It cost me 365 per person. Okay . At that price, stuff happens. I understand. They didnt expect this to happen no matter what you pay. But i got a tweet from Carnival Cruise last week that the week of february 1st was cold, remember that . They booked 187,000 people on their future cruises in one week. I think people are still going to cruise. To jays point, its bulletproof. Chad myers, still seeing you tomorrow but i guess bon voyage. Next week. Obviously you saw Victor Blackwell on the boat in that safety range, 500 feet out per the coast guard so we can see this cruise roll in to mobile, covering this by air, helicopter up there for you. Stay with cnn. Im brooke baldwin. Lets send it off to washington. Hey, wolf. Brooke, thanks very much. Were getting exclusive live pictures of the cruise ship, the carnival triumph. Passengers are calling in, they are sending us pictures of what they describe as revolting continues on board. Their other big news as well. A key vote on the republicans he have foirts to block chuck hagels nomination for defense secretary. That will take place this hour. And the olympic athletes that many of you know as the blade runner now stands accused of murdering his girlfriend. We have new details about the shooting. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Youre looking live at the cruise ship carnival triumph thats off the alabama coast 30 miles right now from the port and its moving again after sitting dead in the water for the past few hours. The tug line being used to tow the ship broke. Its just been replaced. Thats good news. But we no longer know how many more hours the roughly 3,000 passengers and 1,000 crew members will still have to hold on. Passengers have been sending cnn pictures of the truly horrible conditions on board. Look at the floors stained dark with raw sewage. Another picture shows a bag nearly bursting with filth. Another photo shows mattresses out on the deck to get away from the horrible stench. Martin savidge is live in alabama. I assume Family Members are waiting for their loved ones . Reporter youre absolutely right. They are outside waiting to get any information and thats one of the problems that they have had. This is one of the Family Members. Your son is on board the ship, right . Correct. My son dustys on board the ship. Sounds like hes in good spirits, sounds like hes doing well, maybe another trip in the future. Reporter for mom, me a parent as well, the waiting has got to be just really weighing on you. Tell you what, the last five days have been tough. I got a text from him on monday saying they were going to be towed to progress sew, galveston, just a waiting game. He said dont worry mom. And then with the news and the media and internet, i was finding out, oh, my god, hes just candy coating it. I was glad to hear from him at about noon today. And he sounded in good spirit. He said that pretty much he didnt experience too much of the horrific situation. Reporter hes actually said the circumstance for him was not as bad as others have said . No. He said their friends had a balcony. They meant a lot of time out on the balcony. Their room was hot but they were able to have cold showers and stuff. The food was very limited and he said he felt really sorry for the Young Children and the babies. They were having more of a difficult time, he felt. Reporter whats your plans as soon as you see him . Wheres he going to go and with who . Well, as soon as i see him, im going to give him the biggest hug and tell him how much i love him and that they are back safely and the first thing he wants to do is go and take a nice hot shower and get a nice hot meal. Reporter and that is completely understandable. Vinetta, thank you so much. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Reporter her son is on board. The families have a special area set up. There they get food and water and limited and its only when they see that ship tied up alongside, they are going to breathe a sigh of relief. Carnival now estimating that the triumph will make it to shore, make it to the port of mobile between 10 00 p. M. To midnight later tonight. That assumes no more tuglines are broken, no more glitches. They are going to be moving through the darkness, right . Nighttime is not going to slow this down, based on what youre hearing . Reporter no. Now that they are headed up the channel, no, they are committed, one would say, so to speak. That means they are going to get it here tonight. We have been noting that theyve been bringing in lights, portable lights and clearly they are going to be illuminating this area and make it nice and bright. They are preparing as best they can. You can see the large glass and steel structure. Thats the gang way that will be taking the passengers, the only one, by the way, that will thats how they will put it right up against the vessel when its here, much like you see with airplanes and the gates. That brings them on the second floor of the alabama cruise terminal. Its presumed the customs has been taken care of on board the ship. They are trying to do that so they can immediately be running into the arms of the Family Members that have come here waiting for them or begin the process of transporting them. The logistics of that is huge. That involves airplanes, buses, and hotel rooms spread out amongst two cities. That has to be done as the ship ties up alongside. Wolf . We are showing our viewers, live pictures. We have a helicopter flying overhead now. Sandra endo, martin, is on board that helicopter. These are live pictures, exclusive pictures that were showing our viewers what its like on the upper deck of the triumph. As you can see there, its moving pretty slowly now that that tug line has been reattached. The Carnival Cruise organization is saying its moving at a speed of about 5. 4 knots, which is the equivalent of 6. 2 Miles Per Hour. I think weve established connection with sandra endo on board that helicopter. Can you hear me, sandy . Im not sure that sandra endo can hear us. We can see those pictures. Sandy, if you can hear me, tell us where you are, what youre seeing. I think we have the same shot from your helicopter. Yeah, wolf. If you can hear me, its very difficult to hear you right now but we are circling on top of the triumph. These are live pictures of what exactly is going on in the upper deck. Were seeing more people out and it looks like waiting for a helicopter right now. There are live aerial pictures. [ inaudible. More people can can see land and they are excited to see land were also seeing a lot of people waving white towels and some of them are saying, help us. As you mentioned, wolf, you were talking about [ inaudible and the ship was steering to the right. Sandy, im going to interrupt you for a second. Were going to try to reestablish the line. Were having a little trouble with the extraneous noise hearing you. But youre on a helicopter which obviously makes that totally understandable. Theres a lot of noise inside that helicopter. These are live pictures that were getting from that helicopter. This is the carnival triumph that youre seeing right now. A lot of people are outside. I assume they cant be inside too much because of the stench and filthy conditions. Sanjay gupta is watching these pictures. Sanjay, it sounds disgusting and a breeding ground for disease on that ship. How worried should we be about the health of these 4200 people on board the triumph . Well, this may surprise you, wolf, but i dont think the Health Concerns in terms of an Infectious Disease standpoint is really that high. Its a collected misery ive sort of heard described but you look for the basic things, still. Is there water . Apparently there is. It may not be as cold as the refrigeration, in case people have certain medications that needs to be refrigerated. You remember after katrina, you know, there was this concern about Infectious Disease outbreaks given the unsanitary conditions at that time. We didnt see those infectious outbreaks. This may surprise people as well but when youre talking about some of the fecal material, that typically isnt what leads to people becoming sick due to Infectious Disease. Again, this is going to surprise some people but i dont think its that big a concern, wolf. Weve got a picture and i think we can put it up on the screen, one of the passengers that weve established contact with on board the triumph, ed buck, he sent us a picture with a bio Hazardous Waste bag that the folks have been given. There it is right there. You can see it. I assume that theyve got some s sanitary conditions but when you have to worry about this, it raises all sorts of alarm bells im sure in my mind and a lot of our viewers minds. Yeah. I can completely understand that. If i had a Family Member on the ship, that would be a concern to look at those pictures. But the bio hazardous bag that has been used in lieu of adequate irrigation for the toilets, thats what it is being used for and obviously it causes quite a stench and its very unsanitary sort of condition but if the specific question is, are these people going to more likely to become sick, the answers probably no. We dont see that in other situations that are similar, again, after natural disasters. You worry about people sleeping close together only because if one person has an illness, its more likely to spread to other people. Overall, as miserable as it looks, as disgusting as it seems, i think the health risks are low. Because even on an excellent cruise when everything is safe, because of the cramped quarters and so many people in a relatively small area, somebody gets sick, it spreads pretty quickly, even under the best of circumstances. Thats right. These are clearly the worst of circumstances. Weve reported that one mother is meeting her daughter at the dock and bringing antibiotics. Heres the question a lot of people are driving to the dock right now. Should they be bringing antibiotics . No, they dont need to do that. Two reasons. Really a couple reasons, primarily. One is, they do have medications, were hearing, that are on the boat. If someone needed antibiotics because they had an infection, they may already be getting it. Second of all, you dont want to be giving these medications prove lat clee or protect tifl. You dont want to do that. If youre giving antibiotics and they dont have an infection, that could make them sick. It can build a resis stance to antibiotics. You want to try to help the loved ones coming off the ship, i understand that, but thats just not a good idea, wolf. Quickly while i have you, sanjay, mental health. Are there mental Health Concerns for the 4200 people about to get off the ship . There could be. Significant emotional trauma. The time periods where there was a lack of information are the most vulnerable. People who they dont know exactly whats happening, maybe after that fire, they are not sure if you know, how serious the situation is, those times they are not getting enough information, that can be quite painful emotionally. That can have longer term effects. Children and elderly tend to be more resilient. Children look to elderly people for cues in terms of how they should behave. Its important that young people are watching. Wolf, these types of situations brings out the worst in people and the best in people and ive been hearing from some of the folks on the ship that people are really galvanized together giving each other a hand in trying to help each other out. That can be very empowering, wolf. Lets not forget, 3100 passengers, 1,000 crew members, the crew members are obviously suffering as well. More than 4200 people on board this ship. And youre seeing live pictures from our helicopter thats now flying over the carnival trium triumph and a lot of people out there. Clearly they dont want to be inside. Were going to be getting back to you. Now that the cruise ship is getting closer and closer to shore, more and more of the passengers are within cell phone range. Their calls are coming into the situation room. Were going to be speaking with passengers on board the triumph. Thats coming up. Were also following other major news, including a showdown right here in washington, a showdown vote to deal with a republican filibuster under way against the defense secretary nominee, chuck hagel. That vote only minutes away. [ slap ] [ male announcer ] your Favorite Foods fighting you . Fight back fast with tums. Calciumrich tums starts working so fast youll forget you had heartburn. Tum tum tum tum tums youll forget you had heartburn. We replaced people with a machine. R, what . Customers didnt like it. So why do banks do it . Hello . Hello . if your bank doesnt let you talk to a real person 24 7, you need an ally. Hello . Ally bank. Your money needs an ally. Hes going to apply testosterone to his underarm. Axiron, the only underarm treatment for low t, can restore testosterone levels back to normal in most men. Axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18. Axiron can transfer to others through direct contact. 