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American Morning

Hurricane Katrina: The Aftermath; Crisis in New Orleans; Financial Relief

Aired September 01, 2005 - 08:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A concert September 17. How can people contribute if they want to?
WYNTON MARSALIS, MUSICIAN: Obviously, just check...

S. O'BRIEN: Buy tickets, go online?

MARSALIS: Buy tickets, go online. I mean I don't really know the Web site and stuff. I'm never informed with that kind of information.

S. O'BRIEN: That's OK. You know you can Google it and find it that way.

MARSALIS: Yes. Yes, ma'am.

S. O'BRIEN: Nice to see you, Wynton, as always. Thanks a lot.

WYNTON: Right. Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: More to come, much more on the crisis going on in New Orleans, the situation quite dire in and around the Louisiana Superdome. You can see, there, folks who are trying to be evacuated, waiting and waiting as that now has been halted. And there is news that a National Guardsman has been shot. We'll have the very latest on that just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

It is just past half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. Our coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina continues.

Miles is in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, this morning.

Good morning -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.

It is the largest natural disaster in U.S. history. And, in some respects, it is a homeland security, a national security issue, as well, because of all the reverberations and implications for the evacuations, the homelessness, the effect on oil prices. As a result, the U.S. military is becoming involved, and as our National Guard troops. Right now, about 28,000 boots on the ground, as they like to say in the military, throughout the region, the three states most effected, specifically in the city of New Orleans where we've been seeing these dramatic pictures this morning. And we can share some of those with you.

The evacuation process from the Superdome, 4,000 National Guardsmen there. Another 5,000 active duty troops expected to be on the ground soon, bringing the total to about 9,000. Clearly not nearly enough when you consider what you're seeing here. These scenes outside the Superdome, people desperate, hot, tired, uncertain of their future, not a pretty picture indeed.

Joining me now to talk about how to respond to this, from the military perspective, is Lieutenant Colonel Pete Schneider with the Louisiana National Guard.

Colonel Schneider, good to have you with us. Let's just take care of a little business here on the Superdome. First of all, you just told me there are reports that people have set fires inside and around the dome?

LT. COL. PETE SCHNEIDER, LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD: We've had reports that there are fires on that outside veranda of small trash fires and that it's difficult for New Orleans Fire Department to get in because of the high water.

M. O'BRIEN: How big of a concern is this that this could spread?

SCHNEIDER: It's a great concern. We've got to get them put out. Although they're small trash fires and they may burn out, we don't want to take the chance of anything spreading.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. But, so these are just malicious trash fires you're talking?

SCHNEIDER: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let's talk about what we were talking about this morning on the helicopter. You and I have both been in Chinook helicopters. It's kind of hard to hear gunfire. But we do have a report that there was something shot at a helicopter involved in this effort. Taken at face value, normally, given what you know about what's going on there, I guess it's within the realm of possibility?

SCHNEIDER: Yes, sir, it is. It's not going to slow us down. We'll deal with it how we need to deal with it, but it is in the realm of possibility.

M. O'BRIEN: Has the evacuation been suspended, though, for a time until they can get things a little more under control or is it not possible to get it under control?

SCHNEIDER: Well it's been suspended, first of all, because of the fires. And it's also been suspended because the buses are moving some people out of the Metairie area. Currently we're evacuating about 3,000 people that have collected at that point. And then more buses are en route to begin the overall evacuation of general evacuees from the Superdome.

It's no longer just evacuees from the Superdome as citizens who were held up in high rise office buildings and hotels saw buses moving into the dome, they realized this is an evacuation point. So we're estimating between 50,000 and 60,000 now.

M. O'BRIEN: Fifty and 60,000 people, which will clearly tax this bus convoy effort. And at the other end, the city of Houston, clearly that is more than the Astrodome itself can handle. And this city has opened up its arms and has said it will accept everybody. Can they possibly handle this?

SCHNEIDER: We're working on alternate locations, as you can imagine, besides just what Houston has offered. We also have, along with our DOD partners now, we have moved in heavy airlift coming in. We're -- also rail has now opened and we're beginning to use that process. We're going to try and see how we get the evacuees to the rail lines. And we can move about 1,900 at a time on the rail lines.

