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American Morning
Hurricane Gustav Closes in on the Louisiana Coast; Government Learns Lessons From Katrina; First Lady Laura Bush's Thoughts on the Government's Response to Hurricane Gustav
Aired September 01, 2008 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. I'm John Roberts here in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
A truncated Republican National Convention, only essential business today as the rains continue to come down in New Orleans. They might not even have anything happening tomorrow. They want to see what the results of the storm are.
As Kiran was saying, the sun just about to come up there in New Orleans, 6:00 a.m. Central time. Not many people left in town with killer Hurricane Gustav already causing flooding on the coast of Louisiana. It's a Category three storm. It's on course to hit Grand Isle that's just west and south of New Orleans and within probably an hour or two.
That means that the city, though, as the storm starts to move inland, is going to get the worst of the wind, rain and possible tornadoes, a storm surge of up to 14 feet in some areas, as it's on the northeastern side of the storm, which because of the circulation of the storms plus the forward motion, tends to be the worst part.
Forecasters say that the flooding could be worse than it was after Hurricane Katrina. The flood gates just closed on the Harvey Canal on the Mississippi River's West Bank. Lots of concern about that area where levees remain incomplete.
Now, forecasters warning that the storm could stall for days once it gets inland causing catastrophic flooding in Louisiana and parts of Texas.
CNN is your hurricane headquarters. Our correspondents are staring down the storm across the gulf.
Our Ali Velshi is already flooded in along the shore in Grand Isle right there along the Gulf of Mexico. Anderson Cooper standing by in the French quarter this morning. Rob Marciano getting rained on in the roof of the Omni Hotel, also in New Orleans. And Reynolds Wolf with the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center which came out just about a minute 20 -- or actually which came out just a little while ago.
First, let's go live to Ali Velshi. He's standing by right now in the bull's eye of that storm south of New Orleans, Grand Isle, Louisiana. It's a little tiny barrier island right there on the Gulf of Mexico. And, Ali, it looks like the winds are picking up substantially.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. But the character of this storm has changed since the last time we spoke not too long ago, John. And winds have picked up substantially as you said. At some point that eye wall -- some point within the next, between the next 45 and 90 minutes probably, that eye wall is going to be on us. It had winds, as Reynolds was saying, over 90 miles an hour sustained, gusting up to 117 miles an hour.
We're seeing that now. Here's the thing. We're using a million candle power light to see how the flooding is going. Just moments before you came to me, a lightning bolt lit up the sky at Grand Island for as far as I can see. And I can see pretty far from where I am when it was lit up. It's now grand lake.
It is water everywhere, and this water is coming up substantially faster than we thought it would. Here's the interesting thing. We don't know if it's topped the levees on the gulf side. The gulf is a quarter mile to my right. Barataria Bay is a quarter mile to my left. What's happening is if it didn't breach the levee, it's come around the back side of the island. We know because the fire captain is with me on the deck here, was out about an hour and a half ago, and he said the water is starting to come in from the bay.
We also reported that there were some roofs off of some structures. The one we're in is standing. I did feel a tremble a little bit about a few minutes ago as this wind has picked up, and I guess we're not at the height of where we are. So pretty soon, John, at some point when this picks up, we're going to seek shelter so that we're still here to continue reporting.
As I told you earlier, this island is largely evacuated. There was one gentleman who is staying on the island. He's not with us and the fire captain has been trying to keep in contact with him.
There was another gentleman. His father who was staying on the island, he's now been brought to our house. This is said to be a very secure spot on the island.
We're flooded in here on the island which means that the roads, which are below sea level out of here, are now washed out. We're not going to be able to get off this island until the water recedes or we get out in a boat. So we're in for the long haul.
The oil facilities around here, which we can see with the naked eye when the sun is up, are shut down. Oil's locked in. We're locked in. And we're waiting for this eye wall to hit -- John.
ROBERTS: Ali, we should point out for our viewers at home that the average height above sea level of Grand Isle is about seven feet. We're expecting from this storm a storm surge of anywhere from seven to 14 feet. You can do the math to figure out that you're going to be surrounded by water where you are. Give us some idea of the structure that you're in and why in the world you would ever choose to ride out the storm there. VELSHI: We came here to do a story on the oil facilities and the fact that this is a shrimping headquarters. The guy whose house this is runs a shrimping processing, shrimp processing facility a quarter mile, right on the bay right over here.
Now, he wanted to stay here because right after the hurricane, the shrimpers head right out because that's some of the best shrimping around, and he wanted them to be able to come and sell him the shrimps so he can distribute it. He built his house. He lost a lot in Katrina. He said he wanted a house that would withstand the hurricane.
Now, the water -- we're on the second level of his house. There's a third level that's 30 feet up, so we're safe in here. He's got steel beams that go into the ground. He's got a steel structure. Like I said, it was trembling. Maybe we'll lose some windows or something but the structure here we're pretty confident is going to stand.