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They are trying to spell out, i believe, the word help. Our helicopter is flying over top. These people are trying to get the message. We obviously know they need help. They are doing something. They want to try to be productive. They are on the highest deck of triumph, this cruise ship that is just a couple hours away from arrival at the port there. They now say between 10 00 p. M. Eastern and midnight. Thats what carnival is saying. Reporter these images are just amazing. We first got on the scene here earlier this morning around 11 30 eastern time and we just saw a very lifeless, spiritless ship and now it seems like theres some life on the boat. It seems like passengers are excited. They are seeing land. They are seeing help all around their ship. We are circling in the sky around triumph right now and you can see the people sending messages to us, that human sign, we saw help. One passenger got on his knee, spread his arms open, waving a white towel to us, obviously signs they want to get off this ship. Were also seeing people hanging signs off the railing, help us, galveston or bust. And the conditions, youre getting an idea of what they are going through because of their actions, because of their desperation, weve seen passengers on mattresses that are on the outer decks and they were bundled up in white robes earlier this morning, just trying to stay warm. And, again, just asking for help. Right now we see a more secure tug line. We mentioned before that one tug line snapped and we noticed that earlier that the ship was really veering off one direction. The tugboats were leaning another direction. Now it it seems like a very secure situation as the triumph makes its way to the mouth of mobile port. And obviously these passengers are just waiting to get to the port but its going to take many more hours until they can touch land, wolf. 4200 people, 4200 people. Theres a News Conference that carnival is now doing, sandy. Lets listen in. From what weve learned, since we were here earlier this morning. At about 12 00 local time, the ship did begin to enter the shipping channel and proceed into the cruise tunnel here in mobile. Unfortunately, at about 1 00 p. M. , the lead towboat had a tow gear that broke. So we had a spare tugboat in place and we replaced that tugboat in place that had the broken tow gear with a second tugboat. We put that tugboat in position. We reestablished the tow line and unfortunately, as we put stress and began the tow operation, that tow line snapped. So after that point in time, we had to replace that tow line so the ship did not begin progressing back into the cruise terminal until approximately 2 00 p. M. Right now at about 2 30 p. M. , the ship is in the entrance of the channel and as i mentioned to you this morning, our estimate based on everything that we know now, the time frame from now until the cruise terminal will be seven to ten hours. So that didnt change the time that the ship the navigation time that will be involved but we did lose time based on the issues that we had with the two tugboat issues. The other thing we want to point out is that this cruise ship will be, by far, the largest cruise ship that has ever docked at the port of mobile. So theres not been a ship this size. So once we pull alongside with the tow operation and with the ship being large, it will take us a bit of time to get the ship tied up and secured once we reach the cruise terminal. Now, were turning our attention now to once the ship is turned and docked, how can we make the process as quick and efficient and as comfortable for our guests to get ashore. As i mentioned this morning, we have 200 people here of our Team Standing by and a full plan in place, both here ashore as well as our ship port team working with the people aboard to facilitate as quick and as efficient a process as possible to get the people off the ship. There are some limitations. We know that up front. The ship still does not have power. We only have one functioning elevator aboard. So that will be challenging. And honestly our best estimate right now, once the ship ties up, we estimate that it will take four to five hours to complete deem bar indication of all of the guests. So it will take us some time but we have a good plan in place and we have a lot of people in place. Wed like to thank the customs and Border Patrol and protection who have been a great help to us. They actually sent their advance team aboard the ship earlier today to begin the clearing process for the ship and the clearest process for the guests. So in normal circumstances that process would have taken place inside the terminal once people debarked the ship. That is going to facilitate us getting people off the ship in a much clearer fashion. So wed like to thank them for that. We also as you know have great coop operation from all of the officials, the city of mobile and port of mobile and theyve helped us get as efficient as we can to help our guests get ashores as quickly as we can. One thing you should know, because of the way its going to work, our guests are going to be carrying their own luggage but what we have done is station all of our crew, among every stairwell and there will be what we call a luggage brigade. Our crew will be there to help assist bringing the luggage down as needed and its a very efficient process to help them with their luggage. One thing that weve been asked about is how we are going to prioritize who gets off the ship and so one of the things weve certainly prioritized is anybody with special needs and children and those people will be the first to debark the ship. We did have one other situation. We had a guest aboard with a medical issue. The patient is stable but out of an abundance of precaution, we did debark that passenger. We did debark one additional guest that had a medical issue. The one thing that weve been trying to work hard on today, too, we know we have a lot of families of the guests aboard. So what weve done for the families here that have come to mobile to meet their the people that might be on this ship, weve offered them hotel rooms, day rooms, night accommodations, obviously they are getting food and service in the terminal and our Guest Care Team has been assigned to them personally to keep them updated with the information that we know and to keep them as comfortable as possible as we wait for the ship to arrive alongside here in mobile. The other thing is, weve also mentioned a couple of different times that weve had our localized team here. We have a full team in miami handling calls. So as weve distributed information, weve provided phone numbers for family and friends to call and get information about whats going on with the ship, hows their family doing, and weve taken over 7,000 calls in miami assisting family and friends of the people aboard the ship and providing them with the much needed information that they need to know. At this point, were going to continue the process today as we described it this morning. As we have additional information, well come back out with a briefing and provide you with factual, confirmed information that as the debar indication can and that process unfolds. So im prepared to take questions at this time. What was the emergency . How were they gotten off the ship . I dont have the details of the specific condition that the guest had but it was determined, as i said, out of an abundance of caution it was best to get the passenger off the ship and we were assisted by the u. S. Coast guard in helping that happen. Was it an adult or a child . I dont have that information. I dont have that information. Are they hospitalized now . I just now that they were evacuated from the ship. But beyond that, i dont have that information. You said its going to be about five hours once they arrive here and get everybody off the ship. Is there additional that will provide service to people or are they going to remain uncomfortable for those five hours . Well, we will not be providing much additional power to the ship. Theres not a capability of doing that once the ship docks. We will not be providing much additional power but we have a lot of manpower that we will throw at it. We have assistance from both shore and ship that we can provide in getting the people off as quickly as possible. Do you have a more specific time . In terms of when we expect the arrival . Of when it will dock. As i said, we expect seven to ten hour transit from 2 30 p. M. Whats the difficulty like this . We dont expect any particular difficulties with the tug it operators are experienced. Our ship team are experienced. We dont experience any difficulties docking at night. What if any of the lines are broken . The ship was not at any safety ris are being. There are still other tugs in place. It was just a matter that we lost forward towing capacity. The families are reporting that in order to get the 500 by carnival that they have to sign some sort of waiver. That is absolutely untrue. There is no waiver for the guests to take advantage of the compensation weve provided. Can you explain why. [ inaudible. Because of the satellite communication and other communication was powered by the same systems that we had trouble with, we didnt have ou power to do that. Are there any backup plans once they get into the channel . We have tugs in place. As i said, if theres another situation, the ship would not be eve that we could get on and wbe replacement capacity and get that towing operation going. Ditional difficulties. Any thank you so much. We need to go back. Sorry. All right. So there you have it. The latest from terry thornton, the Vice President of carnival oing on. Ines updating us on he said seven to ten hours from 2 30 p. M. I guess they are talking local time, which is central time, 3 30 p. M. Ster we still estimate that, assuming there are no more snags, it will arrive in the port at around sometime after 10 00 p. M. Eastern, between then and midnight. Youre looking at live pictures coming in from our helicopter that we are flying over the triumph right now. People are trying to send messages. They are writing on bed sheets, they are min even human letters to send out the words help if possible. Were going to have much more on this story coming up. He did say it will take four to five hours to get all of those people off this ship, four to five hours. Theres only one elevator that is working on this ship. So well have much more coverage, including more of our exclusive pictures coming in from the triumph. Theres a vote under way on the confirmation process of chuck hagel to be the nations next defense secretary. Were going to update you on whats going on. This is a critically important vote. Youll see what happens when we come back. Make just one someone happy and you will be happy too. [ whirring ] [ creaking ] [ male announcer ] trophies and awards lift you up. But they can also hold you back. Unless you ask, whats next . [ zapping ] [ clang ] this is the next level of performance. The next level of innovation. The next rx. The f sport. This is the pursuit of perfection. The f sport. Capella university understands bright students are getting lost in the shuffle. Need. And administrations work gets more complex every year. When you look at these issues, do you see problems or opportunities . With an advanced degree in education from capella university, youll have the knowledge to meet these challenges and make a difference in the lives of students. Lets get started at capella. Edu. There it is. Its a beautiful picture. Looks like a great ship. Unfortunately, not so great these last several days. The carnival triumph is making its way very slowly towards port barring any problems sometime around 10 30 eastern time and midnight. Theres another story were watching right now on the senate floor. I just want to update you. The nomination of chuck hagel to become the next defense secretary succeeding leon panetta. Dana bash is our chief congressional reporter. What is this vote all about . Reporter its to stop the filibuster and allow chuck hagels nomination to go forward and we expect it to fail. Meaning we expect the filibuster to continue. This vote is going to end momentarily. This is happening, republicans s say, because they need more time, that hagel is too controversial to push through so quickly because the Armed ServicesCommittee Just approved his nomination at a committee and Party Line Vote a couple of days ago. But democrats say, you know, basically, give me a break. They think that the republicans are trying to delay this in order to look for more information about hagel in order to effectively torpedo his nomination as defense secretary. The white house put out a fullcourt press from what we think is going to happening in a couple of minutes from happening. I was even told there was a compromise potentially in the works to not have this vote at all if republicans promised to just allow a vote after congressional recess next week. That would be a simple majority, 51 votes would get through. That didnt happen and so thats why were having this vote. Again, republicans say probably after the recess, after they have more time, they will vote to confirm chuck hagel. We were told that before. One thing i just want to add to this, and its important to point out, we reported on the show last week that we counted 60 votes to confirm chuck hagel. And that changed. It changed in the past 48 hours primarily because some of those key senators who told us that on the republican side, john mccain included, reversed themselves. They felt a lot of pressure from fellow republicans who did want more time and they bent to that pressure. Let me bring in gloria borger. You need 60 votes to break a filibuster. The vote is still happening right now. So they that means even if all 55 democrats, 53 democrats, two independents, they vote to break it, you still need five republicans and there arent five republicans, apparently, who are willing to vote against the majority of the republicans. Right. And as dana points out, that is the case right now. When they come back from their break, that will probably change and the white house really did go on this fullcourt press, both Jessica Yellin and i have been reporting today that the white house said, look, i had wanted Senior AdministrationOfficials Say to me that the notion that they would stop backing chuck hagel and would actually withdraw his nomination, he called that insane to me. Insane. And what he also said is that they are not quite sure what the republicans want other than delay. Is this about chuck hagel . Is this about benghazi . And as this source pointed out, look, they wanted Hillary Clinton to testify on benghazi, they got her. They wanted the timeline supplied to them about what the president knew, who he speak to and when, they said theyve now gotten that. So they believe and another source described it to me this way, they believe that they just want to be vindictive, that this is now about president obama and that in the end if they continue this, they will look petty, as one source put it. And i just want to be precise, dana bash, this vote is still continuing. We dont know if the vote has failed or succeeded or whats going on. But we assume that there arent what youre hearing is that there arent probably five republicans who will join 55 democrats in breaking this filibuster . Reporter thats right. Going in, the democrats did not think that they had the 60 votes and we could only potentially find three republicans who were going to agree to stop this filibuster but we probably will see this any minute. The vote is technically over but sometimes they have to wait for senators to come in to cast their votes. One thing i will say, though, is we were talking about the fact that probably hagel will be confirmed after the senators come back from a weeklong recess. At this point im a little bit gunshy. I wouldnt even take that to the bank and the reason is because weve seen this before. I had several republican senators say to me, point blank today, that they will vote no today but vote yes next week because they want to give their colleagues more time. You never know whats going to happen next week. Hagels opponents are determined to take him down and block him from being defense secretary. Thats on the one hand. The other hand, you might ask, if thats the case, if democrats are hearing from republicans that they need more time, why are they holding this vote . Theres a good political reason, from their perspective. Its politically helpful to show that republicans are blocking the president s defense secretary. They think that it makes them look like obstructionist. I want you both to stand by. We wait for the final vote. It hasnt failed. It might fail. But well wait for the final vote to be counted and then well know and of course update our viewers as soon as that happenses. Its going to take a few more minutes. Gloria, stand by, dana bash, stand by as well. Well see if chuck hagel on this day wins or loses. It looks like hes going to lose but well wait to see the vote actually counted. Well take a quick break. When we come back, were watching the carnival triumph. Its moving slowly towards the port. Were going to be speaking with a passenger on board this cruise ship live when we come back. Fore bing it on challenge. [fight bell ding, ding] whats your preferred Search Engine . Search engine, uhh, probably google. If we do a side by side blind test comparison, and you end up choosing google, you get an xbox. Ill bet you the xbox, you bet me your son. Well lets look up what you need. Okay, i would do the left. Yeah . 