Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

The Aftermath Of Hurricane Katrina

Aired September 10, 2005 - 09:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We're taking a look at Tropical Storm Ophelia. It's sort of a complicated picture we're seeing from Ophelia. It could get stronger. It's expected to. More on that in just a few moments.
First, though, it's just about half past the hour on this special weekend edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up on the program, they are eyewitnesses to Katrina's devastation. Three of our CNN reporters will give us their impressions of the hurricane rescue and relief efforts, to kind of open up their notebooks to us and share some thoughts.

But before we do that, let's get to the Mississippi coast, where life is a long way from getting back to normal, to say the least. Still, some residents say they are optimistic their communities will be restored. It's good to see that optimism.

Joining me now is A.J. Holloway. He is the mayor of Biloxi.

Mr. Mayor, good to have you with us. How are you holding up, sir?

MAYOR A.J. HOLLOWAY, BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI: Thank you.

Well, I'm holding it good. I feel fine. Some people say I don't look too good, but, you know, I feel good, and we are all working hard here in Biloxi to get our lives back to normalcy.

M. O'BRIEN: (INAUDIBLE), I want to talk about the casinos in just a moment, because that's obviously a lifeblood for your town and really for the state, in many respects.

But I also...

HOLLOWAY: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: ... to the extent that we have focused on the casinos, I think we have put some blinders on to some other areas in Biloxi where people aren't getting help so much. Are you concerned about other pockets that may not be getting enough attention?

HOLLOWAY: Well, we're getting a tremendous amount of help. It's just pouring in from all over the United States and other countries, really, you know. So we're thankful for that. We are working hard. We're recovering. We're under a contract that is to remove all the debris in the city of Biloxi. Our people are working and cleaning their yards, and the essential services are coming back up. The water is -- probably 75 percent of the city has water and electricity and has use of their (INAUDIBLE) sanitation systems.

So things are getting better every day. And you know, this is -- I'm going to my 13th year as mayor of Biloxi, and this is not our first rodeo. Of course, it's the biggest, and I hope we never see another one like it. But...

M. O'BRIEN: Well, let's hope on that, that's for sure.

Let's talk about those casinos now.

HOLLOWAY: Sure.

M. O'BRIEN: Getting them back up and running is an important thing. We should point out that employees are getting paid by most of these casinos for up to 90 days, which helps, I'm sure, quite a bit.

But this is a lifebood. And there's some talk, it's a long story, but by a quirk of law, the actual gambling portion of these facilities was on water, so that they wouldn't have to have casinos all throughout the state, that kind of thing.

There is some talk about perhaps creating a special exemption to allow gaming to resume on dry land. Would you favor that? Should those casinos get back up and running right away?

HOLLOWAY: Yes, I favor that. I favor land-based casinos. Now, when I say land based, I'm not talking about on Howard Avenue or Capital Street in Jackson, Mississippi. I'm talking about on the locations that they are in now, that they could move, say, 1,000, 2,000 feet to the north across Highway 90 to safer grounds.

I believe that most of them would prefer that. Some of them may not. But if they have property that they own now, north of the highway, I think it would be prudent and wise for them to relocate to that area.

M. O'BRIEN: How soon do you think that could happen? And how realistic is it to think about having the tourists back there soon?

HOLLOWAY: Well, it would take -- the governor would have to call a special session of the legislature. I've talked to Governor Barbour two times on this issue, and he agrees. He's for that -- to move those to land based.

And I believe the legislators now that were opposed to that in the past, I think they can -- they are rethinking the issue of moving those casinos off of those barges to land-based sites.

M. O'BRIEN: How soon do you think they'd be -- they...

HOLLOWAY: I believe we have a good opportunity here. Well, (INAUDIBLE)...

M. O'BRIEN: How soon do you think they could be opened now?

HOLLOWAY: ... the quicker, the -- well, the quicker, the better. Now, if they're going to move land based, it would take them, I would say, probably 18 months to two years to build back. Some of them have the infrastructure, maybe, in place on the north of Highway 90, that they could be in operation sooner than that.

But the average, I think, would take about 18 months to two years to build.

M. O'BRIEN: Long road ahead in Biloxi.

HOLLOWAY: Now, we have a couple...

