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CNN Live At Daybreak

Hurricane Rita Threatening Gulf Coast With Ever Increasing Winds

Aired September 21, 2005 - 06:00   ET

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

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is Wednesday, September 21, and Hurricane Rita is threatening the Gulf Coast with ever increasing dangerous winds.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I'm here, hopefully I'll survive Rita. And I'll be wearing another shirt saying I survived Rita and Katrina.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: People already battered by hurricane Katrina prepare for another massive storm. Rita taking aim at the Gulf Coast.

And from the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK.

I'm Kelly Wallace in today for Carol Costello, who is on assignment in New Orleans this morning.

Good morning, everyone.

Thanks so much for starting your day with us.

We will be checking in live with Carol in New Orleans in just a moment.

Also ahead, what has Rita left behind in the storm drenched Florida Keys. We'll see if it's still happy hour at the Green Parrot Bar.

And it was a dangerous side effect of hurricane Katrina. We'll tell you why Louisiana is scrambling to find dozens of sex offenders.

But first, these stories now in the news.

Mandatory evacuations are set to begin one hour from now in Galveston, Texas as hurricane Rita, a category three storm, makes its approach. The mayor of the island city already has declared a state of emergency. Buses are ready to start taking out those who can't evacuate themselves.

Louisiana's governor has also declared a state of emergency ahead of hurricane Rita. Kathleen Blanco is strongly urging coastal residents to be prepared to get out. Engineers warn as little as three inches of rain could flood New Orleans. The Army Corps of Engineers has declared New Orleans "essentially dry." That's after pumping three quarters of a trillion gallons of water from the city into Lake Pontchartrain in the past two-and-a-half weeks.

And again, to our top story, hurricane Rita.

We turn to meteorologist Chad Myers, our CNN severe weather expert in Atlanta -- Chad, what is it looking like right now?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's still 120 miles per hour, Kelly. And the hurricane hunter aircraft that was scheduled to leave Atlanta from Marietta to fly down actually had some electrical problems. So they did not fly in it. We're not going to have any data for a while, until they get that plane fixed and fly in it.

The ironic part is that they usually park these planes in Biloxi, at Keesler Air Force Base. They can't do that now because basically that place is a disaster zone with all the stuff, all that's -- even the runway was completely thrown around with all that debris. So they moved the hurricane hunter aircraft to Marietta and now it's a longer flight, because it would be just like right there. I mean a half an hour for that plane to get there.

But, oh, well, so there you go. We're not going to have any data on it, but that's probably OK, because it's in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico now and it's going to stay there for a couple of days. And then it's going to get stronger.

There's Key West right there, the Dry Tortugas, Fort Jefferson, seeing some heavier rain showers and heavier squalls. More squalls still coming onshore here, Tavernier right on up to Key Largo right on through Card Sound Road almost to Florida City and Jacks Bait & Beer seeing some heavier rain showers and squalls now this morning.

If you take a look at the wider picture, the storm is moving almost off the screen. We are going to lose it on our radar presentation from Key West. Key West's radar can't see too much farther than that because the Earth is round and the radar beam is straight. So if the Earth falls away, the radar beam can't follow it. The radar beam gets so high it just shoots over the tops of the storms.

There is the storm itself, moving into the Gulf of Mexico. It's going to fill, basically, the Gulf of Mexico in the next three days and then make a run somewhere at Texas, Louisiana or parts of Mexico.

The cone all the way south of Brownsville, all the way to Lafayette. The center of the cone still to the south of Houston. But if you remember all about Hurricane 101 that I've been trying to tell you all these years, right there. This right side of this part, if this truly is where the eye makes landfall, the right side is the most dangerous and most deadly part. And Galveston, Houston, like you guys are in it.

WALLACE: And Hurricane 101, Chad, we have been taking notes. You also talk about the entire cone, also.

MYERS: Yes.

WALLACE: That we need to just always keep in mind how wide this storm is and how it could vary.

