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American Morning

FEMA Stops Giving Out Debit Cards; Iraqis Watch Outpour For Hurricane Victims; Cancer Patients Search For Treatment Centers; Shrimping Industry Injured By Hurricane

Aired September 10, 2005 - 7:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: There she is. That is now Tropical Storm Ophelia. There are still lots of eyes watching the storm because of course, she could get more powerful and is expected to. We're going to continue to monitor what's happening with Ophelia as we continue here on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
Welcome back, everybody. It's just about half past the hour on this weekend edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning to you.

We'll get back to our special coverage of Katrina in just a moment.

S. O'BRIEN: First, though, let's talk a little more about Ophelia. Bonnie Schneider's watching Ophelia for us. She's at the CNN Weather Center with the very latest.

Bonnie, good morning.

Could I ask you a quick question before you start?

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, METEOROLOGIST: Sure. Definitely.

S. O'BRIEN: Do we call Ophelia a she and then when it's a male, it's a he?

SCHNEIDER: You know, I just refer to them as an it. I don't give it a name, either he or she, because I guess it doesn't really have that quality. But, this one, yes, Ophelia is a female name. The actual the names come from English, French and Spanish in case you're curious about that.

But the main thing to know about Ophelia is, it's a tropical storm now but not for long. Ophelia is likely to gain hurricane strength in the next 12 to 24 hours. Overnight some of the upper level wind with Ophelia kind of ripped it apart a little bit, so we've seen a slight bit of weakening. Maximum winds are at 70 miles per hour.

And right now the storm is located about 220 miles to the east southeast of Charleston, South Carolina, pulling away from the U.S., which is good news right now because the rain is staying offshore. We're actually looking at a nice day along the beaches but there's going to be rough surf and rip tides to contend with, so you don't want to be out in the ocean for today. So the watches and warnings that were associated with Ophelia have been expired right now but I have a feeling we're likely to see more of those posted in the next 24 hours because the storm is slowing down.

It's moving to the northeast at 10 miles per hour but it's not going to stay in a northeasterly track. In fact, the Hurricane Center says by tomorrow the storm turns and heads back to the shoreline and eventually becomes a hurricane. Now potential landfall with Ophelia, very tricky to track at this point. We're really just saying anywhere along the southeast coast be concerned because the storm has not slowed down yet and it has not made that turn. That's why it's difficult to pinpoint at this time.

So, Miles, we're watching for Ophelia to make landfall it looks like sometime Tuesday but this is a very changing situation. A really tough storm to get a good forecast on.

M. O'BRIEN: Ophelia has had a wobbly track, hasn't she or it?

SCHNEIDER: It sure has yeah, the storm sure has and it's not done yet. We're still going to be watching it very closely for those changes in the next day.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you, Bonnie. Keep us posted.

Let's get back to Houston now. The relief efforts at the Astrodome. Betty Nguyen live there for us this morning.

Betty, to borrow a phrase, Houston, we have a problem. And the problem has been those debit cards. They were on, they were off. Now they're definitely off. Why did FEMA scrap the cards?

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We understand FEMA scrapped the cards because they just simply don't have the staff for it. There were hundreds of tables set up yesterday inside Reliant Arena so that people could come through and get those cards. But they can't do that at every single shelter and there are thousands of evacuees who need this assistance.

Now we understand FEMA gave out 4,200 debit cards yesterday but they've run out of them. They have physically run out of stock. No more debit cards here. There are signs all over here at Reliant Park saying no debit card distribution.

I want to show you the first page of "The Houston Chronicle." It also says the debit card plan is scrapped. So FEMA basically saying what it said pretty much all week long, that this was something they were going to do here in Houston, but nationwide, they're going back to the old system. And now, apparently, in Houston, they're also going back to the old system, which is direct deposit and mailing out checks -- Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: Well, that's too bad. It seemed like such a good idea.

All right, let's move on, though, and talk about the Astrodome in general. There was a lot of talk about clearing out the Astrodome about a week from now or maybe less even. How is that whole plan going?

NGUYEN: Area Commander Lieutenant Joe Leonard (ph), with the Coast Guard, said midweek that he wanted these shelters to be closed by next Sunday. He wanted everyone in their temporary houses by then. And I have to tell you that the numbers are dwindling here at the four main shelters. As of the last head count, there are 7,300 people staying here. That's a lot less than the 26,000, 27,000 that we heard on Tuesday of this week.

So the numbers are dwindling. People are going into temporary housing. They're also going into hotels. Evacuees are getting hotel vouchers. And I can tell you at the hotel where we're staying, there are a lot of evacuees that have moved in there, at least temporarily, because they want to get out of these shelters. They want to get off of those cots and into real beds and getting real showers and getting their life back together.

