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Industrial Canal Overflows in New Orleans; Biggest Threats, Flooding and Tornadoes; President Bush on Gustav
Aired September 01, 2008 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Gustav on the Gulf Coast, barrier islands south of New Orleans take the brunt, and New Orleans takes a pounding. But so far the levees appear to be holding. The key words there, of course, are "so far."
I'm Soledad O'Brien, coming to you from CNN in New York.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Don Lemon. I am live in Jefferson Parish, near New Orleans, where we're at the command center for four parishes here. The winds are really starting to kick up as that monster hurricane, Gustav, rolls ashore.
You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
All right. Gustav rolled in overnight and really caused a stir here in New Orleans. We've heard about a number of power outages and, of course, there is concern about the levees.
We have seen some overtopping here, but so far no breaches. And the winds here are really starting to pick up in this area.
It was quiet just a short time ago as we were up in the command center here for four parishes, getting the very latest updates for you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM, but as I said, the concern here so far has been overtopping of some of those levees, particularly the Industrial Canal and the 17th Street Canal.
I want to go to my colleague now, Chris Lawrence, who is at the Industrial Canal. He joins us by telephone.
And Chris, I understand there's concern about the Upper and Lowerr Ninth wards.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, Soledad, we are standing on Interstate 10 at the Industrial Canal, and we are looking at a tremendous amount of overlapping here at the Port of New Orleans. If you could take a look right beyond me, you can see that some of the floodwaters have started to seep in there to the Port of New Orleans. You can see things like that shed where the water is about halfway up to the ceiling.
You can see the force, that this wind is blowing that water, just pushing that surge of water across. And if you can kind of take a look down in there, you can see some of those railroad signs and some of those "Do Not Cross" signs in the road. Those are a good six to eight feet high, and you can see that the water is clearly almost right up to the top of them.
Keep going to the right as we go along and we go along to the wall there, and as we look down, you can see the overlapping going on. You can see the force with which that water is pushing.
Now, we have not seen a tremendous amount of floodwaters, just gallons and gallons and gallons of waters overlapping those walls. But we have seen that overlapping for quite some time now. Not a lot of rain, but the tremendous force of this wind that is just pushing the water straight out of Lake Pontchartrain through the Industrial Canal.
I know that this was one of the areas with which the Army Corps of Engineers was taking a very close look at before Hurricane Gustav hit. There is no structure, no barrier that prevents water from Lake Pontchartrain from surging into the Industrial Canal. There will be, but that structure will not be built for another few years -- Don, Soledad.
LEMON: All right. Our Chris lawrence joining us from the Industrial Canal, right there on I-10.
And, of course, as we have been telling you, the concern here is flooding, and if that levee gives -- the winds are really starting to pick up -- if that levee gives, of course they're concerned about the Upper and Lower Ninth wards and then flooding all over the area.
(WEATHER REPORT)
LEMON: We want to go now to our Rob Marciano. Rob is joining us from the French Quarter.
And Rob, we lost power here overnight. We understand you guys did as well. And I'm also hearing that you got some really heavy winds going on there.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We do. And these are the strongest winds we've seen so far, just like we were afraid of, as this storm gets a little bit more parallel to us.
We were in a bit of a dry spot, and it's completely stopped raining for about 30 minutes. The actual ground was getting dry, and now the wind, at least temporarily, took a bit of a breather.
So here we are high atop the French Quarter. Not really that high. It's not like we're on a skyscraper. We're about five, six stories up, but just enough to be over top of these old buildings, some of which are a couple of hundred years old.
And you can bet that they've seen a few storms in their time. They're holding up pretty well.
There is Jackson Square. Any time of year, any day, any time of day, frankly, that would be filled with tourists, artists, street performers and the like.
And then panning just a little bit farther to the right -- I don't know if you can get that far, Jeff -- boy, you're looking into the teeth of the wind right now. That is the Mississippi.
The Mississippi River looks like it's coming right at us. It's blowing the wrong way, at least at the surface.
Those white caps are blowing with the wind, against the current. They are lapping up against the Mississippi levee, but those levees aren't really in danger.
We're seeing wind gusts easily to hurricane strength, sustained at 50 miles an hour here. So these are some of the strongest winds we've seen so far, Don.
This storm getting parallel to us, although the eye or the eye wall, the right side, really nowhere near us. Probably at least 60, if not 80, miles away from us, and these winds have not let up. They have only increased, which tells us that we have got to get the center of this storm well past the I-10 corridor, Don, before things can start to lighten up.
And it's continuous punishment that the structures here are taking, even though it's not sustained at hurricane force. They can only take it for so long. They've got to get this storm out of here, but it's not going to happen for the next several hours.
Don, back over to you.
LEMON: All right, Rob. Hey, you be safe out there. It sounds like there's a lot going on over there.
And can you pan over just to the left here, Chris (ph)? We want to show you that some of the people from -- the military folks are going out, the National Guard. They're going out to protect the streets here, and also to look at some of the damage here.
