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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Thousands Flee Texas Ahead of Hurricane Rita; Will New Orleans Levees Fail Again?
Aired September 22, 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.
It feels like here we go again, Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: It certainly does, Aaron.
We are on a barrier island that soon may be under water, a deserted barrier island, by and large. About 90 percent of the people are gone, at the head of Interstate 45, and the biggest traffic jam you will ever see.
More from here in a moment -- first, back to Aaron with the latest.
BROWN: Anderson, thanks.
Call it the storm surge before the storm surge, hundreds of thousands of Texas, from Houston on south, all heading north, getting out, then getting stuck, taking hours to move a mile or two, running out of gas, gas stations running out of gas.
The mayor of Houston, just a short time ago, said people who have not left the city should stay put, so as not to add to the traffic mess, unless they happen to live in low-lying or coastal parts of Houston, Texas. Those who tried to leave by air today were tied up at security checkpoints because many screeners didn't show up for work. That will all become moot tomorrow, local airports shutting down at about noon.
Many hospitals, on the other hand, are staying open throughout the city. Trauma centers may be needed. And, outside of Houston, few hospitals in the area have what it takes to handle the worst. And it does seem the worst is coming. Refineries shut down today. So did the country's largest gasoline pipeline. Right now, about 25 percent of the nation's refining capacity is either offline or in jeopardy. The price of fuel, which had been inching back down -- it always goes down slower than it goes up -- began creeping up again on the spot market.
What happens next on every front will depend on where Rita hits and how strong it is when it comes ashore. It did weaken some today back to a Category 4. But it could pick up yet again and then could drop again. It is a living being, in a sense. It also took a turn, drifting a little bit more toward the Texas-Louisiana border.
In New Orleans a tropical storm warning in effect tonight, tides already two feet above normal. And it rained in the Big Easy today, the first big downpour since Katrina, the wind expected to pick up sharply tomorrow.
And it may rise even more. We spoke with Max Mayfield at the National Hurricane Center just a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: It's changing its course a little bit; is that right?
MAX MAYFIELD, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Well, it changed from this morning to this afternoon just a little bit to the east. That's not a very big deal, and I don't really see any reason to make any significant change here in the next package.
But I really don't want anybody to think that we can pinpoint whether it's going to hit Galveston Island or Port Arthur or even over near Cameron. It's still -- you know, it's still got another day-and- a-half here to go.
BROWN: As a practical matter, how much could it actually move in the next 24 or 36 hours? I don't mean inland. I mean east-west, basically.
MAYFIELD: Well, I have seen, you know, some big changes. We're looking at the computer models, and as they continually come in all through the day and night. And we still have some models that are taking it more down toward the mid-Texas coast and some into southwestern Louisiana.
And our forecast is pretty much a consensus of the better models, which takes it into that extreme upper Texas coast.
BROWN: At what point, how close to land do you then become confident that you know where it's going to make land?
MAYFIELD: Well, that varies by the storm. And we have seen some pretty crazy things happen, some hurricanes get up, if they're moving slowly enough, and actually make some loops. So, you know, you're never really absolutely positive until it makes landfall.
BROWN: Based on the speed it's moving now, you expect it to make land, wherever it makes landfall, when?
MAYFIELD: Well, probably very, very early on Saturday morning or, you know, after midnight Friday night.
But the important thing, again, like with Katrina, it has a large wind field. And there are actually some tropical-storm-force winds in these rain bands just off the Louisiana coast. So, they're going to get some of those storm-force winds even later tonight. And then it will probably be tomorrow afternoon or so before they get to the Texas coast.
BROWN: So, basically, the next 24 hours, in this area that's going to get hit, the winds will start up, the rain will start up, and then, at some point, 24-plus hours from now, they will likely get hit?
MAYFIELD: Well, yes, things will start going downhill, you know, near the core here, you know, tomorrow evening. There's no doubt about that.
But it will really get bad, you know, very late tomorrow night and early Saturday morning.
BROWN: Max, we look forward to talking to you tomorrow night. Thank you very much.
MAYFIELD: OK. Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Max Mayfield with the National Hurricane Center.
Anderson, in Galveston today, tonight, as we look at the hurricane on the move, the weather looked pretty good.
COOPER: Yes, it does. And it's one of those strange things. You stand here and you think -- you know, you don't get a sense that there is this storm out there. The waves, yes, are now crashing a little bit harder.
And, certainly, the people are gone. But you don't get a sense that -- of this monster storm that is out there. No matter what category it is, when it hits, it is a monster. So many people stuck right now trying to get out or trying to get one place to another, or at least out of Houston.
John Zarrella is stuck along with them. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Houston's Intercontinental Airport was pure bedlam. Arriving as we did wasn't a problem. But of course no one wants to arrive here. Everyone wants out. And that's all but impossible. Ticketing and security checkpoints were overwhelmed with people taking any flights they could to get anyplace. They just want out and away from the storm.
