what happened and why early this wednesday morning, october 27th, 2010. captioning funded by cbs a wet one here in the big city, good morning, i'm harry smith. >> good morning. i'm maggie rodriguez, welcome to "the early show." this morning, a hero or villain talking about the jetblue flight attendant who so infamously made a slooen on the plane and slid down the emergency chute after grabbing a couple of beers. steven slater is here this morning to finally share his side of the story, which is not necessarily the one you have heard. he said he is ready to be candid about his mental health and about what husband life is like now. most cell phones come with warnings to hell you how far to keep them away from your body? >> i didn't know that. >> there's news for you this morning about whether or not you should even keep them in your pockets. we'll have of that o for you a bit later on. >> first, it was like a category 3 hurricane what experts are saying about the strength and pressure of that massive storm that hammered much of the nation's midsection. our dave price this morning in cridersville, ohio, to show us the aftermath and tell us what's next. dave, good morning to you. >> good morning, maggie. about an hour north of dayton, ohio and the bricks, pretty much all that remain of this gymnasium in cridersville, about 40 structures damaged here in the small town of 1800. about 11:45 yesterday morning, the tornado warning went off and 15 minutes later, all of this devastation rolled on through, courtesy of a tornado touchdown, which was reported. of course, the national weather service is going to be investigating that in the next few minutes, literally, with [ inaudible ] out here investigating. but, this, of course, photocopy all over the country in scenes of devastation, courtesy of some wicked weather. this tornado caught on surveillance tape as it ripped through an indiana industrial park shows the fury unleashed by a massive storm now counted as one of the most powerful on record. >> whatever was in its path when it touched down it sucked it rupe up. >> hurricane-force gusts of 80 miles per hour destroyed homes and left hundreds of thousands without power along a 9 henz oudz mile band stretching from minneapolis to memphis. 31 states under weather advisories for everything from blizzards to dangerous winds. the storm spawned at least 24 tornado sights. in ohio, flying metal and farm equipment sent people running for cover. >> just like a large vacuum sweeper sound, just a big pull. and my ears were popping, you know? >> reporter: this twister rolled through chattanooga, tennessee late tuesday, eventually crossing a dam over the stens tense river where it caused a seven-car pileup, injuring four people. the storm system may have been responsible for killing two people when their plane crashed in a mississippi field shortly before a tornado warning was issued. >> the wing to the plane and a seat then another wing over there in the pasture. >> the wild weather caused the cancellation of over 500 flights at chicago's o'hare airport, alone. the system condition to move rapidly overnight bringing heavy rain and high winds from alabama to western new york. at least one twister touched down in lincoln county, north carolina, damaging several homes and flipping at least fo four 18-wheelers in neerm clairmont. the sheer power of this storm was perhaps best captured by this illinois man, who barely escaped after a tornado literally tore the roof off his farmhouse. >> you didn't see anything, you didn't hear anything. it was just literally like someone dropped a bomb out of the sky. >> 309 different reports of severe weather all across the country and it's not done yet. let's go to the radar picture and show you what is happening. rain rolling through sections of the new england spreading down the east seaboard to the southeast. we'll see strong winds accompanying that. how strong? we could see gusts 30 to 50 miles per hour. stretching from the tristate area in the northeast all the way down to the southeast. dangerous weather continues and a bumpy ride if you are flying, delays throughout the country as a result. that ripple effect once again. this system isn't done yet. rest of the national forecast coming up in minutes. right now back to you guys in new york. >> we'll see you then. thank you. erica hill is on assignment this morning. jeff glor at the news desk. good morning. >> good morning. of [ inaudible ] -- david martin is in washington this morning with details on that. david, good morning. >> good morning, jeff. there was a failure in an underground cable that connected 50 nuclear missiles with their control centers over the weekend and it was down for about 45 minutes. and during that 45 minutes, the president of the united states would have had to rely on a backup system in order to launch their missiles. now, there are some 400 other missiles, so the country was never defenseless, but still, there was an important enough glitch in a very, very important system to the security of the united states that the president was briefed on it tuesday morning. >> david martin from washington this morning. thanks very much. the fbi this morning a series of shootings at military sites in the washington area are all linked to the same gun. october 19th, five to seven shots fired at windows at the pentagon. two days earlier, the same gun fired up to ten shots at the windows at the marine corps museum. and ballistic tests being done after a shooting overnight monday at a marine corps recruiting station in virginia. no one was hurt in any of those ints dents. this morning, rescue crews in