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Flooding Continues In Colorado; Annette Miller Lost 190 Pounds Through Fit Nation; Two Women Wounded Near Times Square; Deal In Place To Find And Destroy Syria's Chemical Weapons Arsenal; Western Floods Take More Lives; Obama Sees U.S. in "Better Position"; U.N. Report Expected Monday; Raising the Costa Concordia; Deadly Amoeba Found in Louisiana Water Supply; Summers Out as Possible Fed Replacement; "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown"; One-on-One with Bill Cosby

Aired September 15, 2013 - 17:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello everyone. Thank you for joining us, top of the hour. I am Don Lemon. AT any minute now we're going to hear from emergency officials in a part of a country that is just a mess today. There it is over my shoulder. Northern Colorado, Denver, Fort Collins, 4500 square miles of busted dams, and just, everything is deteriorating there. Rivers were roads used be washed out bridges and lots of still-stranded people who need help. But here's the problem today, these helicopters are flying nowhere. The heavy rain started again and this is not flying weather.

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LEMON: Chaffer crews were able to get some people to higher grounds this weekend before the weather turn bad again. And right now, more than 480 people are unaccounted for grounding a helicopter will only make finding them more difficult.

Here's what the next few hours look like for northern Colorado. It's clearing up but not soon enough for thousands of people who have been soaked every day since Wednesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My, God. The river, outside of our house.

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LEMON: And here's the worst news, six people believed dead from the sudden flooding and one of them an 80-year-old woman who was hurt and was prevented by the rushing water from leaving her home.

I want to get straight to the news conference right now. Larimer, Colorado and told that it is happening. Let's listen in.

NICK CHRISTENSEN, LARIMER COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: This afternoon at 5:00 p.m., we're not -- it's not open to the general public. It's definitely for the evacuees. We want to focus on their needs. We don't have a lot of space there. We want to get word out to those folks who may be in hotels or stay with friends that that meeting will be occur at the evacuation center on South Taft in Louisville (ph). And then in addition, we have a meeting here at Fort Collins at 7:30 p.m. at Timberline church which is our other evacuation center. In summary, that's only for the evacuees and not the general public just because we want to focus on them. We will continue to inform the general public through the media. Our Web site, membershare.org. And then, for those who have needs for specific information on the incident, our joint information center, number 9704985500.

We want to continue to encourage folks to call that number if they need to register somebody who is missing or information on somebody's missing. If like to take some people off that list too, that's obviously the goal. So, any help with that would be appreciated.

In addition, we have got Red Cross is safe and well function on their Web site that people can register on, as well. So, we will take a few questions in the end. But that's really all I have at this point. I'm going to turn it over to our incident commander and let him introduce himself and say a few words.

Thank you very much.

SHANE DELGROSSO, INCIDENT COMMANDER: Good afternoon, I'm Shane DelGrosso. I'm the incident commander of Rocky Mountain incident management theme, team A. We're a type II team.

Just give you a little background about out incident management team. Many of you are from the Colorado area. Many of you have heard of probably our teams when it comes to fire fighting. Whether, you know, it's West Park, a lot of the fires that have occurred, we often bring in one of the land management -- incident management teams where we have can be a type II team. We are an interagency team. We are made up of federal, state, local and cooperating agencies. So it is a true inner agency team.

This is one of the things we do when it comes to natural disasters that are all-risk hazards. We often get called in to support, in a support role like some other incidents that we have been involved with. You know, you talk about the space shuttle recovery efforts. They brought in teams like us. The deep water horizon oil spill brought in teams like us. 9/11, we often get these types of calls to come in and help. And on this assignment, our mission on this assignment is to assist and provide support to Larimer County, state of Colorado and in coordination with FEMA to provide coordination, oversight and leadership in the command and control in bringing all of these entities and cooperating agencies together.

LEMON: OK. They are going through some generalities there explaining what happens to the emergency management team and what have you, folks of the sheriff's office and also from the incident management team, there in Colorado. They are just being inundated.

Let's go live to Boulder, Colorado right now as that news conference is going on. We will keep monitoring it. George Howell is there.

