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CNN Live Sunday
Afermath of Hurricane Rita
Aired September 26, 2005 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Assessing the mess left by Rita, communities all along the Gulf Coast region are facing a daunting clean-up. The governor of Texas puts the price tag for his state at $8 billion. The commander in chief heads to the Deep South for a personal inspection of the relief efforts. We'll have a live report of the president's visit.
Hello everyone, I'm Tony Harris at the CNN Center in Atlanta. We have reporters stationed throughout the Hurricane Ravaged region and will bring you live reports from Houston to New Orleans throughout the afternoon and evening. But first here's a quick check of the today's top developments.
As the damage tallies add up, floodwaters inch down. CNN crews in Lake Charles, Louisiana, one of the hardest hit cities, say the water is noticeably receding. That will allow workers to better assess the city's damage.
Traffic is flowing back into Houston, a far cry from the clogged roads the plagued the evacuation. The state implemented a voluntary program that's allowing evacuees to return in stages. Some 1.5 million homes and businesses are without power in four states. Utility companies say it could take a month to restore electricity.
Emergency officials say the success of the evacuations is underlined by one single statistic. Across the region only one person died after Rita made landfall. A tornado spawned by remnants of the storm killed one person in the central Mississippi delta town of Belzoni.
In southern Louisiana, a search and rescue mission is underway; crews are manning helicopters and boats to search for people believed to be stranded by floodwaters. Let's get the latest from Louisiana's Vermillion Parish and CNN's Ed Lavandera.
Ed, good afternoon to you again.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey Tony. Well, as the hours stretch on here, this Sunday afternoon, officials here on the ground in vermillion parish are starting to get the sense that perhaps everyone that can be rescued, has been rescued and that is welcome news. We've seen a lot of helicopters taking off from here and as well as boats being launched in to look to targeted areas throughout Vermillion Parish.
The southern part of this parish was hit hard yesterday with floodwaters that rose just before sunrise, yesterday. In fact, dramatic home video from one of those homes that was taken over by the flood waters show you just how quickly it came in and how it just took over this one person's house. This is a seen that played itself over, over most the southern half of this parish in south central Louisiana. But the good news is, is that we've been talking to some of the pilots who've been coming off of the helicopters today and they say that they're starting to see a decrease -- a huge decrease in the number of people being pulled out. In fact, a couple of pilots said they flew out and haven't rescued anyone for a couple of shifts. They'd come back here and refueled and that sort of thing. But those missions, technically, continue for the time being. But now crews are also starting to spend a lot more time just kind of assessing the amount of damage on the ground, specifically to the roadways, of course, there's only a very few number that connects to many of the small towns in the southern part of this parish. So making sure that those roads are operational, it'll be important to get everyone back home whenever that time comes. Officials here still urging people to stay away as long as they can, though -- Tony.
HARRIS: And Ed, this is not a city that's sort of -- a city that's protected by levee system? Is this a vation where the water just has to recede naturally or can it be pumped out of the area?
LAVANDERA: It sounds like it would have to happen naturally. There are some canals and some drawbridges that kind of help control, keep the fresh marsh water away from the saltwater, but that is a situation where none of those -- mixing with whatever is there probably has to recede on its own.
HARRIS: Gotcha. OK. Gotcha. Ed Lavandera for us. Ed, thank you.
Officials in Port Arthur Texas report some flooded streets and neighborhoods, plenty of downed trees and some damage at a few oil refineries and facilities. We got a update now from CNN's Gary Tuchman in -- Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, hello to you and first things first. There is some flooding here in Port Arthur. You can look behind me, you don't need to go out with a tape measure or anything like that to estimate this flooding. This is the most severe flooding this city has. There's already a tape measure on the pillar of that railroad bridge and it tells you, five feet the water right there. But yesterday it was six feet and it's very isolated. Very sporadic, there's not much flooding. This flooding is all rain water. What they were concerned about here, very concerned, gravelly concerned was a storm surge that could have left 20 feet of water on this entire city of 57,000 people but it did not happen and it did not happen because the storm passed to the east of here. They were concerned if it passed to the west of here and the worst part of the storm, the east part was here or right over here, that this entire city would be underwater because it is very vulnerable and any type of flooding and hasn't every had a major hurricane hit here directly in recorded weather history. Fortunately and very grateful, they don't have to deal with that.
There was panic here, literally, and that's not an overstatement, on Thursday and Friday where told by the police and fire officials that they must evacuate because this entire city might be underwater and the police and fire officials even left to a town 30 mile away from here. No one was left here except for a couple of county sheriff's officers.
