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CNN Live Saturday
Aftermath of Hurricane Rita; Tom DeLay Interview
Aired September 24, 2005 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Water worries in southwestern Louisiana and parts of southeastern Texas. Rita is slowly moving out, but not fast enough. Floodwaters are still rising.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And as the rain passes, it's time to assess the damage left behind. There are numerous scenes like this one, all along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. From the CNN Center here in Atlanta, I'm Wolf Blitzer.
LIN: And I'm Carol Lin. We have lots of Special Coverage. We're going to be continuing our Special Coverage from this afternoon. CNN crews have been spread throughout the region, braving the storm, right down from Texas Louisiana Gulf Coast, as well as locations inland. We have live reports from many of these towns. And it's straight ahead this hour. But first we have the latest developments for you.
All right. Right now the acting head of FEMA says the damage caused by Hurricane Rita is not as severe as expected. But flooding has broken out in a number of areas, including Lake Charles, Louisiana. Hundreds of federal troops are being sent to the city, and Army General Russel Honore is expected to arrive later today. The city is under a dusk to dawn curfew for those who did not evacuate.
BLITZER: Fires broke out at the height of the storm, this one in Galveston, Texas. Two fires were reported in Houston. And in Baytown, Texas, a fire at a water treatment plant has cut the drinking water supply.
Overall the damage from Rita appears to be significant, but not necessarily catastrophic as many had feared in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
LIN: Now officials caution evacuees not to go home yet, at least not yet. Maybe in a few days. Traffic now, though, is building on a number of major highways heading into Houston and other parts of the region. You're looking at all these folks who want to go back home.
From President Bush on down, authorities are appealing to people to wait official word that it's safe to return. Above all, they say, do not get on the road without a full tank of gas.
BLITZER: Perhaps the biggest problem right now, the power supply. More than 1 million people don't have electricity, including tens of thousands in the Houston area. Power lines are down in various parts of the region, and they are potentially deadly. LIN: And we're getting a late report of significant damage to an oil refinery in Port Arthur, Texas. That is the first such report of a potentially major hit to the U.S. oil industry. Assessments are continuing, but most of the country's infrastructure apparently emerged unscathed. We continue to follow this part of the story as well.
Now right now, we've been talking about all the rising waters, and that danger is still out there for so many people, especially the people who were braving the storm. Rescues, we understand, are under way right now in the Vermilion Parish near New Orleans. Right now on the telephone with me, Mayor Mark Piazza from Abbeville, Louisiana. Mayor, what can you tell us about people who are still trapped in their homes?
MAYOR MARK PIAZZA, ABBEVILLE, LOUISIANA: Well, we've been having a rescue effort ongoing here for the past several hours. Here in Vermilion Parish, we got hit with a pretty good tidal surge, probably eight to ten feet, and we have several areas of Vermilion Parish that are below that.
And there's a huge rescue area -- rescue effort going on right now. Probably a couple of hundred boats going out to different homes to rescue people. We've got the military here in town helping out. Helicopters are on the way. It's a mess down here. We really got hit harder than expected. And we were well prepared, but, you know, the hurricane took a little bit more of a northerly and easterly jog right at the end. And we got hit pretty hard.
LIN: Right. Louisiana got the brunt of it. How many people do you think are still trapped?
PIAZZA: Well, it's hard to estimate how many people are trapped. You know, they're going through a door to door effort just like they did over in New Orleans, and they're finding people on their rooftops and in their houses that can't get out, that are trapped.
LIN: Do you know how many people have been rescued so far?
PIAZZA: There's been a couple of hundred.
LIN: A couple of hundred, because I know you had a couple hundred boats out. But you rescued a couple hundred people?
PIAZZA: Oh, yes.
LIN: So it seems that a lot of people did not heed the evacuation order.
PIAZZA: There was a mandatory evacuation three days before the storm even got here for everyone south of Highway 14 in Vermilion Parish, and some people just refused to go. And, you know, I hate to see it happen, but maybe they learned a valuable lesson. You know, of course, this is probably some of the most severe flooding that we've had in this area in the past 40 or 50 years.
LIN: Can you describe the scene to us right now in Vermilion Parish? How much water do you still have on the ground?
PIAZZA: Well, you know, it's not so much water on the ground, you know. It's a little different than a levee. There's no levees over here. This is all marshland. And the Gulf of Mexico is about a mile south of Abbeville where it's normally about eight miles south of Abbeville. So that tidal surge came in a good six to seven miles.
LIN: Mr. Mayor, are rescue efforts being hampered by false reports, people calling in to say that people are trapped, but really they just want rescue workers to go to the house to make sure the family evacuated?
PIAZZA: No. No we haven't had a whole lot of that. It looks like the rescue efforts have really been going well. People have been very cooperative. And, you know, they've called in with good reports, the ones that could call in. And, naturally, we've been going to other -- door to door, and making sure that people are not trapped in their houses.
