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CNN Live Today

Cameron Parish Severely Damaged by Hurricane Rita; President Bush Prepared to Tap Strategic Oil Reserves

Aired September 26, 2005 - 11:59   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 what's happening "Now in the News."
Some neighborhoods in New Orleans are now wide open while others remain off limits. Mayor Ray Nagin is urging residents of the Algiers area to come back. He's also opening up the French Quarter, uptown, and the central business district to business owners. He will have -- we're going to have a live report coming up this hour from New Orleans.

A spokesman for Sinn Fein tells CNN the Irish Republican Army has disarmed and scrapped its weapons. And just two hours ago, the head of the disarmament commission in northern Ireland confirmed that. General John de Chastelain said the enormous cache of arms included mortars and missiles. De Chastelain said that his commission is still dealing with arms held by loyalist paramilitary groups.

And in Madrid, tight security marks sentencing in Europe's largest terrorist trial to date. Among the 18 sentenced was a correspondent for the Al Jazeera television network. He had been convicted of conspiring with al Qaeda. Also, a convicted al Qaeda leader received 27 years for conspiring in the September 11 attacks on the U.S.

I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta on this Monday morning.

Up first this hour, the latest damage assessment from Hurricane Rita. Floodwaters still cover parts of southwestern Louisiana two days after Rita slammed ashore. Vermilion Parish sits right on the coast. It took a pounding from the storm.

Looking at scenes now from the small town of Erath. Authorities say about a thousand people had to be plucked from the floodwaters in that parish. Tens of thousands of evacuees are waiting for word on when they will be allowed to go back home.

The city of Lake Charles, Louisiana, remains closed. It has no water or sewer service, and downed trees and power lines make the situation there very unsafe.

A broad region -- a broad area of the region is also without electricity. At last count, nearly a million people from Texas to Mississippi were without power.

As far as Rita's impact on gas supplies, the word right now is that most refineries came with little damage. Although one suffered some serious problems, and more than a dozen were shut down.

Our Randi Kaye is in Cameron Parish in Louisiana, joins us right now by phone.

Randi, what are you seeing?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, we are in Cameron Parish, where General Russel Honore has just arrived. We are getting ready to tour Cameron Parish by ground. We took a fly-over over the area last night, and it really is just amazing to see how much damage Hurricane Rita did here.

This is on the southwestern tip, just east of the Sabine River. This is the hardest hit area. And the homes, there's practically nothing left of them. Very few homes standing in the city of Cameron itself. About 100 percent of the homes are gone. One hundred percent.

It's really just terrible to see all of that's left in the city of Creole, which is also in the parish, is the courthouse building. And we are expecting to tour the area by ground for the first time today and bring ground pictures to you.

We did get a quick briefing this morning. They were in there today. They're trying to clear a lot of the cattle that has -- that has been in the area. This is a big farming community, a big fishing community, and they're working to get the stranded cattle out. We're going to get some pictures of that.

They're also clearing the roads, assessing the power lines. There's a couple of very large bridges there. They're assessing the damage there and basically just trying to move the houses and the random rooftops that are laying across the road out of the way.

We also understand it's still pretty hard to pass in there. The military is here, and they are actually, Daryn, walking to Cameron. From where we are in the parish to the actual city of Cameron is about a 30-mile walk through water, and -- because there is just right now no other way to get there. And they certainly can't land there, so they're walking there -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Right. And when you say having a chance to see Cameron by foot today, I would imagine there's not a lot you can see by foot, though, by the looks of the pictures we're seeing.

KAYE: No. Right. We're actually going with a gentleman who is -- he has a business of air boats. And the general has actually asked him to work with them and help get people in and out of there.

So we're going to be going in his air boat in just a short time here and assess the damage. He lost his business in Cameron. He also lost his home. We're going to take him to see what's left of his home, if anything, in just a little while.

KAGAN: Well, you're with a man who can get things done and get to all sort of places, Lieutenant General Russel Honore. We'll look forward to hearing more of your reports. Randi, thank you.

Randi Kaye on the phone from Cameron Parish, Louisiana.

This, of course, getting the attention of the White House and President Bush. For more on that, let's go to the White House and our Dana Bash -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn.

