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New Orleans Floods Again; Bus Evacuating Seniors Explodes; Thousands Stuck in Traffic Jams Trying to Evacuate; Could Rita Push U.S. into Recession?
Aired September 23, 2005 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: From bad to worse, Hurricane Rita sends the water back over the levees in New Orleans. We're live on the story.
Evacuation explosion, disaster for a busload of people trying to escape Hurricane Rita.
And just where and when will Rita strike? We're tracking the storm. We're your hurricane headquarters.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.
Nightmare in the Ninth Ward. Hours before the worst of Hurricane Rita ravages the Texas and Louisiana coasts, water overwhelms or overtops a newly patched levee. And a New Orleans district that was decimated by Katrina floods again.
We get the very latest from CNN's Mary Snow.
Mary, what does it look like? Mary, can you hear me OK?
We're working to get Mary's mic hooked up. Obviously we were having some miscommunication there. We will get straight to Mary in just a moment unless she is hooked up.
Mary, can you hear me OK now? Mary, do you hear me OK right now?
All right. While Mary is getting hooked up there, we'll get back to her in just a second in the Ninth Ward. Let's check in with Jacqui Jeras as she's tracking every part of this storm. Those were live pictures, actually, of the Ninth Ward levee that was breached.
Jacqui, sorry about that. We have a little bit of a communication problem. Why don't you bring us up to date -- up to date and we'll get back to Mary.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. Well, there's a lot going on affecting a lot of communities, and we're going to give you some details about what's going on in the Galveston area and Houston area, how this storm is going to impact you but New Orleans is of most immediate concern right now. And we're going to go over to meteorologist Dave Hennen for all the details. He's going to fill us in on the levees and also some tornadoes have been touching down -- Dave. DAVE HENNEN, CNN SENIOR WEATHER PRODUCER: Busy after, Jacqui, starting already as the storm is moving closer to the coast at the present time.
Let's take you to our Titan radar and show you what's going on. The storm's center is still well offshore, and we've been talking a lot, of course, about New Orleans, but New Orleans not going to get the worst of the storm. Let me kind of zoom you in a little bit here to the New Orleans area.
What's going on is we have this wind that is coming in from the east, and that is drawing and pushing all of this water right up into the city. So the mouth of the Mississippi. That's right down in this area right here, and all of this water being drawn up the Mississippi. That is raising the tide level there upwards of -- not the tide level actually but looking at the surge level up about four feet or so.
And look at some of these winds. This is our Trueviewer, which is showing the current wind speeds, wind of 42 miles per hour and back over here in Empire, 34 miles per hour. So this tremendous easterly wind will continue to push into the area and we are looking for the water, unfortunately, to continue to rise.
We're going to be through the afternoon taking you in close, showing you where the levee break is directly, and we'll have more of that coming up in a few minutes -- Jacqui.
JERAS: All right. Thanks, Dave.
Rita right now continuing to weaken a little bit. It's a Category 4 storm, 135 mile-per-hour winds. We could see this drop down to a 3 and that's probably going to be a strong 3, maybe a weak 4 at landfall. Its present location: about 220 miles south and east of the Galveston area.
I do want to show you some of the impacts on this storm because we really need to think about how big this thing is. The tropical storm-force wins extend out 400 miles across. This is enormous.
And so even if it isn't making a direct hit, say, to Houston, Galveston or maybe over here in New Orleans, all of you will be affected by at least tropical storm-force wins.
There you can see the cone of uncertainty, much smaller than it used to be, and the forecast track is bringing it in now somewhere, we think, near the Texas/Louisiana state lines.
Now, what kind of impact is this going to have for Galveston? We have some forecast wind gusts by this storm and this is by county, but Houston itself could expect to see sustained hurricane-force wins with gusts up to 88 miles per hour.
Galveston hurricane force sustained winds with gusts over 92 miles per hour. So that gives you an idea, storm making landfall way over here, how far away out those hurricane-force winds will be extending. And there you can see the showers and thunderstorms that are hitting much of the Gulf Coast. Tornado threats will continue throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening.
And then once the storm moves inland take a look at how close the 8 a.m. Sunday time and the 8 a.m. Monday time are from each other. Just moves a smidge. This storm is going to be stalling out over across the Arcotex (ph) region and bring very heavy rain inland flooding so that we don't need to just worry about landfall. We need to worry about what's going to happen late in the weekend, early next week. One to two feet of rain will be possible -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui, thanks so much.
Well, there a lot of worrying going on in the Ninth Ward right now back in New Orleans. That's where we find our Mary Snow. She's hooked up and ready to go.
Of course, Mary, this is the area that got devastated during Hurricane Katrina. Now once again the water coming over those levees. What's going on?