George, the people there, I mean, obviously sick and tired of this rain and we can see the water flowing behind you. GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, and a lot more water. You know, we are in the middle of a break. We had some rain earlier. You see what the result of that rain is here.

Look at this water. Look at the debris out there that's kicked around in this water. And keep in mind, you know, we are in the mountains. So, they are big rocks that are also in this water. It's dangerous to cross.

Dave, can you count over and show the street? Let me give you some perspective. Four hours ago, there was no water crossing the street. Three hours ago, when we did our first live shot, the water was just starting to cross the street. An hour ago, we got to the point where you couldn't cross. And now, the water has gone down what used to be Topaz Street.

Right over here, Dave, you can show them. Down there, that used to be Topaz Street. Right now, it is a river. And people who are, you know, the hope is that they got across here. I know they had they had access to get over this creek, I should say this river. They had access to get over the river a couple hours ago. The hope is that they did because now there's no crossing it. That's the challenge because with this rainfall, more communities are cut off. And, you know, as we mentioned, the rescue operation with the National Guard has been halted until the weather passes.

LEMON: George, tell us about those areas that are better cut-off by the washed out roads. You can see all that water rushing in. How many people are we talking about here? And how long before they can be reached? I mean, is there any idea?

HOWELL: Well, we know there could still be hundreds of people who are cut off in different communities. And more, Don, I would say because like I said, this was not a problem just four hours ago. And now look at it, you know. This is another area that now you can't cross over it too. So, there's a chance that more people are now stranded until the water reseeds. Again, we expect to get more rain later tonight. There is a low. We know, that you know, the rescue operations won't happen, at least until the weather passes. So, the hope is that people who maybe stranded that they have food, that they have water and supplies and are still able to make calls to official to let them know the situation, you know, in case they do need that air lifted supplies.

LEMON: Look at that water, George. I mean, just flowing there. It's unbelievable what is happening. Unbelievable.

George Howell, thank you.

We will get back to George throughout the hour here on CNN. And remember, you at home, if you like to help the victims of the flood, make sure you visit our impact the world page, CNN.com/impact.

You know what that music means? We have been playing it for weeks now. We are going to talk about Syria. A deal is in place to find and destroy Syria's chemical weapons. Now comes a diplomatic pitch to U.S. allies.

Secretary of state John Kerry met today with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He meets with other U.S. allies tomorrow in Paris. Kerry called the plan a framework, not a final agreement. And he said the threat of U.S. force will remain in place.

On a taped interview on ABC, President Obama said the situation in Syria has come a long way in a very short time.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are definitely in a better position. Keep in mind that my entire goal throughout this exercise is to make sure that what happened on August 21st does not happen again. That we do not see over a thousand people, over 400 children, subjected to poison gas, something that is a violation of international law. And is a violation of --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: It won't happen again?

OBAMA: Well, I think we had the possibility of making sure that it doesn't happen again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Let's talk more now about Syria.

Joining me here in New York is CNN's senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh and in Washington, CNN military analyst and retired air force lieutenant colonel Rick Francona.

I want to start with you John Kerry's Israel trip, OK, Colonel Francona? The secretary of state says the U.S. will maintain the threat of force under this agreement. Is that enough to enforce it?

LIEUTENANT COLONEL RICK FRANCONA (RETIRED), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think it's very important that we maintain that as part of the agreement and that the Russians know that and that the Syrians know that because it is that threat of force that has brought Syrians this far into what prompted the Russians to make this agreement. And if that threat or force goes away, I think it relaxes the pressure on Syrians.

Now, we haven't seen any movement out of the Syrians yet towards this agreement. They said they are going to do it, but we haven't seen anything yet. The test will come this week when we get the declaration from the Syrians. Is it going to be fiction or will it be in some form of reality?

LEMON: Nick, I want to talk to you now about Israel. Israel's prime minister appears to be on board with this agreement. What are the Israelis looking for in this deal?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At the end of the day, they want to be pretty sure any chemical weapons in that part of the world are a threat to them in some ways. And I think they're possibly looking at the past two years seeing most people, they want to do them harm in the region, doing harm to each other. They are in a difficult bind, too, because of the past two weeks, that it would be agitating too much, the U.S. military action. They said they don't want the people in the U.S. might enough bombing to sent it only behalf of Israel and stirring up our opinion against them. So, I think in many ways, the want to see a framework they are comfortable with. They want to know where these weapons are going. And they want to also be very sure that to decide if they are declaring everything because the people that are watching that area most intensely, is probably the Israelis and the best (INAUDIBLE).