LIN: Mayor Piazza, you're out there helping in the effort, and the rescue workers are saving lives. That's good to hear. Thank you very much.
PIAZZA: You bet. And my heart and my prayers go out to the folks over there in Lake Charles and Cameron and Calcasieu. I know they got hit real hard, too. And we wish them the best.
LIN: We've been showing those pictures, and we share your prayers. Thank you very much, Mr. Mayor.
BLITZER: We're going to go back to Lake Charles right now, one of the hard-hit areas. We've been showing our viewers live pictures via videophone that we've been getting in. Our photojournalist Mark Biello is on the phone with us right now. Are you on the phone, Mark? Mark Biello, can you hear me?
MARK BIELLO, LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA: Yes. Yes, Wolf.
BLITZER: Tell our viewers where you are and what you're seeing.
BIELLO: Yes. We're still positioned and set up here just underneath the bridge. The I-10 bridge that crosses over by Lake Charles in the downtown area where the casino's blind the river here. The winds are still sustained, but have diminished a bit. We noticed also the storm surge of the water here's have dropped about a foot, maybe a foot and a half. So it's not as intense as it was a few hours ago. The winds are still very dangerous, because they're still throwing debris around. And they're still sustained at a continuous strength. But it does seem like it's slightly diminishing a bit at this time.
BLITZER: The mayor has called for a dusk to dawn curfew in that area. Are you seeing people or cars at all on the streets there?
BIELLO: Yes, we're starting to see quite a few of the on lookers driving by in their cars, kind of driving out, a look-see here. They're looping under the I-10 bridge. Now we're not sure if that means they closed it again. They've been closing and opening the bridge, because as these high winds and gusts continue your vehicle can drift, and we were almost blown off the road a couple times this morning coming from Lafayette. And when you get these wind gusts that are sudden, they can pick up any vehicle and just toss you right off the road or roll your vehicle.
BLITZER: We see a lot of those riverboat casinos out there. How much damage do you suspect they sustained?
BIELLO: We haven't seen too much structural damage on them. There has been a lot of flooding in the parking lots and the first floor. We're not sure on the interiors. We're a little bit too far away to see if any of the windows are smashed in. I assume there is some damage to the casinos, but the actual structures themselves seem to still be intact. The biggest damage that we can see at this vantage point is these boats, small marine craft that have broken loose and have been smashed up against the railroad tracks.
BLITZER: What about the damage to the oil refinery business, the chemical plants? I take it that there are quite a number of them where you are.
BIELLO: Yes. Right now we're not in any view of any of the refineries. They're on the other side of the bridge. We have not crossed over there at this time. So I really couldn't tell you how much damage there is on the west side where those oil refineries are at this time.
BLITZER: But Lake Charles was pretty much evacuated as this hurricane was moving in, is that right?
BIELLO: That's correct. That's correct. When we got here, we were the only ones on the road. A couple other emergency vehicles. There was a long line of semi, tractor trailers that did not attempt to cross over this trestle bridge because of the height. It's pretty high up. And there was a tractor trailer that has been pinned up there. I think this happened last night that the winds took it and pinned it up against the trestle part, and it ripped off the top of the rooftop off that tractor trailer.
BLITZER: Mark Biello who is one of our top photo journalists helping us better see the situation in Lake Charles.
Rick Sanchez is also on the scene. I take it you're in a little different location, Rick, is that right?
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Wolf. You were just talking to Mark. He's on the entrance into I-10 as you're coming in from Beaumont. I'm on the other side. I'm right downtown. In fact, what you're seeing behind me is what we saw happen last night, when we were watching this storm come in.
You see this building, it's Hibernia Bank, it's right smack in the middle of downtown Lake Charles. And these glass panes suddenly started popping one after another after another. And it's still probably somewhat dangerous, although the winds have settled somewhat, to even be here, because they come off. And last night when the winds were really whipping, Wolf, we saw these things flying through the air and just shattering. And in other cases, they wouldn't shatter, and they looked almost like frisbees flying through the air, but of course, it's glass. And it really gives you a sense of just how dangerous hurricanes can be, when you have this type of debris in the air. We can show you just this side of it. But if you look all around the building, and it's a very tall building, Wolf, it is, for the most part, destroyed, because the wind has also got inside, and whipped it around and ruined everything that's inside this bank. It's one of the landmark buildings here in Lake Charles.
BLITZER: Rick, where did you ride out this storm? Were you in Lake Charles during the height of it?
SANCHEZ: We moved a little bit, but it got to the point where we couldn't anymore. So we decided to go ahead and try and hunker down somewhere. Let me show you -- Chris, let's go ahead and show Wolf, if we can, the area where we were. There's a garage over here that's actually attached to this building.
