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CNN Sunday Morning

Hurricane Ike's Aftermath

Aired September 14, 2008 - 07:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you all. Welcome to the CNN SUNDAY MORNING. I am T.J. Holmes at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.
We are talking about Hurricane Ike this morning. It has left a mess in its wake. The search for survivors is on right now. A second day of looking for survivors, looking for those who did not get out and did not get out in time.

We have our CNN correspondents all over the area, of course, two- thirds of our CNN SUNDAY MORNING team -- Reynolds Wolf and Betty Nguyen are serving out there, as well. Betty in Seabrook, Texas; Reynolds Wolf close by as well.

Our Ed Lavandera is going to be coming to us talking from San Antonio talking about some of the search and rescue. Rob Marciano has been stationed in Galveston since before the storm hit. And our Jacqui Jeras is in Atlanta in the CNN severe weather center here with me this morning.

The latest on this storm, though, it is a tropical depression at this point, still packing a bit of a punch and certainly bring you a lot of rain, a lot of issues with it as it races now into the Midwest. By tomorrow, it could be over at the New England area.

Now, in its wake, at least four people are dead that we know of in Texas as well as Louisiana. Crews in Texas are rounding up thousands of people who, of course, refused to evacuate and then found themselves stranded in a lot of that high water.

Now, damage to refineries in the gulf appears to be slight, but a lot of those assessments still need to be done.

Also, there are fears of a temporary shortage. Well, that sent those gas prices higher. You probably noticed. Some places, above $5 a gallon. Now, some pumps even ran dry in the rush to fill up, that's something we are even seeing here in Atlanta.

Now, as Ike moves out, we got FEMA moving in. Right now, President Bush is meeting with FEMA Administrator David Paulson about the government's response to the storm. As soon as that meeting is over, we are expecting to hear from the president. When we do hear from the president, we will certainly bring you his words this morning for the people who have been affected by this storm.

We do want to turn now to my co-anchor, Betty Nguyen, who was in Houston yesterday; saw a lot of damage, a lot of debris, a lot of things there. But she is in Seabrook now, we're told. Again, we have been having some issues. We had her and then we didn't have her because we are having issues. Of course, there's still a lot of rain in the area, a lot of stuff, a lot of debris, a lot of weather, a lot of flooding going on. So our crews have been having a tough time with some of the technical stuff, as well.

But right, we want to head to Betty Nguyen. She was able to file this piece for us. She did see a whole lot of damage in the wake, right after the storm. Here's what she found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Sherri Robillard is getting her first look at the damage.

SHERI ROBILLARD, KEMAH RESIDENT: This was our room and this is all we had left and now it's all wet.

NGUYEN: The tidal surge from Hurricane Ike sent several feet of flood water rushing through this house.

ROBILLARD: That's how high the water went. You can see the water line right here, see.

NGUYEN: She and her son evacuated, but there was no time to grab their pets.

ROBILLARD: Oh, God. We tried to come back for her. We tried.

NGUYEN: By the time she made it back to the house, it was too late. Their two Labrador puppies drown, still in their crate.

ROBILLARD: You can't see them, but they're right here. It seemed they're hunkered together right there. Oh, God. This is all -- this is it. I mean, we don't have anything left now. Everything we had in the world is destroyed. All we can do is hope that FEMA will help us some.

NGUYEN: Without some kind of assistance, this worried mother says she has no money, no home, and no place to go.

ROBILLARD: We're going to have to stay in our truck, I guess. We're going to have to try to hike back to our truck. We can't stay in here. Look at it. I mean, there's no way. Everything is gone. Oh, God. I don't know what we're going to do.

NGUYEN: And judging from the damage, it's hard to decide where to begin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: You know, where do they start, Betty? Yes, there you go. Go right ahead. I was just watching that piece there. And, you know, being with somebody as they're seeing that stuff for the first time, that's tough. NGUYEN: It was devastating because she had to evade some (AUDIO BREAK) back into the neighborhood because the neighborhood (AUDIO BREAK). It was the same neighborhood where we spoke to a lady before (AUDIO BREAK) pets. (AUDIO BREAK) back there, we had to hike back into that area because it was so filled with flood (AUDIO BREAK).

HOLMES: All right. Betty, we're going to...

NGUYEN: Yesterday...

HOLMES: Sorry, Betty, sorry, we're going to have to stop. We're having some problems with your audio. It keeps kind of going in and out.

NGUYEN: OK.

HOLMES: And again, you know, it's raining on you (ph) out there and sometimes the equipment can only do so much. We're going to get it worked out and we're going to talk to you here in a second, but it's kind of going in and out. We'll check in with you again here shortly, Betty. Thank you so much.

We're going to head over to our Ed Lavandera, who's been in San Antonio, Texas, dealing with the search and rescue with the Coast Guard, which is going to be a major effort.

Ed, good morning to you again.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, T.J.

Well, we're in San Antonio because this has been the staging ground for much of the air operations that is flying over the Galveston and Houston area, as well. So, yesterday afternoon, we spent about almost seven hours up in the air with the U.S. Air Force search and rescue team and we flew over little towns northeast of Galveston, barrier island, basically on the entrance of Galveston Bay and a little strip of land that took the brunt of Hurricane Ike.

T.J., as we were flying over, it was unbelievable. What we saw as we approached a little town called Crystal Beach, the homes have been completely -- it almost seemed like the homes had exploded, everything had just completely come apart, shredded into pieces. You could see just massive pieces of wood just floating in the flood waters.

It was absolutely unbelievable, home after home blown off its foundation. All you could see in many places were just stilts sticking out of the ground, the homes nowhere to be seen. So that continued.

And despite all of this, the search and rescue teams jumping down into the flood waters. There were some people that we saw. They're still alive and ridden out the storm here. It's incredible that they had made it out alive through all of this.

But despite these efforts by these search and rescue teams to come in and try to rescue some of these people, there was that sense of defiance continues even after the storm had blown through. Many of the people, up to a dozen that we encountered along the way, basically, turned away help. They didn't want to be rescued.

So, the search and rescue teams just left behind some food and water and they suspect that maybe in the next day or so, some of these people will start changing their minds about getting out of there. For now, they sit there in the complete darkness and the mosquitoes as well -- T.J.

HOLMES: Yes, and the mosquitoes as well. You can't make them leave, I guess, give them all the help you can, all the support, but some just refused to do it.

Ed Lavandera for us this morning in San Antonio. Ed, we appreciate you.

And again, even though this storm is now a tropical depression, it is still causing some problems and will cause some problems over the next couple of days.

Jacqui Jeras, where is it and where is it going?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, it's pushing up into Missouri right now, believe it or not, T.J. And it's going to cause some big problems in the Midwest, that's already been reeling from some major flooding this weekend and late last week. But we've got a cold front which Ike has kind of hooked up with, and that cold front now is making its way down towards the gulf coast.

So look at all this rain -- this is pushing in across the Houston area. Most of it has been along in north of I-10. But we are getting some development down here near the coast, near Galveston and up towards the Baytown area. This rain is really heavy. It's producing a lot of lightning, we're going to see some additional flooding, mostly urban flooding, kind of flash flooding. So, it will come and go rather quickly, but still making things very difficult in terms of cleanup and difficult for our crews, as well.

