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Severe Weather Threatens 26 States; Bears Game Suspended; The Consequences of an Iran Agreement; Clinton a Champion for Women's Rights; Will ObamaCare Keep Haunting Dems?; Tornado Touches Down Outside Peoria

Aired November 17, 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: Hello again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM right now.

Massive storm system threatening one-third of the U.S. Here is what it looks like from space. More than 120 million people in 26 states are now in the strike zone. The Midwest is getting hit as we speak, and tornadoes are moving through Illinois right now. You are looking through brand new images from Washington, Illinois, near Peoria.

It looks like everything in something's path. A tornado presumably just simple was crushed. Widespread damage across the state and major cities are also in the high risk area including Chicago, Detroit and Indianapolis.

We have correspondents on the ground. Meteorologist Karen Maginnis is tracking the storm from the CNN Weather Center. So let's begin with you, Karen.

Certainly those images make it look like a tornado has touched down. But I know there also has to be some other measures of confirmation before you can officially say that.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and I know that is just the protocol that takes place. Typically they will have a spotter or someone on the ground, law enforcement, trained spotters, and they observe damage but they always have the National Weather Service, the local National Weather Service go out and evaluate that what has happened there.

And just by looking at that damage, we have got some brand new pictures coming out of Peoria. Probably one of the suburbs of Peoria. But take a look at the damage here. It is widespread and devastating. Now Peoria is one of the areas across north central sections of Illinois. It is to the southwest of Chicago. Very devastating tornado being reported here.

This was about 11 o'clock in the morning. And you may be aware that in Pecan, that is one of the suburbs of Peoria, they had a report of a tornado there as well. This is Google Earth. This is Peoria, down here is Pecan and here is Washington. So we think the tornado just kind of brushed by one of the southern areas of Peoria. But essentially from Pecan traveling to the northeast towards Washington. Typically these tornadoes, Fred, they'll dip down, touch down for a while, go back up and then come back down again.

Already today we have had 31 reports of tornadoes and we are going to stay on top of it. Fred, I'm going to send it right back to you. Think we have got something going on?

WHITFIELD: OK, all right, well when we talk about this system, are we talking about, Karen, more than one system or one big system?

MAGINNIS: There is one major system that is impacting the area right around the Midwest and the Great Lakes. Area of low pressure, funnel system draped to the south. And it is along that frontal boundary we have seen these devastating storms, these supercells, already Chicago's major airports are reporting some ground stops up to several hours from now.

But across southern Illinois now moving into Kentucky, moving into southern Indiana, also into the Bootheel of Missouri, we have had a number of reports of very damaging tornadoes there, something reported by law enforcement, some by trained spotters.

I think they may have some new images coming up once again from that Peoria tornado. We will let you know and show you those a little later on in this newscast. Fred.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Karen. And we also last were reported we were talking about how the Soldier Field in Chicago, it was evacuated earlier because of a threat or a tornadic activity. And everyone in the stadium was told to get out of the stadium, out of the bleacher area. And they were put in a safer area right there on the property. They have all since gone back into the stadium as far as we understand. So the Bears and Ravens game could resume.

Meantime, Karen was talking about some of that ground stoppage at some of the airports in the upper Midwest. Let's check in at the Chicago airport. We understand traveler Karen Pride -- or maybe you are not the traveler. I'm sorry.

Karen pride is with us. She is the head of media relations for O'Hare and Midway Airports. And joining us right now by phone.

So, Karen, give me an idea of what flight activity is or is not happening at those two airports, Midway and O'Hare.

KAREN PRIDE, HEAD OF MEDIA RELATIONS, CHICAGO AIRPORTS: Well, good afternoon. It has been an interesting afternoon and as of right now actually there are flights going in and out of both airports, both O'Hare and Midway. They were in a ground stop for approximately an hour, hour and a half earlier today. But now the weather has moved through enough so that airlines are able to get some of their flight operations back on track.

