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CNN Saturday Morning News

Flooding Down South; President Bush Breaks Silence on Bin Laden Killing; Aaron on Baseball's Future; Visa Lottery Malfunction

Aired May 14, 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: All right. We're at the top of the hour here on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING, something that hasn't happened in almost 40 years is expected to happen today.

A spillway along the Mississippi River expected to be opened up and it could impact about 25,000 people downriver. Why? That's being done in an effort to save New Orleans and Baton Rouge from major flooding.

Also, President Bush, you remember, he vowed to take down Osama Bin Laden 10 years ago. So what does the former president have to say now that the terrorist is dead? The former president is breaking his silence finally.

Also millions of people apply for a visa through a lottery each year and today those who thought they had one actually don't. We'll explain just what is sure to be a heartbreaking story for people all around the world.

From the CNN Center, this is your CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm T.J. Holmes on this Saturday, May 14th. It's 9:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia. It's 8:00 a.m. in Morgan City, Louisiana. And that's where we need to start with the flooding.

A lot of places taking steps right now trying to save major cities along the Mississippi River from flooding, but that could spell doom for some smaller communities.

The Army Corps of Engineers could open the huge Morganza Spillway in Louisiana later today. The so-called trigger will be when the river is flowing at 1.5million cubic feet per second. Now that doesn't mean a whole lot to you but we're getting closer and closer to a particular flow rate. When it gets to that point, they will open it up. The last time the spillway was used was back in 1973.

Now opening this thing will divert water from Baton Rouge and New Orleans, possibly saving them from massive flooding by taking pressure off their levees. But that would also flood homes and farms in seven Louisiana parishes in the south central part of the state. The National Guard has been called in, they're working around the clock trying to fill sandbags in Morgan City.

Also, on Monday, President Obama is going to Memphis. Now he's going to go there. He's going to be giving a graduation speech to some high school kids. He will also meet with families affected by the flooding there but still not much anybody can do right now to comfort those who know their homes are going to be lost.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLI TRIMM, EXPECTS HOME TO BE FLOODED: It's worse than we thought. It's really worse than we thought. We thought maybe we might have water in our yard and stuff, and this is going to come into our homes. This is going to take everything we've got.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now let's tell you more about what this spillway is, what it means to those along the Mississippi. It's just north of Baton Rouge, people living west of the Mississippi all the way down the flood plain have been warned that water levels will rise dramatically and flood homes and farms.

I want to bring in our Ed Lavandera once again in Morganza.

And you gave us this a little earlier, just kind of that description was very helpful. You see where the water is now, that's not going to be where it is later?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely. In the next few hours, a lot of this will change dramatically we anticipate. But this is essentially - over here, T.J., if you look at this kind of a holding reservoir, where a lot of times this is actually dry, just dry land, but you can see how high this is already spill off from the Mississippi River. And what you see behind me, here the structure is the Morganza floodway structure.

This is almost 5,000 feet long and there's 125 gates and about in the middle they will start opening these gates one by one later on this afternoon. We anticipate that is around 2:30 Central time is what we're being told.

And then what will happen is when you walk over this way, over the bridge here, and you look back over all that dry land, those gates will send that water back over that way and it will kind of curve back over to the south about 100 miles down to Morgan City, and that flooding through this Atchafalaya River Basin is what will be flooded here in the coming days.

We're told the water will take about three days to reach Morgan City. So there's a lot of communities, a lot of wide open farmland as well. And as you mentioned, the trigger for this is that 1.5 million cubic feet per second of water that's the pressure on the Mississippi River.

If it gets to that point and stays at that point, that puts too much pressure on the levee systems between Baton Rouge and New Orleans and that's why they would have to open up this spillway here, that's just too much pressure there and if the levees were to be breached there, obviously that would be catastrophic in places like Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

So they built this system here and we'll be able to send this water into more remote areas, but as we've mentioned T.J., a lot of communities, a lot of farmland that will be affected by what happens here in the coming days. T.J..