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, we are going to show you the picture of the breach in that levee, and we're going to ask our cameraman to focus over there.
You can see that water is gushing into the lower Ninth Ward. This is the industrial canal. The Army Corps of Engineers had put sandbags, gravel to try and shore up these breaches. This is exactly what they didn't want to happen so early on.
We are getting the outer bands of the storm of Hurricane Rita. Right now the rain has died down for a bit. We are getting pockets of rain.
I want to bring in Major General Bill Caldwell. He is the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division. He has just returned from the lower Ninth Ward.
Thank you very much, General, for joining us.
MAJ. GEN. BILL CALDWELL, 82ND AIRBORNE DIVISION: Sure.
SNOW: Tell us what it was like over there.
CALDWELL: Well, we went over to check to see what kind of breach had occurred in the levee, and the water already is about three to four feet deep as you try to approach into it. And it's spreading very rapidly down to the south/southeast. So they're going to have complete flooding down in that area again right now. We couldn't even get to the breach site because of the depth of the water.
SNOW: How far -- how widespread is it?
CALDWELL: It's -- I would say right now it's covered at least 30 to 40 blocks and moving continuing east. SNOW: Want to remind our viewers this was an area that was absolutely devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Do you have personnel over there?
CALDWELL: We do. We've got patrols that are out patrolling, just to make sure there's nobody here that still wants to be evacuated out. There's nobody we know of in the area. We searched it fairly thoroughly yesterday, but we're continuing to look.
SNOW: What are you doing with your personnel?
CALDWELL: Our personnel will eventually -- we're going to move them back into areas that we sort of certify as being Category 5 safe from the last hurricane and then leave them there overnight here in the city so that we can get out again early tomorrow, too.
SNOW: Are you aware, are you hearing of any other areas where there is flooding going on where your personnel are stationed right now?
CALDWELL: Right. We do have another report of another what could be capping or overflow occurring here over on the east side, west side, too, and we're going to go up there and check that out next.
SNOW: As the commander of the 82nd Airborne, you've been briefed, of course, on what to expect. What were you expecting in terms of flooding?
CALDWELL: We were told that that -- a breach could occur in the levee. We were told that we would hope not. They took every precaution they could but the winds, if they got strong enough, could in fact cause some flooding.
SNOW: Was it expected this early on, though? Because the forecasts that I heard were that there could possibly be a breach and there would be flooding in those areas but not this early on.
CALDWELL: Nobody wanted it this early on. But we had been told that -- tell our troops to be real careful today as they were out and about.
SNOW: General, thanks for joining us.
And Kyra, we're going to throw it back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right, Mary Snow, thank you so much. General Caldwell there, the head of the 82nd Airborne. We'll continue to watch those levees, particularly right there where Mary is in the Ninth Ward where water is already spilling over again because of the rising floodwaters.
Now an evacuation catastrophe. It's another story that we've been talking about all morning. A busload of nursing home residents fleeing the onset of Rita only to suffer, in many cases die, too, in a series of explosions, explosions ignited, from all indications, by a mechanical problem and the seniors' own oxygen tanks.
As many as 24 people are feared dead. Tragedy amid the torment of attempts to get millions of people out of harm's way.
CNN's Bob Franken joins me now from Houston.
Bob, we couldn't believe it when we saw this bus on fire.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How sad; how sad a story. It necessitated, at least officials thought at the time, by the urgency of evacuation when there was a belief that the whole brunt of this hurricane might hit the Houston area.
Of course, that was only one of the very -- the most sad incidents that happened just south of Dallas after an arduous journey for the people on that bus. Two dozen of them die in a very, very awful way, something that we're all mourning.
But, of course, there is an awful lot of anger, here, too, over this evacuation. City officials decided that they need to act decisively, and so they told people to get out of Houston. And they did, by the hundreds of thousands, heading for the highways, only to find that the highways became nothing more than traffic choke points.
Journeys that have taken 24 hours, traffic jams that were hundred of miles -- a hundred miles or so back, people running out of gas left and right.
Officials tried to compensate by coming up with what they called a contraflow effort. That is something that they planned which, in effect, closes highways in one direction, leaving those lanes open to go the evacuation route.
But oftentimes that only caused confusion, not just confusion on the part of the motorists but sometimes the officials.
Meanwhile, the governor of the state, who is overseeing his state's entire response, is giving people a pep talk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RICK PERRY (R), TEXAS: But we're going to get through this. We're going to get through this, because we've prepared for such an event as this with extensive exercises. We're going to get through this, because so many of our citizens took this evacuation very seriously. And because this state has thousands of rescue and relief workers on the standby. So be calm, be strong, say a prayer for Texas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRANKEN: And the governor, by the way, believes that, as troublesome as the evacuation has gone -- have been, particularly on the highways and at the airport, by the way, which closes in less than an hour, as troublesome as it's been, he says that at the very least people, many of them, were able to very arduously get out of harm's way -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Bob, just real quickly, that area where the bus accident was, those explosions took place, I know they stopped the cars from coming through. Are the cars now able to make way around that I guess that scene right now as it continues to be investigated?
