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Hurricane Gustav Pounds Gulf Coast; Republicans Limit First Night of Convention

Aired September 01, 2008 - 15:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody.
Images of Gustav, ferocious winds and water on the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts, tremendous strain on the levees to tell you about today, the flood walls and the canals. But, so far, the nightmare scenario has not come to pass.

Good afternoon. I'm Soledad O'Brien, coming to you from New York today.

Don is with us as well -- Don.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Don Lemon here in Jefferson Parish, just outside of New Orleans.

And, Soledad, the rain is coming through again, another band we're feeling here, and also the wind. And the key words that you said so far, that's it, so far.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

O'BRIEN: Some breaking news to get to. As we have been telling you all day, the RNC has really limited the scope of the first day of their convention. They had originally planned about seven hours. Looks like only about three. And you can see right there they have been still working on the preps, but we're getting word about protests outside the RNC.

Let's get right to Joe Johns, who joins us by phone.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's a protest and there's been some street violence, I think you would call it, a lot of windows broken. People you would probably describe as anarchists have turned over some benches in the streets, some newspaper stands, that kind of thing.

The police are out in force. They're wearing their riot gear. And so far, from what I can see, the police have really sort of maintained their calm, given the circumstances. I'm standing at like 7th and Wabasha (ph), I think you pronounce it, in Saint Paul, not real close to the Republican Convention, which you said is abbreviated, not real close, because there is a perimeter and you can't get close.

So, it's unlikely that the people who are meeting over there at the civic center here for this RNC gathering are even seeing this. The last thing I would say to you is that it's a very good-sized protest, a handful of people engaged in some street violence. I saw police cars, windows broken out. Otherwise, things go on here in Saint Paul, Minnesota -- back to you.

O'BRIEN: Joe, before I let you go, a couple of quick questions. We have been taking a look at sort of some of the preps inside, which I know is still going on, even though they have sort of cut back a lot. But give me a sense of the street scene. How many people approximately? Is it something that feels under control or spinning out of control?

JOHNS: No. It's a large march, probably the largest march I have seen. You know, if you look at Denver last week and now here in Minnesota this week, it's probably the largest march I have seen, people carrying flags with peace signs on them, signs "Out of Iraq" and so on.

I wouldn't venture a guess on the size of the crowd, simply because I'm sort of not at a vantage point to judge that. But it's a handful of people, mostly young men, who look like they're about college age, who sort of broke off from the main group and started, you know, knocking out windows and generally making a nuisance of themselves, all to sort of nonplused, almost amusement of the Midwesterners on the streets, looking at this, and telling me, hey, we have never seen anything quite like this.

It's a curiosity to them mostly, at least the folks around here. So, it goes on.

O'BRIEN: All right, Joe Johns for us joining us by phone from the site of the RNC.

Thanks, Joe. Appreciate it.

Let's get right back to Don Lemon, who is covering Gustav.

LEMON: All right, thank you very much for that, Soledad.

Now for the latest on the ground here in Louisiana, here in the New Orleans area. We're told at this hour, as the wind and the rain moves through, that so far, the levees are holding up. None has been breached yet. We are hearing, though, about overtopping in the Industrial Canal, with water flowing into the Upper Ninth Ward, just splashing over there.

And there was some concern as well about seepage. We all know what happened with Hurricane Katrina three years ago when the Upper and Lower Ninth Wards were completely flooded. We are watching. We have been watching our local affiliates here in Louisiana and watching the video come in of that water overtopping the Industrial Canal.

We're also getting information from the mayor's office that came earlier that a barge had gotten loose of its mooring and there were a couple other vessels out there that had gotten loose from their anchors as well. So, they are taking care of that. The Army, the National Guard, police all patrolling the streets of New Orleans and the surrounding area. The mayor gave out a stern warning yesterday saying anyone caught on the streets who shouldn't be there would go to jail, but also saying anyone caught looting would go directly to the big house. And he was talking specifically about a maximum security prison here in Louisiana called Angola. He said that they would go there and go into general population. It would not be tolerated.

