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American Morning
Rehnquist Dies; Katrina's Aftermath
Aired September 04, 2005 - 09:00 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. A developing story from Washington. The chief justice of the United States, William Rehnquist, has died. Thirty-three years of service on the Supreme Court. We're live in Washington for reaction.
In New Orleans this morning, after the storm: the flood and five days of chaos. Now the city in ruins, largely deserted. The work shifting from evacuations to recovering the dead bodies. We're live in the city.
And more than 220,000 survivors of Katrina being sheltered in Texas alone. Room is running out. So now the deal is struck. Some survivors will live on cruise ships. All ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
Good morning to you. We will also have complete coverage about the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. That will be coming in a moment. But before we do that, let's go to Soledad in New Orleans.
Good morning, Soledad.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CO-HOST: Hey, Miles, good morning to you.
I want to show you what's right over my shoulder here. This is the first time that we have seen this. You can see National Guard troops out, protecting the shopping mall. This was a site of the fire yesterday we reported during the day.
And you can see clearly -- pan over, Jay, a little bit to the Brooks Brothers, the site of a lot of looting, as well. People were seen hauling off Gucci bags and other valuables, as well.
So today, and overnight they had National Guard troops sleeping out here, trying to protect the city. Things, though, so much more calm than even we saw yesterday as some of the last evacuees were getting out of the city.
Coming up in just a few moments, we're going to check in with Jeff Koinange. He's been reporting on this story for the last couple of days. He's been around some of the harder-hit areas. We'll check in with him.
And also, we're going to talk to the chief of police about what he's been dealing with, as well. That's ahead, Miles.
M. O'BRIEN. All right. Thanks, Soledad. See you in just a little bit. Let's return now to the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist coming two months after Sandra Day O'Connor announced that she will resign. Rehnquist's death allows President Bush to shape the direction of the Supreme Court for a long time to come.
National correspondent Bob Franken at White House. Bob, what are the options for the president from here?
BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as he goes to church this morning, as he does so many mornings, at St. John's Episcopal Church across from the White House, his first thing that he's going to do is to speak to the nation.
At 10 p.m. eastern, which is, of course, less than an hour from now, he's going to be going into the Roosevelt Room and making brief comments about death of the chief justice of the United States.
He has an awful lot of decisions to make. First of all, he has to decide whether he wants to elevate somebody who is already one of the justices to chief justice. If he does that that means that there would be three confirmation hearings. At the very least, there will be two if he names somebody from the outside to be the chief.
As far as John Roberts is concerned, his confirmation hearing was to begin on Tuesday, but it could be delayed if there's a decision that it would be inappropriate to begin on that day.
All of this against the clock that is ticking. The Supreme Court resumes in less than a month. At the moment, there would only be seven justices, although Sandra day O'Connor could stay on longer, but it's considered virtually impossible that there's going to be a decision and confirmation of all of the justices who are needed in time for the beginning of the term, which begins October 3 -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Let's clarify a point, Bob. Sandra Day O'Connor said she would step down once a successor had been confirmed. So technically, that's not vacant, right?
FRANKEN: Well, it's not vacant and she could hear cases, as a matter of fact, if she stayed in place. But of course, there's so many possibilities. The question would become, would she stay if her successor was confirmed but there was still a chief justice who had to be named? That is something the answer would probably be no. But it gets kind of confused.
And one thing that adds to all of this, if the Supreme Court was 4-4, and it was a tie vote, it would mean that whatever the lower court decision had been, that would prevail.
M. O'BRIEN: Bob Franken at the White House, thank you very much.
The president of the United States, a little less than an hour, will be speaking from the Roosevelt Room a few words about William Rehnquist. We'll bring that to you live as it happens, about 56 minutes from now.
Let's talk about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Some mission critical issues facing Katrina survivors as we speak.
The New Orleans Superdome, now empty at long last. The federal government says more than 40,000 evacuees now out of the city. More than 200,000 of those have fled to Texas. That state's governor says there may not be any way to handle any more.
New Orleans' major hospitals now evacuated at long last. The effort has shifted to other hospitals in the outlying areas where more people are still waiting for help.
Refrigerator trucks are going into the area; health officials worried about the outbreak of disease. They will begin the grim task of collecting the bodies.
Let's go back to Soledad now in New Orleans.
S. O'BRIEN: Miles, good morning once again.
Yes, you know, this is essentially a ghost town. Most of the people are out. The evacuees have gotten out. And it is pretty amazing though, when you see the spirit, the resilient spirit of folks kind of in the face of the worst disaster.
