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Lou Dobbs Tonight
New Orleans Braces for Rita; Galveston, Texas, Evacuates for Storm; Federal Government Prepares for Rita; Congress Debates Ways to Pay for Hurricane Reconstruction; Rita Could Impact Gas Prices; Service Workers in Hurricane Zone May Lose Wage Protection; Human Trafficking in California; Wal-Mart Bad for the Middle Class
Aired September 21, 2005 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LOU DOBBS, HOST: Good evening, everybody.
Tonight we will be, over the course of the next hour, monitoring the approach of Hurricane Rita. It's intensifying fast as it storms forward Texas and western Louisiana. Just two hours ago, the National Hurricane Center upgraded Hurricane Rita to a highly dangerous Category 5, winds of more than 165 miles an hour.
As many a million people in the Houston and Galveston areas of Texas have now been told to evacuate their homes. The massive hurricane is expected to strike early Saturday.
Deborah Feyerick in Galveston, Texas, reports on the huge operation as that area tries to evacuate residents before Rita hits. And Mary Snow in New Orleans, reporting on the desperate effort there to secure the city from what could be a major new flood disaster.
We begin with Mary Snow in New Orleans -- Mary.
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, just as New Orleans was pumping out its water, it is bracing for more. The Army Corps of Engineers saying that the city is essentially dry. But the concerns here are the weakened levees and pumping stations, weakened, of course, by Hurricane Katrina.
And as you mentioned, crews are scrambling to reinforce those levees to protect the city from whatever they expect from Hurricane Rita.
Now we spoke earlier today just a short time ago with General Bruce Berwick. He is the task force engineer for Task Force Katrina. He inspected three damaged levees here in New Orleans today. After inspecting them, he says he is cautiously optimistic that the city is well prepared for what Rita will bring. He's saying with the current forecast for New Orleans, he believes at this point, that the worst may be minor flooding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COL. BRUCE BERWICK, JOINT TASK FORCE KATRINA: If we got two to four inches over a long period of time, we'd be OK. There would be some minor flooding in some locations, but we'd have on hand the pumps, which is kind of the second line of defense, both portable pumps and the permanent pumps. A number of those have been brought back on line so we can get the water out of the city quickly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: Now the general also notes, though, that he has learned that the enemy is hurricanes and water, and he says he is not counting on the forecast and he says everything needs to be done to shore up those levees -- Lou.
DOBBS: Mary, thank you.
And as Mary Snow reports, it is important to note that Lake Charles is just over 160 miles from Galveston, Texas. As many as a million people are fleeing Hurricane Rita in Texas tonight.
Deborah Feyerick has the report from Galveston -- Deborah.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Lou, we just want to show you, we're just here at the ocean. You can see the waves pretty calm right now. A lot of seagulls, a lot of gulls, but nothing much.
A lot of people have been evacuating all day. As a matter of fact, 1,500 caught buses this morning out of Galveston. Those are the ones who didn't have their own transportation. So the city set it up so that they'd be able to get out of town in time.
Nursing homes have been evacuated. Two hospitals have been evacuated. Everybody got the vulnerable and the sick out first. Everyone saying this is the big lesson we learned from Katrina.
This is the sea wall that everybody's going to be talking about, Lou. And you can kind of get a sense of just how high it is. The waves are expected to go over this wall once they do hit.
Now the mayor, not overly concerned. She says unlike New Orleans, if the city does floods, she fully expects the water to run back out. New Orleans it sort of was like a bowl, and that's why the water has been there for so long. But here, she really believes that after three days, the city will dry out.
So she and her officials have enough provisions for about three days. After that, they think they will be able at least to assess just how much damage has been done, get out there and see what's going on.
But they don't know when people will be allowed back in. The mandatory evacuation expected to go into place within the hour. That's for everybody else who didn't get out of town. If you got out before now, you're able to go wherever you wanted to go. If you get out now, you're going to have to go where the authorities tell you to -- Lou.
DOBBS: And as you are there, give us some sense of how many people remain in the city.
FEYERICK: We can tell you, we were walking around some of the city streets just getting a sense. It was vacant. There was just nobody there. Even at the height of midday, all of the restaurants were boarded up, all of the stores were boarded up. Everybody kind of getting out of town. The highways now are jam packed, we are told, heading north. Nobody knows which direction this may take, which direction it may turn.
But again, most of the coastal cities are being evacuated. Galveston, because it's connected to the mainland by a bridge. People will not be able to get over that bridge once the winds pick up to about 40 miles. And that's expected to happen Friday morning. That's why the mayor wanted everybody out within 72 hours of any of the storm making land -- Lou.
DOBBS: Forewarned is forearmed. And we thank you very much, Deborah Feyerick, from Galveston.
1933 was the worst storm season in this country's history. That year, 21 named storms tore through the Atlantic region. But this hurricane season could break that 72-year-old record, the National Hurricane Center predicting that 18 to 21 major storms could occur this year. Hurricane Rita is now number 17.
