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American Morning

Scientists Double Gulf Oil Spill Estimates; FBI Eyes IPad Hacking; Van Der Sloot Ready to Talk; Nuke the Well?; Cousteau Haunted by His Own Words

Aired June 11, 2010 - 07:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. It is Friday. It's the 11th of June. Welcome to a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry in New York. Hey, John.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you, Kiran. I'm John Roberts reporting from New Orleans on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

The sheer scope of the disaster in the Gulf is starting to sink in deeper and it's terribly finding, 53 days of slow torture for the people of Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf coast. And now government scientists have doubled their estimate of how much oil is spewing into the ocean.

If those estimates are accurate, this catastrophe is now seven times the size of the "Exxon Valdez" spill and growing each and every minute. President Obama is preparing to make another visit to the Gulf while summoning BP executives to the White House next week.

Will BP's CEO Tony Hayward show up? We'll discuss that with Carol Browner, assistant to the president on energy and climate change.

And in the next half hour, the nuclear option, can a nuclear bomb stop the oil leak at the bottom of the ocean? You'll meet a man who says yes. All of that in the hour ahead, but right now let's send it back to New York and Kiran.

CHETRY: We've been following a story about a teen girl wanting to be the youngest person to sail solo around the world. Abby Sunderland, she triggered a distress signal during her attempt to sail solo with hellish conditions at sea, some feared the worst.

But overnight rescue crews spotted her boat 2,000 miles off the coast of Australia. Ted Rowlands is live in Thousand Oaks, California. They just talked to her on satellite phone. For people who aren't familiar with the family, her brother did the same thing and we interviewed the family back then. How is she today?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She is fine, Kiran. As you can imagine, the family and friends and support team are euphoric here. They are here bright and early.

They haven't been able to talk to Abby because the satellite phone is not working. It is about this time yesterday they lost communication with her. She was battling tough weather conditions in the boat. They were trying to help her get the motor started again in the boat and they lost communication.

After that, she triggered as you mentioned, two separate distress calls and that worried the family because the only reason for her to trigger those distress calls was if the basically the mission would be aborted. Send help, send the cavalry, something has gone wrong with the boat.

An excruciating 18 hours then went by where the family had no communication and no idea what had happened to her, only their imagination. They could rule some things out. They figured she was OK because she triggered the distress calls and the mast was possibly down.

They talked to the Australian government and French government, in the middle of the Indian Ocean. These are the two countries with jurisdiction of the waters. They got the good word last night the Australian search and rescue group, they had sent an airbus passenger jet out to the area with 13 spotters lining the windows of the airport.

They not only saw her about did communicate via radio. Jeff, give us a sense of excruciating nightmare this family and you have been through not knowing what had happened to Abby?

JEFF CASHER, ABBY'S SUPPORT TEAM MEMBER: We spent the holiday trying to guess what might have happened and trying to eliminate the worst scenario. We concluded she was alive but we weren't sure.

ROWLANDS: What happened?

CASHER: It looks like the mast came down. The problem was during the night before she called us, her mast had hit the water a couple of times, and the radar unit was ripped off by one of waves and that must have weakened it. We had had her do a inspection from the deck level but there was no way to tell there was a fracture point in the mast.

ROWLANDS: Her parents haven't heard her voice?

CASHER: Not yet. We have this third hand and we know she's OK. The mast was down, that's the only description we had. It did fit one of our scenarios, the best case scenario, actually.

ROWLANDS: Quickly, this is a sailing family, a lot of people want to know why would this 16-year-old be in the ocean herself. I know you don't want to address that question because the family has been beat up over the Internet. But this is a great sailor.

CASHER: Her brother did a trip around the world. They've grown up sailing, her brother set the record. She loves to sail, doesn't like being on land and talking to the press and being in big crowds. She perks up when she sails.

And I was confident the whole time that won't be her problem. It would be functions on the boat and things she couldn't fix like the motor that would get in her way.

ROWLANDS: Kiran, this family is very happy to get the good news overnight that Abby is alive and well. There's a fishing boat en route to pick her up. They expect that boat to make contact with her sometime Saturday morning.

CHETRY: All right, and we'll be speaking to the family later about the ordeal and how one goes about doing it in first place. Ted Rowlands, thanks so much. John?

ROBERTS: We've got new estimates of the flow today coming out of the broken blowout preventer at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. The new figures for the scientists are nothing short of staggering -- up to 40,000 barrels a day now estimated to be spewing into the Gulf.

That means as much as 1.7 million gallons every 24 hours spilling for seven weeks now. If that's accurate, a spill the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster is happening right here each and every week.

No word yet on whether BP's lightning rod CEO Tony Hayward will show up at the White House on Wednesday to meet with President Obama. The international chairman of BP has been asked to appear, and the invitation does say quote, "We assume that includes the CEO."

