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CNN Live Today

Floods and Fires; President Bush's New Year's Agenda; RX for Confusion

Aired January 02, 2006 - 10:59   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Here's a look at what's happening "Now in the News."
It's looking another tough week for firefighters in Texas and Oklahoma. Wildfires are still on the move in both states. The fires have destroyed dozens of homes and scorched tens of thousands of acres. In Texas, the flames have virtually wiped out two small communities, Ringgold and Kokomo.

While parts of Texas and Oklahoma are bone dry, the Pacific coast is waterlogged. Floodwaters in northern California have caused millions of dollars in damage. Much of the flooding is centered in the region's wine country.

Pacific storms have also brought heavy rain to parts of southern California. A live report straight ahead.

To Germany. Rescue crews are at the scene of a building collapse. Police say the roof of an ice skating rink in a southern town partially collapsed under heavy snow. Some deaths and injuries are reported. There's no word yet on the exact number.

Concern is spreading across Europe as a dispute between Russia and Ukraine heats up. The Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom started cutting off supplies to Ukraine after the weekend. That happened after Ukraine refused to sign an agreement that would quadruple prices. The same pipelines that take natural gas to Ukraine also supply gas to much of western Europe.

A live report on that at the half-hour.

Deadly violence continued into the new year in Iraq. Among today's attacks, a car bombing north of Baquba that killed at least seven people plus the suicide bomber. The bomb exploded near a bus carrying Iraqi police recruits.

Good morning. Happy New Year. Welcome back to CNN LIVE TODAY.

Checking some of the time around the country, it is just after 10:00 a.m. in Oklahoma City; just after 11:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia; and just after 8:00 a.m. in Pasadena, California, where the Tournament of Roses Parade is getting ready for a very soggy start this hour.

From CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Daryn Kagan. And we are going to start with the floods, then the fires. The third Pacific storm in a week is slamming into California. Fire, meanwhile, is burning in tinder-dry Texas and Oklahoma.

As we look at a picture from Pasadena, those folks all bundled up waiting for the Tournament of Roses Parade to begin, Pasadena's signature New Year's parade getting very wet for the first time in 50 years. We'll hear from correspondent Katharine Barrett in just a minute.

Jen Rogers will show us the scene in the LA area. And in Oklahoma City, Ed Lavandera is on the fire watch there.

Hello, Ed.

We're going to begin in California. The counties north of San Francisco waking up and cleaning up this morning. The latest Pacific storm left millions of dollars worth of damage from floods and mudslides. And that's where we find Katharine Barrett. She is in the hard-hit town of San Anselmo in Marin County.

Hello.

Hello to you, Daryn.

KATHARINE BARRETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This morning, San Anselmo's streets are filling with bulldozers, dump trucks and street sweepers. The same street behind me on Saturday was running with four feet of water from the San Anselmo Creek that had risen 10 feet above its bank and then another four feet to course through this town, coursing into some of the 50 shops that line the street.

Shop owners spent much of New Year's Day cleaning out, shoveling out. This is a time of year when these shops had been filled with holiday merchandise. Now the shelves have been emptied of their soggy, muddy, damaged goods. Shops replaced by mops, brooms, hoses and ripped out carpeting.

Up and down the street here there are soggy, muddy piles of goods. The lost is estimated by one local official at between $25 million and $30 million. That's really just an official guess.

Now, the damage does extend through a several-county area: Marian, Napa, Sonoma County and others. There have also been isolated mudslides that have taken out roads, power line. And in Fairfax, at least one home destroyed by a mudslide.

Up in Napa, in the historic wine country, the Napa River left its banks to flood the downtown area and as many as a thousand homes. Also flooding areas of vineyards. Grape growers say, though, this is a dormant time of year, so the damage shouldn't be too severe to the wine. But the river, after just five to nine inches of rain, rivers in this area leapt as many as five, nine, more feet, causing evacuations, power outages, and, as we've said here, damages to businesses. Now, most of those rivers are back into their banks at this hour. There still remains a flood warning in effect for the Russian River and the area of Guerneville -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Katharine. Thank you.

Let's head south. The storm that washed out northern California is now raining on the southern part of the state.

Jen Rogers is in Santa Monica, overlooking Pacific Coast Highway.

Good morning.

