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Hurricane Ike Still Hammers Texas

Aired September 13, 2008 - 10:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: The storm made landfall about seven hours ago. The flooding however started well before that with the first storm bands. They have been going through this for quite some time now. We have seen lots of flooding along the coast in places, certainly Galveston. More damaging wind has been coming in to several areas inland, including Houston. We have seen dozens of windows blown out, of course some of those high rise buildings downtown, we've got debris, we've got glass all over the streets. Ike, itself, is a long way from being over, as you see there. This huge storm continues to pelt southeast Texas with strong winds and rain moving through north of that state. Right now, 4 million people, we are told, are without power. You are looking at KPRC, this is one of our affiliates that have helped us along in our coverage this morning. We have a full team of correspondents in that impact zone right now, including, my partner, my co-anchor, Betty Nguyen who has been handling her anchoring duties from the field this morning. We talk about that litter and that debris and that glass that is falling. Now that the sun is out or at least it is daylight, can you see just a mess downtown?
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Not only is it a mess but we have found that there is flooding in downtown Houston. Let me take you over to my left shoulder here and if you look down the street there where that jeep is pulling in, the water has flooded from the Buffalo bayou. It is running off of the side of the banks. This is the beginning of the Houston shipping channel. That little area that looks kind of like a fountain, we are being told that was a manhole that had simply been busted because of all the pressure from the water that has flooded its banks there at the Buffalo Bayou. I have with me T.J., two people who actually live downtown and work down here because they own a business. Jamie Mize joins me. Jamie, as we look at this bayou down here, have you ever seen a flood like this before?

JAMIE MIZE, HOUSTON RESIDENT: No, not to that extent. I suspect it's probably from the shipping channel back up the water, the surge, nowhere to go. But I have never seen it boiling like that, it's really terrific.

NGUYEN: You rode out the storm here. You don't live too far away, right up in this building. I don't know if you experienced what I did because I am just across the street from you in the hotel but it started swaying as soon as hurricane Ike was blowing through downtown Houston. What did you feel?

MIZE: The same thing, the windows were rattling. The building was kind of shaking a little bit. But all the windows held. We didn't lose any windows but there is quite a bit of water in the building itself.

NGUYEN: But your neighbor lost his air-conditioning unit?

MIZE: My neighbor lost the air conditioning, it blew off the roof, it's a heavy compressor but it flew off the roof and landed next door.

NGUYEN: Did it hit a car or anything like that?

MIZE: No, everything is ok.

NGUYEN: You also have a business just a few blocks away. You were able to take a look at that. What did you see?

MIZE: No problems at the restaurant. We didn't lose power, there is some water damage. We did walk over to Main Street, we saw one missing store front. All trees are down. Most street lights are down. It looks bad.

NGUYEN: What about the JP Morgan Chase building, because it's the tallest building in Texas and there has been such a concern over windows blowing out of that building. What did you see over there?

MIZE: We observed the east side of the building, about 50 percent of the windows on the east side are missing up to floor 30.

NGUYEN: 50 percent?

MIZE: Yeah, 50 percent. Everything has been blown out of the windows, the lamps, the shades, papers everywhere, glass is littering the streets.

NGUYEN: I want a photographer, Joe, if you could, pan over to that building. If you will look very closely, you can still see either debris from in the building or curtains or some kind of objects blowing in the wind here. It appears from this vantage point that those might be curtains that are blowing in the wind because those windows are just gone. As you said, Jamie, debris is all over the street there. You were here during Alicia that was back in 1983, it killed 21 people. How does that compare to what Ike has done to Houston?

MIZE: It looks like the damage is a little more extensive from this storm. We didn't have the number of trees that we had -- we have more trees now than we had back then. I think that's what we are seeing, mostly trees down and a lot of the streetlights. Yeah, it's a little more extensive than Alicia.

NGUYEN: What I was really concerned about too were the trees. You have the flying debris. We saw one of the streetlights that blew down off of one of the poles. I have taken a walk around these blocks and seen trees actually uprooted.

MIZE: The trees were broken at ground level, that's what amazes me. They weren't just ripped out by the roots, they were snapped. So that gives you an idea of the power of the storm. NGUYEN: Just a small glimpse of it as we felt it coming through. Jamie, we do appreciate your time today. That really speaks to the power of hurricane Ike, T.J., because, as it blew through overnight, both Jeanne Meserve and myself were out here watching this storm. Jeanne did in fact at times clock the wind speeds between 115 and 130 miles per hour. This was a powerful storm that blew through downtown Houston. Just as we are starting to get some daylight here, we are getting a good look at the damage left behind. I want to take you now to one of my colleagues, Rusty Dornin, she is still feeling the effects of hurricane Ike. She is down in Beaumont, Texas. What are you seeing right now, Rusty?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty, the winds are dying down a little bit but we're still getting blasted by some gusts. What you can see behind me basically is most of the ninth floor at the hotel where we are staying at in Beaumont. The winds just sheered off one end of the hallway on the ninth floor. Just a few minutes ago, on the other end of the hotel, all of the stucco and dry wall just sheared completely off the wall. A lot of people went running, a lot of people who were standing outside went running. The wind has been the big factor where I am right now of course it rocked us all night. From what I understand, I just spoke to one of the fire officials I've been speaking to in town, he said he and his men have been patrolling Port Arthur. The good news is the levee held at 14 feet. Not much water over the top. The concern is in places like that are about 20 to 30 miles from here, Bridge City, which is apparently under nine feet of water. It was flooded by the Natchez River. Perhaps again the storm surge coming up from the gulf, coming up into those rivers and flooding areas that are very low.

