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Rick's List
Oklahoma City Flash Floods; Obama Visits Gulf; Flash Flood Kills 20 in Oklahoma; Boy Breaks World Record to Raise Money For Wounded Veteran; BP Stock Falls After Announcement of Dividend Payout
Aired June 14, 2010 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Ali. Great stuff.
Flash flooding literally swamping parts of Oklahoma. People are stranded. We're going to show you pictures -- amazing pictures of a girl struggling to swim to safety in floodwaters. Her rescue and what is on the way for Oklahoma.
And here's what else we have:
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Making the list: the president's list of actions he wants to take in the Gulf, but none stop the oil. It's day 56 of the disaster.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've had a number of contacts with BP over the years and it doesn't seem to me that they're run by people who are easily bullied.
GRIFFIN: And is all the anti-British -- anti-British Petroleum sentiments smell just a little bit hypocritical?
JANICE MCCRAE, FLOOD SURVIVOR: We rescued two little kids, two little boys, off of that cabin right there.
GRIFFIN: It will be a long time before RICK'S LIST forgets Janice McCrae from Camp Albert Pike and her powerful rescue stories from those deadly Arkansas flash floods.
Police transcripts reveal Joran van der Sloot's version of what went down in this hotel room in Peru.
REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D), SOUTH CAROLINA: I saw in the Democratic primary, elephant dung all over the place.
GRIFFIN: Democrats say something stinks about this man's win in a Senate primary.
ALVIN GREENE (D), SOUTH CAROLINA SENATE CANDIDATE (via telephone): They're the knuckleheads.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Are you always this soft-spoken? Are you OK right now?
GREENE: I'm fine.
GRIFFIN: What do you think?
(CHEERING)
GRIFFIN: And he's wrapped up like humpty-dumpty for a reason.
The list you need to know about. Plus, who's the day's most intriguing, who's making news on Twitter? It's why we keep a list, pioneering tomorrow's news -- right now.
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: And topping the list today, no bigger story than the one that is actually happening right now in Oklahoma. Let's go there now to see video of a woman stuck in a tree. This happened just this afternoon. This woman struggling as a helicopter, a news helicopter, was tracing her every move, trying to direct a rescue boat to her. That rescue boat eventually did arrive.
And I don't want to tease you on this one because it's so serious. This woman is fine. She was pulled out of that tree along with other rescuers. There you see them there from the Oklahoma City Fire Department, a boat that literally just dragged her in the boat. She was able to struggle through that water for what seemed like hours to us, and then walk off this boat when they got her high and dry to land.
Not far away but across that torrent, torrent of water, the big story is happening all over Oklahoma City and Oklahoma. Interstates, portions of 35, 40 and 44 were closed for a time. Ten inches of rain fell between 2:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. And here's the kicker: they are expecting more rain, as much as two more inches of rain.
I want to bring in Bonnie Schneider who is tracking the radar here. She's literally just updating that radar technology right now as we see this string of thunderstorms.
And, Bonnie, I guess this is the same kind of situation they had to deal with in Arkansas, the same weather pattern.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right. It's what we call a training weather pattern, when the water keeps going over the same place over and over again. And sometimes, there can be a lull and then storms might redevelop.
So, here's the latest of what's happening right now -- you're looking at a severe thunderstorm watch. That's outlined here by the area in yellow. And just right through here, we have severe thunderstorms popping up just to the south. So, we're seeing kind of a line of storms building, working their way north and east, it looks like towards Oklahoma City.
What I can't tell you is, is that a lot of the intensity as the storms work their way to the east will dissipate a bit. So, we're anticipating the heaviest rain to stay south of the city. But note that the heaviest flooding has occurred north of the city.
So, still not out of the woods yet.
GRIFFIN: OK, Bonnie. Thanks.
And that should keep everyone in mind -- we are tracking these weather developments. We have a lot of live pictures coming out of our affiliates in Oklahoma. This is tape from earlier today. They literally were rescuing people by the minute there in Oklahoma City. We will stay with this story, monitor our feeds, our live pictures, and keep you abreast of what's happening there in Oklahoma City.