WHITFIELD: What are you telling people, Karen, who -- folks who plan to travel through Chicago or Midway, folks who are perhaps getting on the trains to try and catch a flight or even people who are there in the airport?

PRIDE: Well, the travelers, people who are in the airport, are working with the airlines to try to rebook their flights or do whatever they need to do to make other arrangements.

But what we tell people every day of the year is to check your airlines probably through the website that is the best way to get the flight status and then get to the airport in a safe manner. So if you are on the train, if you're driving, they can get there at least two hours in advance because this weather is very volatile right now and I'm sure traffic on the Kennedy Expressway or other expressways is kind of tied up right now. So give yourself time to get to the airport if you -- better to wait in the terminal than to be struck in traffic and miss your flight.

WHITFIELD: Big weather system. Thank you so much, Karen Pride, of course, of Chicago, not out of the woods as yet. She is head of media relations at O'Hare and Midway Airports. Thank you so much.

We talked about Soldier Field that was evacuated right in the middle of that Bears-Ravens game. And then we understand folks were allowed back in after the threat of tornadic activity at least passed temporarily. Game is now on.

Jim Arnold has been at the game and he is with us now on the phone.

So Jim, give me an idea of what your experience was there at Soldier Field?

JIM ARNOLD, SOLDIER FIELD GAME ATTENDEE: Yes, I'm here with my 11- year-old daughter ,Sophia, and it has just been crazy for the last couple of hours.

WHITFIELD: In what way. You were evacuated?

ARNOLD: Yes. We were evacuated. We got here at noon, it was perfect. The skies looked good. It was 65 degrees and about 20 minutes later the rain started coming, the skies got black, the wind was insane and they evacuated us to -- underneath the concrete concourse.

WHITFIELD: Were you scared at that point?

ARNOLD: My daughter was terrified; I was concerned about her but we've been totally safe the whole time.

WHITFIELD: And then when they evacuated you, and the hundreds of others who were there, packing Soldier Field, where did you go? Had you ever experienced anything at Soldier Field like that before? Did you know where you were being directed?

ARNOLD: We had never been involved in anything like this. I've been to a lot of Bears games and I've sat through 15 degree-below weather. We've been through big winds, big snow, all kinds of things but never anything like this. The winds gusted at 70 miles per hour. And the winds and rain were horizontal, flying under the concrete concourse and everybody was running for the exits. It was just crazy an hour ago.

WHITFIELD: OK. And Jim, now we are looking at pictures of people who were inside the safe areas where everyone was evacuated. Folks were sitting on the concrete there, just simply waiting patiently. You got small kids, you've got adults, all kinds of patrons there.

Now are you back in the stadium, at your seat, ready for the game to resume?

ARNOLD: We are not in our seats yet. We are looking out at the field; it looks like the sun is about to come out. They're getting the field ready for the game and we are here for the duration. We will be here until the game starts up again. And hopefully all the way until the end of the game.

WHITFIELD: All right. You are a diehard rooting there for the Bears, I presume, the Bears up against the Ravens there in Soldier Field.

And we understand now that game time will resume in about 20 minutes from now.

All right, some pretty frightening moments there. But glad to be able to report now that everything's all right seemingly there at Soldier Field.

Our George Howell also there in Chicago.

So George, where are you exactly? Last we spoke, you were there near Soldier Field, where are you now?

Oh, at least you're outside now.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Fredricka, Yes, and we can actually get a live signal now. Because again, just about an hour ago, the storm clouds were so thick we weren't able to do that.

But now you can kind of -- well, you can. You can see the skyline of Chicago again and that is good news because during the storm you couldn't even see that.