Also in Orange, the National Weather Service was reporting very early this morning and there are people at our hotel who are going out to help and see what's going on. People were reportedly on their roofs asking to be rescued from the flooding. That is from the Sabine River, from Lake Sabine again, the storm surge pushing up. We are seeing here of course a lot of wind damage and, again, flooding from storm surge. But in the Port Arthur area, apparently, it was not as bad as they thought it would be. I also just talked to an Exxon Mobil employee who said that there is a Petro chemical plant here in Port Arthur that one of the cockers apparently did get flooded. There is some coke in the river there. The wharf leading to that is under water. But apparently the refineries so far very sketchy observations, are looking pretty good. I also spoke to a Shell company official yesterday that said that they filled up tankers that are filled and ready as soon as the power is back up, to be able to supply the gas stations in the gulf coast area to get people back on their feet. Betty?

NGUYEN: All right, thank you, Rusty. We also want to get a glimpse at what the situation is like in Baytown, Texas. Our Ali Velshi joins us now live from there. Ali, what are you seeing as hurricane Ike is making its way through Texas?

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The winds are dropping a little bit here too but Bay town is the headquarters for refining in America. I am attempting to get not too far distance from the Baytown refinery and get some sense of how bad things are there. We are finding ourselves a little too deep in water at the moment so I don't think that is going to happen. There is extensive damage in Baytown. We have (INAUDIBLE). We have a hotel which looked like it wasn't finished construction completely flat, trees down, power lines down. In fact we are trying to sneak our way down to the refinery and we have been stopped once because of power lines down in the street. We've been stopped another time now because there is too much water and it looks like our engine is flooded out. We're trying to get an assessment. A fairly assessment from the Department of Energy and the oil companies are not going to come until this storm is completely past. We do know that gas prices have been spiking overnight, we've been reporting on that, a six cent increase per gallon. That's a very substantial increase for one night. We see in Florida, $5.49. In Atlanta, $4.95. Major increases in parts of the country and definitely shortages. In places like this, of course, no gas to be had because many gas stations will not have power if they have gas at all. This has been a hit to the energy infrastructure. The issue is how quickly the oil companies can get back up to speed, can get the water out of their plant and get the electricity up again. There is no power in Baytown. There are 26 refineries in Texas. 13 of them were shut down ahead of Ike. We do not know how much will be back up but one quarter of the nation's refining capacity is right here in these 26 refineries. This will be felt across the country.

NGUYEN: All right Ali, obviously a big concern down there. We do appreciate your information as we continue to follow hurricane Ike. Back here in downtown Houston, debris is a major issue especially when it comes to the J.P. Morgan Chase building. It's the tallest building in Texas at 75 stories. We have seen today windows are blown out. In fact, curtains appear to be flying through some of those windows that no longer exist. I have with me CNN's Jeanne Meserve, my colleague, you have actually gotten a glimpse of some of the damage caused by this storm?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, if you go down on the other side of the building there are two sides of it where virtually every window is blown out for 30 or so floors and there are eight floors badly damaged. And then above that there were occasional windows out. There is a building next door, just about 38 stories high, it also has some windows out. But we talked to a city official down there who believes there probably was pea gravel on the roof of that second building and that the wind caught it and blew it across into the J.P. Chase Morgan building. That's why there is so much damage on the lower portion of that building. On this side, we can just see the occasional window or curtain flapping but the damage on this side, not too bad. Now we've also been down in this direction, in what's called Buffalo Bayou, flooding down there. Commerce Street, portions of that are covered. There are a couple of manhole covers there, you can see that the storm drains are overflowing. They are pushing water up, up, up into the street. There is an overpass that's covered with water down there, just swirling around in sort of a whirlpool pattern at one point where the road sort of trapped the water. A lot of water continuing to come up here. I see the police are down there now trying to block it off but it is some flooding of roadways. I did not see that any buildings in that area were affected yet. NGUYEN: We are seeing the police block off several roads down here, one down there by the JP Morgan Chase building. In fact, they have some yellow tape down there to make sure people don't walk near some of that glass that is still falling from the building. But Jeanne, you were here during this storm as it was really blowing through downtown Houston. In fact, you watched one of the traffic lights come down. Talk to me about what you were able to see and feel as Ike made its way through.

