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American Morning

Katrina Brings Death, Flooding, Damage to Gulf Coast

Aired August 30, 2005 - 09:31   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The mayor of Biloxi, Mississippi, is calling this our tsunami. Look at the aftermath. We're right near the Beau Rivage Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Look at that. That is a sturdy post which holds that street light. It's just kind of cracked in half. This tree has become kind of a debris tree, sandbag tree, if you will, almost mocking all the efforts that they made here to try to stop it. There's just flotsam and jetsam from everywhere here. All kinds of pieces of air conditioning equipment, dehumidifiers, pieces of cars. There were a bunch of cars in that lot. They're all kind of pushed over to one side.

Just all kinds of trash here as this huge storm surge came in, 25 feet in all. In one case, down the beach just a little bit -- we can't get to it yet -- caused the collapse of an apartment building. Thirty people are dead there. That's just the beginning of the toll here. Economically, 14,000 people employed by the casinos on this shore. So the ripples of all of all of this will continue for many, many years to come -- Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Miles. We'll check in with you again in just a little bit.

Let's get to the latest out of New Orleans, Louisiana. A levee holding back water from Lake Pontchartrain has been breached. It's dumping water into downtown. The breach has said to be about two blocks long. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says 80 percent of the city is underwater. It's 20 feet deep in some areas.

In Mississippi, officials say an estimated 55 people are dead in Biloxi. We just heard that from Miles. The governor saying credible accounts of 80 deaths. That number likely to climb.

In Alabama, there are two confirmed deaths. The streets in downtown Mobile underwater. It's the worst flooding to hit that city in nearly a century.

Let's get right to Chad Myers with the very latest on Katrina. We know where she's been, Chad. Where is she going?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is going on up into even parts of western New York, parts of Ohio, Pennsylvania. The winds here will still be 30 to 40 miles per hour. Probably not enough to knock down trees, but certainly some limbs that could come down on a power line or two. We're still getting power outages from parts of Tennessee right now, where the winds are still 40 to 45 miles per hour. And then by Thursday, on up into Quebec.

So, yes, this storm is a big, wide moving, wide moving storm. Lots of rain through here. Probably flooding Kentucky and western Tennessee all day long today. This red zone here, severe weather. Tornado watch is already in effect for parts of Atlanta, and also even into North Carolina, right along where the warm air meets the cool from behind here. You can see, this is the reason why this is cool. Not because there's a cold front, but because there's just not going to be any sunshine whatsoever.

Here's the rain and thunderstorm activity from Chattanooga, back down into Atlanta. A couple of red boxes here. I have them painted light on the map. But those are tornado watchboxes. Yesterday, we had plenty of tornadoes. In fact, 200 tornado warnings yesterday, with only seven that actually hit the ground. These are small tornadoes. Not the F-3, F-4, F-5, the big tornadoes you see in the plains, but still, they could do a lot of damage.

Got some pictures from Georgia from last night, as well. There's the rain in Boston. Rain in New York, already, from the storm. Look, it's connected. It's connected all the way through Pittsburgh, into Cincinnati, back into Louisville. And the eye itself, or the center of circulation right now, not that far from Nashville. That's why your winds are gusty there -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Chad, thanks.

MYERS: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency says his organization is getting ready to quote -- to house, rather, at least tens of thousands of victims for literally months on end. What else is FEMA doing to help? How widespread is the destruction?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Mike Brown is the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He's in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this morning. It's nice to see you again, Mike, thanks for talking with us.

MIKE BROWN, DIRECTOR, FEMA: Good morning, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: In the scale of what you have seen in your many years on this job, how does this rate? How does this compare?

BROWN: Well, let me just say that to me personally, this is a very sobering event. When I look at some of the neighborhoods and realize the length of time that it's going to take to get those neighborhoods ready for people to come back in, which is going to be weeks and weeks, if not months, it's a very sobering thing to think about.

