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CNN Live At Daybreak

Rita: The Aftermath; Final Chapter?

Aired September 26, 2005 - 05:00   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is Monday, September 26. And yes, Houston, you can begin to go home again. Houston turns the ignition on. A faced return to the city of four million.
Plus...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The thing that depressed me was we saw almost no people down here. This evacuation business really did work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The good, the bad, and the near misses. We'll take you on a helicopter tour with the general in charge of Joint Task Force Rita.

And back to Lake Charles. We'll return with CNN's Rob Marciano as he views the damage in a city he once called home.

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.

COSTELLO: And good morning to you. We'll have more on the aftermath of Hurricane Rita in just a moment.

Also ahead, after more than 30 years of fighting, the IRA says it is disarming. Nic Robertson is in Belfast. He'll have the latest for you this hour.

But first, "Now in the News."

A verdict is expected just about two-and-a-half hours from now, the trial of 24 al Qaeda suspects in Madrid, Spain. Among them, three charged with helping to plan the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

At least four people have been killed in a major earthquake almost 450 miles north of Lima, Peru. The quake, with a magnitude of 7.5, occurred late last night. The fatalities are in the city of Lamas.

Going free in Iraq. The U.S. military freed 500 detainees from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. It happened just a short time ago. The release program is a goodwill gesture requested by the Iraqi government ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Five hundred more will be released later this week. It's pretty much just a formality in the U.S. Senate. Senators begin deliberations today on the nomination of John Roberts as the nation's 17th chief justice. His confirmation is expected on Thursday.

And President Bush comments on the state of the nation's energy supply this morning. His statement is expected at 10:55 Eastern, following a briefing at the Energy Department. We will bring that to you live.

To the forecast center.

Oh, it's nice to see you, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Welcome back, Carol. I know that's not a pleasant situation down there.

COSTELLO: No.

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: But you know what? I just saw so much hope.

MYERS: Yes?

COSTELLO: And people with an optimistic outlook.

MYERS: Good.

COSTELLO: And as bad as it is in New Orleans -- and it's bad...

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: ... people are rebuilding. And even when Rita came through, they said, "You know what? So the hurricane winds might knock things down again. We'll just put them back up."

MYERS: Good, because you -- it -- I've done enough hurricanes, especially Charley, when I was down in Punta Gorda, to know that for a while it's very sad. It's very sad for the people that live there, but it's also very sad to try to report it and not keep your -- you know, keep your personal feelings in and not really show how really sad it is down there.

So great reporting, nice job. But it's really great to have you back.

COSTELLO: It's good to be back. It is.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: We start with the aftermath of Hurricane Rita. Here are the latest details in our damage assessment.

There are many communities along the Texas-Louisiana border that are still heavily flooded. Some areas, like Cameron Parish in Louisiana, are under 15 feet of water. Search and rescue crews have been working almost nonstop to pull people from those flooded areas.

Residents will have to wait about a week to return to Lake Charles, Louisiana. Officials there set an October 3 target date for allowing people back into the heavily-damaged area. Business owners may be able to return a little bit sooner. Some evacuees in other parts of Louisiana and Texas have already begun returning home.

Nearly a million people are without power this morning across the Gulf Coast. Most of those are as a result of Hurricane Rita. But more than hundred -- but more than 150,000 people in Louisiana are still without power from Hurricane Katrina.

The Texas governor, Rick Perry, says oil refineries in his state suffered just a glancing blow. The Valero refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, appears to be the only one that suffered any serious damage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

R. DAVID PAULISON, ACTING FEMA DIRECTOR: We've been doing surveillance of the refineries. So far, what we see is minimal damage, and we hope that holds. But we'll continue monitoring that to make sure we can get those refineries back on line as quickly as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: There are four Louisiana refineries still closed down after Katrina. They may not restart production until November, at the earliest.

There have also been reports of looting in Lake Charles. And that, says the local sheriff, ain't going to happen under his watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF DON DIXON, LAKE CHARLES POLICE: We've probably had about a dozen looting arrests, and I can assure you we will arrest every looter. There will be no mercy. If I've got to chain you to my own bathroom, we're going to chain you to my bathroom. And that's not a pretty thing. We will not tolerate it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. Let's see how things are going in Lake Charles this morning. Lisa Goddard of CNN Radio is there.

Good morning to you, Lisa.

LISA GODDARD, CNN RADIO: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, let's start out with the looting situation. We just heard what the sheriff said. From the wire reports that I saw this morning, 15 people have been arrested so far for looting. What have you heard?

