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Peru Earthquake; Mine Rescue Efforts; Gerri's Top Tips

Aired August 16, 2007 - 10:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Tony Harris. Stay informed in the CNN NEWSROOM. Here's what's on the rundown.

Families on the streets after a powerful earthquake rocks Peru. Hundreds dead and injured this morning. Devastation staggering.

COLLINS: A big rainstorm named Erin sloshes ashore in soggy Texas. In the Atlantic, Dean explodes into a hurricane and targets resort islands.

HARRIS: Sell, sell, sell. Stocks opened under 13,000 last hour and promptly headed south.

It is Thursday, August 16th, and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And at the top this hour, a frantic search underway right now in Peru. Rescuers looking for possible survivors of a major earthquake that struck off the coast. These are daylight pictures just in this morning showing some of the devastation. The health ministry reporting at least 337 people killed, more than 1,300 injured. The magnitude 7.9 quake struck about 90 miles southeast of Lima. Last hour we spoke by phone with Fernando Calderon, an American visiting Peru.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FERNANDO CALDERON, AMERICAN VISITING PERU: I was in the hotel room. And I thought it was an airplane. It was just passing probably too low. And there was a little -- you know, the ground started moving a little bit, so we started heading out of the hotel. And then we realized everybody was out. Everybody. And the ground was still shakes for a minute. And then suddenly we started hearing -- suddenly we started hearing glass breaking, things falling out of the buildings. And that's when everybody started screaming, praying, children crying. It was just awful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: The International Red Cross says a major costal highway was almost destroyed and that is hampering rescues.

COLLINS: Electra Anderson is an American living in Peru who is used to earthquakes. She's from California. But she says the one that struck Peru was unlike any earthquake she has ever experienced. Electra Anderson is with us now by phone from Lima.

Electra, tell us a little bit about what you saw and what you felt.

ELECTRA ANDERSON, AMERICAN LIVING IN PERU: Well, it was -- when it first started, we really thought, you know, maybe it was just a normal earthquake that we're used to in California that passes pretty rapidly. But this one just kept going and going and getting bigger and bigger. And I'm on the tenth floor of a high-rise condo on the ocean. And just -- my housekeeper was at the market two blocks away and she saw the whole building just swaying back and forth and was scared to, you know, come in even.

Of course, the elevators were all shut off. Everybody was leaving the building. I couldn't leave because my daughter had just had surgery and she's in the bed with me and she's covered in stitches and bandages and there's no way she could have walked out of here anyway. So we just stayed in the bed through the whole thing.

But the whole room was moving. Everything was falling. It looked like the windows were going to come in and crash in. It was horrible. I mean, it was -- the thing that was the most horrible was it lasted so long.

My housekeeper said that when she was over at the market, that she could hear it. There was like a rumbling noise. That that's what she heard before the earthquake hit.

The other weird thing was yesterday we had really hot, warm weather. And I actually was out getting a tan on my balcony. And then all of a sudden -- we've had -- it's very cold here. It's winter. And all of a sudden yesterday it was sunny and then we had this incredible earthquake.

I mean, I've been in five or six earthquakes, but nothing like this. This was like nothing. And the aftershocks have been going on. A half an hour ago, we had another one. If you registered, it was probably a four.

COLLINS: Good Lord. And those have been going on. I think you had mentioned something like you've been counting them, something like 70 that you can recall.

ANDERSON: Yes. They've been going on all night long. And afterwards they were stronger, you know, like 5, 6, something like that. Then they started getting a little bit less. Then just the floor was shaking. And then it started again with bigger ones again.

And right now outside my house is the Pan-American Highway on the side of the ocean and it's totally closed. There's no cars anywhere. There's no cars behind my house in the streets. There's no people. There's no cars, which is -- you know, this time of day there's normally a lot of traffic. There's not one car out. I've been watching helicopters going by my house because they're about the same level as I am, because I'm up on top of a mountain in front of the ocean. COLLINS: So, Electra, you are still in your same home. I mean, you've stayed inside throughout this entire ordeal?

