Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Historic Outbreak of Tornadoes; NFL Lockout Back in Effect; Pope John Paul II Closer to Sainthood; Trump's Salty Speech; Rebels Making Their Own Weapons in Libya; The Fashion Show of Hats at the Royal Wedding

Aired April 30, 2011 - 06:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

The NFL is closed for business again. Just days after one legal decision lifted the lockout, another last night put it right back in place.

Also, Donald Trump getting attention again for his words, specifically this time, four letter words. I'll share his profanity- laced tirade to a group of women.

Welcome, everybody, to this CNN SATURDAY MORNING, 6:00 a.m. here in Atlanta where I am.

It's 5:00 a.m. in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and that's where we must start this morning, in communities across the South, where the death toll from this week's tornado outbreak just went up a few hours ago. It now stands at 340 people killed -- now, making it the second deadliest tornado event since records have been kept. The toll could rise again with hundreds of people still unaccounted for.

Emergency officials, though, want to stress that all those people aren't necessarily missing, rather you can probably chalk some of it up to the fact that there's been a loss of power and a lot of people seeking shelter elsewhere.

This was, no doubt, a truly historic tornado event maybe we're just getting a good handle on. Look at that, we wipe to the before and then after picture of what it looked like in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. You see that line right there, the green all around there, this is the path of the destruction. It was a clear line. This tornado, at least one, that was reported, was on the ground and just tore through a particular area or for hundreds of miles even, just shot across several states.

Look at that, you can see clearly it was on the ground and it formed a straight line in the destruction that it did have. Again, this was a historic event that maybe we are still days afterwards, getting a good handle on exactly how historic it was.

Also, I want share with you an iReport. This is from Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Look at this video. A lot of this stuff is still coming in to us. A lot has been going on in the news in a past couple days and maybe a lot you haven't seen just yet. But we're trying to still understand what happened to our friends in the South and understand the scope of what happened. This was just one of a number of tornadoes. In all, some 211 tornadoes reported across six states in the South. That would be the largest outbreak of tornadoes in history.

Some of them measured at EF-5. That is the strongest category with winds in excess of 200 miles an hour.

Oftentimes, natural disasters we cover earthquakes, right, we hear about the epicenter. For this tornado event, maybe the epicenter a lot of people are looking towards Tuscaloosa. We are hearing a lot of stories, certainly stories of tragedy, but also some stories of survival including one guy who rode the storm out in a bathtub.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WOZNIAK, TORNADO SURVIVOR: When I went outside and looked this way, you know, the tornado was just filled the horizon. There was a spot of daylight on either side and just the rest of it was just a wall of tornado. You couldn't see anything. It was literally coming directly at me and that's when, you know, I ran back into the house and attached the dogs to me, grabbed the motorcycle on me and put it on and I got in the tub.

The ground was rumbling and then the house started to shake violently. And I knew at that point I was going to get just directly hit. And, you know, it was a real thing. I couldn't believe it, it's like I am not in a tornado. You know, it just doesn't seem like that should happen, you know?

And -- but, you know, being inside the bathroom, which had no windows, you know, I thought I'm going to get trapped in this little room. And, you know, I didn't know if it was the right thing to do, but I thought, you know, maybe if I open the door, I'll have some kind of an escape hatch. So, when I opened the door, the front of the house flew away and then that Krispy Kreme truck sailed through upside down, right through the living room, and then the roof blew off and I ducked down and pushed the dogs down as best as I could inside the tub.

At that point, you know, the back of the house also blew out and the dogs got sucked out. They were like kite on a string, you know, but they were tethered to me on their leashes and I was able to just hang on to them and push them down, you know? And then the rest of the house just fell on us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right. My friend Reynolds Wolf is in Tuscaloosa this morning, where he has been the past couple days.

Reynolds, good morning to you.

Let me start with this -- is there a belief that possibly there could be people trapped under some of this debris and rubble who are waiting for somebody to come by and pluck them out?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Very much so. There's certainly that possibility. But the issue that we're running into now, T.J., is because so much time has passed, and we're going on 48 hours and even more

We're going from a rescue operation to possibly a recovery mode, which is a tragic thing to contemplate. I mean, we're hoping to find people who have been -- first of all, we don't want people trapped but we're hoping we're going to find people who are just OK, that have been underneath some rubble. But as hour and hour passes, I mean, it's really getting very bleak.

If you look behind me, this is actually the home where Chris Wozniak was trapped, way back there, beyond the branches, beyond the debris, beyond the insulation, and even some of the roofing materials. You'll find a bathtub which is almost at this point splintered in half, that's where he rode out the storm. And you're going to find piles of debris like this across the landscape -- not only in Alabama, but also in parts of Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Mississippi.

