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CNN Live Today

Hurricane Rita Bears Down on Keys; Returned New Orleans Resident Told to Evacuate; Family Reunited with Missing Child; AWOL Officer Explains Choice

Aired September 20, 2005 - 12:00   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, HOST: All eyes on Rita. The storm is now officially a hurricane. But even as it bears down on the Florida Keys, it's already sparking fears along the Gulf Coast. A short time ago, the Pentagon issued orders for its military command center ship, the USS Iwo Jima, to sail out of New Orleans tomorrow if Rita stays on its current track.
A busy day on tap for President Bush, no thanks to the busy hurricane season. He's due -- and he just landed, actually, in Gulfport, Mississippi. Then he goes on to New Orleans for post- Katrina status checks. Along the way, Mr. Bush will take part in a press briefing on Hurricane Rita, a potential new threat to the hard hit Gulf region.

Dress rehearsal for terror. London police released chilling video. This is from their closed circuit television system. It shows three men, later identified as suspects in the July 7 bombings. A tape dated June 28 show this men as they visit two underground train stations. Police say it looks like a dry run for the fatal attack nine days later that killed 52 London commuters and the four bombers.

Hello and welcome to CNN LIVE TODAY. From the CNN center in Atlanta, I'm Daryn Kagan.

Rita raking the Keys. Category 1, but as they're fond of saying in Florida, no such thing as a minimal hurricane. This is the sixth hurricane to slam the Sunshine State in 13 months.

Our John Zarrella has seen them all. He is watching Rita from largely deserted Duval Street. In a largely but not entirely deserted Key West.

Hello.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn. That's exactly right. About 50 percent of Key West residents, about 12,000 or 13,000 have evacuated. And since last time we talked an hour ago, you may be able to tell the wind is really beginning to pick up now. The worst of the weather starting to move in here.

And just a few minutes ago, just up the street a couple of hundred yards from me, we heard a couple of explosions and saw the bright flashes of light from transformers that have started to go here. Power is beginning to go out and fail here in the Key West area. But actually, the worst of what's happening is a little further up that Overseas Highway from about mile marker 11, 11 miles north of here, all the way up to about mile marker 110 there are pockets of the Overseas Highway that are being overwashed by the storm surge.

The worst of it is at about 73 to 75, about halfway up the Florida Keys, where the water has completely overwashed that roadway there. And there's debris covering the road. It's barricaded off. Police are telling people and emergency route workers telling people get off the road. Do not be out on the Overseas Highway now.

It's really a combination of a couple of things. You've got high tide when you've had, and the storm surge, on top of that, and the full moon, so a lunar cycle. So all of that is combined to create that storm surge that's whipping across the Overseas Highway. And in many place, it's barely at sea level there.

And you know, I guess anecdotally you could see it was 70 years ago on September 2, that that same area, Lower Matecumbe Key, was hit by the most powerful hurricane to ever hit the United States. That was the Category 5 Labor Day storm that raked right across Lower Matecumbe Key, in fact knocked a relief train off the tracks and killed more than 400 people down here.

Certainly, this storm, much tamer individual than that and expected to stay that way as it moves through the Florida Keys. But they are definitely beginning to feel a beating here all up and down the Florida Keys.

And we now, in Key West, which is a little further to the west of some of the rest of the Keys, are beginning to start to feel the real effects as Hurricane Rita as it moves much, much closer to us -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, take cover. Don't take too many chances. I know you won't. John Zarrella in Key West, thank you.

Predicting Rita's path beyond the Keys is still as much an art and luck as it is science. Science getting better by the hour, bringing us to CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras -- Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Daryn. Yes, the margin of error is still pretty great this far out when we're talking about the Gulf Coast hit. It could be a good 275 miles from that center line. And that's why we tell you not to focus on that center line, particularly when it's that far out.

Not to mention, look at the size of this storm. Even if, you know, your hometown doesn't get the direct hit, certainly areas within 100 miles of the center of the storm are certainly going to be seeing some very rough winds and also some of that rough surf to get on the, quote, unquote, "bad side" of the storm.

They can see the center of the storm depicted very clearly here on our satellite imagery. It's within about 100 miles from the Florida Keys now. Expecting its closest approach just a few hours from now. The tropical storm force winds extend out about 120 miles from the center of the storm. So that means much of the central Keys and southern Keys are getting hit with those tropical storm force winds.

