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New Day

Tornado Devastates Garland, Texas; Iraq Forces Retake Ramadi from ISIS; CNN Poll: 45% Worry Family Member Will Be Terror Victim. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 28, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: -- 11 people in the Dallas area. The governor there declaring a disaster in four counties. The threat from severe weather is not over. Snow and freezing conditions are expected to follow those deadly storms.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. Winter storm warnings stretching from Texas to Michigan. States of emergency in Missouri because of deadly flooding and in New Mexico due to heavy snow. There's state of emergency there, as well. Let's begin our coverage now with CNN's Nick Valencia in hard-hit Garland, Texas, for us this morning. Hi, nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Don. We're standing directly in the path of the EF-4 tornado, when it hit Garland, Texas. This apartment complex behind me suffering the brunt of the damage. We're told the winds from the force of the tornado were up to 200 miles per hour.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whoa, I got a lightning strike.

VALENCIA: Overnight in eastern Texas, blinding rain, lightning, and strong winds in the city of Marshall. Downed trees and power lines possibly the work of another tornado touching down in the lone star state. Last night patrons inside a Chili's restaurant, huddling inside a freezing, as tornado sirens sound off. A tornado watch still in effect today. This morning the monster storm system wreaking havoc across the southern states, making its way eastward.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a big, strong tornado.

VALENCIA: Over the Christmas weekend, Texas bearing the brunt of the storm. Ravaged by nearly half a dozen deadly tornadoes. An airplane passenger snapping this stunning photo on a flight to Dallas. Two powerful EF-3 and EF-4 tornadoes carving a path of destruction in Garland on Saturday. The death toll, 11, making this the deadliest December for tornadoes in 60 years. Justin Schuler sifts through what remains of his home in Garland. He and his dog survived by taking cover in a bathtub.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I stepped out because I heard the roaring, and that's when I saw it.

VALENCIA: Willard Jordan heard the tornado rip through his neighborhood in Dallas, his family and home spared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Buildings cracking, ripping stuff up. All we could do was run to the closet and pray.

VALENCIA: And this Garland resident rescued by family.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I stayed in my closet all night long, shaking like a leaf on a tree.

VALENCIA: The deadly storm spawning flash floods, white out conditions, and states of emergency in New Mexico and Missouri. In Missouri, more than 100 water rescue. At least six people killed in Pulaski County.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a small, dark highway. They probably didn't know what hit them until they hit the water.

VALENCIA: The massive system dumping more than 16 inches of snow in New Mexico. Icy roads backing up traffic, shutting down interstate 40 in Albuquerque.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: There's still countless numbers of people in this area without power. We're also told by the mayor pro tem that dozens of families stayed the night in shelters. Many people here still displaced, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Frightening. Thanks for that, Nick.

Where is the severe weather heading next? And will parts of the northeast see their first winter storm of the season finally? Let's turn to CNN meteorologist Jennifer Gray with the forecast for us this morning. Hi, Jennifer.

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Christine. Yes, this is far from over. We still have winter storm warnings in place across the plains in the Midwest. We have flood advisories and warnings all across the south. And we also have the winter storm watch for portions of New England. You're right, getting their first snowfall for a lot of people this season.

So we'll zoom down on the storm, where it is now. All of this heavy rain continuing to push to the east. That thunderstorm threat still alive for today. We also have that snow, freezing rain and sleet across portions of Oklahoma. And that's going to pull into portions of Kansas, Missouri. That ice threat is serious. It only takes less than half an inch of ice to take down trees, power lines. And so we are going to see possible power outages there.

The main threat today is damaging winds, isolated tornadoes. Cities like Mobile, Montgomery, Birmingham, even Memphis included in the threat area for today as the storm pushes through the east. And we also have some tornado watches in effect for southern Louisiana, also portions of Mississippi, including New Orleans and Jackson. Another tornado warning issued to include Birmingham and even Montgomery. So we are going to be on the lookout for the isolated tornadoes once again for today.