Is there a chance there could be people that might be trapped under something like this? Absolutely. But again, time is of the essence. You got to get to them quickly. And, hopefully, that will be the case, T.J.

HOLMES: Well, a lot of people, of course, lost their homes, Reynolds. Where at this point, where is everybody? Are there enough shelters for folks? Are people finding friends and family to stay with? Just where is everybody?

WOLF: That's a great question. The answer is kind of a strange one. In a way, it's very heartwarming. There have been some shelters that have opened up. But in a state like Alabama, where I happened to be from -- and I say this with a very biased heart -- in Alabama, everyone is family and there are people staying with other family members, people who were not friends before are now friends.

People are lending hands they normally wouldn't and you got people staying in homes. And they're going to stay together, they're going to reach out and extend that help until this incredibly difficult time passes.

But I'm telling you, right now, there are some people who are thinking about going home but their homes no longer exist.

T.J., although this house has got rubble off in the darkness, we can't light the entire planet, I know it's very dark, there are some homes that are wiped completely clean, where you basically have just the foundation of the home, a cement slab and there's absolutely nothing left. Not a single timber, not a doorframe, nothing. It is just as if a giant broom had come along and just swept the entire thing clean.

As I mentioned, I mean, there's some places that don't just exist anymore. HOLMES: All right. Reynolds Wolf, again, in his home state of Alabama -- I know you love that place, a lot of people do. But our hearts go out to our friends here in the South. Reynolds, we'll be checking in with you plenty throughout the morning.

And to our viewers, we dedicated this morning to bringing you a number of personal stories from inside the battered communities across the south -- so many towns torn apart by these storms. Reynolds talking to us about Alabama. But, of course, it wasn't just in Alabama. We're on the ground in Tennessee and Mississippi which were hard hit as well.

But, first, though, our Rafael Romo takes you through one community devastated in Georgia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: T.J., we're in a neighborhood in Ringgold. This is in Catoosa County in north Georgia. This is one of the most devastated areas by the tornado. This is a driveway.

And as you can see, there's debris everywhere. Let me show you some of the things that we found here.

First of all, take a look at this car and how badly damaged it was. That happened because what you see back there, that's part of a window, it used to be a trailer. It was lifted up by the strong winds and by the tornado, and was dropped on top of the car here in the middle of the driveway. The debris is all the way up until that house you see there.

I was talking to the neighbor and he was telling me that even though the house is still standing, it's going to have to be demolished because the damage is just so bad.

But one of the things that we have seen here is that people are coming together. We have noticed that people not only from here, but from neighboring counties, and neighboring cities, are coming to this area, helping people, bringing their equipment, trying to help each other.

And so, that's the bright side of this tragedy that has happened here in this part of Georgia.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, William, this was to be your retirement home, huh?

WILLIAM GAMBRELL, TORNADO SURVIVOR: Yes. See this green pick-up truck? It was parked next to that Saturn. The house was sitting right here on this foundation.

CANDIOTTI: And where was the porch?

GAMBRELL: The porch was right here.

CANDIOTTI: Right here. And now, it's over there? GAMBRELL: You've got it.

CANDIOTTI: Look at that.

GAMBRELL: Yes. And the foundation, look how far it pushed it back. It's unreal. You know, me and my wife was sitting in the living room at 6:00 watching the local news, and they said, tornado warning out (INAUDIBLE) and Collegeville. I told her, I said, "Honey, that's getting real close." She can't walk.

CANDIOTTI: So, you just grabbed her?

GAMBRELL: I just grabbed her and I squeezed her and held on.

CANDIOTTI: Held on for dear life.

GAMBRELL: Yes. But all that was running through my mind, this is it. It's over. But I am one lucky dog. I am one lucky dog.

I ain't got no home, ain't got no truck, ain't got no car, but me and my wife and little dog Barney, we're still here. And what I'll do next, I don't know.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the Piggly Wiggly Store, it's a free for all -- as in free for all. What the tornado didn't take of his family business of 30 years, Brian McGonagill is giving away.

(on camera): This stuff here, this is all being given away.

BRIAN MCGONAGILL: Yes.

SAVIDGE: Why?

MCGONAGILL: That's what you do in a small town community, help people out. These are real good people in this small town and they all want to help each other.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): So, they are helping themselves, charities, ordinary people, whoever. And it's not as though he can afford the loss. On the contrary, he's very worried about the future for his store and his town.

