Return to Transcripts main page

LOU DOBBS TONIGHT

Officials Survey Widespread Damage Of Rita; Thus Far, No Deaths Reported Due To Storm; Whether Damage From Wind, Rain, Storm Surge, Each Area Felt The Many Phases Of Rita Differently

Aired September 24, 2005 - 18:00   ET

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

LOU DOBBS, LOU DOBBS TONIGHT: Good evening and welcome back to CNN's continuing coverage of Hurricane Rita, it's impact, its aftermath.
Tonight federal, state and local officials in Texas and Louisiana are trying to assess the extent and severity of the damage caused by this hurricane as it slammed into the coast early this morning. Initial reports suggest Hurricane Rita caused less damage than had been feared. There are, in fact, no reports of any deaths so far, no reports of any deaths whatsoever.

And the number of people injured is likely to be much lower than had been expected and feared. Hurricane Rita has now been downgraded to a tropical storm. Tonight it is moving northward along the Texas, Louisiana border dumping huge amounts of rain.

The torrential rains and storm surges have already brought significant flooding to those low-lying coastal areas in both states. High winds also fanning major fires in several areas, including Houston and Galveston. Although they were spared the direct impact of Hurricane Rita.

State and local officials tell us that they are now telling evacuees that it remains far too dangerous for anyone to return yet. Nearly 3 million people fled the entire coastal region before Hurricane Rita struck; almost 2 million from the Houston area alone. More than 2 million people have lost power as a result of Hurricane Rita; as the winds brought down power lines across the entire region.

Engineers tonight are also checking for damage to the area's oil refineries. At least two refineries are reporting damage tonight. We have reporters all over the devastated region from eastern Texas to western Louisiana, locations inland, as well, and with the very latest on the damages, the flooding and the torrential rains.

Let's go now to Galveston, Texas, where there is flooding in the streets and wind damage to power lines and signage. Nearly the entire population of Galveston, some 60,000, left before Rita hit. Our Sean Callebs did not leave.

Sean, how widespread is the damage in Galveston tonight?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have been around a pretty large area of this island. Really, you're exactly right when you say this island fared better than it had imagined. Certainly a lot of anxiety leading up to this; they saw Rita winding up in the Gulf. Power out to 75 percent of the island. They've been working all day to restore it and they've had pretty good windy balmy weather that has cooperated here.

They're trying to restore phone service, take an initial look at the damage and try to get the streets as clean as possible. There is some low-lying flooding, especially on the western and eastern ends, an area not protected by the flood wall.

People who fled this area and see the picture now might be eager to return, however, the mayor says it is simply too dangerous. And if -- if -- any of those residents try to make the drive down, across the causeway and make it back onto the Galveston Island, they are going to be turned away. The mayor says the island is simply too dangerous.

We'll give you an idea why. Just look at these pictures from last night at the height of the hurricane. Winds gusting about 70 miles per hour, and three buildings fully engulfed in flames, two of those historical buildings, a complete loss. Another business next door basically gutted. They're going to have to start over from scratch.

What caused this fire? Authorities thought it might have been some kind of arc from a power line, but now they are looking at the possibility that a woman who chose to ride out the storm, lived on the second floor of the business, could have been smoking and believe that perhaps a cigarette could have ignited a mattress and started this whole mess.

Well, it could have been a whole lot worse. Firefighters said that embers were simply blown all over the old buildings around them. They worked to knock those hot spots down and kept that whole block from going up at the height of the storm. These are firefighters who were in the emergency operation center, had to run out, two blocks down to where their fire trucks were sequestered to avoid any kind of storm surge or damage.

So the firefighters did an amazing job in the worst condition to get that fire under control, even though those buildings were a loss. The woman, also suffered burns over 20 percent of her body.

Daylight also revealed more damage. A restaurant in an area known as The Strand, we're told this is close to a century-old building simply overwhelmed by the rain and wind from Rita, a huge wall simply collapsing, pouring down into the street. This is something that can be fixed with bricks and mortar. No injuries here as well, Lou.

The mayor says no one wants people back on the island more than she, however, not only the safety reasons, people not being allowed back on, information from the Department of Homeland Security, they want people off the interstates and roads, as well. They're trying to get tankers to service stations, so they can fill up with gas, so once these millions of people try to go back to their home, they can do so in a more orderly fashion and things can be a little more controlled than we saw people, once they fled north away from the storm -- Lou.

DOBBS: Sean, that is actually, even with the dramatic fire pictures you showed us and those courageous firefighters moving in to contain that fire in the middle of that high winds from the hurricane, Galveston got off far better than anyone feared, certainly feared three or four days ago.

CALLEBS: Oh, no question. And when you talk about the threat of a hurricane here, of course, the pictures from what happened in the Louisiana area still fresh in everyone's mind. The one thing you can't discount here, the fact this area, Galveston went through the most punishing hurricane, in terms of deaths, the U.S. has ever seen, back in 1900, 6,000 people.

