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Hurricane Ike Churns Towards Texas Coast; Storm Surge of 20 to 25 Feet Expected for Galveston; Oil Production Impacted by Ike

Aired September 12, 2008 - 12:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And hello again, everyone. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
I'm Tony Harris.

See developments on Hurricane Ike come in to the NEWSROOM live all day. Here is what's on the rundown.

Bull's eye on Galveston. The Texas city already taking on water, and Ike still a half-day from landfall.

Around a million people urged to hit the road. A dire warning of certain death -- of certain death for people who remain in Galveston.

Gas prices shooting up as Ike stalks the Gulf. Big worries about damage to the oil industry today, Friday, September 12th, in the CNN NEWSROOM.

OK. Monster Hurricane Ike churns toward the Texas coast. Folks gassing up to get the heck out of town with mandatory evacuations under way.

Waves crashing over the seawalls already, with promises of widespread massive damage. A Category 2 storm expected to be 3 when it hits tonight.

We will hear from meteorologist Jacqui Jeras in just a moment. But first, we have got CNN reporters and correspondents posted in all of the hotspots.

Rob Marciano is in Galveston, which is expected to take a direct hit. Sean Callebs is in Houston, and Ali Velshi in Baytown, where the nation's largest oil refineries are at risk.

All right. People in Houston were warned. For those not evacuating, they're being warned to batten down the hatches. The city could experience hurricane-force winds for 10 bruising hours.

CNN's Sean Callebs is in the nation's fourth largest city.

Sean, good afternoon. Good day to you.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good day, Tony.

If you look behind me, this is Interstate 45. This is where basically Galveston and everywhere in between, people who wanted to evacuate, those mandatory evacuations, are going to be coming through this interstate.

Not too crowded right now. And the city says that's pretty good news, because they believe all the mandatory evacuations for people in those areas who decided to get out got out ahead of time, and so you don't see the gridlock like you saw three years ago during Hurricane Rita.

We talked about those punishing winds that this area is going to have to endure for up to 12 hours, is what we're hearing from emergency management officials. And if you look behind me at the skyline, think of the damage 100 mile-an-hour winds could do to some of these tall buildings, blowing glass all over the place.

Well, the time has run out for people in communities who have special needs. The city was sending buses into those areas to get people out. Well, they just had the cutoff time in the last few minutes. So those buses are done.

Special needs people, if they didn't get out, at this point they're on their own. And the significance of that, Tony, the police and ambulances say they will stop running once sustained winds of 30 miles an hour begin hitting this city.

And it really comes down to the location in Houston. There's a big shipping channel that leads right up through here, and the major concern is Ike is just going to blow right up through there, with a massive storm surge, and just inundate large areas. And there's nothing anybody can do at this point.

They can't stop the roofs from blowing off houses, they can't stop the surge. All they can do is get people out ahead of time. Let's hope they do that, because one final thing here, Tony, once these winds do get tropical storm force, they're going to close the interstate and keep people off the interstates.

HARRIS: OK. Sean Callebs heading us on our path from Houston.

Sean, appreciate it. Thank you.

And just where you don't want to be, in the middle of the Gulf. Word this morning a freighter with 22 people aboard is adrift 90 miles south of Galveston. The Coast Guard says winds from Ike are getting too strong to launch a helicopter rescue mission.

Instead, the Coast Guard says letting the storm push the freighter into shallow water may be the best course. Going into shallow water would allow the ship to drop anchor and secure itself.

Well, we hope for the best there.

What's so incredible is Ike is 900 miles across, just filling up the Gulf of Mexico, what, maybe 40 percent? The biggest issue, of course, storm surge, and Galveston will get it first.

And that's where we find CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano. And Rob, you know, people who are staying, and it seems it is a considerable number, seemingly are counting on the strength of the structures therein to protect them?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, not only the strength of the structure, Tony, but the height is going to be a huge issue, as you know. The storm surge, a huge concern (INAUDIBLE) Galveston.

We've already seen a flurry of activity between Coast Guard helicopters buzzing up and down the beach for various reasons. We just saw a front loader go by to actually clear the roadway. There's already debris piling up (INAUDIBLE) to protect this very vulnerable city.

