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CNN Newsroom
Covering Hurricane Ike Battering Houston; Gov. Perry Press Conference
Aired September 13, 2008 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We do think the tornado threat is going to be increasing throughout the day today. Little sunshine peeking out there, helping to destabilize the atmosphere. Some dry air has been coming in here. So we think that threat will increase up towards Shreveport and even make it's way on up into parts of Arkansas. The storm is picking up forward speed, that's a little bit of good news. So we're going to watch this thing ripping on up through the nation's mid section into the northeast. A producer behind the scenes, a meteorologist extraordinaire, Dave Hennen telling us tropical storm now. Official advisory. Thanks, Dave, bringing that in. Did you see the winds there? 60 miles per hour, the position also about 15 miles south of Tyler, Texas. So that's your exact location. Good to see that Ike is continuing to weaken, no longer a hurricane, tropical storm. We will likely see in northeastern Texas, still the gusts around 40, 50 miles per hour. We could see some rivaling that too and these bands, they continue to move on shore across parts of Louisiana. Fredricka?
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Ok, a tropical storm now. Ike downgraded from that hurricane 1 and then a hurricane that was category 2, so now a tropical storm but still pretty nasty, bringing a lot with it in the form of rain and wind. Jacqui, thanks so much. A lot of that wind damage can be measured in so many ways, particularly in downtown Houston where some estimates are about a quarter of the downtown Houston buildings have been damaged because of the winds and presumably also because of the rain, but mostly because of the wind. Our Jeanne Meserve is right in downtown Houston. You can kind of show and tell us there, what kind of damage we're talking about. A lot of those glass buildings, shattered, or at least a good part of those glass buildings shattered.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, a couple in particular. We're sort of at the epicenter of the damage in downtown Houston. If we swing over here you can get this shot of the JP Morgan Chase tower and virtually every window is out on the bottom 30, 38 floors or something. I have with me a local man. This is Michael Johnson. Michael lives right across the street. Tell me what you heard last night?
MICHAEL JOHNSON, HOUSTON RESIDENT: It was like 3 in the morning, it sounded like gunfire. These loud pops and I went around the corner, I looked through the window and it was just big panes of glass from the Chase tower crashing into the concrete.
MESERVE: Now you're an architect, what's your theory on why they were coming down? JOHNSON: I think the pressure differential between the fast flowing wind and the positive pressure inside the building caused them to pop out.
MESERVE: Would that explain why they're just out on the lower floors and not on the other floors?
JOHNSON: I think the wind was probably blowing a lot faster between the buildings as opposed to higher up where it was just one building and nothing on the other side.
MESERVE: You have power today, a lot of your friends don't.
JOHNSON: Yes.
MESERVE: What have you been doing?
JOHNSON: Watching college football.
MESERVE: And how are your friends reacting to that?
JOHNSON: They all want to come over.
MESERVE: If they can get here. Thanks Michael, really appreciate it.
As you can see, there's a lot of debris down in the street too. We talked to Mayor Bill White a short time ago. He said Houston will indeed recover. He thinks it's going to be faster than people think. One of the high priorities will be to get all this stuff up and out of the way. Fred?
WHITFIELD: Well that would be very hopeful. That Michael, he's lucky, isn't he? He's got his power yet something like 2 million households and businesses do not have power. Which, as Jacqui explained to us that really amounts to about 4 million people who are in the dark. How miserable? And he gets to watch football still.
MESERVE: I just spent a week or so over in Louisiana where there are more than 1 million households without power over there. They have brought in crews from all over the United States to try and help get that power up. It's a long, long, slow process. And now some of those crews probably are going to be coming over here. It's a lot for the power industry to cope with. They have great cooperative agreements with one another to ump in when there's a problem like this, but when you have multiple issues going on at different geographic locations, it's going to slow it up a bit, I imagine.
WHITFIELD: Oh absolutely. But it's going to take that kind of team work, that cooperative effort, there are going to be other states that are going to be volunteering their help and their resources to help out these Texas communities in any way they can. Because boy, can you imagine four weeks without power? That is beyond miserable. Let's hope it doesn't amount to that.
MESERVE: We're very happy our hotel has power, too. We're happy campers here in downtown Houston, but we're among the few. It's a really miserable existence to live without power. Until you lose it, you don't really understand exactly how much of your life is dependent on that one thing. Particularly when the weather gets out and steamy, as it probably will here in the coming days.
WHITFIELD: That is the harsh reality. I know a lot of folks Jeanne who decided to ride out the storm and decided to stick around. They have no idea what it is to be without power for not just one uncomfortable day but days on end. Our Jeanne Meserve, downtown Houston, thanks so much.
