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CNN Live At Daybreak
Hurricane Katrina Leaves Death, Destruction and Fear
Aired August 30, 2005 - 5:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: It is Tuesday, August 30. Hurricane Katrina leaves death, destruction and fear. Plenty of fear in its wake.
Whole neighborhoods flooded, dozens dead, thousands homeless, and it could get worse. Rescuers scramble to save some people from their flooded homes, but many others are still trapped and screaming. Screaming for help.
Also, the trash is overflowing, the toilets don't work, and there's no air-conditioning. Thousands of people in the Superdome want to get out, but there is nowhere to go.
And good morning, everyone. From the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Tony Harris, in today for Carol Costello. And this is DAYBREAK.
Let's get quickly now to Chad Myers.
And Chad, we want this storm to go away. We want to kiss it goodbye. But it is hanging around, and it still has plenty, it seems, it wants to say to us.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: True enough. The whole area here is still under the gun for tropical storm-force winds.
This is not by any means over for a lot of people here. It is just moving in a different direction, up from Memphis, right on to the northeast, right on to Nashville now, 40-mile-per-hour winds. Memphis, you had 45.
I can zoom into a couple more spots here for you. This is the Titan radar showing you the backlashes right now at Memphis.
A little farther to the east into Nashville -- that's a little shaky picture there -- Nashville seeing showers and thunderstorms there. And then a little bit farther back on down to the south, into Atlanta, showers and thunderstorms. And yes, this big red box, that is still -- that is still a tornado watch box at this hour of the morning.
Many tornado warnings yesterday across Georgia. Look at all the power outages as of 2:00 a.m., all the way from north of Memphis, all the way, obviously, south into New Orleans. And the hardest areas, probably Bay St. Louis, right on over into Gulfport and Biloxi, and even Mobile, with all of that floodwater that came up through Mobile.
The storm itself right now, 35 miles to the northeast of Tupelo. Winds are still 50.
This is still a tropical storm. This hasn't turned into just a low pressure system yet. This still has sustained winds at 50, with some higher gusts.
Then it moves on up by tomorrow right over Columbus, Ohio. Now, by then, the winds will be 25. And then as you get back up into probably northern Syracuse, Rochester area there, for Wednesday afternoon, then your winds are down to about 20, and maybe it's even being taken over by an upper-level low that's coming through here. And it just changes it over to a rainmaker.
But it will be a rainmaker today. The red zone here along the Appalachian Mountains, Tony, will be where the severe weather is again this afternoon. Some of that severe weather yesterday got pretty scary around Atlanta.
HARRIS: That's right.
MYERS: We had a lot of tornado warnings going on. But officially, only seven touchdowns of tornadoes across the country yesterday.
HARRIS: And Chad, will you expect later today the sun rises and the atmosphere starts to heat up?
MYERS: Well, never is there ever a hotter day than a day after a hurricane hits. And I don't know what the theory is. Maybe you're just down there and you don't want it to be that way...
HARRIS: Sure.
MYERS: ... but you've got a lot of muck on the ground, you've got all this humidity down here. The sun comes out from New Orleans to Mobile, right on up to Tupelo and Hattiesburg, and it does, it feels like the hottest day of the year.
Now, with that hot weather, that also gives you the potential for more showers to pop up during the cleanup. And some of those showers could be heavy with thunder. And of course the most dangerous thing really today will be the lightning.
A lot of people outside with no cover. Some people have no covers on their houses to go back to. And they're going to be outside, and that lightning is something to be taking care of today. You've got to watch out for that, for sure.
HARRIS: Chad Myers. I didn't mention it yet, but good morning.
MYERS: Good morning.
HARRIS: Good morning. Thanks. Talk to you later.
MYERS: All right.
HARRIS: New Orleans was spared a direct hit from Katrina, but you certainly wouldn't know it by looking at the devastation the hurricane left behind.
CNN's Adaora Udoji joins us now from a neighborhood where the houses have been flooded.
Adaora, is this correct, all the way to the rooftops?
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, no question, Tony. It's been nonstop here.
We're standing on Interstate 10, just north of New Orleans, and this is a field called Elysian Fields. And you can see that there are some lights and there are some boats. That's where rescue workers have been going through the neighborhood, and we're talking blocks and blocks of houses that are submerged in water, some of them six, 10 12 (INAUDIBLE) going up and down and collecting people.
We have...
HARRIS: OK. We've lost Adaora. We'll get back to her soon as we can.
CNN is your hurricane headquarters. Here's what we know so far in the aftermath of Katrina.
At least 50 people are estimated dead in Harrison County, Mississippi, alone. Thirty of them died in an apartment complex near the beach in Biloxi.
About 1.5 million homes and businesses don't have power in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
There is an eerie darkness over New Orleans, which, as you know, is usually bustling at night.
