chels. they spent three days in pirate infested waters. a federal judge is siding with the tobacco industry. he banned these labeling rules. they amounted to a violation of free speech. soledad, back to you in harrisburg, illinois. >> christine, thank you very much. appreciate that. ahead this morning we're going to talk to the famed and enentrepreneur pid "new york times" reporter anthony shadiz's widow. he died when he was reporting from syria. he has a new book out and today we'll talk to his wid doe about the stories he tells in that book. we'll continue to update you from our live position in harrisburg, illinois, where it is a focus of cleanup and grieving for the six people who lost their lives. those stories and much more as "starting point" continues right after this break. >> it's not torn, it's only

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. welcome back to "starting point," everybody. two time pulitzer prize winning foreign correspondent anthony shadid spent 15 years covering the middle east. he was dedicated and intrepid in reporting from the most dangerous spots in the world really. it was not without cost, of course. he was shot in the shoulder back in 2002. he was kidnapped and beaten while covering the arab spring in libya last year. and then while he was covering the conflict in syria he died of an acute asthma attack. it was as his third book, "house of stone, a memoir of home, family, and a lost middle east" is being released. his widow joins us to discuss his book and his life and thank you for joining us. i'm sorry i can't be with you in person. the book is a beautiful book. it's about a renovation, a renovation literally of a home in lebanon, but also in a way a

renovation of a life and a soul. anthony went into that renovation very troubled. it was a tough, tough time in his life. can you tell me about that? >> first, thank you for having me. i think for as long as he remembered, anthony always wanted to become a journalist and to cover the middle east. he spent 15 years of his life covering t. it's a region full of conflicts, wars, bloodshed. that took a certain toll on him. and then i think at some point he felt like he needed to find peace somewhere or find home. and in 2006 he finally made the trip to his ancestor's village in southern lebanon which is called najayun. he looked for the house that his great-grandfather had built and where his grandmother was born and lived until she left to the united states.

when he saw that house he just fell in love with it and decided that he was going to rebuild it and save it from the state it was in. it helped him find himself. it helped him find peace. it helped him find happiness. it was the place that he wanted to be in more than anywhere else in the world. it was his home. i don't think he was happier anywhere else than when he was in majayun. you know, it helped -- >> parts of the book are so -- i'm -- forgive me. i'm sorry to interrupt you. i was going to say parts of the book are so sad. i mean, sad. other parts are -- you laugh out loud. he's skrieblging a renovation of a home which is always chaotic. the characters that he's talking about that he has to deal with in the renovation are

interesting and colorful. but he was trying to recover from all of those years of war reporting. you're a reporter as well. did you sit down and discuss the dangers as a couple? you have a small child and he had an older child. did you ever say, you know, should we be doing this? isn't this too dangerous? >> you know, of course it came up a lot in the years that we were together but, again, you know, anthony does not remember a time in his life where he didn't want to be a journalist and a journalist covering the middle east. it's a region full of conflicts, wars, bloodshed. it wasn't -- you know, it wasn't like he chose to be a war reporter or he wanted to be in a dangerous place all the time, it was just the region that he was in. that's why i think it was so important to him to go to majayun after being in a

dangerous place after covering wars, after seeing deaths and violence and bloodshed because it was there where he could kind of recover from what he saw. and nothing mattered to him more than telling stories that otherwise would not be told. you know, even if it meant at a personal risk. >> there is a videotape that was posted to youtube. i know you've had a chance to look at t. it's said to be pictures of anthony maybe taken a couple hours before he died of this accuse asthma attack. in it he talks sort of about his hope. he's speaking in arabic, but he was talking hopefully about what the future for syria can be. often i think people do think of war correspondents as tough, but i want to play a little bit of what he says in this clip and i'll ask you a question on the other side.

>> i think sometimes people think the stereotypical war correspondent is tough and sort of inured to danger and pain, and anthony was really -- seemed the opposite of that, to care very deeply of the people whose stories he was trying to tell, to be very gentle is how he was described by his colleagues.

>> it's true. i don't think anthony was interested in covering wars, the war itself and the fighting and the warfare as much as he was interested in covering the stories of people whose lives are affected by these wars and, you know, the loss that they're suffering from and the pain and how their lives are changing under these wars and conflicts and violence. that's what made him who he was. these stories meant everything to him, telling these stories. >> nada we have to take a short break for a commercial l a. i'm going ask you to stick around if you don't mind. i'd like to ask you some more questions about the book, "house of stone." we'll do that on the other side. "starting point" will be back in a moment.

