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Hurricane Rita Slams Florida Keys; Pentagon Briefing; President George W. Bush Speaks in Gulfport, Mississippi

Aired September 20, 2005 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Live pictures now. Hurricane Rita, barreling toward the U.S., lashing out on the Florida Keys. Where is it headed? We're tracking its every move.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: This is another hurricane getting ready to approach us. Nobody can control that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The mayor of New Orleans makes an about-face, ordering residents to re-evacuate. Texans also taking a cue from the suffering city. They're being told, "Move inland."

The military also on the move. Navy and Coast Guard ships are ordered to set sail out of the storm's projected path.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld will hold a briefing live from the Pentagon this hour. We'll take it.

From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

No relief from the force of nature. After Katrina, Florida, again, hit again, the target of a powerful hurricane. And right now Rita is lashing the Keys but no direct hit. Incredibly, thousands of residents are staying put, facing Rita's rage firsthand.

CNN's John Zarrella is in Key West, Dan Lothian in Key Largo. John, let's start with you. Tell us what's it's like.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, down here in Key West we had a little bit of a break in the last 15 or so minutes. We had a squall line move through here about an hour ago. You can see, though, that the wind has really picked up.

We're not getting a lot of rainfall. And a lot of that is due to the fact the storm is moving quickly. The amount of rainfall directly related to how fast the forward speed of the storm is. The faster it moves, the less rainfall you get.

You can see down here, we're on Duval Street. And as you mentioned, a lot of people really still hanging out here. We've seen a number of people up and down the street, walking, riding bicycles and motorcycles and going by in their car. You can see cars going by now.

So -- but yet the city is saying that about half of the residents, about 50 percent of the people, did leave, did evacuate, which is a much better number than they usually get. Usually about 20, 25 percent. So in this case, about 20 -- about 13,000 people did elect to leave the Keys.

Now, we are learning now Monroe County Sheriff's Department is pulling its officers off the road now, because the winds are increasing up through tropical storm force. They're getting those people off the roads.

And as we've been reporting, a lot of the worst damage that we're hearing about is from the storm surge and the overwash on the Overseas Highway. That is that one-lane in, one-lane out road, 150 miles up the Keys, from about mile marker 11, up to mile marker 110.

There are pockets of the roadway that have been overwashed from the storm surge, which is because of high tide, full moon, astronomical high tide and the surge from the storm.

Up around mile marker 85, 75, 85, in that area, Lower Matecumbe Key, completely overwashed, a lot of debris on the roadway up there. And the officials are telling us they're going to keep it closed down. They're telling people, stay off the roadways.

And in fact, they're saying now they're not going to be able to open these roads, the Overseas Highway, to let people in or out, until after the storm passes and until after they have a structural assessment of the highway and see if it has been undermined anywhere.

So it may be a little bit before people can get back in and out of the Keys, even after the storm goes through.

Still, Kyra, expecting that in the next three hours or so, we're going to get the worst of what Rita has to offer us here. As the storm moves to our south -- we're on the right side of that eye wall, the worst part of the storm. So, again, within the next two or three hours.

But right now, in a little break. Power is out, though, all over the downtown area here on Duval Street. We lost that about an hour ago when those transformers blew.

But city officials are breathing a little easier right now, considering that yesterday at this time, they were thinking this storm might be a 2, possibly a 3, and possibly making a direct hit here in Key West. Right now it looks like it's going to slide a bit to our south. Good news here -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, John Zarrella there in Key West. John, keep us updated. Let's go not far from where John Zarrella is, Dan Lothian in Key Largo.

Dan, what's it like there? DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, relatively quiet now. Although you do have those pockets of the heavy winds, those guests of winds, and then the rains, as well.

But as I mentioned, right now, cloudy, not as bad. Those dark clouds have really rolled out of here.

But a few minutes ago, we just returned from heading south to Islamorada, and we ran into a community that was under water. There was a mobile home park that's right there on the ocean. About three feet of water that we measured in the streets, into some of the mobile homes there. We talked to a few of the residents where the water was up to doorsteps. They had to evacuate from that area.

We did see some firefighters, some emergency personnel, going door to door, searching for anyone who might have needed some help in getting out of there. We did not witness any rescues, but they are going through that mobile home park.

