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Gadhafi Family In Algeria; Hurricane Irene Flooding; Irene's Impact On Wall Street; Irene Creates Travel Backlog; Hospitals Return to Life; Luxury House of Horror; Governor Perry's Impact on GOP Field

Aired August 29, 2011 - 13:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I am Randi Kaye. Glad you're with us. We start off with the aftermath of Irene. People across the East Coast and into Canada are still feeling the effects. For those of you who think Irene was a dud, well, tell that to the families of the 21 people who died in that storm and to the people who lost their homes.

And the estimated $10 billion price tag for the disaster is nothing to sneeze at either. Irene may not have been as bad as expected in some areas, but it was even worse in others. Take Vermont, for example, much of the southern part of the state is under water. Just a short time ago, President Obama declared a state of emergency making Vermont eligible for federal disaster relieve.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It will take time to recover from the storm of this magnitude. The affects are being felt across much of the country including in New England and states like Vermont where there's been an enormous amount of flooding. So, our response continues but I'm going to make sure that FEMA and other agencies are doing everything they can to help people on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: I want to show you something now. Check out this video from Vermont that shows the power of Irene destroying -- there you see it, one of the state's treasures, the covered bridge, the Bartonville Bridge built 1870. You can see it there pushed around practically like it's made of popsicle sticks. But that is just one area's dilemma.

Take a look at this amazing video shot by one of our iReporters in Mandel, New Jersey. These military vehicles were heading to help people in the flood zone, look at that struggle they hit. They can normally make it across rivers, but this time the water was too much, and yes, they sure got stuck.

In North Carolina's outer banks, ferries are slowly making it to Hatteras Island where a couple thousand people are still stranded, that was where Irene first made landfall over the weekend as a hurricane. Many people along the coast are just getting back to their homes to see the damage. And remember this, millions of people are still without power, millions of people. People all across the New York and New England area are being urged to stay home for at least one more day.

Now, let's get you to Vermont, whereas I said, the president has declared a state of emergency. Much of the southern part of the state is flooded. Vermont's governor said it just wasn't practical to evacuate ahead of Irene. So, let's bring in our Gary Tuchman from Bradelborough, Vermont. Gary, first of all, what did the governor mean by saying that it wasn't practical to evacuate that area?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He is absolutely right about that, Randi. I mean, most of the population of the very small state lives nears creeks and brooks, and those were the creeks and brooks like this one that have turned into rapids, and you can see.

So, it would've been very impractical to say, OK, everyone needs to leave in the creek and brook area, he would've evacuated the entire state of Vermont to Canada or New Hampshire because this whole area was so wide, the hurricane and tropical storm area.

Look what this particular rapids has done to this building. This is an artists' studio, 15 artists worked in here, painters, sculptors, a yoga teacher. This used to be 10 feet wide, this brook. Now, it's a rapid that's about 60 feet wide. There used to be a swimming hole right there, so a few days ago kids were swimming there, now there was actually an explosion of water, the building is about to collapse into the water, it's going to come down, no one is now being allowed in there.

Remember you said the death toll's at 21, we know it will climb higher. That's what the governor here in Vermont just told us. He said there are active searches going on in mid-state for people who are missing and possibly presumed dead. They also have confirmed one death, a woman 15 miles west of here slipped into a very gentle river most of the time, but it wasn't yesterday when she kind of slipped into it. Her body was recovered today, and the official death toll here is one, but the governor told us he expects it to climb higher. Back to you, Randi.

KAYE: And Gary, I understand that the national guard has also been called in to help, and how has the emergency response been? How's it going there?

TUCHMAN: Yes. No, it's going very well. We actually camped out here last night, Randi, because it was hard to get in and out of here, and when we woke up when the sun came up, the fire officials, police officials, were already on this block, because the water is no longer on the street, it was yesterday. It's receded, that's what typically happens in a hurricane or tropical storm, but the mud is now at home. So, there's hundreds of millions of dollars of damage.

But one thing that happened yesterday, Randi, that I want to show you when we're talking about the erosion, you see this tree that's now in the brook? That tree was standing straight up, we know it because we were here last night, we heard a boom in the middle of the night, and that tree that's been here for generations is now lying in what was the Whetstone Brook. It is now basically a raging rapids.

KAYE: Gary Tuchman with the very latest for us from Bradelborough, Vermont. Gary, thank you very much.

And now, let's talk about travel. It was a nightmare over the weekend, but now it's starting to normalize, at least a little bit. But first, I want to show you this very cool picture. This is Grand Central Station during the storm in New York City, completely shut down and deserted. Having been through there many times, I have never seen it like this. And estimated three quarters of a million people go through there every single day, and this is what it looked like on Saturday. Pretty amazing.

