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Death Toll From This Week's Southern Storms Now at 14; Passengers And Crew Spent Hours Stuck on A Plane Right Before Christmas; The 53 Americans Held Hostage in Iran Will Receive $10,000; Top Ten International Stories of 2015. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired December 25, 2015 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:30:00] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: The death toll from this week's southern storms have climbed now to 14 people killed after tornado ripped through neighborhoods in Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi. This cell phone video we are going to show you captured a twister as it spun across one of the hardest hit areas. Look how massive it is. This is the spring, Mississippi.

CNN's Nick Valencia has been tracking all the recovery efforts for the storm victims and there are so many victims looking to recover - Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kate, the southern portion of the United States has been hit with a brutal string of storms affecting at least three states and leaving more than a dozen killed. There are still some who are unaccounted for.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA (voice-over): This Christmas scenes of devastation in parts of the south and Midwest. Heavy rain causing widespread flooding across North Georgia and tornadoes tearing across several states.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Started hearing a real loud roar. It just started to get louder and louder. And I told her we needed to get in the house now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It sounded literally like a freight train sounding of the horn. It was coming.

VALENCIA: In Ashland, Mississippi, all that's left of Teresa McKay's home is the porch. She and her husband were inside when they saw the tornado coming. They ran and hid in this truck.

TERESA MCKAY, RESIDENT: Nothing left of my house, not one bit. Nothing but all of it debris.

VALENCIA: This build may have saved Tony Goodwin's house when a tornado hit Perry County, Tennessee.

TONY GOODWIN, SURVIVOR: I had my grandson in my arm, under my arm, and everybody got in, except for my sister-in-law and I'm yelling at her, come on, you know. And she got in and as soon as she did I shut the door.

VALENCIA: The tornado knocked his house off its foundation but he and six others survived by taking cover in the storm shelter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You'll never know how important it is to seek shelter immediately however you can because it is last sight.

VALENCIA: Two of those killed in Tennessee were husband and wife, Anne and Antonio (INAUDIBLE). According to the storm prediction center, at least 14 tornadoes hit Mississippi on Wednesday, but a single twister did most of the damage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a miracle. There's no way that three individuals were in this house at the time and they were able to walk away.

VALENCIA: Communities coming together thankful to be alive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I went and bought toys for kids because I also have a little girl. And for them not to have Christmas and toys and stuff, it's not a holiday.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: And of course it is important to remember the victims. Among the youngest lives lost, a 7-year-old boy in Mississippi. The storm prediction center says that the threat for violent weather has dramatically decreased but the threat is not over yet -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: No what they need to hear at all.

Nick, thank you so much.

So let's talk about the next big weather hit. It does look to be less than 24 hours away. Let's get an update now from CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar. She is tracking the storm system for us.

What do things look like right now? Where is your big focus?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, our big focus is pretty much over the same areas that have been seeing the severe weather the last several days. But the threat is a little different now. Now, it has change to a flood threat. And we are getting word, we haven't confirmed it, but we are getting word that the governor of Alabama has declared a state of emergency because of how bad the flooding is. And again, while we can't confirm that from him just yet, we do know, we have seen the images, we have seen the videos coming out of this area. It is incredible. A lot of roadways under water. There are some homes with water just flowing into them through the front doors and out the back. So again, a lot of rain coming down in these areas which is why we have the flood watches and flood warnings and flash flood warnings in effect.

The reason we have been having all of this weird weather, I mean, whether it's the tornadoes, the strong winds, the flooding, it's this pattern that we are set up. We have the warm humid air coming up from the gulf and that colder air out behind the front. And when you get the clash of the two, it causes that severe weather.

Look at all these red dots. These are areas where we could tie, if not break the record highs. This is where in in on itself, New York, warmer today than Los Angeles. Not really what you think of for Christmas day. We're talking by almost ten degrees.

Here is a look, again, you can see the radar right now, 77 in Jackson. It is 81 degrees right now in Virginia Beach. Again, just incredible warmth. Several of these areas not only breaking daily records, but it's the warmest they ever in the month of December. And you can see the rain. It's just trailing over the same spot over and over again.

