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Tropical Storm Expected to Hit Florida Keys; Officials at Odds Over Repopulating New Orleans

Aired September 19, 2005 - 11:00   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, HOST: Some good news and bad news for American motorists. Gas prices are still dropping. AAA says the national average price for self-serve unleaded is now $2.81 a gallon. That is down eight cents from Friday. But with Tropical Storm Rita possibly heading into the Gulf of Mexico this week, there's concern that gas prices at the pumps will surge once again. Hurricane Katrina battered oil rigs and refineries, sending oil and gas prices to record highs.
Tyco's former chief executive officer and finance chief are back in court in New York this morning. Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Schwartz each are being sentenced on grand larceny, securities fraud and other charges. Each could get up to 30 years in prison. They were convicted of stealing millions of dollars and manipulating the company's stock price.

Germans voted yesterday in the parliamentary elections there. And now Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is fighting for his political life. Neither his Social Democrats nor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats won enough votes to claim a clear majority. The final outcome could be decided October 2, when Dresden will vote on a delayed ballot.

In Beijing a stunning announcement from North Korea, the communist country there saying that it plans to give up its entire nuclear program, including weapons. That word in a statement at six- party talks in the Chinese capital. The Bush administration calls the move significant, but it's cautiously optimistic. An administration official says North Korea must now show it will allow for verification.

Good morning, welcome back to CNN LIVE TODAY. It is just past 10 a.m. in New Orleans. From CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Daryn Kagan.

I want to call your attention to what you've been seeing on the left side of your screen. CNN has teamed up with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. We're bringing you the faces of children who are still missing or displaced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

By the way, since we launched this initiative on Saturday morning, calls to the center have tripled. More on this progress in just a few minutes.

ANNOUNCER: CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

KAGAN: Up first, we're on to tracking another storm. It is Tropical Storm Rita. Could become a hurricane threatening the Florida Keys during the next 24 hours. So there's a mandatory evacuation order. It's now in effect for residents of the lower Keys.

Also Florida governor Jeb Bush has declared a state of emergency as Rita gets closer.

Reporter Dave Malkoff of our affiliate WFOR joins us. He is in Key West with the latest -- Dave.

DAVE MALKOFF, WFOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the wind is starting to blow here. The tourists are starting to leave and the shutters, well, they're starting to come out. And these things are withstanding just a tremendous amount of force that can hit right here.

If you don't have these state-of-the-art shutters, well, you have the wooden shutters. And those are starting to go up on to Ball Street here, along with the businesses shutting down. Here they are just shutting down voluntarily at this point.

Now right now, we've got a lot of people moving out of here. As you said, a mandatory evacuation order for Key West and the lower Keys and also a mandatory evacuation order for the tourists for the entire Keys. So it is a massive, massive effort.

A lot of people down here don't have cars. So they are going to a high school here that is rated to withstand a Cat 4 hurricane. And then they're going to get on busses and they're going to take them up four hours up the road to Miami-Dade County.

But if you've been out here to Key West, you know there's only a two-lane highway that gets you out of here. So it's very difficult.

Back to you.

KAGAN: Well, there's also kind of a laissez faire attitude of, you know, just letting things happen. They've heard these hurricane warnings so many times before. Are people heeding the warnings?

MALKOFF: Yes. The warnings started here at 11 p.m. last night. And then we just got a new warning, a hurricane warning up in Miami- Dade County. So that means that they could expect hurricane force gusts at least up in Miami-Dade County. So if the hurricane force gusts are blowing in Miami-Dade County, these islands sticking down here, you can imagine what kind of gusts we're going to get here. So we are in for a very long night.

KAGAN: All right. Hope you brought your rain gear. Dave Malkoff with WFOR, thank you.

Let's check in with our own meteorologist, Chad Myers. He's tracking Rita's path. He has the latest -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Doesn't sound like he knew yet, though, that it's been upgraded to a Category 2 when it makes landfall near Key West. I'll show you that. Right now it is still 65 miles per hour. The newest, latest, greatest, 11 a.m. advisory, right there, 23.0, 75.2. The winds are 65 miles per hour. Notice the track moving to the west, nine to 10 miles per hour. Maybe picking up a little bit of speed. Eight o'clock tomorrow night, right over Key West. That number 2 means Category 2.

At this point in time, the forecast center now has it at 90 knots. That's 103 miles per hour sustained with some gusts to 115. That's how warm this water is, Daryn.

