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American Morning

Hurricane Rita; Grim Task

Aired September 21, 2005 - 09:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane Rita, upgraded from Category 2 to Category 4 in just the last seven hours, expected to get even stronger. We're tracking the storm's path straight ahead.
The Texas coast preparing for a likely direct hit from Rita. The first mandatory evacuations already underway, but will the state be ready in time? We're live in Galveston.

And New Orleans almost dry for the first time since Katrina, tens of billions of gallons of water pumped from the city. And now another storm threatening to break through those weakened levees. We're live in New Orleans on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, welcome, everybody.

M. O'BRIEN: Lots to talk about with Rita. It's hard to believe we're doing this yet again. A big Gulf storm, a strengthening Gulf storm. We're talking about the same strengthening and weakening, those eyewall collapses. It all sounds like Katrina over again, and we should all be paying attention to it like it is Katrina.

S. O'BRIEN: And I think this time around people actually are paying much more attention to it.

Hurricane Rita, in fact, now a Category 4 storm, likely to the go to the top of the category, Category 5. CNN is your hurricane headquarters.

And severe weather expert Chad Myers is tracking the latest path of this storm.

Hey, Chad, good morning again.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.

Hurricane Center has talked about this now for it seems like the past two or three cycles that, yes, it could be a Category 5. That's not in the forecast yet, but certainly this is going to go up and down and up and down and what we call those eyewall replacement cycles. You get the eye really, really small. And then another eyewall builds on the outside. And that one in the middle dies.

And then when -- it's the ice skater thing, we talk about it all the time, when the arms are in, when the eye is tight, this storm is fast. When the arms are out, the storm is a little bit wider, the eyewall is wider, 40 miles, this storm slows down a little bit.

Now that's just those maximum eyewall winds. The storm itself doesn't slow down at all. The storm 30 miles from the center doesn't slow down. The bands, the rain bands, don't slow down at all. They are just as strong whether the storm is a 4 or a 5.

This thing, the scope of this storm is going to be so wide. Right now the scope is probably, what's that, 350 miles from top to bottom, but it is going to get so much bigger as it gets into very warm water here in the central part of the Gulf of Mexico. Category 4, 4 and 4, that's the official forecast, about 145 miles per hour max. Some gusts to 170. Still could go up to 5. Here we go right now, 135. It went from 100 to 135 in like less than 24 hours.

And here's what going to happen with this storm, and here's why New Orleans is almost good enough to breathe easy with this one. The high pressure is in control. The same high pressure that turned and moved Katrina. When Katrina was here, this high pressure had slid to the east almost offshore, so that allowed the storm to come back on the backside.

This storm, this high pressure, they are acting differently. This high is moving more slowly, this storm is moving more quickly, so it's not going to be able to get to New Orleans before the high gets out of the way. And in fact, if the high stays around a few hours longer, this storm may be all the way down to Corpus Christi, maybe Brownsville or even a 10 percent chance of it getting into northern Mexico -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Chad. Appreciate it.

Chad is our severe weather expert.

The Gulf Coast has moved into action with Hurricane Rita on its way. Mandatory evacuations are beginning in Galveston County, Texas. For the last couple of hours, nursing homes under orders to move patients. We hope they're doing so. Schools are closed. Phased evacuations in the city of Galveston beginning tonight, running through tomorrow.

Louisiana's governor, meanwhile, Kathleen Blanco, says her state is so overwhelmed by Katrina she is asking for federal help to prepare for Rita. She has declared a state of emergency in southwestern parishes that could see strong rain and flooding from Rita.

In Florida, evacuees are returning to the Keys this morning. Twice as many people left the islands ahead of this storm as they normally do. They're a bit stubborn there about riding their way through storms. Rita's eye didn't touch land, but there's a fair amount of flooding and some power is out. All in all, they think they dodged a bullet, though.

The mayor of Galveston has also declared a state of emergency for her city. Back in Texas now, Galveston, 60 miles southeast of downtown Houston, it's on a barrier island. Deborah Feyerick is there at a community center where residents are boarding buses to get out. One hundred and five years ago, this town was practically wiped off the map.

I assume there are lessons that they have learned there and have not forgotten -- Deb?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Miles. The most important lesson just being New Orleans. A lot of the people that we were speaking to this morning really say the images of what happened there are so powerful in their minds they're not taking any chances, especially because it's been upgraded to a Category 4.

These are some of the buses in place that are going to be taking some 2,000 people. That's the number that signed up to get out of town. They are going to begin transporting them within the next couple of hours. You see some police officers on site. Again, police presence. Another lesson learned from Katrina.