LEMON: And Colonel Francona, you know, we expect the U.N. to deliver its report tomorrow on August 21st -- on the August 21st attack in Syria, assuming it is chemical weapons were used there, what impact will that have?

FRANCONA: Well, I think it is important that the U.N. to be on board on everything. I think there is no question they are going to say sarin gas was used that's come out in the variety of test. I don't know that they're going to be able to definitively say who used it. But I think our intelligence tells us who used it.

But we are also going to have help, and Nick brings up a very good point that the Israelis are vested in this. And we are going to have access to a lot of Israel intelligence because if anybody has got a handle on the Syrian weapons program, it's the Israelis.

LEMON: You know, Colonel Francona, and President Obama said in that ABC interview that Russian president Putin doesn't have the same values as the United States. But, I mean, that the two countries could still work together. What do you think he meant by that?

FRANCONA: Well, I don't think that's too outrageous. We have a whole system of agreement that we work with the Russians over the years on a variety of weapons programs. So, this is just another one in that step. You don't have to have the same values to make an agreement with him. But you sure have to make sure you can trust them. And you know, that's going to be the crux of all of this. Can you trust the Russians? But, more importantly, can you trust the Syrians? And you know, I really have my doubts. I worked with the Syrian military for seven years and you could just never get a straight answer out them.

LEMON: All right, gentlemen, thank you very much. Stay with me. We are going to talk to you both again in just a few minute here on CNN.

Meantime, I'm going to tell you about some breaking that is out of Washington.

Former treasury secretary, Lawrence Summers, won't be the new Federal Reserve chairman. The White House announced today. He has withdrawn his name from consideration. Summers had been seen as a top candidate to replace Ben Bernanke in January, but reportedly had lost the support from some Democrats on the senate banking committee. More details on that as we get them.

Up next, bullets fly near Times Square. A man attacks police, they fire shots and innocent people get hit.

And later this hour, my conversation with comedian Bill Cosby from civil right to his career and his critics to his thoughts leadership in the Black community today.

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BILL COSBY, COMEDIAN: What we need is for people to realize I want to raise my kid. I want to go back and get my three kids. I want to take on that responsibility. I want to love my children.

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LEMON: Police open fire near Time Square causing near panic and leaving two women wounded. The women were bystanders hit late last night as officers tried to subdue a man they describes as emotionally disturb.

Margaret Conley takes us to the scene and has video that captures the shooting.

MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, police opened fire right here near the heart of Times Square. The action all took place right on that corner behind me. Police were trying to chase down and subdue a man who was agitated and who was darting through traffic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONLEY (voice over): Crowds panic as New York police officers fire three shots, missing their target and hitting two bystanders, instead, both were women. One took a bullet in the right leg and the other was grazed in her backside. Witnesses say police were chasing a man who looked confused.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guy was wondering in the street like he was lost and he is a pretty big guy. There was one officer that was trying to get him to a come out of the middle of traffic and he -- I don't know. He was like he was on something.

DONLEY: Police say it looked like the man wanted to be struck by traffic, but then they say he pretended to point a weapon at offices.

RAY KELLY, NEW YORK CITY COMMISSIONER: He continued to look at the officers and then at sometimes, He reaching into his pockets. It took out of his hands and (INAUDIBLE) and he was shooting at him.

DONLEY: After firing bullets, police finally subdue the man with a taser and he was admitted to a hospital as emotionally disturbed.

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DONLEY: One of the bystanders, he has been treated and released from a hospital. Ad as of the guy in question, well, police say that he is facing a string of charges, including drug possession, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct -- Don.

LEMON: All right, Margaret Conley, thank you very much for that.

