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CNN Live At Daybreak

New Orleans Bracing For More Rain from Hurricane Rita; Texas, Louisiana Brace for Rita

Aired September 21, 2005 - 06:29   ET

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

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: 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 waking 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. They 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 is 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.

Back now to our top story, Hurricane Rita. We go to meteorologist Chad Myers, CNN's severe weather expert in Atlanta, who is tracking everything for us.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: Drying out. The Army Corps of Engineers says it's pumped as much of Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters out of New Orleans as possible. But now, the city is bracing for more wet weather and undergoing yet another evacuation.

For the latest, we want to go straight to the heart of the Big Easy. Our Carol Costello is at the New Orleans Convention Center.

Carol, great to see you again. I want to really talk to you, because I know you've been speaking with folks at the Corps of Engineers and others. What are they saying in terms of the strength of the levees handling even a little bit of rain from Hurricane Rita?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, I've got to tell you, Kelly, they are worried. I spent the whole day at the pumping station near the Orleans Canal yesterday, talking to Joe Sullivan, the man who runs the pumping stations here in the city of New Orleans, and also to Colonel Gapinski, who is with the Army Corps of Engineers. They are doing what they can to protect everybody against Rita.

But the mayor said yesterday that even three to six inches of rain could send four feet of floodwater into the streets of New Orleans. And Colonel Gapinski said with even a three-to-six-foot storm surge, well, that could breach the levees once again.

But let's talk about the good things first, because, as you said, the city of New Orleans is essentially dry. So, if it floods again, it would just be so depressing and so frustrating for everybody involved.

But I did ask Colonel Gapinski about Rita. Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. DUANE GAPINSKI, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: We're concerned. But, again, we are working night and day to do everything we can to protect against Rita.

COSTELLO: So, should everybody be out of the city? I mean, at what point should they leave?

GAPINSKI: Well, that's something that the elected officials are going to have to do. I mean, obviously, we give them our recommendations, but ultimately it's the mayor and the city that has to make that call.

COSTELLO: OK. So, Joe, you've been around a long time. Should the mayor have allowed people to come back so soon?

JOE SULLIVAN, SUPERVISOR, SEWER AND TREATMENT BOARD: I don't advise the mayor. The mayor is the president of my board.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: See, politics are still at play in the city of New Orleans. But Mr. Sullivan also told me that he will pump that water out. Even if it sends four more feet of water into parts of the city of New Orleans he will get it out.

I hope you're taking a look at pictures of these huge pylons. They're at the ends of each canal now. This is what the Army Corps of Engineers is doing to protect against a storm surge. This will soon become a huge steel curtain. They place these at the ends of each canal. And if that storm surges, they're going to turn it into a huge steel curtain. You're going to see corrugated steel across those pylons.

And hopefully that will protect the city against a three-to-six- foot storm surge, at least that's what they're hoping now -- Kelly.

WALLACE: Carol, unfortunately, we didn't have those pictures, but we'll certainly try to get them up through the next 30 minutes.

Give me a sense. You've been on the ground for a number of days now. What's your sense of those two gentlemen you talked to? They seemed to be totally, you know, on the job and ready to handle anything that comes in terms of the city's ability to handle anything that could come from Hurricane Rita.

COSTELLO: Well, they only can do what they can do. Because the levees are still in a weakened state, there's not much you can do about that. They're not going to get the levees fixed and up and running until June of 2006. And part of the problem is it's hard to get materials here to build the levees back up.

And it's very complicated to build a levee. It's not as simple as putting up a big concrete wall. So that's going to take a long time.

So, they're going to be dealing with this throughout hurricane season.

WALLACE: And, Carol, we keep saying, we still have six more weeks of hurricane season, which is hard to believe. Carol, thanks so much. We appreciate it, and we'll look forward to all of your reports coming up at 7:00 Eastern on "AMERICAN MORNING." Carol Costello reporting for us from New Orleans.

Still to come on this edition of DAYBREAK, risking life and limb to keep the taps running. We'll talk with a longtime worker at a Key West institution, who refuses to let Rita close the place down.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: The start of a new day here in New York City. Welcome back, everyone, to DAYBREAK. We are continuing our coverage of Hurricane Rita.

Conditions are certainly ripe for Rita to strike with the intensity of Hurricane Katrina. So, authorities are not taking any chances at all. States of emergency and mandatory evacuations have been declared.

CNN's Thomas Roberts joins us now live from New Orleans with an update.

Thomas, it's great to see you. So, I guess the message to people who might still be in New Orleans is, get out as soon as they can, right?

THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. City officials are being very cautious here and watching closely this Hurricane Rita. And that storm is growing in the Gulf. It's the same conditions right now that fostered the immense power of Hurricane Katrina. And it certainly is anybody's exact guess where Rita is going to make landfall.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THOMAS (voice over): Hurricane Rita continues to gain steam after swiping the Florida Keys, turning towards the Texas Gulf Coast in a projected landfall near Galveston. The city became a relief port after Katrina, but now it is bracing for its own possible disaster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A category 4 is a very difficult one to protect against. The main structures we have down there are navigation structures to move commercial traffic in and out of the Galveston area. We don't have a lot of extensive flood control and shore protection projects in that area.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are three evacuation zones. The city of Galveston is in zone A. Zone A will begin to evacuate at 6:00 p.m., and that is mandatory.

THOMAS: Rita is putting the brakes on people returning to New Orleans. Many who returned just this week are being told to evacuate again. This time officials say a better plan is in place for those without transportation to get out. The Convention Center, a symbol of the chaos after Katrina still heavily damaged, is serving as a gathering place. But people are not allowed to go inside.

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, COMMANDER, KATRINA JOINT TASK FORCE: There are buses there. Is that clear to you? Buses parked. There are 4,000 troops there. People come. They get on a bus. They get on a truck. They move on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

THOMAS: Now, positive news for the city of New Orleans today. The city has been deemed dry. The pumps have done all of the work that they can to move the floodwaters out. And, Kelly, right now, it's up to the sun to do the rest of the work. And I can tell you from being here this week, the sun has been blazing hot.

WALLACE: It has been hot indeed, which, you know, might be tough for all of the reporters there, but at least it will soak up some of that water.

Thomas, I want to ask you what you mentioned in your piece at the end about the Convention Center. And, of course, authorities are saying it's just a staging area. People don't go inside.

THOMAS: Right.

WALLACE: But when you talk to people on the ground, any residents, what's their sense that this place, where so many bad things happened, is even being used in the slightest way again?

THOMAS: You know, right now not a lot of questions are coming around that. People know that this really was a symbol of the chaos, also the Superdome, of what we saw in the days after Hurricane Katrina. I think people are just excited to know that there actually is a solid plan in place.

Now, General Honore talked to reporters yesterday, and he was pretty straightforward, saying you know what? We don't need to talk about what happened the last time. Here's the plan that's in place now. People are going to show up. They're going to move on. He kept reiterating that over and over again. Bring the people in. Move on.

Two busloads of people did leave there. About 500 buses, Kelly, are on standby in case they need to take more people out. Also, thousands of troops are going to be stationed at the Convention Center as well to make sure that things go smoothly.

WALLACE: All right, Thomas, thanks for bringing us the latest from New Orleans. Thomas Roberts reporting live for us this morning.

THOMAS: Thank you.

WALLACE: We appreciate it.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It's about 44 minutes after the hour. And here is what is all new this morning.

Let the good times roll. The lights are on all along Bourbon Street in the famous French Quarter of New Orleans. Businesses such as restaurants and, yes, strip clubs have opened up to serve relief workers. The French Quarter was relatively unscathed by Katrina.

In money, crude oil prices are down about a buck to just over $66 a barrel. The drop came after OPEC agreed to release an extra two million barrels of oil a day.

In culture, she didn't stay single for long. Actress and model Rebecca Romjin is engaged to actor Jerry O'Connell. Romjin's divorce from actor John Stamos became final just six months ago.

In sports, going, going, gone. Barry Bonds has hit his 706th career homer in his first road game of the season. The San Francisco Giants' slugger drove a ball into the upper deck against the Washington Nationals.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: So, let's just leave the Earth behind for a minute, shall we, and take a new look at Mars.

Newly-released images from NASA's Mars orbiter show the Red Planet has gone through some very big changes. Take a look at these before and after pictures of a crater. The photo on the right is from December 2004. It shows that about a dozen new boulder tracks formed on the crater wall since a 2003 photo, which you see on the left.

And now check these images out. The April 2005 photo on the right shows two new gullies, which were not in the 2002 photo on the left. So, some big changes taking place, which NASA is focusing on.

Still to come on this Wednesday edition of DAYBREAK, even when Rita was threatening, a worker at a Key West institution refused to abandon the store. We'll talk to him live coming up. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: And welcome back. It is about 50 minutes after the hour. And here is what will be making news today.

President Bush has invited Senate leaders to the White House today to talk about the second vacancy on the Supreme Court. The president isn't expected to name his second pick to the high court just yet. That's because he wants the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote first on his choice of John Roberts for chief justice.

Japan's parliament has re-elected Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. Today's vote follows the ruling coalition's landslide victory in elections last week.

And baseball slugger Barry Bonds says Congress has better things to worry about than whether players are taking steroids. Bonds has been under investigation about possible steroid use. He says the losses from Hurricane Katrina are much more important than the baseball steroid issue.

