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CNN Sunday Morning

Second Round of Twisters Sweeps Through Midwest

Aired May 06, 2007 - 09:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: It is Sunday, May the 6th. Hello to you all from the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm T.J. Holmes.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Betty Nguyen. We want to thank you for starting you day with us, and oh what a day it is. Across the plains overnight more severe storms, more lives disrupted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time for us to come together. We're going to have to come, we're going to have to rebuild. We're going to build a city from the ground up, because we don't have a city.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Hanging on to hope among the ruins in Greensburg. That was the city manager you're hearing from, we hope to talk to him straight ahead. Also, we have this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was asking my sisters very weird questions, like where are your mom and dad? Do they know were you are, do they know that you're going on the slide, can you point your mom and dad out to me?

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Odd questions from a strange adult, alerted a young boy to danger at a Disney resort of all places. It's a story that you will have to see to believe.

HOLMES: We are going to start with another night of rough weather in tornado alley. A second round of twisters swept through the region a day after a monster storm leveled a town in Kansas. At least one person was hurt in the small town of Sweetwater, Oklahoma, after a tornado touched down yesterday.

NGUYEN: And the twisters kept forming, this was near Great Bend, Kansas. Take a look at this video. Storm chasers didn't have to look hard to find threatening clouds and tornadoes, both big and small.

HOLMES: Many Kansas residents had to take shelter again to escape the severe weather. The national weather service says it received reports of several tornadoes touching down in six southwest counties yesterday. But, ground zero, right here, of all this destruction, this is in Greensburg, Kansas. President Bush has declared a major disaster area in southwest Kansas where that monster tornado virtually wiped out that city of Greensburg. The president spoke about the storm just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: Our hearts are heavy for the loss of life and Greensburg, Kansas. A tornado devastated that community. It just basically wiped it out. I spoke to the governor and Senator Pat Roberts about the extent of the devastation. They said to me it's hard to describe how bad this community was hit. I have declared a major disaster for that community and I hope that helps. It's going to take a long time for the community to recover. And so we'll help in any way we can. There is a certain spirit in the Midwest of our country. A pioneer spirit that still exists and I'm confident this community will be rebuilt, to the extent that we can help, we will. The most important thing now though is for our citizens to ask for the good lord to comfort those who hurt. Thank you very much.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And in Greensburg, the city administrator says 95 percent of homes and businesses there have been destroyed. That means many residents now living in shelters. The Red Cross says at least 400 people were bused to schools and other places in nearby towns. Storm victims who've lost everything are turning to their insurance companies now for help.

NGUYEN: Well I want to get you a better look at what is going on in Greensburg right now. The overnight curfew, it just lifted and CNN's Jeff Flock is there. Jeff, as folks are coming back in to reassess the damage, I imagine they have a whole lot of work on their hands today and for many months to come.

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty, when we talk about folks coming back in, it will be only emergency workers today. In fact, they're going to ask us to leave after we do this report here this hour. So I want to give you as much of a look at this town as I can at this hour. Remember this tree, I want to give you a 360 degree look at Greensburg. Because as I said this is our one shot to look at it this morning. First of all, trees everywhere. This is bark, just shorn off the tree, incredible. And everywhere that you see, there is -- there is splinters. Splintered wood this town was largely constructed of wood homes and there's just shards of this everywhere. As I said, remember that tree, we're going to end up back there, looking off into the distance, picture trees, picture homes, that's all you can do right now is picture them, because they are all gone. As you pointed out, 95 percent of this town destroyed. This is our transmission point here, this is how we're getting our pictures back out to you.

And as we come back around, this was the big tourist attraction in town. Maybe you have seen the sign that says Big Well. In addition to the water tower, this was this hand-dug -- the largest in the world hand-dug well. This was a big tourist attraction, about 50,000 tourists a year came here. That's all gone. Of course the well now with considerable debris in it. Moving farther on around here, you see some of the lucky houses in town. These, believe it or not, the ones you see back here, these are in good shape compared to most of the houses in this town. Most of them are completely leveled. We talked to Steve Hewlett, the city administrator here, the city manager in town. He said when he came up out of his basement after the tornado, he looked, all he could see was sky. The whole house was gone. A point of order for you, off in the distance, I don't know if we can see that but that's the grain elevator off there, if you're ever in a tornado in a town like this, you might take note, those grain elevators do tend to withstand the storm. They have to of course be built very strong so that they can withstand all of the weight of the grain. They do tend to withstand a storm.

