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American Morning

California Burning; Fire Forecast; Evacuee Update; 'Minding Your Business'

Aired October 25, 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: Live from the fire lines. The battle shifts. New progress against raging wildfires. We're in the air for the fight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: The job of this helicopter crew is just putting down any remaining hot spots.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: And on the ground, the emotional work just beginning for families coming home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Ready to walk over there and see?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm as ready as I'm going to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Live from southern California on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

And good morning. It is Thursday, October 25th. I'm Kiran Chetry, here at QUALCOMM Stadium in San Diego. This is the center and it has been since Sunday for relief efforts here for people who had to leave their home.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts from Rancho Bernardo, California.

Kiran, we were all over this area yesterday driving around in SUVs in some of the back country looking at some of the fire fighting efforts, flying around in helicopters. They are making some progress here, Kiran, but definitely the danger is not finished yet.

I know that you spent a lot of time in and around the city as well. What's some of what you saw?

CHETRY: Well, what struck me the most, as we were heading up to Ramona -- that was a community of about 36,000 people, all of whom had to evacuate -- is how the fire would miss one person's home, completely level another one not 50 yards away and so on and so on. And one of the most emotional things about yesterday was going along with one family as they returned to find their home destroyed. And we're going to hear from them and just be with them on this emotional journey as they had to go back and see what was left. It was something that they wanted to do, yet it was much more difficult than they thought.

John.

ROBERTS: You can imagine how many people are going through that same sort of thing today as they come back to find everything that they had totally gone.

You know, here in Rancho Bernardo, where we were yesterday and again today, it looks like a war zone this morning. It was absolutely devastated by the Witch Fire, the biggest of more than a dozen wildfires, still burning this morning. It's neighbors like this that President Bush will be touring when he visits southern California today.

Sixteen hundred homes from Malibu, all the way to the Mexican border, already gone. People are starting to come home to find out the fate of their homes. We're going to meet some of those people today. Many homes have nothing left, while right next door, as you said, Kiran, others were completely untouched.

The good news today is that the hot and dry Santa Ana winds are easing off. The breeze is turning around. It's beginning to come onshore now, carrying with it cooler temperatures and higher humidity.

Police also looking for a suspected arsonist in connection with two of the fires. A brand new $70,000 reward out for information.

We'll have more on that for you as we go on throughout this AMERICAN MORNING. Right now back to Kiran at QUALCOMM Stadium, just about 20 miles southwest of where we are.

Kiran.

CHETRY: You know, and it's interesting, you talked about the arsonist and the situation here has largely been one of support from the community and giving people who care about others. But there was a few isolated situations were people were actually stealing here from QUALCOMM center, a place where the volunteer effort has been large and there's been a lot of things that are given freely to people who need it. Some taking advantage of that. We'll have more on that.

But it does look quite different here this morning, actually. Certainly not as crowded as it has been when people first started coming here, fleeing their flames and leaving their homes behind. That's because a lot more people were allowed to return back home.

They certainly have turned a corner here in San Diego County. Evacuation orders were lifted overnight for about a dozen communities in the county and just a few thousand people remain at QUALCOMM this morning. That's down from a peak of about 12,000.

The volunteer effort here, though, still has been just amazing. More than 2,000 people showing up to help at any given time. In fact, some volunteers actually turned away because they had so many people.

One of the most emotional things that we did here yesterday was that we talked with the Schlotti (ph) family. We saw them yesterday for the first time on AMERICAN MORNING. Ben and Billie (ph), their young boys. They had to make a run for it from their home in Ramona. And they were allowed to return to their home yesterday to see if there was anything left. I had a chance to go with them. It was something that Billie, the mom, especially dreaded, yet she really wanted to do. And as you might expect, what she saw still was a shock.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILLIE SCHLOTTI: It burned everything. Oh, my God! I don't even know what to say, I'm sorry.

CHETRY: What were you expecting?

SCHLOTTI: This. This is -- I really didn't know what to expect. This used to be our car.

CHETRY: This was your car?

Ben's here.

SCHLOTTI: It's gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: And there's a look at she and her husband embracing as they had a chance to see what was left, really ashes. And it was also heartbreaking to see her two small children who were trying to do anything to cheer their mom up. They were just picking up small little decorative ornaments that had sort of made it through the fire saying look, mom, this is still here, this is still here. We're going to see a little bit more of how that went for them and we're going to talk more with them coming up in the next hour.

Meantime, there's a full scale criminal investigation going on into the cause of at least one of these devastating wildfires. Police say that arson is suspected in the Santiago Fire. That one in Orange County. That fire burning more than 19,000 acres. CNN's Keith Oppenheim is live in Orange County.

