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CNN Sunday Morning

Bush to Tour Hurricane Zone in Texas

Aired September 25, 2005 - 07:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hurricane Rita was no Katrina, but it still left a wide path of destruction.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, I'm Miles O'Brien reporting live from Houston, Texas. Fred?

WHITFIELD: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield here at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. Here's the very latest on the aftermath of Rita.

It has now been downgraded to a tropical depression, after slamming into the Texas-Louisiana border as a Category 3 hurricane. In its path, Rita left massive flooding. Search and rescue teams are heading out at this hour in Louisiana's Vermilion Parish, where as many as 25 people may still be trapped. Already some 200 people have been plucked from rooftops in Vermilion Parish, where in some parts, flood waters were nine feet deep.

It is too early to know the full extent of the damage to oil refineries, but already, Exxon-Mobil says there was some damage to its refinery in Baytown, Texas because of Rita, but it doesn't appear to be severe. And Valero Energy reports significant damage to a refinery in Port Arthur, Texas.

Three weeks after Katrina drowned New Orleans, new flooding from Rita. The latest flooding is confined mostly to the Ninth Ward, where an eight food storm surge Friday caused water to overflow breaches in a levee. The Army Corps of Engineers says it'll take at least two weeks to pump all of the water back out.

President Bush wraps up his three day swing to the hurricane zone today. He plans stops in Texas and Louisiana.

And Miles, from Houston, what's the vantage point?

O'BRIEN: Well, Fred, I'm sitting beside Interstate 45. These are the southbound lanes behind me. It's very early in the morning here. 6:00 on a Sunday morning. And today, we're going to be watching these roadways very carefully, because many people in Houston on this day of rescue and repair in southwestern Louisiana and southeastern Texas, those people are going to be trying to come home.

And the question is how many people will try to make their way back from Dallas and Austin and San Antonio? Will it be a repeat of that scene we saw Thursday and Friday of last week? 15 to 20 hour gridlock traffic jams, as people tried to flee, this the fourth largest city in the nation.

Take a look at a traffic cam from this morning. Already Interstate 45 is clogging up in the wee hours here, as people try to circumvent the possible gridlock that lies ahead.

Now from the mayor, to the governor, to even the president, they have urged Houston (AUDIO GAP) on a phased, three-tiered approach to cut this city into three pieces of pie and have asked (AUDIO GAP) to come back today.

There's concern that there won't be enough fuel. Take a look at where we are right now. This is a truck stop at Interstate 45, Ritchie Road. We're not far from the Bush Intercontinental Airport for those of you familiar with Houston. There is plenty of gas here right now. $2.89 a gallon, that's not a bad price either.

And there is some concern that people will get on the road, however, end up in those gridlocked situations. Those tanks will be pumped dry. And the tanks on the road will be dry as well.

So we'll be watching this over the next three days. People want to get home. There is that lure of home that there is concern that people have about the security of their home.

Now the officials say law enforcement is on high alert. We'll be watching this city to see how it unfolds.

Meanwhile, in Louisiana this morning, there is a rescue effort that is still underway. Search and rescue, as people there try to assess the damage that Rita wrought on that part of the world.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is in one particularly hard hit spot, just south of Lafayette, the town of Abbeville. Ed, what's the situation there this morning?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, the search and rescue efforts will continue into this huge, massive area in the southern part of Vermilion Parish that were overtaken with floodwaters. It's another windy day here in south Louisiana. And perhaps that caused some problems yesterday in the rescue efforts, but they'll be going out today by air and on water as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Hurricane Rita's winds were still swirling through south Louisiana, when rescue boats were launched into the rising floodwaters. It's unknown how many Vermilion Parish residents might be trapped in this marshy terrain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And all of that is flooded below this line right here.

LAVANDERA: Residents who did manage to get out safely say floodwaters started swelling just before sunlight. In a matter of hours, water levels had jumped 10 feet. HANK MOSS, VERMILION RESIDENT: Just came over the roads and the levees and into people's homes. And just had no place to go. They were trapped. They were still dark when it happened.

LAVANDERA: Search and rescue efforts were hampered by high winds and steady rain. Some boats capsized in the choppy waters, sending some rescue workers into the floodwaters. But no one was injured.

BLANCO: We do know that there are still some people out there. We also know that some people left the state. Then they came back at 6:00 this morning so they could get to their homes and check their property.