indonesia dealing with two disasters that struck within 24 hours. a deadly tsunami and a volcano eruption. this morning rescue crews are just beginning to reach tsunami survivors. supplies include 900 body bags. >> reporter: it is living up to its name. the volcano on indonesia's center java island is erupting, killing at least 25 people with blasts of hot steam and coating the surrounding area with a thick blanket of ash, leaving 11,000 residents fleeing for cover. observation posts keep sending signalings the volcano is erupting explains this rescue worker. emergency crews are frantic trying to remove bodies from the volcano's shadow before it explodes again. aid workers are stretched. a day before the eruption a 7.7 magnitude earthquake 100 miles away in western indonesia triggered a ten-foot-tall tsunami wave wiping out entire villages. more than 1 people died and hundreds are still missing. a surfing tour group made it out alive. >> we experienced the full adventure. >> reporter: this same area was at the epicenter of 2004's massive asian tsunami which killed more than 230,000 people in 14 countries. so far, this week's twin disasters have been less deadly, though no less heart breaking for their victims. the faa is investigating a rare case of instrument failure on board a southwest airlines jet of the boeing 737 was en route from san jose and approaching los angeles last wednesday when the pilot lost his navigation system. there were 92 passengers and crew members on board. air traffic controllers turns out had to redirect several other flights as they guided that jet to a safe, on time landing. and in boston last night, fans chanted overrated while watching the miami heat open their season with their new prize free agent lebron james. james scored 31 points against boston but the celtics jumped out to a 15-point halftime lead and celtic defense held down scoring by their other stars dwyane wade and chris bosh. ray allen led boston as they beat the heat 88-80. james says he's not worried. >> we all know rome wasn't built in one day. you know, so it's going to take time. and we understand that. and, you know, we have to keep on making progress every day and just continue to get better. >> rome wasn't built in one day. lebron and the heat play tonight in philadelphia. just about nine minutes past the hour. here's harry. >> jeff, thanks very much. now to politics. with only six days until the midterm elections, candidates across the country are turning up the heat and in some cases getting quite personal. cbs news senior white house correspondent bill plante has the details. bill, good morning. >> reporter: good morning to you, harry. not only personal but sometimes downright nasty. nowhere more so than in the governor's race in rhode island. white house official says before the president went to rhode island last monday, the white house made it clear to frank caprio, the democrat running for governor, that mr. obama wouldn't be supporting him. that's because lincoln chavi, also running, endorsed mr. obama in 2008. well, last night frank caprio said he didn't regret telling the president of the united states to shove it. >> it was a political answer to a political action that the white house took. so, when you are dealing in a political situation, words like that are not uncommon. i stand by my words. >> reporter: but his take your endorsements and shove it comment forced his opponents, even the republican, to back the president. >> i would never disrespect the president of the united states the way this man depend. >> absolute knucklehead, absolute. everything we're hearing here has nothing to do with fixing our economy and putting people back to work. >> i'm going to behave the way i want to behave at that statehouse because -- >> you're not behaving like a governor, frank. >> reporter: more than four and a half million people have already voted. president obama cast his vote at the white house us it dang and the first lady voted early in chicago. she's made a video urging others to do the same. in california, republican carly fiorina is off the campaign trail after being hospitalized for treatment of an infection related to a reconstructive surgery following breast can. she is an n a close race with senator barbara boxer. >> her staff said she will be on the campaign trail soon and that's good news for all of us to know. yes! >> reporter: in kentucky more fallout from the attack monday by a rand paul campaign volunteer on a member of the liberal group moveon.org. lauren valle was wrestled to the ground by one paul volunteer after trying to approach the candidate. once on the ground, tim profitt, a county coordinator for paul stepped on her head. valle says she suffered a concussion in the scuffle. profitt was fired bit campaign and later apologized for the incident but not for his behavior and not to valle saying i'm sorry it came to that and i apologize if it appeared overly forceful but i was concerned about rand's safety. he was dropped from a campaign and now up to a judge to decide whether to press criminal charges. harry. >> thank you very much. joining us exclusively now from louisville, kentucky, lauren valle. ms. valle, good morning. >> good morning, harry. >> how are you feeling. >> feeling pretty stiff but a night's sleep was a great idea. >> all right. let's talk a little bit about the origin of all this. you are a political activist. you were hired by moveon.org, were you not? >> yes, i've been in kentucky for the past two weeks working on a project called republiccorps, which is a sa tearial con glommation between the republican party and corporate america. we