This bus that you see here in the middle, these have been going around picking other people up, making sure that they can get here to the community center. A number of people who were waiting on line and got up very early this morning have now been allowed inside. But again, you see a number of folks here. They're all ready to get out. They've brought one bag. That's all they're allowed to take.

Diana Young (ph), what are you bringing with you?

DIANA YOUNG, EVACUEE: Well, I'm bringing my bag with my clothes in and my midnight case and my purse.

FEYERICK: And that's it. And you're ready to hunker down for a couple of days?

YOUNG: I'm ready to go as long as I can go.

FEYERICK: OK.

YOUNG: Until it's safe to come back.

FEYERICK: Until it's safe to come back.

And, Miles, those are really the operative words. State of emergency in place, could last for as long as seven days, depending on how powerful this storm comes ashore. The mayor said she might extend it. Three hundred city officials will be left behind here in Galveston to ride out this storm. Among them, about 165 police officers who are determined to stay here whatever comes -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, I hope they have a good plan for riding it out. I'm sure they do. And it looks like people are heeding the call there -- Deb.

FEYERICK: Absolutely, nobody is taking any chances. These are the ones who don't have transportation. They're making sure that they get a lift out. M. O'BRIEN: All right. Deb Feyerick in Galveston, thanks very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin isn't taking any chances either, the city, once again, is ordering residents out.

Carol Costello is live outside the convention center in New Orleans.

Carol, good morning again.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning, Soledad.

What a contrast to where Deborah Feyerick is, because no evacuees have shown up yet this morning. Only one man came by, and he just wanted to pick up some food. And the military police kind enough to give him some cans of Spaghettios to take home with him.

Twenty-three evacuees left yesterday by bus, some of them were residents, some of them were workers. But you know not many are leaving, because, frankly, not many are still in the city of New Orleans.

The good news here is that the city is essentially dry. The Army Corps of Engineers and the guy that runs the pumping station, Joe Sullivan, told me they pumped out three-quarters of a trillion gallons of water.

Take a look at a neighborhood we visited yesterday that was literally under eight feet of water. It is bone dry now. In fact, the mud on the ground is cracking, it's so dry there, leaving, you know, you can see all the damage left behind. But think about that, three-quarters of a trillion gallons of water pumped out. That's 750 billion. Each billion is 1,000 million. Each million is 1,000 thousands. That's how much water was in this city of New Orleans.

Now as far as how they're preparing for Rita, they are prepared. The Army Corp of Engineers says the levee system, well, it's not the greatest yet. But what they're doing is they're erecting these huge steel curtains. They're putting these huge pylons in the ground on either side of each canal in the city. And then they're going to fashion a curtain out. And that can handle a three-to-six-foot storm surge, which isn't a whole lot. That can be generated by a hurricane 1 -- by a Category 1 storm. But they say that's the best they can do and that's the best they can prepare.

The pumps still 80 percent down or damaged. But Joe Sullivan, who runs the pumping station, says we will get the water out. Because the mayor said three to six inches of rain, you could see four feet of water in some parts of New Orleans again.

As I said, I'm here at the convention center. It's in front of me. But behind me is the evacuation site. And this is where people go to get on board school buses to take them out of town. Come by any time you want. As far as the convention center site itself, some people are saying why here? There's such bad memories associated. This is where it became so chaotic and terrible, you know, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. People were raped here. People died here. In fact, there were dead bodies lying on the streets.

But Lt. Gen. Honore said it's time to get past that and look to the future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, KATRINA JOINT TASK FORCE: Buses at the convention center will move our citizens for whom we have sworn that we will support and defend. And we'll move them on. Let's not get stuck on the last storm. You're asking last storm questions for people who are concerned about the future storm. Don't get stuck on stupid, reporters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK, we're not going to get stuck on stupid, Gen. Honore, because you know you listen when that man talks.

But, as I say, you can see the convention center and the evacuation site behind me. And as I said, only one person has shown up this morning, but we'll keep checking back throughout the day. There are 500 buses available in the city to take people out of here. Two buses are standing by right now.

S. O'BRIEN: Don't get stuck on stupid. I'm still -- that's still going through my mind, you know.

M. O'BRIEN: I am moving beyond stupid.

S. O'BRIEN: Since he's gotten in there, you know, things have moved in the right direction, I think everyone would say.

Carol, thanks a lot -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: I think Hurricane Russel can outdo any hurricane there. And we will do our best to get beyond stupid and into smart.