And then they got trapped in the floodwaters. So then we had to go rescue people who originally stayed.

LAVANDERA: And there is a haunting story emerging from these floodwaters. For three days, sheriff's deputies tried to convince a women to evacuate from a town called Intercoastal City. She chose to stay in her trailer with her three young children.

MIKE COUVILLION, SHERIFF, VERMILION PARISH, LA: And the deputy begged the woman to let the three children leave with him. She advised no. This morning, she called. We attempted to rescue her. We couldn't get there by boat. The water was too rough. The current was traveling too fast. The water was rising too fast. We couldn't get in. We finally got helicopters in. We sent the helicopters to look for her. We can't even find the trailer any more.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And of course, the fear this morning is that the family might not be found alive, but the search and rescue efforts will continue today. The governor here says that yesterday some 250 people roughly were rescued from the floodwaters. And Miles, yesterday, it was so hectic here that the Fish and Wildlife Teams that were brought in from North Louisiana to help in the efforts had to use local people on boats to help them guide and navigate through the streets and try to locate people -- Miles?

O'BRIEN: CNN's Ed Lavandera in Abbeville. Let's hope they find that family alive and well. Thus far, no deaths reported as a result of Rita, except if you're counting the 24 elderly folks who died on this road, Interstate 45 about 200 miles north of me here outside of Dallas during that chaotic evacuation on Friday.

Coming up on the program, we'll get back to Abbeville. And we'll talk to the mayor there, Mark Piazza and ask him how he is coping with this devastation that they're dealing with there. Tremendous repair, recovery, search and rescue effort underway there.

That'll be at the 9:00 a.m. Eastern hour right here on CNN. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Miles, thanks so much. Check back with you in a little bit. Meantime, some compelling video, home video to show you right now. Look at how fast and violently the floodwaters rush into this home in Vermilion Parish. The waters pushed open doors, windows, tossed around furniture, even the appliances.

And here's another vantage point of flooding in Louisiana's southwest parishes. This video provided by the Coast Guard, as they rescued storm victims caught in the rising floodwaters. And entire family in Iberia Parish was saved, thanks to the Coast Guard's search and rescue operations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL COLBATH, U.S. COAST GUARD: We spotted a family of nine on top of a house. And from there, we went in, got right away put down swimmer, started checking him out. And then we just started putting them into the helicopter. We put in seven. Packed them in real good. And then we had to leave two behind, but we have another Coast Guard house that was right behind us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Hurricane Rita now a depression, caused water woes in New Orleans yet again. Parts of the Ninth Ward are under eight feet of water because of the high storm surge pushing over the levees.

Let's go now to CNN's Mary Snow live in New Orleans with the very latest -- Mary?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fredricka. We are in the industrial canal, just over the ridge from that levee where water topped over a damaged section of it and poured into the lower Ninth Ward.

This happened on Friday, when New Orleans started to feel the outer bands of Hurricane Rita.

Now crews were working throughout the day yesterday. And when the sun comes up, we can expect to see more military Chinook helicopters dropping those huge sand bags to try and stem the flooding.

Those sand bags are about 7,000 pounds each. Once the military has been able to shore up that area where the levee was damaged initially by Hurricane Katrina, it'll then have to start pumping the water from the lower Ninth Ward.

There was also a second section that saw flooding. They've been working on that as well, but they've been able to work on that by the ground.

Now as you mentioned, the lower Ninth Ward has been under about eight feet of water. And this is an area that was just absolutely devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

The Army Corps of Engineers is saying that this has set them back about two to three weeks. And one of the challenges is that the pumping system there is out of commission. So they're having to bring in mobile pumps to try and get that water out.

Now yesterday, though, Mayor Ray Nagin saying that he's going to be monitoring the situation here closely. The other levees held up. And depending on what happens today, he would like to start once again his plan to get people back into New Orleans.

He said as early as tomorrow, he could start having business owners come in, and also people who live in Algiers, that was the area that had the least amount of damage from Hurricane Katrina. That program to bring them in actually started last Monday. And then it was put on hold when Rita started heading this way.

So he's going to wait, see. As early as tomorrow, he'll start that plan once again. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: And Mary, last time, the mayor's plans conflicted with what the feds seemed to think was the best thing about re- entering the city. Have they -- are they seeing eye to eye this morning? Or is he once again doing his own thing for the city?

