Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Gustav Causes Changes in Republican Convention Schedule
Aired August 31, 2008 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Joining me and I'm getting feedback in my ear here so maybe our engineers can fix that. If not, I'll continue. I guess I'm going to continue.
I want to say thank you everybody, thank you. I wish everybody is having a good time in the twin cities and thanks to the hospitality of our great governor in Minnesota. As you probably know, I'm here in St. Louis. Yesterday we were in Pennsylvania, and the day before in Ohio. And I'd just like to say that the enthusiasm and the warmth of the reception for the governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, has been incredible and magnificent. And I really am - I knew I made the right choice, but it's been confirmed by the support and outpouring of appreciation from all over America.
As you well know, we are facing a great national challenge and the possibility of a great national natural disaster. And I just received a briefing down in Jackson, Mississippi, along with Governor Haley Barbour, and a teleconference with the other three governors, Governor Perry of Texas, Governor Jindal of Louisiana and Governor Riley of Alabama. I'm happy to report to you that the coordination and the work that's being done at all levels appears to me to be excellent.
There are still some challenges, such as further evacuations that need to take place, search and rescue capabilities still aren't at the level that we'd like to see them. And communications still amongst first responders is not quite at the level that we would seek. But I can also tell you the level of cooperation between the federal government, the state governments, the local governments in Louisiana and in the other effected states is excellent. Is excellent. And I have every expectation that we will not see the mistakes of Katrina repeated.
In fact, I'm very optimistic that we will see a degree of cooperation and effort on behalf of any victims, of anyone, whose lives are touched by this great natural disaster, that may be we continue to do as Governor Haley Barbour said the other day, pray - he said today, pray for the best and prepare for the worst. And I think that's what we're doing as a nation. And as you know, the hurricane is supposed to hit sometime tomorrow, roughly noon, and the tropical storm stage is supposed to be reached sometime late tonight.
And one of the things we know about hurricanes is that many times they do the unpredictable. Three out of the last four hurricanes have veered to the east at no less several hours on their path. So we don't know, of course, exactly what's going to happen. But as Governor Haley Barbour, the outstanding governor of the state of Mississippi said, we'll pray for the best and prepare for the worst. So of course this is a time when we have to do away with our party politics and we have to act as Americans. We have to join the 300 million other Americans on behalf of our fellow citizens. It's a time for action. So we're going to suspend most of our activities tomorrow except for those absolutely necessary. Rick Davis, our campaign manager, will be coming on right after me to tell you about the details of it. But I know you agree with me. It's time to open our hearts, our effort, our wallets, our concern, our care for those American citizens who are now under the shadow and the probability of a natural disaster.
So I hope that all of us, and I'm very - I know that all of us will not only keep in our thoughts and our prayers the people of the Gulf Coast, but we will act, we will act together. We will provide the necessary relief, the necessary comfort. We will open our arms as Americans always have in time of challenge, to those in our society who are - who are less fortunate because of any circumstance, but in this circumstance because of this hurricane.
So ahead of time, I want to thank all of my fellow republicans as we take off our republican hats and put on our American hats and we say, America, we're with you. America, we're going to care for these people in their time of need. And we're going to display it in every possible way as Americans always have and Americans always will. I thank you. I can hardly wait to get up there. And I hope and pray that we'll be able to resume some of our normal operations as quickly as possible, but some of that is, frankly, in the hands of God.
So keep them in your prayers. And also when you get a chance to thank these wonderful thousands and thousands of volunteers who have turned out in these efforts, not only now but will in the future, God bless them and thank God. It makes me proud to be an American. Thank you. A time for action is now.
MIKE DUNCAN, CHMN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Thank you. My name is Mike Duncan, the chairman of the Republican National Committee. I'm here today with (Joanne Davidson, who is the chair of the committee on arrangements for this convention, Maria Cino, who president and chief executive officer of our convention and Rick Davis, campaign manager. Senator McCain has recommended to the Republican National Committee, to the committee on arrangements and to the host committee that various actions take place. And Rick Davis will talk about those actions. Our thoughts and prayers are first with the people of the Gulf coast. I'm here today as a citizen. I happen to be the party leader today. But as Senator McCain said, I'm taking my party hat off. This is about the people who may be in harm's way. Our thoughts and prayers will be with them throughout this ordeal.
The Republican National Committee is responsible for the nomination of the president and vice president of the United States. Under various state laws and party rules, there are certain procedures that we must follow. We will proceed with the business tomorrow. It will be abbreviated. We will constitute the convention by calling to order, we'll receive the report of the credentials committee so that all of the delegates are there and can vote. We will adopt our rules that allows us to go forward and allow us to go forward in the future. We'll elect officers of the convention. And we will adopt our party platform.
Those are essentials for us to be able to constitute before we can nominate the president and the vice president. That's the action that will occur tomorrow. At this time I would like to turn the podium over to Rick Davis, our campaign manager. Rick.
