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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
New Orleans Evacuates; Hurricane Rita Expected to Hit Texas
Aired September 20, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
Anderson, good evening to you.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, quite an introduction, Aaron. Quite an honor. Thanks very much.
In a city known for Mardi Gras, it looks and feels more like "Groundhog Day," thanks to Hurricane Rita. Once again, anyone who is still here is being asked to leave. Again, people will be told to wait for buses tomorrow the same place they were told to wait before, the Convention Center, should the need arise, and yet again, tough questions coming up tonight, questions we put to the mayor -- his answers in a moment.
First, though, the latest from Aaron.
BROWN: Anderson, thank you.
The good news, if there is good news at all, comes more than a dozen computer models, none of them predicting that Hurricane Rita will hit New Orleans. The bad news, wherever Rita does strike could take a beating.
The hurricane is now Category 2, but it is forecast to strengthen over the Gulf of Mexico and strengthen a good deal, perhaps to Category 4 by some time tomorrow afternoon, this before making landfall some time early this weekend, most likely, most likely, along the Texas Gulf Coast.
So, tonight, the mayor of Galveston, Texas, declared a state of emergency in his city, ordering the evacuation of nursing homes and other assisted-living facilities by 6:00 tomorrow morning, the rest of the city by 6:00 tomorrow evening.
Louisiana's governor also declaring a state of emergency for parishes in the southwestern portion of the state, in case the storm veers to the east of its anticipated track. And, as Anderson mentioned, an evacuation order remains in place in New Orleans, the federal point man for the area saying 500 buses are waiting to take people out of the city.
And as crews scramble to shore up levees, engineers say that, in their current state, three inches of rain, just three inches, could be enough to cause serious new flooding.
The could-be in a moment, though, could be and was, first, though, the right now and CNN's John Zarrella.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): All day, the Atlantic churned and the tide surged under the narrow strip of land that separates the ocean from the Gulf of Mexico.
In Marathon, several boats were submerged. Further up the coast, at Islamorada, floodwaters snaked among buildings and lapped over lawns. About half the population of the Keys had already boarded up and gone north along US-1 to avoid the wrath of Rita. Governor Jeb Bush told the rest to stay put.
GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: What we say around here is, turn around; don't drown. A lot of accidents take place as people at the last minute decide that they should leave. And it's too late to leave the Keys right now, given the wind conditions that exist.
ZARRELLA: Most heeded the warning and hunkered down, but not all. The intrepid, or foolhardy, couldn't resist the temptation of experiencing a Category 2 firsthand by road or even on a surfboard. In Key West, the streets were deserted for much of the day. Parts of US-1 were impassable, covered in seaweed and other debris.
But locals had experienced a lot worse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had a lot more flooding during Katrina and Hurricane Dennis this year than we have had so far with this -- with this storm here. So, there are areas of the city that are flooded, but nothing to the amount that we thought we were going to have.
ZARRELLA: Even so, the hurricane season of 2005 has taken its toll on the Keys.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have had two hurricanes come very, very close to Key West. We have not had the eye hit the city. But the strain that has been put on the infrastructure, trees, the power lines, the -- the various -- the traffic lights, all that, it starts to play on itself.
ZARRELLA: But now Rita is gone from here, sweeping into the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and gathering in fury over the next three or four days, before the next landfall.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: Here in Key West, they are saying that they were very, very lucky. Tonight, it is still raining. It is still very windy. But city officials and county officials have said, quite frankly, they dodged the bullet, because the storm stayed just offshore, never making a direct hit on Key West.
They are so confident that this area will be ready to go tomorrow that they announced late today, Monroe County officials, that tomorrow morning, starting at 7:00 a.m., local residents can begin returning. And they hope that, by Friday, all the power will be back on and they can start allowing tourists to come back to the Keys -- Aaron.
BROWN: John, thank you -- John Zarrella in the Florida Keys tonight.
As you could see from the graphic and tell from John's reporting, Rita has now moved into the Gulf, where the water is quite warm. The computers are cranking out models now on where it will make landfall and when and with what strength.
Chad Myers, who is our expert on these matters, joins us now from Atlanta to tell us about the probabilities.
And that's, I guess, Chad, really where we are, is, we're talking about probabilities.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Truly.
Aaron, four days out, we have to give us a little bit of a break. In 24, 48 hours, I can tell you where this thing is going to be; 120 hours, the models just start to separate. And I will show you them. I will show you the dramatic separation at about three days, where models really get confused. And I will show you even why.
Here's the storm right now. Boy, did that thing get wound up in the past couple of hours right, and it even moved to the north. Very glad that little windup didn't happen right over and just south of Key West. Wow, that would have been ugly. The storm is going to be a Category 4. That's why there's a number four in there as it moves into the Gulf of Mexico and turns around the back side of a big high- pressure ridge.
