September 2008 - Posts
by Contessa Brewer, MSNBC anchor
Wall St. has always been one of New York City's places to visit, but tourists here today are witnessing something different unfolding.
As I prepare for the MSNBC hour from the financial district, there are crowds taking photographs and people waiting to hear from reporters. Everyone is trying to understand and figure out the U.S. economy in turmoil. NBC's Rehema Ellis has been talking to people, and tells me that most of the folks she's talked to don't really know the specifics of the bailout plan and are waiting for some clarity.
By Charles Hadlock, NBC News Producer
GALVESTON, TEXAS – Galveston was nearly wiped off the map by a September storm.
I’m not talking about this month’s devastating storm; I mean the Great Storm of 1900.
At the turn of the 20th century, Galveston was the largest city in Texas. It rivaled New York as a center of trade and commerce. Its port was one of the largest and busiest in the country.
Nothing, it seemed, could stop Galveston’s glowing future. Except a nameless hurricane that hit the island on Sept. 8, 1900.
Isaac Cline, a meteorologist with the nascent U.S. Weather Bureau, tried to warn Galveston residents on that warm, late summer day in 1900. He had noticed that barometric pressure readings along the Gulf Coast had been dropping dramatically.
When water began rising in the streets – just as it had hours before Hurricane Ike’s arrival – Cline walked along Galveston’s beaches trying to warn people to leave.
Few listened.
Six thousand people died in a harrowing night of wind, rain and storm surge. To this day, the Storm of 1900 remains the nation’s worst natural disaster. So numerous were the bodies that they were put on barges and carried out to sea to a watery grave. Others were burned in mass funeral pyres. More than 3,000 buildings were destroyed, including a hospital, numerous schools and an orphanage.
CONTINUED >>
By Al Henkel, NBC News Producer
GALVESTON, Texas – It was a bad morning for 90-year-old Doris Rose. She came home today, and found life turned upside down.
Doris left Galveston Island the Wednesday before Hurricane Ike came ashore. "Plenty of time," she said. "I leave every time a storm comes. I've got more sense than that."
So she carefully locked the doors on her little pink house, piled into the car, went to her daughter's house in Houston, and rode out the storm.
Those carefully locked doors had to be forced open today when Doris and thousands of other Galveston residents returned home for the first time since their city was hit by Hurricane Ike on Sept. 13. The back door is still stuck, warped and swollen by the eight feet of storm surge that swept through Doris’ house.
She has lived on the island since World War II, in this house since 1970, and has seen what the Gulf of Mexico can do to her beloved Galveston Island. "We've been through lots of storms, this one is the worst," she said.
The house has seen a little water before, but today Doris found mud, black mold, sodden furniture, clothes, pots, pans, and a smell that defies description.
Everything in the once-neat little house is now simply garbage and flood debris. The house won't be her home for a very long time.
"I'm going to need some help," she said. But there is no talk of leaving this little house; just talk of when she will be back.
"I'm blessed to be here," she said, even while standing in the stinking heap of debris that was once her living room.
VIDEO: Struggling to grasp the magnitude of loss in Galveston
By Charles Hadlock, NBC News
GALVESTON, TEXAS -- In the last week, I have stepped over more snakes, run from more rats and have been bitten by more mosquitoes than I care to count.
Thousands of people on Galveston Island fled for higher ground in the wake of Hurricane Ike. So did the snakes, rats and mosquitoes.
How could some of Earth’s lowliest creatures survive one of nature’s fiercest storms? Somehow they did and they’re alive and thriving on Galveston Island. I have the mosquito bites alone to prove it.
The rising surge water forced critters of all kinds to seek higher ground. For residents returning home this week, don’t be surprised to find snakes in trees and rats living in dry attics of some of Galveston’s grandest homes.
All the water that rushed into Galveston is the perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes, says the county’s mosquito control director, John Marshall. The water has collected in almost everything Hurricane Ike tossed about. You’ll find mosquitoes breeding in old tires, in the trunks of crushed cars and in the hundreds of pleasure boats now sitting on dry land. I even saw a hot tub perched in the median of a road, apparently washed in from one of the hundreds of homes miles away. Talk about your breeding ground!