M. O'BRIEN: Long road ahead.

HOLLOWAY: (INAUDIBLE)...

M. O'BRIEN: I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor. We're out of time. I apologize for cutting you off. Maybe we'll come visit you next week. Thanks for your time.

HOLLOWAY: All right. Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: That's A.J. Holloway, mayor of Biloxi -- Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: Let's take a look at the weather once again. Tropical storm Ophelia, we've been telling you about that storm threatening to get back to hurricane status.

Bonnie Schneider's at the CNN Center. She's got the very latest. Hey, Bonnie, good morning.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Soledad.

Well, tropical storm Ophelia, right now, the maximum winds are at 70 miles per hour. And as this storm pushes to the northeast, it will eventually come to an abrupt halt, and then turn back towards the U.S. mainland. Not good news for the southeast coast.

And even though there's no warnings posted, we're still expecting landfall somewhere in the vicinity of early next week. And not only will Ophelia turn back in the direction of the U.S., but it's likely to strengthen once again to a hurricane.

It's sitting out over some very warm water, and we're likely to see it get upgraded to a category 1, possibly even a category 2 hurricane before the storm makes landfall.

Where will it go, well, you're watching a wide area, cone of uncertainty, so we're watching closely to see where it will go once it makes that turn. But right now, I'd say anywhere on the southeast coast, just be watching and be ready for Ophelia. Luckily today, though, the rain is staying offshore. The storm is still about 200 miles away from the coastline. So we're not seeing the storm bring rain to the area, just some strong winds and rough surf at this time, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Watch that cone of uncertainty. Bonnie, thanks.

Time to get another look at the headlines this morning with Tony Harris. He's also at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Hey, Tony, good morning again.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And Soledad, good morning to you.

"Now in the News": President Bush is comparing Katrina recovery efforts with the aftermath of 9/11. In about a half-hour, the president's weekly radio address will be delivered. Mr. Bush told Americans Friday that the U.S. is ready to overcome any challenge. Tomorrow the president is expected to visit areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina on the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Vice President 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 a 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 Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

And a global call for aid for Katrina evacuees. Artist Mary J. Blige and U2 were among dozens performing live last night at Shelter from the Storm, a concert for the Gulf Coast. The one-hour telethon aired in the U.S. and in nearly 100 countries. Donations will go to the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army.

CNN is covering the aftermath of Katrina 24/7. Coming up in the next hour, a look at the untiring efforts to find and reunite families torn apart by the evacuations. My co-anchor, Betty Nguyen, is live in Houston and we will be bringing you the stories of joyful reunions and the continuing efforts to bring splintered families back together. That's at the top of the hour.

Now back to Soledad in New York.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, good, looking forward to that, Tony. That'll be great, because there's so many people who need to be reunited.

Well, it's been almost two weeks since Hurricane Katrina made landfall. Relief aid's been pouring in from across the country and around the world as well.

Joining us this morning to discuss the recovery efforts is Jeff Koinange, he's in New Orleans this morning, medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen's in Baton Rouge, and reporter Kathleen Koch, who grew up in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, a small town devastated by Katrina, joins us as well. Nice to talk to all of you.

Jeff, let's begin with you this morning. You know, to some degree, when you were watching the original pictures, I think, especially the people who were at the Superdome, you saw, if you turned the sound down on your television, if you didn't know where you were, you might think it was Haiti or maybe one of those African countries, many of which you cover.

Good -- how do you think the response compared to the response that you've seen into your -- in your international reporting?

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In a word, Soledad, disappointing. Disappointing, because somebody dropped the ball along the way. The fact that it took, what, four or five days to get help on the ground, those scenes you're talking about, people literally sleeping under the stars, making the pavement their homes in makeshift tents, babies crying all over the place.

It was a terrible, terrible scene, reminded me of so many crises I've covered in Africa. In fact, that whole scene reminded me of a giant refugee camp in a third world country. It was very, very disappointing, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, just breaks your heart.

