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CNN Live At Daybreak

Hurricane Rita Category 5; Where's the Money?; Silver Lining?; Road to Recovery

Aired September 22, 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 on this Thursday, tracking Hurricane Rita.
Meteorologist Bonnie Schneider at the Forecast Center this morning for Chad Myers.

Bonnie, I think most of us can't even believe or comprehend how massive this storm really is.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Kelly, you're right. I mean, just looking at it, it's already taking much of the eastern Gulf of Mexico. It's 300 miles wide, 300 miles. That is a large distance. And we're expecting this storm to grow even larger as it moves over some of this very warm water in the Gulf of Mexico.

And as we take a look at some of the latest advisories that we have posted, you will see there's a hurricane watch that has been extended. This watch has been extended all the way up to Intracoastal City, Louisiana. The tropical storm warning now for Morgan City, Louisiana to the mouth of the Mississippi River. Now if you've been watching since last night, you know that this is a change. We are seeing this hurricane watch extended further north because of the size of Rita.

Now Rita is intense. It's a Category 5 with maximum winds at 175 miles per hour. One of the reasons this storm is so strong is it's passing over what's known as The Loop Current. The Loop Current pulls up very warm, deep water from the Caribbean Sea into the Gulf of Mexico and it creates pockets of areas where you have warm pools of very warm, deep water.

So, really, depending on how long this storm will work its way over The Loop Current really will help to determine how long it will be a Category 5. We are expecting the storm to stay as a Category 5 through tonight and eventually tomorrow even. But luckily we are also expecting this storm to work its way further towards some cooler water, eventually, as it gets closer to the Texas coast, and it will probably come in as a Category 4.

Just want to mention we had some severe weather overnight and into the early hours of yesterday into Minneapolis. There were some reports of tornadoes spotted, but luckily things have calmed down now. We're just getting some light rain. So just want to keep folks up to date on that.

So, in the meantime for Hurricane Rita, the main thing to note is that we're expecting a landfall some time late on Friday, into early Saturday morning, somewhere along the Texas coast. And that watch area really had shifted. In fact, it's a little bit further to the north. We're looking at landfall somewhere in the Galveston area.

WALLACE: All right, Bonnie, folks definitely all along the Texas coast and parts of Louisiana watching your reports and others very, very closely. Bonnie, we'll check back in with you in about 15 minutes or so. Thanks so much.

Well, while New Orleans is not in the direct path of this storm, many people there remain cautious after the pounding they took from Katrina. The concern centers around the levees, those levees damaged by Katrina.

Carol Costello has left the DAYBREAK anchor desk for New Orleans where she's covering Rita's approach.

Good morning, Carol, great to talk to you again. So how confident are folks there on the ground that these levees will hold up if there's any rain or any problems coming? Are there any problems coming from Rita?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Confident, that's a funny word, because they're as confident as they can be. They're doing all they can, but the levees are in such a weakened state that there's only so much you can do.

I'm on my way to the 17th Street Canal where the biggest breach in the levee is. Apparently it's raining out that way. I'm still in the French Quarter right now and it's not rain, there's just a light breeze. But you know rain won't so much affect the levees as the wind will. So if you get a lot of rain, you will get flooding. As little of three inches of rain will flood parts of the city again and dump maybe four feet of water in.

Now I talked to the pumping guy yesterday, Joe Sullivan, and he said you know we can get that out, it'll just take us a while. But the big thing is is if it rains and there's wind and those levees are breached, there's really not much they can do. That will cause a catastrophe.

WALLACE: You know, Carol, also, it's interesting, because federal officials talking to reporters in Baton Rouge yesterday were saying that they are confident or they believe that Hurricane Rita will not result in flooding in New Orleans. They believe that maybe you'll get two to four inches of rain but that you know the levees will be able to hold up and deal with that. Is that -- is there some difference of opinion there?