Abraham Raina (ph) and his family, seven of them traveling together, are trying to get to Seattle. Their route? Hardly direct. Texas up to Alaska and then down to Washington State.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Domestic flights right now are virtually impossible to get. If you don't have a ticket already in hand, you're not going to be getting out.
ZARRELLA: Ferris Gevgouli (ph) and his wife were trying to get to Ohio.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like a madhouse out there. I mean people are all over the streets. ZARRELLA: If they don't get out now, they probably won't. Flights are being canceled beginning tomorrow. But we're going the other way. Our ride from the airport into Houston went smoothly, until we hit the highway ramp.
(on camera): OK, we're hitting the first major traffic, which is 45 south to downtown. It's backed up.
(voice-over): Drivers pulled over to ask police what they should do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I stayed four hours and went one mile.
ZARRELLA: We headed for the first exit to turn around and try to get on the highway from the feeder road.
(on camera): Mike Miller, my cameraman, is from the Houston area and fortunately we've got him with us. So maybe we'll be able to find our way back to where we've got to meet up with our satellite truck.
(voice-over): On 45 north bound, everyone was simply sitting. We finally made it to the southbound lanes, where there were barely any cars.
(on camera): It's just a parking lot on the other side. All the people trying to go north to get out of Houston and they just simply aren't moving. The traffic is simply not moving.
(voice-over): At least for the people stuck running from Rita, there is still time. But the clock is ticking and it is clear, Houston, we have a problem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: Well, we have good news and good news that we can report tonight. We're standing on the side of Interstate 45. And you can see, it is moving.
About an hour and-a-half ago, it cleared up and it started moving. The other bit of good news, there's a gas station, albeit crowded, packed with cars. It's taking 30, 45, 55 minutes, an hour or more, to get fuel, but this gas station has gas, and that's why it's packed.
It's about the only one we have found anywhere around this area of Houston, Anderson, that has any fuel. And that's why it's got the long lines -- Anderson.
COOPER: John, earlier in the -- earlier tonight, I heard one reporter saying that, you know, a lot of people run out of gas and are just kind of on the side of the highway and they're waiting for local government or state government to come along and fill them up or give them a little bit of gas from tanker trucks. Have you actually seen that happening?
ZARRELLA: No, not on the stretch of 45 we drove. But it certainly doesn't surprise me, because while we were on that road, as you saw in the piece, they were stopped. They were not moving, burning fuel. People were getting out of their cars, putting umbrellas up, and just chatting. So, it would not surprise me that that had happened. We did see on occasion some people running across the street from our side of the highway to the side that was backed up northbound, carrying gas cans, apparently trying to fill some people up that either had run out or were very, very low.
So, again, though, tonight, at least this fuel, there is fuel here. They're waiting a long, long time to get it. But, fortunately, it's available. The people we have talked to here are the ones who are saying they're not leaving. They're staying. They just want to have full tanks of gas -- Anderson.
COOPER: All right, John, thanks. We will check in with you a little bit later.
Aaron, that is one position you don't want to be in, waiting on the side of a highway as the storm approaches, waiting for the local government to come and bail you out, not a good position to be in right now.
BROWN: No. They've got about 24-plus hours for something better to happen.
Just in the glitch department, the mayor of Houston in a statement earlier urging people to stay did indicate that the state had promised to preposition gas, so this wouldn't be a problem, and that gas is not there. And it is a problem.
Among the people getting out of Houston, two caught our eye today, the Dalai Lama and my assistant Meg's (ph) aunt Patty, Patty Hoffman, who got in her car at 7:00 this morning. She is in her car tonight still, and she joins us now by phone.
Ms. Hoffman, how far have you traveled since 7:00 this morning?
PATTY HOFFMAN, EVACUATING HOUSTON: Two hundred and thirty-seven miles.
BROWN: You're headed for Dallas?
HOFFMAN: I'm headed for Dallas, Highland village, just north of Dallas, on the way to Denton.
BROWN: And it's roughly a four-plus-hour drive?
HOFFMAN: Normally, it would take us four-and-a-half hours, correct.
BROWN: And how far are you from there now?
HOFFMAN: Probably about 60 or 70 miles.
BROWN: We're just -- we are showing our viewers roughly the route you've had to go. You have tried to do an end-around everywhere and any way you could, rather than go on the main highway. To what extent has that been helpful?
HOFFMAN: Extremely helpful.
I have been talking on the cell phone to a couple of my friends who left, one who left at 12:30 this morning, and she's way behind me. They were stuck on 146 and couldn't make it anywhere. And the other one left at 4:00 this morning, and they only made it as far as Conroe. And so, yes, with the aid of my son Tyler (ph) -- he's been wonderful. He got a course in map reading 101.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: What's the gas situation out on the highway?
