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CNN Live At Daybreak

President Bush Taking his Lumps; Firsthand Look; Heroes: The American Spirit; State of Emergency

Aired September 08, 2005 - 05:30   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK. I'm Carol Costello, along with Chad Myers. And welcome to the second half-hour of our show.
Coming up in the next 30 minutes, you'll be paying a lot more for your favorite fish dish, especially if it's Gulf Coast shrimp.

And a vacation gone horribly wrong thanks to Mother Nature. We've got home movies of two British tourists trapped in New Orleans.

But first, "Now in the News."

The gruesome numbers are coming in. Authorities southeast of New Orleans have found more than 30 bodies in a nursing home. In addition to the bodies, rescuers pulled between 40 and 50 people from the home in St. Bernard Parish, one of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina.

President Bush is asking Congress for more money to pay for hurricane recovery. He wants almost $52 billion. And the White House says substantially more than that will likely be needed. Last week, Congress approved a $10.5 billion relief bill.

Vice President Dick Cheney leaves this morning for the hurricane- ravaged Gulf Coast. He'll be in the Gulfport, Biloxi area before heading to New Orleans to examine a levee repair project. He'll also visit Baton Rouge.

Let's head to the Forecast Center and, Chad, good morning.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning.

Everybody in Florida looking at Ophelia out here, Carol, got a little stronger overnight, now 60 miles per hour. This storm, although a very wide center, still looks like a hurricane, and did yesterday, is still not. It's still a tropical storm.

And now the forecast turns it out back into the ocean. But the Hurricane Center also says that wait a minute, this thing could do a couple of loops. This thing could wobble back and forth. It's nearly stationary right now. That means any type of wobble could make it look like it's going one way or the other. And then all it needs is a little momentum once it gets going. So we'll have to watch.

The hurricane watch is discontinued for Bermuda, because Nate is going to stay far enough to the south that they're only going to get tropical storm force winds, not hurricane force winds. But there's Ophelia, there's Nate and there finally go the remnants of Maria. Three storms in the Atlantic all at one time. There goes Nate to the south of Bermuda.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Thank you -- Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Here's what you should know about what's going on in the hurricane zone. The New Orleans Police Department is stretched very thin. The city's police chief says officers who lost their homes are still working 20 hours a day and many are sleeping on the street.

Food and fresh water are flowing into aid centers and into the hands of those who need it. The Pentagon says the U.S. military delivered seven million bottles of water and two million meals in just one day.

We're learning more about that toxic sludge in the streets of New Orleans. The Environmental Protection Agency says that high levels of E. coli bacteria and lead have been found. Needless to say, the EPA is warning people not to drink the floodwater.

The mandatory evacuation of New Orleans is not ready to begin just yet. Police Superintendent Eddie Compass says the officers will complete voluntary evacuations first before they try to compel anyone else to go. Compass also says officers would use a minimal amount of force in the future.

The commander of the Army Corps of Engineers say the levee breaks were not caused by budget cuts. Lt. Gen. Carl Strock told CNN that no amount of money would have kept the levees from breaking under the force of a Category 4 or 5 storm.

President Bush has been taking his lumps for his response to Hurricane Katrina, or lack thereof. He will request that Congress approve another $52 billion in federal aid.

New Orleans residents, stranded for days without food or water, have prompted Democrats to call for the resignation of FEMA Chief Michael Brown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), MINORITY LEADER: He chose someone with absolutely no credentials. And you know what, when I said to the president that he should fire Michael Brown, he said why would I do that? I said because of all that went wrong, with all that didn't go right last week. And he said what didn't go right? Oblivious, in denial, dangerous.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The White House does dispute that account. CNN White House correspondent Dana Bash has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What you're seeing is a White House in full-fledged damage control.

SCOTT MCCLELLAN, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The delivery of those government services and benefits to the people who have been affected, that's a high priority for us right now. And immediate cash assistance, Medicaid benefits, other health care benefits, and child care, Food Stamps.

BASH: Laundry lists of actions and activity from a Bush team battling scathing allegations it was asleep at the switch. Presidential meetings, disaster zone visits by a myriad of officials promising help. The message, they are now on top of it.

But even Bush allies are quietly asking, why did such an experienced political team seem so slow to understand the devastation of the storm, and potential damage to the president?

DAVID GERGEN, FORMER CLINTON ADVISER: This has not been a graceful time for our -- or a time of genuine leadership of the kind he displayed in the first term. And it's a puzzle. I think it's a mystery.

BASH: Privately, Bush sources do concede several early missteps, from a visible FEMA director appearing out of touch, to a president claiming not to know what others did, New Orleans has long been at risk.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.