MESERVE: I have been through a number of hurricanes and they all follow a certain M.O. It is really windy, it is really wet and there is a lot of water. This one was very typical in that respect. But a little bit louder than most because of all the high-rise buildings I think the wind just whips down through those streets and really yowls as it comes on through. You can see the vortexes in the intersections where wind coming from various directions met up with one another.

NGUYEN: Kind of like a tornado effect?

MESERVE: Well, that would be overstating it. But yeah, you might say a vortex but certainly wouldn't say a tornado. So that was pretty dramatic. What was astounding to me was how intact the city seems to be. I mean if we look around here, yes, there are a lot of trees down, there is debris on the roads. Yes, there area lot of windows out in some of these skyscrapers. But to my eye, the physical destruction of downtown at least in the this little snapshot we can see doesn't appear too, too bad.

NGUYEN: Yeah that is the good news. We did have power throughout this storm. That is another little glimpse of a silver lining if you will, throughout this storm. But this storm is, indeed, not over. Many parts of Texas will feel its effects. I want to take you now to CNN's Jacqui Jeras, who has been manning the hurricane center there with the latest on where the storm is right now. Jackie?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is probably about 60 miles away from you now Betty. It's increasing at forward speed, so it's picking up, it's going a little bit faster. And that's great news for Houston. Because the worst of the winds we think are over with. We think you are done with the hurricane force winds. From the tropical storm force winds, that means winds in the range of 39 to 70 miles plus hour. It's still going to be possible at least till early in the afternoon. Some of the worse conditions right now, where Rusty Dornin is. And look at these feeder bands as they push on through the Beaumont Port Arthur area, you guys are seeing worse winds. In fact at the top of the hour, wind gusts at 66 miles per hour reported at the regional airport here. The surge is much greater too because the winds are coming in much more perpendicular to the coastline here. They are going up through Sabine Pass into the lake and then on up the river. That's why we're still seeing surges around Port Arthur, around 10-1/2 feet. Now I want to show you some of the gages and some of the surge problems we have been talking about. We know that we've seen some overtopping in some covered islands around Galveston area, up through the bay as well. Surges of nine to 12 feet being reported just in the last couple of hours and that here in Sabine pat w put the river gauges on top of this. From the U.S.G.S. We will query that for you and show you the conditions here.

You can see we keep doubt in the overnight hours and early this morning that were 14 feet. This line right down here, that's what we consider major flood state. So it's way up there. It has gone down a little bit since that time. That's some good news. We are still seeing surges here around eight feet or so. Let's take this down and talk a little bit about the situation with the bayous flooding into the Houston area. Now if we could fly back over towards Houston, you can see that big purple dot. That means major flood. We're going to query that for you and this is the White Oak Bayou. This is possibly some record flooding taking place in that area. We will query that one for you and there you can see. Can we pull that up, there we go. Be patient with me for just a second. There you go, 41.93 feet. That is way above, getting close to the record stage. Way above major stage.

We hear from the National Weather service that potentially cover up parts of I-10 when we get to these levels. We have our reporters and people behind the scene working to find out that information and bring it along to you. Something else to think about now in the coming hours as we make our way down the line is the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. We are starting to sea the winds increase in Dallas around 20 plus miles per hour in terms of the gusts. The light rain showers are moving in. This will be a concern as the winds increase throughout the day. You are going to be seeing tropical storm forced wind gusts. Things are going to be flying around in Dallas. And power outages are going to be very likely in this area as we head toward the afternoon. Betty?

NGUYEN: You know that really gives you the scope of the storm, how big it is, when you go all the way from Galveston, Texas to Dallas. They may even be experiencing some of the ill effects from hurricane Ike. Thank you for that. We do appreciate it Jacqui. In fact we're going to get an update on the situation in Clute, Texas. That's where our Reynolds Wolf is. He has been really hunkering down there riding out portions of this storm. Stay tuned we'll bring that to you next.

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HOLMES: About 10:20 here on the east coast on this Saturday morning, some seven hours now into the landfall of hurricane Ike. Here is what we do know about the storm right here. It has been downgraded, it's weakened to a category 1 storm, still has winds that are near 90 miles an hour, it's about 40 miles north of Houston right now. We do know that three deaths have been attributed to the storm. Still too early to estimate all the damage, the thousands of homes and businesses certainly have been hit and hit hard. More than 4 million people are without power. Ike is expected to move through southeastern and eastern Texas today and then head into western Arkansas tonight. We have been keeping on eye on things at our world headquarters and headquarters. But we also have plenty of people on the ground, one of them being our Betty Nguyen, who has been anchoring, doing her co-anchor duties from out in the field. So again, please, set the scene for us there Betty. NGUYEN: Here in Houston, Texas, I find it really interesting how you say this storm is 90 miles north of where I am. We are still seeing the rain, we're still feeling the wind and the debris. It's pretty much everywhere. If I can get Joe to pan around for me just a little bit, you can see cars have started to trickle into downtown. But amid the debris are tree limbs, we have traffic lights that have been blown off of their polls. We also have street signs that have been tossed around. You have trees that have literally been uprooted in some areas. As we take a look downtown, you see maybe a little bit of flashing light down at the far distance. They roped off an area near the JP Morgan Chase building because many of those windows as we talked to Jeanne Meserve just a minute ago, have been blown out. 50 percent of the windows on floors 30 and down have been simply shattered, because of the winds. And if you look really closely, you might be able to see some of the curtains just blowing in the wind.