A police officer has been charged with voluntary manslaughter after killing an unarmed man who may have been looking for help. Officers responded to a call yesterday about a suspicious outside a woman's home in Charlotte, North Carolina. Investigators now believe Jonathan Ferrell was trying to get help after wrecking his car. But when they arrived, police say Ferrell ran towards him. Officer Randall Kerrick shot Ferrell several times killing him. He's being held on a $50,000 bond.

Ahead this hour, danger in the water, a rare brain-eating ameba that kills. So why is the water still OK to drink? The doctor is in to explain.

And it's the image that might make you think twice about taking a cruise. Now, the Costa Concordia is about to rise again. A look at how engineers plan to make it happen.

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LEMON: For most of her life, Annette Miller has been burdened by her weight. But, after losing 190 pound, she's just completed a Malibu triathlon as a member of CNN's Fit Nation team.

Doctor Sanjay Gupta has her story in today's Human Factor.

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DOCTOR SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Growing up in Tennessee, Annette Miller always dreamed of playing basketball. So, as soon as she was old enough, she decided to signed up for the team.

ANNETTE MILLER, CNN FIT NATION 21013 TRIATHLETE: I got a permission slip from her coach in school and I came running home and I was so excited. Instead of getting a signature from my parents, I was told you are too fat to play.

GUPTA: At 10-years-old, and more than 200 pounds, she says, that mantra instantly changed her life.

MILLER: You're too fat followed me into adulthood. And I didn't realize how much that held me back.

GUPTA: But years later, when her twin sister, Bobet (ph), needed a kidney transplant.

MILLER: I was not even tested, weren't considered to be a donor because of my weight. That was (INAUDIBLE).

GUPTA: So she changed her diet. She started walking. She hit the gym. She was determined to get the weight off. By November of 12012, she was well on her way.

MILLER: I'm proud to say that at this point, I have lost over a hundred pounds.

GUPTA: And she wasn't finished.

MILLER: There's a little 10-year-old kid in here that still wants to play, wants to be a part of the something, be a part of the team.

GUPTA: Miller applied for the CNN Fit Nation challenge and she was accepted in January.

Congratulations. We have already picked -- for eight months, she trained, swimming, biking, running, to compete in the Nautical Malibu triathlon. And she got below 200 pounds for the first time in decades.

MILLER: And then it stopped 198 and I never had a break down on the scale, but I started crying.

GUPTA: And on Sunday, September 8th, Miller got her chance to play crossing the finish line in Malibu squarely in the middle of the path.

MILLER: Amazing. I made the turn around. I knew I had it.

If I can do it, you can do it.

GUPTA: Next up for Miller, surgery to remove the excess skin leftover from her years of being overweight to complete her transformation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just pass, nice.

GUPTA: And as far as that basketball game, that dream came true as well.

Doctor Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Up next, they are scenes eerie reminiscing of hurricane Katrina. Victims of the flooding and the Colorado rescue by air. We are talking to a National Guard about the heroic rescues underway.

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LEMON: Back now to our lead story, in Colorado, days and days of nearly nonstop rain have created a disaster. As many as six people may be dead, the whereabouts of 480 people, unknown. And for now, anyway, the weather is keepings rescue aircraft on the ground.

On the phone with me right now from Colorado is Lieutenant colonel Mitch Utterback from the Colorado National Guard.

So, Colonel, this must be very frustrating for you, obviously. Tell us when you will be able to get flying again?

LIEUTENANT COLONEL MITCH UTTERBACK, COLORADO NATIONAL GUARD (via phone): Well, Don, let me tell you. It's not frustrating so much because we have had ground evacuations continuing today. The National Guard has 45 very high clearance trucks operating in Boulder County that can forge feet and feet of water. They have been bringing first responders to people, taking people out, delivering supplies all day. So, although the weather kept the helicopters out of the sky, so far this morning, the ground rescue effort has continued.

And I have got to tell you, looking out the window here from the incident command post with the pilots, it looks like the rain is stopping and the ceilings are clearing. So, it's very exciting scene to see the pilots get up and start putting their equipment on and start heading out to their helicopters.

LEMON: So, once they head off to their helicopters and they get to flying, talk to me about priorities then. Do you already know where to go first? What kind of help those people need?

