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CNN Live Today

Hurricane Katrina

Aired August 29, 2005 - 10:00   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: You and your team on AMERICAN MORNING for the fine work this morning.
We do have an intense three hours to get through together and we're going to do that here on CNN LIVE TODAY.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED REAMS, WDSU CORRESPONDENT: I'm seeing parts of daylight now through the top of the Superdome. It keeps getting larger and larger. So it looks like one section of the Superdome roof may soon peel away from the actual stadium.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: That's just one little piece of the picture that we're following today. The incredible power of Hurricane Katrina being felt right now inside the Louisiana Superdome. The winds have ripped off a section of the dome's roof. Keep in mind, about 10,000 people are seeking shelter inside the dome.

We have reporters all along the Gulf Coast. Let's begin with our John Zarrella. He is in downtown New Orleans.

John, the picture from where you are, please.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, a little while ago I was able to peek my head out down Commons Street where we are, and get a look at the water just raging down the street here. It's only, perhaps, a foot deep but the wind is just whipping it like waves on the ocean here.

It's kind of difficult now to peak your head out because windows are continuing to break and glass is shattering on the street around us. Some of it falling into the water. Some of it hitting the sidewalk area that still isn't submerged.

I'm right up against the building on the side of Commons Street. I'm sure the viewers can hear the wind howling and blowing as I'm talking. And again, the water is continuing to rise. It has not reached the level of the sandbags yet around the buildings here but it's certainly quite possible that it can. On the curbside, the cars, the water is up to the wheel wells of the cars. Probably getting inside the cars in some areas of downtown. And remember, this is one of the higher areas in the New Orleans metropolitan area.

So, clearly, we heard a report from the mayor earlier on one of the local radio stations where one part of the levee system may have been overtopped and that one of the pumps has been knocked out of commission and it is the pumps that, of course, keep the water out of the city of New Orleans. Up through manhole covers, I can see the water just bubbling up through those manhole covers now just so much water that it can't handle it here.

Now you were mentioning the Louisiana Superdome. I spent about seven hours there yesterday. There's one thing that's obvious become perfectly clear, there a hole that has apparently appeared in the roof. The National Guard and the police there have moved people away from the area where water is coming in and the light from the day is coming in from that roof.

They had done -- they had just begun some structural analysis to detect -- to evaluate whether the Superdome could withstand a hurricane of this magnitude. Structurally, perhaps certainly it is still holding up, but it is obviously been damaged by the storm. And again, those analyses of the Superdome had only just begun and had not been completed. They had a lot more information to work with now, certainly, Daryn.

And I'm trying to take a little bit of a look down to street. We're in a bit of a lull from the wind that howl down these streets here. Now we're surrounded by high-rise buildings, so much of the wind that we're buffered against that wind. We're not seeing those straight line winds. We see it swirling, almost like little tornadoes coming down through the alley ways and down the streets and just pouring off the sides of these high rise buildings, almost like somebody just took a fire hose and was shooting it straight down and then the wind grabs it and swirls it up.

And debris is flying from the roofs here. But no major structural damage, at least down here in these solid, concrete structural buildings that we see. Awnings down. The big issue right here, of course, Daryn, is the water which is continuing to come up here on the street level.

Daryn.

KAGAN: And we're going to continue to check back with you, our John Zarrella, who once again is in downtown New Orleans.

Let's bring in one of my most important partners here as we have our coverage today and that is our Chad Myers, our meteorologist, who has been tracking this storm.

Chad, the latest on what you're seeing on Hurricane Katrina.

CHAD MYERS, METEOROLOGIST: Yes, I hope John is still with us because I need to maybe have him confirm or even know that he even knows anything about this. But the National Hurricane Center in association with the National Weather Service in New Orleans now putting out those tornado warnings earlier for Jefferson, for Lafourche, for Orleans, for Plackman's, St. Bernard Parish. The words that we got from the National Weather Service, from New Orleans, many reports are coming in stating total structural failure in the New Orleans metro area.

John, do you know anything about this at all?

ZARRELLA: No. We were hearing the same reports that you're hearing. And, in fact, the mayor had mentioned that earlier today in his radio broadcast. But down here in the french quarter with all of these fortified, solid buildings, we don't see any of that. Again, periodically, Chad, you know it gets extremely black here. Almost to the point of being black as night when we get those strong rain bands coming through. But, no, no signs here of any structural damage in this part of the city where we are.

KAGAN: And John, let me just jump in here. John and Chad, the live pictures we're looking at actually Baton Rouge, Louisiana, right along the Mississippi River. That's where our Anderson Cooper is. We're not able to be in touch with him right know but we are able to see these pictures as they come out.

Chad, do you want to comment on the difference about what's happening in New Orleans versus Baton Rouge?

MYERS: Sure. And we had a live picture before. It was kind of a traffic cam of the causeway. On the north side of the causeway where the police had actually been blocking the causeway off, there was nothing on that camera at all. Not because the camera is broken, because the rain and the wind are going so quickly there's literally nothing to see. Visibility there, less than about 100 feet. There it is there. You can just barely see those light posts.

And down behind that, Katrina, there were a couple of policeman where their lights on covering up and stopping people from getting on the causeway. Obviously you don't want anybody on it at that point in time. You can't even see those cars anymore. They are completely obscured because of that rainfall. So that's the -- you kind of see them now. Maybe coming out of the fog there. But, you know what, I just want to give best wishes to all those law enforcement people and everybody who's actually trying to keep everybody safe here. They are in harm's way for sure.