Again, we're almost back to where we started. This is the tree where we started, 360 degrees of destruction in this town. It as far as you can see in either direction, in all directions this morning. As the president said just before we came here, it's impossible almost to describe the level of this destruction. In fact, I've spent three or four minutes here looking in every direction, and you still -- I guarantee you, don't have a clear picture of how much devastation there is in Greensburg, Kansas. That's the latest Betty, back to you.

NGUYEN: Well you know we hear that 95 percent of the town is gone and just getting that 360 view gives us a good idea of what it does look like in all directions. But let me ask you this, a curfew has been in effect and nine people have been killed so far in this. Is there still a search for survivors that's going on, because we talked to several people who actually had to dig out from under their homes.

FLOCK: Good question, Betty. And we do believe, based on what we heard from the state patrol who is -- the folks that are administrating this, they have gone through all of these structures. As we said, a lot of them gone, but if you look off in the distance there, you see some, there may be a basement under there. They have done their best to determine -- they've gone through, to be sure that there is no one still alive in this debris. If there is anybody here, they don't believe there are any people left alive. The problem, of course, is though -- and maybe Derrick one more spin around and I don't want to wind you up there so that you can't get any farther. But you see a house like that one, still standing with debris down in it, they may not have been able to get down to the basement. They're reasonably confident that no one is alive down there, but there may or may not be bodies that remain in those locations where they have not yet been able to dig out. So perhaps in a Katrina-like situation, it is several days after the fact or perhaps even longer before all of the true toll is truly known. Betty?

NGUYEN: And thinking back to Katrina, it took a long time for people to be able to come back into their neighborhoods. Any idea when the folks are able to come back and salvage what little may be left, just those little personal mementos that are strewn all over the place?

FLOCK: Exactly, and the best thing I think -- the best information for anybody in a tornado is when you come up out of your basement, like for example, can I spin you one more time here, Derrick? I'm going to wind us all up here, through a home like this one, obviously there is some stuff there, there's probably some mementos there. The best thing is when you come up out of your basement, if you make sure everybody is ok, gather what you can at that time, because when you leave that home, you may not be able to get back there for quite some time. So the answer to your question is nobody has been back in to visit their homes, it is going to be -- I think a very long time, based on my experience in these sorts of situations. Because they've just now cleared the streets so that you can drive by and not blow your tires out, but beyond that, the power is out, the gas is out. There is nothing to support anybody here, I do suspect that they'll let people in at some point to get those mementos and that sort of thing. But in terms of actually getting back here to do much of anything, I think we're looking at weeks if not months away.

NGUYEN: There is indeed, a long road ahead. Especially looking at so much damage there, it's hard to imagine that the entire town, 95 percent of it is gone. But the pictures say it all, thank you Jeff. We appreciate that 360 view of the situation on the ground there in Greensburg.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: Well, up close, really close and personal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No! Wow!

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Wow is a pretty good word for it. We're going to take a closer look, if you can get much closer than that, at Mother Nature's furry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you hear that?

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: That is just amazing video.

Also, Sweetwater, Oklahoma, waking up to some heart-breaking scenes as well this morning, after that area got slammed by storms last night.

Plus, this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I see something really suspicious like that, like a molester, I want to keep a close eye on him.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: Well, you know, it's a good thing he kept a close eye on him. We'll tell you about how this alert kid says he stopped a child molester at a Disney resort.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn off the windshield wipers! Turn off the wipers!

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: How about press the gas pedal and get out of there?

HOLMES: He's worried about the wipers.

NGUYEN: These storm chasers -- yeah, he's worried about the wipers. He's worried about trying to get the perfect shot and boy, what a shot that is. Some of the best tornado video that I've seen in a long time and we wanted to share it with you. Because this tornado touching down happening in Ellis County Oklahoma on Friday. That's just one of the dozens of tornadoes seen across the Midwest.

HOLMES: Sweetwater, Oklahoma, it's about an hour south of Ellis County where that tornado was, a tornado tore through that small town as well, ripping the high school apart. A lot of homes reduced to rubble. Mary Joseph of affiliate KWTV is reporting from Sweetwater this morning.