We were in the ground level. That we haven't gotten down in the last five minutes. I'm sure that's flooded by now -- John.
ROBERTS: All right. Our Ali Velshi this morning on Grand Isle braving the teeth of the hurricane. We should point out that this is Ali's first hurricane and in this case no time like your first.
We want to give you a little bit of insight into a great piece of technology that allows CNN to report live from places that other networks can't. It's called a BGAN. Basically it's a piece of equipment about the size of a laptop computer. It's a satellite phone, sends a signal up into space, connects with the satellite, and enables our field crews to get an Internet connection from almost anywhere on earth.
Once they have that, they hook up their microphones and cameras into a laptop and we can put them on television via broadband. Several of our crews are using this technology today, including Ali Velshi who is able to come up live from that remote spot on Grand Isle, Louisiana. And, obviously, Ali has gone inside. We assure you that he did not blow away, though he may before this is all over -- Kiran.
CHETRY: John, thanks. You know, as we mentioned, New Orleans virtually empty this morning after the largest evacuation in state history. And officials say that close to two million people chose to heed those warnings and get out.
There's a look at the cars. The line extended for miles Saturday as people made their way north getting out of harm's way. But there were some 10,000 people by estimates that officials say are still there in New Orleans with no guarantee that the levees will hold. And this time there is no shelter of last resort like the super dome.
CNN's Anderson Cooper is live for us in the French quarter. You guys are there, I know a lot of crews are there, a lot of police and authorities. Do you have any sense of who else decided to try to ride this out?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You know, last night when we were broadcasting up until around midnight from the French quarter, a couple of local residents came by, people walking their dogs and a lull between rain bands of the storm, and just a couple other folks who still had electricity saw our broadcast and wanted to just come out and say hello.
You know, New Orleans is used to storms. It is -- this is something which happens here with some frequency over the years. So there's a lot of people who have seen many kinds of storms and just think they can ride it out.
And in the French quarter, it's on relatively higher ground. Traditionally this is an area which has not flooded. So, you know, the buildings here are pretty strong. They're old. They have hurricane shutters. People literally lock themselves in their homes and just kind of ride it out.
It's other parts of New Orleans where we've really seen the problems. Obviously, with Katrina in the Lakeview area in the Lower Ninth Ward, and now with this storm, it's going to be that West Bank area where those West Bank levees, as you've been talking about all morning, are simply untested. In some places, there are big gaps in those levees.
But for the most part, as you said, just about everybody has left. I mean, 90 to 95 percent of the folks in southeastern Louisiana have evacuated -- the largest evacuation in this state's history according to state police. But that still means as many as 10,000 may still be here in New Orleans and as many as 90,000 to 100,000 may still be in coastal areas along southeastern Louisiana.
Now, I talked to the IDRA (ph) here with the LSU Hurricane Center late last night. They've done computer modeling on, in terms of fatalities that may occur from this storm. And according to their computer model, they say that as many as 100 people may drown and get killed in this storm.
Again, that is a computer model based on the idea of there being about 90,000 people who remained behind in southeastern Louisiana. Let's hope those computer models are proved wrong and the way they can be proved wrong is just by people taking precautions.
The state, local and federal officials are pleased with the amount of people they saw evacuated. Far more people evacuated now than it had evacuated during Hurricane Katrina. But exactly how many remain is not known and exactly where they are is simply not known. And that's what worries local police officials and the National Guard.
You know that people have been warned that if you're still here you're basically on your own. But they know that, you know, if flooding occurs we're going to see people as we saw before, you know, moving to the roofs of their homes, waiting, trying to get some help. And then officials are going to have to move into high gear on that. But that is stage three or stage four. Right now, we are in stage two of the storm. Stage one was the evacuation or the preparations. Now, the storm is coming although as you've been looking at throughout this hour, we really have not seen the brunt of this thing. We're expecting much stronger winds to build gradually over the next two, three hours. The rain has increased here in the French quarter, but it is nowhere near what we are expecting to see in the coming hours -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Anderson Cooper, thanks so much, reporting from the French quarter. And, yes, we're just getting some new estimates as well by FEMA. They're saying that this total storm damage could end up costing upwards of $8 billion, billion with a "b" dollars. We're going to be talking with Frances Townsend, who is the former Bush Homeland Security adviser, in just a couple of minutes about the federal response and whether or not we are ready.
Meanwhile, a reminder. If you're away from your TV, you can get up to the second coverage of Hurricane Gustav on CNN.com.
I'm getting a look at Anderson Cooper's shot off to the side here. It looks like power just went out in the French quarter again. They're preparing as the storm makes its way and starts to bear down, but I just saw all the lights behind Anderson go out.
We're going to take a quick break. There's a look right now. Actually, we see some lights on there where Anderson is.
Anderson, the lights just -- did the power just go out for you in that area?
COOPER: Yes, looks like the power in the French quarter has gone out. I can look down at Canal Street and still see lights on Canal Street, but here in the quarter they have definitely gone out. The light you're seeing is the light we have from our own generator.
