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American Morning
Hurricane Gustav Makes First Landfall in Louisiana
Aired September 01, 2008 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane Gustav, a killer Category 3 storm with a direct hit on the Louisiana coast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAY NAGIN, MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: This is the storm of the century.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: New Orleans, a ghost town. Two million people have fled.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just afraid of losing our home again, and just -- you know, just feeling lost out there in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: But thousands still can't or don't want to leave, as levees and leaders face their first major test since Hurricane Katrina.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good morning. Thanks very much for joining us on this Monday morning. It's the 1st of September. I'm John Roberts in St. Paul, Minnesota, at a dramatically scaled-down Republican National Convention.
Good morning, Kiran.
CHETRY: Good morning, John. Good to see you.
Scaled down, yes, because of Hurricane Gustav making its way now to the Gulf Coast.
It is 4:00 a.m. in New Orleans, and a virtual ghost town there this morning, with this killer hurricane already whipping the coast with this intense outer band. Full landfall is expected in just a few hours.
The Category 3 storm is on course to hit Louisiana just west of New Orleans, leaving the fragile city on the so-called "dirty" side of the storm, in line for the worst rain, the worst wind, possible tornadoes and a storm surge of up to 14 feet.
Forecasters say the flooding could be worse than it was after Katrina. Federal estimates say Gustav could cost more than $30 billion in damages, destroying 75,000 homes and businesses.
And CNN is your hurricane headquarters. Our correspondents are staring down this storm across the Gulf. We also have the latest advisory, brand new information coming from the National Hurricane Center.
First, though, we're going to go live to Ali Velshi. He's standing right in the bull's eye, south of New Orleans on Grand Isle, Louisiana.
Ali, already, that area lost a lot of power about a half-hour ago. What's the situation there now?
ALI VELSHI, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: All right. Yes. Kiran, we were getting ready to come on and talk to you, and we heard what now I'm understanding what it was. It sounded like it might have been a tornado at about nine or 10 o'clock last night. We still -- earlier than that, we had some tornado watches.
What it turns out to be is, there's a Nextel telephone tower here. And that's the wind whistling through that. It sounds a bit like a jet engine, actually.
We lost power on Grand Isle. We've been getting -- this is actually a little calmer than it's been over the last little while.
It seems like we've been getting some of these outer bands of Hurricane Gustav right down here. We're about 100 miles south of New Orleans on a barrier island.
Now, what happened is, we are staying in this house. It's a fortified house, so we expected we would lose power. We've got preparation for that. But over here you'll see, if we just -- I don't know if Beth can turn the camera over.
Deacon Guidry here is a fire captain. He's actually staying with us here, and he's been looking after things. And a few minutes ago, just before we went on air, we started to hear something come off.
And Deacon, you then came out with a light to sort of make sure we don't get hit by any debris while we're out here with you.
What was it that we were hearing that I thought was coming off toward us?
DEACON GUIDRY, FIRE CAPTAIN, GRAND ISLE, LOUISIANA: Well we have a Nextel tower right there, and the wind blowing through it. And it sounded like a jet engine.
VELSHI: There's something coming off the roof here.
GUIDRY: Well, we have some loose awning right here. It's nothing major. Just like where the gutter's at, it's coming off. Standard procedure. Sometimes those things happen, but it's nothing to be worried about.
VELSHI: All right. But nothing right now.
Deacon says, when we see him worried, we need to start worrying. And he's not worried right now. He says nothing's allowed to happen to us on his watch. The reason he's able to be with us is because this island is evacuated.
About a few miles from here is Port Fourchon. That's the oil center. It's really the onshore operations for all of the offshore drilling.
It's shut down. So are the drills and platforms and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. So is a major pipeline, which takes a million barrels of oil from here to Chicago -- shut down.
Strategic Petroleum Reserve, that's four sites underground in Texas and Louisiana. Three of them are open. One -- Bryan Mound in Texas. Three of them are closed. One of them remains open.
So, offshore oil production is shut down now. That's a quarter of all U.S. daily oil production.
Kiran, also, 56 percent of our imported oil comes in through the Gulf of Mexico. That is suspended. So, we are now not getting half of our imported oil and a quarter of our domestically produced oil.
We can handle this for a few days. The hope is that there's no major damage to the system, so that we can get up and running by the end of the week.
Nobody here to get hurt on Grand Isle. There are only about 10 of us left here, and we're all hunkering down -- Kiran.
CHETRY: And certainly, you need to hunker down, because there really is no shelter where you are. You're really out there, as they call it, the Isle.
We'll continue to check back in with you as the conditions get stronger and worsen there.
Ali, thank you.
ROBERTS: I want to tell you. I hate to say it, but Ali is in for the ride of his life this morning.
As we mentioned, New Orleans is virtually empty this Monday morning. The largest evacuation in state history took place over the weekend.
Officials say close to two million people have gotten out, but 10,000 people are still left in New Orleans, with no guarantee that the levees are going to hold this time around.
And this time, there was no shelter of last resort like the Superdome during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
CNN's Anderson Cooper is up early this morning. He's live for us in the French Quarter. What's it looking like there in New Orleans this time around, Anderson?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: John, well, you guys have used the term ghost town. It is certainly that.
