[Don Lemon, Co-host:] Dramatic images from a tornado's path. Severe storms whip through the southeast United States. Chad Myers is tracking the damage reports for us.
[Brianna Keilar, Co-host:] A company in the crosshairs: 143 million pounds of beef recalled. What you need to know.
[Lemon:] Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
[Keilar:] And I'm Brianna Keilar in for Kyra Phillips, who's on assignment in Iraq right now. You are in the
[Cnn Newsroom. Lemon:] And we begin with black smoke choking a Texas town this morning after an explosion at an oil refinery. Homes and buildings in the town of Big Spring, well, they shook from the shockwaves. And the fire that broke out closed down Interstate 20. Nearby schools were evacuated. Students there had to leave class. Classes were canceled, as well. One refinery worker was injured in the explosion, but all others have been accounted for. All others have been accounted for. It certainly looks to be a mess, though. Something Big Springs mayor says is a miracle that everyone has been accounted for here. Last we heard, the company that owns the refinery wasn't sure what caused this blast. Want to get an update now from Blake Lewis. He's a spokesman for Alon USA. Blake, it's encouraging that everyone is accounted for. Tell us what you're doing now.
[Blake Lewis, Spokesman, Alon Usa:] Don, thank you very much. Yes, we're quite encouraged by what we've what we've learned in terms of our employees and contractors. Just so that so that folks are up to speed on that, we in continuing to talk with employees and contractors after we accounted for everyone, we continued to talk to all of them and we did identify that there were three additional contractors that had lesser situations that required some medical attention. We have one contractor that was being treated for a possible concussion. And we had two additional contractors with some potential hearing problems that were being evaluated also. But again, when you consider the images that are coming in from this incident, we feel very fortunate that that this is the situation that we're up against. Obviously, you know, our thoughts are there for all four of these individuals, but we're overall very encouraged.
[Lemon:] OK.
[Lewis:] The latest on the situation is that the fire was deemed under control at approximately 9:30 Central Time this morning. An incident command post has been established at the refinery involving public safety officials from the Big Spring area, as well as refinery personnel. And they operated under our emergency action plans which, by every indication, have functioned exactly as designed. And so our next steps are to get the fire completely tapped out. And then at that point, we can get in and identify the exact extent of the damages to the facility...
[Lemon:] Hey, Blake?
[Lewis:] ... and also determine what what maybe, perhaps led to this incident occurring in the first place.
[Lemon:] Yes, exactly. But you said you have a total of four injured. Is that correct?
[Lewis:] That's correct. We have the one the one employee who was hospitalized, and then we have three contractors that just are in the process of receiving some treatments.
[Lemon:] Any idea of with this I mean, you said you don't have for sure what caused it. But just quickly, any idea of what may have caused it?
[Lewis:] No idea at this point. Again, you know, this is a situation where the wisest thing we can do is to get in as soon as we possibly can...
[Lemon:] Right.
[Lewis:] ... and collect the facts and then operate from fact.
[Lemon:] Blake Lewis, a spokesman for the refinery there. We appreciate you joining us today. Thank you.
[Lewis:] Thank you, Don.
[Keilar:] Cleaning up now across the southeast after yet another round of tornadoes. Thirty-four were reported yesterday in Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Prattville, Alabama, took a direct hit, about 200 homes and business there were damaged or destroyed, nearly 30 people hurt. Survivors say warning sirens sent them diving for cover wherever they could: in grocery store coolers, laundry rooms and even in store bathrooms. And those storms and the snow piling up, also, in the Midwest have left quite a travel mess, Chad Myers.
[Chad Myers, Cnn Meteorologist:] Absolutely. I mean, let's focus on the tornadoes first, and then we'll get to the airports in the east. From the same storm, the airports are just a wreck in the East Coast today because of all of that wind, not tornadoes in the east. But some of the worst video now we're getting in is actually from Prattville. For a while, we were seeing EF-1, EF-2 damage. Yes, power lines are down, roofs are off, lots of shingles gone. But just in the past few minutes, we've seen some aerial shots that you can really see some F-3 damage, which means the walls, some of the outside walls are gone. F-4, which means you can't even find the house, which is almost what we're seeing here. And then up to like the EF-5, you can't even find the pieces of house. They're completely gone. The F scale that we talk about is a damage scale, not so much a wind scale. But as you put them together the wind, the damage we're seeing here, at least 130 to 140 miles per hour to get that much damage here. And that brings you up into a major tornado category. Let's go over here to the maps and I'll show you here in Alabama where this actually was. Come on with me. Come on. Come on. Come on with me. Here we go. Alabama, Tennessee, we're going to zoom in to where Prattville is proper and see it's right on down into the city. The whole street, right across the kind of the northwestern part of the town itself, and then right through downtown. And all of these buildings, they're just still picking up pieces, obviously, this morning and will be for quite some time. Now, we'll kind of focus on what else happened. As that storm pulled through and moved through East Coast, the airports have really I guess they got better now, but they were really bad this morning. The winds were 20, 30, 40 miles per hour, and we were seeing now those airport delays of two to three hours. Now, sometimes you can get airport delays to go away by literally canceling flights, and that makes it look better, except you're sitting there without a plane. Now you're waiting for another plane. So it's kind of an artificial way to make it look better. And now on towards the Palm Coast. A couple of showers and storms north of Daytona Beach and a couple more south of Orlando and southeast of Orlando and then back up into the northeast up into New York City. There are some storms forming in the Poconos at this hour. We'll see if they actually get into the city, but if they do, that will slow down the airport again Brianna.