Take a look at this a s.w.a.t. team truck that has just drove up here. I am at the corner of Congress and Travis here in Houston. They are patrolling the streets. Not many people, I will tell you, are out here at this hour. Just a few people who have come to assess the damage from maybe their businesses in and around this area. Not a whole lot of onlookers who have decided just to come and see what happened. People are really being cautious about this storm. In fact, it's not just in this Houston area. There is a wide portion of Texas that is feeling the effects. I want to take you now to my colleague, Reynolds Wolf, who is in Clute, Texas. Reynolds, you were really getting pummeled a few hours ago. What's the situation there now?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We are getting lightly pummeled right now. Not quite as bad in terms of the wind. The rain continues to come down. One of the good things Betty, is that we have seen more traffic on the roadways. You will remember that roughly 30 percent of Brazoria County has decided to stay. Decided to stay and face the brunt of the storm. They didn't want to leave their homes. Now, they have rescue crews, law enforcement going out to check on a lot of these calls. A lot of emergency calls. So far, the news has been very, very good. We have had no reports of fatalities but as the morning goes on and as we get into the afternoon and they are able to get in contact with some of these people, let's hope their luck holds.

The problem is, there are many obstacles out there, a lot of flooded roadways, a lot of trees that have been knocked down. So it's going to be very difficult for people to get to those calls. We are hoping to break away in a short while and head farther down 288 to give you a better idea at home what is happening closer to the coast. Betty, through much of the morning, it's been all Texas. We have been talking a great deal about Texas. But you have to include parts of Louisiana with this tremendous story. It's a huge story, the devastation that Ike has brought to parts of the United States. We are going to switch gears and go over to Cameron Parish, Louisiana. I'm told we've got one of Cameron Parish's finest on the line. Sheriff, how are things going this morning in your part of the world?

VOICE OF SHERIFF THEOS DUHON, CAMERON PARISH, LOUISIANA: Right now, it is getting pretty active because we are trying to -- we are making entry into the northern part of our parish to see and evaluate what we have got right now. That's the only way and the only part of the parish we can check out right now. The other part is under water. Basically we have a little rescue missions going on from some people that decided to stay. We are trying to get them out and get them some help right now.

WOLF: Sheriff, how many people call Cameron Parish home? How many people do you have that live in your jurisdiction?

DUHON: Prior to Rita, we had 9,800 or right around that number. Now since after Rita we had about 7,200.

WOLF: I see and how many crews are going to be going out today to try to give aid to these people?

DUHON: We have wildlife officials doing rescues with the boats. We are manning the phones and starting to get the calls in that they need to get out or if they have water in their homes, they're in chest deep water or knee deep water, depending on where they are at. We have set up our roadblocks with the deputies in the military right now. We've just got a few of them in the northwest portion of our parish to evacuate.

WOLF: Well, sheriff, I know you have a tremendous day ahead of you and your crews. This is going to be something you are going to be dealing with through a good part of the weekend and obviously a good part of possibly into next week. Thank you so much for your time and all the best to you and your crews. You know ladies and gentlemen, this has been a story that, we were just talking about Cameron Parish, you could take that situation and you could've put it anywhere here in southeastern Texas, and still you are going to hear that similar refrain. I mean people are desperately in need right now. There are a lot of rescues that are going to be taking place, a lot of people whose homes have been destroyed. The problem is, as Jacqui Jeras has been sharing with you through a good part of the morning, this storm, although it is moving forward, although it's moving north, although it's only a category 1 storm, there is still the issue with the storm going into north Texas. We could have more problems up there. There is the potential that mixing in with the frontal boundary, it's moving in to parts of the Midwest. We could see widespread flooding in many parts of the nation so it's a tremendous issue. I can tell you in Brazoria County things are again as I mentioned a little bit better conditions. The sky is brightening up. The sun certainly isn't out. The wind is beginning to subside. The rain still heavy at times but it is going to be very interesting to see what's up the road. And as I mentioned earlier, we are going to try to break away for a little bit, go down there and get some fresh video and bring it to you. That's the latest we've got, let's send it back to you, I guess it's either Betty or T.J., not quite sure. So I'm going to just toss it off and see who takes it.

