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American Morning
Rainstorms Batter California; Oklahoma, Texas Battle Wildfires; Wiretap Controversy Continues
Aired January 02, 2006 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Good morning. I'm Miles O'Brien. Fast-moving wildfires spreading across the Southwest still. Hundreds of people forced from their homes. We'll take you there live.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Nature turning against Northern California, overflowing rivers changing lives and land, too. A live look just ahead at those rushing flood waters, left many people in harm's way. Luckily, rescue crews on hand in their time of need. We'll tell you this story just ahead.
M. O'BRIEN: President Bush, again, defends his decision to listen in on Americans without a warrant. We have a live report from the White House ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning. It's the start of a New Year. Good to have you back. Hope you had a good break.
S. O'BRIEN: I did.
M. O'BRIEN: With the kids.
S. O'BRIEN: Did you have a nice holiday, Christmas, New Year's?
M. O'BRIEN: We had a great time.
S. O'BRIEN: Everything?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. A new year lies ahead.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, Happy New Year, everybody.
Let's begin in California, where they are just getting pounded by rain. Record flooding in Northern California is causing $10s of millions in damage. Now that rain has moved south, and we are covering all of these affected areas today with Bob Franken, he's in San Anselmo, that is just north of San Francisco. Jen Rogers is in Southern California, in Santa Monica for us. And Sumi Das is in Truckee, that is in the Sierra Nevadas. We're going to begin with Bob Franken.
Hey, Bob, how is it looking where you are?
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is what you would call aftermath. This is the aftermath of the flash flood that took the Anselmo Creek up to about four feet high on the street. Now, perspective: It's too dark to show it to you now, but that creek is about 10 feet below where we are. The waters came up to about here. So you can imagine that it caused quite a bit of havoc, quite a bit of damage. About $10 million worth of damage they're estimating in this small Marin County community, which is noted for its beauty and it is noted for its proximity to the mountains.
The mountains, of course, can cause the problem because when you have the heavy kind of saturating rains they have been having. By the way, it's still raining here. The water just runs off into the creek and you get this type of thing.
They had another flood in 1982 where the water was up about to here so this is not the first time this has happened. You can see the debris. You can see this is a town that has lots of boutiques and restaurants and now you are seeing the debris is left from those, and the cleanup that is about to begin -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: What a mess for them. All right. Bob Franken, for us this morning. Thanks, Bob.
Let's turn to Southern California now, and Santa Monica which where we find Jen Rogers.
Hey, Jen, good morning. It was raining the last time we talked. How is it looking now?
JEN ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, we are really between the heavy rain bands that we've been getting. We still are getting some high wind though, and that is going to be an issue the rest of the day.
Right now looking up toward the coast toward Malibu, towards Santa Barbara County, towards Ventura. That is where they are really going to be getting a big brunt of this storm. Up to eight inches possible in Ventura County.
To give you an idea of what they are worried about here, mudslides and landslides. Anyone who has been to California knows, we have these big mountains in California, and then of course we have the beaches as well. We are right next to Santa Monica Beach. High surf out there, I don't know if you can hear the wave. But if you look down, one the issues later today, we're in any real danger here, at least right now.
This is a cliff and this ground is already so wet and saturated the more rain they get, of course, they will be closely watching. Places like this, and this place as well, to see if this goes and washes out into the road, because that could be a concern for traffic later today. Soledad?
S. O'BRIEN: Another area where it's going to be a mess. Jen Rogers, reporting for us this morning. Hey, Jen, thanks a lot for that.
Let's turn to the Sierra Nevada, Sumi Das is near the Nevada border in mountainous Truckee, California.
Sumi, good morning to you. Obviously, that's a treacherous drive even in decent conditions. How is it today?
SUMI DAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's not that bad right now. It is snowing at the moment. It's kind of light snow, but last night when we went to bed, it was pretty wet. So the drive home for a lot of the folks up here celebrating the holidays wasn't as bad as it could of been, had it been snowing rather heavily.
