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Hurricane Rita Bears Down on Florida Keys; Pets Rescued from New Orleans

Aired September 20, 2005 - 12:30   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at stories "Now in the News."
A strengthening Hurricane Rita is bearing down on the Florida Keys. Florida governor Jeb Bush is urging people who did not evacuate to hunker down, not go anywhere now. People along the Texas Gulf Coast are preparing to pack up and move out.

Rita is weighing heavily on the president's mind as he tours the battered Gulf Coast for the fifth time. Right now, the president is in Gulfport, Mississippi to meet with local and business leaders. Later, he travels to New Orleans to survey some areas wiped out by Hurricane Katrina.

The president has tapped Homeland Security adviser Frances Townsend to head up an investigation into the government's response to Hurricane Katrina. The administration has been under intense scrutiny for what it now admits was a slow and insufficient response to the killer storm. The White House says Townsend will meet with cabinet secretaries in the next few days to determine how to move forward.

Hurricane Rita is moving forward. Right now, sitting over the Florida Keys. Lower Matecumbe Key is where we find Jade Alexander. She is with WFOR and she filed this report just a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JADE ALEXANDER, WFOR REPORTER (on camera): We have got a lot of flooding. It is literally up to our knees. We stumbled upon this half trailer home, half home park here at mile marker 58. You can see this storm surge is really coming over. There's a four foot wall behind these homes and water is coming over these homes.

Now, this is a resident who lives here. Her driveway's flooded. Actually, just pan over to the left of her car. You can see the back tire half full of water here. Halfway up that tire mark. Ma'am, you live here, you decided to stick out the storm. Obviously, you didn't think it was going be this bad. What are your thoughts?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We didn't think so. We live of Thayersville (ph). The wind wasn't that strong, so I thought we were OK. We are -- it just (INAUDIBLE).

ALEXANDER: Yes, what about your vehicle?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's going to be pretty bad. But... ALEXANDER: Yes, and I know your husband said there was some damage to the backside of your home. We tried to walk back there, but the wind literally almost carried us away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes. It just took a door out. (INAUDIBLE) water, three feet of water.

ALEXANDER: OK, well, listen, don't worry about whatever's happening out here. Just get inside your home and stay there. This water is rising fast. It's coming up very quickly here. It's a storm surge. Good luck to you ma'am. Be safe, get inside your home.

Let's spin around this way over here. Tim (ph), if you can take a walk with me over here as we tread through this water. And the deepest part of this water came up to our knees over here. Let's take a look at this home right here. There is no one inside. But you can see -- Tim, actually, go down to the door right here. You can see the water starting to rise. Thank God no one is inside this home.

But look off into the distance. You can see that storm surge really coming up. These waves are coming up over this four-foot wall. High tide is coming in here, and the storm surge is just unbelievable. Now the gentlemen that lives in this house, Tim, right over here, he actually just vacated his home. He left with a garbage bag full of clothes and a loaf of bread, and he is actually heading a little north of here to go to his friend's house. He thought he would try and stick it out here. But obviously, this storm surge took everybody in this little home park by surprise. And they just lost power here, I'm told.

Back to you guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Jade Alexander from our affiliate WFOR. So those pictures tell one story. Radar telling another story.

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: We've been trying to make the use of our many CNN affiliates in bringing you the latest on Hurricane Rita. Right now, Shomari Stone with our affiliate WFOR filed this report just a few minutes ago from Isle of Morada (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHOMARI STONE, WFOR REPORTER: ... taking a pounding. A lot of people never thought that Tropical Storm Rita would turn to Hurricane Rita. A lot of the residents evacuated, but some did not.

Now, if just take a walk with me, just look at the waves now. Look at that wave come over. You see that, guys? There it is. It's moving forward, and it's coming down. It's getting low. See it, just pounding, thrashing on the shoreline. Now, if I come right over here, I don't understand, people, why these folks right here have not evacuated. I guess this is a practical joke. What are you all...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: All right, well clearly, a few little technical problems on bringing that report in, and we'll working on getting more pictures information on Rita.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Meanwhile, when crisis hits, some people freeze, others spring into action. The woman you're about to meet definitely falls into the action category. Her methods might be a bit unorthodox. Her motives, though, have deep personal meaning, and as for her results, well, some people call them miraculous.

Peter Viles has her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RENA SALOMON, EVACUATED FLOOD SURVIVORS: We've got to get his stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) kick the door in.

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If doors had to be knocked down, she did it. This time, to get a wheelchair and some medicine left behind by an evacuee.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right here, here's the wheelchair.

SALOMON: OK, grab the wheelchair.