You don’t have to walk very far in Galveston to be attacked by mosquitoes. It doesn’t matter what part of town you’re in; mosquitoes don’t discriminate. All they want is your blood. All they give is a weeklong itch and a chance for an illness like encephalitis.
Galveston County is launching an assault on the mosquito population. Trucks are spraying pesticide throughout each neighborhood. As if that’s not enough, three airplanes are also spraying pesticide in remote parts of the island.
Come to think of it, that’s not enough. Before you come to Galveston Island, douse yourself with bug repellent. Oh, and watch out for the snakes. And the rats.
CONTINUED >>
By John Rutherford, Producer, NBC News
WASHINGTON - Army Capt. Humbert "Rocky" Versace is one of 88,000 Americans still listed as missing in action since the outset of World War II, including 1,800 from the war he fought in Vietnam.
Rocky was wounded and taken captive by the Communist Vietcong on Oct. 29, 1963, in the U Minh Forest of South Vietnam. He was never repatriated.
President Bush has honored Rocky and all Americans who were prisoners of war or are still missing in action by proclaiming today National POW/MIA Recognition Day, an annual event held the third Friday in September.
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| Courtesy of the Versace family |
| Army Capt. Humbert "Rocky" Versace, seen before he became a prisoner of war in Vietnam. |
"We will not rest until we have achieved the fullest accounting for every member of our armed forces missing in the line of duty," the president said in a proclamation released on Wednesday.
From the outset of his captivity, Rocky defied his Communist captors.
"Rocky stood toe to toe with them," fellow POW Dan Pitzer said after his own release in 1967. "He told them to go to hell in Vietnamese, French and English. He got a lot of pressure and torture, but he held his path."
Beaten, starved and shackled, Rocky refused to give in to the Vietcong.
"He was the one who set the lead for all of us in the camp," Nick Rowe, another POW, said not long after escaping in 1968. "He was a tough act to follow, but there was nobody in our camp who broke."
On Sept. 26, 1965, nearly two years into his captivity, 28-year-old Rocky Versace was taken out and executed by the Vietcong for his unrelenting defiance. His remains were never recovered.
CONTINUED >>
By Don Teague, NBC News Correspondent
On Clear Lake, Texas – We got a chance to go out on a boat this afternoon to get a view of Hurricane Ike’s destructive path from the angle of the water. It also allowed us to see some places you couldn’t reach by car because so much water and debris has been pushed in from Galveston Bay.
Clear Lake is sort of a protected inlet off Galveston Bay, we got to the mouth of the bay but it was too rough to go out there in the 26-foot motorboat we were in.
We went out on the water to try to get an idea of the environmental impact of Hurricane Ike on Clear Lake and it’s a mess.
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| AP |
| Boats line the road in Clear Lake, Texas after Hurricane Ike on Sunday. |
We saw thousands of dead fish floating on the surface of the water. It smells terrible. When the wind is blowing, it’s not so bad. But when the wind is calm – the smell of dead fish, raw sewage and gasoline just fills the air and is totally overpowering.
CONTINUED >>
By Mark Potter, NBC News Correspondent
MIAMI – With the destructive arrival of Hurricane Ike in the Caribbean and then in Texas, it's clear that many hurricane lessons from previous storms still need to be reviewed and heeded next time.
In Cuba, where Ike made two landfalls, evacuations were carried out effectively and the loss of life was low compared to other countries. But, houses were in such poor shape and so unprotected that hundreds of thousands of homes and apartments were badly damaged or destroyed and could take years to replace. Something as simple as hurricane roofing straps or window shutters might have helped immensely in many cases – if such materials were ever available.
After covering scores of hurricanes in more than three decades I have come to learn that these storms sometimes have a strange way of fooling the experts, often in the last hours before or after landfall, and that there are no acceptable odds in gambling whether you'll narrowly escape the storm. I also know that hurricanes are always dangerous and should never be underestimated.
CONTINUED >>
by NBC Weather Plus' Jeff Ranieri
Below is video blog of major storm surge damage in Surfside Beach, Texas where the storm surge started almost 24 hours ahead of Ike's landfall.
This is about 45 minutes south of Galveston.
VIDEO: WATCH VIDEO
On Nightly News Saturday, I was in front of a house that floated into another one -- just one of the very dramatic pictures we'll see as Ike's impact will make itself clear in the next few days.
By Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent
BEAUMONT, Texas – With a significant part of the nation’s oil refinery industry based here in Beaumont, Texas and gas prices spiking in certain parts of the country like Florida, Tennessee and North and South Carolina, we decided to come here to see how the refineries would stand up to Hurricane Ike.
As of Saturday, the refinery industry had not done a full assessment of the damage from Ike, it will be several days before they really have an idea of how well the plants did. But, early indications are that they were not flooded and that was the greatest concern.
Beaumont lays to the east of Houston, and is about 30 miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, so it escaped the direct path of Hurricane Ike.
If the salt water had flooded the refineries by breaching the levees in Port Arthur, then they may have been off-line for up to nine to 10 months until they were brought back. That’s what happened after Rita and Katrina. That puts a serious crimp on the oil supplies. There is a pipeline that runs up to North Carolina from here and if that is disrupted, it definitely impacts markets.
But as of now, it does not look like the refineries have been flooded. At least 13 refineries – including plants operated by Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell – shut down ahead of the storm. Experts said it could take up to three or four weeks to bring them back on after the storm.
It’s not like they will be powered back up tomorrow, but it doesn’t look the damage is as extensive as they feared it would be when Ike was a Category 3 Hurricane barreling down on refinery row along the Texas coast.
CONTINUED >>
By Don Teague, NBC News Correspondent
CLEAR LAKE, Texas – After making it through the rough ride of Hurricane Ike last night, we set out this morning to assess the damage.
We headed for a nearby town called Webster and the scene I saw on a little cul-de-sac called Beach Grove Drive was telling. It’s an area that is in a flood zone, so most of the residents had left. When we arrived there this morning, a couple of home owners were just coming back and were seeing their houses for the first time since Ike.
They couldn’t actually drive up to their houses because there were so many trees down on the street. They were big pine trees – like 70 feet tall – and a lot of them have crashed down in yards and across the streets.
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| VIDEO: Clear Lake calmer after the storm |
But amazingly, on this little cul-de-sac, none of the pine trees have crashed onto houses. There was literally one tree that had fallen right next to a house, not five feet away – if it had fallen differently, it would have crushed the house. So they are all really thankful that didn’t happen.
CONTINUED >>
By Charles Hadlock, NBC News
At dawn's first light, the devastation from Hurricane Ike is becoming clear.
The Hilton Hotel here in Clear Lake, Texas, where we've set up our satellite truck to report on the storm, is taking a beating.
The stucco facade on the front of the building peeled away during the early hours of the storm. Of course, it smashed into NBC cameraman Mike Terrel's truck, which had just gotten out of the shop from Hurricane Dolly damage.
The hotel lobby looks like a scene out of the Poseidon Adventure. CONTINUED >>
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By Janet Shamlian, NBC News Correspondent
GALVESTON, Texas – In advance of Hurricane Ike’s expected landfall here, I spent the morning with one of our NBC crews trying to see what Galveston’s west end looked like.
It is a very low-lying area that floods easily, and predictions were that Ike would put it under water. First of all, what I found in trying to get to the end of the seawall is that it was almost an impossible trip.
Already, Seawall Boulevard, the four-lane thoroughfare here, is filled with debris that has been spit up from the gulf as these high waves break over the wall. Everything imaginable, from plywood to beer cans, has been dumped on the road.
Just traveling three or four miles on the boulevard was a huge strain, and we feared we would end up with flat tires. Moreover, it was impossible to get into the neighborhoods that are expected to be deluged because roads leading in were already impassable.
CONTINUED >>
By Don Teague, NBC News Correspondent
In Clear Lake, Texas, where NASA is located, locals are bracing for Hurricane Ike. Galveston Bay dumps into Clear Lake, so the fear is that all of that water that ends up in the bay will flood into Clear Lake and the residential areas surrounding it.
"The rising water is interesting because it happens so slowly," said NBC News Correspondent Don Teague as of about 10 a.m. Central Time. "In the case of Clear Lake and Galveston Bay – there are no crashing waves, in fact there are hardly even any white caps right now. It’s just that the water keeps creeping higher and higher and higher. It’s like a bath tub filling up."
