Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Oklahoma Tornado Coverage; White House on Defensive; Obamas Speak to Graduates
Aired May 19, 2013 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Fredricka, thank you very much. It's been an interesting evening and it's going to get more interesting.
This is serious, folks. This is serious now. We have been telling you since Thursday or Friday that there would be tornado activity happening this weekend, and that there would be severe weather. And now, here it is. Many people facing the brunt of it right now in Oklahoma, and if you were not watching CNN, you missed it. And you will probably see more of this, unfortunately, for the people in that area as we proceed throughout the evening here.
We saw a tornado touching down, hitting several homes. A helicopter pilot saying, to his estimation, that this tornado that he saw, the one you're looking at right now, look at that, about a half mile long, and he said tearing up everything in its path. It hit Wellston, Oklahoma. There were also tornadoes in other parts of Oklahoma, and this system is a humongous system from Minnesota to Texas, and anyone in any of those areas should be on the lookout right now.
Look at this thing. This is unprecedented that we get to see something like this. And you can see the lightning and as this tornado went through and started hitting homes, you could see the sparks from electricity and just from just debris on the ground there.
We have reporters who are in the area who are trying to make their way. We also have affiliate coverage from our affiliate KFOR, these live chopper pictures you're looking at now. Again, fascinating to see this. Very scary for the people who are facing this, who have to be in this path.
And as we've been telling you, our Fredricka Whitfield, our Jennifer Delgado, they've both been telling you, you need to get to a place of safety, if you're in this particular area.
CNN's Jennifer Delgado, meteorologist, has been following this.
Jennifer, this is unprecedented to see. This is a huge system we have been warning people about, and now, it has come to fruition.
JENNIFER DELGADO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely right. We see these tornadoes popping up, these big super cells in parts of Oklahoma, as well as Kansas all the time, especially in the month of May, as well as into April. Now, the month of May has been fairly quiet. Typically, we see about 325 tornadoes for the month. And right now, we're running well below average.
Now, what we're looking at right now, this is our radar. We zoom into the area. Here's Oklahoma City, giving you an idea.
And then this is the area we're talking about. I think this is Fallis, where we do have the tornado warning in place until 5:15. Now, what we're going to see is the storm, it's moving to the east as roughly about 30 miles per hour. And as it does, we're expecting it in Carney at 5:15.
Now, earlier we were talking about Luther could be potentially under the gun. Now, we look at Luther. You can see the storm has taken more of a northerly track. As we go throughout the evening, we're not done with this storm just yet. By 5:40, Kendrick, as well as into Avery.
We see the tornadoes coming through, these super cells, of course, in Oklahoma, they are very prepared for this. You want to make sure you have a storm shelter. You want to make sure that you have a basement. If you don't have that basement, get into the interior part.
Don, we talk about this all the time. And we've seen the video of the clouds out low are and see the tornadoes developing. We've seen some even in the last hour being rain wrapped. It's really hard to see.
But what we know now is this tornado warning actually look like it's been extended. I think just a second ago, I said 5:15. Now, it's going to 5:30 Central Time and we're talking potentially 1,600 people being at risk of danger of potentially losing their lives. Seeing their homes, like this tornado we're looking at come of our Edmond and out of Oklahoma City.
We've seen power line, the popping, these tornado getting wider. We've had reports of half-mile and it's not just Oklahoma. We have, we saw these big tornadoes as well through parts of Kansas. Not far away from Wichita, where we know that the National Weather Service office, the employee there's had to take cover, take shelter, because it was just too dangerous.
LEMON: Jennifer --
DELGADO: Yes?
LEMON: Jennifer, this tornado apparently hit Wellston, in the Wellston area. Can you show us where Wellston is in Oklahoma?
DELGADO: In Oklahoma. Well, if you look over at our graphic here, this is Wellston. This is Fallis, where we're seeing the signature right now. Just to the north of Fallis.
Now, tighten back up a bit more for you to zoom back in. I think you asked to see Wellston. And as we show you where Wellston is, the worst of the weather has basically been to the north of that, but we still have that tornado warning in place. And we have actually several tornado warnings in place. We're looking at two.
Now, keep in mind we still have some as well in Kansas. These are Doppler-indicated. The ones we're seeing out of Oklahoma, these are confirmed tornadoes. We're confirming them right now, dons, as we're watching them on TV as they're developing. We see the helicopter pilots out there.
LEMON: We want to make sure, as I said earlier, you're in the basement, somewhere in a center hallway --
DELGADO: Yes.
LEMON: -- in a place away from windows.
DELGADO: Yes. You want to be away from windows. Make sure you're protecting your head. When we saw all those tornadoes coming through Alabama, remember, two years ago, so many people were saying that, they would see less injuries if they had helmets out there, something to protect their heads. This is something else you can get.
You get into the bathtub, pull that mattress over so that that can provide some extra protection for you as well.
LEMON: OK. So, Jennifer --
DELGADO: Yes, Don.
LEMON: Edmond, Wellston, Arcadia, Luther --
DELGADO: Yes. Let's track it one more time for you. Hopefully, our producers back there can pull it up for you again.
Again, this is Luther. And some of these areas may not ha have, may not be very popular. May be open area. But what we're seeing right now, 519 to 538, this potential, this super cell moving through Carney as well as Parkland as well as into Kendrick.
Now, let's hop over to some more weather science. This is going to kind of bore you. What we're looking at, far right screen, in the bottom left, these are what we're looking at as base velocity. And one we're looking at storm relative velocity, here is our TVS, that's our tornado vortex signature. And there is our inflow right there. So, these are the areas that we're really concerned about.
