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American Morning
A Disaster Doubled; BP Execs Summoned to the White House; Alvin Greene a GOP Plant?; The World Cup Effect; BP's Tent City; Girl Attempting to Sail Solo Around the World Found Alive
Aired June 11, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. And welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. It's Friday. It's June 11th. We have a very special edition of AMERICAN MORNING today.
I'm Kiran Chetry in New York. And John joins us live from New Orleans again this morning.
It is day 53 of the Gulf oil disaster.
And, you know, John, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, we're now learning that much more crude on a daily basis could have been spewing from that well.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, I know. It's just such a tragedy.
For 53 days now, crude oil has been darkening the Gulf of Mexico and destroying lives here in Louisiana, all along the Gulf Coast.
And there are dramatic new developments to tell you about this morning. BP's top executives have been summoned to the White House. President Obama wants a face-to-face meeting. It's scheduled for Wednesday.
And while it appears the White House expects CEO, Tony Hayward, to be there, it is not clear, at least at this point, if he'll attend.
And here's the real body blow: how much oil is leaking into the ocean. Government scientists are doubling their estimates. If they're right, a spill the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster is occurring here in the Gulf each and every week. And don't forget, we're seven weeks into this.
Adding to everybody's misery down here as well, the temperature, the heat index -- as it has for the last couple of days -- could hit 110 today, presenting a real health risk to the hired hands who are trying to clean up this mess.
Let's bring in our Bonnie Schneider. She is in the CNN weather center with a little more on this.
And, you know, we see these cleanup crews out on the beach wearing those hazmat suits. And the rules are that they work for about 20 minutes and they have to take 40 minutes off to rest and rehydrate. We expect we'd probably see them doing that again for the next couple of days, Bonnie.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right, John. And, of course, they are wearing protective gear, which only makes things hotter. And, wow, is it hot in Louisiana?
The heat is not going anywhere. You have to seat heat advisories that are in place for not just New Orleans but much of those southern parishes of Louisiana. And now, the heat advisory is actually extended well into Mississippi. So, now, we have Biloxi also under a heat advisory.
Well, the high temperature in much of Louisiana and Mississippi will climb into the low 90s. It will feel like 105 to 110 degrees.
Where will it be 110 degrees, or at least feel that way? Well, likely right in the city. That's right. Because the urban heat island effect takes place in a city like New Orleans, when you have the sun shining hard on these cement buildings, they absorb the radiation and the heat is released with a much rate so that it stays hotter in the city than anywhere outside of the city.
We see that in pretty much many cities across the country. But today, cities like New Orleans, that's where you're really going to be feeling the heat for sure.
High temperatures across the country are also very hot in the south. You can see the heat surging, even into the Midwest, up to about 90 degrees in Kansas City, 95 in Dallas, and 91 in Houston. Our focus, of course, in the south, the Gulf really facing the heat for today. It will also be hot in Florida -- 95 degrees there across a good portion of the country.
So, we're watching for the heat to persist across the Gulf Coast straight through Sunday at 7:00.
John, it is unusual to see a heat advisory extending days. So, this isn't just for today but we're talking about tomorrow, straight through the weekend.
ROBERTS: Yes. You know, there's a little bit of a breeze this morning which kept us cooler earlier. Unfortunately, that breeze is coming from the south, which means that some of that oil out there in the Gulf of Mexico could come ashore again today.
Bonnie Schneider -- thanks, Bonnie. We'll check back with you in just a little while.
Well, it's already bad out there. But if new scientific estimates are correct, there is twice as much oil spewing out of the well into the Gulf of Mexico. In the meantime, the spill keeps spreading, threatening wildlife and livelihoods along the Gulf Coast.
We went out with Louisiana parish officials on a boat ride from Jean Lafitte to Grand Isle yesterday, and got a close-up look at the oil and the damage being done.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS (voice-over): The trip from the bayou to the Gulf has become a sad journey. It's the height of shrimping season. The shrimp boats either idled at the dock or out hauling oil boom.
Our captain, Chris Beard (ph), traded fishing charters for ferry work three weeks ago -- today, taking Jefferson parish Councilman Tom Capella to Grand Isle. Just a few minutes out, we spot trouble.
(on camera): We are way up in the Bayou Norman (ph). It's about 20 miles away from the actual Gulf of Mexico. And you can see this ribbon of emulsified oil has come all the way up here. And very disturbing for people who work these waters because they have not seen it this far up in the bayou until now.
TOM CAPPELLA, JEFFERSON PARISH COUNCILMAN AT LARGE: (INAUDIBLE) that we have out there, the heavy sea boom, had to get past that boom on the inlands, it had to get past the absorbent boom and the skimming vessels. It just shows you the enormity of it. We've never seen it this far inland.
ROBERTS (on camera): The oil is old, a thick goo that clings to whatever it touches and will not come off. It doesn't smell like oil. It's sort of like a type of peanut butter, potty, cake batter, it's been described as.
(voice-over): A hassle for humans, deadly to birds, marine life and marshes.