NGUYEN: It's me, Reynolds. Thank you, Reynolds. We do appreciate it. Here in downtown Houston as Reynolds was saying, the wind here too has started to die down. It is not raining as hard as it was before. As this storm blows through Texas, you heard about it maybe hitting Dallas and causing some problems there. It's going to affect people who are in states far from here. That's because of gas prices. What is it going to do? What does it mean to you? We are going to get a reality check with Josh Levs coming up next.

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HOLMES: Coming up now on 10:30 on the eastern coast. We are seven hours into landfall of hurricane Ike which came aboard as a category 2 now downgraded as you see there to a category 1 storm, it's making its way through Texas about 60 miles north of Houston right now. We have three deaths that are being attributed to the storm. A lot of the damage estimates starting to come in. We are starting to see more so because of it becoming daylight hours there now. We do know that thousands of homes and businesses have been damaged in Texas as well as Louisiana. We have been seeing pictures this morning as well of a lot of windows in downtown Houston including the JP Morgan Chase building have been blown out, that building the tallest in the state of Texas. Ike is expected to move through southeastern and eastern Texas today and then into western Arkansas overnight. We want to head back to downtown Houston and my co-anchor, Betty Nguyen who has been handling the duties down there for us. And Betty, you said there is starting to be a little movement downtown, people -- not crowded necessarily just yet but still you're starting to see people kind of come out and see a little activity down there?

NGUYEN: Yes, it's not crowded by any means but people are starting to come out of their high-rise buildings down here and take a look at the damage, the debris on the streets but not a whole lot. In fact we have seen more patrol cars, s.w.a.t. team vehicles, in fact, around this area than we have seen regular civilian vehicles. Obviously authorities around here are making sure that people are not only staying safe but they are preventing any kind of looting that could possibly happen. They are really being proactive with that.

As this storm has blown through Houston, we are still feeling the effects. It is, what, 90 miles north of us, but you can still see the rain coming down. We are still feeling the wind. A little bit farther to our south is Galveston. Obviously, that's where this storm made landfall around 2:00 a.m. local time.

I want to bring in someone who really watched this as it happened down there in Galveston. Of course we have our correspondents but hurricanetrack.com sets up live Web cams so people at home can see Ike while it makes landfall. On the phone with us, I believe, or we may have him live is Mark Sudduth. Mark, you rode this thing out down in Galveston. Give me an idea of what you experienced?

VOICE OF MARK SUDDUTH, HURRICANETRACK.COM: Oh, I experienced nothing short of a real life version of the "Poseidon" adventure but not quite the dramatics of that movie and that story. The hotel we were in was rocking and windows blowing out. There was enormous wave action, the wind, the power outages, fires in the distance. It was everything that a Hollywood epic disaster movie very would be made of, except it was for real.

NGUYEN: As we were watching those videos that come in to CNN throughout the night, live video of the situation down there, it just seemed like it was one problem after another. Did you experience some of those? In the beginning of this storm, they were seeing some 20, 25-feet waves. Did you see any of that throughout the evening?

SUDDUTH: Yes. We saw very large waves crashing against the Galveston seawall. And in some cases, they were maybe three to five stories high. Lots of damage to the seawall in places. We're really fearing for west Galveston which is where we are right now. The seawall does not exist. It looks like a lot of flooding still here.

NGUYEN: No doubt, that's what a lot of people expected. And hopefully, the folks that decided to stay and ride it out were able to make it out of harm's way. Mark Sudduth with hurricanetrack.com joining us live. We do appreciate your information.

In fact, I want to take you now to my colleague Rob Marciano, who is up and running this morning. Boy, he has had a long night riding out that storm down in Galveston. Rob, give me on idea of what you experienced where you are.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, it was some night, I can tell you that. From the front eye wall to the eye itself, which lasted an extraordinary amount of time, an hour, an hour and a half of completely calm winds.

And on the back side of the storm, which was even more ferocious than the front side which completely blew us out of our backup position which was protected. And then at that point, when the back side came through, they were going door to door here in this hotel, which is probably one of the most fortified buildings and highest buildings on the island to get people off the upper floors and get them down to the lower floors, because the upper floors were so unstable.

Windows were blowing out. It just wasn't safe at all. So and we've got fire crews in there, EMS people staying there, police officers staying there as well. Some patients from a nursing home, as well. A lot of people jam-packed in there. And there was a big evacuation downstairs.

You mentioned the seawall. There it is. Waves were crashing there last night. They were monstrous for sure. Today, just little bitty ones. But definitely some damage and debris strewn about the seawall.

Speaking of damage, check this out. That side of that building, completely shredded, right down to the reinforced concrete that is left standing. That area, you can actually see the wind whipping across the puddles there. That has been a wind tunnel from the get- go.