MYERS: Yes. You know, one degree of latitude or longitude, if it veers, right now, a little bit north, a little bit south, than what we expect, takes it on a completely different path, way south or way north. And why we don't know if it's actually going to go to the north or to the south one degree is because nobody lives here. There are no weather balloons going up in the Gulf of Mexico. We don't really have a great feel for what the winds are like up here.

Yes, there are satellite estimates, but the satellites can't tell you everything. So if we had people every 100 miles putting up weather balloons, we'd know where it's going. But unfortunately hurricanes come from where there are no people.

WALLACE: And lots of water, right?

MYERS: Right.

WALLACE: OK, Chad, we'll check in with you in a few minutes.

Thanks so much.

Hurricane Rita definitely causing a lot of concern in New Orleans, so much concern that evacuations are being planned. Buses are ready and so are the troops.

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LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, COMMANDER KATRINA JOINT TASK FORCE: Buses at the convention center will move our citizens, for whom we have sworn that we will support and defend. And we'll move them on. Let's not get stuck on the last storm. You're asking last storm questions for people who are concerned about the future storm. Don't get stuck on stupid, reporters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Don't get stuck on stupid, reporters. OK. Well for more on the evacuation plans, we want to turn to our own Carol Costello at the New Orleans convention center -- good morning, Carol.

Good to see you.

So what's different this time around for this storm when it comes to the convention center than last time?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, they sure seem more organized, don't you? And I'm going to try General Honore, not to be stuck on stupid this time. This is the convention center. This is the staging area. This is where those 500 buses will come if people need to be evacuated from the city.

But I've got to tell you, Kelly, the aura here -- because we all know what happened at the convention center. Take a look through the windows. You can still see garbage strewn on the floor. We were driving by yesterday and we saw people in biohazard suits cleaning this out. I mean literally you still can't breath in there.

And no one can forget outside of the convention center what we saw -- dead bodies, desperate people yelling for help. You saw excrement. You saw garbage. In fact, all of the garbage, much of the garbage -- there were so many shopping carts here -- that was insane -- because people brought whatever they had shopping carts down here. Around the corner, there's a huge pile of shopping carts just sitting there. And we know that they've been cleaned up from the convention center.

As for how people are feeling about yet another storm possibly heading their way, well, they're not so comfortable about it, Kelly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just hope it just don't do no more, man. You know, we can't take no more.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't really want to go back, because it's hard like that. You go back, you don't have no money, you know? You've got to survive with what you've got.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And that is the problem. As I was telling you yesterday, a lot of people have simply run out of money and they're going to stay and brave this storm. Now the mayor said that two buses already picked up some evacuees here yesterday. We don't know who those people were. And we're wondering if more buses are available, who will get on those buses. And I think we've figured it out. They've brought in so many workers from out of state to participate in the clean up of New Orleans, perhaps those are the people who will be getting on the buses and evacuating out.

WALLACE: Yes, because that was a question, too, we had, which was how many people are still in the city itself, outside of a few who have come back who will need to evacuate in the first place.

COSTELLO: Well, you know, it's spooky to walk through some of these neighborhoods, because the Army Corps of Engineers told me that New Orleans is essentially dry, and it is. You go in some of the worst hit neighborhoods, where the water was up to eight feet, and you drive through and there's this gray dust over everything. And there is literally not a person in sight. It's as if a nuclear bomb went off and people have deserted their homes. It's a very strange feeling.

So you're right, not many people are left in the City of New Orleans.

WALLACE: OK, Carol.

And we're going to check in with you at the half hour, and also really focus then on the levee situation and how much even a little bit of water from hurricane Rita can cause problems in New Orleans.

Carol, thanks so much.

We'll talk to you in about 30 minutes.

Carol Costello reporting live for us from New Orleans.

Turning now to President Bush. He has chosen a member of his Homeland Security Council to lead the investigation of the hurricane Katrina response. His adviser, Frances Townsend, will run that inquiry. Democrats had called for an independent probe. Townsend was responsible for overseeing the government's reorganize of national intelligence services. There is no deadline for that investigation.

