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Out in the Open
Wildfires Overwhelm Southern California; President Bush Requests Increased War Funding
Aired October 22, 2007 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: We're checking reports of new fires breaking out in Southern California. Officials there are now saying the fires there are worse than anything that they could have expected.
Look at that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ (voice-over): A quarter million people evacuated, home after home after home burning to the ground. The utter helplessness, here not a fire truck in sight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's just not enough firefighters. There's just not enough fire engines to take care of all the houses that are catching fire.
Look at this, small homes, a large church, even a castle. Nothing seems to withstand the flames being pushed by the hot, tropical-storm-force winds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An extremely quick-moving fire, probably one like we have never seen before.
SANCHEZ: From San Diego to L.A., we have CNN crews on the fire lines. We will be joined by the mayor of Malibu and residents trying to save their lives and their property.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is their home. They put their heart and soul into this place.
SANCHEZ: As the story unfolds, you will see it here live.
Also, more money for the war. How much more, Mr. President? Forty-six billion?
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, I sent Congress an updated supplemental war funding request.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: President Bush should not expect Congress to rubber-stamp this.
SANCHEZ: Then there's Mr. Vice President.
RICHARD B. CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its most aggressive ambitions. SANCHEZ: Sound familiar? We dig into our archives to let you hear when he said this before.
And with all this going on, guess who's talking again? Osama bin Laden, on tape, on Iraq.
All this, as you have come to expect, in one jampacked hour of OUT IN THE OPEN.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no containment at this hour. There's no expected containment at this hour. It's just that the winds continue to blow this fire into all kinds of other communities. And there is a fear that it will burn completely to the ocean.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: And hello again, everybody.
As we begin this newscast, right now people in Southern California are being told to leave their homes by the hundreds of thousands. The pictures are just truly remarkable, worse than feared. That's a direct quote.
In fact, let's go to the very first pictures. This is from a place called Lake Arrowhead. We're being told that many of the folks in this area have been waiting all day for any kind of drops, any kind of assistance, because many of the firefighters have been moving to other areas, like Malibu, for example.
Now the information we're getting is that they're getting their first water drops in the area around Lake Arrowhead, where, by the way, it's important to note 128 homes have already burned to the ground. Now, as we watch those pictures and as they prepare for those drops, let's show you pictures from the area around Lake Arrowhead.
This is what it's been looking like throughout the day. Homes just nothing but burning sticks, and then eventually coming down. We're monitoring these pictures throughout this newscast as we continue to watch to see what happens.
By the way, in San Diego County, south of Malibu -- that would be east of Lake Arrowhead -- 100,000 acres have now burned. We're told 250,000 people have been evacuated. Take a look at these pictures as they continue to come in now here at OUT IN THE OPEN.
All right, let's get started with Dan Simon. He's in San Diego. He's going to set the scene for us there, and then we will work our way around different parts of the state and let you get caught up.
Dan, start us off. Set the scene for us there.
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rick, first of all, I just spoke to a battalion chief with the San Diego Fire Department. He has been there for 36 years. He just told me he has never seen anything like this. Let me show you why. Everywhere you look in San Diego you are seeing neighborhoods just like this one. This house totally leveled. Check out the house to my left. That one is gone. Check out the house to my right. That house is also gone.
In this one little two-block radius, 12 homes have gone down, and we're seeing a repeat of this pretty much in every neighborhood in San Diego. We are told that as many as 250,000 people have evacuated, really at an unprecedented level for this community.
And, Rick, I have got to tell you, we're still feeling a lot of wind here. We're still seeing some embers fly in the sky. At this point, we have absolutely no idea when crews may get the upper hand on this blaze, Rick.
SANCHEZ: I understand that both state and local officials there have been meeting with residents and meeting with public officials. In fact, I heard that the governor had made a statement earlier in the day. What did he say? What was his announcement?
SIMON: Well, he's saying that he needs a lot of help, Rick. They just can't fight the blaze with what they have got here.
He's asking the federal government for help. He's also pulling some troops from the National Guard. He's pulling them off the border. He just needs a lot of help.
Here's what he had to say a bit earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: We're battling with this all over the state of California. There's seven, eight fires right now.
We are stretched to the limit when it comes to the resources. We have been asking neighboring states to ask for help to get some of the resources and some of the fire engines and also airplanes and stuff like that. We have asked the federal government for help and to release some of the troops. So, we need as much help as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON: And back here live in San Diego, we haven't seen much in the way of aircraft here because it's simply been too treacherous to get those helicopters flying.
We just saw one or two of them flying, really the first time today that we have seen those helicopters up there, Rick. Unfortunately, this is going to continue. The forecast tomorrow calls for more wind, and we're still seeing some more active fire out there.
SANCHEZ: Let's do this, Dan. Stand by. We're going to try and get back to you in just a little bit. We know the story's still developing.