We talked about this just a half an hour ago, how this could be really explosive development from Golden Beach now all the way over to East Cape Sable, you were under a tropical storm warning. They just upgraded that to a hurricane warning, expecting hurricane conditions in the next 24 hours through there and clearly, and clearly the possibility of Category 2 hurricane conditions down in the lower Keys. That's why the lower Keys, it's a mandatory evacuation.

That right there is Rita. If you weren't paying attention to current events and overnight, over the weekend, that's Philippe. That's where the "P" storm went. Philippe now moving directly to the north, not toward the United States at all.

Category 1, 75 miles an hour at this point. But it doesn't really matter. That's just what we call a fish storm as it just goes out there and only affects the fishes.

Here's the rain and the showers and the thunderstorm activity as it drives itself. These are 14 different computer models. We look at them all the time to see whether one takes it into south Dade, the rest right over Key West and even one way to the south of there. And that's going to be bad enough as a Category 2, but right here, it's a Category 3, 100 knots, 115 miles an hour.

And the official forecast takes it to make landfall takes it close to Galveston on Saturday morning. But don't take that as the gospel right there. I'll tell you what. This is going to be a wide storm one way or the other. Look at all of the computers that saying, Louisiana, Mississippi, possibly Florida with only six now taking it into Texas.

So this is going to be a big storm, again. And could you imagine if this even came close to New Orleans with a levee that's only a foot and a half higher than the water level is right now?

KAGAN: Yes. Last thing you want to hear there. But you know, you mentioned Dade County. This was a storm that don't forget, Katrina stopped by there before slamming into the Gulf coast.

MYERS: Yes.

KAGAN: They don't need any more hurricane damage either.

MYERS: No. And Daryn, this storm, the hurricane center forecast, literally moved this storm about 50 miles closer to Key West in this forecast run, this 11 advisory. So we'll see what that does later on. Literally, by the time this thing comes in, it could be middle Keys. You need to get out of there now, as I said a half an hour ago.

KAGAN: You're not kidding about that. Chad, thank you.

MYERS: You're welcome.

KAGAN: We're going to keep you updated on Tropical Storm Rita. We'll go live to the National Hurricane Center in Miami in about 10 minutes for an update with Max Mayfield.

ANNOUNCER: CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

KAGAN: In the midst of all this, some New Orleans residents have been given the go ahead to go home today, especially those in areas that had no significant flooding. It is part of the mayor's plan to repopulate the city and then rebuild.

We're going to report on ZIP code by ZIP code as residents return. Today, people who live in communities with the ZIP code 70114 are being allowed back home. It's the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans.

A little bit more about that. It is -- about 60 percent of the people there own cars. About 75 percent of Algiers' residents are African-American; 21 percent are white. The average age of the people who live there is 30 and the average annual income, about $32,000.

Algiers is the only neighborhood of New Orleans proper on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Our correspondent Ed Lavandera joins us from New Orleans this morning -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Well, that bridge you see behind me is the bridge that takes you from New Orleans into Algiers. Where we're reporting from is the area known as the Garden District, and leading out toward uptown from the French Quarter and the downtown area.

And of course, this is one of the areas that has become kind of a hot spot in terms of what exactly should happen here in the coming days. As you mentioned, the mayor wants people to come back, but the man in charge of the federal reconstruction effort says the mayor is moving too quickly.

But what we found from talking to residents who have been making their way quietly into this area is that right now, you have to improvise to survive around here.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD PHILLIPS, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: The water entered this house and went about two inches on the first floor only.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Richard Phillips couldn't wait any longer. He wanted back inside his uptown New Orleans home, even though this neighborhood is two days away from officially re-opening. Phillips is embracing the New Orleans mayor's plan to get people back quickly.

PHILLIPS: He's trying to bring people, get the business going, food, and basic services, so that the people like myself could come in here and live a normal life.

LAVANDERA: Mayor Ray Nagin acknowledges people aren't returning to what they left behind, but he wants 250,000 people back in three months.

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: Because I envision us building an incredible city that's so livable, so unique, with all the New Orleans wonderful things that everybody appreciates, that everybody's going to want to come.

LAVANDERA: But the top man in charge of the federal reconstruction effort worries it's too soon. Emergency services like the 911 system are crippled. Hospitals aren't working, water is undrinkable and electricity in most places is out.