Also, the American Red Cross is launching the largest natural disaster relief operation in its history. It's bigger than what the agency did for all four of last year's Florida hurricanes combined.
And people in Tennessee and the Ohio Valley area are in for some heavy rain and tornadoes from Katrina.
Meteorologist Michael Mach of the National Weather Service is tracking the storm for us as it moves north.
And Michael, good morning.
MICHAEL MACH, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: Good morning.
HARRIS: Michael, give us the latest on the coordinates and the path and wind speeds connected with what is left of Katrina.
MACH: Just about an hour ago it passed over Tupelo, Mississippi. And it continues to be moving to the northeast at about 17 miles an hour.
We do expect it to continue to spread a large precipitation shield across parts of Kentucky and Tennessee, and then the storm system will also generate some fairly strong conviction along into the east of the Appalachian Mountains to affect Virginia and North Carolina later on this afternoon.
HARRIS: OK. And Michael, I want to bring Chad Myers in as I ask you this next question. How destructive a storm does Katrina remain, even now?
MACH: Well, we're still monitoring a line of thunderstorms that's just moved into the western part of Georgia, western South Carolina and North Carolina. And when -- later on this afternoon we start getting some afternoon heating there of a very unstable environment. There's -- actually, there's going to be a moderate possibility for some isolated tornadoes, and also we expect generous rainfall amounts of two to four inches, with a few isolated six-inch amounts as well.
HARRIS: Boy -- Chad.
MYERS: Michael, this is Chad Myers up in the weather office. I do have a couple of questions for you, and maybe a couple of things to clear up for people.
Today is really a tornado threat, a small tornado threat, and also a wind threat. Rarely do we have hail damage with a land-falling hurricane, a tropical system like this. But I have never -- I've never really -- I've never really seen such a large moderate risk of that as we have today, all the way from basically Pennsylvania down into Georgia.
A lot of momentum still with this storm, isn't there?
MACH: Absolutely. There's a lot of strong energy aloft there. That particular environment along the East Coast has -- has not been tapped into for several days, and that environment is just ripe for an outbreak of fairly strong thunderstorms, with isolated tornadoes as well.
MYERS: Yes.
HARRIS: Boy, that is -- that is amazing. Is it -- you would think, Chad and Michael, that this storm would be breaking up. What we've heard so often is that once it makes landfall -- and we've seen some of this, to be sure -- the storm breaks up. But it still seems to be a pretty massive force out there.
MACH: Absolutely. We've been actually looking at the satellite loop there. And typically, as it is this morning, the -- the tops of the storm have warmed just a little bit there. But once we start getting toward daybreak, and some daylight out there, then we would tend to believe that the tops will start getting much stronger there and the storm system will start generously breaking out with some fairly strong to severe thunderstorms by the mid morning to early afternoon hours.
HARRIS: OK. Michael Mach, thank you. And Chad Myers, as always, thanks, Chad.
MYERS: All right, Tony.
HARRIS: Let's get back to Adaora Udoji now, who is in one New Orleans neighborhood that is going through a lot right now as rescue teams try to save people who are trapped in their homes, some of them in attics.
And Adaora, we lost you just a moment ago while you were in the midst of your report. Pick it up from wherever you like.
UDOJI: I was talking about how there has been hundreds and hundreds of people who have been rescued from this area, again, just north of New Orleans. There are blocks and blocks of homes that are under water.
There is as much as six feet, 10 feet of water. And again, many of them, having been in their homes for almost 24 hours now, somebody telling us that at 5:00 a.m. on Monday morning that the house was flooded and that they actually called 911 at that point. But we're told because they were in the midst of the hurricane that the would have to wait. They were just one among what some have estimated could be a thousand people just in this particular neighborhood.
Also, to the west of us, in Matairie, tremendous flooding there. And also, to the south of us, near the French Quarter, in what they call the Ninth Ward, tremendous flooding.
And essentially, what rescue workers are just trying to do is assess the damage. I mean, Tony, we're not even talking about 24 hours since this hurricane blew through here. It's pitch black, there's no electricity, it's incredibly treacherous.
They have different size boats, all of them pretty small, going up and down these streets, trying to avoid the debris, sunken cars, electrical lines, all kinds of potential hazards, as they go house to house and figure out whether or not there are people still inside. Out of those roughly 500 that have been evacuated so far from this neighborhood north of New Orleans, we're told that none of them have sustained any serious injuries. Mostly just bumps and bruises. One man had a broken leg.
And we're talking about entire families. Lots of children we've seen. In fact, one officer was telling me that they took out an elderly woman who was 97 years old.
HARRIS: Wow.
UDOJI: So they have a lot of work to do, and no doubt, when the sun comes up, they're going to see just how devastated this area has been by the hurricane.
