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Obama Tours Arkansas Tornado Damage; Officials Meet to Decide Next Phase of Flight 370 Search; Nationwide Synthetic and Designer Drug Bust; Kidnapping Survivors Berry and DeJesus Receive Awards Last Night; NBA MVP Kevin Durant Calls His Mom the Real MVP

Aired May 07, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now President Obama is speaking in Vilonia after touring tornado damage in Vilonia and Mayflower, Arkansas, after a tornado tore through there on April 27th, killing 15 people.

Let's listen in.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... support local recovery efforts.

Craig Fugate was down here after the storm and a team of the Army Corps of Engineers has been helping search through the debris.

Here in Vilonia the recovery process is just beginning. It's especially difficult because this town has seen more than its fair share of tragedy. Almost exactly three years ago, another tornado leveled parts of Vilonia, and some families and businesses had just finished rebuilding when they were forced to start all over.

But folks here are tough. They look out for one another. And that's been especially clear over the past week.

Immediately after the tornado hit, about 200 people. including fire crews from other counties. were ready to go house to house searching for injured neighbors. Some survivors were driven to the hospital by complete strangers. And in the days that followed, thousands of volunteers showed up to help remove debris and hunt for belongings, pick up trash and deliver supplies and water.

And one volunteer, 16-year-old Casey Williams (sp) did such a good job coordinating relief efforts that Arkansas state troopers started taking orders from her. I had a chance to meet her, and she is extraordinarily impressive, so I don't know what she's going be doing in the future, but I know it's going to be something great.

More than any disaster, it is that dedication and that commitment to each other that truly defines this town. As one resident said, we just say a prayer then get to work.

So the people of Vilonia and all the other towns devastated by the storm understand there is a lot of work that remains to be done, but I'm here to remind them that you're not doing this work alone, that your country's going to be here for you. We're going to support you every step of the way.

You are in our thoughts and prayers, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for the great leadership that you have shown. I know that you can count on your governor and your senator and your congressman are here to make sure that every resource that we have available to you is going to be there.

And one of the things that the mayor expressed to me that we've got some concerns about is, when this happens in a town like this, it's not just the infrastructure and the buildings that are torn down. You also lose part of your sales-tax base.

So we're going to have to figure out how they can make sure that they get back on their feet, and I'll be sure to work with Congressman Griffin, Senator Pryor and Governor Beebe to see if we can do something on that front, as well.

But, I could not be more impressed by the spirit of the community that's here. We've got this gentleman right here I just had a chance to meet who was in one of these homes where he lives, just when the storm hit. Thankfully, he and his 16-year-old son and wife are OK.

You know, it's a reminder, obviously, that as important as possessions are, nothing is more important than family. Those families that I had a chance to meet with, they are still morning those they lost, but they couldn't be more grateful and thankful for the way the community's responded.

So this is a testament to the strength of this community, the strength of Arkansas and the strength of America, and I could not be more proud of everybody who has participated in the recovery process.

All right, thank you very much.

BROWN: President Obama making remarks there in tornado-ravaged Vilonia, Arkansas, he's been touring the damage there, meeting with first responders and also offering words of comfort to all the people who are there cleaning up after the devastation, saying that the country stands behind them.

Shifting our focus to other news at this hour, to the hunt for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370, new polls offer some interesting insight into what Americans think about the search and what happened.

A new CNN/ORC poll finds nearly one in five Americans believe that Flight 370 survivors are out there. Seventy-nine percent believes that no one survived and a slight majority of Americans think the plane went down near the search area.

Fifty-one percent believes that Flight 370 is in the south Indian Ocean, and 46 percent think searchers are looking in the wrong place.

And in just a few hours from now, officials from Malaysia, China and Australia will regroup to determine of the next search area. Folks, 62 days now, can you believe it? Sixty-two days, passengers families have waited in agonizing limbo, no signs of their loved ones, no debris, no physical clue.

Australian officials estimate the next search phase may cost $60 million.

Our Will Ripley is tracking the meeting's progress from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pam, the international team of experts that met today in Canberra, Australia, will be meeting again tomorrow, just hours from now.

This is a similar team to the one that met here in Kuala Lumpur in the initial days and weeks after the plane went missing, and it's made up of some of the top aviation investigators in the world, representatives from the U.K., the U.S., Australia, aircraft manufacturer Boeing, plus the satellite company Inmarsat, all of them together in one room, going over all of the data that's been collected in the search for Flight 370.

They are going to be looking, calculating, doing simulations to be sure that they still believe that searchers are looking in the right place in the southern Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia.

And it's very important that they take this second look at all of the information, some of it newly collected in the search for this plane, meaning that it wasn't available in those initial days.

