in this tampa convention hall. pressure is clearly on mitt romney for tomorrow night. you will be here. i'll be here. our entire team will be here ladies and gentlemen, these past four years we have suffered no shortage of words it the white house. what is missing is leadership in the white house. >> a jolt to the gop convention, paul ryan painting the president as a disappointment. and tonight, the main event, mitt romney says i accept. >> and our other big story, the relentless storm, isaac still dumping rain on louisiana, this morning, new evacuations, buses and boats bringing thousands to safety this morning, good morning to you, welcome to early

start, i'm zoraida sambolin. >> and i'm john berman live at the cnn grille in tampa for the republican national convention where tonight mitt romney will give the biggest speech yet of his politil life. tonight he will accept the republican party nomination and make his case to the american people for a romney presidency. last night it was his running mate, paul ryan, who took the fight directly to president obama in his speech. he attacked the president on health care reform, the jobs crisis and what ryan said was a failure in leadership. i'm joined this morning by cnn white house correspondent, brianna keilar and for republicans waiting for this convention to take a direct aim at president obama they got their wish last night. >> they got it in paul ryan and he was very much targeting president obama on the economy, that's his wheelhouse, being the budget chairman in the house of representatives. he talked about in his words essentially, the president's disappointment when it comes to spending. he talked about the stimulus

package. he talked about health care reform and also how much that cost. and he really lambasted him and talked about in a way how president obama has been this idol or this icon in a way and there was an interesting sound byte addressed to that. here's what he said. >> college graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life. >> so rousing applause there, obviously. but there was this other element to his speech that i found intriguing and that was the ipod moment when he talked about the difference in music that he enjoys between mitt romney and himself. he was saying that mitt romney likes elevator music.

this tongue in cheek poke at mitt romney. maybe he is compared to mitt romney as being the old fudy-duddy. >> you think there was a risk there reminding people that mitt romney may not be what he considers to be quote-unquote cool. >> new jersey governor chris christie got some criticism about not bringing up mitt romney at all. and paul ryan brought him up early. >> he talked about his faith, and this struck me, we heard mike huckabee talk about mitt romney's faith. he talked about it an evangelical. he said he's an evangelical, but our differences are not that far. and you have paul ryan saying we have different faiths, but our values are the same. here's that moment. >> ben and i also go to different churches, but in any church the best kind of

preaching is done by example and i've been watching that example. the man who will accept your nomination tomorrow is prayerful and faithful and honorable. >> so i thought that was a really intriguing moment and obviously very clear that the romney campaign feels this is an issue they need to deal with. it will be an interesting to see if we hear romney talk about it himself tonight. >> they made it clear that the audience connected with paul ryan in a really, really intimate way, we saw wisconsin governor scott walker crying. we have a lot to talk about in tampa and now back to you. >> i was reading, "u.s.a. today," it says ryan puts a fresh face in the grand old party. now to our other top story, tropical storm isaac's battering of southeast louisiana. it's a slow, agonizing water torture. take a look at isaac at this

hour. he is slow-moving and still packing 60-mile-per-hour winds and stinging rains. right now thousands are being evacuated west of new orleans in saint john parish after a storm surge forced water over the banks of lake pontchartrain. dozens of people who failed to heed the evacuation warnings, finding themself in need of desperate rescue. the kind of flooding the saint john's parish did not see even during hurricane katrina. david mattingly standing live in gulfport, mississippi and meteorologist karen mcginness is tracking the storm. first, plaquemines parish where the leveesy not high enough to hold back the rising floodwaters and yesterday it was our breaking news that it had overtopped the levees and the president said he thought other

levees would overtop and he was right. >> he was right. this was a danger all along. parts of this levey only about eight feet high, outside the zone where the government spent so much money, the federal government spent so much money to upgrade the levee system. so they were concerned that this could happen and they were warning, they did warn every resident. this was under a mandatory evacuation order, that several dozen people decide dodd stay and several dozen people had to be rescued at the height of hurricane conditions. so this was, this was a real desperate situation for several hours yesterday. today is a day to assess the damage. we're supposed to hopefully meet with the president of the parish later, while he assesses some of the damage here and just kind of tries to get his head around how to recover from some of this and what to do about the floodwaters. one thing they're going to try to do to relieve some of the flooding here, the army corps of

engineers is going to try a diversion. they have water from a channel from the mississippi, if it's swollen it's pumped into a marshland that's lower than the mississippi river. right now the marshland is higher than the mississippi river and they're going to try to reverse that process. they explained how they worked. >> there's a freshwater diversion channel structure near to that community. typically what it does is it dwerts freshwater from the mississippi river to the marshland. what we've been requesting is to use it in reverse and use the structure backwards to flow the floodwater from the plaquemines to the mississippi river. >> this is just a gravity-based process. the water from the flooding is just open the gates and the water from the flooding hopefully will flood out into the mississippi river. that's big enough to absorb it at this point. and hopefully provide some relief for thousands of people in this parish.

zoraida? >> do you happen to know how many people are affected by all of this flooding? >> well, it's in the several thousands. they've said that hundreds of people called in and they rescued at least 75 people yesterday. thousands will have to make some kind of plan to either evacuate or get to higher ground. this place was under a mandatory evacuation order. so most of the parish did heed the warnings and got out. >> i know yesterday the president was saying in that area, about 2,000 people. but i wasn't sure if that expanded because of those additional levees that overtopped. brian todd, thank you so much for that report. and late last night we learned that president obama signed federal disaster declarations for dozens of areas of louisiana and mississippi where nonstop rain led to more dramatic rescues. dozens of people plucked to

safety, some by land and some of them by water. national correspondent david mattingly is in gulfport, mississippi, any let-up to the rain there? i thought i was told that the conditions are almost exactly the same as when we went to you yesterday. >> that's right. a very sad case of deja vu this morning, this storm still not letting up so much. we have rain, tropical storm-force winds this morning. the same thing we've had, more than 24 hours now. when i talked to you yesterday, the conditions were almost exactly the same. the only thing different now is this storm is now slowly decreasing in intensity, where yesterday it was still ramping up. but right now, in mississippi, we're hearing all over the place, no one anticipated this much rain this long. this storm, when it parked itself just off the gulf coast after encountering the louisiana coast. just stopped there. and officials here were planning on this hurricane to come in and

then keep moving on out the way they thought it might do. but instead, with it staying there, all the rain from the eastern side of the storm kept whipping in and dumping right on mississippi. they had to revise their rainfall estimates from about a foot of rain to over a foot, up to 18 inches and we're hearing this morning there may have been some areas of mississippi receiving even more than that. overnight and yesterday, we've got reports that there were a couple of instances where people had to be rescued from their work and from their homes. we're also hearing about widespread flooding cutting off roads throughout southern mississippi. so today, will be finally be the day that officials can get out there with their damage assessment and people might be able to start to get out and figure out what they're going to have to do to put their lives back together after unfortunately getting caught in all this water, the flooding and so many of the low-lying areas here in coastal mississippi.