All right, back to today and some good news for travelers. Trains and planes are back in service, but that doesn't mean the travel headaches are over. Jacqui Jeras joins us now. Jacqui, what's the word from the area's airports and from the airlines as far as travel goes?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, things are moving and that's the good news, Randi. I know LaGuardia, JFK, Newark are all open and operating. We do have one closure right now, Cheterborough (ph), that remains closed. And Caldwell in New Jersey was closed, at least earlier today. This is our flight explorer machine, and it shows you all the airplanes that are in the air as we speak. They are either arriving or departing and moving across the U.S. Right now it's showing some 5,600 planes in the air, so that's a pretty common number this time of the day, compared to this weekend when there were about 3,500 planes in the air. So, a big difference there.

So, things are moving and grooving. Most of the New York metro airports were open to arrivals, that means people were going into the airport this morning. And as of noon, let's take a look, we were supposed to have departures coming out of there. So, there you can see, yes, looks like LaGuardia we've got a number of different planes making their way across the U.S. Got a couple of thunder storms that they're going to have to move around there.

So, progress is being made, that's the good news. A lot of the flights are back on schedule today. All of the airlines are reporting now that they're going to be full schedule by tomorrow, Randi, and then they're also considering adding additional flights throughout the week. They say it's only going to take a couple of days before everybody who was delayed is going to be able to get back. And you guys might be stuck with me again tomorrow, because Rob Marciano can't make his way back. He got a seat from New York City back to Atlanta, so it's affecting all of us.

KAYE: I wouldn't say stuck. It's a pleasure to have you. But I also want to say, you know, a lot of people don't want to deal with the hassles of the airport, maybe they're thinking about taking the train. How is that looking?

JERAS: Everything's moving for most of the trains. As far as I understand, the subway system is back open and operational, so certainly making a lot of progress. You know, there were a lot of trees that came down, there you can see power lines that came down, so it is going to take a couple of days for some of the lines to open back up, but it's my understanding most of the majors are back up and moving.

KAYE: All right. Good to see them making some progress there. Jacqui Jeras, thank you very much.

Well, we've only shown you a fraction of the great video and the pictures sent into us by our iReporters, folks just like. So, be sure to log on to CNN.com for more images and information Irene's effect. Plus, check out how you can impact your world and help those devastated by the storm, you can find it all at CNN.com.

Now, here are some of the other stories that we're keeping an eye on today. Remember the cash for clunkers program? Well, The guy behind that idea is President Obama's choice to be chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors. Alan Krueger, Princeton Economics Professor, would replace Austin Goolsbee who decided to leave in June.

It looks like most of us spent a little more freely last month and that's the good news for the economy. A new report today says personal spending was up almost one percent in July, that translates to an increase of around $88 billion. New car sales may be the biggest reason for that jump.

The Libyan man convicted of blowing up the plane over lockerbie, Scotland, is comatose and appears to near death. CNN's Nic Robertson found Al-Megrahi yesterday under the care of his family in Tripoli. His son says Al-MeGrahi could die at any time. The bombing of the Pan Am jetliner in 1988 killed 270 people. Al-Megrahi was released from a Scottish prison two years ago and returned to Libya on compassionate grounds. That move triggered outrage in the U.S. and Britain. We'll have much more on Nic Robertson's exclusive story next hour when he'll join us from Tripoli at 2:30 Eastern time.

The crash of a Russian rocket last week could lead to all the astronauts leaving the International Space Station soon. Just a short time ago, a NASA official laid out plans for the remaining six space station dwellers to come home by mid-November. That's because they could run out of supplies. The spacecraft carrying tons of supplies crashed after launch last week. The investigation could delay new shipments from making it there in time. There are two (INAUDIBLE) crafts already at the station that would be used for the evacuation.

And we're just getting word that polygamist leader, Warren Jeffs, is in critical condition. Prison officials in Texas say he was hospitalized after refusing to eat . As you know, Jeffs was recently convicted of sexually abusing under-aged followers of his sect.

And now, I want to take you back to Vermont, we heard from our Gary Tuchman just moments ago, but now we have the Vermont governor, Peter Shumlin, he's joining us now from the on the telephone. Governor, thank you for your time, I know you're in the midst of cleanup there in your state. How are things going?

GOV. PETER SHUMLIN, GOVERNOR, VERMONT: Well, we're making some progress. But truly Irene -- Hurricane Irene really whacked us hard. So, we're in for a long haul here. We're still searching for missing people. We've had one loss of live, we expect we're going to have more. We have communities that are totally isolated because we can't get in by road or bridge that washed out. We have over 250 roads in this state or bridges that have -- that have given away. So, we're fully challenged.

KAYE: When I spoke with you last night, actually, here on CNN, we talked about these high water vehicles that were coming in and going to be used by the National Guard to make some of these rescue efforts. Have those been successful at all?

