Deadly Fire at a Hydroelectric Plant; Coal Miners Families Vent Their Anger; Roads Buckling, Houses Sinking
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Fire in a tunnel 1,500 feet underground, five trapped workers turn up dead hours after radioing rescuers that they weren't badly hurt. We're live at the hydroelectric plant high in the Rocky Mountains.</s>DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Two months after six coal miners were killed in Crandall Canyon, their families vent their anger, frustration and pain on Capitol Hill. Hear their stories like never before. Hello everyone, I'm Don Lemon live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.</s>PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Taking you live now to La Jolla, California, this is just outside of San Diego. It's a suburb of San Diego. SCTV bringing us these live pictures right now. It's Soledad Mountain Road, there in La Jolla, California if you're familiar, not far actually from the beach. You can see that the streets have actually -- they started cracking and then buckling, one home even sinking into the middle of that road right there, as you can see. Apparently, police officers there have been setting up a barrier around the area, not quite sure if that crackling, that buckling will continue. They're getting people to evacuate from their homes. Also, San Diego Gas and Electric has shut off the power to this area as a safety precaution. Here is an idea, if you are not familiar with that area just off Interstate 5 there in the area of La Jolla, a very hilly area, not far from the water. A very expensive area, too, these homes millions of dollars in the La Jolla, California area. There's a bit of a wider perspective from the helicopter. But not quite sure what caused this, but we're following it. It's being called a landslide. It's being called cracking, buckling. We're just now getting these pictures, trying to figure out what's happening at this specific area and what caused this. But we're going to get as much information as possible and let you know what's happening there on Soledad Mountain Road in La Jolla, California.</s>LEMON: Heart broken families now breaking their silence. The relatives of six dead Utah miners tearfully remembering their brothers, fathers, husbands, at a Congressional hearing and angrily asking, why the Crandall Canyon mine became a tomb. Let's go straight to Capitol Hill and CNN's Brianna Keilar. Hi, Brianna.</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there Don. These family members making it very clear to congress they are angry. They are angry at both Bob Murray, the owner of the Crandall Canyon Mine and at MSHA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, MSHA for short, the government agency responsible for mine oversight in the United States. They say their loved ones became the victims of an environment where MSHA just rubber stamped this Murray plan for a mine there in Utah, for a mine that they say never should have been given approval. They say that the mine operated in a way that put production well before safety. We also heard from Mike Marasco, he is the son-in-law of Kerry Allred, one of those miners, and he told congress about the aftermath following the accident.</s>MIKE MARASO, SON-IN-LAW OF DEAD MINER: The manner in which Murray and MSHA dealt with us for the first two weeks after the collapse was unbelievable. They just told us what we wanted to hear and not the facts. All we heard was earthquake, earthquake. We did not want to hear about earthquakes, but wanted to know when we were going to see our loved ones again. Murray, more than once, yelled at us when we asked questions. For the families that are Hispanic, there was no translator for the first two days.</s>KEILAR: Family members told Congress that their loved ones, both miners who were trapped on August 6th and also at least one miner who died in a rescue attempt on August 19th, that they were concerned about the safety of the mine before the accident ever happened. The wife of one of the miners, who was attempting to rescue his fellow miners, she said he told her that there were mountain bumps that were worrying him, mountain bumps that were registering on the Richter scale, this before the mountain bump that eventually caused the collapse on August 6th. These family members said those miner's safety concerns were ignored by Murray Energy. We did call Murray Energy to see if we could get a comment from Bob Murray, but we were told that he is unavailable to comment today -- Don?</s>LEMON: So these families speaking out today, Brianna, you have to wonder, what's next for them?</s>KEILAR: Yeah. One of the resonating themes we heard was that they want some closure. It is so difficult for them. Of course, the bodies of their loved ones were never recovered. At this point, one of the women, a woman who lost her son, she said she wants the bodies to be located. She wants to put a marker on the mountain above where she knows the bodies are. We also heard one of the people testify and say that they're looking into a lawsuit. So, that's certainly something we had heard before and we heard that today on the hill -- Don?</s>LEMON: CNN's Brianna Keilar, thank you for your report, Brianna.</s>PHILLIPS: A deadly fire deep underground. Five workers are killed, what went wrong? Investigators from all over are at a hydroelectric site in Georgetown, Colorado. So is our Chris Lawrence. Chris, any answers yet to what happened?