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CNN Sunday Morning
Earthquake Devastates Southeast Asia; Interview With Chuck Leavell
Aired December 26, 2004 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: The strongest earthquake on record since 1964 hits southeastern Asia. Welcome back. I'm Betty Nguyen.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris. Here's what's happening in the news.
Deadly ripples from a massive earthquake, the biggest to hit the world in 40 years. The quake was centered off Indonesia's Sumatra Island. It triggered tsunamis; it killed more than 3,500 people across Southeast Asia. The waves wiped out coastal areas of Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. The death toll is expected to rise.
It's been a deadly weekend in the Baghdad area. Police and government sources say at least five Iraqi officials were killed, most of them an apparent assassination. They include a high-ranking police officer and several local politicians.
The airports become a temporary home for thousands of travelers this weekend; a computer glitch forced Com Air to cancel hundreds of flights yesterday and today. Meantime, U.S. Airways is trying to recorrect passengers with thousands of pieces of luggage. The airline blames bad weather and workers who called in sick.
NGUYEN: The death toll keeps climbing by the hour from a monster earthquake that struck Indonesia and the massive tsunamis that followed. Most of the destruction so far has been from the giant waves striking the coastal areas of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India. Suhasini Haidar is with us by phone from Chennai, India with an update.
What do you know now?
SUHASINI HAIDAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, we're actually at the city mortuary right now, where hundreds of anxious relatives are coming in looking for their loved ones. Witnesses, here in Chennai, describe the sheer terror and panic that spread out this morning when giant tidal waves, hit the beach. And as they ran to save their own lives, many told us, dozens were drowned, many crushed under foot. And in all -- here Chennai, more than 200 bodies have been recovered so far, but that, say Indian officials, is just the tip. They fear thousands have been killed and drowned by tidal waves across four states in India. The worse affected here in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Suhasini, is there any concern over aftershocks and their effects in India?
HAIDAR: Yes, the Meteorological Department officials and the officials at the Geophysics Department say they can't rule out more such tidal waves in the aftershocks of that quake this morning. And that, of course, is creating even more panic in these coastal areas. People saying that they really don't know what they'd do if there was to be another attack of the same -- of the -- by a wave of the same sort. In the meanwhile, rescue operations are in full swing. But officials are admitting that although they've got the Coastguard helicopters out there, they are trying to drop off food and medicines, as much as they can, that they are completely shocked by the sheer magnitude of this tragedy and don't know even for the next few days how bad the damage actually has been even -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Yes, we have a lot of things going on. We have rescue efforts, then the worry of other aftershocks. Anything being done to put some kind of a warning system in place so that these rescue crews will know and residents will know should another earthquake happen and more tsunamis?
HAIDAR: Well, officials are saying that now what they're trying to is evacuate as many as possible from some of the coastal areas, but this is a mammoth job especially as it comes right in the middle of relief rescue of the people already affected. They're also looking in the Indian Ocean for survivors. Amongst the thousands that feared missing or dead right now are hundreds of fishermen who would have gone out to sea early in the morning when that earthquake hit, and when those tidal waves rose. And the Indian officials are saying that they are trying to find as many survivors as possible. So this is a mammoth operation made much more difficult by the sheer -- the fact that they cannot predict what's going to happen next and the fact that they say that couldn't have predicted this one, either.
NGUYEN: Absolutely, a very difficult situation, there. Suhasini Haidar with us from Chennai, India. Thank you -- Tony.
HARRIS: The tsunami damage we've so far in southeast Asia is bad enough. Large stretches of coastal areas of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India were inundated by giant swells, but it's likely far worse in Sumatra which is due east of the quakes epicenter. The 8.9 quake unleashed the same amount of energy -- listen to this -- as 10,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs, it was caused by a cataclysmic riff beneath the ocean that stretched for hundreds of miles. That huge wave of energy then pulsed through the ocean traveling hundreds of miles per hour -- close to 500 miles per hour. Within a couple of hours, it had traveled west across the Indian Ocean to Sri Lanka and India then east of Thailand. Sri Lanka is in desperate need of help in its rescue mission. Joining us by phone now is Steven Evans, British high commissioner to Sri Lanka.