GOV. SHUMLIN: They have. The National Guard is doing an extraordinary job. But as an example, we got them into a little town of Wilmington, where I'm going to be landing shortly by chopper with Senator Leahy and general duty in a minute, and we had to bring them in through the state of Massachusetts in order to get them into the area of Vermont that we needed to get them into. So you know, we're getting where we need to get, but we do have communities that are isolated. We just landed in a little town of Ludlow where we have 200 people that can't get in or out on either side of the road. And we have more devastation than we've ever seen as a result of flooding. You know, Vermont's not a tropical state, we're a northern New England state used to skiing and cool summers and we don't usually get tropical storms so this one has really whacked us hard.

KAYE: How many people do you think are isolated that are still needing to be reached?

GOV. SHUMLIN: Hundreds.

KAYE: And are --

GOV. SHUMLIN: It's a little hard -- sorry, I'll go back on this. We certainly have hundreds of people still isolated. It's hard for us to know, frankly, because we can't get to all the communities that we need to get to.

KAYE: And how will you find out where they are? Is cell phone service working there or are these folks out of power as well?

GOV. SHUMLIN: Well, we have massive power outages and cell service is working, but you know, we're a small rural state that doesn't have universal cell coverage yet. So, we're challenged when it comes to communicating as well. But you know, the National Guard, the Red Cross, the FEMA folks are up there, President Obama has just been extraordinary helpful. We have our local law enforcement and firefighters just doing their job, and we're going to get there. And we're going to get -- we're going to -- we're going to get rebuilt.

KAYE: What is the situation with the floodwaters right now? Because some of our iReporters have sent us really incredible video and pictures of the -- of the water just flowing so rapidly in your state, certainly, you know, not what you want to see happening. So, how much of a challenge does that remain to be or is it receding?

GOV. SHUMLIN: You know, it's still a real challenge. You know, Vermont is nothing but rolling hills and valleys. And so, our smaller brooks that are now major rivers are starting to subside, but they're feeding into our larger tributaries, the Connecticut River and others, and they have not crested yet. So, we know that we have more trouble ahead as the small rivers feed into the larger tributaries.

KAYE: And is there anything that you need that you can think of from viewers, from the federal government? What might you need there?

GOV. SHUMLIN: Well you know, we're telling Vermonters to do a few things. The first is stay away from downed power lines, because they're lying all over the place. So, the second is to stay away from standing water, because that's when you have loss of life. And third, take people from the shelters and brings them into your homes. We're small communities, we take care of each other and this is the time to reach out to the most vulnerable.

In the terms of the outside world, you know, we've got to get through the crisis but we're going to need all the federal help we can get, and any volunteers that are willing to lend a hand in the cleanup, you know are always welcome and we'd love to have all the help we can get.

KAYE: Are your shelters overwhelmed?

GOV. SHUMLIN: We're certainly at full capacity but we're dealing with it by opening additional shelters.

KAYE: And how about those who need medical attention, what is the situation with your hospitals there in the area?

GOV. SHUMLIN: Well, we are concerned about some areas of the state, but we do have choppers available in New Hampshire and other states have offered us their helicopters, so we'll be OK.

KAYE: Where did you ride out the storm, Governor? Just curious.

GOV. SHUMLIN: Well, I was Montpelier in the center of the state, and that was an area, Waterbury just north of Montpelier that was absolutely devastated. So you know, we haven't seen sleep in a long time, but I got to tell you, Vermonters are tough, we're tenacious, we care about each other, we take care of each other, we've good common sense, and we'll get out of this one.

KAYE: You said that right. It's a great state with a lot of great people. Governor, we wish you the best of luck and please do stay in touch with us over the next couple of hours and couple of days as well. Thank you.

GOV. SHUMLIN: We certainly will and thank you for your coverage.

KAYE: Thank you.

Well, some people are still trapped by flooding in upstate New York. Some of them had actually evacuated from New York City. We'll take you live to the Catskills, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAYE: Breaking news just coming in to CNN. We have just learned that the wife and three children of Moammar Gadhafi are in Algeria. The nation's foreign ministry has confirmed that to CNN. For the very latest on this, we want to get to our Nic Robertson who is standing by there.

Nic, can you tell us what you know about this?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what the Algerian government is saying is that Safia Mohammed (ph), Moammar Gadhafi's wife, his daughter, Ayesha, two sons, Hannibal and Muhammad, both -- all crossed into Algeria at about 8:45 in the morning.

