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CNN Saturday Morning News

Tornadoes Hit Parts of Oklahoma; Congressman Advocates For Child Awaiting Transplant From Adult Donor; Letters to President and New York City Mayor Laced With Ricin; Boy With Disability Plays Piano; Large Meteor Barely Misses Earth

Aired June 01, 2013 - 10:00   ET

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

ALISON KOSIK, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Alison Kosik. It's 10:00 on the East Coast, 9:00 in Oklahoma. Welcome to our special coverage of the tornados in the Midwest.

There are reports now that 17 tornadoes touched down across the region last night. Five people were killed, including a mother and her child. More than 70 others were injured.

As daylight hits those communities now, we are getting our first good look at the damage that the storm left behind. Our George Howell is in Union City. Good morning to you, George. You've had a chance to walk around in the daylight. What's it like?

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alison, you know, I'll step out of the way and show you. I want to show you here the Merritt family. Chris Merritt, we've been showing his home all morning. He's been gracious enough to let us be on his property and show our viewers exactly how powerful these storms are. But his mother and father, they lived in this home. And they just returned to see what's left over. You know, you can imagine coming back to something like this, it's difficult. So, you know, they wanted a little extra space and time. And you understand that. We understand that. Out here as they do it, they don't mind us showing it.

But this is a difficult time for them, Alison, as it is a difficult time for people in Moore, as it is difficult for people in Shawnee. It has been a very volatile two weeks of tornadoes through this area. The storm that we saw the other night, it just grew and blossomed and followed people, chased people to the south and to the east. It was a big storm that dropped several tornadoes. In one case we saw the tornado, the damage from the tornado in this area. It crossed Interstate 40, left a debris trail, and it even knocked over semis, knocked them over like boxes.

You know what, we went down the road a few minutes ago and we found other examples, more examples of the damage caused by this tornado. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Another sign of just how powerful this storm was, you can see that a vehicle knocked off the side of the road when the tornado came through here in Union City. You know, here is another piece of a vehicle. Pick it up. And this apparently belongs to that vehicle right there.

Tornado hunt storm chaser who was out here. From the looks of it and residents here tell me the wind was so strong, it knocked that vehicle over into the field. They say that the driver got out. The driver is OK. But again, you get to see how strong these winds were to knock that SUV over into a field.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: And now a live picture back here in Union City, Oklahoma. You're looking at debris piles. Let me tell you, those used to be homes, Alison. I can count at least three or four piles that seem to be -- that used to be homes. Then you pan over here and you see the Merritt's home. Theirs is the last standing in this area.

This is, again, where the tornadoes started to develop and grow. You know, as the storm went into Oklahoma City, it left a lot of rain, a lot of standing water. Downed power lines were a problem. And, you know, people are returning to their homes to start assessing the damage and crews are out and about doing their best to repair the power for people, the 200,000-plus people who are without power, Alison.

KOSIK: OK, George Howell, thank you.

And I want to go to live pictures now that we're getting in of this sinkhole. Look how amazing that is. Floodwaters, that really is what's causing this. That's the secondary focus of what's going on in Oklahoma now that the tornadoes have moved through and caused that damage. Now the floodwaters came in, and there you go, a sinkhole. Look at that water go. Look how big that hole is, just one more effect of the devastating tornadoes that moved through the area.

Let's go ahead and move on to El Reno, Oklahoma, which is littered with debris from the tornado and the strong winds. That's where Nick Valencia is. You've been there all morning, Nick, surveying the damage, talking to residents. What are the people there telling you?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One resident we spoke to, Alison, said he's lucky to be alive. He rode out the storm in El Reno in an oil field repair shop. That structure completely collapsed on him, on top of him and two other co-workers. He said he's really not sure how he made it through but he's thankful he did.

