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American Morning

Hurricane Katrina's Aftermath

Aired September 03, 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: Welcome back, everybody. You're taking a look at some live pictures of the scene where we are, the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
You can see people who have been evacuated from the city of New Orleans, hopping off of those baggage luggage carriers and making their way, their first steps into what is going to be a fairly lengthy process. And yet so much better than what they've been experiencing. In many cases, as you can see, hauling the only possessions that they have now in the world.

What they do is take them off these choppers. At one point, we had four choppers landing simultaneously. The people get brought through this little cordoned off area.

They will walk through the metal fence. This is the first area where they start receiving people. And they'll be assessed for their medical care. Some people obviously in greater need than others.

They come through the metal fence area and then eventually make their way into the bottom floor of the airport, the main terminal of the airport.

In many cases, they'll sit there for days at a time if it turns out that their medical needs are not quite as urgent as others. But it is such a vast improvement over what they've been experiencing.

And now we're really seeing a big pick-up in these chopper flights in. First this morning, one at a time, pretty slowly. Now we're getting four, even some points even more than that. And that's going to obviously continue throughout the morning and the afternoon. Miles?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you very much, Soledad. We'll get back to you in just a little bit.

Every hour, we are bringing you the most critical issues facing Katrina survivors. Let's start now with the food and water situation. So far, federal response teams have given out more than 125,000 tons of water, food and medicine. More help is on the way. President Bush has signed a $10.5 billion relief measure as you know by now.

The American Red Cross has now set up a Web site and a telephone hotline for tracing loved ones affected by Katrina. WWW.REDCROSS.ORG has a link called family links registry. Those without computer access are invited to call 877-LOVEDONE-1S. I'll just give you the numbers on that one so you don't have to figure it out. 877-568-3317, 877-568-3317.

Thousands of troops now pouring into the Gulf Coast region. We're glad to tell you that. Many assigned the task of restoring law and order. How do they go about that task? And how should the federal and state and local governments react in the wake of something as dramatic as all of this?

CNN security analyst Patrick D'Amuro joining us from Boston.

Pat, good to see you. This is one, that you know, dwarfs all others. So with that caveat of mine, because that makes it very difficult to plan because it's so overwhelming, help us understand the way it should go. In a perfect world, how should the process begin to get timely help for people like we've seen in New Orleans?

PAT D'AMURO, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Well, good morning, Miles. It is a very large effort going on down in New Orleans. This type of situation, what we call in law enforcement terms crisis management. And the crisis management in this situation, I thought started off fairly well.

There was notification to the citizens of New Orleans to evacuate. Where I thought it was a little flawed is I actually had some relatives in New Orleans at the time trying to get out. They shut down the airports. They shut down the trains. There were no rental cars. They were told that if you could find a way to get out of the city, evacuate. But there was no effort in helping people get out prior to the actual storm hitting.

M. O'BRIEN: And that really is the big Catch-22 here, because not only people with means were having a difficult time, but certainly the poor people had no ability. So really, when you think about it, that bus evacuation we've seen after the storm probably should have happened before.

D'AMURO: It should have. They - I think they could have taken a look at trying to assist people down there on vacation, visiting, and some of the other poor people, help them evacuate the city prior to the storm hitting.

I mean, there'll be a lot of time to review this and play Monday night quarterback. Right now, the efforts they need to make, and it looks like those activities are picking up where Soledad is, is to get effective transportation means in there and evacuate the people out of the city that need to be evacuated.

M. O'BRIEN: Now here's an interesting thing I read today. And these kinds of things just drive me crazy. The military said, well, we would have done food drops, but FEMA never asked us. You know, it's that classic bureaucratic run around. How can we get beyond that?

D'AMURO: Well, you know, it's a combination, Miles. It's a combination of state and local and federal officials. In most situations, there's a request for the National Guard to come in to assist. You could see right after this situation the response on the part of the federal government was too slow. But do we know that that request was made in an appropriate timeframe? Was the request for the National Guard to come in?

Homeland Security has been standing up for four years now. We shouldn't be prepared just for a terrorist attack. These types of natural disasters occur probably more often than terrorist attacks do. And part of your crisis management planning has to be making sure that you have the type of response necessary to assist.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, here's the thing. You know, it's -- the governors are supposed to ask and then the federal government is supposed to respond. But it really is -- very quickly becomes an issue that, first of all, is a federal case, so to speak. And it's something that really only the federal government can handle. And really, if you look at it, it's a military operation.

