Company Offers Warning Systems for Emergencies; Car Smashes into West Virginia Convenience Store
LEMON: It is the bottom of the hour, and I have something to report here. Not -- not easy to report, but there was some concern earlier in the week about the victims of the shootings at Virginia Tech. Some of their family members had not been able to see them. Well, CNN has just gotten word from the state Department of Health in Virginia that all of the bodies, the autopsies and the coroner's reports, have been turned over this morning to the families, including the body of Cho. And also the families now are in the process of making transportation and funeral arrangements with mortuaries and so forth. So all of the victims now have been turned over to their families so they can have proper funerals and proper burials now. So the families are in the process of doing that -- Betty.</s>NGUYEN: Across the country, colleges are retooling their emergency notification plans in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings. In California, cell phones are being used to establish an alert system on campuses, but as CNN's Chris Lawrence reports, some schools are going further.</s>CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): School boards are scrambling to avoid what happened at Virginia Tech, where students waited two hours for the first warning.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a threat on campus, and we had no idea.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had no indication that there was anything going on in the morning.</s>LAWRENCE: But how to inform so many after the decision is made to do so? When an emergency strikes, students are everywhere.</s>ROBOTIC VOICE: I'm OK. Press one.</s>LAWRENCE: Companies like MIR3 are adapting technology to notify them online, in class, at home.</s>MARGI SCHMIDT, VICE PRESIDENT, MIR3: You can actually hit their land line, their cell phone, SMS, their pager, anything that they have on them.</s>LAWRENCE: All with one keystroke.</s>ROBOTIC VOICE: You have selected "I'm OK." Your response has been accepted.</s>LAWRENCE: In MIR3's headquarters, a technician inputs our information, but we're miles away when the warning comes through. (on camera) Hello?</s>ROBOTIC VOICE: You have an important message. This is only a test.</s>LAWRENCE: OK. Obviously, this was not an emergency, but if it had been, it could have told us don't come back in the building, stay away, anything like that?</s>SCHMIDT: It could have. It could have actually invited you to evacuate a certain area, give you instructions on where to go next.</s>LAWRENCE (voice-over): Margi Schmidt says the technology was originally used by local governments and businesses. It warned Florida families before Hurricane Ivan, and informed employees after Katrina.</s>SCHMIDT: You know, should we go to Houston? Should we go to, you know, some other city to be safe and set up shop?</s>LAWRENCE: Technicians can input anywhere from a few names to a few million.</s>SCHMIDT: I'm going to notify 6,000 students of the situation.</s>LAWRENCE: MIR3 can just send a warning or ask for a response.</s>ROBOTIC VOICE: I need help, press two.</s>SCHMIDT: And I can create another group of those people and actually give that group off to first responders and say these are the people right away right now that need help.</s>LAWRENCE: And in a situation like Virginia Tech, every student warned is one more out of danger. Chris Lawrence, CNN, San Diego.</s>LEMON: Well, from the ground and also from the air, an army of firefighters is attacking the wildfires burning across South Georgia. More than 25,000 acres near the town of Waycross have already been burned, and nearly 20 homes have been destroyed. The largest fire is about 35 percent contained. That could change, as the winds are picking up again. More than 1,000 people have been forced out of their homes, another 5,000, mainly seniors, are being urged to leave because of all the smoke in the air.</s>NGUYEN: Ware County Commissioner Carlos Nelson has been following firefighters as they confront these wildfires. He sent us these i-report pictures. Take a look. They show us just how exhausting this has been. Today marks the fifth day of this battle that's being fought from the air as well as the ground, and it's not only firefighters from across the region, but also homeowners who are lending a hand.</s>LEMON: Yes. And you know what? Rain would certainly help out this situation. Rob Marciano, let's check in with you now in the weather center and see if there's any in the forecast for these fires.</s>ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Don and Betty, the problem is we haven't seen much rain in the past three months. We're into the months now where typically we see the most amount of rain, at least last month. And we have barely seen half of what we would typically see across much of the southeast and Georgia. So the lack of rain has contributed to this, and we're not going to see much in the way of rain over the next several days. On top of that, the weather pattern is such that the winds are kicking up pretty good today, and relative humidities are low, so red flag warnings are in effect for southeast Georgia, and that includes that area where the fire is.</s>LEMON: So Rob, we typically see wildfires out west, but not here in Georgia. Is that because of the lack of rain? Right?</s>MARCIANO: It is. And you know, things are usually dryer out west. And that's one of the reasons that they do get more in the way of forest fires. And the fact that we've been so dry month after month after month for the past three and four months, is the main reason that we have this very dry fuel out there, and the winds are not helping. Hopefully, get some rain here next week, but it will be a long weekend for these firefighters, for sure.</s>NGUYEN: No doubt. OK, thank you, Rob.</s>MARCIANO: You bet.</s>NGUYEN: We do want to get you to a fiery crash that could have become just a real catastrophe. A pickup truck slams into a gas pump and then a convenience store in West Virginia. You have to watch this video. We get some details now from Christine Habrle of affiliate WCHS.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They came in. Those guys both were asleep.</s>CHRISTINE HABRLE, WCHS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a split second this knocked-out driver veers off 119, across the grass, and takes out pump No. 5, causing it to explode into flames. He never slows down.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The car was coming at me. And I saw it, and everybody started screaming, and I just ran and I jumped up here.</s>HABRLE: Then bam, the truck slams right into the convenience store, narrowly missing two men and a clerk. But look at this beam. It almost hits her right in the head.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People were screaming, running. There was fire. It was just an explosion. Everything was just crazy.</s>HABRLE: Amazingly no one got hurt, except for a few scrapes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a miracle of God. It was a miracle of God.</s>HABRLE: Ofshi Kasari (ph) acted quickly to minimize the damage, getting a visual check on his sister, the clerk, and then racing to the back room to shut down the pump.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just saw the pump on fire, and I knew I had to get it turned off so it didn't go into the tanks and the tanks explode and we have a big mushroom cloud here.</s>HABRLE: The pump is secure now and doesn't pose a threat. This is the second time someone has crashed into the building. Owners are aren't waiting for a third to protect themselves.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bigger the better.</s>HABRLE: They're putting big boulders on the property to keep any other wayward drivers from doing harm. Right now they're relieved this situation didn't turn out much worse.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One second too early, one second too late, somebody could have gotten killed.</s>NGUYEN: That is just remarkable. And that was reporter Christine Habrle of affiliate WCHS. Just amazing, like you said, that the thing just didn't blow up, with all the pumps underneath.</s>LEMON: Did you see the guy pumping gas?</s>NGUYEN: Yes.</s>LEMON: He got out of there quick, but you know, he was even luckier. He was right there.</s>NGUYEN: He was right there. And then of course, he jerks the pump out to make sure that none of that gets anywhere else. And that was the second time that that happened?</s>LEMON: Second time. Big boulders.</s>NGUYEN: What are the chances of that? Hopefully that will stop...</s>LEMON: Big boulders should.</s>NGUYEN: Hopefully there won't be a next person. But good for caution there.</s>LEMON: Absolutely. Advancing technology, Betty, leads to declining death rates. A new report on highway crashes, ahead right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.