massive footing boxes that the bridge sits in come from exotic places like vallejo, california, corpus christi, texas, and up in oregon and washington. so there are a number of different place that is contribute to providing different structural elements. if you are looking at steel in particular, there is more domestic steel in the entire eastern span than any other foreign steel component. if you look at the final bridge, a little over 75% of the steel for the eastern span is fabricated in some u.s. mill. >> is there some updated total for the price tag for this project? is it still $6 billion for the price tag? >> it is about that, $6.3. the toll bridge oversight committee, which consists, caltrans and others, and they put out reports that says how we are doing financialally. along with that, there is a $900 million contingency. that is all downloadable from the bay bridge site? >> are you shooting for 2013? >> late 2013 is when we expect the prinl to be open. [inaudible question] >> it depends. it is very hard to put a date on when this bridge is going to be completed. but the september-no

that's when it was blowing to the south and headed down to corpus christi. that's when the winds were quite strong and now the winds died off quite a bit. we are watching the potential system in the gulf of mexico, as you said. right now the forecast, the track is taking almost the same that lee did, and all that lee did was make more fire. look at the drought from texas and oklahoma into kansas. it's so significant. it has not rained there for days and months and sometimes hundreds of days without a drop of rain. the only thing that i can tell you, randrandi, if you are in t area get the stuff you need out of your house in a box. right now. i don't care what county in texas. it's so dry, one spark could get you not being able to get back in the neighborhood. get things in the boxes and take them when you leave in case you cannot get back. it's that serious. >> get the to go bag ready to go. >> any significant relief in the horizon? >> not at all. people were tweeting me and asking, what about seeding the clouds, the experimental seeding? there's nothing to

there's the smoke from the fire blowing down toward corpus christi. corpus christi, if you have an amazing sunset, that's because of the smoke particles in the air right now. that's at the cost of the people up there in bastrop county. when the winds start to come in from the east, austin, you will be in much more danger for that smoke. not saying there's going to be winds and embers blowing back into austin because the winds will only be ten miles per hour, but it will be more as you talked about it, it will be more of a smoke problem than anything else. >> chad, we'll check back with you later on as well. >>> other stories developing this hour. in addition to being a natural disaster, hurricane irene could be a disaster for the federal budget. the white house now believes relief efforts will cost taxpayers $1.5 billion. that is on top of more than $5 billion needed for other recent disasters and the federal emergency management agency has only about $800 million left in its reserves for the current fiscal year. >>> republican house majority leader e

and the guard in the first thing that popped into my mind is this is corpus christi, just very flat and so anyway. >> hello. i am a very big fan of yours, i think all of us are and i know we all feel truly gifted to partake in the stories -- we'll give it to partake. >> [inaudible] [laughter] i'm sorry. >> i have a feeling that at the end of the 21st century the city will be considered one of the century's greatest books. i just started reading the new book, and i wanted to ask as a writer you have a very engaging manner i feel just listening to you talk and i wondered as the storytelling come naturally to you and how difficult is it to be a really good writer such as yourself if you encounter discouragement along the way. you talked about selling the cookies at the table. we all know about that but what did you really feel like i know i can do this? i just know i've got it, in a great storyteller, and along the way you encounter doubt in your i'm curious because -- >> my middle name is -- >> your stories are so engaging and bring the readers in a. i feel like you are talking to me when

that smoke goes all the way down to corpus christi, and that smoke will make a beautiful sunset tonightst of many people. what caused it? well, in fact it was lee. lee kind of ran up this way. tropical storm lee, not a big deal, make a weathermaker here, a couple of tornadoes into parts of georgia, but the wind came this direction, from the north 35 miles per hour without a drop of rain over texas. that lawas the issue, no rain whatsoever and it's not coming. the rain is to the northeast. there's even the potential for some tornadoes tonight in parts of virginia and north carolina, that's all from lee. now, what else is going on? well, here you go. we still have katia. we have something else developing in the gulf of mexico, and a storm you can't even see off the coast here. that's about to be maria. we've already been to "k" and then to "l" and then this will be "m," the maria storm, it's tropical depression 14. it's very impressive. it is forecast to be a category 1 hurricane very close to puerto rico on sunday. hurricane season still in full swing, john. >> chad myers for us tonight

and looked out over berlin and the tear garden is the first thing that came to mind is this is corpus christi. i don't know why. [laughter] it's very flat. it's berlin. anyway, sure. >> hello. i'm a very big fan of yours, and i think all of us are -- i know we all feel truly gifted to -- we all feel gifted to partake in your stories. >> closer to the mic. >> we feel gifted to partake in your stories. >> say it again. [laughter] i'm sorry. [laughter] >> i have a feeling that at the end of the 21st century i think the devil in the white city will be considered one of the century's greatest books. the devil in the white sea will be. i just started reading your new book, and i just wanted to ask you as a writer, you have a very engaging manner i feel. just listening to you talk, and i just wonder -- the story telling come naturally to you, and how difficult is it to be a really good writer such as yourself? have you encountered discouragement along the way? i mean, you talked about the selling of the cookies at the table. we know about that, but when did you feel like i know i can do this, i know

