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Galveston Residents Evacuation In Progress; New Orleans Prepares For Rita; Hurricane Preparedness Tips

Aired September 21, 2005 - 10:00   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Couple of days. The forecasters are not ruling out a possible hit on Louisiana or Mexico. A live report from Galveston and the Weather Center are straight ahead.
As New Orleans braces for Hurricane Rita, the city is now mostly cleared of flood water from Katrina. The Army Corps of Engineers says three-quarters of a trillion gallons have been drained into Lake Pontchartrain over the last few weeks and all the surface water is now gone.

President Bush met this morning with senate leaders. They talked about a second opening on the U.S. Supreme Court. A replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The senators reportedly floated about a dozen names but Mr. Bush did not reveal any favorites of his own.

And Ford may have a way for you to save gas money. "The Detroit News" reports that the car maker will announce today its ramping up production of hybrid vehicles. Ford expects to make 250,000 hybrid versions of its various models by 2010. This comes amid lagging sales of gas- guzzling SUVs.

The haunting images of Hurricane Katrina loom over the region and now the Texas coast braces for the possible arrival of a monstrous storm of its own just as ominous as Katrina. Hurricane Rita, amassed category four strength just over two hours ago. Preparations are already underway in Galveston County, Texas. About 80 buses will ferry evacuees to shelters about 100 miles away in Huntsville. Galveston officials have ordered a mandatory evacuation of their city's 250,000 residents.

Wherever Rita goes, a path that increasingly focuses on the Texas coast, it will almost certainly be more dangerous than its impact on the Florida Keys. The storm did little serious damage on that chain of islands. Chad Myers will be with us in just a few minutes with the latest projected path of the storm.

Well, dead center in its projected path is the island city of Galveston. That is where officials are taking no chances. The caution not only because of Katrina, but also a hurricane that nearly wiped out the city more than a century ago. Our Deborah Feyerick is live now in Galveston.

Deb, hello.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Daryn.

We can tell you, the buss are already being loaded. It started just a few minutes ago. All of these folks here waiting to make sure that they had a space. Two thousand people have so far signed on in order to get onto these buses. Again, for that two-hour trip. There's no air conditioning. People rolling down the windows. But they don't care how they get there as long as they get out.

You can see all these folks here, too. They've been made to sign papers basically saying that they understand the risks and everything that's at stake in this evacuation. But they are eager to go regardless.

Galveston right now in a state of emergency. They have suspended all normal business operations. And, Daryn, that is actually the first bus that is pulling away there. As you can see.

Also, police. Police are on scene as well. They want to make sure that this is done in a very orderly way. The mayor also on scene. They decided to put this plan into effect a couple of days ago. Folks started hearing about it, they started signing up.

Let me just show you. People are also being allow to take their pets, Daryn. You can take one case. Those cases are also going on be going on those buses. Again, they just want to make sure that they don't have the kind of problems that they did have in New Orleans.

State of emergency. Don't know how long it will last, but it can be for up to seven days according to the mayor.

Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Deb. More from you in Galveston in a moment.

Right now Lieutenant General Russel Honore talking to reporters in New Orleans, including our Carol Costello. Let's listen in. CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The evacuees are going in. They're going across the street. But some of your guys will be inside the convention center. We've seen people in biohazard suits there. So tell us what (INAUDIBLE).

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, KATRINA JOINT TASK FORCE: Yes, I want to define again for the convention center. This is the front portion of the convention center that is still being cleaned. The back portion of the convention center almost equal size, if not larger, is a space where it would look like it was set up to do car shows and things of that nature. And that is where we are setting up for our troops. And have been using it since the day after we evacuated the convention center.

QUESTION: So how do you feel that you're now having to cope with a second possibility of a disaster when you're still dealing with the effects of the last one? How do you feel about that?

HONORE: It's not anything you can do anything about other than continue your preparation. It's not a function of feeling, it's the function of getting your brain in movement and making sure people are informed. And we call that decision points and triggers. There's time and space and activities we have to do. And we are working with the state and local governments along the coast. And working with the PFO Admiral Allen. And we are doing collaborative planning.

But I wouldn't call it a feeling, it's more of a thought process of keeping our heads in the game and making sure we're communicating to our troops. Because our troops have families too and they want to know what's going on. So it's important we tell them that the surface fleet, the Navy is going out into calm waters off the coast of Florida, Pensacola area, and some of them may follow Rita into Texas depending on if we need to do that. And others may come back here. And the 82nd Airborne and 13th Troscom (ph) and the National Guard troops will seek sanctuary as required.