So, let's go to Sam Padilla. He's the L.A. County fire inspector, who's unfortunately having to deal with all this.
Mr. Padilla, are you there?
SAM PADILLA, L.A. COUNTY FIRE INSPECTOR: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Hey, tell me what you're doing about fire crews, because we have been getting reports for the last couple of hours that you really just don't have enough manpower to deal with this. Is that true?
Well, we're one of the fortunate departments here on the West Coast. We're the largest. We have over 3,300 personnel.
Every personnel that's in suppression has been either called to man reserve rigs or on telephone standby, which means they have to respond at any time to a location.
This has stretched us beyond our capacity. We do have three of the major fires. We just got -- we just had another one break out less than two hours ago in the same area of Santa Clarita Valley, which has now turned into a second one, 500-plus acres, which is now moving towards L.A. City and Ventura County.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Hold on just a minute because I hear you essentially making news here. We had gotten reports that there was in fact another fire, but repeat for our viewers one more time what you just said about this new report of another fire. And give us the location of it again.
PADILLA: At 2:15 -- at 2:17 we reported a half-acre of grass being burned right by the Magic Mountain amusement park off Interstate 5 freeway at Magic Mountain Parkway.
That quickly grew to 10 acres. With the wind it pushed it to 100. Now it is 500 acres, moving west-southwest towards the county border into Los Angeles City and Ventura County right now.
SANCHEZ: Well, OK.
(CROSSTALK)
PADILLA: This is the third major fire over second alarm that we have in our jurisdiction alone.
SANCHEZ: This would be different, and this would be certainly something that goes against what we have been reporting throughout the day, because although we have been reporting fires in Malibu and we have been reporting the fires in San Diego County and up there around Lake Arrowhead, there have been no reports, correct me if I'm wrong, in the Los Angeles area, metro area itself, right?
PADILLA: Well, we have three of the major ones in California right now. We have the one in Malibu, which is a Canyon incident. We have the Buckweed incident in Santa Clarita Valley, which is just north of Los Angeles. It's suburban. It's an urban interface suburban area and some rolling hills with a lot of -- it's a lot of brush, urban interface. So, that is at 27,000 acres right now; 25 homes were destroyed there. We had 15,000 people evacuated; 500 homes were evacuated. And people are kept out of their homes right now.
SANCHEZ: That's amazing. You know...
(CROSSTALK)
PADILLA: And now within 10 miles this next fire started.
SANCHEZ: We're just kind of doing -- crunching the numbers here. We had 128 in Lake Arrowhead. You just mentioned another 27 in your area.
I mean, just the number of homes that have been burning to the ground and continue to burn to the ground as we speak is remarkable.
Sam Padilla, hold on just a minute because I think the best person to go to now, let's go to Chad Myers. He's standing by in Atlanta at the Severe Weather Center. And he can give us a sense.
Did you hear what he just said, Chad, about another fire that he can now report to us?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Can you tell us where that is and what the significance of it is?
MYERS: The significance is that now we're getting fires in not canyons and not wide open spaces. We're getting fires in populated areas.
And that would be up here north of -- he said near Santa Clarita, L.A., a lot of fires already. Every fire you see here is a hot spot that the satellite found, not just some dot on a map that I drew, but literally some hot spot.
We had the fire yesterday, the big fire in Malibu. Now it's really up in the canyons. The Malibu fire was really a spark, or a series of sparks that came out of that Canyon fire itself, also down into San Diego.
The most amazing thing today that I have seen with the Santa Ana winds is actually, we can see -- we can literally see the fires on radar. So, how does this all happen? How does it go?
The winds from high pressure here begin to blow offshore. The offshore wind is warm and it's dry. Relative humidity right now in Valley Center, which is down here, is 2 percent. So, even if there was any moisture in the ground, it would be sucked out of the ground. Here's what the radar shows right now. It looks like it's raining in Oxnard. It looks like it's raining up into the Canyon Fire. It looks like it's raining over here at Lake Arrowhead. The problem, it's not rain. The radar is confused, thinking what it sees in the air is rainfall. What it's seeing is smoke.
And the smoke is just -- is thickening now as we get into the afternoon hours. Our Dan Simon was right there at Rancho Bernardo. That's the fire, and that's the smoke plume blowing offshore. San Diego right there, so far so good for San Diego.
But then south of San Diego, blowing even down here across parts of northern Mexico, the smoke blowing south of Chula Vista and into Imperial Beach. This day is going to go down because of what we call sparked-influenced storms, and we're talking about the wind. It blows up the hill. There are many canyons.
And then all of a sudden it gets to the top of the canyon and it can blow down the canyon. But what also happens, because of this ridge, we start to get embers. And these embers fly. And they move ahead of where the firefighters are, and they move actually ahead of the line, and there's no way to stop that.