VILES: What can you say about Rena Salomon, that she came to town in a black Hummer wearing a tank top, ripped jeans, a knee brace with a video camera, a handgun and her own theme song.

That she drove to some of the roughest parts of New Orleans and evacuated people who were afraid of the shelters, but trusted her.

SALOMON: Any other children? Your kids are on my -- are your kids on here?

VILES: That she took three survivors back to her home in California, and they say she saved them.

WENDELL PAUL, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: We had a angel watching over us, which was Rena. You know, she's a legend in New Orleans. Everybody -- the name going to follow, only in New Orleans, the angel with the black Hummer.

VILES: A single mother who owns a contracting business, she left California Thursday morning, September 1. SALOMON: When I started watching the TV coverage of the women wading through the water with their children and their children dying and them dying, and hearing their stories of nobody helping them, it compelled me to get out there, because there wasn't enough manpower, time to keep them alive.

VILES: She loaded up the Hummer with her son, Peter and three of his buddies and headed east, near Baton Rouge, she met Wendell Paul, who was looking for his grown children.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I figure I stand a better chance in finding my family with Rena than I would with anybody else. But, like I said, I asked for help, nobody wouldn't give it to me. National Guard turn their back, FEMA turned their back, Red Cross turned their back.

SALOMON: Where is our song? Ah, here we go.

VILES: For days, she cruised New Orleans in the hummer and a rented R/V, finding the forgotten, like this extended family of 22 and driving them out of town.

(on camera): And about how many people do you think you took out of the city?

SALOMON: About 84 total.

VILES (voice-over): She helped fine Wendell's sister and later his four kids at a shelter in Austin, Texas. She was gone 12 days and says she spent $15,000 of her own money.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Angel in a hummer. She come by and rescued everything out the city. Thank god for that woman. I don't think there'll be another like her.

VILES: We asked her why she did it. And after a long silence, she told us about a night 19 years ago, when her son, Peter, was very sick with child hood leukemia.

SALOMON: And the doctors pretty much told me he had a 50/50 chance of living and hold to him through the night, that he may be dead by morning. So, I pretty much prayed and cried through the night, you know, and prayed to god that if he helped me have my son's life, I would forever serve him in saving his other children. And I can't turn my back on it.

VILES: Which explains why, after all she's done, she's still haunted.

SALOMON: And there's people I left behind I promised they were my responsibility, and they need food, they need housing, they need cars and I don't know what to do.

VILES: Rita says she'll likely fly back to Louisiana this week, this time leave the Hummer at home.

Peter Viles, CNN, Santa Clara, California. (END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: From Katrina to Rita, let's get latest. Jacqui Jeras to the National Hurricane Center -- Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, we've been watching Rita intensify all morning long, and now it's a hurricane with 85 mile-per-hour winds, and we're going to go right to the National Hurricane Center with Richard Knabb joining us now with the latest -- Richard.

RICHARD KNABB, NATL. HURRICANE CENTER: Yes, good afternoon.

As you mentioned, Rita has been intensifying throughout the morning. Now that we are in the afternoon, some of the aircraft data that we've recently been receiving indicates that that strengthening trend appears to be continuing. We're going through the data carefully now, and we'll update the intensity by 2:00 p.m. Eastern in our next public advisory.

JERAS: You think it will be category two by then?

KNABB: Not sure yet. The data takes a little time to sift through and to make sure it's valid. It looks like it will be certainly near the borderline between category one and category two before it passes to the west of the Florida Keys. So we're still very concerned about the possibility of some storm surge flooding, especially in the lower Florida Keys, that could be as high as six feet in some places.

JERAS: Wow. The threshold between one and two, by the way, for those people watching, about 95 miles per hour I guess we're talking about.

You mentioned the storm surge. We've already seen a lot oaf video with storm surge coming up, especially across the central Keys. How serious of a situation is this? It looks like high tide in Key West is going to be about 2:30. Is that going to be coinciding with the closest approach of Rita?

KNABB: We think that mid afternoon will be the time that the storm surge will be maximized in the lower Florida Keys. So you know, combine that with tide effect, yes, the flooding could be significant. It could overtop many of the roads. It could get some water into some buildings. We're already All right giving some reports of some flooding in some structures in the Florida keys. So it's not surprising when you have even a category-one hurricane passing to your south, all that onshore flow on the east side pushing all the ocean water onto the islands that are very low-lying. Flooding is a very big concern over the next couple of hours. Probably going to get worse in the lower Florida Keys before it gets better.

