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American Morning

Clean Up to Begin in New Orleans; Chief Justice Rehnquist Dies

Aired September 04, 2005 - 08:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Good morning. The developing story from Washington: flags at half staff over the Supreme Court. Chief Justice William Rehnquist is dead. We're live from Washington with reaction.
Morning in New Orleans and five days of chaos. Today, now a ghost town. Most of the evacuees now gone, and now officials face the reality of finding the dead.

And offering prayers in the face of disaster. In Mississippi, a poignant church service where there's no church anymore, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning. We'll have complete coverage about the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist just in a moment, but before we do that, let's go to New Orleans. Soledad O'Brien is just off of Canal Street at the French Quarter with a live report as our continuing coverage of the aftermath of Katrina continues this morning -- Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Hey, Miles, good morning to you.

You know, one of the scariest situations and one of the bigger problems in the wake of the flooding and the storm was looting, and in fact, you can see this is a pretty sort of standard example of how bad things got. We're going to come, make our way into this store, souvenir shop. They also have food and water.

And what we heard -- you saw lots of criminal activity on TV, people stealing television sets and clothes, but what you also saw from looters who would almost proudly tell you that they were hungry. They were thirsty. There was no one helping them, and so they broke into stores like this, stealing some clean clothes, because they'd been wading in sewage. And cleaning out, as you can see back here, any of the food stores, any of the areas where they could grab some food, all the wines couldn't be opened so they couldn't get them and didn't want them but pretty much cleared out all of the water and all the beer, back here just kind of a wreck.

This kind of thing, of course, Miles, just adds to that bog maybe $100 billion price tag of what it's going to take to clean up this city -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Boy, when you look at that, you wonder if $100 billion will be enough, Soledad. That's one place, one store in an entire city.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, kind of a wreck. M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you, Soledad, in New Orleans.

Turning now to the death last night of Chief Justice William Rehnquist at the age of 80, Joe Johns live at the Supreme Court, now with the possibility of two vacancies.

As Jeff Toobin pointed out, Joe, technically there's not two vacancies because Justice O'Connor isn't going to resign until her successor is confirmed, but nevertheless, there's a lot of machinations to consider, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are a lot of things to consider, as you said, Miles. The chief justice died at home with his family as you know, after a long bout with cancer. Of course, the court has said he continued to perform his duties until this precipitous decline in his health over the last several days, apparently from that cancer.

The timing of course, is a big issue here. As you said, O'Connor remains on the court. The confirmation hearings for John Roberts are expected to begin on Tuesday, although we are anticipating some type of a disruption or a delay in all of that because of the possibility of memorial services for Chief Justice Rehnquist.

The long-term question, of course, is how do you get two people on the court in short notice? The court is expected to go back into session on October 3. They have a variety of issues that they have to deal with, some contentious, and a lot of people of course would like to see a full court. It doesn't look like that's going to happen, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, but there is one scenario, Joe. They could turn the Roberts hearings into a chief justice nomination, and then presumably, Justice O'Connor would return in the fall, and awaiting that next potential nominee. That's one scenario at least.

JOHNS: Certainly that's one scenario. Another scenario, of course, that has been talked about from time to time, when we first learned that the chief justice was sick, was the possibility of moving Antonin Scalia or Clarence Thomas to the position of chief justice. You'd still have to, in the long-term, fill that seat with someone else.

That, of course, is an issue, because both Scalia and Thomas are two of the most conservative members of the court and they could have a fairy contentious confirmation if it came to that. There are obviously a number of people out there that they could consider putting on the court as well, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Joe Johns at the Supreme Court, thank you very much.

Now let's turn back to Katrina. Some of the mission critical issues facing survivors in the wake of Katrina this hour. New Orleans' major hospitals are now evacuated. We're glad to tell you that. The effort has shifted now to rural hospitals, where there still are people waiting for help this morning. Refrigerator trucks are going into the area as health officials worry about an outbreak of disease, and those trucks, of course, are to collect bodies.

Louisiana state police say there are no confirmed reports of violence from last night. No reports of violence. Definite improvement here this morning. Heavily armed officers are patrolling near the river; 7,000 more U.S. troops ordered into the affected Gulf states.

Back to Soledad now, near the quarter -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Hey, Miles.

