this is a parking lot, not people sitting there waiting for gas. And that's great news, but the damage that can be done, if you see that, you saw that truck, that 80-foot container, that thing was up in the air at least 100, 200 feet.
BALDWIN: And look at the traffic, is this presumably I-35, do we know?
MYERS: Well, yes, that's going to be probably -- well, I don't know. That could be just an access road because that doesn't look like an interstate there. And it could be. It certainly could be, but I can't tell from the left and right sides where that possibly is.
But the damage you just saw there, those are people driving. Those weren't people that were -- those were people driving a vehicle that was flipped. This is probably more the debris that came out of that parking lot.
BALDWIN: Yes, and it's tough to tell with these different pictures, but we don't know how far some of these tractors were tossed. I would presume based on the picture we saw, that gives you a better idea.
They could have hopped to the interstate from this parking lot, landing in someone else's land there. And it almost looks like something is underneath that tractor.
MYERS: That is the spare tire of a pickup truck or suburban as this thing is upside down. You put it under the vehicle and that's the bottom of the vehicle turned upside down.
And the trailer is now on top of that vehicle. They don't seem to be working too hard. People are looking to see if anyone was in that car at the time and I don't see any rush.
BALDWIN: You see the guy under, looking into the car as we were looking. I'm assuming these again are live pictures here. We're work on getting someone from this particular trucking company.
Obviously, they're in urgent mode right now, but as soon as we do, perhaps they can give us a little bit of context as far as, you know, if anyone was in or around any of these tractors when that storm whipped these things up in the air and tossed them. These were the ones that were tossed. You can see people with their cell phones taking pictures.
MYERS: This is literally sheet aluminium, sheet metal flying around in the air. This is why you cannot be outside when a tornado approaches because things will hurt you as they fly through the air.
Debris that's picked up by the tornado, it will fly for feet, for miles. In the Henryville tornado that we had last week or two weeks ago, people found checks from that community over 60 miles away.
They found addressed envelopes 50 miles away, picked up in the storm, sucked up in the highest elevations of the clouds and spit out later. The power that mother nature in this situation at 120, 130 miles an hour.
Arlington, Texas, you are not out of the woods. The tornado for you, the other tornado is still on the ground, still be taking cover. A second tornado warning is going on.
The sirens are sounding. Again, those sirens are not the all-clear sirens. They don't blow sirens all clear. The sirens you're saying right now say take cover again. The storm is still on the ground.
BALDWIN: You mentioned, we're talking two tornadoes. We're talking I-35 east, I-35 west. We're talking Dallas County and also Fort Worth. So I want to go on the phone, we have Aaron Barth. Have you seen the tornado come through as you are in the Fort Worth area?
AARON BARTH, SPINKS AIRPORT (via telephone): We did. We did. We saw it approximately 1:10, 1:15 local time. We saw brief tornadic activity just east of the airport, probably two to three miles.
It was coming away from the airport, going approximately north- northeast. And we saw the rotation and it just slowly descended, touched down for maybe 10 seconds or so and then gradually just listed and went back up.
But, you know, the rotation was still there as it moved away from the airport to the north-northeast.
BALDWIN: How big is the Spinks Airport and was there any damage at all?
BARTH: Spinks Airport is not very large when you consider commercial- sized airports like DFW, things like that nature. Our airport has 180, 190 based aircraft, most of which are smaller-type airplanes where you go to flight training or recreational-type flying.
BALDWIN: Any damage?
BARTH: No damage here. No damage here. I can't speak to the folks that had the tornado fall right on top of them, but no damage here. Plenty of sustained winds. I couldn't tell you what the top peak reported wind were on the field, but certainly strong and some debris. You know, primarily just foliage, shrubs, bushes, small leaves blowing around.
MYERS: It's Chad Myers. I heard on the national service chat that there was a large and dangerous tornado on the ground in Kennedale. How does that kind of compared to where you are?
BARTH: Kennedale is north east of us. I would probably say it's just south, maybe southwest of Arlington. We're probably approximately 10 to 12 miles southwest of Kennedale. And so that would probably jibe with what we saw here at the airport. Again, it was moving north- northeast of us, which would probably track it towards that vicinity.
MYERS: That's exactly what happened.
BALDWIN: Aaron Barth, we appreciate it. Stay safe, sir.
Let's just reset. I'm Brooke Baldwin alongside Chad Myers. Want to just welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world as we are sitting here, what, first or second of April now looking in the midst of the tornado season, looking at these live pictures.
