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Videos of the Hurricane Damage; Red Cross Asks for Donations; Damage Estimates Begin After Hurricane Ike

Aired September 13, 2008 - 17:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: A marathon day for you and for all of our team. Fred, thank you so much for your coverage. We're going to continue now and talk about Ike's aftermath. It's not over for Texas, not just yet. The monster storm is losing strength, but it is still very dangerous. Our continuing breaking news coverage continues right now. I'm Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
Here's the very latest for you right now about Ike: it is downgraded to a tropical storm. Heavy rains and tornadoes, of course, still remain a threat there. The center of the storm is near Palestine, Texas, as it tracks through Texas and into Arkansas. That will happen tonight. Thousands of structures are damaged or either destroyed on the Texas and Louisiana coast. We're going to talk to you much, much more about that, and with General Honore. He is here in THE NEWSROOM for you as well.

Two hundred people are being rescued from flooded homes in Orange and Bridge City, Texas. I want to tell you, 2.6 million people are without power, and I'm being told by our weather people it feels like 100 degrees there with the humidity. And tomorrow it's going to get even hotter. Many roads remain impassable from flooding, downed trees, power lines and other debris that's still strewn about. Downtown Houston is closed for cleanup, its streets littered in glass and fallen debris.

Officials say the surge was not as bad as expected. But all in all, billions of dollars worth of damage caused by Hurricane Ike, which is now a tropical storm. Let's bring in CNN meteorologist Reynolds Wolf. He is he in Surf Side Beach, Texas. He joins us now. Reynolds, I saw you walking about earlier. There were people still on the streets. Many rode out the storm. What are you seeing there now and what are you hearing from them?

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, the only people we've really talked to that actually rode out the storm was one individual by the name of Ray Wilkinson. He is -- again, stayed here, did not want to be evacuated, road out the storm. He's doing fine, amazingly enough. It's an amazing story. What's even more amazing a story is the desolation. This place is empty. The people who were evacuated when the orders came out, virtually everyone, with the exception of Mr. Wilkinson, paid attention to those words.

I'll tell you something else that's been evacuated, at least from this intersection, a lot of the debris and the flotsam. They had trucks that came through here, or at least Earth movers, and pushed that debris back there. That is a tangled, nasty mess. It's filled with all kinds of flotsam, pieces of homes, docks, you name it, all scrambled up together. It's right there.

Something else we're seeing, Don, a lot of blue lights. A lot of Surfside's finest are here and many other police crews all around Brazoria County are going to be working tonight. There is a curfew that will be in effect for many of these small cities in this county. Kind of a sad thing. In Clute, there's already been -- Clute, Texas, small town, part of Brazoria county, already been reports of some people looting, which certainly is one of the things you don't ever want to see in these situations. But that has been the case.

I will tell you, we've been showing you a lot of the devastation here and there and it has been really bad. If we could, I would love to take you all the way down there at the end of that road. We haven't been able to get down there, because the larger trucks, our big satellite trucks, the ground there is so soft, we can just get to the point where you happen to see -- if you're looking down the road, you can see to the right, there's an antenna that's sticking up. That's part of the fire station. That's as far as we can possibly go.

Then if you turn it around this way, look down this road. Look down this road. There's hardly anything at all to see down here at all. You notice across the inter-coastal water ways, got homes up there on stilts. Everyone evacuated from there. Then down this road, which is also known as the Blue Water Highway, well, it's just dirt road, and you see debris scattered there. God only knows what all that stuff is, just pieces of homes and -- who knows. You take your pick of what it could possibly be.

The water, obviously, subsided. Things are still a tremendous mess. That's really going to be the story for the next couple of days. This community, like many others along the Texas coastline and many places inland, are going to be dealing with the cleanup. It's going to be elbow grease, people getting out there, cleaning up their homes, front yards, helping out their neighbors.

What's amazing, no one's complaining. They're doing everything they can just to stay calm. There are a lot of people that are very anxious, though. Don't be surprised -- I mean, there are a lot of folks that are very anxious about getting back to their homes to see what's left. Many homes closer to the beach, where I will tell you, they're going to come home and it's just going to be cement, just slabs of concrete. Everything has been ripped away, either pushed inland or pulled out to sea. It is certainly just such a sad thing to behold. They're going to be a lot of tears, I'm sure, over the next couple, when people come home and find what's left.

LEMON: Absolutely, Reynolds. Very well said. I can see just behind you there -- I see the street lights. i would imagine the traffic lights, they are out. Electricity is out there. How much -- you said the road was closed a little bit. You couldn't get that far down. How much of the town have you been able to go and survey and look at damage? And then also electricity? No electricity there or some parts with electricity?