Well, what we saw just about a half an hour ago was an illustration of President Bush really transformed from delegator to detail man when it comes to the recovery of hurricanes. He was ticking off some percentages of pipelines, their capacity, talking about what that would mean potentially for gas prices. And of all of the things that is weighing on the president's very low approval rating, the lowest of his presidency, Bush advisers think that high gas prices is among the biggest issues.

The president made clear just a short while ago that he is concerned that Hurricane Rita will cause disruptions of gas getting to the market. He said that like after Katrina, the government is once again prepared to tap into the Strategic Petroleum Oil Reserve to prevent those prices from going higher. He also called on Americans to conserve.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can all pitch in by using -- by being better conservers of energy. I mean, people just need to recognize that these storms have caused disruption, and that if they're able to, you know, maybe not drive on a trip that's not essential, that would be helpful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And the president called on the federal government to do its part, talking about federal employees, federal agencies nationwide to curtail nonessential travel, even suggesting the idea of carpools.

But as for the president, Daryn, he will travel tomorrow, he said, to the hurricane-stricken region, we think to Beaumont and Port Arthur. He is going to get a first-hand look of the devastation there.

He was traveling over the weekend, but avoided that area as the hurricane was hitting. Daryn, as you know, this is a White House that is really trying to have lessons learned, really as fast as they can. And one of the biggest lessons that they learned was not going to the hurricane-stricken region until several days after Katrina hit -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Yes. And one of the lessons that they're trying to perhaps change that isn't getting total support is this idea of changing the role of the military. Tell us more about that, Dana.

BASH: Well, the president talked again about that today. It is something that he says he wants Congress to consider.

Essentially, when the worst kind of catastrophe hits, having the U.S. military take control in a way we did not see after Katrina. This is something that he says potentially could have -- a law could need to be changed by Congress.

The White House says that the idea is to have a trigger, to somehow quantify what would be necessary for the U.S. military to take control. But as we've heard from Barbara Starr, this is not necessarily something that military officials, leaders at the Pentagon, think perhaps is that great of an idea -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right, Dana. Thank you.

Dana Bash live at the White House.

Talking energy, because that's what the president was focusing on today, and gas prices, they are on the rise again. AAA saying the national average for a gallon of unleaded has jumped a nickel since Friday. It's now $2.80 a gallon. Before Rita struck, Texas and Louisiana, the Lundberg Survey had found the national average for self-serve regular had dropped 20 cents in the two-week period.

So in a bid to conserve fuel, most public schools here in the state of George are closed down today and tomorrow. The governor, Sonny Perdue, requested the move on Friday as Hurricane Rita was bearing down on the Texas-Louisiana coast and threatening refineries in the region.

Perdue estimating the closure will save a quarter of a million gallons of diesel fuel. A lot of parents, I've got to tell you, are not happy with that decision. Some had to scramble to find day care for their young children.

In storm-battered Lake Charles, Louisiana, it is still far too dangerous for those who fled Hurricane Rita to go home. Our Chris Lawrence is keeping track of developments there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, with the floodwaters are receding here in Lake Charles, but that is really just revealing the extent of the damage here. This storm flattened trees all across the city, and what that's done is caused these power lines to collapse.

I'm not talking just a few blocks or even a few dozen blocks. There are scenes like this over hundreds of blocks here in Lake Charles. And as the crews got out and started to assess some of the damage, what we're hearing now is that they have found major electrical problems here in the city of Lake Charles. And officials will be telling the folks who did evacuate, do not come back to Lake Charles until further notice.

That could be a week, that could be several weeks. And if you need any example of why they tell people to evacuate, here it is. When you talk a look at power of this storm, you can imagine being a family inside that house when that thing comes down right on top of your home.

Some of the other things that police are dealing with here, some sporadic reports of looting. Maybe over a dozen accounts of looting, but nothing like we saw in New Orleans. But again, when you take a look at the damage here, you can see that it's going to be some time before Lake Charles gets back on its feet again.

Chris Lawrence, CNN, Lake Charles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And now pictures for you about what a storm surge actually looks like when it comes right into your home. This is home video from Hurricane Rita. It was taken Saturday by a resident in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana. You can see the relentless invasion of water as it smashes into the home, engulfing all of the contents. These residents, by the way, eventually fled up to the attic of the house, used a shotgun to blast a hole in the roof to escape the rising water.

To Houston, Texas. It is flickering back to life this morning. Residents streaming back into that city. A lot of them tried to beat the rush and ignored the state's staggered reentry plan.

