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CNN Live Today

Hurricane Rita; Levee Worries; Energy Alert

Aired September 23, 2005 - 12:00   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our continuing coverage of Hurricane Rita on CNN LIVE TODAY. I'm Daryn Kagan at the CNN Center in Atlanta.
We are following a developing crisis in New Orleans. Dozens of blocks in the hardest hit area by Katrina are under water yet again. This CNN video shows water gushing over sections of the levee in the Ninth Ward and the lower Ninth Ward and pouring into the low-lying neighborhood. Another CNN staffer telling us that the area appears empty, except for media and emergency personnel.

As many as two dozen elderly evacuees have been killed in a bus fire south of Dallas. The bus was ferrying about 45 elderly evacuees from Houston and Rita's possible path when it caught fire on a gridlocked interstate in Bellaire, Texas, to be specific, where that bus was coming from. It appears that malfunctioning brakes sparked a fire and then caused onboard oxygen tanks to explode.

That crash brought traffic to a standstill, but the flow of evacuees outside of Houston has been moving gradually today. About two million people are under evacuation orders. And there have been estimates that a remarkable 90 percent have heeded the warning in some areas. Overnight, many drivers ran out of gas on the clogged highways as they inched along maybe a mile or two per hour.

We're going to bring you up-to-the-minute information on Hurricane Rita as it churns menacingly in the Gulf of Mexico. The Category 4 storm weakened just a bit overnight. It still is considered extremely dangerous as it drifts toward landfall. Probably early tomorrow morning it's expected to hit the upper Texas coast or into western Louisiana.

Just about two hours ago, we got word of water gushing over the top of a levee in New Orleans' lower Ninth Ward. That is among the lowest points in the city. It is an ominous development at this early stage of Hurricane Rita.

And our Mary Snow is there monitoring the situation from New Orleans -- Mary.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, this is just what engineers had been fearing. This was the first big test of these failed and fragile levees since Katrina. And, as you can see over my shoulder, this is the Industrial Canal levee. Water has overtopped that levee. And, as you say, for the past two hours or so, water has been gushing in to the Ninth Ward. Now engineers had been trying to shore up that levee that was left weakened by Katrina, but they warned it was only a temporary structure with sandbags and gravel stone. They did expect seepage. But they didn't expect, according to some engineers, they didn't expect it to give way this early on.

If you could see over to the right, you'll see just how much damage and destruction was done in the Ninth Ward. That is a barge you're looking at, that red and brown structure, that made its way over there after Katrina.

The Army Corps of Engineers saying that the structure is still in tact. And they are monitoring, obviously, the situation, not just here, there are two other levees that failed. They are also watching pumping stations here in New Orleans. This, as the outer bands of Hurricane Rita making its way here into New Orleans -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Mary Snow live in New Orleans, thank you.

And we will get back to the levee situation in just a moment. Right now, let's get the latest numbers on Hurricane Rita.

Jacqui Jeras has that for us at the CNN Weather Center.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Daryn, our immediate concern right now is what is going on in New Orleans, and not just because of this surge that's been coming up that could go as high as four to eight feet now, but we're also very concerned about the tornado threat. And we have got a number of warnings which are in effect, and this includes Assumption, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist parishes. There you can see all those warnings highlighted in red.

There are two different storms that we're concerned, one right here just south and west of La Place or La Place, I'm not sure the exact pronunciation. And then there was one that was possibly reported by the public just to the south and west of Gonzales. Now that storm looks like it has weakened now. And it looks like the warning right here has expired, that storm right here at this time just to the south and west of Baton Rouge, so good news that that one is weakening.

But we're concerned about this tornado threat to be ongoing. In fact, a tornado watch now issued at least until 6:00 local time tonight, but we'll probably see that extended. And in fact, the threat of tornadoes will likely last for days. And we're very concerned as these feeder bands make their way across southeastern Louisiana.

Our focus then later on becomes where is Rita going? One hundred and thirty-five-mile-per-hour winds right now, Category 4. Some additional weakening is possible. We're thinking it will probably be a 3, possibly a 4, at landfall.