They have been all over the area here throughout the New Orleans area, and you can see them going out now. They couldn't go out for a while because they were afraid that there was too much wind and all this stuff would be -- become projectiles here. So they were concerned about him. A little later bit later on we're going to go out and ride with him.
We want to take you now to some New video that's coming into the CNN NEWSROOM now. It's coming to us from the Industrial Canal, where Rob was talking about white caps on the Mississippi.
We have been seeing white caps on the Industrial Canal because that water has been lapping over that wall, that concrete wall that you can see there. There was also some concern also that there may be holes in the bottom of that Industrial Canal, that wall, so water would be getting through to both the Upper and the Lower Ninth wards.
Of course, we know that the Lower Ninth Ward really affected by Hurricane Katrina three years ago, and then also the Upper Ninth Ward. So that's a concern. This New video just into the CNN NEWSROOM.
But we have been watching as well the local people here, their feeds all day, and some of their local reporters who have been out at the Industrial Canal. And they had police coming up warning them that if that water -- they were on a bridge -- if that water does come over and that levee is breached, that everyone on that bridge would be in danger. So they were telling them that if they were on that bridge, they were shooting at their own risks. And they were warning people to be careful.
So, the Industrial Canal a big concern here. And then we still have more bands to come through, and that water could go over at some point. But we're hoping it doesn't.
We're going to go back upstairs just for a second, get you the latest information from the command center here in East Jefferson Parish. And the wind really whips up.
I'm going to throw it to my colleague now, Soledad O'Brien. She's joining us now from CNN headquarters in New York, and she's got the very latest on this storm as well.
Soledad, take it away, will you?
O'BRIEN: All right, Don. Thanks.
And that is a terrifying shot when you see photographers right under the Industrial Canal, clearly shooting as the water continues to lap over the top of that.
Got a couple things we're watching for you. Of course the nation's attention focused on Gustav.
Strictly business today at a pared-down Republican National Convention, which is taking place in St. Paul, Minnesota. Instead of a seven-hour program that they had planned, today's schedule has been cut down to three hours, maybe even less than that.
Speeches that were going to happen by President Bush and by Vice President Cheney have been canceled. First Lady Laura Bush, though, and also Cindy McCain will be talking about hurricane relief efforts today. The rest of the week's schedule though is going to be determined on a day-to-day basis. So we're watching that for you.
Now, the party's presumptive nominee, Senator John McCain, says that he doesn't believe it would be appropriate to hold a political celebration during the storm. McCain and his running mate, the Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, they were in Mississippi yesterday getting an update on that state's hurricane preparations.
President Bush, though, we're watching what he's doing. We're expected to hear from him any minutes. And we're watching sort of a live feed of the event where he is at the Texas Emergency Operations Center. You can see it right there.
The president not quite in the shot yet. We're expecting it at any moment. And we'll bring it to you live when he does start talking.
He's just finished a briefing and a tour at that operation center. The Texas governor, Rick Perry, is there as well. And we'll get some word on when the two of them start speaking, and when it happens we'll bring that to you as well.
The president had said that he planned to go to Louisiana at a time when it didn't interfere with emergency operations. And as we all know, President Bush obviously faced very big criticism for the federal government's response, or lack thereof, after Hurricane Katrina three years ago. So we will bring his remarks to you from Austin as soon as it begins.
For now though, let's get right back to Don. He is covering the storm for us live from New Orleans -- Don.
LEMON: All right. Thank you very much, Soledad. We'll get back to you in a little bit. We appreciate that.
Those winds that Rob Marciano talking about just a while ago, we are getting them now. We're a little bit farther up, you can see, than he is. So we're getting those winds, probably up to 50 miles an hour. I don't have anything to measure the wind here, but it's blowing pretty -- going pretty well here, and a hard time standing up.
We're going to talk about all of this wind, all of this water. Does New Orleans really have the infrastructure that can keep it safe, keep it from flooding when it comes to hurricanes and really bad storms like this? We're going to talk to our expert, the best person to talk about this. Lieutenant General Russel Honore joins me in the CNN NEWSROOM to talk about what New Orleans is facing as this monster hurricane rolls ashore.
The NEWSROOM continues in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Well, devastating news, of course, for people who have lived through this before. The folks who survived Katrina made the decision to come back. Now, really facing it all once again.
A little bit of welcome news to tell you about though. Even with the drilling in the Gulf suspended, the price of oil is down today. As Gustav approached, the major oil companies evacuated their rigs. They closed their refineries.
Even so, oil is trading down because the hurricane lost power. Far less fear of major damage to oil facilities. And the traders are eager to show and (ph) see, really, just how quickly they're able to resume production. So that's something that we're watching today.
We're also monitoring President Bush, waiting to see if he's got some remarks as he is in Texas at the emergency operations center there. We're watching that for you as well.
And of course, Chad Myers is watching it all for us.