BASH: Now, their strategy is quite different, admit the obvious, aid didn't come fast enough.

MCCLELLAN: And that's unacceptable to the president.

BASH: But refuse, for now, to answer whether the administration is at fault. Like, did the president shortchange funding at key agencies or has the focus on terrorism lowered disaster relief as a priority or even possibly put it in inexperienced hands?

BUSH: People want us to do here is to play a blame game. We've got to solve problems.

BASH: That's for public consumption. But privately, there is a blame game. Administration officials are telling reporters local government was too slow to respond. To make that point, the White House relies on friends.

REP. TOM DELAY (R-TX), MAJORITY LEADER: I remind you that the emergency response system was set up to work from the bottom up.

BASH: Now, the White House hopes new images of strength and grateful locals...

MAYOR RAY NAGIN (D), NEW ORLEANS: I want to thank the president.

BASH: ... and words of support from early critics will reverse the stings of last week.

The president's leadership was criticized in the days after 9/11, too.

BUSH: I can hear you.

BASH: But that all turned around with a trip to the rubble. The problem for the president now...

GERGEN: There was no bullhorn moment here in the early days.

BASH (on camera): The White Houses knows a key difference between 9/11 and now may be their biggest challenge. Then, Americans had an enemy to blame. Now, it may be just a government and a president who promised to be prepared and to protect them.

Dana Bash, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And that brings us to our e-mail "Question of the Morning."

MYERS: Yes, and have we had some answers. And I'll try to read as many as I can here.

Hurricane Katrina: Should anyone actually be fired over this slow response so far? Go to DAYBREAK@CNN.com and let us know what you think. We'll still have another opportunity to read some a little bit.

Gil (ph) says, hey, that's what Americans are good at, blaming someone if they can instead of taking responsibility for their own actions. How about let's stopping that.

Now from Brian (ph), what about the mayor of New Orleans and the governor, they are quick to blame Bush, but it's their own stupidity and lack of action.

The head of FEMA, George college -- George's roommate says, from G. (ph) from San Jose, he should be prosecuted for manslaughter, not -- and even for murder for his incompetence.

Whew!

COSTELLO: Wow!

MYERS: And the director of FEMA should be fired as soon as possible. The mayor of New Orleans, as well. The governor should resign. This disaster has been forecast on Friday, and in the short term, three days in advance, and for more than a decade in the long term, and they all were still completely unprepared.

From Pablo (ph) in San Francisco, Bush, Chertoff, Brown, Blanco, Nagin in that order, all inept, no excuses.

Who should be fired? No one. I think it's a horrible disaster and it is, but everyone reacted as best they could. I'm impressed that everyone actually got out within a week, considering the circumstances.

And from Heather (ph), now is not the time to be pointing fingers, to be saying so and so should get fired or anything along those lines. Now is the time to focus on getting help where it's needed, the time to focus on the survivors. The government is now playing politics with the lives of these American citizens instead of doing their own jobs. Now is not the right time for it. Now is the time to getting them some help.

And from Cole (ph) in Minnesota, when a million people don't take the warning of a major hurricane and get out of the way, it's sad to think that the U.S. government can snap their fingers and make it all better. My sympathy goes out, but as far as there only is their stupidity. Stop blaming Bush and FEMA and learn lessons from all of this.

And from Jeff (ph) in Florida, my opinion is that the city that's built in a bowl, below sea level, had emergency gear such as hospital generators and emergency wards on the first floor should apologize to the world for their foolishness. Local planning was very poor. The officials acted as that if the feds were faulting everything from their own backyard all the way to the city hall. FEMA and others have a very difficult time responding at the bottom of a lake, let's face it.

COSTELLO: Wow!

MYERS: Carol.

COSTELLO: Well we're read some more of your responses a little later on on our show.

MYERS: Keep them coming.

COSTELLO: Yes, they're very heated this morning.

MYERS: Yes, they are.

COSTELLO: Of course the federal government is moving quickly to help right now. In fact, the federal government will begin issuing debit cards to hurricane victims. Now the cards are worth $2,000 each. About 320,000 people have registered for disaster aid in that stricken region. And of course that will be given to many of the evacuees.

A vacation that will be very difficult to forget.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ADAM FRIEND, BRITISH TOURIST: We've been taken from our hotel to the Superdome in an Army truck, along with everybody else. There's about 15,000, 20,000 people here, not just friendly people either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: A first person video journal of Hurricane Katrina is still ahead.

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: And welcome back.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 5:43 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

Florida is recalling nearly four million pickup trucks and SUVs. A cruise control switch has caused engine fires. The recall applies to 1994 to 2002 F-150 pickup trucks, Expeditions, Broncos and Lincoln Navigators.

