Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

More Bodies Found In Shipwreck; Cruise Disaster Survivor Stories; Quote On Martin Luther King Memorial To Be Corrected; Alaskan Town Snowed In; GOP Race Could Make Religious History

Aired January 15, 2012 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Five people are confirmed dead in the wreckage of that Italian cruise ship in the past few hours recovery crews found two more bodies, both wearing life jackets, inside the capsized luxury liner.

More than 4,000 people managed to get to safety either on life boats or by swimming to shore. The ship's captain is in police cuss day and may face manslaughter charges. He told reporters he had no way of knowing the water was as treacherous as it was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCESCO SCHETTINO, CAPTAIN OF THE COSTA CONCORDIA (through translator): What happened is that while we were moving with the tourist navigation system, as you can see by the rip there was a lateral rock projection.

Even though we were sailing along the coast with the tourist navigation system I believe the rocks were not detected as the ship was not heading forward, but sideways as if underwater there was this rock projection.

I don't know if it was detected or not, but on the nautical chart it was mashed as water, some 150 meters from the rocks and we were able 300 meters from the shore more or less. We shouldn't have had this contact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Dan Rivers joining me now on the Island of Gilio off the west coast of Italy. So Dan, you had an opportunity to be in a smaller boat and actually kind of circle this ship. What did you see?

DAN RIVERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Just an incredible sight. I mean, actually, I saw this from the air flying in believe it or not from about 25,000 feet up. You could clearly see the ship on its side and as you approach the island, you just see this enormous white object.

As you get closer and closer it gets bigger and bigger and totally dwarfs the little town here. Yes, we went out in the water today and had a tour around it and you can get a pretty good look at the huge gash running along its hull on the portside.

What appears to have happened is the ship hit or struck a rock as it came up the west coast of this -- the east coast of this island when they realized the water was flowing in. They then tried to do a u- turn and come back towards the port, but it was too late.

The enormous liner went over on its side with tragic results. We have been talking to one of the commanders of the coast guard here who is adamant that the rocks that are sticking out from the shore here, are definitely on the charts and that this cruiseliner was simply too close. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. COSIMON NICASTRO, ITALIAN COAST GUARD: What we know the cause of this is water went on board and probably the ship so big, caused from a rock. We know that the ship was close to the island.

RIVERS: Pretty close to the island?

NICASTRO: Yes. But this is why it went so close is the matter of fact that why we are investigating to discover why the ship went so close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: Some of the locals here are saying there was a kind of regular habit of this particular cruiseliner to come close to this island because there are various links between the crew and former crew and this island.

And that they would regularly sail quite close by to simply sort of wave at their friends if you will and that would regularly happen in the summer. Whether on this occasion they got a bit too close and inadvertently got into these rocks we don't know.

As you've heard the captain is insisting that they were 300 meters off the shore and that there shouldn't have been any rocks there. The rocks we were shown that local people think may have been responsible is a good deal closer than that. I would guess.

And maybe it's a case of them getting a little too close and forgetting that there was this reef running out from the shore.

WHITFIELD: So Dan, we're looking at images of a chopper being used. We know the divers have been part of the search and rescue as well. Give us an idea of what these rescue crews is up against?

RIVERS: Well, it's a really difficult job and they're still going on behind me in the dark here. You can occasionally see sort of torches flickering around the hull of this huge liner.

Basically they have two jobs. There are divers who are looking under water, which as you can imagine is incredibly dangerous, trying to check all of the hundreds of different cabins and communal areas and then other teams that have climbed up on the super structure out of the water, also looking.

You know, huge numbers of people involved. The commander we talked to said 500 at one point. I don't know if that's the number involved overnight.

But we certainly seen fire brigades, people with sniffer dogs, we've seen what appear to be sort of military units in the inflatable boats, circling as well, and several tugs. So the operation is continuing until they're absolutely certain that there is no one else alive in this ship.

And I suppose until they have recovered all of the bodies, if there are more bodies -- there are still we think 15 people missing or unaccounted for. The problem is we just don't know if they've gone ashore on the mainland and wandered off back to their families and friends without notifying the authorities.

