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Philippines Hit By Huge Typhoon; Martin MacNeill Found Guilty
Aired November 09, 2013 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Many people helped flood victims escape the rising waters including two of our journalists, producer Tim Schwarz and CNN International anchor Andrew Stevens, helping to rescue an injured man, pushing an injured man through waist high waters to safety.
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WHITFIELD: Storm chaser James Reynolds actually captured that rescue on tape. Reynolds also took astounding pictures of the destruction in Tacloban. Earlier, I talked with him about what he saw in that typhoon as the typhoon ripped through.
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JAMES REYNOLDS, STORM CHASER: Absolute chaos during the height of the typhoon. We were in a solid concrete building which we could feel shaking as massive bits of debris went crashing into it. It was felt with rain traveling at over 100 miles an hour. The water was just coming in from every direction into the hotel. You could see the water cascading down the stairs into all the rooms. The windows were blowing out, giant shards of glass everywhere, big pieces of metal flying through the air. It was just an extremely harrowing situation. And then the water started rising and the storm surge came in flooding the entire ground floor level of the hotel and trapped those trying to escape the rising floodwaters.
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WHITFIELD: Some families became separated from their loved ones during the chaos of the storm.
CNN's Paula Hancocks has that.
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PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Loretta Isanan lost three of her daughters in a matter of seconds. The storm surge from typhoon Haiyan tore them from her husband's arms --aged 15, 13 and eight. Only two bodies have been found.
MARVIN ISANAN, FATHER: Only one missing is my eldest daughter. I hope she's alive and we're hoping that she's alive and she was somewhere but is alive.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Tita Ramos became emotional as she remembers seeing bodies float past her home. She says she was on the roof to avoid the water.
They are just some of the victims congregating at the airstrip. Many have walked for hours to get their first food since the storm. It's become the military's staging area. A first aid center is set up for cuts and bruises, but they can do little for a serious gash to the head. One of her first priorities, restoring communications.
PETER GALVEZ, MILITARY OF DEFENSE: From today, maybe in 48 hours hopefully, we're now relying on satellite phones.
HANCOCKS (on-camera): As we move further inland, we come across more bodies. This is the local chapel here which is effectively being turned into a morgue. Inside, there are nine bodies, five of them are children.
(voice-over): The military planes that bring life essentials in take the body bags out, as well as the injured that need to keep their hope for the future.
Paula Hancocks, CNN, Tacloban in the Philippines.
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WHITFIELD: Aid agencies are mobilizing to help the victims of the typhoon. To find out how you can help, go to CNN.com/impact.
All back here stateside now, Dr. Martin MacNeill found guilty early this morning of murder in the death of his wife. It was an emotional moment for her family.
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WHITFIELD: That cry coming from MacNeill's family including his daughters who testified against him.
Ted Rowlands has more from Utah.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, it took the jury a long time, about 11 hours of testimony. They wanted to push through. The judge asked if they wanted to go home. They said no. Just after 1:00 in the morning here in Provo, Utah, they came to the unanimous decision of convicting Dr. Martin MacNeill. IT was difficult case for prosecutors because it was all circumstantial. They had no direct evidence against the doctor. What they did have was his daughters. They all testified -- five of them testified against him in court, and jurors said that made the difference. Take a listen to Alexis Somers, her reaction. She took the stand against her father. Take a listen to her reaction after the verdict.
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ALEXIS SOMERS, MACNEILL'S DAUGHTER: We're just so happy he can't hurt anyone else. We miss our mom. We'll never get her back. But that courtroom was full of so many people who loved her. I looked around, and it was full of everyone who loved my mom. I can't believe this has finally happened. We're so grateful. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROWLANDS: Keep in mind, Fred, when Michelle MacNeill died, they ruled it an accident, saying she died likely of natural causes. It took a year and three months for there to be an investigation into the murder of Michelle MacNeill because her daughters and her sisters pushed investigators so hard, and early this morning they got the justice that they were looking for.
With this guilty verdict, Martin MacNeill looking at 15 years to life. He will be sentenced in early January -- Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Ted Rowlands.
