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Hurricane Rita Update; Texas Prepares for Hurricane Rita; New Orleans Evacuees Moving Again; New Orleans Prepares for Hurricane Rita; Minding Your Business

Aired September 22, 2005 - 07:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody. It's 7:30 here in New York.
We have much more on the preparations for Hurricane Rita to tell you about this morning. This is a massive, massive storm heading right for Texas.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: You know, less than four weeks after Katrina hit and all the lessons we learned, let's hope those lessons have been learned by government officials. New and improved action plan, we hope. We'll look at the evacuations, the shelters, who's at risk, where the troops are. All of that when we talk to some homeland security officials straight ahead.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: First, though, let's get a look at Hurricane Rita, one of the most powerful storms on record. Extreme weather expert, Chad Myers, is at the CNN Center. He's got the very latest on this storm's track.

Chad, good morning to you.

How soon before we'll really know where Rita's going to hit? At what point does this prediction get pretty right on?

CHAD MYERS, METEOROLOGIST: You know, we had all the models yesterday, Soledad, pretty centered between Galveston and just almost to the north of Corpus Christi. And then the storm became a category five and got a mind of its own and it turned a little bit to the north. And then all the models went, well, that's not right because we weren't predicting that little turn to the north. And every time it wobbles north or wobbles south, you're actually going to see those model lines change significantly at times.

There's the storm right now. It left Key West yesterday. We know all about that.

Let me switch you to a map and show you exactly where this thing is. It's 305 miles from New Orleans, 515 miles from Houston and 615 miles from Corpus Christi. That's where the storm is way back here. But, would you believe there are still rain showers in Florida because of this storm? It got so large out here that we're still seeing some of this weather get pushed back up into parts of Florida.

And I was just looking at Carol Costello's live shot here and you can see the winds now beginning to blowing from the east, from a back director for Lake Pontchartrain, coming in here through Lake Born (ph) and then back into Lake Pontchartrain. And eventually, if this wind goes long enough, you know it's going to fill that lake up and those levels are going to come up. And that's the last thing they need with those levees.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That is the understatement of the year, frankly, I mean because the levees will not take it. With all that cleanup, they will just not take it.

MYERS: They did a lot of work in the last three days to make those temporary repairs better. But who knows if there's not another weak spot that they didn't even know about, right?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Right. Exactly. There are huge questions there.

Chad, thanks. We're going to watch it as well as you are, I know.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: After the disastrous response to Katrina, federal and Texas state officials say they're already prepared to handle Rita's aftermath. Joining me from Austin, Texas, Admiral Larry Hereth with the Department of Homeland Security, and Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw.

Gentlemen, good to have you both with us. I know you're busy right now.

Admiral Hereth, let me begin with you.

Lots of lessons learned over the past four weeks. Tell us what mistakes you won't be repeating.

ADM. LARRY HERETH, DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Well, each one of these disasters is a little bit differently. And the key is to have a good, strong organization early put in place and then look at all the problems, issues that might crop up and prepare as best you can by pre-positioning assets and people and aircrafts and planes and resources to deal with the aftermath of the hurricane.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, let's talk about the organization, the chain of command. Is it very clear- cut right now? Who's in charge there right now?

HERETH: Well, this is a state-run operation that we're supporting. And it's a very clear-cut operation. We have an excellent relationship. We're joined at the hip. We're working with the state operations center folks every day. We have people over there. They have people with the federal command center. And our intent is to support the state of Texas, to provide people and assets and boats and planes and people to respond to this hurricane as best we can.

MILES O'BRIEN: Let me show you what we've been able to tally up here. And, Mr. McCraw, correct me if I'm wrong on any of these numbers. Five thousand Texas National Guard troops activated, 10 Navy ships ready to move in. I'm not sure where they all are. That's probably a key question. Twenty helicopters on standby in Fort Hood, 45 truckloads of ice and water pre- positioned, 25 truckloads of food pre-positioned.

Mr. McCraw, does that seem like enough?

STEVE MCCRAW, TEXAS HOMELAND SECURITY DIR.: Well, that's not all that we have and I won't go through the long the large list that we have do have. And, of course, I'm confident that anything we do need and again, we have to remain flexible. This is a serious catastrophic hurricane bearing down on Texas. So we're not afraid to ask our federal partners for extra resources. And I'm quite confident that as they have over the last couple weeks, they'll be there for us.

HERETH: And working with the state, we've already identified many of those resources and we're prepared to conduct an extraordinary life-saving and life- sustaining series of activities right after the storm.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, I think, looking back on Katrina, one of the key things was the state officials either didn't ask in a timely way or didn't ask specifically for what they need from the federal government. Do you have those clear, specific requests now on record and are you taking action with them? MCCRAW: Well, absolutely, we have them on record. And we've all we're doing is basically executing the Texas plan, which we've had in place for a number of years, and we updated it last year and practiced it with local officials this year. And in terms of resources, we've always worked with our federal partners in terms of FEMA and we're real happy to have the admiral here on board and we're quite confident we'll get what we need and when we ask for it.