So we're really watching out for their safety, for those folks who are out in the field as we speak. This threat of rain is going to stick with you throughout the day today, and probably going to be clearing up. Maybe some thunderstorms early on Monday, but you should be fine, we think before midday, and that will continue with drier weather then throughout the rest of the week. But for all of those people without power and those muggy conditions, you know, middle 80s not feeling so good out there without your A.C.

All right. Where is the storm headed right now? There you can see the center of rotation going through southern parts of Missouri. It's moving up towards the north and the east. We're still getting some wind gusts reports, between 30 and 40 miles per hour. So, still an intense enough system and as it continues to push up to the north and east, we think it's going to intensify even more. So throughout the Ohio Valley, we could be talking about wind gusts beyond 50 miles per hour. Now, the rain that's been coming down has been extremely heavy. Chicago, right now, your rain is pretty light to moderate but yesterday, you had an all-time 24-hour rainfall record of more than 6.5 inches of rainfall. There had been some rescues that had been taking place to the south and west of Chicago. And so the flood situation is becoming a huge problem across the Midwest and Ohio Valley.

And this is our forecast precept over the next 24 to 48 hours. And look at all that gold on there. Gold is three inches and any color darker than that is more. Check out St. Louis and on up towards Springfield. They could be dealing with over a half of foot of rain.

So, a real big deal that Ike is going to continue to cause as it continues to push up to the north and the east -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Don't be a rainmaker now. We'll continue to keep an eye on that.

Jacqui, thank you so much.

I want to check in now with my team, there they are, Reynolds Wolf and Betty Nguyen, out and about in the storm this morning.

I know you all are kind of been through it, everybody in that area has been through it but we have some challenges this morning, certainly with the weather and getting you all out and about. But good to see you, guys, right now.

Betty, I will start with you. We'll try it again. I think we got that audio of yours fixed. Well, set the scene for us where you are, just kind of a mess there.

NGUYEN: Well, where we are standing, in fact, is on a bridge that connects Kemah, this way, to Seabrook, which is this way. Now, on my left is Galveston Bay. On my right is Clear Lake. So you can understand how so much debris got washed ashore onto this bridge.

This is a small slice of it, T.J. And at first, I didn't know what this was. I saw all of this concrete-looking stuff. And then I got a little bit closer and I realized -- this is someone's floor. These are tiles. And back this way is part of the roof. So this just gives you a small glimpse of what it has washed up onto this bridge.

Back that way, you got computers, you got televisions, you got dolls. I mean, you name it, these memories -- these are items that once were in people's homes. Now it just seems like a bunch of debris that's s washed ashore.

HOLMES: Well, that's certainly (INAUDIBLE), like you said, you had to get closer to figure out what you were dealing with there. And just to hear that sound, that's somebody's floor that's out there and no longer a part of that floor.

Reynolds Wolf, there he is, they're still cleaning off that screen, that's all right. You all do what you have to do to that lens. I know you're trying to stay dry out there. So, Reynolds, you tell me what you got going on over there.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, what got going is probably some of the heaviest rain. I got to tell you, this rain is actually heavier than what we had yesterday. I am not joking. This stuff is coming down in sheets. I know it's just a light showers, but light, again, I guess is a -- it's all from a point of perspective. Really not much wind here, but we still got the scattered showers.

We are right near Johnson Space Center, a place that was actually evacuated just during the storm. I will tell you that they did have a skeleton crew there at Johnson Space Center. Of course, you've got the space station. You need some crew to be in contact with them at all time. They were here.

The space center got very little damage, had very little damage at all. But I'll tell you, around the area, we did have quite a bit of flooding. Probably you can't see it behind me due to all the rain that's coming in. Now, sideways, there is a sailboat that is in very shallow water. That water was not very shallow as of yesterday.

We have just lost our electricity. I know you can hear me, what I probably going to do is just king of walk you through you this. I don't know if we have any video that we can just toss to or I'll just try and walk you through this as best we possibly can. The rain is now coming down a little bit harder.

What we're going to be seeing on and off is a little bit of this around the Houston areas. Many people are still without power at this hour, a lot of people without water at this time. I'm not talking about water from the skies, I'm talking about water from the drain or from the spigot. They're not going to have that possibly in some locations for a couple of days.

That is the latest we got for you, T.J.

HOLMES: Yes.

WOLF: As soon as we get the lights back on, we're going to try to comeback and talk to you. But right now, let's send it back to you there.

HOLMES: That's all right, we could -- that's all right, man, we could hear you just fine the whole time, but that helps explain to our viewers the kind of the challenges we have in telling this story. But we are going to continue to tell this story. And he's doing the best he can out there, but he just lost power.

We have those kinds of issues, of course, with that heavy rain, flooding, debris. They've had just some tough time as anybody else trying to get around, and that's certainly with the people there in that area, anyway, in Texas are going through.

So, we will continue to do with that reporting from that area and check in with our crews. Now, amid all this furry that we've been seeing, we made all that furry that Ike brought, check it out. We got a new baby here. This woman was at a hurricane shelter in Texas when she went into labor. Now, a city council woman explains how this all went down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, KENS)

KATHLEEN KRUEGER, NEW BRAUNFELS COUNCIL MEMBER: We were leaving the shelter when someone ran up and said there's a woman about to have a baby. And we went back into the bathroom of the middle school, the girl's bathroom. And Ku Paw was lying on the floor, on a towel, and within minutes, I honestly, by the time you arrived, I would say it was less than five minutes later, the baby was out

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The baby was out and born during Ike. So, the baby's name is Tina, I believe. I'm just, did you get? She didn't get it. No, Ike and Tina. No. All right. Thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: Well, the mother and daughter are say the said to be doing just fine, and no, her name is not Tina.

Well, all right. Stay here with us, folks. We're going to continue to talk about this storm, there is some good, some bad, and some ugly to talk about with it.

Also, the last thing anybody wants to see right now, the numbers at the gas pump going up. Certainly, you lose some more of that cash in your wallet. We're going to get answers from an industry insider about exactly what's going on and what we have to look forward to when CNN SUNDAY MORNING continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. It's no longer a hurricane. It's a tropical depression. But Ike is still around. It's actually heading toward the Midwest.

It left -- it flattened houses, downed power lines, blocked roads, thousands stranded in Texas, those thousands of people who did not get out. Right now, people who refused to evacuate are stranded and begging for help. They're frustrated. These rescue crews are fighting those high waters and debris, trying to get to people.

Now, at the height of the storm, more than 3 million people were actually without electricity, we're told. It could be weeks before they get that power restored.

Now, there are fears of gas shortages as well. And a lot of those fears were before the storm hit and a lot of people ran out and started getting gas. A lot of places run out. Prices started to surge.

Also, the game called on account of Ike, blew the roof of Houston stadium, literally. The Texans and Ravens game will now be played on November 9th.

So, a lot is going on with this storm. A lot to see, a lot is going on certainly in Galveston, Texas. That's where out Rob Marciano has been since the storm. Since the storm -- before the storm even came ashore.

So, you've seen, really, Galveston go through the beginning, the middle, and the end. So, what is the end now? What's the result you're seeing out there?

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the end is just about as ugly as we thought it would be in the beginning, which is a tremendous storm surge with big time battering waves that would come onshore and take out, at least, the communities on the front lines. And this is a spot where we turned the corner yesterday and said, "Oh, goodness, this place, it's just completely demolished.