And then, of course, you can kind of see here, you can better see the development of that storm as well. But again, there's Luther, there's Wellston, Carney, yes, you want to be on the lookout as well and, of course, Meridian, you're getting hit with some heavy rain. We also have reports of hail being 1 1/2 inches.
LEMON: All right. Jennifer, stand by. I'm going to need your help with this, but we want to -- I want to tell our viewers. You are watching this unfold as we are. We're watching this with you and learning new information with you. We're going to rely a lot on our affiliates now.
As a matter of fact, we want to go to our affiliate KOCO and listen to their coverage for just a moment. We'll be back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably starting to pick up on trees on the reflectivity. But nonetheless, this is a huge tornado, and the amount of damage that it will do will be substantial. This will kill animals, farm animals. This is a very dangerous storm system that is moving through right now.
So, yes. Let's go ahead, and I know this is going to certainly do a lot of damage, humans, animal, farm equipment out there is going to get picked up again. So, we need to watch this storm very closely.
Again, this is a tornado warning that is very serious. All right? It's a very serious tornado warning right here, and anyone in the path of this, if you're not below ground will certainly, certainly do quite a bit of damage.
Rusty, what do you have?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: David, I have to agree with you. The bottom line is, if you're not below ground, you are risking your life with this tornado. That's how serious this is.
This is a high-end, long track tornado headed right towards Carney. It's just northeast of Fallis, west of farm road, north 3320, and then the one to the east of that is north 3330, and then headed into the southwest sides of Carney.
I'll do a storm track from the center circulation. Put it out, going about 30 miles an hour if that's a little fast, that's fantastic, because we want to give folks a big heads up for this. So let me track this out at about 30 miles an hour here. And I'm going to have the zoom out, just to give you the times of arrival. But you're looking at Carney, right around, I'm going to say even around 5:15.
So, let's say Carney at 5:15. Trion at 5:30 and possibly Agra at around 5:45. But, Damon, right now, there's really no stopping this.
One other thing, Steve Crono (ph) and I just looked with a dual pole product, we are picking up a debris signature with this tornado. So, I mean, it's been on the ground long enough. It's gone through enough populated areas, where there's no doubt damage -- is eminent with this storm.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. I'm not surprised one bit that we are depicting debris out of this. I mean, as we mentioned, tree, farm equipment, it's a very hilly area. So we are likely going to pick up all sorts of things. I can certainly see that right now within the radar.
Also want to just touch base on, not only this storm, also anymore storms that develop, which we are beginning to see now. More storms develop just -
LEMON: We're going to get back with our affiliate coverage in just a moment. Live affiliate reporters from our affiliate KOCO in Oklahoma.
I want to get now to our chief meteorologist here, Mr. Chad Myers joins us on the phone.
Chad, this is a huge super cell and it has been whipping its way across Oklahoma. You saw the live pictures on the air described by the chopper pilot as a half-mile wide.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST (via telephone): Right. You also heard that local meteorologist from KOCO, in fact, my home affiliate when I worked Oklahoma. He talked about debris field.
He talked about being -- the Doppler radar is actually seeing things other than rain drops and hail in the clouds. Seeing tree, seeing limbs. Seeing parts of homes and shingles that the radar says, hey, wait. This is not a regular rain drop. It's much larger.
This is now what we call debris. It can be insulation. It can be anything up in the clouds. The storm has been on the ground for an amount of time. It is a stovepipe large tornado.
If you are in Carney -- Carney, now, this is northeast of Wellston and, Don, Wellston did not take a direct hit. It was a few miles north of the city.
And let me tell you, when you live in Oklahoma, a few miles makes a tremendous difference, because even Carney, about 10 streets north to south, maybe six streets east to west, so less than square mile. If it misses by a square mile, you've missed the town. And so, just a little bit makes such a difference when you're now in rural Oklahoma.
There are two other cells that you see developing. One under the word Oklahoma City and one south of it, that would be very close to Norman. I'm seeing potential for both of these to rotate.
Now, if they do begin to rotate, and they do put tornadoes down, that will be in a much more populated area. The chopper pilot is not in position to take a look at those cells but I'm watching them right here on Doppler radar and I will continue to watch them for you and keep you advised.
LEMON: Hey, Chad, if you were looking just before 6:00 here Eastern Time on our air when we saw the tornado ripping through a neighborhood there, you saw the power lines being pulled up, you saw the sparks.
Describe to us what's going on, in that situation.
MYERS: Well that was very close to the town of Fallis, still northeast of Oklahoma City. This current storm you're seeing with the word Carney and all of those circulations is still to the northeast of Oklahoma City and not moving back to the city, moving into the rural areas between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. So, all of a sudden, you see this tornado, and even away from the stove pipe, the vortex itself, power lines flashing, green, blue, sometimes yellows and oranges.
Those are the power lines being ripped off the poles and then you see the big flashes when the transformers are going as well. It's hard to see this tornado right now. There's a lot of rain wrapping around it. It was a much easier picture to see the tornado. Trust me, Don, there's a tornado inside that circulation right now, you just can't see it because of the rain that's kind of coming all the way around that storm right now.
People in Oklahoma, you need too pay attention. I know you always do. The NOAA weather radio is the safest and most reliable thing you can also do.
You can buy an app for your phone. It even knows where you are. These apps are GPS certified, and they know, oh my gosh, you're in that new (INAUDIBLE), you're in the big square, that big purple square.
And even if you're driving down I-44, you may not know what county you're in, but your phone knows where you are, and it knows whether you're in the tornado warning and in danger or not.
LEMON: Chad, you know very Oklahoma well. Large city center, Tulsa -- tell us how far we are from those particular towns, those particular cities being hit, Oklahoma City.
