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American Morning
Tracking Hurricane Humberto
Aired September 13, 2007 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: What's it doing and where it's headed? We're covering all of the angles of the storm this morning. Rob Marciano is at the CNN weather desk for us and we begin with Ed Lavandera, he's in Beaumont, Texas. How much rain are you getting there, Ed?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, the rain has been coming down steadily for almost two hours now since we've arrived in this area coming in along interstate (INAUDIBLE) to Beaumont. We're in the heart of downtown Beaumont now. This is (INAUDIBLE) behind me. As you can see the winds are terribly bad now, they were actually more intense about an hour ago. That seemed to have improved a little bit, but this is what we've seen in terms of rain falling for the last hour I believe, a constant stream of rain falling down here and that is why this threat of flooding will continue to worsen here in the coming hours throughout this region of southwest Louisiana. A lot of bayous and creek ways. Officials here are concerned about and as we drove in this morning we started seeing in various areas the beginnings of roadways starting to get flooded out.
We have heard several people say that once the rain stops at some point later on today they hope that we'll be able to see some signs rather quickly, the floodwaters. So they're hoping (INAUDIBLE) recede. (INAUDIBLE) rain continues to fall. There are parts of Beaumont we have seen that have been without power but here in downtown area we see the street lights are working and we're starting to see more and more cars head out into the roadways here this morning. John?
ROBERTS: Our Ed Lavandera for us this morning in Beaumont, Texas. All of that rain you hear isn't so much wind, because there's not a lot of it, just a steady rain coming down this morning. Kiran?
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: That's right and it's also slamming into cities and towns around Galveston, Texas. We had a chance to see it first hand from our reporter Wayne Dolcefino of our affiliate KTRK. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WAYNE DOLCEFINO, CRYSTAL BEACH, TEXAS: This is ground zero, desperately Crystal Beach in the high island. The worst wind and rain we've seen, the power is out. The only flight is the flood light shining on me as I try to stand just off highway 87. The wind and the rain really starting to sting as it comes ashore. We've got some wind. We weren't even sure where we were when we got here because the power was out. Came on briefly, then went back out again. It was on long enough for us to see we were in Gilchrist. It was almost impossible to see on the road. Crystal Beach, High Island, as Humberto now coming ashore.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Again, quite a mess for Gilchrist, that was a town that's a little bit closer to the gulf of Mexico from Beaumont. Our Rob Marciano at the CNN weather desk tracking Humberto for us. What do you think? This kind of snuck up on us.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah it did, really a surprise one but the waters out there are juiced pretty good and in some cases close to 90 degrees and the only concern was that this was so close to land that we thought hey, you know, it probably can't strengthen too much, but it was moving so slowly, and it just fired up overnight. All right, let's take a look at the radar scope and show you where it is and where it came from. Made landfall a few hours back, right about there. Now the center of it is right along I-10 and continuing to move off towards the north and east, a little less than 10 miles an hour at this point. Here it is, just to the east of Beaumont, Texas. Beaumont right now in the western eye wall, the northeastern part of the storm, now heading across the border, across the Sabine River over into Louisiana. Orange, Texas, is within the eye of this storm and this continues to motor across and through Calcasieu Parish and into Beauregard Parish as well down I-10. Heavy rain has been falling in Lake Charles and east and southeast into Vermilion Parish is as well as all of this moisture swirls in and we do have a tornado watch in effect until at least 10:00 local time.
Notice how dry it is behind the storm, that's great news for folks who live in Houston because out of all the folks the farther west you go, that's where most of the rain this summer has been. Here's your forecast track, takes it across Louisiana. It will decrease in intensity but still we're going with an official intensity right now of 85 miles an hour, likely to be downgraded to a tropical depression or tropical storm I should say within the next few hours. But nonetheless, it is a hurricane, a category 1 and that is enough to do damage not only with water, but with the wind. There will be power outages across the path of this storm, and it's a hurricane. Kiran, back over to you.
CHETRY: All right, and by the way we want to let people know if you've been around this area and you're currently dealing with it right now, send us some pictures if you can. We'd love to see your i- Reports on what it looks like around your neighborhood. Go ahead and logon to cnn.com where you can upload your i-Reports right onto our site. John?
ROBERTS: Great idea, looking forward to what we get in this morning.
President Bush prepares to address the nation tonight about Iraq. This morning, we've got some new numbers showing what Americans think about how the president is handling his job.
