[Tony Harris, Cnn Anchor:] And good morning, again, everyone. You are informed with CNN. I'm Tony Harris.
[Heidi Collins, Cnn Anchor:] Hi there, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. Developments keep coming in to the CNN NEWSROOM on this Friday, June 13. Here's what's on the rundown. Deluge in the Midwest. Homes evacuated, roads shut down. Many rivers keep rising. Some towns may not see a crest for days.
[Harris:] And a hitch before homecoming? NASA looking into possible problems on the shuttle Discovery in the NEWSROOM. An Iowa town under water this morning. Imagine that for a second. The Midwest battered by more record floods and reeling from deadly tornadoes. A huge section of downtown Cedar Rapids, Iowa is submerged. We will take threw live. Also, mourning four boy scouts killed when a tornado flattened their Iowa camp and picking up the pieces from tornadoes that killed at least two people in Kansas.
[Collins:] And thousands of people forced from their homes in Cedar Rapids, Iowa because of flooding. Our Betty Nguyen has been watching the water rise all morning long. She's joining us now live. And Betty, from the shots behind you and what we have been watching as you walk around there in that water, looks like you need taller waders.
[Betty Nguyen, Cnn Correspondent:] I know. I need some waders to come up here. I can't even get nearly down to the homes that you see behind me that are just filled with water. At this hour, we're looking at get this the governor has declared 83 counties disaster zones. There's only 99 counties in the state. And to give you a little more perspective, there are 100 city blocks under water. This particular neighborhood, as you can see, homes are just flooded. A lot of these homes have basements and that bottom floor is just filled with water. This is a 500-year flood zone. This is not supposed to happen into this neighborhood. And in fact, a lot of neighbors have started to come out. They've seen our coverage and they want to see what's the latest with their home. I want to introduce you to Ron and his daughter. Ron lives just down the street. And in fact, you saw your house on our air. Could you believe the water?
[Ron Bilsland, Cedar Rapids Resident:] I couldn't believe the water came up this far. I have never seen it or heard from my relatives they coming up this far in their lifetime.
[Nguyen:] And yesterday, in fact, someone had to come knocking on your door and said it's time to go.
[R. Bilsland:] Correct. A gas company came by and knocked on the door and told me they were going to disconnect the gas and to try to be out by 6:00.
[Nguyen:] You were able to get your family out. But your daughter is with us. And you're a little worried because you still have a cat back in the house, don't you?
[Kaitlyn Bilsland, Daughter:] Yes.
[Nguyen:] What do you think has happened to the cat?
[K. Bilsland:] Well, maybe she's probably just like laying down and maybe enjoying it.
[Nguyen:] Enjoying it. Really? She's probably one of the very few that are enjoying this. Although you told me a little bit earlier she may be upstairs so might not be in harm's way?
[K. Bilsland:] Yes.
[Nguyen:] Well, that's good to hear. What do you do now? Do you have flood insurance? Because, after all, this is a 500-year flood zone. A lot of people don't have insurance here.
[R. Bilsland:] No, we don't. We purchased the house last spring and when we went to get the loan we were told that we didn't need flood insurance. So we didn't purchase any. Now it's we're going to have just work more overtime and trying to get a loan or hopefully the government will step in and give us a hand to replace the hot water, heater, conditioning system. I can really say it's a mess. But so far it looks like the water hasn't reached the first floor, just the basement. And there's a few things down there, Christmas items and stuff, that we need to get to. We've lost those. Those can be replaced in time.
[Nguyen:] Yes, at least you and your family are alive. That's the main thing. And really, what is so amazing about all of this, Heidi, is the fact that despite all the water that you see, 7,000 homes and businesses had to be evacuated, that's 19,000 people including a hospital, Mercy Hospital, had to have 176 people evacuated from that. But of all of this, there have been no fatalities. So that is the good news. But the bad news is that this is an epic flood. When we talk about numbers here, this river, the Cedar River is expected to crest today and it is at this hour at 32 feet. The last record was back in 1929 at 20 feet. So that gives you an idea...
[Collins:] Holy cow.
[Nguyen:] ... of how much water has moved on into these neighborhoods. And as far as we've been here this morning, we've been here for a few hours. It has advanced through the streets here at least 10 feet. That's been in the past five hours. So hopefully things will start to dry out and recede because the families who live here really need to get in their homes and try to take as much as they can of that water out and restore what's possible.
