[Wolf Blitzer, Cnn Anchor:] Standing by, CNN reporters across the region to bring us complete coverage. Happening now, fires raging in the middle of a flood, as the president of the United States gets a firsthand look at the devastation brought to an entire region by Hurricane Katrina. Right now, battle-hardened troops are arriving. As one general puts it, they are highly proficient in the use of deadly force. Will this be enough to end the lawlessness? In Texas, the Astrodome is now full. And its new residents can now receive mail, but remaining evacuees must find other addresses. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. Visiting the region, President Bush summed up the state of emergency today this way. He says, it's as if the entire Gulf Coast were obliterated by the worst kind of weapon you can imagine. From survival to security, it's now mission critical. A convoy of some 50 military vehicles packed with troops and supplies finally moved into the flooded streets of New Orleans today, the vanguard of a force which will try to restore order and bring relief. Helicopters are dropping 2,000-pound sandbags in an effort to close the breaches in the levees surrounding New Orleans; 200 of these bags were to be made available today. The U.S. Navy says a second hospital ship will now move into the Gulf of Mexico in the coming days. The USNS Comfort will arrive Thursday. The USNS Mercy will arrive in mid-September. More on the hurricane now by the numbers, state by state. First in Louisiana, officials now say the death toll will be in the thousands; 350,000 homes in New Orleans are now damaged or destroyed. Think about that. Fifty military vehicles, as we just said, are finally moving into New Orleans. Let's move on to Mississippi. Fears there the death toll may well run into the hundreds. The state senators say the Labor Department will provide some $50 million to try to hire people to help in the cleanup. Over in Alabama, the governor announces what he calls Operation Golden Rule to try to find housing for some 10,000 people made homeless. The number of homes and businesses without power now 135,000. The state government is making up to $25 million available for emergency loans to disaster victims. President Bush has been touring the disaster region today on the ground in the battered area of Biloxi, Mississippi. He met with survivors and called the devastation and I'm quoting now "worse than imaginable". The president was asked if too many resources are being devoted too Iraq.
[George W. Bush, President Of The United States:] I just completely disagree. We have got a job to defend this country in the war on terror. And we have got a job to bring aid and comfort to the people of the Gulf Coast. And we will do both. We have got plenty of resources to do both. Somebody questioned me the other day about, do we have enough National Guard troops? Of course we do. These governors have got compacts with other states. If they need to call upon another state, the state will send Guard troops. And the people just got to know we have got what it takes to do more than one thing. And we will secure our country from the terrorists. And we will help rebuild this this part of the world.
[Blitzer:] Let's go to CNN's Ed Lavandera. He's over at the New Orleans Airport right now, which has emerged as a key facility, a staging point, a hospital, a communications center, almost everything else, Ed, where you are. Has the president been there already?
[Ed Lavandera, Cnn Correspondent:] You know what, Wolf? I'm not exactly sure. But we have seen Air Force One land a short while ago. But we understand the president was not on that. They were moving it ahead of him. And we have seen two of the helicopters the president would normally ride in had just flown in here a few moments ago. But I'm not exactly sure if he was on board those.
[Blitzer:] What's going on at this facility at the airport where you are right now? Yesterday, it seemed pretty chaotic. How is it doing today?
[Lavandera:] Well, Wolf, when we first started showing you this yesterday, we have been told that they processed 40,000 people through this airport. And it continues to buzz with activity. As you look out here on to the tarmac, there are still helicopters coming in and out of this airport, dropping people off, essentially ferries from the city all the way back here to the airport. And from here, these people are being checked out medically and then put on other airplanes to get out of New Orleans. And I'm told by an official here, this could last anywhere from three more days to as many as six more days.
[Blitzer:] Are the people of New Orleans, at the airport where you are, are they being where are they going once they get to the airport?
[Lavandera:] Well, they are going to all sorts of different places. They are basically being put on airplanes. Some have told me they're going to Dallas. Others say to Houston, to other parts of Louisiana, essentially just being evacuated from the region.
[Blitzer:] And the medical facilities, do they still have room for more? Or are they basically at capacity right now?
[Lavandera:] I have to think that they are at capacity. They are getting more people in to help them out. I have been told by a few people that that is happening. But I have also been told that this field hospital was originally designed to handle about 250 people an hour. But, as of yesterday and early this morning, they were handling about 800 people an hour. So, you can imagine how stressed those people, those medical technicians are.
