Thats it for us. Well see you one hour from now. Piers morgan starts now. Filling in is robin meade. Im robin meade in for piers. Hell on the high seas. I promise you none of my family members will ever take another cruise. The Carnival Cruise nightmare. 4,000 stranded on that crippled ship, slowly being pushed ashore. Family members anxiously awaiting for its arrival. And ill talk to a doctor about the Real Health Threat on that ship. This is a floating petrie dish. Guns in america. The president s big push for a sweeping new ban. From the two months since newtown, more than 1,000 birthdays, graduations, anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun. Ill talk to the husband of the School Psychologist who died at sandy hook. Plus, the legendary jane fonda. This is piers morgan tonight. Im robin meade. Normally youre going to find me on hlns morning express, but im here tonight and thank you to piers and everyone who normally watches him for allowing me to sit in. We have a lot of news to get to. We start with that 900 foot, 14 story cruise ship that is adrift this hour in the gulf of mexico. And the growing desperation and anger for the thousands trapped on it. The ship is called the triumph and its be being slowly towed to land. It should arrive in mobile, alabama tomorrow afternoon. What it means, though, is another long night of suffering for the people who are enduring deplorable conditions. A fire knocked out the ships propulsion system that was on sunday. That was sunday. And what began as a fourday vacation is turning into an absolute nightmare for them and family members. Now, carnival is giving passengers 500 in return, but is that really enough . Theyre giving other things, too. But with me right now from mobile, alabama are ken kerrigan and mary puree, and their family is on board. This must be driving you crazy. Very much. Were ready to see our babies. I bet you are, kim. So kim and mary, your daughters have known each other for years, and did you have any concerns about them going on vacation together . Oh, not at all. You know, their fathers are very good friends. They hang out all the time. The kids get to hang out all the time. So it was not a question of a doubt letting them go on a trip with their fathers. We know theyre in good hands. When was the last time you heard from your daughters and what did they say . What was the communications . The last time and the only time ive heard from my daughter was on monday. That was about 30 hours after the fire. She called me at work. Im a teacher. I pulled my phone into my office. When i spoke to her, she was hysterical, crying hysterically. She was scared. She didnt know what was going to happen next. And what broke my heart the very most was her saying, mommy, i dont know if ill ever see you again. Thats really hard to hear from your 12yearold daughter and youre trying to hold it together for her. And they called us at the same time, so i could hear rebecca over my daughter through her phone talking to her mom, and ive got mine, you know, just this gut wrenching crying, momma, just come get me. Its so hot. I dont want to be here, momma. Just come get me, please. Just to hear that. Your heart stops. Your stomach just knots up and you want to fall to the ground. But you dont. You pick yourself up and you get to your kid. What information do you guys have about what they are putting up with as passengers . I mean, we hear, okay, that theres very little sewage, theres very little running toilets and little food. But what did they tell you . Monday i talked to my exhusband and he told me that they had just eaten onion sandwiches and they were asking to use the red plastic bags to use the restroom in, and they had some fruit. They did have some water, but it was warm bottled water. And the conditions were just getting worse. What my daughter told me, i tried not to focus on the negative, i tried to focus on the fact that i loved her and missed her and i was going to do everything i could to make sure she was okay. She said that very first night, that sunday night after the fire, they slept in the hall with no power, no air, no air circulation, in the total and complete darkness, so dark that you cant see your finger in front of your face. The darkest dark. How scary. And that bothers me for my 12yearold daughter to sleep on the floor, in the hallway when shes supposed to be on a pleasurable vacation. It was very hard to hear that. I actually interviewed a man who said his wife told him she slept in the lifeboat outside because he wanted the air because the smell was so sick. Carnival says they were going to offer 500, as well as a refund, as well as a replacement trip, and i think an extra trip, if i have that correct, a full refund, you can see it on your screen, nonrefundable transportation costs, prepaid shore excursions, gratuities, and government fees and taxes. Is any of this enough . What do you want to make it better . Right now we just want them home and want them in our arms, just like everybody on that ship wants to get off that boat. There are 4,000 people on that boat that have someone waiting for them out here, just like were just two. After they get settled on land and they get it behind them a little bit, i think it will start to settle and theyre just going to realize its probably not going to be enough. Did you guys hear anything they opened the bar up and serving alcohol. Which one of you brought serving alcohol to a bunch of angry, starving people. On a listing ship. Did one of you bring antibiotics . We sure did. We contacted our doctors and told them what was going on with the situation, that our daughters were on there. They gave us an antibiotic to take with us to get our daughters started on, because we werent sure we were getting them off. We dont know what kind of conditions theyre in. Were dealing with staph infections and norovirus and any number of other things. Better safe than sorry. Kim and mary, what a nice valentines its going to be when you have your daughters in your arms. Thank you for talking with us. Thank you. Thank you very much. You bet. Are cruise ships worth