Now, the other big story on THE LIST: It is the 56th day of this Gulf oil spill disaster.
The president is making a big push to deal with that oil disaster. You know, just look at that live picture. Why has this not gotten any better? That is one of the questions that the president, I'm sure, is asking of BP and everybody else involved with this.
Just a couple of minutes ago, the president did meet with business leaders in Gulfport, Mississippi. This is his fourth trip but the first time he's going outside of Louisiana. It looks like the administration is ramping up its response to this crisis.
You can take a look at where he's going on this trip. He started out this morning in D.C. First stop, Gulfport, Mississippi, where he did meet with the Coast Guard admiral, Thad Allen, who is in charge of overseeing the spill for the government.
Now, right now, he's in Theodore, Alabama, checking things out at an oil boom staging facility. And in a couple of hours, we're told, he's going to take a ferry trip to see barrier islands for himself where that oil has come ashore.
The final stop this evening, the president -- is Pensacola, Florida. And then he'll spend the night in Pensacola. And then tomorrow, back to the White House, where he will deliver a primetime statement tomorrow night about the catastrophe.
And on Wednesday, he meets with the top BP officials. Looks like you're talking about the BOP -- speaking of BP execs, CEO Tony Hayward will face questions from a House committee on Thursday. BP did start undersea sensors on the leaking well yesterday. The company is trying to get a better estimate of how much more oil is gushing out. But BP says it will take a couple of days before they get info from those sensors.
OK. That's the latest. Let's now go to Dan Lothian, who often travels with the president.
And, Dan, I got to ask you, what is the goal -- the fourth trip, what is -- obviously the oil is still leaking. The oil is still coming ashore in some places. What's the purpose of this trip? DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think twofold. First of all, the president wants to come here to show that he's fully in charge, engaged in this effort to not only stop that oil from gushing from under the Gulf but also to make sure that this containment effort is effective. That's the first thing -- this sort of the strong force that the president is directly involved.
But also, the administration wants the president to get a chance to meet with residents and local officials face to face, to hear their concerns. And he's already been hearing some concerns. You were talking about at that first stop that he made in Gulfport, Mississippi. And he heard about the issue of lack of coordination among the skimmers and other assets that are out in the Gulf, trying to prevent the oil from coming on to the beaches.
We heard that as well as we were talking to some of the residents here in the area. They're really concerned that all of the Gulf States are not coordinating, and that this effort out there in the gulf is not being properly coordinated. So, that's something the president said they fully have to address.
In addition to that, they also brought up as part of this briefing with Admiral Thad Allen, the issue of claims. A lot of residents, not only in Mississippi where you heard this complaint this morning, but also hear in Alabama, in Florida, in Louisiana, are concerned that there's a lot of paperwork involved and that the processing of getting their claims paid by BP is being slowed down. So, the president pointing out this is something that definitely has to be addressed.
GRIFFIN: Dan, thank you.
Let's bring in the mayor of Gulf Shores, Alabama, George Schloegel. He's on the phone right now.
And, Mr. Mayor, thank you for joining us. Your governor, Bob Riley, has been very critical --
MAYOR GEORGE SCHLOEGEL, GULFPORT, MISSISSIPPI (via telephone): Whoa, whoa, this is Gulfport, Mississippi. You got the wrong state.
GRIFFIN: Oh, man, I'm sorry.
SCHLOEGEL: That's all right.
GRIFFIN: I like -- I like Gulfport, Mississippi, all the same.
SCHLOEGEL: OK.
GRIFFIN: Well, let's talk about it.
SCHLOEGEL: All right.
GRIFFIN: How are you seeing this presidential visit and is the president bringing the help, the coordination that you need? SCHLOEGEL: Yes, the right hand of the president was Admiral Thad Allen. He brought in his team today and met with a group of 17 of us for about an hour and a half going over each point. We had our governor there with us, as well as a congressman and a senator. And we went over these things point by point over what needs to be done.
