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CNN Newsroom
75 Million Under Threat of Deadly Storms; Interview with Mayor Jason Shelton; FedEx Facility Shooting Wounded Six People; Families Hear MH370's Last Word for 1st Time; NBA Decision on Clippers Owner Today
Aired April 29, 2014 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): Breaking right now -- outbreak.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is definitely a tornado.
COSTELLO: 75 million in the threat zone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no, no. No, no, no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop.
COSTELLO: Southern states slammed. Towns wiped out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, Jesus. Cars that have been tossed.
COSTELLO: Sterling sponsors pull out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to see this guy out of the league now.
COSTELLO: Big American companies dropping the Clippers. State Farm, CarMax, Sprint.
For the first time, audio recordings from the missing plane played for the families.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm here to represent hundreds of family members from Malaysia 370.
COSTELLO: As the families confront the plane maker.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They don't want your sympathy. What they want is answers to their questions.
COSTELLO: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (on camera): Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. This morning an extraordinary wave of violent weather unfurling across the eastern third of the country. Right now 75 million Americans find themselves in the path of a storm system that is both sprawling and deadly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, Jesus. There's cars that have been tossed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The violent weather first erupted yesterday killing at least 29 people in six states. Weather experts had warned of the growing threat for days, but the ferocity erupted with shocking speed. This Alabama fire station torn apart as the rig sat parked. And a meteorologist in Tupelo, Mississippi, pleaded with viewers to take cover until the approaching threat forced him to follow his own advice.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a tornado ripping through the city of Tupelo as we speak. And this could be deadly. Let's go tower cam. Basement, now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go. Now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Frightening situation. CNN has dispatch reporters across the southeast. Meteorologists Indra Petersons is in our weather center tracking the storm.
But we want to begin our coverage this morning with hard-hit Mississippi where at least eight people have died in the violent weather, and today the city of Tupelo was grappling with wide scale devastation. So let's check in now with Tupelo's Mayor Jason Shelton.
Good morning, Mr. Mayor.
MAYOR JASON SHELTON, TUPELO, MISSISSIPPI: Thank you very much. Carol, it's certainly a tragic day here. We're trying to assess the damage and just find out where we go from here.
COSTELLO: Your governor in Mississippi said he lived through Katrina but he'd never seen anything like the size and destructiveness of these tornadoes. Are they unlike anything you've ever seen?
SHELTON: Well, I don't know that the state has seen anything this widespread. Three years ago almost to the day is the deadly tornado outbreak that had a line of destruction from Mississippi to Alabama, but the storm system yesterday was literally about half of the state of Mississippi.
Governor Bryant and his staff have been excellent in reaching out to us. He's personally called me numerous times, and as I understand it he's on his way to Tupelo now to help survey and assess the damage and formulate a strategy of rebuilding the all-American city in Tupelo, Mississippi.
COSTELLO: You've been sharing so many amazing stories. Like the one about that business that was completely leveled, except for the bathroom. Can you share that with us?
SHELTON: Well, again, that's directly across the street from where we're at now. The employees and patrons of the business huddled in the bathroom facility while the building literally crumbled around them.
Also, I heard in the intro the discussion of Matt Laubhan, our local meteorologist. I think their action literally saved lives in the city of Tupelo and certainly grateful to them and the local and national media for the advance warning of the storm system. We were able to do a 10:00 a.m. walkthrough of our emergency management protocol because of that advance warning.
COSTELLO: Thank you for that. We really appreciate that.
You mentioned rebuilding, but first you have to kind of assess the extent of the damage. Any guesses?
SHELTON: Yes, ma'am. First and foremost is obviously the human factor. We're still trying to verify that there are no casualties in the city of Tupelo. The emergency responders have done two door-to- door searches and they're going to do another one today. Then -- or currently as we speak, our department heads are in every part of the city assessing the damage and then we're going to -- our chief operating officer is meeting with Mississippi emergency management now. Then we're all going to convene at 8:30 and then our chief operating officer and I will meet with the governor shortly after 9:00.
COSTELLO: Are you getting everything that you need?
SHELTON: So far, there's not been anything that we've requested that has not been delivered. That's from the state and federal agencies. We have partnership agreements with those other counties and municipalities, and everybody has just been all hands on deck to help us. The whole northern half of the state was really hit hard, and everyone is just pulling together and sharing resources. It's more important to get the job done than who does it or gets credit for it.
COSTELLO: Mayor Jason Shelton, thanks for taking the time. We appreciate it.
SHELTON: Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Right now Alabama is under a state of emergency. At least three people were killed there after tornadoes ripped through that state. One hundred miles north of Birmingham the storm devastated the town of Athens, which was in the bull's eye of the storm and that's where CNN's Brian Todd is this morning. Good morning, Brian.