>> david mattingly live in gulfport, mississippi. meteorologist karen mcginness is tracking isaac and predicting that it's not going away and is wreaking havoc on those areas. what's the latest? >> it's been a very grim situation as we've been watching over the last several days. it's wringing itself out across louisiana, southern mississippi and alabama. just making its way very slowly towards the northwest. its position puts it 100 miles northwest of new orleans. but that doesn't mean that we're still not seeing the impact from this for new orleans. but over the next several days, it is expected to move on towards little rock as a tropical depression, we'll have a remnant area of low pressure that could still potentially squeeze out between three and six inches of rain across the central mississippi valley region. eventually making its way towards the ohio river valley. but this rainfall may be too little too late for a lot of us

summer crops. take a look at the rainfall totals, a staggering statistic that's come out of the storm is that new orleans actually, their one-day total, their 24-hour total of 7.8 inches of rain was more than what they saw when katrina made landfall. when katrina made landfalln excess of four inches. but this was almost eight inches, zoraida. >> and that created all of the havoc over there. we'll check back in with you. coming up in just a moment on "early start," riding the storm out. yesterday we checked in with a new orleans man who decided to stay put during hurricane isaac. today we'll get an update. was it the right move for his family? what he went through when isaac arrived at his doorstep. and this ireport from frank und underwood in bay st. louis, mississippi, you can see how high and how violent the water

is and the folks are standing right in the thick of it. he said he evacuated during hurricane katrina, but decided not to evacuate this time. we want to you share your pictures, but we want you to be safe. go to ireport.com and look for assignment, tropical storm isaac. but because of business people like you, things are beginning to get rolling. and regions is here to help. making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. from business loans to cash management, we want be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together. they're whole grain good... and yummy good. real fruit pieces. 12 grams of whole grains and a creamy yogurt flavored coating. quaker yogurt granola bars. treat yourself good.

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it is 16 minutes past the hour. this is a live look at gulfport, mississippi, you can see it is still very windy right there, some whipping winds, waves in the background, our dave mattingly is out there and he said the conditions are pretty much the same as they were yesterday morning, the folks still experiencing rain in the region. tropical storm isaac keeping the coast guard very busy. check out this video of a helicopter rescue 25 miles northwest of new orleans in saint john's parish where urgent evacuations are under way at this hour. a couple and their two dogs didn't have time to get out of

their house when the floodwaters began to rise yesterday. they were all lifted to safety unharmed, including the family pets. >> i think he had a harder time because he had the bigger dog, which i'm sure she -- >> it gives you more of a appreciation for what these guys do, i can tell you that. >> they are god. >> god in a helicopter. >> top-notch. >> coast guard officials say they might have missed that couple if they had not been shining a flashlight through an upstairs window in order to signal for help. so they are very lucky this morning. so isaac continues to test the new and improved levee system surrounding new orleans, beefed up in a $14 million upgrade right after hurricane katrina. the city avoided a direct hit from isaac, a category 1 at the time of landfall. one man rode out the storm in his neighborhood in new orleans, in the neighborhood of broadmore, he gave us a

real-time, play-by-play yesterday and he is joining us on the phone for an update. are you there, joe? >> yeah, i'm here. how are you? >> i'm well, the question is, how are you? what are the conditions? >> the winds are blowing, kind of squalls coming through. rain occasionally where we are. but as far as the temperature goes, it's pretty cool and it's kind of nice. i'm sure it's going to warm up today as the sun comes out. >> is it still raining in the area? >> just drizzling. >> yesterday when we talked to you, it was about 3:00 in the morning and you were without power. are you still without power? >> still without power, yes. >> what about your neighbors in the area, have you been talking to them? >> we set out today, my daughter and i and my wife, and her boyfriend -- not my wife's boyfriend, my daughter's boyfriend, and we talked to some

neighbors. we walked around, it was still ki of raining, but safe to go out. met a lot of neighbors and saw some downed trees. one house, one tree actually split in two and one side, one-half of the tree fell on one side and half of the tree fell on the other and missed the house completely this he were really lucky. >> did you say riding bikes? >> my daughter and her boyfriend actually rode some bikes yesterday a little bit. just in the neighborhood. >> so there's not a lot of debris strewn around in your neighborhood? >> there was no real strong winds at the time. you could ride a bike around the debris that was on the streets. it was mostly trees. tree parts and limbs. >> seven years ago when hurricane katrina hit, you and your family evacuated. are you happy that you decided to stay put this time? >> i'm happy so far. because we had some water leaks in the house, that if we weren't here, we wouldn't have been able to stop the leaks. and we would have came back to

real damage in the house. so i'm glad we stayed. >> and clearly the levees in your area ended up holding up there. which is really good news for that area. joe, thank you so much for joining us, i hear we're going to be talking to you in the 6:00 hour as well. >> thank you. gas prices still climbing, the effects of isaac have not helped. but relief at the pump could be just around the corner. ur cerea- it's got that sweet honey taste. but no way it's 80 calories, right? no way, right? lady, i just drive the truck. right, there's no way right, right? have a nice day. [ male announcer ] 80 delicious calories. fiber one. [ male announcer ] 80 delicious calories. you see us, at the start of the day. on the company phone list that's a few names longer. you see us bank on busier highways. on once empty fields. everyday you see all the ways all of us at us bank are helping grow our economy. lending more so companies and communities can expand,

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23 minutes past the hour, we are minding your business this morning. you probably saw a jump in gas prices this week because of hurricane isaac. but there might be some relief coming soon. christine romans is here to explain. >> the reason that the gas prices might be coming down is because it was a category 1 storm. a lot of folks are expecting you're going to get the energy infrastructure of this country up and running again. overnight, aaa reporting gas prices up two more cents to $3.83 a gallon. that's the national average. let's look at the highest prices about i state and what you've seen this week in wisconsin, you could see 3.89. 4.15 in california. look at the midwest, you saw some of the biggest jumps in some parts along the gulf coast. because people were hoarding

gasoline or getting a lot of gas before the storm. but in the midwest in particular you saw big jumps because that's where, that area is fed by pipelines and they're not putting stuff through those pipelines. so the gulf feeds the midwest and you saw the gulf basically shut down. i can tell you a lot of analysts and gas experts are telling me that next week or the week after you'll start to see gas prices coming back down again. again because the storm wasn't so big and because of some other things going on. no move on whether we might be tapping the strategic gas reserve. you're having a lot of people talk about that in the markets. new information as well, we're likely going to see the port of new orleans open tomorrow, that's their hope. then you'll get people back to work, you'll get wharfs moving again, cranes starting to work again and we have some first sort of looks at storm damage.