[Keilar:] That's right. You always know you're in trouble when you see that band of blue sliding across the East Coast there, Chad. Thanks a lot.
[Myers:] You're welcome.
[Lemon:] A school district in Michigan says it is tossing out ten tons of hamburger meat covered by the biggest recall in U.S. history. The recall includes nearly 40 million pounds of beef provided across the nation to the school lunch program. It was declared unfit for human consumption after a probe uncovered animal abuse at a California slaughterhouse. In all, the recall covers a whopping 143 million pounds of meat. About 25 percent went to the schools, and much of the rest was sold to fast-food restaurants. The Agriculture Department says the possibility of human illness is remote, and no cases of sickness have yet been reported. Next hour we'll look at possible health concerns raised by the recall. Our medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, will join us for that.
[Keilar:] Republican frontrunner John McCain picks up a major endorsement. This morning in Houston, former president, George H.W. Bush, officially announced he's backing the Arizona Senator. The former president calls questions about whether McCain is conservative enough absurd. But he does say McCain is not above reaching out to Democrats. And John McCain's Republican rival, Mike Huckabee, is back on the campaign trail in Wisconsin, which holds its presidential primaries tomorrow. Last night he and his wife went bowling in Milwaukee. Huckabee has three campaign events today across the state. After campaigning in Wisconsin late last week, Huckabee spent the weekend in the Cayman Islands, where he gave a paid speech to a group of young professionals. In Wisconsin, one part of the puzzle in Hillary Clinton's bid to stop Barack Obama's momentum. She's going to be campaigning at four different stops today. The latest polls show the ObamaClinton race very close in Wisconsin. And Senator Obama made a stop yesterday at the home of former rival John Edwards. During the private get-together in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Obama said he and Edwards talked about how to move the Democratic Party in a direction that focuses on middle-class issues. Edwards earlier had a private meeting with Senator Clinton. Both candidates trying very hard to win his endorsement. Some heat on the campaign trail as Bill Clinton campaigns for his wife. A Barack Obama supporter showed up at this Clinton rally in Canton, Ohio. Reports say the man claims the former president became irate and may have even touched his face during their heated exchange. Clinton campaign officials say no physical confrontation took place. The Obama campaign says the heckler was not a plant. The next big stops on the campaign trail, Texas and Ohio on March 4. But there's certain to be plenty of action before then. And you can track it all, of course, at CNNpolitics.com, plus get analysis from the best political team on television, all of that and more at CNNpolitics.com.
[Lemon:] A pivotal election day in Pakistan. Security was beyond tight as voters made their way to the polls for the first time in six years. They're electing a new parliament. And CNN's Reza Sayah says their decision could make or break the current presidency.
[Reza Sayah, Cnn Correspondent:] There are purple thumbs in Pakistan, proof of having voted in one of most important elections in Pakistani history. "Casting my vote was 100 percent necessary," says Malik Mohammed. "If you don't vote, then how can you bring change?" More than 64,000 polling stations opened at 8 a.m. throughout Pakistan. At this school in Islamabad, men lined up in one room; women lined up in another.
[Unidentified Female:] More than 50 percent of the nation of Pakistanis consisting of females in the participation, in the process of elections. It means that they are part of the politics of the country.
[Sayah:] A presiding officer watched as voters stepped in a booth, made their choices, then slipped their ballot into a transparent sealed box. The votes in these ballot boxes will determine Pakistan's next prime minister. Also at stake, the future of President Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf is not up for reelection, but polls show the majority of Pakistanis want him gone. If the two leading opposition parties win two-thirds of parliament, they'll have enough votes to impeach him. Amid fears of violence and vote-rigging, many questioned if voters would show up. Tens of thousands of troops and police guarded polling stations. There were some disruptions. Most serious: gunfights between members of rival factions that left at least a dozen dead. By mid-afternoon, after a slow start, voter turnout appeared to pick up throughout the capital. The election commission and a member of the European Union described turnout as good. At 5 p.m. the polls closed. The doors were locked. The ballot boxes were unsealed, and the counting began. "All I want," says this Dordana Pervez Kahn, "is that one good human being comes into power who does good for the country."
[Lemon:] And Reza Sayah standing by for us in Islamabad. Reza, I have a question for you. What will it look like once the votes are tallied? Can you give us some scenarios? If one person wins what it might look like? If Musharraf wins, what that might look like?
[Sayah:] Well, I've got to make it clear, Musharraf is not up for reelection. He just started his presidency, his latest term for presidency, last year.
[Lemon:] Pardon.
[Sayah:] But this election, this parliamentary election is going to impact him. It's safe to say that one side is not going to be happy. If the two opposition parties win in polls before elections show they will win, it's the party that backs Musharraf that's not going to be happy. If Musharraf's party wins, it's the opposition parties that aren't going to be happy. And they say if that happens, that's proof positive that there was vote-rigging, and they're going to take to the streets. So election day is over, but the suspense continues Don.
[Lemon:] Reza, and that's what I, yes absolutely, I meant his party. I spoke with the senator, Joe Biden, who is there from the U.S., watching the election just a short time ago. We'll have that for you a little bit later on in the NEWSROOM. Reza Sayah, we appreciate your reporting from Islamabad.
[Keilar:] Five lives, violently cut short. Students, sons, daughters, the victims of last week's Illinois campus rampage, mourned and remembered today.
[Lemon:] Their killer, also mourned by someone who still loves him. We'll talk with the gunman's girlfriend.