Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Rescue Operations Still Under Way; Pumps Begin Moving Water

Aired September 06, 2005 - 07:28   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. I want to give you a sense of where we are this morning. You can see just how close we are to downtown New Orleans, only about three or four miles from the Superdome. And if you travel east on I-10 and it's intact at this portion, that's where we are at the Legion Fields area, the exit there.
And you can see here this is actually the Legion Fields on-ramp to I-10, obviously much of it underwater. If you go back another 20 yards or so is really how high up the water came.

Not to dwell on the smell, but, of course, the smell is an indication of the death and the dead bodies.

This is the kind of conditions that the rescuers are working in. Obviously, it's not being used as an on-ramp, but the rescuers come out here every day, and this is a point where they can drop off the people that they've been able to pull out of their homes.

Strangely enough, some people don't want to go. And, in fact, yesterday, we had a chance to travel with some members of the U.S. Coast Guard, who took us around and showed us the devastated region.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN (voice over): The U.S. Coast Guard Air Group out of New Orleans, busy with activity. More searching for survivors one week after the disaster struck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it's going to take off out of here and pick up the river.

S. O'BRIEN: Lieutenant Commander David Billberg (ph) briefs us on our path.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The majority of the cases that we've been handling are in this swath of area right through here.

S. O'BRIEN: Our focus is the area hardest hit by Katrina and the flooding and the looting, St. Bernard parish. We're in, and we're off. Pilots fly in six to eight-hour shifts each day.

Lieutenant Commanders Scott Langum (ph) is the pilot. Lieutenant Skip Dronan (ph) is the co-pilot. The flight mechanic is Bob Simpson (ph). He's a petty officer. And Petty Officer Dustin Scara (ph) is our rescue swimmer.

Between them, they've rescued numerous people. Nine this morning alone.

We follow the winding path of the Mississippi, and immediately the vastness of this disaster is clear. We spot a family on their porch. They don't look desperate. a

Another porch, another resident. This time, a man who doesn't want to leave even though his street is a lake and a toxic mix of sewage and oil and debris.

At St. Mary's of Angels School, the toppled jungle gym lies below. The chairs and sofa on the roof, an indication of a rescue.

And so it goes as we make our way into the city. A clear view of the Superdome shows it's still surrounded by piles of festering garbage. A highway leading nowhere. An off-ramp that leads into a sludgy sea.

The repairs on the 17th Street levee, the critical failure that flooded the city, are clearly visible. And finally water is flowing back into Lake Pontchartrain.

But just a mile north, water still up to the eves of homes. Lieutenant Langum (ph) circles to peer into a lone car, abandoned on the causeway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make a right-hand turn around this car.

S. O'BRIEN: In St. Bernard parish, the damage takes your breath away, even after we've seen dozens, hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed. Cars dangle from rooftops and fences. A shed, too.

Amphibious military vehicles are now going door-to-door, marking each home empty, evacuated or deceased.

And then, another family sitting and standing on the dry part of their driveway. They are the Larsons (ph). This man indicates by pointing to a handmade sign, they are OK, and they plan to stay.

Sometimes what's left behind tells the story the best, like rooftop signs saying, "We're OK." And, "Mom, dad and I are OK."

Sometimes the messages are worrisome. This one says, "Help us, and asks, "Help us?"

Back at the air station and back on the ground. The crew takes off again, another rescue mission calls. This sign was blown away in the storm, then recovered and propped up here.

In the 50 years the air station has operated, they've done 3,689 rescues. The number of rescues this week alone tops 6,584.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

It certainly bears repeating and emphasizing for that many of these folks who work out of that air station, you have to understand for the local guys, this is where they live. These are their homes. And some of them haven't even had an opportunity to leave the base and check on the condition of their home, which is probably ruined, or get any sleep.

They just continue to work around the clock and focus on the rescues. And so, I think it's nice to share the stories of some of the rescuers and some of the heroes as we've been doing over the last couple of days -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Soledad, they've got to be exhausted.

S. O'BRIEN: They are. They are. And they limit them. They fly somewhere between 6.9 hours and 8 hours. Eight hours really when the rescue missions were going full steam, the first days after the tragedy. They're exhausted. And I think especially for the local people, it's emotionally -- I mean obviously, it's emotionally devastating as well. But, you know, they continue to work.

And I've got to tell you, Miles, that's a story that we've heard with members of the National Guard that we spoke to yesterday. You plow through, you do what you have to do, and you can think about it later when things slow down, and they don't need you so much.

M. O'BRIEN: Boy, it's pretty impressive. That's a lot of flying. And a tip of the hat to them for their efforts. Thank you, Soledad.