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welcome back to "starting point," everybody. we're back talking to nada. she is the widow of anthony shadid. he died of an acute asthma attack in syria. he wrote a book, it's called "house of stone, a memoir of home, family, and a lost middle east." it's just been released. anthony talked about speaking arabic, which he did fluently, but with an oklahoma accent and sort of how he always was interested in sort of digging into and understanding his roots. why was that so important to him? >> i'm sorry, can you repeat that? i'm having trouble hearing. >> i'm sorry. forgive me. i'm going to try again. i was asking a lot of the book is about rediscovering roots. i was curious to know as anthony joked in the book how he spoke

arabic fluently with an oklahoma accent which is hard to imagine. why was rediscovering roots such an important theme for him in his own life? >> you know, it's an interesting question. i wish anthony was here to answer you, but i'm going to try my best. i think being the son of immigrants who found themselves in oklahoma city, a place that in the beginning they didn't relate to very much, and then over the years they became just natives to the city, but there was always a part of them that longed to mayayun, that longed to the house that their great-grandfather had built for them and left there for them just waiting for them to go back to it or visit it whenever they

wanted. and then anthony spent 15 years of his life covering people who lost loved ones, who lost houses, whose life work changed by violent circumstances or other events and, you know, i think all these things, being a son of immigrants, covering conflicts for so many years just made him feel like he needed to find his woots and roots and he place he could call home, a place where he can find peace with himself and just majayun was that for him. he would often tell me when you're there, especially sitting in the garden, that he just -- how happy he was being where he was. and there was no place in this whole entire world where he would want to be more than that. even after he dies he wants his ashes to be spread in that

garden because he found home and he never wants to leave there. >> before i let you go i want to ask you about your children, you have a 2-year-old son and he had an older child from a previous marriage. what's the legacy that you want them to know about their father? >> you know, anthony was a great journalist and a great author, but for me and for our children, i want them to know what a great father he was and just a great, humble, modest human being. i think that's-for them, that's the most important thing, how much he loved them. >> most important legacy for sure. nada, thank you for talking with us this morning. we appreciate it. talking about her husband's book, "house of stone" about his ancestral home in lebanon. we appreciate it. much more to tell you about

from here where i am in harrisburg, illinois. we'll talk about other places across the country that were damaged by tornadoes. we'll talk to the governor of kansas and branson, missouri's mayor as well. "starting point" continues after the break. look, every day we're using more and more energy.

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welcome back to starting point. we're coming to you live from harrisburg, illinois. this is the ground zero of where the tornado caused the most devastating damage, not only to property which you can see, but five people died in this housing complex. i want to show you a little bit of what you can see. this is all that's left of one of the homes here. the tornado came from this direction and it was reported to be several hundred feet wide. you can see if we go, the entire thing has been literally ripped right off of its foundation. one person died in the home that's adjacent here. in fact, the number of deaths really are along this string of homes. nothing here. they literally have been wiped away. and much of the damage, in fact, kevin, if we walk over here, much of the damage has all been piled up when the storm kind of ran into other homes. let me show you this. this is the thing that is always so incredibly challenging i think about tornadoes. this is a home that has almost no damage. it lost a little bit of siding,

obviously a couple of things fell down. beyond that, many of the homes here on this side of the street literally have virtually no damage and contrast that to what we can see over here, which is a house that's practically collapsed. you can see today people have come in and they're literally picking through the rubble trying to figure out what they're able to salvage now that the sun has come up and they've opened up the streets again and they can come and grab some of their belongings. let's get a little closer here, kevin. be careful of the nails obviously. you can see this house, it almost likes like it sort of imploded. the car is there. people were inside this house and the whole thing just came down around them. as you go further back you can just see the devastation. just this really goes on for hundreds and hundreds of yards. so today we're seeing cleanup. a lot of grieving as the people who lost their loved ones here are trying to make some sense of a storm that seemed to just

randomly role through and pick victims. we're seeing leadership as they try to assess the damage in monetary terms so they can figure out what kind of eligibility they will have from the federal government. a couple of other storms to tell you about. we told you about the damage in branson, missouri. we've got the mayor of branson, ray ann presley joining us by phone. mayor presley, i appreciate your time this morning. i know that the good news in branson was that you had no deaths to report, but you had some damage. can you update me on how it was there. >> yes. good morning. we were fortunate. while we did have some injuries, none of them very severe. we did not have any deaths. we're very grateful for that. i'm out and around this morning. i'm already seeing the power is coming back on. we're getting that fixed for folks. people are cleaning up and picking up. it's obvious to me that in short order we'll be back in business. >> that's some good news.