A new CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll just out this morning has the president's approval rating at 36 percent, that's the same as it was a month ago. 61 percent of respondents say they disapprove the job that the president is doing. 34 percent believe the president's policies would move the country in the right direction, while 61 percent say they're moving us in the wrong direction. As for the democrats in congress, 50 percent of Americans believe their policies would move the country in the right direction, 39 percent though say it would be the wrong direction. CNN's Elaine Quijano joins us now live from the north lawn at the White House with a preview of tonight's speech. Elaine, what's at stake for the president in this address?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know a lot is at stake for the president as you know John. It's going to be very difficult and the White House understands this. It's going to be very difficult for the White House to retain support from Republicans when it comes to the president's Iraq policy, unless there is some sign of movement towards political reconciliation at the very top levels in Baghdad. That is why tonight, according to a senior administration official, we're going to hear the president emphasize the so called bottom up political progress, the security gains made in the al Anbar province as we heard the president emphasize in the past few days. The president's critics argue that the success that's taken place there can't necessarily be duplicated in other parts of the country because they say the sectarian divisions run so deep. Nevertheless, we will hear the president tonight, according to this administration official, discuss the need to follow the general's recommendations, General David Petraeus, of course, fresh off that testimony on Capitol Hill. Those recommendations including drawing down potentially U.S. forces to a pre-surge level of 130,000 troops by next July. Now, Democrats argue that that doesn't reflect any kind of change in policy or change in strategy at all. The White House argues that it does and they believe that the president believes as well that of course this is something that is a reflection of the success of the surge, that this al Anbar situation is something that can be duplicated in other parts of the country . So that is what we will hear the president talk about tonight. John?
ROBERTS: Getting a lot of disagreement on that front from his critics. Elaine Quijano for us at the White House this morning, Elaine thanks.
CNN will bring you the president's speech tonight 9:00 p.m. eastern. Kiran?
CHETRY: New this morning, another earthquake hits Indonesia. The latest measuring 6.4, struck the eastern part of the country. Now that follows two strong earthquakes that hit earlier today, a magnitude 7.8, as well as a magnitude 7.1, both struck the same area around the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The seismic shakedown began with yesterday's quake measuring 8.4. At least nine people have died from the quakes which have caused substantial damage and also triggered tsunami warnings in the region. We're going to be talking with a seismologist from the U.S. Geological Survey coming up in a few minutes.
Israeli ground troops have entered the central Gaza strip. It's apparently a response to the latest rocket attack from the Palestinian territories. Israel's military is calling it a routine incursion and not part of a large-scale mission. On Tuesday a Palestinian rocket hit an army base in Israel, injuring dozens of soldiers as they slept in their tents.
ROBERTS: Japan's prime minister is in the hospital today, one day after he resigned from office. Doctors say Shin Zu Abe is being treated for exhaustion, an intestinal disorder brought on by stress. Abe's party has seen several scandals and the loss of control of parliament.
Dozens of turbo prop aircraft are grounded this morning because of landing gear problems. You may have seen this incredible video from Sunday in Denmark. No one was seriously hurt but it was awfully frightening. Bombardier, the maker of the aircraft, has now asked airlines to ground 60 of its Q400 turbo props after a second landing gear failure in a week. Some 600 planes in the United States are affected, they're flown by Alaskan Air and Sky West.
Disgraced democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu is out of the hospital and in jail in Colorado this morning. Hsu had been wanted as a fugitive for skipping out on a bail hearing last week in California involving a 1991 grand theft case. "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting today that Hsu sent copies of a suicide note to several friends and charities before disappearing. Hillary Clinton's campaign recently returned $850,000 in contributions that were linked to Hsu. Kiran?
CHETRY: Well it's time now to check in with our AMERICAN MORNING team of correspondents for some other stories new this morning. Mattel, the toy maker launching a PR campaign to reassure customers that its toys are safe. AMERICAN MORNING's Alina Cho is following this from our national update desk. Hi Alina.
ALINA CHO: Hey there Kiran, good morning. If you think about it, Christmas is not that far away in retailing terms. Parents understandably confused about exactly which toys are safe and so yesterday, the CEOs of both Mattel and Toys "R" Us went before congress. Now Mattel's CEO, his name is Bob Eckert, he told the senate panel his company, like Disney, will begin its own testing of Chinese-made products. Now earlier this summer, you may remember that Mattel, the world's number one toy maker, recalled more than 21 million toys because of high lead levels and small magnets in those toys that children can choke on. Eckert apologized to customers but he also blamed Chinese factories for the problem.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT ECKERT, CEO, MATTEL: Our systems were circumvented and our standards were violated. We were let down, and we let you down.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Senators weren't exactly convinced by that saying toymakers concerned about the bottom line, cut corners.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RICHARD DURBIN, (D) ILLINOIS: Critics would say that's kind of you, Senator Durbin, but Mattel knew what they were doing. They were looking for the cheapest places in the world to make their toys. So they found a country with the lowest wage scale with virtually no environmental standards and basically no safety inspection.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Now at the hearing yesterday, there were several proposals on how to increase toy safety. Among them congress is vowing to increase the budget of the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Right now they have just one full time inspector. Senators also want to give the CPSC the power to ban lead in all children's toys, not just the ones made in the United States, and finally, Kiran, Toys "R" Us said it will update its toy recall notification plan and will now begin e-mailing customers about any problems. The company also plans to devote a section of its website to toy safety. Kiran?