There have only been three Category 5 hurricanes that have made landfall in the country's history. We have never had two Category 4 hurricanes ever make landfall in one season. And Galveston is the site of the deadliest hurricane in American history.
Eight thousand people died when a Category 4 storm hit that city back in 1900. One hundred five years ago, 44,000 people lived in the area.
Since then, six major storms have hit the Texas coast. And today, 60,000 reside in Galveston. More than five million people live in the Houston area.
And joining me now is the director of the National Hurricane Center, Max Mayfield, who did an outstanding job in predicting the path of Hurricane Katrina. In fact, two days before Katrina struck New Orleans, he personally called several state and local officials along the Gulf Coast to warn them about the hurricane's potential devastation.
Hurricane Rita is expected to strike Texas over the next two days.
Max, good to have you here. This storm has risen to a Category 5. What is your latest forecast now for Rita?
MAX MAYFIELD, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: That's at the top of our scale, I'm afraid, Lou. And this is, you know, just an extremely dangerous hurricane right now, has the potential to cause damage similar to what Katrina did near and to the northeast, where the center crosses the coast.
And we put up the hurricane watch from Cameron, Louisiana, down to Port Mansfield Texas. This is going to become a larger hurricane and will likely impact much of the Texas coast and the southwestern portion of Louisiana, as well.
The center may not get there until early Saturday morning. But the one important thing here, the winds are going to be so strong, so far out from center, that they're going to get there sometime Friday morning. So people really have tonight and all day tomorrow to make their preparations.
DOBBS: And that is time in which to make preparations and to get out of harm's way. Max, your best judgment now, and we all understand despite the remarkable job that you do of predicting the hurricane path and giving us all critical life saving, notice that this storm -- these storms, at any time, can shift. What is your expectation now for the center point, if you will, of your projections right now?
MAYFIELD: Right now, we have it somewhere between Port Lavaca and Galveston Bay here. But we're forecasting it to turn up more towards the north here before landfall. That's going to be tricky.
Right now, we have a high pressure system over Texas here that is going to keep it down on a more western track here for awhile. But with time, that high pressure system is going to move off to the east, and a trough of low pressure will come in from the west, and that's what we think will stir it up here over the mid- to upper Texas coast.
But it's going to have an impact on a large area. The closer you are to that eye, the higher the storm surge and the worse the impact will be.
DOBBS: Max, we're all used to, also, the prospect of a storm diminishing in strength after it builds over warm water to, in this case, a Category 5, as you suggest, a dangerous, potentially monstrous storm. What is the likelihood we'll see the storm diminish as it moves towards landfall?
MAYFIELD: Lou, there's certainly a chance it will happen. We're actually forecasting it to weaken a little bit. I really don't want to, you know, overly emphasize that. It could well be a Category 4 hurricane. The water temperature is a little bit warmer -- a little bit cooler as it gets close to the coast there, but people need to be making their preparations here for a Category 4, possibly Category 5 hurricane.
DOBBS: Max Mayfield, as always, thank you very much.
MAYFIELD: Thank you, sir.
DOBBS: The Bush administration today made a concerted effort to demonstrate that it is ready to deal with this hurricane. President Bush today declared states of emergency in both Texas and Louisiana.
The White House clearly determined tonight to avoid any repeat of the massive criticism of the federal government's part in the slow response to Hurricane Katrina.
Dana Bash has the report from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A stark warning from the president: Hurricane Rita is coming. Get ready for the worst.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for New Orleans and Galveston. I urge the citizens to listen carefully to the instructions provided by state and local authorities and follow them.
BASH: This public plea, nearly identical to one issued from his Texas ranch the day before Katrina hit.
BUSH: We cannot stress enough the danger this hurricane poses to Gulf Coast communities.
BASH: But the president and top aides know this time they can't blame inadequate readiness and response on an unprecedented, unimaginable disaster. They're trying to learn from mistakes.
First, make sure evacuations happen immediately, to avoid devastating images of despair. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, out of sight as Katrina barreled toward the Gulf Coast, blanketed the airwaves to talk about Rita, pledging...
MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We're trying to get people out of the path of the storm as early as possible. And that means also making provisions for people in nursing homes and hospital, to get them out a couple days in advance so that they're out of harm's way and they don't need to be rescued.
BASH: Bush officials promise they're pre-positioning supplies and personnel earlier this time: 45 truckloads of both water and ice, eight truck loads of meals ready to eat, disaster relief and rescue teams, so needed in New Orleans, ready to go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To remain on a mostly westward track for the next two days.
BASH: In private, aides insist Mr. Bush has morphed from delegater to detail man, trying to learn from early miscommunication, especially with local officials.
The Louisiana governor thought she asked for what she needed for Katrina. The president waited for specific requests.
DAVID PAULISON, ACTING DIRECTOR OF FEMA: I've done this for a long time.
BASH: Now he's got a new head of FEMA, who says things like that won't happen again.