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All right. Youre looking at live pictures of the carnival triumph as it slowly makes its way to port in mobile, alabama. Its now estimated, barring any last minute glitches, 10 00 p. M. Eastern to midnight eastern. Thats the estimate a spokesman for carnival says it will then take four to five hours to get all 4200 people on board the carnival triumph to shore. Four to five hours. Obviously Young Children, people with special needs will have first opportunity to leave. Only one elevator is working. That makes it very, very difficult. We had shown you live pictures from our helicopter flying overhead exclusive pictures of what was going on in the upper deck. But these are live pictures coming from shore as we see this huge vessel making its way to mobile. Terry thornton, the Vice President of carnival telling us just a few minutes ago that this will be the largest ship ever to dock at this facility, at this port in mobile. So obviously theyve got a lot of problems. That little tugboat you see at the front is moving. Is moving this ship all the way. So its obviously a very, very significant situation. Ed buck is one of the passengers aboard this ship, the carnival triumph. Hes joining us us on the phone right now. Ed, thanks very much for calling in. Whats it like right now . What can you tell us . I just had a crab sandwich with lobster for lunch because they are finishing off all the food. Life is good. People are very excited right now. Were getting back. You know, i think the medias made a lot of made it sound real bad. Its not quite as bad as everybody says. It was kind of like everybody gets together. The carnival did us right. They fed us pretty well the whole time. Lines were long. The big problem that we had was the bathrooms but we had water most of the trip and theyve been doing everything they can possibly to take care of us. Theyve offered us all our money back, vouchers for another cruise, and 500 cash. I like your attitude. And its a very positive attitude. Its different than some of the other passengers weve been speaking with. And youve been kind enough to send us some pictures and i want to put them up on the screen. Tell us what were seeing. Theres one of you with a Hazardous Waste bag. There it is right there. Whats that all about . Those are the red bags and those were for using the bathroom, doing number two. And they as soon as you did, you would then put them outside your door and the cabin folks would immediately remove them. So that was kind of how we were handling it and then all of a sudden, the day before yesterday, they finally got some of the toilets working. We were up on the 1th floor and they havent worked. Thats really the only problem on the ship. We lost water for two days and then we got it back and the ship was listing. So it was a matter of what side it was listing to what side you could take a shower. I think theyve had at least 15 helicopter drops on to the ship. At one point we had three other carnival ships circling that were sending lifeboats over with plenty of food. So theres plenty of food on the ship. Thats good to hear. Yes. Theres a picture you sent us with a bunch of mattresses piled up outside. Walk us through that. Yes, sir. The story is, some of the cabins the very back of the ship flooded because when the fire happened, the a lot of state rooms and all of the floors in the very back that flooded because the sprinkler systems came on and plus with no light and no air condition, they got very stale for you know, floors were living out on the deck which was, by the way, in the first day and a half was beautiful out there and then we unfortunately had some rain and then all of a sudden as we got closer to land it was cold. And so people had moved in. So, yeah, all of the hallways are like tent city but everybody was very friendly. Things were good, for the most part, under the circumstances. And just one plug for carnival, they have gone head over heels to help us out and even two nights ago they opened up the bars and had free beer and wine for everybody and the struggles that people are having right now is no electricity to keep their cell phones going. Otherwise i would have sent you a lot more pictures but my battery is dying. They are having what they are calling charging parties and different outlets around the elevators have as many as 50 people sitting around with strings of power strips and everybody blugs in and its very orderly. You get half a charge and you move on. Well, thats good to hear. Ed, i want to stay in close touch with you, assuming your power is still around. Its going to be at least another six, seven, eight hours until youre able to start getting off that ship. But well stay in close contact. Ed buck is a cruise passenger. Where are you going to be winding up . Were from houston, texas, and our car is down in galveston. We have cruised 13 times. I will absolutely cruise again and cruise on carnival, too, as a matter of fact. We do a lot of traveling on cruises and think its one of the best vacations that you can and this is just a rarity that Something Like this has happened. Again, its not as bad as people have been talking about. But lee say some people did suffer because if you were down in the lower decks with no air or light, it was a problem. All right. Ed, i love your attitude. Its a very positive attitude under these kinds of conditions. Were going to continue this conversation later. Ed buck from houston joining us from aboard the triumph. Thank you. If you get an opportunity to send us more pictures, wed be grateful as well. Appreciate it very, very much. Were going to stand by. Were going to be watching whats going on. These are live pictures youre seeing of the carnival triumph making its way slowly towards mobile. Were watching that. 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This special financing offer ends president s day at sleep train. Superior service, best selection, lowest price, guaranteed. Sleep train your ticket to a better nights sleep were watching the carnival triumph slowly make its way to shore. Its going to take several more hours. Were also watching the vote of chuck hagel to become the next defense secretary. Still waiting the outcome of that. Stand by. Morn news from south africa. A world famous olympic athlete stands charged with murdering his model girlfriend. Were live from johannesburg. What a story, robin. Whats the latest . Reporter what a story. Osc Oscar Pistorius was the fastest man with no legs who ran in the Olympic Games with men with legs and made it through to the semifinals. His has been a story of inspiration, of triumph over adversity. Essentially hes been the golden boy of international athletics. All of that happened in a horrible valentines day tragedy. It appears he shot dead his model girlfriend. Police say hell be charged officially with murder in a Magistrate Court on friday morning. They say that he he will that they will oppose bail which points to the fangt that they have a good case against him. Theres been speculation as to what happened. The police hinting at perhaps Domestic Violence a. Spat between this couple in the early hours of the morning at his home. Other speculation is that he tragically thought she was an intruder coming into his house, perhaps sneaking in to wish him a valentines day. All in all, many South Africans absolutely shocked by the man that they considered inspiration and a role model. Back to you. Robyn, when you get more information, let us know. Joining us from johannesburg. Tragic story indeed. This cruise ship making its way towards the port of mobile, alabama. 4200 people on board under miserable conditions. Were watching. Got live pictures coming up. 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Effort to break a filibuster that would have involved a formal roll call vote for chuck hagel to become the next defense secretary has now failed. They needed 60 votes to break the filibuster. They only got 58. Dana bash is our chief congressional correspondent. Major setback right now for the Obama Administration for the democrats. They couldnt break that filibuster. Reporter it certainly is. And its a change over what we thought and what they thought, even just a few days ago. And the reason for the change is because some republicans who had said that they would not support a filibuster, that they would oppose it, vote yes, changed their mind. They changed their mind because they wanted to stand in sole dairy tea with their fellow republican senators who were contemplating more time, more time to try to get answer to questions that they insist that they still have over speeches that he gave, how he was paid, things like that. The democratic side, of course, they have been arguing that he has given above and beyond the information that senators need for his confirmation. But at the end of the day, whats going to happen, wolf, is next week theres going to be a congressional recess. No one will be here. The expectation is that they will take this vote once again and several of those republicans that i was talking about told me that they will vote yes next time. Well see if anything percolates over the next week. Have you had a chance to look at the roll call to see who the three republicans who joined the democrats to vote in favor of this effort to break the filibuster were . Susan collins was one. She had a phone call from joe biden yesterday and told our rachel a few moments ago she did it because she believes that the president has a right to have whoever he wants in his cabinet. Lisa murkowski said she voted with the democrats because she didnt want to break her word because she had always said she wont oppose a filibuster. I believe the other republican was the senator from his home state of nebraska but we have to find out for sure. I know that the two female senators, republican senators, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski did break with their party on this. Orrin hatch voted president . Thats our understanding. Its something that he wants to do on votes like these, voted president in the past. Its clearly a setback for the administration. Gloria is here. Gloria borger is our chief political analyst. A setback for the white house. They wanted this break so they could have an up or down vote that would lead to confirmation. This is a setback. Heres the question. Theres been a lot of rumors, speculation. Maybe chuck hagel himself, given the fact to be an effective defense secretary you need bipartisan support. Hes not getting it even though ironically hes a republican, served for 12 years as a republican senator, main he himself would tell the president , maybe its best that i withdraw my name for consideration. No. And every single thing today that we got from the administration that s that that couldnt be further from the truth, that both he and the white house intend to fight this and the white house believes that when they return from their congressional recess, as dana was pointing out, when they have another vote, theyve made their point and that they would then vote to allow his confirmation to come up for his final vote. The question that i have, wolf, is is there kind of a hangover on this to the confirmation of john brennan as head of the cia. John mccain had a press conference earlier today and said hes going to continue asking questions about who knew what, when on benghazi. And those questions will go to john brennan. A major setback for the Obama Administration. Chuck hagel still has not been confirmed. They are going to have to wait several more days. Well see what happens in these days to follow. Thanks very much, gloria and dana. Lets get back to the other breaking news story were following. Right now were getting our first look at the unimaginable conditions aboard the stricten cruise ship. Its crawling at a very slow pace. Its being towed by tugboats. The ship is close to land and passengers can send pictures and what a disturbing sight some of these conditions, conditions inside the ship described by some is put trid. At least thats the word that one passenger put out. Public areas fouled by raw sewage, people forced to use plastic bags instead of toilets. And take a look at this. Our helicopter captured passengers lying on the deck spelling out the world help. The triumph is still estimated to be at least, at least six hours away from docking right now. The 3,000plus passengers, 1,000plus crew members, so many of them desperate to end this nightmare. Were in desperate need. We need water, you know, so just come and help us. We have reporters on land, in the air, and in boats. They are all watching triumph as it limps into port. Victor blackwell is in a boat alongside the triumph. Victor, tell us what youre seeing. Reporter youre seeing a much closer look at the triumph that weve seen up to this point. The coast guard is keeping a distance of about 500 yards of anyone not involved with bringing this in to port. We just got some good news. Ive been speaking with the captain of our vessel, is that carnival triumph has passed the strongest current coming against this ship headed out. Because on the left of the screen is ft. Morgan, which is on the other side you cant see it, its dauphin island. It will be well after midnight before the last person on triumph disembarks to begin the progress to get back home. They are either going towards home in new orleans or take buses to houston or galveston to start