recall that could have an effect on your weekend fun. first, the latest on the search and recovery efforts in joplin, missouri. scores of people are still unaccounted for on this memorial day weekend. 156 people are listed as missing and searchers still going through piles of debris and the death toll could rise and the confirmed number of deaths stands at 132 with more than 1,000 injured. more than 2,500 people have applied for federal disaster assistance to help with home repairs and personal losses. fema has approved $2.8 million in aid. president obama is returning from his overseas trip today and he's going to meet with emergency officials and tornado victims in joplin tomorrow. the president is expected to hear stories of sorrow and pain, as well as acts of bravery. cnn paul is standing in the debris of what was once a neighborhood in joplin, missouri. paul, how are the search and recovery efforts going? >> well, they're going very painstakingly slow. you can imagine with 2 200-mile-per-hour winds, joe, it just whipped everything up and if can pick up a car, you can imagine what it can do to a human. i'll give you a sense of the debris that they wrecken with on the day of the tornado. all of this stuff, trees, parts of houses mangled together. it made the roads virtually impassable. this was very difficult for the rescue crews, the first responders, as they had to drive through all this and different heroes have emerged. people we talked to said there was one young man, 18-year-old logger who got his chain saw and began to cut paths for the rescue vehicles. he went so far as to walk up to individual houses and cut holes in the houses to get people free. his name is jason and he's got quite a story to tell where he came upon one house where he thought people were inside. >> i saw smoke coming out. so, i got my chain saw and cut a hole in the roof to get through and when i did that, the house was on fire and part of the wall kind of came at me and the charcoal from it got me. so, that wasn't very fun. i didn't like that. >> well, jason has joined samaritan's purse and he is now cutting trees to this day helping clean up joplin. it's going to take a very long time. years and years and years, of course, to rebuild all this. first, they have to clean all of it up and some people have begun the rebuilding process, already, if you can believe that. but, you've got to go through a lot of different processes here, not the least of which is going to be the insurance issue that many of the homeowners are facing. fortunately, we talked to a lot of people who were insured and this scene replicated throughout. you may have heard, they said 8,000 structures damaged in joplin. that's a third of the city and when they say 8,000, granted, that could be 12 units in a 12-unit apartment complex, but joplin is not new york city. it doesn't have massive skyscrapers. it's just really mind numbing to stand here and look at how vast this is, stretching, as we've discussed, four miles long at its longest point and three quarters of a mile wide. scene of a devastation. you get to a point where people say, you've been to other disasters before and have you ever seen anything like this? my answer is easy, joe, no, i've never seen anything like this. >> it is just incredible. i have to tell you, talking about insurance, you can't imagine how much it will cost to actually rebuild all of that stuff. that's just mind numbing almost. thanks so much, paul in joplin, missouri, right now. one of the businesses destroyed by the tornado was walmart. the building's roof came down trapping a lot of customers and employees. among those employees was jeffrey price, a member of the missouri national guard. he helped pull 50 to 60 people from the rubble, including several children and a baby. two hours after the rescue, he was called to duty. he remains humble about what he did to help others. >> me and my supervisor looked at each other and said, we have to help these people out and i was one that was light enough to stand on the roof without hurting people underneath it and, so, i stood up there and he helped them get up and i helped to walk them up and over the back wall because the back wall actually collapsed in. it feels nice because some people didn't have the ability to help themselves, but in the same sense, there were a lot of people that did more than i did. >> to find out how you can help those affected by the flooding and devastated by the tornadoes, go to cnn.com/impact. president obama is wrapping up his european trip in poland today, a short time ago the president finished up his news conference with poland's prime minister, they talked about the prospects of a growing partnership between the two countries and then on to a memorial for the former poland president who died in a plane crash just late year. just moments ago he left warsaw and he should be back in washington, d.c., tonight. court is back in session right now in the casey anthony trial. prosecutors spent yesterday questioning witnesses about anthony's car. the owner of a tow company that impounded the car said he smelled what seemed like decomposing flesh. anthony is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter. gerald loughner has been moved to a federal hospital in missouri. three days ago they declared that loughner is not mentally fit to stand trial right now for the shooting that killed six people and wounded congresswoman gabrielle giffords. loughner was transferred from tucson, arizona, to the facility in missouri for further testing. it's not too late to get some of bernie madoff stuff if you're so inclined. his wine collection is one of the items going up for auction next week. the united states marshal service is selling the stuff they have left. the money goes to pay off swindled investors. madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison for running his ponzi scheme. the unofficial start to summer is officially under way. meteor also reynolds wolf has your memorial day beach and travel forecast right here. stay with us. hmmm, you can't do that. but you can do this. bengay pain relief + massage with penetrating nubs plus the powerful pain relief of bengay. love the nubs! 