UTTERBACK: Yes, the operations section here at the incident command post keeps a roster of priority commissions that need to be conducted. So they receive those testings from the incident commander here. They relay them amongst themselves over the radio. And then they'll dispatch themselves across a wide geographic area here in Boulder County to go pick up people as needed.

And it's really something, I have to tell you. Over the course of just 2 1/2 days of flying between the National Guard and the active duty aviation unit from Fort Carson, 745 -- let me see, 745 rescues made by the Fort Carson aviator, 200 rescues made by the National Guard aviators. And all we have here is, right now, active duty pilots from Fort Carson because the National Guard pilots have been moved up to another county. There is an aide effort up there.

LEMON: Give me a little bit more of those numbers. Just talk more numbers. How many people have been evacuated already? How many National Guardsmen have been activated? You talked a little bit about that just now. And how long will you stay, excuse me, on this mission?

UTTERBACK: OK. So, this is a real math problem. So, everybody get out something to write with and something to write on. We have over 200 National Guardsmen here in Boulder County activated for search and rescue efforts. Coincidently, National Guard pilots rescued 200 people the first day of flying. National Guard soldiers driving vehicles on the ground have picked up 552 people in the last couple of days. And the pilots from Fort Carson, over two days of flying, have rescued 745 people.

And I want to say a couple hundred pets because we leave no pet behind, also, especially if the person's coming with their pet, they're both coming out.

LEMON: So that's about somewhere in the vicinity of 2,000 ground and air rescues and pets and what have you. Katrina was like 4,300, but you're, I mean, that's still up there. That's a lot. And I know this is a stock question, but in all of your years, I'd really want to know the answer to this, because the National Weather Service has been calling this biblical proportions.

Have you ever seen any flooding like this in your area?

UTTERBACK: Here, at the airport, built on high, flat ground, we haven't seen the flooding. And I haven't taken any flights because as a military liaison, my duty position is right here with the --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I just mean entirely in Colorado --

UTTERBACK: -- resources they need. So the pilots have come back and shown me video they've taken and the crew on their iPhone. And everyone is shocked. Shocked is the best word with the power of Mother Nature and the erosive force of all that fast-moving water.

LEMON: Colonel Mitch Utterback from the Colorado National Guard, thank you. I appreciate your time. Best of luck to you guys, OK? We appreciate you coming on CNN.

UTTERBACK: Thanks for getting the word out for us, Don.

LEMON: Absolutely.

And remember, if you, at home, would like to help the victims of the floods, you can visit our "Impact Your World" page, CNN.com/impact.

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LEMON: Back now to the crisis in Syria. Secretary of State John Kerry meets tomorrow in Paris with leaders from France and Britain to discuss the agreement hammered out to locate and destroy Syria's chemical weapons.

Let's talk more about Syria with our senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, and then in Washington, CNN military analyst and retired Air Force Lt. Col. Rick Francona and former chief U.N. weapons inspector David Kay also joins us now. Thank you.

Mr. Kay, I'm going to start with you. CNN's Brian Todd reports two experts believe that the warheads used in the August 21st attack in Syria contained up to 50 times more sarin gas than first thought.

Is that a surprise?

And what does that say to you?

DAVID KAY, CNN ANALYST: Well, it's not a surprise in the sense that particularly the children that were killed, almost over 400 of them, seemed like an unusually large number from a very small rocket, which was the first estimate.

So, no, I think most of us who looked at it thought it had to be more than that.

LEMON: Nick, the U.N. secretary-general says that he expects the report to be delivered tomorrow at the -- at the U.N. and will be -- it'll be overwhelming, that chemical weapons were used in Syria. What happens next at the U.N.?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Well, he'll present that report to the Security Council. And then the question is would you say where do we go from there, well, the framework put together by the Americans and the Russians in Geneva suggests quite a quick timetable for them declaring -- the Syrians declaring chemical weapons they have.

But it requires a U.N. Security Council resolution to be passed. So people are looking in the days ahead to try and take what happened in Geneva and convert it legally somehow into something they can get through this unbelievably complicated body that's become the Security Council.

What can the Russians accept?

LEMON: Yes.

Col. Francona, do you -- Brian Todd also reported on documents that showed Russia helped Syria create its chemical weapons program and that it's a key reason why the Russian role in all of this is viewed with such skepticism.