PAULISON: We are making extraordinary effort to make sure that we have a coordination system in place where we are talking with those people, like I said, almost on an hourly basis, making sure they have the things to do the job. We are not making any assumptions in this storm. BASH: To that end, Admiral Larry Harris, who greeted the president before a briefing on Hurricane Rita, is now heading to Texas to lead the federal effort on the ground.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: And administration officials say one of the biggest lessons learned is working with the Pentagon now to use their assets instead of waiting until after the storm hits.
It's all part what the White House hopes will be a second chance, showing the president taking control at a crisis. Also hoping to turn around his plummeting leadership in terms of American approval -- Lou.
DOBBS: Dana, let's all hope that there's no need to have a second chance here and that this storm moves to a remote area where no damage can occur and no lives be lost. Thank you very much, Dana Bash from the White House.
Congress is also rushing now to help hurricane victims, lawmakers in fact today approving a $6 billion package of tax breaks on top of $62 billion in emergency spending that's already been authorized.
But the cost of the relief operation could eventually be more than $200 billion. In fact, that is the broadest consensus expectation. Some members of Congress are now asking where all of that money will come from.
Joe Johns reports from Capitol Hill -- Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, many conservative Republicans first got elected by demanding spending cuts and smaller government, and now they're looking for ways to make room in the budget for Katrina.
So today, about 18 or so members on the House side offered some suggestions of what to cut. We've heard a lot of these ideas before, like slashing funding for Amtrak, getting rid of public broadcasting. There's also a suggestion of postponing the Medicare prescription drug benefit for a year. Right now, it's supposed to kick in in 2006.
Congressman Mike Pence of Indiana is helping collect the ideas, though he admits it's hard to get people to agree right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE PENCE (R), INDIANA: We are here because last week the president of the United Stats and the leadership of the Republican majority in Congress challenged our membership to come up with offsets, to come up with recommended cuts in government spending, to ensure that we would not have to force a tax increase on the American people or greater debt. And so we're responding to our leadership.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: One of the ideas that's causing heartburn on the Hill is revisiting the highway bill that the Congress just passed. By most accounts it was loaded up with about $24 billion in special projects.
The chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Don Young, who pushed that bill through, doesn't like this idea one bit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DON YOUNG (R), ALASKA: This is grandstanding by individuals that don't know what they're talking about. I'll go back to that. It's ignorance; it's stupidity. They don't understand what they're saying.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: Young says it's not up to Congress to handle that money now, because the money's all gone to the states. He does have a suggestion of his own, however. Creating disaster bonds, he says, so that people can invest in the rebuilding of the hurricane zone -- Lou.
DOBBS: Stupidity and ignorance. Interesting what the quantity would be generally believed to be on Capitol Hill on both parties. Why does the congressman believe it's stupidity and ignorance to pay for what the government spends?
JOHNS: Well, he's saying you just simply can't do it with this money because it's already been sent out to the states. It's the state's money, and that Congress has to do it another way.
He says there's no way you can just pay for Katrina, because there may be other hurricanes coming down the pike. We know that's true. He wants a broader approach. And he says disaster bonds might be one idea, Lou.
DOBBS: That would just be more debt, any way you count it. Thank you very much, Joe Johns.
Next week, Congress is calling on the foremost expert on the government's inept response to Katrina to give testimony. Former FEMA director, Michael Brown, will testify about a subject he knows well: the poor coordination between federal, state and local officials before and after Katrina struck. Brown resigned last week after intense criticism of FEMA's slow response to the disaster.
We'll have much more on Hurricane Rita ahead here. A quarter of this country's oil production lies in the path of Hurricane Rita. So are many oil refineries. We'll have a special report for you on the risk of a new surge in oil and gasoline prices.
And a new threat to Americans who have already lost so much in the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The federal government suspending -- considering the suspension of fair wage rules for even more workers in the Gulf Coast region.
And we'll be going to Galveston, Texas, for a live report on those who are facing the possibility of a second devastating hurricane in less than a month. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Our nation's highly vulnerable Gulf Coast refineries and oil rigs in the gulf could suffer another terrific blow from, this time, Hurricane Rita. It is now a massive Category 5 storm, headed straight for the Texas Gulf Coast. Tonight, the U.S. oil industry is making emergency preparations for a storm that could further deepen this country's energy crisis.
Bill Tucker reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL TUCKER, ANN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Twenty-five percent of domestic oil production is in the path of Hurricane Rita. Already, oil companies are evacuating rigs in the face of the storm.
According to the industry, 57 percent of 819 manned platforms and 52 percent of 134 rigs are now evacuated. Eighteen of the refineries in Texas are located on the gulf and could potentially be affected by Rita. Ten of those refineries located in or near Houston, producing over two million barrels of petroleum product daily, and those refineries are in the process of being shut down.
Oil pipelines in Texas also being closed, so refineries outside of the region will be affected. Rita has not affected prices at the pump, yet. But it will, which would anger politicians already upset about sharply higher energy prices following Katrina.
SEN. MARIA CANTWELL (D), WASHINGTON: I think this committee ought to have an investigation and push the FTC and push every avenue we have. Because I'm not going to wait for the market to correct itself while people go bankrupt, people lose their pensions, people lose their jobs and the American economy is ruined.
