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CNN Saturday Morning News

Flooding in Europe; Katrina's Second Round

Aired August 27, 2005 - 09:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SATURDAY MORNING: Let's get you caught up on the news this morning. For those of you just tuning in, Hurricane Katrina is now a category three storm. The latest advisory shows it's still heading west before making a second landfall along the Gulf coast.
Meanwhile, the power still out for about one million people in South Florida. Where Katrina made landfall on Thursday. Hurricane Katrina hit Florida as a category one. As mentioned, as much as 18 inches of rain flooded streets and homes throughout Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and the Keys. Katrina is the fifth hurricane to directly hit Florida in the last year.

One American soldier is dead and four others wounded in Afghanistan. The soldiers were patrolling near the Pakistan border when a bomb exploded near their vehicle yesterday.

Good morning. We got a lot to tell you about today from the CNN Center in Atlanta. I'm Betty Nguyen. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SATURDAY MORNING: Good morning everyone. I'm Tony Harris. Thank you for starting your day with us.

Our top story this morning, you're in the path of an extremely dangerous hurricane. Folks along the northern Gulf Coast are waking up to that news. Hurricane Katrina has grown to a category three storm and could get even stronger before making a second landfall. The governors of Louisiana and Mississippi have declared states of emergency. Katrina's expected to hit land somewhere along the coast on Monday.

Evacuations of tourists could start today and costal residents could be ordered to move inland tomorrow. Katrina is also blamed for at least seven deaths in Florida where it first came ashore on Thursday. About a million customers are still without power. Keep it tuned to CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

NGUYEN: And speaking of Katrina, let's get the latest on where exactly she is. Bonnie Schneider is here watching Katrina. Hi Bonnie.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi Betty. That's right. The storm now 430 miles south to the gulf of Mississippi and to where the mouth of the Mississippi comes into the Gulf of Mexico. The storm is moving to the west six miles per hour.

That westerly track is very important for folks in the eastern Gulf, because they want to see the storm move west. Not so great for the central Gulf Coast because the further the storm moves west and eventually when we see that northerly turn then we're going to have to start having to be concerned with where the storm will actually make its landfall. Here's looking at the track what we can expect according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The track shows a very wide cone of uncertainty from the Panhandle of Florida back out towards Louisiana. Some of our computer models that we were just looking at moments ago show the track of the storm coming into the border of Louisiana and Mississippi, possibly towards Alabama or a little bit further to the west into central Louisiana.

Still early to say though these are just computer projections. When you look into the future a lot of them take the storm in a lot of different places. That is why we have this cone of uncertainty. Another thing I want to mention is even though the storm right now is a category three with maximum winds at 115 miles per hour; Katrina is not done strengthening by any means.

Look here, we're expecting the storm to turn on the notch up all the way to a category four. Some of our computer models have the storm intensifying to winds maximum to 140 miles per hour when it makes landfall on Monday. Part of the reason we will see that injection of heat and that storm igniting is this very warm deep water right over the Gulf of Mexico.

We call it the loop current because we have the warm water kind of looping around the Gulf, eventually becomes the Gulf stream that brings it up toward the eastern seaboard. But in the meantime that is important to know because once the storm, here it is down here, once it passes over the pockets of warm, deep water it really kind of ignited.

And we're likely to see that happen with Katrina likely to become a category four before landfall occurs sometime on Monday. Now watch the clock. Right now it's a little bit after 9:00. Coming up after 11:00 we'll have a new as advisory. Very important because the next advisory will possibly change or adjust or just tweak the track of Katrina. So we will keep you up to date on that.

CNN is your hurricane headquarters. So I'll keep you up to date on the latest information. In the meantime, lets go back to Betty.

HARRIS: OK. Bonnie, let me ask you a question. Are there any of your computer models to suggest that this storm may take a different path away from Louisiana, away from Mississippi?

SCHNEIDER: That cone of uncertainty?