One of the nation's busiest sea ports happens to be right outside of Houston there. We're talking about the port of Houston and that's where we find our Sean Callebs. He's been driving around very precariously. There's been a lot of debris in the roadways there and you've seen a lot of damage along the way Sean. What do you have to show us right now?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're not getting a lot closer to what we're finding is massive flooding, areas like (INAUDIBLE) we just came from El Lago -- just very significant flooding. Neighborhoods are swamped, people completely without power. I want to show you this neighborhood here. It's called Seabrook. We have this thing on broadband so it's going to break up. This place is littered with trees. Trees are down everywhere. You can't believe, it just looks like this area got shredded. Now I'm going to drive a little bit Fredricka, bear with us because via broadband and trees too don't mix terribly well -- we've driven through this neighborhood, every single house has a tree on it, a tree uprooted on -- you can see why. We talked to some people who chose to ride it out and there's going to be some significant removal in this area. I'd say about a third of the streets are completely blocked. Most of the people are coming back into this area are folks who did leave and now they want to come back and check on their houses. Not the houses that are boarded up -- trees everywhere. I'm going try to get to this next intersection because you can just really see how bad it is. It's basically been reduced to one lane.
You see people coming through and they just have a certain degree of disbelief on their faces when they come through here and see this. It's a pretty affluent neighborhood. At least it appears to be. If you're talking about having weeks possibly without electricity -- in this area, we're about 35 or 40 miles -- but we're still pretty out here, out here pretty far, and again, just pine trees, what appear to be live oaks, everything just sheared, thrown all over the place. Not a hint of electricity. Look down that road, now turn to your right just a bit. You can see just massive trees. This is every intersection in this area Fredricka. This is what we're finding everywhere we go. We try to go one way, we get turned around. The authorities are doing everything they can. The widespread devastation is just awe inspiring.
WHITFIELD: Yeah, it really is. All those trees down, it's going to take some time to clear the way. Of course when trees come down, it means a lot of powerlines come down, hence why so many households are without power right now. All right Sean, be careful in your drive there as you make your way around the port of Houston and those communities right there in that area. Much more of the NEWSROOM right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Hurricane Ike is actually now downgraded to tropical storm Ike and it's mostly over east Texas. Now over land mass that's continuing its way across the country. Let's talk about the damage it left behind there, particularly on the coast of Texas. Surfside Beach, just west of Galveston, the good news is that the majority of the residents there evacuated all except for one. I'm not talking about our own Reynolds Wolf who is there perched on that balcony, but he was telling us earlier about the one resident who decided to brave the storm. He did ok but the rest of the city not so good. Reynolds?
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You're absolutely right. You know Fred, I'm coming to you from up on top of Castaway Bar and Grill, I bet you about a week ago, I bet you there were people up here enjoying a great dinner, maybe a little bit more than a great dinner, and they didn't have a care in the world. But here go, fast forwarding it a week forward and everything has changed at Surfside Beach. Hey, for a moment, check out the sign if you will, over there. This is a place known for great steak, great seafood. It's normally opened for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Today, it's going to be closed for breakfast, for lunch and for dinner. You'll see the reason why as we show you this video. Let's go to that right now. This was shot by our photojournalist John Person moments ago. He actually went down this road a bit and got some great video. We're going to be hopefully showing that to you right now. It has just been absolute wreckage in many places. You'll see houses that have just been torn apart by the strong winds, by the storm surge. Cars that have actually survived that storms -- any where from eight to 10 feet in places. Places that in some ways don't even exist anymore. I'll tell you, there are going to be people returning to Surfside Beach hoping to see their homes. Their homes are now part of the Gulf of Mexico.
Come back to me for a moment. I'm going to step out and kind of show you again this structure. The walls, part of it, little fence kind of pushed down. You look off in the distance over here, I don't know if Joel de la Rosa who is our photojournalist here can get a shot of it, but you'll notice some of the houses off on the distance, some of the siding has just been pushed away, not necessarily by the storm surge but by the strong winds. Grant it, not quite as strong as what we had say a little bit farther to the north in Galveston, but still, quite significant, no question about it. We've seen some powerlines have been knocked down. The storm surge as I mentioned certainly did quite a bit. You're going to see things here that aren't quite as they should be. You'll find trash cans in odd places, you'll find oil cans in weird places. It is going to be a weird thing and what's going to be even more bizarre, a couple of days from now Fredricka when people are going to be going right back down the road, trying to find their home, trying to find out what's left and it's going to be certainly a scary time for them. Fred, put the flag up and send it back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right Reynolds, appreciate it. It's going to be a rude awakening for a lot of residents who decide to head back to their home when they get the go ahead. But for now, a lot of these areas are still off limits. Police barricades are still up, they don't want folks to get in trouble and get injured as they make their way to their homes.