GODDARD: Yes, that's exactly what I've heard. In fact, I saw four of those arrests personally yesterday. One of the grocery stores here has a giant gash. Two windows were blown out, and you just have to hop over a short wall to get to the aisles where candy, food and supplies are. Apparently, these four people thought that might be a good idea.

Now, their family says that the four of them had just been going out to get diapers for their children. But the police officers I spoke to say that the fact is they were going into a store that they shouldn't have been in.

COSTELLO: The other story that I heard is some of the looters broke into an adult video store, and they were stealing adult videos.

GODDARD: I have to say, I haven't heard that one. But anything is possible in this kind of situation.

COSTELLO: Yes, because the sheriff is quoted as saying these people aren't exactly Rhodes scholars. He's a tough one, isn't he?

Let's talk -- let's talk about the damage in Lake Charles and the flooding there, and if any more people need to be rescued.

GODDARD: Yes, Lake Charles is an area where the main damage, from what I've seen, has been from the wind. You're seeing those houses that are exposed almost like open rib cages. They dot every road. Pretty much every structure here has some damage.

Flooding has wiped out, really hit some of the casinos on the lake. But for the most part, the real flooding problems are south of here. And that's where you just get amazing tales from survivors, people who tell me they saw the water rush in at (INAUDIBLE), coming immediately, and they had to just run out of their houses and get in their cars and go.

COSTELLO: I know that there are units of the National Guard. Actually, they were in Lake Charles before Rita hit. Are they still out and about, doing search and rescue missions?

GODDARD: The National Guard is out and about. You especially see them in these smaller towns. I drove down Highway 14 yesterday, and I saw many National Guard members.

There's not as much search and rescue in this area. But again, as you go south, as you hit Abbeville, you go along these towns that really are built on marshland, where there were people stranded on their houses, there are still search and rescue teams there, from my understanding.

COSTELLO: Yes. We're going to talk to the fire chief from Abbeville later on in the 5:00 Eastern hour of DAYBREAK.

Lisa Goddard, from CNN Radio.

Thanks.

Remember all the traffic around Houston last week? Well, thousands of cars just crawling along the highway, trying to get out of town. Well, all of those drivers are ready to come back, and that could mean trouble.

Here's CNN's John Zarrella.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Call it a Houston homecoming.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Elizabeth, how are things looking on the major freeways? Are folks starting to get back into town?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They really are. And I can tell you right now, Brian (ph), in Conroe we've got slowdowns big time.

ZARRELLA: It's hard to know how many of the millions of people who had evacuated for Rita streamed across the highways on this hot September Sunday. The phased return called for people in the north and west of Houston to come back first. There's no way to know how many others returned, too, but the numbers caused a logjam in Conroe, north of the city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now the 6 has been closed off, sir.

Go. Go.

ZARRELLA: Police there blocked off exits to keep traffic moving. One motorist tried crossing the median to get around police. It didn't work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want you back on the highway, where you just got off from illegally. You understand that? Get back on the road. And don't you get off.

ZARRELLA (on camera): Police are telling us the massive delays during the evacuation were caused in part by the road construction on Interstate 45. That same road construction is causing backups for people returning to Houston.

(voice over): But for the most part, traffic hummed along smoothly. To keep it that way, city officials said they needed gas stations to start opening. And they did.

Fuel trucks started showing up, and drivers lined up, waiting for gas to start flowing. After spending 17 hours getting from Houston to Dallas, Jose Garcia and his wife Alex and two kids were coming home. Almost there after five hours.

JOSE GARCIA, HOUSTON EVACUEE: I'd do it again, because we'll never know what will happen. ZARRELLA: And so, after a claustrophobic evacuation that never seemed to end, the return home has been more like your typical rush hour.

John Zarrella, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: We have more now about that deadly bus fire that killed 23 nursing home patients during those evacuations from Houston. A former investor in the bus company alleges the buses were poorly maintained.

The company, Global Limo, filed for bankruptcy protection back in February. Now, early indications are the bus -- the bus's breaks caught fire and quickly spread to the oxygen canisters, which exploded. A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board says the investigation into that accident could take a year or more.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, an exclusive look above at the extent of hurricane damage. Jamie McIntyre catches a helicopter ride with Joint Task Force Rita to get a firsthand look at the destruction.

Plus...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So many different property owners. And you've got to go over fences. And it's really, really hard, you know, to get them by boat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Hundreds of people trapped by 15-foot floodwaters are now on higher ground. Anderson Cooper rides along on a Coast Guard rescue mission.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Monday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Time now for our market report. The international markets looking pretty darned good this morning.

Japan's Nikkei closes up 233 points. Britain's FTSE is higher by 40. The German DAX up 88 points.

In futures trading, crude oil down 53 cents, at $63.66 a barrel this morning. So, a hurricane approaches and gas and oil prices jump. Or do they?