And the track has shifted slightly off to the east now, or off to the right, and bringing it in much closer now to the Texas-Louisiana state lines. That is probably going to happen, we think, overnight tonight, probably some time near dawn tomorrow morning -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Jacqui, you talk about where Rita is going, but what about the problem we're hearing about that it might not go anywhere very quickly, it might just sit there once it makes landfall?

JERAS: Right. Well we think it will move inland for a while, and then it's going to start to stall out once it gets a littler farther up to the north, into northeastern parts of Texas. Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and northern Texas all really need to be prepared for a significant freshwater flooding event from all the rain. Rainfall could get as high as maybe two feet with this storm, as it's going to sit there for probably two or three days -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Jacqui Jeras, thank you. Back with you many times over the hour.

Let's talk about Houston. It is the closest major city to Rita's projected landfall. It's where we find our Bob Franken who is keeping tabs on hurricane preps there.

Bob, hello.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning there or good afternoon.

There is not very much left here in terms of population in Houston. But if you go out on to the highways, there's still huge, huge jams. And there was a tragic, tragic event as part of the evacuation this morning that occurred just south of Dallas. In Bellaire, Texas, suburb of Houston, a home for the elderly, people had been put on a bus, 45 we're told, a bus to be evacuated. Many of them were very frail. They were taking oxygen masks.

When they got near Dallas, officials say there was some sort of mechanical failure, perhaps a brake failure, which caused a fire on the bus. Tragically, those oxygen tanks exploded and 20 to 24 people, depending on the counts, who have been killed in that. The National Transportation Safety Board says it's going to conduct an investigation.

Meanwhile, the backups on the highways are starting to be alleviated just a little bit, but they were massive. We've been hearing a lot about an evacuation plan that has left a lot of people here angry, a lot of people wishing they had just stuck around to deal with the storm. The governor of the state says that at the very least this evacuation, as troublesome as it was, kept people safe from the storm.

More things are going to be going into effect. The airport is going to be closed in about an hour. No traffic in or out. Of course there was a big mess up there yesterday, but the governor is saying that at least things happened now, as opposed to when they could have been worse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. RICK PERRY, TEXAS: But we're going to get through this. We're going to get through this, because we've prepared for such an event as this with extensive exercises. We're going to get through this, because so many of our citizens took this evacuation very seriously, and because this state has thousands of rescue and relief workers on the standby. So, be calm, be strong, say a prayer for Texas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: And there are any number of people who are saying that, as troublesome as all of this has been, it's only going to get worse -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, we will be watching it. Bob Franken, thank you.

We head to the southeast to Galveston and our David Mattingly.

David, hello.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.

We've been discussing so much about how successful this evacuation was with 90 percent of the people leaving the island. The 10 percent that are staying by, we've seen a few of them today. They have been out taking a walk, taking in the sights, taking in the elements, such as they are, right now. People deciding to ride some bikes or take a walk along the seawall to get a view of the pounding surf that's coming in here.

But as they do that, we all need to be mindful that as the wind is picking up, there will be certain public safety benchmarks to be mindful of. A couple of days ago, a city official was saying that once the winds get up to 39 miles per hour, that is the point when they will consider it a little too unsafe for any sort of public bus to go over the causeway, the causeway linking this island to the mainland.

And at some point after that, the winds will get to the point where they will pull all police and fire in for their own safety to ride out the storm. At that point, there's not going to be any more emergency service. The 911 calls that are coming in won't be answered, because it will just be unsafe for police officers to be out there.

So, people are going to need to be mindful that if they have decided to stay on this island, they're going to have to decide what they're going to do if the storm intrudes upon their home and threatens their health and safety.

So, the conditions are continuing to deteriorate. We're looking at those tropical storm force winds to arrive some time around dinnertime tonight. And it's just going to get a whole lot worse after that -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Well, David, that includes you and our crew. How are you riding out this storm?

MATTINGLY: We always have contingency plans. I know when you look at our reporting out in the middle of the storm, sometimes it can look foolhardy.

KAGAN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: We do take calculated risks. We always make sure that we are protected. We are close to buildings and things like that that will protect us from the wind and some of the rain. We also have to be very mindful of our equipment, frankly. Usually that will go down before we will. So we take a lot of precautions. In other words, don't try this at home.

