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Peak Hurricane Season Has Arrived; Republicans Gear up to Get Convention on Track
Aired September 02, 2008 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Heidi Collins. Tony Harris has the day off today.
See events come into the NEWSROOM live on Tuesday, September 2nd. Here's what's on the rundown.
Serious flooding along the Gulf Coast. But New Orleans escapes the brunt of Hurricane Gustav. Today checking the damage, waiting to go home.
Queuing up across the Atlantic now, Hanna, Ike and maybe even Josephine. Peak hurricane season arrives.
And the Republican Convention getting back to business tonight. In St. Paul, the show will go on, in the NEWSROOM.
As Gustav fades away, its damage coming into focus this morning. In New Orleans, the post-Katrina levee system held back the floodwaters. The city saw some flooding and some wind damage, but mostly got a glancing blow from Gustav.
Across the region, damage could run about $8 billion. At least seven deaths were blamed on the storm in the U.S. and officials are asking the 2 million evacuees to not return to the Gulf Coast before tomorrow at the earliest.
Today, we should learn more about the extent of damage to the nation's oil and gas industries. Investors, for their part, are optimistic there are no great losses. Oil is trading at its lowest level, in fact, in months.
CNN crews are fanned out across the greater Gulf Coast region to give you the complete view of all of this. CNN's Chris Lawrence is in New Orleans. Rob Marciano is in that city's French Quarter. In Lafayette, Ed Lavandera and meteorologist Reynolds Wolf is at the CNN Weather Center.
As you know Gustav now just a tropical depression but more storms are on the horizon. Want to check in right at the top here with Reynolds Wolf in the weather center.
Hey there, Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Heidi. Let's start off with Gustav or, rather, what's left of Gustav, now a big rainmaker for much of the Gulf Coast moving into parts of Mississippi back into Little Rock, Arkansas, even into places like Greensville and Texarkana.
The rain continues to fall. We've got flood watches and warnings scattered throughout that area. There's the potential of anywhere from, say, six to maybe a foot of rainfall, some places even more as it make a way through the midday hours.
Certainly not the biggest concern. The biggest, I'd say, for right now, Heidi, has got to be Hanna, one we're watching very carefully. Winds now at 70 gusting to 100. The latest that we have from the National Hurricane Center, their forecast indicates the storm expected to strengthen and then move very quickly right past Nassau.
And if you follow the path, it takes you just to the east coast of Florida and then possibly making landfall somewhere near, say, Charleston, perhaps, into Savannah, if you take a look at this path. That is what they're forecasting.
However, keep in mind, if you look at that cone of uncertainty, there's still a very good chance the storm could pull a little bit more out to sea and make landfall, maybe along the outer banks or it could veer somewhere along the Florida coastline. There are a lot of unknowns with this storm typical with the tropical systems.
We got more to talk about, not just Hanna but we've got Ike. Ike continues to rumble on in the Atlantic. Here it is, you see it right in the middle of the circle. This storm also on the move. Earlier today it was moving westward at three miles an hour. It has picked up speed now westward at 15. Winds are at 50, gusting to 65.
And, Heidi, yes, this storm also forecast to become a hurricane as we get into Thursday and then into Friday, Saturday and Sunday going to a Category 2 storm north of the Dominican Republic and Haiti as we get into the weekend.
And yet another one, the next storm we have up, just a tropical depression for the time being, but there's a chance this storm could also become a hurricane as we get into the weekend. This would be a Category 1 storm as we get into both Saturday and Sunday, winds from 75 to 80 miles per hour respectively.
But still we're dealing with a lot of rain back with Gustav in parts of, say, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Rob Marciano is tuning in from the roof of the Omni Hotel in the French Quarter.
Rob, how are things going?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's a lot drier and less windy today. That's the good news. This time yesterday we were getting pummeled by wind and rain, had an amazing 360-degree view of the city. And because Gustav did make it land and go to our south and west, we were able to report quite safely.
And this city, for the most part, is definitely breathing a sigh of relief. There was definitely some tense moments yesterday, for sure, with those pummeling east winds, a constant punishment especially on the levees on the East Bank and the West Bank, as well. There were worried whether or not those levees were going to fail.
Also, at one point, we saw some U.S. Coast Guard rescue choppers out in the eastside of town. I think -- what's going on over there. It turns out they were just checking on a NASA facility because NASA has got some chemical storage tanks over there, and now one of them were kind of steaming and seem to seeping so they went over to check that out. It seems to be OK.
After the storm had passed, we went down to the French Quarter, we're cruising around. Definitely some wind damage. Not a whole lot of rain or flood damage. People kind of out and about, the ones that stayed behind during the mandatory evacuation.
