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American Morning
Tornado Tears Apart Joplin; Tornadoes Tear Through Midwest; Obama Traces Roots in Ireland; Arrest Made in Giants' Fan Beating
Aired May 23, 2011 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING, tornadoes tearing up the Midwest. Right now, there's a state of emergency in Joplin, Missouri, where dozens are dead and according to the Red Cross, up to 75 percent of that city could be destroyed.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Los Angeles police making an arrest in the brutal beating that left a San Francisco Giants baseball fan in a coma. We'll tell you about the tip that led officers to the suspect's apartment.
ROMANS: And President Obama kicks off a six-day visit to Europe with a stop in Ireland. He'll meet with the prime minister and president. Then he'll explore his family roots in a village near Dublin.
CHETRY: Remember Princess Beatrice's pretzel-shaped hat at the royal wedding?
ROMANS: Oh, yes.
CHETRY: Wait until you hear how much someone agreed to pay to own it for themselves. That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: A tornado destroying much of Joplin, Missouri. I'm Christine Romans.
Reports of at least 30 people killed and 75 percent of that city may be wiped out. The governor calls out the National Guard declaring a state of emergency.
CHETRY: And an all-out manhunt by Los Angeles police may have finally paid off. I'm Kiran Chetry.
A brutal attack at a Dodgers game and police say the man responsible is now behind bars. The victim, though, is still fighting for his life on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Welcome. Thanks for being with us. It's Monday, May 23rd. You know, it was just 12 hours ago that people in Joplin, Missouri, heard those tornado warnings go off. Many ran to seek safer ground.
ROMANS: That's right.
CHETRY: But boy, the devastation is just coming to light today. ROMANS: That's right. And now 12 hours later, life has certainly changed in Joplin, Missouri. A powerful tornado ripped that city apart last night. The Red Cross says 75 percent of the town is virtually gone with reports of at least 30 people killed and dozens more injured. Fifty thousand people live in the city. There's no phone service, power lines are down, cars and trucks smashed and flipped. The governor calling out the National Guard and declaring a state of emergency this morning.
CHETRY: And to make matters worse, the city's main hospital, St. John's Regional Medical Center where people would have gone to get help suffered extensive damage and in fact witnesses saying that windows were blown out on some of the top floors. Medical records, x- rays and other items scattered nearly 70 miles away. At least 100 patients had to be transferred to other area hospitals. And emergency crews combing through mounds of rubble and debris right now still searching for survivors.
Brian Todd is live in Joplin at St. John's.
Brian, when we say searching for survivors, do they have any estimation of how many people could be missing in the wake of this tornado?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No estimates yet, Kiran. They're just getting their heads around this devastation and combing through the city and combing through this area right here.
You've got the St. John's Regional Medical Center right behind me. I'm going to show you a little bit of the damage. Our photo journalist, John Pearson (ph), is going to kind of hone in there as tightly as he can. The building as you can see, the facade has been ripped apart. Part of the top of the building has been taken away.
We just saw some doctors go in there to try to retrieve some medical records and some other things. We are told that most of the people, if not all of the people in there have been evacuated. But we're going to go over here just a little bit just to give you kind of a sense of some of the other devastation here and around the town.
We got here a short time ago. A scene of utter devastation. Everything seems to be wiped out.
Look at the cars over here. You've got a van and an SUV on top of a pick-up truck over here. The cars are twisted. Some of them have been burned. You can see that there's just wreckage of cars all over the place. And this is a scene that is repeated throughout the city. Just homes have been reduced to virtually nothing almost as far as the eye can see.
You mentioned a Red Cross official did say that about 75 percent of this town is gone. Governor Jay Nixon not giving specific casualty figures yet because a lot of them he says are not going to be determined until daylight arrives which is going to be about an hour from now. They've been trying to work to pull people out of wreckage to see if anybody is still trapped. That's still unclear. There are emergency crews combing this entire area looking for people who might be trapped.
I'm going to bring in someone who can tell us maybe a little bit more, Miranda Lewis, a spokeswoman for the St. John's Regional Medical Center.
Miranda, thanks for coming by. Tell us first of all what can you tell us about the people who were in there, how many were in there and how many have you gotten out?
MIRANDA LEWIS, HOSPITAL SPOKESPERSON: OK. We had roughly 180 patients and everybody has been evacuated from the hospital so that's all good news. And we had a couple hundred co-workers as well.
TODD: Now, there were reports of fires in there. You said when you arrived on the scene, there was some natural gas leaks and it was very dangerous. Tell us what happened there?
LEWIS: Right. And I personally did not see any fires. They were trying to get people away from the hospital. There were natural gas fires here as well as all around this area. So they were working very hard to get that contained and then to get people to safety.
TODD: There's a triage center over there we know.
LEWIS: Right.
TODD: Are patients being taken to other medical centers? Is there enough capability there to handle the volume from this hospital?
LEWIS: Well, luckily the town has all pulled together. We've got EMs crews and hospital workers from all around. Right after the tornado hit, we sent our critical patients across the street to Freeman Health System and, you know, they were great in taking care of our critical patients. We sent the ambulatory walking wounded to a community center in the middle of Joplin and then there was some spillover into actually a Catholic high school at that point. So now, we're trying to get them all back contained into the community center.