Hawaii is about to become the next state to legalize same-sex marriage. The state House of Representatives approved the measure last night. The Senate passed it late last night. Governor Neal Abercrombie had said he plans to sign the bill into law. Illinois lawmakers also passed the bill this week to make same-sex marriage legal.
A French satellite is about to come crashing to earth any day now. In a minute, we will find out why no one has any idea where it will hit.
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WHITFIELD: Remember, it's countdown to the winter Olympics games. So, the Olympic torch, guess where the torch is right now, in outer space. The Russian (INAUDIBLE) took the torch on a space walk this morning. In fact, torch arrived at the international space station yesterday. It was only outside for a few minutes. Then the crew will get to work making repairs there. The winter games begin in February in Sochi, Russia.
A European satellite that ran out of fuel will start falling from the sky in the next few days. Fragments of the disintegrating 2000 pound spacecraft are expected to make it all the way to earth's surface.
Our Chad Myers explains why we're not exactly sure where it's going to hit.
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CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Remember back in February? A meteor slammed into a small Russian town. We never saw it coming because it came from the direction of the sun and the telescopes were blinded by the light.
This is different. This is Goce, a satellite launched by the European space agency in 2009. Its job was to map the earth's gravitational field. Ironic, now Goce at more than 2,400 pounds is drifting back toward earth. It is expected to come crashing down soon. But exactly where is much less clear. On timing of impact, an official with the European space agency told "The New York Times," concretely our best engineering prediction is for reentry on Sunday with a possibility of it slipping into early Monday. It's easy to track satellites because they're close to the earth. But asteroids are much harder to find and much more dangerous. So, the question is do we know where they all are?
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, ASTROPHYSICIST: If it's really big, we know where they are, we know where the big ones are, the ones that would render us extinct or disrupt civilization as we know it.
MYERS: As far as Goce and all the other satellites, they're easy to track. There's an app for that right there. Here are all the satellites that are still spinning around the earth. And most of them will someday have a date with gravity. Scientists say debris is falling to the earth all the time, most of it harmless. But at more than 17 feet long, three feet in diameter, Goce has the potential to do damage. To what extent depends on where it lands.
Chad Myers, CNN, Atlanta.
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WHITFIELD: And once a month in the California desert, a group of patients from naval medical center San Diego gathers for something very special. They've all come home from war wounded, scarred in some kind of way, physically, emotionally. But here for just a few moments they can leave those problems on the ground and soar above them.
Photo journalist Gabe Ramirez takes us along.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My experience in Afghanistan, it is kind of a favorite question of people. And you know, sometimes I ask, do you really want to know because sometimes it's not good stuff that goes on out there.
In my first deployment, I had a couple of my close buddies, you know, they died, there's nothing you can do and you feel really guilty. So, I just held it in, you know. And usually I like to stay here by myself. That's why the doctor say you go out and have some fun. So, time together with the guys who have gone through the same things and basically help us to get back to normal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our program is the wounded service members soaring or gliding program. Once a month we take them up soaring. Basically put them in a glider and take them up flying.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Being up there you really honestly get to see god's landscape, like he painted it so beautiful up there. You appreciate everything and we should never take life for granted. I have no fear up there. All love, nothing to be scared of at all. No fear. To be honest I haven't had my heart pumping that fast in a while. It was cool. A Vietnam fighter pilot, he went super aggressive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I flew jets all my life, f 4s and f 5s. We had our own combat experiences and when we see these fine young men and gals coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq, we have a passion for flying sail planes and want to share it with these guys and get their adrenaline going and showing them something that maybe they'd never have an opportunity to do otherwise.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's different. It's kind of peace. You feel free.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was sweet. It was sweet. I feel like crying almost. Let me stop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn't be standing here talking to you about it right now if you would have hit me up four or five months ago, I probably would have been in tears and just heartbroken. But you know, the sunshine is out and I'm happy to be alive again and be just living.
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WHITFIELD: It's beautiful. Be sure to watch CNN's veterans in focus special November 11 at 2:00 p.m. You can ALSO read more of Veterans stories at CNN.com/veterans.
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WHITFIELD: CBS is apologizing for a report on the Obama administration's response to the attack of U.S. embassy in Benghazi. The network says it was misled by a source. Four Americans including ambassador Chris Stevens were killed when terrorists stormed the compound.
