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Tornado Devastates Illinois City; George Zimmerman Arrested

Aired November 18, 2013 - 15:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Don, thank you so much.

I'm Brooke Baldwin live here in this massive debris field, the destruction surrounding me here in a city in ruins. This is Washington, Illinois, I mean, hundreds without homes. I was talking to the mayor not too long ago, and he told me more than 400 homes totally gone, including the scene behind me.

Take the other camera, guys, and you can see there are cars in the midst of this debris field, this one car, the windshield absolutely shattered. The issue here, there are many, many boards, and boards have nails.

And with the winds today, everyone is being incredibly strict, as they should be, to keep people out, to be very, very careful, because it is incredibly dangerous, as we have been watching family members trying to pick up whatever pieces remain of their homes that are absolutely gone.

And when we talk about the strength of this tornado, let me tell you this. The National Weather Service, they have now officially confirmed that the tornado that ripped through this area and much of Washington here, it has been confirmed as an EF-4 tornado.

So those top wind speeds were up to 190 miles per hour. Here in Illinois took the brunt of the string of tornadoes that absolutely wreaked havoc in communities across the Midwest. In total, the latest number we have as you look at the map, the number we have as far as deaths still stands at six.

The timing, though, may have been a blessing. When you think of this tornado and you think other tornadoes hitting in the middle of the week, people out on their work days, kids in schools, this happened when many people were sitting in church on Sunday morning.

The governors of Indiana and Illinois, they're on the ground in these states today. Governor Pat Quinn here in Illinois was just touring Washington, touring these hardest-hit areas. But in neighboring Indiana, the governor there, Mike Pence, he talked earlier outside of this fire station. He talked about the homes that were destroyed in the storms, and he talked about a word, I tell you, we're hearing more and more now, that word being resilience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), INDIANA: It's in the bone marrow of every Hoosier and it's to want to help in times of need. And it's one of the great things about our state. And as we traveled around already in neighborhoods that we visited, there are people that are volunteering and rendering assistance. And I would just encourage Hoosiers to take the opportunity to support organizations that are providing relief and assistance like the Red Cross, but also follow media reports about how they might help individual organizations that have been affected.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So that was Governor Mike Pence in Indiana earlier today.

And just to give you the lay of the land, where I'm standing here, this is Washington, Illinois. It's just about 150 miles southwest of Chicago. So this morning, when I hopped off the plane en route to where you see me now, I wanted to tell other stories, not just of these folks here in Washington.

We stopped by in this town by the name of Diamond. It's just about halfway between here and Chicago. And I was going sort of from home to home, and I met this family. I met this mother with really this incredible story of survival. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Standing in -- what was this?

DANIELLE CASSANI, TORNADO SURVIVOR: This was my formal living room, entryway.

BALDWIN: Formal living room, now covered with -- what is this? Insulation?

CASSANI: Which I have been told we were lucky that we had this type of insulation than fiberglass because it's easier to clean up. It's newspaper. It's blown in insulation.

BALDWIN: Wow. Take me upstairs.

CASSANI: All right.

BALDWIN: And as we look up and go upstairs, there's the beautiful blue sky.

CASSANI: Mm-hmm.

BALDWIN: What did the sky look like right around this time yesterday? Clear?

CASSANI: I don't know. I had -- my kids were in five different directions.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You are a busy mom. CASSANI: I wasn't really paying attention. We had gone to where I called him to tell him to come home because the storms were coming. My best friend called and said stay home, they're headed your way.

BALDWIN: You stayed home.

(CROSSTALK)

CASSANI: We were headed to gardener to go do a vendor show for my daughter.

BALDWIN: It was a busy Sunday for the family.

CASSANI: Yes, so I really didn't really look outside all that much.

BALDWIN: Yes. This is your?

CASSANI: This is my bedroom.

BALDWIN: Can we walk in?

CASSANI: Yes.

BALDWIN: And this is what is left. Your husband was joking that you now have a full skylight. You all can crack a joke, not even 24 hours later. How is that possible? Does it feel real?

CASSANI: I'm numb. Numb. I have breakdowns every time I walk in here.

BALDWIN: Because?

CASSANI: This was my closet.

BALDWIN: Watch out for nails. So this was full of clothes.

CASSANI: We had a tremendous amount of people. And I thank everybody that came to help us because we couldn't have done it without them. They moved us out.

BALDWIN: It's so emotional because -- is it a total loss?

CASSANI: I would say so. I had water in my basement when we were down there waiting for people to come get us, because we weren't sure. My fire alarms were going off up here, so I didn't know if there was a -- we didn't know what was going on. We had no idea.

BALDWIN: How do you explain to people who have never been through a tornado, let alone heard a tornado siren, what it is to live through it?

CASSANI: There's no words.

