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American Morning
Hurricane Humberto; Primetime Address; Oil Markets; Toy Safety; Iraq Speech; Democratic 'Mashup'
Aired September 13, 2007 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news. Humberto's surge, growing into a sudden hurricane, blasting the Texas Gulf Coast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not like a normal storm where we have days to plan.
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CHETRY: The drenching forecast and live reports from the scene.
Plus, Indonesia rocked again today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The building is shaking. Oh, God, it's really strong.
CHETRY: Two more earthquakes and more tsunami alerts. And i- Reports that put you in the middle of it all on this AMERICAN MORNING.
And welcome. It is Thursday, September 13th. I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm John Roberts here in Washington where it's a big day again today with the president's prime time address, Kiran, tonight at 9:00.
CHETRY: Yes, we'll be looking forward to that. But also a big storm that I think took a lot of people by surprise with how quickly it came together. We're talking about Humberto.
ROBERTS: Oh, absolutely. It came out of nowhere. And now Hurricane Humberto is threatening to bring a massive amount of rain to an area that simply cannot handle any more.
The National Weather Service says that Humberto formed as a tropical storm yesterday afternoon in the Gulf of Mexico. It had just been sitting there. Just 12 hours later, it was a hurricane and plowed into the Texas coastline this morning. Forecasters are calling for more than a foot of rain in a state that just came off one of its wettest summers in a half a century.
What it's doing and where it's headed, we're covering all of the angles of the storm this morning. Rob Marciano is at the CNN weather desk. We'll get to him in just a second. Right now we've got Ed Lavandera on the phone from Beaumont, Texas, where people could be waking up to a mess later this morning.
How badly is it raining there today, Ed?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, we're in the midst of a torrential downpour here in downtown Beaumont right now. We've driven throughout the night along Interstate 10 where the roads were incredibly treacherous. There were dozens of 18-wheelers that were forced to pull over to the side of the roadway. They just couldn't simply drive any further. There were a few cars trying to make their way as far as possible.
But in many parts of Beaumont, we've seen some areas that have lost power this morning. We haven't seen any amount -- heavy damage yet, but the winds have been picking up quite strongly throughout much of the area and the rains have been coming down in steady sheets and very heavy throughout this part of southeast Texas and northwest Louisiana. And people here bracing for more of this rainstorm as it continues to blow through this part of Texas.
John.
ROBERTS: All right. Ed Lavandera for us this morning in Beaumont, Texas.
Ed is making his way a little bit further east this morning. Hopefully we'll get him up live with his satellite truck in just a little while and bring you more of what's going on, on the ground there in Texas this morning.
Kiran.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, Rob Marciano is at the CNN weather desk tracking Humberto.
Now did this storm sort of come as a surprise in how quickly it was able to form?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No doubt. Well, the intensity is certainly a surprise. And if there's one thing that the National Hurricane Center admittedly struggles with is forecast intensity. They do incredibly well with the track and when a storm is this close to shore, as it was, and moving as slowly as it was, it's difficult to tell just how strong it's going to get. And sure enough, hurricane strength is where we are today as it makes landfall. The first hurricane landfall in the United States since Wilma back in 2005.
All right. Here it is on the radar picture. And it's well defined. You can pretty much see this is the familiar sight with this thing making its way onshore, just to the east of Beaumont now. Ed Lavandera spoke about I-10. Here is I-10 right here. And the heaviest amounts of rain are just to the north of Beaumont, over towards Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Obviously the front right quadrant is always what we talk about as far as the heaviest amounts of rain. Right now we are looking at winds that are 85 miles an hour. So not really a minimal, but a moderate category one storm with gusts up and over 105 miles an hour. At last check, this was 63 miles southeast of Galveston, but this has since been updated. It's moved a little but farther towards the north and the west.
There is a tornado watch in effect for all areas to the east of the center of the eye. As all this action comes in off the Gulf of Mexico, we get a bit more of a swirl and there have been a couple of tornado warnings. There's one tornado warning out for Vermilion Parish. That is this parish right through here. Likely with this cell right in here coming from the south towards the north. And that tornado indicated on the Doppler radar scope to be moving northward at about 25 miles an hour.
So certainly a lot of action. Certainly an intensity that has taken everybody by surprise. The good news this morning, Kiran, it is on shore and it will not strengthen anymore. Typically we look for the strength of hurricanes to weaken by a factor -- well, to cut themselves in half every 12 hours. So it will be downgraded to a tropical storm probably in the next two, three or four hours. But it will be with us as a tropical storm for a good chunk of the day and flooding is going to be an issue everywhere Beaumont east into southwest Louisiana.
We'll keep an eye on it. Back to you.
CHETRY: All right, Rob, we'll check in with you throughout the morning. Thank you.
Joining us right now is Deputy Kyle Cavness. He's with the Galveston County Sheriff's Office.
Deputy Cavness, thanks for being with us.
DEP. KYLE CAVNESS, GALVESTON COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Oh, you're quite welcome.