Now, we do want to tell you one thing, people are not being permitted back yet because there's no power here, there's no water, it's not considered safe. There is damage, it's not devastating damage, but right now they don't want the Port Arthurites, as I call them. I've asked people what do you call people from Port Arthur and they say "you call them people from Port Arthur," but I like Port Arthurites -- they're not being permitted to come back right now.
There's one hotel open, there's a beautiful hotel we were staying at four days ago, a very nice Holiday Inn here, but now it's not so nice anymore. It flooded, there's a lot of odor in there, to be honest with you and there's a combination of people who are staying in this Holiday Inn. By the way, on their marquee they had a sign that said, "good luck" before the hurricane. And we're wondering kind of the connotation of that. Turns out they did have good luck.
But, inside this Holiday Inn now is the main police precinct for this town, because the police department building was damaged so the police are all working out of this building. In addition to people who decided to leave, they're staying in rooms and in the hallways of that Holiday Inn. And one other thing in the Holiday Inn, right near the bar, inside a conference from. There is a temporary jail. And there's a sign, very simply posted as, "jail." anyone caught looting or doing anything else is being put inside the jail in the Holiday Inn until they can be transported to the main jail.
One final thing we want to mention to you, Tony. Very important and we saw a very, very direct reminder of this. We saw three beautiful German Shepherds walking down the street here. None of them had a collar, but they looked well-groomed and there were spectators who come down here to watch us and there was the father and his son. And the son had some food and started feeding the German Shepherd, and we were looking at it a little warily and the German shepherd took a bite on the boy's hand. The boy was suffering some serious bleeding and our photographer here, Brian, took the boy to the police at that the Holiday Inn that we were just showing you, and the boy's now being treated. He'll be OK, but he has a serious bite. Stay away from the wild animals who roam the streets after hurricanes -- Tony.
HARRIS: Good advice, OK. Gary Tuchman. Gary is in Port Arthur Texas. We have a shift of scene now to Louisiana. Let's take you back to Louisiana and to the west of Vermillion Parish and there's another measure of good news in another community pounded by Hurricane Rita. Inch by inch floodwaters are receding at Lake Charles. CNN's Jason Carroll is there to bring us the very latest.
And good afternoon to you, Jason
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good afternoon to you, Tony. Initially, you know, emergency officials had said that they thought it would be OK for residents who had evacuated to come back on Monday, but now we're hearing that that date is most likely going to be pushed back to later on in the week or even after that. There simply is too much debris out there on the streets right now and they're working to get some of that cleared away. We had an opportunity to sort of take a look around to see what's happening in downtown Lake Charles and other areas. And much of the debris is out there. Fortunately the floodwaters have receded, that's the encouraging part of all this, but there is still a lot of debris out there from downed trees, downed power lines. All that's got to be cleared away before people can get back in here. In addition to the structural damage that we saw at a home and businesses, in addition to that you also have to consider there's no power here, there's no water here. So for anyone who were trying to come back, there'd be no, sort of, public services for those people in terms of trying to return. So, this is not the place to be right now for folks wanting to return back to Lake Charles.
Emergency officials are working with the folks out there at the water plants, trying to get that up and running, again, that will definitely improve the sanitary conditions out here. Also we had an opportunity to speak with one of the representatives from the Lake Charles Police Department earlier today and he was telling us they are getting lots of phone calls from people trying to find their loved ones here in Lake Charles and what they're doing is they're compiling a list. They are still in the process of going out and checking the neighborhoods trying to find some of these folks, trying to check them off, make sure they're OK.
Down here, also in downtown Lake Charles at the civic center. This is an area where anyone who may be homeless because of Hurricane Rita can come, get some food, get some water, and in addition get shelter, what they're doing is they're going to part some of those people, put them on buses, take them up north to an area near Shreveport where a shelter has been set up there, just in case. But we haven't seen that many people, so far, in that type of need, so far, and that's because most of the people here heeded the warnings and got out -- Tony.
HARRIS: CNN's Jason Carroll in Lake Charles, Louisiana for us. Jason, thank you.
And even though the waters are receding in Lake Charles, the dangers across the region are not. Both federal and local officials are urging evacuees to not return home until authorities give the go ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
R. DAVID PAULISON, ACTING FEMA DIRECTOR: We hear the mayors of the city talk about to please wait and please be patient and I want to reiterate that until those cities are safe, and until the mayors, and the local officials determine those cities are safe, we would ask people just to stay where you are, be patient, wait a couple of days to make sure that it's safe to move back into your home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)HARRIS: All right, and with us now in Lake Charles, Louisiana, is police chief Don Dixon. Chief, good to talk to you.
DON DIXON, LAKE CHARLES POLICE CHIEF: How are you?
HARRIS: Well, how are you holding up? How about your personnel? How's everyone holding up?