All right meantime, let's talk about the whole coastal area. Clearly, a lot of oil refineries that we know. Numbers are fluctuating between 13 and upwards of 17 or even 20 old refineries in the area, which means there are a lot of chemicals in the area. Earlier, we talked with our national security contributor Fran Townsend about how the gulf prepared for this onslaught of the hurricane mixed with these chemical plants.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRAN FRAGOS TOWNSEND, CNN NATL. SECURITY CONTRIBUTOR: One of the things people were concerned with were the chemical plants and facilities. What you see happen about two weeks ago DHS worked with the chemical plants to move out the hazards materials. Those that couldn't be moved out were put in secure storage, and what will happen next is when weather permits, company officials will come in and assess their facilities and EPA will fly aerial missions to look to see if there have been any spills or releases. So that's all well in hand.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Another precaution, don't drink the water in Houston. Officials there tell us that there is no sign of contamination, we heard that from the mayor of Houston earlier but they just want to err on the side of safety. It is safest right now to go ahead and drink bottled water.
Let's talk about some of the other concerns that come following a hurricane of this magnitude. Right after hurricane Katrina, we got very familiar with a man, Lieutenant General Russel Honore. He was leading the National Guard through most of New Orleans. Earlier, I asked you about what would be your biggest concern from the lessons learned from Katrina. Now we're talking about hurricane Ike, now three years later, what's your greatest concern about the response there? What people should or should not do?
LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE (RET.) CNN CONTRIBUTOR: The biggest concern is people isolated in their homes and we don't know they're there. Elderly people or people who may have become ill since the storm started. Very concerned about them that's why we're doing the search and knock now. People that can make signals with flags, or be on their roof, very obvious. It's the ones that you don't see are the ones you worry about.
WHITFIELD: They can't get to the rooftop, they can't necessarily -- elderly, or maybe even the sick who couldn't leave, they can't wave that shirt out the window.
HONORE: Right, so those first responders, their fire departments led by search and rescue teams are making a big effort now to get to those homes before dark. They're trying to do an initial search followed by a more thorough search as the National Guard. They've been moving for San Antonio in convoys this morning. About 45 miles an hour, those big trucks, to get them into the affected areas.
WHITFIELD: And it's tricky getting into those areas. Now we're seeing new images of the National Guard troops leaving that San Antonio area, used to be Kelly Air Force Base, now making their way into the Houston area. They, too, have to navigate all the downed trees and power lines, so it'll take some time. But then how will they fan out to try to perhaps get to those most vulnerable?
HONORE: There are reinforcing National Guards. There were some National Guards left with the local county officials to use with high clearance vehicles for the initial walking in, going in and assessing, and getting people that they could see.
WHITFIELD: They're equipped with things like the bottled water. What kind of things do they have with them to try to bring to the aid of people who most vehemently need it?
HONORE: This is a two phase process. The first phase come in, will have enough bottled water and food to give you a meal and give you a few bottles. That next group is the second group coming in from San Antonio, another 500 trucks loaded, FEMA trucks, National Guard trucks with food, water, to populate those shelters again and do sustaining operations and they're on the way, too. There's a lot of help en route. It's the conditioning right now that's keeping -- the wind -- just getting the first Coast Guard helicopters up within the last hour, they're starting to do search and rescue looks along with the army and the National Guard and the federal helicopters are making that sweep.
WHITFIELD: As we talk about that sweep that's underway, we're also now just seeing some new images coming in from Galveston. This is a place where there are 57,000 residents, we understand about 40 percent, about 20,000 people decided to stay. Now, our crews as well as firefighters as we saw, the U.S. Coast Guard, they're able to now get out and try to assess the damage, but more importantly, get to a lot of those people who decided to stay. These images are really showing us right now the damage we haven't seen through the images, anything about those residents who decided to stay. What do these images say to you? How does this strike you about the kind of debris that's strewn --
HONORE: I would say the homes that are standing Fredricka, what you see here is a man in the street with commercial type buildings. I would say once you go in to the side streets where the homes are, you'll see a lot of roofs missing, any trailer homes have probably been turned over or damaged or destroyed and there will be pockets of people in there who right now, don't have power, probably don't have running water. They will need supplies within the next 12 to 24 hours. That's the purpose of that task force, Ike, which is a combined FEMA, all federal agencies in there, it's state equities from throughout Texas, are pressing hard to go in there and link up with people, give them food and water and get them to a shelter because I would suspect some of those people will not be able to remain in their homes.
WHITFIELD: These are new images right here, live images of the seawall there in Galveston. A very different picture when we talk about debris. It's bunched up here clearly because a lot of the surf kind of pushed it all beside, maybe even a pier, maybe even structures, you know homes or businesses are part of this debris mass right here. When you see people walking out there, kind of gawkers, it's bound to happen. There are still dangers in play.
HONORE: There are dangers, there are wires down. There could be chemical spills. Everything from gasoline stations to --
WHITFIELD: And nails and protruding objects to step on and get hurt.
HONORE: Now is another phase of danger to people. Sometimes we lose more people after the storm to accidents than we lose during the storm. And a great effort was made to get people to hunker down, now people will get out exploring, they'll take the SUV, they'll want to drive through water. About 12 inches of running water will float one of those SUVs. It's very dangerous. Listen to the police. They're doing the best they can. People will want to go out tomorrow and assess their properties. This is going to be an issue and the police and the local judges will control when people come back in for reentry, for look see program. But the first thing now is do search and rescue. Find people alive, get them out there those that want to go and give them food and water.