There is a possibility that people may be safe and they simply haven't called in to tell people they are.

WHITFIELD: Dan Rivers, thanks so much on Gilio Island on Italy. Thanks so much.

So we're getting more dramatic stories, too, from the passengers who were on board. The U.S. State Department estimates 126 Americans were on that ship.

There are no reports that any of them were injured, though the U.S. Embassy in Rome said it hasn't been able to account for everyone. Here's how some survivors describe the rush to get to safety.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The crew was so young and I -- you would have thought they could have handled it better, they would have handled it better on the shore, thought they could have handled, you know, getting people off the boat, warned people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the ship started taking on water and I saw like the river water gushing in, I started to panic then and that's when I started sprinting towards the boat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wwe wanted to abandon the ship, but this crew, although they tried very hard to do their job. They were telling us they had no information. They had no information.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were misled. I really agree with you because we were the lucky ones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That 30 seconds in that life boat slamming into the ship and being thrown away and free fall, was the scariest point. We were fortunate. We boarded the life boat early enough, we were taken to shore early enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fact that the captain abandoned ship, and everything, and he wasn't informing anybody. The crew actually did really well in evacuating people in like a situation where their leader or their boss was gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were being told everyone stay calm, we're going to get off, things like that. But what happened is it started to tilt rapidly like sink rapidly. There was a crane, one of them ha was about two, three yards off the water, and then next thing we know it's like in the water. It was that dramatic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: So there's more to this story coming up later on today at 5:00 Eastern Time. Some perspective from professor of naval architecture how something like this could happen on such a sophisticated ship.

And next, Cordova, Alaska, still digging out of a record 18 feet of snow, but where are they going to put all that snow?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: On what would have been Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 83rd birthday crowds are expected at new memorial honoring him at the National Mall in Washington today.

At the start of the king holiday weekend, the Department of Interior announced a correction will soon be made at that historic site.

An inscription on the monument paraphrases a quote from King, words his family including daughter, Bernice King told me in October are important to correct.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNICE KING, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.'S DAUGHTER: Contextually, those of us who view it today, will understand, perhaps, who he was. A 100 years -- you have to think about this. This is a permanent memorial.

Hundred years from now the people may not have the context because those who knew him personally or someone who knew him personally won't be here. So it is important that people have an accurate --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Portrayal.

KING: Portrayal of who he was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Athena Jones joins us live now. So, Athena, there you are at the memorial. Certainly, it looks like a lot of crowds. Have people been talking about the upcoming change of that inscription?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they have. There's been some mixed reaction here, but really quickly I want to get to the quote in question here. You can see that the main part of the memorial behind me, the statute of Dr. King. The quote is on the other side of the part we can't see, but a shortened version of a line from one of his sermons, a sermon in 1968 that he gave at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Now the short version that's etched into the side of that stone says "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness." King's actual words were a little bit longer than that.

He said "If you want to say I was a drum major, say I was a drum major for justice, say I was a drum major for peace, I was a drum major for righteousness and all the other shallow things will not matter."

So at issue here is whether or not shortening that line really takes out of context, makes it inaccurate. You had people like an author and poet Maya Angelo saying last summer that that shorten version makes Dr. King seem arrogant. He wasn't an arrogant man.

So now you have people talking here, some -- there's a mix reaction. Some say brevity is important, that what Dr. King wanted to say comes across in just those two lines. Maybe they didn't have enough space to put the long quote on there.

Others say that it's very, very important to have an authentic and accurate version of what Dr. King said and have his actual words. We spoke after the wreath laying with the president of the memorial foundation about this change. Harry Johnston. Let's listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRY E. JOHNSON, PRESIDENT, MLK JR. MEMORIAL FOUNDATION: We have met with the secretary a few weeks ago, actually a couple months ago, talked about looking at whether it could be changed, how it could be changed.

Because the fact is we want to correct for generations yet unborn. We do not want it as a distraction. We actually want it to be correct. So we're working with the park service to see what will happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And so Johnson said we'll have to see what kind of changes they can make. So it will be several months most likely before we see anything take place here. But as of today, you're going to see lots of people coming out in order to celebrate Dr. King's birthday. Back to you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Athena Jones, thanks so much, on the National Mall in Washington.

