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American Morning

North Carolina Governor Declares States of Emergency

Aired September 11, 2005 - 07:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, I'm Miles O'Brien. A developing story in North Carolina. The governor declaring a state of emergency. Hurricane Ophelia hovering offshore, but officials worry it could make a sharp turn for the coast. We're tracking the storm's path.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Soledad O'Brien. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As floodwaters recede in New Orleans, authorities go door to door, looking for more bodies. Meanwhile, new signs of progress as the city tries to get back on its feet. We're live in New Orleans, just ahead.

M. O'BRIEN: And 9/11 remembered. Today, the fourth anniversary of the deadliest terror attack in U.S. history. The nation pauses to honor the victims on this AMERICAN MORNING.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning and welcome. Thanks for joining us on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. Today, of course, the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

M. O'BRIEN: We'll be taking you to ground zero to see some of the ceremonies there. But first, the other main story of the morning, the aftermath of Katrina. Mission critical news, 14 days now after Hurricane Katrina hit, President Bush will go back to Louisiana and Mississippi today. This is his third trip in 10 days and his longest. He plans to stay overnight.

The American Red Cross is looking for 40,000 new volunteers to help Katrina's victims. The Red Cross operating 675 shelters in 23 states.

The draining of New Orleans is going faster than expected. The Army Corps of Engineers now believing the water can be pumped out of the streets by mid October. That's about half the time they originally projected.

Soon after that, in about 45 days, one of the main arteries to the city might reopen. The state of Louisiana has contracted to rebuilt the I-10 bridge over Lake Pontchatrain that you see right there.

Now while the Gulf Coast cleans up, the Carolinas are bracing for Hurricane Ophelia. The Category 1 storm getting stronger by the moment.

Bonnie Schneider is at the CNN Weather Center tracking Ophelia for us. This has been a hard one to predict, hasn't it Bonnie?

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, METEOROLOGIST: Miles, it sure is. Even as we speak right now, the models are kind of fluctuating of what Ophelia is going to do next.

The storm has strength. And since yesterday, right now, maximum winds are at 85 miles per hour with Ophelia. And it drifted a little bit to the north, northeast yesterday. So you can see that this storm's a little bit further north than where we were this time yesterday morning.

But one thing to note is that Ophelia has -- is now remaining stationary. This is why it's so difficult to track, because it's hard to know which way the storm's going to go next.

But because of that shift to the north, the hurricane watch has also shifted as well. From Edisto Beach now in South Carolina, to Cape Lookout, North Carolina, we have a hurricane watch.

Remember yesterday, it was extended towards the South Carolina, Georgia border. Well, that has discontinued as of the latest advisory.

The hurricane watch has shifted a little further north. So anywhere in this vicinity, we're on the lookout for Ophelia. This means that hurricane conditions, meaning winds over 74 miles per hour or greater, will be felt within this region or least potentially will be felt in the next 36 hours.

So we're watching and we're working on the track for you. But I'd say anywhere in the Carolina region. Early next week, really within the next 36 hours, we could be looking at landfall. Still early to say, though.

M. O'BRIEN: Bonnie Schneider, thank you very much for watching it for us. Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get to New Orleans now and some of the positive signs, as the city tries to rebuild. Let's get right to Jeff Koinange. He's live for us in New Orleans.

Jeff, good morning to you. We saw that there was some clean-up. What else is going on?

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, the other thing that's going on, two weeks after Hurricane Katrina swept through town and left the city full of death and destruction, one neighborhood, Plaquemines Parish, right across the river from where we're actually standing right now, residents from that neighborhood will, for the very first time, be going back home, going back home to just revalue -- see what kind of damage was done to their homes. Some positive signs.

Other positive signs, it looks like a city, a city that has faced so much in the last 14 days or so, is slowly but painfully coming back on its feet. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KOINANGE (voice-over): The sounds of a city coming back to life. Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Katrina, workers are taking tentative steps towards restoring some semblance of normality.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going good. It's not too bad. This is our first day out here on the street. So we're getting as much as we can.

KOINANGE (on camera): This is what large parts of New Orleans have been reduced to, one giant garbage heap. We're actually on Convention Center Boulevard. Behind me, the Convention Center, where up to 15,000 people had been holed up for several days. And these are the conditions they were living under, mounds and mounds of piled up garbage.

