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American Morning

Gulf Coast Braces for Hit by Hurricane Rita

Aired September 21, 2005 - 08:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news. In just the last half hour, hurricane Rita surging in strength again. Now an extremely dangerous category four storm and getting stronger. We are tracking Rita's path just ahead this morning.
And getting ready for Rita in Texas. Mandatory evacuations are now underway in Galveston. That's just the beginning.

Plus, we're live in New Orleans, where almost all the flood water from Katrina is now out of that city, but heavy rains from hurricane Rita could change all of that. A dangerous scenario for the city and its fragile levees, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you.

We're glad you're with us.

S. O'BRIEN: And we are tracking hurricane Rita, getting stronger and stronger by the hurricane Rita. We got our last update just a few minutes ago.

M. O'BRIEN: As a matter of fact, Chad Myers said just a few moments ago it's all but certain it will become category five, the strongest possible storm.

Let's get right to Chad in the Weather Center and get an update on where Rita is headed and how strong it might become.

CNN, of course, your hurricane headquarters -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Miles, I can't go against the Hurricane Center taking it to 125, which is about 145 miles per hour. But in their discussion, both last night at 11:00 and this morning at 5:00, they mentioned that brief category five hurricane status is not out of the question and it is most likely, likely.

This storm will kind of grow and get smaller and grow and get smaller as it kind of phases itself through here, in what we call eye wall replacement cycles. The eye wall gets very small, another one builds on the outside, that bigger one replaces the littler one and then you kind of go from here.

This could go for days and days. This could go for a week if you didn't have land in the way. And, in fact, they do go for weeks in the Pacific. They call them super typhoons over there. Winds sometimes get to 180, 185 miles per hour.

This storm, though, you can see the concentric rings there. You can see the circles. Here you go, it's a category four. Sustained winds 135 miles per hour. Those are the latest numbers if you want to keep track, 24-4-85-3. And the storm is still moving to the west at 15, 14 to 15 miles per hour. Still days away from making landfall. And what's going to stop it from making landfall, let's say, in Florida -- everybody up in Pensacola going whoa, you know, this thing could still turn to the right -- probably not.

There's a large high pressure here stopping that storm from coming from the south to the north. Now, as this high pressure moves away, like it did with Katrina -- remember that right hand turn we talked about with Katrina? The high moved away too quickly. Well, too quickly for New Orleans.

But here goes the high now. It does move away and it turns into Texas, somewhere between Lafayette, Louisiana and Brownsville. Still too early to tell. And with a category four, you have to really be on your guard in that entire area, especially if it even gets even stronger than where it is now. This is going to do damage 150 miles wide, not two miles or three miles where the line is -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Chad, what are the chances that high pressure will stall and send the storm, you know, maybe a little further to the west as opposed to a northerly track?

MYERS: Well, I was just -- I was up here talking with the bosses, in fact, because they want to know where to position the crews. But I'll tell you what, the high pressure, as it sits here right now, where it is, has a little of a southwestward motion to it. And I believe Katrina could actually turn a little bit to the left before it turns to the right. And that would certainly affect where the location of landfall would be. Anywhere from northern Mexico right on up into Louisiana.

Like I said, four days away. We know where it's going to be in 48 hours. But after that, the models kind of, you know, go their separate ways -- back to you.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you, Chad.

Appreciate it.

MYERS: OK.

M. O'BRIEN: Back with you for more in just a moment -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: And because of what Chad said, we're really keeping a very close eye on Texas. There's a mandatory evacuation order in Galveston County, Texas. And part of that began just about an hour ago. At the same time, residents of the Florida Keys allowed to go home this morning. Twice as many evacuated than usually do. The eye of the storm did not strike the islands. There was some flooding on Tuesday. Some of the power is still out today.

Parts of Louisiana are under a state of emergency now. New Orleans is bracing for another hit, as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: And I think the federal government, the state government and local government were a lot smarter this time around.

S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says the lessons learned from Katrina will help them deal with another monster storm. But as hurricane Rita grows stronger, the governor of Louisiana worries about getting pummeled a second time.

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO, LOUISIANA: We are completely aware of the potential dangers that we would face if the storm ventures toward the eastern side of Texas.