As she mentioned in that piece, water is finally draining out of New Orleans back into Lake Pontchartrain this morning. The Army Corps of Engineers patched that ruptured 17th Street levee. That was the big problem-causer there.

Look at all of those sandbags. Scores of 3,000-pound sandbags. It will still take months, though, for the water to be pumped out of some neighborhoods.

Lieutenant General Carl Strock is the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers. He joins us now from the Pentagon.

General, how long will it take to pump out New Orleans?

LT. GEN. CARL STROCK, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Well, Miles, it varies. There are actually 300 miles of levees, about 13 different segments.

Fortunately, the downtown area that has been so much focused, we think that's going to be one of the less challenging areas. We bracketed this on the outside about 24 days to drain, and we'll work to make that even quicker.

However, there are areas that may take up to 80 days. The St. Bernard's parish down alongside the river, we think that could be as much as 80 days. Again, we're working to draw that down.

M. O'BRIEN: I assume that's a good weather forecast. If, god forbid, you have another hurricane or a lot of rain, you've got problems, right? STROCK: Yes, sir. There are many variables involved. One of them, one of the principled ones, is weather. We use gravity. We actually do deliberate breaches of the levees to move the water back into the lake. And so, the size of those levees, there is an aspect of risk there. If we open it up too large, then we have an event, and then we've got a problem. So, we are watching the weather very closely. But it's also a factor of the pumps, what we can get in service. Many, many variables will determine the timeline.

M. O'BRIEN: Watching that water go back into the lake, we can't help but think about this toxic brew we've been talking about. What are the environmental implications?

STROCK: Well, certainly we need to be concerned about that. And we have received clearance from the Environmental Protection Agency. They understand the need to go ahead and do this. In fact -- well, I won't get into all of the details about that, because it's a pretty complex thing.

What we'll do, though, is we'll look for real hot spots as we draw the water down. And if we get an area that is particularly toxic, we'll try to control that rather than just dump it back into the lake. But clearly, the focus right now is saving lives. And there are still lives to be saved. So, the quicker we can move the water, the better we can do that and set the conditions for recovery.

M. O'BRIEN: What is your best assessment at this point? I know you've been busy just trying to patch the gaps. But did the levees perform as designed? In other words, did they do what they were told to do, if you will? Or did they, in fact, fail? In other words, this was a category 3 system. Do you know if it really did withstand category 3 conditions?

STROCK: Yes, sir. Sir, I call these levee "breaches" at this point. That's about all we know. We'll be looking at that, and we'll be analyzing our engineering to make sure that they did perform as designed.

I can tell you, though, that the overall system and the particular levees that were breached were at their final design configuration in terms of structure and height and so forth.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm sorry, what does that mean? What does final design configuration mean?

STROCK: Well, sir, these are ongoing projects. There are three major projects there. Lake Pontchartrain, hurricane protection system, southeast Louisiana, which really deals with the drainage of the city and its surrounding parishes, and then a west bank project on the other side of the Mississippi. All of these projects are still under way and not complete.

But the particular section of levees that were breached were in their final design. Those portions of the project were complete. They were designed to the equivalent of a cat 3 storm. And we believe this was a cat 4 or 5 when it came ashore. So, if you just take those two facts as facts, then I would say that the intensity of the storm exceeded the designed capacity. It's a 200-year level of protection, which equates to about a 99.5 percent probability that we will not have a hit like this. And at the time these systems were designed, it was felt to be an acceptable level of risk.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, we've got point five right now.

STROCK: Yes, sir.

M. O'BRIEN: So that begs the question. Let's take a look at a graphic here just to give people a sense of how these things work and how the city of New Orleans fits in the lay of the land. Basically, the Mississippi River to the left, which is a little bit higher. L Lake Pontchartrain to the right, pretty close to sea level. And there is New Orleans right there. There is the problem in a nutshell in that cross-section.

Can you, in good conscience, general, allow New Orleans to resettle with anything less than a category 5 levee system?

STROCK: Sir, what I'll do is inform that decision. I'll contribute to the feasibility of an engineering solution, the cost of that solution. I will also be responsible for talking about the environmental implications of that. The social questions and policy questions are for others to answer. But I will inform that through our science and engineering processes.

M. O'BRIEN: What's your...

STROCK: It's really a local decision.

M. O'BRIEN: But what's your take? Would you move to New Orleans if it didn't have a category 5 protection? And I assume that would take an awful lot more money to do.