CHETRY: All right Alina Cho, thank you.
The acting chairwoman of the Consumer Products Safety Commission is going to be joining us in our next hour. We'll talk more about that.
Meantime, if you think air pollution is just bad for your lungs, it turns out it's also dangerous for your heart. CNN's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is at our medical update desk with more on this, talking about how bad air pollution can actually affect your cardiovascular system. Hi, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Kiran. Kiran, I think we all know instinctively that air pollution is just bad for us but did you know that just one hour of air pollution can be bad for you? That's what researchers found when they simulated basically a dirty city in their lab and had men who had had heart attacks run for an hour and what they found is that running basically kind of next to a bus tripled the stress on their heart. Their hearts simply weren't getting enough oxygen. As you said, so the problem here is not just for your lungs but also for your heart. Well, what are you going to do about it if you live in a city and you want to run? Well it is important of course to exercise, so what you can do is you can run early in the morning or late at night when there are fewer cars on the road. Or, I know it's not as much fun, you can also join a gym. Kiran?
CHETRY: The study is specifically looking at men who already had heart problems, what about women and what about people who otherwise have a clean bill of health?
COHEN: Right, the researchers say that they think their findings apply to everyone, that for women the results would be the same, and if you're healthy, maybe the stress wouldn't be quite as much, but that it still could be a problem. Now, it's not just you who are that matters but where you live. The American Lung Association has a ranking of the most polluted cities in the country, where this kind of running would be particularly dangerous, and the ranking is, L.A. number one. I think that's not a huge surprise to people who live out there, Pittsburgh number two, Bakersfield number three, and tied for fourth, Birmingham and Detroit. So if you live in those areas, or in other polluted cities, you want to be especially careful about exercising outside.
CHETRY: All right, some good tips, Elizabeth Cohen, thank you. John?
ROBERTS: A sudden rash of earthquake activity in Indonesia. We'll ask a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey what it all means, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: We have an update now on a big breaking news story we've been tracking for you this morning, and that is the fallout from Hurricane Humberto, slamming right this minute into the Texas gulf coast. This is the first hurricane to hit that area when you look at the radar picture since Rita hit the state back in 2005. Here is another look at one of the best pictures coming in from the middle of the storm. This is reporter Wayne Dolcefino of KTRK. He's getting poured on and tossed around by hurricane winds. More than a foot of rain could come down before this is all over. And John, as we know, it's in an area where they don't need the rain. They've been saturated with record rainfall for the season in that part of Texas.
ROBERTS: Typically in Texas though, the water goes up quickly and comes down just as quickly. But in this case, it's going up and not coming down.
Four significant earthquakes have now struck Indonesia in the past two days, the latest a 6.2 quake in the eastern part of the country. Earlier two powerful quakes, a magnitude 7.8 and 7.1 hit in western Indonesia near the island of Sumatra, that's after yesterday's quake measuring 8.4. You're asking yourself what's going on here? Well to help answer that question we brought in Dave Applegate, he's the senior science advisor at the U.S. Geological Survey. He's in the studio with us this morning. So, these quakes that we have seen in the wake of the big 8.4 early yesterday morning, are these aftershocks or are these more new quakes?
DAVE APPLEGATE, SENIOR SCIENCE ADVISOR, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: They are aftershocks, and it's a reminder that when we have a really significant earthquake like the 8.4 yesterday, that we're going to see this kind of a sequence, and these earthquakes are big earthquakes in and of themselves.
ROBERTS: Yeah.
APPLEGATE: The 7.8 certainly but even the 7.1 that we had last night, that's the same size as the Lomar Preata earthquake back in 1989, that stopped the World Series and greatly affected the (INAUDIBLE).
ROBERTS: Yeah, we remember how much destruction that did, particularly that Nimitz Highway that just pancaked down on top of itself, killing what, I think 33 people that year. Absolutely. This is a particularly seismically active area, but it seems so much more so in the last three years beginning with that 9.3 that sparked that tsunami. What's going on?
APPLEGATE: That's right. It's been an incredible number of years for Indonesia and particularly for Sumatra. What we have here is a subduction zone, where one of the earth's plates is moving down beneath the other. In this case, the Indian Ocean and the Australian plate moving down beneath the Eurasian plate. In this kind of a situation you're going to get earthquakes as the strain builds up, but what we're seeing now is almost every segment of this plate has ruptured just in the last several years.