JEN ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Usually not a bad vantage point. Today we have a lot of the weather moving in. But I must say, we really are still waiting for that system to make its way down to us.

So far, we have had some high winds and there is a high wind advisory here. We also have a high surf advisory. If you look out, you can see the Pacific and the white waves crashing there.

The big issue is going to be how much rain we get. To the north of us in Ventura County, they are expecting up to eight inches. Here in Los Angeles County, expecting maybe an inch and a half. And that's going to be really critical to see what happens in terms of how fast the rain comes in.

Of course, landslides and mudslides are a big issue here in southern California. If you take a look here, we're looking down on the Pacific Coast Highway. We are on a cliff above it, and you can see just how important it is to see how fast this rain comes in because soil erosion can be a big issue here and in other points up and down the coast, also in the Santa Monica mountains.

So, so far, no reports of any major slides. But, of course, that has been a big issue here before. And it will be again, probably, during this storm -- Daryn.

KAGAN: So it looks like it's time for the Rose Parade to get under way. They have had beautiful weather every time for the last 50 years. But it looks like Mother Nature finally caught up.

ROGERS: Yes, it looks like that's probably going to be the case. Although, you know, Pasadena is a little bit of a drive to the east of us right now. So we're starting to get this fresh band right here. It should make its way there, although we were dry for a little while.

So who knows. Maybe they will get a few dry minutes for the parade.

KAGAN: Well, we're able to do what you can't, and that is look at the monitor. And trust me, they are just as soggy there as you are in Santa Monica.

All right. Thank you, Jen.

Bonnie Schneider having plenty to talk about this morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: OK. From the floods in the West, to the fires in the Southwest, crews are hoping higher humidity today will reduce the risk of more devastating grass fires. But as you were hearing from Bonnie, the forecast calling for dry, windy conditions throughout the week. Wildfires have scorched tens of thousands of acres in Texas and Oklahoma.

Ed Lavandera joins us from Oklahoma City with the latest on the conditions there.

Ed, good morning.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn.

Well, you know, yesterday afternoon about 5:00 residents here near Oklahoma City received quite a scare. This is one of the four homes here on the edge of Oklahoma City that was destroyed by a wildfire that broke out yesterday afternoon.

You can still see that even almost 24 hours later it is still smoldering here at this particular home. And it has been a problem statewide in Oklahoma.

Some 30,000 acres of land have burned in the last week, and the problem stretches southward into Texas, where even a little town called Ringgold, Texas, along the Texas-Oklahoma border near Wichita Falls, essentially wiped out by flames. A much even larger fire in Eastland County, which is just south of there. All of this west of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Crews have been working around the clock to keep those fires under control.

Here in Oklahoma, firefighters are coming in from four other states across the country to help the firefighters here battle the problem. And, you know, this particular fire really caught the attention of a lot of people because it was so close to a large metropolitan area.

And, you know, one of the owners of this home, Deborah Lusk, is joining us now. And she was tell me go a little while ago that -- Deborah, you said you had heard over and over again how quickly the fires can move. And now you really know.

DEBORAH LUSK, HOMEOWNER: I am a believer. They move real fast. We only had about 10 minutes to react from the time I smelled smoke until we got out of here.

It came quick; flames 30 feet in the air. The wind was carrying the flames. They were jumping trees. It was unbelievable, something I've never seen before.

LAVANDERA: And obviously you weren't able to save anything, unfortunately, from your home here, which -- we had talked earlier -- your husband had spent eight years building with his own hands. But also, at this point, you're just grateful to be alive. Ten minutes isn't a lot of time.

LUSK: It's not a lot of time. Very grateful to be alive. And this is stuff, and we can replace stuff. We can't replace lives.

It's devastating, but we're not without hope. And we do plan to rebuild. I don't know how long I'll be displaced. I don't like being homeless, but we'll come back. I do believe we'll come back.

LAVANDERA: I want to show one thing, and maybe you can kind of walk us through.

If we can show, just over -- over the wall over here to the left, you can kind of see where the land kind of goes down a little bit. And that's where the fire came from.

Can you describe what that was like as you saw that fire approaching?

LUSK: Well, at first, we just saw the flames not quite at the top of the trees. And about five minutes later, they were up over the trees, blowing flames to the east.