FRANKEN: Well, it is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board, among others, and traffic is backed up. Of course, it's backed up in a number of places, although what we're being told is that things are alleviating just a little bit -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Bob Franken, thank you so much. Once again, that explosion ignited by medical -- or mechanical problems, possibly even the seniors' own oxygen tanks, those elderly people aboard that bus.
Let's check in with Jacqui Jeras again for the latest stats from the weather center and from the National Hurricane Center. Jacqui, what have we got?
JERAS: Well, Kyra, the storm has been weakening. It's also moving into an area that has increased wind shear. And that's one of the things that can help a storm weaken additionally. We're going to go to Ed Rappaport with the National Hurricane Center.
And, Ed, what's the best case scenario here? Could we see a significant decline in the strength of the storm?
ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: We have seen weakening over the past 24 hours. We think that will continue. It's now down to a borderline Category 3. Category 4 is our latest estimate.
Looking over my shoulder at the satellite animation, you can see that even in the last hour or so, the eye has become less distinct. So there are further indications of weakening. Likely on a Category 3 this afternoon.
And the best case scenario is it will keep on weakening. But we still think that there will be a landfall of a significant hurricane here with storm surge on the right side and strong winds and then potential fresh water flooding event further inland over the weekend.
JERAS: OK. So best case scenario, you said it could weaken down to a 3. Do you think it could go down to a 2 possibly? Farther than that.
RAPPAPORT: There is some chance of it weakening that fast. Intensity forecasting is probably our greatest challenge here. At this point, as we said, it's stronger than that.
But it has about another 15 hours or so to be out over the water, so with this increasing sheer and a shallower pool of warm water beneath it, we may well see some weakening down to Category 3, as we said, and if we're lucky, down to Category 2.
JERAS: OK, thanks very much, Ed Rappaport with the National Hurricane Center. We'll be checking with you on and off throughout the afternoon.
We'll have more LIVE FROM right after a break. Don't go away.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Ahead on LIVE FROM, refineries at risk. What will Hurricane Rita do to America's oil and gas supply? How much will you have to pay at the pump?
And later on LIVE FROM, Stevie Wonder opens his heart and gives Katrina victims the best gift he knows, his music. Stevie joins us live to perform his brand new single and his gift for the people shattered by the storm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Between the big cities of Houston and New Orleans, Lake Charles, Louisiana, very likely, very near spot where Rita's center will hit the Gulf Coast in just a few hours.
Christus Hospital is one of very few in that area, hospitals or anything else, that hasn't closed and doesn't plan to, though it has moved almost all of its patients. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is there.
Sanjay, you saw what happened in New Orleans. You were at one of the hospitals that got devastated. Do you see a big difference right now?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a huge difference, I think, really, in the sake of planning, getting a lot of these patients out early. That was the name of the game here.
They did anything they could to try and get these patients out of here. Lots of ambulances from all sorts of different states lined up yesterday. Today actually landing Army helicopters in a graveyard that's just next to the hospital.
Sort of a strange scene, for sure, but this helicopter landed, ambulances subsequently bring the patients out. They would then be carried on a stretcher through the graveyard onto the helicopter. That's how they're getting their last few patients out of here.
Now, we are at Christus hospital here, as you mentioned, one of the few that will stay open. It's in Lake Charles, and this area is expected to get very hard. We're hearing reports, for example, the streets just behind me and the graveyard that you're seeing across the street here, some of the flooding could get up to about six feet or so. That's obviously going to have a significant impact on this area.
There's going to be about 50 staff members that remain to take care of any patients that do come in. As you mentioned, this is an important point. They're planning on staying open. They're planning on having power. They're planning on having water. The doctors are staying to take care of any injuries that might come in as a result of the storm, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Sanjay Gupta. We'll continue to check in with you there at the hospital. And of course, as things develop throughout the next 24 hours.
As you know Hurricane Rita only adds to the huge challenges facing the American Red Cross, already engaged in the largest storm response in its history.
The agency's head of disaster relief says that Katrina by itself has already cost the organization $2 billion. By comparison, he says the Red Cross spent just $130 million on last year's four major hurricanes. He also says the Red Cross still needs the public's help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BECKER, AMERICAN RED CROSS: This is a time for America to wrap its arms around its people in need. It's time for a neighbor to take care of a neighbor. It's time for a neighbor to take care of somebody they never met before. And you can do that by helping the American Red Cross. And we say all we ask for is your time, your blood and your money. But I'll tell you what, right now we need your time, we need your blood and we need your money.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: If only people could buy more time. These are pictures just in. You're seeing the helicopter shot in New Orleans, Louisiana. You can already see the water rising there.
