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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown

Katrina Aftermath; Hurricane Death Toll Rising

Aired August 30, 2005 - 22:00   ET

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

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: We said as we went off the air last night that we felt certain today was going to be worse along the Gulf Coast. It has been worse, much worse. Hurricane Katrina, now a mere tropical depression over the state of Tennessee, but the disaster it left behind grows by the hour.
And it not simply a natural disaster tonight. It is becoming the sort of disaster humans cause. There is looting and lawlessness, overwhelming in some places the ability of police to keep order. The more we see tonight, the more difficult, the more unsafe, the more desperate things appear.

When dawn broke today, the scope of the devastation across three states became far clearer, in parts of Mississippi, entire neighborhoods destroyed. In New Orleans, a major breach in a levee overnight sent water pouring in an already flooded city. Efforts to fix it have failed. And the water is expected to begin rising rapidly yet again.

Residents are being urged to find higher ground as soon as possible to get out. It's now a race against time to find survivors. Where to take them is the problem, a huge problem. We have a better view of the wide shot than we did 24 hours ago. And it is everything we feared.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): New Orleans is no longer safe to live in. It is that simple and that stark. More than a day after Katrina hit, things should be getting better, but they have gotten worse. The failure of levees and pumping stations is causing floodwaters to rise, not recede. And, somehow, the governor of the state wants to figure out a way to get whoever is left in the city out.

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO (D), LOUISIANA: They are putting more and more survivors into the Superdome. And it's very -- the conditions there are very difficult. But we are worrying first about the medically needy.

BROWN: We are talking about tens of thousands people, perhaps 30,000 in the Superdome alone, just one of the shelters in the city. Those people need to be moved, but to where?

BLANCO: We will be looking for places to evacuate the rest of the folks who found themselves at the Superdome. It's not a very comfortable situation now. BROWN: In the midst of it all, something approaching anarchy. Looting is going on. Police seem unable to stop it. Their cars are running low on gas. There are not even jails to house the prisoners they have, prisoners moved to high ground today, the side of a highway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, here we go. OK. Get that -- there we go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, dear. Oh.

BROWN: By boat and by helicopter, rescue teams worked today to get people still trapped in their attics or on their rooftops to safety. Hundreds of people have been stranded this way. Dead bodies float by as crews look for the survivors. The Coast Guard alone says it has helped 1,200 people by water or air.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were sitting there in the storm. And we did not even know, have any idea the destruction going on around us. When we got out and saw the destruction, we just feel so blessed and thank God we're alive.

BROWN: The city is essentially cut off, one runway opened at the airport, but highways and roads remain impassible. Supplies are running short. So are tempers. The scope of the disaster, murky yesterday, is much clearer tonight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twin spans are down. The bridges are down. There's no electricity. Phone lines are down. Cellular phone lines are down. There's no way of us getting in contact with any of our families, friends or anybody that is left behind. Out of those casualties, we don't know who is hurt, who is -- if they're related to us or what. We just can't -- we are going to be here, whether we like it or not, because we can't take any road home. There's trees. The causeway is no more. It's gone.

BROWN: In Mississippi, it is hardly better. The Gulf cities remain flooded out. The state says the death toll is somewhere between 50 and 80. But, like the waters, it will likely rise. We have no idea how many stories there are like Hardy Jackson's.

HARDY JACKSON, MOBILE RESIDENT: We got up in the roof, all the way to the roof, and water came. And the house just opened up, divided.

JENNIFER MAYERLE, WKRG-TV REPORTER: Who was at your house with you?

JACKSON: My wife.

MAYERLE: Where is she now?

JACKSON: I can't find her body. She's gone.

MAYERLE: You can't find your wife? JACKSON: No. She told neighbors, she told, I tried, I holded her hand tight as I could, and she told me, You can't hold me. She said, Take care of the kids and the grandkids. And my kids...

MAYERLE: What's your wife's name in case we can put this out there?

JACKSON: Tonia (ph) Jackson.

MAYERLE: OK. And what's your name?

JACKSON: Hardy Jackson.