TODD: You're one of the first witnesses we've had a chance to talk to. Tell us what it was like when this thing hit. How much warning did you have, and what was it like?
LEWIS: Well, this is on the west end of Joplin. I live on the east end of Joplin. We did hear the sirens go off. From what I've heard, there was very little warning here. You know, the sirens did go off, so they did have some. But, you know, obviously a tornado this big, it's difficult to prepare for something of this magnitude.
TODD: Thank you for giving us the information.
LEWIS: Thank you.
TODD: Best of luck to you and your crew here as you try to recover from this. Thank you very much, Miranda.
LEWIS: Thank you. TODD: Guys, what we're told is there's going to be a news conference here maybe in about half an hour to maybe get some kind of a read on the numbers that we're talking about. But again, daylight not for another hour and they're still combing through what is a completely devastated city. It's hard to give you a real picture of i8. When daylight comes, we'll be able to shoot much better pictures and give you a real sense of just the devastation here. But it is -- it looks to be a town that's almost completely wiped out at this point.
CHETRY: Amazing. Well, at least the good news for that hospital is they did get all of the patients out and into different facilities. Thanks so much, Brian.
Search and rescue efforts as Brian alluded to are under way still and they should know more at sun up. There is so much destruction though. It's really impossible to know how many people may be trapped beneath the debris.
ROMANS: We're joined on the phone now by Keith Stammer, emergency management director for the city of Joplin and Jasper County.
Welcome to the program. First off, still dark there, but you say you do know that there are places where you know people are trapped. As soon as light comes up and you can plow your way through the roads, that will be the first order of business I assume?
KEITH STAMMER, EMERGENCY MGMT. DIR., JOPLIN AND JASPER COUNTY (via telephone): That is correct. As a matter of fact, we still have a list. We have been working all night long and we will continue to do so you until we get to everybody.
CHETRY: We also are just getting a sense of the scope of this.
STAMMER: Yes.
CHETRY: Hearing perhaps 2,000 buildings damaged or destroyed in some sway. People are saying 75 percent of the city is gone?
STAMMER: Well, that's probably a very high number, but the particular area that the tornado went through is just like the central portion of the city and it's very dense in terms of population. So that 2,000 structures is not a surprise to us at all.
ROMANS: Six-mile long path, this storm carved out. Tell us a little bit about what you're seeing there in the dark on the ground from your vantage point?
STAMMER: Well, it's very difficult, of course, in the dark, but it just seems like everywhere you go there's destruction. Buildings are down, trees are down, homes are down, businesses have been crushed. Canopies have been thrown to the side. RVs have been tossed into another house. Roofs have been taken off. It's just quite amazing.
CHETRY: And how are you guys coordinating any type of, first of all, obviously the search and rescue, but second of all just being able to do some of that disaster cleanup given. Phone service as I understand it was largely cut off for the city and just the sheer challenge of trying to move around?
STAMMER: Well, it's been a little crazy. Fortunately, we do have a good emergency management system here. We have a lot of good people that we've worked with. When the phone systems went down we were able to switch over to alternate communications by radio. We have a lot of good people in the area that have worked with us in years past and we've worked with them and we've been able to get them in here. We have over 40 agencies that have responded from Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri with about 410 personnel in those 40 agencies.
ROMANS: Can you tell us about the injuries, the scope of the injuries at this point, and where you're sending people? We know your hospital there took a direct hit.
STAMMER: Yes. The main hospital, St. John's did. But we have Freeman Hospital across the way. We don't have a definitive count yet as far as fatalities. We're working on that number and hope to have something a little bit later for the news conference. I can tell you Freeman Hospital has reported they treated over 400 people just for injuries.
CHETRY: Wow. Four hundred people for injuries and as we understand that's right next -- across the street at least --
STAMMER: They're across the street south of me. We're right across the street from each other.
CHETRY: Another -- so the American Red Cross spokesperson is the one that earlier said 75 percent of the town is gone. You say that's a high estimate. If you had to sort of just taking a look at what you've seen, what do you think in terms of how much damage for the town of Joplin?
STAMMER: I'd say somewhere between 10 and 20.
CHETRY: OK. So that's much lower than --
STAMMER: Yes.
CHETRY: -- they're estimating. Also the other question is about how much warning. It's interesting to hear some witnesses say there was -- they felt they had warning on one side of town, whereas on the area where -- around St. John's, there are some questions about whether they really had enough time to do much, apparently just trying to wheel some patients into the hallways and hope for the best?
STAMMER: Well, obviously those situations are very confused but I can tell you I was the one that had them turn on the sirens. By our count, we had 17 minutes time between we turned the sirens on and we had the first report of the strike.
CHETRY: Got you.
ROMANS: Wow. Seventeen minutes to prepare. And this is a part of the country where it's not, as if you're not used to tornado. People know to take shelter, to get in the basement, to get out of harm's way. I mean, was it the classic tornado where you would hear the roar? Tell me what you were hearing when this is happening?
STAMMER: Yes, it was --
ROMANS: Sounds like we've lost Keith Stammer.
STAMMER: Hello. Yes, we're still here.
ROMANS: There you are.
STAMMER: We're still here.