WOLF: None whatsoever. No electricity whatsoever. I'll tell you something else, not only are there 1.3 million people without electricity in the state, you've got to keep in mind, Don, a lost these trees you see around me -- now these trees, you'll notice, the palm trees, they seemed to handle this pretty well. But you have Texas Live Oaks in this area. Many of those trees, very tall -- when I say tall, it's very hard in Texas, at least in this region, to find a tree that's taller than 50 feet. But you'll have trees around 40 feet, or so, the Texas Live Oaks, very shallow root systems. With those big, broad, broad branches, almost like a giant sail on a clipper ship. When you have those strong winds, it pushes down those big trees. When those trees snap over other power lines, we're going to have even more outages.

So when I give you a number like 1.3 million people without power, I have a feeling we haven't seen the end of that. We'll see the number probably jump up a little bit more before things get better.

The first part of your question you were asking. We do have some video that photo journalist John Person (ph) had that he shot a while back. He was able to get back and get some great pictures. I will tell you the pictures, it is just amazing to see them. You've got houses that have been crushed into other homes, water is still up -- hi guys -- up about a foot or so in some places, hasn't fully receded yet. And there are -- say for example -- things where they're not supposed to be. You'll find, for example, washing machines in front yards or cars that have been turned over in their side or partially submerged in water. It's just a big jumbled mess. It's like imagine a kid with a play set of something, having a tantrum and getting his fist and just bashing that play set; that's pretty much what you have in Surfside. That's the best way I can come to describe it. Maybe with a glass of water poured on top, mixed in with sand.

LEMON: The irony of all this, I see everything littered around you, Reynolds, and then right there, the sign, welcome to Surfside Beach, Just over your shoulder and look at what you get when you get there. Reynolds, we'll be checking back with you. Thank you. You're doing a great job out there. Thank you very much, Reynolds. Check back with you in a little bit.

Meantime, we want to talk about Houston, which was just slammed hard by Ike, devastation everywhere. They're a testament to the hurricane's 100-plus-mile-an-hour winds that blew threw before dawn this morning. It will be a while before the so-called energy capital of the world gets up and running again. CNN's Jeanne Meserve has the latest from Houston, that hard hit downtown.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've spoken to the mayor of Houston and to county officials. They tell us, as far as they know, no storm-related fatalities here or serious injuries. The name of the game here is property damage. The best example is behind me. This is the Chase Tower. If you look over there, you can see that virtually every window was blown out of this building from the ground floor on up to the 30th or 40th floor. The things you see hanging out of the window, glistening there, those are Venetian Blinds that have been damaged by the storm. They look a little bit like Christmas tinsel from our vantage point. The building right across the street is also seriously damaged. One theory is that the roofing material on that building blew off, went into the tower and then back and forth across this street, damaging windows in both those buildings so severely. You can see over here another building, just a block away, completely unharmed. So some damage down here, some of it looks pretty darn bad.

We've talked to the mayor and the county official and they say there's a lot of tree damage elsewhere in the city. Police told me about a neighborhood where he saw one single tree down across three houses. The mayor said even he had a couple of trees down on his property, including one across his deck. There also is some flooding down on the interstate highways, also in the Clear Lake neighborhood of the city. Also, there are concerns here about the water system. The pressure is low. They have seen no signs of contamination. But the mayor is asking people to please use bottled water or not run their tap, to try and keep the pressure up to keep that water system functional and pure. That's a major concern here.

But the major story from Houston is a good one, in the sense that there do not appear, at this point, to have been any deaths in the city, but it is going to take time to clean it up. The mayor says he doesn't know how long it will be, but he's hopeful it's going to be fast and faster than anyone thinks. But power will be an issue. He says that could be several weeks to get back to the city. Back to you.

LEMON: Unbelievable. Jeanne Meserve standing in the streets of Houston Texas. Just unbelievable what that looks like.

Meantime, I want to tell you, we're awaiting for a press conference, some new information in just a bit. There you see the live picture. That's from Galveston, Texas, our affiliate KPRC. it's Houston. It's Houston I'm being told now, not Galveston. So we need to take that Galveston, Texas, font that we have down. Again, Houston, waiting for the mayor there to start a press conference to update us on a little bit. Mayor Bill White, I'm being told by producers, will have a press conference to tell us about what Jeanne Meserve just talked about a little bit, and update us on the very latest on getting power back, the number of injuries and possibly deaths, also those downtown buildings, the windows being blown out and what have you. All the latest information from Houston's mayor in just a little bit.

In the meantime, we want to turn now to our weather expert right here in the CNN NEWSROOM, Chad Myers, joining us now. Chad, this thing really blew a ton of water all across the lower part of that state and it's continuing to go up now into Arkansas.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Correct. That's the fresh water you're talking about. It actually blew a lot of salt marshes in the marshes, as well, into Lake Charles, into places east of Galveston, over High Island, all the way to way to Beaumont and Port Arthur. Here's where the rain is now. Those red boxes, those are tornado watch boxes. That's the biggest threat from Ike right now, will be tornadoes. In fact, there are nine tornado warnings going on right now. I can't tell you all about all of them, because I don't have that much time.

If you are in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma even, you could see tornadoes today, and another one right here east of Kalamazoo in Michigan from a completely different system altogether.