A lot of folks seemed to be walking their dogs. I guess Fido and -- Fido had to probably, you know, get a little bit of a break. And we also ran into some business owners. There were a couple that hung around making a couple of bucks, also helping their community. We talked to one in particular. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would take more than Gustav to move my son and me out of here. And we're tough. We come from a tough family. We're not afraid of anything. Our main purpose here is to take care of the people of New Orleans, which we didn't do last time and we're doing right now, taking care of our people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARCIANO: Tough talk from Papa Chubby, no doubt. He makes a killer Philly cheesesteak sandwich, by the way.
Mayor Nagin is saying, hey, he's going to come in. The official is going to come in. They're going to assess the damage, maybe do some repairs, then the next order of business were getting -- will be getting the businesses back in, and then hopefully the residents by -- you know, maybe Wednesday, hopefully Thursday, Friday at the latest.
Schools are closed. But the good news is, Reynolds, you know, from day three on, the National Hurricane Center just nailed this forecast track and folks here very thankful that it went as forecast to our south and west.
Back to you.
WOLF: Absolutely, yes, they were dead on with this one, no question about it. Hats go off to them.
Rob, rest up while you can. Man, we have a lot storms to deal with out in the Atlantic. Got to keep people posted on that. Heidi, it is a full plate today. Let's send it back to you.
COLLINS: Boy, yes, I actually had to write down all of these different storms that we are watching in order of how they're coming. So, obviously, we're going to keep in close contact with you, Reynolds, and stay updated on all of that.
WOLF: You bet.
COLLINS: Meanwhile, back to New Orleans for a moment. The levees held. Some water seeped through here and there and there was a little overtopping but this morning a sense of relief.
Our Chris Lawrence is in New Orleans and has the very latest now.
Good morning to you, Chris.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.
We are in the southernmost parish. It's pretty much right on the mouth of the Mississippi. And what you're looking at here is a last- ditch sandbagging effort that actually worked. The people here -- this is the wall, the floodwall that was pushing back all that water right on the other side.
As you come around here, you can see, you have the sign kind of says it all, "Times are hard," for the folks here. Could have been a lot harder when you take a look at all these sandbags. And right out here, this is a neighborhood, a residential neighborhood.
That water, at one point, was overtopping this levee, threatened to, like, just push right on through into the neighborhood. It's a neighborhood that took on about 10 feet of water during Katrina that damaged the levee.
But they got out here. And even as that back end of that hurricane was coming through, they were out here with thousands and thousands of sandbags trying to shore up that floodwall here.
They're still keeping somewhat of an eye on it. The parish president says he's still somewhat concerned. But from what we saw the water level seems to be really receding and it looks like this neighborhood like others in the area might be out of the woods -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, CNN's Chris Lawrence for us (INAUDIBLE) the situation there in New Orleans.
Chris, thank you for that.
Want to head now to Lafayette, Louisiana. CNN's Ed Lavandera is there and joining us now.
Ed, good morning to you. What are you seeing in the aftermath, if you will?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.
Well, you know, as many city officials throughout this portion of Louisiana here in Lafayette say for the most part they made out rather well here in Lafayette, and also in towns south of where we are.
But this is the site of where a 27-year-old man was killed yesterday as the hurricane roared through. You can see how a massive tree in the backyard essentially collapsed on top of the house, crushing it right in the middle.
There are family members here that have shown up this morning trying to clean out belongings and that sort of thing. So kind of a delicate time here as these people here hear the stories of how, for the most part, this city has done -- has survived and weathered the storm of Hurricane Gustav rather well.
This is, you know, one of those scenes where officials here in Lafayette are most concerned about what has taken place here at this house. But throughout the region, there is also a concern of -- for flooding that will continue throughout the day. So they're monitoring that as river levels and creek levels continue to crest over the next 24 hours.
They'll be watching that. But, of course, the clean-up is what will continue to take up the better portion of this day. As you can imagine here, a lot of clean-up needs to take place here. But in various parts of this city and in others south of here where the brunt and the center of Hurricane Gustav roared through yesterday afternoon.
Teams and debris teams will be combing the streets, picking up a lot of downed trees, cracked limbs, splintered trees, that sort of thing and also some downed power lines. We made our way from Lafayette to Abbeville, Louisiana yesterday, and all the way down to Morgan City, which is about 60 miles south of here.
And there's a lot of that kind of work cleaning to do. But for the most part, as we've talked to many community leaders -- in these small towns over the last 24 hours, they say that given that the center of this storm roared through here yesterday, they feel very lucky that for the most part they've come out pretty well on this one -- Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes. And obviously a very somber moment and for many days to come from directly where you are.
CNN's Ed Lavandera in Lafayette, Louisiana -- Ed, thank you for that.
Also, want to let you know something that we are getting in here just regarding moving forward with this storm and what the people of the area will face now that Gustav has gone through.
Cameron Parish, which, of course, was evacuated -- that evacuation will actually be lifted today at noon. We will keep our eye on top of that, because we may be getting more word about different areas where these evacuations will be lifted and people may, just may be able to begin heading back in.