A parking lot full of tractor trailers. You will see one after another. Thousands and thousands of pounds of weight just tossed up into the sky and deposited hundreds of feet away. Example right there, boom, back on the ground.
You're seeing flashes of light. Obviously, that's power. Power snapping going out, I presume. We're work on talking to folks on the ground.
Look at that, another one slamming back on the ground. Then in the broad daylight, minutes later, the aftermath. Chad Myers, how far into tornado season are we?
MYERS: We have just started.
BALDWIN: We have just started.
MYERS: In fact, Mr. Wolf Blitzer asked me that the other day. He said well, you, are we -- aren't we about done? No, sir, we just started. Tornado season happens in America when the cold air from the winter gets pushed back by the warm air of summer.
And sometimes the cold air pushes back and says, not so fast. This is what we had today. We had cold air mixing with warm air. They mix like vinegar and oil. They don't want to be together. As the warm, moist air goes up, storms are created.
Thunderstorms that go up can sometimes begin to spin. Those storms that spin can put down tornados, almost like an ice skater, a figure skater going slowly in the middle as she pulls her arms in will do a very quick spin on the one leg with the arm against her body.
It brings the tornado down to one point. That happens all the way from about February in the southern states all the way into May and June in Nebraska. It can even happen as late as July and August up into Calgary and Alberta and even into Saskatchewan.
This is a phenomenon kind of unique to the United States and Canada. We get over 1,000 tornadoes a year, more than any place else on earth.
BALDWIN: And we are just getting started here as the season is just now upon us. I want to bring Maria Arita. She is in the public information officer for Dallas County.
And Maria, let's just first begin, we've been showing the tractor trailer complex. Can you talk to me, obviously, it's a tremendous amount of damage.
MARIA ARITA, PUBLIC INFO OFFICER, DALLAS COUNTY: Hi, am I on the air?
BALDWIN: Yes. You're live on CNN. You're speaking with Brooke Baldwin.
ARITA: Sorry, hi, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Hi, Maria. Go ahead and if you can, just fill us in as far as damage, and specifically this tractor trailer parking lot. Do we know of injuries?
ARITA: We just ourselves received the information and we're watching the news coverage just like you about this tractor trailer facility. It's one of the things I want going to tell you about.
In terms of damage, we're beginning to get reports of different instances of damage. We've got a lot of cloud formation and rotation. Several reports of tornadic activity that have hit the ground in various counties around the region, Dallas County, reports of several tornadoes on the ground and in east Terrant County, the Arlington area around I-20, I-30, that area.
And the tractor trailer park that you're talking about there happens to be in southeast Dallas County so obviously tons of concrete there. You know, this is something that we're going to be working on assessing if for the next few hours. We don't have any numbers for you right now or anything to tell you specifically. I won't go there yet.
BALDWIN: OK, OK. Again, we're looking at these pictures as you and I continue this conversation of this tractor trailer company. Looks like a mass parking lot. Many of these have just been thrown through the air. You're telling me this is southeast Dallas County. You do not know yet as far as numbers, injuries, this is just too fresh?
ARITA: No, I don't. This is breaking. This just happened literally just minutes ago and so we are pulling together crews obviously, you know, heading into are that direction to assess what the situation is.
We have to be mindful of what the crews are as well. If they have this kind of rotation, they could re-emerge and surface at any moment. For folks in the Hutchins area, that's one area of Dallas County that we've seen rotation even though in many of these areas they haven't surfaced.
This cloud rotation could mean activity coming in that direction. Mesquite, Rockwell, all those areas, what we're wanting to do is just get the word out to people when you have flying debris and imminent danger like this, we were just really asking that people stay home inside.
We're hearing reports of other things, but I don't want to be too specific right now. We're also providing information on our Twitter. So you can go to dallascountytx@dallascountrytx. And, you know, we'll provide up to the minute information there as well. I'm sorry, that's the best we can do right now. It's happening very quickly.
BALDWIN: I appreciate it. I know your hands are full. I think that's an excellent point. If the skies are clear in your neighborhood that does not mean you are necessary in the clear.
These storms could pop back up and roll back through your neighborhood. Please, please take caution. Let me ask you this, this is something I almost marvel at.
For the people who have CNN who may be listening to us live on the air right now, what advice do you have for the people on the highways?
ARITA: To find shelter immediately. Rein and, you know, I think one of the big warning signs when you see hail coming your way, you hear the warning sirens. Do not take it lightly and don't try to outrun it. You very rarely will be able to outrun a tornado.