MARY JOSEPH, KWTV: We're here in Sweetwater and really we're going to have to wait for the sun to come up. We're definitely in the storm (INAUDIBLE) was talking about but we're going to have to wait for the sun to come up to see the full extent of damage to this school here. If you'll directly behind me that's the gymnasium, you can see a wall has collapsed there and the bleachers have twisted metal on them. If we swing over to the left, that's what's left of the all- purpose building. Pretty much collapsed at this point. Not a lot there to really even salvage. If we continue to swing around, you can see the shop building, that's also, it has some extensive damage. We actually went back there, saw some tools out in the field. Really the school is estimating approximately $2 million in damage. They really have to take a good look at this in the light of day.

Now if we swing over to my left, you're going to see the storm shelter. This is the school's storm shelter. We were told yesterday about 15 people were in here, we talked to one of the men at the school, when the storm rolled through, one of the things that we kept hearing over and over is how thankful this community is that no one was injured. At this point, it looks like they just have a lot of cleanup to do.

NGUYEN: Well CNN's Nicole Lapin has been tracking the tornado damage on the web and she joins us now with what is coming into CNN. What are you finding Nicole? NICOLE LAPIN: Betty, we're finding actually that you are sending us pictures, our i-Reporters. We just received three pictures in from Jeff. Let's take a look at these. These pictures are coming in from Jeff Robinson from Havilland, Kansas. Look at some of this damage that he's capturing on the ground with his camera. These are three pictures in from that area, he was very close to the damage and this one really says it all that they're coming together, showing solidarity as the cleanup continues. I also want to show you what people are saying online right now, about the tornado damage. I told you earlier about this big well in the area of Greensburg, Kansas. This is really stark to take a look at what this well looked like before, and here is what it looks like after. This is the world's largest hand-dug well. It was built in 1888. And here is what it looks like no, reduced to mere rubble. Also, the well shared a ticket office with the world's largest palasite meteorite. This is what it looked like before. Everybody from all around the world went to go see this meteorite, meteorite enthusiasts and that has been a casualty of this tornado as well. Let's look at what it looks like right now. Well, it looks like what everything else looks like, basically it looks like damage and destruction, it is no longer there. And that's what we've been getting in from our i-Reporters and that's also what we're seeing on the blogs. People remembering what this town looked like before and what it looks like right now. So, if anybody else has any more i-Report videos, we would love to see those, just go to cnn.com/i-report and follow those instructions. Betty?

NGUYEN: Yeah, a lot of history gone and a lot of personal lives most importantly just torn apart. Thank you so much for that update, Nicole.

Le vote.

HOLMES: Very nice.

NGUYEN: Le vote.

HOLMES: Is that the extent of your French?

NGUYEN: Yes, I'm essentially saying the vote is underway as France elects a new president today. Now, if one candidate gets her way, she is going to make history.

HOLMES: And then a little later, the hats, the queen and Betty's favorite, the drinks.

NGUYEN: Now why would you say that?

HOLMES: Ok, I'm sorry.

NGUYEN: Exactly.

HOLMES: Forgive me, I'm just kidding.

NGUYEN: It's a Sunday and everything.

HOLMES: Yes, derby day at Churchill Downs. We'll talk about that, stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: It's been a bloody Sunday in Iraq. Officials say three car bombs killed at least 40 people and wounded 85 others today. Now two of the bombings happened in Baghdad, a third in Samarra. Al Qaeda's number two weighs in on pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq. In a new video posted on the web, Ayman al Zawahiri says a bill calling for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq reflects quote, "American failure and frustration." President Bush vetoed the bill and we are also getting word this morning of three more U.S. troop deaths in Iraq. The military says two marines were killed in Anbar Province yesterday and a soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad on Friday. All of that brings the number of U.S. troop deaths during the first week in May to 13.

Well it's been more than 36 hours since a jet carrying 14 people disappeared in Africa. The search continues this morning, but it is hampered by dense rain forests, heavy rain and fog. The Kenya Airways plane disappeared shortly after taking off in the African nation of Cameroon. It was headed for Nairobi, Kenya.

Nine French and Canadian soldiers are dead after a plane crash in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula. The French military plane went down during a multi-national peace-keeping force training mission. And a air control officer in Cairo says a plane sent a distress signal about an hour and a half after taking off, that was a sign of possible mechanical failure.