Because this is what the military does well. They respond well, they handle logistics, they come with their own communications, they're self contained.

Are you surprised, Pat, that at this point we don't see an aircraft carrier there docked already in New Orleans and a flotilla of U.S. Navy providing the kind of support that would really whip this city into some semblance of shape?

D'AMURO: Well, Miles, I agree with you. I think the response was way too slow. National Guard and the Reserve should have been in there moments after the storm subsided to start helping people that needed assistance, evacuating to try to restore power, to bring in food and water supplies for the people that couldn't get out, and to make sure that we didn't see the type of situation with the looting and the crimes taking place.

You can't do all those other things if you don't have the security and law enforcement pieces in place to make sure you can evacuate people and offer all those other services.

M. O'BRIEN: Pat D'Amuro, our CNN security analyst, helping us with the Monday morning quarterbacking, which while some would say is unfair, is also helpful and edifies us all, God forbid there's a next time. Hopefully we'll be better prepared the next go around. Thanks, Pat.

D'AMURO: Thanks.

M. O'BRIEN: We'll see you soon.

Let's get back to Soledad at the airport, where that dramatic scene just continues to unfold. Those helicopters just don't stop, do they, Soledad? The night I slept there...

S. O'BRIEN: They really don't.

M. O'BRIEN: ...they were -- they just kept coming all night long. Of course, I still could sleep because I was so exhausted, but they just don't stop.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, when you consider how exhausted you are covering the story, imagine for the folks who are working here at this field hospital, and the folks who are going out day after day to still rescue people.

There are still people who are clinging to their lives on the top of their roofs, search and rescue, goes out each and every day to try to help some of those folks.

We want to talk to Jeff Gleason. He's with the LSU Fire and Emergency Training Institute.

Jeff, thanks for being with us. You're going to go back out again, I know, in just a little bit now that the sun is up. What's it been like? How difficult has it been for you?

Jeff, I'm not sure if you can hear me. And because of the choppers behind me, I can't hear you. So we'll continue on and we'll see if we can fix his audio issues.

Miles, in the meanwhile, I'm going to tell you what's happening behind me. The choppers just took off. Again, kind of comparatively speaking almost a quiet moment here because you don't have any choppers behind us, but they have been ferrying people in, sometimes landing four at a time.

And each chopper can handle we've seen as many as a dozen, but probably on average about eight people. Some of them are being carried off in stretchers. In some cases, they're walking. In almost all cases, they're carrying the last of their belongings.

Some people are barefoot. Some people are wearing clearly whatever clothes they had on their backs or whatever they've been able to scavenge up.

And you can see they pull up. Out flow of the people. And then they start the process in this field hospital of being checked in. They'll go into triage, see who's the most critically injured, who needs the most help.

We started the morning with an estimate of about 4,000 patients here. And while that's a huge number, a huge number, it's not that chaotic inside. It's actually relatively calm. And everyone is sort of managing the situation as best they can.

A little bit later this morning, Miles, we're going to talk to some of the folks who have been waiting for days trying to get out of this area and move on to what's next in their lives.

First, though, let's get to Jeff Gleason again. As I was saying, he's with the LSU Fire and Emergency Training Institute. He goes back now, back into the field to try to rescue some more folks.

Jeff, good morning. Give me a sense of how difficult it's been for you and your team members. JEFF GLEASON, LSU FIRE EMER. TRAINING INST.: Well, it's been a difficult task just getting into the city the first day. We were met by the New Orleans Special Operations Hazmat Team with the fire department and we proceeded into the city.

We were the first urban search and rescue group that were able to make their way into the city on Monday when the winds were still blowing. And we literally had to cut our way street by street, tree by tree, to get downtown.

We quickly got a mission, which was up on the elevated highway of Interstate 610 at Elysian Fields and operated from there quickly, as a boat operation that we went house to house, attic to attic and were rescuing people.

At that point, the water was somewhere up around the eaves, some of my people were telling me. We operated again the next day...

S. O'BRIEN: So...

GLEASON: The first day we had about 400 people out. Go ahead.

S. O'BRIEN: I was going to say when you say the water somewhere around the eaves, really that's about neck level for the people who are standing and waiting for help and who basically cut their way out.

