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American Morning

Hurricane Ophelia Arrives in Outer Banks; Roberts Hearings Continue

Aired September 15, 2003 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this hour out of North Carolina. Hurricane Ophelia arrives on the Outer Banks. The storm moving at just a crawl. A punishing night and it will be a punishing day, as well. We're live on the scene this morning -- Miles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Miles O'Brien live from the French Quarter of New Orleans on Bourbon Street.

The president of the United States will make his fourth visit to the Katrina stricken region today. He'll come here, to the French Quarter, to Jackson Square, to address the nation, his first prime time address since Katrina, and he'll lay out his plan that hundreds of billions of dollars will be spent to rebuild after Katrina. We'll have a full report -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: And in just an hour, Democrats in the Senate get their last chance to pin down Judge John Roberts on his legal views. His confirmation hearings to be chief justice resume on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning.

Welcome, everybody.

You're looking at some live pictures out of Nags Head, North Carolina, where you can see the effects very clearly of Hurricane Ophelia. You can see there the radar, as well. Ophelia just hovering off the coast, moving ever so slowly northward.

Chad Myers is going to fill us in on the hurricane's path and just what kind of damage Hurricane Ophelia could do.

First, though, let's get right back to Miles in New Orleans this morning -- hey, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning, Soledad.

Welcome to a street that is very used to hangovers, Bourbon Street, in the heart of the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Today it's a different kind of hangover, a Katrina hangover. And the question is how will this city recover? Lots of plans in the works, lots of optimistic talk on the part of the mayor. We're going to decipher all this on this day as the president heads here to lay out his plan. We're back with more on that in a moment -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Miles, thanks.

We look forward to that.

Hurricane Ophelia now soaking and tearing at the Carolina coast. Ophelia's eye wall has been over North Carolina's Outer Banks all night. It will be there all day. The slow moving storm could pour 15 inches of rain on the area before it moves away. A hurricane warning remains in effect from Surf City to the North Carolina-Virginia border.

Susan Candiotti is live in Nags Head this morning -- Susan, good morning.

We just saw some other pictures of what it looks like there, as well. Pretty rough out there.

What are you seeing exactly?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's getting rougher with every minute, actually. We're in the middle of a bit of a rain band right now. And using my wind meter here, I've been measuring the wind as of late. We're getting sustained winds of about 20 miles an hour, but I've got measuring gusts of more than 30.

I'm standing on a pier that was built by the owner of this hotel, Everett Feifield (ph). And this pier cut off just about where I'm standing during hurricane Isabel just a couple of years ago. He hopes and we hope it doesn't happen this time.

Shooting out there, that's the pier that you were just looking at here at Nags Head, the Nags Head pier. It, too, suffered a bit of damage during Isabel, but the restaurant on the pier, that was destroyed. And when you see this wooden stick, that's how high up the water came. This is about a 30-foot drop here at the top of this sand dune down to the beach.

Now, they are not expecting tropical storm force winds here until later this afternoon. This particular part of the Outer Banks is not under an evacuation order but Hatteras Island is. However, we are told that most residents there are staying put, not leaving. Tourists, however, they're getting out of Dodge and already have, of course, by this point.

So we'll see how things go as the day goes on. A lot of flooding expected, particularly in Hatteras Island -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, yes, no surprise there that the tourists are among the first to run out of there.

We were showing a picture, Susan, while you were talking of the radar, showing the wind speed somewhere between, at this moment, 27, 28 miles an hour. You know, really fascinating to both watch it on the radar and watch it as it's happening right behind you. So what are the government officials doing? You said no evacuation order where you are, but are they concerned that they could, in a small way, have a similar situation as to what happened in New Orleans, you know, deciding too late that everybody has got to go?

CANDIOTTI: No, not in this end, because they were never expecting it to get too bad on this part of the Outer Banks. Hatteras Island, they do worry about that area being cut off, as it often has been in the past. But they've asked people to leave. They're not leaving with a cat one storm. You know, they said it's all a matter of perception there and level of comfort. Those who worry after Katrina have gotten out, but for the most part, the people who are used to this kind of thing have decided to stay.