And you say, how does that matter? How can there be so many different opinions? There's a dozen computers here, a dozen different opinions, a dozen different programmers. How can there be so many different opinions? It's because of the high pressure that's to the north. There's a large high-pressure system there. That's a low- pressure system.
This high pressure says, oh, wait, you can't come near me. You're a low pressure. There it is. There's the dome of high pressure. This storm is going to get into the Gulf of Mexico. And this high pressure is going to slide to the east. The quicker this moves to the east, the quicker this storm can turn around and make that right turn, just like Katrina did.
The high for Katrina got out of the way early. And it turned into New Orleans. If this storm, if this high doesn't get out of the way for a while, it could go to Brownsville. But that's so many days away. That's why you have to give us some notice; 24 or 48 hours, we can tell you where it's going in that cone. But, right now, a four- day cone of uncertainty goes from Brownsville all the way to Lafayette, Louisiana.
There's your rain, Key West right now. We will zoom in for you, get into a couple spots, still seeing some squalls around Key West, winds there is about 50 miles per hour. Did have a wind gust there, unofficial, though, out of a hurricane hunter, 105 miles per hour. Look at this. Key Largo, you thought you were out of it, more storms coming onshore. Some of those storms have been spinning during the day, with some waterspouts and some tornado warnings as well.
And, Miami, look at you. You just follow that line back. You have got another line headed to you with wind gusts over 45 to 50 miles per hour. This is in a direct line. This is just big feeder band that's getting right up into Miami and South Dade. And it's going to be a long night for folks who don't like bad weather, winds there about 40 to 50 most of the night -- Aaron.
BROWN: How many more weeks does this have to go?
(LAUGHTER)
MYERS: November 30 is the last day.
BROWN: November 30?
MYERS: Now, typically, we don't -- yes, that's the end of hurricane season.
Typically, we don't get a hurricane in November. We only get little tropical storms that don't get to be Category 4's. But the hurricane season has a long way to go.
BROWN: My goodness. Chad, thank you. We will get back to you.
Some late news to report, good news, by the sound of it. Even as engineers worry about what Rita might do to weaken levees in New Orleans, the pumps have been running full time to dry the city out. And, apparently, that's worked better than anyone anticipated.
Colonel Duane Gapinski is with the Army Corps of Engineers and he joins us on the phone.
Is the city dry?
COL. DUANE GAPINSKI, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Well, Aaron, it's basically dry. This is out to the east, by where the Six Flag amusement park is, there's still some water there, but generally the downtown area is dry.
BROWN: How did we get from, it's going to take 60 days to dry out the city to, it's going to take two-and-a-half weeks to dry out the city?
GAPINSKI: Well, Aaron, you know, that 60-day prediction, actually, I think it was six months initially. That's based on no information, no assessment of the status of the pumps and the canals and the levees.
So, as we refine those assessments, that -- those predictions become better. But the one thing you can't measure is the will and determination of the people on the ground fixing those pumps and moving that water out of the city. BROWN: I'm curious what the level of anxiety is there. You have completed this extraordinary task and you have got this storm which may or may not in truth dramatically affect the city. But just bringing a fair amount of rain could cause plenty of problem.
GAPINSKI: Well, we are -- pumping capacity in the city is reduced to what it normally is. So, yes, we will have some flooding if we get three inches of rain, say, in six hours. But we will get it out there in a couple days. So, it will affect us, but not terribly.
BROWN: Nicely done. Some day, that -- we will understand in total the engineering marvel that you all pulled off. But for now it's nice to know that the city by and large is dry. Thank you.
GAPINSKI: Thanks, Aaron.
BROWN: Duane Gapinski with the Army Corps of Engineers.
A bit more now on the preps in New Orleans and what is different this time.
Anderson did a fair amount of reporting on that today and joins us once again -- Anderson.
COOPER: Yes, Aaron, that's the question we have been asking all day. What is different this time?
I spoke today with Mayor Nagin a short time ago on a very busy day for him. It was a chance to cover a lot of ground about what went wrong the last time and what is different, he says, this time. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAY NAGIN (D), MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: We're in a much better place this time. We don't have as many residents to deal with, most have evacuated. We probably have a couple of thousand people in the city. And a couple of thousand business people. But we feel as though we can get them out really quickly.
COOPER: Is there something you learned that you're doing differently this time, in your own personal experience, that you learned from a mistake you made the last time?
NAGIN: Well, you know, the mistake that we made the last time was basically assuming that, you know, after three days we get a lot of resources to come in. Because the hurricane was so severe, and a couple of other breakdowns, that didn't happen. This is a different event. We have plenty of advance notice. We have lots of resources, so we can move people totally out of the city versus moving them to a temporary site, and then getting them out.