MAYERLE: Where are you guys going?

JACKSON: We ain't got nowhere to go. Nowhere to go. I'm -- I'm lost. That's all I had. That's all I had.

BROWN: In places like Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, residents are trying to get back home. Black marks are put on houses with bodies inside, because, right now, there are not enough refrigerated trucks to hold them.

GOV. HALEY BARBOUR (R), MISSISSIPPI: But the most important thing is, is that people try to help people start getting their lives back together. It is not going to be something that is going to be done this week or next month, maybe not even next year.

BROWN: Katrina knocked down tens of thousands of homes in Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama; 2.5 million people are without power tonight, over 43,000 people in Red Cross shelters. The estimate for insurance damage alone sits now at $25 billion. Tonight, thousands of people have nothing, no power, no phone, no water, no food, little hope. Just faith.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because I am a deep Christian, I thought, at least we are alive. That's the important thing. And, in this part of the world, we are very valiant people and we do endure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, they have plenty to endure tonight. That's an overview of where we are. We will start to focus in on certain areas.

The thing that has changed most notably in the last, I don't know, eight to 10 hours is the public safety situation in New Orleans itself. What started out as a natural disaster, floodwater everywhere, a levee breached making things worse, has evolved, to some degree or another -- and I think trying to find out exactly to what degree -- into a public safety problem.

Adaora Udoji is in New Orleans for us tonight and she joins us.

I guess the question, Adaora, is, how lawless is New Orleans tonight?

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think, Aaron, that the police are trying to find that out.

I mean, we have been from one end of Interstate 10, which runs through downtown New Orleans, running east/west, I have been from one end to the other. And, Aaron, there are hundreds and hundreds of people who are just sitting on the side of the highway. They have absolutely nowhere to go. The center of the city is indeed flooded. In some places, they are telling us up to six feet.

We just walked through several blocks and it was probably about waist high, I would say about two or three feet. And so, there is some expectation that perhaps the water will rise. But we also have talked to some police along the way, who have told us that there was -- late in the evening, there was some looting along one of the main streets downtown, which is Canal Street.

They also said that there were several shootings in and around the area of the Superdome, not at the Superdome, but in and around that area. So, they were very concerned. And we noticed, as we were traveling back from the northeastern site, where we were, where they were rescuing hundreds of people, that the police were traveling in packs. You tended to see them 6, 10, 12 cars at various ramps.

And they seemed to be moving together. And one police officer told us, the reason why they were doing that was because they were running into some resistance in some places, although we did not witness it personally. They told us they were running into some resistance. And so, they were going to move together, so that they could more efficiently work.

BROWN: Stay with me for a bit here.

AP reporting, police spokesman in New Orleans said, one police officer was shot in the head by a looter. He is expected to recover. According to AP, dozens of looters on Canal Street, the street you were just talking about, ripped open the steel gates of stores. Some filled plastic bags to carry or float stolen goods. One motel owner quoted by AP is saying, "People are just filling up garbage bags and walking off, like they're Santa Claus."

Is it safe to walk the streets, the dry streets, those streets that are dry in I guess the western part of the city, in New Orleans tonight?

UDOJI: Here is the thing, Aaron. It's really unpredictable. And I can say this from experience of just the last hour, going up and down the various streets that feed into Canal. Some are flooded.

Some are severely flooded. Some look like there could be as much as six, seven feet worth of water that's built up. Others are absolutely dry. We did notice that some store windows were broken, but it's hard to tell whether that was because of the storm itself or whether that was because of people. We saw very few people as we were walking.

But, again, it's a very small perspective. We were only within a couple of blocks. Clearly, the police are concerned about that. Even coming into our hotel, we ran into a police officer. And he was saying that, you know, they're doing all that they can to try to figure out exactly where people are and what they are up to.

I mean, the bottom line is, this is such a fluid situation. And to be completely frank with you, I think that they are overwhelmed. I think the police department is overwhelmed. I think that some of the state wildlife and fishery enforcement agencies that have been sent down to the area are overwhelmed.