HOFFMAN: Well, we were quite concerned about that. We saw -- every gas station we passed had the bags over the nozzles. And they were all either closed or out of gas, if their restrooms were open. So, we were very concerned about that.
The temperatures -- I have a thermometer, exterior thermometer, in my car. It was 101 all day today. And we were terrified of running out. So, we drove without our air-conditioning on and were pretty miserable all day. We finally found gas around 2:30.
BROWN: Well, we wish you a safe ride.
HOFFMAN: Thank you.
BROWN: And that -- that you get where you need to get quickly. It sounds like an unpleasant day. Thanks for calling in. And I will pass your regards along to your niece. Thank you.
HOFFMAN: Well, thank you very much.
BROWN: Thank you, Patty Hoffman, who is on the road tonight.
As we mentioned, this exodus includes residents of coastal Louisiana, the current storm track pointing closer to the Lake Charles-Port Arthur border area between the two states. The risk of heavy rainfall and high tides, therefore, increases in New Orleans, not a direct hit. It wouldn't appear that way now, certainly. But it would not take a direct hit to cause more heartache in the New Orleans area.
CNN's Ted Rowlands is in New Orleans tonight, and he joins us.
Ted, good evening.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron.
We are under a tropical storm warning tonight in New Orleans. It did rain throughout the day. It has been raining off and on. They do expect winds to exceed 70 miles per hour, at least get up to possibly 73 miles per hour, in the city over the next few days. And a tropical storm carries with it three to five inches of rain. That should not be a problem. The Army Corps of Engineers believes that the levee system can handle up to 10 inches of rain. The problem is storm surges.
A storm surge along Lake Pontchartrain, they can handle, they say, in the levee system 10 to 12 feet, but not about St. Bernard's Parish. They believe four to six feet is all that levee can handle. And a tropical storm brings with it at least a four-foot surge. So, that is a major concern tonight.
The strength of the levees also is a problem. Many people believe that Katrina, the problem -- the problem with Katrina was actually water seeping through the seams of the levee system. So, it doesn't matter how high the surge is. It just takes enough water to get into those seams and then breach the levees. If that happens, of course, there could be major flooding here.
The major difference, though, this time around and the one to keep in mind is that the stakes are much lower. If the levee system completely fails and the city floods, there's virtually nobody here tonight. So, the lots of life would be minimal, if nonexistent. And the loss of property, quite frankly, so much has been lost already that more water isn't going to make a lot of difference. It will only -- it will be a lot of heartaches and it will also delay the reconstruction.
But, clearly, Katrina delivered a major blow to this city.
BROWN: Yes.
ROWLANDS: And whatever comes next, it just won't be on par with that.
BROWN: What you have in the city now are relative handfuls, little pockets of residents and a fair number of first-responders of all sorts, I suppose. Everybody seem prepared for the next 24 hours or so?
ROWLANDS: Clearly. People that did come back into the city, into the safe areas, have been able to stay, but no one else is being allowed in.
The general population of the city is virtually down to zero, except for those emergency workers and first-responders and media members. But everybody has a plan to get out or at least take cover if Rita happens to take a turn to the east.
BROWN: Ted, thank you very much, Ted Rowlands, who's in the Big Easy tonight.
Coming up, he's in the path of this storm and refusing to leave. There are always these people who, no matter what, Katrina now included, will not go.
But first, at about a quarter past the hour, other headlines of the day. Erica Hill joins us from Atlanta. Good evening, Ms. Hill.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good evening to you, Mr. Brown.
We are going to start off in Washington tonight, where the Senate Judiciary Committee has voted in favor of Judge John Roberts leading the Supreme Court. Three Democrats voted with the 10 Republicans on the committee to send their nomination to a full Senate vote. That vote is expected next week.
Reality TV taking a chilling -- taking on a chilling new meaning for the JetBlue customers who made an emergency landing at Los Angeles Airport last night. They were able to watch the plane's front wheels burn off on their personal television screens, as one of the passengers told you, Aaron, last night, while their aircraft slowed to a stop. One passenger described the experience as surreal.
And Delta Airlines saying it will cut its work force by 9,000 over the next two years. That's about 17 percent of its work force. The airline declared bankruptcy last week.
BROWN: One of the great business stories, the problems of the American airline industry.
Erica, we will check with you in a half-an-hour. Thank you.
Much more ahead on the program tonight, starting with an ugly chapter from the aftermath of Katrina.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: And they stole this from a hospital?
OSMAN KHAN, HOTEL MANAGER: They stole it from Tulane Hospital, correct.
BROWN (voice-over): They were supposed to keep the city safe from looters.
PERRY EMERY, HOTEL ENGINEER: Jewelry or generators, fans. And, one time, they went out and they came back with a bunch of weapons.
BROWN: But this man says the looters he saw were cops.
