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CNN Live At Daybreak

Massive Rescue Effort Under Way In Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; Skyrocketing Gas Prices Due to Hurricane Damage

Aired September 01, 2005 - 06:31   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. Thank you for waking up with us.

Coming up this half-hour, we've all seen the dramatic pictures of destruction along the Gulf Coast. We'll talk to one of the men who has gone there to help search through the rubble for survivors.

And gas fears have led to long lines and high prices at the pump. Look at that, $5.57 a gallon.

But first, we're keeping you up to the minute on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Here's what's going on.

Ten thousand more National Guard troops are heading to the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast region. That brings the total number of Guard members to more than 28,000. About a third will be assigned to help stop the looting, which is just what Louisiana's governor wants.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO, LOUISIANA: I will tell you something. We are going to restore law and order. We will do what it takes to bring law and order to our region. We're not going to put up with petty criminals or hardened criminals doing their business. This is not a time or a place for any of that behavior. And I am just furious. This is intolerant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: In the meantime, desperate conditions at New Orleans hospitals are now getting dangerous. Doctors are being forced to decide which critically ill patients should get portable oxygen after the power went out and the backup generator failed. One nurse says she was held up at gunpoint as she left the hospital.

Getting people out of the devastated city of New Orleans is a major focus of operations today. Hundreds of displaced people from the Superdome have begun arriving at the Houston Astrodome. They're being shuttled by bus more than 300 miles.

Now, eventually about 20,000 storm victims are expected to make the trip over the next couple of days. The evacuees will get toiletry kits as soon as they get there so they can finally take a shower. They'll also get food and, of course, medical help if needed.

Let's talk more about that massive rescue effort under way in the hurricane zone. From rescuing desperate people stuck on their rooftops to getting food and water to storm victims to trying to keep the peace, it has been a huge challenge.

I want to check in now with Lieutenant Mike Regan. He's a member of the Fairfax County search and rescue team.

Good morning, lieutenant.

LT. MIKE REGAN, FAIRFAX COUNTY URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE: Good morning.

COSTELLO: A team from Fairfax County has gone down to Gulfport, Mississippi. I know it's very difficult to get any kind of telephone contact with them. But what is the latest you're hearing from them?

REGAN: Well, you're correct about the communications problems. They are operating on strictly a satellite telephone. None of the cell phones that they have are operational. They do have their own portable radio, so they are able to communicate with each other down there from remote locations.

But the latest that we've heard is that they are in search and rescue operations along coastline near the Ocean Springs area. They have reported the situation there to be very bad. These are veteran firefighters that have been out on other missions. And if they are saying that it's very bad, that's a probably a pretty good description of what's going on.

COSTELLO: Well, let's expound on that. Conditions are very bad. I know they went out there to look through the rubble of buildings that were knocked down from the storm. How many are they dealing with?

REGAN: All of them. They said that they're looking at damage of approximately 80 percent of the buildings. They're anywhere from single-story homes to small to low high-rise buildings, you know, three to four-story buildings. And there is a tremendous amount of work in the area. They are working with, you know, the Virginia task force, and one is working with another task force from Nebraska. And they're working out what they call a grid-type search pattern.

And they're not only looking for -- you know, the most important thing they're looking for is people that are trapped in those buildings or that are missing, as well as the other hazards, because hazardous materials, there is a lot of concerns about that down there, because of all of the type of industry that they have in that area.

COSTELLO: Oh, sure. Let's talk about the people that are possibly trapped in these buildings. This has been since Monday. How likely is it that they're going to find survivors?

REGAN: Well, we as a group never really give up hope. Our team is an international team. We travel overseas to disasters overseas from earthquakes and bombings and things like that. So, we feel that the people, if they have a little bit of water, they can, you know, be trapped in a building up to several days, as long as -- you know, we've found people in buildings trapped as long as 15 days, as long as they have some type of water and they are not injured.

Once someone becomes injured and they're trapped in a building, the likelihood of survival drops considerably after each day.

COSTELLO: Oh, well, you know, if you do find injured people, since there is no electricity, no running water, probably no working hospitals anywhere close, how do you deal with people who have been trapped in a building for four days?

REGAN: Well, our team is, we're very much like the other FEMA teams that are in the area. We carry a -- our team has a doctor that's with it, as well as four paramedics. And they are trained to work out in remote areas without a whole lot of assistance.

We are fortunate that we are here in the United States. We do have radio communications. And if they had someone that was seriously injured or very ill, they have the capabilities of simply contacting the local authorities. And they'll get a helicopter in there, and most likely fly them out.

COSTELLO: Well, thanks for your fine efforts. Lieutenant Mike Regan joining us live this morning.

The survivor stories we've heard are compelling and quite amazing. In New Orleans, people who rode out the storm in the hospitals are now being moved out. But not all people in need of medical attention made it to those hospitals.

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has the story of two of the smallest victims of Hurricane Katrina.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Jasmine Anderson had her first helicopter ride when she was 3 days old and weighed just 1 pound, 4 ounces.

