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Picking up the Pieces in Oklahoma; Pushing for School with Storm Shelters; Boston Bomber Linked to Gruesome Triple Homicide; Killed U.K. Soldier ID'd as Lee Rigby; Hero Teacher Saves Lives; What to Do in a Storm

Aired May 23, 2013 - 12:00   ET

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

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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You're looking at images of Moore, Oklahoma. It has been three days now since the deadly tornado ripped through this area. Extraordinary to see the damage that it has brought.

I'm Anderson Cooper, live, with special coverage from Moore, Oklahoma.

This battered town is being slammed again. It is a miserable day here. Heavy rain today is hampering recovery efforts. Lightning and thunder. Authorities warn that strong winds could send tornado debris flying through the air. This comes as people here start the painful task of burying 24 of their own, including 10 children killed in Monday's tornado; 9-year-old Antonia Candelaria is being buried first. Her funeral is underway.

Her obituary says that Antonia "always danced, not walked, to the beat of her own drum." She and six other students were killed when the twister demolished Plaza Towers Elementary School.

Today is the last day of school in this district. The assistant superintendent says they will go ahead with graduation ceremonies on Saturday.

ROBERT ROMINES, ASSISTANT SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT, MOORE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: It's the beginning of a healing process. And this community needs to begin that healing process. And we're going to do that and do the best we can and make sure that our students are all taken care of.

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COOPER: The scope of the devastation here, it's hard to really get your hands around it. The mayor of Oklahoma City says the tornado damaged or demolished at least 12,000 homes.

A children's book found in the rubble captures what many people are feeling right now, it reads "I remember my old house, its rooms so bright and wide, its halls will echo for all time with the laughter heard inside."

George Howell has been talking with people who are just beginning to pick up the pieces of their homes and their lives.

Where are you now, George?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, we're right here in front of City Hall at Moore -- in Moore. And here's the thing: here in the next hour, we're expecting to get another news conference to get more information on where we are with this recovery.

So far here's what we know. We know that 353 people were injured in this situation. We also know that 22,200 people applied for FEMA assistance. And we know of the six people who were missing, those six people are all accounted for.

And at this point, Anderson, as you mentioned, yes, I thought the rain had passed and then we got hit again. So the rain comes and goes. There is flooding in different parts of Oklahoma City. That's only adding to the problem because, again, you have got all of the debris all over the place, you have got nails sticking up. It's a mess out there.

That's what people are having to deal with as they start to get back into these communities, get back to their homes and decide whether they can even, you know, repair those homes.

COOPER: We're seeing some of the video. We saw this really starting yesterday in earnest, just hundreds of people, volunteers who'd come out from all surrounding areas with rakes and brooms and all sorts of things, bags to clean up, start cleaning up.

How long is the cleanup expected to take? Do they have an estimate?

HOWELL: It's hard to guess. You know, because when you get out into these neighborhoods and you see the damage, clearly this could take months. It could take several months before people can, first of all, remove all the debris and then start that process of rebuilding their homes.

We do know that people are finding shelter in many different places. And it will be a long-term sort of situation because they can't go back into those neighborhoods. It's going to take some time.

COOPER: George Howell reporting from Moore. George, thanks very much.

We're going to check in with George throughout the day. He's at the City Hall.

Of the 10 kids killed in the tornado, seven were inside the Plaza Towers Elementary School. You know that the school hit a -- took a district hit. The tragedy's raised questions about why that school and others did not have tornado shelters.

Pamela Brown joins us with more on that part of the story. There is a new push and a lot of folks around here would like to see more schools with tornado shelters. PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're seeing a big push from politicians, from parents, from residents here, not only in Moore but throughout the state. A politician, a state lawmaker is saying he wants to push for legislation to make it a requirement in the state.

There's an online petition started by a resident with 6,000 signatures; and, of course, that keeps going up by the minute, making it a requirement as well.

But there are several challenges. After the big tornado in '99 we've been talking about, it was a requirement to have shelters, safe rooms in schools. But it's retrofitting those older schools that presents the big challenge here, Anderson.

We know that FEMA has spent $57 million since '93 putting safe houses and shelters in private and public residences and it's also partnered with the emergency management office in Oklahoma which has installed 100 safe houses.

But there are several challenges especially when it comes to cost. Let's take a listen to what one official had to say.

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ALBERT ASHWOOD, DIRECTOR, OKLAHOMA EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: For the most part the safe rooms that we have funded through this program have -- yes, for the schools -- have been below ground. And they're usually utilized as a band room or a music room, something that's multifunctional that we can actually move kids to in the event of severe weather.

And that's for the most part what we've done. Keep in mind, most of these projects have been anywhere between $600,000 to $1 million, and they've usually all been applied to brand new construction of new schools.

