people driving away from home as smoke and flames engulf nearly everything. listen to evacuees tell what they managed to escape with. >> everything else can be replaced, but my babies can't be replaced. they just can't. >> it's my mom's mom's and and these were real important to her, my sister's wedding dress in the back. >> i have oklahoma's governor on the phone right now. mary fallon who just finished touring some of the hardest-hit areas. what's the toughest challenge that you're incurring right now? >> well, the toughest challenge, rob, right now is that it's still very, very hot outside. your state was up to 115 in some areas of the state. we, of course, are in the middle of a big drought in our state. we need rain and cool temperatures desperately, but we have all of the resources out working very, very hard. we're coordinating fire command centers, but i don't have a total estimate on the number of acres left, but from what i can best guess we're probably about 60,000 acres that are burned in oklahoma, and i just finished touring luther, oklahoma, which has a population of 1250, and the whole town has actually been evacuated because the power poles burned and they don't have electricity at all, and of course, it's extremely hot so no air-conditioning. and there was no electricity and you can't even run water if a fire should come up to your home and it's still hot to anticipate some of the embers that will re-ignite today and there are a lot of communities that are really struggling. >> of course, you've had your heat and drought. you've had big fires in the past, as well. there are some reports that say that arson was the cause of this fire. can you confirm that? >> i don't know yet, but there is a story going around that someone saw a man in a black pickup truck throw a lighted newspaper out the window and so we're trying to track down that story with the sheriff's department there in the local area. i sure hope no one would ever do something like this intentionally because we had 56 structures that were destroyed just in luther alone and a lot of people lost their homes that came really close to the schools there in luther. i mean, right up on the school grounds and they were very fortunate. they didn't lose those schools, but the good news is we've had no loss of life, no firefighters have had a loss of life. may god bless our firefighters. they've been working so hard under very tough circumstances. >> oh, yea. this heat is unbelievable and to have to fight a fire is unreal to think about. you mentioned the town luther, a small town, but significant. over 1,000 people lived there, and the cool front will maybe knock down temperatures a bit. what are the fire commanders telling you? is that town in danger if the winds shift? >> the town is still in danger. there are a lot of burning embers even where the fire is going through, and if the winds shift it could push that fire back into the community itself. so they're not out of risk and there's another town that's close by if the fire keeps going in that direction, we'll come up on that town. so we're monitoring the situation. we have a lot of people on the ground. i have doubled our helicopters, our air support today. the challenge is that we had five major fires yesterday and numerous other fires throughout the state. we talked to some of the other states about giving us some help, but golly, other states have their own fire problems, too. we're coordinating the services and getting the backhoes in, and the fire departments are helping other communities and they're certainly using our air support any way they can. >> governor mary fallin out of oklahoma joining us live on the phone. good luck, governor. we know you have tough times ahead. we appreciate you on the phone, governor. >> thank you. as the governor mentioned oklahoma yes, the latest victim of the hot, dry stuff and the other states also included in this. take a look at the company that oklahoma has. look closely. the latest drought monitor map and nearly half of all of the counties in the u.s., lower 48 have been designated disaster zones and crop losses could top $20 billion and you know what that means. you will feel that loss at some point where it hurts in your wallet. consider this. a new study warns that the worst of the price increases and food shortages from the drought may be a year away. in 20 minutes past the hour i'll talk to the professor who conducted that survey. all right. let's talk about the tropics. if we with could get one of these things in oklahoma, which isn't easy to do, it would certainly help out. we'd like to do it with as little winds as possible. ernesto has winds of 50 miles an hour. it should pass that island no problem, tonight, but jamaica is in the path and tropical storm warnings are up for jamaica moving to the west-northwest of 18 miles an hour. the forecast track is steady increase potentially getting to hurricane strength by tomorrow or monday and driving it toward the yucatan or maybe into the gulf of mexico. so all interests along the gulf and in neck co will have to watch this and also tropical storm florence is out there in the atlantic. no threat anywhere at this time. secretary of state hillary clinton is in near fanairobi, kenya. the country is holding free and fair elections and vote scheduled for march will be the first since a disputed poll in 2007. hundreds were killed in the violence that followed that vote. >> doctors in uganda are monitoring 30 people suspected of being infected with the deadly ebola virus. at least 16 people have died since the initial outbreak. our david mackenzie visited a hospital where doctors are trying to contain one of the world's most dangerous diseases. >> reporter: this is the epicenter of an ebola crisis. our safety protection isn't enough. >> the reason this isn't acceptable equipment, it's because of this cottonlike material and obviously, fluids which are the key risk in contracting ebola can get sort of soaked into the material. let's keep going. >> what we've got is pre-pack e pre-packaged kits. >> the virus is so deadly, you need extreme protection. >> if you're inside a kind of restricted area. no matter what you do, you to wear something like this. >> you should, yes. >> plastic overalls, aprons, hoods and a face mask and not a single inch of skin could be exposed. touching fluid, a patient or object can put you at risk. >> we're inside kagari hospital where the first case was confirmed in late july, the rest of the patients fled and health