Jeff Koinange has been talking to some of these people and I think has been fairly correct to say, fairly impressed by what they had to tell you.
Good morning.
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.
It's incredible how, when in times of adversity, people's spirits just rise up to the occasion.
And we showed this at the convention center the last couple of days. Day one, people were angry. People were calling out to the government saying, "We need help. We need help."
But by day two -- and this was day seven, day six for them -- they had taken upon themselves to help themselves. And we met a couple of them who are actually helping a lot of people around them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC)
KOINANGE (voice-over): Victims of Hurricane Katrina, tired of waiting for government help, seek answers from a higher authority.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a wake-up call for New Orleans. New Orleans is a sinful city. We've got to stop this here (ph).
KOINANGE: Others tried to find justification for the country's worst natural disaster in over a century.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How I feel? I'm tired of this. I just -- I can't say nothing.
KOINANGE: While others still simply tried to cope with a disaster that's left hundreds, possibly thousands, dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't feel depressed and I don't feel let down, because God does everything for a reason and for a purpose, that his name might be glorified.
KOINANGE: These are the tired, the old, the hungry, and most of all, the frustrated and angry residents of New Orleans who'd been sleeping under the stars for nearly a week, waiting to be evacuated.
The conditions here were harsh. No running water. No sanitation. No food for five days. Many, like self-employed businessman Monroe Hoskins, lost everything.
MONROE HOSKINS, GOOD SAMARITAN: I have nothing. I have lost everything myself. I have one pair of pants, one shirt, and one pair of shoes.
KOINANGE: That's when he and this man, Stanley Rasmus, came up with a plan. They started a soup kitchen and admit to taking food and other groceries from nearby supermarkets, but only, they insist, to help feed the hungry.
They have managed to provide three meals a die to hundreds, in addition to taking care of the elderly and sick in this abandoned hotel.
Rasmus insists charity begins at home.
STANLEY RASMUS, GOOD SAMARITAN: We're taxpayers, man. They treat us like dog, but they send all that money over to Iraq, taking care of that. They can't take care of their own country, man.
KOINANGE: His friend sums up the feelings of many here, who feel let down by their leaders.
HOSKINS: To be the richest country in the world, this is a disgrace. How can you take care of other countries when you cannot take care of your home? Is this racist? Is this a racist statement that you making?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes.
HOSKINS: Come on, take care of us! We need you! Our people have fought, have died, have built this country!
KOINANGE: Now it's his people who will have to rebuild a battered city while trying to rebuild their own shattered lives.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOINANGE: Soledad, I think the next phase now is rebuilding a shattered city but rebuilding the lives of those folks you saw in those pictures, that's going to take years, maybe even decades. S. O'BRIEN: It's hard to imagine, you know, the psychological. We haven't even discussed, really, the full, complete psychological impact that -- not with the storm, and then the flood, but the trauma of camping out with your children in violent conditions and then being brought over to another location, where you're camped out, then farmed out to another state and you have nothing. I mean, the implications, I think, are going to be huge.
KOINANGE: Unbelievable. And people are still in shock right now. Wait till the shock wears off. That is going to be devastating.
S. O'BRIEN: I think you're exactly right. All right. Jeff, thanks a lot, as always. We appreciate it.
Let's get right to Bonnie Schneider. She's at the CNN Weather Center for us this morning.
Bonnie, good morning. I know you're looking at a storm.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, Soledad. We're watching Hurricane Maria, the fifth hurricane of this busy season.
The good news is Maria is nothing like Katrina. This hurricane is moving away from the U.S. mainland. It's certainly not as strong. It's a Category 1 with maximum winds at 75 miles per hour. But still another hurricane that we're watching.
We're also watching a couple of tropical waves that are a little too far south to see on this map. But I still want to point out an area of disturbed weather, low pressure near the Bahamas, near Florida. It's picking up some showers this morning into the coastal sections of Broward and Palm Beach County, making for some wet weather through the early part of the day. We may see some rain throughout the afternoon. But we'll keep a watch on this and see if anything tropical does develop with this system off the Bahamas.
In the meantime for this holiday weekend, boy, temperatures are really heating up in the nation's midsection. Highs well into the 90s there.
And on the east coast high pressure bringing about beautiful weather for this holiday weekend. We've got cool winds from the northwest making for just terrific beach conditions if you're planning to head to the beach today or for Labor Day. It really looks nice down from Massachusetts all the way through the Carolinas.