All right, so quite the extreme after weeks of record snowfall, Cordova, Alaska, is buried under 18 feet of snow for a place used to harsh winters even this is too much. But how are they doing?

Jennifer Gibbins, editor of "The Cordova Times" is joining us now on the phone. So, Jennifer, you know, how are people dealing with all of this snow?

JENNIFER GIBBINS, EDITOR, "THE CORDOVA TIMES" (via telephone): Good morning, Fredricka. Well I have to say, having the National Guard and having our coast guard come in and help us out was as much a morale booster as it was working on the snow.

We're getting through it. We had a couple moments there when I think people were just utterly exhausted, but right now I think we're on the upswing and it's a sunny day.

WHITFIELD: Good. OK, well, things are looking up then. So the National Guard has been in there. They're there to help move the snow. But one big problem, where to move this towering -- these towering piles of snow, right?

GIBBINS: Yes. I mean we're, you know, used to snow, obviously we're in Alaska so we're used to a lot of snow during the winter, but we got to the point where it kept coming and there wasn't any place to put it.

So it couldn't slide off roofs. They couldn't clear the streets, and we really last week on Thursday, we thought three more feet of snow and that's when we kind of reached the tipping point when it went from, you know, just struggling to keep up to something that was a little more serious.

WHITFIELD: So when you look at your neighbors, in Nome, and they are waiting for that, you know, delivery of fuel that has been so closely watched, is Cordova in any way facing that same kind of possibility that you would be running out of supplies? You would need, you know, help to be shipped in like your neighbors of Nome have had to do?

GIBBINS: Well, our heart really goes out to the folks in Nome and, you know, Alaskans, we're kind of used to this, most of us live in the wilderness. Cordova, we are in the wilderness, only accessible by boat or by plane.

We're fortunate that because we sort of expect this stuff, people have stockpiles of food. We've, you know, had good fuel deliveries, so in terms of food, fuel and electricity, we were fine.

But we just couldn't keep up with the snow and it was getting to the point where we were starting to see roofs cave in. We were starting to lose buildings and that's when we really, you know, that's when it sort of got to a more serious situation and we just needed the manpower.

WHITFIELD: Wow, so you're a relatively small fishing town community of about 2,000 or so. You all apparently went through some emergency preparedness training just in case something like this or anything else were to happen. What did that training prepare you al for?

GIBBINS: Well, I think we're really lucky that our town has been very proactive on emergency preparedness, and, you know, the town has been through a lot of things over the years. In 1964, we had a big earthquake that uplifted the ocean floor by five feet. We had fires in the '60s and '70s that almost burned the town down. We, of course, had the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

So we know the importance of being prepared and the town has been working on that. Our city staffs have really been working on that over the past five years. So they were able to immediately set up a command center.

It happens that we have some people here from Homeland Security working with the folks in the city just on a little update of our emergency preparedness plan, and they were able to call the National Guard in.

And one of the things that the National Guard told me was as soon as they got to town, they could tell we needed the help, but we were prepared to say exactly what we needed and that's what has made the difference.

WHITFIELD: So you've been able to deal with snowpocalypse like you all kind of posted on the front page of your front paper there, "The Cordova Times." Jennifer Gibbins, thanks so much.

GIBBINS: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: You still have three more months of winter left, so we're still wishing you the best.

GIBBINS: OK, thanks a lot.

WHITFIELD: We could be looking at a first in the GOP presidential race. Josh Levs is here to tell us all about that. Josh, what's going on?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Fred. Yes, listen to this. The presidential race could make U.S. religious history. I'm going to break it down for you right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The 2012 presidential race, the race for Republican nomination, could make religious history. Our Josh Levs is here to tell us all about it.

LEVS: It's so interesting. It is part of the -- you know, from the very beginning of America, the intersection between religion and politics, largely defined us as a country. Stop and take a look now, fascinating.