HARRIS: Adaora, are these people who could have left but chose not to, and decided to ride it out? Or are we talking about people who just for various reasons couldn't get out? UDOJI: You know what? I'm so glad that you asked me that question, because, before I answer that, one of the things that we were told not that long ago was that there are actually some people that are in these homes, at least one family of five in these homes here, that did not want to be evacuated.
Their house is flooded, by they are high up in their attic. They said they had enough food and water to last a week. So they wanted permission to stay.
For those others, many of them were unable to leave. I mean, we were speaking to some who had been evacuated, and they said that, you know, they saw no reason to leave, that they were very fatalistic about it, saying that if it was their time to go, then this was the hurricane that was going to take them. Others, a few others that I talked to, said they didn't have anywhere to go.
HARRIS: Wow.
UDOJI: They didn't have anywhere to go at all, so they stayed in their house, hoped for the best. Of course got flooded, then evacuated, and now they're being taken to one of the main evacuation centers at the Superdome. And they have no idea how long they're going to be there, and if there'll be anything at all of their home when they get back.
HARRIS: Oh, boy. And that's part of it, Adaora. I appreciate you reporting on this, because people leave and they have no idea when they'll be able to get back to their homes. And they don't like that sense of uncertainty, and they don't want that choice taken out of their hands.
Adaora Udoji. We appreciate it. Thank you very much.
Very emotional testimonies are emerging from survivors of Hurricane Katrina. Reporter Jennifer Mayerle of CNN affiliate of WKRG in Mobile spoke with a man who lost his wife in the Biloxi floods.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JENNIFER MAYERLE, REPORTER, WKRG: How are you doing, sir?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm (INAUDIBLE).
MAYERLE: What happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The house just split in half.
MAYERLE: Your house split in half?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hardly have (INAUDIBLE). We got up in the roof, all the way to the roof, and water came. And the house just opened up, divided.
MAYERLE: Who was at your house with you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife.
MAYERLE: Where is she now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't find her body. She's gone.
MAYERLE: You can't find your wife?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. She told neighbors (INAUDIBLE). I held her hand tight, and she told me, "You can't hold me." She said, "Take care of the kids and the grandkids."
And my kids...
MAYERLE: What's your wife's name in case we can put this hour?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tony Jackson (ph).
MAYERLE: OK. And what's your name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Harvey Jackson.
MAYERLE: Where are you guys going?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We ain't got nowhere to go. Nowhere to go. I'm -- I'm lost. That's all I had. That's all I had.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: What do you do? Where do you go from here if you're -- that was reporter Jennifer Mayerle of CNN affiliate WKRG. And we don't know yet what happened to Mr. Jackson's wife.
Alabama's Gulf Coast was beaten and battered. That's the way Alabama Governor Bob Riley is describing the damage in his state. But we may not have seen the worst of it yet.
CNN's Ted Rowlands is in Mobile.
Ted, good morning.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.
And that is the real fear, that as daybreak comes, the worst is going to be realized here. Katrina hung around so late into the day yesterday, the rescue crews were not able to get to all of the urban areas on not only Alabama's coast, but also Mississippi's Gulf Coast.
Specifically, you saw that gentleman from Biloxi there. There's a lot of fear that there's going to be more stories like that coming out of not only Biloxi, but in other cities.
Biloxi was hit very hard over by Katrina. A lot of buildings, a lot of homes completely devastated. Others partially devastated. Not only damage, but loss of life.
At this point, CNN's confirming at least 30 people lost their lives in Biloxi. That number is expected to go up as well at daybreak.
There's real concern about smaller communities in between Biloxi and New Orleans. Bay St. Louis, specifically, one of them. It is difficult to find anybody who has touched base with folks there. They're going to go in there in the morning.
Pass Christian, Long Beach, Waveland, these are all small communities between 6,000 and 17,000 people. How many of those folks decided to ride it out is the real key. And folks are -- rescue people here are not sure what they're going to find when they go into those cities this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN NODINE, MOBILE COUNTY COMMISSIONER: Gulfport and Bay St. Louis was ground zero. And it's unfortunate we cannot get into those areas yet.
I spoke briefly with Haley Barbour over in Mississippi, and it seems as though they can not get the rescue operations down in that area as of yet. And so tomorrow morning we'll probably see more of the devastation that has been put forth by Katrina.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROWLANDS: Here in Mobile, streets are flooded throughout the downtown area. Power has been out and will be out, according to city officials, for sometime. It could be weeks. There's a curfew in effect from dusk until dawn, and they say that that curfew will be in effect until the power is restored and until they can get things back in order, which could take some time.
