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CNN Live At Daybreak

Hurricane Rita; Delicate Levees; Road to Recovery; Hurricane Rita Hits Cuba

Aired September 21, 2005 - 05:29   ET

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

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: And to our top story again, Hurricane Rita, we turn to meteorologist Chad Myers, our severe weather expert in Atlanta.
Good morning, again -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning. Every time I say Rita, it seems like there's not enough syllables in there...

WALLACE: I know.

MYERS: ... after we talked about Ophelia and Katrina so much.

WALLACE: Like Katrina, exactly.

MYERS: Yes, there seems like there needs to be another bump in there somewhere.

Anyway, here's Key West. That big red box you see overnight, that is now gone. That is the tornado watch box. The threat of tornadoes really has gone away. Most of the tornadoes in a tornado or in a hurricane, anyway, will be on the eastern right north side, right there, this part, this corner, not this corner, anyway. But we did have a couple of waterspouts yesterday reported around Key Largo and such.

Get you to the maps a little bit. Show you what's going on here. How is this going to change your life? How are the computers handling it today? This is Beaumont Port Arthur down here. That's about North Padre Island, Corpus Christie, all the way through and up into Galveston Island.

The computer models are coagulating a little bit today. They're getting closer again. They're agreeing a little bit more. Behind me, a map of sea surface temperatures. If you see it orange, it's 87. You can understand and recognize Florida. This is where the storm was yesterday and is now, 87-degree water. Moving in to the central Gulf of Mexico, still 87-degree water. Look at that big red zone there.

But now as you approach the coast, you lose some of the current. Houston, New Orleans, the water here much cooler, five, six, seven degrees cooler. And in fact, the forecast for the hurricane is to lose some strength as it approaches land. Could be a Category 5, according to the Hurricane Center, at least briefly, and then back down to maybe a Category 4 at landfall. What's going to stop this thing? That high pressure right there. That high pressure that's north of New Orleans is stopping the low from turning and being a Katrina for New Orleans itself. This high for Katrina had moved off to the east and so the storm had rotated around the backside of this high, just like it's going to do into Texas. But instead of going into New Orleans, the high blocks it from there.

Now how does that change and how are the models different and why are they different? Well if this high moves quicker, then this thing does turn quicker. If this high moves slowly, and this hurricane moves more quickly, then this storm goes all the way to the south near Brownsville. That's why there's still that cone from Brownsville to New Orleans -- Kelly.

WALLACE: And, Chad, there's no chance, looking at that high pressure system as well, of any way kind of pushing the storm even further south and even having the storm filter out altogether, no possibility of that?

MYERS: It won't filter out, no, but it could hit Mexico. And we know what happens when that happens, because we had a couple of them this year. If it goes south of Brownsville, it gets into this mountainous area here and then there's that flash flooding and the people there really have a very difficult time around Matamoros, anywhere from Monterey. Those areas there get flooded out rather quickly with a Category 4 hurricane.

WALLACE: All right, Chad, we'll be checking in with you in a few minutes.

MYERS: OK.

WALLACE: And of course we're reminding our viewers that you can continue to track the course of Hurricane Rita throughout the day just by looking at the right side, the lower right side of your television screen.

Well, as New Orleans faces a new threat from Hurricane Rita, the focus is on getting people out of the city. Authorities say we're not going to see people packed into the convention center or the Superdome, like we did in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, KATRINA JOINT TASK FORCE CMDR.: We are not going to go, by order of the mayor and the governor, and open the convention center for people to come in. 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. Is that clear? Is that clear to the public?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Well we want to get the latest now from New Orleans.

Our very own Carol Costello joining us on the phone from the convention center.

Carol, good morning to you. I think some of us find it hard to believe that they're even trying to bring some people to the convention center after all the bad things that happened there following Hurricane Katrina.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, we're all thinking the very same thing, Kelly. I just arrived at the convention center, and I'm looking around, and there's still that funny smell, although it's not as pungent as it was in days past.

But yesterday afternoon there were people in biohazardous suits cleaning up inside the convention center. And I'm looking through the windows right now and it's still an absolute mess. I mean chairs are strewn about. There are empty bottles on the floor, boxes, dirty clothes. And of course I'm glad that I can't go in because the smell inside is still quite bad.

But you know, as the mayor said, people are not being asked to go inside the convention center, they're just asked to use this as a staging area to get on those buses.

Now we've heard all different kind of reports as for how many buses will show up and when. Some say 500 buses will show up and -- but you know, the thing we're all wondering about, Kelly, not many people, residents, are left in the city of New Orleans. They're wondering who exactly is going to get on those buses.