The reason why it's so important that they look is because they're about to invest a considerable amount of time, resources and energy searching this area. It's a huge area. So far, the Bluefin-21 submersible has covered less than 200 square miles, but this new underwater search area is 23,000 square miles.

They're going to need to bring in additional technology, some of it from private companies working along with government agencies to search for this plane and to search for answers for the families of the 239 people on board.

Tomorrow marks the two-month anniversary, and so far, not a single piece of debris has been recovered. That makes this work that much more important.

Pam?

BROWN: All right, Will Ripley, thank you so much.

And up next, thousands of packages of synthetic drugs seized, more than a hundred people in nearly 30 states, we're going to find out just how popular these drugs really are and, more importantly, how dangerous they are.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: A massive nationwide drug bust, agents on the move across the country targeting synthetic or designer drugs, among them, Molly, bath salts and Spice. Police raiding smoke shops, homes and warehouses in 29 states.

Take a look here. You're looking at CNN's exclusive video of border patrol agents testing suspicious packages at Los Angeles International Airport.

And the crackdowns are now a race against the clock. In just the past several days in Texas, there have been more than 100 reported overdoses from synthetic pot.

So joining me now to discuss this, Elizabeth Cohen, senior medical correspondent.

Elizabeth, it's frightening to think just how easy it can be to get your hands on these drugs. How popular are they?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Pam, they have unfortunately become very popular.

Take a look at these numbers from a national data base. If you go back to 2009, there were only 15 reports of synthetic marijuana at that year.

In 2012, more than 41,000 reports of synthetic marijuana, and again that's just marijuana. That doesn't include other drugs.

Now these drugs are sold under all sorts of names. We saw some of them just a minute ago, things like Mr. Nice Guy and Crazy Clown and Ninja.

When you look at them and when you see the names, teenagers especially don't really appreciate the dangers of these drugs.

BROWN: And these drugs can obviously have unpredictable effects on the Monday and body, Elizabeth. Tell us about how dangerous they are.

COHEN: They can. They can give all sorts of terrible side effects. For example, seizures have been reported, as well as racing heartbeat, and paranoia, hallucinations, delusions. People have even died.

And, Pam, you mentioned what happened in Texas. You know you sometimes get clusters of problems from one particularly bad patch of these synthetic drugs, so in Texas, in just five days, more than 100 overdoses.

So you see these clusters happen, and it's really just tragic.

BROWN: Yeah, I'm curious, because some places are trying to crack down on these drugs, Elizabeth, so I wonder if people making these drugs are putting in new ingredients that could make them even more dangerous.

Do you have any insight on that?

COHEN: Yes, and they -- you know, the DEA and others have been trying to crack down. And they have had some success.

But here's what happens. So they find one of these drugs. They look at the chemicals and they say, all right, this chemical, or this chemical combination is illegally and then the folks who make them they just change the chemical around so technically it's not illegal any more.

So it's this cat and mouse, this constant race to keep up with the folks who are making this stuff. And that is one of the things that has made this a particularly difficult phenomenon to try to stop.

BROWN: Yeah. It's certainly frightening, especially for parents who have teenagers considering how popular they are especially among teens.

Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

COHEN: Thanks.

BROWN: Up next --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANDA BERRY, CLEVELAND KIDNAPPING SURVIVOR: Never give up hope, because miracles do happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Just one year ago, that young woman was being held prisoner in a Cleveland basement. Last night, she was honored for her courage.

More of her emotional remarks, right after this break.

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BROWN: Exactly one year after escaping from Cleveland's "House of Horrors," two of the three women who spent a decade imprisoned and tortured in Ariel Castro's basement were honored last night.

Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus received The Center for Missing and Exploited Children's Hope Award for their courage and resilience and for giving hope to families searching for missing children.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERRY: It's an honor to be here tonight accepting the Hope Award. It is really special to be here with Gina and our families. It means more than you will ever know.

I want to thank the center for everything they have done and continue to do, not just for us, but for all the missing kids and their families.

If I could say only one thing it would be this. Never give up hope, because miracles do happen.

(APPLAUSE) GINA DEJESUS, CLEVELAND KIDNAPPING SURVIVOR: I want to say that I'm glad to be here with you guys to accept this award, and always believe in hope, even though you sometimes it is hard to believe in hope.

Just pray to God and God will give you that hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The third kidnap victim Michelle Knight has been talking with Anderson Cooper and you can catch part three of that exclusive, revealing interview tonight at 8:00 Eastern on "AC 360."

And, by the way, remember this guy right here, Charles Ramsey? He became a national hero and an Internet sensation after rescuing the Cleveland women.

Jake Tapper is here, and Jake actually had an opportunity to talk to Ramsey. We're going to learn about that in the next hour.

