0 and then the heat's winning streak over. how the chicago bulls stopped them from reaching 28. security running high? cyprus as the banks reopen after 11 days of being shut down. how it will affect the u.s. market. it is thursday, march 28th. and "starting point" begins right now. welcome, everybody. our starting point is a mass i've landslide that left one community in washington state living on the edge, literally. developing story for you this morning. one home has been destroyed. more than a dozen others are in danger. look at the pictures. 33 homes in all were evacuated originally. happened overnight. 15 of them are, in fact, safe and they have given the owners permission to return. all this unfolding right now in the hillside community of coupeville in washington. dan simon is there for us this morning. dan, good morning. >> good morning, soledad. let me explain where we are. a lot of the neighborhood has been sealed off by yellow tape. this was obviously very unnerve for residents. you had nearly three dozen homes under evacuation or in an area where the road literally crumbled away and they couldn't access their homes. they, too, also had to be evacuated. i want you to listen now to a couple of neighbors who describe the situation as it was happening. >> it was pretty scary. i got out there with a flashlight and then just kept hearing a rumbling and watching more and more of it fall? >> the portion of it was always eroding, but that much of it? no. no. i mean, i lost 50 -- over 50 percent of my yard. >> reporter: well, the concern now is that this land is still not stable that you could have more of this hillside literally vanish away. at this point, though, about 15 homes have been rendered safe. so some residents can return. but of course, you still have many residents who are still under an evacuation order. soledad? >> dan simon for us this morning. thank you, dan. appreciate that update. can we so pop up the pictures again? you can see the distance between the edge and someone's backyard. that is just an incredible picture to see how big that is. >> isn't it crazy? and then you have to wonder, what do you do if you live in one of the houses that's been spared but the land is disappearing before your very eyes. are you nervous about going back? >> why do you think it is we're seeing so many stories of landslides, mudslides, sinkholes. >> i think that's the question so many people are asking right now. >> is it just more coverage or something is actually happening. i want to get to the central whidbey island fire and rescue chief. he's been dealing with the aftermath which is very unstable right now. nice to have you with us. we appreciate your time. what are you able to tell the folks who are coming back in and those who are t not able to come back in? what's the situation right now? >> as we gave a briefing to the community last night, all but three of the homes above this slide, we've allowed the residents back in. as we've advised them, it's still an active slide. the ground is still moving. but based on a preliminary geotechnical, recommendationses from the engineer is we can allow these folks back into their homes. two of the homes above the slide are still significantly at risk. we kept all of the homes below the slide evacuated last night. and three of those are significantly at risk. those homes at risk will be evaluated further today by the county engineer and building official and geotechnical engineer to determine whether or not the occupants will be allowed back in to retrieve their possessions or whether they will be excluded from entry at all or whether they -- some of them may be safe enough for the residents to return. >> i was going to ask you for those folks who it looks like their homes are just too close and are not safe, will they be able to grab their possessions? one would have to imagine they would want to do that. let me ask you a question about this area. is this typical? is this something that you've seen in other parts of this island or is this something that you have not seen before? >> no, this is fairly -- fairly common. this is much larger than the typical slides that we encounter. an area from bush point on the south of the island to about two miles north of here is an active slide area, particularly t in the springtime as we've had rains here throughout the winter and so forth, we do encounter slides. oftentimes they're fairly small and just require public works to clear the road. in other cases they do impact on homes. >> ed hardin joining us. thank you for being with us this morning. we appreciate it. also new this morning, the former south african president nelson mandela rushed to the hospital. the 94-year-old antiapartheid leader is battlinge ing ing e i infection. good morning, robin. >> reporter: hi there, good morning. this is worrying for many south africans. this hospitalization is different, soledad, because the last four times he's been in hospital oifr over the past two years the government here has sought to sort of calm people down. this time they issued a statement saying he was taken to hospital just before midnight on wednesday night, indicating, of course, he was rushed to hospital. they say he's suffering from that recurring lung infection. as we all know, a 94-year-old man dealing with a lung infection is obviously cause for concern. what kind of lung infection is it? it could be as simple as having breathing difficulties or pneumonia. so a huge sense of concern here in south africa. and i just want to also point out, i understand from sources close to mandela that in recent weeks his doctors have been very worried