So where's Ike? It's a 45-mile-per-hour storm. And in the discussion, they're even saying, the hurricane center is, that this is barely a tropical storm. And probably the next advisory it will just be down to a depression, 105 miles east of Dallas, Texas, though. There it is. It still looks it's got some kind of organization to it. But it will be fizzling and falling apart and moving quickly to the northeast, all the way up to New England probably by the end of weekend, beginning of next week.

Hey Don, I'm going to show you the most boring weather map you could possibly see. Look at that! That's every plane in and out of Houston. Zero. Every plane in and out of Beaumont, Galveston, zero. Not much airline travel going on there. That's going to put a big crimp in Continental. We'll see if they can get that back up and running by Monday, because that's a major hub for them.

LEMON: It certainly is. I got to tell you, Chad, day before -- actually, yesterday, we were in Louisiana doing some press for Ike there, and the interstates coming into Louisiana from Houston, packed. Even the day before, they were packed with people getting out. And the airport, everything sold out in Baton Rouge and points anywhere between Houston and Baton Rouge and beyond. Unbelievable people trying to get out. You say no planes and it won't be for a while.

MYERS: Well, they have a lot of cleanup to do just on the tarmac itself, and plus you have to worry about the gates and all the water and is there water -- you've got to make sure the fuel is good. There's a lot to go before they open these airports up.

LEMON: All right, Chad Myers, standing by, checking the very latest information. Chad, we appreciate it. We'll rely on you a lot throughout this hour. We also want to hear from you, our viewers. Make sure you join in on the conversation. You can also follow us and add your voice on iReports.com. And you can go to MySpace, Facebook, all of that, and get in touch with us, but also Twitter.com/DonLemonCNN and we will respond to your questions, get some of those questions on the air, as well, information you might need. If you have, you can tell us any of your storm stories, or you know anybody in the storm, make sure you go, Don -- Twitter.com/DonLemonCNN. Also go to iReports and our webpage here as well.

Well, gas prices are spiking in Ike's wake. Many people are seeing those prices go up right before their very eyes. How did the hurricane impact on the offshore rigs and offshore refineries? How did it hit? What is it doing to Texas? We'll check in with our Ali Velshi for the very latest in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. Of course, CNN is your hurricane headquarters. We have continuing rolling coverage on this story. We want to take you now to some live pictures. Take a look at this. This is from our affiliate KHOU in Houston. These are pictures coming from Houston, Texas. And I'm looking at them just as you are looking at them. This is what appears to be, to me, a boat dock or someone's backyard. Let me get Chad Myers to weigh in on this as well. Chad, Houston devastated by this storm. You heard from Jeanne Meserve just a short time ago. This appears to be a boat dock, Chad, that we're looking at. Weigh in on these pictures and help me describe to our viewers exactly what Texas is going through, Houston, I should say, and what's happening right now on the ground?

MYERS: KHOU now, they're trying to get down to Surfside. That's where they're taking this helicopter. Every time they find some damage, Don, they're putting it on the air. They're stopping the helicopter and they're zooming in on it. You'll kind of notice that the pictures are a little bit hazy. The reason that that is because they're forced to fly at 2,100 feet, because where they would usually fly, between 600 and 1,000 feet, that's where all the emergency helicopters are flying now.

So they've raised the helicopter up about 1,500 feet or 1,000 feet higher. So when they zoom in, the pictures look a little more hazy than the clear shot. But as they go down toward Surfside, we'll find a lot more damage, because Surfside is one of the many areas that had the mandatory evacuations that if you don't leave you will certainly die kind of place, and that's where they're headed to now, Don.

LEMON: Surfside, that's where Reynolds was hanging out just a short while ago and telling us about all the damage there. He said absolutely zero power, and we know at least four million people, and it could get worse, in Texas without power. But as you look at this, all of this, obviously marshland, wet areas and all of that water causing flooding as well. We talked about fresh water and salt water. We apologize, of course, because of what's going on, you know we can have technical problems.

MYERS: These pictures are going to come in and out once in a while. That's just what's going to happen. But when we get pictures like this, aerials tell the story, Don. That's always the case.

LEMON: Look at the water level there. Can you see where it went up.

MYERS: You know what you see there, too? You see the fact that the ocean side is higher than the bay side. We found that a lot in Galveston, where that big sea wall that they built -- and they brought in tons and tons of sand back in the early 1900s, that that part by the ocean is higher than the place back behind on the bay. And the bay side flooded first, obviously, bay side there on Galveston Island got almost 12 feet of water on top of it last night.

LEMON: These are live pictures. That's why they keep going in and out. We want to show you this, because we're getting these aerial pictures, and it's important for our viewers to see this as it comes in. I'm going to get -- General Honore is standing right next to me. He is watching this as well. These are on tape. This is of course the interstate, interstate 45, north to Dallas. Look at all this water bubbling up here. We talked about that storm surge, you know, from Louisiana on over to Texas. Both the general and Chad can weigh into this. But look at these live pictures of what we're getting in, just unbelievable devastation. Even though these homes were up on stilts or raised above the level of the water, there's still damage.