i know that there was some pretty serious damage to those theaters that are historic, obviously, in branson. what's the status of that? i heard that many, many dozens were damaged. >> well, no, not quite that many. we're fortunate. we have about 15 venues that have live entertainment and we have five or six that sustained some level of damage. none of them were completely destroyed. so many are open. in fact, we had shows last night. so a lot were not damaged. we encourage people to come back and get ready for a great season in branson. >> good. that's good news. i'm glad to have some good news to report from you. i appreciate your time this morning. that's the mayor of branson missouri. appreciate your time, ma'am. let's turn to what's happening in kansas. governor sam brownback is in kansas this morning. appreciate your time. can we talk about haleyville for a minute?

that's a town that was reported to have very severe damage. can you update me -- hare adviceville. >> significant damage through much of the community. we had an ef-2 tornado that went through there. it went through without some warning. there was a tornado watch. sirens didn't go off. and it sustained substantial damage. we had a couple people injured as well. people starting to pick things back up. power is starting to come back on and people going to start putting their lives back together. but the town itself was significantly damaged. >> the reports i heard said somewhere between 40 and 60% of the town is either damaged or destroyed. does that seem accurate to you? >> it does. that's about accurate. it's a town of about 250 people. i'm headed there today.

we've declared an emergency. i've declared an emergency for the community. the community is rebuilding. it's got agreements with other counties in the area, the state to help in the kpleenup and rebuilding, but about half the town was significantly damaged and a number of the homes in that portion that were hit were wiped out altogether. >> there was a report that i heard of a man who said he was able to save his grandson when he grabbed him as he was sort of being sucked out of the window. i'm sure those are the kinds of stories you hear today and as you go through hare adviceville. i appreciate your time. that's the governor of the state of kansas joining us. governor sam brownback. we've got more weather to check in on of course. rob marciano has an update for us on that. rob, that story that i heard about the kid literally being sucked out of the window, it sounds so crazy and improbable, but of course tornadoes sort of

define a crazy weather phenomenon. >> absolutely. when you're talking about an ef-4, even an ef-2 in that case, you have a serious decrease in pressure. more importantly, you have serious winds happening outside of the home. usually it's the flying debris that will hurt you the most. that's why we tell people to get inside, cover up, the most interior room of your home, preferably a basement. will you need to do that today? i don't think so. the threat from st. louis to memphis will be on the docket. winds aren't set up for tornadoes. there may be enough instability to create some storms with damaging winds and large hale. the next storm barrelling through the northern rockies, this has dynamic energy. it will tap some moisture from the gulf of mexico. tomorrow looks to be a pretty bad threat. maybe even more widespread than yesterday. not saying that we'll have a widespread outbreak like yesterday, but the ingredients

are there frbls nach lis, louisville, southern illinois. so folks in your area, soledad, are going to have to be on guard through tomorrow night. >> that's terrible. that is just terrible news for people here. the last thing they need to hear because many people, rob, you are coming in to try to clean up and city set their lives right again. rob marciano. i thank you. we'll take a short break. when we come back we'll talk to some of the families affected by the storms. today, of course, the focus is on cleanup and grieving for families who lost loved ones. we'll be back after the short break. >> i'm praying. i'm really hoping an praying to god that everything will be cool. i was really thinking for a second that we were going to die. i was scared. i really thought that my dad and i were going to die or get thrown from our trailer and die. it was scary. look at all this stuff for coffee.