In France, let's take you there because polls are open for another few hours and we have reports of heavy early voter turnout for the presidential election. French voters said to be energized by a clear choice between the two candidates. And that choice being a pro- American conservative and a socialist who could become France's first female leader. Preliminary results should come in around 2:00 eastern. And we'll be watching that T.J.

HOLMES: All right, we're going to head back to talking about the tornado damage and devastation in Kansas. Well, some are taking a firm stand on rebuilding Greensburg.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not going to be another Katrina in regards to housing and assistance and FEMA and law enforcement and everybody else.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And we'll find out what FEMA is doing to help the victims. And then a little later, a young boy says he caught a child molester in the act at Disney resort. CNN SUNDAY MORNING continues, don't go any where. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow, right in front of us.

Stop.

Dude!

Right there in front of us. Small tornado right in front of us.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Staring down the destructive power of nature. Dozens of twisters reported in tornado alley.

NGUYEN: We do want to welcome you back, everybody on this Sunday morning, I'm Betty Nguyen.

HOLMES: And I'm T.J. Holmes. We begin with another night of rough weather in tornado alley. A second round of twisters swept through the region a day after a monster storm leveled a town in Kansas. At least one person was hurt last night in the small town of Sweetwater, Oklahoma, after a tornado touched down yesterday.

NGUYEN: And the twisters kept forming, this was near Great Bend, Kansas, storm chasers didn't have to look hard to find threatening clouds and tornadoes, both big and small.

HOLMES: Many Kansas residents had to take shelter again to escape the severe weather for a second straight night. The National Weather Service says it received reports of several tornadoes touching down in six southwest counties yesterday.

NGUYEN: In Greensburg, Kansas, an overnight curfew has expired. Greensburg and surrounding Kiowa county declared a federal disaster area, and that clears the way for federal aid and assistance. Western Kansas took the brunt of these storms. Towns like Osborn, Bennington and Greensburg. Now Friday's severe weather blamed for eight deaths in Greensburg, a ninth person actually died in nearby Stafford county. Dozens of injuries have been reported as a result of two days of tornadoes.

CNN's Jeff Flock is in Greensburg, Kansas. He walked through the devastation with the city's manager just a short while ago. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLOCK (voice-over): The only way to get enormity of the destruction is from the air. But the only way to see its completeness is on the ground. I mean that bark looks like it's been ripped clear of the tree.

STEVE HEWITT, GREENSBURG CITY ADIM: Yeah, I mean all over town, we're seeing -- this is typical all over town.

FLOCK: All over Steve Hewitt's town. He's city manager of a community that doesn't really exist anymore.

HEWITT: This was city hall.

FLOCK (on camera): This is where you worked?

HEWITT: It's where I worked.

FLOCK (voice-over): The town's centers, churches, most of the houses. Hewitt now takes us to a place now off limits to all but search and rescue.

HEWITT: Everything is destroyed, the city is destroyed. Ninety- five percent of this city is destroyed.

FLOCK: that includes Steve Hewitt's house too. The one is grandfather built with his own hands. It kind of looked like this one. He'd show us, but it is completely gone. He was in the basement.

HEWITT: It's hard to believe, you know. I'm reliving it in my mind right now. What we did. I held my son as he cried. My wife was crying. You know, we were -- we got close together, but yet it was over, I walked around the corner and looked up the stairs and saw nothing by sky. No more house. And I walked up and looked and no more neighborhood.

FLOCK: No more Greensburg, at least not as they knew it.

(on camera): It is difficult to convey just how widespread this destruction stretches and how bad it is. I have not seen one single structure, either home or business in this town, that is not damaged in some way and most are like this, completely leveled. You got some warning.

HEWITT: Yeah, we had excellent warning. Our sirens went off for 20-minute plus.

FLOCK (voice-over): That, he says is the only reason more are not dead, though he doesn't rule out finding more bodies in the rubble. But, Steve Hewitt was one of the lucky ones. When we talked he hadn't slept since Thursday, he has no house, no car, no possessions.

(on camera): Clothes?

HEWITT: No clothes, what I'm wearing. What I got.

FLOCK (voice-over): Maybe it was the lack of sleep, maybe it is having nothing left, but what he most treasures, his wife and child, but Steve Hewitt is determined to put Greensburg back together.