Algeria does have a very long border with Libya in the west of Libya. And the border crossing that they used is quite well in the south of Libya. This south of Libya, at the moment, is believed to be still somewhat sympathetic to Moammar Gadhafi. His -- many people believe that's where he is hiding out. And now we know from the Algerian authorities, many rumors over previous days, but they now confirm that Moammar Gadhafi's wife, Safia, daughter Ayesha, son Hannibal, other son Muhammad, have crossed out of Libya into Algeria.

Randi.

KAYE: And, Nic, how likely -- I know we haven't seen or heard from Moammar Gadhafi himself in recent days. Is it possible that he could have crossed over with them?

ROBERTSON: Probably we would have heard from the Algerian authorities. They probably would have announced that with this announcement. It's not impossible that that has happened and it's also quite possible as well that these family members will prove the route for other of the Gadhafi family. There are still a number of sons -- Saif, Saadi and Khamis and at least one other son yet to -- still believed to be in Libya. So there's a possibility they could follow on and cross.

But it would seem that the Algerian authorities, as far as they know, have given a full account of the family members crossing so far, but not impossible that Gadhafi has gone. Most people here, though, still believe he's hiding out in the country somewhere, Randi.

KAYE: And has there been any sign of his son, Siaf, who seemed to be taking the reigns there of the regime? I mean they have vowed not to leave Libya?

ROBERTSON: They have and that's why a lot of people believe they are still here and that they've gone to the south of the country. I have been in e-mail conversations with Saadi Gadhafi.

KAYE: All right, we seem to have lost our Nic Robertson there, at least the connection. We will get back with him and get much more information on that as soon as we can and we'll bring it to you.

And when we come back, we will take you live to upstate New York where people, some who evacuated from New York City, are still stranded by flooding from Hurricane Irene. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: New York City mostly spared, but the Catskills in upstate New York, not so lucky. You are looking at one of our many amazing iReports sent in to CNN documenting Hurricane Irene's wrath. This is flooding in the Catskills. Lissa Harris, editor of "Watershed Post," joins us now with the very latest on the phone.

Lissa, tell me, what type of damage have you seen around the area there?

LISSA HARRIS, EDITOR, "WATERSHED POST" (via telephone): Hi. Yes, we are seeing much of the similar damage as was being reported out of Vermont. We have wide-spread road damage. We have entire towns whose downtowns have been devastated. (INAUDIBLE). Buildings damaged or destroyed. We have bridges washed out. Both public and private bridges. And -- but there are people that are currently trapped in their homes without access to communications. And there's really no way of knowing how many of them there are.

KAYE: And some of these people, because this is a popular spot for vacation but also, I guess it was a popular spot for those in New York City to try and escape to before Irene hit there. Can you give me an idea of how the rescue efforts are going to get those folks?

HARRIS: Well, every county up here has its own rescue effort. Every county has an emergency management team. And those guys and gals are working overtime heroically trying to rescue people. And I understand they have some help from the state as well.

Communications with the emergency first responders has been difficult in places. And we understand that in some places, in Harry (ph) County, the emergency responders actually had to move their headquarters during the flood because they themselves were threatened. So it's been very challenging to get up to date information out of all of the little rural towns up here where the flooding has hit the hardest. But there is widespread damage. And pretty much the entire Catskills, people are asking -- officials are asking people not to drive and not to try to go around and see how much damage there is. But they are still very much rescuing people.

KAYE: And in terms of supplies, I mean do these folks have supplies? Are there supplies in town? Are the grocery stores open? I mean what is the situation there?

HARRIS: I can tell you what the grocery store in Margaretville (ph) looks like right now. It looks like a wall of water went entirely through it and dumped all the contents out the other side. So there are situations like that.

I think it's too early to say what exactly the rescue effort from outside -- or, excuse me, the cleanup and aid effort from outside looks like, although we will -- we will need these things from the rest of the state and for the rest of the country. And we are asking for your help on that at some point. But for now, I think we just have to let things unfold. KAYE: Lissa Harris from the "Watershed Post." I'm sure it's a very busy time for you as well. We'll let you get back to your newspaper. Thank you very much for your time and the update.

HARRIS: Absolutely. And please follow along. We have readers posting updates from their towns who have no other way to communicate with the outside world, posting on watershedpost.com.

KAYE: That is a great thing you're doing. We will certainly follow along. Thank you, Lissa Harris.

Well, stocks are rallying today for a variety of reasons. One of them is reaction to Hurricane Irene. Specifically that the damage wasn't as bad as expected. Alison Kosik joining me now from the New York Stock Exchange.

Hi there, Alison.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Randi.

KAYE: The damage estimates are helping the insurance stocks to rise.