S. O'BRIEN: Susan Candiotti for us this morning.

All right, Susan, we're going to continue to check in with you as the day progresses and as, I would imagine, conditions get worse.

Thanks.

Well, one of the things that's making Ophelia so dangerous is just how slowly it's moving.

Let's get right to Chad Myers at the CNN Center -- and I guess that matters, Chad, because the more slowly it moves, the more damage it can do as it just kind of sits there.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Sure. It's called duration damage. I mean if you have 75 miles per hour winds for 15 minutes, OK, you lose maybe 10 shingles. If you have 75 mile per hour winds for four hours, that 10 turns into 20, it turns into 30 and eventually you've lost the whole roof. So that's the problem with a slow moving storm.

Plus, the water piling up. And, of course, the excess rainfall, because the storm doesn't move.

It does appear, though, that the eye wall is moving offshore a little bit, and that is actually showing up on the satellite picture, as well.

We'll zoom in here to Ocracoke Island. The eye wall itself, that brightest band there, was onshore for a while, but now it appears to be sinking down to the south. Now look at the satellite. Watch the eye. It's moving away from land a little bit. It might even have turned to the south a little bit. Typical for this storm, though, this wobbling thing back and forth for days and days.

There's Cape Hatteras. There's the eye in motion and there you go, kind of moving off to the east, probably just a little bit of a wobble.

Everywhere you see red, 10 inches or more. Everywhere you see pink, 15 inches or more. All along the Carolina coast. We couldn't get out of the way of this map the last time. Bald Head Island 84 miles per hour; Wrightsville Beach, 79; even at Surf City, the highest wind gusts 67 miles per hour -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, we're going to continue to watch it, Chad.

Thanks.

MYERS: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: You want to stay with CNN for complete coverage of Hurricane Ophelia. CNN is your hurricane headquarters.

Let's get right back to Miles in New Orleans -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Soledad.

We're on Bourbon Street.

Take a look at this scene. It's a dumpster and I point this out to you because actually that's progress. Mostly what you see in this city is just trash. If it's in bags, that's good. If it's in a dumpster, that's what you might call progress.

I show you this because you have to put this all in perspective. This part of town is high ground. It's not where a lot of people live. Only about 4,000 people actually live here. This is more like a tourist destination, almost a theme park. And I tell you all this because the mayor, Ray Nagin, today is going to announce what he calls phased repopulation. But, as they say, the devil is in the details on this.

We're in a hotel right now that has a generator. We can't drink the water. There is no power in the French Quarter. A lot of tings have to come into place before people can really come back and live what you'd call a 21st century life.

The mayor talked yesterday about some of the problems he faces.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: The water quality on the East Bank is not where we need it to be, but it's good enough for people to come back. I'm going to have some temporary retail establishments up. We've reestablished two hospitals in the city that are going to be up. So once they come back, we'll have the critical services for them to at least live a semi-normal life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: That's Mayor Ray Nagin.

Take a look at these two Army guys. Boy, I'll tell you right now, that's not a normal scene in the French Quarter, to see two guys in shape jogging early in the morning, but that's the scene here now. Lot of troops, lots of law enforcement, not a lot of weary revelers at this time of day.

Last night the governor, Kathleen Blanco, of Louisiana, had an address for the state and she -- a couple of things there. She added to the list of mea culpas. She said she took responsibility, said the buck stopped there. And she really offered a plea to some of the million or so evacuees that have had to leave to return.

There is great concern that a lot of people are just moving on with their lives and will not come back. And given all that they've endured, in many respects, you can't blame them.

CNN's Mary Snow has more on the governor's speech and the reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Louisiana Governor Katherine Blanco became the latest politician to accept blame for the failures in rescue and recovery efforts following hurricane Katrina.

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO (D), LOUISIANA: The buck stops here. And as your governor, I take full responsibility.

SNOW: Tuesday, President Bush took responsibility for the federal government's slow response. Blanco's mea culpa came Wednesday night in an address before the state legislature. Just one day earlier, she had lashed out at FEMA over body recovery efforts and then later struck a conciliatory tone. She has also changed her tune on President Bush.

