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122 Suspected Twisters Hit Four States; Oklahoma Town Bears Brunt Of Storm; Tornado Hits Hospital In Creston, Iowa; Tornado Threat Remains; Deadly Attacks In Afghanistan; North Korea Celebrates Founder's Birth; Secret Service Members Relieved Of Duty

Aired April 15, 2012 - 14:30   ET

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

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. You're in the "CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Gary Tuchman in today for Fredricka Whitfield.

Millions of Americans from Texas to Wisconsin are being warned to be on guard as a potentially dangerous weather system moves through the region over the next few hours. And this is what it could look like.

Tornados, possibly more than 120 of them, tore through the Midwest yesterday and early this morning, killing five people. Dozens of people were hurt, several critically. Hundreds of homes damaged and destroyed. Some houses were turned into rubble in a matter of seconds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY HILL, LOST HOME TO TORNADO: That piece after iron had to come from a building. It was, you know, it was no straight wind. It was a regular twister.

The window was blasting out and out and out. We went into the bathroom, like they always say, and while we got here, the roof went here. The good Lord was with us. He sure was. It's about more than you can bear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Well, four states were hit, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas. But all of the fatalities were in one particular community, Woodward, Oklahoma.

CNN meteorologist, Rob Marciano is in Woodward and joins us now live. Rob, first of all, I'm thankful you're safe. You'll know why in a second when you show some of these amazing pictures, but describe the devastation you see there.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's a pretty narrow swath, but it's right through the heart of town, Gary. And that's all it takes in these populated areas. We had so many tornadoes yesterday, but you go west to the Mississippi, and let's face it, the towns get a little bit more spread out here in the plains.

It's flatter, you can see them coming a little bit better, but that really doesn't lower the fact that this town had three tornado warnings yesterday, two during the day and then one, unfortunately, at night after midnight.

We're at the command center. We've had limit access to the communities that are the hardest hit and you can kind of see one of them just across this road. Some of the roofs that are heavily damage there had.

We got in there earlier to take some close-up shots and it's really remarkable, how strong it is. As a matter of fact, I ran into a National Weather Service employee out here doing a storm survey. He surveyed about half the damage so far.

He said at least an EF-2, potentially an EF-3. As far as the injuries are concerned with this storm, 29 injuries so far and as you mentioned, five fatalities. Two of those fatalities were people that were actually in a car that got rolled over and then three were in a mobile home park to the north and east.

Much of that mobile home park completely destroyed. A man and his two children lost their lives during this storm. And as you know, Gary, these things come in at night, that's the worst case scenario.

But double trouble is that during the day, they got power knocked out in part of this town, and not all the town heard the sirens going off at midnight.

The media did a great job locally, and if they had their weather radios on, they might have been warned that way. But for people who may not have heard the sirens especially if they're in their cars, they may have paid the ultimate price.

TUCHMAN: You're right, Rob, the news media in Oklahoma, Oklahoma City and Tulsa and throughout the state, they are amazing when it comes to the tornado warnings. You saw the tornadoes ripping through Oklahoma yesterday, and we have within a incredible of you, this is an incredible picture, with two twisters behind you.

Let's take a look at that if we can. When we see the picture, you will see it. It almost looks like you're holding them in your hands. Like when you're in Paris with the Eiffel Tower in your hand.

But those are tornadoes, as your entire career as a meteorologist and reporter, you've never witnessed anything like this in person, right?

MARCIANO: No, no, definitely not. And I'm not going to lie to you, Gary, I've never seen a tornado touch the ground. I've been on a number of chases, and most chasers will tell you, it's not a guarantee, even on a day like yesterday.

We chased a couple of cells, both of which, by the way, went through Woodward. The second of which during the afternoon came through this town and that was a huge mesoclone. You saw the pictures there dropped not one but two.

It's kind of alternating between two funnel clouds and we chased with two experienced chasers. One is a CNN international producer, Brandon Miller, who did some research work out here as a meteorologist. And another guy, Brian Smith, who's been on well over 100 chases and he's said he's never seen anything like it. So a remarkable day as far as that's concerned. As a meteorologist, it's exciting and exhilarating, adrenaline rush.

But then, of course, you always fear one of those beautiful tornadoes and ferocious tornadoes coming through a rural community like this and this is a result. I should mention this as well, Gary.

