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CNN Live Today

Explosion, Fire at Quality Inn in Bremen, Georgia; Flood Threat; Reports; Car Destroyed in Gaza City Explosion

Aired June 27, 2006 - 10:59   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris, in for Daryn Kagan.
And welcome to the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY.

We have got a lot to tell you about this morning from small-town America. A tragic loss. A community leader is dead, a building lies in ruin, and those who survived the collapse of a structure are calling the incident a nightmare.

Hundreds of detainees now free from a notorious prison in Iraq. We'll tell you why Iraq's new government opened the doors to Abu Ghraib today.

And Dallas Austin accused. A big-name hip-hop producer may be singing the blues.

But first, an update on the breaking news we first brought you last hour of an explosion at a Quality Inn two-story motel. This in Bremen, Georgia. Still gathering information on this right now.

As you can see from these pictures -- and thanks to our affiliate here in Atlanta, WSB, for these pictures -- quite an extensive collapse and a lot of damage associated with this explosion. At least five cars in a wider shot you will see here crushed. We understand that people may be trapped inside. We're still working on that, but the good news, at least in the early reporting, no one appears to have been injured in all of this.

John Oxendine is the Georgia State insurance commissioner. He is on the phone with us.

And John, good to talk to you again.

JOHN OXENDINE, GEORGIA INSURANCE COMMISSIONER: Well, good to talk to you today. I just wish it was a different reason.

HARRIS: Yes. John, do you have any more information than what we've been reporting over the last hour?

OXENDINE: Well, what we have is, my officers with the state arson unit, which is a division of my office, they're there. They're working with Bremen fire rescue and Haralson County authorities.

We did have an explosion shortly after 9:00 a.m. There is one missing individual. That individual is a maintenance employee. We fear the worst, but at this point it's still a missing individual, and we're trying to find out where that person is. The entire back side of the two-story inn has collapsed.

HARRIS: So this is the back of the structure?

OXENDINE: Yes. Yes. And it is going to be a while before we can get in there.

It's going to take us a couple of hours to get heavy equipment. We've actually got to remove a lot of this debris and we want to be very careful, because if someone is still alive, we want to make sure that we don't make the situation worse.

HARRIS: Yes. A couple questions, John. You said it's going to take an hour to get more equipment into the area?

OXENDINE: Well, at least an hour, maybe more.

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: Why so long? That feels like a long time.

OXENDINE: Yes. I mean, Bremen is a small town, it's on the Georgia-Alabama line. We are getting the equipment in. We've starting to question it. We're getting it as soon as we can, but it takes a while to get that equipment. And also, the fire has to be cool enough to actually go in and move it.

HARRIS: So there was a fire?

OXENDINE: Yes. There was an explosion. The explosion did cause some fire as well.

HARRIS: OK. Hey, John, you mentioned...

OXENDINE: There was an explosion.

HARRIS: John, you mentioned that the arson unit is either on its way or on the scene right now.

OXENDINE: They are there.

HARRIS: Is that standard or do you have a suspicion?

OXENDINE: At this time it's just a suspicion. Obviously you have an explosion of this nature, you're very suspicious.

The state arson unit is the main investigative fire unit on the state level. It's part of my fire marshal division. So whenever there is a situation like this, they're always called to help the local authorities, and that's what we're doing, is try to find the cause and origin of what happened. We also have our hazmat unit also en route.

HARRIS: OK. So, just by way of recapping this -- and stay with us as we do this, John -- this is an explosion that occurred at about 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. And Bremen, for folks who are not familiar with this area, is about, oh, what, 10 miles east of the Alabama border in Georgia, about an hour west of Atlanta?

OXENDINE: Yes. It's due west of Atlanta, just inside the state. It's a small community there.

HARRIS: OK.

OXENDINE: Sort of a bedroom community. Some people commute to Atlanta.

HARRIS: And recap for folks who may just be joining us what you've learned initially in your investigation.

OXENDINE: What we've learned is, shortly after 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time this morning, there was an explosion. Large areas of the two- story hotel have collapsed.

There is a missing hotel maintenance worker. We fear the worst, but we're -- we're still very hopeful. We're trying to locate that individual, and hoping and praying that individual is going to be OK.

We just -- the person is totally unaccounted for. So we have no earthly idea where this person could be, but we fear it might be in the rubble.

HARRIS: OK. And this is a two-story motel. Were there any other injuries?

OXENDINE: There are no other injuries that I'm aware of at this point. I'm not aware of any other hotel guests that were injured. And I specifically asked if any firefighters have been injured. And at this point I'm unaware of any.

HARRIS: And it's going to take you how long to get more crew, more equipment into that area?

