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Hurricane Ike Barreling Toward Texas Coast; Evacuations Smoother Than Hurricane Rita
Aired September 12, 2008 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And developments are coming into the CNN NEWSROOM this busy Friday morning. It is September 12th. Here is what's on the rundown for you.
The leading edge of Ike's storm surge already crashing into Galveston, Texas. Forecasters warning the city and anyone who stays behind faces catastrophe.
Around a million Texans hitting the road, on the run from the monster hurricane, but most in Houston told to sit tight. Ike possibly growing into a Category 3 hurricane before it slams Texas. A dark and stormy night ahead.
And good morning again, everyone.
I'm Tony Harris. And you, of course, are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
It is indeed a monster storm. Ike bullying its way toward the Texas coast. Ike is still more than 200 miles southeast of Galveston, but check out this surf off of Galveston just a little while ago.
This massive storm is 900 miles wide. Hurricane-force winds can be felt up to 120 miles from the eye.
Ike is expected to make landfall near Galveston. Several communities along the coast, south of Houston, under mandatory evacuation. But how many people are still there? That's the question this morning.
Substantial flooding is expected. Forecasters predict up to 20 feet above normal tide levels.
The National Weather Service in Houston has issued this dire warning: "Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single family one or two-story home will face certain death."
And just this morning, word from the Coast Guard that a freighter has lost power and is adrift about 90 miles south of Galveston. We will keep you informed on this story as well.
Our correspondents are sitting in the bull's eye on this one. Rob Marciano is eyeing the storm surge in Galveston. Sean Callebs is in Houston, where those residents who didn't leave are being told to batten down the hatches.
(WEATHER REPORT) HARRIS: And let's get the word now from the coast. A mandatory evacuation for Galveston was issued yesterday.
Rob Marciano is in Galveston and he joins us now from the scene.
And Rob, good to see you. I thought we might actually lose you there a couple of moments ago. Great to see you. Give us -- describe the scene as it is there in Galveston now.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, there hasn't been a whole lot of rain. We've backed off from the beach. The splash-over from the waves against the seawall, which has been built to protect this very vulnerable city ever since the great hurricane of 1900, now those waves which typically wouldn't be there -- as a matter of fact, they'd be well off the beach. I mean, that beach is completely covered.
Normally you'd see 500, 700 yards of beach before the water would even start. But now those waves are just crashing against that beach and seawall and splashing over Seawall Boulevard here.
And just some Looky-Lous keep driving up and down. But I can guarantee you one thing, that that roadway will be covered later on tonight.
So we hear all this warning of storm surge, and certainly that's a scary prospect. We are about 20 feet above that 10-to-15-foot protective seawall. So we think we're OK. But the wind that Jacqui was talking about certainly is of huge concern.
Evacuations, there have been some in the Galveston area. There's about 58,000 or so people that leave here year-round. But only a little bit more than half of the people who lived here have evacuated. So that leaves, aside from the media and law enforcement, 15,000, 20,000 people or so that are going to batten down the hatches and ride out this storm.
Where they are, are they in a safe place? I don't know. But driving around the island from time to time, I know that where we are right now is one of the highest points, and I feel pretty safe, at least from the surge. The wind is another issue. But a lot of this island, Tony, come tonight and tomorrow morning could very well be under water.
HARRIS: So wait a minute, Rob. Are you telling me -- yes, you're telling me there are anywhere in the neighborhood of 20,000 people there now who we may not know exactly what their plans are, maybe they're still planning to get out if they can, but at least right now 20,000 people there in the direct path of this storm?
MARCIANO: That's what it seems like. When we got in last night, it looked more like a ghost town. Then once the sun came up this morning, you know, people are out and about, they're checking out the waves.
HARRIS: Yes. MARCIANO: So we called the emergency manager and said, hey, you know, how many people have evacuated? He said, "Well, a little more than half." Did the math. That leaves about 20,000 people on this island.
And remember, Tony, you know, there may be a little bit of hurricane amnesia here.
HARRIS: OK.
MARCIANO: They got a little glancing blow by Edouard, which was really nothing. 1983 it's been since a major hurricane hit Galveston. That's a long time ago.
So memories may very well be faint as to what this kind of storm can do to this city. And I certainly hope that those folks have a safe place like we have to ride out this storm tonight.
HARRIS: Yes. Absolutely. OK, Rob. Be safe.
Rob Marciano there in Galveston, Texas.
