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CNN Live At Daybreak

Could Hurricane Rita Turn Into Another Katrina?

Aired September 21, 2005 - 05:00   ET

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

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: It is Wednesday, September 21. Could Hurricane Rita turn into another Katrina? After lashing the Florida Keys Rita is getting stronger by the minute and shows no signs of weakening. We'll have the very latest on the storm's track.
Also, state of emergency, people on the Texas coast are bordering -- boarding up, hunkering down or getting out.

And first Katrina, now Rita, is New Orleans in for a one-two punch?

From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK. I'm Kelly Wallace in today for Carol Costello who's on assignment in New Orleans this morning. Good morning everyone. Thanks so much for waking up with us.

Also ahead, don't panic. That's what people living along the Texas coast are being told this morning, but what's being done to calm their fears?

And later, when Rita met Cuba, we'll show you what the storm left in its wake. But first these stories "Now in the News".

Rita rakes the Florida Keys with high winds and heavy rain before heading out into the Gulf of Mexico. Streets are flooded, but there's no major damage reported. At one point 25,000 homes and businesses lost power.

New Orleans is -- quote -- "essentially dry", so says the Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps says its punch is much of Hurricane Katrina's floodwater from the city as possible. The downside, Hurricane Rita could bring more rain.

Katrina interrupted air travel to New Orleans, but now it's picking up again. American Airlines today will start limited service into the city. The nation's biggest carrier will initially have three daily round trips between Dallas and New Orleans.

And to our top story, Hurricane Rita, we turn to Chad Myers, CNN's severe weather expert in Atlanta. Good morning Chad. What is the latest on this very powerful storm?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: One hundred and twenty miles per hour now, Kelly. The storm almost due west of Key West to the west of the Dry Tortugas as well, still seeing the effects though from Key West all the way through the lower Keys. Even a few scattered rain bands coming in here to the upper Keys, Marathon, you just had one. That's above Grassy Key right there. Duck Key picking up a little bit of thunderstorm activity in the past couple of hours. We'll take you around a little bit. Here's where the heaviest stuff has been all night long, right over Key Largo, Tavernier, right up Card Sound Road and Ocean Reef, right on through and into Florida City. A lot of heavy rain into South Dade County as well. That caused a little bit of flooding in the overnight hours, but we don't have extensive reports of that just yet.

We may get some more than that, maybe what we have at least as the day comes up and we see some things from the helicopter. Here is the storm itself, 120 miles per hour. It is still moving to the west at about 14 miles per hour, forecast to be in the Gulf of Mexico at 125 knots. And if you do all the multiplication, that's about 143 miles per hour and that's tomorrow morning. There's Friday morning, here's early, early Saturday morning or late Friday night.

If you just come to the south here, that's about midnight Friday night and then landfall somewhere around 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning. Now that is Houston right there, so the storm is forecast to the left or west of Houston, but remember the cone still all the way from Lafayette, Louisiana right on down through Brownsville. The computer is agreeing a little bit more this morning of a Texas landfall. We'll get to those computers in a second -- Kelly.

WALLACE: And Chad, the waters in the Gulf of Mexico very warm, of course.

MYERS: Yes.

WALLACE: How similar the conditions now to the conditions before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast?

MYERS: You know you've got this thing called the loop current, where the water comes up from Cancun and then around and then back down again, and that loop current just keeps that water, even though you would think that oh we already had a hurricane. Maybe that mixed it up a little bit. Yes, that mixing is no longer there. That water is back hot again, as hot as it would be even before Katrina. So the similar conditions exist all the way through the Gulf Coast.

WALLACE: A serious situation, folks, all along the Gulf Coast, watching that closely. Chad, and we want our viewers to know throughout the two hours here on DAYBREAK we are going to be tracking Hurricane Rita's path. You'll be able to see that on the right hand side, the lower right hand side of your screen.

Well the threat of Hurricane Rita has already led to an emergency declaration in Galveston, Texas. More than 80 buses are standing by to begin a mandatory evacuation of the island within the next two hours.

Our CNN's Deborah Feyerick is there and she brings us up to date.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They may not say it, but they sure are thinking it. Don't let what happened in New Orleans happen in the city of Galveston. It's why local officials on this island called a state of emergency more than 72 hours before Rita is supposed to hit.

MAYOR LYDA ANN THOMAS, GALVESTON, TEXAS: You may and should begin to leave the island now.

FEYERICK: Mayor Lyda Thomas and the City Council suspended all normal business operations. The focus on one thing only, get everyone out. The plan stays in a mandatory evacuation starting Wednesday.