VICE ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN, U.S. COAST GUARD: There are significant challenges to bringing that number of people back into New Orleans.

LAVANDERA: Phillips has stopped listening to all the official statements; too many mixed messages, he says.

PHILLIPS: This is what happened in the very beginning. Nobody was coordinating. Nobody was head honcho and called all the shots.

LAVANDERA: He's taken security into his own hands and says he can sustain himself.

People who aren't healthy shouldn't come back to the city. People who will need services, but people who are willing to go do their own work, should have the opportunity to come in and restore their lives.

LAVANDERA: As we were about to leave Richard Phillips, two Louisiana state officers showed up next door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just following up on some 911 calls.

PHILLIPS: Today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. A couple days ago -- a couple weeks ago.

PHILLIPS: No, I just came here to...

LAVANDERA: These days emergency response time is measured in days, not minutes, a reminder of what awaits people who return to New Orleans any time soon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And, of course, the scene that you saw there at the end is what Vice Admiral Thad Allen is worried about.

The admiral and the mayor will meet later today. And we're told by members of the mayor's staff that perhaps there will be a re- assessment as to exactly how the repopulation efforts will continue here in the Garden District area.

KAGAN: Especially, Ed, with Tropical Storm Rita out there and the very -- good chance, the possible chance that it could impact New Orleans.

LAVANDERA: Absolutely. And you know the Army Corps of Engineers, I think we've probably been talking about putting out this report about the levee system, that it is damaged in certain -- in various places that didn't crack and that perhaps a minimal thunderstorm could cause catastrophic damage, not to mention what a strong hurricane could do again to the city.

KAGAN: Ed Lavandera, reporting live from New Orleans. Thank you.

LAVANDERA: Sure.

KAGAN: And still ahead, the latest on efforts to reunite families separated in Katrina's aftermath. We are going live to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Also, we continue to keep a close eye on Tropical Storm Rita. We'll go live to the National Hurricane Center in Miami with the latest.

And what do you do: a feuding family and a group of castaways, what do they have in common? We're going to bring you the highlights from TV's biggest night in our next half hour. They did not forget Katrina at the Emmys.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: All the focus on Katrina, now we are focusing on Tropical Storm Rita. Let's get the update on the storm's location and track. Max Mayfield is the director at the National Hurricane Center, and he joins us from Coral Gables near Miami.

Max, too soon to be talking to you again. Don't take that personally.

MAX MAYFIELD, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Not -- no offense taken.

This is a tropical storm right now, but we're very confident that it will continue to intensify and will likely become a hurricane by tonight. And we still have the hurricane warning up for the entire Florida Keys. And we just posted it up over the southern portion of the peninsula, from Golden Beach southward to Porter City (ph), which is Miami-Dade County and then it wraps over towards Cape Sable. So folks in the hurricane warning area need to really heed the advice of the local officials and start making preparations. KAGAN: Our Chad Myers was pointing out, with your latest update on Rita, it seems like you're moving that track farther north.

MAYFIELD: Well, it's a little bit to the north. You know, the main impact we think will be over the Florida Keys, but this is just cutting it too close and whether we have 65 or 70 or 75 mile-per-hour winds in Miami-Dade County, it's a little bit academic there.

So I think the wise thing to do is for them to plan for a Category 1 hurricane in Miami-Dade County. Could be even stronger than that by the time it gets near the lower Keys.

KAGAN: All right. Let's talk about chapter 2. Once it goes back into the Gulf of Mexico, it's still a pretty wide zone of where it might hit.

MAYFIELD: They're really concerned about that. And I think by Thursday morning, it's going to be sitting here in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, quite possibly as a Category 3 hurricane. That's a major hurricane, and then we'll have to see how the stirring currents set up, whether it continues towards the Texas coast or turns a little more towards the north towards Louisiana.

KAGAN: And so it's way too early, only to be alert.

MAYFIELD: It is. But the cone is already, you know, touching even southeast Louisiana here. So people need to pay very, very close attention to this, you know, here midweek.

KAGAN: And Max, I was mentioning Chad. He was a question for you. Chad, go ahead.

MYERS: Max, I was looking at some of those water temperatures in the Florida Straits, Caysell Bank (ph) through the Bahamas, approaching 89 degrees before the clouds came over, where you can't see the temperature of the water now. That could really lead to some explosive development for the Keys, could it not?

