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American Morning

Dam Threatens to Give Way in Massachusetts; Tropical Storm Wilma Bulks Up

Aired October 18, 2005 - 08:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Breaking news, quite literally, in Massachusetts. A dam threatens to give way. Thousands of people now being told to get out of town in Taunton.
Tropical storm Wilma bulks up, gets more intense and threatens to slice toward South Florida. Chad Myers is watching Wilma.

And we are watching Harriet Miers, as well. Did she or did she not tip her hand on abortion issues with a prominent senator? Who said what to whom, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.

Welcome, everybody.

Boy, they are having a rough time of it in Taunton, Massachusetts. They have a big problem on their hands with that dam, which dates back to the 1800s. It's a wood dam. It threatens to give way. It really could collapse any moment.

M. O'BRIEN: It's a swollen river, it's a timber dam and people are being told to get out of the way. Things pretty tense there in Taunton, Massachusetts this morning.

Taunton about 30 miles south of Boston. You know all the rain they've gotten lately. We've been telling you all about that. Well, all that water has to go somewhere, of course, and it is threatening to bust through that dam and potentially flood the city.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Dan Lothian is live in Taunton -- Dan, you're downstream.

If that dam were to break, would you be in floodwater right now?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's what officials are telling us. We are about a mile-and-a-half downstream from that 100- year-old wooden dam and we're told that if it does give way, it will send about six feet of water going through a nearby community of about 100 or so homes, and then into the downtown area.

The concern, as well, is that there is this secondary dam, and if that all -- if the first one gives way, they believe the secondary dam could also give way, creating even more problems. The governor, Mitt Romney, arrived here a short time ago to be briefed by emergency personnel and he is speaking, I believe, at this hour. A few minutes ago he was in front of the microphones to kind of give an update on what he has learned so far.

Obviously, there is a lot of concern here. So officials have gone door-to-door to evacuate residents. Some 2,000 residents in the area have been strongly advised to leave their homes. We are told, though, that some people are staying behind.

And what engineers are doing at this hour, we're told, is they're continuing to monitor that dam, to see if it will hold or when it will break. They do believe it could break at any time.

Now, there's good news and there's bad news. Already water is starting to come through that dam. They say that's good because it's relieving some of the pressure behind the dam. But of course it's bad because the integrity of that dam has also been compromised.

So, right now it's in stand-by mode. A lot of emergency personnel have been activated. They're on stand-by, ready to move into position if needed -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Dan, stay there for just a moment.

Governor Mitt Romney is addressing reporters even as we speak.

Let's listen for just a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. MITT ROMNEY (R), MASSACHUSETTS: ... looked at some of these dams. They were categorized in different groupings. Those that were considered high hazard were those which, if there were a significant failure, could lead to the loss of life or loss of a significant amount of property. This is one of those dams.

They're to be inspected every two years. This dam was inspected, apparently on a timely basis, and was designated to be in fair condition. Certain repairs were requested and ordered, and those were apparently undertaken or completed.

So I believe that we have a process which is generally working. But I think we're going to all take a very close look at it following the stress which our system has endured over the last week.

We've had a number of dams that called for inspectors coming out and taking a close look. This is not the only one that's been at risk. It's the most severe risk given the number of individuals and the property that are entailed. But we've had a number of dams that have been compromised to a certain degree by the high water. And I think we're going to spend some time...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney continues his briefing to reporters.

We're going to continue listening to it, but we are also going to press on. He addressing that issue I brought up a little while ago about this whole issue of 100-year-old timber dams, whether that's an appropriate kind of infrastructure to protect our cities. He said it had been inspected, as all dams are in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts every couple of years. He said it passed with a fair grade, some repairs required. Obviously a story we'll be tracking for you.

In just a few moments, we will talk to the publisher of the local newspaper. They had to evacuate their office building along the river, but we'll ask them about this dam and whether there was any move there to replace it, perhaps with something more long lasting -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: There are reports of other people who decided to stay behind.

And we're going to continue to follow this story, obviously.

Florida now.

Florida could be staring at another hurricane in the next few days. Severe weather expert Chad Myers at the CNN Center with us for the very latest -- hey, Chad, good morning, again.

Where is she, he, it?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Wilma, it. Wilma is an it. Down in the Caribbean. Everybody likes to call the hurricanes hes and shes when you get boys' and girls' names, but, in fact, they are all its.

