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Weather In Moore; Schools To Be Rebuilt; Names Of Storm Victims; Petition Calls For School Shelters; Taking Cover In A Tornado; U.K. Sounds Terror Alarm

Aired May 23, 2013 - 13:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The skies are clear right now, but weather today is taking another swipe at this battered town. Heavy rain and flash floods hampered recovery efforts earlier in the day, plus authorities warn strong winds could turn mountains of debris into projectiles and lightning could put recovery crews at risk.

Officials today raised the number of injuries. They now say 353 people were hurt in Monday's monstrous tornado. Two children are still hospitalized, one in critical condition. Eight adults are also in the hospital at Oklahoma University Medical Center. The two elementary schools destroyed by that EF-5 tornado will be rebuilt, that according to the incoming superintendent of Moore public schools. He says rebuilding is the beginning of the healing process.

We've learned also the names of the 24 people killed by the tornado. The youngest was just four months old. Seven were students at the Plaza Towers Elementary school which took a direct hit from the storm. We know -- we know their names as well and now we're learning more about their lives.

CNN's Kyung Lah talked with the mother of one of the children who died. Kyung is here with me in Moore right now. And incredibly, incredibly sad story. I want you to share it with our viewers.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the reason, Wolf, that she wanted to speak with us, this is the mother of eight-year-old Kyle Davis, she wanted people to know how her son lived, but she also wanted him to know that people need to have discussion about having a self -- safe shelter in public schools in Oklahoma.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIKKI DIXON DAVIS: I was running out the door, and I was, like, I love you, bub. And he's, like, I love you too, mom. And he was laying in my bed watching T.V. and that's the last time I seen him.

LAH (voice-over): What followed, a disaster few can fathom. A mother's nightmare that only the parents of the children at Plaza Towers Elementary can truly understand.

DAVIS: Of course, the closer I got to the school, the harder it was because the houses were pretty much gone. And when I got to the school, I broke down really hard. LAH: Mikki Davis's other child, 11-year-old Caylee (ph), survived by hiding in the girl's bathroom. She walked out running into her mother's arms but still missing eight-year-old Kyle.

DAVIS: You don't know if he's safe, if he's still stuck under all that rubble. Is he -- you know, where is he? You don't -- being a mother, you know, you have to know where your babies are.

LAH: Davis collapsed from the emotional strain at the school, rushed to the E.R., she spent the night curled up with this picture praying until the morning.

DAVIS: And then, I got confirmation that they had him, but he didn't make it. And, you know, you cry and cry and cry and then you feel like you're crying and there's no tears going, but you feel like they're going. I just -- it's just something I never ever thought in my life that we would have to go through.

LAH: Davis wanted to meet here at the soccer field her son loved. He grew up on these fields. He loved being number 16 for the Oak Moore Cosmos white team where they nicknamed him, the wall, for his size and ferocious defense. Holding his favorite ball, wearing the soccer trinkets her son adored, Davis who is divorced, explained three generations of her family stopped by to meet us on the way to planning his funeral.

(on camera): Are you angry at all at anything? Or is it just the overwhelming --

DAVIS: Well, --

LAH: -- sadness that you feel?

DAVIS: I am angry to an extent. I know that 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 VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And, you know, Kyung, so many people have said that they don't understand why, this is tornado alley, there aren't these kinds of shelters in every school, even the older buildings? Why haven't they invested the money to build them?

LAH: And these parents are hoping that that will change. That they felt that this should be the lesson, the teachable moment for the entire state. And they are hoping that that changes.

BLITZER: That little boy seemed like such a wonderful -- I know the mom shared some wonderful stories with you.

LAH: She did. She did say he was going to turn nine next month. BLITZER: (INAUDIBLE.) Kyung, thanks very much for sharing that with our viewers.

The push for storm shelters in all of Oklahoma schools is, in fact, coming from several fronts right now, including from politicians and an online petition. The tragedy the Plaza Towers Elementary school gave the issue a new sense of urgency. Our own John Berman spoke with the assistant school superintendent here in Moore about what happens now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of discussion over the last few days about storm shelters.

ROBERT ROMINES, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT, MOORE PUBLIC SCHOOLS: OK.

BERMAN: The Plaza Towers Elementary school did not have a storm shelter. I had the opportunity to talk to the parents of one of the little girls who died in that school. A lot of the parents right now are saying there should have been a shelter at that school. There needs to be a shelter at that school.