Chris Lawrence reports.
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CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is a stunning admission from a veteran journalist.
LARA LOGAN, CBS NEWS: We were wrong. We made a mistake.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): CBS's Lara Logan apologizes for her "60 Minutes" on Benghazi. It relied on a security contractor whose credibility has been compromised.
Speaking under the suit anymore Morgan Jones, Dylan Davies told CBS he climbed a wall to get into the compound where ambassador Chris Stevens died. He claims he took out an attacker and later saw Stevens' body in a hospital. The same story from the book he wrote.
LOGAN: What we now know is he told the FBI a different story to what he told us.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): A U.S. official says Davies told the FBI he went into roadblocks and went home that night. That jives with an incident report from Davies' employer, Blue Mountain Group, first revealed by "the Washington Post" and later obtained by CNN.
It says Davies was never at the compound or hospital that night. CBS says they investigated the story for a year but didn't know this report existed.
PAUL FARHI, WASHINGTON POST: For them to retract a story, to apologize forgetting it wrong is obviously an admission of the fact that they did not do their homework.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Paul Farhi is "the Washington Post" media critic.
(on-camera): What does this do to the overall narrative of Benghazi, the investigation into what happened?
FARHI: For CBS and for "60 Minutes" to get it wrong really does create, you know, a real question about the veracity of the story and the claims by conservatives about what actually happened in Benghazi.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): "60 Minutes" did raise legitimate questions about whether the government had enough security at the compound.
LOGAN: We were misled and we were wrong and that's the important thing.
LAWRENCE (on-camera): Davies himself has not talked to anyone including CBS since the story started to fall apart. But the publishers of his book "Embassy House" have suspended production and pulled it from the shelves and online sales.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, Washington.
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WHITFIELD: Senator Lindsey Graham vowed to block all presidential nominations until he gets answers on the Benghazi attack. Will he still make good on that comment? Our Candy Crowley will ask him tomorrow in an exclusive interview tomorrow on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" that's 9:00 a.m. eastern time.
All right, a unique love triangle is now a subject of a U.S. Supreme Court case. It involved a cheating husband, the wife, a mistress and a chemical weapons treaty. That's next.
WHITFIELD: The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on a case this weekend about the nasty love triangle. The case includes these elements -- revenge on a best friend, a chemical weapons treaty and the U.S. postal service.
Here is Randi Kaye.
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RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Carol Anne Bond learned her best friend was pregnant, she was thrilled. It was 2005; Bond and her husband were living outside Philadelphia. But her joy would turn into a jealous rage when Bond's friend admitted to her that the baby's father was Bond's husband.
In a matter of months, this case turned from is a domestic dispute in small town Pennsylvania to something much, much bigger. Here is what we know. Carol Anne Bond's lawyers say her husband's cheating ways sent her into a psychological tail spin. He developed as asthma and severe depression, started having panic attacks. Bond decided to strike out at the other woman, Melinda Haynes. Paul clement is bond's lawyer and a former U.S. solicitor general.
PAUL CLEMENT, CAROL ANNE BOND'S LAWYER: She was trying to make her life, you know, I think quote-unquote, "a living hell." I mean, she was very upset.
KAYE (voice-over): This is where things get ugly. Bond, a microbiologist turned to the science she trusted to make her move. She stole a dangerous arsenic based chemical from her company then combined it with something called potassium dichromate she bought online at amazon.com, both chemicals can be lethal. She attempted to poison her friend at least two dozen times in 2006 and 2007, sprinkling the chemicals on the handle of Haynes' car door, mailbox and apartment door knob.
Her lawyer says she wasn't trying to kill her friend. But after Haynes burned her thumb on the chemicals, she became suspicious and called police to report a strange bright orange powder.
(on-camera): Haynes also alerted her mail carrier so the U.S. postal service arranged a sting to see who was behind it, setting up 24-hour surveillance cameras outside the home. Those cameras caught bond in the act. Bond's lawyer told me his client made one fatal mistake. In addition to using the chemicals, she stole mail from her friend's mailbox. That mail theft changed the course of this investigation, bumping it up from a state level to the federal level.