ROBERTS: You can see all the dots on the graphic, the Google Earth graphic that we have here and you can see the ocean bottom there as well, the subduction zone where the two plates are coming together. When you say that this plate is sort of rupturing along its entire length, that's the first rupture back in 2004, first significant rupture, that was 1,000 miles long. Is this the plate relieving pressure or is this a buildup to something even more massive, do you think?
APPLEGATE: Well in each case, it relieves pressure in one area but then that increases the pressure somewhere else. And so for example what we saw yesterday was the magnitude 8.4 quake ruptured to the north along this boundary, this 7.8 was at the northern end of that. So even though it relieved the stress in one patch, it built it up in another. That led to the rupture.
ROBERTS: Could you get any kind of a pattern of which way it's moving? Is it moving north, it's it moving south, is it just sort of moving randomly?
APPLEGATE: Some faults, for example, the North Anatolian fault which runs through Turkey. It's a very active strike (INAUDIBLE), very similar to the San Andreas. That's one where we've seen a very consistent pattern, in this case it's been moving to the west, which unfortunately means it's moving towards Istanbul.
ROBERTS: Quickly, is it just a matter of time before we get another major up thrust of those tectonic plates, the type that caused that tsunami in 2004?
APPLEGATE: Well, yes indeed. These forces are continuing to build up. The quakes that we just had ruptured a patch that had been locked and was loading since about 1833.
ROBERTS: Oh my goodness and there's probably just so many more other areas that are ready to do that. Dave Applegate, of the U.S. Geological Survey. Thanks for explaining it all to us.
APPLEGATE: Sure thing.
ROBERTS: Thanks for coming in. Kiran? CHETRY: Well, still ahead, Bank of America is taking ATM fees for non customers to new highs. Is this a trend that we're going to see more and more of? Our Ali Velshi is "minding your business" ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: 24 minutes after the hour now. Welcome back to the most news in the morning here on CNN. Your quick hits now.
New England Patriots' coach Bill Belichick is apologizing in a way. He didn't directly address accusations that his team spied on the New York Jets during Sunday's game, but Belichick did say he spoke with the NFL commissioner about an interpretation of league rules that ban video taping the opposing team's sideline.
Florence, South Carolina's fire chief has resigned, accused of asking on duty firefighters to work on his golf cart and home air conditioner. Records show that chief Joe Robertson asked the firefighters to lie about where they were when they were helping him.
Here's a new scam, a new warning going out in 11 states concerning a telephone identity theft scam. The FBI advising people to be alert for callers claiming to be jury coordinators, and asking for personal information. Always beware. Kiran?
CHETRY: That's right. Speaking of being aware, it's 24 minutes past the hour. Ali Velshi is "minding your business" now. Some changes if you want to take out money at one big bank branch. Pretend you're Bank of America and I'd like to take some money out.
ALI VELSHI: So I'm an ATM?
CHETRY: Yes, you're an ATM. So, here I am trying to take some money out.
VELSHI: Ok.
CHETRY: And then what?
VELSHI: I'm not giving you money unless you give me three bucks.
CHETRY: Three bucks?
VELSHI: Three bucks.
CHETRY: It used to be a dollar.
VELSHI: And this totally affects guys like me because I don't carry a lot of cash, note to any of you thinking of mugging me. I really never carry much cash around, so I use random bank machines all over the place. If you're a non Bank of America customer using a Bank of America machine and there are a lots of them, there are almost 11,000 of them in the United States, you're going to get dinged for three bucks from Bank of America. Not from your own bank. That means if you take out $100, you're going to pay $103 or like me, you take out $20, you're going to pay $23. It's going to apply to banks, bank branches at supermarkets, that's about two-thirds of their installed base. They're saying that's it's not going to apply to people at shopping malls and airports which is where many non Bank of America customers actually use the machines.
Now, their argument is two-fold. One is they say they've spent a lot of money installing more bank machines all over the place, which is fairly visible to anybody. And I'm always wondering why there are more of these things popping up all over. The other thing is they say that Bank of America customers and there are many of them, are complaining that they're facing very long lineups at some of these things so they impose a greater charge on non Bank of America customers, it will create more space. But here's the thing. Bankrate.com, which follows trends in this sort of thing, says that the other banks are just waiting for an excuse for the biggie in the game to do this.
CHETRY: So you think we're going to see this with Citibank?
VELSHI: Yeah, why not, if these guys are charging three bucks, why doesn't Citibank, Wells Fargo, and all of them start charging three bucks as well? Most of the fees around there are $1.50 to $2, sometimes 99 cents and a few banks offer free withdrawals. Again, this is in addition to whatever your own bank charges you for using somebody else's ATM.
CHETRY: One quick question. Do you buy that argument? Because if the non Bank of America people are using it and they're getting that --
VELSHI: They're getting -- no I don't buy the argument.
CHETRY: So wouldn't they want them to be there?