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. As the sun has come up here just west of Athens, people are just starting to arrive in this neighborhood, just starting to pick through the rubble and see what they've lost. And it is devastating. The tornado just slammed through this neighborhood. This is formerly a complex of houses and duplex apartments and then look what's left of it. Just complete devastation behind me.
Officials had told people that were in manufactured housing, lighter materials, to get out. And most of them seemed to have heeded the warnings. But as this neighborhood will show you, even if you had a house with some solid framings and some solid structure and some foundation it just didn't matter. This house seems to be of that quality and it just got blown off its foundation.
There are appliances just strewn all over the place here and people here are not quite out of danger yet. Officials are warning last night, the police chief of Athens told me, people coming back to these areas have to be very careful because there are downed power lines around. There are gas leaks still around in places like this. So even when you're coming back to pick through the rubble of your home, as devastating and heartbreaking at that is, you've got to be very careful.
Two people killed in a trailer park not far from here, Carol, but today as the people here assess the damage, they're also going to be taking more of an accurate casualty count of the dead and injured in this region.
COSTELLO: Brian Todd reporting live this morning.
It's not over yet either. 75 million people still in the crosshairs of severe weather today.
CNN's Indra Petersons is live in New York to tell us when it's going to stop.
Good morning.
INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, the biggest concern, Carol, this morning is we're still talking about an enhanced risk, a moderate risk, where you see the red, it's still out there again today. The focus there are really going to be just around Birmingham and just north of Mobile.
But as we mentioned, this is an expansive area that has a slight risk today. So another 73 million people today looking for a slight risk. Just remember a slight risk does not mean that you cannot still have a very strong tornado. That risk is still there for major cities, Detroit, Cleveland, Virginia Beach, Charlotte, and even Atlanta and Tallahassee, that will be the concern especially even as we go through the afternoon today.
Tornado warnings out here this morning. Still a tornado watch box right now including Bainbridge and Panama City. We're going to be watching this convective nature really intensify as it goes through the afternoon. You left that sun in there.
Why is this going on? Especially as we're talking about day after day. Let me show you why. See the big low sitting off the coast in the northeast? This guy is parked here. It's going to bring rain to the northeast. But since it's parked there and it's blocking the system behind it from bringing in, or moving farther to the east. So here it is again. Here's that cold front. All that moisture coming off the southeast. All this blows up as you can see as it goes through the afternoon.
That's the concern as we go through the day again today. Then through tomorrow, such a slow-moving system. We're still looking at a severe weather threat. Including D.C. now. All the way back through Jacksonville. Tomorrow, just keep in mind, although the system itself is moving very slow, the tornadoes, when they spawn, are not moving slow. They're moving as fast as 50, 60 miles per hour. You do not have time. When you hear those warnings, of course, take cover.
COSTELLO: Indra Petersons, thanks so much.
To learn how you can help the victims of the tornadoes, check out CNN.com/impact. There you'll find a list of organizations helping out with relief and recovery.
Now to the latest on a shooting at a FedEx facility in suburban Atlanta. Police say the shooting suspect is dead. He died apparently by his own hand. Six people injured at that facility in Kennesaw, Georgia. All were taken to a local hospital. One of them listed in critical condition.
David Mattingly is on the phone with more on the situation.
Do we know who the shooter is -- David?
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not at this point, Carol. That confirmation just coming through just in the last couple of minutes, that the shooter in this case was deceased from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. That coming from the Cobb County Police Department.
This area, Kennesaw, Georgia, is about 20, 25 miles north of Atlanta. It is a suburb of Atlanta. The original call came in about 6:00 this morning calling authorities there to reports of an active shooter at this workplace. A FedEx distribution facility.
A short time ago they told us that they had secured the area around the facility, and that they were working to clear the facility itself, and now this confirmation that the shooter has, in fact, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Authorities also confirming that six people were injured in this shooting. The hospital telling us that at least one of those six was able to walk into the hospital. One of them was in surgery and police now also telling us that one person is in critical condition from this shooting at a FedEx distribution facility in Kennesaw, Georgia.
But at this point, no further information about the investigation, about who the shooter is, what the motive might have been here, and any other details of what was going on. But, again, this call came in about three hours ago and now the shooter is dead. Six people in the hospital. One of them critical.
COSTELLO: All right. David Mattingly reporting live from Kennesaw, Georgia, this morning.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a private company thinks it's found wreckage from Flight 370, but nowhere near where searchers are looking.
CNN's Will Ripley is following this latest development.
Hi, Will.
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. As the search off western Australia enters a new phase now this Australian company says they may have data that shows searchers have been looking in the wrong place.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It's been an emotional day for the families of passengers aboard Flight 370, after weeks of pleading with Malaysian officials to release more information about that vanished jet. They're finally getting some answers.