But right now, it looked like we might dodge this bullet. And we may just get some rain and some wind. And if current predictions hold, we'll continue to be able to do enabling tasks here in the city. We've been working on cleaning the storm drains. We have the National Guard working with the police on doing natural circulation and patrols.

We are helping set up disaster relief centers. We'll enable have one over at I call it I think it's called Landry High School in Algiers. That's been supported by the troops in connection with FEMA and some volunteer workers. And we'll continue to provide medical care where we can.

We've completed our adjustment. The National Guard is doing all of the forward deployment in and around St. Bernard, Jefferson, and Orleans Parish, St. Tammany and the effected areas. And we've pulled the active component troops back in case we had another hit from Rita in New Orleans. Or if those troops would be need somewhere else.

COSTELLO: Where will you be during the storm? If there is a storm coming here?

HONORE: My headquarters is in Mississippi. But I spend most of my time, you know, in the Gulf Coast in Mississippi or here in Louisiana. It will be another headquarters that will do that's comparable to mine that will probably work Rita if there's a requirement. But again, we don't know what we don't know about Rita.

QUESTION: So you're happier that everything's a lot more organized this time around?

HONORE: A tragedy is not something I want to describe as I'm happy about. We are here. The local and state government are planning and preparing as best they can while they deal with the tragedy of the thousands of people that are not here now who have been evacuated from the city. Who are going to the next phase right in Mississippi now. They're dealing with the issues of shelter. Admiral Allen is going there today to work with the local officials. Temporary, long- term shelter issues.

And there's a lot of work still to be done. And we've tried to articulate that, you know, we're still in the first quarter. We just transferred this week to what we call recovery operations, which is what we do after we do search and rescue. And the immediate aspects of handling the evacuees and taking to their needs.

But there's a lot of work left to be done in the months and years to come to address the damage done by the storm. And the damage was done by the storm. And with a category five storm, you're going to lose the first quarter. I don't care how good you prepare, your stuff is going to get messed you. It's going to win.

And in this case here in New Orleans, the people we evacuated, by and large, didn't say when they got on the bus, oh, I left my Lexus, OK? Let's keep this real. And hopefully, the less the things people have seen and heard will take heed to precautions in the future.

But that's the last stop (ph). We've got the future one and we've got the next piece of this to be done. Most of our fellow troop work is completed. We are standing by if need. Here in New Orleans, or if we have to send anything to Rita. And the National Guard is going to work in conjunction with Admiral Allen and the governor and the city parish folks. And I think the city will be postured with their planning and the parishes to move forward and send a clear message when and where business and citizens should come back. With the proper precautions.

COSTELLO: So that means if Rita really effects the Texas coast, that some of the troops now here will be pulled out and sent there?

HONORE: We are working on branches of sequence. A branch to a plan is, we've got another storm coming. So we seek sanctuary and we start evacuations. A sequel is what we do next. And that is part of the sequel that has been determined by northern command, which gives us our directions. Because there are other forces available. The Texas National Guard is there. There's other forces available that are closer. So that would be up to the leadership to determine what we do.

COSTELLO: And you say you're going to be here as long as need. How long do you think that will be?

HONORE: As I said, we finished the crisis and response phase. We've got some work to do with some medical stability, some enablers (ph) and communications. The National Guard is fully mobilized in this part of the state. And in Mississippi, the National Guard will start positioning some of those from outside the state of Mississippi to an assembly area.

So we're ready to move to recovery phase, which is more of the state and local agencies in coordination with FEMA. So we'll be told when we've satisfied our mission. We are approaching that. And because I know our troops' families want to know when they're coming home, too.

But Rita has a vote. And we'll see what lady Rita does.

KAGAN: We've been listening in to Lieutenant General Russel Honore. He is talking to reporters in New Orleans, including our Carol Costello. And he does have a way with words. And as he said, "Rita has a vote. We will see what lady Rita has to say." Meaning, how much work he and his troops, military troops, have to do there along the Gulf Coast and what they face potentially in Texas. They will have to wait and see what this now category four hurricane holds in store for that part of the country.

Another military note for you here as we keep it in New Orleans. A decision has been made to move two amphibious ships out away from the coast of New Orleans. A USS Iwo Jima and the USS Shreveport will move out of New Orleans today. They're going to sail back toward the Florida coast to take harbor from the storm from Hurricane Rita.