COOPER: What do you want people here in New Orleans to know? I mean, are you telling everyone they -- I mean, you're telling -- it's a mandatory evacuation. You want them to leave. Can you make them? I mean, is there anything harder you can do? NAGIN: Well, you know, we debated that for, you know, just about every day that we've been out here. Whether we force people at gunpoint, and we really don't want to do that. We want to make sure that intelligent people make intelligent decisions, so we are getting as much information out to them. We're strongly encouraging them, and most are abiding by it. Some are not. And we are doing everything we can to convince them otherwise.
COOPER: I just want to ask you one question about what happened before. Amtrak, on Saturday, called your office, told you guys they had a train, a thousand seats going to Macon, Mississippi. Looking back on it, do you wish you had taken them up on the offer?
NAGIN: You know what, I never got that call. I don't know who they talked to, but I remember us right before the storm was going to hit to check with Amtrak to see if there were any trains that were leaving. And we were told the next available train was September.
COOPER: I can tell you who they talked to. They talked to your head of emergency preparedness, Matthews (ph), because we talked to Amtrak and asked specifically who they talked to. So he never told you about this train leaving?
NAGIN: No, sir. He never did, and we've never had a follow-up discussion about that. I'm glad you gave me a name. Now I have something to follow up on.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: I also told the mayor I want to talk to him and would like to have him back on any time to take a critical look, just a hard look, at mistakes he made, at mistakes the state made, and mistakes the federal government made.
You know, a lot of these politicians are saying, look, this is not the time to be pointing the fingers and talking about blame. What we're trying to say, when is the time? Because we want to be there for that discussion. We invited the mayor on. He said he would come on when the time was right.
So, we hope he does follow through on that.
Also, some video to show you about the relationship -- it tells a little bit about the relationship between the federal government right now and the mayor. This is Vice Admiral Thad Allen and the mayor holding up a T-shirt that says "I love New Orleans." Of course, there had been some contention between the two, although they said publicly there really was no pressure.
Thad Allen had been very critical of the mayor's announcement the other day on "LARRY KING," actually, to bring in 180,000 people. The president also made a statement, saying he was happy at the mayor's decision. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's progress being made in this part of the world. We got some people working here because of the ingenuity of the plant managers. But behind me, you see temporary housing, where this company has provided housing for the folks who work here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: FEMA helped with that.
BUSH: And FEMA helped with that. And what you're beginning to see is a revitalized economy. Progress is being made toward meeting the mayor's vision -- and my vision and everybody's vision involved with this -- of a vibrant New Orleans and surrounding parishes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, and, Aaron, you just talked a moment ago with the Army Corps of Engineers, a sign of progress, certainly, the fact that New Orleans is more or less dry. They have pumped out all the surface water they can, Aaron.
BROWN: Call me cynical, but I like the tangible, there's no more water in the city, than a guy holding up a T-shirt. That tells me a little bit more.
COOPER: It certainly does.
BROWN: Thank you. We will get back to you in a moment.
In a moment, are there some red faces at the Red Cross where hurricane relief is concerned?
But, first, at just about a quarter past the hour now, time for some of the other stories of the day.
Erica Hill joins us in Atlanta.
Good evening, Ms. Hill.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good evening to you, Mr. Brown.
We start off, it turns out, another deadly milestone in Iraq today. A suicide car bomber killed a diplomatic security guard, as well as three private American security guards in Mosul. Other attacks this week killed six American servicemen. And that brings the total of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq to 1,904. And British forces crashed into a prison compound in Basra to rescue two British soldiers jailed by Iraqi forces.
Meanwhile, TV cameras in the cabin, maybe the latest move to help protect airlines against hijacking. The Federal Aviation Administration is getting ready to promos cabin cameras, so the flight crew can see what is happening with passengers and flight attendants.
Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal has died at his home in Vienna. He was 96. Wiesenthal survived years in concentration camps and spent the next 60 years tracking down Nazi war criminals and also helping to keep alive the memory of the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust. He helped trace more than 1,000 Nazis, including Adolf Eichmann.
And Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid predicting today Judge John Roberts would be confirmed as chief justice, but the Nevada senator also said he would vote against the confirmation. Senator Reid said -- quote -- "I'm not sure if his heart is as big as his head." Reid also said he had too many unanswered questions to justify a vote in favor of the conservative nominee to the Supreme Court -- Aaron.
BROWN: Erica, thank you. We will check with you in about a half-an-hour.
Much more ahead on the program tonight, starting with the rush to help the flood that followed the flood and left the Red Cross swimming in cash.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): Almost $1 billion in donations.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's certainly an unprecedented disaster. And we're spending it as quickly as it comes in.
BROWN: But will those who need it most get it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Lou (ph). I just want to let you know that me and momma are going to die.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, just stay on the phone with me, Lou, OK?