And obviously, lots of other places. It's going to be many days before they'll be able to go back home. So we'll stay on top of that for you here today.
Before Gustav charged onshore one big concern was possible damage to oil production facilities and what that would mean to your wallet. Today investors are expecting little damage. In fact, oil prices fell below $106 a barrel in Asia. That is about $10 a barrel less than just last week. Interesting.
Other places checking in with damage now. Coastal Mississippi hundreds of homes have been flooded in an area still trying to recover from Hurricane Katrina. Tens of thousands of homes and businesses are also without power.
Also taking a big hit, the fishing industry along the Gulf Coast. Many commercial fishermen are finding their boats destroyed and their livelihoods now in peril.
Let's recap those losses now across the region. At least seven deaths are blamed on the storm. Across the Gulf Coast, nearly 800,000 homes and businesses are without power. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin say half of his citizens have no electricity.
He and other officials are asking the 2 million evacuees to wait until tomorrow -- let me repeat that -- wait until tomorrow at least before returning home, again for the New Orleans residents.
So who's stepping in to help those affected by Hurricane Gustav? Find out at CNN.com's "Impact Your World" page. There you will find links to some organizations already offering assistance. Again, CNN.com/impact.
A hurricane delay, now back to business tonight at the GOP convention but storm clouds stir for John McCain's running mate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: The show must go on. Republicans deciding this morning to go ahead now with a normal convention schedule today.
CNN's John Roberts is joining us live from St. Paul, Minnesota.
Hello to you there, John. So, normal activities, what exactly does that mean?
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it will be a lot different than it was yesterday. Yesterday was just essential business. They had to gavel open the convention, adopt a set of rules. If they didn't do that, then John McCain could not be the nominee.
And if John McCain weren't the nominee then they couldn't get that $85 million in federal election funding that they need to get in order to run this campaign for the next 60 days. What we're going to see today and things are still in flux. It may not be the full program that they had originally planned. There are a lot of changes that are being made to it. Rudy Giuliani, for example, was supposed to be the key note speaker tonight. He has been dropped.
It looks as though President Bush will be addressing the convention at about 9:30. and then he will be followed by Senator Joe Lieberman and former Senator Fred Thompson, who will speak on Senator McCain's behalf to sort of illuminate further the crowd here and for people who were at home watching just exactly who John McCain is.
COLLINS: Right, John. I'm sorry. I don't think you can hear me. That is the theme tonight, who is John McCain? But I wonder, you know, going into this a day late, you know, are they missing that big kickoff, that big fanfare to sort of get the momentum going?
Or is it just going to be seen as, you know, they did the right thing, they had to do this because of Hurricane Gustav?
ROBERTS: Well, there's no question, I think, that everybody in North America would have preferred that the hurricane had stayed away and not hit Louisiana. But the way that they reacted to it last night, I think, you know, politically it sort of plays in their favor.
They had John McCain down there on the Gulf Coast. He had an opportunity to appear presidential. The Republican Party had an opportunity to look like it was a compassionate party and do the right thing by making last night's theme all about service, to truncate the program last night after the millions and millions of dollars and years of planning that have gone into all of this.
They'll get back on schedule today. It may not be the same sort of kickoff that it would have been had the program been able to go ahead on Monday. But I'll tell you, it is just so interesting the fact that Joe Lieberman is speaking tonight.
You might remember back in 2004 it was Georgia congressman Zell Miller who spoke out...
COLLINS: Yes.
ROBERTS: ... on behalf of President Bush. Joe Lieberman, the -- year 2000 Democratic nominee for vice president. He was -- he came by this morning and I said to him -- I said, did you ever in your wildest dreams think you would have been speaking at a Republican convention sandwiched between President Bush and Fred Thompson?
And his reaction to me was, sort of, well, you know, life is an interesting journey and then he added this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (I), CONNECTICUT: I feel very good to be here, obviously, crossing party lines to support John McCain because, to state it simply, country matters more than party. And I just feel so strongly that John McCain is the best candidate for president for our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Of course, you know, Joe Lieberman was on Senator McCain's short list. I'm sure that Senator McCain would have liked to have picked him but I heard from so many Republicans here in St. Paul that that just would have been a disastrous choice for Senator McCain because he probably would have lost the base.
I asked Senator Lieberman what he thought of Governor Palin as a pick. He thought it was a good one, that she supported McCain in all the right places. However, he said it will be a challenge for her over the next 60 days to prove that she has what it takes to become vice president of the United States -- Heidi?
COLLINS: And I know that she's going to be speaking tomorrow night so that will be interesting. Everybody will be watching, I think, very closely.
Hey, John, what do you think of my home city, St. Paul, Minnesota?
ROBERTS: Oh, it's fantastic. Really like it here. We're actually staying in -- we're staying in Bloomington and then traveling here to St. Paul, but Mickey's Diner is a fabulous place.
COLLINS: It sure is.
ROBERTS: We loaded up on fat and carbs there yesterday. It was terrific.