TUCKER: Members of the Senate Commerce and Transportation Committee are not alone. In a letter to the president and Congress, eight Democratic governors are demanding an investigation into why the price of gasoline has risen so sharply, a rise that raises questions which need to be examined.
DONALD NICHOLS, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON: Who pocketed the money? Is that the way the system has to work? When we have a natural crisis of this kind, it takes billions of dollars out of the pockets of the ordinary citizen. Is that the way we want to do it?
TUCKER: The national average for a price for a gallon of gasoline as of Tuesday was $2.78 for regular unleaded.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCKER: Now if the experts are right, we're about to see $3 a gallon again, and soon. There are, however, a couple factors this time around that could help us out.
Lou, there are 60 million barrels of refined product on the seas now, coming into American ports that were released from the international petroleum reserves as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
DOBBS: We'll have to wait and see. Bill Tucker, thank you.
We'd like to know how you feel about the issue. Do you believe the federal government should punish companies more severely for price gouging during a national disaster? Yes or no? Cast your vote at LouDobbs.com. We'll have the results here later.
As Hurricane Rita is now headed towards the Texas Gulf Coast, crude oil and refinery production are still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Four major Gulf Coast refineries are still shut down, and they're responsible for some 900,000 barrels of refined oil per day.
Chevron-Texaco, one of the country's biggest retailers, says 44 percent of its pre-Katrina refinery capacity in the gulf still hasn't been restored.
Katrina destroyed, by the way, 46 oil platforms and drilling rigs in the gulf. That storm seriously damaged 18 others. It will take months, if not years, to replace those.
Still ahead here, Gulf Coast service industry workers, worried their wages are about to be cut, thanks to the federal government. We'll have that special report next, and the Reverend Jesse Jackson is my guest. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: The Bush administration says it can cut red tape and inefficiency in the disaster region by denying construction workers there the prevailing wage. And it may also extend to the Gulf Coast services sector. Concern is now growing that the Bush administration may relax wage and hiring standards that have helped Gulf Coast service workers make ends meet.
Lisa Sylvester reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Janitors and housekeepers cleaning up for the federal government in the gulf region may have their wage protection stripped away. There's talk in Washington the Labor Department may roll back the 1965 McNamara-O'Hara Service Contract Act that guarantees service employees working for the federal government the prevailing or average wage.
After Katrina hit, the Bush administration waived the wage requirement for construction workers under the Davis-Bacon act and may do the same for service employees.
These workers are already paid some of the lowest wages in the country.
ROBERT SHULL, OMB WATCH: Some of these waivers are of regulations that the administration and their allies in industry have wanted to attack or weaken for some time now. And we're definitely concerned that this could be -- that Katrina could become an all- purpose excuse for more corporate giveaways.
SYLVESTER: Labor Secretary Elaine Chao was asked last week if the contract act would be suspended. She reportedly answered, "I don't believe so." Today, the Labor Department said there are currently no plans, but lawmakers insist the administration is still looking for a way to lift the requirement.
REP. GEORGE MILLER (D), CALIFORNIA: We're hearing from all different sources that, in fact, they are going to roll back the protection for service workers. What we really need is a definitive statement from the White House that they're not going to undercut the wages of service workers who are helping out with hurricane recovery.
SYLVESTER: The White House did not have a comment. It's deferring to the Labor Department. Meanwhile, Republicans who support waiving wage rules say it will reduce red tape and bureaucracy, as residents rebuild. But Democratic critics say it's slashing wages of some of the most vulnerable Americans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: The Davis-Bacon Act has a loophole that allowed the president to suspend the wage rule for a natural disaster with just the stroke of a pen.
Now, the service contract act does not have the same provision, making it much more difficult. But according to lawmakers, the Labor Department may be able to get around that by simply issuing a new interim rule or seeking a change in legislation -- Lou.
DOBBS: The administration has said that lower wages result in greater competition capacity on the part of the American worker. There's no competition here. This is entirely domestic. Any economic rationale advanced for this?
SYLVESTER: There really doesn't seem to be any explanation, other than what they have said before, which is the standard line that they want to try to reduce and cut down on the red tape and bureaucracy. But ultimately, it's going to be the workers who will be hurt, Lou.
DOBBS: Thank you very much, Lisa Sylvester from Washington.
Senator Ted Kennedy, Senator Charles Schumer and Senator Tom Harken introduced legislation today that directly challenges the president's suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act. I asked Senator Kennedy earlier about his objection to the president's directive, a directive that is categorically denying construction workers in the gulf region prevailing wages.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: As you probably know, Lou, there wasn't even a suspension of Davis-Bacon after 9/11, and we also know the trauma that that extraordinary devastation brought.
DOBBS: Right.
KENNEDY: And the reason then thought was because we want to be fair to the people who have to rebuild their lives.
It seems that that logic applies here in the gulf area. Hard working people, trying to rebuild their families, trying to rebuild their families, trying to rebuild their homes, trying to rebuild their region.