One other spot to mention, a little cool in the Pacific northwest. That's where we'll see temperatures for highs in the 60s and some overnight lows into the 50s. But overall, a good-looking holiday weekend up into the U.S. mainland and as well for tomorrow -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Bonnie. Thanks a lot.
You know, I have to say, it's so jarring when you describe a beautiful holiday weekend coming up and then, of course, we kind of look around at destruction. This would be a place many people would come for the holidays and obviously they're not. The city's almost empty.
Coming up, we're going to talk to the superintendent of police, Eddie Compass. There are reports of mass desertions by your officers. We'll talk about that and other information as well. That's coming up -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Soledad. We look forward to that. And then also, we'll get an up close and personal visit with the man they call the raging Cajun, General Russell Honore, the man in charge of whipping New Orleans back into shape. We'll see that when AMERICAN MORNING continues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, my name is Ralene Weir (ph). I'm from New Orleans, Louisiana. I'm trying to get out to all of my family who are missing like my father and my cousin. If you see me on here, you can contact me at 832-203-0477. The number again is 832-230-0477 (sic) and call me now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. This special edition of AMERICAN MORNING is coming to you from Canal Street in New Orleans. And we're joined by the superintendent of police, Eddie Compass.
Nice to talk to you.
Moments ago, he was telling me that he hasn't had time for the press conferences, because there are lots of reports, sort of disturbing reports. And I want to set the record straight on some of them.
The first, yesterday we were hearing 60 percent, 6-0 percent of the officers walked off the job. Is that true or not true?
SUPERINTENDENT EDWIN COMPASS, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: That is totally ridiculous. You know, we had about 1,300 officers we could account for. We're a 1,700 person police department. We're off radio communications. We had 150 officers trapped in a hospital with 12 feet of water.
You know, my job was to protect the citizens of this city, to keep my officers safe. And I didn't have time to deal with the press, to quell all rumors.
Now that the situation is under control, I'm going to set the record straight. The men and women of this New Orleans Police Department fought bravely. We did something no police department in the history of the world was ever asked to do.
The only thing I can make analogous with is the Spartans at the Battle of Thermopylae, except we won.
This police department was so tactically proficient. We did not have radio communications. The commanders that we had on this police department kept this police department intact. We worked with other agencies throughout the parishes, throughout the federal system. It was -- it went off without a hitch with almost no radio communications.
S. O'BRIEN: And you had a lot of fronts you had to deal with. First and foremost, you went out to do search and rescue.
COMPASS: Well, that was our first mission, because we're the first boats in the water, saving people's lives. Then we were working with the fire department, helping put out fires. Then all of a sudden, they started shooting at the fire vehicles. So then we had to send all the escorts to the fire truck as they went to put out fires.
S. O'BRIEN: And then you had civil unrest here. And the mayor called a lot of your people back.
COMPASS: Well, when the civil unrest came in, the mayor called me back in and asked me to devise a plan with my district commanders, which was already preplanned, because we knew that if this took place we wouldn't have radio communication. So we had designated areas of responsibility for our commanders. And our tactical commanders worked this to perfection.
S. O'BRIEN: How tough is it, though, to know that there are people to rescue and they can't get to them because either someone's shooting at you, or someone's sniping, or that you have to sort of help regain control of the city. And so people who need your help, who are flooded out, couldn't get you help?
COMPASS: It's extremely difficult and frustrating. Just imagine doing it under the conditions where we're sleeping in the street, had no rest room facilities, had no food, had no water. We were running out of ammunition. No radio communications.
And we did not lose one police officer, despite the many firefights that we've had during this entire. And that's a tribute to men and women in this police department, the federal aid, the sheriff's departments throughout the state.
I want to really commend Harry Lee and Justin Pattern (ph). We needed a helicopter, and he sent us a helicopter. We were able to go out and spot, went out and spot for the rescue boats. We saved over 700 people in one day because of Sheriff Harry Lee out of Knoxville and the sheriff's office in Tennessee.
S. O'BRIEN: You were quoted as saying, "I don't see anything yet on the ground." This was back when I was in New York. I think it was either on Thursday -- maybe it was Thursday.
You said, "I don't see anything yet on the ground." And this is when a lot of federal aid had been promised and the troops were coming in. How frustrating was it to know that you had sort of battled on a lot of fronts and you didn't have any backup with 1,700 officers under the best circumstances?
COMPASS: You know, it makes you do one of two things. It brings out all your strengths. It displayed all your weaknesses.
We couldn't sit down and complain without the strength of this enormous police department. We adapted. We withheld the resistance. We still saved people's lives. We protected people.