There seemed to a lot of confusion at one of the sites where we were, where there were hundreds -- I mean, literally, Aaron, we watched hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of men, women and children, infants, some people bringing their pets, being rescued from an area where they were at least 10 feet underwater, some houses submerged underwater.

And they were being rescued 24 hours ago. They were -- many people were being brought to the shore and they were staying there for hours and hours. And the police were trying to assess how many. I think there's just a lot not known because we are really talking about a short period of time since that hurricane blew through here and, again, the flooding, which followed not directly after, but soon after.

BROWN: I think overwhelmed is a fair word. Just in listening to people, whether it was the governor today, Senator Landrieu today, other officials in the state, kind of yesterday's confidence has given way to today's weariness and a sense that they do not have a good handle on all of this.

Is there a noticeable -- on the streets, is there a noticeable National Guard presence?

UDOJI: I just want to say, I think you are exactly right. That is weariness, because I think there was a general sense of excitement that downtown New Orleans, for example, immediately following the storm was not hit as badly as some had -- the potential of what that hurricane was.

But, today, with the flooding, I mean, it has just set into motion a whole different scenario, which is, you have all of these displaced people. Where are you going to put them?

BROWN: Adaora...

UDOJI: That's the bottom line.

And so, when you have all of these displaced people, again, like all of the people that we saw -- and it is hundreds that we saw along that highway, who are very upset for obvious reasons. They have lost their homes. They have nowhere to go. And even earlier this evening, it started sprinkling. So, you have all of these people have nowhere to go. There's no one is telling them. They have told us that over and over again, that no one was telling them anything, that they were looking for their city officials, that they were looking for some guidance from some official, from somewhere telling them what should happen next.

And so, there's a lot of confusion and angst and worry and concern and hurt and, of course, shock, given what's happened.

BROWN: Adaora, let me ask the question again. I'm not sure you heard it. Is there a noticeable National Guard presence on the streets of New Orleans?

UDOJI: We have not seen any. But, again, my perspective is quite small...

BROWN: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

UDOJI: ... that we were just walking through several blocks. We have heard that they are here. I have not seen them.

BROWN: OK. We only want you to report what you know, not what you think you know, as we often say around here.

Anything you want to add here that gives viewers a kind of broad sense of what it is like for people who are trying to get through yet another night in a city where -- that, in fact, may still be getting worse?

UDOJI: I think they're stunned, and I think that they are making the best.

BROWN: OK.

UDOJI: When you see those people on the highway, many had cars. And you would see people making beds in the trunk with the doors or with the trunk of the car open, with the doors open. Some people were sitting on fire engines that were sitting along the side of the highway. They are trying to make do with what they have, because the future is just so unknown.

BROWN: Stay safe out there, OK?

UDOJI: Thank you.

BROWN: Thank you, Adaora -- Adaora Udoji, who works out of our New York bureau, who is part of the team of correspondents, producers, camera men and women who are working the story.

The truth of it is, it is very -- the New Orleans part of the story -- it's different in Mississippi, to be honest, and different still in Alabama. But the New Orleans part of the story, particularly, is getting very tricky to cover, safety being a major issue for reporters covering the story. And that affects our eyes and ears. And we will have more on that as we go.

Biloxi, Mississippi -- Biloxi, Mississippi -- don't e-mail me. I got it, OK? And we have stories of people who survived there and some who did not. As we make our way to about a quarter past the hour, some of the other stories that made news today, before we head back to New Orleans. Erica Hill is in Atlanta tonight.

Good evening, Ms. Hill.

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good evening to you, Mr. Brown.

We start off with news of President Bush, who is now comparing the allied victory in World War II to the battle in Iraq. In a speech in California today, he marked the 60th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II, saying America once again faces a ruthless enemy and adding, once again, America won't rest until freedom is secure.

In about 200 towns and cities across America, major meth busts, more than 400 suspected users and distributors of methamphetamine now behind bars following those raids led by local law enforcement and the DEA.

