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Lou Dobbs Tonight

Growing Disaster in New Orleans

Aired August 30, 2005 - 18:00   ET

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

KITTY PILGRIM, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone.
We have very fast-moving developments tonight along the devastated Gulf Coast. And let us tell you about some of them.

Starting in New Orleans, a growing disaster. The governor of Louisiana says the entire city must be evacuated, including tens of thousands of people now seeking shelter in the Superdome. Water is pouring into that city from a levee. It's been breached in two locations. Eighty percent of New Orleans now under water.

Emergency crews and boats and helicopters rescued more than 1,000 survivors today in New Orleans. Hundreds may still be trapped in their homes.

In Mississippi, homes and streets six miles inland are flooded. Parts of Biloxi and Gulfport remain underwater tonight.

The storm continues to batter the United States as it moves north, spawning tornadoes in Georgia and heavy rainfall in Tennessee and the Ohio Valley.

Now, as this crisis unfolds, oil rose to over $70 a barrel again today. The price of your gas is almost certain to rise after this deadly storm.

Tonight, we bring you comprehensive coverage of Hurricane Katrina.

And first, let's get you up to date with the latest numbers from this growing tragedy.

The official death toll from Hurricane Katrina now stands at 59 -- 55 in Mississippi, two in Alabama, two in New Orleans. But there is no doubt this death toll will head much higher soon, probably into hundreds in Mississippi alone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PILGRIM (voice over): Daybreak shed new light on just how widespread the devastation is. The city of New Orleans, 80 percent under water.

MARK VISLAY, U.S. COAST GUARD: Every house was pretty much -- the water line was all the way up to the attics, to the roofs. There were people coming out of everywhere. As soon as they heard the helicopters, as soon as you came down in their area, people were coming out everywhere.

There were small fires all over the place. A little bit of, you know, gasoline and oil coming out from gas stations, et cetera. Power lines down. Trees split in half, fallen down.

PILGRIM: And the water continues to rise. A levee break the size of a football field is slowly flooding New Orleans. Huge sandbags are being airlifted in to stem the flood.

Inside the New Orleans Superdome, tens of thousands of people need to be evacuated.

SUSAN ROESGEN, REPORTER, WGNO: Tension is extremely high. The toilets are overflowing. There is no power. It is ungodly hot in there. And they have brought several people in with injuries.

This is now the place to bring the people that they're plucking off the rooftops. And you have between 24,000 and 30,000 people in the dome who want to get out.

PILGRIM: There's no drinking water. Electricity is not expected for weeks. Hospitals have been evacuated.

The president has declared major disaster areas in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama. Response has been huge. Nine federal agencies are responding. FEMA, 23 disaster medical assistance teams; more than 40 U.S. Coast Guard aircraft; 390 Department of Transportation trucks are delivering supplies. The National Guard has 7,500 troops in devastated areas. The departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Defense and Labor are all pitching in, as well as the American Red Cross.

Katrina flattened structures and flooded areas from New Orleans, across the shores of Mississippi and into Alabama.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour flew over the worst-hit areas today.

GOV. HALEY BARBOUR (R), MISSISSIPPI: Just surged forward with incredible power and then sucked back out. Think about what a wave is like. You know, the wave hits, but then when it withdraws into the ocean, that is what pulls the sand and pulls everything. And that, of course, happened here.

PILGRIM: Power may not return for weeks.

CURT HEBERT, ENTERGY CORPORATION: This is, you know, just a giant catastrophe. It's something like no utility or no one in mankind would ever want to envision. And we're struggling against enormous obstacles here.

PILGRIM: But worse than the devastation, the loss of life.

This man says his wife slipped away from him.

HARVEY JACKSON, WIFE MISSING IN HURRICANE KATRINA: We got up on the roof, all way on the roof. And water came high.

Just opened up, divided it. I hold her hand as tight as I could. And she told me, "You can't hold me."

She said, "Take care of the kids and the grandkids."

PILGRIM: Even for those with the ability to leave, getting the resources to escape was nearly impossible. This is a gas station in Jackson, Mississippi.

FEMA says tens of thousands of people will be without homes for months.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PILGRIM: Now, the extent of the damage in the Gulf Coast tonight is staggering. More than two million residents are without power. It could take weeks, even months to get full power restored there.

In Mississippi, 80 percent of residents are in the dark. Forty- three thousand residents are in shelters in three states. More than 2,000 have sought shelter in neighboring Florida and Texas. And more than 5,000 National Guard troops are helping with the rescue and relief efforts. Nineteen states activating their National Guard for this disaster.

The latest estimates say this could become the costliest storm in U.S. history, possibly topping $25 billion in insurance damages.

In New Orleans tonight, total devastation and an order for some to evacuate. Now, this historic city that appeared to have escaped the worst of the storm is now almost completely under water after a levee break. Looting is widespread.

John Zarrella is in New Orleans and joins us live via videophone. John? John, can you hear us?

