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FEMA Briefs Press on Rita Preparations; A Visit from Stevie Wonder

Aired September 23, 2005 - 14:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Rita's storm surge making a bad situation worse in New Orleans. Water is pouring back over the levees. We expect a live briefing from FEMA this hour. Also live this hour, Stevie Wonder. He's performing live for us. His music, the biggest gift he can give. Shelter in the rain is the song, and it's all for the victims of hurricane Katrina.
From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. This special hour of LIVE FROM starts right now.

Downgrading, but never underestimating Rita, Category three as of moments ago. Top winds, 125 miles an hour as it lurches ever closer to the Texas/Louisiana border on the already battered Gulf Coast. Forecasters say the storm may weaken further before its center crosses land tomorrow morning. If you haven't evacuated yet, officials in Texas say don't. Unfortunately, Texans by the thousands have done both. Hit the highways only to sit in grid luck till they run out of gas. The governor is sending out fuel trucks to help rescue the stranded pledging, "we're going to get through this."

He notes more than two million Texans have gotten out of harm's way in less than two days. Amid the disaster preparations, disaster. Two dozen people feared dead in a series of explosions aboard a bus carrying nursing home residents and staff members from Houston. It's believed that some sort of spark from a brake or wheel problem ignited oxygen canisters the seniors were taking with them. The blast and unquenchable fire occurred just south of Dallas on I-45, further obstructing the primary evac routes from the coast.

Worse case scenarios in New Orleans levees ruptured or erode by Katrina proving no match for Rita, long before Rita's full force is felt on shower. At last report as much as four feet of water covered 30 to 40 square blocks of the already devastated, almost totally deserted Ninth Ward and it's rising by the minute.

Now to the question that is on everyone's mind, where exactly is hurricane Rita headed and where will it get there? When will it get there? Let's get the latest word from meteorologist Jacqui Jeras; she is in the CNN Center upstairs. Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Kyra we still think it's going to be making landfall somewhere around the Texas/Louisiana state line and that is probably going to be happening in the early morning hours tomorrow, somewhere around dawn likely. The storm has been weakening pretty dramatically here today. Winds down at 125 miles per hour. It's still a Category 3, though. This is still a major storm that can produce extensive damage, 190 miles to the south and the east of Galveston.

Take a look. We can't even pick out the eye here on the satellite imagery right now. It looks like the center of the storm is trying to collapse a little bit and some additional weakening is expected. We could possibly see this go down even to a Category 2. But right now it's a three.

I think we still need to prepare for a major hurricane-making landfall. What does a three mean? One hundred and eleven to 130-mile- per-hour winds and storm surge on average with a three is 9 to 12 feet. Here's the forecast track. Bringing it in near Port Arthur, Texas. Keep in mind we could still see some wobbles. Any little wobble with a hurricane like they can often do can shift the track a little bit closer to Louisiana or could shift it closer to Galveston. Another thing to keep in mind is that this storm is enormous.

The tropical storm force winds extend 400 miles across. So it's going to be affecting a lot of people before that happens. As it heads inland, this is another concern here. You can see that the storm is going to start to stall out on Sunday and Monday and we're expecting extensive flooding here, 1 to 2 feet of rain is going to be possible. New Orleans has been a huge problem all day. We've had storm surge there, we've had tornado warnings and heavy rain.

We're going to go to meteorologist Dave Hennen for the latest on what's happening in New Orleans. Dave.

DAVE HENNEN, METEOROLOGIST: Thanks Jacqui. Just some new information now. Tornado warnings just up for the city of New Orleans. This includes other parishes as well. Let's zoom you into our titan radar. Here's the area we're watching. Pretty wide area of tornadoes. It is this particular cell right here in Belle Chasse. You can see what we're looking at. That's the storm that could be responsible. It's moving quickly, as well.

Let me put this in motion and show crow. There's the cell as it moves into the city. It's also going to affect some other parishes as well. We are looking at Timberline, Metry as well as Harvey, these are all cities included into the tornado warning area.

I want to show you another computer; I want to zoom you into the city. Here's what we have going on with the storm right now. Center of the storm out here. This is something new that we have with this hurricane. We can query and show you current wind speeds. Let me take you in here to New Orleans. There you are east wind at 17, gusting up to 30 currently in New Orleans.