M. O'BRIEN: Betty Nguyen in Houston. Thanks very much.

Let's get some other headlines now. Tony Harris is at CNN Center with that.

Good morning, Tony.

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Comparing Katrina recovery efforts with the aftermath of 9/11. In less than three hours, the president's weekly radio address will be delivered and we'll bring that to you live. He told America Friday, the U.S. is ready to overcome any challenges. Tomorrow, the president is expected to visit areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina on the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Vice President Dick Cheney is heading to Texas to survey the relief efforts. Earlier this week, the vice president toured devastation sites in Mississippi and Louisiana. Today, he'll get a tour of the relief shelter in Austin and meet with survivors.

The Katrina disaster is taking a toll on President Bush's approval ratings, according to an Associated Press poll taken this week. Of the people asked, only 39 percent approve of how the president is handling his job. It's the first time those numbers have dipped below 40 percent in A.P. polling. And of those surveyed, more than half are not happy with President Bush's handling of Katrina relief efforts.

And Iraqi President Jalal Talabani says most U.S. troops could be out of Iraq within two years. Talabani making the comments at the start of his visit to Washington. But Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says it is still too early to set a time line. Meanwhile, Baghdad International Airport is back up and running. It was shut down Friday. A British contractor said officials had not paid the security bills.

It's 7:35 now. Now back to Soledad.

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

In Iraq, U.S. and Iraqi forces are on a mission to drive militants from northern parts of the country. And even in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina's making news. CNN's Jennifer Eccleston joins us with more from Baghdad this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): A prayer for those who perished. The memory of the riot on the bridge started by rumors of a suicide bomber, ending with a stampede leaving nearly 1,000 dead. The emotional wounds are not yet healed, even in this country so familiar with the loss of life.

Iraqis watched the world's outpouring of grief for victims of Hurricane Katrina. Pledges of aid from Asia, Europe and the Middle East. From Iraq's neighbor, Kuwait, a donation worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The stampede brought condolences from across the globe but little more. And so some Iraqis ask, "what about us?"

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, (through translator): It would seem that the value of the American for the Arabs is more than the value of the Arabs for the Arabs. And the proof is that there are thousands of Iraqis dying daily and nightmares greater than a natural disaster.

ECCLESTON: On satellite TV, a routine forum for Iraq's daily rundown of violence, these days nearly non-stop images of Katrina's wrath, destruction and death, evacuees and relief, savagery and self sacrifice, leaving many in disbelief it is happening in America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God, is this United States?

ECCLESTON: The world's gaze temporarily diverted. Assassinations and bombings, Iraqi and coalition deaths continue. Political breakthroughs and breakdowns. And in just weeks, a referendum on Iraq's first constitution and a historic trial. The way the U.S. has handled Katrina's destruction has Iraqis questioning their already fragile trust in the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It gives a shadow on the capability of the administration, the American administration, on handling the big issues and the small issues in a way that people begin to doubt that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ECCLESTON: Iraqi put it, the time will come when they, Iraqis, will deal with their own problems and face their own challenges without any help from others. But for now, Soledad, many people here are still saying "what about us?" -- Soledad? S. O'BRIEN: Jennifer Eccleston in Baghdad for us this morning.

Jennifer, thanks -- Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: Back to Katrina now.

Cancer patients needing life-saving treatment were left in limbo after fleeing the hurricane. CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now from Baton Rouge with the story of Katrina's cancer kids.

Elizabeth, good morning.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

Miles, imagine being in this position. You have a child with cancer, which is difficult enough. But then after Katrina, you have to search for your doctor, you have to search for your hospital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN, (voice over): Six-year-old Tony Nata has no home, no place to go, no possessions, but he does have cancer. Before Katrina struck, Tony and his family evacuated from their home in Slidell, Louisiana. The street in front of their house, a river. His father's truck, underwater. Their first worry, how would Tony get his treatment?

ROBIN NATA, TONY'S MOTHER: Where's his doctor? Where do we go? You know, who do we contact? You don't know where to turn but you just know that it's critical. He needs this treatment. Words don't explain the frantic that you go into, the mode you go into, just to know that it's his life. And he just relapsed June 30th.

COHEN: Tony's leukemia, once just in his blood stream, is now in the membrane surrounding his brain. He needs chemo to get ready for a bone marrow transplant.

NATA: Tony's at a 35 percent chance of survival without a transplant right now. So it was critical.

COHEN: His parents found out that his hospital, Children's, in New Orleans, had been evacuated. They heard from a friend about this clinic in Baton Rouge being run by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. They're reaching out to evacuated children with cancer. They had no idea their doctor from New Orleans, Maria Velez, would be there.

NATA: We just seen her in the hallway. She was going to grab a cup of coffee and she just hugged and kissed me and I hugged her back.