CHETRY: It looks like, what, the rain just stopped for you guys? What do you see out there on the streets?
CAVNESS: Lots and lots of -- lots of flooding. Lots of street flooding. Lots of downed power lines, downed poles. The aftermath. And once it came through -- it came through hard and it flooded most everything over here.
CHETRY: You're saying people are taking a look at the aftermath so far and thinking it's a lot worse than they thought it would be. Why is that?
CAVNESS: I think it snuck up on us, to be honest with you. It wasn't something we were expecting. And once it got here, the intensity surprised everybody, especially the amount of rain, the wind and we even had a couple of confirmed tornadoes touching down. And I think it just caught everybody off guard.
CHETRY: You say the electricity is out as well. What are you estimating? How long will it be until they can get that back?
CAVNESS: Well, it's just a matter of time getting the poles back up and getting the lines out on the road. It could be anywhere from four or five hours to a couple of days.
CHETRY: And, you know, the biggest issue for your area, as well as many parts of Texas and the Gulf Coast, is this flooding. You guys are looking at maybe getting, what, a foot of rain out of this, when it's the last thing you needed. So how are you dealing with that?
CAVNESS: The ground is so saturated to begin with. And then when you come put more water on top of that, you're going to have flooding. The problem over here is we have -- the high tide came in about 5:00. And once the tide comes in, it pushes even more water into the roadway. So the roadway is just now becoming passable. People passing through. We're just trying to get the debris out of the roadway so we can reopen the highway so people can pass through.
CHETRY: Now have you had to do any water rescues? Have there been any injuries that you know of?
CAVNESS: No injuries. We did do two high water rescues last night for two elderly couples that got caught in their house. Both of those turned out fine. And as of now, there's no injuries
CHETRY: All right. And thanks for giving us a picture of what's going on there. Deputy Kyle Cavness with the Galveston County Sheriff's Office.
John.
ROBERTS: Kiran, while President Bush prepares to address the nation tonight about Iraq, this morning we have new numbers showing what Americans think about how the president is handling his job. A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll just out this morning has the president's approval rating at 36 percent. That's the same as it was a month ago. Sixty-one percent disapprove of the job that he's doing.
Thirty-four percent of respondents believe the president's policies would move the country in the right direction, while 61 percent say they're moving us in the wrong direction. As for Democrats in Congress, 50 percent of Americans believe their policies would move the country in the right direction, 39 percent say the wrong direction.
CNN's Elaine Quijano is up early this morning, joins us now live from the White House with a preview of tonight's speech.
And, Elaine, what do we expect to hear from the president tonight?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, John.
President Bush is expected to reiterate some familiar themes. A senior Bush administration officials says that the president tonight will once more try to make the case that success in Iraq is tied to security for the United States. And also the president is expected to recap, of course, as we've heard him do before, what he sees as a security progress that's taken place in the al Anbar province.
Now on the heels of that congressional testimony by General David Petraeus and ambassador Ryan Crocker, the president is expected to go through and sign off on the general's recommendations, which include, of course, drawing down U.S. forces to a pre-surge level of 130,000 by next July, depending on conditions on the ground. Now Democrats charge that that does not amount to a change in strategy or a change in policy at all. The White House insists it does, saying that it reflects the success of the surge.
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TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: You don't have the same country you had in 2006. You're assuming that nothing has changed. The whole -- what General Petraeus is saying is that you are able to move forces out as a result of success, not simply -- this is not an exercise to get to a number.
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QUIJANO: Now Bush aides say that the president is expected to discuss the U.S. mission in Iraq, over time transitioning to more of a partnership with the Iraqis themselves. Now that's not something new. We have heard the president talk about that before. What is different now though, John, the administration is going to point to what the president sees as evidence that the surge is working.
John.
ROBERTS: Elaine, what's at stake for the president here?
QUIJANO: You know, a lot is at stake for this White House. The Bush administration understands full well that it's going to be very difficult to keep Republicans in line, to assure that the president has their support on the Iraq policy for the months to come, unless there is some evidence, tangible evidence, of progress on national reconciliation at the very top levels in Baghdad.
That is why we're going to hear the president tonight talk about the so-called bottom up political progress that they have seen at the local levels. The president believes that that can be a model for other parts of Iraq. The president's critics, though, say that's a different scenario and it's not going to necessarily translate because of these deeper sectarian divisions that exist in Iraq.
John.
ROBERTS: Yes, bottom up is one thing, but you've got to get the top then as well.
Elaine Quijano for us at the White House this morning.
Elaine, thanks. And CNN will have complete coverage of the presidential address tonight. We start with a special two-hour "Situation Room." That starts at 7:00 Eastern. We'll also bring you a special edition of "Larry King Live" following the president's address. It's all tonight right here on CNN.
Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Well, some other headline this morning.
And two more earthquakes hitting Indonesia today, triggering tsunami warnings all the way to Africa. A 7.8 and a 7.1 quake and some aftershocks reported as well. All of them rumbling the island of Sumatra again today. That follows that 8.4 quake yesterday. In fact, it went up. Yesterday during our show we were saying 7.9 and since then seismologists adjusted it up higher. Witnesses say that several buildings have collapsed, others caught fire.