Let's go back to the maps and I'll show you that, New Orleans, you're just about ready to get out of all this mess. Here's New Orleans right there. The little peek down here by the bottom of the freeway.

I'm going to zoom in here for you. New Orleans, you see this line of rain. This line coming through. This is actually the western eye wall. Slidell getting the worst of it right now, all the way over to Bay St. Louis. That's the worst possible place to be right now.

Now I want to back you up about 14 hours and show you what's going on here. Here's a line that I drew on the map to show you where the storm was going and why we were in Baton Rouge because, look, this thing could have gone straight all of the way through. And even on the wrong side of New Orleans, or the bad side of New Orleans if you will, but it didn't do that. It turned hard to the right. From Gulf Port now right on over to Biloxi and as far east as Mobile. Those are the places in harm's way because that is the worse spot you can get is the right side of the eye wall. The eastern side of the eye wall. The reason why that is, you have to think about it this way. The storm is moving 15 and the winds are coming at 130. You add them together. That's 145.

Now, the other way, you're going 15 but the winds are going 135 the other way. So that's 135 minus 15, winds there are only 120. And only 120 is still pretty bad.

Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Chad, we will be checking back with you, obviously, a number of times throughout the hour.

Meanwhile, I want to bring in my partner for the hour, our Anderson Cooper. We were showing the live picture from Baton Rouge where he is. Now we're able to see the man himself.

Anderson, take it away but don't go away or blow away.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, we're on a pier on the east side, I should say, of Baton Rouge. We're just going to kind of keep on walking. It gives you a sense of just how strong the wind is at this point, how difficult it is walking anywhere.

The wind is coming from the north, heading just quickly down the south. You can see there's still a lot of whitecaps on the Mississippi River. You'd be hard pressed to tell this is a river based on all these whitecaps. There's a lot of debris that has washed ashore. But the water has come up probably about 10 feet or so from where it was a few hours ago.

Let's try to keep walking. Visibility, though, has definitely improved. Look across there and see a boat, a cutter, right in the middle of the Mississippi River. We could not see that about half an hour ago. So you get a sense the visibility has improved. I couldn't see about 50 feet about half an hour ago. You can now see several hundred feet. So that is certainly a sign that, at least for Baton Rouge, the worse part of this storm may be over.

I say may be over. I don't know that for sure. But we are all along have been in that northwest quadrant of the storm. The easy part of the storm, as they say. But as you can tell just by us walking, it's not all that easy even here.

We have been particularly concerned about this crane, which is on a barge, which is basically, from what we can tell, has either come untethered and has basically hit -- knocked into this pier and is resting now on the south side of the barge on the pier. And I don't know if you can make it out but the top of the crane is just whipping around in the wind. It's been hitting the end of the pier.

When the storm started, that crane was faced in the opposite direction and has now completely come about. And as you see, a lot of stuff just floating around. Look, there's -- looks like an ice cooler that's just floating ashore. A little bit of short time ago we saw a buoy that had become untethered. That, too, had floated ashore.

But our main concern has been -- excuse me. It's very hard to look in this direction. The wind -- the rain is just coming horizontally and it's like pinpricks in your face as you try to turn north and look into the wind. But our concern has been this barge. We were worried that it might get pushed if it is, in fact, unanchored, might get pushed either into the shore or out into the river, in which case it could easily be taken down.

And there's also, if you look down over there, you can see that's a casino boat. About, I don't know, about 300 yards or so away from where we are. That boat seems to be doing fine. We've been concerned that the barge might become untethered and float into that. That has not happened. That is certainly good news.

But you also really get a sense of how much the water has come up. There's water now underneath the USS Kidd, which is a museum, a Navy memorial museum in dry dock. There's now water underneath that boat. It's securely fastened, so it's not going to float away or anything but it just gives you a sense of how much this water has moved.

I am certainly hoping that, at least from where we are in Baton Rouge, the worse may be over. But we're going to have to wait and see or talk to Chad Myers about this. I can't -- I've lost (INAUDIBLE) I want to give it back to Daryn Kagan who is standing by in Atlanta.

Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Anderson, thank you for that report. And exactly what Anderson, even though he can't hear us right now, what he was suspecting, Chad was saying that the worse part of that storm for that part of Louisiana does appear to be passing. But, clearly, are not finished yet.

Let's go to Biloxi, Mississippi. New Orleans catching a bit of a break but, in exchange for that, Biloxi, Mississippi, getting hit very hard, especially at this hour. That's where we find our Rob Marciano.

Rob.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, this is the worse fall we've seen yet. This hotel is literally coming apart. This may look like concrete but it's actually a stucco pillar that I can feel swaying. Look at that. Look at the top part of that roof. The roof flashing is coming undone.

But the wind are blowing away from us. So when that sucker goes, it will be carried away. It's not going to fall on our head. But look at how it tore apart that window. We're seeing structural damage like this all over this hotel. I can only assume it's only worse south and west.

Look at how this sidewalk is littered with debris. Roof flashings, now tiles from the roof actually coming down. This are the vinyl (ph) from the undercarriage of this structure coming. Protected by three sides as this stuff blows over the top of our heads.

