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American Morning

Tracking Hurricane Rita's Path; Residents Fleeing Galveston Area

Aired September 22, 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: New developments as we track hurricane Rita. The latest advisory posted just minutes ago shows a slight weakening. But this is still a strong category five storm. We are tracking Rita's path straight ahead.
All along the Texas coast and even slightly north, residents are looking for a way out. Hundreds of thousands of people are trying to evacuate. Look at that traffic. They're stuck in traffic jams. We're live in Texas for you, as well.

And in New Orleans, two big questions today -- how much wind and rain will Rita bring and how much can those weakened levees take? The city is bracing for the possibility of another flood 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.

Hurricane Rita's winds dropped slightly in the last few hours, but it really is kind of an insignificant thing when you're talking about somewhere between 175 and 170 miles an hour. Either way, obviously, killer winds.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, those five miles, to some degree, don't really count. It's a catastrophic storm either way. The northern coast of Texas is still in huge danger.

M. O'BRIEN: Of course, CNN is your hurricane headquarters. Our severe weather expert, Chad Myers, in the Weather Center this morning, as he always is -- Chad, bring us up to date.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, we just got the 8:00 advisory, Miles. 170 miles per hour, as you were saying. The pressure came up a little bit, which means it's not quite as strong as it was in the overnight hours -- 26.78 inches of mercury, or 907 millibars. That means that it is now only the sixth strongest storm ever measured.

I'll show you where it was a little bit ago.

Here are your distances now, from New Orleans, from Houston and Galveston, all the way over to Corpus Christi. But something else I want you to notice. It is now 370 miles from Key West. This storm went by yesterday, remember? Well, not so fast, because the outer bands are still getting back into the Keys. Key West just had a wind gust of 21 miles per hour. Key Largo there at about 16 to 18 miles per hour. And even farther back up to the north, Tampa, St. Pete, all the way down to Venice and even over to Port Saint Lucie, still seeing rain showers from the storm. That's almost 400 miles away.

There it is right now. Notice overnight it had all of this purple in it. Now the purple is gone. That means the storm warmed up a little bit, which means it is not as high as it was. The storms are not as intense as they were. And that's why the pressure has come up.

But for a while, it was the third biggest hurricane ever measured. Hurricane Gilbert, 1988, 26.22; hurricane Rita on the bottom, the minimum pressure 26.49. It was the third and now it's back up to the fifth and the sixth biggest. This is just amazing because Katrina is the fourth -- back to you.

M. O'BRIEN: Chad, I don't mean to keep harping on this, but do you have a good sense of how much rain they're going to get in New Orleans?

MYERS: I have a very bad sense of what's going to happen here, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: A bad sense. OK.

MYERS: If you take a look at this, this is the next 72 hours -- boom, boom, boom. But 48 hours after that, this storm has barely moved. It's still in Arkansas. It stops and there's going to be flooding all the way across Texas, all the way across Louisiana.

Now, I just showed you how far that outer band went back to Key West. I am concerned that when that storm suits there, there are going to be outer bands that come for days up into Louisiana, possibly dumping more inches of rain than the initial onslaught if it just keeps raining for 48, 72 or 96 hours, even after the storm goes by.

M. O'BRIEN: Wow!

All right. Less than four weeks after Katrina, the prospect of a lot of rain there obviously something to really think about.

MYERS: Yes.

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

MYERS: You're welcome.

M. O'BRIEN: All through the night, residents have been fleeing the Galveston area.

Let's take a look live now at the traffic situation. It actually doesn't look so -- oh, there's the traffic. I see them. And they're coming toward us this time. I was looking for red lights. We've got white lights this time. The other direction. Huge traffic jams as thousands of residents not taking any chances. This is Interstate 45. That's the north bound lanes headed out of Galveston toward Houston.

But back in Galveston, we find CNN's David Mattingly -- David, what is going on there?

