>> we are in a tornado! we are in a tornado! look at that. in the eye of a ferocious storm. we can't protect you from bed bugs. people hoping for a hookup now have to worry about bed bugs, the invasion taking a bite out of love lives. >> and voting machine irregulators. what will you face at the polls? countdown to the midterm election. i'm tony harris. for those stories? your comments right here right now in the cnn newsroom. we begin with a line of severe weather pushing through the syrian sectioutheastern sec country. tornado watches and warnings in several cities, including here and atlanta. there was a powerful tornado in texas. here's a view from inside. >> we are in the tornado! we are in the tornado! we are in the tornado! >> you can believe that? that's actually navarro county coordinator eric meyers who was in the tornado as it tour the roof of a school and caused other damage. >> man, look at that, this tornado video from joey romero, he tells us he and his girlfriend and driving from dallas when hail started falling in navarro county, texas. joey is on the phone with us. could you believe what you were seeing take shape here? >> to be honest with you, the first few seconds were surreal and i didn't know what to expect and we were in shock. after that, we started to think about everybody's safety. >> what do you channel in those first few seconds when you see the funnel cloud take shape? are you calibrating your distance from the funnel cloud and what do do you now? >> first few seconds to stair at it to see which direction it was going, and it was headed to us, and after take the video, the best thing to do was get everybody in the safe spot. about ten of us went into the freezer in the back. that's the protocol for the area. >> how many were in the freezer with you? what did you hear and see? >> there were about ten people with us. the first thing we did was remove things from the shelf so in case the building got shook up nobody would get hurt. it got calm and the wind picked up and it started roaring past us, and after that, the lights went out, and everybody was a little scared. we just tried to calm people down. a few minutes went by, and people cried and prayed and just happened to pass and we were fine. >> joey, was there a moment in the freezer you were wondering did i make the right call, did we make the right call coming in here? >> to be honest, i thought it was the best place. >> what did you girlfriend think? what's her reaction to all of this? >> she was holding onto dear life, so she was right next to me. she was a little bit scared, but she prayed, also, and like i said, god was looking out for us that day. >> did you have that moment after this where you say, wow, that was scary, that could have been really, really bad? did you have that chill that runs through your body? >> your body sort of going numb trying to recount what just happened. i remember the first few seconds i was just thanking god once again. pretty crazy feeling, i'll tell thank you. >> you get out of the freezer, and you go outside or whatever you do, what does the gas station look like around you and what do you see when you go outside? >> there is baseball sized hail on the ground and windows broken out of vehicles, and a few people cupping in who were bleeding on their arms and legs from the glass that broke from the windows. people bruised from the hail that hit them. everybody was sort of in shock, also, but, we got through it. >> joey, well done. glad you made the right call and got into the freezer, you and your girlfriend and others and are here to talk about it. well done. good talking to you. let's get to you reynolds wolf. first of all, do we know the severity of that tornado yet? >> not yet but i can tell you when you have these types of storms that pop up, the majority of these tornadoes are f-0 to f-1. this one is an exception. those tornadoes took place in the north texas area near the red river valley. you wonder where the action is taking place. hard to miss. check out the southeast. places all lined up. alabama, georgia. now a severe thunderstorm watch near the i-85 corridor. earlier this morning, it was a rude awakening from areas north of alabama, even into places like alabama, you have the rough storms crossing parts of i-20 moving east of atlanta. atlanta for the time being, you're in the clear but we will see more development moving out towards south carolina. tar heels, north carolina not out of the storm. you have the calm before the storm. in the we have, you see the big clouds developing, and light precipitation in columbia. that pushed way ahead of the main line of storms due to strong upper level winds. expect that development throughout the afternoon. we are not just dealing with rough weather in the southeast but what we anticipate in parts of the corn belt, iowa, even illinois, not only heavy rainfall and strong storms, wind gusts topping 50 to 60 miles an hour. could be a rough day in the nation's midsection. >> what happened to richard? is it over? >> funny you bring that up. we still have that developing across parts of the yucatan. it is weakening. we have an update coming up very soon. other big stories we're watching -- the iran money trail. for years we heard reports of iran helping to fund terrorists in iraq. now the president of afghanistan says his government has been getting bags stuffed with cash from tehran but it is all above board. >> the cash payments are done by various friendly countries to help the presidential office, and to help dispense assistance to in various ways to the employees around here, to people outside, and this is transparent, and this is something that i have also discussed with even when we were a the camp david with president bush. this is nothing hidden. we are grateful for the iranian help in this regard. the united states is doing the same thing. they are providing cash to some of our offices. >> okay, hope for haiti this morning. health officials battling a deadly outbreak of cholera, saying the worst may be over but the risks are still quite high. i-reporters are sending pictures of make shift overcrowded hospitals and mobile clinics providing what they can to help. greatest need right now, clean water. elizabeth cohen has more on that shortly. if you want to fly anywhere over the holidays, it is going to cost you. faircompare.com says fares are up 15%. every day you wait, you might as well add $5 to the cost of your ticket. a look at voting machine glitches that could cause problems at the ballot box. >> let's look at the markets. how are the marks performs? 