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American Morning

Bush Returns to New Orleans; Road to Recovery; Battling Cancer

Aired September 12, 2005 - 9:00   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 live from New Orleans. I'm Miles O'Brien.
The president of the United States is here. He will take a tour and see some of the damage in the city of New Orleans like he has never seen it before. We'll have a full report for you on that.

And Hurricane Ophelia, meanwhile, continues to be a difficult storm off the coast of the Carolinas. People there are bracing for a storm that is very unpredictable. Nevertheless, with Katrina in mind, not taking any chances.

And in Washington, John Roberts begins some historic hearings. Will he be the next chief justice of the Supreme Court? Those fateful hearings are on the agenda on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A beautiful shot of the USS Iwo Jima. That's where President Bush is today. We're going to check back in with Miles in just a few moments.

First, though, a look at the "Mission Critical" news in the aftermath of Katrina.

Signs of recovery as the waters recede across New Orleans. Trash collection has begun. Officials say the city's main waste water treatment facility is going to be up and running today, and some residents will be allowed in for the very first time to retrieve items from their homes.

Louis Armstrong International Airport is open again. It's going to be available for limited passenger service starting on Tuesday.

And in Mississippi, electricity almost completely restored. About 70,000 mostly rural homes and businesses are still without power, down from about 800,000 after the storm.

The port of Biloxi showing the first signs of life. The Coast Guard has opened that port to limited commercial traffic.

Let's get back to Miles in New Orleans.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Soledad.

As you mentioned, the president is on the Iwo Jima this morning. He's going to be getting a briefing. As a matter of fact, he's in the midst of a briefing right now with state and local leaders.

It will be interesting to see. Oh, to be a fly on the wall in that one, given the criticism the president has received, particularly from the mayor of New Orleans, Mayor Nagin, just this past weekend, saying -- criticizing the president for not fully understanding the magnitude of the problem that was Katrina in the early hours afterward.

In any case, this is the president's third visit to the region in general on this, the two-week point after Katrina made landfall. He will spend the morning here, as we said, doing that briefing, touring around, seeing some of the hard-hit neighborhoods of the city of New Orleans.

And then he will make his way over to Gulfport, Mississippi, where today there's a little glimmer of good news. School has begun at one local school. Still a long way to go. The devastation there is, in some cases, complete.

And nevertheless, the president trying to fend off criticism that the federal response to Katrina was slow and sluggish, and in many cases completely inept. Three visits in a matter of 14 days, part of his effort to show that the federal government is trying to make good on making things better for the people who have been so hard hit here.

The city of New Orleans is a place that many of you have probably visited. The French Quarter is probably the place you've come.

It's interesting to see the French Quarter now. Not a lot of water damage there. And in many respects, a lot of the historical landmarks that you are familiar with are completely unscathed.

Sean Callebs is now in the midst of Jackson Square on Decatur Street nearby and gives us a sense of where the city is now in the historic French Quarter -- Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, the historic French Quarter, the first area really settled here and is actually above ground, and fared pretty well concerning floodwaters. Right across the street, Cafe Dumond, but no beignets or French roast this morning. Like virtually all other business necessary in this city, simply shut down.

And you're looking at some of the devastation. The remnants of a magnolia tree scattered along here in Decatur. But if you look out in Jackson Square, it is looking very pristine. Very plush green grass. Over the weekend, workers with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as well as with the Coast Guard, out with chainsaws, doing what they could to clear this area.

In another area of the city that the president will tour, the convention center, really a flash point that everything -- where everything went wrong immediately after Katrina blew through this area. Thousands were stranded with little or no food or water for days. They complained about the lack of federal assistance. Well, bulldozers cleaning off that site as well. And in the past hour, Miles talked with the Coast Guard, out doing search and rescue operations. Well, search and rescue, of course, will go on today.

They talked about the toxic soup that is really covering parts of this city. About 50 percent of New Orleans still under water. And it is just a mess.

It's hard to describe just how foul smelling it is. Of course that is sewage, debris, trash, just about anything you could imagine still floating in that water.

Lots of checkpoints still throughout the city. However, New Orleans has decided not to force the remaining 10,000 or so residents set up in this city at this -- at this point.

Apparently the cleanup effort is moving along somewhat well. And Miles, just a couple of minutes ago I had a chance -- walking down, I ran into a gentleman, and he works for a textile plant in Mississippi. And he brought down 2,000 new uniforms this morning for the New Orleans police officers, and he said they were very grateful. Of course many New Orleans officers losing basically everything they had -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: I would say they would be grateful for that. Sean Callebs in the French Quarter. Thanks very much.

Let's shift our attention a little bit to the east and go to Gulfport, Mississippi, where just a few moments ago an important bell rang. It was a bell that rang and signaled the beginning of classes at one elementary school. It's only one school, but you have to start somewhere.