You know, we are getting word of the Coast Guard using helicopters to rescue people on a section of beach known as Bolivar Peninsula. That is in Galveston County, south of Houston. About 4,000 people live there, we're told. And we don't know how many heeded the evacuation orders.
Houston, let's turn our attention to Houston now, the nation's fourth largest city, roughly 50 miles inland, a city familiar with hurricanes -- think Carla, think Alicia.
Correspondent Sean Callebs is in Houston.
And Sean, what's the latest guidance there from Mayor White in Houston, and other city officials?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we just got off the phone with emergency management a short while ago, and they've been watching Interstate 45 behind me, which leads up where Rob is and all those areas where the mandatory evacuations are. Very sparse traffic.
That leads them to believe that all those areas where people are under a mandatory evacuation, that the people who decided to leave have left. Those who are going to try to ride it out, it's up to them at this point.
The city also indicates that they could close the interstate in just a matter of hours. They expect to start getting hit with some tropical-storm-force winds in this area, and they don't want people driving on the interstate once the winds get that intense. So much, in fact, that they're going to stop running ambulances and police cars when they have steady winds at about 30 miles an hour. So a lot is going on here.
Secondly, in those communities where they do have the mandatory evacuation and people with special needs, they have been sending buses in for the past 24 hours to ferry people out of there, those who wouldn't have another mode of transportation out. That is going to stop in one hour as well. So, if people are in these areas and they're having second thoughts, now is the time to get out.
And they're talking about moving about a million people in about 24 to 36 hours. But everybody remembers the nightmare that came with Hurricane Rita, the fact that the whole I-45 just became a parking lot, just horror stories of people being trapped on the interstate, cars overheating.
Well, the city and the state got together and said, you know what? We did this wrong. So what they're doing now, and this hurricane warning, is instead of going to a community, say Pasadena, and saying all 50,000 people in Pasadena evacuate, now they're saying the big concern is these zip codes. We want people in these zip codes to evacuate.
For example, only about 1,200 are being told to evacuate in Pasadena. So what they're doing is keeping people off of the interstates who really don't need to be on those roads at this hour. So there's a lot going on, Tony, and they know that the hurricane is coming here.
HARRIS: Yes. Yes.
CALLEBS: And they expect -- get this -- hurricane-force winds in Houston for 12 hours. If you look behind me, you can see those manmade canyons. So expect glass to be blowing all over. They may be 50 miles inland, they may not get a storm surge, but it's going to be scary up here.
HARRIS: And Sean, my understanding is that the locals there, actually there are a couple of numbers that locals can call and find out if they're now -- if they've been added to this list of zip codes under an evacuation order. Is that correct?
CALLEBS: Right. They've also had that 311 number that we saw in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago. And that evacuation worked so well.
Well, apparently, we're seeing kind of a repeat of that as well. Let's just hope this area weathers the storms as well as New Orleans did.
HARRIS: Absolutely. OK, Sean. Appreciate it. Thank you.
Sean Callebs in Houston for us.
Evacuations hectic, but as you heard from Sean, apparently smooth this time, unlike the situation attached to Hurricane Rita in 2005.
Here is reporter Ken Kalthoff. He is with Houston affiliate KPRC.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KEN KALTHOFF, REPORTER, KPRC: Imagine sustained winds of 100 miles an hour. That's what Ike has in store. This is Clear Lake, a branch of Galveston Bay, where those winds could push in a storm surge more than twice my height, serious trouble.
(voice-over): Houston freeways were jam-packed as people from mandatory evacuation areas took the warning seriously. South of Houston, the town of Freeport is right on the coast.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone is boarding up. And a lot of people have already left town. And we're going to leave tonight, as soon as we get done.
KALTHOFF: Just to the east, Galveston could be Ground Zero. The predicted storm surge could flood the entire island. Hospitals were evacuated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm still in a lot of pain and stuff. I kind of feel like I got rushed out, but I guess that's the way it goes with Mother Nature.
KALTHOFF: Some evacuees complained gas stations were taking advantage. We watched regular rise 30 cents at one station.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Evidently, it looks like price gouging to me.
KALTHOFF: The Red Cross is staging -- evacuation shelters are open across the state. Those who think of staying in the flood zones received a late warning.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you think you want to ride something out, and people are talking about a 20-foot wall of water coming at you, then you better think again.
KALTHOFF: Even with a million people moving, Houston officials say the evacuation has gone much better than the drastic gridlock of Hurricane Rita three years ago. People not in flood zones were urged to stay and hunker down, bracing for Ike.