And as the Gulf of Mexico grows darker by the day, Louisiana lawmakers are scrambling to the defense of big oil, pleading with the administration to allow offshore drilling to resume in deep water so thousands of workers can collect paychecks again. But the six-month moratorium on that deep water drilling stands for now.

If those stunning new estimates from government scientists are correct, that means this catastrophe could at the moment, be seven times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill. And it is growing with every minute as you look at the live pictures from the ocean floor.

Let's bring in Ed Lavandera. Ed, such overwhelming numbers, and this could continue at least until August?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At the very least, if those relief wells do indeed work. Right now they've got three dozen scientists trying to take information they are getting from BP, crunching the numbers. That's where you're getting the flow rate from.

But it's clear after they do work, they need more access to information. And the information that's flowing out now is going much more slower than the amount of oil gushing out of the bottom of the ocean right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: Once again, the grim reality of this oil disaster keeps getting worse. The flow rate team of independent scientists has doubled its estimate of how much oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. It could be as much as 40,000 barrels a day. The new numbers have triggered another round of backlash toward BP.

REP. ED MARKEY, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: I think it's quite clear that BP has known this is much more catastrophic from the beginning, and they've been hiding it from the American people and from the federal government, and now we know the full dimension of what is unfolding in the Gulf.

LAVANDERA: BP said in a statement is fully supported the effort supporting high resolution video. But one of the scientists says the latest estimate was reached before it had full access to the enhanced video and the latest estimate also doesn't take into account the increased flow after BP cut the riser from the blowout preventer a week ago or the amount of oil BP is capturing with the containment cap. Still, expect the numbers to go up more.

DR. IRA LEIFER, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA: There probably will be slight revisions to this estimate, which is for the past in the next few days as it's finalized.

LAVANDERA: Congressman Ed Markey says the only way to get an accurate flow rate is to let the scientists inject a fluorescent dye into the well. He's asked BP to give scientists the access. BP hasn't responded.

MARKEY: My intent is to ensure that independent scientists can measure the accurate flow of oil into the Gulf. BP can do it voluntarily or they can do it involuntarily.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: What the congressman is referring to there to is they think that if he can get access for the scientists to get access and put in the fluorescent dye. In a couple weeks they'll change out the containment dome and he says there will be a window where they can do the fluorescent dye test. As of now, we haven't heard whether BP will allow that.

ROBERTS: It makes you wonder why it has taken this long to get an accurate estimate, because we did have pictures and then at the end of the riser where all of oil was spewing out, you think they would have been able with the computing power we have crunch those numbers and get something more accurate.

LAVANDERA: That's been the frustrating part. We know BP has had access to the video images and said early on 1,000, 5,000, that was the number for weeks and weeks. If they had access to the video looking at the pictures we're looking, why was that number out there? That's the question hanging over all of us.

ROBERTS: And it's a question we'll put to the president's energy czar, Carol Browner. She's coming up right after the break. A lot of things to talk about, from that to the moratorium, and why does it continue in the face of another economic disaster in the Gulf coast? We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Thirteen minutes after the hour. We're back with a special edition of the Most News in the Morning live from New Orleans.

New estimates suggest the scope of the oil disaster could be twice as bad as previously thought. The new comes as President Obama prepares for another trip to the Gulf and summons top BP executives to the White House next week for a face to face meeting over the disaster.

Carol Browner is the senior climate and energy adviser. She joins us now from the White House. Thanks for joining us. I want to ask you first of all about the new flow estimate of anywhere between 20,000 and 40,000 barrels a day spewing into the Gulf.

You know there have been criticisms along the Gulf coast that the government's response was no robust enough, particularly not at the beginning. Should you have had more accurate flow estimates before now and why didn't you?

CAROL BROWNER, WHITE HOUSE ADVISER ON ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE: This has been a very difficult scientific analysis. And I think as people now, we set up an independent team. BP does have a financial interest in what the numbers are. We wanted to make sure the best scientific minds were looking at the information.

And scientists, they look and analyze and make projections and reanalyze, get more information. As they go through the scientific process, we're going to keep the American people abreast of what they are telling us.

And yesterday they gave us a new set of numbers. It may be we'll get another set of numbers next week. There's more information being looked at. And so it's important we make sure all of this is available.

But it's also important to know from the beginning we were planning for the worst and deploying assets for the worst. We've always been hoping for the best. We now know that we'll be in containment mode and relief wells are proceeding, and we have to do everything we can for the communities of the Gulf coast. That's what we'll continue to do.

ROBERTS: Miss Browner, you said that you were deploying, expecting the worst. Yet when you see what has happened in places like Grand Isle and up in Barataria Bay and along the eastern part of the delta, where the Mississippi River comes out there, are you now looking and saying, well, our planning for the worst wasn't good enough?

