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The Situation Room

Hurricane Katrina

Aired September 02, 2005 - 17:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: There are a lot of good people out there who really want to help. Thanks, Jack, very much. We'll check back with you very soon.
It's 5:00 p.m. here in Washington. And you're in THE SITUATION ROOM, where news and information from across the hurricane zone arrive at one place simultaneously.

Happening right now, 4:00 p.m. Central Time in New Orleans, where the first large-scale help is now finally arriving four days after the hurricane. Thousands are being airlifted out of the flood to the city's airport, including hundreds of the most critically ill.

And President Bush is now in New Orleans, seeing the devastation himself, hearing the criticism firsthand.

I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

The situation is critical. The situation very desperate in New Orleans. Here are just some of the latest developments, as this state of emergency unfolds. One thousand National Guard troops have arrived in New Orleans in the past few hours, bringing food and water to thousands of suffering people. Air evacuations picking up. Thousands lifted to safety and taken to the city's airport. Now, the Air Force is announcing plans for a massive airlift --10,000 people to be moved to San Antonio, Texas.

And late this afternoon, the Democratic senator from Louisiana, Mary Landrieu, is calling on the president to appoint a cabinet-level official to lead the response to the catastrophe. A slap in the face, clearly, from her perspective, of FEMA.

More on the damage, state by state, right now.

Let's find out what's going on in Louisiana. Eight hundred people are being treated at the New Orleans Airport every hour. Forty thousand people have been treated there so far. Three hundred fifty thousand people's homes in New Orleans, at least 350,000 homes in New Orleans have been damaged or destroyed.

In Mississippi, bodies are floating along the bayou, near Biloxi. Many shrimp farmers, shrimp farmers in the Gulf of Mexico, were killed unfortunately in the storm. How many, we don't know.

In Alabama, many public schools are taking in students who lost everything in the storm. Also, the state government is making up to $25 million immediately available for emergency loans to disaster victims.

CNN's Nic Robertson is joining us on the phone from New Orleans. He's got an update on what's going on, on the streets right now. First of all, Nic, where exactly are you?

NIC ROBERSTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I'm on Canal Street, that main street that runs part of the way through the center of the city. What we've been finding here, some very, very traumatic stories. We talked to several families who are gathered -- New Orleans families who are gathered outside the casino here.

They told us they'd been to the conference center to try and get food and get supplies. They say they've been so disgusted by the situation that it was unsafe, it was out of control, that they couldn't get the food or the water that they needed, that they came back here. And right now, they're just sitting with their belongings in front of a casino. They say they don't really know where else they can go at this time.

Also, in the last half an hour or so, I talked to a family who was down from New York, they brought their son to New Orleans to see the university, as many parents do across the country, taking those children to see the university they might go to.

They say they got stuck after the hurricane. They've had no information, they say, in their hotel. Whatever information they've been given has turned out to be wrong, they say. They've been looking for rides. All they say they want to do is get out of town, but they've been very worried about the situation, worried about going out on the street.

They say the police had even told them not to go to any of the food distribution points because they would be too dangerous for them unless, the policeman told them, they had armed guards. The family, as we were talking to them, got lucky and they managed to find a private security company here that were driving out of town, to Baton Rouge, taking a ride with them. But this seems to be the situation here, Wolf.

BLITZER: Stand by, for a moment, Nic. Nic, stand by for a moment. Condoleeza Rice, the secretary of State, is over at the State Department. She's making a statement. Let's listen.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: ... organizations like the United Nations, NATO, the Organization of American States, the European Union, and others, are showing their solidarity with us during this time.

You have the updated list of countries from every corner of the globe that are offering their help. Countries like Canada and Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Israel, China, Azerbaijan, the Philippines, El Salvador, Australia, Turkey, and many others. I want to note, in particular, that we received a generous offer of support from Sri Lanka, a country that, as we speak, is still recovering from its own massive natural disaster.

Every contribution is important. And over the past few days, I have been in contact with a wide range of officials from other nations and international organizations to respond to these offers of support. The State Department is coordinating closely with the Department of Homeland Security to match these offers of support with the needs on the ground.

Some of the needs will be longer-term needs, as those areas and citizens hit by Katrina recover and begin to rebuild their lives, their families, and their futures. In my discussions with my counterparts, I've been heartened at their offers of both short-term and long-term support.

Many private citizens across the globe also want to donate their personal funds to help. As I've talked with my counterparts around the world, I've encouraged them to urge their citizens to donate Katrina relief through the Red Cross.

Here at the State Department, we've established a task force to manage our components of the response that are being coordinated by the Department of Homeland Security. This includes assistance from the United States Agency for International Development.

USAID experts are also working at the Department of Homeland Security's emergency center, drawing on their experience in working disasters around the world. A wide range of USAID equipment is also being deployed, from their Zodiac light boats to large chainsaws to help clear trees and other roadblocks. We're doing everything we can to help those in need here at home in America, and we are also working closely with other governments to help them locate and assist their citizens.

On a personal note, as you know, my family is from Alabama. My father was born and raised in Louisiana. The pictures are pictures that I, in many cases, know well. And I just want to say to the people of the hard-hit Gulf region that our prayers and thoughts -- and my personal prayers and thoughts -- are with them.

I'm going to travel this Sunday to Alabama to tour the disaster area, to meet with senior officials and Americans in need, and to receive briefings on the latest situation there. And now I'm happy to take a few questions.

QUESTION: Miss Secretary, there was a report yesterday that Russia has been refused -- I mean, that its offer has been turned down. Is there anything to that?