On Grand Isle, we find a place more desert than beach, blocked off by orange tiger boom that runs the link of the entire island. The area down to the waterline declared a hot zone. Anyone who goes in has to be decontaminated on the way out.
With no miracle to kill the bleeding well, the summer is likely lost.
(on camera): When the president said the other day on, I think it was probably day 49 or day 50, "so I know whose ass to kick," does that give you any comfort that the administration is on the job?
CAPELLA: Well, listen, I appreciate the words, but we certainly hope he finds out whose asses he doesn't need to kick and move it forward, because these people can't take it for a whole lot longer.
ROBERTS (voice-over): Cleanup crews took 19,000 bags off oily muck off the beach yesterday. More hope, though, lies is in a sort of "sandboni" that can pick up much finer debris.
Deano Bonano is director of emergency management for Jefferson Parish.
(on camera): How bad was this beach before the machine came along? DEANO BONANO, JEFFERSON PARISH EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: It's pretty heavily oiled. It looked like melted brownies. As you can see, this machine is going back and forth over all the day and actually move a lot.
ROBERTS: It's cleaner but not clean.
DEANO: It's not completely clean. And they are bringing in some machines later this week that they can actually scoop that up with front end loaders and put it into machines. It essentially cooks the oil out of the sand and spits out the clean sand out of the back.
ROBERTS: But Deano Bonano has bigger problems than Grand Isle beach. That he says can be cleaned. What's more difficult to protect are the back bays and those sensitive marshes.
So what Bonano wants to do is string together a series of barges, cut off the passes and access to those bays. But it's a huge logistical problem. One of the passes is more than a mile wide.
(voice-over): Booming just isn't enough. Queen Bess Island, one of the region's biggest seabird nesting areas is ringed by boom, not enough though to save this pelican, alone, confused and soaked in oil.
(on camera): You have been in emergency management for a long time. You're usually preparing for hurricanes and things like that. Did you ever think you were going to have to deal with something like this and on this scope of this?
BONANO: No. I'm a veteran of Katrina. And at least, you know, Katrina was a massive, horrible disaster, but at least there was an end to it. You knew the damage stopped after the storm passes. This damage continues to occur and there is no end in sight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: There's already a huge problem with the loss of marshland in southern Louisiana. Canals that were dug by the oil companies combined with levees that have contained the usual sediments that spilled out of the Mississippi River at flood times have led to the loss of a football field of wetlands each and every day. Marsh that dies from contamination now is just going to compound that situation.
Let's go back to New York, and here's Kiran.
CHETRY: John, I want to ask you about the Queen Bess Island, you showed the video of the pelican, the video of that pelican there. When we went, it was just two weeks ago, that island was filled with pelicans. They were swimming all over the place. I mean, they were flying all over the place and we had taken the boat very close to the island. They had ringed it with boom as you were showing.
But just going back two weeks, it looks so much worse in the video that you showed? ROBERTS: Yes, it was worse days ago. There were still a lot of pelicans. The angle of the sun didn't allow us to see a lot of birds with the camera. If you go back to Monday, according to locals, there was a lot more oil there than there was yesterday when we went by. And we did see bags and bags of oil sediment that had been collected and sitting on the island waiting for pickup.
So, according to the locals, things are a little bit better there, but not certainly better for that poor pelican who hopefully will get picked up by Fish and Wildlife Services in the next day or so and cleaned off. He definitely needs a good scrubbing.
CHETRY: Wow. But a very vital nesting ground as well, Queen Bess Island. So that certainly is an environmental tragedy there.
John, thanks so much.
Well, new developments overnight on this sailor -- this teen sailor who ended up stranded in the Indian Ocean. She's alive and well and now a fishing vessel has been diverted to go rescue her. Australian search teams say they did make contact with 16-year-old Abby Sunderland. Her boat was badly damaged in the rough seas. She's OK.
The California girl was trying to sail around the world. And she sent out two emergency beacons yesterday 2,000 miles off the coast of Perth, Australia. Abby's mom updated us on her condition earlier on AMERICAN MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIANNE SUNDERLAND, TEENAGE SAILOR'S MOTHER: She reported she was fine. She has food and water. And she's running her heater keeping warm. So she seems to be in good spirits.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: They still haven't had a chance to talk to her though because of the signals. But they hope to be able to get in contact with her within the next 24 hours.
At 8:30 Eastern, we're going to talk to Charlie Nobles of the American Sailing Association. Did bad timing and too much outside pressure perhaps doom Abby's sail from the start? We're going to hear from him.
And still ahead, you've been summoned. President Obama and BP executives set to meet on the oil spill.
Candy Crowley is going to break down what they might talk about at this vital meeting -- coming up.
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CHETRY: Fourteen minutes past the hour right now. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
It's an offer the chairman of BP couldn't refuse literally. President Obama summoning company executives to the White House next week for their first face-to-face meeting since the start of the Gulf oil crisis. And the president had choice words for the way BP has been handling the disaster, as we know. He says he's looking for someone's -- to kick.
Well, let's bring in Candy Crowley, chief political correspondent and host of CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION."
