Gary Tuchman
AC360 Correspondent

Not a drop of rain has fallen in Galveston as I write this. But many streets are already flooded. The waves from the Gulf of Mexico are slopping over the 17-foot sea wall that protects this city.

I am seeing this while in-line skating around Galveston. I like to skate for exercise, but it’s also a good way to gather news, because sometimes you see and hear things on skates that you don’t from a car.

And what I’m witnessing is this: nearly abandoned streets, which is good, but the occasional house with a family inside, which is not.

I saw a man and woman in a driveway discussing the merits of leaving. The woman wanted to go now, the man said let’s wait for it to get worse. As the interloper rollerblading nearby, I offered my two cents. Go. As I skated away, the man was thinking about it.

The National Weather Service has issued a dire warning about this storm, predicting “certain death” for people in one- or two-story one family homes near the Galveston coast. I hope that warning ends up being overly dramatic, but if it were my family in a small home near the beach, I’d be long gone.

Gary Tuchman
AC360 Correspondent

We’re on Galveston Island just southeast of Houston which will be a very poor place to be Friday night.

Hurricane Ike is on the way, and the national weather service has released the most dire statement I have ever seen in my career.

“Life threatening inundation likely!” according to the weather service, and then this startling sentence.

“Persons not heeding evacuation orders in single family one or two story homes will face certain death.”

The weather service is not supposed to use hyperbole, so what is being said at this hour is chilling.

Editor’s Note:
We are devoting many posts today to the anniversary of 9/11, with first-hand accounts, insight, and commentary dedicated to that day seven years ago that changed our world.
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New Yorkers gather to hold a vigil to remember the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

Gary Tuchman | Bio
AC360° Correspondent

For seven years, I have marveled at the utter cowardice of the 9/11 hijackers. Could there be anything lower than knowing you’re going to die, and deciding that you want to take as many innocent human beings who have families, hopes and dreams with you? It also astounds me so many people did and still do consider Osama Bin Laden a hero.

Certainly, it’s a terrible disappointment the guy hasn’t been brought to justice. But really; if he is still alive, he’s too afraid to stick his face out in public. It’s all part of the cowardly terrorist tradition.

Now, let’s talk about the courageous. . I started meeting them seven years ago, when I watched rescuers search for survivors at the World Trade Center site as fires raged and tons of metal from the ruined complex hung precariously.

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Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans was empty, Monday.

Gary Tuchman | Bio
AC360° Correspondent

Bourbon Street was a barren street. The road where it takes you a half hour to walk two blocks through thousands of people during Mardi Gras, had nobody on it when we were shooting video in the worst of Hurricane Gustav.

The street and the entire city as a matter of fact, haven’t been this empty since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The effectiveness of the hurricane evacuation was remarkable and commendable. But a tiny percentage of New Orleanians decided not to leave, and one of the people who didn’t leave is a guy I want to tell you about.

Russell Gore lives in New Orleans East, a neighborhood that was devastated during Katrina. And nobody was more personally devastated than Russell. He and his wife Cindy did not evacuate during Katrina, and while they were in their house, floodwaters tore into it.
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Gary Tuchman
AC360° Correspondent

A 44 year old woman from Alaska may soon be the Vice President of the United States; but that is not the main topic of conversation in the city where I am right now. In New Orleans, Louisiana, the name Sarah Palin is not nearly as well known as the name Gustav.

There is this creepy feeling of déjà vu in this city. I spent part of this day rollerblading around town and was struck by how many people asked me if I knew anything more than they did about Gustav’s path.

When I was in New Orleans and Gulfport, Mississippi in the days before Katrina, I remember a lot of people saying they did not think they would get hit. Now, it’s the opposite. We are still days away from Gustav hitting land in the U.S., but virtually everybody I’ve talked with today is actively planning for the worst.