Also nationwide, SAT math scores hitting a record high. The class of 2005 got an avenue math score of 520 out of a possible 800. That's up two points from the year before; 2005 students were the last to take the old SAT, with only math and verbal sections. The new version includes a writing section.

And perhaps a little moment of levity for everyone tonight. In San Francisco, an ostrich is causing little chaos on the Golden Gate Bridge. It escaped from a minivan on Monday. The driver apparently kind of stopped short. The bird broke through the window in the back and got free. It stopped traffic for eight or 10 minutes before it was caught. It turns out the ostrich got a little road rash, but is going to be just fine and is recovering back home on the farm tonight, Aaron.

BROWN: That often happens to me when I'm driving. Thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: That's like too strange.

The White House is saying, the president will fly to Louisiana on Friday to tour the damage. The president announced today -- or the White House announced today the president would cut short his vacation, head back to Washington a couple of days early. It now turns out he will head to Louisiana on Friday, which is not surprising. It's going to create a set of problems all its own. But I think people will be glad to know that the White House, the president is paying some attention.

Much more ahead on the disaster which continues to unfold, including stories of the fortunate ones.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We ran upstairs real quick and we looked at each other. And we said, if we don't get out of here, we're going to die.

BROWN: In Biloxi, Mississippi, life-and-death decisions.

TOMMY JOE BREAUX, SURVIVOR: He said that he had to swim out. And right as he was swimming out, the apartments collapsed.

BROWN: It happened so quickly, many different have a chance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is all I have left. This is all I have left to my name. The houses are torn to shreds. The trees are down all over the roads. There's no water, none at all.

BROWN: They never planned on being in the eye of a hurricane, a small town and enormous losses.

And, sometimes, still photos can tell the story better than anything else, how Katrina has forever changed lives.

From New York, this is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: We want to choose words carefully here. But I think it's fair to say that, in parts of New Orleans tonight, you have a very desperate situation, whether it's the Superdome, where people have been stuck, literally stuck in what are deteriorating situations there, conditions there, or in some of the neighborhoods that are flooded out, or the hundreds of people in the suburban areas, the eastern part of New Orleans that are still stuck in homes that have not been rescued yet.

This thing gets more desperate by the hour.

Ed Reams is covering the story for New Orleans station WDSU. He joins us tonight.

You all have been talking to the mayor's office. And what's the latest they're saying?

ED REAMS, WDSU REPORTER: Well, Aaron, the latest they're telling us is that the situation may get worse before it gets better. That levee breach that we have been talking about and has been causing all the flooding after Katrina passed through that you have been seeing on CNN, that may go even further into what is called the bowl, the below- sea-level area of New Orleans, which is probably about 80 percent of the city.

The mayor just told us moments ago that the pumps at the 17th Street Canal have now also failed, that the water has gotten so high in the pumping station itself that the pump has ceased to work. We are also understanding that another levee within the city is also on the verge of failing. Some sandbags that were supposed to be brought by Army helicopter never arrived. The Army helicopter was diverted for search-and-rescue.

And, as you can imagine, that helicopters are overwhelmed because of all the people who have been rescued from the roofs. So, flooding now seems to be the major, major problem in the city. And you mentioned just moments ago about, is it safe to walk the streets?

Well, Aaron, soon with this rising water, there may not be many streets in the city.

BROWN: Yes, I guess -- I guess that's one way to look at it. A couple of things here. I want to get back to the levee situation in a moment.

What do you know about the conditions inside the Superdome? You have some number of thousand people. And we have seen 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 at various points tonight. What do you know about the situation inside there?

REAMS: Well, Aaron, I was actually in the Superdome when Katrina passed over. It was the shelter of last resort, the last place where people could go if they either chose not to evacuate or did not have transportation.

Things were fine as the storm first approached. We even had air conditioning inside the dome. People were fed with MREs from the National Guard. So, things were fine there until Katrina started ripping off the membrane of the top and also started peeling away part of the roof. That's when the electricity went out and then it started literally raining inside the Superdome.