And a lot of residents here, they've lived here for generations. They've learned the stories grow up. They have a tremendous respect for the wind once it starts whipping off the Gulf. They see something like that, and these are very thoughtful people. They say I'm getting off the island. I'm not going to take the risk. Why? Why would you do it?

That's good to hear. Because we've heard so many people try to ride out a Category 3 or 4 and then they come back after surviving, and say I'm never doing that again. These people here know it's not a good idea, Lou.

DOBBS: Sean Callebs, thank you for your excellent reporting throughout.

It looks as though the weather is calming certainly and we hope that the people of Galveston can get back and take on what is still a daunting task in restoring their lives back to normal. Thank you very much, Sean Callebs.

Lake Charles, Louisiana, not as fortunate. We're going now to Jason Carroll, in Lake Charles, where storm surges caused heavy flooding in low-lying areas, that city just inland of the hurricane's point of impact on the coast. There are fears rising flood waters could swamp the entire downtown area.

Jason, your estimate of how serious the flooding threat is to the city center this evening?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Definitely a serious threat. When you consider the fact that right now, if you can believe it, we're still experiencing heavy downpours, strong gusts of wind.

Hurricane Rita simply just does not want to let up on Lake Charles. This making things very difficult for emergency crews out there in the streets trying to get a handle, trying to get an accurate assessment of just how widespread the damage is.

Lake Charles has been rising steadily over the past several hours. It has risen several feet. That has caused some flooding in downtown. And it's also making things very difficult for the folks out there who run those river casino boats that are anchored out there on Lake Charles. Those are really taking a beating.

Again, that rising water causing flooding in some areas of downtown, that we saw, several feet deep in certain pockets. As you try to make your way out of downtown, problems there, too, even when you're on higher ground, simply because you're dealing with the issue of all of those downed trees.

We're talking massive huge oak trees down, power lines down, literally on every block that you see. For those people who did not evacuate who want to get out now you'd need a chain saw in order to get out of town.

By far though, most of the damage we saw, the most severe damage we saw definitely that was down at Lake Charles Regional Airport. As soon as officials get down there, they're going to be able to assess the damage there.

In terms of what we saw, the main roof there of the terminal there partially collapsed. Several buildings surrounding there sustained major damage. We spoke to the airport's executive director who told us he believes it wasn't just Hurricane Rita. He believes it was a tornado. He spent the night there last night, he was bunkered down, he says he believes it was a tornado that swept through there, as well. As you know, there were tornado warnings in parts of Louisiana last night and early this morning.

Right now, again, police are in the area canvassing the area trying to get an assessment how bad the damage is. They are asking those people who evacuated and believe the majority of the population of Lake Charles and surrounding area did heed warnings did heed warnings, 48 hours ago, did evacuate.

Even so, those who people who did stay behind for whatever reason, we ran across some of them, who for whatever reason decided to stay behind, they are saying you should stay indoors. Those people who did evacuate should not try to come back to the city because it's too cluttered with those damaged, downed trees and downed power lines, to safely try to get back inside here, Lou.

DOBBS: Jason Carroll from Port Arthur. We'd like to ask you to stand by as we continue to cover the impact of this hurricane along the entire Gulf region.

The nearest major city in Texas to Rita's point of impact is Port Arthur, some streets there under several feet of water. Officials say the city's flood defenses did prevent a far more serious disaster. John King is in Port Arthur tonight.

John, bring us up to date.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, I have to say listening to Jason, that the one lesson we will have here when we consider the legacy of Rita is that the lesson of Katrina was learned in most of these communities.

In Port Arthur, almost everyone evacuated. Even in many of the communities I had been in previously coming up the Texas coastline from Corpus Christi, all the way here as the path of the storm changed, most of them were ghost towns. People got the message from the images they saw in New Orleans and evacuated.

That, of course, I think in the end will, at least from a human perspective, significantly reduce the toll that this hurricane, Rita, has taken. Obviously, there is a physical toll that is still being assessed.

In Port Arthur, that includes some significant, not disastrous but significant flooding in the central part of the city. Many homes will have flooding issues. It is not flood per se, the water did not come in from the channel and from the lake. The water came in with the storm surge. As you know well from the Katrina experience, that often leads to fights with insurance companies over just what caused the damage. That will be one of the issues that the people of Port Arthur start dealing with tomorrow and into next week.

A lot of power lines down. People still don't have any power, no electricity, no telephones. Many have no running water. That is a concern tonight as we spoke earlier in the day, more of a police presence now. In fact, there's one hotel on the outskirts of the city that has been turned into an evacuee center. There's a large presence of police there.

Many of those evacuees have been a bit grumpy, to put it lightly during the afternoon because they say they can't get answers about when they can go home. The police trying to keep them from going home because there is no power. There also is significant damage in the central business area.