VELSHI: I don't buy the argument but for the banks that struggles through mortgage crisis and things like this, there's nothing more solid than the money that they get from people using their ATMs and that's what we do. So, three bucks now.
CHETRY: Yeah, you pay for convenience.
VELSHI: Almost as much as a coffee at Starbucks, almost.
CHETRY: Or a gallon of gas.
VELSHI: Or a gallon of gas, that's right.
CHETRY: Thanks, Ali.
Here's a look at another story coming up that you can't miss, a nursing mother is headed to court, she is suing because she wants to get extra breaks so that she can pump breast milk during a nine-hour medical licensing exam. And this is a big exam that you have to take in order to be able to get your medical license and the board is just saying, we're not making any type of allowance here. ROBERTS: According to the rules, the exam allows a total of just 45 minutes in breaks but you would think if anybody were to understand the need to do this, it would be the National Board of Medical Examiners. Who have refused to give this woman the extra time. Her story and a lot more coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: And the radar tells the tale this morning. There is Hurricane Humberto coming ashore this morning just east of Galveston Island, heading up through Port Arthur in Texas, Beaumont, Lake Charles, Louisiana. Rain upon rain upon rain, in an area that's already gotten so much this past summer that it really can't afford any more. Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING and thanks for joining us. Thursday, September the 13th. I'm John Roberts here in Washington.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry here in New York and we have Rob Marciano in Atlanta tracking that storm for us. Hurricane Humberto slamming into the Texas gulf coast. It's loaded with rain and it's sitting over an area that just suffered through some of the worst flooding in half a century. Here's another look, this is the satellite picture, the storm just formed yesterday afternoon. It stirred up for several hours, gaining in moisture, and by the time it made landfall a few hours ago it actually had enough wind speed to be a category one hurricane. We spoke to the sheriff in Galveston, Texas. He said rescue teams already had to save two elderly couples who ended up stranded in their own homes and that the torrential rain flooded quote, "almost everything." They're also dealing with power outages in many places and trying to check roadways for debris, seeing if any of these major interstates are still passable. We're covering all angles of the storm this morning. Again, Rob Marciano with the latest track, live at the CNN weather desk. We're going to start though with Ed Lavandera, he's live in Beaumont, Texas, an area that really took a pounding. It looks like it's raining a little less than when we last checked in with you Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, things have dramatically changed I think since the last time we spoke with you just a short while ago. The rain has really cut back considerably and the wind is actually almost next to nothing here at that point. So that is a good sign since we are on the back side of this storm, things have clearly been improving and this will give emergency crews here in the Beaumont area and perhaps south of where we are as well to be able to go out and start surveying the areas they need to do to make sure everyone is ok. Of course, roadways will be the concern as when we were driving in here this morning we were starting to see the signs in some areas that some roadways had already started to flood so that was going to be a problem as well.
So they will continue to do that but at least for now, the rain appears, the worst appears to have passed through Beaumont already this morning and of course the concern will continue to shift east of where we are, and into Louisiana, where the heavy sheets of rain will continue to fall, the wind we expect will be very bearable for most people and this will actually be what they will be most concerned about here in the coming hours, will be the rain as it continues to fall to the east of where we are.
CHETRY: All right, we're checking in with Ed Lavandera. We lost a little bit of his sound there right at the end, but again Beaumont, Texas, now another one of the areas hit by hurricane Humberto as it makes its way away from Texas and into Louisiana. John?
ROBERTS: Yeah, and just what a rainmaker and just absolutely as you were saying, just not what people in Texas need after the summer that they have had. That comes after it's been so dry for so long. It's coming up to 34 minutes after the hour. Rob Marciano is tracking the progress of hurricane Humberto as it comes ashore. Rob, this is so weird. The storm just sat out there for a couple of days, suddenly formed into a tropical storm, then a hurricane and boom, roared ashore.
MARCIANO: Yeah, I mean not even a couple of days. It was just a disturbance of some thunderstorms and yesterday it started getting better organized, flew a plane out there and boom, tropical storm status and then blew up to a hurricane overnight. Getting some reports now, you know winds with this cat one hurricane can take down some trees. We've got 75,000 people without power in Jefferson County, Texas. Orange County (INAUDIBLE) I-10 westbound has been closed due to flooding. Hurricane-force winds in Calcasieu Parish due to hurricane-force gusts there. Same deal in Jefferson County. So here's Jefferson county, here's Calcasieu county and right here is the eye about to cross the Sabine River into Orange, Texas. The back side of this is pretty weak, it's a pretty small area confined as far as the hurricane-force winds are concerned. If you're in that eye wall, boy you're getting hammered pretty good.