All right. We will get back with John in just a moment. Obviously, the power connections are not quite what they should be in this area.

In -- tonight, as thousands of additional National Guard troops gear up for development to the Gulf Coast, the Pentagon is considering an additional emergency response. We now go to Jamie McIntyre's report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Pentagon insists there are sufficient troops still at home to fulfill the National Guard's traditional role of disaster, rescue and relief, despite the fact 75,000 National Guard troops are deployed to 40 countries and make up half the U.S. force in Iraq.

MAJ. GEN. RON YOUNG, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL GUARD JOINT STAFF: Made a commitment to the governors that we would have forces available for the federal duty, the away game, if you would, and the home game here in the continental United States. And no state across the country, none of the districts and the territories, are below 50 percent.

MCINTYRE: Of the hardest-hit states, Mississippi has 60 percent of its Guard troops; Louisiana, 65 percent. Alabama, 77 percent; and Florida, 74 percent -- a total of more than 31,000 troops available for call-up.

So far, more than 10,000 Guard members have been activated. Many were already on duty before the storm hit, including 200 troops who provided security at the Louisiana Superdome. In the 17 states in or near the storm path, there are nearly 124,000 more troops who could be called to active duty.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The federal, state and local governments are working side by side to do all we can to help people get back on their feet. And we have got a lot of work to do.

MCINTYRE: Soon, Army engineers will bring in heavy equipment to help clear debris, while others are already helping in the search for survivors and beginning to distribute relief supplies, including food, water and ice.

There is a bitter irony here. This map shows the hometowns of National Guard troops who are currently serving in Iraq. In Baghdad, members of a Louisiana National Guard unit in its last week of deployment are just now learning if they have a home to come to.

LT. COL. JORDAN JONES, LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD: Obviously, they're anxious to return back to the states. But we are citizen soldiers. So our first primary mission is our federal one, and we're serving that now. But we're also prepared to change hats and return home and help the community as much as possible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE: And Kitty, the Army National Guard says it's making a special effort to reach out to the families of those serving in Iraq, trying to ensure that their needs are met, even as their loved ones continue to fight a war far away.

Kitty.

PILGRIM: Thanks very much. Jamie McIntyre.

Well, as we take you through the devastation, we now turn to Pass Christian in Louisiana (sic), where our reporter Kathleen Koch is standing by for the latest -- Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We are in part of Mississippi -- sorry, we're adjusting our lighting here -- that no one has been in.

We are the first television cameras into Long Beach and Pass Christian, Mississippi. And there -- no one has been here. And there has been a lot of concern around the nation.

I will tell you, people are alive here. People survived this storm. Long Beach is a town of some 17,258 people. Pass Christian, 6,758 people.

Now, what you see behind me is what we have seen every time we tried to reach the beach. We are several blocks from the beach. And every single road that you come down -- and we've been trying this for the last hour and a half -- this is what you see.

Devastation unimaginable. Trees, houses, timber, this is not something that will take weeks to recover from. This is something that will take months to recover from.

I actually have someone here, an alderman -- is this correct? -- from Pass Christian. And I'm going to have him come in and introduce himself and just tell you a little bit about what he has seen.

And give me your name.

RICHARD NOTTER, ALDERMAN, PASS CHRISTIAN, LOUISIANA: My name is Richard Notter. I'm the alderman from Ward 2.

KOCH: Richard, we've seen a little bit of Pass Christian. You've seen a lot more. Tell us.

NOTTER: Well, actually, I've seen a lot of Long Beach. I haven't seen any of Pass Christian. But I've been from -- basically from one end of the city to the other and looked out down towards the beach, and it's just absolutely devastated.

There was no building standing within the first three blocks. I haven't seen one structure that's livable.

I live almost three blocks from the beach, as Miss Stewart (ph) does. And my house structure is intact, but the interior of the house is completely wiped out. Everything -- every belonging I have is gone. And I'm sure there's many, many stories like that.

KOCH: People are wondering, as you go -- obviously Pass Christian is connected to the rest of the Mississippi coast by the Bay Bridge, over Bay St. Louis. What are you hearing about that? The people in Bay St. Louis and the people in Waveland? Again, 8,000 people living in the Bay, more than 7,000 in Waveland.

NOTTER: Well, what I've heard is just rumors. But my understanding is, from the Ocean Springs Bridge, all the way west, to Slidell, it's the same devastation -- that there is no structure standing basically from the beach to the track line (ph). And I...

KOCH: So that's how many blocks, would you say, for those who don't know this area?

NOTTER: Three and a half, four blocks.

Now, I'm sure that in the Waveland area and the Bay St. Louis, because of elevation, the tidal flow went in a lot farther. We have a little bit higher elevation than they do over there.

KOCH: Any guess as to cleanup time, money? I mean, you, yourself, have nothing. And so many of your citizens are standing here in the same situation.

NOTTER: Well, I don't think we're talking a matter of weeks. I don't even think we're talking a matter of months. I think we're talking a matter of years.