(voice-over): The city's resources are stretched. Other more immediate tasks like search and rescue remain the priority.

Nonetheless, people here say they are just glad that clean-up is finally underway.

And it's not just the trash that's being picked up off the streets. So too are power lines, as workers scramble to restore essential services in some areas, and a sure sign New Orleans may have turned the corner.

Across the Mississippi River in Jefferson Parish, the only area exempt from evacuations, good news. One of the few convenience stores is open for business.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's wonderful. It's so nice to be able to come get things.

KOINANGE: Inside, the sounds of busy cash registers, as shoppers stock up on essentials. Many having ventured out for the first time in nearly two weeks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I think it's great. We -- at least it was some place to come other than sitting home watching TV.

KOINANGE: They know it'll take a while before things are back to normal. But they are glad the process of healing has begun, a process that will no doubt take months, maybe even years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOINANGE: And Soledad, there may be even more good news. The death toll that all officials had been predicting may be a lot lower than what people are saying. Emergency services have been going neighborhood to neighborhood. They finding that people may have left the area a lot earlier than expected. So that could be some good news, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Gosh, that would be wonderful news. I know those numbers, those really high numbers, 5,000 to 10,000 are coming from Mayor Nagin. And many of the sheriffs, as well, talked to us and reiterated those same numbers, but gosh, let's hope they're much lower. That would be great.

Jeff Koinange for us this morning. Jeff, thanks. Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: Now let's move to the east to Mississippi. Signs of progress there, too. The Port of Biloxi being reopened for limited commercial traffic. CNN's Allan Chernoff joins us from Biloxi once again this morning.

Good morning to you, Allan.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles. And we are seeing other signs of progress here as well. The roads, they're all cleared out. We're seeing more federal presence here, lots of state authorities also coming in to help out. They've been called in by the Biloxi officials here.

And we don't really have all that much criticism of FEMA in this town, at least from the municipal officials. The mayor here told me yesterday that a FEMA official called him at home before 7:00 in the morning, gave straight approval for him to sign contracts with three companies to remove the debris. They're giving them 60 days to do that. The federal government will be paying for 60 days. So they do have a little bit of a time limit.

But the mayor was actually quite pleased with that. He said he's been getting everything he needs from the federal authorities.

However, if you move a little bit to the east of here, in Pascagoula, they see things a little differently.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW AVARA, MAYOR, PASCAGOULA, MISSISSIPPI: Clearly, the FEMA response has been slow. We've got a lot of good people on the ground here that are with FEMA and with state agencies. They wear their badges and they look good, but unfortunately, we just not have seen all the assets and all the resources that we need in our city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: A lot of it, of course, has to do with your perspective. The mayor here has said, look, you need to be a little bit patient. FEMA can't be like Superman flying in to fix things up instantly. Takes time to get things done. And even at the beginning, it took time just to get into the city. Three of the bridges over here are down. So it's really been tough to get access to Biloxi, but things, as I said, are improving -- Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: Good to hear that. Allan Chernoff in Biloxi, thanks very much. Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: FEMA's no longer going to be giving out those $2,000 debit cards. Hard though to get the word out to everybody. Let's get right to Betty Nguyen. She is at the Astrodome in Houston for us this morning.

Betty, good morning.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Many evacuees living outside of the four main shelters showed up yesterday wanting to get those debit cards, only to find signs reading no debit card distribution.

No one told them about this until they walked or drove all the way over here. And when they got here, they found very few answers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN (voice-over): At dawn, they made their way to the Astrodome, looking for assistance, only to find their luck had run out. The debit cards are gone.

MARSHALL WHITE, VETERAN: We shouldn't have to keep running around and then find out Saturday morning the debit is just scrapped. Now we don't even know what the status is now.

NGUYEN: For these veterans, that seems to be the theme of their journey.

CURTIS SMITH, VETERAN: We get so many details of what to do about it and so many different words of which way to go, until we get to the place that we never really get the help because it's gone by the time we finally make it to the front door.

NGUYEN: FEMA says it's handed out some 6,000 cards, but the debit card system requires too large of a staff. So it's scrapping the plan and resorting back to issuing assistance in the form of checks and direct deposits.

JOHN LEWIS, VETERAN: We don't have any bank accounts at all. We don't have access to anything, really. Like for myself, it's difficult for me to get around.

