Landslide in La Jolla, California
COLLINS: We want to take you directly to La Jolla, California now, where we are looking at the beginning of a press conference on the situation with the landslide there. Let's go ahead and listen in for just a moment.</s>MAYOR JERRY SANDERS, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA: ...those out of their homes and those that are just inconvenienced by all the activity. And I -- we'll be cleaning this up as quickly as we can. We've got good news this morning. Seventy-five homes will be repopulated by 8:00 a.m. This morning. And we'll have a complete list of those homes available and, in fact, our two scene commanders will fill you in on that in just a second. That will leave 11 that are -- or, excuse me -- nine that are still red tagged because of structural issues. And they're unsafe at this point. There are 27 that are yellow tagged. Some of those, it's because of access. Some of those we'll have to reevaluate in daylight to see what type of structural damage. But we'll do that as rapidly as we can, also. With me this morning are Council Members Kevin Faulkner, whose district we're in; Council Member Jim Madaffer. We've also got Fire Chief Tracy German. We've got Rich Hoss (ph), who's the deputy chief operating officer for General Services. We have got Deputy Chief Brewster -- Fire Chief Brewster, who will fill you in, in just a few minutes, along with Captain Boyd Long. And then we've got other department heads whose crews have been working through the entire night. I'd like to thank all of the crews who worked the entire night, and that includes San Diego Gas and Electric, who got electricity and gas back into those homes that we were concerned about, have made the repairs that they need to make, at least on a temporary basis. I'd like to thank our water and wastewater crews for getting water and wastewater service restored to those homes so that we can get people back into their houses today. I'd like to thank our fire and police and everybody else who was here throughout the night working very hard to make sure we can get our citizens back in their homes and minimizing the damage we have. Today, what we'll be doing is actually taking a look at what happened. We will be hiring a forensic geology firm, one that will look back to track and trace what happened, probably from the '60s until the present day, and create a time line and give us a definitive answer on why all of this occurred. We have also hired another geology firm to help us plan how to repair the roadway, how to stabilize this entire area, so as we move forward, it's safe for everybody in San Diego. Today, I have already declared a state of emergency. Council President Scott Peters has scheduled an 8:30 council meeting this morning, even though the council on break this week, so that we can get a resolution passed stating it's a state of emergency. That allows us to access state and federal aid. We have already been in contact with congressional representatives, Brian Bilbray called immediately yesterday. Senator Boxer's office called immediately and offered aid. The White House called to offer aid. We also have the governor's office, Caltrans. Just about everybody who could possibly help has offered to help us. And the first step in that is by declaring a state of emergency, which we'll have done very early this morning so we can move ahead. We'll be coordinating all of that through Council Member Faulkner's office and the mayor's office so that we get the correct people here as quickly as we can to help out those that have lost property or who have suffered some type of loss. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Deputy Fire Chief Brewster and Captain Boyd Long to talk about the homes and what the situation is overnight.</s>DEPUTY CHIEF GERRY BREWSTER, SAN DIEGO FIRE-RESCUE BATTALION: Good morning. I'm Gerry Brewster. I'm one of the incident commanders the Soledad incident. The life safety hazard has been greatly reduced overnight in the incident area. As the mayor has said, the personnel worked throughout the night in a unified fashion, both the public and the private sector, to mitigate most of these hazards. Currently, we're going to begin transitioning from an emergency response mode into a recovery mode. We are going to start opening up 75 homes this morning after 8:00 for reoccupation. And we're going to reassess the ones that we tagged as yellow yesterday. The fire-rescue department will begin transitioning and reducing the amount of personnel on scene and equipment. However, we'll still be here to assess and assist in the mitigation of any hazards. And with that, I'll turn it over to Captain Long.</s>CAPTAIN BOYD LONG, SAN DIEGO FIRE-RESCUE BATTALION: Thank you, Chief Brewster. The evacuees are encouraged to call the CAPS line, which is the city action phone system, at 619-570-1070. What we would like to do is make sure the information is provided directly to those who are evacuated on which houses are those that represent the 75 that folks will be returning to. In addition to that, we will be providing this information to anyone who is using the La Jolla High School as an evacuation point. That information will be available there. In addition, evacuees who come up to the area -- officers, police officers from the San Diego Police Department positioned at each of the traffic posts here or our special events traffic controllers will have access to that information. We ask that those people returning to their house, to the best of their ability, have information or identification that shows us they are actual residents of that area and they will be allowed back in. Those areas for the evacuees to return...</s>COLLINS: All right, so we've been getting an update here just for the past couple of minutes on the landslide and some of this incredible video that we have been getting in overnight in San Diego, California. Boy, oh boy, it was 111 homes that have been affected. Now, that doesn't mean that they were destroyed, obviously, but affected in some way. And, obviously, those people evacuated from their homes, as well. This morning, we are just now hearing about 75 of them will be able to go back. There are nine still red tagged, which basically means that they are unsafe and structurally compromised. And then the rest are yellow tagged, so they're still trying to decide on what to do with those. Workers were there all night long. These are some more of the pictures now of what happened there. Basically, the damage was 50- yards long, 20 feet deep in an area that overlooks Interstate 5. If you're familiar with the area that's a very popular roadway. So, some forensic geology firms have been hired. They're trying to figure out why and how this happened. And another one will help them determine how to rebuild and make sure everything is safe.</s>HARRIS: And it is turning into a busy morning here in the CNN NEWSROOM. We'll take you back to Philadelphia now for the first pictures from the scene of that Wachovia Bank. Three armored car guards shot, two of them fatally, in a robbery attempt there outside of the Wachovia branch in Northeast Philadelphia. As you take a look at these pictures from the scene now, investigators, obviously, are over that scene. Police, as well. Two men, would women were trying to rob that armored car outside of the Wachovia Bank branch when the shooting happened. Two guards were killed. The third guard suffered a graze wound. We understand one male suspect fled on foot and the other fled in a car. Not immediately known how the two female suspects escaped. As you can see here and in some of the video we've been showing you, an ATM machine ripped open. But police -- investigators on the scene now as the work continues. Three armored car guards shot, two fatally. This robbery attempt of an armored car outside of a Wachovia Bank branch in Northeast Philadelphia. We will keep an eye on this situation for you.</s>COLLINS: Also, stick around. After we take a very quick break, we want to begin showing you some of the first pictures coming in from the Congo. There's been an awful plane crash there. Thirty people dead -- 22 on the plane and then eight on the ground. It crashed into a very crowded area. Again, we'll bring you some of the first pictures in just a moment.