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CNN Live At Daybreak

Draining of New Orleans Well Underway; Heavy Military Presence Being Felt Along Mississippi's Gulf Coast

Aired September 07, 2005 - 06:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is Wednesday, September 7, and everybody must go. That's what New Orleans' mayor says, and this time officers will use force if they must. The levees are patched up, the pumps are waking overtime. But what lies beneath these murky waters? And finger pointing, finger pointing -- whose fault is it?
ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.

COSTELLO: And good morning to you.

We'll have the latest on the Katrina state of emergency in just a minute. Also ahead, even after victims are rescued, the medical risk is not over. And insurance companies prepare for the financial drain of rebuilding. But what about a proposed national catastrophe fund?

But first, now in the news, we are following a developing story out of Iraq this morning. CNN has just learned that four Americans have been killed by a roadside bomb in the southern city of Basra. A Western official in Baghdad says the four were private security contractors. They were traveling in a U.S. diplomatic convoy when their vehicle hit the bomb.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist will be buried today at Arlington National Cemetery. President Bush will speak at his funeral at St. Matthew's Cathedral in Washington. Rehnquist's body now lies in repose at the Supreme Court.

A grim indication of political turmoil among Palestinians. Gunmen shot and killed an ex-security chief, who was also the cousin of the late Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, and they abducted the man's son. A Palestinian militant group has claimed responsibility.

To the Forecast Center and another, well, I hope the storm still stay pointed in that direction.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. It could certainly stay completely offshore, Carol, and just make big waves. And let it do that. You know, surf's up in some spots. But you need to be very careful because there are rip currents all the way, all the way basically from the North Carolina coast right on down through into Florida.

This is tropical storm Ophelia. You can see the spin on the radar here and these waves and the winds and showers and storms are going to be making landfall all day long. Now, the eye, the center of the storm is not forecast to make landfall, but it is forecast to get stronger. Right now winds are only 40 miles per hour. But it does turn into a hurricane somewhere late Sunday night into Monday.

Now, this cone of uncertainty that we talk about is so large because this is five days, typically five days, a hurricane could go 1,000 miles. This thing is going to go less than 200. So we have to keep that in mind, that this is a wobbler. How much of a wobbler?

Here's one of the computer models. Starting out right now, try -- this could turn off to the south. No, no, going back up to the north. No, no. I'm going to sit here and them I'm going to travel on up toward the north a little bit. And this is what we go through day after day looking at how these computer models think, if they can think. They try to think -- where the storm is going. And when the storm has no momentum, it's very difficult.

This is Nate. That right there is Bermuda. Bermuda, you're going to get hit by that cat one storm here late tonight into tomorrow -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, thank you, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: The order has gone out to remove all remaining residents in New Orleans, and that tops our look at the latest from the hurricane zone. Mayor Ray Nagin has ordered the police and the National Guard to compel people to leave whether they want to or not. Nagin says those who stay could fall victim to illness or fire.

A Mexican Army convoy is on the way to Texas with some much needed equipment. They're bringing water treatment plants and mobile kitchens to help feed people sheltered in Houston.

The Centers for Disease Control says five hurricane victims have died after being infected with a bacteria similar to the one that causes cholera. Four of them died in Mississippi, one in Texas.

People displaced by Katrina should not be referred to as refugees. President Bush has made that assertion now. Several civic leaders have said the word is inappropriate.

And CNN has learned that the Superdome may be torn down. An official in the governor's office says the damage from Katrina was more significant than originally thought.

And the draining of New Orleans is well underway. The Army Corps of Engineers says it could take between three weeks and three months to get the water out. And when those streets are finally drained and dry, there is no telling what clean up crews may find. In an effort to clear the way for those crews, the New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, is calling for a forced evacuation of remaining residents.

CNN Radio's Ed McCarthy joins me now with the latest from New Orleans.

When will this start in earnest -- Ed.

ED MCCARTHY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's going to start, Carol, today, and troops will be out in force. We are told the military has the orders, along with the New Orleans City Police Department, to get people out of homes by force if necessary. They've been telling them to go, but now it's becoming more and more urgent. And those troops will be out and instead of trying to cajole people and tell them yes, you need to go, they are going to be very stern, they say. And they're going to let them know that in no -- certainly that they must get out quickly.

COSTELLO: Well, I want to read you a quote, Ed, from the "New York Times" this morning. It's from Mayor Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans. He says: "There is lots of oil on the water and there's gas leaks where it's bubbling up and there's fire on top of that. If those two unite, god bless us. I don't know what's going to happen."