And up a little further, Baton Rouge now, gusts to 29,winds beginning to pick up. Let me take you to a buoy location that is offshore, 20-foot waves, we have an east-southeast wind at 34 miles per hour. And even towards the Texas coast beginning to see the waves pick up, winds up to 34 miles per hour. So the tropical storm force winds now are very near the coast.

Let me show you a couple of other things. We have all this water. One of the reasons we've seen the problem is the water coming up in New Orleans. Just a point of reference here let me take you into the Ninth Ward and show you the area of concern. Here's the industrial canal right here. This is the area we're watching. This is the area that got overtop right there in the northward. Continue to watch it, Jacqui, and have any more tornado warnings, we'll bring them to you immediately.

JERAS: All right. Thanks very much, Dave. Dave Hennen, meteorologist here at CNN. We're going to go to the National Hurricane Center and Ed Rappaport joining us now. Ed, I want to ask you what's happening with the storm weakening like this?

ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Well, you just had a very excellent overview from both you and your correspondent there. We did think that there would be some weakening. It started yesterday. The two factors, of course, most of interest here are that the depth of the warm water that the hurricane is moving over is becoming shallower. It's able to stir up itself some cooler waters that tend to weaken its thunderstorms and ultimately its overall intensity. It appears that either some dry air on the west side or sheer has made an impact. Yes, we do see a less well-defined eye now on the satellite images.

JERAS: So are we going to see this weaken more throughout the day today? Are we going to be going down to a two possibly?

RAPPAPORT: We can hope that's the case. It's still a Category 3 right now. We just got some flight level winds in from the condensed aircraft, which confirms that it is still pretty strong Category 3 hurricane. The overall trend will be for weakening. Even if the winds drop down significantly towards landfall, we'll still get this very high storm surge that's been generated with the waves on top. You may recall that's what the issue was for Katrina. It weakened, too, as it came to shore as a Category 3, but that tremendous storm surge caused all the problems.

JERAS: Give me numbers, how much of a surge?

RAPPAPORT: We're looking at the storm surge anywhere from about 10 to 15 feet. Here's the forecast track right now. And here's the border of Texas and Louisiana. So if the forecast holds, then most of the surge is going to be to the right, to the east. This yellow area is on the order of 12 to 15 feet. Red could get higher than that 15, 18 feet. The track could be off to the left or the right as you said. If it comes this far over, 50 miles over then the Galveston, Houston area could get very high storm surge, too.

JERAS: OK, thanks very much. Ed Rappaport with the National Hurricane Center -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui, thank you so much. We want to take you now to CNN's Mary Snow. She is in New Orleans. She joins us with the latest on the flooding in the Ninth Ward and other developments. Mary, how is it looking?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, we do have another development. I'm here with Steven Brown of the Army Corps of Engineers. Steven you are just getting word of another area where water is overtopping a levee, correct?

STEVEN BROWN, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: No, we've known about these two over toppings of the levee, here and over here in the sea land area.

SNOW: OK, we hadn't heard about the second location. Can you please explain it?

BROWN: What I received word of is the Corps of Engineers is moving in with truck full of aggregate of soil and rock to repair that overtopping in that area.

SNOW: How bad is the overtopping there in that area?

BROWN: It's very similar to this overtopping here. In both cases, the water is flowing into areas that have been previously flooded and evacuated. So there's no danger to human life and we don't anticipate any additional danger to property. Flooding into areas that were previously flooded and damaged.

SNOW: So, overall, do you know of two areas right now where there has been some sort of breaches, correct?

BROWN: That's correct.

SNOW: And we will talk about the Lower Ninth Ward in a second. Just to be perfectly clear about this, that other area you are talking about, what area is being flooded?

BROWN: Well, I can show you on the map. It's going through just north of Florida Avenue and it's flooding the sea land container terminal and some of the residential areas behind it. These were areas that were previously flooded in the first storm.

SNOW: Steven, you have expressed the fact and so many engineers did, that you did anticipate some flooding. However, do you expect it this early on? Because that's the indication that people were not expecting it to happen this early.