MYERS: Well, I think to start to warn Tulsa would be certainly a stretch. You're 70, 80 miles even at 30, 40 miles per hour. This is hours away.
Typically, storms won't last that long, they will cycle, they will kill themselves. What's called occluding, they come around so hard they'll cut off their own circulation and it will die.
But in other storm, further south, the TLN Charlie as we call it, the next storm to the southwest will develop, and then all of a sudden, somewhere after dark, these storms will all line up. They will all connect to each other, and the tornado potential will go down significantly.
But right now, there are three big red circles, one, two, three. Those are circulating super cells. They are not attached to each other. So any one of those cells could rotate and put a tornado down. We know the northern one right now still happen that tornado on the ground.
LEMON: Chad Myers, can you stand by and just a moment here. I'll get back to you, I promise. I want to go to Jason McLaughlin. He's a storm chaser in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Jason, what are you seeing right now?
Do we have Jason? Jason, are you there?
JASON MCLAUGHLIN, STORM CHASER (via telephone): Yes, I am.
LEMON: Jason -- Don Lemon here at CNN, what are you seeing?
MCLAUGHLIN: Let me (INAUDIBLE) this window up so we can hear each other a little bit. LEMON: Yes.
MCLAUGHLIN: OK.
LEMON: Again, as we talk to Jason, this is unfolding, you're watching it happen just as we are, and we understand in weather situations there can be issues with, technical issues in hearing people, getting pictures up.
I want to go back to Jason now. Jason, a storm chaser, what are you seeing and hearing there?
MCLAUGHLIN: I have now -- I'm south of the circulation. I can no longer see it. It's still on the ground. I'm trying to reposition.
But there was just roughly a half mile wide and that touched down. It stayed on the ground for as long as I could see it, which was around 10 to 15 minutes, and it was very near the community of Carney right now.
I'm back south of it trying to get back into this, but when the first tornado touched down, it touched down near Edmond and there was home damage occurring right underneath it and just a lot of debris up there.
LEMON: And now, as you're repositioning, how far away do you think you are from it? How close were you to it when it was happening?
MCLAUGHLIN: I was close. I was within a mile, of the half-mile wide tornado. It was just to my north. I'd say right now, I'm probably good six to seven miles south-southeast of it, just trying to get back so I can get back into position and warn the people as it seems to move eastward towards the Tulsa area later on.
LEMON: All right. Jason, be safe and stand by.
I want to go to Chad Myers now.
Chad, we can see a little more clearly this picture. Look at the size of this thing now as it is --
MYERS: Yes. It's a little difficult, Don. I cannot see rows on the ground to know how large that tornado is, but clearly now, if you zoom into it, it looks a lot larger.
What you'll notice, I'm seeing little pieces of debris in the sky rotating around the tornado. So, we know it is certainly in contact with the ground. You're in the town of Carney or anywhere neither northeast of Carney, take every precaution you can. Put on the helmets, your motorcycle helmet. Get underneath anything strong, underneath the stairwell.
Most homes are on slabs. They don't have basements. They just don't. It's so very difficult to build a basement. You literally need to use dynamite. So, most are just on a slab concrete. Get as low as you can on that slab in the middle of your home. Put as many walls between you and the outside as possible.
LEMON: Yes.
MYERS: An outside wall, an inside wall, maybe a closet wall, that makes three. Those are fantastic ways to stay safe.
When you notice a tornado-damaged home, make one or two walls standing. You want to be inside one of those two walls. Now, you see here on this picture here from KOCO, the circulation is still on the ground, not that stovepipe, not wedge on the ground.
So, I will still say, Don, you're talking winds in excess of 130, 140 miles per hour, as a meteorologist points out, that little piece of debris still flying in the sky.
LEMON: Chad, stand by, because if I was at home just watching this, it might be a little bit confused why the words are not going with the person on the screen. It should say "voice of Chad Myers", our meteorologist on the air. Chad's talking. This is a meteorologist from KOCO in Oklahoma and he is on the air reporting live.
And the big thing, the swirling thing that he's doing, that is a tornado that has touched down near Wellston there, and in Oklahoma. And this -- this is just east now, just getting new positions. Just east now of Carney in Oklahoma.
Chad Myers, continue.
MYERS: That's right. And we also are going to see this storm continue to cycle on and off. So, even though you may not see a tornado on the ground now, that doesn't mean it's not circulation in contact with the ground proper. There just may not be the funnel all the way to the ground.
The funnel is really just debris that is pictured up by the tornado itself. Whether it's dust, wheat, any kind of brasses or shingles what we begin to see as it touches the ground.
This is cycling on and off, up and down and this is going to continue for quite some time.
I just want you to know, Oklahoma City is in no danger at this point from this storm, but there are more storms back out to the west of this storm, back toward some of these more populated areas we still have to worry about, Don.
LEMON: All right. Chad Myers, I want you stand by. I want to tell our viewers that we have you covered. We have got Chad Myers, our meteorologist, he's here in Atlanta.
We also our affiliates there, a number of affiliates. You see one on the air, reporting live in KOCO. They've got you covered as well, they've got our backs we've got yours and we're watching for you. And our meteorologist here in-house, Jennifer Delgado, with new information now on this, on the path of these tornadoes in the system.
What do you have for us, Jennifer?
DELGADO: Hey, Don.
You know, I want to update everybody. We do that these tornado warnings that we're watching and we're looking at in parts of Oklahoma, this is going to last until 5:30. We're talking Central Time.
Now, since the last hour, a lot of these have changed over from the tornado warnings now to thunderstorm warnings. This is some new development.