I mean, it's complete devastation. Just trying to keep yourself OK for your kids, because your kids are -- you have no idea what they're thinking. I know what was coming. You know, you're trying to say it's going to be OK. We're going to be OK. I don't know.

Right about 12:15 is when I went down into the basement. It was about then. And then I heard the sirens going off. And then I heard stuff hit my -- my daughter was in the -- she has a room down in our basement, and I heard it hit the window. And I'm like that's -- and we got all in a corner.

BALDWIN: That's it. You knew.

CASSANI: In that corner, I just put -- we all huddled together, we put blankets over our heads. My little one was praying.

BALDWIN: What were you doing?

CASSANI: Just telling them (INAUDIBLE) we're going to get through this .

BALDWIN: How do you get through this?

CASSANI: I don't know. I have no idea. I haven't really done anything because I just walk around. I don't know what to do. I don't know where to start. I don't know.

BALDWIN: What was the most -- I mean, take me back to yesterday. The most frightening part for you as a mom?

CASSANI: The frightening part is telling your kids that you're going to be OK and you're not sure.

BALDWIN: You weren't sure?

CASSANI: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next time a storm comes, what do you tell them?

CASSANI: Yes. What do you tell them when a storm comes tomorrow or a week later? They're never going to feel safe.

BALDWIN: Why does that break you up to most to talk about your kids?

CASSANI: Yes. It's awful. They have no place.

I mean, I woke up this morning. My husband is on the news calling your -- we're homeless. I keep thinking I'm going to wake up and this is just a bad dream. This stuff doesn't happen to us. It happens to other people, not me. I just -- not that I wish it on anybody else, but I just never thought it would ever, ever, ever happen to me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first thing we did after it happened was got the Christmas presents out that we had already bought. You know?

CASSANI: So, my kids can have a Christmas.

BALDWIN: You got the presents out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were in our closet.

BALDWIN: So, let me ask you, what do you mean, you came over? What do you mean you got the Christmas presents out? You guys are down here, the tornado is hitting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After we got out and got the kids out, we went upstairs and got the Christmas presents out. They have to have Christmas. Right?

BALDWIN: You saved them or gave them to them after the tornado?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no, we saved them.

(LAUGHTER)

BALDWIN: You saved them. You saved them. Why does that make you teary-eyed?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. It's just -- they're kids.

CASSANI: I this is our home and holidays were our favorite.

BALDWIN: Holidays are a big deal?

CASSANI: We had 25 people coming for Thanksgiving. Danny's sister is going to be home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From California.

(CROSSTALK)

CASSANI: For the first year in 11 years. They were coming here for Christmas.

BALDWIN: So what do you do for Thanksgiving instead? I have a feeling some other people will open their homes to you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes.

BALDWIN: But it's tough, I can tell. You're a mom, you're a host.

CASSANI: Yes. It's what I like to do. I like to entertain.

BALDWIN: What do you want people to know about folks here who have lost, who won't be able to host for Thanksgiving, but whose lives are intact?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will be all right. We will make it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: They will be all right. They realize what's most important, their lives, the lives of their children. You could just see in her eyes walking through that mother's home just the hurt and the worry in explaining how this will be for her 9-year-old daughter in the days to come with her home and everything she's known gone. If you would like to help the victims of these Midwest tornadoes, go to CNN.com/impact.

Don, it is incredible, the outpouring of support here in cities like Washington, Illinois, but these folks, judging by what I'm seeing around me, they're going to be needing help for months to come.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, months, and they are resilient, though. They are resilient, and the whole world is praying for them. Thank you, Brooke.

We will get to our Brooke Baldwin in just a moment.

We have some developing news. This is just into CNN. We're learning that George Zimmerman, the man acquitted of murder in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, has been arrested today in Florida. Just getting in his mug shot. There it is right there. Deputies responding to a disturbance call in Apopka, Florida. Zimmerman has been booked at the Seminole County Correctional Facility.

CNN has just obtained, as I just said, there is his mug shot. No further details about the arrest have been released at this moment, but it's another brush with the law for George Zimmerman.

HLN's Jane Velez-Mitchell here with me now.

This guy can't stay out of a police station.

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HLN ANCHOR: It's absolutely incredible, Don. Take a look at the mug shot. He looks so different. He's got all that facial hair.

Now, what's very interesting about this man is that long before he shot and killed Trayvon Martin, he had run-ins with authorities. He got into a dust-up with a cop years earlier where he said, well, you were trying to arrest my friend. He was accused of underaged drinking. I was just defending. He always has an excuse.

An ex-fiancee, many years ago, back in 2005 approximately, filed for a restraining order against him. What did he do? He filed for a restraining order against her. He always has an excuse. Then after killing Trayvon Martin, he had many incidents, the most recent with Shellie, his estranged, presumably soon to be ex-wife.