And following his trip to New Orleans yesterday, President Bush made a change to the federal flood insurance program. The president signed a bill that allows the government to borrow up to $3.5 billion for the program. That's up from $1.5 billion.

Former President Jimmy Carter says President Bush failed FEMA. The Federal Emergency Management Agency was created during the Carter administration back in 1979 and the former president said standards such as qualified leaders, full funding and independence have been violated by the Bush administration.

Well, still to come on this busy Wednesday morning, in the wake of hurricane Katrina, law enforcement officials lose track of some people you wouldn't want your children around. We'll talk about that.

Also, the government contemplates a new way to keep you safe as you fly. But how much privacy do you want to give up in the name of safety?

And we'll meet a guy who's hunkered down at a famous bar in the Florida Keys, refusing to, as they say, give up the ship.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning, September 21.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: And welcome back.

Your news, money, weather and sports.

It's just about 12 minutes after the hour and here is what is all new this morning.

The mayor of Galveston, Texas declares a state of emergency as hurricane Rita intensifies. Mandatory evacuations of nursing homes and similar care centers will begin less than one hour from now.

In money, despite the threat of hurricane Rita, the nation's largest air carrier is resuming air service in and out of New Orleans today. American Airlines will offer three daily round trips between Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and New Orleans. In culture, John Mellencamp is among the new nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Others on the ballot include jazz great Miles David, Leonard Skynrd and the Sex Pistols. Results of the voting by other artists and music industry insiders is expected to be announced in December.

In sports, the new location for the Sugar Bowl should be decided within the next few weeks. That game is usually played at the now unusable New Orleans Superdome. Officials will decide between Baton Rouge and Atlanta for the January 2 game -- and, Chad, you can bet folks in Louisiana are hoping they choose Baton Rouge.

MYERS: Yes, of course. But what other place makes sugar? That would be Hawaii, right? I mean go get up and do a side by side with the hula hoop.

WALLACE: That's a good point.

MYERS: Good morning, everybody.

Taking a look at Rita here, the storm moving almost away from the Key West radar. You can't even see the other side of the eye, really, anymore, only the east side, because the radar just can't go that far.

You're looking at the radar out of Key West, though. The storm is all the way to the Dry Tortugas. Also, a few more showers and storms north of there, on up to Tavernier; also into Key Largo, across to about Card Sound Road, a little bit farther south. But it looks like Upper Matecumbe Key picking up a shower. There's a little squall now this morning, as we take a look back out to it. It is actually moving away from the Keys at about 13 miles per hour now. And that storm, as we know, will be traveling into the Gulf of Mexico, gaining strength. That four in the middle of that hurricane means category four, up to 125 knots. If you can do the math, that's about 145 miles per hour by Saturday morning -- Kelly.

WALLACE: All right, a strong storm, indeed, Chad.

And we will be checking in with you and watching your reports very closely.

Turning to something else in the wake of hurricane Katrina, sex offenders and other criminals are on the loose following that hurricane. Some reports say as many as 4,500 registered sex offenders lived in the Louisiana parishes hit by the hurricane.

Reporter Karen Kelly (ph) of CNN affiliate WFAA in Dallas/Fort Worth has details of an attempted abduction involving an evacuee now in Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE) LT. DEAN SULLIVAN, FORT WORTH POLICE: Well, he took it upon himself to run up behind her, grab her from behind and said, "You're coming with me." That caused her to act out, fight out. She kicked and screamed and drew a lot of attention.

KAREN KELLY, WFAA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 14-year-old called 911 as she ran from the man who tried to abduct her. She made it to the safety of her apartment and still on the phone with police, directed them to suspect Glen Eric Holloway.

SULLIVAN: And then we actually found this suspect, Holloway, still looking for her in the apartment complex. Of course, he denied, you know, anything.

KELLY: Holloway is a displaced New Orleans resident. His arrest for attempted kidnapping dropped him from guest status in Fort Worth to jail inmate.