</s>CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're coming slowly, Kyra. As of a couple of hours ago, the officials still had not determined the identities of the five workers who were killed and their bodies are still resting, about 1,000 feet deep into that tunnel. Now, we know these workers had a piece of equipment with them that was capable of causing a fire. We can't be sure if it actually did. The main focus today, to bring the bodies back up to the surface and investigate the scene of that fire to figure out how it started.</s>UNDERSHERIFF STU NAY, CLEAR CREEK CO., COLORADO: We have two confined space injury teams coming in today. We need to repurge the tunnel for air and make sure the air quality is safe for our operations.</s>LAWRENCE: We are getting a little bit more background on the companies involved. This hydroelectric plant was built about 40 years ago and it sits about 10,000 feet above sea level. Its run by a company called Xcel. And they began planning this maintenance action about a year ago. They hired a company out of California called RPI Coating. And the workers, the contractors who were hired from that company started their work in the pipe about a month ago. From what we know, they had about at least another month of work to go -- Kyra?</s>PHILLIPS: All right, Chris Lawrence, we'll continue to follow up with you. Appreciate it. We hope to learn even more at the bottom of the hour, that's when company officials will meet with reporters. Again, our Chris Lawrence will be there. You can catch their comments right here in the</s>CNN NEWSROOM. LEMON: A registered sex offender on the run. Authorities in Florida on the hunt. They're looking for this man, 46-year-old William Joe Mitchell. He allegedly lured a 15-year-old girl from her Bartow, Florida home after meeting her on the MySpace Web site. She was found safe yesterday about 400 miles away at a Florida Wal-Mart where authorities say Mitchell apparently abandoned her. He was driving a 2000 black Chevy Lumina with a Florida tag G025EL. He's considered very dangerous.</s>SHERIFF GRADY JUDD, POLK COUNTY, FLORIDA: We ask the question, why is this person on the street? We know that he's dangerous. We know that he's violent. He has struck before and he's struck again. Quite frankly, when you look at predators, that's their trend. They look for profiles of chat rooms online. Then they groom the children. In this case, talked this girl in less than two weeks from leaving her home in the middle of the night, climbing out of a bedroom window, and going with him. That's just how much personality they have. That's how dangerous they are.</s>LEMON: If you have any information, please call the Polk County Sheriff's tip line. That number is 863-533-0344. We expect to hear more at a news conference in the 3:00 p.m. hour Eastern right here in the</s>CNN NEWSROOM. PHILLIPS: It's a risk that few politicians would take going on record against expanded health insurance for children. But, President Bush did just that this morning. He vetoed a $35 billion bill that he says amounted to a big step toward socialized medicine. The SCHIP program benefits families that earn too much for Medicaid, but not enough to afford private insurance. The Senate has enough votes to override the veto, but the measure cleared the House with less than a two-thirds veto proof majority. Right after this veto, President Bush headed to Pennsylvania to talk more about federal spending and today's VETO. He said the health insurance bill went far beyond simply insuring low-income kids.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I wanted to share with you why I vetoed the bill this morning. Poor kids first. Secondly, I believe in private medicine, not the federal government running the health care system. I do want Republicans and Democrats to come together to support a bill that focuses on the poor children. I'm more than willing to work with members of both parties, from both houses.</s>PHILLIPS: Public opinions strongly favors the Democrats on this one. A new "Washington Post"/ABC News poll finds 72 percent of Americans support an increase in federal spending on children's health insurance. Just 25 percent oppose it. Stay with us next hour, White House correspondent Ed Henry will join us with more on the president's veto and the political fallout.</s>LEMON: Angry parents in St. Paul, Minnesota, after seven middle school students are rushed to the hospital, they'd ingested what some apparently thought was candy. It was really crystal methamphetamine. The kids say they got it from a 14-year-old fellow student. She's now in a juvenile detention center. And officers say the found crystal meth at the girl's home. The seven students were treated and released. Later on this hour, we're going to take a closer look at the incident and also that investigation.</s>PHILLIPS: Live pictures out of San Diego, California right now, thanks to our affiliate XETV. Streets buckling under a landslide and one home actually sinking in this La Jolla area of San Diego. Residents are being asked to evacuate. Also, electrical power has been shut off to this area. We'll have more coming up right after the break.</s>LEMON: Carol Ann Gotbaum was arrested, handcuffed and found dead within minutes. But officials in Phoenix say it will be weeks before they will be able to say what killed her.</s>PHILLIPS: Also, she's opening up her lead against fellow democrats. Can anyone catch Senator Hillary Clinton?</s>LEMON: Plus, a major mistake at the lab. Why didn't anyone catch it before she had radical surgery? You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.