Elizabeth Cohen, I tell you, Elizabeth, I've been crying at all your stories, because you've been covering a lot of the, obviously, the medical care, and also the children as well. The saddest thing, to me, was people who survived the storm, but then lost their lives because they couldn't get the help they needed. Has that changed significantly?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Soledad. When we went to a shelter here in Baton Rouge on the Wednesday after the hurricane hit, it wasn't as well organized as it is now. You do see that there are more people from the military, there are more people from the Red Cross, who are there to offer services.

But Jeff mentioned being disappointed. And we certainly were disappointed when a nurse at that shelter described the conditions in the bathrooms. She said that it was full of all sorts of horrible things, and that people weren't cleaning it up, a huge problem when 5,500 people are all crammed into one shelter.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, clearly, no problems -- a big problem there.

You know, Kathleen, you did a piece that was just remarkable, in a word, remarkable, about going home. And at the end, you picked a brick, seven bricks for your family members, because that's it, that's all you pretty much have left of your family home. What was it like for you to be so personally affected? And the tape is rolling, and you're doing the story, but it's a story about yourself? KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I will tell you, Soledad -- and you know, because you've been down there -- covering this story, a disaster of this magnitude, is difficult for any reporter.

But it becomes so personal when the rubble that you're walking through was your hometown, when the cement slab you're standing on was the home you grew up in. And when the people that you meet on the street, who have nothing but the shoes on their feet and the clothes on their back, are the people you grew up with, it is very difficult, it's very painful, those, the overwhelming sense of helplessness is just even more intense.

But I'm relieved to say that while we were there, when we weren't on the air, my producer extraordinaire, Janet Rodriguez and I, we were able to do a lot of good.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, we're glad to hear that.

Jeff, you know, let's talk about the people who stayed behind. At first, I truly thought a lot of them would be, you know, crazy people, indigent people, people didn't have a place to go. But actually, the more we talked to, their reasons for wanting to say started to make a lot of sense. One woman said, you know, I, the city didn't show it had an evacuation plan. Why should I believe the city has a plan to get any of us back in our homes? My home's in actually pretty good shape.

What other reasons are you hearing, Jeff?

KOINANGE: That's right, that's a very good point, Soledad. And this dawned on us the last couple of days. People here know their rights, and they, and a lot of them who have been left behind have pets, very attached to their pets. They don't know, A, should they leave their pets behind, B, if they take their pets with them, will they be allowed wherever they go? That's a big point.

Number two, people have lots of valuables in their homes, and they don't want to leave their homes unattended, because they're not confident in the situation right now. And they'll be gone, what, six, eight, 10 months before they come back? Despite the fact that there's a huge, huge military and police presence, people still are adamant about staying right here in New Orleans, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, (INAUDIBLE) the police and military certainly cannot watch every single home.

Jeff Koinange and Kathleen Koch and Elizabeth Cohen for us.

We're going to check back in with you guys in just a little bit to continue our conversation. Sure appreciate that.

We're going to have a short break, and we're back in just a moment with more of this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: We are back, talking with some of our reporters who have experienced firsthand the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Let's get right back to Jeff Koinange and Elizabeth Cohen and Kathleen Koch. Welcome back, guys.

Kath -- Elizabeth, let's start with you, actually. Give me a sense of just how bad the water is. It smells disgusting. I mean, and every single day, it gets much, much worse. But what's the CDC say about actually what's in the water, and how bad it is?

COHEN: Well, the federal government, the EPA, tested it, and CNN also, we hired a firm to do our own testing. And what we found were very high levels of fecal coliform. I won't spell it out for you. But I think everyone knows what I mean.

The government found levels 10 times higher than what's safe. We found levels more like 100 times higher than what's safe.

And what's the biggest threat is to very old people and to babies, and especially if they ingested that water. You'd think, well, why would someone do that? Well, a nurse at a shelter told us that patients were telling her they had to. They had nothing else to drink, so they actually did drink the water. And it could cause problems likes hepatitis, it can cause all sorts of problems.

S. O'BRIEN: And then Elizabeth, to (INAUDIBLE) continue on that theme, what about contamination within the shelters? I mean, you have a lot of people, with some of them very compromised health, living in very close quarters. You talked about a bathroom, that, what the nurse described as utterly disgusting.