S. O'BRIEN: In the Lone Star State, they're battening down the hatches, gearing up for the storm. The mayor of Galveston has declared a state of emergency for the coastal city. A mandatory evacuation order goes into effect at 6:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday.

MAYOR LYDA ANN THOMAS, GALVESTON, TEXAS: If they don't want to leave, they're staying here at their own risk.

S. O'BRIEN: Beginning this morning, nursing homes will be evacuated. Dozens of buses are ready for those with no other way out of town. Some Galveston residents, though, might decide to ride out Rita.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it's three or above and comes close, I'll probably get off the island.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got a strategy?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do.

S. O'BRIEN: For many, Rita is a bad case of deja vu all over again. Left homeless by Katrina, many who found shelter in Texas are moving again. Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee personally greeted the first of some 4,000 evacuated evacuees being housed at Fort Chafee.

HERBERT WOODS, EVACUEE FROM NEW ORLEANS: They've been hell. They've been like hell. A rough time. And like I've never been through nothing like this.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: It sounds terrible.

Well, officials in Louisiana, as we just heard, preparing for the very worst. Even a glancing blow from Rita could devastate that region, already crippled. Let's get right back to Carol Costello.

She's in New Orleans for us this morning -- Carol, good morning. CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.

You know, I was talking to the guys in the Army Corps of Engineers, Colonel Kapinski (ph). And in the course of our conversation about preparing for Rita, he happened to mention that the City of New Orleans was dry. And I must say it took us aback. And we didn't even think that that was a big deal at first, because it was so startling to hear.

But they have pumped three quarters of a trillion gallons of water from the city. So the city is essentially dry. There are little puddles somewhere, but every bit of water that the city could possibly pump out with the equipment they have has been pumped out of the city.

Now, think about Rita possibly coming. Three to four inches of rain from that storm could send four feet of water through parts of New Orleans. And keep in mind, we went into the pumping station to talk to Joe Sullivan, the guy in charge. He said the pumps are at about 20 percent capacity. But he said maybe I'm thinking like a mule, but I think if there's even four or five feet of water in parts of the City of New Orleans, we can pump that out.

As for the Army Corps of Engineers and the levees, the levees are still in a weakened state. We have those big breaches especially near the 17th Street Canal.

So what they're doing is they're erecting these huge pylons at the end of each canal. And they're going to make them into a huge steel curtain so that they can handle like a five to six foot storm surge, which isn't very much because a category one hurricane could produce that. But they're going to try this because they want to keep Lake Pontchartrain in as much as possible. And, of course, when hurricane Katrina hit, the water went over the levees and into the neighborhoods. So hopefully these steel curtains will help.

In the meantime, in the neighborhoods people are still boarding up. In fact, they're re-boarding up and they're hoping that the storm passes them by. And, you know, the sad thing about this, Soledad, is that people have already kind of begun cleaning up their homes and getting debris out of their yards, and they may have to do it all over again.

I'm standing at the convention center site now. And across the street from this convention center, where all that mess happened during Katrina, you can see there is an evacuation site. The M.P.s are handling that now.

Basically what will happen is people will come here. They'll be checked for weapons, for security purposes. There's medical doctors inside if they have medical conditions. They can be checked out. And then they'll board buses and they'll be taken to safe locations, of course, outside of hurricane Rita zones.

And as far as who's getting on those buses, well, 23 people got on board two buses yesterday. They're really not expecting many people. Of those 23 people, some were residents who lost their cars in the storm so they can't get out. But some were workers. But really, the military tells me, they really don't expect the residents still here to leave because these are the hard core people who will ride out the storm.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, Carol, though, psychologically, to have to do this twice in just over three weeks has to be so tough for people who just hammered and then potentially being hammered again.

Have they talked to you about just how hard that is?

COSTELLO: Oh, yes, definitely. And they're just in a state of bewilderment. And they're just hoping for the best. And hurricane season isn't even over yet.

S. O'BRIEN: Carol Costello is following the story for us from New Orleans this morning.

Carol, thanks.

Let's get right to Kelly Wallace.

She's got a look at some of the stories that are morning headlines today -- hey, Kelly, good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

And hello, everyone.

Now in the news, President Bush holding talks with some top Senate leaders this morning to discuss possible replacements for retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Senators Frist, Specter and Leahy came out of that meeting just a short time ago, saying the discussions were off to a good start. But the president is not expected to hand over a short list until his chief justice nominee, John Roberts, is confirmed. A Senate panel is expected to vote on his nomination tomorrow.

