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Tracking Hurricane Dean; Flood Rescue in Oklahoma

Aired August 19, 2007 - 16:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Powerful, dangerous, deadly Dean. We have been tracking the hurricane all weekend long. Storming across the Caribbean islands, island by island. We're live with the very latest.
But first, amazing video right now, a heroic helicopter rescue. This taking place in Oklahoma. A rescue that almost went terribly wrong before it went terribly right. We'll have much more of the extreme weather here in the U.S.

Hello, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. A busy hour straight ahead here in the NEWSROOM. But first a look at extreme weather affecting our nation's heartland right now. Remnants of Tropical Storm Erin have just swamped central Oklahoma, prompting dramatic rescues by helicopter and by boat. Two people floating in the floodwaters in the town of Kingfisher, right there, pulled out separately but in similar rescues.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no! That's exactly what I did not want to see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: That was the rescue one taking place. That victim just simply losing grip. They were able to get that person back into the chopper, get them to dry land and then a very similar scene taking place almost like an instant replay, only with the second victim. Both, we understand, are being treated, are on the ground, and seem to be fine. But just a little shaken.

Meantime, there has been lots of structural damage as well from the powerful wind and rain. A nursing home's roof caved in, but luckily no one was hurt. There are also widespread power outages. We get more details on flooding and the rescues from KWTV's Rosa Flores in Kingfisher.

Where is the focus right now, Rosa?

ROSA FLORES, KWTV REPORTER: Well, the focus is right behind me. And you can -- if we can pan over, they are debriefing, reconvening. We have a boat actually coming in as we speak. We have seen several rescuers from that boat this morning. Again, people being rescued had their belongings in plastic bags, they had their handbags around their neck, just trying to save as much as they could. But then again, these are fire departments from multiple agencies, state troopers, all trying to get together and assess not only damage but try to rescue as many people as possible -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. And tell me a little bit about the active search under way. You mentioned for a couple, family members have been trying to make contact with the couple. So where do rescuers go? How do they know their first steps to take?

FLORES: Well, the last I heard, the rescue is still ongoing. I'm not sure if they have found the couple or not. But the last I heard, it was ongoing and a family member could not get in contact with that couple. And so, they were rescue -- they had rescue teams out there searching for them.

Again, they were in their house, and it was an elderly couple.

WHITFIELD: OK. And once again, since a lot of folks have their own kinds of boats, et cetera, they're trying to help out their neighbors as best they can, what's the encouragement or perhaps even discouragement coming from city emergency response teams?

FLORES: Well, emergency management tells me that they are not -- they're asking people not to get into the water, to stay on dry ground, to make sure that they are safe. Again, they have active searches out because people are still stuck in homes. And so they're asking people, though they're urged to help one another, they're asking for them to stay on dry ground and not get into the water because they don't know what's in the water.

Last we heard, there has been an oil spill. And so there's oil in the water, sewage is also a problem. Earlier today, we had a smell of natural gas and we know that the local gas company was out here taking care of that problem. And so, things are just developing as we're going and emergency management is trying to tackle all of those situations, as they come.

WHITFIELD: And, Rosa, one other big problem is, all this water has stirred up quite a few currents as well. We saw that in some of the air rescues taking place earlier. How much is that impeding on rescue plans?

FLORES: I'm sorry, could you repeat that question?

WHITFIELD: The currents that we're seeing as a result of this floodwater, is it impeding the rescue efforts in any way?

FLORES: Yes, those currents are definitely -- we've seen them and they are also -- those currents are also coming from the west, which is from a city called Watonga that we talked about earlier. And again, those currents make it a little more challenging because the water -- it makes water rise even more and it makes -- it creates more of a damage and more of a concern because, again, it goes into homes and it causes more damage.

WHITFIELD: Ye. Rose Flores, thank you so much, from KWTV. Thanks so much for that update.

Meantime, a bit earlier I spoke with one of your colleagues who is a helicopter pilot and thanks to him, Mason Dunn (ph), we were able to see a number of those rescues that took place earlier today, many of which were carried out right here on live television. Let's listen in to Mason Dunn's thoughts earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MASON DUNN, KWTV HELICOPTER PILOT: They don't do this very often, so I'm sure it was a learning experience for them. But you know, once they got the lady, the first person being rescued up on the skid where she could sit on the skid, then that was the way to transport them.