We just had another wind gust in Valley Center down by where Dan Simon was. The wind gust was 48 miles per hour. That can take a live ember almost two miles down the road. And that's going to be the problem for the entire night tonight, because of the Santa Ana winds blowing offshore, because of what we have here, the fire is so widespread. Now there are hundreds of fires to put out., technically, only probably a dozen, but the hot spots are multiplying because of the way the embers are flying tonight.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: They have got their work to do.
SANCHEZ: Chad Myers, good explanation. Stand by as well, Chad. We're going to be getting back to you in just a little bit.
For those of you who are just now joining us, the situation is not getting better out there in California. These are now live pictures from Lake Arrowhead you heard Chad talking about. We have been watching this develop over the last couple of hours, and it's really been quite remarkable, and here's why.
That area around Lake Arrowhead was one of the last places to actually get engulfed in flames. So, what happened? A lot of the firefighters in that region were called to the area around Malibu and some of the areas around San Diego in the southern part of this state.
So, they didn't have firefighters there when all of a sudden just like Chad mentioned moments ago -- now, look at the picture there on the right and look at the picture on the left. These are live pictures of what's going on there now. These are houses that are actually going down in flames. What happened was when the fires developed, there was nobody there to put them out. There were no firefighters to be able to fight the fires. So, all they could do was tell the residents to leave the area, and home after home after home burnt to the ground, so big a problem that we're told now the White House has been involved.
Congressman Duncan Hunter is joining us now. He's been out there following this situation.
You're asking, I understand, Congressman -- by the way, sir, thanks so much for joining us. It's very kind of you to do so. Our condolences to you and many of the people you represent there in San Diego County.
I understand you have written a letter to the president. What are you asking for?
REP. DUNCAN HUNTER (R-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, actually, we have gone beyond the letter stage, and things are in action, and we have got a great National Guard.
I just talked to the commander of the National Guard, General Steven Blum. He is sending out MAF (ph) units. Those are firefighting C-130 aircraft. He's sending them from two states, from Wyoming and North Carolina. They're on their way out to California. They're going to be staged at Malibu. They will be able to hit the fires in Southern California, in the San Diego region and up into Malibu, and then into the Inland Empire in Los Angeles.
So, we have got these two major MAF (ph) units, firefighting units, coming out right now. And he's a forward-looking guy. He's sending them out before they get the official request from the incident center that translates a request from the bureaucracy from California.
Governor Schwarzenegger has made the request. It hasn't gotten through. But right now the National Guard is going to send the planes anyway as they wait for this thing to come through.
SANCHEZ: Is this a result -- we heard this quote ourselves earlier, and we were startled by it. One fire official said, in San Diego, we have more fires burning and more buildings threatened than we have firefighters and fire crews that are able to deal with it.
Is that what you heard that got you to act on this?
HUNTER: Well , no, I -- I came out from the presidential debates last night. As I was walking up on the stage on the debate, I got a call from my folks, and my house, which burned down in the last fire, we were just getting back into, and I just got a call that there's fires all over San Diego County.
So, I came straight out this morning. I talked to the National Guard this morning, sent a letter out to the secretary of defense, Mr. Gates. And they have acted immediately. In fact, they have acted before this bureaucracy has actually transferred the request from California for federal military firefighting aircraft. The National Guard, Steven Blum, who's a forward-looking guy and a good, tough guy, is sending planes out right now to California. He's sending them out. He's going to pay for it with training dollars. We're going to have them stood up by noon tomorrow. They will be able to hit with a heavy retardant capability San Diego and the Inland Empire and L.A.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Noon tomorrow. The problem is, of course, what happens between now and then.
Congressman Duncan Hunter, thank you so much, sir, for joining us live with that bit of information, which obviously is welcome news for the people there.
Let's go back to our live pictures, if we can. We have been telling you about what's going on around Lake Arrowhead. There, you see that picture around Lake Arrowhead, once again, more fires in the area. We don't know how many more homes have burned since we have been following this.
About an hour ago, we got word it was 128 homes that had burned, 1,000 acres so far burned; 250,000 people have been mandated -- that means forced -- to evacuate their homes.
Our next stop, we're going to take to you Malibu. Remember, Malibu's where everything got started. There's some of the pictures from there. It's where, by the way, an entire Presbyterian church burnt to the ground. We will take you to the scene.
Also, people are now telling us how they're trying to get away from the flames and, in some cases, what they have lost as a result.
Also, we have got an I-Report that's just come in to us. This is video of what it's like to get out there and see for yourself what happens. You will actually hear the voice of the guy as he describes to us what's going on as he's trying to get away from the fire, all this as we continue this developing story in our special coverage of Southern California on fire.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: We are going to take you to the area around Malibu now.