Going forward, would it be something you would support to have storm shelters placed in every school in this community?

ROMINES: Absolutely would support that endeavor. Our hopes is on these two sites, both Briarwood and Plaza Towers, that -- in the rebuilding process that there will be additional dollars there from FEMA to help us with that. Fortunately, I'm the -- in the May 3rd 1999 tornado we sustained severe damage at Westmoore High School, lost another elementary, Kelly Elementary, and FEMA was able -- when we rebuilt those, FEMA was able to attach money to that so that we could put in safe rooms.

BERMAN: I don't know if you're left with older schools that weren't knocked out in this storm here, but would you go through -- would you support going through the older schools and making sure there are shelters there?

ROMINES: We currently do that year by year with our -- with the city of Moore. We've got safety management, crisis management that comes in and tells us exactly where we need to put students in the -- in the safest environment. We will continue to do that. And as funds become available, we will -- we will look at that as well.

BERMAN: But money seems to be the biggest obstacle.

ROMINES: Money is an obstacle. It is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Money well spent if a tornado hits again, that's for sure. And that's not out of the question here in Moore, Oklahoma. This town has been hit by three major tornadoes in the last 14 years. Our meteorologist, Chad Myers, is joining us now from the CNN Center. Chad, building storm shelters would be smart if there's a good chance a tornado will strike again, so what are the chances that that will happen here in Moore?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I don't think there's any question that that now will be priority one. Not only in Moore, but taking a big long look at all the big schools, all the schools in Oklahoma, in Texas, Arkansas, Kansas and Nebraska, even for that matter. Something that can be aboveground because going below ground in Oklahoma's trouble. You have rocks. You have clay. You have water. You have a water table that can fill up with water very quickly in a rain. I had a -- I had a home in Edmond, Oklahoma that didn't have a shelter at all. It was actually knocked off its foundation before I lived in it and then it was rebuilt.

But I think you can actually get aboveground safe rooms. There are enough places in this school that in interior rooms -- this is the school we're talking about, interior rooms are still there. If you put some type of a safe room, these are all the safe rooms we know about so far that have been funded by grants right through the tornado path. There's more. Look at all the safe rooms to the north and to the south but right through the middle not very many. We're talking bulletproof fabric putting -- put over four by eight sheets of plywood, thick sheets of plywood, bolted to the ground with ramps so that the wind goes over the top. Think of almost like making a building that looks like a geodesic dome or something so that the wind blows over it. It's not so much that the tornado picked people up, it's that that pressure of wind pushed the storm down, pushed the walls down.

This is the distribution of tornadoes over the past 60 years across North America and there are tornadoes almost everywhere. I mean, you can see, here's Kansas, here's Nebraska, here's Oklahoma. Right through Central Oklahoma, a big swath. You can hardly see the ground. But there's also a tornado alley over Dixie, all the way up here into parts of Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois. So, maybe a big, long look not only in tornado alley, what we consider tornado alley, but in all the schools across North America. I have an eight-year-old. This was a heartbreaking story for me to watch, to watch children be pulled out of that rubble. I think we need to take care of our kids a little bit better than that -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And especially when you think about all the other money being spent for projects that are not necessarily all that useful all over the country. All right, Chad, thanks.

MYERS: You're welcome.

BLITZER: And this important note to our viewers. To help those affected by this tornado, you can visit Impact Your World on CNN.com. Go to CNN.com, slash, Impact. All sorts of opportunities if you want to help.

We'll have much more coverage from Oklahoma, that's coming up, including an answer to a question we've all been asking this week. Where is the safest place to go when a tornado is heading your way? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to our coverage from here in Moore, Oklahoma. We're standing by to hear from the governor of Oklahoma, Mary Fallin. She's going to be briefing reporters on the latest in the stories of survival and recovery. We'll have that and a lot more coming up from here in Oklahoma.

But let's check in with Suzanne Malveaux. She's at the CNN Center. She's following some other important stories -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Wolf. Just in the past hour, we learned the name of the British soldier who was killed yesterday. This happened in broad daylight. This was in Central London. The ministry of defense identifies him as drummer Lee Rigby, 25 years old from Manchester, England.