(on camera): The store has been pulverized.

MCGONAGILL: Totally devastated. Total loss.

SAVIDGE: What do you think as a businessman?

MCGONAGILL: It's scary, you know, the thing to come back to in this town. I'm sure all the businesses that are, you know, having that same thought, too. I was actually at my home.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): Like any good grocer, he knows his customers, especially now.

(on camera): And you know, I guess, who lives, who dies and who's made it out well and who hasn't?

MCGONAGILL: Unfortunately, yes. Yes. I know a lot of people that's passed. It hurts. But we'll move home. You know, that's what we got to do.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): It's not all sadness. He jokes his office has a great view.

(on camera): I mean, can you laugh a little bit?

MCGONAGILL: You have to, because I'm all cried out.

SAVIDGE (voice-over): And now, you understand why Brian McGonagill doesn't mind so much all he's lost.

MCGONAGILL: That's what we want people to have.

SAVIDGE: He's just glad for what was saved.

MCGONAGILL: We made it through OK.

SAVIDGE: Martin Savidge, CNN, Smithville, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, I hate to go from disaster to disaster here, but seven weeks since that tsunami devastated northern Japanese coast, we are still getting new video, new pictures out of the destruction of that day. We have one now. I want you to listen to. I also want you to watch.

This was another one that stood out to us. I'll share it with you.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

HOLMES: I mean, we have seen a lot of video out of this tsunami, but each video, new piece we get, seems just as remarkable or more than the next.

Here is one that really stood out to us as well. You can see cars floating by. There was even a point we actually saw a helicopter in this water that was floating by as well. This is shot in a fishing village, Kesennuma, 250 miles north of Tokyo, a traditional fishing village, essentially just gone at this point.

Also, I'll turn now to something happening in Rome today. Pope John Paul II, he is moving one step closer to sainthood this weekend. He'll be beatified in a ceremony at the Vatican. That means he becomes blessed, sainthood would be the next step. Some 300,000 people are expected in St. Peter's Square, but people will be gathering all around Rome for the events this weekend. We'll have much more on this ceremony and sainthood, the process itself, throughout the morning and also a little later in this show.

Meanwhile, the space shuttle Endeavour sitting on the launch pad this morning. That's not where it was scheduled to be this morning. Yesterday's planned launch was scrubbed because of concerns over the shuttle's heating system.

President Obama and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords were both there, were there, expecting to see a launch. Giffords' husband, of course, Mark Kelly, is commanding the shuttle mission. The president still went there, even though he knew before he got there that the launch was going to be scrubbed, but he did get a chance to meet with the Giffords and the entire Endeavour crew.

NASA now says Endeavour won't launch until Monday at the earliest. No word yet if Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will be able to stick around and see it.

Well, the FAA is shuffling some key veteran managers to new positions as a response to the recent reports of air traffic controllers sleeping on the job. At least three controllers have been fired in the last couple weeks. The FAA is also putting together a review panel to take a fresh look at controller training procedures.

We'll turn back to London. You see that guy? It was that kind of day over there, was it not? My man is doing cartwheels outside of Westminster Abbey. That's a minister there.

Just one of the things caught -- a lot of things to see, maybe some things you missed, but this was the conclusion or after the conclusion of the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton. We'll have a little more on that throughout the morning as well.

When I went to bed last night, the NFL lockout was over. When I woke up, the lockout was back in place. I'll explain the latest legal decision.

Also, how young is too young? In 60 seconds, I will tell you about an 18-month-old who just signed a professional sports contract.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Sixteen minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

We do have Bonnie Schneider in house with us.

I was a little confused. I heard about a blizzard, a fire danger and, of course, we're still dealing with some of the severe stuff from the South and aftermath of that. Where do we even start this morning, Bonnie?

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Let's start with the blizzard.

HOLMES: There's a blizzard.

SCHNEIDER: That's unusual even, you know, for North Dakota.

HOLMES: OK. SCHNEIDER: The end of April. We do have a blizzard and it's going to be a bad one. Look for about six to nine inches of snow in parts of North Dakota and also, very strong wind brewing. And that's going to really kick things up, unfortunately, as we go through the afternoon hours. You can see the snow churning into western North Dakota, eastern Montana and blizzard warnings are in effect.

Now, this has been the fifth snowiest winter ever for North Dakota, so far. It may actually become the fourth depending on how much snow we get before going into the spring season. But at the highest amounts, we could see nine inches of snow, gusts up to 50 miles per hour. That will really cause blowing and drifting snow and whiteout conditions.