And then this bombshell, federal prosecutors accused Carole Bond of violating the 1993 chemical weapons treaty. In 2007, in addition to the two counts of mail theft, they charged her with two counts of violating an obscure federal statute that was passed to implement the chemical weapons treaty. Put similarly, she was charged with unleashing a chemical weapon. She admitted trying to harm her friend and was sentenced to six years in prison for breaking international law. Her lawyers appealed all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court which just this week began hearing the case.
CLEMENT: Is that something that really violated an international treaty that really implicated international law? We would respectfully suggest that is not the case. There were no protests lodged by foreign nations, no other nations said, oh, my goodness, somehow there's been a deployment of chemical weapons in Norris Town, Pennsylvania.
KAYE (voice-over): Bond served her six years. If convicted on the state level she would have likely served nine months to two years. Today she's back living in Pennsylvania. Trouble is she can't find a job. Nobody wants to hire someone convicted of deploying chemical weapons.
Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.
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WHITFIELD: And now a look at what's trending. A tragedy unfolding right now in the Philippines from that massive storm. It could end up being the strongest ever to hit land. The government's official death toll stands at 138, but the Red Cross estimates as many as 1200 people have been killed by super typhoon Haiyan. Aid agencies are mobilizing to help the victims. To find out how you might be able to help, go to CNN.com/impact.
Social media company, Twitter, went public on the New York stock exchange Thursday. It was the biggest IPO of the year with shares closing 73 percent higher. A great start for twitter, but a key research and lift group has already downgraded the stock. Twitter has yet to turn a profit.
In Detroit, the childhood home of rap artist EMINEM has been damaged by a fire. Firefighters responded to the blaze Thursday night. The house is no longer owned by EMINEM's family. But appears on the cover of his latest album. The cause of fire, unknown.
Anthony Bourdain traveled to the Motor City in this Sunday's season finale "PARTS UNKNOWN." He says Detroit is one of the most magnificent cities in America, and explains why you need to plan a trip there.
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ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST, "PARTS UNKNOWN": Sweet, like Detroit.
You should come here. You should come here for good reasons and you should come here to see what went wrong.
This is a truly magnificent place. This is where everything good in America came from just about. Great rock and roll, rhythm and blues, Motown, techno. And, I mean, if you're looking to describe the sort of quintessential Detroit character, there's a stubborn determination to stay, to see it through no matter what. And I think above all, there's an injured but ferocious pride to anyone who has stayed through good and bad times.
You should come here, you should see this. Of all American cities, this is easily one of the most awesome.
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WHITFIELD: All right. We're ready to roll. You can see the full hour of Anthony's visit to Detroit tomorrow night, 9:00 p.m. Eastern. And then after the show, he'll host a live, one-hour postseason program called "Last Bite," 10:00 Eastern time. That's all tomorrow night on CNN.
Experts couldn't believe their eyes. A nondescript apartment in Munich, Germany, they found an unbelievable collection of art. Masterpieces stolen by the Nazis in World War II and worth more than $1 billion. We'll look at efforts to return those pieces of art to their rightful owners. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITIFIELD: All right. The job of returning some newly discovered art masterpieces to their owners is a pretty daunting one. In a nondescript apartment in Munich, Germany, experts found more than $1 billion worth of artwork, many of them apparently stolen from Jewish families during the Holocaust. Their heirs now want a complete list of those works by Picasso, Matisse, Chagall and others hoping it will help them recover family treasurers that were taken from them so long ago.
So that discovery created a whole lot of excitement in the art world and raises an important question: how many more stolen artworks still haven't been found? Christopher Marinello is an art expert who specializes in recovering lost works. He represents one of the families trying to recover their property. He's joining us right now from New York. Good to see you.
CHRISTOPHER MARINELLO, ART EXPERT: Nice to see you. Thanks for being here.
WHITFIELD: Well, this sounds like a Herculean task, to try to find the families, to match them up with these masterpieces. How do you do that?
MARINELLO: Well, it's extremely difficult. But the magazine in Germany that released these photos, the family immediately recognized this particular Matisse as one that had been looted from them.
WHITFIELD: So you're hoping that a lot of families are very familiar with the art, the trove of art that their ancestors had. That seems rare.