WHITFIELD: And again, these new images just now coming in. Now, we can really see the surf or what appears to have been a pier that we just saw what was a pier, perhaps. What concerns you about even the U.S. Coast Guard and the search and rescue efforts that are now underway? Rob Marciano said he was starting to hear just about an hour ago U.S. Coast Guard choppers in the air, presumably they are looking for people who decided to stay in their homes or what's left of their homes. What concerns you most about those kind of search and rescue efforts?
HONORE: Right now, we're teetering on the end of the wind. Because sometimes, you get the helicopter up but you can't get the baskets down. We're in a transition now from high winds to the winds getting to a point where people start walking around and they become a casualty. Right now, we need to focus on the people who are isolated in their homes, can't get out because of flooding or people that are elderly or disabled that can't get out. That's what those first responders. They know they're in there and they have to go find them. That is the hard job right now and to do it before dark. Because it's a pretty hard operation to do with downed power lines, to try and do that operation in the dark -- and we still have rain bands coming through.
WHITFIELD: So it's not over yet. General, let me talk to you as well as from the Salvation Army, Major James Taylor who's on the line with us now, oftentimes, you have to coordinate. These agencies have to coordinate, at the same time, you are also working independently. Major, if you can give me an idea of what your primary concern is right now. What's your first line of response at this stage of the game?
VOICE OF MAJOR JAMES TAYLOR, SALVATION ARMY, DALLAS: As the general was just talking about, we have some mobile canteen units that are embedded with the strike teams that are headed down to Galveston and Beaumont area. We will be providing food for the search and rescue teams and the first responders for the first day or so until they are able to begin allowing people to come back in and then we'll release the rest of our canteens. We have about 100 of them in the state of Texas right now from around the region, we'll release them to go into the communities and begin driving up and down the streets and finding individuals who still aren't able to provide their own food and hydration and serve them.
WHITFIELD: Major, the general was just mentioning how even the National Guard, their first line of response, they may have water, they may have things to distribute to people right away. How is it your agency and say the National Guard for an instance are able to work together with the same primary concerns without stepping on one another's toes? You don't want to repeat certain jurisdictions for example while neglecting another. TAYLOR: Sure. The strategy actually began several months ago developing the collaboration that takes place in order to make all this happen. The military has its functions and the voluntary agencies have their own functions. Ours is feeding and hydrating individuals. Most of the victims, but certainly at this stage of the operation, the first responders.
WHITFIELD: And so general, you know, say Salvation Army, a representative with the Salvation Army is the first person that a survivor sees, but their needs are perhaps outside the parameters of the Salvation Army. Will you as different agencies, National Guard, Salvation Army, will you coordinate directly, will you talk to one another about a particular victim or survivor?
HONORE: Absolutely. At that level what they would do is evacuate them. First thing, is get them out of there if they're willing to leave. Because that's always, to try to encourage them to go to a shelter.
WHITFIELD: Operative word is willingness, because you sometimes have a combative person.
HONORE: People don't want to leave their home. Even if they're right on the edge of staying alive, they won't leave their home. The social workers with the Red Cross and the Salvation Army will try to encourage them to go to a shelter where they can get their medical attention. Big thing is to keep people alive. These two organizations, the Salvation Army and Red Cross, those volunteer organizations, as the rest of the country is out watching football, I want them to think about the fact that these two organizations are out there made up of volunteers and operate off donations from the American people. That food and that water the Salvation Army and the National Guard that comes from the donations and the goodness of the American people and American industries. So they will need replenishing in their coffers for food and water to continue this because we're only halfway through hurricane season. WHITFIELD: Right, and this is the peak.
HONORE: There are more coming and the shelters I would suspect will see more people go into them because people's homes are damaged. And the hotels the Houston area are damaged so there are no hotels to go to. So as people homes become to a point where they can't stay in them, they will seek shelter. The need is going to go up.
WHITFIELD: Yeah that's another great point. So Major, what kinds of needs do you have right now that you can call upon the general public and what about your shelter capacity? How concerned are you about being able to house the many people who perhaps are looking for a placed to go? Looks like we may have lost the major. You're there, great. What's the greatest need you have right now?
TAYLOR: It would be a financial need. In order for us to continue to buy the supplies we need for that emergency response. You mentioned sheltering. Most of the shelters are going to be set up either by the Red Cross or by local entities and then the Salvation Army is partnered with them to come in and provide food, so the general's correct. Once these people start coming back in and find out that their homes have been destroyed or they are no longer livable, they have to go someplace. They're going to have to seek shelter at a mass care shelter and that's where we come in with the general public. The mobile feeding as well as that site feeding at those shelters.
