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Live From...
Severe Weather in Texas
Aired May 10, 2006 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just immediately, I guess they just went down the quickest place they could find. When he was at the front door and went back to the couch, right inside the living room, and I guess they just both fell down immediately. It's a pretty solid coffee table, and the couch is what helped. The roof pretty much blew away instead of collapsing, so that helped too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A regular thunderstorm gone crazy. One survivor's recollections amid the ruins of last night's twisters in north Texas. Three people killed. At least 10 hurt in this spread-out area north of Dallas. All of the dead were inside mobile homes. Rescuers are using heat sensors and dogs to search for more victims.
Lieutenant John Norton, public information officer, for the Collin County Sheriff's Office joins me on the phone from Westminster, Texas.
Lieutenant, tell me what you're dealing with right now.
Can you hear me, lieutenant?
LT. JOHN NORTON, COLLIN CO., TX. SHERIFF'S DEPT.: I'm here.
PHILLIPS: OK, you're with me. You're in Westminster. Tell me what you're dealing with right now. We're looking at live pictures, actually aerials of the destruction there via our affiliate WFAA. Tell me where you are and what you're responding to within this hour.
NORTON: Are you -- I assume you're talking to me?
PHILLIPS: Yes, Lieutenant Norton, you hear me all right?
NORTON: Yes, no, I apologize.
PHILLIPS: That's OK. That's all right.
NORTON: Right now, at this point, we're pretty much in the cleanup and assessment phase. We started out this morning with an intense search, the third one going house to house, and ensuring we had no more victims. And certainly looking for any more deceased. We've not discovered any. The death toll still stands at three, with 10 sent to hospitals. We've got a path of destruction about eight miles long, about half-a-mile wide, somewhere around 26 homes essentially destroyed with six-plus major damage in northern Collin and southern Gracen (ph) County.
PHILLIPS: Can you give me an idea for how many people have been affected? How many people are in Westminster and the other areas around Westminster that really took a hit like what we're seeing right now, via these live pictures over Westminster?
NORTON: Well, it's rural farming area. It's sparsely populated. So fortunately, it's not a large number.
But overall, in this area, depending on how far you want to go from it, you can go from 300 to 500 people easily.
PHILLIPS: So you had a lot people that were able to get out of this area before this hit. You've also made a number of rescues. How many people were you able to get in there rescue?
NORTON: Well, quite a few. Obviously, the 10 were sent to the hospital. There was a number that we did, you know, minor injuries, you know, treat and release on the scene. Not many were able to escape prior to. There wasn't much notification. We knew we were under a tornado watch and warning, but they're so sporadic and so hit and miss, you just really don't know which area they're going to hit.
PHILLIPS: So, Lieutenant Norton, what kind of response is being made? We're looking at a specific, it looks like one small area here, rural area, possibly of mobile homes that were completely leveled, in addition to a number of vehicles you see. We're looking at a boat right now that's been overturned, also a huge tree that was uprooted.
NORTON: Correct.
PHILLIPS: These folks that did survive, what's being done to help them try to get shelter for the time, food, shelter, for the moment?
NORTON: yes, absolutely. We have the Red Cross and the Salvation Army here providing those services. We've got Wal-Mart that's donated food. I think Home Depot's donated chain saws, that type of material. We've got a sufficient number of volunteers. And fortunately, we are actually having to turn away volunteers. We've got enough assistance here.
Right now, a lot of people live up here, and even those that suffered damage and can't go back to their homes have a lot family in the area, so a lot of them are going to good stay with family. We do not have a shelter open. We've not seen the need at this point to open a shelter. Basically, they'll be absorbed by the community and their family.
PHILLIPS: Are you concerned about any other areas right now, or do you think this system has pretty much made it through the area, and now it's just a matter of trying to help folks recover? NORTON: Oh, yes, I think the weather's gone. I mean, it's come and gone. Right now, it's sunny and, you know, clear skies and mild temperature.
PHILLIPS: Lieutenant John Norton with the Collins County Sheriff's Department. I know you're busy today. We sure appreciate your time. Thank you, sir.
NORTON: Not a problem.
PHILLIPS: Following these live pictures via our affiliate out of Dallas, WFAA. That's Westminster, Texas. We actually have our Rob Marciano on the ground. He'll continue to bring us reports, and we'll follow of course all the live pictures throughout the area.
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PHILLIPS: Pyrotechnics in a crowded nightclub. Three years of pain poured out in a courtroom today. Now comes the punishment. Live pictures now as the sentence is about to be passed for this man, the former band manager who set the nightclub fire that killed 100 people in Rhode Island in 2003. We're hearing from attorneys right now. As soon as we know what the fate is for Daniel Biechele, the man whose pyrotechnics started the station nightclub fire, we'll bring it to you as soon as we know.
In Toledo, a priest's life is focused on the body and the blood. But I'm not talking about the Catholic Eucharist. It's forensic evidence from the brutal 1980 murder of a nun. CNN's Keith Oppenheim has more on the case against Father Gerald Robinson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): During the nearly three weeks of testimony, Father Gerald Robinson sat silently at the defense table as the prosecution portrayed him as a murder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that a fair and accurate representation?
OPPENHEIM: Prosecutors placed a mannequin on the floor to represent the 26-year-old crime scene. On April 5th, 1980, Sister Margaret Ann Pahl was found dead in the chapel at Toledo's Mercy Hospital. She had been strangled and stabbed multiple times.