Chad, a lot of differences between what we saw during Hurricane Katrina and what we are seeing today. First, give me a sense of how long it's going to take for the storm to roll through. When are people feeling like they're in the clear?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I would say if you're in New Orleans, if you stayed there and you still have power and you can hear me, you probably can go back out in about three or four hours. But the winds are still very gusty right now. This storm is making the closest approach to New Orleans at this point, down to the south, but it's closest approach if you use the perpendicular.
General Honore joining me now.
General, you have got some great news about the Harvey Canal that you just got.
LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Just heard a report called in to WWL in New Orleans radio that the water is receding at the Harvey Canal gate. If that confirms to be true, that is a turning point as far as the surge that we expected to come that could bring in -- which could cause most of the damage and threaten the levees and the low-lying areas in and around New Orleans.
MYERS: The Harvey Canal on the west bank or the east bank?
HONORE: West bank.
MYERS: West bank. So what we would consider the south side of New Orleans.
HONORE: That is correct.
MYERS: OK. Here are the gates. Do you know whether the water is coming down on the river side or down here on the bay side?
HONORE: Unknown. We have got to go back and follow up on that report. It was a first report. We have to go back and check it.
MYERS: Because that would make a big difference, wouldn't it?
HONORE: Right. But these are competent authorities who call the reports in that they see the water receding at the gates of the Harvey Canal. Those are gates that were closed this morning around 3:00 in collaboration with local officials and the Corps of Engineers. That's good news.
MYERS: That is good news. But now we could still have more water coming up from the south because the gates actually stop water from the river?
HONORE: Yes.
MYERS: Yes.
HONORE: So that is the purpose of the gates. So now the surge, what we're looking for is any increase in depth of the water in any of the Industrial Canal. What would really scare us, if there's an increase in the surge in Lake Pontchartrain, because that affects the city from the north side. MYERS: We know Waveland, Bay St. Louis, up about 10 feet.
HONORE: Right.
MYERS: That water could get into Lake Pontchartrain, could it not?
HONORE: Well, it would be the same water that would affect there, so I think that's good news. That's good news.
MYERS: Ten feet is OK for Lake Pontchartrain?
HONORE: It can handle it. Right now, from the reports I'm getting directly from the Corps of Engineers, Lake Pontchartrain is holding steady.
MYERS: Wow.
HONORE: The levees are holding steady, although threatened.
MYERS: Yes.
HONORE: The part that concerned me the most was if one of those barges was to hit that concrete wall. So that's a lesson learned for the next time to get those things out of town, but the team down in New Orleans doing a great job. The National Guard is getting ready to start circulating again to protect property and help people that may be isolated.
What people need to be prepared for now is a big blackout. We're going to see -- we'll not see power here for some time, because as long as we have the winds for the next six to seven hours, the crews won't be able to get out. And so there's some people who have been without power in the region since last night.
MYERS: Three hundred thousand -- 300,000 people without power.
HONORE: Baton Rouge, get ready.
MYERS: Yes, absolutely.
HONORE: It's your turn. You're going to be without power for quite a period of time if and this storm continues at the same intensity as it hit those big oak trees and tall pine trees in and around the region.
MYERS: And we know Houma got hit very hard.
HONORE: Absolutely.
MEYRS: And then we go New Iberia, Morgan City, and the like, and that's well south of us, but we'll talk about that in a little bit.
General, thank you very much.
Don, do you have more?
LEMON: Yes. I'm here. Can you guys see me? These winds, Chad, I don't know if you can tell, I have had trouble standing up just for the last couple of seconds here as you guys were talking. Really the strongest wind that we have had coming through here so far. They picked up even higher than when you guys were with us just a short time ago.
You mentioned Baton Rouge and Houma. Baton Rouge is actually my hometown. So worried about my relatives there for now.
So if you're watching, mom, be safe, hunker down in the house over in Baton Rouge.
Lafayette, just 45 minutes from Baton Rouge if you're going west, straight shot down the I-10. And our Ed Lavandera joins us from there now.
Ed, are you seeing any winds, rain? What's going on? Is the power out there?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The power is holding. We have just experienced about 30 minutes ago the last part of the first band of this hurricane blew through here. We're anticipating the arrival of the second band.
We're kind of watching the radar situation here. And it looks like the second band, and perhaps the more intense parts of this storm, are beginning to creep closer and closer to us.
Of course, where we are here in Lafayette, along Interstate 10, west of New Orleans and south of here, really the concern will be flooding in the coming hours. This was an area that was hard hit by floodwaters after Hurricane Rita three years ago. So that's really what is at the top of mind, and there are a lot of people around here who heeded the warnings of mandatory evacuations, and took that quite seriously.
As we have been driving around yesterday and the better part of today, the streets around here and the highways deserted. People who wanted to leave, they left fast, they left early. You didn't really see a lot of procrastinators around here, Don.