We'll work our way across, of course, Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi and show you how those floodwaters continue to rise.
Meanwhile, it's been slow going for many people taking part in the mass exodus away from the Texas coast.
Our Miles O'Brien has been talking with some drivers who haven't been able to get very far.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST, "AMERICAN MORNING": Halfway between Houston and redemption from the wrath of Rita are scenes like this one. This is a gas station, had some gas this morning. Ran out with a lot of people in line.
Many people have been waiting for quite some time, among them Constance Barrett, who began her journey 28 hours ago now.
You thought you'd get some gas. You didn't. What are the options now for you?
CONSTANCE BARRETT, EVACUEE: Well, actually I've talked to the highway department, and they've told me that there's a couple tankers going down the corridor. They know that we're sitting here, just to sit and wait, that they will be here. They don't know when, but they promised that someone will be here with gas. They know we're sitting here.
O'BRIEN: We've heard about a lot about these elusive tankers but have yet to see them.
BARRETT: And I agree with that, but you know, you have to have faith. I don't think they're going to leave us out hear.
And you know, I had a gentleman stop by here a moment ago. He and his wife offered to take us into their homes. He said, "There's a gas station down the street. I'm going to go see if it's got gas. I'll come back and let you all know." So you know, people are really trying to do their best. They're really trying to help.
O'BRIEN: You were moving very slowly. It took them a long time to get the so-called contraflow, in other words all the lanes going out. And then when it happened they wouldn't let you cut across the median. Why?
BARRETT: They said that it was too difficult to move the pylons or the barriers or whatever you call them, that actually the contraflow was more for the individuals that could not get onto the freeway at this point in time, so it really didn't alleviate the backup that we had. We were going one mile an hour the entire time.
O'BRIEN: Wouldn't it have been better if they had done some sort of a phased evacuation, perhaps?
BARRETT: I think it would have been, if they had done it by ZIP codes or some other option, but you know, they told us all to get out of town. Everybody took that to heart after Katrina. We left and then we get stuck on that debacle on the freeway last night.
O'BRIEN: Constance Barrett on empty and frustration growing, like a lot of other people here, but taking it all in stride. Good luck.
Of course, the scene on Interstate 45, people that didn't heed the call yesterday and decided this morning instead to leave, well, they're zipping along. Yes, there are traffic build-ups that lie ahead, but the fact is that traffic is moving a little better for them. It's an unprecedented evacuation, creating quite a chaotic scene in and around the city of Houston.
Miles O'Brien, CNN, Conroe, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And straight ahead, getting people and pets out of harm's way. Ahead on LIVE FROM, what's being done to help animals and their owners stay safe and together during this storm?
Also, Rita's potential effect on oil refineries. What happens if they take a hard hit from the hurricane? Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stem cell research has raised a lot of questions and a lot of eyebrows in recent years. Professor Kevin Eggan is searching for a way to sidestep the controversy by using older cells from adults rather than embryonic cells.
KEVIN EGGAN, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: Cells in the adult body have a very limited ability to transform into other cell types. That means that cells from your liver don't generally go and become neurons from your brain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This ability, called developmental potency, is very common in embryo cells, making them more appealing for therapeutic cloning. But Eggan says the key is to give the older adult cells that same transforming ability.
EGGAN: To be able to take an adult cell and directly transform it into an embryonic cell would alleviate the need for destroying human embryos in stem cell research. We're still making exciting advances in figuring out how to manipulate these cells, figuring out how to produce the different cell types that we're interested in from them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The new cells could then replace damaged cells in Parkinson's patients or even deliver insulin to those with diabetes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Investors are keeping a cautious eye on the path of Hurricane Rita. Oil refineries along the Texas coast account for about a quarter of U.S. refining capacity, and the storm's final approach could have a major impact on gas prices.
CNN's Ali Velshi is in New York. He's been following the price of oil for us all day. How's it looking, Ali?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, funny -- not funny, really, but investors had priced oil so high in anticipation of the worst of the damage that, in fact, oil prices are coming down.
Where the concern is going to be, we'll see what happens with Rita and the damage it does, but the issue is this. When you think of American spirit, I mean, kind of gets off topic but you think of the things that demonstrate American spirit. I was asking around the office. Some people talked about ball games and concerts and parades and things like that. Think about the American consumer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI (voice-over): All of these disruptions, what does it mean to the economy? Let's start by looking here at the shopping mall. The American consumer committed, resilient and focused, focused right now on rising energy prices. The last four U.S. recessions, not just 1973, were all preceded by sharp increases in the price of oil.
