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CNN Sunday Morning
Texas Authorities Hold News Conference
Aired September 14, 2008 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Well, don't mess with Texas. That's what they say, but apparently Hurricane Ike did not get that message. The hurricane messed with Texas and left a mess in Texas. Our correspondents are in that region now dealing with some pretty difficult conditions still right now. A lot of weather going on still in that region. My partners, Betty Nguyen, Reynolds Wolf are in the storm right now. We'll be checking in with them. We're also monitoring many of our affiliates, as well. Of course, Jacqui Jeras here, right here, in the Weather Center with me, she's keeping an eye on the storm, where it's moving.
Also, you see in the screen here, the top right of the screen, that's actually we are monitoring a news conference we're expected to happen, really at any moment. We are expecting to hear from the mayor of Houston, Bill White, also a few other emergency management officials about what they are doing in that city. So, we will go to that live as soon as that does happen.
I do want to turn now to my co-anchor, Betty Nguyen who has been in the middle of this storm, was in Houston yesterday riding. Had all kinds of technical difficulties this morning, but we do have at least on the phone.
And tell us again, we'll be showing pictures here as you're talking it, but tell us again, you got some daylight there now, what are you seeing all around -- Betty.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Well, right now all I'm seeing is a lot of rain. I don't know if you heard that thunder but the rain is blowing sideways where we are. I'm at the bridge that connects Kemah with Seabrook and there's a lot of debris out here. There are items that you just would not believe that have washed up on to this bridge. Items that came from Galveston Bay, items that may have even come from homes far away around the Clear Lake area, because both of those waterways pretty much surround this bridge.
We have rooftops out here, we have televisions, we have computers, we have dolls, even have a mailbox out here. So, this just gives you an indication of the power of this storm. I talked with a deputy with the Galveston County Sheriff's Department who told me that in this particular area they have reports of storm surge up to 17 feet.
What I did see yesterday, though, was a resident who took me inside her house and you could see the water line on the side of the walls there and it came up a good four, five feet. So they are dealing with a lot of damage, here. This is also an area, T.J., where they were under mandatory evacuation. So obviously, search and rescue teams are going out to make sure everyone got out of harm's way. But, that's not something they can do right now, because this storm is powerful. We were in the hurricane yesterday, it packed a powerful punch, but today we are seeing just huge bands of rain hard and heavy hitting this area. And that's going to delay some of the rescue operations.
All right, I'm being told right now that we also have, T.J., Ed Lavandera in San Antonio speaking of those rescue operations and he joins us now -- Ed.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Betty. Well, I just spoke with a couple of the crew members that I went up with yesterday on a U.S. Air Force search and rescue mission and they are preparing to go back out again, continue those missions. Yesterday we spent almost seven hours up in the air with them yesterday. We flew in over Galveston and then made our way over to the towns of Crystal Beach and High Island and what we saw were areas that have been completely decimated by Hurricane Ike. In fact, Crystal Beach, a town with hundreds and hundreds of beautiful homes, beachfront homes on this coastal barrier island that were completely blown to smithereens. In fact, all you could see was the splinters of wood from the homes just floating around in the floodwaters. It was an incredible site to see, quite honestly. The crew members that we were with, the search and rescue teams actually made several attempts to pull out people we found that were still alive who had ridden out the storm there in Crystal Beach. And believe it or not, many of them refused, some dozen of them that we came into contact out the seven hours, who refused to be evacuated, didn't want to come out.
So, still a sense of defiance from many people who are still in these damaged areas, despite being without electricity, being without water, being in completely harsh and terrible conditions, don't want to come out. So, a little bit of a frustrating day for some of the crew members that I rode along with. However, throughout the region, there were many rescues taking place, some 1,000 military personnel involved in search and rescue efforts, pulling out hundreds and hundreds of people -- Betty.
NGUYEN: All right, Ed, obviously they got a lot of work cut out for them today. And in this particular area along the coast, we are seeing large rain bands and that's going to cause some problems for those efforts. Thank you for that, Ed.
And T.J., back out here in this storm, I have to tell you the good news is we have learned a lot about some of the Texans who decided to go and seek shelter. We'll get to that in a moment. But, I understand some officials are holding a news conference right now in Harris County. We want to take a listen to that.