PHILLIP KILNGY, RESIDENT OF GALVESTON: It's going to be a bad one. It's going to be a very bad storm. It's going to do a lot of damage.
BROWN: Almost everyone in Galveston has left, but not him.
KILNGY: I'm going to crisscross the duct tape on these windows. But, first, these storm shutters, when you pull them shut, they go up like that.
BROWN: He's staying behind, but why?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Preparing for a Category 4 or 5, nobody that works here has ever been through that.
BROWN: Two hundred chemical plants and refineries in the path of Rita tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I called my wife this morning and she broke down in tears.
BROWN: It's his job to lock down one of them. How does he do it?
Lots of questions tonight, but no easy answers. From New York and Galveston, this is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In many ways, Rita is Katrina all over again. Both storms picked up strength quickly as they approached and grew into monster hurricanes, feeding on the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. But government officials from Texas to the White House hope there is a huge difference. They hope they get it right with their emergency planning this time.
With Rita, officials get another swing at it. On the golf course, you call it a mulligan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): Seventy-two hours before Katrina hit, Louisiana's governor was worried, but ordered no evacuations.
GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO (D), LOUISIANA: It's a real threat. It's very serious.
BROWN: In Texas, 72 hours before Rita made land, mandatory evacuations were already under way.
GOV. RICK PERRY (R), TEXAS: Homes and businesses can be rebuilt. Lives cannot. If you're on the coast between Beaumont and Corpus Christi, now's the time to leave.
BROWN: In Louisiana, 72 hours before Katrina, none of the 10,000 National Guard troops had been activated. In Texas, 72 hours before Rita, 8,500 National Guards men and women had already been activated.
And, today, the governor asked for 10,000 federal troops to help in search-and-rescue efforts. In New Orleans, it was about 36 hours before Katrina hit when the mayor got a call from the director of the National Hurricane Center, urging him to order a mandatory evacuation. He would wait another 12 hours before he did.
RAY NAGIN (D), MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: We are facing a storm that most of us have feared. I do not want to create panic, but I do want the citizens to understand that this is very serious.
BROWN: That day, Sunday, the Louisiana National Guard asked FEMA for 700 buses; 100 arrived.
In Galveston yesterday, three days before Rita's scheduled arrival, the first buses began ferrying people out who could not leave on their own, and, by today, real progress.
STEVEN LEBLANC, GALVESTON CITY MANAGER: I would say that we probably have 90 percent of our residents have left the island. It feels like a ghost town to me. And that's a good thing.
BROWN: The day before Katrina hit, the then director of FEMA said his agency was ready.
MICHAEL BROWN, DIRECTOR, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: We are ready. We're going to respond. And we're going to do exactly what we did in Florida and Alabama and the other places. We're going to do whatever it takes to help victims.
BROWN: But National Guard troops did not arrive in New Orleans until Friday, four days after the storm.
This time, again, FEMA says it's ready. And, this time, it knows it better be right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: It's the ultimate mulligan, perhaps, here, Anderson. The president will visit Texas tomorrow, the day before the storm is expected to hit.
COOPER: And we, of course, will be there to follow that, Aaron.
Thanks.
Judging by the view, it is getting awfully lonely around here. You just heard in Aaron's piece someone describe it, Galveston, as a ghost town. Some accounts, 90 percent of the people who normally live here have gone, although, frankly, just talked to the mayor. They don't really know how many people are here.
Emergency workers plan to stay. So does the mayor. They have booked 200 rooms at a local hotel here, the San Luis Hotel. That is certainly dedication. There is a bunker there. They think it's the most secure part of this island. It's where all reporters want to stay, I might point out, as well.
Not far away, you can find another local property also occupied. It's called something else again.
Here's CNN's Sean Callebs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Whitecaps off Galveston kicked up early, about the time Phillip Kilngy popped his head out of his oceanfront condo.
KILNGY: It's going to be a battle. It's going to be a very bad storm. It's going to do a lot of damage.
CALLEBS: But it's not driving Kilngy off this barrier island to find shelter inland. And he says he's not crazy.
KILNGY: I wouldn't say that it's nuts. I would say it depends on the person -- or not the person, on where their location is, and how comfortable and how well they know the building that they're staying in.
CALLEBS: The 43-year-old pool contractor has lived in the Galveston area his entire life. His condo is on the fourth floor, away, he says, from a dangerous storm surge.
KILNGY: I'm going to crisscross the duct tape on these windows. But, first, these storm shutters, when you pull them shut, they go up like that.
CALLEBS: He calls the building a fortress. He's also studied Rita very closely.
KILNGY: This is really crisp weather here, so I think it's going to make even more of a turn towards Louisiana.
CALLEBS: On the other hand, residents like Kilngy are Officer Angela Rojas' biggest problem. She has been patrolling Seawall Avenue, watching the waves grow.