So there are just piles of debris. There's boardwalk in here, there's businesses as well. There's a couple of nightclubs buried in this pile. There's obviously some sitting areas for people who just want to hang out in the boardwalk. There's actually Hooter's Restaurant in here. It's all piled up on one side of the road, next to other restaurants that would be buzzing this time of year, a Wendy's, a Ramada Inn, a Domino's Pizza. Obviously, that's not happening. No power, no water, and won't probably have it for days if not weeks.

The island is closed, according to the mayor. And folks are not allowed to come in. You can get out if you so chose but nobody is allowed, residents are not allowed to come in. Fire crews and search and rescue teams have been going house-to-house, doing what they typically do in this sort of situation -- go in there, check it out, if there's no one is in there, mark it, clear it, go on to the next one. If they find somebody, they recover that person. And if they need medical attention, they'll call EMS.

So far, as of last night, still here in Galveston, zero fatalities. But, you have to remember, this island is long. It's about 32 miles long, and especially on the west end, a good chunk of that is under water still, and there are big time homes there. So, those waters have to recede and those homes have to be searched before we can give it all clear, and I think that will take several days.

So, even though we have that situation, we certainly have a bad situation here up the pier, down the beach, I should say, a little bit, right around the middle of that seawall that was built after the 1900 hurricane, there's a memorial, a monument, a sculpture there. We want to check it out. It was just beaten up real bad. I mean, that part of the seawall really took a pounding, some of it badly damaged, as a matter of fact.

But the sculpture and the commemoration there, there's a plaque, there's a bronze plaque that was on top of piece of granite, which was on top of a piece of gantry which was ripped off that and thrown several yards to one side. But the sculpture that kind of commemorates that event, the tenacity of the people that survived, and the suffering of those that were lost, that statue looks virtually untouched, still standing, still pointing to the sky, T.J., almost to say -- hey, listen, we've been around here for a while and we survived many hurricanes and Hurricane Ike is not going to crush the spirit of this community. Unfortunately, it's going to take quite a while for them to come back though, T.J.

HOLMES: We always the resiliency of people after a situation like this. No doubt, we'll see it again. Unfortunately, they have to go through it, though.

Rob, we appreciate you. We'll talk to you again here shortly.

And, of course, we're talking about Ike slammed in to Texas, certainly causing problems, in the Midwest now with rain that it's bringing but you don't have to be in the storm's path to feel its impact. You can be thousands of miles away because that impact is being felt all over the country at the gas pump. How much? How long? An industry expert will weigh in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. We want to turn now and get more about the situation in Houston. Of course, it took, really, a good beating and the brunt of this storm, Hurricane Ike yesterday. And downtown area certainly saw a lot of damage, a lot of debris there.

We want to talk Judge Ed Emmet, who's with the emergency management and he has an eye on the situation there.

Mr. Emmet, thank you for being with us this morning. Give us the assessment. Was it as bad as we thought it was going to be? Is it worse?

JUDGE ED EMMET, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS EMERG. MGMT: Well, the storm was as bad as we thought it was going to be. But the good news is, in Harris County where I'm the county judge, everybody heeded the warning, seemingly, got out of harm's way and we have, you know, virtually no deaths from it. So, property can be replaced. And we're just glad that the people had got away.

HOLMES: Well, how bad is the extent of that property damage?

EMMET: We're still assessing. There are parts of the area, only emergency personnel had gone into, in the surge zone, the whole place is pretty much ruined. I mean, you have an 11 or 12-foot surge coming inland, that creates quite of problems.

You've all seen the dramatic photos of the tower downtown that lost so many of the windows but other than that, we've got trees downed, the entire place was out of power, telephone service is out, it's going to take a long time to get back.

But the good news is, we have a cold front coming through tomorrow and the skies are supposed to clear and people can get back to it.

HOLMES: Well, sir, what is the, I guess, as far as injury report, you said, do you think you probably were spared any deaths, at least we know of right now, and hopefully that sticks -- but what about injury reports?

EMMET: We had some because of fire, mainly. We had an apartment unit catch fire and the city and, of course, we had a restaurant that burned and -- but, by and large, for a storm this size, it was remarkable that there weren't more injuries.

Now, our worry, of course, is, because we don't have power, people are beginning to get out and drive and we don't have street lights, and it's still a very dangerous situation because we still have flooded streets and tree limbs across a number of them. And so, we're just asking people to be careful, be patient. Life will return to normal.

HOLMES: At some point. And what about the -- we certainly got -- so many 911 calls were coming in. How about the search and rescue efforts in Harris County?

EMMET: That went very well yesterday. A lot of local jurisdictions, you know, we have 33 cities in Harris County. So each jurisdiction pretty much took care of itself and at least cooperated with those nearby. We think we've gotten everybody out, but obviously, people are going into those areas and still looking today.

HOLMES: All right. One quick thing here, sir. If your people are listening in Harris County, you make the plea to them, what you need them to do right now. I know, probably, you don't want them all to rush back in and flood the areas and just kind of stay away and give it a minute. But what will you recommend for your people there in Harris County right now, what should they do?

EMMET: The people who did not evacuated and to vast majority, need to take care of their own house, stay close to home, trying not to venture out because it is still dangerous out there. For those who evacuated, they need to stay in contact with the local municipality that they left because those will be the officials that determine when it's safe for them to come back into the area.

HOLMES: OK. All right. Again, Judge Ed Emmet there in Harris County. Sir, thank you so much for taking the time out and good luck to you and your citizens there.

EMMET: Thank you.

HOLMES: All right. Well, we will turn to some -- not necessarily presidential campaign --but we're going to talk about the presidential candidates. They have found a common cause, helping the victims of Hurricane Ike.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to the CNN SUNDAY MORNING, 7:30 now on the East Coast. I'm T.J. Holmes. Our Betty Nguyen will be along shortly. She has been covering the devastation of hurricane Ike as it hits the Texas coast. Right now, we are waiting to hear from President Bush. He's been meeting with FEMA administrator David Paulson and other officials about the government's response to Hurricane Ike.

In Ike's wake, at least four people are dead in Texas and Louisiana. Crews in Texas are rounding up thousands of people that refused to leave and then found themselves stranded in a lot of that high water. Damage to refineries in the Gulf appears to be slight, but fears of temporary shortages sent gas prices surging, anyway, to nearly $5 a gallon in some areas. Now, as Ike is moving on right now, the search and recovery efforts are certainly moving into the area. FEMA waiting until what Texas Governor Rick Perry says the largest search and rescue operation in that state's history.

Of course, many people did not evacuate. They opted to ride out Ike's massive storm surge. Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff says now we'll have to determine the consequences of this storm. And as I mentioned, out Betty Nguyen has been there. She was in downtown Houston yesterday but has moved outside the city and has found a lot of flooding and a lot of devastation. Betty, good morning to you. Again, tell us what you're seeing there.

NGUYEN: Well, good morning, T.J.. We are on the bridge that connects Kemah to Seabrook which is to my left. Now, straight this way, Galveston Bay. Behind me, Clear Lake. So obviously, all the debris that washed up during the storm landed right here. And what I'm standing right next to at first, I told you earlier, I didn't really know what it was because it looks like a little bit of concrete on top of some wood.

