creating a lot of misery this morning, and the governor has declared a state of emergency in one state. it was indeed a big night, but that was so yesterday. next stop, super tuesday. mitt romney may have had a sweep, but you know what, in one week it is the big show, the biggest night of primary season. and it was a close one in his home state. so what? michigan's a win, right? win's a win. but what's up next? and the accused teenage gunman in the ohio school ram pain facing a judge this morning. he could be tried as an adult. we are hearing also the desperate 911 calls from inside the school. we are going to share those with you this morning. and one cruise ship hits the ground and topples over. another cruise ship loses all power and is set adrift in pirate infested seas. is it a good idea to even embark on a cruise these days? washington may have some help and some answers for you. we'll let you know why that is. and we begin this morning with breaking news. the search on right now for three people after a coast guard chopper went down in alabama. the coast guard says one crew member who was rescued has now died. they're searching the waters of mobile bay. that's off point clear, alabama. this is where the chopper went down. the video just came in of the search here. the helicopter that went down, an mh-65 dolphin. it's a search and rescue helicopter. it was on a training mission when it crashed. on the phone right now, we have captain don rose. he's the commanding officer of the coast guard sector in mobile. captain, good morning to you. thank you for being with us. what can you tell us? what is the very latest on the people that are missing still? >> good morning, zoraida. we have multiple boats on scene, divers. we have aircraft up trying to find the three remaining crew. looking on the surface, trying to access the helicopter below the surface, and hoping that we can find the last three crew members of this helicopter right now. >> and do you know what happened? >> no, we don't, zoraida. we do know that they were on a training mission shortly after sunset. we lost communications with the helicopter and immediately began trying to restore communications and dispatch resources out to find what they were doing. but they were training with two other boats at the time of the accident. >> captain, we understand that the bay is under a dense fog advisory. do you think that played a role here? >> the cause of the accident is going to be investigated. the fog has hampered our search efforts a little bit. it's made it difficult, of course, to provide the air cover. right now the visibility is not too bad. but as far as the cause of the accident, we really don't know right now. >> and do you have any idea what the visibility was when they went out on that training mission? >> i don't know. >> captain don rose, thank you so much for joining us this morning. good luck with that search and rescue. and also breaking this morning, tornadoes, a lot of them. watches in the nation's heartland and damage at this point running six to seven miles long in tiny county in missouri. injuries are being reported in missouri and kansas overnight. take a look at your screen. you can see in the darkness. this is what those people on the ground were watching, a funnel cloud captured on video was one of the tornadoes touched down in reno county, kansas. there's a small town called harveyville, and it's near topeka, and it's one of the hardest hit in the series of funnel clouds and tornadoes. the governor has declared a state of emergency already this morning. >> rob marciano is at the cnn weather center in atlanta. tracking this for us, rob. >> it's pushing east across missouri. this is a huge storm system with many facets, guys. it's stretching all the way to the east coast. we'll start with the number of tornado reports and bind reports we saw with this. tornado reported in nebraska. that's the first time they've recorded a tornado in nebraska in the month of february. so already historic, and then all these wind reports as well, some over 70 miles an hour. and the red dots, those are areas we saw tornadoes touchdown, one potentially near branson and the other near a town called buffalo, missouri. damage there as well. and those cells are moving east across the state where we right now have tornado watches in effect until 9:00 central time. there you see that line heading just south of st. louis and eventually over towards evansville, indiana. we'll probably see the watches extended. meanwhile, to the north, a blizzard warning in effect. winds whipping and snow blowing sideways in most cases. most of the snow is north of minneapolis although a dicey commute there, 9 to 11 inches of snow there. and this reaching to the northeast as well. over a foot of snow in upstate new york and northern new england. most of this will stay away from the bigger cities, with the exception of boston. you can see four to six inches