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Tornado Kills 27 in Midwest; Power Outage Hits Capitol Hill; Air Force Transport Plane Crashes, All Survive; Car Seats hard to Find for Larger Kids

Aired April 03, 2006 - 13:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, HOST: And hello, everyone. From the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Tony Harris. Kyra Phillips is off today. LIVE FROM starts right now.
Houses shredded to rubble, roads choked with trees and power lines. Tornado-filled storms have raked a chunk of the nation and left a deadly aftermath, at least 27 people killed, 23 of them in northwest Tennessee.

Eight states in the Midwest and south were hit with a mix of twisters, thunderstorms and softball-sized hail. Hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed, and it's figured some people may still be trapped in the debris.

On the phone with us now is Coleman Foss. He is with the Dyersburg Regional Medical Center in Dyer County, Tennessee.

Coleman, good to talk to you. Thanks for taking the time.

COLEMAN FOSS, DYERSBURG REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER: Certainly.

HARRIS: Coleman, assess where we are right now. How many injured are you treating at the hospital?

FOSS: Well, the numbers of injured have leveled off. We're not seeing too many more injuries coming in. I think most of them came in last night. And we treated approximately 30 people last night with storm-related injuries. There were about five or six that came in with chest pain, which you don't know if that's simultaneous or if it's storm related. But there were a number of them. And we do now have confirmed 15 fatalities.

HARRIS: Wow. The people who are injured and have been able to give you a sense of what happened, what kinds of story have they been telling?

FOSS: Everybody, both the patients and the emergency medical crews, have just said it's devastating, like bombs have gone off. Houses are completely leveled. There's only concrete slabs left. And obviously, they're out now searching the rubble, now that it's daylight, searching for additional bodies. It's been a very tragic situation. Apparently, the tornado was very wide.

HARRIS: Did you get a sense that -- I think you even predicted that the death toll would rise? FOSS: Yes. We have felt like it was -- initial reports were that there were 20 people missing, could be more. Obviously, as families checking up on it. And when I left this morning, at about 11 a.m., there was -- I'm sorry, about 4 a.m., there was about 11 deaths. And that number has risen to 15. And we still have a couple of other people missing. There may be others that we just don't even know about at this point.

HARRIS: And maybe you mentioned it, but mention it again. How severe are some of the injuries you're seeing and treating?

FOSS: Several of them were very severe. A lot of flying debris type injuries, head injuries, lacerations, those kind of things. It's been -- there were a number of patients that we had to airlift to higher levels of care out of here. So it's been -- it's been pretty gruesome.

HARRIS: OK. Coleman Foss with the Dyersburg Regional Medical Center in Dyer County. Coleman, we appreciate your time. Thank you.

FOSS: Thank you. Appreciate it.

HARRIS: And CNN's Ed Lavandera is on the scene in Dyersburg. And Ed, take your time and walk us through some of the -- some of the sights, and perhaps even some of the sounds, some of the things you've seen and what you've heard in terms of stories from folks. What are people telling you? What have you seen with your own two eyes?

FOSS: I'll tell you, well, we just arrived here in Dyersburg just a few moments ago. We've been able to drive around a little bit. Right now, the area in the neighborhood that was hardest hit by this tornado last night is basically cordoned off. We understand that there are power lines down. And as the previous person you were interviewing had mentioned, that we understand that many of the homes have been essentially blown off their slabs. So essentially, much of what is left in these neighborhoods is concrete slabs, foundations of where homes once stood.

So there's a lot of cleanup in the area that is going on right now. Because of that, authorities here in Dyersburg say it's crucial that only emergency personnel and first responders work in the area for the next couple of hours.

We understand right now that the sheriff here and the fire chief are touring the neighborhood. We understand there have also been crews searching through the debris and the rubble, continuing to look for people who might have been victimized by this tornado.

So a rather intense scene. But as we were driving in, it seems to be kind of relegated to that one area where the hardest part of the storm hit last night. There's a lot of traffic kind of flowing around throughout the town here, but clearly everyone here focused on what happened here last night, and many of the efforts by the emergency personnel we see on the ground are focusing on the area, which is just a couple of miles away from where we are right now, Tony.

HARRIS: And Ed, where are the people now? Are they in shelters? Have they been allowed to go back to their homes?

LAVANDERA: You know, quite honestly, that's one of the things we're trying to figure out right now, as I mentioned. We just arrived here at the scene just a few moments ago. So we're trying -- we're trying to nail that down for you as quickly as possible.

HARRIS: OK. Take your time. Do that, and I'm sure you'll get back to us. CNN's Ed Lavandera.

People in Arkansas say they've got a big mess to clean up today. And here is why. Take a look.

This is just one of the twisters -- wow -- one of the twisters that plowed through the state yesterday. Another tornado struck Marmaduke, injuring dozens of people and damaging half the town's buildings.