RICE: We've turned down no offers. I think that obviously when something like this happened, we had a task force set up. We had to make certain that everybody knew the vehicle to use to channel contributions. Jonathan?

QUESTION: Madam Secretary, no offer's been turned down, but according to FEMA, from them, at least, no offer's been accepted yet. I mean, what good is it to have, you know, nearly 60 countries step forward and offer assistance and apparently, at least as far as FEMA's concerned, they haven't been able to accept any offers?

RICE: Well, as we are speaking, or perhaps just a little bit before we were speaking, there is a group that is working. Harry Thomas, who's the executive secretary here at the State Department, and is the person who is in charge of coordinating this international effort, he is working with FEMA to go through the list, to see what might be used in the short term.

Obviously in some cases, in places like New Orleans, it's a matter of access. But to see which of the offers can be taken up immediately, which others might need to be taken up somewhat later. But we are matching those offers now to the needs on the ground.

Andrea?

QUESTION: Madam Secretary, this morning, some of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus had some pretty tough words for the federal government. They said that they were outraged, they were ashamed. The implication being that because many of the people who were without food and water over the last five days are poor and black that food wasn't getting to them quickly enough. Do you think that perhaps there's a kernel of truth to this?

RICE: Well, first of all, I have spoken to some members of the Congressional Black Caucus. I've also spoken to Bruce Gordon of the NAACP and to Mr. Morell of the Urban League. We're all going to be in this together. I think everybody's very emotional.

It's hard to watch pictures of any American going through this. And yes, the African-American community has obviously been very heavily affected. But people are doing what they can for Americans. Nobody wants to see any American suffer.

I was with the president this morning at 7:00 a.m. for a meeting that he held with Defense and Homeland Security and others, to make sure that the effort is as robust as humanly possible. Nobody wants to see any American suffer, and I think everybody understands that.

But it's a deeply emotional time. This part of the country's been very hard hit. This is something we haven't seen in the United States. And as a result, I think we -- there is a lot of emotion. But I can tell you that everybody is doing everything possible, and everybody wants to see these people taken care of.

QUESTION: Madam Secretary, you have a passport office in New Orleans? Have officials gotten to it yet, and have you been in touch with all of the people who work there?

RICE: Yes. We do have a passport office, about 165 employees work there. It is one of our busiest and most efficient passport offices there in New Orleans. I spoke with both the director and deputy director of the offices. They are both safe with families and other parts of the South.

We are reaching out through all means that we have for employers. We've heard back from a number of people. We've not heard back from everybody. We suspect that some of that is just that the communications is very difficult in New Orleans at this point.

We are also obviously working to secure the office and to get to it as quickly as possible. But, yes, I've been in touch with both the director and the deputy director. And Mora Hardy from Consular Affairs has been very actively engaged and working on this problem.

QUESTION: But have they gotten to the office? Do you know the extent of the damage there?

RICE: We know the area in which it's located. And so we have heard from the manager, as I understand it. It is intact, as we understand it. But, obviously, with movement restricted in the New Orleans area, we've not wanted to press the system, so to speak. But we are working very actively with U.S. law enforcement officials to try to get to the office as quickly as possible.

QUESTION: To follow up on Andrea's question, did you speak to the Congressional Black Caucus and the Urban League before the press conference today or...

RICE: I actually talked with Mr. Gordon -- Mr. Gordon reached out to me yesterday. I talked to him very early this morning. I talked to him. I actually talked to Mr. Morell, I think, just about the time of the press conference. But these were calls that I had planned to make.

When I talked to the president yesterday, around lunchtime, I told him that I wanted to do what I could, obviously, in my capacity as secretary of State, but also to do what I could outside of my capacity as secretary of State and help in any way that I can. That's why I'm going to go to Alabama.

QUESTION: And are you -- you've spoken very eloquently around the world about growing up as an African-American in the South. Are you concerned, now, that at least the impression is going to exist in this country and abroad that some of the relief has been affected by the race and class of the people most affected?

RICE: I really do believe that people know that Americans don't want Americans to suffer. And this is a very sad situation. I was listening to the first lady today, when she was in Lafayette, and she was talking about the fact that, you know, the poor are often some of the hardest hit. And I know New Orleans a little bit. It's a very low- lying area. And it's -- people weren't able to get out.

But that Americans would somehow, in a color-affected way, decide who to help and who not to help -- I just don't believe it. Americans are generous to each other. And I think you're seeing that people are opening their homes to people who are displaced and have had to be evacuated. You're going to see more of that.

And I just hope that what the world is seeing is that even though we've been hit with something that is unlike anything that we've been hit with before, the generosity of this country and the caring of Americans for Americans is, I think, what is coming through.

QUESTION: Madam Secretary, a general foreign policy question. Do you think an event of this magnitude could affect public opinion, in terms of support for a strong policy? The natural reaction here is, why are we doing X, Y, Z in Iraq and overseas when we have these problems, energy prices (ph). Do you worry about that at all?

RICE: Well, obviously, whenever there's something on the home front, people focus on the home front. But I think Americans are plenty sophisticated in their understanding of the world to know that the United States can't live in isolation. We learned that in a horrible way on September 11th, that our security is inextricably linked, for instance, to events and ideologies in the Middle East.

Americans, I think, have always known that when freedom's on the march, we're safer. And when freedom's in retreat, we're weaker and more vulnerable. And so I'm not concerned that that will be the case. I also would hope that Americans would look at the response of the international community, which has been warm.