Many businesses having store fronts ripped off the face of the building. Looting would be quite easy if you wanted to do get in there and do that. We have not seen that in any significant way today. I want to make that clear. But it is a concern of the authorities -- Lou?

DOBBS: And those authorities have begun moving back into the city. John, give us a sense, if you will, you were talking about flooding. There was originally fear, there in Jefferson County, particularly with Port Arthur because of the channel there and the port that those waters, with a strong storm surge, could flood for some considerable area. You're saying that just simply didn't happen?

KING: It didn't happen. The storm lost some power, some strength as it came ashore. And also was still a bit to the east, did not directly hit Port Arthur. It came pretty close. We were there when the eye wall came through. There was some water breaking over the levee at the time, but not in a sustained way. The water was not carried ashore. The levee did not break.

The water on the streets of Port Arthur tonight is water that came with Rita. It was the storm surge as it came through in those heavy torrential driving blinding rains. The winds were more than 100 miles an hour when it passed through. It did not carry so much water with it that it brought flooding in addition to the surge.

We were out on the levee this afternoon. I was looking down over the edge, not only did it hold up in terms of its physical strength, quite well, but there was a good four feet, in some areas, even six to eight feet of space between the water level and the top of those rocks, and the other sea wall built in. It appears very safe from any future threat. In fact, this evening, the rain has stopped.

DOBBS: If you don't mind standing by, John, let's bring in our Jacqui Jeras in the CNN Weather Center.

Jacqui, I want to ask you first of all, Jason Carroll reporting from Lake Charles that there was a suspected tornado. Give us your best judgment on that, what you know.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I have to look it up and see whether it was a radar-indicated one, or an actual tornado warning issued for the eye wall. What the National Hurricane Center does is issue a tornado warning for the eye wall of the storm because they want you to treat that like it was a tornado, because the hurricane force winds extended out about 160 miles from the center of the storm. And wanted to you to treat that like it was a tornado that large.

I would have to go out there and look at the damage or have somebody from the National Weather Service assess the damage to determine whether or not it was.

DOBBS: We have our Jason Carroll there in Lake Charles. The issue of whether it is a tornado or a hurricane with 160 mile -- with winds in excess of 100 miles an hour, Jason, it sounds like that that's a half a dozen of one and six of the other, doesn't it?

CARROLL: It certainly does, Lou. When you're out there and looking at it, it's really tough to tell. Damage is damage is damage. It's hard to tell if it was from strong gale force winds or if it was some sort of tornadic activity. Really, really tough to tell, but the result is always the same, right?

Whether or not it's a hurricane or tornado in some ways, you've got missing roofs, a lot of debris, a lot of damage, you've got light aircraft flipped over. The result is the same.

One other point I did want to bring up about Lake Charles, if I may. We are just east of the eye wall -- we were east of the eye wall, still experiencing a lot of wind, still experiencing a lot of rain. And one area of concern is south of downtown, the area of Cameron Parish.

Really big concern for those folks out there. Rain is still coming down right now. The main road leading into the Cameron Parish flooded at this point. Emergency crews can't get in there, can't assess how bad the flooding is there. One Louisiana state trooper told me from the way that he was looking at it, it looked very, very bad from his eyes. So we're going to be hoping to get more information about that and bring that to you too as soon as we can get more facts in terms of what's happening in Cameron Parish.

DOBBS: And Jacqui Jeras, John King -- John, let me ask you, you said that it was drying there, that the rains had basically ceased. Did I understand you correctly? KING: The rain has stopped now, Lou, just in the last half an hour. It has lightened up quite considerably through the mid-afternoon hours. Then we started getting a heavy rain and winds again. And we were all saying, OK, maybe Rita decided to hang out a little bit longer or nudge back a little bit.

But that's typical, of course, on back side of the storm, do you get some rains. They intensified a little bit and we were wondering how long they would last, but at the moment, it's quite peaceful. The rain has stopped. The skies are still cloudy, but for the first time in 24 hours, it's not pouring rain.

DOBBS: Right. John, thank you.

Jacqui Jeras, what should Jason Carroll and John King be expecting from Lake Charles over to Port Arthur, Texas?

JERAS: They might see an occasional isolated shower lingering. You can see the edge of the storm is finally beginning to pull out of there. They're going to be looking for much drier conditions and much clearer skies later on for tonight.

The tropical storm force winds are even difficult to find sustained, but some occasional gusts still could arrive here tonight as the storm is still develop very large -- Lou.

DOBBS: Jacqui Jeras from our CNN Weather Center, thank you. Jason Carroll in Lake Charles, Louisiana, John King reporting from Port Arthur, Texas. Thank you very much.

Still ahead here, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers working to shore up those damaged levees in New Orleans, levees that did indeed hold up but could not hold back all of the flood waters as a result of Hurricane Rita. We'll be going live to New Orleans for the latest there.