In Illinois, the storms knocked down buildings and knocked down power to tens of thousands of people. Our Jonathan Freed is in one of the hardest hit towns, Taylorville.

And Jonathan, the same thing with you. Take your time and walk us what you've seen and what you've heard in terms of accounts from people.

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Tony. Absolutely.

I can tell you that we've been here since the predawn darkness this morning. And the wind has not stopped. That's something that all of us have remarked on. It was gusting up to what felt like 25 or 30 miles per hour. And that was today during the cold temperatures.

We're standing in front of, Tony, what the police here tell us is one of the best examples of the damage that's been inflicted on this town. In the immediate foreground, you will see a concrete slob. And that used to be completely covered with a storage structure that had ATVs and other types of motorcycles in it. Those have been cleared away.

But what happened, Tony, is that yesterday evening, when that storm came in here, it just shredded this thing and pushed it back onto the homes that are immediately behind it.

Now, Tony, when we got here in the darkness, we could only see what was -- what was right in front of us. But as the sun came up, the scope of what happened here really became clear. And you can see that a tree was toppled, as well, onto a home that's just back there. And just in the last couple of minutes the crews have shown up to try to cut the branches down and try to clear the debris from that home.

We've seen some people walking around, taking photographs, looks like for insurance purposes. Others just standing and staring silently at the damage that's been happening here.

Now, south of us, in Fairview Heights, which is east of St. Louis, a 54-year-old man was killed when the clothing store that he was in collapsed because of the high winds.

And let's listen now to two of the people who were in that store with him and managed to survive what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I heard this rumbling, and I looked up, and I saw the whole ceiling coming down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just came up so fast. We looked -- all I did was I looked out the window, and things were flying across the parking lot. And I go, oh, my God!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREED: Now Tony, the governor of Illinois, Rob Blagojevich, yesterday, when he saw the storm system moving in, activated the emergency operation center here. What that did is bring together representatives from a dozen state agencies, and they have been canvassing the state, the areas that were hit by the storms, trying to figure out how much damage was done, where, and who needs the help first -- Tony.

HARRIS: Wow. Jonathan for us in Taylorville, an area, as you see in the pictures, really hard hit by this line of storms. Jonathan, thank you.

The sirens went off, and people, as you can see, started to scatter. They had to scramble for cover as stormy weather plowed through downtown Indianapolis. It just left a John Mellencamp concert, part of the festivities leading up to the NCAA basketball championship game tonight. The storm blew windows out of a bank office tower, but there are no reports of injuries.

So how are things looking right now? We know that these storms move from west to east. Let's see we can get ahead of this.

Let's go straight now to meteorologist Jacqui Jeras in the CNN Weather Center.

Hi, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And more tornadoes are going to be possible today. We're watching the Ohio Valley. We're watching the Mid-Atlantic states and extending down into the Carolinas, even into the Deep South, down into parts of Georgia.

This is the scene. This is what the radar looked like last night as the tornadoes blew through Arkansas, made their way through Tennessee. And there you can see two different super cells likely caused many of this damage into the New Bern area. Of course, the National Weather Service crews will be out analyzing that data today and trying to determine if it was one, if it was two tornadoes, and just how strong they were.

We do have watches in place at this hour across eastern parts of Ohio, into western Pennsylvania, extending down into parts of West Virginia. We are concerned about a line which is right across the state line between Ohio and Pennsylvania right now. That's going to be approaching the Pittsburgh area.

Right now no tornado warnings are in effect, but a watch is in effect. And that means that conditions are ripe for more tornadoes to develop, and this watch is in effect until 5 p.m. local time.

Also, not even plotting on our computer models here just yet, we do have a new watch which has just been issued which includes kind of a quad state area here in parts of Tennessee, into the Carolinas, and down into northern parts of Georgia for the threat of more tornadoes.

You can see nothing has started developing in this area, but now we're starting to get into that maximum time of heating during the day, and we think things will be firing up, and more tornadoes will be possible.

Much quieter, though, Tony, as we head through tomorrow and the day after. But it looks like another outbreak of tornadoes possibly in the nation's midsection by Thursday.

HARRIS: Boy, and Jacqui, just to remind everyone, this is what we go through every year when we try to put winter into our rearview mirror and settle into spring. Isn't it?

JERAS: Absolutely. It's the clash of the two seasons. We've got the warm air; we've got the cold air. The upper level dynamics are in place. And we have kind of a classic pattern right now. We call it kind of a trough ridge pattern, which allows storm systems to move through and cause severe weather every three days or so.

HARRIS: Boy. Jacqui Jeras for us at the CNN Weather Center. Jacqui, thank you.