But, yes, you're right, they -- these two people were in a pickup truck, you can barely see the top of it, you know, in the water. And the helicopter flew over and threw them a couple of life vests and it wasn't long after that that the truck sank and these people were stuck in the water in the current.

Luckily the currents weren't too strong and the helicopter was able to get back over there and pick them up out of the water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Amazingly it wasn't easy, but the two people were rescued. We understand, from family members, that they're doing just fine, just a little shaken up.

Meantime a different storm system rained down on Minnesota overnight, swelling rivers and creeks there and washing out roads as well. At least five people died in the flooding, three of them when their cars fell into a 30-foot deep pit of water. Several dozen people had to be evacuated from their homes. The National Guard is now on the scene helping local authorities there.

It's a bad situation and I'm afraid Jacqui Jeras, in the hurricane headquarters, it could get worse, not just for the remnants of Tropical Storm Erin because of the cresting waters, but we're also keeping our eye on another monster storm.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We've got a lot going on, a lot of different hats been putting on, from the severe weather center to the hurricane headquarters. But we'll start out with the flooding conditions, and how we're expecting things to get worse in the upcoming hours in the Kingfisher area.

This is what the radar looked as the heavy rains pushed on through, Five to 11 inches estimated by Doppler radar. And when that comes in a short period of time, you know that those rivers and creeks are going out of their banks. The Kingfisher Creek is forecast to crest, we think this evening, at possible record levels, and that could flood 50 city blocks in the city of Kingfisher. So we're concerned about what's going to be happening in the upcoming hours. Now, what's left of Erin has pushed well on off to the east. I- 40, which was closed for a time earlier this morning, has been reopened. But we may see some additional flooding -- flash flooding, as some of the heavier rain showers move on in. Erin is weakening. So the flooding we are expecting to see in the eastern Oklahoma and northwestern parts of Arkansas likely won't be near what they saw in Oklahoma City and Kingfisher.

Now, Erin eventually could get caught up in the storm system that caused all the flooding south of the Twin Cities, into southern Minnesota, around Owatonna (INAUDIBLE) towards Red Wing is where some of the heaviest showers and thundershowers pushed on through. Unfortunately we're getting some renewed rain pulling through the area.

We could see additional maybe one to two inches on top of what you already have. Flood watches in effect in the light green areas, warnings in the dark green. And we also had a lot of extensive flooding across northwestern parts of Wisconsin, over towards Lacrosse, had flooding in Winona.

And now we're going to be watching that spread across parts of Chicago, into the Ohio Valley, including you in Cleveland. We'll zoom in and show you, this is Interstate 35. Well-traveled interstate in Owatonna, right about here, between Mankato and Rochester. That is where we had some of the flooding push on through.

And I want to show you Doppler radar estimates from this which are just incredible and basically what you need to know is the Twin Cities is right up in this area, this is all southern Minnesota, here's Iowa state line. And check out this purple right between Rochester and Winona. Your legend over here, that purple means there are between eight and 10 inches of rain which has fallen since about 11:00 on Friday night.

WHITFIELD: That's incredible stuff. All right. Jacqui, thanks so much. I'm going to talk to you a little bit later, more about this. We're also keeping a close watch on Hurricane Dean. It is passing just south of Jamaica right now. The storm will buffet the island with top sustained wind of nearly 150 miles an hour and flood- producing rains of course.

We just received some shaky footage as well, shot today in the capital of Kingston. Look right there, within the past half hour. A live feed from Kingston showed the winds picking up considerably. High tide in Kingston is due within the hour.

And evacuations are under way along stretches of the Yucatan Peninsula as well where Dean is headed next after brushing by Jamaica. CNN crews in Cancun are reporting a rush to the city's airport by people anxious to leave.

And in this country, hurricane preps are beginning in earnest. Here is a helicopter landing in Galveston, Texas, with evacuated workers from Gulf oil rigs. And then in Washington this afternoon, FEMA chief Dave Paulison pledged no repeat of Katrina. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

R. DAVID PAULISON, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: I know Katrina was a wake-up call, like I said earlier, for all of us in the emergency management field but also in the federal government, that we know we have to play together as a team, we know we have to respond as a federal government, not individual agencies.