SNOW: Well, we haven't yet heard from any federal officials about this plan. But as you mentioned, they were very critical of the plan, because they just felt it was too much too soon, saying while it's a good thing to get people back into New Orleans, they just didn't feel that the timing was right.

So Nagin is saying at this point that in New Orleans, the east bank, he's going to first bring in business owners who won't actually live there. They'll come in to assess the businesses, start to get them in shape to reopen.

But he said he's going to take a look at this, see how it goes, and then decide about bringing residents back into these banks. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right, Mary Snow in New Orleans. Thanks so much this morning.

Well, as dawn breaks in Louisiana, federal search and rescue teams get ready to assess the damage. Hurricane Rita left the casino and resort town of Lake Charles devastated.

We don't have to tell you. You can just look at the video. Shattered landscape and flooded streets.

Marcia Fills, a reporter for The Daily Advertiser, spent the storm or spent a good part of the storm in Lake Charles. She joins us now from Lafayette.

And Marcia, today's headline says it all. Wet and Weary. What was your experience like as you rode out the storm?

MARCIA FILLS, REPORTER, LOUISIANA DAILY ADVERTISER: Well, around -- everyone said that it would come in at daybreak. We even spent part of the day Friday at the weather station there at Lake Charles at the airport.

And they were pretty confident that it would come in around daybreak. So we thought we had, you know, plenty of time to kind of sweat it out, and just kind of wait.

And then around midnight, you know, the winds kind of started picking up. And then around -- between one and two, you know, you kind of knew that it was here.

So I think it kind of took pretty much everyone by surprise and (INAUDIBLE) people who had no power and no radio, who had decided to stick it out.

WHITFIELD: And when you look at the photographs that you all have been running in your paper from the choppy waters, to the damaged homes and even businesses, when you say the storm itself in terms of when it hit your area caught you by surprise, does that mean the consequential damage caught you by surprise as well?

FILLS: No, I think people were surprised that it wasn't so bad in Lake Charles. I think they were expecting it to be worse, to tell you the truth from the people that we talked to.

WHITFIELD: And as you were out reporting, documenting all of these pictures that we're able to see right now, were you encountering any folks who decided to stay, who perhaps underestimated the power of Rita?

FILLS: Actually, we did find some people who decided to stay at this little motor lodge off of -- I think it was (INAUDIBLE) which I think it turns into like business highway 90.

And yes, like one guy even told me like last night I thought I wouldn't wake up this morning, because the winds were just so bad. And they felt like their roof like actually -- you know, they thought they were going to lose their roof.

But they were really the only ones that we ran across yesterday that had underestimated this storm.

WHITFIELD: All right, Marcia Fills with The Daily Advertiser, thanks so much for joining us from Lafayette this morning.

FILLS: All right, thank you.

WHITFIELD: Let's check in now with Jacqui Jeras in the Weather Center.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: Well, President Bush is spending this Sunday in the two states hit hardest by Rita. We'll preview his visit later on this hour.

Another story we're following today. An American military helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, killing everyone on board. Details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Here's a quick look at some other stories making news today. A U.S. Chinook helicopter crashes in Afghanistan, killing all five crew members on board. The military says there are no indications it was shot down.

Thousands of anti-war protesters marched through the streets of London yesterday. They demanded that Britain pull its troops out of Iraq.

And back in this country, some 100,000 anti-war protesters made their way through the nation's capitol. Cindy Sheehan, who camped out near the president's Texas ranch, told the crowd that people power is needed to end the Iraq War. Her son was killed in Iraq.

And Hurricane Rita is now a tropical depression. It's moving through east Texas toward Shreveport, Louisiana.

We'll have more coverage of Rita's aftermath in a moment.

Turning now to the Middle East, more than 200 Palestinians in the West Bank have been arrested in a series of overnight raids by Israeli forces. The action underscores the recent uptick in violence in the region.

CNN's Guy Raz is in Jerusalem with details -- Guy?

GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, the rhetoric is heating up between the Israeli government and Palestinian militants after 48 hours of clashes in the region. The most serious clashes between the two sides since Israel completed its evacuation from the Gaza Strip just two weeks ago.

Now early Sunday morning, early this morning, Israeli forces fanned out across the West Bank, where they arrested some 200 suspected Palestinian militants.

