New Air Traffic Control Rules; Treasury Secretary: Congress Will Raise Debt Ceiling
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN ANCHOR: Good afternoon, everyone. So glad you could be here. I'm Deborah Feyerick, in for Fredricka Whitfield. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's get you caught up on some of our top stories. In North Carolina, tornado devastation that hasn't been seen in a quarter century. At least 23 deaths are reported across the state from the powerful storm system that started Thursday in the southern plains. Across the states, the death toll now, more than 40 people. A state of emergency is in place across North Carolina. Among the hardest hit areas, Bertie County, where at least 11 deaths are now confirmed. CNN's Catherine Callaway is one of those devastated neighborhoods. Catherine, you've been driving around. You've been touring. What are you seeing?</s>CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We are in Bertie County in North Carolina, near a little community called Colerain. Take a look behind me, Deborah. Can you believe it? There were several homes here, a couple of mobile homes, and a workshop. You can't even tell where the homes were located now. And we have been touring this area with the county manager. His name is Zee Lamm. And Mr. Lamb, we have 11 fatalities in this area alone.</s>ZEE LAMB, MANAGER, BERTIE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA: Yes, the community is devastated. We've had tornadoes in the past, we've had hurricanes, we've had floods, but we've never seen the loss of life that we're seeing here today.</s>CALLAWAY: You don't expect the death toll to rise, you say, but you have a number of people that were injured as well. You can tell by these homes. It's hard to believe just in this area that we had two or three survivors from these homes here, but they are in the hospital now.</s>LAMB: Right. Two of the residents from this area are in the hospital right now. We had over 50 people transported to hospitals. Some of them were then transported to a trauma center in Greenville, North Carolina, and they're in serious condition.</s>CALLAWAY: It's difficult to try to describe the devastation here, and the width and the length of the touchdown on this tornado. We're seeing about a half-mile wide. And how long?</s>LAMB: It was estimated about a half-mile to three-quarters of a mile wide, and it lasted for about six to eight, 10 miles through the county from a little town called Askewville to Colerain.</s>CALLAWAY: Well, we are sorry for your loss here, sir. I know it's been a long night for you. Thank you for joining us.</s>LAMB: Thank you.</s>CALLAWAY: And we want to tell you that this area behind us, a large part of this property, was owned by a gentleman named Charles Bond (ph), and he said that he actually received a phone call, Deborah, from his mother as the tornado was hitting. She did survive. She is in the hospital. You can't even tell where his home was. This here is actually the floor of what used to be a home over here behind me. Behind that is a workshop. And if Tim Wall (ph), my photographer, will follow me, we want to show you this, Deborah. Look at this car. This is actually a piece of wood that has lodged itself into the front windshield. That describes and shows very well the strength of the storm. And I wanted to show you also something that we found here. One of the only things that we found that wasn't broken, we thought it was a bit ironic. It says "Home Sweet Home."</s>FEYERICK: Unbelievable.</s>CALLAWAY: So, some of the people we've talked to said they would rebuild, believe did or not, but there's nothing left. Like I said, the only thing I found was this plate.</s>FEYERICK: And that's what's so amazing, is just the randomness of these tornadoes. You never know which direction it's going to go, what's going to get hit, what's going to survive. Do you have any sense, Catherine, that the hospitals able to manage that kind of patient surge that happened? Everybody being taken care of pretty well, as far as you understand?</s>CALLAWAY: Absolutely. And this community is very small, it's very rural. But as Mr. Lamb tells us, and as some of the owners told us here, they were here right after the tornado hit, helping each other, trying to salvage what they could, trying to get those to the hospital, even though it is rural. They were able to get them -- and that is not an easy task -- to the hospital, because you can imagine, many of these roads here were blocked by fallen trees and, as you can see, debris that was traveling and lodging itself into things. So, complete devastation. Two Iraqi veterans here told Mr. Lamb that they had never seen devastation like this, even in Iraq, and it stretches for miles. Back to you.