I think the conclusion was that BP has hired an awful lot of folks, literally, I think 1, 600 boat owners. Because of the volume of boat owners and some of those not having the radio communication synchronized with Coast Guard, some of those boats are cruising around not doing as much effective work as we would like to see. But the president and the admiral said we'll bring that to a halt and make sure communication is better.
But BP, not to be accused of doing anything wrong, BP was trying to hire as many boats as they could to get out on the site. Some of those boats that they hired are observation boats, not capable of doing skimming. And I think the conclusion today was that we need more skimmers to actually pick up the oil once it gets out of the tube as opposed to more observers. That will be taking place.
GRIFFIN: I mean, BP was criticized for not hiring enough boats over in Louisiana. What you're saying is maybe they hired too many or hired so many boats that nobody could coordinate them.
SCHLOEGEL: Right.
GRIFFIN: So, what is the president saying we are going to do about that or what's the follow-up? How does this work, Mr. Mayor? You bring up the complaint, the president writes it down. And then, what, you get a follow-up later on?
SCHLOEGEL: The follow-up was taking place at the meeting as different people in the room were taking charge of the issue as it was being brought up by one of the participants there in the room. On the boats, for instance, we want to make sure that every boat hired has the communication ability to talk to the people that are directing the clean-up. And that can be done by a variety of ways. And that now is being coordinated through the Coast Guard.
Coast Guard also had their regional director here. He's putting an additional subdirectory in each of the states so that he can be closer to the actual boat owners in the various states that are doing the work. They are surmising (ph) now, some of the bigger skimmers are coming from other parts of the world that at first didn't think were needed but now as a precaution, we're bringing those in. The reciprocity with those nations is being worked out so that we have the same offer on the table to assist those nations. If those big boats ever need to go from the United States, say, to Norway, up to Mexico and so forth.
GRIFFIN: All right.
SCHLOEGEL: That coordinating is taking place. It needs to be said that BP has captured about three-fourths of the oil and gas that is coming out of the well. They've been successful capturing about three-fourths. But still needs 25 percent that's getting in the water and we need to capture the rest of that.
GRIFFIN: All right, Mr. Mayor.
SCHLOEGEL: The president has given us the promise that he's going to go for overcapacity --
GRIFFIN: Yes.
SCHLOEGEL: -- not knowing for sure exactly how much is coming out to make sure we catch all of it in the weeks that lie ahead.
GRIFFIN: Mr. Mayor, thank you so much. You'd be a good spokesman for the president, too, I might add, when you get done there at Gulfport, Mississippi. Appreciate you being on the air with us.
I guess he's gone.
Well, more tragic news coming out of Arkansas. A 20th body found after Friday's flash flood at a campground. And there have been some compelling rescue stories, too. The latest on this developing story is ahead.
Coming up, this story, Joran van der Sloot told police he now elbowed Stephany Flores in the face and then strangled her. Do we believe him? We've got the transcript and more details on his confession. That's ahead on THE LIST.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CALLER: Hey, Rick, this is Adrianne (ph) and I live in Florida so I'm very concerned about this Gulf spill. But this president has had one major crisis after another. So I still give him 100 percent of my support.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC)
GRIFFIN: This is what he said happened. An elbow to the face, hands around the throat and a bloody shirt are what it took to kill Stephany Flores down in Peru. That's according to transcript of Joran van der Sloot's murder confession that we got from a police source in Peru. The transcripts indicate van der Sloot freaked out, he says, because, quote, "there was blood everywhere" after he smashed Flores in the nose. And van der Sloot's attorney in Peru has just quit.
Jean Casarez has been following all the twists and turns for us in Lima. She's a correspondent, of course, with "In Session" on truTV.
Jean, why did this attorney quit?
JEAN CASAREZ, CORRESPONDENT, "IN SESSION" ON TRUTV: Well, we spoke with him over the weekend. And my producer, Mayra Cuevas, confirmed with him again this morning that he was off the case. He said he didn't want a thing to do with it, that there were many problems, he said. And that if we wanted to talk with anyone, to talk to the family.