BROWN: She was the voice that kept them alive. In New Orleans, scrambling to get people out of the city again, but not everyone is listening.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Deliver this message to Mr. Bush, Ms. Blanco and Mr. Nagin. I'm at home. I will be at home.
BROWN: She rode out Katrina and she has no intention of leaving now.
From New York and New Orleans, this is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Here in New Orleans, the headlines of the moment, the city by and large is dry. Aaron got the word just before the break from the Army Corps of Engineers, the pumping operations have been going better than expected. What was expected to take 60 days or longer is pretty much done, they say. And even a heavy batch of rain from Rita will be fairly easy to pump back out. That is certainly good news,something to celebrate.
We have seen enormous acts of human kindness and generosity in the last three weeks. And so has the entire country, people donating their time and their money, hundreds of millions of dollars now, to help. The question, as always, how much of that money ends up helping the people who need it most? Where are the snags? What works? What doesn't work? Tonight, the work of the American Red Cross.
Here is CNN's Tom Foreman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the nine days after Katrina, the Red Cross took in almost a half-billion dollars in donations, more than three times as much as after 9/11. Another quarter-billion has come in since.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it's certainly an unprecedented disaster and we're spending it as quickly as it comes in.
FOREMAN: And in the buzzing Red Cross headquarters in Washington, Pat McCrummen says it's just starting.
PAT MCCRUMMEN, AMERICAN RED CROSS: We anticipate the cost of this are going to be over $2 billion. And the reason is, because there are so many families that have been affected.
FOREMAN: Since Katrina, the Red Cross has provided 12 million hot meals, beds in 900 shelters, first aid, prescription drugs, mental health care.
BUSH: And, remember, it's the Red Cross that provides much of the first compassion that a person finds.
FOREMAN: But along with big praise and a big disaster, there are big complaints.
VERNON JONES, CEO, DEKALB COUNTY, GEORGIA: We want you here, but there are certain things that you all are going to have to meet.
FOREMAN: Officials in Georgia threw the Red Cross out of a shelter, saying the nonprofit was not serving people well enough or fast enough. In Mississippi, some residents have said, with so much money, Red Cross centers are too few and far between.
And, in New Orleans, Red Cross officials wanted to take food, water and medical supplies to people trapped downtown, but gave up when state officials said it was too dangerous.
MCCRUMMEN: We don't want to go into an area where the local authorities have said, it would be a hazard for you to go in.
FOREMAN (on camera): But you guys go into war zones.
MCCRUMMEN: Well, we do. But we never go into an area where we have not been asked to go in.
FOREMAN: Red Cross officials say they are taking all of these complaints seriously. And they are making a pledge. They say every dollar sent to them for Katrina relief will be spent on just that.
(voice-over): Even if that means giving money to other charities that reach people the Red Cross can't, charities that now are struggling to get donations.
DANIEL BOROCHOFF, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHILANTHROPY: The Red Cross is the Coca-Cola of charities. People automatically think of giving to them in a disaster. And Americans need to look into the many other groups that have very creative approaches and ways of helping out in a crisis.
FOREMAN: For now, however, the Red Cross is dealing with two floods, one of water and one of money, and working for the best results in both cases.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: There are, in New Orleans, many unfinished stories still, stories where we know the basic outline, some, though not all, of the facts, incomplete histories of often devastating events.
Memorial Hospital is one such story, 45 bodies found there. But that's just a part of the story.
Jonathan Freed tonight on a hellish week at Memorial.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Memorial Medical Center in downtown New Orleans says it was stocked with food, water, medicine and other supplies. And, according to a timeline of events now provided to CNN by the hospital's operator, Tenet Healthcare, its emergency power generators had even been topped off with diesel fuel.
But that was Sunday. The flooding came on Tuesday. And that's when Memorial, along with other downtown health centers, was cut off by water, stranding staff and critically ill patients. It was the beginning of a week doctors would describe as hell.
DR. GLENN CASEY, MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: We had little 10-, 11- , 12-year-old girls fanning patients to try to maintain normothermia.
FREED: Temperatures inside the hospital would approach 110 degrees. There was no plumbing, no power, because those generators were flooded. It was a week that would end with the discovery of 45 bodies at the hospital. Eight to 10 were dead before the storm. The rest died that week.
Memorial's CEO: RENE GOUX, CEO, MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: So now we go from being an operational hospital to a hospital which had to go into an evacuation mode.
FREED: Tenet says, before the water rose on Tuesday, the National Guard took some patients out. On Wednesday morning, Tenet officials say they asked local authorities for help in evacuating critically ill patients and says they were told they should hire private assets if they need to move quickly. Memorial's doctors say they felt abandoned.
JIMMY GUIDRY, LOUISIANA STATE HEALTH OFFICER: It's never been done before, evacuating this many people out of hospitals.
FREED: Louisiana's state health officer explains, rescue crews had a tough time deciding who should come out first.