STROCK: Sir, I'm a Virginian, and I'll stay in Virginia. But I would -- I've spent a lot of time in New Orleans. I never felt a sense of impending doom down there. I knew the risk, and the decision-makers knew the level of risk. And, in fact, that's why they ordered the evacuation of the city.

I would say that the fact that we understood the potential for this was clear, and that's why they ordered the evacuation. In fact, where my agency is concerned, the New Orleans District was a victim of this event. Our plan all along was the Memphis District would be responsible for the un-watering of New Orleans, and those are the ones who are doing that now. They have come forward, and they're now filling in the blanks of a conceptual plan that we had on the books already, working with the local levee and drainage districts, the water and sewage boards, and the city. We're assisting them to get this thing under way.

So, clearly, we understood the risks. We had plans in place to respond. The intensity of this storm was something I would say was not expected, given the probability. But I'll tell you, we are 99.5 percent focused on getting this thing fixed now.

We're moving it all ahead, too. I'll tell you, I think the un- watering of New Orleans is now in progress. We're turning our attention to the rest of the coastline, to the parishes to the south and west, to the Mississippi coastline. And one of the critical things we've got to do is get navigation restored. So, we're out there surveying channels, removing obstructions, working with the Coast Guard and Noah. We must get the ports open. Sixty percent of our grain moves through the ports of New Orleans. We've got to get those ports open, and that's a priority effort as well.

M. O'BRIEN: You've got your hands full, general.

STROCK: So, many things are happening.

M. O'BRIEN: You've got your hands full. Good luck to you.

STROCK: Thanks.

M. O'BRIEN: Lieutenant General Carl Strock, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers. I don't think the Army has met a greater opponent than God, Carol Costello.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I think you're right about that. Good morning, Miles. Good morning to you.

"Now in the News."

The Supreme Court is holding Chief Justice William Rehnquist. The casket containing his body will be brought to the Supreme Court's Great Hall this morning. It will rest on the same structure that held Abraham Lincoln's coffin in 1865. The chief justice will lie in repose until his funeral tomorrow.

In the meantime, we could have word today on when the Senate plans to hold confirmation hearings with John Roberts. President Bush called on the Senate to confirm Roberts within a month. The high court begins its new term on October 3.

Recovery crews in northern Indonesia are combing through the crash site of a passenger jet. Some 150 people were killed Monday when the airliner slammed into a crowded neighborhood. Fifteen people aboard the flight survived. No word yet on what caused the crash. The flight's black box recorders have been found and are being sent out for analysis.

A powerful typhoon battering southern Japan now. More than 100,000 people have been told to evacuate their homes. Torrential rains and high winds caused heavy flooding on highways, grounding all transportation to a halt. One person was killed after a landslide. At least 17 people have been reported missing, 45 injured. Reports say 32 inches of rain have fallen in 24 hours with more expected before the storm passes.

(WEATHER REPORT) M. O'BRIEN: Still to come, New Orleans native and CNN political contributor Donna Brazile will be joining us. She'll tell us how a single interview on CNN helped save her sister's life. Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Well, we're happy to share a success story with you this morning. This one hits a little closer to home than some others for us. It begins with a desperate plea for help on CNN "SITUATION ROOM" Monday by our political contributor and New Orleans native, Donna Brazile.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: As of today, I'm -- I want to say that my sister, Sheila, is still missing. I talked to her a week ago, and I encouraged her to fill her bathtub with water. Sheila is 46 years old. She was last at Tulane and South Jefferson Davis Parkway. Sheila is in an assisted-living facility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: Her call for help paid off. An official with the U.S. Wildlife and Fishery Service followed up and sent a up boat to the facility, where Sheila and five others were found alive. We hope well.

Donna Brazile joins us now from Washington to share her story.

Donna, congratulations. I'm glad it worked out for you. When did you get the word? How did you get the word that she was OK?

BRAZILE: Well, I got about an hour after leaving the studio here, I went back to my house in D.C., and I received a phone call from the governor's office. I'm very familiar with all of the people. They are my great friends. And Lieutenant Governor Mitchell Andrew put me in touch with someone with the Louisiana Wildlife and Fishery. And she has been identified. She is alive. We don't know what state she is in.

So, this morning, my brother will meet up with those officials by boat to go down to that area. It's called Mid City, to bring my sister to dry land and to safety, to be reunited with my other sisters and bothers later today.

M. O'BRIEN: Now, he probably wasn't able to make an assessment as to how she was doing now. She had brain surgery, so it's hard to tell right now how much she's been able to fathom of all of this that has unfolded.