ANDERSON: Yes. I haven't left at all because my daughter just came home from the hospital and she can't even walk so I've had to . . .

COLLINS: Have you been able to contact anyone outside? Any family members?

ANDERSON: Yes, I have. My mother is La Jolla, California, and I talked to her, because I have a Vonage phone that, you know, that's from Miami. And so people can call me on the Vonage phone, but the Peruvian cell phones and everything were out. They're back on right now. They just came back on. But all night long they were totally off. Nobody could get a hold of anybody. COLLINS: Right. Yes, which must have been one of the most terrifying things in all of this.

Quickly just want to ask you, has anyone been able to tell you whether or not the structure that you are in now is, in fact, safe and intact, and, quite frankly, if it's OK to stay there?

ANDERSON: I would say that if we made it through that earthquake last night, that I think I'm staying here because nothing -- you know, nothing major happened. There weren't any cracks or anything.

COLLINS: Wow.

ANDERSON: And I feel safer here now -- this is a really new building. It was built two years ago. And it swayed, you know, it didn't . . .

COLLINS: Yes.

ANDERSON: The things that fell down in Ica (ph) and those places were pretty much adobe and they don't have the kind of structural . . .

COLLINS: Right, older structures. Got it.

ANDERSON: Right. They don't have the kind of things that the newer buildings have. So I think a lot of it, too, is that the people panicked. They really panicked because nobody has been in an earthquake for 34 years. So, you know, figure it out. If you were 40 years old, you were 6 when the last earthquake hit. So nobody remembers what it's even like. So the people were screaming and crying and thought it was the end of the world.

COLLINS: OH, Electra, I can only imagine what you must have seen and what you must have heard and you certainly . . .

ANDERSON: My housekeeper was crying and was positive that we were all dead. I mean, you know, it was horrible.

COLLINS: Well, we're very, very glad to hear that you and your family are OK and thrilled to have you be able to tell us a little bit about the situation there.

Electra Anderson, an American woman living in Peru.

Electra, again, thank you so much for your story.

ANDERSON: You're welcome.

COLLINS: And just in case you are looking to make a difference for the earthquake victims in Peru, when disaster strikes, CNN wants to give you the power to help. Find out how you can impact your world. Go to cnn.com/impact. Click on "natural disasters" for a list of relief organizations.

HARRIS: And, Heidi, we have to get to Bonnie Schneider in the Severe Weather Center.

Bonnie, you have word of a tornado warning, southeast Texas?

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: So we need to get the i-Report machine cranking here. When weather becomes the news, as is the case there in southeast Texas. Look, first of all, count on us to bring it to you first. And if you happened to see some severe weather happening in your area, send us an I-Report, really. Go to cnn.com, click on i-Report or just type i-Report@cnn.com into your cell phone. You will be prompted through the process. Send us your photos or your video.

COLLINS: Want to give you another look at the big board. And, boy, more changes. We are now down 121 points, resting at 12,738 for the time being. Still headed in that downward direction. Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange.

And, Susan, it is another day of crazy numbers, that's for sure.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

HARRIS: And let's get you some news just in to CNN. A Navy twin-engine turboprop plane has crashed off of Virginia's coast near Norfolk, Virginia. And the Navy and Coast Guard are now searching for three aviators who were aboard.

Now the aircraft actually went down last night. About 11:00 p.m. last night following its launch from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. The Truman had been conducting routine training operations.

So the search continues right now off of Virginia's coast for three aviators. And, unfortunately, we don't have any additional information on the crash or the crew. When we learn more, we will certainly bring it to you right here in the NEWSROOM.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm John Zarrella at the Crandall Canyon Mine.

Sounds out of the silence of the mine. What might they mean? I'll have that story coming up. COLLINS: And belly problems. NASA making a critical shuttle decision today to repair or not repair.

HARRIS: The Dow opening at its lowest point since April and promptly taking another steep plunge down 122 points right now. We are following the numbers in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Heidi Collins.