After that, water stopped running. The sewer system is backed up. And it was extremely humid inside, if you can imagine being inside a place that is already wet from that falling rain and then with all the people inside. So, if this goes on for a couple of days, you can imagine, people are getting to the end of their rope. The tensions are starting to rise. And with no word on what is going on outside, no access to radio or TV, unless they brought it themselves, no word on their loved ones or their property, you can imagine, people are pretty anxious inside the Superdome right now.

BROWN: And how is that being managed? Are there city police in there? Is the National Guard in there? Who is keeping order in there, to the extent that order needs to be kept?

REAMS: The National Guard, the Louisiana National Guard, prior to it being staffed as a shelter, placed about 200 National Guard soldiers in and around the Superdome.

It is being staffed and run by the National Guard. This is a change from what happened in 1998, the last time the Superdome was used as a shelter, during Hurricane George. That year, there were some uprisings, some people very upset. The police department felt they couldn't handle it. So, that was a change from that year. But, again, when you have 200 people trying to manage 10,000-plus people -- you have to remember, the number keeps adding as people make their way to this shelter -- it can be very difficult. They do have -- they do have a supply of water. They do have some food. But, again, the conditions are deteriorating, with a lack of sewer and lack of water, running water, potable water. If it's not bottled water, it can be very trying, also, that the Superdome was also a special needs shelter.

So, there were plenty of people on ventilators, people who were on dialysis also placed in that area. Those people are having the hardest time because of the conditions. They need to be in specialized care centers, not in humid, large domes, where there is almost what you would describe as chaos inside.

So, the National Guard is looking to maybe evacuate those folks to some other care center. But as far as evacuating 10,000, probably 15,000 at this point, it's going to be hard to do.

BROWN: Just briefly, Ed, if you can, do you also have the sense that that -- that the authorities broadly, whether they're federal, state or local, are overwhelmed tonight?

REAMS: I think that's a good characterization, Aaron.

BROWN: OK.

REAMS: Because, number one, communications are out. Even cell phones can't be used. That was the initial problem with police. Even radio towers, some, in most instances, were nonfunctional.

We are actually in Jackson, Mississippi. Our own station lost its transmitter and our management felt, with all the looting that was going on, that our lives were in jeopardy. We got approached many times by people who were asking if we had money and asking if we had food, in a forceful manner, not really being polite about it.

So, many people are going into survival mode right now. And even police officers themselves have been up for days. They don't have access to water or food in many instances. So, they are overwhelmed at this point.

Now, to quickly add, on the way up here to Jackson, I did see a caravan of National Guard, power utility trucks, other emergency operations, constantly streaming towards the area. But whether they get in place any time soon will be tough.

BROWN: Ed, terrific work. Thank you -- Ed Reams of WDSU in New Orleans giving you a sense of what it is like.

And just, on that last point, on the situation, that's two reporters now who -- and, believe me, reporters are not going to use the word overwhelmed when talking about authorities lightly -- see the situation in those terms.

Just ahead, we will take a look at some of the rescue operations that went on today. The Coast Guard, as we mentioned earlier, says, at various points, it has been involved in 1,200 rescues. No one knows how many people have perished in New Orleans.

And later in the hour, how still photographers have captured this horrible storm and its aftermath.

We will take a break first. Around the world, this is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Quickly, a recap for those of who just may be joining us. When dawn broke today, we began to see the scope of the devastation along the Gulf Coast. It has been a very sobering day and equally, if not more sobering, night. Across the region, no power, not enough drinking water, nearly.

What nature hasn't ravaged, looters seem to be. In both New Orleans and in Mississippi, there has been looting. Finding survivors, getting the sick and injured out is the immediate focus. FEMA is sending dozens of teams to the area to help in the search and rescue operations, which continued all day today.

In New Orleans, conditions have gone from terrible to worse. Floodwaters continue to rise. Efforts to repair the levees have failed. One failed yet again tonight. People are being urged to find higher ground as soon as possible. Mostly, people are being urged to get out of town. It is turning into another long and dangerous night in New Orleans.

In Mississippi, the governor said Katrina has inflicted more damage to the state's beaches than Hurricane Camille did back in '69. He said Katrina will likely turn out to be more deadly than Camille as well, which killed 143 people in Mississippi.