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this just in. 351,000 unemployment claims were filed for the first time last week. it's another week below the key 400,000 level. when you look at economic data this is a sign that the labor market is heading in the right direction. next week we're going to get the big jobs report for february. that will give us a bigger picture about jobs in this country and where the national jobless rate stands. meantime, a big shakeup at news corp. james murdoch is going to step down as head of news corp's uk subsidiary news international. he'll remain as the coo of news corp. that makes him the third highest ranking executive behind his father and chase carry. the past year has been filled with scandals for several of the company's top publications. there are investigations into phone hacking and bribes to police. it has been a scandal filled year for a very high profile family who's made a lot of moechb covering scandals.

brian stalter is joining me. james murdoch, many people saw him as the parent. he's stepping down from the british newspaper division. is this punishment for the scandals or is this a promotion? >> this is felt to be a long-time coming because james murdoch has been the most closely tied to the phone hacking scandal in britain. this is a scandal that is slow motion in a way. a lot of investigations going on in britain about it. hasn't come across to affect the u.s. james murdoch has been brought up. what he knew and when he knew t. by moving him away from oversight of these papers it seems like his father, rupert murdock, is trying to move him away from that tarnished british newspaper area. that said, a lot of analysts look at this and say this is a new set of makeup. this isn't a face transplant for the company. that's what they say it means. >> this isn't the heads rolling. there have been people who have lost their jobs in this investigation but nobody super high up at the company? >> right. there seems to be signals from

rupert murdock and his family that he is confident that this company can go forward no matter what, no matter what's revealed in this investigation. by the way, that's probably true in the broader sense. this company, news corporation, is doing very well. television stations and networks are going gangbusters, but that newspaper unit is tarnished. it continues. every day there's new revelations about how much hacking and how much money was paid to police officers to get information. >> this is a family business. the business has taken a hit because of the scandal. no question. yesterday the stock was up on a down day because in part people were wondering if the eldest son, maybe he could come back and become the era parent. >> this is the great drama that envelopes the newspaper, which is the favorite child. two weeks ago when rupert murdock came to london to open a new paper, his son lockland came

with him, not james. there's some activist investors and activists who said this family shouldn't be rung the company on its own. this is one of the biggest media conditions in the world and it needs more transparent leadership and a more active board of directors. so far, with yesterday's move with james murdoch still being in charge, still being deputy coo, it seems rupert murdock is resisting those calls. >> that's the family drama behind the succession. >> it might be a promotion. he'll be running some of the most valuable parts of the company, the international tv business. he will be in some ways removed from the british newspaper unit although let's be clear about this. every day we see new details about what's going on there. every day there's new testimony in this slow motion scandal. >> brian, "new york times", thank so much. soledad? christine, thank you. before we go to commercial break i want to show folks as they start to pick up their belongings, this structure,

that's a closet. people have been coming in and removing cloetsthes, etc. everything else around it has been absolutely shredded by the power of the storm. as you pointed out, christine, a little bit earlier, it's very hard to give a sense of how bad it really is. sometimes i think the pictures don't actually do justice to the damage that's taken place on this little street. we're going to take a short break. we come back on the other side. we'll talk to some family members whose mother was killed in the tornado when her home collapsed around her. we'll talk to them about how they're grieving and what they plan to do today. that's all ahead. we're back in just a moment. it's absolutely been a horrific day here in harrisburg, illinois. we've lost six lives. we're very tight knit community. people care about each other and to lose six lives and have many, many hurt and of course millions of dollars in devastation is

just heart breaking for a community. it's heart breaking. we've seen this in jop lan, missouri, last year. many of our people went to joplin to help out. my daughter was one of them. today we're faced with this in our community and area. it's been a very tough day for us. our hearts are broken, in fact, for those that lost their lives and families and those that are injured. back then, he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever, it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. call now for our free guide and tips on planning for your retirement this tax season. or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business, it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact

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"starting point," i wanted to show you an example of the power of 170 mile per hour winds. these homes literally pulled off their foundations. you see, there's not even much debris around there. the question is where did the debris go.

kevin, show them this shot. right over here is where the debris ended up. that's another home that has pinned itself against another home that is right behind it. you can see the power ripping a home off its foundation. it slams into another home. many of the people on this side here were injured and actually had to climb their way out of their homes or be rescued. for people on this side the story was much more devastating. a number of deaths that occurred in these homes here. i want to introduce you to darryl osmon and his sister dena. i appreciate you guys talking to me earlier in the morning when it was still dark out. you were hoping to be able to gather up some things. did you find anything? >> actually, we have. >> we have found a few items. >> what did you find? >> this is a picture. i was a sophomore in high school when this was taken. this was my junior prom in 1984. >> i'll hold it so these guys can see that. so what was it like to recover that from your mom's house? >> you know, it's one of