ANGELA ROJAS, GALVESTON POLICE DEPARTMENT: I think it's coming. It's coming for us and it's going to be a big one. And that wall's not big enough for us.
CALLEBS: That protective seawall went up after the 1900 Galveston hurricane that killed at least 6,000 people. Rojas says about 95 percent of the people have evacuated from Galveston. A few thousand are still here, in large part because they know the local history and the damage a powerful hurricane can do. Forecasters predict parts of the city could be under 25 feet of water after Rita blows through.
(on camera): When you drive through here, do you think, this is my last look at it?
ROJAS: I do. I really do. It's just so -- there's water back there in the bay. You have got the water here. It's all going to be gone.
CALLEBS (voice-over): There will be flooding. There will be high winds, but one of the few holdouts also insists, he will still be here.
KILNGY: It would literally take an explosion to take this building down. So, structurally, the building is fine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CALLEBS: Authorities say Phillip Kilngy is taking a gamble, so he'd better be right about his building.
Behind me, you may be able to hear the ocean slapping against the bottom of this 18-foot seawall designed to protect this barrier island.
Well, if forecasters are right, some time in the next 24 to 36 hours, the ocean is going to leap over this flood wall for good and saturate and flood a large percentage of this island. So, not only will Kilngy have to deal with punishing winds and extensive rain, the unknown, Anderson, that dangerous storm surge.
COOPER: Sean Callebs, thanks for that.
Just ahead, as people take the highways, a late update on what they are fleeing, new information on what this storm is packing and where it is turning next, the latest information on that.
And another horror story emerging from the chaos that overtook New Orleans just three weeks ago. Did some police officers loot the very people they were sworn to protect?
This is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT, "State of Emergency."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: For what's really the day before, 24 hours from now it's going to be a lot nastier down on the Texas coast, it has been fascinating to watch this storm as it sort of bobs and weaves its way through the Gulf of Mexico.
Chad Myers, now, our severe weather expert at the weather center in Atlanta -- Chad.
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good evening, Aaron.
And the last bob and the last weave was about an hour and a half ago. And I want you to follow this line. It's the piece of tape that I put on my weather board. But it was following this line rather nicely, and then all of a sudden it has turned to the left. And that forecast to the left is not in any of the models. So we're going to have to watch to see where this goes before this thing turns back to the right.
Here's how it forecast. Now here's how the models are taking it. They're all taking it back off toward the northeast and then the northwest and then right up through Beaumont and Port Arthur.
But -- but we always talk about this cone. If this cone is a little bit wrong, then you're back in at Galveston and Houston; you're back on the bad side of this storm. So you're going to have to wake up tomorrow morning and watch where this thing -- see if it was only a one-hour wiggle. Sometimes that happens. But if it was a true turn, a lot of folks that thought they were out of it are now back in it. Here's another thing. We talk about this Category 4, Category 5 thing all the time. Here's Category 4, 3, 2, 1 winds and tropical storm force winds, almost 300 miles away from the center of the storm.
Now, if -- even if it gets back to a Category 5, and we're not expecting that, that Category 5 is such a small fraction of the storm. It's insignificant. The rest of the storm is just as big. So don't let your guard down when you see that it went from 160 to 150 or 140. The numbers don't mean that much. That's only a small, small part of the eye. The rest of the storm is just as large as it was.
Hurricane warnings from Morgan City right on back to Port O'Connor. Hurricane conditions expected in the next 24 hours, and I guess that's probably the smallest thing I can tell you.
It's odd, though, Aaron. Is it not odd to see Anderson Cooper standing there and it's not even windy?
BROWN: I remember not that many years ago being in Charleston, South Carolina, on the night before, and it's exactly like that. It was this beautiful Charleston night, and then it changed.
MYERS: right.
BROWN: And when it changes, you know it's changed. Chad, thank you. We expect an update from the National Weather Service and the hurricane center shortly, and we'll get back to Chad on that.
Back to Katrina now. One of the many lessons Katrina taught is that human behavior can magnify chaos. The looting and the disorder that broke out in New Orleans made an already horrible situation there worse.
Police had their hands full to be sure. It was their job to keep the city safe in the worst of circumstances. Most did their jobs and did them as well as possible. Some walked off the job. And others, some are saying, stayed behind to become part of the problem.
Here's CNN's Drew Griffin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It could be the single worst moment in the history of the New Orleans Police Department, and it centers on what happened at this Canal Street hotel.
The night New Orleans flooded, Osman Khan says 70 officers moved into his Amerihost Inn and suites. Sixty-two of them then went out to fight the looters and thugs, but eight officers, he says, began a four-daylong looting spree of their own.
OSMAN KHAN, HOTEL MANAGER: Oh, yes. They'd probably leave about 9, 10 at night and come back around 4:30 in the morning.
GRIFFIN (on camera): And what did you see them come back with? KHAN: Everything from Adidas shoes to Rolex watches.