The day the lights went out on Capitol Hill. Alarms sounded. Police went on alert. And the building was emptied. CNN congressional correspondent Dana Bash was among those evacuated. She joins us now live.

Dana, what happened? Do we know yet?

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We don't know yet. Here's what we know, Tony. It was about an hour ago, a little more than an hour ago, that the lights went out. Literally, everything just sort of went dark. Our lights, our computers, everything. And we were -- where we normally work, which is inside the Capitol, we walked outside and realized that the entire building was dark.

And then the alarm started going off, and we were told that we were being evacuated. The reason was because of a power outage.

What we know right now, a little more than an hour after this happened, is that the power is being restored, but they're not letting anybody back into the Capitol until they figure out what the origin of the power outage was. Now, that is the message that's being sent to all senators and staffers, simply that they should stay away from the Capitol.

Right now where I am standing, I'm standing in the balcony of the Russell Building, which is one of the Senate buildings that -- where senators and their staff actually work. This is not closed. This is open. Same for the House buildings where the staff works, as well. Those are all open.

There is some speculation -- now I should say, just speculation -- that perhaps what could have happened -- as you see over here, this is the east front of the Capitol. This is a lot of construction going on. There is -- again, just speculation -- we do not know exactly what the origin is, but perhaps some -- this could be related to the that's construction going on, which is essentially underneath the area in front of the Capitol.

But what we do know from Pepco is that essentially a transient or a surge went off in the electrical grid around the Capitol, and that caused the grid to shut down. That is essentially what it is supposed to do, we are told, when a surge happens. It's supposed to shut down the electricity just to protect the grid in and around the capitol. And that is essentially what happened.

At this point, again, we are just waiting to get word as to what exactly the origin of this power outage was. I can tell you, Tony, I'm new up here, I guess. I was gone for several years, but I have been covering the Capitol for some time. I've never seen anything quite like this just from a power outage. Talking to people who have been here a lot longer than I have, they agree. This is something that's quite unique.

HARRIS: Well, Dana, I have to ask you. So the explanation seems benign enough. Clearly no threat. But I have to ask you. The moment that the lights go out and the computers shut down, was everyone pretty calm? Was there a little bit of panic?

BASH: I have to tell you people were pretty calm. I was here actually at the Capitol on 9/11. And I think that anything something like this happens, that's the first thing that goes through your mind. Is, you know, I grab my BlackBerry, grab my phone, get ready to basically not be in this building or get ready for anything.

HARRIS: Right.

BASH: And that was certainly my instinct. And my colleague, Deirdre Walsh, it was her instinct. But we all just kind of went downstairs and were calmly trying to figure out what was going on.

The initial report was really as it is right now, which is just that it was a power outage and we were all evacuated. So there actually was a remarkable sense of calm.

The Senate wasn't in session and wasn't supposed to be in session until 2 p.m., so there weren't a lot of people around, not a lot of senators. In fact, the only member of the leadership that we think was actually in the building was the majority leader, Bill Frist. Unclear where he is right now. But the House also wasn't in session. So there weren't a lot of people around. So that might add to the sense of calm; there weren't a lot of people around to panic, frankly.

HARRIS: Tell you what; it was pretty dramatic around here when we got word of this. OK. Congressional correspondent Dana Bash for us. Dana, we appreciate it. Thank you.

BASH: Thank you.

HARRIS: A bomb scare today at the University of Southern Maine. Authorities evacuated campuses in Portland, Gorham and Lewiston after a threat came in by phone. At last word, police were searching all three locations.

Here's a school spokesman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB CASWELL, DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MAINE: We're hoping it's all over by 4. This is a particularly busy time of the academic year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: The evacuation affected more than 4,000 students and workers.

Bound for Europe, just minutes into flight, a huge military plane turns back and crash lands. What happened? And what about the crew? A live report coming up on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And we told you just a couple of moments ago our congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, that the U.S. Capitol had been evacuated earlier today because of a power outage. What we can tell you know is as the story continues to develop, that people are being allowed back inside the U.S. Capitol building, now the all-clear being sounded. And once again, people are being allowed back into the U.S. Capitol building.

Five U.S. Marines are dead and three U.S. troops are missing after an accident in Iraq. It happened Sunday when their truck rolled over in a flash flood in Anbar Province. One Marine was also injured in the accident.

A C-5 Galaxy, the military's largest plane, in pieces following an attempted landing at Dover Air Force base. We're still waiting to hear exactly what happened and about the condition of some of the crew.

Our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre, is on the story.

And Jamie, what's the latest?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, an alarming beginning and an amazing end to this flight of the C-5 Galaxy, the largest military transport in the U.S. fleet.

Six-thirty this morning, it had just taken off from Dover Air Force Base when the crew radioed that they had an in-flight emergency, a flame out in engine No. 2.