Once we head into the weekend, though, we experience a new threat. We are now going to start to see more severe weather like we saw several days ago coming right back to the exact same areas that already saw it. On the backside of this severe weather, now we are actually talking blizzard conditions. So, Kate, again, it is a double whammy this weekend, in some areas getting tornado and damaging wind, others getting storm with feet of snow.

[15:35:08] BOLDUAN: Double whammy is right.

And just as you were speaking, Allison, we did get the release from the governor of Alabama. They have issued a state of emergency for the entire state due to flooding, excessive rain. And they say flooding is a major concern for them right now. And we are going to be keeping an eye on that.

Thanks so much, Allison.

Still ahead for us, a holiday flight turned into a 20-hour odyssey for some travelers. You are going to hear why they had to land twice before they arrived and they were just trying to fly to Los Angeles.

Also ahead, more than three decades after they were held hostage in Iran for 444 days, the American hostages could now get a very big payout. What this means for them so long after that horrific ordeal.

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[15:34:17] BOLDUAN: A holiday travel nightmare is finally over. Passengers and crew spent hours stuck on a plane right before Christmas. And we're talking hours. The flight from Miami to Los Angeles due to take five hours took some very strange twists along the way. Finally nearly 20 hours later, the 186 passengers finally landed at LAX.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was nightmare that you can't believe. We're just happy, we're here, it's Christmas, you know, and thank God we're here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Thank God we are here. But how did they get there? Let's bring in Kyung Lah from Los Angeles.

So this is like planes, trains, automobiles but only the plane part.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the whole lot of humbug (ph) to those 186 passengers. They took off Wednesday morning, 9:45 from Miami. It was supposed to be a five-hour flight heading into Los Angeles. But midair they had some sort of a mechanical issue with the flight. So they had to make a landing. They were diverted to Lubbock, Texas. But they got moved on to another plane. Did they go Los Angeles? No. They had to fly on that plane to Dallas to pick up fuel and then they went all the way to Los Angeles. They landed on Christmas Eve at 2:15 in the morning. That is a 20-hour flight, four times longer than it was supposed to take. How do they feel? Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:40:38] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, looks like we have a fire. The cabin is full of smoke. And then he reacted and called the pilot. And then all of the sudden we started going down. I started -- I went back to my seat, was gagging a little bit on the smoke. And it was an odyssey from you know where.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just heard a noise. And I didn't know what the noise was. Somebody said they smelled smoke, I didn't. But that was the scariest part. Once we landed, I was completely relieved.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are 15 hours late and there was no sort of information from the flight crew. And it's just, it was a bad situation all the way around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAH: Just not that any of these passengers care, they are, you know, way into the eggnog now. But the flight they had to land in Lubbock in, that plane is still in Lubbock. American Airlines says that they have reached out to the passengers and that they trying to make amends with them -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: They are trying and they can definitely try.

Kyung, thank you so much. Great to see you.

LAH: You bet.

BOLDUAN: Coming up next for us, a $4 million payout is in the works for each of the Americans taken hostage in Iran back in 1979. Who is paying for it and why is this happening finally so long after their ordeal?

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[15:45:12] BOLDUAN: They have waited 36 years, but now each of the 53 Americans held hostage in Iran will receive $10,000 for each of the 444 days they were held captive in the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Let's bring in Deb Feyerick.

This is really amazing after so long. First thing you wonder is how are they reacting to it?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is incredible. This has been such a long journey for so many of the families who have been fighting for any kind of legislation, any kind of compensation to acknowledge the sacrifices that are made by U.S. people, men and women, who are working overseas and who are victims of terror attacks.

And so, really, this is not just the former hostages. This is also those victims of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in east Africa, the marines who died in Beirut in 1983, those recently, even those killed at the U.S. compound in Libya just three years ago.

$1 billion is being set aside. It covers U.S. government employees overseas who have been targeted by terrorists. And this new fund reaches back more than three decades in 1979. This includes the American men and women who were held in captivity and tortured for 444 days when Iranian revolutionary stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. The former hostages are going to get $4.4 million plus their families and kids are going to get a lump sum payment of $600,000.

What's so interesting about this is this is sort of not congressionally mandated per se in this (INAUDIBLE). The money is coming from one of the world's largest banks, BNP which pleaded guilty to violating U.S. sanctions against doing business with state sponsors of terrorism like Iran. They had to pay $9 billion. This is really a clever way to get this compensation.