What's your reaction to that?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, if you go back decades, of course, the Soviet Union was involved in the startup of their program. But over the years, the Syrians developed their own capability. So much of what we're seeing in Syria is homegrown. And I think the Russians might still be surprised at what we find there.

The Syrians are believed to have some of the state-of-the-art VX in their warheads for their missiles. So I want to see that that's all declared and that's all taken care of. I think we're going to be fighting a hard battle with the Syrians to get at what they really have.

LEMON: Mr. Kay, I want to pose that question to you, that Russia may have helped Syria create some of its chemical weapons program, and that's why there's such skepticism here.

What's your response?

KAY: Well, think Rick is right. The origin of this program is the Soviet Union. The Soviets provided them the design and their first production plant, some of the materials and expertise. Czechoslovakia also at that time and the Eastern Bloc provided assistance.

Over the years, I suspect they've gotten precursor chemicals from a number of people. Most of these are dual use, so I wouldn't be surprised if a large number came from Western Europe, maybe even some from the United States.

But, look, this program, this -- Rick is right. The Syrians have developed a very high-class chemical weapons program. And sarin, in many ways, is the least worrying because it's the least persistent.

VX, which lasts for a very long time, is a more lethal chemical, is in their strategic warheads.

WALSH: Don, there's an interesting point here that potentially why the Russians are interested in getting these chemical weapons out of circulation, too, because they have their own terrorism problem in the south of Russia, in Chechnya. And amongst the ranks of rebels, increasingly, you see Chechens, which is very strange, bearded men from the Caucasus to the south of Russia, turning up, speaking Russian but fighting alongside some of the more hardcore Syrian rebels.

So you can imagine people in Moscow thinking, well, the last thing we want to see is that country collapsing even further and some of these guys getting their hands on those chemical weapons if they fall out of the regime's hands and bringing them back to Russia. That could be in the back of their minds, why they're pushing this particular convention through.

LEMON: I want to talk now about Iran.

And first to you, Nick, because you know, Iran's potential reaction to the events of last week, and the president has said today that he had indirect contact with Iran's new leader.

What is Iran saying publicly about the U.S.-Russia agreement? First to Nick.

WALSH: Well, in some ways, there's a mixed message we're getting from the Iranians. They sort of keep some of that more hardline rhetoric in the background. But broadly, in the last couple of weeks, we've seen social media messages and hints at a more relaxed Iranian posture, a lot of skepticism about that, that these friendly overtures are just trying to buy them time and keep them out of a kind of a potential for conflict in the region right now. But many are thinking are they perhaps seeing an avenue here to soften their posture and perhaps improve relations with the West?

LEMON: David Kay?

KAY: Well, Don, you have to realize, Iran was the last country to have chemical weapons used against them by Iraq. And the world, at that time, stood aside. I think the Iranians have a very conflicted attitude about the Syrians using chemical weapons.

Certainly the wider public in Iran is likely to. It's a very painful memory of the Iraq experience using chemical weapons on the Iranians.

So I mean I think the Iranians, on this issue, really, are truly conflicted. It is true the new president is putting a new public face. But it's also true that the strategic weapons programs in Iran, the nuclear activities, are not run by the president. They come directly from Khomeini.

LEMON: Yes. Lots more to talk about and we will get it all in on this broadcast. Thank you very much for this particular segment. Gentlemen, we'll see some of you a little bit later on.

More violence today in the Mideast (sic). Explosions killed at least 24 people and wounded nearly 100 others in Iraq. The multiple blasts targeted mostly Shiite areas. In the deadliest attack, seven people were killed and 15 wounded when a car bomb exploded near a mosque near the town of Hila (ph).

Booked a cruise lately? Interesting question. They're more affordable than they used to be and this image might be the reason why. You've seen that.

Now the crippled Costa Concordia is about to rise again. A look at how engineers plan to make it happen. And that's next.

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LEMON: It is a salvage operation like no other in history. The ill- fated Costa Concordia is finally ready to be lifted from its side more than 20 months after it ran aground off the west coast of Italy, killing 32 people. You can see the remarkable salvage operation from the air as crews prepare to haul the 114,000-ton vessel from the sea.