So we have been checking in with emergency management offices throughout various cities, just west here of New Orleans, and so far everything holding up tight. But the eye of the storm and that central part of the storm where the most intense winds and the rain appears to be kind of barreling down where we are, kind of crossing diagonally through this portion of Louisiana. And we expect for us to be very close to the center of where that storm comes. But right now we're sitting here between bands, awaiting the arrival of the next series of heavy winds and strong rains -- Don.
LEMON: All right, Ed. Thank you very much. Really having trouble standing up here. Thank you for that report. We've been talking about the shelters.
We're sort of in a secure area, hunkered down here in between some buildings. And I want to show you why they tell people to be safe and not go out in the storm.
I'm going to have one of the National Guard guys bring this in for me.
This becomes a projectile. Come on in here. See this? See how sharp that is? That can go right through you.
All of these projectiles, if this hits you with the wind coming to us like this, then you're really going to have some problems. You have got signs, you have got glass, you have got all of this stuff floating around here. And that's what these guys are out here to do, to try to get people to not go out in this and risk their lives.
We're here, as I said, in a pretty safe area that we have sort of been told by police and the authorities here to stay in this area, and we should be fairly safe because the trees and what have you are fairly sturdy in this area. But anyway, the winds are picking up.
Thank you very much for that, sir. We appreciate your service. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Yes.
So the winds again really starting to pick up here, and as you heard Chad Myers saying, Baton Rouge, all of that area, Lafayette, look out. They're going to have some power outages. You're going to get some rain and some wind as well.
We are right here in the CNN NEWSROOM, and we are following the very latest for you. If we're going -- who are we going to go to now, Katie (ph)? I can barely hear you.
OK. We are going to go to break here in a little bit, but we're going to talk about the Republican National Convention. That's supposed to be going on this week, and supposed to be in full force, but obviously because of this tragedy, because of all of this that's going on here on the Gulf Coast, they have scaled that convention back. We're going to get into detail about that.
I'm Don Lemon here. My colleague, Soledad O'Brien, is joining us from New York. We're both going to have the very latest for you, all the information you need right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Don't go anywhere.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. Lots to tell you about.
With the nation's focus now on Hurricane Gustav, they've really pared down what's happening at the Republican National Convention. It turns out that President Bush and that Vice President Cheney, both of their speeches have been canceled. They will not be showing up. First Lady Laura Bush and Cindy McCain will be talking about hurricane relief though.
There are many ways they're playing it day to day. Convention planners have said that the tone is shifting significantly. And in fact, Hurricane Gustav really threatens to truncate a lot of the plans coming out of the RNC.
The opening program for today, as I mentioned, shrunk to a bare minimum. And even John McCain's arrival on Wednesday could be in doubt. Everyone is saying that they're playing it day to day at this point, depending on the conditions on the ground as far as what is happening with Hurricane Gustav.
The GOP convention's theme this year is country first, and many have said this might be an opportunity for Republicans to show in deed and in word that that's what their focus is. But that means pulling away a lot of the focus, as you see here, from those preparations that were going to go into this massive convention.
They are chartering a DC-9 to fly delegates from Mississippi and Louisiana. And also, they're going to suspend many of the activities depending on what happens on the ground.
McCain, as I mentioned, planned to arrive on Wednesday. That could be up in the air. In fact, his campaign manger, Rick Davis, said it's an open question, in fact, if McCain will show up at all in Minnesota. And, in fact, all the convention activities have been suspended, save for those required by party rules. So, diminishing what they had planned for about seven or eight hours to approximately three hours.
So we're going to continue to follow for you what's happening at the Republican National Convention, but as we mentioned, it is going to be pared down significantly, as we also, at the same time, monitor what's happening on the ground with Hurricane Gustav. We're going to have both of those live for you.
Let's get back to Don, in fact, who is on the ground there in New Orleans following what's happening there.
Don, what's the very latest?
DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Soledad, thank you very much.
You know, you were here for Hurricane Katrina, so I'm sure you can imagine exactly what is going on here. Sometimes it dies down to a lull and then the winds pick up. They were picking up as you were talking there. Again, my producer came out to relay some information and almost blew across the parking lot.
He came out to tell me that those guards that we saw going out, they were going to patrol the neighbors with the Jefferson Parish Police. And, of course, you heard the mayor of New Orleans say yesterday about those looters, if there are looters on the streets here in New Orleans, anywhere in the area, that they were going to go straight to prison. Not jail. Directly to prison. Angola, which is a maximum security prison here in Louisiana. And you don't want to go there. He said straight to the big house.
I want to toss to my colleague, Jeanne Meserve. Jeanne is standing by. Wow, we're really starting to get it now. Before we go to Jeanne, Jeanne is standing by in Baton Rouge. I believe she is at the command center where we have been seeing Governor Bobby Jindal there. Jeanne, if I am correct, and also where we've been seeing Michael Chertoff. They've been giving those press conferences.