S. O'BRIEN: Three states primarily affected. Millions of people, I think it's fair to say, although the scope's not really known yet. Where do you possibly begin? BROWN: Well, right now we have two priorities. Saving lives and sustaining lives. For example, this morning at about 4:00 a.m., I had a report that we had a hospital that was beginning to flood. So we were evacuating patients out of that hospital. I'm airlifting in additional medical teams. I've called into California search and rescue teams, because they have been good expertise at doing deep water and swift water rescues. So it's those kinds of things we have to do to save lives.

While at the same time, we have literally thousands of people in shelters whose lives we have to sustain. So I've got to get commodities to those people. So we're just in full operational mode right now.

S. O'BRIEN: At the same time, when you look at a city like New Orleans, where the damage is continuing, even though the hurricane has passed through, do you think you can fully get your arms around what you need, what you can get? Because you can't even get to some of these regions yet. And the light's only just come up.

BROWN: Well, and that's exactly the process we go through is -- we started doing reconnaissance last night to see -- kind of get a big picture of what was going on. And then we start focusing on areas that, you know, we either -- either the state or the locals tell us what's going on and we start prioritizing those, again based on saving lives and sustaining lives. So it's a methodical, but a very fast process of getting into neighborhoods, getting into communities and start doing those immediate critical needs for them.

S. O'BRIEN: And Mike, just a moment ago, we were showing videotape of a man being airlifted by chopper. And he clearly had cut his way out of his own roof with a hatchet or something before he was able to get pulled up. You look at the number of times we've seen that situation. How many of these homes, in addition to all the flooding that's there as well, how many of these homes are just a total loss?

BROWN: Well, you know, I don't want to estimate that yet, but I can tell you from my experience based on other disasters, that if these neighborhoods have been flooded, they've been hit by storm surge and they have to sit there in that water for some time, there's going to be major structural damage to almost all of those homes. So we have a disaster here that really is, as I best described it, of sobering proportions.

S. O'BRIEN: What about the death toll? As you are well aware, people have described seeing bodies floating down the water-logged streets. When will you have a grasp of how many lives have been lost in these three states primarily affected?

BROWN: Well, you know, we don't know, Soledad. And what's going to happen is, as these urban search and rescue teams get in to the neighborhoods, they get the boats out and they're able to start looking. The death toll may or may not rise. I mean, I certainly pray that it does not rise. But I think that we have a very good -- an unfortunate opportunity here, where the death toll may increase because of people who have been trapped in those homes.

S. O'BRIEN: It looks -- just these pictures are just devastating. Mike Brown is the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Mike, thanks.

BROWN: Thank you, Soledad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Some of those pictures out of New Orleans this morning. It's where John Zarrella is. He joins us by phone. John, what are you seeing this morning?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE) a little bit better. What we are experiencing, of course, is a total breakdown in the communication systems here. All of the phone service that we had from (INAUDIBLE). But certainly more important than that, (INAUDIBLE), there's a beautiful (INAUDIBLE). The water is actually rising and it's been rising all morning here on Common Street by the hotel. A block over on Canal Street, there is still some high ground. We had -- but that, too, (INAUDIBLE) disappear.

(INAUDIBLE) at first light this morning, and we noticed that there -- the cars there (INAUDIBLE), the parking garage area. The water is now flowing into the basement of the hotel. And it (INAUDIBLE), completely surrounded with water. All of the entrances, the outer hotel are completely surrounded by water. And the water is slowly creeping up the side of the building. So the level of the water is continuing to rise here.

Again, it is impossible from our vantage point, Soledad, to gauge the extent of this. But looking up that end of the street and down in the other, for several blocks in every direction, all you can see is water (INAUDIBLE). It's a little bit higher ground, perhaps about the highest ground in the city, that it's still a bit dry there. But just about everywhere else, the water remains high.