of snow. we'll keep an eye on the storms as they push off to the east. big news this morning, mitt romney, you suppose he's having a good breakfast this morning? >> i suppose so. >> savoring that win, certainly a nice home cooked meal as well because the former massachusetts governor survived that big scare in his home state of michigan last night. cruising to victory as well in arizona. we have totals for you this morning if you were sleeping. here you go. this is from the michigan primary. romney with 41% of the vote. rick santorum at 38% of the vote. you can zeron paul and newt gingrich falling in behind at 12% and 7% respectively. you can bet your bottom dollar that mitt romney is certainly relieved. appeared so, probably is so. take a listen. >> thank you for the people who knocked on the doors and made the calls and went to the polls. it made an enormous difference. we didn't win by a lot, but we won by enough, and that's all that counts. >> he couldn't be more right, especially when it comes to arizona. that's just winner take all, no matter how close the vote is. but he really pulled it off. romney 47% of the vote to rick santorum's 27%. that's a bit of a trouncing in political speech. newt gingrich coming in third at 16%. ron paul falling in the bottom at 8%. if you're wondering what this all means for the greater picture, the delegate scoreboard, because that's really what it it's all about, racking up the delegates as you head toward convention. michigan, as of last night, is still being divided up. it's a proportional thing. you kind of go by county and district. but mitt romney comes in at this point as of midnight last night with 165 delegates total in this big race. rick santorum, just 44 delegates. newt gingrich at 38. ron paul at 27. so you could say romney's doing pretty well despite what all the pundits say. our cnn political editor is paul steinhauser, a very hard working man, and he's doing his job today in pontiac, michigan. oh, to be a fly on the wall of the breakfast tables of not just mitt romney this morning, paul, but also rick santorum. i'm not sure he's licking his wounds, but he's thinking, oh, just so close. >> the santorum campaign is pretty happy. they say a second place finish was basically a win for them. they indicate it was only a three-point margin here in michigan, mitt romney's home state. take a look at what rick santorum said last night in his speech. >> you know, we came into the backyard of one of my opponents in a race that everyone said, well, just ignore it. you have really no chance here, and the people of michigan looked into the hearts of the candidates, and all i have to say is i love you back. thank you. >> later in the evening, our jim acosta caught up with rick santorum. he said, listen, this was always going to be romney's night. the question is how big? it wasn't very big. a top adviser to santorum also tells us expect the candidate, ashlei ashleigh, to talk more about the economy the next couple of days. we heard rick santorum talk a lot about social issues and religion the last two weeks. >> you know how it goes, paul. a win's a win, like many people said. a lot of times people look at the headline and don't look at the subtext. the subtext is he won his state. i don't know how many viewers out there or people who might not even be viewing at this point or might be voting know that it's a proportional thing. >> exactly. that's why the santorum campaign is pretty happy because they're going to come away with a good amount of delegates in michigan. let's move on. super tuesday seven days from now. ten states and big ones. guess who's leading in the polls in four of them? rick santorum. this moves on. the fight is not over in michigan and arizona. we've got big battles ahead for mitt romney and rick santorum. newt gingrich looking to win in his home state of georgia. >> i put up the leaderboard. it's 165 delegates that mitt romney has won so far. should we remind folks that super tuesday has a chwhopping 7 delegates in one night. and a big portion of them are in guess where? georgia. who do you think is going to be looking at a win in georgia? >> newt gingrich is up in the polls there. he is looking for a win. and let's remind our viewers, 1,144 is the amount of delegates you need to clinch the nomination. we've still got a long way to go. >> you do indeed. i'm just glad you didn't mention brokered convention, paul steinhauser. >> let's wait on that one. >> let's avoid that one all day today. thanks, paul. >> it is ten minutes past the hour here. a look at the cnn exit polling in michigan reveals why romney had so much trouble winning in the state where he was born and raised. cnn's chief business correspondent ali velshi got up nice and early for us this morning. he's breaking it all down. >> look how relaxed. >> this is one of my favorite parts because we dissect what happened. you've got the dissection by income, the vote by income. >> this