Mr. Evans, how are you?
STEVEN EVANS, BRITISH HIGH COMMISSIONER TO SRI LANKA: I'm fine, but obviously this has been a very grim day as the casualty figures mount hour by hour. HARRIS: Well, I asked you how you're doing because I know you must be devastated by this news. Walk us back through this, if you would, as we take this apart. When did you first receive word information of the quake, first of all, and then the deadly tsunamis?
EVANS: The first information I received was from the media with the initial reports of the tsunami hitting the coast land -- line of Sri Lanka, and so I didn't have any prior notification of the earthquake itself. But it was clear by about 10:00 this morning that there had been a major disaster, within the British high commission, we then set up our own crisis unit, which has been working hard all day with two focuses. The first is to -- with the Sri Lankan authorities on coordination of international relief efforts and secondly, of course, to do what we can for our own nationals, because there are thousands of British tourists holidaying in Sri Lanka, many of them in resorts on the southern and southwestern coasts which were hilt by the tsunami.
HARRIS: We understand that one of those resort cities -- is it Galle?
EVANS: That's right, Galle.
HARRIS: OK. Galle. And that is a very popular place for British nationals to vacation?
EVANS: Yes, it is. I mean that is just one of a number, a large number of resorts along the southern and southwestern coast, but it's a famous old Dutch town and therefore a magnet for tourists, and that was heavily hit and very badly flooded. And there have been a number of other cases of resorts being badly affected by this tsunami and we've been having a stream of telephone calls during the day from British tourists who are stranded but who were able to make contact with us by mobile phone. And so we have been, obviously, putting together a database and coordinating with the local authorities to let them know where there are stranded and groups of tourists.
HARRIS: Is it -- well, maybe it's not too early -- do you have a sense of what the immediate needs are? You know that area much better than, certainly, I do, and most of us here, stateside. Can you give us a sense of what you might expect to need from the international committee right away?
EVANS: The initial need, clearly, is going to be to get to high ground and safety, those people who've been cut off by floodwaters and this is something that obviously we believe, has been taken on by the Sri Lankan authorities and Army, police, Navy etcetera, all heavily engaged in this effort. I think we're going to be a requirement for international humanitarian assistance to help those who've lost their homes, and also to help deal with problems like sanitation, drinking water, all of which may have been damaged by the physical shock of the tsunami.
HARRIS: I've got to ask you one last question. We're seeing these amazing pictures of what looks to be a devastated area. You've been there, you know this area. How bad is it? We can see devastation from the pictures, but from your frame of reference, knowing that area, how bad is it?
EVANS: It's bad. And I think the core problem is the sheer length of coastline that's affected, starting in Trinco in the northwest corner of the island, going right down the east coast, south coast and up past the west coast. So, it's a huge stretch of coastline, many hundreds of miles. But also it's a very flat area. You've got flat beaches, and then a flat hint of land, so when the tsunami hit, it was able to actually move quite a long way inland and therefore doing quite a lot -- a lot of damage in the process. So, it's a very long area of coastline that will have suffered quite a degree of damage and some depth and that will obviously be a major problem when it comes to sort of the whole process of rehabilitation and reconstruction.
HARRIS: Steven Evans, British high commissioner to Sri Lanka. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, we appreciate it.
EVANS: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Checking stories across America, police in Chicago say a woman found dead in a Christmas Eve fire that killed two of her children was strangled before the blaze. The fire was confined to the room where the mother was found. The children were 4 and 5 years old.
How many Michael Jones' do you think are traveling somewhere this holiday weekend? Well, hope they didn't all have the same kind of trouble as this 16-year-old did in the Washington, D.C. area. He was stopped there boarding a plane to his grandmother's house after his rather common name came up on a terror watch list. A phone call eventually cleared the teenager.