At that time when cops arrived on the scene and, of course, the whole world watched as the aerial shots showed him and her there. There was the smashed iPod, and there was also this other woman who appeared sort of in the periphery of the aerials. And remember, Shellie said, oh, my God. It's another woman.

We have to wonder, does this incident he's being arrested for now involve another woman, possibly even that other woman? We don't know.

LEMON: What is the video we were looking at? Is this just the video of the scene that we had up? There was some video on the wall here. But, anyway, the mug shot is up now, but there was just some video. And I was wondering if that was the home where he was taken into custody.

Yes, OK, here it is. This is from earlier from affiliate WKMG. But apparently, this must be the home where George Zimmerman was arrested after this disturbance call. Yes, you're right. And here's the interesting thing to me. I remember one of the witnesses specifically saying it appears George Zimmerman kept his cool throughout the confrontation and Trayvon Martin lost his cool.

But if you look back at the pattern...

VELEZ-MITCHELL: He's got a pattern.

And it would appear that he's got issues, possibly temper issues. Now, what's interesting is that Shellie, his estranged wife, said he feels invincible following the acquittal. But another relative of his said, no, he's filled with self-hatred and he's subconsciously looking to be punished. That's what I can't figure out. Does he feel invincible, I can do anything I want because I got away with something, or does he feel guilt and shame and is acting out in the hopes of being punished? It may be a combination of both of them.

LEMON: Yes, well, and it could be a combination of both of them or none of them. It could just be what we call karma. Karma is a female dog, as they say, right? So, no matter what you do, if you feel invincible or it's self-hatred, no matter what, the universe will take care of things.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: But, remember, Don, during the trial, we talked about his pattern even within the complex where he lived where he appeared to be a busybody, often coming in on the pretext of helping someone, but getting very involved in other people's lives.

So this may be really a psychological issue with him where he just can't sort of leave it alone where he's got maybe a combination of psychological problems and a temper problem.

LEMON: Yes, and we don't know exactly what transpired. Again, still the details are still coming in. We're waiting to hear from the Seminole County authorities, but George Zimmerman has been arrested this afternoon again in Florida. Jane Velez-Mitchell, you will be covering the story tonight, HLN 7:00, every night on HLN.

Thank you, Jane. We really appreciate it, appreciate you joining us.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Up next here, an alarming case in North Carolina. Foster parents accused of the unthinkable. Police found an 11-year-old tied up, a dead chicken around his neck. Now the child's aunt is speaking out. She says there were other shocking punishments. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We're live today in Washington, Illinois. I just wanted to start by showing you at this hour family members, folks who have lost homes, facing utter devastation, are now combing through, sifting through the piles of wreckage, being very, very careful where they walk, as there are many electrical wires.

There are nails through all of this, trying to find those mementos, as we have been talking to people trying to find those photographs, the jewelry, pieces that remain. But everything behind me here is a total loss.

I'm standing next to my colleague, Ted Rowlands, who has been here working, talking to people, including, what, a 78-year-old woman?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A 78-year-old woman, yes, Mary Kail.

Brooke, I tell you, you talk to people after these things and they always move you, but this woman. We just left St. Francis Hospital in Peoria. And this woman is quite a fighter. She made it through the tornado and she talked about not only the tornado itself but then enduring the aftermath, getting herself to a hospital with the help of family. And then her heart actually stopped when she got to the hospital because she lost so much blood. Take a listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY KAIL, SURVIVOR: I could see the tornado was starting to come down.

And then debris started flying, so we quick ran in the house, grabbed the flashlights, got downstairs in the basement. I was the first to go onto the steps. Then all of the hard rain and winds and heard the train whistle go. And then about that fast, it was over.

All of a sudden, my legs felt like they were paralyzed. And they hurt something terrible. And then I guess my heart stopped. I kept praying. And they put the paddles on me, and I snapped out of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Oh, my goodness.

ROWLANDS: Yes. Snapped out of it. Snapped back to life, a broken nose. Lost a lot of blood. She had bruises all over her body, but she lived to tell it.

And she prayed throughout the whole thing, says that's what got her through. We will have her whole story tonight on "ERIN BURNETT," but just a fascinating story of survival.

BALDWIN: That is incredibly daunting and incredibly -- it's amazing she made it and she's talking to you from her hospital bed. Ted Rowlands, we will look for you at 7:00 eastern with Erin. Thank you very much.

And, Don Lemon, you have covered tornadoes, you have covered these epic disasters, just as I have. It really is incredible to talk to these people who survived through -- especially 78. Her heart stopped. You know, and just finding these people in the hours afterwards, it's pretty stunning. LEMON: It doesn't seem real. And quite honestly, I'm not speaking for you. Sometimes I'm almost embarrassed to stand here because here I have everything, I have got my home, I have got -- and these people are coming back many times as we're doing live shots, and they're looking for anything that they might own in the wreckage, in the aftermath. It's just unbelievable, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes.