As this pushes to the east, snow, freezing rain, ice pushing into New England as early as tomorrow morning. It's going to make travel difficult. Much of New England, though, will see basically freezing rain and sleet. We're also going to see that changeover into rain around the Boston area. We could get two to four inches of snow, and then that will quickly be changing over to freezing rain and then eventually just rain.

So it's going to be in and out of here quickly. We are going to see a small accumulation. It's been so warm. We don't look like we're going to see huge accumulations, but be aware of the ice threat for today. Especially Oklahoma City, Kansas City, a fourth of an inch to half an inch of ice. That's a lot that could take down those trees and power lines, Michaela.

[08:05:08] PEREIRA: You're going to have a lot of people watching in the airport. Folks that are trying to travel home from the holidays, trying to get somewhere for new year's, and they can stay with CNN to get those alerts. Thank so much, Jennifer.

This is quite a tale to tell. Our next guest came face-to-face with the powerful EF-4 tornado that barreled through Garland, Texas. The nearly 200-mile-per-hour winds lifted Mr. Gary tucker's truck with him and his girlfriend inside. He joins us to tell us his amazing story of survival. First of all, Mr. Gary Tucker, how the heck are you today?

GARY TUCKER, CAUGHT IN GARLAND TORNADO: I'm great. Thank you.

PEREIRA: How is your girlfriend doing?

TUCKER: We came out lucky, really good.

PEREIRA: So let's tell the tale. You and your girlfriend were at a bass fishing shop, saw it was raining, you headed back outside, and then things took a turn. When did you know trouble was upon you?

TUCKER: Well, we got in the truck and we were headed down the service road, and basically, the apartments behind us were spinning around at a couple hundred miles an hour. I looked up and put the truck into park. And we could hear, again, all of this debris spinning around, hitting the truck. It was just, boom, boom, boom. The truck was shaking. You know, we knew at that point that all we could do was get down. I just kept hollering, get down, get down, stay down, stay down. The debris was shaking the truck back and forth.

And it was at that point, literally, I could feel the truck lifting up out of the air. I thought, I'm gone. I'm dead. I don't really remember anything. That's kind of the good news, I think. If I could say anything, it's at that point, I just -- I don't remember anything. We literally lifted up off the ground. The truck rolled and, you know, God saved us. My Toyota Tundra saved us at that point. We just rolled and went over into the median. We came up on the side, on the driver's side of the truck. PEREIRA: We're looking at the pictures of your truck. My goodness.

It's over on its side, it looks like it went through a storm. Have you had a chance to look at it now, and what does that do to your tummy? Must make it turn flip-flops.

TUCKER: It's pretty amazing. I actually went to the wrecking yard where the truck was, and there were other cars there. Again, it's -- that thing is a tank. It really stood out among the other broken metal, literally, oat the wrecking yard. It was totally nauseating because I know people weren't as lucky, within feet of us. They weren't as lucky as we were.

PEREIRA: What a sobering thought, to see you were spared and others weren't. How quickly was help able to get to you?

TUCKER: So, again, I don't know because when the truck started lifting up, we totally blacked out. We came up and we looked at each other and realized we were both OK. We had our seat belts on. And she undid her seat belt and climbed out the top, and someone was standing there talking to us.

I suspect it probably wasn't long. We climbed out of the vehicle. When we came out, there were literally cars that had flown off of the highway and were within feet of us. There was debris everywhere. Literally, a riding lawn mower was over there. Parts of the guardrail, ten foot of it, stabbed five or six feet in the ground. When I went to the wrecking yard, there was a piece of two by four, something like that, just a big arrow in the backseat of the truck.

PEREIRA: I want to talk about the warning system because I know you folks in Texas get a whole lot of them with the extreme weather you get on the regular. I understand the first warning you heard was when you were in the store, in the fishing shop. You probably had about two to three minutes warning. You were saying to us in our pre- interview that you sort of feel that the warning system needs to change, that you guys get so many of them, you tend to sort of disregard them.