CHETRY: Yes. So it was -- you could hear it. This was a monster storm.
STAMMER: Yes. It was a classic type thing as reports that we have. You hear the train coming by and, you know, people are trying to figure out -- maybe some people thought it was a major gas release, any types of expressions they have in terms of what it sounds like if it comes through.
ROMANS: All right. Keith Stammer, emergency management director for the city of Joplin and Jasper County, thanks for joining us. Best of luck to you as you continue to get down on the ground, do your search and rescue and we'll be looking forward to hearing more from your news conference later on in the morning.
You know, the Twin cities also took a direct hit from a powerful twister on Sunday. Northern Minneapolis feeling the brunt of it. One person was killed there. Twenty-two others were hurt. Entire blocks of homes destroyed there in the Twin cities.
CHETRY: Yes, ambulances lining up to take victims away and thousands are still without power. The mayor warning everyone to stay out of the area so that emergency crews can do their jobs. As we've said, this has proven to be very difficult.
Rob joins us this morning here on set. You know, we've seen a spring of an awful lot of destructive weather including records set for tornados.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Now with today, regardless of what the fatality count is, we're going to be -- we'll have broken the record set back in 1974, surpassed that year I should say, and this is going to be the deadliest tornado season since the 1950s. So really tremendous amount of destruction and nature not done yet. We're still through the middle of May, mentioned that Minneapolis had a tornado with fatality and numerous injuries there. Also destructive and deadly tornado rolling across Kansas on Saturday.
I want to show you what the radar looks like when this tornado rolled through Joplin yesterday and this tornado, this radar imagery from 3:00 in the afternoon until 9:00 at night. And you see that super cell just blow up to the north and west of Joplin and drive down to the south and east. This is a little bit different look than the one that rolled through Tuscaloosa and Alabama. That was a more distinct super cell that was on the ground and rotating for a good 200, 300 miles. This one just blowing up in the southeast corner of Kansas and making its way across Joplin, Missouri.
We mentioned the lead time on this as far as the warning goes. Over 22 minutes of lead time from the time the National Weather Service issued that warning from when it struck. So this could have been a lot worse for sure.
Let's look at the storm reports for the day. We had 48 reports of tornadoes stretching from as far north as Minnesota to as far south as parts of Oklahoma and, of course, the one that rolled through Joplin, Missouri. So a devastating day with over 700 reports of severe weather yesterday.
The threat for today, not quite as bad but it's a little bit more widespread from Oklahoma all the way to D.C., a slight risk of seeing some thunderstorms that could produce severe weather. I think tomorrow will be a bigger day as far as a bull's eye in the more typical spots that does include southwestern Missouri again.
As far as the current radar, just give you an idea where the most intense storms are right now. Moving through Nashville, up to Lexington, Louisville, will be rolling across the Ohio River Valley here before too long. Not a whole lot of tremendous weather with this. It's kind of weakened somewhat since the initial line that it rolled through last night, but there's going to be some rough and tumble thunderstorms that will be rolling across the Appalachians here in the next couple hours. So we'll keep an eye on those as well.
Unbelievable weekend. And, you know, May started off quiet. I know it felt like we had a rough couple of weeks, but from the time that the Tuscaloosa, Alabama, outbreak happened, to now, it's really been a relatively quiet couple of weeks. And boom, here we go again.
ROMANS: All you hope is for some spring serenity after just everything that's happened and just hasn't happened yet.
MARCIANO: A couple of weeks. A couple of weeks.
ROMANS: All right. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right, guys.
ROMANS: Also new this morning, an all hands on deck effort in Louisiana to keep the mighty Mississippi River at bay. More than 2,000 inmates at the Louisiana state penitentiary have been put to work now, filling up sandbags, patching up levee holes. Thousands of other prisoners were evacuated after floods destroyed part of the penitentiary. The entire southern region is suffering from the worst floods to hit since 1937.
CHETRY: Well, a volcano erupts again in Iceland shutting down all of the country's international airports. So far, flights across Europe have not been disrupted but they are keeping their eye on this. Airlines were told yesterday to be prepared for cancellations. The cloud is expected to hit Scotland tomorrow and it could reach France and Spain by Thursday. ROMANS: After an all-out manhunt, Los Angeles police now have a suspect in custody in connection with the brutal attack of a Giants fan back on opening day. Police say 31-year-old Giovanni Ramirez was the primary aggressor in a vicious beating that left the victim, Bryan Stow, in a coma. Ramirez is charged with assault with a deadly weapon. He's being held on $1 million bail. Stow, a father of two, remains in critical condition.
CHETRY: Well, talk about guts, 22-year-old Swiss race driver Simona de Silvestro wrecked her car during Thursday's practice run at the Indy speedway. She suffered second degree burns to her hand and said she didn't know if she wanted to get back into the race car this weekend to qualify for next week's Indy 500 but she did and yes, she did qualify. There's a look at the wreck right there.
This is what happened though to last year's Indy 500 winner, Dario Franchitti. He was cruising in Saturday's qualifying run when he ran out of gas. Now instead of challenging for the pole position in next week's big race, he'll have to settle for the ninth position back in the third row. You run out of gas?
ROMANS: You ride that margin so closely and then boom.