Dozens of turbo prop planes are grounded this morning because of landing gear problems. You remember this incredible video. This was in Denmark earlier in the week. Bombardiers now asked airlines to ground 60 of its Q-400 turbo prop after a second landing gear failures in just a week. Some 600 planes are here in the U.S. effected by this flown by Alaska Air, as well as SkyWest.
ROBERTS: Japan's prime minister is in the hospital today following yesterday's sudden announcement that he'll resign after less than a year in office. Doctors say Shinzo Abe is being treated for exhaustion and intestinal disorder and other symptoms of stress. Abe's party has seen several scandals and the loss of control of parliament.
Disgraced Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu is out of the hospital and in jail in Colorado this morning. Hsu had been wanted as a fugitive for skipping out on a bail hearing last week in California involving a 1991 grand theft case. "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting today that Hsu sent copies of a suicide note to several friends and charities before he disappeared. Hillary Clinton's campaign recently returned $850,000 in contributions linked to Hsu.
CHETRY: Well, oil source to new highs breaking $80 a barrel for the very first time ever. Ali Velshi is watching this from our business update desk.
You had talked about this earlier in the week about oil going up. What's the deal today, Ali?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Two days in a row to have my trusty barrel next to me. Everything got more expensive yesterday. Oil went through $80 a barrel, hitting $80.18 a barrel in electronic training on NYMEX. This is where it settled, $79.91, up $1.68. That's a significant jump considering that just earlier in the week OPEC had said that come November it's going to add 500,000 barrels a day to the world mix. People are saying November's too late, 500,000 barrels a day is too little. Now take a look at why this is happening. There's been a massive fall in the amount of oil that is stockpiled in the United States. Triple what people were expecting. That, combined with the OPEC announcement, not enough. Traders are pushing the price of oil up now, $80. These numbers, $79.91, that's the highest oil has ever settled at. It's not the highest oil has ever been, because if you go back to 1981, even though it was about $36 a barrel, with inflation that's well over $90 a barrel with today's money.
How's it affecting gas? Well according to AAA, a gallon of gas, national average, about $2.80. It's actually down a cent from yesterday. So gas is not moving in the same direction right now.
Now if it's too expense to stay home and drive, you can go overseas. That got more expensive too. The dollar has hit its lowest point against the euro ever. Right now it will cost you $1.39 to get a euro. It will cost you 96 cents -- almost the same money to get a Canadian dollar. So it's no discount there either when I go home. And $2.03 to buy a pound.
And I should tell you, if you want to do none of the above and stay home and eat your cereal, that's going to get more expensive too because wheat prices hit an all-time high yesterday as well. I'll try and give you some good news a little later on in the show.
Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. I don't like to see that barrel out. It can never be good news.
VELSHI: Yes, no, when you see this barrel, it's bad news.
CHETRY: Thanks.
VELSHI: All right.
CHETRY: Well, Mattel is launching a massive PR campaign to reassure consumers that its toys are safe. AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho is here in our studio with more on what they're doing.
A lot of these toy companies are taking it upon themselves now after all of the manufacturing problems in China.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. There were a few mea culpas. A lot of finger point at yesterday's congressional hearing. Kiran, you know there have been so many toy recalls lately that parents are understandably confused about exactly which toys are safe. And in retailing terms, if you think about it, Christmas is not that far away. So yesterday the CEOs of Mattel and Toys "r" Us went before Congress. Mattel's CEO, Bob Eckert, said his company, like Disney, will begin its own testing of Chinese-made products.
Now you may remember, earlier this summer Mattel recalled more than 18 million toys because of high lead levels and small magnets which can injure, even kill children if they suck on those toys or swallow them. So Eckert apologized to customers, but he also blamed Chinese factories for the problem.
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ROBERT ECKERT, CEO, MATTEL: Our systems were circumvented and our standards were violated. We were let down, and we let you down.
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CHO: Sounds convincing, but senators weren't exactly convinced by this, saying toymakers concerned about the bottom line cut corners.
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SEN. RICHARD DURBIN, (D) ILLINOIS: Critics would say that's kind of you, Senator Durbin, but tell me what they were doing. They were looking for the cheapest places in the world to make their toys. SO they found a country with the lowest wage sale, with virtually no environmental standards and very basically no safety inspection.
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CHO: But there was plenty of blame to go around. Senator's didn't just take the toymakers to task. They also placed some of the blame on the Consumer Products Safety Commission for not finding those tainted toys until they were already on store shelves. Now part of the problem is the CPSC only has one, yes, one full time inspector. Congress is vowing to increase their budget. One senator said, Kiran, this is getting serious. It is time to take action. And especially if you consider really Christmas is not that far away and parents are going to want to start shopping for toys and they need to know what's safe.
CHETRY: Yes, the last thing people want is at the height of the busy shopping season to have to be pulling these toys off the shelves yet again.