MARINELLO: What's happened here is the German government has not released a list or enough documentation for claimants to come forward. That's one of the things we're imploring that they do. They're giving an excuse that there's a criminal investigation going on right now or that they don't want to be inundated with claims. But I must say this is a time to be inundated with claims. The horrors of the Nazi Holocaust are still with us 70 years later.
WHITFIELD: Tell us about the family you're representing and the art that they believe is theirs and they want to claim.
MARINELLO: Paul Rosenberg was the premier dealer of his day in Paris pre-war and then managed to get out of Paris with his life. After the war he came back looking for hundreds of paintings that had been stolen from him. And his family has not stopped that search. They're continuing generation after generation.
WHITFIELD: Was there some sort of documentation that Mr. Rosenberg left so family members would know what was taken, what was missing?
MARINELLO: I actually have it with me right now. We filed the claim electronically this morning. And I'm about to send by overnight mail the balance of the documentation. The archives are intact for Paul Rosenberg. We can prove that this piece was looted by the Nazis. We can prove that Paul Rosenberg acquired it from the artist Matisse himself.
WHITFIELD: Is that a Matisse? Yeah - oh, I'm sorry. You said acquired it from Matisse himself?
MARINELLO: Paul Rosenberg was Matisse's dealer. So, he acquired this piece from Matisse himself. The provenance we have is
WHITFIELD: Wow. So now what about the family, what do they want? If it is retrieved, if they get to acquire this piece, do they have any plans of what they would do with it?
MARINELLO: Well, you see, this is not about the money. This is about the lives that were upended by the Nazis, about the horrors that were inflicted on these people. And recapturing a painting like this is recapturing some of their past. It's reconnecting with their past and reconnecting with a life that was taken away from them.
WHITFIELD: Wow. It's very powerful and extraordinary to learn that we're talking millions of dollars' worth of incredible art. Pieces that -- do art historians believe that didn't exist or had they ever wondered about some of these masterpieces that have since been recovered?
MARINELLO: For example, this Matisse had been investigated by the monuments man at the time. So, we knew the pieces existed, but we didn't know where they had been for the last 70 years.
WHITFIELD: Christopher Marinello, thank you so much for your time. Incredible story, incredible search.
MARINELLO: Thank you very much for having me.
WHITFIELD: A football coach is diagnosed with a debilitating disease. His wife sees his struggles with routine tasks and comes up with a line of clothing to help those with limited mobility. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has their story in today's "Human Factor."
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DON HORTON, SUFFERING FROM PARKINSON'S DISEASE: Right there, good job. Good job right there.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For more than three decades now, Don Horton's life has been mostly football.
HORTON: Vision one, vision two, three, also a high school coach, all very rewarding experiences.
GUPTA: In 2006, Don became one of the 60,000 Americans diagnosed every year with Parkinson's disease. Perhaps the worst day came in 2009. That's when Don found himself unable to button his own shirt. Russell Wilson, who is now a quarterback with the Seattle Seahawks helped Don with his buttons, so their team could get back on the road. HORTON: It's a humbling experience to be helped. You can see it there. You've done it before, and seemed so easy for everybody else to do.
MAURA HORTON, DON'S WIFE: There were so many challenges he was going through that I couldn't help with, but this was one change I thought I could do.
GUPTA: Calling on her own experience as a children's clothing designer, Don's wife, Maura got to work, creating a line of magnetic clothing, free of buttons and zippers, that would help her husband and others regain their independence.
MAURA HORTON: So it's as simple as lining it up.
HORTON: As it grew, the e-mails she got were incredible, helping so many people across the nation.
GUPTA: The magna ready magnets are strong enough to keep the shirts closed, but not so strong that the shirts are difficult to open.
MAURA HORTON: And you're dressed.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Incredible.
Hey, a nuclear disaster turns part of Japan into a danger zone. You probably recall that. But many people still live there. They describe the fear they go through every day next.
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WHITFIELD: What would you do if your hometown was suddenly contaminated by nuclear radiation? People living near the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan have had to grapple with that question. And as Kyung Lah reports, those who stayed have been living in uncertainty for nearly three years now.