They turned the giant plane around to fly back to Dover Air Force base, but landed short of the runway, hitting the ground, skidding across a field just south of the airport, losing the tail section and breaking the front of the plane in half. As you can see there, the massive cargo section broken in half.

But amazingly, there were no fatalities. All 17 airmen on this plane survived. Some had injuries. Several had to be washed off, because they were covered with jet fuel. But there was no fire, and none of the injuries, we are told, are life threatening.

It was a reserve crew, an Air Force reserve crew, that was piloting this plane when the mishap took place.

Now, there will be a full investigation to determine whether the pilot executed the emergency landing the way he should have and whether the problems with the plane contributed to the crash or whether there were -- there was another problem that caused the plane to break up upon impact.

But again, an amazing end to the story. All 17 airmen on board survived. An investigation will determine exactly what happened, but it began with an in-flight emergency when engine No. 2 of four flamed out -- Tony.

HARRIS: Hard to believe everyone walked away from it, or at least are OK, after looking at those pictures. Senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre. Jamie, thank you.

Still ahead, soaring costs have airlines cutting back on creature comforts. But there is one thing in good supply. That's complaints from passengers. What's their beef? What's your beef? What's topping the list? We'll come back with more LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Obesity used to be an adult problem in America. But now big kids are a big concern. Case in point: a new study finds thousands of American children are too heavy for standard car safety seats. And that can mean lots of headaches for the parents.

CNN senior medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Riding in the car seat and watching the world go by is a feature of every kid's childhood. But finding a car seat to fit this 3-year-old Rafael was a surprisingly daunting task.

GERALD TOBIAS, RAFAEL'S FATHER: Rafael is 47.7 pounds and 37 inches long. I see kids his age taller, but they're lighter. Much lighter than him.

GUPTA: Rafael has always been on the heavier side. At just 2 years old, he already weighed 41 pounds. And now his weight rivals the average for a kid twice his age, which poses a problem when it comes to finding the right fit. You see, he's outgrowth two of his car seats so far.

TOBIAS: The car seat is rated for infant to 100 pound kid up to 52 inches tall. It's too tight for him on the thigh. And his legs are hanging, and, as you can see, he's not comfortable in it anymore.

GUPTA: Rafael isn't alone. Most states have laws that children up to the age of 3 must be in a car seat. But there are about 283,000 children who are too big for the available types of car seats on the market. That's according to researchers at the Columbus Children's Research Institute.

They looked at most of the child safety seats on the market and found that out of 92 types, only six car seats would be safe for a boy Rafael's size. They're hard to find in stores, and they come at a hefty price.

LARA TRIFILETTI, COLUMBUS CHILDREN'S RESEARCH INSTITUTE: The seats that would accommodate children at these higher weight ranges are the most expensive seats on the market. They start anywhere from $130 all the way up to $270. That's really one of the major problems, is that these seats are too expensive for most families to afford.

GRACE GANADEN, RAFAEL'S MOTHER: If I can afford it, I would, you know, get that one, the safety one.

GUPTA: Right now, Rafael has a booster seat that uses the car's built-in safety belt to strap him in. But experts say that's not safe enough. Look at these crash test videos that show how dangerous the wrong car seat can be, even in a low-impact crash. And they stress the importance of the right one, especially when it comes to 1-, 2-, or 3-year-old kids.

TRIFILETTI: They're developmentally not capable withstanding the force of a crash, and they may also slip out under the adult seat belt. So a five-point harness just provides another level of security in keeping them in the seat.

GUPTA: The researchers' conclusion? Parents should look for the five-point harness, follow the guidelines, and, of course, make sure the child is comfortable for the long haul. But for bigger kids like Rafael, that's a tall order.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Des Moines, Iowa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Between higher fuel prices and increased competition, it's getting tough for airlines. A new survey shows the low cost airlines like JetBlue are doing the best job when it comes to quality. Still, the annual review of airline quality shows 15 of 16 major airlines saw performance slip between 2004 and 2005. Customer complaints are up 17 percent. Lost luggage is the biggest problem.

Joining JetBlue in the top five for quality are AirTran, Independence Air, Southwest and United. What's the reason for declining performance? A study author points to money.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BRENT BOWEN, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-OMAHA: But the workforce is probably demoralized, as any of us would be if our jobs were threatened, our pay was cut in half, our benefits were cut out, and our pensions were taken away. So expecting the workforce to be as customer oriented today as it has been in the past is probably not reasonable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Southwest Airlines had the survey's lowest overall complaint rates. U.S. Airways had the highest.

Well, there's a new No. 1 on the top of the Fortune 500 list of biggest U.S. companies. Susan Lisovicz is live from the New York Stock Exchange with that.

And Susan, I just don't want to hear that big oil is on top. Tell me anything but big oil.

(MARKET REPORT)

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