Our national correspondent, Bob Franken, joining us from Houston.

Bob, those motorists behind you showing what they think of the tips from the government about when they should come back.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. But what's so intriguing is the fact that traffic on a Monday would probably (INAUDIBLE) Houston would not be moving as fast as it is. But when you take into account the fact that businesses are staying closed, that schools are staying closed, there is quite a bit of feeling that this traffic plan, although they're ignoring the plan, is making the entry into Houston an awful lot more easy than the evacuation did.

Now, officials called a news conference this morning to say they want to make sure that they are going to stay on top of it, literally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL WHITE, HOUSTON: We will have helicopter flights that are over -- you know, going over the major highways coming inbound to Houston. And we do encourage citizens to listen to any media advisories concerning traffic conditions. We'll have updates if bottlenecks or problems occur. And, of course, we'll be solving those problems as they come along.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Well, let us not forget that bottlenecks occur on a normal day. This is not a normal day in Houston yet. There are still hundreds of thousands of businesses and homes without power, but it's getting back to normal very, very quickly -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And it doesn't look like they're going to need any kind of contraflow traffic plan like they did to get all those folks out at the same time.

FRANKEN: They didn't both even putting that into effect. And there's some criticism now that that contraflow program they had, they were too tentative getting started with it and it wasn't as refined as it should be. So they're going to go back to the drawing board a little bit on that.

KAGAN: All right. Bob Franken, on the side of the highway there in Houston, Texas. Thank you, Bob.

Coming up, signs of recovery in New Orleans. Just ahead, we're going to get a live update on that.

We'll also go along as Louisiana-born General Russel Honore views the damage in Cameron Parish.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: A chance to listen in right now. J.T. Alpaugh with the HeliNet service, talking to the pilot from the California Highway Patrol that's been involved with Louisiana state police as they've been doing patrols. Let's listen in.

J.T. ALPAUGH, HELICOPTER REPORTER: ... we were seeing damage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: J.T., I need a left turn. We're going into class B.

ALPAUGH: OK. We're going to start a shallow left turn here. We're starting to get into class B airspace, and we want to stay out of (INAUDIBLE) airspace. So we're just going to do a real shallow (INAUDIBLE).

You've got a couple of passengers on board with you in the back seat. Who's with you today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have two of our own officers from headquarters, and we're flying them around to show them some of the damaged areas so they can report back to their supervisors.

ALPAUGH: And what about looting? As far as the law enforcement end of what you guys have been doing, have you been seeing a lot of that? Or what's been going on with the law enforcement here, communications with some of the ground officers?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have not seen a whole lot of it lately. I think that's because there has been such a large presence of officers all over the country on the ground here and in the aircraft up ahead -- up above. We did have some reports of looting when we first arrived here, and even a report of a sniper. But those calls have died down in the last week or so.

ALPAUGH: And what type of routine patrol are you doing to curb some of those -- some of those looting activities, or just general overall presence over the city? Are you work at night?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did have a night shift, although we're starting to wind down since we're planning on heading back to California in a couple of days. We would try to patrol primarily over the areas that were hardest hit so that people that had ideas of driving into the area and looting would see a helicopter overhead and maybe think twice about it. And if we did see something unusual, we'd call ground officers in to check it out.

ALPAUGH: So what is -- what are you planning to do over the next couple of days here while you're still here? What are the operations (INAUDIBLE) over the next couple of days as things start -- people start to come back into the city? Mayor Nagin obviously let people back in to the city today in a limited fashion. Have you been seeing any of that activity?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry. Can you ask the question again? I was busy there.

ALPAUGH: Absolutely. Now that the mayor is letting a lot more people back into the city, have you seen -- I can see you look around there (INAUDIBLE).

And what's your partner's name again today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My partner's name is Darren Janiso (ph).

ALPAUGH: Hey, Darren (ph). (INAUDIBLE). So what is your operation, what it consists of today, and the remaining time that you're here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, with the extended time we have left on our shift, we're pretty much providing aerial law enforcement support like we would be doing in California. We're working in conjunction with the Louisiana state police and have communications with them, as well as the California Highway Patrol.

So we're going to monitor traffic and report back to their headquarters regarding that. And then also...

KAGAN: Just a little mid-air chat that we were eavesdropping, listening in on there between J.T. Alpaugh with HeliNet and the California Highway Patrol as they get a look over -- from the skies over New Orleans.