LEMON: Yes, all right, Brooke, thank you.

We will get back. You're not on this weekend, and this story broke this weekend. It's horrific. North Carolina sheriff's deputies say they found a house of filth, an 11-year-old boy handcuffed to a porch with a dead chicken around his neck. The person who allegedly did this, his foster parents.

Authorities arrested Dorian Lee Harper and his partner, Wanda Sue Larson, on Friday. Investigators say what is doubly troubling is that Larson is a county social services worker. Officials removed the boy and four other adopted children from the home. Larson and Harper face charges of child abuse, false imprisonment and animal cruelty.

CNN's Nick Valencia reports from Monroe, North Carolina, where he spoke with the 11-year-old's biological aunt.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, I was in the courtroom earlier this morning when the two suspects made their initial court appearance. They showed very little emotion and didn't speak other to say they wanted the court to appoint them an attorney. They're being held on multiple charges and about $500,000 bond respectively.

We should give you an update on those five children removed from the home. They have been taken out of Union County and put in the custody of social services. They were removed from this area because of a conflict of interest. As we have been reporting, the adoptive mothers in this case, Wanda Sue Larson, she is a supervisor at social services. That's a detail that has disgusted so many people here and shocked the biological aunt of three of the children in the home.

I spoke to her earlier and she talked to me about an exchange she had with one of the children who explained to her the culture of punishment inside the household.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CINDY ROBBINS, AUNT: If you come to the table late, you're not allowed but half of your plate of food. Then you do not get the next meal. If you do not do your chores or listen to her, then you do not get your meals that day.

If you do not finish your homework on time, then you're the therefore not allowed to leave their room. They were put inside their room and chained in there.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VALENCIA: As part of their investigation, sheriff deputies talked to some of the children inside the home, and they said the 11-year-old was customarily handcuffed to a piece of railroad in a room inside that household.

In light of these developments, in light of the position that Wanda Sue Larson had at the department of social services, there's been a handful of people to come out here and demonstrate, asking for their cases that were handled by Larson to be reviewed, people like this group behind me here. They are alleging corruption within the department of social services and beyond. We have reached out to the department of social services to ask if they're investigating. They say they are and they will get back to us -- Don.

LEMON: All right, Nick Valencia, thank you very much for that. Another feisty hearing in Toronto as the city council discussing what to do about the embattled mayor.

Plus, his new TV show debuts tonight. We have a sneak peek of that, and remarkable pictures of the devastation left behind by the deadly tornadoes in the Midwest. You will hear from the man who took those photos coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back. I'm Brooke Baldwin live here in Washington, Illinois.

You can see just the utter destruction behind me here in the city of Washington, population roughly 15,000. Just talking to the mayor about 400 homes absolutely gone, including this entire neighborhood behind me. Gone. This is Illinois. The story in Indiana is similar. The damage, much of it, just as frightening and severe.

I want to bring in CNN iReporter Kris Crigler, who is on the phone with me right now.

Kris, you are in Lebanon, Indiana. You're a truck driver, and you happened to be parked at this truck stop overnight when you start hearing these alerts on Sunday morning. Tell me what you saw and heard.

KRIS CRIGLER, SURVIVOR: I got an alert on my cell phone that told me to take cover.

And I didn't think much of it until I saw some other drivers jumping out of their trucks to take cover. And I look out of my driver's side window, and I see a huge debris cloud. And for whatever reason, I just grabbed my camera and started taking pictures.

But when it got to the point where I -- OK, this is getting way too close, I took cover between the driver and passenger seats. And I was praying for my life, and it was my daughter's birthday yesterday, so really hard that I wasn't home, number one, and, you know, everything going on around me. So it was just a very difficult time.

But I got through unhurt, thank God.

BALDWIN: At least -- yes, like you're say saying, at least you're OK and you get to go home to your daughter eventually. We're looking, Kris, at these pictures that you shared with us through iReport.

Tell me of everything that you saw and experienced yesterday in Indiana, what was the one image that really stays with you?

CRIGLER: Really the people helping. The truck that got pulled out of the parking lot that I was in flipped over and ended up facing in the wrong direction.

The people were just immediately there to help, gathering belongings. They actually had dogs that were missing. I'm not sure if they recovered all of them, but it was good to see how quickly people were there to help, right after such a devastating event. It was really good to see that.

BALDWIN: So many -- yes, so many people helping in the minutes after and here, 24 hours after.

Kris Crigler, thank you so much for sharing your pictures with us, with CNN and iReport. We appreciate you very much, and safe travels home and to see your daughter and finally wish her a happy birthday.

Coming up next: The secretary of education makes some comments that have some people absolutely outraged. He's calling out -- quote -- "white suburban moms." Wait until you hear what he said about their children and how some are responding to that. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)