[Heidi Collins, Cnn Anchor:] It is billed as the last bipartisan hope for health care. Beginning right now, the Baucus proposal gets worked over by a Senate panel. The nation's mass transit systems are on alert. Officials call for more patrols after a possible bombing plot is uncovered. And huddling with world leaders. This morning, President Obama addresses both climate change and the Mideast crisis. Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. It is Tuesday, September 22nd, and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. Well, we have never before seen flooding like this in the state of Georgia. And of course, that's where we begin this morning. Look at this rain, all the way up to the tops of some of those homes. Just days of downpours have led to several deaths and also to hundreds of roads and schools being closed this morning. Our Rob Marciano, as you can see, is in one of those flooded Atlanta suburban neighborhoods. He's going to be talking a little bit more about residents, what they'll be facing today and the days to come. Also before homeowners can get to that clean up, the weather has to dry out, at least a little bit. CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras will have a forecast coming up in just a couple of minutes.
[Announcer:] You're watching CNN. Your severe weather headquarters.
[Collins:] Here's what we know about the flooding in Georgia now. At least six people are confirmed dead in metro Atlanta. The victims include a 2-year-old child. Georgia's governor has declared a state of emergency in 17 counties hardest hit by the flooding. Hazardous roads have forced hundreds of schools and classes to be canceled today. At least 10 districts in and around Atlanta are, in fact, closed. Now some areas just west of Atlanta received about 2 inches of rain since last week. Making matters worse, about a foot of that rain fell in a 12-hour period from Sunday night to Monday morning. So here's a look at just how overwhelming that rain was. Believe it or not, this is a Six Flags Amusement Park just west of Atlanta. With all the pavement and parking lots, the torrential rain simply had nowhere to go. And it turned into vast lakes that seemed to swallow up those rides and all of the buildings there. CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano is in another hard-hit area, that's the city of Austell. So Rob, give us a clue. What's going on there? We can see, obviously, how high up the water is there on your waders there.
[Rob Marciano, Ams Meteorologist:] Yes, it's actually not far from Six Flags, just across the county line. I-20 just passed Six Flags is shut down, or at least was when we tried to get here. Normally a 20- minute commute for these people took us over an hour without traffic. Give you an idea of the road situation. Well, this pretty much tells the story, doesn't it? This is just a little tiny creek, really, for the most part, Sweetwater Creek, in some of its wider spots, maybe you could do a little fly fishing, but certainly nothing like this. This entire community, about 30 to 40 homes flooded out by this storm that came through. At 8:00 yesterday morning, fire crews came through and knocked on doors, telling people to get out. That was before the water was obviously this high. And just looking around this corner now, what I can tell you it looks like is that the water is up to the second floor of some homes, and it's come down substantially. A number of cars still flooded. People were able to get some of their cars, some of their personal belongings out and park at a higher ground. But people don't know a lot about Atlanta is it's pretty hilly. And, you know, if you're in a low spot, even in you're a small creek like this, you're going to get flooded. At one point last week, it was only flowing at one foot high. The river gauge, before it stopped recording, not sure why, last night, will hit 14 feet to give you an idea just how tremendous this flooding is.
[Collins:] Wow.
[Marciano:] But as far as how far down it's come, Heidi, just really when since we've come, the water was up and over the top of this mailbox. We can see the water line right about here, probably at its highest peak late last night. It has come down substantially. A little bit of brightening in the skies. A very strange, bright orb up there that I haven't seen in a while here in Atlanta. The sun actually peeking out. So I'm not sure that means we're totally out of the clear, still a chance for showers. Jacqui will tell you about that. But for here, the worst is over. But the clean up is just going to be a nightmare. This is not, you know, beautiful spring water.
[Collins:] No.
[Marciano:] This is nasty, nasty stuff. So when it does dry out, these folks are going to have a lot of work on their hands.
[Collins:] Yes. Really thick and muddy. I'm sure some of that red clay that we see around is sticking to the bottom of your boots there. All right, Rob, we're going to check back with you a little bit later on in the morning. Obviously, the big question, is more rain on the way? Want to get over to meteorologist Jacqui Jeras who has the answer to that. Good morning to you, Jacqui.