JERAS: OK, the winds, the wind field getting pretty large on that. That has been continuing to grow. How far north do you think the tropical storm-force winds are going to be extending out? KNABB: Yes, I'm glad you asked about that, because even down here at the hurricane center, we're getting a pretty strong band over us right now. The tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 120 miles into our area here, even though we're well to the northeast of the center. And so that could continue for much of the afternoon, probably take into tonight before we start seeing these outer bands move off to the west. And again, in the Florida Keys, it will take until tomorrow morning for those bands to move through and get out into the Gulf of Mexico.

JERAS: All right, so the keys will be dealing with this all night tonight, even into early tomorrow morning before they're out of it?

KNABB: We think the worst of the weather will during the day today, throughout the afternoon, then the conditions will gradually improve. But on the east side, we've got all these outer bands and tropical storm-force winds out over 100 miles. So with the storm at 15 miles per hour, compute that, and you get several hours of tropical storm-force winds continuing even after the eye passes by off to the west.

JERAS: OK, after the Keys, then it's into the Gulf of Mexico. How much more intensification are we going to see?

KNABB: Well, unfortunately, everything we see in the atmosphere, and the warm ocean temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico suggest that further strengthening is probable. This could become a major hurricane during the next couple of days and move somewhere into the western Gulf of Mexico. We cannot rule out a landfall from anywhere from Louisiana to Texas into northern Mexico. But as we get closer, we'll be able to refine the forecast a little more and put out the appropriate watches and warnings for some of those areas in a couple of days, perhaps.

JERAS: All right, thanks very much. Richest Knabb of the National Hurricane Center. We'll be checking with you throughout the rest of the day. Thanks, Richard -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Hey, Jacqui, before I let you go, show us Galveston, Texas on the map and where it might play into Rita.

JERAS: Okay, Dave, can you get Galveston on the map for me? Or we just put a track up maybe on the weather producer. We'll show you the forecast track and show you where that cone is. Let me grab my clicker here and switch my source, Daryn.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: So that's New Orleans. I mentioned Galveston, Texas. We have found with the mayor of Galveston, Texas -- this is a city that only knows too well, from 105 years ago, the devastation a hurricane can bring. Here now, the mayor of Galveston.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MAYOR LYDA ANN THOMAS, GALVESTON, TEXAS: The city of Galveston is calling for voluntary evacuation. That means that you may and should begin to leave the island now. You should be -- and I hope you have been listening to all of us -- so you should be prepared to go. And it's time to get on the highway. And I think that concludes this particular report. We'll have another one for you, I believe, at 5:00.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: One of the problems in getting people to evacuate from New Orleans three weeks ago that people didn't want to leave without their pets. In Galveston, they're saying you can bring your pets as long as they are in a cage or some kind of contraption like that.

We're going to take a break. Much more on Rita and the aftermath of Katrina, after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Now for a happy ending for some of the most vulnerable Katrina victims. We've all seen the sad pictures of pets lost or abandoned in the rush to evacuate. Today, more than 100 of them are safe, halfway across the country. Reporter Jennifer Sabih of our affiliate KCAL tells us about their flight to a new life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER SABIH, KCAL REPORTER: Continental flight from Louisiana touched down in LAX. On board, a group of passengers in desperate need of some R & R.

MADELINE BERNSTEIN, LOS ANGELES SPCA (voice-over): They've been living in toxic soup. They've been drinking that water that no one is supposed to be drinking. Because you can't tell an animal not to drink the water. They're lonely, they're probably depressed, and they need us to get them to shelter as quickly as possible.

SABIH: More than 100 pets, all rescued off rooftops or pulled from floodwaters, were packed on the plane. Flight attendants, accustomed to asking passengers to fasten their seat belts, instead tightened ropes around animal crates; and on seats covered with protective plastic, tried to make these victims of Katrina more comfortable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, this cat's just a beautiful cat. Purred the entire time, kneaded. Just a beautiful all-around cat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's very calm, which is unusual.

GENEVIEVE KEILLOR, VETERINARIAN: We've been cleaning them up the whole time. We gave some fluids to some of them, just some antibiotic injections, gave some anti (INAUDIBLE) and tried to love on them just as much as we could. And they really appreciated it.

SABIH: A vet was on board to cater to cats' and dogs' medical needs. And crew members put up with the smelly cargo in the name of compassion.

BLAIR ENGLAND, PILOT: A couple times I went on oxygen just to get some fresh air.

SABIH: All these animals will be cleaned up, examined, vaccinated, then they'll be ready for adoption. To persuade potential new parents, we could try to soften your hearts with the hardships these animals have endured, but I bet one look at their faces is all the convinces you'll need.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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