HEWITT: It's scary where we're going to go, but yet I feel like we're going to do it, because I just think -- we're a small community, we all work together, we're all friends, we know each other, it's time for us to come together. We're going to have to deal -- we're going to have to come, we're going to have to rebuild. We're going to -- we're going to build the city from the ground up, because we don't have a city.

FLOCK: Indeed, they don't have much choice.

Jeff Flock, CNN, in Greensburg, Kansas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Well, here is what they do have and that is federal help. It's on the way following the Kansas tornadoes. President Bush today issued a disaster declaration for Kiowa County, where the town was demolished and that clears the way for federal dollars to start flowing. Kansas Senator Pat Robert promises a far different response than the Gulf Coast got after Katrina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAT ROBERTS (R), KANSAS SENATOR: I will you this is not going to be another Katrina in regards to housing and assistance and FEMA and law enforcement everybody else. Already we have emergency people there, already FEMA has been notified and is standing at the ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: And joining us now from Washington is FEMA director, David Paulison. We appreciate you being with us today. Let me ask you this, following that piece of sound that we listened to, just there, what are you doing to make sure this is not another Katrina?

DAVID PAULISON, FEMA DIRECTION: Well, before we do that let me say my family and I want to express our heartfelt sympathy and prayers to the family and friends who lost people in this terrible tornado. It's just -- it breaks our heart to see that happen.

The senator's right on target. The FEMA you're seeing now is different than the one you saw two years ago. We have been working with the state for the last day and a half. We have people on the ground. In fact, the city is using one of the command posts for their command post because there's no building standing. We're already moving mobile homes and trailers. We have food and water standing by if they need it.

But I have to tell you, the local community, the first responders, the state, just did an outstanding job of responding to this disaster. It was obvious they had their act together. The Red Cross moved in quickly, got people in shelters and housing, and that's how the system is supposed to work. It allows FEMA to plug into the system and make sure that we can back up the state to give them the resources they need to do their job.

NGUYEN: And they need a lot of resources. Just looking at the damage, extensive, 95 percent of the town is gone. What is going to be your first order of business?

PAULISON: I think the first order of business is to make sure that we find out exactly what the needs are. Debris removal has to come in, we're also sending in a huge communications vans so we can set up some type of communication so they can talk to each other over the cell phones and radios. We want to make sure we assist them in their finalizing their search and rescue.

Like you said, 95 percent of the town was destroyed, so were 95 percent of the homes. A lot of people were in their basements, we want to make sure each home is searched methodically and the local urban search and rescue has been doing that and have been doing a very good job of it.

NGUYEN: Are you going to go to viewing the damage?

PAULISON: Yes, I'm going to go their personally to see it myself. The regional director, Dick Hainje is already on the ground, he moved in yesterday afternoon and we've been talking on a regular basis. I understand what the damage is, but I also want to go down there myself, talk with the people, talk with the mayor, talk with the governor to make sure that we are fulfilling the needs they have.

NGUYEN: And when will that take place?

PAULISON: I'm sorry, couldn't hear you.

NGUYEN: When will you go down to view the damage yourself?

PAULISON: Probably either tomorrow or Tuesday. I don't want to interfere with their operations, so I'll go down when they're ready for me to come down.

Also, we want to encourage people to get registered. I have home executors on the ground, but they need to register with FEMA so we can expect their home and that's the 1-800-621-FEMA number they need to call, get their name registered, get their address registered so we get home inspectors out and get them the assistance that they need.

NGUYEN: Well, there's a lot to do and the damage, again, is so much on the ground is gone and we look at the immediate needs, that's one thing, but when you look long-term what are you thinking for this town? What does this town need?

PAULISON: Well, I think the town needs to make a decision, how does it want to rebuild, does it want to rebuild? And I sure would hope they do. The spirit there is just phenomenal, the people we've been watching on TV talking, and hope they get started putting in putting the town back in shape again. I know the city administrator has been doing a good job of handling things there, and I would like them to rebuild that town back like it was, and even better and stronger.

NGUYEN: And I'm sure they would too. FEMA director David Paulson, we appreciate your time today and best of luck on the trip. You got a lot to see once you get there and there's a lot of work ahead, so we thank you.

PAULISON: Thank you, Betty.

HOLMES: All right, back-to-back days of destruction, it's still not over possibly for some. Still keeping an eye on some -- that weather system still moving. Reynolds Wolf keeping an eye on that weather for us.