The best thing to do is to try to find cover as quickly as possible if you are in a safe place when you hear a siren then stay where you are and find an inside location away from windows in that facility. I'll give you a story. One time last year I myself did not follow my good advice and I heard the sirens. I was in the middle of a meeting, but I only lived a few miles away. And I was near the airport and decided to get on the road and try to get there just as quickly as possible and got stuck in a huge hailstorm that knocked out all the windows in my car.
And we ended up, you know, with literally dozens and dozens of people trying to sort of take cover, all these cars at once under an overpass, running into each other. Everybody loses their sense of geography or even of reality. They panic.
And all the reason they normally have, their skills just go out the window and fear takes over. The best thing to do is listen to the cautionary warnings say this is not a joke. These are imminent dangers. There is debris flying around in the air.
You can see what happens if the truck, the trailer park. That's why we emphasize things like this. You saw a warning coming from the water service, a particular kind of tornado warning that they're thinking of putting into place in states like Kansas and Missouri. We just want people to be -- we just want to emphasize the dangers and to be acutely aware of this.
BALDWIN: Do not try to outrun the tornado, so says Maria Arita. She speaks from her own advice, public information officer there in Dallas County. Maria, do you have anything more or let her go?
MYERS: Let her go.
BALDWIN: Maria, I'm going to let you go. You're busy. I hear the commotion behind you. As soon as you get more information, specifically on the tractor trailer facility, please call back. We would love an update as we' been watching that play out live here on CNN.
We really appreciate it. Maria Arita, Dallas County, but she mentioned, Chad, multiple twisters.
MYERS: Yes, there were two. And now I believe we're down to one. The Arlington storm I believe is on the ground moving towards Irving. This is going to be a storm that regenerated itself.
I think it was off the ground for a while, now it's regenerated its power and putting a tornado back down on the ground to the north of North Arlington. We're going to find -- I know FAA is flying as fast as they can. I can see them in the side of my eye here.
They're trying to get over to the Fort Worth area. Ironically, we've had tornadoes simultaneously going up 35E and 35W. If you don't understand Dallas, the I-35 interstate goes all the way from San Antonio and farther south all the way up even into Oklahoma City.
But at Dallas Fort Worth, this interstate splits into two. Part of it, 35 E in both directions will go to Dallas, 35W in both directions will go to Fort Worth. We had two tornadoes following both interstates for at least 20 minutes on the ground.
And the one to the left, I believe the one on the west side was the bigger tornado. And this -- now here, there you go. This is what I've been watching out of the corner of my eye, waiting to see how long it takes him to get there.
When he arrives at this damage, I think you're going to be significantly more impressed than the buildings and the trailers that were flying around. We won't have the video of it live, but we'll have video of the damage very soon.
BALDWIN: Yes, I just got a tweet from someone saying, Brooke, very ominous skies north of I-30 in Arlington.
MYERS: But let me tell you, there's another storm coming. We talked to the man in Johnson County a little bit ago. There's another storm beginning to rotate near May Pearl. May Pearl is about 30 miles farther south of here where it came from in the first place.
Another storm is rotating, not on the ground yet, but certainly the next storm system, the next storm could be coming up somewhere right down between those two. It's not over yet. This is a violent day. We are going to see more tornadoes today yet.
BALDWIN: And, again, can you explain?
Because it's amazing to me as we're looking at the video.
And here's the video.
As we're looking at the video, dark, dark skies, very gray. That's when we saw the tractor sort of tossed about, and then minutes later, absolutely clear. Here again, this is the twister from earlier, gray. And then minutes later, it's clear.
So, you're telling me, even though -- and sort of reiterate Maria Arita's point in Dallas County, just because it's clear doesn't mean you're in the clear.
(WEATHER UPDATE)
BALDWIN: And this is obvious also fresh and it's happening right now. These pictures came down, what, about -- we were watching this live about 20 minutes ago.
And when we talk to somebody -- we're talking multiple jurisdictions here within Texas, within Dallas-Fort Worth that greater area. And when we were talking to the official out of Johnson County, he said, for the most part, some homes were damaged.
He also specifically mentioned livestock, but beyond that, that was all he saw. But it's tough. When you're covering stories like these and it's happening right now live as we have been watching it live unfolding on the air, we know all these officials are essentially scrambling, trying to respond to people on the ground, injuries, et cetera. We're efforting those numbers. We're efforting injuries. We're trying to get some information here about that tractor trailer facility and parking lot, obvious massive damage there.
We're going to stay on top of the breaking story. We're going to get a quick break in. Much more to come here live on CNN. We will be right back.