Just back from his fifth trip to the Gulf Coast region, President Bush is at the White House this morning.

Elaine Quijano is there.

Elaine, Rita is headed toward Texas. What's the president doing?

ELAINE QUIJANO, CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, good morning to you.

In addition to his daily intelligence briefing, the president, of course, now is getting regular hurricane updates. And officials here at the White House of course continue to monitor Hurricane Rita's track very closely. Yesterday, during a visit to Louisiana, the president was briefed aboard the USS Iwo Jima about Rita. The president saying up and down the coastline people are preparing for what's expected to be a significant storm.

Now the president also says another admiral is being stationed in Texas to coordinate the response there. As for military assets, Mr. Bush says they are being taken out of the New Orleans area, out of harm's way, will come back behind the storm where help is needed. Administration officials really making it a point to stress they are getting equipment and disaster teams in place ahead of the storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: As we've now pre- positioned or are in the process of pre-positioning a lot of supplies. We've got helicopters on standby. We're working very closely with the governor and the other state officials to make sure that we are completely connected in terms of their needs and what capabilities they're asking us to bring to the table. And so we are taking it very seriously and we are leaning as far forward as we can in preparation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now today, the president has a number of events on his schedule in town here. He's got some meetings. Also going to make some remarks later today. But the Bush administration very much wants to show that President Bush is engaged. That certainly in the wake of those scathing criticisms over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina that President Bush this time is keeping on top of the latest developments with Hurricane Rita.

Miles, back to you.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Elaine Quijano.

Let's check in now on some other headlines now.

Kelly Wallace with that.

Hello -- Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, Miles. And good morning, everyone.

These stories "Now in the News."

U.S. military convoys coming under fire in Iraq. The military says at least four convoys were targeted by roadside bombs earlier today in the greater Baghdad area. Two U.S. soldiers were wounded in those attacks.

Meanwhile, tensions running high in Basra. Clashes were sparked Monday after British troops used force to rescue two undercover soldiers. Army Private 1st Class Lynndie England heading back to court today. Earlier this year, England pleaded guilty to charges related to the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, but that plea deal fell through. A military jury will be seated today. Opening statements will then follow.

President Bush holding talks with some top Senate leaders this morning to discuss possible replacements for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Senators Reid, Frist, Specter and Leahy came out of that meeting about an hour ago saying all those discussions were off to a good start. Meantime, a Senate panel is expected to vote tomorrow on the president's pick for chief justice, John Roberts.

The first generic version of the AIDS medication AZT is heading to stores. The Federal Drug Administration gave its approval hoping the move will allow greater access for those infected with HIV. The drug AZT helps to stop the spread of the AIDS virus in the body.

And allegation of gas price gouging in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Eight Democratic governors are sending President Bush a letter saying they are concerned that some oil companies made extra profits during the crisis. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and the Federal Trade Commission have been asked to look into those accusations of price gouging.

And, Miles and Soledad, gas consumers will be watching closely as well.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

WALLACE: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: And remember those signs, $6.07, I think that's what that sign...

M. O'BRIEN: There ought to be a law. I guess there is. I guess there is.

S. O'BRIEN: There is.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: And that's probably what they'll be prosecuted under...

M. O'BRIEN: I'm feeling so.

S. O'BRIEN: ... if they find it to be the case.

Thanks, Kelly.

M. O'BRIEN: We have a nice little footnote to tell you about. If you've been watching for the past 45 minutes, and we sure hope you were, Gwendolyn Garley (ph), who is now twice evacuated, we talked to her as she was just about to leave Galveston. As a matter of fact, she got in the car the moment the interview was over.

Her cousin, who also evacuated to Atlanta, was watching that interview, called our excellent public information people. They sent an e-mail back to me, on it goes, back to her. A phone call was made. Looks like they've connected. There's a good chance Gwendolyn and her family will head to Atlanta and join up with her cousin's family who evacuated there.

S. O'BRIEN: That's such a good ending.

M. O'BRIEN: And she didn't even know if they were safe and sound.

S. O'BRIEN: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: So on top of that...

S. O'BRIEN: And I think they've had a chance to talk now.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm kind of glad that all came out that way.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: So we'll try to get a hold of Gwendolyn a little later. And we'll stay in touch with her all throughout her journey because she's a wonderful person.

S. O'BRIEN: She was pretty remarkable.

M. O'BRIEN: She was wonderful, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: And you know and just said she's barely holding it together, frankly,...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: ... having to evacuate, and then of course having to move again as Hurricane Rita approaches.