The waves, nothing like what you would typically see in the Gulf of Mexico. It would be flat, it would be nice, it would be tranquil. They are pounding that seawall and testing its fortitude, for sure.

HARRIS: Boy.

MARCIANO: And spray and flooding continues to pile up on that seawall.

Down the block from here, or down the boulevard from here, we're getting reports of flooding in some of the less protected areas. And you can believe that as the storm surge approaches later on tonight and tomorrow, the full fury of it, at least, what's not protected by this seawall will be inundated with water. Even with the protection of the seawall, Tony, if we get a 15-to-20-foot surge, that's not going to do a whole lot of good either.

The local authorities have issued a curfew beginning 8:00 tonight, good until 5:00 a.m. Sunday. This will be strictly enforced. Those who do stay to ride out the storm...

HARRIS: OK. We're losing the microphone that Rob is using right now. Rob Marciano is right there in the direct path of the storm, right there in Galveston, Texas.

And we ask you to bear with us. There's no question about the fact that we will have some interruptions in our transmission lines as our people are right there in the line, in the path of this storm.

Let's get the numbers now, the coordinates on Ike.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: You know, we were asking a lot of you, our iReporters, today a couple of areas we would like to get some submissions, Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

HARRIS: First of all, we would like to get first-person accounts and obviously pictures of folks who have decided to evacuate, maybe who are running into supply shortages, and shortages, supply shortages in terms of getting gas to get away from the storm. But also, folks who have decided to try to ride this storm out in, say, Galveston and the Houston area.

If you would, turn that camera around, grab that cell phone, and turn that camera on and send us those first-person submissions. We'd love to have them.

And I know you've got some now, Josh.

LEVS: And don't -- obviously, do not be in any dangerous at all for any reason, especially on our account. Before we show anything on the air, we call people, screen them, make sure no dangers were taken.

Tony, this thing behind me is a map. Let's close in on this map for a second. I want you to see this because I keep refreshing it.

These are some of the latest iReports we're getting. And as you can see, it's throughout the Gulf region, and it keeps coming to us.

Some of the most powerful ones are over on the Florida side. I want to start off with this video.

Look at that. That is powerful. We got that. And Max (ph) is telling us that when he was out at the beach yesterday -- this is over in Pensacola Beach area -- that he was seeing these people who were trying to take down this flagpole, because they were concerned that it could ultimately become a projectile. So safety workers were out there working on it.

Let's go to some photos we've also gotten, and this is also from that same general area, on the Florida side. These come to us from -- who are these coming -- James Amerson (ph). And some of these are amazing.

You can feel the gushing as you're looking at these pictures. And he tells us -- we spoke with him -- he tells us these are some of the strongest surges he has seen at least in years. And you can see the power of what's going on there.

Again, he didn't go to any dangers to take these pictures. They were taken throughout late yesterday. But obviously more and more people are now going to be affected by this. And we were just talking with Jacqui earlier about how that stretch of Florida really has been hit.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEVS: These are the best pictures I've seen from anyone at all. The best pictures I've seen to bring us to the scene have been from ireport.com.

Let me just give you a sense of how quickly they're coming in. Look at this. I mean, I keep refreshing this screen, and these are pictures that we're getting from the area, throughout the area. And this is all over the Gulf Coast and, again, no one's going into danger,.

But we piece through these, we share them with you on the air. And we do encourage you, send them along. And we're going to keep throughout this afternoon coming along here, showing you the videos, the photos we're getting, and the stories, because this is obviously, Tony, the story of the day.

That's what we got.

HARRIS: When you hear one, two, three meteorologists that I can think of on our air talking about, hey, I've never seen anything quite like this, can you imagine what's yet to come throughout this day?

We'll be keeping an eye on it, obviously, and encouraging your iReports. Again, as Josh mentioned, please, be safe.

Thanks, Josh.