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[ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can now come from any faucet anywhere. introducing the brita bottle with the filter inside. memorial day weekend means the beginning of pool season in neighborhood across the country, before you jump in, you have to hear this. the government says thousands of public swimming pools should remain closed until they replace potentially deadly drain covers. alison kosik has the details. >> the kind of news no one wants to hear on a government weekend. but the government is advising public swimming pools not to open this weekend because of a massive recall. 1 million drain covers were recalled. they have up to 5,000 pounds of vacuum force and that's why they need these covers so swimmers don't get trapped under water by that suction. it doesn't sound like a big deal, but it can be. the consumer product safety commission or cpsc says it caused a dozen deaths between 1999 and 2010. some of the recalled drain co r covers were not rated correctly. they're urging public kiddy pools and wading pools to respond immediately to the recall. in-ground pools are also at risk. and it could be an issue if you have a pool in your backyard. if you're a private pool owner get more information at 866-47 8 -3521 or apsp.org/draincoverrecall. they were sold between 2008 and april of this year. >> alison kosik, thanks for that. now, these words that strike fear in the hearts of people, slight risk for strong storms. we're not liking that so much. reynolds. >> i know. >> what can you do about it? >> exactly. we've been talking about this all morning long. the weather pattern has been a freak show, no question. looks like things are better in some places today, however, we still have that slight risk of weather that joe has been talking about. a few storms develop right towards wichita and back over towards st. louis this time. the heaviest storms now driving off to the east. that's the good news. problem is, we may see more develop by the late afternoon. not all just a rain event we've been seeing. in fact, a touch of snowfall out towards the west into the central rockies and heavy snowfall in some locations and what we're going to be seeing in the rockies from that could be pretty interesting. ski season which just seems to last forever in places like steam boat strings and sun valley and idaho, you'll see that snow pile up and possibly a foot of snow in portions of the sierra nevada mountains and part of the cascades. hard to believe this time of year the snow will continue to fall. meanwhile, we talk about severe storms and also something else. the chance of thunderstorms not just in the central plains but also in parts of the gulf coast. a lot of people heading down there for the travel forecast. all locations getting very close to the 90 degree mark. one exception is destin. that breeze will cool you off in the afternoon and also be providing the chance of some storms developing along the coast. they're not going to last that long. the pop-up thunderstorms give you lighter rain and boundaries keep you cool and as we make our way to savannah and hilton head, same story. mid to upper 80s and then as we go farther north and virginia beach and atlantic city and even cape cod, wow, beautiful up there in cape cod. chance of rainfall at 20%. water a little nippy out there to say the very least in the upper 80s. now, as we fast forward to the rest of your forecast across the nation, again. we'll watch this pattern that we'll be watching and the colder air to the north and that chance of more storms as we make our way through the holiday weekend. we'll keep you up to speed on all of that. let's send it back to you, john. >> doesn't that sound delightful? around here we'll take hilton head, too. sarah palin the undecided on a presidential run, but still making big plans. we'll tell you what she has in store for the country, next. first, planning to do a little partying this long weekend? listen to this. "usa today" came up with some best places to bar hop around the world. let's get on it. portland, oregon, the city has a reputation for taking its beer very seriously and has more breweries than any other city in the u.s. i didn't know that. seville, spain, is a great place for grabbing a bottle of wine and sitting in an outdoor plaza and taking in the scenery and cleveland, ohio. head to the trendy ohio neighborhood and the williamsburg neighborhood of brooklyn boasts a lot of great watering holes. did your favorite bar make the list? stay with us, a little bit more coming up. building up our wireless network all across america. we're adding new cell sites... increasing network capacity, and investing billions of dollars to improve your wireless network experience. from a single phone call to the most advanced data download, we're covering more people in more places than ever before in an effort to give you the best network possible. at&t. rethink possible. just got more powerful. introducing precise pain relieving cream. it blocks pain signals fast for relief precisely where you need it most. precise. only from the makers of tylenol. before the break i told you about four places that "usa today" calls great destinations to doa little bar hopping. portland, oregon, seville, spain, cleveland, ohio, and brooklyn, new york and you should grab a drink in rio de janeiro, brazil and dublin, ireland. how about that. turning to politics. sarah palin kicks off her bus tour in washington. it is called the one nation tour and this event leaves one big question on the tip of many people's tongues. is she running? cnn deputy political director paul steinhauser joins us from washington. what does this bus tour tell us about her intentions and it pretty much seems she had the bus all painted up and ready to go about the time she made this announceme announcement, didn't she? >> this was in the works for a while, joe. team palin kept the wraps on this one until the official announcement yesterday. it has all of us, joe, like you and me who cover campaign politics buzzing and questioning what is going on here. this tour will start right here in washington, d.c. it will hit a lot of those historic civil war battlefields and going to the liberty bell in philadelphia and also go in new hampshire, joe. we know new hampshire the first road in the primary. a lot of signals she may be thinking about seriously writing. that propalin movie that kicks off the race for the white house and her fire in the belly comment the other day. on the flip side, let's be honest. she's been really quiet lately and we haven't seen her make moves for organization in the early voting states and also fox news is not altering her