You know, it's little stores like this -- you can tell this is sort of the standard tourist trap, because we're on Canal Street now and we're surrounded by hotels. Stores like this, the big draw for tourists, but you know, after Katrina struck, the tourists were as lost as anybody. The tourists were as confused as anybody. And, like all other people in this city, as the floodwaters started to rise, they were looking for some help, and they didn't get it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: They came to New Orleans as tourists. Beverly Garver, a workaholic for a much needed vacation, Peter Berkowitz and his wife from Boston, taking their son, Ernesto, to his freshman year at Loyola.

Today, they're evacuees, and they are furious.

PETER BERKOWITZ, STRANDED TOURIST: It's a disgrace. It was a disgrace to treat people the way they were treated. They were treated like animals. You'd walk down the street with nothing, each day being told there's buses coming and nothing happening, no food, no anything.

BEVERLY GARVER, STRANDED TOURIST: We've lived through gunshots, snipers, people screaming in the streets for help, rumors of murders right next door to us. Well, it wasn't rumors. There were bodies piling up.

S. O'BRIEN: They were among dozens of tourists who got trapped in the storm, kicked out of their hotels, turned away from the convention center. Fearful for their lives, they looked up and saw the safety of the River Walk complex.

GARVER: It's high. It's strong. It should -- we didn't even know there was a mall here. Didn't even know it.

S. O'BRIEN: There's food?

GARVER: This mall kept us alive.

S. O'BRIEN: Just before 4 p.m. on Saturday, they became among the last evacuees in New Orleans. LT. COL. HUGH MCNEELEY, U.S. ARMY: I think we're down to our last few hundred. But we have another 20 buses coming in. That should be enough to get most people out.

But over at the Superdome we kept having people show up later on. So there might be some people central straggling at the end. I've never seen anything that compared to this. So to me I must agree, it's really different, and I hope I never see anything like this again.

S. O'BRIEN: The frustration, the horror, the anger and the images that will stay with all of them for a long, long time.

BERKOWITZ: It was a disgrace to see 20,000, 30,000 people lined up there, waiting for buses, waiting for food, waiting for anything, with nothing and everybody here is calling them looters and calling them this and calling them that when they were trying to survive like everybody else, like we were. Yes, I am furious. It's an absolute disgrace.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Everyone who -- that we have spoken to who remained here, who survived the hurricane and the subsequent flooding said almost proudly, Miles, that, yes, they looted. They looted in order to save their lives.

Now, clearly stores like this, other things were taken as well, and we certainly saw enough people on television stealing TVs and other things that were not necessities. But people told us, you absolutely needed water and food and it was not coming. And so they were among all the people who broke into stores just like this one.

The difference with the tourists though, they get to go home. They are going to get out of town. They will get to the airport or wherever and make their way home. Of course, that's not the same situation for the folk who live in New Orleans, who now have, in many cases, in virtually all cases, no homes whatsoever. Many of those folks have gone on to the Astrodome, where we find Keith Oppenheim this morning.

Keith, good morning.

KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

And according to the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, the must be numbers are just astounding out here, with nearly a quarter million people seeking refuge and now being held up in shelters and hotels across the state of Texas. And that figure, by the way, does not even include the people who are staying in churches and in private homes.

The Astrodome behind me is, of course, the mother of all shelters, with approximately 16,000 people staying in there. There are another 9,000 or so evacuees staying in some of the other major arenas in Houston, but the dome, of course, is really the main processing center.

Yesterday I got a chance to go to a couple of churches to see what's going on there, and one that I went to called the Spring Branch Church of the Nazarene in Spring valley, Texas, there they were feeding people and distributing clothes.

One evacuee I spoke to there by the name of John Gibson, he told me a story like so many others that was just crazy. His car had been broken into, ripped up, and then he fixed it. Then it got stolen; then he recovered it. Then with his neighbors, he got out of New Orleans, fearing for his life.

And he explained the difference between what it's been like to escape the trauma of New Orleans and now come to Houston.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN GIBSON, NEW ORLEANS EVACUEE: It's amazing. We were sitting down there and felt like no one cared. You know, the people sitting in New Orleans right now that have nothing don't know the rest of the nation is aware of this, and that they care.

When we came here and saw TV and see all of these wonderful people, it's really heart-wrenching, because it's like they do care what's going on. When you're sitting down there with no information and you don't see any Red Cross and all you see are some Marines with M-16s pointed at you, you're wondering, "Does anybody care what's going on down there?"

