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Sudan Rescue Attempt Failed; Wacky Weather Disrupting Holiday Travel; Missing Five Year Old

Aired December 21, 2013 - 16:00   ET

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

ROSA FLORES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, my name is Rosa Flores and I'm live in Atlanta. Thank you so much for spending part of your Saturday with me.

I want to tell you about two developing stories we're following right now. First, a rescue attempt gone wrong in south Sudan today. U.S. aircraft came under fire and four service members were injured. They were trying to evacuate some three dozen Americans from the violence- torn area, and on the first day of winter a storm sweeps across the nation at the worst time possible, rain, ice, and snow hit at the same time millions of Americans hit the roads.

Let's begin with south Sudan right now. The four U.S. service members wounded in that first rescue effort are said to be in stable condition, but the fate of about three dozen Americans working for the United Nations in south Sudan remains a question.

For now the president is keeping an eye on things while on vacation. Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is covering the operation to rescue those Americans while Athena Jones is with the president in Honolulu. And, Athena, I want to start with you, how are they keeping the president in the loop in these conditions?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Rosa. Good afternoon. Well, of course, the president is always president even on vacation, and we know from a statement put out just in the last hour that upon landing here in Honolulu overnight, the president was briefed immediately upon landing about the status of those four wounded American service members. And this morning his principals, Susan Rice, his national security adviser, and his deputy national security advisers had a muting, and then they called him, had a secure call with the president to give him yet another update on the situation.

He is urging the government, the leaders of south Sudan, saying it is their responsibility to help secure the American citizens there and he's asked his team back in Washington to keep him constantly updated and we're certain that he will. This, of course, comes as you mentioned as the American service members were trying to get about three dozen American citizens working for the U.N. out of south Sudan. That went wrong.

They're going to continue to attempt to do that and, of course, there's ongoing violence in that region. Just yesterday secretary of state John Kerry put out a statement saying that the U.S. strongly condemns attacks on the United Nations mission there in south Sudan. So this is in the midst of a lot of violence going on in that region. The president is keeping close tabs and directing his national security staff to keep him updated, Rosa?

FLORES: And, Barbara, now to you, did this attack by any chance take the military by surprise?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, when they go into these situations, they always know they're facing the possibility of violence and they're prepared for it. But what happened here does not happen that often. Three U.S. military aircraft trying to land in this very remote area, very violent area of south Sudan, and they came under ground fire, small arms fire from the ground. All three aircraft are hit.

One sustaining serious damage, four service members injured - pardon me, three service members injured, one seriously. So, this is - this does not happen that often. The question now, if the violence is so bad, what do they do about it? How do they go back in there and get the American civilians out of there?

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dempsey, talking about this throughout the day we're told, talking to their commanders, trying to look for a solution, working with the State Department. And there's some potential options that might turn to the United Nations, for example. But the violence is so bad in this area that a short time ago the State Department put out an advisory saying no more U.S. government sponsored flights will be going into this area to try and bring Americans out. It's just too dangerous for now. Rosa?

FLORES: Athena, Barbara, thank you so much.

And now we move on to the other developing story dangerous storms could be a real grinch for people trying to start their holiday travel. More than 94 million people are expected to hit the highways over the next few days with ice and snow already causing delays on the road and on the air. A wintry mix falling in Oklahoma City and ice storm warning is in effect until tomorrow morning.

The deep freeze in the midwest expected to shift to the northeast tomorrow. But in the south, warm temperatures. Corresponding severe weather watches, heavy rain, tornadoes and thunderstorms are also possible. This video from a violent storm that ripped through Edwards, Mississippi, last night. We've got all of the angles of this potential travel nightmare covered.

Our Nick Valencia is live in Kansas City, but I want to begin with meteorologist Jennifer Gray here in Atlanta in the severe weather center. Jennifer, it seems like the weather is really wacky right now.

