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CNN Saturday Morning News

Seven Die in North Carolina Flooding; Ines Sainz Turns Down Offer From "Playboy"; Empowered Patient: Trust Your Gut; Buying a Foreclosure: Tips For Consumers

Aired October 02, 2010 - 07:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hello there, everybody. Top of the hour now, right at 7:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia where I sit. It is 6:00 a.m. in Fayetteville, Arkansas, wherever you may be glad you are here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm T.J. Holmes.

We get started with what is essentially a clean-up day all up and down the East Coast. A large storm system flooded several states, killed at least eight people. We start with Philadelphia. There as well as mucho f the eastern and central Pennsylvania. They got all kinds of rain. Take a look at some of these pictures. A lot of this rain fell on them yesterday.

State troopers say one driver died after driving into floodwaters near a creek in Philadelphia. A 72-year-old woman was trapped more than eight hours in her car northwest of Philadelphia before she was able to escape.

Floods killed seven people in North Carolina. Probably the hardest hit state in all of this. Four people, four of them died when their car hydroplaned into a ditch filled with water in Washington County.

Also, downtown Windsor, this town is about 80 percent of it under water. You are seeing pictures of people, this is how they had to be rescued. They had to get folks to go on a boat from their home. Try to get them out of there. Officials say many people can't get back into their homes for some time. About 175 people had to be rescued Thursday night.

Also, in Vanceboro, North Carolina, another spot where several homes were flooded. Downtown, a lot of areas were under water. High water, it was so high, as high as some of the street signs in some places.

You're seeing another look at it here. Several families were able to be evacuated. But you see there, like in the picture, sometimes, you just grab what you can. I'm sure those lamps were important for some reason.

Several families, again, evacuated and were able to get out a few things out.

I want to just go ahead and turn immediately now to our Reynolds Wolf who is standing by here with me now.

We know those waters are going to go down fairly quickly. Is the case now but quick enough before some more weather move in? Are they OK in that regard?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Exactly. It looks like the water is going to recede at a much faster rate than more showers will develop. But isn't it amazing, though -- you know, when you wrap your mind around the idea that just a few days ago, you have some scattered showers that formed over parts the Eastern Seaboard, and today, there are lives that will forever be changed.

HOLMES: Because of it.

WOLF: They'll never go back to normal.

HOLMES: And this is all -- and this -- we were talking in the cold --

WOLF: Absolutely.

HOLMES: -- earlier this week. A mess of a storm.

WOLF: It really was. It fell apart over parts of Cuba and then came in to parts of just south of Florida. And that combined with a frontal boundary came together to give us this epic rain event.

HOLMES: OK. Now, this -- I'm getting a little nerdy here. But you explain this to me again, you all kind of broke down why it happened the way it did and why just sat over North Carolina for awhile.

WOLF: Well, what happened basically is you had the storm itself and the remnants of Nicole. It was actually moving its way to the north. It's going to move to the north anyway.

HOLMES: OK.

WOLF: But what happened is you also have a frontal boundary coming from the west. The combination of that, that's almost like dropping an anchor on that storm. So, when the two came together, your two big weather making components in the weather unfortunately was heavy rainfall that fell right in the specific area. You know, it's funny. If this were moving at a very -- just some decent rate of speed, it would have brought some heavy rain to the Carolinas, but it wouldn't have a chance to stack up the amount that we've had.

HOLMES: And there it is.

WOLF: So, yes. Let's take a look at what we've had. You want to talk about stacking up, take a look at these numbers. We roll them out for you.

There you go. Norfolk, Virginia, 11.51 inches of rainfall. Wilmington, 22.54. It's a lot of rain. But if you stretch that amount over a month's time, it's still an epic amount. However, when it falls at a very short duration, say, over a matter of several days, the bulk of it forming over just a matter of hours, that's when the flooding really begins to pick up. And that's what we have devastating effects -- effects that are going to take quite some time to clean up.