Last night, we had to walk through that parking lot. It took us 15 minutes to walk 200 yards. We were going teeth into 100-mile-an- hour winds, risking falling and sliding the entire time just to get to our backup position, which was, Greg, if you could pan up a little bit to the left, our backup position there in the parking lot. That was fine until the winds turned southwesterly, which was this direction. And then it completely fried all of our equipment and our personnel as well. So we had to shut down at that point.

But at this point Betty, fire crews now finally getting out. So first responders are now going door to door. The EMS guys I talked to right now are on stand by until the winds die down just a little bit and strike teams are being brought in to assess the situation as well.

So we will know a lot more as we go throughout the day. There are still a lot of places that continue to be flooded. The surge was bad. It did get up and over the seawall. It got up just to where that light pole is right there. But not nearly as bad I think as it could have been.

But still, there are areas that are still flooded this morning. And it will take quite some time for those to drain. And for the most part, we still can't get off the island. The causeway has some water on it. And we're going to have to wait that out before we can get back to the main land -- Betty?

NGUYEN: Those are some really remarkable pictures. These are our first live pictures from Galveston after the storm has blown through. Rob, let me ask you this because we were on the same flight coming into Houston. And we talked a lot about possibly being able to get into that eye of the storm. You made it this time around, buddy. You were able to see it. So when things started to calm down during that eye, were people coming out to take a look? Did that give you kind of an idea how many people might have stayed behind to ride out the storm?

MARCIANO: Well the rule of thumb with an eye, it was my first clean eye. It was quite an amazing event to see the winds go that strong and scary to complete calm.

When I say complete calm, I mean nothing was moving. There were some mosquitoes around, birds flying around. We couldn't see the sky. It was kind of a concealed sky as far as cloud cover goes. But it was an eerie calm for a solid hour. And then when the back side came through, the winds finally started to pick up.

To answer your question, yes, everybody came out. Satellite dishes were going out. People were broadcasting. You always hear when people talk about the eye and meteorologists warn people, don't stay out long. Don't go outside because often, it only lasts 20 minutes and you will be in the back side, which can be just as bad if not worse than the front side. Certainly that was the case.

But what was extraordinary about this storm, and it echoes the theme of it being such a large storm - that's what we've been talking about for days now. The eye was so big. It took over an hour to get through. It was an extraordinary event. But the back side -- we paid the price, Betty. The back side was worse than the front side. It was a scary couple of hours there after the eye went through.

NGUYEN: Goodness, we are still feeling the effects of this. We just got a strong gust of wind just a second ago come by. Still feeling the rain here, Rob. And I want to appreciate you or actually tell you how much we do appreciate you coming up live with us, showing us those first pictures from Galveston today. We will be talking with you throughout the morning. So do stay on the phone with us. Stay on the line. We are going to get back with you shortly.

But in the meantime, we are following all angles of Hurricane Ike. You want to stay here with CNN for the latest news.

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NGUYEN: Good morning, everybody. This is Betty Nguyen live in Houston, Texas, as we are watching Hurricane Ike make its way across this state. You know, as Houston is really starting to see the winds die down, the rain die down, that allows rescue and relief operations to come into the affected areas, including the Texas National Guard.

There have been convoys that are making their way into the southern portion of the state so they can provide relief for the people that, indeed, need it. And there could be thousands, if not more than a million. We'll be taking a look at those numbers a little bit later.

But right now, I want to talk to Randy Saldivar, who joins us with the National Guard. Randy, talk to me about the situation right now and where those convoys are and what is your first order of business?

RANDY SALDIVAR, TEXAS MILITARY FORCES: Hello Betty, my name is - I'm Captain Randy Saldivar from Texas Military Forces. And currently, here at East Kelly, here in San Antonio, Texas, we have got a lot of vehicles here.

There were about 500 vehicles and well over a thousand personnel from various agencies throughout the state of Texas, as well as federal forces here as well. Agencies such as TxDOT, the air and army national guard, Texas Department of Transportation, FEMA, all those kind of agencies are going to be making their way in three ways from Kelly USA from here in San Antonio down to -- the first wave is going to be headed out - or just headed out towards Beaumont.

They are going to be setting up a state agency down there, headquarters agency down at the Ford Arena. And the second wave is going to go over towards Beaumont. And the third is going to leave at 1:00 this afternoon over towards Lufkin.

NGUYEN: So are you looking at immediate relief here or perhaps maybe even some long-term?

SALDIVAR: Well there could be of course working in stages. What we're taking down currently, we see a bunch of highway vehicles for rescue operations, search and rescue operations. Humvees, we are seeing tractors from the Texas Department of Transportation that will clear roads so that these agencies can get down there and provide relief and or search and rescue operations. And after that, of course, this is all under the direction of the Texas State Management Agency. The Emergency Management Agency will determine exactly what phases we will go into. But we will move from a search and rescue phase over to a sustainment phase. And then of course after that, we will move into replenishment.