NGUYEN: And that's just the beginning. Disabled veteran Kenneth Keith lost his voice to throat cancer and must write down everything so Marshall can speak for him.

WHITE: Our government move with lightning speed for other countries, but when it comes to us, its vets and U.S. citizens, our government hasn't really helped us that much.

NGUYEN: So this band of brothers keeps walking and searching, hoping to find the assistance they desperately need.

In Houston, Betty Nguyen, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Now FEMA says the money is still available. You only have to register. And now, those debit cards, as we mentioned, not available, but you can still get the money through checks or direct deposit. As for debit cards, the American Red Cross is still offering its debit card program, but it's not doing it here outside the Astrodome. It's at a church nearby. That is still available. And they've also offered a 1-800 number for evacuees looking to get that assistance.

Let me give it to you right now. It's 1-800-975-7585. Another important thing to note is that the population here at the four main shelters in Houston is dropping and significantly. Yesterday, there were 7300 evacuees still living in these shelters. Today, that number is down to 5500.

Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: Betty Nguyen at the Astrodome for us this morning. Betty, thanks.

The mayor of New Orleans, Louisiana is leaving New Orleans. Mayor Ray Nagin in fact bought a house in Dallas. He was there on Friday raising some funds for students. Now his own daughter's going to go school in Dallas. And his family's going to live there while he shuttles back and forth to New Orleans.

Miles?

M. O'BRIEN: Back now to our other big story of the day -- the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Live pictures now from lower Manhattan. This, of course, is ground zero, the site of the World Trade Center, which at this moment, four years ago, was standing proud and off to what was supposed to be a beautiful fall day here in New York City. And we all know what happened after that.

Four times this morning, observers will hold a moment of silence. 8:46 Eastern, 9:03 Eastern when the two planes hit the twin towers, then again at 9:59 and 10:29 when the towers fell.

Brothers and sisters will also read aloud the names of those who died. All 2749 of them. And of course, we'll have much more live coverage from ground zero as those ceremonies begin. As you can see, people making their way to the location at the bottom of that big gaping hole in lower Manhattan.

You can see special tributes to each of the victims of 9/11 by logging onto our Web site. Cnn.com/memorial.

S. O'BRIEN: Still come this morning, the politics of the storm. The initial disaster response was slow. How much damage was that due to the president? We'll take a look at that this morning.

M. O'BRIEN: Also, we'll talk to the man that helped heal New York after 9/11, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. All that is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: President Bush will be back in the Gulf States today. For the third time in 10 days, criticism of the response to Katrina isn't going away. And it's apparently dragging the president's approval ratings even lower.

CNN political analyst Ron Brownstein is in our Washington bureau. Ron, three trips is pretty extraordinary. Is that apt to stem the tide for the president?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think it's going to be deeds more than words that affect the public reaction to this.

You know, there have been six national polls released since last Thursday. The highest the president has been in any of them in his job approval is 42 percent. The lowest is 38 percent. In each of those surveys, he is at or near his lowest rating ever and his highest disapproval ever.

So you know, he was not in a strong position when this disaster struck because of Iraq and gas prices. He is now in a demonstrably weaker position. And he's got a lot to do to overcome the initial reaction of the American public, what they saw in those first days.

I don't think he ever entirely overcome that. Now he's got to try to improve the performance on the ground.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, we see him there, of course, with the FEMA director, Mike Brown.

The fact that he has been well whether the term is demoted or not, I mean, officially, he's still head of the agency. But clearly, it was a demotion whether you -- whether it wasn't technically or not.

That was too little too late perhaps?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I would describe it more as necessary, but not sufficient. I mean, the level of criticism of Mr. Brown privately and in terms publicly, from Republicans as well as Democrats, made this inevitable in a way. And but yet still extraordinary.

This is a president, as you know, who does not like to remove subordinates, especially under fire. After Abu Ghraib, he rallied around Donald Rumsfeld. He gave a presidential medal of freedom to George Tenet, who told him that weapons of mass destruction were a slam dunk in Iraq.

So he doesn't like to do things like this. The fact that they did is a sign of the pressure they feel and the exposure they feel on this front right now.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, let's put some numbers up on that. Bush and Katrina, specific questions on that. A disapproval of the -- these are people who disapprove of Mr. Bush's Katrina response. There you see them, 52 through 61 percent there.