BROWN: What we didn't expect were the water levels to rise this quickly. For this levee, this expedient fix of this levee, which had failed in the first storm and for the other levee we had built up to a level of seven feet. We had higher levels of about 7.8 feet. That overtopped the levees, washed out the fine material that was on top and we had previously had deep scouring. So we replaced a lot of heavy stone and rock. That rock is in place. We expect then this fine material has washed away and we'll come back and repair those levees.

SNOW: Right now, though, this water appears to be gushing over there into the Lower Ninth Ward. What can be done? What is being done?

BROWN: At the sea level, I understand (AUDIO GAP)..

PHILLIPS: Well, it's tough to keep up that signal. Of course, as hurricane Rita brings in a lot of winds and rain, it's raining right now in New Orleans. Mary snow is there in the Ninth Ward, of course, talking about the levees where the water is overflowing once again into that low-lying area. We'll continue to check in with her. Army Corps of Engineers feeling pretty good they'll be able to get that water out quickly and deal with that overflow at this point.

Meanwhile, we continue to track hurricane Rita. A big concern, though. The oilrigs and refineries in its path. We'll talk about that straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

We're also going to talk with Grammy Award winner Stevie Wonder. He's joining me live from Los Angeles with a very special gift, his music. He's singing live for us the song "Shelter in the Rain." And he's giving all the proceeds to hurricane victims. Believe me you won't want to miss this special performance.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: With Rita barreling toward the coast by the minute, conditions in the Houston area are dire to say the least. First, some residents were unable to leave the city as monumental traffic jams were created by the unprecedented exodus of hundreds of thousands of people. And a bus that did get out of the area exploded in flames near Dallas, killing more than 20 elderly evacuees from a nursing home.

Our national correspondent Bob Franken is in Houston and joins us with the latest -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Let's start with that deeply sad news. It happened this morning, just south of Dallas. A bus full of evacuees from a nursing home in suburban Houston in an enclave in Houston died in a horrible accident.

According to eyewitnesses, there was some sort of fire, probably caused by brakes, officials say, and that caused the people inside who were elderly and frail residents, who were on oxygen, to apparently, according to the early investigation, apparently those oxygen tanks exploded, leading to two dozen dead, 24 dead. There were some people who were rescued. Because of the massive, massive traffic chaos that had been caused by the evacuation, that accident with the bus on the side of the road caused a huge backup on Interstate 45, which goes into Dallas.

So officials had to decide to move the bus before they remove the bodies. They did so, they said, with great care and then proceed to remove the victims from that bus. As far as the traffic is concerned, it is alleviating a little as well, one might expect after well over a day of bumper-to-bumper traffic for 100 miles in any direction. People are quite upset about that.

But as for the people who have been left behind in Houston, the current policy, as far as emergency shelter would have it, emergency shelter, comes from the mayor's office. His spokesman said shelter in place. If you are still here, stay in your homes. However the mayor is holding a news conference. Mayor Bill White is holding a news conference a couple of hours from now, about 4:00 Eastern, 3:00 local time and he's going to have an elaboration on that. It has been a very trying time thus far. The governor of the state says that once Rita passes, we will find that Texas has gotten through it, but gotten through it OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK PERRY, TEXAS: We're going to get through this. We're going to get through this because we 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 also, say officials from the statehouse on down, don't bother evacuating tomorrow. It's already enough of a mess out there. It's time now to weather the storm -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Bob Franken, thank you so much. As you bring us that report about that tragic bus crash, Irma Camponella on the phone with us now. Erma actually called in to us because she was there she witnessed what was happen. Irma, can you sort of describe what you saw and how you took action?

IRMA CAMPONELLA (via telephone): I'm sorry, say it again.

PHILLIPS: Can you hear me OK?

CAMPONELLA: Yes, ma'am.

PHILLIPS: OK, I've got you live and linked in. Tell us what you witnessed as you came across this bus crash.

CAMPONELLA: I can't hardly hear you, ma'am.

PHILLIPS: That's OK. Can you hear me now?

CAMPONELLA: Yes ma'am.

PHILLIPS: Is that a good level?