The storm, he said, showed up in minutes. He was listening to local reports and they said the storm was a little further south of where she was at in El Reno. It turned out to be not the case. And that tornado went right over his building in neighboring -- right next door at the Canadian Valley Technology Center. We spoke to the superintendent there. He said he had 15 people ride out the storm in their basement. Not a single scratch or injury on them. Some good news from all of this.

But the most interesting thing that we found in driving around El Reno, Alison, is you drive through certain areas and it's not even a single leaf is out of place. And then you go to other areas, you know, George was mentioning, semis turned over, structures collapsed, debris everywhere. We saw roads flooded out, a field flooded out. First responders are still trying to gauge the exact damage and the extent of the damage here in these areas. El Reno, of course, being about 25 miles west of Oklahoma City.

And just in a little while, Alison, we will hear more details from the local officials. We're standing outside of the Canadian county administrative offices where local officials will brief the media at about 10:00 a.m. local, 11:00 a.m. eastern. They'll update us on the injuries, the death toll and the damage.

But of course a huge sigh of relief in some parts of the community. As I mentioned, some parts completely untouched and unfazed by the tornado and other parts did suffer the brunt of the damage. Alison?

KOSIK: Nick Valencia, thank you.

I want to go back to these live pictures of the sinkhole that opened up in eastern Oklahoma County. You know, Oklahoma has contended with these tornadoes over the past many hours and then came the floodwaters. The ground clearly gave way creating this gaping hole, incredible, right on the side of the road there. We'll keep an eye on that for you.

From Oklahoma to Indiana, more potentially dangerous thunderstorms with flash floods and battering winds. They're still a major threat.

I want to look at these new images that we're getting from eastern Oklahoma floodwaters, blanketing the land there. There's a car completely submerged. You can see it right there. Let's go to CNN severe weather center and meteorologist Karen Maginnis. Is this more of what we're going to see throughout the day?

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The floodwaters are going to stay in place for a while. You just can't get rid of that volume of water in a short period of time. In some areas, as we've already said, saw up to 11 inches of rainfall. This is staggering. And they have seen one priceless weather event after another, not just with the tornadoes and the hail and the high winds and people's homes destroyed, but now we're looking at the sinkhole. This from KOCO, from our affiliate there. It's taken out a portion of that interstate, of the highway there. It looks like it is growing as well.

The water just doesn't have any place to go. If the ground is already saturated, you may remember during the winter months, they saw amazing amounts of snowfall and ice. So the water just doesn't have any place to go. The ground opens up. We've seen this most lately in Florida. Sinkholes in Florida are fairly common. But to see something like this out of Oklahoma, it is staggering.

What can we expect as we go throughout the afternoon? Most of knows storms are sweeping towards the east. But they are producing these significant downpours. I dare say, some of the areas, don't be surprised if you see three, four, and five inches of rainfall, lots of lightning, high winds. Will we see the event like we saw yesterday? It looked like this is primarily going to be a wind, hail, heavy downpour event. We don't have any tornado watches or tornado warnings out. But that doesn't mean that couldn't happen. I want to reinforce that. There is the possibility you could see isolated tornadoes.

These are some of the tornadoes from Oklahoma, Kansas, extending over towards Missouri. Some of the tops on these thunderstorms reached up to 60,000 feet. So they've punched through the atmosphere, and not surprisingly, because we saw temperatures over 100 degrees. You get the heat, that moisture coming in from the Gulf clashing with that cold air. There's some rotation in the lower levels of the atmosphere. And that was just ripe for tornadic activity to develop. Already five deaths at least, and, Alison, as we know, there could be more.

KOSIK: Karen Maginnis, thank you. Exactly, there were at least five reported tornadoes in and around Oklahoma City. There's also flooding as we see because of the storms. We want to talk more about this. On the phone with me is Oklahoma City police lieutenant Jay Barnett. Thanks for joining us.

LIEUTENANT JAY BARNETT, OKLAHOMA CITY POLICE (via telephone): Yes, ma'am.

KOSIK: Now that it's daybreak, are you getting a better sense of the damage? How bad is it?

