from the usgs. some turkish agencies putting the number at 6.6 magnitude so still some discrepancies between the numbers but it's not important. either way it is a major earthquake. we are expecting aftershocks. many of those could be just as strong or stronger than the actual earthquake. this thing struck just about an hour 20 minutes ago, 1:40 in the afternoon local time there in turkey. the most up-to-date information we have for you puts the epicenter of this quake about a dozen or so miles from van, turkey. you see it on your map there, in a rural area where the epicenter is called tibanli, close to the border of iran, some 800 miles away east of istanbul. you also need to know we are starting to get our first reports, we were on the air with you about 30 minutes ago giving you the latest. since that time, we have more we can share with you that the turkish news agency, a turkish news agency is reporting there are, in fact, people who are trapped under collapsed buildings in van. again that's coming to us from a turkish news agency saying there are people trapped. we'll tell you more about this area here coming up. i have reynolds wolf standing by where he's going to tell you more about this area, this is an earthquake prone area. people are very familiar with earthquakes, so they're used to feeling shaking and rattling but this is a 7.3 magnitude earthquake and that is a strong quake. also it was shallow, we're told, the epicenter, so of course the more shallow that an earthquake is, the potential for more damage in an area, the stronger it's going to feel to people. we also have someone for us in istanbul today who is going to be joining me now, andrew finkel is with me. andrew, first, can you tell us more about this area for people who are not familiar? you're in istanbul, of course, that's a ways away, but still, what can you tell us about the area of van? >> van is in the east of turkey. it's a remote, in a rural area near the iranian border. it's very different in character from istanbul, a built up, industrial area. some of you may recall there was a veerious 7.3 earthquake here in 1999. that was responsible for thousands and thousands of casualties, this sort of good news i suppose is van is a much less densely populated area but of course at the same time it's much more difficult to get services to there and there's a lot of sort of rural outlying villages which are more difficult to get to, t.j. >> are you hearing these reports as well, i believe it was a turkish news agency reporting that in fact, there are buildings that have collapsed and people are trapped right now? comment on that, and also, do you know how far outside of the region of van and the immediate surrounding areas how far away people felt this quake? >> well, we do know buildings have collapsed inside itself the city of van but there are reports from a nearby town, erjis, where they say there are casualties. the mayor of van at the moment is saying there are no reported casualties. but we do have reports of casualties from towns within the region. as for the scope of the earthquake and where it was felt, it was felt in an enormous area. there's a slightly much larger town called arazarum not far from van where the quake was felt but it was felt widely in iraq itself. there are reports the tremors were felt even as far away as iraq, which is a considerable distance away, t.j. >> andrew finkel for us there, we'll check back in with you, he's reporting for us from istanbul as we continue to look at pictures. reynolds, let me bring you in as we continue to watch the pictures still new to us as they continue to come in, but people in the streets you often see people going out into the street trying to figure out what's going on, the status of those things, how many buildings did survive. we are getting reports, as andrew said, buildings have collapsed in van and also reports from turkish news media that people are trapped under those buildings. i'm going to bring in reynolds with more on the area and it's important worth noting we talk about the magnitude of quakes but depth of earthquakes is important as well. >> exactly, we talked about that earlier. let's give people perspective, what you mentioned about the frequency of quakes in this area. on may 5th of 1990 there was a quake in western iran that struck killing 50,000 people, injured about 60,000 people so again these people unfortunately no stranger in this region to this type of activity, the seismic activity. let me show you information that came in recently from the usgs, this is a nightmare. let me show you, estimated fatalities, the population and number of fatalities you could have in this certain circumstance. there is a belief there's a 33% chance that you could have a number of fatalities when all is said and done in a situation like this, not talking injuries, talking estimated fatalities between 10,000 and 100,000 people, there's a 33% chance. this is again a nightmare keen nair yo. in terms of injuries, 34% chance, sorry, estimated economic losses a 34% chance you'd have anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000, these are sorry, estimate in millions, so that's something else to consider. big question many of you may be having, why in the world do you have this activity in this part of the world? it's very simple. land masses on our planet are made up of what we refer to as tectonic plates. they're always moving. they move very, very slowly at the same growth of say a fingernail. what happens in this situation, mark hulani is our photojournalist, get in a little bit. a few lines in these few spots, the north anatoli fault and the south anatoli fault, similar to the san andreas fault in california. this is a.p., very important to call this, this is called the abrabian plate in this direction. these things are always moving. this always wants to surge off to the west. this one moves to the northwest. so plain and simple you have a lot of friction created in parts of the region mainly along this fault line and of course you have another fault line to the north in this area. keep in mind the proximity of the faults and the proximity of where you have the two platsz