CNN's Allan Chernoff is in Gulfport for us this morning.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

A lot of very happy parents this morning. The kids, well, you can see them behind me. Some smiling faces. Some not so smiley. But all of them adorable, and everybody glad to have the kids back to school here at the St. James Catholic Elementary School in Gulfport, the very first school to open in the region.

They have 300 kids here. Also taking in another 35 children who were displaced. So they're preparing to cut a ribbon in just a few moments, and then classes will actually begin here at school.

This, of course, a very important move towards getting back to normal, getting recovery going in the area of Gulfport. We spoke with the mayor earlier today, and he said the town is making progress, but there is still a very long way to go because the storm was simply so devastating.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BRENT WARR, GULFPORT, MISSISSIPPI: We thought that we knew what we were doing, what we were expecting. And man, when that thing came through here, it was totally devastating.

That Saffir-Simpson scale is -- they say it right, you know, complete and total destruction when you get to this level of a storm. And that's what we got.

We could have been staged better. To be honest with you, after Hurricane Dennis, I made a list of things that we needed to do for the next hurricane. That list was no more effective than had we been preparing for six months for this thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: Bottom line, the mayor said it wasn't FEMA's fault, it wasn't anybody's fault. It was really Katrina's fault.

It was just such a devastating storm, nobody could have fully prepared for it. But at least, as I said, we do have a step right here back towards normalcy, and more schools will be opening in the coming weeks.

Miles, back to you.

M. O'BRIEN: CNN's Allan Chernoff, Gulfport, Mississippi. Thank you very much -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Miles. Thanks.

Work begins today to select a new member of the Supreme Court and the chief justice of the United States. Judge John Roberts is going to be questioned by some of the Senate's most powerful members. Republican Arlen Specter leads the Judiciary Committee hearing.

Congressional Correspondent Ed Henry is live for us on Capitol Hill.

Ed, good morning to you. What do you expect strategy-wise from Senator Specter?

ED HENRY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Senator Specter is vowing he's going to be asking some very tough questions. He's already said he will not ask Judge Roberts whether or not he would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, but he will ask whether he believes the Constitution guarantees the right to privacy, sort of a sideways effort to ask the same question.

But another interesting story line here will be how Senator Specter holds up. While he's chairing these hearings he will be battling cancer. He told me when I sat down with him he's already beaten a brain tumor, he survived heart surgery. And he's going to beat cancer as well, though the struggle has been difficult.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R), PENNSYLVANIA: It's tough. And every day, candidly, it's difficult to get out of bed.

HENRY (voice over): Arlen Specter can barely recognize himself in the mirror. Hodgkin's Disease has taken his hair.

SPECTER: And I've lost eight, 10 pounds because it's hard to eat in the few days following the chemotherapy treatments. There's a need for a lot of sleep.

HENRY: Specter has had little time to rest, prepping for the grueling task of chairing the confirmation hearings for John Roberts. But he says hard work is the best therapy.

SPECTER: When I'm not fully engaged, then this headache comes over me, my eyes tear. I've made Kleenex wealthy, I've made Gatorade wealthy, trying to keep from being dehydrated.

HENRY: Specter, who was diagnosed in February, recently finished the chemo and says he's feeling better.

SPECTER: I'm going to beat it, Ed. I'm going to beat it.

HENRY: Specter is a moderate Republican known for his fierce independence. He has urged President Bush to keep the high court balanced and will aggressively question Judge Roberts about his views on key issues, like abortion.

SPECTER: I'm going to ask the questions and I'm going to do my best to get answers. And if the nominee stonewalls it, I think that nominee -- that nominee's chances for confirmation will go way down.

HENRY: Specter is also prodding the president and his top aides to boost stem cell research, which may help concur diseases like cancer. The senator is inspired by a friend with Parkinson's Disease who carries an hourglass to dramatize the emergency of the mission.

SPECTER: He turns it upside-down, and he says to me, "You see, Arlen Specter, my life is drifting away like these sands through the hourglass. And what are you doing about it?"

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HENRY: Since that interview, Senator Specter's hair has started growing back. He tells me he's feeling better all the time and is going to make it through these hearings just fine. In fact, when I asked whether he would have to slow down, he said, "Slow down? How do you spell that" -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: I was going answer that. Slow down? He doesn't even know what that is.

HENRY: No way.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Thanks, Ed.

Let's get right back to Miles in New Orleans -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much Soledad.

The president has already had his briefing. And we are expecting to see a little bit of videotape from that in just a moment.

He was briefed by the vice admiral from the Coast Guard who is now heading up the federal response here in theater, if you will. That's the -- it would be the Pentagon term. But in the region effected by Katrina, Thad Allen.

In addition, as we look at some of these pictures there, you can see some of the others as the president is listening in. The New Orleans mayor, Ray Nagin, there, the Louisiana governor, Kathleen Blanco, and Lieutenant General Russel Honore, who is a leader of the military operation on the ground here as well.