COSTELLO: Well, according to the Army Corps of Engineers and the man who runs all the pumping stations for the city of New Orleans, they're really worried about rain, and a lot of rain. In fact, the mayor said a few days ago that three to six inches of rain could flood parts of the city. You know I just don't think people really know for sure how it's going to affect the city of New Orleans, because the levees have never been in this weakened state with a major storm even coming near the coast of Louisiana.

I mean, right now, the good news is is right now the National Guard has come up with redeployment plans. In fact, some troops are headed to Baton Rouge, some troops are scattering throughout different parts of the city so that they can be ready for whatever happens. Because you don't want all your resources in one place in case the city does flood again, because then you're sort of like trapped where you are and you can't get out to help people.

WALLACE: And, Carol, we talked to you yesterday, of course. You were at the convention center, which is a staging area for people who might be in New Orleans and need to evacuate. Have people been coming to the convention center to get out of town?

COSTELLO: No. No, we only saw three people yesterday. You know most of the people are out of the city. And even the workers that have come in here to repair the electrical lines and such, they're staying until the very last minute, because they want to use this bit of good weather to repair what they can. And you know many don't realize that if the wind and the rain comes that it may knock things down, but most people are staying.

Let's see, I talked to the National Guard yesterday, the 41st Brigade based out of Oregon, and they told me that 126 residents that they knew stayed through Katrina did leave, but not through the evacuation center in the city of New Orleans. They just took their car and left.

There really in their area, which is east of the river, they're keeping an eye on 43 people. They have contacted each and every one. And after Rita passes, they will go check on those people. So people did get out of the city, but certainly not in droves, simply because there aren't many people here in the first place.

WALLACE: All right, Carol, we will check in with you in the next hour of DAYBREAK. Thanks so much. Carol Costello reporting for us live there from New Orleans.

Pressure definitely growing on Congress to figure out how to pay for Hurricane Katrina's recovery, and then possibly to deal of course with Hurricane Rita. One way might be getting members of Congress to give up their pet spending projects, those projects inserted into the multibillion-dollar Highway Bill.

Congressional correspondent Joe Johns has been trying to pry some answers out of lawmakers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOHNS, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Republicans say the best way to pay for Katrina, not to mention Rita, is to squeeze the budget but not raise taxes or undue tax cuts.

REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), HOUSE SPEAKER: Everything is on the table. We'll take a look at it. JOHNS: But what does that mean? We spent the day trying to figure it out. This morning, die-hard conservatives offered a stack of suggested cuts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amtrak.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The foreign operations budget.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prescription drug benefits.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cutting NASA.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The earned income tax credit.

JOHNS: The list isn't exactly new.

(on camera): How are you all going to get this done? I mean, it would take tremendous political will and pressure, and a lot of people have recommended these things for years.

REP. JEFF FLAKE (R), ARIZONA: Well, I think the only thing that moves us is the voters.

JOHNS (voice-over): But the next election is a year away. The Treasury is already borrowing money hand over fist to pay for Katrina, over $60 billion and counting. And the Pentagon alone is on track to spend over $50 billion this year for the Iraq War.

One idea, revisit the just approved $286 billion Highway Bill stuffed with $24 billion in special projects. Those projects some critics call pork.

JOHNS (on camera): Mr. Chairman, back again. How are you doing?

(voice-over): Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young of Alaska got the bill through Congress. Like most lawmaker, Young funneled money to his home state, including $223 million for a remote bridge. Critics call it a "Bridge to Nowhere."

(on camera): And one of the members I spoke to said, Chairman Young needs to give up his bridge.

REP. DON YOUNG (R-AK), TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: You know, it's sad when people do things when they don't know what they're talking about. As far as my bridge goes, the state's not about to give that money up. I have no authority to do that, nor does any other member.

JOHNS: Isn't there a bunch of stuff in that Highway Bill, at least $24 billion, that could be taken out and used for the people in New Orleans, in Mississippi and the places that were effected?