This is every structure. It is our main churches. And we've lost our St. Thomas Church. We've lost our First Baptist Church. We've lost all of our major structures. We've lost a major portion of our business district. We lost historic homes.

There is no home standing on the beachfront, which is a very historic, scenic view for anybody who's ever been in the Mississippi Gulf Coast. And we have no homes left.

KOCH: You and I were discussing something that we're both familiar with, the Camille survivor syndrome, the belief that people who rode out in many of these homes that are gone now, they rode out Camille, and they thought, I can do it again. Camille was the mother of all storms.

NOTTER: Well, and I was somewhat guilty of that myself. I contemplated staying in my house, because my house didn't see water in Camille, and Camille was the most dangerous storm to ever hit the continental U.S. So as a citizen and, you know, someone that lived here and lived through that, we assumed that there was nothing could compare to it. We now know otherwise.

KOCH: Thank you so much for joining us.

Now, clearly, the devastation here is matched up and down the Gulf Coast. And that's what we're hearing that is so astonishing about this storm, versus Camille, which was a bit more focused, more laser- like and more intense in its destruction.

This was, like people are saying, a wall of water. This is the Mississippi -- Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama coast tsunami. And it's just hard to believe the devastation.

I will tell you that a couple blocks down to our left, we can -- we got some shots. We can see the back of a Wal-Mart that was on the beach in Pass Christian. We can see through the rear of the Wal-Mart, all the way to the oceanfront, to the water.

There is a very, very large drainage ditch that is behind it that is full of what had been inside the Wal-Mart: toys, refrigerators, tires, diapers. And we're sad to report that many of the neighbors -- and there is a guard who's watching that to try to prevent some of the looting -- they also report that there are some number of bodies in that culvert.

We are going to keep heading west, because no one else has been into this area. We are -- we're going to keep trying to bring these pictures to you and report on this part of the Mississippi Gulf Coast that is just incredibly hard to reach.

Back to you.

PILGRIM: Thanks very much. Kathleen Koch. Very heartbreaking scene there.

And still ahead, a live report from devastated New Orleans.

Also, a live report from Biloxi, Mississippi. There is a major loss of life there after an apartment complex collapsed.

Also, a growing humanitarian crisis. Tens of thousands of Gulf Coast residents no place left to go home to. A special report on the Gulf Coast displaced.

Stay with us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PILGRIM: The official death toll from Hurricane Katrina tonight stands at 59, although that number is expected to head much higher. Mississippi officials say that death toll in that state could easily run into the hundreds. In Biloxi, Mississippi, there was major loss of life when an apartment complex collapsed.

Rob Marciano is live now in Biloxi with the very latest. Rob?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Kitty.

The deal here in Biloxi is more the storm surge than anything else. They had the winds over 100 miles an hour. That, of course, did some damage all the way inland. But here along the coast, the coastal cities of Biloxi and Gulfport, two cities that rely heavily on the casino business -- the casinos that have to be floating on the Gulf of Mexico -- well, a big-time storm surge is not good business for them for sure.

So all of the casinos have seen some sort of damage. Some casinos actually breaking from their moorings and floating away. One casino, the Grand Casino, breaking from its mooring and floating hundreds of yards inland.

Take a look at some video that we shot across the area throughout the afternoon. And, you know, the pictures pretty much describe the story.

Roofs ripped off of established structures. Homes either hollowed or completely flattened. And, you know, Biloxi is a city that is surrounded really on three sides by water. There's a bay that goes around the backside of the city, and then they have the Gulf of Mexico on the front side of the city. So there was really no escaping this.

Folks on the beach and inland got a piece of this storm surge. And for many folks, what they've told me, and some of the water marks we've seen, it looks like the storm surge easily got to 23, 24, 25 feet, maybe even higher in some cases. And that would surpass Camille. There were mandatory evacuation orders. So when you see the pictures that we showed you of the homes flattened, you know, you're thinking, well, there shouldn't be any pictures of people in there. Well, unfortunately, not everybody left. And the stories of survival that we've been hearing throughout the afternoon are quite vivid. Everything from people holding on to the tops of their roofs, to swimming from one roof to the other, to strapping mattresses together to somehow create some sort of flotation device.

Honestly, stories that I've heard of hurricanes in the 1950s and '60s, stories that you wouldn't think you would hear for today because we have such great satellite and radar and computer technology and can give such advanced warning, why we're telling these stories of survival today is really beyond me.

But I think one of the other reasons that people were -- they were a little bit apathetic because of Camille, especially people that had lived through Camille. They said, well, I survived that. This is not going to be that big of a deal.

Well, this storm was bigger than Camille, and at one point, stronger. So I think some of the waters from the Gulf of Mexico just kept on coming. And it's just unbelievable to see first-hand. The camera doesn't even do it justice.

From Biloxi, Mississippi, Kitty, back over to you.

PILGRIM: All right. Thanks very much. Rob Marciano, standing in one of the hardest-areas of this storm.