CHO: That's right.
CHETRY: Alina, thank you.
CHO: My pleasure.
CHETRY: We have some breaking news for you right now. We've been talking about the aftermath of the earthquake that hit in Indonesia yesterday and the subsequent earthquakes that followed. Well, we're just getting yet another report that an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.2 struck once again in the northeast part of Indonesia. And this is, of course, coming after three major earthquakes rocked that region. So this one a considerably lower magnitude, but enough for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center to issue at least an alert for the governments to be aware that this took place and the possibility of tsunamis.
Yesterday, of course, there were some tsunamis reported, but none big enough to cause any damage or trouble. But they also say to be aware of underwater landslides as well in these areas. Again, yet another earthquake hitting this one in the northeastern part -- the northeastern area of Indonesia. Not as strong as the two or three that have hit over the past couple of days. But we'll keep tracking it for you and check in with Rob Marciano if new details warrant that.
John.
ROBERTS: Wow. Kiran, you've got to ask yourself, what's going on there in Indonesia in the last couple of days. We'll put that question, actually, to a scientist from the U.S. Geological Survey coming up in our next hour here on AMERICAN MORNING.
Meantime, the flight attendant fashion police strike again. Find out what Southwest Airlines asked one woman to do to cover up what the airline complained was "a revealing outfit."
And no suspense about the speech that President Bush will deliver tonight. Democrats are lining up in opposition to the Petraeus troop withdrawal plan. We'll ask our CNN political analyst John Dickerson about the pre-speech sparring ahead, on AMERICAN MORNING.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
Hurricane Humberto topping your "Quick Hits" now. You see a look at our picture here on the radar. This storm grew into a hurricane and took a lot of people by surprise. It happened overnight. It slammed into the Texas Gulf Coast. It is the first hurricane to hit Texas since Rita back in 2005. And while it is a compact storm, it is carrying with it a lot of water. More than a foot of rain expected when it's all over in a place that's already saturated. The last thing they need in that area is more rain.
Speaking of wicked weather, intense flames near Lake Elsinore in southern California. More than 100 firefighters were battling that blaze. They had to get to some really rugged terrain to get to the flames. They say that no homes were in danger.
And how about this one. It looks like dog paddling didn't work for one little puppy. He actually needed the help of some surfers who rescued the dog after he was swept off of a lake Michigan pier by a big wave. They you see the picture right now. They were able to put him on a surfboard and then paddle him back in with one hand. One person helped there. The other one held on to the collar and everyone made it back to shore safely.
John.
ROBERTS: He'll be hanging ten in no time, Kiran.
President Bush addresses the nation tonight on Iraq. He is expected to announce plans to withdraw up to 30,000 troops by next summer. Meanwhile, a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll just out this morning shows the president's approval rating at 36 percent. Sixty-one percent of Americans say they're not happy with the job that he's doing. Joining us to talk about that is to preview tonight's speech is CNN political analyst of slate.com, John Dickerson.
Good morning, John.
JOHN DICKERSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
ROBERTS: So what do you expect President Bush to do tonight, wrap his arms around General Petraeus basically?
DICKERSON: Yes, he'll hug General Petraeus because, as you mentioned, the president's approval ratings are low. But in polls, recent poll, the American people still trust the military leaders. And so the president will say, look, I'm just doing what my military leaders are telling me to do.
ROBERTS: Yes, far more popular than members of Congress who are saying, let's do something else.
But how does the president get away from this idea that he will only do or he will only announce that he is going to do what he had to do anyways because by next July, according to all reports we have heard, there aren't enough resources to keep the so-called surge going anyway.
DICKERSON: That's right. As you've pointed out, there's no great surprise here in what the president's going to do, this reduction of troops. And this is the chief Democratic complaint. But the president will say, again, you know, I'm listening to what my commanders are telling me.
And he will also frame it, obviously, as progress. And so he'll try, hopefully, to make those two points and think that will hopefully overpower the Democratic criticisms.
ROBERTS: He seems to have, at least for the moment, stemmed the bleeding of potential defections from the Republican Party over the Democratic side of things. But there are still some Republicans who aren't very happy with what they have to take back to constituents.
DICKERSON: That's right. We're in a pause moment here. The Democrats -- the Republicans are rumbling a little bit. They can't wallop the president immediately, but we'll see how things set up after this speech tonight. Part of the evening -- one of the objectives of this speech tonight is to give them talking points. And so we'll see how the Republicans, who let their leader give his speech, then how they react immediately afterwards.
ROBERTS: Hey, we also want to mention that slate.com teamed up with "Huffington Post" yesterday for a political mashup of the Democratic candidates. What's that all about and where can people find that?
DICKERSON: That's right. On Slate and on Huffington Post and Yahoo! they can pick these clips of individual candidates talking about the issues that the voters, the viewers, want to hear them talking about. There's no moderator standing in the way. No analysis standing in the way. And they get to put it together themselves. ROBERTS: Charlie Rose, the famous Charlie Rose, did the questioning. So you can just click on various links and go right to the issue that you want to hear about.