Hurricane force winds only go out about 30 miles from the center of the storm. So we may see some of those brushing. It's certainly the gusts getting that strong across the southern and central Keys.

In particular, weather getting pretty wicked in a few locations. Miami, you're doing OK right now. But take a look at this coming in just at this hour. We've got a couple of very strong thunderstorms that are going to be moving towards Kendell (ph) and then heading on up towards downtown.

And then also some of the Keys getting hit hard right now across Sand Key into Elia Key, extending down towards Key Largo. Expect just torrential downpours with these. Expect flash flooding with them and wind gusts as much as 50 miles per hour.

There are breaks behind them. But then there are more thunderstorms beyond that. So they're going to move through very quickly, however, about 35 miles per hour.

Some of the wind reports are beginning to come in: 56 miles per hour. That's the highest gusts we've seen at Key Wes; 44 miles per hour at Marathon. Head up towards Miami and Hollywood, 32 mile per hour gusts and 25 in Ft. Lauderdale while it's 30 at West Palm beach.

I want to show you a quick forecast here, where we're expecting it to go. Probably not going to be making that direct hit across the Keys. But the eye wall certainly will get very close into the Gulf of Mexico, intensifying into a major hurricane. Best odds at this time are Texas. Still can't quite rule out northern Mexico or parts of western Louisiana -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Still a very large potential target. Thank you.

Mentioning Texas, it's been 105 years since a hurricane leveled Galveston Texas, killing 8,000 people and going down as the deadliest disaster in U.S. History.

Today, Rita is still almost a thousand miles away. And Galveston is moving. A voluntary evacuation is in the works, and tomorrow city chartered buses, 88 of them, are due to start transporting anybody who needs a ride to Huntsville. That's 110 miles inland.

Evacuees are being allowed one suitcase each, and they can bring their pets if they're caged. Galveston's mayor says, and we're quoting here, "We're going to move as many people off this island as possible."

Repopulation being reconsidered. Hours after New Orleans Algiers section officially reopened to residents, complete with a ribbon cutting, Mayor Ray Nagin suspended his controversial population plan, and ordered everybody who did come back to leave again. The big fear: levees broken or eroded by Katrina will be little or no protection of another big rain. Mayor Nagin was a guest today on CNN's AMERICAN MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: We have buses available also, but the majority of the people that are here will be a much more mobile population.

MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST, "AMERICAN MORNING": Do you have -- have you updated specifically your evacuation plan, though?

NAGIN: Well, we have updates. We have buses that are available for this round of evacuations. Yes, sir.

O'BRIEN: So, you have a new plan for evacuation then?

NAGIN: We have a plan. And we implement it, sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: And the latest now from our Ed Lavandera. He is in our Gulf Coast bureau in New Orleans.

Ed, hello.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn. Well, you know, yesterday, actually, tomorrow was supposed to have been the day that the Garden District area, which is just west of the French Quarter in downtown area, people were going to be making their way back.

Some business owners had started making their way back over the weekend. The mayor had talked about that that process he thought was moving well. And as many people were making their way in, they discovered quite abruptly, honestly, that those plans had all come to an abrupt change.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunately, they closed off to all residents. They're not letting no residents in right now. OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry for that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not your fault.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Confusion and tension at the checkpoints leading into New Orleans. Just hours after the city's mayor ordered a mandatory evacuation, blaming it on Tropical Storm Rita, many waiting in long lines to get to their homes unleashed their anger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every checkpoint is different! Every one has a different set of rules and regulations! Nobody has any idea what he's doing!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He gave everybody permission to go into the city. I understand if he's going to close it down. But if he gave you permission to go today he could at least let you get in there today!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today, I've been in once. And you know, trying to get in for a second time. But I'm going to go try an alternate route.

LAVANDERA: This man vowed to keep trying the side streets until he made it past the security checkpoints, but some have already been successful.

ROBERT CAMERON, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: I begged the police to let me come in. This is the combination of my usual debris and the debris from the storm.

LAVANDERA: Tucked behind the sprawling foliage of his front yard, Robert Cameron is living quietly in his home again.

CAMERON: No looting. No real major structural damage that I know of. I mean, the house might fall in on me when I plop myself, my fat self in on the bed tonight, but I don't think so.

LAVANDERA: Cameron is one of the lucky Garden District residents.

CAMERON: The magic -- the magic of electricity.

LAVANDERA: He has electrical power. The water is running, but it's not drinkable. The air-conditioning works, and he says that's all he needs.