So there are going to be several stages that are going to be happening along the way. And of course that's all determined by the governor's office and the Emergency Management Agency up in Austin.

NGUYEN: There is a lot of work to be done, no doubt. Speaking from the debris here in Houston, we're seeing it throughout the downtown area. Randy Saldivar with the National Guard, we appreciate your time today. I know you have a lot of work ahead of you.

Again, here in downtown Houston, we are seeing windows blown out, we are seeing debris on the street. But people are starting to come out of the buildings. And take a look around to see what kind of damage Hurricane Ike has caused. And T.J., I will tell you, just looking around in this one particular area, there is a lot of work still to be done.

HOLMES: That work still just beginning, or hardly beginning right about now. Betty, with he appreciate you continuing to give us that update about what's going on downtown in Houston. And let's get the update about this actual storm. Jacqui Jeras over in the Hurricane Center, what was the word, 40 to 60 miles north of Houston out there? So it's getting on out of there.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, a good 60 actually I think even now. It is getting closer to Lufkin, Texas. There you can see, it's on our map right there. So this is getting some wind gusts near Lufkin around 62 miles-per-hour. So that's really still very significant. This is still a hurricane. And there you can see the eye of the storm, still very prevalent. The 11:00 advisory coming in. We will get an update on those maximum sustained winds. But they are starting to weaken a little bit.

Some of the worst of the conditions still coming in just east of Galveston up on the peninsula here and up towards Beaumont and Port Arthur. These outer bands are going to continue to bring in wind gusts. You know, pushing hurricane force yet. I think Houston, for the most part, you are kind of out of the woods for the hurricane force winds as most of the convection is pulling in over here.

So we'll watch for improving conditions there as we head throughout the day for today. Then, we'll start to watch things start to move in a little bit closer up toward the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, where those winds are going to continue to get stronger and the threat of tornadoes moving in across Louisiana and also into much of eastern parts of Texas.

Now check out some of the wind gusts by the way. Landfall around 2 a.m., central time. The strongest peaks we saw was Anahuac around 102 miles-per-hour, Port Arthur, 96 miles-per-hour. Still seeing gusts there in the 60s. Eagle Point, Texas, 89 and 88 miles-per-hour in Galveston.

So we are looking at probably a good six plus hours that we are going to continue to see those strong winds into some of the coastal areas with the storm. You can also see that the structure and the shape of this thing starting to elongate a little bit. I don't know if you can see it here on satellite, but we've got a storm system right here and it's been just inundating the Midwest with heavy rains from Kansas into Oklahoma, all the way into the Ohio Valley.

This storm is going to get picked up by that front unfortunately and cause additional problems. The severe weather today, down here tomorrow and up into the Ohio Valley. And check out that flood threat today down here tomorrow again into the Ohio Valley.

So we are going to be dealing with flood issues from Ike even after it gets absorbed and is no longer tropical in the upcoming days.

HOLMES: So we will be talking about this for quite some time, Ike and its consequences. All right, thank you so much, Jacqui Jeras.

We want to head now back just outside of Texas - excuse me, outside of Houston, our Sean Callebs who the past couple of weeks here, Sean, it seems like your beat has been hurricanes and I-10, specifically. I'm told you're just off the highway. There this time we see you standing in water. Set the scene for us.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly. Behind me you see the on ramp to I-10. I am standing right now in about four inches of water. We drove out just a little bit and the water actually would probably go above the engine on our SUV. Water is very deep right in this area. I feel like that character in "Escape from New York" because we are trying to get out of Houston to show damage in the outlying areas, some of those areas where mandatory evacuations were.

They were worried about the storm surge and the shipping channels. So we are going to keep trying. We keep getting turned around by either police or by the elements. It is not great out here, as you can tell. Some very, very significant flooding. We are on the phone with the emergency operation center just a short while ago. They are trying to get out and assess, as I am sure you have seen the pictures that Betty has in the downtown area, trees, everything.

It's quite a mess. The conditions, though, really aren't that bad. We are getting some light breeze, some steady breeze, gusting at times. And then a certain degree of rain. But the big, big problem is just how do you move around? What are you going to do? There are authorities out virtually at every intersection. They may move around a little bit.

We have had a couple people come toward us and tell us turn around, you can't go through there, trying to explain to them we are just trying to show how bad the situation is at this point.

T.J., Interstate 45 is just up that way. A couple of state highways as well. We're trying to get some communities like before, Pasadena, areas, where they had those mandatory evacuations. So as soon as we can get out of here, we are at Hurricane one, a very mobile unit. We are going via broadband, which is why the picture is the quality that it is. You can imagine with the storm coming through and causing significant damage right now, right now trying to get out on any kind of Internet service is somewhat of a premium. But we are going to keep trying and we'll bring you some more pictures, T.J.