a catastrophe modeling firm says onshore storm damage looks like anywhere from $500 million to $1.5 billion. those are insured losses. much less than anything we saw during katrina. these numbers change as they get in and take a look at the damage. it's very early i'll watch these numbers change. but those are the earliest estimates we've seen so far. >> i was reading this morning, it's not in the top ten of natural disasters, the good news for this hurricane. >> it's the rain on this one and that's what's so interesting here. one of the things that the modeling firm was saying is that a newly fortress-like new orleans, parts of new orleans with the new fortress-like barriers, it seems to have withstood the storm quite well. you got to get in there, it's still very early. that's one of the earliest reads you've got. >>xcept for the overtopping of some areas, we're going to talk to a family who did not have renter's insurance and lost everything. >> that was a part of the city that did not have the new

fortress-like barriers. >> no federal money for them. let's send it back to john berman who is anchoring our coverage of the republican national convention. all the talk is about paul ryan. >> all talk about paul ryan. but today we're getting ready for the main event here. mitt romney speaking in front of an audience of millions after paul ryan, after all the other speakers singing his praises. can romney sell himself? our special coverage from the convention in tampa continues next. creamy spinach artichoke dip, crispy garlic chicken spring rolls. they're this season's must-have accessory. lean cuisine. be culinary chic. they're this season's must-have accessory. the wheels of progress. seems they haven't been moving much lately. but things are starting to turn around because of business people like you. and regions is here to help.

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college graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading obama posters. >> paul ryan leading the republican attack on president obama, a rousing warm-up for mitt romney, who tonight will make the biggest speech of his life. trapped in attics, plucked from rooftops, isaac still dumping rain on louisiana. and right now, new evacuations, buses and boat bringing thousands of people to safety. welcome back to "early start," it is 31 minutes past the hour. i'm zoraida sambolin in new york. >> and i'm john berman at the cnn grille live in tampa. this is whereof course the republican national convention is happening. and this is where tonight mitt romney will make the speech he's been waiting to make for years. tonight he will accept the republican party nomination for president of the united states. and while he's feeling the love inside the convention hall, romney's biggest challenge will be convincing the millions of people watching at home that he's the right man for the j,

runningate paul ryan teed things up for romney in his speech and man, did the crowd love it i'm joined by our white house correspondent, brianna keilar and paul ryan really laid in to president obama last night. >> laid into him on his economic policies and his economic accomplishments. he said there had been four years of the run-around and he it's time for the turn-aroundnd and he was framing mitt romney as the guy to do that. he talked about how president obama delivered empty promises and skewered him one time after another. spending in general, and the debt and the deficit. stimulus or the recovery act. health care reform. he sort of attacked the iconic nature of president obama. take a listen. >> college graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms. staring up at fading obama posters, and wondering, when they can move out and get going

with life. >> and the campaign obviously really feels that he's the effective messenger here. because of his position as the budget chairman in the house of representatives. >> now the obama campaign predictably did not like the speech too much. >> they responded in part, they said he lied about medicare, the recovery act. he lied about the deficit and debt he even dishonestly attacked bark obama for the closing of a gm plant his home town of janesville, wisconsin. he also failed to offer one constructive idea about what he would do to move the country forward. and on the plant that ryan talked about under george w. bush the plans to close it were announced, although ultimately it did happen while president obama was president. >> there were moments where paul ryan was fast and loose with the facts, but there may not have

been his purpose. but what people were talking about on the convention floor was condoleezza rice, she set the place on fire last night. >> i thought she delivered a pretty good speech. she went out there and did what she was attempting to do. and if the theme of the night from republicans taking the stage is that president obama has shown a lack of leadership. she was there to say he's shown a lack of leadership on foreign policy. a one-two punch. she was saying the freest and most compassionate country on earth must be the most powerful and she was talking about strength through power. she said that president obama is trying to be a friend rather than a force. here's part of what she said. >> one of two things will happen if we don't lead. either no one will lead and there will be chaos. or someone will fill the vacuum who does not share our values. my fellow americans, we do not have a choice. we cannot be reluctant to lead

and you cannot lead from behind. >> so obviously she's a very good voice. i think for republicans to see this. but foreign policy i also think is a little harder to attack on president obama than say the economy, because he does have some really concrete accomplishments taking out osama bin laden, drone strikes that have taken out a lot of al qaeda leadership and that the obama administration has decimated the al qaeda leadership in libya. >> we'll be talking about the convention more, but right now back to you. other big story this morning. tropical storm isaac still soaking the gulf coast and taking his sweet time. the slow-moving storm is pounding southeast louisiana right now. 60-mile-per-hour winds and relentless rains still. at this hour, thousands of people are being evacuated west of new orleans in saint john parish, after storm surge forced

water over the banks of lake pontchartrain. dozens who ignored warnings to evacuate had to be rescued off rooftops by the coast guard and many remain still in harm's way. especially in plaquemines parish south of new orleans where we find brian todd standing by. are they in the middle of rescue efforts right now, brian? >> they appear to be. because as of late last night, the parish president said they're still assessing whether there are stranded residents still around. this situation still very much touch and go if you go by what he said. he would know, he's got a close read on what's going on here. he's been monitoring it since the levee was overtopped early yesterday morning. you mentioned the people who stayed behind, some 3,000 of them stayed behind. even though this place was under a mandatory evacuation order. national guard and other rescue units had to come in under pretty much the height of hurricane conditions and get them out. but yes, the situation still

very much in doubt right now. the parish president -- [ inaudible ] [ inaudible ] >> we lost brian todd there, communication with him. we're going to get that. there were a lot of -- brian, are you back? there you are, great. >> yes, hi. yeah, the levee that was overtopped is behind where i'm standing right now. this is like a seawall and the levee is behind that, there's still waterrickling through here, so the floodwater situation at this point still dangerous. >> do you we know how many levees that were overtopped. we were talking to the president, he knew of one. and he predicted many more would overtop because they were not part of the federal system that were fixed. >> so far no major overtoppings. a lot of these levees are fairly i guess you could call them

short. a lot of the levees around here are only eight feet high. they were outside the zone of federal protection. this is the main, this is the main area of trouble right now. no other major levees have overtopped. but again, storm surge, the wind is still really blowing here. storm surge stl a potential here. the storm when all is said and done may have been hanging over this entire region for close to 50 hours straight. >> brian todd live for us, thank you very much we appreciate that report and isaac still a major rain maker and a major threat. it appears that beefed-up flood defenses in new orleans, passed this test. but further south in plaquemines parish, water surged over ate-foot-high levees. water was higher than it was in places seven years ago during hurricane katrina but the levee was not breached, meteorologist karen mcginness is here to explain the difference between the overtopping and the breaching. >> to give you some idea, there was so much rainfall that came

so quickly and very relentless. rainfall rates of one to two inches per hour. it's not quite that now. but we are still seeing what used to be hurricane isaac just wring itself out across louisiana. here's the levee, he'sthe water that fills up this basin and it overtops, meaning there's too much, it can't handle it. so it goes over the levee. it doesn't breach it, it doesn't go under it. it doesn't erode it from this side, it just merely goes over the top. we'll show awe different perspective on our google earth. here's lake pontchartrain and this is new orleans and this is plaquemines parish. there are two levees, one is the federal levee, $18 billion worth of improvements across the federal levees. and there is also the back levee. this one. it was this area that was breached that allowed this bowl or bayou to fill up. so that's why those people saw their first floors, if they weren't built on stilts or were