BROWNER: Well, we continue to adjust our plans at every turn. So for example, last week the president visited with the people of Grand Isle, with the mayor of Grand Isle. They brought him some ideas about what could be done to enhance some of the protections that were already in place. We're moving forward to get those extra protections that the people asked for in place. Similarly we talked to the governors on a daily basis. We'll be visiting Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, visiting those governors. And as new ideas come forward, as people continue to think of better ways, we will work with them to get those in place.

ROBERTS: The president is meeting, as we said, with officials from BP next week and questions are being asked down here as to why the president waited. It will be two months by that point to meet with BP officials and why he hasn't talked directly to the CEO of the company, Tony Hayward.

BROWNER: First of all, it's important to understand that administration officials have been speaking to BP officials throughout this. Admiral Allen, Secretary Chu, Secretary Salazar, there have been lots of conversations and very important conversations to BP.

ROBERTS: Sure, sure.

BROWNER: But we are directing them to do things.

ROBERTS: But we've never seen the CEO contact.

BROWNER: Well, we're in a new phase now. We're in the containment phase and it makes sense to broaden that conversation. And we have asked the chairman of the board to come to Washington to meet with senior White House officials and the president.

ROBERTS: The Associated Press did an analysis of the disaster plan that was submitted before the Deepwater Horizon sunk the well in the Gulf of Mexico. And it found to have some pretty interesting aspects to it such as the wildlife expert that was on there list to be contacted in the event of a disaster died in 2005. They were talking about the need to protect marine life like walruses, sea otters, sea lions, seals, and there are none of those animals within a good distance from here. A lot of phone numbers for university officials were incorrect. How did that disaster plan ever get approved by your administration?

BROWNER: It's a deeply disturbing story that you reference. I've read the same story. We have a commission that's going to be looking at all of those issues. Obviously, these disaster plans need to be updated. They need to be managed properly. Deeply, deeply disturbing, we share your concern.

ROBERTS: Right. So what are you going to do about it in the future?

BROWNER: Well, the commission will be looking -- independent commission will be looking at all of these issues and determining what we need to have in place to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again. And in the worst, worst case scenario, something were to happen that the plans were up to date, that the plans have all things in them that would be necessary to ensure the rapid response. You know, we -- those plans exist but it doesn't change what we've been doing because what we've been doing is working with the governors, with the local communities. They also have plans. And we've been implementing those plans, the plans that were developed by the states.

ROBERTS: And, of course, as you know, there's another big issue down here, and that's the six-month moratorium on deep water drilling. Governor Bobby Jindal is urging you to either shorten that or lift it altogether, saying the White House just doesn't get it. That there is an economic disaster with the closure of fishing but it's being compounded now by that moratorium because now there are thousands of people who work in the oil and gas industry who are going to be without a paycheck. Why continue that moratorium if all of those deep water wells have been checked out and have all checked out OK?

BROWNER: We don't understand what happened here. We don't understand what caused this accident. It may have been human failure. It may have been technical failure. It may have been both things. And so what we need to do for the American people is get those answers so that we can ensure that drilling does go forward, but it goes forward with all of the safeguards that the experts tell us will ensure that this doesn't happen again. And as soon as we have those answers, clearly we want to make sure these people get back to work. We do understand the economic impact of this. But we also understand there's a very, very large economic impact of an accident. And we need the answers to ensure that we don't have another accident.

ROBERTS: Might you have those answers before six months?

BROWNER: We certainly hope so, but it is an independent commission.

ROBERTS: Right.

BROWNER: They have indicated that they may issue reports along the way and we certainly hope they do.

ROBERTS: Carol Browner, thanks for joining us this morning. Really appreciate your time.

Still to come, the FBI now investigating the security breach at AT&T that exposed 114,000 iPad user e-mails. Our Christine Romans is going to have all the details right after a quick break.

It's now 20 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Twenty-three minutes past the hour right now. Christine Romans joins us. And the controversy over the hacked iPad e-mails continues.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and it's interesting. Yesterday, we told you the story about how iPad, 114,000 people who were, you know, early adopters of the iPad, that their information, their I.D. for their iPad and their e-mail information was available, pretty easily by some hacker group that alerted through a third party AT&T to tell them to fix it and button it up. And, of course, AT&T said it fixed it very quickly. But now we're learning more about it and the FBI is actually investigating this, Kiran, because they're concerned that maybe, you know, maybe there was some sort of -- they're concerned about cyber security issues with how easy this was to get this information.

Now, the hacker group, the group responsible for all of this says there was no illegal activity. They didn't even really have to work real hard or try to use any passwords or unauthorized access at all to get this information. It was pretty readily available.