WALLACE: Yes, that's a question we had, because we're wondering how many people are still there to have to go to these staging areas to be evacuated in the first place?

COSTELLO: There are not many people left within the city of New Orleans, I mean as far as residents go. And those residents who came back and are leaving again mostly have cars. And the people who rode out Katrina and refused to leave, even with the mandatory evacuation order the last time, I don't think they're going to leave this time.

WALLACE: All right.

COSTELLO: They're just going to brave the storm.

WALLACE: And, Carol, just quickly, just general sense from the people you were talking to yesterday, I mean what is the sense of the people that are still there, the reality that they could be facing another potentially Category 4 hurricane?

COSTELLO: Well they're worried, especially the people who have already started cleaning up. They just figure that they may have to go and do it all over again. And they're very concerned about the levees. And even if New Orleans just gets a lot of rain, that could produce four feet of floodwater in parts of New Orleans.

In fact, I was talking to the guy who runs the pumping station who's done a magnificent job. I mean the city is virtually dry. Anywhere you go, you can't see much water, even in the most damaged areas.

We went out to the Lakeview area where the water was up, oh god, eight feet high, completely dry. In fact, so dry that the mud left on the ground was cracking in the hot sun, so. But he says, you know, if we get a lot of rain, four feet of water in the city, he says he can get it out. He says, you know, I may be thinking like a mule, but we'll get that water out again.

WALLACE: I like that, may be thinking like a mule, but we'll get that water out. All right, Carol, thanks so much. And we'll be talking to you at the top of the hour live from the convention center.

Carol Costello reporting there on the ground in New Orleans.

Well the mayor of Key West, Florida believes his community dodged a very big bullet. Lots of rain there but no major damage. And it's a good thing, too, because the islands stretch like a string of pearls 126 miles from the mainland.

Our Rick Sanchez tells us a lot more about all of that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Take a look at this, one road, one lane each way, 42 bridges connecting tiny islands and snaking 126 miles from mainland Florida out into the Florida Straits. In other words, a fragile chain dangling in the middle of harm's way.

It is the only way in and the only way out. And you don't want to be on the wrong side when a five-foot storm surge, like this one, suddenly hits. Keep in mind, this is the midpoint from Key West to the mainland and there may be no way to turn back from where you came.

(on camera): What you're looking at behind me is the Atlantic Ocean. Now what's interesting is the Atlantic Ocean is only separated from the Gulf of Mexico by this narrow strip of land. This is U.S. 1.

What we're seeing here now is the Atlantic Ocean's waters are literally overtaking this roadway. And as it does, it dumps the water on the other side in the Gulf of Mexico where many boaters felt it would be safe to try and tie down their vessels.

What we're finding is that many of them are having to go back. Moments ago, we saw a couple of the boaters trying to retie these lines because it looked like that boat that you see right there behind me was starting to spring loose.

(voice-over): If the water levels rise too high here, one of this area's most historic landmarks could lose many of its most, well, most local residents.

(on camera): Here at Theater of the Sea, one of the most popular attractions in the Florida Keys, they're trying to make sure everything is hunkered down, including some of their smallest. This is Tucker (ph). He's a newborn sea lion from California. (voice-over): Workers here say they won't leave the Keys, they'll ride out the storm with the animals, and do whatever is necessary to keep their birds, sea lions and dolphins from losing their habitat.

JANICE WILSON, THEATER OF THE SEA: Well what we do is we come in here and we check them out and make sure they're all OK. Give them some food, because we might not be able to be here later in the day. And then when it's safe for us to come back, we'll come back again and do the same thing and check them out and make sure that, you know, they're OK after the storm.

SANCHEZ: There is probably no more ominous place to be during a storm than Florida's famous Seven Mile Bridge. Completed in 1982 to replace the old bridge, which, ironically enough, had been torn up by previous hurricanes. As you go over it, you could see the white caps as Rita's wind gusts create dangerous waves.

(on camera): Right now we're about at the midpoint of the Seven Mile Bridge. And think about it, we're three-and-a-half miles into a waterway, an expanse of ocean, essentially, on a bridge, which, when it was built, was the longest concrete bridge in the entire world.

(voice-over): It's on the other side of that bridge, due west, that you come to Key West, an island where 50 percent of the population chose to stay, playing what officials call a dangerous guessing game that Rita would not blow up into a more powerful storm.

Rick Sanchez, CNN, the Florida Keys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Situation there in the Florida Keys.

Turning back to New Orleans, it isn't the only city in America protected by levees. Up next, we'll take you to another town that could be just a rainstorm away from disaster.

Also, a look inside Cuba, just how did it fare when Rita hit. A live report coming up.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: And welcome back to DAYBREAK.