We are working out of a unified command system. FEMA's job is to coordinate those federal resources and that is going very well. If I was concerned I would tell you. But right now quite frankly I'm not concerned.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, maybe that's pretty comforting. Right now we have two live reports from the dangerous path of Hurricane Dean. First, let's go to the northern end of Jamaica where we find CNN's Susan Candiotti who is live in Montego Bay.

Well, it looks awfully placid and beautiful there right now.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, not too bad here. We have been waiting to feel the outer bands but it just hasn't happened yet. But south of us, at least well more than 100 miles, maybe 120, 130 miles to the south and east of us, of course, that's the capital city of Kingston, where in the last three hours tropical storm force winds have been beginning to pound the capital.

I've been talking to those people constantly. They've been holding their telephone telephones up to me out of doors to say, listen, can you hear how strong the winds are? And of course, I know you saw some video from there just -- taken just a short time ago.

We are expecting of course, things to worsen in the northern end, Montego Bay, over the next few hours as well. Authorities are happy to report that more people seem to be paying attention now to their pleas to get to area shelters and more people are starting to trickle in. The numbers have more than doubled now. Eighty shelters are now open, that's about the maximum they have here. And about a thousand people are now in them.

Again, they say that more people are expected as the evening wears on. Today, even though most stores were closed, a few grocery stores did remain open to allow people to buy some last-minute items, although for the most part we've been here for the past couple of days and people have been saying that they've been putting away supplies of food and water, in preparation for the storm.

I did talk with a woman not long ago, who survived Hurricane Ivan back in 2004. Her home was destroyed in the Negril on the western end of the island. And she has since moved to Montego Bay and has moved to higher ground, to be away from the storm. Here what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ELISE ORR, MONTEGO BAY RESIDENT: That was in western Negril. And then it was three, four house, and the water came over the house and flood completely. So it damaged a lot of our furniture, damaged everything else we have in the house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Now, one more thing we wanted to tell you about, and that's the electricity situation. We've been reporting that they originally intended to kill electricity across the island midmorning. But they've held off on doing that except for the southern end around Kingston. So they have done it there. They will be doing it across the rest of the island of Jamaica as the storm moves across here.

Fredricka, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Pretty tense moments, but everyone taking the best precautions they can. Susan Candiotti, thanks so much.

Now let's talk about the Caribbean coast of Mexico, popular beach resorts could feel the wrath of Dean as early as tomorrow evening. Standing by live in Cancun, CNN's Harris Whitbeck -- Harris.

All right. We're going to try and reassess -- oh, there he goes.

HARRIS WHITBECK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, the authorities in Cancun are (INAUDIBLE) to prepare for the possible arrival of Hurricane Dean and to help those who want to leave this resort area to do so.

According to the authorities, 60,000 foreign nationals are already attempting to leave and some 28,000 of them are still in the area, most of them at the Cancun International Airport trying to leave. Airport authorities tell us airlines have added a dozen additional (INAUDIBLE). Those are planes that are coming in empty from the United States, Canada, and Mexico City and are leaving full.

All flights are completely full. And the authorities say that the airport will remain open, as long as possible. And people we spoke with said that the airport will remain open until at least tomorrow afternoon.

As far as preparations in the area, the Mexican government has sent federal troops to the area in case there is looting. Two years ago after Hurricane Wilma there was mass looting in the city of Cancun. The authorities want to prevent it.

They have also already opened 130 shelters, have brought in medical teams, medical supplies and reconstruction teams to react to whatever the hurricane might leave in its path -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Harris Whitbeck, thanks so much, from Cancun. Let's check in again our with Jacqui Jeras who is tracking the storm.

And what makes this one so frightening is that it's already Category 4. It picks up strength, and who knows what happens after potentially hitting the Yucatan Peninsula, right?

JERAS: Yes, yes. We could be looking at Category 5, absolutely. We're not that far from it, 145 mile per hour maximum sustained winds makes it a Category 4. It has to be greater than 155 to be considered a Category 5. And things are getting pretty scary at this time in eastern Jamaica.