KOSIK: They are. And we're watching those big companies, those big insurers, like Allstate, MetLife, Travelers, (INAUDIBLE). They're all up anywhere between 4 and 7 percent because, you know what, they're breathing a big sigh of relief. You know one analyst puts it this way, Irene had much less bite than bark, and that means good news for the insurance industry because, if you remember, the insurance industry was really hit hard from the spring. You know, all of those storms and tornadoes. And the south and the Midwest, you know, shares of MetLife and Allstate, for instance, took a big hit. They're down 20 to 30 percent this year. You can see that right there. So, yes, a big sigh of relief from the insurance companies.

And, you know, this is also good, Randi, for the broader economy that this storm wasn't the big monster that everybody thought. You know, analysts say consumers can keep going with their regular spending habits instead of being sidetracked with a huge, huge clean up.

Randi.

KAYE: Yes. Alison, I'm hoping that you can help us answer this question. I mean the damage estimates for Irene seem like they're all over the map. Why is that?

KOSIK: They are. Because, you know what, we -- we have yet to get all of the information in. So we go through estimates to start. So the damage estimate, for instance, from the government right now is 1.2 percent. But this only covers wind damage. And, you know, if you think about what kind of storm Irene was, you know, it was mostly, you know, that rain and what it did to the -- you know, swelling those rivers and those lakes. You know, much of the cost from this storm is really going to come from flood damage. So we have yet to even know what the damage costs are going to be for that, because a lot of these bodies of water have yet to even recede. Not to mention, of course, the downed power lines. So then you go ahead and you factor all that in and you get those -- those big estimates ranging from anywhere from $7 billion to $20 billion. And just to give you a comparison, Hurricane Katrina, back in 2005, it had $45 billion in damages. So this doesn't come close. But keep in mind, these are still early numbers. We've got a lot of damage to still be assessed. So we'll keep updating these numbers throughout the coming days.

Randi.

KAYE: Alison Kosik, as always, appreciate it. Thank you.

Well, are you trying to get anywhere? Before you head to the airport or maybe the train station, you want to see what our travel expert has to say amid the mess left by Irene. That, we'll have it for you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Hurricane Irene forced massive cancellations and closures, crippling travel along the East Coast. I'm sure a lot of you are feeling that.

Well, I want you to take a look at these photos. Grand Central Terminal in New York -- yes, that is Grand Central Terminal -- empty. This was posted by the MTA police after the last trains departed on Saturday. It is a sight we never see.

But it gives you a glimpse of the impact Hurricane Irene has had on travel. It just shows you how Irene has halted commuter trains. And that doesn't include flights, buses and subways. I'm sure a lot of you had to change your travel plans at the very last minute. Airports, trains, buses and subways are beginning to open. They're getting back online today in many cities. A lot of airlines are resuming flights to the areas affected by Irene starting this afternoon and tomorrow morning.

But all of these delays, the closures, the cancellations, they've created a huge backlog of anxious travelers.

So how do you navigate around this whole mess?

Well, to answer that, we want to bring in travel expert, Rick Seaney, who is the CEO of FareCompare.com.

Rick, great to have you on.

Glad you're with us from Dallas today.

A lot of folks have a lot of questions, we hope you can answer some of them.

RICK SEANEY, CEO, FARECOMPARE.COM: Sure.

KAYE: We're hearing that some people are being told that they won't be able to get to their destinations until later this week. What can they do about that, if anything?

SEANEY: Right. They're being told, typically, through an e-mail they're getting from some sort of automated system that may rebooking their ticket for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.

You do not have to live with that rebooking. Get on the phone with somebody really quickly. If you're heading back home, if you're already halfway on your trip and you're heading back home, just get out of the city. You have literally tens of thousands of people trying to get on a small number of flights.

Go to Chicago. Go, you know, go to Dallas, go south, whatever you can, just get out of the city.

From those places, they can get you on another flight. The problem is getting all these tens of thousands of folks in the Northeast on those flights. So if you're actually heading out and they've canceled your flight or refunded it, you're going to get a refund. So you have to make a decision on whether or not you're going to want to take your trip or not. I would get in a car or train and head south a little bit, trying to find a ticket out of there if you absolutely have to go on your trip.

KAYE: Let me ask you this, is it better to hold onto the ticket that you have or should you try and rebook yourself?

I mean how does it work in terms of priority?

SEANEY: Yes, no. Well, there's a couple of things. First of all, if you're not an elite member of an airline, there is a pecking order.

So if you bought your ticket a while back and you're not an elite member, you're going to have a much harder time getting on these flights out of the Northeast over the next day or two than you would if you were an elite traveler. So if you're not, just be aware, there is a pecking order out there.

But you definitely want to change your ticket. The airlines are providing one time waivers for both the change fee, which is typically $150 on most airlines, and for the fare difference. So use that one time waiver to change your ticket. Or if you -- if your flight is being cancelled a day in advance, you can go ahead and get a refund right now.