Well, as we look at the city of New Orleans, it has been declared essentially dry. At least pumped after Hurricane Katrina. Now there is a worry of what Rita could do. Could it fill up the city yet again? For more on that, let's check in with our Mary Snow. She is in New Orleans with the situation there today.

Mary, hello.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Daryn.

And with the death toll in the state of Louisiana from Hurricane Katrina reaching 801, the city of New Orleans knows all too well the risk that Rita poses and it does not want to take any chances. The city has ordered a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans here in the east bank. And a volunteer evacuation in the west bank. That's the area of Algiers. That's where residents started going into their homes the other day.

And as you mentioned, the Army Corps of Engineers is calling the city essentially dry. However, there's concern that even several inches of rain could cause significant flooding. This because of the weakened levees and the pumping stations. And yesterday the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers saying although those pumps stations are being worked on, they are still week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the track continues as they're now predicting, I think New Orleans will be fairly safe from any kind of a catastrophic event. The biggest challenge I think we'll see is rainfall in the city. The city has a pump system which is meant to remove precipitation. That pumping system is about 40 percent effective right now. And so it would clearly be overwhelmed by a sizable rainfall event. We think something on the line of three inches over six hours would probably put two to four feet of water in the lower-lying sections of the city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Now, the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, has told people here in this city that he will have buses available to them to evacuate. That staging area is outside the convention center. He said yesterday there were two bus loads of people who left. He says the city has about 500 buses standing by and that people who are here should leave, go to that staging area and get out.

And as you just mentioned, Daryn, also General Honore just saying that the military is also assessing what it is going to do with its thousands of members here in the city.

Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Mary Snow, live in New Orleans. We'll be back with you throughout the morning. Thank you for that.

Of course you've been looking at the graphic we've been keeping up on the screen. On the right part of your screen there. With the radar picture of Hurricane Rita. Our Chad Myers, our severe weather expert, will be along in just a minute to interpret those pictures. That's after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's find out what the latest radar pictures are telling us about Hurricane Rita. For that, we go to our severe weather expert, Chad Myers, tracking the storm.

Chad, good morning.

CHAD MYERS, METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Daryn.

One of the last real radar pictures we're going to be able to get because it's getting too far out away from Key West. That's the farthest west-most, obviously, radar site in Florida that can actually pick this up.

I'll zoom in to show you. It is now the center is now 230 miles away from Key West. Way out there. And so as the radar beam goes straight, the world actually falls off because it's round and the radar beam is not. So we're only seeing the very tippy top now of the radar of the Rita, if you will. So we are going to have to switch to satellites for now.

As long as we're into the Gulf of Mexico, you'll be seeing this on the corner of your screen, the satellite picture. One hundred and thirty-five miles an hour. A very symmetric, a very round, a very good outflow storm, both north and south. Nothing getting in the way of this storm from really becoming a category five.

The official Hurricane Center forecast is for it to stay a four most of the time. Although, it could swing back and forth between four and five. Right now the winds are 135 miles per hour. We will have new latitude and longitude numbers for you at the top of the hour. The 11:00 update sometimes comes out a few minutes late or a few minutes early. If it comes out early, we'll certainly get it to you.

Sometimes a hurricane can grab some cool air from around the United States and kind of kill itself. There's not a bit of cool air. Ninety-seven in New Orleans today, 101 in Dallas and 95 in Houston.

I want you to notice the colors on the map. There's Florida. The colors on the map. See that red right there? That's associated with 87 degree surface water temperature. All of the Gulf of Mexico here, 87 degrees or above. Now up here around Panama City, up around 81 degrees. Get back into the center of the Gulf of Mexico, that's 87 to 88 degrees. But as you get closer to Houston, these temperatures fall off. This green and yellow in here only 80 to 81. So there's a potential as the storm gets closer to Texas that we do lose a little bit of intensity. We can only hope for that because the forecast is for it to make landfall at 143 mile per hour.

Daryn.

KAGAN: Chad, I want to ask you something about the science of this that you said at the beginning. The picture how it changes as it gets away from land. Maybe this is a dumb question here. I thought those pictures are from satellite that you're getting those radar images. Those are from the ground?

MYERS: Right. No, the ones that you see here that look like colors are white with a eye.