There you can see the center of circulation at its closest approach for the southeastern parts off the island. And you could be experiencing some hurricane force wind gusts at any time now. In Kingston, things have been relatively calm in Kingston the last couple of hours but expecting that to be changing literally every second.

The rain is going to be extremely heavy. Look at all of that red across the island. Downpours could bring between five and 10 inches of rain widespread across the island with locally heavier amounts, potentially up to 20 inches. And this is a mountainous island, up to 7,500 feet in the blue mountains here.

You might know that area from their good coffee that they grow. And then it goes down in elevation the farther west that you go. Mudslides and flooding will be of grave concern, in addition to those hurricane force winds. The eyewall could be scraping the southernmost tip later this evening. It's going to be a close call. It will fare much better with the storm in Jamaica if that eyewall stays to south of the island.

Once we get past Jamaica, we're expecting to see the storm stay around Category 4 status through the central Caribbean and then intensify as it gets into western parts. The Water temperatures much warmer here.

You can see the cone of uncertainty, by the way. Look how large this is. People from Belize all the way up towards Cancun and Cozumel need to be concerned for potential 4 or 5 making landfall overnight Monday and into Tuesday morning.

And even if it does go south of the resort area, keep in mind that this is going to be the bad side of the storm, as we call it, where the strongest of winds are and also the greatest surge will be. So even if it stays south of Cancun and Cozumel, you'll definitely be feeling the effects of the storm.

Most of the computer models do bring it into mainland Mexico after that, though . we cannot rule out extreme southern Texas. So watch for that very closely by the middle of the week -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks, Jacqui. We know you have your eyes on that.

Well, coming up next in the CNN NEWSROOM, nearly two weeks of digging for the missing miners in Utah. Today, mine officials strike a less optimistic tone.

And a deadly high rise inferno from the streets of Manhattan. Our I-Reporters captured flames erupting several stories up. And again, Hurricane Dean just keeps moving on. We'll bring you the absolute latest from the CNN hurricane headquarters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Let's talk about the ongoing search for those missing miners where hope has become most precious of commodities in central Utah. It will be two weeks tomorrow that six men became trapped in the Crandall Canyon coal mine. And today the three emergency workers killed Thursday were eulogized in Sunday services. CNN's Dan Lothian joins us live from Huntington where we hear a fifth borehole now is being planned. And it doesn't sound like the organizers there are that hopeful anymore -- Dan.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's true. You know, this really has been a very disappointing, a very difficult day not only for mine officials but for this community. They had hoped that that fourth borehole that they made their way through yesterday would have yielded some positive news.

But after sending down listening devices, after sending down the cameras, they have found absolutely no sign whatsoever of those six miners. Not of the miners, not of their equipment, not of anything connected to them at all.

Now, mine officials had been fairly confident, hopeful throughout this entire ordeal that they would be able to reach those miners, find them alive. But for the first time today, we did see a crack in that resolve. And it does appear that they are running out of options.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB MOORE, V.P., MURRAY ENERGY: With the information, the data that we've received from the air readings as well as the video, it is disappointing. And it is -- it's likely that these miners may not be found.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LOTHIAN: Now, the reason it's so disappointing is because those air samples taken out of that borehole number four yielded a result of between 11 to 12 percent oxygen, that's not enough to sustain life and they're now going, as you mentioned, down to a fifth hole. They're not really expecting that they will find anything different there.

But this almost seems like it's the last resort. They have all of the equipment in place but it will take several hours, in fact, more than a day before we will get any results from the fifth hole.

In addition to all of this, outside experts have been brought in from early this morning. They are currently up on the mountain. They are meeting with mine officials. And essentially what they're trying to do is to figure out if there's a safe way to continue the operation underground.

You know, it was suspended on Thursday after that secondary collapse. So they're going over every single option that they can think of to find out if they can get in underground. And of course, if they cannot find a safe way to do that, they will not go in again. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: That's a very sobering fact, Dan. Appreciate it. While you're reporting on the anguish that a lot of the fellow miners, the rescue teams and even the family members are going through, I understand, as we also watch Hurricane Dean, your parents are in the face of danger in Jamaica. Have you been in contact with them?

LOTHIAN: Over the last couple of hours, I did reach out to my parents who are in the south-southwest part of the island. They are doing well. They sort of barricaded themselves inside their home. They have plenty of food, water, and other supplies. The did tell me that the water system has been shut down and that they were expecting at any time that the electrical system -- all of the electricity across the island would be shut off as well.