See that garage over there? We found a place in that garage that was somewhat secure. Of course, when the winds moved, then it was difficult to find a secure and dry place. But we noticed as we were in there that other people came through, stragglers so to speak, who had not gotten out in time, had tried to get out, and then it was too late. And they were looking for a place, so we ended up sharing that with other people in the community who were either from this area or were trying to drive through this area to get out of the way of the hurricane, weren't able to, and ended up making that a makeshift shelter, if you will, Wolf.
BLITZER: We just spoke to a woman in Lake Charles who rode out the hurricane with a few of her friends and her husband in her home. And she was scared out of her mind. She clearly admitted it. You've gone through several hurricanes in your career. Compare this one to some of the earlier experiences, Rick, that you had.
SANCHEZ: It seemed to me, as this hurricane was coming through Lake Charles, that the winds, the sustained winds, were as powerful as many, if not most, of the hurricanes that I have been through. And the fact that they lasted for so long, it seems like the hurricane wanted to almost stay in one area. And because we were where we were in this area, off of this lake, it seemed like it almost increased the velocity of the winds, Wolf. Other hurricanes that I've covered have certainly had winds as strong as this one, but it seemed like the time that we spent with winds whipping through, I would say they started sometime around 10:00 last night and lasted all the way to 5:00 in the morning. Strong, sustained winds, probably hurricane-force winds throughout, going anywhere from 75 miles an hour to up to 110 miles an hour.
Just as they said, something that would be in the Category 2, Category 3 framework for hurricanes. And what we're seeing this morning when we wake up is, for the most part, Category 2, almost ebbing onto Category 3 style damage as well. No major structural damage on the buildings, but a lot of damage with trees falling over and certainly a lot of flooding already, and the fear that if they get the 25 inches of rain that they expect over the next three days, if this hurricane hovers and stays here, sits and spins, as they say it will, that they'll get another five feet. Wolf, if they get another five feet on top of the flooding that they already have, there's going to be a serious problem of flooding in Lake Charles, as they have had, I should add, historically.
BLITZER: Rick Sanchez, together with his team and all of our CNN professionals doing an outstanding job. Rick, thank you very much for that report.
Carol, you've got to hand it to our entire team. They've really done a really good job.
LIN: Remarkable. And drawing on the experience like Rick Sanchez has from living in Florida and covering these hurricanes, it's amazing. And they know the survival skills to get through the storm.
We have much more ahead in our Special Coverage including the feeling of what it was like to be right at ground zero as Hurricane Rita hit. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: Well all during our Special Coverage, we've been talking about what it must have felt like to go through Hurricane Rita. Well what if you lived just 25 miles away from where Rita made landfall? With me on the telephone right now is Mayor Brown Claybar, he is the mayor of Orange, Texas. Mayor Claybar, your little town of 19,000, how did it fare?
MAYOR BROWN CLAYBAR, ORANGE, TEXAS: Well, we really took -- it seemed like a direct hit. We were on the dry side of the hurricane, but we did get considerable wind. We got a tremendous amount of damage. I would say that 90 percent of the businesses here are damaged, and the houses have tremendous tree damage. Orange is a beautiful town, has lots of oak trees, lots of pine trees, and the pine trees and oak trees have either uprooted or snapped in two, just like toothpicks, and have gone through houses. We are trying to clear the streets as we speak.
LIN: Do you have much flooding?
CLAYBAR: No, we have not had much flooding. That has been the biggest blessing that we could have in this storm. We did not have the tidal surge.
LIN: How many of your residents were able to evacuate?
CLAYBAR: I would say that well over the majority of our citizens did. They were very responsible in evacuating. And, you know, sometimes you just can't make people be responsible. I know that some people did stay, and -- but we provided for everyone that had special needs, and we provided for anyone that wanted to get out of the city of Orange. LIN: Mayor Claybar, what about you? Where did you weather out the storm?
CLAYBAR: Well, there was a group, I would say 200 people, that were rescuers and firemen, policemen. We went to a junior high school about 20 miles from here. We spent the night there. We followed them. We had a staging area, and at 7:30 this morning, we came in en masse into Orange county to find this. And there still were some real gale winds as we were coming.
LIN: Mayor, it must have been heartbreaking, but thank goodness, at least you've got a foundation on which to rebuild and that you aren't reporting any deaths or injuries right now.
CLAYBAR: We have been very fortunate. To our knowledge, our 911 is working, and we have not received any calls about any injuries or deaths. We are very fortunate.
LIN: Mayor Brown Claybar, thank you very much, from Orange, Texas -- Wolf.
CLAYBAR: Thank you.
BLITZER: Good news from him. Much of the town of Port Arthur, Texas, also emptied out before Rita arrived. Today many of its deserted streets are underwater. Our chief national correspondent, John King, is checking out the damage there. He's joining us now live. John, what was it like?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, quite interesting listening to the mayor of Orange, because we were in Port Arthur right in the center of the city. Hurricane hit and when the eyewall hit at 2:40 local time this morning, and it was quite ferocious, the rains and winds and force of those winds, just, literally, metal and steel in the air as if it were paper airplanes. Today as you notice, there is significant flooding.