TUCKER: And I guess that's really my whole point of coming here this morning is that's exactly right. You know, I live in Wiley, Texas, which is probably 20, 30 miles up the road. I hear -- I've lived there 13 years and probably heard the exact same warning. When I got into my truck, we walked out of bass pro shops and it was the proverbial tornado, this eerie death feeling. I could literally hear sirens in the air, but it's the same sirens I heard 50 or 60 times and there's never been a tornado in this area.

[08:10:00] So follow your instincts. Go back inside. And I think most of the serious accidents were people in their vehicles. I don't know the solution. I don't know if it's a dedicated radio station. I know in talking to people on TV, we had a clear path of where it was. And if I were able to get that clear path in my vehicle, because the announcement I got was a radius of five to six cities, 50, 60 miles. Again, an alert I've heard --

PEREIRA: Over and over. TUCKER: -- a lot of times.

PEREIRA: Gary, do you think you would do anything -- hindsight is 20/20. Do you think you'd do something differently now?

TUCKER: I would have never got in the car. I drove right into this. I put us in that situation. So I would have never got into the car. If I would have got into the car, if I had a dedicated radio station or something that was painting that pattern, if the alert would have been, hey, there's a tornado near bass pro shop, or I-30 and 190.

PEREIRA: Something more specific.

TUCKER: I wouldn't have gotten in the car.

PEREIRA: Gary, we are so glad that you and your girlfriend are OK. I think you both need to take a couple days to hug each other and sit still and take a breath. Thank you for sharing us to share your terrifying account. We're glad you're well.

TUCKER: Thank you.

LEMON: Interesting that they all passed out and didn't really see --

PEREIRA: Blessing, I think.

LEMON: Unbelievable.

Now let's turn to the latest on the war on terror. A new CNN-ORC poll shows Americans are losing confidence with the fight with 60 percent disapprove of how President Obama is handling terrorism. CNN's senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta live in Honolulu, where the vacationing Obamas are right now. Good morning to you, Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. They're not going to be waking up to very good poll numbers this morning, Don. This new CNN/ORC poll shows Americans are very nervous about the possibility of another terrorist attack in the U.S. after what happened in Paris and San Bernardino. And the public appears to be losing confidence in the Obama administration's ability to stop a terrorist attack and defeat ISIS. Our latest poll finds only 18 percent of Americans believe the U.S. is winning the war on ISIS while 40 percent believe the terrorists have the upper hand.

And get this, just 51 percent of Americans are confident that the government can thwart a terrorist attack. That is way down from 65 percent under the Obama administration back in 2010. But the public appears to be uncertain what to do about this. Our poll finds Americans are split down the middle, 49 percent to 49 percent on whether to send in ground troops to battle is. Keep in mind, this poll was conducted before Iraqi security forces apparently succeed in retaking the key city of Ramadi. That is a crucial development as it's in line with the president's strategy to use local forces on the ground with U.S. air support to go after is terrorists.

Expect the Obama administration to tout the success in Ramadi in coming days. A senior administration official tells us the White House wants to sharpen the administration's narrative on the war on ISIS, that Americans understand the president's strategy and the gains made against this terrorist army. Right now, the White House is not really reconsidering its strategy, just how they're selling it. But again, Michaela, this development in Ramadi, it could shift the public's attitude about the war on ISIS, perhaps give people more confidence in the long run, the strategy may eventually work out.

PEREIRA: Jim, thank you so much for that.

Meanwhile, breaking this morning, Iraqi forces raising Iraq's flag at a government compound in Ramadi, declaring that city fully liberated. The city had been under ISIS control since may. So what is next in the battle against the terrorists? Becky Anderson is live in Abu Dhabi with the latest for us. Becky?

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, liberation is how the Iraqi military describe the result of their much-touted offense over ISIS militants in the city of Ramadi. Exactly how much of the city is clear, whether or not it is just the government compound where ISIS were holed up in the center and whether it can be contained is a very big question. A carefully worded statement from the spokesman for coalition forces in the past hour or so congratulating the Iraqi soldiers on their continued success against ISIS in Ramadi. Coalition support included more than 630 air strikes, training, advice, and engineering explosives to clear explosives left by the militants on the city street.