There's debris floating in the water now. It's going to become a harbor base soon. And there's (INAUDIBLE) down the street, along with the debris that the hurricane moved. And the cars (INAUDIBLE) floating. It is not going to take much more, in (INAUDIBLE) in this water. And all of these cars on the street (INAUDIBLE) together. The (INAUDIBLE) is doing our (INAUDIBLE). About three inches or four inches (INAUDIBLE), and continuing to rise -- Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: John Zarrella for us. And John was pointing out a communication breakdown. Clearly, we're having a little bit of trouble hearing him, as well. But here's what he said. The water's been rising all morning. That, of course, is because of that breach in the levee. So even though the hurricane has now passed through, this two-block breach is allowing water from Lake Pontchartrain to flow right into downtown and that means disaster for the folks who are there.

What he says, is where he is at the hotel, the water is now encroaching on the hotel so that sandbags had surrounded the hotel. They were hoping that would be enough to stave off the -- any flooding. Not the case. The water is now entering that hotel and it's slowly creeping up. He also said Canal Street, which I guess is the highest ground in the city, not yet submerged. So a little bit of good news from him on that point.

Debris, though, is floating down the streets. And he says the water, which has gotten even higher since we talked the first time, is going to eventually get some of those cars floating as well, adding even more debris and heavy debris into what is traveling down the streets in downtown New Orleans this morning.

An absolute mess. And as Chad pointed out not too long ago, very difficult to fix. They've got to get in there and fix the breach in the levee. And to do that you really need to stop the water flowing. It's kind of a catch-22 right there.

Let's get back to Miles. He's in Biloxi, Mississippi. And, of course, there, they are dealing with their own set of problems. That storm surge left massive damage as well.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad, a 25-foot storm surge. Where I'm standing right now, I would have been below 25 feet of water yesterday at this time. And that is the real story here. That storm surge came in. Yes, there is wind damage, but really what we're talking about here is the tremendous damage of the water. That's why the mayor of this town is calling it his -- akin to their tsunami.

But there is a little subplot that goes along here, as we talk to some of the residents as they return this morning to see what's going on or, in some cases, not return -- they've been here all along. Call it the Ivan syndrome. There's been a series of hurricanes here this year where people have been told to evacuate. They have. And the storms came in and didn't cause much damage at all.

And so what happened was many people, including this man, Charles Curtis, on this go-round, decided to stay home. You stayed home. What happened?

CHARLES CURTIS, BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI, RESIDENT: The Back Bay of Biloxi came through our front door.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow. What was it like?

CURTIS: Horrific. It was horrific. I kept (INAUDIBLE) -- I kept a cool head, told my wife we were going to survive. And she was panicking. I was able to drag the washer and dryer out of the back part of the house and put it in the highest part of the house. It was in the center. We have four miniature schnauzers. I crated them, I put them on top of the stove.

She got up on top of the washing machine and I was washing around in the water, watching things, seeing how high the tide was coming up. I had the hammer in my hand, because they next thing we do was get on top of refrigerator, freezer, punch a hole in the ceiling, get through the attic, and then go through the roof if we had to. M. O'BRIEN: Now, you didn't have to do that. By the way, we're looking at some pictures that were shot during that time, from this parking deck we're at. A guy who actually came from California to see the storm surge and got some incredible pictures showing the force of it all.

You never had to go to the roof, though. If it was a 25 -- it must have been a little lower surge where you were.

CURTIS: Yes. I was at -- I'm one of the highest points in Biloxi. I was here during Hurricane Camille. I was 10 years old. We never got water. That's why I was never worried. When we had Back Bay, Biloxi -- because Biloxi is actually a peninsula -- came from the Back Bay and the ocean just came right up into our house. I saved the lizard. It was floating by in a cup and I took my baseball cap up. It jumped in there. I brought it in the house and put it up on top of the bed.

It was just -- then last night when everything calmed down, there was a flying squirrel, a big green lizard. This sounds pretty hillbilly, being in the South. A bullfrog, all these animals, one of them just sitting on the porch next to me. It's just strange to see the wildlife coming up.

M. O'BRIEN: So wild kingdom came right to your door there.

CURTIS: Exactly. It was like a Jim Carrey movie.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, did you ever get -- I mean, your wife, you say, was panicking. How -- at any point did you feel like this could be it?