workers were some of the first to die. >> early on in the epidemic they're often in contact with patients and unwittingly, if they don't know it's ebola they may catch it themselves and transmit that to the community. if you can't do that, you can rip it. >> within 24 hours of the first case, doctors without borders was on the ground. there is no cure for ebola and up to 90% of the people who catch it will die. so managing the fear factor is key. >> we use a lot of chlorinated water. olympia de la rosa is in charge of the response. she said it's important to stay calm when entering the high-risk zone. this is the innermost exclusion zone. 13 suspected cases of ebola, two confirmed. the sickest, too dangerous to get close enough to film. there is no treatment. all of the doctors can do is give care. all of the patients can do is hope. >> doctors wear protection for themselves and to contain the outbreak. >> the main objective when one of these outbreaks is to contain the spread because we cannot treat it and we cannot keep seeing any provengz to avoid it. so we have to contain the spread of the disease. >> we are allowed only a few minutes inside and have to leave. >> it's the front line of the fight against the ebola outbreak. so no risk is worth taking. the goal, to stop the spread in uganda and even beyond. >> bill mckenzie, kagari, uganda. >> we'll hear more from olympia de la rosa, the doctor in the story. we'll get the day's developments and more on what they're doing to contain the outbreak. we are just hours away to see how hard the toughest olympic record ever. michael phelps' medal wins and today he'll swim his last olympic race which could give him his 22nd olympic medal. of course, this is just one of the gripping headlines today from london. so cnn's pedro pinto is live for us at the games. which race, there are so many of them that the swimmers have. which one is phelps competing in and what time can we expect that? >> reporter: well, in less than 90 minutes we'll say good-bye to michael phelps, the curtain closes on his amazing olympic career, rob. we're talking about a man who has won more olympic medals than anyone else in this event. he's going for 22nd overall. he's won 21 so far. if we put all of his medals together from athens and also beijing and london, and he's going to compete in the 4 x 100 medley and that will start in less than an hour and a half. the usa are the favorites and we could see michael phelps saying good-bye to the olympics by winning his 18th gold medal of his career. it would be a fantastic way to have that cherry on top of the cake which has been an unforgettable run for him in the olympics rob. >> he's done quite well after having a bit of a stumble, he's certainly come back strong. let's switch gears. it's weird watching these tennis matches. they're taking place at wimbledon which is a grand slam and the last showdown for the women's, serena and maria. that felt like a grand slam event. how did that turn out? >> reporter: it really did feel like a grand slam final. i was at wimbledon just a couple of weeks ago to watch the women's final and serena won that and, wow, did she teach maria sharapova a lesson today at the old england club. she didn't waste any time and winning this gold medal which allowed her to win the golden slam and then an olympic gold as well. 6-0, 6-1 and the match lasted just 63 minutes and maria sharapova had no answers for what serena was pounding in this final and the american with a historic achievement in london. we'll see now whether roger federer can win the elusive singles gold medal on sunday and he takes on one of the local favorites and andy murray at wimbledon on sunday, rob. >> speak of history, pedro. we have the first double amputee competing,ed blade runner. give us the color on that story. >> this is an unbelievable story, this is a man who hails from south africa. he was born without fibulas. he had both of his legs amputated when he was 11 months old and that didn't allow him to compete as an able-bodied athlete and it didn't mean that he gave up on his olympic dream and obviously he won four paralympic gold medals and his dream was always to become an olympian and that came true earlier on saturday when he qualified for the men's semifinals in the 400 meters and he made history by becoming the first-ever double amputee to compete in the able-bodied games. an unbelievable story. the 25-year-old will now try to qualify for the final and how magical could it be if he could walk away with a medal from these london games. >> we look forward to that today. super saturday, they call it. pedro pinto live from london. thank you. >> talk about an olympic feat sort of, kind of, in a way. think about outer space, the countdown to one of nasa's most difficult, and i think coolest migs and pretty costly ever, a harrowing trip to mars. we'll be back. the general's your soul mate? dude what? no, no, no. he's, he's on my back about providing fohis little girl. hey don't worry. e-trade's got a killer investing dashboard. everything is on one page, your investments, quotes, research... it's like the buffet last night. whatever helps you understand man. i'm watching you. oh yeah? well i'm watching you, watching him. 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[ whirring and beeping ] it's the at&t network -- doing more with data to help business do more for customers. ♪ >> in syria, fighting is intensifying ing iing in alepp. cnn was able to enter an area under heavy fire and captured this video. today rebels stormed the state-run tv and radio station and took partial control of that building, but eefrpt ally had to retreat under heavy shelling. meanwhile, the syrian regime is feeling the impact of economic sanctions and is now asking russia for financial aid. senior international correspondent ben wedeman joins me live from northern syria where he's met with a commander of the rebel army earlier. ben, what is that soldier telling you? >> reporter: well, this commander of the free syrian army is telling me that they are reinforcing their fighters in and around aleppo trying to bring in as much ammunition and weaponry as possible in anticipation of the arrival in aleppo of two large columns, one headed from latakia on the mediterranean coast and the other coming in the direction of damascus. clearly, the syrian army far outguns the rebels and the concern is that we are really on the verge of a major government counter offensive to win back control of aleppo's biggest city and its