JUDGE ED EMMETT, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS EMERG MGMT: ... and low humidity and according to all the meteorologists it's only going to be about 80 degrees. But this morning the rain is still creating problems. We don't expect any major flooding from the bayous. We have had four to five inches of rain in north and northwest part of Harris County, as you well know, keeping an eye on several of the channels. Once that goes through, though, the water should start to recede.
But in the meantime, I cannot stress this enough, the mayor and I talked about it all morning already, transportation arteries are still very, very dangerous. Power is out, there's no street lights, there's still limbs down, there's still standing water. Please don't venture out unless you absolute have to.
Many people expressed concern about fuel supplies because service stations without power are still closed, because the pumps won't work. Those who do have power, many of them are out of fuel right now. Fuel is being distributed, but it's being distributed to critical needs first. The distribution system is focusing on making sure that medical facilities, hospitals and the like have generator fuel so they can continue to operate until power gets turned back on. That will remain the priority.
While I know it's inconvenient for people not to be able to drive, the truth of the matter is we have to take care of the health and safety first, and that means taking care of the critical facilities. So, those generator fuels will be supplied. I'm told by the fuel distribution group that as the day goes on and as their trucks can get out on to the roads and on to the highways, they will begin to fill the service stations that do have power and they'll obviously only do the ones that have power. There's absolutely no point in filling the tanks of a service station that doesn't have power to pump it out to the public.
Our message this morning is really very simple -- if you can stay where you are, please do. It's still dangerous to be out. Once this band of thunderstorms go through, the rain should stop, the waters will begin to recede, and the crews that are working feverishly to restore power can really begin to get their job done. Thank you.
MAYOR BILL WHITE, HOUSTON: A few announcements starting with water. Last night we got the water pressure up to 65 pounds per square inch, well above the margin of error level of safety. We're trying to get a total goal of being able to pump 300 million gallons per day. By last night we were up to 210 million gallons per day. So water pressure is being restored.
Now there are some isolated places where there is lower water pressure. That's not due to something system-wide and we're investigating the cause at those places. We expect to have 311 up and operational sometime today, maybe by the end of this conference I may be able to announce an exact time. But, if you are experiencing low water pressure, then it should be coming back up unless it's something very localized, and our crews are working on that. This is good news.
We still are on the schedule of having -- doing samples this morning at all the water stations and doing the legally-required testing of our water. We have no evidence that there's been any contamination of the water, but we are legally required to ask residents to use bottled water or to boil water, take precautions and to continue to conserve water until we are sure that our water supply under law is safe and tested as the law requires it to be.
Electrical power -- power was restored in some critical areas, such as the medical centers, the water pumping stations yesterday, and we are in touch. Judge Emmett and I and all the officials have stressed to CenterPoint, which is the private company that owns and operates the wires that carry the electricity -- it's a private company that owns and operates the wires carrying the electricity. We have emphasized to them the fact that everything humanly possible should be done to get our electrical power grid in this area back up as soon as possible.
Just 10 minutes ago, talked to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, that was a top priority I had with him, with the president yesterday. We need to be patient, it can't be done in a day. If you see all the downed power lines, you'll understand what I'm talking about. But this is a high priority, along with having back-up power generation for some of our critical facilities.
Next, there will be -- there are plans that have been in place that have been planned well before by the emergency response professionals at the city, county, state and federal level, about emergency relief supplies such as water and ice at locations which have been identified and will be mobilized. When we are prepared to -- when those places are prepared and they have received many, many convoys of deliveries of those items, of critical items, we will have an announcement about those locations.
We will also and do have our plan with Red Cross shelters, and there are locations which are being mobilized this morning as we speak for those who are in dire straits, people who may need some emergency rescue, people who are seniors who have specific conditions, whose homes have become uninhabitable. As soon as those are up and operating, we may or may not make announcements on the locations, but what we will do is we will be going through the neighborhoods that are near those locations to identify whether there's individuals and responding to 911 calls, the 911 operators will be able to triage, will be able to refer some of those people or have people to deliver to those sites were there are emergency supplies funneled.
I'll tell you what, you would have been so heartened to see yesterday -- I was driving in Magnolia until Judge Tikfer (ph), Mike, you know, sometime around 9:00 yesterday. And to see entire blocks where the water had been up to people's porch, water had been up to people's porch with half a dozen trees across the streets, and citizens had gotten out there with chain saws and saws, taking the trees, removing the trees, piled them on each side of the street, cleaned the debris from the culvert, and the water went down and the streets were cleared block after block after block. It's impressive what's happening with citizens of this community taking the initiative.