HERETH: We've spent hours together in the state operations center talking about exactly what the requirements are and we've gone through the process. We're pre- positioning assets as we speak, moving in equipment, moving in people to a safe zone deployed just on the outskirts of what we think the area of impact will be so that we can immediately respond afterwards.

MILES O'BRIEN: And a final through here . . .

HERETH: And we'll continue . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: Go ahead. Finish your thought. I'm sorry.

HERETH: I was just going to say, we're going to continue to cascade in resources as we come up with other issues that need to be or other challenges that need to be addressed.

MILES O'BRIEN: And a final thought, I guess, this probably goes to Mr. McCraw more but either one of you can take it. One of the big issues from New Orleans was the lack of transportation for people who couldn't afford to get out under their own steam. Have you got that one solved?

MCCRAW: Well, that's the special needs issue. We identified it last year. And I can assure you we're working on it right now. It's not just them, it's the nursing homes, it's a number of different things that we're doing right now and we're working with local officials and state troopers knocking on doors, making sure we locate them, use the buses, trains and planes to get them out of town. The bottom line is to save lives you've got to evacuate.

MILES O'BRIEN: Admiral Larry Hereth, Steve McCraw. God speed to you both, gentlemen. We wish you luck.

HERETH: Thank you.

MILES O'BRIEN: Tough days ahead in Texas. SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Tough days for everybody who is facing this storm. First Katrina, of course, now Rita.

Some evacuees were able to get out of the way of one, now they're right in the way of the other. Sean Callebs has a story of a family that's being uprooted for the second time now in less than a month.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): The Savoy family is getting good at packing up in a hurry.

ANNE SAVOY, EVACUATING FOR 2ND TIME: It was unbelievable. It really was. I said, not again. I said, we just got here. The kids got settled in school.

I think that's it.

CALLEBS: Now the family, all six, seven if you count the dog, are on the road again. A little more than three weeks ago they fled their home in Louisiana ahead of Katrina. This is what happened to their community in St. Bernard Parish. Now Rita is forcing them out of a donated condo here in Galveston.

ANNE SAVOY: You feel like you're in time, in space. You don't feel like you belong anywhere just yet. You know, I just feel like I'm living out of the bag right now.

CALLEBS: A very light bag. When they left Louisiana, they packed for just three days. Like her brother, Shelby Savoy now faces her third different school in three weeks.

SHELBY SAVOY, EVACUATING FOR 2ND TIME: I have mixed emotions. I'm confused, sad, angry and just wondering why? Why does this have to happen?

CALLEBS: Shelby has friends at her Galveston High School who also evacuated from New Orleans. Now they are all scattering to the wind again.

SHELBY SAVOY: I felt like a magnet, I guess, because the other students I was talking with at Louisiana, we were all just saying, we feel like hurricane magnets right now. We didn't want this to happen.

CALLEBS: The family thought about going to Houston. That's out now. Rita could cause flooding there. So they may move to the town of Slidell in Louisiana, close to family. But right now they are just looking for a place to rest their heads.

Sean Callebs, CNN, Galveston, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: That is such a tough time.

Louisiana officials say 7,000 people who had found temporary shelter in Texas are now on the move again.

There are other stories making headlines today. Let's get a look at those with Kelly Wallace. She's in for Carol Costello.

Hey, Kelly, good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Soledad.

And good morning, everyone.

These stories "Now in the News."

This just into CNN. Two cargo trains have collided this morning in Southern Virginia. We're going to show you now some new pictures from the scene there that we're just getting in. The two trains apparently crashed head on, sparking a fire, but that fire is now said to be out. Police say at least six people are hurt. We'll have much more on this developing story throughout the show.

Anti-war activist, Cindy Sheehan, and other organizers say some 100,000 people will take part in a rally planned for Saturday. Sheehan and members of her "Bring Them Home Now" bus tour, arrived Wednesday in Washington. They walked on Capitol Hill chanting "not one more," referring to U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq. Some pro-war groups are planning counter protests for this weekend.

Chief Justice Nominee John Roberts is expected to be confirmed today by a Senate panel. Some key senators came out in support of Roberts on Wednesday, including the senior Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy of Vermont. If approved by the panel, Robert's confirmation heads to the full Senate for a vote.

And the pilots of a JetBlue flight are being praised for safely landing a plane after its nose gear got stuck sideways. You might have seen this story last night. The New York-bound flight circled the Los Angeles area for three hours to burn off fuel, then touched down at LAX as sparks flew from the twisted landing gear. You're seeing that there. None of the 146 people aboard was hurt. But while inside the cabin, get this, a passengers said they were watching the entire drama unfold on live television. A definite happy ending for those folks.