the risk . Lets ask our expert, jason clampett. I didnt want to say when the moms were on here, but there were reports too that the stabilization system on the boat, that takes power. So the boat is listing. I cant imagine the thought of your kid out on the deck and the boat is listing. And when the power goes out, as it did, they have backup systems that can back up generators, but they only manage the most important functions, the navigation and keeping lights on up top. The reason we had you on tonight, i wanted to know what rights do you have as a traveler . Who buys a cruise . So youre paying and youre probably hitting i agree on something that you signed your life away on a boat that is probably flagged in the bahamas. So as an american traveler, what do you got . You dont have a lot. Theres a ton of fine print whenever you travel. Whether youre flying or whether youre on the cruise, you dont have a lot of rights. You turn those over. So the passengers who are on the ship arent going to have a great deal of recourse when they get home. Those who purchased insurance, insurance doesnt really cover this type of thing, because its not their their trip wasnt interrupted and they arent incurring extra expenses. So they cant be compensated that way. Travel insurance doesnt typically cover inconvenience, it covers lost money. How do you protect yourself before taking the cruise, knowing that . Does insurance really help you . It does help a great deal. In carnival, the decisions theyre making about how to reimburse people is the same thing that your insurance would do, covering if cost of the trip, any additional travel experiences you have to incur, and those are covered throughout what carnival is doing. I remember a different engine fire on a ship, and i remember obviously the costa concordia, the hobble accident off the cost of italy, and now this. Dont we have to have some perspective on this . Its safer than driving your car down the driveway, you can say that clearly. But theres been a number of these fires on boats that have knocked out the power system. You had 2010, another carnival ship, the splendor where it happened in the pacific, off the coast of mexico. And this time last year on the 12th, a sister ship, which is also owned by the carnival corporation, lost power in the indian ocean. Not as many people on board, but they have the problem of pirates there. So you have the additional worry. I remember that now. Is this going to impact the industry . Are we going to have to see a lot of sales for people to go okay, ill board again . Its a terrible sight of people trapped on a ship with limited food. So i think people will think twice. So you will see deep discounting. The spokesperson said let me assure you no one is happy about the conditions on board the ship. In your opinion, are they doing enough . I think what you can you can judge that once everybody is back home and see how they react to the complaints and to any oversight the government tries to impose or any how much information they give about the accident and how it happened. Jason clampett, thank you. Appreciate it. So now being on board the carnival triumph can pose a huge health risk. Family members are anxiously waiting on the shore and some of therm brought antibiotics with them just in case for the passengers at the direction of their own doctors. Joining us is dr. Jorge rodriguez. Is that wise to do come armed with antibiotics . I dont think so. And for the simple reason that not all antibiotics cover everything, and taking antibiotics preventively for something that someone may not have is not a smart idea. So i personally would not recommend that. If someone comes on shore and they have a problem, they can go straight to their doctor. Tell me a little bit about what you think the Biggest Health risk come of these folks on the boat are facing if there is in fact sewage, raw sewage around, and no air conditioning, and not proper food, it can be a number of Different Health problems, which is the most pressing . Absolutely. You hit on the three mayjor one. If anybody has a cold or flu, that can spread easily. If it was up to me, i wouldnt have been giving people zip will be bags to defecate into. Can you imagine . No, i cant. But you know what . You can get things on your hands and you dont have proper water to clean yourself. Thats where you can spread hepatitis a or b. And hepatitis is most easily spread from people that dont know they have it. That is one of the major concerns. The second one is if there isnt enough electricity, a lot of that food could spoil, and you could easily get a break some sort of outbreak of ecoli, salmonella or staph food poisoning. So those are the three main things. Even hard to talk about. But certainly could be a reality. I wonder too and you think about the love boat and theres always one doctor on board. But i wonder for a ship with 4,000 people on board, how many medical personnel you do have on a regular basis and can they handle what is presented to them . Yeah, they usually have just one physician on board, at most two physicians. And honestly, how could they handle, you know, anything thats going on now . From what ive been reading, and you tell me if theres something different, so far there hasnt been an outbreak of anything. But this is really a floating petrie dish. Its in the gulf, its warm, you dont have sanitary conditions. So hopefully theyll get back to shore within the next day or two before anything breaks out. But people that are on that cruise really have to be careful for the next day to couple of weeks. They may have contracted something thats sort of just festering under the surface and wont come to full blown infectious status. They are supposed to be home tomorrow. So dr. Jorge rodriguez, thank you so much. Appreciate it. My pleasure. I want to get to this right now. We have some incredible and heartwarming photos to share with you of a young boy freed from the underground bunker in alabama. These are pictures just released tonight of 6yearold ethan and his mom meeting the governor and they show ethan smiling and playing and it looks like hes having a good time. He was rescued last week after spending days as the hostage of the gunman who murdered the boys bus driver. The kidnapper was killed in the raid to free ethan. So glad to see a smile on that little boys face. When we come back, were going to talk about the president s proposals regarding gun control in the state of the union last night and the reaction were getting today. And then miss jane fonda joins us. She has a cause that shes talking about. Well ask her about things, for one, is she still going to be on the newsroom, you know, on hbo . Announcer did you know there are secret black market websites around the world that sell stolen identities . 