That's a pretty big negative reception.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: And it's interesting, you know, there's a parallel to his father here going from all time highs to very low, lows. Would have been hard to conceive of this not too ago.

BROWNSTEIN: No, I agree. I think the American -- look, the American people are fair and they are rational. On the one hand, no one who watched the response of government at all levels, especially during that first week, but even more amazingly, I think continuing problems here in the second week, would be satisfied.

So it's not surprising that the president is receiving low marks for his performance here. But we should note that they're not really appreciably better for the state and local officials, who have also been receiving negative ratings in public polling.

The public saw what -- something that it could not imagine -- an utter failure of government at all levels to secure order, to provide aid, and really to reestablish a kind of sense of direction in this stricken region.

And I think everyone is paying the price for it.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, Governor Blanco is up for reelection in 2007. She has some time to repair things. The mayor is up for election in February. Of course, who knows -- who's going to be around to vote or?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. (INAUDIBLE) look like, yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Huge absentee issue there, if nothing else. Do you think that voters will send their message loud and clear in Louisiana?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think that there's going to be some very tough questions for these local officials. Certainly in state politics, you can play off against the national response and point fingers at Washington. And I suspect we'll see a lot of that in both the local and the state election.

But I can't imagine that the opponents of the various state officials, particularly the governor when she comes on the ballot, in a very competitive stage of the Democratic governor, in a state that has been trending Republican, I can't imagine they won't go after her sharply on her performance as well.

The other interesting question, of course, is what will this mean for the 2006 national elections, the congressional elections? WE don't know exactly yet, but I do think we're going to have a big debate on what the proper federal response should be here. And it may color the months leading into that congressional election.

M. O'BRIEN: I would say a big debate is warranted, given what we saw. Ron Brownstein, thanks for being with us, as always.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the CNN New Orleans today as police officers go door to door, they're breaking them down in some cases. They're trying to find the victims of the flood. Stay with us. You're watching a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Police officers in New Orleans are changing their tactics as they look for flood victims. And that means they're not just knocking on doors. They're knocking them down in some cases.

CNN's Dan Lothian has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): DEA agents and local police from across the country making a forced entry in a devastated New Orleans neighborhood.

It looks like a drug bust, but this mission is more humanitarian.

DAVID WOODRUFF, DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT: What we want to do is clear these houses, to make sure that there are a, no survivors, and b, you know, obviously no bodies.

LOTHIAN: Officer David Woodruff traveled from Dallas to help local police with this massive effort. Steel doors and big locks often present obstacles. Sometimes it takes brute force or a rope tied to the back of a truck.

Inside many homes, you can still see the high water line on the walls. Every room is checked before the house is given the all clear and marked with an X.

WOODRUFF: Our greatest hope is that we find every one of these houses is empty and people got out when they were warned to get out.

LOTHIAN: On this door to door search in this neighborhood, only dead animals are found. Some 30 miles southeast of New Orleans, three dozen U.S. Marines used helicopters and amphibious assault vehicles to target homes where 911 calls had indicated people were trapped inside. No one was found.

Almost two weeks after Katrina ravaged this region, government officials are still trying to get a handle on the human toll.

VICE ADM. THAD ALLEN, U.S. COAST GUARD: What we're trying to do now is get a focused coordinated effort as we do the sweeps through the cities that we -- when we locate the remains, that they are documented and that they were treated with dignity, that they transported.

LOTHIAN (on camera): Some officials had initially predicted that the death toll would be as high as 10,000 and that the body count would rise as the water level fell. But as more and more homes are found empty, it's now believed that the final number will be much lower.

Dan Lothian, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, 9/11 four years later. Are we prepared for the future? We're going to talk to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, preparing for the very worst. The government's placed a premium on preventing disaster. But Hurricane Katrina's now teaching the country an important lesson for when a crisis just can't be stopped. Stay with us on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Live pictures from ground zero this morning, as family members gather to commemorate the fourth anniversary of 9/11 this morning.

People gathering there. They'll pay their respects to almost 3,000 people who were killed in the attacks on that site.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, so sad when you see everyone there. We've had an opportunity to see some of the shots of people holding the photos...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: And the sketchings in some cases. Pictures of their loved ones who are lost on that day. Just a few moments, we're going to talk to the former mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani. Talk to him about how prepared we are four years later.

