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CNN Saturday Morning News
Devastation in Tuscaloosa; The Donald Does Blue in Vegas; FAA Puts Air traffic Controllers in the Hot Seat
Aired April 30, 2011 - 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: Donald Trump, what's he saying now? A couple of four-letter words, "F" bombs in particular. He is getting all riled up about China, Saudi Arabia, you name it, but he went a little far in dropping those bombs in front of a women's group.
Also keeping you safe in the skies. We've been hearing all about sleeping air traffic controllers but there may be more concerns as the FAA looks to put new controllers in that hot seat.
Hey there, everybody, from the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia. I'm T.J. Holmes, and this is your CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It's 9:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, 8:00 a.m. in Tuscaloosa, wherever you may be, we're glad you're here. But we do need to start with the trail of destruction across the south.
Still searching this morning for people possibly buried in the rubble. Take a look now at the toll from these storms, 342 people killed across six states. That number was updated in the past several hours, updated overnight as well. With that number, 342 killed, this makes this outbreak the second deadliest tornado outbreak in U.S. history. By far the worst hit state, Alabama; 254 killed there.
There are still hundreds of people unaccounted for, hopefully we're thinking that for the most part we could be because people are scattered after the storm, powers out in some places and people haven't been able to reconnect. So we are just starting to understand the full scope of these storms and they were historic, 211 tornadoes in all.
That would make it the most in one outbreak ever. Communities across the south wondering what's next now. Their homes, businesses, are gone. Wiped out by these tornadoes.
Take a look at what's left now of the Alberta Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It stands in the Alberta neighborhood, Alberta City is what it's called. A massive EF-5 tornado with winds from 150 to 200 miles an hour ripped through the area and just tore up everything.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MALIK HAMNER: I walked around and I've seen places that I would never think would come down would come down. Churches, cars, flipped over, smashed, balled up, (INAUDIBLE) gone, all types of things. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got to the church and all I could do was sit, just go to my knees and start crying. Because I know it's a building, but it's all we've ever known.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The southern storm swept through six states. Nowhere was any place harder hit than Tuscaloosa; 45 people killed in and around that area. Satellite image here, I want to show you, shows the extent of the damage before and now the after picture. It's just amazing to see. Also take a look at this part here. You see all the green around, you can see, we have these satellite images that show us a straight line pretty much, where this tornado ripped through in one line and everything in that one line pretty much has been wiped out.
Our Reynolds Wolf is in Tuscaloosa for us this morning.
Reynolds, you've been reporting there the past couple of days. You know what, tell me about this EF-5, first of all. We hear how strong this storm was. Give me some historical perspective there on a storm that strong?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No problem, T.J., when we refer to the EF scale, that is basically a scale based upon damage for tornadoes, and it's called the Enhanced Fujita scale, going through EF-0 to EF-5, most tornadoes fall in the range of EF-0 to EF-3 which can definitely cause damage but they're usually very weak. They usually don't last very long, only a few seconds they dissipate.
But very rarely will you have the stronger tornadoes, the EF-4 or 5s and those are just incomprehensible damage, especially the EF-5s. It's very difficult for the atmosphere to provide the kind of energy needed to create these powerful tornadoes. But unfortunately they occasionally occur and this is what we believe was a type of tornado that caused the damage across parts of Mississippi, Alabama and other parts of the southeast. This one had winds possibly in excess of 300 miles per hour.
And if you want to see the type of damage it can do, you can find it all across parts of the south, especially here in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In fact, T.J., just three days ago, people coming to this parking lot in Tuscaloosa and go to this Krispy Kreme doughnut, which is owned by one of our new friends, Evan Smith. Out of respect for Mr. Smith, we're not going to walk into his place, but I tell you, the door used to be right here. That door now just bits and pieces of shattered glass. And of course, inside, just devastation. You can see the counter, you can see the sign in the background, Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
You also see the sign above that, handwritten where it says, will be back. That's kind of a testament to the spirit of Mr. Smith but also representative of the spirit of the people of the great state of Alabama. It's my home state, very proud of these folks. I'm telling you, they're going to rebound, but they're going to do so with very heavy hearts. As we pan over a bit more to our, I guess, our right, don't know my right from left this morning, just kind of combovulate (ph), as you might imagine, you can see more of the damage we have from some of these ovens over here, the roof damage caved in.
Also if you can, take a look at the sign right here. Jonathan Scherer is our photo journalist. Jonathan, if you can get a shot of the sign. T.J., something interesting about this. We got crews that are out and about this morning that are checking out every single thing from light poles to this sign, used to have a big advertisement on the top, they're testing the strength, the fortitude of these things because these were battered by those strong winds.