WHITFIELD: And again major, as you're talking and as the general's talking, we're now seeing new images that are just now coming in thanks to our affiliate KTRK, this is Galveston. We're seeing now for the first time some structures, residences, trailers et cetera, right there along that ordinarily and fairly busy path. Earlier just maybe 10 minutes ago, you saw some of the first images out of Galveston that involved some of the strip malls and shopping centers and the destruction. Now, you're seeing residences and clearly the roads have a lot of debris getting around. There's a much better shot. It's going to make it difficult for emergency responders to get through as well and what appears to be just ordinary citizens' vehicles getting by. That's presenting another set of problems right general.
HONORE: Help is on the way. That task force Ike has the capability to clear those roads. It has been task organized, ran by Lieutenant General Rodriguez, the general of the National Guard in the state of Texas, has organized that task force so when they go in, they can clear that road so emergency vehicles can get in. They'll come in and reinforce that fire department and the police departments.
WHITFIELD: In the form of something like snowplows? They just essentially clear?
HONORE: To clear those roads and get those major roads open, so then you can get the power assessment done and at the same time, we have air assessments going on with helicopters to reinforce that. Because the idea is to get access to the people. The number one job is keep people alive the next 24 hours and give them the option to go to a shelter until the infrastructure can be put back in.
WHITFIELD: This really is a critical time right now. Immediately after the storm as emergency responders are able to get into these neighborhoods, try to reach as many people as possible. They can't afford to waste any time or lose any time I should say.
HONORE: What you need now is speed. Speed has a value of its own and how do you get speed is good team work. I can tell you from what I've seen, there's great federal, state and local teamwork going on in Texas right now and that's going to save a lot of people's lives because they're moving fast and they're getting in there as quick as they can and they're using all assets.
WHITFIELD: Major, are you already seeing, if you tried to compare experiences of seeing a difference between the coordination of agencies, the response to hurricane Ike versus hurricane Katrina three years ago?
TAYLOR: I think there probably is a better coordination. I know in the state of Texas - the state government took a very serious look at response and made some sweeping changes and improvements. I think there is a much better response. Also, I remember Katrina and Rita were three weeks apart. Two major events that happened in the same region. So you were evacuating evacuees. It was a double shot three years ago. Ike is certainly presenting a real test for the new system. It's working wonderfully. Evacuees got out quickly and safely. We were able to provide them with the sheltering and the feeding that they need.
And as the general said, as soon as the task forces are done with their search and rescue and assessment and the infrastructure is back up, they'll be able to go back home and start taking care of their personal property.
WHITFIELD: All right, Major James Taylor of the Salvation Army, thank you so much. Lieutenant General Russel Honore here in Atlanta formerly of the army and leading the National Guard there post Hurricane Katrina.
Both helping us to navigate the new images that we're seeing in right now out of Galveston, new images you're now seeing after Hurricane Ike has made its way, pummeled the area here. Lots of structural damage, everything from boats strewn about to power lines down, trees down, a lot of structural damage. We have yet to see however, pictures that demonstrate the kind of rescue efforts that are underway of what we believe to be a pretty good number of residents who decided to stay there in the Galveston area. Much more straight ahead here in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right, new images right now coming out of the Galveston Bay area. You're looking at new pictures as a result of our KTRK affiliation there. This is Kima, which is right there in the Galveston Bay area. And you see all of the debris there strewn about in the roadways. Everything from furniture there to appliances and plywood.
Lots of downed trees we've been seeing and images coming in as well as downed power lines and lots of plywood. And still, you see vehicles there trying to negotiate around all of this. That looks like an entire rooftop there maybe of a house and perhaps even resident there right out of Kima, right near Galveston as well.
The destruction pretty widespread. It is terrible. And in Galveston Island as a whole, we are talking about 57,000 residents on a good day. We understand that a good number of residents decided to stay and try to ride out the storm, which we now are seeing in the form of destruction to be an incredibly powerful storm.
Hurricane Ike now downgraded from a Category 2 at its peak when it made landfall there in Texas. Now a tropical storm, but still causing a lot of wind and rain in the northeast part of Texas as it makes its exit from Texas. We expect to hear from the governor, Rick Perry, momentarily as well. When we do get that press conference underway, we'll take that to you. Again look, that's a piano, what's left of a piano right there in the middle of the road there in I believe this town is still Kima, these images that we're seeing from KTRK.
Not far from Kima, not far from Galveston, head north, you get to Baytown, Texas. And that is home to a number of oil refineries, namely Exxon. We find out Ali Velshi there. It is an express of concern coming from Bay Town area, how those oil refineries, these chemical plants will do. But guess what? There are also a lot of residents there. I have a lot of family members that live there in Baytown. You're standing outside of a house right there. Give me an idea of what the damage has been like.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SR. BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we spent the morning assessing the damage here both at the refineries, but as you said Fred, there are a lot of people who live here. This gentleman arrived right about when we did in this area which is very close to the Houston ship channel to find this 90-foot oak tree into his house.