They are no strangers to tornadoes here. They just celebrated the anniversary of the 1947 tornado that tore through this town, one of the worst tornados in U.S. history taking American lives. So it's steeped in history, but that doesn't alleviate the fact they're hurting this afternoon, for sure -- Gary.

TUCHMAN: Rob Marciano, fascinating. We're glad you're safe and thanks for joining us. We'll talk to you a little bit later. Thank you, Rob.

In Iowa, take a look at the pictures coming in from the tiny town of Thurman. A tornado levelled much of the town. Only 300 people live there and the mayor says 90 percent of his community is now damaged. What's amazing, when you look at these pictures, nobody was hurt.

And now to another small Iowa town, this town is called Creston and a tornado hit the hospital there. Officials say high winds broke windows, sent glass flying into the building, again, thankfully, no serious injuries being reported.

Let's make one thing clear. Several states and some major cities face dangerous, even life threatening conditions still today.

And Jacqui Jeras is tracking this for us. Jacqui, there's no time for people to drop their guard. How's this shaping up right now?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, today won't be exactly the same kind of day as yesterday. We don't think we'll see quite as many tornados, but there's still quite a risk, especially across parts of the Upper Midwest.

At this hour, we already have a tornado watch in place. That means conditions are favorable for conditions to develop. It's this line we're watching along the cold front, across parts of Central Missouri and then into north western parts of Arkansas.

For the most part, we've seen some wind damage here, with winds in excess of 60 miles per hour, but within this line, we could see some rotation and that will be a concern. Now, the next area that we're going to be watching for this potential is up here in the Upper Midwest.

Believe it or not, yes, that's snow you're seeing way over there in western parts of South Dakota. That gives you an example of just how different these air masses are, so much colder behind the system, so warm and humid ahead of it. And it's in this area where we think we could see development as we head into the afternoon hours for today and then the storms are expected to the move eastward towards Wisconsin.

So a moderate risk has been issued by the storm prediction center and it does include some big cities. We're talking about Minneapolis. We're talking about getting close towards Madison and Milwaukee.

You folks in the orange here are under that slight risk, and that slight risk really expands, almost from the U.S./Canadian border all the way down to the Gulf Coast, including Houston. So another big day is going to be expected.

Not as many, but all it takes is one tornado to touch down in a populated area to cause these problems. And I kind of want to circle back and show you this, Gary.

This is a map given to us by a company called "Imap." And what you see on these yellow and orange areas here, these are what we call rotation tracks. It takes Doppler radar signatures.

It takes rotating thunderstorms and spells them out. So while we've had more than 100 tornado reports yesterday, you can see that some of these reports are those long track violent tornadoes that caused damage in many of those areas in the plains.

TUCHMAN: Jacqui, those are pretty dramatic pictures you're showing us. We'll have more from Jacqui later. Thank you. It's the heart of the tornado season, folks.

Well, the U.S. Coast Guard is searching for four people missing from a yacht that ran aground near a race in San Francisco, right off the coast. The Coast Guard says a massive wave hit the eight-person crew aboard the yacht called "The Low-Speed Chase" and then it hit the rockets near the Farallon Islands yesterday.

It's about 20 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge. We're told one person died, three others were rescued. The yacht was taking part in a competition beginning and ending at a San Francisco yacht club.

Lots of international news making headlines this hour. We will bring you the latest on a series of attacks in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.

And North Korea's leader speaks to the nation on the 100th anniversary of its founder's birth.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUCHMAN: Explosions and gunfire rocked the capital of Afghanistan this morning. Insurgents attacked Kabul's embassy area, the presidential palace, heavily fortified, and the Afghan parliament.

They even tried to strike an air base used by American troops. The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attacks. Ryan Crocker, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, told CNN's Candy Crowley the Taliban's bark, though, is often worse than its bite. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN CROCKER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO AFGHANISTAN (via telephone): The Taliban are really good at issuing statements, less good at actually fighting. My guess based on previous experience here is that this is a set of Hakani network operations out of North Waziristan and the Pakistani tribal areas. Frankly, I don't think the Taliban's good enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Our Mohammed Jamjoom is live in Kabul right now. In Kabul, it's 11:12 p.m., Afghanistan is 8-1/2 hours in front of Eastern Time. So he's had time to reflect on this day. Mohammed, what's the latest on this attack?