And while I can hear a couple of other generators, there's a big hotel nearby. Sounds like their generator just kicked on. But at this point, and I'm just trying to look, you know it's interesting, I look over to the Mississippi which is just about two blocks from where I am, looks like street lights are still on over there. So it may just be localized in this area because down on Canal Street you can still see some lights on.
So, again, this part of the French quarter around St. Louis and Charter Street, power is out here. But I can see also police still on patrol. The police are going to be continuing to patrol, and especially as the power starts to go out, they're going to increase those patrols. But once though at the heart of the storm comes ashore, once the winds really kick up to hurricane strength winds, they, too, are going to hunker down, wait this thing out as we are, and then come out to see what the damage is and assess it then, Kiran.
CHETRY: Yes. And that's a good example of just how unpredictable and scary the situation is going to get. As officials have said, there's going to be no shelter of last resort, like there was during Katrina. COOPER: Right.
CHETRY: There's going to be no superdome, and so you really are on your own if you're somebody who, for whatever reason, is still in New Orleans today.
COOPER: Yes, that's absolutely the message. They've been sending that out now for months if not years. I mean, they made a determination a long time ago, look, we are not going to repeat the nightmare of the convention center where folks were lied to, told to go there, that there would be food and supplies there, buses to take them out. There were none three years ago.
It's a much different story this time. As you've seen, there were buses, there were trains that took on Saturday about 10,000 people out. Total probably of about 18,000 people were helped to evacuate by state and local officials on those buses, on those trains. But for the folks who are here now, you know, they're here and they're on their own until the worst of the storm passes and then the police and officials do as best they can to try to help them out.
It's really kind of the die-hard folks who have decided to stay. I talked to some homeless people who are staying. Some folks have ridden out storms in the past, but an awful lot of folks who decided to ride out Katrina and who came back here have decided, you know what, I'm getting to get out of town for this one.
So as we said, not that many people remaining in New Orleans and in all of southeastern Louisiana, and that is certainly good news.
CHETRY: Right. And I know not an easy choice for many. You have a lot of things left at home, in some cases pets and other obligations but, again, the smart thing to do in this situation.
Anderson Cooper, thanks. He is on -- he's being lit only by generator right now as we just got word that the lights went out in the French quarter where he is. And also that 10 minutes before that, our CNN correspondent Chris Lawrence is little bit west of where Anderson is also reporting power outage in the western part of downtown New Orleans. So developments are happening by the minute. We'll continue to follow them here on the show.
And also, coming up, President Bush skipping the Republican Convention. He's going to be monitoring the storm from Texas. The government response to Hurricane Katrina may be one of the darkest points of his second term. So what have the Feds learned in three years?
We're going to be speaking with former Homeland Security adviser Fran Townsend next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: 15 minutes after the hour continuing to watch Hurricane Gustav as its coming to shore here on your hurricane headquarters at CNN. Our Rob Marciano there as we're looking at a picture of the French quarter. He's on the roof of the Omni Hotel which three years ago suffered a lot of damage. Almost a quarter of the windows have been blown out of the hotel.
Rob, what's it like this time around? And from your vantage point, can you start to see that patchwork of power outages that we typically see when a hurricane comes through? When we had Anderson on a moment ago, we saw the power go out right behind him.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, our vantage point is quite extraordinary. And when the sun comes up, you'll hopefully be able to see it. But to my left basically is all of the French quarter and in the last 10 minutes they went out. Boom, boom, boom. Little spots of it.
We could see transformers exploding in the distance like firecrackers and fireworks. And now, there seem to be one or two fires that are burning in the vicinity of where those transformers blew out. So we've got power out. Looks to be in the entire French quarter. On the eastern side of the quarter, looks to be a couple of fires that were sparked by those transformers blowing out.
We've heard car alarms and burglar alarms going up. Certainly an eerie situation. To my right, we're a little bit farther to the west, west of canal at least in spots, the higher skyscrapers and hotels there look to, some of them seem to have some power still with them. That's the good news there.
But here in the French quarter, things are getting a little bit hairy. The building tops a little bit lower and because of that we're getting buffeted by the winds for sure. Well, this may very well be our last shot for a little while.
We're going to have to reposition our satellite dish because winds now getting 50 to 60 miles an hour, and that's usually the time when you start to see trees come down and power lines come down and transformers blow. And that's exactly what we've seen right now and those winds are too strong as well for the transmission of our satellite dish. We'll have to reposition that.
But certainly, John, winds have been picking up steadily now. This is the worst we've seen all morning and with Gustav a little over 80 miles to our south, that direction, we've got another several hours before things get any better.
I don't suspect things will really start to calm down until after night fall tonight. So it's certainly going to be a long day and still another hour or two before the sun comes up and about a quarter of the city right now is dark -- John.
ROBERTS: Yes. You know, those tropical storm force winds, they reach out more than 200 miles from the center of that storm. But, Rob, I can tell you your signal looks really solid right now. Not taking any of what we call satellite hits. So maybe you got a little while longer but, obviously, throughout the morning you'll probably want to get to some safer ground there.