Now, don't try that if there's power lines tied up in the tree. But, I just want to applaud those citizens who decided that they were going to help us clear the streets in their own neighborhoods, and you can see this happening in every neighborhood in town. Now because of what Judge Emmett said, because of the safety reasons dealing with the streets, because there is debris in the streets, and there are plenty of places without street lights we have an announcement within the city of Houston, not just in the mandatory evacuation areas, within the entire city of Houston, we have an announcement that I'll ask the Chief Hurtt to make -- Chief.
CHIEF HAROLD HURTT, HOUSTON POLICE DEPT: As you know, for the last two days ending at 6:00 a.m. this morning, we've had a curfew in place in the locations that had mandatory evacuations and that ended this morning at 6:00 a.m. Starting tonight through Friday that is next Saturday morning, there will be a 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew throughout the city of Houston. And that is for purposes of public safety.
As you know, most of the lights are still out, traffic signals are not working, there's lots of debris in the streets, and of course it's going be dark in the community for the most part until we get the electricity back. So, in the interest of the safety of users of the road, we're asking people to not be out in the streets either in vehicles or on foot unless you have to in the case of an emergency during the hours of 9:00 p.m. To 6:00 a.m. and we will have that in place until Saturday morning, this coming Saturday morning at 6:00 a.m., then we will re-evaluate that decision. Thank you.
EMMETT: Let me clarify, for the rest of the county the unincorporated parts of the county, there is no curfew that will be in place. For all the other unincorporated parts of the county there is no curfew that will be in place. For all the other municipalities, though, many of them already have curfews, it will be the local city officials, just as it was the mayor and chief deciding for the city of Houston, the municipalities themselves will decide what their curfews will be during the week. I've talked to several of the mayors, I fully anticipate that many of them will establish a curfew for all the very good reasons that the city of Houston did, but those will be determined by the municipalities in the rest of the county. We stand ready, Sheriff Thomas, all the constables...
NGUYEN: And there you have been listening to city officials within Harris County, that being Judge Ed Emmett, Bill White, the mayor of Houston, and Police Chief Harold Hurtt talking about something that is very important, that being the fact that they have issued a curfew for the city of Houston, the entire city of Houston, that starts tonight through next Saturday. We're talking a whole week of a curfew, begins at 9:00 p.m. every night and ends at 6:00 a.m. the following morning. again, this goes from tonight through Saturday.
And this is because there are many lights out, there are many traffic signals out, there's a lot of debris in the street, there's a lot of danger out there with the storm and it's aftermath, so they want to make sure people are safe. And what we heard from the police chief is, in his words, don't be out in vehicles or on foot unless there is an emergency. This curfew is now in effect.
Of course, we will continue to follow this storm and its aftermath. Right now, a good portion of the southern part of Texas getting hit hard with some rains and that, of course, is going to hamper relief and rescue operations. Stay tuned to CNN for much more coverage.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: You are looking at a live picture here out of Houston, Texas. This is telling us part of the story this morning. This is at I-10 at Shepherd and it is under water. This was part of the evacuation route they were telling people to take to get out of there before Hurricane Ike hit. That road certainly not being used right now. That should be a road you see under that overpass and you don't see you. What you see nothing but water, right now. Again, starting to get some daylight, starting to get a better idea of so much of the damage and destruction that Ike did to that city, and the city that is now under a curfew, we just heard from the mayor, Bill White and also other officials, there in Houston, a curfew which will actually be in place until Saturday. So, this will go all week from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.
People should not be out and about, there's a mandatory curfew in place, reason being, because of what you are seeing right there on the screen. So, many places are flooded and too dangerous to be out in. There is also debris all over the place you've got power lines down, you've got traffic lights, signs, glass, all this stuff and they don't want people out, so this is a safety issue. So, a mandatory curfew, a curfew in place for the city of Houston until Saturday and at that point they will reassess, is what we're told.
We're going to head back over to our Jacqui Jeras who has really been helping us out this weekend with a lot of this weather. Jacqui, there in the Weather Center.
And Jacqui, we were talking about where the storm is moving and kind of how it's moving around. But, if you can address right quick, we've been seeing from our correspondents out there from Betty, from Reynolds they are getting pelted. What's happening right there in that area, right there?
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know what? Bear with me for a second because I really want to show you the radar in that area.
HOLMES: OK.