Temperatures did drop overnight so the precipitation did turn into snow. Now, the winter storm warning issued by the National Weather Service is still in effect and it will remain in place until about 4:00 p.m. local time, this afternoon. The National Weather Service is expecting snow totals about four to eight inches above 4,500 feet and 16 inches above 5,500 feet.
The Department of Transportation here in California had a huge task over the weekend cleaning up a massive mudslide that shut down interstate 80 in both directions about five miles east of where we are in Truckee. A series of slides dumped rock and mud on the stretch of the highway. Cal Trans had to clear away about 250,000 cubic yards of debris. They did open up the interstate yesterday afternoon, just in time for those holiday travelers to get back home -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Because that kind of weather is great news if you're a skier, right? Sumi Das for us this morning.
SUMI: Absolutely.
S. O'BRIEN: Sumi, thanks for the update. Miles?
M. O'BRIEN: Got to figure a way to get to the slopes.
Huge clouds of smoke rising from southern plains in the southwest U.S. In Texas they are battling a growing number of wildfires. The town of Ringgold, in the northern part of the state, a small town, literally leveled by fire. Evacuations also underway in other parts of the northwest and central Texas.
In Oklahoma a new fire destroyed homes near Oklahoma City on Sunday and at least a dozen other towns are in similar danger from those fast-moving fires. CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Oklahoma City this morning.
Good morning, Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles. Well, the fire that broke out here Sunday afternoon, just on the northeast edge of this city is under control but still smoldering this morning. Crews are still here at the scene. But this is a frightening reminder of how the wildfires can be, fast-moving and dangerous.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This fire has spread very quickly. We've had a wind shift that come through and that did not help matters at all.
LAVANDERA (voice over): Firefighters battling a blaze that reached the Oklahoma City limits. Strong winds and bone-dry conditions fueled the massive flames, destroying several homes and forcing residents to flee.
CHARLENE HAROLDSON, OKLAHOMA CITY RESIDENT: Police officers knocked on the doors. The policemen told me to get everything I could out of the house that I wanted, personal, and get away from the house.
LAVANDERA: Since Tuesday, flames have scorched tens of thousands of acres in 24 Oklahoma counties, killing one person. Teams of firefighters from four states are now on the ground to help. Oklahoma's governor warned the danger is not over.
GOV. BRAD HENRY, OKLAHOMA: Weather conditions are not favorable over the foreseeable future. There is no significant precipitation in sight. And we cannot, and we will not, let our guard down.
Please, please exercise extreme caution when dealing with any form of fire or combustible materials. And use common sense. Some fires are, indeed, created by natural conditions, but most fires are caused by humans. And those are fires that we can and should prevent.
LAVANDERA: Governor Henry vowed to provide every form of assistance available to those on the frontlines fighting the fires.
HENRY: I'm asking President Bush to expedite approval of a federal emergency declaration.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: Firefighters here in Oklahoma City are just working a couple of the hot spots in this particular area where we're at, but they know it's just a matter of time before the fires start popping up again all over the state as we move into the afternoon hours, which will be the optimum time for fires to fire up again. Miles?
M. O'BRIEN: Ed Lavandera in Oklahoma City thank you very much. That brings us to the forecast. Let's get to Bonnie Schneider at the Weather Center.
(WEATHER FORECAST)
S. O'BRIEN: Politics now: President Bush back on the defensive over the wiretapping issue. He says limited eavesdropping is necessary and the leak exposing the practice puts the country in great harm. Suzanne Malveaux is live for us at the White House.
Hey, Suzanne, good morning.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. Happy New Year.
President Bush is starting this New Year really aggressively defending this controversial domestic spy program. It was just yesterday that President Bush returned from the Crawford ranch after visiting with some 50 wounded U.S. soldiers, awarding Purple Hearts.
But the president was asked by a group of reporters about this controversial program, specifically whether or not he was aware of any kind of resistance from top officials of his own administration. Now, President Bush side-stepped that question to make the case that he believes this program is legal and necessary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I will say 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, Soledad, of course, they are very much aware preparing for the congressional hearings that should begin after Congress returns from recess. Soledad?