I have had numerous phone calls over the last couple of days, as this has unfolded, from foreign ministers around the world, just seeing if there's anything they can do. I thought that Kofi Annan was particularly eloquent in talking about the fact that America has always been there for affected places, and that now the world needs to be there for America. And I hope that, too, will remind Americans that we're all part of the same community. Maybe a couple more.

QUESTION: Does it really make sense to accept money from these poorer nations? We probably already give aid to them and, in effect, we'd just be turning around and giving the money back.

RICE: I think there is something that is very valuable in people being able to give to each other and to be able to do so without a sense of means, so to speak. I was, myself, deeply touched by what Sri Lanka has wanted to do. I think people are just reaching out to the United States. And we're very grateful that people are reaching out to the United States. Last question. Yes? Oh, OK. Yes, and then Jonathan.

BLITZER: All right, we're going to leave Condoleeza Rice, the secretary of State, talking about how other countries around the world are helping the United States, or want to help the United States.

Dennis Hastert, the speaker of the House, is speaking right now as well. Let's briefly listen to hear what he has to say.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: ... lost their members of their family, or lost their homes. The terrible situations they're in, the three Gulf Coast states.

However, we've started the process today by passing a supplemental appropriation, just to do the things that have to be done right now, to make sure that FEMA has its wherewithal, that we can do housing for those people who are displaced, that we can get transportation to keep the helicopters running, to get food and water those depressed areas. Those are the things that just the first kind of responder reaction that we're doing. So we continue that in the next week or so. We have talked about how we're going to start to look at the problems.

And one of the things that we look at -- there's a lot of small problems that we're just going to have to bring -- that have come before, relatively small problems that we have to solve first before we get to some of the big problem. Just how do we get our refineries up and running? How do we get traffic patterns back in a process? How do we get farmers ability to get their grain to the marketplace, because the Port of New Orleans has been basically put out of service?

So these are the things that we're trying to work forward. We have looked at the best way to bring people together, to solve these problems. We have some of these issues that are cross-jurisdictional.

As we did in the 9/11, we plan to work with the House and the Senate in a bipartisan way, on a bicameral basis, instead of trying to pass legislation here and then pass legislation in the Senate, and then go through conference. I think we can work together. We have a proven record during the 9/11 situation that we've been able to do that. I asked all members and all leaders to work together in a bipartisan way, so that we can start to solve those solutions.

So, Tom, do you have anything you want to say?

REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX), HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Just, about the September into October agenda, the speaker instructed us last week to work with the chairmen and alert the chairmen to go to work and their staffs have been working all this week, looking at issues that we need to address. We will continue that, obviously, in the priority of things. We will raise the Katrina disaster as the top priority for the House. But at the same time, we have other work that we will be working on.

The top priority, as the speaker -- I will be meeting with the chairmen on Tuesday when we all get back into town. They will be making a report and we'll get a better idea as to how we structure these bills that we know are coming.

And I would expect that there'll be more than one bill to address the Katrina problem, especially the New Orleans -- not to diminish what happened in Mississippi or Alabama, but the New Orleans problem presents special problems that, frankly, we haven't faced before. One of those is, you have a major city in the United States...

BLITZER: All right. We're going to move away from the statements the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, Tom DeLay and Dennis Hastert, have been making, promising speedy action, legislative action, to try to deal with the enormity of the crisis unfolding in New Orleans.

Let's go over to New Orleans. CNN's Karl Penhaul is over at the airport. Karl, give our viewers an update. What's happening now?

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, if you've been looking at some of those live pictures we've been broadcasting, you'll see that behind me, it looks more like Baghdad, not the Big Easy. The skies over New Orleans throughout the day have been buzzing with helicopters, Army helicopters, Navy helicopter, Coast Guard helicopters, civilian helicopters. They've been ferrying into New Orleans to bring out the sick and stranded.

I took an over-flight in an Army Black Hawk. And what we saw was some of those helicopters landing on overpasses, lifting people off roofs, Coast Guards were being winched down, pulling people from their balconies. There are still a lot of people trapped in floodwater that, in some places, is as high as the first story. But today, dozens of helicopters have been brought into operation to bring those people to safety, Wolf.

BLITZER: And the mission continues there for the foreseeable future. What are your immediate plans, Karl? Are you heading back into New Orleans?

PENHAUL: We certainly will be here. On the flight that we took, on an Army Black Hawk, a group of the people that we brought back out were five New Orleans Police Department officers. They, for the last five days and nights, have been on the ground there at the university campus, in the east of the city, helping 3,000 citizens to safety.

Their role was to secure a landing zone against looters, against marauders, and to help these people to safety. What one of the police officers told me was it is a war zone out there. People are fighting. He said, in his words, people are losing their minds.

As we brought him back out on the helicopter, Wolf, a veteran police officer, we saw him break down in tears. We said, what's wrong? He said, I can still see the faces of the babies and the old folks in my mind. And he told us, how in the last five days and nights, he saw some of the elderly dying in front of him as they were waiting for a helicopter ride out of flood-ravaged eastern New Orleans, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Karl Penhaul, reporting for us. We'll check back with you. These are new pictures we're getting in from New Orleans. These are live pictures. You see the dome of the Superdome in New Orleans right there, badly damaged from the hurricane. But look at all those people still on the ground, searching desperately for help.

Let's check in with our Internet reporter Abbi Tatton. She's continuing to watch the situation for us as well. What are your picking up on the blogs, Abby?