As Chad just said for Oklahoma City, yes. You can start to relax a bit, because we're looking at severe thunderstorms right now, but no warning indicating tornadoes. That's good.
But the area that we're watching to the north, west of Chandler, that is still an area we're looking at with a tornado warning. We're seeing those tornado signatures spinning around there. So, that threat is going to continue but we are starting to see some weakening on the radar, as we track this for you.
It's going to be into Avery, right around 5:49, still in the 6:00 hour, as Chad mentioned as well, we are going to see this lining up and we're going to start to see some of that threat diminishing as we go into the late evening and overnight hours.
LEMON: We hope so. We hope it diminishes.
DELGADO: It will/
LEMON: But you never know and we will continue to watch it. Meteorologist Jennifer Delgado, our meteorologist Chad Myers, also joining us here, we have storm chasers out, we heard from Jason McLaughlin in the area early, and our affiliates that are there on the ground. If any of our viewers are in danger, we're on the air for you. So, make sure you stay tuned.
Much, much more on this super cell that it's making a way -- making its way across a big part of our country right now. Those are the live picture, and we saw a huge tornado touching down just moments ago, live here on CNN.
We'll also have this -- some are saying that this past week was one of the worst of President Obama's term. Has he lost support of Americans in the process?
And meantime, he and the first lady speaking to college graduates this week. Both had some rather blunt words for tomorrow's leaders. What's the message behind the messages? We'll discuss it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: OK. I cannot tell you how serious this is, and you have to listen to us, because if you're anywhere in the Oklahoma area, anywhere in Oklahoma, I don't care where you are, I want you to pay attention, because you are potentially in imminent danger right now from a super cell of tornadoes.
As a matter of fact, there is a new tornado warning out now, our meteorologist Jennifer Delgado with the latest for you.
DELGADO: That's right, Don. We just talked about this over the last maybe five minutes ago. Now, we're seeing, here is Norman, Oklahoma.
We do have a new tornado warning in place, keep in mind, this area is highly populated. This is more than 100,000 people here. Now, what we're going to continue to see as this tornado warning is in place until 5:45.
There is our rotation. There is the area that's under the tornado warning. You can see it for yourself. That includes Norman, as well as into Moore, and as well as into New Castle.
Now, we've seen numerous tornado warnings popping out throughout the evening and we'll continue to see that as we go through the next couple of hours. But the problem is, when these storms go through, and this one is moving roughly at about 35 miles per hour, these are potentially dangerous, of course. They cause widespread destruction.
We've seen video coming in out of Oklahoma, from KFOR, as well as in KOCO, and we've seen some of the damage that's been happening of these very large, wedge tornadoes, that's rain-wrapped.
As we track this for you, I want to point out, for 5:34, now keep in mind, this storm that's producing this tornado that was indicated on radar could be in Norman by 5:34, Hall Park, as well as 5:48, as well as into Franklin.
Now, as I said to you, that tornado warning in place until 5:50 local time. Now, as we advance a little more for you. And we've been talking, following things on radar, roughly about how it's rotating and then the direction. And as we zoom in a bit more for you, and if you remember Chad talked about this earlier, how he said we're going to see the cells going through the evening hours.
And then as we get later into the evening and the morning, we're going to start to see a line and then the tornado threat starting to diminish. But as I put this into motion for you and we start it off by 5:00 a.m. and as we go through the morning, we're still talking about a severe weather threat as we go through tomorrow, as well as even into Tuesday.
Anywhere you're seeing it in red, this is the area from Texas, all the way up towards Minnesota. These are areas right now that are now dealing with tornado watches. These are going to last until 11:00, and that why I said to you, once we get late into the evening, as well as into the overnight, we start to see the storms losing punch, that's when we start to see things improving but it's going to be long time before we start to get this whole system out of here -- Don.
LEMON: And until everybody is out of danger, we will continue to follow this.
DELGADO: Yes, we want to make sure you're protecting yourself. Right.
So, Jennifer, stand by.
We're all over the situation happening in Oklahoma, a huge storm cell, a huge cell of winds and rain --
DELGADO: Large wedge tornado.
LEMON: -- and tornadoes are making its way across the country. Our Jennifer Delgado all over it, CNN as well.
New pictures, I'm just being told by producers, we're getting it new pictures in. Let's stand by. Be patient. We'll get them back. There we go.
These are new pictures of damage, Jennifer.
DELGADO: We saw the video earlier of some of the power lines popping. And we saw that debris and we talked about this earlier. How we could see debris when it shows up on radar.
And this is proof right here that these storms moved through and potentially could cause this same type of damage through parts of Norman, Oklahoma, that we just saw that video coming in.
Not exactly sure where that was out of, Don. Maybe you might have more information and we saw the video of the damage of the homes. But this is a reality that happens through tornado alley and we saw scenes and reports like this earlier coming out of Kansas as well.
This is going to continue.
LEMON: I would venture to guess, I don't know exactly where it is, but I'm going to venture to guess. It's where we saw the tornado earlier.
DELGADO: Oklahoma City.
LEMON: Yes.
And you can see, this is from our affiliate, KFOR. This is near Carney and this is what happens. Just listen, just as a matter of 30 to 40 minutes ago.
DELGADO: Yes, absolutely.
LEMON: This place was completely intact and people were going about their lives.
DELGADO: Their day, they're going about their day. LEMON: And, all of a sudden, here you go. This is what happens to your property when a tornado comes through. It doesn't get anymore real than this.
Look at the tops of those trees, sheared off, the roofs of the homes completely gone.
And what's left of their belongings, what's left of their belongings, maybe theirs are at the neighbors or mile as way stuck on trees, stuck on power lines, and we saw people walking in this area just to the left of that a moment ago, and -- Jennifer, stand by.