And, Keith, bring us up-to-date right now on what we know about this investigation.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Kiran, good morning.

The Orange County sheriff is working with the FBI on this case. And investigators seem quite convinced that this big fire was set by arsonists on Sunday at around 6:00 p.m.. In fact, one investigator said, whoever did this knew what they were doing.

Investigators are looking at three separate locations in the area. They're gathering evidence outside. No one has been arrested and no one is in custody.

Keep in mind, this really is a big fire. The Santiago Canyon Fire now has burned more than 22,000 acres. There are 22 buildings that have been destroyed, including 14 homes. And there are 600 firefighters now on the line trying to protect about 3,000 homes. The Orange County sheriff is offering a $70,000 reward for anyone with information that would lead to those responsible for this fire.

Kiran, back to you.

CHETRY: All right, Keith, we'll check in with you throughout the morning as well. Thanks.

We want to head back now to John in Rancho Bernardo.

ROBERTS: Kiran, right now firefighters and hundreds of Marines at Camp Pendleton are fighting two major fires on the Marine Corps base. One Marine said that the eerie orange skies reminded him of what he saw in Iraq. Sixty thousand Navy Marines and family members are stationed there.

They have told all personnel to be prepared to take their families and get out. But evacuation from the base at this point, so far, is voluntary. And even across southern California here, when they say mandatory evacuations, they can't force people to leave.

Families say that there is no power on the base. They've lost freezers of food and it's hard to breathe because there's so much smoke. Camp Pendleton has also donated more than 2,000 cots and other essentials to San Diego relief centers.

And with no help from mother nature, crews are trying to make their own rain. Rob Marciano told us a couple of days ago, there's been less than three inches of rain here in January. Helicopters are scooping up water and then dropping it as crews on the ground set backfires to try to stop the relentless Santiago Canyon Fire. It's about a 40 mile drive from downtown Los Angeles. A $70,000 reward being offered to help find the suspected arsonist in relation to this 20,000 acre inferno.

Clouds of steam can be seen rising from the flames as the firefighters attacked the flames. When you see that steam, it's a good sign. The firefighters say much of the progress was wiped out within hours. So far at least 11 homes have burned to the ground in this area.

Coming up later on this hour, I'm going to take you along for a chopper ride with a specially trained Navy squadron attacking the flames from the air. They got into the fire fighting business back in 2003 at the tail end of the Cedar Fire and since then have worked in partnership with the California State Department of Forestry and Fire Fighting. We'll take you for a ride with them. We'll show you the good work that they do and just how difficult it is to try to put out these fires.

You know, nothing about this five-day firestorm has been easy, but firefighters are finally getting some relief. The Santa Ana winds, sometimes known as the devil's breath, have finally subsided. Rob Marciano now here with the fire forecast.

And, Rob, this is the change that people had been anticipating. Is this the end of it?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, we're going to turn the winds on shore (AUDIO GAP) some of its own problems. But overall I think the trend is going to be a good one because those winds, as they go onshore, bring in not hot dry, desert air, but cool, more humid ocean air. And that's the key to happiness down here in southern California and certainly something that the firefighters will be excited to see.

It was hot again yesterday. Some record highs across southern California. Temperatures again soaring up into the 90s.

Take a look at some of these numbers. In Oxnard, it was 97. Ramona, just up the road, 96 degrees. UCLA, 96. And Santa Monica, 91 degrees.

A couple of these hot temperatures. Forget about the wind. You've got hot temperatures and you have drought, in many cases, less than 30 percent of the annual rainfall here across southern California.

Let's go over how the Santa Ana winds have set up and where they're going. That high pressure that's been creating that offshore flow is going to be knocked down by an incoming Pacific northwest system. That will nudge southward and eventually turn our winds onshore.

Today, I checked in the office this morning. It looks like most of them are kind of variable. The closer to the coast you get, the more onshore they are. The further inland you get, the more offshore they are. There you can see those arrows are pointing to where the wind is coming from. So a northeasterly wind at six miles an hour at Oxnard. At Los Angeles you've got a north and northwest wind at four miles an hour. And in Oceanside you have an easterly wind at four miles an hour.

Boy, John, those numbers are really encouraging to see because we've seen them, 10, 20, 30 and some of the higher wind gusts over 100 miles an hour this week. So even a light wind, be it onshore or offshore, I bet you firefighters will be happy with that.

ROBERTS: That means you take a look at what's going on in some of those northern cities and the wind speed is down 40 miles an hour from what you were reporting on Tuesday morning. So that's welcome relief.