And we witnessed all those people on the streets yesterday and we're witnessing them today as well. After Hurricane Katrina, the mayor says he doubled his force to take care of this problem if it ever happened again.

We also want to tell you the latest on the problem, the energy situation, 430,000 homes and businesses all around the area out of power. That's according to Entergy, the energy company.

My colleague Rob Marciano has been stationed here for the weekend, but he's also -- he's been in the French Quarter. he is joining us now from the French Quarter, where, Rob, you saw some really torrential winds and rains a little bit earlier. What are you seeing there now right on the banks of the Mississippi?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, the good news is, we haven't seen rain really for, I don't know, almost an hour,it seems. A lot of the area is dry now.

But the winds haven't died down terribly much, maybe about 10 to 20 miles an hour, still gusting to near hurricane-force at times, but right now mostly sustained at about 25 to 30, with high gusts to about 50 miles an hour at times.

We're panning off towards the rooftops that we have seen at times take a bit of a beating today. These are centuries old, in some cases, over 200-years-old buildings, and they hung on pretty well for this storm. Still dealing with the south wind, which is pretty strong. Still dealing with a bit of a surge from the south, but as far as the French Quarter is concerned, we have yet to get out to check it out, still a ghost town.

You can -- we see from time to time law enforcement out and about checking things out, but we have seen roof tiles, shards of glass, and other looser items being ripped off these buildings, but when you're not talking about sustained hurricane-force winds, that usually means that none of these are going to actually be blown down.

So, that's the good news here. What we have seen also is a bit of a shift in the wind. We had winds that were pushing the Mississippi up against its typical current, which would be from west to east and then around the corner that you're looking at. And now things are beginning to get a little more back to normal. We have got more of a south wind, which is giving us a little bit more of a what -- at least the flow you would typically see.

So, that's where we stand right now, Don. We are going to get out and take a -- tool around a little bit and see what kind of damage the French Quarter sustained, but generally speaking we're OK. I don't know if you mentioned, but word from the mayor's office is that once these winds die down, they will get out and tour around, but they may very well open this city back to folks to return as early as tomorrow afternoon.

So, that certainly would be good. If the levees and canals continue to do their job, there's no reason to believe why that wouldn't happen tomorrow -- Don.

LEMON: All right, Rob Marciano, very good. Very good report there. And that's probably good news, but we still -- Rob said -- you said you haven't experienced any rain. We have experienced some here within the last couple minutes.

And during one of my live reports just a short time ago, Rob, I said that I noticed a shift in the winds here that sort of caught us off guard and almost blew our camera and our lights over.

So, Rob, thank you very much for that report. We will check back with you to see how the French Quarter and downtown is going.

Meantime, we want to take you further in Louisiana, into Lafayette.

Our John Zarrella has been covering things there for us all morning and all afternoon. And he joins us now with the very latest on what is going on.

I understand, John, that you have lots of rain there and you're also seeing the winds pick up as well.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, tremendous amount of rain now, Don, that is coming and has been coming now for the past hour or so. And the winds are continuing to pick up. We're getting winds approaching, if not at tropical-storm-force, I had a wind measurement just a few seconds ago at 37 miles an hour, just a couple miles an hour under tropical-storm-force, although we do know that the winds have been gusting above that.

And look over here. This is the Vermilion River. One of the concerns, of course, is that as all this rain continues to pour and move inland, that this river may rise in the next couple of days, and you could potentially see 14, 15 foot of water, which would be above the flood stage in certain places.

You look out across the parking lot there, and you can see how the wind is really starting to whip around here, Don, and it's coming around from out of the northwest to the southeast, but it has started to shift around a little bit on us now, as it's picked up, and continuing to just intensify gradually, a little at a time.