BLANCO: I want the people of Louisiana to know that we have a friend and a partner in President George W. Bush.

SNOW: Blanco is counting on that friendship to translate into massive relief funding.

BLANCO: I've asked the federal government to cover 100 percent of what Louisiana will spend on this disaster, just as was done after 9/11.

SNOW: And the rebuilding will be extensive. One million people have been displaced. They need schools and health care. And two of the state's big industries, oil and tourism, have been badly damaged. But Wednesday night, with politicians and local and federal emergency officials looking on, Blanco vowed that New Orleans will be back.

BLANCO: To anyone who even suggests that this great city should not be rebuilt, hear this and hear it well. We will rebuild.

SNOW: Mary Snow, CNN, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: The president will come to Jackson Square, which is the historic center of New Orleans, the center of the French Quarter. Jackson Square named for Andrew Jackson. There's a statue of him on horseback there commemorating his victory in the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. Lots of history in this city, history that is certainly worth preserving. And certainly this part of town will make a comeback no matter what because of what is here and what treasures may lie here.

The question is where will the people be living? That's the big question that lies ahead.

The president's speech, 9:00 Eastern tonight. Of course, CNN will have live coverage of that. We invite you to tune in a little sooner. Our special coverage and analysis of the situation in the wake of Katrina begins at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time.

Stay with CNN. We are your hurricane headquarters and hurricane aftermath headquarters, as well -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Miles, thanks.

Day four of Judge John Roberts' confirmation hearings. The Senate Judiciary Committee reconvenes less than an hour from now.

CNN's Bob Franken is live for us at the White House this morning -- Bob, good morning to you.

Frustrated Democrats -- and we've seen them really frustrated over the last couple of days -- still have lots of questions, one would imagine. But realistically, is anything standing in the way of easy confirmation for John Roberts?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's certainly looking less and less like it. But the Democrats aren't ready to give up yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

FRANKEN (voice-over): Not so fast, John Roberts. A few Democrats want to question you just a little bit more this morning, before the special interest groups testify for and against u. And you might want to ignore those Republicans who are already starting their victory celebration.

SEN. ORRIN HATCH (R-UT), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: If people can't vote for you, then I doubt that they can vote for any Republican nominee. You have made a very, very strong presentation here.

SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R-IA), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: But you've done very well and it's going to be very hard for people to cast a no vote against you.

FRANKEN: For two long days, Roberts finessed the Democrats and left them sputtering, refusing to be pinned down on specific issues -- abortion, property rights, doctor assisted suicide.

SEN. JOSEPH BIDEN (D-DW), FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE: Without any knowledge of your understanding of the law, because you will not share it with us, we are rolling the dice with you, Judge. FRANKEN: Roberts insisted that like past Supreme Court nominees, he didn't want to compromise his credibility as he considered these matters. But one Democrat argued he had discussed legal issues in speeches and legal filings for years.

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: Why this room should be some kind of cone of silence is beyond me, but you're being less forthcoming with this committee than just about any other person who has come before us.

JUDGE JOHN ROBERTS, CHIEF JUSTICE NOMINEE: I think have been more forthcoming than any of the other nominees.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

FRANKEN: That's about as close as he came to an argument in the last couple of days as he tiptoed through this mine field. Now it looks like the full committee is going to be voting, Soledad, in a week from today, and then the following week, expect the Senate to vote on the nomination. And if all things go well, that'll be about a week before he steps in as the chief justice of the United States -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Which everyone is predicting is going to happen.

Bob Franken for us this morning.

Bob, thanks.

CNN is going to have live coverage today of the Roberts' confirmation hearing on a special "SITUATION ROOM." It begins at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

Still to come this morning, hundreds of Louisiana foster children still missing after hurricane Katrina. We're going to take a look at what's being done to find them.