Coming up, we'll have much more on FEMA's plan for the thousands of people in the shelters. And FEMA's Deputy Director Patrick Rhode is our next guest.

Also, oil prices -- not the only prices rising in the wake of the storm. And we'll tell you what else could soon cost more money because of Hurricane Katrina.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PILGRIM: Federal emergency workers are facing a growing humanitarian crisis tonight. And here to talk about how his agency is mobilizing is Patrick Rhode. He's the deputy director of FEMA, which is the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

And thanks very much for being here, Patrick.

PATRICK RHODE, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FEMA: Thank you for having us.

PILGRIM: What is your biggest challenge right this minute?

RHODE: Kitty, we have many challenges right now. It's -- you're looking at one of the single-most comprehensive response and recovery operations perhaps in the history of our country, but certainly in the history of FEMA.

What we're doing right now is working very closely with our state and local partners through urban search and rescue missions, trying to make those Rapid Needs Assessments to try and make sure that we are finding those individuals who need our help most critically.

PILGRIM: Trapped and injury probably top priority, correct?

RHODE: It certainly is. It certainly is. We clearly are going through massive amounts of areas right now, trying to make sure that we are identifying those most vulnerable areas and those people that perhaps need our assistance most.

We have urban search and rescue teams that are on the ground right now. We're working very closely with the Coast Guard and many of our other federal partners right now.

It is this life-saving mission right now that will allow us to successfully move into that life-sustaining mission, which is also going to be facing many of the residents not only in New Orleans, but certainly within Mississippi, and also Alabama.

PILGRIM: We've been covering many of these rescues today, and they are just heart-stopping to watch. And by helicopter, by boat. Are you getting the resources you need?

RHODE: We certainly are. What you're looking at is truly one of the -- one of the most remarkable coordination efforts that I have certainly been a part of here in the last couple of years at FEMA.

You were talking about -- and you can see behind me in our room the representatives from the Department of Energy, the Department of Transportation, the Red Cross, for sheltering services. Basically, every volunteer agency, every major agency that you can possibly think of, where we can -- we can apply resources is poised and ready to go.

You saw massive buildup in this effort. And through the -- through the leaning forward of President Bush by making sure that we had emergency declarations within Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, we were able to engage the states as aggressively as possible to make sure that we're moving all of our commodities as close to the people who are going to need it most.

Right now we have to make sure that people are staying out of harm's way. We have to make sure that all of the people who evacuated previously don't even try to go back into these areas just yet.

We always preach that post-storm is just as dangerous as pre- storm. And we need to make sure that we allow first responders to do those jobs right now that we need most.

PILGRIM: What's your next step? What are you worrying about next after the recovery of everyone who is hurt, injured or still alive?

RHODE: Once we get through this response phase, Kitty, we really have to look at a massive recovery effort. And just through what we saw last year within Florida, where we thought we had seen just about everything with those four hurricanes back to back, we knew that we had issues as it related to long-term housing.

We have an office that's in Florida right now that's going to be there for the next couple of years just speaking to those issues of public infrastructure and mass transportation issues that needed to be rebuilt, and things that we needed to speak to there. We're looking, obviously, at those -- those sheltering issues within areas like New Orleans, and certainly within Mississippi and Alabama, parts of Alabama as well, too.

It's that sheltering, it's that longer-term housing issue that we're really concentrating on through focusing through task forces right now and trying to harness all of the collective energy of our state and local partners, and also of all of our federal partners that you see behind me.

PILGRIM: It seems a nightmare of coordination to try to get all of these people under some kind of shelter. Are you moving them at some distance to the disaster to do this?

RHODE: Right now we're considering just about everything. We're taking a very hard look at exactly where the damage is, and that's where it's really critical over these next couple of days as we continue these life-sustaining or life-saving operations, if you will, that we're also taking a hard look at some of the areas where perhaps we can begin to house some of the people whose homes have obviously been damaged.

During more traditional storms, if there is such a term, we try to always keep individuals as close as we can to their neighborhoods, as close as we can to where their kids go to school and where they shop. Unfortunately, when you take a look at the scale and the scope of what we're talking about, we have to be very creative in how we're going to approach this housing mission. And this is something that we're probably all going to be talking about for months to come, unfortunately.

PILGRIM: Patrick Rhode. We wish you every success. Thank you very much for your efforts.

RHODE: Thank you, Kitty.

PILGRIM: And thank you for speaking to us this evening.

RHODE: Thank you.

PILGRIM: Coming up next, fears that the death toll could rise into the hundreds in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. We'll have a live report in one of the hardest-hit areas next.

Also, contamination crisis. The water that is now flooding New Orleans and other areas could be highly dangerous. And we talk to the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Julie Gerberding.

Do stay with us for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PILGRIM: The federal government is pulling together all of its resources to help those devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Leading part of the emergency response effort is President Bush.