HARRIS: That cone of uncertainty might shift at all?

SCHNEIDER: You know, at this point, it looks like the cone of uncertainty could shift further to the west or further to the east but anyone watching in the central Gulf Coast needs to take heed and keep watching. Direct landfall, that's likely to change quite a bit over the next 24, 48 hours once it turns north. Once this storms turns north we'll have a better idea of where it's headed next.

HARRIS: Bonnie, thank you.

SCHNEIDER: Sure.

NGUYEN: There is other news today. President Bush's approval rating sinks to a new all-time low in a Gallup Poll. So just what's dragging the president down? CNN White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, joining us live from the president's ranch in Texas to talk about these numbers. Good morning, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Betty. Well President Bush is staying out of the spotlight this weekend. Of course, he is going to be back on the road starting on Monday going to Arizona as well as California to push forward a message he wants the American people to believe that the Iraq war essentially is worth the sacrifice.

But the president, as you know, of course, is facing some poll numbers that we have not seen before. The Gallup Poll showing his lowest job approval rating yet. 40 percent of those people polled say they approve of the job that Mr. Bush is doing while 56 percent disapprove. That is a five-point decline from just two weeks ago. What has been happening here, of course, U.S. diplomats on the ground in Baghdad trying to negotiate healthy Iraqis with the draft constitution?

This, of course, also considered a credibility test for the president. President Bush has been directly involved this past week, calling a top Shiite leader for consensus for that Iraqi constitution. Also what's happened as well, you have pro and antiwar demonstrators, they are converging outside the Crawford ranch this weekend. What we have seen in the weeks past, the mother who lost her son in the Iraq war, Casey Sheehan, and other military families gathered outside the Crawford ranch, holding rallies there.

They will be holding a big one today, which is expected. Another group has also formed as well. They call themselves The You Don't Speak for Me Cindy Camp. It has been caravanning across the country. They started in California. Went to Arizona, to Texas. They are also expected to arrive here in Crawford, Texas. Very interesting, the Cindy Sheehan camp has actually invited those families to come for a kind of off the record, behind the scenes discussion, a dialogue hopefully to prevent showdown from occurring here in Crawford. They've even said they will provide shuttle service to make that happen. We will see how all of that unfolds today. Betty.

NGUYEN: Getting very interesting. Suzanne Malveaux, thank you for that update.

Well the Crawford protest will get a high profile visitor today. The Reverend Jesse Jackson will be there and he'll also be a guest on CNN in our noon Eastern hour, 9:00 a.m. on the west coast. So stay tuned for that.

And those protests in Crawford are just one of the topics you can talk to CNN about this morning.

HARRIS: CNN's Bob Franken has been working the White House beat this week and he joins us this morning at 10:00 a.m. Eastern to answer your questions about all things related to the west wing or the western White House in Crawford, Texas. E-mail us your questions. Here's the address, WEEKENDS@CNN.COM.

Other news across America. The base closings commission has just about wrapped up its work. The commission will meet this hour to issue closing statements and finish some administrative tasks. Decided to keep open Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota and the Port Smith Naval Submarine Base in Connecticut.

The morning-after pill is going to stay off drug store shelves for a while longer. Federal regulators put off their decision on whether the emergency contraceptive pill should be sold without a prescription. Two Senators are considering congressional hearings on the delay.

A week-long search for a Grammy-winning record producer is over. Christian Julian Irwin wasn't far from his southern California home. He was actually spotted sitting in a creek naked washing his jeans. Irwin disappeared last Sunday and is in the hospital now for observation.

Is Iraq on the brink of history as leaders negotiate a constitution? We've got the latest.

NGUYEN: And parts of Europe are coping with massive flooding. Take a look at this. We're going to take you to Switzerland for a look at all the damage there. And Bonnie has an up date.