(on camera): The latest forecast pegs Ike a Category 2 at landfall, but still on target for this heavily-populated area. Nothing to ignore.
In Houston, Ken Kalthoff for KPRC Local 2.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: OK. We have been hearing a lot about the storm surge. Jacqui just talked about it a moment ago, that wall of water expected from Hurricane Ike that could be as high as 25 feet.
We want to get some perspective on that from the general who commanded the military response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, CNN contributor and retired Lieutenant General Russel Honore joining us now.
General, great to see you. Thanks for your time ago.
LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE (RET.), CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you.
HARRIS: Thank you. Thanks for being here.
You know, Jacqui just talked about storm surge. And I think in light of the potential surge here, anywhere from 20, maybe 25 feet, I have to ask the question, did Houston make the right decisions in terms of its evacuation orders?
HONORE: Well, Houston -- this storm has been dancing with us. As you know, it made a shift to -- this is one big, bad, dangerous storm. And I can only empathize with the local and state government, who has been trying to adjust to the move that was made in the last 24 hours...
HARRIS: Yes.
HONORE: ... which had a plan to evacuate much further to the west. Now this storm is knocking on the door of the fourth largest city in America...
HARRIS: That's right.
HONORE: ... a very fragile area, as you know, in terms of infrastructure. And it's in a flood plain. So we've got the double effect of Houston will flood with a big storm that...
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: Well, the evacuations have been ordered in the flood plains.
HONORE: Absolutely.
HARRIS: But I'm wondering, this is a city, the nickname is the Bayou City. I mean, this is an area that really could flood.
So I'm wondering here if you're going to try to ride this out, give us a couple of thoughts here on the kind of supplies you need to have and how you protect yourself against the winds. And Jacqui will talk about that a little later as well.
HONORE: Well, let me say this first.
HARRIS: Yes?
HONORE: Don't start reading category and using that as your plan whether you're going to evacuate.
HARRIS: Oh, I'm going to say, it's a Cat 1, I'm going to stay. It's a Cat 2, I'm going to stay.
HONORE: Cat 2 -- right. If you're elderly and you are struggling and you can't stand around in 90-degree heat, and you will be terrorized by 90-mile-an-hour winds for up to 12 hours, you could be four to five days without power.
HARRIS: That's a great point. That's a great point.
HONORE: You need to not read category. You need to probably get out of town.
HARRIS: And the city has done a great job.
HONORE: Absolutely.
HARRIS: I mean, we have to give the city credit in moving folks...
HONORE: Absolutely.
HARRIS: ... who have special needs, and the elderly, as much as they were able to...
HONORE: Right.
HARRIS: ... out of the city and out of harm's way.
HONORE: If you live in a mobile home, those mobile homes will not stand up to this 60-to-90-mile-an-hour winds.
HARRIS: Yes.
HONORE: So sheltering is placed (ph) as if you don't fall in those categories.
HARRIS: That's right.
HONORE: The other thing you need to look at is people on your street that you know that can't get around and they can't get out, or they live in an older house, is to bring them in. People need to look for local structure that will get them out of mobile homes.
And the door is closing. We're talking hours now.
HARRIS: OK. OK.
HONORE: By the time these hurricane-force winds will start battering -- and the storm is coming at night. It's been a while since we had a storm come at night.
HARRIS: That's right.
HONORE: Remember the storm in 1900 that hit this same area came at night.
HARRIS: Yes.
HONORE: So keeping those weather radios on, staying alert, and move to safe shelter in your community.
HARRIS: There you go. There you go. HONORE: More to follow in the next segment as we look at this -- remember Interstate 10 floods when we have a strong thunderstorm.
HARRIS: Yes.
HONORE: So that road will probably become closed here in the coming hours in the night.
HARRIS: Terrific. General, thank you.
HONORE: Thank you.
HARRIS: Thank you.
All right. Remember, Ike is a huge storm. We've been calling it a monster storm, 900 miles across.
Ike's winds reaching all the way to New Orleans, plunging homes in the dark. A dozen days after Gustav, 65,000 customers are still without power across southern Louisiana, 1.3 million lost electricity when Hurricane Gustav hit.
Houston, heart of the nation's petrochemical and gas industries, waiting on the storm that is sure to be bad for business. And quicker than you can say Ike, gas prices above $5.00 a gallon at some stations. What is going on here?