Suzanne Malveaux has the report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): President Bush is cutting his vacation short to give his full attention to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

BUSH: The federal, state and local governments are working side by side to do all we can to help people get back on their feet. And we have got a lot of work to do.

MALVEAUX: At a ceremony commemorating the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, Mr. Bush urged those hit by Katrina to be patient.

BUSH: This is a trying time for the people of these communities. We know that many are anxious to return to their homes. It's not possible at this moment.

MALVEAUX: Wednesday morning, the president will leave his Crawford ranch two days earlier than planned, returning to Washington where he will chair a White House task force to coordinate emergency response and recovery efforts. The president will hold video teleconference calls with officials from Homeland Security, Defense, Energy and other departments and agencies. White House aides say the president will very likely visit the affected regions later this week, when such a high level trip would be least disruptive.

He is also considering releasing some of the country's strategic petroleum oil reserves to keep the nation's oil supply flowing.

The president's new mission comes after being dogged by antiwar protests for nearly five weeks outside his Crawford ranch. The mother, Cindy Sheehan, who vowed to stay there until the president would see her, is leaving the vigil, but promises to follow him to Washington.

MALVEAUX (on camera): While the White House has always emphasized that Mr. Bush can conduct any presidential business from his Crawford ranch, an official denies that his return to Washington is simply a symbolic gesture. But aides concede one of the lessons the president has learned from his father, is that the perception of his response is just as important as his actions.

Suzanne Malveaux, Naval Air Station, North Island, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PILGRIM: Hurricane victims are now facing the threat of deadly disease. Floodwaters are contaminated with sewage, oil, chemicals. Officials are concerned the stagnant water will breed mosquitoes, which potentially could spread the fatal West Nile virus.

And for more on all of this, I'm joined on the phone by Dr. Julie Gerberding who is the director for the Centers for Disease Control. And thanks for being with us. I know you really do have your hands full. We are seeing the water situation, what's the worst on that?

DR. JULIE GERBERDING, CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL: Well I think all of us are concerned about a number of health issues. The assessments are still ongoing, and so we won't have a complete picture of what the true problems are for probably several days. But what we can say right now is that there is a great concern about clean food -- excuse me, clean water and safe food. This is especially problematic in the context of the power outages that limit people's capacity to refrigerate their food and so forth. We also know that injuries from downed power lines, from the debris, from people working with chainsaws or other equipment as they begin the process of cleanup. There are a whole host of personal injury issues that we also are working to remind people of the safety steps they can take to protect themselves.

PILGRIM: Dr. Gerberding, you're facing some daunting logistics. How confident are you that you can get medicine in to people that need it?

GERBERDING: Well I can tell you what is happening so far. And that is the Department of Health and Human Services is working with FEMA and Homeland Security, have already deployed several things into the region.

We have, on hand now, 38 public health service commission core officers are ready to go and provide medical assistance, and another 382 public health service officers on standby to support medical responses. We've also sent 27 pallets of requested medical supplies into the region. These contain basic first-aid material such as bandages and so forth. And they're really there to help augment what the local and state officials are doing and what the Red Cross and FEMA are able to support in the pre-deployed stocks.

So we are working hard to get the services and the resources there, but we expect this story is going to unfold and we'll need to do more as each step of the process unfolds.

PILGRIM: As you have large number of people in shelters, you face certain sanitary issues, too, don't you?

GERBERDING: Well we're certainly worried about sewage and sanitation. CDC has already identified a cadre of sanitation and public health teams that are working with others at FDA and throughout the public health system to be on standby to be go and provide that assistance. We work with EPA and other agencies in this regard as well. So this takes a network. And we have a very important role to play, but are just so grateful with everyone who's stepping up to the plate to contribute their assets to help with the problem. PILGRIM: As we introduced you, we talked about West Nile and other communicable diseases. What are you most worried about on that score?

GERBERDING: Well as the actual flood waters abate and stabilize, of course, there will be opportunities for enhanced mosquito breeding grounds. We know already this year that West Nile virus is in many states including those affected by this area. So if we allow the mosquito populations to crop up, we very quickly could be experiencing an outbreak of West Nile virus or some other mosquito-borne infection.

Fortunately, the health officials in these areas have a lot of experience with West Nile and with vector control. So the local expertise is a very good frontline of defense. We're providing CDC experts and people who can go in and identify which mosquitoes are involved with the West Nile. We can test them and say here is an area where it's cropping up. Let's work on abating the mosquitoes in this environment.

But until these waters subside, we aren't just going to be faced with a very serious threat of mosquito-borne illness. And that's why we're really focusing people's attention on the steps they can take to protect themselves in this context.

PILGRIM: Let's go into that bit. What can people do, especially when they're without power? It seems they are a bit hampered.

GERBERDING: Well if people truly have no power, then, of course, food safety and water safety become major issues. If people can't boil water, which they should do, they can purify their drinking water by adding about an eighth of a tablespoon of fresh household bleach to a gallon of water. That would clear up most of the bacteria that we would be concerned about as causing particularly high rates of disease.