Also, President Bush is on the ground in Texas tonight. He is monitoring the emergency response to Hurricane Rita. We'll have a live report for you coming up next from Austin. And a great deal more. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DOBBS: In New Orleans tonight, officials say the city's damaged levee system appears to be holding up after massive new flooding as a result of Hurricane Rita. Large parts of New Orleans remain still underwater tonight. Mary Snow is live in New Orleans and has a report for us -- Mary?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, Hurricane Rita didn't even strike New Orleans. It only felt the outer bands of the storm. But still Hurricane Rita dealt a blow to the city's levee system. What you see behind me are repair crews repairing areas that have been flooded because water topped over a breach in a damaged part of the Industrial Canal Levee. To give you an idea of how forceful the water was, that space right over there was filled until yesterday, the water came through. And these repair crews are essentially trying to build a road right now to put sand bags up there. They intend to work 24 hours until they can get that done. And these crews say they feel they are starting all over again.

Now, the other area, and this one is the most critical one for the Army Corps of Engineers is flooding in the lower Ninth Ward. This happened because of another section of the damaged Industrial Canal Levee; water that rushed into there.

And one assessment puts that water about eight feet high. That area had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. It has re-flooded again. So now these workers have to get all that water out. A pumping station there is out of commission. Military choppers throughout the day have been carrying sand bags to try and once again, repair that breach, that was damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

To give you an idea, it's believed they'll need about 100 of those sand bags. They weigh anywhere from 3,000 to 7,000 pounds each. They have to carry them three bags at a time. The Army Corps of Engineers saying this is a setback of up to two to three weeks, but they say, two other levees that had been damage by Katrina appear to be holding up. One thing working in the favor of New Orleans today is that the rain held off -- Lou.

DOBBS: Mary Snow, thank you very much. Mary Snow reporting from New Orleans.

Still facing flooding issues and still the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and all of those folks there working, as Mary Snow reported, 24/7 to build up that levee system and to take control of that city once again.

Hurricane Rita slammed into a part of the Gulf Coast that is literally concentrated with chemical plants and facilities. The chemical industry in this country hopes it was spared the worst from this storm, but if plants were indeed damaged, the Gulf Coast environment is certainly at risk from pollution. Christine Romans is here now and has the story for us.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, two such powerful storms so close together have the government and environmental experts scrambling to assess the damage. We're just now coming to grips with Hurricane Katrina's impact in the Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans. Now the preliminary EPA report there, found what it calls environmental health challenges in "animal control, food safety and sanitation, drinking water, waste water, and contamination of water and sediments from gasoline and other chemicals."

One large crude oil spill flooded 4,000 Louisiana homes. All of those will have to be very carefully destroyed. EPA has said that lead levels in the Louisiana floodwaters are 56 times normal for drinking water, 19 times normal for bacteria. Now, in the case of Rita, there are all these concerns and then the added threat of these petrochemical complexes that are fed by Gulf Coast refiners.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID PASSEY, DHS SPOKESMAN: We have no reports of spills at this point. But we'll be much more confident after we've had ground and aerial assessments completed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Those assessments have just begun. Until they are done, first responders and anyone still in the area must be careful about coming into contact with any flood waters or any type of spill. There are a lot of hazards out there and we just don't know how severe they are. In the case of Louisiana, we're still just figuring out what to do there.

DOBBS: That's remarkable, 56 times the acceptable lead levels and we're only beginning to move back into New Orleans to get some assessment. As you reported, we don't even know, in terms of the chemical plants in this east Texas and western Louisiana region, we don't even know what some of those toxic chemicals are that are being either manufactured or stored in those facilities. Because they've rolled back EPA reporting guidelines. I mean, that's amazing.

ROMANS: Just this week, the EPA saying from now on, they're going to roll back the annual reporting and make it every other year instead. The environmental groups are very unhappy about that. And they say these hurricanes show that you can't limit any kind of information. You need all of it.

DOBBS: Absolutely. And those 4,000 homes saturated with crude oil all have to be destroyed.

ROMANS: They're going to have to learn some new tricks; 4,000 homes destroyed. I have no idea how they'll do it.

DOBBS: Christine Romans, thank you. Appreciate it,

Coming up next, critics declare President Bush needed to improve his image as a strong leader after the Katrina disaster. This hurricane disaster is giving the president exactly that opportunity, less than a month from Katrina. We'll have a live report on the president's day in Texas next.

And terrifying image of flooding from Lake Charles, Louisiana, this coastal town hit by a massive 15-foot storm surge from Hurricane Rita. We'll be talking with the sheriff of Lake Charles coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DOBBS: The latest now on Hurricane Rita. The hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm after it slammed into the Texas and Louisiana coast with devastating force this morning. The hurricane caused extensive damage to coastal communities, but FEMA is now saying the damage far less severe than had feared. And so far at least, there have been absolutely no reports of any deaths as a result of this hurricane.