But what about rain? You know, a nice day of soaking rain would just fix the entire situation here.

MARCIANO: That would be great. You know, rainy season here in southern California really doesn't get cranking until November and December. So there's really no significant rain in the forecast for the next several days.

ROBERTS: All right. And there's always a chance, I guess, that the Santa Ana winds could blow again.

Rob, thanks. We'll check back with you coming up.

MARCIANO: You bet.

ROBERTS: More incredible pictures of the fire lines coming up. And harrowing stories of how people escaped the flames. All of that ahead on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't even get paid. They don't even get paid. The Majestic Canyon Fire Department, they don't get paid for what they do and they saved my house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Welcome back to the most news in the morning here on CNN.

Incredible i-Report images still coming in from the fire zone. Oto Godfrey shot this video, the Santiago Fire, in Irvine. That's south of Los Angeles. He says the fire spread three miles in just 30 minutes and that was without those high winds.

Brett Gylling shot these pictures of the Rice Canyon Fire in Fallbrook. That's about 30 miles up the road from where I am here in Rancho Bernardo. The smoke and ash was so thick it was hard for him to breathe and Gylling says when he took a shower that night, the tub turned back from all the ash.

And freelance photographer Gina Yarbrough shot these pictures of the massive Witch fire in Escondido. The destruction here in Rancho Bernardo part of that fire. Thirty-six homes were lost in Escondido. There are still some parts of the town that are not safe for evacuees to go back to.

And, remember, we love your i-Reports. We'd love you to send them in. Head to our website. The address is cnn.com/ireport. But, of course, as much as we like to see your pictures, never put yourself in danger when shooting your report.

Much more coming up here from Rancho Bernardo this morning. But right now, back to Kiran at QUALCOMM Stadium in downtown San Diego.

Kiran.

CHETRY: Thanks a lot.

You know those helicopters in the air getting ready to make those air drops certainly a welcome sign because the winds were so bad that there were several days when they couldn't do that and it's very helpful in blanketing a very large area of flames. Meanwhile, there are some other stories making headlines this morning. For a check on all of those, we head back to New York where Alina Cho is standing by for us.

Good morning, Alina.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kiran. Good morning to you.

New this morning, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson will announce tough new sanctions against Iran. Those sanctions are aimed at making sure the U.S. can financially isolate anyone inside or outside the country who does business with the country's revolutionary guard. The Bush administration has called Iran the single greatest challenge to America's national security.

$2.4 trillion over 10 years. That's what a new government report says the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will likely cost. The nonpartisan report by the Congressional Budget Office is the most comprehensive study yet on the price of the wars. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the report is stunning, while the White House call the number a ton of speculation.

Gunshots during a middle school football game in Michigan. Police say four people were hit, two adults and two teens, including a 16-year-old boy who was shot in the neck. So far no updates on their conditions. Police say they're questioning someone they call a person of interest. The shootings took place near South Middle School in Saginaw. Police say the victims are not students there.

Truth not fiction? The mob once talking about whacking Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. That plot was revealed during the trial of an ex-FBI agent. According to the testimony, the bosses of all five New York crime families voted 3-2 against the hit on Giuliani, who back then was a federal prosecutor. That same year, Giuliani indicted the Dons (ph) in the so-called commission trial. He said it was because he wanted to wipe out the mob.

The worlds largest airliner ever built makes aviation history in Australia today. The AirBus A-380 touched down in Sydney after its first commercial flight from Singapore. The gigantic, double decker plan has luxurious, private suites with double beds. Travelers bought their seats in an online charity auction. A British guy was the top bidder, paying more than $100,000 for his ticket. Passengers sipped Dom Perignon and ate Caviar. Not bad. The midair celebrations come after production setbacks caused an 18-month delay.

And World Series game one goes to the Boston Red Sox. They overpowered the Colorado Rockies last night at Fenway 13-1. The Red Sox set a record for runs scored and margin of victory in a World Series opener. Game two, by the way, is tonight in Boston.

Those are the headlines at this hour from New York. I'm going to send it back to you, Kiran, in San Diego.

CHETRY: All right. Thanks a lot, Alina.