KAGAN: Right, absolutely. Wanted to remind people of that.

David, thank you, we will be checking back with you.

Well later this afternoon, President Bush is going to head to San Antonio, Texas. He is going to thank emergency workers. Also, to observe preparations for Hurricane Rita. He is expected to watch landfall from Colorado. That's where the military is coordinating its response to the storm.

Our Suzanne Malveaux joins us live from the White House.

A very different way that President Bush is handling this hurricane compared to Katrina -- Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, the president is very much aware that this is a critical test for him, as well as for the administration. Right now President Bush is at FEMA headquarters. We should be getting a read out on that shortly before he actually heads out of town.

In a briefing, we were told the president was told about that tragic bus accident, those elderly people that perished in that accident. Scott McClellan saying that our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, but he refused to answer the question whether or not the president was satisfied with the evacuation effort out of Houston. He would only say that it's unprecedented, that it is federal, rather, it's state and local officials that are in charge of that. And that FEMA, as well as the Defense Department, are involved in some of those airlifts that were taking place, at least some patients, out of the hospitals.

But so far they're trying to project a positive image here. President Bush is going to be traveling later today. He's going to be headed to San Antonio, Texas. That is where he is meeting with some first responders to get an on the hand -- on-hands look at what is actually taking place in preparation ahead of Hurricane Rita.

And then he'll move on to Colorado Springs, Colorado. That is where the U.S. Northern Command is, really the post where he will actually be watching landfall, watching and tracking Hurricane Rita coming in. So, obviously, the White House, the president very much aware that they want to convince the American people that they are on top of it, that they are watching and that there are some lessons learned from Katrina -- Daryn.

KAGAN: It does two things as he gets out of Washington, D.C., it makes him look more involved with the storm. Also, he'll be avoiding a big anti-war protest that is set to take place in Washington, D.C. -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Well, Cindy Sheehan, you may recall, that is the mother, of course, whose son, Casey (ph), died in the Iraq war. She is going to be out here, as well as there are expected hundreds of protesters, if not perhaps thousands, that are going to be gathering in Washington, D.C. over the weekend to protest the Iraq war. We have seen them building up for that moment.

That is something that the president is actually going to be avoiding by being out of town. This is something that was dogging him at the Crawford Ranch, that is, of course, before he left to come back to deal with Hurricane Katrina.

KAGAN: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. Suzanne, thank you.

Focusing on the Red Cross now, it is still dealing with evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. Now thousands escaping Hurricane Rita have started to arrive at shelters in Texas. A short time ago, the head of relief operations for the American Red Cross outlined plans for handling this latest crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BECKER, AMERICAN RED CROSS: What we're doing now, things change and our role is to change quickly. The only impact that Rita will have on our current Katrina operations, those facilities where we are giving financial assistance to people that might need to turn into shelters, we're making those decisions on a minute-to-minute basis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: A lot of people are showing up at Red Cross shelters with their pets. A spokeswoman says the shelters do not accept pets, but the Red Cross has made arrangements for animals to be boarded.

New Orleans may not be in the direct path of Hurricane Rita, but a lot of people in the Big Easy and surrounding areas are very worried, and with good reason, as we continue to watch these pictures of levees not holding back the water.

And another hurricane in the Gulf is going to mean higher costs for all of us.

CNN LIVE TODAY back after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The weather picture continues to intensify with Hurricane Rita. For the latest, let's go to Jacqui Jeras -- Jacqui.

JERAS: Daryn, we have a tornado warning now for Orleans Parish, a possible tornado right in this area here near the airport. This is near Lakefront Airport. And it's moving very quickly to the north and the west around 55 miles per hour. You need to take cover now if you're in this area. It's heading up towards Lake Pontchartrain, probably won't arrive there until maybe quarter until the top of the hour. But a tornado warning in effect now for Orleans Parish, a possible tornado near Lakefront Airport -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Jacqui, thank you, and we'll get back to you for more information on Hurricane Rita in just a moment.