That said, Teague noted that the roads getting out of town are actually very clear and not a problem. Since most businesses are closed and evacuations have been ongoing since Wednesday, most people who wanted to leave town have already done so. Nevertheless, those still there are preparing for the worst.
CONTINUED >>
By John Rutherford, Producer, NBC News
WASHINGTON - On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, John Yates was standing less than 100 feet from where American Airlines flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon.
"There was just this tremendous boom, and a ball of fire went right over my head," he remembers. "I was blown through the air and ended up probably 30 feet away. The room was instantaneously black. The smoke was down to within a foot of the floor.
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AP
John Yates, seen in a photo taken on Sept. 2, 2002, when he was still wearing compression garments on his arms and hands to prevent scar tissue from hardening. |
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"It was painful to breathe. Everything was hot," he said. "There was debris everywhere, and you had to feel with your hands to see where you were going. I eventually made my way out into the corridor.
John spent the next two and a half months in hospitals with burns over 38 percent of his body.
"Top of my head, my face, my entire back, portions of my buttocks, my left leg had second-degree burns," he said. "I had third-degree burns on my hands and my forearms and elbows, which required three skin grafting operations."
I first met John in December 2001 as he was beginning five months of outpatient therapy at Washington Hospital Center's burn clinic.
"This is the toughest part, the no-pain, no-gain portion if it," he groaned as a rehabilitation therapist worked to straighten his charred fingers.
CONTINUED >>
By John Brecher, msnbc.com multimedia producer
Glide around the floor of the Republican National Convention on Thursday night, as U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky performs the Adoption and Announcement of Nominee Sarah Palin.
By John Brecher, msnbc.com multimedia producer
Republicans, on their way to Sarah Palin's acceptance speech, share their thoughts about the Alaska governor and her portrayal in the media.
By Don Teague, NBC News Correspondent
It was a little before noon. I was driving through various New Orleans neighborhoods and surveying the situation. For the most part that meant empty block after empty block. All was quiet.
Then I turned down Franklin Avenue in Gentilly Terrace, north of the French Quarter.
"Uh Oh," I said to myself.
I had just driven into what looked like a standoff. There were no fewer than two dozen police officers surrounding a modest white house. There were New Orleans Police, Military Police, Louisiana State Police, State Wildlife Officers, and two police dogs. They all looked serious.
I circled the block, stopped a safe distance away, grabbed a video camera, and jumped out of the car. Standoff's can be tricky, so my first thought was finding some cover in case bullets started flying. Then I noticed that all of the police were standing in the open. There were no guns drawn.
"Well that's weird," I thought.
CONTINUED >>
By John Brecher, msnbc.com multimedia producer
Click play to see a variety of people at the Republican National Convention explain why they are Republicans.
By John Brecher, msnbc.com multimedia producer
With the Republican National Convention happening in St. Paul, thousands of Ron Paul supporters held the Rally for the Republic in nearby Minneapolis, even though his presidential campaign is over.
By Jim Seida, msnbc.com multimedia producer
A state trooper passes "Knot a Fantasea" as it rests on Hwy. 90 near Lk. St. Catherine about 25 miles northeast of New Orleans on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008. The boat was blown onto the road the day before by Hurricane Gustav.
By Mike Brunker, msnbc.com writer
| Jim Seida / msnbc.com
Corey Qualls hands Chris Algero the nozzle after filling up his tank in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. At left is Algero's son, Chris. Jr.
While nearly all Gulf Coast residents in the path of Hurricane Gustav heeded warnings to leave, many were not waiting Tuesday for authorities to give them permission to return. But for many, that meant persistence in the face of repeated rejection.
Chris Algero of New Orleans was gassing up his car in Bay St. Louis and preparing to make his third attempt to return to his home. He said he’d already been turned back at Interstate 10 and U.S. Highway 90, in the first instance forced by barricades to turn around and in the second refused entry by sympathetic but unbending Louisiana state troopers.
“It’s frustrating,” said the 42-year-old veterinarian. “I did a lot of rescue work after Katrina, both of people and pets. They need to let in the people who can help.”
Algero, who rode the storm out at his mother’s house in Bay St. Louis with his son, Chris Jr., and a friend, Corey Qualls, said it was particularly aggravating to be on the outside looking in because he had spoken to some of his neighbors in uptown New Orleans and heard that “if you’re in the city, you’re able to move around fine.”