Knife in the head, but unbelievably she's not dead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing would have prepared me for what I saw. She literally had a knife about this big sticking out of her skull.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: A dog survives an act of astonishing cruelty.

HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris.

He died 30 years ago today, but Elvis lives on. We're going to Graceland. Graceland, Memphis, Tennessee. We're going to Graceland.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: To repair or not to repair. NASA decides today whether to fix some dings in the shuttle's thermal shield. Some of them were damaged during Endeavour's liftoff last week. A repair job would require a risky space walk. NASA is concerned the astronauts could possibly do more damage trying to repair a gouge.

And earlier this morning, class in session. There she is, teacher Barbara Morgan and mission specialist Alvin Drew were linked up with students at a school in Virginia.

How fun is that?

HARRIS: Well that's great.

Rescuers calling it a sign of hope. Devices picking up noise in a collapsed mine. Our John Zarrella is at Huntington, Utah.

So, John, is there -- would you describe it as a renewed sense of optimism on sight there?

ZARRELLA: Certainly a renewed sense of optimism, Tony, no question about it. But tempered just the same. You know, they picked up some noise that they think might be coming from the mine. But at the same time they're saying, you know what, this might be not be anything. It could be rocks falling. It could be the sound of an animal moving. They just don't know at this point in time. What they did was up on those mountains behind me there, where they have a lot of the drilling equipment, they placed six listening devices, called geophones. Now they can listen down to 2,000 feet into the earth. Now two of these geophones picked up something which measures on a spike as a spike on the graph. You don't really hear anything. But they think, you know, there's a possibility, just a possibility, that it could be something more.

At a news briefing yesterday afternoon, one of the mine safety officials, Richard Stickler, addressed what they thought this might all mean.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD STICKLER, ASST. SECY., MINE SAFETY & HEALTH ADMIN.: We saw some indication of noise for a period of about five minutes that we had not seen before. We're not sure what that means, but we think that it was significant enough that also we considered that and decided to move the number four bore hole closer to that area where we picked up the noise from the geophones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: Now, we haven't had an update yet, but they were expecting, they were trying to work as fast as they could to move as quickly as possible to get that drill into place to start that fourth bore hole. We expected it to start sometime this morning. May well be underway now.

At the same time, we're awaiting the release of video that was taken from the third bore hole. When they got there, what they found was that this particular area, which is at the very back of the mine, was, as they put it, "undisturbed." In other words, it wasn't affected by the collapse nine to 10 days ago now.

They also found a curtain that had been drawn. And, Tony, these curtains are used by miners who go to look for safety and protection. And it's possible that perhaps these miners, after the collapse, went back behind this curtain for safety, for protection. Then again, it might have been a curtain that had been drawn at some prior time before the event took place 10 days ago. They just don't know for sure.

Tony.

HARRIS: Well, you have to keep digging the holes. You just got to find them. You've just got to keep digging.

All right. John Zarrella for us. John, appreciate it. Thanks.

COLLINS: We need to give you some disturbing news here. We've been reporting about the earthquake in Peru. We have now learned from the State Department that one American has been killed in that earthquake in Peru. We're learning that from the spokesman, Sean McCormack, and, of course, the U.S. embassy is still trying to locate people and help Americans that may be there. But the latest information we have this morning, at least 337 people dead, something like 13,050 people injured in all of this. As you can imagine, a state of emergency has been declared. A very long earthquake, from people that we've been talking to here on the phone from Peru this morning, lasted about two minutes best that they can tell. Which, if you've ever been in an earthquake, that is an inordinate amount of time. Very, very frightening. And several aftershocks as well.

We are following this story for you. But again, the news this morning now that one American has been killed in Lima, Peru, from this earthquake.

HARRIS: Take a look at the big board, Heidi. We're not even an hour into the trading day, not even a full hour into the trading day, and the Dow is already down 146 points. I mean, it's the credit crunch. You can't get a loan. OK, so you've got a credit score of 10,000. Maybe you can get a loan. Short of that, you're not getting a loan.