While that was going there's also state officials -- Louisiana state officials in Baton Rouge were holding a briefing. And we want to share this with you. This is from Dwight Landrenau He is with Wildlife and Fisheries in Louisiana, talking about how they, in the wake of Hurricane Rita, were rescuing animals, also offering to rescue folks, but a lot of people turned down that offer.

Let's listen in.

DWIGHT LANDRENAU, DEPT. OF WILDLIFE AND FISHERIES: The remarkable thing is that we've gone back to houses and were asking people that were trapped, "Do you want to come out? We're here to take you out." And they're all saying, "No, we're not ready to come out. We're comfortable here. We're high and dry. We have food and water and we're going to ride this guy out."

So that's basically what we were doing yesterday. I think we brought in about 15 people with the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. We had 250 or so boats and employees out there bringing in 15 people. But most of the...

KAGAN: And that was once again listening in to Wildlife and Fisheries. A lot of folks saying, sorry, we will just stay put where we are.

Let's go back to New Orleans, that's where the mayor, Ray Nagin, wants people to come back to the city. Cars are already streaming into some areas, and the Army Corps of Engineers expects places flood for a second time because of Rita will be dry within a week of repairs to the levees.

Our Mary Snow joining us from New Orleans with more on all of that.

Mary, hello once again.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Daryn.

And, you know, it's been 27 days since Hurricane Katrina hit. Mayor Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, is making a first step to try to return this city to normalcy, but it is anything but normal.

He is opening up specified areas for people to come in. One of those being Algiers. This is a section on the west bank of New Orleans that suffered the least amount damage from Katrina. And also here in the east bank, he is allowing business owners to come in to three sections, the French Quarter, central business district, and uptown, to come in and asses their business, their -- how everything was left, what it's going to take to restart.

Now, this program was started a week ago but had to be put on hold because of Hurricane Rita moving through the region. What is going to be the timeline for the rest of the city largely depends on how these first few days go. And nothing is really running, as people left it.

Here on the east bank, business owners are being told, don't wash your hands with the water. Don't bathe in it, obviously. Don't drink it. The electricity has been out, and he's saying pretty much enter at your own risk.

There's a curfew from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., and people are going to be restricted in their movements. They can only move around in this zip codes where they have their business or their home. And there are checkpoints coming in. We've seen traffic jams so far today.

This, as the Army Corps of Engineers tries to pump out the remaining water after some areas were re-flooded when Rita dumped rain and also strong winds blew in on Friday. The Army Corps of Engineers really focusing on that Lower 9th Ward, which was re-flooded. They expect to get that water out, they're saying now, by the end of the week.

And another parish that is allowing people back in, St. Bernard's Parish. This was heavily damaged. And officials from that parish say they're letting residents come back in to kind of take a look at their homes. And that, though, is still pretty much flooded. So not everybody can go back -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. Mary Snow live from New Orleans. Thank you for that.

Let's check in on weather today. And Bonnie Schneider is taking care of that this hour.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: Just ahead, the story of the American dream put on hold by Hurricane Rita. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's go ahead and check out the numbers on Wall Street. Things have been strong all day long in the wake of Hurricane Rita. It was not as bad. You can see the Dow is up 70 points, the Nasdaq composite in territory as well. The Nasdaq is up about 12 points.

And this is coming out of Beaumont, Texas. Five people found dead in a Beaumont apartment. Apparently they had been using a generator because there was no power there.

The bodies of a woman, a man and three children were found after the children's aunt went to the apartment to check on the group. The power was knocked out in Beaumont and Port Arthur after Rita had gone into Texas on Saturday morning.

Authorities suspect carbon monoxide poisoning as the cause of death. Officials will be conducting a -- will be conducted for a -- contacted for an official ruling on that. Once again, five people dead found in an apartment in Beaumont Texas.

So when Rita struck two days ago along the Texas-Louisiana border, much of the worst damage was on the storm's east side in Louisiana, but not all of it. Some homes and businesses on the Texas side suffered extensive damage as well. And that's where we find our Dan Simon in Port Arthur, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A lot of people are saying that Port Arthur dodged a bullet. You didn't dodge a bullet.

MICHAEL NGUYEN, OWNER, DRIFTWOOD INN: No, I don't think so. Not me.