CHETRY: Well, at 8:40, we're going to be joined by three special guests in our New York studio, Indy car driver Danica Patrick, defending Indy champ Dario Franchitti, and also 2009 Indy 500 winner and former "Dancing with the Stars" champ and buds with me and Christine, right?
ROMANS: That's right.
CHETRY: Helio Castroneves. So we're excited to talk to them a little later.
ROMANS: Great time when he was here last time.
All right. Check out our very own CNN anchor John King. You're going to see pictures - that's him at Fenway Park this weekend watching his beloved Red Sox from above the Green Monster in left field when he happened - he just happened to catch David Ortiz's 300th career home run.
CHETRY: What are the chances?
ROMANS: John sent - can you believe it? John sent the ball down to Big Papi and the Sox slugger sent him this cool autographed bat in return. John King, makes news, and he makes news. Crazy.
CHETRY: How funny, though, that he just happened to be - I mean, it was - well, he was pretty far up there, you know?
MARCIANO: No one knows. It's probably coming (ph). He's probably humming in there pretty good.
ROMANS: Yes.
MARCIANO: That I'm going to get the play by play. You see his hands, if they're bruised up at all.
ROMANS: Congratulations, John King.
CHETRY: Keep that (INAUDIBLE).
MARCIANO: Yes.
ROMANS: I mean, Congratulations David Ortiz on your 300th home run.
MARCIANO: Yes. You, too.
CHETRY: Well, President Obama is in Ireland this morning. He's going to be tracing his Irish roots. We got a live report from Dublin just ahead.
ROMANS: And who can forget this, Princess Beatrice's royal wedding hat sells at auction. We'll tell you how much it went for and what she's doing with the money.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: President Obama begins his week-long tour of Europe. He arrived in Ireland about 90 minutes ago and is packing a lot into his 24-hour visit there.
CHETRY: That's right. He already had a chance to meet with the Irish president and he's meeting with the prime minister right now. And then he's heading to Moneygall Village, which was home to his ancestors as they discovered.
White House Correspondent Brianna Keilar traveling with the president and joins us live from Dublin. It's always a fun parlor game, isn't it? When - when American president get to trace their Irish linage, something that makes the Irish very proud as well, Brianna.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They're very happy to claim President Obama. He's only 1/32 Irish, I should tell you. But when his roots were uncovered, Kiran, back during the campaign, he said that he wanted to hoist a pint in his ancestral homeland.
That is the very tiny Village of Moneygall, home to just about 300 people who are quite excited about the prospect of the president visiting. They really spruced up the town. They've got the American flags waving. They've got the O'Bama t-shirts out. And they're really hoping that the president stops by to one of the two pubs they have there in town so that he can hoist a pint with him - Kiran.
CHETRY: And where else is he going to be going, because I know - we talked about the visit with the heads of state, where else is he going on his short visit to Ireland?
KEILAR: Yes. Well, Ireland is one of four stops. He's going to go on to London in the U.K. He'll be going to Deauville, France for the G-8 Economic Summit. Then, he'll finish up in Warsaw, Poland. A lot of this, especially the G-8 Economic Summit, he's going to be talking with European allies about really joint efforts to recover from the global recession. But one of really the thornier issues is going to be the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Because with the Palestine looking to be recognized, for the coalition government looking be - have its independence recognized before the U.N. in September, a lot of European allies prepared to go along with that. The U.S. is obviously very much opposed to that, Kiran.
And so you should definitely expect certainly behind closed doors some candid conversations about what will be certainly a thorny issue.
CHETRY: Absolutely. All right. Brianna Keilar in Ireland this morning for us. Thanks so much.
ROMANS: All right. It's official now, Republican Tim Pawlenty is running for president. The former Minnesota governor made that announcement on an Internet video late Sunday night saying his campaign will be different because he'll be telling the American people the truth.
Meantime, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels turned down the GOP bid because of, quote, "family concerns." Daniels is the latest in a string of prominent Republicans choosing not to run.
CHETRY: Yes. Then all of the - or many editorials bemoaning the fact that does the GOP have a contender that can beat the president in - in 2012. So as our question of the day, which Republican in your opinion has the best chance of being the president? It doesn't have to be someone who's declared. There's some calls to try to strong-arm some of the people who've said they were not going to be running to maybe reconsider in the wake of some of the others deciding not to.
Send us an e-mail, tweet us or find us on Facebook and we'll read some of your comments a little bit later in the hour.
ROMANS: And there are those who say that much of the Republican field is dominated by the people who have not yet declared or have said I absolutely will not run, so -
We're following breaking news right now out of Joplin, Missouri, where search and rescue is under way after a massive tornado tears the town apart. Twenty or 30 percent of this town could be destroyed. Many, many injured. Hundreds injured. A direct hit on the town hospital. We'll have the latest after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Twenty-six minutes after the hour. Time for "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Just in time for the summer travel season, the price at the pump is falling. Right now, the national average is $3.91 per gallon, that's a nine cent drop from two weeks ago. Analysts say we could see another drop before the Memorial Day weekend. Pirates take over this weekend box office. The latest installment of "Pirates Of The Caribbean" raked in $90 million. The comedy "Bridesmaids" came in second place, bringing in about $21 million.