Today, we still see some rainfall. If you are along the Eastern Seaboard and you saw this coming, you'd definitely be worried. And I'm telling you, this is going to pull through parts of the Great Lakes, possibly the tail end of this frontal boundary may move along parts of the Eastern Seaboard. But it is going to lose a bit of its momentum. At the same time, it's not going to have the same amount of moisture to work with.

So, in terms of this being a heavy rainmaker, for the Eastern Seaboard, I don't think that's going to be the mix. It's certainly a better day. Still some scattered showers in Detroit back to Chicago, perhaps into portions of, say, Cincinnati, maybe even Indianapolis before all is said and done.

A lot of quiet weather across parts of the nation's midsection. That's great news for them. But it is going to be a full rush of cool weather for parts of the Arrowhead in Minnesota, entering into the Northern Plains.

As we wrap things up this morning, you can expect temperatures to be very chilly, some freezing conditions also. But this afternoon, rebounding to 57 degrees in Minneapolis, 80 in Billings, 72 in San Francisco, 84 in Dallas, 78 in Atlanta. That is a look at the forecast.

We got a lot more coming up. We are going to talk about college football forecast for you weather-wise.

Plus, a sneak peek at the tropics. We got a couple of areas of concern, maybe some potential development. We just talked about Nicole. We may have a few other names to add before the season ends up in November.

Back to you, T.J.

HOLMES: Reynolds, appreciate you, buddy.

WOLF: You bet.

HOLMES: We got a story coming up here. I know you remember this. A lot of sports fans will. It was sports-related.

But that reporter, female reporter, that was allegedly harassed by the New York Jets -- yes, there she is. She's known as being a little revealing when she does her work in a lot of -- the locker rooms. Well, is it possible she's going to be revealing even more? "Playboy" hopes so. We'll tell you about that coming next.

But, first, we're asking: if you can answer a question. A new reading survey came out. So, you tell me what you think about this one, been kind of quizzing you all more morning. But what percent of people ages 15 to 17 read books more than once a week for fun? Eighty-two percent, 45 percent or 24 percent? Not just read a book, but read it for fun?

I'll give me the answer after the break. It's four minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Before the commercial break, we asked you this question. We asked you, what percentage of young people age 15 to 17 read more than once a week, read for fun though: 82 percent, 45 percent or 24 percent.

The answer --

WOLF: I'm afraid it's C.

HOLMES: You're afraid it's C.

WOLF: Oh my gosh.

HOLMES: It is C. Read for fun. Who reads for fun these days? Twenty-four percent are frequent readers. Meaning, they read five to seven days a week for fun. Kids age 6 to 8, 56 percent of them say they read most days of the week. The older kids actually read less. So, the older you get, the less you read.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's got to be books, though. Aren't they at least reading blogs for fun? Comic books? Something?

HOLMES: Yes. I don't know, 18-year-olds?

LEVS: That said, there must be words going across their eyes for fun.

WOLF: A menu, you know? McDonald's.

LEVS: McDonald's, I think they know that by heart.

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: That's for fun.

LEVS: Tweets? Facebook updates?

HOLMES: This is where we get into trouble here when we start a segment with three guys and "Playboy." So, I'm going to it a shot here, fellas.

"Playboy," they want this TV Azteca reporter Ines Sainz. You know that name now and you will probably recognize it. There she is. She was the one who got into a -- well, she became a household name at least for 15 minutes because she was being talked about a lot because of cat calls and disrespectful behavior allegedly at the Jets camp. Now, she has been offered a gig with "Playboy." And it's not as their editor-in-chief. They want her to take her clothes off. Her answer however was, no. She said it on a tweet. She said never, no way in regards to the offer from "Playboy."

Fellas, this kind of throws some people off because she seems to not mind showing a lot of skin. Now, this is -- she is more covered here and this one in particular. But she does -- she doesn't dress like Michelle Tafoya or Suzy Kolber, some of the other sports reporters. She works for a different place, Mexico's TV Azteca, where they encourage it.