And beyond that you still -- I mean, just how these palm trees stay up is beyond me. I guess that's why they're indigenous to this area. Beyond that though, more hardwood. They are snapping in two by the minute. This is the worse we've seen so far, Daryn.

Chad tells me he's got winds of 110, possibly 120 coming in and that's totally, totally believable. I can't imagine actually standing out in the middle of this thing. Any winds over 90 or 100 miles an hour, not fit for a human, that's for sure.

That's the latest from Biloxi. Debris continues to fly over the tops of our heads. Amazing to watch as the power of mother nature takes its toll on manmade structures. We're just absolutely no match for the power of mother nature.

Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: And, Rob, as we're watching pieces of this hotel come apart, are there people who have taken refuge in that hotel?

MARCIANO: Well, yes, they are. You know, that reminds me of a good point. It's not really -- it's not entirely that safe in the hotel. Most people are huddled out in the center of the building where there's limited glass and limited windows. So they're pretty safe there.

But just to give you an idea of how powerful this storm is and where it's almost not entirely safe everywhere, there was a woman in her hotel room where she was opening her door and the power of the wind and the suction from this storm slammed the door on her finger. She lost half of her finger. Now there's a nurse here trying to give that lady first aid in her room getting hurt from this storm. So, yes, people are taking shelter inside but that's not even safe.

Back up here, Daryn, this -- I think you're seeing a second camera right now which highlights that pointing south, I believe, you can see I-10. Nobody is on I-10 right now. Police are not going out to any calls. You can also see these light poles that are swaying in the breeze. I wouldn't be surprised to see some of these snapped down tomorrow like we saw in Hurricane Ivan last year.

The underside of this awning, which our ground camera right now is pointed to, all the vinyl is completely torn apart. The light fixture's gone. The light bulbs been flying out of there and they're popping down the parking lot like bombs dropping out of the sky.

We can only assume that the wooden frame structure -- there you see more light fixtures coming down. The wooden frame structure of this awning is strong enough to not actually fly away but the pillars that hold up this awning are coated by not concrete but stucco. And I can actually feel it sway here, Daryn.

This is the worse gust we've seen so far. I think we're going to go inside and try to report from there. All phone lines are down. We're reporting to you right now solely via satellite. Cell phone towers are down. Phone lines are down. And electricity is out here in Biloxi as right now we're feeling the brunt of the storm.

Back to you.

KAGAN: Rob, we were going to ask you to take a measurement on the wind speed there but, as you were saying, you think it's time for you and the crew to get inside, so we'll have you do that with the pictures speaking for themselves on just how strong and how intense the wind is right now. Biloxi, Mississippi.

Chad, why don't we bring you in here and see what instruments you have up in the weather center if you can give us an idea of what's hitting Biloxi, Mississippi, right now.

MYERS: You know, not even the eye wall yet. They're not even close to the eye wall yet. What you see is just an outer eye wall here in Biloxi. The first part of what the eye wall is. The people now in Bay St. Louis just getting hammered. Slidell hammered. Winds over 135 there as the storm makes its second landfall.

We had a first landfall of the eye wall well down south and southeast of New Orleans on that little point that's really the -- it's just the tip that comes down. There's a lot of swamp there, too, but it comes south of New Orleans along the Mississippi River. Now the second landfall. Not yet landfall but the eye wall landfall right up here in the Bay St. Louis and Biloxi. Dangerous weather still coming to those folks there.

KAGAN: OK. Let's move westward from Biloxi and go to Gulfport, Mississippi. That's where our Gary Tuchman is standing by and our crew and our equipment that we're calling Hurricane One.

Gary, what do you have?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, we're in our vehicle, Hurricane One, which permits us to do live broadcasting while we move. But right now the conditions here in Gulfport are so bad we are being pelted by wood and metal in the vehicle. We're no longer able to drive. We can't keep the car on the road.

The gusts -- our wind gauges have no way of recording it anymore. I'm going to step out a little bit, get protection from the vehicle, just to give you an idea of what's happening in Gulfport where we'd left the car in front of a t hotel because we can no longer drive. Roads through much of Gulfport, population 71,000, are now underwater. The downtown section of Gulfport, which is by the beach, is now under as much as six feet of water.

We are watching this city, parts of it, be destroyed before our eyes. Many of the buildings -- (INAUDIBLE) move this hood over so I can see. Many of the building here in Gulfport are almost completely destroyed. We've had reports (INAUDIBLE) police over some of the things we've seen. Signs everywhere are down. Flooding is a mess. Seventy-one-thousand people lived in this town. Almost everyone evacuated. Yesterday it was almost a ghost town. Today it completely as we see nobody on the road. Police are reporting to us, and we have to wipe off the lens so you can continue to see me -- police are reporting to us that several people have been hurt from broken glass.

So what's happening in many places like this hotel, this hotel is being used as a shelter by people who couldn't get away far enough. We're just three miles from the beach. You had the sad scene inside because there were lots of frightened children. And every time a piece of metal or a piece of wood hits the building you hear screams inside.

But the most interesting (INAUDIBLE) position is there's a pool behind this hotel. In the pool, three dolphins from a nearby aquarium. An aquarium on the beach. It was too dangerous for the dolphins to stay there. The dolphins are still -- I just checked (INAUDIBLE), having a good old time in the pool swimming around. They're safe and sound.

But people here really are very nervous. They experienced Hurricane Camille in 1969. People who are over 40 will still remember that Category 5 hurricane. This is a Category 4 but very powerful, very big and the worst, we don't think, has come yet.

Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Gary Tuchman reporting from Gulfport, Mississippi.

And once again, Gary was talking about the Hurricane One. Just to make you familiar at home. This is the same technology that we put together for the Gulf War that allowed us to follow troops as the invasion of Iraq took place. That same technology being applied today to bring you if latest of what's happening along the Mississippi and New Orleans coast.

If you live in an area impacted by Hurricane Katrina, we're encouraging you, if you're able to, to e-mail us your photos and video and become one of CNN's citizen journalists. You can do that by logging on to cnn.com/stories. Please include your name, location, phone number. Your safety, of course, is of utmost importance. So please, don't put yourself in harm's way.

And if you're away from your television, you can still track Hurricane Katrina's path. Just log on to your computer and go to cnn.com/hurricane.

Still to come on this special hurricane edition of CNN LIVE TODAY, the order was to evacuate. That's what one couple did, no matter what the cost. We'll tell you how they escaped Katrina's wrath.

But while many have fled to safety, one man says he's staying put. We're going to talk to a FEMA inspector as he hunkers down in one New Orleans suburb. And what do you do when the storm is over? Thousands of people will still be left without power and a lot of other things. Coming up, tips on how to make those insurance claims.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: I want to show you live pictures that we're getting in from New Orleans. This is the causeway. We have to basically describe to you what you're looking at because the conditions, because of the intense rain and wind are practically at whiteout conditions. These pictures coming to us courtesy of our affiliate WDSU in New Orleans.

A big part of the story that's been developing in New Orleans. Thousands of people that weren't able, for one reason or another, to get out of the city took refuge in the Superdome believing that that was the safest place to be. We've heard reports over the last hour that a significant size hole has developed in the roof of the superdome. With more on that, our Jeanne Meserve is right outside the structure to tell us the latest.

Jeanne.

Jeanne Meserve, are you with us?

All right. We will work -- clearly we're going to have some challenges as we go throughout the day in Southern Louisiana and Mississippi as well. We will get back to Jeanne Meserve as soon as possible.

Chad, let's talk about what's happening with the latest with the storm.

MYERS: Well, the latest on the storm is that the worse part for New Orleans, the back side of the eye wall that actually went right over New Orleans, is now gone. It has now moved away, so the winds are dying off now.

But the winds are still coming in from the north at about 70 miles per hour. Biloxi just had a 90 mile per hour wind gust and our friends here that have been working with us all day long basically from the viper system now just found a wind gust at 98 miles per hour in Biloxi itself. The entire system spinning around, making landfall itself. The eye wall making landfall, again, now across parts of Southern Mississippi. The heaviest stuff that was in New Orleans now gone.

You may notice that a lot of the radar that was over New Orleans doesn't exist anymore. It's a lot lighter. Well, you know why? Because the radar site at Slidell is now completely out of service. So we had to slide our radar site over to use the Mobile site, which is much farther away, that can't quite see the rain now in New Orleans.

We expected this. The winds at Slidell gusting over 116 miles per hour. There's going to be structural failure all along this area. And, obviously, the weather service is not insulated from that.

There you go, Biloxi. The wind about to really pick up again. Long Beach picking up your highest wind gust so far. Bay St. Louis, wind gusts there, although not official, over 120 miles per hour in the last past half hour.

Back to you, Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Chad, we'll check in back with you.

Right now, of course, the Red Cross going to be very busy in helping folks after this storm. Marty Evans with the Red Cross joins us right now from Washington, D.C.

Marty, what kind of preparations are in place ready to help once the storm passes?

MARTY EVANS, RED CROSS: Well, Daryn, we've had extensive sheltering operations for the last several day in seven states. So once the storm passes through each of the areas and it's safe to be out on the roads, we've staged extensive replenishment supplies, food service, clean-up kits, all of that kind of thing that's going to be necessary to get people back into their homes to move right in. And so we'll be distributing that.

We've also put the word out that we need financial support. This operation is huge. We've mounted the largest disaster operation in Red Cross history. And so we're asking the American public to help by making a financial contribution.

KAGAN: And, you know, there will be people who want to help. A lot of people tied to the south, especially along the coast.

Marty, I'm going to cut you short only because we have our Jeanne Meserve standing outside the Superdome in New Orleans with a breaking part of the story. Literally breaking away from the structure.

Jeanne.

Jeanne, can you hear us?

Well, we can see Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE: I'm sorry . . .

KAGAN: Go ahead, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE: Hi. The winds are just incredible here in New Orleans. We've been down to the other end of this parking garage and we can see the roof of the Superdome, the membrane over the top of the Superdome, has been shredded. It is hanging off the building in pieces. We still see no sign from this vantage point that anyone is being moved out of the building. But we can see that white outer membrane.

KAGAN: OK. We're going to work on getting better attachment there with Jeanne Meserve. We're going to get her back in a second. Clearly there some safety issues they need to address there.

Marty Evans with the Red Cross, if you're still with us, a question for you.

The situation of so much concern about what's happening in the Superdome. This is where the place where thousands of people took refuge because they didn't have anywhere else to go. Couldn't get out of the city of New Orleans. As someone who is in the refuge business, what would be your biggest concern about what's taking place inside there?

EVANS: Well, I think the biggest concern right now is the safety of the people inside. And we understand -- we're not operating that shelter but we understand that people on the scene are watching very closely so that they can move people around that complex as best they can.

