Severe Storm Outbreak Threatens Nine Million; Obama Visits Malaysia Amid Search For Plane; What's Next In Search For MH370?
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Here are the top stories we're following in the CNN NEWSROOM. A violent string of tornados and thunderstorms is moving right across the middle of the country right now. It comes on the heels of another storm that already caused damage and injuries. Millions are at risk this weekend. And President Barack Obama visits a country tormented by a missing plane, but Russia is becoming a major distraction. What the president is saying about all of that. Plus a touching and emotional tribute to a teenager stabbed to death in the middle of her high school. What might have motivated that brutal attack? A potential outbreak of severe storms could become deadly this weekend. It is threatening at least 9 million people. Two tornadoes already ripped through parts of North Carolina and shredded homes according to our affiliate WTKR. One person was taken to the hospital with traumatic injury and at least four others were injured. Folks who survived the storms say they heard a loud bang. Others had trouble reaching loved ones because of bad cell phone service.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just heard it going over the house and I heard glass shattering and heard a loud bang.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everything that's my sister, that's my family, I didn't know. I couldn't get a hold of anybody, didn't know if she was OK.</s>WHITFIELD: Meteorologist, Karen Maginnis is in the CNN Severe Weather Center. So Karen, which areas of the country could be hit potentially next?</s>KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, this is going to be about a three-day event. The first starts out right across the central plains. The setup is an area of low pressure moves out of the Central Rockies on the back side already some areas in Montana, three inches of snow. But out ahead of it, we've got this moisture coming up from the south. Temperatures have really warmed up very dramatically across the southeast, running a good five to ten degrees above where they should be this time of year. So you get high temperatures, high dew points, you get some rotation or spin in the atmosphere, key ingredients for a severe weather setup, like we're looking at today. But probably more so going into Sunday and into Monday. You can see the big jump in the number of expected or average tornadoes from April and into May, really it is April through that June time period when we see frequent tornado reports. Now, we have seen a fairly quiet system, but I think over the next 24, 48, 72 hours is going to be a very different story with millions of people from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, all the way down towards Dallas and into the Austin area, you're under a slight risk. But then going into Sunday, a moderate risk. We don't see this too often. It does happen, but moderate risk suggests we could see violent tornadoes, maybe some deadly tornadoes coming up. That across the Tennessee Valley and into Ark-La-Tex region and still the same setup going into Monday when another moderate risk and this is two days out now, extends from Tennessee all the way down to Louisiana. We will have more.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, now it's definitely the time people need to get their tornado plans in place. Communicate it to everybody and have those weather radios if they can as well. Thanks so much, Karen Maginnis. Appreciate that. All right, overseas, President Barack Obama is in the middle of his Asian tour, and today he is visiting Malaysia as that country is in the middle of a desperate search for missing Flight 370. Obama didn't mention the plane when he spoke at a special dinner today, but he did talk about it in an interview with the Malaysian newspaper earlier in the day. Erin McPike is with us now from the White House. So Erin, what did he say?</s>ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, President Obama offered his condolences to Malaysia and made some important points about the help that the U.S. has provided in the search. I want to read part of those comments to you from "The Star." He said, "As a friend and partner of Malaysia, the United States was one of the first countries to join in the search for the missing plane. U.S. Navy ships, aircraft and personnel remain on the scene assisting in the search. Our FBI is working closely with Malaysia on the investigation into what caused the aircraft to disappear, and will continue to offer our support and assistance as the search and investigation continue." Now that is, of course, very significant because we have been hearing from some officials overseas that the search could begin to wind down, but of course, President Obama has said now that the U.S. is committed to this effort. He also said that the cooperation and partnership between a number of countries has been very significant as this search has continued and he said that the U.S., Malaysia and other countries are beginning to reflect now on what they can do to prevent something like this from happening again and how they can improve aviation security -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: And then, Erin, there's a situation of Ukraine bubbling up. How is the president keeping abreast of that or even addressing it?</s>MCPIKE: Well, Fred, he has certainly been threatening more sanctions. The rhetoric has been escalating incrementally over the last couple of months and that's been no different. We've been hearing from the State Department and from the White House that sanctions are having a very harsh impact on Russia's economy and they have been trying to get European leaders on board with additional sanctions. They have been working on that for the past month and it does appear that they have succeeded. I want to read a recent statement from the G7 to you. Leaders say we have now agreed that we will move swiftly to impose additional sanctions on Russia, given the urgency of securing the opportunity for successful and peaceful Democratic vote next month in Ukraine's presidential elections. We committed to act urgently to intensify targeted sanctions and measures to increase the cost of Russia's actions. Now we know that European leaders will be meeting on Monday. We could see new sanctions as early as Monday -- Fred.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Erin McPike joining us from the White House. All right, so let's talk more now about the tension between Russia and Ukraine and how that's ratcheting up. Ukraine's prime minister says Russian military aircraft violated their air space seven times last night. While in Rome, the prime minister responded.</s>ARSENIY YATSENUK, UKRAINIAN PRIME MINISTER: We urge Russia to pull back its security forces, not to provoke and not to support Russian terrorists, that are located and deployed in eastern and southern Ukraine. We urge Russia to leave us alone.</s>WHITFIELD: Let's go to the center of attention in Eastern Ukraine, CNN's Arwa Damon is in Donetsk. So Arwa, Russia has thousands of troops near the border. Now these air games in Ukrainian air space. Is Vladimir Putin going to listen to the plea to quote/unquote, "leave us alone?"</s>ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That would be highly unlikely and extremely surprising at this stage. Russia is, though, denying it did violate Ukraine's air space, but as part of the claim and counterclaim verbal battle that's been going on over what's been transpiring in Ukraine pretty much since the onset, you have the Ukrainian government, United States, the European Union, all of whom put the onus on Russia to de-escalate the situation. They do believe that Russia is directly orchestrating what we have seen happening in Eastern Ukraine. Russia, of course, denies all of those allegations. The Ukrainian government is saying it is in the second phase of the so-called anti- terrorism operation, though we haven't seen any sort of significant military movement by Ukrainian forces, and of course, those pro- Russian protesters remain heavily armed and deeply entrenched in their various positions throughout this part of the country -- Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: Arwa Damon, keep us posted. Appreciate that. All right, the mystery surrounding Flight 370 has reached a fevered pitch now, and so have the theories into what may have happened to the missing plane. We'll explore some of those next.