Also, there was an oil drilling platform that slammed into the Cochrane Bridge here which caused some problems with the bridge. They're not sure the extent of that damage. That platform came off of its moorings because of the power of Katrina. And really at daybreak, I think, Tony, we're going to really see the devastation of Katrina, especially in those Mississippi Gulf Coast cities that they're hoping to get into as soon as possible.
HARRIS: And you know what, Ted? We're not going to like what we see.
Ted Rowlands in Mobile, Alabama.
Ted, thank you.
Still to come on DAYBREAK, much more on Katrina's aftermath. By helicopter, by boat, or by axe, rescue workers are trying to reach flood victims any way they can. We'll bring you the latest on the desperate rescue efforts.
Meantime, here are some of the unforgettable images left in Katrina's wake.
You are watching DAYBREAK for Tuesday, August 30. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And "Now in the News," Hurricane Katrina has now weakened to a tropical storm after causing severe flooding across Louisiana and Mississippi. In New Orleans, rescuers are scrambling to save people trapped in their flooded homes. Katrina has killed at least 54 people in Mississippi alone.
Katrina may be the most expensive hurricane to ever hit the U.S. Looking at the damage you can see why. Early estimates have Katrina costing insurers up to $26 billion, but some of those estimates actually went down as the hurricane weakened.
Katrina's rampage has brought most oil production in the Gulf to a standstill. Oil prices are climbing above $68 a barrel this morning after falling from a record high of nearly $71. You might see higher gas prices as a result.
And let's get a check of the overseas markets now.
Japan's Nikkei closes up 143 points as investors' concerns about high oil prices eased a bit. Britain's FTSE is trading up about 34 points. And the German DAX is up 20 points.
Thousands of people are still in shelters in southwestern Alabama, and they may be there for days. CNN Radio's Ed McCarthy joins us now from Mobile, Alabama.
And Ed, give us an assessment of the situation where you are.
ED MCCARTHY, CNN RADIO: Well, Tony, obviously we're still without power. It could be a long time before power is restored. There's no telephone service, and many people who tried to get hotel rooms ended up in the lobby overnight.
Some of them just sitting there. There was a generator where I was, and they had the power on for a television. So they were curiously watching what was going on.
The conversation quickly turned to, "Where can we get gasoline?" And that's just become a word of mouth situation.
So at first break today, Tony, when we get some daylight, there will be a damage assessment here in Mobile. And Mobile is going to be the command center, so to speak. That will be the place where they'll be setting up here and getting ready to move their teams out to Mississippi to try and help in this -- to clear this disaster and try to find survivors.
HARRIS: Yes.
MCCARTHY: Just a terrible situation, and certainly a lot of questions that are being asked right now among the populous. But people are doing the best they can to hang in there at this point.
HARRIS: Daybreak, we hear that a lot, first light. Folks are going to get a sense of the devastation. It is that unknown of what they will see.
Is it causing real anxiety? Have you seen that?
MCCARTHY: Well, you know, people are very concerned. They're wondering what their next move is.
I talked to a gentleman who came from Mississippi, and the self- service is very spotty, at best, and most of it is out. He cannot get through. He's wondering about his home, and he's thinking about going to Birmingham to stay with relatives in the meantime. He doesn't know.
He told me -- he said, "I don't know if I'll have a home. And I really don't know if I have a job." He says, "My business could be destroyed there."
HARRIS: Ed, I'm curious, when you've been in a shelter for any length of time -- and we've all done some reporting from those shelters -- after, I don't know, about a day or so, folks start to get a little edgy. How would you describe spirits?
MCCARTHY: Well, absolutely. I mean, people that are staying in the lobby of this hotel here in -- hotel rooms, by the way, were at a premium. And I know that what I'm hearing from the shelters, that it is certainly that kind of a situation, where people get a little edgy.
HARRIS: Yes.
MCCARTHY: And, you know, they want to get out. They obviously want to get back home, but in this situation we're not really sure if people are going to have their homes. And there's just such a big unknown here. And it's a very tough thing to start the day that way.
HARRIS: That's for sure. Ed McCarthy, CNN Radio.
Ed, thank you.
And time to check in with you, our citizen journalists, and -- for a look at what you are seeing out there.
Rod Kellogg of Gulf Shores, Alabama, emailed us this picture. Talk about a rough landing. Look at this: one wing down. A small plane had trouble getting its wheels down on the ground. Hopefully everything turned out OK.
And look at this. Calvin Sylvester sent in this photo from New Orleans. High water making yards look like lakes, flooding homes and submerging this car. Man.
Let's check in now with Chad Myers.
And Chad, it is a difficult situation. And I think what we're hearing so far this morning is first light we will get a real sense of what this storm has left behind.
MYERS: Right. A lot of people tried to get some airplanes and helicopters in the air before dark last night, but literally the winds down there in New Orleans, Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi, the winds were still too strong to fly safely. So after dark, there's no reason to take a plane up and take a look at what's going on, because you can't see anything to take a helicopter up.