Sarah Palin -- turning to politics now. One-on-one, she tackles tough foreign policy issues in a television interview. What Palin says about the possibility of a conflict with Russia.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLES SLAYDON, IREPORTER: There's a lot of people that I think that aren't -- don't realize that this storm is as bad as it's going to be. This is a bad boy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: iReporter Charles Slaydon of Baycliff, Texas, just one of the many people sending us his images today from the path of Hurricane Ike. We've also gotten these photos. Let's take a look here.
This is from the border along Alabama and Florida. These come to us from Jim Parr (ph), who tells us the water is just reaching over and has been through out the day.
Send us your photos and your videos safely. CNN's coverage of Hurricane Ike is just 90 seconds away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Welcome back everyone to the CNN NEWSROOM. You know, just moments ago we were talking to Rob Marciano, who is in Galveston, and he was telling us about the number of people in the neighborhood of 20,000 people in the Galveston area who have decided either to get a late start on evacuating, certainly a late start, or who have decided to try the ride the storm out.
On the phone with us right now is John Saracco. He is a Galveston resident.
And John, what are you thinking? Good to talk to you, first of all, before I launch in on you here.
But what are you thinking?
JOHN SARACCO, REFUSES TO EVACUATE: Well, right now it's a beautiful day. Getting a little windy. And just kind of getting ready to hunker down for it.
HARRIS: Well, how many are with you, John? It's not just you. I mean, I guess I could understand it a little better if it was just you, but I understand there are members of your family with you as well.
Our entire family -- parents, brothers, their wives, my wife and all their kids.
HARRIS: What are you thinking, John, honestly? You've been watching the forecast, the local forecast, the forecast certainly here at CNN. Get me into your mindset just a little bit here. What are you thinking?
SARACCO: Well, we're in a very secure building. It's gone through the 1900 storm. I've been through Alicia and everything.
We were making plans to evacuate. And I have a construction business, so I got kind of caught in the moment of boarding up everybody's place.
HARRIS: Oh. Well, did you think at all, John, of getting -- I understand that, first of all. I understand how you're working in construction, you're helping other folks get ready. Maybe you don't take the time to get yourself ready, but did you think about getting your family out or instructing that your family should leave?
SARACCO: Yes. We packed bags and everything and we were ready to evacuate. And we still are. But we'll be sticking it out.
HARRIS: How are you set for supplies?
SARACCO: Great. Great. We have plenty of water, plenty of ice, a bunch of nonperishable foods. We prepared ourselves -- batteries are charged, flashlights, storm lanterns.
HARRIS: Are you at all nervous about this? Are you afraid?
SARACCO: Yes. Oh, a little nervous, yes. I haven't felt any fear yet, but my wife has.
During Alicia I was absolutely terrified. We even actually watched the eye come over us, and I was very fearful.
HARRIS: John, you know the warning that the National Weather Service issued. You heard of the warning.
SARACCO: Yes.
HARRIS: Let me just read the pertinent line here. "Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single family or one-and-two-story homes will face certain death."
I trust that your structure is as sound as you're indicating it is. But you hear a warning like this, are you at all second-guessing your decision?
SARACCO: No. Well, we're in a commercial building. If I was in a single family dwelling, I would have heeded that warning and I would have left. My older brother, he left his house and came to this building.
HARRIS: OK.
SARACCO: I mean, we're in a masonry building. It was built 1884. And it was the first newspaper building in Galveston. The floors were built for printing presses, they're like three-foot thick. I mean...
HARRIS: OK. Well, John, be safe. Honestly, be safe.
SARACCO: Thank you.
HARRIS: And I hope you don't mind -- we're going to check in on you from time to time. We're going to be hear all day, and the overnight hours as well. So if you don't mind, we'll check in on you, all right?
SARACCO: OK.
HARRIS: All right.
John Saracco, he is a Galveston resident, and he is riding out the storm with several members of his family, 16 members of his family.
Bull's eye Galveston. Hurricane Ike threatening to put the city under water.
CNN, your hurricane headquarters.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEVS: Hey there. I'm Josh Levs in the CNN NEWSROOM. And we are following your iReports, and they are coming to us from throughout the path of Hurricane Ike. Let's zoom in on the border. I want to show you a really striking photo that we just received. This one comes to us, we're told, from the Biloxi River, the Riverside Bar there. And there's supposed to be a boat dock there.
You're supposed to be able to see it. Obviously, that's been flooded out right now.
We've also gotten some amazing iReport videos. Let's go to one right now from Jim Parr.
Jim Parr, our iReporter over there, is at the border of Alabama and Florida. He's seen some real gushing over there, says it's some of the most powerful waves he has ever seen. He's keeping an eye on this safely.
