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American Morning

Hurricane Katrina's Aftermath

Aired September 03, 2005 - 8:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Miles O'Brien. Texas, opening it's collective arms and its heart to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. More than 153,000 evacuees have already arrived in the lonestar state. The Astrodome is full, but the mayor of Houston pledges to find shelter for everyone. We'll have a live report just ahead from there.
The federal relief effort in New Orleans has turned the corner. Evacuees are being brought to a makeshift triage facility at Louis Armstrong Airport. We'll tell you more about that, and the thousands of others waiting to be evacuated or rescued all around the city. Soledad is at the airport.

After getting a firsthand look at the destruction, President Bush will talk about the recovery and relief effort in his weekly radio address. That's a little later this morning, couple hours from now. We'll bring it to you live on a special weekend edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. And welcome back, everybody.

We're coming to you this morning from the New Orleans International Airport, which essentially is a giant field hospital.

And listen, a moment of quiet. Completely unusual, because choppers have been ferrying in pretty much since 5:00, 4:30 this morning.

And essentially, what they're doing is offloading passengers onto baggage carts. They then roll them in and begin the process of counting for these evacuees. Those who are most critically injured go up to the second floor. They're going to be brought in for some immediate care and triage.

Those who are less injured will find their way among the many thousands of others who are now essentially just camped out in the hallways, in some cases lying on cardboard boxes that have been collapsed, and, in many cases, with their small children, as they wait to figure out what their next step will be.

It is not a scene of chaos. It's actually very calm inside this field hospital. And yet, there is a sense of desperation. Many of these families waiting for many days, many of them have nothing to go back to, and have no idea where they're going next, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right, Soledad. Thank you. We'll be back with you in just a little bit.

Every hour we are bringing you the most critical issues facing the Katrina survivors.

We start with the security situation now in New Orleans. General Russell Honore, who is in charge of the situation there, met with New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin earlier today. The mayor described the situation on the ground as substantially improved. He's a big fan of the general's.

More relief shipments are being brought in today by land and air.

But New Orleans, of course, remains under water. The Army Corps of Engineers says it could take up to 80 days to pump those floodwaters out, and, of course, there could be a whole host of other problems.

CNN has confirmed there are now two fires burning in the city.

Stay with CNN for more on these developing stories and the latest on Katrina relief.

Let's get back to New Orleans, where relief assistance has finally begun to flow. We keep saying, turning the corner. This is probably the first morning where we can report some substantial improvement.

Thousands of troops are pouring in to help control the rampant lawlessness.

Meanwhile, there is some sign of fire in downtown New Orleans. And, of course, it's very difficult for the fire department to get to those fires.

Let's get right to Jeff Koinage, who's sorting all this out for us. He is on Canal Street, right near the Quarter there.

Jeff, you're seeing some smoke. Do we know where that's coming from?

JEFF KOINAGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we do indeed, Miles. That smoke is coming from the riverfront area. That's about two-and-a-half blocks to my west. And I can see thick clouds of black smoke billowing into the morning skies, Miles.

We understand it's -- that's a warehouse district, and there's fire in one of the timber piles.

And what's critical here, Miles, is that if fire spreads, the entire riverfront could be affected. It's very critical right there. The fire department has to take care of that situation.

But as you well know, the hydrants are all dry right now. The services have been stretched to the limit. That is going to be a problem if it's not taken care of. The second fire, Miles, is in the Aquarium area, and that's to the right of me, also further southwest. That fire is also raging in that area. Another critical point.

Despite the fact that security on the ground is very stabilized, like you mentioned earlier, we understand officials saying up to 7,000 National Guardsmen expected to be on the ground by late Saturday. We're also hearing news, Miles, that evacuations at the Superdome have been suspended temporarily, National Guardsmen not letting buses into that area right now. We'll try and find out more about what's going on over there.

At the Convention Center, where up to 15,000 people have been in the last several days, there are still several thousand people there waiting to be evacuated to Houston. They were there up until yesterday, where we spent most of the day. And you should have seen that situation, Miles. Such pathetic scenes. The old, the young, the poor, the destitute, all sitting out there, waiting out there in the baking sun, waiting for relief, which finally came late in the day.