their travel home, wolf. Are there a lot of boats nearby in this area where you are watching the triumph make its way slowly to port . Reporter there is i can see one private vessel from here but mostly what im seeing of course, these two gs are involved. Theres the coast guard that is here and theres also Homeland Security that was here. Those pilots were out here, the mobile and the alabama that are working with this tug to guide it along the port. Not many vessels involved involved in bringing triumph back to port. And you can make out the tugboat that is bringing that huge, huge ship into port. You can see it from where you are. They had a break in that line earlier but it looks pretty good now, right . Reporter yeah. That was a few hours ago. You can see that there is tension in that line. We actually heard through scanner traffic, which maybe you can hear behind me right now, that line broke. Then we saw the pilot boat that came up to kind of guide us this rush back to the tug and try to rig that up again to get it moving again. Whi while it was unconnected, this ship swerved 180 degrees back and forth at the beginning of this journey but now its moving in the right direction. It will likely pick up pace because, as i said, its moved past the strongest current that was fighting against it. So its a Pretty Amazing moment right there, victor. Anything else you want to share with us before i let you go . Reporter well, i can tell you that what these people are feeling is cold. I mean, its much colder than they expected. So the people that were standing on this deck and i know you can see them from the helicopter shots, did not expect to be coming into these temperatures. Again, they are in bath robes. They have people waiting with coats for them. It was 30 in the afternoon, 40 in the afternoon and its going to be even cooler. They are getting a bit of a shock although they are excited to hit land. But theres no rain or anything like that, right . Reporter no, theres no rain. But there was some rough weather yesterday. That was actually one of the major concerns, that if the weather that held yesterday and the previous day were appeared today, that would create another problem for this ship. But clear blue skies, actually the shot that we saw this morning, that 10 to 15mileanhour winds, that has died down. It looks like things are going well if that continues to hold and pull triumph. Victor, thank you very much. Be careful in the waters there as well. Joining us now on the phone is a passenger on board the triumph. She is one of the passengers. Pareesa, tell us, first of all, how you are doing. Hi, wolf. Considering, were doing okay. Youre doing all right . Yeah. Were making it through. Were doing all right. Well, thats good. Because you only have a few more hours to suffer on board. Your mom sheila, we spoke with her yesterday here in cnn in the situation room. First of all, sheila, say hello to your daughter pareesa. Hey, sugar. Hi, mom. How are you, baby . Good. Well be home soon. It will be okay. Im so proud of you all. Oh, my god. Thanks. The crew is who you should be proud of. The crew has been really wonderful. I think all of of the passengers should all be so commend because its been a very difficult time for all of you all. And im so happy that yall are almost home. Trust me, were very happy, too. Parisa, tell us what its been like these past few days. Im sure your mom sheila whos on the phone now, i know you recently graduated from college. You work in pr. Your mom is in a nurse. First of all, shes a mom so shes obviously been very worried about you. So tell us what its been like. You know, immediately it was panic. None of the detectors went off, as in fire alarms, smoke alarms, none of that activated. So initially it was pure havoc. It was all word of mouth, people grabbing life jackets, random announcements on the p. A. But not too much information and of course when we finally all made it to the top deck and saw all of the smoke, you can imagine, wolf, we were pretty frightened but since then theres been an overwhelming amount of cam cammaraderie and sticking together and i think i can confidently say that were really impressed with the teamwork here. I think were more frustrated by the inaudible. You were there on a cruise ship with a bunch of friends. Is that right, parisa . Right. We graduated in december and all thought about, why dont we celebrate and go on a cruise . And we had one fun day in mexico. Thats what we keep reliving on. And whether its, you know, urine and sewage leaking from the ceilings or, you know, babies crying because theyve run out of formula, its been overwhelming. But were making it through. Sheila, you have a question for your daughter, parisa . No. I just admire their spirit. It makes me grateful that we all have a chance to get up the next morning. So parisa, tell us what you are going to do. The ship is supposed to dock any time between 10 00 p. M. Eastern, 9 00 p. M. Central and midnight eastern. Its going to take four to five hours to get all 4200 people off sha ship. What do you want to do when you get off that ship . Well, at this point were used to long lines and long waits. No rush are, honestly. But i can tell you on behalf of my friends and i, we are desperate for a hot shower and dry land. We are going to jump in a car and actually drive back home because were not interested in sitting on a bus or waiting a couple more days. We want to see our family and friends and sleep in our beds. Well be heading from mobile straight to houston when we get back. How long of a drive is that . Ive been told its about 10 to 12 hours. Weve been pretty much confined for four or five days so whats another 10 or 12 more, right . And sheila, youre going to be waiting for your daughter. You must be very proud of her. She sounds pretty good under pretty dire circumstances. Whats your reaction, mom . Im very, very proud of her and i know her friends equally as well, they are a group of young super smart, compassionate professionals and i cant thank them enough for seeing that the truth was coming out so Everybody Knows what they were going through. I really appreciate that. Parisa, do you plan on doing any cruises any time soon . Absolutely no. But i told my dad the other day when i talked to him, you know, since this was a botched graduation gift, can we get another one, possibly a flight or a road trip, that would be better. I think youve got a good sense of humor and youre a good passenger and youve shown a lot of patience under pretty awful circumstances. Were glad we could reconnect both mom and daughter via cell phone. Parisa, thanks so much. Sheila, thanks to you as well. I know you guys are ak shously looking forward to getting back together. Good luck to both of you. Absolutely. Thank you, wolf. All right. This just coming in to the situation room. We have just received this video. Take a look at it. It shows the fire that started the problems on board the carnival triumph. This video comes from passenger megan taken early sunday morning when the fire started. You can see thick black smoke coming from the top of the ship from the smoke stack. Foxall told cnn she knew something was wrong when she heard the alarm going off and saw the smoke. She didnt hear from crew members until hours later that there was actually a fire. Passengers were told by the crew, and im quoting now, there is a swrags situation and its under control. Of course, the fire caused the ship to lose power and to drip and weve seen the horrible conditions the last several days unfold. These are the pictures that were seeing of the smoke on board. You can actually see the fire that started this enormous, enormous problem on the carnival triumph. Were getting more pictures, more interviews with passengers of the triumph coming in in our 6 00 p. M. Hour. Well have an interview with one person who describes the cruise in his own words as simply a nightmare. Well be getting a lot more pictures, interviews coming up. Well stay on top of this story as the Carnival Cruise ship, the triumph, slowly makes its way to port. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. Omnipotent of opportunity. You know how to mix business. With business. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. You can even take a fullsize or above. And still pay the midsize price. I could get used to this. 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And watch, with eyes wide, as it gets to work. Cisco. Tomorrow starts here. All right. There you see the carnival triumph slowly making its way. It looks like its passing i assume thats an oil rig out there in the off the port of mobile, alabama. Still going to take several hours before it reaches the port. Its moving very slowly as the small tugboat tries to pull it towards shore. Hopefully there wont be any more problems and it will get there some time between 10 00 p. M. Eastern and midnight and it could take four to five hours to get all 4200 people off that vessel. Martin savidge is on the dock with Family Members waiting for their loved ones. Youve got some special guests, right, martin . Reporter we do, wolf. Were waiting at the alabama cruise center. This is ground zero for the Family Members waiting anxiously for the ship to tie up. Joining me is beth and rusty and you all have are Family Members on board that vessel. John, let me ask you, what is is it like waiting, waiting, waiting for you . Well, ive tried to keep my peace about it knowing that i cant control that situation. I felt a lot better today. I was able to talk to my wife for the First Time Since monday at 2 00. It feels so good to know that they are safe and sound. Thats the main thing. Your wife and daughter, right . Thats right. And rusty, same circumstance for the both of you. Let me point this in the right direction. That will make it a lot better. The wait and just hearing as it gets delayed, delayed, delayed, whats that like . Its very frustrating. We want to see our Family Members so bad and we want to get them off the ship as quickly as possible. It seems like its being delayed and keeps adding delays and its very, very frustrating. Beth, this all began on sunday . Sunday around 2 00 that she called and told us that the ship was on fire and then we got a call back with the devastating news of all of the issues going on, the food issues and the restroom issues, the smell issues, you know, so on and so forth. We know it well. What are your feelings towards this cruise line right now . Are you feeling that youre getting the information as a parent, as a loved one waiting on shore . Absolutely not consistently. The information we received the last few days as been so inconsistent. You call one time and get one information and call back and get something totally different. Delayed information it seems like. Thats been a problem, we should point out. Many Family Members havent felt like theyve been kept informed. You had a long drive. You came all the way from indiana . Yes. It was a roundabout trip but, yes, sir, we are from indiana. Reporter if you drove straight through, that would be 18 hours . Yes, sir, if i drove straight through. Right. Reporter what is the plan now . What is the plan as far as getting back with family . Where are you going to go next . Oh, my. Well, first of all, we cant wait to see them and then were going to take them and whatever food they want, whatever if they want to get cleaned up, thats what we want to provide for them as quickly as possible. Reporter are you going to go with the plans that carnival had instituted or do you feel family knows best . Well, we just heard that were able to go to a hotel provided nearby. Thats fine by me. Its still valentines. Weve got time to celebrate. Reporter all right. Thank you all for taking the time to talk to us. We cant wait for you to be reunited. Wolf, that is kept in a lot of peoples minds. This is valentines day and they were supposed to be reunited long ago and its going to happen tonight or maybe tomorrow. These people deserve a shower very quickly once they get off that ship. Martin, thanks very, very much. Lets check in with our meteorologist chad myers. Its a slowmoving vessel right now. They say its resumed course and youll explain what this means. Its resumed course towards shore at 1. 1 degrees, speed is 5. 4 knots or 6. 21 Miles Per Hour. 6. 12 Miles Per Hour is better than 1 mile per hour which it was only a few hours ago. It was doing one mile per hour backwards two hours ago when the line broke from the towboat to the ship. All of a sudden the ship was literally just wandering off into space. It was backing up. The other towboats were trying to keep it in line. Its still 29 lines from the shore. They can see the beach, ft. Morgan, dauphin island. As the line broke, it just drifted out here in the ocean ocean. Finally got right down through that Little Channel right there. There it goes. Thats the line that its already been. Theres the ship right there. It still has 29 miles to go. The red on the right, red right returning. Thats the first thing you ever learn from chapmans piloting book. Its going to make a slight lefthand turn and down into mobile bay at 4, 5, 6 Miles Per Hour. Thats going to take a really long time. You can track it. There are some areas. Theres one graphic weve been watching as well. Its called vessel finder. You can look over here to the side doing four knots, 9. 8 degrees. Theres the ship right there. Six, seven hours still to go, wolf. And then they have to dock and because theres only one elevator working, it could take four to five hours to get everyone off. I think were going to be here all night long. Hopefully those 4200 people will get off in less than four or five hours but we want everybody to get off safely as well. Chad, well check back with you. We are not going to lose sight of this cruise ship limping back towards mobile, alabama. 3200 passengers, more than 1,000 crew members. Well continue to watch this slowly moving vessel. Up next, also, were taking a look at the most expensive weapon ever built. Yes. A 400 billion price tag as the pentagon faces 500 billion spending cuts. Whats going on . Stand by. Im dr. Sanjay gupta. Meet ed lew. Hes building a space tell low scope. He says its going to protect the earth from asteroids. This is the space telescope. Thats it . Thats the size of it there . Yeah. The real one is about the size of, say, a delivery truck. So its about 23, 24 feet tall. And its about 3,000 pounds. Over a 6 1 2year period, its going to scan earths orbit multiple times and those are the asteroids it could get hit with. So its going to track about 10,000 asteroids. Each month . Each month. Yes. Which is more than all other telescopes throughout history. It will do that every month. Watch more on the Urgent Mission to save planet earth this sunday on the next list. [ male announcer ] any technology not moving forward is moving backward. 