Check out this map right behind me. This shows you just some of the places in the Gulf area where we are hearing from people each minute. We're going to keep updating this throughout the day.
And Tony, I've got to say, we are already hearing from so many people, it's amazing. But every time I talk, I'm going to emphasize, only take photos and videos if you're in a safe place to do so.
HARRIS: There you go.
LEVS: But then send them along. We love that you can help us tell the story of the country -- Tony.
HARRIS: That's terrific. All right, Josh, keep those coming.
I want to give you a look at some live pictures now from our affiliate in Houston, one of them that we're using today, KHOU. And the information here, let me share it with you -- this is Surfside Beach, the community of Surfside Beach. Take a look at these pictures.
You can see there are water issues at Surfside Beach right now. Mailboxes virtually underwater, street signs virtually covered as well. And water we understand streaming through some of the windows of some of the buildings you see in the background there. Firefighters and police using a large dump truck earlier this morning to make a final offer to people to get out, we will help you evacuate if you're ready to go now. And that is the view right now.
So many hours from landfall, so many hours from the heaviest bands of this storm. That's the view from Surfside Beach, courtesy of our affiliate KHOU in Houston.
All right. We're going to get back to our extensive coverage of Hurricane Ike in just a moment. But first, we want to catch you up on the news from the presidential race. Checking the Political Ticker now, Barack Obama on the trail in New Hampshire. He focuses on tax relief later this hour at a stop in Dover. We will take you there live when the event gets under way. Obama will also -- I'm not sure if you're aware of this -- be making his second appearance on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend. He appeared on the show last November during -- and performing in an opening skit.
John McCain making the rounds on the daytime talk shows today. He has appearances on "The View" and "Rachel Ray." Both McCain and Obama took part in a televised form focusing on the public service.
Meantime, the already heated race is reaching a fever pitch. Both campaigns have issued a flurry of ads and memos accusing the other of unfair attacks.
Alaska governor Sarah Palin says she's ready to be vice president and president if necessary. Palin made the comments in her first TV interview since excepting the Republican VP nomination. In the ABC interview she was asked about foreign policy and a potential conflict with Russia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLES GIBSON, ABC ANCHOR: Favor of putting Georgia and Ukraine into NATO?
GOV. SARAH PALIN (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ukraine, definitely. Yes. Yes, and Georgia. Putin thinks otherwise -- obviously he thinks otherwise.
GIBSON: (INAUDIBLE) the NATO treaty, wouldn't we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?
PALIN: Perhaps so. That is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you're going to be expected to be called upon and help.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: But Palin also called for economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure to help keep an eye on Russia.
Check out our Political Ticker for all the latest campaign news. Just logon to CNNPolitics.com, your source for all things political.
As promised, back to Hurricane Ike. The Gulf Coast of Texas, home base for many of the nation's gas refineries. Already Ike having a knee-jerk impact at the pump.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Hurricane Ike expected to leave a nasty impression on Texas. Our correspondents covering it all. Jackie Jeras in CNN severe weather center and Reynolds Wolf south of Houston in the town of Clute, a major petrochemical region. Clute, Texas, about an hour's drive south of Galveston, an area that is home to, as I just mentioned, several petrochemical companies. That's where we find meteorologist, Reynolds Wolf. And Reynolds, this storm is so big, is Clute ready for what's coming?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I would think so. In terms of the population right in (ph) here, Tony, in Brazoria County, about 70 percent of the population is gone. They've hightailed it to the north. You've got about 30 percent that are still hanging on. The reason why is they actually say they feel safer in their homes than they do getting on that road, being exposed to the element.
Now, you were talking about the petrochemicals in the area, the chemical plants. If you want to see a couple of those, let's take you right over here. This Highway 288 --then and back over there in the background you see that is BASF. We have another camera that we're going to go to give you a better shot of that. Not only do you have BASF over there, but beyond that you've got Dow Chemical and then, still in the same area, Tony, you've got Shell, you've got Gulf and you even, on top of that, have part of the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve all clustered in the same area.
Not a good idea to have all that together and then have a huge hurricane spanning over 800 miles wide trucking in this general direction. So obviously people are a little worried.
In terms of that population, Tony, you know how we mentioned that there are a lot of people, about 70 percent, that are out of the area? A lot of the people that would be gone would be the people in these hotels you see here behind me, including the hotel right here, the -- you see the sign. I'm not going to say the name of the hotel, but we ought to put CNN Hotel because management left us the keys. They went northward. And so they left this place to us. This is going to be a refuge for the next 24-48 hours as the storm comes through.