COHEN: They've taken in so many evacuated kids with cancer, the clinic doubled in size virtually overnight to 20 patients a day. Fourteen-month-old Lauren Williams (ph), from rural Louisiana, is late for her chemo.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You want to open your mouth? Let's see.

COHEN: Two-year-old Quin Patrone (ph) from New Orleans needs treatment for his leukemia. And they are the lucky ones. Doctor Velez has no idea where most of her patients are and she's worried sick about them. They're prone to infection and she fears that some might have waded through the toxic New Orleans flood waters.

DR. MARIA VELEZ, PEDIATRIC ONCOLOGIST: It's a nightmare because many kids I know that they need treatment, they need surgery coming up shortly and we don't know anything about them. What about little Johnny? What about Suzie? Where are they? I mean, how are they doing? Are they okay? Have they lost everything? Do they have their medicines? So it's a horrible thing.

COHEN: Doctor Velez herself is an evacuee from New Orleans. Her husband and two children are staying in Houston with friends but she won't leave her patients. She calculates Tony's chemotherapy dose and she tells his family it's time to be admitted to the hospital for two days of chemo.

VELEZ: All right. You look good, handsome. Good to go.

COHEN: In his hospital room, the nurse gets him ready. Even when Tony does get his bone marrow transplant, his odds of survival are 50/50. His father, Tony Sr., has to leave to go salvage what's left of their house. A family separated by a storm, a family determined to save their son.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Now, if there are any evacuated families out there whose children have cancer and need treatment, we have some numbers for you to call. You can call the St. Jude Clinic here in Baton Rouge, 225- 763-6337. Or the St. Jude Physician Referral Line, 866-278-5833. Or for pediatric and for adult patients with any kind of cancer, the American Cancer Society has a help line for evacuees, 1-800-ACS-2345 -- Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: Elizabeth, just so our viewers know, we're going to put those numbers on in just a few seconds again in case they miss those. It's kind of small and it's very important we get those numbers out. You know, it seems to me, in many respects, as lucky as he can be given the situation, Tony was lucky he found his doctor. And with that comes all the knowledge about his case. In many other cases, without the doctor or the records, how do they even begin to be you know, start up a course of chemotherapy without all that knowledge?

COHEN: Miles, they've had to piece some of this together. They did have records for many of these children. In fact, one very, very smart doctor, when the storm was about to hit, grabbed as many binders, as many folders as she could so that she would have some of those records. But there have been children who have shown up with very little knowledge.

Now the parents know what the diagnosis is. And as you can imagine, a parent with a child with cancer follows the treatment very carefully. But they have had to piece together and they've been trying to call doctors in various parts of the Gulf to say, is this your patient? What have you been doing with this patient? What's the plan for this patient?

M. O'BRIEN: So it seems to me one of the lessons here might be, we should all sort of keep records keep our own medical records, copies of them, right?

COHEN: That's right. I mean, who would think that you need to know the exact dosage of the medicine that your child is getting and exactly how often. And a lot of times you think your doctor will take care of that. But certainly, this is one of these very extraordinary situations where it really is helpful to have something in writing on you at all times.

M. O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much.

And, once again, as we leave here we'll put those numbers up on the screen for you. We'll be back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: As clean-up begins along Louisiana's battered coast, the extent of the damage to the state's nearly $3 billion fishing industry is becoming more and more clear. And for local shrimpers, the picture is pretty bleak. Karl Penhaul has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is everybody's main source of income.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Shrimp boats lie battered or split apart by the storm. Their nets are tangled.

RAY BRADHURST, SHRIMPER: Lost our homes, our business and our boat all in one shot. Everything. Everything is gone in a matter of hours.

PENHAUL: Ray Bradhurst and his best friend, Bubba Menesses, fled St. Bernard's Parish when the hurricane lashed the Gulf Coast. Now they're back to see what they can salvage of their livelihoods.

BRADHURST: Trying to stabilize the boat from rolling over.

BUBBA MENESSES, SHRIMPER: When we top it out, it just raises up on us and it just wants to roll.

BRADHURST: It raises the stern and it's starting to roll.

PENHAUL: The shrimp industry is the economic lifeblood of the Louisiana bayous around New Orleans. Bubba comes from three generations of shrimpers.

MENESSES: I mean, this is what we do. This is what we know. It's the only thing we know. So I think we'll just have to stick it out and see what happens.

PENHAUL: No doubt it's going to be tough. Ray's 47 foot trawler cost him $175,000. Not a cent insured. On top of that, shrimp prices are already at their lowest in years because of international competition. But there's still pride here. Bubba insists that bayou shrimps are the best.

MENESSES: You can barbecue them. You can fry them. You can boil them. You can stir fry them. You can put them in egg rolls. They stuff them in bell peppers.

PENHAUL: The pair live a short drive from the dock and asked us to take them.