DICKERSON: That's right. Exactly.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks. John, we'll see you back a little bit later on.
DICKERSON: Good.
ROBERTS: And CNN, of course, is going to carry the president's address. That's live tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. Coverage from the best political team in television begins with a special edition of "The Situation Room" at 7:00 and then "Larry King Live" will follow the president's speech with post game analysis, including some very heavy hitters.
Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Sounds good. Thanks, John.
Well, another passenger apparently forced by Southwest Airlines to cover up. They asked her to put on a sweater. She didn't have one. They thought her outfit was way too revealing. So find out what they did instead.
There's also a new study that blames cows for contributing to global warming because they pass a lot of gas. And now they say there's something you can do about it, eat less red meat and it will help us go green. What's going on with that study? Well, we'll find out more ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. The most news in the morning. A look now at a couple of stories that caught our eye overnight.
Scientists say that you can help slow global warming by eating fewer steaks and cheeseburgers. How, you say? Well, experts say farmers will raise less livestock if you eat less meat, which means that the livestock won't break as much wind and produce as much methane gas that can harm the environment. Methane gas is a big greenhouse gas. The study is in a special energy and health series of "The Lancet."
CHETRY: How about that.
Well, there's another woman, by the way, John, coming forward to say that Southwest Airlines forced her to cover up because they claimed her outfit was too revealing. She was taking a flight from Vegas to California and that's important because the woman says that the flight attendant asked her if she had a sweater she could put on. When she told them, no, it was too hot for a sweater, she says she was forced to wrap herself in an airline blanket for the entire flight. Well, the outfit in question, it was a green low-cut halter-style dress. Southwest had no comments. They say they never received a formal complaint. But it was just last week that another woman said Southwest forced her to adjust her outfit before she could board the plane.
That was the first offending outfit. The second one covers a little more on the bottom, maybe doesn't cover as much on top. But it's, you know, as we said before, Southwest claims they don't have a dress code, yet this is the second time that a young lady's been asked to change the dress code to the dark blue toga, the airline blanket.
ROBERTS: That's pretty incredible. Everybody is going to be wearing blankets. Unreal.
CHETRY: You got it.
ROBERTS: Hey, here's a look at a story coming up in our next half hour that you just can't miss. Getting some of the first pictures from the Texas Gulf Coast as Hurricane Humberto rolls ashore. Take a look at this. This is Wayne Dolcefino. He is a reporter with KTRK in Crystal Beach, Texas, getting blown around a little bit and rained on there by Humberto.
You been in a situation like that, Kiran?
CHETRY: It's always fun, isn't it. Although, you know, the hair is the first thing that goes. He doesn't seem to have to worry about that.
You know as Rob said, sometimes it's better to be bungy corded to something so you don't have to worry as much when those wind gusts come. But we'll show you more of those amazing pictures -- this one really snuck up on people -- when AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.
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JOHN ROBERTS, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: It's Thursday, September the 13th. I'm John Roberts in Washington. Welcome back to the show. Thanks for joining us this morning.
Hey, Kiran.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Hi. I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York. We are continuing to check out Texas this morning, where Hurricane Humberto slammed into that state's coast. This storm loaded with rain and sitting over an area that just suffered through some of the worst flooding in 50 years. There is a satellite picture right now. The storm just formed yesterday afternoon. It was able to stir up for several hours, and by the time it made landfall, it was actually a Category 1 hurricane.
We spoke to a sheriff's deputy out of Beaumont, Texas, this morning, saying when they went outside they saw a lot of downed trees, power lines. They had to conduct a couple of swift-water rescues, people that got trapped in their homes. We have some new pictures just in to CNN. Fifteen inches, before it's all said and done, could come down before the storm heads further north and into the nation's mid section -- John.
ROBERTS: It's now about 33 minutes after the hour. Rob Marciano is tracking the progress of Hurricane Humberto.
What have you got as the latest storm track, Rob? Who is in the danger zone this morning?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Southwest Louisiana. It's about to cross the border of Texas and Louisiana, and here's a satellite picture. I wanted to show -- Kiran mentioned the flooding issues. And this is a Doppler estimation of how much rain has fallen. Galveston, Houston, back there, Beaumont, Lake Charles, these white areas are well over six inches and in some cases, seven, eight, nine and ten inches of rainfall estimated by Doppler radar. So that gives you an idea of just how much moisture coming out of these clouds.
Not only that, but we have the threat for tornadoes. Typically to the east of these systems is where you see that threat. And certainly Beaumont, east along I-10 towards Lafayette, Louisiana, and Vermilion and Cameron parishes, tornado watches in effect until at least 10:00 a.m., as everything begins to spin up from the southwest. And we've seen a couple of tornado warnings.
Heavy rain, there's the eye there, just to the east of Beaumont, Texas, heading northeast now, and looks like orange, Texas, about to get into the eye of it, and towards south of Louisiana, heavier rains there.
Here's the forecast track. It will decrease in intensity as we go on through time but it will bring much of its action through Alexandria, just missing Shreveport.