Not to be worried, though, because what we're doing is we're staying up on the second balcony. You can see a couple members of our crew up there, including John Person (ph). We're going to stay up there so in case the flooding really makes its way in this area, we're going to be high above, we're going to be safe. But at the same time, we've got our SUVs.
HARRIS: Nice, nice.
WOLF: And on top of the SUVs you'll notice we got some extra fuel. So if we have to -- look at these feet (ph) -- we hop inside those vehicles, we push the pedal and we go as fast as we can back to the --
HARRIS: Those feet are like paddles.
WOLF: -- evacuate.
HARRIS: Those feet of yours are like paddles, are you kidding me?
Hey let me ask you something, are you set OK, pretty good for supplies right now? WOLF: We're in great shape. But I will tell you, Tony, yesterday when we first came in, we landed in Houston. We went to a store, again in a national chain not going to name it, took about 20 minutes to get the supplies, but took us nearly 90 minutes to go through the checkout lines. It was just crazy, just absolutely nuts. But as we made our way down to this location in Clute, you had a lot of people that were heading northward.
So I will tell you, it's kind of like a ghost town, although you still see a few cars out here. But most of those people, Tony, are going to be county workers with a medical facility that's close by. You've got a skeleton crew that's going to be operating there. And then of course you've got a few members of the Coast Guard that come back and forth. They are just all keeping an eye on this. But I will tell you that bulk of the population continues to go to the north. Here are some folks right here, you see a couple cars going northward.
Yes. A few waves. There you go. Peace to that guy. He's going to find peace the farther north he goes because staying here not a good idea with winds in excess of 100 miles an hour as this thing comes on through. Certainly a big mess, but we're going to keep a sharp eye on it. And really around midnight is going to be the time we're going to really see conditions deteriorate in this area.
Thank you, Tony.
HARRIS: Thanks. I'll be here with you at midnight.
All right, Reynolds, appreciate it. Thank you.
Hurricane Ike is causing some serious sticker shock at the gas pump in some states. Check this out. In Sumter County, South Carolina -- we found this this morning -- gas is an eye-popping five dollars and change. And there's a rush to the pump before it rises even higher. You can imagine that. Along the Gulf Coast, prices range from four to five bucks a gallon, up from just three bucks and change earlier in the week. Experts say it's in anticipation of refineries likely to shut down for several days once Ike hits. Prices have been higher in the Southeast and Midwest due to production delays from Hurricane Gustav.
So the big story right now, Hurricane Ike. It's a massive bull of a storm taking aim, as we've been telling you throughout the morning, at Texas. Jacqui Jeras is in our severe weather center with its location and its speed.
OK, Jacqui, take it away.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Tony.
We're actually down here now at the magic board to show you some more unique perspectives on this storm. Category 2, 105-mile-per-hour winds. And this thing is still about 200 miles away from the coastline. We've been seeing incredible wave action already, an incredible surge around five feet above average tide. Now this is a map on Google Earth that we put on here for you just kind of showing you the Galveston area. So here is Galveston, here is Baytown. This is the Houston area. And the biggest concern on here is the red; this is where we're expecting the greatest surge to be. And that is going to be anywhere on the range of 15 to 18 feet. And notice, here is Galveston Bay, the worst of it could be right up into this area as all the water funnels up that bay and heads on to the northern shore.
This model only goes out through the state of Texas, it doesn't include Louisiana. But take a note, as this goes all the way over towards that line towards Port Arthur, even into Beaumont, we're seeing some of that red, and that's because that water is going to push up these rivers, they're going to push up the enter coastal area and fill really just fill it up with water. So surge is going to be our major issue with this storm.
Now we've got some cameras we want to show you here. This is from hurricanetrack.com. It shows you four different perspectives. These are those suitcases that are waterproof that have a camera on them, and we put them right on the coastline so you can watch that water and watch that surge come on in. It's a much safer way to do things. That way, we don't have to have a correspondent in a dangerous spot and where the conditions are.
I want to minimize that one for you a little bit and I'm going to open this one up a little bit if I can. And this will show you just the current conditions and also the track on this thing -- and I'm still playing with this magic board. So bear with me, it doesn't want to open up. But basically I just wanted to show you the satellite -- there we go -- and show you how big this storm is and that it's still so far away that we're talking tropical storm force winds are just offshore now, so we think those are going to arrive in the next hour or so. Those hurricane-force winds coming into play late this evening.