Is it pretty much a ghost town at this point or are there still a lot of people left?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it appeared to be a ghost town last night when the mandatory evacuation went out at 6:00. This morning, as the sun is coming up, we are watching the beach. And you might be able to see behind me and ask the question where is the beach? Galveston doesn't have much of one to begin with. And what we see right now is the morning high tide coming in, smashing up against the tons and tons of boulders they have out here and the concrete slabs leading up to the sea wall.

This huge sea wall was erected after the storm of 1900, when thousands of people were killed here in one of the worst natural disasters ever in this country.

At this point, they're looking at the worst case scenario of this storm, this sea wall, that is 17 feet high, they are now predicting waves possibly 15 feet over that sea wall. And, of course, that is going to do, again, catastrophic damage to this island.

The people here were getting the warnings early. They were paying attention to the lessons learned by Katrina. Public transportation was being provided on this island for the first time for the special needs people, the sick, the elderly, the people who normally would not have a way off the island themselves. Those buses began lining up yesterday. In just the first few hours, a couple of thousand people took advantage of that to get off the island.

But, again, the big story this morning, those huge traffic snarls on the mainland as people try to escape these coastal areas. Public officials here are hoping that people are not daunted when they look at that long line of headlights and taillights, depending on which way they're going, and decide to stay.

They say if they do stay, they could be making a very, very big mistake because if the water doesn't get them here, then the 100 miles an hour plus winds will certainly do a tremendous amount of damage.

In fact, on the west end of this island, where there is no sea wall, there could be a storm surge plus waves of water up to 30 feet here -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: David, worth putting out -- I mean after that 1900 storm in Galveston, they literally built the city higher, but not high enough, right?

MATTINGLY: They built it high enough for your garden variety of hurricanes, but this storm is breaking all of the molds. And they're calling it possibly an event of another -- another event of historic proportions here. Seventeen feet will not be enough to accommodate that storm surge that is expected to hit here with a category five or a category four.

M. O'BRIEN: David Mattingly in Galveston.

Thank you -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: As David pointed out just a moment ago, hurricane Rita not only powerful, huge, as well. Tropical winds extending 370 miles. So even if Rita makes landfall in Texas, the effects will likely be felt hundreds of miles away.

And, of course, that has people in New Orleans worried because they're still cleaning up and building up those levees.

Carol Costello is live in Jefferson Parish, where Lake Pontchartrain meets the 17th Street Canal. Huge problems there -- Carol, what exactly have they done to try to shore up these levees and can those measures really work?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, Soledad, they're really hoping so. They're really doing everything they can. I'm going to get to that in just a second.

But I want to show you where I am. I am on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. And if you take a look over here, this used to be a brick and concrete walkway. People could actually drive their vehicles right up to the edge of Lake Pontchartrain. But you can see what Katrina did to that. It uprooted everything.

Come over here to the shores of Lake Pontchartrain now. Because, as you know, they dumped all of the water they pumped out of the city into this lake. And you can see the waves washing up onshore. Look at this, just literally black. This is black water.

As for what all of this debris and dirt and sludge is, we don't know. The EPA will have to figure that out. If you could see the levee, it's about a mile down there. The 17th Street levy. And that's where they're having the big problem, with that huge breach in the levee caused by Katrina. They have been working feverishly to try to shore that up.

The Army Corps of Engineers put big huge giant sandbags in the bottom of the breach, weighing -- some weighing tens of thousands of pounds. And then on top of those sandbags, they're putting gravel, tons of gravel, tons of sand. And then they're erecting these huge giant steel pylons. And they're going to erect a huge curtain across. And that will protect the city against a storm surge five feet high. If the storm surge is higher, well, then they may have a problem.

But, Soledad, they're doing everything they can.

S. O'BRIEN: Gosh, you know, you look at that black water, you know, Carol, and I know it looks much worse where you are than what we can tell on television. And you realize that this is a lake that was dead. I mean they just brought it back not so many years ago. And now it's -- it looks bad and it probably is even worse than it looks. COSTELLO: Yes, they started this restoration project to cleanup Lake Pontchartrain and they were pretty far along. But now we don't even know exactly what's in the lake right now. And who knows when they'll get to the point where they can actually start going in and cleaning up the water, or if that's possible at all.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, probably low on their list of priorities, as hurricane Rita steams toward Texas and, of course, Louisiana, as well.