The catastrophic flooding in New Orleans was brought on by a break in the levee holding back Lake Pontchartrain. In northern California, the situation is very similar; 600 miles of levees keep two rivers from overflowing into homes and farmland.

Our Ted Rowlands looks at what would happen if those levees failed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Rayford Griffin walks his dog, Duke, along the levee that protects his house in Stockton, California. Like New Orleans, Stockton relies on levees to hold back the water in the rivers and canals that cut through the town. Rayford says the levee break in New Orleans has many of his neighbors now worried.

RAYFORD GRIFFIN, HOMEOWNER: Everybody is concerned. Those -- some of the newer neighbors are more concerned than others because they haven't been here that long.

ROWLANDS: More than 600 miles of levees wind through this area of northern California holding back the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers. The worry here is not a hurricane, but an earthquake or major flood. Hundreds, if not thousands, of homes would be in danger if the levee system breaks down.

JEFF MOUNT, GEOLOGIST: There's two kinds of levees, those that have failed and those that will fail. And eventually these homes will be flooded.

ROWLANDS: Jeff Mount is a geologist at the University of California Davis. He estimates that there is a two-in-three chance that the levee system here will have a major break sometime over the next half century. He says state government has to spend the money now, an estimated 1.3 billion, to reinforce the levees, before something catastrophic takes place.

It's not just homes at risk, it's farmland, a rail system and water pipelines. Two-thirds of California gets drinking water from here. A major break would likely contaminate that water supply.

MOUNT: It's just waiting to happen. And it will probably happen sometime over the next 50 years.

ROWLANDS: Last year, a levee protecting farmland did break, sending water towards hundreds of homes. Emergency repairs were able to hold back the water and avert a potential disaster

DAVID MRAZ, CALIF. WATER RESOURCES DEPT.: There was a number of times where it was real touch and go. We would pile the material on, and we could actually watch the material settle as we brought in the next load to pile some more on.

ROWLANDS: Last year's break was caused by animals digging holes in the levee. There are holes made by animals in the levee across from Rayford Griffin's home. He says, for now, he's not worried, saying he trusts not only the levee, but also the state of California to make sure that the system is re-enforced.

GRIFFIN: If I did not, move, trust me, especially after what happened in New Orleans.

ROWLANDS: Ted Rowlands, CNN, Stockton, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: And coming up, cleaning up in Cuba. Just ahead, a live report from the island nation. Just how much damage did Rita cause? Those details coming up.

This is DAYBREAK for Wednesday. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: Looking at live pictures there of New York City. Sun not quite out just yet.

Welcome back.

Well thousands of children made homeless by Katrina remain without homes. Doctors say kids are resilient, but there are definitely concerns some of them could experience post traumatic stress disorder.

Our Elizabeth Cohen looks at one shelter where counselors are working very, very hard with the children.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What Caroline Green has a hard time saying, parrot says easily.

ERIC GREEN (ph), COUNSELOR: Did the Parrot lose his house, too?

CAROLINE GREEN, NEW ORLEANS EVACUEE: Yes.

E. GREEN: What happened to parrot's house?

C. GREEN: He had a hurricane.

E. GREEN: He had a hurricane.

C. GREEN: The hurricane came and blowed down his house.

E. GREEN: Oh.

C. GREEN: And parrot was lonely, didn't have any friends.

COHEN: Caroline tells her story through her puppet. Her New Orleans home is gone. She's in a school where she doesn't know anyone. And when she sleeps, the monsters come.

C. GREEN: The monster got the big teeth. He has the big eyes.

COHEN: It all comes out in the play and art therapy these evacuee kids do with counselor Eric Green. Playing with the puppets brings out just how much 9-year-old Caroline misses her home, which she now says is under water.

C. GREEN: When I first moved to my new house, I was scared, because I thought I wouldn't make no friends. COHEN: Her family now lives in a church shelter more than 100 miles away from New Orleans in rural St. Landry Parish. Counselors came from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to volunteer in the local school system, now home to about 1,000 evacuee children.

Dr. Green asked Caroline to make a scene in the sand, any scene she wants, and she does this.

C. GREEN: Katrina just washed away my whole house. My house just fell down like that. Everything just started falling like this.

COHEN: The plastic toys turned upside down, reflecting her real life, a devastated home, cousins missing, friends missing.

C. GREEN: I think that they got flooded and either that or they must have swim somewhere, but I don't know, because I really do miss them.

COHEN: In another part of the room, 13-year-old Tommy Cumbaa shows a collage of what he misses most, like his cat.

(on camera): Do you think he's alive?

TOMMY CUMBAA, EVACUEE: I think he is. I have my hopes.

COHEN: You loved your cat?

CUMBAA: So much.