ROBERT BRUSCA, ECONOMIST: You have high energy prices. You have, first of all, high gasoline prices that stay around. You could very easily see the economy lose its growth. We could -- we could have a recession because of this.
VELSHI: Here's how it work: rigs, platforms, pipelines and refineries in and around the Gulf of Mexico are already shut down, closing off large chunks of crude oil supply and the things that are made from it: diesel, jet fuel and gasoline.
Natural gas, the fuel of choice for more than 50 million American homes, is at its highest level ever.
Well, depending on where and how hard Rita hits, supply could be offline for weeks, maybe months, and tight supply means higher prices, higher for everyone but some feel it more than others. Wal-Mart says even before Katrina high gas prices were hitting its customers.
Total energy costs, home and car, are typically about five percent of the average family's budget. This year, those costs could be 50 percent higher than that.
BRUSCA: And that's money you don't have left over to buy something else with. Maybe it's a night you can't go out to dinner.
VELSHI: Applebee's agrees. The restaurant chain says higher gas prices mean fewer visits by American families. And it's not just your energy bill. It's prices you pay for things that you buy. Higher freight and utility costs paid by businesses end up on the price tag, and that could mean inflation.
Besides higher prices, consumers worry about their jobs, the number of people put out of work by Katrina approaching a quarter of a million. That hurts consumer confidence, making people spend less freely. Less spending, less business, fewer jobs. That's how a strong economy starts to turn around.
DAVID KELLEY, PUTNAM INVESTMENTS: We're only going to end up in a recession if American business loses its nerve, because the key player here is American business and its hiring decisions and its spending decisions.
VELSHI: The American consumer has come to the rescue before. After September 11 Americans spent more than normal on goods and on their homes. American spirit drove the economy back then, and a gallon of gas was $1.25.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: We're looking at a gallon of gas now national average of about $2.79. And as you know, Kyra, in a lot of the country people pay a lot more money than that right now. That is money that comes out of other places that spend things on. PHILLIPS: Ali Velshi, let's keep our fingers crossed it doesn't go to $5 a gallon, like you and I were talking about yesterday.
VELSHI: See you later.
PHILLIPS: Yes, thanks, Ali.
We'll continue to follow the economic impact. I'm just getting word now that we want to take you to Ft. Sam, Houston.
Jamie McIntyre bringing us new information now on the military preps for Hurricane Rita just like what we saw in New Orleans with Joint Task Force Katrina, with General Russel Honore in charge of that fight. Now we're moving to Joint task Force Rita, of course, based there in Texas.
Jamie, tell us about the preps, what's going on, and how everybody is preparing.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, interestingly enough, Kyra, you know, apparently this is not a prerequisite, but it turns out that General Clark, General Robert Clark, lieutenant general who's in charge of Task Force Rita, he's a San Antonio native, San Antonio, Texas. Of course San Antonio, that is the headquarters of the 5th U.S. Army, which has been given the job of coordinating the military response. He's not as colorful as General Honore, but he's very focused on making sure that the military is prepared in that support role. They've got have dozens of helicopters that they are prepositioning, or sometimes moving slightly out of the area, so they can begin to move in immediately with what they consider the most vital mission, which is the search and rescue that might be required immediately after Rita makes landfall.
The first helicopters come from those Navy ships, of course, that have been sort of hanging behind the storm. They're going to try come to in right afterwards.
The next priority is communications. They know how vital that was in Katrina. They've got what they call a robust communications package of satellite phones and satellite radios. They're going to try to rush in to make sure they can help coordinate with local and state officials, and then the last thing is the delivery of those relief supplies, and that's also one of the things -- again, a lot of pre-positioning of supplies. The military's job basically is to get the stuff that FEMA, provides and get it to the people who need it. So there's an operation center here that's running 24 hours a day. They're really trying to make sure they incorporate the lessons learned from Katrina and make sure the military is ready to do its part. It's an impressive operation here. They're going be watching the storm, obviously, for the next 24 hours -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Jamie, it seems pretty unbelievable. You've got Russel Honore who's heading up the efforts there in New Orleans. He's from Louisiana. Now you're saying that General Bob Clark is from Texas. He's heading up the efforts there. The military could not have planned this, I think, in a better way, getting two men in their home territories.
I'm curious, Clark and Honore, are they talking? Is General Clark calling the other general for advice or input to how he handled things in the other part of the state?