About the only people we see out are police cars. That is certainly very much a welcome sight. There's a heavy police presence, as well as a National Guard presence that we have seen over the last 12 to 14 hours that our crews have been out here.
It's interesting watching Ali. He was saying he's in kind of a slow period in terms of rain. We just had a pickup of the rain. But again, it's sort of intermittent. It comes and goes.
We have by no means seen the full force of this storm, not even close. We're just starting to get sort of those outer bands coming. The rain will intensify for a short time. The wind will pick up just a little bit.
But we really have not seen anything yet. It is sort of the proverbial calm before the storm.
As you said, the big question is the levees. Will they hold? Have they been improved since Hurricane Katrina? We know some of the levees in town have.
But it's the levees on the west bank of New Orleans, which were really untested by Katrina. That is not where the storm hit three years ago. But that is, we are told, where the storm is going to hit now.
Some of those levees have not been -- most of those levees up there have not been fixed up at all. So, you're looking at kind of old, shoddily-built levees. And in some cases, there are gaps where there's no new levees at all. Mayor Nagin is particularly concerned about that.
As you can see, we're starting to get a little bit more rain right now.
The evacuation, city officials and state officials are tentatively very pleased with. They feel they've gotten about 90 to 95 percent of the people out of all of southeastern Louisiana. Maybe about 100,000 people left in all of southeastern Louisiana. As you've pointed out, John, maybe about 10,000 people left in the City of New Orleans.
The fact is though, John, they simply do not have an actual number of who is left in New Orleans. That may be a problem down the road, if rescue operations need to be undertaken.
But at this point, they are kind of just waiting this storm out, waiting to see what will come. And then they're going to take if from there.
I mean, this is sort of phase two of the storm. Phase one was the evacuations, the preparations. This is the actual storm. But, of course, the real -- the devil's in the details of what happens after the storm subsides with the levees, whether or not they hold and whether or not this city floods, John.
ROBERTS: And Anderson, as you know from being there in 2005, a big problem after Hurricane Katrina came through, in addition to the flooding, was the rampant looting. It became a little bit like the wild west there.
What have the local authorities got in place to try to prevent that from happening this time around?
COOPER: Well, they have said point blank, look, anyone caught looting or causing mischief of any sort will be taken directly to prison and put in general population. That's been the threat. We've heard it over and over again.
That's different than before. Before it was kind of, you know, police would stop you, but then let you go on your way. They say, look, you will be taken directly to a local jail.
At this point, there is, as we said, a heavy police presence, really throughout New Orleans, and a heavy National Guard presence. More than 1,200 National Guard have been mobilized.
The police have prepared more than, certainly, the force was prepared for Hurricane Katrina in terms of being staged in various locations, ready to move out when the storm actually subsides -- John.
ROBERTS: Learned some lessons from three years ago.
Anderson Cooper for us this morning. Anderson, thanks very much. We'll talk to you again soon.
We just got the 5:00 a.m. advisory for Hurricane Gustav, released about seven or eight minutes ago, our Reynolds Wolf at the CNN Weather Center in Atlanta with that.
And Reynolds, you know, when you look at where our correspondents are deployed this morning, and Ali Velshi down there on Grand Isle, I love him dearly, but I think he's got to have his head examined today.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh, yes. No question. And you've been there. We've been there. You know, it does happen. It's crazy like that out in the storm.
What's interesting that we're going to see from our correspondents in the field is, you'll notice that where Ali was located, he had the wind buffeting him around. When Anderson started his report, there wasn't any rain, just a slight breeze. And by the end of the report, his hair's all wet, the rain begins to come down.
This storm is going to have a pulsating effect as it comes closer to the coast. And the latest we have from the National Hurricane Center is that we're not expecting any significant strengthening with this storm as it makes its approach.
Winds currently at 115. Gust have been stronger, to 140 miles per hour.
In Southwest Pass, Louisiana, we've already had a recorded gust of 76 miles per hour. So, Category 1 force winds have already been picked up on the southern part of the state. Those will increase to Category 3 winds, as I mentioned, of 115 expected later on.
Right now what we're seeing is, again, it's still making its track to the northwest, doing so about 16 miles an hour. I think it's going to make its way onshore by mid-morning or mid-day, as a Category 3 storm.
Then, as we go from Monday and into Tuesday, Tuesday morning, winds of 65 miles an hour. And the storm begins to slow down its forward progress. Notice that as we get into Wednesday, winds only of around 30 miles per hour. So, it's just going to be a depression.
But the real threat that's going to develop from this system is not going to be the winds at that point, but it's going to be the heavy rainfall, where we could see rainfall totals that could be measured not just in inches, but perhaps several feet of rain for parts of Louisiana and Texas. So, this could be a major flooding situation by the middle and by the end of next work week.
The immediate threat we're getting with this storm is not just what we're going to see along the coast, but farther inland. We have these bands making their way onshore.
There's going to be the potential of some tornadoes. Already we've had tornado warnings in Baldwin County, Alabama, back into parts of southern Mississippi. I wouldn't be surprised to see more of these tornadoes, possible tornadoes, pop up across much of the Gulf Coast -- including New Orleans.