Most of the people that was in those facilities were good people. They were great people. You had a very small criminal element, which we deal with in law enforcement on a daily basis, that took advantage of a catastrophic situation.
It was pitch dark in these buildings. My tactic team had to go in there. They were shooting at us. We couldn't return fire, because there was no lighting. And they didn't have their batteries (ph). And we didn't want to hit any innocent bystanders.
So my tactical unit would spot the flash. They would surround the flash and start patting people down and physically take guns off these individuals and extract them out of there.
My tactic unit made almost 30 entries into those dark buildings. I mean, it was an incredible effort.
S. O'BRIEN: We don't have a lot of time, but I want to ask you a quick question about the stress. There are reports today that one of your officers took his own life, and I have to imagine the stress. Everybody's local. Your city is a disaster. You city is a disaster. I mean what does it feel like to you?
COMPASS: Two officers that committed suicide, unfortunately. I'm friends with them.
One of the officers found out that his wife was dead, and he was overwhelmed. And I don't know the circumstances with the other officer, you know. My police department went through a lot.
But we did not lose one officer in battle. We didn't lose one officer in combat. And that's a testament to the ability of this New Orleans Police Department.
S. O'BRIEN: So strange to me when you talk about battle and combat and here we are sitting on Canal Street in New Orleans. I mean, what a shocking week it's been.
COMPASS: Yes. And I have to handle it from the ground, because we had no communications. And I want to thank my security team, because they covered me. And you know, even though we took fire, they tried to take me hostage, my people protected me. And I just wanted to thank them all.
S. O'BRIEN: It's been a remarkable week. Superintendent of police, Eddie Compass, nice to talk to you. Thank you very much. We certainly appreciate it.
COMPASS: Great to be here. Thank you for being here. You did a good job.
S. O'BRIEN: Thank you. A short break, and we are back in just a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: All of this past week we have heard from the victims, the government officials, the rescue workers, the military and medical personnel as we've labored to tell this epic story and its aftermath.
But what has it been like for the people bringing you the story in all its horrific dimension? We asked two of our producers to try to put their efforts, their impressions into, words.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HEARD, CNN PRODUCER: I thought it was OK if he had security with him.
M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Michael Heard has witnessed his share of tragic stories in 15 years as a CNN field producer, but he says nothing compares to this.
HEARD: It seemed very third world. I mean, one of the first locations we saw right off of I-10 and causeway was massive amounts of people. They looked like nomads, even along roads and the highways. They were wandering. They had all of their belongings with them. They were just walking, trying to get to some better place.
This, by far, is one of the worst stories I've ever had to cover or be involved in. In just talking to people, listening to them cry, or watching them cry, watching all the emotion that they have, seeing the rescues firsthand, even seeing corpses in the waters.
We went out on a fish boat last night, and the water, you can just see it. It's all muddied. It just looks unhealthy. You have people all in it.
M. O'BRIEN: The images are so devastating, Michael says they almost don't seem real.
HEARD: It seems like I'm looking at something I see on TV internationally. It looks like something in a remote area of the world and having it be right here on our doorstep, in our backyard, is really, it hits home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's all under water.
M. O'BRIEN: It hits even closer to home for CNN producer Carey Bodenheimer.
CAREY BODENHEIMER: I was born and raised in New Orleans. So you know, to have seen it on TV and then to have gone into the city and seen it was like getting punched in the stomach. It made me want to get sick. It made me sick.
I can't divorce it the way in the news business you can kind of divorce yourself from the story and just do your job. This, for me, I -- I don't want to go into the neighborhoods and see the people banging on their roofs. I don't want to see, you know, people's pets wandering around starving.
M. O'BRIEN: Carey also wonder whether New Orleans, the New Orleans she knows, will ever truly return to what it was, to what made the city unique and prompted millions to flock to it.
BODENHEIMER: It's a city that is so proud of its history and so proud of its traditions. And it seems like that's all out the window now.
I wonder if there will be Mardi Gras. I wonder if the Saints are going play football in New Orleans ever again. I mean, those seem like really small concerns, but there are things people ritualize and make very important in the city.
I really wonder whether people my age or younger people, even, are going to want to come back. Because there's just no way there's going to be an economy to come back to.
The people who are going to come back to New Orleans are going to have hard, hard lives. There's always this joke that New Orleans was kind of a separate country from the rest of the United States. But now, it really is. It's like a third world country.