LEVS: You got it. Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: We'll turn our attention back to Houston here in a moment, the heartbeat of the oil and gas industries. And right now, in Ike's bull's eye. Will storm hit you at the gas pump?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Our Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve is on the line with us right now. And Jeanne has been pressed into service. She's in Houston covering Hurricane Ike for us.

And Jeanne, I know you're helping us tell the storm surge story here. We have got real concerns right now about the folks who are still on that island there, Galveston, and anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 people. And this is a real danger when we talk about storm surge.

What have you been learning?

Oh, did we lose Jeanne?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Oh, hi. I'm sorry. I'm on a highway, didn't know you'd come to me.

HARRIS: No, no, no. No worries.

I was just telling everyone that you're a homeland security correspondent, you've been pressed into service here to help us tell the story of Hurricane Ike. And storm surge is a real concern, and I know you've been covering that angle of the story.

MESERVE: I have, and I've gotten a hold of some imagery. This produced by the National Geospacial-Intelligence Agency, provided to us by a government official. And if you look at these pictures you will understand why President Bush says he is deeply concerned about this storm and why there have been so many warnings about potential loss of life.

If you look at this imagery that's been produced of the city of Galveston, if gives you images of what they project will happen is the storm surge is at three feet. Then they give you another one projecting what it will do at five feet. Then at 10 feet, and finally you see an image of what the storm surge is expected to be at 15 feet.

And when you look at this image, you see that just about everything in this portion of Galveston is under water. What amplifies the situation here is that a 15-foot storm surge is not what the forecasters are talking about. They are talking about a storm surge in Galveston potentially of 20 to 25 feet, which means it would be much worse even than the imagery here shows you.

There's also imagery of Houston, also showing parts of this city going under water as the storm surge goes up. A lot of it industrial sections of the city. But it is those images of Galveston that really make your heart stop and really make you realize exactly what kind of a situation we could be facing in that part of the Texas coast -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes, Jeanne. And hard to imagine that so many people are making the decision at least at this point to stay in the Galveston area, counting on the strength, the structural strength of the buildings that they're in right now.

Jeanne Meserve on the line with us from Houston.

Jeanne, appreciate it. Thank you.

We're going to take a break. We're going to come back. And we'll talk to Ali Velshi. He is in Baytown. That is a big oil town south of Houston.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Oil operations along the Gulf Coast shut, closed, locked down. Already, oil prices are up on world markets.

CNN's Ali Velshi is a member, as you know, of our money team, and he is following Ike's impact. He is in Baytown, a big oil town south of Houston.

Ali, good to see you. Baytown is an oil town that I presume is a ghost town right now.

ALI VELSHI, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely right. In fact, we're talking about the fact that I had a toad in my hand a couple of minutes ago that befriended me, and there's some geese around here. But most folks have left.

It's actually not under mandatory evacuation. Part of this town is under water -- not under water, but part of it is low and in danger. The officials here say some of it might not actually get flooded. But I'll tell you, there are 24 oil refineries in Texas, and many more petrochemical plants that make other things out of crude oil. But 24 that make oil into gasoline. And over my shoulder, if Rick pushes in there, you can see that flare. That refinery there is Baytown. It's ExxonMobil's Baytown refinery. It is the biggest refinery in the entire nation.

It turns oil into 590,000 gallons -- barrels of gasoline every day. So that is the biggest one in the country. Around Houston there are eight major refineries, and they are either shut down or in the process of shutting down right now.

The big refinery centers in the United States in this part of the Gulf are Corpus Christi, this Houston area, and then Beaumont and Port Arthur. So they're all very concerned about this.

Now, rigs, you know, they -- rigs and platforms offshore withstand hurricanes relatively well. Refineries have a different story. There's much more vulnerability to these. They're big spread- out places, and they are dependent on not being flooded, and they're dependent on power.

After Katrina damaged a lot of the refineries, there were some that were off line from six to nine months. So this is a major concern.

We've seen wholesale gas prices spike this morning, and Poppy will tell you a little more about that. But they're going as high as $4.90. That's wholesale. That's when people buy gas before they sell it to consumers. So we're seeing gas prices go out.