And one of the things that we have been focusing on throughout this newscast has been the area that got hit around Malibu. One particular place, it's a castle. Let me show it to you. I think we have got a Google Earth map that shows you what the castle actually looked like. There it is right there.
That's what the castle actually looked like. And that's where it is, again, right there. Now, look at it now with what is left of it, obviously, not a whole lot. We have got another picture now. This is a Presbyterian church. This is also in Malibu. Can we get the shot of that Presbyterian church up? I'm going to show what that thing looks like. And then we're going to go right from the Presbyterian church -- all right, we don't have it.
Let's go over here to Ted Rowlands. He's standing by in Malibu as we bring you the rest of this story.
Ted, the situation in Malibu -- and this is what people need to understand -- this is where it first started, right? This is where the fire began as a result of the embers that came into the area.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The first fire began here because of downed power lines in the intense wind. You talk about that church. It's right behind us here. And that's not much -- there is nothing left of it. It was completely demolished yesterday, one of six structures completely demolished here in Malibu.
And today was another difficult day, a lot of evacuations throughout the day because of the intense winds. This was the first fire that began, but it's not necessarily related to the other fires. Each of the fires around this region independently started. This one was because of power lines.
There is a fire down in the Irvine area which they now know is arson. The other ones are all under investigation. The bottom line is things are ripe for this to happen. The winds are up. The humidity is down, tinder-dry conditions, and the temperatures are up, and California is burning tonight because of it.
SANCHEZ: As we look at these pictures, I have heard some folks out there describe it as the perfect storm, where everything came together. Did we -- Ted, you still there?
ROWLANDS: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Is it something where they expected there was going to be a lot of wind and they knew there could be a fire, or was there an expectation that something this big, this bad could actually break out, out there?
ROWLANDS: Well, the entire summer, it's been a situation where people have been on pins and needles because of the dry conditions. Then going up to this weekend, the predictions were all for the high winds and high temperatures, but you never know until it happens.
And Sunday, boy, it started, and it continues to go. They expect these weather conditions for the next couple of days. And as you have talked about, resources are thin. It's a difficult time, not only here in Malibu, but around the southern half of this state.
SANCHEZ: We're seeing the wind. I mean, you know, it's almost like it's blowing you over. I heard people saying earlier today hurricane-force gusts, tropical-storm-force winds. Is that right?
ROWLANDS: Yes, at times.
We're getting a very good gust right now. And the other problem is it's changing direction. So, you can imagine the difficulties fighting this, because, first of all, when the winds are high enough, they can't fly as tight as they want to. And then, boom, we get the change in the direction, and then this house that was in danger is safe, but now this house is in imminent danger.
So, we talked to people today. They were thinking they were out of the woods, boom, they had to grab their cats and dogs and get out because of a wind shift and the intensity of this wind. It's just amazing.
SANCHEZ: All right. And all eyes focusing now on that area around Lake Arrowhead.
Ted Rowlands, thanks so much for bringing us up to date there in the area around Malibu, where this thing first started.
In the meantime, let's -- Will, if you could, put those pictures up around Lake Arrowhead once again. Viewers, I think, need to see exactly how that situation is still developing, because it wasn't until just moments ago when we first started getting ready to go on the air that we were told the very first airdrops were taking place there, very first airdrops.
Now, think about that. The fire had been going for about four or five hours. This picture that you're looking at now reflects what is left of many of the homes in that area, 128 of them really gone, burnt to the ground. We watched today as they became nothing but sticks.
In fact, we probably have some of that video now. I don't know if you can put it up while we have this conversation.
I'm told, as we do that, the mayor of Malibu's joining us now. Pamela Conley Ulich is good enough to talk to us now.
I heard you say earlier that what you're most concerned about is the lives of people there, for people not to get caught up in trying to save their property because it could cost them their lives. Illustrate that for us once again, if you would, Mayor.
Go ahead.
All right, obviously...
PAMELA CONLEY ULICH, ACTING MALIBU MAYOR: ... property can.
SANCHEZ: Go ahead.
ULICH: People can be replaced. Property -- excuse me. People cannot be replaced. Property can.
And, so, we have been urging everyone, you know, what's the most important thing, obviously, is your family, yourself. If you have to, be prepared. Tonight is another stormy, windy night. I have asked everyone to just be prepared. In case you have to evacuate, the most important thing is yourself. Get ready to get out.
SANCHEZ: Did you expect anything like this? We were just having this conversation with Ted Rowlands, and we know that there were going to be these Santa Ana winds, as they're described, whipping off the mountain.
Was there any expectation that this could happen, and what was the preparation to make sure it didn't?
ULICH: Well, we did have a red flag warning issued. Actually, a lot of people -- it's funny. As early as two days ago, we were going to have a horse show in Malibu. They canceled it. And people were complaining, why are you canceling it because of wind on Sunday? It was canceled on Friday.