Well, if you walk a little farther on top of this, you can see there are actually tiles here. This was somebody's floor. I wanted to give you a better glimpse at this. It's just amazing to see what has washed up on to this bridge. Look over a little bit to my left over here, you got a light bulb amid all of this lumber and then parts of a roof. This is not the only roof that we found on this bridge. We took a tour yesterday and I want you to take a look at the some of items that we saw washing up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN (voice-over): As Hurricane Ike came ashore, families along Galveston Bay expected to lose shingles off their home. But who would imagine losing an entire roof? This is what's left of someone's home. In fact, when you walk down here, you can see there's a mailbox here. I don't even know if it belongs to the home where this roof used to cover. But if you look inside, there are some items. I'm not seeing any bills or any mails in there. I guess that's a good thing.

But all along this bridge that connects Kemah to Seabrook, just loads of debris. Like here's a baseball. Some kid is missing his toy but that's not even compared to some of the items that we've been looking at. There's been toothbrushes over that way. I've got a chair here, there's a couch down the way.

Honestly, when you look at this, it just really shows you the devastation of Hurricane Ike. Because when you put it into perspective, this isn't just a bunch of junk that has washed ashore. These are items in people's homes. These are memories. And right now, there's no telling how long it will take for people to clear this off of this roadway and for this town to get back to normal.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: And the debris, you can stretch it for a great distance down to my left. Standing on this particular piece of flooring, at least what's left of it. It's hard first to imagine what some of these other items are. You see, all of these debris, you kind of want to figure out what it is. Like this, for example, we're not sure. There's a lot of wood attached to it. It's kind of a circular pattern. Again, these are just items that came out of people's homes, maybe part of people's homes. And today, search and rescue efforts are under way to find the folks who may have been living in this place where we're seeing the floor right now.

Jacqui Jeras joins us with a look at the weather. Because that's going to be an issue today. Jacqui, right where I'm standing, it is starting to rain and the winds are whipping up, as well. And I know that's going to be really a problem for folks trying to get out to these remote areas.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Absolutely. I mean, we can even hear the rain from your microphone, Betty. It's coming down pretty heavy at times in the Galveston Bay area and up towards Houston, all along the I-10 corridor here. And that rain is going to be heavy enough to cause some urban flooding. The flash flooding will be taking place and those winds could be gusting as much as, say, 40 miles per hour or so. So here's Betty's location and she's kind of getting in on some of the tail end of these showers and thunderstorms, much heavier up towards Baytown as we head on up towards the interstate. We could see as much as two inches per hour with some of these heavier storms. There you just saw some of the live lightning flashes as those are taking place. So that's a threat too. So we could actually see a few more power outages potentially if we get strong enough gusts in some of these thunderstorms.

Tornadoes also remain a threat. We got a watch in effect from Louisiana all the way up towards the boot hill of Missouri. This includes you in Memphis and down towards Jackson, Mississippi. At the center of the storm is in the southern parts of Missouri right now and bringing some torrential downpours from St. Louis up towards Peoria. Chicago, we had a number of flights canceled and delays yesterday. That will be the rule again today after record rainfall there yesterday of more than 6 1/2 inches.

Check out this next forecast here for the next 24 to 48 hours of rain that we're anticipating. And you know, all of these elements coming together is why we're going to see so much rain. We have the remnants of Ike coming through here. We have the remnants of tropical storm Lowell, which started out in the Pacific, and then this cold frontal boundary that's moving on through. And that's why we're going to see such tremendous flooding throughout the day today. The only good thing that we can say about any of these is the storm is moving very quickly and we think by Monday afternoon, it's going to be off the coast and out of here. Betty. T.J.

HOLMES: I'll take it from here. I think we still hear a little rain hitting her microphone.

JERAS: I know. I hear that.

HOLMES: Jacqui, thank you so much. And again, folks, we will continue to follow Ike, its aftermath and still its path as you just heard there from Jacqui. It's still going some issues throughout the mid section of this country now.

Also, this morning we are waiting to hear from President Bush. He's been meeting with the FEMA administrator, expecting to hear from him. And when we do, we'll certainly bring that to you. Also, we're keeping an eye on those gas prices. Nobody wants to see those numbers going up. We will tell you how long we will have to deal with this and just how bad it could get. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama trying to support the victims of Hurricane Ike. Here is what they're doing, doing it through their websites. On Obama's website, you'll find links to the Red Cross, also the organization Save the Children.

And on McCain's website, you can connect with texasresponse.com. That's a Texas state website that lets you donate to charities responding to the storm.

And as the presidential candidates hit the campaign trail, CNN will be there, of course, live and unfiltered. CNN's "Ballot Bowl" is back at 4:00 Eastern today, 1:00 Pacific. Again, that's only right here on CNN.

Speaking of Ike again, Ike and oil just don't mix, you know? Not a wallet friendly combination, either. Gas price this morning are up for the fifth day in a row. AAA reports a jump of almost six cents nationwide from Saturday to Sunday to an average now of $3.79 a gallon. All of those refineries Ike shut down are still closed. That's going to strain fuel supplies. And experts say prices could end up substantially higher, substantially higher, Josh. That is what the experts say. And the experts are never wrong.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Is that true? Well, maybe we're about to find out. We'll get some reality checks next weekend. How is that? This is the talk of the nation. These are just what everybody is talking about. This is just some i-reports behind me, people complaining about the massive spike in gas prices near them.

I'm going to bring in now Kevin Kerr, editor of the "Global Commodities Alert." Hey there, Kevin,

KEVIN KERR, EDITOR "GLOBAL COMMODITIES ALERT": Hey, Josh. How are you?

LEVS: Good. Listen, I want to start with this. I'm hearing every possible situation for what's happened since Ike. I'm hearing that it's just people panicking and buying up all the gas. I'm hearing allegations of price gouging, and I'm hearing, hey don't blame the retailers, they're paying extra to the refineries.

What happened to cause this massive spikes in the gas price?

KERR: Yes, it's a little bit of everything. You know, I wouldn't blame the retailers. I agree with that because the retailers are afraid that they're going to have to pay this wholesale prices come Monday. All those costs trickle right down to us at the pump and unfortunately the retailers have to pass it on to us.

LEVS: But Kevin, there must be some cases of price gouging. If someone gets to the gas station and sees it go up 80 or 90 cents right in front of them, and it's not like down the block, they're going to suspect that. How can someone know, if they get to a gas station and they see huge price, you do know if you're being gouged or not?

KERR: Well, first of all, since Katrina, there are pretty stringent laws in place, the government is taking a very close look at this, local governments really well. Really, the way you can look at it is look around the other gas stations in the area, are the prices comparable or is it just this specific station. That would be a good gauge of what's going on?

LEVS: Let's talk about the panic factor because we knew for a long time that the storm is coming. And there had been other hurricanes in the past, and I don't ever remember so many people saying 50 or 60, 80 cent jumps like that. Why the panic factor worse this time?

KERR: Yes. It has been an extreme panic factor. And I think that's because people experience in Katrina and Rita and there are a lot of fear factor here. o think supplies will be crimped though. We have to remember we have an eight year low for the gasoline supplies. And we have this hurricane moving into the center of energy production for the nation. All of these nine refineries are down in that area, it could be down for a while if the electrical grids stays down, and that's bad news.

LEVS: Well, let's talk a little bit about the future because I do want to look ahead. we don't actually know yet what's going to happen with these key oil installations. And as I was telling you all yesterday, several of the biggest oil refineries in the country are right there in Texas. 13 to 26 were shut down even before Ike. What do we need to find out to start to gauge what the impact is going to be on gas prices in the coming weeks or months due to Ike.