LEVS: Oh, we have a Twitter page up. Look at the pages of this webpage. I mean, you can see a little bit of what's up on her Twitter page. And I wonder who publicizes this thing. OK, it's hard to see, over in the right, like little bikini and stuff.

But I wonder who publicizes these things, how we're always hearing who gets offered to do "Playboy." But she did write about it. She said, she did on this tweet, saying, "Me and 'Playboy,' never. No way. It's against my principle."

WOLF: Do we know for sure that it would be a photo shoot? Because "Playboy" is filled with great articles. I read it quite often, and all great journalistically speaking, I mean, wonderful articles.

HOLMES: Now, people might think he's joking, but they have --

(CROSSTALK)

HOLMES: There's really journalists who actually do something -- now, we sound ridiculous now, a lot of women at home shaking their heads. But, seriously, they do have some good stuff in there.

Let's move on to the next one here. How much time do you say, Eddie, we have left? Because I want to move down.

LEVS: Let's just hang out.

HOLMES: I will move down to the Ochocincos. I'll escape the aliens and planets. I go down to Ochocincos.

This is Chad Ochocinco, Chad Johnson formerly. He's the wide receiver for the Cincinnati Bengals. Put out this cereal, trying to raise money for charity. You see him signing these things.

All of those boxes, though, had a number on the side for this company, Feed the Children. It's nonprofit. So, what happens every time we've seen this fellas over the past 10 years, every time there's a misprint on the phone number, it leads to what?

WOLF: Sex line?

HOLMES: Absolutely. LEVS: I saw you said that yesterday, that you tried a random 800 number just to see what you were getting, that was a sex line, too. They're everywhere.

HOLMES: Everywhere.

LEVS: And there's an incredible -- you know, there's one thing that is proliferating in this economy, everyone is setting up a phone sex line.

HOLMES: Apparently, they must just buy up all the 800 numbers because I did. And to say anything bad for my parents here, I just generally put in 1-800 and my parents phone number, it led me to a line where I could meet hot, sexy singles in my area.

(CROSSTALK)

LEVS: TV shows have problems like that. I think Hillary Clinton's campaign has something like that last year.

HOLMES: Hillary Clinton, Charlie Crist, it happened at the White House with the conference call number they gave out.

LEVS: Yes.

HOLMES: Every number.

WOLF: What is this world coming to? My goodness gracious. Phone sex lines everywhere and people getting offered from "Playboy" magazine. My gosh!

HOLMES: Just a couple of things we're keeping an eye on here. We're going to hear much more from these fellas throughout the morning.

But coming up here -- when it comes to caring for your children, sometimes trusting your instincts is the best option out there. That was certainly the case for this little girl. Her parents just had a gut feeling. And that gut feeling may have saved her life. That story is coming your way next.

It's 11 past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, as the nation focuses on how to improve health care, one of the recurring themes has been that patients need to take more control.

Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has a special tonight called "Empowered Patient." Elizabeth is here with me this morning.

Another one of these lessons. Sometimes you just got to take it upon -- take it upon your own responsibility to take care of yourself in a lot of ways. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. I think the harsh reality is that sometimes the medical system doesn't take care of us. Many times, it does. If you are lucky, it will.

But when it doesn't, you have to trust your gut.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN (voice-over): One spring evening, Don McCracken was playing ball with his kids in the front yard. He meant to hit a fly ball to his son Matthew, but instead, it socked his 7-year-olld daughter Morgan in the head. She knelt to the ground in pain.

Morgan had quite a bump on her head. Her parents sit down and she seemed fine.

Two nights later, something changed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She started crying.

COHEN (on camera): Tell me what you heard?

CONNIE MCCRACKEN, MORGAN'S MOTHER: She's saying, "My head. It's hurting." She was holding it, saying, "My head is hurting. My head is hurting."

COHEN (voice-over): McCrackens rushed Morgan to the emergency room.

(on camera): When the doctor showed up, what did he say?