Help is coming, they say, but you don't see it. You don't see it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OPPENHEIM: I went to another church, Soledad, which was run by the American Red Cross, the shelter, and I have to say I was really impressed. It was very organized, and people were getting the clothes and food they need and, of course, the shelter.

So the Astrodome is not the only place where people are staying. It's across Texas, in San Antonio, Dallas, Houston and in churches and now private homes where evacuees are now going.

Back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: It's such good news, of course, because it has to be very traumatic for people to lose utterly everything and wait and wait and wait for days for help and then at least go somewhere where they can feel like they're finally being taken care of. Keith, thanks a lot for the report.

Let's get a look at the weather for the day ahead. Bonnie Schneider is at the weather center for us this morning. She's filling in for Chad, I guess, although we're doing a special edition, Bonnie, so I'm not sure if that's true.

Good morning to you.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.

Well, there is another hurricane, the fifth hurricane of the season out there, Maria. But the good news with this storm is it's turning away from the U.S. mainland. Hasn't made that turn yet, but according to our projections, we're expecting it to move away. So this hurricane will not pose a threat, which is such good news.

Now, elsewhere in the tropics we're also watching an area of disturbed weather here just off the coast of Florida, and it's already producing some precipitation for this morning.

If you're up early into Miami, back up further north towards Broward County, we're getting a little bit of rain, but the storm is not classified as a tropical system just yet. But we're just keeping a watch on it.

In the meantime, high temperatures across the county. For today looking really nice, especially in the northeast it will be cool but pleasant. In Boston down through New York, up to 82, a great holiday weekend there.

And then further off to the center of the country, that's where the heat is really building, a hot one for Denver and St. Louis. But the good news is by tomorrow for Labor Day, we're looking at a nice cool down in many locations. Kind of a taste of fall, Soledad, before the season officially changes.

S. O'BRIEN: That is nice to hear. All right, Bonnie, thanks a lot.

Let's go back to Miles in New York. Hey, Miles, before I let you go I want to show you something. Look at this. Obviously, they've got liquor here and they've got a lot of it. No one broke in to take the bulk of the liquor that's left here. But if we go across this way, Jay, every bit of candy, every bit of food has been absolutely wiped out of this place.

Miles, let's go back to you in New York.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, that speaks volumes. You know, what some people are calling looting, I think many of us might call survival. So I think that points that out.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad, thank you.

Still to come the events that shaped the life of Chief Justice William Rehnquist and the incredible story of how a family became divided and reunited in the midst of this crisis, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is John Aaron (ph). I have an aunt and a daughter, they evacuated up here Saturday, and they live in Harmony. I just want to let them know I'm all right. And I hope they're all right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: The flag atop the United States Supreme Court building on Capitol Hill at half staff this morning. The chief justice, William Rehnquist, dead at the age of 80. The flag at half staff, though, symbolic, I guess, of the mood of the country in the wake of Katrina, as well, as they all mourn those losses there.

As the nation's chief justice, the late William Rehnquist, advanced a conservative agenda on the Supreme Court. Rehnquist died last night, age 80. More about the events in Rehnquist's life that brought him to the high court now from national correspondent Bruce Morton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILLIAM REHNQUIST, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT: Will you raise your right hand, Mr. President, and repeat after me?

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That was the last time most of us saw him, swearing in a president for the fifth time. But he had a long journey before that.

When he was little, not this little, but in grade school, the teacher asked what he planned to do with his life. "I'm going to change the government," William Hubbs Rehnquist said, and in 33 years on the Supreme Court, he probably has.

Served in the Army Air Corps in World War II and then went to Stanford and Stanford law. He was first in his class. Sandra Day, who married an O'Connor and joined him on the court, good friends, was third.

Assistant attorney general in the Nixon administration in 1971, but supreme? John Dean, Nixon's White House counsel, says that job was first offered to Tennessee Senator Howard Baker.

JOHN DEAN, FORMER NIXON WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: And had disappeared and he was literally dithering away. And no one knew what Baker wanted to do, and while Baker was dithering, Nixon fell in love with Bill Rehnquist.

MORTON: Nixon thought he looked geeky, polyester suits, desert boots and truly serious sideburns, see? But Nixon knew he was smart, too.