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is. It is really wacky. Good word for it. And we are looking at a lot of flooding right now, not only the severe weather. We've had ice. We've had snow. And we're dealing with flooding right now, anywhere from portions of Indiana to Kentucky, even Arkansas, through Little Rock, Truman, Paducah, even Evansville, we've seen quite a bit of flooding anywhere from two to four inches of rain and an additional two to four inches are possible.

It's what you call training showers which means they just keep going over and over the same locations and they're not making much forward progress, so the same areas are getting rain for several hours and so it's producing flash flooding in those areas. Evansville has been one of the harder-hit areas where they've received more than two to four inches of rain. And we're going to continue to see it come down in that area as we go through the next several hours.

So, taking a look at the rainfall reports, first off, we've seen almost six inches of rain and Truman, Arkansas, almost six inches as well and Macon, Arkansas, almost five inches of rain, so quite a bit has fallen and more is to come in the next couple of hours. Rosa?

FLORES: Jennifer, stay there with us. We're going to get back to you in just a moment.

But let's head out to Kansas City where they could get three to six inches of snow before this storm moves through. Nick Valencia is out there, and, Nick, set the scene for us.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's very cold here right now. It's about 21 degrees, Rosa, but it really feels a lot more like 12 degrees. State officials we've talked to, they say they prepared for this and long before we got here airport officials put out this ice, I'm sorry - salt in preparation for freezing rain, ice, sleet, snow in this area.

Road conditions are very sleek and we've seen states like Iowa have issue, Oklahoma have issues here and Missouri as well interstate 44 is a big issue. Let's talk about those flight cancellations. Just a little while ago we spoke to Delta and they canceled three flights impacting Cincinnati, Minneapolis and Memphis.

So, this weather although it doesn't look as bad as it could be, officials do expect it to get much worse as the day progresses, Rosa?

FLORES: All right, Nick Valencia, live for us in Kansas City, thank you so much.

Now, I want to go back to Jennifer Gray. Jennifer, a lot of people traveling for the holidays. Will this impact their travel plans?

GRAY: Of course. We're going to see travel delays anywhere from Oklahoma City all the way through Chicago. We're going to see slowdowns all up and down the east coast as well as we go through tomorrow as well. Most of the ground delays right now aren't associated with the weather.

However, you can expect as we go through the afternoon today and especially into tomorrow, we'll definitely see some travel delays, so just be patient. Right now we do have tornado watches in effect. One until 6:00 p.m. Central Time. This one up on the top including Memphis, that is in place until 8:00 p.m. Central Time.

And so we are going to see the possibility of isolated tornadoes, damaging winds, and right now we have the threat of severe thunderstorms. In each one of these little orange boxes anywhere from East Texas through northwest Louisiana, into Arkansas, those are all severe thunderstorm warnings. And so those storms are packing winds of about 60 miles per hour. They're all moving to the east at about 35 miles per hour. So, this is a dangerous storm system and we're going to be watching the Deep South all throughout the rest of the evening, Rosa?

FLORES: Jennifer, thank you so much.

And we switch gears to this - four men have been arrested in connection with a fatal carjacking at a mall in New Jersey. Local authorities worked alongside the FBI and U.S. marshals to track down the men that are accused of shooting and killing a young attorney while his wife watched in horror. The incident occurred six days ago inside a mall parking deck. At a news conference this morning authorities applauded the public for helping in this particular case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL FISHMAN, U.S. ATTORNEY: You have the right to be safe and the expectation that you should be safe in this county and in the state of New Jersey. And in particular you shouldn't have to worry that wherever you go, whether it's in downtown Newark or the Shore Hills Mall or anywhere else, that someone will put a gun to your head and take your car.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: The men are charged with murder and could face life in prison if found guilty.

And still ahead, a five-year-old boy disappears and it goes unreported for more than - hear this - three months. The details just ahead.