We're talking 22, 23, 24, 25 thousand dollars a year without benefits. That doesn't seem to be excessive to me. That barely reaches the area of being fair.
Meanwhile, these cost-plus contracts, the contractors themselves will walk away with tens of millions, hundreds of millions in profit. And that is not what the American people want. They want to have a hand out to people, but not a hand out to these major contractors.
This shouldn't be a program which is effectively a piggy bank for these major contractors. We ought to be looking to how we're going to help the families the hundreds of thousands of families who have been devastated by this terrible, terrible hurricane.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DOBBS: Jesse Jackson says he's seeing firsthand major hiring abuses right now in the Gulf Coast, resulting from the suspension of Davis-Bacon. Reverend Jackson just returned from New Orleans and joins us tonight from Washington, D.C.
Jesse, first of all, do you see any evidence that more people are being hired? Because that was part of the rationale on the part of the Bush administration.
REV. JESSE JACKSON, RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION: Well, really, it amounts to a hurricane for the victims and a windfall for Halliburton and Bechtel, because when you suspend Davis-Bacon and make jobs below the average prevailing wage, they are busing in immigrant workers to, in fact, take those jobs.
There are no incentives for the victims of the hurricane to, in fact, have priority on jobs, job training and contracts.
DOBBS: And the priority should be, without question, those who live in the region, but many have been evacuated from New Orleans. What is the feeling amongst the people of New Orleans with whom you've spoken about what's going on?
JACKSON: It compounds their sense of alienation. For example, these five $100 million no bid contracts are for clean-up purposes. So Halliburton may get $30 a yard for removing debris, they want local workers to get $6 a yard to remove it. So, there seems to be a cap on wages and insurance, but no cap on profits.
See, we complained about -- we said those who were left behind were too poor to get out. If you reduce people to $6 an hour wages, they still can't buy a car. They can't buy gas. They can't buy a homestead house. You're condemning workers to poverty, but no limits for those who are getting no-bid -- and I meant not necessarily no-bid contracts.
DOBBS: Well, let me ask you Jesse, the mayor of New Orleans, the governor of Louisiana, why in the world aren't they protesting and representing their constituents in this? Because it is on the face of it -- well, the nicest word I can put it is unreasonable to allow open-ended contracts, cost-plus, and put a minimum effectively, to reduce the minimum that workers will be paid.
JACKSON: Well, it is a federal bailout on the states' rights conditions deal. And they're using the excuse of the emergency to suspend prevailing wages which are below union wages, I might add. And to suspend affirmative action, to suspend workers' rights.
I mean, there's no job in cleanup. The small business in Gulfport, or in Biloxi, or Pascagoula, Mobile, you're talking about trucking and hauling and dumping. All these jobs could be handled by disaster relief victims. So why can't the disaster victims have priority on job training and jobs and contracts? There's no victims relief fund. And they want to dumb down wages and make them less able? They're compounding their misery. It's unfair.
DOBBS: Reverend Jesse Jackson, we thank you for being with us.
JACKSON: Thank you.
DOBBS: Coming up next here, a modern day exodus for many residents of the Gulf Coast. Hundreds of people who fled to Texas after Katrina are now being forced to move once again. We'll have a live report. We'll be talking with some of the people for whom this will be the second hurricane in less than a month that they have to flee.
And Hurricane Rita, now a massive category five storm. We'll have a live update on how it became so powerful, so fast. And an update on where it is now headed. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DOBBS: Hurricane Rita, now charging through the Gulf of Mexico, is expected to hit the Texas coast this weekend. That's where tens of thousands of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina went. Now, many of them are being forced to evacuate once again. Sean Callebs joins us from Galveston -- Sean.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, think about it, right after Katrina blew through the New Orleans area, a quarter of a million people poured from Louisiana into Texas. A lot of them settled in the Houston area, down further toward where we are in Galveston. That's like taking a city the size of St. Paul, Minnesota, and instantly planting it here in Texas.
Well, it didn't end there. A lot of people who thought they were going to be settled until they could figure out where they'd end up permanently are being uprooted again.
It began last night. Several thousand evacuees, people who had already left Louisiana are now being flown to Arkansas to get them out of harm's way. This, as Rita expected to be a category five hurricane when it slams into the coast, perhaps right in this area, is threatening this region.
There are about 3,000 evacuees from the Louisiana area that came down to the Galveston area. We spent the day with the Savoy family. Mother, father, the two children and the grandparents. They settled here. The kids enrolled in school.
So in three weeks, these two children entered two separate schools. They made new friends, they were accepted into this area. They even had some friends at that school who had evacuated from Louisiana.
Well, they are being uprooted again. Today, they packed up from a condo that a good Samaritan had donated once he found out about their plight. So the family's packed up everything they owned in a minivan and a car and they drove off.