OXENDINE: I talked to my -- talked to my chief arson investigator on the scene just a few minutes ago and he said it's going to take them, you know, an hour, maybe two, before they can really get in there and start removing a lot of this stuff. Obviously, we've got to make sure that the building is stable enough. You've got to go in very carefully. You don't want more of the building to collapse on the rescue workers.

And this is a small town. We do have to get that equipment out there. And that equipment, my understanding, is en route right now. We're getting it there as soon as possible.

HARRIS: And you are investigating this as a possible arson?

OXENDINE: We're -- we're investigating it. We really don't know what the cause is. We're investigating to find out what the cause and origin of this is. And as soon as we can get in there and start looking to see what happened, hopefully late today or early tomorrow, we will have a feeling if it was intentionally started or an accident or what.

HARRIS: OK.

OXENDINE: At this point we really don't know until we get into the scene.

HARRIS: OK. John Oxendine, the state of Georgia's insurance commissioner.

John, good to talk to you again. Thanks for your time.

And let me read this to you as we're getting it. This just in to CNN. Pictures. Great. Pictures that we're getting from our New York affiliate, WABC.

A rescue effort is under way right now for two trapped construction workers. New York Fire Department received this report and is on the scene right now of two individuals who are trapped but are said to be alert, breathing, obviously, and doing fine. The rescue operation is under way right now.

Once again, this is a collapse at a construction site which has trapped two construction workers, but they breathing, alert, and our understanding, at least initially, they're doing fine. As you can see, a lot of hands on deck right now trying to extricate those construction workers from that site. Don't know exactly what caused this situation, whether it was a collapse of some kind, but we're going to continue to follow this situation.

Again, our thanks to our affiliate, WABC in New York, for these pictures of this breaking news just into CNN.

A community in shock. A small town in mourning today in Clinton, Missouri. The local Elks leader is dead, killed in a building collapse. Nine other group members were trapped overnight and waited for hours to be rescued.

The collapse happened as the members were eating dinner on the second floor of the building. About 40 managed to make it out of the rubble on their own. After the dinner last night, the Elks were planning to initiate new members. Instead, they're trying to come to terms with a tragic loss.

And flooding is a threat again today along the East Coast. One man outside Washington says flashfloods appeared to wash away everything in their path. Today, more rain keeping things miserable and extremely dangerous. Roads have turned into raging rivers of muck as far north as Albany, New York.

A Maryland woman was killed in an accident blamed on wet roads. A foot of water fell in some spots.

Chad Myers following it all. Our severe weather expert upstairs in the CNN weather center.

And good morning to you, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Tony.

Looking at -- it's kind of a tropical system, as we call it. We don't really have a name for it yet, or even -- don't even know what to call it.

The hurricane hunters are on their way to look at it. This thing literally developed overnight. If it was a tropical storm, it would be Beryl. The whole -- it rhymes with Earl.

The whole Atlantic beach area here, all the way down to about Wilmington, with gale warnings in effect. So they already know that the winds are going to be at least 35, maybe 40 miles per hour. When they fly into the core of the storm, they'll find out whether it actually deserves the tropical depression or tropical storm.

Now, the good news is that this thing is moving very quickly to the north. Moving at 25 miles per hour.

You draw a line from where I believe the center is to about Atlantic Beach, 135 miles. Do the subtraction and multiplication, you get about five and a half hours. And this thing is actually going to be on land.

It is not going to have a lot of time to develop into something more sinister. So five hours, it certainly could get to a tropical storm system, but it can't be a Category 3 hurricane in that short of a time, in that short of a distance.

But speeds vary all the way back to Jacksonville. There's Atlantic Beach right there, Moorhead City. That area there under the gun for some winds, probably a little bit of storm surge.

This is like a catcher's mitt catching the water that gets pushed up into it there. That's kind of the reason why we're looking at seeing how these things are all kind of shaped in different shapes from the currents and from other hurricanes and the like.

We'll get back to the maps to show you what's going on. The satellite picture, look how that just developed in the overnight hours.

It came off of Florida. This is the storm that made all the rain in Florida, and up into Georgia, as well, and it just developed, like, in an instant. Poof. It's because the water is so warm. It's called the gulf stream.

The water obviously in the Atlantic Ocean, if you ever swam in it, it's a lot warmer than the Pacific. Different currents, different directions. The water from the Atlantic actually comes from Key West, around Miami, and then on up the East Coast.

D.C., Baltimore, with this system as it runs through Raleigh, as it runs through Elizabeth City, will certainly get some heavy rain. Like they need more. I was just on the phone -- on the phone with all the producers out of Washington. They really are concerned because they've had almost 12 inches of rain in some spots in the past 48 hours, with another 3 to 6 inches to go. Everybody could really be in a big world of hurt up here in D.C. if we do get that much rain in a short amount of time.

By literally -- Tony, by 10:00 tomorrow morning the rain is gone.

