Dam Threatens to Give Way in Massachusetts; Tropical Storm Wilma Bulks Up
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Breaking news, quite literally, in Massachusetts. A dam threatens to give way. Thousands of people now being told to get out of town in Taunton. Tropical storm Wilma bulks up, gets more intense and threatens to slice toward South Florida. Chad Myers is watching Wilma. And we are watching Harriet Miers, as well. Did she or did she not tip her hand on abortion issues with a prominent senator? Who said what to whom, on this</s>AMERICAN MORNING. ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.</s>SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. Boy, they are having a rough time of it in Taunton, Massachusetts. They have a big problem on their hands with that dam, which dates back to the 1800s. It's a wood dam. It threatens to give way. It really could collapse any moment.</s>M. O'BRIEN: It's a swollen river, it's a timber dam and people are being told to get out of the way. Things pretty tense there in Taunton, Massachusetts this morning. Taunton about 30 miles south of Boston. You know all the rain they've gotten lately. We've been telling you all about that. Well, all that water has to go somewhere, of course, and it is threatening to bust through that dam and potentially flood the city. AMERICAN MORNING'S Dan Lothian is live in Taunton -- Dan, you're downstream. If that dam were to break, would you be in floodwater right now?</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's what officials are telling us. We are about a mile-and-a-half downstream from that 100- year-old wooden dam and we're told that if it does give way, it will send about six feet of water going through a nearby community of about 100 or so homes, and then into the downtown area. The concern, as well, is that there is this secondary dam, and if that all -- if the first one gives way, they believe the secondary dam could also give way, creating even more problems. The governor, Mitt Romney, arrived here a short time ago to be briefed by emergency personnel and he is speaking, I believe, at this hour. A few minutes ago he was in front of the microphones to kind of give an update on what he has learned so far. Obviously, there is a lot of concern here. So officials have gone door-to-door to evacuate residents. Some 2,000 residents in the area have been strongly advised to leave their homes. We are told, though, that some people are staying behind. And what engineers are doing at this hour, we're told, is they're continuing to monitor that dam, to see if it will hold or when it will break. They do believe it could break at any time. Now, there's good news and there's bad news. Already water is starting to come through that dam. They say that's good because it's relieving some of the pressure behind the dam. But of course it's bad because the integrity of that dam has also been compromised. So, right now it's in stand-by mode. A lot of emergency personnel have been activated. They're on stand-by, ready to move into position if needed -- Miles.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Dan, stay there for just a moment. Governor Mitt Romney is addressing reporters even as we speak. Let's listen for just a moment.</s>GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R), MASSACHUSETTS: ... looked at some of these dams. They were categorized in different groupings. Those that were considered high hazard were those which, if there were a significant failure, could lead to the loss of life or loss of a significant amount of property. This is one of those dams. They're to be inspected every two years. This dam was inspected, apparently on a timely basis, and was designated to be in fair condition. Certain repairs were requested and ordered, and those were apparently undertaken or completed. So I believe that we have a process which is generally working. But I think we're going to all take a very close look at it following the stress which our system has endured over the last week. We've had a number of dams that called for inspectors coming out and taking a close look. This is not the only one that's been at risk. It's the most severe risk given the number of individuals and the property that are entailed. But we've had a number of dams that have been compromised to a certain degree by the high water. And I think we're going to spend some time...</s>M. O'BRIEN: Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney continues his briefing to reporters. We're going to continue listening to it, but we are also going to press on. He addressing that issue I brought up a little while ago about this whole issue of 100-year-old timber dams, whether that's an appropriate kind of infrastructure to protect our cities. He said it had been inspected, as all dams are in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts every couple of years. He said it passed with a fair grade, some repairs required. Obviously a story we'll be tracking for you. In just a few moments, we will talk to the publisher of the local newspaper. They had to evacuate their office building along the river, but we'll ask them about this dam and whether there was any move there to replace it, perhaps with something more long lasting -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: There are reports of other people who decided to stay behind. And we're going to continue to follow this story, obviously. Florida now. Florida could be staring at another hurricane in the next few days. Severe weather expert Chad Myers at the CNN Center with us for the very latest -- hey, Chad, good morning, again. Where is she, he, it?