National Guardsmen distributing MREs, or meals ready to eat, cartons of water to the people there.

Still, Miles, people on the ground complaining this came too little, too late, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Jeff Koinage on Canal Street, thank you very much.

Soledad at the airport. Soledad, good morning.

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

And as Jeff mentioned, those folks who were at the Superdome, 2,000 or so is the best estimate so far as how many remain, many folks at the Superdome were actually evacuated to the Astrodome, but it quickly filled up to capacity.

It's where we find Peter Viles for us this morning.

Peter, good morning to you. How many evacuees are actually in the Astrodome now?

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the Astrodome building itself, Soledad, about 15,000. They thought they could put more, maybe as many as 25,000, in there, and they couldn't.

But they very quickly found two other large buildings right here in this complex to put evacuees in. There's an arena that has 3,000 cots. That's full. So 3,000 there, 15,000 in the Super -- in the Astrodome, rather. So the population here, about 18,000.

They have another 8,000 cots set up and are ready to accept more people here. So they can take 26,000 here, and they're not close to that. They have also, the city of Houston has scrambled and found another convention center downtown that they think can hold another 8,000.

So there is room here in the city of Houston, in an effort that, as far as we can tell, is pretty darn well organized. And one thing that is really heartwarming here, just an incredible outpouring of volunteers and donations. If you go inside the Astrodome, there are sort of the official donated clothing, so when people get here, they can get a change of clothes as soon as they get off the bus.

But outside the Astrodome, there are people from Houston and all over Texas who want to donate, don't want to go through official channels. They will drive up to the gates of the Astrodome and drop off food and clothing.

So, as I say, it really is kind of heartwarming, and as far as we can tell, it's been pretty darn well organized. It isn't perfect. Nobody wants to live in a football stadium with 10,000 other people. But pretty darn well organized, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, it's certainly starting to sound that way. And certainly, for people who have been wading through dirty water, and are covered, in many cases, by feces, to get some clean clothes and to get a shower would just be a huge improvement.

I've also heard, Peter, reports of mail maybe being delivered to some of these folks. Is that right?

VILES: Yes, among the many, many organizational projects here, they are trying to set up mail delivery. And what they have done is, they've given the Astrodome and the surrounding evacuation buildings its own ZIP code. As we understand, it's 77230. So if you believe you know someone who is here, you can send mail, and they think mail may be delivered as soon as tomorrow.

You can send mail to General Delivery, Houston, Texas. And all the mail in this ZIP code will come here, and that zip is 77230, if you think you know someone who is here, and you're trying to reach them. Also, in a perfect world, in a few days people from New Orleans might even be starting to get mail here, if they can figure out a way to get it out of New Orleans and over here. And -- but they are now filing change-of-address forms.

So they are organized at that level, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Well, that's good news. And maybe that will lead finally to some kind of big national registry, so people who have lost their loved ones can get a little help in tracking them down.

Peter, thanks a lot.

Let's get back to Miles.

Miles, again, you can hear the lull has stopped, because the choppers are flying again. So we got a little short break. But now they've picked up the pace again. We're getting more evacuees here to the hospital -- or the field hospital, the airport, really, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: It is the sound of progress there in New Orleans. Soledad, thank you.

As drivers nationwide are already painfully aware, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, gas prices have shot up. Shortages in the hardest-hit states mean long lines at the pump.

Allan Chernoff live at a gas station in midtown Manhattan. Allan, are we getting to the point where we're talking about a full- blown energy crisis?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really depends how you define energy crisis. I mean, certainly, for people who can't get gasoline right now, I guess you could say it's an energy crisis. But officials in the energy industry are saying, Just stay cool, because things are going to improve.

Now, we do have some good news this morning. First of all, the pipelines that move from the Gulf area all the way up the East Coast are now operating. The Colonial pipeline, which comes all the way to New Jersey, right across the Hudson River from where we're standing, that's now operating at 70 percent of capacity. And the Plantation pipeline, which goes up to Washington, D.C., is now running at 95 percent of capacity.

So very good news there. The gasoline, the diesel fuel, it all is flowing, although, keep in mind, it flows through that pipeline at a very slow rate, four, five miles an hour. So it does take some time to move on up.

