Northern California Braces for a Second Storm; Wildfires Burning in Texas
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A second day of dramatic scenes in northern California. Dangerous flood waters wreak havoc and more rain is on the way. Hundreds of millions of dollars raised in the wake of last year's deadly tsunami. But why has only a small portion of that money been distributed? And what happens when a third of a country's natural gas supply is cut off? The former Soviet republic of Ukraine is about to find out. Happy New Year and welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. All that and more after a look at other stories now in the news. President Bush is speaking out today in defense of his controversial domestic spying program. He says it tracks only calls coming into the United States that are made by people linked to al Qaeda. The president insists the program is within the law. An American teenager who traveled to Iraq is one step closer to home, 16-year-old Farris Hassan flew to Europe today from Kuwait, but his father won't reveal when his son will arrive back in the U.S. for security reasons. Hassan traveled to Baghdad as part of a journalistic learning experience, without his parents' knowledge. The U.S. needs to do a lot more to prepare for possible bird flu pandemic. That's the assessment of two top health officials. The director of the CDC said today vaccine supplies are not sufficient and Health Secretary Mike Leavitt says more funding is needed to ensure all Americans have access to vaccines in the event of an outbreak. 2006 is starting much like 2005 ended in northern California with lots of rain. The region is bracing for a second storm, and it's cleaning up after the first one. A New Year's Eve deluge that caused floods and mudslides. Hundreds of miles away, it's the opposite problem. Rain would be a welcome sight in Oklahoma and Texas, where a dry spell has created extreme wildfire conditions. Our coverage starts with a dramatic rescue in Ukiah, California. The U.S. Coast Guard came to the aid of a woman whose car was almost completely submerged in the flood. To make things even worse, the driver was stuck in her fastened seatbelt and couldn't budge. Rescuers had to cut her from the car and airlift her to a helicopter. Everyone, in the end, made it out safely. Well, we have two correspondents on the scene. In northern California, CNN's Sumi Das is in Truckee. But let's start with our Kareen Wynter in Napa County. Kareen, what is the latest there?</s>KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, you may be able to hear the sound from the hoses, the rakes, the shovels, all behind me. They are definitely cleaning up in this downtown Napa neighborhood after yesterday's severe flooding. They're going through all this mud here. You can see the debris, what's left of part of someone's property. And over here, Fredricka, well yesterday this is how people had to get around -- by boat. That's because the water levels here were so high, several feet, that people were stranded in their vehicles. And those who came back late in the day wanting to check on their homes, this was the only means. Now one person I spoke with that he hasn't seen anything like this, not even close in years. He said, "What a way to start off the new year." But there is some good news I can tell you about at this hour. According to the city, the water levels have receded significantly. In fact, they're not expecting it to reach the flood stage. So it won't be a threat at all today, even with the second storm coming, despite some of the rain that we've already experienced this morning.</s>JERRY ROACH, NAPA RESIDENT: Definitely feel for people whose lives have turned upside down. It isn't just one day. It takes a little white to recover from this. And there's always -- it smells here too after awhile for like, I don't know, a month.</s>WYNTER: And if you think it's bad in this neighborhood, well, our neighbors to the south of us, they had things a lot worse. In Marin County, a beautiful hillside community in the Canyons, one resident's home was just completely, completely damaged by the mudslides there. One neighbor who caught the action, he saw everything happen, he said it happened so quickly, that the mud from the hillsides just rolled down and toppled the back half of that neighbor's property. That man says that he doesn't know where to even begin, where to pick up the pieces and said it was a good thing, Fredricka, that he wasn't home at the time. He doesn't think he or his son would have escaped.</s>WHITFIELD: Now, Kareen, is the feeling that the worst is over, is now behind them, or isn't there another front of rain that could come and pose yet another potential danger?</s>WYNTER: Well, in Marin County, the rain will definitely have more of an effect there. That one home was almost wiped out, but there are a lot of other homes that could be threatened. They're all along the hillside area. As to where we are in the downtown part of Napa, California, this is pretty much what people will be dealing with today: trying to get all of this debris not only from the front of their homes onto the sidewalks, but inside their homes, Fredricka, there's extensive water damage. And so they're trying to clean up and get that out again. They know that it probably won't be as destructive as yesterday, in terms of the storm. But quite a lot of cleanup work here. They want to get a handle on it.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Kareen Wynter in Napa County. Thanks so much. Well, let's check on the conditions to the northeast, near California's border with Nevada. CNN's Sumi Das is in Truckee, where they're it's not rain, but snow that could be a big problem. Hi, Sumi.