Now, of course, everyone is joking they're going to wear their padded pants to the White House when they go talk to him.
But in terms of speaking -- what do you think is going to get accomplish or what are people hoping get accomplished by this meeting of BP execs and the president?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't want to be the naysayer but I don't know what they're going to accomplish in the meeting sitting in the White House. What's going on down in the Gulf needs a hands-on.
This is -- is it for show? Sure. I mean, the president has been under a good deal of pressure to be tougher, to get more involved. And so, what's more involved than saying I want those people in the Oval Office and I want to talk to them. I'm sure we'll get the president told them in no uncertain terms they must do this and that, and that they must pay for everything.
So, I don't know that we will come with this big news bite about how the Gulf is going to be cleaned up or that the president had a great idea for stopping the oil leak.
CHETRY: Right.
CROWLEY: I think this is something that -- when people talk about, oh, the president doesn't get angry or he doesn't do this, I think they're really going to the key issue of, we don't think he's shown enough leadership. So, this is a part of it. Come in here and tell me what you're doing and what you've got planned, that kind of thing.
And I think BP, for its part, has to show cooperation.
CHETRY: And part of that cooperation, there was a big back and forth about the filing of claim and people are saying, you're delaying payments and meanwhile, I'm suffering. I mean, as part of that, the president, and I know members of Congress have also been calling on BP to pay more -- to pay up more. I mean, is BP -- is this some assurances or something concrete that the president can get out of them?
CROWLEY: Sure. I mean, I think he can get -- he probably won't be able to get any more than they've said, which is: we're going to pay all legitimate claims. Therein, that one word, "legitimate," lies the rub. Is this -- you know, there has to be something or a process I'm sure that BP is going through, this is entirely - but I think after all everything is a bureaucracy.
So but - there is people on the other hand whose livelihood, week after week after week, is being denied. So once you get one check, you may be needing another check. So it is certainly something the president can push for.
Just a really quick story. I was down in the Gulf after hurricane Katrina with the Red Cross, which was writing checks to people who need help. The problem was, they ended up writing afterwards, like you know afterwards the rear-view mirror. They wrote three checks to the same people, they wrote three checks to people, they wrote checks for people who claimed they lived one place but didn't.
So there is this sort of need to kind of try and figure it out, but in the end, you have to err on the side of writing the checks and that is where BP is going.
CHETRY: I want to ask you about the Senate race that is out there and you have covered a lot of this South Carolina politics. You have seen how things can get down there but I think it is interesting that the House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn is now calling for an investigation.
And there is a growing call for the person who won named Alvin Greene on the Democratic primary, who just step down. It says, wait a minute, he was unemployed. How did he get the $10,000 for the filing fee? And there has been a lot of questions on how he was able to upset the front-runner.
Let's listen to a little bit of interview. He made the rounds yesterday, let's put it that way. This is Alvin Greene on MSN yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What was your campaign like? Did you have a lot of campaign meetings?
ALVIN GREENE: I had just a few meetings, not many.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you have campaign rallies?
GREENE: Nothing formal, just informal rallies --just informal meetings, rather.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: So there has been accusations that perhaps because it was an open primary, Republicans were able to get him in there, knowing that he would be the easier candidate to beat, there are some calls for Democrats to step down, what is going on there?
CROWLEY: I'm not sure we know what is going on. Every - we know a couple of things. We know that this candidate bound for the U.S. Senate, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, Mr. Greene legitimately is a veteran. He got a number of awards while in the military, not sure according to some reporting how he was released somewhat early from his military stint. We don't know where he got his $10,000 to sign up to be an entrant in this.
Look, yes, Republicans could have -- open ballot mines that someone can go in and say, I want a republican ballot, I want a democratic ballot. Certainly, Republicans could have said, let's mess this up.
We have a hot gubernatorial race going on on the Republican side. Republicans really wanted in on it. I think the more likely scenario and I know nothing more than anyone else does is that perhaps people went in to vote on what were some hot races and that was the first name up on the Democratic ballot. I don't know what went on here. Clearly, they are upset in South Carolina.
They also have a candidate who has been charged with but, again, we are not sure what the legality is going on but we do know that this candidate has been charged with showing someone a pornographic picture.
CHETRY: Yes it says he has been arrested for a felony obscenity charge.
CROWLEY: Right so that kind of complicates things. So that is why they are calling him to resign. They want to know, did the republicans put in --
CHETRY: They said, is it a plant?
CROWLEY: Yes they say is it a plant, did they put him in to mess us up. Going up against DeMint who is very strong, who is a Republican candidate but curiouser and curiouser.
CHETRY: All right well we'll continue to follow that as well. What's coming up on the weekend show? You got a lot to talk about.
CROWLEY: Exactly well you can't have a weekend without talking about this oil spill and what's going on. We are going to talk to Alabama Governor Riley about that. We are going to talk a little bit about the economy. I don't know if you have noticed but we have seen people coming up. We heard about double dip recession for awhile and then it went away.
CHETRY: Yes.