That is the latest we've got for you, Kiran. Let's send it back to you in the studio.
CHETRY: Reynolds, thanks so much.
You know, depending on where Gustav makes landfall, New Orleans could see even faster winds, and with it a larger storm surge than the city did during Katrina.
CNN's Rob Marciano is live in New Orleans this morning. He's on the roof of a hotel in the French Quarter, tracking things right there on the ground for us.
Rob, what can you tell us?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, three years is just way too short -- way too short a time for yet another Category 3 to be bearing down on this city.
A week ago, when forecast models started to show a track towards this area, you can bet there was a certain amount of hysteria on the ground. That led to eventual acceptance, planning and execution of the prepared plan that looks to be all good, at least for now. But Katrina took out mostly the north and east side of this city. Gustav looks like it may very well take out the west side. With this hurricane, the storm strength, the size and the path will mean everything when it comes to New Orleans.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
MARCIANO (voice-over): Storm track. For New Orleans, nothing matters more.
Katrina went east of the city. Gustav, likely to go west. Either track can be disastrous.
Katrina's path blew winds from the northeast, pushing water from the Gulf into Lake Pontchartrain and against the levees and canals that protect east New Orleans.
BILL READ, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Katrina was moving pretty much from due south to due north. This storm is moving to the northwest, so there's a different angle of approach. That's the number one difference.
MARCIANO: What's scary is, the right side of a hurricane is typically much worse. For example, a storm moving 20 miles an hour with 100-mile-an-hour winds actually means winds of 120 miles an hour on the right side.
Think of the right front part of the storm as winds with a running start. And it brings onshore winds right through landfall, making for the worst storm surge.
And what makes the Gulf unique is the sea floor. It's very shallow, so the water piles up much more easily.
Katrina certainly showed what a surge can do to the Mississippi coast. But there are some barriers helping to protect Louisiana -- marshlands, a natural buffer to storm surge. The swamps will spread and absorb the water pushed in by the storm.
But manmade shipping channels, locks and canals have depleted the marshland. And that natural protection may not be enough to stop a surge of water from the Gulf, as Gustav makes landfall.
(END VIDEO)
MARCIANO (on camera): And we wanted to see just how bad that surge is, and how well those marshlands of southern Mississippi buffer the water as it heads into southeast Louisiana and south-central Louisiana, as well.
Here in New Orleans, the rain is blowing sideways, and you can see the city stands behind me. Power is still on. Winds have been of tropical storm strength, gusting a little bit higher at times. But clearly, nowhere near the storm, at this point. The storm is still about 150 miles away. So, we have a long morning ahead, and the residents here -- most of whom have evacuated -- are certainly hoping for a track that goes a little bit more west than east -- Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Rob Marciano for us, right there in it on a rooftop of the French Quarter this morning. We'll check in with you throughout the morning.
Rob, thanks.
Well, 80 patients remain at New Orleans Children's Hospital, more than half of them in a critical care unit. Susan Roesgen is live at Children's Hospital now with more on that for us -- Susan.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, this may be the safest place to be in New Orleans right now. In addition to those 80 young patients, their parents have been allowed to stay with them. Doctors and nurses have volunteered to stay here.
And there are 260 New Orleans police officers, bringing the total number of people into Children's hospital, which is right here in front of me, to 900 people.
They say it's going to be safe here. They have 70,000 gallons of diesel fuel to keep the generators running here for three weeks.
Also, Kiran, this is a higher spot in New Orleans. It's about 12 feet above sea level.
They say they can handle this, they are ready for it. Most people are sleeping right now, trying to get up the energy for when the worst of the storm comes through. But they believe they're going to be safe. They're going to stay here.
Again, they've got enough power to keep things going for three weeks, if need be, right here at Children's Hospital -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Susan Roesgen for us. Thank you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a time when we have to do away with our party politics, and we have to act as Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Gustav forces the GOP to make major changes to their convention. We're live in St. Paul with the latest.
You're watching the most news in the morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Seventeen-and-a-half minutes after the hour now, and a live picture from New Orleans. You can see the rain coming down there, as those outer bands of Hurricane Gustav continue to buffet the Crescent City.
They're expected to get a lot of rain there. Winds are 115 miles an hour, as Gustav just lurking offshore.
The big question is, as this storm comes at the western side of New Orleans, will the untested levees on the western side of the city hold, or will we see more flooding like we saw in 2005?
A picture from the French Quarter this morning.
While almost two million people have been evacuated, as many as 10,000 people may still be in New Orleans right now, and some of them have no way out. Other diehards still ignoring the warnings and the memories of Hurricane Katrina.
At about 2:30 in the morning in New Orleans, we caught up with one guy who decided to ride it out with a pitcher of beer and pool cue at the Cajun Pub, a bar that had a foot of water in it after Hurricane Katrina.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man, this is where I live. This is what I love. If I got to go somewhere else to be alive, I'd rather not be alive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Well, officials in Jefferson Parish very worried this morning about flooding there. CNN's Sean Callebs is live at Harahan, Louisiana, at the Emergency Operations Center.
