Crews Rescue 17 from Rubble; California to Cut Prison Population; NYC's Outdoor Smoking Ban Starts; "Rapture" Rescheduled to October 21
COSTELLO: Our special coverage of the Missouri tornado continues just ahead. Checking on some other stories cross country now -</s>COSTELLO (voice-over): The Supreme Court has ordered California to trim its state prison population by more than 30,000. It's just got two years to do it. The problem, huge overcrowding that the court found cruel and unusual. State officials hope it avoid mass releases. New York City's expanded smoking ban has now taken effect. No lighting up at parks, beaches, or pedestrian plazas, you know, like Times Square. Violators risk a $50 fine. He may seem like he's 0-2 on the rapture, but the Christian broadcaster forecasting the doomsday drama said he just misunderstood the bible's message.</s>HAROLD CAMPING, CHRISTIAN BROADCASTER: The great earthquake and rapture and the universe melting in fervent heat will happen on the last day, October 21, 2011. In other words, we are -- we've been teaching that it would happen on May 21, but it's all going to be compressed on the last day.</s>COSTELLO: He just changed the date now. He says it will happen on October 21.</s>COSTELLO: We want to head live to Joplin, Missouri, where emergency management officials are holding a press conference. Let's listen in.</s>MARK ROHR, JOPLIN CITY MANAGER: Not only on the city's side and the volunteer side, but we would ask that everyone else keep that in perspective and that you help us get the word out to accomplish that end. We will allow photos from afar. We still need to contain the work area to allow those volunteers to get in and do their work and rescue people. Citizens can contact the following phone number for status on their friends and their family -- 417-659-5464. Once again, 417-659-5464 or log on to the following web site -- www.safeandwell.org. Once again, www.safeandwell.org, s-a-f-e and w- e-l-l.dot-org. The second message we have today, which is very important is we have to test our emergency sirens during the good weather to make sure that they're fully operable. Because we're following the advice of our friends from the National Weather Service and there's the possibility of further inclement weather. So we have to make sure they're up and running so we can protect our citizens. We have nine sirens that we will sound at 10:30 a.m. this morning with the sun out, hopefully, and we need to get word out to residents not to panic, not to be alarmed that we have to do this to ensure their future safety. Once again, at 10:30 a.m., we're going to sound the sirens at nine locations throughout the city to test them, to make sure that they're working properly. And we want to make sure people don't panic and don't overreact to those sirens. We're just doing that so if we need to affect repairs we know where we have a problem, and we can go about doing so. Once again, Joplin is a great city. We've suffered a devastating loss. We will recover, and we will recover strongly, more strongly than we were when we began. And we will accomplish that end, and we have a lot of volunteers and a lot of help to facilitate that. The last message that we want to convey today is those people that do need help in terms of recovery. We have our friends from FEMA here that have done a wonderful job being on the ground and partnering with the city and offering a personal touch to work with us to work with the citizens to make sure they get the assistance they need. And we have information that we want to convey, but I wanted to introduce the deputy director of FEMA, Rich Serino. He came from D.C. to help us here, and he's going to provide some specific information that we would like your assistance to deliver to the residents. So they know what they can do to get the help they need so they can yet their lives back to -- can get their lives back to normal as soon as possible. Rich, if you would come up and deliver some of that information.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Quickly, I want you to know -- I have this written down, I haven't asked because of the wind. Afterwards, I can go around and do it. That way you aren't trying to get the numbers --</s>RICHARD SERINO, FEMA DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Thank you. It's arrive -- I arrived here yesterday, and the president was able to declare the two counties involved a disaster area, which freed up the ability for people to get individual assistance as well as bring public assistance as needed. One thing that we want people to do is when they need help is to call 1-800-621-fema. That's 1-800-621-fema or they can go to www.disasterassistance.gov, www.disasterassistance.gov or m.fema.gov. Any of those sites people can go, register and get some help. With that we'll be able to offer them individual assistance as they need it, as they're moving forward. I also have to on behalf of Secretary Napolitano who I was speaking with, giving her an update of the situation, that FEMA's going to be here not just for today or tomorrow, but for the long haul to support the governor, to support the state, and to support the city of Joplin. To support the survivors who need the help the most. We're going to be looking at the long term, but I have to say in the short term with the individuals and the city manager and fire chief and people that the city of Joplin have done between the police, the fire, the EMS, the emergency management, has been amazing what they've been able to accomplish in the first 24 hours. Even in the first 12 hours when I arrived on scene. They had the roads essentially clear for people to get to. So they've been doing an unbelievable job on scene so far. So again, 1-800-621-fema and also redcross.org, in addition for people if they need help looking for their loved ones, they can go to redcross.org, as well. Thank you.</s>ROHR: Thank you, Rich. We're going to do -- we've got some more efforts afoot to get the word out in terms of help from FEMA, but we would appreciate anything you can do to help disseminate the information to help the residents of the city. We've got other people up here, Keith Stammer, the emergency coordinator and Fire Chief Randall, our friends from the state highway patrol and other FEMA reps. We'd be willing to respond to questions. Once again, Mr. Randles is probably better equipped to deal with specific questions about the recovery process.