The other good news is the International Energy Agency yesterday agreed to release 60 million barrels of gasoline and crude oil, send it over to the United States. Some of that coming from the U.S. reserves, but some of it also coming from Europe. And there are other shipments on the way as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAMUEL BODMAN, ENERGY SECRETARY: We already have some 20 ships that are moving in the direction of the -- that are coming to the United States from Europe that are fully loaded with refined products. And these are materials that the private sector have arranged on their own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: Now, let's talk about some of the bad news.

There are for sure eight refineries, major refineries, that are still out of commission in the Gulf Coast area. The inspections have been done, or they're being started. And so far, the reports are that it's just flooding, but nothing too severe. Industry experts are expecting they'll get back online within about a month or so.

But nonetheless, as a result, we do have scattered shortages up and down the East Coast, and also in other parts of the country as well, the Midwest as well, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Until they're back on line, we are in line, I'm afraid. Allan Chernoff, thank you very much.

Let's check the forecast, shall we? Bonnie Schneider at the CNN Center, in the Weather Center, looking at things for the weekend. Good morning, Bonnie.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Miles.

If you're up early this morning to catch a flight, good news here. We don't have any reported airport delays at this point. So things are looking good. It's actually going to be a nice weekend in many parts of the country.

Watch out for some afternoon thunderstorms in the Dallas area later today. It's going to be hot there, too, with a high of 97. But beautiful beach weather for this holiday weekend, all the way down through the Carolina coastline up to Massachusetts, Cape Cod, Long Island, all looking great. A cold front passed through, and it's making a big difference in the weather.

Now, speaking of cold fronts, a touch of cooler marine air is coming into the Pacific Northwest. For highs today in Seattle, we'll look for 68 degrees. So it's going to be much cooler and pretty pleasant out there.

And just remember, the center of the country, that's where the hot weather is, 97 in Dallas, and, Miles, 88 in St. Louis.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Bonnie Schneider. See you in a little bit.

Still to come on the program, an update on the water situation in New Orleans. Engineers say they have found a way to fix one of the broken levees, but they're choosing to leave it open. We'll explain why.

And we'll talk to a member of a search-and-rescue team who helped pull 1,800 people from the waters of New Orleans, then had to stop and leave because of the violence.

That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Mission-critical, that's what we call the list of needs that are on the list to save tens of thousands of people displaced by the storm, and to, in some -- you know, just repair a major American city. A key item on that list is shoring up the levees to save the city of New Orleans, now mostly under water.

Major General Don Riley is director of civil works for the Army Corps of Engineers. He joins us from Baton Rouge.

General, good to have you with us.

MAJ. GEN. DON RILEY, DIRECTOR OF CIVIL WORKS, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Good morning, Miles. MILES O'BRIEN: This is a big task. At least you have the water stable now. We've seen the bulldozers, we've seen the sandbags. What exactly are you doing right now to try to fix this levee system?

RILEY: Well, we have multiple challenges all throughout the city, both in New Orleans Parish and across the canal into Chalmette and St. Bernard's and Plaquemines Parish that are under water.

So today, we're continuing to allow the water to recede and drain out of the city, into the lake. And we'll also, with a contractor today, begin breaching some canals deliberately, some of the flood walls along the city, to allow more of the water to escape.

In addition to that, we're bringing in generators...

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, I'm sorry, General, help me understand. Can you help me understand for one second on this -- the levee thing? You say the water is actually flowing out of the city back into the lake now, is that right?

RILEY: Yes, it has been since Tuesday, actually. I took my little first overflight Tuesday, and it was already beginning to recede and flow back into the lake.

MILES O'BRIEN: Help me understand that. If the lake is above the city, the city is a bowl, how does the water flow back in?

RILEY: Well, the water in the city, immediately after the storm was higher than the lake levels. So the lake level has been dropping because of the storm surge. It's been dropping steadily. It has stabilized over the last day or so. And now it's -- the lake levels are about a foot below is already in the city.

MILES O'BRIEN: OK.

RILEY: So it'll continue to flow out of the city.

MILES O'BRIEN: But this is not...

RILEY: You know, but even after that...

MILES O'BRIEN: ... but that won't, that won't dry out the city, obviously. You have to do more than that, right?