DIXON: I'm happy to report all my personnel are accounted for, we're on 12-on, 12-off shifts, we'll probably continue for the next week, at least. We get a little tired. Nobody's had a shower for several days, and the lack of sleep, but we are holding up well. We're starting to get outside assets in that will help us and so we're in good shape, we're in better shape than I thought we're going to be.
HARRIS: Chief, take us back to maybe the day or so before Rita made landfall and talk us through your preparations for the storm and how well did your plans meet the activities and the events on the ground?
DIXON: I have to compliment everybody in this parish (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on down, administrators. We had a great evacuation and I want to thank the public, a great evacuation plan and as a result of that, that helped up things right now. As far as law enforcement, we had our officers pre-staged. We sent half our officers up north in case we had a catastrophic event. We kept half of our officers here and kept them in some in the hospitals around town. We waited until the winds went down to 40-miles-per-hour, sustained winds, and got immediately back on the streets and we began patrolling immediately.
I'm happy to report, as of right now, we know of no fatalities as a result of Rita. And that's just unbelievable and that's a result of the total evacuation. I say total. We probably had a few hundred saying here, but they heeded what happened to Katrina and that paid off, big time.
HARRIS: Well, talk about that. Heeding what happened with Katrina. You heard some of the stories of lawlessness in the aftermath in those early days after Katrina particularly in areas of in and around New Orleans. Were you concerned? Your first responsibility of public safety, but you might have lawlessness in the community?
DIXON: Well myself and 20 other officers responded to Katrina, we were in New Orleans.
HARRIS: Hmm, OK.
DIXON: So I saw firsthand what happened. We weren't going to allow that to happen here. That's why we had our areas graded off. Every officer knew where they were supposed to go when they hit the streets. We went out there. We probably had about a dozen looting arrests. And I can assure you we will arrest every looter. There'll be no mercy. If I got to chain you to my own bathroom. We're going to chain you to my bathroom and that's not a pretty thing. We will not tolerate it. We had some looters today. My problem is, is we've got some people who have gotten back in on routes that weren't shut off and we have more people here before the storm hit. After a couple of days of no food, no water, no electricity, no gas, I think we're going to see an increase in looting and that's what I'm concerned about. Now, I'm bringing in outside assets, we're going to have night vision capabilities. We will not tolerate looting. And I want to let everybody out there, that left town, that people come first and we're doing our search and rescue missions. We have pretty much completed that, we're very, very satisfied that we've gotten to every catastrophic area and checked it out.
HARRIS: Well...
DIXON: Our second concern is property. OK. Go ahead.
HARRIS: No, no, no go ahead.
DIXON: Our second concern is property. We are concentrating on property now, we are going to protect the pharmacies, we're going to protect any area that sells guns. We're going to protect the commercial areas. We're going to protect the residential areas. So, that's what we are concentrating on now. I'm bringing in the assets and we will not tolerate it.
HARRIS: All right. Are you making a distinction between the people looting television sets or DVDs, and the folks who are looting food and water?
DIXON: We've -- they even looted a porno shop already...
HARRIS: OK.
DIXON: So we don't know what they're going to loot, and we caught them and I -- to be honest with you, I didn't like what they chose, but we're protecting everything. And it doesn't matter, we're concentrating, obviously, on the narcotics, and anybody who can get their hands on guns -- pawn shops, some of the super marts and stuff like that.
HARRIS: Right.
DIXON: So, we don't them to get the narcotics. We don't them to get the guns. That's our priority concern, right now.
HARRIS: Totally understand.
DIXON: I think we got that well covered.
HARRIS: Totally understand that. Chief Dixon, thanks for taking the time to talk to us.
DIXON: My pleasure.
HARRIS: Houston evacuees sat in traffic for hours on end to get out of the path of Rita, are they facing the same kind of headache on their way back home? We'll have a live report from Houston after the break. And still ahead, some more flooding for New Orleans. How is the city handling Rita's mess? We'll go live to the Crescent City at the bottom of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And as we continue to cover the aftermath of Hurricane Rita, we're going to take you now to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Where Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco is holding a press briefing.
KATHLEEN BLANCO, LOUISIANA GOVERNOR: But Rita is heading away from Louisiana. A pair of fronts are expected to come through Louisiana in coming days. Those fronts are expected to bring welcome north winds that we hope will push floodwaters back out to the gulf from Cameron to Lake Pontchartrain, push them back where they came from. Water levels in Orleans Parish are dropping slowly. The Corps of Engineers tell us that they continue to patch the damaged levees. A north wind should drop the water dramatically in the canals and lakes as well, and this should allow the corps to continue serious pumping efforts and to get a lot more work done.