Those arrests came just after a series of Israeli air strikes at suspected Palestinian militant targets. Now one of those air strikes left two members of the militant Palestinian group Hamas dead.

Now the Israeli government says it will carry out an ongoing sustained military offensive targeting, it says, Palestinian militant groups like Hamas and Islamic jihad. The move, the government says, comes in response to a barrage of mortar and rocket fire that Hamas launched toward Israel over the past 48 hours.

Some three dozen rockets were launched by Hamas from Gaza into Israel, leading some six Israelis injured.

Now at the moment, there is a fairly sizable contingent of Israeli soldiers mounted along the Israel-Gaza border. It's not clear whether it's a show of force or a sign of bloodier days yet to come -- Fredricka? WHITFIELD: All right, Guy Raz, thanks so much from Jerusalem. Well, more of the Hurricane Rita aftermath. Hard hit Lake Charles, Louisiana is under a strict curfew today. And the mayor is asking residents to wait a bit longer before coming back.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta got a first hand glimpse of the damage there. He'll join Miles O'Brien later on in the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Welcome back on this Sunday morning. I'm Miles O'Brien reporting live beside Interstate 45. These are the southbound lanes. And as the day progresses, we predict this fast moving traffic will become a crawl.

We're in the quadrant of Houston, where people will be allowed to return today. There is a phased return, but I think it's safe to say many Houstonians are not paying close attention to this.

There is no fine if you decide to return to your home and it's not your day to return. So we'll be watching that very closely.

In the wake of Hurricane Rita and of course Katrina, which followed it, we've been focusing a lot over the past few weeks about medical care and how medical care suffers in the midst of a hurricane, in the midst of a storm, in the midst of the loss of power and water and all the things that we associate with the 21st century.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta has become -- sadly, has become an expert on this because of the tragedy we've dealt with. You recall his reports from Charity Hospital near New Orleans. Truly heroic and horrific scenes there. Really a markedly different scene here. You began the storm here in Houston. Some of the finest hospitals in the world, Texas Medical Center. How did that go there, first of all?

GUPTA: Well, they were extremely well prepared. I mean, they had done everything from having the generators actually moved to above sea level, to having these remarkable submarine like doors.

They thought about flooding. Could be a problem here at Texas Medical Center. They had these doors actually closed to keep water from even getting on the complex. Then doors in each corridor as well, to try and protect the goods within the hospital.

They do all the usual things, too. The boarding up the windows, the moving of the patients closer to the center and up in the hospital. But they seemed very well prepared here. They weren't even to plan on evacuating Houston to Texas Medical Center, I should say at least.

O'BRIEN: It's interesting. I know they had a tropical storm here, Tropical Storm Allison, I think it was in 2001. And there was a tremendous amount of flooding. Were there some lessons learned then?

GUPTA: Yes, in fact, the guy that I had spent the whole day with, the head of disaster preparedness for the Texas Medical Center, was actually hired immediately after Allison. His basically -- his goal was don't let this happen again. Don't let this water get into the hospital, ruin our equipment, and make it difficult to take care of patients.

O'BRIEN: So they did suffer damage then. And sadly, that's how lessons are learned, aren't they?

GUPTA: That's right. And you know, remember, this is the largest hospital complex in the world. And you got 78 acres of hospitals. Lots of patients, moving these patients is a huge challenge. So they thought if they could somehow get a disaster preparedness together, they could prevent all that from happening. That would be the goal.

O'BRIEN: Well, it's nice to hear a success story through all this. Now you moved toward Lake Charles as the storm moved in. And it shifted to the east, as we all did.

You know, the Texas Medical Center is as rich an institution as there is and can afford to put in submarine doors and so forth. What was the situation in Lake Charles?

WHITFIELD: Well, you know, Lake Charles was interesting. What I did was I called a bunch of hospitals, trying to figure out if there was one that was going to stay open. And I found the one that was going to stay open in that part of the country, that region.

And they, you know, they basically decided that look, we think we can weather this. We're going to evacuate as many patients as we can.

But there comes a point where patients are so critically ill, it's a bigger gamble to try and move them, rather than to just leave them there.

They did some things. They moved generators up as well. They had sand bags not submarine doors. They stockpiled some food. And they, you know, I hate to use this term because everyone's using it, but they hunkered down for the storm.

O'BRIEN: So a couple things. First of all, the severity of the storm was less. That helped them. It wasn't a Katrina like situation. But clearly, they must have learned a few lessons in -- just in the last few weeks since Katrina?