Princess Beatrice's pretzel-like hat sold. The final bid - an impressive $130,000 on eBay. The wacky hat made its debut at the royal wedding last month. All of the money will be donated to two children's charities.
AMERICAN MORNING will be right back right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Thirty minutes past the hour.
Unfortunately, our top story is a very, very tragic story. A deadly tornado plowed through Joplin, Missouri. And we're getting reports now that at least 30 people killed. That number could go up. Emergency management's director who we spoke to just a few moments ago telling us that at least 400 people were treated at one hospital alone for injuries. The governor has now called in the National Guard and declared a state of emergency.
Joplin's main hospital, meantime -- there it is now -- St. John's Regional Medical Center, was extensively damaged. At least 100 patients had to be transferred to other area hospitals.
ROMANS: It's a direct hit on the hospital. We're going to get a better handle on just how much damage was done when the sun comes up. But a reporter in Joplin says the local Wal-Mart and the Home Depot are gone.
The tornado, reportedly, a mile wide, leaving a three-mile path of destruction.
Jamie Green, a photojournalist with the "Wichita Eagle" was coming back from a wedding when the storm hit.
CHETRY: She had a split second to make -- keep driving or get out of the car and take cover. She's on the phone with us this morning.
Thanks for joining us, Jamie.
JAMIE GREEN, THE WICHITA EAGLE (via telephone): Sure.
CHETRY: So, what did you do in those moments when that tornado was bearing down on you?
GREEN: Well, I was actually behind my (INAUDIBLE) who was driving another car, and she's from Kansas and she said, worst place to be is in the car. So, we made the decision to get out of our cars and actually huddle down over her 6-year-old daughter up against a brick wall. An office building, you know, we tried to get in.
We briefly thought -- we quickly thought about maybe taking a bench and putting it through the glass window but when we went around the corner to see if that was a possibility, the winds were whipping us so hard. We're like, it was safer in the original spot, wasn't as windy. So, we huddled down over her daughter and stood there for probably what was two minutes or -- but felt like an eternity.
ROMANS: What was the sound right? And you're right to get out of the car. I mean, so many fatalities people who are trying to outrun a storm or they get in a car. What were you wearing as you were huddled over this 6-year-old daughter?
GREEN: You know, we talked about that later on. When we really remember hearing -- it was so fast. We just heard a lot of wind and there were some, you know, power lines around us were snapping. We could hear lightning or maybe the snapping.
ROMANS: Jamie, stick with us for a second. I want -- I want to get back to your story. We're just getting -- the city manager is giving a press conference -- speaking at a press conference right now.
Let's listen in to this official press conference of the damage.
(BEGIN COVERAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The city's initial priority is to take care of the injured by completing a thorough search and rescue effort, in corporation with many of the area's emergency medical service personnel. We have continued this through the night and anticipate this effort will be going on for the next couple days. Other cities and communities have stepped forward to help Joplin during our time of distress. We have approximately 40 agencies helping with our public safety issues, as well as our infrastructure needs.
Many public works crews have traveled to Joplin to provide assistance with road clearance and other major needs. There are approximately 410 personnel members involved in this effort.
We have declared a local emergency and the state has declared an emergency due to this tornado and its destruction.
We have seen homes impacted as well as schools, churches, businesses, and one of our local hospitals.
We are working closely also with our utility partners in Joplin, as well as the school district and medical organizations. All have been affected, but we're pulling together in our emergency operations center to ensure that our citizens are safe and informed as we go through this tragedy.
We continue to ask our residents for their patience during this time. We will recover and come back stronger than we are today. Thank you.
We'll be prepared to respond to any questions. I'm going to defer to some of the experts that I have here up with me to respond to some of the detailed questions that you might have at this point.
QUESTION: Any idea how many people are unaccounted for at this hour?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we do not have an exact number. We're still tallying that count at this time.
QUESTION: Is there any specific area that suffered the most fatalities, like any apartment building or any neighborhoods?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think you can single out any one area. The entire path of the tornado, it took through town, has just basically devastated the central portion of Joplin. So, I don't think I can pick one area that's more devastated than the other.
(INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It's my understanding there were about 10 semis that were overturned in the area, about the 11 mile-marker of Interstate 44, with minimal injuries at those locations.
QUESTION: Fatalities of the Wal-Mart and Home Depot?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have any information on that at this time.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) perhaps about 75 percent of the city has been damaged?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, that's inaccurate. My guess is probably about 25 percent to 30 percent of the city has sustained either major or significant damage. There may be some minor damage to the outlying areas, but we're pretty much within the half mile to three-quarter mile wide swath through the center of town.
(INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, I could not even anticipate a number. I could just -- I anticipate the number will climb.
(INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Well, right now, we've got a lot of unstable structures out there that we are trying to both search and evaluate to determine their safety. We're also trying to get some of the local utilities under control. We've had several gas leaks throughout town that have caused fires or other dangers.
We also have, of course, significant power lines down throughout town. We're trying to get those to make sure that we do not have those energized where they're in any risk to folks and then just the mere amount of debris in the area, with the nails and other things that are out there, it's just -- it's a great safety concern for personal health and injuries.