ABBI TATTON, CNN INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: Well, back to New Orleans, despite the lack of power and communication in that city, one resident who's been camped out there all week has been updating online on the desperate situation in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

His name is Michael Barnett. He's an Internet consultant. And he is camped out in his office building in downtown New Orleans with a small group of friends and co-workers. His site has become the Survival of New Orleans Blog, in his words. You can find it at mgno.com. Hundreds of pictures, first-hand accounts here of what is going on, on the ground. And he's been doing it all week.

Today, smoke outside the window. He went up on to the top floor of a 27-story corporate high-rise that Michael is located in, taking photos of a fire. He went, then, down on to the street to see the situation for himself, fire raging out of control there.

We were just messaging him online, finding out the situation. What he said is, oh, yes, it's a lost cause for that building right there. A New Orleans Police officer, looking on, armed, but unable to do anything.

That was the situation today. But hundreds of pictures at this site. Again, mgno.com. The situation, first of all, the destruction from the storm, but then it quickly turned to the looting. Michael was taking hundreds of pictures from the windows and also on the ground. People carting off all kinds of things. This, from yesterday. Golf clubs, briefcases.

He also trained a webcam at one point on this hotel across the street that was being stripped entirely of everything. Caused him to say yesterday, Mr. President, we are losing this city. It is the law of the jungle down here, wanted the military to be sent in.

Michael has reported he's seeing more and more military, National Guard coming in, so the situation improving slightly. What he was saying was, even though he's been pretty upbeat all week, this place is completely coming apart. The hopelessness on the street breaks the heart. That, from Michael Barnett at mgno.com.

Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Abbi, thank you very much. We're going to continue our coverage, our special coverage, here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

We're standing by. The president, the mayor of New Orleans, they're expected to speak soon. We'll go back to New Orleans live.

And when we come back, we'll also go back to CNN's Jack Cafferty.

These are live pictures that are coming in from New Orleans right now.

We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: You're looking at live pictures. A fire has erupted in New Orleans. Firefighters are on the scene. They're in boats. If they pan, if they go wide, you'll see the boats. They're trying to deal with this fire. Let's listen briefly in. The helicopter pilot is shooting some of this video for us, live pictures.

Let's listen to hear what he says.

J.T. ALPAUGH, POOL PHOTOGRAPHER: You can see that the distance between this warehouse fire and the actual river itself is quite a ways away. And the water cannons on these fireboats may not have the ability to reach that. So it's going to be up to the firefighters to come into that area off the street to finish the job on that original fire.

But the fire that started later in the morning, in this warehouse, obviously being started by the embers from the chemical fire, chemical warehouse fire, is now completely extinguished. So that's good news. Just one piece of good news in this region right now. Not a whole lot -- not a whole lot other good news, though.

Can show these firefighters on the fireboats, still dressed in civilian clothing, putting out the fire, using their pumps on board the boats to pull the water out of the river and blow it onto the fires, onto the banks here of the...

BLITZER: We're going to stay on these pictures, dramatic pictures, firefighters on these boat, trying to deal with a fire that has erupted along the warehouses in the -- some of the more industrialized areas of New Orleans. This is a problem that has erupted over the past couple days in addition to everything else, fire's breaking out, sometimes in chemical areas. So this is a very, very high priority among so many other high priorities in that city.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our senior medical correspondent is joining us on the phone. He was at one of the hospitals earlier today in New Orleans. Sanjay, update our viewers what you saw and heard, where you were.

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We were at Charity Hospital, Wolf, one of the biggest hospitals in downtown New Orleans. I guess the most important thing to tell viewers and remind viewers, is that there are still lots of patients there. There had been sporadic rumors -- which are not true, because I was just there -- that all the patients had been evacuated. Still over 200 patients this morning, several of them very ill, as well, Wolf. So that's probably the most important thing.

The hospital really remains immobilized. There is no electricity, there is no water, there is no plumbing. It's just -- it's third world medicine. And so many of the doctors told me, they're trying to do the best they can are, but the first priority, a difficult one right now still, is evacuation -- triage and evacuation, Wolf.

BLITZER: And do they look like they have a handle on the situation? Because yesterday at that hospital, Charity Hospital, it sounded rather bleak.

GUPTA: It did. You know, it was amazing, actually, Wolf. Shortly after you -- yesterday, about the sniper fire. They're actually taking sniper fire as they're trying to evacuate patients. I was there just about an hour-and-a-half, two hours after that, looking at that same area. In fact, I didn't see any snipers myself.

There still wasn't the National Guard presence, there was -- hospital security there was armed, wearing Kevlar bulletproof vests, basically trying to escort patient and doctors as they were evacuating. I think it's better than it was. I think there's more helicopters, seeming, to land in that area. Let me just paint a picture for you real quick. The only way you can get to the hospital is to actually land a helicopter on a parking deck that is across the street. And then you have to take a boat or an amphibious vehicle to the hospital. It is completely surrounded by deep water, making it very difficult.

And worth adding as well that that water is absolutely disgusting, Wolf. It is full of -- a cesspool of bacteria and who knows what else, not to mention gasoline. It is disgusting and possibly -- concern, as far as public health issues later on down the road, Wolf.

BLITZER: Well, talk a little bit about that, Sanjay. The public health issues that are going to linger long after the U.S. military, the National Guard, other law enforcement, other first responders are on the scene and trying to get the situation somewhat under control. We heard it could be another 80 days before the Corps of Engineers removes all the water, the flooded area, of New Orleans. What are the health -- the public health risks that are out there?