David Mattingly has been in New Orleans since all this began over the weekend and David is with us on the phone with us. David, I've been trying to get a sense of the public safety issues that people are dealing with down there. Any sense that the National Guard now is coming in, in support of New Orleans police, which, from our hearing, seem pretty overwhelmed by it all?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There was a sense that the authorities here were overwhelmed by the looting because there did not seem to be much of an attempt early on to squash it. There was a great deal of things going on in the flooded areas along Canal Street.

But tonight, there are some National Guardsmen. They are on Canal Street along with a very, very strong police presence. So, this is the probably the strongest statement being made by authorities yet since this disaster began in terms of trying to impose some sense of order in the heart of this city.

The biggest problem the authorities are having, apparently -- there are signs everywhere that everything has been stretched to the limit and beyond in terms of helping the public. The expressway, I- 10, has become a refugee highway. There were hundreds of people stranded up on that expressway today, not in their cars.

They had to climb out of their homes when the new flooding arrived. They tell me -- almost everyone that I spoke to said that they had to walk out of their homes in chest-deep and chin-deep water. Those who weren't tall enough to wade their way out, had to ride out on other people's shoulders.

They were up on the expressway because that is the highest area they could find and there were elderly up there in need of medical attention. There were people who had left their medicine behind. And they were out in the blazing hot sun for the entire day waiting for someone to come pick them up and take them to a shelter. But that ride just never arrived.

BROWN: And that's the question.

MATTINGLY: Another sign of how the services here are completely overwhelmed.

BROWN: David, I think that's the logical next question: Is there any evidence that whether it is FEMA and the people that FEMA claims to have staged in the area and ready to go to how people or the Red Cross, a private agency or the state government or the parish governments, the county governments there, that any of these entities, in fact, are picking these people up and taking them somewhere, to a shelter, to somewhere?

MATTINGLY: Well, every parish is flooded. Whatever services they had to provide are unable to move. The most concentrated area of assistance groups, if you want to call it that, would be the Superdome.

We've heard how difficult things have been there. I have been from one end of this city to the other, traveling the elevated expressways and looking at the damage and talking to people. They have not seen any official at all.

Most of the people, the only contact they've had with anybody, except fellow refugees, are the people with the boats who maybe gave them a ride from their home to the expressway. That has been the biggest source of assistance that most of the people I saw today have received.

BROWN: Where do they want to go to? Do they have any idea or is it just they're trying to get away from?

MATTINGLY: There is so much confusion here. Everyone I talked to on the expressway -- Aaron, I can't impress upon you how -- what a sight this was. There were hundreds of people, entire families carrying whatever they could, maybe in a trash bag, maybe they put everything into a cooler.

They had small children; grandmothers and grandfathers with them. They were all asking the same question: Where do we go? Who's coming to pick us up? There was a lot of (inaudible) after hearing reports of the bad problems that were on the radio here, at least, that were going on at the dome.

They didn't want to go there, but at the same time they couldn't languish out in this hot sun that they had today. There was absolutely no shade on that interstate and yet a lot of people just chose to sit there. Towards the end of the evening, we saw a lot of people deciding well, no one is going to come pick us up. We have been here all day and now, we're going to try and walk to the Superdome to see what sort of relief we can get there. And it was sort of a lesser of two evils. Either sit on the expressway or take on the unknown at the dome.

BROWN: Sort of a devil's choice at that. David, one or two other things. We don't know when we will get back to you again. The mayor's office has just said that in its estimation, the situation will very likely get worse before it gets better because they're unable to repair the levee system and the pumping stations, which sort of work in support of the levees have failed as well. How much worse was today than yesterday?

MATTINGLY: Well, remember at this time yesterday I was talking to you, talking about how the French Quarter didn't get hit that bad. And that people were staying, had stayed in their homes and they were preparing to clean up.

This new wave of flooding is just absolutely catastrophic. You can't go anywhere from one end of the New Orleans East to New Orleans West without seeing everything completely under water.