JERAS: We've got some other issues going on in Chicago area, as well, so we're going to get to those in just a second. But, here you can see the radar is going to pop up right there. Yeah, look at that all around Galveston Bay and throughout here, League City up towards Baytown, those are the thunderstorms that are blowing through there and they are strong, producing some flash flooding. We can see as much as two inches per hour or so with those thunderstorms as they move through.
Now, that's part of the cold front that Ike is getting picked up with here in this area and so that's what's causing those showers and thunderstorms down there. Ike is way up here, we're talking it's starting to move out of Missouri and head up towards Illinois. This is really bad news because that frontal boundary along with some moisture from what was Tropical Storm Lowell, which started out in the eastern Pacific has been hitting the upper Midwest the last couple of days with torrential downpours, and now we have Ike beginning to move in on top of that, just adding insult to injury.
There's been incredible flooding going on in the Chicagoan area. Record 24-hour rainfall there yesterday, more than six-and-a-half inches and you can see that rain is still coming down. Some evacuations, I understand, have been taking place on the north side of town along the Chicago River which is an extremely rare to see the Chicago River flood.
And we have, joining us on the phone now, Jennifer Martinez; she's with the Emergency Management Operation Center, there in Chicago.
Jennifer, are you with us?
JENNIFER MARTINEZ, CHICAGO EMERGENCY MGMT: Yes, how are you?
JERAS: I'm great, thank you. How are things in Chicago?
MARTINEZ: Well, you know, the National Weather Service continued a flashflood warning for our area until 4:30, so it has been record rainfall for Chicago. For us, we are seeing hard-hit areas on the north side, it's our Albany Park area, which is about 340 homes so we have had to relocate some of those residents.
JERAS: OK, and so, what can they be expecting? Do you expect more evacuations? Is the river continuing to rise in the area?
MARTINEZ: Well, we're working with the water reclamation districts who are opening ports along our tunnel system to help look for the river water, but we're urging residents at this point, we have a 311 system that they can call if they need to be moved to shelter. Right now we're going to keep a shelter we have open at the North Park Senior Facility open. We've actually transported 40 people at this point and we expect that to go up throughout the day.
JERAS: How widespread is the flooding in the Chicago area?
MARTINEZ: We're seeing it throughout the city. Yesterday alone our 311 system received more than 2,000 calls for water in basements and about 1,000 for water in the streets. And that, of course, is going up, so it's throughout the city, but again, that north-northwest side of Chicago really is the heaviest hit.
JERAS: OK. I don't know if you can see some of the video that we have been showing from our affiliate, CLTV, I understand sandbagging has been going on. What can you tell us about that?
MARTINEZ: Yes, throughout the evening we had the crews from the Water Department, Streets and Sanitation, out sandbagging along the river, just to try to hold that as much as we can. I mean, there's been efforts out. We have ward superintendents, more than 20 water department crews out just assessing the damages. But, while the water is still coming in, you know, we are just trying to fight as much as we can.
JERAS: OK. One more question for you -- do you know anything about some water rescues which took place early this morning? We're hearing several cars were swept away and some rescues may have taken place?
MARTINEZ: I know fire had some rescues last night. We just keep urging residents not -- we have lot of the -- the run-up has caused flooding on highways, underpasses, we're just asking motorists not to drive in there, don't risk it, getting your car stuck. But police and fire have been making some rescues.
JERAS: OK. Thank you very much, Jennifer Martinez, with the Emergency Management Operation Center there. And the situation in Chicago, obviously, very serious.
We're also getting reports, T.J., by the way, in the DuPage River in Bolingbrook and Plainfield area, this is just on the southwest side of Chicago, that they are looking at major flooding there and that it could reach a record level back, compared to 1996. So, some very high water, and this is still ongoing, unfortunately, as Ike moves in, we're going to continue to see more problems.
And I do want to just make sure you get that the flooding that that's been taken place there in the last 24 hours, not Ike-related, but now the rain from Ike is beginning to move in there and we could be looking at additional rainfall totals, you know, upwards of three plus inches.
HOLMES: My goodness.
JERAS: Really, really bad news.
HOLMES: Some of those pictures, if somebody just saw that and wasn't listening to us, they'd think that was in Houston somewhere, somewhere down in Texas, looking at those pictures. But it's going to get worse for them. Jacqui Jeras, thank you very much, this morning, for that.