I'm also pleased to report significant progress in southeast Louisiana. Several of our parishes that hard hit by Katrina are back up and running. Ninety-two percent of Saint Tamini Parish's power has been restored; it should be 100 percent by Monday. That's a very good sign. Ninety percent of Washington Parish power is restored and I'm sure that last one percent will be done as soon as possible.
In New Orleans the 911 system is now operating. That was one of our big concerns. There was no emergency system up for anyone who was in the -- in the New Orleans area. We're working feverishly to bring back that kind of progress to those of you affected by Rita. But we need patience as authorities make it safe for the return of our citizens.
I want to, again, express my thanks to President Bush. He visited today. His concern is obvious and his action is eminent. His active involvement in our relief and reconstruction efforts are much appreciated. We visited and I told him that certainly we were able to get a timely response to Rita, probably more so because the forces and all of you, the FEMA folks are all here in place. But we have to look into the future to see if we can marshal forces as quickly as we can for any other state any time hurricanes threaten.
The response to hurricanes Rita and Katrina will be massive undertakings; we have a lot of work cut out for us, so I appreciate having him as a partner in this massive effort. This is not something that a small state like Louisiana can do by itself. Really I don't think any state could accomplish the task ahead alone. Louisiana has taken two tough hits in less than one month. A large percentage of our people are suffering today because of this. They're out of work. Many of them are homeless. They're stranded far from home. A great deal of our critical infrastructure is damaged as we speak and many of our businesses, both small and large are in dire need of help.
It's in times like these I am especially grateful to the president and the way he has devoted so much of his time and energies to this enormous task. Like all Louisianans, I am grateful for the way the president and the Congress have responded. We appreciate the federal assistance that is literally keeping our families and state and local governments together. Because, as you know, we have communities that have been totally devastated, have no tax base, have no way to pay law enforcement officers or any other governmental entity that's working really hard to try to restore communities.
The task is so large, the challenge so enormous that we cannot accomplish the rebirth of our state without the partnership of this president and this Congress and our federal partners. What the world has seen these past few weeks in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita demonstrates clearly the need for Louisiana to rebuild and substantially improve our levee system and our hurricane protection systems.
My secretary of transportation and development, Johnny Bradbury has developed proposals addressing Louisiana's critical transportation infrastructure and levee and hurricane protection systems. We're trying to assess the damage caused by Katrina; and we need to address those problems effectively to protect us in the case of future hurricanes. Secretary Bradbury is out assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Rita. But as you can be sure, it will only increase the requirements we face in order to restore our economy and protect our citizens. Here are our initial requests for immediate needs.
For transportation and infrastructure, or for transportation infrastructure, we're asking Congress and the administration for at least $11.5 billion for such important projects as the replacement of the I[10 twin spans between New Orleans and Slidell. You know the Hurricane Katrina floated the top areas of that interstate section totally off of the pylons.
The repair of our ports and airports due to damage from the hurricanes is critical. The completion of I-49 south has always been considered a critical hurricane evacuation route and it is even more critical now because portions of that roadway now it flood which means that people would not be able to evacuate. The expansion of I-10 between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, again, which is another critical hurricane evacuation route would certainly help us, especially when we try to do urban evacuations.
The upgrade of LA-l from Golden Meadow to Port Fourchon is a project that was on the drawing table. LA-1 is not only an evacuation route, but it is the highway that supports Port Fourchon is the major port which supplies oil and gas from the Gulf of Mexico to the nation. And this LA-1 portion of it, especially down there in the southern most part of our state, has a tendency to flood for less reason than a hurricane.
Dramatic overnight population increases in Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Hammond, and the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain have strained our infrastructure and it needs immediate attention.
For levee and hurricane protection system upgrades, we're asking Congress and the Bush administration to support a $20.2 billion effort for hurricane protection levees and pumping capacity from Morgan City to New Orleans and onto Slidell. We know those are some very challenging areas. To offer hurricane protection levees in need of immediate improvement, reparse, or completion include Lake Pontchartrain, and all of the New Orleans and Jefferson Parish levees. The north and west shores of Lake Pontchartrain, the west bank of the Mississippi River in New Orleans; New Orleans to Venice, Louisiana; the Inner-harbor Navigation Canal; Morganza to the Gulf of Mexico; and the lower Achalafia Basin.
I've been working very closely with our congressional delegation on these requests and many more, senators Landrieu and Vitter have introduced legislation that includes these recommendations for transportation infrastructure and levee protection. In some cases they've asked for even higher funding levels. I fully support these efforts and I'm counting on Congress passing and the president signing a bipartisan package that best serves the short-term as well as the long-term needs of this state and its people. And I want to just say a word of gratitude to the many thousands of people who've come from all across the country. Many are now located here in this FEMA building, many are out and about in our state working to help our people. We are grateful for your assistance.