MCINTYRE: Well, you know, I met with General Clark this morning as we were getting ready to discuss how we would cover what the military is doing. He didn't mention talking to General Honore, but I can tell you that there's a lot of coordination between the two. In fact, a lot of the assets that were dedicated to Katrina relief are now earmarked for Rita relief if necessary. So there's a high degree of coordination through the U.S. Northern Command, and again, General Clark a very different personality, but you could really -- I got a sense when you were sitting across talking to him, that he is extremely focused on making sure that the military is able to do everything possible in order to provide the kind of relief that the people expect.
PHILLIPS: It's incredible to see what U.S. Northern Command has been able to do to respond to this. Jamie McIntyre, thank you so much. We'll continue to follow up with you.
Also, evacuees and their pets. We're going to talk about what's different this time, when LIVE FROM returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Hurricane Rita, a dangerous category four storm, chugging toward the Texas coast. If the experts are right, that storm will be ashore in about 12 hours. Rita's sustained winds were last clocked at about 135 miles per hour. President Bush heads to Texas today, to the coastal region, expected to soon become a disaster area. The president told reporters he wants to oversee hurricane preparations and thank the first responders already on the scene. He then plans to monitor the storm's approach from a command post in Colorado.
And the urgent evacuation from the Houston area turned tragic this morning. A bus ferrying senior citizens to safety caught fire and exploded. Police believe as many as 24 evacuees were killed. Dallas County Sheriff officials believe the fire set off several oxygen canisters aboard that bus.
Not everyone is an animal lover, but if you are pictures like these are heartbreaking. Many Katrina evacuees were unable to take beloved animals with them when they fled because shelters wouldn't allow pets. Thousands of them were shipped across the country and may never be reunited with their people again. This time a very few shelters are following Rita evacuees to keep crated pets with them, but most are having to go elsewhere. Everyone hopes it's just temporary.
Reporter Jesse Delagado (ph) reports from KSAT, KSAT, our San Antonio affiliate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JESSE DELAGADO (ph), KSAT REPORT (voice-over): Little Bit was more than a little upset. He and his owners were among those running away from Rita. The stress was shared by human and animal alike.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He keeps on sticking onto me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not my babies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't want to get separated and us only get one back or something.
DELAGADO: To avoid confusion, photos were taken, one for the shelter, another for the owner, as mementos and identification when they come back to claim their dog, cat, ferret, bird, rabbit or hedgehog.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And what's different from Hurricane Katrina to Hurricane Rita is that we only expect these animals to be here temporarily, for a few days, until the storm passes.
DELAGADO: Little bit didn't know where he was headed, to either the Humane Society or the Animal Defense League, their home away from home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We can't leave them. Dog's part of the family. You can't just leave them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: More now on the pet evacuation plans ahead of Hurricane Rita and strong advice for anyone who cares about keeping their own pet safe.
Right now, Paul Berry joins me on the phone from San Antonio, Texas. Paul is the hurricane relief director for Best Friends Animal Society and is helping coordinate animal rescue groups. Paul, thanks for being with us.
PAUL BERRY, BEST FRIENDS ANIMAL SOCIETY: Hi, Kyra, thanks for having me.
PHILLIPS: Well, as we were looking at the Web site, you've just got to tell us about this little dog that you dubbed the survivor. I guess you could say she's the poster child for your pet project.
BERRY: We actually have three or four poster children there. I'm not sure which one you're looking at. I'm sorry, I'm not in front of the Internet right now.
PHILLIPS: It's the one hiding behind the plant, the potted plant.
BERRY: Oh, right. Listen, we rescued over a thousand animals out of that area and I apologize, I can't remember exactly which one that was. There are many heartbreaking stories coming out of there, but a lot of happy reunions that we were able to -- we were able to reunite a lot of animals with their pets -- with their owners. So lots of good news continuing to happen out of our makeshift sanctuary in Tylertown. We're worried desperately now about what's going to happen here on the coast of Texas, though.
PHILLIPS: Well, I know you had a lot of challenges. The biggest one, IDing these dogs and cats and other animals, trying to find the owners. We're actually looking at a picture now of Goofy. This is actually -- well I guess you named this dog Goofy. It's actually a white dog, but was so filthy and so dirty, it looks like a totally different color. Just tell us the challenges you faced and how you're asking owners, I.D., tag and microchip your animals.
BERRY: Exactly. Those are the three big ones. Pictures are very helpful. We had a really good team. Our effort here, primarily, and in Louisiana after the New Orleans effort -- we were there, by the way, on the ground the day after the hurricane. So we worked that for the last four weeks. We had some great help from all over the country. There was a team from Tampa that were well-trained in this and they helped us come up with a very good system for taking photos of the pets as we rescued them.