If these refineries -- they're shutting down. The issue is, do they get damaged? Is power going to be out? Are they going to be flooded?

That's what we're looking at right now. That's the concern.

Some analysis that we have seen right now is that there's a 50 percent chance that about a million barrels of oil will be off line in terms of -- a million barrels of gasoline will be off line as a result of the storm. If it gets worse, if it intensifies, and if it does heavy damage, we could see up to five million barrels of oil off line.

That's a third of all our gasoline that is refined in the United States. And absolutely, you know what that means, Tony. That means gas prices could start to spike.

HARRIS: Yes. That loss of supply possibility offset, Ali, by tapping further into the Strategic Oil Reserve?

VELSHI: Well, a couple concerns about that. As of right now, the government is releasing 130,000 barrels of oil, 700...

(CROSSTALK)

HARRIS: Yes. Yes.

VELSHI: ... to some places that were off line because of Gustav. That wasn't much damage. It has the oil. The bottom line is that those four strategic petroleum reserves, underground tanks, are right around Lake Charles and Beaumont, that area.

HARRIS: Oh, OK.

VELSHI: If that gets flooded, we have issues about that.

Also, Sean Callebs has just let us know -- and we are checking on this -- you'll remember a couple of weeks ago for Gustav, I was over at Grand Isle...

HARRIS: That's right.

VELSHI: ... which is near Port Fourchon, which is the big offshore sort of operation center. The road going to Port Fourchon is in danger of flooding as well. So we're concerned about that as well.

We will be here the whole time, and we'll keep you posted on what's going on in the world of oil refineries and gas prices -- Tony.

HARRIS: Terrific. Thank you, Ali. Thank you so much.

Like a bad dream, $4 gas prices may soon be back. Hurricane Ike is already causing huge spikes, including $5 gas in at least one location.

CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow has our "Energy Fix" from New York.

And Poppy, look, Wedgefield, South Carolina, that's in Sumter County. I think we had pictures earlier that gas there was about $5.23 a gallon. What a spike.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Unbelievable. Can you imagine pulling up to the station to fill up your car and seeing that sign? It's a scary thought.

Ali did a fantastic job explaining to you why you're seeing your prices go up in a lot of cities across the country. He's standing next to the largest refinery.

The whole issue here with Ike is, what's going to happen to all of those refineries that dot the coast of Texas and Louisiana? Gas prices nationwide, they could surge above the record $4.11 a gallon we saw in July. That's what oil expert Tom Kloza says. He also says to expect some places to run out of gas completely.

At some gas stations in South Carolina, we saw prices above $5, as you mentioned, Tony. Kloza says the problems will be the worst in the South and in the Gulf region. But keep in mind, if you live elsewhere, those prices will likely affect you pretty soon as well.

We saw some affiliate video. It shows gas stations running out or rationing gasoline -- you see it right there -- iReporters logging on, telling us there are lines at some gas stations near their hometowns. Oil experts we spoke with saying you may see some stations run out completely.

The reason all comes down to this lack of refining capacity. That includes all along the Texas coast there in terms of the refining capacity.

The big worry, these refineries will flood. That's what we saw after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. That shut down some refineries for more than six months.

The good news, there's a little bit of good news. The industry expert we spoke with said those price spikes in gas should only be temporary. We should be back to normal, whatever that is, by October. But Tony, you can bet September's going to be pretty rough.

HARRIS: You have said it. You know, it seems odd that prices would jump this dramatically. After all, as I recall, oil prices have been falling, Poppy.

HARLOW: Big-time they've been falling. They're around $101.50 right now. They're up slightly today, but not as much as we saw -- in July we saw oil above $147. The problem, like I said, not a lack of oil, it's a lack of refining capacity.

HARRIS: Yes.

HARLOW: Turning that oil into gasoline. Ali mentioned this, we're going to go into it a little here. Wholesale gas prices now stand at about $5 gallon. That's just wholesale prices. Really, we should already be seeing more than $5 gas around the country.

The reason you're not, those oil companies, they're not popular with a lot of people right now, because they're bringing in record profits. Right? That may be why they're reluctant to raise prices. Some companies don't have that luxury. That's why you're seeing gas at $5.23 in that town in South Carolina.