Landfall not even until overnight, Tony. We're talking when people are in bed and asleep. So to see conditions this bad this early in the game, really something we're worried about.
HARRIS: OK. And Jacqui, once again, when will we start to see tropical storm force winds?
JERAS: Really any time. We've been seeing some of that actually on the Louisiana coastal areas, down near Houma. We'll watch that move into Texas shortly. You've kind of got to wait to start to get some of those gusts from the rain bands, and you can see that that is still quite a ways ago. So, probably a couple hours yet from now.
HARRIS: OK, Jacqui, appreciate it. Thank you.
There are already victims from this storm. A group of nursing home evacuees near Houston stuck on buses in limbo, confused and scared. Some 40 elderly patients were taken from their nursing home to a convention center. They were supposed to be picked up and driven to a shelter in Dallas, but according to our affiliate station, KHOU, the state didn't have buses equipped for the handicapped. While they scrambled to find other buses, the convention center wouldn't allow them to stay there and wait, afraid of liability issues. The elderly residents ended up spending seven hours on the buses until alternative transportation actually arrived.
We're going to continue with our coverage of Hurricane Ike, tropical storm force winds, as soon as -- one hour from now. Josh Levs coming up in just a moment with some terrific iReports. We're back in a moment.
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LEVS: Hey, there. I'm Josh Levs in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Our iReporters are showing you the effects of Ike on the ground. This is what it looks like from the sky.
Joe Green, who went up in the NOAA Hurricane Hunter, Kermit, when it was just east of Cuba. He managed to see what it looks like when you have the luxury of looking down, the stunning swirls.
You don't have that luxury. But where you are, you may be affected by Ike. If you're in a position to take photos or videos in a safe way, do so and send them to ireport.com. We're going to keep bringing them to you here throughout the day.
And Tony, I've got to tell you, we have heard from so many people. We've got a team going through them. We can barely keep up, and that's a good thing.
HARRIS: Well, I love that because what we want -- you just mentioned it. Think about it, we have folks who have been experiencing some -- some tropical storm winds along the Louisiana coast as well. We'd like to get those folks to send in their iReports, their narrative stories, of what they've been going through.
LEVS: That's right --
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HARRIS: That whole area. So again, send us the pictures. We've got a team working on it. That's terrific.
LEVS: We're all over it, yes.
HARRIS: I love the sound of that.
Thank you, Josh.
HARRIS: Thanks, Tony.
All right. Let's get to some business news now. Already this year the government helped bail out -- let's see -- Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac. Where is our bailout? Now another financial giant is on the ropes and the question is: Will Uncle Sam step in again? Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange with details on Lehman Brothers.
Susan, good morning.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony.
Lehman Brothers has been around as an independent firm since before the Civil War. And now, it is said to be actively shopping for a buyer to buy itself out right. Reports say that suitors -- possible suitors include Bank of America, Barkley's and Nomura Securities. The Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve are reportedly working on a possible sale of Lehman whose shares have absolutely collapsed this the week, down 74 percent this week alone.
It really started selling off quite a bit as you know, Tony, on Wednesday after the company had said it expected to lose $4 billion in its last quarter. The company said it would take drastic measures to right itself and said it would sell off a chunk of its real estate investments. But it didn't name a buyer. And that really unhinged the confidence, the lack of confidence, that we saw as it was.
Also we're watching Washington Mutual which said that it has sufficient liquidity and capital. Its shares hit a 17-year low this week. So, despite the government seizure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, there's no question that the credit crunch is still very much with us, Tony.
HARRIS: Well, I've got to ask you, Susan, in terms of Lehman, how likely is a sale? The Koreans (ph), I suppose, pulled out, thought about it, pulled out. Is anyone going to sign on to buy a company that is losing billions of dollars?
LISOVICZ: Well, you know, you kind of answered the question right there. Why would you -- the financial sector is in such precarious state -- would you take on that many more potential losses that could be associated with Lehmans' balance sheet?
You know, the other factor is that there aren't that many companies big enough to probably absorb a company like Lehman, and quickly that is. And finally, you know, one of the big holdouts may be simply, like, we want the kind of deal J.P.Morgan got when it got into the this arranged marriage with Bear Stearns, which was that the government could be on the hook for potential losses of up to $29 billion.
The bottom line is that Lehman shares are down again 10.5 percent. Shares trading under $4. This was a stock that traded at $67 at its high in the last year. Washington Mutual shares are up, however.