The slice of good news, although there will be flooding in Texas and Louisiana, some of the moisture will get into areas that desperately need it in the form of Mississippi, Alabama and northwest Georgia. Kiran, back over to you.
CHETRY: That's a bit of good news. Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia needing it, so hopefully they can soak up some of the water.
Thanks, Rob.
We have our Ed Lavandera, he is live in Beaumont, Texas.
They say search and rescue teams are being put in place in that area. We talked to a sheriff's deputy who said they did conduct some rescues. What is the situation, Ed?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: We've been driving from Houston to Beaumont overnight a long Interstate 10. What we saw along the roadway was a treacherous situation. The rain essentially coming in sideways, many 18-wheelers trying to make the drive throughout the night forced to pull over. You can only see about 12, 15 feet in front of the car as we were driving this morning. The rain has been coming down in sheets. The gusts haven't been terribly bad but they've been coming through in periodic gusts with intensified from time to time.
This is about as calm as we've seen it throughout the morning as we've been here, pulling into Beaumont a short while ago. We saw in certain neighborhoods power seemed to be knocked out at this point, still trying to get a sense of how widespread that will be here as we come down. But here in the downtown area, power seems to be in place for the most part but there are a lot of roadways that we saw that were starting to show the signs of heavy flooding. And that will be of most concern in the hours ahead not just here in the downtown Beaumont area but smaller roads and bayous but river ways in southwest Texas and southwest Louisiana.
That's what people will be watching and waking up to here this morning, as they begin their commute, if they even try to venture out this morning. This is as calm as we've seen it so far this morning and it will probably pick up and intensify here shortly -- Kiran?
ROBERTS: Wow. Boy, if that's as calm as it's been, they're in for it, when all is said and done, with the rainfall, seeing how much that area can take.
Ed Lavandera, we'll check in with you throughout the morning. Thanks a lot.
We're also going to show you Hurricane Humberto from another part of Texas. Reporter Wayne Dolcefino, of our affiliate KTRK, is in Crystal Beach.
WAYNE DOLCEFINO, REPORTER, KTRK: This is Ground Zero, between Crystal Beach and the high island. The worst wind and rain we've seen, the power is out. The only lights are flood lights shining as me as I try to stand on Highway 87. The wind and the rain -- the rain really starting to sting as it comes ashore. We've got some wind. We weren't even sure where we were when we got here. The power was out, came on briefly, then went back out again. It was on long enough for us to see where we were. It was almost impossible to see on the road. This Crystal Beach and the high island as Humberto now coming ashore.
CHETRY: Wow, that reporter was actually in an area that's a lot closer, right to the Gulf of Mexico, about a little bit south and west of Beaumont where we saw Ed Lavandera. You saw what a rainmaker. Even though it's a Category 1, you can see how hard the winds are.
ROBERTS: Brings back a lot of memories. I was there when Hurricane Rita came through a couple of years ago. I know what those guys are talking about.
It's a surprise storm, Humberto is, but volunteers and shelters getting ready along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana where the storm could spawn some tornadoes.
Travers Mackel, or our affiliate WDSU, is covering the storm. He is in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Travers, we were talking about Hurricane Rita, the last big one to come through there. We remember a lot of flooding in Lake Charles during that storm. What's going on by you now?
TRAVERS MACKEL, REPORTER, WDSU: Well, John, as you just mentioned, they're almost to the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Rita, it comes up on September 24th. Right now, mainly a rain event for southwestern Louisiana. The rain has gotten gradually stronger throughout the course of the morning. No mandatory evacuations of any parish here in southwest Louisiana but some schools remain closed at this time.
Also, emergency leaders here in the southwest part of the state are urging people to stay inside. They expect some minor street flooding. Some of the low-lying barrier islands are already experiencing that street flooding but once again, no emergency evacuations.
They did open up a couple of shelters not far from where we are, about 200 yards away is the Lake Charles Civic Center. About 29 people spent the night there last night, mainly for peace of mind. This area was hit hard during Hurricane Katrina -- Hurricane Rita, excuse me. A lot of people still living in FEMA trailers, still trying to board up and patch up their homes. They came to the civic center because they didn't feel safe at this time.
Once again, they're only expecting a rain event, some minor street flooding and they're hoping it won't even be that bad here in Lake Charles and southwest Louisiana. John, back to you.
ROBERTS: So Travers, unlike two years ago when we saw the high winds from Rita blow water from Lake Charles into the town, this is mostly rain coming down?
MACKEL: It's really just rain. The winds are a non-factor. By judging from me standing here they're not blowing us around. The winds are probably at about 10 miles an hour, to use my amateur estimate right there, but it's mainly a rain event. All morning the rains have gradually picked up.
We talked to the emergency operations director here in Calcasieu Parish, which is where we are, not far from the Gulf of Mexico, and they told us that they do expect those feeder bands from Humberto to keep pounding them throughout the course of the day.