And as far as the game, we know that the Bears and Ravens will be back on the field here in the next 10-15 minutes. Again, fans were told to evacuate, were told to go to lower ground. And also consider, you have so many people who come into town with those RVs, people who are ready for tailgating. That was a big concern. But we understand that everyone took shelter, got out of the way of the storm system, Fred, as it moved here into the Chicagoland area.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much. George Howell, keep us posted there. Good to see that the skies are starting to lighten up quite a bit. We heard from the one patron who talked about how dark and ominous it was for a moment. So a little hope on the horizon. Hopefully things will clear up soon. Thanks so much, George Howell.

We are going to return to our coverage of the severe weather that is impacting some 26 states across this country. In the meantime you know about that harrowing situation of that typhoon overseas in the Philippines. Well, now some brand-new video of how crushing the storm surge was from Typhoon Haiyan. Here is some of that video right now.

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WHITFIELD (voice-over): All right, incredible images there. That storm surge, those waves pushing things aside as if it were nothing.

You see the remnants of those buildings just simply crushed to nothing, destroying everything in its path.

An aid worker who was right on the coast actually shot this incredible video. We'll have stories from the survivors coming up later on in this hour.

And also new details coming right now about the health of former South African president, Nelson Mandela. His former wife, Winnie Mandela, says he is not able to talk anymore because of tubes in his mouth that are helping him to breathe. She says he uses facial expressions to communicate. She told South Africa Sunday independent newspaper that Mandela is still quite ill but he's not in critical condition and he is not on life support. The 95-year-old civil rights icon is under 24-hour medical care in his home in Johannesburg.

And we have a programming note. Be sure to watch tonight for "The Assassination of President Kennedy," this film, part of CNN's special look at the '60s, airs at 9:00 pm Eastern time.

And later on this hour you will hear from Tom Hanks, the film's producer, as he shares his memories of the day JFK was killed.

Could there be backlash if the U.S. strikes a nuclear deal with Iran? We'll hear why the defense secretary says the U.S. needs to be prepared for what Israel might do.

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WHITFIELD: Israel's reaction to a nuclear deal with Iran could put the U.S. in a difficult position. Our Barbara Starr put that question to the U.S. defense secretary.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Fred, I asked Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel straight up how worried is he if there is a U.S. led nuclear agreement with Iran that Israel might feel so isolated it would react with military force and possibly bomb Iran's suspected nuclear sites?

CHUCK HAGEL, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Well, those are realities that that the Israelis tell us, explain that to us. We understand that. I think the Iranians understand that.

STARR: Hagel insisted the U.S. won't go for what he called a bad agreement just to have an agreement. But here at a gathering of defense experts and lawmakers, at the Reagan Presidential Library, there was plenty of skepticism about an agreement with Iran and a lot of that skepticism was led by key Democrats, including Hagel's predecessor, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

LEON PANETTA, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: There are obviously a whole set of concerns that have to be addressed. What is going to happen with the enriched fuel that they've already developed?

What is going to happen with the 10,000 centrifuges that are still there?

What's going to happen with this heavy water reactor and how is all of this going to be inspected and verified?

STARR: But is "trust and verify" enough when it comes to Iran? The powerful chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee says no.

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICH.: I love the slogan "Trust, but verify," but I've never understood it because I think the right slogan is don't trust. I don't trust the Iranians. I --

(APPLAUSE)

LEVIN: -- but let me -- and by the way, they don't trust us.

STARR: So the message here at the Reagan Presidential Library was many Democrats joining with pro-defense Republicans in being skeptical of any agreement with Iran -- Fredricka.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much. Barbara Starr.

Hillary Clinton while she may not be ready to announce anything official about 2015, but she is certainly staying in the public eye.

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WHITFIELD: This is new.

All right. New images right now coming in from the upper Midwest area. Suspected tornadic activity and threats of it in that area. A huge severe weather system. And these images right here -- I'm sorry; I misunderstood.

Where are these pictures have come from?

OK, this has come from a storm chaser, Tony Lava, on the road there in central Illinois. These images right here, you can see the ominous sky. We have reported earlier that at least one -- what's believed to be at least one twister had touched the ground, hitting an area called Pecan, which is south of Peoria, Illinois.