The Dow Industrials are down after triple digit gains of a late session rally yesterday, down 17 points. Nasdaq is up half a percent and oil, since we're talking about Hurricane Ike, hanging in there. Oil prices are only up half a buck, and at $101 and change. And you know, I read an analyst's quote saying that if it weren't hurricane season, we'd be under $100 a barrel. And the reason for that is because the worldwide demand is declining so rapidly. So right now we're not seeing a big jump in oil prices.
HARRIS: So oil prices --
LISOVICZ: We're seeing a big jump in some gas prices.
HARRIS: That's what I -- that was my point. So we're seeing stability in price right now for oil, but gas prices in some of these states, and we've been documenting that, just crazy spikes over the last few days.
LISOVICZ: That's right. My uncle lives right in the path of the hurricane, he is one of these stubborn Texans who's not moving. He didn't move for Hurricane Rita, either. And I was just talking to him, and he said that he had real problems yesterday getting gasoline. And so that's where your supply and demand --
HARRIS: That's right.
LISOVICZ: They can charge it, they're getting it and they are running out of it.
HARRIS: Refinery row we're talking about here.
All right, Susan, good to see you. See you next hour.
A wide view of how we're covering the story from our extreme weather center, our hurricane headquarters. There you see the satellite image on the monitors there, all kinds of new pictures coming in to the CNN NEWSROOM.
Can we take Surfside Beach full here for a moment?
This a community that right now we understand is more than half underwater. The community of Southside (sic) Beach in Texas, water nearing the tops of mailboxes and Stop signs as well.
Did we get it? I hope we did.
All right. We're back with more of your iReports and more of our coverage right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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HARRIS: CNN iReporters on the job, sending in their pictures and videos as Hurricane Ike moves in. A reminder, your safety comes first. IReport correspondent Errol Barnett is here.
And Errol, I can imagine that we're getting a number of iReports. Why don't you sort of rifle through what we have so far.
ERROL BARNETT, CNN IREPORT CORRESPONDENT: We sure have, Tony. We've also received reports from throughout the week. Ike has really had a huge impact on the entire Gulf region. And we've seen that.
One submission from Cindy Wolfe (ph). She was in Key West in Florida. Looks like this -- you can see some of the waves there. She had never experienced a hurricane before, and she was surprised at how these powerful waves were able to take down a brick pillar.
Let's move further up the coast. Dave Mungai is in Pensacola Beach. You see his images. Look at that, look at those waves. He was shocked by the flooding there, considering his distance from the center of Hurricane Ike. Now, he's fortunate because Ike isn't headed towards him.
It is, however, headed towards Aaron Cooper. He is our CNN producer in Webster, Texas. He has one of these iReport kits. They are essentially laptops with web cams installed. He's pulled up on it right now. You can see him there.
Aaron, you've been talking with people on the ground. Give me the break down. How many folks are staying? Who is evacuating?
AARON COOPER, CNN PRODUCER: Reporter: Well, we certainly talked to people that are both staying and leaving. As you can tell here in Webster, it's pretty much boarded up, the shopping center. A lot of people are on the interstate here heading out, heading towards Houston, which is definitely what people were (AUDIO GAP) --
BARNETT: A little bit of a delay there, Aaron.
I know you spoke with some people who were actually deciding to stay, correct?
COOPER: That's true. We did. We talked with Charles Slaydon -- in Briarcliff (ph), Texas -- and he is going to ride it out. He and his pet bird were going to stay. This is what he told us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SLAYDON: There is a lot of people that, I think, that aren't -- don't realize that this storm is as bad as it's going to be. This is a bad boy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: But he's going to stay. He wants to ride it out. He was in the Navy and rode out typhoons during the Vietnam War in southeast Asia. He is one of the people that wants to stay. It's certainly a big risk.
BARNETT: We've seen iReports of people boarding up homes. You're outside a boarded up store, as well.
Aaron Cooper there in Webster, Texas, thanks for that. Kind of an update.
He has this iReport kit where folks there in the region are able to talk directly to us and upload what they're going through at the moment. Folks deciding to ride this out.
HARRIS: Can't imagine. All right, Errol, appreciate it. Thank you. And of course, when the weather becomes the news, remember to send us your iReports. Again, just go to ireport.com or type ireport@cnn.com into your cell phone. As always, we remind you stay safe.
CNN, your hurricane headquarter. Galveston taking on water and Ike's landfall is still half a day away. People streaming out of the Houston area overnight. Soon it will be too late to leave.
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