One of the worst affected cities tonight is Lake Charles, Louisiana. Just inland from where the hurricane hit the coast. Flood waters threatening to flood the downtown area. There is significant damage to the city's airport.

In New Orleans tonight, engineers working to repair levees that were overwhelmed by storm surges caused by the hurricane. Some areas of the city are now under eight feet of water again. The Army Corps of Engineers is planning to drop huge sand bags on those damaged levees. In fact they are already doing that and will be preparing to start pumping the waters out of the Ninth District, which is flooded with, as I said, about eight feet of flood waters in some parts of that area.

The city of Beaumont in Texas suffered major wind damage from Hurricane Rita, leaving debris across many streets, but there are no reports of overwhelming flooding. Joining me now, on the phone is Jefferson County Sheriff Mitch Woods. His responsibility includes the cities of Beaumont and Port Arthur. Sheriff Woods, can you give us your assessment of the damage to Beaumont, to Port Arthur last night and, of course, throughout today?

SHERIFF MITCH WOODS, BEAUMONT, TEXAS: Well I've just been out all afternoon from one end of the county -- from Beaumont down to Port Arthur. And we took a beating from the wind last night. We've got trees down everywhere, on houses, you know, on roadways, blocking streets and pretty much all of our electrical lines -- major lines and power lines are down, too. So it looks like a huge debris field out there. So we were fortunate not to get the flooding, but we've been pretty hammered by the wind.

DOBBS: You seemed pretty confident, when you and I talked yesterday, that you were going to be able to, given the nature of the storm, be able to hold back the flooding in the channel and the port. You were also -- you holed up, you and your emergency response folks, holed up in the county courthouse overnight. Is that correct?

WOODS: Yes, we did. We kept -- I had deputies out until it just let the field supervisors make a decision that it was getting too rough to stay out. We continued covering the cities, after some of the other agencies pulled back to higher ground. We were the last ones in and the first ones out this morning. At first light, we were back out there. But it's gone well. There's been a few issues, problems to deal with here, but all in all, I think considering everything, it's gone very well. These folks here at the sheriff's office have done a yeoman's job for the citizens of this county. I wish they were here to see it.

DOBBS: Well, they're going to be there in short order, if everyone can get back in there after the debris is cleared away. Any reports of looting? Have you had to contend with that issue? WOODS: Not on a major scale. We have had some. Early on this morning, the Beaumont Police Department arrested, I think, three or four people for some burglaries. Some of my deputies confronted some potential looters at a pawnshop down in mid county. I think there's been a few other arrests this afternoon, but it has not been large scale and it's not been anything we are not able to contend with at this time.

DOBBS: In search and rescue, are most of your citizens in good shape that did remain there? Have you had to respond to many calls there?

WOODS: Yes, it appears so. There's just been a few calls of people that -- some had initially refused to leave. We did last night, right before it was almost too severe to be out there, brought in an 80-year-old gentleman that was -- had run out of breathing oxygen in Sabine Pass. We weren't even sure we would be able to get there to him. But luckily, the water wasn't over the road. But we were able to get him and get him to the hospital. Been a few other people we checked on, but we've not had search and rescue issues like they experienced in New Orleans.

DOBBS: All right. Thank you very much, Sheriff Mitch Woods. We appreciate it.

WOODS: Thank you.

DOBBS: Good luck.

President Bush is in Texas tonight. He's there monitoring the emergency response to this hurricane. Elaine Quijano traveling with the president with a live report from Austin, Texas? Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, Lou, stung by criticisms over the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, President Bush today, here in Austin, Texas, met with Texas state emergency officials and Republican lawmakers just hours after Hurricane Rita hit. Now, the president on a visit to the State Emergency Operations Center urged evacuees to delay their return to Houston in order to keep roads clear, so critical supplies and personnel can be moved to effected areas. At the same time, Mr. Bush wants to send a message there is close coordination among federal, state and local officials and that he cares.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: (INAUDIBLE) to these things, but when they come, we have a duty. I'm really here to let the folks in Texas know that the federal government knows we have a responsibility to support you in the mission of saving lives first and foremost, and then helping rebuild their lives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now, earlier today, the president rode out the storm in Colorado Springs, Colorado, home to the U.S. Northern Command. Now, the president there, received updates and briefings, observing North Com at work, leading the military response to Hurricane Rita.

Now, the president said he was comforted that the government was well organized and well prepared. While there he urged evacuees, warned them, about flooding still possibly posing a danger in some areas. But, Lou, the president is eager to show he is actively engaged. He will be continuing to make some post Rita visits this weekend. He is in San Antonio where he will have an event tomorrow, we understand, before moving on to Baton Rouge Sunday -- Lou.

DOBBS: And when does the president plan to return to the White House, Elaine?