We have Ali out there checking it out for everyone. Also, our iReporters helping tell this story. Please, tell us your story. Log on to ireport.com/energyfix.

But a big concern out there, definitely.

HARRIS: Our correspondents, our iReporters and our affiliates as well.

Poppy Harlow, CNNMoney.com, for us with the "Energy Fix."

Poppy, good stuff. Great information. Thank you.

What impact will the high winds of Hurricane Ike have on downtown Houston? Again, our affiliates throughout the area, KHOU, thank you, KTRK, thank you, providing these pictures and the information to help us cover this story throughout the day, right here in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: So here comes Ike. This massive storm looking like it will be a real history maker. Thousands have evacuated along the Texas coastline. Roughly 3.5 million people live in Ike's potential impact zone. Our correspondent in Galveston, that is Rob Marciano, reporting that about 20,000 people ignored an evacuation order and will ride out the storm. Can you imagine that? Residents have been boarding up windows and doors. Many have secured outdoor furniture and items that can become missiles in a hurricane.

And just check out this pounding surf at Galveston. Forecasters predict tide level to be 20 feet above normal. Extensive flooding expected. Ike is about 200 miles from Galveston and is just huge. Forecasters say people in Houston could experience hurricane winds for 10 hours.

Serious concerns about big oil and petrochemical plants in Ike's path of destruction. You just heard that from Poppy Harlow. You just heard that from Ali Velshi. Let's go live now to meteorologist Reynolds Wolf. He is set to weather out the storm in Clute, Texas.

And, Reynolds, this storm is so big, I have to ask you, it sounds like Clute is absolutely ready and prepared for what's coming?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It sure seems that way, Tony. But we've got a breaking story here that just popped up. And I was going to give you that information.

Just down the road from here, down 288, towards Surfside Beach, we just had four people evacuate. Four people that were now listening to the mandatory evacuation. They were just evacuated. Tony, they were brought out by dump truck. When you wait too long and you get evacuated, you're taken out by dump truck. It happens.

Hey, you were talking about the issue with fuel and chemicals. I want to show you something. Take a look at this. Here's 288. Then right across the road we've got BASF, then you have over there Dow Chemical. Not only do you have those two big chemical areas, two of the biggest in the country, but you also have Shell, you've got Gulf, you've got the Strategic Petroleum Reserve all in this area.

We're going to take you to another camera. We've got another camera on the second balcony. That's being run by John Persey (ph). And he's going to give you a great bird's-eye view of this. You can see the top. You see a little bit of flame there. The flame is not from a building on fire, but rather they're burning off some of the excess chemicals they have.

The main objective for these chemical companies today is to seal everything off, to make sure that in case you have the flooding here, which is a very real possibility, that you're not going to have any spillage. That these chemicals are not going it get out and not only inundate the population around here, but also the farmland.

This is an area where you have 2,500 farms. We're talking ranches. We're talking about cotton. We're talking about corn. We've got a lot of crops here. Even hay that feeds many of the livestock that you will find up and down parts of the central plains. So that is going to be a big issue.

Now in terms of that evacuation. Let's talk about that for just a brief moment, Tony. We have 70 percent of Brazoria County that got up and moved out, right along 288, continued to march northward. Much of the county is empty with the exception of that 30 percent of the population. They're hanging on because they don't feel all that confident with getting out into the open elements, moving north and being exposed on the freeway, which is also a real possibility.

But when you're talking about a storm that is 800 miles wide, that is moving right towards the Texas coastline, the best thing to do is get moving and get move quickly. You know that well.

I'm going to send it right back to you.

HARRIS: Absolutely. All right. Reynolds Wolf for us in Clute, Texas. And look at this behind me here. I mean it's just massive.

Let's turn now to our meteorologist Jacqui Jeras as the CNN magic board.