MARCIANO: I'll lobby for that.
ROBERTS: Rob Marciano for us.
MARCIANO: Thanks.
ROBERTS: All right. Rob Marciano for us on the roof of the Omni Hotel in downtown New Orleans.
Coming up on 18 minutes after the hour, she canceled her speech today at the Republican National Convention because of Hurricane Gustav, but First Lady Laura Bush will be joining us live on CNN in just a few minutes.
Stay with us. CNN is your hurricane headquarters.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: All right. And welcome back. There's a live look right now of New Orleans this morning where it is 6:19 a.m. The sun has not come up and some of those outer bands of Gustav already being felt there as we just saw from Rob Marciano.
You know, a similar scene three years ago, since hurricane Katrina hit, killing close to 2,000 people, most of them elderly. Left another 10,000 plus homeless and the federal government took a beating back then for its preparation or lack of preparation and response.
Joining us now is former White House Homeland Security adviser and new CNN national security contributor Frances Townsend.
Great to have you with us this morning. Thanks for being here.
FRANCES TOWNSEND, FMR. W.H. HOMELAND SECURITY ADVISER: Good morning, Kiran.
CHETRY: As we understand it, you spearheaded this report, a study of the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina. What were the biggest lessons learned?
TOWNSEND: Well, especially in the pre-landfall stage, the preparation, the evacuation contra flow allowing for the flow of traffic to adjacent states, getting the word out early, telling people to prepare -- all that's gone pretty well. The other piece to that is the fact that they had -- they've been thrown some curveballs if you will.
They had this late medical evacuation issue that Secretary Chertoff talked about yesterday when he was leaving Andrews Air Force Base. They were able to deal with that. They got help from the Canadians. That's a very good sign in terms of their agility.
CHETRY: What are you looking at as possibly the biggest concern? What is it as this storm bears down on this area once again we have to be most concerned about?
TOWNSEND: Well, the good -- the good news if there's any, Kiran, is that the storm because it's moving so quickly, that will reduce the amount of surge and that's good news for New Orleans. As you reported this morning, while there's been a lot of work to strengthen, and the levees, that's mostly been done on the east side. Because of where the storm's coming in, we worry now about the west side which has had only minimal work.
CHETRY: Right.
TOWNSEND: Anderson was reporting on that. And so --
CHETRY: You know, I want to ask you about that, Frances. Does it strike you as odd that three years after Katrina when there was so much emphasis put on the need to rebuild and bolster these levees that they're still incomplete, that there is still huge gaps as some of our reporters have been noting this morning?
TOWNSEND: Well, it's obviously a concern. The problem -- I think the problem was for the Army Corps. You couldn't work on all things at the same time. You had to pick priorities. And because of the devastation left after Katrina on the east side, they chose to begin there.
I think that made good sense and they have this plan that goes to 2011. The problem is, you know, this is -- you know, Katrina was the hundred-year storm and here we are three years later facing another Category three into the gulf coast of Louisiana.
And so, they had to pick priorities. They picked them. I think it was reasonable. It's just unfortunate now given where this is coming in, the likely surge they're going to see on the west side.
CHETRY: Right. You say seven to 14 feet. We're, of course, going to be watching it all morning and as we noted with Katrina, they thought that they had weathered the worst of it and it was then only later -- hours and hours later that they discovered the levee breaches and the flooding.
Frances Townsend, great to have you with us, thanks.
TOWNSEND: Thank you.
ROBERTS: 22 minutes now after the hour. Since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005, First Lady Laura Bush has made some 20 trips to the gulf coast to check on recovery efforts. What are her thoughts this morning as Gustav comes ashore? We'll ask her, coming up next in your hurricane headquarters, CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: 26 minutes after the hour. A look live inside the Xcel Center here in Saint Paul, Minnesota, home of the Republican National Convention, which has had to dial back its schedule because of Hurricane Gustav. Only essential business will take place today. Gaveling in the convention, there are certain things that they need to do legally in order for John McCain to become the party's nominee and they'll get that business out of the way today.
First Lady Laura Bush was supposed to be speaking tonight at the convention. She has canceled that speech. She has been to the gulf coast numerous times since Hurricane Katrina hit three years ago, and she joins us now live this morning.
Good morning to you, Mrs. Bush. It's good to see you.
LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Good morning to you, John.
ROBERTS: So you canceled your speech tonight. Any idea how this is going to affect the rest of the convention? And will you eventually be speaking here?
BUSH: Well, I don't know that. Actually all of the program tonight has been canceled. As you said, the Republican delegates will meet today for their regular business -- all of the things they need to do legally to nominate John McCain for their candidate for president.
So tonight has been canceled. We'll wait and see. I think they'll just sort of play it by ear and see. I know the delegates are disappointed. They come from all over the country to have this big celebration, but on the other hand I know they understand.