We also went another mile and a half or so further south and came across a motel that also had some cottages. Again, the high tide and the storm surge causing the water to come up into the bottom floor of that hotel. And also -- motel, rather, and into some of those cottages.

As John was talking about that mile marker roughly around -- anywhere between, like, 73 to 80 or so, you do have that area of the road that has been washed out.

I talked with a law enforcement official who told me that there was at one point up to two feet or so of water on the road and not just water but a lot of debris, a lot of dirt. They still will have to do assessment to find out integrity of that road.

But back here, where we are now, in Key Largo, again, things appearing to be relatively calm. People were bracing for the worst, which could have been, they thought, a Category 2. They did get a Category 1. So certainly not as bad as they had initially been bracing for. So a little bit of sigh of relief from that.

What we did see, though, during -- when the winds were kicking up, the rains were coming down. As we saw some people who were in the midst of all of that, were still boarding up, still shuttering their businesses. Perhaps they were waiting because of the time. Earlier, it was a tropical storm. They were waiting for it to become a hurricane. When it did, that is when they sprung into action.

So that's the very latest from here, from Key Largo. Back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Dan Lothian. Thanks so much.

And just south of Key Largo, where Dan is, we want to take you now to Islamorada, Florida. That's where Shomari Stone of our affiliate WFOR just filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHOMARI STONE, WFOR CORRESPONDENT: Right now, we're here on Islamorada. We are north of the Seven Mile Bridge, south of Key Largo, and just take a look here. The storm surge is really coming in and the wind is picking up.

If you look, you can see it's almost covering my boots. But if I walk down there it will come up to my knees or even past my knees.

Now I've been doing live shots down by that pier there here at mile marker 82. And look at the pier. The waves are just pounding it. And I don't know if you guys can see all the way out of the Atlantic, the furthest part of that pier, but it is falling apart. The wind is picking up here. And the pier just taking a pounding.

A lot of people never thought that Tropical Storm Rita would turn to Hurricane Rita. A lot of the residents evacuated. But some did not.

Now, if you just take a walk with me. Just look at the waves now. Look at that wave come over. See that, guys? There it is. It's moving forward. It's coming down. It's getting low. See, it's pounding, crashing on the shoreline. Now, if I come right over here...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Once again, that was Shomari Stone with WFOR. We lost the signal towards the end there, but you get a feel for how it's turning in that area.

And CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras also tracking Hurricane Rita, joins us with the latest on where that storm is right now and where it's headed.

A lot of concerned people in New Orleans, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, there is. And when you see that storm surge coming up like that, and it isn't even to the worst point yet. We're still talking maybe another couple of hours before the storm surge is at its worst, and that is going to be close within the time of high tide. So unfortunately, those two could coincide and make the conditions even worse.

Now, also, some new information coming in. The hurricane hunters flying into the storm. We have a report of a significant drop in pressure. This storm is continuing to intensify. When we see those pressure drops, the wind speeds tend to increase.

We also heard from the National Hurricane Center about half an hour ago, and they said this could possibly become a Category 2 hurricane, by the time the 2 p.m. Eastern Time advisory comes in. That would be winds of at least 96 miles per hour. So we're probably going to see a strong 1, maybe a weak 2, and that's going to be coming in at the same time that the storm moves to its closest approach, the lower Keys. We are expecting possible sustained hurricane force winds to be arriving into the lower Keys later on this afternoon and tropical storm force winds already affecting much of south Florida and all throughout the area of the Keys.

Some very strong bands of rain showers have been pushing in across Miami-Dade County. Also, down throughout much of the Keys. The rainfall's extremely heavy.

And one of the things to keep in mind around Homestead, down towards Cutler Ridge, you guys just got soaked with Katrina about 3 1/2 weeks ago, and now those same areas, unfortunately, just getting plowed with some very heavy thunderstorms, producing a few inches per hour. Expect flooding on the roadways here. And also a fair amount of lightning. So be aware of that threat.

The winds are gusting 35, even to 40 miles per hour, with stronger wind gusts as we head down towards the lower Keys.

We're also getting some good wind gusts and some reports across the western coast of Florida. Naples getting in on some of that action with the wet weather at this time.