Holloway had already moved from a shelter to temporary housing on the East Side. And while he was not a registered sex offender, officers are searching shelters, trying to find and register in Texas sex offenders who fled the Gulf Coast.

SULLIVAN: Well, do you remember how old he was?

KELLY (on camera): Is there a Tyrone Jackson in there?

SULLIVAN: Yes, there is. There's two, actually.

He's not wanted for anything. He's on a probable. We just need to speak with him.

But if someone had criminal intent and they wanted to disappear, this would be a good opportunity.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WALLACE: And that report from Karen Kelly of CNN affiliate WFAA in Dallas.

Louisiana authorities are trying to track their registered sex offenders.

Joining us live from Baton Rouge on the telephone to talk about that effort is State Trooper Willie Williams.

Officer, thanks so much for joining us this morning.

TROOPER WILLIE WILLIAMS, LOUISIANA STATE POLICE DEPARTMENT: Thank you for having us.

WALLACE: First, how big of a concern is this, tracking down sex offenders who were once in Louisiana and have since evacuated?

WILLIAMS: Well, this is, of course, as always, it would be a concern for the State of Louisiana. We've had approximately registered in this state 6,800 people of that status. In the affected areas, we've had approximately 3,300 people. And 1,400 of those were in Orleans Parish.

As you can imagine, this is a situation that is pretty much unprecedented, with all of the situation that has happened. So we are now in the process of putting together a team of probation, parole officers and DOC personnel to start trying to look at the lists of people who were evacuated and then trying to address this situation.

WALLACE: Yes, because I know there was a report that in Austin some officials went ahead and evicted some sex offenders that were there at a shelter after getting information from you all that, in fact, some sex offenders were in the population of evacuees.

So what are you doing? Are you locating towns where they have evacuees to tell them the names of sex offenders that you come up with?

WILLIAMS: Well, the Louisiana DOC has been in the process of trying to cross reference the lists of people that we know to have been evacuated on public transports and buses and planes, then trying to track the exact places where those people have gone.

Now, we do want to say that those people have 10 days to register or re-register with the state once they establish a permanent residence. Until that time, we are kind of going through the lists and trying to cross reference those lists, to locate those personnel.

And, again, we're encouraging any of those personnel that you are not in any violation as long as you re-register. And we encourage them, as soon as they re-register or as soon as they establish a permanent residence, to contact the state; also contact the local authorities, because there may be things that they will have to abide by in their new jurisdiction, as well.

WALLACE: What's your advice to families who might be holed up in shelters, might be living in communities where there are a large number of evacuees from Louisiana? What's the advice to parents in terms of any concerns they might have that within that population at a shelter or an apartment, you could have some registered sex offenders?

WILLIAMS: Well, you can go to the Louisiana State Police Web site, lsp.org, and click on the sex offender registry and you can actually see photos of the people who are registered here in the State of Louisiana. If you have concerns, contact the local authorities or even the security personnel who are in those shelters. And, again, we recommend to parents that you keep a watchful eye on any child or children that are in those shelters.

WALLACE: And we led into our interview with you, a report, of course, coming from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, and apparently an attempted abduction of a young girl by an evacuee.

How many other similar reports have you heard, like the one we showed our viewers a short time ago? WILLIAMS: To my knowledge, that is the first report that I am aware of. I am not saying that there have not been other instances, but that's the first report that I personally am aware of.

WALLACE: And you, again, just going to numbers, do you know or it's impossible to know, you're saying, the number of registered sex offenders who have evacuated from Louisiana and have since not re- registered in other parts of the country?

WILLIAMS: That is correct. We are -- that's an impossible number. As I said, we faced a situation that was unprecedented and that had never been dealt with before. So, again, we are in the process of trying to compile the list and then cross reference those lists with the names that we've had for people who have been transported out of the Orleans Parish area.

WALLACE: Well, you're obviously doing important, very important work, as you said, in an unprecedented situation, something you all have not encountered before.

Trooper Willie Williams with the Louisiana State Police Department.

Thanks for joining us this morning on DAYBREAK.

We appreciate it.