People in the Lonestar State got a chance to enjoy a very rare white Christmas. South Texas got up to 13 inches of snow that is a blizzard compared to the previous record which was just measly 4 inches, back in 1895, had to go all the way back to the 1800s for this one. Even Houston got a few flurries.
And for the first time in 50 years, folks in Louisiana also saw a white Christmas. The snow and ice caused problems, though, at the airport and shut down stretches of Interstate 10.
In the NBA, the Pistons and Pacers met for the first time since that ugly brawl five weeks ago. This time everyone was well-behaved. The Pistons won 98 to 93.
HARRIS: Rolling Stones' keyboardist and self-proclaimed dream lover, Chuck Leavell, joins us here live, CNN SUNDAY MORNING continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC)
HARRIS: Hey, he did it! He's playing! Look at him!
NGUYEN: "Magic Fingers," we call him around here. The talented keyboardist, Chuck Leavell joins us here when CNN SUNDAY MORNING returns in just 90 seconds.
(SINGING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Welcome back to CNN SUNDAY MORNING, I'm Betty Nguyen. Take a look at this video, some of the latest video that's coming in us as the world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years hits the Indonesian island of Sumatra. We will have much more on this story. It unleashed tsunamis that swamped cities up to 1,000 miles across southeast Asia. More than 3,000 people are dead, and more than a million are displaced.
Back in this country, it's been a holiday flight-mare for thousands of airline travelers stranded in airports. A computer crash grounded all of Com Air's planes Christmas day. The airline is expected to resume a limited flight schedule today, and U.S. Airways is still trying to reconnect passengers with their lost luggage, goodness.
Well, we have been asking you all morning to finish this sentence" "Tis the season to be..." and tell us why. We'll read your e-mails, that is still to come.
HARRIS: Well, you might not recognize the name of my guest today, but you probably know his music well, Chuck Leavell is the keyboard player for the Rolling Stones, he also happens to be a devout conservationist and tree farmer. His new book, "Between Rock and a Home Place" touches on both parts of his life. Chuck says he's as comfortable on a tractor as he is on a piano bench.
Chuck, good to see you this morning.
CHUCK LEAVELL, ROLLING STONE KEYBOARDIST: Oh, it's great to be with you.
HARRIS: Yeah, good to be with you.
LEAVELL: Happy holidays.
HARRIS: Happy holidays, merry Christmas to you.
LEAVELL: Yeah, life is good.
HARRIS: "Between Rock and a Home Place." Tell us about this book. Why did you take on this project?
LEAVELL: I had some time off. No, we finished the last Rolling Stones is tour of November of '03 and I knew I was going to have some down time, and I thought this would be a good stage in my life to look back and reflect and, you know, recall some fun times that I've had in my musical career and also talk about my passion about conservation and my passion for my family.
HARRIS: Well, let's talk about -- we'll talk about both of those aspects of your life. But, let's talk about your many years with the Rolling Stones. Front row seat for one of the greatest rock and roll shows of all time -- the Rolling Stones monolith. How did you make that connection? How did you get that seat?
LEAVELL: How did I get that job, man? Well, a bit of a story, but for those who remember who Bill Graham was.
HARRIS: Yeah, yeah, a legendary promoter.
LEAVELL: Absolutely.
HARRIS: Yeah.
LEAVELL: Well, when I was with the Allman Brothers Band in the 70s, of course, Bill was a fan of the band and he also helped the band out quite a lot and he promoted a lot of concerts. And then he went on, many years later, to become tour director for the Stones, and Mick and Keith wanted to try some new faces, and Bill suggested my name and I got the seat.
HARRIS: And what is that like, that first time you go in to play for Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger? What is that audition like? And it probably wasn't an audition for you, but what was that meeting like?
LEAVELL: Well, you know, it was an audition.
HARRIS: It was? OK.
LEAVELL: And it was wild because it came within 24 hours. The phone call came and then I was on the plane to go up there. So, there was not a lot of time to think about it, and I went up there with the attitude of, you know, just do what you do Chuck, have a good time. But, the irony of it was that as a kid in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where I grew up, I had a little band called the Misfits, and what did we played? Well, we played largely British invasion, you know, Beatles and Stones.