And I -- I was very distressed and sickened by what I saw. People's eyes are like an animal that's that desperate. And it's just heartbreaking.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: Carey Bodenheimer and Michael Heard, just two members of our army of troops, deployed to keep you informed. Their work isn't done, not by a long shot.
Still to come, was the National Guard stretched too thin bit war in Iraq to help handle the crisis here at home? We'll ask Senator Ben Nelson, the arms services committee about that. Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien reporting from New Orleans this morning where you can see it's essentially a ghost town. Take a look down this road right here, this is -- we're on Canal Street -- this is the entrance, though, to the French Quarter. This, on a holiday weekend should be just packed with people. All you see are a couple of people who scavenged for water or goods they can find. And really, more than anything, military, they're protecting the shopping mall. You'll recall this was the location that was on fire yesterday and clearly the site of much looting. They slept here overnight to try to protect what's left inside of this mall.
Miles, today, the story is where the evacuees out of the New Orleans go from here. Also, what about the recovery of bodies? And then the blame game begins with everybody pointing fingers now at everybody else, much more on that ahead -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: All right Soledad, we'll talk to you in just a little bit. Thank you very much.
Returning to the death, last night, of U.S. Chief Justice William Rehnquist. In the last hour, Supreme Court nominee John Roberts had some words.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JUDGE JOHN ROBERTS, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: It's a sad day for us. Our country's lost a remarkable public servant and my family and I have lost a very dear friend. Jane and I want to send our condolences to the Rehnquist family. We're going to miss him very much. Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
M. O'BRIEN: As you may know, Roberts was a clerk for Rehnquist. So, with the death of William Rehnquist and the nomination of Roberts to replace outgoing Justice Sandra Day O'Connor there are lots of things to consider on the high court. Chief national correspondent, John King, in Washington and CNN's senior legal analyst, Jeff Toobin, is here with me.
It's -- there's so many options, it's almost probably going to take too much time to go through them all. But what's a likely scenario here, Jeff? First of all, the Roberts hearings, probably delayed a little bit, that's the first thing.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: They might be for funeral proceeding. But the question -- John Roberts going to be nominated to the Supreme Court. The question is which seat. He is currently nominated to replace Sandra Day O'Connor who has not resigned who says she will resign upon the confirmation of her successor. Possibly Roberts could be nominated for chief justice, O'Connor could stay on for a while until someone is named to replace her. That's one possibility.
M. O'BRIEN: So that would create a scenario, John King, where no matter what happens really, by October there'll be probably a full court. There was some talk earlier that it might not be all justices seated that the point, but if O'Connor stays on, and she might be asked to do that.
JOHN KING, CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That still is a big if. But there will a lot of buzz and speculation and pressure on the president, here this morning, to do just that, to ask Justice O'Connor to stay on at least temporarily in a short period of time. Could she be made chief temporarily? Would John Roberts be made chief? I don't think you would be O'Connor through proceedings -- confirmation proceedings if she was not planning to stay on for any length of time. So, Jeff is absolutely right, the question is which seats now for John Roberts?
At White House, today, what we're being told this morning -- and we will hear from the president in about 25 minutes on this subject, is everybody needs to calm down. But, there is a process in place. They say they can move pretty quickly. The president, though will face enormous pressure. Polls are at an all-time low, there will be pressure now. Do you name a Latino, do you name a woman? All of the pressures we had over the summertime that ended or least took a time- out when he announced Judge Roberts as his pick, for the associate justice spot, will begin again with the volume and pressure much higher because this is the chief we're talking about.
TOOBIN: Just to follow up on what John said about calming down. You know, it's worth remembering that the Supreme Court often acts with less than nine justices. Earlier this year, the chief was sick and sitting out and they decided cases with eight justices. Oftentimes a justice will rescue him or herself over something, so the fact if one justice or even two is not participating for a while the court can continue do to its business. It's not a long-term solution, but a month or two like that is not unprecedented or horrible.
M. O'BRIEN: Yeah, it's worth pointing out only the 5-4 decisions we're talking about where this is really an issue.
TOOBIN: Correct. And historically they have sometimes put off decisions where the absence of a person would make a difference. If -- they just decide to reargue them later when the court is at full strength.
M. O'BRIEN: What is the history here, John King, is it more likely to elevate a current justice to the chief or bring somebody in from outside as a chief nominee?