But to tell you the truth, they feel in Port Arthur, the few who are back, and we've just noticed in the last hour or two some of the fire department coming back, some of the police department coming back, and they had all evacuated. We were in a ghost town last night. We found a handful of people who decided to weather the storm. And I'll tell you, most of them say they won't do it next time, because their houses shook, most of the windows blew out.
There is isolated flooding in the center of the city. But their biggest fear was something like a Katrina-like catastrophe in New Orleans. That the storm would have such a surge that the levee would break or the water would come over the levee, and that did not happen. The flooding is from the surge itself. There is no additional flooding from the river and the lake nearby, the canal nearby. So there's -- the power lines are down everywhere. People have no phones, they have no power. Many have no running water and no plumbing. They say they're having difficulty getting through to the 911 lines. They're worried about when their services will be restored. But in the context of Katrina, they feel quite safe. There is huge destruction and a huge reconstruction project ahead for the city of Port Arthur, but when they put it into context, Wolf, of what we've seen in the last three-plus weeks, some of them feel lucky. They know they have quite a challenge ahead, but they know of no lives lost in town, considerable destruction, but no deaths that they know of, and the flooding, by their standards, they say, something they can deal with.
BLITZER: John, paint a picture for us in your own words, if you can, what its like -- what it feels like to ride out a hurricane, almost right in the middle of it.
KING: Well we were down in Sabine Pass where the hurricane came ashore about 90 minutes to two hours before it hit. The eye of the storm, about 22 miles offshore when we were in Sabine Pass, and we had to turn and get out of there. The conditions changed suddenly. We thought we had more time than we did. And when we were coming back, we had to go over an intercoastal water waterway, and over a bridge, and our vehicles were bouncing, we were shaking -- literally, shaking up and bouncing as the winds started to get up into the 80 mile an hour range and above.
Back in Port Arthur, we found a relatively secure location at a gas station, two concrete wall, one on each side. And we put our two vehicles between them. And we were safe. We bounced around quite a bit. Our vehicles were jumping and moving a little, but we were shielded as debris flew by in front of us. There was a furniture delivery truck, about 110, maybe 150 ward yard away that tipped over on its side. the aluminum, the corrugated metal around the top of the gas station, the framing, the face of the building flew off several times. The pumps were hurt, and the water, all of a sudden, started to pick up. First there was an inch in the parking lot, then there were two inches. We were on relatively high ground. It's a very low- lying city.
When the eye of the storm came through, I got out and walked around the block a little bit, and noticed already there was sometimes ankle, sometimes calf-high, and on a few of the streets, knee-deep water at that point. And there was still more water to come as the back end of the storm came through.
BLITZER: John King's our chief national correspondent. Good work, John. Glad you rode this one out. I'm sure you're not anxious to do it again, but I'm sure you will one of these days. Carol, we got a lot of good reporters out there.
LIN: You bet. And we're very lucky indeed to have them.
In the meantime, we've been talking about people being rescued, as we speak. A short time ago I talked with the mayor of Abbeville in Vermilion Parish, not too far away from where John King is right now.
With me, though, on the telephone is Stacia Deshishku, she is a CNN producer who is on the ground in Abbeville. Stacia, what is the situation there? The mayor said as many as 200 people have been rescued.
STACIA DESHISHKU, CNN PRODUCER: They have. In fact, I just spoke to General Robert LeBlanc, who is the Vermilion Parish emergency manager. And he said that he believes that there are 1,000 people -- up to 1,000 people might be trapped in their houses down there.
There was a mandatory evacuation two days ago. They went house to house. They knocked on the doors. They said they took -- busted through there, and they told people at that time they needed to get out. But they think today they have up to 1,000 people still left to rescue.
LIN: Stacia, why is that they're trapped? Because the mayor said that the ground is relatively dry.
DESHISHKU: Actually, out towards the Gulf, you've got areas that are only three to six feet above sea level. That's out in Erath, Delcambre, Boston, Pecan Island. These are farming communities that have a lot of sugar cane and rice farms. And they are pretty much underwater.
I spoke to a gentleman today who said his two-story house was covered. He said it looked like the Gulf of Mexico in his street. And they've got now, Fish and Wildlife rescuers and sheriff's deputies, the police, the National Guard, the Army National Guard, they're all queuing up. And they're going out on boats and they're doing air rescues. And they're trying to get as many people as they can out of there today.
LIN: Stacia, serious situation, especially if some of those people might be elderly. Thanks very much for that update. Stacia reporting that many of the 1,000 people may still be trapped in their homes in that parish.
BLITZER: It's clear that this Rita is not done yet. We're going to get a complete weather update when we come back.