CAMPONELLA: Yeah.

PHILLIPS: All right. You came across this bus crash. Tell me what happened. What did you see?

CAMPONELLA: OK, the traffic was getting backed up. So we exited. And tried to go around it. That's when we saw the bus on the side of the highway and the wheel was on fire. So we stopped and we noticed there were people on board. So I looked and I said, I wonder if they know it's on fire, the wheel. It was embedded all at first. So we hollered and they didn't do nothing. So we got out and we was telling them, your wheel is on fire. You better get out. It's going to get worse. And they still just sitting in there. And we finally got in it and then we realized it was just elderly people in there and most of them were in wheelchairs, unable to move. They had to be literally picked up and taken out.

PHILLIPS: Were you able to get in there and help Irma or were you too far away? You were just trying to tell people to get over there.

CAMPONELLA: No, we got in there. That's how we realized they wasn't able to get out. We kept telling them, get out, get out, and they wasn't moving.

PHILLIPS: Who were -- were the individuals inside the bus bringing the elderly individuals out or were there other people jumping out of their cars trying to help people?

CAMPONELLA: No, nobody was getting out of their cars then because it didn't look bad at first. We wanted to make sure they knew it was on fire and we still didn't think it was that bad until we realized that people can't move.

PHILLIPS: How many people do you think were still trapped inside Irma? Could you see?

CAMPONELLA: Oh dear God. No. No, ma'am.

PHILLIPS: That's got to be so hard to be so close and not knowing what to do. Did you get a sense of how many people were able to get out of that bus?

CAMPONELLA: Just guessing, I would probably think around 10, 12. I'm not even for sure.

PHILLIPS: And you didn't -- did you -- were rescue crews able to get in there pretty quickly?

CAMPONELLA: No, ma'am, not at all. We didn't see a rescue crew until the very end. Because the traffic was so bad on 45, we were there for a while and then the only person we saw that finally came was a policeman and he was just, you know, I don't know if he was on the radio trying to get more help to come in or what.

PHILLIPS: Gosh, just a frustrating situation all around and dealing with the traffic and then being stranded like that. Irma Camponella, you did the best you could. You cried for help and tried to warn those people and that is your duty. That is a great American that is for sure. Irma Camponella thanks for calling in.

CAMPONELLA: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, as you know hurricane Rita rages on, barreling towards Texas, with much of the Gulf Coast on alert. We're expecting a live briefing from FEMA headquarters. We'll take that live this hour.

Also straight ahead, his lyrics and his love have inspired so many people for so many years. Now Stevie Wonder has a special song for hurricane victims and he's going to join us live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well you may have heard, you surely observed that tragedy makes people more of what they already are. The good and the generous answer pain with unbelievable acts of compassion. And the flipside often holds true as well. The artistic among us turn heartbreak into exquisite works that move the hearts of all who experience them. That's the focus of this very special segment of LIVE FROM.

An artist of towering heart and importance showing his pain and compassion through music. Stevie Wonder, he comes to us from Los Angeles with a project unlike any in his amazing career. Stevie, it's so wonderful to have you with us.

STEVIE WONDER, MUSICIAN: It's my joy being here.

PHILLIPS: Well, when you and I started talking about this song, you told me about "Shelter in the Rain" and you gave me background on when you started writing it. Share with us. It was a tough time in your life that inspired the lyrics a number of years ago.

WONDER: I was working on, you know, songs for the album, and then one came to me at a time when I was dealing with the unfortunate terminal death of my brother Larry and to the illness of my first wife. And it was a painful time in my life for our family. My sister Rene and my brothers and all of the family and all of the, you know, very close people to the family. It was heartbreak for all of us.

And I know that I could not, you know, I could not break down. And I was just playing the piano and god just gave me this song. And the lyrics just encouraged me to be strong and to also know that in a time of adversity or pain or sorrow, that, you know, he's there to be my comfort and pain and my shelter in the rain.

And I've had amazing things in my life that have happened recently. The loss of people and also just broken hearted, not just family members, but very significant people to all of us. And whenever I need that place of strength, I remember that moment when I wrote this song and what god told me through that song.

