Dog's Reunion After Hurricane Rita
WHITFIELD: More on this developing story of grassfire in Texas and in Oklahoma right now. Right now you're looking at new pictures coming in out of Lubbock, Texas, where we're witnessing a farm there that has been engulfed in these grassfires that are spontaneously dotting the map. Many officials say right now it's inexplicable. They don't know the cause of these grassfires but they're certainly causing a lot problems and they're kicking up and being fueled by the weather conditions. It's so dry there and in Lubbock, there are high wind warnings in effect. And that's only helping to blow some of the flames and the sparks, helping to spread the fire. Now, in our final best of story today, separation and reunion. The hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast in 2005 left families of all kinds dealing with painful separations. It also gave some of our colleague a chance to bring loved ones together. You first saw Miles O'Brien tell the story on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." I think there is a dog in here. We're going to go in.</s>MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): It was the morning after Hurricane Rita. We had just weathered the storm at the police station when shortly after dawn we heard a whimper amid the wreckage of a storage shed. (on camera): There we go. There he is. Oh. Don't let him go. Don't let him go. He's OK. He's just scared and wet. (voice over): It was a spontaneous moment which later provided some grist for Jon Stewart. (on camera): And we'll make sure that the dog gets back to its rightful owner.</s>JON STEWART, "THE DAILY SHOW": This story has a happy ending. Miles O'Brien was adopted by a nice family in Baton Rouge.</s>O'BRIEN (voice over): The truth is, for producer Dana Garrett, it was love at first sight.</s>GARRETT: When she came out of that crate she was so forlorn looking. And she just crawled into my lap. And honestly, if she had had arms to hug me, she would have. She just crawled up and pressed against me and was just so sweet. And I really just fell in love with her immediately.</s>O'BRIEN: No tags, no phone number on the crate. And police said if the owner did not materialize soon the dog would be put to sleep.</s>GARRETT: Especially having rescued her, I just thought, you know, I can't let that happen.</s>O'BRIEN: A week passed. No one came forward. Dana and the dog left town together to Dana's home in New York. She named her Sunny. She made fast friends, canine and human alike. It was a happy ending. Or so it seemed.</s>MISTY MCCOURTNEY, RESCUED DOG'S OWNER: Hey, is my mom there?</s>O'BRIEN: Enter Misty McCourtney, the dog's rightful owner. The 17-year-old adopted the puppy when she was only 4 weeks old, named her Nevaeh. That's heaven spelled backwards.</s>MCCOURTNEY: We end up taking her home the first night we got her. She couldn't eat on her own, so we bottle-fed her.</s>O'BRIEN: Misty had been frantically trying to track the dog down. She finally got the story from police. And six weeks after we rescued the dog, Dana got the call she feared.</s>GARRETT: I knew at that point that I was so attached that I wasn't going to be able to just put her in a crate and put her on a plane and ship her back home.</s>O'BRIEN: So Dana drove her back 1,300 miles to Misty's new home with her dad in Nebraska. Here she is.</s>MCCOURTNEY: Nevaeh, hi there, baby. Oh my god. Oh, you're getting me all dirty, but I don't care.</s>GARRETT: She saw Misty and she was happy. But then it kicked in, and you could see when she really realized who it was. And she got so excited and just started whimpering and scampering around. And it just made me feel so good that she recognized her and was really happy to see her.</s>MCCOURTNEY: I just feel really, really excited that she's here. And I want to thank you so much for bringing her back. I'm really happy you brought her back.</s>O'BRIEN: A bittersweet end to the tale of the pup-struck producer, the grateful owner and a well-loved pooch. Miles O'Brien, CNN, New York.</s>WHITFIELD: And be sure to join Miles and Soledad O'Brien weekday mornings at 6:00 a.m. Eastern for CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." Now, new pictures coming in out of Guthrie, Oklahoma where there too, there are these grassfires taking place. And earlier when some grassfires struck in the Guthrie area it had shut down parts of the Kilpatrick Turnpike and the traffic headed north and southbound on I- 35 were also affected. And apparently, according to the Associated Press, at least two houses have been destroyed. Right now, we're not sure if the pictures that we're seeing would document that yet other homes or buildings or structures are being destroyed, as well. But you are seeing something fully engulfed. Monica McNeal is in the weather center. And Monica, we are seeing a lot of widespread destruction and serious threats taking place from Texas to Oklahoma all as a result of these very dry windy conditions.</s>MCNEAL: Right, you know what, also, is playing a big part is the lack of sufficient rainfall over recent weeks. And the low deficit of rainfall over the past couple of months. When you couple that with a very dry and dormant vegetation, these fires can spark from everything. After the ground has been so very dry from no rainfall over an extended period of time, anything can help spark a fire, fireworks, a car starting, engines, any of those things really do contribute to this problem.</s>WHITFIELD: That's a terrible situation. And you know, while we talk about these fires, still officials say they're not really clear if it's a common denominator sparking all these fires or if there are different factors coming into play. It really is putting a big stress on these firefighter teams and mechanisms because we're talking about areas that are so widespread and in some cases very remote.</s>MCNEAL: Right. Exactly. And you know what? Something else I want to point out with the very dry ground, the extreme drought, that's a big problem. You've got the strong winds. Those southwest winds are really hammering and really hampering their efforts. And then when you factor in the dry air, you have humidity between 10 and 15 percent and something else very important, the dew point. You may hear us talk about the dew point a lot. The dew point right now is 21 percent. That means that there is absolutely no moisture in the air, Fredricka</s>WHITFIELD: And Monica, this is really odd. We're talking about this time of year, this is the kind of scene we expect to see in the summer but not at the start of the year.</s>MCNEAL: Exactly. Exactly. And also what's factoring in as well, these temperatures. We've got unseasonably warm temperatures for this time of the year. We're talking about temperatures right now in Oklahoma City, it's 72 degrees at the beginning of January. You know, so we're in winter with these extensive warm temperatures.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Monica McNeal, thank you so much. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We're going to continue our commitment to look into these fires in Oklahoma as well as Texas and of course, the other situation, the polar opposite of too much water, too much rain out in California. We're going to continue to look at that. Carol Lin is up next in the next hour.