DEAN: Nixon tells him, "Well, I hope that you won't be -- you'll be just as independent as I -- you should be, and be as mean as they all told me you were." MORTON: The new justice was 47. His wife, Natalie, straightened his robe and gave him a smooch.

REHNQUIST: I, William H. Rehnquist, do...

MORTON: Ronald Reagan nominated him for chief justice in 1986. That was a tougher fight. Rehnquist tried to explain a memo he'd written while clerking for Justice Robert Jackson, the one in the middle, in 1952, saying that Plessy vs. Ferguson, the doctrine of separate but equal schools for blacks and whites, was right and should be reaffirmed.

Jackson joined the other eight justices in voting no, that separate education was inherently unequal. Still, Rehnquist got confirmed.

REHNQUIST: Oh, just delighted. It's been a long summer. I'm awful glad it's over with. I'm very glad to be confirmed.

MORTON: In 18 years as chief he's led the court through some trying times.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.

MORTON: He presided at the Senate trial of impeached President Bill Clinton. The Senate acquitted. The country took a deep breath.

REHNQUIST: Our work as a court of impeachment is now done. I leave you with the hope that our several paths may cross again under happier circumstances.

MORTON: Then, an even bigger controversy.

REHNQUIST: We'll hear argument now in No. 00949, George W. Bush and Richard Cheney vs. Albert Gore, et al.

MORTON: Rehnquist cast one of the five votes that made George Bush president.

Other issue, he used to be the lone dissenter so often his clerks gave him a Lone Ranger doll.

LAURENCE TRIBE, CONSTITUTIONAL SCHOLAR: As others of a similar orientation and judicial philosophy joined him, on certain issues Justice Connor, Justice Kennedy, then Justice Scalia, Justice Thomas, gradually one became five, and the chief justice was able to give the court his stamp.

MORTON: That's partly, those who knew him say, because he was very good at the organizational side of the job, and his colleagues liked him.

JAY JORGENSEN, FORMER REHNQUIST CLERK: They've all been with him, and they've seen how it operates. And I think that part of his legacy is the court is now settled into a time of collegiality. They might disagree but not bitterly. They're still friends. That's part of his -- part of his legacy. He has made the court a group of nine friends.

REHNQUIST: Don't get in my way.

MORTON: He had injuries: a bad back, a fall that sprained a leg and then cancer. Not so many walks around the court grounds. He had tragedy: his wife Natalie -- this is at their Arlington home where he still lived -- died in 1991. His kids are grown. The court, these last few years, was pretty much his life.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: It is still unclear whether Rehnquist's death will affect confirmation hearings scheduled Tuesday for Judge John Roberts. He is nominated by President Bush to fill the seat to be vacated by retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Ten a.m. Eastern Time, about an hour, 40 minutes, from now, we expect to hear from the president of the United States on the passing of William Rehnquist. We will bring that to you live right here on CNN from the White House.

Back with more AMERICAN MORNING in a moment, but first, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, Miles, ahead we have the story, the incredible story of a pregnant woman who swam her way to the hospital to deliver her baby. We'll tell you what happened to the rest of her family just ahead. Stay with us. You're watching a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING on a Sunday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DENNIS WASHINGTON, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: My name is Dennis Washington. I'm concerned about my mother, Wilhelmina Robinson, to find out if she's all right in New Orleans. And I want her to know that I'm safe here in Houston and the people are treating us very, very kindly. And we're at the convention center. So Mother, if you get my message, try to call and let me know that you're all right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Heartbreaking stories of people who have been separated from their loved ones. We've told you about children who can not find their parents and newborns who could not possibly travel with their new mothers.

Elizabeth Cohen, though, has the story of a pregnant woman who swam to safety to deliver her baby, but she lost the rest of her family in the process.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Before Roszina Jefferson gave birth to baby Keith, she'd been through quite an ordeal. She jumped out of a window and swam for 30 minutes in the putrid New Orleans water while having contractions. She was rescued by the Coast Guard and brought to safety in Baton Rouge, where she gave birth Wednesday, but it was bittersweet.

She swam all that way to get help for her asthmatic 5-year-old son, but they became separated.

ROSZINA JEFFERSON, MOTHER: I'm here because I got this baby, but I miss my other baby.

COHEN: Then, a friend saw our story on CNN and knew that her older son, Ashton, was safe with her fiance at the Astrodome in Houston.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perfect heart, perfect lungs. Can't do any better than that, OK, Mama?