And the refugee situation is really something that I've never seen in this country before with hundreds of people, literally the clothes on their backs, not knowing where to go or what tomorrow is going to bring. And calling an interstate their home for now because that water is not going anywhere any time soon.

BROWN: Let me -- let me -- David, I think you're perhaps one of the few people I will ask this of, but do you have any feel, any feel at all for what it's going to be like -- what it's going to look like when the water recedes?

MATTINGLY: We had a great deal of difficulty getting back to our hotel. The water level had come up to the point that we had to abandon our cars about a block away and wade here through the -- some of the nastiest smelling and looking water I've ever seen in my life.

And we walked in the first -- I encountered one of the hotel staff. They immediately told us that by tomorrow morning there's going to be five feet more water out there, which means we will be trapped here and that it will be impossible to exit this hotel without having to swim.

BROWN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: But that's not a problem. It will be a problem for all the other people who cannot evacuate vertically the way we were able to in a high rise like this. There is no good news here. The water is continuing to rise. The misery is continuing to rise right in front of it.

BROWN: David, you've terrific work and I say this to you publicly, the way I say it to you in e-mails and privately: We count on that work an awful lot. Thank you. Stay safe out there tonight, OK?

MATTINGLY: My pleasure, Aaron. Thank you.

BROWN: Thank you, David Mattingly.

These are our friends and our colleagues and it's a difficult situation. The situation -- it's sort of interesting to me, I got a note from somebody today who said that yesterday we had made it seem like it wasn't so bad in New Orleans. I took some issue with that. The fact is that New Orleans did not get hit square on, and many of the problems that New Orleans faces tonight are not simply from the hurricane, that's part of it. But from the failure of the levees that surrounded and protected and the pumping stations that are in support of those levees.

The full force of the hurricane actually hit a bit to the east and a bit to the north in towns like Slidell, which is just a few miles from the northeast on the Mississippi/Louisiana border. The eye of the hurricane passed over that city -- that small city on Monday morning. And what it left behind was not very much.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice over): They are isolated, hungry and desperate. The people of Slidell. People living on Walnut Street, for example, who made the only decision they thought they could, they began to leave town.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything just happened all at once. Everything came down. All the trees came down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got about four-and-a-half feet. The water's up to here at my house.

BROWN: They came wading up on to the highways through water a foot deep. Some carrying there possessions in a boat. Most with just the clothes on their back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just bad back there. We just trying to make it somewhere.

BROWN: It was like this all over town. This woman stayed through the storm, and now has no place to go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've lost everything. Everything we have is gone.

BROWN: This woman said she was carrying all she owned in two plastic bags. The authorities wouldn't let her into her neighborhood. It is no longer safe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's really bad. People are without everything. There's nothing there, nothing.

BROWN: Many others just waited. These people gathered under the awning of a closed gas station hoping for electricity and gasoline. One woman already spent two nights in her car. She was hardly looking forward to a third.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I slept one night in Mobile in my car and then one night here, because this is blocked off. And now I have no gasoline.

BROWN: Slidell is on the northern side of Lake Pontchartrain and was directly in the hurricane's eye. The devastation here is nearly total. Homes destroyed, cars ruined, electrical transformers tossed around like ping pong balls. And on the bayous, expensive homes, expensive boats, all lost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not sure how much damage is done back here, because the water is still over the West Hole (ph) Bridge, which is the main entrance into this neighborhood.

BROWN: It will take many weeks, perhaps many months for life here to return to normal. For right now, however, many people are simply refugees in their own hometown.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (on camera): Slidell, Louisiana, just outside of New Orleans. In truth, it looked better there than it looks in the city. And a lot better isn't very good. Still to come on the program tonight, a look at the landscape that's more water than land, a storm's eye view. We will take a break first from New York and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Got an e-mail a short time ago from a woman in Missouri who has family in Mississippi. Gottier or Gottier, Mississippi, on the Gulf. Wondering if we knew much about the situation there. We'll check on the situation in Mississippi, which is not especially good either, coming up. But first we want to check some of the headlines that made news today other than the hurricane. Erica Hill joins us again from Atlanta -- Erica.