[Blitzer:] What about the equipment and supplies? Do the doctors have enough equipment, the nurses have enough equipment on hand to deal with the emergency medical cases they are clearly trying to deal with?
[Lavandera:] I haven't heard any complaints that they are running out of that kind of material. There was it seemed like it took a little longer than they what they had anticipated to get the supply routes kind of set up, so they could constantly be brought in. If you remember, in Baton Rouge, which is about 60 miles away from here, is where the much larger FEMA staging ground is for a lot of those supplies. And a lot of that is being brought in. We have seen massive military aircraft landing on the ground here and a lot of those people unloading equipment and gear from there. So I haven't heard any complaints from any of the nurses or doctors here that they're not getting what they need.
[Blitzer:] What about you are speaking to a lot of the people there, clearly, including a lot of the people who the evacuees who have come in from New Orleans. Give us a little flavor, Ed, of what they are saying today, as opposed to yesterday and the day before.
[Lavandera:] You know, the overwhelming sense you get from talking to these people is that they are exhausted. I think just the looks on their faces, as we can show you when they are dropped off of these helicopters and the frustration, many of them saying they've been either sleeping on a runway somewhere or sleeping on the side of the street or sleeping on a rooftop for the last four days. They are exhausted. They are tired and angry.
[Blitzer:] But this, presumably, is going to go on for some time. Commercial commercial flights, I take it, have been canceled to New Orleans, or are there still planes coming in?
[Lavandera:] Oh, absolutely, Wolf. This airport essentially has been turned into the only way in is if you have business to do here. And at this time, the business in New Orleans is to fix it. And if you are on an airplane or a helicopter ride in, you have to have something to do with that. I was told by the aviation director here at the airport yesterday that it will probably take about two months before this airport is running back to the way it used to be, which means commercial flights, perhaps tourists bringing back in. But for the next several weeks, you will have to have permission to land at this airport. And that permission is only being given to people on humanitarian or relief missions.
[Blitzer:] All right, Ed. We will get back to you. We will get back to you shortly. Ed Lavandera is over at the airport, the New Orleans Airport. These are new pictures, aerial shots, that we're getting in right now from Air Force One. The president has been touring the region. There's a pool of photographers with the president and the president. These are pictures that are just coming in to CNN right now. Tom Foreman is here in THE SITUATION ROOM. You first of all, show our viewers these shots. This is Biloxi, Mississippi. I want our viewers to get a sense of Biloxi, where that is, Gulfport.
[Tom Foreman, Cnn Correspondent:] Sure.
[Blitzer:] And, of course, where New Orleans is. This whole area basically has been so devastated.
[Foreman:] Sure. This is spread all across this region. And you know what, Wolf? At the moment, my computer is not responding to it. So, we will see if we can get that working.
[Blitzer:] All right. Let's get we will get that hooked up in a moment and we will make sure that you'll be able to zoom in and show our viewers what's going on.
[Foreman:] Sure.
[Blitzer:] Ali Velshi is with us as well. Ali, you were down there. You've been following a very important part of this story, namely, the whole issue of gasoline and oil, the short supplies in the region.
[Ali Velshi, Cnn Anchor:] Yes.
[Blitzer:] And these people have been stranded now. These people have been stranded now, with disease potential, death, obviously.
[Velshi:] Yes. It's very frustrating.
[Blitzer:] The great potential of looting and violence. And now, on top of all of that, another huge problem, Ali, has emerged.
[Velshi:] Yes. You know, this is a very we have been following for a while. But let me tell you what's developed here. Ed was in Kenner. So, he's on the south side of Lake Pontchartrain. Now, if you go just north of the lake this is on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain from Louisiana. Highway I-12, which goes from Baton Rouge to to Slidell, there's a place called Covington. Now, we we had one of our producers out there. And and I don't know if Tom's map is working yet, but we can...
[Blitzer:] It's working, Ali. It's working. He's going to show our viewers. Go ahead.
[Foreman:] This is Covington right here.
[Velshi:] Let's take a look at Covington.
[Foreman:] The little cluster of town of buildings right there is Covington. If you back off, you'll see that this is the bridge that is now impassable. Right there, that little line...
[Velshi:] Yes.