COHEN: When Roszina was discharged Saturday afternoon from the hospital, she thought it would take days to get Ashton from Houston to Baton Rouge. What she didn't know was a secretary at the hospital, Shannon Nicely (ph), had driven all night to Houston and back to get Ashton and Roszina's fiance, Keith Sr.

So when Shannon brought Roszina back to her church, where they'd set up the nursery...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got all of this just for you, but we got something else for you, OK?

JEFFERSON: Oh, my baby! Oh, thank you, Lord! Oh, thank you.

COHEN: Finally, mother, father, baby and big brother reunited.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Baton Rouge.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: With all the devastation, it's nice to hear some of the good stories.

Coming up, we're going to take you to Mississippi, where their devastation is just as complete, and we'll take you to a church where they're going to be celebrating services in all that's left -- is left of that church. We'll bring that you story just ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. We are coming to you from New Orleans, the heart of New Orleans, right on Canal Street. And just to give a sense of the devastation here, take a look.

This is a very touristy area. You've the big shopping district right over there, all of the tourist stores over here, and the palm trees that line this middle section now just absolutely wiped out, almost like dominoes as the storm plowed right through, an indication of the power of the storm, an indication of just how devastating it was, not only to the area here, but of course, the outlying areas, as well, where really the flooding eventually is what did the bulk of the damage.

There is so much clean up to be done and there is so much money to be spent in New Orleans. The question now, Miles, is going to be, are they going to spend that money? Will they rebuild the city as it once was -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: That's a big question. It will be interesting to see how that one plays out. Thank you very much, Soledad. Back with you in a moment.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist lost his long battle with cancer last night. He left a firm conservative imprint on the court he led for 19 years and served on for more than 30.

Joining us now from Washington, former attorney general, Dick Thornburgh.

Governor Thornburgh, god to have you with us.

DICK THORNBURGH, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: Good morning, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: How will he be remembered?

THORNBURGH: He had an enormous impact on the court. When he came to the court, of course, he was a lone conservative voice when he was appointed in 1972.

He leaves a court that is popularly and properly known as the Rehnquist court, where on a number of key issues, a conservative majority now exists. So by sheer force of his intellect and his management abilities, he's changed the nature of the court in several key areas.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, how much did he change the nature of the court and how much did the court just change to match his philosophy?

THORNBURGH: Well, that's a good point, I think. Successive presidents have sought to appoint justices in the mold of Chief Justice Rehnquist. But to be sure, his own impact in creating a collegial court and in stressing key issues, such as the autonomy of the states and federalism and judicial restraint, clearly had an impact and I think will help to shape the court in the future, as well.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about a successor, of course. A lot of talk about that. One of the theories that is in the early -- of course, there's going to be a lot of theories here. One of the thoughts we had this morning is the possibility of turning the Roberts nomination process into a chief justice nomination. Is that likely? THORNBURGH: Oh, the president has any number of options that he'll have to sort out due to the unusual nature of the fact that the vacancy now occurs in the chief justice's position.

But I think during this period of mourning for Chief Justice Rehnquist, it's probably fruitless to speculate as to what the president's going to do when he gets down to business.

M. O'BRIEN: And as you mentioned that, of course the Roberts hearings were supposed to begin next week. Because of that period of mourning, they might be delayed somewhat.

THORNBURGH: Hard to say. That's up to Senator Specter and the numbers of the judiciary committee. They seem to be geared up and ready to go with the Roberts hearings. Whether they will defer those in deference to the chief justice's passing, only time will tell.

M. O'BRIEN: There is a possibility that there could be three hearings under way simultaneously. Right? You could have Roberts. You could have the other slot, and then if someone was being promoted from justice to chief justice, a hearing for them. That would be something.

THORNBURGH: As I said, the options are pretty limitless, but I think there will be plenty of time to sort that out over the next week or so.

M. O'BRIEN: Of course, as a Washington insider over the years, you've had occasions to spend some time with Justice Rehnquist. What kind of a man was he?

REHNQUIST: He was a warm and pleasant person, as I said, possessed of a great intellect. He was an author of several books.

But an evening spanned at a dinner party with the chief justice and during his wife's lifetime, Nan's presence was always bound to be a pleasant one. He had a marvelous sense of humor and he related to people in a very positive and constructive way.