Plus, an emergency space walk outside the International Space Station. We'll tell you what the astronauts were doing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: A five-year-old Massachusetts boy hasn't been seen in months but the search to find him didn't even begin until last week. Police say five-year-old Jeremiah Oliver has been missing since September 14th and now his mother and her boyfriend are in custody facing child endangerment charges, but how could this happen especially when this child was supposed to be receiving monthly visits from a state- provided social worker? Well, turns out Jeremiah wasn't getting those visits. Here's Julie Loncich from CNN affiliate, WCVB.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH EARLY JR., WORCESTER COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: We are treating this as a potential homicide.

JULIE LONCICH, REPORTER WCVB (voice-over): He's been missing for three months. But authorities say whatever happened to five-year-old Jeremiah Oliver is news to them only now. The Worcester County DA said the child's seven-year-old sister revealed some disturbing information last Friday.

EARLY: His sister, we believe his biological sister, disclosed this information to a teacher at school.

LONCICH: Relatives tell police they haven't seen the boy since September 14th. Police searched the child's Pittsburgh home here on Kimball Street before arresting 28-year-old Elsa Oliver his mother and her 22-year-old boyfriend, Alberto Sierra. Neither is talking. Next- door neighbors say they've noticed an odor for months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She say the - how you say, the basement right on the downstairs, it smell bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.

LONCICH: Jeremiah Oliver's mother faces multiple charges and according to officials won't say where her son is. Her boyfriend is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon on a child, causing bodily injury. The DA says he believes both Jeremiah and his sister are victims of the alleged abuse. Neighbors are horrified.

GLORY GONZALEZ, NEIGHBOR: I'm just surprised it took so long for someone to speak up.

ADA SANTOS, NEIGHBOR: It's very upsetting. I mean, it's kids. Who would want to harm a child?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: And in the next hour, who should be held accountable in Jeremiah's disappearance? I'll talk with a former prosecutor and a psychologist about what some say is a growing concern in many American cities.

And now to this - you may know him as the astronaut who re-created David Bowie's Space Oddity from space, but Commander Chris Hadfield also had a deal with an emergency space walk during his mission.

Next, we'll weigh in on today's efforts to fix the leak on the International Space Station. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: A short time ago astronauts wrapped up a 5 1/2-hour space walk to make emergency repairs at the International Space Station. It's the first of three scheduled space walks to fix the cooling system. And today's session went quicker than expected. Astronaut Chris Hadfield is very familiar with these emergency space walks. This past May he took this photo from the space station as two of his crew members successfully fixed an ammonia leak.

Now, Commander Hadfield joins me from Toronto via Skype. First of all, commander, thank you so much for joining us. Now, describe that experience. You're clinging to the space station as it moves at 27,000 miles an hour. What do you have to do to focus when you know that the backdrop is earth?

CHRIS HADFIELD, ASTRONAUT: That's one of the hardest parts, Rosa, you have this really important job to do. I mean, you're there on behalf of so many people, you're fixing what is in effect the world's spaceship, the International Space Station, you're outside. The only reason we'd ever go on a space walk is for something critical, so you're all focused on that.

But meanwhile, if you just look off to the side, the whole world is going by at five miles a second. You cross the U.S. in about nine minutes from coast to coast. So it's just pouring by next to you and it's so incredibly beautiful and distracting. And then if you look the other way, the entire universe is over your other shoulder and you're in the middle holding on with one hand.

And the big difference is you're not on the world looking up at the universe. You're in the universe. It's under your feet. It's all around you. And that perspective of seeing the world sort of going around the sun with you, that's a real new one for humanity. You've got to take some time when you're outside on a space walk to honor that and to soak that up, too.

FLORES: Oh, I bet. And just the way that you describe it is so incredibly amazing. Now, you gained a lot of notoriety we should say for the photos that you shared on Twitter from the space station, but also after actor William Shatner, "Star Trek's" Captain Kirk, asked if you were tweeting from space. And you replied, this, "Yes, standard orbit, captain, and we're detecting signs of life on the surface." How phenomenal, we're used to NASA types very all business, we should say, but very enthusiastic, even giddy about the entire experience. What fuels your excitement?