Well, that means at this point is that Joran van der Sloot doesn't have an attorney. So, what will happen is one of two things. He will either get a private attorney again or a public defender will be appointed and that would come from the hearing at the jail. It was the judge that will be appointing the public defender.
GRIFFIN: Jean, this guy has been a liar, a proven liar throughout the whole Natalee Holloway incident. I'm assuming that because the police in Peru have released this confession, that they have some kind of matching evidence to tell that what he's saying now is true or does at least match the forensic facts they have. Is that a good call?
CASAREZ: Well, you know, we heard -- we saw from the crime scene report that it was her neck that had very, very serious injuries. We also learned from that crime scene report that his white beige shirt was partially over the good body.
And now, he's saying that, in fact, he went for her neck on the bed, that he strangled her with both of his hands. He threw her on the floor, he said. She was still breathing and he actually suffocated her with his shirt. And that's how her life ended.
You know, another thing he talked about in that confession is this video, we've been watching it. It's all over the Peru, Lima area. It is the two cups of coffee video. So significant it would be for prosecutors because you see he's got the two cups of coffee. He goes into the hotel room, comes back out almost immediately, knocks on the door.
He said in the confession he doesn't know why he did it. That he just went to go get the cups of coffees, plus alluding she was already dead on the floor.
GRIFFIN: All right. Jean Casarez down in Peru -- thanks so much for keeping us updated. Of course, there's still no word on Natalee Holloway and that whole investigation. Hopefully for that family, there'll be something coming out of it.
Well, this unemployed man won South Carolina's Democratic Senate primary and is ignoring calls to step down. Now, several Democrats, they want an investigation.
Jessica Yellin has that next in our political list.
Stand by, Jessica.
And this, you have to see this to believe it. A cat stuck in a window. See how this tale ends. That's ahead. Nice pun.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) GRIFFIN: You know, one of these days and maybe soon, we're going to learn the truth about Alvin Greene and when we do, we might know more than we know already about the way they play politics in South Carolina. Alvin Greene is heretofore unknown veteran, unemployed and reportedly facing a felony who got his name on the ballot and won the Democratic Party's nomination for the United States Senate. For better or worse, Greene doesn't sound like your typical political candidate.
I want you to listen now to our own Don Lemon talking to Alvin Greene.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREENE: The election was certified as of 3:00 p.m. Eastern Standard time yesterday. So I'm on the ballot here on out. I'm in on the way. And I'm the best candidate for the United States Senate in this race --
LEMON: OK.
GREENE: -- in South Carolina.
LEMON: OK. You always this soft-spoken? Are you OK right now?
GREENE: I'm fine.
LEMON: You're fine? And you're --
GREENE: I'm OK.
LEMON: You're mentally sound, physically sound, you're not impaired by anything at this moment?
GREENE: No, just -- I'm OK.
LEMON: No, just what?
GREENE: I'm OK.
LEMON: I want you to finish your thought. What were you going to say?
GREENE: I'm OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GREENE: That man's running for Senate. He is going to be on the ballot apparently. And with all due respect to Alvin Greene, I think we can agree something's not OK there at that moment. Well, the fact Greene is facing a felony charge for allegedly showing pornography to a college student. There's that, too. And, by the way, he was able to pony up some $10,000 to get his name on the Senate ballot. But on the porn charge, his lawyer is a public defender which would, some say, suggest that he's indigent. Where did he get the money to run for Senate? Jessica Yellin, what's going on? Why does South Carolina have such strange politics?
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, you really can't make this stuff up, Drew.
GRIFFIN: No.
YELLIN: For Democrats, look, this race has a lot of Democrats historic fears about dirty tricks and vote-tampering in South Carolina. Some senior Democrats there, they're all spinning their own theory. Some think that there might have been malfunctioning or fixed voting machines. Other are just saying that this man might have been a plant. And that is coming from no less a figure than majority whip from the House, James Clyburn, who's one of the state's senior Democrats.
Let's listen to him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLYBURN: I saw the patterns in this. I know a Democratic pattern. I know a Republican pattern. And I saw in the Democratic primary, elephant dung all over the place. And so, I knew something was wrong in that -- in that primary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
YELLIN: Elephant dung -- not your typical political term but you get what he's saying.