And, you know, like I mentioned before, it is unusual to see blizzard conditions this late into the season. Not historical, but definitely unusual. We're also looking at snow across parts of Montana and some very windy conditions elsewhere across much of the Northern Plain states. It's going to be a windy one and blustery, indeed.

Finally, we're also checking out the flood threat. You can see we have watches and warnings posted specifically around Arkansas, into Missouri and straight up through Illinois, Indiana and areas of the Midwest. This is going to be a problem as we go through the afternoon and into the weekend because we are looking at the chance for more rain across the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, and those areas are already saturated.

And, finally, the last thing we just want to show you is we are still tracking some interesting video coming out of NASA. This is satellite perspective of a tornado outbreak and you can see the bursts of clouds, the higher cloud tops showing where we had the towering thunderstorms and tornadoes breaking out.

T.J., these pictures were taken 23,000 miles above the Earth from satellites of NASA and you can pick up the tornadoes popping up right there in Alabama. Incredible pictures.

HOLMES: All right. Bonnie Schneider here with us -- we appreciate you sharing some of those pictures.

We'll check in with Bonnie throughout the morning.

Eighteen minutes past the hour now.

Just hours after NFL players were allowed back into their team facilities, the lockout is back in effect. A federal appeals court in St. Louis ruled yesterday in the owners' favor and this announcement came just not too long after the third round of the NFL draft was wrapping up. The court may rule as early as next week on the NFL's request for a more permanent stay.

Well, during the draft, you often see the college athletes reduced to tears. They're excited after they finally hear their names called, they walk up and they shake the hand of the commissioner, often give them a hug.

But sometimes the joy of getting selected by the New Orleans Saints just becomes a little too much. I want you to take a look at this if you haven't seen it and I dare you to not get teary-eyed when you see it. Alabama's Mark Ingram had an extra reason to be consumed by emotion when a reporter read an e-mail from Ingram's father. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I just want to read you a little bit. He says, "Son, first of all, I'd like to congratulate you for being a great person and accomplishing your dream of being drafted and having the opportunity to play professional football. You have made me a proud father. I am so proud of the young man you have become."

What would you like to say to your dad?

You can imagine. You can imagine the emotion that the two of them have shared.

MARK INGRAM, DRAFTED BY NEW ORLEANS SAINT: I want to tell my dad that I love him, I miss you, dog, that you got -- you have been a positive influence on my life for my whole entire life. I just want to thank you, I love you, man. And we did it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Congratulations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Mark Ingram, you're seeing there, who's going to be playing for the New Orleans Saints. He actually won a Heisman two years ago, at the University of Alabama. His father was the one introduced him to the game of football, but his father right now is serving time in prison for bank fraud and money laundering charges.

Well, how young is too young to sign a professional sports contract? Would you say 18 months? A Dutch club has signed that little guy you saw there, to a 10-year contract. They even held a news conference and his dad had to help him sign that contract.

They made the offer after seeing this which quite frankly, was a little impressive. It's gotten more than a million hits on YouTube. The little guy grabs the balls, tees them up himself and makes three straight goals. This thing has gotten, again, over a million hits, went viral.

The club admits here, now, folks on this contract for the most part, it's symbolic. They will be working with the young man to maybe develop him over the years. But right now, he's not getting paid millions, if you will. The boy's grandfather was a former player for that soccer club.

Well, we know politicians out there often get caught on open mikes saying things they shouldn't say, sometimes they get caught on an open mike dropping the F-bomb. We've seen that before. But I assure you --- in this case, it was no accident. This man wanted everybody to hear him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REAL ESTATE MAGNATE: Listen you mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED), we're going to tax you 25 percent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: In 90 seconds, folks, the profanity-laced tirade that Trump made to a women's group.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Twenty-three minutes past the hour now.

Donald Trump, I know what you're thinking, what now? Well, of course, he's been front and center the past few weeks. He's courting big crowds, he's pimping his TV show, all the while talking about birth certificates, familiar with that.

And as CNN's Mary Snow reports, it's being called a circus act by some, especially when his message is punctuated by blasts from repeated F-bombs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump had said he wanted to move beyond the birther issue and talk foreign policy and that he did Thursday in Las Vegas addressing Republican groups. But it wasn't his ideas that are making headlines as much as the way he said them -- a possible presidential candidate cursing repeatedly on topics like Saudi Arabia.

TRUMP: They want to go in and raise the price of oil because we have nobody in Washington that sits back and said, you're not going to raise that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) price. You understand me?

SNOW: What to do about China? Simple he says, slap a 25 percent tax on China.