YOUNG: No, that money is not there. That money is for transportation. That is not added pork. See, that's the why the whole media, "The Wall Street Journal," yourself, respectfully, you know, and Sam Donaldson don't know what the hell you're talking about. This is grandstanding by individuals that don't know what they're talking about. I'll go back to that, it's ignorance and stupidity.

JOHNS: Mr. Tancredo. Right here.

(voice-over): Republican Tom Tancredo of Colorado insists that nothing is sacred.

(on camera): You're calling on Don Young to give up his bridge in Alaska.

REP. TOM TANCREDO (R), COLORADO: Me? Hey, listen, I don't even know about this bridge in Alaska. So I've been hearing about it ever since this whole slap -- I mean, this whole flap began. But why not?

JOHNS: Give up Medicare, the president's sacred cow?

TANCREDO: No. I know. Stranger things have happened in politics. I can't think of any right now, but it's possible.

JOHNS (voice-over): Stranger things have indeed happened. But up here, they don't happen that often.

Joe Johns, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Joe Johns roaming Capitol Hill, trying, trying to get some answers.

Well coming up here on DAYBREAK, just a little rain in New Orleans could mean disaster. Up next, the tenuous situation in a city in danger of being brushed by Rita. Stay tuned for that.

Also, more than a hundred years ago, Galveston was devastated by a huge storm that killed 8,000 people. Now there are fears of another monster on the way.

All of that coming up. But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Thursday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: And welcome back to this Thursday edition of DAYBREAK.

On the far edges of Rita's powerful winds, the big concern is rainfall. While there is concern in New Orleans for those damaged levees, there just could be a silver lining here.

Don Chase, a lecturer in the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Dayton, joining us with that.

Mr. Chase, thanks for joining us today. Don Chase, hello, can you hear me? I think we might be having -- I think we're having a little problem getting hooked up there with Don Chase. We'll work out our technical glitches there and get back to him in just a moment.

Your news, money and weather and sports. It's about 43 minutes after the hour. And here is what is all new this morning.

More than a million people near the Texas coast are under orders to go elsewhere because of Hurricane Rita. Buses carrying thousands of people taking them out of Galveston. The federal government also declared a state of emergency in Texas and Louisiana.

Investigators are looking into just what happened aboard that JetBlue plane that was forced into an emergency landing yesterday in Los Angeles. The plane's pilots were able to bring the plane down safely, even though the front landing gear was sideways. Thankfully there were no injuries.

In money, investors will finally be getting some of their money back from the massive WorldCom accounting fraud. A judge approved settlements to investors to the tune of just over $6 billion.

In culture, supermodel Kate Moss has lost two more high-profile jobs due to her alleged drug use. Perfume label Chanel and the clothing company Burberry both dropped the 31-year-old. Moss allegedly has used cocaine in the past. British police are now looking into that allegation.

In sports, Barry Bonds did it again. The Giants outfielder homered in his fourth consecutive game. He now has 707 home runs in his career, which is just 7 behind Babe Ruth for second all time.

To our top story on this day, of course, Hurricane Rita, and other weather news, we turn to meteorologist Bonnie Schneider in Atlanta.

Hello -- Bonnie.

SCHNEIDER: Hello, Kelly.

Well Hurricane Rita still a powerful Category 5 storm, maximum winds at 175 miles per hour. This storm is 300 miles wide. It's enormous.

Now because of the size of the storm, the National Hurricane Center has extended the hurricane watch. It now stretches north and eastward to Intracoastal City, Louisiana. That means southwest Louisiana is under the gun now for hurricane force winds possibly within the next 36 hours. The tropical storm warning extends eastward further, as well, to the mouth of the Mississippi River.

And taking a quick look at the track, you'll find the storm does come in somewhere in the vicinity of Galveston as a Category 4 some time on Saturday. We'll have more coming up.