I think this points out the storm will continue to progress through the U.S. The importance of listening to the authorities and evacuating if the order is given as the storm moves up -- moves northward. It is absolutely no place to be if you can avoid it and that's why Red Cross opened shelters as necessary in safer areas for people who evacuate.

KAGAN: Marty, the Red Cross has a huge job ahead of it, not only today but in the days ahead. Wish you well in your work.

EVANS: Thank you, Daryn.

KAGAN: Thank you for making time for us with the very busy time.

Let's go back to downtown New Orleans. That's where our John Zarrella has been standing by.

Last we checking in, John, you said the water was rising.

ZARRELLA: It was rising. It does appear now to have leveled off. And, you know, it's hard to say which way the wind is blowing in the -- down here as it swirls around on the street level. But you can tell by the water, it's kind of changed directions now and the water is flowing in the opposite direction from where it was a couple of hours ago. So that may well mean, you know, that we know that the storm has moved past us a little bit and we're a little bit on the opposite side of the hurricane.

But the water has not reached up to the sandbags around the hotels and the buildings here. We are in a steady, steady downpour. I'm walking now down towards the corner of the street. And debris is continuing to fly by us here -- small pieces of debris blowing in the wind.

You can look up at the structures -- again, now, one of these huge gusts of wind is just pushing right through the alleyways and the streets here.

I'm walking right now -- if I can find a street sign. We know we're on Common Street. But a lot of street signs have blown away.

Whoops, we've got to get out of here. More breaking glass falling around us as we speak. There's glass flying. We're trying to get into a safe location now, underneath -- huddled up inside of the corner of a building, a concrete building here.

The security center is the name of the building we're at. There's a doughnut shop across the street.

A lot of debris now in this streets -- mostly pieces of wood. It looks like plywood that people used to put on the sides of their buildings.

That's what we're seeing now flying.

Getting back -- again, more and more debris filling the streets as we continue to see the winds howling. But again, no structural damage that we can see -- certainly not any major structural damage.

But the water filling the streets -- continuing to just swirl up and down all of these street corners here. And the wind howling. I'm looking down the street now as far as I can see, and I can see debris flying through the air and moving through and really wind gusts just pounding us here now.

We thought we had seen the worse of it. But again, we still get the squall lines that move through and bring us these heavy winds -- just whipping the water, literally, off the street and up into the air.

Daryn?

KAGAN: That's John Zarrella. John, we appreciate your brave and courageous work, and that of your crew as well. But please, don't take any unnecessary chances.

We will be checking back with you as well.

So the story, as coming from downtown New Orleans, just reported by John Zarrella. As bad, as intense as these pictures are -- and these are from New Orleans that you're seeing on your screen -- even worse along the Mississippi coast.

And we were checking with our correspondents there as well.

Such a widespread and huge storm impacting a huge area.

Our next guest will soon be one of the by busiest people in Louisiana and certainly in Madeira, a suburb of New Orleans.

Mike Majonos has lived for 37 years. He experienced Hurricane Camille firsthand. Today, he's an independent contractor with FEMA and he's going to help assess the damage from Katrina and help house the storm's victims.

He joins us now by phone. Good morning... MAJONOS: Good morning.

KAGAN: Or intense morning if nothing else.

MAJONOS: Yes. I'd say we're doing the best we can here.

KAGAN: As we said, you're a lifetime resident, a native of this area. How would you compare this experience so far?

MAJONOS: I have never seen anything like this in the metropolitan area. I would say that, for example, Camille was a different storm with different circumstances.

But it's pretty awesome power here.

KAGAN: And looking forward -- because again, this story pretty much begins with the passing of the storm -- looking forward, what is going to be the biggest challenge, do you think, for FEMA?

MAJONOS: Well, it's going to take a while to get people in here because, as I told the producer, we're having some freshwater flooding issues. It's moderate right now.

I can say that, in the metropolitan New Orleans area, we do not have significant structural damage. But there are plenty of windows blown out, trees down, power lines down.

I am looking at oak trees and cypress trees flying down my street right now. And I'm looking at about a foot and a half of water and I've got about five inches to go before it comes in the garage.

So I'm getting busy here.

KAGAN: So you decided to stay at your house then?

MAJONOS: Yes, but my roof is holding and we're not experiencing anything significantly more than 90 mile an hour winds. The gusts are up to maybe 105.

And I would say that on the west bank and west of us, on the other side, the south side of the river, there are anecdotal reports of catastrophic structural failure. There are people that are going to be trapped and they're going to be the first priority.

And then we're going to start looking at what we're going to do about this water, because we've got to pump it out. But this is not a storm surge. It's just flooding from rain. Pumps aren't working very efficiently because the water is being pushed back up the canal through the pumps.

And as it moderates, this water will get pumped out and then we'll see what we've got.

KAGAN: So when you say this isn't storm surge, are you saying...

MAJONOS: It's not. KAGAN: So is the storm surge yet to come or the storm surge not as bad as predicted?

MAJONOS: It's not as bad as predicted in this area or in the metropolitan area.

I would say, right now from where I sit and what I know anecdotally from talking to other people and listening to call-in radio -- which is all over the city; it's the best source of information to find out what's happening where -- the levees will hold.

The main hurricane levee system in the metropolitan area will probably hold at this time, under these circumstances. But we do have a freshwater flooding problem that is creeping -- a creeping flooding problem.