I also want to point out, Matecumbe Key and extending down towards Key Largo, where we're starting to get some of the reports of the high storm surge, you can see the outer bands really not pushing through here now, but here's a new area that will be moving in, probably about half an hour or so from this time. And it's those strong winds pushing up that water, which is bringing up that high surf.

Forecast track now. What's going to be happening? Watching for the closest approach mid to late this afternoon. It will be affecting the Keys throughout much of the night tonight. But tomorrow morning, looking much better.

Intensifying as it pushing through the Gulf of Mexico, likely to become a major hurricane before it makes its second landfall. It should be moving westerly over the next couple of days, and then start to take its curve on up to the north.

And it's all about that timing of when it starts to take that northerly curve as to where the storm is exactly going to hit. There's still a fair amount of uncertainty, as that is still a number of days away. Probably Friday night, maybe Saturday morning, at best, for landfall.

Northern Mexico still possible for you. Possible anywhere along the Texas coast and possible across the western parts of Louisiana.

And keep in mind, don't just focus on that small line there, because this is a very big storm. We're talking several hundred miles across, could get the tropical storm force winds -- Daryn.

PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui.

JERAS: I'm sorry, Kyra, I've been working a long day.

PHILLIPS: You know what? This is what happens when you work long days and long hours. That's OK, Daryn just got off the set. Good to see you, Jacqui.

JERAS: If I saw your face, I'd know it was you.

PHILLIPS: Ah, I know.

Well, Rita's potential threat to New Orleans is sparking quite a change in attitude. Mayor Ray Nagin, sounding as candid as ever, is reversing course now. He's no longer urging residents to return. In fact, his message is just the opposite.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAGIN: Our levee systems are still in a very weak condition. Our pumping stations are not at full capacity. And any type of storm that heads this way and hits us will put the east bank of Orleans Parish in very significant harm's way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And President Bush is getting updates on Hurricane Katrina, while making his fifth trip to Gulf Coast today to hear the latest on recovery efforts from Hurricane Katrina.

He stopped first in Gulfport, Mississippi, to meet with local government and business leaders, and later he travels to New Orleans for a briefing on progress there.

This weekend, the president is expected to visit Alabama, Texas, and Arkansas, where many of the Katrina evacuees were taken.

And as you can see on the left of our screen, CNN continues its mission to help children separated from their families due to Hurricane Katrina. Over the weekend, thousands of calls were received. And thanks to our viewers, we helped reunite a dozen children with family member.

CNN's Kimberly Osias has the latest now on the project from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Virginia. And I know how busy you've been, Kimberly.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll tell you, it's a good kind of busy because the phones are ringing, connections are happening.

That is really -- when we talk about resolved case, they're really connections. They call them here at the center. Resolved cases, 966 to the minute, to be exact. But there are still 2,686 children that are missing, many in various shelters that left sort of the big Houston Astrodome area and then fanned out to different areas. The parents could be in one shelter, a child in another.

Take a look at little Amber Cook. This is just exactly sort of what these caseworkers are up against. She was just a couple months old when this picture was taken. And she is believed to be 2 years old.

Now this is an interesting case. I talked to caseworkers about Amber Cook. Now, she and several adults were last seen at a motel in Shreveport when the hurricane hit. That was an area that wasn't really completely devastated, just a lot of wind and rain. And they really were thought to be OK. But basically they checked out and stepped into oblivion, and nobody has heard from them.

You know, typically, with entire families, either they didn't evacuate or they were scattered from shelter to shelter in various different parts of the country.

So this is just one of the cases. One of the many cases of those pictures that they hoping here that it sort of jars your memory or causes some sort of connection to happen, Kyra. You know, this is little Amber. You look at her and you see just one of the sort of intricacies of this type of work.

What they may do later on down the line is there are a team of experts, forensic scientists, that actually can do age progressions. They're not to that stage yet. But when I spoke to Ernie Allen that may happen in the days and weeks to come -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: You bring up a good point, 2-year-old Vanessa now, I know her parents, Vanessa and Gene Cook, also missing, another relative connected, Linda Cook. So if anyone, of course, knows anything about the Cook family, to call the number.

But you bring up a really good point, because before we were talking about missing children. Now we're talking about divided families. Big difference, right, Kim?

OSIAS: That's exactly right. And parents, of course, as well. There are a number of missing adults, too, that the center is dealing with, as well.

PHILLIPS: Kimberly Osias, thank you so much. We want to take you now straight to the Pentagon briefing. Kimberly, thank you. Let's listen in to Richard Myers and Donald Rumsfeld.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECY. OF DEFENSE: ... recovery from Hurricane Katrina, coalition forces continue to make inroads against the terrorists in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

On Sunday, the people of Afghanistan voted in their second successful democratic election in less than one year. These were the provincial and parliamentary elections.

Terrorists have done everything in their power to try to intimidate the millions of Afghan voters and the literally thousands, in this case of the most recent election, of candidates from participating in their elections. And they've failed this week, just as they failed in the successful presidential elections.

Think of it: The country that hosted Osama bin Laden, that supported training camps for Al Qaeda, endured decades of civil war, Soviet occupation, drought, Taliban brutality, is now a democracy that fights terrorists instead of harboring them.

The Afghan people's courage should be a stunning reminder to all of those seemingly self-confident prognosticators who foresaw an Afghan quagmire. They were not just wrong, they were harmful by making the cause seem hopeless.

Let me remind you of just a few examples.

"The war effort is in deep trouble. The United States is not headed into a quagmire, it is already in one." That was the L.A. Times. That was five days before Mazar fell.

"The question was suspended like a spore in the autumn air: Are we quagmiring ourselves again?" That was the New York Times.

"Without a clear exit strategy, another generation of American servicemen may be sucked into a quagmire in a foreign land." That was, I think, the Dallas Morning News.

And there were many, many others.

Thankfully, millions of Afghans were determined to prove them wrong. A determined coalition put a plan in place -- yes, there was a plan -- adjusted it as needed -- and it did need to be adjusted, as all war plans do -- and followed a steady course, despite the Cassandra's of the West echoing the predictions of the terrorists.

RUMSFELD: I mention this because many who were so quick to predict gloom on Afghanistan are today eager to toss it in on Iraq, claiming that it's hopeless. But the Iraqi people and the coalition have a plan for Iraq, just as there was a plan for Afghanistan.

Consider the following: Have the Iraqis been able to form a government that realistically incorporates the views of the various responsible factions in Iraq? Yes, they have.

Have Iraqis successfully held representative elections? The answer is yes.

Have they now succeeded in drafting a constitution that accords respect for individual rights? Indeed, they have.

Are the insurgents gaining or losing the support of the Iraqi people? President Talabani recently spoke in the United States about this. He noted that the vast majority of Iraqis, including Sunnis, want to participate in the political process and have been disgusted and, indeed, outraged by the barbarism of the extremists.

Finally, despite the critics, are the Iraqi security forces growing in size and capability, and allowing the Iraqi government to secure areas with coalition support? Yes, this, too, is happening. Iraqi security forces now number over 190,000.

Last week, for example, the people of Tal Afar were liberated from the grip of insurgents and foreign extremists who had tried to turn the city into a base of planning, operations and training. A number of insurgents were caught fleeing the city dressed in women's clothing: hardly a sign of a confident group supported by the citizenry.

General Myers will provide some details on that operation, but I should note that this offensive featured some 5,000 Iraqi security forces in a leading role.

A significant Iraqi military presence will stay on in Tal Afar with coalition assistance to support their new police force and to ensure the terrorists do not return.

RUMSFELD: The people who know what's happening on the ground are, for the most part, Iraqi citizens and the coalition forces. They're there. Both report progress, growing confidence in the Iraqi security forces and hope about the future.

When Abraham Lincoln delivered two minutes of remarks that he had only finished the night before, the speech was panned.

When George Marshall proposed a plan to rebuild Europe after World War II, critics viewed it as generous at best and wasteful at worst.

When Ronald Reagan walked away from the Soviet Union empty- handed, as they said, in the eyes of some it seemed to many that Reykjavik was a failure.

The point is history has perspective.

Today, history records the brilliance of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The Marshall Plan helped Europe recover. And Ronald Reagan's tough line at Reykjavik, according to the Soviets anyway, was the beginning of the end of the Cold War.

In thinking about Afghanistan and Iraq, we should ask what history will say.

It will not be the daily violence or short-term setbacks, nor which person won the battle for a daily headline by predicting doom and gloom over and over.

Instead it will show that the battle in Afghanistan and Iraq was tough and ugly to be sure, but that America was on freedom's side and it will remember the millions of people who have been freed and the hundreds of thousands of coalition forces who helped them achieve that freedom.

General Myers?

GENERAL RICHARD MYERS, CHAIRMAN, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: Thank you, Mr. Secretary.

And good afternoon.

As the secretary mentioned, we have seen successful elections in Afghanistan, demonstrating that perseverance and determination of the coalition and the Afghan government will, indeed, prevail.

MYERS: Afghan security forces have grown to more that 76,000 and continue to progress. And as you know, there are about 17,000 U.S. troops, more than 3,000 coalition forces and more than 11,000 international security and assistance forces, or the ISAF forces, presently providing security in Afghanistan.

Sunday I was at home and got a call from General Eikenberry. And he said, "I'm sorry to bother you on Sunday, but I know you get a bad news from time to time. Let me give you some good news."

And, of course, it was late in the evening there in Afghanistan when he called. And he said from sunset the day before elections to the current time, sunset after elections, in Afghanistan, he said there had been 40 security incidents, none of them having a major impact, although we did have one French soldier killed in one of those incidents.

But he said, more importantly, at the 6,000 polling places, things went smoothly. And he said, "Let me give you one anecdote, one tiny anecdote." He said there was a small village in the northeast of Afghanistan over the Hindu Kush. And we sent an Afghan-U.S. team in there to provide the ballots so they could vote. They got to a point where they could go no longer in the mountains and they had to hike the last 20 kilometers.

When they got to this small village, the villagers already had heard about the fact they were coming and were lined up to vote. And in addition, they had thrown flowers in their path as they came forward to present the ballots so they could vote.

It says a lot about the Afghan people. It also says a lot about the coalition and Afghan security forces who made the effort to hike over the Hindu Kush 20 kilometers to make sure Afghan people could vote.

In Iraq, we're seeing a steady progress as well as we approach key milestones in their political process.

MYERS: Iraqi security forces currently have 126 battalions in the fight. Iraqi forces have 126 battalions in the fight. Last year at this time there were five.

More than 20 operational bases have been turned over to Iraqi control. And Iraqi forces now maintain order in the once-violent city of Najaf and most of Baghdad.

Iraqis, the citizenry, are optimistic and hopeful about the future, confident in their armed forces and tired of the insurgency. More than $36 billion have been pledged by the world community to invest in Iraq. And in the span of a year, 46 nations have established or reestablished diplomatic missions or embassies in Iraq.

Operation Restoring Rights in Tal Afar has demonstrated the growth in capabilities that coalition Iraqi security forces have made. The Iraqi...

PHILLIPS: We'll continue to follow the Pentagon, of course, but we want to bring in Jacqui Jeras real quickly. We're getting word that Hurricane Rita has been upgraded -- Jacqui.

JERAS: That's right. Just in from the National Hurricane Center. The hurricane hunters have flown into the storm, and it is now a Category 2 hurricane. It's packing winds of 100 miles per hour. Has to be at least 96 to be a Category 2, so it's well within that range.

The storm has been intensifying rather rapidly over the last six hours or so and will continue to intensify. We don't expect it to go up to a 3 yet before it passes the Keys, but it will probably do that as it heads into the Gulf of Mexico.

So the storm is intensifying now. It's getting closer and closer to the Keys. We don't anticipate that it's going to get a direct hit with the eye or the eye wall, but certainly has been getting battered all day.

And now that it's a Category 2 with those stronger winds this is going to be increasing the storm surge, and that is one of our biggest concerns about this storm. Storm surge for Category 2 ranges usually between six and eight feet. And should that coincide with high tide, which is at 2:30 this afternoon in Key West, that would be six to eight feet on top of that high tide level -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Jacqui Jeras, we'll continue to check in with you. Now straight to the president of the United States, touring Gulfport, Mississippi. He stopped for a few minutes to speak with people there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... you really don't want the federal government telling you how to rebuild. What you want is the federal government to help you rebuild. You want a partner, not somebody who's going to tell you what the strategy ought to be.

I also appreciate Haley saying that the state of Mississippi and this commission will take into account what the local folks think. Their input is going to be vital. I mean, you got yourself some mayors and some supervisors who are elected by the people; you need to listen to them, because they're going to be listening to the people.

(APPLAUSE)

A couple of recovery items. One, I spent some quality time at the Chevron plant in Pascagoula and I want to thank Roland for being here.

By the way, you talk about a dedicated group of people who are working huge hours and long hours not only to get that plant up and running but to help the community.

It was an impressive display of compassion and hard work. And thanks for having me.

But I did hear from the mayors and the county supervisors. And there was a level of frustration -- as there should have been.

BUSH: You know, you hear one thing about debris removal. And nothing's happening.

Well, I got back and I called them in. And I said, "Look: As part of the recovery, we have to help these folks have a sensible plan to start removing debris."

We worked with Haley. And the mayors tell me -- I'm a little cautious about laying it out there. But the mayors tell me there's a plan now in place that is logical and where people will begin to see concrete results when it comes to removing this debris.

We got people looking at the infrastructure. One of the questions I asked in Washington, D.C., as the principal party responsible for rebuilding infrastructure, is: Have you got your assessment teams out there?

You know, looking at these bridges requires more than just, you know, writing a check. It requires the Coast Guard to look at the spans. It requires the -- I think you've got a role in parts on the state highways.

We're trying to get this recovery going by plowing through the paperwork requirements, as fast as possible, so that we can reduce the frustrations here.

(APPLAUSE)

And Haley's right. We have a responsibility by law to help rebuild the infrastructure. You can't rebuild a part of the world without your infrastructure in place. And we know that.

And so we look forward to working with you to get this infrastructure up and running.

On the other hand, as Jim Barksdale said, if you don't have a plan, if you don't have a plan of action, the recovery and the rebuilding will be haphazard.

And so I want to applaud this commission. In my speech the other night, I made it clear to the country that we expect local folks to come up with the vision. We want the Mississippi people to lay out the Mississippi vision about what this important part of the world is going to look like. And that's exactly what this commission is all about. When they told me that Haley and Barksdale had invited me to come, I was thrilled, because I think it's really smart and really important to bring capable people together to delegate tasks, to think anew; obviously, to utilize that which worked in the past to your advantage, but be willing to think anew.

Because you've got a fantastic opportunity. We'll get the debris removed. We'll get your water systems up and running as quickly as possible. We'll get your bridges built.

BUSH: But the vision that you detail as a result of this commission is going to be the blueprint for the future.

And so I really appreciate all the citizens who have agreed to take time out of your busy schedules to help plot the strategy for the future. It's really important. It's really important.

And there's no doubt in my mind that, out of the rubble, and out of the huge heaps of timber that used to be homes, a better Mississippi will emerge.

(APPLAUSE)

At any rate, we look forward to working with you. Let me put it another way: We look forward to hearing your vision so we can more better do our job. That's what I'm telling you.

And so thanks for taking this on. Good luck. Think bold.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: The president of the United States side by side there with the governor of Mississippi, speaking to first responders and citizens there in Gulfport, Mississippi, as he's getting ready. He already actually toured that area, but he's getting ready to head to New Orleans to look at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and get an update on the progress taking place in those areas.

Also straight ahead, all eyes on Rita right now. Now upgraded to a category-two hurricane. Wind and rain pounding the Florida Keys, and predictions on the hurricane's path have people on the move from New Orleans to Galveston, Texas. Our live coverage continues.

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(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, discretion still being the better part of valor. Thousand of tourists and residents have fled the Florida Keys, Hurricane Rita already smacking the island chain. The storm has been intensifying and is now a Category 2 storm. Rita's top sustained winds now at 100 miles an hour.

You're looking at live pictures now of Key Largo, Florida. Forecasters say Rita could dump eight inches of rain on the Florida Keys. Evan Bacon of our affiliate WFOR joins us from Islamorada, Florida, just south of Key Largo. Evan, tell us what it's like.

EVAN BACON, WFOR REPORTER: Right, Kyra, we're at mile marker 82, which is 82 miles from Key West. And, you know, the ocean used to stop at those trees right back there. But let me show you where the Atlantic Ocean has moved to. As we pan over to the right, you can see the water has just come up here on to the beach. It's pretty much like this from this point, south of Key Largo, down to the middle, even lower, Keys.

The waters have just been relentless for much of the morning. As the storm passed through our area, these heavy winds took a pounding on the Atlantic coast. And if you look over to the left at this resort we're staying at -- it's called The Islander -- you can see their pier has come apart at the end. That was a 70-foot pier and these relentless storm waters have actually broken apart the pier.

And just over to the right you can see the end of the pier has washed ashore here on the beach. I want you to meet someone who saw it all happen about 12:30 last night. Allan Arsa (ph), Come over here. You saw it come down. Describe how it came down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, my buddy Ted and I were out assessing some damage. He works here and I work here. So pretty much just right over there, right in front of the pier, all of a sudden you see this huge wall of water coming down, just beating everything in its path. Then all a sudden, probably about a four foot, five foot wave over actually the dock itself and all of a sudden, the thing just smashed to pieces pretty much, in essence.

BACON: And basically, they got out of the way and you can see what is left of this pier. Also, up and down the coast, as I mentioned, the waterways have flooded yards and homes. We saw various marinas that have lots of water damage.

Funnily enough, the other side of the Keys, the other side of these islands, which can be as narrow as maybe 500 foot across, the Gulf of Mexico side is much calmer. The Atlantic side took the brunt of all these winds. But through it all, folks here in south Florida are really lucky, considering that both Katrina a weeks ago and now Rita hit us in their infancy stage, barely Category 1 status.

If we had Category 2 or Category 3 storm hit in this area, it would no doubt be devastating. So I guess you could say we've got the wind at our backs right now, and it's a 30 to 40 mile an hour wind. We're live in Islamorada, Evan Bacon, for CNN.

PHILLIPS: Evan Bacon, thank you so much. Straight ahead, taking no chances, residents along the Texas Gulf coast are being urged to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Rita. An update on preparations in Galveston, Texas -- that's next. LIVE FROM continues as we continue to monitor what's happening. Jacqui Jeras, live in our Weather Center, watching Rita's every move.

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PHILLIPS: Some computer models projected Rita hitting the Texas coast later in the week, and the National Hurricane Center says it can't rule out a potential direct impact on Louisiana, Texas or northern Mexico. With memories of Katrina's devastation still painfully fresh in neighboring Louisiana, the mayor of Galveston, Texas, is asking people to leave voluntarily.

Now, Galveston has known its share of hurricane heartaches. One hundred and five years ago this month, it was wiped out by a powerful Category 4 hurricane. Thousands of people died. Our John Zarrella looks back on one of the deadliest natural disasters in American history.

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ZARRELLA (voice-over): When the sun came up on September 9, 1900, those who survived looked out over a landscape of unimaginable devastation and death. It was the day after a hurricane that still holds the ignominious title deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

CASEY GREENE, HISTORIAN: People in Galveston knew that there was a storm in the Gulf of Mexico. It was reported in "The Galveston County Daily News", but they didn't know where the storm would make landfall.

ZARRELLA: And most didn't take it seriously. Historians say what led to the Galveston disaster as much as any other factor was an attitude.

GREENE: That's one of the reasons that so many people lost their lives in the hurricane, complacency.

ZARRELLA: In 1900, Galveston, Texas was stuck on itself. It was called the New York of the Gulf. There was more money in Galveston than in Newport, Rhode Island. Street cars ran along the beach. Bath houses jutted out like sentinels in the Gulf.

ERIK LARSON, AUTHOR, "ISAAC'S STORM": There was this great sense of hubris that America and Galveston, Galveston particular was going places, could do no wrong.

ZARRELLA: In a matter of hours on a steamy Saturday in September, that notion was splintered into a million pieces. The hurricane unleashed on Galveston 150-mile-per-hour winds, a torrent of rain, and a nearly 16-foot wall of water that inundated much of the island. There was no way to escape. Entire sections of the city were leveled. Entire families were washed away.

One in six Galvestonians died, about 8,000. Everywhere there was death, dying and those literally clinging to life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some of them were on rooftops. Some of them were in trees. Some of them were hanging onto logs and stuff in the water.

ZARRELLA: Mabelle Dulin's (ph) father and his three step brothers spent hours in a rowboat pulling people from the debris filled water. They are credited with saving 200 lives. In Galveston that day people survived simply by accident and for them the passing of the storm brought new nightmares. Nearly everyone lost family members and friends. With so many dead, disposing of the bodies became ghoulish.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you can imagine walking out your back door and where you ordinarily see somebody's yard and kids playing and houses, you know the streets and all that stuff, what you would most likely have seen was a pile in which your neighbors were at that very moment being incinerated.

ZARRELLA: This film showing crews digging through piles of debris looking for bodies was shot two weeks after the storm. The search continued for months. Driven not to repeat history, Galvestonians built a three-mile long, 17-foot high seawall, the hope a hurricane will never again swallow up the city.

John Zarrella, CNN, Galveston, Texas.

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PHILLIPS: I'm just getting word that Texas Governor Rick Perry recalled Texas National Guard troops, saying the state must begin preparations at home. Louisiana officials saying the recall means 1,099 National Guard troops leaving Louisiana and going over to prepare for Texas. Louisiana currently has about 20,000 Guard troops in that state, many of them on loan from other states like Texas.

So now Texas governor is asking those troops to come back and prepare. Texas also recalling Texas Task Force One, an urban search and rescue team, coming back to get ready for what might happen in Texas.

Still ahead, bringing sounds of home to people no one -- or no longer have one. New Orleanians call this the second line parade. A New Orleans brass band comeback, next on LIVE FROM.

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PHILLIPS: The streets are different. Their instruments are secondhand, but their sweet rhythm is first-rate and it's lifting the spirits of Katrina survivors, bringing that welcome sound of home.

Our Rusty Dornin now catches up with a battered brass band that's got the right beat.

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RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A brass band leading smiling, dancing people down the street. It happened every Sunday in New Orleans. But this is Baton Rouge and these parade participants haven't had much to smile about lately.

They are evacuees who have taken refuge at the Southern University shelter here. Like pied pipers, Hot 8, a well-known brass band in the Big Easy, lured evacuees out of the shelter, bringing a bit of home to those who don't have any, something New Orleanians call the second line.

ARNOLD: Social clubs have -- what they is the first line, which is the band, then a second line, which is the people in the neighborhood. They walk through neighborhoods uptown, downtown. And they represent...

DORNIN (on camera): And everybody joins in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. They represent, and the whole neighborhood comes in and join. It's a party. Look at it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they help us. They're bringing back the New Orleans tradition of second line. And, yes, they brought tears to my eyes.

BRUCE DAVE, EVACUEE: Bless them, because they give everybody a little diversion from the everyday situation, which we have in the shelter.

DORNIN (voice-over): The band knows firsthand how people here are feeling.

DICK SHAVERS, HOT 8 DRUMMER: We're no different from them. I mean, we lost everything, too. So -- I mean, but we have something that everybody don't have. And it's our music. And we're using the music to the best of our ability to show our appreciation and show that New Orleans don't die.

DORNIN: All the band members lost homes, belongings and some of the most precious things in their lives. Drummer Harry Cook was rescued off the roof of his house.

HARRY "SWAMP" COOK, HOT 8 DRUMMER: So, they told me I couldn't put my drum on the helicopter. And I told them, well, this is my life right here. You know, this is my job. So, I had to leave it back in the project.

DORNIN: LSU music students loaned them some instruments and others were donated. The band has already played for evacuees at the River Center shelter downtown.

RAYMOND WILLIAMS, HOT 8 TRUMPETER: We are in traumatic times right now. So, the music is something that is uplifting people, keep their spirits up and...

DORNIN: Keep your own spirits up.

WILLIAMS: Yes. They keep our spirits up, too. When we see the people happy, enjoy themselves by listening to us play the music, it make up feel good also.

DORNIN: Hot 8 is part of a project known as "Save Our Brass," organized by local music lovers, it's designed to reunite the brass bands of New Orleans.

(on camera): The whole idea is to keep this circle of giving and music going. They're asking for instruments and donations. They plan to pass those on to other musicians from New Orleans who have nothing to play.

(voice-over): The band members didn't find each other until last week. They are not taking any money for shows at the shelters. These gigs, they say, come from the heart, a way of making sure the spirit of New Orleans lives on one note at a time.

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