In fact, this area was virtually impassable and it still is. Let's just take a look at what we've got over here on this side. We've got live oaks and pin oaks and post oaks that have come done. This whole neighborhood is filling with that. In fact, our satellite truck is over there because that's about as far as we could get it into this area and roads around us are full of downed trees. Not just downed trees, but there's serious flooding in Baytown. You can see over there, there are some men working. Another tree has gone down on a house next door there. They're trying to cut it down. You can hear the buzz saws, the chainsaws all over the place.
Now as for the refineries, the biggest refinery in the nation is right here. It's ExxonMobil's Baytown refinery. We took a drive by that a couple of hours ago. It's about four and a half feet off of the -- higher than the level of the rest of the place, so it did not appear to be flooded. But we are still waiting for estimates of damage from the 14 refineries that have been shut down in Texas. Fred, 26 refineries in Texas, one quarter of the U.S.'s gas refining capability. We've been getting messages from the oil companies that they are trying to evaluate what's going on. Total damage estimates are between 8 and $18 billion for all of the damage, the insurable damage done to the storm. There is some sense though that the damage to the energy infrastructure, the refineries is less than they thought it would be 24 hours ago.
Also Fred, there's no oil coming in from the Gulf of Mexico right now. That was shut down and as you know, they've got to ship 10,000 workers on shore every time that happens. So they can't get that operating either, so you might see gas prices spike. We saw a six- cent increase in the price of gas today and that was the second biggest increase. The first and second biggest increases were right after Katrina. This is the third biggest increase ever on record today for the price of gasoline, Fred.
WHITFIELD: And Ali, are you able to reveal to us in any way based on maybe what the refineries were able to share with you, or were willing to share with you, what kind of protections are put in place around these oil refineries to fortify that, if you will, for hurricanes with this kind of wind strength and potential water damage so that we don't have a contamination for those oil refineries into the drinking water or even the natural resources into wildlife.
VELSHI: There are three things basically that happen at refineries. Number one, they make sure that if there is damage, that oil doesn't leak. So they've got to drain oil for places. They have to shut down all the possible leak points. Number two, in order for a refinery to run, it has to have power. They have a certain amount of generation on site at all of these refineries. But to refine oil, they need the same power that everybody else uses. And number three, they have to make sure it doesn't flood.
So those are the three things that they look for. They shut them down ahead of time, they are more vulnerable to storms than oil rig platforms are. And by the way, without the refineries, we don't get gas. President Bush by the way has said that they are relaxing environmental protection on the type of gasoline that is made in the United States because gas from other countries is not as clean. But in order to just make sure that there is a flow of gas, they have to relax that so we can import gas if we need it over the next couple of weeks. But they take a lot of precautions, they shut them down. The best news is if they come back and find out there's not much damage, they get them back online in a few days. The worst news is after Katrina, there were some refineries that down for four, five, six months, Fred.
WHITFIELD: Wow, extraordinary. All right, Ali Velshi, thanks so much on that.
And meantime while we're waiting a press conference and statement from Texas Governor Rick Perry, we want to take you now to Washington, D.C. I believe for the FEMA update there, Federal Emergency Management Agency. Right now, Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff. MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY CHIEF: ... tremendous jobs informing their communities and directing response to recovery efforts. And we couldn't be happier to support them as partners. Houston Mayor Bill White had a press conference counseling the public to drink only bottled water or to boil tap water as a precaution due to low pressure in the water system. And again, that might be good advice for anybody. Better to be safe than sorry. And unless told otherwise, using bottled or boiled water would probably be prudent.
A few moments from now, I'm going to be leaving to fly down to Austin at the president's request. I'm hoping and anticipating tomorrow to be in Houston tomorrow and in the impacted zone. As we continue to move forward from the rescue phase into the recovery phase to try to get things up and running in the afflicted communities as soon as possible. I would end by saying this. Although the storm has made landfall and I think if it is not already downgraded to a tropical storm, it will be shortly, it is still a dangerous storm. The system will move into the country with rain that may cause flooding and including flash flooding. It may not be as dramatic as the scenes you saw on television right at the coast, but exercising prudence for everybody in the path of this storm is very, very strongly recommended so that we wind up minimizing the loss of life as much as humanly possible.
DAVID PAULISON, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Thank you, Mr. Secretary. I want to pick up on what the secretary just talked about and that's emphasizing that everyone in the path of the storm needs to stay home. Don't get impatient. Don't try to get out early. In all the hurricanes that I've seen, that I've dealt with, most of the injuries, most of the fatalities come after the storm, not during the storm.
That's generally those people who get out too early and too soon and get in the path of danger. So it's still a very dangerous time. The storm is moving to north Texas and Arkansas. It still carries a lot of wind, a lot of rain, the possibility of tornadoes and lightning. So I want to make sure that people understand very clearly, just stay home. Just be patient, stay in your house and don't go out too early until it is safe to do so.