M. O'BRIEN: Also, one other thing, there was a report of a guardsman actually being shot inside the Superdome yesterday. What can you tell us about that?

SCHNEIDER: I can confirm that there was a guardsman who was injured. He was wounded. It's not life threatening. He's been taken to medical facilities, and we're continuing.

M. O'BRIEN: Colonel, clearly this is way out of control. You've got 4,000 troops on the ground there, 5,000 active duty troops coming, but not there yet. Shouldn't there be a more, a quicker and stronger response call that's given what's going on?

SCHNEIDER: Well the response for the military in there is to keep law -- is to attempt, at all costs, to keep law and order. We're not law enforcement officials. We're working with our partners to attempt to do that. There are so many people there. It's a desperate situation with no air conditioning and no water that we're doing the best we can.

M. O'BRIEN: But do you need more people?

SCHNEIDER: Well we're working that. DOD is bringing in thousands of troops. This is just the initial push. When it comes to the point where more troops are able to come in, we're going to bring in as many as we need.

M. O'BRIEN: Lieutenant Colonel Pete Schneider, Louisiana National Guard, thank you for your time -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: We've got satellite images, Miles, to really show the devastation caused by Katrina. Chad Myers has those. Got a look at those. He's at the CNN Center.

Chad, good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.

We have a couple of different things. We actually have airplane images and satellite images here. I'll take you to an airplane image first. I want to get your bearings. There's New Orleans. And this is the area I'm going to focus on, Pass Christian.

And I'm spinning it so that you get a feel for how the beach is actually set up on this picture as well the photo from right about here on Pass Christian. And as I switch to the other source, you will notice that this is really the beach. This is a NOAA jet that flew over and took all of these images here.

A couple of disturbing things if you live on the ocean here anywhere. Here is the ocean road or ocean boulevard. As you move a little bit farther to the west, here we go. Here's all of the damage, all of the destruction. This is Beach View Drive, let alone here.

Now we'll get all the way back out to Everett Street (ph), and this is as far as that wave went, the storm surge. This is where the storm surge stopped and dumped everything that it picked up from back here right on to Everett Street.

We'll pull you up a little bit farther to the north, show you that this is how far that storm surge went in. Literally, about six or eight blocks, everything there Pass Christian knocked down, except, of course, for the water tower. Pretty amazing how that because it was on stilts, basically, all the water went under it rather than knocked it down.

Now we'll go back to New Orleans again. I have other pictures to show you. Here's New Orleans. Remember we talked about 80 percent of the town underwater. And people were e-mailing me, said, you know, the water is still coming in, isn't that now 85 or 90? No, it's not. You know why? Because you go back to New Orleans now, because this is the images from yesterday, here's where the water is in this blue and here's where it's dry.

We talked about the levee break on the 17th Street levee. Well, the levee itself only broke on the east side. This side is still dry. This is the wet side. All the way over to the Marconi Canal (ph) right on down south even a little bit farther.

Here's the city. You can see a little line that I've drawn in. The French Quarter relatively dry. As you ramp up to the Mississippi River, the French Quarter is just a little bit higher in elevation. It doesn't take much when you're talking about water. The water from here to the west. There's Louie Armstrong Park right there.

And if you get back up here, and if you've ever heard of the New Orleans Jazz Festival, Fair Grounds, City Park, all completely underwater. These were taken yesterday afternoon, even a couple of clouds in the sky here, but no showers here. Maybe this water is going down a little bit when they get that levee fixed -- Soledad. S. O'BRIEN: Really an indication, Chad, that the dire predictions, and these are predictions, as you well know, that have been out there for years...

MYERS: Absolutely.

S. O'BRIEN: ... when people would do models of worse case scenarios. All these worse case scenarios really came true as Katrina slammed into, not only parts of New Orleans, but also up and down the Gulf Coast.