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BROWN: You heard that $600,000 to $1 million, that's not cheap.

And there's other obstacles, Anderson. There's the poor soil, the high water table; it's tough to build on and it can cause leakage and then you have to deal with maintenance fees. So there are several hurdles.

COOPER: The expense, obviously, is a huge one as well.

You've been talking to -- you know, we're learning more and more about people who lost their lives here, and slowly people are starting to talk about their loved ones they've lost. You talked to a parent who lost a child.

BROWN: Yes. We've been talking to parents. We spoke -- yesterday we talked about the rescuer who went to the school and pulled out the deceased children. And they all have strong opinions about this.

The parent, Mikki Dixon Davis (ph), she lost her son, Kyle, at Plaza Towers Elementary School, it's obviously devastating for her.

And she was adamant, she said, look, we have to protect our children. Our children are sacred. There's no excuse for not having shelters for them in the event of a tornado. Let's listen to her.

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MIKKI DIXON DAVIS, MOTHER OF TORNADO VICTIM KYLE DAVIS: I know the schools did what they thought they could do, but with us living in Oklahoma, tornado shelters should be in every school.

It should be -- you know, there should be a place that, if this ever happened again during school, that kids can get to a safe place, that we don't have to sit there and go through rubble and rubble and rubble and may not ever find what we're looking for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And, you know, we've been hearing from a lot of politicians, the mayor, the governor, everyone wants to have these shelters in schools. It's just these challenges that we talked about. And they're realistic about it.

COOPER: Right. I talked to the mayor a couple days ago, he just said, look, the cost s -- it's very expensive and he's not sure there's enough really political will to pass this, to make sure this actually becomes mandatory.

So we'll see if this really does change things.

BROWN: And if the community comes together and donates or how that's going to play into it all. But I do think that in light of what happened, we could see some changes.

COOPER: Yes. All right. We'll continue to follow.

Thanks so much, Pam.

Coming up, the medical center that took the direct hit from the tornado, workers, patients, their families all escaped. Coming up we're going to hear from a hospital manager who helped clear everyone out.

You're also going to hear one woman's story of grief and hope. I spoke to her yesterday. She rode out the storm in the bathroom with her husband. She explained how he was taken by the storm, literally ripped from her arms, and what it was like to live through it all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Felt like I was in a blender.

COOPER: Felt like you were in a blender?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the best way to describe it.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We walked up, and I'm first thinking, oh, my gosh, it's a war zone. That's going through my head. It's a war zone because it's just -- everything is -- homes that you have seen so many times are not there no more. They're destroyed.

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COOPER: But Jodi Ostentowsky (ph) survived by hiding in a shelter. She's just one of the many looking at the rubble that used to be their homes and asking, why me and what do I do next? We're going to try to continue to follow their stories and try to bring as many answers as we can to what's going on here. We're going to get back to all that in a minute.

But first, Suzanne Malveaux has a look at some other news headlines from our CNN NEWSROOM. Suzanne?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Anderson. Been a rocky day on Wall Street. This is a wave of selling that's pushed the Dow down to open this morning. Markets, Japan, Europe, also posting some losses, the sell-off being blamed partly on reports showing manufacturing has slowed in China.

But we're looking at the big board now. A bit of a rebound here, look, up 20 points or so around -- hovering around 15,000.

Another story, there are new clues now, this is this gruesome unsolved triple murder and they are linking now the Boston bombing suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, to that crime.

A federal law enforcement official says that Tsarnaev took part in a triple homicide. This happened in Waltham (ph), Massachusetts back in 2011. The victims' throats were slit from ear to ear; marijuana was spread over their bodies, thousands of dollars were found at the scene.

A source says FBI investigators were told about Tsarnaev's involvement by his Chechen friend, that would be, Ibragim Todashev. Well, the official says that Todashev now confessed to the murders during that interview with the investigators, the confession, he attacked an FBI agent with a knife. The agent then shot and killed him.

We want to get our first look overseas this hour. This is London, a most urgent national terror alert for the British in almost eight years. That's because of this, a brutal killing of a British soldier in daylight in public.

Now, this is what happened yesterday in central London. Two men, who witnesses say did it, are now in jail. Now, British police are working on a motive. They're also worried about more attacks and raising concerns about security at military bases all over the U.K.

Our Nic Robertson, he's in London and he joins us. So, Nic, first of all, I understand there might be an identification of that soldier who was killed and we know more about the potential suspects.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We do. That soldier has now been named by the Minister of Defense, Suzanne. He's been named as Lee Rigby, a 25-year-old soldier; he had a 2-year-old son.

What we've learned here that may be very interesting is that he served in Afghanistan in a fire support group in Helmand province in 2009. Until now, we have not known this soldier's name. The Ministry of Defense wanted to make sure that they could confirm that he was an active duty soldier and wanted to make sure that his family is informed.