RICK DAVIS, MCCAIN CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Thank you. Thank you all for coming today. This is, obviously, irregular activity for the convention. We had hoped that we could have a more traditional convention as it relates to the nomination process. But as Senator indicated, events have conspired to do otherwise. First, I would like to thank Chairman Duncan, co-chairman Davidson and (Maria Sino) for all the cooperation that the Republican National Committee and the convention manager's office has given to us as a candidate. We cannot imagine having a better team to put on an event that would ultimately result in the nomination of the candidate for president and vice president for our party.
I would say, too, that we remain deeply concerned about the safety of all of our friends and relatives in the Gulf. As John said, there is a very unpredictable nature to these hurricanes and we wish them all well and hope they will do everything they can to be out of harm's way. I think that for our purposes, as Chairman Duncan said, we are looking at the situation that relates to this convention because of the storm - I should say storms in the Gulf, that is quite irregular.
That being said, there's no pattern to how we will react to this, other than by using all our resources and skills to try and put on the best possible convention that we can. That being said, we will begin tomorrow's convention in abbreviated fashion. Chairman Duncan alluded to the fact that there are certain basic minimal requirements of constituting the party and convention that are required. The call to the convention that was issued almost two years ago requires us to meet tomorrow to open the convention and to constitute not only the Republican National Convention, but the convention itself. That's all we will do tomorrow.
The convention will open on its regularly scheduled time, around 3:00. We will perform the requisite duties required. We will have a quorum on the floor. We will report in the committees and we will do what we are required to do by the call to the convention and by the rules of the convention to constitute it. We will then adjourn the convention as soon as practical after these events occurred. There will be no additional activity in the course of the convention. We anticipate that this will require us to be in session by approximately 5:00 to 5:30 p.m. tomorrow Central time. We will then adjourn that session of the convention and we will try to make plans as best we can and observe the events that are occurring in the gulf and figure out what we think we then can do, if anything, on Tuesday.
We will commit to having a daily briefing session with the press. We will communicate regularly through both text messaging and e-mail with our delegates. And we will try to constitute as much of a program as events allow us to. We plan to have a briefing every day around 12:00 where we will lay out for you and the public what events that will occur that day for the convention. The reason we're not able to give you more notice on what the convention will do is because we want to be respectful of the situation that exists in the Gulf. We can't be predictive of it. By nature, it is an unpredictable event. Therefore, we will take our time and effort to make sure that nothing we do distracts from the activities in the Gulf.
That being said, obviously, there are other things we will be required to do during the course of the week. We will not be performing the roll call tomorrow and we'll be looking for an opportunity to do so, ideally at its regularly scheduled time but again everything will be considered optional after the 5:30 session tomorrow. I would like to mention, too, that we have as a campaign offered to fly members of the Louisiana delegation and other Gulf coast delegations to their homes. Some of the Louisiana delegation has taken us up on that. And some will be returning to their homes and others will be going home and getting some of their family members and returning.
Details you can find from the press office here, if you want to follow up on that. Also we have constituted the Gulf states briefing committee made up of the chairman of the various GOP committees, chairman of the delegations from the five Gulf states that are represented. They have been meeting to talk about how this would affect their delegation specifically and have given us a lot of good advice on what we ought to be doing through the course of our convention.
I would say that the main information I can give you today is that owing to the fact that the Senator has asked us to take our republican hats off and put our American hats on, tomorrow's program will be business only and we'll refrain from any political rhetoric that would be traditional in an opening session of a convention. I would also like to say that we are working with the delegations, the finance people who are here, our own finance committee that's in attendance, and many other concerned individuals to do what we can to raise money during the course of the week for various charities that operate in the Gulf coast region.
We will be giving you more information as we go along. Something we have a late start on, I would say, but it's something that the senator is completely committed to by using all the generous people that are here for a political convention and see if he we can turn them into charitable fund-raisers on behalf of those who will effected by the hurricane. With that said, I would also like to say that we will open up an information center where we will try to keep people briefed on the events that are going on in the convention and people - and the events that are going on in the Gulf states as it relates to the hurricane.