SIMON (voice over): Michael Nguyen owns the Driftwood Inn Motel here in Port Arthur, Texas, a motel he recently renovated.

NGUYEN: Everything is almost new.

SIMON: Now much of it has been destroyed. The hurricane winds barreled through the back portion of the motel, ripping off the roof and peeling back walls.

NGUYEN: These things fly everywhere. Just fly everywhere. So...

SIMON (on camera): All this debris?

NGUYEN: The debris, yes.

SIMON (voice over): For Michael, the motel represents a lot more than a business. Thirty years ago he says he fled Vietnam, having fought side by side with American soldiers.

(on camera): You're from Vietnam.

NGUYEN: Yes, sir.

SIMON: You came to this country with no money, only the clothes on your back.

NGUYEN: That's right. Bare hands.

SIMON (voice over): He scrimped and saved until he could own his own motel. The 85-room Driftwood has already enabled him to give his wife and children a brighter future.

(on camera): You put five kids through college with this motel, huh?

NGUYEN: Yes, sir. I used -- you know, through this motel, five kids through university. One of them become a doctor last year.

SIMON (voice over): But despite his own loss, Michael feels worse for some of his guests, several of whom fled Louisiana after Katrina.

(on camera): Apparently whoever had this room fled New Orleans. These are brand new clothes. These folks probably lost everything they had in New Orleans from Katrina. They come here to Texas, and they have to leave the motel because of Rita. So they've really been victimized twice.

NGUYEN: Take the sign down from the street. SIMON (voice over): Michael thinks it will take at least six months to get up and running again. His plans of selling the motel and retiring put on hold indefinitely.

(on camera): How are you going to get by?

NGUYEN: Well, I survived in the war with, you know, nothing. We can rebuild. So money doesn't matter. That's -- life is very precious.

SIMON: Dan Simon for CNN, Port Arthur, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And the disappointment continues. We are now looking at pictures from HeliNet. This is in the Chalmette area of New Orleans. Folks just getting back and getting a chance to look at their homes.

Let's listen in to J.T. Alpaugh.

ALPAUGH: Temperatures in the 95s. And the heat index up to close -- up close to 105.

So we're going to pull out, give this -- give this woman some privacy and not intrude too much on her loss. But absolute -- this is what we're going to start seeing more and more of, these people finding their ways into -- returning to these areas and their homes, and realizing just what that woman that you saw there did, that there is nothing left. It is absolutely destroyed. And that they're realizing that their homes are never going to be inhabitable again. Doesn't -- man, not a good thing.

We're going to come back around to the right, continue our path eastbound through the St. Bernard Parish, working our way through some of the provinces of Chalmette.

KAGAN: And as we've been doing over the last couple of weeks, dipping in and out of coverage and pictures and comments from Helinet and J.T. Alpaugh.

Louisiana's Vermillion Parish has been hard hit by Rita. We'll have the latest on the flooding there, just ahead in a live report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Once again, more live pictures. This is Chalmette, Louisiana, in the New Orleans area. Folks just getting a chance now to get back to their homes to get a first look at the devastation. Don't forget, this is devastation that probably happened from Hurricane Katrina. And it's the Helinet crew that is hovering overhead, getting a look at folks looking at their homes.

Let's go ahead and take a look at what else is happening "Now in the News."

Many Hurricane Rita evacuees from Houston, Texas, are going home today after their city suffered just a glancing blow. And traffic heading into town is less chaotic than when people were fleeing ahead of Rita. Up to three million people from the Houston metropolitan area headed to higher ground to escape Rita's wrath. Houston is the nation's fourth largest city in terms of population.

There's expected to be little suspense as the Senate prepares to vote on Judge John Roberts' nomination as chief justice. Final debate is scheduled to begin just a short time from now, and a floor vote is expected no later than Thursday. About two-thirds of senators already say they support Roberts' nomination.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have freed more than 400 prisoners from Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail. It's described as a goodwill gesture to Sunnis to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It also comes less than three weeks before a referendum on Iraq's draft constitution.

Back here in the U.S. along the coast in southwestern Louisiana, entire fishing villages were flattened when Hurricane Rita slammed ashore. The storm surge also pushed inland, swamping other villages and towns, as well.

Our Ed Lavandera is with us now from the hardest hit area, in Erath Louisiana -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn.