First scheduled to go, nursing home residents and those in assisted living. Next, everyone needing a lift out of town, 80 buses ready to roll. For everyone else mandatory evacuation kicks in at 6:00 p.m. local Wednesday. The mayor making it clear if you stay, you're on your own.

Police were busy getting their own families to safety earlier in the week. The police chief putting officers on notice they're all expected to weather out the hurricane and be in place after the rains clear.

(on camera): The Texas National Guard will be nearby. They will not be on the island, but close enough to mobilize if they have to. The city manager told his people that there are still a lot of details to be worked out, but they're in the process of figuring them all out.

Deborah Feyerick, CNN, Galveston, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: And let's take a look at some other cities sitting in Rita's predicted path. Texas Governor Rick Perry has already declared a state of emergency. In Houston evacuees from Katrina are being moved out of shelters to other parts of Texas and also to Arkansas.

Well turning now to New Orleans, which is in a precarious position because of its fragile levee system. In fact, officials warn that just a few inches of rain from Rita could put parts of the city back under water.

Our Carol Costello has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: If there is a picture of cooperation between local and federal officials, this is it.

COL. DUANE GAPINSKI, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: How could we get along without Joe?

(CROSSTALK)

GAPINSKI: You know he's been there... (CROSSTALK)

GAPINSKI: ... he's been here like 75 years or I mean 35 years.

COSTELLO: And with Rita threatening, cooperation between the local pump guy and the Army engineer is exactly what's needed now. According to the mayor, just three to six inches of rain will mean four feet of floodwater for parts of New Orleans.

JOE SULLIVAN, N.O. SEWER/WATER BOARD: I think we'll get it out. I think so. Maybe I'm (UNINTELLIGIBLE) but I think we'll get it out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll get it out (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

COSTELLO: But it's really up to Joe Sullivan to get rid of the water. He manages New Orleans' pumping stations. Eighty percent of these giant pumps are still down or damaged.

Still Joe and his crew have managed to pump three quarters of a trillion gallons of water into Lake Pontchartrain. Colonel Duane Gapinski of the Army Corps of Engineers says New Orleans is essentially dry. That could change if the levees fail again and that is a problem for the colonel and his team.

(on camera): How strong are the levees?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well of course it depends where you are. North of us on Lake Pontchartrain, we could probably handle a 10 to 12 foot storm surge.

COSTELLO (voice-over): But the east side, the most heavily damaged can only handle a five to six foot storm surge, something that could happen if Hurricane Rita makes landfall to the right of Louisiana as a category one storm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are sections of the levee out east that were 17 1/2 feet tall and they're completely gone.

COSTELLO: So the temporary solution is to build a steel curtain at the end of each canal in the city. That will hopefully prevent new flooding.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See you tonight at 8:00...

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Not a sure thing, but it's the best this team can do. But they're confident by working together they can prevent another catastrophe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: And that was our own Carol Costello reporting. Carol will join us at the half hour for a live report from New Orleans. We also want to tell you that the head of the federal relief effort, Vice Admiral Thad Allen says there are 500 buses standing by to ferry people out of the area.

Well it is a sight for sore eyes, one of New Orleans' most historic areas is dried out and lit up, but with Rita on the prowl in the Gulf what's next? That story just ahead.

Also, don't panic. That's what some in Texas are saying, but what's being done to help the people are afraid?

And we'll have an update on the search for those four missing dolphins. You won't want to miss that. That's coming up, but first here's a look at what else is making news this Wednesday morning September 21.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: And the international markets are mixed. Tokyo's Nikkei is up 48 points. The London FTSE is down almost 11 points and the German DAX is down 46 points. And while we're at it let's check oil. In future's trading crude oil is down just a little. It's trading just above $66 a barrel this morning.

Well turning again to Hurricane Rita. You can hear it across the Florida Keys this morning, a big sigh of relief. Hurricane Rita brought plenty of wind and rain, but the islands were spared the storm's full fury.

Let's go straight to Key West and reporter Neki Mohan of Miami affiliate WPLG-TV. Neki, thanks so much for joining us. Give us a sense of what's going on, on the ground right now.

NEKI MOHAN, WPLG-TV REPORTER: Good morning Kelly. Well for the most part everyone is dealing with the loss of power. Thousands of people still without power in the Keys, but workers from around the country expected to return to the Keys this morning to help us fix that problem.

Take a look right now live here on Duval Street. You can see just a little bit of water on the ground, the boards on the windows of the buildings remaining intact. We actually have a traffic light here at the corner of Duval and Fleming. You can see there's if any power across the street where we are, there is no power.