Back out here to the west, Nashville, you're still seeing winds to 45 miles per hour now. You hear the winds rustling through the trees.
Also, back up into Nashville, you're actually on the east side of the storm. You can really see that there's still a circulation with the storm. It's still a tropical storm. It isn't a hurricane anymore.
It was a Category 5, dropped to a Category 4 at landfall. But the storm surge at Bay St. Louis was said to be 22 feet.
That's almost an exact, perfect forecast by the hurricane center. They said 18 to 24. Can't get much better than that. Right in the middle.
There you go. Rain showers from Nashville now back up into Kentucky. I am concerned for you, Kentucky. You had a lot of rain yesterday.
There is going to be flooding in Kentucky today from the same system, from the moisture coming up from the Deep South. And then there will be tornadoes in this box here.
This is a tornado watch box for Atlanta, right on down to Valdosta and Macon. And this box will be translated a little bit farther to the northeast later today. As the air heats up, the storm still has a lot of energy with it, still has a lot of lift, still has a lot of spin, all those things. Those are the ingredients for tornadoes, whether you're in the plains or whether you're in a hurricane.
And we've had seven reports of tornadoes on the ground yesterday, but there must have been -- I lost count at over a hundred. There may have been 200 tornado warnings across the southeast yesterday.
Tropical Storm Katrina, there it is. There are the numbers if you're keeping track: 34.7, 88.4, about 35 miles northeast of about Tupelo. And winds are 50, moving to the northeast now at 17 miles per hour -- Tony.
HARRIS: Chad -- Chad, how much -- you know, we talk about this being a monster storm.
MYERS: Yes.
HARRIS: And one way to define that is to sort of understand the amount of pressure, low pressure in that storm for us. To still be seeing these kinds of winds, this...
MYERS: Yes. HARRIS: How would you categorize this thing?
MYERS: This is still the strongest of any storm we saw over the winter coming through as a snowstorm.
HARRIS: OK.
MYERS: But it's not obviously cold enough to make anything other than rain, right?
HARRIS: Yes.
MYERS: I mean, it is a tropical system. But typically, winter storms will not get this deep, will not get this low. And in fact, they probably will see that this will be the third or the fourth strongest hurricane to ever hit the United States since they've been keeping track.
HARRIS: Brother.
MYERS: Just above Camille.
HARRIS: That's crazy. All right, Chad. Thank you.
MYERS: You're welcome.
HARRIS: And still to come this morning, we'll bring you much more on the damage and destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina.
You're watching DAYBREAK for Tuesday, August 30. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Residents of New Orleans braced for the worst as Hurricane Katrina closed in. Those who couldn't leave took shelter wherever they could. But after the storm passed, they all became spectators to what was left behind.
CNN's David Mattingly has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the engine that drives New Orleans tourism, dire predictions of 20-foot floodwaters in the French Quarter spelled a disaster that would have been felt for decades. But as Katrina departed, the storm, instead, left behind an endless parade of debris and surprises.
(on camera): What's most amazing to me, as you walk around the Quarter, is how many people you see out on the streets right now.
(voice-over): People who were told to evacuate, didn't. The streets that could have been hit by catastrophic flooding, weren't.
MIKE BEVIS, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: All of these lights right here, the glass has been smashing against the wall and then coming down the street and everything.
MATTINGLY: Mike Bevis and Kathy Ebecknell (ph) felt their century-old apartment building was up to the challenge. They made it through with just some damage to the kitchen ceiling.
BEVIS: These buildings down here, they've been here for so long. And the way they were built that some of them, they're as tough as a bank vault, really.
RICK EICHMANN, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: The wind was rolling in this way.
MATTINGLY: Upstairs, Mardi Gras bead-makers Rick and Lori Eichmann stayed so they could get an early jump on cleanup.
EICHMANN: French Quarter residents are pretty hearty types. We're ready to start cleaning up and getting the show back on the road. We want to have the place decent by Labor Day, so everybody can come down and have a good time.
MATTINGLY: It may be an ambitious goal. Local residents became sightseers themselves, so they could take in all the damage.
(on camera): There is one thing down this street that all the residents tell us we have to look at, and it has nothing to do with all of this debris in the street. There's a lot of masonry and a lot of lumber apparently blown off of roofs. It's right around this corner. In this park, we can see some huge trees that are down, crashing through the gate over here. But it isn't the trees that they wanted us to come look at, it's what's inside.
(voice-over): Massive oaks fell all around, but not on the statue of Jesus. The only apparent damage to the church, a clock that stopped when electricity failed. And even as the rains from a receding Katrina continued to pour, there were signs the party was coming back to life.