HARRIS: Really?

MYERS: It's up -- it's up into Philadelphia already, making problems there.

HARRIS: Yes.

MYERS: But the rain will be stopping in D.C. by 10:00. So, in less than 24 hours, that storm will have gone all the way from the Atlantic Ocean, through North Carolina, through Virginia, across Washington, D.C., and up into the Northeast.

HARRIS: We hear you guys say it a lot, fast-moving storm. And this would be the definition of a fast-moving storm.

MYERS: Yes. Two problems with a fast-moving storm.

One good thing, one bad thing. You could knock down trees because the winds will be stronger because the storm is moving faster. You get the ground that's saturated, these trees around D.C. are going to be doing this. Virginia -- northern Virginia as well. But the good news is it doesn't have time to sit there and rain for 48 hours and make Hurricane Agnes-type weather like...

HARRIS: Agnes. Boy, do I remember that. I sure remember that.

OK, Chad. Appreciate it. Thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

HARRIS: Let's get you caught up on our breaking news. A couple of developing stories to tell you about right now.

First of all, this scene under way right now in New York City. And as you can see, firefighters are working frantically, as you can see from this shot from our affiliate in New York, WABC.

The fire department on the scene of a partial collapse at this construction site. This is in the borough of Brooklyn. We understand two individual construction workers are at least right now OK.

Don't know the extent of their injuries, but they are alert, we understand, and doing OK right now. Again, don't know the extent of their injuries beyond this early reporting. And I think you can see the head of one of the construction workers who's trapped right now.

Man, that's pretty dramatic stuff right there. And a lot of New York City firefighters on that scene right now doing the best they can, working feverishly to get that construction worker out.

And we'll get an update on whether or not the firefighters have been able to extricate the second construction worker that's trapped. But in this scene, we understand the initial reports are that two construction workers are in trouble here, and a lot of hands on deck. A lot of folks doing everything possible right now to get them freed.

Would love to see a wider shot of this, but we'll take what we can get of this scene now just to get a sense of the general area around this. But a lot of work going on right now to free two construction workers trapped at this construction project in the borough of Brooklyn.

Reporting just came in, oh, in the last half-hour or so. And we will continue to keep an eye on this situation.

Maybe we can squeeze that into one corner while we bring you an update on the situation in Bremen, Georgia. Bremen, Georgia, where there has been a collapse and some new video. New video here.

Thanks to our affiliate here in the Atlanta area, WSB, for providing these pictures.

New from the scene in Bremen, and this is a city that is, oh, about an hour west of Atlanta and 10 miles east of the Alabama line. And at this location, firefighters are working an explosion at a Quality Inn motel.

This is a two-story motel. And as we just heard a couple of moments ago from the Georgia State insurance commissioner, John Oxendine, this is being investigated as an arson. An arson team from the insurance commissioner's office is on the scene right now.

It is going to take at least an hour to get heavy equipment on to the location because this is a small and kind of remote community. It's going to take some time to get some of the heavy equipment there to start to pull the pieces of that collapse apart.

And they're going to be very delicate in that operation. That's because at least one person is still inside that building. That confirmed by John Oxendine.

And the insurance commissioner saying that he fears the worst for that person. That certainly hasn't been confirmed. But everyone else in that motel apparently made it out safely.

This is an explosion that happened about 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time this morning in Bremen. And our eagle-eyed weather expert, Chad Myers, spotted a propane tank that had been expelled from that building. Still don't know the cause of that explosion. But as you can see, this is a lot of extensive damage to the rear of that building. At least one person is still inside that building.

And boy, we have another developing story right now of an explosion in Gaza. Do we have pictures on that yet?

Let me just check with our control room.

OK. Still working to get you pictures.

All right. Here we have it. New pictures right now of a car destroyed in an explosion in Gaza.

As you can see, a lot of activity on the streets now surrounding that explosion in Gaza. And, boy, a pretty close-up view of what is left, what is left of that car.

Trying to get you information as to who might be responsible for this. We understand we're just getting word that the Israeli government is denying any responsibility for this explosion. The Israeli government saying this is not one of those targeted attacks.

Once again, pictures just in to CNN of an explosion. We don't know at this point, can't make out from these pictures if there was any loss of life connected to this explosion. This, again, in Gaza City.

Also, a lot of breaking news right now. And as you can see, a lot of activity around this scene.

We will take a quick break and recap for you in just a moment all of this breaking news that has come to us here in just a moment.

You're watching CNN's LIVE TODAY on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So if you're just joining us this morning, a lot of breaking news here at CNN in the last hour and in the last few minutes.

First of all, let's take you to Gaza City. And new pictures in to CNN.

A loud explosion has rocked the Gaza Strip, and the cause of this blast not immediately known. New pictures right now into CNN. But we will show you pictures of the scene on the ground in just a moment.