Since 9/11, in fact, the U.S. has prepared itself for another terrorist attack, but has there been enough focus on the aftermath? And could the government have used terrorism training to better prepare for a disaster like Katrina?

CNN justice correspondent Kelli Arena has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Katrina brought what al Qaeda repeatedly as threatened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any ailments, broken bones?

ARENA: A devastating blow to a major U.S. city. The results were very similar to what experts have predicted would happen if there were a major terrorist attack.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Think about it. Hundreds if not thousands killed, thousands of destroyed buildings, large cities and towns left virtually uninhabitable, an enormous public health crisis, hospitals overwhelmed, roads impassable, no communication system so that emergency personnel could coordinate or communicate with people.

ARENA: This was the result of a storm we were warned about. Imagine if there were no warning at all. And what about all that disaster training that we've seen first responders go through? Were they just photo opportunities or are there plans in place?

MICHAEL GREENBERGER, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: What we're learning is that this is all pieces of paper with writing on it, and it does not correspond to the reality of the Federal government's capabilities.

ARENA: Part of the problem experts say is there has been more focus on preventing terror attacks, than on dealing with the aftermath.

RICHARD FALKENRATH, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: And the idea behind that is that your best options are always to stop the attack before it occurs, because once it occurs, you're in a race against time to save lives and save property.

ARENA: But there was no preventing Katrina. Four years after the September 11th attacks, both the Federal and state governments seem to be grappling with many of the same problems. For example, after the Pentagon was hit, people trying to evacuate Washington D.C. couldn't. All the major arteries out of the city were clogged. In New Orleans, officials had time to get people out of the city, but an estimated 100,000 were still there when the hurricane hit.

RANDALL LARSEN, INST. FOR HOMELAND SECURITY: The evacuation of cities is something that's talked about a lot but there's very little done to look at it. And this was a case where a properly executed evacuation could have saved countless lives and unbelievable amounts of suffering.

ARENA: Experts say if there is a bright side, it's that vulnerabilities that have been exposed, can be shored up. For one thing, the government did not anticipate the looting or the violence that we saw in New Orleans.

FALKENRATH: I think one of the things that the Federal government will be building into its plan more in the future is preparing for civil unrest, for lawlessness. You know, we hadn't really seen unrest in the previous disasters that we had.

ARENA: The government will need to act fast. The FBI just warned its state and local partners that with all the resources devoted to the Gulf coast, terrorists could see this as an opportunity to strike again. As of now, there is no credible intelligence that they will. Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: As we continue to cover the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, at the same time, we're talking about the fourth anniversary of 9/11 attacks. New Yorkers are going to stop four times over the next few hours to observe the times when the World Trade Center towers were struck and when they collapsed. Rudy Giuliani was the mayor of New York City. He'd led the city during that crisis and he's back talking to us this morning. Nice to see you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you for being with us.

RUDOLPH GIULIANI, FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Good morning, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you. The piece you just saw a moment ago and I guess tied with the 9/11 attacks, strangely all under the umbrella of homeland security, so I want to ask you about both. First, what you saw in the wake of hurricane Katrina, is this an indication that truly we are really not prepared in the aftermath of some kind of major national security problem, whether we're talking about a terror attack or we're talking about another hurricane?

GIULIANI: Well I think it's an indication that there are a lot of things that we have to do to prepare better and I think probably we can analyze that more effectively as we get further away from the event, and we get a little bit more, an ideal situation in terms of learning the facts which it is not while the event is going on. But I think Katrina, like September 11, can help us be better prepared. September 11 commission did a very, very good job of pointing out the things that were done right, the things that were done wrong and how you can improve. The same thing is going to have to be done with Katrina and the aftermath of it. This is an imperfect, very, very difficult thing to do. These are catastrophic dramatic events. There's no question you can learn from them and you can do better but at this point the major focus should be on supporting the people who are still in grave difficulties as a result of Katrina.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes and there are certainly many of them. But you know, I don't need to tell you, it's been four years since 9/11. Communication was a huge problem. Many of the sheriffs that I spoke to were utterly amazed as just how disastrous the communication problem was and how important it was, and seemed surprised that, frankly, four years after it was clearly indicated as a problem in 9/11, really hasn't been fixed.