And, Miles and Soledad, we can tell you, some of the passengers, they were headed all of them to New York City. Some of them arriving early this morning at their destination, JFK Airport.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Can you imagine? Because, of course, JetBlue has a live live TV feed right into the panel into your seat.

MILES O'BRIEN: I mean, I wonder if you wanted to switch it over to the cartoon network at that point, you know.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Or (INAUDIBLE) a lot of information. Maybe it's the only way to see what's happening on your plane.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, that would be one way.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Wow. Kelly, thanks.

MILES O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, victims of Katrina are about to get another break from the IRS. Andy Serwer has that in "Minding Your Business."

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Plus, we'll bring you the very latest on the recovery efforts in New Orleans. Just how much longer before the city's key emergency services are back on line? A look at that's ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You could see it there, the latest advisory now has Hurricane Rita still a category five hurricane. Very, very powerful. Winds now 170 miles an hour, down from 175. Still a massive storm that is chugging along straight for Texas.

A tropical storm warning is in effect for the southeastern parts of Louisiana. Of course, they're watching this storm very closely and they're watching the levee system very closely as well because they're trying to prop up that shaken levee system.

Let's get right to Carol Costello. She is right on the border, I guess, between Jefferson Parish and Orleans Parish. Really, that's Lake Pontchartrain right behind you. Big concerns there this morning. Carol, good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Big concerns. And where Lake Pontchartrain meets the 17 Street Canal. And just a mile down the way is where that huge breach occurred in the levee that the Army Corps of Engineers has been feverishly working to fix to protect, you know, the city against Rita.

Yesterday I was at the evacuation site at the convention center and they had this place set up where people could go to catch buses out of town. Frankly, not many people showed up. Maybe 50 or 60 over the course of a few days. People still have the opportunity to leave, but the military is ready, the city is ready with buses to take them out of town.

I got a chance too, yesterday, to sit down and talk to Lieutenant General Russel Honore one-on- one.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO, (voice over): Lieutenant General Russel Honore arrives at the convention center by helicopter, hitting the ground early to prepare for Rita.

Hi, General Honore. I'm Carol Costello from CNN.

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, CMDR., JOINT TASK FORCE KATRINA: How you doing?

COSTELLO: He agrees to a sit down. He hasn't much sleep lately. The good news, the evacuation plan is going pretty good, but slowly.

HONORE: Those that are here are many of the same ones that never left. So they're pretty resilient. And the National Guard will continues to make contact with them.

COSTELLO: Some did leave, but not many.

Who are they?

HONORE: They seem to be residents. I saw a man just now you know, a man with a suitcase, and able-bodied but we've got to go through the same process. You know, see if he needs medical care, if he wants some water or food and put him on the bus. You see the buses over there are loaded up, ready to go.

COSTELLO: The guys in tents here, your guys in tents, when will they decide to evacuate and where will they go? HONORE: We'll be going to cat five level buildings, this being one of them, and we have some over at Bellchase and we have the airport and we have Hamler (ph).

COSTELLO: They're going to go inside the convention center?

HONORE: Well, it's a misnomer. This is the front of the convention center. Behind the convention center is an entire new portion of it. It is a big building. It's a mile long. And only about a half of it were used in the previous evacuation.

COSTELLO: Because, you know, you see the guys in biohazard suits in there. And the thought of anyone going in any part of the building is, frankly, scary.

HONORE: I saw you reporting that this morning. I was trying to call you to tell you to turn this way.

COSTELLO: We got the message.

HONORE: At this point in time we need to keep things simple. Everyone of my up to one time 14,000 troops, 300 helicopters and 40,000 National Guard troops know where this spot is and most of the citizens of New Orleans knows where that is. If we change that in the middle of this evacuation, a lot of stuff has to change. But right now it looked like we might dodge this bullet we may get just some rain and some wind. And if the current prediction hold, we'll continue to be able to do enabling tasks here in the city. There's a lot of work left to be done 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 up. It's going to win.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And we hope stuff doesn't get even more messed up today with Rita out there. Not anywhere near the city of New Orleans right now but the wind is picking up. It was raining early this morning and people are pretty nervous.

I want to bring in now Doctor Jullette Saussy, the director of the New Orleans EMS.

Come on closer to me.

Thank you for coming out to talk with us.

DR. JULLETTE SAUSSY, DIRECTOR, NEW ORLEANS EMS: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Because I know you must be exhausted.

SAUSSY: We've been working pretty hard, but I'm happy to be here.

COSTELLO: Well, we're glad you're here.

The 911 system. I mean, how up and running is it?

SAUSSY: Actually, they've been working over the last several days to get it up and running. And we feel very hopeful that it will be fully functional today.