TRUMP: The messenger is important. I could have one man say, we're going to tax you 25 percent. And I could say another, listen you mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED), we're going to tax you 25 percent.

SNOW: And on the environment.

TRUMP: In China and other countries, they just burn whatever the hell is available and that smoke is spewing out of those chimneys and those factories are cheap as hell and they don't give a (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

SNOW: Trump's visit to Nevada follows a trip to New Hampshire, both are testing grounds for presidential hopefuls. Questions mount about whether he's serious about running for president. He continues to do well in polls against other Republican hopefuls.

After Trump's speech in Las Vegas, we checked in with "Las Vegas Sun" columnist Jon Ralston, who calls Trump's speech part of a circus act.

(on camera): Were you surprised by the reaction he got?

RON RALSTON, LAS VEGAS SUN: I was surprised by a couple of things. I was surprised by the number of people they were able to get there, hundreds of people turning out for this. Again, I think that shows they're yearning for a different voice than the usual ones that are out there, the Mitt Romneys, the Tim Pawlentys and so on.

I was actually quite surprised how the crowd was feeding off of what he was saying. But, you know, he is, as the president alluded to, he's a carnival barker. And he can -- he can achieve that kind of result in an isolated time. I cannot believe that Donald Trump is going to get a lot of votes by going out in every speech dropping F- bombs. I just don't believe it.

SNOW: Mary Snow, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Indiana's Governor Mitch Daniels says he'll sign a bill to cut most federal money from Planned Parenthood in his state. He says Indiana woman with still have access to basic health services but not abortion. Indiana will be the first state to enact a law like this. Daniels, many believe, is considering a presidential run. Planned Parenthood says he's playing politics with women's health and they plan to file a lawsuit.

The late pope, John Paul II, he is getting one step closer to becoming a saint this weekend. But in two and a half minutes, I'll explain why he still has a long way to go.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We're at the bottom of the hour here now.

Pope John Paul II said to move one step closer to sainthood. Tomorrow, he'll be declared blessed. And it's part of a special ceremony at the Vatican that's expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people to St. Peter's Square.

In preparation for this momentous event, the pope's coffin was exhumed from the crypt below St. Peter's Basilica. It will sit inside the basilica in front of the main altar for the ceremony. Thousands of pilgrims are expected to file past to pay their respects.

Here to help us with this beatification process is our CNN Senior Vatican Analyst John Allen.

John, Always good to see you. We talk about sainthood. People know it's a big deal. But explain to our viewers what's the significance of saints in the Catholic Church? What is a saint? Why is this a big deal?

JOHN ALLEN, CNN SENIOR VATICAN ANALYST: Hey, T.J.

First of all, of course, as a technical matter, John Paul II is not going to be proclaimed a saint on Sunday. Instead he is being beatified which means he will be known as Blessed John Paul II. Although, frankly, at the grassroots, T.J., I don't had think a lot of people are waiting for that. They're going to go ahead and think of him as a saint, if they don't already.

In Catholic theology a saint means somebody who lived a very holy life and is now in heaven, who is able to help people by responding to their requests in prayer, by essentially taking their requests and putting it before God and sort of cajoling good God to do something. Those are called miracles. In this case John Paul is being beatified for the healing of a 49-year-old French nun who suffered from Parkinson's disease. And T.J., of course the nice poetic arc to that is that it is the same disease from which John Paul II himself suffered.

HOLMES: OK, John, this was just, I mean, we're not that many years away from his death. I mean, just six or so. This process seems to be moving along fairly quickly. Is that the norm?

ALLEN: No, it's not at all the norm. I mean look, the Vatican legendary thinks in centuries. I usually joke that around here it takes them six years just to open the mail. The fact you can get from John Paul's death to the beatification in that amount of time is pretty remarkable.

Some have complained about that, saying it's a fast-track process. What the Vatican will say is, look, this is one case in which we're just responding to the will of the people. I mean you remember those crowds, it T.J., during John Paul's funeral mass, the chants of "sainto suvito (ph), meaning, "sainthood now". There was actually a petition signed by all the cardinals asking the next pope to wave the normal five-year waiting period. They would say this is one case in which the people have spoken in their delivering.

HOLMES: We're just getting started here on a major weekend happening in Vatican City, a major weekend for all of Rome as well. John Allen, we appreciate you. We're going to take a two minute and 30 second break. We'll right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. It is 35 minutes past the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Welcome back, everybody. I'm T.J. Holmes. Glad you could spend part of your weekend with us.