We think our delegates need to be well informed about events that are going on. It's not a traditional place, hanging around a convention center to do that, so we want to try to supply them with the most amount of information we can. All these things are actions that we've taken on behalf of the request by our candidate to be as responsive as we can be under the conditions of being in the middle of - or the start of a national convention at a time where we may have a great natural disaster in the Gulf. So with that being said, I'm happy to open it up for questions. Liz? [ inaudible ]
Right now, we're making plans on a day by day base. What I can absolutely commit to you that's going to happen is that we're going to open up this session at 3:00 tomorrow and it will last until about 5:00 or 5:30 and we're going to do the business of the day. We hope and pray that conditions in the Gulf don't deteriorate and that it has a minimum loss of property and life that is possible. And hopefully we can restore some of the activities that are based in our convention program. But I cannot make any promise right now that anything beyond tomorrow, what's going to be in the program. Yes ma'am? [ inaudible ]
We have to have a quorum on the floor of the convention in order to conduct the business of the convention, which includes the nomination of the candidate. Beyond that, you know, I can't speak to whether or not it's a requirement of the senator to be here. Obviously, he would like to be here. This is a culmination of a political career that's been launched a long time ago, a hard-fought primary campaign. So obviously he's going to do everything he can, but obviously, too, we're not going to do anything that would be deemed inappropriate during the course of this kind of situation. (inaudible)
Well, we are under certain requirements, as I mentioned, to meet this week and have a convention. I think for the purposes of conducting the official business of this campaign, we are going to try and conduct that regardless of the situation that exists in the Gulf. What may be missing in the course of that activity is any kind of political rhetoric beyond that. So right now I can't commit to anything beyond the minimum basic requirements, but we certainly hope the conditions allow us to do that. (inaudible)
Obviously the president's full and undivided attention is in the Gulf, and he will not be appearing tomorrow. And as I said before, anything beyond tomorrow is all speculation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know your thoughts are with the people in the Gulf and -- (inaudible)
DAVIS: You know, we really don't have the luxury of trying to evaluate the politics of this kind of situation. I think we take it as it is. And right now we have a horrible storm bearing down on the Gulf. People should be more concerned about that than a political campaign. And I think that's the way we're going to let the chips fall. (inaudible)
We've had no contact with the Obama campaign at this point. I wouldn't rule anything like that out. Obviously, a lot of this is very new to us. We've spent a great deal of time with the staff and the organizers of the convention, trying to determine what are the things we think are appropriate at this time. We'll continue to focus on that as our primary activity. But I wouldn't rule anything out. (inaudible)
we will be communicating to all those corporations and individuals who will be holding various events and activities around the convention to please be respectful of the situation that exists in the gulf and to employ them as a part of the extended fund-raising network that we hope to establish in order to raise money for Gulf charities. (inaudible)
We're looking as a campaign at different options. Right now we had some ads that were being purchased as a course of normal activity during this week. And we're evaluating whether or not we have those go up or whether we can even get them down. So we are looking at that as a campaign. (inaudible)
Right now it's a chartered flight. I think it's a dozen people from the Louisiana delegation that seemed to be affected by it right now. Although I think that will continue on through the course of the week. (inaudible)
Well, the host committee, I think, will play an important role as a partner in supplying money, aid and support, not only financial but also material support. We're just now, as I had mentioned, starting to work out details of what that would look like. But I wouldn't rule out the fact that both the campaign, the host committee and a lot of individuals in this region and the convention would probably make financial contributions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about more than contributions? (inaudible)
DAVIS: Well, that's exactly what I think I already addressed, is that we're going to going to extend a request to all the participants of the convention, both inside and outside the hall, to participate in this kind of fund-raising effort. (inaudible)
No, I think it's pretty clear that we're doing and that is, basically looking at it from a day to day basis and making whatever judgments we think would be most appropriate. Obviously, again, you know, if conditions allow, we would love to have him here. I know the delegates would love to have him here. And that would be our preference. Again, we're not making any commitments past 5:30 tomorrow afternoon. (inaudible)
There are two functions that really need to occur. One is what we discussed for tomorrow, which is the constitution of the convention and the establishment of the RNC. Those are two fundamental acts that by the call are required and by our rules of our party are required. The only other significant requirement is the actual nomination of both Senator McCain for president and Governor Palin for vice president. Those things are done through the roll call and the quorum of delegates. That will be the other thing we'll need to do during the course of this week.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you maintain a quorum? (inaudible)
DAVIS: No, I do not believe he does. But - yes, that's correct.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you explain what a quorum is? (inaudible)
DAVIS: Again, I think all the speculation about not being here for the nomination is completely premature and outside the scope of what I can tell you with any specificity today. What I can tell you specifically today is that tomorrow there will be a session that starts at 3:00 and ends around 5:30 and we'll open the convention for official business and only official business. Again, beyond that I can make no promises or speculate on any other activity beyond that. I would defer to our parliamentarians on what a quorum is.