QUIJANO: As it stands right now, Lou, he is scheduled to return tomorrow afternoon, but as we know from the last couple of days, his schedule has certainly been in a state of flux and subject to change at any moment. But our understanding is he will return to Washington tomorrow afternoon -- Lou.

DOBBS: Elaine, thank you very much. Elaine Quijano traveling with the president and reporting tonight from Austin, Texas. Thank you.

Coming up next, we'll be talking with the sheriff of one of the worst affected cities in the Hurricane Rita disaster, who we'll be talking to from Lake Charles, Louisiana, next.

And hundreds of active duty troops are now helping with Hurricane Rita rescue missions. We'll be taking you on such a search mission with the 82nd Airborne division, when we come back. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DOBBS: The Pentagon is tonight mobilizing thousands of troops to send to areas hardest hit by Hurricane Rita. Jamie McIntyre is live at Fort Sam Houston, in San Antonio, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LT. GEN. BOB CLARK, JOINT TASK FORCE RITA: Come up with a couple of courses of action for this.

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Meet Lieutenant General Bob Clark, an Army commander who at first blush comes across as plain vanilla as his name. But follow him around for a few days, and he gives the impression of a steely commander who is determined to get it right.

CLARK: Jamie, I know you've been with us for awhile, and I know you could see the commitment in our eyes. And I know you could see the focus and the seriousness on the faces of the people here before this thing hit landfall this morning.

MCINTYRE: As commanding general of the 5th army, Clark is the counterpart to the 1st Army's colorful and straight talking Louisiana native Russ Honore. But if Honore is the raging Cajun, Clark, a San Antonio native, is more the quiet Texas. CLARK: I've known Russ Honore for a long time. And he's a charismatic leader, and he's my friend, and we get along great. Yes, we're different. But that's not unusual to have friends who are very different.

MCINTYRE: Clark admits there were a lot of lessons to be learned from Katrina. One of the most important was the need for lots of helicopters to conduct the initial search and rescue. More than 200 are now in Texas, Louisiana, or offshore.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCINTYRE (on camera): That's one of the things that General Clark was coordinating today with his friend, General Honore, the massive number of helicopters, including the Coast Guard, the Army, the Air Guard, civilian helicopters, all have to be de-conflicted in this area, as they pour them in. And, as he said, he's spent a lot of time consulting with General Honore. As you see General Clark on the ground in the coming days, he'll be getting a firsthand assessment. But you'll probably not see him directing traffic and shooing soldiers out on the ground. Lou, that's just not his style -- Lou.

DOBBS: And luckily, for all of the folks in Texas, it's not necessary. General Honore faced with a far different situation having to come into straighten out a failed response on the part of local, state, and federal authorities. The General Clark carrying out a mission that had the benefit at least of learning the lessons from all of the failures in New Orleans and surrounding regions, right?

MCINTYRE: Well, I would label that as analysis, Lou. So I would leave that to you.

DOBBS: Well, we'll leave it to just the facts. Thanks a lot. Jamie McIntyre eschewing analysis from Fort Sam Houston. Thank you very much,

Let's go live, now, to Lake Charles, Louisiana, where flood waters there are continuing to rise, and are now threatening the city center, the city's mayor has imposed a dusk to dawn curfew. Joining me now on the phone from Lake Charles is Sheriff Tony Mancuso who's responsible for protecting the city, the surrounding parish.

Sheriff Mancuso, give us your judgment of the seriousness of the flooding in Lake Charles tonight, and what you are expecting throughout the evening.

SHERIFF TONY MANCUSO, CALCASIEU PARISH SHERIFF: Well it's localized but it just won't -- it's not going down, it's still coming up. We've got a pretty strong south wind. And until that subsides, we're going to keep taking water. And it's pouring rain, you know, it's raining hard again here. So we just need a break. You know, we need the waters to, you know, stop raining and we need the winds to stop just for a little while so this water can go down a little bit. And then I think we can take a little bit of rain after that. But, you know, we're not completely underwater. We can still get around fairly well. Basically. Dodging trees and telephone poles and lines. But you know, we worked hard all day. We got out fairly early this morning when we thought it was fairly safe.

We assessed the area. You know, we had teams. We spread our resources all over the parish, plus we sent some outside the parish to come in, you know, once the storm was passed, so in case we lost any resources. But other than a few windows being busted out of our vehicles, we have a couple with some major damage, but we were able to get in here really quickly this morning and do some recoveries. No deaths so far, to my knowledge. But we have rescued some people. We have minor looting. I think we've arrested six. And the local city police here has arrested about seven.

DOBBS: Right.

MANCUSO: So they're in the jail. And you know, we've got somewhat of a handle on that right now.

DOBBS: Well, obviously, you're able to maintain reasonable order in very difficult circumstances with flooding, with a hurricane. Your mayor's imposed a dusk to dawn curfew. What are you expecting this evening?