And certainly we expect that, within the next two or three hours, we are going to see, perhaps, winds at hurricane-force, maybe a little bit above, as we are very, very close to or expected to be very close to the eyewall of Hurricane Gustav -- Don. LEMON: All right. CNN's John Zarrella joining us from Lafayette -- John, thank you very much.

John brings up a very good point. He is talking about the Vermilion River and also other rivers here.

Many times -- Chad Myers, I want you to talk to me about this -- you can see from the rivers here, especially the Mississippi audience in Baton Rouge and then also here in Louisiana, you can see the ships. They're equal at eye level sometimes and the only thing holding the water back really is just -- is the levee. And so when the water gets up really high, you can see those ships go by right at eye level. There's really no difference between a ground level and that ship level there -- Chad Myers?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Here you go, buddy. I'm here.

Category 1 hurricane now, 75 miles per hour, 25 miles from New Orleans, down to about a 90-mile-per-hour storm, although I haven't seen a 90-mile-per-hour wind for -- for some time now. This storm still, though, is making its way across southern Louisiana to the west of New Orleans, getting very close with the northern eyewall to Baton Rouge.

And that's one issue. We're getting kind of populated area back in here where some very gusty winds are happening. Also eventually to Lafayette, to New Iberia as well. Houma, you're out of the woods, although you still have the south winds. You're out of the woods of the eye itself, so there's some good news there for you.

But you can still see a well-structured circle right through here, although a large circle. The bigger the circle, kind of like an ice skater with their arms out, kind of a slow kind of a spin, rather with the arms in, that will be a fast spin. Also the spin here, look at all these purple boxes. Can't hardly keep up with all those.

Those are all tornado warnings well east of the storm and that could happen from Mobile all the way to Pensacola to Panama City as well, certainly Biloxi and right up to Hattiesburg, certainly the relative possibility of this all day long, probably better damage here, more damage tonight from tornadoes than what's left of what is the remnants now of what was a pretty big storm at some point in time. And it really was.

Now, Jacqui, you're going to take us to something else, some live events that we have going on here from our hurricanetrack.com. Why don't you take it over?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right.

We have been talking about the eyewall and we saw John Zarrella there in Lafayette and experiencing some really intense winds. We have got actually live data that is coming in from New Iberia. We have got a company, hurricanetrack.com, that has these suitcases basically that are protected and waterproofed and cameras on them and also sensors so we can get real-time data here so you can see the winds right now in New Iberia.

These are one-minute average sustained winds, 60 miles per hour. So, that is one stiff wind and that does not mention some of the gusts, which could be reaching up there, 80, 90 plus miles per hour. I am going to switch this over and there you can see this is one of those suitcase cameras that I was talking about. And it looks like we have got a lot of water here standing in the streets in the areas and the visibility certainly reduced in this area right now as well.

Want to show you the eyewall conditions as this continues to push in there. Here in New Iberia and Lafayette ,the winds are coming more northwesterly right now, but as that eye begins to push in, be prepared that your winds are going to be shifting directions and coming in from the south to the southeast, so some big changes in here as that eyewall and the eye begins to move a little farther to the north and move into the I-10 Corridor.

So now is the time that you guys really need to hunker down and be in that safe area inside of your homes. We could have flying debris all over the place with this as this pushes on through, so make sure that you stay indoors in the interior part of your home -- Chad.

MYERS: Nice job, Jacqui. I like those pictures, even though you can hardly see...

(CROSSTALK)

JERAS: Don't you love that?

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: The winds blowing right across there, pretty amazing stuff.

I want to take you now to Chris Lawrence.

About a half-an-hour ago, an hour ago, we showed you some water coming over the top of the Industrial Canal. Well, now we're seeing it not (INAUDIBLE) over the top.

Chris, it looks like you have got something wrong going there, sir.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Don (sic), we're right along the eastern wall of the Industrial Canal here.