just on pads, concrete paddings, they received between and 12 inches of rainfall. so what they are planning to do, coming up on saturday, is somewhere down river they're going to make a breach in the levee, the federal levee to allow the rainfall just to kind of drain out and go back into the river. that seems to be the only way that they're going to get the water out. because essentially this is a bowl, it's not going anywhere until it drys out by itself. but we're looking at, in some areas, 20 inches of rainfl. so those people have really struggled and you wonder how much a city can take. at one time, zoraida, we had over 800,000 people in louisiana without power. >> i got to tell you that is a great explanation with all of those graphics. it makes it easy to understand. thank you very much karen mcginness. coming up on "early start" -- rescued from isaac. we will meet a louisiana father

whose family needed help after flooding from isaac left them stranded in the attic. their neighbors came through in a really big ew to tell you allt it. and eye reporters are sharing pictures and video. check out this report it shows the entire parking lot of biloxi's hard rock cafe under water. go to ireport.com and look for assignment tropical storm isaac. music: "make someone happy" music: "make someone happy" ♪it's so important to make meone happy.♪.♪it's so e ♪make just one heart to heart you - you sing to♪

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good morning to you, it is 44 minutes past the hour. these are live pictures of gulfport, mississippi. the winds are still whipping there. the waters are still angry. our reporter there is saying the conditions are pretty much the same as they were yesterday morning. and the storm surge and flooding still threatening lives in

plaquemines parish where levees overtopped and floodwaters have reached 14 feet. when the floodwaters rose, one family of louisiana fled to their attic. they were ultimately saved by their neighbors. rafael took his cell phone video of his 8-year-old daughter being lifted to safety. >> he's going to put a life vest on you, okay? >> good girl, baby. >> good girl. all right, cool. >> joining me on the phone is her father, rafael dell guardo. >> how is your daughter, the whole family fine? >> my daughter is fine, she's a super trouper and my whole family is fine, yes. >> that area was under mandatory evacuation, why did you decide to stay? >> well, because during katrina,

my house did not take any water. and pretty much everybody in that neighborhood, we all realized as a category 1 storm that was coming in and really, nobody was, we didn't feel threatened. we figured we would take a little bit of water, that some houses would take a little bit. we had no idea it was going to be this bad. >> what was going through your head when all of that water started flooding into your home? >> really at the time, it was just waking up my daughter, get her to the attic. it was, i got my wife to jump in the attic and moved all our provisions up in the attic. after that, pretty much it was -- just survival mode, really. didn't have time to panic or get scared or anything. just pretty much wanted to get everyone safe and get all of our rations put up. >> could you walk me through the rescue? how did that happen? >> yes, basically once we were up in the attic, my neighbor called me to find out, make sure we were okay.

we told him we were up in the attic. and he said hang tight. i have my chainsaw with me, so i'm going to have my son come get me first in a boat and he came to get us, it was amazing, because the community in the east bay rallied around. he want to give a shout-out to jesse schaeffer and his son, jesse schaeffer, for -- >> they risked their lives, didn't they, in order to save you? >> they were huge out here. in fact there's another guy named brandon lyons, he's the one that rescued us in his boat. there's a gentleman named randy seibert, who allowed people to use his boat to rescue people, "anger management." as soon as my neighbor came over, we heard the voices, we heard the chainsaw running. >> how high was the water at that point? >> at that point, the water was about five inches from inches f

the ceiling of my house. >> oh, my goodness. >> we were looking down through the attic access, just looking at the water go by. >> where are you and your family this morning? >> we were in bell chase lion's club, they set up a temporary shelter. we have some cots and blankets and some food, so it's really nice right now. >> i mentioned earlier, you're the family that i was talking about that has no renter's insurance. how are you hoping to recover? >> you know, at this point, i'm just so glad to have my daughter, and my wife healthy so -- i'm getting so many texts from family and church that i'm sure my community is going to rally around us, at this point i'm just so happy to have my wife and we'll see what happens next. >> rafael delgadillo, we're so happy that you and your family

are safe and well and we wish you the best of luck. thank you for talking with this morning. >> and flooding from isaac swallowed up entire neighborhoods. plaquemines parish, complete strangers plucked people from their homes before the emergency crews could actually reach them. we'll have more on the flooding and the incredible, dramatic rescue efforts. ñ

side of the levee is plaquemines

parish. all day you have been here, there's at least ten feet of water or more on other side of this levee and the lev is the only thing that's keeping the water from pouring in here to saint bernard parish. >> this is part of the federal levee protection system that's helping out saint bernard's parish. unfortunately for plaquemines parish, they don't have that. the storm surge is overtopping the levee. it's poured water in to plaquemines parish. the amazing thing abou this is it's 20 feet of protection. right on the other side tre are estimates that the water were about 15 to 20 feet high. you can see on the other side, some neighborhood developments, subdivisions are actually completely submerged. you can see the tops of the roofs. >> let's walk over here, as we walk we've been seeing some very dramatic rescues all day long. starting early this morning, even before law enforcement rescue crews were going out there, individual citizens were going out in their boats, rescuing people if their attics,

from the roofs of buildings, tops of levees. we have video of an elderly man being rescued along with four dogs. you get a sense of the height of the levee, 20 feet high total. 16 foot at the gate. you can see a little water pouring out underneath whh is where this water is coming from. there's huge amount of water on the other side of this levee. we have pictures of that as well. last i heard, there were still people in need of rescue in plaquemines parish. >> the expectations, it's hard to tell specific number of people, those are folks who ignored the mandatory evacuation orders in place on the other side of the wall in plaquemines parish. what we were told bypeople who had to be pulled out of their second-floor windows. 2:00:00 they got a call saying ther was a breach of the levee and all of a sudden water poured in. people panicked, ran upstairs

and people were lucky enough to be plucked out of their windows. unfortunately, with weather like this it's hard to get rescue, not only the boats, but obviously the coast guard can't put up any choppers. they're having a really difficult time because the weather has been so awful. >> that's been an area which did not flood during katrina. so a lot of folks felt katrina was a much more powerful storm. as we've been saying, every storm is different. even though this was a cat 1, there were gusts that made it cat 2 strength gust, more than 100 miles per hour and the storm surge for this area means that this storm is worse than katrina was just for this area in plaquemines parish. >> our thanks to anderson and soledad. and soledad o'brian will join us live from plaquemines parish in the next hour. let's send it back to john berman, who is a anchoring coverage of the republican national convention with a preview of mi romney, i

expect. >> the main event, the biggest speech of mitt romney's life. voters to get a look at the reason man. we'll have more from the cnn grille live in tampa. the wheels of progress haven't been very active lately. but because of business people like you, things are beginning to get rolling. and regions is here to help. making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. from business loans to cash management, we want to be your partner moving forward. so switch to regions. and let's get going. together. ♪

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ladies and gentlemen, these past four years we have suffered no shortage of words in the white house. what is missing is leadership in the ite house. >> congressman paul ryan delivers a jolt to the gop

convention, painting the president as a disappointment. but tonight, the main event, mitt romney says, i accept. our other big story, the relentless storm. isaac still dumping rain on louisiana this morning and right now there are new evacuations, buses and puts bringing thousands to safety. good morning and welcome to "early start," i am zoraida sambolin in new york. >> i am john berman live in tampa for the republican national convention where tonight it is mitt romney's big moment. the former massachusetts governor will accept his party's presidential nomination and as the republican national convention draws to a close in tampa we're all talking about what he might say. last night it was running mate paul ryan in the spotlight in the role of the political attack dog. he delivered a wide ranging attack on president obama and, believe me, the crowd ate it up. they went wild. ryan'speech received very, very well.