And what's the story from there, Sean?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, if you remember back to 2005, Jefferson Parish was really spared to a great degree by significant flooding. The levees, flood walls in this area held up. Most of the flooding in New Orleans coming from Lake Pontchartrain down to the city, also pushing down the Mississippi River Gulf outlet into St. Bernard Parish.
Big concern this time, however, is the west bank, an area just to the south of the Mississippi River. What authorities are worrying about is the storm coming into the west and then pushing up into those bayous, and pushing flood waters up into the west bank, an area that did not flood back in 2005.
They're very worried about that, John, this year. All they can do is keep an eye on it. You talked about the fact that there's that mandatory evacuation.
What we're hearing from authorities here, once these winds get to be tropical storm strength, that's it. Then all law enforcement will hunker down until after the storm. So, if anybody needs help at the height of the storm, he or she on their own at this point.
So, let's hope that all those people who chose to ride this out are doing so as best as possible -- John.
ROBERTS: All right. Sean Callebs for us in Harahan, Louisiana, this morning. Sean, thanks very much.
Let's go back to Grand Isle. That's where our Ali Velshi is. He's riding it out. And if anybody could be any closer to the bull's eye, they'd have to be right out there in the Gulf of Mexico.
Ali, you're going to be on the worst side of the storm. In fact, you could get sort of the eastern eye wall as it comes ashore, as much as 14 feet of storm surge.
The average elevation of that island is seven feet, so you do the math this morning.
VELSHI: Yes, that's exactly right, John. In fact, you and I were communicating a little earlier, and I talked to our weather folks. They said, given what just happened, in terms of these new gusts and the power going out, and all that, where is it going from here? And they said, it's only to get worse from here.
The good news, John, people who know we're on Grand Isle have expressed a lot of concerns about our safety. Here's the good news. I'm elevated right now, probably about 14 feet above sea level. We have another deck to this property. It takes us to 30 feet.
But I can get a whole vantage of everything that's going on. I've got the bay on the north side of the island over to my left, and I've got the Gulf of Mexico over to my right. And we know that there are fewer than 10 people left on this island.
So, I can see -- a few moments ago I saw a red light over there. That's the fire truck. That's our fire captain, Deacon Guidry, who is with us. I saw him driving out. What he's doing is, he's checking to see what the water situation is on Grand Isle.
This is a barrier island. The levees have not been breached on Grand Isle. The surf is up. We're expecting to get a storm surge here, anywhere from seven to as high as 15 or more feet, we've heard. So, we're ready for that over here. The power has been knocked out.
Now, the important thing, John, is that this is the onshore headquarters for most of the offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico. They have been secured and shut down. There's nobody out on those rigs or platforms, except in the furthest west part of the Gulf of Mexico, that has no risk of being affected by this storm.
Imports into New Orleans are shut down. Fifty-six percent of our oil comes into Louisiana. That's shut down. Pipelines going out of here are shut down. And right now, we're riding this storm out in this house at Grand Isle. And so far, it's holding out strong, John.
ROBERTS: All right. And let's hope it continues to do so, my friend.
And I'll tell you, by the end of today, you're going to have enough material to write a very compelling book.
Stay with us, Ali. Stay safe. All right?
CHETRY: Joining us now from Miami, Bill Read. He's the director of the National Hurricane Center.
And we just got an update from you guys about 5:00 Eastern Time. Can you give us the latest information now on the strength and the path of Gustav?
I'm not sure if Bill is able to hear me. Let's just check one more time.
Bill, are you able to hear me?
All right. He apparently can't hear us. They were giving us an update on Hurricane Gustav, both the strength, how fast it's moving and where it's likely to head.
We will check back in with Bill from the National Hurricane Center in just a couple of minutes.
Right now, let's go back out to John.
ROBERTS: All right, Kiran, yes. They're switching him around from network to network to network. So, we'll get hooked up with him real shortly.
Hurricane Gustav is forcing major changes to the Republican National Convention here in St. Paul. Our Jessica Yellin joins me now with a look at a new scaled-down convention. And this one is really being trimmed back, isn't it.
JESSICA YELLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Incredibly. It's being cut more than in half, John. No more prime time speeches from President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, Vice President Cheney. They're all gone.
Instead, the convention will hold only an afternoon session, and only the essentials.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
YELLIN (voice-over): With the storm barreling toward the Gulf, and hundreds of thousands of residents still evacuating, John McCain slashed plans for the convention.
MCCAIN: We must redirect our efforts from the really celebratory event of the nomination of the president and vice president of our party, to acting as all Americans.
YELLIN: For Monday, the schedule of speakers is gone. Instead, delegates will conduct essential business, and then disband.
BILL BENNETT, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: John McCain has to be very sensitive to what suffering might be in New Orleans. So, I think the possibility of cancelling a day, or two days, or a day-and-a-half is very real.
YELLIN: The McCain campaign promises no partisan politics Monday, and says they're not focused on the storm's effect on the campaign.
RICK DAVIS, MCCAIN CAMPAIGN MANAGER: We really don't have the luxury of sort of trying to evaluate the politics of this kind of situation.