COLLINS: Good for you. Good for you. You know they usually...
ROBERTS: Jon Stewart was there...
COLLINS: ... (INAUDIBLE)
ROBERTS: Jon Stewart was there eating as well same time we were.
COLLINS: Cool. All right.
ROBERTS: So popular place.
COLLINS: All right. Well, John Roberts, we appreciate you sticking around very much and we will see you again tomorrow morning on "AMERICAN MORNING."
ROBERTS: All right.
COLLINS: Thanks again, John.
A revelation from the new Republican ticket now. The 17-year-old daughter of vice presidential choice Sarah Palin is pregnant.
CNN's Dana Bash has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Behind Sarah Palin at her VP announcement last week, her family. 17-year-old daughter Bristol held her 4-month-old brother. Unknown then, Bristol was hiding a secret. She is five months pregnant and intends to keep the baby and marry the father.
John McCain's campaign dropped that bombshell as Hurricane Gustav dominated the news.
In a statement to reporters, Sarah Palin and her husband, Todd, said, "We are proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support."
Top McCain aides insist to CNN that McCain found out early in Palin's vetting process that her teenage daughter was expecting a baby and say Palin herself told McCain in a conversation last week.
STEVE SCHMIDT, MCCAIN SENIOR CAMPAIGN ADVISER: Senator McCain knew that it probably, eventually, would become public, as did Governor Palin. You know, obviously, people would know because she's going to have a baby that she was pregnant.
BASH: McCain advisers say they decided to make Bristol's pregnancy known now to dispel rampant and inaccurate Internet rumors on liberal blogs like the "Daily Kos" that Sarah Palin's 4-month-old baby, who has Down syndrome is really Bristol's child.
McCain aides insist they got so many calls they decided to get the truth out about Bristol's pregnancy.
SCHMIDT: What we want to see happen is the privacy of Governor Palin's daughter respected.
BASH: Barack Obama said he agreed.
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have said before and I will repeat again, I think people's families are off limits. And people's children are especially off limits.
BASH (on camera): One of the political pluses for McCain in choosing Palin is her strong appeal among social conservatives. McCain aides, as they got the news out, emphasized the fact that she is keeping her baby and so far conservative leaders around the country and here on the floor are rallying behind her for that reason.
Dana Bash, CNN, St. Paul, Minnesota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Barack Obama's campaign schedule up in the air for the rest of the week. He's back home in Chicago monitoring the recovery from Gustav. At two campaign stops yesterday Obama appealed to supporters to pray for the victims of the storm and to donate to the Red Cross. In an exclusive interview on CNN's "ANDERSON COOPER 360" last night, Obama explained why he's not going to the gulf right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: With the secret service operation that we have around me these days, what happens is that when we land anywhere, there has to be coordination with local law enforcement officials. And it ends up drawing away resources from people who need to be doing the kind of job that they're doing to help folks on the ground.
So what I didn't want to be is a distraction just for a photo op. What we're going to do is examine over the next couple of days the severity of the damage, how we can be most helpful, if I can be helpful by going down there, I will be down there in a hot second.
If it turns out that what local officials and those in charge recommend is that we do our work through our Web site and through activating volunteers and donors, that's what we'll do. The main thing is to get help to people on the ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Obama says lessons learned from Katrina helped agencies better prepare for Gustav.
Levee check now. Engineers fanning out across New Orleans today gauging any damage to the flood barriers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Assessing the damage. What is the situation in Louisiana now after Hurricane Gustav? Retired General Russel Honore is here.
Of course you remember him from Hurricane Katrina three years ago. And that's why we have the pleasure of having you on to talk about what people can expect and what the situation is now that this thing has blown through.
So we're going to talk about three things right now -- power, cell phones, cell towers, I should say, and oil. So what about the power? We're talking about 750,000, 800,000 homes without power.
LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, some of the figures I'm seeing this morning and talking to several of my contacts maybe up to a million plus that are without power. Some of that power come on in the next 24 hours.
But I was speaking to one of the chief executives in Louisiana power company. Look like 50 percent of it will take several days, maybe up to 10 days to get 50 percent capability back...
COLLINS: Yes.
HONORE: ... and four to five weeks to bring all those parishes -- because, remember, Heidi, that thing attacked from the coast all the way into central Louisiana.
COLLINS: That's right.
HONORE: So it created more problems than we had for Katrina because in the distribution, in a break, when the -- power goes down, so does the cell towers, who depend on them for energy to run the cell towers.
COLLINS: Yes, yes.
HONORE: So we've got a combined effect. The same winds that took the power grid down took the cell towers down.
COLLINS: Yes, no question. And we're talking about cell phones and towers. You know, this is, obviously, a way for people to communicate, to say, hey, I need this and I need this.
Are they using sat phones? Or what are they using, then, to be able to coordinate with one another in beginning to clean up afterwards?
HONORE: Well, certainly the government...