You can take a look at the impact that the storm had on Key West yesterday. Hurricane Rita coming onshore as a category one. The main problem, storm surge, flooding expected in many of the low-lying areas this morning. Residents will return in about a couple of hours to take a look at the damage to their home.

The storm came ashore in the early afternoon yesterday and packing winds above 70 miles per hour, sustained winds, and there'll be some damage, but not as much damage as earlier anticipated. Of course we will know when officials begin to tour these neighborhoods at daylight.

Yesterday Keys officials took the proper precautions, maximum precautions to make sure people were out of the streets. About half the town of Key West, roughly about 15,000 people evacuating Key West and heading up to the mainland areas. The rest stayed in and stayed boarded up in their homes.

Not many complaints from officials, they say they didn't get many 911 calls yesterday and that things look pretty good, so again, Key West pretty much dodging the bullet. In the upper Keys, there was flooding in many neighborhoods, in Marathon and Island Morotta (ph), but for the most part power a big -- power -- loss of power rather a big concern this morning.

Many residents will be returning to their homes when the sun comes up. So Kelly, overall I can tell you after weathering this storm for the most part it was mild as hurricanes have gone here in the Keys, again, a busy -- a very active season. We're already on "R" and the hurricane season is far from over, but again many residents of the Keys breathing a sigh of relief from Hurricane Rita this morning.

That's the latest live here in downtown Key West. I'm Neki Mohan. Back to you.

WALLACE: Neki, we appreciate that. Definitely people there obviously very relieved and we'll be watching very closely, of course, where the storm continues next. Neki Mohan reporting to us from WPLG.

Well your news, money, weather and sports, it's almost 15 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 two hours from now.

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 strip clubs have opened up to serve relief workers. The French Quarter was relatively unscathed by Katrina.

In money, interest rates jumped for the eleventh straight time. The Federal Reserve raised a key lending rate another quarter point to three and three quarters percent. That's the highest rate in four years.

In culture, John Mellencamp is among the new nominees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Others are on the ballot include jazz great Miles Davis, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Sex Pistols. Results of the voting are expected to be announced in December.

In sports, the new location for the Sugar Bowl should be decided within the next few weeks. The game is usually played at the now unusable New Orleans Superdome. Officials will decide between Baton Rouge and Atlanta for the January 2 game.

Turning again to weather and tracking Hurricane Rita. Chad Myers, our CNN severe weather expert, Chad, what are you seeing?

MYERS: There you see Rita on the lot on the screen, 120 miles per hour, still affecting the lower Keys and also the west side of Florida today. Boston today you get to 79 and tomorrow 80, a pretty pleasant weekend in store with cool mornings, low humidity, lots of sunshine, New York City, 77 for your Saturday and a cool 72 for Sunday, Atlanta, some showers today, Orlando, still some showers, still part of the storm.

It's still moving away from you and also the west part of Florida. Tampa you'll see showers. Chicago, that's a cold front, bring showers tomorrow, a high only 70 for Thursday and there you go Denver, 88 today, dropping 18 degrees by your weekend -- Kelly.

WALLACE: OK, Chad, we'll talk to you in a few minutes. Thanks so much.

Now a follow up for you, some good news on this day regarding those missing dolphins. Aquarium staff and scientists have found the final four dolphins and brought them to safety. A total of eight dolphins had been washed out of their Gulfport, Mississippi tank by Hurricane Katrina, but later they were discovered together in the Gulf of Mexico.

Four of them disappeared for a few days. All eight are now in a special tank that's normally used for Navy dolphins, a lot of people very happy to see all that.

Well it looks like Rita is eying the Texas coast, so steps are already being taken to calm the fears of the people who live there. But, can anything stop the stress? That story just ahead.

You're watching DAYBREAK for Wednesday. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: And welcome back to DAYBREAK. Don't panic, that's what Texas Governor Rick Perry is telling people along the Gulf Coast as Hurricane Rita approaches. The governor has asked President Bush to approve a disaster declaration for Texas, but he also says his state is ready for the storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK PERRY, TEXAS: We've seen the tragic effects of a deadly hurricane in recent weeks, but there is no reason to panic if you're prepared and take an orderly approach to this developing storm. Now we hope and pray that Rita dissipates in the Gulf waters, but it's better to be safe than sorry. That's why the state has activated its emergency operation center and is preparing to deploy ample resources, manpower, and equipment to meet any potential need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: But in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the governor's words might be falling on some deaf ears.