MANCUSO: Well, actually, we did a parish-wide dusk to dawn curfew. The mayor and the parish president -- we have a great community here. We really work together well -- and that's for our protection, meaning if we don't have to worry about people driving around the city, and not, you know, not being out, then if somebody's out there, we're going to check them to see if they're looting and trying to cause problems. So that's why we do that. We want to make sure that the people that evacuated, they did what we asked them to do. And in return, we're trying to do what they want us to do, and that's protect their property. And we're going to do everything we can to do that, and we have so far. You know, it's been very minor. I wish I could say it hadn't happened at all, but unfortunately it has. But we've dealt with it, and we're going to continue to deal with it harshly in regards to any looters.

DOBBS: We appreciate your being with us. I know you're tired, Sheriff Mancuso, you and all your people working so hard through the evening and the hard days ahead of you. We appreciate it very much.

The Louisiana National Guard is deploying troops across the whole state trying to help flood victims and assess the damage from Hurricane Rita. Joining me now from the headquarters of the guard's emergency operations in Baton Rouge is Lieutenant Colonel Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard. Colonel, can you tell us how quickly you can send your troops into areas like Lake Charles, as we were just talking with the Sheriff there, Sheriff Mancuso, that appears to have suffered the worst damage.

LT. COL. PETE SCHNEIDER, LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD: Yes, sir, I can tell you. We pre-positioned some 4,000 forces over the last two days. And immediately upon daylight, we were able to assess the situation. Currently, we have some elements of three engineer battalions currently working in Vermilion Parish doing debris removal, assisting local law enforcement, assisting the local emergency managers and also assisting with search and rescue. We're also pushing elements of engineers and infantry into Lake Charles. As you've heard earlier.

DOBBS: Right.

SCHNEIDER: That parish was hit the hardest, so it's going to take us some time to get down there, but we're en route and we're coordinating and we'll start moving in and do debris clearing, and security and also assisting with the recovery efforts.

DOBBS: Well recovery, rescue operations, how broadly do you think that the rescue operations are going to be, particularly in that parish? Are there people that are still in need of rescue this evening?

SCHNEIDER: Well, we've heard that before the storm, those two parishes, Cameron and Calcasieu, did a tremendous job in getting their citizens to evacuate. We've had some 500 people rescued in lower Jefferson Parish, some citizens who didn't want to leave and then when the tidal surge came in, elements of the DOD, the Navy, Coast Guard, were able to perform search and rescue and remove some 500 citizens. So we anticipate there may be some. The bottom line is, we need to get those resources in there and begin the recovery and the search and rescue.

DOBBS: And Governor Blanco, Colonel, has asked for, what is it, another 15,000 extra National Guard? How quickly are you going to be able to muster those folks, and where will you deploy them?

SCHNEIDER: Well that's a great question, Lou. Those forces will be deployed. Some 3,800 are currently en route, and the storm has delayed their entry. The deployment of them will rely on the commanders on the ground. If they feel they need extra resources in the Katrina area, they'll deploy resources there. However, if they feel those resources are needed in the impacted Southwest Louisiana, those forces will be deployed there. So we're leaving the decision of where to deploy forces to the commanders on the ground who are working with all the local parish officials and emergency managers who know best where they need the extra help. And that's how we're going to handle it.

DOBBS: Colonel Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard, thank you very much. We wish you all the best.

Still ahead, I'll be talking with the hard pressed Red Cross. We'll be talking with their spokesman and the 82nd Airborne division performing rescue operations in parts of Louisiana. We'll have a first look at those missions next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DOBBS: Thousands of troops involved in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort are now helping the victims of Hurricane Rita. Among those troops are soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division. Jeff Koinange reports on a rescue mission today.

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne is back re-examining damage after Hurricane Rita left parts of New Orleans underwater for the second time in as many months.

A breach in one of the levees on the Industrial Canal has been spilling water back into neighborhoods that had just started to dry up. At times, it's hard to see where Katrina left off and Rita took over.

(on camera): The Ninth Ward, which is where I'm standing right now, bore most of the brunt from post Hurricane Katrina flooding more than three weeks ago. And as you can see right here with, water up to my knees, it's taken quite a hammering from Hurricane Rita.

(voice over): A preliminary examination of the water level and the 82nd Airborne decides it's not yet time to send in the rescue boats.

CAPT. BENJAMIN FLANAGAN, 82ND AIRBORNE DIV.: The water is a little bit higher than we originally thought it would be in this area here. We've had -- we didn't anticipate it being quite this high.

KOINANGE: But Flanagan isn't discouraged by the sudden flash flood. He's quick to admit cleaning up after Rita shouldn't be as painful as cleaning up after Katrina.

FLANAGAN: This compared to what Katrina dumped into the city, as fast as they got Katrina pumped out, I think in a couple days they should be able to have this problem alleviated and have it dry again.