MYERS: And, Soledad, this break in the levee actually happened, or in the canal, happened well after the storm was gone. It was just that erosion that happened under the seawall, under the floodwall. Eventually that floodwall let go and the storm was well up into Mississippi by the time this happened.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

MYERS: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: It's just shocking.

MYERS: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: I mean it's really -- we see them again and again and it's still hard to kind of get your mind around some of these pictures...

MYERS: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: ... I've got the tell you, Chad. All right, Chad, thanks. We'll check in with you again in a little bit.

Let's get a look at some of the other stories that are making headlines this morning with Carol.

Good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning to all of you.

"Now in the News."

Friends and relatives are looking for loved ones after one of the deadliest days ever in Iraq. Mass funerals now under way for the nearly 1,000 Shiite Iraqis killed in a bridge stampede on Wednesday. The Iraqi prime minister has ordered payments of $2,000 to the families of each victim in the disaster.

A hunger strike is apparently under way at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba. A human rights group says dozens of terror detainees are demanding to be put on trial or released. Some have apparently been held more than three-and-a-half years without charge or access to lawyers. This is apparently the second hunger strike at the detention center in recent months. President Bush says there is a lot of help coming. The president has announced plans for the most massive relief effort in history to help survivors of Hurricane Katrina. He's also reached out to former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton. They'll spearhead an international campaign to raise money for hurricane victims, similar to what was done for tsunami victims in Asia. We're expecting to learn more about that today.

And Oscar winning actor Morgan Freeman is leading a celebrity effort to help victims of the hurricane. Freeman, who lives in the Mississippi Delta, is setting up an online auction. On the block, a chance to attend a screening of his upcoming film, "An Unfinished Life," and memorabilia from various movies. The auction begins tomorrow at the Charity Folks Web site. Just one of the things that many celebrities are trying to do to raise money to help these people.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, they certainly need the money and they certainly need the input. So that's good to hear that some people reaching out and helping out.

All right, Carol, thanks.

Let's get right to CNN's political analyst James Carville. He's a Louisiana native. Some of his family members were forced to evacuate the New Orleans area. In fact, his own sister lost her house, we are told, in Slidell. He is in Mauertown in Virginia this morning.

James, nice to see you, thanks for talking with us.

JAMES CARVILLE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: First, you know there's so much to talk about, and it's kind of overwhelming, so I'm not really quite sure where to begin. But I guess I want your sense of the state that your city is in. What do you think?

CARVILLE: Well, you know I think we look at it today and it's horrible. And the thing we have to remember, and I mean people are calling me all night and it's, you know, very difficult for anybody to sleep or to get through is it's going to be this way for a long, long time. I mean there's no cavalry that's going to ride in and fix this thing. And it's not going to return to normal for some time. So it's very important to remember that we're in a really long haul situation here.

And I'm trying to keep an emotional perspective on that, and so is everybody in Louisiana. I mean, a lot -- my family has other people that are living with them now. And my sister -- one of my sisters is living with another sister.

Donna Brazile, who was Vice President of Gore's Campaign Manager, can't find her dad, her two sisters.

And I'm trying to get through on phones to find places for people to live. I mean it's just -- and this is going to continue for a time. This is not something that's just going to go away. And that's an important thing for all of us to remember.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, it's terrible. And of course our thoughts are with Donna, because she's a contributor to our show, as well, as many of our viewers know.

CARVILLE: Right. Right. And that's...

S. O'BRIEN: You know many people, James, have cautioned in assigning blame, especially when there are people who are still yet to be rescued,...

CARVILLE: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: ... who still need to be plucked off of rooftops and things like that.

CARVILLE: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: But I'm curious of what you make of the response.

CARVILLE: Well, again, I'm trying to help raise money. I think certain people at Sony Entertainment believably helpful in this. And they're going to have some, I think, exciting announcements to make. I know the entertainment industry, motion picture industry just really wants to get behind this. The number of people that have called me to help...

S. O'BRIEN: I guess you're talking the long term. Forgive me for interrupting you, James, but I feel like you're talking about the long-term response.

CARVILLE: I know...

S. O'BRIEN: And here's my question.

CARVILLE: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: You've got 25,000 people in and around the Superdome.

