[Baldwin:] Back to our breaking news. Back to Cullman, Alabama. It is a frightening, frightening situation for folks on the ground. Take a look at this video. Look at this tree! You and I looking at this for the first time here. We've just turned this video around. Obviously trees fallen, looks like a mobile home sort of twisted about. Here's what we know. One of the hospitals or I should say the only hospital in this town has issued a code D, D as in disaster. They believe a tornado has hit them. We have now heard from the Freddy Day from Cullman police. Obviously reporting some of the damage in the city. You see there power crews are out trying to restore some of the power. They say the tornado came through right about 20 minutes ago. So, this is fresh stuff. We're hearing houses according to the police chief, houses like this one, this is a church, some businesses damaged. There were also gas leaks in the city. This is now Waterloo, Alabama. So, multiple towns here. And the path of this, at least one tornado. Chad Myers is there. How many reports of touchdowns do we have?
[Chad Myers, Ams Meteorologist:] I would say we probably have right now at least six tornadoes on the ground, many of them very large. We know that a marshal grove, in Union Grove, not very far from the Cullman storm. It's a mobile home park was completely destroyed. We've been told that Hackleberg, Alabama, the downtown just had a tornado go right through Cullman storm that was on ground that did a lot of damage at the hospital is now on its way to grant, Alabama. And Phil Campbell in northwestern Alabama has a tornado on the ground just to the west of the city. We have 25 separate pink boxes, which are all tornado warnings. Twenty-five separate tornado warnings, all with rotating super cells. All could have tornadoes on the ground at some point in their lifetime. This is a very dangerous situation. The Weather Service saying that this is possibly the biggest outbreak they have seen in many very years, and it's just started. We're just to the heat of the day now. This will continue all night long.
[Baldwin:] I know it's maybe too early to tell, but are we hearing at all about folks being injured?
[Myers:] Yes, there are injuries.
[Baldwin:] Yes. I do want to speak with someone from that hospital. When I spoke to the emergency woman, she was telling me that's the one and only hotel [sic] in Cullman, Alabama. And if that took a hit and you have folks injured you know, that's a recipe for disaster.
[Myers:] I know we are focused on Cullman. There are many other towns that have already been hit.
[Baldwin:] Waterloo, Alabama. Guntersville, Alabama. Couple of others
[Myers:] Big-time tornadoes on the ground.
[Baldwin:] OK, Chad Myers. 25 tornado warnings?
[Myers:] Right now. If you see a storm headed to your house today, if you're anywhere near it if you hear it, if you see it, whatever, you need to take cover. Even if it's not a tornado, that's what happens with wind damage. And if a person was in that mobile home or in that little trailer, there's obviously going to be injuries and damage there. This is a big time problem today.
[Baldwin:] We're going to stay on it. Chad Myers, stand by for me.
[Myers:] Absolutely.
[Baldwin:] I want to move to this. A big shuffle coming in the president's national security team. And Ben Bernanke goes where no Federal Reserve chairman has gone before. And we get a glimpse of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords as she heads off to watch her husband lift off into space. Time to play "Reporter Roulette." And I want to begin at the Pentagon or in Washington with Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr with some big, big changes, a big shuffle there. What is behind, Barbara, this whole national security shake up?
[Barbara Starr, Cnn Pentagon Correspondent:] Defense Robert Gates made it clear, Brooke, he wanted to step down. It now looks like he will step down in June. The CIA director, Leon Panetta, will replace him. General David Petraeus will leave Afghanistan, replace Panetta at the CIA. But take his uniform off, he'll be the director of the CIA as a civilian.
[Baldwin:] Who takes the job in Afghanistan?
[Starr:] Ah, that will be a man that not too many Americans know yet about. That is General John Allen, United States Marine Corps. Right now, he serves as the deputy at the U.S. central command. Alan, General Allen, General Petraeus, Leon Panetta, Bob Gates. These are men who know their counterparts over the world's heads of state and the heads of intelligences all over the world. A very capable team, everyone says so far, being put into place.