CHETRY: So they were exposing a pretty big breach -- a pretty big lapse.

ROMANS: A pretty big lapse and they say, hey, this is as nice guy as it gets. This is what the hacker firm says because they said that they, before they alerted gawker and the rest of the media that there was this big hole. They made sure that AT&T closed that hole. So the hacker firm is trying to sound, you know, like, hey, we didn't really hack. This was so easy. It was just -- we're just telling you that there was this big breach there. But the FBI is investigating just how easy this was for hackers to access e-mail addresses of iPad owners and just how easy this whole thing looks like it really was.

CHETRY: A big black eye for AT&T. I mean, the iPad is selling like hotcakes.

ROMANS: I know. Yesterday what did we say, every three seconds one of these is selling.

CHETRY: Yes.

ROMANS: I mean, think of that. And these are those early adopters, of people who are right out there in the very beginning. They will be -- if you are one of those people, you will be alerted that your e-mail information was available. Even brief -- albeit briefly by hackers.

CHETRY: Once it's out there, it's out there.

ROMANS: Right.

CHETRY: Christine, thanks so much.

Well, still to come, facing new murder charges and now Joran van der Sloot may finally be ready to come clean about Natalee Holloway. But will he lead authorities to her remains? We're live from Lima, Peru with the very latest on this case.

It's 25 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Twenty-seven minutes past the hour right now. And there are new developments again today in the Joran van der Sloot investigation. As we know, he confessed to Peruvian police, according to investigators, of his involvement in the murder that they're investigating there. Well, now, he says he's ready to talk and ready to tell investigators in Aruba where to find Natalee Holloway's remains. This is again according to police in Peru.

Van der Sloot is in custody. He's facing murder charges in that country right now. TruTV correspondent Jean Casarez is live in Lima this morning with the latest development.

So, after so many years of investigators wanting information from him, now it appears he's giving up a lot of information. What's the latest, Jean?

JEAN CASAREZ, TRU-TV CORRESPONDENT: That's right. A lot of new information is coming out. Last night, we sat down with the head of the Peruvian national police homicide division, Miguel Canlla (ph) and he told us that during the interrogation that Joran van der Sloot said the following. He said that he knew where the remains of Natalee Holloway were, but he would only tell Aruban authorities. So what this does, this confirms that during that interrogation that lasted several days, that the name Natalee Holloway was brought up. But we still don't know is it -- was there a question by authorities or he just begin to volunteer this.

CHETRY: Yes. The other interesting thing about it is, I mean -- what's so interesting is for people who followed this case, he did not talk. He made up various stories over the years but did not give any information out about the Natalee Holloway case, and here he apparently confessed to Peruvian police about the involvement in the other murder he's now charged with and talking about the Holloway case. Why the turnaround?

CASAREZ: Well, you know, he's made a lot of confessions about the Natalee Holloway case. And every single time they have proven to not be true. He said that he took her out on a boat and dropped her in the ocean, but then said that wasn't true. Most recently he said she fell off a balcony. But authorities in Aruba said that forensically it just didn't match and nothing they could show was the truth.

Now, he's now confessing to Natalee Holloway, saying he knows where the body is but that he would tell Aruban authorities. So this sort of follows his thinking pattern, his mode of operation in the last years. But he also gave more information that we learned last night to Peruvian authorities that he had opened an e-mail in his own room that had details, recent details about the Natalee Holloway case and that Stephany Flores saw that e-mail.

Another thing we learned, they didn't just meet in the early morning hours of May 30th. You saw them shaking hands in that casino video. They had met on May 27th, according to Peruvian police, several days before that at the poker tournament. Also during his confession, he admitted that he stole 850 stoles, which is the currency down here, two credit cards, an identification of Stephany Flores.

CHETRY: That's fascinating. A lot of new developments in this case right now and he's facing charges of aggravated murder as well. Jean Casarez for us, live this morning in Lima. Thanks so much.

Meanwhile, we're going to head back to New Orleans right now with John. Hey, John.

ROBERTS: Thanks very much, Kiran.

There's a lot ahead in the next half hour here on the most news in the morning. We're going to be joined by Philippe Cousteau. He is the grandson of renowned undersea explorer, Jacque Cousteau. And he attended a White House briefing on Capitol Hill, nearly 18 months ago to warn Congress that the United States was not prepared to respond to a potentially devastating oil spill.

He says the echoes of that testimony are haunting him to this day. He was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. So we'll ask him about that as well. We're crossing the half hour and it's time for this morning's top stories, double trouble. Government scientists upping their estimate of just how much oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico now. It is twice as much as they previously thought.

And if that is accurate, that would mean that a spill the size of the "Exxon Valdez" disaster has been happening off the gulf coast each week and we're seven weeks in now.