[Foreman:] ... is the bridge that runs all the way down here into New Orleans, across Lake Pontchartrain. It's about a 22-, 26-mile bridge. And you can see how long it is here.
[Velshi:] Yes.
[Foreman:] Right there into New Orleans. That's where it's coming in to Metairie. In New Orleans, right over there is where the levee broke. So this is what we are talking about.
[Velshi:] And that whole area is short of power. And that's that's a different problem that people who are going to get gas are experiencing. We have talked to one of those people. Because of the power, some gas stations can't operate and other gas stations are getting long lines of people, lineups of people. Stephanie Katobi, one of our producers, was was driving by in her work down there and met some people. And we have got Patty on the phone with us. Patty, are you there right now?
[Patty, Motorist In Covington, Louisiana:] Yes, I am, Ali.
[Velshi:] Patty, you guys have been in that lineup since 8:00 a.m., your time, 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time, doing what? Looking for gas?
[Patty:] Waiting for gas with the promise of gas to come. We have been here for six hours.
[Velshi:] Now, you have you are at a gas station that has gas to deliver to you now? It's got gas? They've taken the pumps they have opened the pumps up?
[Patty:] Not yet.
[Velshi:] The reason we're talking to Patty, Wolf and Tom, is because this situation has become so desperate in some cases that Patty is concerned for their safety. Tell me a bit about that, Patty. What are you concerned about and what are you doing about it?
[Patty:] Well, these are desperate times, and you just don't know what you will be approached with, by whom, or if they'll be armed or not armed. So, we are armed.
[Velshi:] You've got a gun.
[Patty:] Yes.
[Velshi:] Are you fearful that someone is going to go after your gas? Has it gotten to that point, that it's it's frightening now just to go and get gas?
[Patty:] Not yet, but people were predicting that, so my husband felt it was smarter to be armed.
[Velshi:] What's the tension level like in that line? It's what is that, a mile long worth of cars?
[Patty:] Much longer than that.
[Velshi:] Much longer. And I understand it's on the other side, too, because you're at Highway 12 Interstate 12 and 190?
[Patty:] And 190.
[Velshi:] So it's a big intersection. There are a lot of people looking for gas.
[Patty:] Exactly. The lines must go on for at least four or five miles on each side. But people are trying to remain civilized. And people are trying to share water and food.
[Velshi:] Now, Wolf, you know, we have heard of instances where people have been held up for their gas. So, there's an understanding that people are they are desperate times and people are suffering and they're getting frustrated. Patty, have you got food and water? Are people around you sort of set up and just calm and in their cars?
[Patty:] Most people are outside of the cars, not wasting the gas. And there is a Waffle House open nearby that we have been able to walk to and get food and water for those that did not bring it with them.
[Velshi:] Patty, what does it look like? Do you look like they're opening up? Does it look like you're going to get your gas sometime soon?
[Patty:] Ali, as we speak, the line is now moving towards the gas station.
[Velshi:] Six hours later, Patty. Good for your patience.
[Patty:] And we now have someone trying to cut in front of the line that hasn't waited for six hours. And people are honking their horns and not letting him in.
[Velshi:] Yes. Just make sure you keep that gun safe. Don't be doing anything you don't need to do. I understand your frustration. And I hope you get your gas very soon, Patty. Thanks for joining us.
[Patty:] Thank you, Ali.
[Velshi:] All right. Wolf.
[Blitzer:] All right, Ali, thanks very much. Clearly an awful situation. As bad as it is getting the gasoline, there's still a lot worse that's going on. We're showing our viewers videotape that we're getting in. This is new video, Marine One. That is the helicopter that's been taking the president and his delegation around the Gulf Coast to get an aerial inspection. Tom Foreman, as we see these pictures coming in they started off in Alabama. And they began to move west towards Mississippi. And now they are in Louisiana. They've been trying to get an up-close look at what's going on. Start off start off with where they started in Mobile, Alabama. That was the president's first stop earlier today. And then, from Mobile, they went over to Biloxi. And then now they are finally winding up in New Orleans. Give our viewers a little sense of where all this is.
[Foreman:] Very good. This is first of all, let's get a sense of New Orleans, because we all know about that one. Right over here, there's New Orleans down in the corner down here. When we talk about the Gulf, there's Lake Pontchartrain up above. This is Lake Borgne over here. You normally cut between these two lakes when you are going to the Gulf. And when you get up in here, you start going along all the area that has been hit by the storm here, leading you to all of these different towns.