You know, we're watching the animal relief efforts also that are going on here in San Diego. We're going to tell you what's being done to save hundreds of thousands of horses in the area. Such a strange site yesterday as we're driving to Ramona, one of the areas hit hard. We see a strip mall and in the parking lot there's horses. So they're using very creative measures to make sure the animals here stay safe and get fed. We're going to have much more on this when this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING comes right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel kind of bad because I'm hoping that I don't lose my home. But then I feel bad because I know a lot of people have lost their homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: There are more than 2,000 volunteers here at QUALCOMM Sadium and some of them are actually evacuees themselves. In fact, we spoke to a 14-year-old girl after she learned that the fire in Ramona had destroyed her home. She still came here to help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELSEY PERRY, EVACUEE VOLUNTEER: My dad and me, when he first told me, he was actually -- he started crying a little bit because, I mean, he built that house with his own hands and I grew up in that house and everything. And my mom, she's kind of taking it a little bit harder, but we're just kind of looking at it as, I mean, it's time to start over. I felt so hopeless just sitting on the couch, watching the news. I mean, I know how I felt and I wanted to help other people get through this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Brave little girl. Kelsey Perry says that her family has not been back yet to see where they used to live.

And it's not only the people of San Diego who had to evacuate. Some 300,000 horses live in the area as well and many now are staying at this ball field. They're munching on donated hay and carrots. Their owners camped at a shopping center next door. Some of them say their horse were too panicked to be moved, so they wrote their names and cell phone numbers on their horse's hooves with Sharpie markers in case they were separated.

Well, you can help the evacuees in a network wide initiative. CNN is helping you impact your world. We have received a lot of inquiries, people wanting to know what they can do. Well, log on to cnn.com/impact to see how you can make a difference.

Back here at QUALCOMM Stadium, there are crowds of evacuees thinning out now and more people are being allowed to return home. Joining me to talk more about this is Sergeant Juan Gonzales. He's with the San Diego Police Department.

Thanks for being with us this morning, Sergeant.

SGT. JUAN GONZALES, SAN DIEGO POLICE: Good morning.

CHETRY: Quite a different scene than just 24 hours ago. What's changed?

GONZALES: The big change is last night we implemented a verification process to ensure that everyone here was, in fact, an evacuee.

CHETRY: And you -- what you found was actually pretty surprising. Right, you said more than 50 percent of people that were here were actually not fleeing the fire.

GONZALES: Exactly. We put up the announcement, now it's over the PA system initially. We noted a lot of people leaving then. Then we implemented a system where we contacted every person here to verify that they were, in fact, from the fire.

CHETRY: So you put purple bands on those who were fleeing the fire and those who were here to volunteer got yellow bands. Did you have any other problems here yesterday?

GONZALES: Well, we have a pretty strong police presence to ensure the safety of everybody here, but we've realized early on that we had not done that process. So now we did that. We went ahead and checked everybody to ensure that they, in fact, are the evacuees.

CHETRY: We also received word that there were about a half dozen people who were not evacuees that were actually caught here stealing. The border patrol agents were called as well and it was determined they were illegal immigrants. Is that a major problem or is that something that's very rare here at QUALCOMM?

GONZALES: You know, and here, in that particular situation, that came on the night shift. But we've been having is people coming in to take donated items, leaving the area and coming back a second or third time. And then we put a stop to that as soon as possible.

CHETRY: So it does look relatively orderly here. Is it also because, in San Diego County at least, many communities have gotten the OK to go back as well, evacuees are leaving?

GONZALES: As soon as we hear which areas have been cleared, we put it over the air and notify everybody so they can return to their homes as soon as possible.

CHETRY: For those who don't have a home to go back to, obviously QUALCOMM's not going to be a permanent command center for this situation. What are the efforts like coordinating with the Red Cross and other people to get them into more permanent, temporary housing?

GONZALES: Early this morning the Red Cross will be set out here at the stadium parking lot to assist those folks who need more permanent type of housing.

CHETRY: All right. Sergeant Juan Gonzales speaking with us. Thanks a lot. You guys are doing great work out here and we appreciate it for sure.

So the situation here, obviously, there's just a lot less people than yesterday. Fewer and fewer as more people are given the OK sign, John, that it's OK to return to their communities. And others, again, looking for a longer term situation.

You know, there's a little bit of a buzz around here, will the San Diego Chargers be able to play their game. They were scheduled to have a home game on Sunday. Some of the word on the street is that perhaps they're asking because they really want to be able to play here. It's certainly an emotional gesture as well that they may try to see if they can delay the game until Monday and still play here at their home stadium.

ROBERTS: Yes, I mean, it would be a great piece of symbolism if they could make it back there to QUALCOMM.

You know, as we see people come back to their homes, you wonder, will they be able to afford to rebuild. Most of the people we've talked to do have insurance. There early estimates are that there's about $1 billion worth of damage that was done by the series of fires so far and also reports that the insurance industry down here is pretty flush and shouldn't have much of a problem paying all of those people.