GIULIANI: Right, it might indicate how difficult the problem is. I mean this is not -- I know there is a tremendous amount of frustration, but you got to understand this is an enormously difficult problem. You have thousands and thousands of people wanting to communicate each with each other. Sometimes the lines are down. Sometimes the electricity affects it. Sometimes the sheer volume of traffic does. A lot of things can be done to assist and probably should have been done faster, including setting up a bandwidth just for emergency personnel dedicated to emergency communication and getting that implemented all throughout the country, so that you have a priority communications, making certain that you figure out in advance who is going to have access to that, so that the sheer volume of communication doesn't block it. Those things can be done technologically and they should be done. Some things require even more work.

S. O'BRIEN: And I recognize that but why haven't those things that you mentioned, which you point out technologically we could do pretty easily, why is it taking to long?

GIULIANI: That was the recommendation goes back now three years. It should be done. There should be a sense of urgency about it and it should get done and there's no good reason why, there's no good reason why it hasn't been done. There are a lot of bureaucratic reasons I guess or political reasons or others, but there is really no good reason why it wasn't on it.

S. O'BRIEN: What about the implications of what happened in hurricane Katrina for terrorists? Let me play you a little bit of what Mayor Ray Nagin said to me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS MAYOR: If I'm looking at this country as a terrorist, my planning just stepped up to a whole another level because our response to a significant disaster is appalling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: A couple of questions on that front. One, what do you make of the fact that he said that at all, and two, does he have a point?

GIULIANI: Well, I think what he says is something we know. I mean, we realize that we're tremendously vulnerable. I was in London on July 7th, a half block away from the Liverpool station when the first bomb went off. There probably is no better security services and intelligence services than in the UK, not much better and they weren't able to prevent that. So it gives you a sense of the vulnerabilities that we have. Then, you know, pointing them out is one thing. We have to keep working at this. This is something where we need Federal, state, local governments, all have tremendous responsibilities here, and frankly, you know, the level of preparation is different in different parts of the country. It's not the same. I mean some people have the benefit of gigantic police departments and fire departments. Some other places in more rural areas, more remote areas of the country, they don't have the same resources. The Federal government has to help maybe more.

S. O'BRIEN: But how about situations where really it's not about money? How about presence and voice and leadership? I'm a native New Yorker and anybody who was from here and lived here, saw how you took leadership of that situation on really that horrible day and the days afterward. How important is that, a sense of leadership, even your critics frankly, people who really disliked you a lot gave you high point for that. How important is that and what do you make of what we've been seeing out of New Orleans on that front?

GIULIANI: Soledad, I said it at the time. I really mean this. The reason that I was able to do whatever it is I was able to accomplish is I had 41,000 police officers and 11,000 firefighters and 11,000 correction officers and a gigantic EMS and New York City faces a crisis a week. So I had the benefit of a virtual army of enormously capable people that I could turn to and didn't have to explain to them what had to happen. The New York mayor gets a lot of help and I rested on the shoulders of people we're going to remember today, I mean some of the real giants. So you know, I hope the level of preparation all over the country and every mayor has the benefit of these kinds of resources but I was very, very fortunate. So it's not about one person. It's about thousands and thousands and thousands of people, and a lot of them we're going to remember today.

S. O'BRIEN: And many of them in fact. Mr. Mayor, thanks. Nice to see you.

GIULIANI: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: So where were you four years ago this morning? It is, of course, the anniversary of 9/11. These are live pictures coming to us from ground zero, some of the buildings immediately around the site, where the World Trade Center sat four years ago this morning, before two airplanes struck those towers, bringing them down, killing nearly 3,000 people. That huge American flag still displayed on the building overlooking the site. Family members and members of the fire department and police department, other authorities are gathering this morning for ceremonies there. We'll be watching that for you.

Now let's go to Tony Harris and get some other headlines. Good morning Tony.

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles, the president watching as well. Now in the news this morning, President Bush is asking Americans to observe a moment of silence this morning in honor of those killed during 9/11. The president and the first lady are attending a prayer service this hour at St. John's Church near the White House. They will honor the victims at 8:46 Eastern, the moment the first hijacked plane struck the World Trade Center. Later today the president will head to the Gulf coast.