All right. We're following the markets throughout the morning right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Gerri Willis.

You think the stock market looks bad. The news from the housing sector even worse. What to do if you're buying or selling a home, next on "Top Tips" in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So before we get to Gerri, let's take another look at the big board. The New York Stock Exchange right now. A moment ago the Dow was down 150 points. Look at this, 152. And, look, we haven't hit the bottom yet. That is the truth of the matter here. What are we talking about here? Is this a contagion? I'm just asking.

The Dow down 152 points. Boy, and it's all about what is going on in the housing sector. Foreclosures rising, home values dropping, just tough out there whether you're buying or selling a home. But our Gerri Willis is here with some housing market -- survival tips is what we're talking about, Gerri.

WILLIS: That's right. We are talking about survival tips. You know that big board showing the credit crunch out there. It's not just consumers who can't borrow, now it's corporations who are having a hard time getting money. But we have help if you're in the housing market. What you need to know, especially for sellers. These are the people in the cross-hairs. If you don't have to sell now, don't. But if you absolutely have to move that house, price it right. Find out what similar homes are going for in your area by going online to your local realtors association. Then you've got to do things like, increase your home's curb appeal, mow the lawn, a fresh coat of paint. You know, the usual stuff that we talk about all the time.

HARRIS: The obvious stuff.

WILLIS: Right.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

WILLIS: And, you know, at night, leave the lights on, because people drive by at night. They look for houses all the time. You want your house to look great. But the main thin is, you're probably going to have to drop your price. And I know people are reluctant to do that. But if you've got to sell, that's where you're going.

HARRIS: Is that part of what you mean when you tell us to be willing to make concessions?

WILLIS: No, there may be more concessions you need to make.

HARRIS: Really?

WILLIS: Yes. You may offer to pay moving costs or pay for some of the closing costs.

HARRIS: Wow.

WILLIS: You know, and if you're really desperate to sell and you're in one of those markets that's doing poorly, you may want to pay part of the buyers downpayment. Now this is expensive, but I'm just saying, you have to be willing to be flexible. The main thing is the price of the house. That is what's going to really get people's attention.

HARRIS: What if you're actually looking to buy right now?

WILLIS: Well, hey, this is the good news, right, if you're a buyer out there.

HARRIS: Well, if you can get a loan.

WILLIS: If you can get a loan, you've got to have perfect credit, you've got to put a lot of money down. But, look, if you're looking to buy in this market, you may find that you've got to work harder for that loan. As we've been saying, banks have tightened up lending standards.

More money down. Forget that zero percent down offer. That's not happening.

HARRIS: Yes.

WILLIS: But critical to shop around now, Tony. Here's why. This mortgage mess is making lenders nervous, antsy. Some of them are having a hard time continuing operation. Others are not. They hold these loans or their books. They're doing fine. They will have better rates. Those are the folks that you want to see.

HARRIS: So, look, is this going to get better soon, Gerri? WILLIS: Well, I wish I had better news. In the short term, probably not. Look, the country's biggest mortgage lenders, Countrywide Financial, announced it's tapping into an $11.5 billion line of credit because it's having problems. It's trying to weather that housing market.

Plus, we have housing starts and permits falling today. A new report. Lowest level in more than a decade.

Now, good news. I have to have some good news for you.

HARRIS: Great.

WILLIS: The National Association of Realtors predicts home prices will turn slightly positive, but not until next spring.

HARRIS: Oh, boy.

WILLIS: And, of course, the Federal Reserve could cut rates. That might . . .

HARRIS: Well, that's what I'm pushing for.

WILLIS: Is that what you're pushing for? Good luck with that, Tony.

HARRIS: Heidi's pushing for Dow 15,000 . . .

What, let me know how that works out?

WILLIS: OK. Well, I know a lot of guys on Wall Street who are on your page.

HARRIS: Yes. So tell us about the big "Open House" show coming up this weekend, Gerri.