CNN's Peter Viles explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What does Hurricane Katrina have to do with these earthquake survival kits? It's simple. Some Americans are afraid the next disaster might be handled as badly as the last one and they're stocking up for survival.

SHERRY HEITZ, QUAKE KARE: I think everybody is just appalled and scared and actually almost panicking at this point and it's become a frenzy. Everybody needs to get a survival kit as fast as possible because they feel like they could be next.

VILES: And it's not just Californians who are afraid. At the Quake Kare warehouse many of the orders for these kits containing food, water, blankets and first aid supplies are from the East Coast.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want to order that?

VILES: One thing they all have in common...

HEITZ: Everybody is in a hurry. Everybody is scared and everybody wants it overnighted.

VILES: Pre Katrina, Quake Kare shipped roughly 100 survival kits a day. Post Katrina they say that number spiked to several thousand a day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I'll take the...

VILES: In a store best known for camping gear, Lily Chen was looking for a water purification system.

LILY CHEN, SHOPPER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Hurricane Katrina...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

CHEN: ... everybody is sitting there waiting for the (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

VILES: The store manger is using the "P" word, panic buying.

JUAN QUINTERO, REI: Well it's definitely panic driven it seems at that point. We have seen a run on everything from space blankets to first aid kits to dehydrated food and self-heating food.

VILES: And it's not just food, water and flashlights. The National Rifle Association says gun sales have spiked after all the reports of looting and lawlessness in New Orleans.

WAYNE LAPIERRE, NRA: And the lesson is when one of these disasters hit, you can't count on the government. You can't count on police authorities despite their good intentions. You can count on the lawlessness.

VILES: Back at the camping store, Lily Chen says she's not panicking, just being prudent.

CHEN: I think everyone realized it could happen to us. It's wise to be prepared. It's also wise to be prepared.

VILES: Peter Viles for CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: And we will get the latest on the hurricane preps from Texas Governor Rick Perry himself. He'll appear on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING". That's in the 7:00 a.m. Eastern hour.

Well, a tenuous situation in New Orleans definitely the case. Just as the city dries out, there's concern that even a little rain from Rita could lead to another catastrophe. Our Carol Costello joins us live from there next.

Plus, Rick Sanchez giving us a close-up look at just what kind of pounding the Florida Keys took. See for yourself, just ahead.

Don't go away. This is DAYBREAK for Wednesday. We'll be right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ever wish you could do a keyword search through your memories, to recall a phone number or a part of a conversation? Sunil Vemuri discovered a way to make that dream a reality.

SUNIL VEMURI, PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST, MIT: What I have is a portable device, which I carry around with me at all times and which allows me to record anything that happens in my life. After we've recorded all the conversations and I have a database of my life that dates back about two to three years, I can do similar to what we do when we search the Internet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This tool also converts audio into text files, allowing for a quick search through hours of conversation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got years from now when exactly that big tsunami hit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But don't expect this device to be on the market for a few more years. Vemuri says he's still working out privacy issues and how to protect these memory recordings from being subpoenaed.

VEMURI: I wanted to get to the point where you couldn't record for the sake of memories while at the same time not worrying about somebody stealing your recordings to use against you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK. I'm Kelly Wallace in today for Carol Costello who's on assignment in New Orleans this morning. Good morning everyone. Thanks for starting your day with us. We will talk to Carol in just a moment.

Also ahead in the next 30 minutes, we'll go to the Florida Keys to see how people there are riding out Hurricane Rita. And we'll meet some Katrina kids who are working through the trauma in their lives by playing.

But first, these stories "Now in the News", here we go again. Hurricane Rita strengthened overnight to a category three storm. Winds are above 111 miles an hour and are expected to intensify even more. Right now forecasts show it will make landfall late Friday or early Saturday near Galveston, Texas.

Blistering criticism for President Bush from former President Jimmy Carter. Carter says the Bush administration has failed to adequately maintain FEMA. The former president says when he created FEMA he promised it would always be independent, adequately financed, and its leaders highly qualified.

Says Carter -- quote -- "All three of those promises have been violated.'

The young 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.

And to our top story again, Hurricane Rita, turn to meteorologist Chad Myers, our severe weather expert in Atlanta. Good morning again Chad.

MYERS: Every time I say Rita it seems like there's not enough syllables...

WALLACE: I know...

MYERS: ... in there after we talk about Ophelia and Katrina...

WALLACE: And Katrina...

MYERS: Yes, 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 Christi, all the way through up and into Galveston Island.

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