Chad Myers, it's sad to see this happening, but, again, these are people's lives, and this is what's left of what they own -- Chad Myers.
MYERS: Yes. What you're seeing it, you're seeing damage created by an EF-3 or EF-4 tornado. An EF-2 take the shingles off the house, maybe a couple of 4x8 chips of plywood from the roof. But this roof has completely gone. So, that's -- we're talking 140 to 170 mile-per- hour storm at this point in time, tearing these trees apart as well, just taking tops of the trees, and spinning them completely off.
And I ventured a guess that this is, of course, what we talk about, going through Carney and then Fallis, and back towards the southwest where it came from. It is still moving to the northeast. It is still moving towards Agra. If you're in the Agra area, this is going to be a difficult storm to see.
I do not want you out there looking for the storm. It is wrapped in rain as we go.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: You will not be able to see the tornado as well. Go ahead, Don.
LEMON: Let me stop you. I just got guidance from the producers, we're hearing from our affiliates that this is Wellston. But that's what we're hearing.
MYERS: Well, just north of Wellston, OK.
LEMO: Yes, go ahead, Chad. Sorry about that.
MYERS: This was the same parent cell. And, you know, we talked about this tornado system we had in Texas on -- on Wednesday. And there were 16 tornadoes, that's pretty amazing.
Really, Don, there was probably only four storms kind of skipping tornadoes up and down. So, maybe four tornadoes per storm but four parent storms. The parent storm, the parent super cell here is the one that did, of course, I believe the one that did damage onward toward Carney and onward now towards Agra, and it will continue towards the Northeast although wrapped in rain. I want you to pay attention and look more at the storm to the south and more in New Castle and into Norman. Because this is now where more people are actually located, many more families, many more homes. It is not an EF-3, 4 tornado right now going through that area but it's just still developing, still getting stronger. We should go to Jennifer with that.
LEMON: Yes.
Jennifer has been talking about the path of this. And, Jennifer, we have been saying it's going to weaken over time, but it's certainly not the end of this. And, listen, this is what -- these people are going to wake up to see the sun is about to go down and now they're standing out looking at their property, or their neighbor's property, whatever it is, and this is just heartbreaking to see.
DELGADO: Absolutely. You know, we are looking at that video. People walking around surveying what's left of their homes there.
You know, Don, we talk about this all the time, don. If you have a basement, yes, you want to get to the basement. You don't want to be near the windows.
Of course, when the storms come through, they blow out the glass. You can, of course, suffer more injuries when you're not in an interior part of your home. And again, we're looking at video coming in. You're seeing those roofs ripped off.
And as Chad just said, you know, he is an expert at this. He says looks like potentially an EF-3, much like what we just saw coming out of areas just to the south of Dallas just late last week when we had EF-3 as well as EF-4. Now keep in mind, when we get to EF-4, you're talking about winds 200 miles per hour.
Now as we go back over, and as Chad said to you, we want to talk a bit more about the storm. Again tornado warning --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Hey, Jennifer.
DELGADO: Yes.
LEMON: I want to stay on these pictures as long as you can before we talk about the path.
DELGADO: OK.
LEMON: And so let's talk about again, according to our affiliates, this is Wellston.
DELGADO: Wellston, uh-huh.
LEMON: And look at this. Look at the trees you saw. If you want to know what -- what it looks like in your attic, you just saw it.
DELGADO: Right.
LEMON: With the air conditioning and the cooling vents just completely exposed there, and this is what happened --
DELGADO: Trees down.
LEMON: As this thing really run rushed over this neighborhood. People already there with backhoes trying to clean up some of this mess off of the streets. This structure, whatever it is, who knows. It could be new construction, I'm not sure. Whatever it is, it's completely flattened. And you could see now the insulation from the homes.
And this is -- these are matchsticks from structures that once stood no more than 40 minutes to an hour ago. And it looks like he's trying to clear the roads possibly but probably for people to get back into their neighborhoods and for emergency workers to come in. But you can see what happens with a tornado as it comes through. And you guys know more about this. It can skip over a neighbor's home, or the house next door to yours and they will have zero damage, and your house will be completely demolished -- Jennifer.
DELGADO: Right. Yes, absolutely. You know that's right. When you see these storms picking up and tracking -- picking up, they can skip over homes. Now what we're seeing in that video of the damage there, of course, we're seeing widespread trees down. A lot of times you can almost see the direction when you see those trees down with the storm came through.
Now you're looking at video there. We want to take you over, we do know that this is confirmed tornado, as we come back over to our graphic, we're looking at, Don, and hopefully you can see this. We're looking at two areas. To the right of your screen and to the bottom left. This is our velocity. And what we can see, there it is, there is our tornado. This is Norman. Now keep in mind, now, red. That's when you're looking at the different directions. Red away, green towards.
This is an area of indication that shows us where we have rotation on the ground. Now, as we go back over to our graphic here and, as you said, we want to track about how the storm is going to potentially affect more people, and the direction of it, and you're looking at some of the meteorologist there in Oklahoma and they're just really just kind of pinpointing all that damage there. Now keep in mind, we're still not out of the threat yet.
This is going to last until 5:45. Now keep in mind the storm is moving to the east at roughly about 30 miles per hour. Much slower than the last one we saw near the Oklahoma City area. But 110,000 people are in danger of this storm and then Norman, as Chad just said, he's very familiar with the area. These are highly populated areas. Right up and down Interstate 35. So we're still looking at the threat of this storm as we go through.
LEMON: Hey, Jennifer.
DELGADO: The next couple of minutes. Uh-huh?