[Blitzer:] All that waterfront property and pretty far inland is destroyed.
[Foreman:] Absolutely. Now, we're going to zoom in here. And I will see if I can find the right locations. It will take a moment to get us squared away here. But these are the communities that were hit so hard. And we're going to start with Pascagoula. Pascagoula is one of these places that really got hammered. And if you if we go all the way into some of our target areas here, you can see, this is what it looked like before the storm hit. And when I click on this, we will find the strike area here. Now, we have to bring it up here the proper way. Well, now our image is flying. We ought to take a moment to get this squared away.
[Blitzer:] Pascagoula is the has the senator from Mississippi, Trent Lott, had a home in Pascagoula.
[Foreman:] Exactly.
[Blitzer:] That home has been destroyed.
[Foreman:] Exactly. Now we're flying back into Pascagoula to get a good look at it here. This is the waterfront in Pascagoula, which, like all these areas, is very, very popular with local people. They love going into this place. Look down here at the waterfront. This is before the storm. You can see the houses. Everything looks good. Now look at it now same area. Look at the destruction to these houses here. I will go back and forth again. That's Pascagoula today, or recently. This is Pascagoula before let me get it back to beforehand. This is Pascagoula well, the different images are all smashed up here in this general area. So, you have a sense of what was happening in Pascagoula when it was all perfectly fine, and then you see what happens to it afterward. Now, let's move on down the way. If you come down past Pascagoula, and all these ruined homes, you're going to come to Biloxi, which is going to be our next stop in little trip here. We're going to fly over to Biloxi. You see, we are moving down the Gulf, across the little bay area here.
[Blitzer:] Going to the west.
[Foreman:] Yes. Exactly. We are headed west toward New Orleans. And we come down to Biloxi. I want you to look at why help can't get to anybody here. If we zoom into this shot in particular, look at this. This is the waterfront area. You see the bridges down here? This is a bridge leading across the way. If you were going to Pascagoula, you'd hop on this bridge. Look what's happened to this bridge. That's before.
[Blitzer:] That used to be a bridge.
[Foreman:] That's what it used to be. This is what it is now. If we go in here and take a look at it now there look at the remains of that bridge. Broken all to pieces.
[Blitzer:] Katrina did all...
[Foreman:] All up and down there. There's another piece of a bridge up there. That was also a bridge. If you look at that little piece right there, same thing. If we go back and forth, you see it beforehand, a bridge, afterwards, wreckage. Look at the neighborhood nearby. That's what's left of it. This is what it was before. This is what it is now. Before. Now. That's what the president is flying over and that's what he's seeing right now. And this is all in this area. Let's move further down. We talked about Gulfport, which is one of the other big areas. We are going to fly down to Gulfport.
[Blitzer:] In Mississippi, still in Mississippi.
[Foreman:] In Mississippi, exactly. So, now we fly to Gulfport, a little bit further down. All of these towns are in Mississippi, by the way. It's all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, as you mentioned, from Mobile...
[Blitzer:] That whole Mississippi Gulf Coast, as Haley Barbour, the governor, has pointed out, is basically destroyed.
[Foreman:] Look at this. This is one of the casino areas. This is the kind of place where people like to hang out and have a good time. This is the area beforehand. You see boats over here, little slips for their boats. You see some areas out here. One of the big gambling places was out here. You see this little place in the middle there. I want you to look at this.
[Blitzer:] They can have the hotels on land, but all the casinos themselves have to be in the water.
[Foreman:] Exactly. I want you to look at this one in particular right here. We are right down the middle. Now, I'm going to back off just a little bit. This is before the storm. Same area after the storm. The barge we just saw a moment ago, the little white thing, look at it now. It's up here at the top of the picture. That's were it went.
[Blitzer:] So, that wind just...
[Foreman:] Huge. Well, the storm surge.
[Blitzer:] ... moved it, the surge.
[Foreman:] Yes, sure, the storm surge and the wind. Look at the damage inland. You move inland, same thing, just a wreckage of homes here, compared to what they had before. That's what happened in this particular area. If you look at that whole dock right in there, you can see little boats and everything that were normally there beforehand. Right here, all the cars, all the boats, all the parking areas, all the buildings now gone.