BRAZILE: That is correct. When I last talked to her on Monday, and Sheila is strong, very strong. And we know she's resourceful. But we're worried about her medication and, of course, her physical and mental state. And that's something that concerns us. And my cousin, Kirk, who is a member of the New Orleans Police Department, will be with my brother. And we're family. We stick together. And we're going to bring my sister to safety and be reunited later today.

M. O'BRIEN: Will the others inside that facility be given a lift back as well?

BRAZILE: Yes, sir. I understand that they will also be evacuated. Some of them refused to leave. There's a lot of people, as you well know, people who are culturally and physically tied to that area, to the whole state. You know, they don't like to leave their home, their belongings.

And I'm hopeful that there will be the appropriate officials, you know, to help deal with some of their physical and mental needs, so that we can encourage them to leave.

My father, who was evacuated just 72 hours ago, said that that area is highly contaminated. There are dead bodies. And he, of course, is pleading with Sheila and others to get out.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, there are a lot of people who just want to stay home and, for whatever reason, hope against hope that something normal will return. A lot of times, they can't bring their pets along with them. There is a lot of reasons people stay, but they do need to be talked out of there, don't they?

BRAZILE: Well, let me just say, as a New Orleans native and someone who understands storms, we're stubborn. I mean, we've had a lot of luck for 40 years. This September 9 is the 40th anniversary of Hurricane Betsy, the last major storm to do terrific, horrific damage to our city. We believe that we can get by. We have (INAUDIBLE) who has protected us. And that's the faith of the people there. We just believe that we can survive.

But at this point, I agree with the mayor and other officials, the city is not in any condition for people to stay there. So they need to get to higher ground. And we will rebuild our city, and we will once again party in the Big Easy.

M. O'BRIEN: You're a lucky person. You can get on TV and ask for help and you got it.

BRAZILE: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: A lot of other folks can't do that. Do you worry about them?

BRAZILE: Sir, for one week, I knew of the condition of my family members who were lost and stranded. And I said that I want to help everybody. I'm pleading, I'm helping, I'm raising money, and I'm going to help everybody in my home city.

And when I get my family secured and helped, I'm going to adopt Kenner, Louisiana. I'm going to help rebuild those libraries. I'm going to spend the rest of my life doing what I know they would do for me if I was in the same situation.

M. O'BRIEN: So is New Orleans coming back, Donna?

BRAZILE: Will we come back? Louisianans, we are live. New Orleans will rise. And we will have a Mardi Gras that this world will remember.

M. O'BRIEN: Donna Brazile, I'd like to be there for that one. Thanks very much.

BRAZILE: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come, an unusual source of relief for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Knock-off items seized by the government. We'll explain that one next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Desperate circumstances call for some rule-bending. We agree with that. Hurricane victims in need of clothing getting help from a surprising place.

Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" with that.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Miles, this sounds like kind of a quirky story at first, but really is an instance of government officials using some common sense. Tens of thousands of knock-off items, that's counterfeit items seized by the government, are being distributed to evacuees in the Astrodome. Yes, it's true. The Department of Homeland Security seizes these items; $138 million worth of clothing, underwear, jeans, caps, t-shirts, Yves St. Laurent, Tommy Hilfiger t-shirts, shoes, socks, also blankets, sheets and other items as well, including toys for kids and dog food. All of this being distributed to evacuees.

M. O'BRIEN: Wait a minute. Knock-off dog food?

SERWER: Knock-off dog food.

M. O'BRIEN: What is knock-off dog food?

SERWER: Believe it or not, it's true, it's there. And this stuff has been seized by the government. And it had been just sitting there in the warehouse. And kudos to the government official who said, this stuff sitting there, here are some people in need. Why don't we get this stuff and distribute it to them? Otherwise, it's simply going to be destroyed.

Now, government officials are apparently looking to move these items to other areas in Mississippi and Louisiana as well. And if this really works, we think it's a good thing.

M. O'BRIEN: There you go. I mean, people with designer clothing in the shelters.

SERWER: Knock-off. M. O'BRIEN: Knock-off designer clothing.

SERWER: That's right.

M. O'BRIEN: And, of course, dogs eating the knock-off dog food.

SERWER: Knock-off dog food. And we don't even want to go there.

M. O'BRIEN: All right.

SERWER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's get back to Soledad in New Orleans -- Soledad.

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

Well, Governor Kathleen Blanco and President Bush meet up once again. We're going to talk this morning about the political fallout. She says now they're united. They're working as a team. But was she snubbed before the president's meeting? That's ahead. Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. It might be hard to tell from here, but the water is slowly draining from New Orleans. The pumps are finally working, sending a mixture of water and waste back into Lake Pontchartrain. It's going to take weeks to do the job, and all that's left behind will not be pretty.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.