Tell us what's going on. What they're saying about the very latest in Baton Rouge, Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I just button holed Secretary Chertoff. He had just been speaking with the Army Corps of Engineers here getting an update. The news from him is that he expects the Coast Guard to send up helicopters within the next 30 minutes or so to begin aerial surveillance to see what the story is with the levees, to see whether or not there are people in need of search and rescue so that they can launch those efforts. Thus far, he seems to be pretty pleased with the way things are going, but cautions that the storm isn't over yet and that these things tend to throw curve balls.
The Army Corps of Engineers told us that on the Industrial Canal, those pictures that you were seeing are wave overwash of the Industrial Canal. A sloshing over caused by the wave action and the wind. They say if you look at the water level on the other side of the canal, you'll see it's about three feet below the top of the barrier there. That gives them an indication that there is not going to be serious overtopping of those levees.
They have teams on the ground. They are doing surveys constantly. At this point in time, they say no reports of breaches there or anywhere in this state. They're keeping a close eye on a couple of the outlying parishes, though, where there are some concerns of possible overtopping.
In addition, we have spoken to the U.S. Coast Guard. They've been tracking some vessels that got loose. The latest report is that two supply vessels, we're told they're between 350 and 400 feet in length, did break loose from something called South Scrap Salvage Yard. And there is also a third barge that broke loose being held in place only by a line at this point in time.
They had told us earlier they thought these were pressing against the Florida Avenue Bridge, which crosses the Industrial Canal. They are now telling us that they are north of there and there are efforts being made right now to secure them before they can do any damage. You'll remember, of course, that it was a barge that during Katrina busted one of the walls and caused the massive flooding.
Back to you, Don.
LEMON: All right, Jeanne Meserve, our Homeland Security correspondent, keeping us updated on all the information coming out of the command center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
We want to talk to the man in charge. The buck stops with him in the New Orleans area. I spent the day with him yesterday and he joins us now by telephone. I'm talking about the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin.
Mr. Mayor, thank you for joining us. I saw you yesterday and your spirits were pretty high as it came -- as concerns this storm. I want to know how you're feeling now that we have seen really a big part of it come through.
MAYOR RAY NAGIN, (D) NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA: Well, you know, I'm feeling better. I should put it that way. But we're still not out of the woods yet. The storm is just passing us. We're still seeing storm surge. There's lots of rain, tornado threats, and we won't know the full effect of the storm surge on the West Bank until about 2:00 or 3:00 p.m. this afternoon. And that's the weakest part of the hurricane protection system.
LEMON: OK. So, you know, we were talking about people getting out of the city and what have you and you got most of the people out. And I know that you had that curfew last night and you also had the members of the military and the police going around. You said you doubled the police force since Hurricane Katrina. Did you have any problems last night and do you have any people calling for help or calling for problems?
NAGIN: It's been very quiet. You know, thank God we've gotten most of our citizens out. And the ones that have stayed are staying indoors. We had no arrests last night. We had one looter we caught this morning and he's sitting on a bus, handcuffed, getting ready to go to Angola Prison in Louisiana.
LEMON: And you said that yesterday. You said anyone who was caught looting or doing what they shouldn't be doing, they were going to go straight to the big house, as you said, Angola, in with the general population.
I want to talk to you about some of the problems that we've been having. And we've been talking about -- was there a fire in New Orleans this morning? Can you tell us about that?
NAGIN: Yes, there was a major fire this morning at one of our historic antebellum homes at the corner or in the vicinity of North Broad and Esplanade (ph). The fire department went out there and did a great job, even with high winds, and they were able to contain that fire. It is also my understanding there's another fire, a major fire that's happening in Jefferson Parish, in another part of this area.
LEMON: Yes. We're here in Jefferson Parish, as you know, at the command center here, Mr. Mayor.
I also want to talk to you about the problems. And I know you have been -- one of your representatives actually called me this morning, you know, Terry, your media person, called me to get the number on air so that we could talk about the Industrial Canal and the possible overtopping there. Tell us the very latest on that. And it's not been breached, has it?
NAGIN: It has not been breached at this point, but there is -- it's at maximum capacity. And as you can see from your images you're showing, we are seeing some overtopping. And we're really concerned about this because as the storm continues to pass us, it's going to start to whip waters and storm surge through Lake Born, through those canals, and cause more overtopping. But the other challenge we're faced with is that we have two large Navy ships that were in there for scrap that are scheduled to be salvaged and one barge that have broken loose. Now they're pinned against a wharf right now. But if they get loose and they start to bang around on some of those canal walls, we could have a major problem.
LEMON: OK. Mayor, real quickly, because we want to get a break in here, but we went out this morning and took a drive with the authorities here in Jefferson County. They allowed us to go out when we had some quiet. We're going to show that to you in a little bit. We're just, you know, Oxnard is right behind me here. But I want you to get a message in we saw some people who were out sightseeing and some people who were just looking around. Give me -- and also on the Industrial Canal, as well, police were warning people there. Give me a word of warning. Tell me what you have to say to those folks.