And now also this red watch box is for tornado watches until 10:00. You see this will begin to expire as this thing continues to move off towards the north and east. But ahead of it, heavier rain from Lafayette back through Lake Charles and here's the forecast track across the border, and in through parts of north central Louisiana. It will lose its intensity but still right now it is certainly hurricane status. East of Lafayette, Louisiana, it's been dry. West, it's been wet. So this area is going to see some flooding but then we'll start to see some beneficial rains get into Mississippi and Alabama, so that is the good news part of this storm. Also watching this disturbance in the central Atlantic. Than doesn't look nearly as organized as it did yesterday so that's also a little bit of good news. But the bad news is we have a category one hurricane rolling through southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana this morning. John, back over to you.
ROBERTS: Ok, Rob, thanks very much.
New pictures from the storm zone in the Texas gulf coast are coming in right now. Hurricane Humberto already leaving a path of damage. Reporter Erik James from our affiliate KTRK is on the ground in High Island, Texas, that's just on the eastern side of Galveston Bay.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ERIK JAMES, KTRK: We're at a convenience store here in High Island. The owner of the convenience store says she had just put a roof on top of this store six months ago. That roof is now down on the ground. She also tells us that two years ago, when Rita hit she did not have this much damage. The only thing that she had damaged here was the gas price sign that's right over there. As you can see, it is untouched by the wind, by the rain this morning here in High Island. And a lot of folks we have talked to this morning do believe that at least one tornado touched down here. However, we have not gotten any confirmation, official confirmation from the weather service or from the sheriff here in Chambers county.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: That's Erik James in High Island, Texas for us this morning with a look at some of the damage there as Humberto came ashore. We're getting in some i-Reports, some interesting video coming to us from the storm area, but we'd like to see some more. Take some video yourself, send us your i-Reports, just go to cnn.com, follow the links, upload your video and we'll get it on here on AMERICAN MORNING just as soon as we receive it.
Also new this morning, Democrats are drawing battle lines over General David Petraeus's recommendation to move back to pre-surge troop levels in Iraq by July of next year. The White House says, it's the way to win. Democrats say, it's not enough.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HARRY REID, (D) MAJORITY LEADER: The president has told us to be patient, allow the spilling of more American blood, more of our treasury.
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This seems to be an opportunity, whether people want to seize it, do it politically, it seems to be an opportunity to get together and do two things. Number one, if you believe in the troops and support them, why don't you acknowledge and celebrate their success? This ought to be a time for people to say, job well done. And the second thing is, to ask the question, what do you need, and that is, because they're bad guys, they're out there, Helen, and they don't want to go away.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: The plan would bring home 30,000 U.S. troops by July of next year, it would leave 130,000 in the war zone without a timetable for their withdrawal. Critics say logistics were going to force the president to do that anyways. CNN will bring you the president's speech tonight live at 9:00 p.m. eastern. Complete coverage including a special edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM" and the pre game show beginning at 7:00 p.m. and then "LARRY KING LIVE" following the address. Kiran?
CHETRY: All right, thanks John.
A fierce hip-hop battle breaking out between Kanye West and 50 Cent, all over record sales. In fact, one of them threatened to retire if the other one's new album topped his new album. We're going to find out who came out on top and is anyone going to live up to their promise? Coming up.
Ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, a breast feeding controversy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Examiners have refused my request to be able to express my milk during this exam.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Will her commitment to nursing her baby destroy her dream of becoming a doctor? Find out, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the most news in the morning here on CNN. A pasta boycott tops your "quick hits." Consumer groups in Italy are asking people to forego pasta for a day to protest recent price hikes. They're asking the government to intervene to reduce pasta prices, an increase in the cost of wheat has forced manufacturers to pass that cost on to Italy's pasta-eating public. Can video games encourage kids to get good grades? One store in Texas is hoping so. As of this summer, no school-aged kids could buy a video game unless his or her parents confirm that they're getting good grades in school. The store's owner happens to be a teacher. Kiran?
CHETRY: All right, well hurricane Humberto slamming cities and towns around the coast of Texas, including Galveston, Beaumont. We're seeing it firsthand from our reporter Wayne Dolcefino of our affiliate, KTRK. Take a look.
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WAYNE DOLCEFINO, CRYSTAL BEACH, TEXAS: This is ground zero, desperately Crystal Beach in the high island. The worst wind and rain we've seen, the power is out. The only flight is the flood light shining on me as I try to stand just off highway 87. The wind and the rain really starting to sting as it comes ashore. We've got some wind. We weren't even sure where we were when we got here because the power was out. Came on briefly, then went back out again. It was on long enough for us to see we were in Gilchrist. It was almost impossible to see on the road. Crystal Beach, High Island, as Humberto now coming ashore.