KAYE: I want to look at, with you, the latest update that we're getting from the airlines. We have it laid out for you here. Most airlines, including Delta, American, Southwest, they're allowing fliers to reschedule their flights, they say, without any penalty fees. But we're hearing from one of our reporters, Deb Feyerick, that folks are still incurring some costs.

Can that be possible?

And is there a way to definitely avoid paying extra, certainly after all they've been through? SEANEY: Yes. There could be some potential snafus. For example, if you paid for a bag fee and your flight was cancelled or delayed, new rules went in place last week to sort of do lost bag rules. You should be able to get that fee. That's one thing that could be an issue.

In some cases, on the day of travel, if your flight is cancelled or delayed, on today, for example, you will have to be accommodated sort of in this daily thing. If it was yesterday, there's no problem.

The bottom line is you can always fall back on your credit card issuer. As long as you bought your ticket within a two month period, you can go back and say, hey, I have a dispute with them and then let them sort it out with the airlines. Don't try to fight it out for that $25 or $50. Let the credit card company do that for you.

KAYE: And how quickly can the airlines really ramp up?

I mean could this affect Labor Day?

They're saying no, but might it?

SEANEY: Yes, it might -- it probably won't. The good news right now is that we're in, almost close to September. Kids are back in school. It's a typically slower time period. Tuesday and Wednesday are the slowest days to travel, so there's more empty seats. They're going to be able to re-accommodate a lot of these folks.

The good news is that airlines cancelled a bunch of flights this weekend, so they were ready for this to happen. It didn't sort of catch them by surprise. So they've been planning this out. I expect everybody to be re-accommodated at least by Thursday, which shouldn't affect the Labor Day weekend.

KAYE: All right, Rick Seaney with FareCompare.com.

Great information.

Thank you very much.

A few weeks ago, he was convicted of sexual assault. Now polygamist leader, Warren Jeffs, is in the hospital, in critical condition. We'll tell you exactly why next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Now a look at top stories and some stories that you may have missed.

We have just learned that the wife and three children of Moammar Gadhafi are in Algeria. The nation's foreign ministry confirmed that to CNN. Gadhafi's wife, Safia, his daughter, Aisha, and two of his sons, Hannibal and Mohammed, crossed into Algeria via the Libyan border. Developments continue to come out of Libya. And in about 10 minutes, we'll have an exclusive report from our Dan Rivers. He spent time inside a Gadhafi villa over the weekend. And this is a pretty amazing report that you will want to see.

At least 24 deaths now blamed on Hurricane Irene. The Category 1 stormed turned back into a tropical storm as it moved across the Northeast and into Canada yesterday. Officials believe winds alone inflicted more than $1 billion damage. More than 8,500 people spent the night in shelters. Crews still working to restore electricity to millions of customers. New York's subway service has resumed after being shut down much of the weekend. Airports have reopened, but airlines warn it will take time to resume normal schedules.

Texas prison officials say Warren Jeffs has been hospitalized in critical condition. The polygamist leader has apparently been fasting following his conviction on child sexual assault charges. Prosecutors said Jeffs had sex with underage girls that he had taken as brides.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's new book doesn't come out until tomorrow, but it is already drawing controversy. Cheney criticizes former Bush administration colleagues, including Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and George Tenet. Powell accuses Cheney of taking cheap shots.

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COLIN POWELL, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Mr. Cheney has had a long and distinguished career. And I hope in his book, that's what he will focus on, not these cheap shots that he's taking at me and other members of the administration who served to the best of our ability for President Bush.

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KAYE: In the book, Cheney claims credit for forcing Powell to resign at the end of President Bush's first term. Powell disputes that, saying he never planned to serve the second term.

Well, it looks like Beyonce has a baby on the way. Yes, the singing superstar showed off a little something extra during the Video Music Awards last night. Here it comes, there it goes. After her modestly dressed performance, she opened her jacket to reveal that baby bump. Needless to say, the crowd went wild. There were also a lot of congrats for her husband, who is Jay-Z.

When Hurricane Irene came barreling up the coast, five hospitals were ordered to evacuate their patients before the storm hit. What these hospitals are doing now, next.

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KAYE: Hurricane Irene's wrath brought more than flooding and power outages. It also caused a flurry of chaos, as five New York hospitals were forced to shut down. As you can see in this video, New York City's Langone Medical Center became eerily empty as patients were relocated. Those hospital doors have since opened.

And senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is there with the look at the recovery -- Elizabeth, how are things going? ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, and, Randi, I've I have been watching patients come back into this hospital. I was here on Friday night when they came out. And in both cases, it seems to have gone very seamlessly. They call it transport in the medical lingo. There are no reports that anyone was injured or had a difficult time during the weekend that they were away.

Now, one thing I will say is that hospital executives tell me it is much harder to reopen a hospital than to close it. It took about a day to get everybody out. It's going to take about three days to bring everybody back in.