If they think it's strong enough to stay up and won't provide any kind of safety hazard it stays, otherwise it goes down. John, stay here for a second. I'll run over here for a moment. This also show you the power of this. T.J., this used to be a giant Krispy Kreme sign that was standing up maybe up to about 30, 40 feet in height, all that pushed down by the strong winds blowing in this direction.
Behind that, beyond this, behind the parking lot, devastation but then at the very top of the hill and John, I don't have a clue if you can get a shot of that, you can see the regional medical center. Believe it or not unscathed, undamaged from this mammoth tornado. Back to you, T.J..
HOLMES: Reynolds, that is unreal. And also that Krispy Kreme sign you're showing us there, just those poles just bent over like that. It's amazing what these storms are able to do, Reynolds.
Reynolds, we appreciate you. I know this is close to your heart. That is your home state as I know, but we appreciate you being there. It has to be a little surreal to have to be there. But Reynolds, thanks so much, buddy.
WOLF: You bet.
HOLMES: All right. Well, Rainsville, Alabama, that's another spot there that's actually on the other end of the state from Tuscaloosa. It, too, was in the path of that same tornado. The same tornado that we've said was an EF-5 twister. It stretched some 200 miles, but here we are just days later after that storm, and in Rainsville, Alabama, they're already rebuilding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAREN OWENS, TEACHER, PLAINVIEW SCHOOL: Went to school here and graduated from here, so, you know, it's kind of emotional. But I think we're just going to do the best we can and we can overcome it. It's just a shock. Just a shock to see just what devastation it's done to this school campus and not only that, but the communities around us.
DANNY JOHNSON, SCHOOL CUSTODIAN: Never seen anything like this in my life, never. I don't know what to expect one day to the next. No power for weeks they said. No gas everywhere. Big mess. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You wake up and it's just gone. Everything's just completely vanished. Everything you knew your whole life.
OWENS: We're a real close community. You know, everybody is good to each other. We try to help out as much as we can. And as far as I know, when we get done, you know, with some of our own stuff, we're going to help others. We're getting it all done as much as we can.
RONALD BELL, PRINCIPAL, PLAINVIEW SCHOOL: It brings a lot of people together. It's something that's - it's just a disaster now any way you look at it. A lot of communities have gone through this all over the United States and you've got a lot of help coming in from all over the south. So we're going to make it. We're going to do fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Amazing to hear that days after one of the worst outbreaks of tornados in this country's history. Man can say we're going to be fine. It's 10 past the hour here now. Turn to Bonnie Schneider. Bonnie, keeping an eye on something else than nasty rain. We have flooding. This is serious stuff now going on in Arkansas.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Arkansas, T.J., we have a lot of flooding there, strong storms rolled through and the flood threat will push from Arkansas straight across the Midwest. Take a look at some pictures out of the Arkansas area and you'll see that a lot of the roads were covered with water, making it very difficult to pass. So for those of you that are traveling today, look at the flood advisories all the way from Little Rock straight up to Detroit. But I think the worst will be in parts of the Midwest.
Here's those pictures I was talking about from our IReport. You can see that people are doing what you're not supposed to do, driving across water covered roads because it only takes six inches even to dislodge an SUV. You see that car right there. That car is stuck and it's very important to know what to do if you ever are in a flash flood. You want to make sure your windows are down immediately because you might lose power in your car and get out of the car if you can and get to a safer, higher ground.
Well, as we look at the precipitation across much of the country, we're looking at some heavy rain working its way through Minnesota and then as you travel to the west, you see this, a little white stuff on the map, that's right. It is snow. It may be the end of the month, beginning of spring, beginning of May. What we're looking at unfortunately is a blizzard. Whiteout conditions. So snow falling possibly accumulating to nine inches of snow and blowing and gusty winds up to 50 miles per hour, maybe even 55.
So it's going to be treacherous across parts are of the northern plains today. So we're tracking pretty much everything from fire danger in the southwest to flooding in the Midwest, and finally the blizzard conditions across the northern plains. It's really a fascinating day in extreme weather, T.J.. The temperatures down in Texas is so hot in the 90s and we're talking about a blizzard in the northern part of the country. So a little bit of everything.
HOLMES: All right. Bonnie Schneider for us, we appreciate you, as always.
To our viewers, you have seen these headlines, air traffic controllers falling asleep on the job, that has some questioning their schedules. Also others questioning how they're being trained. We take you inside an FAA training center you'll see for yourself.
Plus, is this any way for a potential presidential candidate to talk?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, ENTREPRENEUR/REALITY TV STAR: Listen, you mother (EXPLETIVE DELETED), we're going to tax you 25 percent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Yes. Possible potential presidential candidate Donald Trump dropping an "F" bomb and another "F" bomb and another "F" bomb and another "F" bomb. Twelve past the hour. I assure you this was no accident on an open mike.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Sixteen minutes past the hour now.