[Baldwin:] All right. Barbara Starr, thank you. Next on "Reporter Roulette," history is made involving the American economy. Alison Kosik is live in New York. And Alison, we had a first today! First time the chairman of the Fed ever held a news conference. What's behind this transparency? What happened today?
[Alison Kosik, Cnn Business Correspondent:] Exactly. Well, I've got to be honest with you, Brooke, nothing earth shattering happened. But he did speak in plain language. A lot of times people joke that these Fed chiefs kind of talk in code. Just mere fact that he's having this press conference is historic. It's the first ever press conference after an interest rate meeting. Now, the Fed has been around almost 100 years. Think about that. And Ben Bernanke said the goal with this is to really pull back the curtain and be more transparent, let people know what the Fed is thinking. Now over the past few years, Bernanke has been getting ready for this. He's appeared twice on "60 Minutes." He even wrote an op-ed in "The Washington Post." And by the way, these pressers are going to be happening about four times a year, so he could make history at least four times a year. Brooke?
[Baldwin:] Alison Kosik, thanks for that. But also, gas prices. Apparently, Chicago of all places, the most expensive spot to buy gas. How much?
[Kosik:] Yes, the next time you're grumbling, think of this. You're not in Chicago. Because when you're in Chicago, you pay more for gas than in any other city in the continental U.S. You can blame taxes for it, federal, state, and local taxes. The average price you're paying in Chicago, Brooke, for a gallon of gas, $4.34. And in Honolulu, keep in mind, it's $4.46. But in Illinois, it's one of the few states where you're going to pay sales tax and then on the local level, the city also has a flat tax on gas and then on top of that, you get the tax from Cook County. So, you add it all up, Brooke, and one analyst says the privilege of living in Chicago costs you 50 to 60 cents per gallon. Lucky duck if you are in Chicago paying for that.
[Baldwin:] Note to self, take the L. Take the L train. Alison, thank you.
[Kosik:] There you go! Thank you.
[Baldwin:] Next on "Reporter Roulette," senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen in Houston, Texas. She's back down there following the progress from Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, her trip to Kennedy Space Center. And Elizabeth, we know she was able to walk up those stairs, hop on the plane today. But is the trip is it a wise move considering her recovery from a gunshot wound? I mean, she's still missing a piece of her skull.
[Elizabeth Cohen, Cnn Senior Medical Correspondent:] That's right. Her doctors have been very clear, Brooke, that she was ready for this trip. They told me that weeks and weeks ago. They knew that she would be OK. It's a short trip. They are not letting her go for very long. The walking you saw, mostly, we're told, is not walking. She's walking short distances still. And, yes, she's missing a piece of her skull. I know that sounds crazy someone is traveling without a piece of their skull. But actually people do that. That piece of skull will, by the way, be replaced we're told sometime in the near future. Brooke?
[Baldwin:] And also amazing, given her injuries, she's only traveling with one nurse. Isn't that right?
[Cohen:] Right. It's amazing. She arrived here in Houston in January with several doctors, several nurses, an air ambulance all decked out with high-tech medical equipment, and she left with just a nurse. That's it. Just that one nurse. There is no special medical equipment in this plane. It's not even an air ambulance. She will be coming back here when she comes back in the same thing, we're told. So, it really is amazing the progress she's made in just a couple of months.
[Baldwin:] All of these little steps, that's all a great sign for her. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you from Texas. And that is your "Reporter Roulette" for this Wednesday. A woman, she is accused of trying to hire a hit man to kill her husband. But now as the trial begins, there's a bizarre twist in this case and it involves, of all things, a reality TV show. Also, better check your credit card statements because hackers possibly making off with the personal information of more than 70 million people. Sunny Hostin is "On The Case." We'll dig into both of those, next. And we're still keeping a close eye on this tornado outbreak there. Chad was saying and you look at the pink boxes 25 different tornado warnings. We're focusing here on Alabama. More on the breaking severe weather when we come back.