are pointing out the impact that corporate spending has been having. >> were you there with a wig on and a sign and hoping to, what, get in camera range or get close to rand paul in some way? >> yeah, i wanted rand to see my sign. i had an employee of the month award from republiccorps dressed as an executive. >> coming closer to the time he was going to arrive, was there not some awareness of your being there and concern from some of the rand paul supporters? >> they did become awire that i was there but i think they knew who i was from the past two weeks, me being in town. and they didn't like my -- my message, what i was there to say and i was simply there to hold a sign. but, that wasn't -- wasn't okay with them. >> let me just get this straight. you say simply there to hold a sign some. accounts of this says you were forcing your way through the crowd, that there was some -- some of you were trying to get to the candidate in some way. can you disabuse us of that notion? >> yeah. what happened was when they realized that i was there, they actually formed a circle behind me and then as the car pulled up, before rand was even out of the car, he was, you know, still with the windows up, the car was driving, they stepped in front of me. so, i stepped off the curb and around them. and then they actually pursued me around the car. this was premeditated. my partner, alex, heard them say, just before this, we're here to do crowd control and we might have to take someone out. >> what does this tell you about the intensity of the emotions that are out there this campaign season? >> you know, i think that what happened to me is just a symptom of the agitation and the vision that this country is experiencing on a mass [ inaudible ] and i experienced the cynical violence but -- and violence is never the answer -- >> which is what rand paul said in a statement, as well. this fellow, tim prophett, said he was concerned with rand paul's safety. do you think you pose ad threat to rand paul? >> i certainly don't think so. i believe strongly in non-violence. i believe in peaceful protests. i believe in my right to carry a sign. i am a 23-year-old woman with only the intention to hold a sign. so, i had no -- no bad intentions, only wanted to be there like everyone else with a sign. >> lauren valle, thanks very much for sharing injure story with us this morning. we appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> take care now. as we reported a lot of folks are waking up to storm damage from wisconsin to tennessee this morning. dave is getting a first-hand look at some of it in ohio this morning and joins us again with the forecast. dave, good morning. >> good morning to you guys. at least 24 reports of tornadoes all over the country, in cridersville, the result of strong weather rolling through, investigators out in the next few minutes. >> that's a quick look at our weather picture, again 40 homes damaged in the small town of cridersville, ohio, alone, the scene replicated across much of the country this morning. back to you. >> thanks so much. coming up. the flight attendant who stormed off a jetblue flight and onto the front pages. we'll set the record straight and tell us what happened that day. the mysterious death of the wife of a contestant of the show "america's got talent" has hollywood buzzing. we'll take you inside the case. could your cell phone be making you sick? we'll tell you why you may not want to carry one in your pocket. you're watching "the early show" on cbs. hi! trick or treat. trick or treat. weren't you guys just here? no. yes. no. [ female announcer ] make halloween the most fun night of the year. walmart has this candy for an average of 20% less than other stores. save money. live better. walmart. walmart has this candy for an average of 20% less than other stores. here, take the card. you go to the shops... i'll meet you at the gate. thanks. please remove all metal objects out of your pockets. with chase freedom you can get a total of 5% cash back. fun money from freedom. that's 5% cash back in quarterly categories and an unlimited 1% cash back everywhere else. and this too. does your card do this? i'm going to need a supervisor over here at gate 4. sign up for this quarter's bonus today. chase what matters. go to chase.com/freedom. introducing wisk with stain spectrum technology. try new wisk. we upgraded the formula, but not the price. ♪ with the humana walmart- preferred prescription plan, you have more time to remember what it's really all about. enroll starting november 15. go to walmart.com for details. we've heard so many different versions wapdz on the flight this summer with the flight attendant stormed off. not a single person on that plane corroborates the flight attendants's version of the story. this morning steven slater is here and we'll ask him about that. he will give us a play by play of the fateful day and tell us what was going on in his life leading up to that moment. >> of course the only thing i remember he grabbed a beer on the way out. >> we'll ask mim about that, too. >> coming up, all these stories about cell phones, should you keep them close to your head and could they be dangerous? there may other parts in danger, especially if you keep them in your pocket, when we come back. >> announcer: this portion of "the early show" sponsored by subway restaurants. build your better breakfast and grab lunch to go, too. of [ male announcer ] a big day deserves a better breakfast. choose from a dee-licious lineup of our newest $5 footlong breakfast melts, like the sunrise subway melt. 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