GRIFFIN: Jessica, is the South Carolina Democratic Party so weak it could be hoodwinked by this guy as some kind of a plot, I guess you would have to say, by Republicans, to put him on the ballot and then he wins?
YELLIN: Well, they feel that they had no choice to some extent, Drew, because you cannot disqualify a person even if they're charged with a felony, which this fellow is. You can't really exclude them from the race for any reasons except being charged with an actual -- I'm sorry, found guilty of a felony, they say.
So, look, they're frustrated because they didn't think he would go anywhere. He had no campaign ads, no literature, no Web site. I mean, he basically didn't exist as a candidate. The problem is, his opponent barely existed either, although he was an established politician, he wasn't well-known and that guy wasn't on TV either.
So, it was a total unknown against a virtual unknown, and maybe people went with the more familiar name? Who knows?
GRIFFIN: Let me -- let me show you a tweet we just got from the Alvin Greene campaign. It says, "Over 60 percent of the vote," which is what he got, "cannot be viewed as luck. The people of the great state of South Carolina have spoken and want change, no more DeMint." Two questions there, number one, I mean, 60 percent of the vote, that's a lot. Number two, this guy doesn't stand a chance against DeMint, right?
YELLIN: Right. So, that's the bottom line here is that very few people think there would have even been a contest because DeMint is a stalwart of the Republican Party, very established. Some people think he could be the leader of the Republicans in the Senate someday.
But they were hoping, Democrats were hoping they could contest him because this is such a bad year for incumbents. This guy doesn't look like he's going to have a lot of legs in a political race, although he's getting more press than most politicians.
One thing I'll point out, Drew, is that there have been a lot of fakes -- Alvin Greene fakes on Twitter. So, I'm just establishing we should definitely be sure it's him. But this is the basic message he's been putting out, which is, look, 60 percent of the vote, I won fair and square. He's not dropping out, he says.
GRIFFIN: All right. Well, maybe, hey, you know what, maybe one of them fakes on Twitter is going to win this inning. You never know.
YELLIN: You never know. Good point.
GRIFFIN: You never know in South Carolina.
YELLIN: Anything is possible.
GRIFFIN: Jessica Yellin, thanks a lot.
Big story, of course, the flash flooding in Oklahoma City, catching drivers by surprise. This is what's been going on: crews rushing to save people from the rising water. More ahead on RICK'S LIST.
And our most intriguing person in the news today is someone helping others after a deadly disaster. Find out who. That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: These are live pictures coming to us from our affiliates in Oklahoma. This is people literally trapped on this bridge, trying to get rescued as they were apparently caught in the flood waters there. This is happening all over Oklahoma. We've had dramatic rescues all through the day.
But these are pictures coming in from our affiliates there as literally crews are racing from one rescue scene to the other, trying to make sure everybody's OK. And you can see that large crack that's actually on the bridge perhaps threatening the actual structure here, which is not unheard of in a flash flood situation.
So we'll continue to monitor this situation as we have been all afternoon. Live pictures coming in to us from Oklahoma City as two more inches of rain are heading that way. The list of most intriguing people in the news today. He's a Baptist pastor in Arkansas. And after Friday's deadly flash flood at a campground, this guy opened his doors of Baptist church. He welcomed relatives of the dead and the missing. We're talking about Greg Court. He responded quickly to the needs of family members, allowing the Red Cowart to set up help. That is why he is on our list of today's most intriguing people in the news.
And a sad update to that story. Just hours ago, crews recovered the 20th victim of that flash flood in Arkansas. The wall of water swept through the Albert Pike campground early Friday. Many people just asleep, hardly had any time to react. CNN's Casey Wian spoke to one woman whose family barely beat the odds and survived.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Angela Chris will never forget how she and eight family members escaped the Arkansas campground flash flood.