This could be, folks, the Republican Party's first non-Protestant nominee ever in modern politics. Some say ever if you take out Lincoln, but definitely modern politics. This is a lot about politics and religion in the U.S.

Let's start with some of the firsts that we could see in the GOP race. First, if frontrunner Mitt Romney gets the nomination or Jon Huntsman, either would be the first Mormon nominee ever for either major party, and would be the first Mormon president.

Now listen to this, if Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich get the nomination, either would be the Republican Party's first Catholic nominee and would be only the second Catholic president after John F. Kennedy, he was the first.

There are two Protestants in the race as well. Those are Ron Paul and Rick Perry. Paul has been doing pretty well so far. Rick Perry not so much, but he's hoping to turn that around in South Carolina.

So for a piece for our belief blog on cnn.com, I spoke with experts about this and they tell me the denominational diversity among this year's pack of GOP contenders reflects major changes that have gone on in the country.

One of them is that Catholics were once upon a time a really solid Democratic voting block, but over the last few decades a lot of Catholics flipped to the Republican Party. A big reason for that, change was Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision on abortion.

Many Catholics who opposed abortion rights defected to the Republican Party. We also talk about Mormonism. It's a quickly growing religion. More and more people now know someone Mormon. Americans are becoming increasingly comfortable with the idea of a Mormon president, but some still are not. So, Fred, that could play out in this race as well.

WHITFIELD: So how have these religious differences already played out on the campaign trail.

LEVS: Yes, you know, we're seeing it so far. Some of the early surveys and some of the early results for Iowa, for example -- one thing that you can see there is that in some cases Evangelical Christians are more apt to vote for Rick Santorum in higher numbers.

That's one good example there, but for example, if you look at New Hampshire, in New Hampshire, Catholics and Protestants voted in larger numbers for Mitt Romney than they did for other candidates as voters did in general.

So you're seeing a lot of those denominational differences in many cases start to subside. I got the full story and links for you up on my pages here.

I want you to see it all of it, cnn.com/josh, Facebook and Twitter, joshlevscnn. So, Fred, you know, we'll see how it plays out. Still anyone's game in many ways. Either way, just the existence of this pack on the GOP side is historic for America and this is a sign of our changing times.

WHITFIELD: That's really is an incredible race in which to watch.

LEVS: It's just another angle on it.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Josh. Appreciate that. All right, straight ahead, join us every Sunday, straight ahead later on this afternoon, 4:00 Eastern Time when we dedicate an hour to the presidential contenders in the 2012 election. Don't want to miss it today.

And remember that Russian fuel tanker that we've been telling you about in Alaska? Well, it's now within a half mile of the city of Nome, but the journey is far from over.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, checking our top stories, the search continues in the wreckage of the Italian cruiseliner that ran aground. Two more bodies have been found. Five people are now confirmed dead. More than a dozen people still unaccounted for.

And Nome, Alaska, is finally getting ready to receive some much need fuel. An American ice breaker cleared a path through the bearing sea allowing a Russian tanker to get close enough to deliver gas and oil, but it's not quite there yet.

There's still a half mile of ice between the tanker and harbor. The fuel all 1.3 million gallons of it has to be piped in through a hose that's being laid out on top of that ice.

It's going to be a night of glitz and glamour in Los Angeles, Hollywood's biggest stars will be out for the 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards. British comedian, Ricky Gervais will host the show for the third time.

Last year, he was criticized for offending big name celebrities for his jokes. We'll bring you live coverage from the red carpet tonight beginning at 5:00 Eastern Time.

I'll be back in an hour with a full hour dedicated to the 2012 presidential race. We'll zero in on all that "Super PAC" money. Critics call it the beast that's been unleashed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL SHERER, "TIME" MAGAZINE: So you have now a situation in which the actual candidate campaigns that are in South Carolina are not advertising with as much money as the "Super PAC" supporting the candidates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The "Time" magazine reporter talking about it. We'll also see who's leading in the latest polls and why in South Carolina a tight primary race is shaping up. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. See you then. Stay with CNN. "YOUR MONEY" starts right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)