Now we know, a 25-year-old soldier who had served in Afghanistan was the young man who was killed here just yesterday.

The two men in custody at the moment under armed guard, at separate hospitals in London; when the police arrived on the scene, the two men tried to attack the police. They were shot, injured, taken to separate hospitals where they remain under guard, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: There has been a lot of talk about the video that was released here and certainly a lot of people reacting to this, that one of the suspects claiming that this was revenge for Muslims; we understand that Muslim community leaders in Britain have spoken out against this.

ROBERTSON: Oh, condemned it outrightly and very swiftly within hours yesterday, condemning it, saying that anyone who acts in this way is not inside Islam, is not a Muslim. They're removing themselves from the religion; this doesn't represent the religion.

And this is something the British prime minister has been following up in his addresses here in this area of London where the attack took place, meeting with community leaders. One of the things he's been stressing is the strength of the community and how this doesn't represent Muslims and the Muslim community in Britain or around the world, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And, Nic, we're getting a photo of the victim from the Ministry of Defense. Tell us what you know about him as we show his picture here.

ROBERTSON: Yes. Lee Rigby, from the north of England, live or came from the town of Halifax in the north of England, 25-year-old man, a 2-year-old son, we understand. Served in Afghanistan in 2009 in Helmand province, operating fire support at a base. Often that would mean manning weapons, potentially artillery weapons, potentially mortars, that sort of thing to support troops in the field.

Those are the details that we're getting so far. As David Cameron, the prime minister, put it earlier on today, he said, we have lost a brave soldier.

Suzanne?

MALVEAUX: It's such a tragic story. Nic, thank you so much. We really appreciate it.

In the United States here, there are now new questions about last month's deadly explosion. You might recall this happened at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas. You see the pictures there. Well, Reuters now reports that a local emergency planning committee was told a year ago that potentially deadly chemicals were stored at that plant, now that because it is required by law. But there is no requirement to train first-responders in how to deal with those chemicals.

Reuters says firefighters in West, Texas, never had any chemical disaster training. And as you recall, 14 people were killed in that fire and explosion, including nine first-responders, about 200 people injured as well.

Coming up next, remarkable -- you're not going to believe this. This is a story about a pregnant woman who was thought to be dead, then gave birth, then brought back to life. Unbelievable. We're going to have that in 15 minutes.

That's it for me now. Back to Anderson Cooper in Moore, Oklahoma. Anderson?

COOPER: Suzanne, thanks very much.

A teacher keeps her class safe during the tornado. Coming up the gripping audio from the moments she kept her kids alive. That story's next.

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UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're OK! You're OK! You're OK! You're OK! You're OK! You're OK! You're OK! You're OK!

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UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're OK! We're OK! We're OK! We're OK! We're OK! We're OK! We're OK! We're OK!

LYNNE BRETON, TEACHER, BRIARWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: I didn't know what to tell them. I just kept telling them we're OK.

My mind, I was praying.

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COOPER: That was Lynne Breton, a teacher from Briarwood Elementary. She's certainly happy to report that all of her kids are OK. Everybody in that school is. She's just one of many people coming forward with heroic stories.

It has been a miserable day here. As you know, there has been rain and thunder and lightning. The skies have now just cleared. It's getting quite warm.

Hopefully, that will get people out to help in some of the recovery efforts that we saw really starting in earnest yesterday.

The principal at Briarwood is going to join me tonight on "AC 360." This is our special coverage from Moore, Oklahoma.

There's a lot to tell you about in this hour. Each day we've been meeting people whose lives have been forever changed by Monday's tornado. Their stories of survival and loss are incredible to hear.

Twenty-four people, as you know, were killed during the storm. Now one was a man named Hemant Bhonde. As the tornado ripped apart his home, the winds tore him out of the arms of his wife.

Hemant was 65-years-old in poor health. His last words were "I love you." His wife, Jerrie, survived the storm, but she was injured.

She was in the hospital. I talked to her and her daughter, Geeta, yesterday in (inaudible) hospital.

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COOPER: Do you remember what happened during the tornado?

JERRIE BHONDE, WIDOW OF HEMANT BHONDE: My husband and I went to our middle room, which is normal in Oklahoma you go to your middle bathroom, you know, where there's no windows or -- and I heard it coming, but I thought, well, it will just take the windows.

I felt like I was in a blender.

COOPER: You felt like you were in a blender.

BHONDE: That's the best way to describe it. The walls just kind of came down on me, and they just kind of swirled.

And I held onto my husband as long as I could. And then he just flew into space.

COOPER: you actually felt him flying away.

BHONDE: Yeah. And I don't know where he went.

COOPER: Were you speaking to each other during the storm?

BHONDE: Yes.

COOPER: What were you saying?