Look at that. That's obviously wind damage there, general.

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE (RET), CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, what you have here is a cooperation between the media -- this is a local news helicopter. In the Pentagon we used to call this CNN intelligence. The local government has allowed this news helicopter to go up and take those aerial photos, because right now, all the search and rescue helicopters for the National Guard and for the Coast Guard are busy before night fall going and reconaissancing (sic) all along that coast, along those islands, the vulnerable areas. They back up the sheriffs with the aerial view.

But this is great work being done by this television station to provide information of what's going on around. Only those media helicopters have those kind of cameras that can immediately broadcast that out. In a few hours, you'll see the rest of the system come in and you'll be able to take reporters up.

LEMON: Stand by, general, because I want Chad Myers when these pictures come back up, to talk about this. Chad, you saw -- the weather people can examine exactly what was happening with the storm when you see the damage, whether it's rough damage or what have you. You guys can examine these pictures and talk about the ferocity of the storm. From what you're seeing here, what are these pictures telling you?

MYERS: The winds there were 95 to 105 miles per hour. That's what that looks like. That like an F-0 or F-1 tornado. Sometimes -- this is a fact of Katrina and Rita -- sometimes when a hurricane makes land fall, the local weather service office will literally call a tornado warning even though there are no tornadoes anywhere near it. But the damage will be tornado-like. That didn't happen last night but that looks tornado-like.

You can't tell whether that building there lost its piling, whether the there was erosion below the piling and the piling fell, or why. But you can see, if that building was that close to the ocean, there was water in the first floor. I'll tell you what, you stand in the ocean and get hit by a three foot wave. It will knock you down. Can you imagine what a 10-foot wave will do to a house?

LEMON: It's just unbelievable.

MYERS: Those are slabs.

LEMON: Used to be homes.

MYERS: They may have even been on pilings, with the slabs below the homes. That's probably more likely. And those didn't survive. LEMON: When we hear, General Honore -- we hear the National Weather Service and FEMA and all these people saying, you know what, if you don't get out, you're taking your life in your own hands, and mark your Social Security number on your arm or somewhere on your body, so we know how to identify you. When you look at those pictures, does that validate what the officials were saying?

HONORE: Absolutely. You've got a combination of wind damage, coastal areas, surge coming in. We talked about that surge. When you see those flushed out platforms where homes were, that is a combination of wind and water that washed that -- because some of them, there's no debris there. That water came in and washed the home away.

LEMON: You're watching the CNN NEWSROOM with General Russel Honore here. Chad Myers our weather expert as well. Don Lemon here.

HONORE: Look at that home, built on stilts.

LEMON: But still --

HONORE: -- standing.

LEMON: But it looks to me -- I'm not sure if it's the design of the home, but that one -- I guess it is. It looks like just the roof was standing. But man, I can only imagine last night what these homes in this area -- if people did decide to stay here, what they were going through, if they did survive it. It was an horrific evening. I can only imagine, general.

HONORE: It would be a lifetime story. A lot of the debris that came in from the ocean here and possibly some also -- some demolished homes.

LEMON: Chad Myers, again, we look at these pictures. Did you say an F-1 or F-2 tornado this looks like? Do we know for sure now whether this is all hurricane damage or if it spawned -- that tornadoes did some of this?

MYERS: There were no tornadoes last night. No, this is all hurricane damage. This is surge damage. This is some wind damage. What I said was that this damage can be tornado-like. And so a 105 mile tornado will do similar damage to a hurricane. The only problem with pay 105-mile-per-hour wind in a hurricane, it lasts for hours. It doesn't last for two minutes and then move away. It's damage on top of damage. You lose one shingle and then you lose ten. Then you lose a board. Then you lose the roof. And it goes downhill from there.

LEMON: The reason I asked, hurricane, as you know, Chad -- you're the weather expert -- they can spark tornadoes. I'm not exactly sure.

MYERS: We've got seven warnings going on right now in Louisiana, all the way up to Arkansas. LEMON: OK, these are pictures. Many of these pictures we are getting in, the first live pictures, aerial pictures, of the assault, Ike's assault on Texas. We're looking at -- what you're looking at now, these are pictures on tape. Earlier, just a second ago, live pictures from our affiliate KHOU, the devastation that this now- tornado (sic), which is now a tropical storm, caused all across this area, and is now making its way up into Arkansas and points north.

Rob Marciano is live in the Galveston area, one of the spots hit hardest by Ike. He joins us now, next, to tell us what's happening there.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. We're about a quarter mile from the beach. And, well, we've got storm surge that just doesn't want to go away. Behind me, you see this block completely under water. In spots, it's waist-deep. Some of the people like, almost the majority of the people here in Galveston, did not leave. As a matter of fact, this home, the first home you see there to the left here, this couple, they decided to ride it out. And we talked to them. They said they regretted it. They had to climb up into their attic because the waters were coming up. And they rode out the storm that way. And they said that was not fun at all. And obviously their front yard or at least their walkway to the front yard is still underwater. It's going to take some time to drain.