What a relief? Word overnight that a teenage girl from California trying to become the youngest person to sail around the world is alive and well. Australian search teams say they made contact with Abby Sunderland. Sunderland sent out a distress signal yesterday, 2,000 miles from the coast of Australia. In just 10 minutes' time, her parents will join us after a very stressful but then relieving night.

And the FBI now investigating a security breach at AT&T that exposed 114,000 iPad user e-mails. A hacker group claimed that it tapped into AT&T's web site and sent the information to the web site gawker.com. AT&T didn't comment on the hack but said it is fixing a security hole. Kiran.

CHETRY: All right. John, thanks so much.

Well, with BP running out of options to control and to eventually stop the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, there are some scientist who's say it makes sense to go nuclear. Deb Feyerick is taking a looking at whether this is a serious and safe option. Just when you even hear possibly exploding a nuclear bomb to try to stop this leak, people say that's got to be crazy.

DEB FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. You think nuclear and you think weapons of mass destruction. However, about 16 years ago a group of scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California spent decades trying to find ways to use low radiation nuclear devices for peaceful reasons. One potential use, sealing runaway wells.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one!

FEYERICK (voice-over): It's a crazy last resort kind of idea. But what if it works? What if nuking the well finally stops the oil from surging into the gulf?

(on camera): Do you remember where you were standing when this nuclear device was detonated?

MILO NORDYKE, FORMER PROJECT DIRECTOR, PROJECT PLOWSHARE: Oh, yes, I was standing at the control point. It was exciting to know that it went well. That everything worked about as we expected.

FEYERICK (voice-over): 80-year-old Milo Nordyke is one of the few people you'll likely meet who saw not one but nine nuclear explosions. He helped run project Plow Share, a program in the 1950s and 60s and 70s, to find peaceful practical uses for low radiation nuclear devices.

(on camera): When you see what's going on in the gulf, did it sort of come into your mind, this is a perfect use for some sort of small nuclear device?

NORDYKE: It certainly did. And of course, knowing that the Russians had done it a number of times brought it to the top of my attention.

FEYERICK (voice-over): That's right. The Russians who successfully shut down four out of five runaway gas wells by nuking them.

(on camera): The red and white is for the device.

(voice-over): As seen on YouTube, this Russian well had been burning nonstop for three years.

NORDYKE: The gas flame was so high that it could be seen 50 miles away.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Watch as the nuclear device detonates. A shock wave rattles the earth. Moments later, the flame extinguishes and the well is finally sealed.

NORDYKE: The shock wave would initially melt the rock and would crush the rock and compress the rock. So that it would be crushed completely shut.

NATHAN HULTMAN, ASST. PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY, UNIV. OF MARYLAND: There really isn't any certainty that doing this kind of detonation under the water and in this particular geologic situation would work.

FEYERICK: A nuclear option to plug the well is down right laughable says Nathan Hultman, who has studied civilian nuclear power.

HULTMAN: There are certainly questions about radiation leakage. There are questions about damaged ecosystems. There are questions about the impact of a shockwave.

FEYERICK: But because of where the nuclear device would be placed Nordyke disputes concerns about radiation released or damage to wildlife. The blast would take place more than a mile below the ocean floor near the ruptured well. The nuclear device would be lowered down a secondary tunnel similar to the relief well now being built.

NORDYKE: The explosion tends to seal all the rock around it so that radiation doesn't escape.

FEYERICK: The force of the shockwave is the great unknown. Could it destabilize more oil wells miles away? Even Milo Nordyke admits that threat remain unclear but says in a worst case scenario, it's a last resort worth considering.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FEYERICK: Now, clearly, the public debate on this would be huge especially with the world and the United States trying to move away from nuclear options. The National Nuclear Security Administration says that exploding a nuclear weapon in the Gulf of Mexico really is not an option but the scope of this ecological disaster is so great, some people are saying it's really time to consider this. Kiran.

CHETRY: And even if it got the green lighting though, it would still be a difficult challenge to do. You said that they haven't even built -- I mean, they understand but they haven't built the actual device.

FEYERICK: Exactly. They got the blue prints. They got the devices of how it could be done. Clearly, if you have a concerted effort, it might be able to be done in quick time. However, it doesn't exist -- the device doesn't exist just yet.

CHETRY: But it's fascinating to see theoretically how it might --

FEYERICK: Absolutely. And no radiation allegedly.

CHETRY: Deb Feyerick, thanks so much.