MOHAMMED JAMJOOM, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Gary, this wave of coordinated attacks started around 1:15 p.m. local time today. And for hours and hours, we were hearing the sound of sporadic gunfire. We were hearing explosions. We were hearing RPGs being fired.

That's just in this very heavily fortified and guarded area in Kabul, where so many embassies are housed. Now, we're told by NATO's ISAF that in fact the U.S. embassy, the Russian embassy and the German embassy and several government facilities were targeted.

The situation has calmed down in the last few hours, but, in fact, there is still activity going on. There does still seem to be one attack, at least, close to this area that's going on.

We were told by the spokesperson for the Interior Ministry a short while ago that an abandoned building close to the ISAF headquarters here, that there were insurgents holed up, most likely in an elevator shaft.

And that security forces were trying to throw grenades into that building to try to get those insurgents out and arrest them. We actually heard the sound of those blasts. That was just in the last hour.

So it really goes to show just how volatile, chaotic, and tense a day this has been. The fact is, it doesn't seem like it's over, even at this late hour -- Gary.

TUCHMAN: I mean, you've seen so much in your career, Mohammed. When you woke up and you heard this or when you first started hearing the explosions, were you scared?

JAMJOOM: Well, you really just kick into -- the adrenaline really just kicks in right away. That's what happens. You want to find out what's going. You want to make sure that your team is safe, that everybody here is safe at the CNN Bureau, and just try to find out what's going on.

It was quite remarkable to hear so many blasts in this part of the city. There have been times when I've been here in the past where there have been attacks close to this area. The attacks on government facilities have been stepped up by insurgents in the past year and a half.

So it's not as rare to have attacks in this part of the city as it once was. The Taliban and other insurgents' network clearly have more sophisticated means of attacking right now, and they're really trying to show their reach.

And that's what's so concerning about this, to the residents of Kabul. You may hear U.S. forces. You may hear Afghan security forces say that they're doing a good job.

But the fact of the matter is, the person on the street in Kabul, very concerned about what this means that insurgents can so readily get into an area that is so heavily guarded -- Gary.

TUCHMAN: And Mohammed, do you know the casualty total at this time?

JAMJOOM: We have got finally a casualty toll and we're told that 19 insurgents were killed in attacks today. These are attacks that targeted four provinces of this country. We're told that two civilians were killed.

These were regarding these attacks in Kabul. And we're also told that 15 police officers were wounded. We're still waiting to see if there are any updated casualty figures and we will keep monitoring and update as we get those numbers -- Gary.

TUCHMAN: Mohammed Jamjoom, thank you very much for joining us from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Well, days after the humiliating failure of a rocket launch, the defiant North Korea is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of the nation's founder.

A military parade featured what appeared to be a new larger ballistic missile, but defense analysts are unable to confirm if it's real. The country's leader, Kim Jong-Un said they would not be bullied by its nuclear armed enemies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM JONG UN, NORTH KOREAN LEADER (through translator): Our military has become a powerful military, able to handle any kind of modern warfare with complete offensive and defensive capabilities. The foreign powers are not the only ones with monopoly on military's supremacy and the days of their threatening and lying to us with atomic weapons is forever gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: This was an historic moment, because it was Kim Jong-Un's first televised speech since taking office.

Well, we've got more details today on the prostitution scandal that has erupted at the Secret Service. Eleven agents and uniformed officers from President Obama's advanced detail were sent home from Colombia after allegedly having contact with prostitutes at a hotel in Cartagena, Colombia on the north coast of that country.

After being interviewed yesterday at Secret Service Headquarters, they were all put on administrative leave. Also, five military service members providing support in Colombia have been confined to quarters after allegations surfaced of what military commanders called inappropriate behavior.

The president of the United States is in Colombia for the Summit of the Americas. So has the Secret Service handled the situation appropriately?

I want to bring in Tory Clarke. She's the former press secretary for the Pentagon and for Senator John McCain. She's on the line from Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Tory, thanks for joining us and tell us what's your reaction to this news?

VICTORIA CLARKE, FORMER PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY (via telephone): You know, Gary, I have several reactions, but I've got to tell you my first visceral reaction was, where do these idiots find the time?

You know, I hate to sound like a woman, but these guys have really important jobs, but where do they find the time for this kind of nonsense?

And my second reaction was embarrassment for the president and the country. At a very important economic summit, when they should be focused on the issues instead they're focused on the scandal.