HARRIS: Yeah.
LEAVELL: Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd play with them for the, you know, the real deal.
HARRIS: So give me a sense, you're out on the road for the first time with the Stones, you are now the sideman's, sideman, really. And I wonder, through all the years of playing with the Stones and all the bands that you've played with, what is the special temperament that you have to have as the guy who is not going to get the spotlight shown on him, but you are, then, the sideman that keeps the bands tight, that keeps it on beat, keeps it moving along, keeps the music driving? What is that special temperament that you have?
LEAVELL: Well it -- for me, it's all about the music. You know, the rest of the hoopla is interesting and fun, but it's not what it's about the music. For me it's all about the music. I love that stuff. I love playing. You know, whether it's with the Stones or the years that I had with the Allman Brothers Band, with Eric Clapton, George Harrison, I was privileged to play with; working on records with the Black Crows, Blues Traveler, Indigo Girls, and others. You know, it's just about the music, that's what it's about for me.
HARRIS: And your work as a conservationist. Where did you develop this love?
LEAVELL: Well, you know, it's family, really. It came because my wife inherited some property from her grandmother, and her family has a heritage of being good stewards of the land and all of a sudden in land came into our hands one day and we knew that it was up to us to learn what it takes to be good stewards, and that was a learning curve for me. But it came as equally...
HARRIS: A passion for you.
LEAVELL: ...a passion for me as rock and roll and music.
HARRIS: Let me show you the book, again, "Between Rock and a Home Place" a new book from Chuck Leavell. Come on back and see us, again, I know you've got a CD soon. Come on back and play for us. Will you, please.
LEAVELL: You bet.
HARRIS: Chuck, what a pleasure.
LEAVELL: Oh, it's an honor to be here, today.
HARRIS: And happy holidays to you and your family.
LEAVELL: Absolutely and happy New Year.
HARRIS: It's great to have you.
LEAVELL: All right.
HARRIS: Betty.
NGUYEN: A little band he formed called the "Misfits" to the Rolling Stones, boy what a road he has traveled. We'll be right back with your winter weather forecast.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: A little "Animal House" music there. Good morning Miami. There's another long at WPLG in Miami, this morning, of that beautiful sky. Hello to everyone getting ready for Coconut Grove's street parade, they King Mango Strut, the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) procession celebrates the coming New Year. Listen to that music, Tony.
HARRIS: What it? All right, Ed Henry now, joins us from Washington with a preview of what's ahead on "Inside Politics Sunday."
Good morning, Ed.
ED HENRY, "INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY": Good morning, Tony. Coming up at the top of the hour, the holiday weekend is turning into a nightmare for many air travelers across the country. We'll get a live update from Reagan National Airport. Plus how will the president and Congress get along in the New Year? I talked with two members of the Senate leadership for a 2005 political preview.
And are you brave enough to join the crowds of shoppers heading back to the mall today? We have some political exchanges of our own to make. That's all ahead on "Inside Politics Sunday." Back to you, Tony.
HARRIS: OK Ed, see you at the top of the hour.
NGUYEN: Right now, though, we want to tell you about the e-mails that we are getting in to our question of the day, which is basically finishing our sentence: "Tis the season to be..."
HARRIS: To be, from Michelle: "Tis the season to be sorrowful. More than 3,000 people are dead in Asia which is worse than 9/11."
NGUYEN: And Barbara writes: "Tis the season to be thankful. My son is a member of Charley Company, 276th Engineer Battalion and I got an e-mail from him and he is OK." She is very thankful today, for good reasons.
HARRIS: And thank you for the e-mails this morning. Let's quickly get to Brad Huffines for a final check with weather this morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: That's what I want to hear.
NGUYEN: Oh, yeah. Thank you.
HARRIS: Thanks, brad.