And stay with us we're continuing to follow the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. The big news so far this morning, Houston, curfew in place all week, 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., you don't need to be out because it's too dangerous. Also we're getting help from our iReporters to help us tell this story. We'll be checking in with some of them. Stay here.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TINA FAY, COMEDIAN: You know, Hillary and I don't agree on everything.
AMY POEHLER, COMEDIAN: On anything.
I believe that diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy.
FAY: And I can see Russia from my house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: That's so wrong and hilarious at the same time. "Saturday Night Live" alum there on the left, Tina Fey making the most of her somewhat resemblance, some would say, to Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. Poking some fun at the GOP vice presidential candidate. And Amy Poehler there as Hillary Clinton. We've seen her in that role many, many times before.
We'll talk a little presidential politics, now. The Republican candidate, Senator John Meghan McCain, in new Hampshire today. Scheduled to attend a NASCAR race. It's actually the first race in the case for the cup. It's going to be at the New Hampshire Speedway, there. His running mate, Alaska governor, Sarah Palin, is in Colorado, however, she will have the day off.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama is at home in Chicago, his running mate, Senator Joe Biden, meanwhile is in North Carolina. He will host a community gathering this evening.
So, Hurricane Ike certainly taking the front page from the candidates, but we still have plenty to talk about with them. We'll talk with Sasha Johnson about that. CNN producer joins us now. She has the latest from the campaign trail.
And you have been on that campaign trail for the past week or so. Any Joe Biden sightings? Poor guy, after Palin's name was announced, she kind of just took all the steam out of the room and all of the coverage. So, are we going to be seeing him anymore or is kind of he the odd man out in this four man and woman race?
SASHA JOHNSON, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: No he's out there. I personally have not seen him. He was supposed to be with Senator Biden yesterday in Manchester, but they canceled that because of the hurricane. They kind of wanted to not have that be the day that the two reunited, if you will. He's going to be in Michigan tomorrow. He's going to be giving a, what his aides call a contrasting speech framing the choice on domestic issues. He will do that a week later, get on foreign policy. He's taking a bus tour, so we may not be paying a lot of attention to him, but he's definitely getting local coverage and he's going to those places where Barack Obama needs the help.
HOLMES: Sarah Palin came in with a bang, is that starting to subside a little bit? Sure, she might pull some crowds and things, but is all that excitement, things starting to mellow out, if you will?
JOHNSON: The McCain campaign doesn't think so. Sarah Palin will be by herself for a couple of events this week, but then she and John McCain are teaming back up again, they're going to be doing town hall meetings and interacting with voters. So, the McCain campaign likes the crowds that she is drawing, likes her popularity and they're going to continue to use that. And there's no sign, really that her star has faded, although that impression last night on "Saturday Night Live" was brutal in some ways and it'll be interesting to see how that perception filters out, because obviously, "Saturday Night Live" played a big role in the Democratic primary.
HOLMES: Just quickly, we got to talk about Obama and the gloves coming off, if you will. Just quickly, what's the consensus out there about how she did in her interview last week, the first sit-down with Charlie Gibson of ABC?
JOHNSON: If you're a Democrat you didn't think she did that well and if you're a Republican you thought she did great. Both sides sort of found things to like and dislike in that interview.
HOLMES: I guess I could have answered that.
JOHNSON: Yeah.
HOLMES: All right, thank you there. All right, Obama, yeah, he was getting some questions out there. I think you were with him this week, getting questions from audience members, people out there, voters, saying when are you going to get tougher, when are you going to take him on? Can he do that? Is that a part of the -- his -- the Obama campaign's plan is to get a little tougher out there with John McCain?
JOHNSON: That is their plan. I mean, every other word, practically, in Barack Obama's stump speech now is John McCain, whether it's foreign policy, he's wrong on foreign policy, he's not changed on education, he's not changed on tax policy and voters did ask him this week, several did, hey, you know, when are you going to toughen up? We're afraid of losing.
And Barack Obama said everybody needs to calm down, our ads are tough, I'm going to spread lies about John McCain like he's doing about me, he said, I'm going to continue to tell the truth and I believe that the American people know how serious this election is.
And the Obama campaign still thinks they are in a good spot. They raised $66 million in August, they announced this morning. They think they're out there, if they continue to draw these contrast on the issues with John McCain and not get kind of get down in the mud, they feel that they will win in the end, but also are saying they're not afraid to kind of get in the mix, if they have to. And it seems voters want him to do that because they don't want him to lose, the Democrats don't.