Still to come here, safety officials want to take away a certain item from teenaged drivers. That story ahead in "Business Buzz."

Also, even a hurricane won't shut the doors of one Key West landmark. That is, if one man has anything to say about it. We'll talk with him later this hour.

You are watching DAYBREAK for a Wednesday morning.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: And welcome back.

Time now for a little "Business Buzz."

You can see something new coming in the way -- you could say something new is coming in the way of airline security. The Associated Press reports the FAA plans to propose using cameras and wireless devices for flight attendants to alert crews to potential problems. The federal agency will seek public comment before deciding to require such measures.

A federal agency says teen drivers and cell phones don't mix at all. The National Transportation Safety Board wants to have states ban teens from using cell phones while driving. Right now, 11 states and the District of Columbia restrict cell phone use for young drivers. So what impact will hurricane Katrina have on Americans' spending, how much they spend during the holiday season?

Carrie Lee is joining us now with a holiday shopping preview, because Christmas, of course, Carrie, only three months away. Before you talk about that, though, because our viewers are very interested in gas prices...

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

WALLACE: ... AAA, this just in, gas prices coming down just a little bit yet again, down $0.024. Now, self-serve unleaded, a gallon of that costing $2.76. So we're seeing a little bit of trickling down.

LEE: We've been seeing that every day. Crude oil prices also down yesterday, after that big spike earlier in the week. Some profit taking there. OPEC releasing more barrels for their output. So, some good things happening for gas and oil. Still, though, prices are relatively high. That's probably going to put a bit of a crimp in consumer spending for the holiday season.

The National Retail Federation expects holiday retail sales to rise 5 percent, to $435 billion, and that is slower growth than last year, when sales rose almost 7 percent.

Now, it could get worse as the impact of hurricane Katrina is still being figured into the equation. Also having an impact, a weak job market and, of course, those high gas prices.

Now, some experts say high gas prices might not hurt overall sales because shoppers could turn to the Internet instead. Every year since people have been shopping online, those numbers, the Internet sales numbers, have been increasing.

Also, the Federal Reserve is concerned about the impact high gas prices and hurricane Katrina will have on economic growth. But the Fed still did decide to raise interest rates yesterday for the eleventh time in a row. The Fed thinks Katrina will not be a "persistent threat" to the economy.

One member of the Fed, though, did dissent, preferring not to raise rates. That's unusual, Kelly. Usually it's a unanimous decision. So a little bit of a discrepancy there.

WALLACE: And then how are the markets reacting to the Fed decision and to all these other developments in the wake of hurricane Rita?

LEE: Yes, stocks were gaining ground yesterday. When the Fed made that decision, boom, we ended down. Stocks started selling off right away.

This morning, though, futures are looking a little bit higher. So we could see a bit of a rebound at the 9:30 bell.

WALLACE: All right, we'll be watching.

Carrie Lee, thanks so much.

LEE: My pleasure.

WALLACE: Always great to see you.

LEE: You, too.

WALLACE: Still to come here on DAYBREAK, New Orleans is nearly dried out. But what could Rita do to those fragile levees? A live report coming up.

Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK.

I'm Kelly Wallace in today for Carol Costello, who is on assignment in New Orleans.

Good morning, everyone.

Thanks so much for working up with us.

Coming up this half hour, it takes more than a hurricane to clip the Green Parrot's wings. We'll see how the Key West landmark weathered the storm.

But first, these stories now in the news.

Galveston, Texas is under a state of emergency as it braces for a possible hit from hurricane Rita. The mayor has ordered mandatory evacuations of nursing homes and other similar facilities, beginning in just about 30 minutes.

The female soldier so prominent in those Abu Ghraib Prison photos goes on trial today. Army Private Lynndie England faces conspiracy and prisoner abuse charges. The trial at Fort Hood, Texas is expected to take about a week.

Scotland Yard taking a closer look at Kate Moss. Police are reviewing British media claims that the supermodel abuses cocaine. They say it is too early to tell if there will be a full investigation.

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