(on camera): What are you doing, making a delivery?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At Le Madeleine all our electricity is out. These were going to spoil tomorrow. And so we're bringing them to the people who were stuck here from the hotel -- at the hotel.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Just off Jackson Square, we find a room full of stranded people who chose a hotel over the Superdome shelter.
One tourist we spoke with was looking ahead.
(on camera): Well, you made it through the night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
MATTINGLY: What's your concern now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Getting out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Getting out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Getting back to Chicago.
MATTINGLY: Any idea how you're going to do that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely none.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): David Mattingly, CNN, New Orleans, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: In the next half-hour of DAYBREAK, more stories of loss and recovery as we go live to New Orleans and Mobile, Alabama, two cities hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And good morning, everyone, from the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. I'm Tony Harris in today for Carol Costello. And this is DAYBREAK.
And let's get you upstairs now to the CNN Weather Center and Chad Myers. He has the latest coordinates on what is left of Hurricane Katrina.
And, Chad, what are we calling it now, a tropical storm?
MYERS: It is a tropical storm. It is a 50-mile-per-hour wind tropical storm right now.
And what I'm using here, Tony, is VIPIR. It is an animation that I can show what the problem has been overnight. We'll zoom out for you. Here's a picture of New Orleans. And now we'll zoom in a little bit closer. On the right where the word New Orleans is, that's very close to the French Quarter.
But on the top of your screen, Lake Pontchartrain, there's been a problem today. That has been a problem right along here. This here is called the 17th Street Canal. It runs all the way on up, obviously, from Lake Pontchartrain. They take little barges. They take little boats right in here and move them down into New Orleans to be able to offload them, or people just use it just for kind of a little waterway for their own personal watercraft.
Now the problem is that there was a breach in this 17th Street Canal and the water has been pouring down, as I slide you slowly, been pouring right on down Canal Street, nothing to do with the same canal. But here is New Orleans, here is the Superdome where all the people are, and then the French Quarter right over here, and the water has been pouring into this. Now the problem is we're going to go back to my weather graphics computer here in just a second. I'm going to get the right map on there.
HARRIS: Take your time. Take your time.
MYERS: No, it's OK. It's coming right up here. This is the map of New Orleans. And here is the problem with New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain higher than the ground elevation of the city. The city is in the middle. The levee and floodwall on the right keep Lake Pontchartrain from flooding in to the lower area. The levee in the floodwall on the left keeps the Mississippi River in the Mississippi River.
The problem with New Orleans is that it is lower than both of those lake levels. The lake level and also the river level, it is down below that. And when water breaks through the levee, the waters just keep pouring in. Army Corps of Engineer looking at it. It's about a 200-foot long break. They're going to see if they can either stop it, slow it down or eventually Lake Pontchartrain loses enough water, it goes down enough that the water stops coming in because it is even with where the break is in the levee -- Tony.
HARRIS: I see. OK. Boy, that is a...
MYERS: A dangerous situation.
HARRIS: That...
MYERS: A dangerous place to put a city, really.
HARRIS: Exactly. I mean, and New Orleans for so long was just sort of a marsh area before it was New Orleans, is that correct?
MYERS: Well, right. And then they took these pumps, these huge diesel pumps, and the pumps can actually pump out two inches of water for the first couple of hours. And then after it's taken that much, they kind of slow down a little bit. And you know you get debris in the clogged sewers, then they can only pump out one inch per hour, and that's of rainfall.
HARRIS: Wow.
MYERS: So think about if just inches or feet of water are pouring in from Lake Pontchartrain because of that levee break. As soon as the sun comes out, we're going to have helicopters in the air...
HARRIS: Yes. Yes.
MYERS: ... to see it. But you know pictures in the dark when there's no electricity don't do TV very much good.
HARRIS: That's right. That's right.
MYERS: Yes. HARRIS: And I really don't want to see it. It's going to be pretty nasty.
MYERS: I know, exactly. It is. The water is still coming up in many spots.
HARRIS: All right, Chad, thank you.
MYERS: You're welcome.
HARRIS: As the floodwaters rise in New Orleans, so is the fear of what might be found underneath. People are still trapped in homes that are flooded all the way to the rooftops.
CNN's Adaora Udoji is in one of the many submerged neighborhoods. And she has this incredible story of this rescue effort in this particular community that is under way now.
And, Adaora, take your time and walk us through these overnight hours.
UDOJI: Tony, you're absolutely right. It's been a completely and absolutely non-stop here just north of New Orleans. We're really -- I mean north of downtown New Orleans. We're really not that far.
And you can take a look down. We're standing on Interstate 10, which is a major artery. You can see that there are some rescue workers down there. And you can see a lot of boats that have been going back and forth for hours.