CNN's Rosa Flores joining me now; Rosa, why can't they just blow it up or destroy it where it is?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I know you think about it, and you think it could be easy. But there's a lot at stake here, Don. It's more than just a ship on its side right now. It's a graveyard, folks. Two victims are still believed to be inside. The belongings of thousands of people are also inside that ship.

One expert put it like this: it's like a mini battery that's under water. So they have to be very careful.

Now, take a look at this animation. The crew will be using a method called parbuckling. All that means, folks, is they're going to roll up the ship upright. They are going to use a series of weights and cables to bring the ship upright. But there are a lot of risks here associated with this because, hear this, the ship has already settled in 14 feet into the rock.

Now, it's been in salt and water, in that salt water, so the metal has been deteriorating for months. Now, this parbuckling process is estimated to take between 12 and 14 hours.

One of the fears is that it could roll over into deeper waters and they have one shot at this, Don. There are no second chances. Once they start pulling those cables, that's it. They've got one chance to do this right.

LEMON: Oh. OK. Or else it becomes a museum underwater? They say permanently, but is there a contingency plan for this? FLORES: Technology, also, has a huge part of this. Now, one of the things is what if something does go wrong? Well, they are going to know early because these crews have installed microphones and sensors throughout.

And so, throughout this entire process, they're going to be able to monitor what's happening under water. And as for that contingency plan, if it fails, it could ask the government to cut the ship up into pieces and remove it that way.

But, Don, you've got to consider that there's a lot of stuff rotting in there. So it would be a huge environmental toll in that area. And, as you know, I mean, this is off the coast of Italy. It's beautiful there. And, you know, it would be a huge burden on the environment.

LEMON: Yes, very interesting. Rosa Flores following this, and she'll be paying close attention. We wish them luck. Thank you, Rosa. Appreciate it.

OK. Be careful about what's in the water. This isn't a warning about sharks. It's about a rare brain-eating ameba. And it is deadly. So why is the water still OK to drink? The doctor is in to explain.

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LEMON: Potentially deadly brain-eating ameba lurking in the drinking water in Louisiana. It sounds like science fiction, but it is all too real for residents of St. Bernard Parish. Health Department officials say tests of the water supply confirm the presence of a rare, brain- eating ameba.

They say the water is safe to drink, although they caution people against getting water in their nose.

I want to bring in now Dr. Devi to help explain this.

First, what is an ameba?

And how does it get into the brain?

DR. DEVI NAMPIAPARAMPIL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, NYU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: Well, so an ameba, it's kind of like a bacteria. It can cause an infection. But it's grouped in a different category because the treatments that we normally use to kill bacteria don't work as effectively against it. And it seems to have some adaptation that allows it to get into the brain through the nose.

LEMON: The people, the officials there are insisting the water is OK to drink, even knowing that an ameba is in the water. Why is that?

NAMPIAPARAMPIL: So, if you drink the ameba or get it in the water that way, it travels down to your gut, so it doesn't cause any gut illnesses. It doesn't seem to affect the gut.

What it goes for is the brain itself. So if you get it in the nose, it can travel up through the nerves that give us our sense of smell. And it basically gets to the brain that way.

So it has a way of getting past what we have called the blood-brain barrier. It's the body's fortress that protects the brain. And it gets past that and it gets into the brain and attacks it. But our drugs that we have had a hard time getting past that same fortress, which is why it's so hard to treat.

LEMON: So if you drink it, it goes in internally, your body digests it and gets rid of it like it does all things that go in (inaudible) --

NAMPIAPARAMPIL: Exactly.

LEMON: -- and you get rid of it as waste.

OK. So the parents of the 4-year-old boy who died after contracting an infection last month also spoke out. I want to listen to them.

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APRIL SMITH, MOTHER: A very happy child. It's hard to see your child laying there, not normal to it. I was waiting and waiting for him to jump out of the bed and take off (inaudible) to the hospital, being having to chase him.

DRAKE SMITH SR., FATHER: He's a strong kid. I thought he was going to pull through. But, day by day, it kept getting worse and worse. From this, I hate to see where my son is at, but it's helping other people save other lives.