>> received very well and really one of the themes that he talked about was empty promises. he was talking about how four years ago you had a candidate that made big sweeping promises and was iconic and wasn't able to deliver on them. it was very much his mess apple. he said we had four years of the runaround, it is time for a turn around trying to frame mitt romney as that person. here is part of what he said. >> he did talk a lot about different policy issues, too. inspect some cases there were factual challenges. medicare came up. >> medicare did come up. we didn't have the last sound bite. i think it was striking because he was talking about faded posters in this generation of people trying to get on with their lives. on the issue of medicare he talked a lot about this, and one of the things that i think is certainly worth the fact check is this statement here.

>> $760 billion funneled out of medicare by president obama. an obligation we have to our parents and grandparents is being sacrificed all to pay for a new sbieltsment we didn't even ask for. >> we have heard this over and over. the ryan romney ticket is very susceptible on criticism because of the ryan budget and the romney plan that deals with entitlement reform which is a touchy issue politically. here they are again targeting this money taken out of medicare under health care reform on the provider side to pay hospitals, to pay insurance companies. the interesting thing as you know, john, paul ryan's budget itself included those cuts if you call them cuts. it is somewhat debateable although the romney plan does not. certainly under his budget they

were included. >> the very issue of medicare paul ryan seemed to be saying bring it on. it has been an issue that traditionally hasn't been great for republicans and obviously ryan spoiling for a fight here and nevertheless also having fun with this subject of mitt romney saying he sort of like, you know, boring old dad. >> he did. he sort of an old funny did you doey, what i took away from it, talking about the music that mitt romney likes, that it is akin to elevator music and he said what i like is ac/dc and led zep lin, and i wonder what you think about this, maybe it human eyeses him, maybe it is an acknowledgment of self awareness that mitt romney is this kind of maybe not as cool as a younger candidate or paul ryan might be. what did you think? >> i did think the republicans were spending all week trying to warm mitt romney up and maybe at the risk of paul ryan to remind people he listens to elevator music. that was a picture of mitt romney watching the speech with his grandchildren.

it is hard to mess up the picture but it was in that picture. >> that was fun. thank you very much, john. now to our other top story this morning, tropical storm isaac relentless battering of southeast louisiana. it is a slow, agonizing water torture there. take a look at isaac at this hour. slow moving and still packing 45 miles an hour winds and very stinging rains. right now thousands of people are being evacuated west of new orleans in st. johns parish after a storm surge forced water over the banks of lake pontchartrain. dozens of people who failed to heed the warnings finding themselves in desperate need of rescue after water over topped four levees south of the city in plaquemines parish creating the flooding the parish did not see even during hurricane katrina. cnn has isaac covered like no other network for you. david mattingly standing by live and meteorologist karen mcginnis tracking from the cnn center in

atlanta and we'll head to brianed to in plaquemines parish where the levees were not high enough to hold back all of the rising flood waters, brian. >> zoraida, the situation here very unstable still at this hour. parish president said they're still trying to assess whether there are stranded residents in this hour. several dozen had to be rescued yesterday, some 3,000 people deciding to stay here even when a mandatory evacuation order was issued ahead of the storm. this wall behind me is not the levee in question. this is a seawall that is obviously this side of that levee is on the other side of us and still there is water coming through even seawall, so a lot of flood waters on the other side of this wall here, no imminent danger of this being compromised in any way. still hopefully we'll go out with the parish president a little later today to assess this. we're told by the state government that some 800 homes had significant water damage in this parish from the over

topping of that levee. it was an 18-mile long stretch of it that was over topped by the incredible surge of flood waters from a marsh and now the army corps of engineers is going to try to reverse the process they call a day version. usually they try to pump water from the mississippi river into this marsh land which is lower than the mississippi normally now the water in that marsh land is higher than the mississippi so they'll try to reverse that and try to open a channel and floodgate and get that water by gravity back into the mississippi river and see if it brings some relief to the residents of this area. >> i am sure everybody is hoping that that indeed works. brian todd in plaquemines parish. we'll check back in a little bit. late last night we learned that president obama signed federal disaster declarations for dozens of areas of louisiana and mississippi where non-stop rain led to dramatic rescues. dozens plucked to safety. david mattingly is in gulf port, mississippi, and has it let up

there at all? >> reporter: well, it is letting up a little bit but not enough to really feel any sense of relief because the conditions are almost identical to what we saw 24 hours ago. a little less rain right now so that is a good thing. the winds are still strong. we have seen tropical storm force conditions since midnight yesterday. right now it is all a matter of waiting for this to let up to they can find out exactly what they have to recover from after this storm, but take a look at some of this video first from bay st. louis. this time around they're seeing very high flooding and the storm didn't move out the way it was supposed to. it just moved in and stayed here. they're seeing flooding higher than what they expected to see. also video this morning from gulf port, mississippi, not gulf

port but biloxi, mississippi. a lot of street flooding there and the casinos were closed ahead of the storm by order of officials there, but you can see the street flooding there and similar street flooding here in gulf port, but also here in gulf port there was a confirmed tornado touching down, damaging at least one home here in the gulf port area. right now the story of all across the mississippi gulf coast of course is the rain. right here in gulf port we have seen 9-3/4 inches rain so far with this storm that is 3-1/2 inches more than on new orleans. >> meteorologist karen mcginnis is tracking isaac and it is definitely not going away. the question everybody wants to know is when is it going to finally move out? >> i think we'll start to see the rainfall diminish later on this afternoon. it is pulling away some of that

deep core convection. it really seems to be evolving into a rain shield now with less intense precipitation. look how much of the rainfall we have seen since the storm made its way on shore in louisiana just about 19 inches of rainfall, so a grim situation there and now in addition to the flooding, to the over toppif th encompasses southeastern louisiana, portions of mississippi and alabama and we have had a number of tornado warnings as you heard david mattingly mention. there have been some reports of tornadic touchdowns. no reports of any injuries but some damage to homes, so we get these bands of intense showers that move on shore. those are the critical bands that could lead to some tornados being spawned so that tornado watch goes until 8 a.m. central time as tropical storm isaac makes its way towards arkansas, we think little rock, 3 to 6 inches of rainfall and eventually over the next several

days it begins to wring itself out completely across the ohio valley. this is a system that just does not want to give up >> all right. karen mcginnis live in atlanta. thank you. new orleans avoiding a direct hit from isaac and avoiding catastrophe but streets are still flooded, power is still out, people are being rescued. we'll get an update on the situation on the ground coming up next. ♪ (train horn)

