Michigan Governor Admits "Disaster", Won't Resign
COSTELLO: Michigan's embattled governor says the Flint water crisis is nothing short of a disaster and even accepts the chilling assessment of his critics. He's now confronting his own Hurricane Katrina. At least 100 protesters march outside of his home, braving subzero wind chills and calling for the governor -- Governor Snyder to resign or even face arrest. It could be a pivotal day in the crisis. More protests are planned, more lawsuits due to be announced and new details on how to fix the staggering health threat. And here's a sobering look at the problem from a video posted on Twitter. That murky, foul-looking brew spewing from a fire hydrant is the city's water supply that comes straight out of the tap. CNN Jean Casarez is live in Flint this morning with more. Good morning.</s>JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning -- Carol. It's a big day all across the state. And I want to show you right behind me, that's the Flint River -- that's the water that was going into the pipes that this community says had lead in it from the pipes that they drank, they bathed in, they cooked with, and they washed their clothes in. Now, at 1:00, we're expecting a big announcement. More civil suits of class actions are to be filed from people in this community saying that their health is affected and they believe the future of their health is affected. Also, property values they say, have gone down. Now, following that, take you to the state capital -- the state capital steps, actually. Different organizations, we believe, are going to hold rallies in defiance of the governor's state of the state address tonight. Now, the protesters really say, and according to the civil class action suit already filed, they're not saying that the governor actually made the decision to use the Flint River as the drinking water. But they say that his knowledge and his lack of action contributed. Listen to this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It just got to the point where we said enough is enough. Let's do something here. He should have paid attention to the experts. He should have -- he should have switched it back over to Detroit water as soon as he knew of the contamination.</s>CASAREZ: Now, the fact is last October, this community was switched back over to Detroit water, but they are also saying that since the copper and lead was already coming from the pipes into the water, you can't stop that, even with a good water supply. The governor is saying that once he had knowledge of what was happening, he immediately took action. He declared a state of disaster and emergency. He called in the National Guard. They are now handing out bottles of water, test kits, and filters to everyone in this community. And Carol, the community wants answers. They want to know what do we do now? And who is going to pay for the changes? That's why all eyes are on the state capital of Lansing tonight for that state of the state address.</s>COSTELLO: All right. Jean Casarez reporting live from Flint, Michigan this morning. You heard Jean say at least one class action suit already filed. Two more expected to be announced in just a couple of hours. And it's believed the governor will be named in those two new suits. Mel Robbins is a CNN legal analyst. She joins me now with more on this. Good morning.</s>MEL ROBBINS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Good morning, Mel. So is it fair to blame the governor, because after all, he appointed the administrators who decided to change the water source?</s>ROBBINS: You know, a couple of things, Carol. First of all, the legal issues in this case are as murky as the water in Flint. Because generally, it's nearly impossible to sue government officials for the course of their everyday conduct unless you can prove that they were grossly negligent. And Flint is a really difficult case. Let me tell you why. The city of Flint has just taken it on the teeth for a long time. It's a mill town. It has been part of the auto industry for years. Plants started closing 20 years ago. It never fully recovered. This is a city of only 100,000 residents. 40 percent of them are below the poverty line -- Carol. And so this is a community that has taken blow after blow, and in fact, they don't have a mayor. They have a state-appointed supervisor that's running the city because they're in such a state of financial crisis. And so whether or not they're going to be able to pin this on anybody, because I think what a lot of people are going to say is wait, we weren't grossly negligent. We made a mistake. And we're trying our best to fix it.</s>COSTELLO: But here's the thing. A lot of people in that community say the Flint River -- come on? We have known the Flint River was polluted for a very, very long time. They were against changing the water source in the first place, but state administrators did that, and look what happened.</s>ROBBINS: That's right, Carol. But state administrators did that in order to save $19 million, and they immediately retrofitted --</s>COSTELLO: But you can't save a buck at the expense of the health of your citizens.</s>ROBBINS: Look, you know, Carol, I don't disagree with you. I'm from Michigan. I think that this is absolutely horrendous that this went down. It's horrendous that these folks had horrible, polluted, toxic water coming out of their pipes not for a week but for a year and that nobody did anything. But from a legal standpoint -- not a moral standpoint -- from a legal standpoint, it's going to be hard. You're going to have to prove that individual employees were grossly negligent. There are reports coming out that there were e-mails that certain employees knew about the high levels of lead in Flint residents and went on television, had local addresses where they actually said there was no danger. If that's the case, it's a much stronger legal argument. But everybody needs to understand that just because you bring a lawsuit against a city it's very difficult because cities, municipalities actually have a lot of immunity in performing their day to day government functions. They're going to have to prove gross negligence. Do we have it here? Maybe, but it's going to be more than just pointing fingers and saying, there's something outrageous about the brown water. And of course, you can't just do cost savings and stick polluted water on people. But it will take time. One good thing about the lawsuits, whether they're successful or not from a class action standpoint is it's gotten the attention that Flint needs and that these residents need to put the pressure on officials to do something and to do something now.</s>COSTELLO: All right. Mel Robbins, thanks for your insight. All right, this just in to CNN. We will not learn whether affluenza teenager Ethan Couch's case will be moved out of juvenile core and into adult court. There was supposed to be this hearing today around that issue, but it had to be rescheduled due to a legal technicality. The judge says the hearing cannot proceed because Couch's parents were not notified about the proceeding. We'll keep you posted. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, his death sparks national outrage, the controversy as Baltimore tries to uncover who killed Freddie Gray.