And just to set the scene, right to that side is the Lower Ninth Ward. So, that is the area that suffered so much devastation in Katrina when the Industrial Canal basically emptied out into that neighborhood. This, fortunately, is worse -- well, it's not as bad as it looks.

I just got done talking with a surveyor, who said that a lot of times walls, these flood walls are not designed to be 100 percent watertight, that they do allow for some water to seep through. But he did say this wall in particular right here is obviously letting through a lot more water than normal and that this seal that runs right along the middle needs to be repaired.

You can see where they actually put some sand bags there ahead of the hurricane to try to shore it up. But, again, this was the area that they were very concerned about. There is no barrier, no structure that is stopping a storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain from pouring into the Industrial Canal.

There will be, but that is some three years away and $700 million project away. So, for right now, the folks who live in the Lower Ninth Ward are going to have a lot more days with hurricanes like this where they will have to wonder, you know, will these flood walls hold up? Will that neighborhood be protected? -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Thank you very much, Chris Lawrence -- Chris Lawrence joining us from the Industrial Canal giving us an update on that very critical situation there that we're keeping a close eye on.

In the meantime, we want to talk about the people who need medical attention and help, medical the people are who are in hospitals. Some of them, many of them have been shipped out to other hospitals.

Our Sanjay Gupta out helped during Hurricane Katrina with some of the people who needed medical attention there and he is helping out this time as well. He is going to join us in a little bit from East Jefferson Hospital to bring us the very latest information on that.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Don Lemon. We have the very latest for you on Hurricane Gustav making its way across the state of Louisiana.

We want to give you the very latest information here from the Jefferson Parish emergency operation that we have been embedded in all evening. We have been getting updates from them and getting updates from them throughout the afternoon here today.

They're telling us so far there is no major damage at least when it comes to the levees and to the 17th Street Canal. But what they're telling us -- and the Industrial Canal, I should say -- but what they're telling us is that the water is overtopping that levee there and seeping under the levee as well and going into the Upper and Lower Ninth Wards, but not a lot, not as bad, definitely, as Hurricane Katrina.

Many of the officials here believed that they have dodged a bullet, but, of course, they're still concerned about that storm surge that still can come in and still can cause major flooding problems for Louisiana, as well as the rest of the coast here.

Within just the last couple of minutes or so, we're told that 435,000 people, 36,000 people or homes and businesses are without power, and that could rise. And also, also, we are told, that it won't be until maybe Wednesday or so until the electrical crews can actually get out to look at it, so it's going to be longer before they can even get their power back.

Joining us now with the very latest now from New York on the Republican National Convention, Soledad O'Brien joins us.

And, Soledad, we understand that there is some protesting going on at the convention there.

O'BRIEN: Yes, Joe Johns was giving us a live report just a few moments ago, and we have been told that they have been truncating the events there as planned, big party.

What you can see there, in spite of the truncated events certainly for today, there are still protests. And you're looking at a live picture of some of the protesters. We have heard estimates in the thousands, although apparently there was a goal to have 50,000 people at this protest and police are putting it according to the Associated Press around 2,000. So, that would be far short of their goal.

Joe Johns just a moment ago we he was bringing us up to speed on the protest told us that it was happening at Fifth and Jackson Street and that some of the protesters were throwing newspaper stands and bus benches into the streets and breaking windows, including windows on police cruisers, a little bit of bedlam, although he said there was sort of an amused group of locals who were watching trying to decide if they should literally go to the mall or continue to watch what was happening there.

Now, what we're looking at now is somewhat more peaceful than has been described, but according to the Associated Press there have been five arrests and some of those arrests took place after a dumpster was lit on fire and then rolled into a police car, all this happening again as the RNC cuts way back on what they had planned, dramatically altering the convention plans because the nation's eyes are really on Hurricane Gustav today.

Let's talk a little bit more about that. We have got Republican strategist Leslie Sanchez joining us.

Hey, Leslie. Nice to see you, as always.

And Democratic strategist Hilary Rosen joining us, too.