Well, we're in -- just standing along the street, it kind of takes you into the main part of Erath. And you can see what the neighborhoods here have been struggling with for the last -- just beyond this chain link fence, there's a little bayou that cuts through the neighborhoods here. And all of that is swollen up and taken over these neighborhoods.

These homes back over here, we've talked to many of these residents here this morning and everyone in this particular area probably got about two feet of water in their homes. The water has dropped down and many of them keeping a good attitude, if you can see those guys over there at the end. But many of them who have gone in say that there's just a thick layer of sludge inside their home.

But one story in particular that we've been paying a lot of attention to here in Vermillion Parish was the story of a woman and her three children who lived right -- about 20 miles away from here on the coast. And she had refused to evacuate her home with her three children. For the last two days, authorities here thought that the family had been swept away by the floodwaters. But there's a happy ending to this story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERIFF MIKE COUVILLION, VERMILLION PARISH, LOUISIANA: She chose not to leave after we requested her to leave and advised her it was mandatory and she stayed. And well, after the storm, the water rose and she just couldn't get out. She got out of her trailer, got in one of the neighbor's homes. The water was rising fast. She put her three children on an air mattress. Within hours, she noticed she had but a foot left before it was on the ceiling. She grabbed the oldest child, went underwater, swam out, put her oldest child on the roof, dove underwater again, retrieved her youngest one, swam out, gave it to her oldest one, swam back in and got the middle child and stayed on the roof until the wind slowed down. And she found a boat and attempted to paddle out and the current was too strong for her to go anywhere. Then somebody showed up attempting to rescue people, found her, picked them up and she's safe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: They're happy, of course, that she's safe, but they're hoping that people listen to that story and do just the opposite in the days to come. You know, the water levels are receding here in Vermillion Paris. When we pulled in here about five, six hours ago, the water was level was just about to here along the grass. So you can see in just this short time that we've been here this morning, where the water levels are dropping.

But they want -- still want people to stay away from this area. Crews will be going out into the roadways of the parish in -- over the next day or two. And they want to do is survey the roads and the bridges to make sure everything is secure, hasn't been damaged by the floodwaters. So they're still urging people to stay away -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Ed Lavandera, thank you so much for that.

The Texas National Guard is on the move in the hurricane zone in that state, helping the region start the recovery process. With us on the phone right now from Austin, Texas, Texas National Guard Chief Bill Meehan. Hello.

CHIEF BILL MEEHAN, TEXAS NATL. GUARD: Hi Daryn, how are you?

KAGAN: I'm doing good. I hope you're doing well. Tell me about the task that your people are taking on right now.

MEEHAN: Well, you know, since we saw the storm, we have been essentially chasing and attempting to both attack the storm and work the problems. So we currently have over 2,000 guardsmen down in the affected area. We've swung north because we're looking at flooded areas and moving up to where the power is out.

As a for instance, just yesterday we delivered 100,000 pounds of food and water just by our Blackhawks and aircraft alone, throughout our communities in Polk and Jefferson and Jasper. So we've got 350 vehicles in the area working. You know, we did 87 patients out of a hospital just yesterday, refueling 60 ambulances. So we're moving thousands of rations in. You know, so we are working hard to support our local operations.

KAGAN: Yes, let me ask you a couple questions here. First of all, all that food and help you're bringing in, are those folks that chose to stay and didn't get out, are those rescuers... MEEHAN: Well, the areas that we're going into now are areas that weren't really evacuated. Remember, we evacuated those 2.3 million people out of the greater Houston area.

KAGAN: Oh, yes.

MEEHAN: So these are folks that are as much as 100 miles north of the coast, where the hurricane turned. And they've got flooding and high winds knocking power lines down. So if we're looking at Beaumont, we're going right up the state line, all the way about 100 miles. And so we have an engineer forces that are working for the local governors or the local operations. We're sending in generators and, essentially, as much help as we can get out there. We're 24 hours a day.

KAGAN: Do you have everything you need in terms of people and supplies?

MEEHAN: Yes, we do. And I think the issue is now, is we send our helicopters ahead of time, identify particular areas that are important, and then we go back through our state operations center and work with them to make sure we get the right assets at the right time with all of the different agencies.

KAGAN: Which brings to the thought, you can't help but notice this is going so much differently and more quickly than Katrina.