WALLACE: OK, Bonnie, we'll talk to you in a few minutes. We have worked out some of those gremlins, and we now have Don Chase, who's a lecturer with the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Dayton, on the telephone.

Mr. Chase, hello. Thanks for joining us.

DON CHASE, PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON: Good morning.

WALLACE: So you say that a little bit of rain in New Orleans might not be such a bad thing after all, why is that?

CHASE: Well, typically floods create a lot of damage, obviously, and associated with that damage is a lot of mud and muck and debris. So that mud and muck and debris needs to be washed away or cleaned up somehow, and the rain can help dissolve a lot of that mud and muck and wash it off into the streams and creeks and, ultimately, back into the lake.

WALLACE: Isn't there a little bit of an environmental concern, though? If you get the rain and then all the mud and muck is sort of flowing back into the streams and the lakes, couldn't that be somewhat of a problem?

CHASE: Right now the water that's being pumped out has contaminants within it and that water is being pumped out into the lake. So I mean that's going on right now, as a matter of fact.

WALLACE: Yes. Give us a sense, from your perspective, obviously, you know you're watching from afar but you're looking at the situation, the state of the levees in New Orleans and how they can deal with even a little bit of rain. What's your sense about the ability of those levees to hold up even if there is significant rainfall in New Orleans because of Rita?

CHASE: Well those, the levees that have been repaired can probably handle several inches, maybe as many as seven or eight inches. Certainly the portions of the levee where the floodwall has been repaired are at a lower elevation or a lower height than the floodwalls that didn't get damaged. So they can withstand some rain and some waves, certainly not as much as the floodwalls that are in tact. Probably handle several inches, I'm thinking.

WALLACE: So what, in your perspective, should be the you know main priority for the Army Corps of Engineers and other people on the ground right now trying to shore up the levees in advance of Rita?

CHASE: Well, they've already done that, to some degree, by putting some sheet piling and, as they call them, metal dams to help fortify the levee system. And hopefully they also backfilled with some stone or rock to give it some additional support. And they've done that. The best they can hope for, to be honest with you, is they don't get a lot -- receive a whole lot of rain.

WALLACE: Yes, exactly. Give me a sense, again going back to sort of your top headline really, about you know, because we've all been talking about, my goodness, we don't want to see any rain at all in New Orleans. This city of course dealing with tremendous flooding. Why would we even want to see any rain there? You're saying, obviously it would help clear things out. If you don't get rain, then how is the city going to clean itself out?

CHASE: Well the only alternative, if there is no rain, would be to use fire hoses and in order to clean the mud and the muck and debris. And one of the problems, as I see it, is once that stuff dries up, then if there's traffic that roles over it, then there's going to be lots of dust clouds. And that dust cloud could pose some health risks as well. So in my opinion, it's easier or better to allow that stuff to dissolve back into mud, mix with the rainwater and drain off into the creeks. That's a more efficient way of cleaning the city up in that regard.

WALLACE: Exactly, very, very interesting. Don Chase, thanks so much, and we appreciate your patience this morning, a lecturer with the Civil Engineering Department at the University of Dayton in Ohio joining us this morning. Thank you again.

Well, we have much more ahead on this Thursday edition of DAYBREAK. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: Welcome back to DAYBREAK.

It is definitely hard to imagine that Hurricane Rita could actually hit with more force than Katrina did. More than three weeks after Katrina there are still people along the Gulf Coast who have not gotten any aid yet.

CNN's Brian Todd shows us some of these forgotten towns.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Dotting the landscape, but somehow off the map, rural towns that took the worst Katrina had to give. Towns like Waveland and Pearlington, Mississippi, 17 miles apart. Some residents feel they're worlds away from normalcy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Power will be nonexistent here for at least three months. The substations were totally, 100 percent destroyed. And basically every pole in town is damaged and going to have to be replaced.