By the way, Hurricane Rita, we are continuing to monitor, as well, along with Chad Myers. Much to talk about as that storm approaches the Gulf Coast as well.

Lots more happening this morning. The latest on the search for bodies in Katrina's aftermath. We'll take a closer look at some of the obstacles that are faced by recovery workers today.

M. O'BRIEN: And later, one woman's effort to make sure her neighbors in New Orleans can survive another disaster. We'll have her story ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: The Army Corps of Engineers says it's pumped out nearly all the water from New Orleans. This will make it much easier to recover those who have lost their lives. The Louisiana Medical Director for Emergency Response is in charge of that grizzly task. It's Dr. Louis Cataldie, and he joins us from Baton Rouge this morning.

Nice to see you, Dr. Cataldie, thank you for talking with us.

DR. LOUIS CATALDIE, LA. EMERG. RESPONSE MED. DIR.: Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: I know your job now is the recovery of the bodies. Ten thousand was the number, as you know, that was thrown out there early on in this disaster, very much dialed back. What percentage of New Orleans have you and your people covered? Is there a number that you're giving out as an estimate of how many people at the end of the day will be dead from this disaster in Louisiana?

CATALDIE: Well, you know one person is enough, and we're almost at 801 persons right now. I must tell you that the recovery process is getting very, very difficult and very, very dangerous. I had two people had to be evacuated last night and one's in a hyperbaric chamber, from what my paramedics tell me. So it's a very dangerous type retrieval. And in some situations, we can't even go into an area because of all the destruction.

I would assume that we've got an overview of the entire area, but there's a primary and secondary search. The secondary search pretty much is where we have to perhaps use forced entry if we have a suggestion that there is something going on inside a dwelling. And that's something of course we've been reluctant to do. Nobody wants to go kicking down doors. That's not what we're there for. But it's been a very difficult retrieval process to this point, but I promise our citizens we will get this done.

S. O'BRIEN: As you mentioned, two of your workers, sounds like they are severely injured as they were trying to recover bodies. What exactly happened that would lead at least one to end up in a hyperbaric chamber? What were the circumstances?

CATALDIE: We go into some very enclosed areas at times and there are all types of gases. And of course we try to check and make sure we're not going into a situation in which there is danger. Sometimes that happens. And unfortunately it happened yesterday. And I can just tell you, having gone into some of those recoveries, it's real easy to get a lung full of something noxious. And once you just get that first inhalation, you're in trouble.

S. O'BRIEN: It's got to be terrible. How is the incoming storm, Rita, which, at least at this point, is looking as if it might ease off of Louisiana? How is that affecting the work that you're doing at this point, is it yet?

CATALDIE: Rita scares us to death. At least scares me to death. Thank goodness that it appears it's not going to impact us in a major way. My heart goes out to the folks that it does impact. It's a horrendous type situation, and I pray for them.

S. O'BRIEN: How are you going about your work and your teams? I mean a lot of the bodies, frankly, they're in terrible shape. You know there were bodies that were lying there for days when we were in New Orleans under underpasses or even out on the street. If they're not, obviously no identification on them, they're decomposing, how do you match a person's identity to the body eventually?

CATALDIE: I'm going to tell you that all is a very difficult process. Initially, of course, we retrieved folks who were in hospitals and in nursing homes, so we had their medical records there, most of them had arm bands. We have a tentative ID that we feel we can go forward with.

But some of the folks who are now coming in, there will be no visual identification. So we're left with fingerprints, if we can get fingerprints. We're left with DNA, again, if we can match folks who are missing other folks. And we're also left with dental. But a lot of our X-rays and dental records are under water. However, we do have an archivist coming in from the United States government who is going to help us with the retrieval of some of those dental records.

S. O'BRIEN: Gosh, it makes a really difficult task even more difficult. Quick final question for you, there were so many rampant rumors about homicides, frankly, at the convention center, at the Superdome. Can you confirm, in your investigations, that in fact a number of the bodies that you found were indeed murdered?

CATALDIE: You know and those rumors upset me. I was at the dome and we were actually triaging patients and treating patients. And I did set up a small morgue there because folks were dying. And when we went in for our final recovery, we did recover 10 bodies, but those bodies weren't murdered. Those bodies were folks who were so fragile, quite honestly, that they couldn't make it without the medical care because we didn't have any ventilators or things like that and they subsequently died. There were no murders there.

And the convention center, we recovered four bodies. There were no murders there. There have been some homicides, but those homicides have been ongoing since the storm.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you for setting the record straight.