NAGIN: Please do not go out right now, especially doing any sightseeing. The storm is still passing us. We're seeing winds gust of up to 85, 90 miles an hour. We've got sustained, tropical-force winds. Please do not go out because it's not safe. We've got 50 percent power outages throughout the city and we've got downed power lines. So it's not safe.
LEMON: OK, mayor, you're in a safe area? You're doing OK, right?
NAGIN: I am doing just fine. America, keep praying for us.
LEMON: All right. Thank you, Mayor Ray Nagin. Thank you very much, mayor. Please continue to check back in with us and give us an update.
NAGIN: We will.
LEMON: We're going to rely on you. Thank you very much, sir.
NAGIN: Thank you.
LEMON: We're going to show you now the members of the National Guard here about to go out and do exactly what we have been talking to the mayor about, to patrol these streets and also to check on people who may have been left behind and also to make sure that there aren't any major problems in the area. This is what happens when we have disasters here in this country. Everybody comes together, especially the members of the military. They're getting their orders here from this -- from the captain here.
But this is what we do in this country. We come together and we make sure that everybody is safe and these members of the armed services really come out and risk their lives for this. A lot of the people we have been speaking to are Iraq veterans, Afghanistan veterans, people who fought in the first Gulf War and now they're risking their lives again for a hurricane that is coming through.
So we're going to get a bit of a break in. But we have lots more news here in the CNN newsroom. The very latest on Hurricane Gustav as it comes ashore in the New Orleans area, Houma, Lafayette, Baton Rouge, all over the Gulf Coast. You're not going to miss anything. You're tuned to the right place. CNN, the most trusted name in news.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: I'm Don Lemon in the CNN newsroom. We're following the very latest on Hurricane Gustav as it comes ashore here in Louisiana. We've been telling you about what the National Guard is doing, going out and patrolling the area. Joining me now is Lieutenant Nicholas Acosta (ph). He is with the National Guard. And he's actually a hometown boy. You're from Houma, Louisiana.
LT. NICHOLAS ACOSTA, NATIONAL GUARD: Yes, sir.
LEMON: You're from Houma, Louisiana. Tell us about -- I see all your guys are getting ready and they're like, everybody let's go as soon as you can. Tell us what you're doing in this area.
ACOSTA: Yes, sir. Our main mission is just to secure district four, mainly around airline, the main avenues on veterans and to include the lakefront, just to make sure that everything is calm, make sure the infrastructure's OK. And that's really about it right now.
LEMON: OK. So they're going out there. In the meantime, guys, I can't hear you because we lost our feed back here. But these guys have been all over the area. Have you seen any problems or anything in the area so far?
ACOSTA: No, sir, I haven't seen anything. Haven't heard much on the radio besides a couple of downed power lines. But that's mainly it right now.
LEMON: Yes. You couldn't go out earlier because the winds were picking up and they were concerned about projectiles and also about you guys being caught out in hurricane-force winds.
ACOSTA: Yes, sir. Really wasn't concerned about the flood too much, but some of our vehicles have soft tops and the wind could have definitely taken them away. So but we're ready to go now.
LEMON: OK. Yes, and as soon as we're done with this broadcast in just a little bit, after 4:00, we're going to go out with these guys and they're going to take us around -- take us over to the Industrial Canal and other places. Hopefully the storm surge has passed (ph).
Lieutenant, thank you very much. We appreciate your service.
ACOSTA: Thank you. You have a good time. Be safe.
LEMON: OK, thank you. You be safe as well.
We appreciate what these guys are doing. They're all lined up behind -- in front of me here, as you can see.
All right. We're going to go now to our Chad Myers. Chad, we have been really getting pounded here. We're in Harahan, Louisiana, at the East Jefferson Parish Emergency Command Center getting all the information here. We're being told, Chad, that they're concerned about the wet lands -- or the low lands, I should say, Terrebonne Parish and what have you and flooding in that area as well.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, the center of the eye, about seven or eight miles southeast of Morgan City, Louisiana, if you want to get a map out there. That's well to the southwest of New Orleans. But Morgan City and Thibodeaux really getting hit hard right now.
So is Houma. Although, Houma, you're in the eye. You still have another side with a different direction to get through.
All the way out here into Florida with storms spinning on shore, making tornados. And then flooding up here into Bay St. Louis and Waveland. Now we know that that Bay Waveland, the yacht club, had about an 11 feet of storm surge, where it was down to about one foot just a couple of days ago. So they got 10 feet of extra water in that Bay St. Louis area.
There's the center of circulation. There's Thibodeaux right in a big time eyewall right there. And then Morgan City. And then the center of the circulation.
It's beginning to lose a little bit of I think organization, which means beginning to lose a little bit of wind speed. That's because it's interacting with some land and also interacting with a little bit of drier air coming out of the north.
So there you are. Harahan, right there. That's you, Don. And then right here, all the way down into the French Quarter is our Rob Marciano on top of a building, on top of the omni (ph) there. Right now our winds are saying lie (ph) between 39, gusting to 62.