The FAA, as you know, has been under fire lately for a string of incidents which could have compromised the safety of many including one incident involving the first lady Michelle Obama. Now, the FAA training replacements for the thousands of air traffic controllers who are facing mandatory retirement. So what are all those student controllers learning?
CNN's Casey Wian finds out for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): This may look like a grown man playing with a model airplane but he's actually an instructor at the FAA's traffic control training facility and this is what they call their low-tech classroom. It's actually a scale model of an airport runway with all kinds of different aircraft.
Do you think the traveling public would be surprised that the air traffic controllers who are directing their flights in and out of airports are actually learning to do it with model airplanes?
TODD POOLE, FAA INSTRUCTOR: I would say probably 80 percent of our time spent on the job training plugged in working live traffic. Here's an opportunity where we can use simulation training and it gives us an opportunity to stop problems, set up different scenarios that we might not see while we're doing live training out in the field. WIAN (voice-over): The Federal Aviation Administration is six years into a 14-year push to train 20,000 air traffic controllers to replace those facing mandatory retirement.
You know, the students off the street, Casey, probably have more of a hard time with the language, the phraseology and that's why we give them on the very first day - we give them a phraseology guide to try to get them used to the language of air traffic control.
WIAN (on camera): Twin Cessna one two eight Charlie cross runway. Oh man.
(voice-over): We find that out firsthand trying to operate the high-tech simulator.
WIAN: American 2156 tower line up and wait.
I messed up there. I forget to tell them the runway.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not too bad. That's just minor.
WIAN: It's a little disconcerting how difficult it is and knowing that some students actually come in having as much trouble as I do. By the time you get them out of here, they're ready to go?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, our purpose here is to screen the students, to see, can they be trained out in the field. You know, we don't make an air traffic controller in seven weeks. We can't do that.
WIAN (voice-over): One in five students don't complete the training. Those who do still must spend one to three years in a tower before they're fully certified.
SUNNY LEE FANNING, ACTING SUPT., FAA ACADEMY: We've got the sophistication in terms of the technology. We've got the people that are experienced to be able to train the people that are coming in, so rest assured, that that is occurring.
WIAN: And rest assured I won't be guiding your flight.
Casey Wian, CNN, Oklahoma City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now, he's a colorful guy with some colorful language, but is that colorful language appropriate if you're running for president of the United States? Donald Trump, dropping a number of "F" bombs in front of a woman's group. I'll explain in three minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: 22 minutes past the hour now.
Donald Trump has been front and center the past few weeks. He has been courting some pretty nice-sized crowds out there. He's also been pimping his television show, also he's been talking a lot about birth certificates, but as CNN's Mary Snow reports, it's being called a circus act by some, that act now comes with a few four-letter words.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump had said that 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 president 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 (INAUDIBLE) 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 (INAUDIBLE) 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 (INAUDIBLE).
SNOW: Trump's visit to Nevada follows a trip to New Hampshire, both are testing grounds for presidential hopefuls. Questions mount about whether he is 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?
JON 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 that they're just 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, a carnival barker and 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 (voice-over): Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: He was there speaking in Las Vegas at a reception that was put on by two Republican women's groups. Now Trump is supposed to also drive the pace car at this year's Indianapolis 500, this Memorial Day weekend. Would you believe some people not too happy about that. One guy has even started a Facebook page called "We Don't Want Donald Trump to drive the Indy 500 pace car." It has a ring to it, doesn't it?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't want Donald Trump to drive the Indy 500 pace car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It should be somebody with a tie to racing, a tie to the 500, a tie to Indianapolis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: I just said that. Last year the pace car was driven by "Good Morning America's" Robin Roberts, other recent drivers includes, actors Patrick Dempsey, Morgan Freeman, also General Colin Powell has taken a turn in the pace car.
Well, that pace car, I don't think it gets very good gas mileage. Take a look at some of these signs, folks, $5 a gallon for gasoline. And that might just be the beginning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Taking a look now at some of the stories making headlines. Syria, government forces there reportedly firing on the city of Daraa. The city has been at the heart of Syria's uprising against President Bashar al Assad. Yesterday his forces cracked down on protesters across the country. Witnesses say nearly 30 people killed and the U.S. government has slapped Syria with new sanctions.
Also the death toll from the tornado outbreak in the south has now climbed to 342. Hundreds more still unaccounted for.
Also, $5 a gallon gasoline. Already hitting Stanford, Connecticut. Yesterday gas hit $5.19 for a gallon of the good stuff, the premium. Mid great was $5.09.
Well, stuck in the stone age that's where our brains are when it comes to money matters. So what actually happens in your brain when thinking about money?
Christine Romans and Dr. Sanjay Gupta take a look inside in a special edition of "YOUR BOTTOM LINE."