One of the reasons is that little parts of this hospital did have some water damage. They need to clean that up. Little pockets of the hospital lost their power from ConEd. They need to make sure that's all taken care of. But they will be bringing everyone back over the next three days. Slowly, they'll start to do everything, including elective surgeries -- Randi.

KAYE: And, Elizabeth, from what I understand from some of your reporting, there were some patients who actually stayed in the hospitals.

Were these the most critically ill?

And then how did that go for them?

COHEN: You know what, that also went very well, according to the folks here at NYU. So what happened, Randi, was there were sick patients in ICU who were just too sick to move. In fact, moving them could have killed them.

So they stayed at the hospital and about 200 staff members stayed to take care of them. We're calling -- talking about doctors and nurses and blood bank staff, all sorts of people. And, really, it was -- it was a heroic thing. I mean, in retrospect, Irene wasn't a gigantic deal here in Manhattan. But on Friday, to voluntarily say, yes, I'm going to stay in the path of a hurricane to take care of a critically ill patient really was a very selfless act.

KAYE: Sited, looking back, I mean do the -- do the doctors, do the hospitals think that it was worth it to evacuate?

Did they do the right thing?

COHEN: You know, it's interesting, we talked to executives at two different hospitals and asked them that question. And one executive said, you know what, we did take a little bit of water damage. We did have some electricity out. Mayor Bloomberg did the right thing. He made the right call.

Another executive, actually at a nursing home, said, well, we were totally fine, you know, I think the mayor did the wrong thing. We should have been allowed to stay open. In fact, he said that he transferred some of his patients to hospitals that weren't supposed to have problems but did, but did get a bit of flooding. So he thought that this really was the wrong thing to do.

So I guess it depends on your own experience at your own hospital.

KAYE: Yes, it certainly sounds that way.

Elizabeth Cohen reporting for us.

Thank you.

And be sure to stay with CNN NEWSROOM for the very latest on the recovery efforts.

A life of incredible riches and unspeakable horror -- the alleged torture of a Gadhafi family nanny. Her story and her scars may shock you. It is right after this very quick break.

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KAYE: We still don't know the whereabouts of Moammar Gadhafi, but we now know the location of key family members. The Algerian News Agency says that Gadhafi's wife, Safia, his daughter, Aisha and sons Hannibal and Mohammed crossed into Algeria today.

As for Gadhafi himself, he is believed to still be in Libya and still hunted by the Libyan rebels.

Thousands of rebel fighters are massing on the outskirts of Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, warning loyalist forces to surrender today or they'll take the city by force.

In Tripoli, more evidence is being uncovered of the brutality of the Gadhafi regime.

CNN's Dan Rivers has a very disturbing story of a nanny allegedly tortured by the wife of one of Gadhafi's sons.

And as we mentioned, both Hannibal Gadhafi and his wife are now in Algeria.

We have to warn you, the images in this report are extremely graphic. But we wanted you to see it, because we think it's important that you know what's really happening.

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DAN RIVERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the inner sanctum of the Gadhafi family. Much evidence here of a decadent lifestyle. Now, a rebel commander plays where Gadhafi's sons used to party.

This compound of opulent beach side villas is dripping with every luxury imaginable. It's been ransacked, but still looks like a villain's hideout in a Bond movie.

In one, we find rebels sharing out hundreds of bottles of fine Bordeaux and Cristal champagne, each bottle worth hundreds of dollars. (on-camera): But amid all this decadence, there were acts of unspeakable cruelty. This house belongs to Hannibal Gadhafi. And what went on in here was truly horrendous.

(voice-over): Meet Shwygar Mullah, a 30-year-old Ethiopian nanny who describes how she was horribly tortured by Hannibal's wife, Aline.

SHWYGAR MULLAH, NANNY (through translator): She took me to a bathroom and she tied my hands behind my back and tied my feet. She and taped my mouth. And she started pouring the boiling water on my head, like this.

RIVERS: Her crime?

She says she refused to beat Hannibal's toddler, who wouldn't stop crying. Shywgar says she was actually scolded twice. The most recent episode was three months ago. Her wounds are still raw and weeping. She appears to be in desperate need of medical attention.

MULLAH: There were maggots coming out of my head because she had hidden me and no one had seen me. And then they found me and put me in the hospital.

RIVERS: But then she was discovered and brought back. The guard who helped her was threatened with prison if he took her to hospital again.

Coworkers backed up her account.

MULLAH: I worked for a whole year. They didn't give me one penny. Now I want to go to the hospital and I have no money. I have nothing. She said, "No money for you, you just work."

RIVERS: Is this the true face of Colonel Gadhafi's regime?