We have a challenge that Louisiana certainly has never experienced, and I don't think any state has experienced the devastation in quite the same way. But we just appreciate the nation reaching out to us and making us understand the power and the greatness of the people of the United States. Louisiana people appreciate you everyday and we thank you.
DAVID BUKERTOME: Thank you governor. My name is David Bukertome and I want to recap some of the efforts that the Federal Response Team is doing in support of the state and the local parishes and the local governments.
You know, all disasters are local. They start, you know, each town, each parish and as the needs go beyond their capability they rise up to the state level and in situations like this, of course when we're talking about a massive response effort it's up to us at the federal team working very closely with our state...
HARRIS: You've been watch a briefing from Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco, if you have been curious as to the price tag is going to be as least a sense of it in rebuilding Mew Orleans and of fortifying the levees, and better protecting Louisiana, New Orleans in particular, and those other coastal cities from hurricanes in the future, I think you now have a sense of it.
Kathleen Blanco will be asking Congress for $11.5 billion for transportation infrastructure, for roads, bridges ports, just to repair all those systems damaged by Hurricane Katrina. For an expansion of I-10 between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, a key evacuation route. And then she'll be can ask Congress for an additional $22.2 billion to improve the hurricane protection and -- systems, and improving the levee systems. So you're now getting a sense of what the price tag will be to rebuild New Orleans and to better protect and fortify all of those cities along Louisiana's coast.
Let's talk now to chief Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre who is just back from an aerial tour of areas hard-hit in Texas.
And Jamie, give us a sense of what you are able to see.
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CHIEF PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, we're still on the tour, in fact, we're getting back on our helicopter right now traveling with Lieutenant General Rob Clark. The good news is that from the air, the damage doesn't look nearly as bad as some people feared. The bad news is that still very significant if yours is one of the homes affected. General Clark says that they're in no rush to wrap up this operation. They want to make sure everybody gets the assistance they need. But an aerial tour of Port Arthur, the Galveston area showed that the devastation really wasn't anything on the scale of Katrina, certainly something that was manageable. They conducted a lot of search and rescue missions. We talked to some of the helicopter pilots, and right now they're double-checking some of the areas to make sure that there's nobody there who needs to be air lifted out. So, I'm told I have to wrap this up here as we are firing up this Blackhawk helicopter to continue an aerial tour of eastern Texas and Tony, we'll be back to you later.
HARRIS: Beautiful. Thank you. CNN's chief Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre taking a tour of some of the areas in Texas hard-hit by Hurricane Rita, Port Arthur and Galveston, in particular, not as bad as, at least, what folks had anticipated in the early days when the forecast were coming in on the path of Hurricane Rita. We'll take a quick break and we'll come back with more CNN LIVE SATURDAY right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And welcome black everyone, I'm Tony Harris at the CNN Center in Atlanta and here's a check of today's developments.
In the hurricane-ravaged regions of Texas and Louisiana a damage report now on Hurricane Rita and Gulf Coast Admiral Thad Allen says the storm waters topped the repaired levees by two feet and left parts of New Orleans again underwater. The Army Corps of Engineers has been dropping sandbags to stem the flow and shore up the levees. Officials say the ninth ward could be dry in a week.
Thousands of Houston residents are streaming home along packed highways, they are ignoring their governor's warning to wait until service can be restored. At least one area of Houston is flooded.
And some 350,000 power customers are without electricity in areas along the Texas-Louisiana state line which are closed entirely to returning residents due to massive damage to roads and the infrastructure.
We want to check in now with Lake Charles, Louisiana. CNN's Randi Kaye is there, and she's been touring that particularly hard-hit area with General Honore, Russell Honore -- Randi.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Tony, might be hard to hear me. We're actually in the back of a 2.5 ton truck with the general. We are touring the area here in Lake Charles, well actually in Calcasieu Parish. They're calling this area a major success because they got a lot of people out before the storm. There's very few civilians left here, which is making their job a whole lot easier. But the power is out, the sewage isn't working, and now according to the general and Mayor Randy Roach here, they're telling us the parish will not be up and running again, it will be shut down until October 3. They said they may do staggered some reentry where people can come and check out their homes, but those people will not be allowed to actually enter and stay here until October 3.
Talked a little bit to the general about -- because he's been on the scene here since August 27 -- Katrina and he'd been in Louisiana. I talked to him a little bit about how it compares, how Rita compares to Katrina and he said -- he described Rita as a little girl and compared Katrina as a big, mean woman. He said what they got in Texas and these parts of Louisiana was a slap on the wrist compared to what Katrina did to the New Orleans area and certainly Biloxi.
