State of Emergency in Mississippi; New Focus in Flight 370 Search
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning. Tornadoes tearing a deadly path through the south overnight into the morning. More tornadoes touching down just moments ago. Indra Petersons tracking these storms and who needs to be alert right now.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Could change soon be coming to the Los Angeles Clippers? In just a few hours, the NBA's set to make an announcement about its investigation into the team's owner and racist remarks caught on tape, as sponsors pull their support from the team. Is the NBA ready to hand its own punishment?</s>BERMAN: And breaking news overnight, an official ending to the surface search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, as investigators reveal new information to the families of those on board, playing for them the last audio recordings received from the cockpit of the vanished airliner. You're going to hear these recordings. We'll bring them to you live, just ahead. Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.</s>ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans. It's 30 minutes past the hour this Tuesday morning. There is breaking news this hour from the south, where more dangerous storms hit overnight. We've got watches and warnings up for a big part of the southeast right now. The death toll stands at 29 in six states.</s>BERMAN: Mississippi among the states worst hit. The entire state there is under a state of emergency right now, this after a tornado hit Tupelo, in the Tupelo area. At least 100 homes were damaged. At least eight people there now dead. You can see the impact. Cars just thrown around. Look at this SUV. It's lifted on top and placed right on top of another one. You can only imagine what it's like to try to ride out a storm like this. Some people did that about 100 miles south in Lewisville, Mississippi. Listen to this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stay here. Oh, my god. No, no, no, no, no, no.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop. Everyone listen. Everyone listen.</s>ROMANS: Northern Alabama also struck by tornadoes that tore apart homes and businesses. At least two people are dead west of Huntsville, the result of what the National Weather Service called the large, violent twister. Another person was killed in Tuscaloosa. A major tornado also touched down just across the state line in Tennessee. At least two people dead there.</s>BERMAN: Very dangerous situation in Georgia, too. Take a look at this cell phone video from southwest of Atlanta, spotting a possible tornado on the ground. There's damage, though luckily no fatalities there. Fifteen Georgia counties are under a tornado watch this morning. Arkansas is cleaning up this morning and they're trying to make sure there are no more victims from the tornado that caused severe damage and at least 14 deaths in two towns west of Little Rock. Those who witnessed this storm call it just unbelievable.</s>BRYANT PRUIT, VILONIA, ARKANSAS RESIDENT: It was huge. It was -- it was by far the biggest one I've ever seen, and not that I've seen that many, but yes, it was a -- it was just a huge, black cloud.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: hen it just popped back up real quick and then I ran inside and about a minute it was over. I come outside and what you see is what we have.</s>ROMANS: Southeastern Kansas also affected when a two-mile-wide tornado marched its way through Baxter Springs, ripping the roofs off homes, knocking down walls. Amazingly there, no deaths reported. The governor is promising quick help for those victims.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I could have been in that. Could have been dead.</s>BERMAN: A few minutes, the difference between life and death in Keokuk, Iowa. A tornado dropping debris on that minivan. Luckily, that woman wasn't inside the vehicle yet. Another person nearby died from the storm that damaged, as you can see there, severe and extensive. Indra Petersons is tracking these storms, these storms with the threat not over yet this morning. We just heard a few minutes ago, Indra, of more twisters touching down.</s>INDRA PETERSONS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and of course this morning, we're still talking about this huge risk area. It's even gone farther, spread even wider today for severe weather. We're talking about 73 million of you under the gun for just the slight risk area. Where is that? That's in Detroit all the way through Virginia Beach, down into the south, so out towards Tallahassee, and going to be extending back to Louisiana. But today already another moderate risk, the enhanced risk is already out there from Birmingham to just north of Mobile, Alabama. This is going to be the concern, 2.5 million of you still looking at the threat for severe weather. Very easy to see, still looking this morning at tornado watch boxes, including Atlanta, just east of Montgomery, kind of just north of -- it looks like Panama City Beach. This is the concern, this line of storms already powerful this morning. Just a few minutes ago we did have a confirmed tornado. Easy to see. Once you let the sunlight in the afternoon, these storms really ramp up. Very easy to see yesterday. Eighty reports of tornado damage, especially in that focus area where we had that enhancement yesterday, even enhanced to all the way up to a high risk. Why are we still talking about the severe weather? It is such a slow- moving system. The reason for that is a huge low spinning in the northeast. This guy is pretty much blocking this system behind it. So this entire system almost staying in place. You had that cold front, you have all that warm, moist air coming out of the Gulf, really spawning up these thunderstorms into the southeast. That is the concern. So even as we go in through tomorrow, that same cold front slowly makes its way off to the east. We're still talking about advisories here from D.C. all the way down through Jacksonville for severe weather. The thing I want to point out, although the system itself is moving slow, these cells, these thunderstorms and tornadoes are moving very quickly, even as fast as 50, 60 miles per hour. So when you hear a warning, please adhere those warnings. You do not have much time. Still heavy rainfall at the other side of this. Three to five inches of rain, even through New York City today. What are we talking about? The next step is going to be some flood watches out there. And that's from New York City all the way back through Mobile. But that's the key thing. Everyone knows it's a slow system, but the tornadoes are not. Some very fast moving, do not have time. Go straight downstairs.