[Collins:] Yes, and then you mentioned some of the pets, too, hoping that most of those pets are out of there.
[Nguyen:] Yes.
[Collins:] We know that people are safe. So that's good news. But I'm sure a lot of kids...
[Nguyen:] Absolutely.
[Collins:] ... are worried about their dogs and cats. So we appreciate that. Betty Nguyen live from Cedar Rapids this morning.
[Harris:] Want to get to Tim Fitzgerald. He is on the line with us. He is the president of Liberty Bank in Cedar Rapids. Tim, thanks for your time this morning.
[Tim Fitzgerald, Pres., Liberty Bank, Cedar Rapids:] You bet, Tony.
[Harris:] Hey, Tim, if you would describe boy, describe the scene downtown. We're seeing pictures, but you know, the pictures are one thing. And then to actually see it for yourself is something different. Describe your downtown.
[Fitzgerald:] We went we're located on 3rd Street Southeast. We're three to four blocks away from the river. We went into an evacuation mode on Wednesday afternoon. Sandbagged the building and moved all critical records. And we were told that we probably would not experience any floodwater. At 7:00 yesterday morning, 3rd Street in front of our office was did not have water. And at 12:30 yesterday afternoon, we were surrounded by three to four feet of water.
[Harris:] Whoa. You know so much of the focus on Wednesday was Cedar Falls and the sandbagging effort that was going on there to save the downtown. Did you have a sense that maybe you would not be as impacted as it turned out?
[Fitzgerald:] Yes. And I think the general feeling was that there wouldn't be if we did have water, it would be minimal and probably only in the basement. I don't think anybody expected because the prediction on Wednesday was that our flood stage would reach 24.7. And as you just said in the previous report, it's almost 32 feet right now.
[Harris:] Boy. So what do you do now? I guess you just have to wait. And is the water rising? Is it starting to recede now? Where do things stand for you right now?
[Fitzgerald:] It's still rising right now, Tony. The last I heard is that it's supposed to crest sometime this afternoon. They think they're close to being at the crest point and we're expecting probably late next week before where we couldn't be able to get back into our building and assess damage...
[Harris:] Are you kidding me? You're talking about late next week before you can get back to the building and assess what you have?
[Fitzgerald:] Yes, yes. We've moved all of our staff to another location. We're working out of that location. But I based on how much water is there, I'm thinking it's going to be Wednesday or Thursday at the earliest before we'll be able to get into the building.
[Harris:] What are you hearing in terms of the historic nature of this? I don't know how long you can live there in town but...
[Fitzgerald:] I have been in Cedar Rapids for 21 years. I was here when the floods of '93 hit. No comparison between the two. This is just catastrophic.
[Harris:] Whoa. And the good people of Cedar Rapids, talk to us about their nature. And once you're able to get back on the ground, I would imagine the spirit to pull together and clean this up will be really strong. We've seen the efforts in Cedar Falls and I suspect it will be there in Cedar Rapids.
[Fitzgerald:] You know there's a tremendous work ethic here. And everybody will pitch in and it's just it's going to be a long, dirty summer, I'm afraid.
[Harris:] Yes.
[Fitzgerald:] The fortunate thing that we're happy with is none of our staff lost their homes and everybody's safe.
[Harris:] And you're able to keep them working?
[Fitzgerald:] Able to keep them work.
[Harris:] Well, that's great. Tim Fitzgerald, sounds like you're really making the best of a horrible situation. Thanks for your time and thanks for giving us that vivid description of what it is like right now in your downtown. Tim, appreciate it. Thanks.
[Collins:] Want to check in now with Reynolds Wolf in the Severe Weather Center with more of a picture of what's happening in Iowa, because, you know, Reynolds, there are, I'm sure, people out there who don't know the geography very well and I think you have some other pictures coming in from flooded Des Moines as well. Yes. Hey, Reynolds.
[Reynolds Wolf, Ams Meteorologist:] Sure.
[Collins:] That live shot you pulled up in Des Moines of the bridges? We were looking at that yesterday. And you could see just the top of the underpass where people would, you know, normally be driving underneath. And now, obviously, today that is completely gone. We were trying to pull up a picture to show a comparison there. But if anybody who's watching yesterday, this is a very different picture. And amazing how quickly it changes.
[Wolf:] And think of all the undue stress that is being put on those bridges.
[Harris:] That's a great point.