Rain showers into Boston. I just wanted to show you this quickly, because that's where our reporter is right here. The rain has finally stopped and so the threat, I guess, of a little bit more runoff has stopped from that next little wave of rain.

Here is the wave. It's a big wave now, a tropical storm, 70 miles per hour. The 8:00 update just came in. Kept it as a tropical storm. Did not move it up to a hurricane strength yet. But it is forecast to be a category one later today, and then, in fact, grow rapidly in this warm water right here, to a category three. And that's the potential for this storm.

The rest of the potential is probably anywhere from, it could be Louisiana, all the way over to Florida. The Hurricane Center's forecast, you saw it. That line does move right over the west coast of Florida.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Let's turn now to the Harriet Miers nomination.

She apparently said something to Senator Arlen Specter about a very important court case. Exactly what she said, though, is a matter of huge disagreement.

Congressional correspondent Ed Henry live for us on Capitol Hill this morning -- Ed, we're hearing some very careful wording on all of this, aren't we?

ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

In fact, after yesterday's private meeting, Senator Arlen Specter was unequivocal, twice saying that, in fact, during this meeting, Harriet Miers said that she believes the "Griswold" case was rightly decided. That's very significant because, of course, the 1965 case, "Griswold v. Connecticut," basically laid the legal foundation for "Row v. Wade" and opened the door to legalized abortion in America.

That's why conservatives oppose it so much, that case. And that's why, in fact, last night the White House was scrambling, saying, in fact, that they believe Miers did not say any such thing during this meeting with Specter and that he would be issuing a correction.

But Specter's office later put out a carefully worded statement that did not exactly correct it. It, instead, said that after he commented to the media, "Ms. Miers called him to say that he misunderstood her and that she had not taken a position on "Griswold." Senator Specter accepts Ms. Miers' statement that he misunderstood what she said."

So there again, Specter insisting she, in fact, said something, while the White House is saying she didn't say anything. A lot of confusion there. But basically conservatives cutting through that last night and telling me they believe this suggests that, in fact, eyebrows will be raised about the fact that Senator Arlen Specter, an expert on constitutional law, could not have possibly have been confused about what Harriet Miers said.

This also is clouding, once again, an already stormy confirmation battle. If you look at the latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll, it shows that 36 percent of Americans say that Miers, the Miers nomination should be withdrawn. Only 46 percent say no, she should stick it out. Clearly not a Ray ringing endorsement there.

And this episode with Specter is going to raise more suspicion in the minds of conservatives that perhaps Harriet Miers is really not on board with their views against abortion rights -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Lots of questions certainly raised.

Ed Henry for us this morning.

Ed, thanks.

The other top story this morning, fresh off the Iraqi vote now, the country's attention is turned to Saddam Hussein and his trial.

Carol has a look at that, and other stories, as well -- good morning. CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I do.

Good morning.

Good morning to all of you.

Saddam Hussein and seven of his top leaders are set to go on trial tomorrow. The group will face charges for the 1982 killings of nearly 150 people. It's the first of at least a dozen cases being prepared against the former dictator.

In the meantime, election officials are holding off on the results from this weekend's constitutional vote. It seems there were an unusually high number of yes or no votes in some areas. Monitors now looking into that situation.

The investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's name is reportedly focusing on Vice President Dick Cheney's office. That's according to sources cited by the "Washington Post." It's not clear if the special prosecutor in the case has plans to charge anyone inside the Bush administration with a crime. Possible indictments could come down this week.

It could be another wet morning for parts of southern California. Up to four feet of water in the area triggered a terrible mud slide in this Burbank neighborhood. Check out these pictures. Luckily, no one was hurt, but a few cars did get slammed by the rushing mud and debris. The area was also recently affected by wildfires.

And now to the cutting edge of harvest sports -- the third annual Pumpkin Regatta in northeastern Ohio. A handful of brave souls paddle the giant hollowed out gourds, hoping they stay afloat...

S. O'BRIEN: Oh my god!

COSTELLO: Each pumpkin weighs anywhere between 500 and 1,200 pounds. So imagine if you were just like, you know, like a kayak, go upside down in one of those things.

S. O'BRIEN: Like that guy right there just did, almost.

COSTELLO: It's frightening. Luckily they're in rather shallow water. But it must be chilly in northeastern Ohio.

M. O'BRIEN: Nobody held a candle to him, that's for sure.

Oh, that's good. Oh, bring that back up, will you, Michael? That was classic. With the little electric motor, that's great stuff.

COSTELLO: Yes! Yes!