Well, help is on the way, a missing 16-year-old sailor Abby Sunderland found alive by spotter aircraft after her attempt to sail solo around the world. Her very relieved parents and her brother who also did this very thing himself will be joining us in a just a few moments. It's 37 minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

CHETRY: 40 minutes past the hour right now. A shot of New York City, the Hudson River this morning. It's shaping up to be a pretty nice day. Sunny right now, 64 degrees, a little bit later it will be partly cloudy and 73 degrees. We're going to check in with Bonnie Schneider right now to see what we can expect weather wise for the weekend. Hey, Bonnie.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Kiran. You know, this weekend in New York, your temperatures are going up. Even though it's in the 70s today, it will get up to 88 before the weekend is over. And that would be great. Unfortunately, in Louisiana, just the opposite. The temperature will go way past 88, all the way to about 95 degrees. But with the humidity out there and especially in those southeastern parishes, it will feel like 105 to 110 degrees.

110 degrees likely in the city of New Orleans because of that heat island effect where we get the heat really building in the city itself. And that's going to make a big difference in terms of the weather. Now, I want to talk about the beaches speaking of all the heat. For those of you that are heading to the beaches. Pensacola, Ft. Walton, Destin, I'm talking about Florida here. Panama City Beach, Carrabelle Beach, all open.

And this is really important to note, because many people this month have holiday plans to head to the beaches. And just to let you know, there are some advisories in other states, but right now, so far, so good here. We're going to have more throughout the show on some of the other beaches that are open into Louisiana and as well as Alabama as well.

Now we are also tracking the weather for those of you that are traveling across the Midwest. And wow, it is severe across Minnesota. Some very strong thunderstorms firing up over Minneapolis at this hour. And that will persist throughout the morning. So watch out for severe storms across the Midwest. And for those of you that are traveling, we are anticipating some delays in the southeast. In Atlanta, Kiran, those thunderstorms affecting the Midwest and finally through Memphis, Denver and Dallas. Back to you.

CHETRY: All right.

Bonnie Schneider for us with the look at the weather. Thanks so much.

Now let's head back to New Orleans and John. Hey, John.

ROBERTS: Kiran, thanks so much. Last year when the grandson of legendary undersea explorer Jacques Cousteau testified on Capitol Hill, he pleaded for more studies to be done before any new offshore drilling projects were approved. His message was clear, big oil is not prepared to deal with the disaster. If only had listened to Phillip Cousteau back then.

In the months that followed his testimony, BP was given the green light to begin drilling the well that is now destroying so many lives and livelihoods here in the gulf coast. Phillip Cousteau joins me now. He's an environmentalist and CEO of Earth Echo International. Good to see you this morning.

PHILLIP COUSTEAU, CEO, EARTHECHO INTERNATIONAL: Good to see you.

ROBERTS: -- On what is the occasion of the 100th anniversary of --

COUSTEAU: It is indeed.

ROBERTS: -- of your grandfather's birth.

COUSTEAU: That's right.

ROBERTS: So you've heard the new flow rates, 20,000 to 40,000 barrels. That's the latest estimate. It could change, according to Carol Browner, the president's energy czar. When you look at that number and it's at least doubled what we had been told in recent days, what are you thinking about the scope of this disaster?

COUSTEAU: You know, I mean we were talking a little earlier. I was on with Larry King about a month ago and we had a scientist from Purdue projecting that the flow rates could be as high as 70,000 barrels a day. At the time, a lot of people thought that was, you know, a little high.

But I think it's becoming more and more apparent, that he might have been a lot closer to the correct amount than 5,000 barrels which was originally what they were talking about.

ROBERTS: So if there is twice as many oil out there as a we anticipated before and it calculates out to an "Exxon Valdez" worth of oil each week, what's the impact on the ecosystem here?

COUSTEAU: Well, this is such a moving target. We have a vast, very scary uncontrolled experiment happening in the Gulf of Mexico right now. and I think that's what a lot of the scientists and NGOs and people like myself are so worried about. We've never had a spill of this scale or this depth ever before in the history of this country.

And I think the reality is we just don't know. But we know it's going to be very serious. The impacts in the "Exxon Valdez," 20 years later. There's still oil there. None of the marine or birds or animal species have survived or recovered. And I think we're going to see damage here for decades to come.

ROBERTS: In terms of the overall impact to the gulf, can we take any lessons from the (inaudible) in 1979 at the Bay of Campeche, much further south of here? We know we hear a lot about lingering ecological impact from that.

COUSTEAU: Well, we do. I don't think the science was done after that event and that the science was followed up for many years. Though I know the science can go back to certain parts of the reef today and see globs of oil sitting on the reef, off the coast of the Yucatan. It was also in much shallower water. And the concern is just how deep this well is coming out.

And I was on Capitol Hill on Wednesday at a hearing and with one of scientists that was speaking with me, she's just come back from several days of studying deep water ocean plumes, ocean plumes of oil that are flowing around the Gulf of Mexico. Again, never happened before. We don't really know the long-term impacts, but we know they are serious.