GUPTA: You know, it's interesting, Wolf, because you and I talked a lot during the tsunami as well about these exact sort of risks. We're talking specifically about things like cholera, typhoid, the diarrhea-type illnesses, those are the big concerns when you have infected water, contaminated water.

Thankfully, Wolf -- you remember everyone talked about the second wave of death in Sri Lanka and other places. Thankfully, that never materialized. And I'm hoping it happens here as well.

What is needed is good, clean water into city, bottled water, and having antibiotics standing by and ready, should patients become sick. There are some things that are optimistic, that are better in terms of the -- Charity Hospital, for example there appeared to be plentiful drug supply for the patients that needed it for infection.

So, I am optimistic that that could be brought under control pretty quickly. I know, I've heard others say that they're very concerned about it, including the CDC. Having been in Sri Lanka, having seen that situation, it is disgusting, for sure, but I think it's something that could be brought under control.

BLITZER: Give us a little perspective, Sanjay. A lot of our viewers will remember the immediate aftermath of the tsunami, you went to Sri Lanka. During the war in Iraq, you were in Iraq, you were embedded with the so-called Devil Docs, the Navy doctors who went in to treat the injured.

Give us some perspective, how that compares to what you saw earlier today in New Orleans.

GUPTA: That is a great question. I thought a lot about that. I think this is in some ways very similar to the tsunami. The thing that I guess is most striking, and maybe doesn't even bear repeating, I've heard so many time, I just have to keep pinching myself and reminding myself that this is the United States of America. And what we're seeing here, clearly is Third World-like conditions. Third World medicine as well. Because of the lack of electricity, the lack of clean water, the lack of plumbing, all those sorts of things, makes it very difficult for doctors to practice the sort of medicine they're used to practicing here at a big city in the United States.

But there are good things as well. I think the resources are plentiful in terms of medical supplies, in terms of simple things like being able to get a breathing tube into a child, or give antibiotics to an adult with an infection. Those sort of things paralyzed the doctors in Iraq at times. Lack of some resources paralyzed the doctors in Sri Lanka. The situation is concerinng, for sure, but there are some positive things here because of the resource the hospital have, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Sanjay, stand by for a moment. I want our viewers to know what they're seeing. These are fires that have erupted in New Orleans.

You're looking at live pictures. We're getting these live pictures back now. These are pictures coming in from our affiliate helicopters that are covering this story.

Tom Foreman is here with us. Tom, show our viewers where these fires are. You see these helicopters going in. They're trying to still rescue people from atop the roofs. But one of these immediate issues are the fires that have erupted in some of these industrial areas.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These fires have been worrying me almost more than anything right now, Wolf, because these are the things that can grow.

I want you to look. A moment ago you saw the one at the riverside. Take a look at the map now. If you look at the map, and we zoom in here, there's New Orleans, Superdome down here, all the stuff we've been seeing. We're going down river. It doesn't look like it's downriver, but that's downriver. That's where those first fires were, I believe, right along in this area. See the rail yards shipping stuff.

This is not such an issue because it's warehousing, nobody lives there. And it's always been an industrial area. And it might be somewhat isolated by roads and that sort of thing.

These other -- those are the pictures we're seeing right in this area -- these other fires we were just seeing a moment ago, there are the houses burned down, that's what's got me scared, because that looks to me like Old Ninth Ward, down in some of these areas around -- around one of the canals. And I can't pinpoint that one yet.

But I will tell you this, New Orleans is utterly filled with very old historic houses. Even those that may not be grand houses, they're made of wood. And they're closely situated, surrounded by these great live oak trees. And when I see that house fire happening there, I get worried because that can spread through these neighborhoods and be a very, very serious problem.

BLITZER: And even though we see these pictures coming in of these boats that have these house that they can try to deal with the fires from the river, it's very hard to get fire engines, fire trucks, to the scene in these areas because of the floodwaters and other things problems that erupted.

Let's see if we can get in. You see that fire there panning in...

FOREMAN: Yeah, you can't. This is...

BLITZER: ...these are live pictures we're seeing right now.

FOREMAN: Yes. You can't get the boats, even up the canals right now, because the canals are choked out. You can't get there.

Let's see where this is, because this is going to raise up for a moment, and it'll give us some idea of where we are. And I still...

BLITZER: The floodwater's still all over those areas.

FOREMAN: I still think we're talking about New Orleans east. There's no way to get a truck down those roads, you'd have to do some kind of fire boat. But you need a low draft fire boat. And that's a different animal...

BLITZER: So what you're concerned with -- unless that fire is contained, it could spread to other homes in that area.

FOREMAN: Look at these pictures, the kind of areas we're talking about here. This is New Orleans for you. Let me get into one of these neighborhoods we're talking about.

These kind of areas -- and I don't know that this is the area -- I don't want to panic people over that if you live in this area, because we haven't pinpointed this. But look at the density of housing in these areas. These houses are all on top of each other -- that's the way New Orleans is put together -- many of them very old, very historic.

And you saw the one burned to the ground right next to this one. I will bet everything I own if they don't get this one out, the house next to it will light, because you saw how close it is. There's no way you can avoid it.

BLITZER: That's a pretty dramatic fire. And it doesn't look like water is anywhere close to that fire, except on the streets of New Orleans where there's floodwaters. And that's not going to do any good, because a lot of that floodwater has oil in it as well. If anything, that's going to accelerate this blaze, going on in this one part of New Orleans.

And I just want to caution viewers, we are not sure where this fire is taking place in New Orleans.