And first there was a lot of ash blowing. Then the ash got hotter and hotter, and then the embers started to blow. And we really thought we were going to have time to at least stamp out a few of the grass fires, but we could not. It started raining embers, and the whole pasture caught on fire in just a matter of minutes.

LAVANDERA: And you want people to know that firefighters aren't joking when they say these things move fast.

LUSK: They are not joking. When they say they move fast, then you need to evacuate. Do not hesitate. Get out. The first thing is your safety.

LAVANDERA: Deborah, I'm sorry for your loss.

You know, this was a home that was -- this is actually the basement. You know, in Oklahoma, the concern there is most often tornadoes, not fires like this. So this was the basement.

This was a two-story home. Everything collapsed into the basement here. And firefighters didn't even get a chance to drench this home with any water. So at this point it is still even smoldering at this time -- Daryn.

KAGAN: So sad there. Ed, thank you.

You know, Ed mentioned tornadoes there. There are concerns of tornadoes today.

I want to bring Bonnie Schneider back in because she has information on that. (WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: It might be a new year, but the president has a lot of the same priorities. And he is hitting the ground running this week. We'll go live to the White House for a look ahead at the new year's agenda.

Plus, I'll speak to a prospective college student whose million- dollar idea is paving his way. You'll hear how he came up with this brilliant concept.

Then, it's Russia's new cold war, a freeze-out on natural gas to Ukraine, why Americans should care.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: President Bush is off to a busy start in this new year. He is back at the White House after a holiday break at his Texas ranch. And in the week ahead he will focus on a number of issues, including Iraq, the war on terror, and the U.S. economy.

For more, let's go to the White House. Our Suzanne Malveaux standing by.

Suzanne, Happy New Year to you.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Happy New Year, Daryn.

Of course President Bush starting this new year really aggressively defending his administration's domestic spy program. The president returning from his Crawford ranch yesterday after visiting with wounded U.S. soldiers and offering some Purple Hearts.

The president was asked by reporters about the specific program. He was asked whether or not he was aware of any resistance to this program from top officials in his own administration.

Now, the president sidestepped this question to make the case that the program is legal and essential.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ed, I can say that if somebody from al Qaeda is calling you, we'd like to know why. In the meantime, this program is conscious of people's civil liberties, as am I.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And Daryn, later on, a White House spokesman went on to clarify or add to the president's comments, saying that these are kinds of calls and e-mails that can be monitored on both sides, from Americans who are making calls overseas, to suspected al Qaeda, and of course also the reverse -- Daryn.

KAGAN: What about on the resolution note? Did the president say he's made any New Year's resolutions?

MALVEAUX: As a matter of fact, he has. Yes, a spokesman said -- I'm quoting here -- "to continue to work tirelessly for peace abroad and prosperity at home."

Most of us, Daryn, just want to lose 10 pounds. And that's OK, but, you know, he's the president, he's a little bit more ambitious.

But on a more serious note, the president we do expect this week to talk about both of those issues. He's going to focus on the state of the economy, as well as the war on terror -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, whatever anybody thinks about the man's politics, he is ahead of most of us on the fitness and weight situation. So he can move on to other things.

MALVEAUX: Learn a lesson or two from him.

KAGAN: Absolutely.

MALVEAUX: Absolutely.

KAGAN: Suzanne, thank you.

MALVEAUX: Sure.

KAGAN: Well, Farris -- and don't call him Buehler -- Farris Hassan is back after his excellent adventure in Iraq. We're going to update you on that.

Plus, little Baby Noor, who is here in Atlanta right now, doctors will perform life-saving surgery. We'll tell you more about her journey just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Medicare recipients who have signed up for a new drug benefit can now get help paying for the prescriptions. The program went into effect yesterday. But as CNN's Chris Huntington tells us, for a lot of people it's been a prescription for confusion.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Lee and Mike Temares thought signing up for Medicare prescription drug benefits would be a cinch.

MIKE TEMARES, MEDICARE RECIPIENT: I thought, from reading all of the literature when this plan first came into effect, I thought I had it knocked.

HUNTINGTON: The president had joked about it.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You've got to fill out a form.

HUNTINGTON: And TV ads featuring Fred and Ethel made it look easy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fred, you still need to do the Medicare drug plan.

