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U.S. Military Swinging into Action Ahead of Hurricane Rita; Confirmation Vote Expected Today on Chief Justice Nominee John Roberts

Aired September 22, 2005 - 09:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: As we mentioned, it is 9:30 here in New York, and we are tracking Hurricane Rita this morning as it makes its way toward Texas. Also tracking it from New Orleans as well, because, of course, the cleanup there and the efforts to keep those levees that are now at least sort of repaired in some kind of condition to face this next storm are really the focus this morning.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, to say they're vulnerable is perhaps an understatement. They were vulnerable before. Now they're really at, in some ways, the mercy of Mother Nature. No rain there right now, but that's the concern, of course. Just a little bit of rain can cause a lot of problems there. We'll get a better picture of how far along those levees have come in just a moment. They've put in some temporary seawall. Situations you see there, which can be shut. The Corps of Engineers has done a good job trying to patch something together, but it is patched. A colonel at the Army Corps is going to talk to us about those repairs, and the chances that when all is said and done, New Orleans neighborhoods might once again be flooded, dare we say it.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: U.S. military swinging into action ahead of Hurricane Rita, developing a comprehensive plan to deal with the aftermath of the storm.

Barbara Starr is live for us at the Pentagon this morning. Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

Indeed, much different this time, as we all remember the pictures of the military struggling to get organized and cope in New Orleans. A much different picture shaping up now for Hurricane Rita. Already there are 1,000 Marines offshore on two ships in the Gulf of Mexico. The Iwo Jima and the Shreveport has been in New Orleans. They've now left, of course. They have 1,000 Marines onboard, and they are prepared to ride the storm on the back side right into Texas.

The major lesson learned from Katrina, flooding, roads out, Marines might be the best option to get in quickly once the storm passes and begin helping with immediate aid.

Another lesson learned from Katrina, that the military is now putting into play, communications are expected to go out, so there are a number of military communications teams now moving into place already for Hurricane Rita. They are carrying satellite communications and, indeed, satellite radios. The military preparing, unfortunately, for the possibility of the worse. They are also preparing to assist authorities in staffing a 2,500-bed field hospital in the Hurricane Rita area -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Prepare for the worse, pray for the very best. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us this morning. Barbara, thanks.

Well, scores, as Barbara mentioned, rescue crews and military personnel on the ground in Texas standing by to move in once Rita moves out.

Major General Charles Rodriguez of Texas National Guard is in Austin, Texas this morning. Thank you for talking with us, Major General, certainly appreciate it.

What exactly is the Texas National Guard doing as Hurricane Rita approaches?

MAJ. GEN. CHARLES RODRIGUEZ, TEXAS NATL. GUARD: The Guard is making final preparations. We have assembled our people, and they are in a safe location to respond quickly both with aviation support and high-profile vehicle support to people in need.

S. O'BRIEN: We heard from Barbara Starr just a moment ago in her report from the Pentagon, that immediate aid is now the focus once this hurricane passes through. How many troops do you have available and on the ground to really move in once it's clear?

RODRIGUEZ: Immediately today we have 3,500, and by Friday evening and by Saturday morning, we'll have close to the 5,000 that the governor has pledged.

S. O'BRIEN: What do you think are the biggest lessons that you could tick off the top of your head that have been learned by everybody, but maybe specifically by the military, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina?

RODRIGUEZ: Two things primarily. Quick response, get in there, establish order, and assist people immediately who may need it, And then the second thing is coordination, coordination between the military and between the civil authorities, especially those who are the elected officials who hold ultimate responsibility.

S. O'BRIEN: How do you work that coordination? I mean, even to this day, frankly, we see that there are mixed messages sent between the mayor and then, of course, the federal official who's now on the ground and in charge in New Orleans. How will you make a coordination when not everybody's on the same page, and often the communication levels between everybody is not as good as it should be?

RODRIGUEZ: Well, Soledad, you mentioned the keyword, and that's communication. And with both the federal communications and state communications assets, that are being put in place, a lot of that back and forth talk will be a lot better this time around, because we're planning ahead and we're actually placing communications support to civil authorities, as well as to ourselves.