S. O'BRIEN: Suzanne, the president laid resolutions of sorts for the New Year ahead. What are the resolutions?
MALVEAUX: One of his spokesperson said, his resolution, he says, is to continue to work tirelessly for peace abroad and prosperity at home. Quite ambitious, Soledad, as you can imagine. But expect those two themes. We're going to hear the president this week talking about the war on terror, as well as the state of the economy. Those are the two themes going into the New Year that they certainly hope will up his approval ratings.
S. O'BRIEN: Peace and prosperity, those are kind of big items on the resolution.
MALVEAUX: Most of us just want to lose 10 pounds, but, you know, he's the president, so.
S. O'BRIEN: It doesn't get much bigger than that. Suzanne, Happy New Year to you as well. Thanks for joining us this morning.
MALVEAUX: Happy New Year.
O'BRIEN: Appreciate the update.
MALVEAUX: Sure.
S. O'BRIEN: Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, Ferris Bueller has nothing on Harris Hassan. Bueller, of course, you remember, skipped school for a day, for a day of adventure in Chicago. That became a Hollywood classic. Remember, Bueller! Bueller! Bueller!
The 16-year-old Hassan went all the way to Baghdad instead, without telling his parents. He's home now. And his family is breathing a sigh of relief. Christopher King has reaction to the teen's adventure.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTOPHER KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Farris Hassan, a 16-year-old, with a yen for adventure, is back in Florida after traveling to Iraq unbeknownst to his parents. He flew into perhaps the world's most dangerous city unaware of the perils that could have awaited an uninitiated American teen like himself.
HAYDER HASSAN, FARRIS HASSAN'S BROTHER: He's been through a lot and stress on the whole family has been a lot.
KING: The prep school junior is fascinated by war and sympathizes with the plight of Iraqis. He studies journalism in high school and decided he had to go see the war-torn country firsthand.
On his second day there, Hassan walks into the offices of the Associated Press stunning the journalists who worked there.
PATRICK QUINN, ASSOCIATED PRESS: I have to admit I was a little stunned. I recall telling Jason, here, that it was -- I would of be less surprised if little green men walked into the office. He actually announced to us that he wanted to join us and become a journalist and -- I was quite stunned by this whole thing.
KING: The AP called the U.S. embassy, which makes arrangements to get the boy out of Baghdad much to the relief of his very worried family.
H. HASSAN: He wants to rest. It's been a long journey for him. We're going to get him a nice dinner and then just get him rest.
KING: Christopher King, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: He is so grounded! Hayder Hassan, you just saw him there. Says his brother is tired and weak, as for punishment, well, we know what it is, but it's, so far, private. And I don't know if the parents will talk about it.
O'BRIEN: Oh, he's grounded for life. Come on! Face it! We all know that!
M. O'BRIEN: They say he's grounded for life.
The mother did say on Friday, no more passport, and on no more access to the money. He is kind of a trader on the stock market, as well. He's a rather entrepreneurial kid. Anyway, in the 8 o'clock Eastern hour, about 45 minutes from now, we'll talk to the mom coming up in the hour.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, look forward to see what she has to say about that.
M. O'BRIEN: She had some mixed emotion on this day. S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I'll bet.
I have a picture to show you. Take a look at this little girl, just three months old. We have been showing you her pictures. Baby Moor, look at her. Isn't she so cute?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
S. O'BRIEN: She is an Iraqi girl and she has a life-threatening condition, Spina Bifida. She, and her grandma, and her father, all arrived in Atlanta over the weekend. The infant will undergo an operation in a week or ten days, or so.
She is reported to be in good than condition. This morning we will talk to the surgeon, here in the U.S., who is going to be performing the operation. That is coming up in just about 30 minutes.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, the disease, of course, is Spina Bifida. It's is amazing -- basically it's curable essentially, right?
S. O'BRIEN: Yeah. Usually they do surgery in the day or days after an infant is born. The doctor who will be performing the surgery says -- he's never -- usually you don't do surgery on a three-month- old. That is kind of late. But he seems optimistic about her chances and we're going to talk to him ahead.