</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Wilma, it. Wilma is an it. Down in the Caribbean. Everybody likes to call the hurricanes hes and shes when you get boys' and girls' names, but, in fact, they are all its. Rain showers into Boston. I just wanted to show you this quickly, because that's where our reporter is right here. The rain has finally stopped and so the threat, I guess, of a little bit more runoff has stopped from that next little wave of rain. Here is the wave. It's a big wave now, a tropical storm, 70 miles per hour. The 8:00 update just came in. Kept it as a tropical storm. Did not move it up to a hurricane strength yet. But it is forecast to be a category one later today, and then, in fact, grow rapidly in this warm water right here, to a category three. And that's the potential for this storm. The rest of the potential is probably anywhere from, it could be Louisiana, all the way over to Florida. The Hurricane Center's forecast, you saw it. That line does move right over the west coast of Florida.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Let's turn now to the Harriet Miers nomination. She apparently said something to Senator Arlen Specter about a very important court case. Exactly what she said, though, is a matter of huge disagreement. Congressional correspondent Ed Henry live for us on Capitol Hill this morning -- Ed, we're hearing some very careful wording on all of this, aren't we?</s>ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. In fact, after yesterday's private meeting, Senator Arlen Specter was unequivocal, twice saying that, in fact, during this meeting, Harriet Miers said that she believes the "Griswold" case was rightly decided. That's very significant because, of course, the 1965 case, "Griswold v. Connecticut," basically laid the legal foundation for "Row v. Wade" and opened the door to legalized abortion in America. That's why conservatives oppose it so much, that case. And that's why, in fact, last night the White House was scrambling, saying, in fact, that they believe Miers did not say any such thing during this meeting with Specter and that he would be issuing a correction. But Specter's office later put out a carefully worded statement that did not exactly correct it. It, instead, said that after he commented to the media, "Ms. Miers called him to say that he misunderstood her and that she had not taken a position on "Griswold." Senator Specter accepts Ms. Miers' statement that he misunderstood what she said." So there again, Specter insisting she, in fact, said something, while the White House is saying she didn't say anything. A lot of confusion there. But basically conservatives cutting through that last night and telling me they believe this suggests that, in fact, eyebrows will be raised about the fact that Senator Arlen Specter, an expert on constitutional law, could not have possibly have been confused about what Harriet Miers said. This also is clouding, once again, an already stormy confirmation battle. If you look at the latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll, it shows that 36 percent of Americans say that Miers, the Miers nomination should be withdrawn. Only 46 percent say no, she should stick it out. Clearly not a Ray ringing endorsement there. And this episode with Specter is going to raise more suspicion in the minds of conservatives that perhaps Harriet Miers is really not on board with their views against abortion rights -- Soledad.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Lots of questions certainly raised. Ed Henry for us this morning. Ed, thanks. The other top story this morning, fresh off the Iraqi vote now, the country's attention is turned to Saddam Hussein and his trial. Carol has a look at that, and other stories, as well -- good morning.</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I do. Good morning. Good morning to all of you. Saddam Hussein and seven of his top leaders are set to go on trial tomorrow. The group will face charges for the 1982 killings of nearly 150 people. It's the first of at least a dozen cases being prepared against the former dictator. In the meantime, election officials are holding off on the results from this weekend's constitutional vote. It seems there were an unusually high number of yes or no votes in some areas. Monitors now looking into that situation. The investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's name is reportedly focusing on Vice President Dick Cheney's office. That's according to sources cited by the "Washington Post." It's not clear if the special prosecutor in the case has plans to charge anyone inside the Bush administration with a crime. Possible indictments could come down this week. It could be another wet morning for parts of southern California. Up to four feet of water in the area triggered a terrible mud slide in this Burbank neighborhood. Check out these pictures. Luckily, no one was hurt, but a few cars did get slammed by the rushing mud and debris. The area was also recently affected by wildfires. And now to the cutting edge of harvest sports -- the third annual Pumpkin Regatta in northeastern Ohio. A handful of brave souls paddle the giant hollowed out gourds, hoping they stay afloat...</s>S. O'BRIEN: Oh my god!</s>COSTELLO: Each pumpkin weighs anywhere between 500 and 1,200 pounds. So imagine if you were just like, you know, like a kayak, go upside down in one of those things.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Like that guy right there just did, almost.</s>COSTELLO: It's frightening. Luckily they're in rather shallow water. But it must be chilly in northeastern Ohio.</s>M. O'BRIEN: Nobody held a candle to him, that's for sure. Oh, that's good. Oh, bring that back up, will you, Michael? That was classic. With the little electric motor, that's great stuff.</s>COSTELLO: Yes! Yes!</s>S. O'BRIEN: That's cheating. Everybody else is paddling and he's got the motor on his pumpkin.</s>M. O'BRIEN: I think he gets an ingenuity award, don't you?</s>COSTELLO: He does.</s>M. O'BRIEN: The electric pumpkin. All right, thank you very much. See you in a bit. Still to come on the program, we continue to follow that story out of Taunton, Massachusetts. A dam there threatening to give way. We'll talk to the publisher of a newspaper in town there. They're not working. They had to evacuate.</s>S. O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning, the president's job approval rating keeps going down. A look at the latest numbers just ahead.</s>M. O'BRIEN: And did a high school principal go too far in canceling the prom? Yes, the prom. We'll talk to him ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.