CURTIS: I wasn't going to let it be it. There was no doubt. No. I'm like a bulldog. We would have survived one way or other and I guaranteed her that on my life. She was going to make it.

M. O'BRIEN: Now, you work in one of the casinos.

CURTIS: Yes, sir.

M. O'BRIEN: It's been split in half. You're one of 14,000 gaming workers here on the Gulf Coast. This is a huge impact for this area, isn't it?

CURTIS: Yes, it is. It's going to be -- it's horrific. I mean, I just don't know what to do. We're just going to have to go ahead and rebuild and just drive on with it. Nothing's going to stop me. We'll make it.

M. O'BRIEN: Is it, in the end, worth it living here, given the risks?

CURTIS: Oh, it's great. I mean, it's never been really a risk before. I mean, it just exploded. And we're going to live here. I mean, what are you going to do? It's like a meteorite coming out and just hitting a certain place in Arizona, and people are wondering, I got to move. I mean, so, I mean, what the odds are -- I mean, New Orleans, I heard just rumors that New Orleans was 60 or 70 percent underwater right now. They had never been hit with a major storm since back -- with anything this bad.

And it's like, oh, well, it's not going to come, it's not going to come. You keep waiting and waiting, keep believing. Well, actually, we stayed for every storm here. And because it's usually, like, Category 1 or 2. It's a little rough, but the way it always was was you have food and water for three days. Everything's going to open back up. Casinos were open within a week. Everything is back to normal. You just had to get limbs out of your yard. I mean, that's just been status quo since -- well, for 12 years.

M. O'BRIEN: Not this time.

CURTIS: Not this time.

M. O'BRIEN: Charles Curtis, good luck to you, as you rebuild.

CURTIS: Thank y'all. Y'all take care.

M. O'BRIEN: Take care.

And let's get some look at some of the other headlines in the world. Carol Costello with that -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm just imagining he and his wife on top of that washing machine. That's an amazing story.

Other headlines now, "Now in the News."

U.S. helicopter has been shot down in northern Iraq, killing one American pilot and wounding the other. Military sources say the chopper was hit by small arms fire in Tal Afar.

In the meantime, police in Baghdad say U.S. air strikes killed dozens of civilians in western Iraq, but that has not been confirmed. U.S. Marines say the bombings were targeting al Qaeda.

Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to get his old job back. Earlier, Netanyahu announced his bid to replace Ariel Sharon. Netanyahu has been highly critical of Sharon's plans to withdraw from Gaza and parts of the West Bank, and resigned finance minister in protest. Elections are slated for next year, but could take place sooner.

President Bush is praising World War II veterans as he commemorates the 60th anniversary of the end of the conflict. The president is expected to draw similarities between World War II and the global war on terror. CNN will have live coverage of the president's address in California. That will start at noon eastern.

And some of the clean-up begins this morning from Hurricane Katrina. An apparent twister touched down Monday near the Georgia/Alabama border. There are reports of one storm-related death and about 30 homes were destroyed. And steady rain and winds moving through central Tennessee now. At least 75,000 Tennessee customers are without power due to the storm, and it's not over yet.

S. O'BRIEN: Nowhere near over. All right, Carol, thanks.

Still to come this morning, the search and rescue effort in New Orleans. How much of the city's underwater? Eighty percent is one estimate. Authorities are using boats now. They're trying to rescue the residents who are trapped in their homes. We'll have the very latest on the situation there, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Let's get back to New Orleans and the damage there. The mayor saying that 80 percent of the city is underwater, by his estimation. We heard reports not long ago that the water continues to rise. That's due to levee breach, apparently two blocks long, that is forcing water to flow right into the downtown.

Captain Terry Gilbreath from the U.S. Coast Guard is on the phone. He's in Alexandria, Louisiana -- that's about 120 miles northwest of New Orleans. Captain Gilbreath, thank you for talking with to us. We sure appreciate your time. What's going on this morning?