GRIFFIN: Just lots of it?
KHAN: Lots of it.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Camped out on the tenth floor of the hotel, the hotel engineer, Perry Emery, says the eight officers were drinking almost all of the time. He says when he came up to the tenth floor to bring towels and to check on water pressure, he saw firsthand what they had looted.
PERRY EMERY, HOTEL ENGINEER: Jewelry or generators, fans. And one time they went out and they came back with a bunch of weapons.
GRIFFIN: The generator, says Khan, was this one, stolen, he says, as he watched from a hospital next door.
(on camera) And they stole this from a hospital?
KHAN: They stole it from Tulane Hospital, correct.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): As the majority of the NOPD were out fighting crime, Khan says these eight were running an extension cord up to their tenth floor rooms and to a refrigerator to keep their beer cold.
And soon the guests and Khan began to feel threatened, he says. The officers at one time thought someone had taken their food. They kicked down doors and waved guns until a loaf of bread and muffins were returned. Khan says the brazen officers stopped at nothing to continue their stealing.
KHAN: They stole a school bus from the Superdome.
GRIFFIN (on camera): To fill up all the stuff they'd been looting?
KHAN: Oh, yes. That was only -- a school bus was the only thing they could, you know, maneuver around the city in the middle of the night.
GRIFFIN: Because the water was so high?
KHAN: The water was so high. Oh, yes. You should see their school bus when they left. Those little seats for those kids, those were all full with boxes and everything in there.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): They left, according to Khan, on Friday, leaving behind a few items they didn't want: some women's shoes, these two suitcases of odds and ends, including cheap sunglasses. But all the rest was hauled out to a bus and police cars and driven away.
KHAN: The good stuff I know they put in their cars, in their cop cars. There was so much stuff that barely, the trunk was almost it hitting the ground. GRIFFIN: After two days of trying to track down an official response from the New Orleans police, we found Police Chief Eddie Compass and asked about the looting allegations. He told us now is not the time to discuss it.
SUPERINTENDENT EDDIE COMPASS, NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPARTMENT: So let me handle my business as the chief of police.
GRIFFIN: An hour later the chief's spokesman, Captain Marlon DeFillo, agreed to answer questions and explain what he says was a misinterpretation of what happened at this hotel.
CAPTAIN MARLON DEFILLO, NOPD SPOKESMAN: There may have been some contentious relationships between the police officers and the owner of the hotel. The officers are saying that they were on the tenth floor, that this gentleman was on the second floor, that the officers are alleging that this person was taking food and taking other essential items for his own personal gains with people that he was staying with. So there's two sides to every story.
So certainly we would encourage that person, if he feels that the officers were acting in an unprofessional manner, or acting inappropriately or violating the law, we would strongly encourage that person to file a complaint.
GRIFFIN (on camera): But the hotel incident is far from the only report to CNN of police looting. Several people in this city have told us not only were police looting but they continue to loot. These people say that the empty city has made it easy for corrupt officers to take whatever they want.
ERLAINE MCLAURIN, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: Yes, they came in the daytime.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Erlaine McLaurin says she saw two police cars pull up to an apartment building just down her street. She and her father watched as two officers walked inside, then came out with arms full.
MCLAURIN: They got like four 12-packs of sodas, you know, putting them in the trunk of the car. And then they go back and they come out with a microwave. Then they had like little components that -- CD player. They put that in.
GRIFFIN (on camera): You don't know if a cop lives there or not, do you?
MCLAURIN: I know everybody that lives around here. Don't no cop live here.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): These are the apartments, McLaurin says, she saw the police officers enter. There are 12 of them.
(on camera) All of these doors are open and show signs that they have been kicked. (voice-over) Seven of the 12 doors have marks indicating they were kicked, pushed, or battered off their frame. Not likely the work of rescue workers, since this part of town wasn't flooded.
This man, Steve Thomas, says he watched police kick in the door to this lower Garden District home.
(on camera) Kicked open right through here.
(voice-over) Thomas says he has no doubts what he saw: police looting.
STEVE THOMAS, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: They got some black cars come through here with a police escort, breaking in houses, taking stuff out the houses.
GRIFFIN: Erlaine McLaurin says she even reported the looting she saw and moments later the officers disappeared.
Captain Marlon DeFillo says police are not looting. He says what people are actually seeing is the New Orleans Police Department working.
DEFILLO: We get a lot of complaints about property being found in homes that have been abandoned, property that has been stolen, and of course police officers have to respond to those complaints.
When they arrive at these different situations, they have to take this property and place it somewhere. So for the average person to see a police officer walking out of a home with property, they may believe something else is occurring but actually the officer is doing his or her job.
GRIFFIN: McLaurin says if that was the case why did one of the officers come back and offer her what she says was a bribe?
MCLAURIN: And he said, "Yes, I'm going to try to bring y'all some water."