Rita still moving inland right now. Also we're going to go back to Lake Charles. Jason Carroll standing by with an eyewitness account of what's going on. Much more of our Special Coverage right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LIN: Welcome back to our Special Coverage. The top military officer supervising response to hurricane relief is on his way to Lake Charles, Louisiana. Lieutenant General Russel Honore plans to assess the damage and help civilians officials with relief efforts. Jason Carroll joins me from Lake Charles -- Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, Carol, I can tell you that at this point that emergency crews are out in the field. And what they're trying to do is they're trying to get an accurate assessment of just how bad the damage is. But I can tell you that just a short while ago a Louisiana state trooper came up to us and said that he was out in the field, and that the main highway leading into Cameron Parish is completely submerged, completely flooded. That's south of here. His concern is that there might be more flooding in Cameron Parish, but at this point they can't get there to check it out. We're going to keep on top of that situation, bring you developments on that as they warrant.
Here in downtown, Lake Charles has steadily been rising over the past several hours by several feet. The casino riverboats out there definitely taking a beating and have been taking a beating all morning, all afternoon as well. The rising water causing flooding in downtown. Pockets of flooding in some areas, several feet deep. And, in fact, as we tried to get out of downtown, I think you heard Rick Sanchez talk about all the debris and the trees and the downed power lines. I can tell you, that if you tried to evacuate now, and you didn't have a chain saw, you probably wouldn't be able to get out of this downtown area, because there's so many downed trees blocking your path. That's, at least, what we experienced as we got out of downtown Lake Charles.
By far, the worst damage, I think, that we saw was probably at Lake Charles Regional Airport. That is where the main terminal sustained major damage. They had a partial roof collapse there, as well as some of the surrounding buildings there taking on some heavy damage as well. The airport's executive director telling us he does not believe all that damage was caused by just Hurricane Rita.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALAN KRATVER, LAKE CHARLES AIRPORT EXEC. DIR.: That took tornadoes in what happened.
CARROLL: You think so?
KRATVER: I have to agree. When you look at the terminal building, you'll know it's tornadoes. Plus, if you look at the hangars that are smashed down on aircraft, you'll see that just the wind here at 125 miles an hour wouldn't do that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And you'll remember that there were, in fact, tornado warnings in effect all throughout last night and into the early morning. At this point, police are asking all of those who evacuated, and, again, police believe that most people did heed warnings and evacuated the Lake Charles area, for all those people who have evacuated, might be watching, might be wanting to come back home, they're saying, look, you're going to have to give us a lot of time to clear up these streets and clear up this area. They're asking people to stay away until at least Monday -- Carol.
LIN: Jason, taking a look at some of these dramatic pictures that you guys are sending back to us of these treed downed, how did you make it around town?
CARROLL: We were lucky. Very carefully, Carol. Basically what we did is we got lucky at one point. In fact, we were behind Rick Sanchez at one point, and some guy showed up with some chain saws. They got out there and went at it. And so we were able to sort of get through. And then what you, literally, have to do is snake your way through the town, sort of zig zag your way through, look for a path out. We were fortunate. We found one. I mean, that's our job. That's what we do. However, I would not recommend that anyone else do something like that. I'd stay put.
LIN: All right. Jason, good to know. Stay safe out there. Thank you -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas is speaking out in Austin, Texas. Let's listen in.
SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHINSON, TEXAS: We learned Katrina lessons, we have learned Rita lessons, and I think we will be better prepared than ever for any future eventualities. We just hope there are no more hurricanes this season, needless to say.
With that, I was very pleased that Senator Cornyn and Majority Leader DeLay were in these meetings, because I think we will have some views to take back to Congress about, not only what we can do better from the federal level, but the costs that are going to be incurred. And a lot of people are also talking about how we're going to pay for this with offsets and other ways to not increase the deficit.
But today, we are in the relief mode. We are not into the long- range planning mode, and that is our focus. With that --.
REP. TOM DELAY, TEXAS: Well, I greatly appreciate the president coming in. It's quite obvious in the room, the president, once again, is hands on, knows what's going on, has a built-in instinct as to what needs to be going on to ask the right questions. The president is a take-charge-type guy and he is showing tremendous leadership. And we greatly appreciate that. We greatly appreciate him coming back home to his home and see all the good work that has been done. Particularly by the local officials, the local mayors, county judges, elected officials are all showing a tremendous amount of leadership.
As I left my house in Sugarland at 10:30 this morning to drive this way, I saw firsthand what, I guess -- I don't know about the last couple of hours, -- what is a real problem. I saw a lot of assets, long convoys of many trucks coming -- FEMA trucks, TxDOT equipment and TxDOT trucks, military vehicles, stalled in traffic.
And it was a graphic example of what the president was trying to say a while ago, is people that do not need to come back into the Houston area or East Texas need not come back at least for another day, so that we can get these assets to these people. The mayor also called -- the mayor of Houston -- people need to realize that the health care facilities in the entire Houston/Galveston region are full, because of our evacuees that we took in, because of the needs of our own citizens, and we have a serious nursing shortage. Those nurses could very well be stopped in traffic trying to get back to Houston.