Unfortunately this weekend is tough one for a lot of folks in the South. Search crews are going through right now, still looking for people lost possibly in debris that was left behind from more than 200 tornadoes across the South. The death toll is now at 340. That would make this the second deadliest tornado event in recorded history. We still have hundreds more people that are unaccounted for. Doesn't mean they're necessarily missing. They may just be scattered about.

A lot of power is down in places. A lot of families haven't been able to reconnect. So, let's hope that is the case. Reynolds Wolf is there in Tuscaloosa for us. Let's say good morning to Reynolds once again.

Reynolds, we're starting to get light out in just a bit. We are starting to see more and more of what you have been seeing. It's amazing that skyline behind you is gorgeous, but then here we are in the foreground and all that ugliness.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. I mean things look great during the night. When the sun comes up, reality sets in, the reality is a harsh one, T.J.

You mentioned moments ago about the tornado outbreak back of 1925, where you had so many people that died. What's amazing is to have so many people perish in this situation. What makes it just mind numbing is that we're in an age really where we have the advanced forecasting methods, the techniques. I mean we have Doppler radar. We have all kinds of things that can give us early detection, but still you had so many people that passed away from these storms.

One of the questions that we've had from so many people was, advanced warning? Did people know it was coming? Did you have sirens, did you have warnings, did you have watches? Absolutely. There were many people that were informed. Leading up to this, I can tell you the Storm Prediction Center out of Norman, Oklahoma, was talking about the possibility of having these strong storms, potentially tornadoes, leading up to days, even hours before this event.

But still how can you possibly think a thing like this, of this magnitude, is going to unfold. Unfortunately that was the situation, and still, we're reeling. You see the pictures. See the images here. And every single one tells a story.

T.J., from this vantage point, unfortunately, because of the sunlight, we really can't see, but I promise you we could get our camera and turn it in every single direction, you're going to see some kind of a signature mark from this immense tornado. Everywhere you look, everywhere you turn, there's going to be some damage from this amazing, horrific, nightmarish storm that rolled through this area. Lives forever are going to be changed from this.

HOLMES: And Reynolds, we're going to share some video with our viewers here. Let's go ahead and roll some of this video. I want to ask you about it as we look at it.

WOLF: You got it.

HOLMES: One of the things we hear about EF-5. We know that's the strongest out there. How rare are these types of storms that are this strong? And also, we hear that this one was on the ground for so long and just cut a straight path. How odd is that as well? WOLF: OK. I'll give you some numbers. These are going to be harsh. Since 2007, we've had two, two EF-5s and that's not just here in the United States, that's around the planet. Tornadoes can and will form on all parts of the globe, but more than any other place in the planet, they're going to form in the United States. To have any of this magnitude, it is an extremely rare event. Keep in mind, most tornadoes are going to be on the very weak end of what you referred to as the EF scale, most of them from anywhere EF-0 to about an EF-3. They usually last for a few seconds, then they dissipate.

For something this strong with winds possibly up to 300 miles per hour and to be on the ground for maybe as long as say a path stretching some 200 miles from Mississippi to Alabama, that is not supposed to be happen. That is almost impossible for it to happen. The reason why is for it to draw so much energy out of the atmosphere to create something that destructive, that big, and to sustain that kind of energy, it is just beyond the pale. It's amazing, it's horrible but it happened. And obviously we're still dealing with it.

HOLMES: All right. Something else I'll ask you about later, Reynolds, is just-it seems this was maybe one of the most photographed tornadoes in history, maybe we had so many opportunities to get a shot of it, because it was on the ground for so long.

But I want to ask you about that as well a little later. And another gentleman we're going to have, he had shot a lot of this video. He is one of these storm chasers. I don't know how these guys do what they do. But a lot of them, frankly, love it, and they put their lives at risk. We're going talking to Rick Lipscum (ph). He was taking a lot of this video. We'll chat with him in a bit.

Reynolds, I'll see you in a little while coming to us from Tuscaloosa. Thanks so much.

A lot of people might remember that TV show, "MacGyver"? You give the guy a pen, a paper clip, a piece of bubble gum and he'll make a weapon out of it. Does this look familiar?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you got a golden Palomino between your knees and no rings. Now what?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: First of all, give me a break. But the rebels in Libya, would you believe, have now taken a page out of MacGyver's play book. I'll explain right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It is 42 minutes past the hour. Stories making headlines right now.

The U.S. government has slapped Syria with new sanctions. Yesterday President Bashir Al Assad's forces cracked down on protesters once again. Witnesses say nearly 30 people were killed. Protesters across Syria were showing their support for people of Daraa. Soldiers attacked that city earlier this week.