So, obviously, we had tried to get the word out. People -- in Malibu, this has been a dry summer. It's been a drought year. And a lot of people have been prepared. We live in Malibu. It happens a lot. It's a very picturesque, beautiful place, but it's not without peril. And, as you can see today, it's -- we're living on pins and needles here.
SANCHEZ: I will tell you, my heart goes out to you, and I'm sure Americans all over the country who are watching this thing develop wish you only the best.
Mayor, thanks for hanging tough. Thanks for being there for us and explaining to us exactly what's going on.
ULICH: Thank you.
SANCHEZ: Pamela Conley Ulich, who obviously is going to have one long night tonight, 128 homes destroyed in one area.
We're told in different parts of the city, there are other expectations that it could happen there as well.
Meanwhile, as we go to the break, there are some other pictures I want to show you. If you have got these videos coming in now, you will see some of the other areas that are being affected as people try and leave now. This is an I-Report that we got in just moments ago.
This is somebody who's leaving town, and he describes to us what he sees and what happens in front of him as he does so.
Also, we're going to be taking you through some new tape that's been issued by Osama bin Laden. We're going to tell you what his message is about Iraq, interestingly enough.
This is an OUT IN THE OPEN special. We will continue in just a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MATT ARMSTRONG, I-REPORTER: It's just -- I mean, it looks really weird. I feel like I'm in some kind of like weird, freakish movie or something.
But, yes, you can probably see it a little better now. It's dark almost. I mean, it's technically dark. I mean, all I can see is just smoke and, you know, stuff like that. It's -- it's 9:00 in the morning and it's dark.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: You see that video that you're looking at right there? That's from Matt Armstrong. That's a shot of him trying to get out of town.
Will, put up pictures now of what it looks like on that area that we have been describing around Lake Arrowhead, because you will see what the genesis is of those flames that he was describing.
There's the scene. That's what we're talking about right now. It's a developing story that we're following for you here.
And the fellow who you just heard who sent us that tape, Matt, he's on the phone.
Matt, Matt Armstrong, thanks so much for being with us. What -- are you there, Matt?
VOICE OF MATT ARMSTRONG, I-REPORTER: I'm here.
SANCHEZ: Yes, hey, what was it like when you made the decision that you were going to get out of Dodge because we also have pictures of people leaving and some of the traffic back-ups?
Will (ph), I think that's tape number three, the traffic back-ups that we saw of people when they first got the word that they all needed to evacuate as many as 250,000. Go to that shot as we listen to Matt's response.
Matt, describe it for us.
ARMSTRONG: It was really just pretty crazy. I mean, I actually went to double check on someone's house, my friend, Stephanie Slinska (ph) that we helped to move out earlier because she had to get evacuated. I went to go check on her house, and I looked up to the hill, and there's just tons of fire coming near us. So I decided I should better leave.
And so I get in my car and I start driving and I noticed that the smoke is everywhere. And it's just this orange haze throughout the whole entire area. I've never seen anything like it. I've never really experienced anything like that. But it was just absolutely --
SANCHEZ: We're looking at -- we're looking at pictures now, and I mean, I can't imagine when everybody gets up and decides they have to get out at the same time, the first thing that happens is everybody goes to a gas station to try and get gasoline to get out. And then all of a sudden things get backed up.
We're looking at pictures that describe both of these scenes. I also heard in one of your descriptions earlier that it literally turned into night before noon, right?
ARMSTRONG: Oh, it did. There were parts where it was just really dark. I mean, you had to turn your lights on. It was almost -- I thought it was dusk, and it's 9:00 in the morning.
SANCHEZ: Matt Armstrong, thanks so much for bringing us up to date on this situation. He's been following the developments there. And as you could see, he was kind enough to take out a camera and shoot it for us.
Now, obviously, we encourage anyone to be able to share pictures with us, but we don't encourage people getting anywhere near these fires to take pictures because what we're being told by officials is that these things are dangerous enough and that you could forget about taking care of your property if it comes close enough and what you should do is take care of yourself.
Also, we've got other pictures that we've been sharing with you as they continue to come in. Joining us now as we follow the story is Michael Colbert. He's the President and CEO of Palomar Pomerado Health Center, which is essentially a hospital. Michael, I understand that they had to evacuate your entire hospital today?
MICHAEL COVERT, PRESIDENT & CEO, PALOMAR POMERADO HEALTH CENTER: We did. One of our hospitals did have to evacuate. We evacuated approximately 200 patients from both the hospital as well as the adjacent skilled nursing facility that we have on that campus. Yes?
SANCHEZ: What was it like? I mean, what kind of patients do you have there? And how hurry was that operation trying to get them all out quickly?