YELLIN: Still, John McCain's response to Gustav underscores a promise he made months ago never to repeat the Bush administration's handling of Katrina.
MCCAIN: Never again will there be a mismanaged natural disaster -- manmade or natural -- again, that will occur in this country.
(APPLAUSE)
YELLIN: Already, the McCain campaign chartered a flight to take Louisiana delegates home. And they're calling on those attending the convention to spend time fund raising and organizing support for victims of the storm.
A.G. CROWE, (R) DISTRICT 1, LOUISIANA STATE SENATOR: My level of respect was already pretty high for Senator McCain. It's even higher now, because with as much at stake with this country and the future of our country, he's putting this convention second.
(END VIDEO)
YELLIN (on camera): Now, the McCain campaign says they hope the impact of the storm will be minimal, and they'll be able to resume the full schedule tomorrow. But they recognize how bad things look, John, and they say they'll take it day by day.
ROBERTS: Yes, I mean, there's a chance that they may cancel everything tomorrow, and then truncate it into Wednesday, Thursday.
YELLIN: Absolutely. There are certain essentials they must do to legally or officially nominate John McCain. If the storm's bad, they'll keep it to that.
ROBERTS: Yes, right. And they'll be doing that today, I think, right, this afternoon?
YELLIN: The start of it today, the end of it probably Thursday.
ROBERTS: OK. Jessica, thanks very much for that.
CHETRY: Comparing Gustav to Katrina. A look at the lessons learned, and why New Orleans still isn't ready.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we're in a more perilous position than we've ever been at any time in our history. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: You're watching the most news in the morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: A live look at New Orleans this morning, 4:29 in the morning there. A virtual ghost town, as Louisiana carries out the largest evacuation in its history -- two million people, nearly, fleeing Hurricane Gustav.
Joining me live now from Miami is Bill Read. He's the director of the National Hurricane Center.
Thanks for being with us. We'll try it again. We had a little trouble hearing you when we first went to you.
Tell us now the latest information on the track and the strength of Gustav, Bill.
READ: OK. Gustav is still a Category 3 hurricane, packing 115- mile-an-hour winds. It's moving onto the coast of Louisiana now. Hurricane conditions should be occurring along the immediate coastline.
We're seeing reports now of sustained tropical storm force winds within New Orleans proper. It should move to the northwest at about 15 miles an hour as it comes inland, which we'll have it passed to the south-southwest to then west of New Orleans, Baton Rouge corridor.
The communities along the coast, near the West bank, of the Mississippi are the ones most prone to the hurricane conditions, and we're anticipating, still, a 10 to 14-foot storm surge in that area.
CHETRY: So what is the most dangerous element of this storm, potentially? Is it the wind? Is it the rain?
READ: Well, initially, I would say it's a combination of the storm surge and the wind. If people stay down on the coast there like Grand Isle over towards Vermillion Bay and they're in very low country, we're going to have storm surge conditions near the center. I hope they got out of harm's way.
Then the wind and trees coming down all the way inland, passing along the large trunk of the coastal plain of Louisiana, we'll have at least gust to hurricane force, and probably in the force (INAUDIBLE) of Louisiana this afternoon and this evening.
So trees coming down, storm surge and then the flooding will be the third element we worry about from the rainwater. We still think six to 12 inches of rain are possible.
CHETRY: All right, well, we'll continue to check in with the National Hurricane Center.
Bill Read, thank you very much. Right now we're going to head over to John.
A live look, though, of New Orleans. Again, 4:33 or 4:31 a.m. in New Orleans, and again, we talked about evacuations. 1.9 million getting out of the Louisiana Gulf Coast area. About 10,000 people still remained. That's what New Orleans officials are estimating at this point. People deciding that they rode out Katrina. They're going to give it a try.
Others who did not heed those warnings, the majority of people, though did. Amazing when you look at the pictures of the line of cars, all of them heading out of that area. And they're calling this the largest evacuation in the history of the United States.
Where Ali is in Grand Isle, fewer than 10 people left and in many of these places virtual ghost towns, as the warnings this time around, three years almost to the day of Katrina, these warnings were heeded -- John?
ROBERTS: Hey, thanks very much, Kiran. Let's actually go back to Grand Isle and check in with Ali Velshi.
Ali, the eye of the storm continues to approach you. Still a little ways off shore there. I could tell you right now, looking at the situation there, it's going to get a lot worse and it's going to get a lot worse very quickly for you there.
What's it like being right there in kind of the teeth of the storm?
VELSHI: Well, you can hear it behind me. It is really gusting. We can really feel it. We know that this island has been mostly evacuated. You know 1500 people live on Grand Isle. We're at the southern part of Jefferson Parish, the coastal part.
Most people in this part of Louisiana have been under mandatory evacuations since Saturday morning and they left because they remember what Katrina did to places like this and what previous hurricanes have done to places like this.
We are right, really, off the Gulf of Mexico. It's going to hit us with some force. Now this is mainly a shrimping and fishing community. When I got here -- I've been here for two nights. When I got here on Friday, there were shrimp boats as far as you could see. They are all gone. They have tried to move those boats to safer locations.