</s>QUESTION: How do you make the transition from search and rescue to recovery? What kind of indicators are you looking for, and do you have that scheduled</s>ROHR: Well, we've got a process that we're going through right now. We've already done an initial search of the entire area, and then a deeper search the second time through. We're going to finish that up toward midday. And then the chief has a third trip planned through and then a fourth trip with the assistance of other resources that we have available. I'll let him speak to the specifics of that.</s>QUESTION: Do you think you'll be done with the first phase by today, then the recovery for tomorrow or --</s>CHIEF MITCH RANDLES, JOPLIN FIRE DEPARTMENT: Well, phase one, the quick search through the area has been completed. Phase two is what we're in the middle of, and we're hoping to complete that by midday. At the same time we're finishing that, we'll start a third sweep through the city with our large amount of mutual aid partners and EMS crews that are in town and hope to get at least halfway through the city until the weather hits later today is what we're being told. After that, we'll make it a sweep through the entire area with search and rescue dogs just as a fourth effort to get through there. After we can those that and</s>QUESTION: Chief, the first search is done, and the city manager mentioned the second deeper search. What are some of the specific things that are different about the second search, and are there specific places that you're looking now that might have potential survivors still?</s>RANDLES: Well, as far as the second search, it's a little bit slower, more methodical search of those areas. As far as specific areas, it's basically the tornado path, the destruction path. We're searching every structure that's been damaged or destroyed in a more in-depth manner. The third search through is once again going to be similar to that. And then the fourth search through will be with those search and rescue dogs. But I've got dogs and dog handlers coming in from around the country to help with the effort.</s>QUESTION: Chief, how many people are unaccounted for right now?</s>RANDLES: I don't have an exact number of that yet. We are still working on that. As you can imagine, there's a lot of confusion. There's a lot of inability for folks to communicate because of the cell phone issues and power issues. So, I'm just not comfortable giving a number out on that yet.</s>QUESTION: What kind of things have happened so far today in terms of finding people? We heard people are still coming out of the rubble.</s>RANDLES: We are still finding individuals. We did rescue seven individuals from underneath the rubble yesterday. And of course, we're also finding several deceased folks, as well. You know, it's just really incredible, the fact that we're still finding people. We're hoping to find more folks, and that's why we're doing these searches. We want to make every opportunity we can to find everybody that is still in the rubble and has survived to this point out of that.</s>QUESTION: What are those updated numbers? What are the casualties, the injuries --</s>RANDLES: I don't have those yet this morning. We're still working on those.</s>QUESTION: Higher than the 116 that you gave us yesterday?</s>RANDLES: No. Still 116 is what we're holding out this morning.</s>RANDLES: That's not from us.</s>QUESTION: Any survivors found today?</s>RANDLES: Not to my knowledge. I mean, this is one of my first stops, so I haven't had a chance to sit down with those numbers yet.</s>RANDLES: Seven is the official number.</s>QUESTION: What's the situation with looting right now?</s>RANDLES: Once again, I'm doing search and rescue. I'm not doing looting. That would be more of a police question.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Sergeant Collins (ph). I'm with the state patrol. There were a few isolated incidents, and those have been taken care of. We have an excellent number of officers that are -- high number of officers that are in the tornado's path, in that area. And they're checking anyone and everyone that comes out. I can't stress enough -- yesterday was a problem with sightseers coming in. You know, every news station is streaming this live and on the Internet. If you want to see the destruction, watch it on TV. If you don't belong in the area, please stay home. The traffic impedes our ability to do the search and rescue mission.</s>QUESTION: Any word on the police officer who was struck by lightning yesterday, on his condition?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was an officer that was struck by lightning. And he is in the hospital with critical injuries.</s>QUESTION: What department is he from?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That information is not being released yet.</s>QUESTION: Was that one or two officers?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were two officers that were struck. One was minor injuries, one had critical injuries.</s>QUESTION: During search and rescue time?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were on post, manning a traffic post at 20th and Connecticut Street.</s>QUESTION: Is there a certain structure or a certain neighborhood that you're going to be focusing on the most as far as search and recovery goes?</s>RANDLES: This morning, we're trying to finish off the search in some of our larger, more technical rescue areas. In particular, you're going to see a lot of stuff going on around Home Depot and Wal- Mart area. Those are two of our larger buildings that require special tools and equipment and special knowledge that I have in town with the USAR teams. So, we're concentrating efforts over there with those individual team members. Then we have a section in the center of town where there's apartment complexions around 20th and Connecticut, and several blocks either side of that. That's going to be the other area of concentration because of the large number of people that are in that neighborhood and live in that neighborhood. That's our two that we're focusing on. All of the other areas have been cleared by the second search. And we'll be starting the third search in those today. We'll have two different levels of searches going on at the same time.</s>QUESTION: Any estimate as far as how many people you might be looking for in Home Depot and Wal-Mart?</s>RANDLES: No.</s>QUESTION: One person recovered from Home Depot --</s>RANDLES: There was one person recovered from Home Depot yesterday --</s>QUESTION: Alive?