And a very important message to parents. Please make sure that you don't reconstitute your infant formula with water that is not purified. It needs to be commercial water or water that has gone through a purification process. Because we know children are especially prone to the devastating consequences of water-borne diarrhea under these circumstances.

PILGRIM: Dr. Julie Gerberding, thanks very much for being with us this evening.

GERBERDING: Thank you.

PILGRIM: We now go back to the city of New Orleans, which is about 80 percent under water right now. John Zarrella has the very latest on what is happening there. John?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kitty. That's right. We are here on the rooftop of our hotel. And behind me over my left shoulder you can see a fire that has been burning there all day long now. That is, we believe, out at an oil storage facility, perhaps, chemical storage facility on the banks, the west bank of the Mississippi. There are quite a few oil and gas and chemical storage facilities on the Mississippi. And that has been burning intensely all day.

It has been one remarkable day here. When we got up first thing this morning, the waters, we noticed, just at the crack of dawn had been rising. We found out that the levee had broken, and, of course, the water pouring in from Lake Pontchartrain on to the city. It began to rise all morning long. First up onto the sidewalk, up along the cars to the wheel wells. Eventually into the ground floor of the hotel. Pouring into all of the basement facilities in the hotel here. And all of the streets all around downtown area here, off the Canal Street to my right, totally underwater now to some degree or another with the flood waters pouring in.

There was looting as well here earlier today down on Canal Street. Police doing everything they possibly could to stop it, but they were outnumbered. Many of the shops, the jewelry stores, sporting good stores all were looted by many people on these streets. And we even heard some gunshots -- apparently the police trying to chase off the looters.

Now it is completely quiet here, after a day of aerial views of the city that included remarkably unbelievable shots of the total coverage of water covering 80 percent of the city, up to the rooftops on many houses. And then the remarkable heroic efforts by individuals to rescue people from their homes, people who were stranded in their attics -- breaking through those attics to get those people out.

The U.S. Coast Guard coming in today, moving in, mobilizing, and bringing many of these people, these victims, up in baskets into the helicopters, rescuing them from their rooftops.

And now, tonight, a little while ago, from our vantage point here, we were able to see many military helicopters, the first that we have seen coming into the area, arriving here this night, surveying the area.

Again, one tremendous day here where things went much further downhill than we expected that they would yesterday, and much of that because of the levee breaks on Lake Pontchartrain.

Kitty?

PILGRIM: Thanks very much, John Zarrella. Very tough day for John. Thanks, John.

Still ahead, we'll have the latest on Coast Guard rescues in the area. Lieutenant Robert Wyman of the U.S. Coast Guard is going to join us.

Also hundreds are feared dead in Biloxi tonight. We'll have a live report from the devastated region. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PILGRIM: Let's go back to now to Rob Marciano, who's live in Biloxi with an update on the situation there. Rob?

MARCIANO: Can you hear? I don't hear anything.

PILGRIM: Rob, can you hear us?

MARCIANO: Hi, Kitty. Yes. Now I have you.

PILGRIM: OK.

MARCIANO: We're in Biloxi, Mississippi, as you probably mentioned, an area of Mississippi that is pretty much devastated by, yes, wind. I mean, the trees are stripped of their leaves and branches, but also the storm surge has had the most devastating result.

I want to bring in a family who survived the storm. So -- just come on out. This is the Adido (ph) family. This is Andre Adido (ph), his brother and nephew and niece. Andre, you were in a home -- I can see it from here just a couple hundred yards away, probably about 20 feet above sea level. Describe for me what was going through your head yesterday when the water was rising.

ANDRE ADIDO, HURRICANE KATRINA SURVIVOR: Well, as the water was rising and it started coming under the kitchen door, I thought maybe I should have got out of here, but it was really sometime the house would shake. It's like, I thought it was like lifting up, you know and I was like, man, this is worse than I thought it would be.

One of the main -- the only reason I really stayed was I thought we would have protection from like the boulevard's casino and the hotel over here, but after awhile, it started getting worse and I was kind of like, well, it might not have been a good idea.

MARCIANO: What do you have to say to maybe some other people who didn't have this kind of protection that stayed?

A. ADIDO: Well, looking at it now, maybe I should've left, too. I put myself in danger. But, you know, it was a judgment call I made. My faith. But anyway, I don't think a storm like this, if it came again, I don't think I'd stay around. I wouldn't recommend anybody else to do it either.

MARCIANO: Good advice. Glad your entire family is OK and we thank you for stopping by. House still intact, but certainly some flooding damage. Many other people did not evacuate; don't have as safe a story to tell.

As far as the business side of Biloxi -- now the bread and butter of Biloxi is -- are the casinos and they line the beach. They're all moored down to the floor of the Gulf of Mexico, because they have to by state law be floating.

A number -- all of them are damaged. One of them actually floated about 100 or 200 yards inland. The state loses big-time money as well. It's estimated that the state of Mississippi loses half-a-million dollars a day, every day these casinos are closed.