ROBERTS: You probably heard the story, Philippe, of this disaster plan that was approved by the government for the Deepwater Horizon, the fact that wildlife expert that they had cited in this report has been dead since 2005.

COUSTEAU: Yes.

ROBERTS: They were talking about having to put up walruses, sea lions, sea otters. I don't think there's a walrus within a thousand miles of --

COUSTEAU: You know --

ROBERTS: -- Sea World

COUSTEAU: -- I've been dedicating my life to the environment and specifically the oceans for a long time. I've never seen a walrus in the Gulf of Mexico.

ROBERTS: Yes.

COUSTEAU: I mean, never even heard of one.

ROBERTS: So -- so the fact that this got approved by the administration, does that strike you as slightly off?

COUSTEAU: You know, there's -- we've known about challenges, to say the least, in the Minerals Management Service for a long time. I don't think any of us anticipated that the -- that the negligence and the incompetence ran this deep.

But I think it just shows this -- this culture of complacency, laziness and arrogance. Continually maintaining, this could never happen. So I'm sure they just assumed, oh, we'll just go through the motions. We'll pull a couple paragraphs from our reports from the -- from the gulf (ph) or from the Arctic and no one's going to check, and, clearly, no one did check.

ROBERTS: When -- when you were up on the Hill, testifying on Wednesday, you outlined three principles that you thought would be very helpful in preventing a future disaster like this one. What are those principles and how would they be applied?

COUSTEAU: Well, we need to reform policies like the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and understand that -- that we need to apply science first, not wishful thinking. The other part is really looking at how we develop these offshore drilling, requiring, not giving exemptions from companies having responsible environmental impact statements conducted and plans to deal with the spill -- realistic plans.

I believe the plan that you were talking about that was originally filed by BP said no oil could ever reach the shore. It will have negligible impact on marine mammals and sea turtles. Tell that to the dozens of sea turtles who have already died and -- and probably dozens that we haven't found yet.

So we need a realistic plan.

And then the other is development of an ocean investment fund where a percentage of funds from the leases coming off of these oil wells goes into essentially a -- a pot of money that can be reinvested into science and research and exploration.

And I -- I worked closely with the ocean conservancy on this and these are some of our recommendations.

ROBERTS: Philippe Cousteau, it's great to talk to you this morning.

COUSTEAU: It's a real pleasure. Thank you.

ROBERTS: Thanks so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

This morning's top stories just minutes away, including, live from the gulf, pouring it on, new staggering estimates of just how big the gulf spill really is. An Exxon Valdez, as we said, every week if it's left to leak much longer.

We're right in the thick of it on the bayou where there's no work left for most people except cleaning up the oil spill.

Plus, they may want -- may want to wear padded pants. BP executives headed to the White House. Will the president follow through with that -- his words, ass kicking? Candy Crowley with a preview.

And don't say Chevy anymore. Why GM says the heartbeat of America isn't good for business around the world.

Those stories and more coming your way, beginning at the top of the hour.

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CHETRY: Fifty minutes past the hour right now, and a developing story, a good ending, thank goodness. A teenage sailor found alive overnight.

Abby Sunderland was attempting to sail solo around the world and she encountered some pretty rough conditions and some damage to her boat that forced her to make a distress call. When rescue crews last spotted her boat, the mast was broken and bent over.

That aside, her parents say that she can survive until the rescue ship gets to her, which could take about 24 hours from now.

Joining us from California, Abby's brother, Zac Sunderland, who just did a record-setting around the world trek himself. He did it alone last year. In fact, we talked to him at the time when he did it. Also, the parents of Abby Sunderland, Laurence and Marianne, all of them are going to be joining us in one second. We're just working out one audio kink.

But, first of all, I just want to show you a little sound from Zac. This is him describing what it was like when he attempted this himself successfully last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZAC SUNDERLAND, TEENAGE SAILOR'S BROTHER: I've just been through my first day of squall out here, and it's crazy. It's pouring with rain for, like, five minutes, and pouring is, like, filling up the cockpit. Water's getting everywhere. The whole boat just got soaked in like five seconds.

Boat can keep on track by itself at about 35 knots of wind. I was hand steering with all my strength to keep the boat from running down wind. And this is crazy. So, I'd go do a damage check real quick.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: There you go. That was Abby's older brother attempting and completing his own solo mission last year.

All right, we are going to dial them in in a second. But I just want to get you up to date on what happened. Australian authorities are saying now that they were able to make contact with Abby and they were able to contact a French vessel, a fishing vessel, which was then rerouted to go save her.

She's in the Indian Ocean about 2,000 miles southwest of Australia. And that's where they're waiting right now for this shipping vessel to pick her up.