At this point, they don't know where they're going to stay. They thought about staying in the Houston area, but they are concerned if this hurricane is as powerful as people say, there's going to be significant flooding up in that area. And they don't want to move again. So they're thinking about going back to Slidell, Louisiana. They have some family back in that area, but they simply don't know if they're going do that.
The family says it's been a traumatic, traumatic experience. They say they feel like they're walking in space. They don't feel like they belong in Texas or Louisiana. And the poor, young girl who is a high school sophomore she feels like a hurricane magnet and cries herself too sleep almost every night. Lou, just a really sad story for all of these people who have been through so much.
DOBBS: And the thousands, as you point out, in Galveston, literally, the tens of thousands who moved to Texas, and particularly in Houston, this has got to be just incredible. I mean, your heart just has to go out to them.
CALLEBS: It's very difficult to sit there and talk to these people. They've been through everything. It took them weeks to get FEMA caught up with them. In the case with the Savoy family, the grandmother is on medication.
This is a family that packed for three days. They thought, maybe the hurricane will skirt our area. We'll move back. Well, they lived in St. Bernard Parish. And if you've watched the pictures, you know that area among the hardest hit. 27,000 homes and businesses in that parish, all gone, virtually all are going to have to be razed and started over again. They haven't been back to see their house. They wanted to this week, but now with Rita threatening the area, they just don't know what they're going to do. DOBBS: This country has just not witnessed this kind of trauma to so many of our fellow citizens. And to see people uprooted and moved across the state lines to Texas, it sounds sort of clinical to say moved across the state line. In point of fact, they are literally homeless, in this case as you report, for a second time in less than a month. Sean Callebs from Galveston, we thank you very much.
For more now on this powerful storm and its rapid development and its direction, I'm joined by Marshall Shepherd. Marshall is research meteorologist at the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center.
Marshall, Hurricane Rita's formation looks similar to Katrina's. Is that, first of all, the case? And just how unusual is it?
MARSHALL SHEPHERD, GODDARD SPACEFLIGHT CENTER: Well, it's really interesting that we've seen both of these storms start off as a massive cluster of clouds literally over the Bahamas. And unfortunately, we've seen clues for quite some time that this was going to be a really big storm.
If we take a look at an image from one of our unique satellites, the tropical rainfall measuring mission, or TRMM satellite, we've actually seen these massive hot towers, or towering thunderstorms developing inside Hurricane Rita -- with now Hurricane Rita. This is actually while it was a tropical storm. And look at that towering cloud system around what was the eye wall of the tropical storm. Those hot towers really may give us a clue of the intensification processes that may happen in these big storms.
DOBBS: The intensification process -- the waters in the Gulf, indeed much of the Atlantic, has been running one to two degrees cooler this summer. Is that playing a role?
SHEPHERD: They've been one to two degrees warmer. And we certainly are seeing that in the Gulf of Mexico. Again, this is the data from our aqua satellite, the amster instrument (ph). And look at all of that red. That's warm water. Temperatures are running about -- into the mid to upper 80s. And that's ample fuel supply.
These storms are like big heat engines. And that warm ocean water is the fuel supply. And as you see there, the tank is full. And it's about 89 or 90 octane. So there's plenty of fuel supply for Hurricane Rita to strengthen even more.
DOBBS: Marshall, the National Hurricane Center projected somewhere between 18 to 21 storms this year. The most on record is 21, as we reported here. This is No. 17. And we've got better than two full months in this season to go. What in the world is going on?
SHEPHERD: Well, I tell you, there's some evidence, and our colleagues at NOAA issued a report suggesting that we re-entered an active multi-decadal phase. What that simply means is that every 20 or 30 years or so, we may enter an active phase of hurricane activity, and there's some evidence that we entered that again in 1995. If that's the case, we could see several more years of these active seasons. Now, there are some credible researchers out there trying to link this activity to global warming and that type of phenomenon. It's certainly a bit early to try to make those conclusive links, but those studies are credible, and we have to look at that. But, again, whether it's a natural cycle or human induced change, that's why we're in the business at NASA studying the earth, because there's a great deal about this planet that we don't understand, and so we try to understand those questions.
DOBBS: I must say, though, that you, the folks at the National Hurricane Center, everyone working on the ability to forecast or predict these hurricanes and their path, your record is breathtaking. So we thank you very much, Marshall Shepherd.
SHEPHERD: Thank you, Lou.
DOBBS: There are only four storm names left for this record- breaking hurricane season, and we may see hurricane alpha before the season ends. As we reported, Hurricane Rita is the 17th named storm of the season. Twenty-one names are chosen by the World Meteorological Organization for each year. If all of those names were to be used this season, the organization turns then to the Greek alphabet, and this would be the first time in history that that happened.
Just ahead, bracing for the storm. Are the levees in New Orleans strong enough to withstand rains and winds from Rita? I'll be talking with a top official in Louisiana's Homeland Security Department.
And later, it's been called a modern form of slavery. Thousands of people trafficked into this country each year, now some officials in California finally want to make human smuggling a crime. How about that.