More than four years after September 11, the Federal Aviation Administration is reportedly considering new security changes for commercial planes. According to the Associated Press, those changes include cameras in the cabin and wireless devices that flight attendants could use. The FAA is expected to officially announce the proposed changes later today.

Scotland Yard is looking into allegations that model Kate Moss abused drugs. London's "Daily Mirror" newspaper printed photos Friday, saying they show Moss using cocaine. British police say they need more evidence before launching a full investigation. In the past, Moss has denied taking hard drugs.

And a final tribute to ABC News anchor Peter Jennings. CBS' Dan Rather and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani were among the nearly 2,000 people who turned out for that memorial ceremony yesterday at Carnegie Hall. Also in attendance, a handful of homeless people who Jennings befriended on walks in Central Park and while serving meals in shelters.

Peter Jennings died August 7 from lung cancer, nearly five months after the diagnosis was announced. And, of course, Soledad and Miles, our hearts go out to his family and to our colleagues at ABC.

S. O'BRIEN: It was a pretty remarkable memorial service, I think it's fair to say. Some of the comments and the things that his colleagues said about him were very moving.

Kelly, thanks a lot.

Still to come this morning, much more on hurricane Rita. Are state and local and federal officials better prepared than they were for hurricane Katrina?

Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu will join us just ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: Also, thousands of Katrina evacuees tried to start a new life in Texas. But Rita has some of them on the move again. We'll meet one of them.

S. O'BRIEN: And a CNN exclusive, an update on the 14 deaths at one Louisiana nursing home. A volunteer who was there explains what went wrong in Katrina's aftermath.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: You're looking at the loop right there. The latest weather projections currently show hurricane Rita is a category four hurricane and heading toward Texas. Louisiana, though, not taking any chances. The governor there declaring a state of emergency for parishes in the southwestern part of the state. Evacuations are already underway in New Orleans.

Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana joins us this morning.

Nice to see you.

Thank you for talking with us.

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU (D), LOUISIANA: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: What exactly is the state doing to prepare that's different from the preparations that were made before Katrina hit?

LANDRIEU: Well, I'd like to believe we've all learned how to prepare better and to be more organized and working more closely together. We don't wish this storm on anyone. We wish it would turn back out into the Gulf. These storms are extremely dangerous, which means that you can't wait to prepare when they're coming upon you. You've got to prepare well ahead of time. And that takes investments. It takes investments and strategy from the federal level, the state level and the local level. One of the things the Gulf Coast needs is investments in coastal communities, protection for our marshes and investments in critical infrastructure.

If this storm hits Galveston, can I remind everyone again, Soledad, that it's going to hit the heart of the oil industry in the Gulf. Besides the loss of life that could occur, and the loss of property, it is also another hit to our economy for the nation, not just for that region.

S. O'BRIEN: If -- before we talk about the financial implications not only of Rita, but also in the wake of Katrina, let's talk a little bit about preparations. I mean you talked about everybody has sort of learned a lesson.

What about the lesson of who is in charge? If hurricane Rita were to hit, god forbid, who's managing the disaster? Who is in charge?

LANDRIEU: Well, as you know, a hurricane is not just an incident that occurs in one small neighborhood of one city. It can go across states and regions. So it's more complicated than some other disasters. You've got several governors. You'll have maybe 10, 20, 30 mayors. You'll have county commissioners and parish commissioners.

So it's very important for FEMA, as the federal agency, to coordinate all of that. That was not done, of course, in Katrina. FEMA is a shell of what it once was. We've got to stand FEMA up and support the federal basic management, so you can manage all of your resources well -- your state resources, your local resources and your private sector resources.

S. O'BRIEN: You've been very critical of the president. When you mentioned FEMA, in fact, at one point you were jokingly threatening -- threatening is too strong a word. But you jokingly said that you would punch him on the nose if he continued to criticize local relief efforts and state relief efforts.

Is the relationship better now, do you think? I mean, again, you're obviously not happy with the...

LANDRIEU: Well, actually, that wasn't just directed at the president. I said I'd punch anybody in the nose that continued to criticize first responders and local people on the ground who were trying to save lives -- police officers and doctors and nurses that waded through 10 feet, you know, of water to try to save their families and their communities.

