CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript - Oklahoma Tornado Aftermath

Interview

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BLITZER: Chad, hold on for a minute -- a moment.

Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma is joining us on the phone.

I know you're in close touch with authorities in your home state, Congressman.

What are you hearing about casualties, for example?

Anything specific yet, numbers of injured, and God forbid, dead?

REP. TOM COLE (R), OKLAHOMA: Not yet. And this is actually, you know, my hometown. And that's -- I talked to my wife and I can literally recognize the homes and the businesses. I just saw my cleaners, which is just devastated.

So it's -- but it's early to know. It's never helpful to speculate about -- about this. Fortunately, the warning system is very good. The National Severe Storm Laboratory is located in Norman, Oklahoma. They do an unbelievable job.

And people take these things seriously. This is in Moore, Oklahoma, which is the most devastated area, where I'm from, I lived for over 50 years. This is our fourth time in 15 years, since '98, '98, '99, 2003 and now this.

And -- but this one, boy, just looking what I can judge from the photographs of the film, it's -- it may be worse than the one in '99, which, you know, that took out 6,000 houses, killed 47 people over a broad area, about 1,000 houses in the town of Moore.

So we're talking about extraordinary damage. And, you know, when something like that happens, even with the best warning and people heeding it -- and they do take it very seriously -- you know, there's always the potential, if you've got a direct hit -- for something really deadly.

BLITZER: Yes, it looks awful. I know you're in DC right now, Congressman. You said you spoke to your wife.

Is she OK?

COLE: She is, fortunately. And my son lives a little south of there, so they're coordinating. So hopefully she can -- she's lost power and everything. But, boy, I mean I can just -- this stuff is within blocks of where I live. It's not -- we're not -- these are neighborhoods I walk through when I go out in the evening. So it's -- it's -- we're very fortunate where she's concerned, obviously. But (INAUDIBLE)...

BLITZER: Is she...

COLE: (INAUDIBLE) -- BLITZER: -- is she hunkered down in a basement there?

COLE: We don't have a basement. As your -- as your guy said, we have a reinforced interior room. And that's pretty common. There's a lot of safe rooms above ground. Basements, for the reason that your previous observer said, are very rare in Oklahoma. They're just extremely difficult to build. So a lot of people, though, will have individual shelters and a lot of often they're reinforced concrete rooms aboveground.

BLITZER: It looks like -- I don't know if you can see our video that we're showing our viewers right now. If you're watching CNN, it looks like a -- a mall area that was pretty destroyed, maybe a movie theater.

Can you see those pictures...

COLE: Yes, it's a (INAUDIBLE)...

BLITZER: -- Congressman?

COLE: -- movie theater.

BLITZER: Yes.

COLE: And it's actually one of the key attractions of the area. It's a magnificent place, and, you know, one of these not just multi- screen, but it's -- it's very unusual, with places where you can eat and have a drink and what have you, and while you're watching your movie. So it's -- it draws people from all around.

But that area is through, just right outside the heart of the town, the old downtown area. But mostly, it will be hitting, you know, this -- Moore is primarily now a suburban city. And so you're just looking at a lot of housing and -- as well as small business damage. And, obviously, the school, West Moore, appears to have gotten hit again. And so it's, you know, you worry about anything, because, obviously, you've got children in school, although, again, they -- most of these places have reinforced interior structures and they take this stuff very seriously, so I don't have any doubt that the right things were done. But oh, my gosh, it's just awful.

BLITZER: Yes. We can see. You can see somebody there being removed, going to an emergency vehicle. These areas -- you say you're from this area, you know these areas. These are live pictures. We're showing, you know, what's going on. And you see some random horses just strolling around...

COLE: I know exactly where that part. It's 134th and Western. I just saw it. That's an old -- it's actually right on -- it's in the city limits, right on the edge of town. And an old family that's literally lived there decades and decades. So it's -- I mean, it's almost since the settlement of the area. You know, it's pretty devastating stuff.

BLITZER: You can see the horses. You can see people wandering around. They're trying to -- I mean you -- you know these areas. I'm going to show our viewers these pictures, Congressman. If you can narrate and tell us where it is, what's going on...

COLE: (INAUDIBLE)...

BLITZER: -- since you're -- this is your neighborhood.

COLE: This actually is my neighborhood. Just let me get your station here. But a -- I've got (INAUDIBLE) channels.