GUPTA: That's right. And then the biggest one was this flooding. Let's -- you know, let's not all breathe a sigh of relief as soon as the storm passes. Let's make sure this flood doesn't get too bad as well. And the flood does come, let's make sure that water doesn't paralyze the hospital. And that's what they learned.

And that's still what they're going to deal with for a couple of days. Lake Charles could still flood a little bit, as you've been hearing. They're ready for that.

O'BRIEN: But they're open? GUPTA: They are staying open. They took patients. Let me just tell you something really quick. They performed an operation on Saturday night. On Friday night, I should say, when the storm was coming through on emergency generator power, a guy came up with a severely broken leg. A neurosurgeon actually had to perform this operation on the guy's leg. That's a hospital in a hurricane. That's what has to happen.

O'BRIEN: And I suppose if you had to, you would have scrubbed in, right?

GUPTA: You know, the guy came over and said, "Do you know how to do this? I mean, I'm a neurosurgeon. I said I am, too." And...

O'BRIEN: You can set a bone.

GUPTA: Get it done, that's right.

O'BRIEN: Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much. That's really fascinating how hospitals -- I hope all hospitals in the hurricane regions, I'm sure, have learned lessons throughout all of this.

We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to check in with Elaine Quijano. The president is headed to San Antonio today in the wake of Rita. We'll hear what's on his itinerary when we return. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Back to our continuing coverage of the aftermath of Rita in a moment, but first, other top stories.

A U.S. Army Chinook helicopter crashed today in southern Afghanistan. All five crew members on board were killed. The initial U.S. military reports said it did not appear the chopper was shot down.

The Israeli air force launched a series of air strikes overnight in Gaza. Friday and Saturday Palestinian militants fired at least three dozen rockets into Israel, and Israeli soldiers arrested more than 200 Palestinians in overnight raids across the West Bank.

It's a weekend of protests and counter protests in Washington. Organizers of a pro-military rally today hope to draw 10,000 people. That number pales in comparison to an estimated 100,000 war opponents who surged past the White House Saturday. The anti-war rally stretched into the night. D.C. police said the protesters were, quote, "vocal but not violent."

Good morning. I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN Center in Atlanta.

President Bush is going to be touring other parts of Texas today and Louisiana to tour the Hurricane Rita's damage, but before he heads out, he'll attend two events in San Antonio, Texas. That's where CNN's Elaine Quijano is live with an update right now -- Elaine. ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fred.

This morning, President Bush is set to get a briefing by Lieutenant General Robert Clark. He is the person charge of the joint task force for Hurricane Rita.

And while President Bush's events this weekend are ostensibly about Hurricane Rita, it is clearly the political damage from Hurricane Katrina the White House is trying to undo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUIJANO (voice-over): Stung by criticism over the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, President Bush met with Texas emergency officials and Republican lawmakers hours after Rita hit. The message? There's close coordination among federal, state and local officials, and the president cares.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know for a lot of folks in this state it's miserable times. Nobody asked for these things, but when they come we have a duty.

QUIJANO: Earlier the president rode out the storm in Colorado Springs, at the headquarters for the U.S. Northern Command. He received briefings and observed Northcom at work, leading the military response to Rita.

Mr. Bush said he was comforted the government was well-organized and well prepared. But he warned evacuees that flooding still poses a danger.

BUSH: It's important for them to listen carefully to the local authorities about whether or not it is safe to return back to their homes.

QUIJANO: The president's response this time contrasts with his actions during Hurricane Katrina.

When that storm came ashore, Mr. Bush, while monitoring Katrina, remained on vacation at his Texas ranch. He proceeded with previously planned events in Arizona and California before returning to Washington two days later.

Now, eager to show he is actively engaged, the president will continue making post-Rita visits with stops in San Antonio and Baton Rouge Sunday.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUIJANO: Now, as for the president's visit to Northcom yesterday, aides say it was in part a fact-finding mission as the administration examines whether the role of the federal government should be changed during catastrophes. But administration officials say they are not ready to make any recommendations to Congress -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Elaine Quijano. Thanks so much from San Antonio.