ability hout him pickin infection and they've been tight and closed about people coming to visit him at his home here in johannesburg because of the change of seasons. it's autumn here and the days have been very hot and the nights and mornings have been very cold and they've been worried about the change of temperature, perhaps bringing about some sort of infection. so i do know that the doctors have been concerned. in fact, they've kept him in his bedroom in his home and he wasn't allowed to be taken down stairs and just remember this bedroom is a high care facility essentially and he's surrounded 24 hours by medical staff. >> robyn, when i was in south africa in december people talk about mandela daily, consistently. he's in the national dialogue all the time about what's happening currently in politics. how are people reacting to this news now that it sounds much more serious than previous hospitalizations? >> reporter: you know, i think there is a sense for many south africans, they are quite pragmatic. they know at some stage he is going to have to die. and they are aware of that. they are quite open about it. and i think they realize that all that he did, the frailer he gets, the more and more common these hospitalizations are becoming. and i think there is this deep resignation, this deep sadness, a lot of people saying, are we going to pray for him? i think there is at the basic, just a deep sense also of gratitude for this man who really did change the fortunes of this country. >> robyn curnow is in johannesburg for us. thank you. in south africa, just in to cnn, a judge is relaxing bail conditions fo in track star's pistorius' murder case. he can hang on to his passport and he can travel if he wants to and needs to compete abroad. he has to give a week's notice. he has to submit his itinerary. the judge saying that pistorius is not a flight risk. now, pistorius is deny that he planned the murder of his girlfriend at his home. he says he shot her after he confused her for an intruder. there's new developments in the escalating war of words, if you will, between north korea and is united states. john has a look at that this morning and other top stories. >> new this morning, after weeks of escalating war rhetoric, the u.s. military announced it is sending two b-2 stealth bombers to south korea to take part in annual military exercises. defense secretary chuck hagel spoke with south korea's defense minister. happening right now, police outside every bank in cyprus as they reopen for the first time since march 16th. that's when a tough yooirp peen union bailout plan was announced that included taxing bank deposits. the news caused a run on atms as people scrambled to get their money back before the government could tax it and now the plan has changed since then. there are some lines at banks this morning. so far it seems everything is remaining calm. new developments this morning in the death of colorado's prison chief. a young woman is under arrest accused of buying the gun that was used to kill tom clements who was shot to death at his home last week. the 22-year-old stevie marie vigil give the gun to the man who pulled the trigger. he was a convicted felon who could not legally buy a weapon. new this morning, the connecticut post says documents that will be released this morning in the newtown shooting will show evidence was taken from gunman adam lanza's home and car. the outage is two hours from now. authorities say much of this evidence already known but there may be some new details. victims families were briefed last night. new controversy in the trayvon martin case stemming from a tweets from robert zimmerman jr. he is now apologizing. in one tweet he compares trayvon martin to one of the two suspects in the shooting of a georgia baby. he wrote this. facebook pics of 13 month old antonio santiago's alleged killer and trayvon martin side by side is, #uncanny. both teens are seen making obscene gestures. a picture speaks a thousand words. another tweet, liberal media should ask if what these two black teens did to a woman and a baby is the reason why people think blacks might be risky. so zimmerman now admits the twitter was probably not the best forum to express himself. he did that in the exclusive interview with cnn's piers morgan. >> i don't think twitter is the place to make points about what you recall a year ago because the recollections that i have or that we have as a family specifically are very different from what can be portrayed in 140 characters. i realize they were controversial and offensive and i did publicly apologize for them. i don't think it was the right thing to do that way. >> not the right thing to do that way. interesting. he was trying to make the point that he thinks the media has been dishonest in its portrayal of trayvon martin. last story right now. the heat is off. lebron james, miami heat, losing last night to the chicago bulls. 101-97, snapping a remarkable 27-game winning streak. heat will not reach 28. at least the heat six vekryes short of an all-time record held by the lakers. lebron james had 32 points. this is the first time miami has lost since february 1st. that's a really long time. >> always next year. >> they have a new streak, one. >> yeah, see. >> losing streak. >> that's terrible. we can start again. trust me. they're going to make the street. that's sad news, though. i was so sure they could do it. >> i'm sorry. >> no, you're not. ahead, he represented the plaintiff, edie windsor. what does she think the justices will decide? we're going to talk to roberta kaplan next. 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