Also, in Libya now, Moammar Gadhafi asking NATO to stop the air strikes. He claims the coalition is killing civilians, scaring kids, and destroying infrastructure, so it can take over the country's oil.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOAMMAR GADHAFI, LIBYAN LEADER (through translator): Libya welcomes ceasefire. And we agreed on it a number of times, and we are ready at this moment to agree to a ceasefire from our side again. But it cannot be achieved from one side. We challenge you to guarantee that the extremist group, who belongs to Al Qaeda, will commit to this ceasefire. Why don't you bombard them like what you are telling to us, using your planes?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Gadhafi's forces have been shelling the city of Misrata. NATO claims his soldiers tried to put mines in the city's harbor, but the countries have to use that harbor to get humanitarian aid into the city and to get wounded people out.

One major problem facing the rebels in Libya is the lack of weapons, but what they lack in sophisticated armament, they're making up for innovation. Reza Sayah takes us to a makeshift weapons factory in the rebel held city of Benghazi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Two months ago, 20-year-old Massoud Ojeli was in college, studying English. Today he works at this secret makeshift weapons factory, welding together rocket launchers out of old spare parts for Libya's opposition forces.

MASSOUD OJELI, VOLUNTEER WEAPONS MAKER: Yes, it's very weird feeling, but I am proud.

SAYAH: The rebels have granted us rare access to a place where elbow grease and ingenuity turn damaged and dented old weapons into rough and ready killing machines.

(On camera): There are 200 volunteers here. They get in about 8:00 in the morning, leave around 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon. They don't get paid.

(voice over): But there's no shortage of help. Massoud's father volunteers too, his two little brothers come to offer moral support, he says.

OJELI: I do this for my country.

SAYAH: Many here are soldiers who have defected from the regime. Others are newcomers. (On camera): Do you know what you're doing here?

(LAUGHTER)

RAM TARHOUNI, VOLUNTEER WEAPONS MAKER: We -- I don't have idea. I don't have idea. But I'm trying.

SAYAH: A few weeks ago, Rami Tarhouni was an insurance agent. Ali Abdul Salaam was in pharmaceuticals. Hussein Mansour was a driver.

"People who have never seen weapons in their lives are making them from nothing," says this Colonel Mohammedal Arabolli, who says he defected from Gadhafi's air force.

(On camera): What this used to be is an old weapons pod on a jet fighter. By the time they're done with it, if everything goes well, they'll turn it into 32 shoulder fired missile launchers.

(Voice over): Soviet-era rocket launchers are broken up to fit on smaller vehicles.

(On camera): Once these makeshift rockets are put together they're mounted on vehicles like this and off they go to the front line. This is how they're launched. These light switches, remarkable ingenuity. Like anything that is put together by amateurs, there's never a guarantee they'll work.

OJELI: Yes, sometimes we have something that doesn't work.

SAYAH: Massoud says if he had his way, Gadhafi would be gone, and he would go back to college. Until then, he says, he's keeping his new job. Reza Sayah, CNN, Benghazi, Libya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, it is 46 minutes past the hour now. We are going to turn back to London and after the wedding dress, the one fashion accessory everybody was talking about, of course, the hats. The would you believe that one woman who attended the Royal Wedding is being lambasted right now for not wearing one. I'll have that for you in two minutes and 30 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: About 12 minutes to the top of the hour here now.

She is already being hailed as maybe the next big fashion icon. The world waited months and months it to see what Kate Middleton -- excuse me Catherine now, right? Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge now, waited to see what she would be wearing to her Royal Wedding.

Within hours, though, folks, hours, designers were already rolling up their sleeves and rolling out the knockoffs of her dress. We went inside one bridal studio that already is starting to churn out the knockoff. Look at this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wasn't hoping to see anything. I was just very, very curious. But what I saw was better than anything I could have expected.

The process really is interpreting the sketch into a pattern. Once the pattern is done we cut the pattern. From the cut it goes into sewing. We find the fabrics that will work with this. By 3:00 o'clock this afternoon, I'll see a gorgeous dress, that's very classic, that will be inspired by Kate Middleton. I think she'll definitely be the trendsetter of the future. She may have the biggest impact on fashion for the next 20 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The other fashion story from yesterday's wedding, hats. Everybody saw these things and you were wondering what in the world is going on. There is one. You probably are wondering how these things stayed on as well. Some of them were elegant, some were flashy, some were outrageous. This is not just necessarily about making some kind of a fashion statement. Nadia here to help me through this.