KING: Well, history, at least modern history to elevate from within. That is what Ronald Reagan did when he made Rehnquist the chief back 20 years ago -- 20-some years ago. But this president, of course, doesn't necessarily pay attention to history. He picked Mr. Roberts, a very young man, who could sit on court for some 30 years. The president the United States in his second term, now looking again at the prospects of putting someone, the possibility of putting someone on the court who could sit there for 25, 30 years. Some say he wanted the chief justice to be Alberto Gonzales, his close friend, now the attorney general. Many would say now, that it's too soon that he wanted Alberto Gonzales to be the attorney general for another year or two before getting that choice. But those are the factors that will kick in.
Conservative will say, promote Antonin Scalia to be chief justice. Does the president want to get into that fight right now with his approval rating at an all-time low? Does he want to just go and try to make John Roberts the chief justice right away? Does he have another pick in mind? Miles, we are beginning today, again, not only a search process for the president, but a political process that will involve not only every interest group under the sun, but millions and millions of dollars, but and we are told to expect from the president today is a tribute to Chief Justice Rehnquist and ask everybody to just pause for a few days, anyway, before we move on to politics.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, unfortunately, we're out of time. Lots more to talk about there. Thank you, John King and Jeff Toobin. Appreciate it.
President Bush will be making an announcement or saying a few words about the chief justice. That's coming up in 25 minutes, 10:00 a.m. Eastern time from the Roosevelt room at the White House. CNN, of course, will bring you live coverage of that. Let's go back to Soledad in New Orleans.
Soledad, good morning again.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Miles, thanks a lot. Good morning to you. Today, boats back in the water working on rescue. And also you can take a look at these live pictures. Helicopters back in the air. This is the scene around New Orleans and we're showing you specifically some of the levee repairs around the 17th Street canal. You can't tell if there's any work going on yet, but obviously they are busy because fixing this part of the levee system is going to be critical to dewatering, eventually, the whole city. Much to do at a very, very big price tag. However, a big step forward yesterday when they got the bulk of the people, most of the people are now out of New Orleans. They made their way, the final group, on buses, heading out of the city to other states, some of them even to the New Orleans international airport. That's where we find Ed Lavandera this morning.
Ed, good morning.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. It's amazing. After four days of seeing helicopters buzzing and swirling over the city, things have really slowed down. And overnight, the thousands of people who were still here at New Orleans Airport, waiting for flights out, have disappeared. The cleanup process is now underway at this airport. There were thousands and thousands of people who were being dropped off here every day. Some getting medical attention, others making long lines camped out all over the airport grounds here. It was -- it turned into an amazing site here at the airport. But, virtually overnight the officials here have moved everyone out. It's fascinating. Only a few, maybe a dozen people a couple dozen people left. It's -- the numbers have dropped off dramatically. And you can see one helicopter here in the background that has just landed. But this is still far and few between. At its busiest point there were 10 helicopters landing here every minute, so things changing here dramatically. Now the process begins of cleaning up this airport.
One other note to pass on, the airport is in Jefferson Parish. The president of the parish is saying that starting tomorrow, Monday at 6:00 a.m., he will start allowing residents, you have to show I.D. to get into the parish, allowing people between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. to start come back to their homes and justice checking things out, not recommending that anyone be allowed to stay. I don't want -- I want to be clear about this. But for giving people some opportunity to begin coming back and at least checking on their belongings, their houses, and perhaps getting a few things that they might want to take back out with them -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Yeah, probably a lot of bad news folks will be getting firsthand tomorrow. All right, Ed Lavandera for us at the airport this morning. Ed thanks.
Let's get back to miles in New York. Miles, good morning again.
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Soledad. Ten-thousand more National Guard troops are on the way to Louisiana, Mississippi. When they arrive it will be 40,000 guardsmen and women on hand, but could there have been more troops sooner? One person who has wondered if the U.S. military might be stretched too thin by the war in Iraq is Senator Ben Nelson, democrat of Nebraska and a member of the Armed Services Committee.
Senator, good to have you with us this morning.
SEN. BEN NELSON (D), NEBRASKA: Good morning, miles.
M. O'BRIEN: If there were fewer National Guard troops in Iraq, and here stateside, would it have made a difference?
NELSON: Well, I've been told by the Lieutenant General Blum who is in charge of the National Guard, as early as six months ago, that we had adequate troops, guard troops to protect the local states. As a former governor I was very concerned about that because I know governors are always wanting to be in a position where they can all out the guard if they need them. The fact that it took so long to get law and order restored because of the inadequacy and the number of troop on the ground raises serious questions. Why were we unable to rally and bring together the troops faster?
M. O'BRIEN: The way I see it so far, if you have to point fingers here it seems to be a failure of leadership more than it does boots on the ground issue, would you go along with that?