But, we've been in town here mostly in the parish and there's 185,000 people here now without any facilities, and their critical infrastructure is absolutely gone. Their hospital here is unusable. The civic center is working as a triage point and we are heading back now to the airport with General Honore, Tony, we're going to take -- we're going to get in his Blackhawk and take a fly-over of Cameron Parish which is completely underwater, we'll be able to get some fresh pictures of that and bring you that in an interview with the general coming up later -- Tony.
HARRIS: OK, Randi Kaye for us with General Russell Honore in Lake Charles, Louisiana taking a tour.
President Bush says he returns to Washington with valuable information, as you take a look at Air Force One landing at Andrews Air Force Base. The president says he comes back with a lot of information on what is needed to improve the government's response to hurricanes and other disasters. Let's bring in CNN's congressional correspondent Ed Henry.
And a lot of lessons learned. A lot of information that the president is bringing back with him -- Ed.
ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right Tony, in fact the president will be arriving back in a few moments, here at the White House, after a jam-packed weekend. Lessons learned, as you mentioned, the White House clearly trying to present the image of a hands-on commander in chief in dealing with Hurricane Rita. A sharp contrast to the image of a slow to react commander in chief who did not initially cancel his vacation in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. That's why Saturday we saw the president, in fact, on the ground in Austin, Texas, then in Colorado at the U.S. Northern Command, very much active in dealing with the initial aftermath of Rita, and then today the president was in San Antonio, Texas. He met with military officials and Randall Air Force Base, and in fact, was briefed on the Federal Hurricane Response. All the early indications, of course, suggesting that the response has been much better. Two key factors, the lessons learned from Katrina that you mentioned, but also, obviously Rita was no Katrina in terms of devastation, in terms of the impact. That effort clearly helped by that. Still there is, once again very dangerous flooding in New Orleans. That's why the president's last stop today was in Baton Rouge where he met with governor Blanco as well as Admiral Thad Allen. And after those briefings, the president was very upbeat about making sure that New Orleans could get back on its feet much quicker this time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We also got briefed on the levees in New Orleans. There is flooding, obviously, in the ninth ward. The Corps of Engineers gave us a briefing about rebuilding, repairing levees, and then -- and once again, pumping the water out of that part of New Orleans. It's a -- I would say, it's an optimistic appraisal in the sense that work is started now, and they can start to -- they're draing that part of the city, again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now, during his earlier stop at Randall Air Force Base, the president was urged by military officials to craft a national plan to deal with search and rescue efforts. In fact one Major General John White on the scene there in Texas was telling the president that he felt the search and rescue efforts after Katrina were a quote, "train wreck." The president responded, as you mentioned earlier, Tony, he thanked them for that information and said he wants Congress now to take a close look at whether the military should taking the lead role in responding to natural disasters as the military already does for terror attacks -- Tony.
HARRIS: Hey, just a quick question for you, we just heard moments ago from Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. She's going to be asking Congress for heavy some funds here to rebuild Louisiana, $11.5 billion for transportation infrastructure, $22.2 billion to improve the hurricane protection system. Is the president going to -- is he in support of these numbers? Will he walk these figures into Congress and ask that the governor get dollar for dollar what she's asking for?
HENRY: Well the bottom line is, as you know, the president has always said that he and the federal government will spend whatever it takes to make sure that New Orleans and the entire gulf region, now, of course, Texas as well, that they become whole, again, but a lot of questions from leaders in both parties on Capitol Hill about how they're going to pay for it. Already the price tag, before Rita, was estimated at $200 billion, in fact, obviously now the price tag will be rising, even though the president has said he will pay any price, in fact, as you know, there are going to be a lot of tough questions this week and in weeks to come about how Congress is going to pay for that -- Tony.
HARRIS: Interesting to hear the answers. CNN's Ed Henry. Ed, thank you.
HENRY: Thank you.
HARRIS: Crude oil futures dipped today during a special trading session. It happened after authorities reported minimal damage to oil refineries in the Houston area. Prices were down nearly $1, trading at around $63 a barrel, that's down nearly 11 percent from the record set August 30, the day after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.
Houston was spared the worst damage from Rita, now city officials are asking the three million people who fled not to return all at once, but are they obeying that request? CNN's Bob Franken is in Houston with a live update on the return of the evacuees.
Bob, good afternoon.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Do you really believe that Texans would obey that request?
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: Good one.