ANGELA CHRISS, FLOOD SURVIVOR: We climbed a tree as fast as we could. My 23-year-old son was camping about 100 feet from us and said, momma and daddy, the water is rising fast. Something is causing the gush to come down. Please, get in a tree now.
The most devastating part was seeing my 16-year-old floating by hollering, help, I'm drowning. Momma and Daddy, please help me. And we were in that tree 40 feet up and that was your flesh and blood.
And there were other people screaming for their lives. We were just helpless. When he went past us, about 200 yards past us, he grabbed a hold of a tree. And that's how he survived.
WIAN: They held on for several hours, all but certain they were going to die.
(on camera): And here we are four days after the event, you're still pretty banged up. Your leg is bruised. You're having trouble walking.
CHRISS: This is stuff that will heal. I feel like I just want to tell the world that those people that perished, they're the true heroes. A lot of them -- it's just the guilt, I guess, having to live and to know that we all survived. And I know the lord -- we were here for a purpose. We survived for a purpose because everybody around us perished.
WIAN (voice-over): The Chriss family was four days into a planned month-long trip. All they've been able to salvage is in the back of this pick-up.
CHRISS: We went home with $10 million worth -- because we came back with all our family members. Don't get me wrong. I don't ever want people thinking that I'm complaining about nothing like that. But -- I'm sorry.
WIAN: Casey Wian, CNN, Langley, Arkansas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Other news, Michael Jackson's doctor fighting to keep a medical license. A judge expected to make that decision today. That's ahead.
This guy wanted to raise money for a sick marine. The 10-year- old, boy, he sure did it by wearing underpants, more than 200 at the same time. That's next in "Fotos."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: I can say this because Rick's gone. Do you think that "Fotos del Dia" music is annoying? Check out our first item on that list.
Yes, that's annoying. Listen to this -- attack of the killer bees. They're called "vuvuzelas," popular South African horns and used at this year's World Cup. Enthusiasts love them. Critics loathe them, and they're calling for a ban.
"Time" magazine gave a list of reasons to ban them -- players can't focus, commentators often can't be heard and viewers can't enjoy the game. Who's blowing them, then? Vuvuzelas are really loud, producing noise up to 127 decibels. But officials say get used to it. The Vuvuzelas are here to stay. They're not going to be going to ban them.
Cats always land on their feet, right? A photographer caught the tail end of this kitty calamity.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poor kitty cat.
GRIFFIN: A bystander climbed up a two story building and pushed the fettered feline -- who writes this?
BALDWIN: People like a little alliteration on the show.
GRIFFIN: Good time to talk about underwear that became outerwear for a 10-year-old boy, Jack Singer, who broke the record for the most pairs of underpants worn at the same time. At one point the kid's feet went to sleep.
BALDWIN: He fell over.
GRIFFIN: His parents keep piling them on until the young lad was bouncing on a ball of briefs.
The winning number -- 215 pairs, beating the previous record of 200. But it's not all fun and games. He did it to raise money for Marine Sergeant Eddie Ryan who was injured in Iraq five years ago.
Afghanistan, lonely, could become the Saudi Arabia of lithium. How a discovery of $1 trillion in minerals could impact the war. That's ahead. And powerful rescue stories after a flash flood hits an Arkansas campground.
It's trending and Brooke's got that on "The List," next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Time to see what's trending now with Brooke Baldwin. Lots of stuff going on, unfortunately not great.
BALDWIN: Yes, not great at all. I was glued to CNN in the 2:00 hour when Ali had that rescue. And just for the sake of doing it over because it was such compelling video, I want to show you that rescue.
This was that tree rescue. This happening in Oklahoma City. Incredible -- you see this woman -- and I don't know how she got there. But she's swimming along. Finally she gets to a point where she hangs on to a tree. One boat comes in, according to some of these rescuers.
And the next thing you know, the boat gets stuck. They had to bring in boat number two. There they are finally grabbing her. Can you imagine the endurance that must have taken? She must be exhausted.
That is just one example of any kind of really rescue, evacuation underway, we're told in a couple of different Oklahoma City neighborhoods. Serious flash flooding, talking -- look at these guys.