CROWLEY: We are hearing about it again. So the economy is something that always fascinates me. Because there is still, an awful lot of people out there hurting and we want to take a look at some experts out there.
CHETRY: Absolutely, I am sure it will be a good show as always. Thanks for joining us this morning, Candy.
And by the way, be sure to watch Candy Crowley on "STATE OF THE UNION," it's Sunday morning, 9:00 eastern right here on CNN.
Meanwhile, there's something else a lot of people are watching, maybe not so much here in the United States but it is a worldwide sensation. The kickoff of the World Cup today. Can soccer actually kick start the U.S. economy? Christine Romans joins us next.
It is 20 minutes after the hour.
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JIMMY FALLON, HOST "LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY FALLON" FROM COMEDY CENTRAL: Hey, the 2010 World Cup starts tomorrow in South Africa, very excited. The first game is between South Africa and Mexico. Mexico is a really solid team this year, especially after they got all those great players from Arizona, really incredible.
Here in New York, we are six hours behind South Africa, which will make it hard to watch all the World Cup matches. It will give you a great excuse to go to a pub at 8:00 a.m. I know it is noon and I'm already wasted, but I can't change how time works.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: We will see how well that excuse goes over in the house all this weekend. Christine Romans joins us now. She is watching your money. And we are talking about the fact that it is funny.
There is World Cup fever and it is trickling into the United States. The bars are actually opening not at 8:00 but at 6:00 a.m.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, at 6:00 a.m. depending on which time zone you are in here in the United States, you can see here by this little map with some great big beer bottles.
We wanted to show you what's happening around the country. At least bars gearing up for the games where you can see in Denver, for example, and phoenix and over in the mountain states, 6:00 a.m., in the Midwest as well a lot of places opening here on the East Coast. I mean it is crazy, the bars on the East Coast that will be open.
CHETRY: No, it reminds me, my husband and I are both, you know, NFL fans. He is a Philly fan, I'm a Redskins fan and we live in California. We got to go watch a game at 10 a.m. -
ROMANS: Right, it's true.
CHETRY: -- Pacific time. The 1:00 kickoff.
ROMANS: This will be good for some of these local bar owners and for some of these local communities that haven't tried it.
But I've been trying to gage what it means for the U.S. because, look, this is the world's most populate sport. It is not the most popular sport in the United States. So when we do all this analysis of productivity lost, you can get good productivity analysis from other countries but not from the U.S.
So the challenge for me and Chris was they point out that look, in the United States it is March madness is number one. NFL fantasy football, 17 weeks of trades and not even real sports to watch, sorry for my editorial comment there. But that is the second biggest zap of productivity in this country. Super Bowl, not the actual Super Bowl but the day after and then comes World Cup soccer, number four on the list.
CHETRY: That's hilarious.
ROMANS: Everywhere else on the list, it is number one, number four on the list. And I brought along two things for you to read on the way home.
CHETRY: Thank you.
ROMANS: These are investment banks quantitative analysis of who will win the World Cup.
CHETRY: And why are they so into this?
ROMANS: There is nothing more global than banking. And the people who work at these banks that usually work in a lot of different places around the world, they are golf, golf, see -
CHETRY: The Americans and they are golfers too -
ROMANS: Yes no, they are World Cup nuts. And so even this morning, with the dollar near a four-year high against the euro, the number one thing on the currency from HSBC is World Cup trivia.
CHETRY: Hilarious.
ROMANS: So I'm just telling you, the banks will be doing a lot of World Cup analysis.
CHETRY: And good thing tomorrow is a Saturday because it is 2:30 p.m. Eastern time tomorrow that the U.S. and the U.K. are going to be playing their match.
ROMANS: There you go.
CHETRY: You know, everybody is going to be watching that.
ROMANS: Oh, yes, of course, of course.
CHETRY: Yourself included?
ROMANS: No.
CHETRY: You are going to be watching "Thomas the Train," as usual?
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: All right, Christine thanks so much.
And now we head back to John in New Orleans. Hey, John.
ROBERTS: And Christine will be watching golf.
There are so many emergency and cleanup workers here that BP is having to open up their own city to house them all. Our Jim Acosta dropped by for a look. And he's got his report coming up. Stay with us.
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ROBERTS: Twenty eight minutes after the hour and live pictures from the ocean floor, the all too familiar blowout preventer. And the gas and oil continuing to bubble around that top cap which will be replaced probably sometime in the next week or two by another device which should be able to capture more oil and more assets on the surface now, able to take that oil up and hopefully in the next few days, we will see the amount of oil pouring out from around that top cap diminish substantially.
BP is bracing for the long haul building a bona fide tent city just for cleanup teams. Many of the people left jobless and penniless by the disaster now have plenty of work to do. Miles of tarred coastline and oil sick wild life and reserves have to be cleaned out and the marshlands as well. Jim Acosta joins us now with a closer look at this operation. This is way down the Mississippi Delta.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That's right and as you know, John, BP has a major logistical challenge on their hand. They have thousands of workers, many from out of state, many from in state. There are folks that are driving long distances inside Louisiana just to get work on the Gulf coast. And there is a big problem in that many of these workers have no place to stay.