GUIDRY: The call came in and said, we have water. Our power is out. Our generator is out. We have patients that are critically ill. Can you get to us? Every time we would send out search-and-rescue, we were called back and said, we can't quite get there.
FREED: Guidry cites reports of gunfire, looting and the difficulty of navigating flooded streets. Later on Wednesday, Tenet says local authorities and good samaritans start evacuating people from the hospital by boat, but it wouldn't be enough.
On Thursday, a fleet of helicopters hired by Tenet starts ferrying what the company describes as roughly 400 patients, employees, and members of the community to another of the company's area hospitals across Lake Pontchartrain in Slidell.
Tenet says the flights had to be suspended overnight because of sniper fire, but resumed Friday morning. The company says, by the end of the day on Friday, all living people were evacuated from Memorial and that private security was hired to watch over the bodies, 45 of them, until they could be removed by the coroner.
Jonathan Freed, CNN, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The tendency to forget just how chaotic it was in those first four days, with the gunfire and the rest.
Just ahead, we continue to track Rita, the latest on a dangerous gathering storm. It may pack the punch of Katrina. Where is it now? Where is it headed?
Also tonight, two voices on the line, one about to give up, the other almost literally the life saver.
A break first. From New Orleans and New York, a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Reporting on Rita last night, we knew a bit about what it would become and less about where it was going to go.
Tonight, we know a lot about the first question. It's going to get quite bad, it seems, a bit more about the second, but not nearly enough at this point.
And, as much as we do know about Katrina right now at the morning -- at this moment -- CNN -- or, rather, Rita -- CNN's Rob Marciano knows more and can tell it better than we can. He's in Key West, Florida -- Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know this for sure, Aaron. This system is strengthening. And we knew that would happen because of the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
I mean, it's not that difficult to comprehend. The main thing that a hurricane needs is warm water. And there's plenty out there, not only in the Florida Straits, with 88-, 89-degree temperatures, but in the Gulf of Mexico as well.
We had wind gusts here to over 100 miles an hour at Key West. This storm continues to expand and strengthen. So, we continue to get tropical-storm-force winds and will for the next six hours. And, tomorrow they will start to pick up the pieces as the floodwaters recede and the winds calm down.
The question, as you mention, is where does Rita go next? And many of our computer models continue to point the arrow at Texas, somewhere near Galveston, but a margin of error this far out could bring it anywhere as far east or north at Lafayette or Morgan City, Louisiana, and as far south as Corpus Christi or even Brownsville, Texas. So that's the margin of error we're looking at. But we do expect it to be a strong one, Aaron, a Category 4 at landfall much like Katrina. Not good news for the folks along Texas or southwest Louisiana. Back to you.
BROWN: Just briefly, front to back, side to side, is it -- would it be considered a large hurricane?
MARCIANO: You know, Larry King asked me that, and I can't see the satellite picture. I just know that the wind field for a Category 2 is about -- about average, with winds going out -- tropical storm force winds at 140. The one satellite picture I did see yesterday looked like it was a pretty good size. So it has all the Gulf of Mexico to expand to.
BROWN: Yes, it does. Thank you, Rob. Thank you very much.
On to Galveston now, where the storm may or may not eventually strike, but where everyone is prepared because they have history in Galveston. Reporting for us tonight from there, CNN's Deborah Feyerick.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They may not say it, but they sure are thinking it. Don't let what happened in New Orleans happen in the city of Galveston. It's why local officials on this island called a state of emergency more than 72 hours before Rita is supposed to hit.
MAYOR LYDA ANN THOMAS, GALVESTON, TX: You may and should begin to leave the island now.
FEYERICK: Mayor Lyda Thomas and the city council suspended all normal business operations. The focus on one thing only: Get everyone out. The plan, phase in a mandatory evacuation starting Wednesday. First scheduled to go, nursing home residents and those in assisted living. Next, everyone needing a lift out of town. Eighty buses ready to roll.
For everyone else, mandatory evacuation kicks in at 6:00 p.m. local Wednesday. The mayor making it clear, if you stay, you're on your own.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: Now, the chief of police here has put all of his officers on notice. They have been busy getting their own families out of town. They are expected come Friday to start working 12-hour shifts. They will be weathering out the hurricane in Galveston, and they will be in place after the rains clear. The National Guard, they are going to be standing nearby. They are not going to be on the island itself. The expectation of course is that if there's a problem, they certainly can come.
Now, the city manager told his people that they still got a lot of details to figure out, and he admitted that not all of them are figured out.
Now as for Brownsville, Aaron, which is what Rob Marciano mentioned. I spoke to somebody in that town today. They said they are monitoring this hurricane, they are checking computer models, centimeter by centimeter. They are just keeping their fingers crossed that the hurricane does not blow in their direction. So everybody with all eyes focused on what is to come -- Aaron.