contract with them right now, unlike some other people who are running for president when they said you have to leave fox news if you're running for the white house. they're not changing her contract right now, joe. >> we want to talk about the polls and palin. if you look at them, she's holding her own and really very quiet on the subject of running for president. >> yes, yes, look at this. here's our brand-new poll. on the battle for the gop nomination that came out yesterday. look where sarah palin is, pretty much tied at the top there. if you counter in the sampling error. and a gallup poll came out the day before that has palin right near the top, as well. it's a wide-open field. take a look at this next number. it seems republicans and independents are not so satisfied. look at this number. not so satisfy would the field. only 16% say they're really enthusiastic and look at that 4 in 10 not satisfied and maybe there is a hunger for somebody else out there who is not running, joe. >> i was really picking that up this week, joe. as i asked around washington, d.c., about the possibility of a sarah palin run, top two conservative activist. let's listen to a little bit of what he said and i'll come back and catch him on the other side. >> conservatives, quite frankly, i don't know conservatives that know her. she's a stranger to us. she's, you know, almost a blank slate. we know who she doesn't like, but most conservatives would tell her, i'm just concerned because i don't know what her views on this are and who does she look to for guidance and leadership and advice and council. so, she's kind of a blank slate to most all conservatives. >> you know, very, very interesting comment to me there because you would think as much as we heard the name of sarah palin, conservatives would say she's a very much known quantity. are you hearing the same thing, paul? >> interesting comments. he's one of the elder statesmen, i guess you can say of the conservative movement. she hasn't run on her own. she ran with john mccain and it was his campaign and his policies and his proposals. she hasn't run on her own since 2006 when she made that successful run for governor in alaska. i will say, joe, if she decides to jump in and jump in late, obviously, already getting late she is probably one of the few that can pull it off. she's got that name recognition among tea party activists and other conservatives and she can also probably raise a lot of money very quickly. two important things if you are going to run for the white house, joe. >> now, let's think, who else do we have that is expected to jump into the race as far as we know? i noted in one of those polls we actually saw rudy giuliani very high and it doesn't mean he is going to get in the race. who is expected to get in? >> giuliani will be in new hampshire on thursday. the third time he's up in new hampshire and that is the same day that mitt romney is in new hampshire. he ran for the white house the last time around. romney does thursday in new hampshire officially making it, putting us out of the ring. next the following week on june 6th, rick santorum, he's all but declared and he will officially declare on june 6th and then michele bachmann, joe. listen, she said the other day she will make an announcement in iowa where she was born next month about the presidency. take a listen to what she said about sarah palin. she talked to our john king and asked if sarah palin would d disway her from running there the white house. >> if she gets in, she gets in. that won't impact whether or not i get in or not. >> things are really heating up, joe, in this race for the white house. i'm just buckling in and stay tuned, i guess. >> that field is really filling in, finally. thanks so much for that paul steinhauser in washington. making her mark on this memorial day. reaching out with a sympathetic ear and a soft shoulder. meet our cnn hero in just one minute. ow#ç3 on memorial day weekend, we remember u.s. troops who gave their lives for the country and the families who have lost loved ones that makes today's cnn hero even more special. she's turned her loss into an inspiration for others. >> my husband, corporal michael davis, was killed in baghdad, iraq. you know, even four years later people still don't really know how to react when you say, hi, i'm taryn and i am a widow. after the funeral, i felt ostracized. everybody like to write off my grief due it my young age. he you're still young, you'll get remarried. other widows aren't going to tell me i was grieving wrong. i just wanted to create what i was searching for and hope there were others who would help me build it, too. new generation of military widows to share their love, their sacrifice and their survival. >> follow me, guys. >> they step outside of that comfort zone. >> his impact will continue to affect us all for the rest of our lives. >> there are moments where they can all reflect followed by that time where they feel like they're living life to the fullest. >> my litter sister wrote taryn. she didn't know how to get me through the loss and she wanted me to find other sisters. from my first event, i went from going completely alone to not any more at all. >> you get up that high and you see the world a different way and i think as widows we see our life a different way. >> they have given me life, again. they teach me so much and show me how far i've come and one day another widow is going to come along and they are going to be the one that is changing that widow's life. that's pretty amazing. >> taryn's organization has brought nearly 800 widows together to share their stories. remember, every cnn hero comes from your suggestions to nominate your hero, go to cnn.com/heroes. we know you never do this, but if you're staying in a hotel this weekend, don't steal the towels and bathrobes. a lot of hotels are using a new system to track down their stolen goods. the towel police, i'll tell you how it works coming up next. [ nurse ] i'm a hospice nurse. britta olsen is my patient. i spend long hours with her checking her heart rate, administering her medication, and just making her comfortable. one night britta told me about a tradition in denmark, "when a person dies," she said, "someone must open the window so the soul can depart." i smiled and squeezed her hand. "not tonight, britta. not tonight." ♪ not tonight." what's the most amazing ...was it something big? ...or something small? ...something old? ...or som