As the secretary said, our first priority right now is life saving efforts. We're working very hard to do the rescue operations. They are under way and there's a lot being done by all the different agencies. We have a large combination of state and federal responses out there now. We have state helicopters, we have Coast Guard helicopters, we have Department of Defense helicopters all out trying to rescue people particularly in the Galveston area where we have large groups of people who did not evacuate like they were told to do so.
And right now, they are flying over those areas to do an air life. At the request of the state of Texas, we sent one of our type 3 rescue teams and boat teams to assist operations in that area and just of that area to check that area out.
On Bolivar Island and Galveston, Texas, the count right now is up over 120 being rescued. And I'm sure from my last report, there's much more than that. Pennsylvania task force one which is a type one search team is on the scene with 70 personnel, is being transported to the USS Nassau. And that boat has left Virginia and is moving around into the Gulf. It will be a base for us to operate off of. It has a large surgical team, has two helicopters, a disaster relief team and four utility landing aircraft.
So we're going to put that into the Gulf and make sure we have that base there. I told you before we have over 1,000 rescue personnel on the ground. We're responding to these disasters as quickly as we can. A lot of people did not evacuate and so it's going to take some time. So again, just be patient like the secretary said.
There's a lot of the requests for donations and volunteers and I would ask for people who want to do that to contact either the Red Cross or other volunteer agencies and ask what they may do to help instead of just sending supplies without understanding exactly what that is.
Again, the National Family Emergency Registry is up, our locator system, for families and children. And I'm going to give you that phone number. The phone number is 1-800-588-9822. That's 1-800-588- 9822 and that phone is open 24 hours a day to register with that so your family members can find out where you are and you can find out where your family members are. Again, we want everyone to be safe. I know we said this over and over again, but the most important thing is people stay out of harm's way. Stay in your home, let the rescuers do their job. And then when the storm clears and the water goes down, we can go out and start picking up the debris.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have time for just a few questions. When I call on you, I ask you identify your name and your news organization.
QUESTION: Secretary Chertoff, could you give detail on possible deaths?
CHERTOFF: In terms of death, we've heard some unconfirmed reports of a few deaths. I don't want to start to speculate about what the numbers are. We hope it's a small number as possible, but we're going to have to wait and see, particularly as the rescue operations go forward. We were told by the state of Texas that the estimated 2.2 million people did evacuate and Louisiana estimates over 130,000 evacuated, largely from the very western part of the state. I should also say there was some overtopping of some of the nonfederal levees in Louisiana. Most of those seemed to have been managed without an extraordinary amount of flooding, but there was significant amount of inundation in Terrebonne Parish and some issues with pumps there. And we did conduct some rescue operations there, so we'll be working with the state of Louisiana to get that back up again.
WHITFIELD: All right, putting all the emergency responses into place there, Homeland Secretary Chief Michael Chertoff along with FEMA administrator David Paulison talking about all the measures being put in place. From 1,000 rescue personnel to utility landing aircraft that are soon to be in the area. Michael Chertoff will be making his way to the region tomorrow to get a first hand assessment of things. They put out a phone number. I don't know if you heard my conversation with General Honore earlier, wondering about people who are trying to reach their loved ones in the area whose phone lines are down.
Well there is a 1-800 number now in place to register the names of family members so you can try and locate them, 1-800-588-9822. Again that number 1-800-588-9822. That number to try and register family members so that you can perhaps try to locate them once the worst has kind of passed. The danger still in place according to Paulison. He said now is not the time to completely rest your laurels. People need to cease from getting on the roadways to look for themselves what Hurricane Ike did. Again, Hurricane Ike now a tropical storm. Tropical Storm Ike but still in Texas, making its way out of the state, but still a very dangerous situation as officials there try to assess the damage. Much more from the NEWSROOM right after this.
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WHITFIELD: Once hurricane, now tropical storm, Ike making its way soon out of east Texas and into western Arkansas and leaving in its path a lot of wind and water damage. And yes, you probably anticipated it, now, we're all starting to feel the ripple effects in the form of higher gas prices given that Texas is home to some 26 oil refineries. Well Jim Acosta is monitoring all of this from New York City. And we're all being hit in the wallet rather quickly. Some of us even before the hurricane actually hit.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Fredricka. Consumers are concerned about another storm surge now. This one at the pump.
After weeks of falling gas prices, it appears that prices are on the move again at the gas stations and we've seen this over the last 24 hours. AAA's nationwide survey of gas prices across the country shows that they've increased nearly 6 cents in the last 24 hours, that's the biggest increase since Hurricane Katrina. So we do have some historical perspective on this. And many of our affiliates have been out at gas stations over the last 24 hours, talking to consumers as they pulled into these gas stations, sometimes with those higher gas prices going up on the signs as they pulled into the station. Here's a sample of that
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We noticed on TV that the gas prices are going up quickly as they're going up on the sign as I'm sitting here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't even know what it says there. Is he changing it? He looks like he's changing the gas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't hear exactly why. The only thing I heard that you better go gas up now because it's going to be up over a $5.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ACOSTA: Sad to see when you're pulling into the gas station and prices are going up by double digits. State and federal authorities are starting to look at this down in Florida. The governor there, Charlie Crist, held a press conference yesterday indicating that yes, they are starting to hear some reports of people panicking and heading to the gas station, sort of a run on the gas stations, sort of like a run on the bank. But he was urging residents there yesterday to stay cool. At this point, there are no supply problems and that much of this is really just sort of unsubstantiated hysteria. Here's the governor in Florida yesterday.