KERR: Well, you know, the bottom line is we're going to have wait and see what the electrical grids look like. These refineries require a lot of electricity. We're not going to get accurate damage reports until we know if they can get electrical up running these facilities. Once he have that and we hear from Exxon and BP, we have two of the biggest refineries down there. Then we'll get a better picture on how bad this could be. This storm reminds me and I've been looking at it all night of Alicia back in 1983. Refineries were shut down for several months. A situation like that could drive gasoline prices much, much higher.

LEVS: Well, you know, this is just the kind of news that our viewers want to wake up to.

KERR: The good news is the loss of life wasn't greater. But this could be a problem going forward for gas supply.

LEVS: And the evacuations were taken seriously and the human cost was minimized, absolutely. And I'm glad that you pointed that out. Listen, Kevin Kerr, it's so good to have you. We're going to be talking to you a lot in the coming weeks because I'm telling you, people are talking to us nonstop about these crazy gas prices. We're hoping to see some of that subside today. Kevin, thanks a lot. T.J., back to you.

KERR: Thank you.

HOLMES: Hoping to see some of that subside today. We got our fingers cross. John, we appreciate you. We'll be checking in with you again this morning. Well, I need to tell you how you can help out some of the victims of the storm. I know you're looking for ways, there are ways you can do it. You can find out some ways on our website. You're looking at it right there. Cnn.com is the impact your world page that we have for you. Again, that's cnn.com/impact.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Good morning, everybody. Betty Nguyen is coming to you live from Kemah, Texas. In fact, I'm on a bridge that connects Kemah, Texas to Seabrook. And right here, we are seeing loads and loads of debris. It's all around. This is where items have simply washed ashore, whether it be from Galveston Bay to my left or Clear lake to my right. But this isn't the only place we're seeing a lot of debris today. In fact, in Clear Lake City, my colleague, Reynolds Wolf joins me now. And Reynolds, you got a mess on your hands, as well.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. You know, just driving in here today from Houston, it was like driving to a minefield. Every other place you go, every other 100 feet, once you get off the freeway, there were either trees knocked down, there were some kind of roadside damage. There were just stuff everywhere. And coupled with that, you got power outages all across the landscape, all over parts of Texas. So, you're going to have, again a lot of intersections, a lot of lights are going to be out there.

People are going to treat those as a four-way stop rule. In my case here, I guess, it would be a three way stop. I'm currently right on the intersection of NASA Road One and that road over there happens to be Space Center Boulevard. One thing about NASA here, at the Space Center, during the height of the storm they only had a skeleton crew. The skeleton crew was merely just to contact with the space station. They evacuated everyone else. They also evacuate a lot of training planes. They took those out of the area, the training jets. Those were evacuated.

One thing I'm sure they wished they evacuated, at least the people across the street, maybe a two massive sailboat like that one you see right behind me. That is not where it's supposed to be. It should be out there, a little bit farther into the lake. That was actually pushed up closer to shore. The water. I am told, actually has dropped considerably just since yesterday. So that is certainly some good news. When the water pulls away, Betty, think of the mess they got on their hands. I mean, just a whole lot that you're going be dealing with. Moving stuff like that, cleaning things up, trying to restore power.

And on top of that trying to restore water. Many places now still without water, very little water pressure in the city of Houston. Again, a lot of people without power there in our hotel. That was also a tremendous issue in a lot of homes. A lot of people trying to wake up, feed their families, feed their kids, trying to mix in that formula with that water. They don't have any water to deal with. So there are all kinds of problems you're going to be dealing with.

One thing that has been great to see and great to know was that you have a lot of power companies, not just from here in Texas, but all across the United States that have come here to help out and it is, really, a heart wrenching scene to see people come in and give a hand to the people here in Texas. But no question about it, there's certainly a tremendous mess and we certainly had taste of it this morning, so to speak. Betty.

NGUYEN: No doubt. I really have to echo a lot of what you just said. Trying to make our way to this location this morning, so many lights were out not only the freeway but on the little side roads that we needed to take to get here. So that was difficult in of itself. We were staying in Houston last night in one of the high rise hotels there in downtown.

The water pressure was gone. It was really difficult that you know even get water from the sink or flush the commode. So that was another issue that we're dealing with but when we come to places like this, Reynolds, and when we see this kind of damage, it really puts it all into perspective. I have to ask you about the storm surge where you are. Do they have any indication as to how high it might have been?

WOLF: My guess-timate would have been about here, I'd say anywhere from maybe three to four feet, wasn't quite as high but you know, you got to think about that too, three or four feet, doesn't seem high, but that's devastating to a lot of people. Certainly enough to move the sail boat you see behind me. Anything that's out of the norm like is going to cause problems, and they got plenty of problems to deal with this morning. No question.

NGUYEN: Yes. No doubt. Yes, we're just down the road not too far away from where you are, and in fact, I spoke with a homeowner who lives in Kehma over to my right and inside here home. you could see the waterline, it was a good, at least four feet tall in there. But I spoke with the Galveston County Sheriff's Sergeant this morning, and he said in this particular area, especially on this bridge, which connects Galveston Bay to Clear Lake, they were looking at a storm surge of close to 17 feet. So that is tremendous.

WOLF: Good god.

NGUYEN: To get more information on this, we want to take you now to CNN's meteorologist Jacqui Jeras who has been following all of this. And Jacqui, you know, it's one thing to talk about what has happened here. It's another thing to deal with the elements that a lot of people are going to be facing today because we got search and recovery efforts going up and once we get some daybreak, but then you got the storms that are still around.

JERAS: Yes, those showers and thunderstorms are going to stick around a good part of the day, part of the cold front. Ike is way up here. The center of circulation into southern Missouri now, but the front bringing showers and thunderstorms all the way down to the Gulf Coast. And that's going to be the rule today. Unfortunately, it's not going to be solid all day long, but you are going to get hit and miss thunderstorms. And we don't think that threat is going to reduce until later tonight even by tomorrow morning, probably a 30 percent chance of seeing some thunderstorms before things clear on out. Another issue that we are still dealing with are going to be some strong and gusty winds. Any time you get those thunderstorms along the Gulf Coast you're going to see 40, 50-mile-per-hour wind gusts, and we'll have those strong winds also across the nation's midsection.

Look at the yellow area here, this is where we have wind advisories in effect where the sustained winds could be 20 to 35 miles per hour, the gusts well beyond 45 at times. So, St. Louis, Evansville, Louisville, and up towards Cincinnati, to Columbus, Nashville, over to the Memphis area all looking for those strong winds throughout the day today. You know, some of those could be strong enough, you guys could dealing with some power outages as a result of that as well, not to mention the flooding.

Check out the track now of Ike. It's officially a tropical depression. It's going to be losing those tropical characteristics throughout the day today, but as it continues to move in with that other frontal system, we could actually see some strengthening with some of the sustained winds. Believe it or not. Here is your forecast point. By this afternoon, moving through Indiana, and then overnight tonight, look at this, into parts of Canada, into the eastern great lakes and then up towards the Canadian maritime. So, this is going to be out of here, we think by Monday. So, at least it's a fast-moving storm but certainly we're going to continue to have problems with it. And that will be the big rule today, that will be the flooding across the nation's midsection from Ike. T.J.