is an important state for mitt romney because the republican establishment had sort of sent out messages that, if he can't beat santorum in his home state, in the state where his father was governor, maybe they've got to start looking for someone else. it was good that he did this for his campaign. median income for a household in the united states is about $50,000. that means half of u.s. households earn less than that, half earn more than that. we took a look at income by less than $50,000 in michigan. of those people, 41% of them voted for rick santorum. so the blue collar workers in michigan -- as you know, there are lots of them, and it's got a higher unemployment rate than the nation -- voted for santorum, followed by romney at 36%, then ron paul at 14%. newt gingrich bringing in the rear at 6%. now, of the people that we polled as they came out of the polls in michigan, we asked them what the most important issue was to them. 54% said the most important issue is the economy in general. but take a look at this. of those people who said the economy was the biggest issue, 47% voted for romney. 30% voted for santorum. then followed by ron paul, then gingrich, and another 2%wanted . take a look at democrats. this is an interesting story. last time in michigan, 17% of the votes were cast by democrats. kind of weird in a republican primary. there's a sense that maybe they wanted to influence the vote and have the candidate win who was less likely to beat barack obama. this time it was 9% of the vote. these are democrats who voted. 53% of the democrats who cast a ballot in michigan last night voted for rick santorum, the thinking being rick santorum doesn't have as good a chance against barack obama as mitt romney did. of those democrats voted, 18% voted for romney. they may have been thinking, if there's a good chance barack obama doesn't win, i'd like mitt romney to be president. 17% voted for ron paul. that's because that was an opportunity for democrats, independently minded people who like his libertarian view. and only 3% voted for newt gingrich. that would be a bit of a stretch figuring out why they voted for newt gingrich. it was a very small number. that's how the numbers break down. i'll be bringing them to you throughout the morning. soledad? i'm looking at the prompter here, and it says soledad. and i'm thinking soledad isn't here for a couple of hours. i will be joining soledad as well, zoraida and ashleigh. >> they good save. >> cover this prompter thing. i don't need that. >> you know what, ali, it confuses us too at 5:13 in the morning on the east coast. >> you guys call each other all sorts of things in the morning. i'm ali. good to see you guys. i'll be back next hour. try the veal. >> i'm going to reiterate that. 7:00 on "starting point." soledad o'brien will be joined by reince priebus, chairman of the republican national committee looking forward to super tuesday. it is 13 minutes past 5:00. we have been following this the past two days. a community now coming together to heal at a prayer service in chardon, ohio. a lot of people came out in the cold last night. the pictures tell the story. they were lighting candles to give their thoughts and prayers to the three victims of monday's high school shooting rampage. the ohio governor as well asking people to reach out to the families. >> this town will rise. they're a wonderful group of people here. they're closely connected. they're faithful people. they're hard working people. they're the best of what we have in ohio. and from one end of ohio to the other, today, tomorrow, and the days to come, we all live in chardon in a sort of way. >> a suspect, 17-year-old t.j. lane, made his first court appearance yesterday. prosecutors say t.j. lane has admitted to the rampage, has admitted to unloading ten rounds. the 911 calls were released as well. well, you can certainly hear the fright in people's voices. have a listen. >> 911, what is your emergency? >> we just had a shooting at our school. we need to get out of here. oh, my god. >> okay, ma'am. we've got a school shooting. ma'am, what school? >> chardon high school. >> chardon high school? >> yes, ma'am. >> all right. can you get administration? >> everyone's running away. >> where is the student with the gun? >> i don't know. he was in the cafeteria, and everyone just started running. >> just sends chills. ted rowlands is live in chardon, ohio, for us. ted, that appearance yesterday was a first appearance. by all accounts, it's a juvenile appearance. t.j. lane is 17 years old. there are very few people at this point who believe this process is going to remain a juvenile process. >> reporter: absolutely not. the judge addressed it a little bit in the hearing yesterday, saying that the prosecutor will have to just basically submit the paperwork to have a hearing on this. he's reserved a date for it. and the issue, of course, should this young man, t.j. lane, be looked at