[Jacqui Jeras, Ams Meteorologist:] Good morning, Heidi. Not a great answer, unfortunately, for a lot of folks. The answer is that rain's going to stay in the forecast. Really, at least for the next five to 10 days. Now it doesn't mean you're not going to see the sun. It doesn't mean we're going to have another deluge like that, but it does mean that the chances of rain is going to be high. And with so much moisture content still in the atmosphere, we could dump out a good inch or two in some of the isolated thunderstorms that do develop. Now we've had some light rain showers on the north side of Atlanta, but you can see some more development back here in parts of Alabama. So that's something we'll be watching in the upcoming hours. But our main system is further off to the west now. And this is what we're going to be tracking in terms of getting impulses to help trigger some of these thunderstorms in the next couple of days or so. I want to show you the big picture here. This is our upper level disturbance. This is our big weather maker now. And what this low is going to do is going to kind of trigger out these little disturbances that are going to be moving through here throughout the rest of the week. The best chances of heavy rain is going to come into play in the weekend, we think, late Friday and into Saturday. Now, we've been dealing with this for over a week now into the southeast. So we put together an animation to give you an idea what happened. Our low actually started out there near the gulf. Made its way on up to the north and then you pushed up to the north and east. And there you can see that pause on Sunday night and into Monday when we started getting that really heavy rain and now it's pulled out. So we're waiting for our next weather maker to pull in and pull through to hopefully bring a little bit of a break. Just want to show you a couple of pictures of our iReport. You heard Rob mentioning that I-20 is closed down. Well also other road closures. This is from our iReporter Jeff Taylor Watson
[Collins:] Yes.
[Jeras:] So it covers a large portion of the southeast.
[Collins:] Yes. I know your kids are out of school today. My kids are out of school today.
[Jeras:] Yes, they are.
[Collins:] Just remember, both of us being from Minnesota, you know, we've seen this happen with snow, but rare, anyway, for rain. And now, of course, the flooding that follows. So we will be checking in with you throughout the morning. Jacqui, appreciate it. Thank you. A day, a big day, in fact, for President Obama in New York. It all starts in just a few minutes with a speech at the Climate Change Summit. We're going to bring that to you live just as soon as it begins. Also on the agenda this morning, important meetings with the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian territory. CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joining us now live from New York with more on the big day. So, Suzanne, what is the president hoping to accomplish with his meetings today on Mideast peace? So we had heard, he doesn't expect that there'll be any real breakthroughs here.
[Suzanne Malveaux, Cnn White House Correspondent:] Heidi, you're absolutely right. We don't expect any major breakthroughs. White House aides, talking with them, say that this is really about showing a commitment from the Obama administration at the highest level for Middle East peace. He's going to be sitting down separately with the leader of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, then he's going to bring these two leaders together. They're all going to be in the same room. They're going to talk about things. Now, clearly, we don't expect that they're going to have any breakthroughs on the major sticking points. Palestinian security, the Israeli settlements, freezing of the Israeli settlements. But what they are going to do, they're really meant to set the stage and show that at least they are talking. At least these two sides are getting together and that this is a follow-up of many months of hard work behind the scenes. You have the special envoy, George Mitchell, who's been in the region for months now, trying to work and negotiate with these sides. It's a very difficult process, but this is a demonstration, if you will, Heidi, that the president is still engaged in the process and that he considers it a priority.
[Collins:] Yes, years and years, in fact, of attempting to work on Middle East peace in the past administrations as well. We'll continue to follow that, certainly today. Also, we're expecting to hear from the president in just a few minutes, in fact, on climate change as well. We're looking at live pictures now of the U.N. headquarter there in New York.
[Malveaux:] That's right. And what this is about is that it's really kind of setting up for something else. It's another meeting that's going to take place in December in Copenhagen when all these leaders come together. What is happening is that Kyoto Protocol, the treaty of 1997, is going to expire essentially in 2012. This basically cut the emissions, limited emissions for industrialized countries. A lot of countries signed on. Ironically, Heidi, the two biggest world polluters, China being the first one, the United States being the second, neither one of them signed on to that agreement. These are the two countries, U.S. and China, that are taking the lead now, and trying to come up with some sort of alternative to the Kyoto treaty. And so what we're going to hear from the president is that, look, the United States has taken charge of its own climate control, its own emissions and working out things like that. That China is working on it as well and that everybody needs to do their part to come up with something that they can agree on in December. That's going to be a tough deal. And the main reason why here is that people are looking for China. What is China going to do? Is it going to take responsibility in cutting its own emissions? That's why there's a meeting later today, Heidi, between President Obama and President Hu Jintao of China to see whether or not they're going to take an active role in actually cutting their own greenhouse gases.