HOLMES: That is amazing. That storm is nowhere close to being done just yet. It has a long way to go. Jacqui Jeras, thank you so much this morning. Also, we have a time out before play even starts. We'll tell you about a home opener that wasn't. We'll tell you when it is going to happen. Our sports business analyst Rick Horrow. He's going to be here with us. We're talking about some of the, you know, the roof, sometimes when some of these stadiums just don't hold up. We'll be talking about why, we'll take to him in just a second. Stay here, folks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Preempted by Ike, the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans will not be playing tomorrow night as planned. Sports analyst Rick Horrow joins us now from West Palm Beach, Florida to look at how they're going to do. Rick, good morning to you. You pointed out to me, just talking about, it seems like we always - these stadiums sometimes they just can't hold up. And there's a reason why these roofs just, you know, they're fancy, they're nice, they're cool, but you know, it's not hurricane ready sometimes.

RICK HORROW, CNN SPORTS BUSINESS ANALYST: Well, they're doing the best they can and the Texans have a bi-week now whether they wanted to or not. But these new facilities, the Indianapolis One, Milwaukee, Phoenix, Reliant Stadium in Houston, $2 billion on roof structures alone. And there are nine fans apparently for these stadium, five of them looked like they can get blown off while you have conventions, and Super Bowls, and concerts inside these buildings, the risk is it's a more complicated building. And while they're doing the best they can, sometimes they can't stay ahead of mother nature.

HOLMES: And you say it's more complicated. Does that make a repair more costly, more complicated and more time consuming?

HORROW: Yes, yes, and yes, although I'm a lawyer trying to play architect, which is dangerous. But you understand that the first game is not now scheduled in Reliant Stadium until October 5. They moved a few games around. And there apparently five of the nine panels that are totally missing or altered. And it is going to be a significant repair job, which is huge but in the context of everything else that's going on in Texas, it's a small thing.

HOLMES: A huge repair job there. Who knows how much that will cost them but how much does this - I mean aside from the cost of that building itself, and how to repair, how much money is being lost if you have to adjust schedules like this, move games around and who knows when they might be able to play another game any time soon.

HORROW: Well, let's remember an NFL game is an event in itself, $10 million, $15 million all totaled. That will be played later this year postponed so you don't lose it, you just postponed it. But what about the hundreds of high schools all over Texas, what about the 20 or 25 college games including, you know, your Texas-Arkansas game a couple weeks from now? The economic impact is enormous and just in this segment of sports and entertainment.

HOLMES: All right. Rick Horrow bringing this business side to what has happened there after this Hurricane Ike. Rick, we appreciate you. Good information this morning. Thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

HORROW: See you next week.

HOLMES: All right. CNN SUNDAY MORNING continues right now.

NGUYEN: Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen coming to you live from Kemah, Texas, where we are following the effects of Hurricane Ike. As you can see behind me there's a lot of them. Debris scattered everywhere. We'll get the latest on that. T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Good morning to you, Betty. Good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes here in the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. We've got reporters all over the region this morning keeping an eye on things. Our correspondents Betty Nguyen, as you see there, our Reynolds Wolf also there in Clear Lake City. We've got Ed Lavandera standing by for us talking about some rescue and recovery efforts in San Antonio. Rob Marciano in Galveston, where he's been since before the storm even hit and also our Jacqui Jeras here with me in Atlanta, talking about where this storm is headed. Still causing some problems to the Midwest, mid section of this country. We'll be talking about that. Now, a tropical depression is what it is now. It's heading through the Midwest. It's still capable of delivering some pretty strong winds, as rainfall could spawn off some tornadoes as well. Now, in the storm's wake, at least four people are dead, that we know of right now, among them, a 10-year-old child; also a 16-year-old drowned in his home; also, a 56-year-old man who actually broke his neck.

Now, rescue crews are having a tough time this morning reaching a lot of those people. A lot of people did stick around, did stay this high, they decided to ride this storm out. There's chest-deep water that we know of this morning that flooded the highways, tangled debris getting in the way of a lot of those rescue efforts this morning as well.

Millions of people, we're told, are without power. This is the word we got yesterday. Millions -- up to 4 million, it was yesterday. I think the word now is about 3 million without power and they could not get it possibly for the next several weeks -- that is the possibility.

Also, the game we just talked about with our Rick Horrow, a game being cancelled there between Houston and Baltimore, being moved now to November 9th. It blew the roof literally off that stadium.

So, a lot happening. We will start and head back out to my co- anchor, Betty Nguyen, who is in Downtown Houston yesterday when the storm was causing problems, now in Seabrook where a lot of stuff is happening.

Starting to get a little light behind you, starting to get a better idea of that damage, Betty.

NGUYEN: Oh, and once you get a look at it, you really are not going to believe some of the damage that has washed ashore here in Kemah, Texas. Kemah is one of the areas that was under a mandatory evacuation. Kemah is just over the bridge to my right here. Now, over the bridge to my left is where Seabrook, Texas is -- another area under mandatory evacuations. We learned from the Galveston County Sheriff's Department this morning that this particular area, right here, which sits between Galveston Bay and Clear Lake got storm surge up to 17 feet. So, that's another reason why we see so much debris on this bridge here.

If we can pan over, you can see what appears to be some kind of, I don't know, maybe perhaps some concrete. But if you look really closely, you can tell that this is no concrete alone. These are tiles. This is part of someone's flooring and their home -- not anymore. It's sitting right now on top of a bridge here along with lots of other debris.

We're going to get a good indication of all the damage caused by Hurricane Ike a little bit later today. Rescue and relief operations are going to go into effect. They're going to try to see how many folks are still in those flooded homes, if they survived.

In fact, I want to toss now to President Bush who just got out of a meeting with FEMA. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, MOMENTS AGO, KHOU)

PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH, UNITED STATES: I'm going to discuss Hurricane Ike. I was on the phone to -- Secretary Chertoff for -- before coming into this meeting, the secretary went down yesterday, he gave me a briefing from Austin. He'll be heading into Houston.

This is all part of our efforts to help Texas and Louisiana with a focused, effective recovery effort.

Administrator Paulson briefed us on how we are doing on our priorities. First priority is search and rescue. I want to thank the people at the federal and state levels for working so hard to rescue our fellow citizens from harm's way. Rescue efforts continue on as we speak.

I do urge people in the affected areas to listen closely to local authorities before they attempt to get back home. There are people now surveying damage and people reporting in to the state as to the conditions there and the different communities. It's very important for citizens, who I know are anxious to get home, to take your time and listen. Take the advice of the local folks.

Our priorities, along with the state and local folks, is to make sure electricity gets up as quickly as possible. Secretary Bodman gave us a briefing on the outages. Interestingly enough, some electricity is already being restored to Houston, I'm told. And I do want to thank the utility companies for working hard to get electricity up and to the extent that you need help on stringing lines, I'm confident other utility companies from around the country will help provide manpower.

Secretary Chertoff and David Paulson tell me that the federal government will be providing 1.5 million liters of water a day and 1 million meals a day to help the people who have been displaced. That will, of course, be coordinated with Governor Perry's office and the state of Texas as well as the mayors.

One of the things that's important for the city of Houston and the other cities is to get the water up and running, the sewage plants running, and that will be a priority of ours to help them.