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Shareable data plus unlimited talk and text. Now save 50 on a droid razr maxx hd by motorola. On beautyrest and posturepedic. Financing and save up to 500 get a sealy queen set for just 399. Even get 3 years interestfree financing on tempurpedic. But only through president s day at sleep train. There you see a live picture of the carnival triumph slowly making its way to port. Its moving at around 5 to 6 Miles Per Hour. Its being tugged and it should get there, assuming all goes well, sometime after 10 00 p. M. Eastern, before midnight, if all goes well. It hasnt all gone well. Even in the past few hours there was a break in the tug line but they fixed it. Its now moving. Lets hope it moves in safely and surely in the next couple of hours. I want to bring you up to date of some other news were watching, including some drastic pentagon cuts now only a couple weeks away. Many critics are pointing fingers at a new warplane thats hundreds, hundreds of mile generals of dollars over budget and its being called, quote, the most expensive weapon ever built. Were talking about the hightech f35. According to Time Magazine, the f35 price tag has nearly doubled from 2001 to 396 billion. Its described as a, quote, flying swiss army knife, able to engage in dog fights, drop bombs and spy with versions that work for the air force, the marine corps, and the navy. Joining us now is Time Magazine rick stengel. Time, as you know, is a corporate sibling of cnn. It seems like a lot of taxpayer has already been wasted. At a time when were worried about paychecks for troops, they are spending hundreds and billions of dollars on this. Whats going on . Wolf, they say general spike the last war. They sometimes buy weapons for the last war. The f35 was the fighter of all fighters, it would work for all of the different services. But it it was conceived and designed so many years ago in some ways its about the 20th century warfare. Now in an era when we have drones all over the place, the question is, should we really be spending 400 billion and should taxpayers be paying that for a Weapon System that could be obsolete by the time it roll off the runway. Your reporter wrote it and he has a lot of experience. By no means the first time theres been a battle over hightech military infrastructure, if you will, weapons, if you will. Theres always some fighting going on. But so much has already been spent. Heres the question. Would it be a mistake to just drop this thing and move on . Well, one of the things that mark says, wolf, is that you might want to look at this program and restrain it a little bit, take it a step back to develop some of the other jets that are working, like the f16, f15 and actually save money for the taxpayer. The article says the f35s contractors employ 133,000 people across 45 states. Lockheed martin says there will be more jobs available. So there are a lot of politicians who have a stake in this aircraft, right . Yes. The politicians have a stake in the aircraft because there are factories in their districts. They get contributions from the companies and one of the things that the pentagon did as well, knowing that the sequester was coming, they put about 5 billion worth of contracts out the door before the end of the year. Its a great article. Its in the new article of Time Magazine. Thank you. Thank you, wolf. By the way, you have a great cover of the once and future pope. I read that as well. U. S. Airways and American Airlines are forming the Largest Airline in the world. The proposed merger, which will use the American Airlines name, is the latest in a series of moves that have combined ten Major Airlines in just four mega carriers. A huge, Huge Development on that front. Getting back to our top story, graph particular descriptions of appalling conditions. 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Right now theyre only 14. 95 wowa grt deal just got a whole lot better. Hurry. 14. 95 wont last. Were continuing to watch the carnival triumph slowly, slowly makes its way to port in mobile, alabama. You see the tugboat thats behind the vessel but another tugboat is pushing it in, bringing it in to port. Should be getting in sometime between 10 00 a. M. Eastern and midnight, assuming all goes well. We got brandnew pictures that are being sent in to us from some of the carnival triumph passengers, including sylvester da davis. Sylvester davis is joining us on the phone. Thanks so much for joining us. We have pictures that we are seeing that you sent us. First of all, how are you doing, mr. Davis . Im not having a picnic but were hanging in there. Whats been the worst part so far . The worst part is just the urine everywhere and feces everywhere and just the general conditions. Its gotten a lot better. Most of the notifications went out that the ntsb and coast guard were coming on board and spent time cleaning up. Its sort of frustrating because it doesnt look like the way it looked like and the way weve been living. Have you had enough food . When we first started off we were having tomato sandwiches and cucumber sandwiches. I think we got a delivery from elation and conquest carnival. Its been hit and miss, kind of spotty. We have some and then run out. It wasnt unusual to wait three hours in line for food. Most of the food was cold food and then after a while they got one grill off. That line was long and it wasnt uncommon to wait 3, 3 1 2 hours in that line if you wanted hot food. Im going to put some of the pictures that you sent us up on the screen, mr. Davis, and you can give us a background. You showed cell phones being charged. I assume thats why were talking, because you were able to charge your cell phone . Yes. People released did a lot of skaf venging and anyplace there was power, people were pulling power strips off the back of monitors and looking them up and the word would get around and everyone would try to hook up and get their phones charged and that was important because, again, we didnt have any cell service. We could use their cell tower and make calls but that was the only time that we could make calls or get anything back. You sent us pictures of backedup ur nals. Pretty disgusting. You said this is the worst part of what you had to endure . Yes. Basically, those three buckets that you see, theyve got the black bags over the urn nal and that was the mens restroom and they wanted you to urinate in those buckets. There was a letter that you sent us from the captain explaining how hes been selected by the ntsb for a brief interview before he debarks the ship before they report. What did they tell you about what the National Transportation safety board is going to do . That was a letter that someone showed us and we just took a picture of it. I dont know how those people got selected. One of the ladies down by the cabin where he were originally scheduled to stay, they didnt even announce over the intercom that they were doing interviews. So random people, i dont know how they got selected they are about to make a statement. Lets listen. We ask at this time that you come on deck. Inaudible. Thank you. Mr. Davis, what did they just announce . They announced that 8 and 9 are now proceeding to go through customs and immigration and coast guard came on board so they can go deck by deck and they are going to clear immigration on the ship and hopefully that means when we finally dock we can just get off and go. What is your game plan once you get off that ship . What are you going to do . Well, its been a lot of misinformation. I was supposed to get information on how to get out of here and it was supposed to be delivered to my room. So i dont really know. They had people sign up for where they were going to go and i never got the information. Some people are flying out, some people are bussing to galveston. Some people are being flown to their original destination. But at this point in time, some people have their complete information with flight information and other people dont have anything. So you dont know whether youre going anywhere at this time. You hope youre going somewhere once we dock and everythings taken care of, but you dont know. Where is home . My home is in the dallas area. Mr. Davis, good luck to you. Good luck to all of your fellow passengers and crew members. Well stay in touch with you if we can. I appreciate you sending some of those pictures as well. Sylvester davis a. Cruise ship passenger. Good luck. Thank you very much, sir. Have a good day. Thank you. Much more coming up on this story. Erin burnett is going outfront on this story. That follows the situation room at 7 00 p. M. Carnival cruise line confronting a pr nightmare. Were going to talk about that, what they have done wrong, what they have done right, and a lot more as the carnival triumph slowly, slowly makes its way to port. Tell them they could save a lot of money on their Car Insurance by switching to geico. They may even make you their best man. May i have the rings please . Ah, helzberg diamonds. Nice choice, mate. And now in the presence of these guests we join this loving couple. Oh dear. Geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on Car Insurance. [ male announcer ] start with a groundbreaking car. Good. Then invent an entirely new way to buy one. No. No. No. Yes a website that works like a wedding registry. But for a car. First, you customize it. Then let people sponsor the cars parts as gifts. Dad sponsors the engine for your birthday. Grandma sponsors the rims for graduation. The car gets funded. Then you pick up your new dodge dart at the dealership. 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Mary snow is looking at how the company is handling all of this. What are you hearing, mary . Wolf, people will tell you that image is crucial in how carnival handles all of this. There is a picture of the ceo of carnival corporation, mickey erickson, photographed at a miami heat game on sunday night as all of this was unfolding. One important distinction here, he owns the miami heat and one Crisis Management team we spoke to said, he doesnt see that picture as being very damaging because he does have a responsibility to the team as well. He says overall, while the Carnival Cruise line has done some things right, there are questions that have yet to be answered. Why was this condition allowed to happen . Yes, we understand that you can lose your power. But why did it evolve into such a difficult situation for these people . Wasnt there something more that the company could have done . And so far i dont see a great explanation for that. Now one of the Big Questions is why couldnt the passengers be taken off the ship earlier, both the cruise line and coast guard personnel have cited safety reasons. Of course, that will likely come under more scrutiny once that ship has returned to dock. Wolf . A public a Public Relations nightmare, to be sure. Thanks very much for that, mary snow. And theres a live picture, as you see, of the carnival triumph, as it makes its way to mobile, the port in mobile. Its moving slowly. Our helicopter is getting ready to fly over the Carnival Cruise ship, the triumph, and were going to bring you those live pictures shortly as well. Theres other news were following, including news of a popular olympic athlete known around the world as blade runner. Today he stands charged in his girlfriends murder. That story and much more coming up. We created the luxury crossover and kept turning the page, writing the next chapter for the rx and lexus. This is the pursuit of perfection. Pretty sweet, huh . 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An olympic star charged in the murder of his model girlfriend after a shooting at his South African home. Kate balduans monitoring that and some of the other top stories in the situation room right now. Whats going on, kate . This story has been grabbing a lot of peoples attention, wolf. Oscar pistorius, also known as blade runner, for the signature blades he uses in place of legs, made history last summer competing in the olympics, despite his disability. Investigators have now given no motive, though he is in custody. His First Court Appearance is scheduled for tomorrow. Well be following up on that, you can be sure. Also, democratic new jersey senator Frank Lautenberg says he will not be running for reelection in 2014. Were just finding this out. The longtime senator says this isnt the end of anything, though, but rather the beginning of a twoyear mission to pass new gun safety laws and create new opportunities. Now 89 years old, lautenberg says he plans to keep fighting as hard as ever for the people of his state. And in a google plus hangout this afternoon, president obama repeated his calls for changes in the nations gun control laws. And he says that it does not mean he is against all guns. Well, i actually dont think we should ban handguns, but keep in mind that what were trying to do is to come up with a package that protects Second Amendment rights, but also makes a meaningful difference in reducing violence. Were not going to eliminate it completely. Regardless, its still going to be a tough, uphill battle for the president on gun control measures. Wolf . Thanks, kate. See you in a few minutes. Weve seen the ship moving slowly, very slowly, all day. When we come back, were going to take you inside. You can spot an amateur from a mile away. While going shoeless and metalfree in seconds. And you. Rent from national. Because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle. And go. 