C. MCCRACKEN: I'm sure it's just late, she's tired. She probably has a touch of the flu.

COHEN (voice-over): Connie and Don say the doctor told them to take Morgan home and put her to bed. But they knew better. Their instincts told them this was no flu virus. They pushed the doctor for a CT scan of Morgan's brain.

(on camera): What did you think the results of that CAT scan were going to be?

C. MCCRACKEN: There was something definitely wrong. You could feel it in your gut.

DON MCCRACKEN, MORGAN'S FATHER: In my heart, I thought I knew there was a problem.

C. MCCRACKEN: He came and said, "I was surprised." He goes, "I'm surprised. There was something there."

D. MCCRACKEN: There was a leakage of blood into her skull.

COHEN (voice-over): Medics rushed Morgan by helicopter to nearby Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. DR. ALAN COHEN, RAINBOW BABIES & CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: This is a big blood clot inside the skull, outside the brain, called epidural hematoma. That's we had to remove to take out the blood clot and stop the bleeding.

COHEN: Today, Morgan is just fine.

(on camera): Do you feel like a lucky girl?

MORGAN MCCRACKEN: Yes.

COHEN (voice-over): Lucky because her parents followed their instincts.

(on camera): In the emergency room, the doctor said she had a virus and she just needed to get some rest. If you had listened to that advice and brought her home to go to bed and rest, what would have happened?

D. MCCRACKEN: She probably wouldn't have woken up the next morning and we would have lost her.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: An amazing story, Elizabeth. But that's one of those things. And it seems like doctors sometimes tell you, oh, you're just being a little too cautious. You're just being -- you know, they make us feel like we are paranoid when we think something is wrong.

I mean, how does a parent battle that? Like you seem like you're being pushy. The doctor is telling you to calm down but you know something is not right.

COHEN: Right. Well, first of all, you trust that feeling. As a matter of fact, pediatricians have a saying that says -- that says, "Mother knows best." You know, when a mother says that something is wrong with her child, more often than not, she's right.

So, always remember, that's what they teach medical students. And as far as what you should do, the McCrackens I think handled it very well. They didn't get upset, they didn't yell, they didn't scream, even though they were right that their child was actually slipping into a coma, they very were calm. And they just repeated this is not normal for my child.

And, in fact, they even had, they said to the doctor, "Ask her what grade she's in and who her teacher is." And he asked and she got it wrong. She named the wrong teacher and the wrong grade. And I think that may have been the moment where the doctor knew, but, you know, that something was truly wrong.

HOLMES: So, is that what you have to do instead of trying to be or seem pushy, if you will? How do you help the doctor along? How do you help that doctor make that diagnosis?

COHEN: Right. Well, I think what they did was correct, is that they really sort of showed him, "Look, she doesn't know what grade she's in or, you know, who her teacher is." And so, that was certainly one way of showing it. But you just have to keep saying, I know my child. This is not right for my child.

And if the doctor is still not listening, you will have to get pushy. And that's OK. If you annoy the doctor, that's all right because you're doing it to save yourself or save your child.

HOLMES: What can you -- is there ever a case that has been -- I'm kind going off script here, I'm just curious. Can you at any point maybe go back and can there be legal action taken against a doctor where you're saying, hey, doctor, something is wrong with my kid and the doctor essentially doesn't listen? Is there some legal obligation, if you will, for the doctor to listen?

COHEN: I mean, you might have a lawsuit if you can show that the standard care would have -- should have been that, you know, geez, other doctors would have said -- would have noticed this. You had A, B and C look and ask you, why didn't you know? Why didn't you see that something was wrong?

So, yes, there could be legal action. And I think that works in your favor, because I think if a doctor is nervous enough about a lawsuit, they're going to do something. If you say I am truly worried that something is seriously wrong with my child, I've never seen them like this, a smart doctor is going to say, yikes, I don't want a lawsuit.

HOLMES: All right. And you have a lot of stuff going on this weekend.

COHEN: We do.

HOLMES: OK. Tell me what the time of the special.