S. O'BRIEN: What about provisions? As you saw in Hurricane Katrina, sometimes the troops would arrive, and certainly we are talking about if medics, would be there, but with none of the stuff they need. What's being done to make sure that that doesn't happen this time around?

RODRIGUEZ: We have refit and reequipped our E-meds, our team that does emergency medical deployment, as well as worked very closely with our federal partners, who have deployable medical resources from the Air Force and the Navy.

S. O'BRIEN: We are certainly hopes that all goes off without a hitch and that maybe if there's anyway this storm can turn and avoid making a big hit, that would be great as well.

Major General Charles Rodriguez of the Texas National Guard, thanks for talking with us.

Another time to check the headlines. Kelly Wallace has a look at that this morning.

Hey, Kelly, good morning again.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Soledad. And good morning again, everyone.

Here are those stories in the news. The Senate Judiciary Committee is gathering on Capitol Hill this hour. A confirmation vote is expected on chief justice nominee John Roberts.

Joe Johns is live on Capitol Hill, and, Joe, all indications are that Roberts will be confirmed by the panel this morning, right?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's for sure, Kelly. The outcome here is not really in doubt. As you can see, the committee has actually gotten together and started talking. They'll be talking for a while. The real question, the drama, if any, is how many Democrats will, in fact, vote for John Roberts who came before the committee. We do know that the top Democrat, Patrick Leahy, has already indicated he will vote for John Roberts. Senator Edward Kennedy, a very influential Democrat, a liberal on that committee, has said he will volt against.

The question, of course, why would Democrats vote against him? Some Democrats say they didn't get enough information. They don't know enough about Roberts. But quite frankly, some Democrats have also been urged to vote against this nominee to send a strong message to the administration about the next nominee that the president will put in play.

Of course, it's not clear when the White House is going to do that, but some Republicans have already started sending signals to the White House that if they want the second nominee to be confirmed by Thanksgiving, it better get on with the process.

Kelly, back to you.

WALLACE: Joe, thanks. We'll be watching for that volt this morning. Joe Johns live for us on Capitol Hill.

Turning now to business news for you. Delta Airlines announcing massive layoffs this morning. The nation's third biggest carrier says it will cut 9,000 jobs by the end of 2007. That is 17 percent of its workforce. This move taking place as Delta tries to restructure. You'll recall that the airline recently filed for bankruptcy protection.

Two cargo trains collided this morning in Southern Virginia. We showed you these pictures a little bit earlier on the show. The two trains apparently crashed head-on, sparking a fire. But that fire has been put out. Police say at least six people were injured.

And Hurricane Rita is causing new worries over gas prices. The average price at the pump is about $2.76 a gallon. But get this, some experts say it could reach $5 a gallon in the wake of Katrina. Hundreds of oil workers have been ordered to evacuate and oil companies are closing refineries.

Soledad and Miles, obviously a big concern there. We'll be watching that closely.

S. O'BRIEN: Could be a huge problem if there is a direct hit, as expected now. It will be a huge physical problem to the region and then a huge economic problem, as well, in the aftermath. Huge.

M. O'BRIEN: There are ripples for the ripples on this one.

S. O'BRIEN: Kelly, thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, New Orleans, dry now at long last, but what if the city gets a little bit of rain when Katrina -- or excuse me, Rita offers it a glancing blow? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: You can see the radar right there. We got the this word from the National Hurricane Center that Rita, Hurricane Rita, could bring as much of three inches of rain into New Orleans. And engineers say that could be just enough to flood that city, or at least parts of that city again.