S. O'BRIEN: Is there a better relationship now between...

LANDRIEU: Well, yes. There's never...

S. O'BRIEN: ... what's happened...

LANDRIEU: There's never been a bad relationship. What it's been is that the federal government needs to be a partner with state and local governments. And FEMA needs to be stood up. Now, whether we can correct all of the faults of FEMA now, whether it's something we have to work out in the long run, we'll have to see. But, yes, we've got a very good working relationship and will continue to through this storm.

But as I said, we're all going to be held accountable for what as and what wasn't done.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the money.

What's the price tag, do you think, at the end of the day, for the reconstruction?

LANDRIEU: Well, it's going to hit somewhere between $200 billion and $300 billion. I mean that is a staggering amount of money. And, again, it wasn't just the hurricane. It was the breaking of a levee system. That is...

S. O'BRIEN: Can the state manage those resources? I know you would like to have the state have control of the rebuilding.

LANDRIEU: Well, it's not just the state that's going to manage those resources. There will be corporate management of some resources. There will be federal management of some resources and then obviously the governor and the local officials.

S. O'BRIEN: You would like the bulk of the money to be managed, though, by the state and the rebuilding to be headed by the people who live there?

LANDRIEU: Well, what I'd like to see is accountability at every level. And I would like to see the designs led by local and state officials, so that we design it on the banks of the Mississippi and not the Potomac. And financed by the whole nation. I mean obviously if something happened to New York or San Francisco, they'd have the same view. We want New Yorkers to rebuild New York. We want people that live in San Francisco to rebuild San Francisco.

So the same thing for New Orleans. We want to make it whole and wonderful and better and stronger. And last night at Madison Square Garden, your entertainers came together to really support the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. It might have to extend now to Galveston. Let's hope it doesn't. But we want to rebuild where we can and do it in the right way.

S. O'BRIEN: I'm not sure that Elton John and Jimmy Buffett count as New Yorkers, but we'll certainly take credit for them.

LANDRIEU: Well, we had all sorts of folks there, including our own.

S. O'BRIEN: Senator Mary Landrieu, nice to see you.

LANDRIEU: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you for talking with us this morning. LANDRIEU: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, an update on the 14 deaths at one nursing home in Katrina's aftermath. A volunteer who was there says it wasn't the flooding that killed them. A CNN exclusive is next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Well, you remember that tragic story of the 34 people that died in a nursing home, St. Rita's Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish, in the flood which followed Katrina. Of course, there was a lot of concern in the wake of that that there would be similar stories like it.

Well, unfortunately that is true.

CNN's Drew Griffin with exclusive details of what happened nearby, at the Lafon Nursing Home.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When they left New Orleans, sisters Dianne Lindsey and Valeria Brazil (ph) thought their 74-year-old mother was safe. Dorothy Pichon was a resident at the Lafon Nursing Home, run by the Holy Family Sisters, for three years. And this Catholic family felt their mother was in good hands.

DIANNE LINDSEY, VICTIM'S DAUGHTER: But we felt really safe with her being in Lafon.

GRIFFIN (on camera): You thought that even in all this craziness and you're trying to evacuate your entire family -- and it was a mandatory evacuation -- you felt sure...

LINDSEY: Oh, definitely.

GRIFFIN: ... that Lafon was going to take care of your mother and do...

LINDSEY: The right thing.

GRIFFIN: The right thing?

LINDSEY: Right. Definitely.

GRIFFIN: Is that what happened?

LINDSEY: There's no doubt about that.

No, that's not what happened.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): On Monday night after the storm, Dianne was able to actually call Lafon. And she says a nurse said her mother was alive, the home was fine, they had made it through.

LINDSEY: And she told me that she told my mother that we love her and that we were going to see her after the hurricane. And my mother just looked up and said, "Well, how do they know I'm here?"

GRIFFIN: That was the last communication they had with the staff. A week passed. Then came the news they dreaded. Dorothy Pichon was one of 14 patients who died inside the nursing home. To this day, that is all they know.

LINDSEY: And they couldn't give us any answer. They couldn't give us why they didn't evacuate, why they didn't have an evacuation plan. All she can tell us is that my mother expired. My mother did not expire. There's nothing that she could have told us that made us feel that my mother expired.