HOLMES: Get in the mix, get in the mud, we want you to get tough.
JOHNSON: Right, it's going to be a tough 50 days, no question.
HOLMES: And we know you will be busy the next 50 days, a lot of us will be. Sasha Johnson, one of our political producers, thank you very much. Good to see you, enjoy the rest of your Sunday. And later today, you all can hear from the candidates on the campaign trail, it'll be live unfiltered, CNN BALLOT BOWL, 4:00 Eastern Time, 1:00 Pacific, right here on CNN.
Now, stay here, we're going to continue to talk about this Hurricane Ike and the aftermath. We have been hearing so much about the search and rescue missions that are going on right now, that's a big part of it, happening on the Louisiana, as well as the Texas coast. Got a rescue swimmer now, John Rice is his name, he's on the phone from the Coast Guard Air Station in Houston.
Mr. Rice, are you with me?
JOHN RICE, U.S. COAST GUARD: Yes, sir.
HOLMES: What have you been up to? What will you be up to in the coming hours and days?
RICE: Before the storm you could see the surge coming up, so a lot of people that decided to stay wanted to get out, so before the storm we were doing some evacuations. The storm got closer and the winds got higher, so we were unable to keep the helicopters in the skies, so we had to go off to safety and kind of wait out the storm until it passed. And then came up behind the storm and we have been searching for a lot of individuals on the coast and the flooded areas and just doing a lot of MEDEVACS from hospitals and evacuation sites that are kind of socked in by water.
HOLMES: And we're looking at some of this video, I don't know if you can see the screen, but you know, as the Coast Guard video flying over these flooded areas, seeing these homes, are you all in a spot where you all will get a call sometime and you try to find somebody in a particular area? Or are you just out there floating around, waiting to see if you can see anybody waving their hands, waving a white towel, waving anything to get your attention?
RICE: Yeah. When -- we'll get calls here at the Air Station, but when flying there's always the aspect of us getting diverted due -- you know, we'll look out the window and see someone waving a towel or maybe a board other something to get our attention. So, definitely we're getting calls here in our command center and then as well when we're out flying, we're also finding some people that maybe can't call in and say, hey, I'm over here, I need help. So, yeah, that's definitely a possibility out there for us.
HOLMES: Boy, that is some hela-heroic work you're actually doing out there, sir. And we're looking at these amazing pictures of it. Again, Mr. Rice there, one of the rescue swimmers. Sir, we appreciate you taking the time out, we appreciate the work you're doing and good luck to you out there as you continue help folks who have been devastated by this hurricane. Thank you very much, sir.
RICE: Absolutely. Appreciate it. Have a good day.
HOLMES: All right, and we will continue to follow this storm, Hurricane Ike, not a hurricane anymore but it was when it hit and it left a mess along Texas, now it's making its way through the Midwest, through the country as a tropical depression, it's still causing some problems. Stay here, we're all over this storm. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: And that hurricane, Hurricane Ike, really left a mess in the city of Houston. That city is now under curfew.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HURTT: That will be a 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew throughout the city of Houston. And that is for purposes of public safety. As you know, most of the lights are still out. Traffic signals are not working, there's a lot of debris in the streets, and of course it's going to be dark in that community, for the most part, until we get our electricity back. So, in the interest of the safety of users of the road, we're asking people to not be out in the streets either in vehicles or on foot unless you have to in the case of an emergency during the hours of 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And as you heard him say there, most power is still out. Also gasoline is in short supply, right now. Also the city's working to restore water pressure, however they don't believe there's evidence, right now, of any contamination of the city's water supply. President Bush heading to Texas on Tuesday to express his sympathy and support for those down there and also for the sports fans paying attention, the Houston and Baltimore game has been postponed now until November 9. Ike, literally, blew the roof off the Reliant Stadium there in Houston.
Well, our Rob Marciano has been covering this storm since the storm even got to Texas. He's been in Galveston.
Rob, I see a heap behind you. What else have you been able to find? We have been checking in with you all morning.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well you know, the past couple of days we have been further down the beach, and now in this spot we are seeing serious damage. This area was not protected. These buildings, what's left of them, was not protected by the sea wall, because a good chunk of them were built on piers, obviously into the Gulf of Mexico. But this -- this wall of debris goes down here for several hundred yards. And there's obviously pier debris in here, there's a number of restaurants, including a Hooter's in here. There's a nightclub that goes back almost 80 years that's also in here, that was actually (inaudible) behind the camera, but the storm surge and wave action brought that action here.