He had a lot of respect; even people who disagreed with him on certain issues respected him for his integrity and for his intellectual capacity.

M. O'BRIEN: It is that collegiality that really changed the court, didn't it?

THORNBURGH: Yes, it is did. I think that, while there have been issues that have split the court drastically on substance, it never turned into personal animosity, and I think that's a credit to the late chief's management skills. He was always willing to go out of his way to make sure that everybody had their say, and that any determinations were made were not made in rancor.

M. O'BRIEN: Former he were to attorney general, Dick Thornburgh, thanks for being with us.

THORNBURGH: Thank you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Back to you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Right, Miles. Thanks.

We're in New Orleans this morning, where it's really almost a ghost town. Only journalists remain here and heavily armed police officers.

Let's go a little bit to the east to Gulfport, Mississippi. Devastating effects there of Hurricane Katrina and they are knee deep in cleanup and survival, really, as well.

Chris Huntington, though, has the story of a church that continues to move on, even without any walls.

Chris, good morning.

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Standing in front of what is left of St. Mark's Church -- it's the oldest Episcopal Church in Mississippi, founded in the 1840s. You can see here that, really, all that remains is the floor of the church. Those chairs and the altar bar that have been set up were not standing, obviously, after Katrina rolled through here.

The plan is to have a service here in about two hours. There's a sign posted with a phone number notifying parishioners. I have to say, it will be extraordinarily difficult for folks to get here.

The road, the beachfront road here, is monitored by police and military checkpoints and really not passable to most civilians or non- emergency teams. We were escorted here by the police this morning.

You go interior from here, a couple of blocks in, and the roads are impassable. Just behind where the church site of the church, and I don't know how much you can see back in there exactly, but there was a housing complex there built of brick. We are seeing some brick structures still standing, but that one was completely flattened, razed to the ground.

One eerie and very creepy aspect to many of these destruction sites is that there is still water running and gas piped in there, so gas fumes and trickling water coming out of many of these devastated sites.

The water situation here in Mississippi is a dangerous one. It is not drinkable. It is dangerous. There are reports, the Associated Press, for instance, reporting that a site, a refugee site here in Biloxi, has, in fact, been closed down, because 20 people there contracted dysentery. Obviously, one would hope they were not actually drinking the water, but folks, of course, are bathing and still it's possible to get sick from the water.

So for the folks in Mississippi, they're well aware that this is a dangerous situation. We have seen bouts of obvious intestinal problems firsthand, so we know this is a problem here.

There is plenty of drinking water available, bottled water. That is being made available here. But there's an awful lot that the folks here in Mississippi need: clothing for instance. Folks are going now into their second week without -- many folks without bathing, without fresh clothing. This is a tough situation in a sense.

It's an absolutely clear day here in Gulfport. It's a beautiful morning, but it is going to get extraordinarily hot this afternoon. Yesterday was almost unbearable -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Just sounds like there's so much need there. All right. Chris Huntington for us with an update from there. And of course, some of the focus on those parts of the country was really taken away by what was happening here in New Orleans.

Let's update you now on the rest of the storm-related follow-up. Let's get right to Betty Nguyen. She's in New York this morning.

Betty, good morning.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.

Every hour we are bringing you the most critical issues facing Katrina survivors, including security, food and water, medical, relocation, levees. We're calling it "Mission Critical."

And authorities say the massive job of evacuating the New Orleans Superdome is finally complete. Buses picked up the last evacuees Saturday, and the same is true over at the convention center. Hundreds of stragglers, though, continue to show up at the facilities to be taken in, and to shelters.

Officials tell CNN the difficult job of patching a broken levee at the 17th Street Canal could be finished by tomorrow night. It's only a temporary fix using giant sandbags and slabs of concrete. But officials hope it will be enough to start pumping water back out of New Orleans. That job could take 80 days or even longer.

And all hospitals in New Orleans have been evacuated. Emergency crews are now able to look outside the city. Rescue officials say they're working now to make sure all patients are out of rural hospitals. And of course, time is of the essence there -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Betty.