KAGAN: And that also is going to be a big challenge of getting people back in their homes and back to their lives.

MAJONOS: Yes, that's where -- you know, and we've got to find out who is still here. So, hopefully by this evening or tomorrow, we'll get organized and maybe I can get out in the truck and start to check on my neighbors first and get the pecan tree off my roof.

KAGAN: Well, we wish you well getting through the storm. And, as we have said, you have quite a bit of work to do once the storm passes. We wish you well with that as well.

Mike Majonos, independent contractor with FEMA. He chose to stay in his house in Mederia (ph), Louisiana.

Still to come, we have more live coverage with Hurricane Katrina. Plus, we're going to tell you about one couple's unusual and very expensive escape from Katrina's path -- and what will they have left when they come back home?

Tips for filing those hurricane insurance claims.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Giving you an idea of the strength and breath of the storm -- these picture, if you can call it that, since it just looks line one big, white cloud -- this is Pensacola Beach, Florida.

So the strength of this hurricane -- of Hurricane Katrina -- reaching all of the way into the panhandle of Florida.

We have correspondents and anchors clear across the Gulf Coast to give you an idea there -- going all of the way to the west. In Baton Rouge, we have people, New Orleans, Gulf Port, Mississippi, Biloxi, and Mobile, Alabama.

We're going to make use of everybody we have there.

Rob Marciano, the last we checked in with him just a few minutes ago, it was so strong in Biloxi, Mississippi, that you felt like you had to take refuge inside.

And clearly, as we look at a live picture now from Biloxi, we're in between one of those strong bands.

Rob?

MARCIANO: Yes. We just had to come in for the safety of the crew and it just gets to a point where you've got to respect the wind. And we're getting near the eyewall now and the winds were just getting stronger and stronger and stronger.

We're on the third floor of our hotel now. Peeking out the window, you can see the tremendous amount of flooding. Whitecaps in the parking lot, the wind ripping that water across the area.

You can see the telephone poles wobbling in the breeze. Also these steel light poles. I tell you, they just look to me like they just want to topple over and snap.

Up in a distance, you can see I-10. That's a ghost town, nobody's driving anywhere. You can also see the rain just coming down. The rain is moving down I-10 at about 80 miles an hour, from east to west as it rides that east wind.

A little bit over towards the right you can see the awning which we were under a short time ago and how the wind has damaged that now. Roof tiles ripped off, flashings and gutters coming undone as this east wind continues to pound.

What we're seeing now from this vantage point is it looks like the winds are starting to turn more southeasterly, a more of a southerly component which tells me that the center of the storm is getting a little bit closer to us and a little bit to our west.

So I'm guessing we're not going to see the eye itself but the right front quadrant of that eyewall which is what we're seeing right now is obviously extremely dangerous, Daryn. This is the strongest winds we've seen so far.

KAGAN: All right. I'm glad you and the crew took refuge inside. We will continue to check back with you. Breaking news and updated information, the 11:00 a.m. update coming a little bit early. Our Chad Myers has that -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 125 miles per hour. Yes, still very, very fast, very dangerous here. And the funny part is what we're seeing from Rob is really the easiest part that he is going to see for quite some time.

I'm going to zoom into Biloxi where he is. Here's Gulf Port just getting the worse of it right now. Bay St. Louis, you are now in the eye itself. Don't look outside to see it. Stay inside because you have the other side still to come.

But here is Biloxi. Rob is right there in the light blue and then all of a sudden, literally, I want to keep that camera on as long as we can keep it on because look at what's coming his way. This is the eastern part of the eyewall. That eyewall running over the barrier islands right into Biloxi. And it is going to get very, very strong.

We have another radar that we can actually show you, too, to give you a different view. This is called the Viper Radar. Just for a different little perspective here from Bay St. Louis over to Gulf Port. That's where Gary Tuchman is. That's where the weather is very bad there. He just tried to call us and said, man, does it get better from here? And we go, not for a while, Gary. That weather is going to moving quickly into Rob Marciano's position literally in the next 15 minutes.

So I want to keep that camera on. That's going to be something to see.

KAGAN: All right. Once again, give you an idea of the strength and size of the storm, that's a live picture that we were seeing from Biloxi, Mississippi, just outside the hotel where Rob Marciano and his crew is.

We head 91 miles to the east to New Orleans and our John Zarrella in downtown New Orleans right now -- John.

JOHN ZARELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn. We're continuing to see the glass that's flying from the sides of these buildings. Windows continuing to be blown out. And when the glass shards are hitting the water, it's like someone took an automatic weapon and just sprayed across the water with it as the glass hits and sprays in all direction. And more debris continuing to fall off the sides of some of the buildings here.

Right now the wind has subsided just a bit. There's a lot of debris floating in the water. Water is continuing to swirl down on the streets. And the rain is still continuing to pelt us as heavy pretty much as it has been and steady throughout the last four or five hours.

But the big story here, of course, remains the water and the loss of a lot of windows and glass. No structural damage that we can see. And again, the water, the level of it seems to have leveled off. It's not getting any higher right now. But a lot more debris floating in the streets than there was just 15, 20 minutes ago -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, John. We will continue to check back with you. Our Anderson Cooper, we've had mixed result in being able to get in touch with him. He's about 80 miles northwest in Baton Rouge. As you can see things kicking off there. He's right there along the Mississippi River -- Anderson.