COVERT: Well, I've got to tell you, our staff did a tremendous job. As you could expect, we have -- we were very busy. We have many, many sick -- very, very ill patients this time of the year. Obviously, in our skilled nursing facility, we have a number of patients that are on ventilators and very dependent upon oxygen and other medical care.
Our staff did a tremendous job. Within a period of some 2 1/2 hours, we got all of the hospital patients diverted to other hospitals safely. And then we were able to move out the number of skilled nursing patients that we had to a number of different nursing centers. Everyone has really pitched in.
SANCHEZ: Who made the decision? I mean, the information that we have here now is that schools are being evacuated, they're making decisions about tomorrow. Colleges are being evacuated. But then when we heard as well that they were going to start evacuating a hospital, that's when we decided to contact you. Who made the decision to do this, and how did it come about? COVERT: Well, our staff at the Incident Command Site actually will make that decision based on discussions that we'll have with the command center for the county. And based on what the police and the fire folks are seeing, what's happening around the hospital, depending upon the smoke and the fire and the fact that we have to have enough time to be able to get those patients out, we made the conscious decision that we wanted to do the safest thing that we could for our patients.
SANCHEZ: We're looking at live pictures, by the way, and tape as well of this developing story taking place in southern California.
We're talking to Michael Covert, for those of you who are now joining us. He's a hospital director there at Palomar Pomerado Health Center. How close did the fire actually get to your building, sir?
COVERT: Well, actually really sort of behind the hill. We're actually nestled into the hills in the Poway area there. And fortunately, based on a fire break that the fire department was able to create, we've been able to stave that off.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
COVERT: So I will tell you, probably some 500 yards away.
SANCHEZ: Let me tell you, by the way, for the benefit of our viewers, Poway is one of the areas where homes have burned to the ground as well as Forest Ranch, Lake Hodges, Lake Arrowhead, Malibu, Escondido, and Rancho Bernardo. The areas that officials say where are -- communities where homes have actually been destroyed by this fire.
Michael Covert, thanks for giving us your time, sir.
COVERT: Thank you very much.
SANCHEZ: We've got more from this southern California fire. This is the area now right there. This is one of those 128 homes that we've been describing for you. Thousands more are threatened. We're all over it.
Also, breaking down and interpreting the latest tape in Arabic, of course, from Osama Bin Laden. We'll have that for you. Stay tuned. We'll be right back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RON ROBERTS, SAN DIEGO COUNTY SUPERVISOR: We have an emergency situation here in San Diego County. We have several fires going. Collectively, they've burned over 100,000 acres. We have now evacuated close to 250,000 people from their homes.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SANCHEZ: For those of you joining us, 38 minutes past the hour, severe fires going on in southern California. We have been following it for you.
And now, you're looking at Osama Bin Laden, an important message that came down just a few hours ago from Osama Bin Laden, which says a lot about what Al Qaeda's strategy is in Iraq.
The message appeared on Al Jazeera television today. What's different about this tape is he's giving explicit instructions to Iraqis, telling them not to fight amongst themselves, essentially. Let's put this one up.
"My brothers, you have done well to perform your duty but some of you have been late to perform another duty, which is to unify your ranks and make them into one line."
Now, this would be the first time that Bin Laden speaks directly and publicly to Iraqi insurgents. Terrorism expert Paul Cruickshank has just co-written the new cover story for "Mother Jones" magazine on Al Qaeda in Iraq and its links to bin Laden. He's good enough to join us now.
Here you have Osama Bin Laden essentially doing public relations consultant work, trying to get these guys together and saying, "Look, keep your eye on the prize." It's what? It's Israel and the United States, right?
PAUL CRUICKSHANK, TERRORISM ANALYST: Yes, that's exactly what he's doing. He's carrying on orchestrating the global jihad. And this is very important work.
Bin Laden is a key figure here. What he's saying to his followers in Iraq is quit this over the top extremism in Iraq, it's been counterproductive for us. You know, Al Qaeda in Iraq, indiscriminately killing civilians, they're extorting local Sunnis --
SANCHEZ: So he's almost -- you know what, it almost sounds like he's coming with -- trying to say to them this civil war thing that you guys are doing is really stupid and you need to stop fighting amongst yourselves.
Does he have the power to unify these guys, or are they too caught up in their own little blood battles?
CRUICKSHANK: Bin Laden does have a lot of impact, not only with Al Qaeda in Iraq, who do listen to his words, but also amongst all insurgent groups in Iraq. Insurgent groups in Iraq do respect Bin Laden. In April this year --
SANCHEZ: You mean, the ones that aren't even part of Al Qaeda -- I mean, we know about Al Qaeda in Iraq, right? But you're saying the other guys as well are going to listen to this character?
CRUICKSHANK: That's absolutely right. The Islamic army of Iraq, the largest insurgent force in Iraq, this April had communicated saying, "Oh, Sheik. Oh, Sheik Bin Laden, please intervene in Iraq and stop Al Qaeda, your followers coming out with these violent excesses all the time because we want a unified front against the Americans."