Still to come, former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, synonymous with the city of Atlanta, will look back at the city of his youth, talk about developments that we've all seen unfold. He says what we saw in the wake of Katrina was not racism.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm trying to get a hold of my fiance who's here in Houston, Charlene Williams, staying with William Genetta (ph). I'm at the convention center. Please come and get me. I've been waiting. I'm safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you say your name?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nathan. Nathan Chaquis (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: The levees failed and so did the government. Former ambassador, Andrew Young, here to talk about the city of his youth. He was born in New Orleans, lived there until he went away to college. Of course, you know him as the mayor of Atlanta, as well, formerly, and that's where we find him this morning.

Ambassador Young, good to have you with us. It's just heartbreaking to watch this, isn't it?

ANDREW YOUNG, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: It is. And I used to walk those levees as a child. Went to Dillard University one years, spent a lot of time walking around up above Tulane and around Xavier University.

But the college community there, though, is rallying very well. And I've been in touch with a number of people that they're very optimistic.

In fact, I think you have done a good job in trying to get people to feel the -- it's impossible to sense a city of a million people that's potentially a lake.

M. O'BRIEN: It is. It's mind-boggling. But how can you be optimistic? What gives you reason for optimism?

YOUNG: I was born in New Orleans.

M. O'BRIEN: That's just part of it, isn't it?

YOUNG: No, I remember floods as a kid, and I remember during the Roosevelt days, we had massive units of CCC camps, building the spillways above New Orleans.

In those days, we were more worried about the water coming down from the Mississippi and flooding New Orleans, and we geared it around, into the marshes.

We had barrier islands out in the Gulf that tended to protect New Orleans. All of that's eroded, and I don't think much has been done with those spillways and levees since the '50s.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, you mentioned the New Deal, CCC. I wonder if it is appropriate to be thinking about something on the order of that now. We have all of these unemployed people from New Orleans, and tremendous need, tremendous amount of work. Should there be something like that, a works program?

YOUNG: No, it doesn't need to be a works program. It needs to be like a Marshall Plan for the Mississippi, and President Bush could convert that tax cut to tax exempt municipal bonds so that people would get their tax cut, but it would be only invested in the reconstruction and redevelopment of that port city.

That port city feeds all of the grain from Conagra and Cargo and ADM down the river that goes all over the world. A lot of the manufactured goods from the Midwest, the steel and the coal. The oil and gas coming from the Mississippi Valley goes up into New England, and the Midwest. The world and the United States cannot live without New Orleans.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's turn the corner here for a moment. A lot of accusations that, in the wake of Katrina, and the response, or perhaps lack of response is more accurate to say here, that at the root of it, there was a fair amount of racism, because the people who were left behind were predominantly African-American. Do you agree with that?

YOUNG: Well, yes and no. The people who got close to the television were largely black. Black people tend to live downtown. I grew up one block off Canal Street.

But the surrounding areas, the rural areas, and I talked with a young white woman who was here in Atlanta last night, who lived out. And she spent 82 hours in the water, and she talked about the babies and the children that floated by her that were mostly white.

The death toll on this is not going to be significantly one race or the other. We have Hispanic community. We have an Asian community. New Orleans is a gumbo. It's people from all over the world that have come together and created a great city. And yes, race was what was on television, and...

M. O'BRIEN: So what you're saying then is it's a little bit more an accident of geography, the fact that more black people were toward the center of town, which is where, of course, they would make it to the Superdome. Is that it?

YOUNG: Well, that's the way I look at it, and when you look at Slidell, and when you look at Biloxi, when you look at the areas around Jefferson Parish, that we have not seen on television, the devastation was far greater there.

The French Quarter seemed to have held up pretty good. Those buildings were built with cypress logs, not with nails. They were interlocked. Dillard and Xavier had some roofing damage, but by and large there, their plans are to open them up as soon as possible, and to keep the educational system going.

There's been a great response from other colleges around, Duke and SMU, particularly, volunteered to take students from the New Orleans area.

I think altogether, we've done really very well, considering the enormity of the disaster.

M. O'BRIEN: Can it really come back? Should it come back? Is it just untenable as a city?

YOUNG: No, you've got to have it come back. We didn't touch those -- we didn't touch those levees almost from Roosevelt's time to the present. We had to redo our total infrastructure in Atlanta, but we didn't redo the infrastructure in New Orleans. We didn't strengthen those levees. We didn't do much about the barrier islands.

And we've got to realize that global warming is a phenomena that's going to keep these hurricanes coming at us, until we begin to get a little more control of the atmosphere.