This is on board the Iwo Jima, which is the amphibious assault ship that we've been telling you about that has become quite a nexus of operations here for the federal response to Hurricane Katrina. Now 14 days since Katrina struck.

The president sat and listened, was briefed by -- primarily by Admiral Allen. And then is soon to be making his way on his in-person tour, getting the PowerPoint version first, and then actually seeing it on his own.

Not clear on the logistics of exactly where the president is headed. Of course, for security reasons, we wouldn't tell you that anyway. But nevertheless, we do know he is headed right into the heart of New Orleans. He'll see portions of the French Quarter and then some of the outlying neighborhoods that are submerged by water still.

Let's listen to a little bit of that briefing from the admiral.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ADM. THAD ALLEN: ... the city of New Orleans, he's been our major point of contact. He's the one that came to me right after I got here and said, "I need a place for my firemen and my policemen to go." And at that point there was a couple, Morgan City, Gulfport, Mobile, (INAUDIBLE). There's still issues being taken care of in those ports.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: There you have it, just a little glimpse of that briefing. That is not live. That's video that just happened a few moments ago.

And as you can tell, there's a fair amount of security, as you might suspect, with the president on board the Iwo Jima. A lot of helicopters overhead, some Coast Guard vessels in the Mississippi River, keeping all boats clear. And very soon we should see the president begin to make his way on this tour, on this, two weeks to the day after Katrina hit.

Thinking about what it was like two weeks ago at this moment, we really had no idea what the storm had brought here in New Orleans and all throughout the Gulf Coast, all the way down into Gulfport. As soon as we see the president make his move, and as soon as we see that tour under way, we will bring it to you. And we'll keep you posted on what's going on here in New Orleans -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Great. We're going to follow his progress obviously this morning. Thanks, Miles.

A state of emergency in North Carolina to tell you about as Hurricane Ophelia hovers near the East Coast. North Carolina's governor has put 200 National Guardsmen on standby in order that they can respond to the storm.

Let's get right to Chad Myers. He's got a look at the path.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Chad, we're going to watch it. Thanks.

You can stay with CNN for complete coverage of Hurricane Ophelia. CNN is your hurricane headquarters.

Still to come this morning, rebuilding New Orleans. What should be the first step in getting this city back on its feet? A closer look at that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Estimates are that about 40 percent of New Orleans is still under water. Even as the pumping goes on and the crews start to tackle the massive cleanup, the city is thinking about rebuilding. And that opens up a world of possibilities to civil planners.

Kristina Ford is the former planning director of New Orleans, and she's in Auburn, Maine, this morning.

Nice to talk to you. Thanks for being with us.

KRISTINA FORD, FMR. NEW ORLEANS PLANNING DIRECTOR: Thank you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Thank you.

When we look at the situation today, we know that New Orleans, as we heard from the Coast Guard that's been working on rescues, is really covered still with this kind of toxic, gooey sludge, at the very least. Still below sea level, obviously. Hurricanes still are going to plow through there over the next years and decades and centuries.

So what's the first step, in your mind, toward rebuilding? What do you do?

FORD: Well, I think the first thing is to have a realistic assessment of what has -- what has been demolished and what is still standing. The pictures that I've seen -- and, of course, I know New Orleans very well -- it looks like the tall buildings of the central business district may have water damage on the first floor, the second floor, but that they're otherwise structurally sound.

It looks like the French Quarter and the garden district are sufficiently high. Some buildings will have to be renovated, but that they haven't been demolished, or won't have to be demolished.

Then there are other sections of the town that I know very well, Holly Grove being one, the Lower 9th Ward and the 9th Ward, that are very low parts of town. The houses were fragile there in the first place, and many of them will probably have to be demolished, frankly. But I think that the first step would be to take just a very realistic assessment of what is there.

S. O'BRIEN: So if you demolish the houses in the Lower French Ward and the -- sorry, the Lower 9th Ward and the 9th Ward, do you rebuild in the same spot? I mean, aren't you still exposing those homes to the same problem?

Do you not build at all and reclaim the marshland there? What do you do with all the people that live there if that's the case?

FORD: Well, what I think is that we need to convene people who are experts in many fields. And I think this is such a national catastrophe, it will be easy to get the best minds in America to come.

Certainly we won't rebuild it the way that it was. That would leave still the poorest people in town in the greatest -- in the greatest path of destruction. But I don't know if what the thing to do is to fill that land, to make it as high as, say, the French Quarter is, or to simply say that's not a part of town that we're going to rebuild so that people live there.

There are ridges that run all through that town that are high. And I think -- that's one of the things you can see as you look at the aerial photographs. You'll see whole areas where there isn't much water.