The big question is, though, how many of those people are going to receive notices from their insurance company after the second big fire in four years that they just can't get insurance. That's one of the big business stories here in southern California this morning.

Plenty else going on in the world of business, though. Back up to New York where Ali Velshi is minding it for you.

And, Ali, the big question today, how much was that great Internet idea that I never pounced on really worth?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Are you talking about FaceBook?

ROBERTS: Yes.

VELSHI: Well, FaceBook, Microsoft decided to take a piece of the action yesterday, buying an almost quarter billion-dollar stake of FaceBook for -- which values FaceBook, by the way, at $15 billion. Now for those of you out here -- and by the way we have a lot of viewers who actually work on -- who are on FaceBook, because we get a lot of responses every time we talk about it, this is a social networking site. It was built around college students. Opened up to other people. It's a way to link through to other people.

Now there have been some criticisms of Microsoft lack of connection to this whole social networking online world and what we found now is that Microsoft and Google, both very interested in FaceBook, which is owned separately. Microsoft getting an almost quarter billion-dollar stake in the company and you're going to see interaction between Microsoft and FaceBook now.

MySpace, which is another major social networking site, is owned by Rupert Murdoch's organization. He bought that a couple of years ago. But now we're going to see more growth certainly with FaceBook. You're seeing definitely energy in the business world focused on social networking, FaceBook, MySpace and, of course, YouTube. We'll keep an eye on this for you and we'll be back with more on the economic effects of this fire later on.

John.

ROBERTS: All right. Hey, Ali, $15 billion. How does that rank for a non-search engine website in terms of value?

VELSHI: For a non -- well, it's a non-public company, too. That's way up there. I mean, I think you can pretty much bet there will be an IPO. You'll be able to buy a piece of FaceBook sometime in the next year. That's pretty heavy.

ROBERTS: All right. Well next time I have a good idea, I'm going to act on it.

VELSHI: That's right.

ROBERTS: Ali Velshi for us this morning. Ali, thanks. We'll get back to you soon.

Surrounded by fire and ordered to stay put. Rick Sanchez finds a worker who put his life on the line because he had a job to do. Hear his shocking story ahead on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's going on here is amazing and they've made it very comfortable. We pulled up into the parking lot and within five minutes somebody was coming up to us with a shopping cart and saying, do you need baby food, do you need diapers, do you need wipes, do you need anything?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Looking at some of the destruction up close and personal here in Rancho Bernardo. This neighborhood that was just hit so terribly by the witch fire, you see this all over this neighborhood, whether on the top of hills, where we are now or down in the valley sections of the neighborhoods. Nothing left except basically the sentinel of that chimney sitting there. You look up at the hills and see these sentinels, these sticks just sitting there and every one you see, you know, there are a livelihood and a life that has been completely affected by these fires. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. It's Thursday, October the 25th. From Rancho Bernardo, California, I'm John Roberts. KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Kiran Chetry. About 20 miles south at Qualcomm Stadium, now a shelter for the fire evacuees. John, the pictures that you just described, such a similar situation when we were in Ramona. A community not far from here of about 36,000 people. The same type of situation where you are look around and all you see are charred palm trees, bits of metal, ash, and these were people's homes and these are where they made so many precious memories and they're going back to see that there is nothing left. Quite an emotional situation.

Here at Qualcomm Stadium, this has really been the heart of the relief effort in San Diego County. It really has a different look and feel this morning. And it's because a lot of these evacuees who came here has now been given the green light to return home. Many of them lucky, they're going back to their homes. There are about a few thousand people who remain now because they've either gotten word that their homes are destroyed and they're waiting to seek a more permanent shelter or they're just still waiting for that type of information, or their community is one of the few that has not been given the all clear here in San Diego.

This is down from a peak of about 12,000 and it's an emotional journey for the people who escaped the flames and are returning to their homes in many cases. These homes have been burnt to the ground. In fact, we went along with one family as they got their first look at their home in Ramona and what was left of that. We're going to show you that a bit later.

John?

ROBERTS: Yes, you know, Kiran, I went back with one family as well. The husband had seen the house, knew what to expect, told his wife about it. But the reaction when she got there with the kids was really quite amazing, tremendously pragmatic about it. We live here, we know this can happen, we're going to rebuild. I mean, there was a real sense of optimism by that family, which you don't see among many other people. We'll bring that to you a little bit later on today.