[Wolf:] I mean the bridges are constructed to deal with current at the bottom near the base of the bridge, not so high up.
[Collins:] Yes.
[Harris:] Yes.
[Wolf:] And then you know, the force of that water, pushing, pushing, pushing, and the debris that it's picked up and carried by that water and bashing up against those bridges...
[Harris:] That's a great point.
[Wolf:] ... you really have to worry about the really the strength of those structures.
[Collins:] Yes.
[Wolf:] So how long are they going to hold up?
[Collins:] Afterwards, too. Yes, absolutely. All right, we're going to keep looking for that picture because we want to show that comparison. We'll look for that and check back with you later on. Thank you, Reynolds.
[Wolf:] All right, guys.
[Collins:] The devastating toll of a deadly twister in Iowa painfully evident on these faces. About 100 people gathered last night at a memorial vigil to honor four boy scouts. They were killed after a tornado tore through their camp in western Iowa on Wednesday. The twister's 145-mile-per-hour winds destroyed a building where the scouts had taken shelter. Among those grieving at the vigil, parents whose children survived the ordeal.
[Unidentified Parent:] Just as easily could have been my kids. And, you know, of course, you do think of scouts as your family and that they are all our kids.
[Collins:] At least 12 people injured at the boy scout camp are still in the hospital.
[Harris:] We're talking about terrifying memories for the boy scouts who lived through that monster tornado in Iowa. They are talking about their ordeal and giving heart wrenching descriptions of the scene moments after the twister hit. CNN's Dan Simon reports.
[Dan Simon, Cnn Correspondent:] The tornado that tore apart this boy scout camp came so fast it didn't seem real.
[John Porter, Boy Scout:] I just kept waiting for myself to wake up from a dream. I still couldn't believe that I was that I had actually been there and gone through that.
[Simon:] But John Porter, Jack Pape, and Phillip Brunetti did. They're among the survivors. But they were also rescuers helping the injured and holding each other together.
[Phillip Brunetti, Boy Scout:] Some of our leadership skills were used in that tornado because I think that's what saved a lot of people.
[Simon:] They took cover shelters one moment, rubble the next. [On Camera] Describe what the scene looks like.
[Jack Pape, Boy Scout:] There's just chaos. I mean there's rubble, there's guys laying around, a lot of guys, a lot of blood lost. You could tell. And the whole pavement the whole foundation was covered in like a light red because the blood was mixed in with rainwater. It was just chaos. It was gruesome. And we and tried to find who was hurt the worst and help them.
[Simon:] But some scouts were beyond help and were killed in the storm. Ben Petrzilka and Aaron
[Pape:] The kid he kept trying to get back up, I mean and he said, I'm not hurt. I'm fine. And I said, yes, you are. You need to stay down. I said Don't move, because I was afraid there might be nerve damage or something.
[Porter:] I was talking to people that were hurt. There was one who had a broken leg and he was in extreme pain. And we just had to keep asking him questions like, what was his name, what's his favorite color, what's he like to do. And it was really it was just really sad.
[Simon:] But true to the motto, they were prepared. Emergency training just a day before the tornado struck.
[Lloyd Roitstein, Boy Scouts Of America:] They rap it and we teach the scouts when they were in the wilderness what to do, where to go in case there's a storm. But there was no there's no building that could stand the force of that tornado that hit.
[Porter:] I'm just going to remember that since I was one of the people that wasn't hurt, there's a reason for that. God put me here for a reason. I'm going to try to do whatever I can to remember that.
[Collins:] Very young boy there. We want to switch gears completely for a moment and go back to the story we were telling you about on the space shuttle and some strange debris that was sort of floating in space. As you know, the shuttle Discovery is planning to land tomorrow getting to do their preparation for that. Miles O'Brien has been watching the story and spoken with some people at NASA. He's going to give us the very latest. Miles, what's the deal?
[Miles O'brien, Cnn Chief Technology Correspondent:] Yes...
[Collins:] We know what it is yet?
[O'brien:] We've been working that working the phone pretty hard on this one and the e-mail is hard, Heidi, and by the way, I it's 11:15 a.m. Eastern Time is the planned landing.
[Collins:] OK.