HOLMES: All right. Our Ed Lavandera there, great description there. It helps us convey to the viewer, just an illustration there of exactly what's going to be happening. Ed, thank you so much. We'll check in with you again.

Let me bring in Reynolds Wolf here with me. Reynolds, I just had a thought. We have been watching this for so long now -

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

HOLMES: This flooding that is coming, remind us what triggered all this in the first place? It seemed like it was so long ago that we were talking about melting snow and al this rain coming.

WOLF: Incredible snow pack, incredible snow pack and, of course, the heavy rainfall, everything has to has to go into some place. If you think about the Mississippi River, it's truly the spine of the continent. It really is. Everything flows into it and as it makes its way down, you know, it's just so difficult to see this wall of water move through your hometown in Memphis and eventually makes its way to Mississippi and now moving into parts of Louisiana.

But the idea that they're going to divert this certainly - it's a horrible decision that has to be made. But it's one that they got to push the button.

HOLMES: We saw this same thing when they had to blow up a levee up north -

WOLF: Oh, yes.

HOLMES: And you sacrificing all this farmland and literally people's livelihood but you're trying to save this other town, (INAUDIBLE) Illinois is what we're talking about. So the same kind of thing that's happening down in Louisiana.

WOLF: It's a horrible decision of sacrificing a few to save many. At least that's the game plan. And here's how the game plan is going to work. You happen to look at this map right here. This is our Google Earth image that we have of the Morganza floodgates. Right here. If you can just make out a little bit of a line right here, kind of hard to see, that line is your Mississippi River, meandering across the landscape, past Baton Rouge, all the way down past New Orleans.

But this area that you see in blue, that's the spot where you're going to have all the flooding. Some 3,000 acres, 3,000 square miles rather and you have roughly 25,000 people that live there, over 11,000 structures that could all be under water. At some point, the water may be as high as 25 feet in depth. So it's going to be devastation. The problem is all that is going to be flowing its way right towards Morgan City. Morgan City, a place protected by a couple of levees. Hopefully, the levees will hold.

Now place without levees really can't hold back the river. So when you have a flooding situation, the water escapes the bounds of the river and then floods out, sometimes it can move miles inland. But in this situation, we're hoping that the levees will be strong enough to hold back that rising water and protect those communities. Again, 12,000 people call Morgan City home. A very scary prospect indeed.

Now what we're seeing in terms of weather, we need some dry weather in parts of the southeast, especially in parts of Louisiana. Louisiana and Mississippi should be OK, but more rainfall expected in the mid-Atlantic states back in the Ohio Valley, the Pacific Northwest, not only some rain but even some snowfall in the high levels of the Cascades, even into the Sierra Nevada mountains and more snow expected in places like Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where it seems like winter will never end. Go figure.

All right, T.J., God speed.

HOLMES: All right. Reynolds, appreciate you as always. We'll check in with you again.

And we do want to turn now to some other news making headlines, including some new information on what was found by Navy SEALs inside Osama Bin Laden's compound.

We are now hearing from U.S. officials that they uncovered an unreleased audiotape from the former Al Qaeda leader. It's believed it was taped last month. In that audiotape Bin Laden talked about recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.

The SEALs also found a stash of pornographic materials. They don't know who it belonged to however. They don't know whether it could have been one of his sons or the couriers, officials aren't saying there.

Pakistan's parliament meanwhile is condemning the U.S. raid this morning and threatening to cut access to a key transit facility. It's used to move NATO troops into Afghanistan. Pakistan also demanding an end to U.S. drone strikes in their country.

And a great victory in the war on terror. That is what former President George W. Bush said in his first public comments about the death of Osama Bin Laden. He said he got a call from President Obama telling him about the successful raid and Bin Laden's death. President Bush says he responded by saying "good call."