commercial hub. of course, the concern among officials in damascus is if aleppo falls, that's really the end of the game. >> so they're up against a big army, ben. i would imagine the rebel army having short supplies. are they getting any help in terms of arms and ammunition and if so, from who? >> well, we know that most of their arms and ammunition have been captured from the syrian army itself. they have received limited supplies of weaponry from some of the gulf state, qatar and saudi arabia and certainly, to be compared with the amount of weaponry that the libyan rebels receive during their uprising and it is a drop in the bucket. one of the commanders i spoke with today say he quickly acknowledged that they're outmanned and they're outgunned. he did say they have god on their side. >> you heard different numbers as far as the death toll is concerned. what can you tell us about both military and civilian? >> well, certainly, as far as today's concerned according to syrian opposition groups, the number of dead exceed 60. there are also reports or claims coming from the regime in damascus that they found the side of what they claim to be a massacre more than 20 people dead. in this case the claim is that there are soldiers and civilians who were not supporting the rebels. obviously, these numbers are very difficult to nail down, but this is actually compared to the death toll of the last week or so which daily exceeded 100. this is somewhat down, but this really does not detract from the fact that many feared that there would be lots of bloodshed in aleppo if they do try to retake the city in the coming days. >> ben wedeman live for us in northern syria. thank you, ben, and stay safe. let's get to the race to the white house. mitt romney is attending a fund-raiser in evansville, indiana. he picked up a celebrity endorsement and another supporter, clint eastwood. he said romney would fix the country. speaking of president or press deshls. mr. president, it's his birthday. he's spending the day at camp david. there's a more official celebration in chicago expected next weekend. the president returns to the campaign trail this week wenned two stops in connecticut. what makes a healthy neighborhood? we have tips on what to look for coming up. a new survey shows the drought is beginning to drag down u.s. economies and it's expected to have a ripple effect across the entire country. ernie goss conducted that survey some surprising stuff, professor, coming out of there. what should consumers be most concerned about? >> good afternoon, rob. the consumers are going to see higher food prices. now, on the pork, on the stock side, beef, pork and poultry, the price will be somewhat lower in the short run because a lot of livestock producers are bringing their animals to the food processing plants because of the high cost of feed, but we're already seeing some of the prices for higher, for example crop prices. what consumers will say the usda says 4%, no, about 6% to 7%. this will be a lot higher prices for consumers in the u.s. and consumers across the globe. >> when i first heard of these reports from 2% to 3% increase in the grocery bill seemed too dramatic and you start talking more than 5% and especially the people that live month to month and check to check. that's a big increase and you feel confident that it's going to get that bad? >> oh, absolutely. you know, rob, this is -- of course, we survey the bread basket of the nation. for that matter, the bread basket of the globe. so we have the easy money policy of the federal reserve which is contributing to higher food prices and what we tried in the two surveys for the month of july is the spilling over of other industries and when consumers have less money, they have less money to spend on other factors, and we haven't seen all of that yet. we'll see it in the months ahead and, in fact, the -- coming in the latter part of 2012 and into 2013. >> what do you expect to see, professor goss? is this going to unemployment which isn't terribly strong or will it affect jobs? >> absolutely, rob. in the month of july our employment gauge was level, but the overall indices for the month of july, again, two surveys, rural and non-rural, the down below growth neutral. so what we're expecting from our two surveys going forward is we are going see a slower growth economy. i expect it to approach zero, meaning no job growth and we could see job losses. except we will see job losses for industries that are tightly linked to agriculture. ethanol that is tightly linked and they're fueled by corn. we've already seen corn prices more than double what we had this time last year. >> i don't have a lot of time, but one more question, professor. if we do get rain and snow this coming winter, is this still going to be a crisis that lasts more than 12 or 18 months? >> rob, it looks like it's too late for this year's crop, but also the livestock producers, and we talk about crop insurance. livestock producers don't get crop insurance and congress left and they left the beef producers and livestock producers, they hung them out to dry by taking no action and no pun intended there. so this will be a tough situation going forward for a lot of rural america, at least the midsection of the country. okay. professor ernie goss, with a bit of a gloomy forecast, but we'll all get together and pray for some rain and hope for some improvement. thank you, professor goss. >> we will, rob. thanks. did you know that where you live can actually affect your health? living in a neighborhood that helps get you moving and promotes a better lifestyle is good for your heart. here's elizabeth cohen in this week's "health for her." >> reporter: it may seem obvious, but now there's scientific proof, a recent study finds that people are more likely to have strong, healthy hearts if they live in a neighborhood that promotes a healthy lifestyle. >> i feel totally safe running up and down these streets. >> there is a healthy grocery store in the neighborhood. >> they have a basketball court. >> it helps if residences feel safe and have pleasant places to walk. having sidewalks and easy access to parks and trails also gets people moving. neighborhood grocery stores with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and healthy sthaunts that are within walking distance can make it easier to stick to a healthy diet. heart-healthy people are more likely to have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels and be at a healthy weight. >> they don't