No reports right now of casualties connected to this loud explosion. And just a bit of context with this scene.

Israel has been, as you know, threatening tough military action in Gaza since a soldier was kidnapped by Palestinian militants on Sunday. And what we do know is, of course, a practice here is that the Israeli army routinely claims responsibilities for its air strikes in Gaza, but so far the Israeli army says it is -- had nothing to do with this explosion today in Gaza City.

So, once again, those pictures -- we're following the story in Gaza City. A car destroyed, and a loud explosion, and at least at this point no immediate word on injuries or casualties connected to this attack. Now, let's take you to -- well, I should say not an attack, an explosion, until we know more.

Let's take you to New York now. Another story that's developing and we're following. The New York Fire Department on the scene trying to extricate two construction workers from this hole, trapped at this construction site.

We understand that the two individuals are OK for now, don't know the extent of their injuries. A moment ago we saw the head of one of the construction workers peering out. And that construction worker quite animated, wanting to get out of that situation as quickly as possible. And as you can see, there are a lot of hands working on this rescue operation right now.

Our thanks to our affiliate in New York's, WABC, for these live chopper pictures of the scene right now. Again, this is a construction accident in Brooklyn, a partial collapse. Two construction workers, we understand, are trapped in that collapse. And as you can see, a massive effort under way right now to extricate those two men from that construction accident.

Now to Bremen, Georgia, which is about an hour west of Atlanta and about 10 miles east of the Alabama border. We've been following this story for the last hour or so, an explosion at this Quality Inn motel, this two-story motel. And you're looking at the back portion of this motel.

One person is still believed trapped inside, and the word from the Georgia State insurance commissioner is that -- wow, as you can see, man, more pieces of the collapsed building, a side wall there, just collapsing on a car there. There is one person believed still inside that building. No word on that person's condition. Everyone else in that motel at the time of the explosion apparently made it out safely.

The insurance commissioner telling us a short time ago that this is being investigated as a possible arson. Five cars at least crushed under the weight of this collapse. One of the vehicles you can see right there in the center of your screen as we get a wider look at the situation. You can see all the debris that was blown out of the building at the time of this explosion.

Our eagle-eyed Chad Myers noticing that there is a huge propane tank that apparently was just expelled from that building at the time of the explosion. There was a fire.

But we are continuing to follow this situation. And we will bring you the latest information and try to get what we can on the fate of the one individual who is still inside that building right now.

But still ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY, flashing blue lights, badges. They look real, but they're not. Fake cops.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: 11:26 Eastern Time, and you're watching CNN's LIVE TODAY. If you're just joining us, a lot of breaking news to get you caught up on, so follow us on this.

First of all, we want to take you to Gaza City and mix in some new video just in to CNN. A loud explosion has rocked the Gaza Strip. It has destroyed one car that we know of. The cause of the blast not immediately known. And there are no reports of casualties at this time. That, of course, may change.

Now, here's a bilt of the backdrop for all of this, a bit of context for it.

Israel, as you know, has been threatening some tough military action in Gaza in the aftermath of the abduction of the Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants. That on Sunday.

Now, the Israeli army routinely claims responsibility for its work, for its air strikes, but so far the Israeli army has not claimed responsibility for this explosion in Gaza. So, once again, that's a situation that we're following in Gaza.

Let's take you now to New York City, where the fire department is on the scene now doing everything possible, as quickly as possible, to extricate two construction workers from a hole here at a construction site, a collapse there. Two individuals are said to be doing fine right now. Certainly don't know the extent of their injuries, but a few moments ago we saw the head of one of the construction workers, and this construction worker was clearly communicating with the firefighters and at least was alert.

A second -- or a second construction worker is believed to be trapped at that site as well. This is the only picture that we have right now of the location. So we are assuming that both of the construction workers are in that location right there.

And as you can see, there are a lot of hands, a lot of firefighters on the scene right now doing the best they can as quickly as they can to get those construction workers out and to a hospital. As we see now, they may be making even better progress, maybe about to put one of the construction workers on that flat board to get them out of that situation.

We are certainly going to keep an eye on that. We would guess we're a couple of minutes away from that person being extricated, but we'll go back to that to see that scene unfold.

And this is in Bremen, Georgia, which is about an hour west of Atlanta, very near the Alabama border. This is a collapse, an explosion -- a collapse caused by an explosion at this Quality Inn motel. It's a two-story hotel, and the picture that you're seeing here is of the rear portion of that motel. A number of cars crushed by the explosion. We just saw a big piece of one of the side walls just fall off of that collapse and do more damaged to an already crushed car.

The state insurance commissioner telling us a short time ago that there is one person still inside that building right now. Don't know the fate of that person.

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