Early reports show most Gulf Coast refineries and oil rigs came through with very little damage. And pump prices dropped where they should. Are we at the mercy of the oil industry? President Bush will get a briefing at the Energy Department his morning on the impact of the storm, and then he'll make a statement later this morning. And it will be interesting to hear what he has to say about that, Chad, because a lot of people are very angry that the big oil companies are making so much money off of all of this.

MYERS: They are making big money. That's why I own the stock. That's why I told you buy the stocks a year and a half ago.

COSTELLO: I know. I never listen to you, do I?

MYERS: Nope.

COSTELLO: Remember the energy plan back in July that Congress passed?

MYERS: Of course.

COSTELLO: Remember that?

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: It provides a tax credit of up to $3,400 for owners of hybrid vehicles.

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: It provides tax breaks for those making energy conservation improvements to their homes. And, of course, it extends Daylight Savings Time. Remember all the talk about that?

MYERS: Sure. And they are talking about wave power, wind power, current power, trying to do all these alternative things, giving extra money to some of these companies to try to build that. But now what do we do? Now does it have to change?

COSTELLO: Exactly. You know...

MYERS: I mean, this bill is law now. Do we try to change it? Is that what maybe the president is going to say? I don't know.

COSTELLO: I don't know. But you know, I'm really scared to look at my heating bill this winter. That's all I have to say.

MYERS: Yes. I just ordered new insulation for my attic, actually, yesterday. Isn't that ironic?

What should President Bush say today -- today, about 10:55 Eastern, about the U.S. energy plans? Aren't even approved. Do we need to maybe amend it somehow?

DAYBREAK@CNN.com.

And Carol, it's not that we don't have crude. We have plenty of crude oil. We have all of this crude in the ground from the Petroleum Energy Reserve. We just don't have a way to refine it now, because those refineries are shut down, they take almost two weeks to start back up. You know, to do it safely. You just can't turn the switch on and all of a sudden this pops on, this pops on, because if you do that then big pops go on.

COSTELLO: And to get the supplies in to fix the refineries, it's difficult to do that after a hurricane.

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: Yes. All right.

MYERS: Let's hope that's the last one.

COSTELLO: I hope so. There's still a month to go, though.

MYERS: I know.

COSTELLO: DAYBREAK@CNN.com.

President Bush today will take a look at the effect Hurricane Rita has had on the nation's energy supplies, as I just told you. He'll be briefed at the Energy Department, and then he'll make a statement. And you can watch it live right here on CNN at 10:55 Eastern.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 5:16 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

Another deadly day in Iraq. Seven people were killed in a suicide car bomb attack at a Baghdad checkpoint near government buildings. Police say 27 are wounded. The dead and injured include Iraqi police recruits and oil ministry employees.

Violent crime in this country remains at a 30-year low. The Justice Department says there were 24 million violent and property crimes last year, the same as the year before. But children between the ages of 12 and 15 are victimized at the highest rate.

In money news, the three-week strike at Boeing may be over. A tentative agreement has been reached with the Machinists Union. It calls for a rise in pension payments and extension in healthcare benefits. The union votes on the deal Thursday.

In culture, it was real after all. Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher reportedly are not dating anymore. Instead, they're married. "People" magazine is reporting that after a two-year courtship they got married in a Beverly Hills home.

She's 43. He's 27. On the guest list, Moore's ex-husband, Bruce Willis, and of course here three daughters.

In sports, Jimmy Johnson ran away from the field to win the Nextel Cup race in Dover, Delaware.

Hey, Chad, Jimmy Johnson comes through.

MYERS: Yes, he does. How about Kurt Busch now? Two mulligans. He may be out of the chase.

I don't know. He came in 43rd last week, and something like 24th this week. That could be bad news.

Jimmy Johnson on top of the points right now. But, you know, some of the old guys are right behind him. Rusty Wallace only seven points back. Still my hero if you can drive at 47 that fast -- that fast at almost 50 years old. Great news.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: I guess so.

Search and rescue crews have come to the aid of hundreds of people left stranded by Rita, but that's still a far cry from what happened after Katrina. CNN Senior Pentagon Correspondent Jamie McIntyre had exclusive access as he went on an aerial inspection tour with the commander of Joint Task Force Rita.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): From his Black Hawk helicopter, Lieutenant General Bob Clark surveys the impact of Hurricane Rita to places like Port Arthur and Beaumont, along the eastern Gulf Coast of Texas. To the Task Force Rita commander, the damage doesn't look nearly as bad as he feared. But he's quick to add that doesn't make it any less of a disaster to those who lost homes and businesses.