FOREMAN: We'll try to pinpoint this shortly. (CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: We'll try to pinpoint for our viewers. We'll also getting some new pictures. I want to show our viewers, Tom, some new pictures we're getting in from inside the Astrodome in Houston. It's right behind you. Take a look at this. This is the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, where about several thousand -- I heard earlier, maybe 12,000 people have already come in. They've got cots on the ground there. People are beginning to sit in the stands.

But we're told -- it's filled to capacity already, because there's no place else to put those cots. And they're going to have to move people to other facilities.

The Houston Astrodome, like the Superdome in New Orleans before it, becoming a shelter, an emergency shelter for these people.

Ali Velshi, you're watching all of this, together with all of us, and we're trying to put some ballpark figures how much this is going to wind up costing. Preliminary numbers -- and let's caution viewers, very preliminary. But what are you hearing, Ali?

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I'll just give you a perspective -- 2001, 9/11 came in at about $20.1 billion. Hurricane Andrew $20.5 billion. We now have estimates today by two different companies that do this, putting it -- the first one is between $9 and $25 million -- I'm sorry I said million, billion dollars. And Fitch is suggesting it will be at the high end of that. And another organization saying between $14 billion and $22 billion. So the high end of both of those estimates is making it bigger than any other catastrophe in U.S. history.

And Tom's right. You know, if this had sort of started to end right after it hit, that would be one thing. But between the fires and all that water sitting around, this is going to end up being one very expensive thing, not to mention the fact that these people will be looking for work.

BLITZER: All right, Ali, stand by. I want to listen in to the helicopter pilot, who is taking these pictures for us from New Orleans, from the fires that's erupted. Let's listen, see if we can get some more information.

ALPAUGH: (INAUDIBLE) hoping to get a street off of it.

The street signs are facing the wrong way, but that's fine, we'll -- now we can hear it. Kind of tilt back and show you this fire burning. Again, we're going to tilt up and just show you where it is in reference to the downtown area, the top of my screen. We're west- southwest, approximately five miles, maybe a little less, from the downtown area.

You can see that there's a very large house or a facility, maybe a college or -- not really sure what this is. I'm going to push into this facility, maybe I can get a name off it.

Very low volume, Ron (ph), I can barely hear you.

OK, I'm going to pull back here and show you -- that looks like it's a -- maybe an old college? Maybe a religious college of some sort? I have to try to find that, locate it on the map.

But anyway, that's the area where this fire is burning. And we can almost tell you, we slide back to the right here a little bit, further to the east, we can almost tell you that this fire's probably going to jump at least two or three homes.

Again, these homes are built very close together, and it becomes an exposure factor -- fires leaping from one rooftop to another. And this is a perfect position, as we get a close-up view, as this fire tears through these homes.

BLITZER: All right. This is a fire that has erupted in New Orleans in an area that -- I think, Tom Foreman, an area considerably removed from the French Quarter. That one building that we saw that looked like a religious statue on the corner of that building, you suspect you know what that building is?

FOREMAN: Yeah, I think I do. I'm not absolutely certain of this. So I don't want people to panic over this. But I am fairly certain this is actually -- yes, quite removed from the French Quarter. But this is uptown New Orleans. I'm almost certain from this shot we saw a moment ago, I believe this is in the area of -- if you're local, Carrollton and Claiborne, roughly. I used to live down this road. And I think this is within a few blocks of where the New Orleans Archdiocese offices are, these big ornate buildings back there. It's a little hard to tell, but that's what it looks like; it would be across Carrollton from that.

BLITZER: And you heard the pilot express the exact same concern that you had expressed earlier, that given the nature of these structures of these buildings in this part of the city, that this fire will spread from one house to another, unless firefighters manage to get there. It doesn't look like any of them are there.

FOREMAN: Exactly. And this is what we're talking about. I want to show it on the map now, Wolf, I found this. We go in here, this is the Superdome, New Orleans, downtown right here. You saw it in the wide shot. In fact, they may be pulling out now to show it to you right now.

If you move over this way, up these roads, it's a little bit hard to do on the fly here, but I'll sort this out as best we can. You come up here. I believe we're talking about an area right about in here. It's a little hard to grab at the moment, but I believe we're talking about right in this area. And I have to try to find the archbishop's residence in that area. It's across from that, because that little cluster of shopping areas that you see up in the -- on the top of the screen there is what we're talking about. This is generally what we're talking about.

You see this area? You're going away from downtown. Fellow said he thought it was southwest. I don't think that is correct... BLITZER: Southwest-south, I think he said.

FOREMAN: Yeah.

BLITZER: But if you take a look, those streets around those homes are still pretty much totally under water.

FOREMAN: Yeah, they're full of water. And let me double-check here, because we can click on the storm here, and it will tell us how flooded -- yeah, these streets are all flooded in the pictures that we have here. So if you look at that...

BLITZER: You can see it, you can see it.

FOREMAN: ... you can tell that this is the right area.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Look at that man -- those two together, look at that there.

FOREMAN: And that looks to me, at least from this angle, like that could be part of Claiborne Avenue, and -- again, I can't swear to the shouts right now, because it's a little bit disorienting the way the helicopter has turned around here. But I think you're talking about this general area, uptown New Orleans, sort of near the archdiocese offices. Everybody who lives there would have an idea of where that building was. Very nice residential area. Again, a lot of very old homes there. Many of them made of wood.

BLITZER: Those two individuals simply standing in the water, ankle high water, not very deep, but certainly must be not very pleasant after walking across the street, and walk through that water. Still very much evident on the ground there.

I want to go to the CNN Center. CNN's Zain Verjee is standing by. You got some new information, Zain?