BRADHURST: This will be the first time we get all the way to it, to see just what the devastation is. Take a long time for this community to come back. A long time.

PENHAUL: Ray's company, Rebel Seafood, is in bad shape.

BRADHURST: Boy, I thought it was bad, but I never dreamt it was this bad. Wow.

PENHAUL: You can smell the 3,000 pounds of shrimp rotting in one of those containers.

MENESSES: (INAUDIBLE), you got to get up and clean them shrimp up, man, that stinks.

BRADHURST: Get busy.

PENHAUL: The water is still deep in Chalmette, a town in St. Bernard's Parish. We tried to wade to Ray's house and meet Derek, one of Ray's neighbors. He's draped in a flag he managed to save from his flooded home. Derek opted to stay behind. Like many others, he's mad at what he sees as a slow and chaotic response in the relief effort.

DEREK, CHALMETTE RESIDENT: I'll tell you know, our government, what a joke, government! FEMA! Bush!

PENHAUL: The water's too deep to wade through, so he gives Ray a ride in the canoe. When Ray returns, the news is not good.

BRADHURST: I didn't get out and go look at it. The house is intact, but it is just the water was up almost over the entire roof. There's debris all the way to the top of the roof. It is a disaster. I mean, a mess.

PENHAUL: Getting to Bubba's in the next village down proves a little easier. As we draw into his neighborhood, he's nervous.

MENESSES: I used to have a beautiful neighborhood.

PENHAUL: As he reaches his home, he realizes the huge tidal surge and thick mud has ruined almost all that he's worked for.

MENESSES: She was hoping it wouldn't break. She's going to save some of them.

PENHAUL: Outside, Bubba shakes his head. But men like Bubba and Ray are a hardy breed, or maybe just plain stubborn.

MENESSES: Can't fish and shrimp from a mountaintop in Tennessee. You need to fish and shrimp from South Louisiana and the bayous.

PENHAUL: Their roots are here and they know no other way to live.

Karl Penhaul, CNN, Bayou Bienvenue, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama account for half of the shrimping industry in the United States. They'll going to need some of that stubborn they're going to need a lot of that stubbornness, I think it's fair to say.

M. O'BRIEN: That was quite a piece by Karl Penhaul. That last shot with him just kind of scratching his head, looking at that house. That kind of sums it up, doesn't it?

Our special weekend edition of AMERICAN MORNING continues in just a moment. Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad is back. It was seven long days. You did a great job out there.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: We know the lows. Were there any highs? Were there any moments when, you know, you sort of got a sense of hope and were uplifted?

S. O'BRIEN: I have to say, there was a time when we were reporting from the American Red Cross shelter in Baton Rouge. And we went on the air talking we interviewed a woman and she said, you know, I'm trying to get my family together. There's 14 of us and we can't get to Memphis. We've got family in Memphis but there's we just can't get there. And within no time at all, a viewer called in and said, I'm from Memphis, I have a truck. I'm going to have you get that truck and we're going to go pick up everybody and bring them back to Memphis.

And I guess over and over you'd hear people just I mean, just be so gracious you know, just helping. I mean people really wanted to help. I think this is why the story just healed people because you saw people in need and they weren't getting help. And now people are kind of piling on, giving help and that was really moving for me.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, when we can do things like that, it's really it's really why we got in the business in the first place. And I know when you were going through the airport, people were coming up to you and kind of offering you . . .

S. O'BRIEN: Us as a team. They came up to all of us saying, thank you for covering the story. It was very moving.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, it's kind of like, like I say, what we got in the business for. And I think the role we play there is such a difficult thing to do. Of course, when you look at what we had what these people had overcome. This is the airport in Kenner where you spent a little bit of time. By the way, have they pretty much cleared out the people there that they were triaging?

S. O'BRIEN: They were starting to. Starting to. And it's amazing how quickly that would move, because it was filling up very fast.

But you know what I also found very strange, and maybe you can answer this. A lot of the politicians would come on and say it's too soon to blame, but what you'd hear from people was, I want to know who to blame.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's focus on the clean-up would say the politicians. Let's focus on helping people. And the people, even those who need help would say, no, I want to know who dropped the ball here.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, see, I think it's important to focus on the blame right away because that's how you fix it right away. Finding fault is how you move forward. Because this is such a long-term thing, the fixes need to be to come immediately. You can't wait until after it's over. This is going to go on for such a long time.

S. O'BRIEN: And there's a whole lot of blame to go around. Enough for everybody, I think it's fair to say, certainly in New Orleans.

We'll, coming up in just a moment, a look at today's top stories, including the state of confusion at FEMA. There's a new man in charged of the debit card program. Is the Federal Emergency Agency in trouble. We're going to talk to a former FEMA director about that just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)