CAMERON: I'm happy, you know? I mean, my animals are OK. I'm OK. The place stinks but, you know, I'm going to get a few sticks of incense and some scented candles and start cleaning up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, it is closed to everybody. The mayor has closed it and they're evacuating again.

LAVANDERA: While some have figured out a way to return to their homes and possibly remain, thousands of others are still stuck on the outside looking in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Sorry about that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: You know, on many levels, New Orleans is a city of improvisation. We were out there this morning. And even though the mood and the scene had kind of changed at these checkpoints where it was becoming more difficult and more people were getting turned around. Essentially, the city closed down. We were out on the streets this morning, Daryn, and we met a couple of people who had managed to make their way around. So if you know the back streets, they say that it's still pretty easy to get into town if they want in.

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

The official death toll has spiked again. Now it is 736 confirmed dead in Louisiana, an increase of 90 from the previous report, the grim result of falling flood waters and continued search and recovery missions in New Orleans. The official count in all the affected states is 973.

On the streets of New Orleans after Katrina hit, a moral dilemma for members of the police department.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. HENRY WALLER, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: In a time of ultimate crisis, who needs me more? The police department, or my wife?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: An AWOL cop tells his side of the story. But how does it sound to those who stayed and worked? LIVE TODAY back after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: We want to update you on what we've been showing you on the left part of our screen, the efforts to put divided families back together. And another success story coming out of the center in Alexandria, Virginia, just in the last hour.

For more on that, let's go to our Kimberly Osias.

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, you know, this really shows the situation really up close. Look at little Jamal Jacobs. I mean, what happens, is oftentimes these families are scattered. One child can be in one shelter and be safe but be separated from their parent that can be in another shelter. Oftentimes they don't know. The communication is very, very difficult. Of course, many cell phone lines still down.

Little Jamal was solo missing from New Orleans, solo in a shelter in Indiana. And his mother was in a shelter in Louisiana. Now this is also an example of the power of television. Basically, he was identified by a Red Cross worker. And taking the call here was case worker Ken Lucas, formerly with the Montgomery County Police Department.

You got the call just a little while ago. What was that like for you?

KEN LUCAS, CASE MANAGER: It was great. To know that when you take the call and place a name into the computer, and then if you know that the place and the person is already on the list, then you know that you see another name there that is similar. And you call that up and see that, well, this is the mother of this child that's missing.

And I notified the Red Cross worker that these two belonged together. And she contacted the mother, who indeed ascertained that that was the fact.

OSIAS: And hopefully that face to face will happen soon. But you've got the tools, the technological know-how. Sometimes that database actually do an extensive search, but sometimes you don't have the tools. Like basic tools, like basic pictures.

LUCAS: That's correct.

OSIAS: And that certainly makes it hard.

LUCAS: And that's what we need. If you have pictures of children, please get them to us at NCMAC.org. And we can place them on the system.

OSIAS: And a lot of times people will see those silhouettes on the left side of the screen and see a name and actually call it in. I know one teacher actually saw a name. She had a class photo that she was able to send in. So all that really helps, because I know people really want to do something. Isn't that sort of your feeling that you're getting?

LUCAS: That's true. We have a lady yesterday who called. She is a genealogy researcher and found a family for us.

OSIAS: That's amazing. You know, and I talked to a number of volunteers here. And they say that really it is about doing something. They say it's really a matter of giving of the heart and making a difference. So, it is one way that everybody can sort of work together and help get these children hooked back up in successful connections. More hopefully, will be made -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Kimberly, thank you.

Back to the New Orleans area now. Hurricane Katrina not only devastated the Gulf Coast communities. It also left the police force in New Orleans short-handed and in disarray. Police officials point out that about 400 of the city's officers were unaccounted for.

Jason Carroll has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing, man? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Get out?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the days of lawlessness, looting, and flooding, something happened few people in New Orleans imagined was possible. Hundreds of police officers like Lieutenant Henry Waller abandoned their fellow officers and thousands of evacuees when they were needed most. H. WALLER: I defend it by saying that I left them in a bad situation, but I would have been leaving my wife in a worse situation.

CARROLL: Waller explained how it happened, saying Tuesday, August 30, the day after Katrina hit New Orleans, the situation was grave.

H. WALLER: We listened to the radio. We're hearing the thing, the water is still rising, the water is still rising. The water is still rising. The looting is this. The looting is that.