So within the next couple of days, BP is going to open up its own city right outside of Venice, Louisiana, and the idea, BP says, is to speed up the cleanup.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA (voice-over): In just two weeks, BP took this grassy 32- acre lot off the Louisiana Gulf Coast --
(on camera): All of this was brush?
LEE ABBOTT, BO CITY BASE OPERATIONS COMMANDER: All of this was 32 acres of brush.
ACOSTA (voice-over): -- and created its own city. And soon roughly 1,500 cleanup workers will call this place home.
ABBOTT: It will be a city on its own.
ACOSTA: A city with housing, dining, even laundry facilities.
ABBOT: We have a laundry service that will be working 24 hours a day doing laundry for them.
ACOSTA: Lee Abbott, the city's operations commander, took us on a tour of the compound, which has the feel of a military base.
ABBOT: This would be a typical bunk house.
ACOSTA: Where the workers will sleep, 24 bunks to a trailer.
(on camera): This looks like we are on a battleship or a submarine.
ABBOT: That's what it looks like, very close quarters. It reminds you of being in the military.
ACOSTA Once workers check into this BP city, it might be a while before they check in. A BP official says all of this could be here for three to six months, a sign of just how long the cleanup operation will last.
(voice-over): The idea is to keep the workers, some from Louisiana, others from out of state, closer to cleanup activities.
ABBOT: By the time they get in from working out on their job and they get back here at 6:00, 5:00 at night, they are bushed.
ACOSTA: Just like any city, there will also be a police presence 24 hours a day.
(on camera): Are there going to be rules here?
ABBOT: There will be rules.
ACOSTA: Such as?
ABBOT: Such as no alcohol.
ACOSTA (voice-over): All of the construction came as a surprise to some neighbors.
ISRAEL GARZA, BP CITY NEIGHBOR: I have been looking. For the past few days, there was a lot of trailers. I said, wow, they must be busy.
ACOSTA (on camera): They didn't tell the residents around here what they were doing?
GARZA: No, not that I know of.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Back at the construction site, one worker told us he is proud to be part of building something on a coast that's seen so much destruction.
(on camera): It is good to come down and do something?
CLEVELAND GUNSOLAS, BP CITY CONSTRUCTION WORKER: Yes. I was thinking about doing volunteer work but I got in with the company and they sent a bunch of us down here. We are happy to be here and happy to be helping out.
ACOSTA (voice-over): The only thing BP city doesn't have at the moment is much of a name.
(on camera): Does the city have a name?
ABBOT: Venice Responder Village.
ACOSTA: Not very catchy.
ABBOT: No, but it's appropriate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: John, they have so many workers down here that don't have places to stay. This is basically like life out on a rig, so many of these workers are accustomed to sleeping in close quarters. And at this point BP hasn't put a price tag on this project they have going on because this thing could expand to 2,000 workers, so there's no end in sight.
ROBERTS: Responder Village, they said that's going to be there for six months. Yesterday, I ate at a meal tent at Grand Isle and they were serving at least 500 meals. They do that three times a day, so you add up all the costs involved.
ACOSTA: And there is going to be a big catering challenge down there. They are bringing in caters to provide food for all these guys -- 1,500 guys every day who are going to be very hungry after all that cleanup work.
And we ran into those roadblocks with BP a couple of days ago down in Grand Isle.
ROBERTS: This is when they wouldn't let you take pictures of the birds.
ACOSTA: That's right. I wanted to mention they were very happy to let us inside and show us around yesterday inside this tent village. But as an aside, I had to do a lot of the shooting of that piece because they wouldn't let me photographer in because he was wearing shorts. They were saying that was not in keeping with safety regulations there on the worksite.
ROBERTS: You also heard from the department of Homeland Security about the situation you ran into when trying to shoot the video. What did they say?
ACOSTA: Right. I just got a call for a spokesman from the DHS and he apologized for BO's behavior and doesn't want that to reflect on how they are conducting operations with respect to media coverage.
ROBERTS: We should point out, BP is very concerned. When we were on Grand Isle, we ran into the same thing. I sent an e-mail to the guy from BP and he said, I want names and companies because we are going to end that practice. ACOSTA: If there's nothing to hide, what's the big deal?
ROBERTS: Jim Acosta for us this morning, Jim, thanks so much.
ACOSTA: You bet.
ROBERTS: Let's send it back to New York, and here's Kiran.
CHETRY: Right now, a rescue vessel is on its way to pick up Abby Sunderland, 16-year-old sailor, in the Indian Ocean 2,000 miles off the coast of Australia. The girl is drifting in a damaged boat. She wanted to be the youngest person to sail around the world.
In her latest blog entry about the voyage, she wrote about the huge seas, the waves, and her boat rolling around like crazy. From the beginning, there were many who were worried. Sailing officials did not endorse the trip. She comes from a family of sailors, and her own brother did this last year.
Joining is, Charlie Nobles, executive director of the sailing association. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.
CHARLIE NOBLES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AMERICAN SAILING ASSOCIATION: Thanks for having me.