So yes, they're hunkered down, they are doing well. But certainly a lot of concerns there that this could be a real devastating storm and very difficult for the island of Jamaica.

That's right. Well, we wish for the best for your parents as well as for everyone else who has loved ones there in Jamaica as Hurricane Dean churns its way across that island as well as making its way now to Mexico, particularly (INAUDIBLE) the Yucatan Peninsula. We'll get an update on all of the progress there of Hurricane Dean.

Also, Deb Feyerick is coming up from New York. Hi, Deborah.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A deadly inferno claims the lives of two New York City firefighters at Ground Zero, that's coming up when CNN NEWSROOM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Other news we are following, reassurances today about the air quality in New York after a deadly fire at an abandoned bank near Ground Zero. Early tests show no signs of asbestos or dangerous particles in the air. Two fire fighters killed battling the seven- alarm blaze at the contaminated Deutsche Bank building. Our Deborah Feyerick is in New York with the very latest -- Deborah.

FEYERICK: Well, Fredricka, we can tell you that here, at Engine Company 24 Ladder 5, you can see it in their eyes, you can hear it in their voices. They have been here before.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK (voice-over): ... a 9/11, once more united in grief.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We lost two of the finest men that you'd ever meet in your life.

FEYERICK: Fifty-three-year-old Robert Beddia and 33-year-old Joseph Graffagnino died fighting the seven-alarm blaze that tore through a crippled building at Ground Zero.

MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY: The building is being abated for asbestos and the materials that they use to encapsulate the asbestos are very flammable. So that's probably why the fire spread to rapidly. Because otherwise, the building is basically a shell.

FEYERICK: A shell because after five years of wrangling between developers, insurance companies and local residents, the building was finally in the process of being demolished one floor at a time. Early reports by the fire commissioner indicate water stand pipes in building weren't working.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had to lift lines from the street with ropes in order to get it up to the 17th floor because that building being on the demolition.

FEYERICK: New York's governor toured the floor where the fire seems to have started. Everyone is breathing right now.

What about accountability? For a firefighter to be in a building that's that dangerous, it was a death trap essentially.

GOV. ELLIOT SPITZER, NEW YORK: This is a building that is in the process of being torn down. It would have been incredibly complicated process. Polyurethane shrouds, separate rooms created to remove and cleanse people. It made it that much more complicated from a firefighting perspective. These are questions everybody is asking now.

FEYERICK: Behind this fence is the site of the World Trade Center and directly across the street is the Deutsche Bank. Now when the tours fell the building was heavily damaged. There was a big controversy as to who should pay to have it demolished, the developers or insurance companies. That debate raged, toxic mold grew in a building that was contaminated with asbestos. Deconstruction finally proceeded but had to stop temporarily when human remains were found this past March.

Julie Menan (ph) is with the local community board.

JULIE MENAN (ph): The building has been very controversial in the neighborhood. We wanted the building to come down but at the same time the community wants it to come down safely.

FEYORICK: This is a building that you inherited; it has been a source of great controversial. Many people think it should have come down long ago and two firefighters who died is unconscionable.

SPITZER: They're right. And the building should have been deconstructed, the term they used many years back.

FEYERICLK: Fire fighter Graffanio leaves behind a wife and two small children and firefighter Bedia leaves behind a family and legacy, having trained most of the men in the firehouse, a loss that is all too familiar.

Deborah Feyerick. Now, investigators are looking into what sparked this blaze. That could be an easy answer. But there are far likely to be questions with more complicated answers. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: So sad as if the firefighting community has not been through enough already. Thanks so much, Deborah.

Half past the hour right now. And here's what else is happening, deadly flooding hits the land of 10,000 lakes, at least 5 people have been killed, 4 in southeast Minnesota's Wynona County. The governor has declared a state of emergency. Flooding from the remnants of tropical storm Erin aren't blamed for one death in Oklahoma. Another person is missing. Rescues in boats and helicopters have had to pull people from flooded areas just like here on the rooftops even.