Thank you. We're under house rules after the gavel falls. And according to our parliamentarian Mr. (Drier) it's majority plus one. It's half plus one as quorum.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you rescheduling -- (inaudible)
DAVIS: I'm glad you mentioned that. Adam would have been very disappointed with me if I hadn't mentioned this. We do expect all the speakers to speak at some point. We would like them to remain active. We would like them all to show up for the various meetings and briefings they have. We can't promise them exactly when or if they'll actually speak. But we do want them to continue to participate as if that was going to occur on time. And obviously at that point, when they get briefed on a day to day basis we'll know if they'll be up on the podium that day or not. So I do think it's important that we do want everyone to continue to participate as if they were going to actually be on the stage that night. One last question. (inaudible)
What goes past what? I'm sorry. (inaudible)
Again, the only thing that know for real is that tomorrow there will be a session that starts at 3:00 and ends at around 5:30.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
DAVIS: OK. Thank you.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right. So there it is. Word from Rick Davis, the campaign chairman for the John McCain campaign. That there will be an abbreviated opening session of the republican convention here tomorrow. He was speaking in terms of Central time, 3:00 to 5:00 or 5:30 p.m. Central, that would correspond with 4:00 to 6:00 or 6:30 p.m. Eastern. They'll do official business. Business they need to do, essential business, in order to get a convention going and to nominate a presidential candidate and a vice presidential candidate.
These are legal steps that that they're required to do but they're suspending all political activity normally associated with a convention. The other - the only other procedural thing they must do according to the law is have a roll call that will formally nominate the presidential candidate and the vice presidential candidate. That has to happen either Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. All of these are legal requirements. Remember, in order to qualify for the federal matching funds that John McCain needs, about $84 or $85 million they'll have available to use between now and November 4th, they need to formally go through this process.
But depending on what happens with Hurricane Gustav right now, as it's approaching New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, they're going to take this convention on a day by day basis. They don't know what's going to happen Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday other than these two legal requirements that they need to do. John King is here with Gloria Borger, Alex Castellanos. Let's digest what we've just heard. As far as we know, this is the first time a presidential convention has ever been suspended or abbreviated, changed because of external forces, in other words, a natural disaster.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORREDPONDENT: And it is a first and it is a major event in terms of a presidential race that's hotly contested. Barack Obama, perhaps, a bounce out of the democratic convention, but pretty much a dead heat going in. And the whole goal here was to have four days, to have a platform for millions of Americans outside watching from home and these republican activists to get them excited and to counter the argument Barack Obama and the democrats made last week in Denver.
Now, we know the republicans will lose at least one day and they expect to lose much more than that, Wolf, when you talk to them privately, because the storm is supposed to hit sometime Monday during the day. They assume if it is as significant as the forecasters suggest, that Tuesday the storm will still be making its way inland hopefully running out of steam by then once it's off the water but then you'll still have a damage assessment, a recovery effort.
Let's hope not major loss of life or property. But they assume that Monday and at least Tuesday. And then again, if it's a very significant storm, John McCain made very clear at the beginning there, he's not going to come here for a big political speech Wednesday and Thursday if a major American city is under water. He's going to tell all Americans, forget politics, pitch in and help and they will nominate him and Governor Palin in business like fashion.
You will not have a big political convention, all these balloons strapped up here in the Xcel Energy Center will not fall and John McCain will enter the general election after this hurricane passes and the recovery effort passes without at least one day and they believe much more of what was supposed to be his major platform, to counter the argument Barack Obama and the democrats made last week. That's a big deal.
BLITZER: Gloria, they're going to watch to see what happens as this hurricane makes landfall around New Orleans sometime tomorrow early afternoon and then they'll assess what to do next.
GLORIA BORGER, POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, Rick Davis kept repeating, we want to be respectful of the situation in the Gulf. That's clear. He also indicated that they might have been trying to get some of their political advertising that they had planned during this convention off the air. We'll see what materializes. We'll see if the democrats actually decide to do the same. I'm trying to find that out right now. They understand that they have to strike the right tone here. They understand that the American public is watching both of these candidates to see how they behave in this crisis. It is a test of leadership. And also they have to see whether the process in New Orleans works. And how - how terrible the storm is.
BLITZER: Alex Castellanos is our republican strategist, our contributor to CNN is here as well. Earlier in the day the president and vice president said, they're not coming to - here to Minnesota for this convention. Now we understand why, in part, because there's only going to be a business meeting of the convention to get it going, do what they legally have to do. But this is a very sensitive issue for these republicans. And I was struck by the fact that they brought in Senator McCain via satellite to set the tone, to make it clear, he is now the leader of this republican party.
ALEX CASTELLANOS: Absolutely, Wolf. And I think, you know, this freezing in effect of this convention is now having, I think, several effects. One of them is - we were wondering if President Bush coming here, is that going to be a plus or a minus? Now that question doesn't have to be really asked or answered. We were wondering if the republicans could have a convention as spectacular as the democrats with their 90,000 people. That question now we really don't have to answer. The republican brand, you know, for a week on TV is not something the party, frankly, wanted to have happen. Neither do the democrats. We're in that post partisan period. Now we want to put party labels away and now we're in a less partisan week, a couple of weeks. So this is going to have some effect on this election.
BLITZER: So what I hear you saying, Alex, correct me if I'm wrong, in an odd way you're saying this could potentially be good for the republicans and for the McCain ticket.