30yearold american man, excellent credit rating. Announcer lifelock monitors thousands of these sites 24 hours a day. And if we discover any of our members data for sale, lifelock is there with the most comprehensive Identity Theft protection available. [. ] [squealing, crash] call 1800lifelock or go to lifelock. Com today. Gabby giffords deserves a vote. The families of newtown deserve a vote. The families of aurora deserve a vote. The families of oak creek and tucson and blacksburg and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence, they deserve a simple vote. An emotional plea by the president last night to congress in his state of the Union Address. Hes pushing lawmakers to pass a sweeping gun control plan and he mentioned newtown. Tomorrow marks two months since the sandy hook massacre, and joining us now is suzy young, the cofounder of Sandy Hook Promise. Well talk about that later. And also with us is bill sherlock. His wife, mary, was the School Psychologist there at sandy hook elementary. She died in the gunfire, but she is going to be honored with a president ial citizens medal on friday. Bill, i just want to check in first to see how youre doing as, you know, a grieving loved one who lost his dear wife, mary. How are you . Were fine. My daughters and i are we have our moments. Good moments, bad moments, good days, bad days. Two days ago would have been marys birthday, so that was a little bit of a rough slide that day, but were doing it day by day. I bet. Did you, by any chance, hear what the president said in the state of the union regarding gun control and did you have an opinion about what he said . I did watch the state of the Union Address last night, and again, one of the reasons why i put my efforts behind the Sandy Hook Promise, as well as the foundation for my wife, is because i believe that a multifaceted approach to this whole situation is what is warranted. And thats what the Sandy Hook Promise is all about, talking about not just gun control, talking about Mental Health, talking about School Safety and parenting. I think its something that needs to be fought on all fronts. And interesting that you say that, because mary, your late wife, was the School Psychologist. So obviously Mental Health of her students and the wellbeing of people at her school would be paramount to her. Remind us of what she did on that day. I still dont have all the information. I do know that she was one of a number of people in a room holding a ppt that day. And she and dawn and natalie went out into the hallway at the sound of the gunfire and dawn and mary did not make it back. So sorry as we come up on that twomonth mark. When you hear about gun control and obviously this is a huge issue, it was before, but even more now, did you feel a certain way before the shooting and now drastically different or no . Regarding that issue . I wouldnt say drastically different, and im not an expert in any aspect of guns. Im not a gun owner, never have been, and probably never will be. But i do think that i am a deep believer in the constitution, as well as the Second Amendment. But i do also believe that were in a little bit of a different day now than it was when the Second Amendment was drawn up and it was a matter of reloading and refiring a musket versus the amount of shots that were fired off in a very short period of time at sandy hook. Its almost incomprehensible even in todays modern age. So your issue is more about the types of guns that we are allowed to have legally, not about the people who are getting weapons illegally . Again, i think its a much broader topic than just that. I think we need to have a little bit of a cultural change here, and i think a Grassroots Movement is the way thats going to get done, because it is really more of a marathon than a sprint, and i realize theres forces on either side that would like to see something done and done very quickly. My experience and my observations is that doesnt last very long. Two months is not very long at all after something so horrible happening to a town. Suzy young is with the Sandy Hook Promise. The Sandy Hook Promise was supposed to be a discussion about what to do, but also you guys have an idea about how to let people in newtown, even on valentines day know that the rest of us are thinking about them. Exactly, robin, yes. Newtown received such an outpouring of support after the shootings. Cards and letters by the thousands. Our town hall is filled with poxes and boxes of them. This was meaningful not just for here in newtown and the families impacted, but the people who sent them. To this is an opportunity to continue feeling like theyre doing something and its called 1 million hearts for newtown. If you go on the Sandy Hook Promise website, you can choose from a variety of valentines and share them via facebook, via twitter, a multitude of ways and its a way to keep the conversation going, to extend that support. You can also take the promise, the Sandy Hook Promise, which is on the website. And its a way to just continue that support. And you know what . You certainly still are on the minds of many of our viewers and people in america. Bill, were thinking about you, and thank you so much, suzy, for letting us now how to let people in newtown know theyre still on our finds. Coming up, does america need more females in charge . Well talk to hollywood legend and activist jane fonda. 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