</s>FEYERICK: Wow. Catherine Callaway, thank you so much. And we're looking forward to checking in with you a little later on. I know you've got a lot of great video. And we'll be back in touch with you in just a short while. Thanks so much. Well, both Camp Lejeune and Fort Bragg sustained damage in the storms in North Carolina. We'll speak with Camp Lejeune's public affairs director in live interview just 20 minute from now. Emergency crews are racing against the clock to save a trapped miner in northeast Idaho. The man was one of two working in a mine called Lucky Friday outside Mullan, Idaho, when part of the roof collapsed Friday. The other miner escaped. Special digging equipment is being brought in to help the rescue effort. The trapped miner hasn't been heard from since the collapse. And remote-controlled robots has entered one of the damaged reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power plant. These are picture of the robots, you can see there, opening the inner door to reactor 3. They're being used to gather the latest radiation, water and temperature readings. And back in this country, the budget debate shifts to raising the debt ceiling. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said today that responsible lawmakers on both sides of the aisle realize that rejecting an increases could cause major problems.</s>TIMOTHY GEITHNER, TREASURY SECRETARY: I want to make it perfectly clear that the Congress will raise the debt ceiling.</s>CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, "THIS WEEK WITH CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR": You're sure about that?</s>GEITHNER: Absolutely. And they recognize it, and they told the president that on Wednesday in the White House. I sat there with them and they said we recognize we have to do this and we're not going to play around with it, because we know that the risks would be catastrophic. And it's not something you can take too close to the edge.</s>FEYERICK: The debt ceiling now standing at $14.3 trillion. Well, another air traffic controller caught sleeping on the job just as the FAA says enough is enough. Today, the government announced new air traffic control rules that will go into effect immediately. Sandra Endo is following this from Washington. Sandra, I'll tell you, I fly through airports several times a month. The thought that an air traffic controller could be sleeping, are we just seeing the tip of the iceberg?</s>SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very disconcerting, Deborah, especially with so many travelers flying the friendly skies, supposedly. And there are a slew of new changes to tell you about today, and these changes are all an effort to crack down on controllers falling asleep on the job. The FAA and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood are making immediate changes to the schedules for air traffic controllers to combat fatigue. Now, under these new guidelines announced today, controllers will now have a minimum of nine hours off between shifts instead of eight. They will no longer be able to swap shifts unless they have nine hours off in between, and controllers will not be able to work an unscheduled midnight shift following a day off. And there will be more FAA managers covering early morning and late night hours. Now, in a one-on-one interview, Transportation Secretary LaHood vows to put an end to the problem.</s>RAY LAHOOD, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: This is outrageous. As soon as I heard about these controllers sleeping, I expressed my outrage and talked about the fact that I wanted the controllers suspended, I want an investigation, and I want the public to know we will not allow controllers to sleep on the job. We simply will not. And I'm steamed about it.</s>ENDO: Now, tomorrow, FAA officials and the Air Traffic Controllers Union are starting a nationwide tour in Atlanta to talk to controllers to hear their concerns and to really hammer home the issue of safety -- Deb.</s>FEYERICK: This is such a grueling job when you think of the number of planes coming in and out of various airports, but it is striking to me that one of the changes is to put a second controller into the tower, especially on the overnight shift. That seems like something that you would just expect, and yet 26 airports didn't have that. Now they do. Again, are these going to be measurable changes? Are they really going to make a difference? And why hasn't it been done sooner?</s>ENDO: Well, that's certainly the goal here. The transportation secretary is steamed over the issue. He is outraged, he says, that this happened so many times, reportedly seven times, since the start of the year. And he says there are going to be changes in place, and if those changes don't work, Deb, he says there will be more on the way. But as you mentioned, this is not a new problem. In 2007, the National Transportation and Safety Board even recommended ways to combat fatigue that air traffic controllers have felt during their shifts. They recommended these shift changes as well. So, as to why these changes didn't happen sooner, or why they haven't worked, that is the big question. But the real thing the secretary pointed out is that changes are happening right now.</s>FEYERICK: All right, Sandy Endo. Thank you so much. A lot of good men and women working as air traffic controllers, but certainly a little bit disconcerting, those who are falling asleep on the job, shall we say. Thanks so much.</s>ENDO: Sure.</s>FEYERICK: Well, should drug cartels be classified as terrorists? One congressman thinks so. We're going to sit down with him and talk to him in the NEWSROOM. That's coming up next. You'll want to hear it.