QUESTION: Can you describe the overall emergency effort? (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, as we said before, we have over 40 agencies, over 410 personnel. Coordination is always a problem, something you have to work with, communication amongst the agencies. Fortunately, for many of us around here, we've drilled on this sort of thing so we all know each other, we understand capabilities. We have agencies that have arrived from Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri as well.
QUESTION: Are there areas in the city (INAUDIBLE)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We still do have some areas. We've done a very quick search through the primary impact zones throughout the city and as first daylight this morning, we are planning on and have in the works, getting the rest of the emergency crews out there to basically do a door by door grid search of the city and those affected areas, to make sure that we have accounted for everybody and help all that need the help.
(OFF-MIKE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry. I can't hear you.
(OFF-MIKE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, we're spreading our patients throughout hospitals in the tri-state area. I know several have went to Miami Baptist in Miami, Oklahoma. We've sent some up to Pittsburgh, Kansas, a few over to Carthage and I know several critical patients went to Springfield, to the hospitals in Springfield.
QUESTION: Is there any concern about the structural integrity of the hospital?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, the hospital you see behind you, we have evacuated. There is no patients in it anymore. We will be having folks go through that both with St. John's and our local building experts to evaluate that structure before we do attempt or even consider reoccupying it. The other hospital in town, which is about six blocks from here -- my understanding is, untouched. So, it is in good shape.
QUESTION: Do you have a number yet or anybody put a number on the estimate of number of injured?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. There's no way to know that right now.
(OFF-MIKE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's ranging from everything from minor cuts and bruises, of course, to several fatalities.
QUESTION: What's the very next step in is it clearing, focusing on search and rescue? What's the very next?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think right now, our first -- you know, effort has got to be towards that search and rescue, and accounting for all of those folks which are missing or still out there. After that, you know, in a couple days, we'll start looking at the clearing of the debris and handling that. But that's a couple days away right now.
QUESTION: How much warning people had?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We received warning from the National Weather Service of a radar indicated tornado. We also had eyes on. We turned on the sirens at that time. We had approximately 20 minutes before the first report of a tornado strike.
Just to give you some sort of perspective on that -- normally in this area, we see from seven to 10 minutes warning time. So, that was almost double.
QUESTION: How much more difficult is it to (INAUDIBLE) tornado in the center of (INAUDIBLE)?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, obviously, it's pretty difficult. It's cut the city in half and we've had trouble getting back and forth. We've had our public works crews out to clear debris for emergency responders all night long. And they just reported to us when we left that they have completed that task. So, now, we can get the emergency responders into those neighborhoods that are the most affected.
(INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure. I mean it's very important that we get them out of their entrapments as quick as we can. And, you know, we've got to worry about getting them the basics, the food and water, and getting them out of those areas where they're trapped in. So, you know, I can't put a time on it. It always varies with the individual and the state of injuries. But, you know, it is time sensitive, and that's why we're doing a very large push with a lot of personnel this morning, to try to get that task done.
QUESTION: How many people who are still trapped?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we have no idea.
QUESTION: How many people live in this neighborhood so far?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thousands would be about the best I could tell you. I couldn't tell you for sure just because of the widespread swath that it took through town.
(OFF-MIKE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I anticipate we still do have some people trapped in structures.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) many of your emergency responders, did they themselves have their homes damaged during the storm?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, several of our emergency responders' homes were destroyed. We also had two fire stations that have been destroyed, as well as some fire apparatus here in the city. So, not only on top the other damage, we're trying to work through our own damage as well.
QUESTION: What hospital (INAUDIBLE)? What was the action taken by the (INAUDIBLE) people?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I really can't -- I wasn't out at the hospital personally. I had one of my battalion chiefs out there handling that. I really can't tell you. I do know after the tornado hit and cleared and we got out here to help, we made a very hasty evacuation of a nine-story hospital. Within probably about an hour and a half, we had all the patients out moving to other facilities or other locations.
So, it was a very -- it was a very nice and good coordinated effort between the hospital folks and public safety staff.
(OFF-MIKE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, obviously, it's difficult. You know, it's -- but it's something we face, you know, routinely. It is difficult for each of us.
QUESTION: How about your home, sir?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been destroyed.
QUESTION: Were you -- did you have family there at the time?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, luckily I did not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that's good. OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Media, I'm with public information for the city. I would like you to sign --
(END COVERAGE)
CHETRY: All right. We just heard a wrap-up from Joplin, Missouri. Officials giving the grim update. The death toll just jumping. Earlier, we thought it was 30. They say right now 89 people confirmed killed, hundreds more hurt.
And the thing that struck me is they're still conducting the search and rescue operations. They just said that they believe there are people still trapped and that it will be days before the cleanup portion of this starts. Right now, it's still an active rescue as they try to make their way through this decimated city and try to find people who may still be alive and injured in buildings across town.
ROMANS: And you can see from that press conference that dawn is just, just beginning to break. So, as the sun comes up, they'll be able to assess the damage more fully.
We want to go back on the phone to the photojournalist from "The Wichita Eagle," Jamie Green. We were talking to her just before. She said that she was with a friend, they were huddled over her 6-year-old little girl trying to -- got out of the car, trying to survive this tornado and happily fortunately they did. Jamie, you took some pictures. You took some pictures of an injured truck. Tell us about pictures that you took once it was clear that you were safe and this tornado had gone through.