HUNTINGTON: Mike is 69 and no stranger to contracts as an advisor on reversed mortgages. Lee, 66, is a rare book dealer and completely at home on the Internet. But they were baffled by having to choose from 47 different drug plans offering a dizzying array of premiums, deductibles and coverage options.

LEE TEMARES, MEDICARE RECIPIENT: The Medicare site only lets you compare three plans at one time. So I started figuring out the math and how many times I would have to do that, and I said, "Forget about it. I'm going to bed."

M. TEMARES: I don't know how to handle it.

HUNTINGTON: Mike tried calling the Medicare help line but says he was put on hold for three hours. Lee couldn't get on the Medicare Web site.

L. TEMARES: "We're currenting experiencing high traffic. Please try again later. Sorry for any convenience."

HUNTINGTON: Their frustration is not unique. Robert Hayes, who runs the Medicare Rights Center, says millions of seniors are having the same trouble.

ROBERT HAYES, MEDICARE RIGHTS CENTER: People in their 80s, in their 90s, people with severe disabilities, with cognitive impairments are being asked to figure out which of 40, in some cases, 50 or 60 different plans are best for them. They can't do it.

HUNTINGTON: Most of those eligible for the new drug plans have until mid-May to sign up. The concern right now is for seven million Medicare recipients who are also very poor and, therefore, on Medicaid, which used to cover their prescriptions.

They've been automatically enrolled into one of the new plans and should have been notified by now. The fear is that that new plan may be worse than what they already had.

DENISE SOFFELL, COMMUNITY SERVICE SOCIETY: They're going to go to the pharmacy on January 2 and who knows what's going to happen. They may or may not know what plan they are in. They may or may not know whether the drugs that they are currently taking are covered by the plan that they were randomly assigned into.

HUNTINGTON: Medicare administrators insist they're looking out for those who might get lost in the shuffle.

LESLIE NORWALK, CENTER FOR MEDICARE & MEDICAID SERVICES: We've worked very closely with all of the plans to make sure that they have appropriate transition policies.

HUNTINGTON: As for Mike with and Lee Temares, they did finally pick a drug plan, and it's better than no coverage at all. They're just not convinced it was worth all the trouble.

M. TEMARES: I don't think it's anyplace near where it should be.

L. TEMARES: Or what it could be.

HUNTINGTON: Chris Huntington, CNN, Manhasset, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And in other health news today, surgery tentatively scheduled for a week from today for Baby Noor. She is the Iraqi infant who captured the hearts of U.S. National Guard troops, and she is in Atlanta for treatment of a potentially fatal birth defect.

Doctors at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta will operate to close the baby's spinal column. The doctor who will perform the surgery says Baby Noor will probably still have weakness or paralysis in her legs. But he describes her as bright and playful. And he talked about that on CNN earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROGER HUDGINS, CHILDREN'S HEALTHCARE OF ATLANTA: This is not something that I anticipated by any means, and I think that it's truly a reflection of our country, of our desire to want to do good and to show the world that -- that we're more than just warriors and soldiers, but we're people who do well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And a programming reminder for you. "AMERICAN MORNING" airs weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Eastern. Our warm-up act here at CNN LIVE TODAY.

An American teenager is back in the U.S. today after a three-week odyssey to the Middle East. He went alone.

Farris Hassan says he wanted to see first-hand what life in Iraq was like. So he set off for Baghdad without telling his parents.

He arrived back in Florida to the glare of TV cameras last night. Hassan's mother says she's glad he's home and safe but he probably has some explaining to do.

So, is winter cold where you live? Imagine living in part ts of Europe and finding out your national gas supply is being slashed. The politics of gas, some call it the new cold war. We'll go live to Moscow in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: We are very close to the half-hour. I'm Daryn Kagan. Here's a look at what's happening "Now in the News."

Grass fires in Oklahoma have destroyed dozens of homes, even more homes. Firefighters say the fires burning since Tuesday are mostly contained, but the danger is not over yet due to warm, dry weather. Across the state line in Texas, firefighters are battling one blaze west of Dallas that stretches 35 miles.

In Utah, search teams have suspended the search for a snowshoer lost in an avalanche in Provo Canyon. Authorities say conditions are just too dangerous to resume the search. The 33-year-old snowshoer was caught in the slide on Saturday. He is presumed dead.

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