GRIFFIN (on camera): And that's where it stands now? You don't have any idea what happened?

LINDSEY: No, not at all.

VALERIA BRAZIL: So there's no closure, no nothing.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): And it is hard to find out exactly what did happen. On the advice of their attorneys and under the threat of a state investigation, the Holy Family Sisters have chosen not to discuss publicly what went on inside Lafon in the days after hurricane Katrina.

But one woman does know. Terry Smith does not want her face shown because she fears she will be hounded by other families. But she was inside Lafon the night of the storm, choosing to stay with her sick father and help instead of evacuating. On the night the hurricane struck, she said the water did rise, it was rainwater. And the staff quickly had to move 90 patients upstairs.

TERRY SMITH, LAFON NURSING HOME VOLUNTEER: We started with the water underneath my feet. By the time we finished, it was to my waist. And I'm 5'6."

GRIFFIN: Upstairs and out of the water, the nursing home began to organize a kitchen set up. There was food, water. Once the storm was over, the flood began to recede. On Tuesday, Smith took these pictures, showing a flooded parking lot, a picture of the first floor showing the mess left behind. Smith says she, too, believed they had all made it. But the nightmare was just beginning.

SMITH: The dilemma began that Tuesday night, I would say. Tuesday, it was stifling. I cannot even imagine how hot it is in there. I don't want to imagine. And these frail people began to break down.

GRIFFIN: A frail woman on a feeding tube was the first to go. Then another. In the room where Smith was staying, she says two or three simply faded away.

SMITH: The nurses would come in and check and -- and they...

GRIFFIN (on camera): Move them, leave them, cover them?

SMITH: No, they'd cover them and they'd get body bags. And the men would take them out.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Two days went by and no one came. Then finally, a National Guard truck stopped. Smith learned just how bad things were on the outside. The Guardsmen told her she was on dry land and had food and water, and was told that 90 frail elderly people without air conditioning in unbearable heat were now a low priority.

SMITH: So I guess in the grand scheme of things, maybe we weren't.

GRIFFIN: The 14 who perished are represented by a spray painted number on the wall. Smith says the Holy Family Sisters of Lafon Nursing Home cared for each and every one of them until the very end.

SMITH: But I can sit here and say, and this is the reason for me holding this interview, I can sit here and say definitely that that staff did all that they could humanly do to make those people comfortable. No one on that staff defected.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Nobody left?

SMITH: Nobody left.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Dianne Lindsey and Valeria Brazil have no doubt the nuns did all they could after the storm. The question they have -- why didn't someone do something before the storm?

LINDSEY: And we knew one day that our mother was going to leave us.

BRAZIL: Not like this.

LINDSEY: Not like this. She didn't deserve that. And we are hurting so bad about our mother.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Lafayette, Louisiana.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Today in Texas, nursing homes are the first facilities to be evacuated in preparation for hurricane Rita. So perhaps a tough lesson has been learned -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, gosh, you know, there are state evacuation plans. I mean legally every nursing home has to have an evacuation plan that then has to be followed. I think we're going to see many lawsuits in the wake of all these deaths.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. And they just...

S. O'BRIEN: That was 50 people. M. O'BRIEN: Those plans were ignored, unfortunately. I don't think they will be ignored this go around, for what it's worth.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, one hopes that that's one of the lessons learned in all of this.

Still to come this morning, the Red Cross dealing with Katrina's aftermath, as well. Will they be stretched too thin to handle hurricane Rita? A closer look at that is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Coming up, as hurricane Rita heads toward Texas, many Katrina survivors that are there are kind of reliving a nightmare. Imagine that, you know, having to evacuate yet again.

In a moment, we'll talk to a woman who was rescued from a roof in New Orleans. She is now facing an evacuation because she's in Galveston.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, cui?

M. O'BRIEN: That's a -- that's --

S. O'BRIEN: I mean what a psychological kick in the stomach so --

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: -- to mix metaphors. I mean to have to -- to be saved once and then to have to pack up whatever you own now and do it again is just really horrific for those folks.

We've been showing a picture of the radar of hurricane Rita. In fact, let's take a look at it once again as we check in.

CNN, of course, is your hurricane headquarters.

Our severe weather expert is Chad Myers.

He's been tracking this storm and tracking it really all through the night.

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