I know as much as you've been rescuing lots and lots of people, at the same time, it's been tough because as the waiting went on, things kind of deteriorated, didn't it?

GLEASON: Oh, absolutely. We -- the first night, the reason we had to stop is we had 400 people up on the elevated highway and nowhere to take them, you know, no buses at that point. Just absolute -- started to have the civil unrest of that group.

So our guys felt uneasy. And the security was - at that -- we had no security with us at that time. And they had to just back out and go take a nap.

The next day, though, we did have some security that was with us. And it made the efforts a lot easier as far as getting people up on the highway. We had an additional 500, I think, that second day.

The third day, we're even better at what we're doing. And we had a SWAT team with us. The (INAUDIBLE) Parish sheriff was helping coordinate that. And we were able to really facilitate a lot of rescue that day, probably about 900 people, but we had about 40 boats primarily with parish sheriffs and state police that were on for security purposes.

S. O'BRIEN: So the rescue efforts have vastly and steadily improved over the last days. What happens today? Where do you go? How many folks do you think you can bring out? What's their situation?

GLEASON: Well, today, we're not going back to New Orleans. We're going to St. Taminy Parish outside of the Slidell area. And we're understanding that they have not had any help from outside agencies over there, that the fire department has basically been kind of acting on their own, trying to do the best they can.

And we were able to make our way in there yesterday for reconnaissance, kind of an assessment of the area, and found that we were able -- we're needed over there because of the high wind damage and a lot of structural collapse. And that's our specialty with the group that's over there, is structural collapse.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, good. I'm sure there are lots of people everywhere right now who need you. Jeff Gleason with the LSU Fire and Emergency Training Institute going back out today to try to rescue some more folks. Jeff, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

A short break and we're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. This is a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

Our next guest specializes in the often long-term mental health issues that face victims of large-scale disasters like this hurricane. James Helpern is director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health at the State University of New York at New Paltz. He led the first group of mental health officials to ground zero after 9/11. And he's been involved in many other big disasters, including some in Louisiana.

Let's talk about, first of all, I'm curious about the people. And fortunately, the numbers are dwindling. The people who are still in New Orleans. Try to take us inside their minds. It's got to be -- it's hard to even imagine the stress they're under.

JAMES HALPERN, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK: Yes, I mean, it's often been said that when disaster strikes, there are levels of trauma. There is the event itself. And then there is the aftermath of that event.

And in this case, certainly the fact that these people have been left behind is really almost -- can be considered a second disaster. So these folks have to deal with that initial event. And then all of what has happened and what hasn't happened afterwards. The whole range of acute stress reactions that are behavioral and emotional and physiological, these people are suffering.

M. O'BRIEN: Well you know, and when you think about the stress inducers in our lives, you would think about a loss of a job. You certainly would put loss of a home. You would talk about moving, leaving, familiar surroundings, losing loved ones. All of these happening simultaneously to some people. That's an astounding thought.

HALPERN: Absolutely. And that's, I think, what is going to make the recovery process here daunting when people are traumatized, whether it's a result of an assault or a car accident, they have resources available. They have family and friends. In this circumstance, people lost their homes, but they've also lost their churches. They lost their businesses.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, the support is gone. Everything is gone.

HALPERN: Everything is gone. That's right.

M. O'BRIEN: And -- so what can be done to -- you can't reinvent that, can you?

HALPERN: You know, people are extraordinarily resilient. That's what we know from the research that most people recover. Certainly the recovery can be long and difficult. We know that there are certain populations more vulnerable than others.

Children are much more vulnerable. Mothers with young children much more vulnerable. People who lost loved ones. People who are injured much more -- will have a much more time recovering from this. But still, most people do recover. There's an enormous resilience.

M. O'BRIEN: But -- so there's no set time here. Everybody is an individual and everybody has to deal with it in their own way.

Here's what I ran into quite a bit. And this really struck me. It was in the city of Slidell, Louisiana, which is largely affected, north side of Lake Pontchartrain.

Every single police officer, mayor, everybody I ran into, was very, very busy with the task at hand here, trying to help people. In each and every case, they had lost their home.

HALPERN: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, now in one sense, the job that they have may be good, right, because it takes their mind off of it, but you have to wonder how this all plays out, how they can separate those two things in their lives. That's really got to play havoc on your psyche.

HALPERN: Absolutely. One of the things that we also know from the research, and again, the research in disaster mental health is relatively new. This is a new field. People weren't considering the emotional and psychological impact of disaster until fairly recently.