[O'brien:] Just to back people up just a little bit before we get to what we think this might be. They were in the process of getting ready for landing, testing out their surfaces, making sure all the flaps move when they should, the rudder moves when it should. The front rockets fire all the things that are part of the routine before a landing, as they say, which is scheduled tomorrow. Now look what happened in the course of doing that. Take a look at this tape and you'll see this piece of debris that we are talking about. It's right there and it kind of glimpse in the sunlight and some people said ice. I look at it. Didn't seem like ice to me. Sure enough, Mission Control now strongly believes it is a clip which holds insulation to the rudder on the space shuttle Discovery. Come back to me now live and I'll show you what I'm talking about. Back in this area here, this is the rudder, this is tail section. The rudder controls the way the vehicle goes this way. But it also interesting on the shuttle, it's unusual, it splits in both directions and operates as a speed brake as well once it hits the runway. In the course of testing all that out, that clip broke free. And when it broke free, apparently a piece of the insulation which it was supposed to clip and hold to the structure there broke free. Now let me just show what you I'm talking about right down to there. And if you look, you see that little protrusion there? It's kind of hard to see but it's right there in that section there. And it's a piece of insulation. Now is that a huge concern? The shuttle, of course, endures 2,000 to 3,000 debris in some places as it returns to earth. We're told by NASA that this is an area that is not a huge concern because it is not necessarily a hotspot. Now they're still working on this, though. There are some options that may could include potentially going to go and do it have a space walk at the end of one of that long boon they have and take a looksy very early before they're going to be making any decisions along this line. Couple things to remember here, Heidi, that are very important. First of all, they have several days of margin to stay in orbit on their own. And they also have enough gas propellant in here to go back and dock at the International Space Station if they had serious concerns about the shuttle. Having said all of that, no reason to believe that there are any serious or grave concerns about the orbiter right now. In about 32 minutes or so, 11:52 a.m. Eastern Time, previously scheduled news conference with the crew. CBS News will be conducting the interviews. And we're going to dip into that. We'll listen to what the crew has to say about what they say and what their concerns are right now Heidi.
[Collins:] OK. Important to point out, though, that was previously scheduled. Don't want to cause any extra alarm there. All right. CNN's Miles O'Brien for us. Thanks, Miles.
[Harris:] And happening right now in Pemberton, New Jersey, a John McCain town hall meeting due to get under way. John McCain is expected to have something to say and he's speaking now. Let me pipe down and here is John McCain.
[Sen. John Mccain , Presumptive Presidential Nominee:] Rule of law, the fundamental element of democracy and he serves and does it without publicity and without any of the attendant things that go with being in the United States senator. He does it as a member of the uniformed military. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, thank you. Former secretary of the Navy John Lehman is here. John, thank you for being here and thank you for all you've done. I'd like to recognize a friend, a great friend of the state of New Jersey and a great friend of all of us who has completed 24 years of service in the Congress,. Congressman Jim Saxton. Jim, thank you for your service and thank you for your membership in Congress. I congratulate my friend, former congressman, Dick Zimmer, who will be the next senator from the great state of New Jersey. Dick, thank you for good luck to you. Chris Meyers, mayor of Medford, who is running for Jim Saxton's seat. Chris, congratulations to you. And I'd like to just recognize I have an old comrade and friend here. Long ago and far away I was onboard that a boy. That a guy, yes. I was onboard a aircraft carrier called the USS Forrestal. We had a terrible fire. 234 brave young members of that crew gave their lives fighting that fire on that day. And one of my shipmates is here, Richard White, who also received the Bronze Star. Richard, you're here. I thank you, my friend, for being here and thank you for your service. And...