S. O'BRIEN: That's cheating. Everybody else is paddling and he's got the motor on his pumpkin.

M. O'BRIEN: I think he gets an ingenuity award, don't you?

COSTELLO: He does.

M. O'BRIEN: The electric pumpkin.

All right, thank you very much.

See you in a bit.

Still to come on the program, we continue to follow that story out of Taunton, Massachusetts. A dam there threatening to give way. We'll talk to the publisher of a newspaper in town there. They're not working. They had to evacuate.

S. O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning, the president's job approval rating keeps going down. A look at the latest numbers just ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: And did a high school principal go too far in canceling the prom? Yes, the prom. We'll talk to him ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: The old timber dam in Taunton, Massachusetts threatening to give way.

Before we get to our next guest, let's just give you the lay of the land here.

Take a look on our Google map here and bring you into the scene. Massachusetts, Taunton, Mass. about 30 miles south of Boston.

Let's zoom around. I want to just point out for you -- I should have pointed it out before we did that -- exactly where the lake is. Right in front -- that's Lake Sabbatia. And in the foreground here -- I'm just going to draw the river. It goes into town. As you go toward a little further downstream, you'll see off in the distance there, that is the dam in question.

Let's move in on the dam, Ted, and get a little closer view of it.

As we say, it's been there about 100 years. We just heard the governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney -- if you would, can we lose that label there for a minute, Ted?

There you go.

And I just want to highlight so you can see right there, that is the location of the dam. Apparently every couple of years they check it, give it some maintenance, repair it. And it got a fair rating.

Should it give way, look what happens. It just goes down and all the way toward downtown Taunton. And much of this area could be under as much as six feet of water, according to the governor and other officials there this morning. That brings us to our next guest, John Shields, who is the publisher of the "Taunton Daily Gazette," which this morning will not be open for business because it has been evacuated.

Mr. Shields, good to have you with us.

Can you remember a situation like this in Taunton?

JOHN SHIELDS, "TAUNTON DAILY GAZETTE": No. I've only been here five years. They had a similar situation in the 1960, probably the middle 1960s. But it -- the dams held at that time, also. We'll hope they do today.

M. O'BRIEN: Was there a lot of repairs or replacements made in the 1960s, to the best of your understanding?

SHIELDS: I know they made some repairs. That's my understanding, anyway.

M. O'BRIEN: OK. Over the years, has this dam been a topic of discussion, maintaining it, whether to replace it? Was there concern that a timber dam was protecting the city?

SHIELDS: Well, it's 150 years old and I'm sure they have, over the years. But you'd want to talk to officials about that. I really don't know.

M. O'BRIEN: But in your newspaper you haven't done a lot of reporting about this subject, is what I'm trying to drive at here?

SHIELDS: No. No, I mean we -- the river gets high at times. And they release -- it's Lake Sabbatia. They release water from there and the river will get high. But we haven't had this danger since I've been here in five years.

M. O'BRIEN: OK. So for somebody like you, having to evacuate and the staff evacuate, are you able to do any sort of business today?

SHIELDS: Yes, we'll get a -- we got our paper out last night just fine. We moved computers and other equipment to our sister paper in Fall River, Mass. which is about 15 miles from here. And we got out on time. It's on the street. And we'll do the same today.

M. O'BRIEN: Do you think people...

SHIELDS: Although...

M. O'BRIEN: I'm sorry, go ahead.

You finish up.

SHIELDS: We need to -- we will go back in with some help from officials and remove some more equipment and our readers can expect to get the "Taunton Daily Gazette" tomorrow.

M. O'BRIEN: Good for you. That sounds like a Herculean effort. Tell me, you get the sense that people are listening to the calls to evacuate.

SHIELDS: I'm sorry, I didn't get that, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Are people evacuating if they're being told to do so?

SHIELDS: Yes. My understanding is that many have. But it's their choice, as I understand it.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, it is still voluntary?

SHIELDS: Yes. It was, as of yesterday afternoon. And I haven't asked this morning. We were told to evacuate. We had no choice.

M. O'BRIEN: And there are others -- so if the dam were to burst, where you're standing right now would very likely be covered in some floodwater, would it not?

SHIELDS: I would expect it would. And our office is located maybe a quarter mile from where we're standing. Our building sits beside the river, so -- and that's kind of the headwaters of it. So we would have a problem.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, good luck to you, Mr. Shields.

John Shields is the publisher of the "Taunton Daily Gazette."