Saturday at Memorial Baptist Hospital in New Orleans, Jasmine was born 9 weeks early. Her terrified mother, Lyntrella Anderson, watched out her hospital window as the water got higher and higher.

LYNTRELLA ANDERSON, MOTHER: I was told my baby was going to leave first, because she was the smallest and the sickest one.

COHEN: Tuesday, mother and baby were airlifted here to Women's Hospital in Baton Rouge. But there was no room for her husband, who stayed behind at the hospital in New Orleans.

ANDERSON: They told me my husband was not coming with me, and after that, it (INAUDIBLE). And he had to stay behind.

COHEN: Their two older children are safe in Houston with relatives. But Jasmine's future is uncertain.

ANDERSON: Maybe (INAUDIBLE) more blood transfusion. You know, she's really small, and she's really sick.

COHEN: Lyntrella's future is uncertain, too. She'll be discharged tonight and has nowhere to go.

(on camera): When you walk out the doors of this hospital, where are you going?

ANDERSON: I plan to come back around and sit in the lobby.

COHEN (voice over): This hospital is full of evacuation stories, but perhaps none as bittersweet as Rosezina Jefferson's.

Sunday night while in labor, she jumped out of her window and swam for half-an-hour to get help for her 5-year-old son, who was having an asthma attack.

(on camera): When you jumped, what did you tell your 5-year-old son?

ROSEZINA JEFFERSON, MOTHER: 'Mamma is going to get us some milk.'

COHEN (voice over): But Rosezina was having contractions as she swam. She reached a bridge, and a helicopter brought her to Baton Rouge, where she gave birth to a baby boy. She has no idea where her older son is.

JEFFERSON: I'm glad because I got this baby, but I miss my other baby.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to help you. So, you're not going to be alone.

COHEN (voice over): When Rosezina leaves the hospital Thursday morning, some members of a nurse's church will take her in. And Rosezina has hope that her older son is safe and sound.

JEFFERSON: I know I'm going to see him again.

COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Hurricane Katrina is affecting many of your wallets regardless of where you live. That's because gas prices are soaring in cities far from the disaster area. Take a look at that. This is in Atlanta. Some gas stations are charging $5.57 a gallon. Another gas station in the Atlantic area was charging $6.07 for a gallon of premium.

People lined up for hours at stations across the city. Georgia's governor announced there is no gas shortage. But he did issue a strong warning to gas retailers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. SONNY PERDUE, GEORGIA: We have the means whereby to check the terminal prices that you pay, and if you think that you can get away with putting retail prices out there of several times your normal margin, you're the people we're looking at.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: North Carolina's governor is asking people to cut back on unnecessary driving, because gas stations there are really running out of fuel, and they're running out of fuel fast.

President Bush, as you know, is trying to ease the shortages. He's ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to grant a nationwide waiver for fuel blends. He says that will make gas more readily available.

Michael Mandel, chief economist at "Business Week," joins us live to talk about the gas problem.

Good morning, Michael.

MICHAEL MANDEL, CHIEF ECONOMIST, "BUSINESS WEEK": Good morning.

COSTELLO: OK. So, what is with $5.57 a gallon in Atlanta, Georgia?

MANDEL: Well, what's happening is the normal forces of supply and demand. If people think that there might be a gas shortage, then the price is going to go up. You know, I remember -- I don't remember. I'm not old enough to remember the 1970s. But what happened was that there were price caps put on gas, and there were shortages, which is actually far worse than high prices.

COSTELLO: Do you think so? I know there's a gas cap in Hawaii. It goes into effect today, I believe. But let me read you some of these prices: $3.09 at stations in West Palm Beach, 3.49 a gallon Indianapolis, 3.25 in San Francisco, premium fuel going for $3.89 a gallon in Chicago.

This is a wide-term effect due to just these two pipelines?

MANDEL: It is the pipelines plus the fear of the refineries being out. Plus it's the fear that there isn't going to be enough oil. It's all of these things put together.

I can't imagine that it's going to end up at $4.00. It may not even end up at $3.00. But it's going to end up a lot higher than people are used to.

COSTELLO: Well, that's being optimistic. Let's talk about those two pipelines that I mentioned, so people understand. And here's a map of where they're running. You see they run through the Southeast. Apparently, there is some damage to these pipelines. And actually there are two. There's the other one, the Plantation pipeline.

There is some damage to these pipelines, but the main problem seems to be the lack of electricity.

MANDEL: The lack of electricity is a very big problem, because it's not going to come back on very soon in the New Orleans area. I think that once we get past this weekend that people are going to be able to figure out just how much damage there is. And we'll know, are we going to have $3.00 a gallon gasoline? Is it going to be 3.50? And then there will be less fear and more knowledge.

COSTELLO: Well, you talk about the fear. People are absolutely panicking. You saw those long lines. I mean, they snaked around the corner in some parts of Atlanta and North Carolina. Because North Carolina's governor came out and said there is a shortage, because most gas stations only have, what, a 10-day supply, because they haven't been resupplied since Sunday.