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, we're just getting pictures from one of our affiliates, KLFY. There is a bus carrying evacuees. Now it has flipped over. That happened just some minutes ago. This has happened about 18 miles north of Lafayette, in Opelousas, Louisiana. We don't know at this stage how many evacuees were on the bus or the extent of the injuries, but you can see people standing around, just talking, drinking water. We don't know, again, the extent of the situation, or its severity. But you can see the bus there, overturned and leaning on its side.

It's believed that this bus was carrying evacuees headed to Dallas. It was traveling northbound. And that's all the information we have right now. The bus carrying evacuees flipping over just a few minutes ago, 18 miles north of Lafayette.

Wolf.

BLITZER: You have got to wonder, Zain, your heart must go out to these people. One tragedy after another. They finally get on board a bus, they're evacuated. They're thrilled, they're happy, they're getting out of New Orleans. And then this happens, the bus overturns.

And, hopefully, everyone's OK. We don't have any information on that.

But you have to wonder -- these people say to themselves, what did we do to deserve this?

VERJEE: Exactly, Wolf. I mean, you know, they are probably asking themselves, we survived the hurricane -- and if they've come from the Superdome, and we don't know that for sure, they may have lived through desperate -- the stinking, the filthy condition that we've been hearing described as inhuman, no food, no water, no sanitary facilities, many people separated from their loved ones.

Karl Penhaul moments ago quoting a military officer, said that people really are surviving a war zone and they're losing their minds. And now this.

Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Zain, thank you very much.

I want to show our viewers a live picture we're getting from a rooftop in New Orleans. This is happening all over the place. The camera, unfortunately, is going wide now, but we had seen an individual go on top of that roof, a rescue worker, and go inside, climb inside. And he was about to save it looked like an elderly woman who was stuck inside there.

They're getting in closer. Let's see if we can see that. That helicopter pilot is right there. There's a cable that was dropped with the -- with the rescue worker. And let's see if we can see what is happening, because this was a very, very dramatic image we just saw. This rescue worker just going into this building. We don't see him now. But going in through a window, a woman was there, and he was about to try to bring her out. We'll keep watching this picture.

One story after another. Tom Foreman, it simply doesn't end, the horror that we're seeing. Even though it's -- the general said today the cavalry has arrived. In much of New Orleans, the cavalry certainly has not arrived.

FOREMAN: Absolutely. There are people -- you can tell, look at these houses. If you're in one of these house, how are you going to get out now? If you don't have a boat, that's it. Look at these, these are easily 3, 4, 5 feet of water, you get out on the road, it's going to be 6 feet. This area, again, is uptown New Orleans. This is not near the Garden District. This would be more out towards Claiborne Avenue. I am going to zoom in again.

By the way, another one of our New Orleaneans confirmed a while ago she also believes the fire we were looking at earlier was on Carrollton Avenue or close to Carrollton Avenue, where it links up with I-10. It's near Xavier University, for a lot of people who would know that, and Carrollton Avenue, for many people who would be there -- who would be there, much further down Carrollton, toward the river, you would encounter Camellia Grill, which is many -- a place where many people go, particularly late at night, for a waffle or something late in the evening.

This is the area we're talking about nonetheless. Uptown New Orleans. You move away from the Superdome, which is over here, you go west, you get out into this. This is uptown. This is all these little houses clustered together. You can see the similarity. And again, if we click on the storm path here, or the storm results, you can see the water. These houses are all surrounded by water in these areas.

BLITZER: Look at this, Tom. I want to show our viewers. This is what happened just a few minutes ago. You see this rescue worker being dropped by the cable from the helicopter. He's in the harness. Watch what he does. He's going on this roof, in New Orleans, and this has happened over and over and over again. He's going to go inside that window. And there's a very happy woman, I think we're about to see, that's going to greet him. There she is.

FOREMAN: Oh, yeah.

BLITZER: There she is. You see her. And she's clearly been stuck there for some time. And he's talking to her. We're going to see when he comes out, if they lift her out of there, and bring her to safety. But this is -- unfortunately, this is a situation we've seen happen over and over again. And it's happening right now, even as we speak.

FOREMAN: You can see there also, Wolf, the very thing I was talking about, the age of the house. When the shot was in tight there, you can see these have very old slate roofs, they have wooden walls. Many of these homes are 100-year old homes, easily, many, many of them.

One of the few things that will help in the uptown area here, is just this, they were built in a very graceful time when many of the streets were nice and wide. So, even if you have a fire that hits one area, perhaps it can be contained to one block, which would be a good thing. Especially the avenues, when you get to Carrolton Avenue, St. Charles Avenue, giant, wide avenues. And the live oaks may burn, but perhaps that will be a barrier.

BLITZER: Tom Foreman, thanks very much.

Listen to this. I want to update viewers about a situation we told you about yesterday if you were watching. A woman named Phyllis Petrich called in. We spoke to her from THE SITUATION ROOM here in Washington. She told us then -- this is 24 hours ago -- that some 300 people were stranded inside the Ritz Carlton Hotel in New Orleans and that conditions there were rapidly deteriorating. Phyllis Petrich is joining on the phone now. Phyllis, where are you right now?

PHYLLIS PETRICH, HURRICANE VICTIM: BWI Airport. We have arrived back home in Baltimore.

BLITZER: Oh, thank God for that. Phyllis Petrich, walk us through. When we last spoke, you were stuck in the ballroom at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans, a very gloomy situation. You thought the world had forgotten about you and your 300 colleagues and friends and associates who were there. Walk us through what happened over the past 24 hours.