But still confirmation has to come from the National Weather Service. But these images right here from a storm chaser have just -- how ominous the skies are, the wetness on the ground, clearly. And there were some images that we showed you earlier that we'll of course be able to rerack and show you of some of the damage on the ground in Illinois. Many houses being crushed by trees that have come down and we also saw debris from a lot of damage done to other structures as well. Of course we'll keep a watch on the Severe Weather Center as we get more information and/or more images to share with you.

Meantime let's talk about politics and the road ahead. Hillary Clinton may not be ready to announce anything official about 2016, but she is definitely staying in the public eye and she's making sure people don't forget one of her key causes.

Here is Elise Labott.

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ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred. Hillary Clinton is speaking out almost daily lately, especially about women's empowerment. With three speeches in the past week. Now she calls this the cause of her lifetime. But at a time she is coy about her political ambitions, she is also able to reach a key voting bloc.

LABOTT (voice-over): Hillary Clinton has always had one campaign.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: We are going to be about the business of making sure that those ceilings crack for every girl and every woman here and around the globe.

LABOTT (voice-over): And today, her embrace of women's rights still keeps her on the national stage.

HILLARY CLINTON: We have to stand firmly for women's rights.

LABOTT (voice-over): But Hillary Clinton and the sisterhood have a history. She came of age as the women's movement was gaining full steam.

Remember this from 1992?

I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had tea. But what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you.

LABOTT (voice-over): On the campaign trail with her husband, Hillary's brand of feminism was not everyone's cup of tea.

But in the third year of his administration she stamped her name on a cause at a women's conference in Beijing. HILLARY CLINTON: Women's rights are human rights once and for all.

LABOTT (voice-over): Her push for girl power stirred a global movement.

But not her 2008 campaign. One of the reasons she failed to attract young women in large numbers.

ANNE KORNBLUT, AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST: Hillary Clinton did not emphasize that she was a woman running for president.

LABOTT (voice-over): Anne Kornblut's book, "Notes from the Cracked Ceiling," examines Clinton's failed big for the White House.

She really shied away from that subject. There was plenty of polling data to suggest that she needed to emphasize her credentials and being tough.

LABOTT (voice-over): As secretary of state Clinton could do both, stand up to adversaries like the Chinese while advancing women's rights in Afghanistan and helping female entrepreneurs in India.

HILLARY CLINTON: What I want to do is to bring to public awareness what you are doing.

MELANNE VERVEER, GEORGETOWN INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY: The springboard for all of this is deep inside of her.

LABOTT (voice-over): Today the mission and the mantra remain the same.

HILLARY CLINTON: The great unfinished business of the 21st century is helping women and girls break through these ceilings.

LABOTT (voice-over): The question is whether this is about her unfinished business. Is she continuing the work of a lifetime?

Or using this time to build a base for 2016? Melanne Verveer, a confidant for 25 years, suggests it works either way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Politics is how you get stuff done.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is definitely how you get things done and beyond that.

Politics is a way to get things done, but it isn't to be divorced from what you are about.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LABOTT: Now women are not a monolithic force. And there remains plenty of stiff opposition to Hillary Clinton for a variety of factors. Some don't like her views on abortion; others say she doesn't represent their vision of family values.

Now electing a female president would be historic, but now Clinton must prove to her fellow women that she is the woman to make that history -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much, Elise Labott.

So if Hillary Clinton runs again in 2016, will she or any other Democrat be able to create some distance between their campaigns and the troubled ObamaCare rollout?

And will the same apply for the 2014 midterm races?

I'm joined now by CNN political commentator Hilary Rosen and Republican Strategist Rich -- you know I want to say Richie -- Rich Galen.

RICH GALEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I was geared up to call you Ricky.

WHITFIELD: That's OK. People call me that too, Freddie and Ricky.

OK, so Hilary, you first. What do you think? How long will ObamaCare haunt the Democrats?