And as we do, Jacqui, want to show some pictures from the Galveston area just a moment ago, fresh in to the CNN NEWSROOM. And take a look at this road. Essentially being washed out right now. There does come a point, doesn't there, when there's just no opportunity, no more time. The window for you to evacuate just closes.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. Absolutely. And, you know, that window is closing now in terms of some of the roadways getting covered up by water and that opportunity then closing in very short order as soon as those tropical storm force wind gust arrive because you can't make it over bridges when the winds get strong enough and then you also can't do any more aerial rescues. And we've already been seeing some of those rescues actually over in this area on the Boulevard Peninsula and over towards High Island.

So here's Galveston. And we've been seeing some of these areas already covering up with water. Bayou Vista area getting covered up there with water, as well as Tiki Island, which is right in there as well.

And, you know, we're talking about not just the water issues, but also wind is a big part of this storm. It is a monster storm. And when you take a look at this, you know, Galveston down here, Houston up here, it's only about 50 miles or less of a distance. And the hurricane force winds on this storm go out about 115 miles from the center of the storm. So the satellite image right there showing you how big the storm is. Already getting those bands of high cloudiness all the way up towards the Dallas area. So that means there's going to be a much larger area impacted by strong winds and they're going to be under these hurricane force wind conditions for a much longer period of time. We're talking 10 to 12 hours.

So you put this map together showing you where the worst of the winds are going to be and who's going to be impacted by them. There you can see Galveston. There you can see Houston. A this is a big red area where we're expecting category two winds, maybe category three gusts even at times as this thing moves inland.

So this is a very large area that's going to be dealing with this. It's kind of the equivalent of an EF-2 tornado that's, you know, 200 miles wide, making its way across through the city. So this is going to be a huge problem for people in mobile homes because those can really only sustain tropical storm force winds before you get major damage with those.

And another big concern is, people in the Houston area, is the high-rise buildings. There we go. So I want to show you the virtual earth map. Here's downtown Houston. You know, when you go up, we tell you to evacuate up if surge is an issue. The higher you get away from the water, the better off you're going to be. But water's not the issue here in the downtown area. What is the issue is going to be the wind. And the higher up you go in elevation, the stronger the winds are. So if you're looking at some of these buildings that could be, you know, 30 stories plus, you add a category to the intensity of the storm.

So if we're looking at category two winds and then you go up 30 feet or 30 stories or so, it will be the equivalent of category three. So we're talking about many, many windows being blown out. If you remember, for example, back in March, the EF-2 tornado that blew through the Atlanta metro area and the widespread damage that was caused by that, that knocked down a very significant structural wall, there's still windows in the downtown Atlanta area that haven't been fixed yet. Look at the tremendous damage. So imagine this like tenfold because this will cover a much larger area. So this is a huge concern.

And also, as we look in the Houston area, there you can see the dome, you know, kind of reminiscent of the Superdome. And remember that the cover of that thing was blowing off as well. So we're going to see damage at all different levels. Wind will be the second biggest issue.

And something else to think about, too, is, you know, insurance issues. A lot of insurance policies don't cover the water problems, but they do cover the wind. Most of the people, the high population, is going to be dealing with major wind issues. So think of all the insurance claims that are going to be issued out of Houston.

HARRIS: Oh, that's true. Yes, absolutely. I just can't -- as I'm watching you, Jacqui, and the I turn around and I take a look at this behind me here and it's just massive.

JERAS: It is. And I leave the weather wall for five seconds and come down to the next floor . . .

HARRIS: And here I am. Yes, here I am.

JERAS: You take over.

HARRIS: All right, Jacqui, appreciate it. Thank you. You know, people are already fighting for food in one place Hurricane Ike has devastated. We'll tell you about that place in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: All right. Look at these pictures now from Galveston. Take a look at this surge.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's come this way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Yes, it's coming this way. And it's coming fast, too. We're expecting tropical storms force winds any time now from Hurricane Ike.

But just take a look at this surge right now. And we're on still very much on the leading edge -- OK. That tells you all you pretty much need to know. And can you believe it, with this surge right now, and we're still so many hours away from landfall. Indications of as many as 20,000 people still in Galveston right now. And we just hope for the best for all of those folks.