PHILLIPS: Stevie, I remember you had to be such a strength for your family as well. I remember you telling me about your mom, and you sat down with your mom and she said, Stevie, all these years, you know, first my son. He's blind. Now I have a son that is dying. You know, how do I find that shelter in the rain? And you said to your mom, within that suffering you've got to find the comfort and the love and the joy.

WONDER: Exactly. I just told her that, you know, the blessing -- the blessing is, you know, as much as we can't understand that and realize that now, the blessing that we have been given is far greater than the pain we're feeling right now. And so I told her back when I was a little boy. I said, mom, you know, I know that I'm blind, but maybe god has a bigger purpose for me and for my life. And with Larry, I just said, ma, you did everything you could. You've given them love. Done that consistently as a mother. No mother wants to see, or father, see the child die before them.

PHILLIPS: Stevie, you've got to be one of the most passionate individuals I know. And I mean that. You and I have talked a lot about, too, when this happened in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast. I would describe to you these images. I would describe to you this video and you said, I can't see him, Kyra. It's heart touching. I know exactly what you are talking about. Tell our viewers how your heart touching moved you to where you could feel this pain that they were dealing with.

WONDER: You know, with any tragedy, I am able to feel it because I think you have to have a place of love just for humanity, and that has to stay consistently throughout whatever you do.

When people would talk about the -- I remember I was listening to the radio and they were talking about a man who had gone up to the attic of his house and he said he's on the cell phone and he's trying to make it, but it's getting more difficult because the water is coming up higher and higher. And then the person said that all of a sudden, the cellular phone started breaking up and the person could not be heard anymore.

And I just felt the pain of that and the desperation and, you know, I just think that the key for us, as people of this humankind and obviously this country, is that we must -- when we begin to place every single person equal, when every man or woman, boy or girl, matters to you as much as your mother or father or your son and daughter matters, no matter what color or ethnicity that you are, that we all matter to each other that much, that is when we will really find the true purpose of what united and commitment is all about.

Until then we're just playing with life. And I think that when we begin to really feel those things, that real and that consistently, is when we will ultimately be doing God's work.

PHILLIPS: Well, your sense of responsibility exudes every second you speak and you sing. Stevie, I'm going to let you get ready. OK. We're going to go to a quick break. I know you're going to perform for us live coming up. Are you ready to go?

WONDER: I wanted to just say, you know, obviously, "Shelter in the Rain," my making the decision to giving the net proceeds from the single that's going to come out on the -- on the 14th, and it's a hard single but then the actual downloadable single will be available on the 27th of September. If you -- finally, you know, I'm going -- you know, I'm delivering the album. I've done all my stuff now.

So I'm going to make it available for people to download that actual single from the album "Shelter in the Rain" and any of the monies from that single that you download will go, the proceeds will go to the foundation for the hurricane relief efforts.

PHILLIPS: And I promise you we'll talk more of the various charities. Stevie will plug more about where you will be able to download and also purchase this album. Stevie is going to come up after the break. He's going to play his song live "Shelter in the Rain." You are not going to want to miss it.

We're also awaiting a briefing from FEMA officials on Hurricane Rita. We're going to take that live also, and take you to Galveston, Texas where the storm is already being felt. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm Jacqui Jeras in the CNN Weather Center. We just got a tornado warning issued for eastern Baton Rouge Parish, and it does include the city of Baton Rouge. We also have a warning in effect for Ascension and Livingston parishes. There you can see the counties highlighted in red under the warning.

We'll zoom in and show you some of these cells of concern. They are moving up to the north and to the west very quickly at about 55 miles per hour. There was a warning in place for Orleans parish that included New Orleans. That has expired now, but there's this whole area right in here of this band that I'm very concerned about that all of these storms here, I think, could potentially produce some rotation.

This band has been moving through the area over the last couple of hours and this tornado threat will be ongoing throughout the afternoon and the evening hours. We'll have more on Hurricane Rita right after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Straight now to acting FEMA director David Paulison for an update on Hurricane Rita.

R. DAVID PAULISON, ACTING DIRECTOR OF FEMA: I want to tell the people of Texas and Louisiana that the federal government is here and that we'll stay here until we're finished with these storms. We are not going to leave and we're not going anywhere.