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That was quite a segue from Hillary Clinton's political future to ObamaCare.

So let's just start out by distancing Hillary Clinton from ObamaCare. But we really don't need to. Actually I think that the ObamaCare issues are going to be long gone and by the time Democrats are running for president.

I think and I believe the opposite actually. It is going to end up being a fairly good signature program for Democrats.

After all when you look at polls for the last 20 years of people running for president, health care was always -- health concerns about health care were always number one, two or three in terms of people's top concerns. The fact that President Obama and the Democrats delivered that despite its bumps, despite its implementation problems, by the time we get to 2016, that is going to be an accomplishment.

WHITFIELD: So you really maintain that just give it time?

Richie, you agree with that? Just give it time, maybe (INAUDIBLE) will change?

(CROSSTALK)

GALEN: It might, we don't know. I could well be. But let's see, if we are going to talk about polling, let's look at the famous -- or infamous -- Quinnipiac poll from this past week.

As part of that poll, they asked in one question, who do you trust more, the president or the GOP in Congress on four issue areas?

And on health it was the president 42, Republicans 43, economics 41 and 45, immigration 40, 41, budget 40, 45. There is not an issue area -- these are all within the margin of error -- but there's not an issue area that the president is trusted more than Republicans in Congress.

And that flies in the face of this kind of -- the Democrats trying to say, no, this is going to be great, you will see.

WHITFIELD: Sure, a stark contrast because it was just months ago where clearly the president was able to gloat on how much Americans trust in him and how little trust there was in the GOP.

So, Hilary, it is a tough transition to make from Hillary Clinton, will she run, won't she run, distancing herself from ObamaCare.

But the whole point is Democrats, there has been a defection just in the past couple of days, 39 Democrats who broke ranks, so to speak, siding with the GOP House plan and many have said that that is to better position themselves for midterm elections.

You buy that?

ROSEN: Well look, Democrats that are up right now are concerned about things like primaries, are concerned about their general in 2014. They're worried. The timing is near and I think focusing for them on implementation, they're pushing the president, the president is pushing his team as quickly as possible. I still believe there is plenty of time to recover here.

And I think that this sort of -- we have so overblown in the last week the kind of dramatic downfall of the Obama presidency based on implementation of a single federal program. I just don't see it as that dramatic at all.

And I do think elections end up being about arcs and narrative arcs. So we started this year with a budget problem that we couldn't get through. The president forged a compromise right in the beginning of his term.

We are going to have another big budget battle in the next couple of months.

WHITFIELD: Right around the corner.

(CROSSTALK)

ROSEN: (INAUDIBLE) on that. And I think that, you know, by the time we get to 2014, we'll have more things to talk about in an election than just ObamaCare.

WHITFIELD: OK. Just months away.

All right, Hilary --

ROSEN: But the president, by stretching this out until next December, keeps it on the front burner by making that administrative decision, no matter what the House and Senate do. Every day somebody's going to be counting how many did you get today.

So I think it may well be there in November. ROSEN: (INAUDIBLE) today is more people have health insurance before. Let's never forget --

GALEN: No, that's not true.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much.

Rich Galen, Hilary Rosen --

GALEN: (INAUDIBLE) off the rolls.

WHITFIELD: We'll have you back. Thanks so much.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: Still a lot more ground to cover.

Meantime, millions of people in dozens of states right now facing a severe weather threat. We'll continue to watch the system now sweeping across one-third of the nation. We'll be right back.

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WHITFIELD: All right, bottom of the hour now. Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Right now extremely dangerous weather threatening more than 120 million people across 26 states. Tornadoes are moving through Illinois this hour and there are also tornado sightings in Missouri and Indiana. Just look at the damage on the ground from these images just outside of Peoria, Illinois. Cars crushed, homes also destroyed and crushed in some circumstances, more severe, intense tornadoes are possible throughout the storm zone along with large hail and strong damaging wind gusts.