austin, san antonio, and houston and corpus christi.ol temperatures across parts of the east. we have a number of record low high temperatures today. you didn't get above, say, 59 degrees today in greensboro. temperatures in the east staying about 10 to 15 degrees below average. don, it is feeling like fall out there. do you love it? >> no. >> no? you miss summer. you're a boy of summer. >> 9, 90 degrees all summer, i love it. summer. fall brings on mild depression. tmi. >>> bring you a pumpkin or some apple side der. >>> she was 61 years old had she attempted to swim from cuba to florida. endurance swimmer diana nyad tells us what it was like and why she had to bail out. first, bill gates calls it the start of a revolution. the site has tutorials from calculus to chemistry all for free. our education contributor sat down about the voice behind the videos in tonight's perry's principles. >> in a small silicon valley office, he is using sim is am illustrations and lingo to explain math, science, history and even business concepts. >> if

. >> near corpus christi. >> let's get to the boards and share with you as you get up this morning. cloud-to-ground lightning. and out of oklahoma, that beauty shot, gorgeous. that's facebook and twitter. thank you for sending them uh from all over the country. oklahoma city, memphis, dallas, houston. it's a cooling trend. and in dallas, there's a big hallelujah, like choir singing, as you get below 100 degrees for the first time since the summer has been dragging on. warm along the eastern seaboard. hazy and humid in the deep south. but there's a big, cold blast of air making its way to the east all that weather was brought to you by pet smart. and if you think people are just happy to see us, it's not true. we have a brand-new applause sign. so, now, everybody knows when to get happy, robin. >> you just gave away one of the secrets there, sam. >>> coming up, big steals at deep discounts. the greatest hits from our "gmgm deals, only for our viewers. and that means tory johnson is right around the corner. cccccccc >>> "gma" contributor, tory johnson's secret steals have been one of

host: on to the independent line, david in corpus christi, texas. caller: thank you. just wanted to comment -- i voted for the president, and i think he is a good president. i think he is intelligent, and i think that he is not yet, you know, used what he is able to bust out here pretty soon and be able to use. i think that, you know, he -- he did not want to become president to just serve one term. i think we have had so much trouble going on. as soon as he got into office, we had the gulf oil spill. we have had disasters everywhere. you know, overseas, giving too much. i believe he is having to take care of a lot of that, but the main thing i want to say is that, whether it be republican or democrat, this country is going to hell in a handbasket. if we do not altogether and start working again there -- host: we are going to leave it there. now, to today's white house briefing. >> give people a minute to get up here. good morning, ladies and gentlemen. thanks for coming to the white house for your daily briefing. as you were told in advance, i have with me today the

two of the divers with firefighter paramedics in corpus christi area.is sky high plan. >>> and now, joe acosta joins us from richmond, virginia with the latest off the political ticker. rick perry got a pretty busy day in virginia, doesn't he? >> yeah, he came to virginia, which last time i checked, is not one of the early primary states. iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, those are the states where you'll find most of the presidential contenders these days. but rick perry came to virginia to talk at liberty university. that is a school that is very important to the evangelical christian mooument in this country. he also spoke here in richmond to a group of republicans. this is a state not that important in the republican primary season. it is a very important state when it comes to presidential battlegrounds in the general election and we asked governor perry after his speech today whether or not he was getting a little ahead of himself. >> it seems as if you're already looking past the primaries and to the general election. aren't you being a tad ov

here is where the heat is roaring, san angelo, dallas, houston, corpus christi.ou've got another day of warm temperatures. oklahoma city as well in the 80s. over the next couple days, we'll lose the heat, it will start cooling down. from the air that's a little cooler slightly to the north. that means those numbers will drop by 10, 15 degrees by the time we get into the next three days. san francisco 75 phoenix at 102. >> all of america's weather in the next half hour. plus, we'll look at l.a.'s persistent problem with morning fog. robin? >> you're huge, sam. you're huge. thanks. we'll get back to you in a bit. >>> don't ask, don't tell, forced around 14,000 people to leave the armed forces because they are gay. now that it's been repealed, stories of service members coming out are spreading. abc's martha raddatz is here with a story of an airman who shared his life-changing moment with his dad and the world online. >> reporter: you can tell how difficult it is for this young airman, who has lived with this secret for so long. but just hours after the repeal of d

corpus christi, democratic line. good morning.aller: i wanted to start by saying we, the people, by, the people, for, the people. it does not mean anything anymore. i am not a politician, but i once watched the senate vote on whether or not they should be voting on something rather than getting together and actually voting on a particular issue. i watched for one hour as the yield of their time back and forth to each other and the only thing that they did was vote on whether or not they should be there to vote for something. it makes no sense to me. i do not understand how placing some kind of sanctions on china is going to help us. overall, who are we going to go to for more money? the other thing is, we should start doing to create jobs is make incentives for employers to keep longtime employees. nowadays an employer can fire you without cause. cutting taxes seems geared only towards making the rich richer. if there were higher taxes on the rich, the rich would not be rich. that is all i have to say. host: next caller. caller: m