First, we want to show some pictures we're just getting in. This is Miami, just off the coast of Miami, Haulover Inlet. And as we understand, live pictures of some Cubans who made a homemade boat and were trying to make it ashore to Florida but are just in the process of giving up. And the Coast Guard and a boat from Homeland Security also on the scene there.

It wasn't easy to get them to give up. Apparently they had used -- the Coast Guard had used a high-powered hose, spraying some of the men onboard that homemade boat. And apparently there was a mast, that part of the boat, and the Cubans were using that to try to fend off those that were trying to get them to give up. But apparently this one coming to an end. And they are taking them into custody there off the coast of Miami.

Back now to the hurricane story and New Orleans. About 80 percent of New Orleans was flooded when Hurricane Katrina breached the levees, and now even more water has begun spilling over one of the levees into one of the neighborhoods. The city isn't the only place where people are worried about levees.

CNN's Adaora Udoji filed this report when Rita was still well out into the Gulf.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As dark clouds move in, this is it, the last best line of defense for St. Bernard Parish, where floodwaters swallowed tens of thousands of homes after hurricane Katrina. Now, officials fear they have no idea what to expect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess in New York, you all have had the 9/11 event. This might be our 9/11 here, man.

UDOJI: We're just east of downtown New Orleans, with parish levee engineer Bob Turner, who stayed as the Army Corps of Engineers pulled out. This levee, a 56-mile long soft mound of earth with a steel middle, something kids might run up and down. He calls it an inner levee, a second line of defense. Katrina already destroyed the outer levee, so this is all there is to hold back the storm.

(on camera): It's really windy up here. ROBERT TURNER, LAKE BORGNE BASIN LEVEE DISTRICT: Yes, it is.

UDOJI: Does that worry you?

TURNER: Well, that's -- this wind is what's driving the water in. That's what's causing the tides to rise. So, yes, that is a little bit of a concern.

UDOJI (voice-over): Windy and raining. Though the eye of Rita is still more than 225 miles away, the outer rain bands are already blowing hard and have dumped so much rain in the last 24 hours, water levels are up a foot and rising faster and faster.

(on camera): This is one of the levees. It's like a small hill. And the problem is this, the water is just yards away. And if it rises high enough and storm surges force it over the hill, it'll go straight into the parish.

(voice-over): Weather models predict a storm surge of three to five feet. But Turner says anything over that means big problems.

TURNER: A major hurricane, basically, we have no defense against that right now. None whatsoever.

UDOJI: That's the big question everywhere here, how will the battered levees hold up?

Volunteers, like Eddie Warner, who have been feeding thousands of police officers and rescue workers, isn't taking any chances, packing up the outdoor kitchen and heading to higher ground.

EDDIE WARNER, VOLUNTEER: We're going to have a grand finale on Saturday or Sunday.

UDOJI (on camera): But now you're not.

WARNER: This storm has ended it.

UDOJI (voice-over): New Orleans police say they have no idea how many people have evacuated or how many have stayed, though some officers say they haven't seen many people around.

In St. Bernard Parish, Turner is getting ready, turning on water pumps now to push the rainwater out. He says there aren't many people left here.

TURNER: More water in the parish at this point in time is not going to do any -- can't do any more damage than was already done. But what it will do is it's going to...

UDOJI (on camera): Delay.

TURNER: ... significantly delay the recovery effort.

UDOJI (voice-over): He plans to stay unless Rita moves in too close. Adaora Udoji, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And the very fears we were just hearing about in Adaora Udoji's package coming true.

These are new pictures we're getting in to us. Once again, the Industrial Canal not being able to hold the amount of water that the storm surge has already brought in. An interesting fact to compare it to of what we heard in Adaora's piece, she said they were expecting storm surge and the water level to rise three to five feet.

When I talked to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers earlier, it is already close to eight feet. And as the experts were saying in Adaora's package, if it goes higher than that, they just don't expect them to be able to hold the water. And that is, indeed, what we see happening here as the water pours into the lower Ninth Ward.

The levees in New Orleans not the only concern, as we move ahead, when a giant hurricane moving across the Gulf, America's oil industry standing to take a big hit. Coming up next, we're going to take a look at why what happens at these refineries impacts your life in a lot of ways beyond the gas pump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The story of Hurricane Rita continues to develop. Live pictures there from Galveston, Texas. We expect the mayor, Lyda Ann Thomas, to have a news conference any minute. Actually, in about five minutes. And when she does begin to speak, we will check in and see what she has to say.