M. O'BRIEN: Andrew Young, former U.N. ambassador, former mayor of Atlanta and a citizen of the city of New Orleans, always.

YOUNG: Always.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you for being with us.

YOUNG: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, how victims can find their missing loved ones among tens of thousands of displaced people. Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

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S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody, from New Orleans.

CNN's been making some efforts to connect family members who have lost their loved ones, and of course, in all the chaos, it's been very tough to connect.

We actually have a little good news to report. Our show yesterday, Miles, we talked to a couple of people who were trying to connect with their family members out of town. We were at the airport, you'll remember.

Well, Garrick Pareia (ph), if you remember, we talked to him and he showed pictures of his sister. It turns out his family members saw that report and they now are on the verge of connecting. They each know where the other one is. So that's some good news there.

Also I talked to Shalita Dozier (ph). We interviewed her mom, 65 years old. She was very concerned about her mom. They've been able to connect. When I called her to check in to make sure things were OK, they said they'd taken care of it. They're going to get her mom out. And so we have a little bit of good news.

Also we got the story of Gordon Moore. We heard from his daughter. She was very concerned. He was running low on water. He's 94 years old, veteran of foreign wars, and he was stuck in his house. He can't get out. We went to visit him last night. We brought him some water and some Power Bars, and he is going to be taken out to Baton Rouge and reunited with his family, as well.

So a couple of small efforts, a couple of small stories to tell you about, reuniting some family members. Let's get right to Veronica De La Cruz. Of course, she has more updates with some more good news, as well.

Hey, Veronica. Good morning.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN.COM: Good morning to you, Soledad.

Yes, I just got off the phone with Mr. Moore's daughter, Linda Moore Hewitt (ph), and she wants to say thank you, Soledad, thank you.

Apparently, the 94 years old, like you had just mentioned, had been trapped inside his home since the storm hit without food or water and now he has received some supplies, some of which came through you and your crew. So again, Soledad, the family is grateful.

We're still receiving hundreds of e-mails about cases like Mr. Moore's. Many of those e-mails contain photos of missing loved ones. And we want to go ahead and share a couple of those with you.

This one from Curan Wright: "My uncle's name is Don Littlejohn," the American mime and fire master you see right." Don and his girlfriend were homeless and living in their car in New Orleans. Curan says he reunited with Don and his father in 2000 in New Orleans, finding them on the Internet after 29 years.

This man, Charles Korn, is 95 and was taken by a nurse caretaker, Anita Douglas, to her home in east New Orleans when his home was flooded. A retired lawyer, Mr. Korn had also taught high school history and Latin.

Eighty-two-year-old Myrtle Albert is a resident of Metairie, Louisiana. According to her family, she is 5'4" and is frail with health problems. Myrtle's last known whereabouts, traveling in a vehicle with a family member headed toward Baton Rouge.

Our crew is on the ground, like you, Soledad, are still making every effort to help people get word out about their missing loved ones. Here are a few of the people we've been able to talk to.

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KANEISHA MOORE, LOOKING FOR FAMILY: Hi. This is Kaneisha Moore. I'm looking for my grandmother, Corrine (ph); my mom, Arlene (ph); my uncle, Elmo; my niece, my cousins. And I hope you're all right. I'm all right. It's hard out here. We striving; we're surviving.

SHANELLE STEPHENS, LOOKING FOR FAMILY: I'm Shanelle Stephens, and I'm looking for some family members from New Orleans. I'm from New Orleans myself. And I want my family members to know that we are safe. We're at -- we're safe in Houston, and we're looking for family members here so that we can get them so that they can be together and take them where we're staying. STEPHANIE FAYARD, LOOKING FOR BROTHER-IN-LAW: We're looking for my brotherly. He's in NOPD. He has been missing since Sunday, and my husband's in NOPD. He's been in and out looking for him and can't find him, can't get any answers. And we keep calling these numbers they're giving us, and we can't find him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DE LA CRUZ: It's heartbreaking to hear those stories.

If you are missing a friend or a loved one, e-mail us here at HurricaneVictims@CNN.com. We have tremendous resources available to you as well as a safe list you can register with once that person is found. It is all online at CNN.com/HelpCenter.

Miles, let's go back to you.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. It's good to see we're putting people together. We hope that effort continues successfully. Thank you Veronica.

In a moment, today's top stories including the death of U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Live from the White House for more on what is to come for the high court. Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

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