GRIFFIN: Number one, you don't go into this water, period.
BALDWIN: You don't want, you don't drive, because that's what happens to you. According to the mayor, 4,000 power outages, 10 inches of rain fell between 2:00 in the morning and 11:00 in the morning. I think there's a couple more to come. Portions of I-35, I- 40 and I-44 in the Oklahoma City area, we're told by our affiliate KOCO, they're totally flooded.
Fire department rescued 20 like this, 20 to 30 people from cars, homes, businesses. In fact, one of the police spokespeople says this is the worst flooding the city has seen in 25 years. And that's just Oklahoma.
GRIFFIN: Right, the other story is so said.
BALDWIN: Rick and I on Friday stood here going back and forth over the story out of Arkansas, that campground. It tugs at your heartstrings. Sadly, they found this 20th body found today floating on the Little Missouri River. Hopefully that will be the last discovery these rescue crews have to make.
But apparently they're going to continue the search efforts at least through tonight. That's what I'm told.
But Janice McRae is a woman we were talking to on Friday. She lives in this area, the Albert Pike campground area. She lives there. She woke up in the middle of the night with all that flash flooding. The river rose to something like 23 feet. She woke up. She got dressed and ran outside to help. Here is just a snippet of that conversation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We rescued two little kids, two little boys off of that cabin right there that's on TV right now.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Really?
BALDWIN: You rescued two kids out of that cabin?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were two kids on the top of that cabin on the roof. That's all that was sticking out was just the roof.
SANCHEZ: Where were their parents?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What?
SANCHEZ: Where were their parents?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were up with their grandparents which are elderly, very elderly grandparents. And he was in the water -- we could see him. There was a man that was with me. We both waded out to him in the water and got him and pulled him to safety.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: And, Drew, we kept reiterating on Friday, it was one thing to see all the devastation, all the roads kind of caved in, the asphalt in pieces, the bridge with the water right up to the bridges. But keep in mind that happened early, early Friday morning between 2:00 and 4:00 in the morning. So it's pitch dark.
And these people are seeing flicks of light because as people were explaining to us live on air, they were just like trucks that would go along in the Little Missouri River and that's the little bits of light between that and flashlights that people were able to use to rescue some of the people who were fortunate enough to be rescued.
GRIFFIN: And you might go to those lights not knowing that you're about to go through a torrent and get swept away. It's so sad.
BALDWIN: Unbelievable.
GRIFFIN: And that person found today, it was a child.
BALDWIN: A child.
GRIFFIN: Seven children out camping with their parents.
BALDWIN: And it happens, it's a flash flood, happens just like that. You don't anticipate it. And unless you have some kind of radio, there was no warning. GRIFFIN: We're waiting to see what's going on in Oklahoma. They have two more inches of rain coming that way. It's the same kind of system, this trailing system, which just streams and streams of thunderstorms in a row.
BALDWIN: I'll keep watching it and let you know.
GRIFFIN: Thank you so much.
BALDWIN: Thank you, Drew.
GRIFFIN: Well, we are waiting to hear from the president. He arrived back in the Gulf coast earlier today visiting points east of the Louisiana coastline. He has been in briefings with cleanup and community leaders today. And when he speaks in the next hour, we'll bring that to you live.
There's a lot of finger-pointing going on since the BP oil spill. 56 days ago. But I've got a list of all those responsible for the disaster in the Gulf, well, anyway, according to "Time" magazine. And believe me, you may be on the dirty dozen. That's next on "The List."
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GRIFFIN: Henry, a real problem for you there in Louisiana if a hurricane hits. It is day 56 of the oil spill and it seems a lot of folks playing the blame game. But who's really at fault for the disaster in the Gulf?
Well, "Time" magazine has published its list for those responsible for the BP oil spilled, called it the dirty dozen.
This may surprise you, some won't. Tim Probert, global business president of Halliburton is on the list at number 12, the company responsible for cementing that well. Number 11, Transocean CEO Steve Newman. His company owned the Deepwater Horizon rig.