KOINANGE: Flanagan and his team have another job, checking in on residents like Arlon Foret who works for a paper company in the warehouse district. He just returned after Katrina, but decided to brave Rita instead of leaving again.

ARLON FORET, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: I came back to work Thursday, you know, we were trying to get the business restarted. I'm sitting at a desk working with a flashlight. You know, it's hard, but we've got to start somewhere.

KOINANGE: Foret sounds an optimistic note for a city reeling from a double hurricane blow.

FORET: A lot of people have it real bad right now, but, you know, we have enough to start from and build from there.

KOINANGE: At least it's a start.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOINANGE (on camera): And, Lou, some valuable lessons learned from the post Hurricane Katrina debacle. Behind me, you can see workers have been working around the clock, literally, to repair that huge gash there. That's a natural levee that was breached by water flowing from that -- what was a parking lot over there, and filling this entire area. These workers have been working basically around the clock. They want to fix a road here, so they can start filling that area with sand bags to prevent more water from flowing towards this area. Bottom line, some valuable lessons learned from post- Katrina to avoid them being repeated again post-Rita -- Lou.

DOBBS: A lot of work ahead for the folks there in New Orleans, and folks from all over the country trying to help out. Jeff Koinange, thank you very much. And good luck.

Coming up next here, the Red Cross rushing into these areas hard hit by Hurricane Rita. We'll have an update for you from the Red Cross. I'll be talking with their spokesman about what this is costing and what they are able to do for the victims of both Hurricane Katrina and now Rita. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DOBBS: Tropical Storm Rita is now expected to stall over parts of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. And as it moves northward ever so slowly, it could dump as much as 25 inches of rain. Lisa Sylvester joins us now with more -- Lisa.

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lou, more people actually die from inland flooding from hurricanes than from the winds or storm surges. Creeks and streams could overflow. People try to drive their cars not realizing just how deep the water is, and then they get stuck.

So far the focus has been how it will impact the Gulf States. But emergency officials are warning inland communities to be aware that this storm is headed their way, and it could linger, as you said, for a couple of days. Now Arkansas's Department of Emergency Management has been getting ready for potential flash floods. They have workers standing by this weekend. They're positioning more sandbags through the area, around the Red River area near the Texas border.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Worst case scenario for us would be a number of days of hard continuous rain, which would cause enormous flooding and flash floods throughout the southern half of the state, and at the same time, potentially having to deal with tornadoes on top of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVESTER: And, Lou, we have seen the situation before. Back Hurricane Floyd in 1999, 50 people died there. And with Tropical Storm Allison, rather, 41 people died when it hit Houston, Texas -- Lou.

DOBBS: Well let's hope there is no repeat of that, and so far, we're very fortunate, Hurricane Rita appears to have claimed no lives at all. We can be thankful for that good fortune. Lisa Sylvester, thank you very much.

The Red Cross has shelters all across the Gulf Coast. They're housing and feeding those who lost everything in Hurricane Katrina and now Rita. David Rudduck of the American Red Cross joins us from Lake Charles, Louisiana. David, this -- obviously, that area hard hit. You still are getting severe weather. Have you been able to take care of all of the folks who need your help, your care?

DAVID RUDDUCK, RED CROSS SPOKESMAN: Well, Lou, the thing that we're really happy about is that a lot of people listened to emergency authorities and they evacuated. I think somewhere between 90-95 percent of the people in the surrounding area did leave. So that makes our job a lot easier. Last night we opened up over 250 shelters and we sheltered about 100,000 people. Three out of four of them being from Texas and Louisiana. So we're doing a good job there.

DOBBS: And the number of people that are going to remain in those shelters as this storm is moving northward, moving inland, have you got any sense of how long you're going to have to provide care, what your next efforts to help them will be beyond the shelters?

RUDDUCK: Sure. Well, our immediate concern right now is the sheltering and feeding piece of that. We're going to continue to identify and open shelters on an as-needed basis. So, I think right now, we have ample capacity to deal with what we have, and I'm sure our people in Washington are paying very close attention to where this storm's going to go as it moves up into the main land.

DOBBS: Now, people are going to want to help. Can you tell us where people can, you know, send in their donations and offer to help you and your good work?

RUDDUCK: Sure. Well we're estimating the cost of the Katrina operation alone to be at $2 billion. Right now we've raised around 900 million, and we're a long way off, especially in lieu of the Hurricane Rita storm that just hit. If people can call 1-800 HELP NOW, or make a secure online donation at www.RedCross.org, we can really make a difference down here. And we continue to do so.

DOBBS: As you say, David Rudduck, you are making a difference and all the folks with the Red Cross, everyone helping down there. Thank you very much for being with us.

And thank you for being with us here tonight. Stay with us as we continue our coverage of Hurricane Rita, its impact and its aftermath. For all of us here, good night from New York. A Special Edition of "ANDERSON COOPER 360" begins right now with Paula Zahn -- Paula.