COLLINS: Yes.
HONORE: ... after Katrina, state of Louisiana, like most of the regional states that face hurricanes, invested heavily in satellite communications and broadband, T1 lines. The problem is how they communicate to the people.
COLLINS: Sure.
HONORE: If the people don't have radios with batteries in it -- that thing we've been talking about that, that NOAA radio. Now how do the counties and the parishes, I should say, communicate with those people who are displaced when they don't have power?
COLLINS: And did you get a good indication from the people that you spoke with -- the power companies -- of how many people they are having to deal with, you know, minus the nearly 2 million that evacuated. You know, it's hard to get a number on those who decided to ignore those evacuation orders.
HONORE: Yes. And there are people -- those that remained in place, those inside the shelter in place. So the combined effect, with the decision the governor and the parish presidents having to make as far as allowing people back in, you get into a dilemma.
COLLINS: Yes.
HONORE: Safety verse access to homes.
COLLINS: Yes. And people really just want to go back and see what's left of their belongings and so forth.
HONORE: That's true. COLLINS: Before we let you go for now, oil -- this was obviously a major concern. Because as you already mentioned last time around Hurricane Katrina, such a different storm came from this way, it's Lake Pontchartrain.
HONORE: That's right.
COLLINS: And this time it came from the opposite direction. And that's where all the refineries were.
HONORE: Yes. What we have right now from initial report from the big gas companies, those that have gotten a look at their rigs, no major damage. Again, assessments still ongoing.
COLLINS: Yes. It's amazing.
HONORE: Our problem now in the region is local distribution. Local distribution, getting it from Mississippi, Texas and Alabama, because they're not producing gas in Louisiana right now.
COLLINS: Right.
HONORE: That's a problem. The problem is how do you get that gas from Mississippi, Texas, in trucks and get it to all the gas stations. After the mass evacuation, up to 85 percent of the gas stations west of Baton Rouge were out of fuel. Now they're out of fuel and they don't have power.
One of the dilemmas is the state has not made it a law for gas stations to have generators yet.
COLLINS: The state of Louisiana.
HONORE: Right.
COLLINS: But not true for Florida and other states?
HONORE: Yes. Florida has passed a law. If you got more than five gas stations, you supposed to have a generator.
COLLINS: Wow.
HONORE: So if we get gas in there today, the problem is how are we going to pump it to the people who are trying to drive back home?
COLLINS: Yes. All right, so, distribution of many of these things talking power or gas, still a problem, obviously.
General Honore, we're going to speak with you again next hour. Talk a little bit more about people going back to their homes and what they can expect and how to cope with all of that.
So appreciate that very much.
General Honore back in a little bit.
Baton Rouge, meanwhile, takes a beating. Live to the Louisiana capital for a look at Gustav's destruction -- destructive power.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Good morning once again, everybody. The remnants of Gustav have moved inland and now the Gulf Coast is dealing with the hurricane's aftermath. The storm is now a tropical depression. At least seven deaths are linked to Gustav's assault on the Gulf Coast.
The storm made landfall southwest of New Orleans as a Category 2 hurricane. Heavy rain and possible tornadoes in the forecast today for Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Texas. New Orleans' mayor says he wants evacuees to stay out of the city for at least another day. And we're talking today about the impact on oil prices. Investors for their part are optimistic there are no great losses. In fact, oil is trading at its lowest level in months.
As we said, Gustav is now just a tropical depression. But more storms are on the horizon. Boy, that's for sure. Let's check in with Reynolds Wolf now in the weather center.
Let me see if I have this right: Gustav, Hanna, Ike, Josephine.
WOLF: Oh, you're good. You are really, really good.
COLLINS: I had to write it down. I mean, it's pretty, it's pretty incredible.
WOLF: Yes, I know. It's hard to believe. We do sort of we're losing track of these things. I mean, there's so many of them. It's going to be a busy season. We've been telling people to get ready. And this is the reason why.
Hey, let me show you very quickly, Heidi, what is happening with Gustav. As you mentioned it is a dying system but like a wounded animal. I mean, still dangerous, still bringing some scattered showers and storms back from Jackson to Hattiesburg. Some of these storms, these lines of showers could bring some very heavy rainfall. In fact, we've got watches and warnings that are scattered up throughout much of Louisiana, parts of Mississippi into Arkansas, including parts of New Orleans.
We have a live image for you at this time. We're going to show you that right in New Orleans. We're going to go to that momentarily. And it is going to be a cloudy time there. Take my word for it. There we go. WVUE in New Orleans. You can see in the foreground a couple of buildings, off in the distance, though, hazy skies. Could see more rain there through the rest of the day.