NGUYEN: Well, that's it for us this morning, but we appreciate you watching. We'll see you back at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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Aired December 26, 2004 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: The strongest earthquake on record since 1964 hits southeastern Asia. Welcome back. I'm Betty Nguyen.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris. Here's what's happening in the news.
Deadly ripples from a massive earthquake, the biggest to hit the world in 40 years. The quake was centered off Indonesia's Sumatra Island. It triggered tsunamis; it killed more than 3,500 people across Southeast Asia. The waves wiped out coastal areas of Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. The death toll is expected to rise.
It's been a deadly weekend in the Baghdad area. Police and government sources say at least five Iraqi officials were killed, most of them an apparent assassination. They include a high-ranking police officer and several local politicians.
The airports become a temporary home for thousands of travelers this weekend; a computer glitch forced Com Air to cancel hundreds of flights yesterday and today. Meantime, U.S. Airways is trying to recorrect passengers with thousands of pieces of luggage. The airline blames bad weather and workers who called in sick.
NGUYEN: The death toll keeps climbing by the hour from a monster earthquake that struck Indonesia and the massive tsunamis that followed. Most of the destruction so far has been from the giant waves striking the coastal areas of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India. Suhasini Haidar is with us by phone from Chennai, India with an update.
What do you know now?
SUHASINI HAIDAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, we're actually at the city mortuary right now, where hundreds of anxious relatives are coming in looking for their loved ones. Witnesses, here in Chennai, describe the sheer terror and panic that spread out this morning when giant tidal waves, hit the beach. And as they ran to save their own lives, many told us, dozens were drowned, many crushed under foot. And in all -- here Chennai, more than 200 bodies have been recovered so far, but that, say Indian officials, is just the tip. They fear thousands have been killed and drowned by tidal waves across four states in India. The worse affected here in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Suhasini, is there any concern over aftershocks and their effects in India?
HAIDAR: Yes, the Meteorological Department officials and the officials at the Geophysics Department say they can't rule out more such tidal waves in the aftershocks of that quake this morning. And that, of course, is creating even more panic in these coastal areas. People saying that they really don't know what they'd do if there was to be another attack of the same -- of the -- by a wave of the same sort. In the meanwhile, rescue operations are in full swing. But officials are admitting that although they've got the Coastguard helicopters out there, they are trying to drop off food and medicines, as much as they can, that they are completely shocked by the sheer magnitude of this tragedy and don't know even for the next few days how bad the damage actually has been even -- Betty.
NGUYEN: Yes, we have a lot of things going on. We have rescue efforts, then the worry of other aftershocks. Anything being done to put some kind of a warning system in place so that these rescue crews will know and residents will know should another earthquake happen and more tsunamis?
HAIDAR: Well, officials are saying that now what they're trying to is evacuate as many as possible from some of the coastal areas, but this is a mammoth job especially as it comes right in the middle of relief rescue of the people already affected. They're also looking in the Indian Ocean for survivors. Amongst the thousands that feared missing or dead right now are hundreds of fishermen who would have gone out to sea early in the morning when that earthquake hit, and when those tidal waves rose. And the Indian officials are saying that they are trying to find as many survivors as possible. So this is a mammoth operation made much more difficult by the sheer -- the fact that they cannot predict what's going to happen next and the fact that they say that couldn't have predicted this one, either.
NGUYEN: Absolutely, a very difficult situation, there. Suhasini Haidar with us from Chennai, India. Thank you -- Tony.
HARRIS: The tsunami damage we've so far in southeast Asia is bad enough. Large stretches of coastal areas of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India were inundated by giant swells, but it's likely far worse in Sumatra which is due east of the quakes epicenter. The 8.9 quake unleashed the same amount of energy -- listen to this -- as 10,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs, it was caused by a cataclysmic riff beneath the ocean that stretched for hundreds of miles. That huge wave of energy then pulsed through the ocean traveling hundreds of miles per hour -- close to 500 miles per hour. Within a couple of hours, it had traveled west across the Indian Ocean to Sri Lanka and India then east of Thailand. Sri Lanka is in desperate need of help in its rescue mission. Joining us by phone now is Steven Evans, British high commissioner to Sri Lanka.