Carol, thanks -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: The federal government is taking emergency steps well ahead of hurricane Rita, in contrast to the widely criticized slow response to Katrina.

Elaine Quijano at the White House with more on that -- good morning, Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

President Bush has declared a state of emergency for the states of Texas and Louisiana, a move that will free up federal funds and resources for those states.

Now, this is something that the president did in advance of hurricane Katrina in about the 24 to 36 hour window before hurricane Katrina hit. But now, of course, a heightened sense of urgency. The president issuing these emergency declarations days before hurricane Rita is set to make landfall.

Now, as officials here continue to monitor Rita's track, the White House is trying to avoid repeating the mistakes that led to the images of desperation after Katrina. And that means ensuring that the most vulnerable -- seniors, others who don't have the means to get out -- are evacuated from areas first, as he did one day before Katrina.

Yesterday, the president warned people need to take orders from local officials seriously.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mandatory evacuations have been ordered for New Orleans and Galveston. I urge the citizens to listen carefully to the instructions provided by state and local authorities and follow them. We hope and pray that hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm. But we've got to be ready for the worst.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Today, the president heads to the Pentagon for a previously scheduled briefing on the war on terror. We're expecting to hear from the president after that.

Now, officials say one of the things they've learned is to use military assets, making plans ahead of the storm. That's something they say they found after Katrina.

Now, the White House, of course, very eager to show, Miles, that the president is staying on top of the latest developments with Rita -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Elaine Quijano at the White House.

Thanks, much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, thousands of homeowners on the Gulf Coast have been told that their losses will not be covered unless they specifically had federal flood insurance.

But as Tom Foreman reports this morning, even those who are covered by that federal program might not be satisfied.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When hurricane Isabel slammed into the East Coast in 2003, Eileen Thaden's house in Maryland was among dozens severely damaged or destroyed. She had national flood insurance administered by FEMA, so she wasn't worried.

EILEEN THADEN, FLOOD VICTIM: Really, there's nothing left of our life from before. There really isn't.

FOREMAN: But she says the settlement she was offered was less than half of the quarter million dollars she needed to repair her house. So two years later, she is still living in a FEMA trailer, bitter and broke.

THADEN: If they just did what was right from the very beginning, we would have our lives back. We would be just fine. That's all we ever asked for them. We weren't looking for more.

FOREMAN: FEMA officials have long promoted flood insurance as the best means of recovery from flood damage. But contacts of the program say don't believe it.

STEVE KANSTORDOM, VICTIMS' ADVOCATE: Oh, no, no, no, no. That's a false sense of security.

FOREMAN: Steve Kanstordom, a victims' advocate whose home was also damaged in the storm, started a Web site about the problems with flood insurance. He says he's got complaints from 14 states and a warning for the Gulf Coast.

KANSTORDOM: There is no white horse coming in to save you. If you have a substantial loss, you're about to be in for the fight of your life.

FOREMAN (on camera): FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, say nonsense. Complaints about flood insurance are quite rare. And, they say, it was never meant to cover all rebuilding expenses anyway. (voice-over): But their own Web site says flood insurance lets you "keep the peace of mind in knowing you're not left to cover the losses yourself." And the new acting director says he wants to know more about these complaints and the lawsuit that's been filed by policyholders, including Eileen Thaden.

R. DAVID PAULSON, ACTING FEMA DIRECTOR: Again, I'm not familiar with the particular issues. I've asked for a briefing from my staff. I think it came up earlier that I'm going to find exactly what that issue is.

BUSH: We understand they can't live forever in shelters.

FOREMAN: With FEMA under so much pressure right now, Eileen Thaden is hoping her two year battle might finally lead to something good. But she's not betting on it. The last thing she heard from FEMA is they want to close her case and they want their trailer back, too.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: The government on Wednesday announced that it's taking steps to streamline its response to flood claims from hurricane Katrina -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: I hope they can cut through that red tape for people.

S. O'BRIEN: Wow!

Two years in a trailer outside your home, which no one's repaired. It's...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. I'm sure a lot of people, in the wake of Katrina, watching that are...