She's cute.
M. O'BRIEN: That's good. Great story.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, cute little baby.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Call it the road to recovery after Katrina. What are the biggest priorities for rebuilding in 2006? We're going to talk to leaders in three cities affected by the hurricane one way or another.
S. O'BRIEN: Also, we will continue to cover these devastating floods in Northern California. We will take you to one of the hardest hit towns and show you how bad the damage really is.
M. O'BRIEN: And from floods to fires, we'll take you live to Oklahoma for the latest on the fires there. Do the firefighters have enough manpower to battle the flames? That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Top stories this morning, rain and fire. Let's start in California where more heavy rain is causing a fear of flooding, and landslides, too. Several inches are expected in Southern California's coastal valleys. This is the same storm that swamped northern parts of the state.
Over in Texas and Oklahoma, there is no end in sight from the dry and windy conditions, which are fueling the wildfires there. Tens of thousands of acres have burned already. Many towns evacuated. Dozens of homes destroyed. Keith Bryant is the fire chief for Oklahoma city.
Thanks to talking with us, Chief. Certainly, appreciate your tile. Why don't you give me an update how things are this morning?
CHIEF KEITH BRYANT, OKLAHOMA CITY FIRE DEPT.: Right now, they are quiet. We have hot spots in the area that we had this large fire at yesterday. And we'll be continuing to work on those probably throughout the morning and most of the day, but this fire is under control.
S. O'BRIEN: That's a little bit of good news. I know you were spending a lot of the weekend working on that. The wind was a huge problem over the weekend. Are you able to get do you think you'll be able to get the choppers and the planes in the air to help out?
BRYANT: Yesterday, at the time of the fire, we weren't able to get the aircraft support that we've had in the past because of the time of day. And they weren't able to get in and get in as close as they would like to, because of the darkness. So we pretty much had to go it alone without the help of the aircraft yesterday.
S. O'BRIEN: Gosh. When a mess. You know, obviously, you've been busy fighting fires and not necessarily crunching numbers, but can you tell me how many folks you've had to evacuate from the area? Do you know?
BRYANT: Well, there weren't that many. This area that we had the main fire at yesterday, we did have a few homes scattered throughout it. And then there was a housing addition, a little bit to the south of it. That really wasn't in that much danger but as precautionary measure, we evacuated that. So, not a tremendous amount of people and most of the people that we have evacuated, we've allowed to go back to their homes at this point.
S. O'BRIEN: You've got firefighters, I've heard, from four states helping you out on this one. Last week you said you thought you were in pretty good shape as far as personnel. Do you feel the same way now?
BRYANT: Yeah. Here in the city, in the metro area, yeah, we have adequate number of our staffing to adequately, you know, take care of the fires that we have here in the city. And the firefighters that you mentioned coming from out of state, they're staged at Shawnee, Oklahoma, to our east, and they're being used on some of the larger fires away from the metro area here.
S. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, good luck to you. Thanks for taking a moment to talk to us. We certainly appreciate it.
BRYANT: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: Keith Bryant, of course, is the chief of the Oklahoma City Fire Department.
Let's talk rain, because that is happening in Northern California. Let's get right to San Anselmo Police Commander Jim Providenza. His town one of the hardest hit by flooding following that rainfall.
Nice to talk to you. Thanks for being with us. How much rain did you get in all, sir?
CMDR. JIM PROVIDENZA, SAN ANSELMO POLICE: Well, Soledad, the estimates are that the storm that took out the downtown area, and the residents surrounding it, was a little bit over seven inches in about a four or five-hour period.
S. O'BRIEN: What a mess. You say took out the downtown. We're looking at pictures of people riding their scooters on the streets, clearly full of water. Give me a sense of the kind of the damage that has been suffered by the downtown businesses by some of the residences, too.
PROVIDENZA: We have approximately 80 businesses in the downtown area that suffered water damage. The floodwaters were over four feet high, and went through the downtown, created a river next to the actual creek bed that runs behind the businesses. We also had over a hundred residences, either single family or apartments, that were damaged to one extent or another with the flooding.