I said, "We don't need no water. You need some discipline."
GRIFFIN: Osman Khan says there was no misunderstanding of what he saw at his hotel. Bad cops, he says, were looting and terrorizing his guests.
Perry Emery, the hotel engineer, says he doesn't buy the misunderstanding explanation either. He knows exactly what he saw with his own eyes.
(on camera) There's no doubt these were New Orleans police officers?
EMERY: Oh, yes, they was New Orleans police officers.
GRIFFIN: Looting?
EMERY: Looting.
GRIFFIN: Drew Griffin, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Well, let's see how that one shakes out.
Still to come on the program tonight, the people may evacuate to safety, but Houston is also home base for a huge number of American oil refineries and chemical plants that aren't going anywhere. Who will take care of them, and at what cost to all of us?
And the latest on Rita as the tracked storm wobbles a bit to the left. From Houston and Galveston and New York, this is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: And welcome back. We are live in Galveston.
This is actually a step up to the seawall. The seawall in Galveston was built in -- started in 1903 in reaction to the storm in 1900 here, that massive hurricane that killed more than 8,000 people.
You really get a sense the sea is out there, but already it has been coming up every few -- about once a minute, basically. It comes up to these steps. There's another tide coming in just now. And it has already started to move up these steps, and very soon, probably in a few hours, it may start breaching this seawall. That is going to be a real problem for Galveston.
You can see the water coming in now just -- a couple hours ago all of this was beach. So you get a sense of how quickly this tide is moving. It is causing a lot of problems for oil refineries, obviously a major industry in this part of the world.
CNN's Randi Kaye takes a look at how the oil refineries are trying to shut down and get secure.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Instead of riding out the storm with his family, Dave McKinney is at the Shell Oil plant and refinery in Deer Park, Texas. McKinney taught his wife how to turn off the gas at home because he's needed here, where thousands of valves need to be turned off.
DAVE MCKINNEY, SHELL OIL: I called my wife this morning and she broke down in tears.
KAYE: This is Shell's largest refinery in the United States, and it's less than a mile from the Houston Ship Channel. It's one of 200 chemical plants and refineries that could suffer severe flooding and be hit by dangerously high winds. All are closing up shop.
MCKINNEY: We drill for the response to anything that could happen, including hurricanes, and -- but preparing for a Category 4 or 5, nobody that works here has ever been through that.
KAYE: Refineries and chemical plants are complicated. There are gaskets that need attention, flames that need to be put out. Pumps and compressors must be turned off, and raw chemicals drained from the system.
(on camera) What can happen here? What are your concerns if this plant is hit or any of the plants along the channel are hit?
MCKINNEY: Well, because we deal with so many flammable materials here, the concern is that there could be damage, say, from wind damage that could crack piping or a vessel that, when it started up and the product starts going through it again, could cause a chemical release.
KAYE (voice-over): Major supply lines can be shut off underground out of the hurricane's reach. But oil and chemicals remaining in pipes and storage tanks above ground are still at risk.
(on camera) All kinds of chemicals are stored at these plants, many of them lethal like chlorine or ammonia. If Hurricane Rita were to cause one to spring a leak we could see a deadly toxic vapor cloud that travels for miles, wiping out anything and everything in its path.
Seems it would be impossible to contain it. But the chemical plants tell us they are prepared.
(voice-over) After Shell shut its doors, just 20 employees out of 1,700 were left here: security, technicians, and environmental experts. But it's not just the cleanup that's a concern. It is the cost to the consumer.
MCKINNEY: Gasoline and diesel fuel and heating oil, now that the winter's approaching, there will be -- there will be an impact.
KAYE: A real possibility of supply shortages and higher prices.
Refineries have been seriously damaged in past hurricanes. It took months to repair after Hurricane Ivan. And damage from Katrina has not even been fully assessed.
Three hundred forty thousand barrels of oil a day are refined at the Shell plant alone. And once the skies clear it could take more than a week to get these plants up and running again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: I spoke with the Houston Port Authority, and they told me that in the case of a Cat 4 or Cat 5 hurricane, which we are looking at with Hurricane Rita, that we could see anywhere from 15 to 23 billion dollars in losses here at the Houston Ship Channel.
And Anderson, this is really about supply because if there is a lot of damage here at the channel that would mean that the ships bringing the oil wouldn't even be able to get in possibly. So not only wouldn't these refineries be able to run because they wouldn't have the oil that they need but they wouldn't have the oil that they need to refine. So, again affecting our supply -- Anderson.
COOPER: And affecting everyone's bottom line at the pumps and for their pocketbooks, as well. Thanks very much, Randi.
Ahead on the program tonight, we have another National Weather Service update drawing closer, about 11 p.m. So stay tuned for that. We're going to find out exactly where the storm is. Taking a fresh look at Rita when we come back.