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try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. it is 13 minutes past the hour. these are live pictures from gulf port, mississippi. you can see the winds still whipping and you can see in the background the water is angry

and our meteorologist carin mcginnis said hopefully by this afternoon the area will be feeling some reprevious from all of this. across the city of new orleans streets are flooded and trees are down. three quarters of the city is still without power and the levees are holding. new orleans police have declared a dusk to dawn curfew, a dozen cases of looting reported as of yesterday. joining me now is the deputy mayor of public safety for the city of new orleans lieutenant colonel jerry sneed. are you there, sir. >> yes, i am. i can barely hear you. >> i will try to speak up for you. good morning to you and thank you for taking the time to spend with us this morning. could you tell us what is the current situation on the ground there in new orleans? >> the wind is finally reducing here. this storm took forever to get here and now it never wants to leave. the winds are dying down. we still have some minor street

flooding. the big thing is no power for about 160,000 of our citizens. that's the biggest concern right now. we're able to get some crews out yesterday and start cleaning up and we'll hit it hard as soon as it is good and we can see real good and start recover ops today hard and heavy. >> what about the safety there for workers? are you concerned about that? >> what? >> the safety. >> yes, that's why we weren't able to get out yesterday. the winds were still high and gusts, but again the winds should be down to where it is safer for our citizens and we are in a tornado watch and we have to be careful about that. safety is our ultimate concern. we want to get power back up. we want to get the streets back and get our systems back and we can't jeopardize life, so we'll take care of our public safety people and energy and so forth and work safely, yes.

>> i know that this is a slow process and you're hampered by a lot, especially the conditions that are still there in that area. do you have any sense this morning of how many homes and businesses have been damaged? >> we don't have good numbers. there is damage out there, but we have a lot of trees down. of course sometimes those trees fall on homes and i don't have the numbers in front of me, but there is quite a bit of damage out there. it is not like a katrina and some of our surrounding areas took a bigger hit than we did. it is your home but it is really bad, but we'll get that and better assessment done today. >> that's certainly a good point. the new orleans police department superintendent said at a press conference last night there have been about 12 examples of looting so far and arrests have been made each time. are you still concerned about that? were there any more incidents over night?

>> there weren't any more over night. i can't praise our police department enough. they have been on the scene and have made numerous -- quick arrests on incidents like this, so they're out in force, and these these weather conditions are quickly responding to and capturing. everybody has bad people out there that will burglarize and loot even in good weather and some will take advantage of it, but the police department is has done a wonderful job on top of it. we do have national guard here assisting them to give them a little more people on the street watching things. overall our citizens have been very good. they haven't been out much. we did the 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew to help us out a little bit and most of our citizens are staying in and listening to us. >> that is good news. we know that you have your hands

full. thank you so much for spending time with us this morning lieutenant colonel jerry sneed director of the new orleans office of homeland security and emergency preparedness. thank you very much for that. 18 minutes past the hour. gas prices still climbing. the effects of isaac of course have not helped but relief at the pump could just be around the corner. christine romans will be here to explain. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] you've been years in the making. and there are many years ahead. join the millions of members who've chosen an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. go long. insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. the wheels of progress. seems they haven't been moving much lately.

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21 minutes past the hour. we're minding your business this morning. you probably saw a jump in gas prices because of hurricane isaac. there may be relief son.

christine romans is here to explain. i call it good news when you say prices are going down. >> wholesale gasoline prices are starting to come down and a lot of experts say the surge if you will, pardon the pun, will start to come down if not monday, labor day and then tuesday and you will start to see it reseed a little bit and it will be flowing. last night, though, the most recent numbers we have, another 2 cents on the national average, up 2 cents, $3.83 a gallon and you can see depending on where you live it is worse. we saw prices rise 4 or 5 cents on the gulf coast and look around the great lakes. big chunks there, wisconsin 3.89, illinois 4.09 because that part of the country gets a lot of its gasoline through pipelines and as we know things really shut down in the gulf of mexico where a lot of that stuff was coming up. that's really important to watch. i think those prices are going to start to come down just a little bit. i want to talk about the storm

damage. we saw storm damage the first kind of initial estimates we're getting, maybe up to a billion and a half of insured losses on shore insured losses for this category 1 hurricane that is now a tropical storm. it doesn't even put it in the top ten for damages and losses because of hurricane katrina is the worst, $46 billion and even irene or last year $4 billion. >> when i saw that list this morning i was surprised and then when you remember all of these. >> yes, and some of those are category 3 and category 4 storms. the issue will isaac will be the rain and the water and what we know is everyone is getting in there now trying to make sure things are secure and the port of new orleans is hoping it will be open as soon as tomorrow, the coast guard will make that final call and you'll see more storm estimates and people starting to get back to business. >> thank you very much. john berman is anchoring coverage of the republican national convention in tampa. good morning. >> good morning, zoraida.

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with buss and boats bringing thousands to safety. 27 minutes past the hour. i am zoraida sambolin. >> i am john berman live at the cnn grill in tampa, the site of the republican national convention and tonight is the night that mitt romney has probably dreamed about for years. tonight he accepts the republican party nomination for president. he has a tough act to follow. paul ryan had the crowd fired up with a wide ranging criticism of the president's policies and overall vision. joining us to talkbout this is our cnn white house core respondent brianna kihler. set the stage for what paul ryan did. >> the house budget chairman of the hitting him on this and he took aim at the president's performance and how it relates to a plant in his hometown of janesville, wisconsin. here is what he said.