[Mccain:] Could I ask... And could I ask your indulgence for one more moment before I begin rather brief remarks and then get to what you came here for and that is the town hall meeting. But before I do, I see these funny hats. And I see these wonderful, wonderful people who served our country in time of conflict and our most cherished and greatest Americans, our veterans. Would you all stand so we can thank all of our veterans who are here today and who served in all wars? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, sir. God bless. Thank you all. Thank you very much. And I'd like to say again to our veterans, thank you for your support. Thank you for your friendship. But most of all, thank you for your service to our country. And I want to promise you, I want to give you my solemn commitment. We will take care of the health care needs of our veterans. That is our highest priority. And we will care for them. George Washington in in 1789, George Washington said that the ability for young Americans to serve their country in time of war is directly related to how the nation treated those who were who served in previous conflicts. George Washington was as accurate in 1789 he is today as accurate as he was then. My friends, I want to just make a few comments to you and then I'd like to respond to your comments and your questions. And I'd like to begin by saying these town hall meetings are the most important part, of my view, of the process. Because it not only gives you a chance to hear from me, and I'll try not to make you hear from me for very long, but it gives me an opportunity to hear from you. It gives us a glimpse, an idea, of your hopes and your dreams and your aspirations and your frustrations today and the challenges that you face, and better sets our priorities. And it helps me enormously. I just give you I'd like to give you one small example. When I ran in 2000, young people came to town hall meetings all over New Hampshire. And Americans said what are you going to do about climate change? I didn't know anything about climate change. I went back to this after I lost I went back to the United States Senate and I began to look into this issue. And it became a very high priority for me. Thanks to the interface that I had with young men and women. But town hall meeting are important. I think that the good thing about the town hall meetings, you don't have the SPAN, you don't have the sound bites, you don't have the Senator Graham and Senator Lieberman and I had worked very hard to make sure that we didn't torture any prisoners, that we didn't mistreat them, that we abided by the Geneva Conventions which is applies to all prisoners. But we also made it perfectly clear and I won't go through all the legislation we passed and the prohibition against torture but we made it very clear that these are enemy combatants. These are people who are not citizens. They do not and never have been given the rights that citizens of this country have. And my friends, there are some bad people down there. There's some bad people. So now what are we going to do? We're now going to have the courts flooded with so-called, quote, "habeas corpus" suits against the government whether it be about the diet, whether it be about the reading material. And we are going to be bollixed up in a way that is terribly unfortunate because we need to go ahead and adjudicate these cases. And by the way, 30 of the people who've already been released from Guantanamo Bay have already tried to attack America again. One of them just a couple of weeks ago, a suicide bomber in Iraq. So our first obligation is the safety and security of this nation and the men and women who defend it. This decision will harm our ability to do that. And I'll and you know, Chief Justice Roberts I would like to give you one quote from him. Chief Justice Roberts is probably one of most respected jurists in the history of this nation. And by the way, Senator Obama opposed and voted against his confirmation to the United States Supreme Court. But let let me just say let me just quote to you from what Chief Justice Roberts wrote. Usually a fairly mild individual in his opinions. Very briefly. "So who has won? Not the detainees. The court's analysis leaves them with only the prospect of further litigation to determine the content of their new Habeas right, followed by further litigation to resolve their particular cases, followed by further litigation before the D.C. Court. And then he ends up not the rule of law, unless by that is meant the rule of lawyers who will now arguably have a greater role than military and intelligence officials in shaping policy for an alien enemy combatants and certainly not the American people who today lose a bit more control over the conduct of this nation's foreign policy to unelected politically unaccountable judges. Now, that's the opinion of Chief Justice Roberts, of the United States Supreme Court. So, my friends and as I mentioned, Senator Obama, strongly supported this decision. That's another part of the process the American people are going to go through when they decide who should be Commander in Chief and best make this nation safe. Now, let me just make a couple of more comments, if I could, to you very quickly. My friends, there are three there three major challenges of this campaign. And I can epitomize them very briefly. Reform, prosperity, peace. And I's like to say a couple of words about each of those major challenges we have. And first, let's remember that unless we reform the way we do business in Washington and work together, putting the country first, which I have done throughout my entire political career, we will continue to see the gridlock in Washington which is unacceptable, given the challenges that America faces today. I promise you, I will reach across the aisle, I know how to work with the Democrats. Preserving my conservative principles but we must fix the broken system in Washington and the biggest part of that and the most visible part of that is the out-of-control wasteful pork- barrel, earmark spending which has corrupted the process in Washington.
[Harris:] There you have John McCain, in Pemberton, New Jersey, at a town hall meeting. You heard a lot there. John McCain had a lot to say about yesterday's Supreme Court decision on the rights of detainees held in Guantanamo Bay. The court had a 5-4 decision, decided to provide detainees legal footing to contest the grounds of their detention in federal court. Again, that was a 5-4 ruling. John McCain just moments ago, calling that one of the worst decisions in the history of the country. I'm sure that Barack Obama will have plenty to say about this as he was also attacked by the senator this morning on health care, taxes and spending. Barack Obama with an event next hour in Columbus, Ohio.
[Collins:] The power of floods, utility poles swept away. Huge dumpsters floating down river. Coping with catastrophe in Cedar Rapids. Coming up in the NEWSROOM.