RILEY: Oh, that's correct. And that's what we're doing now, is bringing in pumps and generators from all around the nation to begin pumping out the city, as well as bringing in generators to help operate the city's drainage pumps, to get those back on line to drain the city.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, give us a sense of the scale, then. How many pumps do you need? Where do you find these pumps, anyway? And how many do you need?

RILEY: Well, they're large pumps. The largest pumps are already in the city, in the ground. Some of them are under water, and we need to get those dried out and get generators in there to start those. For instance, on the 17th Street canal, where you saw yesterday the dump trucks dumping and the helicopters dumping, that pump is nearly 10,000 cubic feet per second, and it's run by the city water and sewer board.

And once we get that kind of size of pump operating, we'll be able to drain the city more quickly.

MILES O'BRIEN: I'm still curious, how many...

RILEY: In addition, on the other side...

MILES O'BRIEN: I'm still curious how many pumps you need, though, General.

RILEY: Oh, we are not going to put a maximum number on the amount of pumps. We're going to get as many pumps as we can, and as many generators. We're going to rely primarily on the city pumps in place, but not going to rely totally on those.

So we're working as feverishly and hard as we can with the city and with the state and the federal government to bring in as much as possible.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, and every pump has to have its own generator, right? Because there's no power.

RILEY: That's correct. We're also tapping into the natural gas lines that are in the city. We've been working with Entergy, the power company, to tap into those to run some of the pumps, where we have gas lines nearby.

MILES O'BRIEN: Let me ask you this, General, though. If you get through this whole process, and you put together what is -- I mean, after all, it seems like a little bit of Rube Goldberg contraption to keep New Orleans dry. Even if you do all that, you still have a system that is only able to withstand a category 3 storm. You need to do much more than that, don't you?

RILEY: The -- New Orleans will rise again. And they will make an assessment, the city and state. And then the Congress and the administration will make an assessment on how much we can invest to protect the city. And they will -- I'm -- this administration is very, very serious about this city and protecting it correctly. It is not inexpensive, though. It's -- all of these hurricane protections and flood protection systems are not inexpensive. And you go from California, where we've got levee problems, across the nation, across the South, and hurricane protection.

So it's very, very difficult. But -- and it will be a significant investment from this nation.

MILES O'BRIEN: Major General Don Riley, good luck to you. You've got a big job ahead of you.

RILEY: Thank you. I appreciate what you're doing. Thank you, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to check in with CNN's Tom Foreman, who has some New Orleans history, shall we say. And when we talk about history in New Orleans, it is a rich and storied one. And it's a sad thought to think about some of these wonderful landmarks and attractions, and some of the things that make that city special, perhaps being gone.

Stay with us for more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

For the last several days, we've been talking about loss, loss of people's homes, loss of everything that some people own, massive loss of life, and massive potential loss of life as well.

This morning, we talk to Tom Joiner, though, about what's been lost to New Orleans, and because of that, lost to all people as well.

Tom Foreman's got a look at that. Tom, good morning.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. Thanks for going down and checking on all my old friends down there.

It's a great, great city, as all these people who have gone there over the years, tourists, conventioneers, have known, a place of enormous attraction, because it's utterly unique in America.

And one of the things that many people have been watching in this whole great human tragedy of what's happening is also what's happening to this extraordinary cultural and historic landmark of America, and how much of it's going to be there to help the city recover, because this is what draws a lot of people there.

Let's fly into New Orleans on this, and take a look first at the jewel of New Orleans, the thing that has always drawn people, the French Quarter.

If you go in and take a look at the French Quarter -- that's it right there, in this general area -- to the right there, the little cluster of trees, if we zoom in on that area, you'll see that's Jackson Square. If you've ever had beignets and cafe-au-lait at Cafe Dumond, you've had it right there on the corner of Jackson Square.

That's the cathedral across the way there.

If we look at -- this is the before picture. Let's look at the after picture, after the storm. You can see that, although things seem to be a bit trashed out in the area, by and large, the French Quarter seems to be dry.

That's important. That's home to Preservation Hall. It's home to the Streetcar Named Desire. It's home to the riverfront, many things that are going on there. In the historic New Orleans Museum, that can build over down there, areas like that, they have, you know, the original maps that the Spanish drew of this nation. They have Napoleon's death mask. They have one of the last existing complete collections of Audubon's "Birds of America," the original collection that goes out.