>> right there at that plant candidate obama said i believe that if our government is there to support you, this plant will be here for another 100 years. that's what he said in 2008. well, as it turned out, that plant didn't last another year. it is locked up and empty to this day. >> now, the obama campaign is jumping all over this, john, because it is not quite true. it is not true actually. this was a plan to close this plant that was announced under the bush administration, and they have looked at this and said it is not accurate. something worth fact checking from the speech. >> paul ryan a shrewd politician and a lot of fun with word play, not always necessarily accurate. he also did talk some about mitt romney and laid out the character differences between the two men. >> that's right. when you look at mitt romney and polls certainly show this, that a lot of voters feel like

perhaps he is out of touch, not really likeable and obviously trying to loosen him up. we have seen that throughout the imagery make through this convention. he talked about his musical choices. take a listen. >> we're a generation apart. governor romney and i, and in some ways we're different. there are the songs on his ipod that i heard on the campaign bus, and i have heard it on many hotel elevators. as i said, look, i know it is not a deal breaker, mitt, but my playlist starts with ac/dc and ends with zep lin. >> elevator music. i laughed. i did think it was funny. will cain, i want to bring you in. good idea to highlight that mitt romney is kind of a stiff? >> i think it is a good idea to always be honest and you brought up honesty this morning, so let's not pre send he is mr. personality and mr. excitement. i think paul ryan earns authenticity with comments like

that. we know who mitt romney is. it is time for us as voters to accept who he is and we have to choose the path or stick with the president obama path. >> something of a conservative icon and his speech well received. what kind of impression did it make on you, will? >> i think it was great. i know brianna talked about it earlier, the can paul ryan give voice to a complicated message, not an easy sell and that is this message of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and free market invisible hand economics. that's just not the easiest thing to sell. it is easier to sell auto bailouts or anecdotal economics. not saying it is right or wrong. actually, i am saying it is wrong. this is a tougher sell. he did a good job. awkward throat clear throughout the night. >> he did it quite well. here is something of honesty. he did play out his own medicare plan and absent were t details

of his plan and he talked about the president's. i want to listen to one thing he said. >> $760 billion funneled out of medicare by president obama. an obligation we have to our parents and grandrents is being sacrificed all to pay for a new entitlement we didn't even ask for. >> as i said, as the self proclaimed profit of honesty on the issue of medicare, what do you think about that? >> this is a complicated issue. there has been a lot of confusion. it is true. $760 billion that would have gone to medicare are going to fund obama care. what does that mean? does it mean benefits will be reduc reduced? the obama campaign says no, it will reduce payouts to providers and benefits should stay the same. in the end what republicans suggest is fewer providers will be available if you take the $716 billion out. >> the same $716 billion paul ryan has had to take out. >> that is absolutely tru the difference is mitt romney

says he is not going to take it out. right or wrong, he says he is leaving it in and seeing it as good politics. >> if it is paul ryan speaking here and casting aspersions on the same chunk of change how is it anything but disingenuous. >> it might be talk watered but he is running on mitt romney's plan not his plan so he has the right to say we're not going to take this out under what would be our administration. >> let me talk about mitt romney. he is giving a speech tonight. it is on the schedule. i think the bar is really high here. i think condoleezza rice who we haven't had a chance to talk about and also paul ryan set a very high bar for the speech tonight. doesn't necessarily have a real connection with mitt romney to begin with. how difficult will it be with him tonight? >> back to the elevator music, you can't set a bar for mitt romney that honestly he cannot meet. don't expect him to come out and be a rock star. what i hope he can do is again put voice to a message that's hard to ll and we're going to

have to accept mitt romney for who he is. i think he will do well, john. >> and what's the white house saying this morning about what's going on in tampa? >> very much the obama campaign and they sent out a scathing response, the head of the campaign jim lacina saying as far as paul ryan goes they felt it was all lies when it came to medire and the janesville plant and the overarching message they said was this is just indicative of the type of campaign they're run field goal they can't rely on the truth. i think we're seeing that on both sides, right? >> i think we are seeing it on both sides. we'll hear more tonight from mitt romney and tomorrow from everyone here and thank you for joining us. zor raid a back to you. >> great conversation. thank you. major flooding from isaac leads to dramatic rescues. the coast guard and ordinary citizens, heroes this morning. a closer look at the extent of the damage and the story from the flood zone. soledad joins us live from st.

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welcome back to "early start," 38 minutes past the hour. isaac didn't just soak plaquemines parish, it submerged entire neighborhoods as ordinary people did the extraordinary risking their lives to rescue neighbors trapped inside their homes. soledad o'brien on "starting point" and you have been talking to people rescued from their flooded homes. what are they telling you? >> it is actually the rescues were quite dramatic, zoraida, and first i will point out this rain, this downpour has just rolled in and it is kind of weather they were seeing all day and trying to effort some of those rescues yesterday.

we spent the day here. this big wall behind me is a flood wall and what is amazing about this wall, it really on the other side there is some 10 to 15 to 10 feet of water that is not coming into this parish. we're in st. bernard parish. on the other side of the wall is plaquemines parish. they were plucking people from their homes on the second floor when the levees were over topped, the far levees, and water came into the parish. they brought them right around this corner here into st. bernard parish to the jail where they were able to give them some food, dry them off and help them make contact with their families. the folks were telling us how terrifying it was, 2:00 in the morning get a call that levees were breached and looks like it was over topping at this point as far as we know and they started gathering up stuff in some cases and a few hours later water had flowed into their

house and people were sleeping and woke up to what they thought was a trickle of water was water gushing into their homes and gathered everything and ran for their lives. some people had to be plucked off the levees and that's what we were seeing yesterday being brought this way after being taken off the levee and brought to safety as you can imagine sitting on the top of a levee and kind of a hill to block the water on either side and sitting there until the rescuer could get there and absolutely miserable and completely terrifying. >> has everybody on the other side of that wall now been rescued or are they still in that process this morning? >> unclear at this time. we have been told by some they don't believe there are more that need to be rescued. with this kind of whether it has been challenging to really have a completely clear day where you can and water is still very high and that's been problem mat i can. i know today they're hoping to put the boats back in and get another opportunity to run through the neighborhood and keep in mind we're talking about

subdivisions, so these neighborhoods, subdivisions basically under 15 feet of water and the only thing you can do is bring a boat in and november gate the streets like rivers and try to see who needs rescuing from their attic. it is treacherous for the people who are the victims and obviously the rescuers, too. >> yesterday when we were on the air together there were neighbors that were taking out their boats and going and saving people. you talked to some of those folks as well, didn't you? >> we will. we'll talk to more this morning. absolutely heroic stories and that's one of the things i think is always the amazing part of disasters and covering devastation as you hear, the stories of people who are true heroes, one young man and his dad and we'll hear from them this morning, got in a boat, from the neighborhood and waited on this side and brought their boat up there and put it in the water and started going house to house finding people that needed rescuing. we'll talk to that young man, 25 years old and talk to him this morning. he is credited with saving

dozens and dozens of people. pretty incredible young man. >> what about the conditions? i see it did start raining again and looks like there is quite a bit of wind associated with it as well and so you worry about some of these rescue workers. we saw helicopters actually taking some people out. do you think the conditions will allow for that again today? >> yeah. you know, hopefully. it is moving through very slowly and bands like that are just really a pain but for the last couple of hours we have had clear weather and if that keeps up it will be helpful because the helicopters can get in. the coast guard yesterday said until it is clear they can't obviously fly in in stormy weather. it is unsafe for the people trying to do the rescuing. if the weather is clear and we're hoping that it will be, that will be great news for the rescuers today to get in there and make sure there is nobody else who needs to be pulled out, and we have heard the storms moving slowly out so that should be great news. >> i know that a lot of these

people on the other side of the wall were not expecting the high volume of water. where are they all going? >> for a lot of them when they hear category 1, they just thought it wouldn't be so bad. the problem with this storm is that it has kind of camped over plaque minds parish and over this area so it is a water problem, a flooding problem, the over topping, the storm surges as people predicted. you're right. i think they were really not expecting it and some of the places that were flooded that didn't get flooded in katrina, so that is remarkable. they have been brought to st. bernard jail and being fed and housed for now and obviously their homes are under 10 feet of water in some cases and sometimes more. we have to figure out what the next steps are because until that water goes down they can't think about what the next step is going to be. >> really an incredible situation there. soledad o'brien, anchor of starting point, i know you will have a lot more beginning at 7 a.m. thank you for that.