CASTELLANOS: It will certainly have an effect. And some of those, of course, I think will be positive effects. It doesn't mean it has an effect that it's being done for political calculation or just the opposite, I think. Politics we say occurs at the sub consensus level, it occurs where we disagree. There's is such a large national consensus now that this is important. Not politics.
There's very little room left this week and next for that, for political disagreement. It's also interesting that the - the way they've been going at each other here with the negative ads, are they going to pull those off the air?
BORGER: Right.
BLITZER: We'll see that soon enough. Stand by, guys. As much as we're fascinated, all of us are as political news junkies with the political fallout, let's keep sight of the fact that this is a life and death issue right now for tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people who are in and around New Orleans, throughout the Gulf coast. Anderson Cooper is on the scene for us right now.
Anderson, we're told that virtually everyone has left New Orleans right now, that this mandatory evacuation has moved along. Is that what you're seeing?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the numbers we are hearing, Mayor Nagin had said that as many as 12 to 15,000 people were moved out on the city buses and trains that they have been running since early yesterday morning. Just yesterday we saw about 10,000 people who went to these bus locations and were boarded onto their buses, were allowed to bring their pets on other buses as well. They had room at other shelters for pets, which is a big change from hurricane Katrina.
Fewer people leaving today on those buses. But they say they just did not see the demand that they had thought. There have been estimates as many as 30,000 people might need help in evacuating. Whether or not that means that other 15,000 people have chosen not to evacuate or whether the numbers were wrong, we don't know the answer to that. But I can tell you Wolf the city seems virtually empty at this point. I was driving around, walking around in the French Quarter, walking around the lower Ninth Ward, you see very few people here. There is a heavy police presence, a heavy presence of National Guard as well.
It has a very different feel than you felt in Mississippi and in New Orleans in the days and hours before hurricane Katrina hit. The officials here at the state level, at the local level, all say that they're coordinated far better than they were during hurricane Katrina. They have learned the lessons of that storm. The big question, of course, remains the levees. This storm is anticipated to hit the west side, the west bank levees, which are largely untested from hurricane Katrina.
Also often under funded as the population has increased. So how those levees hold, and Mayor Nagin himself has said there are some gaps in those levees. That's a big open question and it is likely there will be flooding, at least in some parts of the city, Wolf.
BLITZER: But if there is, Anderson, that kind of flooding, and you were there three years ago when Katrina hit, all of our viewers remember that, potentially it could be less devastating in terms of the human loss, 1600 people died during hurricane Katrina because the people have basically left. Those most vulnerable areas. Is that right?
COOPER: That seems to be the case. Again, we don't have actual numbers. We can't verify actual numbers of people who are still here. We can just tell you anecdotally it certainly seems far emptier than it was before hurricane Katrina. The warnings have been much more severe. People seem to be taking this much more seriously. State officials, state police official said this has been the largest evacuation he's seen in Louisiana's history.
He estimated as much as 90 percent of people in the coastal regions of southeastern Louisiana have heeded evacuation warnings. That's frankly unheard of in the history of this state. People do seem to be taking it very seriously. There are people who remain here. New Orleans' homeless population has exploded over the last couple of years; our reporter has been talking to some of them who have no plans to leave. There are some here but how many, we don't know.
BLITZER: Is there another shelter along the lines of the Superdome or some other convention center where people can -- which happen to have remained in New Orleans, might be able to find shelter? All of us remember those devastating pictures, those devastating scenes from three years ago? What have they done along those lines, Anderson?
COOPER: Bottom line is, no, there is not. They call them shelters of last resort. The city made a decision a long time ago they're not going to have any shelters of last resort in the city of New Orleans or the surrounding parishes. The message to everyone is look, there's not going to be any last minute savior saying OK you can come to the Superdome or to the Convention Center. They're saying, you have to get out. There's no place for to you stay.
If you do chose to stay, you know, are you on your own. You're taking your life in your own hands. They don't want to -- they didn't want to repeat of the Superdome or the Convention Center scenes. They've been bussing people out to Baton Rouge, further points to Mobile, Alabama, Shreveport. They've been just trying to get people out as fast as they can on trains, on buses, even on planes in some cases.
There are hospitals here who have chosen not to evacuate. That's a debate whether they should try to evacuate people. Susan Roesgen was over at the children's hospital, there are a large number of child patients there and they're families, they're staying put. That story will be tonight. The warnings have been heeded this time around.
BLITZER: Anderson's going to have a special from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern tonight from New Orleans. Anderson, I want you to stay there because General Russel Honore is joining us, he is a retired U.S. army general. All of our viewers remember him when he brought in the U.S. armies, the troops into New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. I want Anderson to join in on the questioning of General Honore.