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CHETRY: That was Wayne Dolcefino in Gilchrist, a little town in between Houston and Beaumont, right close to the gulf of Mexico that was just getting slammed. We spoke to a sheriff's deputy also in Beaumont a little earlier, who said that when they got out there to assess things, a lot of downed power lines. It might take a while to get power back on in some of these areas.
Meantime, it's 45 minutes past the hour now. Rob Marciano tracking Humberto for us, about where it is headed next. Hi Rob.
MARCIANO: Hi Kiran. It's moving north-northeasterly at eight miles an hour. It probably will pick up speed as we go through time. Conditions will improve to the west as we go through time as well. Here is the radar imagery and you can see that distinctive swirl that we all know very well. That live shot by the way somewhere around there, where this thing made landfall just a few hours ago. But now the center of the eye and the eye wall stretching into southwest Louisiana and through parts of Calcasieu Parish. This is the area of most intense rain and wind. Winds likely around 75, maybe 80 miles an hour, in the core of this storm. The other issue with this storm is going to be the threat for tornadoes in this area. There's a tornado watch out until at least 10:00 this morning and then look at the amount of rainfall that this white, these white areas, 10 plus inches of rain in some cases. So John, like you mentioned, the other issue with this is going to be the tremendous amount of flooding in an area that does not need the rain anymore, notably southeast Texas and extreme southwestern Louisiana. Back up to you.
ROBERTS: It was so dry there for so long, that now it's so wet, maybe they'll finally get a break. Rob, thanks very much.
Dozens of turbo prop planes are grounded this morning after two crashes in three days, the manufacturer ordering checks on the landing gear. When can we expect schedules to return to normal?
A fierce hip-hop battle breaking out between Kanye West and 50 Cent, it's all over record sales. Find out who is coming out on top.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. She already has a degree from Harvard and now all that stands in the way of one woman's dream of becoming a doctor is a grueling exam, and a commitment to breast feeding her baby. There was a hearing set today to decide whether to hear Sophie Courier's case. I spoke with Courier and her attorney earlier this week. They explained her plight.
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SOPHIE COURIER: So what's going on is that, in order to get your license, you have to take three medical licensing exams, and the licensing exams are, on average, about nine, nine and a half hours long, the period of time where you have to be there. And during that time, because I'm a new mom, I actually either have to nurse or express milk about three times. The problem is that the exam only allows for 45 minutes of break time during the whole day, and nursing takes about 20, 25, sometimes 30 minutes each pumping time. So anyway, during this nine-hour period I'm going to have to have three breaks in order to do that but the 45 minutes doesn't allow for that. I made a request to get extra break time in order to accommodate this need, and the national board of medical examiners have refused my request to be able to express my milk during this exam.
CHETRY: Right and actually they have a response, what they said was, "The board does not dispute the merits of breastfeeding, however our priority must the American public's health, safeguarded by maintaining the integrity of the exam." What is your response to that?
COURIER: My response is that other medical licensing board exams like the neurology and psychiatry exams allow women to take breaks in order to express their milk or nurse their child. A woman who is expressing milk needs to take a very short break. Now everybody gets 45 minutes of break and they can do whatever they want during that break. All we're asking is for 20 more minutes to be able to deal with this physiological need, which other board exams and bar exams, which are also very important for screening physicians, allow women to do this.
CHETRY: And Christine, does it strike you as a little bit ironic in that I mean she's taking a medical exam, it's the medical community that talks a lot about the troubles that there is with getting women to stick with breast feeding and they're not making the accommodation for your client.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's exactly the fundamental inconsistency that we see here. It's hypocritical, on the one hand for all of these medical organizations to step forward and promote breastfeeding and at the same time the very organization that licenses physicians and is involved in testing them, and giving them the green light to move ahead to be physicians is basically putting forth a barrier and preventing women from doing so.
CHETRY: All right, well keep us posted on how this goes and thanks for sharing your story, and thanks for bringing little Leah as well. Sophie and Christine, thanks.
COURIER: Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Joining us with the other side right now is Dr. Ruth Hoppe, she's chairman of the oversight committee that is refusing Sophie's request for an extra hour to breastfeed. Doctor Hoppe, thanks for being with us this morning.
DR. RUTH HOPPE, CHAIRMAN OF MEDICAL EXAM BOARD: It's a pleasure, Kiran.
CHETRY: Let's get right to it. We heard her side, she's saying she just wants an extra hour through the course of these exams to be able to express her milk. Why not just grant that request?
HOPPE: Well, Kiran, let me first say that we certainly recognize the high stakes that this represents for the young men and women who take this examination. And for some of them who have personal needs, we're sympathetic with the added challenge that this provides, and that includes nursing mothers, it also includes individuals with chronic diseases like diabetes or bowel or bladder problems. So we certainly don't want to stand in the way of breastfeeding. We believe in breastfeeding, and of course, its merits in terms of health and emotional well-being of the infant. But we also have a responsibility to the public, and we feel that that's a higher order of responsibility, as you've already pointed out.