But a lot of people, Kate, worked really hard to get this. And in the words of one person, one former hostage, it's like nothing sort of a Christmas miracle. So, they really feel like, you know, this is sort of their due because of what their family sacrificed.

BOLDUAN: And they fought for years, ever since they were released from captivity. They were fighting for compensation. I mean, they surely aren't going to get the apology that they probably also want to get from the Iranian government. Why now? The timing. This was slipped into a budget bill.

FEYERICK: Yes, which is what is even more fascinating about this whole thing. It was a very clever way. There were lawyers, there were families that were working on this and they realized after BNP was made to pay $9 billion overall from violating U.S. sanctions, that it was a way to get money back to the victims and their families. So rather than have to sue the government, the money has now been established and they can now apply for that money for the compensation.

BOLDUAN: It seems that -- I saw some suggesting in some of the reporting that this was somehow linked to the Iran nuclear deal. Is there anything that has been stated that that is a fact?

FEYERICK: Nothing stated outright. What was very interesting is that these people were never allowed to sue the Iranian government. And so, while all this was going on, a lot of people who are at that embassy really felt that this was not fair, that they should be forgotten, they should be neglected. So a lot of different sort layers came into play on all of this.

BOLDUAN: Very, very interesting.

Thank you very much, Deb. Great to see you, of course.

FEYERICK: You too.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, we are counting down the top ten international stories of the year. We'll be right back.

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[15:51:44] BOLDUAN: From the deliberate downing of a passenger plane to a refugee crisis that would divide the world, it's been a year for the history books for sure.

Here's a look back at the top ten international stories of 2015.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Our top ten starts with a shocking prison escape inside the Mexican jail cell of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, a drug king pin washes to a shower and vanishes fleeing through this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very difficult to breathe down here. A lot of dirt, dust, this is the bike El Chapo used to run out of the prison.

COOPER: El Chapo remains at large and the question still lingers, who helped him escape.

Number nine, a moment for the history books, Cuba and America back on speaking terms. Americans boarding planes bound for Havana, thanks to a momentous thawing of icy diplomatic relations between the two countries.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A year ago it might seem impossible that the United States would once again be raising our flag, the stars and stripes, over an embassy in Havana.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A powerful earthquake has hit Nepal.

COOPER: Number eight, a massive quake ship in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, ten feet in 30 seconds triggering an avalanche on Mt. Everest. Days of aftershocks followed. More than 8,000 people died.

Very few stories are more divisive than number seven on our list.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, THE SITUATION ROOM: Relations between United States and Iran are poised entering a new era after decades of hostility. COOPER: An historic agreement to stop Iran from developing nuclear

weapons. Some hailing it as a major victory for diplomacy.

OBAMA: There's a reason why 99 percent of the world thinks this is a good deal. It's because it's a good deal.

COOPER: Others calling it a deal with the devil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This deal doesn't make peace more likely. It makes war more likely.

COOPER: Powerful words from the leader of Israel, even more powerful, this moment on the floor of the United Nations. Forty four seconds of uncomfortable silence signifying what he says is the deafening violence toward Iran from the west.

And number six, the bloody war rages in Syria and Iraq, sprawling mess in a dangerous proxy war. U.S.-led coalition air strikes pound ISIS targets in Syria. Russia says it's bombing ISIS targets as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Russians are not attacking is. They are conducting strikes in areas where there are anti-regime militias. Those strikes will bolster Bashar al-Assad.

COOPER: On the sidelines, Turkey fiercely protecting its borders.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Turkey, shooting down a Russian warplane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An SU-24 Russian war plane crashed in the mountains of Syria near the Turkish border.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The Russians are understandably absolutely furious.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Putin speaking out calling the incident a quote "stab in the back."

COOPER: This year the world launched the biggest escalation the American military campaign against ISIS to date.

OBAMA: I will not put American boots on the ground in Syria.

BLITZER: The U.S. stepping up its presence on the ground.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, OUTFRONT: President Obama putting combat boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For the first time officially sending special forces into Syria to fight ISIS.

COOPER: Rounding out the top five, a rock star welcome for Pope Francis as he toured the United States and Cuba. The masses before millions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This man is extraordinarily well on the New York stage.

[15:55:02] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reverend, I want to listen in a little bit. The crowds are so excited.