[Collins:] Yes. Understood. And as we continue to watch these live pictures now coming in, you see U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki- Moon there. This is the beginning. We just heard the gavel come down actually of his climate change summit. So we are expecting the president to come shortly. We'll bring that to you when it happens, live. Suzanne Malveaux, thank you. And again that is just part of the president's day. Late in the afternoon, President Obama makes an appearance and speaks at the opening of the Clinton Global Initiative meetings. Former president Bill Clinton sat down with our Larry King last night. They talked about the tough tasks facing President Obama right now, including prospects for Middle East peace.
[Larry King, Cnn Host, "larry King Live":] Are we ever going to get something concrete in the Middle East?
[Bill Clinton, Former President Of The United States:] Well, I first, it's more up to them than it is up to President Obama. They need a partner in the Middle East. The Israelis do. And they need a world committed to their security. So that for those reasons, you know, I think there's a fair chance we'll get a peace agreement.
[Collins:] Be sure to check out "LARRY KING LIVE" nightly for interviews of top newsmakers and celebrities. Tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Larry will be talking with Tyra Banks. Well, after months of arguing, the Senate Finance Committee is finally taking up a health care reform bill. But there's a lot of work to do before an actual vote. And even the man who proposed it, that's him, Senator Max Baucus there, may throw some curve balls. Congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar is live on Capitol Hill this morning. So, Brianna, there are obviously some significant changes coming today. What exactly are we talking about? We knew some of these changes, some of this reshaping, if you will, was coming, but people want to hear specifics.
[Brianna Keilar, Cnn Congressional Correspondent:] Yes, and what you're really looking at, Heidi, what's going on now, is this process where this Senate Finance Committee, they're going to have opening statements as they move on throughout the week, they're going to be taking up amendments and make changes. But even before making those changes where these individual senators, 23 of them on this committee, really get to kind of put in their two cents, Senator Max Baucus, the head of the Senate Finance Committee, has announced some changes, trying to assuage the concerns of some Democrats and a key Republican, Olympia Snowe of Maine, a moderate Republican, trying to assuage their concerns that this health care plan, essentially, requires Americans to purchase insurance, but maybe doesn't make that insurance affordable enough for them.
[Collins:] Right.
[Keilar:] So Senator Baucus, we're expecting later today, Heidi, that he's going to announce that they will be increasing the subsidies to low-income and middle class Americans to make this more affordable and also decreasing the penalty for those Americans who choose not to buy insurance. Remember, it was $3,800 for a family of four. We are expecting that to go down dramatically, Heidi.
[Collins:] Yes. Anything else that we can point to here, Brianna? Because as you know, and as everyone has seen over the course of the week, it seems like senators from both sides are really trying to get this bill to be more to their liking. What else are they going to be asking for?
[Keilar:] Certainly, and Democrats as well as Republicans, they're going to be trying to make substantial changes to this, Heidi. Just to take a look at a few of the yes, 564 amendments, and I won't go through all of them.
[Collins:] Is that all?
[Keilar:] Five hundred sixty-four, but let's take a look at a few of them. One, this is proposed by Senator Jay Rockefeller, Democrat from West Virginia. Strong proponent of that government-run insurance plan, which is not in this bill. He is proposing to add that public option, that government-run insurance plan. And then Senator Ron Wyden is proposing that employers have to help cover employees. Right now, this plan encourages them to do so, but it doesn't require it. So those are just a couple of changes from Democrats. But take a look at one from Republicans. And Republicans, obviously here, trying to force some tough votes for Democrats. John Ensign of Nevada, Republican, is proposing that every time the word "fee" appears in this bill, it should be changed to "tax." So that just gives you a sense, even though this is the committee, Heidi, where we've been looking to see if there's some bipartisan come together, this is still taking on some partisan tones even as you...
[Collins:] Yes.
[Keilar:] ... look at the amendments that are being proposed here.
[Collins:] Yes. All right. Lots of questions from everybody on all of it. Again, watching Senator Max Baucus right there live. And we'll continue to follow this one throughout the day. Thank you, Brianna. In fact, do you have questions on health care reform? Or what about swine flu, H1N1? In just about 30 minutes, I'll be talking with Health and Human Service secretary, Kathleen Sebelius. We will ask her some of your questions. Just go to my blog, CNN.comheidi, and go ahead and start putting your questions there. As we said, we are awaiting the president's speech at the Climate Change Summit in New York. Looking at some live pictures now. We're going to bring that to you live just as soon as the president gets ready to speak.