Amid fantastic wealth, sadistic brutality apparently meted out even to those trusted to look after the dictator's grandchildren.

Dan Rivers, CNN, Tripoli.

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KAYE: We'll be right back.

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KAYE: Every day on this show we do a segment called The Big Eye. It's about big ideas, innovation and solutions to problems.

In today's segment, we're looking at how DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, is trying to save soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan from traumatic brain injuries.

Also, known as TBI, brain injuries in the field are typically caused by explosions, just like the one that you're seeing here. Invisible pressure waves from a blast knocking soldiers' brains into their skulls, temporarily dazing or even killing them.

According to the Department of Defense, the risk of blast-induced brain injuries has increased every year over the past decade, totaling more than 200,000 troops, which is why DARPA is outfitting soldiers with these -- electronic gauges roughly the size of a small stack of quarters to determine both where soldiers are most exposed to a blast and the severity of the blast.

According to "USA Today," soldiers will wear three -- one on the breast of their armor, one on their shoulders and one on a helmet strap against the back of their necks.

What might be the coolest part, really, about all this technology, data that the sensors collect can be then downloaded via a mini USB port, which could one day give medics immediate reads on a soldier's injuries.

DARPA is reporting that these devices were put into use this summer. And we will update you on their results, of course, as soon as we can obtain them.

And for much more about DARPA's blast gauge, you can check out my Facebook page, Facebook.com/RandiKayeCNN.

New CNN polling gives us further proof that Texas Governor Rick Perry's entrance earlier this month into the race for the White House has dramatically altered the battle for the Republican presidential nomination.

Wolf Blitzer will join us with some new details next.

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KAYE: Well, if you pay close attention to the poll numbers like we do here, you are going to be excited to learn about CNN's new polling numbers.

And here to tell us all about them, CNN's Wolf Blitzer -- Wolf, we've been on pins and needles waiting for this all day.

What do you have?

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": It's our brand new CNN/ORC poll. And it shows Rick Perry is now the frontrunner nationwide, at least among Republicans, for the presidential nomination.

Let's put it up on the screen.

This is with all of them, including some who haven't even announced or may not announce that they're running -- Perry with 27 percent; Mitt Romney, 14 percent; Sarah Palin, she hasn't announced, she's running 10 percent; Bachmann at 9 percent; Giuliani, he hasn't announced, 9 percent; Newt Gingrich, 6 percent; Ron Paul, 6 percent, Herman Cain, 2 percent. You see everybody else basically with 2 or 1 percent or asterisks, for that matter.

Now, if you take Sarah Palin and Rudy Giuliani out of the equation, Perry does even better.

KAYE: Wow.

BLITZER: Thirty-two percent; Romney, 18 percent; Michelle Bachmann, 12 percent; Gingrich, 7 percent. You see everybody else below in single digits.

So Rick Perry, the governor of Texas, clearly has moved atop nationwide. That doesn't necessarily mean for sure he's going to get the nomination. It certainly doesn't necessarily even mean he's going to win the Iowa caucuses or the New Hampshire primary and the South Carolina primary.

It does show , at least at this point, nationwide, he's the top choice among those who identify themselves as Republicans for getting the nomination.

He does better, by the way, with Republican men than Republican women. But all -- pretty well with Tea Party supporters and those who say they're not Tea Party supporters. So Rick Perry is doing rather well right now, given the fact it's only been a couple of weeks since he's formally entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Good news, I think, for Rick Perry. It's going to help generate a lot of fundraising for him. He's going to be under enormous pressure. Though, because the other candidates certainly are going to step up their attacks against him. But I think we'll see some of that coming up in the debates. There's going to be a bunch of Republican presidential debates. We're moderating one, two weeks from today, in fact, in Tampa, Florida. And we'll have all the major Republican candidates up on the stage, including Rick Perry. So we've got some good questions for him now -- Randi.

KAYE: I'm curious, Wolf, what do you think that Rick Perry has done right?

I mean he's certainly a straight shooter when it comes to his talk on the campaign trail.

Do you think that's helped him out?

BLITZER: I think that a lot of conservatives, a lot of Tea Party supporters, but other conservatives, including some mainstream, establishment type Republicans, they like the fact that he has a pretty good record, they say, as -- for 10 years as the governor of Texas. He's created a lot jobs, or at least Texas has created a lot of jobs. This notion that, you know, he's been the governor at this time that the economy there is not necessarily doing as badly as it is elsewhere around the country, so he can -- he can point to some of those successes, although the Democrats and others, his critics, have a lot of -- a lot of arguments saying, you know, he doesn't deserve that kind of credit. Most, a lot of the jobs were not necessarily all that good jobs -- no benefits, stuff like that; a lot of government related jobs.

So there's going to be a back and forth, there's no doubt about that.