And even the space shuttle "Endeavour" is feeling wrath of hurricane Dean below. This is how Dean looks from the International Space Station. See that huge swirl of white? The clouds? That is hurricane Dean. NASA has decided to bring the shuttle home a day early just in case Dean causes trouble at mission control in Houston.

Hurricane Dean has the U.S. government on standby all ready. FEMA announces what they're doing to get ready for whatever the storm might bring. A live report coming up in THE NEWSROOM.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: At this hour Dean is lashing the island of Jamaica. Find out more about conditions there and the latest on here the storm is headed coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Hurricane Dean whipping through the Caribbean threatening Jamaica now. Let's check in with Jacqui Jeras who is in the Hurricane Headquarters.

JERAS: New images to show you, Fredricka. This is from the Doppler radar out of Cuba, the Pilan right here. This is the island of Jamaica. And it's shooting this far away. We can see the eye of the hurricane as it approaches. You can see it's just due south of the southern tip. What I want you notice is this stuff in the middle right here that's at the beginning of the animation and then it kind of goes away. That indicates to us there is an inner and outer eye wall of the hurricane so it's going through one of those concentric eye wall replacement cycles.

So the storm may be initially weakening now but this gives it potential to ramp up in the upcoming hours. We are awaiting the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center. The latest advisory showed winds of 145 miles per hour and it's moving west-northwesterly on a track to keep it south of Jamaica, south of the Cayman Islands and then heading towards the Yucatan Peninsula probably Monday night and into Tuesday. When we get that advisory, we'll bring it along to you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. We look forward to that. Thanks a lot Jacqui.

We've been getting some incredible I-reports from hurricane Dean from CNN viewers who either live in the Caribbean or are there on vacation. Some vacation, eh? Here's video from Marvin Del Cid from the Dominican Republic sent us. Remarkable waves there. The storm surge in the capital of Santoe Domingo. Keep in mind that Dean sideswiped Hispaniola. It was not a direct hit. Hispaniola and Dominican sharing that area with Haiti.

OK, hurricane Dean has the U.S. Gulf Coast on alert. FEMA activating regional response centers in advance of the storm. And President Bush declaring a state of emergency in Texas already. The lone star state could see Dean by midweek. CNN's Garry Nurenberg joins us live from FEMA Headquarters in Washington where David Paulison all ready kind of warned folks or gave us some idea of how FEMA's going to approach this, right?

GARY NURENBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, the federal government wants to avoid both the horrendous death and the political embarrassment that came with the botched response to hurricane Katrina a couple of years ago and is spending money this weekend to make sure those mistakes aren't repeated. We took some pictures inside FEMA Headquarters a few minutes ago, the national response board in the nations center staffed by 100 workers this weekend coordinating this complicated national response plan. The plan to go to 24/7 on Tuesday with 130 workers trying to integrate federal, state, local response. This is also where the daily national video teleconference takes place between federal, state, local agencies that are involved in the hurricane response where the coordination effort takes place that will affect literally 1,000 responders.

A quick shopping list of some of the things that have already been done. FEMA has made 26 mission assignments to other federal agencies and the Red Cross, emergency response centers have been activated in Texas, Atlanta, and New York, emergency response teams have been deployed, 17 urban search and rescue teams have been deployed, 3 medical assistance teams dispatched, another eight on standby, evacuations plans are now in place, 10,000 national guard troops available by Wednesday, 47 military helicopters in Texas by tomorrow, in addition, hundreds of others that are already there. The Red Cross has 100 emergency response vehicles assembling in Little Rock from all over the country.

FEMA says this is costly but says it is bettor spends than be unprepared and it insists the lessons of Katrina have been learned.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

R. DAVID PAULISON, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: We are ready. This is one of best efforts that I've seen, best coordinated efforts I've seen, throughout the entire federal family and I want to emphasize. It's going to be a lot of money, no question about it, but alternative is not to do it, not to spend the money and end up with another issue like Katrina and I'm not going to let that happen. You can't wait too long. If you have to evacuate 100,000 people you can't do that overnight it takes a couple of days to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NURENBERG: One example of the preparations could be seen this morning in Montgomery County Maryland where Maryland Task Force One was being briefed on what it will be doing when it arrives in Texas. After that briefing seven-car caravan left for the storm area. Structural engineers, hazardous materials experts. After medical checks tomorrow additional members of Maryland Response Teams will be flying to the area. Fredricka, response like that are being seen in communities throughout the nation with emergency responders are coming from as far a way as California and even Alaska to be in place for when the storm hits.