But these first responders tend to be the most resilient. They've got the most training, the most preparation. That's what the research shows.

On the other hand, if they're exposed to grotesque and awful sights. And by the way, same is true for reporters who are down there and see and hear and smell things that are not part of their ordinary experience, there's going to be an impact.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, yes. But on top of that, to not have your home and to have to -- because of the nature of your job feel compelled not to attend to that issue but to attend to others, I think that would be very difficult.

HALPERN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. James Halpern, director for the Institute for Disaster Mental Health, State University of New York, New Paltz. Thanks for being with us.

HALPERN: Thanks very much.

M. O'BRIEN: Just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, a new source of outrage in this disaster. Did race play a part in what some call a slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina? We'll talk about that when AMERICAN MORNING returns. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody, to a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING on a Saturday morning.

There was a telethon on Friday evening. It was to raise money for some of the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath as well. And very clearly frustrated rapper Kanye West had this to say about what was going on here in New Orleans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KANYE WEST, RAPPER: We already realize a lot of the people that could help are at war right now fighting another way. And they've given them permission to go down and shoot us. George Bush doesn't care about black people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: We're joined by Tom Joyner. He is a nationally syndicated radio host of the show of the same name.

Tom, good morning. Nice to talk to you as always. Is Kanye West right? He says that essentially black people are not perceived to be important, so therefore, why rush to save them, kind of in a nutshell?

TOM JOYNER, RADIO HOST: I think your pictures explain it all. And you know, I'm not here for the, you know, would have, could have, should haves. I think the time is for doing something. And that's what we're trying to do on this end, is to help -- is to try to do what we can to help the people that have been affected. And we see that most of the people that have been affected are poor African- Americans.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, clearly, in a lot of ways I understand your focus, which is let's not lay blame. Let's try to get something done that's productive.

But at the same time, there are people who say it's racist. Black people are not being helped because they're black. Here at this hospital, I've got to tell you walking through, there's a lot of white people here. In a lot of ways, it seems the common theme to me, at least Tom, is socioeconomic. There's a lot of poor people here.

JOYNER: And I think that that is the -- I think that it's poor people. And poor people come in all colors. When you're in New Orleans, most of the poor people are black. And so you're going get those attacks on the system as being racist and not responding because they're mostly black people.

But again, you know, pointing fingers and laying blame at a time like this is not productive. And there are a lot of people out will who have been displaced. And we need to do something about these people being displaced and their lives upside-down.

S. O'BRIEN: At the same time, Tom, let me ask you this question. Kanye West had this to say additionally about overall media and their attention to the blacks and the whites in this crisis. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WEST: I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says they're looting. You see a white family, it says they're looking for food.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Hey, Tom, here's what I think he's talking about. This is a picture we'll show you right here of the Associated Press. And this shows a black man. And the caption underneath it says this, "A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday."

And then you have this picture. This was from the AFP media organization. And it says this -- shows two white people. "Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans."

The white people find the bread, huh, at a local grocery store. The black guy must be looting. You can sort of understand his frustration, even though these are two different media organizations. Does he have a point here?

JOYNER: Of course he has a point. Of course he has a point.

But again, Soledad, my point is, OK, we know there are problems. The system has failed. The government has not come in and done what they're supposed to do. Yes, there are black people out there, poor black people have been affected. And of course, there's poor white people that have been affected, too.

And the accusations racism are real, but what are we doing to try to help the people right now? The people who have -- who are in this predicament besides talking about it? What are we going in there and doing? And that's what I'm - and that's what I'm all about. I'm all about action, moving forward.

S. O'BRIEN: And that's what you're going on your show, I imagine.

JOYNER: What we try to do is we're trying to help the people who are out there trying to help people. There are thousands, tens of thousands of people who have taken in folks into their homes. Our fund, Black American Web Relief Fund, is going after the people who have taken in families.

You know, you're a family. You're taking in family members of friends, 16, 17, 20 or however. You don't know when they're going back. What they're giong back to or how long they're going to stay, yet your condition is the same. You still --

S. O'BRIEN: Obviously, it looks like we've lost our connection with Tom Joyner. He's a nationally syndicated radio host and you can be certain that this topic is going to be what he is talking about for a long time. We're back in a moment. Stay with us. You're watching a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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