You're now a CNN contributor. You heard Senator McCain say he was briefed in Jackson, Mississippi, earlier today and he said while the situation seems to be a whole lot better than it was three years ago going into Katrina, there are still serious problems that have to be resolved. The lessons learned from Katrina have, they been fully learned, General Honore and are you confident that we're not going to see scenes that we saw three years ago?
LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I'm confident we've got the evacuation part about as good as one can see it happen. Remember, throughout the region we had about 80 percent evacuations for Katrina. The issue ended up being the 70,000 people that were New Orleans that for whatever reason didn't evacuate. Pre-storm evacuation, all the worry about our media and state troopers, that's just a pregame show. You know, our real test, as a government and on the ground for those leaders and we have some good ones on the ground running operations, will be what happens after landfall and how we get in there and do search and rescue.
What happens with technology set back six years, when the roads are closed, flooded, cell towers are down. I think to assess the communication isn't right yet. We'll see after the storm how good we are. But I can tell you, a lot of effort, the National Guard, the state of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas have invested significantly in their ability to be able to communicate. We'll have to see what happens after the storm.
My prayers are with them. We have a good team there. We'll see what happens. The toughest part is yet to come. Our leaders have to pace themselves now because the evacuation is the easy part. What happens in the next 24 to 48 hours, and what kind of strategic communications we're sending out to the public, what should they expect tomorrow and then what kind of assistance do you expect to get?
BLITZER: General Honore, I know Anderson Cooper has a question he'd like to ask you as well. Anderson, go ahead.
COOPER: General Honore, good to talk to you. How concerned are you about the hospitals, the folks who have chosen to stay? There had been some concern if they had enough ambulances to get people out. I know a number of hospitals decided to just stay, have their patients stay put. Is that a good idea?
HONORE: If there was a choice to move them, there comes a point in time where it's too late to start that moving because moving critically ill patients is a very technical and you have to set the conditions. But at this point in time, I would not want to second- guess those doctors. But if there was time to get them out, I would do that. Because if the surrounding area around those hospitals flood, this is now going to become a crisis.
BLITZER: Yeah, General Honore, based on everything you know, does the communications work this time? In other words, can the federal authorities, U.S. military personnel, for example, whether army troops coming in, reserve, active duty or National Guard can they communicate with their radios with state and local emergency personnel? Because we know the last time the left hand couldn't speak with the right hand, they couldn't work together; they couldn't communicate with each other. Are they all on the same frequency right now?
HONORE: We bought the capability with some mass networks and some mobile command posts that will allow that to happen. What we don't know is what effect the storm might have on breaking down the cell towers, how much pressure it will put on those systems. If the satellites up and they've got good shots, they should be able to communicate. Again, that will come to how well trained and how we've coordinated that. That is to be seen.
I've got confidence with the leaders on the ground, with the leadership from northern command, the National Guard and with the state EOC people that they'll go in with good shape. It will be the effect of power. If a courthouse doesn't have a generator, it's not going to do them much good because you won't be able to operate out of that courthouse. If drugstores don't have generators in places like Baton Rouge and New Roads and St. Francisville and coming up the river, all of those places people are staying in place. But if they lose power in Baton Rouge for three days and we don't have generators at some of the drugstores, we're going to be evacuating people out there because they can't get medicines. It's the second and third order that a storm like this have because the governor said; everything south of I-10 is subject to flooding. He's ordered -- encouraged parishes to do mandatory evacuations. The worse is yet to come. Of course, we'll pray for the best and expect the worst. Those little parishes are very vulnerable right now.
BLITZER: We heard yesterday from the governor saying this could be even worse, Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans saying this could potentially be worse than Katrina. Anderson, I know you have to get going. Because you have to work on your special, Anderson Cooper is going to have a special tonight from 8:00 to 10:00 p.m. Eastern, live from New Orleans. I want all of our viewers to stay tuned for that. General Honore, don't go away. We have much more to discuss. Not only what's happening in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, but here in St. Paul, we just heard they're going to have a very abbreviated schedule tomorrow morning and then touch and go, day by day.
What goes forward with this Republican National Convention? Our special coverage will continue right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: I think it's fair to say this has been a political earthquake here in St. Paul, Minnesota. You're looking at the Republican National Convention. We're here at the Excel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota where tomorrow the Republican Convention will begin at 3:00 p.m. Central, 4:00 p.m. Eastern. They will gavel it to an open. There will be a two hour, 2 1/2 hour opening session but it will be all business, no politics they say, all business, just calling to order, going through some of the procedural things they have to do to make a legal convention to nominate a presidential candidate and a vice presidential candidate.
It will then wrap up by 6:00, 6:30 p.m. Eastern and then day to day, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. They'll see what they need to do based on the conditions along the Gulf Coast, New Orleans and elsewhere. Hurricane Gustav moving toward that area right now. Jacqui Jeras is joining us from the CNN weather center. Jacqui, has the new updated forecast from the national hurricane center been updated?