An emergency landing at Northwest Airlines, three weeks after the airline's mechanics went on strike. The plane was headed from Memphis to Minneapolis when the pilot reported trouble with the engine and the landing gear. None of the 62 people aboard were hurt. Northwest's mechanics have been on strike since August 20th. The airline and the union say it is too early to tell if the problems are related.

The music world mourning the loss of Grammy winner Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown. Brown's career spanned more than five decades. He played the blues, country, jazz and Cajun music. He earned the nickname Gatemouth for his deep voice. Brown had been battling lung cancer and heart disease for the past year. He died Saturday in Texas. He had evacuated there after his own home in Slidell, Louisiana was destroyed by Katrina. Clarence Brown was 81.

And North Carolina under a state of emergency this morning. Ophelia is a category 1 hurricane once again. The storm is about 250 miles east-southeast of Charleston. The National Hurricane Center predicts it will hit the U.S. but is not exactly sure when or where. Bonnie Schneider is at the CNN center with the latest weather update. Good morning Bonnie.

SCHNEIDER: Good morning Tony. That's sort of the million-dollar question. Our models have shifted so much since yesterday that now we're forecasting a track much further north into North Carolina and landfall may not occur for another few days according to the latest discussion from the National Hurricane Center. Let's look at the satellite perspective. The storm is stationary right now with maximum winds at 85 miles per hour. So still a category 1 hurricane for Ophelia. A hurricane watch shifted further north as well from Cape Lookout to Edisto Beach. Further to the south of South Carolina, the area south of that no longer under a concern right now for the hurricane watch. This means that hurricane conditions will be felt within the next 36 hours or will they?

Looking at the track, it's slowed down a little bit, as you can see. This is the latest track from the National Hurricane Center still bringing the storm into as a category one. But where and when it makes landfall is still very, very tricky. We're looking at this possibly now getting closer to Wednesday because the storm kind of takes a curve away from the coast. It doesn't pull away all together. We're still looking at a good possibility for landfall but it may be somewhere closer in this vicinity of the Carolina coastline towards the outer banks or certainly if it gets close enough, it will brush up against this area. So things have really shifted for Ophelia since yesterday. Originally, we thought Myrtle Beach, now the latest track kind of takes it a little further to north, a little more of a turn. This is a changing situation so you'll want to keep it tuned here and we'll keep you up-to-date on Ophelia. Let's go back to Miles and Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Bonnie, thanks a lot. We are your hurricane headquarters as we always say in these sorts of things.

M. O'BRIEN: Absolutely. We will keep you posted.

Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, hurricane Katrina could make for a very chilly or perhaps expensive winter for people hundreds of miles away from the disaster. Andy Serwer takes a look.

S. O'BRIEN: And rebuilding ground zero. We take a look at some plans for a new landmark as we remember this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11. Stay with us. You're watching a special weekend edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

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M. O'BRIEN: Drivers have a pretty good idea of how hurricane Katrina has affected fuel prices. But it's not just the pain at the pump you should be concerned about. Home heating bills will spike this winter, big time. Andy Serwer is here with the grim numbers. Andy.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: I'm sorry to report that home heating oil prices almost doubled from last year. I mean it's truly staggering and of course everybody knows you can pay thousands of dollars for those bills. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman says watch out for big, big spikes in home heating oil prices. Natural gas, too, we can take a look here, is going to be particularly higher, the prices there, you can see up as much as 71 percent, heating oil up 31 percent. Well, that's a nice case scenario, frankly, electricity up as well. It depends on how all this is generated in your area, of course.

For those people who are smart enough or had the foresight to pre-pay for their home heating oil this summer, hats off, is all we can say because the prices have really risen dramatically. Let's see, one week ago, it was about $2.19. You can see this week, $2.45, that's a gallon and a year ago, $1.30. You could have bought at any time, Miles, previous to this month, for instance. A lot of these programs though now are being shut down. The interesting question a lot of people are asking me, is it too late to buy heating oil right now if you can? In other words, do you anticipate the price going up even more? It's really a big unknown. Unlike gasoline, there is plenty of home heating oil out there. There will not be any shortage. The question is will the price go up and experts simply don't know at this point, very difficult to tell.

M. O'BRIEN: You have to ask the question though, if there's a decent supply out there, why are we seeing this tremendous spike?