Ironically, after a hurricane, the shrimping gets pretty good because the ocean gets all churned up, so we understand that they are ready to go and come back here and start shrimping. That's why we're actually here because the home that we're at owned by a fellow named Dean Blanchard, he owned a processing facilities where those shrimpers come in.
So he wants to be here so that when the shrimpers go back in the ocean, as soon as the storm is over, he is there to buy the shrimps from there and distribute, so he's trying to stay in business.
Now his shop is about one mile to my right. Not even a mile it's about half a mile to my right. You can see it. There's nothing between his house and his plant, and that's why he wants to stay here, because he can see his plant over there and he can see the Gulf of Mexico over there, although, right now, John, you can't see anything.
It is pitch black. We lost power just over an hour ago. These winds are howling and as you said, this is not the worst of it. We're still a few hours away from the worst of it right here on Grand Islae, John?
ROBERTS: Ali, I think losing power is going to be the least of your worries this morning.
Just for our viewers who are watching you there...
VELSHI: That's right.
ROBERTS: Again, I mean, if you're going to be in a hurricane, you really couldn't be in much worse place than you're in right now, Ali.
What's the structure like that you're taking refuge in?
VELSHI: This home was built by the construction workers who actually work on oil rigs. He's got steel that goes -- steel beams that go right into the ground and then he's got steel beam structures around. The other thing, he's got a couple of things going on. Things are not screwed together -- not bolted together, they're screwed together.
His roof is put on with double the amount of screws, as opposed to nails, and he's also got those hurricane straps which say you'll keep your roof on through a cat 5 hurricane. It straps the roof to the structure.
Now we did see what -- just as we started, we saw some of the roof panels starting to come off, but they're peeling off. It's not the roof structure. It's just some of the panels coming off -- John?
ROBERTS: All right. Ali, we'll get back to you because I'm sure that you're not going to be able to broadcast for very much longer there as the eye wall of that storm rapidly approaches Grand Isle. But we'll get back to you. Stay safe, buddy.
Is New Orleans heeding the last things that we learned from Hurricane Katrina three years ago?
Joining us now to talk about the city's preparedness, two reporters from the New Orleans' "Gambit Weekly," David Winkler-Schmit and Noah Bonaparte Pais has been watching this storm from the French Quarter all night long.
And how is this looking to you folks, compared to how it was three years ago? DAVID WINKLER-SCHMIT, GAMBIT WEEKLY: Well, it seems to be looking -- you know, a lot better for New Orleans, but of course, we really feel for the people in (INAUDIBLE) Parish and the (INAUDIBLE) area. I think so far so good for New Orleans.
What do you think, Noah?
NOAH BONAPARTE PAIS, GAMBIT WEEKLY: I would say that the preparedness ahead of time was much better this time, seeing the evacuation went much smoother, the police efforts -- can't say enough about the police. The police presence on the streets has been incredible. And the city is a ghost town right now so that speaks to the evacuation efforts.
(CROSSTALK)
WINKLER-SCHMIT: Yes, I would agree with that. It's great.
ROBERTS: Yes, and David, now, we talk about the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina...
WINKLER-SCHMIT: Yes.
ROBERTS: ... back in 2005, rebuilding of the levees. But there continues to be criticisms of the degree to which the levees were restored. And particular concern about those levees on the western side of the Mississippi River, which really weren't tested during Hurricane Katrina.
What are the concerns there, folks in New Orleans, regarding that?
WINKLER-SCHMIT: Well, for the West Bank levees, the concern is, you know, of course, with Katrina it didn't really -- as you said, didn't test them. So you have -- I believe it have, like, eight to 12 feet there. So if we get the brunt of the rain and the winds, you know, kind of like a right hand hook, what they're thinking is that surge can then hit the West Bank, and over top those levees and perhaps do more damage for each or so forth.
But I do think so far so good.
ROBERTS: Right, and Noah, real quick. I -- no, real quick, I rode out Hurricane Katrina there in the parking garage of the Hilton Hotel, and it was a little bit deceiving. It didn't look like there were many problems and then hours later, we found the problem.
So are you expecting that, as this hurricane comes over, it may look like things are all right but could rapidly go down hill?
BONAPARTE PAIS: God, let's hope not, you know? I think most of the people that I know that stayed for Katrina said that exact thing. After Monday, they felt the storm had passed and that everything was better. And it wasn't until they saw the water's rising in people's backyards that it really escalated. So let's hope that the emergency preparedness this time is a lot better and that they're prepared to deal with that if that is the case.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, at least, there are fewer people in the city if anything.
Noah Bonaparte Pais and David Winkler-Schmit from the "Gambit Weekly," thanks for being with us this morning, gentlemen.
And of course, our coverage here of Hurricane Gustav just lurking off shore now, headed towards southern Louisiana, continues, on your hurricane center, CNN.
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CHETRY: Live look at New Orleans, 4:41 in the morning. Looking at a virtual ghost town. We just saw the lights of a police car. That's pretty much all you'll see on the streets -- police and reporters.
CNN's Anderson Cooper live for us in the French Quarter.
What's it feeling like out there now, Anderson?