</s>SUMI DAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It just started snowing a couple of hours ago, actually. And the winter weather has really delivered a one, two punch to the Sierra Nevada, and it's already caused at least one problem. About five miles east of Truckee, where we are, Interstate 80 was shut down in both directions when a number of slides covered the highway with mud and rocks, and it trapped six big rigs. Now Interstate 80, of course, runs all the way from California to the East Coast. And it's a pretty crucial road that gets a lot of big rig traffic. Those slides happened very early Saturday morning. We spoke to a CHP officer earlier today who said that eastbound 80 would probably open this afternoon. And that westbound traffic would be allowed to travel on 80 starting tomorrow morning, Monday morning. Now 15 -- about 15 California Department of Transportation vehicles have been working around the clock to clear up the 250,000 cubic yards of debris. To give you an idea of how strong the slide was, it pushed 350 feet of the center divider to one side of the road. Now with another storm bearing down on the Sierra Nevada, the cleanup could not happen soon enough.</s>STEVE SKEEN, OFFICER, CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL: The concern now since the slide occurred, the weather's pretty much cooperated with us and we've been able to get a handle on things. But we are anticipating as much as a foot of snow from this afternoon to Monday afternoon. So we're working as quickly as we can to get the roadway reopened.</s>DAS: The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm warning that went into effect just a few minutes ago, at 4:00 p.m. local time. It's going to last for the next 24 hours. This is going to be a colder storm, which is good news. It's been raining, which of course does not present the best skiing conditions. It's powder that brings people to the mountains. The National Weather Service is predicting six-to-12 inches of snow at the lake level in the Lake Tahoe basin and more snow at higher elevations. But about 7,000 feet, they'll get one-to-two feet. Now this week, between Christmas and New Year's, is typically one of the busiest for the north Lake Tahoe area. And so this really could cause a lot of problems for folks who are probably going to be hitting the road to head back home. And I can tell you, Fredricka, that I have done that road before when it's been snowing. It's no fun, it just crawls along.</s>WHITFIELD: You've got to be real patient, drive slow. All right, Sumi Das, thanks so much, in Truckee. Well let's get a more complete picture, in fact of the whole weather situation, whether it's just in that Truckee area and beyond, along the West Coast and even troubles in the midsection of the country.</s>MONICA MCNEAL, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We've got a mix.</s>WHITFIELD: Monica McNeal, yes we really do. We have a messy mix.</s>WHITFIELD: We really do. And that fire danger you speak of, already we know that it has indeed produced more fires in the Dallas area. Our Ed Lavandera is actually in Dallas right now and he joins us on the phone to give us an idea of how things have been triggered yet again today. Ed?</s>ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on phone): Hi, Fredricka. We've been talking to officials throughout the day here in Texas and Oklahoma, and we're told that firefighters across the state, from the panhandle of Texas, all the way down into Central Texas, have been battling a number of fires throughout the day. Some of them kind of small, others 30 acres, others -- one in particular that is up to about 1,800 acres of land that's being burned right now. The most significant one that officials are working at this point is one in Eastland County, which is west of Fort Worth, about three- to-four miles south of a town of Carbon, Texas, where we're told emergency teams are out there right now, battling a fire. They're still not sure exactly how large this fire is, but it is apparently threatening some homes. We're told that there are some evacuations of homes in that area. I'm not exactly sure at this point how many people and how many homes are being threatened. We're still trying to gather that. I was told just a little ago by some forestry officials here in the state that they're sending helicopters into that area to begin surveying and figuring out what would be needed to battle this fire that seems to be -- they suspect will get worse before they're able to contain it. Of course, very high winds in the state and low humidity, they say is kind of creating the ideal conditions for these wildfires across the state. And here as we progress into the early afternoon hours -- or the later afternoon hours, I should say, they expect that it will be only get worse.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Ed Lavandera, thanks so much for joining us on the telephone. We'll give you a chance to do even more reporting and check back with you. Meantime also, in Texas, President Bush has been visiting troops and defending a controversial decision. We get the latest on his comments straight ahead. And the Red Across took in hundreds of millions of dollars for the victims of the Asian tsunami. How is that money being spent? We'll get an update.</s>BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider with a look at your cold and flu report for today. As we check out the map, we can show you where we've had reports of the flu so far this season. You'll find widespread activity in one state, that's Utah, where numerous cases of the flu have been reported. Otherwise, regional activity of the flu in California, down through the southwest. Sporadic activity through much of the country, including Texas, Florida, and upwards towards New York state. And the northern tier of the U.S. Otherwise, no activity, which is good news for state like Louisiana, on into Arkansas. That's a look at your cold and flu report for today. Hope everyone has a very healthy 2006.