There's progress and help on the fire lines in the early -- California crews say that three major fires in Los Angeles County are fully contained and that indeed is very good news. Several smaller fires north of San Diego largely under control but the desperate battle still rages with six large fires in San Diego County. Firefighters stay close to 9,000 homes are still in danger across the region this morning, and at least one fire, arson is suspected and there is a $70,000 reward posted for information about who might be responsible. The winds, much calmer overnight. Some families have been allowed back home, even here in Rancho Bernardo.

Unfortunately though, for many of them, as you can see behind me, not much left. Their homes reduced to piles of nothing more than blackened rubble. President Bush is going to get a firsthand look at the destruction today. So far, a total of 1,600 homes have burned to the ground. If you need a good idea, just what firefighters are up against these pictures were shot by photographers embedded with fire fighting units in San Diego. They're about as close as you're likely to get to the action, a constant battle from the ground and air to stop the advance of the flames. Firefighters say complete control of the fires may still be weeks away. But is the weather going to cooperate? You know, the problem has been down here.

This happens every fall that the Santa Ana winds leap up. You know, high pressure system builds over the inland desert and just merely by the force of gravity, that air overnight sinks and comes rushing down here and if you've got any kind of an ignition source in front of that fire, it's just going to leap up in front of you. We've heard people talk about fires moving three miles in 30 minutes. So, you could imagine how fast it's going. People who thought, hey the fire is a long way away from my house. I don't have anything to worry about, find themselves just a few minutes later, having to grab whatever belongings they can take with them and get out as quickly as possible.

Rob Marciano, of course, has been watching this for us all week. It's been down here in San Diego county looking at the weather system and as well looking at some of the destruction. In terms of what kind of help firefighters may get from the weather. What are they expecting today?

(WEATHER REPORT)

CHETRY: Well, you know, Rick Sanchez was just a few feet away from the flames when he caught up with a man who wasn't very hard to catch up to because he wasn't going anywhere. The entire neighborhood had left. This man stayed behind because he was ordered to stay on the farm in Dearborn Valley where 50 homes went up in flames, because he had a job to do. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We were just talking to this gentleman here. He says, I don't think he speaks English. I was talking to him in Spanish and I told him, look, this is a mandatory evacuation area now. He nodded his head as if he understood but I'm not quite sure he got it. So, we're going to come out and see if we can have a conversation with him. This is your house, you live here? You live right there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Speaking in foreign language]

SANCHEZ: I see. Are the home owners there, too?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Speaking in foreign language]

SANCHEZ: So they left you here in charge to take care of their animals. Are you concerned about the fact there's a mandatory evacuation here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Speaking in foreign language]

SANCHEZ: So you're okay. So what are your instructions?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Speaking in foreign language] SANCHEZ: They told you to just put water on the home? But you're feeling okay, because the firefighters are here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Speaking in foreign language]

SANCHEZ: If the firefighters weren't here, you would have left already?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Speaking in foreign language]

SANCHEZ: No, you wouldn't leave because you feel like you owe it to the folks who hired you to take care of their animals. Don't you feel bad that the home owners left and left you here by yourself?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Speaking in foreign language]

SANCHEZ: You did the same thing in 2003 with the other fire. You stayed here as well. Are you okay with that? They're not as concerned about you, but they're worried about themselves as they left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Speaking in foreign language]

SANCHEZ: You told them you would stay. You volunteered to stay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: [Speaking in foreign language]

SANCHEZ: Good luck.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: Wow, unbelievable story that man, making the call to stay behind, because he was asked to. You know, in the area of Ramona that we were in, there weren't those flames. Obviously, they had already passed through that area and gone away. But there were citizens who were taking it upon themselves to drive their pickup trucks. We got questioned several times and stopped as we were walking up to the homes with the families because they wanted to know, what we were doing there, whether or not we were residents. Here's a blotting and they say they actually had to drive away some people were coming to their neighborhood to loot. So those fears are certainly real.

John?