COHEN: All right. The special is on at 7:00 tonight and 7:00 tomorrow night. It's called "The Empowered Patient." We have uplifting, inspirational stories like the McCrackens, people who did it right and who got the care that they needed.

HOLMES: And you got a book floating around out there somewhere.

COHEN: Somewhere. Yes, Borders, Barnes & Nobles. Yes, you could -- Amazon. You could find it all sorts of places. It's called "The Empowered Patient."

HOLMES: "The Empowered Patient."

COHEN: And it's doing great. It's on its third printing.

HOLMES: OK. Can you sign me a copy?

COHEN: Oh, I would love to.

HOLMES: We had it here.

COHEN: I would love to. I will bring it to you in an hour.

HOLMES: All right. Thank you. Elizabeth Cohen, we're going to be talking to you plenty throughout the day. And, of course, the special comes on tonight. Thank you so much.

Well, coming up here, you know that there have been some tough times out there. And that can mean a windfall for others, particularly when it comes to buying possibly a foreclosed home. But you need to be careful when you start shopping out there. You could be looking at some fool's gold.

We got some tips from our guy, Clyde Anderson, in the house.

It's 20 minutes past the hour. Stay here with us on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Twenty-one minutes past the hour here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

May be a bit of a break for some folks out there facing foreclosure, some homeowners in at least in 23 states are getting kind of a break here. Bank of America is joining at least two other financial institutions in suspending mortgage foreclosure, the whole process. Bank of America says it wants to insure the appropriate paperwork and foreclosure procedures were followed.

Bank of America joined JPMorgan Chase and GMAC Home Mortgage, both companies suspending foreclosures for this same reason.

Now, we have all heard that this is maybe a great time to buy a foreclosure. Most are priced to sell much lower than the listed price just months ago. But before we jump into that, some common mistakes you need to try avoid. Getting home schooled by my man, Clyde Anderson.

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: Yes, sir.

HOLMES: Good to have you back with us.

ANDERSON: Good to be here.

HOLMES: And, again, remind the folks, the reason so many people think foreclosed homes are attractive, you can get a good deal.

ANDERSON: Get a good deal. it's a discount. You know, you want to buy something on sale. So, why not buy homes?

HOLMES: How big of a discount that we're talking about here?

ANDERSON: I mean, they're huge discounts in a lot of cases. And what I say is that you really shouldn't do anything if it's less than 20 percent. You know, you want to have at least a 20 percent discount on there when you look at the comparables in the neighborhood. If you're really looking to get a deal, that's where you should be. HOLMES: All right. Let's go to these dos and don'ts. You kind of gave one there. What do you want to start with? You want to go with the dos?

ANDERSON: Yes, let's go to the dos.

Let's take a look at the dos and just kind of see exactly -- I mean, I think the first thing is that you really got to look is opportunity. You know, the opportunity cost, the time that it takes. You know, it takes a lot of time to look for a foreclosure, first of all, so you got to be, you know, really prepared, have a plan and know what you're looking for. So, that's key.

But you also got to don't overdo the repairs. You know, a lot of the foreclosed properties need repairs. And you don't want to go in there and don't overdo it. You don't want to go in there and over, you know, and do the kitchen. Everybody is not dollar for dollar all the time.

And so, you got to understand, if you put $10,000 in it, it doesn't mean it's going to take the value up $10,000. So, you got to be careful about what you're doing in the repairs.

HOLMES: How much resale -- is there a lot competition out there? You say you got to do a lot of research. It takes a lot of time. But are people out there competing essentially for these homes?

ANDERSON: Oh, yes, definitely. Investors are competing all the time for these properties because it's a good deal. A lot of them have made their business on buying these properties. And right now, it's not so much of selling them. In the past, it was buying and selling. Well, now, there's a lot of buying and holding or buying and renting. And so, everybody wants to have a best house.

HOLMES: What are these red flags? What do we just absolutely have to avoid if you are trying to go after one of these things?