CHETRY: Let me just ask you, when you say you have a higher responsibility to the public, how would that be compromised by allowing Sophie an extra hour, an extra 30 minutes, whatever you guys agree on, to express her milk?
HOPPE: Because we have very carefully standardized this examination, and that relates to the time it's offered for the examinees and we hold that time very standard, as part of ensuring the reliability of this examination to protect the health of the public.
CHETRY: You do not make exceptions for other things? She actually is getting an extra day to take it because of dyslexia and ADHD, so why not an exception for something that the medical community has ruled is vital to the health of newborns?
HOPPE: Well, of course, breastfeeding and other personal needs like I mentioned don't fall under the Americans with Disabilities Acts. And so we work very hard with our examinees to help them deal with these personal needs. In this particular individual's case we've offered a private room, and the ability to bring in her pumps and food while she's actually testing in her private testing room. But we are --
CHETRY: All right, we'll love to see what happens --
HOPPE: We are really heavily governed by our policies.
CHETRY: All right, well it is heading into court today. A judge could maybe force you guys to make a change or he may stand by your standing policy for that. But thank you for bringing us your side, Dr. Ruth Hoppe, the chairman of the oversight community for the U.S. medical licensing exam.
HOPPE: You're very welcome.
CHETRY: It's 53 minutes past the hour, Ali Velshi "Minding your Business" right now and we're talking that video no one could forget it last week in Denmark of one of those turbo props, literally the landing gear failing, the pilot managing to get it down there safely.
ALI VELSHI: Unbelievable, we've seen the video of the Q400, it's a bombardier plane coming in, landing in Denmark, this was on Wednesday. On Sunday a similar occurrence in Lithuania. So SAS, Scandinavian Airlines has grounded all of its Q400's, they're made by Montreal based Bombardier. Bombardier is now saying to all of the airlines that have these planes, these are 68 to 78 passenger planes. Any of these planes that have had more than 10,000 takeoffs and landings should be grounded for inspection and service. And in fact, the transportation department in Canada is saying 8,000 takeoffs and landings. Now who does that affect here in the United States, a lot of airlines have had theses. But here in the United States only two airlines operate this, horizon and frontier. Frontier has not got their Q400s in service. So Horizon is the only airline affected by this. We're expecting 127 cancellations today from horizon. They are borrowing 13 aircraft from their parent company, Alaska Airlines. Scandinavian Airlines, where you saw that video, they're taking all of their Q400s out of service for inspection. For the moment though, only 20 of those are affected. So about 60 airplanes worldwide affected by this pullout, horizon in the United States. Kiran?
CHETRY: All right thanks a lot, Ali. John?
ROBERTS: A new television series isn't coming to television. It's coming to Myspace. That tops your "quick hits." the creators of "30-something" and "my so-called life" are launching a new web based show for myspace.com "quarter life." Producers say the format will give them the creative freedom that broadcast networks don't.
From quarter life to no quarter, my favorite story of the day, Led Zeppelin announcing plans for a one-time comeback concert. It will be the first time that they have performed together in 19 years. It's going to happen in November, as a tribute to the founder of Atlantic records, (INAUDIBLE) who first signed the band back in 1968. Also signed Ray Charles by the way.
Forget a star on the walk of fame. He's getting a whole street. Hollywood gives kudos to our Larry King in a big way, that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Kanye West looks like he's set to win a closely-watched dual with rival rapper 50 cent. The two of them were battling it out for the top spot on the record charts, both have been having an album that came out on the same day, this past Tuesday. According to preliminary sales data that was issued yesterday, Kanye's "Graduation" sold an estimated 437,000 copies on its first day. That's far ahead of 50 Cent's new album "Curtis". That sold 310,000. Now 50 Cent had threatened that he would retire if he was beaten by Kanye. But they say that he was saying if his album doesn't catch up or if doesn't sell more albums in the first week of release. So he still has time. If you're a 50 Cent fan and you don't want him to retire, you can get out there and buy his album hopefully so that he can try to beat out his rival, Kanye.
ROBERTS: I'll run right out after the show. He has interviewed the biggest and brightest stars in Hollywood for half a century. Now our own Larry King has his own not star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but his own street in Tinseltown. The city council has vowed to rename a city block around the CNN building "Larry King Square." It was in recognition of his 50 years in broadcasting. So Kiran, it's a tremendous honor for Larry King and I guess a sign that we won't be moving out of that building any time soon either.
CHETRY: How about that one. He's getting his picture -- Does he have a star on the Walk of Fame as well?
ROBERTS: I don't believe he has one of those yet.
CHETRY: Give it time.
ROBERTS: But that could still come.
CHETRY: The next hour of AMERICAN MORNING starts right now.
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