COOPER: You know, Kiran, the rain is coming down pretty steady. It's kind of intermittent. There'll be some lows where it's just a very light rain. We're starting to get a little bit of a heavier rain right now. But it's -- really have not seen even the real brunt of this storm. Not even close. We're still getting kind of -- those outer bands.
As you said, not a lot of folks around New Orleans. We did see -- excuse me -- you see a police car behind me right now. Those blue flashing lights that is just them on patrol. They passed by about every two or three minutes or so. That gives you a sense of the level of police presence in the French Quarter.
Also we saw a convoy of National Guard, Humvees, about four Humvees, driving by about half an hour ago. There's a heavy National Guard presence, some more than -- about 12 to 1500 National Guard or more than that in and around New Orleans. Obviously, a big difference from the way it was during Hurricane Katrina.
But it all depends on those levees whether or not those levees that Sean Callebs and others have been telling you about on that -- the West Bank, both the left bank in New Orleans, whether they hold. And for that, we are simply going to have to wait and see.
You know, what happens for the next hour or two is not really the most important thing. It is what happens, you know, four or five or six hours from now with those levees. And as John Roberts was talking about his own experiences during Hurricane Katrina, a lot of folks went to bed after Hurricane Katrina, thinking the worst had passed. And it wasn't until the city started to flood that they -- really realized that the extent of the problem. So this is really kind of early hours of the coverage and we're going to be here, really, all throughout the day and into -- you know, Monday evening before we really get a sense of the impact on the storm -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Right. I mean -- and as you know all too well, it's not just the winds, it's how long the rain falls and where, and depending on whether or not this system slows down, and just sort of stalls over that area, is really going to be telling as well.
Anderson, thanks for the information. We'll check in with you throughout the morning as well -- John?
ROBERTS: Kiran, Hurricane Katrina during 2005 stretched every aspect of New Orleans well past the breaking point. One of the organizations that suffered the worst was the New Orleans Police Department hold up in the Harris Casino for a couple of weeks with no running water and literally, not much food either.
We'll see if it's different this time around.
Our Chris Lawrence is live outside the 6th district station. He's following the New Orleans Police Department.
How are they coping this time around, Chris?
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, it's like night and day. A totally different atmosphere than it was just three years ago. And I can tell you. Just in the last 20 minutes or so, they have started to shut down those patrols of the city.
About 20 minutes ago, we saw a line of police cars, about 20 to 25 cars, speed out of here, our of the 6th district, heading towards the convention center where they are going to hunker down for the remainder of the storm and be in place for when that storm passes through.
There are still people in some of these areas who did decide to stay. And if those people got in a little bit over their head, and got into some trouble, the police want to be in position after the storm to respond to them quickly.
You could see they're even starting to shut down some of the Humvees and National Guard. You could see some of the National Guard units there as well. They just told me that their patrols are done for the night. They will be hunkering down as well.
Completely different atmosphere than it was three years ago. When we spent the night on the rooftop with the police during -- in the days after Katrina, you could see the fear, you could see the frustration. I remember bullets flying past us up on the roof and the police returning fire.
This time around they have been calmed, cool, very professional, a very different atmosphere this time around -- John?
ROBERTS: And let's hope that holds. Chris Lawrence for us this morning. Thanks very much.
And of course, you remember back in 2005, that convention center temporary homes to tens of thousands of people became just an absolute nightmare to be anywhere near it. And we're hoping that things will be a lot different this time around. So far it is only home to the New Orleans Police Department.
Continuing coverage of Hurricane Gustav, lurking just offshore on your hurricane headquarters, CNN. Stay with us.
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CHETRY: All right. There's another live look this morning at New Orleans. 4:45 in the morning there. Streets virtually deserted as most people did heed the warnings to get out ahead of this approaching, potentially killer storm for the Gulf Coast.
Hospitals, by the way, in New Orleans are open right now but only the most critical patients are there. The rest have already been evacuated.
During Katrina, many hospitals saw generators ran out of fuel or watch them become flooded. So are those hospitals prepared this time around?
CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is live in Metairie, Louisiana with more on the preparations.
I know they have done so much this time to ensure that they, at least, have a plan in place, whether or not that holds still remains to be seen.
Hi, Sanjay.
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran.
Just over the last few minutes, it has started to rain much harder here. But we haven't really felt much of the wind except for intermittent gust here.
You're absolutely right. You know, Kiran, everything here is measured by hurricanes, it seems. This hospital, for example, built after Hurricane Betsy in 1965 at a little bit of higher ground as compared to buildings around the city.
After Katrina, the water got up to about 50 to 100 yards around this hospital so it's almost like a little bit of an island here. And they'll have to (INAUDIBLE) the changes after Katrina. (INAUDIBLE) for example, the hospital itself, fortified, it means (INAUDIBLE). They took the generator switches, put them a little bit higher.
Vehicles like this, Kiran, sort of -- out (INAUDIBLE) hospital ready to go. One of the few EMS's that might actually be activated if the winds don't get too strong. Just look at this. I mean, the tires high enough to get through some of the floodwaters. They don't have a lot of emergency medical services on this vehicles. The goal was to just try and o get patients here as quickly as possible.