And then my third reaction was, I know a lot of people in the Secret Service, Gary, and people in the military and I've worked for them over the years.

The overwhelming majority of them are serious, sober, hard working and on the job 24/7. And I feel badly for them because they're going to get tarred a little bit with this brush.

TUCHMAN: Well, Tory, it's nothing to do it being a woman, but it's incredible to hear what allegedly happened. One thing I'm curious about, I don't know if you know the answer to this.

When you're in the Secret Service and on this kind of job, are you able to do things in your free time not that kind of thing? But can you go to a bar? Can you go dancing or are you supposed to stay in the hotel and supposed to be low profile?

CLARKE: They are all given -- they have to have a certain amount of time off, but there are pretty clear codes of conduct that how you're supposed to behave yourself. And this clearly is out of that code of conduct.

TUCHMAN: So how do you think the administration and military should be handling this, Tory?

CLARKE: You know, Gary, I think they're doing the best they can with a difficult situation. The 12 in the Secret Service were relieved immediately. Nobody's going to do a better investigation of this than the Secret Service will do off their own people.

So I think the president can only do what you would expect, which is, yes, he has to address it. He'll get asked about it, and try to pivot back to the important issues they're addressing at that summit.

TUCHMAN: I mean, this really is an embarrassment to the Obama administration, isn't it?

CLARKE: It's an embarrassment for all of us. And you know, I swear to God, Gary, I'm going to start a web site called, howcantheybesodumb.com. Just being dumb and stupid and foolish and they wreck things for a lot of people.

TUCHMAN: I wouldn't be surprised if there was already such a web site, Tory. So better check that up. You use the word scandal. Is that what you call this? Is this a Secret Service scandal?

CLARKE: I think it is scandal. I'm hopeful we won't be talking about this in a few weeks. I know people who have worked in the Secret Service for years. I know how responsible they are. I know how they dedicated they are and I think they can carry the agency forward in a good fashion. So it's a scandal. It's a black eye.

TUCHMAN: Tory Clarke, thank you for joining us. It's very interesting what you had to say.

CLARKE: Thank you, Gary. Take care.

TUCHMAN: Take care of yourself.

Well, the summit of the Americas winds down, President Obama will be holding a news conference today around 4:30. That's about an hour and 40 minutes from now Eastern Time and will be holding it with the president of Colombia, the host. We'll bring the news conference to you live when it happens.

The sinking of the "Titanic" happened 100 years ago today and people continued to be fascinated by the disaster. We'll take a look at how passengers aboard one ship right now are remembering it next.

But first, it's time for a "Titanic" quiz. Get out your pencils and paper and try to answer this question. How many lifeboats do you think the "titanic," the unsinkable ship had on board, 2,200 passengers? We'll tell you that, the answer's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUCHMAN: It's the 100th anniversary today of the sinks of the "Titanic." Before the break, we asked you how many lifeboats do you think the "Titanic" had on it? The ship didn't carry 10, it did not carry 25, it's between 15 and 20. The answer, 20 lifeboats. There were 2,200 people aboard the "Titanic" and 700 survived because there were only 20 lifeboats.

If they had what they were supposed to have, a lot more people would have lived 100 years ago this very day.

There are several memorials today to mark the day the "Titanic" went down. Mourners tossed a pair of wreaths into the water, right over the site of the ship's wreckage.

Four hundred fifty people are aboard this particular memorial cruise that's retracing the "Titanic's" route.

A check of our top stories, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUCHMAN: A second round of severe weather is threatening millions of people in the Midwest, less than 24 hours after a massive tornado outbreak hit the region.

More than 122 suspected tornadoes ripped through four states and five people were killed in one Oklahoma town. Dozens of people were injured and hundreds of homes were destroyed.

Deadly attacks on the capital of Afghanistan. Insurgents targeted several key areas of Kabul including the embassy area and the parliament. U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said no Americans have been hurt, but a number of Afghans have been killed. The Taliban have claimed responsibility, saying it's the start of their spring offensive.

Well, I'll be back one hour from now. Coming up, the fight over women voters is heating up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was disappointed in listening to the president as he's saying Republicans are waging a war on women. The real war on women is being waged by the president's failed economic policies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Well, CNN senior political analyst, David Gergen will be with me to weigh in on this so stay with CNN. "YOUR MONEY" starts right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)