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KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: March 2011, Japan's 9.0 earthquake, unleashing a tsunami with waves 13 stories high, swallowing entire towns whole. 15,000 dead, a second disaster was just brewing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The powerful earthquake that has hit Japan. Want to go to Kyung Lah now --
LAH: I was in Tokyo when the earthquake struck. My team and I drove north towards the tsunami zone and past the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. We would witness the hydrogen explosions and later learn it was the visible sign of a triple meltdown. The disaster rained invisible and dangerous radiation across Fukushima's neighborhoods.
Towns turned into empty shells. 160,000 people fled, children and pregnant women urged to leave first, considered most vulnerable to radiation exposure.
I was pregnant and moved miles north where I continued to report in an area believed to be safe. What no one knew, what no one could truly predict is how the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl would affect us all.
It's been nearly three years since the disaster. In Fukushima prefecture, Ruri Susaki has brought her children back home. They live 30 miles away from the crippled plant that even today still struggles with ongoing leaks of contaminated water. Susaki makes daily sweeps with her hand-held radiation detector at her home day care and limits how long the children play outside. The government has decontaminated the home several times and now monitors it with this giant device. The machine indicates radiation levels today are safe.
When it comes to what they eat and drink, always the fear of the what if. Susaki tries to test their food when they can, but testing takes too long to keep up with the needs of her five children. We worry about every breath, she says. My day is filled with anxiety. I can't enjoy raising my children. So many things have changed because of the accident.
Everything in Fukushima has changed. Crews are digging, bagging and hauling away contaminated earth. 142,000 people remain evacuees across the region. Children in the early days wore dosimeters to measure radiation intake and masks to limit radiation exposure from the air. The children of Fukushima are also being carefully watched. Before the triple meltdown, health authorities estimated one or two in a million would be diagnosed with thyroid cancer. The government has screened 216,000 Fukushima children. So far, 44 diagnosed or suspected of having thyroid cancer.
Some experts say the unexpected high rate may simply be that doctors are looking. But many parents of Fukushima blame the nuclear accident. The Susakis have tested their children. They're fine so far, emphasis on so far.
This is what some of the tsunami victims --
As far as what happened to me, I gave birth several months after the disaster to a perfectly healthy son, Grant. I reported throughout the exclusion zone and even went into the Fukushima nuclear plant for an up-close visit. Tests later show that all my limited reporting in high-radiation zones had no visible impact on my thyroid. I left Japan last year.
The Susakis and tens of thousands of families remain in Fukushima. We have two choices, they say, leave or choose to live the only way we know how.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Incredible. So what would you do if a nuclear disaster happened in your town? A photojournalist and author has spent time in Fukushima and Chernobyl asking that very question. He tells us the stories he's heard from people next.
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WHITFIELD: The names Fukushima and Chernobyl bring up thoughts of radiation, danger and death for most people. But for some those names just mean home. And even after terrible nuclear disasters, people stay. Back in 2011, CNN's Matthew Chance talked to a couple who has lived in Chernobyl for years.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Given all the risks of the radiation, sickness here, the contamination, why would you choose to live here?
IVAN SEMENYUK, CHERNOBYL RESIDENT (through translator): We were in the first group of re-settlers. There were 110 people, and the military did everything for us. They disinfected the area, the grass was healthy. They took out all the contaminated stuff, even fixed the broken fences. We were welcomed with music.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: A nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl plant blew up in 1986 resulting in the worst nuclear accident ever.
I'm joined now by author and photographer Michael Forster Rothbart who has spent a lot of time in Chernobyl and also in Fukushima. He just released a new electronic TED book, inspired by the popular TED talks online. His book is called "Would You Stay?" Michael, good to see you.
MICHAEL FORSTER ROTHBART, PHOTOJOURNALIST: Hi, Fredricka, thanks for having me.
WHITFIELD: So, you have talked to an awful lot of people and many whom say they stay in these areas. Why?
ROTHBART: Yes, it's hard for us to remember in this country. We are so transient, you know, we move from one place to another, and so it's hard to imagine if you lived in a village your whole life and not only that but your ancestors lived there, not only in the village but in the same house as your ancestors, you wouldn't leave just because of some radiation.
WHITFIELD: That is extraordinary. It is still hard for people to believe because they think, you know, their life, their daily lives are in jeopardy every day potentially that, you know, folks would just pick up and leave. But as you say, they've got these kind of ties.