SCHNEIDER: That's right. We're watching very closely for the track of Hurricane Katrina. Where will this storm make its second landfall? One of the possibilities is New Orleans. Let's take a live look now at that city. That's looking a little overcast this morning. Good morning. We don't know for sure if it's headed in that direction but we will keep you up to date and show you the latest track and cordiance of Hurricane Katrina.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Last month's terror attack on London had many of you asking if it could happen here. Because some of the suspects and those attacks are Muslin extremists we put that question to Muslin Americans. Their answers may surprise you. CNN investigations can it happen here. That is tomorrow on "CNN Sunday Morning" 7:00 Eastern.

HARRIS: And if you were just waking up with Hurricane Katrina is now a strong category three storm and is expected to gain even more speed. The central Gulf coast is eyeing this major storm, as is CNN your hurricane headquarters. Another update on the storms projected track is coming up about 15 minutes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think you will give the names in the black book?

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): In the 1990s, Heidi Fleiss was one of Hollywood's most notorious characters. The then 20- something daughter of a wealthy pediatrician used her family's connections to attract and service rich and famous clients as the Hollywood madam. Arrested trial became headline news. But she never did reveal the contents of her black book. And was sentenced to three years in prison for procuring prostitution and selling cocaine. When Fleiss was released from prison she started capitalizing on her notoriety legally. Fleiss has a line of clothing and owns a West Hollywood boutique called the Little Shop of Sex. She also invested in her looks, undergoing plastic surgery.

HEIDI FLEISS: I had the party, did the party, threw the party, and was the party. I'm partied out. And I live every day to it's fullest. And lessons that I've learned.

ZAHN: Fleiss wrote a book about her experiences called "Pandering." She's also opening a legal brothel in Nevada. On the personal side, she recently faced off in court against former boyfriend and actor Tom Sizemore accusing him of abuse. The Hollywood madam turns 40 this year and would like to be remembered for one thing --

FLEISS: That I took the oldest profession on earth and did it better than anyone on earth. That's it. And that's all. Alexander the great concurred the world at 32. I did it at 22.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Welcome back to CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm Betty Nguyen. We want to give you a check of our top stories just in case you're just joining us.

Hurricane Katrina is heading for the Gulf Coast this morning. Forecasters warn the category three storms could get stronger before hitting the Louisiana-Mississippi coast on Monday. Both states are under a state of emergency. Evacuations could start today.

Now, Katrina has left miles of flooded streets in Miami just like look at this. It came ashore in southern Florida as a category one storm on Thursday. That is what a category one storm did. It's now a category three. Now, when it came ashore on Thursday, it is blamed for at least seven deaths in the state of Florida. We're going to bring you much more on Katrina this morning. You want to keep it tuned to CNN. Your hurricane headquarters.

HARRIS: And time now to check out some of the other stories making news around the world.

NGUYEN: Still no agreement on a constitution for Iraq. But the talking does go on and that assassination comment involving Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that just won't go away. So for all details, let's go to Anand Naidoo at the CNN International Desk. Good morning. ANAND NAIDOO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey good morning from me and thank you. Yes, there's been yet another development on the Hugo Chavez saga. More on that in a moment.

First to Iraq, the negotiations continue. Still no agreement on a constitution. The negotiators gave themselves until midnight last night. Officials say they have come up with proposals regarding the key issues. Those issues being federalism and debathification. These proposals will be headed over to the Sunni delegates who will discuss it among themselves today and a final decision whether to move forward with a constitution, that is with or without the Sunnis, will be made tomorrow. Sot that will be pretty crucial tomorrow. We'll know whether they're going to go ahead with that constitution, with or without the Sunnis.

Now to the row that won't go away. Venezuelan's President Hugo Chavez says President Bush will be responsible if something happens to him. That's after the Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson called for Mr. Chavez's assassination earlier this week. He then apologized for doing so -- Tony?

HARRIS: Has Saudi made any headway for tracking the folks responsible for the computer virus that socked a bunch business computers about a week ago?