Just hours ago at a news conference in Beijing, for the first time, those families heard what's believed to be the very last conversation between the cockpit and ground control. The families heard the recording over a public address system.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
TOWER: MAS370, morning, level two five zero Malaysian 370.
PLANE: MAS370, morning, level two five zero, Malaysian 370
TOWER: Malaysian 370 climb flight level three five zero.
PLANE: Flight level three five zero, Malaysian 370.
PLANE: Malaysian 370 maintaining level three five zero.
TOWER: Malaysian 370.
PLANE: Malaysian 370 maintaining level three five zero.
TOWER: Malaysian 370.
Malaysian 370 contact Ho Chi Minh 120 decimal 9, good night.
PLANE: Good night Malaysian 370. (END AUDIO CLIP)
COSTELLO: You can hear crying in the background. Some families so overcome they collapsed. Malaysian officials also released Flight 370's black box serial numbers and the last known contacts it made with radar stations and a satellite orbiting the Indian Ocean.
Also this morning, there's a possible new lead in the search for that plane. An Australian company says it discovered what could be wreckage about 180 miles south of Bangladesh, in the Bay of Bengal. That's thousands of miles north of the current search area in the Indian Ocean.
Now, the president of that Australian company, GeoResonance, tells CNN his company reached that conclusion using technology designed to find nuclear warheads under the ocean. He explains how that technology works.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID POPE, GEORESONANCE (via telephone): The technology was originally created to search for nuclear biological chemical weaponry under the ocean and under the earth in bunkers and so on, and what we do is, we sought the nuclei of a specific atom, depending on what we're looking for, it could be cooper or nickel or iron.
And so, we knew we had the tools to search for the plane, but we started searching on the 12th. We got images which were a mixture of satellite and images from airplanes taken, multispectral images, not actually visual images. A bit more scientific than that.
So, we start looking north of Malaysia, and then we start moving northwest of Malaysia, and we ended up on the top of the Bay of Bengal. And as we searched all of those areas, we were looking for aluminum, which makes up 70 percent of a Boeing 777. And if we got a hit or a reading for aluminum, then we moved on to the next metal which was titanium and steel and copper and nickel and chromium and iron, and there were few others but they're the main ones that we looked for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: He also tells CNN why it's more likely it's in the northern arc versus the southern arc.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POPE: In the southern area doesn't seem logical to us at all. The pings coming from the -- from the satellite, it's basically a 50/50 chance that it was heading on the northern corridor, or the southern corridor. As it turned out, we found out afterwards, but we still say we could be right. I'm not saying we actually have found MH370. We have found what we think, and believe, should be investigated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Now, the partner of one passenger on Flight 370 tells CNN she's open to this new possibility.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH BAJC, PARTNER OF FLIGHT 370 PASSENGER: I have a fairly sensitive VF meter at this point and this gentleman sounded credible to me. I do believe it's worth sending a boat out with proper sonar capabilities. The water's only 1,000 meters deep in that area and they have GPS coordinates where to go. So, we would like to see the government follow-up on this. It seems valid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Those are the images underneath the water of some kind of object, and you can see that they mimic a plane, but we just don't know. So will they check it out? Well, searchers check it out?
Let's bring in CNN's Will Ripley. He's in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
So, do you think they will check it out or ignore it?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, Carol, you rightly pointed out that you need to treat this with a healthy dose of skepticism, because keep in mind, over the last weeks we've had so many false leads in this case. I think about the satellite images in the southern Indian Ocean we were so sure, people were so sure was a debris field at one point and it turned out not to be.
The searchers detected those four pings in this area, this high probability area they're still searching off Western Australia. But so far, that search has turned up nothing. Now, we have a new company that used a different technology four days after 370 disappeared and used that technology to pinpoint this area where they think these metals and other traces of components that would make up a Boeing 777 exist, and they say they weren't there before 370 disappeared, and they are there now.
This is what is interesting, Carol. Supposedly, this company, if what they say is correct, they sent out a notice of this in late March and again in early April. That was weeks before the batteries on those black boxes would have expired. And they claim that the only reason they're coming forward now, nearly eight weeks into the search, is because they essentially feel they were ignored.
And the reaction we got from Malaysia, here in Malaysia, versus the response in Australia were two very different responses. The Malaysian acting transport minister said they're going to work with international partners to verify the credibility of this information, whereas the Australian command center basically said we believe according to the satellite data that MH-370 is in the southern arc and this Bay of Bengal certainly in not there, 3,100 miles north. Therefore, they believe it is resting in the Indian Ocean, and the area they're searching.