BARNETT: Well, we have damage assessment teams out right now that are trying to make that determination. Obviously, the daylight hours are assisting that process significantly. But we're still dealing with widespread, significant flooding, still dealing with a lot of power outages and downed power lines. Obviously the daylight hours, again, are assisting us.

But again, it's exactly what we were afraid of last night, and that is that we do have widespread flooding damage at the very least and some very significant wind damage both from straight-line winds and possibly from some tornados in the Oklahoma City area.

KOSIK: Any update on the victims, how many injured, how many are killed?

BARNETT: I don't have any information on injuries. We do have one confirmed fatality and are investigating the possibility that there will be more. But at this point, fortunately, we can only confirm one, although it does appear that that number may rise.

KOSIK: Now, late last night you spoke with us here at CNN and you said that your department was responding to a slew of missing persons' calls. Any update on that?

BARNETT: Yes. We have made progress on some of those. Some of those, obviously, right in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Any people you can't get a hold of or understandably, particularly those who might be particularly vulnerable, the ill, the young, that they can't reach. We field a lot of missing persons' calls. A lot of those have been handled at this point in time. There are still some outstanding. And I don't have an exact number on that.

KOSIK: OK, Lieutenant Jay Barnett from the Oklahoma City police department, thank you for your time.

BARNETT: You're very welcome. Have a good morning.

KOSIK: Going in the direction of the storm, that what it's like to be a storm chaser. And we're going to bring you much more from the danger zone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fast as you can! Go right now!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: So much of this amazing video that we're seeing out of these storms comes from storm chasers, you know, these people who actually drive toward the storm instead of away looking for shelter. Brandon Sullivan is one of them. And this is what he and his team ran into in Union City, Oklahoma. Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my goodness! Oh, my goodness! Oh, no, man. Tornadoes, continuous vortices, continuous vortices here. Turn the car around! Let's get ready. Go! Wind! As fast as you can! Turn right, go! Go now! Hurry, 40 is not enough!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you fine?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go! Go! No, no time now! We're going to die if we don't go south! Go!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trying to get to the left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get around him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are we OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go! Yes, just turn south! You're fine. That's fine, dude. Just go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can't --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's fine. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Duck down, duck down, duck down. You're good?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSIK: Incredible to watch, and interesting that he finally put his seatbelt on.

More on the Midwest tornadoes in a moment, but first, the rules that govern transplants make it almost impossible for this little girl to get the new lungs she desperately needs. Now a powerful advocate on Capitol Hill is joining her fight for survival.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: Washington is taking notice of the race to save a 10-year-old girl. We introduced you last weekend to Sarah Bernahan. She was born with cystic fibrosis and she needs a lung transplant immediately. Sarah is first in line for lungs from a child donor, which are extremely rare. But national transplant rules also put her at the very end of the line of people waiting for adult lungs.

I'm joined now from Philadelphia by Sarah's Congressman Pat Meehan. This week, Congressman, you asked the federal health secretary essentially to bend the rules for Sarah. You want the National Transplant Board to, quote, "address this tragic unfairness and act to give Sarah a chance at life and an adult lung from the next available donor," saying "Sarah's young life literally hangs in the balance." Tell me, what has been the response?

REP. PAT MEEHAN, (R) PENNSYLVANIA: Well, they have responded by seeking some more information from the organ transplant network board. But you said bend the rules. Alison, I don't think we need to bend the rules. This whole system is based on equity. So that it's fair to all who are in line. But they choose age for a child on an arbitrary basis. They don't have enough evidence because there's not enough donors at that age to be able to compile medically significant bases to make this decision.

So the choice -- if she was 12, it wouldn't be an issue. But she's almost 11 and doesn't qualify. So therefore the standard is arbitrary. And because it's arbitrary, it's my opinion as an attorney that it is discriminatory. It should give the secretary an ability to address the discriminatory nature in the way the policy has been put together.