And across this major thoroughfare, a similar sight as far as things being underwater. What do we have here? We have the fire department finally got out today once the winds died down to do some search. Search structures, check them out, clear them, call EMS if there's any survivors in there that need medical attention. They only got to 42 structures here on the island. They did find 27 survivors that they managed to get to shelters.

Of those structures, 17 of which were completely collapsed, of those 17, ten were ruined by fires. There were a number of fires that happened here during the storm. Those numbers sound OK. But one thing we have to remember is that this island is 32 miles long. And you get to 11 mile row, basically, the first 11 miles is dry. Past that, you can't go any farther because the western half of the island is still under water. The island that is closest to Surfside, which you guys have been recently talking about.

So officials obviously concerned about what they might find on the western end of the island. And they'll have to wait for most of the water there's to slowly recede before they can get at those houses and clear those homes and give the all-clear. But as of right now, here in Galveston, no fatalities.

So that's the latest from here. It's been a dry day, for the most part, obviously a direct hit, with the eye coming right over this area. The storm, the sea wall did pretty good, Don. Built just after the 1900 hurricane, it did very, very well. So there was some damage, for sure, but for the most part it held up, and the folks that did ride it out, at least these folks, survived. We'll have to see what happens on the west end of the island. LEMON: Rob Marciano, quick question for you. I watched your coverage last night and I saw that flood wall you were talking about, all the water really coming across that wall, but also the people riding this storm out. You said there were no fatalities there. And it is surprising considering just how strong the storm was.

MARCIANO: Yes, and how big it was. We've got a long way to go, Don. Officials are very cautious to say that they have to clear every house, and they have to wait for all the waters to recede before they can give the all-clear on that number. We certainly hope that number is held to zero. On the other side of the bridge, on Boulevard Peninsula, over towards High Island and Crystal Beach, we're hearing some things coming out of that area, none of which is official, none that we want to report on at this moment, but news from there might not very well be good.

So this story will continue to unfold here in the coming days and until this water completely recedes and they can do a complete evaluation of every structure that's been affected. Then we'll know the real story.

LEMON: CNN's Rob Marciano, thank you. Stand by, we may have to come back to you within the next hour to check in on you, because we want to talk to the Red Cross and maybe can you help us out with that. You were talking about all the clean up. You know the Red Cross is there anytime we have a national disaster. Our Rob Marciano in Galveston, joining us with that. Thank you very much, Rob.

We'll go to the Red Cross in just a bit to talk about the clean up, how they're helping and really how big this task is of getting help to folks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: All right. CNN is your hurricane headquarters. We are tracking all the latest developments on what is now Tropical Storm Ike.

We want to get you to some live pictures. What you're looking at here on the left, that is coastal Texas, around the Galveston area. All this devastation that's been happening along the coast there. And on the right, this is Plaquemine's Parish in Louisiana. And they have major flooding going on. There's flooding on many of the coastal parishes in Louisiana. But Plaquemine's Parish with Gustav, which was just over a week ago, really had some problems.

I want to bring General Honore in to talk about that issue.

You see these pictures from Plaquemine's Parish, all this flooding. You have been speaking to officials. I know that you have been speaking to people because I asked you about the National Guard. And had you on my tour with them just a couple of days ago. Were there any breaches of levees in Louisiana because of Ike?

GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, CNN ANALYST: Yes. There was some -- some of the private levees in lower Plaquemine's Parish were breached. The people quickly worked on it. They worked on it to try to save as many as they could, but there's some damage here. In Plaquemine's Parish there is some degree of flooding in smaller communities near the Phillips Petroleum plant down there. So that has happened. The state has that under control. They're working that hard. And they were able to save as many homes as they could.

LEMON: That's a concern, because we have been hearing a lot about fuel prices and a lot about the energy, the rigs and what have you, out on the gulf coast. When you have -- last week when I was there, it was Conoco in danger of flooding in St. Bernard's Parish. And in Plaquemine's Parish you have all of this flooding as well and you mention Phillips.

Look, General, at these homes here under water. They were inundated last week for Gustav, and now this is blow number two, in less than two weeks later.

HONORE: And that is Plaquemine's Parish you're showing there now?

LEMON: Yes, and those were the bridges over the waterways last week in Louisiana, many of -- the spill way was closed for some reason, the.

HONORE: Absolutely.

LEMON: The Bonnie Car (ph) spill way was closed.

HONORE: That's last week's footage.

LEMON: I believe these are live pictures. Are these live pictures?

These are taped pictures. Is this from last week or now, guys?

UNIDENTIFIED CNN EMPLOYEE: Just shot today.

LEMON: Just shot today we're told. Just want to make sure.

HONROE: That is something else.

LEMON: There was just shot today, General.

HONORE: I think the piece we want to speak to is that the surge had an impact on Louisiana, the lower parishes. They are still out there assessing it, and we hope to have someone on from the state headquarters from Louisiana that can give us more details.