Meanwhile, let's look at how this is going to affect the entire country, the ripple effect that is shaking up American consumers post Katrina. Oil production already down. Now there are concerns that Rita could damage more platforms and more refineries, and that impact will be felt far beyond the gas pumps.

Ali Velshi is in New York. He has been following the energy story. And he joins us with that picture, which apparently is not going to be pretty.

Ali, hello.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's grim right now.

Good to see you, Daryn.

We have at least 15 out of 26 major refineries shut down right now in preparation for Rita. We've also got at least one major pipeline that takes refined products, gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, from the region to the Midwest, to Chicago, called the Explorer Pipeline. It's also shut down.

Now what we have been seeing, and this is part of the problem, is line-ups at gas stations in and around Houston. We have made a lot of calls, over 120 phone calls to gas stations, and most are shut down and have left. As of last check, about 30 had gasoline. We don't know if they are out of gasoline now. And those little towns north of Texas where people are evacuating to and beyond, also not supplying gas. They're out of gas. So this is one of the biggest problems we're seeing right now.

We're talking to Shell and ExxonMobil and all the companies to see what they're doing to try and get these gas stations restocked. Because of that pipeline that's been shut down, 10 percent of all the refined products, including gasoline, going to the Midwest has been shut down. Remember, Daryn, a lot of diesel in there for the farmers who are starting their harvest.

There is a pipeline that goes to the northeast, the Colonel Pipeline. This is the one that was affected by Katrina. It is going to, they have just announced that they are going to have to shut that down, at least periodically, to protect it from the impact of Rita.

So what you have is almost a quarter of our refining capacity shut down. There are still four refineries damaged from Katrina. This is all going to play out and you're going to feel this.

That's a map -- and that's just a map of a few. There are 26 major refineries in the area that Rita is headed to. Some of the biggest in the country, Daryn, 500,000-plus barrels a day at one of the ExxonMobil plants that you can see in the middle of your map. Two of those ExxonMobil plants shut down. That's almost a million barrels a day. In total, some five million barrels a day of oil are not being produced, refined into gasoline, and that's going to come through.

KAGAN: OK, bottom line, let's talk some money here. I think average price of gas is about $2.79 a gallon right now...

VELSHI: Yes, and it's tough, because none of us actually ever pay the average price of gas. If you are one of these people who live in California, you have been paying three bucks plus for a long time. If you live in Atlanta...

KAGAN: You pay it here in Atlanta.

VELSHI: In Atlanta, after Katrina,...

KAGAN: Yes.

VELSHI: ... some people were paying above $5.

KAGAN: Yes, it went crazy. But see that's the other side of the story...

VELSHI: Yes.

KAGAN: ... in that that wasn't just supply and demand, that was hysteria. That's what a rumor can do to a city.

VELSHI: Exactly. Remember, Daryn, that a gas station stores typically 10,000 gallons of gas in their reservoir. When that runs out, when they sell more gas than they were expecting to, that station runs out. What that typically means is that they have got to refill that gas station. If that starts happening in a region, everybody panics. And if a gas station knows you're panicking, they're going to charge you for it.

KAGAN: Yes.

VELSHI: So the best advice right now is, if you need gas because you're evacuating a hurricane area, do what you have got to do, get the gas you have to get. If you don't, I don't want to give people advice to not fill up, because, you know, to not panic, because they're going to go in tomorrow or the next day and find gas a lot more expensive than it was today. But let's just not add to any panic that we don't need to. There are enough problems right now without us rushing to start a run on gas.

KAGAN: I will sign on to that. Ali, thank you.

VELSHI: OK.

KAGAN: Ali Velshi in New York City.

VELSHI: Bye-bye.

KAGAN: Just ahead, we'll get a live update from the Pentagon on what the U.S. military is doing to prepare for Hurricane Rita.

And Houston knows all about flooding and weather problems, and it didn't take a hurricane to cause it. Find out what happened just ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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