WILLIS: Well, we're going to talk more about this credit crunch. What it means for your wallet. How you can protect yourself from credit cards to mortgage rates. Then keeping your budget cool when the weather heats up. We'll talk about that as well. Lots of great stuff coming up on "Open House." That's 9:30 a.m. Eastern right here, Saturday morning, on CNN. Join us.

HARRIS: OK. Before we let us go, let's look at that number from the Dow again. It was down 170. Look at that, 167 points.

WILLIS: Ouch. Ouch. But don't panic, right?

HARRIS: Gerri, we're not panicking.

WILLIS: Don't panic.

HARRIS: It's a white knuckle day all around here.

Have a great day, Gerri.

WILLIS: Thank you.

ANNOUNCER: CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

COLLINS: Double trouble this morning on the weather front. We're tracking two storms now. Heavy rains pounding parts of Texas right now. Handiwork of what was Tropical Storm Erin, now a tropical depression. The threat of flooding, though, a big concern with the soil already saturated after heavy summer rains. The National Guard standing by, along with water-rescue teams.

And the first hurricane of the 2007 Atlantic season is strengthening. Dean is heading towards Lesser Antilles. And this could close in on the islands by tomorrow. Good news/bad news kind of situation, it seems like.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: Good morning once again, everybody. As we said earlier, busy, busy news day here on CNN. I'm Heidi Collins.

HARRIS: I'm Tony Harris. You want to see the Dow again, just very quickly here?

COLLINS: I'm not sure.

HARRIS: What do you think, guys? 169. Does it begin to feed on itself? Kind of this downward death spiral here, you think?

COLLINS: I'm more optimistic than that.

HARRIS: Are you really?

COLLINS: I'm not there with the downward death spiral quite yet.

HARRIS: All right, once again, we'll feed of your optimism.

Still to come in the CNN NEWSROOM this morning. Devastation in Peru, hundreds dead, homes destroyed, the race to help the injured. The latest on a major earthquake along the country's coast.

COLLINS: Luxury cars put to the test in side-impact crash tests. Find out which models performed best and worst.

HARRIS: And still rocking the house, 30 years after his death, the NEWSROOM live to Graceland as fans remember Elvis Presley.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: A major earthquake, powerful aftershocks and a race to help hundreds of injured people in Peru. New daylight pictures now in this morning showing some of the damage from the earthquake, homes and other buildings reduced to rubble, power out in many areas. The health ministry says at least 337 people were killed, another 1,350 -- can you imagine that -- injured? and we have just learned from the State Department that at least one American is among the dead. The magnitude 7.9 quake struck off the coast about 90 miles southeast of the capital Lima. Fernando Calderon is an American living in Peru. He sent us an I-report. We'll show it to you here in just a second.

A short time he felt described what it felt like when the quake hit?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FERNANDO CALDERON, AMERICAN VISITING PERU: For two consecutive minutes, the ground was shaking, and finally this big shake came, and everybody -- it was chaos. Everybody started crying. Kids -- everybody starting crying Everybody started running, like toward like an empty space. Everybody was afraid that the buildings were going to collapse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Rescue teams are struggling to reach some of the hardest-hit areas. So, look, are you try to go make a difference for the earthquake victims in Peru?

Well, when disaster strikes, CNN wants to give you the power to help. Find out how you can impact your world. Go to CNN.com/impact. Click on natural disasters for a list of relief organizations.

(NEWSBREAK)

COLLINS: Sounds of life underground? Noise heard from a collapsed mine gives rescuers a little bit of hope.

Hold on, moms and dads, before you dish out a spoonful of medicine for the little ones. You need to hear the latest warning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: All right. We want to show you a couple pictures here. We're getting these live shots coming in from our tower-cam in Houston there. Our affiliate KHOU is bringing those pictures to us this morning. Obviously, on the right-hand side and left-hand side we're looking at meteorological activity that is going on near that area, but the good news, at least, in all of this, is two storms that we're tracking, that Tropical Storm Erin has been downgraded now to a tropical depression. It looks like winds are about 35 miles per hour. It's going to have some heavy rain, though, so that is certainly something that the people of Texas are worried about. They've had so much rain that that is what they'll be dealing with.