Once again, all they're planning on is a rain event. They handed out sandbags yesterday and told people living in the FEMA trailers from Hurricane Rita to basically head to higher ground if they could but no emergency evacuations.
ROBERTS: Travers, thanks very much.
That's Travers Mackel of WDSU, our affiliate there, speaking to us from Lake Charles, Louisiana, this morning.
Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr sits down with General David Petraeus asking some tough questions. We'll have that for you when "AMERICAN MORNING" returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. We get the latest on our top story in your "Quick Hits." Hurricane Humberto coming ashore just southeast of Houston. The storm is a Category 1, 85 mile-an-hour sustained winds. Forecasters say it will dump more than a foot of rain on an already soaked Texas and Louisiana. They are trying to get ready for major flooding, which is expected to come from Humberto. We have Rob Marciano tracking the very latest for us.
Meantime, earthquakes again today hitting Indonesia, triggering tsunami warnings all the way to Africa. A 7.8 and then a 7.1 quake, plus a lot of aftershocks rumbled the island of Sumatra again today, following that 8.4 quake yesterday. Then we got word about 15 or 20 minutes ago that yet another earthquake, this one a little bit lower on the scale, about a 6.2, hit in the northeastern part of Indonesia. Witnesses say that several buildings have collapsed. Others caught fire because of these quakes.
Plus it's an incredible shot of a massive fire in Danbury, Connecticut. This happened at the town's airport. Take a look right there. A hangar fire, happened -- and it heavily damaged a hangar which housed a charter company and restaurant. There are no reports of injuries -- John?
ROBERTS: General David Piraeus's long-awaited report on Iraq to U.S. lawmakers is over but Barbara Starr had a chance to sit down with the general. She joins us now live with that.
Barbara, what did Petraeus have to say about the war on terror and how it affects safety at home?
BARBARA STARR, CNN NEWS PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: John, that's something we expect to hear the president talk about when he addresses the nation tonight so we wanted to ask General Petraeus how any American family here in the United States might be safer because of the war in Iraq. It's an answer that he seems to struggle with.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS, COMMANDER, MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE-IRAQ: Well, as I explained yesterday, we have enormous national interests in Iraq, first of all, in helping Iraq achieve its objectives, our objectives of a secure, stable Iraq, connected into the region, not a regional problem, not a base for al Qaeda on which to train and export terror. And certainly that's one of those areas in which we would have enormous concern, were our objectives not achieved in that country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: One of the things that General Petraeus was very firm about is his belief in his recommendations to begin to send some of the surge troops home from Iraq, beginning possibly as soon as December.
I asked him what does he hear from the troops about morale. What does he hear from them about their concerns? And he said the major concern that many continue to express is that 15-month tour of duty on the ground is Iraq. It's very tough. It's very long -- John?
ROBERTS: Barbara, you spent a considerable amount of time with the general and asked him some more personal questions. What did you learn about General David Petraeus, the man?
STARR: Most of us who cover the Pentagon have known him for a long time but I had learned some things about him yesterday I did not know. A few days ago his son graduated from jump school in the Army, and most likely is headed off to a combat tour in Iraq. But then he stopped for a minute and he talked about his own father. His father in his 90s, still living, doing pretty well. His father was a Dutch merchant seaman, who ran convoys against the Nazis in the north Atlantic during World War II. So both his parent's generation and his son's generation will be people very familiar with combat -- John?
ROBERTS: It was a great interview. Barbara, good for you for landing that. I know it was a little bit difficult and good to get some insight into who he is and what it's all about.
Barbara Starr for us this morning. Thanks.
CNN will bring you the president's speech tonight beginning at 9:00 p.m. eastern. That will be live here on CNN, preceded by a special edition of "The Situation Room." That begins at 7:00, takes you up and through the president's address. And that will be followed by "Larry King Live" with post-speech analysis and pretty heavy- hitting interviews, too.
Kiran?
CHETRY: John, thanks.
The last thing you want to hear about -- nuclear materials topping your "Quick Hits." According to a government audit, a stockpile of plutonium and nuclear weapons parts at the Los Alamos Labs has not been accounted for, not in more than 12 years. The report goes on to say that regular inventory is critical when it comes to making sure that nukes aren't being stolen. That would seem like it would be obvious.
A young woman paralyzed from the neck down is getting a huge settlement from the United States government. Laloni (ph) Gutierrez was critically injured when an U.S. Army official ran a red light, slammed into her family car five years ago. The photo is from the "Los Angeles Times." Yesterday a federal judge ordered the government to pay Gutierrez $55 million.
A house in Ohio a lot more crowded these days. This is because there's a second set of triplets coming home. No fertility drugs involved either time. We'll introduce you to the miracle babies still ahead. Also the Senate approves an increase in the national debt limit. It's now close to $10 trillion. So what does that mean to you? Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business." He'll break it all down for us, coming up on "AMERICAN MORNING."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Coming up eight minutes to the top of the hour. Welcome back to the most news in the morning on CNN.