All right, Jake, so tell me, he's had a pretty interesting year since he rescued these young women, is that right?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD": It's been a very interesting year. There's a lot -- I haven't met him yet. He's going be live on "THE LEAD" in the next hour.

I've just been reading his new book called "Charles Ramsey -- Dead Giveaway -- The Rescue, Hamburgers, White Folks and Instant Celebrity."

What you saw on TV doesn't even begin to tell the story. I have to tell you it is a very engaging and hilarious read, very honest, very candid.

He talks about when he gets a call from the White House, incredibly disappointed. He's excited it's going to be President Obama, incredibly disappointed it's just a cabinet secretary.

Then he gets a phone call from Snoop Dogg. It goes on from there. It's a really great read.

BROWN: Wow. I have to say I was in Cleveland covering the story. I remember I tried to interview Charles Ramsey, and I couldn't get an interview with him.

His publicist would not give me an interview, so good for you for landing it, Jake. We'll be looking forward to tuning in to that on "THE LEAD," which starts in just a few minutes from now.

TAPPER: Thanks, Pam.

BROWN: So did you hear what newly crowned NBA MVP Kevin Durant said about his mother yesterday?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KEVIN DURANT, NBA MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: When you didn't eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry, you sacrificed for us and you're the real MVP.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And those are just a few of the words Durant said about his mom.

Up next, Kevin Durant's mom joins us live to talk about those sweet and emotional words.

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BROWN: Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant NBA's Most Valuable Player of the Year, but didn't accept his trophy without leaving one woman in particular in tears. She wasn't the only one.

His mother, right here you see her, overwhelmed with emotion last night as her son, Kevin, gave her what may be the most memorable Mother's Day gift of her life, thanking her for years of sacrifice for him and his brother and told the world she's the real MVP.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DURANT: And, last, my mom. I don't think you know what you did. You had my brother when you were 18-years-old. Three years later I came out.

The odds were stacked against us, single parent with two boys by the time you were 21-years-old.

We weren't supposed to be here. You made us believe. You kept us off the street, put clothes on our backs, food on the table. When you didn't eat, you made sure we ate. You went to sleep hungry, you sacrificed for us and you're the real MVP.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Wanda Pratt joins me now from Oklahoma City.

Wanda, I was watching you as your son spoke there again, and it looks like you were getting choked up listening to him.

I can't imagine how that must have felt. Even for me watching it, I was overcome with emotion.

Tell me what that was like to hear those heartfelt words from your son.

WANDA PRATT, KEVIN DURANT'S MOTHER: It was overwhelming. The thing that resonated is that I remember exactly what he's talking about, and it was really heartwarming that he remembered.

And I didn't know that it was a part of him never giving up. I was not expecting to be honored in the manner in which he did, so it was all very surprising to me.

BRWON: So you said you were surprised when he talked about that everyone said we weren't supposed to be here.

He talked about that moment and the apartment when there was no furniture, you were all huddled together holding each other.

Had you ever talked about that before? What did he mean by that?

PRATT: No. It was the first apartment that I had as a single mom. We shared a home with my mother, and my mother had encouraged me and pushed me in telling me it was time for me to stand on my own with my children. And I was afraid at that time.

And there that was the first apartment that we had. All of our belongings hadn't been brought into the home yet, but I had taken the boys there so that they could see that this is where we were going to be staying and this was our new home.

We just sat there and kind of held each other and they were really excited about it, just as I was.

BROWN: Wow. And then when Kevin got drafted, Wanda, what did that mean for you?

PRATT: It meant that all of the hard work that he had put in really paid off, and he was living out his dreams and I knew that he had worked really hard.

He had worked literally from age 8 or 9 to get to that point, and it paid off for him. I was really happy that he was able to live out his dreams.

BROWN: He made it clear, Wanda, you were instrumental in his success. Were you aware of that? Did you know how big of an impact you had on your son?

PRATT: No, I did not. I've always known -- excuse me -- that my sons love me, but I didn't know that it was such a part of his foundation of who he become as a man.

I tried to instill the best that I could and it seemed that it did resonate with him, so I'm really grateful for that. But it was a surprise to me.

BROWN: And it's incredible when he talked about the fact you were 18 when you had your first son, 21 when you had him. I can't imagine how difficult it was for you being a young, single working mother.

What was that like for you, raising Kevin Durant, a huge NBA star. What was that like?

PRATT: It was -- in the early years it was really scary. But I'm thankful for my mom because she did, she pushed me and knew I had to stand before my children in a manner in which I could be honored and respected, so I accepted the challenge. I knew that they depended upon me. I knew that they looked to me for all of the answers. They looked to me for --

BROWN: Wanda Pratt -- we have -- I hate to interrupt you. We have to go to the next hour, but we commend you. We commend all the other hard, single working moms out there.