About a third of the country, we understand, could be hit by this nasty weather system. Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio are at its highest risk. Several big cities in those areas, including Chicago and Indianapolis.

Meteorologist Karen Maginnis is tracking the storm from the CNN Severe Weather Center.

So, Karen, we just reports of a tornado in now Kentucky as well?

MAGINNIS: Yes. In the vicinity of Paducah and just to the north of Paducah, we have confirmed by local spotters that there was a tornado on the ground.

I'm going to take you through some radar here. So we'll look at what's happening all the way from Michigan, most of Michigan, all of Indiana into Kentucky and portions of Missouri. So this is March, much further towards the east. It's moving very fast. This is a broad-scale event. Here's the view as we look between Indiana and South Bend, where you see these purple shaded areas, those are tornado warnings currently in effect. And an area just to the north of Paducah is an area called Brookport. They've had a report of a tornado here and, indeed, they're drawing out this tornado warning much further to the east and to the northeast. It's moving to the east-northeast between 50 and 60 miles per hour. So the potential for very damaging storms across this region.

Pecan, it is a suburb of Peoria, Illinois. About 11 o'clock in the morning, that is local time, they had a tornado touch down. Widespread damage reported there, also Mound City, near Cape Girardeau, some of suburbs just to the south of Cape Girardeau.

I want to show you one of these views on Google Earth. Here is Peoria this is Pecan and kind of in a zone from Pecan just to the south of Peoria, all the way towards Washington a tornado looks like it maybe hopped, skipped and jumped across this area.

But numerous reports of some widespread damage across this region. I don't know if we have got those images available right now of Pecan. But certainly when you see these pictures, there is virtually no doubt that this was a tornado. But it'll take the National Weather Service with feet on the ground looking at the damage, looking how widespread it was, evaluating the intensity of what has happened.

Now we talked about this broad area that is going to be affected. It is shifting toward the east, it's a very dynamic situation. Where you see this purple shaded area, 19-plus million people in the high risk zone. We haven't seen anything like this evaluated as a high risk probability in the month of November for over 20 years. So damaging winds, we're looking at severe winds and the possibility of a tornado outbreak moving across this upper Ohio River Valley.

Now, Fred, we probably received hundreds of reports of tornadoes being sighted or Doppler radar indicated. But so far officially we have reports of 38 reports of tornadoes. And as I mentioned, they will get boots on the ground and take a look at this. It is moving towards the east. So if you are viewing this in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio into Tennessee, watch out for the potential for severe weather as we go through the afternoon.

And just to give you an idea in Chicago they told people who were in the stadium to leave the stadium during the Chicago Bears game there. So about 30 minutes, they were looking at the potential for damaging storms.

There are those severe thunderstorm watches out, severe thunderstorm warnings out. Those are local areas. But it is the severe -- it is the tornado warnings that we are looking at, and right now from Michigan through Indiana, through Ohio, through Kentucky and that southeastern corner of Missouri, that's where we are looking at the potential for tornadic activity. Just to remind folks, I know you've asked me this before, Fred, a watch means you have the potential. There are the conditions right for tornadic activity. A warning means that something is imminent. Either it has been indicated by Doppler radar or it has been spotted by storm spotters, National Weather Service folks or by the public or law enforcement and that means you need to take cover.

One other thing, I need to mention this, and that is I don't know how many reports I've seen today of trailers tipped over. We don't know if they were occupied. Hopefully people left. Here you can see what looks to be the storm chasing videos.

WHITFIELD: You are talking about mobile home trailers when you talk about trailers?

MAGINNIS: Yes, mobile home trailers.

Fred, I'll send it back to you now.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much. Of course those images are pretty riveting there. Let's talk more about how Chicago has been impacted, one of the bigger cities that's in the middle of this severe weather system that is sweeping across the nation here, as Karen was outlining there.