Mr. Evans, how are you?
STEVEN EVANS, BRITISH HIGH COMMISSIONER TO SRI LANKA: I'm fine, but obviously this has been a very grim day as the casualty figures mount hour by hour. HARRIS: Well, I asked you how you're doing because I know you must be devastated by this news. Walk us back through this, if you would, as we take this apart. When did you first receive word information of the quake, first of all, and then the deadly tsunamis?
EVANS: The first information I received was from the media with the initial reports of the tsunami hitting the coast land -- line of Sri Lanka, and so I didn't have any prior notification of the earthquake itself. But it was clear by about 10:00 this morning that there had been a major disaster, within the British high commission, we then set up our own crisis unit, which has been working hard all day with two focuses. The first is to -- with the Sri Lankan authorities on coordination of international relief efforts and secondly, of course, to do what we can for our own nationals, because there are thousands of British tourists holidaying in Sri Lanka, many of them in resorts on the southern and southwestern coasts which were hilt by the tsunami.
HARRIS: We understand that one of those resort cities -- is it Galle?
EVANS: That's right, Galle.
HARRIS: OK. Galle. And that is a very popular place for British nationals to vacation?
EVANS: Yes, it is. I mean that is just one of a number, a large number of resorts along the southern and southwestern coast, but it's a famous old Dutch town and therefore a magnet for tourists, and that was heavily hit and very badly flooded. And there have been a number of other cases of resorts being badly affected by this tsunami and we've been having a stream of telephone calls during the day from British tourists who are stranded but who were able to make contact with us by mobile phone. And so we have been, obviously, putting together a database and coordinating with the local authorities to let them know where there are stranded and groups of tourists.
HARRIS: Is it -- well, maybe it's not too early -- do you have a sense of what the immediate needs are? You know that area much better than, certainly, I do, and most of us here, stateside. Can you give us a sense of what you might expect to need from the international committee right away?
EVANS: The initial need, clearly, is going to be to get to high ground and safety, those people who've been cut off by floodwaters and this is something that obviously we believe, has been taken on by the Sri Lankan authorities and Army, police, Navy etcetera, all heavily engaged in this effort. I think we're going to be a requirement for international humanitarian assistance to help those who've lost their homes, and also to help deal with problems like sanitation, drinking water, all of which may have been damaged by the physical shock of the tsunami.
HARRIS: I've got to ask you one last question. We're seeing these amazing pictures of what looks to be a devastated area. You've been there, you know this area. How bad is it? We can see devastation from the pictures, but from your frame of reference, knowing that area, how bad is it?
EVANS: It's bad. And I think the core problem is the sheer length of coastline that's affected, starting in Trinco in the northwest corner of the island, going right down the east coast, south coast and up past the west coast. So, it's a huge stretch of coastline, many hundreds of miles. But also it's a very flat area. You've got flat beaches, and then a flat hint of land, so when the tsunami hit, it was able to actually move quite a long way inland and therefore doing quite a lot -- a lot of damage in the process. So, it's a very long area of coastline that will have suffered quite a degree of damage and some depth and that will obviously be a major problem when it comes to sort of the whole process of rehabilitation and reconstruction.
HARRIS: Steven Evans, British high commissioner to Sri Lanka. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us, we appreciate it.
EVANS: Thank you.
NGUYEN: Checking stories across America, police in Chicago say a woman found dead in a Christmas Eve fire that killed two of her children was strangled before the blaze. The fire was confined to the room where the mother was found. The children were 4 and 5 years old.
How many Michael Jones' do you think are traveling somewhere this holiday weekend? Well, hope they didn't all have the same kind of trouble as this 16-year-old did in the Washington, D.C. area. He was stopped there boarding a plane to his grandmother's house after his rather common name came up on a terror watch list. A phone call eventually cleared the teenager.