LEMON: I want to listen in to KOCO, KOCO.
DELGADO: Absolutely. Let's go to the video.
LEMON: Because they know that area better than we do. Let's listen in for a moment, guys.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: There's part of a roof that's just completely gone. It looks like that's more of a business with aluminum on the siding there. But you know, that home was completely destroyed. I'm going to say this. This tornado is still significant. It is still a tornado warning on, and this thing is headed towards the Cushing and Drumright areas of Payne County, and on the western sides of Creek County. So, I mean, you look at that damage, Damon, just a tremendous tornado.
Real quickly on the Norman tornado, I have not seen that circulation tighten up as -- very tightly, but this is now crossing I-35. You see the stream on the right-hand side right now, going to have to keep a real close eye, downtown Norman, including the University of Oklahoma.
(BEGIN LIVE FEED)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Absolutely, yes. So you can see the damage on the right, and this is the damage that came in from Lincoln County there. That was a tornado that went through Carney. Unbelievable. And then we're really focusing our attention right now on what's going on right now in Norman.
And looking at the right-hand side there, you can see that's Jimmy -- Jimmy's stream right there. And that looks like he's certainly having what appears to be a wall cloud that's coming down here. If we can go full, Jimmy's shot, and put this on the right-hand side here because I want to focus on what's moving into Norman and that appears to be a wall cloud that is beginning to -- beginning to develop here.
So we are getting a -- we are continuing to see this rotation. We'll be right over I-35 here. It looks like we're probably going to see a little mini areas of circulation here, but it looks like right now --
(END LIVE FEED)
LEMON: OK. You saw that damage. That damage was in Carney. We saw the damage from Wellston earlier. The damage you just saw on your screen now is from Carney. And it look like it was hit severely. Severely hit by this tornado that touched down there.
Chad Myers on the other side of the break. We'll survey the damage and find out where this system is headed to next with Chad Myers and Jennifer Delgado. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK, everyone. Don Lemon, live here at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. These pictures speak for itself, of the horror and damage that happened in Oklahoma and that continues to happen right now. And what you're looking at sadly, now live, people who are arriving back to their homes near Carney, Oklahoma, to see that most of it, much of their homes, are completely gone.
We don't know the extent of injuries, if any. If there are any deaths. We certainly hope and pray that there aren't any and you can only imagine, if you are nowhere near this, you can only imagine what these folks are dealing with now. New Carney, Oklahoma, 5:38 p.m. Central time.
And they are coming home to structures -- we shouldn't just say structures. It's such a clinical word. To places that they've lived and where they have memories, and where they've spent Christmases and Thanksgivings, and holidays, graduation parties. And now this is what's left of all of that. Nothing but the memories.
This is New Carney, Oklahoma. We're also getting pictures from some severe damage in Wellston as well. Our storm chaser has been following all of this. And he has seen the damage in Wellston. He has seen the damage in Carney. And he is still chasing that system across Oklahoma. His name is Jason McLaughlin and he joins us now.
Jason, this is horrendous.
Do we -- do we have Jason?
MCLAUGHLIN: Hey, I can hear you now. I'm sorry. I can barely hear you.
LEMON: Jason, this is horrendous.
MCLAUGHLIN: Yes, it is. This is just a very long -- very long track, violent tornado that still appears to be on the ground. I'm trying to reposition myself back in front of this a little bit. I'm actually approaching the west side of Tulsa. Obviously, a major metropolitan area, a potential tornado could be headed there shortly.
LEMON: So as you were chasing this, Jason, and you, starting with Wellston, and we saw what happened there, describe what you were seeing, as were you going through, from Wellston to Carney? I believe Wellston was hit first, right, and then Carney?
MCLAUGHLIN: I didn't head in that direction. I went ahead and stayed out of that damage path so I could try to reposition myself, but you could just see the destruction that was happening underneath the tornado. It was moving across. I mean, there was -- there was debris that was being thrown up in the air. That was wrapping around the entire circulation which was very large.
I mean it was at least half mile wide, and it probably could have been larger. It was kind of absorbed by the environment that was around it.
LEMON: And you are out of harm's way now, we certainly hope, because you were -- you put yourself in this danger so that we can get an idea of what happens with these storms and really for research as well. It's not just the thrill of being a storm chaser. This helps every single time for us to get better at getting people out of harm's way and responding to these situations.
How far are you from activity now? Do you know?
MCLAUGHLIN: I'm actually southeast of the storm now. I've got radar pulled up. I'd say it's roughly 15 minutes. I'm heading towards a community called Van Ford which is out about 15 miles west of Tulsa which the tornado will probably come pretty close to. I've said about the chasers, I mean, we're out here to try to save lives. We give a lot of warning. I mean, there was a good 20 to 30-minute head-up warning before the first tornado actually touched down and began doing the damage.
So definitely saving lives and hopefully know as much as we do it, it still happens sometimes. We still lose property and lives. So hopefully we can try to stay away from that as much as possible throughout the rest of the evening.
LEMON: Yes, Jason, we want you to be safe. So stand by. And if you position yourself and you get any closer, we'll come back to you.
Do we have our Chad Myers there? Is Chad there?
MYERS: I'm here, Don. I'm here.
LEMON: Chad, look at this. I mean, it's just -- it's unfathomable. I mean I know we cover these stories all the time, but just from moment to moment to moment, it's just -- it's just amazing how quickly your life can change, and then here it is on your screen.