MEEHAN: Well, yes. You know, we had almost 3,000 of our Texas Army and Air National Guard men and women in Katrina, that came all of the way back here in about 24 hours, turned around, refit and went right back into the teeth of the storm. So we are literally both attacking back right behind the storm and following into the flooded areas.

KAGAN: Well, they're doing important work, both in Louisiana, where they were, and then in your home state of Texas.

Chief, thank you.

MEEHAN: Thank you, Daryn.

KAGAN: Good luck with all of the work that's still ahead for you and your people.

What the impact is of the recent stormy weather in the Gulf of Mexico. What's it going to do with driving plans. We'll check in with CNN's Ali Velshi for an energy alert, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Once again, getting a chance to watch folks getting to come home, some for the first time IN weeks. This is Chalmette, Louisiana, near New Orleans. First chance -- and not only are they finding their home, but they're also finding troops there as well. We've been using the sound and pictures of Helinet and J.T. Alpaugh. Let's listen. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALPAUGH: It's hard to sit here and report on what's happening, because again, you can just read the despair and the emotion on the faces of these people. And it's hard to comment about it, because in no way do I know what they're going through. I can't sit here and say, oh, and try to speak to -- I can't speak to what they're going through, because I don't know. I hope I will never know.

But these people have waited four weeks to get back into their homes and try to salvage things. And you can just see, there's nothing to salvage. It's as if there was a fire. Everything is absolutely destroyed. There's a look of frustration. You can almost read in their body language, their hands going up and just completely defeated body languages out here. It's very hard to watch. These are one of these things that you don't want to be ever seeing, but here it is.

Again this is being replayed over and over, and will be, movie for the next few weeks, being replayed over and over, time and time again, just absolute -- if there was any hope that was left as they were standing wherever they were standing, any hope that was left that anything that was salvageable in their homes completely dashed as they come back into these areas. It's heartbreaking and just gut wrenching to see this. This is being replayed, at least in this neighborhood of Chalmette.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: We were listening in to J.T. Alpaugh and the Helinet crew as they get a look at folks getting into their homes for the first time in weeks.

How is this going to affect you if you don't live anywhere near the Gulf Coast? Damage to the oil industry from Hurricane Rita doesn't appear to be as bad as first feared. President Bush having some remarks about the owl supply just a short time ago. Ali Velshi listening to that -- Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, this is entirely a half empty, or half-full situation, depending how you look at it. We have oil prices coming down a little bit today. Natural gas prices coming down a little bit today. Gasoline -- traded gasoline, wholesale prices of gasoline coming down today, and we've got people saying that, you know, we dodged a bullet, it's not that, bad except that we've still have oil at $64.70 a barrel. We've still got gasoline prices as of yesterday morning, a national average of $2.80 a barrel,and if you're one of those 60 million homes in America that heat with natural gas, you'll still going to get a big shock when you heat your home this winter, because it might be a cold winter, by some predictions, in the Northeast and the Midwest.

So we do hear that you can expect to see oil prices come down. One analyst who we've spoken to, one of those who said we might see $4 or $5 a gallon gasoline last week, is now saying this might be a bubble about to burst. You know, when we talk about oil prices bursting at $64, what does that mean? Fifty dollars gas, or $55 gas. A year ago, we weren't paying anywhere near -- not gasoline, I'm sorry, oil. A year ago, $55 a gasoline, I hope nobody one picked that one up.

KAGAN: Yes, Ali, easy there.

VELSHI: I think a whole lot of the newspapers just stopped printing.

So you know, it's a matter of your perspective. We probably will see some pullback on the price of energy. The damage in the area, Daryn, as you know and you've been reporting, is not as severe as was initially thought.

KAGAN: Well, I'll tell you what burst, some parent's tempers here in Georgia. You know, the governor, Sonny Perdue, in an effort to save fuel called off school today and tomorrow.

VELSHI: Says it's going to save 250 gallons of gasoline. The president mentioned in his speech earlier that he thought that was a good idea, and Kentucky's got some program on that's similar. I know a lot of parents, as you probably heard, are a little annoyed by the fact that now they have to find something to do for the next two days for their kids.

I think the idea is that President Bush has reinforced what we all sort of think, that we need to think about conservation. We probably have to think a little more broadly about it, and how we'll do it, so that it doesn't sort of shift everything else that we're trying to do. But yes, I absolutely think at $3 in that neighborhood for the price of gas, people will start making some economic decisions about how they spend their money, how they get to work, what kind of cars they buy.