MAYFIELD: It's like it's moving over a very high octane fuel here.

MYERS: Yes.

MAYFIELD: There's no problem with the sea surge (ph). Also, the upper level environment is very conducive for intensification. So again, we're very confident that this will become a hurricane.

MYERS: Well, it doesn't look like there's going to be anything else in the way, either. You look at all this, it looks like land mass, the Abacos (ph) and the Azimuths (ph). But these caves, these islands literally are five to 10 feet tall. That's not going to slow it down at all.

MAYFIELD: Not at all. And neither will the Florida Keys, you know. It started at the northern coast of Cuba. It might have helped a little bit, but we don't think that's going to happen now. So we think it will continue to intensify.

KAGAN: All right. Chad, thank you. Max Mayfield, thank you. Busy times.

MAYFIELD: You're welcome.

KAGAN: Thanks for making time for us, Max.

MAYFIELD: You bet.

KAGAN: Still ahead, we are going ZIP code by ZIP code, a live report on people going back to one particular area hit by Hurricane Katrina.

ANNOUNCER: CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Tropical Storm Rita has caught at tension of President Bush. He's also looking at disaster preparedness and North Korea. With all that, here's our Dana Bash at the White House -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn.

Well, the president met just a short while ago with what he calls his Homeland Security Council, essentially most of his cabinet. And what emerged from that is really essentially a tug of war, a very public one, between the president and his team and the mayor of New Orleans.

Over the weekend, just yesterday, the president's point man in New Orleans said that he thinks that Mayor Nagin of New Orleans is calling for his people to come back to the city too early, that they're simply not ready, the timing is too soon.

The president this morning said he backed up what Admiral Allen said. He said there were not only environmental concerns there but he made a point of noting that Tropical Storm Rita is now just south of the Bahamas. And he thinks it could follow the same path as Katrina and that could cause more flooding in New Orleans and for the levees to break, perhaps, again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is deep concern about this storm causing more flooding in New Orleans. So Admiral Allen has reflected our -- the concerns of this administration.

And we want to work with the mayor. The mayor is working hard. The mayor, he's got this dream about having his city up and running, and we share that dream, but we also want to be realistic about some of the hurdles and obstacles that we all confront in repopulating New Orleans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, the president said that his public comments were meant as a direct message to Mayor Nagin of New Orleans. But he also said that his chief of staff, Andy Card, has had private conversations with the mayor as well.

Now Daryn, as you know, this is a White House that is chastened by the idea that the federal government was too slow to get involved in local matters. And what you're seeing here today with the comments by President Bush, warning, the timing is too soon, and essentially them trying not to relive what happened again in terms of the criticism of the president and the federal government -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Also, international matters getting their attention. Some possible progress in talks with North Korea nuclear matters?

BASH: That's right. As you know, as we've been reporting, the -- there has been an agreement early this morning in Beijing, the North Koreans saying in a signed agreement that they would stop its nuclear program.

Certainly, that is very good news here at the White House. But the president in his public comments is trying to be quite cautious, saying, yes, this is a good move. This is very positive. But also saying that this is something that the North Koreans are going to have to verify first. That has been the Bush policy all along.

But certainly, as you know, it took about a year to get North Koreans even to the table, to negotiations to get to this point. So they are certainly happy, but being very, very cautious as to what this will mean down the road in their public comments.

KAGAN: Dana Bash, live at the White House. Dana, thank you.

We go back to the Big Easy, getting the Big Easy back block by block. Carol Lin shows us what the residents in the Algiers section of New Orleans have to do to reclaim their lives and neighborhood.

And some longtime social (ph) may have took the full fury of Katrina and survived. Chris Huntington their story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's take a look at what's happening now in the news.

The post-Katrina spike at the gas pump retreated again over the weekend. AAA says the national average price for self-serve unleaded is off eight cents since Friday. It's now $2.81 a gallon.

In world news, insurgents fired a motor at Iraqi troops in Baqubah today. It missed, hitting a house instead. One person was killed, five others hurt. In Basra, in southern Iraq, police identified the body found today as that of a kidnapped Iraqi journalist. He had been shot execution-style. An Iraqi court sentenced a nephew of Saddam Hussein to life in prison today. He was convicted of supporting the insurgency and building bombs. The nephew faces additional charges at a second trial in November.

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