A memorial designed for victims of United Airlines Flight 93 has now been selected. The design called the Crescent of Embrace honors the 40 passengers and crew killed on the plane hijacked and crashed in Pennsylvania by terrorists on 9/11.

In money news, Apple has just put out a couple of new products, a pencil thin iPod and a cell phone that plays music. The phone can hold up to 100 songs. It's also a camera.

In pop culture, Lee Ann Womack and Brad Paisley each got six nominations for the Country Music Awards. Womack says it would be nice to win one or two of the awards. The awards show will be on November 15.

In sports, the pro football season kicks off tonight with the New England Patriots hosting the Oakland Raiders. The Patriots are trying to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls.

And you can't help but think of the New Orleans Saints.

MYERS: Right.

COSTELLO: Because there are many articles in many papers across the land that they may move out of New Orleans forever. They were actually thinking about it before the hurricane hit.

MYERS: Is that right? I was also wondering about the Houston Astrodome. What's going to go on there? You know how are they going to play their games? All those...

COSTELLO: Well they don't -- I don't think they use that anymore for football. MYERS: They don't? That's good.

COSTELLO: Yes.

MYERS: OK. I just hate to displace those people for a football game.

COSTELLO: Yes.

MYERS: That would kind of be rude, wouldn't it?

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Thank you, Chad.

That's a look at the latest headlines for you this morning.

CNN photographers have brought you compelling pictures of what Hurricane Katrina left behind. Now here are some startling images from the camera of two British tourists.

As Paul Davies reports, it is not a pretty sight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And me driving in America.

PAUL DAVIES, ITV NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It begins as a holiday video. Two friends from Devon touring America. The highlight of the trip, their arrival in New Orleans on highways that, within a matter of hours, would no longer exist.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now driving the longest bridge in the world. It just goes on for actually (ph) miles.

DAVIES: But this is downtown New Orleans and a hurricane called Katrina is heading its way. For Adam Friend and Russell Porter, the time for happy holiday shots is about to run out.

FRIEND: Me and Russell in our hotel room before the Hurricane Katrina hit. Eleven o'clock on Sunday, as you can see, this is what the hurricane is.

RUSSELL PORTER, BRITISH TOURIST: Doesn't look good.

FRIEND: Doesn't look good. We are here. Absolutely. And it's going straight in for us. And as you can see, it's been lovely and sunny here.

PORTER: Pretty day on the streets.

FRIEND: No, but the sky is getting quite windy. It's just like a ghost town down here. As you can see, the weather is elements where (ph).

DAVIES: As Katrina does her worst, the friends spend the night in the hotel corridor, emerging the next morning to survey the damage.

FRIEND: And we've just been allowed back to our rooms. Luckily our window didn't smash, but most other people's did. And as you can see, loads of devastation down there.

DAVIES: For two days they can't leave the hotel.

PORTER: And the sun has gone down. Been stuck in our room for pretty much all of the day because the hurricane. We have no electricity, no water, can't go outside, can't really leave the building, can't leave our room.

DAVIES: But the view from their balcony gets worse, for the city's protected levees have been breached and now the streets are submerged.

FRIEND: The water is getting...

PORTER: Water.

FRIEND: ... deeper and deeper down there.

DAVIES: And when the friends are finally evacuated, it's to somewhere they would rather not be, New Orleans' vastly overcrowded and highly dangerous Superdome.

FRIEND: At the present, me and Russell are in the Superdome, because most of New Orleans is flooded. We've been taken from our hotel to the Superdome in an Army truck, along with everybody else. There's about 15,000, 20,000 people here, not just friendly people either. It's quite scary. And at this point, we don't know what the hell we're going to do to get out of here.

DAVIES: These are the first pictures from inside the Superdome after Katrina struck, taken by Adam and Russell.

FRIEND: There's the holes in the roof from the storm, really good.

DAVIES: They teamed up with other young Britons for safety. They said there was racial tension with gangs attacking fellow refugees, particularly young women.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were getting attacked.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Racist.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All the girls were getting raped.

DAVIES: The Britons were moved out of the Superdome for their own safety. Before returning home, they paid a visit to the district where they spent their first night when Katrina struck. It was the final chapter in their video record of disaster and survival. Today, Adam and Russell arrived home at Heathrow Airport, welcomed by those who had missed them and worried. Two young men with a chilling story to tell and the pictures to prove it.

Paul Davies, ITV News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Children across the country are pitching in to help hurricane victims. You might call it Katrinaid (ph).

CNN's Erica Hill takes a look at their effort.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A children's crusade across America to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Kids from Iowa, to Virginia, to Florida are raising money for humanitarian aid.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're selling Lemonade and cookies for Hurricane Katrina.