</s>RANDLES: Alive.</s>QUESTION: Of those injured, can you give us a breakdown of how many are still hospitalized, how many are critical?</s>RANDLES: No, I have no idea of that.</s>RANDLES: We're getting sporadic reports of, you know, cries for help from rubble piles. Of course, we are immediately responding to any of those, and researching that. Most of those are turning out to be false at this time. But we -- we are, you know, hopeful that we will still be finding people.</s>QUESTION: What kind of funding are we looking at right now as far as federal and state is concerned?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now the president has said that the entire federal family is going to be here to support, we'll be here for the long haul. At this point in time, we're not looking at the dollars. We're looking at -- in the search and rescue mode and going to be here for the long haul looking at specifically, you know, helping with the recovery and the long-term housing needs, as well.</s>QUESTION: How much money has come? How much federal money has come to aid</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We haven't even put a dollar figure on that yet. What we're doing now is concentrating on getting help into here and we're bringing as much help as we need to get here.</s>QUESTION: Sir, as far as the other storms that you've been around and seen different destruction, how does this compare? A lot of people say it's the worst they've ever seen. Would you agree?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This has been a totally devastating -- we look at each disaster on its own merit. This one is -- you know, certainly among the worst that I've ever seen. And with that, it's also something that, you know, the resiliency of the people in this communities, in Joplin, Missouri, with everything they've gone through, you know, over the past few days and the past few weeks has been something that to me has been heartening. Just to see the work that the first responders and talking to survivors, it's have been impressive.</s>QUESTION: When you look around at the devastation, we can't even imagine when and how this is actually going to come back -</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to necessarily put a time frame. We're very early on in this. Having been to other communities, having been to Greensburg, Kansas, that was literally devastated by a tornado - not to this magnitude but the entire town gone. They rebuilt that entire community. The town people came back. And talking to people here, they're going to rebuild the community and are looking forward to rebuilding this community and being proud of it in doing that.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have looked ahead at the different stages of recovery. We have our planning department at this point in time working on that very task, thinking about the future and how to work with the citizens to rebuild a certain portion of our city. And we are thinking ahead, and we are developing plans. But our first focus right now is search and rescue. That's what we're concentrating on at this point time. We have -- we do have an eye on the future and realize that there's other things to come, and we're working on that.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we've been told I think around 6:00 that we could have some challenges. But we're hoping for sunshine up until that point so we can further our cause here and affect a search and rescue.</s>QUESTION: Will you take on the search and rescue a little bit differently just because of what happened yesterday?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we don't want anyone getting hurt while we affect the search and rescue and did pull the people in at a certain point in time after we experienced what we went through yesterday. So, that is a priority of ours, and we have that in mind as we go forward.</s>QUESTION: Now as far as the safe and well Web site that you guys have, some people have called saying it's running a little slow. Is there any sort of backup to that?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now if they can go to RedCross.org, that will lead them to the safe and well, as well. So, RedCross.org/safeandwell. Just go on to RedCross.org, and they can go get the links from there.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I assume it's running slow probably because there are a number of hits on the site. Again, we have to be patient. Many lives have been hit. It's not just the city of Joplin's citizens, as you know. As obviously, all the loved ones, all the family members around the world that are concerned. As you can see, we have a barrage of media interested in this. You guys are getting the word out there. So, a lot of people are just now hearing, touching in. So, again, we're using you to get the word out. With that said, I think we're about ready to close this conference off. We'll have another one at 5:00. Again, the weather is going to be iffy. I'm going to try and get the armory if it's raining. You saw the lightning, you saw the horrible storms we had last night. We do not want to put anybody at risk having press conferences out in the weather. So, please, if you haven't got your media credentials, it's key that you do that. Becky and Vicky are here to do that. Be patient with them, as well. They're working as hard as they can. We're working to put our e-mail list together to e-mail you guys. That's got to be the key. As much as I want to talk with you individually, I'm not going to be able to touch every one of you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right now it will be here unless the weather is bad. If the weather's bad, I'm looking at the armory. I do not have that concern, but I will put the information on Facebook --</s>COSTELLO: All right. We're going it pull away from this right now. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In order to get information to you, you got to give me your information. Thank you all.</s>COSTELLO: We're going to pull away from this press conference. As you heard, bad weather is moving in. Maybe it will hit at 5:00 p.m. Missouri time. But tomorrow morning is when the really bad weather will be moving in. And Missouri emergency management officials will sound the sirens at 10:30 a.m. Missouri time just to see if everything's working. So, don't be afraid. That will happen tomorrow, Tuesday. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back with more.