And finally, debris removal. It's very important that our corps of engineer working with local officials implements a coordinated debris removal plan. And so that's what we discussed this morning.

This is a tough storm. And it's one that's going to be -- that's going to require time for people to recover. As well -- as secretary of energy briefed us on the preliminary reports on gasoline production, pipeline distribution, and it's a little early to fully assess where we stand, although I can say that, you know, one of the pipelines coming out of the gulf coast area is running -- the Plantation Pipe Line. And we are watching very carefully as to when the Colonial Pipeline can get up and running.

In the meantime, as I mentioned yesterday, in coordination with the Department of Energy, we suspended -- and the EPA -- we suspended reformulated gasoline rules to make it easier to import gasoline from abroad so as to take pressure off our consumers.

And I repeat what I said yesterday, that the federal government along with state governments will be monitoring very carefully as to whether or not consumers are being mistreated at the pump, in other words gouge. It's important for our fellow citizens during this period of temporary disruption to be treated fairly.

So, I'm considering my plans over the weekend and I will be going down to Texas on Tuesday to express the federal government's support, sympathy on the one hand, and support on the other, for this recovery effort and rebuilding effort. Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: And that was some tape of President Bush who just got out of a meeting with FEMA officials. As you heard him say, search and rescue operations are a number one priority. In fact, that takes us now to my colleague, Ed Lavandera who joins us now from San Antonio.

And, Ed, you, in fact, have gone out with some of these search and rescue teams. What have they found?

LAVANDERA: Well, we spent almost seven hours up in the air yesterday in an Air Force helicopter with an Air Force search and rescue team. San Antonio has been an area where they have been deploying from. We ended up flying into the south part of Houston, into Galveston, and then, made our way up to Bolivar Island which is just northeast of Galveston, and that's where we discovered a scene that was eerily similar, not on the scale of what happened during Katrina in Mississippi, but it looked eerily similar.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Hurricane Ike devoured Crystal Beach. Hundreds of expensive homes on this tiny coastal island look like they exploded. Shreds of debris left floating in the water. And as you fly over, you only see the stilts of where many homes once stood. Even some of the concrete slabs were torn apart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's like Hurricane Katrina all over again.

LAVANDERA: Crystal Beach sits on a barrier island, just east of Galveston. The heart of Hurricane Ike ripped through here and the storm surge delivered a brutal blow. We flew over with the Air Force search and rescue team, hunting for people who rode out the storm, and incredibly, there were people below, alive.

Across the devastated region, some 1,000 military personnel are involved in search and rescue missions, and even as hundreds of people were pulled out on Saturday, pararescue jumpers, Vincent Acker (ph), and Doug Dickens (ph), encountered only defiance from storm survivors. On the seven-hour mission, at least a dozen people refused their offers to be pulled out. The airmen left food and water behind for them.

Crystal Beach appears completely cut off from ground help. Even a cow that survived the storm could only find refuge on the back doorstep of a home. Another nearby town, High Island, is also surrounded by water, an area where oil rigs decorate the coastal landscape. It's bizarre to see those oil rigs now just sitting in water. And you can see the chemicals and oil polluting the floodwaters.

Everywhere you look in this area, you see water where there isn't supposed to be water. How long it will take to recede isn't known, but you can't help but wonder, Crystal Beach and this sliver of island can survive.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And, Betty, as you look at the map there, that little stretch of barrier island where Crystal Beach is and High Island is, it is really at the mouth, the gateway into Galveston Bay and it took on the brunt of the storm.

And again, as we flew over yesterday, some close to a dozen people that we came into contact with, either brushed us off, didn't want the chopper to come down near them, or just after the pararescue jumpers climbed out of the helicopter and gone down to talk to these folks, they still turned away help. They left, as we mentioned, food and water behind, but, you know, the crew was rather amazed that these people still wanted to stay behind in these conditions -- Betty.

NGUYEN: That is really interesting. Let me ask you this question, because Crystal Beach is near Port Bolivar on that peninsula. And we spoke with the Galveston County Sheriff's Department, and one of their sergeants. And this morning, he said about 80 percent of that peninsula was washed out. Can you confirm that?

LAVANDERA: Oh, it has to be. I mean, as we flew over, it was incredible. As we flew over Galveston, and for the most part, from what we could see in the air, much of Galveston resisted the storm pretty well. There are areas that are under water but once you got past Galveston and you reached that barrier island, Port Bolivar, Crystal Beach, it was just unbelievable how everything just disappeared.

At one point, the pararescue jumper that I was sitting next to in the helicopter, had pulled out a GPS system around his neck, and he looked at it, and it showed that we should have been flying over land. As we looked over the side, there was nothing but water as far as the eye could see. And it really drove home the point of how much storm surge and how much fury this storm wrecked across this area.

NGUYEN: That is just truly remarkable, just to hear that. I can't see the video from where I am, but I definitely can see the debris from where I am. So, I'm sure that it has a lot to do with, you know, Hurricane Ike and just the power of this massive storm.

We do appreciate that. Ed Lavandera is joining us live from San Antonio.

You know, again, T.J., I cannot see the video but I can only imagine the pictures from that island, especially when I hear from a sheriff's deputy here that 80 percent of that island was just washed out.

HOLMES: Yes, those pictures are pretty amazing. He's been bringing them to us all morning. And we are starting to see that video again now. I guess you can hear me still there, Betty, we are showing that flood video again now, and we are starting to really getting an idea of the impact of this storm, starting to get an impact as well, or an idea of the impact from just watching your video now, your shot just behind you there, we're starting to see more of that damage behind you.

So, Betty Nguyen, thank you so much.

We'll be checking in with her again this morning. We want to head to our Jacqui Jeras now. We are talking about the impact of Ike here.

It's still not done making an impact; it's just making an impact in other parts of the country now. So, who needs to be on the lookout?

JERAS: Yes. Well, people across the Midwest all the way down to the gulf coast, really, and the Ohio Valley and the northeast even got to get in on some of this action. You know, the Bolivar Peninsula, by the way, right here, and here's Galveston, just to put in perspective where these damage photos are that we've been showing you.

Unfortunately, you know, adding insult to injury already here, with some heavy showers and thunderstorms that are rolling through the area. Downtown Houston is under a flash flood warning. We are going to be seeing additional urban flooding as a result of these thunderstorms. The west side of town right now is just getting hammered. Rainfall rates easily could be reaching a half of an inch to an inch an hour or more as these storms roll on through.

There you can see Baytown getting wet, also down towards League City, Betty has been getting wet, on and of, and Kemah this morning, as well. So, these are going to continue to roll through throughout much of the day today. Chance of rain diminishes tonight and tomorrow morning. And we think it's going to be going on then through the rest of the week, and to a much drier weather.

And that cold front actually is helping out in terms of much cooler weather for all those people who don't have power, but still middle 80s and humidity is not all that pleasant.

OK. Here's the location of the storm, moving through southern parts of Missouri. We're going to watch for the threat of tornados into the lower Mississippi River Valley for today and look for those flooding rains across the nation's midsection. We have already seen some incredible totals, and we're going to see plenty of people with rainfall rates between four and seven inches before all is said and done -- T.J.

HOLMES: I see Fayetteville, Arkansas made that list, my old stamping ground at the University of Arkansas.

JERAS: Just for you.

HOLMES: We appreciate your getting in there. But sad they have to make the screen because of that. So, we're going to hold on there.