Why the hats in the first place?

NADIA BILCHIK, CNN PRODUCER: Well, hats have been around from time immemorial and hats started off, obviously, as protection. Then they became uniforms and now they've become an art form.

But hats in Britain have certainly been around. What's so fascinating about these hats, they're various forms. You get the traditional brimmed hat, that's a brimmed hat. And then the brimless hat, what you're seeing based on the pillbox idea. Then what you're seeing now is also something called fascinators, which are groups of clips of feathers, that Kate Middleton has become very famous for.

But this form, an art, it's very much self-expression in these hats. And there are two famous designers, Philip Treacy and you get Vivien Sheriff. They have designed many of the hats for this occasion. Can you see the height of the hats we're seeing? And the feathers, and magnitude, and it is always interesting because the British are so stiff upper lip aren't they? In a way. And yet very eccentric hat fashion.

HOLMES: How do those things stay on, the ones like Victoria Beckham had, that was right at the front of her head? Do they just clip those in?

BILCHIK: It's very beautifully designed. It is like architecture. I spoke to Vivien Sheriff, one of the designers of many of the hats. Now hat that she wore is a Philip Treacy hat, but it is so structurally brilliant. They look at it as art in the same way you look at garments in terms of stitching and finery, these hats have become absolute art form.

I don't know about you, when I first saw that hat, well, the Victoria Beckham hat, I thought it was rather outrageous. But if you look at what Philip Treacy is trying to do, which is take the traditional hat, and say, let's have a quirky bent on it. And let's do something unusual with it, and let's create art, both with vertical and horizontal lines. You may look at it slightly differently.

And tilted, interestingly enough, most hats are tilted to the right so you can kiss the person without getting in the way. But hers was definitely a fashion statement, some people found it too outrageous. However, it was certainly stylish.

HOLMES: Is this to be expected now? It seemed like everyone had them on, but one person in particular did not, and they are really giving her a hard time.

BILCHIK: Samantha Cameron, the prime minister of England's wife, didn't wear one. The dress coded is very specific for this wedding. It said, morning coat for men. It did not specify for women what they had to wear. It was only expected they would wear a hat. She had clips in her hair and a flower, which was seen more by commentators as a fashion faux pas. One of the Tweets that came out, it was hilarious. It said, "Is that Cameron already starting the cutbacks in England?"

HOLMES: My goodness. But really I was surprised at how -- it seemed like it's to be expected, like how dare is she not wear a hat.

BILCHIK: It's custom. But if you look closely she did have some kind of hair accouterment, so to speak. But again, people expected to wear hats in the way you would particularly in a church to show honor before God. People cover their heads. Again, the Queen often wears hats. It was seen more as a fashion faux pas. She didn't break the rules so to speak, traditionally, And the invitation only stated that men should wear morning coats.

It was certainly not the most traditional thing and caused a great deal of attention and we don't know how she feels.

HOLMES: Nadia Bilchik, our "Morning Passport" Fascinating to look at, but still some history and something to understand. We appreciate you helping us with that this morning.

Meanwhile, not everybody was on their best behavior at the wedding, or after the wedding, I should say. London's metropolitan police arrested 55 people for a number of offenses including disturbing the peace, assault, and possessing a dangerous weapon. They had more than 5,000 police officers who were there as part of the security detail for that wedding.

Here we are now, days after violent tornados ravaged parts of the South. We find some eerie reminders of the system's incredible force. Debris found more than 100 miles away from where it started.

Also, this morning, are you ready for this? $5 a gallon, for gas. And it could get worse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: Taking a look now at some of the stories making news across the country.

A lesson in the power of this week's devastating storms in the Southeast. People in Tennessee finding debris in their yards, blown by the wind, from hundreds of miles away. A man in Knoxville found a check, you see it there, it had flown 160 miles all the way from Rainsville, Alabama, a town that was hard hit, by a tornado.

Also, $5 a gallon gas. Already a reality in Stanford, Connecticut. You see that, folks? $5.19 for a gallon of premium, the mid-grade stuff is $5.09.

Also, in San Jose, California, look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The Annual Cinco de Mayo Parade and Festival in San Jose, California is canceled. The parade had close to 100 entries but festival organizers blame the high cost of permits and security. The city requires organizers to hire police for security.

Also engineers in Oregon, using a novel construction technique to replace an aging bridge. The old bridge, which looks nothing like a gasoline pump, will be slid out of the way and a new one built on temporary piers, it will be slit right in the way. Really, it's not really effective if you can't see the video. So, you know what, just take a commercial break and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)