FRANKEN: Hardly. A lot of them certainly are not, but the traffic is nowhere near what it was in the outgoing situation. Frankly, some people have come back already. You can see in back of me the cars sipping along, there have been some big bottlenecks, but in Houston, traffic bottlenecks are a way of life. This of course, something unique as people return, literally by the millions, back to a city. They're supposed to do this Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Officials are going to be keeping schools closed a couple of days. Except for vital businesses, they're asking the residents to -- the business owners not to open up quite so early, to allow things to gradually phase in. There are some vital businesses and the mayor made it clear that one of those is the oil business.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR BILL WHITE, HOUSTON: If you work in a gasoline station, if you work in a convenience store, if you are a jobber, if you work in a grocery store, then you know, you have know, you need to show up for work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRANKEN: A little bit of a weather forecast here, Tony, the heat index today is between 103 and 108 degrees. I point that out because hundreds of thousands are still without electricity. So it's going to be quite an arduous return for those who decide to get back that quickly.
HARRIS: Hey, Bob as we see the president landing at Andrews Air Force Base, I have to ask you, it's interesting now, isn't it? To hear folks who work at gas stations, who work at convenience stores, who work at corner stores, at pharmacies being referred to as essential personnel.
FRANKEN: I know, you have to wonder, Tony, whether you and I would be asked to come back so quickly.
HARRIS: Exactly. FRANKEN: But they are clearly essential personnel and the mayor says they are needed posthaste along with medical people.
HARRIS: CNN's Bob Franken for us. Bob, thank you.
The temporary setback in flood-ravaged New Orleans, we'll go live to the Crescent City where engineering crews are once again at work trying to repair the levees. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: As we've mentioned, parts of New Orleans will now have to dry out from another round of flooding. CNN's Mary Snow is keeping track of the latest developments there.
And Mary, what is the latest?
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, the Army Corps of Engineers is saying that here in the Industrial Canal, that water has receded more than five feet from the high watermark on Friday. And what's been happening here throughout the day there's been a steady stream of helicopters dumping these huge sandbags on a breach in that levee. That breech (SIC) failed during Hurricane Katrina. It was filled in temporarily and then on Friday when New Orleans felt the outer bands of Hurricane Rita the rains, but particularly the storm surge, water overtopped that damaged section and poured into the lower ninth ward, reflooding that area for the second time in three weeks.
Now, yesterday we had reports that water was up to about eight feet in that lower ninth ward, but it has been receding, but still it is covered in water. The Army Corps of Engineers saying that the pumping stations are not to full capacity. They're going to plan on bringing in temporary pumps by barge either late tonight or tomorrow to try and start getting the water out of there and this was just after last week. The lower ninth ward was finally dried out.
Now, as this has been going on, the mayor of New Orleans is saying that he would like to, once again, start moving toward bringing back people into New Orleans. He's been watching the levee situation throughout the weekend and he said as early as tomorrow he would like to pick up where the city left off last week, with residents allowed to go back to Algiers section, that's on the west bank. It suffered the least amount of damage; it has electricity and running water. And he also wants business owners back into the central business district that also saw not as much flooding or damage, we should say, as parts elsewhere in New Orleans.
Now, when the mayor first did this, there was criticism by federal officials, also criticism by Vice Admiral Thad Allen, the man who's in charge of the federal efforts here. And he met with the mayor last week. This morning he was asked about whether or not he agrees with this plan to start bringing people in. He said, "yes, bringing people in Algiers and the business district he's OK with, but anything further than that, he said, there should be a clear plan on how people can get out of the city.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICE ADM. THAD ALLEN, DIR. HURRICANE RELIEF OPERATIONS: As far as re-entry into New Orleans, the really long pole in the tent is once you have people back in, do have a way to get them out and notify them and so forth and those are the types of conditions of entry that have to be established before you go on beyond the business district and the west bank.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: And Vice admiral Thad Allen also pointing out that there are six weeks left to the Atlantic hurricane season and as many pointed out here, that the storm Friday reminded everyone just how fragile this levee system is -- Tony.
HARRIS: And Mary, just a quick question, once again, how long before we are back to pre-Rita conditions where you are?
SNOW: Pre-Rita, according to the Army Corps of Engineers, yesterday they gave an assessment they said, what happened on Friday set them back by two to three weeks because there were two areas that had been damaged, this area and then one a little further down. So, that was their assessment, two to three weeks.
HARRIS: CNN's Mary Snow in New Orleans. Mary thank you.
When we come back a check of weather and the story of improving conditions for New Orleans. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And let's get the latest now on the remnants of Hurricane Rita from meteorologist Brad Huffines in the CNN Weather Center.
And Brad, just within the hour, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco mentioned improving conditions there in New Orleans and throughout Louisiana and a north wind she made particular note of. That north wind that will help everyone involved in getting the water out of the city.