NELSON: Oh, absolutely. Let me suggest right now, it's not about the boots on the ground. It's people above them who made a decision or who didn't make a decision to deploy those troops.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. That's an important point.
NELSON: Yes it is.
M. O'BRIEN: But let's help people understand the distinction here between National Guard. We're talking about essentially troops that are controlled by the governors of the states. They are there in states and it is precisely these sorts of things that they are trained to respond to, correct? NELSON: That's correct. I had to call out the guard on two or three occasions when we had natural disasters. They were there, I was able to do it, and we were able to take care of health and welfare and safety of people in Nebraska.
M. O'BRIEN: Now, what has happened over time as the needs have risen in Iraq, is that National Guard troops from all of the states have been deployed over there and there on long-term deployments, really the kind of role the National Guard wasn't designed for. What does that tell you? Does the system need to be changed here? Does the Pentagon need to have more federal so-called Title 10 troops?
NELSON: I don't know that we know right now, but we have to know the answer to that question quickly because this is about more than New Orleans. New Orleans is an example right now. Our concern is, what if we were to have a terrorist act in some other community and we were faced with similar situations? Do we have enough guard troops to come in and provide law and order, as well as other essential services? I think the fact that food and water was so slow coming to the folks at the convention center and the Superdome is a pretty good indication that somehow we just didn't have enough boots on the ground quickly enough and it's not the fault of the men and women in uniform who are boots on the ground. You have to have ask the question of the ranging superior officers.
M. O'BRIEN: Of course, you could make a case that under any circumstances, the magnitude of this event cries out for immediate invention, help from Washington, from the Pentagon, active duty troops mobilized right away because it would dwarf the capabilities of even National Good if there were -- had a full complement of troops there.
NELSON: Absolutely. Under the best of circumstances this would have been difficult, but the fact it was so difficult raises serious questions and I think we need to get the answers because we're concerned not only about New Orleans, and we are concerned about New Orleans, this is just an unfortunate situation. A natural disaster turned into a national disgrace. But we are concerned about as well, though, is to make sure that this sort of an inadequacy as the president called it was just inadequate. What was done was not sufficient. I think we all recognize that. We saw it live on your channel. We saw it in the news media. We saw it everywhere we looked.
M. O'BRIEN: It's inexcusable, isn't it?
NELSON: It's -- well, it may be explainable, I hope that it is, but I think we all know that whatever happens in the future, the reaction has to be better and more timely than it was. I think it was probably drawn to everybody's attention so clearly that camera crews could get to the people, but you couldn't get water and food to them. That just raises serious questions that everybody still has on their minds and we need to get answers.
M. O'BRIEN: Senator Ben Nelson, thanks for your time.
NELSON: Thank you. M. O'BRIEN: Back to you, Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: All right Miles, thanks. Let's show you a picture of the Saint Mark's Episcopal Church before Katrina struck. Look at it now. The church, though, promises to rise from the ashes with a service on the only structure that remains. We've got that story from Mississippi coming up in just a moment. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. We've been talking a lot about what's been happening here in New Orleans which is essentially a ghost town. Most of the people who wanted to get out are now out of the city. But, we want to take you east now, to Mississippi, where the devastation is just as complete and in fact, there, though, there is a remarkable story. The story of a church that has decided to go ahead with services even though there's nothing left. It's a church with a lot of history. I want to introduce you to the Reverend Bo Roberts of Saint Marks Episcopal Church and the Reverend Duncan M. Gray, he is the bishop of Mississippi.
Gentlemen, nice to talk to you and thank you for being with us. Reverend Roberts, let's begin with you, if we may. The history of this church obviously incredible. You're trying to hold services now in an hour. But it's completely damaged. How are you going to do that?
REV. BO ROBERTS, ST. MARKS EPISCOPAL CHURCH: Well, there's still a slab here and there's still a lot of hope and a lot of future here. So, we ask people to bring a chair and we'll set up and just get about god's work.
S. O'BRIEN: How have you been getting the word out with the damage so complete as it is?
ROBERTS: That's been a tough one, because even though those with cell phones are having difficulty with communication. We put us up a little makeshift sign on the property and as members came by to check on things, they've seen the sign. And of course we done it by word of mouth, and door to door as best we could. We had it in yesterday's newspaper that many people receive and it has been on the Web sites and also on the local television station.
S. O'BRIEN: Bishop Gray, if I may ask you a question, what is the scope of the loss that we can see in friend of us outside of just the physical structure? What's been lost here?