But I think that as this -- as I say, the assessment of what is there, what needs -- what has to be demolished because it is simply structurally unsound is an issue that we can -- that we can settle. And then we can look at the town and see what can we build where that will keep people safe in the future? Because I think you're quite right, in the lead-in, we can't change the probabilities of hurricanes coming. They're going to come, and they'll come anywhere along the Gulf Coast. But what we can do is make sure the people who live there aren't so -- living so hazardously.

S. O'BRIEN: What kind of voice do you think the people who live there should have? I mean, I'm sure there are people in the 9th Ward and the Lower 9th Ward who will say, whoa, whoa, whoa, no, I don't want to send this back to marshland, or even build it up, or move my home? How much voice should they have?

FORD: Well, I think that any planner will tell you that the community has to have a part in all of this. And that they have to be taken seriously. I do know people in New Orleans who live in a neighborhood such as the Lower 9th Ward, or Holly Grove, they know each other. Many of them are related to each other. They're big cousins and families in those areas, and they want to be together. And I think it should be our business to make that possible.

But I also think that this is an opportunity for some young men and women in New Orleans to be given some building trade skills while they're waiting to be able to come back so that as we rebuild and as we rebuild their own neighborhoods, that they have a part in that, too, which is a skill that they can then use to have a more productive life in the future.

S. O'BRIEN: Christina Ford is professor of environmental studies at Boden College (ph) in Maine.

Thanks for talking with us.

FORD: Sure, thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get back to Miles in New Orleans this morning -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks very much, Soledad.

A lot of people when they have times of need turn to a chaplain, a priest, or whatever religious designation you choose for help and for guidance and for solace. But what does a chaplain do when he would like some help? We'll pose that question and get an answer from CNN's Dan Lothian when AMERICAN MORNING returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Live pictures now, Jackson Square, on this beautiful morning in the city of New Orleans. Two weeks after Katrina, a city that is largely devastated. And yet, piece by piece, back by bag of garbage, rescue by rescue, trying to get itself back on its feet.

It wasn't too long ago that we were talking about that horrible scene at the Louisiana Superdome in the wake of Katrina. It was considered the refuge of last resort for people who needed to evacuate. But it quickly devolved into something horrific in so many ways.

In the midst of all that came a chaplain who was asked time and again to counsel those who were sick and those who were dying in deplorable conditions. Dan Lothian has his story and how he, too, is finding help.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PASTOR TOBY NELSON, CHAPLAIN VOLUNTEER: We have been in the gates of hell. We have seen what hell is like.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Even a chaplain sent to New Orleans to provide spiritual and emotional support is overwhelmed.

NELSON: Words really fail me to try to get my arms around what we went through. But thank you that this family got out.

LOTHIAN: Chaplain Toby Nelson, a Presbyterian pastor from San Francisco, is attached to a disaster medical unit initially assigned to the Superdome shelter. He's still haunted by graphic memories.

NELSON: They were dying with indignity, in squalor, in chaos. I've had people die in my arms.

LOTHIAN: He has prayed for the dying and listened to the cries of hundreds of evacuees.

NELSON: They would talk about people dying, the wife dying in their arms after four days. And they would talk about the guilt that they would share, the family member that they were having a fight with and then in the flood they were separated. And now that other partner or loved one is gone.

LOTHIAN (on camera): He's also provided support to emergency workers and police officers who are hurting, too. Pastor Taylor (ph) says so many people are traumatized, are so off balance, that exhaustion is running deep.

(voice over): As we continued our walk around the M.A.S.H. unit at the New Orleans airport, the man of the cloth seemed vulnerable.

(on camera): Everybody comes to you as a chaplain to get emotional and spiritual support. Who do you turn to?

NELSON: That has been hard.

LOTHIAN: God?

NELSON: Yes, yes. All of our hearts are crying out, and we're asking all the primal questions. "God, where were you? God, if you're loving, why did you let this happen? God, if you're sovereign, why didn't you stop this? "

And they're the very same questions that I heard at ground zero on 9/11. I heard that thousands of times.

LOTHIAN: And what are the answers?

NELSON: There aren't any answers.

LOTHIAN (voice over): Profound mysteries, he says, that only compound the pain of this disaster. Even as the chaplain ministers, he is making plans for his own healing, arranging a week of counseling for himself when he returns home.

NELSON: Just trust the lord, OK? The lord knows. The lord knows.

LOTHIAN: Dan Lothian, CNN, New Orleans. (END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Well, everybody has their own style of healing in the wake of something like this. Sometimes it's talking to a therapist, sometimes it's talking to a member of the clergy. In other cases, it might be having a drink with some friends at the end of a long day.

We discovered just that scene in the heart of a very darkened French Quarter last night. The bar Johnny White's Sports Bar has a sign there that says "Open for 14 years straight." And even through Katrina that record remains intact. We'll talk with the manager of Johnny White's in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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