Americans are living longer than ever before. New government figures from 2005 show that life expectancy for Americans is nearly 78 years. That's the longest in U.S. history. Ah, but there's a catch. The news isn't all good. 78 is still lower than the lifespan of more than three dozen other countries. And the number of U.S. deaths rose by 50,000 from 2004 to 2005, after dropping by that same amount a year earlier.
Some good news, Kiran, some bad news. We're still lagging behind.
CHETRY: Yeah, it is. It's tough, especially when this one comes with bad news as well. 52 minutes past the hour.
Here, I'll help you roll out your good news this morning.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, if you're having trouble with your debt situation -- we've been covering that a lot -- don't worry because the government's in the same position.
This is the new national credit limit increase that the Senate is trying to get passed. The House and the Senate both approved it. This is $9.8 -- look at that.
CHETRY: That's your paycheck.
VELSHI: This is not my paycheck. This is $9.82 trillion. This was approved by a Senate panel yesterday, already approved by the House. It's going to sail through both houses. The current debt ceiling -- this is the amount of money the government can borrow. The government's credit limit is $8.97 trillion. They're going to hit that ceiling in October.
And the good thing about the government, if you need a credit limit, you have to talk to your bank, the government just talks to the government. The Congress approves a new increase, the fifth one since president Bush has been in office, gone up by $4 trillion over that time. So this is what your government owes.
This is bonds. This is financed usually by bonds. The Democrats say it's got to do with tax cuts and the war in Iraq but we have a $9.8 trillion debt limit. That's what the government owes now.
So don't feel so bad if you're caught up with more debt than you think you should have.
CHETRY: I feel like we're on a publisher's clearinghouse commercial.
VELSHI: Yeah, exactly. This is your check. Or a lottery, yeah. If only it were that good.
CHETRY: Ali, thank you.
VELSHI: All right. See you later.
CHETRY: You've got a lot of props this morning.
VELSHI: Yeah.
CHETRY: By the way, we are tracking a storm right now. It's been a busy morning of breaking news. Hurricane Humberto now ashore in Texas. We get live reports and new pictures straight ahead. There's your look at the radar picture. Rob Marciano is at the CNN Weather Center and he'll break it all down for us. Where is it going next? And how much rainfall can we expect out of this hurricane?
Also talk about a homecoming, triplets in Ohio headed home to join their brothers and sisters, also a set of triplets, two sets under one roof. No fertility drugs. We'll introduce to you all of them ahead on "AMERICAN MORNING."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: A happy homecoming in Ohio today. Well, we first told you about these little guys back a few weeks ago. A woman gave birth to her second set of triplets with no fertility drugs involved. They had to spend a couple of weeks in the hospital. The expanded family is packing up and heading home. There's Casey, Kate and then Carson. They're joining their 3-year-old siblings, Jessica, Gillian and Brian. They say the odds of having two sets of triplets is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 in 64 million.
And not that surprising, John, of course, the biggest challenge is trying to get some sleep in the household.
ROBERTS: I would expect. I'll tell you, after that, they're probably done. What would you think?
CHETRY: She joked around when we first talked about the story and said "When I said, God, please, I'd like one more," she said, "I should have been more specific. I mean's one more kid, not one more set of triplets."
ROBERTS: That will be it for them.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, here's another story coming up that you can't miss. All banks have them, advertising slogans. Bank of America says it has, quote, "higher standards." Now it has higher ATM fees as well, John.
ROBERTS: You'll remember this whole fee thing started with a $1, then $2. Now Bank of America taking ATM fees for non-customers to new highs. Is it the leading end of a trend? We'll tell you. The next hour of "AMERICAN MORNING" starts right now.
CHETRY: Breaking news, Humberto's surprise. Blowing into a sudden hurricane and storming Texas overnight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is unprotected here. We have to understand that and live with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: We've got the latest forecast of where this storm could go next.
Edge of disaster.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, God, It's really strong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Earthquakes shake Indonesia again today. The I-reports take you there.
Plus, baby battle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All we're asking is for 20 more minutes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: A mom's legal test. Is breast feeding a medical condition? On this "AMERICAN MORNING."
And welcome. It is Thursday, September 13th. I'm Kiran Chetry in New York.
ROBERTS: And good morning, I'm John Roberts in Washington, D.C., where President Bush speaks to the nation tonight at 9:00. We've got coverage for you all day long here on CNN.
It came out of nowhere and now Hurricane Humberto is threatening to bring a massive amount of rain to an area that simply can't handle any more of it, already saturated after an entire summer of nonstop rain. There are already reports of severe flooding with power lines and light poles down this morning.
Take a look. Here's some of the newest pictures just in to CNN. The National Weather Service says Humberto formed as a tropical storm yesterday afternoon in the Gulf of Mexico. Just 12 hours later, it was a hurricane. Picked up speed and plowed into the Texas coastline. What's it doing and where is it headed? We're covering all of the angles of the storm this morning. Rob Marciano is at the CNN Weather Desk for us.
And we begin with Ed Lavandera. He's in Beaumont, Texas.
How much rain you getting there, Ed?
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