Let's get right to Carol Costello. She's in New Orleans this morning. Hey, Carol, good morning again.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Such weird weather out here, Soledad. Just a couple of minutes ago, it started to rain. We thought it was going to really pour because you can see some dark clouds in the sky, but now it have stopped. We can feel some of that wind that Chad was talking about, but nothing really strong yet. The 25 mile-per-hour wind gusts must be farther away then where we're standing by. We're actually on the banks of the Pontchartrain, Lake Pontchartrain. And as you look into Jefferson Parish, you can that this area stayed dry, because this is to the west of the Mississippi River. To the east of the Mississippi River, of course, it was a whole other story. Parts of that part of -- parts of New Orleans on that side of the river were under feet of water, up to eight feet, for more than two and a half weeks.

We took a tour through one neighborhood called Lakeview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (on camera): This is the Lakeview area. If you've ever wondered what a neighborhood looks when it's been underwater for two and half weeks, this is it. Vehicles filled with mud and wreck. In fact, the only working vehicle in this neighborhood is that one right in front of me. And that's because a police officer is going into his home for the first time since the city's been dry.

I'm standing at 6664 Pontchartrain Boulevard now. Take a look at the door and the watermarks. At one point, the water was up six feet high. And as you can see from the watermarks on the door, this neighborhood was very slowly drained, sometimes in inches. And at the bottom watermark you see there, sometimes in feet.

The eeriest thing, though, is there are no signs of life. The muck is starting to crack and dry in the hot sun. There are no insects, not even flies. No dogs, no cats, no birds, no people, nothing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Such a sad area. As I said, I'm standing on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain in front of the flood gates, which they just closed about a half hour ago to keep the waters of Lake Pontchartrain in just in case the worst happens with Rita.

With me now is Colonel Duane Gapinski. He's with the Army Corps of Engineers. And you know, FEMA just came out and said it wasn't expecting much rain to fall or much flooding in the city of New Orleans. What is your sentiment about that?

COL. DUANE GAPINSKI, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Well, obviously, that's good news. You know, we're prepared to handle pretty significant amount of storm surge and a little bit of rain. But, so, it's good news that...

COSTELLO: But what kind of rain are you expecting?

GAPINSKI: Well, you know, again, I -- I'm listening to the weather forecast just like everyone else. Maybe 3/4 of an inch today, inch and a half a day for the next couple days.

COSTELLO: How much rain will cause major flooding again in parts of the city? GAPINSKI: Well, if you define major flooding as, like, four to six feet, it would like nine -- up to nine inches of rain in six hours to cause that much flooding.

COSTELLO: But there is some concern -- if it rains, let's say, three inches in the course of six hours, what could happen?

GAPINSKI: You could have up to two feet of flooding in certain areas.

COSTELLO: We can't see it from here, but about a mile down is that 17th Street levee breach, that huge breach that you guys have been working feverishly on to shore up in case we get a huge storm surge. Tell us what you're doing.

GAPINSKI: Well, actually, what we've done is we've built a wall, using sheet piles in front of the bridge at the mouth of the canal. And that will stop any storm surge from going up the canal and overtopping that expedient repair we made at the breach.

COSTELLO: And you're also putting like tons of sand and gravel into the hole there, right?

GAPINSKI: That's right.

COSTELLO: See, it just seems to a layperson like me, I can't believe that would actually hold. How confident are you that that will hold over a six-foot storm surge?

GAPINSKI: Well, that -- the repairs there, they're pretty structurally sound. I mean, there's a little water going through, but actually, that's good. And it's coming out clear, which means all that rock and sand and sandbags there is actually filtering the water. But it's not carrying any material through, so we're pretty confident that's going to hold.

COSTELLO: Let's say it does rain a lot and the city floods. The parts of New Orleans that would flood are the worst-hit parts and there are nobody in those neighborhoods.

GAPINSKI: That's right. You know, it's going to flood where the water was the deepest before, because obviously that's -- those are the collection points for water.

COSTELLO: And I know the pumping system is working at, what, 44 percent capacity right now. How long would it take to get something like four feet of water out of those areas again?

GAPINSKI: It would take a couple, three, four days to evacuate that much water.

COSTELLO: OK, so tell me, on a scale of one to ten, how concerned are you about Rita?

GAPINSKI: Five or six.

COSTELLO: And you're keeping your fingers crossed.

GAPINSKI: That's right.