So, what happens now is anyone's guess, Carol, but is certainly now another option, another theory out there adding to list of theories we've seen in this mystery. COSTELLO: Will Ripley reporting live from Kuala Lumpur this morning. Thank you.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, decision on Donald Sterling, the NBA makes an announcement today about the L.A. Clippers owner.
Dan Simon is at the Staples Center.
Good morning, Dan.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Warriors/Clippers tonight. The first time that we've seen a home game since the controversy began swirling over the owner. We'll have a live report coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: NBA players are asking for a speedy resolution surrounding the Donald Sterling mess and now may get it.
Commissioner Adam Silver has a 2:00 p.m. Eastern news conference to talk about the investigation involving the L.A. Clippers owner. Audiotapes of a racist rant attributed to sterling were released over the weekend leading to players silent protest, talks of boycotts and sponsors jumping ship all while the playoffs are going on.
CNN's Dan Simon is outside the Staples Center.
Good morning, Carol.
SIMON: Good morning, Carol.
Well, the Clippers set to take the floor tonight. The question, how will both the players and fans react? Some suggested the fans even stay at home as a way to protest that as the pressure on owner Donald Sterling is mounting.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REPORTER: Mr. Sterling --
SIMON (voice-over): Donald Sterling seen leaving a restaurant with his wife just hours after she publicly distanced herself from those racist comments reportedly made by her husband to his girlfriend, V. Stiviano.
DONALD STERLING: Yes, it bothers me a lot that you want to promo -- broadcast that you're associating with black people. Do you have to?
SIMON: But here, Mrs. Sterling seems to defend him when asked if he's a racist.
REPORTER: Are you a racist, Mrs. Sterling?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, of course not. REPORTER: People want to know, Mrs. Sterling.
SIMON: The shocking audio of an NBA owner disparaging African- Americans continued to ricochet with a steady stream of corporate sponsors withdrawing their support for the Clippers, State Farm, Mercedes Benz, Red Bull, Virgin America, to name a few.
LEON JENKINS, PRESIDENT, NAACP LOS ANGELES: There is a personal, economic, and social price that Mr. Sterling must pay for his attempt to turn back the clock on race relations.
SIMON: So far, both Sterling and the woman at the center of it all, girlfriend V. Stiviano, have remained quiet since the tape first surfaced on TMZ Sports. That's her getting into a waiting Bentley.
Both NBA stars and fans alike continue to sound off.
MAGIC JOHNSON, NBA HALL OF FAMER: There's a man in a powerful position and a man who should be embracing minorities, not discriminating against them.
SPIKE LEE, FILMMAKER: He's tainting the league and he's tainting America. And when you hear something like that, that is the mentality of a slave master. He sees his players as slaves.
SIMON: All of this against a backdrop of a basketball game and a Clippers coach trying to keep his players focused on the playoffs.
DOC RIVERS, L.A. CLIPPERS HEAD COACH: These last 48 hour or more have been -- they've been really hard for our players and for everyone. And I would just like to reiterate how disappointed I am and how upset I am, our players are.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIMON: And Clippers coach Doc Rivers said he had the chance to speak with Donald Sterling, but he declined.
Now, how is the NBA going to address this awful situation? Perhaps we'll know more, we should know more, when the commissioner holds that news conference later today in New York.
Carol, back to you.
COSTELLO: Dan Simon reporting live this morning. Thank you.
As Dan said, the NBA's decision on Don Sterling will come down at 2:00 p.m. today. You can watch the commissioner live on CNN.
Filmmaker in New York and Knicks season ticket holder Spike Lee is comparing Donald Sterling to a slave master and says the clippers owner must be removed from the team. He spoke exclusively with Anderson Cooper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LEE: Tomorrow's a big day. The commissioner, the new commissioner, Adam Silver, having a press conference here in New York at 2:00 p.m. I'm going to be there.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You're going to go to it?
LEE: I'm going to go to it and a whole lot of people.
COOPER: You know this new commissioner?
LEE: Adam, I've known Adam a long time, a lawyer for David Stern. He's a good guy.
COOPER: What do you think he should do?
LEE: I don't know they have -- I don't know the bylaws of the league, but he has to go.
COOPER: This guy, Donald Sterling, should not own a team?
LEE: He's got to go, because he's tainted all the other 29 partners. He's tainting the league and he's tainting America. And when you hear something like that, that is the mentality of a slave master. He sees his players as slaves.
COOPER: He feeds them. He --
LEE: Yes. What is that?
COOPER: He works with them.
LEE: And then I want to say -- I want to say what Magic said and say people say -- not just Magic. People say, doesn't he know all of his players are black? Yes, he knows that. Masters know that, too, when we were out there in the cotton fields and whatnot, working.
So, he has to go and I would like to see even though the league is 75 percent African-American, I think this -- outside from Dirk Nowitzki, I've really never heard from the white players.