Rob, does that feel about right?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That seems about right. But as you know, you've been out in these things. Human instinct is to constantly overestimate the winds. Which is easy to do here for sure.
Yes, we've been getting blown around pretty good. And we were dry there for a little while, Chad, but now we've really been getting hammered, both with wind and rain. I apologize if I don't look directly into the camera, but this visor saves me from getting pelted a little bit in the face. I can tell you one thing, it hurts.
We're at the French Quarter. Still, nothing's changed to much. We haven't seen too much as far as flying debris, at least any more or any less than what we've seen all morning long. So holding together decent.
There's Jackson Square. There's nobody out there. Are you kidding me? Forget about it. Out towards the east farther, still white caps continue to roll upstream. The mighty Mississippi going against the current. So that certainly is telling as to how strong these winds are, even with Hurricane Gustav being so far away from us.
As you know, Chad, these levees all along the Mississippi, you know, they're built for the mother of all storms. So that's not nearly the concern as we are with the levees that have been threatened or compromised from Hurricane Katrina. And, of course, the west bank levees down around the Harvey Canal.
Chad, what are we talking about as far as the center of it? I heard you say something about Morgan City. But as the crow flies from where I'm standing, where are we? How many miles are we from the center of circulation? And is it yet parallel to us? Because I know until it gets closer to I-10, we're going to continue to see this sort of action for several hours.
MYERS: If you take the perpendicular between the storm track and you, it has now passed your closest location now moving away from you, Rob. Why you're still in such of a band here is because one of the bands that was spinning around has expanded in size and now it's clipping you. There is a break in the banding to your east. That's not getting to you yet. And then there's another large band back out to the west, one more time.
We also have one more thing. We have live data coming in right now from New Iberia. This is from hurricanetrack.com. And there's their location right there. And there is the location on the radar picture. And we actually have a picture from that box. And this is what we're seeing now. Hard to tell what it is because of the rain drops on the lens. But as the day goes on, this box right here, this picture is going to be right in the middle of the eye, Don. And the pictures here could be quite impressive. We'll have to see.
Don Lemon, back to you.
LEMON: Hey, Chad, you know, I heard you talking about where the bands are. But I know being from this area, sometimes these things can get over land and they can actually stall and really cause a whole lot of water. And that's where the flooding comes in. And that causes more problems often times more than the wind.
MYERS: It looks like it's going to keep moving, although slowly. It's going to move to the north and probably out toward the Shreveport area and then on up into east Texas possibly. But we are now into some very heavy banding in the Biloxi, very heavy rainfalls into New Orleans and Proper, east of there as well. And here is the spin, the push of the water here filling up the basins here. The storm surge almost 300, 400 miles away, three feet.
Then you get over here to Waveland, 10 feet. And Shell Beach, right there, that storm surge is still 10 feet. So we have levees holding back water 10 feet high. So far so good. They're all holding.
Now we know what happened in Katrina. They didn't continue to hold days later. One day later. The ground got saturated underneath and then all of a sudden the rest of the levee went bye-bye. And we just hope that doesn't happen today.
We are still pushing water, still pushing surge into the New Orleans basin area. And so far at least, the rain hasn't been in a proper place, good news, that we haven't been filling up New Orleans with fresh rain water. It's been a little farther to your east where the heaviest rain has been. But that's been filling up Waveland, Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi. The tornadoes as well.
Don.
LEMON: Hey, Chad, let's keep our fingers crossed about all of that stuff holding.
I want to show you, as well as our viewers, we've been talking about the dangers here and flying projectiles. Just a second ago we were talking to the National Guard folks here. This light -- the wind and also the erosion from the ceiling here, this big light fell right as I was tossing to Chad Myers. And this thing weighs at least probably 75 pounds. You can see the glass breaking there.
And that's a danger of this storm. That's probably some corrosion there. Probably got wet and got a little bit loose and then the wind just pushed it down. So not moments ago people were standing there. I'm not standing under the thing, so I'm pretty safe here. But again, that is why they tell you not to get out in this storm.
We want to go now to one of our associate producers who works here at CNN. Her name is Aspen Steid (ph), riding out the storm in New Orleans with 14 members of his family.
And, Aspen, I'm going to ask you just to talk about your experience a little bit and just keep talking until you hear me ask you a question. I've lost my IFP. I can't hear you. As soon as we dial back into you, I'll ask you a question. So keep talking until you hear me ask you a question.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stand by, Soledad.
LEMON: Again, our Aspen Steid. Is Aspen still up, guys? Can you hear me? OK. I'm going to keep talking. Not sure if I'm on . . .
GOV. RICK PERRY, TEXAS: Evacuating 10,000 of our special needs citizens off the coast of Texas. Some 280,000 of our general population is also been evacuated from Orange, Jefferson, and Chambers counties. Louisiana, we obviously have been pretty good neighbors to them as well and Bobby and I have been on the phone with each other pretty regularly and yesterday he asked for some assistance with aviation assets to bring some nursing home-type patients out of the north side of New Orleans and we were able to assist there. And it made me really proud yesterday for the 136th, the General Rodriguez (ph) commands and Texas Task Force One and bringing in some people from Louisiana that needed some help.