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LEMON: So he said it's helping other people save other lives, the death of this little boy. Apparently, he was playing in a ditch when he -- when he -- it went up his nose.

Had he not died, would this have even been discovered, do you think?

NAMPIAPARAMPIL: It might not have been, because people weren't in the habit of necessarily testing the tap water. We weren't looking in the water supply, because most people who actually catch this, they catch it from ponds, from rivers, from lakes, fresh water. But now, finding it in the tap water, we have to worry about people who might use tap water for sinus rinses, especially with fall allergies and everything coming along, or people who use public water fountains, because that's where it can spray into the nose.

LEMON: All right. Good information. Thank you, Dr. Devi, as always.

NAMPIAPARAMPIL: Thank you.

LEMON: We appreciate it. Up next, my conversation with comedian Bill Cosby. First up, his message to young black men on the importance of going to college.

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BILL COSBY, ENTERTAINER: Just go and sit there and understand you're going to get an education, because that's what happened to me at age 191/2. I just knew that I didn't want to do certain things. And it wasn't what they were doing to me; it's what I wasn't doing.

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LEMON: I just want to tell you about again about the breaking news that I told you about at the top of the hour. It is from Washington. The former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers won't be the new Federal Reserve chairman. The White House announced today he is withdrawing his name from consideration.

Summers reportedly had lost support from some Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee.

"Earlier today, I spoke with Larry Summers and accepted his decision to withdraw his name from consideration for chairman of the Federal Reserve." That's from the president there.

And he says, "Larry was a critical member of my team as we faced down the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and it was in no small part because of his expertise, his wisdom and leadership that we wrestled the economy back to growth and made the kind of progress we are seeing today.

"I will always be grateful to Larry for his tireless work and service on behalf of his country and I look forward to continuing to seek his guidance and counsel in the future."

Again, that is from President Obama on Lawrence Summers withdrawing his name as Treasury secretary.

OK. So who is ready for a second helping of "ANTHONY BOURDAIN: PARTS UNKNOWN"? In tonight's second season premiere, Bourdain takes us to Jerusalem where he learns about the city's rich history and religious divide.

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YOTAM OTTOLENGHI, CHEF/AUTHOR: The old city is divided into four quarters. There is a Muslim quarter. There is a Jewish quarter. There is a Christian quarter. And there's an Armenian quarter. Each one functions independently, but people that live in a certain area are all from that religion.

BOURDAIN: Right. Now we're walking in the steps of Jesus Christ, right?

As I so often do.

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OTTOLENGHI: So this is Via Dolorosa, which is the last trip Jesus did before he was crucified. So people feel very emotional. They come here and they feel like oh, my God, I am walking in the steps of Muhammad, David or Jesus.

BOURDAIN: It's like Jesus was here. I feel like I should be more something.

OTTOLENGHI: A little bit more pious?

BOURDAIN: A little bit. Well, it's too late for me.

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LEMON: Well make sure you pack your bags. It's time to get lost again. Anthony Bourdain season two, "PARTS UNKNOWN" starts tonight, 9:00 Eastern. Don't miss it.

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LEMON: Well, he's a legendary comedian and an iconic entertainer, but Bill Cosby has also taken a lot of heat in the black community for his opinions. Cosby was in Birmingham, Alabama, yesterday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the church bombings that killed four little girls.

And before that event, I asked him about our next generation of leaders.

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LEMON: So I want to ask you about, I've been talking and thinking, you know, after the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, the 50th anniversary of four little girls, about leaders.

And especially African-American leaders, who are they?

Where do you see -- do we need one?

Do we need leaders in the same sense that we needed a Dr. King or a Bayard Ruston or a James Baldwin?

Where do you see our leadership now?

COSBY: I think it has to come from the same place. I think it has to come from the universities. I think, women, strongly, because when you see 70 percent in research that says they're the leaders of the household, what we need is what people to realize, I want to raise my kid. I want to go back and get my three kids. I want to take on that responsibility. I want to love my children.

You know, one of the great pictures that, I mean, reaches me, because it is special, is to go to for instance, the "Essence" affair and walking around to see -- yes -- to see a black male with his child on the shoulders and holding -- I mean, that means something.