And may remember, many of those animals were displaced from their owners when folks were trying to evacuate from New Orleans. They were not allowed by the military to take their animals with them on the buses. So they were just left there. We didn't have any contact information on them at all, except a picture we took and putting them up on the Web sites. There's several Web sites out there that are putting pictures of animals up now. And we're putting our phone number out. And some of them we can just go by pictures on.
Many of the boat rescues that we did in New Orleans, we were able to get exact addresses for animals that were tied up on the porches or floating on debris in the backyards. We have more specific information on those. Those are a bit easier to locate. But just doing the best we can and that the owners, of course, are sick about it. It's most of the ones calling us. They've very desperate because that's about all they have left, you know, the clothes that they were able to get out on their backs and, you know, these pets that are the rest of their family that they're looking for.
PHILLIPS: And not only are these just pets, but as we look at your Web site here, bestfriends.org, I mean, there are so many guide dogs that got separated...
BERRY: Yes.
PHILLIPS: ... from their blind owners. I mean, there's so much more in addition to just pets. And let me ask you, as we look at your Web site, bestfriends.org, you're able to log on here and hopefully see some pictures, try and reconnect. Looking to Texas now, Paul, what are you guys doing to prevent these -- the same thing from happening in Texas? I mean, we're still talking thousands and thousands of animals.
BERRY: Indeed, thousands and thousands. And we're here in San Antonio this morning. And I went and visited the staging area at McRellis (ph) Mall. All evacuees that are coming into San Antonio must go through McRellis Mall. Red Cross is operating a staging area there. And from there from the mall, they're directing people to various local shelters set up at San Antonio.
And I have to say that the majority of folks I talked to this morning were coming in from Houston. So a lot of Houston evacuees here, many of them with pets. And unfortunately, there were not, as the previous report said, there were not sufficient resources here to house these animals. So the local groups, Humane Society San Antonio and a few other volunteers, are telling these folks to give them their cell phone number. They're trying to open up a larger warehouse this afternoon, in fact, to adjust to the numbers that are coming in, in hopes that they'll be able to at least house the pets there while the folks stay in shelters for the couple of days.
PHILLIPS: Paul Berry, bestfriends.org. Paul, thank you.
I got to take our viewers now quickly to an Army Corps of Engineers presser in Baton Rouge, talking about the levees. Let's listen.
DAN HITCHINS, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: ... about eight foot elevation. And those are approximate. You know, you say there's two- tenths different, but they're approximate. So the water was starting to flow across those areas. It was not a high embankment. I mean, we didn't -- not like 17th Canal, where we built it up, you know, 15 feet or something. This was just a couple feet of fill and so the water has been running across that area. I'm sure you've had a chance to see some of the video of that. Flowing into the Lower Ninth Ward.
The water does not appear to be rising any further. Latest gauge readings out in Lake Bourne (ph) at the Wrigleys (ph) area was -- had dropped about a foot and a half in the last hour, which we hope is good news. Because as the storm continues to move further to the west, the direction of the wind should become more southerly and stop pushing the water up in that direction.
That's the only area where we have any significant overflow. There are some reports of overflow on the other side of the Industrial Canal. There was a smaller breach in that area, shorter in length. And I would suspect, although we haven't been able to lay our eyes on it because of access -- I would suspect that there's probably some water seeping through that area, as well.
So at this point, I can answer questions.
QUESTION: Where is that smaller breach you were talking about.
HITCHINS: It's on the northern end of the Industrial Canal, or the IHNC lock portion of the Industrial Canal on the West Bank.
QUESTION: How much water was dumped there, how much is flowing through there?
HITCHINS: I don't know. I -- we haven't been able to get to see it. We don't have any access to it. So I just heard that it was -- somebody had said that there was some seepage in there. And there appears to be some water accumulating in that residential area adjacent to that.
QUESTION: What (INAUDIBLE) been used to fill the gap and how high was it?
HITCHINS: Well, what was used to fill the gap was a combination of sandbags and crushed stone and soil, heavy gravel that was just dumped in place, compacted to try to form a fairly stable berm in that area.
QUESTION: Do you know when was that done? When the work on that levee had been done? Was it just this -- like, a couple days prior to...
HITCHINS: It was within the last two weeks, certainly. So I think it was one of the earlier ones that we did. So it's more than a couple days. Probably had been in place nearly a week.
QUESTION: Do y'all have any measurements on how much water had flowed into the Ninth Ward?
HITCHINS: No, no, we don't. I do know one -- and other thing I'll add -- and thanks for reminding me of that. We have been in contact with the levee board in that area. They're prepared to turn on the pumps. I believe it's pump station one and six in the Lake Born levee board area. The water is traveling through the canals to get to that area yet. There's not sufficient water for them to turn on the pumps, but they will be able to turn them on and then pump it out pretty rapidly. Those two pumps, pumping stations, each has a capacity of about a thousand cubic feet per second.