MCCARTHY: Oh, it's a dangerous place, Carol. You know, somebody had called that a toxic gumbo here in New Orleans and it is just awful. The smell is awful. It is a horrid smell and it will be complicated further with decomposing bodies. That it's just -- there are so many stories from people. I spoke with evacuees yesterday at the New Orleans airport. One gentleman, Alonzo Douglas (ph), told me that in desperation they were tying bodies to trees. He lives near that 17th Street levee. And he said there was a crack in that levee and they had told city officials about it, but nothing was done.

And he is one who said that he wants to go back home. I asked him about those evacuation orders and he said he doesn't care. He just wanted to get medical attention at the airport and go back.

COSTELLO: How many people like that are left in the City of New Orleans?

MCCARTHY: There are quite a few. And I talked with a FEMA official this morning, quite early this morning. And he said they're going every day. He says even though it subsided just a little bit, he said they're going to go in today and they're going to find people three or four at a time in various homes. And these are neighborhoods that they have not been able to get to because of those floodwaters.

So, as they pump that water out, some things are starting to get a little better, at least to get into these neighborhoods.

COSTELLO: Ed McCarthy live in New Orleans this morning.

Thank you.

So we ask the question -- will New Orleans ever really be cleaned up after Katrina? Here's what you have to say. Forty-two percent of you say the city will get past this disaster. Fifty-six percent say the city will never recover. But should they even try to rebuild the city? A clear majority of you say they should put the pieces back together to make a new New Orleans.

Of course, there is a heavy military presence being felt along Mississippi's Gulf Coast. More than 5,000 sailors and Marines have come ashore to help rebuild and restore the heavily damaged communities.

CNN's Chris Huntington is in Biloxi, Mississippi this morning -- good morning, Chris.

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

We are at a Salvation Army distribution center near a high school football stadium in what's called the Point section of Biloxi. Biloxi is a Peninsula and the Point, as you might gather, is sort of near the end of that.

It's a neighborhood of modest means being served well here by the Salvation Army. Obviously, you can only see a portion of it behind me, but it's a pretty big operation.

Three words here resonating in this part of Mississippi -- hot fresh food. This is something that is still in very, very short supply. There are virtually no restaurants capable of serving food. There certainly are no supermarkets that we've seen open. About the only available food around here for the last week or so have been dry goods and kind of convenience store off the shelf, frankly, junk food.

So folks here are really flocking to this. Obviously it's early. You're not seeing the activity now. But in an hour or so, people will be lining up here for breakfast.

You mentioned the military presence here. It is phenomenal. We were yesterday on the beach at Biloxi, where there is a huge Camp Restore, as it's being called. Naval officers and enlisted men there, amphibious unit, as well as the Marines. One aspect to the military presence, the huge law enforcement presence, that is, perhaps, troubling for the locals, while it does provide security, it has made travel quite difficult around the area -- increasing checkpoints, huge streets now are being cut off to civilian travel, left open only for emergency vehicles. That's good. But a lot of folks need to move around to get to their houses or simply to, you know, for instance, to come here to the distribution centers.

Travel in and around the coastal towns in Mississippi is actually more difficult than it was two days ago. So that's a flip, if you will, to the huge effort here to try and restore order and to clean up the mess -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Chris, another concern, four people died in Mississippi from a benign form of cholera.

How big a concern is this?

HUNTINGTON: Well, what I can tell you, what we've seen here in our areas -- and we've been up and down the Mississippi Coast -- isolated incidents of people having obvious intestinal problems.

In the big picture, as you know, as well as I, the officials from the CDC and the surgeon general and so forth, have been saying -- have been trying to mute the concerns, saying yes, they're there, but there doesn't seem to be any evidence of anything approaching a major outbreak.

So that's all I can say about that. Clearly, everybody knows here don't drink the tap water. It's that simple.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

Chris Huntington live from Biloxi, Mississippi this morning.

Thank you.

FEMA, as you know, is taking it on the chin in this. But the punching isn't near done yet. Listen to this. A South Carolina health official says FEMA called state officials and told them a plane with as many as 180 evacuees was headed to Charleston, South Carolina. The health official says FEMA said those aboard would require medical assistance. So health officials scrambled, they lined up buses and ambulances at the airport. But the plane never arrived.

Actually, it did, but not in Charleston, South Carolina. It was sent to Charleston, West Virginia. FEMA is not commenting.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, we'll talk with one rescuer who spent the night searching for survivors all along the Gulf Coast.

And later, even safe in a shelter, Katrina victims face serious medical risks.

And would a national catastrophe fund better prepare us for the next disaster? We're going to get into that with the insurance business.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Wednesday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A team of rescuers based in northern Virginia is just back from the Mississippi Gulf Coast. They were searching for hurricane survivors, mostly in high rise buildings that are either totally or partially collapsed.

Let's check in with a team member right now.

John Diamantes is a battalion chief with the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team.

Good morning, sir.

JOHN DIAMANTES, FAIRFAX COUNTY URBAN SEARCH AND RESCUE: Good morning, Carol.