SANCHEZ: So his voice is still that powerful? I mean, it's still -- and I guess let me turn that question around. It's still that important for us to try and figure out a way to take this guy out, isn't it?
CRUICKSHANK: That's absolutely the case. Bin Laden is absolutely key to the unity of what would otherwise be a very fractious sort of jihadist groups around the world. Bin Laden is central. We saw last month a message to Pakistanis where he called for attacks in Pakistan to topple the Pakistani regime. We saw a core around --
SANCHEZ: Then we saw it happen. Then we saw it realized.
CRUICKSHANK: Well, we've seen in the last few days a suicide attack against Benazir Bhutto.
SANCHEZ: Right.
CRUICKSHANK: Possibly, that might be an Al Qaeda attack and Bin Laden was calling for it, exactly those sorts of attacks.
SANCHEZ: So Bin Laden and Zawahiri are still in Waziristan, that area around Pakistan? You believe, and as his lieutenant as well, still alive in that area?
CRUICKSHANK: It is believed that Bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri are probably in the tribal areas of Pakistan, which really are a safe haven for them, especially since President Musharraf of Pakistan in September last year signed a peace deal really taking the pressure off the Al Qaeda organization in Pakistan. Bin laden sees Iraq as a place where Al Qaeda can really make headway.
SANCHEZ: If he can do this much damage, one has to wonder why we can't use a hellfire missile from Jalalabad or Bagram into that area and at least go after these guys. Is that happening? Do you know?
CRUICKSHANK: The trail has essentially gone cold with Bin Laden since Tora Bora in late 2001. There's been very little actual intelligence about where he is. We really don't know. But you know, clearly something needs to be done because a man who essentially killed 3,000 American civilians six years ago is still orchestrating the international jihad.
SANCHEZ: Paul Cruickshank, great stuff as usual. Thanks so much for coming by and sharing it with us.
CRUICKSHANK: Thanks a lot.
SANCHEZ: Vice President Dick Cheney making some comments this weekend of the type that make you go, hmm. He's talking about Iran, but it sounded an awful lot like what he said before about another country that also begins with I, R, and then A. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international community is prepared to impose serious consequences. The United States joins other nations in sending a clear message. We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.
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SANCHEZ: All right. We did some checking, and we also found some strikingly similar war rhetoric that the vice president made. This is back in 2002, in the run-up to America's pre-emptive war on Iraq. Take a listen.
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CHENEY: The entire world must know that we will take whatever action is necessary to defend our freedom and our security.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Here's something else that may make you go, hmm. The cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan has just jumped again. President Bush asked Congress today for another $46 billion for next year. That's on top of the $147 billion it already approved for 2008.
The President made his pitch by saying that America should do what it takes to support our troops.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, I sent Congress an updated supplemental war funding request that will do just that. The majority of the supplemental funding is for day-to-day military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The bill provides for basic needs, like bullets and body armor, protection against IEDs and mine-resistant ambush protected vehicles.
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SANCHEZ: I want to do something for you. Look at this -- look at this that we've got on the big wall that we can show you. You see the numbers there? It gives us some perspective.
From 2003 to 2005, right there at the very top, we spent an average of $93 billion a year in Iraq. 2006, $120 billion. 2007, $170 billion. Now, you see the final line there at the bottom? Next year, 2008, it just keeps going up, folks. $193 billion.
We're watching the situation in California throughout this hour. Hundreds of homes destroyed. We're now being told new evacuations are under way. We'll break it down for you. Stay with us. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SANCHEZ: Let's go to LARRY KING LIVE. He's joining us now. Larry, I hope you and yours are OK out there. I know you've been doing the show from New York today. But it must be scary for you to see what's going on out there in California, huh?
LARRY KING, HOST: Yes, they're fine. I spoke to the family, everybody. They're in Beverly Hills so that's pretty safe. It's well inland and pretty much away from things. Most of the people with major problems are people on the coast.
We're going to be discussing it at length tonight, and then we're going to spend quite a bit of time with Valerie Plame Wilson, the former CIA agent who was outed by the press of Bob Novak and then eventually led to someone going to jail, Scooter Libby.
Her whole story is in a new book that's really terrific. I just read it. So we've got the -- we've got the flames in one area and a flaming woman in another. Trying to hook it together for you.
SANCHEZ: I had a feeling you might go there. Thanks, my friend. Good to see you, as usual.
KING: Nice.
SANCHEZ: We look forward to it. It sounds like a great show.
By the way, we've got some pictures we can show you now of that situation Larry and I were just talking about out in California.