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DOBBS: Officials in New Orleans, of course, are keeping a close watch on the approach of Hurricane Rita. The Army Corps of Engineers, in fact, is warning that even a small amount of rainfall could flood the city again. Joining me now from Baton Rouge is a chief of operations for the Louisiana Homeland Security Department and Emergency Preparedness, Colonel Bill Doran. Good to have you with us, Colonel.
LT. COL. BILL DORAN, DIV. CHIEF, LOUISIANA HOMELAND SEC.: Good to be here.
DOBBS: How concerned are you that the city of New Orleans, which of course has already been so badly damaged, could be facing more flooding as a result of Rita?
DORAN: Right now, we're watching it pretty closely. We're concerned about those levees there, but I think they've blocked the two levees off that were suspect during Katrina. The only problem is now, you won't be able to pump water out of there, so if you have some rainfall, it may linger. But we're hearing only three to five inches right now as the major, and then we're still concerned about a little bit of a storm surge, but it doesn't look like it's going to be too bad from this at the moment.
DOBBS: As the latest projection, Colonel, as you, I'm sure, are paying very careful attention to, puts Southwestern Louisiana on the outer edge of Rita. But as Max Mayfield, who is the best in the world at this, says, you know, none of that is not exact. How much rainfall creates a real threat for the area?
DORAN: For Southwest Louisiana, the lower parts are mostly marsh. There's not a lot of population in that area. There is a mandatory evacuation for Cameron Parish, and some low-lying areas, and a couple of parishes close to there on the coast, Vermilion and Calcasieu.
Currently, they're expecting some local flooding, based on rainfall and some storm surge, but not what we expected from Katrina, and as long as this doesn't turn north earlier, which would be additional problems for us, they should be in good shape, we're still going to monitor it, because there could be a turn north if the high over Louisiana dissipates.
DOBBS: Right. And it's easy to forget that Lake Charles and Galveston, where this storm is expected to strike, right now, come Saturday. At just about 165 miles between the two. Southwestern Louisiana, obviously, in the path. The levees, all of the concerns that have -- and everything we've learned from Katrina. What are you doing right now to prepare for the possibility that this storm would move in a more easterly direction than now is projected?
DORAN: We're still talking with our parishes about evacuation concerns, making sure we have the transportation available for those that need it, ensuring that those parishes are ready to evacuate, when they get to that situation. Basically, at some hour triggers we have plans already set to pull those people out of there, but it's always a parish call in those areas, and they're well versed since Hurricane Lilly about that, when to get out.
DOBBS: You're convinced that lessons of Katrina are well learned in Louisiana?
DORAN: I believe so. And those folks in that area still remember Audrey back in the early 60s, which did devastation, killed about 300 people. They know to get out when they're coming.
DOBBS: Colonel Bill Doran, we thank you for being with us. Good luck.
DORAN: Thank you.
DOBBS: And a reminder to vote in our poll tonight, do you believe the federal government should punish companies more severely for price gouging during a national disaster? Yes or no. Cast your vote at LouDobbs.com. We'll have the results coming right up.
Still ahead, the federal government has not been able to stop the human trafficking trade. Now, one state, because the federal government refuses to do so, is taking on the fight. We'll have that Special Report.
And Wal-Mart under attack. How the company is punishing American workers with its low prices. That story is coming up here next. Stay with us.
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DOBBS: Human trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the United States and the second most profitable after illegal drugs. Because the federal government refuses to enforce immigration laws and to enforce border security, the federal government has been outright unable to slow the speed of this modern-day form of slavery. Now some states such as California have decided to take the problem into their own hands. Casey Wian reports from Los Angeles.
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CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In 2002, Florencia Molina Alvarez came to Los Angeles from Mexico as an illegal alien to work as a seamstress. But she ended up virtually enslaved by a boss who confiscated her passport and wouldn't allow her to leave the shop.
FLORENCIA MOLINA ALVAREZ, TRAFFICKING VICTIM: She told me I have to pay her $2,500 for bring me to the United States and I had to work really hard to pay her back. I had to work 17 hours a day. I had only ten minutes to eat meal, only beans and rice during the 17 hours a day. I never had break time.
WIAN: Tens of thousands of mostly women and children from all over the world are smuggled into the United States each year and forced to work in sweat shops as prostitutes or servants. The federal government has been unable to stop the modern-day slave trade. So Wednesday, California enacted its own anti-human trafficking law.
SALLY LIEBER, D-CALIF. STATE ASSEMBLY: The reason that we need a state specific law, which the governor has today signed, is to deal with the issue of intrastate trafficking, which is very prevalent in California, and also to allow our local law enforcement to be involved in the prosecution of these crimes.
KAMALA HARRIS, SAN FRANCISCO DIST. ATTY.: We have very close connections to the community in a way sometimes federal law enforcement does not. So in terms of detecting the crime and being able to investigate it, we may be able to be effective in a different way than the federal government can be.
WIAN: The California law also gives trafficking victims expanded rights to sue their captors for monetary damages. Victims, many of whom willingly and knowingly violated U.S. immigration laws themselves, already can receive legal status from the federal government in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors investigating human trafficking cases.