ROBERTS: Yes, surely we heard from San Diego police yesterday, that they didn't want to let people back into this neighborhood because of the fear of looting. They wanted to make sure that anybody who came back was supposed to be able to come back. But you've got to wonder about this fellow here. Obviously, he felt a little bit safer because the firefighters were there and if things got dicey, they might be able to put him on their truck and take him out. But can you imagine saying these to somebody. We're leaving because we're afraid the place will burn down but you stay here and look after this it. That's shocking. CHETRY: Not right, not right at all. It is really. Hopefully he's OK this morning. Meantime, as the shock wears off, these questions are remaining about how do you rebuild? Our Veronica de la Cruz has been online. She's going to show us how people can apply for federal help. They're going to be needing that. We're going to have much more on that as well as some of the other effort to try to move on after the flames are finally extinguished. It's all coming up ahead on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX ROTH, SAN DIEGO UNION TRIBUNE: If your house was caught on fire, odds are there's absolutely nothing left. You know, and there's nothing anybody could do about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: President Bush has declared California a major disaster area. It means that victims of the California wildfires are eligible for federal aid. So, FEMA has set up call centers around the country and what they've also done is put applications online. Our Veronica De La Cruz joins us in New York right now to explain how this process works. Good morning, Veronica.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Kiran. You know, here's the good news. The website is actually pretty easy to navigate. You can find it online at fema.gov. Now, taking a look at the website, you know, the good news is it's pretty clean. There isn't a lot of clutter on the page. Once you get there, scroll down to the page to the box that says federal response to the wildfire. And this is going to take you to a number of really great resources, when it comes to the recovery process. It's also going to take to you the online application and FEMA has broken it down into three easy stages.

There are a slew of frequently asked questions that you might want to take a look at before you start the process. Then you want to go to the second box and actually apply online. It's a pretty standard form. You want to type in your personal information and once you've completed it, it tells you what you need to know about following up on your application which is definitely key. Another key tip that I wanted to give you.

We've been hearing a lot about this reverse 911 system, where emergency call centers call you to let you know if you have to evacuate. Now the problem is, it doesn't work if you have a cell phone or if you get your phone service over the internet, because those numbers, unlike land lines, aren't registered to a specific address. If you head online to san diego.gov/ohs, the office of homeland security is letting residents of Southern California register their cell phones or internet phones to specific addresses. That way, the call still goes through. And registering your cell phone with reverse 911 isn't available everywhere yet, but it probably is a good idea to check and see if it is available right now on your town. Of course, you can get all of this information on our website at cnn.com/wildfires. That's going to give you the link to fema.gov as well as sandiego.gov.

Kiran, back to you.

CHETRY: All right, thanks a lot, Veronica. And you know, in those types of situations also, there's a bit of a human element. Some people said their neighbor got a reverse 911 call and went out and made sure other neighbors knew the same thing so it was a bit of telephone the old-fashioned way as well. Hey, I got the call, you guys, and you might want to think about getting out of this neighborhood. So, you know, a lot of stories of people helping people as well. Veronica thanks a lot.

Still ahead, fighting fierce wind and fire. John, goes on a ride-long with the navy. It's part of an aerial assault on the flames and he's there up close. He's going to bring it to us coming up on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody's safe, you know, and really this is just stuff. We can recover that but we made it out and the kids and everybody's safe so that's the main thing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Welcome back to this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING live from Southern California. A turnaround in the Santa Ana winds has allowed fire crews to make some headway against the flames in the last 24 hours. Progress that they expect will continue today. But there's a lot of sniping that Southern California was unprepared for this wildfire, particularly from the standpoint of attacking it from the air. Here in San Diego especially trained Navy helicopter squadron has been part of that fight. I had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with them, as they took on the Harris Fire, east of San Diego.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: They call themselves the high rollers and the rat pack. Warriors with a naval sense of bravado and a new mission. We suit up to join them and the required safety gear and learn they've only been in the fire fighting business a few years. The Cedar Fire back in 2003 proved everyone here has to pitch in.

It's Monday morning, since this blaze broke out. A number of them here. These helicopters have been in the air 12 hours a day, putting as much water as they possibly can on the hot spots trying to get the fires down. They're having more success today than they have in the last couple of days.

On Tuesday these hills were ablaze, part of the Harris Fire that has destroyed more than 200 homes. The water bombing is having good effect but the pilot is amazed at the fire's stubborn nature and can't believe how it keeps reigniting. He has to keep the pressure on. If this wind were to whip up, the fire can easily start to jump into some of the fuel that's remaining, race up those hills and those neighborhoods sitting on top of that ridge line so it's crucial to get these remaining hot spots out. They make run after run, a tag team in a race against time and nature. Until low fuel forces them back to base, where they fill up and then head out to hit the fire lines again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTS: As we mentioned, there have been complaints about an enormous delay in getting air assets out to fight the fires. It's true that the Navy Squadron did not join the battle until Monday. But before then, there wasn't a huge fire in San Diego either. And the air crews that we rode, we spent two putting out some nagging hot spots. Had the winds been howling and the fire raging, I just don't know how effective they could have been at stopping it.

Kiran?