REV. DUNCAN GRAY, EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF MISSISSIPPI: Well, the loss beginning with the physical structures, is six churches along the coast looking like this. But the loss is one of -- in some ways people -- this has happened -- this is the second time this has happened to their churches, to their homes and within 35, 36 years. And that's a pretty heavy blow emotionally, psychologically. But one of great joys, as I've been traveling down here in last two or three days, is to have people say we're building back. There's a t-shirt being minted even as we speak that says "The church is still standing." and that's going to be distributed throughout at least the Episcopal community here on the coast. Some of them are halls that are standing, some of them, like Bo's church here at Saint Marks, are not standing physically, but certainly spiritually. The church continues to stand and will continue to dot work that god has called us to do.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, gentlemen you have a lot of work ahead of you as you mentioned, the emotional devastation on top of the physical devastation. I think that everyone there is going to have a very big row to hoe, as they say. Reverend Bo Robert of Saint Marks Church and the Reverend Duncan M. Gray, who is the bishop of Mississippi, I thank you for being with us.
A short break. Ahead, this morning, we're going to show you what it's like now as the city empties out. Stay with us. You're watching a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: The president will make remarks from the Roosevelt room in the White House eight minutes from now discussing the passing of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Live coverage on CNN then and in the mean time, let's go back to Soledad in New Orleans.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Miles, thanks a lot. You know a lot of people have been asking us, what's it like now? And it's essentially a ghost town. I mean, choppers fly overhead, as well, and it's relatively quiet. We want to take a tour of a center many heard about the, convention center, to show you what it looks like right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: We've heard that the conditions inside were absolutely horrific we want to see for ourselves. Some of the people we've talked to said the most difficult thing, the most horrific thing, has been just living in the filth. Thousands of people here, they have no security whatsoever. As bands of young men and gangs, essentially, were roaming the area. But the worst thing they said sometimes was just the sheer volume of filth, having to live in their own feces and urine, no way to get water or food. This is what it's like inside and the stench is overpowering. First thing you notice, the smell. Smells like -- smells like dead bodies. Smells like urine. Smells like people who have waded through sewage to make their way out of their houses and that of course, is people who lived through that came here. Managed to score of some beds. We've seen that every once in a while, taken probably, we assume, from the hotels. This whole strip has a bunch of hotels, dragged the mattresses over.
And in some cases with no possessions whatsoever left it all behind. Some of the people we spoke to talked about how they would put a group together for safety. You can see what's left behind here. Kind of like a campsite, kind of camping out, keeping a tight circle. But, and over there, too, and back there, too, and back there, too. Good way to protect yourself. You know what I find strange? There's nobody here monitoring the place. Not just, not cleaning it up, which I wouldn't think would be a priority but there's no National Guard. Can you imagine this place with 20,000 people inside? And then every so often somebody kind of pops out of the back rooms. They have to clean up, I mean, someone brought these dumpsters in. Someone's working on it. But nobody's here now.
Folks outside, folks you can hear as we walk by. They're waiting for a bus. One of the big complaints is that they won't tell you where you're going when you get on the bus. Some people refuse to get on the buses because they want to know where they're going before they get on the bus. No one will tell them. No one will tell us. So it's unclear if these people will get picked up any time soon.
And we're outside again. Just a mess. And still bodies out here, even on Saturday, late Saturday afternoon, under this comforter someone has covered up. It's a dead body and at some point they'll figure it out and move it off.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
S. O'BRIEN: Moving off, in fact, Miles, now, that is the focus, the recovery of the bodies. Even as search and rescuers efforts go on outside of the city, right here now it's going to focus on removing some of the bodies that are still here -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad on the one hand it is good it see the city empty. On the other hand, it is just tragic to see that. Isn't it?
S. O'BRIEN: And just strange, just strange. It's just strange. There's nobody here on a major long weekend in heart of New Orleans where every tourist normally would be gathering. It is completely empty. It is so strange.
M. O'BRIEN: Hard to imagine when it will be filled with people again. Soledad O'Brien, very nice work. Thank you very much. Ahead on CNN, live coverage of President Bush's remarks about the passing of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. That's coming up in just a few moments.
Tomorrow, the president will head back to the areas wiped out by Hurricane Katrina and of course we'll provide you coverage of that. Stay with us for just a little bit more.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: That's all the time we have for this Sunday edition of AMERICAN MORNING, more CNN special coverage of Katrina and its aftermath with Tony Harris and Betty Nguyen.
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