KAGAN: That's satellite?

MYERS: That's a satellite picture from 22,000 mile in space. The one where you actually see this, where you actually see the colors and where the rain is, that's a radar site. Looks like a big basketball about, I don't know, 20 feet around on top of a big dome, on top of a big tower, and it spins around usually at most major airports.

KAGAN: So we're going into that window where you're going to have to rely entirely on the satellite.

MYERS: Entirely.

KAGAN: Which is not as much information.

MYERS: And back in 1900, not only did they not have radar, they didn't have satellites, they had no idea storm like this were coming.

KAGAN: Yes.

MYERS: Especially the Galveston storm, which we'll get into later.

KAGAN: Absolutely.

Chad, thank you. Goo to have you on board with us.

OK. The destruction and personal loss that we've witnessed along the Gulf Coast leaves a lot of people wondering, what if it happened to you? Ahead, some suggestions on how to protect yourself and your family.

Also, from heat to hurricane, it has been quite a year weather wise. Much of it has been accurately predicted by the folks at the Farmer's Almanac. So what are they calling for next year? How about just wintertime? We'll get to that ahead.

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KAGAN: Here's a pretty familiar pattern we've been seeing over recent weeks. The big hurricane, Hurricane Rita, pushing up oil prices and that is putting pressure on the markets. You can see the Dow is down significantly. Down 51 points. Markets have been open 54 minutes. Nasdaq also in negative territory. It is down 12.

For more than three weeks now, we have seen the horrific images from Hurricane Katrina and the cautionary lessons learned of being prepared for such a disaster. That brings us to today's "Top Five Tips." Our Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis here with some suggestions on how to protect yourself and your family.

Good morning.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Good to see you, Daryn.

Tip number one, you've got to get a plan. You have to know where to evacuate to and how to get there. It's easy enough to find out. Go to your local emergency management office or even Red Cross can tell you how to get out, where to go. You've got to leave. I mean, that's the main lesson as Katrina taught us you've got to go. Think about designating an out-of-town friend or family member as the contact point for your family so everybody can stay in touch and we can avoid the scenario we had in New Orleans where family members couldn't find each other.

Daryn.

KAGAN: What about supplies you should have on hand, Gerri?

WILLIS: Well, this is critical as well. You need to have the supplies in hand for days. At least three days. Enough water, enough canned goods. A can opener. A first aid kit. Important documents, of course, also critical. You'll want your insurance policy, wills, birth certificates, driver's licenses. All of the documents that will help you get what you need once the storm is passed. Don't forget pillows and blankets because some of these shelter, well, they don't have pillows and blankets.

KAGAN: And there's a certain thingshway (ph) of the way you should have your house set up.

WILLIS: That's right. Can you can call it thingshway, you can call it just safety. Start with the indoor space. You want to make sure that front door is locked and secure because if it's open, it will create big problems for you when the storm passes through. Make sure that all of your major appliances are turned off except for your refrigerator. You want to turn that up full blast so that if the power goes out you can at least have some food on hand. Take down the mirrors. Any framed items that are hanging over your bed, over your sofa. You don't want that coming down on top of your head or on to your furniture.

Daryn.

KAGAN: Something people don't think about, the outside of their house.

WILLIS: This is a big problem. I mean imagine, you've got furniture sitting outside, trash cans. They become missiles when the winds heat up. You want to make sure that doesn't happen because that could damage your house and neighbors as well. So put that inside the garage. You want to make sure that you contribute to as safe a neighborhood as you can.

KAGAN: And animal lovers, you want to make sure you're going to think about what's going to happen to the pets ahead of time.

WILLIS: Big story out of Katrina. People so worried about their pets. Keep in mind that the Red Cross shelters don't accept pets, so you're going to have to make plans ahead of time. As soon as you start hearing those warnings, you can, of course, send your pet to out of town neighbors is a good choice. Go to pets911.com or even the Humane Society to find shelters for Fido.

KAGAN: Very good tips. Gerri Willis, thank you.

WILLIS: You're welcome.

KAGAN: Our severe weather expert, Chad Myers, monitoring Rita's path and strength. More from him in just a moment.

Also, Key West. It's an easy target for hurricanes. We're going to get a look at what Rita left behind on its way through the Gulf.

And we're going to visit a small Mississippi town leveled by Hurricane Katrina. Few people had ever heard of it until just a few weeks ago. Now soon, no one will forget.

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