While it has been called a sunny place for shady people, and it has been there since 1890. We're talking about the Green Parrot Bar in Key West, Florida. That open-air hangout has weathered its share of storms, and it is weathering Hurricane Rita, too.

This time, though, Dan Brock, who works at the bar, is there to see it through, and joins us now on the phone live.

Dan, thanks so much for joining us.

DAN BROCK, GREEN PARROT BAR: Oh, my pleasure.

WALLACE: So, Dan, here is the question: Why did you decide to stay?

BROCK: Well, I just decided to stay, because I didn't think it was that big of a threat to me. You know, after so many years of living down here, we watch -- I mean, I watch the Weather Channel on a regular basis, like, this time of year. We watch the storms the minute they come off of the coast of Africa. You know, there are certain things. There's the water temperature. There's the jet stream. There's a lot of different variations that causes storms to go one way or the other.

And it just didn't seem, you know, a threat -- like I said, a threat to me. I mean, I have friends that left here Sunday or Monday and went to Miami and Fort Lauderdale, and they got hit worse than I did down here. So, they would have been better off to stay here.

WALLACE: Well, you say you never know quite what Mother Nature will throw at you.

BROCK: That's right.

WALLACE: So, give me a sense of what it was like, because I understand you weren't there with a room -- a bar filled with patrons. You were there alone.

BROCK: I was here alone. We closed the bar Monday night about 7:00, and I was by myself until sometime yesterday, I guess.

WALLACE: Well, give us a sense of what it was like, I mean, in the sense of...

BROCK: Well, it was...

WALLACE: ... of with the winds and the damage you were able to see.

BROCK: Well, it was really calm Monday, all Monday night and Tuesday morning. It didn't really start getting bad until late Tuesday afternoon, and that's just when we got the real big wind gusts. You know, we got some 50-60-mile-an-hour wind gusts and some good showers, but, you know, nothing really major.

And I have no damage to the building that I could see. I haven't covered the whole place yet. I was going to wait until about daylight to get out. But I've walked out on the sidewalks. Like I said, the streets are clear. There are no big trees down that I can see, you know. But, of course, this is just my little corner of the island. You know, there could be something somewhere else.

WALLACE: And, Dan, I want to bring our severe weather expert, Chad Myers. Our meteorologist in Atlanta has a question -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Dan, I guess my question is, what's your threshold? When do you think it's time to leave? I know you thought that this was going to be a 60-70-mile-per-hour category 1 below.

BROCK: Well...

MYERS: When do you leave? What do you do?

BROCK: Well, it's just according to how bad it is before, you know, like if it gets really bad coming across the ocean. Like, if it gets -- I don't know. I think if it was coming across the Bahamas and it got to be a 3 or 4, I would maybe consider leaving.

But, again, when it comes across landfall -- well, like, in the Bahamas whenever it changes directions, if it comes down below Cuba, it always changes directions. You know, it's just a lot of different things that we have to look at. And, you know, they have, like, a mandatory evacuation.

And the mayor came on the radio today -- the other day and said, well, you know, the city, you could stay, but the city is not responsible for you. So that's what you've got to think in your mind that if I stay here, I'm going to have to be responsible for myself.

MYERS: All of the chickens are OK?

BROCK: Oh, the chickens are still here.

MYERS: All right. Thanks a lot, Dan.

BROCK: All right, thank you.

WALLACE: All right. Thanks so much, Dan and Chad. And, Dan, we hope the Green Parrot Bar can reopen for business some time very soon.

Chad, time for one of our favorite moments, especially on this tough news day.

MYERS: Yes.

WALLACE: Take it away.

MYERS: The storm is going to be in the Gulf for a day or two, so let's have a little bit of fun here.

WALLACE: That's good.

MYERS: Time to give away a mug. Here are your questions for today. The NTSB, National Transportation Safety Board, is proposing banning what for teenaged drivers? And what college bowl game is going to have be relocated as the result of Hurricane Katrina?

Go to CNN.com/daybreak. And send us your answers there, where it says give us your opinions or all of those other things. Just click on that link. It will work for you.

WALLACE: All right. Chad, we'll talk to you in a few minutes.

And when we come back, everybody, more headlines, and Chad will have a look at your travel forecast. This is DAYBREAK for Wednesday morning. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: And welcome back, everyone. Chad now with an update for all of the business travelers out there.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WALLACE: From the Time Warner center in New York, I'm Kelly Wallace, in today for Carol Costello. Thanks so much for waking up with us and joining us. "AMERICAN MORNING" starts right now.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Kelly, thanks. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

During the night, Hurricane Rita picking up strength, now a category 3 storm and on track to become even stronger. The very latest on Rita's path is straight ahead this morning. MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Miles O'Brien in Texas, getting ready for a possible disaster there. Mandatory evacuations are starting this hour in Galveston, the city in the crosshairs of Hurricane Rita. We're live in Galveston.

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