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[ male announcer ] with no blackout dates, you can use your Citi Thankyou points to travel whenever you want. Visit citi. Com thankyoucards to apply. Lets take a closer look inside this giant ship. Cnns tom foreman is here to take us on a little tour. Its a big, big ship, the triumph, isnt it . It is. And its hard to imagine just how large. This was built in 1999, 420 million. Its got 13 decks. And when you look at some of the upper decks like this, the panorama deck, there are entertainment areas out here, places for people to do things, and only a limited amount of housing up here for people,lido. Entertainment and exercise, and down here is the living area. But as you move down into the ship, i think youll move into the areas where youll see more people having complaints. Down to the veranda deck, thats a lot of spaces for people to be living, both inside and out towards the outer edge. The empress deck, same thing. Beyond there, the main deck. Again, lots and lots of people in a little space here. And then all the way down to the riviera deck, you see the same effect. My suspicion, wolf, is as we get the ship to shore and people start telling exactly where they were, were going to find that a lot of people in these lower decks, because you can see where the riviera deck is, i think youll find where a lot of people are clustered together, thats where some of the biggest complaints were. Obviously, a lot of people, not a lot of space, and whatever services are being used down there are having more pressure on them, even if people can move around the ship. Wolf . Tom foreman, thanks for that explanation. And happening now, were following the breaking news. The final hours of a truly hellish cruise. Passengers can see land, but they still cant escape a crippled ship that has become a floating disaster area. Only cnn has been bringing you live pictures of the carnival triumph from the land, from the air, and from the sea. It will be at least four hours before the ship docks in mobile, alabama. Passengers have been giving us gripping accounts of whats going on inside the ship. And theyve been sending us pictures as well. Many of them horrific pictures. Weve seen sewage on the floors, on the walls. Were told its even soaking mattresses. People sleeping in filthy halls. Passengers say the ship smells revolting. Were staying on top of this story, until more than 4,000 trapped passengers and crew members are safely on land. You will hear their stories this hour. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. This may have been the moment where the nightmare aboard the carnival triumph began. We just received this video taken by a passenger on sunday. Thats the day a fire broke out in the ships engine room. She says she knew something was wrong when she saw the smoke, heard an alarm going off. She says she didnt find out from crew members about the fire until hours later and then passengers were told the situation was, quote, around control. These last few hours may be the worst for the desperate passengers. Its not too hard to understand that some may be losing their cool. Passenger julie morgan talked about that just a little while ago. People are starting to lose it a little bit, tempers are flaring, people are being very snippy. It started midday yesterday through today. Basically because we would get the, were arriving at 9 00 on wednesday. No, scratch that, were arriving at noon on thursday. They keep changing things, so people are getting frustrated with that. Kate balduan is here. Shes watching whats going on as well. A horrific situation, kate, hopefully it will come to an end shortly. Thats absolutely right. And estimates right now are that the triumph will arrive in mobile, alabama, in the 10 00 eastern hour, and that is at the earliest. And then, it will take another four to five hours to get passengers off the ship, only prolonging, really, the agony and the difficulty theyve been suffering for the past few days. Lets go straight to mobile, where our Martin Savage is standing by live. Martin, whats the latest . Reporter hey, kate. Were standing here at the alabama cruise terminal. This is the absolutely final destination for triumph tonight. Its also the headquarters of all the families that have come from, as far away as indiana, to be here in person to pick up their loved ones. Because quite frankly, they just felt that after all theyve been through, they needed to see a family face. Let me show you and step out of the way, if you take a look over in that direction, youre probably going to see that gangway. Thats the only gangway, by the way. This is the largest cruise ship that has ever come into mobile, that according to carnival officials. That gangway will pull up next to the vessel once its tied up at the dock, and thats how people will get off, get on to the second floor building there, and its inside that cruise terminal where the reunion with their families, at least those that have come here, will take place. However, weve been told, this is going to be a long ordeal. Even after the ship gets here. And thats going to be late, if not early tomorrow morning. Its going to take four, maybe five hours, carnival says, to deboard everybody. Theyll begin with Children First and those with special needs. But four to five hours, additionally. So youre talking 4 00 in the morning, maybe, by the time those reunions take place. So a lot of families here have left for the time being, gone to take a break, and theyll be back in a little while to begin that anxious wait. The other thing thats interesting here is that they have no way to tie up power. This is all going to take place in the dark. They brought in a lot of emergency lighting, you could say, to illuminate this pier, to make sure that the docking takes place smoothly. They dont anticipate any problem, but keep in mind, theyre navigating a very big ship up a tight channel, all in e darkness and eventually tying it up here. So you cant say that all the worry is over just yet, kate. Thats absolutely right. And we even heard during the press conference, martin, when they finally get to the port. When they finally dock, theyre going to have to use a luggage brigade to get the luggage off get the luggage down to the dock, so people can carry it off themselves. Clearly, the ordeal is far from over. Well be following this for hours to come, along with you. Martin savage in mobile for us. Thanks, martin. Only one elevator, apparently, is working right now on that ship. Rough weather has certainly been delaying the ship, then that tug line broke. Its probably not going to get any easier when the triumph finally tries to dock. And it will be very, very dark when it does. Lets bring in our meteorologist, chad myers. Walk us through what we can expect, chad, over the next few hours. 26 more miles to go and its going 6 Miles Per Hour. Thats actually the best making way its gone in a long time. We havent had 6 Miles Per Hour in a couple of days. Let me take you to where we are now. We are through the little cut between ft. Morgan and also here. Thats dauphin island. Theres Mobile Channel, and the triumph under that little thing. Earlier today, this was adrift out in the ocean, out in the gulf of mexico. It broke the line that was towing it. It kind of did a couple of loops, did a couple of 360s and was floating, basically, away from where they wanted to go. They got it hooked back up and now it is through the channel and into the channel. But, wolf, that channel is only 400 feet wide. 400 feet wide. And this boat is 116 ship, if you will, 116 feet wide, the beam there. So you dont have a lot of margin for error when you only have 400 feet and youre only taking up 116 and you have tug boats on both side of you. Theres the boat, thats the exact spot right there. I just did the lat long. Its going to go to the right of that, of the green, and to the left, the red, always red right returning. The three rs of boating, and back up here into Mobile Channel and up into mobile bay. That is still 26 miles away. It is still going to take some time. It stale may be a challenge, at times, if the wind blows at all. Right now we have winds east at 6 that will try to blow the ship a little bit to the west. Thats because the ship is so long, its so tall. Its called windage. The windage on the boat, like a big sail, wants to blow the boat offcourse and all these tug boats are trying to keep it on course. Thats what theyre going to do now in the dark. Wolf . Chad, thanks very much. Lets get to the phone right now. Julie is on board the crippled carnival triumph. Shes joining us on the phone right now. Julie, how are you doing . Were making it. Yes, sir. Whats it been like . Caller miserable and just probably the worst time in our life. Weve had to put a lot of faith in god. Have you had enough food, enough water, enough medicine if you need medicine . Caller yes, sir. We the first day, we had tomato sandwiches. And i hate tomatoes. But they have tried. The carnival crew has tried their very best to take care of us. Right there. But we its just been very hard, you know, to satisfy people are coming up there and just getting tons of food, just grabbing it, just because theyre worried about getting food. Were showing our viewers, julie, were showing our viewers pictures from the helicopter thats flying over. We have a helicopter flying over. Theyre sending out i dont know where you are. Are you on one of the upper decks, are you outside . Were on the upper deck, in the back left, back left corner. I have a pink jacket on. My sister, robin, she has a white robe on with a red bag. My niece, breanna has a blue jean jacket on. My niece, brooklyn has a white robe on, and my daughter, julianna has a pink coat on, with a black skirt. And were all standing on the back deck, waving. Back left corner. Were going to see if we can find you up there as well, julie. How old is your daughter . Shes 12 years old and she was on fox news this morning. How is she doing . Shes doing fine. Well, she busted out crying yesterday. We were in the middle shes in a bible quizzing tournament for next week, this coming weekend, and she busted out crying, right there in the middle, i said, julianna, lets keep quoting. And the next verse was, cast your burden upon the lord, because he cares for you. And now shes known that the lord can help through it. Its been a trial. Its definitely been a trial. Weve really had to face a lot of things we didnt know how it was going to end up. Julie, let me interrupt you for a second. Youre wearing the red jacket. Somebody was just dancing in front of you, is that right . Yes, sir. Whos dancing. Thats brooklyn. Brooklyn was dancing. If you turn the other way julie, if youll turn the other way, youll see a helicopter, youll see us, keep turning. There we are, n youre looking right at us . Okay, now we see you. Who do you want to say hi to on shore . Who should we say hi to . John, i love you so much. Joe and blake, i love yall, miss yall. We love you we love you im sure they love you too. All your friends and family, if theyre watching cnn right now. Julie, theyre seeing you and your entourage over there. And thanks for the nice smiles, the nice waves. Its always good to see happy faces, even after an ordeal like this. Wheres home for you guys . We are different places. Me and my daughter, julianna, is from louisiana, lake charles, louisiana. Robin and her daughter, brooklyn, are from carthage, mississippi. And my niece brianna is from indiana. Noblesville, indiana. So walk us through, what are you going to do, julie, when you get off the boat . Kiss my big husband, because its valentines day. Im excited about seeing him. Im ready to see him. Kate balduan is here, julie, she wants to ask a question or two, kate. Sounds like a very good valentines day, getting off this ship. Some point late this evening. I want to ask you, weve heard conflicting stories from some of the other passengers weve been talking to, julie. What are you hearing about the process for you to get off this boat . Do you have clear plans . Theyre saying 11 00 p. M. , inside the boat, theyre doing the debarkation, you can get the line. Its probably 200, 300 people in the line. So we opted to just stay wherever until it goes down a lot. Were waiting until the line goes down, but theyre calling everyone by rows. Theyre saying midnight, well probably be in the thing, and someone said its going to take four hours to get off. I dont know if thats true or not, but 4 00 in the morning. It sounds like you all are in very high spirits. What have you all been doing these past days to keep yourself charging our phones i just told the lady that we she called me earlier and it was 18 . And so i went downstairs, because i told her to call me back at 5 00, the charge was 18 . I sat there for an hour and 40 minutes, it got up to 42 . Its the Little Things in life sometimes. Who knew it was such an ordeal to charge a phone . Its the Little Things, especially. I know, like ten spots, and everybodys really nice and trying to get everybody in, and we were using extension cords. So theres ten spots in two different places. So i would say 20 spots to charge your phone. Julie, tell me, whats the mood been like on the ship . Im sure maybe its changed over the past few days. But whats the mood been like you, among your other passengers . I would say sunday and monday was more fear. It just seemed like people were just clinging to word, you know, good news. But since then, since we feel like were making progress, after the tug boat finally got there and we started moving, its a good feeling. Its not miserable. People are working for each other. I brought tylenol to a little girl that had a fever. Our neighbor across the hall, he had an interior room, he had a balcony room, he let us go inside and use fix our hair in his room yesterday. And he let us do that. He let us go across there and just look out the window, so we could have light. Because its pitch black in our room. I mean, black. So its very scary. And then we heard rumors of people going in rooms and stealing stuff. So that made us weve been sleeping in the hallway, and weve been sleeping with the door open, but that sort of scared us, so last night we shut our door. Julie, you would you say the crew were polite . Were they helpful . Oh, they have work the crew has worked nonstop. They have been, from daylight to dark. I think one ship didnt even once they got a break, to take a break, it was too hot on their deck to go to sleep. They couldnt go to their cabins to sleep, because it was so hot and they have no air flow, and the smoke someone said that the fire reached to 1,250 degrees in the fire room. I dont know if thats true either. But thats what they said. So it was so hot down there, they couldnt even touch their feet to the floor. Thats just rumors. Thats not fact. Well, julie, were glad were speaking to you. Our viewers are seeing you and your friends and your family over there. Youre waving to us. We have a helicopter flying over the triumph right now. So we not only heard you, julie, we saw you. And i hope your family and your loved ones are watching you as well. Youll be off that vessel in the next several hours. And well look forward to catching up with you once youre on shore. Julie hair, thanks so much. Thank you. Have a good day. Thank you. Youre going to have a much better day once youre off that boat. No kidding. Were going to continue to watch whats going on aboard the triumph as it slowly makes its way to port. Theres other Important News were watching as well, including the confirmation, or shall we say, nonconfirmation, at least on this day, of chuck hagel to be the Nations