BROWN: Hope they are doing a little bit more than keeping their fingers crossed, honestly.
Are there Katrina evacuees in the area that also have to be moved on to some other place?
FEYERICK: No, not here in Galveston. But when we were driving -- we flew from Key Largo into Houston today, and we were driving by the convention center. There were a number of people at the convention center there, we were told, from Katrina. There are some other people who we have been running into who have been displaced by New Orleans. But they seem to be a little further north, closer to Houston, not in the Galveston region.
BROWN: Deb, thank you. Deborah Feyerick down in Galveston, Texas, tonight.
Three weeks ago, emergency dispatchers along the Gulf Coast were in the thick of the biggest disaster they'd ever faced. Their lines filled with desperate calls for help. Biloxi, Mississippi had taken a huge hit from Katrina, and 9/11 operators had their hands full trying to help panicked strangers, and in at least one case a panicked friend. Here is CNN's Ted Rowlands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Joetta Zapata (ph) answered dozens of heartbreaking 911 calls during Hurricane Katrina. Some were from people who eventually died in the storm. One, she says, she'll never forget, was from her friend, Lou Blomberg.
LOU: Jo.
LOU: This is Lou. I just wanted to let you know that me and momma are going to die.
JO: Where you at?
LOU: We're trapped in a house at 126 Pine Street, and it's falling apart.
JO: The house is falling apart?
LOU: Yes.
JO: Are you all in the attic, Lou?
LOU: Yeah. We cannot get to the roof. And it's filling up. Momma can't swim, Jo. We're going to die.
JO: OK, Lou.
LOU: I know there's nothing you can do. I just wanted to let you know.
JO: Well, just stay on the phone with me, Lou, OK.
ROWLANDS: Lou and his mother were stranded in this house as it filled with water. It began breaking apart. Joetta could not send help. All she could do was stay on the phone and try to stop Lou from giving up.
JO: Do you have anything that can float, a cooler, an empty cooler? That you all can hang on to? A door that will float? Take a door off the wall that will float.
LOU: Look, Jo, we're dying, baby.
JO: No, no, don't say that, Lou, don't.
LOU: There's nothing we can do, sweetheart.
JO: You all got a mattress that's floating or something?
LOU: Yes.
JO: OK, get by the mattress, just hang on, Lou. Hang on to it.
MOMMA: I can't make it.
JO: Just pull her, pull her up, Lou.
MOMMA: No, no, no.
ROWLANDS: The line went dead. Lou Blomberg had been a police officer for 10 years in Biloxi. Many of the dispatchers working that night knew him.
SHERI HOKAMP, 911 SUPERVISOR: When the line was disconnected and she said, I just talked to Lou, and it doesn't sound good. And about that time, we just assumed the worst.
ROWLANDS: About nine hours later, Michael Kovacevich assumed nobody was inside Lou's house, much of which was now in his front yard.
MICHAEL KOVACEVICH, BILOXI RESIDENT: When the water got -- where the water got to where you could walk out on the porch, we see this head pop out, and he yelled, hey. Lou? I got my momma in here.
ROWLANDS: This photo shows Lou Blomberg and his mother being helped out.
LOU BLOMBERG, BILOXI RESIDENT: And that's where we rode it out.
ROWLANDS: Lou and his mother spent 12 hours in this room. He says talking to Joetta gave him the strength to save himself and his mom.
BLOMBERG: The fact that I knew her and she knew me, and it gave me such a calming effect, to be able to calm down long enough to do what I needed to do.
ROWLANDS: Including getting...
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Well, we obviously had a glitch there. At the same time, that was about as compelling a piece of audiotape as you will ever hear in your life. And they got out OK. Ted Rowlands.
Still to come on the program, tales of two neighborhoods. In the 7th Ward, they are refusing to go all over again, and they have a message to send. And then there's a late update on -- from the National Hurricane Center. Chad Myers will fill us in on that. We'll take a break first. This is a special edition of "NEWSNIGHT: State of Emergency."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: We are tracking Hurricane Rita very closely. Category 2 storm likely to become a Category 4 storm tomorrow. The question, of course, where is it going to hit? When is it going to hit? And how strong is it going to be? Let's check in with our sever weather expert, Chad Myers. Chad, what's the latest?
MYERS: Anderson, once in a while we get these updates from the Hurricane Center a few minutes early, and it's 20 minutes early this time. I want to get it to you as soon as you can. You can write down the numbers if you're keeping track of this storm.
There is the hurricane. There's the center of the eye. There is Key West. The storm itself getting much larger, not only on radar, but also on the satellite picture, almost taking up the entire space there on the map. This is the very latest map here from the Hurricane Center.
Hurricane Rita 110 miles-per-hour-now. Category 3 starts at 111. So we're right there. By tomorrow evening 8:00 p.m. Wednesday night Category 4, 120 miles-per-hour. And then to 125 knots, that's almost 145 miles-per-hour making landfall right there, you see. That's Houston just to the south of there. Back to you.