COOPER: Off the cuff moments and tiny glimpses into the life of the catholic leader so many have come to love. He then went to a war zone in Central African Republic, part of the pontiff's historic visit to Africa.

Number four, a city under siege.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A manhunt is underway for the gunman that perpetrated this heinous attack on the offices of "Charlie Hebdo."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The editor of the newspaper is among the dead as well as one of the cartoonists who was responsible for the very famous Muhammad cartoon that got the newspaper in trouble in 2011.

COOPER: Two Islamist terrorists brother forced their way into the office of the secure of a magazine "Charlie Hebdo," opening fire and killing 12.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We walked in and it was obviously a very disturbing scene to see couple of bodies on the floor, some people crying out for help.

COOPER: Chaos spilling into the streets. Muslim police officer executed on camera. The manhunt for the killers intensifies. Al- Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claims responsibility.

Meantime, shoppers in a Jewish grocery store held hostage not by the brothers but a man working apparently in concert with them. After three intense days, 17 innocent people are dead, two terrorists killed.

Number three, a German wings commercial airline crashes killing everyone on board. The co-pilot of German wings flight 9525 now considered a culprit.

Andrea Lubitz, slashed the captain out of the cockpit, steers the airbus A-320 into the ground. Chilling revelation as prosecutors hear the horror unfold on the black box voice recorder.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The screams are in the last instance. And I remind you the death is instantaneous.

COOPER: Lubitz flying his plane into the side of the mountain obliterating it and everyone on board.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: CNN learning Lubitz reprogrammed the plane's autopilot in flight changing the setting from cruising altitude 38,000 feet to just 100 feet. It premeditated plan condemning everyone on board.

COOPER: Senseless killing sparking a question that struck fear around the world, do you trust the person piloting your plane. And number two, two million Syrians run for their lives. Refugee

crisis on a scale not seen since World War II.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Running for their lives, Syrian refugees crossing the border by the thousands trying to escape the war and violence at home.

COOPER: Syria's president Bashar al-Assad dropped barrel bombs on his own people and ISIS terrorists carve a bloody path through the country. Terrified Syrians flee.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They've fired more tear gas, so people are sort of panicking.

COOPER: At borders across Europe men, women and children are pushed back. Tens of thousands more with nothing but the clothes on their back desperately crammed into boats destined for unknown shores. Some would never make it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is very disturbing.

2-year-old Ilan found face down on the Turkish beach, drowned at sea while crossing the Mediterranean with his family.

COOPER: This picture of a toddler's lifeless body seen across the globe become a symbolic image of the human suffering. But still in many countries fear of the unknown prevails.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have some breaking news for you out of Paris, France.

COOPER: And number one, ISIS terrorizes the world spreading their brutality beyond the borders of Iraq and Syria. An explosion rings out outside a soccer stadium in Paris, first of three suicide bombers to detonate outside the stadium marking the start of the series of terror attacks the likes of which Paris had never seen.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The whole time he said don't run, just stay. And those words saved my life because the people who ran were shot.

COOPER: People flee for their lives. A pregnant woman so terrified she hangs from the side of a building to escape the gunfire. Several restaurants innocent diners are slayed as terrorists unload round after round.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are at war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

COOPER: The unimaginable slaughter of 130 people in Paris happening just 24 hours after this, Beirut, Lebanon, a pair of suicide bombs would blast powerful as the smoke clears 43 people are left dead.

ISIS' ability to incite terror and fear across the world made clear when they do the unimaginable.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do U.S. intelligence suggest the plane was most likely brought down by a bomb?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ISIS is holding this photo up as proof that it downed Metro jet 9268.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ISIS says they detonated it in Midair. And as you know 224 people were killed.

COOPER: Then an attack on U.S. soil.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Disturbing husband and wife drop off their little baby, drive to a holiday party and kill 14 people.

COOPER: A pair radicalized at least partly inspired by ISIS, carry out the deadliest terror attack in the United States since 9/11, leaving many to wonder and worry where ISIS could strike next.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: That does it for me. We are going to leave you with a very pretty view, we hope, at central park. Ice skaters (INAUDIBLE) who knows what temperature outside it is, 60-plus degree there.

No matter where you are, Marry Christmas everyone.

That does it for us. The CNN Originals series "FINDING JESUS" is next.