Let me just go over very quickly some of the resources that we have on the ground. And I'm not going to cover all of them, but I think it's important to know what we have down there, at least (inaudible).

We have 17 urban search and rescue teams on the ground now. If you remember, we started off with nine and went to 14. Now we're at 17. That's over 900 urban search and rescue personnel.

This is in addition to the more than 400 urban search and rescue personnel that we have in Louisiana.

We have 400 medical personnel that are prepositioned in Texas for Hurricane Rita. And we have a significant amount of commodities that I covered yesterday: the 45 truckloads of water, the 45 truckloads of ice, 25 truckloads of food. And plus there is a lot more in the pipeline on the way to make sure that when these supplies dwindle down, there will be more to replace them. PAULISON: We have enough on the ground right now to last for four days.

In Louisiana, we've also prepositioned more equipment. We have 140 truckloads of water there; 120 truckloads of ice; and 73 truckloads of meals for there.

And we are going to coordinate with our state and local partners to make sure that we meet all of those needs.

Also, the most important thing that we're doing, is our communications. We are working, like I said earlier, hourly with our state and local partners to make sure we have the commodities they need and make sure that we understand what their needs are and they understand what our capabilities are.

And again, I have to thank Admiral Hereth and Admiral Allen for their continued work. They are doing an outstanding job on the ground coordinating these efforts. And doing just a fantastic job for us.

And again I want to commend the state of Louisiana and the state of Texas for working to well together, not only with themselves, but with us, to make sure that we respond to this storm as partners. And that's the way we're going to have operate.

We're working with the Coast Guard. And we've got aircraft from the Coast Guard in Corpus Christi. We've got aircraft in Houston and San Antonio that are ready to respond, as soon as the winds die down and we can move into those areas.

We also have more than 400 Coast Guard personnel on the ground ready to respond after the winds die down.

The Department of Defense has six heavy-lift helicopters to support urban search and rescue capability and to support those task forces.

And the Department of Transportation has provided over 650 buses to help support those preparations in Hurricane Rita.

We medevaced last night 3,200 patients from Beaumont, Texas, and moved them into Ellington, Texas, and Jasper, Texas.

The Department of Defense has almost 50,000 active duty and National Guard personnel on the ground and aboard ships to support our relief efforts after we can move in. They have 13,000 active duty people and almost 37,000 National Guard people already on the ground.

And we also have 100 helicopters in Louisiana and Mississippi, and 45 fixed wing aircraft.

And so we're moving very carefully and very strongly to make sure that we are going to have the assets to move and have the capability of moving our people in, as soon as this storm passes.

Our thoughts are with those on the Gulf Coast. I hope everyone is listening to the warnings and followed the instructions that we gave them to be ready to take care of their families.

And I know how difficult it's going to be after the storm.

PAULISON: It's going to be a few days before the first responders can get in there.

So release stay where you are. Stay in a safe location. And do not return to your home until the authorities tell you it's safe to do so.

Don't drive in flood waters. Don't drive on bridges that look like they've been barricaded. Stay away from downed power lines -- you know, all those safety things we tell people. We'd like you just to stay in place until the authorities tell you it's safe to move back into your home.

And just in closing, we are here. FEMA's going to be here. We are going to make sure that you get taken care of.

Thank you very much.

And what I'd like to do now is just answer a few questions that you may have.

QUESTION: Sir, at this point, is there anything more that the federal government can do to prepare for Rita coming in? Are there any more declarations at presidential- or Cabinet-level decisions that could be made? Anything else that you feel the federal government could do?

PAULISON: I think at this point the federal government has done pretty much all that's possible to do. Right now we just have to wait out the storm, see exactly where it makes landfall, and then move ahead with our supplies that we have on the ground and our resources.

QUESTION: There have been tremendous gas shortages in parts of Texas (inaudible) part of the evacuation. Are you all participating in and can you speak to the effort that you're doing to get some gasoline...

PAULISON: You're talking about evacuations? The evacuations are the responsibility of the state and local governments. However, we have been assisting with ground transportation, with buses and also with aircraft to move people out, especially the special needs people -- that we worked all last night on moving these people.