COOPER: So, Chad, as this point, I mean, how big a storm wide across? It's a question that Aaron had asked to Rob earlier. He hadn't seen these pictures. How big, what does it compare to?
MYERS: Wow. This will be very close to a Katrina, very close to a Camille if it makes landfall. Some of the gusts that they're talking about, 155 knots. Now I know that doesn't mean anything to someone not a boater, but that's like 175 miles-per-hour gusts with this storm. And that will do as much damage. The only thing we can hope for is that it loses some strength somehow. But, Anderson, there's just nothing out there at this point that would make that happen. It's just going to get bigger and bigger and bigger.
COOPER: Yes. I mean, as you have taught us, I learned from you from all the hurricanes we have done together, things don't lose strength over the Gulf. That warm water sucks it up and it increases. Doesn't it?
MYERS: Right. It does. And I want to say, we focused on the line. I told you where the line was, but you have to focus on the cone. And really New Orleans right there, you're barely out of the cone, and also down to Brownsville in the cone. So this still could turn left to right. You can't just focus on that middle of the line. Somewhere -- and there is going to be a wide swathe, Anderson. The damage, like we see from Katrina, is going to be 100 to 120 miles wide again. So it's going to be this bowling ball that drives itself either into Texas, Louisiana, maybe South Texas, possibility still for Mexico, but that seems pretty unlikely.
COOPER: And when does it seem like we will know with a greater degree of certainty? I know, obviously, as the time gets closer, we can become more accurate. I mean, if you're trying to plan, what's the advice now? What's the best advice? MYERS: All your preps need to be done by Friday. You need to work on your preparations tomorrow and on Thursday, and if you're going to leave, you need to leave by Friday. Friday 8:00 p.m. This is close enough now that there will be showers and waves and winds onshore at 50 miles-per-hour. You can't leave in your motor home or your Winnebago or your car for that matter at 50 miles-per-hour. And there's no way you want to leave at night anyway. You really want to leave, you want to evacuate if you're going to, if you're ordered to, during the day, because you never know as you're driving along whether there's a power pole that is down or a limb or whatever. You can easily see them during the day. You can't see them so easily during the nighttime. So Thursday is your day to prep for this storm.
COOPER: All right. Let's hope people are listening this time. Chad, appreciate it. We'll check in with you a little bit later on. Special edition of NEWSNIGHT. Our two hour edition continues.
In a moment, a woman who didn't evacuate New Orleans the first time, and she says she's not going to evacuate this time either. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Because of Rita, it's deja vu all over again already in New Orleans, and for some in the city the answer is the same. Again, they are refusing to leave. They are preparing to fight it out on their own. Reporting for us tonight CNN's David Mattingly.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Deliver this message to Mr. Bush, Ms. Blanco and Mr. Nagin, I'm at home. I will be at home.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): With the possibility of another disaster looming, Diane French-Cole (ph) is doing more than just staying put. She is readying her own relief efforts.
(on camera): What sort of plans do you have in place now? Do you have boats? Got gasoline?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Uh-huh.
MATTINGLY: What are you ready for?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whatever we need to do.
MATTINGLY (voice over): After Katrina the long-time community activist better known as Mama D, rallied her neighbors in New Orleans 7th Ward. They formed their own search and rescue teams with almost a dozen boats. They carried the sick and elderly to higher ground. Turned the local school into a shelter, and turned her own flooded house into a relief center.
(on camera): Any idea how many people you ended up feeding?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hundreds. Hundreds.
MATTINGLY: Right out of your own kitchen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Out our kitchens. Out of everybody's freezer. Somebody's house -- my house is under water. If you're freezer is under water, go get the food. We cooked that freezer-full that day. You might have a chicken over here, and you might have seafood over there, and whatever, red beans over here. We were feeding, baby. We didn't have no choice. The dogs like the cat food and the cats like the dog food. I don't know.
MATTINGLY (voice over): Going several days with her streets flooded and no outside help, it was Mama D who even protected the abandoned neighborhood pets. Today there are still feeding stations on the corners. Some of the louder dogs have become her neighborhood alarm system.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There he is. Hi. Say hi to the camera. Yes. Let them know you're there.
MATTINGLY: And as the floodwaters retreated, Cole (ph) and others watched empty houses to discourage looters. They worked to clean yards and porches, going so far as to post welcome home signs in anticipation of returning friends. Even though there is still no electricity or phone service, the turn around is remarkable.
(on camera): When you look at the clear and passable streets of the neighborhood today, it's hard to imagine how bad it really was here. But residents say when the levee broke, the waves coming through here were so high they were lapping up at the edges of their roofs. At one point, many people were dying. It was so bad that residents took down tree limbs like these, and formed barricades at either end of the street. The idea was to set up the barricades to prevent the bodies from floating up to their homes.