Also, OK, if you think Arizona has the nation's strictest anti- immigration law, well maybe not, yesterday amid some protests, Georgia's Republican governor Nathan Deal signed a controversial bill that allows police to ask about a person's immigration status during criminal investigations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. NATHAN DEAL (R), GEORGIA: While I believe that immigration is something that needs to be identified and addressed and should be addressed at the federal level, this legislation, I believe, is a responsible step forward in the absence of federal action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now critics say they are planning a legal challenge to the new law before it takes effect in July.

Also, disappointing news for thousands of immigrants who thought they won the chance to legally live and work in the United States. The first drawing did not count. We're talking about the State Department's diversity visa lottery. They say a computer glitch kept some people from being entered. So they're saying it wasn't a fair drawing so they have to draw again in July.

Now "USA Today" talked with German immigrant named Max who was already making long-term plans after seeing his name on the list. Out of around 15 million applicants, only about 50,000 people get visas. So when you hear those numbers you understand why they call it a lottery. It is literally just that and you feel like you won the lottery if you are one of those 50,000.

But now Max has to hope that lightning strikes twice for him, who knows if it will, or he'll have to be in Germany after his current visa runs out at the end of the year. A lot of stories out there like that.

Well, fake photos of historic events. That's what many of you may be seeing when you check out a web site or a newspaper. At least if it's a picture of President Obama giving a speech. Can't say if these are staged or not, but they could be. It's an old practice that the president will stand for pictures after a speech. So he's essentially standing there re-enacting, pretending to give the same speech again. This practice dates back to Truman's days.

You can't just always fit all the photographers in the room. This is the problem here with those cameras, they make a lot of noise, so they get to shoot their still shots after the actual event takes place. But now the White House says enough is enough with that, they're going to end that practice. That decision comes just after a Reuters photographer blogged about taking pictures of the "We got Bin Laden" speech and the pictures they had to take took place after the speech had already happened.

Well, let's move on to Hank Aaron now. He can't fake the accomplishments of this hall of farmer, the baseball legend taking part in baseball civil rights weekend celebration. And I had the honor of sitting down with this man to talk baseball and how he thinks it's failing a particular community right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: All right, 16 minutes past the hour with CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

It's a big weekend here in Atlanta, Georgia, star-studded weekend. Baseball civil rights is in advance. It's in advance of tomorrow's throwback game between the Braves and the Philadelphia Phillies. So exactly what is going on here.

Jennifer Mayerle can tell us. She is live for us in Atlanta. What's going on this weekend? Good morning to you.

JENNIFER MAYERLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a big kickoff for the youth here in Atlanta for the big civil rights game. This is called "Wanna Play," the name says it all. It's a lot of fun out here for the youth and a lot of people have been coming in here since it opened at 9:00. Check it out. They've got the batting cages. I have seen a couple of good pitches and a lot of good swings out here so far.

There's a lot going on out here today, pitching skills and starting at 11:00, a lot of these kids are going to be taught by former all-star baseball players, including some former Braves' players. It's a great way to reenergize and reinvigorate the youth in this area and other youth that have been coming into Atlanta (INAUDIBLE) Olympic Park today for the civil rights game that goes on tomorrow.

But this is really all about getting the kids involve and reinvigorated in baseball. A lot of the major league baseball players, former players are going to be out here today credit people like Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron who they say paved the way during the civil rights movement for what they were able to accomplish in their baseball career.

So today the kids will get a lot of fun out here and maybe a little bit of history and how baseball was able to come about for some of the great African-American players who are here. Of course, baseball played a pivotal role in the civil rights movement with some of those players. And the kids are getting to experience a little bit of that today with a lot of fun. Back to you, T.J..

HOLMES: And of course some of these kids, major league baseball I wouldn't say wants to recruit, but still they're trying to get people into baseball at a younger age, expose them to some of those stars now and we'll see what happens. Jennifer, I know we're going to talk to you again. Thank you so much this morning, and one of the people she mentioned, one of the stars of the weekend will be Hank Aaron.