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It absolutely has. Here's the latest information that you see behind me. Hurricane Gustav is still holding steady with maximum winds of 115 miles per hour. So still a category 3 storm. Some additional strengthening can be expected. Now, here is the updated forecast, Wolf, and it's about the same. You can see we're starting to shave off a little from the west side of the cone. So all eyes here pointing toward Louisiana, still west of New Orleans.
Two changes I want to tell you about. We haven't been able to read through all the data yet as it just came in, but one is the intensity forecast has dropped down just a little bit. The official forecast now brings it as a category 3 rather than a 4 at landfall. But either way you slice it, it's still a major storm and certainly needs to be taken extremely seriously. The other thing that's changed as well is that the central pressure in the storm has dropped a little bit, by a couple of millibars. What tends to happen when the pressure drops it is an indication that the storm is strengthening and sometimes it takes a couple hours for the wind speeds to correspond to that and increase. I think it's very likely we'll watch this get stronger upcoming here in the next, say, 6 to 12 hours at a minimum.
So Gustav still very strong is closing in on the Gulf Coast. We're 305 miles away from New Orleans and 250 or 260 away from the mouth of the Mississippi River. The speed has increased. Last update was 17 miles an hour, now 18 miles an hour. Yesterday we were talking 13, 14 miles an hour. It is coming in a little bit faster. And unless this slows down, we could be seeing landfall even before the noon hour tomorrow. So this storm certainly making a bee line and closing in on Louisiana. Wolf.
BLITZER: Well, I'm looking at that cone, Jacqui. Is New Orleans inside or outside of this cone from this new forecast?
JERAS: They're just right on the edge there, Wolf. Absolutely. Just very, very close to the edge. So it could get on the western part of New Orleans, if you want to consider the cone, but as we were talking about earlier today, is that, you know, this is still the right side of the storm. Even though the cone just kind of shades in on New Orleans, this isn't any better news for you. Basically the cone is just closing in on the impact zone.
But keep in mind, this is one other change, too, by the way, as I was reading through, the storm is huge. With we talk about 400 miles across, now it's 440 miles across so an extremely large storm. Direct landfall is just not all that important because the impacts are going to be so great. Not just Louisiana. We're going to be feeling the effects of this storm through the big bend area with storm surge and also some rough surf.
BLITZER: Just to be precise, you never want to be on either side, the left side or right side of that cone, but the worst side to be on the really bad side is the side that New Orleans is on right now. Explain that to our viewers.
JERAS: Right. Well, you know, the winds around an area of low pressure rotate counterclockwise, or this way. So you're getting the onshore flow. It's those strong winds it a hurricane that push the water up towards the coast. Unfortunately, New Orleans is right in this area where we're going to get that great push of water. We're talking storm surge that could be as high as maybe 12 to 16 feet.
Now, as we all know, New Orleans is on Lake Pontchartrain. Last time around with Katrina, you know, we had impact on the east side of the city. So we got the surge coming in this way with northerly winds bringing the water from Lake Pontchartrain into the town. This time around we'll have a south easterly flow which is going to be pushing waters from the ocean and then through the Mississippi River on up towards the city.
BLITZER: So what I hear you saying, and I'm going to bring General Russell Honore back into this discussion, Jacqui, and you may want to stick around and participate in the questioning, what I hear you saying is that potentially this could even be worse in terms of flooding for New Orleans than Katrina was, is that right?
JERAS: That's absolutely possible based on the position of the storm. Certainly more water in the city is a possibility. With so many levees and everything already compromised, Wolf, it's a great concern. The levees that we'll be most worried about, too, will be the ones that kind of butt up and lead into or out of the Mississippi River. Because I think they'll have the greatest force coming in there from the winds.
BLITZER: Let me bring General Honore back in, Lieutenant General Russel Honore, he brought the troops into New Orleans and the entire Gulf area right after Katrina. Based on this updated forecast that the National Hurricane Center has just released, you heard Jacqui Jeras reported, give us your bottom line assessment, General.
HONORE: Point one, New Orleans looks like they'll be on the right front of the storm. Common lingo, that's the most destructive part as far as wind and heavy tornado activity. Point two, this will put it also in the spin zone to have tidal surge. If you visualize what hit Biloxi and Waiveland, Mississippi, the right side of that storm went into that area. The western part of New Orleans could see a lot more wind damage, which New Orleans had very little wind damage from Katrina direct to buildings.
You'll see more of that this time. Number two, the potential for flooding is going to go up because it's going to push that water into the Mississippi River. New Orleans is surrounded with the Mississippi River in the middle, Lake Pontchartrain to the north and the Gulf to the south. So it is literally surrounded and circumvented in the middle by water. The potential for tidal surge, based on the storm surge is the biggest threat this time around. We have many levees but many spots that have not been covered because levees were concentrated from hurricane Katrina. Different storm, different areas of concentration.