CARROLL: That Tuesday, as 80 percent of New Orleans lay under water, Waller says he told another officer he would get supplies. Waller drove an hour away to Baton Rouge, where stores were open. It was also where his wife was staying with his family.

She was upset, fearing something had happened to her father in hurricane-damaged Mississippi. Still, after getting supplies, Waller says he went back to New Orleans, where he heeded a state trooper's warning at the city's checkpoint.

WALLER: I started thinking. I said, "Well, you know, we've been hearing this story about the levees breaching all day. What if they're right and I get stuck in this car. I'm no good dead."

So we'll go back tonight, you know, and I'll head back in the morning once we have a better grasp of what's going on.

CARROLL: But Waller did not go back Wednesday morning. He stayed with his family and canceled plans to return to New Orleans Thursday when his wife got news her father may have drowned. He's listed as missing.

CYNTHEIA WALLER, WIFE: I need my husband. And if they want to blame somebody for him leaving, tell them to blame me, because it was me who's literally begging him to stay. Call me a coward. Call me selfish.

H. WALLER: In a time of ultimate crisis, who needs me more, the police department, or my wife? And it was a no brainer for me.

CARROLL: Lieutenant Troy Savage says officers like him, who stayed, resent fellow cops like Waller, who didn't.

LT. TROY SAVAGE, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: Everybody had a wife. Everybody's got families. Everybody needed to see them. But we didn't. We all didn't flee. We all didn't run in a time of crisis. And you know, and he did that.

CARROLL: Two hundred AWOL officers like Waller have asked to or already have returned to work.

SUPERINTENDENT EDDIE COMPASS, NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPARTMENT: I knew who the warriors were, and who wasn't.

CARROLL: Police department superintendent Eddie Compass says all AWOL cops will have hearings to determine whether they can keep their jobs.

COMPASS: We're going to evaluate the whole police department in the action program. The heroics will be rewarded. And cowards will be punished.

CARROLL: Compass suspects many officers will be fired. But Savage thinks that there's a worse punishment.

SAVAGE: If I had done that, how do you face your children and try to make them do the right thing ever again? Where's your moral authority over your children or your spouse or anybody? You have -- you've lost it.

People are going to have their opinions. I can only hope that over time, you know, people will understand.

CARROLL: Maybe over time, some people will find understanding. But forgiveness might be more difficult.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: That's looking back on Hurricane Katrina. We're looking forward, looking at what's happening with Hurricane Rita right now. An amazing story out of the Florida Keys. We'll get to that after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: We want to get the latest look on what Hurricane Rita is doing to the Keys. And right now in Marathon, Florida, Jeff Weinsier with our affiliate WPLG.

Looks like you are getting your own taste of Hurricane Rita.

JEFF WEINSIER, WPLG CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, we hear about the storm surge. But we are actually seeing storm surge right now. You are looking at the Atlantic Ocean coming up over A1A, better known as South Roosevelt Boulevard.

We're actually here in Key West. And you can see the storm surge coming up and over. You can see the seaweed and debris in the roadway and the storm surge comes across the entire roadway, actually filling up to the parking lot where we are standing here in this south side of Key West.

Earlier today, between 6 in the morning and noon, it was crystal clear here. You couldn't see anything, because the wind was coming this way. The winds have now shifted and the storm surge is coming up over A1A.

For those of you familiar with Key West, we are by the airport on the south side of this island.

Now, we're not the only ones here. Believe it or not, there are plenty of sightseers out here, trying to catch a glimpse of what Mother Nature can do. The Monroe County Sheriff's Office, the Key West Police Department, they are out in force.

We are hearing from people who are coming up to us that there are downed power lines. One individual coming to us a few minutes ago telling us one of the downed power lines at Roosevelt and Flagler (ph) actually arced while there were cars in the area. Those cars physically stopped. And then the cars drove over that line. No one was hurt.

There are power outages throughout the Keys. And things just seem to be getting worse by the hour as Rita approaches.

That is the very latest from the south side of Key West. I'm Jeff Weinsier. Daryn, back to you.

KAGAN: All right, Jeff, thank you. Don't take too many chances, you and your crew. I appreciate you taking the waves there for us.

Let's see what the effect of Hurricane Rita is on the market. Susan Lisovicz is at the New York Stock Exchange, high and dry. Lucky for us, eh, Susan?

(STOCK REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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