I got to sit down with this baseball legend to talk about the state of the game today. Take a listen to him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: The election of a black president in this country -

HANK AARON, INDUCTED INTO HALL OF FAME IN 1982: Uh-huh.

HOLMES: Compare that if you can, if you will to Jackie Robinson breaking into major league baseball and also what you did in major league baseball as far as your chasing history. In comparing those things, what I mean, how do they compare when it comes to those types of events being catalysts for change in this country. We may not know until later exactly what the election of Barack Obama did for the country but as far as catalyst for change how would you compare the two?

AARON: Well, it's a whole lot different than what President Obama is up against now, you know, the change in fact him being president of the United States, I don't know how I could compare that to anything other than to say that if Dr. King were living today, he would have said, "Well done, son. You know, we have made a tremendous change, we have moved in the right direction."

HOLMES: You said riding on the shoulders of these giants of Dr. King, of Jackie Robinson, a lot of people wouldn't separate you guys. A lot of people would put you in that same vein of Jackie Robinson with Martin Luther King and (INAUDIBLE) Young and others. But you sound like you - there's a separation like you still hold those guys to a higher esteem, why don't you put yourself in that same esteem?

AARON: Well, I do. I do. I hold them much higher than I do. They were great in more ways than one. You know, not only because of what they stood for, but what they stood for to bring to the civil rights table for other blacks to chew on and ride on, you know.

HOLMES: What is the state of baseball these days? How is it doing today? Is its popularity waning at all?

AARON: It could be better, it could be a lot better. We don't have as many African-Americans playing baseball now as we used to have. Any time we have an economic struggle in this country, we, and I mean we, the blacks are going to feel the pinch a lot quicker than anybody. And baseball is a very expensive game.

HOLMES: Kids can turn on TV and they can see that immediate - that instant fame or whatnot from basketball, with football.

AARON: I just don't believe baseball has sold itself as much in the black area as it should have, you know, really. I think that somehow, I think football has done a terrific job and I think basketball has done another terrific job of selling its sports in the areas. When you look at it deep enough, it is that young kid who's seven, 10, 12 years old playing baseball, growing up, wants to play baseball and by the time he gets to 18, where he can get to college, then here come the football coach. The football coaches tell him, we got a four-year scholarship and he's looking somewhere else because we have not made the kind of progress in baseball that we needed to make, where that black kid could look up and say "Oh, Hank Aaron is part owner of a ball club," this and that.

You know, we haven't done that. Basketball has done that. Basketball has owners and this black kid and the black mother, father can look out and see that that kid, if he makes it, he got a chance to go on to greater things.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: I have plenty more to chat with him about, of course, and of course, what's on everybody's mind, Barry Bonds and who is the real home run king? He addresses that next hour. Quick break, I'm right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: A look now at the stories making headlines, Pakistani politicians demanding an end to U.S. unmanned drone strikes and are threatening to holt access to a key transit facility in response to the U.S. directed attack that hilled Osama Bin Laden.

Meanwhile, new details emerging still about that raid including the recovery of pornography from the Al Qaeda leader's compound.

Also new reports out of Iran suggest authorities there have postponed their planned punishment for a man convicted of throwing acid on a woman and blinding her. The man was to have five drops of acid put in each of his eyes. Human rights group, Amnesty International, urged Iran to abandon the eye for an eye sentence.

Also in Libya, the reported voice of long-time dictator Moammar Gadhafi aired on state run television yesterday, assuring citizens that he is still alive while criticizing new NATO air strikes on a Libyan capital. Unknown if Gadhafi was injured in the most recent attacks.

Well back here in the U.S., the Army Corps of engineers planning on opening another spillway to alleviate possible flooding in Baton Rouge and New Orleans. But the controlled flood could swamp thousands of acres in smaller communities.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. I'll be back with you at the top of the hour with more live news. Right now, I need to hand it over to "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" with Christine Romans.