Now, this is cell phone video. This was recorded yesterday near Rigby's barracks. This was in London. And witnesses say that two men stabbed and hacked him to death while people could only just watch horrified at this. The two men are now in custody. And Britain's prime minister calling Rigby's violent death now an act of terrorism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, PRIME MINISTER, BRITAIN: The police have responded with heightened security and activity. And that is right. But one of the best ways of defeating terrorism is to go about our normal lives, and that is what we shall all do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Our Nic Robertson, he's in London. He joins us now. And, Nic, we know more about that the young victim, this soldier who was attacked. Tell us a little bit about him.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he was well-liked by his friends, somebody who would sort of always lift the mood and the spirit, always quick witted, always entertaining. We also know that he had a two-year-old son, Jack. We understand that he joined the Army in 2006.

And then in 2009, he was deployed to Helmand in Afghanistan. He was on a fire support base there, a small base. Their role would have been to fire artillery or mortar rounds in support of troops out in the -- out in the field. And then when he came back to Britain, deployed briefly to Germany. And in 2011, he became a recruiter here at this Army base in the southeast of London. Now, that role as recruiter would have brought him in a greater contact than most soldiers would have with the general public here -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Nic, do we know if this murder suspect -- and we have this video it is absolutely disgusting with his bloody hand, saying an eye for an eye, fighting for Allah. Do we have any sense of whether or not that suspect knew the victim, Rigby, here? Do they believe this is something that was organized or random?

ROBERTSON: We just don't have that information yet coming from the police or the military here. What we know is that the attackers waited in their car outside the base. When he came out, knocked him over. Now, the fact that he had a job that put him in contact with the public increases the possibility that the killers may have known him in advance, met him perhaps when there was a recruitment off the site of the military base or met him at a recruitment office. It increases the possibility of that. It's not what the military or the police are saying at the moment, but it does raise that concern to a higher level.

Was he therefore specifically targeted? Or did they even know that he'd been to Afghanistan? They had mentioned in this "eye for an eye tooth for a tooth" speech that they gave to people waiting after the crime was committed after they killed Drummer Rigby that they then mentioned Afghanistan. So was he targeted because they knew he'd been to Afghanistan? These are things we just don't know right now, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Still a lot of unanswered questions. And we should mention as well Muslim leaders in Britain and the UK denouncing that gruesome attack. Thank you very much, Nic, appreciate it.

There are some new clues here, this is an unsolved triple murder. And they think that the Boston bombing suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is actually now linked to that crime. A federal law enforcement official says that Tsarnaev actually took part in a triple homicide. This is in Waltham, Massachusetts back in 2011.

The victims' throats slit from ear to ear, marijuana spread over their bodies, thousands of dollars found at the scene. Absolutely horrific. A source says that FBI investigators were told about Tsarnaev's involvement by a friend of his, this is a Chechen friend, Ibragim Todashev. Well, the official says that Todashev confessed to the murders and during that confession with investigators, he attacked an FBI agent with a knife. That agent then shot and killed him.

Jurors in Phoenix, Arizona, back at work this hour just trying to agree on a sentence. This is for convicted murderer Jodi Arias. We've all been watching here. Jurors told the judge yesterday they could not reach a unanimous decision on whether or not she should be sentenced to death or given life in prison. So the judge told them, keep deliberating. Ashleigh Banfield outside the courthouse. Ashleigh, so how long is the judge going to give them first of all?

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, that's not a perfect science. I'll be completely honest with you. I have sat for weeks upon weeks and I'm sorry to announce that especially for all the TV people who are sitting in 100 degrees waiting for a verdict, but it's not a perfect science.

I will say this, Suzanne, once the judge gives an Alan charge, a dynamite charge, or whatever your jurisdiction calls it, it usually doesn't last that long. I don't know if I recall any case, especially a first-degree murder case after conviction, whereby a judge has dynamited the jury and then waited weeks and weeks and weeks. So typically I got to be honest, it's usually only about a day. Which is why if I were a betting man, and I am not, I would say we are probably likely to hear something from this jury today.

I'm sorry to say I cannot tell you what the something will be, whether it will be we're hopelessly deadlocked, we can't be unanimous in our agreement on whether we should vote for life for Jodi Arias, or death for Jodi Arias, or whether they'll actually come back with an agreement.

And one other thing we don't know because deliberations rightly so are very, very secretive. This is a panel that needs to have its privacy. It needs to be able to speak openly with one another. It needs to be able to cajole (ph) and convince and not bully of badger one another. They have to be able to do this and trust they can just be amongst themselves in their discussion.