90 minutes into the trading day and we are up 58 points. following these numbers for you throughout the day right here on the cnn newsroom. let's get you some politics now. we hope you're into it. the midterms are just eight days away, and as the calendar winds down, the debates are heating up. in the alaska senate race, the tea party squared off against the write-in he defeated in the primary and the democratic candidate. they sparred over the military' don't ask, don't tell policy. >> i'm the only veteran running for the u.s. senate this election psyche until alaska. i'm a combat vet. i think it's wrong to play political games with our service men and women in uniform. just recently, his is a vote that senator murkowski missed. they tried to play political games with the military protecting us. it is the military that ought to make decisions for the military. it's not the role of the government to come into the military and socially engineer it. >> this is an initiative where we asked our men and women who are serving us. we asked them to weigh in on this. we owe them the decency and the courtesy to bring those responses back in to assess them torque make a determination as to whether or not it will impact the readiness, whether it will impact the level of preparedness for the fight, and deal with it accordingly. but to ask of them and then for congress to preempt that before we have gotten anything back from them, is wrong. >> i support the full repeal of don't ask, don't tell. [ applause ] i believe that as our society, as our country has evolved, every single time there has been a demographic that has been allowed to fully integrate in the united states military, it's been done with great success. i believe that will also be the case when don't ask, don't tell is fully repealed. the alaska senate candidates go at it again tonight. in kentucky, rand paul and jack conway meet in their find senate debate, and the candidates for governor of florida debate tonight. you can see it live on cnn moderated by john king, the host of "john king usa" debates are set for the massachusetts and south carolina governors races. politicians will tell you every vote counts. that's only if all of the votes are counted. glitches with electronic votes machines happened during the primaries. carol costello takes a look. >> reporter: in new york city, one of the most sophisticated cities in the world, primary lekd day was certainly not sophisticated. mayor michael bloomberg said -- >> that is a royal screwup and completely unacceptable. >> reporter: would you agree with the mayor's assessment that it was a royal screwup? >> i would leave it to the mayor. >> reporter: to voters confused by something they had never seen before, an electronic voting machine. not only that, they complained ballots were confusing or tough to read. some broken down machines or not at all. this website caught that. >> you come to vote? >> yes. >> the machines are not here yet. >> not here? >> no. they will be here about 11:00. >> reporter: keep in mind in other states are electronically challenged. illinois is having problems. rich whitney's name was spelled rich whitey on some machines, and they are working feverishly to correct it. ohio, florida, and california had persistent problems with things like improperly filled out ballots and machine malfunctions. the new york board of elections is retraining 36,000 poll workers to better serve voters on november 2nd, and offering a pre-election day demonstration but we will show you now. >> a voter gets one paper ballot. >> reporter: a poll worker hands you a ballot you take to a cube cal and use a been to color in the circle next to your candidate's name and put your completed ballot in a folder and head to the machine. if i come over here to scan the ballot, a poll worker should not be here? >> no. >> reporter: the voter puts the ballot into the machine, and it's scanned and drops into a locked bin. simple, right? so why the royal screwup in new york? lawrence nordin says new york should have had a trial run before the primary and he says, new york may have avoided some problems if states actually shared information. >> there's no central place where voting problems are reported and somebody can screen them and report to election officials, here's a common problem with your machine. >> reporter: that, he says, is one of the biggest reasons voters in every state experienced problems with electronic voting machines. the number one reason, human error, which certainly was the case in new york city. poll workers weren't trained properly, and at times machines experienced a paper jam. new york election officials say that will not happen. they hired extra poll workers, retrained them and hope november 2nd and trouble-free. amid the mud slinging, nutty ads, and the talking points, it is easy to lose sight of what elections are about. they are about shaping what this country is, right? and setting a course for the future. so on this program, we want to get back to the basics, so we're asking you to help us answer one simple question, what does america mean to you. your personal experiences, your vantage point, right? what does this country look like from where you're standing right now. here's what tom says. my america is poor, angry and tired of playing second to special interests at that donald says my america is a country with a government that benefits its citizens rather than the politicians in power. from judy, my america is so great because we helped each other succeed. i'm on facebook and twitter@tonyharriscnn. or my favorite, give us a call. we will share more of your comments right here in the cnn newsroom. 