COSTELLO: All right. Thank you so much for joining us. Colonel Gapinski, nice to see you again.

GAPINSKI: Thanks. Nice to see you again.

COSTELLO: Back to you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, a five or six. I don't know how to take that one. That doesn't sound so great. Thank you, Carol Costello.

"CNN LIVE TODAY" is coming up next. Daryn Kagan will be with us for the next few hours. Good morning, Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Miles, we have a lot going on today at the top of the hour.

Of course, we're still talking about Rita and trying to flee that storm. Highways out of Houston jam-packed, more than a million people trying to get out of the storm's path. We are live with the latest on the hurricane.

And we are expecting a Senate vote on chief justice nominee John Roberts this morning. The Judiciary Committee is in session right now. We will bring you the vote and the reaction.

All here happening in the next three hours. For now, back to you.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Daryn.

Still to come on our program, Andy, "Minding Your Business" one more time. Hurricane Rita, people worried about gas prices again. It's Category 5 and that 5 equates to the price per gallon, believe it or not. Yes, $5.00 a gallon is what he is predicting. Well, some other experts, too.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Hurricane Rita is almost bound to trigger astronomical gas prices once again. We just don't have any good news this morning. I'm sorry.

Andy, you are just the bearer of all bad news.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Thank you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: So press on, will you, as best you can?

SERWER: After that intro, I will try. Let's go to Wall Street where stocks are trading lower at this hour. Down 10 for the Dow Jones Industrials this morning. Of course, fears of Hurricane Rita are weighing heavily there.

A couple of other pieces of information here this morning. The number of Americans thrown out of work by Hurricane Katrina: 214,000 filing for unemployment insurance. This is the latest numbers, unemployment benefits coming across the tape.

Delta Airlines announcing 9,000 layoffs. Filed for bankruptcy days ago.

As far as Rita and oil and gas goes, here's what we've got, the latest: The price of a barrel of oil is up 82 cents, to $67.62. Gas prices holding steady at $2.75 a gallon, but as Miles suggested, they are sure to go higher. I don't know if astronomically higher is where they will go. There are some people suggesting $5 a gallon. I would say that's probably a bit alarmist. But you remember those $3-plus prices we're showing you here on the screen, that, of course, was in the wake of Katrina, and if Rita hits the refineries and are shut down for a while and severely damaged, there's no doubt gas prices will go significantly higher.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, well, let me ask you this, because we did see, in the Atlanta market in particular, $5 a gallon gas after Katrina. And that was viewed as, you know, so-called price gouging. What's the difference between that and just plain old supply and demand, the free market at work?

SERWER: Well, it's a real mystery as to, you know, how much of this actually has to do with shortages and not enough gasoline there, and how much of it has to do with gas stations and oil companies simply marking up as much as they can. And there's been some talks and investigation calls by various governors, and the FTC is looking into it as well. So it's a tricky business, and no question that it hurts people where they feel it the most.

M. O'BRIEN: I should say. All right. That $150 fill-up on the Yukon XL is going to be very, very entertaining.

SERWER: Yes, if you have an SUV, it's tough.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. All right, thank you very much, Andy Serwer, oh bearer of bad news. Be back tomorrow.

We're back in a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Every time I see how people are pitching in to help out, I mean, if there's one thing that has stuck out I think in the aftermath of Katrina, I think, it's just on all levels, from rescuing people to soldiers who should be the recipients of care packages, finally just getting in there to send them out. I mean, it's pretty amazing.

M. O'BRIEN: And the countless stories of people opening up their homes all throughout the country, letting people into their communities, their churches, yes, that is the silver lining. S. O'BRIEN: Giving money. Giving money, a billion dollars.

M. O'BRIEN: It is good to see that response. Without that, I would be utterly depressed, I think, at this point.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I think that's very true.

Well, our next story, Rita, as she churns toward Texas and the Gulf Coast there. We will, of course, follow the progress, as will Daryn Kagan. She's at the CNN Center. And Daryn's going to take you through the next several hours on "CNN LIVE TODAY."

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