These are invaluable treasures to this nation and to this city. And that's what drew all these tourists here over all these years. Plus, the amazing architecture. You're talking about slave quarters and places where pirates lived.

New Orleans has this enormous rich history.

The French Quarter clearly has a lot of damage to it, from wind and some from water, and that sort of thing. But it may be that it is largely intact, at least in terms of the structures, and how they're put together, and these many treasure there. That's important.

Short while ago, we were talking about fires on the waterfront. We're talking about right down in here. This is where the Aquarium is, on the riverfront. That's a big deal, because the riverfront has truly been revitalized enormously over the past 15 years. Huge amount of investment in shops and attractions for people.

Now, obviously, no tourists are going to be rushing to New Orleans right away. But this is what this town is about, and that has to recover over time.

Let's talk about a couple of other areas that really matter. The Superdome, we've all seen. That's right in the middle of everything there. We know what's going to be dealt with there. It's going to be an issue what they can do with that. The Convention Center, again, you're going to have a lot of recovery to do there.

This area around the Convention Center has also sprouted a great many restaurants and hotels, and has become a -- nightclubs, art galleries, a real revitalization of that area. All of that has to be recovered, and it's going to take a lot of time.

Remember, New Orleans routinely has hosted conventions of 20,000, 30,000, 40,000, 60,000 people. This is a convention town unlike anything you've ever seen, unless you've lived in New Orleans or another convention town like it. And there really aren't many.

So they've got to get that back. That fuels the economy.

One other thing I really want to look at here is uptown. Uptown New Orleans is where you find the extraordinary beautiful mansions with the leaded glass, and they're just heartbreakingly beautiful, along the streetcar line, the oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the world, although I'm not sure what this does to that record.

That little green line there that you see, if we zoom into it, side to side, right there, that's St. Charles Avenue. That's the streetcar line. St. Charles Avenue is a beautiful, beautiful place. That, if we look at the before and after on that, we get a mixed bag. There's flooding in a lot of areas, clearly out to St. Charles, or seems to be. And in other areas not. So we're not sure what's happened uptown.

I know there's going to be a lot of wind damage. These beautiful live-oak trees cluster all through uptown, and those may have been blown ever and torn apart. And those really are part of the great, great beauty of uptown New Orleans.

You know, the vampire books by Ann Rice, they're all -- you know, they begin in uptown New Orleans, and this beautiful twisted place of, you know, the winding alleys and trees this way.

If you go this way, another place that people will remember, along St. Charles Avenue, if we go back the other way a little bit, and we go to the before-storm pictures, down here -- down south, we're kind of out of the range right now, but down south here is Tippetinas (ph), another landmark down there, music landmark. Everybody who is anybody has played Tippetinas, and it matters.

Tippetinas, will also have to be -- see what kind of shape it's in. Don't think it's under water, I don't think, from what I've seen, but enormously famous, and spectacular place to go hear music. You hear the Neville Brothers, there late at night. They start at midnight, and they finish about 5:00 a.m.

And over here, if we go all the way down, we'll see Audubon Park, another big landmark. But the world-famous Audubon Zoo down here. Again, look at the before and after. That's Audubon Zoo we're looking at right now on the riverfront, before and after.

Now, it looks like it's flooded, but I don't think it is. Those are cloud shadows drifting in there. And there's some flooding out in the park near Loyola and Tulane, Camellia Grill (ph) up here.

But by and large, the good news of all of this may be that a lot of the important landmarks of New Orleans, the things that draw people there, that won't draw them right away, but over time, they may have survived, they may be recoverable in a reasonable amount of time, and start getting some dollars flowing back in, some people coming back in, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Well, that's some good news in a sea of some not-great news that we've heard over the last week or so, Tom. So that's good to hear that news. Thanks.

Ahead this morning, we're going to talk about the security situation in New Orleans. A security analyst will join us and talk about how they're able to get -- and if they'll be able to get the security situation there under control. That's coming up in just a few moments.

Again, choppers now coming in, three at a time, accounting for the great noise over my shoulder.

We continue to cover this story live on a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. We're back in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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