TODD: According to one Mississippi congressman who visited earlier this week, Waveland, Pearlington, and many remote towns like them in the region still look like the hurricane just passed through.

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D), MISSISSIPPI: They have very little public facilities available to them, running water, lights is spotty in many areas. Most of the homes are leveled.

TODD: Not unlike some urban centers not far away. But the difference in rural areas, according to Representative Bennie Thompson, is that along with no power or running water, so many of these towns have no FEMA or Red Cross shelters anywhere nearby.

THOMPSON: We have areas where the shelters are not set up to accommodate rural people. So when they would hear about a shelter somewhere providing services, they'd just take off. And so they would go 60, 70 miles to an area and be told, say, well, we're not servicing that today.

TODD: An aide to a Louisiana congressman tells CNN his rural district wasn't hit directly by Katrina, but has taken on many evacuees, and has struggled to get federal help to shelters. Contacted by CNN, a FEMA official in Mississippi said the agency is doing its best to reach everyone effected by Katrina, but says it's an ongoing challenge.

Red Cross officials tell CNN they know they're not servicing everyone in need right now, and realize they need to train and deploy volunteers to some areas more quickly. They say they're sending more people into these regions every day, but they also say some areas are still not reachable or safe.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: Still to come in the next hour here, Arkansas is welcoming victims of Hurricane Katrina. We will talk live to Governor Mike Huckabee just ahead. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALLACE: Welcome back.

The Chicago Fire, the San Francisco Earthquake and the Galveston Hurricane, all three mark disastrous chapters in American history. All of those cities rebuilt, but Galveston was just never quite the same.

That story from CNN national correspondent Bruce Morton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Katrina was so awful, a whole city underwater, it seemed, that you had to wonder, have we ever had anything worse? The answer is yes. The hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas, 105 years ago this month.

Galveston is an island, a big sandbar really, just under nine feet high. The hurricane storm surge was 16-feet high and flooded everything. How many died? About 7,000, but there could have been more. Homes shattered. Buildings down. This was the orphanage. Ten nuns latched themselves to 93 children. Three children escaped, everyone else drowned. They had to burn most of the bodies. Funeral pyres smoldered for two months.

But they came back, voted, 3,119 in favor, 22 against, to build a seawall. And they raised the island, jacked up buildings. Seven hundred jacks to raise St. Patrick's Catholic Church. They jacked up more than 2,000 buildings and raised the island by as much as 16 feet, all with the technology of 1900. No big power tools back then. The work took 10 years, mostly finished by 1910.

Galveston has stayed a small city. Houston replaced it as the big port in the area. And now, of course, the people of Galveston are evacuating again. And despite being higher up than they were in 1900, despite the seawall they built for protection, the guessing is that if Rita hits, the island of Galveston will be underwater again.

The seawall they built is 15 feet high. Hurricane Katrina's surge was 22 feet. And if Rita is that big it would go right over the wall and flood the island. Marilyn Ann Thomas (ph) said I think the island would be destroyed, there wouldn't be anything left.

The good news may be that people in Galveston know all about Katrina and are taking evacuation plans very seriously.

The city of Galveston made this presentation of what would happen if a Katrina-size hurricane hit there. And, as you can see, the island is underwater.

Bruce Morton, CNN Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALLACE: We thank Bruce for that report.

The next hour of DAYBREAK starts right now.

It is Thursday, September 22.

Packing up and moving out. Rita, now a monster Category 5 storm, forces evacuations, closes refineries and menaces the Texas Gulf Coast.

Also, chased out by Katrina, now fleeing Rita. We'll check in on evacuees as they begin again, again.

And drama in Los Angeles as a crippled JetBlue flight makes a breathtaking touchdown.

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 waking up with us.

We'll have much more on Hurricane Rita in a moment as it continues towards Texas.

Also ahead, New Orleans may avoid a direct hit, but that doesn't mean the city is out of danger.

And preserving the sound of New Orleans. We'll check in with the director of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

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