Hey there, Wolf.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey there. Yeah, you're right, it's like Groundhog Day. I mean, deja vu happened again and again. No comedies here, though, no question about that.

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: Oh, don't want to hear that.

WOLF: I know. No one does.

HOLMES: No more tornadoes.

WOLF: Got to be ready for it, though.

NGUYEN: That's true. You know, being prepared can save your life. So, we thank you, Reynolds.

HOLMES: Thanks Reynolds. Well, moving on to something that's every parent's worst nightmare.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID: He was asking my sister these very weird questions like "where are your mom and dad, do they know where you are, do they know that you're going on the slide, can you point your mom and dad out to me?"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well now, that kid is helping solve a case, here, about a convicted child molester. We'll tell you about this, really a worst nightmare for a parent, happened at a Disney resort. Those details, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: We're going to take you out now live to Greensburg, Kansas, We're sing Jeff Flock right there.

Jeff, I understand a briefing just wrapped up and you've gotten some new information.

FLOCK: I do and I'm with Major General Tod Bunting, who's the emergency management direct for the state of Kansas.

And you're in the National Guard and you're a military man, 29 years and you've seen a lot of mess.

MAJ GEN TOD BUNTING, DIR KANSAS EMERGENCY MGMT: I've see a lot of mess.

FLOCK: How does this one compare.

BUNTING: This is equal to all of them. It's the worst destruction you can have, as far as how difficult it was and how much it tore things up and then the fact it got the entire city. It's the worst I've seen.

FLOCK: Show me over here, as we talk about the latest news, we are at the big tourist attraction, if you will, in Greensburg. This is what the town was known for. What was the Big Well?

BUNTING: The Big Well was just -- it's the world's largest hand- dug well. This is a tough country and so People hand-dug a giant well so they'd always have water. We're out here in the Great Plains where sometimes droughts are a reality and this community is known for having the world's largest hand-dug well.

FLOCK: I gotcha. And of course now, there's a lot of debris in that well and of course, that's the least of the disaster, here. As we walk along here, this town is in literal shreds.

BUNTING: About as big a piece as you can find.

FLOCK: That's right.

BUNTING: Absolutely.

FLOCK: What is the headline out of here today? What are your efforts scheduled to be today?

BUNTING: Well today, of course, we'll confirm, make sure we found everybody and make the streets safe again so people can come back and try to gather mementos from their homes they can find, so...

FLOCK: How soon do you think you think you'll get people back in here to do that? I speculated it might be several days, but are you farther along?

BUNTING: Well we're farther along, but what we got is we still have a few conditions we need to clear. We have some overhanging heavy objects and things of that nature. So, we'll have all of our public works from the city and county, we'll have the National Guard here, that'll help clear that out and the State Department of Transportation. So, the message of today is the entire state of Kansas rallying to put one of our cities back together.

FLOCK: Are you confident you have gotten everybody who is alive -- you know, as we go here, maybe Derek, you can go on off to the homes, here. Are you confident that in the homes like these, that still remain, and in the rubble of what was left, that have you have gotten every live person out of there?

BUNTING: I'm confident that we've made every effort to do that. Some of the rubble is 20 or 30 feet deep. So, we have to make sure. And so that's the double effort that we'll have today is to really walk through that and say, all right, have we found everybody? We certainly think we have, but we're not going to rest until we know for sure.

FLOCK: General, I want to get you on the other side. Would you come right around behind me, here, if you would, because I want to get a look of your face as we talk, here. These houses are some of the lucky ones, by the way, right?

BUNTING: Yeah, isn't that amazing? I mean, these are all, of course, totally destroyed, but you can tell, perhaps, what kind of house that was.

FLOCK: Well yeah, some of them -- I was going to say, you can't even tell what are you looking at.

BUNTING: Don't know if it was a two-story, if it was brick or what it was. That's what people need to understand, the level of this storm in many cases, you wouldn't know if it was a house or not.

FLOCK: Give me a sense, general, of what your men will be doing today and what they have been doing in terms of secureness? Now, if they come upon a home like this, still halfway standing, what will they do here?

BUNTING: Well, what they'll do, pretty much here, is we'll make sure that if there's anything that needs to be cleaned up so that it would be safer for the homeowner to come back.

First thing always do is we do save lives, and that's what everyone has done. We think we're past that point now. Now we render it safe so that people can come back and we don't have further injuries or worse because we brought them back to an unsafe condition. And then we make sure that the city is secure so that no one else who doesn't belong here comes and takes somebody's valuables.