BLITZER: Yes, it's right near Oklahoma City. I mean look at this destruction...

COLE: It's surrounded by Oklahoma City on three sides and Norman to the south. So it's a...

BLITZER: Congressman, we know that, for the last 24 to 48 hours, there were a lot of warnings -- tornado warnings. So I assume people were ready for this.

COLE: Yes, they are. Again, this is not unusual for us. This is springtime and that's tornado season, from April through June. And, you know, this is part of an area where 95 percent of all the tornadoes on the planet hit, along the Midwestern part of the United States, from the Canadian border on down. Oklahoma is right at the center of that. It probably gets more damage per capita. Oklahoma and Texas are actually number two and three in the country in disaster relief per capita on an annual basis. And this is the big reason why, this and drought.

So, obviously, in times like this, number one, we've got a really superb disaster -- a civil management system. Albert Ashwood, who's the head of it, was the number two during the Oklahoma City bombing. I was secretary of state and dealt with him and have dealt with him through many of these tragedies.

He's first rate. They know how to respond. The first responders are very well-trained in this sort of thing. And, again, people take it seriously.

But, you know, when winds that are 200 plus miles an hour hit, you can have taken everything seriously and it's still, you know, a potentially very deadly thing and obviously damaging. I mean it's a -- it's going to take a while to recover from something like this.

BLITZER: Yes, because the destruction is going to be huge. Congressman, hold on for a moment.

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MIKE MORGAN, KFOR METEOROLOGIST: It is not. It's over by Meeker and our storm tracker, Mark Dillard, still has a tornado on the ground on the northwest side of Meeker. Urgently right now, I have to pass this along to you. With this tornado warning for Garbin County, this is a rapidly developing tornado that could be significant in size. There is a tornado warning in effect for Paul's Valley. It is heading directly for Paul's Valley.

BLITZER: All right. If the congressman is still with us, Tom Cole, you were listening to this report from our local affiliate, KFOR, you're familiar with this school, these third graders. You know the area. Give us your reaction to what you heard.

REP. TOM COLE, OKLAHOMA: It's just devastating. I know that school extremely well. It's actually a voting place, a mile and a half from my home. It's surrounding by houses. It's in a classic neighborhood school. Built in the 1960s. Middle class, working neighborhoods and kids.

And it's just devastating. It just breaks your heart. If there's anything wrong with any of those children -- and again, I know the area and I know the people and they'll look after them and they'll do the right things and they'll have done everything they can. They're pretty danggum good at responding in a crisis situation. But gosh, it's almost overwhelming to look at. Again, this is the town I grew up in and lived in for 53 years now. So to watch it go through this is pretty heartbreaking.

BLITZER: It's heartbreaking for all of us. Congressman, you're familiar with this elementary school where they were pulling third graders out. Is there a shelter? Is there an underground shelter? Is there reinforced area?

COLE: No. They would have them in interior rooms and windowless rooms. But there's not a communal shelter or an underground shelter there that I'm aware of. So it's pretty -- again, unusual occurrence. It's fifty years, the first time the school's been hit. But it happens. There's not a lot you can do other than take the best preparations. Get them in the safest place possible and hope for the best. And it's just very, very devastating.

BLITZER: Look at this destruction, Congressman. This is your hometown right now. Are you familiar with this building over here that we're watching?

COLE: Yes. It looks like that's the Warren Theater there at Telephone Road. So you're looking north across Moore. And again, a lot of neighborhoods, a lot of fairly densely packed areas, and you're just going to -- lost hundreds and hundreds of homes.

BLITZER: And we can only hope that the people were protected as this huge tornado ripped apart this area right outside. This is a suburb of Oklahoma City. It's not very far from downtown Oklahoma City. How far would you say, Congressman?

COLE: Oh from downtown Oklahoma City, about six miles. It's almost a straight shot up the interstate. So, very close, again, surrounded by Oklahoma City on three sides. As a matter of fact, some of the areas you've shown, the school district actually straddles Oklahoma City and Moore. It's known as the Moore School District. But it draws on parts of south Oklahoma City as well.

So, some of the devastation you're seeing is within the Oklahoma City limits. Fortunately so far, not further north in an even more heavily populated or through the downtown section. But it's clearly very, very damaging and very devastating event.

BLITZER: Congressman, if you can stick around for a moment, Chad Myers, our severe weather expert is watching - watching what's going on.

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