With a full tank of gas, Algero was preparing to make his third bid to return, this time by heading west to Interstate 12 and then either heading south on Interstate 55 or continuing on almost to Baton Rouge and then approaching the city on Interstate 10 from the west.
“After Katrina, we were able to move back and forth at will,” he said. “This time they’re trying to keep a lid on everything.”
He also said he thought some authorities might be using scare tactics to keep people from trying to return. For example, he said that while he had heard officials of St. Tammany Parish warn that 90 percent of the parish was without electricity. But when he drove into the parish earlier on the freeway, all the businesses he could see had their signs lit even though they were closed.
“I guess that the 10 percent with power was all along the freeway,” he said sarcastically.
by Contessa Brewer, MSNBC anchor and correspondent
I just left New Orleans, drove across Lake Ponchartrain on I-10. The traffic on the freeway was very light, until we hit the other side of the lake. There, authorities had established a checkpoint and all inbound traffic was being diverted off the interstate. It appeared only authorized vehicles were being allowed through. The officials want evacuees to wait for the all-clear before heading home.
I'm also seeing work trucks heading toward New Orleans, crews prepared to assist in the clean-up and repair.
The damage I'm seeing on my way out of town is minor: Trees down. Siding ripped off apartment buildings. Signs littering the roadside.
I'm also seeing a slew of cars parked on the side of the freeway in rural areas. Presumably, these were people who'd joined the mass exodus before Gustav, but had mechanical problems and were forced to abandon their vehicles.
So I'm saying goodbye to New Orleans and Gustav, and hello to Hanna... heading East for more storm coverage. CONTINUED >>
By Jeff Ranieri, NBC Meteorologist
I've had a lot of people ask me why did Gustav not strengthen, so I figured I would share my insight. Below are some notes from my meteorology notebook.
The short answer is tied to three main factors:
1) Dry air filtered into the bottom of the system;
2) Wind shear kept the eye wall from redeveloping and tightly wrapping the storm;
3) Speed also was a major factor. Ever since the storm left Cuba, it cruised along at 15-20 mph. Even though it moved over 90 degree water (which typically helps hurricanes strengthen) Gustav's high velocity kept it from developing into an even more deadly hurricane. CONTINUED >>
By Jim Seida and Mike Brunker, msnbc.com
The French Quarter after dark, the night after Hurricane Gustav crashed ashore. Neon signs beckon to departed tourists. Empty but stirring. A handful of bars open, several of them packed with locals and reporters. Police cruisers splash past in heavy rain, blue lights flashing on near deserted streets as the raindrops play Lee Young on the sidewalk. A curfew is not a curfew.
By early afternoon on Monday, relatively minor gusts were ruffling the palm trees along Canal Street and the rain had stopped. Forecasters said more of both were likely as the storm slid past to the west, but nothing like the intense winds and rain that pounded the city overnight. CONTINUED >>
By John Brecher, msnbc.com photojournalist
A delegate from the Texas Gulf Coast talks about the subdued mood of the Republican National Convention in light of Hurricane Gustav.
By Mike Brunker and Jim Seida, msnbc.com
Chasing reports of runaway barges or Navy ships, we drove north to the Florida Avenue Bridge over the Industrial Canal.
The lift bridge was in the up position, so we couldn’t get an elevated view of this section of the canal. From our vantage point on Harbor Road, peering over the concrete floodwall, there was no sign of the vessels.
The only sign of a possible accident in the area was the strong smell of gasoline and the rainbow sheen of oil visible on the surface of the water in spots where it pooled after overtopping the floodwall.
A worker at what appeared to be a utility plant adjacent to the road pantomimed over the roar of the storm that he knew nothing about any runaway vessels. At least that’s what I think he was saying.
By Michael Brunker, msnbc.com correspondent Water began pouring over the concrete floodwalls along the Industrial Canal east of New Orleans, creating great TV but – so far at least – causing only minor flooding in the mixed residential-industrial Gentilly area. More worrisome was a collision between a derelict ship or barge with pilings of the Florida Avenue Bridge across the Industrial Canal. Gary LaGrange of the Port of NewOrleans told local radio station Q93 that he was en route to examine the bridge, but that initial reports did not indicate that the span had sustained serious damage. CONTINUED >>
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