Here's -- this is a newer set of stairs. But that -- it's called the Bellaniese, it's got a long history. Frank Sinatra used to perform there, it goes back to the speakeasy days when drinking and gambling was illegal. That is gone. That survived Hurricane Carla in '61, it survived Alicia in '83, but it didn't survive Ike.
So, Galveston, for all intents and purposes, this is the worst storm that they have seen damage-wise since the great 1900 storm, which, by the way, these pillars right here commemorate the sea wall that was built to protect this city since the 1900 storm. And it did that for the most part. I mean, it was overtopped, it was damaged in spots, but not breached. And those who live in the center part of that wall, just behind, for the most part, was protected.
But as you know, T.J. the western end of this island is still under water and search and rescue teams went out yesterday. We talked to some last night, their search and rescue teams have missions that are ongoing. And today will be another busy day for them as they race against the clock to try to reach people who may still be trapped in those floodwaters.
HOLMES: Yeah, we are told most of the 57,000 got out, but still so many others, at least up to 20,000 or so, did stick around there. So, hopefully they were able to make it through. Rob, appreciate all the reporting you have been doing from Galveston for us the past several days.
Going to turn now to Jacqui Jeras who has been helping us out here a great deal this weekend while Reynolds is out in the field. Thank you, but you are showing that screen there now, what they are still getting in the Houston area, in that part of Texas. A lot of rain, a lot of weather still coming their way?
JERAS: Absolutely, I hope Rob has that red rain jacket back again, because those thunderstorms are going to be moving on through Galveston, I think, here in the next 20, 30 minutes or so. This rain has been incredibly heavy and the thing I want you to notice on this map, all right, here is Houston, here is Galveston, here's Beaumont, Port Arthur, and there is Victoria down here. Look at the showers and thunder showers here, they're redeveloping back behind each other and starting to move back over the same area. We call this training. And so we're going to be seeing more significant flooding on top of what you already have because of these thunderstorms.
There is League City, there's Baytown, here's Galveston, so this is Galveston Bay. And look at these intense thunderstorms as they push on through, so we have been having problems with Betty and also Reynolds out in the field because of the thunderstorms, needing to play it safe.
So, we think the showers and storms are going to move out later tonight. Maybe a shower in the morning, but only about a 30 percent chance. The afternoon, is going to be dry and it should be dry for the rest of the week. But for those folks without power, they're going to be happy to see those temperatures a bit cooler than you have been with this cold front. We've got other complications going on across the Midwest as Ike makes its way up there, causing flooding problems everywhere in its wake. We'll have more on Ike coming up right after this break.
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HOLMES: In another live picture. That right there, folks, is one of the roads many will take to get back into Houston to get home. I say road, you may be looking, well where is it? It's under that overpass there. As you see, it is under water that road is I-10 at Shepard. This was part of the evacuation route, so people took it to get out. They cannot take it to get back in. We are starting to see more pictures like this of flooding in and around the Houston area.
Houston, which is now, the city itself, under a curfew which will be in place until next Saturday. All week, a week-long curfew, it will go from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. every single night until Saturday. At that point officials say they will reassess what is being put into place now because of scenes like this, actually, just too dangerous out there for people. They don't want people out and about in the dark. Power lines down, debris all over the place, glass all over the place. So they just don't want people out. That curfew in place, we got word of that just a short time ago. We're going to get word about more that's going on in the Houston area. Specifically, we're going to Clear Lake City where Reynolds Wolf has been. He's on the line with me now again, now this morning.
You are with me, buddy?
WOLF: I'm with you, T.J. Right here, the Clear Lake area, right across from (INAUDIBLE) basin, I know the big story has been Ike, but this morning we've had all kinds of rain, all kinds of thunder, lightning, you name it. And I'll tell you, the crews have been going out trying to play catch-up in terms of restoring the power, they have their work cut out with this additional rainfall and of course the stormy conditions.
You know and speaking of the stormy conditions, a couple weeks ago we had the pleasure of speaking on air with a gentleman named Mark Sudduth. The man knows hurricanes; he's got a Web site, hurricanetrack.com. And Mark is one of those guys who actually goes on the beach, actually gets in the path of these storms on purpose to research these storms, gain information for the betterment of all of us, to give us a better understanding. Mark's with us on the line.
Mark, I understand you're down near San Lewis Resort in Galveston. And tell me, how did things work out with you in the storm?