KOSIK: An HHS spokesman tells CNN that Kathleen Sebelius asked the Organ Transplant Board this week to review rules regarding children. But that changes, they can take as long as two years. Do you see a way to speed up the process?

MEEHAN: Yes, I do. It will take two years, and it's probably healthy to have a review of this done in a principled manner. But there's an opportunity, in my opinion, within the law to seek a variance. In light of the fact that the very process of looking at this as a recognition that there's a problem. And if you have a problem, you also have to be addressing those matters between the time you resolve the problem and the time that you're aware of it.

And therefore, I believe the secretary has the power to be able to make a determination in this window without it being a change -- some kind of a special circumstance. This is just a recognition in which they are seeking the variance the organ network would be able to now consider the discriminatory nature of the age factor, look at the other things that would qualify Sarah at the -- because of the impending nature of her situation and the fact that doctors,, some of the best in the world, believe they'll be able to successfully do this transplant. And that's the second factor, the ability to be able to survive after the transplant.

KOSIK: Now, we spoke last week to a doctor on the transplant board, and he said bending the rules for Sarah would mean a delay for somebody else waiting a lung. You want an exception made for her. But what do you say to him? He doesn't think it's fair.

MEEHAN: I go back to the word, this is not an exception. This is to put Sarah in line in her appropriate place in line by virtue of identifying the fact that she's currently in -- she's been discriminated against. She's the one that isn't in her appropriate point in line because they're taking age into the factor inappropriately. She would qualify and take her appropriate place. Somebody else that currently is in there may not be in as serious a situation as Sarah. But because they're 12 or 13 or 18, they're going to get the lung that we believe Sarah has the very legal right to be able to get.

KOSIK: OK, Sarah's mom actually told us last week, she realizes the rules might not change in time to help her daughter, but she still wants them changed for other children. Do you think there is political will here to do that? Very quickly, if you don't mind.

MEEHAN: Yes. Two things. People ought to be donating more, and second, yes, I do believe we'll look at this issue and there may be legislative possibilities to help address it.

KOSIK: All right, Congressman Pat Meehan, thanks so much for your time.

MEEHAN: Thank you for having me.

KOSIK: We've got much more ahead on the storms and on the other big stories of the day. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: Welcome back. I'm Alison Kosik. Here's what's happening this morning. We're following breaking news on the violent storm crossing the Midwest. And this morning, we're getting a new look at the damage it's caused in Missouri. At least 17 tornadoes were reported across several states, including Oklahoma, where five people were killed and 71 others injured. The storm ripped apart homes and trees, flipped over cars.

Now the biggest concern is flooding. The storm dumped between eight and 11 inches of rain in some places. Hundreds of roads were closed in Missouri and some drivers were stranded.

Another huge problem -- power outages. The storm damaged telephone poles, this one in St. Louis caught fire, as you can see. And now power is out for more than 212,000 homes and businesses in several states. I want to show you the breakdown of the power outages. Missouri has 90,000 customers without power, Oklahoma, 86,000 outages. Illinois has more than 31,000, Arkansas with more than 3,000, and more than 1,000 outages in Kansas.

It looks like one of the worst hit places in Missouri is St. Charles County, north of St. Louis. And you're looking at video taken just this morning of the massive damage from last night's tornadoes. The governor has declared a state of emergency and now the violent storms are spawning flash floods.

I'm joined on the phone from St. Charles County by government spokeswoman Colleen McEntee. Colleen, thanks for joining us again.

COLLEEN MCENTEE, SPOKESWOMAN, ST. CHARLES COUNTY, MISSOURI (via telephone): Thank you.

KOSIK: Have the conditions changed much since we last spoke?

MCENTEE: Our mobile incident command opened this morning at 8:00 a.m. Right now our county highway department and county development -- community development department and Red Cross have gridded the areas impacted and are starting to assess the damage. The St. Charles County police department and highway patrol are providing regional security.