People in the Lonestar State got a chance to enjoy a very rare white Christmas. South Texas got up to 13 inches of snow that is a blizzard compared to the previous record which was just measly 4 inches, back in 1895, had to go all the way back to the 1800s for this one. Even Houston got a few flurries.
And for the first time in 50 years, folks in Louisiana also saw a white Christmas. The snow and ice caused problems, though, at the airport and shut down stretches of Interstate 10.
In the NBA, the Pistons and Pacers met for the first time since that ugly brawl five weeks ago. This time everyone was well-behaved. The Pistons won 98 to 93.
HARRIS: Rolling Stones' keyboardist and self-proclaimed dream lover, Chuck Leavell, joins us here live, CNN SUNDAY MORNING continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC)
HARRIS: Hey, he did it! He's playing! Look at him!
NGUYEN: "Magic Fingers," we call him around here. The talented keyboardist, Chuck Leavell joins us here when CNN SUNDAY MORNING returns in just 90 seconds.
(SINGING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: Welcome back to CNN SUNDAY MORNING, I'm Betty Nguyen. Take a look at this video, some of the latest video that's coming in us as the world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years hits the Indonesian island of Sumatra. We will have much more on this story. It unleashed tsunamis that swamped cities up to 1,000 miles across southeast Asia. More than 3,000 people are dead, and more than a million are displaced.
Back in this country, it's been a holiday flight-mare for thousands of airline travelers stranded in airports. A computer crash grounded all of Com Air's planes Christmas day. The airline is expected to resume a limited flight schedule today, and U.S. Airways is still trying to reconnect passengers with their lost luggage, goodness.
Well, we have been asking you all morning to finish this sentence" "Tis the season to be..." and tell us why. We'll read your e-mails, that is still to come.
HARRIS: Well, you might not recognize the name of my guest today, but you probably know his music well, Chuck Leavell is the keyboard player for the Rolling Stones, he also happens to be a devout conservationist and tree farmer. His new book, "Between Rock and a Home Place" touches on both parts of his life. Chuck says he's as comfortable on a tractor as he is on a piano bench.
Chuck, good to see you this morning.
CHUCK LEAVELL, ROLLING STONE KEYBOARDIST: Oh, it's great to be with you.
HARRIS: Yeah, good to be with you.
LEAVELL: Happy holidays.
HARRIS: Happy holidays, merry Christmas to you.
LEAVELL: Yeah, life is good.
HARRIS: "Between Rock and a Home Place." Tell us about this book. Why did you take on this project?
LEAVELL: I had some time off. No, we finished the last Rolling Stones is tour of November of '03 and I knew I was going to have some down time, and I thought this would be a good stage in my life to look back and reflect and, you know, recall some fun times that I've had in my musical career and also talk about my passion about conservation and my passion for my family.
HARRIS: Well, let's talk about -- we'll talk about both of those aspects of your life. But, let's talk about your many years with the Rolling Stones. Front row seat for one of the greatest rock and roll shows of all time -- the Rolling Stones monolith. How did you make that connection? How did you get that seat?
LEAVELL: How did I get that job, man? Well, a bit of a story, but for those who remember who Bill Graham was.
HARRIS: Yeah, yeah, a legendary promoter.
LEAVELL: Absolutely.
HARRIS: Yeah.
LEAVELL: Well, when I was with the Allman Brothers Band in the 70s, of course, Bill was a fan of the band and he also helped the band out quite a lot and he promoted a lot of concerts. And then he went on, many years later, to become tour director for the Stones, and Mick and Keith wanted to try some new faces, and Bill suggested my name and I got the seat.
HARRIS: And what is that like, that first time you go in to play for Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger? What is that audition like? And it probably wasn't an audition for you, but what was that meeting like?
LEAVELL: Well, you know, it was an audition.
HARRIS: It was? OK.
LEAVELL: And it was wild because it came within 24 hours. The phone call came and then I was on the plane to go up there. So, there was not a lot of time to think about it, and I went up there with the attitude of, you know, just do what you do Chuck, have a good time. But, the irony of it was that as a kid in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where I grew up, I had a little band called the Misfits, and what did we played? Well, we played largely British invasion, you know, Beatles and Stones.