So, on top of the destruction, on top of the loss of life, the entire state of Mississippi has already lost $1 million, and will continue to lose a half-of-a-million dollars a day every time these casinos are closed.

So, it's a terrible story of human toll, of structural damage and also the business of Mississippi is going to take -- have its problems as well.

Kitty, that's the latest from here. Back to you.

PILGRIM: Thanks very much, Rob Marciano. Thanks, Rob.

Now, we have seen dramatic pictures all day of the Coast Guard rescues around the Gulf Coast. Joining me now for more on the Coast Guard's relief operation is Lieutenant Robert Wyman. He's a public affairs officer for the Coast Guard. He's joining us from Alexandria, Louisiana. And thanks very much for being with us, sir.

We have watched unbelievable, heart-stopping rescues. And congratulation on all of your successes. I have the very latest numbers -- 1,200 people rescued in the last few days. What is your biggest challenge right now as you move forward?

LT. ROBERT WYMAN, U.S. COAST GUARD PUBLIC AFFAIRS: Well, right now, we're still looking at a very dynamic ongoing situation where there is still a need for rescues. So, we are doing our very best to keep our crews as fresh as possible to get them in there and continue to be able to get them over there for an extended period of time, because at this point, we just don't know how long there's going to be the need for these rescues to continue.

PILGRIM: How many people have you pulled in? I see you've pulled them in from Cape Cod, from the Gulf of Mexico, from Elizabeth, New Jersey. Are you basically all hands down to the Gulf at this point?

WYMAN: Well, we've got to strike a balance between the immediate needs of this emergency situation as well as some of the ongoing operational needs that continue throughout the nation.

We have brought in more than 40 additional aircraft from around the country, as you mentioned from Cape Cod. We have C-130 that was chopped over to support us from Sacramento, California. So, it is all hands on deck and this is an absolute emergency situation that we're going to do everything that we can do with the resources that we have to assist the people who need us the most.

PILGRIM: Do you have any estimates on how many people are still stranded?

WYMAN: To be honest with you, we really have no idea. The initial reports were hundreds. We received reports of possibly thousands. But I can tell you that upwards of 350 to 400 requests for assistance came in throughout the day today and I can confirm that the Coast Guard rescued hundreds upon hundreds of people from rooftops and the number that was mentioned earlier about 1,200 people, I believe that is actually the number of Coast Guard and other agencies rescues combined throughout the day today. But it's been extraordinarily busy. They're extremely dangerous operations, but we're going to continue doing them as long as there are people who need our help.

PILGRIM: They look extremely risky. And yet, they are very effective. We see people being lifted, sort of piggybacked and we see people in baskets. This sort of thing is something that is not easily learned. What has been your basis of doing this? Is this air and sea rescue?

WYMAN: For the most part, yes. I mean, that is the majority of what our -- these air crews do is -- are sea rescues: going out in the dark of night and picking up mariners who are in distress.

That's what we're known for and these rescues ashore are very dynamic. I mean, it's -- you have been very aware of your environment: There's power lines. There's all sorts of additional items that are dangerous to the aircraft and the crew.

And if you notice when these rescue swimmers are lowered to the rooftops, they pretty much remain attached by a cable to the aircraft, so in case there's any slippage -- if they fall off the roof or whatever, they can -- the aircraft still has them and can get them back up into the helicopter.

So, it's a very dangerous situation, but one that our people are willingly putting themselves into to help out those who need it.

PILGRIM: Yes. You're also -- you have unique conditions. We're showing pictures of someone being rescued by being axed out of their attic through the roof. You have open flames with gas fires and all sorts of new conditions -- learning as you go?

WYMAN: For the most part, in a situation like this, there's a lot of that on-the-job training. And our folks -- we're continuing to bring in additional air crews from around the country so we can fly even more hours for as long as is needed.

Not only have we been conducting these operations like you've been watching on the television in New Orleans, but we've also got a large presence of Coast Guard aircraft that have been flying in Mississippi, as well as Alabama, conducting impact assessments and rescue operations there.

PILGRIM: Hats off to you all and thanks very much for joining us this evening.

WYMAN: Thank you.

PILGRIM: All right. Still ahead, Katrina sends energy prices to record highs. We're going to tell you how much more you can expect to pay for oil and gas.

And then, New Orleans, almost completely under water and we'll talk to an environmentalist who says it could have been prevented.

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PILGRIM: An energy crisis looms in this country in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Crude oil hit another record high today. Wholesale gasoline prices broke $3 a gallon. Prices for natural gas, home heating oil, jet, diesel fuel, they all soared.

Bill Tucker is here with the report. Bill?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Crisis is exactly what the oil analysts we're speaking to today called it in the markets, and you can get a sense of that crisis when you take a look at what happened in trading today.

Crude oil above $70 a barrel this morning, hitting an all-time high of 70.85, closing underneath that $70 mark at $69.81. But look at natural gas: $11.65 9/10 -- up 52 cents. Gasoline prices: $2.47 1/2. That's 41, about 41 cents on the day.