DEAN MANDROS, LEAD PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: He stabbed her over the heart nine times. Nine piercings of her flesh in the shape of an upside down cross.
OPPENHEIM: At the time, Father Robinson was questioned, but not charged. Not until 2004, when cold case investigators took another look at the evidence. Prosecutors claimed this was a ritual killing, committed by someone with inside knowledge.
REV. JEFFREY GROB, ARCHDIOCESE OF CHICAGO: It is a mockery. I mean, the inverted cross on the person is a mockery to God.
OPPENHEIM: The state presented two nuns that said they saw the priest near the chapel at the time that the crime took place.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Father Robinson.
OPPENHEIM: Prosecutors say this dagger-shaped letter opener was the murder weapon and that had belonged to Father Robinson. Dr. Henry Lee, a forensics expert, well-known from the O.J. Simpson trial, said blood stains on an altar cloth resembled the pattern of the alleged weapon.
DR. HENRY LEE, FORENSICS EXPERT: I cannot come here to tell you this pattern is produced exactly by this. I only can say similar to.
OPPENHEIM: What prosecutors lacked in this case was any DNA evidence directly linking the priest to the victim. Father Robinson says he's not guilty, and defense attorneys have tried to cast doubt on the prosecution's evidence. Here, a police officer suggests Sister Pahl was upset with someone, but he couldn't say for sure that it was Father Robinson.
ALAN KONOP, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: She was upset that they had shortened the Friday services. You don't know who that person is, do you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got a good idea who they are.
KONOP: Do you know specifically who that person is?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
KONOP: Did she ever tell you who that person was?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
KONOP: Never!
OPPENHEIM: David Yonke, a local reporter who's writing a book on this case, says it's hard to predict what the jurors might do.
DAVID YONKE, REPORTER, "TOLEDO BLADE": They could feel like they believe the priest did it, but that they just weren't, you know, 99.9 percent sure and didn't want to send this 68-year-old priest to prison for the rest of his life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, severe weather warnings now. Still, tornados strike Texas. Now the same line of storms is moving east. Live pictures via our affiliate WFAA out of Westminster, Texas, and also live pictures from our affiliate WBRC out of Birmingham, Alabama. You can see how the system is moving in. Our Reynolds Wolf is here at the CNN center. He'll be tracking the system for us, bringing us all the latest information. We'll stay on the story.
The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. More LIVE FROM next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, you've heard it before, but it gets more urgent by the day. It's President Bush's reminder to seniors, delivered this morning in Orlando, Florida, to choose one of the dozens of Medicare drug plans before Monday's deadline.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I strongly believe that giving seniors choices is important to a good health care system. After all, not everybody's needs are the same. And, therefore, the more opportunity it is to pick a program that meets your needs, the better off the health care system will be. That's why choice matters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So far, 37 million of the 43 million Medicare beneficiaries have signed up.
Well, Mr. Bush has wrapped up his Florida travels, but his plans were hardly a secret. A D.C. sanitation worker found a printed outline of the president's Florida itinerary in the garbage early yesterday. Well, that document included such sensitive info as the order of vehicles in the presidential motorcade and the flight times for Air Force One.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RANDY HOPKINS, SANITATION WORKER: I see this symbol, and I just -- me being nosy, I thought I should pick it up and read it. I saw location and names and places where the president's supposed to be on this day, and I knew it was kind of important. It shouldn't have been in the trash.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, a White House spokesperson confirms Hopkins' account. He also says the administration is trying to figure out who slipped up.
Well, if he gets the job, his work will mostly be done in secret. But for now, General Michael Hayden is having to grip and grin like every other political appointee. Hayden, of course, is the president's pick to head the CIA. Hearings on his nominations are due to start a week from tomorrow.
Today the nominees on Capitol Hill meeting with senators, including Democrat Dick Durbin who will decide his fate. Hayden is also meeting with Republicans including Trent Lott. He has a sit-down later with Arlen Specter, who you may remember is a big critic of the domestic wiretapping program that Hayden once oversaw.
The House of Representatives is passing out laurels today to a few of its alumni, some of the big names getting big tributes Capitol Hill. We're live. We're all over it. It's coming up.
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PHILLIPS: Live pictures once again from our affiliate WBRC out of Birmingham, Alabama. You can see the system coming in there. We've already shown you live pictures out of Texas. Now that same destructive weather is working its way into Alabama. Severe weather could strike several other states today. Let's check in with Reynolds Wolf. He's monitoring all of it for us right now. Reynolds, what did you think?
(WEATHER REPORT)
PHILLIPS: Well, in medical news, next time you go for a physical, you might be asked to take a AIDS test. Experts worry that too many people who are HIV infected don't know it and thus might infect others. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to call for AIDS tests to be a routine part of physicals for persons aged 13 to 64. The CDC says that a quarter of the one million Americans with HIV don't know they even have it.
The morning after is no time to try to get a prescription for the morning after pill. That's the message from the nation's largest gynecologist group. It's urging women to get a prescription for emergency contraception now so they have it if and when they need it.
The earlier the pill is taken after unprotected sex, the better it works, but it's not sold over the counter and the group warns that it can be hard to find a doctor to write a prescription in time.
The news keeps coming. We'll keep bringing it to you. The second hour of LIVE FROM is straight ahead.
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