It is incredibly important, just out of good citizenship, that if you don't need to be back in Houston or the East Texas part of Texas, please, stay where you are. Let the essential assets and essential personnel to get back into the area. And we greatly appreciate the cooperation and the patience of everyone in this rebuilding and recovery effort.
SEN. JOHN CORNYN, TEXAS: Well, I heartily concur with Senator Hutchison and the Majority Leader about the great response that we've seen here in Texas. It's been, well, about 125 years ago that Galveston lost 8,000 lives as a result of a catastrophic hurricane. And it's been the job, number one, to make sure that in this disaster, that human life was preserved. And, indeed, but for the terrible accident that occurred in Dallas, that has been the case.
And I have to say that, you know when the phone rings, when you dial 911, it doesn't ring at the White House. It doesn't ring on Capitol Hill. It rings with the local first responders. And the mayors and the state operation center here and the governor's office have done an exemplary job. And the federal government has been there to back them up at every turn of the way. Has it been perfect? Well, I think it's easy to see that no human enterprise is ever going to be perfect. But we preserved human life. There have been inconveniences. There are lessons we can learn from this. But I couldn't be more proud of the response that Texans have made first to the victims of Katrina, but now to those who have been victimized by Rita and those who have been dislocated.
So I would encourage you, as the majority leader said, that people listen to their local leadership and the local news authority. And one thing that the media has done is helped get the message out to people in realtime, when they need it. And we appreciate very much the good work that the news media has done to get the word out to people in their cars as they've been waiting for traffic to move and otherwise. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Questions?
CORNYN: Questions?
QUESTION: Can you tell us what lessons you've learned about what went wrong and what you're going to do next time?
HUTCHISON: Let me just try to take that. We learned a lot from Katrina that was put in place in Texas. That is early evacuation is very important. What I think we will look at for lessons here is to make sure that when you are evacuating 2.7 million people, that you look for a lot of different options. I think they will be looking at maybe the traffic patterns and contra flow lanes and the timing of that.
Maybe they will be looking at added gasoline along the way, even though they have been playing catch-up and they are already trying to make sure that those assets are available for people going back into Houston and Galveston and Jefferson Counties. Nevertheless, that is something that probably will be done a different way next time, because who would have known 2.7 million people would have evacuated sort of in the same time frame? And I think maybe looking at different waves of evacuation, if at all possible. However, people decided to vote with their feet, and they decided to get out after seeing Katrina, and that was a natural response. And maybe people aren't going to go in waves. So I think that we all want to try to do better. And I think the coordination between the federal, state, and local levels was excellent. There were conference calls. I participated in some of those just listening. And the state people were talking, the FEMA people were talking. And assets were moved according to those needs.
And that was a good thing that we learned from Katrina that worked here. So there were some very good successes in this evacuation effort. And I think we're just going to try to learn and make it better for wherever the next tragedy might happen. This hurricane, Rita, though it was a five and then a four, when it started coming into our shores, because of the preparation, it's going to have very small loss of life. And that is something that we can be proud of, and that is the most important of all the priorities.
BLITZER: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, the senior senator from Texas, together with her colleague, John Cornyn, plus the house majority leader, Tom DeLay, speaking out after meetings with the president, drawing some of the early lessons from Hurricane Rita.
We're going to continue to watch this story -- Carol.
LIN: Early lessons and still the disaster is unfolding as we speak. Galveston, Texas, right now is a ghost town. Most residents heeded evacuation orders and fled. The city was spared the worst of the storm, but officials are not ready to welcome evacuees home, at least not just yet.
CNN Sean Callebs in Galveston right now on why. Sean, it looks relatively calm behind you. Why is it that officials are saying don't come home?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is relatively calm, although emergency officials had a long dangerous night. There was a major fire, destroying three buildings. Another building collapsed, and a roof ripping off a major hotel that overlooks the Gulf of Mexico here. You're right that the vast percentage, the mayor says 95 percent of the people who live in this barrier island, did heed the evacuation notice. However, no one is going to be allowed back on this island for the foreseeable future. That's for a couple of reasons. Firstly, only essential personnel will be allowed back in -- emergency teams, as well as those working on the utilities.
Now, the reason they are not being allowed back in, one, they are cleaning this area, downed tree lines and power lines, things of that nature. Those people need to do their work. It's simply, according to city officials, too dangerous. They want to keep people off major highways and thoroughfares. We all saw how crowded they were when people evacuated the area. Here's what the mayor had to say in a news conference a short while ago.
LYDA ANN THOMAS, MAYOR, GALVESTON, TX: I want to say clearly that the city of Galveston is not safe. It is not safe. And we're going to tell you why it's not safe in just a minute. The curfew is still in effect. It's countywide. It's from dusk until dawn. And it is being enforced. The curfew is still in effect countywide including the city of Galveston from dusk until dawn, and the city of Galveston and the county of Galveston is still in a state of emergency. We have not changed our position at all.