coming together and then you look right here at the epicenter of where we happened to have the earthquake. let's zoom in if we can, monica o'connor is our producer. monica, let's zoom in on the region if we have an opportunity and you see the area where the orange, that is the absolute epicenter. now we have aftershocks popping up north of van, the latest 5.6, just occurred. let's show one of the other huge fears we have, that concerns the body of water we see to the immediate west, very carefully you take a look at the body of water, lake van. when you have something like this that occurs you'll have seismic waves that could create a ripple in the water, big waves that could destroy communities that might be settled along that lake. too early to say exactly what happened, t.j., but again we're talking about the potential of a nightmare scenario. back to you. >> we can take the video full and deidre, we'll rerack this and show it to you on the full screen. excuse us for that there, depending on a live feed, you can see some of the damage and it is going to be at least from some of these pictures extensive. we did get the reports at least that buildings had collapsed in van, and that people were indeed trapped. these are the first pictures we're actually seeing of it. so there is damage, extensive damage. you can see some of the buildings that have collapsed but again this happened only about an hour and a half ago and we are getting this new video in and seeing it for the first time just as you are. many people going out into the streets. renolds was giving us an idea of the possible economic impact. i don't know, reynolds, if you have, as well, just how many people live in this particular region. i saw several different estimates, don't know if you all have that or not as well but it's certainly a lot of people are going to be impacted by what we are seeing, so again, folks, this is the first we are seeing from the region, the video of damage, some of the earlier video we saw, people out in the streets, looked like some of the buildings had made it through okay, but certainly these are pictures from a different area and giving a different story but you see the people out in the streets, certainly shaken, devastated. you see the damage to that car there as well. a lot of kids and women crying, people out in the street, but the reports are that people are, in fact, trapped. wow, look at that. people are trapped under some of those buildings that have collapsed in van, just an hour and a half ago, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake that has struck in the southeastern part of turkey. we will continue to follow this still breaking story and share with you all of the info we get and also all of the pictures that continue to come in, but a quick break, reynolds and i will be right back. it's ten past the hour. we are following this breaking story just happened, hour and a half ago, 7.3 magnitude earthquake in turkey, reports of people trapped under collapsed buildings. really have people talking... 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[ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. new splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart new ways to sweeten. same great taste. new splenda® essentials™. 12 minutes past the hour, following the breaking story out of turkey this morning. you're seeing the shaking going on, some of the first video we're getting after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit the southeastern part of turkey, again, about an hour and a half ago. turkish state television reporting that there are people trapped under buildings in the rubble, buildings that have collapsed in the province of van, this is where the epicenter of this earthquake is, just outside of van, just about a dozen miles or so, the epicenter in a rural area known as tibanli, close to the border with iran, the epicenter 80 miles east of istanbul. the turkish earthquake monitoring center classifies this as slightly weaker, there are aftershocks, some significantly, at least 6.0, some of the reports we're seeing, some smaller but a number of aftershocks already hit. we are following this story closely and we'll continue to update you throughout this hour. i want to make a transition now at 13 minutes past the hour back to politics in this country. herman cain coming under fire from his republican rivals, this time it's not about his 9-9-9 tax plan. instead it's about the issue of abortion and comments he made this week that left some questions about his pro-life position. at a major gathering of christian conservatives in iowa he tried to clarify. >> i would not sign any legislation that any any way allowed the government to be involved in it. i would strengthen all of our current laws that prevent abortion. i believe that abortion should be clearly stated illegal across the country and i would work to defund planned parent hood and i would make sure that i appoint judges that will enforce the constitution, no activist judges, and i would also make sure we didn't allow any bureaucrats to get in the way in order to protect the life of the unborn. >> it is a liberal cunard to say i am personally pro-life but government should stay out of that decision. if that is your view, you are not pro-life. you are pro having your cake and eating it, too. >> six of the eight republican candidates were there at the faith and freedom coalition's banquet in des moines, an important forum for the candidates to reach out to their christian conservative base. mitt romney was not there, he was campaigning in new hampshire instead and that did not go unnoticed by at least one of his rivals. >> why is this an important event for you to be at today? >> absolutely. >> reporter: why is it important? >> it's iowa, the first in the nation, you got to be here. >> former utah governor jon huntsman also skipped out on the iowa event. well we think possibly they've goten this whole dust-up worked out between nevada and new hampshire. have you been following this? they didn't know exactly when they were going to have the nevada caucuses. you might remember the dust-up in that they moved their caucuses up to