You met one man in particular who is a mail carrier, right, in Chernobyl who felt the effects of radiation. What's his story? And is his story one that he still chooses to stay?
ROTHBART: Yes, really all my pictures have a story behind it. But this is Lenid Bulkulski (ph), who was a mail man. And he delivered top secret mail into the Chernobyl zone for five years. And many people he worked with stopped working because they were afraid of the radiation, but he felt like it was his patriotic duty to continue. And so, by 1996 he started to have trouble with his legs. He's been in a wheelchair now for more than 15 years. And the interesting thing he doesn't have any regrets. He feels like he made the right choice.
WHITFIELD: So his wife there -- presumably his wife, right, who is helping him there because of his limited mobility?
ROTHBART: Yes. He actually invited me to a birthday party, and that was during his wife's birthday party.
WHITFIELD: Oh.
ROTHBART: And you can see in the pictures he's like this big teddy bear of a man.
WHITFIELD: Huh.
ROTHBART: And he just -- he said -- these people don't see themselves as heroes, but I really do because they are willing to risk their health for the benefit of their country.
WHITFIELD: What about for you? Here you are going to these areas to interview, to talk to, to take pictures. And there's really, still is a lot of mystery as to what kind of residual effects there may be in terms of radiation in these zones, Fukushima and even Chernobyl. Do you ever worry about your own personal safety when you have contact with these folks in these places?
ROTHBART: Yes, we still don't know the exact consequences of long-term exposure to low level of radiation. But it was a risk I was willing to take because I feel like these stories were important. A lot of photographers talk about the importance of raising awareness. But I don't feel that's enough for me. I feel like I'm holding up a mirror to people so people can see what the consequences are and really -- it's not just about reflections, it's about reconciliation, I would say.
WHITFIELD: So, when you see these areas -- say, for instance, Chernobyl and you have the gentleman that said there is -- the gentleman that our Matthew Chance spoke with who said, well, look at the grass. It's still living. How desolate, how barren does it look? Because when you look at some of those still images, I mean, it looks fairly lifeless except for the living beings that you're talking to.
ROTHBART: Well, I'd say, you know, in the Chernobyl exclusion zone and in Fukushima as well, life goes on. So the animals are still there. They may not be as healthy as they would be with the radiation but there's still definitely a lot of life going on. And I think what's interesting to think about is that it's just, you know, like, the picture you just showed of my -- of people eating apples. The people grow the crops and they still eat them, and they're not that worried about the dangers.
WHITFIELD: Wow, that is extraordinary. And it's still a mystery as to how people can kind of look beyond those things and carry on. Michael Forster Rothbart, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Congratulations on your endeavor.
ROTHBART: Thank you. I appreciate being here with you.
WHITFIELD: We have much more of the NEWSROOM straight ahead. Something tells me Don Lemon if I were to ask him the question would you stay or would you go, you wouldn't even let me finish the question before you were out of there. Am I right?
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I don't know. Because I come from Louisiana, right?
WHITFIELD: Uh-huh.
LEMON: And people, you know, after Katrina it was so bad there, but you want to stay --
WHITFIELD: I'm talking nuclear disaster. That's what I'm talking about here.
LEMON: I know. I know. For a nuclear disaster, yes, maybe, you're right, I would probably leave. But I thought about being down in Louisiana. I thought about the people there, and a lot of people do want to stay.
WHITFIELD: Of course.
LEMON: That's a big deal.
WHITFIELD: I know. It's a tough decision.
LEMON: Look what I did for you.
WHITFIELD: You look so dapper.
LEMON: I did this. I took the tie off for you because you look very gorgeous today in your -- so I wanted to sort of --
WHITFIELD: So you don't wear a tie? That's very nice, thank you. But I'm trying to make the correlation here.
(LAUGHTER)
WHITFIELD: Thanks for that compliment.
LEMON: I'll tell you offline.
WHITFIELD: I do appreciate it. But you look good with or without a tie, how's that?
LEMON: Thank you, Fred. We have a lot to talk about today, so let's get started. Have a good one. See you soon.
WHITFIELD: Take care.