WHITFIELD: Everyone wanting to pitch in and it's much needed and I'm sure much appreciated.

All right. Gary Nurenberg thanks so much.

And in the middle of all of this the storm of presidential politics. Debating Democrats, duking it out against today and at least one of them has some words for Karl Rove. Those stories, straight ahead in THE NEWSROOM.

Plus, the credit crises. Chewing up and spitting out more lenders. What does it mean for you? Find out, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's the sound of a new school year as millions of kids head back to class. But for some young people, school pressure is more than just reading, writing and arithmetic. A new study by the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University finds many overweight kids are avoiding school setting themselves up for more dangerous problems including increased drug use and pregnancy and poor grades.

DR. GARY FOSTER, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY: Heavier kids were the most absent among all of the kids in the school and this is after controlling for other factors that influence attendance.

GUPTA: The study looks at more than 1,000 fourth, fifth and sixth grade from the Philadelphia school system. And finds four main predictors for missing school, race, age, social economic status and gender, but in digging deeper researchers discovered overweight children were absent an average of 20 percent more than other kids.

FOSTER: There's a lot of social stigma associated with being an overweight kid from bullying, teasing to concerns about how they perform athletically in P.E. classes.

GUPTA: Just ask through Shawna Rubbeck who went through constant teasing when she was heavy.

SHAWNA RUBBECK, STUDENT: People would call me cupcake as a joke and I would laugh about it because you know, I knew I couldn't do anything about it.

GUPTA: Doctors say their research shows being overweight not only causes health problems in children but psychological ones as well. They say schools need to look at how they can help kids with weight issues overcome these pressures so they'll feel comfortable going to class.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reports.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: He's one of the most well-known political figures, though he rarely gives TV interviews. Now, Karl Rove is breaking that silence and speaking out on a Sunday morning talk show. Rove, who is resigning at end of the month couldn't resist giving a parting shot to the Democrats, one in particular, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARL ROVE, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: She enters the general election campaign with the highest negatives of any candidate in the history of the Gallup Poll.

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): The president has much higher negatives than she, however.

ROVE: She enters the presidential contest with higher negatives. The only person who comes close, only other candidate was Al Gore with 34, I believe.

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE): How does that hurt her?

ROVE: Well, just people have made an opinion about her; it's hard to change opinions once you've been a high profile person in the public eye as she has for 16 or 17 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Oh really. Well Senator Clinton was asked about Rove's comment during a Democratic presidential debate hosted by ABC. Here's what she had to say and others had to say about all of this. Our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, is joining us now with really a debate where of course the object is always; every candidate tries to be the one out front. There any one particular candidate that upstaged the others?

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, in this debate, as you can see if you're a front-runner you better be prepared to defend yourself, as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama did in today's debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER (voice over): The strongest challenge to the front- runner in the Democratic debate on Sunday came from someone who wasn't there. Karl Rove was quoted as saying that no one with Hillary Clinton's negatives has ever been elected president.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANIDATE: I find it interesting he's so obsessed with me.

SCHNEIDER: Barack Obama made a similar concern.

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANIDATE: We're going to need somebody who can break out of the political patterns that we've been in over last 20 years.

SCHNEIDER: Clinton's response, don't kid yourself.

CLINTON: The idea that you're going to escape the Republican attack machine and not have high negatives by the time they're through with you, I think, is just missing what's been going on in American politics for the last 20 years.

SCHNEIDER: Obama came ready to take some hits.

OBAMA: To prepare for the debate I rode in the bumper cars at the state fair.

SCHNEIDER: Other candidates criticized Obama's foreign policy views.

JOHN EDWARDS, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANIDATE: I personally think, and I would as president, not talk about hypotheticals and nuclear weapons. I think that is not a healthy thing to do --

CLINTON: One thing that I agree with is we shouldn't use hypotheticals.

SCHNEIDER: But Obama stood his ground as a candidate who defies convention.

OBAMA: We shouldn't have strategic ambiguity with the American people.

SCHNEIDER: The biggest substantive debate came over Bill Richardson's Iraq proposal.