january 14th, that caused a problem for new hampshire, because new hampshire couldn't squeeze their date between iowa, which was going on january 3rd, and january 14th, when nevada said they were going to go. they have succumbed to pressure, nevada has, and decided to move their caucus now into february, so it appears it is going to be now on february 4th, and we do think the crisis has been averted. so now in january, you're going to see, there you go, february 4th is nevada, so we're going to have iowa, south carolina, new hampshire, as well as florida all going first before the nevada caucuses february 14th. i talked to amy tarcanian, head of the gop out in nevada. she told me last week when i was out there in las vegas there's absolutely no way we'll change from our january 14th caucus date. well it has changed. we'll ask her about it coming up in 30 minutes, my guest live here 8:45 eastern time, amy tarkanian, head of the nevada gop. voters in louisiana gave governor bob of indf bobby jind vote of confidence. we continue to follow what's happening in turkey, new pictures coming in to us. we got reports from turkish television that buildings collapsed and people trapped in the rubble, we're getting conffirmation of our own from the pictures we're seeing that no doubt buildings have collapsed but it looks like people are working maybe to get others out who could be trapped. we're following the latest developments of a 7.3 magnitude quake that has hit southeastern turkey. stay with us. 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>> reporter: t.j., this is the fifth consecutive year the nfl has set up shop in london for a regular season game and the excitement level is at a fever pitch. wimley stadium fills its capacity to receive these two nfl teams. the tampa bay buccaneers and the chicago bears will be playing here in about five hours, a little less than that, and i can tell you there's a tailgating party around the corner, that's a little bit of a novelty here, you really don't see that before soccer games, fans milling around, partying together and soaking up the atmosphere, leading up to kickoff here during the week, i can tell you both teams were media friendly, the tampa bay buccaneers arrived here monday, got to take in some sightseeing, went to check out big ben, london bridge, made it to the city center and interacted a lot with fans. the chicago bears really didn't have much time to do that because they touched down friday morning and a lot of the players were pretty jet lagged when they were talking to the media and i think they would rather still be asleep for a few hours before having to say how excited they were to be here. it will be interesting to see which team is better prepared, whether it's the bears coming on top of the game or the buccaneers who have been here so many days. as far as the fans are concerned, they've been telling us that they are thrilled to be this close to the top nfl stars. >> i'm really excited, this is an opportunity of the lifetime to meet all of the players today and get autographs and get more involved with the game straight from america, so it's great. >> more of it, need more of it. it's the best sport in the world. we need more of it. >> i've been to every game since it's been here and every year around october it's the excitement of going to wembley and watching some proper nfl stars play. if you see jumping up and down in the crowd, that's me. >> the fact that this game has been such a success, t.j., for the last five years means that the nfl is actually considering bringing a team over here and having a team in europe. there has been pretty positive reception from the coaches and the players so far. it will be interesting to see whether this can happen in a five to ten-year period having a team based here in europe and london would be the top choice for that, if, indeed, it happens. >> pay to repinto for us in london thank you as always. 23 past the hour. a quick break and we're back on this "cnn sunday morning." 24 minutes past the hour. we are following this breaking story out of turkey, a major earthquake larger than a 7.2 magnitude quake, and these are some of the new pictures that continue to come into us. we got the earlier reports from turkish media that buildings had collapsed in this area of van in the southeastern part of the country of turkey. we got the reports that buildings have collapsed and now we are getting the video confirmation of it now. you see emergency workers and we have seen and you'll probably see in the video here in a moment just citizens who are using shovels, using their hands in some situations, digging through that rubble. the reports are that people are indeed trapped and it appears from a lot of the video we're getting many of the citizens are trying to dig out and maybe get people who are trapped. we don't have reports just yet but we can expect them, reports of injuries and no reports of deaths, just yet, but this is a powerful, powerful earthquake. different reports of the magnitude. initially it was a 7.3. reynolds will have an update on that in a moment but turkish news agencies were reporting it was a 6.6. either way, this is a strong earthquake which has seen some major aftershocks already. this is the video i was talking about a moment ago. you saw people there with shovels literally trying to dig out from some of the buildings that have collapsed. reynolds you had the update for me. usgs making a slight adjustment to the magnitude of the earthquake. >> precisely, dropped it to 7.2. it's not unusual, some say what, they changed the numbers? they often will do this. the equivalent when you have a tornado that moves through the area, different meteorologists survey the damage and they'll decide what it is. they have new information again, 7.3 to 7.2. let's give you a better indication of what this area was like. you see the damage on one part of the screen, the people sifting through the wreckage. if we can on google earth, monica o'connor, our weather producer, if we can zoom in to give people an idea what the landscape is like. it is a mountainous region. as we zoom in a bit, the community of van, part of it almost a past