We were here, as you mentioned, Kiran, three years ago on top of this parking structure, a Charity Hospital, at that time and saw the consequences of all that wind, all that water, patients on that parking deck for days on end, being bagged with, you know, (INAUDIBLE) bags because the power didn't work. There are no breathing machines.
It was a tough thing to watch. That is exactly what they're trying to avoid this time around.
Kiran, typically, this is the hospital that has about 450 patients. They parried it down to around 230. They have 60 doctors that are going to stay here. Their goal was to try and take care of patients through the storm, Kiran. That's their goal.
CHETRY: And tell us a little bit about what exactly they've learned in terms of the lessons from Katrina, Sanjay.
GUPTA: I think, you know, some of the biggest things -- you know, at Charity and some of the downtown hospitals, after the flooding they recognized that the generators, for example, were just too far down.
They got flooded and that lost power to the entire hospital. Obviously, a critical problem. So, you know, we are at some hospitals yesterday where they really took that to heart. And while they try to lose some of the generators up, they also created this water-type compartments around the generators with these flood doors, so if the water starts rising, all these flood doors closed and try and make those generators as safe and as dry as possible. They create pumps around those generators, for example.
I think one of the biggest goals is this idea that you need to try and get both patients and staff out of the city, out of the hospital, as much as possible.
I talked to Dr. Bob Lynch, who's the CEO of the hospital. This is how he put it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. BOB LYNCH, CEO, TULANE MEDICAL CENTER: Lesson learned last time was to -- don't have a lot of patients in your hospital unless it's absolutely necessary, and don't have too many staff in your hospital unless it's absolutely necessary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: That was the CEO of Tulane Medical Center. Again, they have a woman who's in labor, for example, at this hospital. They have a lot of (INAUDIBLE) so we're going to stick by here. But they have pared down significantly, Kiran.
CHETRY: Sanjay for us in Metairie, Louisiana, thank you.
And a reminder that you are -- if you're away from your TV today, you can get up to the second coverage of Hurricane Gustav on CNN.com.
We're going to take a quick break. We're going to continue to cover Hurricane Gustav charging towards the largely deserted coast of Louisiana today.
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ROBERTS: We are back this morning with live coverage of Hurricane Gustav, coming to shore just off the coast of Louisiana. A live picture from the French Quarter of New Orleans this morning.
A heavy police presence and a historic evacuation. It appears that the Louisiana government is better prepared than it was in the days before Hurricane Katrina and for the response to the days after.
But the question remains: will the levees hold?
Joining us now from New Orleans is Mark Schleifstein. He is a "Times-Picayune" environment reporter, also the author of "Path of Destruction."
Mark, describe the conditions there in New Orleans where you are now compared to three years ago at this time?
MARK SCHLEIFSTEIN, ENVIRONMENT REPORTER, TIMES-PICAYUNE: Well, it's actually looking a lot better for us right now than three years ago, even considering the fact that we didn't what was about to happen with Katrina's levees -- situation where the levees broke.
It really does look like the storm is going to pass a little bit to our west and keep us out of the worse of things, but south of us is going to be a completely different story and just to the west of us, we're going to see some really major storm surges if this thing goes ashore.
ROBERTS: Yes, Mark, one of our correspondents, Ali Velshi, is down there on Grand Isle. And I can only imagine the ride that he is in for.
But, you know, you have, over the last three years, and the "Times-Picayune," your newspaper, has as well, followed the reconstruction and the shoring up of the levee system that failed so miserably during Hurricane Katrina.
Are there still lingering questions about just how strong that is and how capable it is of holding back the storm surge from this hurricane as it comes in?
SCHLEIFSTEIN: Well, absolutely. And especially in the area for this storm that's actually at the biggest risk in the New Orleans area. And that's on the West Bank of the Mississippi which is just south of the -- Mississippi River from us.
And in that area, the levees are complete, in fact, there are large sections that are - really not even started. The Corps of Engineers this morning closed the first gate over there on the Harvey Canal.
We've actually got a reporter down on -- right off Lake Salvador, south of the city, in the small town of John (INAUDIBLE), sitting on the shrimp boat, awaiting for the storm surge to hit that area. So it's going to be interesting as we move forward.
ROBERTS: As we saw, Mark, three years ago during Hurricane Katrina down on the Mississippi Delta there, some of those shrimp boats ended up in the middle of the road.
Mark Schleifstein from the New Orleans' "Times-Picayune," Mark, thanks very much for being with us. We'll check back with you as the brunt of the storm starts to come ashore and see if the conditions are any different.
Appreciate your being with us this morning.
57 minutes after the hour. Continuing coverage of Hurricane Gustav continues on CNN. Stay with us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY (voice over): Hurricane Gustav, a killer storm getting stronger and stalling. Hours away from landfall. New Orleans bracing for another fatal blow.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the storm of the century.
CHETRY: Will the levees pass the test?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a different storm.
CHETRY: Will our leaders get it right this time?
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And Brown, you're doing a heck of a job.
CHETRY: The Homeland Security secretary, Michael Chertoff, joins us live.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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