SERWER: It's like anything else in the financial market. So much of this is psychological and it's also true that these pipelines could break down again or there could be a shortage of other parts of the oil stream, so that could also affect prices here as well.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Andy Serwer, thanks very much.

SERWER: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, a new beginning near the World Trade Center site. Four years after 9/11, one high-rise office tower is nearly done. We're going to meet with the man who's got some big rebuilding goals for lower Manhattan. Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

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M. O'BRIEN: Four years ago this morning, of course, the 9/11 attacks, which changed our lives so significantly. Take a look at some live pictures now from ground zero as family members, members of the police department, the fire department, the other agencies affected one way or another, have gathered. Many of the victim's family members as you see holding pictures of those who perished on that day four years ago, upwards of 3,000 people died when the twin towers fell as terrorists flew airplanes into them. We'll be watching that ceremony all this morning, as those who died there are remembered.

Over the past four years, officials have developed a plan to remember and rebuild at that site. At the center of the rebuilding effort at times, its driving force is a 74-year-old real estate developer who envisions gleaming skyscrapers at ground zero.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Larry Silverstein is a man on a mission, renting office space at ground zero. Talk about a hard sell.

LARRY SILVERSTEIN, REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER: 40,000 square feet of space, totally unobstructed. No columns of any kind on the interior.

O'BRIEN: His 52-story building overlooking the site is nearly done, ready for occupancy next March. It's called 7 World Trade Center, the same as the building it replaced. An office tower Silverstein developed in the 1980s, across the street from the trade center site. The last building to fall after the terror attack, it is the first to rise again. It took only two years for construction workers to finish the 741-foot steel frame. When the twin towers and five other buildings fell on September 11th four years ago, about 12 million square feet of office space was lost. Silverstein's goal? Replace it all.

SILVERSTEIN: We're at the beginning of the process. And that we have an obligation to do an extraordinary job to the very best of our ability.

O'BRIEN: The freedom tower will be next. The 1,776 foot iconic tower at the center of the master rebuilding plan. Silverstein knows companies may have the jitters about locating at ground zero so he's exceeding fire codes.

SILVERSTEIN: This is a two-foot section, two-foot thick section of concrete sheer wall.

O'BRIEN: Fire stairwells are wider than they need to be. A concrete casing reinforced with steel protects them and elevator banks. There are two sprinkler systems and stronger fireproofing.

SILVERSTEIN: What you've got here is a structure designed to withstand massive forces.

O'BRIEN: The rent is competitive for Manhattan, $50 a square foot. The views are arguably priceless. One little problem -- right now, Silverstein is the only tenant.

SILVERSTEIN: However, I tell you that it's my expectation that, in the not very distant future we will be signing additional tenants.

O'BRIEN: But it won't be easy. Sure, there is the fear factor, but also the companies displaced by 9/11 have moved on and there is a glut of empty office space in lower Manhattan. But Silverstein believes the 9/11 memorial might actually lure businesses, a destination work place, like the trade center Silverstein had the misfortune to lease for 99 years, just six weeks before it was destroyed. With an insurance payout of $4.5 billion, Silverstein hasn't missed a payment.

SILVERSTEIN: $120 million a year, $10 million a month, $300,000 a day, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays and that's why I have to get back to work. O'BRIEN: A man working furiously to restore the hole in the skyline.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Controversy about almost everything else at the site has delayed construction. The freedom tower has been designed and redesigned now three times. The city will begin work on a new $2.2 billion train station down there tomorrow. Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up in just a moment, more on today's top stories, including the anniversary of 9/11. Also evacuees from New Orleans are taking some steps toward getting back on their feet. It includes finding places to live outside of those emergency shelters. We're going to bring you live reports from Houston just ahead. You're watching a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

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M. O'BRIEN: Some signs of progress in the aftermath of Katrina. Floodwaters receding faster than expected in New Orleans.

Meanwhile, President Bush makes his third trip to the Gulf coast since Katrina hit. Will it quiet his critics?

Also a developing story for you, North Carolina's governor declares a state of emergency. Hurricane Ophelia looming offshore. We're tracking its unpredictable path.

And the fourth anniversary of 9/11, the nation honors the victims of those attacks on this AMERICAN MORNING.

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