LEMON: You're looking at the emergency officials on the ground there. Many of them did not leave after Gustav. And they're having to re-up now and do this all over again. I'm sure from this that there were evacuations in these areas. If not, people will have to leave, because they cannot live in these homes in Plaquemine's Parish.

HONORE: We've got issues here. I've heard and seen on print down in Terrebonne, some issues down in Calcasieu Parish, the lower part of Calcasieu's and Cameron Parish, some homes inundated by water from the surge.

LEMON: All right, General.

And our Chad Myers is listening as well.

Chad, I'm sure this speaks to how big, how wide, what was it, like up to 600 miles wide?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It was.

LEMON: If it can do this all the way over to Louisiana, then this was a giant, giant storm.

Chad, hang on one second. We're getting live pictures in now, if we can go to that.

These are live pictures from Surfside that we're looking at right here. There we go -- just in to the CNN "NEWSROOM." Surfside, many of these pictures coming in, you see that is pool pictures, pool feed coming in from our affiliates all across the area. The general was explaining how they let news media go up very shortly after storms. They pick one person and then they become pool. They provide these pictures for the television stations and also for FEMA and the government so they can assess the damage.

Again, this is Texas. We were looking at Plaquemine's Parish in Louisiana before. Now we're back to Texas. Let's talk about what we're seeing on the ground here in Surfside.

Let me let Chad Myers get in here and talk about, General, on the ground here in Surfside.

MYERS: This flight is over the Blue Water Highway, 257. And they've flown now from Surfside. They've tried to take us a littler further to the north. What they're going to do eventually is get us all the way to south Galveston Island, where there was not that sea wall. Remember, there was a building, with four little peaks. I'm following this flight on Google Earth. Before the storm, there were six peaks to that house, and now there are only four. Obviously, the other two are gone.

But there is going to be damage all the way up. and the farther we get to the north, I believe, Don, I believe the damage is going to be worse, because you're going to be closer to the eye, as we fly north and fly north and fly north.

LEMON: In a way, this is obviously way more powerful than Gustav, but the damage that Gustav provided for Louisiana, you didn't get as much down south in New Orleans. You got more in -- higher up in the state, north Louisiana, Baton Rouge and what have you. This is doing the same -- not that Galveston was spared, obviously, and Houston.

MYERS: When you see Galveston, it didn't get spared.

LEMON: But you're seeing up north you believe the damage is going to be even greater than what we're seeing now?

MYERS: We're south of Galveston Island here, still in Surfside. As we fly north, up toward Galveston, it will be worse. When we get over -- over to the peninsula, you will see High Island and it is going to be a wreck. Then we'll go farther north yet, almost to the Louisiana-Texas border. and there's the surge up there, I know was pushing 20 feet and it went right over those barrier islands and those barrier peninsulas and right up into Port Arthur, into Bridge City. Those areas there are still trying to recover. And they're still trying to rescue people from the high water because this water doesn't go away in one fell swoop. It takes a while for this wash to go away. It doesn't just slosh in and slosh out.

LEMON: Stand by, Chad Myers. Also, General Honore standing by.

And we also want to go to -- since we're looking at these pictures and looking at all this devastation, just how widespread it is, we want to go to Christi Harlan. She is the spokeswoman for the American Red Cross joining us from San Antonio. She can talk to us about really the depth of this and just exactly what resources the Red Cross will have to use in order to help these people out.

Are you there, Christi?

CHRISTI HARLAN, RED CROSS: Yes, I am, Don. Thanks for having me.

LEMON: Are you able to see these pictures?

HARLAN: Yes, I am looking at the pictures.

LEMON: When you think about what the Red Cross has to do, the task at hand, what goes through your mind?

HARLAN: I'm glad -- seeing Plaquemine's Parish, I think your viewers would be interested to know the Red Cross is still serving the people affected by Gustav. In fact, I started in Mississippi 17 days ago with the Red Cross where we have many Louisiana residents and we still have folks in shelters in Louisiana. And we're preparing shelters here in Texas. We know that once the damage assessment is made, just like you've been describing, the emergency responders are making, we'll make our own damage assessment. And when it's safe, we'll be prepared to serve shelters closer to the coastal areas. But it's just a testament to Red Cross workers. I'm impressed by everyone I've met. That we've been on this for 17 days now, and we don't go away.

LEMON: I have to tell you, on -- I think it was on Wednesday or Thursday, when I went to -- Wednesday it was. When I went to Louisiana, there was -- the entire plane from Atlanta to Baton Rouge, was filled with Red Cross workers. Many of them going in and swapping out workers who had been there for 14, 15, 16, 17 days, as you said, on the ground. So the Red Cross really is working very hard here. And now you've got this double whammy, so to speak, here.

I want you to talk to people about the importance -- obviously because we want to help the Red Cross out -- about helping the Red Cross, especially when it comes to funding, so you can help people who are devastated like this.