CALLEBS: Quickly, here's why authorities were busy: the fire that broke out on 19th street. One woman was injured. She was on the second floor, suffering burns over 20 percent of her body. Two historical buildings went up in flames. Secondly, a restaurant in the Strand area, a whole wall collapsed. Now, that can be fixed with bricks and mortar. The good news here, Carol, no serious injuries. Many people out of this town. And it looks like when people talk about Rita here, they're going to talk about the one that just skirted this region. Carol?
LIN: That's right. And lives are what matter the most. Thanks very much. Sean Callebs reporting live in Galveston, Texas.
Coming up, how Hurricane Rita may affect gas prices nationwide. We are going to get a live update. We'll be right back.
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BLITZER: Welcome back. We're continuing our special coverage, "The Aftermath of Hurricane Rita." Our Jeanne Meserve is in Houston right now. Jeanne, explain to our viewers what you're covering.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The urban search and rescue teams who are waiting still to find out if they are going to be deployed and how they are going to be used. They have been, this afternoon, repacking their gear, testing some of it out. We saw them, for instance, running chain saws that would be used for clearing roads, if that's needed. They've been repacking stuff to account for whether they might have to split up, or whether they might be deployed by helicopter or they might end up in boats or they might end up staying in vehicles. So they're trying to prepare for all contingencies.
There was a briefing earlier today for the leaders of some of these teams, warning them that the weather is bound to be very hot, if they are sent out, warning them that dehydration is going to be their biggest nemesis, and they should keep drinking water. Also warned about things like venomous snakes and bugs and rabid wild animals.
But in the meantime, most of the members of the teams are either working on those preparations, I told you about, or some of them are sleeping. I'm walking around looking at a few people playing cards. A lot of people reading. A few people clustered around television sets. Some others looking at computers trying to get the latest on what the damage assessments are. But they sit here and wait to find out if they are going to be need in response to Rita. Wolf?
BLITZER: All right. Jeanne Meserve, we'll be checking back with you. Thanks very much. Carol?
LIN: All right, Wolf. Well, Rita did not deliver a devastating blow to the oil industry along the Gulf Coast, but there are reports of at least two major refineries -- major oil refineries which have been damaged. Let's check in with Ali Velshi up in New York. He's got our oil alert. Ali, what's this likely to do to gas prices around the country?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's starting to come in. Here's the interesting thing. Strangely, the New York Mercantile Exchange it going to start trading oil early tomorrow. Oil is already -- it's probably already just started in London. These are unusual measures. We have to see what traders think about the developments.
Early today, we thought there was no damage. But it was too early to tell because the oil companies couldn't get in -- the refining companies couldn't get in to see. We now know at least two refineries in Port Arthur, Texas, have sustained at least what one company calls serious damage. One will be off for at least a month. The other one we don't know how long. But now we know there is damage.
Now, if the price of oil, as it trades tomorrow, starts to come down -- oil, natural gas and gasoline are all traded commodities. If it starts to come down, we spoke to one analyst a little while ago who said that's probably the end of worry, at least for the time being, for consumers. If it goes up, if traders are concerned that, well, you know, we thought this was going to be bad, and then we thought it wasn't going to be bad on Friday and now we have damage.
If the price of oil, when it starts trading tonight in London and tomorrow in New York, starts going up, then we have to start being concerned. At the moment, of the 5 million barrels that weren't being processed because of the shutdowns before Rita, only -- we only have confirmation that 500,000 barrels a day are now in jeopardy because of these two refineries that are down.
This information is coming in very quickly. We're trying to make sense of it. It's not enough to tell. We can't tell. Ten percent of the capacity that was off line is now confirmed to be in jeopardy. We don't know where the rest is. As this day continues and as tomorrow reports get in, we'll know more about this. We still have pipelines down across the country. Pipelines that were shut down. They take diesel and jet fuel and gasoline, one to the Midwest two to the Northeast. We're still waiting to see who those come online and how badly damaged, if at all, they were. Carol?
LIN: All right, Ali, we'll hang on to our pocketbooks until we hear from you, okay? Thanks. Wolf?
BLITZER: Thanks, Carol. We'll take a quick break. When we come back, our interview with the House Majority leader, Tom DeLay. He's in Austin, Texas, has been meeting with the president. We'll get his thoughts on "The Aftermath of Hurricane Rita," right after this.
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BLITZER: Welcome back. I want to go to Austin, Texas. The House Majority leader, Tom DeLay, is joining us. He has just been meeting with the president and other state and local officials.
Mr. Leader, thanks very much for joining us. Are you getting any preliminary estimate how much this is going to cost, Hurricane Rita, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina?
TOM DELAY, HOUSE MAJORITY LEADER: No, Wolf. It's too soon for that. We're into the rescue phase right now. And obviously, people will guess how much is this going to cost, but we need to first do our assessment, rescue people that need rescuing, and then we'll talk about recovery later.