those -- i actually don't have this picture. so this is something i will keep. >> it's something your mother obviously treasured. >> yes. >> we should tell people -- what's this. >> we found this one. >> that is my aunt. >> this is my aunt who told me last night on the phone who is old enough for medicare. that gives you an idea how old it is. >> that's a great picture. your mom was inside her home when it sort of sounds like it collapsed around her. >> i don't know if it collapsed around her. >> or if it was picked up. >> and got carried off with her in it. you see behind us here, that's what's left of her home, right there. >> you can see parts of the home, a home, i don't know whose home, kind of pinned up against another home over there. >> yeah. yeah. it's -- we have found stuff out of her kitchen in a general area over there. >> across the street? >> across the street. stuff out of her living room in a general area over there. >> oh, my goodness.

>> and we've also found -- these are slides, which are what was when we were little. >> that was digital 40 years ago. >> i found some of these all the way up by the main road. >> oh, wow. that's a solid 100 yard. >> it's at least 100 yards, yeah. >> so your mother, was she rescued? obviously there was no building here. did they find her in the rubble here? >> i'm not really sure. the officer that i saw yesterday morning that told me she was in the ambulance, at that point in time i was so relieved that she had been found so quickly that i didn't even ask. so i don't know if she was like laying in the street or dug out of the rubble. i honestly don't know. >> they were able to put her in an ambulance and your wife who's a nurse was able to go along on that ambulance ride. >> that's correct. >> she had a gash on her forehead but did you think she was sort of okay? >> at that point we had no clue

that her injuries were life threatening. we felt at that point that she was going to be okay. >> when did you realize that she was not going to be okay. >> approximately an hour later when my wife came out of the hospital from the emergency room and said the doctors told us that it doesn't look good. that was a pretty severe blow. >> you live in another state. >> i live four hours away. >> and started driving basically. >> yes. they called from my knees's phone, his daughter's phone, it was my sister-in-law on the phone. she said, dena, you need to get here now. so i just threw clothes in a suitcase, whatever i could grab. jumped in the truck probably within five or ten minutes of that phone call. got 15 minutes away from my home and i had actually called them back because i wanted them to check the weather because i wanted to see where the storm actually was so i didn't have to drive through it. within 15 minutes they said, you don't have to hurry. >> your mother had died.

>> yeah. >> did she know in her last moments, because it sounds like she was pulled out conscious and talking, did she know you were all worried about her and caring for her? >> yeah. i believe she did. before i actually got out of the ambulance and then of course my wife carried on with her in the ambulance to the hospital, when we would talk to her she would try to respond. her words were mumbled. you couldn't really understand what she was saying, but she was squeezing our hands. she knew we were there. she knew we were there. >> i was told this was a new housing complex. all these homes actually were brand new. >> yes. >> did she just move in in november. >> she just moved in in november of last year, yes. >> she couldn't move in until it was done. it wasn't done when she had signed the lease. >> yeah. >> so it was brand new. >> yeah. she was the first tenant. like my sister said, she signed the lease before it was ready to move into. >> what do you do now? >> pick up the pieces.

pick up the pieces. you know, as tragic as this is for those of us that have lost our mothers and brothers and sisters and others, as you know, there's a total of five gone just from these units right here. all the dead in the complex were right here in these units, and as tragic as it is, fwheed to be thankful it wasn't worse. when you look behind you up the hill up through there behind you at all the homes that are damaged and destroyed and think about how many people lived in all those homes, it certainly could have been far, far worse. >> the number of dead could have been in the hundreds. >> could have easily been in the hundreds. >> i appreciate you talking to us this morning. i know you're here to clean under and do some work so i'll let you go. thank for sharing your story with us. >> thank you. >> so as we close out "starting point" for the morning, we'll end as we began which is a look at the neighborhood. center, ground zero, all new homes hit here. that's where five of the six

people who died in harrisburg lost their lives, right here. community that's close knit. they're really relying on that today because they have to kind of lean on their neighbors for support in such a terrible, terrible time. as the sun comes up, as the day moves on, we see more people climbing up this little mountain of rubble trying to get out whatever they can. you can see more trucks as well because people have driven trucks in to grab their things and drive it out. that's it for "starting point" this morning here in harrisburg, illinois. we'll hand it over to kyra phillips. phillips. >> thanks so much. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com