And the statement said they went on to say they continued support the government of Iraq as it moves to make Ramadi safe for civilians to return. Now, CNN cannot independently confirm exactly what is going on the ground. I have to say, reports suggest it is likely that ISIS militants simply moved from the government compound to the north of the city, and there is every chance they could regroup. Reports in the past 24 hours that ISIS fighters used civilians as human shields as they retreated from the complex.

[08:15:10] So I think a symbolic victory, as it were, at this point. And one, I think that the Obama administration will be pleased to see, given that they haven't conceded U.S. boots on the ground, they've used air strikes and military advisers. But definitely, this one will have to be watched, just to see exactly what happens in the days and weeks ahead. The compound liberated the Iraqi slave. But what else is liberated in that city remains to be seen.

ROMANS: All right, Becky Anderson for us in Abu Dhabi this morning. Thank you for that, Becky.

Parts of Europe on edge after getting word, new terrorist attacks could be launched anytime between now and New Year's Eve. You know, it's unclear which cities might be targeted. But police in Vienna releasing some concerning details. CNN's Robyn Kriel, live in London with more. Robyn, what are those details?

ROBYN KRIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well a lot more questions really left by this alert than answers. What we don't know is which cities are going to be targeted. As you said, we do not know who this friendly intelligence agency is that reportedly told the Vienna police and other European police services of this impending attack.

We don't know who the names are. There were several names that were -- that came along with this alert. And Vienna police say that have investigated this but have not had any concrete results. And we also don't know why the Austrians came forward with this information and not other European cities. But what we do know is that the timeline is specific, from Christmas day to New Year's Eve. We do know that they will use guns or explosives if this attack is to go ahead.

And of course we do know that the fallout of this is increased security across Europe.

ROMANS: All right, Robyn.

LEMON: Firefighters in Southern California -- thank you Robyn.

Firefighters in Southern California now have the upper hand in their battle with a wildfire that has charred more than 1200 acres. The blaze sparked by downed power lines on Christmas night. Now, 75 percent contained. The fire officials in Ventura County say it should be fully contained by tomorrow.

The big fear, now is a threat of landslides if the scorched area is hit by heavy rains.

PEREIRA: A suburban Louisville, Kentucky mall is back open for business after a weekend disturbance involving some 2,000 teenagers forced it to close. Dozens of police responded Saturday night to reports of disorderly conduct at the mall, St. Matthews, during the post-Christmas rush.

The teens apparently were fighting one another and harassing shoppers and store employees. No arrests were made though.

LEMON: An anxious American public unhappy with how the White House is waging the war on terror.

Next on NEW DAY, the surprising results of a brand-new CNN poll, and the congressman who spent years working undercover with the CIA shares his thoughts on the president's strategy to defeat ISIS.

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[08:21:05] LEMON: We give you the breaking news this morning. It's out of Iraq, Ramadi is back in the hands of Iraqi forces.

The Iraqi flag raised over the city including a government compound that spent months under ISIS control. This is a new CNN poll that I want to show you, it's out this morning. It paints a sobering picture of how the American public feels about the war on terror. A growing majority displeased overall with that. So we're joined now by Congressman Will Hurd, he's a Republican from Texas, and the homeland security committee, he's also a former CIA undercover officer.

Thank you. This will be the first congressional response we've got here on our air to Ramadi. Do you think -- does this feel like a big victory, or should we proceed with caution, even with what seems like a victory now?

WILL HURD, (R) TEXAS: It seems like a victory. We should proceed with caution. If we hold Ramadi, this is a good thing for our strategy in that region and against ISIS. And these are the types of things that we should be doing more. And this should have been -- this should have happened 18 months ago.

If we give the U.S. Military the authority and the ability to go forward and do their job, they can. And you see that with their role playing behind the scenes and training and equip the Iraqi forces. And shows how with American leadership the Iraqi forces can do a lot of things.