MANDEL: You know, the problem is that once you scare people and they start filling up their tanks, they make the shortage worse. Because what happens, usually people drive around with half-a-tank. But if they're going to start filling it up all the time, they're drawing down a lot more gasoline than is even usual.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about the president opening up the oil reserves, because a lot of people are thinking that that's got to help. But in the short-term, it doesn't seem to be.

MANDEL: Well, the real purpose there is to alleviate the fear. If you know that there's going to be enough oil, then you don't have to worry anymore about the oil rigs being knocked down in the Gulf of Mexico. So, the main thing that it does is it calms people a bit. And it helps stop the price of oil especially from gyrating out of control. The stock market was calmed by this yesterday.

COSTELLO: Well, that's a good thing. We're just getting information about one of the pipelines. Can you repeat that to me, Brian? Which pipeline? Colonial. The Colonial pipeline is announcing that it's restoring service, which is a good thing. So, when we see -- well, why are you laughing?

MANDEL: Because what happens is when these things happen, people start assuming the worst. And that's when you get these real price spikes.

This is -- you know, this is far worse than I expected in terms of the energy prices on Tuesday or on Monday certainly. But it's not going to end up at $5.00. It may not end up at $4.00. But it will end up high enough that people are going to start thinking a second time about buying an SUV, and that could make a very big difference in the economy.

COSTELLO: Michael Mandel, the chief economist of "Business Week." Thank you for joining DAYBREAK this morning.

And, again, the Colonial pipeline, the people that own that says it is up and running again. So, we'll see what effect that has on your gas prices later today.

Back to those high gas prices in Georgia, because if you live in Georgia or maybe just driving through, you're urged to call the governor's office of consumer affairs to report gouging at the pumps. You heard the governor mention that a short time ago. That number, 404-651-8600. So that gas station charging five bucks a gallon, oh, call, 404-651-8600.

The American Red Cross kicks its relief effort into high gear. It is the biggest single natural disaster relief initiative in its history. We're going to pose your questions to someone from the Red Cross next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Right now, the days seem awfully dark for those affected, and I understand that. But I'm confident that with time, you'll get your life back in order, new communities will flourish, the great city of New Orleans will be back on its feet, and America will be a stronger place for it. The country stands with you. We'll do all in our power to help you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Donations and promises of assistance have already started coming in from across the country. President Bush has also asked his father and former President Clinton to head up an international relief effort. Former Presidents Bush and Clinton have previously worked together to raise money for tsunami relief in South Asia.

We here at CNN are trying to do our part as well. Our Web site, we've been posting names of those who got out safely. Family members can check the list to see if their loved ones are safe and sound. And that's at cnn.com/safe.

We're also taking your messages at the CNN hurricane relief desk. You can e-mail us at hurricanevictims@cnn.com.

And if you want to donate, contact any of these organizations: The American Red Cross, Operation Blessing or America's Second Harvest. Telephone numbers are on the screen -- at least one is. You can always go to our Web site, cnn.com, and that will have a complete list of organizations and their phone numbers.

A bit more information about those pipelines, because we just got this press release in. It says the Colonial pipeline today announced that it is safely restarting its pipeline. The initial restart of Colonial's main lines 1 and 2 are scheduled to begin within the next several hours.

Also, the Plantation pipeline is partially open. So, hopefully that will ease the gas supply. And maybe those gas prices, those high gas prices you've been seeing in parts of the Southeast and Midwest will come down. We'll check later this afternoon.

Some very special programming to tell you about. Saturday night, our Larry King will host a three-hour special on how you can help Hurricane Katrina victims. That's Saturday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

And when we come back, more headlines and a look at your travel forecast. You're watching DAYBREAK for Thursday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: "Now in the News."

Funerals are being held in Iraq today for victims of a massive bridge stampede in Baghdad. Some 965 Shiite pilgrims died. They panicked and ran after hearing rumors of a suicide bomber in the crowd.

Bells ring as Russians mark the first anniversary of the Beslan school massacre today. Some 300 people were killed after gunman stormed the school and took more than 1,000 hostages. The militants demanded Russian troops withdraw from Chechnya.

And around the world, some Islamic extremists are rejoicing in America's misfortune brought on by Hurricane Katrina. In Internet chatter, they're declaring Katrina has joined the global jihad, or holy war. And they implore, with God's help, oil prices would hit a $100 a barrel.

You know, we were going to have somebody from the Red Cross in to talk about how you can help, Chad. But they got called away. So, hopefully we'll get that guest on tomorrow.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Sure.

COSTELLO: And they'll be ready to answer your questions. But to you now for a quick travel forecast.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Finally this morning, a reminder that even as our nation grieves in Katrina's wake, you can't help but celebrate some things that are purely American.

It goes like this: Bottom of the seventh, Cardinals led the Marlins by 10 runs. Just three hours after he was called up to the big leagues, Jeremy Hermida hits a grand slam over the right-field wall in his debut game. He is the first player in over a century to hit a grand slam in his first Major League at-bat and the first ever to do it as a pinch hitter. Something tells me the Marlins will keep Hermida for another at-bat. I think so. Congrats to him and thanks for the bright spot in this morning.

From the Time Warner center in New York, I'm Carol Costello along with Chad Myers. "AMERICAN MORNING" starts right now.

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