CAPT. TERRY GILBREATH, U.S. COAST GUARD: Hi, good morning, Soledad. Appreciate the chance to talk to you. We have an armada of vessels that we're getting underway. We're working with the Louisiana Fish and Wildlife to put small boats in the water to try and go out and help with that. I've also got a combination of Coast Guard helicopters and fixed-wing planes that are up in the air, recovering people, pulling people off of rooftops, and doing the best that we can in that regard.

S. O'BRIEN: We're looking at some pictures from yesterday -- a really remarkable Coast Guard rescue of a guy who had finally, I guess, with his axe, cut his way out of his house and was plucked right off the rooftop as the water continued to rise.

How many people do you think this morning are in the same circumstance as this guy was yesterday? I mean, how many people do you have to rescue, do you think?

GILBREATH: We've rescued well over several hundred people. Sometimes three, sometimes four, we get sometimes up to 12 people in a plane at a time. So sometimes we get a lot, others not so much. But we see hundreds of people.

S. O'BRIEN: How many people -- do you have any estimate on how many people are still yet to be rescued, how many people need your help this morning?

GILBREATH: No. We're not even -- we just within the New Orleans area, there's several hundred but we also have to keep looking outside just that area. There's other places that we also need to keep looking.

S. O'BRIEN: You obviously spent a lot of time in this region. How tough is it for you as you look at the -- you know, to see the downtown and just these houses just wrecked. Each and every one of these houses. We're looking over a wide shot of house after house after house. They're gone.

GILBREATH: It's gonna change the face of our Coast Guard operations in New Orleans. We certainly have had a footprint in New Orleans for years and years and years. We are gonna be -- our operations are gonna be different because of that. We have people that are going to be displaced. Some of our operational units may have to be displaced. It's just going to be a catastrophic event for everyone involved.

S. O'BRIEN: It sure is -- the mayor is saying there are gas leaks throughout the city. There may not be electricity in New Orleans for six weeks -- six weeks of no electricity. And you're right, thousands of people will be displaced. Really don't know exactly where they're going to put them all.

Captain Terry Gilbreath of the U.S. Coast Guard -- good luck today. I know you've got a big, long day ahead of you. Appreciate your time.

Still ahead this morning, with disruptions to oil production in the Gulf, will the White House tap the government's emergency reserve? We'll get into the economic impact of Katrina. That's coming up next on "AMERICAN MORNING."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Tapping the country's emergency oil reserves after Katrina. With that story and a check on Wall Street, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."

The president says he likely will tap into that, right?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: That's probably the case. The president has indicated he will release petroleum from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, as it's called -- that's the nation's emergency oil reserve. Seven hundred and twenty-seven million gallons -- or, barrels, I should say -- are in this reserve. It was set up after the 1973-74 Arab oil embargo. What's interesting to me, Carol, if you look at the amount of money that was paid for that petroleum, which is $27 a barrel -- you actually made quite a profit on that because petroleum is trading for $68 a barrel right now.

And let's quickly talk about the markets, as well. Yesterday, interestingly, stocks traded up, and you can see this morning, trading down. And what happened, I think, Carol, is that initially it was not the worse-case scenario with Katrina, in terms of a direct hit in New Orleans. Today sort of a more sobering effect on Wall Street, seeing that there was a tremendous amount of damage and just trying to assess that. A little bit more of a down-beat mood on the Street today. COSTELLO: Back to the oil reserves for just a second. How will that affect us? how will that aft the price at the pump and for how long?

SERWER: I think it will be have a positive effect -- it's mostly a psychological one. But supply and demands are so tight right now that it will really help us out, I think, when the president makes that move. So we'll see it probably at the pump -- gas prices won't go up as much as they would have.

COSTELLO: All right. That's little comfort.

SERWER: Right.

COSTELLO: Andy, thanks. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: We're out of time. So that is it for "AMERICAN MORNING." On behalf of Miles and Carol and Andy, we'll see you back here tomorrow. Daryn Kagan is at the CNN Center and she will take you through the next couple hours on "CNN LIVE TODAY."

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