FLOCK: How does your -- how do your men approach a situation like this. Now, if they're looking for somebody or something that may have a basement in here, how do they maintain their safety walking up in a place like this?

BUNTING: Well, we train them. And of course, they have very good situation awareness and we bring engineers and our structural experts to pass something like this to make sure. This one, from a quick glance, is pretty easy, because there's nothing heavy overhead.

FLOCK: I was going to say, yeah.

BUNTING: You know, in Kansas, we get some wind in Kansas, so the winds could become a factor, so we bring our experts, our engineers, the state's experts and others in, and we just work it through and we're trained to do it.

FLOCK: Last question for you, General, and that is -- when I look at this, and we gave our viewers a 360 degree look at destruction as far as you can see in every direction -- is this a town that can be rebuilt?

BUNTING: Oh, absolutely. Again we are very resilient people. You know, you come to Kansas, you know the conditions. With the right spirit and the right attitude, anything's possible and these people will remembered.

FLOCK: Major General Tod Bunting, I appreciate your time this morning, and I appreciate your efforts on behalf of everybody here, thank you.

BUNTING: Thank you.

FLOCK: All right, sir. We're going to let you go.

BUNTING: All right.

FLOCK: All right, Betty, that's the latest from here. We'll let the general go and do his work and get going here today. As you can tell, they've got a lot to do in the days, weeks, months to come.

That is the latest from Greensburg, Kansas, and we'll be back, I'm sure, throughout the day, best we can.

NGUYEN: No doubt. CNN's Jeff Flock, we appreciate that. And I think the most important news that came out of that was the fact that we understand, T.J. that at this point they believe they have found everyone alive in that rubble, and the search, of course, will continue, but they believe they have searched everyplace that they could to find anyone who may have survived that storm.

HOLMES: That was a big question for a while and those efforts did continue. But that's good news, and so is to hear from a guy in charge, a good authoritative voice, there. So, a good tour, too. Walk around, get an idea of what's happened.

NGUYEN: To see the damage.

HOLMES: Yeah. Well, Nicole Lapin is checking on things from the dot-com desk. She's here now with what folks can find at cnn.com. Right now, no doubt, a lot of interest in the tornado coverage.

LAPIN: Absolutely, so much interest in our tornado coverage it tops our top stories on our website right now. The No. 1 most popular story is our interview with that storm chaser, Reed Timmer in Oklahoma who shot this amazing video. Now, at times, he got as close to 50 yards away from this furious twister. Also his raw video of the tornado is No. 2, so he made the No. 1 and the No. 2 top list. It's so rare to get up this close to one of nature's most awesome spectacles.

Also, rounding out the top three, of course, is the damage in Greensburg. It's just in credible. That's the video right there, a lot of raw images topping out our top three most popular stories on cnn.com this morning.

Now, Betty and T.J., as the wicked weather continues, no doubt, everybody is clicking on this story, it's captured the attention of so many of our readers and our viewers on cnn.com.

NGUYEN: Oh, and that tornado video, I mean, again, it's some of the best tornado video that I have ever seen.

LAPIN: Unbelievable. Everybody thinks so too.

NGUYEN: And go get so close.

LAPIN: Right.

NGUYEN: Definitely, don't try this at home. That was a professional storm chaser.

HOLMES: OK, thank you so much, Nicole. We'll see you later.

And up next, a interesting story here, as well. A young boy says he caught a child molester in the act. Where? At a Disney resort. Stay tuned for that.

NGUYEN: And Her Majesty wowed the crowd with her royal bonnet, but you know, hers wasn't the only fabulous hat there. Yep, a bit later we're going to check out Derby day at Churchill Downs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Caught in the act. A kid says he stopped a potential child molestation at Disney World. Reporter Ryan Schulteis of affiliate WHDH introduces us to the boy, some are calling a hero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN SCHULTEIS, WHDH: The perfect picture of a happy family vacation to Disney World.

DAVID: Well, in the beginning, it was pretty good until we ran into this little big bump.

SCHULTEIS: That bump was convicted sex offender William Bishop 11-year-old David and his sister ran into out by the pool a the Swan Resort on the property at Walt Disney World.

DAVID: He was asking my sister these very weird questions like "where are your mom and dad, do they know where you are, do they know that you're going on the slide, can you point your mom and dad out to me?"