Jacqui Jeras, thank you so much.

Stay with us here, folks. Just ahead on this CNN SUNDAY MORNING, we're going to head to the west coast, just a tragic train accident to tell you about. Trying to figure out exactly how these trains crashed head on. Over 20 people dead in this accident.

And would you believe that texting may have had something to do with it? We'll look into that. And also, how often do these kinds of accidents occur? Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Now, 25 people killed in one of the worst train crashes ever in this country. Now, human error, we're learning, may be to blame. The investigation is focusing on whether the engineer was texting before that accident.

We wanted to look into this story a little more. Just an amazing detail coming out there, Josh Levs, but also, having, Josh, you look into these kinds of accidents. Just how often do these things happen? It doesn't seem like we, I mean, we might hear about a little something here or there, but a head-on crash like this? This was something else. LEVS: I know, it's unbelievable. In fact, we have some iReport video. Let's go straight to it.

Matt Hartman sent us this. He says when he went out there and looked at the scene, there were so many rescue workers; he's never seen anything like it in person in his life. He says it looked like ants just crawling on top of this massive scene. It was a horrible tragedy.

But one reason this is such a big story is that this kind of thing is so rare. We have some video here from the 1993 train crash, this the last time we saw anything even like this. That was when an Amtrak's Sunset Limited jumped the rails on a weakened bridge and plunged into the bayou near Mobile, Alabama. Forty-seven people were killed there.

So, this crash is the deadliest one since that in '93.

Now, T.J., the government keeps statistics on train deaths caused by derailments or different colliding. Here are the numbers; we have a graphic for you. In 2004, there were 13 people killed totals; 2005, 33; 2006, six people; 2007 eight people.

So, you can see, I mean, talking about 25 people in one crash now is huge. This is historic in that sense. I will tell you, these numbers don't include when a car tries to drive over a railway area and then there's a crash because those are not usually about the train, they are usually about what the cars were doing. But, T.J., when you see those numbers, I mean, for an entire year, it puts in perspective how huge this 25 figure is in one crash right now. It's awful.

HOLMES: Awful in the details we're hearing now, possibly he was texting. I mean, people, unfortunately so many of us text and drive. Sadly, a lot of people won't admit it. (INAUDIBLE) a lot of people to do that, and that's dangerous and scary. But just to think of somebody doing that same thing and conducting a train, it leaves you scratching your head.

Josh, we appreciate you looking into that for us.

LEVS: You got it.

HOLMES: Right. And we will continue our coverage here of Hurricane Ike, now a tropical depression but still causing all kinds of problems. Stay here.

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HOLMES: All right. It went from a category two to a category one. Now, Ike is a tropical depression, still moving, heading into the Midwest of the country now. It's still capable of delivering some heavy rainfall and spinning off some tornadoes and pretty strong winds. And we've been hearing from our Jacqui Jeras in the storm's wake, though. President Bush, we just found out, plans to head to Texas on Tuesday. He's going to go down there to show his sympathy, also, his support for those who are struggling right now.

We do know, at least four people have died in this storm. We don't know if that number could possibly rise. Among the dead, a 16- year-old actually drowned in his house in Louisiana.

Rescue crews are having a hard time reaching a lot of people who did decide to ride out the storm. There's chest-deep water in a lot of areas, flooded highways, tangled debris all over the place. Millions of people are still without power. They could be without quite some time, could be weeks, we're told, before it's restored.

And then, the game as well -- Houston versus Baltimore, supposed to be the big opener, we're suppose to see, it's now going to be delayed until November 9th. Ike literally blew the roof off of the Reliance stadium there in Houston.

We want to head now to my team, my comrades. There they are. Here we are at the CNN SATURDAY and SUNDAY MORNING team -- Reynolds Wolf has been down there covering the storm; our Betty Nguyen as well.

You can still hear a lot of that wind howling. Betty, I will start with you. Is that your microphone we're hearing this wind from?

NGUYEN: It is. I wish I can fix it for you, but you have to talk to Mother Nature about that. And the winds have really started picking up out here. The good thing, the rain has stopped, at least for now. We don't know how long that's going to last but the winds are getting strong.

And you can see why all this debris is here, it's because of those winds, not these in particular, but the ones caused by Hurricane Ike. And if you think these sound bad, just imagine the winds as Ike ripped through this area. There is debris all along this bridge that connects Kemah, (AUDIO BREAK) Texas to (AUDIO BREAK).

HOLMES: And it looks like that wind might have gotten us and got her there. Certainly, I hear it again, but we will hold off and try to check in with our Reynolds Wolf right now.

Reynolds, we just lost Betty there. These conditions have been so tough for you guys and that equipment out there this morning. But we see you, we have you up. We tell us what's happening around you. We can see a little more now.

WOLF: Absolutely. T.J., what we have been showing you for most of the morning, we've been able to light up this sailboat right behind us, the sailboat right now in Clear Lake. What we're going to do is actually pan over. We got our photojournalist John Person (ph) with us.

We're going to pan over a little bit more to the left and show you the mouth of this lake where it feeds into Galveston Bay. I will step in front of the camera for just a moment and to give you an idea, you can see way up here in the foreground, you see the bridge, on the other side of that is Galveston Bay.

So, when you had Ike coming through the bay, all that water begun to pile up. You see this fence right here in the foreground -- well, that chain link fence is like a screen door. This isn't going to hold back any water. So, the water came over, around and through all this, rushed its way across the roadway. I'm going to show you some of the debris as we step back a little bit.

John, watch your step there, man.

Let's walk right back over here for a moment. And you can see down the road a little bit, some tree trunks right over here. The traffic is trying to get around on one side. You see traffic coming here. So, we're going to have to watch out for that.

John, if we can pan around real quick.

I'm going to get your back here. You'll notice even more debris. I was told that at one point, the water was up to about waist-high here, about three feet or so, as it made its way across this intersection and went closer to the Johnson Space Center.

Power is still out at the time being. All these lights you see up here, they're out completely. Power, forget about it. And right now, running water in this area is virtually not existent. So, you got a lot of problems here. A lot of people here are living in a fashion, kind of a pushed back to the Stone Age until they get that electricity and until they get the running water back. It is going to be primitive living.

T.J., let's send it back to you.

HOLMES: All right. We appreciate you giving us that perspective. Again, the daylight hours now is giving us a better idea of that destruction and that damage there.

Reynolds, we appreciate you.

Ladies and gentlemen, we will continue to follow the storm, it's aftermath and the devastation as we're starting to see more and more of, again, these pictures continue to come in to us, showing us the wake of Hurricane Ike.

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HOLMES: We continue to follow the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, the destruction can be seen for miles. We are getting more pictures in to us this morning. We're also getting word this morning from President Bush, in fact, that he will be making a trip down to Texas on Tuesday to show his support and lend his support and show sympathy and support for those victims of this hurricane.

Also coming up a little later this morning, we expect, maybe within the next couple of hours, a briefing from Houston Mayor Bill White and also other emergency management officials about what that city exactly went through. We did hear from them earlier that the storm was as bad, but maybe they really dodged a bullet here in a lot of ways, not a whole lot of injuries, not a lot of deaths either that they expect in that town.

So, we will be monitoring it all for you.

Right now, I do want to hand it over to Dr. Sanjay Gupta and "HOUSE CALL." But we will be right here back at the top of the hour with more coverage of Hurricane Ike.