BLITZER: They always prepare for the last disaster, the next disaster. Jacqui Jeras, I know you can illustrate some of what we just heard. Go ahead and de that. I know you also have a question for General Honore. Go ahead.
JERAS: I do, yes. We got this map from the newspaper in New Orleans. To put it in perspective for you, Lake Pontchartrain, here is New Orleans, here is the French Quarter area and right here is the Mississippi River as it runs through it. All of these purple lines, that's the whole levee system. They have highlighted all of these red boxed areas that they think have greatest concern for potential for breaching or for the potential of having the levees over top. So this is a big area.
And all of these, by the way, do meet up with the Mississippi River. And so the winds come in from this way, that's going to be pushing all of this water up as opposed to Katrina which brought in the winds from this way. One other question I wanted to ask you, General Honore, in addition to the storm surge one of the other big things that we're really worried about is we're to have so much rainfall with this. We could be talking about a foot of rain, possibly even more moving in. The pump situation and if the power goes out, what are the concerns that you have with that?
HONORE: Yes. They've done much improvement to the pumps. I got a briefing from the corps a couple weeks ago. We've done the preparation on the pumps now. Will they handle the water that is coming from rainfall? I think we're in pretty good shape to handle water coming from rainfall from any unforeseen circumstances. But when you have a combination of rainfall water and water that comes in from the surge, and then the effects, as you said of losing power, and the second and third order of effect of that water not being able to be pumped out. When you go back to the map and look at point one on the map, that's the industrial canal. It does not have a gate on it. The 17th Street canal has a gate on it and have put a great -- a gate there. There's not one on industrial canal. Also down at St. Bernard Parish, still some flood wall that needs more height added to them. They've agreed that they may need another 19 feet or another 9 feet in St. Bernard Parish.
If you look just to your right there on your map. Still vulnerable in those areas. If you go back up to point one and point two, neither one of those have gates on them. And those are subject to surge, pushing water in and putting pressure on the lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish again.
BLITZER: Stand by. I want both of you to stand by because we're going to continue this conversation. Don Lemon is down in New Orleans right now. He's at the transportation terminal. Don, I understand you just had a chance to speak with the secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff.
DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I certainly did Wolf and as you know, the federal government is under huge pressure this time to get it right. We know what happened three years ago with hurricane Katrina and the criticism that they got. He came here just a short time ago, came to the place where people are being led out of the city, either by bus or train, to try to meet some volunteers, some military people here, and also some people leaving on those trains and buses to get out of town.
I talked to him also, something I've been talking to General Honore about, about whether or not this mandatory evacuation should have been called sooner because we all saw the signs of hurricane Gustav coming towards the Gulf. I asked him about that and also about other things. His response was very interesting. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON (voice over): So when you look around and you see you all of these people here and you see the response, what do you think?
MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY: I think -- I think the fact that people are taking it seriously is a positive sign that we're getting the message out about the hurricane. And I've got to say, some of these people see movies and TV and they think, oh, I really need to time myself. It's not going to be easy.
LEMON: One more question for you. Do you think that -- do you think that the mandatory evacuation was called fast enough, early enough?
CHERTOFF: It seems to me, again, from what I see, I don't want to second guess these decisions because they're very important decisions be but it seems to me it's worked. As far as I can tell. I'm not seeing a suggestion that people are crowded to get out at the last minute. Again, I -- --
LEMON: Thank you very much. Thank you very much. (END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: I also asked the secretary if this was a chance to save face or regain their reputation after the criticism they got, Wolf, from hurricane Katrina. And he said, no, it's not. This is a new response, a new evacuation plan of 2008. Hopefully this time he says he feels like they got it right.
BLITZER: Stand by, Don. We'll be coming back to you and all of our reporters on the scene in New Orleans, in the area. Much more of our coverage coming up right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Welcome back to St. Paul, Minnesota. This is the Excel Energy Center where the Republican National Convention will open tomorrow, Monday, 4:00 p.m. Eastern/3:00 p.m. Central. An abbreviated business meeting, business only. We just heard from Senator John McCain, we just heard from Rick Davis, the McCain campaign chairman, saying they don't want to go forward with heavy duty politics at a time when the Gulf Coast, including New Orleans, faces a horrific hurricane, hurricane Gustav, which is moving through the Gulf Coast right now, moving through the Gulf of Mexico toward New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.
This is no time, they say, for politics. There are legal issues they have to go to in order to phenomenal nature a presidential candidate and a vice presidential candidate so they're going to do the bear minimum tomorrow. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday they're going to play it day by day, depending on how this hurricane affects the lives of so many people along the Gulf Coast. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer here in St. Paul reporting.
I want to go right to the CNN Weather Center. Jacqui Jeras is standing by. Only moments ago, Jacqui, the National Hurricane Center released a new forecast. For viewers just tuning in right now, share what we know about Gustav.