Thanks for joining us.

And we hope the dam holds in Taunton this morning.

SHIELDS: Thank you very much.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: They've got to be worried there. Wow!

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Still ahead this morning, they're watching Wilma in New Orleans. The storm is still a long way from land. The mayor, though, has a warning. We'll talk about that and also what residents are doing to try to return to normalcy.

We're live just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Well, as a new storm approaches, New Orleans could be evacuated again. Mayor Ray Nagin says be prepared in case tropical storm Wilma becomes how and heads toward New Orleans.

Meanwhile, the school we were telling you about yesterday in the French Quarter, well, it did reopen, the first in New Orleans to do so.

AMERICAN MORNING'S Alina Cho live for us from New Orleans this morning -- hey, Alina, good morning.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

No one here seems to be too concerned just yet about the possibility of evacuating this city. But satisfy it would be disappointing news for everyone, from residents to business owners to school administrators who are just getting back on track.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHO (voice-over): For 9-year-old Aalilyah Carr...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, listen.

CHO: ... starting school is like a homecoming.

AALILYAH CARR, FOURTH GRADER: It was wonderful. I'm so glad to see Sister, Miss. Keller (ph), Miss. Smith, Miss. Hublie (ph).

CHO: Her school, St. Louis Cathedral Academy, in the heart of the French Quarter, is the first school to reopen in New Orleans since hurricane Katrina. This fourth grader is one of just a dozen students returning this year. Most are new students, children of police officers and firefighters.

People like Roy Arriola. His 5-year-old son Xavier isn't happy about starting a new school.

(on camera): How is your son doing?

ROY ARRIOLA, PARENT: He's a little nervous. But he'll be OK.

CHO (voice-over): Sister Mary Rose is the principal here. She says this year, school won't be just about learning from books. Sharing stories about the storm will be just as important.

SR. MARY ROSE BINGHAM, PRINCIPAL: Sometimes they just need you to hold their hand or give them a hug. That's what they need the most.

CHO: It's why Sister Mary Cecilia began the day by having her students fill out a questionnaire.

SR. MARY CECILIA GOODRUM, TEACHER: It's overwhelming to read some of the worst experiences. It's watching my house float away, watching a tornado come down my street, how the kids were at another school, hearing the noises of the wind. So that says it. It's a different type of first day of school here.

CHO: Most here have lost everything, including Aalilyah's family. To help out, school officials say they've lowered tuition and won't turn back anyone who can't pay, though the school could use the money. Four classrooms still need repairs. GOODRUM: This classroom housed our music and our Spanish.

CHO: Nobody here is paying attention to that, though, especially not Aalilyah.

CARR: Hi, mommy!

CHO: It's the end of the day. The school both her mom and dad attended is once again home to her, as well.

CARR: It's so horrifying to not be at my old school and not be with my old friends and stuff.

CHO (on camera): And now that you're back?

CARR: It's the best. This is just how, that's all I can say.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

CHO: And some encouraging news. In just the past 24 hours, St. Louis Cathedral Academy has received a flood of applications. More than 100 students have applied and that would put the school at full capacity. School officials say their strategy right now is just to get these schools back open, then let people know about it and then let the students come to them -- Soledad, that strategy, for now, appears to be working.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, gosh, that little girl was so cute. And, you know, the students do need it. They need to get some kind of semblance of a routine back in their lives.

Alina, thanks for that update.

M. O'BRIEN: Hey, before you go, Alina, what about the public schools, though? Are any of them opening up any time soon?

CHO: Yes. In fact, one high school, another parochial school, will be opening today. And the encouraging news about that is they're expecting somewhere between 250 to 350 students. Their normal enrollment, guys, is 450. But the best news that we're hearing about this school is that most of these students are going to be returning students, unlike the other school.

So it looks like people, at least in this area, are coming back.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, but that's a parochial school, not a public school? The public schools are still...

CHO: A parochial, absolutely.

M. O'BRIEN: Parochial. OK.

CHO: They will be closed until the (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

M. O'BRIEN: Got you.

All right, thank you, Alina.

S. O'BRIEN: Until further notice, as they say.

M. O'BRIEN: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Alina.

M. O'BRIEN: Reading, writing and recovery there.

Still to come on the program, prom night and lavish excesses.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, duh?

M. O'BRIEN: Well, not my prom. Anyway, and one school it's all -- the party is over, as they say. Those excesses have killed the dance. We'll find out why on AMERICAN MORNING, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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