ROBERTS: Right. You and Mrs. McCain this morning...
BUSH: That's right.
ROBERTS: ... as I understand will be having breakfast with the Louisiana delegation.
BUSH: We are going to go have breakfast with the Louisiana delegation, and I hope to see some other delegations while I'm here. There's a luncheon that was already planned that I'll go to and, you know, try to see as many delegates as possible.
ROBERTS: Now, as we mentioned, you've been to the gulf coast many times.
BUSH: That's right.
ROBERTS: I think it's more than 20 times since Hurricane Katrina hit. What are your thoughts this morning as this hurricane is coming ashore?
BUSH: Well, I'm worried, of course, like everybody is. I'm encouraged that so many people have left. I know that the -- both the federal, local, and state response is going to be much, much better prepared than it was for Katrina. The coordination between federal, local and state is going to be much better. Supplies and everything are repositioned. So I know the response to it is going to be a lot better. And because people now know to take a hurricane so seriously, many, many people have evacuated. Very few people have stayed. And so that's encouraging to know that people will be safe.
ROBERTS: Now, John McCain during this campaign has said repeatedly that he will never repeat the mistakes of this administration in responding to a hurricane. I'm sure that you've talked to your husband many times about what happened in 2005.
BUSH: Yes.
ROBERTS: What has he said to you about that?
BUSH: Well, a lot of lessons were learned from that for sure. And mistakes were made by everyone, by the local government, by the state government, by the federal government. And, really, part of it was not being able to have the really good communication that we would need between the three governments.
And we have taken care of that. We know that that's a lot better. And the lessons that were learned from Katrina can serve the United States very well in any kind of disaster not just a hurricane but another kind of disaster and I think that's really important. And I think it's important for the people of the United States to know that.
I'm worried particularly about schools because I've spent so much of my time on the gulf coast with the rebuilding of schools, the rebuilding of school libraries. And it worries me about students once again being dispersed across the country as they have evacuated and I hope people will be able to get right back home and get their children right back in school.
ROBERTS: Of course, the major focus today is looking in Washington what's happening with Hurricane Gustav. The Republican National Committee has said we're going to put away any political rhetoric today. But let me ask you a little bit about politics if I could.
BUSH: Sure.
ROBERTS: When you were on with us last year you said you're looking forward to voting for the first woman candidate for president on the Republican side.
BUSH: I was so excited about getting my wish and getting to vote for a Republican woman for vice president. I'm thrilled.
ROBERTS: Now, when we had Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison on, on Friday, she said she didn't know much about Sarah Palin. Do you?
BUSH: Well, I do know Sarah, Governor Palin, because she's been to the White House for the National Governors' Association a couple of times, and I've met with her there and George and I just stopped in Alaska on our way to when we were flying to Asia for the Olympics. We stopped at the -- to see our troops there and Governor Palin was there with us. And I know how strong she is. I know, you know, what that kind of life in a state like Alaska is and the kind of women that state produces and I'm very thrilled that she's on our ticket.
ROBERTS: And what about these questions of experience?
BUSH: I tell you what. I think she has a lot of experience that none of the other three people who are on either ticket have and that is she has the experience of being a mayor, which I think is very important. I think mayors across the country will tell you that running the city or running the town is totally different experience from any other kind of government. Your constituents are right there.
ROBERTS: So is that a suggestion that on some level she has more experience than Senator McCain does?
BUSH: Well, I think she has a different experience. She's the mother of five kids. She's doing that while she's worked. She was pregnant when I was last with her at the National Governors' Association. And since had that baby. I just have a lot of admiration for her. And I think she brings a judgment and a common sense to this that is just terrific.
ROBERTS: Well, Mrs. Bush, it's good to see you again. We'll let you go because you've got a busy schedule.
BUSH: Thanks, John.
ROBERTS: But we look forward to you speaking sometime this week.
BUSH: Thanks a lot. I hope I get to.
ROBERTS: Many times I've seen you before particularly at the White House's Correspondents Association dinner. You bring the house down. I appreciate it.
BUSH: Thank you very much.
ROBERTS: Thank you so much. Kiran.
CHETRY: John, thanks. CNN's Anderson Cooper live for us in the French Quarter where they already lost power last time we were on with Anderson. What's the update?
COOPER: Well, power is still out in this area but I'm seeing lights in other parts of the French Quarter. So it doesn't seem to be kind of quarter wide. I'm not sure about other aspects of the city. We don't have many communications with those other parts of the city. That's really where the concern lies.
You know, after Katrina a lot of folks who were covering it from the French quarter and other parts kind of thought the worst had passed only to realize a couple hours later actually the city was starting to flood. So it's really going to be hours after this storm has made landfall that once it calms down a bit and we're able to drive around and kind of go out to different areas that we're really get a sense of the power of this storm.