BHONDE: Well, he was telling me how much he loved me. And I said, I love you. And the whole house just went.

COOPER: The whole house all around you?

BHONDE: It's gone. COOPER: Were things hitting you while you were (inaudible)?

BHONDE: Yes. Yes. You see, I mean, I'm cut all over.

COOPER: That's how you got the abrasions on your face?

BHONDE: That's the least of it.

COOPER: And you were saying you feel like your husband flew to heaven.

BHONDE: I do. I have no -- I know he's taken care of.

COOPER: And that gives you peace?

BHONDE: Yes. OK, and I know I'm -- I was left on earth. I have a few broken ribs and a lot of cuts, but I was left on earth because I've still got work to do.

COOPER: How are you doing?

GEETA ROBLES, DAUGHTER OF HEMANT BHONDE: I'm OK. You know, we talked about the outlooks and everything.

And then, you know, very positive. I said, Dad was positive, and he wouldn't want us to be crying.

And right now it's -- you know, now it's staying positive and knowing that the he's in a better place, not in pain anymore and stock exchange in the sky is where he's at probably.

COOPER: Did he like the stock exchange?

ROBLES: He's a big stock market guy.

COOPER: Yes?

ROBLES: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: So many families have suffered such loss here. Jerrie went onto tell me that she will rebuild again with the help of her daughter and her friends and her mom.

The medical center took a direct hit from the tornado. Luckily workers, patients, their families escaped.

Coming up, we're going to hear from a hospital manager who helped clear everyone out and saved everyone.

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COOPER: When did you find out that she'd passed away? JOY WALDROOP, MOTHER OF TORNADO VICTIM: While the EMT guy was over there, she'd been holding onto his pant leg. He was standing next to her, and she had her fingers gripping his pant leg and kept talking to her, and all of a sudden her arm went limp.

And he'd taken -- some military guy had taken his shirt off and had that over her chest to kind of keep her warm and he pulled it up over her face.

Kept telling him she wasn't gone, that she was breathing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: So sad. That's Joy Waldroop. I spoke to her yesterday. She's recovering in the hospital. Her daughter, Shannon Quick, died in front of her in the aftermath of the tornado.

She leaves behind two sons, ages 8 and 13. One of them is still in intensive care, had surgery yesterday. They were all together when the storm hit.

You're watching our special coverage live from Moore, Oklahoma.

People in this town are starting the painful task of burying the 24 people killed by the tornado. A funeral was held today for nine-year- old Antonia Candelaria. She was described as someone who danced, not walked, to the beat of her own drum. She and six other students, as you know, were killed at Plaza Towers Elementary School.

The incoming superintendent to Moore public schools says the two elementary schools destroyed by the EF-5 tornado will be rebuilt.

The weather here is again a problem again today. It's been a miserable day. Storms are hampering recovery efforts. It's sunny right now, but we have seen severe rain, lightning and thunder.

Authorities warm that strong winds could turn debris into projectiles. More bad weather is expected.

Hospitals, as you know, prepare for dealing with emergencies like the one here in Oklahoma, but when this storm hit, the local hospital was in the direct path of the tornado.

Moore Medical Center was ripped apart. None of the patients inside were seriously hurt, which is incredible when you look at those images at the exterior structure of it.

And that's really in large part to the hospital staff rushing to get the patients to safe places.

Nick Stremble is a registered nurse, the emergency department manager for the hospital. He tells us what it was like as the storm approached. He joins us now. It's good to have you here.

NICK STREMBLE, EMBERGENCY DEPARTMENT MANAGER/REGISTERED NURSE: Thank you. COOPER: So as the storm was coming, what did you do?

STREMBLE: Well, we were aware of the storm was on its way. We had somewhere of about 15 to maybe 18 minutes warning. We have a safety officer at one of the locations that's monitoring the weather.

So we had as adequate as we could have warning that something was going to happen. So we had plenty of time to kind of game plan. We had a disaster plan to follow.

So I was able to touch base with all the other nurse managers in the building, the two others and kind of game plan where the patients were going to go and what time we were going to start moving them.

COOPER: So you take them out of the rooms and where do you bring them?

STREMBLE: The first thing to do -- the first thing that I did was, yes, take the emergency department patients that we had at the time out of their rooms and move them to the interior of the hospital.

There are centralized portions of the building that are designated safe zones, so we moved them and got them to the safe zones.

And then after that, I kind of left my charge nurse, Sally (ph), she was in charge there, so I kind of left her with that and then moved on to kind of game plan with the other nurse managers in the upstairs departments on how we were going to get those patients to the safest (inaudible).

COOPER: And I understand at one point people were putting mattresses, blankets over people's heads just to protect them.

STREMBLE: Absolutely. Lots of blankets, I mean, lots of padding, the best that we could do.