right now 43 minutes past the hour. let's go back to john berman anchoring our coverage of the republican national convention. john? >> first of all let me say i miss you back home. it is nice to see you even if just on tv here. >> i miss you, too. i tweeted out a picture saying this is a view i will have for the next two weeks because you go from there to the dsc. going to miss you. >> it will only make you are on bond stronger. paul ryan brings his a game, the biggest speech of of his political career and went after the president hard and set the stage for mitt romney's moment in the spotlight. tonight our special coverage of the republican national convention from tampa continues in a moment. the wheels of progress haven't been very active lately. but because of business people like you, things are beginning to get rolling. and regions is here to help. making it easier with the expertise and service to keep those wheels turning. from business loans to cash management,

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welcome back to "early start." i am john berman live at the cnn grill. we're live in tampa at the republican national convention. that is a live look at the floor right now. not much action this morning but last night it was easiest the biggest speech paul ryan has ever given as he accepted the party nomination for vice president. the wisconsin congressman came out swinging against president obama's time in office. >> they have run out of idea. their moment came and went. fear and division is all they have got left. with all the attack ads, the president is throwing away money and he is pretty experienced at that. >> that speech and line got an enthusiastic reception here in tampa. the question is how might it shape the race? i am joined right now by tennessee representative marsha

blackburn, a congresswoman on the platform committee and a leader amongst the party. you were in the house last night. paul ryan, they loved him. >> the floor did love him and i think the american people will realize how genuine he is in trying to solve our nation's fiscal woes. paul is a guy of big ideas and he is not afraid to put something out there and say let's consider this or let's think about this or let's have a discussion on this issue. >> he is a guy with big ideas and also he gets praise a lot for being a man of specific ideas, but not a lot of specificity. the "washington post" has written recently about the ron paul ticket and says if mr. ryan and romney want credit for not ducking and believe the voters are entitled to the clearest possible choice it would behoove the candidates to offer more details about what precisely voters are choosing. paul ryan is known for making cuts on taxes and medicare and

what do we talk about budget cuts. >> look at the ryan budget the house has brought forward. look at the way we have addressed across the board spending cuts. look at the way we have talked about reforming the trust funds, medicare and social security, and making those stable, secure, solvent and then addressing entitlements in medicaid, the largest of the entitlements, so there is time for specificity. last night was the time to say, hey, we have a pathway and this is where we're going to go. i think you're going to see him fill in those specifics as we go forward. >> there were some moments of specificity, somewhat factually challenged or called into question. he talked about the president's reaction to the simpson-bowles commission and the debt reduction commission and criticized the president for not acting on the commission when paul ryan on it voted against it. >> right. you know, he did favor bringing it forward and having a vote on it and paul was not in favor of raising taxes. he was in favor of doing all of

the cuts first and there are so many of us in the house that have said you can't tax your way, you're going to need to go in and make some of these cuts and the spending adjustments first. >> how can you criticize the president for not acting on the simpson-bowles commission if you vote against it. >> the president chose to do nothing. when was the last time he called republicans to the white house and said let's talk about how to get this spending under control? he has added $5 trillion to the budget in a three year period of time. he has put more debt on this country than any other president in history. >> let me ask a quick question. >> how high is the bar for mitt romney tonight? >> i think it is pretty -- >> would you want to follow that? >> it is a tough act to follow. condoleezza was fabulous last night. you look at her reach and romney's speech and governor martinez's speech and i think

paul did an incredible job last night. it was a big speech and he hit a home run. >> i should say i have enjoyed seeing you on the floor. i think i saw you there the other need with your 2-year-old grandson chase. >> yes. >> do we have a picture of chase maybe? i should tell you even if we don't have a picture, he is incredibly smart. >> talking on the phone to cap pain america and superman. >> is he a future republican. >> i think he is, don't you? >> i hope he gets sleep tonight. so glad you're here. there he is as we say goodbye to chase and back to zoraida in new york. >> that's an early education there for little chase. loving it. thank you very much. next on "early start" saved from the flood. we'll talk to some folks who are lucky to be alive this morning. you're watching "early start."

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storl surging and flooding still threatening lives in plaque miensz parish. when the flood waters grow a family of great white louisiana fled to their attic and ultimately saved by their neighbors. they took this cell phone video of his 8-year-old daughter being lifted to safety. >> . >> all right, baby. you're good. >> good girl. all right. cool. >> joining me now on the phone

is her father. good morning to you. i would like to start with your little girl. i know your wife melanie was there as well. is everybody okay this morning? >> yes. everybody is fiep this morning. everybody is doing okay. >> that area was under mandatory evacuation. why did you decide to stay? >> because the during katrina our house didn't take any water. a lot of my neighbors moved a lot of their farm equipment and tractors to my house because they knew it didn't take water during katrina. >> tell me what happened and what forced you up to the attic. >> basically we got the call that the back levee broke and as soon as the back levee broke i went ahead and got my provisionals and as soon as water started coming into the house i woke up my daughter and got them up to the attic and i have provisions in the attic and animals up there and called my neighbor or my neighbor called me because he wanted to know how

we were doing. >> the people who actually rescued you were your neighbors, so they risked their lives because the situation was very grim and dangerous at that time. how did that happen? >> there is a couple of families, the shafer family, a gentleman named juan and randy siebert, and a gentleman named brandon lines, they all pretty much put their resources together and we heard voices on the roof and we heard the chain saw break the hole open and came out and there was a gentleman named lonnie and my friend brandon and my next door neighbor helping us out. >> at that point how much water was in your home. >> about five inches from hitting the ceiling. >> goodness. raphael, we are so happy that you are okay, that melanie is okay and we wish you well. he know you lost everything in this storm. thank you for taking the time to talk to us this morning. >> thank you very much. have a nice one today. >> thank you. you, too. soledad o'brien is coming up

with more on ordinary citizens who are heros in the wake of isaac. that's it from "early start." i am zoraida sambolin. >> and i am john berman live at the republican national convention in tampa. a special starting point with soledad o'brien live in new orleans starts right now. good morning. welcome, everybody, you're watching a special addition of "starting point." we're coming to you from st. bernard parish just south of new orleans where we're covering tropical storm now isaac, a neighborhood still at risk after water over topped four levees and we're talking specifically about plaquemines parish that borders on st. bernard where i am standing and that's the developing story we're following and going to get to another big story coming to us out of tampa, flor