COHEN: Right. And I was actually pretty shocked. The CDC this week came out with recommendations that people needed to get vaccinated for things, depending upon your age and your health condition, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus. And two days after that recommendation came out, I went to the first aid clinic at that shelter and I said, Do you guys know, you know, are you going to vaccinate? And they said, What are you talking about? We're supposed to vaccinate people?

And they found out about the CDC's plan to vaccinate from me. And I just found that really pretty amazing, that they didn't know that they were supposed to be vaccinating people. No one had told them, and they didn't have any shots anyhow.

S. O'BRIEN: That is sort of just -- in some ways, it's a theme we keep hearing, isn't it, in this disaster and the recovery from it.

Kathleen, I want to ask you a question about the neighborhood you're from, because I found in New Orleans, every single person really wanted to go back, I mean, felt very closely tied to their home, which played into why they didn't want to leave. Is it the same way in -- where you're from, that people feel like they -- no matter what, they will not leave?

KOCH: Precisely, Soledad. Though a lot of people did evacuate in the face of this monster storm, the people who I grew up with, there are many of them that lived there all their lives, and their parents before them, their grandparents. And they are going to rebuild. They're not going to abandon that town.

But it was very difficult, when we were there, we were sort of a lifeline for a lot of people. Here's -- this is just one of the lists of people we went searching for while we were there, because everyone was so desperate. And we made it to a couple of places where we were able to find out, homes were standing, people were alive. In other places, we found nothing but rubble.

But as I mentioned earlier, we were able to -- we rescued a dog out of the rubble that we found who was injured. We -- I don't know if you guys have the photos of those -- the dog. But it was -- that helped us really feel like we were doing some good.

And we made it to a shelter in town. It was very much like Elizabeth, where they were getting no help, they were getting nothing. It wasn't even an official shelter. The residents had to break into the local elementary school and set up their own shelter, because no help was coming.

But stores started opening up, as the mayor mentioned, in Biloxi. They started getting power. We carried supplies back to them, blankets, socks, underwear, before we left, just trying to do what we could. But (INAUDIBLE)...

S. O'BRIEN: (INAUDIBLE) cute dog.

KOCH: ... (INAUDIBLE)...

S. O'BRIEN: And what good work by you guys and your team.

Jeff, I'm going give you the final word this morning. I -- we saw, as I was leaving, we saw this team cleaning up, kind of behind you, where the police command and control.

KOINANGE: (INAUDIBLE) else first, and then I say (INAUDIBLE)...

S. O'BRIEN: Can you hear me, Jeff? I don't know if you're getting our audio, because, of course, communications, as we've been talking about, real difficult. Can you hear me, Jeff?

KOINANGE: I can hear you now.

S. O'BRIEN: He -- all right, good, it worked.

You know, when I was leaving, we saw the men starting to clean up behind -- in the police command and control. Guess guys have been hired to start cleaning up the city. And that, to me, seemed to be a very hopeful sign, but only in front of the Harrah's, which the police department's taken over. How does it look now?

KOINANGE: Speaking of cleaning up, Soledad, we'll just show you that picture right now. And this, like you said, a sign of pride, people taking pride in their city, because the city has been so down the last 12, 13 days or so. This is what it's all about, bringing a city back on its feet. People, volunteers, for the most part, coming out and cleaning up their act.

The other thing you see, Soledad, a presence of huge military and police presence, which means that security is safe in the city. A week ago, we couldn't be in this spot right here, because it was so unsafe. Now you can literally walk about all day, all night.

It's good to see. It will take a long time for this city to recover, Soledad, but at least the signs are there that a city is slowly coming back on its feet.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, that's wonderful words to end it on. Jeff Koinange and Elizabeth Cohen and Kathleen Koch, I thank you for joining us this morning.

We're going to continue the conversation in about this all day on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: A Louisiana girl displaced by Katrina has enrolled in a Florida school that she helped after Hurricane Ivan. Remember that one? Fourth-grader raised $1,700 last year for St. Mary's School in Fort Walton Beach. Well, it's amazing what twists and turns life can offer you, because now the school is giving back to her.

Joining me now is Alexis Dupuy and her mother, Wendy.

Good to have you both with us, ladies.