HADFIELD: Well, gosh, wouldn't it make you giddy, Rosa, to go around the world every 90 minutes and to get a tweet from Bill Shatner, I mean, it's just kind of fun. But, I mean, I was up there with a crew of five tremendously capable people. And for the last half of my time up there I was the commander of the spaceship. There's an awful lot of work to do. We're running, like, 200 experiments on the space station.

But at the same time we're just people. And we're there on behalf of everybody else, trying to really understand exactly what this means. Some of the first permanent exploration away from our planet. And so we do our job. But at the same time we have a great time. We write about it. We sing about it. Communicate with the world. I think I took 45,000 photographs in the evenings and weekends and shared them via Twitter with people all across the world.

And millions of people came on board basically with us to see how we all looked together, to try and get a perspective on how we look and what our planet really looks like. It's a big human adventure that we're just starting to move away from the planet permanently and why wouldn't you share it? It's too good to keep to yourself.

FLORES: Commander, do you miss it?

HADFIELD: Well, I don't - I try not to miss anything. I try not to - it's been just I think a year and a day since I launched. But I'm not a big one for looking backwards. I'm really interested in today's space walk, in Rick and Mike doing that on Monday and getting it fixed, on the things that are coming, the opportunities that exist in the future. The stuff they just discovered on Mars.

The fact that China just landed a rover on the moon. There's so much new stuff going on and opportunity coming that I try not to spend much time looking backwards, you know, it's not where we're going. And there's so much interesting stuff coming.

FLORES: It's very dynamic, Commander Chris Hadfield, it's a pleasure to have you on the show today.

HADFIELD: Thanks, nice to speak with you.

FLORES: And still ahead, a tweet caused an internet meltdown. Now a PR executive is in hot water. It's a story you don't want to miss. All that and much more coming up next.

And "SANJAY GUPTA MD" is just moments away. Sanjay? What do you have in store for us this week?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Rosa, ahead on "SG MD," all your medical news plus Pastor Joel Osteen. He's going to talk about the power of prayer this holiday season.

And we got the top five things you should absolutely do this week to make your holiday meals healthier. Celebrity chef Richard Blaze is going to show us. See you at the bottom of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FLORES: We have breaking developments on a story that's taken the internet by storm in recent hours. It involves a high-profile PR executive who sent out a tweet before taking off Friday to a trip to Cape Cod - Cape Town, rather, South Africa. It was a tweet that would have very serious consequences.

Justine Sacco, an executive with IAC interactive tweeted and I'm quoting here "Going to Africa, hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding, I'm white." The negative reaction to those words set the twitterverse on fire and it continues up through this hour.

CNN's senior media correspondent Brian Stelter joins me by phone with an update. And Brian, what's the latest on this?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT (on the phone): IAC, the company that employs her said that she is no longer with the company and they've parted ways. I'll read the statement to you. I think it will be on screen as well. IAC says "The offensive comments does not reflect the views and values of IAC. We take this issue very seriously and we have parted ways with the employee in question." They continued by saying, "there's no excuse for the hateful statements that have been made and we condemn them unequivocally. We hope, however, that time and action and the forgiving human spirit will not result in the wholesale condemnation of an individual who we have otherwise known to be a decent person at core."

So that's the statement from IAC. I think what we're trying to say is they know this was terrible. They know that her tweets were inappropriate, but she is a human being and some of the vitriol online, some of the what I would call a trial by social media might have been just as ugly as her initial message.

FLORES: And, Brian, very quickly, are we just not learning about posting things like this on Twitter or Facebook?

STELTER: Every time we think we've learned as a society that every single thing we write on the internet is public, we're reminded again of that danger as well as the rewards of the internet.

FLORES: All right, Brian Stelter, thank you so much for joining us.

I'm Rosa Flores, I'll see you right here at the top of the hour. "SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." begins right now.