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[ male announcer ] it's luxury with fire in its veins. bold. daring. capable of moving your soul. ♪ and that's even before you drop your foot on the pedal. ♪ the new 2011 cts coupe from cadillac. the new standard of the world. personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. so, first, haiti is hit by a devastating earthquake and now a fast-moving outbreak of cholera. at least 253 people are dead, more than 3,000 sick. paula newton takes us to the hort of this latest crisis. >> reporter: while the deathle to has rison, and so have the confirmed cases, it's interesting that authorities are showing cautious optimism that the situation has stabilized. it's difficult to see from the chaos behind me here in saint nicholas hospital in saint marc. more and more, people are receiving care more quickly and people are beginning to get the word out that if you have severe diarrhea and vomiting, you need to come to these health facilities, and, also, that public health campaign, people being told to wash their hands, make sure they're happens drinking clean water, watch where they are going in terms of using facilities and also staying away from the river in this area which is almost certainly contaminated with cholera. going to port-au-prince, they have taken measures to come up with hand-cleaning stations, to really try and take the level of hygiene up a notch as difficult as that is with about 1 million people living in the open in tent cities but they have isolation tents. they got them up here really only earlier today and have people on standby to take people to medical facilities if that happens but so far authorities hoping, really praying, that they can keep the outbreak from spreading to the capital. let's bring in our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. elizabeth, for those of us -- i had to remind myself about the facts behind cholera. what is it? >> cholera is a bacterial disease, and you get it basically because sewage gets into food and water. let's go over symptoms of cholera. if you ghetto it early, when the symptoms happen, it is much more easily treatable and you can stop the spread. some simle ymptoms are diarrhea vomiting, leg cramps and dehydration. lots of people get it but don't know they got it. it is a small percentage that get so sick they can die quickly from the disease. >> what can haitians do about the situation right now? >> they can wash their hands often. that's why you're going to see aide workers trying to distribute different things that they can do to wash their hands. they other thing they could do is watch out for the symptoms i mentioned, and you minute you feel them, go and get help because they can give you oral rehydration salts, something to drink or i.v.s. you have to get to that care. >> we are aware of the infrastructure problems in haiti. even for a country as challenged as haiti right now is, is this a situation that that country can control? >> public health workers are telling us they think they can get it under control. when you think about it, it's kind of amazing this hasn't happened earlier since the earthquake was nearly a year ago. if you get people washing hands and get people to health care situations quickly once they feel ill, that really can go a long way to getting this under control. >> elizabeth, that's good information. elizabeth cohen with us. let's get caught up on top stories. we are mon storing severe weather around the nation. heavy snow expected in parts of the northwest and central plains, tornado watches in the southeast. in pensacola, jury selection is under way of the double murder trial of eight alleged ninjas charged with killing a florida couple with 13 special needs kids. dressed as ninjas they broke into the home to steal a safe. waves and wind toppled this home in washington into the ocean. the homeowners said they were expecting it eventually. the family moved out ahead of the storm. ♪ when you're responsible for this much of the team, you need a car you can count on. hi. we are always bringing you stories that people are talking about. we like doing this. this is our what's hot segment. jacqui jeras helping us out with what's hot today and tomorrow? >> today and tomorrow and wednesday. >> what are you rocking on today? >> you see them behind you there, the bed bugs. we heard about them. we talked about how bad they are certainly in many cities and how difficult they are to get rid of. >> it's nasty. >> it's horrible. it's disrupting people's regular routines and it's also having a problem with people's love lives in new york. >> reporter: stacy is it always on the lookout for a good man. >> cheers. >> reporter: but for stacy and millions of other singles in new york looking for love, there's a new fear to add to romance anxieties. >> i was dating a guy saying do you have bud bugs in your apartment? if so, you won't see me. >> i know somebody who broke up because they were scared to death of bugs. she wouldn't date him because he had bed bugs and tree freaked out. >> reporter: relationship coach donna barnes saw a client who admitted having bed bugs. she was horrified, and she said you are better off not dating and clean out the problem before you then go out. >> i have here some samples of bud bugs, dead ones. >> reporter: tim wong is the exterminator. his company is getting more calls. >> i know it's a shock but half the city has them. >> reporter: call ways boy versus girl blame game. you exterminated the relationship? >> i got rid of the bed bugs but couldn't salvage the relationship. >> reporter: now it's a new meaning when a woman says you are starting to bug me. for some the prospect of bed bugs is more scary than a sexually transmitted disease. with couples of all kinds in bed at night, it's the female bed bug who has the most fun. >> chase me, mate we me, seduce me. >> reporter: actress isabella rosselini captured bed bug sex in her searries. >> they go on a cycle with 100, 150 before they need to mate again. it's not fun for the male because they don't get to mate for another six months. >> reporter: does the female have a cigarette afterwars? it's bugs and fear warns another company. who is worried more under the sheets? >> men and women are different because a woman would care if he had bed bugs but a guy wouldn't. >> reporter: confirmed further down the bar. >> let's toast to bed bugs. bed bugs. >> reporter: richard roth, cnn, new york. >> there are worse bugs to have. >> yeah. these are usually not your fault. they are hard to get rid of. you're a single guy, would you say bye bye if somebody had bed bugs. >> i know people are watching -- thank you for the question, jacqui, i'll send you a note with my response. >> wouldn't most people say know, unless you knew about it before. >> this means the relationships aren't going anywhere to begin with. anyone here in the room agree? because what you want is a partner that