SCHULTEIS: David knew something was not right about those questions, so he told his dad. They both kept an eye on Bishop, who 30 minutes later walked off with another little girl. David ran after them.

DAVID: I went to the top of the hill and around like, maybe 15 or 20 feet away, I saw them behind the bushes, he was rubbing her private area, and I rain back down and told my dad they were behind the bushes.

SCHULTEIS: Four live guards held the police until Bishop got there. They made a disturbing discovery, they found a small camera hidden inside his Hawaiian shirt. He had been videotaping the alleged assault.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

SCHULTEIS: That's not all. Bishop is a convicted sex offender with a 40 year history of arrests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's something wrong with the system where a guy like this is walking around free.

SCHULTEIS: But back home in New Hampshire, Dave could not be more proud of his son, who some are calling a hero.

DAVID: When I see something really suspicious like that, like a molester, I want to keep a close eye on them and make sure he's not getting my sisters or like, little kids.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: What a smart little boy. Well, the Swan Hotel released this statement about the arrest:

"This was a terrible incident that might have been worse if not for the alertness of the young boy and the quick action of the hotel lifeguards to detain the suspect, who was not a guest of the hotel...we feel very badly for the young victim...the hotel has taken steps to ensure our procedures continue to be followed and our staff has a heightened awareness to do all we can to always protect our guests."

HOLMES: Well, it is that time for us to check in with Howard Kurtz in Washington to see what's ahead on CNN's RELIABLE SOURCES.

Good morning, sir.

HOWARD KURTZ, RELIABLE SOURCES: Good morning, T.J. Coming up, ABC treads lightly on the story of the D.C. Madam, was it news or gossip? And should the network have named names?

Rupert Murdoch with an audacious $5 million bid to buy the company that owns the "Wall Street Journal." Should any media figure have that much power?

Don Imus getting ready to sue CBS for wrongly firing him? Did the network encourage him to be outrageous?

That, plus Chris Matthews versus a Republican candidate, ahead on RELIABLE SOURECES.

HOLMES: All right, Howard. We will see you there.

NGUYEN: In the meantime, it is hats off to the Queen. Except we don't have any hats.

HOLMES: Yeah, but hers wasn't the top of the toppers at Churchill Downs. We're going to check them all out. That's straight ahead, on CNN SUNDAY MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: They are working it with those hats. The Kentucky Derby always attracts a star-filled crowd, but this year it also hosted a royal spectator. Britain's Queen Elizabeth saw the race in person for the first time yesterday and she joins lots of other famous and not so famous faces wearing fabulous hats. Let's look at some of those famous ones.

This being Star Jones, now, that is one hat, T.J.

HOLMES: Was there even that much sun out yesterday?

NGUYEN: It's not about the sun. It is about making a statement. Here is Jenny McCarthy.

HOLMES: What's that statement there, Betty? What is she saying? Watch out?

NGUYEN: Yeah. I think blow you over with my hat if you get in my way. And this statement -- this is a -- one that -- pretty much is an ode to the spires at Churchill Downs. That is quite a hat.

HOLMES: OK, I get that hat. I get that. I get this next one as well, to honor Barbaro. And a little Barbaro sting on top of that hat, as well, there. Now, that one I get. That one I understand. But I never really got the whole statement...

NGUYEN: Well, you're a guy. I guess it's a female thing. Anyway -- oh, by the way, we should mention, there was also that horserace going on. Street Sense began in next to last place, but roared to the head of the pack in the final quarter mile, winning a garland of roses along with that Kentucky Derby title.

HOLMES: His jockey was excited. He was in tears at the end. He was, he was in tears. It was real cool to watch.

NGUYEN: He was thinking of how to spend the winning.

HOLMES: And I won't watch another horse race until next year's Kentucky Derby.

NGUYEN: Well, we'll have time to wait, then, huh?

HOLMES: We have some time until the next race.

So of course, you know, RELIABLE SOURCES is up next. We'll be taking a closer look at ABC' big tease on the D.C. Madam story.

NGUYEN: Than at 11:00, Wolf Blitzer tallies up the winners and losers from this week's Middle East conference.

HOLMES: And at Noon, Senators Dick Lugar and Chuck Schumer face off over the Iraq's funding bill, but first we got a check of the top stories this hour for you.

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