Meanwhile, very quickly, let's go back out to the Atlantic. We're going to show you one storm. This of course is our biggest concern, this being Hanna. Hanna has a pretty interesting path. This is from the National Hurricane Center. And the latest forecast they have on Hanna, which is a tropical storm with winds of 70 gusting to 100, brings the storm back to the north and has it increasing with power very rapidly right past NASA -- rather, Nassau and then near the NASA Space Center near the Space Coast to Florida not far from, say, Cocoa Beach, and then moving up towards Savannah and Charleston as we get into Friday and Saturday.
Now, one thing I want you to focus on is not just that line but you have to focus on that area of probability, the cone of uncertainty. There's a chance the storm could make landfall in Florida, maybe even as far north as the outer banks of North Carolina. A lot of uncertainty at this time. But we'll keep you up to speed. Plus, Heidi, we've got a lot more storms to talk about that you mentioned and we're going to do that at the top of next hour.
COLLINS: OK, perfect. Reynolds, thank you.
WOLF: You bet.
COLLINS: Northwest of New Orleans now in the inland city of Baton Rouge. At least one city official says it is the most destruction in memory. CNN's Jeanne Meserve is there and she's joining us now via broadband.
Good morning to you, Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi.
This really did get a wallop here. People died here. (INAUDIBLE). We drove through the city this morning. There are a lot of trees down. Some of them at crossroads. (INAUDIBLE). A lot of debris in the roads. Power lines down. Cell service is spotty. And that's the story all across the state of Louisiana.
Also some reports of some areas are covered with water. (INAUDIBLE). As bad as it is, this is no Katrina. The levees held. No reports of major flooding. The loss of life, seven people that we know of. Relatively small as compared to Katrina. Now, the assessment are still going on. There was some time yesterday afternoon (INAUDIBLE). They're having the first order of business today -- to get on the ground, to get aircraft up in the air, to get an assessment of exactly how bad this situation is.
We expect an update in about half an hour from Governor Jindal and also from the Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. They are (INAUDIBLE) to take off in a helicopter and visit three of the badly hit areas, and the city of New Orleans before coming back to Baton Rouge to get a firsthand look at exactly what this storm has done.
Heidi, back to you.
COLLINS: All right. CNN's Jeanne Meserve. Jeanne, unfortunately, we're having a pretty hard time hearing you. But part of the reason for that is definitely because of all the rain that's still coming down. She mentioned debris in the area, cell phone towers are down and also mentioned that there will be an update in about 30 minutes or so from Governor Bobby Jindal. So we will stay in close contact with Jeanne and find out more about that.
As we just said here, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will join Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff again scheduled for the top of the hour right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Plenty of people in New Orleans listened to the warnings and got out before the storm hit. But thousands of rescue workers of course had to stay behind. They risked their lives to save other people.
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta spent the day with some of them. He's joining us now from New Orleans.
So, Sanjay, what were you able to see?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I was able to get some pretty rare access to these EMS workers, Emergency Medical Services workers, right as the storm was starting to reach its peak. But it's exactly as you said, Heidi. It's a double-edged sword. They are told to evacuate like everyone else in the city, but they have to stay because there are so many people who choose to stay. The hospitals, many of them stay open. It's a tough balance for them. We spent a while with one of them. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE), we're going to go help the lady stuck in her vehicle. Do you have the address for us?
GUPTA: Today, Mike Guillot's goal, that one dies. As director of Emergency Medical Services at East Jefferson Hospital, during a hurricane, today will pose a special challenge.
MIKE GUILLOT, DIRECTOR, EMS WORKERS: It was a house burning, but it came out as five houses burning. And that potentially could have been a whole neighborhood burned down.
GUPTA: He takes me out on patrol right as the worst of the storm starts to hit. You can hear the pounding rain. You can feel the entire vehicle shudder. In an area where nearly 2 million live, there is no one on the road.
GUILLOT: It is very quiet.
GUPTA (on camera): A major American city on a holiday weekend. No one really to be found.
(voice-over): We get a rare look at the levees.
GUILLOT: This is the 17th Street Canal.
GUPTA: In the middle of a hurricane.
GUILLOT: We're hoping that levee holds. If the levee doesn't hold, we're in trouble. It's scary. This is scary, because this is high. If that section broke, the section on our side of the parish break at any time, that's -- that's -- that's high. That's a lot of water.
GUPTA: Mike Guillot has been here through Katrina and other storms. He is one of the guys we hear about. He is one of the guys who always stays.
(on camera): The governor has been on, the mayor has been on saying evacuate. I think it's maybe fair to say you're still here. Did you think about leaving?
GUILLOT: Well, you know, I've been a paramedic my whole life, since I was 20 years old. So, I mean, you know, I don't think about leaving. But I mean, I think my priority is to make sure my family, my wife's safe, my kids are safe. And as long as those things are in place, you know, I look at it as this is our job. And I don't see it as something heroic. It's just our job to do.
GUPTA (voice-over): But it is heroic, staying, and trying to protect people from this -- an angry Lake Pontchartrain.