Well, damage from Hurricane Rita is spread over a wide area, approximately covering 40 miles of coastline. Beaumont, Texas, is just a short distance from the Gulf of Mexico and was directly in the path of the path of the storm as it moved inland. In addition to the structural damage that clogs every street, utilities and services right now are nonexistent. The city is dependent on emergency aid for the foreseeable future.

Carol Yelverton is with the American Red Cross in Beaumont. She joins us now by phone with a status report.

And Carol, I understand you all are sending convoys from San Antonio to Beaumont? What's the ETA on their arrival?

CAROL YELVERTON, AMERICAN RED CROSS: Yes. We're working in concert with our government partners and other agencies like Salvation Army. And we have got a convoy of trucks that are leaving San Antonio this morning between 10 and 11 a.m. They're going to have police escort.

And as soon as they can get here they're going to be here with lots of food, lots of water and the kind of supplies that people need to dig themselves out of situations like this.

And I've got to tell you, the good news this morning, we don't have lights but water is on in Beaumont, Texas, and that's a big deal when you haven't had it for awhile.

WHITFIELD: It certainly is. But you know, when you talk about the convoy that's making its way there from San Antonio, already we're hearing reports that on I-45 and I-10 -- either way you need to use those highways in order to get to Beaumont -- they are they are already fairly clogged with people who are trying to make their way in. So what does this mean for your convoy trying to get its way there?

YELVERTON: Well, we know there's going to be a police escort. I think that's going to be a huge help. Because we have people in Beaumont who have been in their homes who haven't had power. We know the food is not good in the refrigerators, that they need food, that they need water and they need it quickly. So we are very hopeful that the police escort and these huge convoys moving will just be able to create a path, just make a path on 10 and bring it right into Beaumont.

WHITFIELD: About how many folks do you expect are in Beaumont?

YELVERTON: I don't know. It's really hard to say. We just know at the Red Cross, we've been getting calls from people. We know that these reserves are on the way.

Of course, you know, this is the thing with a hurricane, too, is that, you know, we all anticipated this thing was going to blow through Galveston and Houston. We had our supplies staged in San Antonio and Dallas, so we know we're good to move. But I think for the people in Beaumont, you know, this was surprising and it was hard, perhaps, to be as prepared as one might have been, because all the weather was kind of pushing this the other way, until, you know, the storm got closer to shore.

WHITFIELD: Do you expect, though, the number will be minimal, given that right before the storm hit, reports were a good majority of the folks out of Beaumont had made it out?

YELVERTON: Well, yes, and I'll tell you, I'm here with the Red Cross advance team, but there are not a lot of people that I have seen in Beaumont. We just know at the Red Cross we're getting calls.

So we're hoping that those numbers are low and that people have been able to, you know, use the water they've had, use the food that they've had, you know, since Friday night. So hopefully, it won't be that long a period of time for them. That's our great hope right now.

WHITFIELD: All right. Carol Yelverton with the American Red Cross, good luck on your efforts today.

YELVERTON: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Whether it be Beaumont or other parts of the Gulf region.

Well, you can help the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Rita by donating to the American Red Cross. Contributions to the disaster relief fund can be made by calling 1-800-HELP-NOW or 1-800-435-7669. And to provide food, shelter or financial assistance, you can call 1- 866-438-4636.

And now Miles O'Brien is in Houston, where soon you're going to be getting sunlight and perhaps getting a better view, even though you can see the headlights of people who are making their way on I-45, which is where you are, trying to make their way back home, even though officials are discouraging them from doing so right now -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Well, it depends on where you live, Fred. If you live in the northwestern quadrant of the city, you're actually OK to come home today.

The question is, are people going to obey the phased return, which goes over today, tomorrow and Tuesday, and still leaves out the southeastern quadrant as a big question mark.

The reports are, and we know now that Houston was relatively unscathed. People in the outlying areas are watching this, they probably want to get back and get to their homes this morning.

Houston officials readily admit they won't fine or arrest anybody who violates this phased re-entry. They want people to volunteer to wait and do it in an orderly fashion.

Of course, what we saw on Thursday and Friday was anything but orderly. It was chaotic, 15- to 20-hour waits. People running out of gas on the side of the highway. It was not a pretty scene, and there were some lessons learned clearly.

Among the people who did not listen, and who stayed home in Humble, is Ronnie Mitchell joining us now. Ronnie, you decided to stay.

RONNIE MITCHELL, HUMBLE RESIDENT: Yes, I did.

O'BRIEN: Why did you stay?