CARVILLE: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: They're hot. They're tired.

CARVILLE: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: They're poor. They're in filthy conditions.

CARVILLE: Right. And the people of Houston have really responded magnificently. This thing with the Astrodome, and I saw Mayor White on television yesterday. This is a magnificent thing that they're doing. And you know they are equipped to handle these people.

No, I'm not -- I'm just thinking along in short term. I'll be glad to talk about that, the horror of what people are going through. But the rescue workers, you know, they're working night and day. And the fatigue down there must be something that is just awful.

S. O'BRIEN: It's got to be absolutely terrible. I guess...

CARVILLE: I just can't...

S. O'BRIEN: You know, my question is, to an outside perspective, and I'm not from there, it looks like it was very disorganized and very unprepared for a scenario that people will tell you people have been expecting. People have written books about.

CARVILLE: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: People have done documentaries on what if a big hurricane hit.

CARVILLE: Look, we knew this. You're exactly right. This shouldn't have been a surprise to anyone. And we knew that those levees were compromised. There was report after report after report. The times pecan (ph) did a nine-part series on that. And somebody is going to have to go back and look at this. This wasn't a surprise.

Last year, I believe, they did an operation, I think they called it Hurricane Pam, I'm told, where they tried to coordinate all of this. So there's going to be plenty of -- we're going to learn a lot from what we could have done here.

But you know when the levee breaks, it just -- there are some things that you just can't do in a hurricane. And when some people don't evacuate, and the mayor couldn't have been any more forceful and the governor couldn't have been any more forceful before the storm came for people to get out of town.

Unfortunately, and we knew this going in that New Orleans is a poor American city and half the people don't have cars. So there's going to be plenty of time to learn a lot from what we could have done about this.

But right now the human toll and what human beings are going through and what we're going to have to do is I'm trying to get my -- trying to focus on that as much as I can and help raise money. My wife and I are going to do a race in Washington, D.C. to raise money for it.

And that's the thing that I'm told time and time again when I call people in Louisiana, I call Senator Landrieu's office and that's the thing that they really need is raise money for the Red Cross, some of these religious charities, or whatever you want, but that's what they need down there.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, they need some cash.

James Carville.

And they will need some cash for a long time.

James Carville. CARVILLE: Probably it's going to be for a long time. Thank you so much.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much.

CARVILLE: Thank you for everything.

S. O'BRIEN: We certainly appreciate your time.

A short break. We're back in just a moment. We're go to update you on the situation in the Superdome. As you can see, people outside of the Superdome in the surrounding areas desperate to get out of New Orleans. What are the conditions like there? An update on that situation is just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Civil unrest in the city of New Orleans causes a suspension of that bus evacuation of the Superdome. Reports of shots fired at a helicopter. And we just were told by the National Guard that several trash fires have been lit on the esplinod (ph) area around the Superdome. And as a result, they have stopped that evacuation.

Nevertheless, there are about 60 buses that are in the pipeline, so to speak. The buses have started arriving in Houston at the Astrodome, which, it is hoped, will be a better place for many of these evacuees. The National Guard says there could be upwards of 60,000 people who try to board those buses. Many more than that were in the Superdome on the order of about 20,000. The question is where will they all go?

Joining us to talk a little bit about the ordeal of being an evacuee and where they might be headed is Berna Brown who just arrived on one of the buses in Houston at the Astrodome.

Berna, good to have you with us.

BERNA BROWN, NEW ORLEANS EVACUEE: It's good to be here.

M. O'BRIEN: First of all, have people there told you anything about whether you'll be able to stay at the Astrodome or somewhere else?

BROWN: Well, they said that I couldn't stay, but they gave me some papers to help me to find a shelter and some Red Cross information and numbers to try to get some help from.

M. O'BRIEN: So you're in a strange city and they give you some phone numbers and some documents. Is that going to be enough for you? Obviously you need transportation. You need a lot of help there.

BROWN: I need a lot of help. And I need transportation. You know, I mean...