That's why Alvarez is now allowed to live and work in the United States while her three young children live with relatives in Mexico. Her captor was convicted and served six months, house arrest.
(on camera): Of course, none of this would be necessary if the federal government secured the nation's borders and enforced existing anti-trafficking laws. But none of the backers of California's anti- trafficking measure wanted to talk about that, Lou.
DOBBS: Why not?
WIAN: I think they want to keep a good relationship going with the federal government. They say that the federal government ...
DOBBS: Though the federal government in this case is responsible for human trafficking and, as you reported, modern slavery?
WIAN: It's absolutely incredible. We gave them several opportunities to talk about the federal government's failure in this area. None of them took the bait, if you will. In fact, they say the federal government is making a strong effort in this area. But as they point out, there are dozens of human trafficking operations that they've uncovered in just the last couple of years in California alone, Lou.
DOBBS: At least within that state they're doing something the federal government and the Bush administration lacks either the courage or principle to do, that is to enforce the law. Casey Wian, thank you very much.
The results of our poll tonight. Ninety-eight percent of you say the federal government should punish companies more severely for price gouging during a national disaster.
For the first time ever a new program is under way in New York City tonight to conserve energy, to save money, and ultimately save the lives of thousands of migratory birds. Lights Out New York, urging high-rise buildings to turn off the lights above the 40th floor after midnight. That is only during migratory seasons, about two months in the fall and two in the spring.
The director of the New York City's Audubon Society say birds are drawn to the bright lights and thousands die colliding with the skyscrapers. Lights Out New York modeled on successful programs already in place in Chicago and Toronto. Two of the city's most famous buildings, the Empire State Building and Chrysler building, have already signed on.
When we continue, an update on Hurricane Rita. And we'll share one example of some signs of life returning to New Orleans.
And Wal-Mart under attack. Why lawmakers and union leaders in Ohio say Wal-Mart is cutting our standard of living. That SPECIAL REPORT is next.
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DOBBS: Politicians and labor leaders in Ohio are mobilizing against Wal-Mart in one of the most coordinated attacks ever against the retailer. The critics say Wal-Mart's relentless efforts to cut prices is now cutting the living standard of our nation's middle class. Christine Romans reports.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carla Henthorn says Wal- Mart is destroying Ohio's middle class.
CARLA HENTHORN, FMR. NEWELL-RUBBERMAID WORKER: Wal-Mart has just not been good at all for the American people. And, you know, I'm living proof of it, along with the 700 coworkers I used to work with at the plant.
ROMANS: Downsized from Newell-Rubbermaid, she's joined union leaders and Ohio Democrats in a campaign against Wal-Mart's business model. They complain Wal-Mart squeezes manufacturers for impossibly low prices, forcing American companies to shift production to China. Those low prices put local businesses out of work and they say Wal- Mart pays inferior benefits and wages than the lost manufacturing jobs and keeps unions out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at what Wal-Mart has done to ...
ROMANS: In a spirited town hall this week in Cleveland, Wal- Mart's business model came under fire, as did the companies that rushed to China to meet Wal-Mart's demands.
BOB HAGAN, OHIO STATE SENATE: And corporate America seems to have lost their patriotism.
REP. SHERROD BROWN (D), OHIO: The Wal-Mart business model relies on supply chain globalization that encourages the decline of American manufacturing and the exporting of American jobs.
BOB BAUGH, AFL-CIO INDUSTRIAL UNION COUNCIL: The outsourcing of this work is our future. It is the intellectual and technical capacity to make things. And you cannot solve a trade deficit unless you make things to trade.
ROMANS: Wal-Mart dismissed the Cleveland meeting as a quote, "one-sided publicity stunt."
SARAH CLARK, WAL-MART COMMUNICATIONS DIR.: We believe we do provide quality jobs. We believe that we do bring importance to those local causes in the community.
ROMANS: Wal-Mart says it saves families $500 a year and its average full-time employee earns $9.68 an hour, almost double the minimum wage. That comes to about $20,000 a year.
ANDREW GROSSMAN, EXEC. DIR., WAL-MART WATCH: Wal-Mart benefits from people who live paycheck to paycheck and the company is making more people live paycheck to paycheck. While there may be some cost savings, I wonder, are incomes going down at the same time?
ROMANS (on camera): But Wal-Mart says Americans are clamoring to work in its stores. In fact, recently, in California 12,000 people applied for 400 job openings. Wal-Mart boasts that that is statistically rather, on par with the admissions office at Harvard, Lou?
DOBBS: Very impressive. In a fashion. Christine Romans, thank you. Judith Miller, the Pulitzer Prize winning "New York Times" reporter has now been in prison for 77 days for protecting her confidential sources in the White House/CIA leak case which has still not reached resolution, after lasting longer than the previous special council investigation.
Recapping our top story tonight, Hurricane Rita, gaining strength as it charges for Texas and western Louisiana. Good night from New York. Now ANDERSON COOPER 360 begins.
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