And what they have been doing is is the neighborhood is completely flooded. We're talking blocks and blocks. It's not completely clear how far and wide the flooding goes, but they have been going up and down the streets of this particular neighborhood and evacuating people, many of whom have been stuck in their attics or on top of the roof for hours. Some of them 24 hours nearly. We spoke to one man who said his house began flooding yesterday morning at around 5:00 a.m.
Now with spotty telephone service, spotty cell phone service, some of them were able to get through to rescue workers. But at the time when the hurricane was happening, they were told that they would have to wait because there was no way for those rescue workers, police officers, firefighters and we also have some agents from the Wildlife and Fishery Enforcement Agency, no way for them to get to them, that they had to wait until after the storm was over.
And then of course there is just the actual logistics of those various enforcement agencies getting to the equipment that they need, getting the people that they need out into the areas where they are most needed.
So far tonight, we believe there are somewhere over 500 people who have been taken. We spoke to an official working here not too long ago who said that most people just suffering bumps and bruises and scratches, no very serious injuries. There was a man who had a broken leg. No fatalities at this point.
And we're talking about entire families, Tony, men, women, children. We've seen a lot of children, many of them coming off of those boats with no shoes and whatever bags or anything that they could carry.
And of course now they're being -- they're waiting. Some of them have been waiting for a terribly long time for vans to come pick them up so that they could be taken to evacuation centers inside the city. But navigating the roads, again, many of them are flooded, very difficult. And there's absolutely no question, every single officer we have spoken to tonight says that they have no doubt that things will look even worse when the sun comes up in the morning -- Tony.
HARRIS: Adaora, and for a moment, let's acknowledge the efforts of these rescue teams and the rescue personnel trying to get to these people. I'm just trying to imagine what that effort has been like. It is pitch-black night there where you are, and what are they doing? They're in these boats and they're responding, what, to the cries of the people on the roofs of their homes?
UDOJI: Absolutely. There was a lot of that, particularly early on that passerbyers were saying that they could hear people calling for help. Or it was members of their families who were elsewhere. They're concerned about folks they know that live, not only just in this area, Tony, because this is just one.
HARRIS: Right.
UDOJI: Further west there's Metairie, which we understand there's a severe flooding also in that area. And St. Bernard's Parish, also, from what we've been told, there's an estimated 40,000 homes that are underwater. So it's been a combination of people yelling for help, people calling for help and people calling on those people who are trapped on their behalf -- Tony.
HARRIS: Adaora, thank you.
Adaora Udoji, boy, just north of New Orleans for us.
Adaora, thank you.
The director of the Federal Emergency Management Association says things will get worse before they get better. What does that mean? More than a million people are still without power and thousands are spending at least their second day in shelters throughout the affected areas.
CNN's Ted Rowlands is in Mobile, Alabama.
Ted, good morning.
ROWLANDS: Good morning, Tony.
Here in Mobile they were anticipating the possibility of 20-foot- plus surges. That didn't happen. But, that said, there was significant flooding in the downtown area of Mobile. And the entire city, except for a few pockets, is without power and has been for the better part of yesterday and all through the evening.
There is a curfew in place here from dusk until dawn. There is fear that there could be some looting, et cetera. The police are out patrolling the city here. Very, very quiet, though, a stark contrast to what's going on in New Orleans. There isn't an ongoing search and rescue going on here. It is very quiet. People are being urged to stay away from the city if they're not in the city.
And there is a real fear that, not here in Mobile, but in other coastal cities, specifically in Mississippi, that as the dawn breaks there is going to be true devastation that is going to be realized and they get into those smaller cities in between New Orleans and here in Mobile. But all in all here in Mobile, not bad, considering what other cities are going through. That said, it is expected that the cleanup is going to take weeks and the power is going to be out for several days -- Tony.
HARRIS: OK. Ted Rowlands in Mobile, Alabama for us.
Ted, thank you.
And still to come on DAYBREAK, helping those left in Katrina's wake, how rescuers will reach those in need. Plus, some of today's other top stories. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And "Now in the News."
In northern Iraq, a U.S. helicopter has been hit by small-arms fire. One pilot was killed, the other wounded. The Kiowa Warrior chopper was attacked in Tal Afar.
Blame it on a budget crunch, Detroit is laying off 150 police officers. Still, some reshuffling will mean 100 more officers patrolling the streets after the layoffs. The officers union says it will seek a court order to prevent the layoffs.
President Bush marks the 60th anniversary of the allied victory against Japan in World War II. He speaks today at a naval base in Coronado, California. Yesterday the president said the government will do all it can to help victims of Hurricane Katrina.
And back now with Chad Myers.
And, Chad, if we could, let's sort of project ahead now to, I guess, maybe the next 6 to 12 hours and where this storm is going and how it...