MITCHELL: I decided to stay because I really didn't really believe in the hurricane.

O'BRIEN: Yes, when local officials said, "You better get out, this is a big one," did you think they were overreacting? What did you think?

MITCHELL: Many in Houston, I think they overreacted a little bit, but the faith that I have, I wasn't going anywhere. I was going to stay right here.

O'BRIEN: Even after what you saw with Katrina, the flooding, the rescues, the deaths?

MITCHELL: Well, Houston is so far in from Galveston. And I didn't think the storm was going to come this far. Now it passes by, going to the north, to the north now. All those people -- all those people that evacuated from Houston is north and now they got to come back south.

O'BRIEN: Tell me about what you witnessed on Thursday and Friday with that traffic jam. Did that surprise you that it ended up as gridlock here on Interstate 45?

MITCHELL: It surprised me somewhat but in a sense it didn't because Houston have never been through anything like this. Most of the people that were here, they read the media and they read what the news people was telling them and plus what the mayor was telling them. And Houston has never experienced anything like this. How can they adjust to it?

And plus you have people that was from New Orleans and surrounding Louisiana, at the same time. Now I applaud the mayor and all the city council, they did a wonderful job. But if you throw somebody in some deep water and they don't know how to get out of the water, what are they going to do? They're all going to drown.

O'BRIEN: All right. We've got -- the deep water today and the next few days is getting everybody back in an orderly way. They've asked for a phased return. Geographically, kind of like cutting pieces of the pie out of the city. Do you think people will obey that? Texans are pretty independent-minded people.

MITCHELL: They're going to obey it to a certain degree, but human nature, they're going to come home. They've been on the road for 24 hours. They haven't had any food. They haven't had any water. People have lost their lives. We lost more lives just on the road than we lost in the hurricane.

O'BRIEN: Well, that is true. The only deaths associated with Rita thus far are the 24 people, elderly folks who died in that bus on Interstate 45. No other deaths are reported just yet.

It shows you that you've got to be careful about issuing evacuation orders and how you do it. Do you think Houston, under any circumstances, could be evacuated safely?

MITCHELL: Yes, I think, I mean, if it was to happen again, this was a training session, I think it was a training session and now it could be evacuated if it happens again.

But the people of Houston have to prepare for this. Not the -- not the mayor. The mayor can put it on the television but the people of Houston have to prepare for it.

O'BRIEN: You have to know your plan, don't you, Ronnie?

MITCHELL: Have to know your plan.

O'BRIEN: Ronnie Mitchell of Humble, Texas good luck. I'm glad you got some gas, $2.83 here at the Flying J. There are reported shortages, however, all throughout Houston. We've seen a lot of gas lines.

And that is one of the big concerns, Fred, that as people get on this road here today, and there are traffic tie-ups already reported on Interstate 10 and 45 in particular. As they get on the road if that traffic builds up, they could run out of gas in place, not have a way to refill. And that is why they really would like people to come in this orderly fashion.

But we are talking about getting 2.5 million people to comply when they just want to get home. That could be a difficult thing -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: That's right. A lot of tempers flaring, a lot of folks who are very frustrated who almost don't want to heed those warnings, because they did as instructed trying to get out, and folks felt like that did not go along as swimmingly as they might have expected.

All right. Thanks so much, miles. Be checking again with you.

And talking about deep water that you and your guests were talking about, well, lots of streets are rivers in many towns and cities, and right now, you're looking at some pictures of an underpass. Talk about deep water. It's rather difficult to see there, but that underpass is quite flooded, and that is apparently a railroad bridge. And that's the view out of Port Arthur, Texas.

We'll take you to one such town inundated with high water when we come right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Checking other headlines making news right now, a U.S. military helicopter crashed in Afghanistan late last night, killing all five crew members. The U.S. military says there is no indication of hostile fire.

It was a violent night in Baghdad. U.S. troops clashed with Iraqi militiamen in the Sadr City section of Baghdad. Ten militiamen were killed. The violence apparently broke out over U.S. detention of Mehdi Army members.

Now to Washington. An estimated 100,000 people took part in an anti-war rally yesterday. They demanded President Bush pull American troops out of Iraq where more than 1,900 U.S. troops have been killed. Pro-war supporters plan to march today.