In the spot market, gasoline prices traded above $3 a gallon down in the Gulf, and that means exactly what you would think it means. Get ready for prices well north of $3 at the pump.

And here is why. The U.S. Department of Interior's Mineral Management Service today released its survey of shut-in production. We've lost today 95 percent of the production of crude oil in the Gulf. We've lost roughly 88 percent of natural gas production.

And even if we had the crude, Kitty, here is the kick on this. We've lost the pipelines that move that product up out of the area. One pipeline from the -- moving to the Midwest, crude oil, it's shut down because of energy problems. Electrical power not there to move it up. This pipeline, the Colonial Pipeline, moves refined products, like crude, diesel fuel, jet fuel for planes -- starts in Houston, ends in New York Harbor. That down. But we did get late word today from Colonial Pipelines, they hope to restore partial service by the end of the week. They do have utility crews out and working, and hope that they can get that up by the end of the week, at least partially.

PILGRIM: All right. Thanks, Bill. Thanks for bringing us up to speed on that situation, because it's all very important to every American in this country, what happens with this commodity. Thanks very much.

Still ahead, the environmental aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I'll talk with a leading environmentalist when we return. Do stay with us.

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PILGRIM: My next guest says the levee system in New Orleans has failed to protect the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He says there is a long-term solution to save the city in case of another disaster. So joining me now is Mike Tidwell. He is a noted environmentalist and also author of "Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast." And thanks very much for being with us again tonight, Mike.

MIKE TIDWELL, ENVIRONMENTALIST AND AUTHOR: Thanks for having me.

PILGRIM: You know, just a quick recap. Why are we in this situation now? Environmentally, what is the explanation?

TIDWELL: Well, I mean, New Orleans is below sea level. Everybody seems to know that, and that is mentioned in the media coverage. And now it's filling up with water because it's below sea level.

Well, why is New Orleans below sea level? Why isn't Miami below sea level? Or New York below sea level? And the reason is, New Orleans has the levees, and the levees along the Mississippi River have kept New Orleans dry for 300 years. But it's also caused the river no longer to deposit new sediments of soil and nutrients in that whole land mass of south Louisiana. And that as a result, the land mass now actually sinks, because it's fine alluvial soil. That is why New Orleans is below sea level. The levees created the bowl, and now the breach in the levees is filling that bowl up with water.

PILGRIM: Now, Mike, you've studied this extensively. There is a solution to this. Take us through it just a little bit.

TIDWELL: As Governor Blanco of Louisiana said, we need to re- engineer the coast. We need to get the water -- assuming we rebuild New Orleans, which seems like an open question at this point. If we re-inhabit New Orleans, we need to get the water of the Mississippi River back into the marshes, and the barrier islands that have traditionally created a land buffer to protect New Orleans, and make it inhabitable.

Right now, even without the hurricane, 50 acres a day of land turn to water in south Louisiana, because the whole land platform is sinking, because there is no replenishment of nutrients from the river from natural flooding. There is an engineering plan to carefully fix that, through controlled divergence of the water into the barrier islands and the wetlands to create new land.

PILGRIM: Wouldn't you lose a lot of real estate in doing this?

TIDWELL: No. Because so much of south Louisiana is already behind levees, you can move these natural -- these man-made rivers, half the inhabited areas into the wetlands and barrier island areas, that need replenishment.

The other problem, of course, is global climate change. Scientists are predicting, even our own government is predicting three feet of sea level rise in this century because of global warming.

That's another problem on top of it. You had 90 degrees of sea surface temperatures in the Gulf, record temperatures, that I think contributed to this. And in my book, "Bayou Farewell," I mention that one of the ways we save New Orleans is the same way we save all of us, is we've got to get off of the fossil fuels that create the greenhouse gases and make everything worse.

PILGRIM: Let me just take you back to the sort of logistics of fixing this particular situation, though. Does this not cost enormous amounts of money? And have there been provisions to start phasing this in?

TIDWELL: What is happening in New Orleans right now has been predicted for a long time. The skyrocketing energy prices because of the pipelines have been predicted for a long time. There is a plan, a $14 billion plan, about the cost of the Big Dig in Boston, or two weeks of expenditures on military operations in Iraq, to replumb the coast, if you will, to build these man-made divergences -- $14 billion. The plan is on the table. You can Google Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. Read all about it. It's been on the table for a long time, but people have ignored it, and now the catastrophe has come.

PILGRIM: Well, let's hope that now at this point, people are re- examining these plans and re-evaluating the costs of them, and taking measures to help this situation.

Thanks very much for explaining it to us. I know you've studied it extensively. Mike Tidwell, thank you very much, Mike.

TIDWELL: Thank you.

PILGRIM: And our coverage of Hurricane Katrina continues. ANDERSON COOPER 360 live from Gulfport, Mississippi starts right now. Anderson?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Kitty, thank you very much.

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