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GOV. CHARLIE CRIST (R), FLORIDA: I want to assure Floridians that should we find evidence of price gouging, these people will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: That's the governor there responding to some of these gas price gouging reports that we're hearing about. And there are some i-Reports. We can show you pictures that are being sent in from our viewers out there via their phones. And there you have it right there. They're showing these $5 a gallon gasoline prices, Fredricka.
And I don't know about you, but when prices shoot up over $5 a gallon, you can understand why some of these motorists are not just hitting their horns, they're hitting the panic button. But President Bush today held a press conference and told reporters that he is not going to tolerate this either and he has strongly urging the Federal Trade Commission, federal authorities, state authorities, state attorneys general, to crack down hard on these gas station owners who are exploiting some fuel fear out there. Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: All right, well that's going to be interesting to see what kind of results actually come from that. Jim Acosta, thanks so much.
We want to take you straight to Austin now, Texas Governor Rick Perry.
RICK PERRY, GOVERNOR, TEXAS: What the impact of the storm has had on the state of Texas. I think it is clear that it was very significant.
For the past few days, our top priority has been evacuating our citizens out of the path of the storm. And today, we're focused on the search and rescue aspect. And in anticipation of this moment, we prepositioned the largest search and rescue operation in the history of the state of Texas in advance of the storm. There are thousands of personnel in vehicles that were very close into where the storm struck the coast. These were prepositioned. They rode out the storm in those affected areas as safely as possible.
And as we speak, there are elements of this task force that are re-entering Galveston by air, by boat, by ground. Also into Orange County and East Harris County. I know Senator Mike Jackson is here who has a large part of that most severely impacted area. Mike, I want to say thank you for being here and looking after your citizens that you represent.
These first responders that you may be seeing on some of the film footage is a mix of Texas military forces with high profile vehicles. We've got five Black Hawk helicopters that are in route. There are several Coast Guard helicopters. Texas parks and wildlife game wardens with their air boats. There are members of Texas Task Force One in that mix as well, who are trained in fast water rescue.
We want to keep these people in our prayers. Not only those that are being rescued, but those courageous men and women of this task force that are moving into harm's way to save some lives. As you know, as we've repeatedly said that we pray for the best, but we prepare for the worst and I should say fortunately, the worst case scenario that was spoken about, that was projected in some areas, did not occur.
Particularly in the Houston ship channel, but our neighbors in Orange, over in the east side of Harris County and obviously, on the Galveston Island, certainly bore the brunt of this storm. All of those areas are dealing with severe flooding.
In Galveston, the main island's hospital University of Texas medical branch has two feet of water on its first floor. Just two hours ago despite some very rough conditions, we coordinated a rescue operation with the Coast Guard and Texas Task Force One to rescue four patients out of that facility.
Power and utilities are out throughout a number of counties, including Galveston, Harris, Chambers, Orange, Jefferson. And initial reports indicate very heavy damage to the infrastructure.
So until we get the area stabilized, Galveston Island will be closed to all but emergency and first responder vehicles. Residents who road out the storm will be allowed to remain, but will not be allowed back until it is deemed safe. Although we are coordinating the bulk of this rescue operation from here at the state operation center, Texas Task Force Ike mobilized from its staging area in San Antonio, Lufkin and in Houston and they're headed into Galveston as we speak.
They're now headed into those affected areas as well as East Harris County and Orange County to assist with the rescue re-entry and the recovery efforts. Components of this group composed of decision makers from various state federal agencies, as well as the private sector partners will operate from each of the three major impact areas, Lufkin, Galveston and Orange.
I want people to keep in mind that Ike has not left the state yet. It is still doing damage up through East Texas. As it recedes from the coast, we're focusing our efforts on search and rescue. But to all the Texans out there that are either in the path of this storm or situated in its deteriorating eye at this point in time, keep your head down. If you're in an affected area, we're on our way to help you. If you evacuated, please remain where you are and wait until you get official word that you may return to your home. Throughout this process, I am encouraged to see the lengths of which Texans are going to help their neighbors. And it's I think proof again to not just to Texas but to the country that Texas prepared to respond to these types of events and the great heart that this state has for taking care of their neighbors.
And there have been a lot of people working really hard. A number of them are standing behind me. A number of them that you'll never see and you'll never know. But the real work's ahead of us as we start into the recovery of this state.
And I know a large number of the calls that we have had coming in -- have been in Spanish language.