How is FEMA responding to Hurricane Rita's aftermath? Find out in the next hour of CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

Let's check in right now with Jacqui Jeras -- Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Fredricka, we're taking a look at what Rita is doing right now. It's a tropical depression, winds about 20 to 30 miles per hour and it's slowly becoming extra tropical.

Still causing a little bit of trouble, but we do have good news to report this morning, is that it doesn't appear like the system's going to stall out quite as badly as we had initially anticipated. So that's going to keep the rainfall totals down a little bit and general amounts across parts of the south and Tennessee River Valley should range about two to four inches on average, though locally heavier amounts can be expected.

There is a tornado watch in effect from western Tennessee extending down throughout much of Mississippi, kind of clipping along the Alabama state line. As temperatures heat up this afternoon, we'll see that tornado threat increased a little bit.

There has been some moderate rain throughout much of the morning across the Memphis area. You can see just down to your south and west, pretty strong squall lines going to be heading on through. So you might want to wait until the storm passes before you're heading on out this morning.

Strong storm system across the upper Midwest is going to kind of help to steer Rita up to the north and east, moving pretty quickly at about 20 miles per hour right now. So that's good news and that's what's helping to accelerate it.

But we do have a lot of the red on the map because of that severe weather threat from that storm. And we also want to mention the temperatures for those of you that are going to be out and about assessing damage or some of you trying to return back home. Remember what it was like sitting in that traffic with triple-digit heat index. That's going to happen again today with those temperatures -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Jacqui.

Lake Charles is one of the cities damaged by Hurricane Rita. That's where we find our Gary Tuchman this morning. We'll be taking you there to him and that city when we come right back.

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O'BRIEN: Back now live in Houston, Texas. I'm Miles O'Brien, sitting beside Interstate 45. Traffic southbound into the city still light, moving quickly. Phased return to this city begins today, over three days. We'll be watching the traffic here to see if people do, in fact, comply with that voluntary effort.

The city of Port Arthur, Texas, sits on the western shores of Sabine Lake, a city of about 58,000 people. And being on the western shores in this case was very crucial, because it ended up on the so- called clean or easy side of Hurricane Rita, and as a result, the worst fears that city fathers, emergency workers, police officers had for Port Arthur were not realized.

That said, the city has had extensive flooding, two to three, sometimes seven-feet of water in certain places all throughout that city in the wake of Hurricane Rita.

CNN's Gary Tuchman is there with an assessment this morning on the day after Rita -- Gary.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, hello to you. You're right, people here are very grateful that Port Arthur is still a port, and not part of the Gulf of Mexico.

Almost everybody evacuated, because there were fears that, if the hurricane came in where they thought, just to the west of here, that this entire city could be under 20 feet of water.

Instead there's limited flooding. I have a handy, dandy, powerful flashlight. It's still dark a little dark here, to show you what we have here.

There is a car under the water right there and about four to five feet of water. But this is the deepest flooding we're dealing with here and this is scattered and sporadic.

One of the sad things we've seen all over the area is this. You see this seagull? I hope the seagull doesn't mind that I'm shining the light in his eyes. This is a seagull who can no longer fly, and he's just walking around the water. And all over this hurricane area we've seen lots of birds that have been injured or killed from the hurricane. That's something we always see, but here is a case in point.

We want to show you during daylight hours yesterday when we drove through this town to give you a look at what happened. And there is lots of damage, but it isn't the kind of damage that we saw in Gulfport or Biloxi, Mississippi, or even New Orleans. There are roofs off. The downtown has hundreds of windows shattered from stores, but it is not by any means catastrophic. The flooding is limited.

There is a sea wall here, a 14-foot sea wall. The elevation, the highest elevation of this town is five feet. The thought was that if the hurricane at its power of at least 120 miles per hour, came in here, that this whole city would be under water. So they said you must evacuate. They really, really didn't want anyone left behind.

We were here and we didn't see anybody, any civilians, although there were some who ended up staying behind. You always have some. But we were here. Just before we left this town we didn't see anybody. Even the police and fire officials left, but they are very fortunate right now to only have the sporadic flooding and only have relatively minor damage.

Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: Gary Tuchman in Port Arthur, Texas, thank you very much.

Fred, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Miles.

And of course, a lot of questions were asked about FEMA after Katrina. Well, now, similar questions are being asked after Rita, meaning, what are they doing in response to this hurricane? We'll take you live to FEMA headquarters in Washington in the next hour of CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

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