So we've got 27 buses, Jack, that are en route right now from Louisiana with some folks. As a matter of fact, I think they're just arriving in the DFW area as we speak. We anticipate somewhere between 45,000 and 50,000 general population evacuees from Louisiana. Many of them are already here. And, again, the air vac yesterday of those high-need, medical-need folks.
So, anyway, your home state did good. And I'm really proud of the men and women. We'll have our opportunity here in a minute to say thanks to command post in there and the op center and Jack Collie (ph) and Steve McCraw (ph), along with their counterparts have done a fabulous job, as usual. Again, given the rest of the country a good lesson on how to handle a major event and, knock on wood, this may not be over with yet because of the potential of a severe flooding up in northeast Texas. But, again, we'll be ready for it, sir.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Governor, thank you, senator, thank you for coming, members of Congress.
The coordination on this storm is a lot better than during Katrina. A lot of it had to do with the governors. Yesterday I was on the video conference with governors of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. It was clearly a spirit of sharing assets, of listening to somebody's problems and saying how can we best address them. Federal government is very much involved in helping the states. Our job is to assist. That's why Secretary Paulison is with me today. He heads FEMA.
I do want to thank the state of Texas and other states for welcoming citizens from Louisiana. It's been a huge evacuation.
It's hard for a citizen to pull up stakes and move out of their home and face the uncertainty that comes when you're not at home. And I want to thank those citizens who listened carefully to the local authorities and evacuated. And I want to thank my fellow citizens in Texas and in other states for welcoming these folks with open arms.
The state of Texas is a generous state. And, governor, I want to thank you and your team for being so kind to the people.
And it's very important for those who have been evacuated to listen very carefully to the officials in their respective states before they decide to return. The storm has yet to pass. It's a serious event. And as the governor mentioned, the people of east Texas, you know, got to be prepared for a possible flooding event.
All in all, what I look for is to determine whether or not assets are in place to help, whether or not there's coordination, and whether or not there's preparation for recovery. And to that end, I feel good about this event.
And I do want to thank again the American Red Cross for joining us and thank a lot of the other organizations that are preparing to go help people in need. These organizations, such as the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army, require the support of our citizens. And if you're interested in how you can help once the storm passes, please call up the different web sites of these organizations and donate your time or your money so that the recovery effort is as compassionate and complete as possible.
Governor, thanks for having me. I want to thank your team for all the hard work they're doing. I'm looking forward to going in with you to the room next door to say thanks to the people who are working the long hours. And we're going to go down to San Antonio and see a staging area there and thank the people there for working so hard. Not only on behalf of the citizens of Texas, but on behalf of the people of the region. Appreciate it. It's good to be home.
O'BRIEN: President Bush as he listens in on a briefing from a tape a little while ago. You just saw the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, there as well, talking about the buses that have been coming into Texas en route from Louisiana. Approximately 50,000 people have been evacuated. General evacuation out of the state of Louisiana into Texas. Said to the president, your home state did good and we'll be ready. A very different tone than, obviously, we saw three years ago during Hurricane Katrina, where a lack of preparation was really what everybody was talking about at this time.
President Bush, then, spoke briefly, talked about the coordination being better, different this time around, and better than it was during Katrina. Mostly, he said, because of the governors who have been on the phone and all talking to each other. Huge evacuation he referenced as well. But did say that the storm, as Chad Myers has been telling us all day, the storm has yet to pass and you really have to be prepared for a flooding event. The difference this time, President Bush said, is he feels good about the event from a preparation standpoint.
And went on to talk a little bit about how folks can help if they're interested in getting involved. That's in fact, what his wife, the first lady, Laura Bush, will be talking about in this very pared down preparations that are going on for the Republican National Convention. So that it will be happening, but way scaled down. They're expecting about seven hours today alone cut back probably to less -- fewer than three hours because, of course, the eyes of the nation are on Gustav and the Gulf Coast.
The convention so, to some degree, in a lot of limbo on day one. And the focus will be, as you heard the president reference right there, on relief efforts. We're going to hear from Cindy McCain, we'll hear from the first lady as well, talking about what people in the country can do to help.
The Democrats are also changing their schedules as they monitor what's happening here in the Gulf Coast and they watch what is going on with Gustav. President Bush was coming, as you saw, at that visit to the emergency center in Texas, but there's no word yet if he's going to be addressing the convention even by satellite. We're waiting to hear an update by that.
Got to take a short break. We're going to update you on all fronts. We're following, of course, preparations for the Republican National Convention, scheduled to get kicked off today, very, very truncated. And then, of course, also what's happening, as you can see the map over my shoulder, Hurricane Gustav, as it slams into the Gulf Coast. We've got that covered for you. Stay with us.
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