(on camera): The only way that we can even be out here right now is with the assistance of EMS. They have brought us out here to show us exactly what they're concerned about. And you can see it behind me. All this water over here that is really kicking out of Lake Pontchartrain. There are levees all around. The water is nowhere near close yet but the concern is that it might get there.
They're patrolling right now in some of the worse conditions to try and see if anybody needs help. But at some point, even the EMS is going to be told enough. It's time to go in. We're almost there.
(voice-over): It's been a challenging day. But this area just west of New Orleans has a better chance because Mike Guillot has chosen to stay.
GUILLOT: If you all want to go back out again, we can do that, you know.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GUPTA: I'll tell you as well, as with so many people down here in New Orleans, he has personal reasons for staying as well. He lost somebody during Katrina. He lost a family member. He, as a paramedic, he was one of the ones who actually went and recovered the body afterwards.
And one of his goals for himself and for his department was that doesn't happen again. And they did a really good job yesterday. Let me point out as well, Heidi, for the first time, it's starting to get light out. I've been able to take this rain jacket off for the first time in a couple of days. You can see some blue skies even up in the air. It's been a little while, Heidi.
COLLINS: Yes, wow. Well, that's terrific news and such a good piece. And I think a lot of times we forget about the rescue workers risking their own lives. As you mentioned, this has now been downgraded, Gustav has, to a tropical depression. So, as we look at the hospitals, what seems to be the biggest danger or what are they most concerned about now?
GUPTA: You know, it's interesting. If you look at the history of hurricanes, it's not usually during the hurricane that there's that much problem typically. What happens is people start to repopulate the city. They see the damaged roofs. They're up on those slippery roofs. They may fall. They may step on nails. A lot of the debris around. That tends to be more mundane type injuries, but the more significant ones now in the hours and days ahead.
The hospitals has got to take care of those patients. They've had a lot of their personnel stay in the hospital over the days. That's what they're going to be taking care of over the next week probably.
COLLINS: Yes. And I hesitate to compare because obviously these storms were so incredibly different. The evacuation procedures to the direction that it came in. But I do wonder how the hospitals fared this time around when you compare it to Katrina. I know you spent so much time at charity hospital, which is now closed.
GUPTA: Very, very different and in a very good way. As you know, Heidi, we were at Charity Hospital three years ago. They opted for what is known as a late evac. They waited to try to evacuate patients. So the problem was it ended up being a wait that was too long.
With those flooded waters, they couldn't get patients out of the hospital fast enough. They had to canoe them across the street, across streets that were now filled with water, carry them up eight flights of stairs on the top of parking decks. It was an awful, awful situation. This time they tried to evacuate as many patients as possible ahead of time and try to really beef up the capacity of the hospital, fortifying it with extra steel, making sure you had more generators, lots of fuel around. They were taking no chances. And it paid off for all the hospitals that we visited here.
COLLINS: Well, good. That's terrific news. All right. You keep that sunshine coming to the state there, OK, Sanjay? Thanks so much, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(CROSSTALK)
GUPTA: I'll bring it home. Absolutely. All right.
COLLINS: Excellent. Our chief medical correspondent.
Gustav kicks up tornadoes, though, in the south. And CNN iReporters are on the job. You see their storm videos right there in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Looking at some of the pretty incredible pictures there after Hurricane Gustav. Quickly want to get to this as well. We're just now learning here in the CNN NEWSROOM, President Bush is pushing Congress for more oil drilling obviously in the wake of Hurricane Gustav.
Let's go ahead and listen in to something he said just moments ago.
Actually, we don't have it quite yet, but I can assure you that one of the reasons obviously that he's talking about this was because of all of the concerns of where those refineries were located in the wake and in the path of Hurricane Gustav.
Obviously, this was a very, very different storm than Hurricane Katrina three years ago. This wasn't as much of a concern. So, we will go ahead and get to that sound just as soon as it becomes available to us. We have it in-house. Just need to get it routed up as we say here out to you in just a few moments.
In the meantime, we do have iReporters and crews out all along the Gulf Coast covering the aftermath now of Hurricane Gustav. But we also have you, our iReporters, helping us tell the story.
Our Josh Levs is here now to share some of those pictures with us. And, boy, I understand they are pretty unbelievable.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're unbelievable. And they're coming in from all areas that were affected by the storm. We're really just beginning to piece through some of the ones that came through overnight and into this morning. Heidi, it's amazing.
I mean, I've got some of the major pictures pulled up on the screen behind me here. But what we're going to do is we made some big graphics out of some of the best ones.
Let's start off with these first ones we have here. Coming to us from George Holleran now. This is what he saw. And I was a little stunned by his description. He was driving from Panama City toward Louisiana yesterday. And at first I couldn't understand why he'd do that. Let's keep going through these pictures. Turns out he is a storm chaser. He actually has some training. He was safe. He was careful. And he got some of these really stunning photos along the way.