HARLAN: Well, the fact that we've had three hurricanes back to back, we were also in North Carolina in time for Hanna. We've -- that didn't do as much damage as it could have. But this is -- this underscores why the Red Cross asks for donations to support the general disaster relief fund. In fact, we have Red Cross workers responding to the train accident in California. So when you give to the general fund by calling 1-800-red-cross or www.redcross.org, you make it possible for us to be here.

We've got one million meals prepared to ship out. General Honore will understand the MRE, the Meals Ready to Eat.

LEMON: I'm glad you said that. He is standing by here. Real quickly, because we've got to get to other stuff we have here, Christi, but the general is standing here with me and he wants to ask you a question about this.

HONORE: Christi, I'm a Red Cross volunteer.

It's important to note that, Don, the majority of people doing this work are Red Cross volunteers. Red Cross operates out of the goodness of the American people, the people around the world donating so they can feed the people. The Red Cross's mission is to keep people alive. Give them food, water, counseling, medicines and let them get back in their homes.

So they woke up this morning with 20,000 people they were feeding in shelters. I think that number will go by a multiple of ten, as all of these people will not go back to their homes and some who didn't evacuate will have to leave. This is going to be a big job for the Red Cross, Salvation Army and faith-based to feed everyone they meet. Money is sorely needed by the Red Cross.

LEMON: Very well said, General Russel Honore.

Christi Harlan, the spokesperson for the American Red Cross, and our Chad Myers, all three of you please stand by.

We're getting new pictures in to the CNN "NEWSROOM," of the latest developments when it comes to Tropical Storm Ike, which was a hurricane, just a short time ago. Pictures we haven't seen that are coming in now, just starting to assess the damage. It is not over yet by any mean, folks. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

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LEMON: CNN is your hurricane headquarters. We're following the latest developments on Tropical Storm Ike, not over yet, downgraded to a tropical storm. But they're just now uncovering all of the devastation from this monster storm that rolled through Texas. And it's now making its way north to other states and points in between that. OK. These are live pictures now from Sea Isle, Texas. You can see all of this water that Chad Myers has been talking about, the bay side, the ocean side. He said, it looks to him -- I don't want to misquote Chad. I'll bring him in a little bit -- like the bay side had more damage than the other side.

Is that correct? Did you say that, Chad?

MYERS: (OFF MIKE)

See that a little north into Galveston. We see that a bit farther south. They're flying back over San Louis Pass again, getting a little bit farther to the south to show this side. Our helicopter is over Sea Isle but we're looking back over to where we were.

But yes, on the west side, there was more flooding because it's a lower side than the east side where the dunes are and where they built up the beach, manmade beaches.

LEMON: All right, stand by, Chad Myers. I'll bring you in a little bit to talk about the latest track of the storm.

But as we look at these pictures on the coast here in Texas, we want to move now to Louisiana. Like Louisiana, where's Louisiana in all of this? This storm was so wide that it caused damage in Louisiana. And it caused that storm surge, caused flooding, especially in Plaquemines Parish, which was very vulnerable after Gustav came through two weeks ago. These pictures that you're looking at now, Plaquemines Parish, very devastated.

General Russel Honore mentioned a short time ago there was some concern because Phillips, the petroleum plant in that area, and then homes just completely inundated by water. And you see all of these rigs here. This place is a major place for our offshore development, the coast of Louisiana.

Look at that fan boat there going through one of the coastal canals, going through Louisiana. This is how folks get around in Louisiana when there's flooding and also in the shallow bayous and marshes of Louisiana because there's no motor that you have to put down in the water. It's fan. It's fan-propelled. So they're looking at all this, all this information.

As we look at these pictures from Plaquemines Parish and also Texas, we'll go to an I-reporter in just a second.

I want Chad to talk quickly, before we go to the I-reporter, before we go to a person who rode this storm out, talk about the track of Ike, where it is now and what can we expect from it?

MYERS: It's about 100 miles east of the Dallas moving into Arkansas quickly. And this thing is really, it's starting to haul now, probably 20 miles an hour. It will be in New England by Monday morning. It's not going to put down the 20-inch flooding rainfalls you can see when a storm stalls. this will just move right on out and spread its rainfall everywhere. It will also spread its tornadoes. Just since you went on the air, and I went off the air, now we're back on, five new tornado warnings have printed off, in Arkansas, Louisiana. They're going to be in probably on up into Missouri as well. There's a couple in Michigan but for a completely different reason. If you're in these areas today and you know there are these storms -- some of these storms will be spinning because the entire system is still spinning, Don.

LEMON: Look at that. Look at these pictures. It's amazing to see this. As we said, the planes can not go up, right, Chad, because of the winds and what have you. They were grounded for a while. We're getting all these new pictures in. As you know, after any natural disaster like this, or hurricane or tornado, we don't often discover just how bad it is until sometimes a long time after when people start assessing the damage and we start getting access to places where we didn't have access before.

MYERS: Right. Aerials always tell a huge story on what they are, and obviously the aerials are telling the story in Plaquemines Parish and aerials tell the story here. From this height we're not seeing very much, just kind of seeing very much, water-logged islands. When they zoom in, you can really begin to see the toll the wind took on the buildings, as the surge took on some of the buildings in Surfside.