Defense secretary. [ tissue box ] he said nasal congestion. Yeah. I heard him. [ female announcer ] tylenol® cold multisymptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion. Nyquil® cold and flu doesnt. Relieves nasal congestion. But that doesnt mean i dont want to make money. Stor. I love making money. I try to be smart with my investments. I also try to keep my costs down. Whats your plan . Ishares. Low cost and tax efficient. Find out why nine out of ten large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. Ishares by blackrock. Call 1800ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. Read and consider it carefully before investing. Risk includes possible loss of principal. train horn vo wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. Norfolk southern. One line, infinite possibilities. To find you a great deal, even if its not with us. [ ding ] oh, thats helpful well, our company does that, too. Actually, we invented that. Its like a sauna in here. Helping you save, even if its not with us now, thats progressive call or click today. No mas pantalones wear going to be speaking with more passengers aboard the carnival triumph as it makes its way to mobile, alabama. Youre looking at live pictures from our helicopter, flying overhead. Much more on this story coming up. But theres other news were following. As we talk about the cruise industry, also news in the airline industry. Airline passengers soon will have even fewer options to choose from. Another merger announced today. Big news. American airlines and us airways are joining forces in an 11 billion deal. A decade ago, there were ten Major Airlines in this country. Soon there will be only four, if you can believe it. Heres cnns alison kosik. Hi, wolf and kate. What everybody wants to know is, will fares go up . American and us airways say no. And most analysts agree. One reason to believe fares will stay in check is theres very little overlap in routes between the two airlines. And you can see that on the map here. There arent any shared hubs and they have very few individual routes in common. Heads of the two Airlines Told cnn there will be just as many flights available, so no reason to believe there will be an increase in prices. And i know it may be hard to believe, but if you look at fares, industry wide, theyre actually up less than 2 per year since 2004. And thats less than inflation. And despite a bunch of mega mergers that have been happening in the industry. As for anyone whos enrolled in the frequent Flyer Programs of the two airlines, one analyst told cnn money, its probably a good idea to use your miles now to get the most value out of them, because historically, it becomes tougher to book reward flights and after the emergency merger, the value of those may change and flights will cost you more miles. You wont lose miles, but some of the benefits of the combined frequent Flyer Program are likely to change. Heres an example. Us airways dividend miles members can currently use reward miles for flights on united. Theyll use that benefit when they become american advantage members after the merger. And remember, this merger isnt going to be happening overnight. It more likely is going to take a couple of years for everything to combine. Meantime, passengers can expect logistical headaches. Messed up reservations, flight delays, lost luggage, especially right after the Computer Systems are combined. Proof of that, in the first month that united and continental operated as a combined airline, passenger complaints almost tripled from the year before, so get ready for a little turbulence. Wolf, kate . Get ready is right. Thank you, allison. Are you ready for a little turbulence . Im never ready for turbulence, but i think well make it through this merger. Well make it through this one. Were also standing by, getting new information. A bad day for the president of the United States and the man he wants to be the next secretary of defense, chuck hagel. What happened in the United States senate, well update you on that. Also, our top story, that cruise ship, making its way slowly to port right now. Youre looking at live pictures from our helicopter flying overhead. T us . Oh no, i. Just used my geico app to get a tow truck. Its gonna be 30 minutes. Oh, so that means that we wont be stuck up here, for hours, with nothing to do. Oh i get it, you wanna pass the time, huh. holds up phone fruit ninja emergency roadside assistance. Just a click away with the geico mobile app. At university of phoenix we know the value of your education is where it can take you. subway announcer; now arriving at City Hospital which is why were proud to help connect our students with leading employers across the nation. subway announcer next stop Financial Center lets get to work. [ male announcer ] when we built the cadillac ats from the ground up to be the worlds best sport sedan. People noticed. The allnew cadillac ats 2013 north american car of the year. For a limited time, take advantage of this exceptional offer on the allnew cadillac ats. Bob will retire when hes 153, which would be fine if bob were a vampire. But hes not. Hes an architect with two kids and a mortgage. Luckily, he found someone who gave him a fresh perspective on his portfolio. And with some planning and effort, hopefully bob can retire at a more appropriate age. Its not rocket science. Its just common sense. From td ameritrade. Makes it easy for anne to manage her finances when shes on the go. Even when shes not going anywhere. Citibank for ipad. Easier banking. Standard at citibank. To deposit checks from anywhere. [ wind howling ] easier than actually going to the bank. Mobile check deposit. Easier banking. Standard at citibank. Were continuing to watch the carnival triumph make its way to port in mobile, alabama. Theyre still about, im guessing, four hours or so. Some time between 10 00 p. M. Eastern, midnight eastern, its supposed to land in mobile, alabama. These are live, exclusive pictures from our helicopter, our cnn helicopter, flying overhead right now. You see some folks just waiting it out on a chair there, and just relaxing a little bit. But others are anxious. Their cell phones seem to be working as they get closer and closer. You see a lot of people out there. And look what is that, kate . It looks like a heart for valentines day, wolf. Thats what it is. When you have nothing to do and youre waiting around, get a little creative. Make a heart. We have much more. Well be speaking to some of those passengers. You see those passengers waving at us. I think well be speaking with some of them very, very soon. Stand by for that. But i want to get to some other Important News here in washington. Democrats were unable to break the filibuster of the former republican colleague that they had, chuck hagel, for defense secretary. It looks like it will be another week or so before the senate takes up the controversial nomination once again. Our chief congressional correspondent, dana bash, is up on capitol hill. Dana, not a good day for the president or the man he wants to be the next defense secretary. Reporter not at all. There was some lastminute lobbying by the Vice President , wolf, im told he made some calls to republican senators, but at the end of the day, he could not convince him of what the president said just a short while ago, that he needs his defense secretary at a time of war. On this vote, the yays are 58, the nays are 40. Reporter it was a moment for the history books. The motion is not agreed to. Reporter chuck hagel fell short of the 50 votes needed to break a filibuster of his nomination to be defense secretary. Only four republicans supported their former senate gop colleague. The filibuster of senator hagels confirmation is unprecedented. I repeat, not a single nominee for secretary of defense, ever in the history of our country has been filibustered. Never, ever. Reporter republicans argued they need more time, saying hagel is too controversial to be confirmed, only days after getting through committee on a Party Line Vote. The president has a right to appoint people in whom he has confidence, but we have a constitutional responsibility to consider the nominee. A number of the republican senators have questions. Reporter but democrats see it another way. That republicans are dragging their feet on hagel in order to look for more information to bring him down. Lets not hide behind a filibuster. Lets have the courage. Vote yes or vote no. Dont hide behind parliamentary tricks. Reporter the white house knew from day one hagels confirmation would not be easy. Controversial statements on israel, jews and gays as well as his position on iran and iraq put him in the crosshairs of senators on both sides of the aisle, but mostly fellow republicans. And a widely panned performance at his confirmation hearing, even by democrats, didnt help. I, um, misspoke and said i supported the president s position on containment. Reporter but only in the last 48 hours did it become clear that hagel did not have the votes to overcome a filibuster this week. Senators have the right to have those questions answered. Reporter mostly because a handful of gop senators, who had said they would not block hagel, including john mccain, reversed themselves, deciding to go along with the majority of republicans, demanding next weeks Senate Recess to study the nomination and ask more questions. I think that during the break, its sufficient time to get any additional questions answered, and i will vote in favor of cloture on the day we get back and i believe my colleagues would also enough of my colleagues would do the same. Reporter now, another vote to stop this filibuster is already on the schedule. It will be a little under two weeks from now, when the Senate Returns from a weeklong break, back in their states. Several republican senators i spoke to earlier today, wolf, said that they were going to vote no today, but they would vote yesterday after they have that time to study hagels record and to ask more questions. If that is true, hagel should be confirmed, eventually, but after a very, very bumpy road at the hands, again, of his former colleagues here in the senate. Its an amazing story thats going on. Dana, thanks very much. I want to go back live to the major story weve been watching all afternoon. The carnival triumph inching, limping its way into port in mobile, alabama. We have another passenger calling in. Robin chandler. Robin, can you hear me . Yes, i can how are things for you . Caller im really ready to get off of this ship. Things have not been, you know, as bad as some people have had. We were on deck seven in a suite, so weve had a balcony for the trip. So, you know, weve obviously had no power, no toilets, we were able to shower and, you know, wash up in our cabin. But its been a true nightmare for me. This is my first cruise and i will probably not do another one. Im told that this was a birthday surprise, taking you on this first cruise. Quite a surprise. Caller it was a surprise. My 50th birthday surprise and my birthday was saturday, february the 9th, and on sunday morning, we were awakened to this tragedy. And it was good up until then, as you can only imagine. Youre on the cruise with your husband, james. What have you been doing to pass the time . Caller playing cards, reading, and just really trying to focus on getting off of being on this ship. I am a strong believer in god almighty and know hes the one thats getting us off of the ship. And so just been doing a lot of, you know, reflection and praying and just trying to make the best out of it. Yeah, and real quick, robin. What are you going to do as soon as you get off this ship, late this evening . Caller im going to take a warm shower and hopefully get a decent hot meal. Sounds like a good idea. Well, take care. Thank you so much for calling in and good luck to you and your husband and happy birthday. If that even helps at this point. Robin chandler, thanks so much. Weve got somebody else whos on board. Another cruise passenger. Reagan meredith, whos joining us on the phone right now. Thanks very much. First of all, how are you doing . Caller im doing okay. Passing the time as best i can. Youre almost youre almost there. I know you sent us some photos, reagan. Im going to put some of them up on the screen. A wide shot, showing the outside deck, of this vessel. People outside using sheets to shield from the sun. Whats it been like over these past few days . Caller its been pretty rough. We had to move out of our room on sunday due to flooding and overflow, and the first night we didnt know how long we were going to be out here, so we didnt built a tent and that night was pretty miserable due to the wind, so the next night we got some rope and that was a way to pass the time, building a nice shelter out here, helping others to secure rope and putting up their sheets. It was an adventure, to say the least. I know youve made some makeshift beds from those lounge chairs out there. We just heard Robin Chandler say people are playing cards to help the time go by. I assume youve been doing the same thing . Caller a little bit of cards and Walking Around and helping out anyone else we can. We have a rather large group with us, so weve banded together and tried to help out as many people as we can. Help to get people food and help do anything to pass the fulltime. And youve been like so many others, anxious to get your cell phones, your iphones, your blackberries charged. Hows that working out . Youre on the phone with us now. Caller well, my phone is about to die again. The charging stations, someone figured out if you unplug the atm, those outlets are still working, and luckily passengers had brought power strips with them and so we had about seven hooked up at one time, and there were 40 or 50 phones being charged at the same time. And luckily, one person would always step up and organize it, to make sure that it wasnt just chaos down there. And so were all very thankful for that. Do you think this is your last cruise . Caller for a long time, yes. I dont blame you. All right, reagan meredith, good luck to you, your friends out there. And its only a few more hours and then youll be able to take that shower, have a good hot meal, and head home. Where is home, by the way . Caller back in san antonio, texas. All right. Good. Youre not going to be too far away. Good luck. Caller no, sir. Good luck. Caller thank you very much. Look at that sunset. A beautiful sun going down. A lot of work ahead for everyone trying to get everyone off that ship. Amazing shots were getting from our helicopter camera thats flying over the triumph right now. After all of this, you cant help but wonder if taking a cruise is a good