M. O'BRIEN: Have they told you anything about that? BROWN: Well, some, some things about it, they did say about it. You know, I thought I would get more help while I was down here, and more than this, but a little bit at a time is good enough. I'm not rushing anything. I'm just praying to God that my needs be met.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit, Berna, if I could, about the scene in New Orleans.

BROWN: OK.

M. O'BRIEN: I know you were staying with friends before you went to the Superdome to get on one of those buses.

BROWN: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: Just describe for me what it's like around the Superdome right now in the wake of all of this.

BROWN: Everybody is going absolutely insane. Sad faces. People who need help, bread, water, clothes. You know water is everywhere, water is everywhere.

Then you were talking about something about opening up the levee to the surrounding, you know, areas, and everything. But I really and truly didn't believe that would happen, you know. So now this is what happened. Everything is just gone. Nothing is there. To me it feels like a different time. It doesn't feel like these modern days, you know? Things like I look on television in slavery days, or in the -- I mean, Africa and days, no, the look, the look is look -- it just looks horrible.

M. O'BRIEN: Well it's -- you know it's kind of like before there was civilization or something. Civil order has broken down.

BROWN: That's right. That's right.

M. O'BRIEN: You must have feared for your life.

BROWN: That's right. That's right.

M. O'BRIEN: Were you afraid?

BROWN: That's right. That's right. That's exactly right. That's what happened to me. And I really and truly haven't -- I don't believe that this is really happening to me in these times. You know what I'm saying? It's confusing to me because more people is supposed to pay a lot of attention to things like this that is happening. Because that's just like, what, a bad sickness, or what have you, would just wipe out the human race instead of just try to fight back with it, try to work with it, try to understand what is happening, you know.

M. O'BRIEN: Berna Brown, we wish you well as you try to fight back and get back to your life and rebuild your life. And we wish all of you well.

BROWN: I'm praying for that.

M. O'BRIEN: All right.

BROWN: I'm praying for that.

M. O'BRIEN: We join you in that prayer. We join you in that prayer.

Back with more AMERICAN MORNING in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

Some banks and lenders are helping out customers who are unable to make payments because of Hurricane Katrina.

Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."

And you kind of have to ask payments on what, what's left?

ANDY SERWER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Payments on what's left in terms of your house and your car, in many cases destroyed. Think about ATMs, people needing cash, medicines. People needing money to buy those medicines. A real mess.

Let's walk through some of the things that some agencies and companies are doing. The IRS granting extensions for those people who are paying quarterly taxes. The FDIC encouraging banks to restructure loans. And the NCUA, that's the Credit Union Association, likewise. Then Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac urging lenders to suspend payments.

Thousands of homes destroyed. What do you do about mortgage payments there? Waiving late fees, if you can't make those payments for all the homes are destroyed or people who simply don't have access to checks or checking accounts. I mean it just goes on and on here.

Then, as far as car payments go, likewise, the big three here are allowing deferred payments. Again, tens of thousands of cars, Soledad, are destroyed or damaged. Sorting this out. Between car loans and the insurance companies, it's going to be a big mess.

And then, finally, let's talk about the Social Security Administration. Think about all the people who are depending on those checks. The Social Security Administration says that it will do whatever it takes to get those moneys to people. Those with direct deposits probably in best shape. They said they will try to get checks to shelters. But then again, what are you going to do with a check if you can't go to a bank, if you don't have your ATM card? I mean, this is just another level of complexity here we're trying to sort through.

S. O'BRIEN: Right, so if you don't have direct deposit, you then have physically, if you get your check, and again, there's no registry right now of where everybody is, so that's a huge if.

SERWER: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: And then you have a physical check but there's no bank to put it in...

SERWER: Nowhere to put it. I mean, it's just staggering, the stuff we have to deal with here.

S. O'BRIEN: ... that's going to give you money. You know I think that's a good word, right.

Andy, thanks.

SERWER: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: A short break.

Still to come, we're going to get to the very latest from New Orleans. That massive evacuation of the Superdome now put on hold, this, after gunshots were fired at an Army Chinook helicopter that was helping in the evacuation. The latest on the scene there just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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