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": Daryn, it's amazing how quickly things change here. Ten minutes ago, I think when I was last on air, maybe 15 minutes ago, I kind of thought it was over here, frankly. The visibility had improved tremendously. But in the last 10 minutes or so that has changed drastically as you can probably tell. But the wind has picked up here again, probably one of those outer bands of the storm again, just coming around as the band has hit, the wind kicks up, the rain picks up as well.

You can see still getting those whitecaps on the Mississippi River. A lot of debris floating up. And this barge has actually now moved a little bit. Continues -- it's being pushed inshore. You can see the crane over here as (inaudible) swinging loose but it's moved probably about 15 or 20 feet toward the shore.

Let's try to walk over here farther. The closer it gets to the water the wind does pick up. I'd love to talk -- I don't know if it's possible to talk to Chad Myers to just get a sense of -- for the people who are here in Baton Rouge who are watching right now and listening on the radio. What's the storm prospects for them here in Baton Rouge, Chad?

MYERS: What you're seeing now, obviously, you knew it. You've been in enough of these. An outer eye band, an outer feeder band. The storm is still circulating around you well to your east. But this is a storm, a band of storms just coming right down the Mississippi River.

Go back to the radar here and then we'll get back to Anderson in a second. That radar showing the very heavy band just to the west now of Baton Rouge. There it is. There's the line. That's the cell that Anderson is in. Quickly, though, he will be in nothing and then again 45 minutes later another band going to hit him again. Be careful out there, bud. A lot of flying stuff out there. Be careful.

COOPER: Yes, I don't know if you can see. We're trying to work with the camera. This crane is just swinging and occasionally hitting this pier that we're on. It was about 10 or 15 feet to the west of me before. But now it's swinging around. This crane could very easily swing and hit all parts of this pier.

Chad, you said, you know, as you said, we're in one of these bands. It will some calm down. Then it will pick up again. How much longer does this thing go on here in Baton Rouge? I know we are certainly not anywhere close to the worse of it but, I mean, how much longer are we going to be seeing these kinds of winds?

MYERS: Where you are now, Anderson, is actually in a direct right triangle or a right angle to the center of the eye itself. You are getting as close as you're going to get to the eye.

So as the day goes on, the eye moves farther to the north and you actually, because of the (inaudible) theorem and the hypotenuse, you get farther away from the storm so your winds actually go down. But every time you're going to get one of these waves, one of these bands, there's another one still to your east that's moving your way. The winds are going to pick up again just like what you're seeing right now. At least three more hours of that.

COOPER: What is the speed this storm is moving in? Last I heard it was 50 miles an hour. But that was a while ago. Do you know what it is now?

MYERS: It has now been upgraded to between 16 and 17 miles per hour moving due north, moving right into Mississippi and then right into Tennessee as well. There will be a lot of power outages in Tennessee all of the way through Mississippi and Alabama. This is not some small storm. This is a bowling ball, not a ping-pong ball.

COOPER: Chris, if it gets closer, let us know. Sorry, I was talking to the cameraman.

Chad, that's good. I appreciate it. And so it has picked up just about a mile or two in terms of speed?

MYERS: That's correct.

COOPER: We'll check back in with you shortly.

Rob Marciano with CNN is also standing by here in Biloxi. They are seeing some very bad conditions there.

Rob, what's the latest?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You guys coming to Rob in Biloxi? You're coming to me?

COOPER: Yes, Rob, if you can hear me. This is Anderson. What's the latest?

MARCIANO: Anderson, the wind just continues to increase. Look at the damage that's done to the roof of this awning we were just under just a few minutes ago. Roof tiles shredding off, peeling off and then pieces of plywood, 6 x 8 plywood, flying off into the air, crashing down into the parking lot, blowing out windows of huge SUVs.

Winds continue to pound us out of the east southeast now, certainly over 100 miles an hour, doing damage to this hotel we're on the third floor of which with the window open poking out.

Now you're looking south across I-10. Our parking lot is completely flooded only from freshwater. There's no storm surge here. This is just water collecting from the tremendous amount of rain that continues to come down in sheets and sideways.

Unbelievably enough, this sign to our left, which highlights the brand of the hotel remains standing. Although pieces of flashing seem to want to come off the side. It must be designed to let some air pass through. But that remains standing.

Unfortunately the structure that is protecting us right now is seemingly coming apart, at least from our vantage point. And we're on the third floor here with the window open and the winds turning now a little bit more southerly.

Every time we get a gust of wind, it feels the room up with air. You feel the pressure in your ears like you were in an airplane. And at times, the room almost feels like it wants to lift off the ground. So I'm not even sure that now that we're inside, it's a safe spot. We're seeing -- with all this roof damage, there are leaks all over the hotel. Lights out, obviously. People very scared. Pets very scared. And people actually getting hurt in the hotel.

We had a woman who was opening a door to her hotel room and because of the gusty winds, because of the increasing pressure as wind comes through different windows and different doorways, the doom slammed on her finger and cut her finger in half. They're trying to get her to an emergency room. They're performing first aid on her.

But right now, the Biloxi police are not responding to anything. You can't go outside even ten feet outside any sort of engineer structure right now and you'll just get torn apart, Anderson. So where you are is certainly a much better spot. Right now, conditions continue to get worse. And what Chad seems to be telling us, it's not going to get any better any time soon.

Back to you.