CHETRY: I wonder the same thing. I mean, with that criticism, you know, you're fighting against the realities of nature and when you're dealing with 101 mile-per-hour, this how the Santa Ana winds topped out during the early days of this. How you could possibly fly any of these, either helicopters to do air drops or these planes would be quite unrealistic, it would seem. One of the fire officials described it as the perfect storm. The worst case scenario when dealing with fires because of the temperatures and because of those winds making it very difficult to get up in the air safely and not risk the lives of those in the air and on the ground.

In the meantime, there's a really dark haze over Southern California right now and being pushed by those same strong winds that fuelled the fires. The soot is being breathed in by millions of people for hundreds of miles. Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more on some of the risk factors in the air here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, how bad is the air in Southern California? This filter paper started out pristine white, and now look at it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This filter ran for 24 hours at one of our monitoring stations.

COHEN: So, what's in the air? Soot at levels four times higher than usual. Carbon monoxide levels at some points have been 13 times higher than usual and particulates. Those tiny pieces that can get lodged in the lungs, ten times higher. If you've been breathing in this air every day...

KIM PRATHER, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO: Your lungs are basically filtered, so they'd be blackish or brownish in color.

COHEN: Kim Prather is an environmental chemist at the University Of California San Diego. She's been monitoring the air ever since the wildfires started. Her data shows it's an airborne toxic soup.

It's not just trees that are burning. There's other stuff that's burning.

PRATHER: Right. We've worry about plastics, you know metals, cars, rubber.

COHEN: Breathing in tiny particles affects more than just the lungs.

PRATHER: They end up in your liver and shown to appear in every organ in your body including your brain.

COHEN: And the long-term effects of breathing in this, every day, Prather, says no one really knows. Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, San Diego, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHETRY: That certainly is a scary thought. Dozens of people have been hospitalized with respiratory problems. We're going to be talking with Dr. Sanjay Gupta about that coming up at the top of hour.

And still ahead, scorched earth. Some amazing aerial views of the hills that turned black and more live from the wildfires ahead on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Well, the hills turn black. Look at this, some amazing shots captured by a news helicopter as a fire was racing up the Southern California coast. You can actually see the smoke rolling over the ridges. It almost looks like it is flowing. Gives you an idea of the type of winds that firefighters were dealing with. Let's go back to Kiran at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego with more.

Kiran?

CHETRY: All right, we're going to have much more on how things have certainly changed around here, far less evacuees here today as they were yesterday since they've been given the OK in many of these communities to return but still a pretty active volunteer effort for those who need access to information and for those who are still waiting to find some permanent housing. Right now, we're going to head back to New York where Ali Velshi is "Minding Your Business." Good morning, Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. We're keeping an eye on the cost of the damages to the folks in California. The Insurance Information Institute which represents the property insurance industry says it has topped $500 million in claims. Although, those claims continue to come in, and obviously until these fires are burned out, we won't know what the total number is. There is an organization called Equicat (ph) which sort of models these fires and get some sense of it. And they say that the number will top $1 billion. Now, part of this, to just put it in perspective, hurricane Katrina generated more than $40 billion in insured losses. So this is relatively contained. I'm expecting that we're not going to see the same degree of haggles between people who were insured and their insurance company. There was a whole issue of wind and water down there. This seems to be very clear as to what the cause is. Interestingly enough, natural disaster seem to have the silver lining around them in and that they generate economic activity right afterwards because people, once they get their insurance paid out, have to buy materials and they have to buy furnishings for their homes that employees people.

The dangers of course, is that because their entire neighborhoods burned out, getting contractors, getting that work actually done is going to be a bit of a challenge and the cost of materials could increase in the short term. So that's what we're keeping an eye on to get some sense of what happens now to those people who are starting to go back to their homes or at least have seen their homes and it's moving on to the next stage.

Kiran?

CHETRY: All right, Ali, we'll check in with you throughout the morning as well. Also, the latest from the fire lines is just ahead. The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.

Turning the corner. Firefighters add more air power. While the battle on the ground shifts to emotional homecoming.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ready to walk over there and -- I'm as ready as I'm going to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Plus the rush to rescue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A 56-year-old woman with a life-threatening emergency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: And a new eye on early warning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

911: Under a mandatory evacuation notice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Why a life-saving alert might not be ready in your town. We're live from Southern California on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. And good morning to you. It is Thursday, October 25th. I'm Kiran Chetry here at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego. This has been the temporary home for people who were forced from their real homes because of the flames.

ROBERTS: And I'm John Roberts in Rancho Bernardo, California, where people have been let back into this neighborhood, some of them coming back to find scenes of devastation like the one behind me. We're going to talk to one person who came back yesterday to find their home completely gone. Rancho Bernardo looks like a war zone this morning. Devastated by the witch fire.

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