The other thing, obviously, we're watching today the very first hurricane of the 2007 season, Hurricane Dean, making its way through the Atlantic. We'll be talking much more about that. You can see the movement there and the eye of it. Bonnie Schneider is watching all of this for us today. We'll bring her in just a few minutes to give us an update.

HARRIS: And new developments this morning in the sear for six trapped miners. An underground a listening device has picked up what rescuers describe as a series of spikes, but officials at Utah's Crandall Canyon mine say they're are not sure what that noise really means. Crews plan to drill a fourth hole in an effort to make contact miners.

Mine executive Bob Murray spoke to CNN's Anderson Cooper about that noise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOB MURRAY, PRES. & CEO, MURRAY ENERGY: The sounds lasted about five minutes, and they were at a frequency of about a second and a half. It could be rapping, but sir, we really don't know. Ad I wouldn't read too much into it yet, but it is hope. It is hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK. Experts say the underground noise could be rock breaking or perhaps an animal.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: Still ahead, injured pooch with a great, big headache. You are won't believe what veterinarians pulled out of this dog's head.

HARRIS: The recall of tainted toys taking a toll in China.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: "After the media coverage, he just disappeared with his family," this woman says. "He's destroyed the future for thousands of family," says this man.

CNN's John Vause from the factory where they were made.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You can't eat through the whole show. Heidi, you just can't eat through the...

COLLINS: Shh.

HARRIS: All right, the podcast later in the day you'll get to see Heidi eat. We're podcasting later in the day, everyone. Let's show the room and the team working on them. I'm surprised you haven't backhanded me yet. There we go, working on the podcast for later in the day. Join us, go to CNN.com and download the CNN daily podcast. It is available to you 24/7, right there on your iPod. Do it today. No excuses. We'll see you then.

COLLINS: Made in America -- excuse me -- made in China, but recalled in America, millions of toys. By now you know all about this. But the fallout is being felt among Chinese workers at one factor in particular.

CNN's John Vause reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): No one is working at the Shai Mung (ph) toy factory anymore. These employees are waiting for details about a memorial service for their old boss, Zhang Shuhong. Authorities said he killed himself over the weekend.

"After I heard the news, I cried. Everyone cried. It was a shock. I couldn't eat," this man told me.

"He made sure we were all paid before he died," says another.

But many of the toys made here for the U.S. giant Mattel were coated in lead paint. And earlier this month, more than a million were recalled.

Police say Zhang's body was found hanging in his warehouse a day after the Chinese government suspended his company's export license. But the real culprit in all of this, according to these employees, is not Zhang, but his best friend, a man named Leang (ph), who supplied the lead paint for the toys. His factory is part of the same complex.

"After the media coverage he just disappeared with his family," this woman says.

"He's destroyed the future for thousands of families," says this man.

Analysts say it's not unusual for subcontractors to secretly take shortcuts, even if they are your best friend.

JIANG WENRAN, ANALYST: They're not aware of the very highly cautious nature of the Western consumers.

VAUSE: Workers have now started a collection for their boss's family. While security guards and heavy gates now keep out those who are not welcome, this is the scene of another product scare China could well do without.

(on camera): Zhang's suicide, it seems, has taken many here by surprise. According to state media, he happily chatted with employees last weekend, before taking his own life. And in so doing, he's perhaps shown the high stakes for businessmen here who have been tainted by scandal and are facing economic ruin and the possibility of being severely punished by the Chinese government.

John Vause, CNN, Foshan, China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Devastate in Peru. Hundreds of people dead, homes destroyed. The race to help the injured. The latest on a major earthquake along the country's coast.

Boy, and we're talking about tropical trouble makers. Erin sloshes ashore in Texas, a place that doesn't need more rain. In the Atlantic, Dean steps up to hurricane status and aims at Caribbean vacation isles.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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