So Chicago they had a football game going on there, at Soldier Field, the Bears against the Ravens; it was temporarily suspended. People were evacuated out of the bleacher section, just sent to a protective area right here within the confines of the stadium.

And then we understand they have been able to go back into the stadium where the game has resumed.

Gary Schenkel is the executive director for the Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications. We talked last hour, Gary, you talked about while it appears as though the sky is a little bit bluer now, and it doesn't seem as potentially dangerous or threatening as it was hours ago, you are still asking people to be careful because the severe weather system is still turning up potentially dangerous weather.

How are you reaching --

GARY SCHENKEL, CHICAGO OFFICE OF EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT & COMMUNICATIONS: You're absolutely correct. We have seen these weather extremes now over the last several months, or actually over this last year. So we cannot take anything for granted. So we continually have to keep our guard up.

WHITFIELD: And what is the message that you are conveying to Chicagoans?

SCHENKEL: Well, we have always been very proactive on the preparedness side here in this city. We run drills constantly, we put out messages on preparedness. We have got an Alert Chicago webpage that tells people how to have and prepare for emergency plans for their own families, for contact information and communicating with each other.

And we have got a very supportive mayor who let us -- who encourages us here, with the fire police and OEMC, the Office of Emergency Management here. We constantly run drills. We coordinate with the event coordinators like at Soldier Field also.

We try and be as prepared as we possibly can but at the same time we never take anything for granted.

WHITFIELD: We understand at Soldier Field there, the Bears-Ravens game has just resumed. Meantime, we are looking at this live shot right now of a busy Chicago street, and it looks like everyone is just kind of doing their thing. Traffic has resumed as normal, people are on the sidewalks.

Do you feel like folks should be letting their guard down?

SCHENKEL: I think they shouldn't let the weather scare them away. At the same time, we do these things on a regular basis. Our operation center runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And we had 84 streets flooded and a few basements. But overall, we are a pretty resilient city and we get back to normal as quickly as we can.

WHITFIELD: OK. Gary Schenkel, thank you so much, of the Office of Emergency Management and Communication out of Chicago, thanks so much.

We are going to take a short break and we do, you are looking at live pictures right now of a storm chaser in Indiana. And you can see those dark clouds, Indiana also in the crosshairs of this potentially dangerous weather system. We will be right back.

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WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. We are keeping a close watch on a dangerous weather system threatening millions of people over a third of the country, the Midwest and parts of the South are getting hit right now. Tornadoes are moving through Illinois. We understand and there are also reports of tornadoes in Missouri, Indiana and Kentucky.

And these are images of some of the damage in the town of Washington, Illinois, near Peoria, devastating, homes and cars, simply destroyed there and some people were reportedly injured.

For more now on the storm, let's go to Jim Ardis. He's the mayor of Peoria and he's joining us right now by phone.

So Mr. Mayor, how is your community holding up?

MAYOR JIM ARDIS, PEORIA, ILLINOIS: Well, Fredricka, we were very blessed that this storm didn't-- the tornado part of it, at least, didn't touch down in our town. We had some areas with some wind and some water damage, but nothing like our friends across the river in Washington.

WHITFIELD: In what way will you be able help out the folks there in Washington as we look at the images of cars toppled and crushed and presumably what used to be buildings?

ARDIS: Well, we have already mobilized a good number of our police and fire, first responders. And they were dispatched over there a couple of hours ago, right after the tornado hit. We are in the process of mobilizing people from our public works department and we're sending over backhoes and bulldozers and dump trucks to help them move debris so they can get to any places that they still need to get to and to get some of the streets opened up.

WHITFIELD: Now do you have sirens or some other kind of warning systems in your area for folks to take cover, to know that this kind of threatening weather is imminent or in their path?

ARDIS: Absolutely. We had the sirens going off. I think everybody that I've talked to certainly knew that this storm was coming, but it hit so fast, and that the area of Washington that it went through is just a very densely populated neighborhood. And, well, you can see the pictures, it is just -- it's absolutely unbelievable.