as an adult in the eyes of the court or a juvenile? prosecutor later in a press conference said that absolutely they're going to push forward for this. an ohio law allows for it. it's a very easy transition when you talk about the age. the closer an individual gets to the age of 18, the more easily it is that that person will go up to an adult court and face adult responsibilities. the seriousness of the crime is also factored in. you can't get more serious than this in a crime. he's 17 years old. i think it's a foregone conclusion that, by the end of his next court appearance, he will be an adult in the eyes of the court. >> certainly, the prosecutor has voiced as much, which is absolutely no surprise given the severity of these crimes. i just looked at the statute a little while ago. in ohio they allow for aggravated murder, which is sort of the same as first degree murder in other states as well. but to that charge itself, this young man has made some pretty startling admissions, if what we're hearing is true. admitting to not only unloading those rounds but admitting to have the weapons on him. and also, as i understand it, ted -- and clear this up for me -- admitting that he just did this randomly. >> reporter: yeah. one of the questions apparently asked of him by officers at some point -- and they did make a point during the hearing that they read him his rights and that he was aware of his rights before he admitted certain things -- but one of the things they asked him was about the targets. did you intentionally target these young boys? and he said no. he told officers that this was completely random, and he said he didn't even know who he was shooting at the time. that came out in court yesterday. so clearly, he's cooperating, and clearly the case against him, when you take into account there's a surveillance tape of the incident happening, it's very, very solid. >> ted rowlands, that is little comfort to anybody in this case and certainly the families who were killed. ted rowlands, thanks so much from chardon, ohio, this morning. time to check the stories making news. the coast guard says one crew member has now died. three are still missing after a chopper went down during a training mission. this is in mobile bay, alabama. the coast guard says it has two other helicopters and a boat out there right now conducting a search. mitt romney regaining some much needed momentum with primary wins in michigan and arizona last night. he defeated rick santorum by three points in his home state, by 20 points in arizona. super tuesday now just six days away. tunisia offering syrian dictator bashar al assad asylum if he will agree to step down. this, as secretary of state hillary clinton suggested, that he is a war criminal. the death toll in syria's bloody crackdown now estimated to be as high as 7,500 people. tonight president obama is set to host a dinner for iraq war veterans. it's going to take place at the white house, and it's an event that some folks are calling a state dinner for the troops. pentagon spokesperson says it is only the beginning of a massive thank you to these brave vets. but one vets group says this is no substitute for a national day to honor our returning troops. and for the first time in nearly four years, the dow is sitting above 13,000. investors sending stocks higher yesterday when oil prices pulled back. you heard me, oil prices pulled back. what? wow. we'll talk about that in a minute. also, consumer confidence showed some signs of improvement as well. the dow rising 23 points to ding, ding, ding, 13,005. we haven't seen these levels, if you can remember, go way, way back, may 19, 2008. bad memories back then. >> ashleigh, do you think our gas prices will go down too now? >> that's exactly what i want to know. >> wouldn't that be great? 20 minutes past the hour. still ahead, mustacheoed. americans with mustaches demanding tax breaks for facial hair. they're planning a 1 million mustache march in washington. this, my friends, is not a joke. i have the proof right in front of me. and also, in just a bizarre story, cruise ship from hell. food, flashlights, phones -- all of these necessities having to be airlifted to a cruise ship that is just adrift in pirate infested waters. yes, it's being slowly tugged to shore. but are they going to make it there safely? we'll let you know. >> i hope so. chchasase e scscenene,e, x cocomimingng s soooonn exextrtra a bubutttter titickcketets,s, s swon pepengnguiuin n jojouruy jujuninioror m minints momoviviefefononee evevilil p pririncncee bobollllywywoooodd 3-3-dd shsharark k atattatack nened d ththe e hehead 5%5% c casashbhbacackk ririghght t nonow,w, g getet 5 k onon m movovieies.s. itit p payays s toto d di. your doctor will say get smart about your weight. i tried weight loss plans... but their shakes aren't always made for people with diabetes. that's why there's new glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest