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Galveston 'Ghost Town' Before Rita; Louisiana, Houston Mayor Call for Citizens to Prepare for Storm; Lake Charles Mayor Discusses Preparations; Houston Flights Delayed by Workers Missing Work

Aired September 22, 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: A hurricane and heavy traffic. Hundreds of thousands of people evacuating. Will they get out of town before Rita hits? We expect the governor of Louisiana to give a live update on evacuations this hour.
And just where and when will this huge storm strike? We're your hurricane headquarters.

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

ANNOUNCER: CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

PHILLIPS: Not a time for warnings, a time for action. A reality check on Rita, Category 5, from the mayor of the fourth largest city in America, Houston, Texas.

For awhile, overnight, Rita was the third strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded as it blazed a trail for somewhere between the Texas town of Port O'Connor and Morgan City, Louisiana. So says the latest sit rep from the National Hurricane Center. We're going to hear from them momentarily.

But first, the facts and figures, according to CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. She's in our weather center upstairs -- Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Kyra.

We had a little bit of weakening here today. Winds are at 165, as opposed to 175. But, still, the worst of hurricanes at a Category 5. The location about 460 miles southeast of Galveston.

And we are starting to see some isolated showers and thunderstorms popping up along southeast Louisiana area, up towards Thibodaux. There you can see some isolated storms moving in. And we'll see them pop up on and off now throughout the day today.

Very large storm and very powerful. We are expecting it to begin turning a little bit further up to the north. Right now it's moving west-northwest, staying strong. A major hurricane, 3, 4, or 5 throughout its trip in the Gulf of Mexico.

Need to rush to completion everything at this time. As we're going to start to see those tropical storm force winds arrive on the Louisiana coast, we think, later on tonight. Hurricane force winds will be arriving tomorrow. There you can see your cone, extreme eastern parts of Texas or western Louisiana is looking the most likely on early Saturday morning -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui, thank you so much.

And almost 1 1/2 million coastal Texans and Louisianans are headed inland today, or trying to, or already have, including the vast majority of the island city of Galveston, population 58,000, including 3,000 evacuees from Katrina three weeks earlier.

Galveston sits a mere eight feet above sea level, guarded by an 11-mile long, 17-high foot sea wall, which is great, but the storm surge from Rita could hit 50 feet.

That brings us to CNN's David Mattingly. He's right there -- David.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, we just finished listening to a news conference by city officials here. One of them saying they were feeling just a little bit relieved watching what the storm is doing now, ticking up a little bit to the north, though they say they're not out of the woods. They know this is a huge and powerful storm. And no matter how you slice it Galveston is going to take a hit.

The mayor here requesting 1,500 National Guardsmen and two search and rescue teams to be on the ready to come in to Galveston onto this barrier island after this storm goes through. So you can tell, they are expecting a lot of damage here and will be needing a lot of help when this storm is over.

As far as evacuations go, there was one estimate, that they believe 90 percent of the people on this island have gotten off. They call it -- it looks like a ghost town. The streets are almost empty. The beaches, what you can see of them here, are also empty. Nobody out today.

The only active thing we see is the surf, a bit of a choppy surf today in Galveston. And earlier, we were hearing so many dire predictions. They continue to look at that worst case scenario.

I'm going to walk down here and show you just a little bit better. This is the sea wall that was constructed after the big hurricane in 1900. Huge slabs of cement and concrete. And this massive, massive wall that was built. It has served the wall -- the city very well over the last century. It is 17 feet tall.

But if they get the storm surge from a huge -- from a top level storm, coming this way, they were saying earlier they were looking at possibly 15 feet of water going over the top of this sea wall.

They're backing off of that, just a little bit. Because they -- again, they say they are slightly relieved in saying that the storm might be, the eye of it might be moving to the north of them. That mean they'll get on the so-called, what they're calling the clean side of the hurricane, if you can imagine that, Kyra. But that's what they're saying right now, a little bit of relief. But, still, they're going to get a lot of damage here, and they're very happy that people have been paying attention to those evacuation warnings.

PHILLIPS: All right, David Mattingly, there by the 17-foot sea wall in Galveston. We'll continue to check in with you, David.

Meanwhile, we want to take you straight to a news conference that's happening now, the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco. Let's listen in.

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO (D), LOUISIANA: ... south of I-10 must evacuate, and you should be leaving now. I still want you to pack thoughtfully and be well prepared as you do this.

This is a massive storm. A powerful storm. Forecasts call for a 20-foot surge, a storm surge in Vermilion Bay can swamp three parishes. Hurricane-force wind will rip much of western Louisiana. Rains are projected to be as much as 15 to 20 inches.

Head north. Head north. You cannot go east. You cannot go west. Head north. If you know the local roads that go north, take those. The major highways will be crowded. Traffic is moving steadily. It's still -- has a very good flow right now. It's heavy, but moving steadily. But use back roads if you know them, and get maps, to make sure that you don't get turned around.

People living in non-coastal areas in southwest and south central Louisiana also need to prepare. Prepare your family, prepare your house, for the possibility of evacuation. It's never too early to make precautions. Secure your property and plan to evacuate.

We're mobilizing hundreds of buses now in Lake Charles, in Lafayette, and other communities, to begin moving people out of harm's way. And this does include evacuees from Katrina and anyone who needs transportation to escape from Rita.

Thousands of men and women from the Louisiana National Guard and National Guard units from other states are setting up on the edge of the storm's path. They will head in as soon as the winds drop to safe levels.

Removing some units from New Orleans to help us to prepare for Rita, we will still have plenty of soldiers in the city. They will be able to handle whatever Rita dishes out to the New Orleans area.

We have engineers to clear debris, medical units to treat the injured and other forces to keep order standing by and ready to respond in all areas of south Louisiana.

Helicopter rescue and transport units are being moved to the edge of the storm so they can begin their work quickly. State police are positioning their troopers, again, on the edge of the storm. Wildlife and fisheries agents have pulled boats out of the low-lying areas, and they're staging on higher ground. They will be ready as soon as winds drop to go into action, to do search and rescue missions.

Earlier this morning, I asked the federal government, through Admiral Allen, to provide us with 1,500 more federal troops, and I have asked General Landreneau to request 1,500 more National Guard and airmen from around the state, from around the country, to help us.

We will -- we will utilize them on as needed basis. We need them to help with search and rescue, with communications, and transportation. We're working hard to supplement our communications network and, hopefully, we can keep some form of communications open.

I also ask the federal government to provide temporary housing with supplies for 100,000 people here in Louisiana, as well as in other states, for our citizens.

Admiral Allen is also directing 450 buses to the affected areas to help us move our people out. We have arranged for 800 additional buses and drivers to move our people out of harm's way.

Again, I cannot say this strongly enough. Rita will hit Louisiana. Now this is a scene that we experienced in Katrina. Katrina was going to Florida for several days and gave us 48 hours to move. Rita was going to Texas and still will hit parts of Texas, but will hit us and possibly hit us directly.

If you live in low-lying areas, before -- below I-10, leave now. Pack carefully. You must evacuate. Be thoughtful about it. Make sure you have your needs fulfilled for your family and yourself. Don't forget your medicines.

If you live in the area already hit by Katrina, please stay alert and please stay prepared. Be ready to move. Listen to any warnings from your local officials. Please cooperate with your local officials. They are on the front lines, willing and ready to work with you.

And, again, I urge all nursing homes to evacuate the low-lying areas. Anybody, in particular, in the coastal parishes.

I think that it's very important for us to stay safe and evacuate quickly but safely. We did this for Katrina. We're doing it for Rita. We want to get as many people out of harm's way as we possibly can.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor Blanco, how many troops are you moving from the New Orleans area?

BLANCO: General?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're relocating some 4,000 soldiers and positioning them in response to the Task Force Rita. That will include engineer forces. That includes security forces. That's communications assets, medical, as well as logistics, to ensure that we have food and water pushed into that area and available, as well as we're establishing a reception station, a normal movement facility at the ISB at Fort Polk, which is at Alexandria, as for the potential of receiving additional troops into that area so they can be received and missioned out as appropriate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, how many does that leave remaining in the New Orleans area then?

GEN. BENNETT LANDRENEAU, LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD: In addition to the approximately 16,000 National Guardsmen, the active duty forces, the 82nd Airborne, has been -- is augmenting the forces, National Guard forces there in Orleans. So you have 16,000, plus an additional approximately...

PHILLIPS: That's General Bennett Landreneau there, the head of the Louisiana National Guard, the adjunct general there, speaking side by side with the governor of Louisiana, Katharine -- or Kathleen Blanco. Straight to the point: No. 1, get maps; prepare your family; secure your property; use the back roads and head north.

Well, we want to take you to Houston, Texas, now. The mayor is also holding a news conference. Let's listen in to see what he has to say.

BILL WHITE, MAYOR OF HOUSTON: ... work force not show up at work at the airports this morning. We have 110 personnel being reassigned to this area from Dallas, but -- and they are en route.

Well, what that means for the people who plan to leave by air who have airplane reservations -- don't go to the airport if you don't have reservations. And if you do have that reservation and ticket, then plan for extended delays of many hours. It could be four hours. It could be five hours. Make your plans accordingly, because of a bottleneck caused by the failure to show up at work of essential personnel of the -- the federal TSA.

Second, for those -- the national disaster medical emergency response has been implemented. And for people with acute care, there is a system in place, which we saw implemented for those in acute care with Hurricane Rita, to evacuate those people so that there is not a danger to the medical life. But for those in acute care, we have our EMS working, and people should not simply drive up to a hospital door, but should go through the EMS system so that we can make sure that those particular needs are addressed.

Now, on more on this important evacuation, Judge Eckels.

JUDGE ROBERT ECKELS, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS: Thank you, mayor. We've been working with TexDOT this morning, have volunteered to project Harris County resources into the state highway system to try to help either through our toll road authority or precincts...

PHILLIPS: We'll continue to monitor the news conference there in Houston, Texas. We just heard from Mayor Bill White. Judge Eckels now addressing reporters.

Let's get right back to Jacqui Jeras in the weather center and her colleagues, of course, at the hurricane center in Florida following the latest developments here, and people really stepping up the beat, Jacqui. JERAS: Yes, they need to. They need to finish everything very quickly. And if they've been told to get out of town, they need to do that as quick as they possibly can, because this storm is approaching. And we think we're going to feel those tropical storm force winds later on tonight.

We're going to go to Ed Rappaport with the National Hurricane Center. And Ed, what's your greatest concern right now?

ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: We have two great concerns for Rita. The first, of course, is going to be on the coastline, where we're going to get the hurricane force winds, major hurricane and storm surge. That looks to be on the order of 15 to 20 feet. That's our first concern.

Then down the road, at about 3 to 4 days, based on our forecast track, the center of Rita's going to slow in its movement, and we're likely to have an inland flooding problem from rainfall. So we have two issues that we're going to have to deal with over the next several days.

JERAS: We've been seeing some changes, a little bit of shifting in the last couple of updates in the forecast track. Do you expect additional changes? The storm looks like it's moving a little bit more northerly than we'd like it to.

RAPPAPORT: Well, wherever it goes, it's going to be a problem. There has been an edging of the forecast just a little bit to the right. And -- but there's still time for it to come back to the left, too. We still have more than 24 hours before landfall.

At this point, the area that's at greatest risk is the upper Texas coast and southwestern Louisiana. So Galveston, Houston, Port Arthur, Beaumont, Lake Charles, those are the areas at greatest risk. And still, hurricane conditions are possible even a little bit outside that area.

JERAS: How soon are those hurricane force winds going to be arriving?

RAPPAPORT: They won't be arriving probably until the p.m. hours tomorrow. But, maybe even overnight tomorrow, Friday night. But tropical storm conditions extend about 200 miles from the center. They're going to be getting to the coast during the day tomorrow, as you were saying. And by that time, all the preparations need to be completed as the conditions will turn dangerous outside then.

JERAS: OK. You mentioned that inland flooding. What areas are we talking about specifically? And some big cities are going to be involved here, right?

RAPPAPORT: Potentially. It depends on where it slows and stalls. We think that the center will continue to move steadily through landfall. Likely up into, as we said, near the border of Texas, and Louisiana. And then stall somewhere up in this area here, northeastern Texas, the border areas there, with Louisiana, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.

And it's in this area where there's a potential for in excess of 25 inches of rain. So serious flood risk, even in the inland areas, from Rita.

JERAS: And is that going to include Dallas, Ed?

RAPPAPORT: It's possible. If the center comes up and bends a little bit more to the west. At this point, at least for the next three or four days, it looks like Dallas will be to the west of most of the activity.

JERAS: We've had new evacuations for some of the southern parishes in Louisiana. You mentioned the concern of storm surge. How far inland do you expect that water to go?

RAPPAPORT: Well, the storm surge will go until it reaches the elevation of the land, the equivalent elevation. So if we're expecting 15 to 20 feet of storm surge, it will go inland as far as it takes until the land rises to 15 or 20 feet above sea level. So that could be many miles.

In addition, of course, on the coast, we're going to have large waves on top. So we have great concern from near the center of where Rita comes -- where Rita comes ashore, near its center, eastward, in particular, where hurricane force winds could extend out 100 miles and drive the storm surge inland.

JERAS: OK, Ed Rappaport from the National Hurricane Center. We have a new advisory coming in at the top of the next hour. We'll come back to you then. Thanks very much.

CNN LIVE FROM will continue right after this break.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS (voice-over): Next on LIVE FROM, tracking Rita. One of the strongest storms in U.S. history. We'll take you live to the National Hurricane Center.

Later on LIVE FROM...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I put my head between my knees. I crossed my fingers.

PHILLIPS: The emergency landing that had all of America crossing its fingers. The passengers tell their stories.

Tomorrow on LIVE FROM, his heart for humanity speaks as loud as his music.

STEVE WONDER, MUSICIAN (singing): I'll be your shelter in the rain.

PHILLIPS: Stevie Wonder performs live as he expresses his love through his lyrics and song. Find out how you can help him as he does it all for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: It was just a few minutes ago you heard from the governor of Louisiana live on our air say pack up your things, secure your property and head north. Well, within Louisiana, is Lake Charles. Lake Charles, that area and the people that live there know hurricane damage all too well.

Mayor Randy Roach on the phone with us now.

Mayor, are you geared up and ready to go? Do you feel comfortable with regard to Lake Charles and how everybody is standing right now?

MAYOR RANDY ROACH, LAKE CHARLES, LOUISIANA: We feel very good about where we are right now. We actually began our preparations on Tuesday afternoon. We've been having meetings and we've been monitoring the storm.

For the last several weeks, we have been home to about 3,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees at our civic center and our other facilities here in our parish. And so we made the decision Tuesday afternoon to close school for the rest of week so we could use school buses to help transport those evacuees to safe locations, just in case the storm did what it is apparently doing, and that is turning in our direction.

PHILLIPS: So, Mayor, you -- have you asked everybody to leave? Have you given a mandatory evacuation?

ROACH: Yes, ma'am, we have. We gave that -- we gave that evacuation first thing this morning at about 5:30. We went on the air here on our local TV stations and radio stations with a mandatory evacuation for all areas south of I-10. And we increased that to the entire parish at about 10 a.m. this morning.

We had all of the mayors, area mayors, as well as our parish governing authority, got together. And we jointly made that declaration and ordered a mandatory evacuation.

PHILLIPS: So what were the lessons learned from an few weeks ago? Do you think you did anything differently? Do you think you act a lot -- or moved a lot quicker than last time around?

ROACH: Well, I think the -- I think the events of the past several weeks have made everybody in emergency preparedness very sensitive to the need to be able to respond quickly.

The one thing that I guess is frustrating to -- for everyone is the fact that these storms are -- even with our best science, these storms are not as predictable as we would like to think they are.

We went to sleep last night, after having gone to the local weather bureau, with a trajectory that indicated it was going towards the central Texas coast, with the understanding that we would get a phone call if that changed. And sure enough, at 4:15, I get a phone call saying that the track has changed dramatically, and we needed to make, you know, our decision very quickly.

But here in southwest Louisiana, as you mentioned earlier, we're not -- we're not strangers to hurricanes. We have a hurricane preparation process that we've used before. We used it more recently about two years ago with Hurricane Lily. So we're following that same procedure.

But as any unique situation, you have to sort of learn as you go, so to speak -- or I wouldn't say learn, but you just have to learn to react as you go to different situations.

What has really made this difficult, I mean extremely difficult for the entire state, is that you have the southeast portion of the state that has already been dislocated and traumatized by a hurricane, and you have people spread out throughout the state, which makes this all the more difficult.

You have the worst disaster in the nation's history happening to the southeastern portion of the state. You have the most powerful hurricane ever to enter the gulf, now directing its sights on the southwestern portion of the state. So you can only imagine what people go through.

And the one thing we don't want to do is panic anybody. But we do have to emphasize the seriousness of the situation and our ability to get people out.

I'm watching as we talk, outside my window, I'm looking at Interstate 10, moving eastbound. And the traffic is, I would say, probably 15, 20 miles an hour eastbound. We're encouraging everyone to try to take a northern route. If they don't have a particular place that they're going to, they don't have a family member that they're going to stay with or somebody like that, that they use the north routes out of southwest Louisiana.

PHILLIPS: And we've seen that traffic on I-10 for weeks now. Mayor Randy Roach, Lake Charles, Louisiana. Sir, thank you for your time. We wish you the best of luck.

And you know, it sounds ominous. But the first ever contra-flow under way in greater Houston spells relief for anybody who spent hours going nowhere on I-45. And that's thousands of would-be evacuees.

The term refers to reversing the south-bound lanes, theoretically relieving the gridlock. And we'll keep you posted as we hook up with frustrated travelers on their cell phones, that is if we can get through on their cell phones, a little later on LIVE FROM.

In the meantime, a few pictures worth 1,000 words of warning. The animation comes from the University of Texas, and it's base on Hurricane Carla, a Category 4 that hit just south of Galveston in September 1961.

Carla's surge topped out at 22 feet, and Galveston got 16 1/2 inches of rain. You can see the results.

Back to the highways in 2005, Houston's mayor says be prepared, be careful and be patient.

Take you straight to Rick Sanchez now. He's on the phone. He's joining us from a Houston Intercontinental Airport, from the Houston Intercontinental Airport, rather, where flights are being delayed because workers aren't showing up for work.

Rick, what's the deal?

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's really quite a mess, Kyra. What's interesting is, as bad as things are on the road, and we've been monitoring it here -- it is extremely bad on Interstate 45. They seem to be, now, equally bad at Houston's Intercontinental Airport. And here's why. And it's being described by both Mayor Bill White and many of the airport employees that we have been talking to throughout the morning.

They say that a big part of the problem is that many of the TSA workers -- those are the people that usually screen our bags when we try to go through airports -- have either gotten caught up in that same traffic, have been unable to get to work. So as a result, you have two or three screeners in one place trying to do the work that would usually be done by 10 or 15.

So what you have is, instead of having four, five, or six different places where people can be screened through, they have one or two. The lines, Kyra, are enormous. They snake around the terminal, seemingly for blocks. In one place, they actually have it going outside.

As is the problem over in the ticketing area, where it looks like at least as it was described to me a moment ago by one of the photographers we have who was taking pictures of it, a third world country. I mean, it resembled the scene in "Last Plane Out," where everyone in the country hears there's a revolution coming and tries to get out of the country.

But obviously, it would be bad, and I think it would be probably manageable, had it not been for this new twist of having the TSA workers that, for some reason, haven't been able to get in there. You know, not exactly sure why that is, whether they were told that some of them were cleared, whether they evacuated, or whether they're, themselves, stuck in traffic, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Rick Sanchez, there at Houston, Texas, Airport. Rick, thank you so much.

Also straight ahead, Hurricane Katrina has cost billions of dollar, as you know. A new number out today reveals just how big of an impact it's having on the economy. We'll have details straight ahead.

And we're tracking Hurricane Rita for you. Just why are we getting so many explosive storms like this? We've got the science behind the storms. Dave Hennen here to tell us about it.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

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