So I don't even know whether we're talking about one holdout, a half and half panel, or some other permutation of this. But I always find this a very fascinating science. I always find it, this is our jurisprudence playing out the way it should.

The one thing I will tell you though, Suzanne, is that I have seen a dynamite charge happen twice in the past. In fact, in the very public Phil Specter first murder trial, the jury in the guilt/innocence phase was actually deadlocked and the judge twice told them to go back and work it out.

I'm sorry to announce it didn't work out so well in that panel. They were deadlocked and it was a mistrial. Second jury was impaneled, a whole new trial and ultimately got a conviction. But in this case it's a very unusual jurisdiction, Suzanne.

If they're deadlocked, we're going to have a new jury, and a new jury is going to have to go just through this phase, not guilty the guilt/innocence, not the cruel and unusual phase, just death/life phase. It's going to be much, much longer because they're going to need to learn a lot more material that they maybe don't know.

MALVEAUX: We'll be watching closely, Ashleigh. We're getting back to you, and of course if there's a decision we'll be right back to you. Want to go back to Wolf Blitzer in Moore, Oklahoma. Wolf.

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Suzanne. When you hear a tornado warning, should you immediately take cover, or should you get in your car and try to get out of the path as quickly as possible? It's a choice that could mean life or death. Our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a closer look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULES MILLER, LOST HIS HOME IN TORNADO: The thunderstorm hit my house. And Mike Morgan said, you know --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the local meteorologist.

MILLER: Get out of your house now. If you do not have a storm shelter, get out of your house now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you hear him say that?

MILLER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And you didn't have a storm shelter?

MILLER: I didn't have a storm shelter, so I got out of my house quickly, and I went and --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where did you go?

MILLER: We went to my car.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: His car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you drive or did your mommy?

MILLER: My mom drived. And we drive away from the storm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. Some good story telling from a young guy here in Moore, Oklahoma. Trying to outrun a tornado may not necessarily always be a good idea, but can be tough to know what to do when a storm is bearing down and you only have a few minutes to make a decision. Experts say the best idea is to take cover and to protect your head. Our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more on what to do and what not to do.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very large tornado heading to Moore, Oklahoma.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDIAL CORRESPONDENT: Thirteen minutes, that's the average lead time you'd have if a tornado was headed your way.

There's obviously no completely safe option during a tornado. Your best bet is to get into the basement somewhere below ground level, but keep in mind that if you are there, you want to see what's on the floor above you as well. A refrigerator or piece of heavy furniture could come crashing through the floor. So you want to be wary of that. Also, here in Moore, Oklahoma, there aren't a lot of basements.

Studies have actually shown there is another very good option. Take a look over here. An interior room or a closet like that can be the best place to be as well. The house is gone here, but that closet preserved, even the clothes inside of that. Remember, just got 13 minutes, so find that safe place. Maybe grab a helmet or a bike helmet. Even throw some mattresses or blanket over you to try to protect the head. One place you can't hide from a tornado is in your car. Tornado strength winds can pick up a one to two-ton vehicle like this one and toss it around like you or I would a basketball. Now, you obviously don't want to be driving toward a tornado, but it's also a bad idea to be driving away a tornado. It's hard to gauge the distance. If you must be driving and the weather is clear, try driving at right angles to the tornado perpendicular to get out of the path of the storm.

There's another misconception as well which is to get out of your car and run underneath an overpass. What happens in a situation like this is the wind is actually funneled, it's even more powerful than the storm and there's also a lot of debris. And that debris can injure you.

Now, if you are stuck outside as a tornado approaches, find a ditch or any place far away from potentially dangerous objects and vehicles and stay low. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Moore, Oklahoma.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Sanjay always, always has good advice. Coming up, we'll speak with a local pastor about what his church is doing to help the tornado victims.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: It's one of the few remaining buildings here in Moore, Oklahoma, the Southgate Baptist Church. It has become a center for donations and help, critically important help. We're joined now by the reverend Doug Brewer and his daughter, the mission director at the church, Sarah Marshall. Both of you, thanks very much for coming in. First of all, pastor, how did the church fare? How's it doing?

REV. DOUG BREWER, SOUTHGATE BAPTIST CHURCH: Structurally everything is good. There's no major damage. It's dry. And somebody whose shown up and provided a generator. We have electricity so it's enabled us to be able to serve our community and partner with other churches to help people in our area.

BLITZER: Just some context, your church is literally very close to that elementary school that was destroyed.