KAGAN: Another thing President Bush talked about in his news conference today, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve saying he will continue to tap into that, but those facilities, some were hurt in the storm.

VELSHI: One in particular, the Big Hill refinery, Big Hill facility for the SPR which is on the Texas-Louisiana border, on the Texas side, has suffered some damage. We were actually there a few weeks ago. The roads have suffered some flooding. They're trying to assess the damage today, but we do have all four of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve vaults, underground vaults, are in the Texas- Louisiana area. Only one was kept open during Hurricane Rita. The Department of Energy said that it was on alert, too, heavily guarded, obliviously, because that's our reserve.

So we're waiting to see what they find when they get into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but as we know now, a lot of our problem with gasoline is on the refining end of things, so we think we'll get enough crude oil flowing in. It's, can we refine it fast enough?

KAGAN: Ali Velshi live in New York. Thanks, Ali.

Just ahead, our own Rob Marciano visits a neighborhood he once called home in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

We're back in a moment.

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KAGAN: As we have seen, Lake Charles, Louisiana, is a battered city after Hurricane Rita sweeped through the area. While the floodwaters are receding there, the situation is still very dangerous.

For CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano, a trip to Lake Charles, where he once lived, was an eye-opener.

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ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST (on camera): Now we're going to drive into Lake Charles. We're going to catch up with some people and see how their lives have been changed.

All the exits are blocked. They don't want you getting off the highway, obviously. There's going to be streets flooded and blocked all over this place. Wow!

This is the -- this is like the Lake Charles signature buildings. It's made out of glass, or at least the walls are, and that's not a good recipe when a hurricane is coming through. Look at how all that glass is blown out. It kind of looked somewhat like this. There was an ice storm the last year I was here. See these trees don't see a lot of ice storms and haven't seen a hurricane in a while, either.

(voice-over): I used to live in this neighborhood.

(on camera): My house is on the other side of those trees. It's like every tree on this street is knocked down. It's not Katrina, but it's going to be tough living here for a while, that's for sure. I can't even see the house where I used to live. Every big tree is down for the rest of this block.

(voice-over): Block by block, signs of Rita were everywhere. It was time to track down an old friend. I couldn't connect with him on phone the lines were down.

(on camera): We're just going to drive down there and see how far we get and hopefully not run into too much high water.

(voice-over): Along the way, we ran into Sonny Lannin.

SONNY LANNIN, FRIEND: Hurricane Audrey was a drop in the bucket compared to Rita.

MARCIANO (on camera): No kidding?

LANNIN: Yes -- sir.

MARCIANO: He's using his boat to go back and forth between his house where he rode out the storm and dry land. And as Sonny left, we continued our search.

Is there a way for me to get to Rick Poole's house?

SHERIFF TERRY FAULK, CAMERON PARISH, LOUISIANA: No, we're not allowed to let anyone off of the main highway other than maybe the residents.

MARCIANO (voice-over): We tried anyway. And just when we had given up...

(on camera): How you doing -- bud?

RICK POOLE, FRIEND: Good to see you -- bud.

MARCIANO (voice-over): My friend, Rick Poole, is a builder who was helping in New Orleans.

POOLE: Your heart goes out to them people, and I was thinking, my god, this is terrible. But when it hits home, it seems to be, I mean, it's just -- it changes things.

MARCIANO: Rick gave us a ride to his house on the back of his tractor.

POOLE: It's worse than I thought it would be.

MARCIANO (on camera): Welcome home.

POOLE: There's nothing that soap and water can't clean up. You know it doesn't look like it got too, too high in here. This is my son's room and this is our bedroom. But you know the roof held. I don't know who put the roof on, but they must have done a good job.

This is something that happened and good lord gave us the house and he'll give us the strength and the ability to fix it up again. But we are still blessed, our lives still in tact, so we're in good shape.

MARCIANO (voice-over): For the Pooles and many other families, the long cleanup begins after the water finally recedes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And that was CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano. Rob, by the way, lived in Lake Charles and worked in that area for three years in the mid-'90s.

And that's going to be the last thing for this hour, but ahead in the next hour, CNN's "LIVE FROM" will have more on the aftermath of hurricanes Rita and Katrina. And I will see you tomorrow morning. I'm Daryn Kagan.

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