(voice over): The magnitude of the suffering she witnessed for a moment was too much even for this pillar of strength. Her lowest moment proved to be a turning point.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I guess I was crying out loud. They came in the back of the room where I was to console me, to see us looking like we in the most remote third world country in one of the most popular cities in the world in a 2005. This is time for somebody to regroup. They got to go --
MATTINGLY: So instead of packing her bags, Mama D is organizing her own volunteers, collecting supplies and making plans to bring her neighborhood back from the brink again, in spite of the inescapable warning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: National Guard. There's another storm coming. You need to evacuate.
MATTINGLY: National Guardsmen patrol, shouting alerts to anyone who will listen, and offer a bus ride out to anyone who will take it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come give me a hug.
MATTINGLY: Mama D simply responds with a kind word and a hug. An offer to leave is one she will not accept. She can't. Not when she believes the future of her nearly abandoned neighborhood depends on her.
MATTINGLY (on camera): No matter where any of your neighbors might be right now.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are coming home.
MATTINGLY: You believe they are coming home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know they're coming home. I tell you what. You come have some gumbo with me in about six months. I'll introduce you to my neighbors. I promise I you will.
MATTINGLY (voice over): That is an invitation that would be hard to turn down. A New Orleans neighborhood reunited, celebrating its survival and the safety of the neighbors who chose not to leave. David Mattingly, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still ahead tonight, Key West, Florida, appears to be taking another punch. That's either the back end of Rita or another storm. We'll check back in Key West after the break. This is a Special Edition of NEWSNIGHT, State of Emergency.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We just heard from CNN Severe Weather Expert Chad Myers this storm Hurricane Rita is very close almost to being a Category 3. Let's check in with CNN's Rob Marciano, who is in Key West tonight. Rob, what's the latest.
MARCIANO: Anderson, we just had an unbelievable spiral band come through. A squall, the strongest one we've seen, really, in the past three hours. It could very well be a sign this storm continues to strengthen. Again, not like a storm that would go make landfall and head in land and weaken, because it interacts with the land. This one is actually gone by us, and continues to interact with warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. So the wind field expanding and the rainfall continues to come down horizontally here in Key West, Florida, tonight. So it will be sometime tomorrow before they start to be able to pick up the pieces, and let folks back in.
Word is that as of 7:00 a.m. tomorrow, the mayor says, yeah, you guys, everyone that has evacuated can come back in, and hopefully power will be restored sometime soon after that. But all eyes now on Texas and, yes, southwest Louisiana, as well, as Rita starts to crank up and head in that general direction. Boy, if it gets to Category 4 status and heads towards Galveston, we're looking at a similar situation to New Orleans.
Galveston very close to sea level. And we could see a serious surge there. So hopefully it doesn't go in that direction, but things don't look good right now. And if things don't want to quit here in Key West, Florida, either. That's the latest from here. Anderson or Aaron, back to you.
COOPER: Rob, thanks very much. It's Anderson here in New Orleans.
Well we're going to have a lot more from New Orleans as well as Aaron in New York. My interview with the mayor of New Orleans about are they ready this time for this storm coming. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: As we make our way to the top of the hour, one last check with our severe weather expert, Chad Myers, who's in Atlanta, and he has the latest on Rita -- Chad.
MYERS: Yes. Aaron, good evening. Folks in Miami, you know, maybe you're thinking about going to bed right now, but this is a potential life threatening situation just developing right now. I want you to see this line of cloud cover that's developed from Miami all the way back to Cuba. That is a feeder band that is going to spread its rain into Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, south Dade, all night long tonight. Just saw some wind gusts out of Key West where our Rob Marciano is.
A little bit farther up in the upper Keys. Look at this line of rain. This is what we call training. Think of like a train, one car after another car in the same place in the same place. Another storm after another for Miami, Coral City, right on up to Ft. Lauderdale. If you are going to be in this evening, you make sure you have some eyes outside, because the water's going to be coming up. We could see a potentially five inches of rainfall this evening in the overnight hours. And that was pretty much unexpected now, because the storm has been moving away. No one expected this new feeder band. But it's here, and there's a potential problem right there for the over night -- Aaron.
BROWN: Chad, thank you. We'll talk to you in the hour ahead.
Anderson, here we go again in many respects. We're almost exactly where we were three weeks ago tonight. The maps are a little different. The targets are a little different. But the hurricane looks surprisingly the same.
COOPER: Yes. And you know, it's so frustrating for people trying to follow it at this point, because, I mean, you know this thing is coming. The question just is where and exactly when. A lot to talk about in this next hour, Aaron.
And good evening again, everyone. I'm standing in front of a fire station in the historic French Quarter of New Orleans.
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