HOLMES: Well, we appreciate you giving it the best effort. We can see that picture just fine and get the idea. And good luck moving around there. You guys be safe. Thank you so much, our Sean Callebs there just outside of Houston trying to work his way out and do some reporting.

Stay here with us, we will continue our reporting of the storm with our correspondents. We will also check in with many towns, many of their officials, emergency officials and also their mayors who certainly have their hands full trying to take care of their citizens. We are going to talk to the mayor of Lake Jackson, Texas, when we come back. Stay here with CNN.

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HOLMES: About 10 minutes from 11:00 Eastern Time here in the U.S. right now. We are several hours, almost eight hours into landfall of Hurricane Ike. It is now a Category 1 storm. We just heard from our Jacqui Jeras, it's 60 plus miles north of Houston now. So it's certainly on the move. It is going to cause problems in other states besides Texas coming up here now. We do now that three deaths have been attributed to this storm.

The early estimates are starting to come in about damage. A lot of assessments coming in as well now that we are getting into the daylight hours. So we will learn a whole lot more. Thousands of homes and businesses have been damaged in Texas as well as Louisiana. Many of the windows and the downtown high-rises in Houston have been damaged and blown out, Houston JPMorgan Chase among them. Many blown out there. Of course, that's the tallest building in Texas.

Ike is expected to move through southeast and eastern Texas today, then on into western Arkansas tonight. We have been checking in with many of our correspondents there and also many folks who are there trying to work and help their citizens during this storm. One of them is the mayor of Lake Jackson, do I have this right - I want to make sure I have the right person here, the mayor of Lake Jackson, Texas on the line with us.

VOICE OF MAYOR BOB SIPPLE, LAKE JACKSON, TEXAS: You do.

HOLMES: Hey there, kind sir. Well good morning to you. Tell me what your situation is right there right now. Is it dire? How dire is it?

SIPPLE: Well it is dire, of course, because we have no power. Most of our streets are not passable at this particular time because of downed trees. We have a substantial number of trees in our city here. We are called Tree City USA but right now, they got thinned out a little bit. So our situation is such that no flooding, but we have no infrastructure. And we are asking residents to please not return until we advise them that they can.

HOLMES: Sir, were they under that mandatory evacuation order? And if so or even if not, did most of your citizens heed that warning and get out of there?

SIPPLE: They did. We issued an evacuation order on Wednesday. We actually did it a little bit early. I am glad that we did it and our staff did an outstanding job of getting our people out of here. We got our critical patients, our special need patients, our nursing homes. We got everybody out of here way early so they weren't impeded by some of the other communities leading in traffic jams similar to what we experienced in Rita.

HOLMES: You talked about a lot of your trees and things like that, stuff being blown around. A lot of people did get out. All of your power is out. I guess, what will be your challenge and maybe what will be your situation and your biggest problem if it is not addressed immediately? I guess, what is your priority now for your citizens?

SIPPLE: Well the first priority is we did have about 80 to 85 percent of our people evacuate. So we are very, very grateful to those that left. The first priority is to contact the remaining people who are here and make sure they are safe and they are OK. We are in the process of doing that and started that early this morning.

Second priority is to get the main thoroughfares cleared so that we can get our emergency vehicles around town and get those cleaned up. Then, of course, work with the center of energy and anybody else we can get in here to help us get our infrastructure back up.

HOLMES: All right, well Tree City, USA, as it's called. Lake Jackson, Texas, a few trees down but still Tree City, USA. Mayor Bob Sipple, sir, we appreciate you taking time out over the phone with us. Good luck to you and your citizens there as you all and so many others along that area of Texas are going to be trying to recover. Thank you so much for your time, sir.

And stay here with CNN. We're going to continue to follow this storm, its track, where it's headed, where it's been, what it has done. And also, we'll talk to you about what it's done to gas prices, not just in that area where it hit, but other places around the country. Stay right here.

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HOLMES: Head right now to Mayor Bill White in Houston giving a briefing.

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MAYOR BILL WHITE, HOUSTON: We have 911 lines up. We are working through a back log of some 4,700 calls of 911 of an emergency nature within the city. And judge, I think you said about 1,700 or so within outside the city limits. So we are still working off a back log, all the city and county people working together on some 6,000 calls.

QUESTION: Mayor, can you just clarify the boiling water again for people to include everyone in Houston, Harris County? What about some of the small communities like West University Place, Bel Air. Could you just clarify that specific boiling water mandate for us and how long you think it might last?

WHITE: Yes. Most of the municipalities that are in and around the city, most of the municipalities do rely on the eastern water system for their supply. So this would apply to the city of Houston and most of the municipalities that do rely on the city of Houston water supply system.

We will provide more detailed information, which will be a list. For example, in Kingwood, there is a water supply system that's independent, that hasn't lost pressure. But the rule of thumb should be that if you're in a municipality that relies of Houston for its water, that includes the city of Houston, please use bottled water.