PETRICH: Shortly after our conversation, helicopters began showing up around the hotel just like bees buzzing around. A couple of hours later, we were called to the ballroom again and the manager of the hotel informed us that we had to evacuate the hotel that she had been told that FEMA had agreed to allow the buses to come in and evacuate us. But we had been told that before and we were very unsure of the information.

We were also told that we were going to have to walk from the Ritz to the Marriott four blocks away from the hotel, because of the water and the buses couldn't get into the Ritz. We all were very aware we were going to have to walk through the raw sewage.

We tried to cover our bodies as best we could. The doctors who had been there with us were able to commandeer some antibiotics from a Walgreens across the street. They gave doses of antibiotics to everyone that was going into the water. Told us what to do to follow up when we got home.

We left the hotel in groups of 40. And we were with guards, armed guard. My husband and I were at the end of a group. And behind us was a family who had put their child -- or their children -- in a laundry basket with wheels that the hotel had given them. And as the water rose, this basket started to get away from them and they began to panic.

My husband and I stood back to help control this basket, to get them to safety, which meant that we were then away from the guards. But we couldn't abandon them.

We got them to dry land. We all got into the hotel. And we had to wait until about midnight, when supposedly eight buses with police escort were supposed to show up. Instead, 18 buses showed up with armed guards, with special shooter patrols and helicopters with big searchlights looking all around to make sure that there were no snipers that were going to attack us.

They loaded us all on the buses, took us to Baton Rouge. And the hotel greeted us with food and soap and water and Gatorade, and told us that they were making arrangements for those of us that wanted to try to get to Houston, to board flights.

And I'm glad to say that a good portion of the people that lived outside of Louisiana were able to get out, or will be getting out shortly.

I don't know what's going to happen to the people who live within the state. My heart goes out to them. I wish there was something more that we could do to help them. But I want to thank you for your efforts on our behalf, because I know if you hadn't done something, we would still there be.

BLITZER: Well, I'm not sure we did much. We put you on the air, Phyllis. You told your story, what was happening at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans yesterday. It was very moving, poignant, dramatic story. I assume people were listening. And, thank God, you and the others have now gotten out. And you're on your way back home.

You just landed at Baltimore Washington International Airport, is that correct, Phyllis?

PETRICH: That's correct.

BLITZER: Well, safe journey to you. Good luck to you. Good luck to your husband and your entire family. I am sure they are just thrilled that you're no longer in New Orleans. You'll have memories for the rest of your life.

PETRICH: Absolutely.

BLITZER: Thank you, Phyllis.

PETRICH Thank you.

BLITZER: What we're seeing on the screen here, that looks like Marine One that's just touched down at the New Orleans Airport. The president of the United States just took a tour of New Orleans. And he's come back now to the New Orleans Airport. We expect him to be making a statement.

There are several Marine helicopters that are there. We're not exactly sure which one is Marine One. Marine One is the helicopter that carries the president of the United States.

But his entourage also includes governor of Louisiana, the senators from Louisiana, the mayor of New Orleans, the secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff. General Blum, who's the commander of the National Guard. All of them went on this tour of New Orleans. They left about -- I'm guessing about an hour and a half or so ago, from the New Orleans Airport. And they went in to New Orleans.

A pool of cameramen, photographers went along with them, reporters, and we'll get their report. Certainly, we'll find out what happened. We'll see the video when the president was there.

The president was -- is going to be speaking. And CNN will have the president's remarks once he goes to the microphone.

These pictures that we're also seeing next to that helicopter landing. And we think that's Marine One, but we're not 100 percent sure. It's one of the Marine helicopters that travels with the president.

These are live pictures. Still, throngs of people -- these are live pictures of people outside the Superdome -- in New Orleans. They're waiting outside. They're trying to get some place. Tom, we heard -- we heard that General Honore of the National Guard, the task force that went in there at the Convention Center earlier, they had 1,000 troops that went there. But these are individuals that are still stuck outside the Superdome. And they would like to get out of there as well. It doesn't look like there's major movement, at least not now.

FOREMAN: No. And I think, Wolf, they're right here -- if you look at the Superdome on our map here, if we can pull it up for a moment, you'll see that there's just off the side of the Superdome, there's this ramp right here. This is the area we're talk about with all these folks.

If you see all that, you imagine this. This is where they're all clustered. There are a lot of walkways that surround the Superdome all the way around. You can see this. You can go all the way around the building here and have places to stand. So a lot of room for many, many thousands of folks.

BLITZER: And you can't blame these people for wanted to be outside, as opposed to inside. We can only imagine the horrendous sanitary conditions inside, the stench. That building has been without air conditioning.

FOREMAN: That's saying a lot. Because New Orleans in late August, early September, outside is normally where you don't want to be, because it can so hot and so humid and so miserable, it's saying a lot when that's where you want to be.

BLITZER: It's not a pleasant situation.

We're going to stay with this story, clearly here at CNN, not only now, but throughout the evening, throughout the weekend.

I'll be back Sunday for a special three-hour LATE EDITION. We're going to start our program an hour earlier than normal, 11:00 a.m. Eastern. We'll have several guests. We'll be on the air for three hours.

Larry King has a special three-hour LARRY KING LIVE Saturday night. You'll want to see it if you want to help the people who have suffered so much.

We're going to stay with all of these stories. I'm Wolf Blitzer here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

LOU DOBBS TONIGHT starts right now. Lou is standing by in New York. Lou?

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