MYERS: Right.
HARRIS: ... might affect, what, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio? MYERS: Exactly. Yes, I'd like to do that. We focused a lot on what's already happened and how that damage has occurred. Let's, at least for this hit, talk about who is going to get hit today, basically. That will be Kentucky. That will be parts of Ohio and also western Pennsylvania. All the way through West Virginia and Tennessee right now getting hit with some wind. Wind about 45 miles per hour. Officially from the hurricane Center it is still a tropical storm at 50 miles per hour. So still they're concerned about that circulation.
We're also concerned about the potential for very heavy rainfall in the Ohio Valley from Columbus through Cincinnati, Paducah, Lexington, Louisville, right on back down into Nashville. And the potential for tornadoes. There were at least 200 tornado warnings. Only seven official right now on the ground, but they'll have to go out and look at some of that damage.
Here's WSMV out of Nashville, Tenneesse, a gray morning there for you. We'll get right to your radar and show you how that's going to affect your day today. The rain coming into Nashville. You're actually on the eastern side of what was the eye. Now we'll just call it a center of circulation because it's no longer a hurricane. That means you're going to get the wind from the south. Some of that wind could be very gusty, well over 45 or 50 miles per hour. That may bring down a limb or two, maybe even a tree.
So if you're driving this morning with your headlights on, your headlights can only see 50, 60 feet ahead of you, you need to be careful because you're going to encounter many things on the roadways. And everybody in Mississippi, and you're all going to be encountering things on the roadways that weren't there yesterday, limbs, pieces of cars, pieces of whatever that still may be around that got blown around yesterday.
The rain continues for Ohio. The flooding continues for Kentucky. And the potential for tornadoes from Atlanta down all the way to Texas and Florida and then right back here behind me all the way on up even into Virginia -- Tony.
HARRIS: Still has a lot to say. All right, Chad, thank you.
MYERS: It started out as a Category 5.
HARRIS: Yes.
MYERS: You know you have all that momentum, it just takes awhile for that all to slow down.
HARRIS: It's going to take awhile. Boy, everyone needs to be patient with this one.
MYERS: Yes.
HARRIS: Chad, thank you.
MYERS: You're welcome. HARRIS: And dozens of people across New Orleans might be going through a terrifying ordeal at this moment. Officials fear they're trapped in their flooded homes.
CNN photojournalist Mark Biello went in to a neighborhood devastated by floodwaters and he shares some unforgettable images.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK BIELLO, CNN PHOTOJOURNALIST (voice-over): In this neighborhood of Edgewood, which is not too far from the dome off of I- 10, there are hundreds and hundreds of homes that are completed flooded and there are hundreds of people that are still trapped in the attics and in their homes. We came across people on the rooftops, people punching holes in the attic spaces because the water has filled up all the way up to their attics.
It is rising. We've seen it rise. It's a slow, gradual rise now. It's not dramatic as before. But that's a big concern, especially with these people that are trapped overnight up in the attic spaces, because literally the air in the air pockets there's no air. We saw people sticking their hands outside through the rafters waiving little tin pans, aluminum pans to signal, you know, or to have some kind of reflection as they were screaming to get them out because claustrophobia sets in, too, of these people that are trapped.
Apparently what I think a lot of the rescue operations and a lot of the people don't realize the magnitude of how many people are still trapped in the attics. They're chopping through with axes on the rooftops to pull people that are literally just breathing the last air in their homes and they're up in the rafters up in the attic spaces.
I think the biggest concern that they have is the survivability of these people that are still trapped which they can not get to this evening because it's just too dangerous to take your boats. The power lines are underneath the water, getting caught up in the props and, actually, some of these lines are hot. And also the gas lines are still bubbling and sending out natural gas. These lines have not been cut off or they didn't have time. I think there is, actually, unfortunately, an anticipation that there could be hundreds of deaths by tomorrow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Boy. That was CNN photojournalist Mark Biello. And we want to note that Mark is working wounded. He broke his foot trying to help rescuers move a boat.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: News crews have certainly put their lives on the line to bring you the full fury of Hurricane Katrina. Here's a look now at some of the most incredible video from this ferocious storm.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come with me. Everybody keep their heads up, there's stuff flying around.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guys, we're in store for one nasty storm.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's like pin pricks in your face as you try to turn north and look into the wind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is white capping in the parking lot out here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at that debris. Look at that. The entire thing is coming apart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm feeling real scared.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at the bird.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Careful, Brian (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, you OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody is good?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: OK, seeing is truly believing.
The next hour of DAYBREAK begins in just a few moments.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: It's Tuesday, August 30.
Hurricane Katrina leaves people trapped and screaming for help. People fled to their rooftops to escape the rising floodwaters but rescuers fear even that wasn't far enough.
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