[Blitzer:] You know, while we are taking a look Tom, stand by a second. CNN's Ted Rowlands is in Biloxi, Mississippi, right now. Give us a little update, Ted. What's happening there?
[Ted Rowlands, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, President Bush drove by here, this exact spot, about an hour and 15 minutes ago. And he saw firsthand the devastation, an example of it. This is what it looks like. I don't know what you could see from Tom's maps in terms of detail. But this is the detail that President Bush is now looking at firsthand, driving around. Not only this city, but the entire Gulf Coast, looks like this. This used to be a home. And, of course, it no longer is standing. And it is you know, people come here and they just don't know what to do. And they don't know and where to go next. They come and weed through their belongings, looking for something. The president did talk to one family. Hayes Bolton is a shopkeeper. He had a buy-and-sell shop, which is now...
[Hayes Bolton, Resident Of Biloxi, Mississippi:] A pawn shop.
[Rowlands:] ... is literally intermixed with this house next door and the rest of it. Hayes, what do you think of the president coming down here and seeing this firsthand? Something he had to do?
[Bolton:] I think it was something he had to do, something that was totally necessary for him to do. And we're of course, we are glad to see him. We hope that he brought a lot of help with him, because, here on the coast, we need lots of help. I realize New Orleans needs a lot of help also, but we are just devastated here.
[Rowlands:] It's a little different feeling here than it is in New Orleans. The unrest isn't as pervasive here. There's some frustration.
[Bolton:] Yes, sir.
[Rowlands:] Are you frustrated with the response from the states and from the federal government, in terms of getting to people that need water, food, et cetera?
[Bolton:] I am frustrated with that, due to the fact that we don't have enough gas. We don't have any electricity. We don't have water. But they should have it seems that they should have brought in the food and water sooner than what has been available so far. It seems right now, there's a little ice. There's a little water. There's almost no food available, as far as set out. I have heard some rumors about the Salvation Army having portable places open, that type thing. But we need more of it.
[Rowlands:] And communication doesn't seem to be getting the information doesn't seem to be getting to people where they can get these services. That said, you, yourself, were you lived through Camille. Many of these people lived through Camille. These homes lived through Camille.
[Bolton:] Yes.
[Rowlands:] And everybody measured Camille, using that as the yardstick. If you can survive Camille, you can survive anything. And do you give the federal government and the state a bit of a pass for that same reason?
[Bolton:] Possibly, because they were measuring everything by Camille. But Katrina is the new measurement of hurricanes that we're going to know for decades, because, hopefully, we won't ever suffer anything as devastating as Katrina. If we do, we're going to be in bad shape, or the area that suffers it is going to be more devastated than this one could ever be.
[Rowlands:] What do you think when you look at this?
[Bolton:] It's just absolutely mind-boggling. It's hard for me to understand how a force of nature could take structures and just make matchsticks and kindling out of them. It just as I drove in this morning and I came down Porter Avenue and I looked at all of this, it was like I'd seen it for the first time. It's crazy. It's nuts. I can't deal with it. I'm sorry.
[Rowlands:] It's all right. All right, Hayes Bolton showing the emotion that is pervasive down here, Wolf. People come. They look at their what used to be their homes and they just don't know what to do. And it's going to take a lot of time, like the president said, possibly years, before this area is back to where it was before Katrina.
[Blitzer:] Ted Rowlands, thanks very much. Thank you. Thank Mr. Bolton for us as well. Wish him and everyone else there good luck. We have got some live pictures from the New Orleans Airport. You can see Air Force One on the tarmac there. They're going to be waiting for the president to come back to New Orleans. I'm not exactly sure where he is right now, but we are going to be watching every step. Actually, we're told he is on board Air Force One and he'll be touring, continuing his tour of the region. He's also going to be speaking. Once he addresses New Orleans, once he addresses the nation, we're going to bring that to our viewers live. We're also standing by. Jack Cafferty is standing by in New York. He's got some thoughts on all of this. We're also going to go to Houston. The Astrodome is now filled to capacity, and stops accepting evacuees from the Superdome in New Orleans. This question, where will the thousands still seeking refuge be able to go? We're going to take a closer look at that. And the search for the missing continuing, desperate family members seeking their loved ones. We have their stories and lots more. Our continuing coverage here in THE SITUATION ROOM right after a short break.