LT. GEN. BOB CLARK, JOINT TASK FORCE RITA: The thing that impressed me was we saw almost no people down here. This evacuation business really did work.

MCINTYRE: There was an oil spill in northern Galveston Bay and some missing roofs and other property damage from wind. But the oil infrastructure was largely intact. And the destruction was a far cry from these images of Mississippi's Gulf Coast, where last month house after house was obliterated by Hurricane Katrina.

Clark began his inspection tour with a check on the progress of search and rescue helicopters at Ellington Air Field, south of Houston. Coast Guard crews there had been airlifting people out since the previous night, as General Clark told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in a cell phone interview from the runway.

CLARK: The place is a beehive of activity. And one of the Coast Guard crewmen was telling me that some of the crews flew as many as 15 to 17 missions.

MCINTYRE (on camera): One of the challenges is to coordinate all the different helicopters. You've got the Coast Guard here. Here we see a police helicopter. And, of course, the Army Guard helicopters. (voice over): The military says roughly 600 people were rescued by various agencies, more than 60 by air. By day's end, it became clear that two dozen helicopters on standby at Ellington Air Field were not really needed. Aerial surveys found no one else to rescue.

But the view from the air can be deceiving. Local emergency preparedness officials are just now beginning the process of determining who's going to need shelter or assistance in the weeks to come.

Jamie McIntyre, CNN, over eastern Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: It looks like troubled times are over in the U.K. The IRA makes good on a promise. And it could finally mean peace after more than three decades. We have a live report for you. That's coming up next.

You are watching DAYBREAK for Monday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A U.S. Army helicopter crash in southeast Afghanistan has killed five U.S. soldiers. All five were crewmembers of the Chinook helicopter. The chopper had just finished dropping off troops. The crash happened Sunday in a mountainous area plagued by Taliban violence. But the U.S. military says there is no evidence of hostile fire. It's the third crash of a Chinook this year.

Could three decades of arms struggle against British rule be coming to an end in northern Ireland? That is the announcement expected later today. Our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, joins us live from Belfast with more details.

Hello, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Carol.

Well the key issue that's been plaguing the peace process here has been the IRA decommissioning, as they say here, or disarming itself of its weapons. And a report that has just been handed to the British and Irish governments here by the head of the organization that was -- that was designed to oversee the decommissioning and disbandment of terrorist groups has handed that report to the British and Irish governments.

That report is expected to say that the IRA has -- has put beyond use all its weapons. And that's believed to be several tons of the high explosive Semtex, up to about a thousand automatic weapons, heavy machine guns, light machine guns, hand grenades, and some -- some high-velocity sniper rifles as well.

It is significant, because for the last seven years, since the 1998 peace agreement was signed, the IRA and the other terror groups here disarming themselves has been the stumbling block for the power sharing government here in northern Ireland. The expected announcement today is expected to give an impetus to their sort of stalled peace process here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Is the U.S. government involved in any of this, Nic?

ROBERTSON: Well, certainly it has been behind the scenes. President Clinton initially giving a visa to the head of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, the political wing of the IRA, back in the early 1990s to come to the United States. Signaled that the U.S. was willing to be involved, encouraged Sinn Fein and the IRA along this path of peace.

President Bush, for his part, has sent a very strong and clear message, particularly to Sinn Fein as recently as this year, by not inviting them to the St. Patrick's Day festivities at the White House, that he expected them to move along with their commitment, to disarm, or for the IRA to disarm. So certainly the U.S. has played a role and will likely continue to play a role.

One of the big bonuses for the population here is the economic dividend, as people call it, of the peace process. And certainly a lot of -- there has been a lot of investment from U.S. companies, and a lot more is hoped for -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Nic Robertson, reporting live from Belfast this morning.

In news "Across America" this morning, take a look. It's a remnant of what was once Hurricane Rita. This apparent tornado in Alabama's Tuscaloosa County slightly injured two people. Three mobile homes destroyed. Another possible tornado knocked down power lines and uprooted trees in an adjacent county.

In Bayfield County, Minnesota, a helicopter on a sightseeing trip crashed into a lake, killing the pilot, a woman, and here 13-year-old son. The chopper struc, a power line and went down in Hamil Lake (ph).

At Cape Canaveral, going up. A rocket carries a new generation of global positioning system satellites into orbit. The satellite is the first of eight that will provide stronger signals, improve protection against jamming, and more signals for both military and civilian use.

Still to come in the next half-hour of DAYBREAK...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's like every tree on this street is knocked down. It's not Katrina, but it's going to be tough living here for a while. That's for sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: ... we'll take a ride with Rob Marciano as he returns to Lake Charles, a town he once called home. That's still to come. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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