At the Walgreen’s, they are already sold out of flashlights and batteries. At a souvenir shop, they were sizing up windows so they could start boarding them up. On Bourbon Street, business owners were wondering if they would have to evacuate before the busy Labor Day weekend comes to an end.

On this three year anniversary of a hurricane we will never forget, there is fear and unease in the Big Easy.

Warren Jeffs

Gary Tuchman
AC360° Correspondent

Warren Jeff’s fundamentalist polygamist sect has never been so vulnerable.

A grand jury in Texas has indicted three FLDS members on charges related to accusations of sexual abuse of children through marriage of underage girls to older men.

This follows the indictment of five others last month, including Warren Jeffs himself on new charges, Jeffs is already in prison after being convicted as an accomplice to rape for arranging an underage marriage.

There is no reason to doubt that more members of this church are being investigated.

One might think all this is giving some  members second thoughts. But in this church, where the hierarchy is as rigid and strict as old Stalinist regimes, no member in good standing would ever tell an outsider that.

On the contrary, one member I called tells me this “strengthens his faith.” It’s an attack against their religion, he says.

Justice may be getting served. But it’s also increasing a martyr complex among members of this church. And you have to wonder what effect that might have on the men, women and children of this church.

Program Note: She’s candid, freewheeling, interesting, and maybe sometimes a bit too blunt. We go on the trail with John McCain’s 23-year-old daughter, Meghan. Watch Gary Tuchman’s report Thursday, 10p ET

Gary Tuchman
AC360° Correspondent
 
John McCain can be described in many ways. Hip is not one of them.

But his 23-year-old daughter is a different story. Meghan McCain is out on the campaign trail with her father. And she is chronicling her campaign adventures with her eye on people more likely to watch American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance than one of her father’s campaign events.

Meghan has created a blog called mccainbloggette.com in which she offers a unique, unusual, and close-up look at her dad’s campaign and what takes place around it. She doesn’t talk about policy.
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Hundreds of bags wait to be checked at New York's Kennedy Airport Wednesday. The baggage system was not functioning, delaying some flights and others to take off without baggage.

Gary Tuchman
AC360° correspondent

The major airlines (with the notable and commendable exception of Southwest) are in a feeding frenzy to not only implement, but continue raising the price of checked luggage. Fuel prices are high, but they’ve gone up in dramatic fashion before in the age of air travel, so trotting that out as the reason for these fees doesn’t inspire one to feel pity for the industry.

What is apparent is that the airlines are sticking together. If one of the majors decided to make 2 checked bags free again, there would be pressure on the others to re-adjust.

Either way, here is something to think about. If your luggage doesn’t arrive on your flight, and instead ends up late or lost, shouldn’t you be entitled to a refund?

Remarkably, there are no provisions for that. If you pay 125 dollars for a third checked bag and it gets lost, you are still responsible for the 125 dollars! With that logic, no wonder the industry is in so much trouble.

Watch Gary Tuchman go deep inside Utah's Crandall Canyon Mine, last year, where the six workers were trapped, and his interview with owner, Bob Murray.

Gary Tuchman
AC360° Correspondent

A few days after six of his coal miners were trapped in the Crandall Canyon mine, the owner of the Utah mine Bob Murray, allowed several journalists, including me, to travel deep into the mine to watch the feverish attempts to rescue the men. It is believed to be the first time journalists were ever allowed in a coal mine during such a rescue attempt.

While we were down there, we heard a deafening noise and the mine started to shake. Everyone I looked at, journalists and rescuers, seemed to freeze for a few seconds. I thought the mine was about to collapse.
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Gary Tuchman struggles to stand as Hurricane Dolly ravages South Padre Island, Texas. Read his experience below.
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Gary Tuchman
AC360° Correspondent

Don’t mess with Dolly

As I write this, much of South Padre Island, Texas is underwater. It looks very much like parts of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Missouri from a few weeks ago, but the way South Padre got to this point has been much more rapid fire…

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