Again, we're not telling anyone to go do this but this man is a storm chaser who specifically knows how to go into these areas. Got some of the striking stuff. Now, Heidi, I want to take you to a piece of video we got. It's pretty stunning. Let's look at that. Then I'll tell you about it.
All right. Let me tell you what we're seeing here. Look at that real estate sign. That is real estate for sale right there. You're looking at Ocean Springs, Mississippi. And this is along one of the major highways there. This is pretty amazing that we manage to receive this today. Lonnie Root we're told took this video along that area. Obviously, not going to be popular real estate. Now, this is some of the biggest flooding that you see in that area for quite a long time.
You can tell he's inside the vehicle. That's what those specs means. So he was relatively safe in taking this video. But again, this put us right inside some of the powerful flooding in a lot of areas. And clearly, you can start to get a sense of the economic damage that could affect that area as well.
Now, one final thing I'm going to show you now, a little bit quirky, a little bit surprising. Let's go to the picture here. I do want to emphasize right away. Again, no major danger was taken right there.
I was a little torn on this until I found out what was actually going on here. This picture was taken by Alfonso Vargas. And he was working at a hospital. He was part of an on-called team at a hospital, so he actually couldn't leave. He had to stay around in the area. He said when the winds started to die down in Biloxi, that's when he went out there and that it was safe at that point, decided to play a little superhero action. It is pretty amazing stuff. And it gives you a sense -- and if you think about it, folks, this is after the winds started to die down. So clearly the winds were incredibly powerful there.
We have a few seconds left. I want to zoom in on the board, quickly. Let you know a couple of things. First of all, if you want to send us your iReports from the storm area taken safely, just go to ireport.com. You'll be able to see that there. But I know a lot of people also in other areas want to know how you can help.
So, let's go to "Impact Your World." All you need to do is go to CNN.com/impact. It takes you right here. And we'll let you know a whole bunch of places that you can go to, to help provide assistance to the people who are worst affected. Heidi, throughout the day, we're going to go through all the iReports we get. Keep bringing to you right here -- the stories, the photos, the videos, make sure we get the best stuff to show you right here -- Heidi.
COLLINS: I like the disclaimers, too. Maybe we should say it again.
LEVS: Yes.
COLLINS: We certainly don't advocate standing out there and being blown literally off of your feet because we've got three more storms that we're talking about in the wake of all this.
LEVS: Exactly. We screen this stuff big-time.
COLLINS: I know you did. All right, Josh, thank you. We'll check back a little bit later on.
LEVS: Thanks, Heidi.
COLLINS: Louisiana delegates watch Gustav from the Republican convention. I'm talking with one of them live from St. Paul.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Another just in as we call it here in the CNN NEWSROOM to let you know about. We had been reporting earlier with CNN's John Roberts who is in St. Paul, Minnesota for the Republican National Convention, which as you know is back on. We had learned that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will not be speaking tonight. That was his original slot to address the RNC. He will, however, we're told, have a speaking role at the convention, but we just don't know quite yet when that will be.
Obviously, as you know by now, Hurricane Gustav really caused some alterations, if you will, to the convention program. So we will wait to hear when that will be. But once again, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will have a speaking role at the convention. It will happen later this week.
Hurricane Gustav changed the tone and schedule at the Republican convention in many ways, but that has not slowed delegates from Gulf States. One of those delegates is Michael Bayham from Louisiana. He is joining us now live this morning from St. Paul.
Michael, thanks for being with us. First off the top, I just want to ask you -- I know that you are a former councilman from St. Bernard's Parish -- I want to ask you how your loved ones and your parish fared in the storm.
MICHAEL BAYHAM, LOUISIANA REPUBLICAN DELEGATE: Well, my family got out in advance of the storm. As far as St. Bernard Parish, I'm very pleased to share, I got some news, very encouraging news yesterday from some people back home that the levees held in St. Bernard and in the Lower Ninth Ward. So we were largely spared a lot of the damage by Hurricane Gustav. And we're very appreciative of the efforts of our first responders back home and civil government for staying around and helping the community.
COLLINS: Yes. All right. Well, that's excellent news. The party, as you know, just decided this morning to go ahead with the convention, resuming normal activities. As they're saying, what do you think about that decision, Michael?
BAYHAM: Well, I think it's the right move. People in Louisiana, we had to evacuate, whether I went to northern Mississippi or southern Minnesota really didn't matter. I was elected as a delegate. I lost a lot in Katrina, had 11 feet of water in my home, lost a lot of stuff that I can't replace. And to be brutally honest, the Storm Gustav was obviously something that was really on my mind a lot, and this is a little bit of a nice distraction.
COLLINS: OK. Well, good. It is a pleasure talking with you. I certainly wish we had more time. We will continue to follow all of this, obviously, at the Republican National Convention here on CNN. Michael Bayham, he is a delegate there from Louisiana. Thanks so much, Michael.
New Orleans got side swiped, but south central Louisiana got the eye of the storm. Live coverage from Cajun County, coming up.
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