GREEN: Sure. We actually rode out the storm not very far from the St. John's Hospital, maybe a quarter of a mile. And we made the decision to actually try to get out of there, to try to get out of Joplin, because we were losing light and we wanted to get back to Carthage.
Anyway, so I shot those pictures on the way out. And a lot of those pictures -- I actually shot that picture from my car, and I thought that was a scene I saw twice, two pick-up trucks with both times looked like two people were injured in the back of the truck, on their back with two volunteers over them. So, it was a pretty hard sight to see. I'm not really sure. I have no idea how those people are.
CHETRY: Sign for freeman hospital, that is where a lot of the people were transferred out of St. John's into that hospital, and 400 being treated there or have been treated there for injuries ranging from minor to more severe. I'm glad that you, guys, made it out. Jamie, it must have been terrifying especially being with your friend's daughter, six years old, hoping you could keep hold of her and nothing would go wrong. Thanks for sharing your pictures. We appreciate it.
ROMANS: That's right. Jamie Green, photojournalist from "The Wichita Eagle."
And now, you know, Rob Marciano joins us now. We've been talking about tornadoes all spring. This is just -- you know, we hope it's a period on the sentence of horrible spring, but still trying to figure out the extent of the damage there.
MARCIANO: You know, early similar to what went down in Tuscaloosa and other parts of Alabama and Mississippi and Georgia. The only kind of hope that I have here that it may be different is that the storms that rolled through the Tuscaloosa Area came during kind of a blackout. They had earlier storms that morning and a lot didn't hear the warning.
ROMANS: Right.
MARCIANO: So, you know, hopefully, I know 89 is a big number to swallow and will probably grow.
CHETRY: More than 300 were killed in Alabama.
MARCIANO: Yes. Yes. So, I'm hoping that more people got the warning because power was on before the storm came through. Of course, Doppler radar, one of the ways that we give that warning. We have this ability. This is a high resolution what we called Gibson Ridge Radar and it shows you -- you can see that hook. We always talk about a hook and well-defined super cell that have a tornado, and it's in the backside of that where you see that hook, this Doppler we even pick up debris that's flying around the area. All right. Here's how the radar rolled through the afternoon and evening yesterday kind of a backwards look at it. There it is, firing off across southeast Kansas. This one rolled south and east as opposed to the last outbreak we lad that rolled from the southwest up towards the northeast. All right. Let's get a little bit more forward looking as far as how many storms and how many reports we have.
Forty-eight reports of tornadoes yesterday. Do not want to exclude what happened in Iowa and what happened in Minneapolis. That would be the big story today if we didn't have the Joplin case. Thirty people injured in Minneapolis proper with one fatality from tornado that rolled through the area yesterday, and then, the day before yesterday on Saturday, Kansas had some issues as well with a deadly tornado.
All right. What do we expect today? Yes, there's going to be a threat for severe weather. It will be spreading out towards the north and east. It shouldn't be as intense today, but tomorrow, it looks to be another rough days especially across parts of the area that saw the rough weather in the past two days. All right. If you are doing some travel today, the northeast kind of status quo as far as what we expect to see, some showers, light spritzes and then thunderstorms that are rolling through Lexington up through Dayton, Cincinnati, Columbus, Ohio.
Those are pretty rough right now, but in all intents and purposes, they're beginning to wind down just a little bit. Here's your forecast weather map later on today to kind of give you a highlight if you are pack your bags for some business travel. That's the threat for severe weather. Out towards the west were looking relatively quiet. So, cool and on the damp side across the Pacific Northwest.
And trying to change up the weather pattern here in New York City has been tough to do that for the past week, and it will be a slow go as well. Still on the cool side, and it will be damp.
ROMANS: That's why we called you in to fix it. Just fix it, Marciano.
MARCIANO: Just fix it. Yes, that's what guys try to do.
CHETRY: Or at least give us an answer as to why. I know you can't do that either. It's just hard.
MARCIANO: Nice to be here, nonetheless.
ROMANS: Just say yes, dear, you're right.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: He's getting practice. Newly married. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right, guys.
CHETRY: All right. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to have all the latest headlines. We'll be right back. It's now 49 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: A Los Angeles police making an arrest in that brutal attack of a giants fan. Forty-two-year-old Bryan Stow was beaten into a coma after the opening day game for the L.A. Dodgers. There, you can see him there.
CHETRY: Yes, and police posted more than 300 billboards looking for the perpetrator. They offered a $250,000 reward for any information, and it looks like those efforts finally paid off. Thelma Gutierrez has details live from L.A. You think, I mean, this was at such a public place that, you know, eventually somebody would come forward with some details on what happened.
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, you know, two and a half months later, they definitely did and the arrest of one of the suspects is definitely a big score for the LAPD. It's the combination of an intense manhunt that involved 20 detectives, and according to the LAPD, 6,000 hours of police work. Now, early Sunday morning, 31- year-old Giovanni Ramirez was arrested in connection with the brutal beating of San Francisco Giants fan 42-year-old, Bryan Stow.
Ramirez is facing charges of assault with a deadly weapon and is being held on $1 million bail. Over the past two months, police have received more than 600 leads, but detectives say they got their break late last week from information they received from a law enforcement source. Investigators say Bryan Stow, a father of two, was leaving Dodgers Stadium with friends back on March 31st.