ANDERSON: Well, I think there are several things that you got to avoid, you know? If you are going in and looking at one of these properties, you got to look at everything. And so, one of the things I think you need to avoid is, don't go into a slow-moving neighborhood.

So, if you go into a neighborhood that's not selling, you know, you look at the last six months to 12 months. If houses haven't sold in 12 months or 24 months, it may be a red flag. You know, something to consider.

You have the markets down right now, but properties are still selling, especially foreclosed properties. So, if you see no activity in the neighborhood in that period of time, that could be a red flag.

HOLMES: What kind of negotiating power do you have? These are things already so severely cut.

ANDERSON: Right. HOLMES: I mean, how much negotiation do you have?

ANDERSON: Well, it's interesting. A lot of banks don't really give you any negotiating room. A lot of times it's as-is. This is what it is. This is the price.

Sometimes you can get them to throw in some extra money for some repairs or need some work on the property. But you really got to hold to your guns, stick to 'em and go in there and say, "This is what we want. This is what we'll pay."

HOLMES: What kind of shape, for the most part, are foreclosed homes? I guess it's such a stigma, you hear foreclosed, you think a bad house for some reason. But what kind of shape are a lot of these foreclosed homes in?

ANDERSON: A lot of them are perfectly good shape. And I told people, be prepared to go in there and do some repairs, but it doesn't seem you have to. You just want to go in there and have your expectations. It's probably going to be some stuff I need to do. And you'll be pleasantly surprised if there's nothing that you have to do.

But you got to be prepared for it. Have that in the budget. Know that you're going in here to buy this property. Have room in there or have some reserves to go ahead and do what you need to do. But a lot of foreclosures out there right now are in beautiful shape.

HOLMES: Last thing here -- you and I talked about this plenty over the years actually, how it, kind of, fluctuates some many foreclosed homes on the market versus not. Where are we right now in the market? Are there still a lot of foreclosed homes? Are we starting to see that where it go down at all?

ANDERSON: There's still a plethora.

HOLMES: Really?

ANDERSON: There's still a plethora of foreclosed properties out there. You know, there are a lot of programs and things that are going to reduce that inventory. But that's still the largest amount of inventory that we got out there in the housing market. I mean, it is shrinking a little bit. But it's going to take some time, you know, where we're going to that climb up and it's going to take time before it turns around.

HOLMES: Clyde, appreciate you as always. Good information this morning.

ANDERSON: It's my pleasure being here.

HOLMES: We appreciate you. Thanks so much.

Twenty past the hour. Quick break, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: A look now at some of the stories that are making headlines.

That big storm system flooded several states, killed at least eight people. State troopers say a woman died after driving in the floodwaters near a creek in Philadelphia. The flood also killed seven people in North Carolina. And some 175 people have been rescued from rising floodwaters since Thursday night.

Also, new hope for a faster rescue of those 33 trapped miners in Chile. This capsule you're seeing here, they've been testing out. It's supposed to be the thing that's going to help bring those miners up. The men have been trapped about 2,300 feet below ground since August the 5th.

Also, more than a half million home improvement books published by the company Oxmoor House are being recalled because they contain technical errors. Following those instructions puts you at risk of fire and electrical shock.

Also, another story we are tracking down right now, some second reported tape from Osama bin Laden. We heard one that was reportedly from him yesterday and another one, we're getting word out, today -- this one on the Internet. CNN not able to independently confirm, in fact, it is him. These things are sometimes impossible to authenticate.

But a second purported message -- this one is very similar to the one we heard about yesterday, and that he is not railing against jihad. He is not railing against the West. He is not telling others to pick up arms against the West.

Instead, he is asking people to help out the flood victims in Pakistan. Again, that's the message on these two purported tapes. We will be talking more about this with our national security analyst Peter Bergen who has covered certainly bin Laden and the region extensively. He's coming your way at the top of the hour. We'll have him.

Of course, we'll have more of your top stories when live news continues with CNN SATURDAY MORNING. We, as always, appreciate you being here with us.

But, first, we are going to hand it over to the good doctor, "SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." It starts right now.