CHETRY: You have been following the drama. Thank goodness the news came in that Abby was OK and a rescue vessel is on the way to getter had. What did you make of all of this going down?
NOBLES: Well, when we first heard about it, you really don't know what to think. You have got the emergency signal, and all you know there is some sort of a dire situation taking place.
Having said that, the fact that one of the emergency position indicating radio beacon didn't go off that goes off when it goes underwater gave us hope that she was, in fact, still on the boat and not in the water, which is a much better place to be, especially with 30-foot seas and 60 miles an hour winds.
CHETRY: Absolutely. Now, how do you sail solo? How do you physically make that happen around the world? In many cases, it takes hundreds of days to do it and you are by yourself.
NOBLES: Well, that's really one of the biggest parts of the challenge is the isolation and sleep deprivation can be a huge factor. That cited by several of the circumnavigators that work with the American sailing sites. Sleep deprivation and loneliness are two of the biggest things, as well as physical endurance.
Obviously, if you are the only one there. People hear about a boat having an autopilot, they think it sounds like a cruise control on the car. If you are the only one on the boat, you are sleeping at least five or six hours a day. Somebody has to be keeping the boat on course. And that's what the auto helm does.
Sometimes you will hear about an auto helm going down. Now, you understand why that is problematic if you are all alone. And being alone and the constant stress, the sleep deprivation are some of the biggest challenges.
CHETRY: Let's listen to a clip of her brother. This was his first squall, as Zac describes it, when he undertook the same journey. He was 17 at the time. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZAC SUNDERLAND, SAILED AROUND THE WORLD: I have just been through my first big squall out here. It's crazy. It was pouring with rain for like five minutes and pouring is like filling up the cockpit, water getting everywhere. The whole boat just got soaked in like five seconds.
The boat couldn't keep on track by itself. I had about 35 knots of wind. I was hand steering with all my strength to keep the boat running downwind. This is crazy. So I will go do a damage check real quick.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: You hear him saying he had to use all of his physical strength. He is a couple years older than Abby. Is this something that a 16-year-old girl, that you would recommend doing by herself, even if she is a very capable sailor?
NOBLES: Well, as far as recommending it, her father is a lifelong sailor, her father is a lifelong sailor, he well understands the challenges and dangers on the ocean. He has been with her since she was little and learning to sail. He would be in the best position to make the call on that.
I heard him say at one point that Abby was actually the better sailor of the two. So when you talk about who is better prepared to do it, it is hard to say, because physical strength is important and endurance, but it is not necessarily all about physical strength. There is a big mental component to it.
And frankly, the concerns that people had about Abby's voyage had less to do with whether it was a 16-year-old or an 18-year-old or a man or a woman but it had to do with the route that she chose and the time of year that she departed on her journey.
CHETRY: Explain that. You have to really be precise. Obviously, you know that. But when you are making these types of decisions, I liken it to, because I know a little more about when people make the decision to try to get to the summit of Mt. Everest and when that window is you can do is safely, you are really at the mercy of weather.
Explain for people what that is like and what type of calculations you have to make.
NOBLES: Well, you can make a calculation to reduce your risk. You can never eliminate the risk, obviously. But certain times of the year, just like, for instance, here in California, you are much more likely to get rain in January and February than you are likely to get rain in July or September.
In the same way in the southern hemispheres, as you get closer to winter, it is getting closer now to our longest day of the year, which is their longest night. There is a lot of darkness down there. It is colder.
You have to time your voyage so you go to the different places around the world if you are trying to go nonstop in such a fashion as to hit the least acceptable window along the way.
Abby got a little bit of a late start as they were getting all of the equipment installed on her boat and had some problems right out of the gate and had, as some people know, to stop in Mexico to make some repairs.
So she was a little bit behind the eight ball. And again, it is a question of odds. It wasn't that it was not prudent to move ahead. It meant her odds of encountering severe weather were much more increased at that point.
CHETRY: We have a very relieved family after learning that she is, indeed, safe. A rescue boat is on their way to her right now. This is a happy ending. I thank you for your insight this morning. I thank you for your insight this morning. Charlie Nobles, he is the executive director of the American sailing association. Thanks for getting up with us. We appreciate it.
NOBLES: Thank you.
CHETRY: We head back to New Orleans and John.
ROBERTS: Kiran, if there was anger before here along the Gulf coast, how much that is has that increased now that we know the amount of oil that's leaking into the Gulf of Mexico maybe double what we thought. We will check in with Julia Reeve from "Newsweek" magazine coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Since the day the deep horizon rig exploded into flames in the Gulf of Mexico, an estimated 84 million gallons of crude oil may have now spilled into the ocean according to the latest estimates from government scientists. That is double previous projections.
Now BP executives are being summoned to the White House for a face-to-face meeting with the president. Julia Reed is a contributing editor for "Newsweek" magazine and she joins us this morning. What is the talk today?