Plus, another nursing home under investigation in Katrina's aftermath. More than a dozen patients were found dead there. Why weren't they evacuated? A look at that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: In Louisiana, a second investigation has been launched into the deaths of elderly residents who were waiting to be rescued at a nursing home. At least 14 residents died at Lafon Nursing Home in New Orleans. Along with the tragedy at St. Rita's Nursing Home, the death toll from those two nursing homes alone is at least 48.

Joining us this morning from Tulsa, Oklahoma is Wes Bledsoe.

He is the president of A Perfect Cause, which is a watchdog group that focuses on nursing homes.

Nice to see you. Thank you for talking with us this morning.

WES BLEDSOE, PRESIDENT, A PERFECT CAUSE: Good morning, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: It's a law, isn't it, that nursing homes have to have some kind of evacuation plan?

BLEDSOE: Absolutely, an evacuation plan, but most often nursing homes interpret that as being an evacuation plan in case of fire, not for disaster to relocate the residents.

S. O'BRIEN: So then is it a law that under any kind of emergency they actually have to follow that evacuation plan that they had to come up with and have approved by the state?

BLEDSOE: The laws vary by state and the law just requires that there is an evacuation plan in place. The state doesn't apparently review what those evacuation plans really are.

S. O'BRIEN: Hmmm, that's kind of shocking.

BLEDSOE: Yes, it is.

S. O'BRIEN: When you talk about a case that we've been discussing a lot, St. Rita's Nursing Home, which I know you're very familiar with, the lawyer, one of the lawyers for the couple that own the nursing home claim that, one, they were unaware of the mandatory evacuation order; and, two, highlighted some, you know, extenuating circumstances that may lead people to having second thoughts before they evacuate the elderly.

I want to play for you a little bit what he said.

BLEDSOE: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM COBB, ATTORNEY FOR ST. RITA'S OWNERS: If you evacuate these patients, many of whom are on oxygen, many of whom are on feeder tubes, many of whom won't survive the evacuation, if you pull that trigger too soon, those folks are going to die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: That's James Cobb. He's the attorney for the owners of the nursing home, St. Rita's Nursing Home, in St. Bernard Parish.

Doesn't he have a point that sometimes you hesitate because, of course, these are frail, fragile people and to sort of just have them leave -- evacuate, you could be putting a lot of lives at risk?

BLEDSOE: Absolutely. He does bring up a valid point and that's the point of transfer shock. We're dealing with a very frail population that the trauma of the transfer, a simple transfer, can be literally a death sentence for a number of these people, which is why when we implement these evacuation orders, we really need to have proper vehicles and staffing to effect that transfer, to effect that evacuation.

S. O'BRIEN: Some of these nursing homes, again, as you well know, since this is your area of interest, small mom and pop sort of shops.

So who is ultimately responsible, at the end of the day? Is it the owners or is it the state, who should be overseeing getting these frail people out and into some kind of good care?

BLEDSOE: Well, I think it's a shared responsibility. Certainly the nursing home operators are primarily responsible. But the city, county and state should also be responsible in making sure that plan is in place. And family members also need to be asking questions -- what is the evacuation plan for this facility?

S. O'BRIEN: Well, and if they don't, they need to then just go get their loved ones, because we certainly saw that case in St. Rita's.

BLEDSOE: Absolutely.

S. O'BRIEN: Some of the people lived, really, were the ones -- lived because their sons and daughters came and got them out.

BLEDSOE: Absolutely correct.

S. O'BRIEN: Wes Bledsoe is the president of A Perfect Cause.

Thank you for talking with us.

We appreciate it.

BLEDSOE: Thank you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, Katrina almost dealt a devastating blow to NASA's reeling shuttle program. A team of brave employees, though, rode out the storm and really saved the day.

We'll tell you how just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

We're live from the French Quarter.

I'm standing on the balcony of the Royal Sonesta Hotel, these famous wrought iron balconies. As a matter of fact, this is one of the most famous balconies that you see in the course of Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras coming up in February. Normally, two million people come here to enjoy the festivities of Fat Tuesday, as they call it.

It's a big question as to what kind of Mardi Gras there will be this year. Perhaps some kind of scaled down version.