WHITFIELD: It is devastating, you said you are going to be assisting the city of Washington with some resource. Now what about shelters? Would you be able to open up some shelters in your area to help the many displaced of your neighbors?

ARDIS: Yes, we are, we're working in coordination with their emergency response people over there and we're getting resources, not just the shelters but also food and clothing and water and that type of thing lined up.

WHITFIELD: OK. Mayor Jim Ardis, thanks so much. I know the folks there in Washington are going to be greatly appreciative of your help.

These images now coming from Washington, Illinois, hard hit by what appears to have been a tornado. Thank you so much for the mayor of Peoria, a neighbor to Washington, for joining us.

We'll have much more from the NEWSROOM right after this.

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WHITFIELD: A dangerous weather system is sweeping across 26 U.S. states right now. And, in the crosshairs of some tornadic activity, cities right around big cities like Chicago and Indianapolis and even Detroit. Right now, you're looking at some storm chaser images, live images, not far from Indianapolis.

You see the ominous skies here. This is just outside of Advance, Indiana, which is not too far away from Indianapolis. We've got a storm chaser with us right now who's in that vehicle, Tony Lauback.

So, Tony, give us an idea of what you're seeing, what you've been experiencing. We're seeing the dark clouds. But what else has come with that?

TONY LAUBACK, STORM CHASER: We actually have a tornado on the ground just outside of Lebanon, Indiana. I'm trying to get a video camera on it as we speak here.

Give me just a second.

Yes, we've got a tornado on the ground just outside of Lebanon, Indiana. It's been on the ground for about three or four minutes. It's kind of been periodically touching down; it's hard to see. It's kind of off in the distance. These storms have been moving so fast today, it's been hard to keep up. But this one just touched down outside of Advance. It's moved very quickly just to the south of Lebanon. And it's continuing to the east of Lebanon.

WHITFIELD: And as you've been traveling, what areas have you been passing through?

I mean, you literally are looking at the sky and seeing the formation of these clouds and you're heading right toward danger. But along the way, what have you been seeing?

LAUBACK: Well, we were on storms near Bloomington and Normal, Illinois, developing tornadoes, very close to us, actually dropped some baseball sized hail. We intercepted another tornadic storm just outside of Bloomington. And we've just been kind of working our way down 74-72. Like I said, these storms have been moving so incredibly fast, you just kind of have to -- you catch them, you let them go and then you move on to the next one down the line. This is actually our fifth storm intercept today and our actually yielded our first tornado we've seen.

WHITFIELD: So there's been a lot of hail, a lot of wind and now what about the residents? I mean, in this shot that we're seeing right now, we don't even see a structure. So how remote of an area is this?

LAUBACK: This is a pretty remote area. Like I said, we're about two miles south of the town of Lebanon now. Fortunately, this tornado looks to have passed in a pretty open area and missed Lebanon. So it did have a very good debris plume when it first formed. But it looks like, at least from what we've seen, it has not hit any structures yet.

WHITFIELD: And in some of areas where you were traveling, where it was somewhat populated, did it seem as though people were going about their business or did it seem as though they were taking these warnings seriously, staying indoors, going into storm shelters, what?

LAUBACK: Well, a lot of people were out and about. We saw them in some of the populated areas. A lot of people still using overpasses as shelters, folks, you really should not be doing that. We actually had several instances where the interstates were blocked completely and we had to take side roads to get around. So we stress that the overpasses are not the place to hide. I know when big hail starts falling, it's the first thing everybody wants to do is they try to cover their vehicles. But all you ended up doing was blocking traffic and left a lot of people out in the open. Fortunately, the ones that we saw were not impacting those areas at the time, so a lot of people got very lucky. WHITFIELD: All right. All good advice. Thanks so much. Tony Lauback, storm chaser. I think we're going to take a short break and you're going to stick with us?

All right, so we're going to check back with you in a moment and get another perspective from you right after this.

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