Let's start with you for a second, Hilary, if we can.

The truncated events, to what degree does this pose a big problem for the Republicans?

HILARY ROSEN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I actually think that, in terms of political problems, it's nobody's political problem right now. Everybody is focused on making sure everyone is safe on the Gulf Coast.

I do think the Republicans on some level have escaped the other big one, which is George Bush showing up and making a big speech. There was going to be a lot of focus on President Bush and tying John McCain to President Bush during this convention. After all, their policies are 95 percent in agreement, and that would have been a place to highlight it.

I think, actually, the president escaped, John McCain escaped, and, with the Republicans moving on to the rest of their convention tomorrow, that's probably a political plus for the Republicans, having, you know, despite what I know is very sincere concern over what's going on in the Gulf Coast.

O'BRIEN: Leslie, is it a problem that the Republicans don't have an opportunity to really introduce Sarah Palin, who to a lot of Americans is sort of an unknown factor here?

LESLIE SANCHEZ, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Not necessarily, Soledad.

I think that if you see one thing, there is solidarity in respect with both parties in trying to put the focus on the Gulf Coast. That's exactly where the focus should be right now.

With respect to that, look at the facts that it's still a 49-49 race. It is a dead heat. There's tremendous opportunity to get to know Senator McCain's pick of Sarah Palin.

And I tell you, I have been on the phone with a lot of women's groups, independent, bipartisan groups, such as the League of Women Voters in Ohio, the critical state, Women Impacting Public Policy, which is a half-a-million women-owned businesses.

And their one thing -- the feedback you get is, people are excited again about this race. They want to know more about her, but they're engaged and like to see a woman on the ticket. They like what Hillary Clinton did. And they like the fact that the women's effort is still moving forward.

That being said, I think there's still a lot of people who are also excited by the fact that this is somebody who's a reformer, a fiscal conservative, and they're learning more every day. So, I think there's going to be a tremendous opportunity for McCain to give not only his speech, but also to hear more from her directly.

O'BRIEN: And a Christian conservative, is that going to be a big problem? Some of the news today, as I know you both know, is that Sarah Palin has a 17-year-old daughter. Her campaign announced today that that daughter, who is a high school student, is five months pregnant, and has intention to keep the baby and has an intention to marry the young man who has gotten her pregnant.

How much of a problem does this pose, do you think? And, Hilary, why don't you start, and, then, Leslie, I will let you jump in. Or does it not at all?

(CROSSTALK) ROSEN: Well, it seems pretty clear that people's personal decisions should be their personal decisions. Senator Obama made a very emphatic statement today that he was not going to take off after somebody's child.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Right.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Let me stop you there, because my question is really if you're trying to appeal to conservatives, that could be a problem. Everyone is going to say, oh, personal should be personal, but is there going to be a problem there?

(CROSSTALK)

ROSEN: She's already been supported by the conservatives. I think the issue is, if you're trying to appeal to independents, which is where this campaign wants to go with Sarah Palin, as kind of Leslie just alluded to, the issue isn't what people do for their own families.

The issue is what kinds of decisions they think they have the right to make for other people's families. And that's where Sarah Palin and John McCain are going to fall short with independent women and others, because people respect people's own personal decisions, but they want the government to stay out of their lives.

And Sarah Palin's position is pretty clear. The government should make the decisions. It should be illegal to make your own personal choices. I think that's not going to fly with women and that's not going to fly with John McCain's position.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: That isn't exactly correct.

(CROSSTALK)

ROSEN: Sure. That's her position.

SANCHEZ: The Democratic position is they want to make all decisions for you or regulate, especially when it comes to money in your pocket.

(CROSSTALK)

ROSEN: No, it should not be illegal to choose.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Hilary, let Leslie finish.

Go ahead, Leslie. SANCHEZ: But kind of to speak to the point that you're talking about, Soledad, definitely, there has to be a high bar raised. This is something that deals with -- that is not relevant to the race in the sense that it deals with Sarah Palin and her family.