WENDY DUPUY, EVACUEE: Thank you.

ALEXIS DUPUY, EVACUEE: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Alexis, I, I'm sure in your wildest imagination, you never imagined having to go to school at this school that you helped out. What was it like on that first day, going to that school?

ALEXIS DUPUY: It felt cool they was able to go back to that school after I had helped it out and raised money for it.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, that must have been nice. But on the same token, of course, it must have been kind of sad that you were there, too, so it was kind of two kinds of emotions, I bet.

ALEXIS DUPUY: OK.

M. O'BRIEN: What did people say to you? What did the teachers and students say to you?

ALEXIS DUPUY: Not much.

M. O'BRIEN: Not much, just...

ALEXIS DUPUY: Just, Welcome to the school, and, We're glad to have you here.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. And did they mention -- did they make mention of the fact that you had helped them out?

ALEXIS DUPUY: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: So you felt a little bit special?

ALEXIS DUPUY: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: And did -- were you the only kid there from New Orleans or Louisiana that had been displaced by Katrina?

ALEXIS DUPUY: No. There were a couple other ones there from New Orleans who were displaced.

M. O'BRIEN: Were they friends of yours before? Or I assume their friends of yours now.

ALEXIS DUPUY: I didn't know them before, but now they're friends of mine. And I'm glad to be at that school.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Wendy, what's this been like for you, this whole experience? Kind of surreal, I guess.

WENDY DUPUY: It is. It is. You would have never imagined a year later that this would be happening to us after Ivan.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, there -- you know, any time -- my kids are going to a new school right now, and it's stressful enough for me. I can't even imagine what you're going through, with all the other issues that you're having to contend with. Have you sort of just mentally moved to this new location, new part of the world, or are you still thinking you're going to go back?

WENDY DUPUY: Mentally, where we are right now is home, and eventually we hope to be back in Metarie and with the kids at St. Francis Xavier. But St. Mary's has been so wonderful with Alexis, and I have two other children, and one is also in St. Mary's. And it's really been an easy transition. The school's been welcoming, and the kids have made the transition really well. I'm very proud of them.

M. O'BRIEN: But Fort Walton Beach still isn't home for you. I mean, New Orleans is home, right?

WENDY DUPUY: New Orleans is home.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

WENDY DUPUY: But for now, Fort Walton is home, and we're just turning it into home.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. You know, Alexis, my daughter and my son, they both are trying to come up with ways to help out, you know, the likes of you, quite frankly. Have you -- do you feel like you need to help out as well, or do you -- are you happy now just to be the recipient of the help?

ALEXIS DUPUY: I'm happy that people are trying to help out, but if there was another way I could help, I would definitely try to do it.

M. O'BRIEN: Have you thought about what you might do?

ALEXIS DUPUY: Not much. I've given it a little thought. And I'm just hoping that this can happen again, and I'm able to help out more.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. It does make it a little easier when you're dealing with all of this. So, so far, you're having a good school year in spite of everything that's happened. That's pretty amazing, isn't it?

ALEXIS DUPUY: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Ladies, thank you very much. And by the way, Wendy told me right before we went on the air, Alexis is a straight-A student, and we expect those grades to keep up, Alexis. We would like a report card throughout the year. We hope you get back to your home soon. But sounds like you've got a good place to be for now.

WENDY DUPUY: We do...

M. O'BRIEN: Good to have you -- (INAUDIBLE)...

WENDY DUPUY: We're very fortunate.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. Well, it's good you can say that. That's a good perspective on it. Wendy and Alexis Dupuy, thanks very much for being with us.

WENDY DUPUY: Thank you.

ALEXIS DUPUY: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: We'll have more of our special weekend coverage of Katrina on AMERICAN MORNING. Join us right now -- well, we'll be back tomorrow. We're just going to keep doing this, 7:00 a.m. Eastern till 10:00 a.m. Another special edition of AMERICAN MORNING."

Back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: That's all the time we have on this AMERICAN MORNING, special edition.

S. O'BRIEN: We're back tomorrow morning. We'll see you at 7:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

M. O'BRIEN: In the meantime, Tony Harris at CNN Center to take you to the next few hours. Tony, good to see you.

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