Number 10 Elizabeth Birnbaum. She ran Minerals Management Service for ten months and was forced out at the end of May. Coming in at number nine, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Number eight, President Obama, who proposed opening more areas for offshore drilling just days before the rig exploded.
Here's a surprise for you -- you, the American driver, especially if you drive a truck more than a million -- a hundred million of us drive gas guzzling trucks. That's "Times" writing there. The rest of the list is ahead.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a little frustrating when people without accurate information come out and make statements.
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GRIFFIN: The dramatic rescue of the 16-year-old teenage sailor now a book deal? Maybe more?
You want to be on this show? Call this number. 1-877-4 CNN- tour.
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GRIFFIN: We need to make a quick correction, and I mean quick on a photo we just aired a few moments ago. We want to get this right. Reverend Craig Cowart of the Pilgrim Rest Landmark Missionary Baptist Church, he was today's most intriguing person in the news -- the photo we showed you was not him.
We regret the error and salute the pastor for opening his church doors to give shelter to family members of the dead and the missing in the wake of those Arkansas floods.
Speaking of floods, Oklahoma City today is getting swamped. This was a rescue of a guy in a car or a truck during a deluge earlier today. Two more inches of rain expected. Ten inches fell within a few short hours this morning.
We had been watching live coverage literally of person after person being rescued by crews all across the Oklahoma City metro area. There's some more right there. The boats just go from one rescue scene to the other as they get word of somebody stuck in a bridge, stuck in a tree, stuck somewhere in a car, and they have been going nonstop ever since.
GRIFFIN: BP share prices are sinking and its dividends may soon sink all together. Poppy Harlow's got that at the top of her CNN money. That's next on "The List."
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GRIFFIN: BP stock has been getting hammered. Lots of big swings in that stock, and now the company is deciding, I should say the board is deciding it's going to pay out quarterly dividends, and that's why Poppy Harlow has BP at the top of her "CNN Money List." Poppy, what's expected out of the meeting today? You know, what are the decisions they're having to make, because this is important to a lot of people?
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Yes. It is. I mean, we all think, well, there are people, this populist outrage that says BP shouldn't pay its dividend, just pay to clean up this mess. But a dividend is very important because you have a lot of older people that rely on dividend payments as part of their pension or that they literally live on.
Most of the BP shareholders when you look at the broad group are in England so a lot of U.K. pensions that are very, very entangled in this and likely don't want to see BP cut its dividend. The board as you mentioned meeting on this topic.
Their Q2 dividend payment should go out in August, almost $2.5 billion. What we might see because there's been so much political pressure to do this, is temporarily suspend the dividend, cut the amount, put it in an account until it's all cleaned up.
It's interesting. Two weeks ago Senator Chuck Schumer and also Representative Ron Wyden called for BP to do this. I was surprised to see the political momentum it picked up.
But there are two sides to this point. It is very important to a lot of people that rely on it. Other people get rich on it. A lot of political anger is saying you have to pull it back. That may be decided shortly but not today because you'll see the BP executives meet with president Obama Wednesday.
We'll likely wait until after that meeting I would assume to hear any announcement when it comes to the dividend, Drew.
GRIFFIN: Poppy, we're going to show a live picture of the president, who's actually ahead of schedule. We may get to see him soon. He is going to be speaking in Theodore, Alabama.
HARLOW: Sure.
GRIFFIN: There is such a knee jerk reaction, a call for punishment here, and this I guess relates to what BP is or isn't going to do with these dividends. But the president, I think one thing that is growing in momentum is this idea of, all right, BP, you're going to have to set up at least an escrow account.
HARLOW: Right.
GRIFFIN: To show us you've got the goods.
HARLOW: I think it's a call for a good faith action on behalf of BP. You know, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent out a letter today to the CEO of BP saying put $20 billion into that account. We want to see you do that. We'll follow BP. I'll close out by saying BP stock now down about 10 percent today alone.
GRIFFIN: All right, that's the bell. And I guess it's, is it a good day? I can't remember.
HARLOW: It's an OK day on Wall Street, up about 19 points -- down about 19 points.