Stow was wearing a Giants shirt when Ramirez and another man wearing Dodger shirts began taunting them in the parking lot. As they tried to walk away, investigators say, they were jumped. Stow, a paramedic, was knocked to the ground and beaten. He sustained skull fractures and a brain injury and had to be placed in a medically induced coma. The doctors still aren't sure of his prognosis.
Detectives are still searching for the second suspect and a woman who drove away with the two men in a light four-door sedan. A $250,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and the conviction of the suspects -- Christine, Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Just such a sad story and to know that this guy is still suffering the way he is and still in a coma. Thelma Gutierrez for us, thanks so much.
ROMANS: OK. Mitch Daniels is out. It looks like Tim Pawlenty is in. The constantly changing face of the GOP as Republicans search for their presidential candidate. Jim Acosta with the latest on who's in and who's out ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: The presidential race is wide open on the GOP side. So, who will potentially take on the president in 2012? There is a new contender in the GOP playing field and that's former Minnesota governor, Tim Pawlenty, who announced his bid yesterday.
ROMANS: Jim Acosta joins us live from Washington to break down the candidates for us. Hi there, Jim.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys. Yes, this is not really unexpected that Tim Pawlenty is jumping into the race. What is a little unexpected is what happened over the weekend. You heard a little bit about the rapture. A lot of conservatives think it's the end of the world that Mitch Daniels is not running. You heard over the weekend that the governor of Indiana decided not to run in 2012.
In the end, it was a family decision, and it's hard to run when your wife doesn't want you to run, and that was a big consideration for Mitch Daniels. Now, Tim Pawlenty, his family is all systems go, and he is going to have his announcement that he's running for president later today in Iowa with a town hall meeting and a release day video announcing that, but first, let's run through a list of who is in and who is out, because this race is starting to congeal. This GOP field is starting to come together.
Who is in? Tim Pawlenty is in, obviously. Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, the former speaker, he is also in. Ron Paul is in as well, and Herman Cain also announced over the weekend, he is a businessman from Atlanta. Out, this is a longer list which helps the field come together.
Mitch Daniels, Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Haley Barbour and Chris Christie all say they are not running in 2012, and the big possibilities at this point, they're really likelihoods, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and Jon Huntsman, the former governor of Utah and then Bachmann and Palin, those are also big maybes.
Bachmann is leaning towards a race. Sarah Palin, a lot of folks don't think she is going to run, but as for Tim Pawlenty, yes, he put out -- he's known for this, a slick video announcing that he's running for president. He released it on YouTube last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIM PAWLENTY, FORMER GOVERNOR OF MINNESOTA: We need a president who understands that our problems are deep and who has the courage to face them. President Obama doesn't. I do. Tomorrow, my first campaign stop will be in Iowa, and that's where I'm going to begin a campaign that tells the American people the truth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: And speaking of Iowa, we were just in Iowa last week and a lot of Iowa Republicans that we were talking to throughout there, Christine and Kiran, we're talking about Tim Pawlenty. He has a very big presence in that state. He's one of the few candidates who's actually opened up a campaign office out there. So, a lot of Iowans looking to Tim Pawlenty to make some noise out there.
He is a neighboring Republican from Minnesota, so he's expected to do quite well there, and he's really banking a lot of his candidacy on winning Iowa, guys.
ROMANS: There's another republican from Minnesota when she stopped by here last time, she said --
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Yes. She said she'll tell us by June. But the interesting thing, you're reading all the op-eds, and they seem to be bemoaning the field on the Sunday shows, Jim. I mean what is -- what are the knocks against Pawlenty?
ACOSTA: Well, you know, he's, you know, -- some Republicans think he's a little bland. That he hasn't really inspired a lot of conservatives, you know, to get fired up and go out there and beat President Obama next year. So, that might be his biggest problem, but his staff is trying to tell people, look, if you're looking for sort of a fresh face, a guy who checks all the conservative boxes, then Tim Pawlenty is your guy.
Unfortunately, what you have right now on the Republican side is a lot of folks inside the GOP sort of looking for that flavor of the month, looking for the fresh face. That's why you have Jon Huntsman attracting a lot of media attention up in New Hampshire over the weekend. He meets with George and Barbara Bush later today. He's going to have lunch with them.
So, he's looking to capture the Bush mantle that Mitch Daniels might have had had he gotten into this race. You know, he was the budget director for George W. Bush. And so, now, a lot of the bushes (ph) are sort of looking for a fresh face and a new candidate, and Huntsman may be that guy, but Tim Pawlenty is certainly trying to say hey, wait a minute, look at me over here, I'm the real deal, but we have to wait and see if Republicans agree, guys.
CHETRY: All right. Jim Acosta, thanks, Jim.
ACOSTA: You bet.
CHETRY: Top stories just a couple of minutes away including the latest on the deadly tornado, new numbers on the death toll in Joplin, Missouri. Eighty-nine now confirmed killed, and search and rescue operations are under way as the sun begins to come up.
ROMANS: New doping allegations against cyclist, Lance Armstrong. Hear what a teammate says he saw Lance Armstrong do. Two minutes to the top of the hour.
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