BRAD HUFFINES, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. The north wind in this instance, Tony, is happening because the center of circulation of the storm is now virtually uncovered, now. All of the storm remnants are to the east of the center and the center is still sitting right there across the southeastern corner near the Boot Hill of Missouri and because of that, all of the plains from Oklahoma through Texas into Louisiana and Arkansas all of those areas so hard hit by the clouds, the winds and the rain are now seeing clearing conditions and north winds and those winds will likely stay in place. That will help to dry things out, keep the humidities (SIC) very low. And most importantly, right now, we want to keep the humidity low because that keeps any additional thunderstorms from developing. The bad news is the heat. It is very, very hot. In fact, right now across portions of southeast Texas into southern Louisiana with, as we mentioned earlier, heat index values well above 100 especially along the Texas coast where thing are very, very hot. But, as well, much better than they could have been because of the path Rita took.
Meanwhile, what Rita is doing now into portions of Tennessee, into parts of Alabama and to sections of Mississippi, still some very heavy weather. Tornado warnings, every county that you see that's lit up in red has a tornado either on the ground, spotted by storm spotters, or possible indicated by Doppler Radar. And that's much of western and central Alabama back through portions of south Mississippi where if especially hard hit will end up being around Jackson, Yazoo City toward Crystal Springs. This area here has been pounded by storm after storm after. And we've had numerous reports of trees down and some power outages here in this part of Mississippi. So, that's kind of a lingering effect of Katrina as Katrina continues to push off to the northeast. Again, has kind of the center of circulation is now showing most of the moisture as being pushed off to the east and as that happens, that remains to be very good news for those who have been very hard hit by Hurricane Rita and now Tropical Depression Rita. Tony, watching this one very carefully because the warnings, especially those in southeast need to watch those tornado warnings, because those can happen very quickly and cause very quick damage and be gone just like that.
HARRIS: And, Brad stay with us for just a moment and comment on this as you see it, we're getting some pictures just in to CNN now on some of the flooding. Boy, and these are some Texas cities, Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange, Texas as you can see, there.
HUFFINES: Had we not had a hurricane, for instance, we would be likely talking about as a news story, eight to 10 inches of rain in southeast Texas, so don't for get, that even though we did see Rita come through, we also saw a good swath of eight to 10 inches of rains in the Sabine River water shed, in the Trinity River water shed and that's why, of course, we mentioned Lake Livingston, earlier, watching that lake very carefully, as are many lakes in east Texas. Of course, this is in Orange County, Texas. Most of this is a combination of some storm surge mixed with about eight inches of rain that fell from the sky, so that compounds the problem.
HARRIS: Yeah, and maybe if you have a moment you can grab that graphic from earlier. You had a great graphic that showed us the areas that are still of real concern here, but once again this is new video into CNN of some of the flooding and you can you see it firsthand now, aerial pictures of the flooding in a couple of areas of Texas. Orange county, Texas, we are talking about Beaumont and Port Arthur, we've been hearing reports from our correspondents on the ground there in Port Arthur of some of the damage. And now, we have to say that -- as you see some of the refineries areas here...
HUFFINES: Well remember, Tony -- let me jump in here -- some of these refineries, all of these refineries are actually protected by berms, but eight, 10, 12-foot berms because they basically are made to create pools, not necessarily pools of water, but pool in case the structure collapses, it keeps the oil or whatever is in the tanks in those berms. So, that's why you're seeing flooding in those berms. That's not necessarily uncommon with berms. But you see here damaged caused what is likely storm damage, by wind damage which, again, parts of southeast Texas, those unaffected by the storm surge were obviously, like right there, affected by wind damage which was pretty substantial.
HARRIS: And Brad, did we get any reports of any tornadoes being spawned as the storm made its impact and moved away from some of the areas that we're seeing here?
HUFFINES: So far, no verified reports, but we also know that historically, of course a lot of people that would have seen those tornadoes were in -- you know, hunkered down in shelters, so that's one of the reasons why we may not have had reports of the tornadoes. But damage like that, again it may or may not have been caused by a tornado, but these land-falling hurricanes frequently do have small tornadoes in them that can be powerful for short amounts of time.
HARRIS: And look at this, I guess you JUST really have to appreciate the damage of one of these storms and I am wondering as I'm watching this, why these folks who chase these storms, why they do what they do. As you looking at the devastation here, you're looking at roofs being blown apart, airplanes being flipped, homes just broken apart. You wonder why folks make some of the choices they do, A, to sort of chase these storms and the to sort of hunker down and ride them out in the face of evacuation.
HUFFINES: For the same reason people dive off of mountains with parachutes on their back, because it's dangerous, it's exciting, and it also has a reward in the end. And in that case it's their lives. In this case it's video that a lot of us are learning from these storms because these people out there risking their lives.
HARRIS: OK Brad. See you next hour. Thank you.
Ahead in the next hour of our coverage of Rita's aftermath, we'll hear from one of the U.S. Coast guard swimmers who's been rescuing people from flooded homes in Louisiana's Vermillion Parish. We'll be right back.
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