We need to talk about the evacuation perhaps a little more now. Josh Levs is following that side of the story for us. And, Josh, what are we seeing anywhere from 15,000 to 20,000 people, according to Rob and others there, who have decided to try to weather this storm and to ride it out. And I suspect you're getting some I-Reports as well?

LEVS: Well, yes, we're going to look at I-Reports a little later this hour.

But as for the evacuations, you're absolutely right. Now let's keep in mind, that means hundreds of thousands of people have left the areas where they were being called on to please leave.

Tony, speaking of images. You just had -- have you seen this? You've got to see this. Let's zoom in on this. This is up now.

HARRIS: No, I haven't seen that.

LEVS: Look at that shot. I hope it translates well on TV. It does.

HARRIS: It does, yes.

LEVS: That is from a seawall. The waves crashing into a seawall there in Galveston. So, I mean, it's pretty amazing stuff.

Now we're just talking about the evacuations. I'm going to keep the camera close in on this board because I want you to see this. The government has made this available. Now you're going to be hearing a lot of key words in the coming days, folks. You're going to hear about Galveston and you're going to keep hearing about Brazoria County. So I want you to understand what we're talking about. This in yellow out here is Galveston. This, in green, is Brazoria County. The government basically made these codes in order to create zones and say, if you're in that section, that's what you should do.

But this is what our Reynolds Wolf was talking about a little while ago. How many people have stayed there. How many people have not also way out here by the coast where they're getting the kinds of waves that we were just showing you.

So, Tony, we were wondering about people who have fled. And there's this cool thing, houstontranstar.org and they have all these cameras available along the path where people were supposed to drive out. And most people have done so by now because as I flip through some of these cameras, what you're going to see is that these roads are pretty much empty now. These are updated live shots of the major highways that were, at one point, what people had to take, in a lot of cases, the bridge across from Galveston Island on to the mainland. We see that largely empty and that's obviously because the evacuation process, as a rule, is pretty much over in most places.

So we're going to keep an eye on this and, obviously, we know that there are some places where people are particularly concerned about safety. Some rescues we're going to be hearing about. And then we've got Elizabeth Cohen joining us to talk about that.

HARRIS: Absolutely. And when you get more I-Reports, just let me know and we'll pop you right back in, all right, Josh.

LEVS: Yes, like 10 minutes I'll be here with that.

HARRIS: Ten minutes? OK. Great.

You know, facing a natural disaster of this magnitude bears immediate concern for people with special physical or medical needs. How best to evacuate them. Joining me live right now is CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

And, Elizabeth, it seems to me the thing you had better have in place is some kind of a plan?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You've got to have a plan because you've got to figure out who are we evacuating first. And the hospitals that I talked to said, the first ones out are the babies in the neonatal intensive care unit. They are the tiniest. They are the sickest. And really one of the big reasons is that if hospitals lose air conditioning, those babies are in big trouble. They cannot regulate their temperatures. So they need to get them out of there. Other patients could tolerate losing air conditioning. Not those babies.

HARRIS: Well, we're talking about -- I think of all the numbers here, we're talking about potentially hundreds, maybe more, people with these kinds of needs. And you've got to be very careful because there are some real ramifications. Things can happen.

COHEN: Oh, absolutely. I mean we're all saying, you know, get out of there, get out of there. And, of course, you know, in, you know, certain circumstances you need to. But there are dangers to getting out of there. You could pull an I.V. line out of someone. That happens. Medication errors. Imagine, Tony, you're trying to measure someone's medication, calibrate it in a moving ambulance or in a helicopter. Things can go wrong. And helicopters, they're the ones that take the sickest patients out. High altitudes can be bad for patients with lung problems. You could even have -- right, you could have lungs, you could have terrible, terrible things happen.

HARRIS: Well, we understand the need to move the people, but I just would think the potential is there for logistical nightmares.

COHEN: Exactly. Because the ambulances aren't the only ones that are trying to get out of there. There's a lot of people trying to get out at one time. And traffic accidents are a huge risk when you're evacuating people. And we all heard the story about these nursing home patients who got stuck on buses.

HARRIS: That's right. That's right.