</s>ROMANS: All right.</s>BERMAN: All right. Be alert. Thanks, Indra. Appreciate it.</s>ROMANS: All right. This morning there are more calls for the NBA to eject L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling in light of those racist comments he's alleged to have made to his girlfriend. More sponsors have now pulled their support of that team as the coach, Doc Rivers, admits he believes that it is Donald Sterling on these tapes, but he passed on a chance to speak to the owner about the controversy.</s>DOC RIVERS, COACH, LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS: These last 48 hours or more have been really hard for our players and for everyone, and I would just like to reiterate how disappointed I am in our -- in the comments attributed to our owner, and I can't tell you how upset I am, our players are.</s>KEVIN JOHNSON, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL BASKETBALL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION: When a hit of cancer is shown, you have to cut it out immediately. And I feel that's where the players are today. They don't think he's worthy to be an owner. So whether there's a sanction that includes a suspension, whether there's a sanction that includes a hefty fine, at the end of the day, the players feel very strongly that he's not fit to be an owner and a part of this NBA family.</s>ROMANS: The NBA commissioner is expected to make an announcement about its investigation at a news conference this afternoon. The Clippers play their next playoff game against the Warriors this evening. Warriors coach Mark Jackson, he's calling on fans to stay home to send a message to Sterling.</s>BERMAN: You know, maybe they won't have to. Maybe the NBA will step in, in time before that game to make some kind of dramatic announcement. Maybe the fans can go and support those players who have done nothing wrong, to be clear.</s>ROMANS: I'm interested in legally what the league can do if someone owns the team.</s>BERMAN: Murky. Murky. But it seems as if they can be suspended or they can put a lot of pressure on him to sell at some point.</s>ROMANS: Can they force him to sell?</s>BERMAN: Forcing is hard, it's very hard. The charter, the NBA charter is a private thing, but I think when all the sponsors pull out, when the players say I don't want to play for him, when the coach doesn't back him up, when everyone in the league makes him a pariah, I don't think he'll want to own that team for much longer. Let's move on now to the search for Flight 370, an official end to the hunt by air for this jet which has now been missing for nearly two months. The focus is now under water after officials acknowledge they need to search a bigger area to try to find the Boeing 777. This process now, they say, could take months. Miguel Marquez live in Perth, Australia. Good morning, Miguel.</s>MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there, John. A lot of things happening all at the same time here. That air search came to an end today with the commemoration and farewell service for the many, many hundreds of air personnel from seven different countries that got together at Pearce Air Force Base -- Royal Air Force Base just north of Perth here to take a group photo. And it's a very impressive group photo, among the many planes that they used during this search over the many months. Personnel we spoke to, Americans talking to Chinese counterparts, very pleased to take part in this, frustrated, though, that they didn't come up with anything. As for the search for the plane itself, it will continue and intensify under water. The Bluefin will continue to dive, even though it's already searched 100 percent of the most likely area where they thought the airliner was. It will continue to search north of that. They will also target an area that is about 10 kilometers or six miles north of that area, where the first ping was picked up. And then they will also prepare for a much longer search that could involve a lot of different types of devices, probably towed-type devices, side sonar devices that they can get giant scans, very fine scans of the ocean, and that would be towed by ships that would take, you know, this is an area that's 21,600 square miles. It is going to take a lot of time. They say if everything goes perfectly, it could take eight months, but probably longer.</s>BERMAN: That is a very long time. Now, Miguel, officials have said they are following up now on every lead. We just got word a few minutes ago of a possible debris sighting that they're following up on now in the Bay of Bengal. That is not close at all to where you are.</s>MARQUEZ: No, it's not close at all, and it's a bit of an odd one. This one has caught the Internet by storm overnight. There's an Australian company that claims to have found evidence of an airliner in the Bay of Bengal, mainly because they picked it up on -- by spectral analysis, basically. They have not shared any of their specific data. They say that they've written letters to the agency here coordinating the search and to the Malaysians, but they've had no response. Malaysians now saying they're looking into it. The Joint Agency Coordinating Center here, the main coordinating center for the search, says, look, it's not even in the radar track that Inmarsat gave us and we're not investigating it as serious, we don't think it's real, we're going to keep concentrating down here. We believe we have the right place down here. So it's not clear that this company, where their data is coming from and what it is, but the Malaysians now saying that they will look into it and figure out whether there is anything to it -- John.</s>BERMAN: All right. Miguel, thanks for shedding some light on that at least. Good to see you this morning.</s>MARQUEZ: You bet.</s>BERMAN: Miguel Marquez in Perth, Australia. In Beijing overnight, families received a new briefing and new details about this investigation. Our Ivan Watson was there. He'll tell us what the families heard, ahead in just a few minutes.</s>ROMANS: All right, breaking news this morning. North Korea launching new military exercises, drawing a -- harsh warning from the south.</s>BERMAN: Plus, riots in the streets of Ukraine. Protests turning violent overnight. We're live with the latest, next.