COHEN (voice-over): Tommy and his family survived a week in their attic before being rescued.

(on camera): You've been through a lot in the past couple weeks. How do you feel?

CUMBAA: I feel that I'm very grateful. It could have been worse.

COHEN (voice-over): Dr. Green says he worries that these children will have post traumatic stress disorder, but that, in general, these kids are resilient. He watches them work out solutions to their problems on their own.

C. GREEN: You don't have to be scared. You're my best friend.

COHEN: Frog and parrot, in the end, homeless, but not friendless, help deal with the trauma of a life turned upside down.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Opelousas, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: And we thank Elizabeth for that report. Children coping with a tremendous tragedy.

Much more ahead of DAYBREAK, we'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL LIN (?), CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The devastation on the Gulf Coast has inspired a California woman to start a charity called Puppies, Babies and Mommies Too. Collecting, not money, but supplies, everything from diapers to dog food.

SYDNEY RAY, PUPPIES, BABIES AND MOMMIES TOO: You can't like just watch these images and sit here and think I'll just give money to the Red Cross and hope it goes away. I had to do something.

LIN: Sydney Ray recruited volunteers and donations through the Internet and local news programs and set up more than a dozen California collection points. They've already collected $2 million worth of relief supplies. Enough to send 25 18-wheelers to Louisiana and more are on the way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: And welcome back.

Cuba now. Cuba will certainly be cleaning up today after a brushing blow from Hurricane Rita. The storm's outer bands brought powerful wind, waves and rain to the islands, but tourists seemed to take it all in stride.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's an experience, a one-time experience. Never had been in a tropical storm. We live in London. The weather is just rubbish all year round. So, you know, we're just here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We get drizzle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We get drizzle, we don't get this tropical rain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) just come to the Caribbean Island and get a hurricane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been welcomed by Rita with open arms.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Tourists and residents, though, were evacuated from parts of Cuba ahead of the storm.

Our Havana bureau chief Lucia Newman joins us now live on the phone with how the island nation fared.

Good morning, Lucia, great to talk to you. Give us a sense, first, of the extent of the damage. LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Kelly.

Well it wasn't as bad as some had predicted, although there was very, very heavy rain. In fact, right now it's still raining. It's been raining nonstop all night here in Havana and in Havana Province. By the time it passed over Cuba, it was already a Category 2, so the rain has been very heavy. The wind was pretty strong as well.

But there's been very light damage, a lot of downed trees, parts of the country without electricity for a time, although most of it came back by late, late evening. So in all, Kelly, I think Cuba was very lucky. We were on the southern side of the storm. Unlike in June, when Hurricane Dennis plowed right through the island and caused billions of dollars of damage here -- Kelly.

WALLACE: And, Lucia, I wonder, in light of what everyone on the worldwide stage saw happen following Katrina, did residents, even tourists. Of course we had a few tourists who were taking it all in stride. But did, for the most part, tourists and residents kind of react in a serious way because of Katrina?

NEWMAN: Well Cubans take hurricanes very seriously, as a matter of course. This is a matter -- they're always evacuated -- 138,000 people were evacuated, Kelly, and that's from the storm that didn't really pack a very powerful punch here in comparison to most. So that just gives you an idea.

As the storm was approaching Havana, everything moved into high gear. The buses started going to different neighborhoods picking people up, people who lived in homes that are considered to be too weak to resist the storm. By tonight, or by early this morning, most of those people will be returned to their homes. But there was a massive evacuation anyway here. And people, yes, they are even a little bit more jittery than usual in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, of course.

WALLACE: And you talked a little bit about Dennis, Lucia, so give us a sense, you've covered a tremendous number of storms, hurricanes, in terms of how this one, Rita, compares to others?

NEWMAN: Well let me just give you an idea. By the time I got home last night, it was fairly late, my 15-year-old daughter said to me, mommy, when is the hurricane coming? And it had already passed. I mean we're used to the doors and the windows shaking and rattling, very, very strong winds, not being able to sometimes drive along the streets for days, not having power or running water. None of that has happened this time.

So it was a strong storm, but it didn't -- the eye of the storm did not actually hit Cuba itself. As I said, we were on the southern side. We, obviously, Cubans hoping that that will continue over the next month and a half. We have six more weeks of the heavy hurricane season, and it's predicted that at least eight or nine more will be coming this way -- Kelly.

WALLACE: I know. And, Lucia, hard to believe we still have, as you said, six more weeks of hurricane season.

Lucia Newman, our Havana bureau chief, joining us live on the phone with the situation in Cuba following Hurricane Rita. We thank you so much.

And the next hour of DAYBREAK, folks, just one minute away, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: 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 survived 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.

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