COOPER: Rob, we'll check in with you shortly. I want to show you just one -- we're starting to see some people come out, as we always do in these storms, just kind of come out and testing the winds. Chris (ph), can you can go over here? Look at these people over here. They're standing into the wind. A couple are jumping up, trying to see if they can fly, basically, there. They came out just a short time ago. They're really the first group of people we've seen kind of running around. I don't know. I think they've been sort of sequestered in their homes, hunkered down with a couple of six-packs. Let's -- actually, let me just wipe the lens here, if you can see. And I don't know if you can actually see them.

KAGAN: No, we can see, we can see. They could use a good dose of common sense, Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, I know. A few less beers and maybe a little bit more common sense. But, you know, it's -- I mean, it's one of the problems, you know, when you hear that it's a Category 4, when you hear that Baton Rouge isn't getting hit as bad as other places, people start to come out. The truth of the matter is, I mean, you know, these winds are extraordinarily strong. It is very uncomfortable to be out here. And it can change on a dime, as Chad has been saying, you know, all morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: Yes. And thank you for showing the pictures both of the impressive and the not so impressive, in terms of choices people are making today in Baton Rouge. Anderson, thank you. We're back with you many, many times.

We're talking about a storm that impacting at this very minute four different states along the Gulf Coast. We're going all of the way from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Katrina just getting started. Our coverage continues after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) KAGAN: Welcome back to our coverage of Hurricane Katrina. We have correspondents spread across four different states along the Gulf Coast, all of the way from Louisiana into the Florida Panhandle.

Big focus early part of the storm was the city of New Orleans, and in New Orleans, the Superdome. This is where thousands of people took refuge because they either didn't have the means or weren't able to get out of the city. This was supposed to be considered one of the safest places in all of New Orleans to be.

Well, we've received reports over the last couple hours that there actually is a large size hole that has developed in the roof of the Superdome.

Our Jeanne Meserve is standing right outside the huge structure and brings us the latest -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, I cannot see any holes from our vantage point, but I can tell you this. There is that white dome for which this is so famous, and it is shredded. That white membrane that covers the Superdome is hanging off or has blown away completely, exposing the structure that you can see underneath. When you look down from the Superdome, you see flooding in the streets. It's probably a foot or so in that vicinity right now.

We did see some people who had actually come out into the storm. They're on the protected side of the Superdome. Looked to us as though they were just having a look to see at what was happening outside. We saw no signs that anybody was being moved from the building, at least on our side. It could be that they're taking them out through some other route. I just don't know the geography of the building well enough to tell you.

Quite a startling and amazing morning here in New Orleans. I am standing near skyscrapers. And windows have blown out all over the place. There is a Hyatt Hotel up next to me, and a corner of that building catches the wind as it comes by. All those corner rooms, the windows have been blown out completely. And from the other end of the garage, we could see the side of the building that's facing the wind. And, over there, it looks like just drapes blowing in the wind. That's all that you see now. All those windows gone.

The flooding situation, as I mentioned, looks to be a little worse here. Nothing that I would categorize at this point as catastrophic. Just as I'm talking to you now, the winds have just picked up (INAUDIBLE). They have been absolutely punishing at some points. When we went over first to try and get a look of that Superdome, we couldn't even put our heads around the corner until there was a lull. It's just amazing power. Never have I seen anything like this. One of the crew guys, he's working with me, he's been in 19 hurricanes. He said this one is about parallel -- Daryn?

KAGAN: All right, Jeanne Meserve. And once again, we encourage you and the crew to make some safe decisions. Thank you for bringing us that report. We have not received any reports that anybody's been encouraged to leave the Superdome. That the outer part of that structure, even if the roof goes, is still the safest place for those folks to be for now. A lot of work is going to need to take place once the storm passes. That's when FEMA gets involved.

Our Tom Foreman is standing by live at the FEMA headquarters in Washington, D.C. --- Tom.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, people here are watching every report there. Let me talk about the Superdome for a moment, before we get away from that. I was on top of the Superdome years ago -- because the Superdome roof is actually fairly thin. And Jeanne was correct to call it a membrane. The white part of the Superdome is very, very thin. It's hard. It was cracked years ago by a hailstorm, and had to be repaired at the time.

Remember, this is the largest unpillared room in the world. So it's a gigantic expanse and the roof is quite thin and light for that purpose. However, I am familiar with the layout of the Superdome and in the walls of the Superdome, all the things you would visit at any stadium, all the concessions, the rest rooms, locker rooms, all of that are enclosed in the walls. There are room -- there's easily room there for thousands of people, maybe tens of thousands of people, in a very safe location. So even if part of the leaking, which is not a big surprise, that's very different from a collapse. We'll have to see what we see as that develops.

Nonetheless, people here at FEMA, what they're trying to do is look at that report and everything out of the Gulf to see where help is going to be needed. Look at a map of the Gulf area. One thing important to remember, New Orleans, compared to the Gulf Coast, are entirely different. New Orleans is effectively an island. It's surrounded by water in all directions.

Whatever help is needed there, as FEMA knows, is going to have to come in over bridges and over roads, or be flown in. Boats will help some, but only to a limited degree. That's why New Orleans will have a certain special treatment in how they handle it.

There are levees around there -- one of your earlier people said the levees are holding. That is very, very big news, because that may keep the roads passable. It allows the big pumps to work, to pump the water out. An amazing system there.

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