There's still no serious injuries or fatalities, no roads are closed. We're asking that people stay away from downed power lines and affected areas, including Harvester, to allow emergency management, law enforcement and other crews to respond to the damage. If any citizens come across any hazards, please call 911.

KOSIK: As we look at these pictures, it's just amazing. The damage, it's incredible. When you take the aerials, you only see it in pockets. Is that really how it is out there? Give us a sense of the scope of the damage. How far does it really spread?

MCENTEE: Right now, we're still in the assessment stage. We're going to hold a press conference at 10:30 to go over everything. Like I said, we have our county, fire, central county and highway department and community development crews out there right now gridding the areas and starting to assess everything.

KOSIK: Have you been in touch with FEMA yet?

MCENTEE: I don't know at this point.

KOSIK: OK. Colleen McEntee, thanks so much for your time.

MCENTEE: Thank you so much.

KOSIK: After last night's violent storms in the Midwest, flash flooding. Look at this stunning video of this ground collapse here. It's happening right now in the eastern part of Oklahoma County. That's huge. All day today, all across the Midwest and as far east as Indiana, more potentially dangerous thunderstorms continue to be a major threat.

Let's go to the CNN severe weather center and meteorologist Karen Maginnis. Karen, is this what we're in for today?

MAGINNIS: Yes, I'm afraid so. It doesn't look like we'll see the intensity of the storms like we saw yesterday. I can't rule out an isolated tornado, but heavy downpours, lots of lightning and people who are losing power, wind damage, those will be the common things we see. Numerous high wind, hailstorm, and tornado reports, 23 unfiltered reports, meaning some could overlap.

Right now let's take you over towards Oklahoma. For Oklahoma City, it's quiet now. However, the eastern portion of the state extending towards Ft. Smith. We are still looking at very heavy downpours. In St. Louis, St. Louis County, St. Charles County, you saw all that devastation there. It looks like they'll send out national weather service survey teams and look at the extent of the damage and give us an idea if it was a tornado, more than likely it was, and to what extent on the scale of EF-4 or 5. The 5, May 20, was in Moore, Oklahoma, that took the lives of 25 people.

Extending to the Tennessee River valley, the storms are going to start to really erupt into the afternoon hours. Yesterday in Oklahoma, those temperatures were soaring, triple digits. They blew up into the low 10, 105 degrees. Altus and Ardmore all reported triple digits. Some thunderstorms reached up to 60,000 feet in the atmosphere.

And we talk about Oklahoma, but as you saw, also into Missouri and it looks like southern Illinois and Indiana, possibility of either straight-line wind or some tornadoes reported there as well.

Going into Sunday, here's the front. So it shifts even further towards the east. It looks like a significant rain event. We could see some isolated thunderstorms and the possibility of isolated tornadoes.

Here's El Reno, extending along interstate 40, the track of that tornado and the one just to the south, southwest of Oklahoma City. That one in Union City and a number of reports of leveled homes and fatalities, and that number is expected to go up.

Look at the flood warnings. They've become more extensive. I want to point out that in Paducah, Kentucky, they've already seen five inches of rainfall and jasper, Illinois, three inches of rainfall in just a half an hour.

We go into -- typically May is the peak of the tornadic season. But June is not far behind. The average is about 243 tornadoes for the month. But already for the month of May, we saw over 200. So it looks like, Alison, I'll keep you updated throughout the afternoon, but we're going to see numbers of flooding and tornado and hail reports coming in from everywhere.

KOSIK: No rest for the weary. Karen Maginnis, thanks.

We're also following other stories making held lines, including a fire in Houston that claimed the lives of four firemen when flames and smoke engulfed a hotel and restaurant. We're going to take you live to Houston next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: You're watching some of the latest video in to the CNN newsroom. Storm chaser Chris Lee with our affiliate KOCO, he was on the scene of a tornado last night just west of El Reno, Oklahoma. And some of the worst damage reports that have come in so far are from that area. That video is just incredible to see how angry those storms look.