NAIDOO: yes, Tony. Remember that virus, it brought outages to more than 100 companies. Including CNN. We had problems here. But official say that the two men have now been arrested in connection with developing and spreading the virus.

I don't know if I should be calling them men because one of them is an 18-year-old Moroccan and the other one is a 21-year-old Turk. Police say the younger guy the teenage Moroccan wrote the malicious code and provided it to the Turkish man for a fee. He got paid for it. Get this, these two guys were accused in this have never met each other in person.

HARRIS: Oh, my goodness. You're kidding me.

NAIDOO: Appear to have struck up this relationship on the Internet.

HARRIS: How does that go, hey, I've got a virus.

NGUYEN: yes really. Anyone out there wants it?

HARRIS: How much?

NAIDOO: There's a world out there we don't know about, Tony.

NGUYEN: You know it is probably a good thing that we're not involved in that world. Thank you.

HARRIS: Well many people throughout central Europe say they're praying for a miracle, hoping this week's massive flooding didn't destroy everything they owned. The flooding has killed at least 40 people and destroyed countless homes and businesses. CNN's Chris Burns reports from hard hit Switzerland.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In the heart of the Swiss capital the waters still raged. With a heavy crane, work crews struggle to clear tree trunks clogging a flood barrier. What they found showed just how powerful the Aare River had grown.

Still, evacuated residents started lining up for permits to have a look at their homes. In an area that remains sealed off by police. Authorities said they were confident the floodwaters would continue to recede. Reversal of the frantic scenes just two days earlier when surging waters forced hundreds to make a hasty retreat. Christine Loewrer, a 20-year resident is among those who had awakened to a terrifying site.

CHRISTINE LOEWRER, LAWYER: Then I looked outside. I went outside and it's already started coming. And within an hour, everything was flooded.

BURNS: Elsewhere in Switzerland the lakeside town of Brienz was trying to piece itself back together. A month's rainfall in three days triggered a landslide that shattered houses and killed a woman and her daughter in their home. The most important thing is that we are alive, he says. The wall of mud also shut down the local railway. Lucerne was hard hit as well. Residents say mud covered just about everything they owned, including three-wheelers and four-wheelers.

In Germany's Barvania state, Ishtalben (ph) is one of the most devastated towns here, though many properties were hopelessly flooded, some residents insisted on fighting the good fight. We have been constantly pumping out water for the past two nights trying to let in as little water as possible. Yesterday we could not keep up, he says.

In Austria, a conveyer belt helped to clear the mud from this basement. The pumps under way here as well. All part of what for many will be a long road back to normalcy. Police say residents here can start returning to their homes over the weekend but they don't have any electric power for a while and it won't be easy. Falling asleep to this roar outside their window.

Chris Burns, CNN, Berne, Switzerland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Still to come on CNN SATURDAY MORNING, Katrina's second landfall could be even worse than the first. We're going to bring you the latest on the growing hurricanes path.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: We are watching and waiting for Katrina to make its second landfall. The first one caused damage.

HARRIS: It can take its time as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure the folk in New Orleans and Mississippi, yes. NGUYEN: They're going to need time to get out of there if there are evacuations in order. We understand it's headed towards the Louisiana-Mississippi shoreline there. Let's get the latest on Katrina with Bonnie Schneider. Good morning.

SCHNEIDER: Good morning, Betty and Tony. That's right. The latest now show as strengthening hurricane that has not only grown in intensity but in size as well. Evident on our satellite perspective. We have hurricane force winds that extend outward from the center of the storm to 40 miles. Tropical storm force winds extend outward of 165 miles.

This storm is large. It's likely to get bigger. In fact, our track takes the storm all of the way up to category four intensity as early as early tomorrow morning.

It's coming over some very warm water, very deep warm water in the Gulf of Mexico. Sot that's why we're saying it's going to get up to a category four. But what's going to happen from this point? Well that we're going to be watching very closely. The track and the location and how it makes landfall.