MYERS: Let me just put it in perspective for people who have never lived in tornado alley. And here's what I see. I see people bond. I don't see search and rescue. I don't see ambulances. No panic. I don't see people digging through rubble for loved ones. And you can put all of this back together, but you can't put lives that are harmed back together. And it's -- the fact that I don't see panic in anything here. I don't see -- I don't see people scrambling or returning. They're probably walking and understand that this is -- well, they don't -- it doesn't happen to you, but it happens every single spring in Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and any part of tornado alley including Texas.
But the fact that I don't see rescue squads trying to recover people is the best thing that I can see on all of these pictures.
LEMON: Yes. And, Chad, these are new live pictures that we're getting now. This is from KFOR, and I don't know what this is of. Imagine it's a home. It's a pretty large -- it's not a home. Well, maybe it is. I'm not sure. And I don't know the exact location, but it's a rather large home, or a business, and the roof, you can see there has been damaged tremendously. And those are the folks who were standing outside of their now surveying the damage.
And I think it's really important what you said that you don't see chaos and you don't see people searching through the rubble, and that's a good indication. Correct? Chad?
MYERS: It is. It is. There was enough -- and Jason talked about this. The storm chaser you just talked about. How much preparation, how much time was between when the warning went out and there was the hit. Everyone knew it was coming. If you're there, you hear sirens, there are sirens everywhere. Sometimes you get in cities around other parts of the country, you don't even know what's coming. You don't hear sirens, you don't have radio, TV on. The people of Oklahoma, when you have a day like today, they knew it was coming.
They either got out of the way, they got underground if they could, or they just (INAUDIBLE). I'm sure. And just a little big ago, this might have been two or three minutes ago, I saw a picture of a two- story home, Don, and the second story was almost completely gone.
LEMON: Right.
MYERS: But the bottom story was still intact. I mean, why we seek to the lowest level. The higher level get into the higher winds. So you don't want to be upstairs. If you live in an apartment complex, let's say Norman, we're in New Castle, whenever these other warnings may be going off tonight, find your neighbor on the first floor. Knock on the door, and say, may I please come in? I'm on the third floor. It's not safe up there. That's what you have to do to stay safe and to stay alive.
LEMON: All right. Chad Myers, thank you. Don't go anywhere.
We're going to have our meteorologists Chad Myers, Jennifer Delgado, Jason McLaughlin, out there.
That is a panel truck and a motor home, and they have just been tossed aside, like something just came and pushed them over, obviously. A tornado winds did, as if they were nothing. That they weighed nothing, and there you go. And that is just a small extent of the damage. We're going to continue to follow this until everyone is out of harm's way. Look at that. A super cell, making its way across Oklahoma.
Our weather team on top of it. CNN severe weather center on top of it. We'll have live coverage for you.
In the meantime, there is other news happening. We will get back to that but there's other news happening.
Despite all the recent controversies, the Obama administration, the president's job approval numbers are holding steady even showing a slight increase. And according to a new CNN/ORC poll, 53 percent of Americans approve of the job the president is doing, 45 percent, however, disapprove.
The survey was conducted Friday and Saturday, and CNN's last poll in April, the president's approval rating was at 51 percent, 51 percent, in April, when we last checked. Well, this comes on the heels of what could be the worst week of the Obama presidency. The IRS scandal. The Benghazi e-mail, the Justice Department secretly seizing phone records from the Associated Press.
The White House is juggling three different controversies right now.
We want to go to Rene Marsh. She's in Washington.
Rene, the White House is on the defense. Yet President Obama's job approval numbers are on the upswing. So how is the White House reacting today?
RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Don. You know, that 53 percent approval rating is welcome news for the president, but it is so clear that the White House is ready to move on. The president's senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer, appearing on all five Sunday talk shows, saying that they won't be distracted from the important issues, like jobs, and they won't participate in, quote, "partisan fishing expeditions."
Now, on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" Pfeiffer said that even though top Treasury officials were aware of the IRS investigations last year before the election, the White House did not know until a few weeks ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN PFEIFFER, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER: Here's the cardinal rule when you have situations like these. Not for -- just for this White House but for all White Houses, is you do not interfere in an independent investigation and you do not do anything to get off the appearance of interference in an independent investigation.
CANDY CROWLEY, HOST, CNN'S STATE OF THE UNION: But the Treasury Department knew.
PFEIFFER: As they should, because they oversee the IRS.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARSH: All right. And the majority of Americans say that what the IRS did was unacceptable, but the majority of them, 55 percent, also believe the IRS acted on its own when they targeted conservative groups. But the president did not do so well when it came to Benghazi. The majority said that they were dissatisfied with the way he handled the attack in Libya -- Don.
LEMON: OK. Before you go, I've got to ask you this question quickly, Rene. Some Democrats saying Republicans are playing politics with these controversies. Are these scandals translated to a political gain or loss for Republicans?
MARSH: Well, according to our poll, it indicates that more than 50 percent of those questions say that Republicans are actually not overreacting, and they are actually justified in taking action concerning both the IRS scandal as well as Benghazi, but, Don, the administration already working to shift the focus back to issues like immigration and jobs. But we should let you know, this scandal not going anywhere anytime soon. Top IRS officials involved, they will be testifying again on Capitol Hill this week -- Don.
LEMON: Rene, thank you so much. We appreciate that.
It is common for commencement speakers to challenge college graduates, to inspire them. But the words this week from President Obama and the first lady have been pretty strong. Even blunt. Have you been listening to them? Have you listened?
We're talking about the message behind the message, next.
And we're going back to tornado alley here on CNN because we want to make sure everyone is out of harm's way and we want to see how people are dealing with this huge super cell that's moving through Oklahoma right now. The pictures are incredible. The damage is tremendous.
We're live with it, right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK. Back now to our coverage here on CNN. The breaking news is happening in Oklahoma. And you see the damage, as I said the damage severe and it is devastating for the people there.