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: To end this war, we have to get all of the troops out, all of them.

SCHNEIDER: All of them?

SEN. JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDEDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What are you go doing-to-do with 4,000, 5,000 civilians that are left inside the green zone?

CLINTON: Moving troops out cannot happen without careful planning.

SCHNEIDER: Leaving Obama to play the outsider.

OBAMA: The thing I wished had happened was that all of the people on this stage had asked these questions before they authorized us getting in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHNEIDER: The dilemma for Democrats has not changed. Do they stick with Hillary Clinton who has been through the political war and has the scars to show for it or do they go with someone unscarred and untested?

Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks a lot, Bill Schneider.

Coming up next in THE NEWSROOM, more and more mortgage companies are going belly-up. What does that mean for homeowners and people in the market to buy? We'll discuss that when we come right back.

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WHITFIELD: First Magnus Financial has been caught in the credit crunch. The Tucson based housing lender could be heading for bankruptcy. It's closed down all of its 300-plus offices and laid off all but 60 of the 6,000 employees. First Magnus officials say they handled conventional home loans, not risky subprime mortgages. So to help sort out all of the confusion over the credit crises, subprime loans and what it means for home buyers, Knight Kiplinger, he is the editor and chief of "Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine" and joins us now from Washington. Good to see you.

KNIGHT KIPKLINGER, EDITOR & CHIEF, "KIPLINGER PERSONAL FINANCE MAGAZINE:" Nice to be with you Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: OK, let this is unnerve, if you've got First Magnus who dealt with mostly conventional loans and they're in trouble. Is this a sign that other lenders who handled the similar kind of mortgages might follow suit?

KIPLINGER: I think we'll see more distress throughout the mortgage industry, but you would get the impression from the headlines last week that the mortgage market is completely dried up.

WHITFIELD: Yeah.

KIPLINGER: The spigot is dry.

WHITFIELD: Like forget it, you will no longer be a homeowner wanna be.

KIPLINGER: That's far from the truth. If you can qualify on the traditional conventional terms if you put 10 or 15 percent down if you can handle not just the interest payments each month but some of the principal as well, if you document your income and assets which many people didn't have to in recent years with so-called no doc loans there is mortgage money out there for you.

WHITFIELD: OK. So does that mean, I'm hearing a couple of things, a, there is hope that you can be a homeowner if you're not and you really want to be, but maybe what you need to be is a little crafty about it, no longer can you be going for the bigger house, more than you can afford and get these kind of creative loans anymore. You say keep it simple. Go for the traditional, stay within your means. Does that mean go to more banks as opposed to loan offices?

KIPLINGERL: Yes indeed. A lot of the mortgage brokers who got their clients into trouble were independent sweatshops, almost bucket shops, boiler rooms. But now, I think people are going to their neighborhood bank, their community bank perhaps, the bank where they do business on a regular basis where there is a relationship.

The realtor probably had a line on good, reliable mortgage sources, not necessarily the cheapest gimmick loan, the so-called junk mortgage but a good, solid, traditional mortgage. Money is out there 30-year money is priced well under 7 percent. You know, there's all of this talk about jumbo mortgages being more risky than other mortgages. They're not. If you have an income that is proportional to the loan you're seeking, even if the loan is over that $417,000, which defines it as jumbo, you can qualify for a jumbo also fewer than 7 percent money these days if your credit is good, if you can put 10, 15, 20 percent down, you're going to be OK.

WHITFIELD: But you're not going to be OK if you are going for the jumbo loan and all these creative loans that put you in the subprime category, that's not the house for you the $417,000 and above. Your income needs to demonstrate it is proportional, as you say?

KIPLINGER: It sure does. And don't despair. The foreclosure rate on mortgages in America you would think from the headlines that it's 10 or 20 percent. The national foreclosure rate on mortgages now is only 1.5 percent. That's infinitesimal.

WHITFIELD: Knight Kiplinger thanks so much for restoring our confidence now in the home buying market. You have to be smarter now to stay forward. Thank you very much.

KIPLINGER: You're very welcome.

WHITFIELD: All right. Back to hurricane Dean, we're going to be talking about that storm and we'll be showing it to you through the lens of our I-reporters when we come right back.

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