Dr. Louis Cataldie, joining us this morning, thank you -- Miles.

CATALDIE: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come, the race to prepare New Orleans' levees for another monster storm. A look at what engineers are doing ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: CNN your hurricane headquarters. There is the storm. Rita, now a Category 4, headed roughly in the direction of Galveston, of course difficult to predict exactly. And there's the bull's eye, if you will, the calm before the storm. The pier there in Galveston, and actually a beautiful morning there.

But what's happening on the ground is anything but pretty as people prepare to leave. Mandatory evacuations, nursing homes being cleared out, schools are closed and people are taking heed, we hope, of the warnings to seek high ground.

Louisiana is preparing for the worst as well. The governor has declared a state of emergency there. And the Army Corps of Engineers is scrambling to shore up New Orleans' crippled levees.

Carol Costello live once again from New Orleans with more on that.

Carol, good morning again.

COSTELLO: Good morning, Miles.

They're very concerned about this and they're hoping Rita doesn't dump much rain either, at least here in the city of New Orleans, because New Orleans is essentially dry. I mean get your mind around this, they've pumped three-quarters of a trillion gallons of water from the city. That's 7 to 20 billion gallons of water per day. They did all of that in two-and-a-half weeks with only 20 percent of the pumps up and running at full capacity.

I was actually standing at pump station number seven yesterday, and we were looking into the Orleans Canal, and they were pumping water from the French Quarter, Lakeview and City Park. Lakeview and City Park some of the areas worst hit. And you can see the -- you could see the pumps slowing down because there just wasn't any more water to pump out.

So if Rita hits, well they've come up with some plans, as you might expect. The Army Corps of Engineers working closely with the city of New Orleans, and they say they are ready for anything.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (voice-over): If there is a picture of cooperation between local and federal officials, this is it.

COL. DUANE GAPINSKI, U.S. ARMY: How could we get along without Joe, you know, he's been there -- he's been here like 75 years.

(CROSSTALK)

GAPINSKI: I mean 35 years.

COSTELLO: And with Rita threatening, cooperation between the local pump guy and the Army engineer is exactly what's needed now. According to the mayor, just three to six inches of rain will mean four feet of floodwater for parts of New Orleans.

JOE SULLIVAN, N.O. SEWER, WATER BOARD: I think we'll get it out. I think. Maybe I'm mule headed, but I think we'll get it out.

GAPINSKI: We'll get it out.

SULLIVAN: We'll get it out. COSTELLO: But it's really up to Joe Sullivan to get rid of the water. He manages New Orleans pumping stations. Eighty percent of these giant pumps are still down or damaged. Still, Joe and his crew have managed to pump three-quarters of a trillion gallons of water into Lake Pontchartrain.

Col. Duane Gapinski of the Army Corps of Engineers says New Orleans is essentially dry. That could change if the levees fail again, and that is a problem for the colonel and his team.

(on camera): How strong are the levees?

GAPINSKI: Well of course it depends where you are. North of us on Lake Pontchartrain, we could probably handle a 10-to-12-foot storm surge.

COSTELLO (voice-over): But the east side, the most heavily damaged, can only handle a five-to-six-foot storm surge, something that could happen if Hurricane Rita makes landfall to the right of Louisiana as a Category 1 storm.

GAPINSKI: There are sections of the levee out east that were 17.5 feet tall and they're completely gone.

COSTELLO: So the temporary solution is to build a steel curtain at the end of each canal in the city. That will hopefully prevent new flooding.

GAPINSKI: See you tonight at 8:00, right?

SULLIVAN: OK, 8:00, OK.

COSTELLO: Not a sure thing, but it's the best this team can do, but they're confident by working together they can prevent another catastrophe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

They also have these huge sandbags that weigh about 15,000 pounds each and then they're piled near those breaks in the levee just in case they need them. There are some 2,500 on standby. So they are as ready as they can be.

M. O'BRIEN: Carol Costello in New Orleans, thank you very much.

This just in to CNN, the death toll now in the wake of Katrina has exceeded 1,000, 1,035 to be exact. Louisiana recording now 801 deaths, Mississippi 219, 11 deaths in Florida, 2 each in Alabama and Georgia. Of course while that number is high and dramatic, it is well short of some of the early indications that the death toll might get into the five digits.

Still to come on the program, the latest on the developing story over the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Rita, now a Category 4, churning toward the Gulf Coast, not unlike Katrina. An update on Rita's path ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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