By the way, I want to tell you one little factoid for you. The poles down there, during Mardi Gras, they actually have to grease them to stop people from trying to climb up and get on these balconies. It'll be interesting to see what happens this February, 2006.

Tourism is a huge, huge economic driver here. It's responsible for 81,000 jobs, $5 billion in revenue total annually. As I told you, two million people just come here for Mardi Gras alone.

But this is a more diverse economy than tourism. Obviously oil is a big deal. But also one of the leading employers here, believe it or not, is NASA, and Lockheed Martin, aerospace giants. The NASA facility here in the eastern part of New Orleans is actually very crucial to the space shuttle program. And there is some concern that the damage that was sustained there during Katrina might pose yet another setback for the shuttle program.

I visited that Michoud facility yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Battered but still standing on dry ground, NASA's space shuttle fuel tank production line is still intact thanks to four hardworking water pumps and 37 brave workers.

(on camera): What was it like when you were riding this one out?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it was nerve-wracking.

GUY JACKSON, NASA RIDE OUT TEAM: It was intense. It was long. It took forever to pass by.

M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): They volunteered to join the so-called ride out team here at the Michoud assembly facility on the east side of New Orleans, the place where NASA manufactures the big orange fuel tanks for the space shuttle. Their mission? Keep the 830-acre site afloat when Katrina hit. Most important, keep the pumps pumping.

(on camera): You didn't feel like it was unsafe?

JOE BARRETT, NASA RIDE OUT TEAM: Yes, we all knew it was unsafe. But we knew that we had to try to stay out here and run it as long as we could.

M. O'BRIEN: Joe Barrett and Daniel Doell manned the pump house as the killer storm blew in. They were riding the throttles to make sure the pumps didn't run dry and burn out.

DANIEL DOELL, NASA RIDE OUT TEAM: If this place goes, it could ruin the whole space program. I mean this is the only place that builds these tanks. And without here to retool up, to build another place like this, I mean you're talking about billions of dollars.

M. O'BRIEN: They set the pumps at just the right speed before they retreated to the emergency operations center. There they watched the security cameras record the destruction. Later they realized some loose barges were banging on the concrete flood wall, a close call. (on camera): When all was said and done after the hurricane blew through, this facility looked like an island. It was surrounded by water. As a matter of fact, the only way to get here is by air.

(voice-over): But the fuel tanks were OK. Only one was slightly dinged when a chunk of roof fell on it. Still, the facilities took a $500 million hit. Will it delay the next shuttle lunch? These tanks are slated for redesign anyway. So while engineers decide how to fix the falling foam which has been a chronic problem, workers here may have some time to make hurricane related repairs.

For now, the ride out team is just anxious to see their families.

(on camera): And you had to be thinking about your family, though.

JACKSON: Oh, well, the truth is you try not to. They're there, but you try to hold that back because, you know, I know they're safe, I know they're in a good place and we've got a lot of things to do.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Back live now on Bourbon Street.

I should tell you, there are about 2,000 workers at the Michoud facility. NASA has accounted for all but 200 of them. And of the ones they have accounted for, fully half of them are without their homes -- completely destroyed, in many cases. In many cases tremendous damage that will take an awful lot of repairs.

And, also, of those people I spoke with in that piece, all but one of them has lost their homes entirely. The dedication they exhibited is truly astounding, to be there now for 18, 17, 18 days straight without having seen their families and to pull that center through is truly an act of courage and bravery.

On our way there in the helicopter, we had a chance to look at a neighborhood we hadn't seen much of before. It's an area called New Orleans East and it is also a hard hit area.

As we take a look at some of the pictures here, the water has recede, in many cases, but the damage is rather significant. Thousands of homes utterly destroyed or -- and perhaps not recoverable. And as the water recedes, believe it or not, that pungent smell we have been telling you about actually gets a lot worse.

We were flying in that helicopter 500 feet or so off the ground and the odor was simply overwhelming. The job that lies ahead in the outlying areas is tremendous. Like I say, I've been saying all morning, in -- on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter it's high ground. It's one story. In places like New Orleans East, there is a huge long road recovery back.

We're back with more AMERICAN MORNING in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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