These are pictures that were taken from our affiliate KOCO and our affiliate KFOR earlier. And not that much earlier ago because keep in mind this happened just before 5:00 p.m. Eastern, 4:00 p.m. Central Time there. And you can just see this is really unbelievable to watch right after many times, many times these things happen in the darkness of night, in the dark of night and then we don't see it until morning light.
And now we are seeing it in full force right now. We'll get back to that if there are anymore watches or warnings or anything to update you on. Keep it right here. We'll get -- get it for you right here on CNN.
In the meantime, let's move on now and talk about -- this is supposed to be a season of inspiration. It's graduation season across the country. It means lots of speeches. And the president and the first lady have been delivering some straight talk the past couple of days. The president braved a thunderstorm to address the Morehouse College class right here in Atlanta, Class 2013 today.
We're going to let you hear some of those remarks in just a moment so you're going to hear that. But First Lady Michelle Obama spoke Friday at Buoy State in Maryland. She was very blunt. She had some very blunt advice for her audience and the rest of us. And we have gathered three of our favorites to listen to their remarks and give us their reactions.
First up is Ana Navarro and L.Z. Granderson. They are CNN analysts and Ana is a Republican strategist, L.Z. is senior writer for ESPN. You know their story. You watch them here every weekend on CNN and other platforms here as well.
Terence Moore is here with me as well. He's a longtime writer and columnist. He's also a sports contributor to CNN.com.
So I want to start, and the first lady's comments, everyone, struck many people and some of the first lady's remarks at Buoy State. A historically black college in Maryland. Here's one that got everybody talking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: As my husband has said often, please stand up and reject the slander that says a black child with a book is trying to act white. Reject that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: You write about that all the time as a columnist.
TERENCE MOORE, CNN.COM SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR: That's exactly right. You know, but that's been going on for years, Don. I mean, this is nothing new. You know years ago --
LEMON: But I don't think we've heard the first lady and the president be that blunt. Is it because it's not an election year anymore?
MOORE: Yes. You know and -- I'll use a sports analogy. Barack Obama was Jackie Robinson in 1947. OK. The first year, you got to hold back, OK? Now it's not 1947 anymore. He can say what he really wants to say. Right? One thing about specifically about what they said, I mean, that's been going on forever, where in the black community a lot of people who spoke -- have who spoken very well, they're considered to be kind of white in the way that they approach things. OK? And we've always had to get over that.
LEMON: OK. I mean, listen, guys, we don't have as much time with this, we have some breaking news and that's obvious.
Just so quickly, L.Z., how did that comment sit with you? Was -- were you offended by it? Or is it the first lady telling the truth here?
L.Z. GRANDERSON, SENIOR WRITER, ESPN: First lady is telling the truth, and you know, Terence is absolutely right. It's the conversation we've been having in this community for a long time. It's a conversation that every minority community has. It isn't unique to the American community. There are many immigrants who are having this conversation about how do you succeed in this country while still maintaining your own individual culture which is important?
And how do you achieve at a high level without making it appear as if you're leaving those that you come from behind? As a parent, I constantly struggle. Do I send my child to a predominantly white private school or do I send them to a school in the neighborhood which is more diverse but may not be as good?
Do I want my son to grow up to know what it means to be black? What does it mean? It's an ongoing conversation. I think she was absolutely right and smart to bring it up. LEMON: Yes. And you're there in Chicago. And as I understand, you're relocating to Chicago and you will have to consider that with your child.
GRANDERSON: Yes.
LEMON: And we know the situation that is happening in Chicago right now with the schools and with violence.
Ana Navarro, you heard what L.Z. said. He says, you know, it's not just black kids, that perception with black kids. Hispanic kids as well. You know, you're acting white because you speak properly and you read.
ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: And I think a lot of it is economic. I think it happens even in poor white communities. Certainly it happens in Hispanic communities. And, you knows, Don, I spent some time with Michelle Obama. I've met her several times. Spent some time with her when her husband was a candidate. This is a very authentic woman. A very grounded woman. And a very blunt speaking woman.
LEMON: Yes.
NAVARRO: This is how she's been her entire life. This is the way I've known her. I've heard her tell the story about her father many times. And I think there's something to be said for the way she said it, for to who she was saying it. This was a necessary wake-up call, tough talk, straight talk. We can't forget what some of our forefathers and foremothers have done to open doors for us.
LEMON: Right. Right.
NAVARRO: You know, there's four minority right now on TV because people came ahead of us and broke glass ceilings and were pioneers. That's --
LEMON: And --
NAVARRO: That school means so much and also where President Obama spoke. So she could not not say what she said, particularly where she was saying it, and to whom she was saying it and because of who she is.
LEMON: And she was -- and she's right. She said, listen, one in three African-American students are dropping out of high school. Only one in five African-Americans between the ages of 25 and 29 has gotten a college degree.
We're going to talk about this conversation more on the other side of the break. Don't go anywhere.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK. Breaking news here on CNN. There's been some horrendous damage in Oklahoma. Just before the break, I promised you that we'd have more on the president and the first lady's talks. We don't have time for that right now because this is such a severe situation.
I'm Don Lemon. I'm very close to the top of the hour. About 20 seconds away. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. And I want to get you up to speed on what's happening right now.
Tornadoes are raking across Oklahoma right now. Warnings are sounding in the Normand and Oklahoma City areas. And more than one tornado has already touched ground just in the past few minutes.
Again, it's the top of the hour. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. This is our breaking news coverage. We're seeing huge trees that are stripped bare. Houses torn from their foundations. And a wide path of complete destruction in the area around Oklahoma City.