LEMON: OK, so congressman, let's talk about that new poll that I mentioned in the onset when I introduced you here. About 50 percent of Americans had little or no confidence according to this poll in the president's ability to protect the country against terror attacks. Do you agree with that?

HURD: I understand why people are frustrated and upset. And I do recognize and agree that people are worried about the posture that this administration is taking in fighting terrorism.

You know, we can -- there's a long list of blunders, you know, starts with calling ISIS the J.V. We realize how big a mistake that was.

It's also not just fighting ISIS, it's what are you doing with Russia?

You know, right now, we're talking about winning Ramadi, but you also have Syrian forces bombing under Bashar al-Assad, bombing rebel forces that we're supporting that are helping us in the fight against ISIS.

The American people see this, they recognize this and they're upset with how this president is dealing with the issues.

LEMON: So there appears to be movement when we look at Ramadi. We've lost territory, the ISIS, I should say, has lost territory in Iraq, stalemate in Syria, what specifically then do you think the president could be doing to better the war on terror, at least the war against ISIS?

HURD: Well, it starts with, we need to increase our human intelligence collection on the ground. I think he should pick up the phone and call the director of the CIA and say, the next 45 days, double the amount of human intelligence coming out of there that human intelligence drives our military operation on the ground that we're working alongside the Iraqi forces. It's going to drive our targeting from the skies, as well. And we need to have stronger posture against Russia, and saying, Russia, stop attacking the forces that we're working with in the fight against ISIS.

But one area that we're definitely lacking is countering the message of ISIS. You know, ISIS is leveraging social media in a way that no terrorist organization has up to this point. And we're doing our efforts in order to counter that message, are incredibly a mean make. And a more need to be done.

We need to be working closer with allies in the region. And some of our allies are concerned because they feel this administration is pivoting towards Iran.

Iran has a huge influence in this part of the region. They've had a long influence in Syria and our Sunni-Arab partners are concerned about that.

And this is a bad message sending to the folks that we're going to need in order to really eliminate and eradicate ISIS from that region.

[08:25:03] LEMON: To your point about online, I mean most terrorist and experts will tell you, we're dealing with a war against ideas, not necessarily a war against territory, although the territory is important.

I wonder what you think about this, if you think that these fears are justified, it's almost 50 percent, will you put those numbers up. 45 percent of Americans believe they or their family members will be the victim of terrorism. Is that justified?

HURD: Well, when you have events like what happened in San Bernardino, and you look to what happened in Paris, these types of things can happen.

One of the -- I also served on a task force looking at foreign fighter, travel to the United States. And one of the things that we found was that our European partners weren't sharing information the way they should, about suspected terrorists.

So there is an information sharing gap with our European partners that's putting us, making us more insecure. So some of those feelings are justified, but I think in your poll, one of the interesting point was that, this is the highest level of folks that believe when the federal government puts their mind to it, they can stop terrorists. I think that's -- I agree with that concept, as well.

LEMON: Well, let's put this up because a majority of people believe the U.S. is not at war with ISIS. Do you think that we're at war with ISIS? Since who's winning, this one is a who's winning?

HURD: We're at war.

LEMON: Yes, this one says who's winning, and now he says the U.S. and then it goes on. But are we at war with ISIS?

HURD: We are at war with ISIS. They're trying to kill us. They're trying to attack our way of life. And this is a war.

And we need to be doing everything we can to stop them and eradicate them. And the best way to do that is stop them in Iraq and Syria. But as you said earlier, we have to also be countering the ideas. And that's one area where we're falling very flat and need to be doing more.

LEMON: Congressman Will Hurd of Texas. And we wish you luck with the weather system that has gone through Texas, as well. Thank you for joining us today.

HURD: Thank you Don.

HURD: Thank you. Michaela.

PEREIRA: Having trouble in Texas, a fire at a Houston mosque is being treated as suspicious. Was it a religious attack? Was it spurred by rhetoric-concerning Muslims? We're going to speak with the man who helps run that mosque, next.

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