HILL: Children are holding bake sales, raising money they then donate to the Red Cross, Salvation Army and other relief organizations. And sometimes it's just kids collecting pennies to help the families in need.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We've all heard and felt the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the oil industry, but other industries fared even worse, among them the Gulf Coast shrimpers. They lost their boats and their lives.

CNN's Ted Rowlands has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE JOE ROSS, MISSISSIPPI SHRIMPER: It looks like this is going to knock it out.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): As they sit on their shrimp boat unable to take it to sea, Joe Joe and Geneva Ross say they are worried that Hurricane Katrina may have destroyed what has been a way of life for their family for generations.

J. ROSS: I made the first trip on a shrimp boat with my father when I was 3 years old.

GENEVA ROSS, MISSISSIPPI SHRIMPER: A lot of the people I know don't have the opportunity to go back. They've lost everything. They've lost their houses. They've lost their boats.

ROWLANDS: Many boats that did survive are trapped by storm debris along rivers where they were brought for protection. More devastating, though, is the fact that every processing plant along the coast is out of commission. Meaning, even if they could get to sea, shrimpers would have nowhere to take their catch.

BRIAN GOLLOTT, GOLLOTT'S BRAND SEAFOOD: And the people of this country are helpless. We'll get through it.

ROWLANDS: An emotional Brian Gollott says his family plans to rebuild their processing plant and warehouse, which were both completely wiped out by the hurricane. But he's worried that shrimpers won't be able to wait it out.

GOLLOTT: I'm hoping they can hold on. I know it's really bad and it's really dire, but you just got to have hope.

ROWLANDS: Before Katrina, times were already tough for shrimpers here, foreign imports had depressed the market price of shrimp so low that many shrimpers were operating at a loss. Some shrimpers have already decided to try something else. Ivan Rose plans to get into construction. Joe Joe isn't sure what he'll do.

J. ROSS: I'm 61 looking at going on 62. I got a lot of decisions to make of what I want to do. I don't want to leave it. I love it. It's the way of life. It's the best way of life I have ever seen in my life.

ROWLANDS: Ted Rowlands, CNN, Gauthier, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Lake Pontchartrain may soon be full of toxic water. We'll talk about the environmental impact of this disaster. That's in our next hour with Ed Laws (ph) from Louisiana State University.

And we want to get back to your e-mails now because we're just receiving so many of them this morning.

MYERS: I think the number is around 2,100 so far this morning, Carol. So you guys are definitely awake with the computers fired up.

The question is, Hurricane Katrina: Should anyone be fired over this slow response to the rescue and getting all those people out of there? DAYBREAK@CNN.com.

From Michael (ph) in Ohio, in response to the DAYBREAK poll, the media should be fired for their bias coverage of Katrina. No one could have dreamed of this devastation. And it takes time to gather the National Guard, the military and other federal aid.

From Gina (ph), isn't it just like the media to call for someone to be fired. If anyone should be fired, it should be the producer of that question. Pour more hate and blame into the mix, what does that solve? Nothing.

OK, now we'll move on. To Peggy (ph), with the exception of the elderly, sick and children, why are citizens not being blamed for being told to leave a city with a Category 5 hurricane headed your way?

Dr. Bruce (ph) in San Diego, really don't need to fire those guys. Let's just outsource their jobs.

Andrew (ph) in San Jose, Michael Brown ran the International Arabian Horse Association prior to becoming the director of FEMA. Hey, my dog just graduated from dog obedience school, how about giving him a shot.

And from Pyro (ph), without a doubt, Nancy Pelosi of California, now this is an interesting one, who does she think she is? How phony is that? She doesn't care about New Orleans. All she wants to do is play politics on an ongoing basis. That was from Jim (ph) in Scottsdale.

Anyone can complain about what we have done or what we could have done better. The fact of the matter is that there are tens of thousands of people who need our help. Tell these public officials who are screaming for someone to be fired to do something useful, put on some boots and get down there and help save some lives.

And from Diane (ph) in Dallas, if this is the best we can expect from an emergency situation, I want my money back. All those tax dollars I'm paying to the federal government go doing nothing.

And from Sandy (ph) in Ohio, is anyone ever going to hold George Bush accountable for anything? It's amazing to me that people could be blaming the victims, once again, standing by their man George. Maybe they'd feel differently if they were the victims -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you for your comments this morning.

MYERS: Wow! That was a sampling.

COSTELLO: Wow!

MYERS: That was as good as I could do with 2,100 flying in all across the city (ph), so, there you go.

COSTELLO: Very passionate.

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: Very passionate indeed.

Thank you -- Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: The next hour of DAYBREAK two minutes away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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