I think Barack Obama was correct to say that this is off-limits. Do not forget we cannot have a double standard here, like you had in asking for protection of Chelsea Clinton, of the Bush daughters. This is another issue where families should be off-limits. And there's a lot of mud-slinging.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: But voters may not think that way. When you say off- limits, that means my political opponents can't attack something. But, off-limits, I'm talking about voters. I'm talking about people you're supposed to appeal to.

SANCHEZ: Sure. And I think voters are pragmatists. Voters realize that families deal with all sorts of situations. These are real people.

If anything, some of the responses I heard about Sarah Palin from Republican women were, she seems very real. She has a lot of common sense. And they tied it very much to Ronald Reagan. The thing that was the appeal about Ronald Reagan was he was somebody who had common sense and he approached America the way America sees real problems.

So, in the sense of her authenticity, it's very genuine. I think in the sense of her private life, it's something again that is off- limits.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, we will see how it plays out.

Ladies, I thank you very much.

We're going to send it back to Don, who is right out in the middle of the storm covering this end of the story for us today -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Thank you very much for that, Soledad.

We want to get now to our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Sanjay helped out during Hurricane Katrina some of the people who needed medical help. And as I understand, Dr. Gupta, you're at East Jefferson Hospital and you took a ride along with some of the paramedics there.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it was a rare opportunity, Don.

They were doing patrol right before the winds started to get as powerful as some of the gusts you're probably feeling now. What their sort of rule of thumb that, once you have sustained (AUDIO GAP) hour, they're simply not going to go out anymore even if a 911 call comes in. It's a risk-and-reward sort of ratio. Now, the time that we went out, you were having gusts over 50 miles an hour, but they weren't sustained. As you're probably seeing, it was eerily quiet. They had taken a call earlier for a big house fire, really five houses that had caught fire at the same time.

That was the last call they took for some time now. Most of the ambulances being called back in because they simply don't want them out. Don, they took us around the levees. They showed us the 17th Street Canal. We saw the couple of areas where the water was getting quite high, spilling over to some extent, but it appears, as you know, I'm sure, that the levees all seem to be holding.

That's an area that the EMS patrols as well, Don.

LEMON: And you know what? We went out just before this broadcast at 12:00 Eastern time, Sanjay, and we got to look at some of the area as well and we also saw these ambulances. I don't know if you can talk to us about that. 9 Last night, a caravan of ambulances going down I-10 toward Baton Rouge and towards Monroe and going really towards higher ground. Talk to us about what they were doing. We understand they were transporting patients.

GUPTA: That's right.

And as you know, as we have been talking about, that's sort of the name of the game. One of the critical mistakes I think by everyone's admission during Katrina was what was known as late medical evacuation. They waited too long, simply put. And by the time they really realized these patients need to be evacuated, they were having a much harder time doing it because of the flooding.

LEMON: Yes.

GUPTA: We have visited several hospitals, four over the last couple of days. None of them are going to make that mistake again. They have all sort of focused on early medical evacs. It's still difficult, because these patients can be sick. Sometimes, a transport can be difficult.

LEMON: Right.

GUPTA: And again you have to balance it. But that's what you were seeing.

LEMON: All right. Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, always appreciate your work, Doctor. Make sure you stay safe.

GUPTA: You too.

LEMON: I'm sure I will be seeing you over the next couple of days.

LEMON: All righty. I'm Don Lemon. I will be reporting here throughout the evening for CNN. You're not going to miss it, the very latest on Gustav, the aftermath, the cleanup, and anything else that happens here.

I'm here in the New Orleans area and we will cover it for you.

Soledad, it's been a pleasure working with you.

O'BRIEN: And likewise, Don. And stay safe to you and all our CNN colleagues who are there as well.

Let's turn it over now to Wolf Blitzer, who is in "THE SITUATION ROOM."