HARRIS: Yeah.
LEAVELL: Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd play with them for the, you know, the real deal.
HARRIS: So give me a sense, you're out on the road for the first time with the Stones, you are now the sideman's, sideman, really. And I wonder, through all the years of playing with the Stones and all the bands that you've played with, what is the special temperament that you have to have as the guy who is not going to get the spotlight shown on him, but you are, then, the sideman that keeps the bands tight, that keeps it on beat, keeps it moving along, keeps the music driving? What is that special temperament that you have?
LEAVELL: Well it -- for me, it's all about the music. You know, the rest of the hoopla is interesting and fun, but it's not what it's about the music. For me it's all about the music. I love that stuff. I love playing. You know, whether it's with the Stones or the years that I had with the Allman Brothers Band, with Eric Clapton, George Harrison, I was privileged to play with; working on records with the Black Crows, Blues Traveler, Indigo Girls, and others. You know, it's just about the music, that's what it's about for me.
HARRIS: And your work as a conservationist. Where did you develop this love?
LEAVELL: Well, you know, it's family, really. It came because my wife inherited some property from her grandmother, and her family has a heritage of being good stewards of the land and all of a sudden in land came into our hands one day and we knew that it was up to us to learn what it takes to be good stewards, and that was a learning curve for me. But it came as equally...
HARRIS: A passion for you.
LEAVELL: ...a passion for me as rock and roll and music.
HARRIS: Let me show you the book, again, "Between Rock and a Home Place" a new book from Chuck Leavell. Come on back and see us, again, I know you've got a CD soon. Come on back and play for us. Will you, please.
LEAVELL: You bet.
HARRIS: Chuck, what a pleasure.
LEAVELL: Oh, it's an honor to be here, today.
HARRIS: And happy holidays to you and your family.
LEAVELL: Absolutely and happy New Year.
HARRIS: It's great to have you.
LEAVELL: All right.
HARRIS: Betty.
NGUYEN: A little band he formed called the "Misfits" to the Rolling Stones, boy what a road he has traveled. We'll be right back with your winter weather forecast.
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NGUYEN: A little "Animal House" music there. Good morning Miami. There's another long at WPLG in Miami, this morning, of that beautiful sky. Hello to everyone getting ready for Coconut Grove's street parade, they King Mango Strut, the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) procession celebrates the coming New Year. Listen to that music, Tony.
HARRIS: What it? All right, Ed Henry now, joins us from Washington with a preview of what's ahead on "Inside Politics Sunday."
Good morning, Ed.
ED HENRY, "INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY": Good morning, Tony. Coming up at the top of the hour, the holiday weekend is turning into a nightmare for many air travelers across the country. We'll get a live update from Reagan National Airport. Plus how will the president and Congress get along in the New Year? I talked with two members of the Senate leadership for a 2005 political preview.
And are you brave enough to join the crowds of shoppers heading back to the mall today? We have some political exchanges of our own to make. That's all ahead on "Inside Politics Sunday." Back to you, Tony.
HARRIS: OK Ed, see you at the top of the hour.
NGUYEN: Right now, though, we want to tell you about the e-mails that we are getting in to our question of the day, which is basically finishing our sentence: "Tis the season to be..."
HARRIS: To be, from Michelle: "Tis the season to be sorrowful. More than 3,000 people are dead in Asia which is worse than 9/11."
NGUYEN: And Barbara writes: "Tis the season to be thankful. My son is a member of Charley Company, 276th Engineer Battalion and I got an e-mail from him and he is OK." She is very thankful today, for good reasons.
HARRIS: And thank you for the e-mails this morning. Let's quickly get to Brad Huffines for a final check with weather this morning.
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HARRIS: That's what I want to hear.
NGUYEN: Oh, yeah. Thank you.
HARRIS: Thanks, brad.
NGUYEN: Well, that's it for us this morning, but we appreciate you watching. We'll see you back at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.
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