S. O'BRIEN: Quite concerned.

M. O'BRIEN: ... watched that with a heavy hart.

Still to come, we'll talk to the mayor of Corpus Christi, Texas. His city directly in the path of hurricane Rita right now. How are they getting ready there? We'll ask him.

S. O'BRIEN: And later, the U.S. has never seen a one-two punch like Katrina, then Rita. We're going to take a look at what's behind this trend.

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Sunrise over Galveston, Texas this morning. The seas are a little bit high. The beach has eroded somewhat, as David Mattingly just pointed out. But beyond that, not much of a sign of what lies ahead. And what lies ahead is big trouble. As hurricane Rita approaches, headed toward Galveston, mandatory evacuations have been ordered for a quarter million residents. About 260 miles away from Galveston, the Corpus Christi area, as well. Corpus Christi, as you can see, down the coast a little bit from Galveston. Rita is expected to make landfall somewhere between those two cities.

Henry Garrett is the mayor of Corpus Christi.

He joins us live now from that city.

Henry, what are you doing to get ready?

MAYOR HENRY GARRETT, CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS: Well, we have a declaration of emergency here in Corpus Christi. And we have given an additional order of mandatory evacuation at 6:00 yesterday afternoon. The evacuations seem to be moving very smoothly. We've got some concerns this morning that that cone of uncertainty has moved north and that we want the community to understand that we're still under the evacuation order and we would ask them to continue the evacuation.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, Mr. Mayor, I hope they're listening, especially less than four weeks after Katrina.

GARRETT: Yes. We don't know -- I don't know about anyone else, but we learned a lesson here in Corpus Christi that evacuation is a very important part of our plan and we put it into motion and we want to continue to evacuate the city and to make sure that we get out -- that the people get out of harm's way.

M. O'BRIEN: What about...

GARRETT: And regardless of where the storm goes in (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

M. O'BRIEN: How have you done on the nursing homes, for example?

GARRETT: Well, what we've done, we have a data bank that identifies most of our people with special needs. We are working with FEMA and also with the local and state authorities. We've brought minibuses into Corpus Christi. We're moving the disabled and the people with special needs, we're moving them out as we speak.

M. O'BRIEN: And what about at the hospitals? What are you doing there?

GARRETT: Well, the hospitals have their own emergency plan. I understand they're moving and rearranging some patients to different floors and whether the decision of whether to evacuate for them is still going to be made probably some time today. But we're all working very closely with all of our hospitals and their plan, as we speak.

M. O'BRIEN: What would -- how would you measure a successful evacuation? I mean people always stay behind. What would you consider successful? GARRETT: If we have no deaths or no serious injuries. I think that, from what I can see from 6:00 yesterday afternoon when we started this evacuation, the people are -- the citizens of this community are listening to us. I think what they -- what took place in New Orleans got their attention big time. I think the level of awareness is a lot higher today than it would have been, maybe, a month ago.

So we are -- we're very pleased with the way this year responding. Of course, you're going to have people who are determined to stay, but we're encouraging them every time we get an opportunity to evacuate and a lot of them are doing that. A lot of our businesses are shutting down. Our service stations are running out of gasoline.

So things are in -- all indications are there that people are responding to our response.

We're kind of unique here in Corpus Christi. We have several evacuation routes, so we're not jamming up, you know, one or two highways. And our police department is on 12 on and 12 off. They're all in uniform and working with DPS here in the city to get everybody out safely.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, we've been seeing those pictures of Interstate 45 in Houston. I'm told in just a little while they're going to make it -- use that so-called contra-flow, in other words, make it one way on both sides.

When is it going to be too late, do you think, for people there to take action? In other words, when should they start thinking about hunkering down? Today they still have time to evacuate, don't they?

GARRETT: Yes, I think that any time after noon tomorrow, Friday, I think it's time to start to hunker down. We're going -- we will have some shelters of the last resort opened if necessary to take care of the people who didn't get out.

M. O'BRIEN: And those will be stocked?

GARRETT: But still we're...