You can see here this projection takes it on shore on Monday. Some point on Monday as a category four. Maximum winds at 140 miles per hour. Now the pinpointing landfall, too early to say. Anywhere in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and even the extreme western sections of Florida Panhandle need to keep a close watch on Katrina. A powerful category three storm that is likely to intensify as it makes landfall sometime on Monday. Tony.

HARRIS: Bonnie, in just the last 15 minutes or so we've got some additional information that we can share with you. Dr. Walter Maestri, director of Emergency Services for Jefferson Parish. For those of you familiar with New Orleans and Louisiana there is a large portion of New Orleans that is in Jefferson Parish so this is important information. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Dr. WALTER MAESTRI, DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY SERVICES FOR JEFFERSON PARISH: Well, everybody now should be preparing. I mean everybody has got to have their hurricane plan, their hurricane kits, everything ready. Now's the time to get all those things done. Be ready to move when the calls do come.

And that coordination is taking place right now to try to make this as easy as is possible for everybody, knowing that it's not going to be easy but that's what we're trying to coordinate right now. And there will be messages coming from the various elected officials sometime later this morning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: So, trying to make the process of moving folks outside of the city as easy as possible, knowing that it is not going to be an easy process. And time consuming and see the folks there trying to get a head start, a jump on that process. We'll continue to follow the path of hurricane Katrina and give you updates throughout the morning.

NGUYEN: Exactly. If you live in an area affected by the hurricane, CNN is putting you to work and asking you to be a citizen journalist. Veronica De La Cruz from the Dotcom desk is here to explain exactly how that works.

You have to be careful.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN.COM: You have to be careful, safety first. Get out there if you've got a cell phone with a camera, snap a picture. But your right, safety first. We've been asking people to share their stories and photos with us and add to our coverage. This one, take a look at this. This one is pretty amazing.

NGUYEN: Look at that.

DE LA CRUZ: Pretty amazing. It looks as though Katrina physically picked up this small plane and flipped it upside-down on top of this other plane, Betty. So we want to thank Jim from Miami for sending that picture.

This one taken from Bill Fant, not planes but boats this time. In a marina piled on top of each other. You can get a sense of how this marina took a beating as this storm moved through. As we've also been asking for people to send us their video. This is an illustration of what it was like in Kendall, Florida. Very dark there.

NGUYEN: Listen to that rain.

DE LA CRUZ: Exactly.

This one taken by Jose in Kendall, Florida, showing us lots of wind and rain that you just mentioned. And we would like you to keep on sending your video, your picture it is you live in an area affected by Katrina. E-mail us at CNN.COM/STORIES. Please do include your name, your location and your phone number. But like Betty was saying earlier, be careful.

NGUYEN: What you just saw was from Katrina when she hit the Miami area. Category one. She's now projected to be a category four storm when it hits land. So, definitely want to be careful out there snapping these photos. Thank you, Veronica.

HARRIS: Of course, flooding, damage and death, that's what Hurricane Katrina brought to Florida.

NGUYEN: And in our next hour of CNN SATURDAY MORNING, we will take you to Miami as people there try to rebuild their lives after this storm.

That's in our 10:00 a.m. Eastern hour. "Open House" is straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Here's an update for you: Hurricane Katrina is poised to make a second landfall Monday, somewhere along the Louisiana-Mississippi coast. Both states are under a state of emergency, and evacuations could start today. We'll keep on top of that.

Katrina has grown into a category three storm, and could become a category four before hitting land.

Now, in Florida, utility crews are scrambling. And residents are reeling from the hurricane's first hit. Katrina came ashore Thursday as a category one storm and did this damage. It's blamed for at least seven deaths in Florida and knocked out power to more than a million customers. Miles of streets are flooded in Miami, this one example of some of the flooding there.

We'll have the latest on Katrina at the top of the hour, so definitely stay tuned.

ANNOUNCER: Keep watching CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

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