And across the Midwest today, flash floods, battering winds, and large hail are a major threat. Authorities in several states are advising people, stay inside.

Authorities in Houston are investigating a five-alarm fire that killed four of the city's firefighters. The smoke and flames engulfed a hotel and restaurant. CNN's Sara Ganim is following the story and she joins us from Houston. Sara, four firefighters died, more than a dozen firefighters are injured. They went inside the burning hotel to see if anyone was trapped. What went wrong here?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alison, it's a really sad day for people in Houston, especially for fellow firefighters who really, many of them, 13 were injured themselves running into the building to help their colleagues who were injured. Four of them killed when a wall collapsed as they were trying to put out this fire.

Just to give you an idea of how intense those flames are, it may have been underestimated how big and how forceful that fire was when the firefighters first got to the scene.

I want to tell you, though, a really moving thing to happen to us this morning, as soon as we got here, the firefighters were still trying to completely put out that blaze, and one of the firefighters came over to me and showed me a picture on his cellphone of a makeshift memorial that they made here. They took four axes, flipped them upside down, put them into the ground with four firefighter helmets on top to signify the immense amount of loss that happened here last night.

As it turns out, it doesn't appear that anyone was inside of the hotel, of the inn, or the restaurant where they believe the fire probably started. The firefighters didn't know that when they arrived. They thought there might be people inside who were injured who needed to be rescued. And that's their job. And that's what they did last night, Alison.

KOSIK: Any idea from investigators as to what fueled this fire, what made it so hard to contain? GANIM: It's a really -- it was a huge fire. As you can see from some of the video from yesterday, really forceful, intense fire. What's left today is telling of how intense those flames were. Because, this isn't -- there's really nothing left of this building except a few pillars. It's all rubble. It's all charred. Firefighters here were telling me that they really didn't want to go through and start picking up the pieces because they didn't want to compromise any of the evidence. Of course, today state fire marshals are on the scene, and many of them on the scene today trying to figure out exactly what happened.

But one of the fire captains did tell me this morning, they believe the fire started in the restaurant side of the building and then spread to the inn. Like I said, there's almost nothing left.

KOSIK: OK, Sara Ganim, thank you.

We have much more ahead on the storms as well as other news making headlines, including poison-laced letters sent to the president and the mayor of New York. A live report coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: Now with an update on those threatening letters sent to President Obama and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Conclusive test results are in, and they confirm that the letters did contain ricin. That's a poison that can be lethal.

CNN has also obtained photos of one of the letters. CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti joins me in New York. Susan, you got a hold of the copy of one of the letters involved in this investigation. Is it the same letter that was sent to President Obama and Mayor Bloomberg, or did each receive different letters?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It seems to match up word for word, at least the two letters that we have seen. We don't know for sure about the letter to the president. We believe that the wording is also the same or pretty close to it.

The one that we're talking about and we've obtained is a copy of a letter sent to Mark Glaze. He's the director of Mayor Bloomberg's group called Mayors Against Illegal Guns. That letter reads like this, quote, "You will have to kill me and my family before you get my guns. Anyone who wants to come to my house will get shot in the face. The right to bear arms is my constitutional, god given right, and I will exercise that right until the day I die. What's in this letter is nothing compared to what I've got planned for you."

Now, Mark Glaze is the only one of the three recipients, Alison, that actually received the letter, opened it up. The two others were intercepted in other facilities.

KOSIK: I noticed there were some markings on the envelope and some kind of stains on the letter. Any significance to that?

CANDIOTTI: Yes. Those markings are hard to miss. And those would be markings made by the law enforcement officials, investigators taking a look at these letters as they were testing it for ricin and other forensic evidence. And now we know, as you said, conclusive, the tests show that there is in fact a low concentration of ricin on all three letters.