M. O'BRIEN: Will those be well stocked, unlike the Superdome situation?

GARRETT: Well, they're not going to be that type of shelter. And that's something we're trying to communicate to the people, that it's a shelter of last resort. That's what it is. It's a 72-hour shelter that we're not going to have all the cots and things that you see in the shelters on the television usually lately.

We -- and something else we have to deal with here in Corpus Christi, we had about 1,400 evacuees that we were housing here from New Orleans. And we essentially moved them all out yesterday.

M. O'BRIEN: Boy, you've got your hands full, Mayor.

And I appreciate your taking a little time to be with us, because I know you've got a lot of work to do.

GARRETT: Yes, we do.

M. O'BRIEN: We wish you and your city well.

GARRETT: OK, thank you very much.

M. O'BRIEN: That's Mayor Henry Garrett of Corpus Christi -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Everybody there has got their hands full this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up in just a moment, one of the areas hardest hit by Katrina appeals directly to the White House for help. We'll tell you what they're asking for ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: One week ago, as evacuees from hurricane Katrina were searching for shelter, Elizabeth Cohen told us the story of a family evacuated from New Orleans and struggling with the added burden of coping with their son's cancer.

A follow-up now to the life and death decisions being made right in the middle of the disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

TONY NATA, SR. EVACUEE, SON HAS CANCER: He should be all right.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How much can one family take? A house ripped apart...

T. NATA: Waves was splashing up and around.

COHEN (on camera): And that's all mold?

T. NATA: That's all mold.

COHEN (voice-over): Winds so strong, waves so high, the swing set landed across the street. Most of what the Nata family owns is in the front yard. While Robin and Tony, Sr. survey the damage to their home in Slidell, Louisiana, 6-year-old Tony, Jr. has to stay in the car. All that mold could be toxic...

ROBIN NATA, EVACUEE, SON HAS CANCER: Give momma a hug.

COHEN: ... to a child with cancer. Tony has leukemia. Three months ago, it looked like he was in remission. Then doctors found cancer in the membranes surrounding his brain. He has a 50-50 chance of surviving.

(on camera): How do you keep going? R. NATA: You have to. You have to. It's about our kids. It's our life.

COHEN (voice-over): Tuesday, it seemed like Tony was doing pretty well, all ready for another round of chemo. But then bad news.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wait for the transfusion. You will be admitted for a short stay.

COHEN: Tony's too sick to get his chemo right now. He has to leave the clinic and go to the hospital to get a transfusion of blood platelets.

R. NATA: I know they say things happen for a reason and, you know, you're only given what you can handle, but it's tough. It's tough.

COHEN: Between trips to the doctor, Robin and Tony face a difficult choice -- save the house they love or move to someplace safer.

T. NATA: I beg for anybody or anything to help me with the answers because they're not coming. They're not coming at all.

COHEN: In the end, little Tony may make the decision.

T. NATA, JR.: Yes, we ate great fish.

COHEN (on camera): You catch fish this big?

(voice-over): Like generations before him, Tony lives for this marsh, this canal. Fishing is his favorite pastime, his only pastime, really, since he's too sick to do sports or even go to school. So his parents plan on rebuilding their house, cleaning it so even Tony, with his damaged immune system, can live here.

T. NATA: It has to be perfect and I want it to be perfect and it will be perfect for him.

COHEN: Perhaps it's hoping against hope.

T. NATA: I know we all have to become stronger after something like this and dealing with little Tony, his situation, you have to become stronger. That's the only way we're going to survive.

COHEN: Hope right now is the most precious thing Robin and Tony have, the key to saving their house and to saving their son.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Slidell, Louisiana.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: According to its Web site, the hospital that is treating Tony, Jr. St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, in coordination and cooperation with Tulane University and New Orleans Children's Hospital, have agreed to handle new cases of pediatric cancer diagnosed in the devastated Gulf Coast region.

A tough story there.

Still to come this morning, the big story of our day is hurricane Rita. It's now a category five storm. It is creeping closer to the Gulf Coast. We've got an update on the path of Rita, just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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