HILL: Hi again, Aaron.

We start off tonight with suspects in a shocking assassination today. A current and several former top Lebanese officials taken into custody. They are being held for questioning for the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The popular politician and 20 others were killed in a car bombing in Beirut last February. Those detained include the head of the presidents guard, two former security officials and an intelligence leader.

In Iraq, new uncertainty about the constitution. U.S. ambassador to Iraq made it clear he thinks more changes are expected before a final draft is approved. Also today U.S. Marine air strikes targeting insurgents in Western Iraq. There is one report dozens of civilians were killed. The Marines Corps said seven militants were killed when the 500 pound bombs were dropped.

And she was born the year Vincent Van Gogh died. Today we say goodbye to the worlds oldest person. She passed away in the Netherlands this week. She turned 115 on June 29th. And Aaron, in case you're wondering, she said the keys to longevity were to continue breathing, and eat pickled herring.

BROWN: Well, that's a choice we all have to make, I think.

HILL: Every man for himself on that one.

BROWN: I think so. Yes. Thanks a lot.

You know, it -- the news has been for three days now, so bleak, whether it's an ostrich running across a road in Northern California or pickled herring, it feels good to smile a little bit. There isn't much to smile about. We will be with you until midnight tonight. That's true of our international viewers as well. We hope you'll stay with us. Need to take a break first. Our coverage continues in just a moment.

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BROWN: We said as just as we were going to break this has been such a bleak set of days. It is also true, of course, that there have been some extraordinary stories that ended happily. People who, by all rights shouldn't have made it, did. Jonathan Freed tonight in Biloxi, Mississippi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is all that's left of an apartment building that stood on St. Charles Street in Biloxi, just across from the beach. As many as 30 people may have died here during the storm, according to officials. May is the key word, though. The numbers could grow much higher. Just look at the extent of the devastation around here. There is so much officials don't know.

TOMMY JOE BREAUX, SURVIVOR: There was about three, four foot of water in my front yard.

FREED: Tommy Joe Breaux says at least some people made it out of that apartment building, because he says one of them just appeared on his porch when the water was rising.

BREAUX: He said he was on the second floor of the apartments. And he said that he had to swim out, and right as he was swimming out, the apartments collapsed.

FREED: Tell me, what were you doing when you were aware the water was coming your way? AL GUMBOS, SURVIVOR: Well, at 5:30, we had power. We was watching you guys on the news.

FREED: Al Gumbos lives only three doors up from the apartment complex, and was amazed to find his place survived the storm. He got a shock on Monday afternoon when he saw a neighbor who was thought to have drowned.

GUMBOS: We were able to exchange hugs and glad to see her.

FREED: A couple of blocks to the east --

RYAN WINIECKI, SURVIVOR: We ran upstairs real quick and we looked at each other and said if we don't get out of here we're going to die.

FREED: Ryan Winiecki and his friends had to swim for their lives when a storm surge, full of debris, overtook their house.

(on camera): So you said you were escaping out a side window. Suddenly you're in the water, right, and it's pushing you this way.

WINIECKI: Yes.

FREED: So how did you keep your heads above water?

WINIECKI: Well we -- I mean, you grabbed on to anything you could.

FREED (voice over): One thing everyone we spoke to had in common, they were all amazed they had survived. When some, so close by, did not.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREED (on camera): And, Aaron, those people that we spoke to today, all of them said that for now, anyway, they just can't imagine their lives ever getting back to normal -- Aaron.

BROWN: Well I imagine they can't, the truth of the matter is, John, as you know, peoples lives do go on and they do get back to normal. And thank God for that. Thank you, Jonathan Freed, who works out of out Chicago Bureau but is a southerner, we all are in some ways tonight.

Still a head on the program, with all eyes on New Orleans, small towns to the east ended up in the eye of the hurricane. Also a day of searches and rescues and much more, too. Those stories are still ahead. As a special edition of NEWSNIGHT continues from New York.

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