KOSIK: OK, so where does the investigation stand now? Who else are authorities investigating?

CANDIOTTI: Yes, we know that they are investigating a couple in Texas. However, we are told by our law enforcement sources that there's some credibility issues with the wife who made the initial complaint against the husband there. So it's unclear where that part of the investigation is going. So no word yet as to whether they have singled out anyone and as far as where these letters came from.

All three of them, by the way, postmarked May 20th and went through a postal facility in Shreveport, Louisiana, that apparently handles mail for three states. So no word yet on where all this originated.

KOSIK: OK, Susan Candiotti, thank you.

Still ahead, our coverage continues on the deadly storms in the Midwest, as well as other big stories of the day. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KOSIK: You're about to meet a 17-year-old who is passionate about playing the piano. Once you hear him play, the talent is obvious. But you may be surprised by how he's able to play so well. Here's Dr. Sanjay Gupta with the story in this week's "Human Factor."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Nothing makes Landon Weeks happier than singing and playing his piano. But as you listen to him play, look closely. Something may surprise you. Weeks was born with a condition that's a rare birth defect that mostly affects the development of upper limbs.

LANDON WEEKS, ASPIRING ARTIST: In my case, it's a fused radius and ulna and they're shorter. And my elbow is like bent backwards, so it's in. I have two fingers and like slanted thumbs.

GUPTA: And yet, there are few things Weeks can't do. He's been zip lining, horseback riding, and he's one of a small number of boy scouts to earn every available merit badge.

WEEKS: This is drama. And you have to like make up like a pantomime thing and like act it out. Let's see. There's cycling. You have to do a 50-mile bike ride.

GUPTA: But playing the piano, that's his first love. Weeks started lessons in the fourth grade, and today he practices two hours a day and says his dream is to play piano for audiences around the world. They're amazing just the way they are

(SINGING)

KOSIK: He's already won over local audiences, playing at assemblies around his hometown of Ogden, Utah. He's even gotten fan mail.

WEEKS: Dear Landon, you were awesome and you are better than anyone in the world.

GUPTA: Weeks says that his short arms are a gift, not a disability. And he shares his wisdom with the children he performs for.

WEEKS: Keep going and never give up. If it's hard, keep trying and it will come to you eventually.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSIK: And the pictures of the storm are just incredible every time they come out. You're looking at a tornado as it touched down near El Reno, Oklahoma. And getting you ready for today, there's still a threat of tornadoes across the Midwest through tonight, but definitely not like anything we saw yesterday. We are watching, though, for severe weather from Texas all the way through Kentucky and into Ohio, and of course, we'll be tracking all of that weather for you.

A huge asteroid went by earth yesterday, or did you miss it? The good news is it never came any closer than 3.6 million miles from our planet. But at one point seven miles wide and equipped with its very own moon, a rock that size hitting us could cause a global catastrophe. To put it in perspective, it's believed the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was about six miles in diameter. CNN's Tom Foreman has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've been hearing all this talk about things hurdling toward space to earth and NASA trying to keep an eye on a lot of them. And this is why. If you were go to Arizona there's a meteor crater not far from Flagstaff, you could see this. This is a crater left by a meteorite that hit a long time ago. From this edge to that edge is about a mile. The explosion would have wiped out almost any city we know of. This was made by a meteorite that was only about 50 yards across.

So how big was the one that passed us by? Was it this size? No. This is the size of the one that blew up over Russia back in February that scared everyone half to death. Was it more like this, the size of a football field? Well, no. That's the size of the one that flew past the earth with no impact the same day.

The asteroid that just passed us is actually much more like this size, absolutely massive, traveling some 20,000, 24,000 miles an hour. This truly would be cataclysmic to the earth, and that's why NASA is keeping an eye on all these things in space these days. (END VIDEOTAPE)

KOSIK: Tom Foreman, thank you.

And we have got much more storm coverage ahead on the next hour of CNN SATURDAY MORNING, which starts now.