JULIA REED, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEWSWEEK": That's not a surprise to anybody down here or anywhere. It shouldn't be a surprise to anybody else, because we have gotten obfuscation since this thing started. It is hilarious to me -- well, nothing is hilarious but it would be funny if it weren't so dire, that the president is just now summoning BP executives. We can't say tony Hayward's name. What is this? It will be day 60 by the time these dudes roll around to the Oval Office.
ROBERTS: It will be about eight weeks.
REED: The president had time to have a beer summit with Skip Gates and the poor guy that arrested him a year ago, but he cannot meet with BP. Meanwhile, BP is setting the tone for this. They are doing the cleanup -- kind of a joke, not really happening. They are keeping press from covering it.
BP is setting all the policies and nobody from the White House has ever talked to them.
ROBERTS: The president said in an interview the other day the reason he hasn't talked to Tony Hayward from BP is because he would probably just tell pea what I want to hear.
REED: Like I say, it would be funny if it weren't so not funny. What is that? The president of the United States has the Oval Office at his disposal. You call people in. There is that expression, calling them on the carpet. Get them on the Oval Office carpet and say, buddy, why are we letting you dictate to us what's going on? I want to see a high resolution video. Why is CNN bringing us the high resolution of the oil spill?
ROBERTS: You think there should be a CEO to CEO meeting here?
REED: I think there should have been one 50 days ago. Let's get on this. We have Thad Allen having dinner with Tony at some nice restaurant in town, having a bottle of wine together. That freaked everybody out. Hold on. I mean, it's -- it's just It is unconscionable to me that -- that there is just no urgency from the Oval Office, I mean, none. I mean it was --
ROBERTS: Now, the President is just coming down again next week and he will staying overnight this time but not coming to Louisiana.
REED: Ok, big whoop is what I have to say about that. What the hell. I don't care if the guy comes down here. And everybody gets all excited and they get the cleanup workers looking like they are actually cleaning up something and people scurrying around.
I need him to direct the policy here and have a sense of urgency. I mean, there is no, I mean there is the -- disconnect is astonishing to me. On the agenda with like five other items when he was talking to leaders yesterday in Congress was the oil spill.
I mean, there should be like a joint session of Congress. This is war. I mean, we are getting ready to talk about half the nation's economy decimated. A third of the oil this country uses, I mean, this country uses comes right through this state. He shut that down. I mean, if he came down here and listened to people you know with, and -- get talked to, get some sense talked into him, then that would be fine.
He's going to come for some more photo ops. He's going to meet with some anonymous executives from BP. What is that about? I just don't understand why he's not putting pressure on this guy or the company. Well, we've got the FAA closing air space to photographers who want to photograph the spill and -- because BP is setting that tone.
ROBERTS: All right. Now in terms of access, you and I are both on Grand Isle.
REED: Yes.
ROBERTS: We both had problems with access. We tried to talk to some of the cleanup workers. By the way we should mention there's a (INAUDIBLE) rail line right here along the Mississippi River. That's why you hear so many trains.
We were told we could talk to these people, we pulled out a letter from Doug Suttles from BP and showed these guys, saying, "BP says they wants us to talk to these workers". What happened with you?
REED: I was yes, I was barred -- I was barred access so I just kind of you know just pretended like I was a beach comber and just kind of slid on down under the docks.
But you know, but all of the officials down there, you've got a huge contingency of the National Guard. You saw --
ROBERTS: Is it hard -- it's hard to believe that anything could actually drown out Julia Reed. But there's a train there -- but go ahead, continue.
REED: You've got a big contingent of Jefferson Parish Sheriff folks. They are all down there, and this is to actually, it may not be coming from BP, it's coming from -- from --
ROBERTS: The local contractors.
REED: -- their contractors, the subcontractors.
ROBERTS: Yes.
ROBERTS: So you're, you know, it's like a forest down there. But that's the point.
I mean, it's like Mutt and Jeff cleaning up the beach. You got the layers and layers of bureaucracy already but nothing actually happening.
So there needs to be a clear message. I mean, you know, forget about BP, the FAA kept a plane from flying with the "New Orleans Times Picayune" photographer over the spill. Homeland Security kept Bill Nelson, who is the last time I checked was a United States Senator, from taking three reporters on a quote, "federal asset", which is a boat.
ROBERTS: But -- but you don't want a lot of aircraft flying over that area and you don't want a lot of boats going into that area.
REED: Well, you know--
ROBERTS: -- because there is a lot of oil out there.
REED: -- within -- within reason. Well I mean --
ROBERTS: Not to say that I'm --
(CROSSTALK)
REED: -- oil isn't going to be messing up a plane. I mean, give me a break. If George Bush had said, ok, we are going to close New Orleans. Nobody can get in here after Katrina. The only people that could come in here after Katrina were reporters.
Well, that's how I got back, with the press pass. If George Bush had said, ok we're not going to have any coverage of Katrina, people would have been calling for his impeachment, I mean they were already.
ROBERTS: Yes.
REED: And we're now and as you point out, eight weeks of this. The President has never met with anybody from BP; has never talked to anybody on the phone. We are letting them, you know, like set the tone for the whole thing from the cleanup to how we are going to handle the press. I mean, it's just crazy.