At this point as it's starting to rain pretty hard, pretty steady in the French quarter. But it's not that sideways, that horizontal rain that's the sign of this storm, really coming close. It's still just a vertical rain with a slight wind not too bad at all. So we're seeing still a lot of police on patrol. We know those patrols are going to slow down and stop, finally, once those hurricane force winds start. But at this point we're starting to get some first light here in the French quarter and that's going to help the matter a lot in terms of the power being out. It won't matter quite so much.
So at this point, just seeing a little bit of daybreak and that is certainly a welcome sign. We've been out here now for several hours. It's nice to see some light coming but again, we know the worst is still yet to come, Kiran.
CHETRY: It sure is. And we'll be checking in throughout he morning with you, Anderson. Thanks. Also, New Orleans area hospitals are staying open. We're going to show you how they're preparing. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta will have a live report for us from the region as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's almost 36 minutes after the hour, daybreak here in New Orleans, looking at the French quarter as the rain continues to come down and you can see the palm trees in the background blowing there a little bit as some tropical force winds, tropical storm force winds rather are starting to buffet that town. But where it's really bad is south of New Orleans, about 50 miles south as the crow flies, hard along the Gulf coast. And that is a little tiny strip of land called Grand Isle. You can see it out there, almost all by itself.
And out there almost all by himself this morning, only about ten people remaining on that island, is our Ali Velshi. And Ali, as the light begins to come up there we can start to see some of the effects the storm behind you.
What's it like being there?
VELSHI: It's amazing. The light just came up about ten minutes ago, John, and we were very surprised. We knew the water had come up from the bay, clearly it had broken the levees on the gulf side. This is now part of the Gulf of Mexico. You can see these houses like the one I'm on, the decks I'm on. These decks are about 20 feet up. I'm judging that the water is four, four and a half feet. It was a foot an hour ago so it's coming up very quickly.
The flow of the water is very rapid. This wind is coming in. We think we might be 45 minutes to an hour from the eye wall coming in to us. There is damage that we can see but really the issue here is how this place has just been overrun with water. This will be much of it in the southern Louisiana, the coastal places along the Gulf of Mexico. This has been very, very serious, the degree to which the water has come in here. Again, like you pointed out, here's the good news. People have evacuated these coastal parishes in big numbers on Saturday and Sunday so we don't think there are many people but we do know there are some behind other than us here in Jefferson Parish and in Grand Isle.
At the moment, we remain safe because we've got a good structure. We're going to head in at some point when the eye wall comes upon us but this is, I mean, we just can't get over the fact that this is, clearly, the flow of the Gulf of Mexico that is now on top of Grand Isle. There is no ground visible. There is no earth visible here at all, John.
ROBERTS: It's amazing. That storm surge comes up and everything turns into an island there. All of the structures. The good news, Ali, is the last time a hurricane went through that they didn't find an eye wall so maybe things won't be as bad as we originally expected there in Grand Isle. But stay safe, my friend. We'll get back to you. Thanks very much. Kiran.
CHETRY: And we're going to head north of Ali right now where Dr. Sanjay Gupta is at East Jefferson General Hospital, it's in Metairie, Louisiana. And he joins us live via broadband this morning with more in the decision to stay open for these hospitals and the preparations that they've made sure that they've undertaken so that they can do it safely. What's the latest, Sanjay?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That was such a big issue three years ago with Katrina, these late medical evacuations that we heard so much about. Such a problem. Because it was just impossible to evacuate patients after the fact. So one of the tenets of so many hospitals in this area had been to try to evacuate early. East Jefferson, as you mentioned, is one of the hospitals staying open.
But so much has been learned over the years about these hurricanes. They measure things by hurricanes here, Kiran. You know, like, for example if you think about hurricane Betsy, this particular hospital was built up on higher land so as to avoid a lot of the flooding around this particular area and during Katrina this was almost a little bit of an island.
After Katrina they sort of reinforced the hospital with reinforce steel. They put the generators at higher levels. We'll take a look at some of these vehicles behind me. These are not typical ambulances. These are vehicles that are ready to go into flood waters and bring patients back to the hospital. That's sort of the goal here.
As you mentioned, this is one of the hospitals that has remained open. They tried to pare down the number of patients as much as possible. But you remember three years ago at Charity Hospital where I was, it was so hard to get those patients out. There were patients that were taken to rooftop decks, carried up eight flights of stairs, waiting for days on end for helicopters to come and evacuate them. They are trying to avoid a situation like that this time around.
CHETRY: Sanjay Gupta for us in Metairie, Louisiana this morning. Thank you so much. We're going to take a quick break.
When CNN comes back here on AMERICAN MORNING, we're going to be speaking with Lt. Gen. Russel Honore. He is the one who led the relief efforts in the days after Katrina, trying to help get things organized amid such chaos. He's a CNN contributor. He's going to join us with more on whether or not the city, the state and the federal government is more prepared this time around. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well the federal government is pledging a better response to Hurricane Gustav than the response to Katrina and joining me now is Retired U.S. Army general and CNN contributor Russel Honore. He led the charge into New Orleans and the area of the gulf coast right after Katrina and he'll be able to give us an independent read on how the government is going to do this time.