COSTELLO: So if I called 911 right now, would I get someone?

SAUSSY: Right now they the calls have been going to Baton Rouge and then being sent here. So the minute it's online, when you call 911 here, it will be routed here locally.

COSTELLO: What kind of calls have you been handling?

SAUSSY: Well, we really, our call volume is quite small, as you can imagine. Most of the city is not there. So the calls we've been handling have been for holdouts, basically, who have decided that they want to leave or somebody has found somebody who has stayed in their home and so we've been dispatched there to pick them up. Certainly calls for other health care workers, first responders, minor trauma, heat-related illnesses.

COSTELLO: Dehydration.

SAUSSY: Dehydration, absolutely.

COSTELLO: Because it's hard to get water to drink in the city, right? In fact, you can't drink the tap water now.

SAUSSY: You can't. No, you cannot.

COSTELLO: A lot of people are here fixing the city of New Orleans, electrical workers, construction workers. How will you handle that if Rita becomes a real problem?

SAUSSY: In terms of taking care of them?

COSTELLO: Yes. Is there a hospital up and running, for example?

SAUSSY: Actually, the 14th Combat Support Hospital is in the process of setting up. We, again, are very hopeful that it will be fully functional late today or early tomorrow. We've been working very closely with them and are looking very much forward to having that resource here in Orleans Parish. We have other local hospitals outside Orleans Parish that have are seeing patients, have emergency capabilities and . . .

COSTELLO: But no trauma center, right?

SAUSSY: No level one trauma center. But certainly the local community and the surrounding communities have stepped up and have provided the services that we've need. And with this the advent of this combat support hospital, we feel like we'll be able to take care of the trauma.

COSTELLO: Rita is coming and probably will hit Texas. A lot of people are leaving to help people in Texas. A lot of people that help you. How concerned are you with that?

SAUSSY: You know, again, I think we had a meeting with our group last night. And despite the incredible losses that our group has suffered, I was so incredibly proud. The questions were not about, what about me, they were about can we go to Texas and help. So my answer to that is, we know what Galveston or the coast of Texas is getting ready to experience. I understand the shifting of resources. I also understand that there are still needs here. So I hope that they will, you know, utilize the resources they need in Texas but resources will remain here for us. And I hope that given the opportunity that we can go in and help them.

COSTELLO: Doctor Jullette Saussy, thanks for joining us this morning. We appreciate it.

SAUSSY: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: And good luck to you.

SAUSSY: Thank you.

COSTELLO: You'll need it.

Back to you, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, they sure will.

Carol, thanks.

Still to come this morning, victims of Katrina about to get a little more help from the IRS. Andy has a look at that as he minds your business just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, given all that they have to face, I suppose, many of the victims of Katrina are not too concerned about their taxes. But nevertheless, there is some relief that is coming down the pipe for them. That and some market action.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.

MILES O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer here with that.

SERWER: And that relief's important because if you ignore it, it will come back to bite you.

MILES O'BRIEN: No, eventually they're going to care about that.

SERWER: That's right.

MILES O'BRIEN: They're just trying to get back on their feet, is what I was trying mean...

SERWER: Right. Let's talk about the markets, first of all, Miles.

Yesterday, stocks stumbled as concerns about Rita washed across Wall Street, I guess you could say here. Look at the red ink. The Dow down over 100 points. Futures this morning are trending down. Just to give you an idea of the implications of this storm on the financial markets, 40 minutes ago I was on this program and I told you the price of oil was $67.82. It is now at $68.06. So you can see it just climb . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: Should have bought.

SERWER: Yes, there you go. And it's moving towards that all- time high of nearly $71.

You talked about Congress stepping up and doing the right thing. In fact, that did happen yesterday. A bill has been sent to the president and it awaits his signature. The vote yesterday in the House, 422-0. And a unanimous voice vote in the Senate. Hey, they're really getting it going here.

Now here's what they've done to provide tax relief. Waiving penalties on IRAs. A $500 credit for taking in evacuees and recouping more of un-reimbursed, uninsured losses. That means, for instance, you could deduct the full amount of the uninsured portion of a car that was destroyed in the hurricane.

And I think the big point here also is, Miles, this is just the beginning. You're going to see more aid packages, more tax relief on the way. And goodness knows what Rita's going to bring and the aid that will be needed there as well.

MILES O'BRIEN: You know, when the bill comes due for all this, it's going to be hard to pay for all of this.

SERWER: It's going to be staggering. And the impact, again, on everyone's pocketbook and the nation's as well could be tremendous.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Thanks very much, Andy Serwer.

SERWER: You're welcome.

MILES O'BRIEN: Complete coverage for Hurricane Rita continues in just a moment. We'll get an update on the path of the storm. A category five storm.

We'll go live to Texas where the long lines of cars headed out of the region continue this morning. Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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