MARK SUDDUTH, HURRICANETRACK.COM: Things worked very well. The equipment that we placed out functioned. We recorded and transmitted live video, live weather data throughout the duration all the way to landfall. All in all it was a success. Now it's time to analyze what we received from our work and try to figure out exactly how Ike did what it did.
MARCIANO: Now Mark, just as a refresher for the viewers, what Mark is referring to is Mark actually sets up these portable weather stations. They're encased in air-tight containers, puts them on odd places -- not really odd places -- puts them up on strategic points of a certain coastline before one of these big tropical system makes its way onshore. And Mark gets all kinds of very important weather information regarding these storms as they make their way inland. Mark, what were some of the more startling information, or what's the more, I guess, impressive guesstimates that you have in terms of wind, and the way backs from the storm surge, et cetera. SUDDUTH: The storm surge was very significant. The sea wall protected most of Galveston and at least on the east end, it did its job. The west end we're very concerned about, we haven't been able to get down there. We actually put a remote camera system on Bermuda Beach, and we haven't been able to get down there because we're hearing fairly bad news about that area. We can't confirm what happened down there, because we can't get in there. Our wind tower we placed a Galveston College. It was a 5-meter or 15-foot high wind tower. We noticed gusts getting into the hurricane force range when we lost communication with that tower, but it archives everything like a flight data recorder would. So, even though we couldn't see the data live at one point, we know that we collected it and we're going to process it and put it on our Web site so people can see the vitals of what Hurricane Ike did. Sort of like vital statistics.
MARCIANO: Mark, very quickly, how many of these portable weather stations did you have put out? How many did you put out?
SUDDUTH We have five total. We put out four during this storm, and again, all of them worked, which is great. Now, we have to take them and analyze them and do all that post-processing stuff and show the public what happened, you know, from the meteorological perspective.
MARCIANO: Well Mark, we appreciate your help and we know it's a busy season. We've got through the rest of November, so I'm sure you'll be headed out to the coast before long, once again.
Thanks so much for your good work. And folks, you're watching CNN SUNDAY MORNING.
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NGUYEN: Good morning, everybody. Betty Nguyen coming to you live from Kemah, Texas where a powerful round of storms just blew through here, but now that the rain has started to subside a little bit. You can get a good look around at the debris that's washed ashore since Hurricane Ike blew through yesterday.
Take a look over here to my right. You can see what's left of a recliner, all of this wood and debris, we've got boats here, we've got roofs here, we've got televisions, even some computers. Over here is what you call Clear Lake. That's where some of the debris may have come from, we suspect. But, if we walk over toward my left -- walk with me, Joe -- not only can you see more debris, but this direction is where you're going to find Galveston Bay.
And if you look out in the distance, you will see the rubble, what's left of many of the homes that line this beautiful bay and that's where official say much of this debris probably blew in from. Some of it, I have an entire floor here, a tile floor that's left in the roadway of this particular bridge. And over here, some items that maybe were in someone's attic, but now they're just on the ground, here. This is something from Christmas, probably a little keepsake that someone wanted to keep, now it's just a bunch of what some might call junk that needs to be hauled away. And at some point that is going to happen, they're going to clean this up. But in the meantime there's a lot of work still to be done.
I want to go to one of our producers who's going to be joining us, live, with the latest on what he's seeing in his particular area.
Good morning.
JIM SPELLMAN, CNN PRODUCER: Good morning, Betty. Last night I was with the U.S. Coast Guard in Orange, Texas and we were riding city streets in their boats and came across several people that needed to be rescued, most notably a family, the Holland family, they had evacuated for Hurricane Gustav, and came back the matriarch of the family, the great-grandmother passed away, they just buried her and just felt like they couldn't evacuate. And they were stuck in their house in waist-deep water. The U.S. Coast Guard came upon them and was able to get the two babies as well as four adults in and get them out to safely last night. It was quite a night. And the Coast Guard is heading back out into that same area today to see what else they can do now that daylight has come.
NGUYEN: Yeah, it's important that they do get out as soon as possible. We understood from Governor Rick Perry that as of last night they have rescued some 940 people and much more still has to be done today, but of course, this weather hampering some of those efforts. So, we're going to have to stay put until -- we're going to see some of these officials come out and give us the latest on the rescues that may have taken place, today.
There's a lot of work is still going as we cover the aftermath of Hurricane Ike.
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