idea. Well talk to two Industry Experts plus our own dr. Sanjay gupta on the Health Conditions on board. [ female announcer ] Research Suggests cell health plays a key role throughout our lives. One a day womens 50 is a complete multivitamin designed for womens Health Concerns as we age. It has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. One a day 50 . It has 7 antioxidants to support cell health. See lioutdoors, or in. Ight. Transitions® lenses automatically filter just the right amount of light. So you see everything the way its meant to be seen. Maybe even a little better. Visit your eyecare professional today to ask about our newest lenses, transitions vantage and transitions xtractive lenses. Experience life well lit. Ask which transitions adaptive lens is best for you. Were joined now by two experts on the cruise industry. Youre looking at these live pictures of the triumph as it slowly makes its way to port in mobile, alabama. These are exclusive pictures from our helicopter flying overhead. Ross klein has published four books on the subject, has a website, cruisejunkie. Com. Stewart sheron is ceo of thecruiseguy. Com. Guys, thanks very much for coming in. Kate is here as well. Ross, how common i mean, weve heard Horror Stories coming from some of these passengers over the past few days. How common is this . Well, i wouldnt say that its common, but i wouldnt say that its uncommon. Theres probably an average of about four ships a year where theres crippling fires, where ships have difficulties. And probably on average, about ten ships a year that have disabling problems in terms of propulsion. So in the grand scheme of things, in the number of ships that are out there, it isnt a huge number, so the chances of it happening to an individual are certainly somewhat scarce. But its frequent enough that we know that they happen and its not unheard of. Stewart, how do you think carnival is handling this crisis . Well, i mean, considering weve gotten much more information out of them on this incident than weve had on in, so you can definitely see a pattern that theyve actually learned a lot from the last time, when this occurred, on the carnival splendor, i mean, we understand whats going on. Teams have been mobilized a lot faster. Their reaction to passenger needs has been much greater. And, you know, theyve done everything humanly possible under the circumstances to make them as comfortable as possible. And also due the best that they can to get them ashore as fast as possible, because getting them to mexico would have created a logistical nightmare, considering 900 passengers didnt have their passports and trying to logistically trying to get people back to the United States would have been a nightmare. Were continuing to look at the live pictures of the carnival triumph making its way to port. Ross, what should carnival or can carnival do in the future to better prepare for an emergency situation like this . Well, i think theyre prepared for emergencies when they happen near shore. I think where theyre not prepared and where the Industry Needs to give some very careful thought to is how to deal with these accidents when they happen, when ships are at sea. This certainly would be an example. It took four days before people are brought back to port. Similarly, the costa allegra, it lost power after an engine fire not even a year ago in the indian ocean and was adrift for several days. I think what the Industry Needs to be thinking about is how are they going to address these problems, when they happen at a distance, in order to try to minimize the inconvenience to passengers, and certainly the difficulties that weve seen on this ship. And stewart, do you think carnival will make these changes or make some changes Going Forward . Reporter well, theyre always making changes, but lets keep in mind that three other cruise ships, carnival legend, carnival elation and conquest have been dispatched to the area. Tons of food and supplies have been transferred from ship to ship in some pretty awful weather, including rough seas and 30knot winds in order to try to make this as easy as possible, which is exactly why they were unable to move the passengers from one ship to another. So, i mean, you could definitely see that lessons have been learned, improvements have been made. And every conceivable option has been undertaken to ensure that these passengers are taken care of. No ones minimizing the suffers thats been going on, but they are doing a very good job in trying to expedite their return home. And we should say that depending on the passengers weve spoken to that are on board, they definitely do compliment the crew on board, saying they are doing the best they can. But definitely there are lessons to be learned when Something Like this happens. Stewart sheron and ross klein, thanks so much for your help. Well have much more on the crippled triumph coming in. Our own dr. Sanjay gupta will join us live and well talk about the Health Conditions on board. Constipated . Yeah. Mm. Some laxatives like dulcolax can cause cramps. But phillips caplets dont. They have magnesium. For effective relief of occasional constipation. Thanks. [ Phillips Lady ] live the regular life. Phillips. Stop stop stop come back here humans we are beautifully imperfect creatures living in an imperfect world. Thats why Liberty Mutual insurance has your back with great ideas like our optional better car replacement. If your car is totaled, we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. Call. And ask one of our Insurance Experts about it today. Hello . we believe our customers do their best out there in the world, and we do everything we can to be there for them when they need us. [car alarm blaring] call now and also ask about our 24 7 support and service. Call. And lock in your rate for 12 months today. Liberty mutual insurance. Responsibility. Whats your policy . Taking a look live at the carnival triumph, inching its way towards the port in mobile, alabama. Youre seeing exclusive live pictures from our helicopter, thats been watching this ship inch its way, inch its way, through the gulf of mexico, and now into the port in mobile, alabama. Were staying close to this story, obviously. And when you hear passengers talk about raw sewage everywhere, you cant help but wonder about the health risks potentially for people on board that ship. So lets bring in our chief medical correspondent, dr. Sanjay gupta. I know people have a lot of questions about this, sanjay, because its such an unusual circumstance. Do you have any concerns about health risks on this ship . You know, i get a little bit of good news here. I dont have significant concerns about health risks. That may surprise a lot of people, given just how disgusting the conditions have been described, not hygienic, obviously, not sanitary, but there are basic things you want to look for. Certainly, is there enough water . Is there refrigeration for medications, for example . Food, and you know, what were hearing is that those things have been made available. There are medical personnel, i was talking to one of the passengers earlier. They say that medical personnel has been wandering around the ship. Theres an infirmary. Thats obviously all important. People that are going to be at risk, obviously, kate, as you might guess, are people who have already had some underlying medical conditions. Weve heard about patients that have needed to be taken off the ship because of those kind of things. But for the most part, you always talk about the possible outbreak of Infectious Diseases. But thankfully, we hardly ever see them. We didnt see them after katrina, for example. My guess is we wont see them here. Were also seeing some of the pictures that passengers are sending into us of the condition on board the ship. Sanjay, weve heard from one mother who said she was going down to mobile to meet her daughter at the dock and was brings antibiotics with her. Do you think thats necessary . Im guessing not, at this point. No, i dont. And you know, let me say, i understand the sentiment. Look, if i had a Family Member on the ship, i would try and do anything i could to try and help and maybe thats where this is coming from as well, but, again, keep in mind, there is an infirmary on the ship and if antibiotics were necessary, they may have already been given. But also, you know, you dont want to give these medications prophylactically. They can, in fact, make people sick and they can create an antibiotic resistance in the community. So thats no small problem. So i just dont think that thats necessary. When these poor folks get off the ship, the first thing we hear theyre looking for is a warm shower and a warm meal. You can see lights, all of a sudden you see some lights over there on the ship. They did get a generator, so theyre working with limited power. We know people are charging their cell phones too. Which is good news. Theyre only a few hours away from arriving in the port of mobile. Exclusive pictures coming in from our cnn helicopter flying overhead. Well keep on top of this story. Well be right back. If your tires need to be rotated, you have to get that done as well. Jackie, tell me why somebody should bring theyre car here to the ford dealership for service instead of any one of those other places out there. They are going to take care of my car because this is where it came from. Price is right no problem, they make you feel like youre a family. Get a Synthetic Blend Oil change, tire rotation and much more, 29. 95 after 10. 00 rebate. If you take care of your car your car will take care of you. Shimmy, shimmy chocolate. Shimmy, shimmy chocolate. We, we chocolate cross over. Yeah, we chocolate cross over. [ male announcer ] introducing fiber one 80 calorie chocolate cereal. Chocolate. 80 calorie chocolate cereal. With the bing it on challenge to show google users what theyve been missing on bing. Lets bing it on. [fight bell ding, ding] how many here are google users . What if i was to tell you that you would actually like bing way more than google when it came to the results . Prove it. Lets look up some taco places. I like the left side. Yeah . Okay, do we need to find out what the waves are like down at the beach . What side do you like better . I like the results on the right. Im gonna go with the one on the left. Oh bing won people prefer bing over google for the webs top searches. Dont believe it . Go to bingiton. Com and see what youre missing. The San Bernardino county Sheriffs Office has Just Announced the charred human remains located in the burn pd out cabin in seven oaks have been positively identified to be that of christopher dorner. Lets get the story from cnns miguel marquez. Hes in los angeles. Hes been covering it from the beginning. Case closed, i guess, right, miguel . Reporter well, sort of, wolf. Case is closed, at least on that aspect of it. The Sheriffs Department confirmed that they are christopher dorners. They did that by dental records. But there are many, many questions into the investigation and the search for dorner. Jim and Karen Reynolds did what investigators couldnt. They found christopher dorner. He talked about how he could see jim working on the snow every day. Hed been watching us shoveling the snow, and that was friday. Reporter that very afternoon, last friday, a fullblown News Conference, so close to the condo dorner was in, he could watch, armed with assault weapons, he could have killed on national television. A lot of us all pretty much had the feeling that he was still in the area. There are so many vacant houses up here that he could really be anywhere. Reporter San BernardinoSheriffs Office said it searched hundreds of empty cabins, but never confirmed they were actually empty. Several Law Enforcement agencies told cnn they offered resources to San Bernardino, but were told thanks, but no thanks. Law enforcement Officials Say in the hours after dorner abandoned and burned his truck, the area should have been flooded with officers, 500 to 1,000, necessary to search so many homes in an area so wide. I was a little bit surprised last thursday that when the Sheriffs Office indicated that they had maybe 125, 500 officers, given that they had such a large mountainous area. Chief of riverside police, detectives from his department didnt arrive in big bear until monday, the day before dorner was discovered. Did you offer anything on thursday . I dont know. I really dont recall whether what every conversation might have occurred between our people and San Bernardino. Reporter but it wasnt until monday that you actually got boots on the ground or shoes on the ground . We had a couple of detectives following up, yeah. Reporter on monday . On monday. Reporter the San Bernardino sheriff and his office have only said the area was searched and the condo in question had not been rented since february 6th. Two, maybe three days before dorner moved in, he tied up the rentals when they discovered him on tuesday, but they managed to call 911 minutes after he left. Were very happy to be alive and that the rest of our family is safe. Reporter lucky to be alive, going back to that condo. Never the same. Just get a feeling, emotion sometimes just comes over me, i look at that unit and think about going back in. Reporter two ordinary people caught up in a lifeordeath situation. Did it ever have to happen . Now, we asked, emailed, and called San BernardinoSheriffs Department for more comment on this story. So far, they have said nothing. Wolf . Guys, back to you. All right, miguel. Thanks very much. Kate . Still ahead, an asteroid half the size of a football field. You wont believe how close its going to come to the earth in less than 24 hours. And yes, were still watching the carnival triumph inching towards port. Ves business optimizers. How . By building custom Security Solutions that integrate video, access control, fire and intrusion protection. All backed up with worldclass monitoring centers, thousands of qualified technicians, and a personal passion to help protect your business. When your business is optimized like that, theres no stopping you. We are tyco integrated security. And we are sharper. Less than 24 hours from now, a massive asteroid will pass very close to earth. We sent our own brian todd to nasas jet Propulsion Laboratory, where theyre keeping a close eye on whats going on. Wolf, were inside the deep Space NetworkOperation Center at the jet Propulsion Laboratory at nasas facility in pasadena, california. Its at the jet propulsion lab, where nasa will be monitoring that asteroid. Its called 2012 da14, because it was discovered last year. Thats an artist rendering of it, but theyre going to be looking at the real thing when it