It appears up here near St. Louis Pass, there is some damage here. But these homes were really sturdy buildings to withstand that 105--mile-per-hour wind last night, Don, these are pretty sturdy stuff.

LEMON: Chad Myers, our severe weather expert, tracking everything.

We've got Russel Honore. He's an expert when it comes to weather as well, especially cleanup and what folks need to do, what the government needs to be doing. He is standing right next to us and giving us all the very latest information from officials. And I can tell you, is he also working on trying to get someone from the governor's office in Louisiana. They were just up in a helicopter, assessing the damage. The flooding of what's happening there. They were inundated twice by all of this.

And then we're going to go to D.J. Knight, who rode the storm out with her children in Texas. These are her words, "It was a very scary night." What was it like riding through the storm? She'll join us in a minute.

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LEMON: Welcome back to CNN, your hurricane headquarters. I'm Don Lemon.

We're following the latest developments on Tropical Storm Ike. I want to take you to -- I guess, we can call one of our I-reporters, someone on the scene who rode this storm out. Here name is D.J. Knight. She lives in Pearland, Texas, which is located right between Galveston and Houston. Again, what she says about this was -- and this is her quote, "a very, very scary night at home with her two children." She joins us now by telephone.

Aaron is 11, right, D.J.? Colin is 15. Aaron is your daughter -- Erin is your daughter and Colin is your son?

D.J. KNIGHT, CALLER: Yes.

LEMON: The question I've got to ask you right off the bat, you heard the officials say, you're taking your live in your own hands if you stay. Why did you ride this storm out?

KNIGHT: I had made up my mind that if the storm strengthened into a three over Thursday night, I guess Thursday night, we would have left. Because it was still a two, I didn't think it was going to be as bad, but it was horrible. It was horrible.

LEMON: Go on.

KNIGHT: The windows looked like they were going to explode. It just wouldn't stop. The eye, I guess, didn't go over us, we were just on the wall and it never gave us a break at all.

LEMON: Do you regret staying behind now?

KNIGHT: Well, unfortunately, I don't regret it. I know better next time, that at the first possible chance, I have to board up my windows. My windows were not boarded up.

LEMON: You wouldn't do it again?

KNIGHT: No. If it's three or above, definitely not. If it's a low two, maybe, but I would definitely board up my windows. I was there when the leaking started happening because of the shingle damage. And I was able to save some stuff. So I do -- But it was very scary. For my kids' sake, I couldn't sleep at all last night, I was afraid the windows would break and glass would shatter everywhere.

LEMON: Your daughter did not fare well during the storm?

KNIGHT: She got very sick to her stomach when the winds started very bad and started vomiting. I gave her some Benadryl so she could calm down and sleep. And she did sleep the rest of the night, for which I'm very thankful because she would have been freaking out.

LEMON: How are they doing now, both your kids, Colin and Erin?

KNIGHT: They're good. They're good. It's a lot of damage everywhere. It's just amazing. And the fact we don't have air- conditioning, which we live by, it's hard.

LEMON: What do you want the folks to know what you're dealing with there? You have the world's attention.

KNIGHT: Say prayers for us because we don't know when we're going to get electricity back on. I honestly don't know what to expect as far as grocery stores being open. I did buy a week's worth of groceries. If it's two or three weeks -- I feel for the people who were in New Orleans, I really do.

LEMON: We can tell you what to expect here and will continue to tell you throughout the evening on CNN. We'll be covering this just as long as it is warranted. We'll tell you to expect long line, no electricity, FEMA with ice, points of distribution, called PODs. That's all in your future next week.

D.J., best of luck to you and your kids. Thank you.

KNIGHT: Thank you so much.

Sights and sounds of the storm. More amazing video and pictures and stories that you haven't seen. New video coming into the CNN "NEWSROOM" every second now.

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LEMON: All right. As we look at all the latest pictures coming into CNN from Ike, all over the gulf coast in Texas, I want to get viewer feedback. We solicited that a few minutes ago, twitter.com/donlemoncnn.

Here's some of the responses that we have been getting.

We spoke to D.J. a short time ago, who rode the storm out with her kids. One person tweeted -- that's what we call it -- does she realize the psychological damage to your kids? Why would you put your kids through this terrible incident, just being honest here?

Also, Chad Myers, a question from someone on twitter. What is the temperature during a hurricane? This is from Lalia (ph). What is the temperature during a hurricane? Are reporters freezing out in the rain all night?

MYERS: Probably the temperature at the surface where they are somewhere around 78. It is still tropical. The problem is you are soaking wet with cold rain falling out of the sky. It is probably 55 degrees, falling out of the sky. When you get wet and the wind blows 100, I don't care what kind of stuff you have on, you have the wind- chill factor and you are sitting there shivering. I have been sitting out there with my teeth chattering at 78 degrees. You just can't believe that's even happening.