How are you?

COSTELLO: You guys just got back last night, am I correct? DIAMANTES: Yes, ma'am.

COSTELLO: What was the experience like?

DIAMANTES: Well, I'll tell you what, it was, you know, you had to be there pretty much to really appreciate the devastation. But it was just something like we've never seen before, just total -- houses completely wiped away, apartment buildings that were just basically gone. The only thing left was a block foundation. And, you know, we just saw a lot of down there that had literally nothing that were trying to deal with a, you know, a catastrophic event.

COSTELLO: I know you went down there to search for survivors that could possibly be living underneath the rubble.

DIAMANTES: Right.

COSTELLO: Did you find any survivors?

DIAMANTES: No, ma'am, we really didn't. We pretty much concentrated on the hard to get areas, high rise buildings, casinos. And, you know, I think a lot of people took the advice and left. But we were not able to find anybody in the rubble. But I'll tell you what, it was pretty devastating. So, you know, we had 12, 15 feet sometimes to try to work our way through. So we did the best we could do. We came up with one that unfortunately was deceased. But, you know, we were down there, covered 50 square miles. And, you know, I wish we could have done more but the way the event was, the damage was so severe it was just really difficult to get into some places.

COSTELLO: What about the coordination between emergency personnel on the ground there?

DIAMANTES: Well, we did a good job. We worked with different teams. We -- and basically what we did, Carol, was we started in Ocean Springs and then we just went ahead and worked westward, you know, toward New Orleans. And as teams came, they went ahead and plugged in. And it was really -- it worked out very, very well. The cooperation that we had, and even the people that were there, they were very, very grateful. The planning was, I think, really top notch, as far as getting teams in there to work.

COSTELLO: Well, Chief, that's good to hear because we've heard of bureaucratic red tape. We've heard of a lack of coordination. We've heard of, you know, no central command anywhere sending people out to places that they should be going, as opposed to where they've gone before.

DIAMANTES: We -- well, you know, and I was just really working with the local jurisdiction there at Ocean Springs. But, you know, when we got together with the teams, we hit the ground running. And, you know, I think really, in our section there, the coordination among the task force members and the Ocean Springs Fire and Rescue Department and Police Department, you know, we really -- we were able to focus on the task at hand and get in there and work and, you know, that's how it turned out. COSTELLO: So it was coordination among local officials, not necessarily federal or state officials?

DIAMANTES: Yes. We didn't really get involved in that, you know, Carol. We were just mainly concentrating on the job of getting out there and helping out in any way we could. So, yes, from my standpoint, we -- my only dealings was with FEMA, you know, was with the local task forces and the jurisdiction of Ocean Springs and the local jurisdictions.

COSTELLO: Well, that is music to our ears to hear that the local effort was working in Mississippi.

John Diamantes, battalion chief with the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team.

Thank you for joining us this morning.

Still to come, Katrina victims, even though safely relocated, may still face serious medical risks.

Also, a national catastrophe fund? Yes, we're going to talk about this again. Could it make us better prepared for the next disaster?

DAYBREAK will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Time now for a little "Business Buzz."

The Marriott Hotel chain says it has about 1,800 employees from its New Orleans hotels that remain unaccounted for. A company spokesman says they're searching shelters across the country for their missing workers. Marriott plans to continue paying its employees in the devastated areas through at least the end of this month.

The hurricane disaster has forced federal lawsuits over the withdrawn painkiller Vioxx to be moved to Houston. The first federal trial against drug maker Merck was to start in New Orleans in November. Now it's unclear where those trials will be heard. The massive litigation involves more than 1,800 Vioxx lawsuits.

Lawmakers are trying to ease the pain of soaring gas prices.

Carrie Lee tells us what some states are doing.

Tell us -- Carrie.

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is good news, a little bit of good news, anyway. Some states trying to give people a tax break at the gas pump. Some states are moving to give people a big break and this comes, of course, after hurricane Katrina caused prices to skyrocket above $3 a gallon. Late last week, Georgia suspended taxes until October 1, and that could shave $0.15 a gallon off the prices at the pump. But it's going to cost the state about $75 million. Well, now lawmakers in other states, including Tennessee, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, they're all considering similar moves. Other states, however, like Wisconsin and Indiana, have already rejected the idea, saying it's going to cost too much money.

Now, all 50 states apply a flat tax on gas that averages about $0.22 a gallon. That's on top of a state sales tax, usually between 2 and 6 percent, and a federal tax of $0.18 a gallon.

So where does your state rank? Well, here's a look at the top five most expensive states. New York leads the nation with the highest state gas taxes while Alaska has the lowest.

COSTELLO: Really?

LEE: So at least some of these states doing what they can to ease the pain a little bit.