COHEN: For at least seven hours. I mean, can you imagine?

HARRIS: Yes. They were moved to a convention center and the convention center wouldn't allow them to stay because of liability concerns -- and I'm not casting aspersions (ph) against the convention center, I understand that, but these were clearly people with needs and the buses they were in were not properly equipped.

COHEN: Right. And then they're in them for seven hours.

HARRIS: And they're in them for seven hours.

COHEN: Right. Right. It's an incredible problem. And also, you've got to think about where you're going, where you're taking these people to could actually be worse.

HARRIS: That's right.

COHEN: Look what happened in Gustav. They brought people to Baton Rouge and Baton Rouge had a terrible time during Gustav.

HARRIS: And, very quickly, Katrina was a tremendous learning opportunity. Sad in so many, many ways, but a learning opportunity. You have anything to add? I don't know. I'm hoping things have changed.

COHEN: Yes. You know what hospitals learned in New Orleans, fortify your hospitals because, in some situations, you want to stay there. I was so surprised before Gustav, I called hospitals in New Orleans and said, when are you evacuating? And they said, we're not. We fortified our hospitals. We have extremely sick patients. We are better off keeping them here.

HARRIS: Thank you so much. Yes, thank you so much for that information. Elizabeth Cohen with us this morning.

You know, many national and local organizations are stepping in to help those affected by Hurricane Ike. If you need their services or would like to help, to get involved, please visit our Impact Your World page where you will find more details. That, again, is CNN.com/impact. We're back in a moment.

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HARRIS: You know, we've been showing you pictures from the Surfside Beach community throughout the morning here. We'll probably pop those up again for you in just a moment. Our Susan Candiotti had made her way to Surfside Beach. That community there.

And, Susan, good to see you. I understand Surfside Beach is very near Freeport. But where is it in relation to the big city, the country's fourth largest city of Houston?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's about an hour's drive south of Houston. It's about 50 miles or so south of Galveston, when you come down the coastline.

So it is yet another small, coastal community. It's a spit of an island. Only about, oh, 1,000 people or so that live here. Two thousand on the mainland part of Surfside. And from last night we did a live report from this island. That spot, next to a house on stilts. And at that time, the beach had not yet encroached over that coastal beach road. It has now.

Now the water has come ashore. It is underwater. You have a number of law enforcement people here that are standing and watching to see what is happening and slowly moving people back.

This area has been under a mandatory evacuation order for several days now. So people have had time to get out. The thing is this. We just learned from the police chief, the fire chief here, that there are at least four people who did not follow the mandatory evacuation order and now they have called for help saying, we're scared and we want out.

So this is what happened. This is amazing. The police chief and assistant chief and a volunteer took their guns off their belt and waded -- they're now in chest-high water -- down a street down here that eventually -- I know it's hard to make out on this kind of satellite transmission, but way as far back as you can see is as far as they have to go back there. They are looking for any kind of small boat, fishing boat, rowboats, to commandeer so they can get these four people into the boat and get them out.

Now, if they can't do that, they've got Plan B going here. The fire chief is standing right over here. Here's on the horn and he's trying to get one of the fire boats to come out from this other direction, from the mainland, to get it out here and get that boat down there.

Well, yes, to get a real boat. Because the thing is this. If you try to walk them out, say they can't find a boat back there, there's all kinds of debris floating across this water now. We've seen a refrigerator. There are all kinds of driftwood going by. Obviously, you could hurt yourselves.

So the thing about these evacuation orders, and the assistant chief has said, look, you've got to follow them, obviously. And as you can imagine, when these conditions get worse, they wouldn't be able to carry out this rescue mission. We are expecting to feel some tropical storm force winds by mid-afternoon. So this might be the last rescue they're able to get off.

HARRIS: Boy, oh, boy. Hard to believe, as we look at those pictures, more than half of the Surfside Beach community, we understand, is virtually under water. Water nearing the tops of mailboxes, stop signs and, there she is, in the middle of all of that, our Susan Candiotti.

Susan, thank you.

We're back in just a couple of minutes at the top of the hour.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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