S. O'BRIEN: I've heard the price tag for this is $10 million. Is that about right, do you think?
PROVIDENZA: That was our initial estimate, the very first morning, an hour or two afterwards. The next day or so, we've approached a figure of between $25 million and $30 million. But these are all very preliminary and we expect it will change as time goes on, and we learn more about the true extent of the damage.
S. O'BRIEN: I guess when you say change, you mean go up more than $10 million because it is probably not going to change in the other direction.
I know the area, and I know San Anselmo certainly get its fair share of flooding. How off the norm is this kind of flooding?
PROVIDENZA: Well, this is the second flood of this nature in the last 25 years. We talk about the storm of '82 and will now take about the storm of 2005. The normal, if you want to call it that, issues that we deal with are minor flooding where you might see a half a foot to a foot or so. And that occurs once maybe every five to eight years. It is the sort of stuff that we plan and prepare for and can deal with.
When you have something like this, your preparations are also for recovery, and that is what we're now dealing with. At the same time we have a lot more rain and another rainstorm expected tomorrow so we have to start preparing for the other eventualities and start working towards dealing with mudslides and things like that.
S. O'BRIEN: The forecast is not helping you out at all. Commander Jim Providenza of the San Anselmo police. Thanks for the update. I know you're busy. We appreciate it. M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, we're "Minding Your Business". Will 2006 be a strong year for Wall Street? Well, it may depend on what happens this week, believe it or not. We'll explain ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: It's a New Year now and -- I still haven't bought Google.
(LAUGHTER)
M. O'BRIEN: So I'm still wishing I did. I keep thinking it can't go any higher, but these are among the things that people look back on the year and say, jeez, I missed out on blah, blah, blah.
What did we miss out on, Gerri Willis?
GERRI WILLIS, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Holy cow. I think you should be happy that the markets are closed today after the week; it was down.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes. No Santa out there.
WILLIS: Absolutely not. Let's start by looking at 2005 for just a second, if we could.
You know, the surprise here, the Dow down for the year for the first time since 2002. Down a little over a half a percentage point. Not good news there. You see the Nasdaq up just -- the Nasdaq was supposed to have been up a little bit, the S&P up just a little bit.
Here is we're looking at, I believe, at 2005 Dow industrials, not too exciting. Check that out. I know you're excited about Google. But you have to pick your hits there.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, Google is not in the Dow, is it?
WILLIS: Absolutely not.
M. O'BRIEN: There you go.
WILLIS: Very well done.
Here is what the market was concerned about. Skyrocketing energy prices; where is the economy going?; where are gas prices going?; inflation threats. What is the Fed going to do? Because of that, it didn't do very much at all.
M. O'BRIEN: Flat you might say.
WILLIS: Flat, you might say.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So, this week coming up, is an important week, why? WILLIS: You mentioned Santa Claus rally. As you know, traders are very superstitious people and they put a lot of stock in what they call the Santa Claus rally effect. And that is the end of the year, the very beginning of the next year, what will stocks do? If they go higher, traders believe the next year will be a fabulous year.
Well, guess what? We had a terrible week last week, and now traders are a little upset, a little worried, a little nervous about what is going to happen next year. Normally you see a lot of positive pronunciations from people all over Wall Street about what is happening next year. We're not seeing this now. Big question, what will the Fed do? Will they keep raising interest rates? What will happen with the economy? We'll be keeping an eye on that.
M. O'BRIEN: I wonder if it really is about (INAUDIBLE) though. We should look back on the first week of 2005. Was it flat that week? And if so?
WILLIS: We will do that, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's get our team of researchers on that.
WILLIS: We will crack that nut.
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Gerri Willis. Back with you in just a little bit with those numbers -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, we're going to update you on the latest on the condition on Baby Noor. Remember this little Iraqi girl. She is in the U.S. she is waiting for an operation that could save her life. We will talk to one of her surgeons ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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