All right. That's that castle we've been telling you about around Malibu that everyone has been making comments about. This is a $17 million building, folks. No one thought that a fire would be able to take this thing out. It did. Not much left of it. Look at that. Thanks to KABC television, by the way, for sharing that video with us as this thing was first going down.
Now, there is a picture of a part of the fire as it was taking place there in the castle. Now, that's what they call fully engulfed. There's the fire in the castle. That and a Presbyterian church just down the street.
And remember, this is caused by embers. In other words, there's a fire that could be a mile away. It floats away, ends up on the building, starts a fire, then they can't just stop it. When the winds come in, it's impossible to control.
We're staying all over this. As we get more information, more pictures, we will be sharing with you.
Now, business break. On Wall Street today, stocks edged up after a seesaw day. The Dow gained almost 45 points. The NASDAQ picked up 28. The S&P rose five.
Federal Reserve official gave Wall Street a boost today. Fed Governor Randall Krozner said that the fed will do whatever is necessary to prevent damage to the economy from the mortgage and the credit crunch.
Also, oil prices dropped more than a quarter a barrel on profit taking from last week's record $90 plus.
And tough news for parents. College costs jumped again. The average total cost for a private four-year college topped $32,000 a year. Ouch. I've got four kids. By the way, that's up more than 6 percent.
We're going to take you back to southern California in just a little bit. I understand Dan Simon has some news he's going to be imparting with us.
The fire continues to burn out of control in several areas. At least 128 homes gone in one area, another 27 in another. We'll be right back. Stay with us.
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SANCHEZ: These are some of the pictures that we've been getting from you as you watch the situation. These are some of the first air drops as they happen in the area around southern California. There it is. That's using a helicopter.
Switch to the next shot. There you see some of the firefighters. They are just working their tails off. Really, how many of them now? We just got word 4,900 of them have been called in, and they're hoping to get some help. 1,500 National Guardsmen are going to be coming into the area as well.
There's somebody who just sent us some pictures. You see the ember as it started to get into his deck, a wooden deck. That could become a serious problem. That's how many of these fires are starting. And there's one of those shots from over the city as the residents try and deal with the fire.
By the way, the number has now grown. We had told you it was 250,000 people that had been evacuated. Now we're being told it's 265,000 people evacuated. And of course, you start to wonder, well, where are they all going to go? What's going to happen to these people?
Let's go over to Dan Simon. He's been watching the story for us. Dan, you can fill us in on this. What are they doing with these folks?
VOICE OF DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, we've been told that it's basically impossible at this point to get into a local motel or hotel here in the area. They've also opened up Qualcomm Stadium. That, of course, is the home to the San Diego chargers. We're told lots of people have gone over to the stadium. But you can forget about trying to get into a hotel room in the city. They're all booked.
Also, apparently some schools in the area, they're taking in some evacuees. And Rick, I'm just hearing it for the first time from you, 265,000, really an unprecedented number here.
SANCHEZ: That's amazing. And Will (ph), all right, there's the people over at Qualcomm Stadium. Go back to the shot. I think it was Stevenson Ranch. I hadn't heard of that place before. New live pictures coming in.
Stay with us if you would, Dan. New live pictures coming in. This is Stevenson Ranch, California. Hadn't heard of this location before. Have you, Dan? Is this - is this a new fire?
SIMON: It must be. You know, we keep hearing about new fires all the time here. Something like seven or eight fires here in the San Diego area. What you're talking about is new to me, Rick.
SANCHEZ: You know, it's amazing because it looks like the fires, they were hoping at least that the fires would stay in the area where the hillsides are, but the problem is the winds are pushing it from east to west and they're taking the embers, taking those flames and literally dropping them on top of people's homes. Right?
SIMON: Exactly. And it's such a random event. You know, take a look at this. You've got one house here that's totally leveled, one next door completely leveled, but then stay pan across the street. Check this out, Rick. Totally intact.
SANCHEZ: Isn't that amazing?
SIMON: And it's like that throughout neighborhoods, you know, all the neighborhoods we've been to today. It's just like this.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
SIMON: You've got a few homes that have been leveled and other homes that are perfectly standing.
SANCHEZ: And we were just watching some more of those water drops a little while ago. Will, you were showing those pictures to the viewers. I imagine that's going to continue throughout the night.
Once again, KTLA, our thanks to them. Stevenson Ranch, California. These are live pictures that you're looking at now from those incredible fires in California. Stay with us. We're going to be right back.
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SANCHEZ: Program note, tomorrow 8:00 p.m., we'll have for you "The Noose An American Nightmare". Then at 9:00, don't miss the special event, CNN'S "PLANET IN PERIL."
As we take you out, let's continue to show you some of those pictures out in California. We have essentially just thrown out all the scripts tonight, folks, and let the story unfold before your very eyes.
Amazing. Our hearts and our prayers go out to the folks in California.
I'm Rick. Here's Larry.
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