BLITZER: I suspect, though, it will be a few billion dollars at a minimum. The president has suggested offsets, as you know, finding budget cuts in the current budget to pay for Katrina and now for Rita. Do you have any obvious targets that come to mind?
DELAY: I don't have any targets that come to mind right now. Even though OMB -- Office of Management and Budget in the White House -- is looking for offsets. Our own Congressional Budget Office is looking -- everybody is looking for offsets. But frankly, I doubt that we'll be able to find offsets to pay for this disaster of Katrina and Rita. Some of it's going to have to be borrowed.
But we have plenty of room there to do that as long as we have a strong economy. That's what we ought to be focused on, is having an environment that allows our economy to recover and stay strong.
BLITZER: Some of your fellow fiscal conservatives have suggested, perhaps, delaying implementation of the Medicare prescription drug benefit for seniors. What do you think about that idea which could save a few hundred billion dollars?
DELAY: First of all, we don't want to stop what we are planning in the future. The whole idea of Medicare reform was to reform it so that savings could be realize. We've already seen well over $100 billion in savings on the projected prescription drug program. That is good news. Once we get the reforms implemented in Medicare, we'll see even more savings because senior citizens won't be going to expensive hospitals, they will be healthier because they're on drugs. It doesn't make sense, if you're trying to save and reform in the future to postpone that reform.
BLITZER:: John McCain told me the other day -- the Republican senator from Arizona -- he'd like to see that entire transportation bill that was just signed into law rescinded, take that money and help pay for the recovery in Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and now Texas. What do you say about that?
DELAY: First of all, John McCain voted against the transportation bill to begin with. Again, you have to have an infrastructure in order to have a strong economy. We saved $100 billion from being spent on highways when we did the highway bill. We have to have an infrastructure, and highways is our circulatory system for the future of this country. You can't have a strong economy unless you have a strong highway system. So why would we want to back off on that?
BLITZER: Unfortunately, Mr. Leader, we have to leave it right there. We'll continue this conversation down the road. The House Majority leader, Tom DeLay, in Austin, Texas, dealing with this issue of Hurricane Rita. Thank you for joining us. Carol?
LIN: Wolf, and right now the hard work is continuing on the ground as as many as 1000 people need rescuing in the Vermilion and Delcombre area. Right now with me on the telephone is the Iberia Parish president -- that encompasses that area. His name is Will Langlinais. Mayor Langlinais, or Mr. Langlinais, can you tell me, what is the situation there in terms of trying to get these people rescued out of their houses?
WILL LANGLINAIS, PRES., IBERIA PARISH: Well, right now what we're doing -- started early this morning at daylight. Because of the high wind, we had several air boats and outboard motors, but the wind gave us a problem. Several of those sank. We were able -- I brought in a bunch of big dump trucks, and we were able to rescue -- oh, my god -- maybe 100 or so people. We just had to back off of that operation.
The bad news is we just got off the phone with the National Weather Service, and they're telling us that this thing is going to be with us probably till tomorrow sometime. And the water continues to rise. Our worst fear here in this parish was that everything south of Highway 90 would be affected by a tidal surge. And that's exactly what happened.
There are people on rooftops that are waiting to be rescued. Everyone in the town of Delcombre, all of those homes are underwater. And all of the nearby rural areas, our Port of Iberia, which is a shallow port, it's all underwater. All of the businesses out there, and all of the unincorporated areas below Highway 90, like I said, our worst fear was that, and that has happened. I'm sad to say.
LIN: Mr. Lanlinais, is there any danger that these people might drown in their own homes or be washed off those rooftops if you cannot get the resources to rescue them?
LANGLINAIS: Well, we've got the National Guard that has come in. We've got the Wildlife and Fisheries that have come in. We've got a bunch of air boats and a bunch of individuals that are out there. We're going to make an attempt again this afternoon. The wind has subsided somewhat. But that attempt is going to be made. A north wind would do us fine. That would help make the water recede, but, you know, we can't control that.
LIN: Right. You can't tell Mother Nature what to do. Are there any elderly people or children on these rooftops?
LANGLINAIS: Let me tell you, we picked up some elderly people this morning. It was the saddest thing. I've seen all the television coverage on Katrina in New Orleans. And right here in the outlying areas, that's New Orleans to them. That's how magnified this disaster is to them at this particular point.
LIN: Right.
LANGLINAIS: Our public works facility that houses all of our heavy equipment is all underwater, and we're attempting to get in there now and just pull those vehicles out, and hopefully we will be able to get them going.
LIM: Mr. Langlinais, we wish you all the best. We know this is a serious situation. We'll get right back to you and get the very latest from you as that rescue operation goes under way.
BLITZER: Thanks very much, Carol. I'll be back tomorrow, a special three-hour LATE EDITION. That starts at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, LATE EDITION tomorrow.
A special edition of LOU DOBBS TONIGHT starting right now. Lou Dobbs is standing by in New York.
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