GOP Caucus in Washington State
WHITFIELD: All right, damage from the storms has extended all the way into Georgia. Dozens of homes damaged overnight and parts of the state were under a tornado watch until 5:00 o'clock this morning. Reporter Jennifer Mayerle is in Dallas, Georgia. Jennifer, tell me about the damage in that area.</s>JENNIFER MAYERLE, REPORTER: We're actually here at Poole (ph) elementary school here in Dallas, in Paulding County. It's the only school in the country that received some damage. And just take a look. You can see that the roof came completely off. It is off the entire front of the building. It actually extends about six different classrooms. And I'm going to walk you in and show you what one of those classrooms looks like. Just take a look here. With the roof coming off, you can actually see all the way up to the sky and actually the blue sky here today. But you can see how the roof came off and the tiles just fell in, causing a lot of rain damage to this classroom. You can just see the desks are just soaked. The floor is actually just quite a mess. And actually, even on the walls, some of the artwork has just begun to kind of smear down. You can see how that rain took it down. And even on the side all the way into that classroom -- there's the computer, the projector and the TV. Everything that they have in here is just really waterlogged and soaked. And actually, beyond this wall, there's two -- there's another classroom where the wall completely caved in and fell -- but the classroom is actually OK and didn't have any damage. But just take a look here. I mean, this is the kind of water that we're talking about. Everything is just soaked and waterlogged in here. The good thing about it is that no students were here at the time. We talked to the principal as well, as the superintendent of the schools here, and they said they are just so thankful this happened at 9:30 at night instead of 9:30 in the morning, when students could have been here in class. They did tell me, though, that when they do tornado drills, the kids actually go to the interior class -- to the interior halls. There's four wings and they all line up in there. And even though there's damage to the front of the building, damage to the back side of the school, those four wings are completely fine. So they said they are thankful to know that had this actually -- that had students actually been here at the time, they would have been OK. They would have been safe. But again, a lot of damage in this area. Homes around this school here also damaged. We're hearing as many as 40 homes have damage, as well as the airport. Of course, we'll keep bringing you live pictures from here in Paulding County. But for now, back to you, Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Jennifer. Appreciate that, out of Dallas, Georgia. And of course, we'll keep you posted on the storm damage and new storm threats, as well, for today. Meantime, let's talk politics right now. In less than an hour, Washington state kicks off its Republican presidential caucuses. Forty delegates are up for grabs. CNN political reporter Shannon Travis is joining us now from Lakewood, Washington. Quite the buzz of excitement there, Shannon?</s>SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: There's a lot of buzz of excitement, Fred. Let me just start by telling you what the chairman of the Republican Party here in Washington state told me yesterday. He said that normally, none of the presidential candidates come here, Fred, because Washington's primary and caucus systems used to be well after super-Tuesday, and by then, the nominee was pretty much almost picked. But this year, obviously, we know that this is a special case. He says that Washington state used to be like the ugly sister invited to the dance, but now it's like the princess. Now, another thing that Kirby Wilbur, the Washington GOP chairman, told me is that he predicts that this race will come down between Ron Paul and Mitt Romney. Now, why? Why is the chairman handicapping the race, essentially, Fred? He says that Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich don't have the infrastructure here. That's really interesting because all four of the candidates in recent days have all campaigned here for the 40 delegates at stake in Washington. Let's kind of look behind me and show you -- I want to show you what's going on right now, Fred. You've got a lot of caucus goers from this area here in Lakewood gathering already. Bob Brown (ph), who's the man in charge of this particular caucus site -- it's one of 450 caucus sites across Washington today -- he tells me that, potentially, between 500 and 600 people might actually be showing up here. We did a little hand count on our own. We're estimating maybe just over 100. But again, the day is still young, Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. All right. And then, you know, right around the corner is super-Tuesday. Ten states and lots of delegates up for grabs there. That really is the place where many of the candidates are concentrating their efforts.</s>SHANNON: Absolutely. I mean, this is almost like the coronation (ph) to the ball (ph) on Tuesday, Fred. As you mentioned, super-Tuesday, 10 states, 419 delegates up for grabs -- Ohio, places like Ohio. I mean, a lot of these candidates have been criss-crossing -- racking up a lot of frequent flier miles, I'm sure, but criss-crossing the country because that's going to be really key. It's a lot of delegates at stake in this hunt for those 1,144 that they need to win this nomination. So the four candidates that have been coming here to Washington state have obviously been playing up, you know, that they want to win in Washington, but they've been looking ahead to Tuesday, Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: Yes, but clearly, nothing being taken for granted there with the candidates spending a little time in Washington state --</s>TRAVIS: That's right.</s>WHITFIELD: -- today, where that caucusing is taking place. Thanks so much, Shannon Travis, coming to us from Lakewood there. All right, a program note. Both Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul will be guests on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" tomorrow morning. Then join me every Sunday afternoon 4:00 o'clock Eastern time for a special hour dedicated to the presidential contenders in this 2012 election. And then just three days, super-Tuesday, March 6, 12:00 o'clock Eastern time, Wolf Blitzer and CNN's political team will be hosting a new program, "THE CNN ELECTION ROUNDTABLE." It's a live insider chat about the day's implications for the presidential race. You want to go to CNN.com/roundtable for more on that come Tuesday, super-Tuesday. All right, actress Nicollette Sheridan is suing "Desperate Housewives" for wrongful termination. She says it all started over a slap. Our "Legal Guys" weigh in after this.