COSTELLO: I would have thought California would have been in there.

LEE: Yes, I'm surprised, too. But I'm not surprised to see New York number one. We always seem to lead the way when it comes to any most expensive list.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

Carrie Lee, many thanks.

We appreciate it.

LEE: OK.

COSTELLO: We want to take a short break.

When we come back, we're going to talk about the health concerns in New Orleans and also in the State of Mississippi.

Dr. Siegel is here to answer questions.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The polluted floodwaters that are all over New Orleans pose a serious health hazard. Already, five hurricane victims have died after being infected with a water borne bacteria.

Dr. Marc Siegel joins us live to talk about the health concerns.

He's an internist and associate professor of medicine at the New York University School of Medicine and the author of "False Alarm: The Truth About the Epidemic of Fear."

Thank you for joining us this morning.

DR. MARC SIEGEL, INTERNIST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: First of all, let's talk about those five people who have died from this benign form of cholera, four in Mississippi, one in Texas.

First of all, what is that?

SIEGEL: Well, you know, cholera is very uncommon in the United States. So we don't have a host, so it's very hard to start an epidemic of cholera. It's rare and it's unlikely to be a big problem in this situation.

But, cholera is found in seawater. So you can see an isolated case. Cholera has a very scary name, but if you catch it early, very early, it's less than 1 percent mortality rate.

COSTELLO: And basically what it does, it causes a person to dehydrate through bodily functions, to be, I don't know, it's early in the morning so I'm trying to be graceful here.

SIEGEL: Well, what it does is it poisons a pump in the intestine so that you cannot keep in water. So you have a tremendous amount of diarrhea and you get very dehydrated.

COSTELLO: I guess the concerning thing is that one person died in Texas, which means that he or she brought the disease with them.

How dangerous is that for others?

SIEGEL: Well, of course, someone can form a host and can be contagious to other people, especially if they're run down. But, again, we have to track that. And if we track it, we can prevent it from spreading. And it has to be caught early.

COSTELLO: How can you catch it early, though, when there's not medical facilities? For example, in New York, there -- I mean in New Orleans there are a few. And in Mississippi there are a few.

SIEGEL: It's a very good point. It's very hard to do. The good news is that it's not running rampant. It would have to infect a number of people for it to become a widespread problem.

COSTELLO: The other concern is tuberculosis, because I know that one evacuee taken to the Houston Astrodome was coughing up blood. They suspected maybe tuberculosis.

Is that something that breaks out when you have a huge gathering of people?

SIEGEL: Again, it's the same problem. You know, if someone's coughing up blood, you think of tuberculosis, though it hasn't been proven. If you have a case in a very concentrated room of people, it can spread. That's the biggest way it spreads. So that would be a concern. And if they found somebody with that, they'd have to try to isolate them. COSTELLO: Let's talk about the toxic soup that covers New Orleans. You see a lot of people in the water. They're swimming around. You know, they've probably been hurt, cuts on their arms.

How dangerous is that for them?

SIEGEL: Well, it's evident already that there's bacteria in that water, and that's not a surprise to anyone. There's chemicals, there's toxins. And I think the biggest problem with the skin, as you were saying, is you can get a wound that's infected, not be able to clean it out properly and then it can get worse.

So anyone that's touched that water has to try to find clean water to wash it out with. I mean antibiotic solution would be the best, but that's very rare to have that...

COSTELLO: And where do you find clean water, because I've heard you're not even supposed to wash your hands in -- if you find running tap water anywhere.

SIEGEL: Well, you're right. And the only way you can be sure of water, if it's not potable water, is actually boiling it. Then if you touch water that you're unsure of and you touch your mouth, then there you go. That's how the infection starts.

COSTELLO: So that's why the mayor wants everyone out of New Orleans. It's so frustrating that people don't want to leave. I mean I can understand it, in a way, but it's so dangerous there now.

The other thing the Mayor Nagin brought up, mosquitoes biting the dead and then spreading disease.

How much of a problem is that?

SIEGEL: Well, it's not a problem yet. The larvae can form. It might be a problem in about two or three weeks from now. It is not going to be malaria. There's no malaria around. There's not going to be a malaria around. There is West Nile around. There are other types of mosquito borne diseases. We might see a limited problem with that. But I don't expect a widespread problem.

COSTELLO: For the corpses themselves, do they present a great health hazard?

SIEGEL: Not initially, because you realize people are dying from drowning, not necessarily other infectious diseases. But if they don't clear them away after a couple of weeks, then they present more of a problem.

COSTELLO: Dr. Siegel, thanks for coming in this morning.

We appreciate it.

SIEGEL: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come on DAYBREAK, the Katrina aftermath will cost a bundle. But for some politicians, it could cost them their careers.

And later, should the government set up a national catastrophe fund?

We'll be right back.

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