Let's bring in her family right now. Marianne, Laurence, thanks so much for joining us. I know you guys have probably been operating on very little sleep, Zac as well. Great to have all of you here.

First of all, Marianne, just give me an update on what you guys know so far about how Abby is doing.

MARIANNE SUNDERLAND, TEENAGE SAILOR'S MOTHER: Well, unfortunately, we weren't able to speak with her, but the rescue coordinators in Australia spoke with the pilot of the airbus that flew over her, and they were able to give us a visual assessment. The boat's upright, the rigging is all down, which means she was probably rolled by some rogue wave.

But she reported that she was fine. She has food, water and she's running her heater, keeping warm. So she seems to be in good spirits, but that's about all we really know for sure.

CHETRY: Laurence, how relieved are you to know this? Because I know it's been a harrowing 18 hours as you guys were figuring out about these distress signals and wondering whether the boat actually was capsized and then learning that it wasn't. Well, how -- how do you feel now that you know she is going to be OK but you still can't talk to her?

LAURENCE SUNDERLAND, TEENAGE SAILOR'S FATHER: It's a huge relief, obviously, and a great deal of jubilation and elation knowing that Abigail is safe. The -- the severe weather conditions that she was experiencing the day before this all happened have abated, and we're confident that when the fishing vessel arrives alongside that she will have about 10 to 15 knots of wind and it will be a successful rescue.

But we're absolutely over the moon. We are very, very happy and we're very excited that the Australian Search and Rescue jumped on this right away and got a plane after her.

CHETRY: Oh, wow. I mean, of course, that's wonderful news. Still, the waiting game as this fishing vessel --

L. SUNDERLAND: Yes.

CHETRY: -- tries to makes their way. She's in a very difficult to reach area in the Indian Ocean.

And, Zac, you know, because you experienced this firsthand. We saw a little snippet of what it's like. Explain for people who do not sail and have no idea how do you do this alone, by yourself, in some of the most rough waters and in some of the scariest places? I mean, you told us the last time you were on the show at one point you thought you were possibly being chased by pirates when you were in that stretch.

Z. SUNDERLAND: Yes. That was in the beginning of the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean itself, especially where Abby is, is just extremely -- extremely rough and no one really gets out of there without getting a bit of a -- a rough patch. And Abby got right into a -- right into a bit of a storm there.

And as far as single-handing goes, in single hand you got to have your boat so -- so prepared for that. Like, all the systems you need to have on there should make it possible for you to do your -- your single hands. But when those systems start breaking, it's a lot more responsibilities on you. In fact, all responsibilities always on you, but you have to do a lot more stuff. You have to stay up for hours and hours and battle sleep deprivation and the storms.

And, yes, I think, Abby, she's been doing that for best part of 150 days now out there with, you know, dealing with single handing. And she definitely knows how to tap into that extra bit of whatever it takes to get through. And I think she's doing that now. She has stabilized the situation. She's out of the storm and now it's a waiting game right now. She's got to just sit tight and stay calm, and the boat will be there in about 20 hours.

CHETRY: And, Marianne, I have to ask you because I'm a mom and, I mean, obviously your kids are experienced sailors and obviously they're quite capable. But how, as a mom, do you let them go, knowing they're going to be by themselves in some of the roughest waters without worrying yourself sick? M. SUNDERLAND: Well, it helps to have a lot of experience with sailing and we know the risks that are involved. And, you know, with the technology, the choice of boat, having a meteorologist following her trip and guiding her, routing her, you minimize as many risks as you can. And, you know, you know there's always a possibility of some kind of accident like Abby had yesterday.

But, again, her boat is designed to remain afloat with water tight bulkheads. She has all the safety equipment on board if she had to abandoned ship. So, although you hate to think of them using it, you know that it's there and you know that they know how to use it and they can be rescued.

CHETRY: Are you going to let her attempt it again after you get her back?

M. SUNDERLAND: I'm definitely having a bit of a knee jerk reaction. I don't want anyone going anywhere. But she loves sailing, and I don't -- I don't think she'll attempt something of this magnitude again. I think, you know, we'll just wait and see what time brings. And I'm sure she'll be out to sea again someday.

CHETRY: Well, thanks for joining us in the midst of what, you know, is probably just -- such a whirlwind time for all of you. We wish you luck and that you're counting down the minutes until you can actually get to hug her in your arms and know that she's safe yourself.

Well, good luck with everything. The Sunderlands, thanks so much for joining us this morning --

M. SUNDERLAND: Thank you very much.

CHETRY: -- Marianne, as well as -- as well as Zac and, of course, Abby's father as well. Thanks so much, Laurence.

Well, we're going to take a quick break. Three minutes till the top of the hour. Your top stories coming your way right after the break.

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