From New York and Galveston and around the region, this is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT, "State of Emergency."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Waiting on the 11 p.m. update on the hurricane, which usually comes in a few minutes before the top of the hour. We'll turn first to Erica Hill, who has some of the other headlines of the day. She again in Atlanta -- Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Hi, Aaron.
The Indonesian health minister says an 8-year-old boy is the country's third confirmed victim of avian flu. Health officials say the flu could claim more victims in Indonesia than it's done so far in Vietnam and Thailand. But there is still no evidence it could become a pandemic.
Iraq's most powerful Shiite cleric has endorsed the country's draft constitution, distancing himself from two other Shiite leaders who oppose it. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has instructed his followers to vote yes in the referendum next month.
And President Bush has asked Jordan's King Abdullah to act as an intermediary between the leaders of Israel and Palestine. Meeting at the Oval Office, the president said the king could offer a voice of reason when talking to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
BROWN: The king very much would like to be the voice of reason in that part of the world. So we wish him well.
Erica, thank you. We'll talk tomorrow.
When we come back, we'll update the path of the hurricane. We expect the latest update to be in by then. We take a quick break first. From New York and Galveston and beyond, this is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We've just gotten word that the 11 p.m. weather advisory is in a little bit earlier. Let's check in with severe weather expert Chad Myers at the CNN weather center in Atlanta.
Chad, what do we know now?
MYERS: Good evening, Anderson.
Not much has changed. The hurricane warnings are in the exact same places. The storm itself now 350 miles from Galveston, to the southeast. You can see the eye right there.
The eye did take a little jog to the left in the past hour and a half. I don't know if it's a wobble or a real turn. But here you go. The storm itself still 140 miles per hour. And if you're keeping track, 26.2 and 90.3. Sustained winds 140. That makes it still a Category 4.
So really, the hurricane center did not change the track much at all, if at all. Just to the west of Port Arthur, Beaumont, and to the east of Galveston and Houston.
If that wobble truly did happen, you may have to adjust that a little bit, but obviously this is still the cone. Everybody is basically still in the cone from basic almost Corpus Christi, Port Lavaca right on over to Lafayette.
Back to you.
COOPER: So Chad, if we're looking at where we think this thing is coming ashore or the eye is heading directly for, right now you're saying it's somewhere west of Port Arthur, east of Galveston?
MYERS: That's correct. And you know, it's almost impossible to say, Anderson, with any certainty whether it's in here or in here because of that wobble that we just experienced. If it was a true left turn, it could be farther left than that. Probably not. It will probably turn back to the right. But you know what? We won't know that until maybe 3 or 4 a.m. when that wobble makes the other part, the left and then the right. We had a little chicane going on there in the central part of the Gulf of Mexico.
COOPER: Very brief, I'm sorry. You said 3 or 4 o'clock. You mean a.m. Or...
MYERS: A.M. A.M. We won't know for three hours whether that was a true left turn and it's going to stay that way or it's going to come right back and they just do that for no apparent reason.
COOPER: All right. Want to keep an accurate track. Thanks, Chad, very much.
MYERS: Yes.
COOPER: Coming up, truly traffic and weather together. A view from the road and the side of the road, where there are so many people just stopped. From New York and Galveston, this is a special of NEWSNIGHT, "State of Emergency."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: The story tonight has very much been people trying to evacuate and the traffic has making it very difficult. Rick Sanchez is in Houston on I-45. Rick, 30 seconds.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Te have two numbers for you tonight, Aaron. One is 100. That's how many miles this gridlock behind me stretches. That's what police officials are telling us.
The second number is the number one. That is how fast cars have been going throughout the day. One mile an hour. Many of them conking out. They can't go anymore. There are cars that have no more gasoline.
And as you can see with these gentlemen behind me, they run out, they pull over. They're hoping police can come and bring them some kind of gasoline, some kind of relief.
It's our light that woke them up. Before, when we got here, they were on the floor literally sleeping. Like them, there are thousands tonight along the corridor of I-45, north of Houston toward Huntsville and Dallas.
Aaron, back to you.
BROWN: Rick, thank you. Patty Hoffman is out there in it. She left her Houston area home for Dallas at 7 this morning, and she's still on the road. About a 4 1/2-hour journey that's taken a whole lot longer.
Patty, how close are you?
PATTY HOFFMAN, HOUSTON EVACUEE: We are just approaching Dallas now. And it's been 15 hours of driving. I think we probably have another 45 minutes to an hour. But we're getting there. So there's hope.
BROWN: Be safe. Be safe over the next few days. Thanks for updating us along the way. Thank you very much, Patty Hoffman.
That is a four and a half hour drive that's taken 15 hours, and they are not there yet.
About this time tomorrow, Anderson, as you know, we expect to be at the very beginning of it. And we'll be on the air -- you will, I will, we will -- through it all.
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