QUESTION: When do they plan on turning those on?
HITCHINS: Well, as soon as the water gets there. It takes a little while. So the report I had was probably about 35, 40 minutes ago. So they may have them on now. If not, they will within a short period of time.
QUESTION: There's been reports of three new breaches in the canal. Can you address that at all?
HITCHINS: I asked that. I heard the same rumors rolling around. We don't have any information on that. The lake level stage is only about four feet. It is not nearly as high as it is in the Industrial Canal. The anticipation is that there won't be any problems there because the closures we put across the canals, the 17th Street and London Ave. canals, is about 10 to 12 feet high. So a four-foot lake stage should not cause any threat to that area.
QUESTION: So basically, then, you have one small breach of the West Bank of the Industrial Canal.
HITCHINS: Well, reported, suspected breach. I haven't seen it.
QUESTION: And you have one over top it. HITCHINS: Right. We have one -- well, in both cases, they're overtopping seepage. You know -- let me just try to make the clarification on why people are sensitive to breach versus overtopping. Breach implies it's -- I mean, this massive hole or gap in the levee that would let the total amount of water through, where overtopping is where water is going over the top. And it may, in fact, be a foot or two deep, but it's the not the same as taking out the whole section in a breach. And just trying to make sure we don't get things in the wrong order of magnitude.
QUESTION: So both are overtopping.
HITCHINS: As far as I know. Like I said, I really don't have any details on the one in the West, only that it was reported that there was seepage or overtopping in that one. The one on the East Bank of the Industrial Canal, you know, we've seen. We've had people down there on the ground actually looking at it. And so we know what the condition is there.
QUESTION: Do you know how deep the water is now?
HITCHINGS: No, I don't.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) waist deep. Is that a fair assessment?
HITCHINGS: The amount that's going over or the amount that's accumulating down below?
QUESTION: What's already down there.
HITCHINGS: I would assume that it is at least waist deep. I also heard a report it was five-foot deep, so I don't know exactly what it is.
QUESTION: What is 7.8?
HITCHINGS: 7.8 is what the gauge height of the water level was in the Industrial Canal. So that's just -- it's, you know, reference to mean sea level.
QUESTION: How big was the wall? Six feet that it went over?
HITCHINGS: Well, the way the bank is there, the bank is relatively high in that area, and we only put a couple feet of fill in there on top of where it was, so there's probably no more than two feet of water running over that bank.
QUESTION: Are you doing anything or just waiting for...
HITCHINGS: Well, we certainly would have done some things to get it in there, but we couldn't get any access in there with any trucks with gravel in them. The wind was blowing too hard to transport any sandbags using air transport like we did with the other areas, so we tried but it was just -- the wind was in excess of 40 mile-an-hour gusts and they couldn't fly the helicopters at that point.
QUESTION: Just a matter of waiting.
HITCHINGS: Yes, I believe it is.
QUESTION: In terms of the brunt of the storm, the worst is yet to come?
HITCHINGS: I'm afraid I can't answer that. I can't. Not a weather forecaster.
QUESTION: Any estimation of how extensive this could be, and are there any other trouble spots?
HITCHINGS: We're keeping an eye on every place where we had any weaknesses in there. You know, we had this area of concern. There was an area also in far eastern St. Bernard Parish.
PHILLIPS: We're going to continue to monitor the Army Corps of Engineers briefing here, talking about the levees in the Ninth ward of New Orleans and the water flowing over those levees.
But we want to take you to Jacqui Jeras quickly right now. Our understanding is Hurricane Rita becoming a category three, is that right, Jacqui?
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right, Kyra, a category-three hurricane. I'm going to walk over to the wall here. I just got my graphics updated, 125 mile-per-hour winds right now, so it has weakened. And we've been watching the satellite imagery over the last couple of hours, and it looks like the eyewall of this storm is collapsing. It's moving towards some cooler water, and it's also encountering some increased wind shear across western part of the storm, and so that is helping it to weaken significantly.
So we've got a category three now winds down to 125 miles per hour. The location, there you can see it, about -- just about 150 miles southeast of Galveston -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui, thank you so much.
And real quickly, we did get some video in just moments ago from Jefferson, or Jefferson County in Beaumont, Texas, elderly being taken out of the hospital there. You know, it's heart wrenching to see these pictures, but the great news is the military stepping in, getting the elderly out of this hospital in Jefferson County, in Beaumont, Texas, preparing for Hurricane Rita.
Once again, this is an all-too-familiar picture. We saw this in New Orleans. Now we're seeing it in Texas, but the good news is they're getting out, hopefully just soon enough.
We're going to take a quick break. More LIVE FROM just after this.
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