Thanks for being with us this morning, general.
LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good morning.
CHETRY: First of all, we talked about this enormous evacuation, 1.9 million people from the Louisiana coast alone. It looks like people are heeding those warnings. What do you think in terms of whether or not the state, the local, and the federal government is better prepared?
HONORE: Well, first of all, the decision to evacuate is a family decision. That was triggered by great work by the governor, the parish presidents, and the mayor. But, Kiran, this exit plan you saw executed for an evacuation was a culmination of about almost three years of planning and refinement and rehearsals by the state of Louisiana and the inter-agency led by Secretary Chertoff as we got orders after Katrina never again.
And as a result of that, northern command, stationed out in Colorado, under the command of General (Renoir) left a team along with inter-agency planners after Katrina to prepare for 2006. That team stayed on the ground nearly a year planning along with the state of Louisiana and the lower parishes to develop an evacuation plan that you saw executed with superb precision with a few glitches. But that plan was created right after Katrina, again, a national cry of never again. We heard loud and clear instructions from the President and from the Congress to do better and not have another Katrina.
So that evacuation plan was based on a lot of planning in the inter-agency from Homeland Security, Northern Command, and the great leadership there in Louisiana and you saw that plan executed yesterday but the big shift, too, was the people heeding the warnings to leave.
CHETRY: Well, one thing people don't have control over and that's whether or not the flooding will happen or not. And you talk about the precision with which these evacuations plans were made yet we're still talking about levees that have huge gaps in the system and a question about whether or not they will hold and whether or not they've been built the way they need to be to withstand a storm like this. Why was the evacuation plan a must by 2006 but we're hearing the levees weren't designed to be up to speed until 2011?
HONORE: Well, number one you've got about 00 miles of levees there. Number two, the effort after Katrina was to fix those parts of the levee that had broke. That was the priority because it was the most vulnerable areas of the lower Ninth Ward, St. Bernard Parish. I think in many cases you'll see much improvement but there's much left to be done.
What you see as a result of the deterioration of those levees, that started 20, 30 years ago, and now Katrina unfolded the vulnerabilities we have particularly when you have the city the size of New Orleans and the effect if you don't get an evacuation once those levees become over the top. But you will never build enough levees to protect you against a category 5 or 4 hurricane. So flooding is an obvious - that will happen if you get a hurricane like Katrina or as we see unfolding here in Gustav.
That's not to defend the levees. I'm not here to do that. I'm just explaining the reality that when you get a big hurricane of the size of Katrina or now looks like Gustav you're going to get some flooding whether you have a levee or not.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we want to thank you for being with us this morning General Russel Honore. Thank you.
ROBERTS: 46 1/2 minutes after the hour, a safe place to be, New Orleans Children's Hospital staying open during the hurricane and actually taking in more people. We'll have a live report. You're watching the most news in the morning on your hurricane headquarters, CNN.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. We are following breaking news this hour. Hurricane Gustav slamming the Louisiana coast right now. Power already out in some parts of New Orleans. CNN has reporters dispatched all across the Gulf coast this morning. From the most isolated parts of the Louisiana coast down there at Grand Isle to further inland and New Orleans.
President Bush this morning is heading to Texas hoping to put the ugly memories of Hurricane Katrina to rest with a better government response this time. White House correspondent Ed Henry joins me now from the floor of the Republican National Convention here in St. Paul. And a lot of people along the Gulf coast are sort of saying if a hurricane was going to hit, it couldn't hit at a better time because republicans really have to pay attention.
ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, John. You know, it's extremely rare for an incumbent president to skip a convention. The last one was Lyndon Johnson in 1968. But given that Katrina legacy, President Bush had had no other choice.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) HENRY (voice-over): President Bush was fully briefed on Hurricane Gustav and is now heading to Texas for storm preps instead of Minnesota for the Republican National Convention.
PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I also spoke with Mayor Nagin of New Orleans to make sure that they're getting everything they need from the federal government to prepare for what all anticipate will be a difficult situation.
HENRY: Mr. Bush wants to show compassion for the Gulf coast, but he's also trying to exercise the political demons of Hurricane Katrina.
BUSH: And Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.
HENRY: So many devastating images weighing on the president's legacy.
ALEX CASTELLANOS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think there's some concern among republicans that the president who rose so high on 9/11 on the pile of rubble that the administration sank a bit in the waters of Katrina.
HENRY: In fact, John McCain traveled to New Orleans this spring to say Katrina was handled disgracefully. And after visiting Mississippi this weekend, he vowed the federal response will be better this time.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have every expectation that we will not see the mistakes of Katrina repeated.
HENRY: Democrats say that's what led McCain to scramble to adjust the convention schedule.
SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD (D), CONNECTICUT: That the Bush administration not let this city drown basically three years ago we wouldn't be talking about it.
HENRY: But republicans say it's cynical to suggest Katrina is the only reason the GOP is curtailing the big bash in St. Paul.