ROBERTS: All right, we've got to go but we'll check back in with you next week.
REED: Good, I hope I'm like, you know, my head is still attached to my body then.
ROBERTS: I don't know if that will be the case. But we'll check back to see. All right.
REED: Hey thank you for coming down here.
ROBERTS: It's really great to see you this morning.
Bonnie Schneider has got the weather forecast coming up next. It's going to be hot and sticky here again in the south making for more problems for those cleanup crews.
Stay with us, we'll be right back.
It's now 48 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: "Shipping up to Boston", I know a few people who are shipping up to Boston today to go see a baseball game. How about that one, it's 58 degrees, but a little bit later it's going to be great baseball watching weather, 71 degrees and sunny.
And we're going to find out from Bonnie Schneider right now where else it's going to be pretty nice and where maybe not so nice around the country as people head into the weekend. Hey Bonnie.
SCHNEIDER: Hi, Kiran. Yes, in Boston, fantastic weather all weekend, low 70s. This is the time of the year you want to get outside and enjoy. Unfortunately for Louisiana and Mississippi, this is the time of year you want to be inside.
Look at the heat. We have heat advisories for much of southeast Louisiana though, southern parishes and then heading into southern counties of Mississippi, including the city of Biloxi. So the heat will climb all the way up to 95 degrees for the temperature.
But in New Orleans, it'll feel like it's up to 110 degrees. Wow, that is just oppressive and hot. I want to talk a little bit about Louisiana and some of the beaches. We have some advisories posted for swimming. And, you know, even though it says some of the beaches are open in Louisiana. Keep in mind that there are some swimming advisories posted as well into Martin, Louisiana.
For Alabama: Gulf Shores, Orange Beach, Fort Morgan, Gulf State Pier Park all open but we do have some areas that are closed to fishing. A lot of the beaches that are open say that they are opening for sun bathing, for going to the beach, just use caution and swim at your own risk. But it's good to see that a lot of these beaches are open.
And also in the scale for Florida, we've seen a lot of the wind kind of pushing oil away from Florida and that's reflective here. Pensacola all the way down to Carrabelle, the beaches are open. So Fort Walton, Destin -- popular vacation destinations -- don't cancel your plans. Those beaches are open. And of course the businesses want you to come considering that it's so hot out there. We're seeing such hot temperatures.
Check it out across the country. The heat is scorching in many places all the way up to 95 degrees into Dallas, Texas and 91 in Houston. Looking good though in New York -- Kiran climbing up to 74 today.
CHETRY: Yes, boy, you see that heat crawling up everywhere else in the country though and just a few places looking nice for the weekend. Thanks Bonnie.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
CHETRY: Still ahead, CNN's hero of the week. She is doing all she can to try to end prison's revolving door. We are going to meet her coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Four minutes until the top of the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
In California, nearly 60 percent of people released from jail end up back behind bars within three years. Critics call it prison's revolving door syndrome.
This week's CNN hero is making it her mission to break that cycle.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN BURTON, COMMUNITY CRUSADER: I'm writing in regards to my parole plan. I'm 21 years old with two strikes. I am scared to relapse again. I want to be a success story. Please hold a bed for me.
We all leave prison saying, I'm going to get my life on track and you end up getting off a bus downtown Los Angeles, skid row.
People know who you are when you come off that bus and you are targeted. Many times you don't even make it out of the skid row area before you are caught up into that cycle again.
My name is Susan Burton. After my son died, I used drugs; I just spiraled into a pit of darkness. I went to prison six times. Finally, I found rehab. I thought I can help women come home from prison. I pick them up; bring them back to the house.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is like a mother to all of us. She offered you a warm bed, food, like a real family.
BURTON: I want to see you shine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She made me want to change my life. You found me Miss Burton.
BURTON: Sure.
You came a long way. I want the women to realize they have something to contribute. This is giving life. That's what it is all about.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: A look along the Mississippi River here in New Orleans. A little bit of cloud cover moved in making things much more comfortable and knocking down the heat just a little bit. Maybe a little bit of a respite for those workers who'll be out there cleaning again today now that we found out that the amount of oil that was coming out of that broken blowout preventer is double, if not more than what we thought it was.
And just a little clarification here before we go this morning. It's true what Bonnie Schneider said that Grand Isle beach is quote, "officially open". But there is a huge orange that runs the entire length of the island which separates off the main part of the beach from the part that actually leads down to the water.
And Kiran, you can't go down there and you certainly can't go in the water, which is why you see no one on Grand Isle Beach except for those cleaning it up.
CHETRY: Yes, they wanted to try to at least symbolically, you know, do something for people that wanted to like just get out there maybe sit in a chair and read a book, but even some of the local leaders said that it was going to be torture to sit there and watch the water and know you can't go in it.
Great stuff down there this week, John. See you back in New York on Monday.
And meantime thanks for all of you for watching. You can continue the conversation on today's stories by heading to our blog, CNN.com/amFIX.
That's going to do it for us. Hope you have a great weekend.
And the news continues now, "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips starts right now.