PHILLIPS: Acting FEMA director David Paulison updating reporters on all the efforts on the ground, prepping for Hurricane Rita. Stay tuned to CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

Meanwhile, straight ahead, right after the break, the performance we've been talking about, of course, all day. "Shelter in the Rain" by Stevie Wonder. All the proceeds going to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. You won't want to miss his live performance. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: There are a lot of people watching Hurricane Rita and praying for everyone in its path. And as we continue to follow all the news, we also continue our special coverage with Stevie Wonder. Now, the song dedicated to all the victims of Hurricane Katrina. "Shelter in the Rain." Stevie, it's all yours.

(STEVIE WONDER SINGS)

PHILLIPS: More with my friend Stevie Wonder straight ahead. We're going to tell you where you can buy his new single, "Shelter in the Rain." Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, we just can't say good-bye, not without one more moment with our man of the hour. Still at his piano in L.A., Stevie Wonder. And, Stevie, before I ask you just one final question, I want to let everybody know that they can get your single on most digital outlets, including iTunes, Rhapsody, MusicWatch, Yahoo! Unlimited, et cetera, also steviewonder.net.

And you'll be able to get the CD, available in stores on October 18th. We're looking at your Web site right now. As we wrap it up, Stevie, I want to thank you so much from the bottom of my heart, and I also want to give you an opportunity now to just give a message to the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

WONDER: I want to say to all the victims of Hurricane Katrina and clearly I want you to know that, you know, God has given me song. That has been the gift that I have had the joy -- I mean, it's the job he's given me that I've enjoyed so much for most of my life, except for maybe nine years of when I was not in the business professionally.

But I just want to say that it is my joy to give to you from the pain I was experiencing, the joy that God gave me through this song that I wrote in my time of adversity and inspiration (ph).

And I want to share that with you by giving you all the net proceeds from "Shelter in the Rain" to help you. And it doesn't stop there, but this is something I want to do. As you know, it's from my heart. But we are one. You know, your pain is my sorrow. Your joy is my happiness.

PHILLIPS: And pretty soon, you'll be able to get the entire album, "A Time to Live." So many other beautiful songs on there. Steve, thank you so much ...

WONDER: "A Time to Love" is going to be available, yes.

PHILLIPS: That's right, we can't forget that.

WONDER: Yes, "A Time to Love" is going to be available. "A Time to Love"

PHILLIPS: It's going to be there soon. Motown knows that. WONDER: But I wanted to let you all know as well as the proceeds from that is going to go to the Habitat for Humanities, as well as United Negro College Fund, National Urban League, and the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund. This is all going to happen through the Wonder Foundation and it's my joy. If you need me, just call me.

Kyra, I just thank you for the opportunity of being able to show my love, to express my love to all the people. You know, we have to do this. It's a people thing. It's a human thing. And as I was told by a very good friend, and as I say at the end of my album, when we do "A Time to Love," Kevin Nash (ph), he says, you know, it's not about the relationship -- it's not about the religion, it's about the relationship. And I just think we have to be committed to the God that we serve with the love that we must always have for human kind.

PHILLIPS: Well, you have done that every second of your life. And you can continue to do it. And I'm so blessed to know you, Stevie. And I thank you for your friendship. I thank you for this song, and I thank you for everything you did for us today. I love you.

WONDER: And hi to all my family. Hi everybody. Sylvia (ph), hi. Everybody, hi.

PHILLIPS: Everybody.

WONDER: I'm on TV, CNN, all over the world. This is incredible. I can't believe it. Look at me. I'm losing weight. My stomach is going down.

PHILLIPS: You are a classic, Stevie.

WONDER: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: What a beautiful way to wrap up this Friday edition of LIVE FROM. Oh, boy. It's going to be hard to top this coming back next week.

WONDER: And my prayers also go out to all the victims that are dealing with Hurricane Rita. You know, we're going to be there for that too.

PHILLIPS: I know you are. I know you are.

WONDER: All the way.

PHILLIPS: I'll be talking to you soon. Thanks, Stevie.

I'm Kyra Phillips, at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Wolf Blitzer live from THE SITUATION ROOM up next.

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