CASTELLANOS: It's pretty clear that when people are hurting it's not the time to have a party, it's not the time to have a political spectacle. It's time to get a bucket and go help.
HENRY: A message the President is delivering as he tries to show this time he's on top of Hurricane Gustav.
BUSH: Do not put yourself in harm's way or make rescue workers take unnecessary risks and know that the American people stand with you and that we'll face this emergency together.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HENRY: Now, the President is not going to New Orleans yet because he doesn't want his large security detail to get in the way of immediate rescue operations. And there's also some republican officials, John saying maybe the President will end up speaking to the delegates later in the week if the storm is not too bad and the convention gets back on track. Maybe he'll come to St. Paul or maybe he'll talk to the delegates via live remote.
ROBERTS: I'm sure that we're going to see a lot of action along the Gulf Coast this week. I'm sure Senator McCain will be going down there and I'm sure that Senator Obama and Joe Biden will end up down there as well. Ed Henry, thanks very much.
HENRY: Thank you, John.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY (voice-over): Running for their lives -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really don't want to be here when it happens.
Intense outer bands of Hurricane Gustav hitting Louisiana right now. Thousands still in danger after the largest evacuation in state history. And looting, rape and murder. The tragedy after a natural disaster live with the New Orleans Police Department. The lessons learned from chaos after Katrina.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: The storm's ashore. The eye of the hurricane now just approaching Grand Isle, about 20 miles offshore. There's some live pictures for you this morning from Ali Velshi's position as the Gulf of Mexico sweeps across that narrow spit of land there. All of those homes now islands unto themselves. Wind gusts of 117 miles an hour now lashing the area. We'll check in with Ali Velshi there in Grand Isle as well.
We have got Anderson Cooper who is live with us up in New Orleans today where he spent so much time in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina telling all those compelling stories. New concerns that as the storm moves inland, it could stall over Louisiana and parts of Texas, causing disastrous flooding in some of those areas. And don't forget, you can get up to the second coverage of Hurricane Gustav. Just head to CNN.com.
Well, hospitals in New Orleans have evacuated hundreds of patients, but some of the youngest and most critically ill are staying behind with their parents because evacuating them is just too risky. CNN's Susan Roesgen is live at Children's Hospital in New Orleans for us this morning. Good morning, Susan.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. It is certainly storming here outside, but those young patients are safe inside.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRACY BAYLEY, PATIENT'S MOTHER: Can you smile? ROESGEN (voice-over): Tracy Bayley can't bear to tell her son Cameron about the hurricane that's on the way. Four-year-old Cameron had heart surgery just 10 days ago.
BAYLEY: He knows there's a little storm coming, but as long as I'm here, he's happy. He's calm.
ROESGEN: In 50 years, New Orleans Children's Hospital has locked its doors only once, and that was when Hurricane Katrina forced them to. This time, the hospital plans to stay open no matter what.
BRIAN LANDRY, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL NEW ORLEANS: It's one of those situations for us, if every time when a hurricane came to the community or the threat of one we moved all our patients, I think we would find that some of our patients wouldn't survive.
ROESGEN: When the hospital staff knew a storm was coming, they were ready. The hospital has food and water and generators to keep the power going for three weeks and a backup plan just in case.
ROESGEN (on-camera): Now, if worst comes to worst and the hospital has to evacuate, here's something it didn't have in Hurricane Katrina, a helicopter landing pad.
ROEGEN (voice-over): But the doctors and nurses here who volunteered to stay have no intention of evacuating the patients or themselves. There are 80 young children here now, more than half in critical care. You don't want to leave them?
CRYSTAL MAYEAUX, NURSE, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: No, no. We're attached to a lot of the babies here. So, that's important to us, too.
ROESGEN: Claire Trahan's son, Jude, was born prematurely with a heart problem. For the duration of the storm parents are allowed to stay at the hospital with their children and that's a comfort to Claire and her husband.
MICHAEL TRAHAN, PATIENT'S FATHER: He's been through a lot of stuff and this is just another chapter in the book of his life, you know. So that does give us some strength and some comfort.
ROESGEN: A chapter with an uncertain ending.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROESGEN: Now, I have to tell you, John, that from time to time, some of the doctors and nurses come out here. They just got to get a look at this. Because many of the windows here in the hospital, of course, are boarded up. So, they want to see what's happening with what we believe is pretty much the bad part of the storm comes through here. They actually have 900 people in the hospital, John (INAUDIBLE). There's 80 young patients. And we just lost our light in the power.
I'll toss it back to you, John. ROBERTS: All right. Susan Roesgen for us this morning, outside Children's Hospital there in New Orleans. And obviously, even through the brunt of the storm is being felt right there along the Gulf Coast, Grand Isle, where our Ali Velshi is still (INAUDIBLE) some effects inland there in New Orleans. As the power starts to go out in the French Quarter and right there where Susan is, as well -- Kiran.
