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CNN Live At Daybreak

Judging Roberts; FEMA Director Michael Brown Resigned Monday; Road To Recovery

Aired September 13, 2005 - 06:28   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The wrangling over Judge John Roberts begins today with questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee. Day one saw opening statements from the senators and the nominee himself.
In his opening statement, Judge Roberts compared himself to some other notable jurists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE JOHN ROBERTS, CHIEF JUSTICE NOMINEE: Judges and justices are servants of the law, not the other way around. Judges are like umpires. Umpires don't make the rules; they apply them. The role of an umpire and a judge is critical. They make sure everybody plays by the rules. But it is a limited role. Nobody ever went to a ballgame to see the umpire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Now that the opening statements are out of the way the questions can begin. But will there be any answers?

CNN national correspondent Bob Franken joins us now from Washington.

Good morning -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

Shall we torture the baseball analogy a little bit?

COSTELLO: I was impressed that he spoke without notes.

FRANKEN: Well, for six minutes, you do that all that all the time.

COSTELLO: Sometimes. But I'm not under all of that pressure.

FRANKEN: You have more viewers than he did yesterday.

But to follow with a baseball analogy, you can expect an awful lot of curve balls, maybe even some bean balls today, from the Democrats, who are going to be trying to get him to swing at some of their questions to try and get him to establish positions on such very, very sensitive issues such as abortion and civil rights and the like. And you can expect that Roberts will be in a way that he has become famous for being able to do, to look responsive without really being so. His Republican supporters say that he has to make sure that he doesn't compromise his ability to hear cases by establishing positions. The Democrats say that, no, they have a right to know what it is he'll be voting to confirm or reject.

COSTELLO: Well, this is what Chuck Schumer said. He said, I was surprised by my colleagues on the other side of the aisle -- and he's speaking of Republicans. If all you can say about a nominee is that he shouldn't answer questions, that's not the strongest argument starting out.

FRANKEN: Well, Chuck Schumer would not have been expected to have sided with the Republicans. And these are all fairly predictable arguments thus far. And to be perfectly honest about it, it's a fairly predictable outcome. There's a consensus that unless there is some tremendous surprise that Roberts is going to be bob and weave -- and go to another sport here -- bob and weave and avoid anything landing from the Democrats, and that he's going to sail along to an easy confirmation probably next week.

COSTELLO: Well, sweat has not furrowed his brow. So, we'll see what happens in the day to come. Bob Franken reporting live from Washington this morning.

In other news from across America now.

Should videotape from diaries made by the Columbine High School gunmen be released to the public? That's the issue before the Colorado Supreme Court today. The tapes show killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold showing off their arsenal and plotting their attack. Their parents argue the items are privately owned and not subject to a state open records law. Twelve students and a teacher were murdered in the 1999 attack.

You may recall the story of a baby two months premature to an unconscious, severely brain-damaged woman. Her mother, Susan Rollin Torres of Virginia, had been kept on life support until the baby's birth. Well, sad news. The 5-week-old infant has died.

And another heartbreaking story. Ohio police have rescued eight children kept locked in wooden cages. Police say the parents told them they put the 1 to 14-year-old child in the cages to protect them. The sheriff's department says the children are all either adopted or foster children.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. RANDY SOMMERS, HURON CO., OHIO SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT: We found the cages to be bare, small. There was no bedding or anything in the cages. The beds, if you will, had minimal bedding, but no other indication that they were provided for other than just a bare floor.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: The children's parents have not been charged yet. They had 11 children in all. Those found caged are listed in good condition at a hospital this morning.

Still to come on DAYBREAK, "act of God," three critical words for insurance companies. Next, an insurance expert shares vital information for every homeowner.

But first, a look at other headlines this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The international markets are mixed this morning. Tokyo's Nikkei is up just over five-and-a-half points, the London FTSE down 33, the German DAX down about 66 points.

Now back to Katrina recovery operations. The death toll from the hurricane officially stands at 512. But bodies are still being found around New Orleans.

CNN's J.J. Ramberg joins us live from that flooded city.

Good morning -- J.J.

J.J. RAMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

That death toll is expected to rise as people -- as the crews are able to reach more areas that had previously been hard to get to. They expect to find more bodies. And unfortunately, that number is going to rise.

Officials are saying, thought, that probably within the next few days they'll have a better assessment of the totals.

And on a positive note, when you drive around the streets here in New Orleans, we are seeing some progress of the cleanup efforts. You're seeing trees getting cut down. You're seeing the streets getting cleared. But there is still criticism that the progress is going too slowly, and people are hoping that some changes in Washington will speed that up.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAMBERG (voice over): Under a mountain of scathing criticism over his handling of Hurricane Katrina, Michael Brown resigned from his post as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Monday.

In his place, President Bush tapped David Paulison, a homeland security veteran best known for suggesting Americans stock up on duct tape and plastic sheeting after 9/11.

Still facing questions about the federal government's slow response to the disaster, President Bush returned to Washington after his first look at damage on the ground in New Orleans. It was the president's third visit to the Gulf Coast region in the two weeks since Katrina devastated the area. GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's very important for Congress to take a close look at what went on, what didn't go on, and come up with a series of recommendations.

RAMBERG: There's an ongoing attempt to find survivors in New Orleans who may need rescue.

CHIEF EDDIE COMPASS, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: Our efforts are still being put to save human life. And, you know, we're still following up on any information that we get. We still have boats out, but it's not the large number that we had in the beginning.

RAMBERG: In a small move towards normalcy, the Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans, which served as a field hospital for evacuees, will reopen today for a limited number of passenger flights.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Now, one of the issues officials here are extremely concerned with is the spread of illness. So just last night they started spraying insecticide to try and stop mosquito-borne illness from spreading -- Carol.

COSTELLO: J.J. Ramberg reporting live from New Orleans this morning. Thank you.

Three hours from now, acting FEMA Director David Paulison will deliver his first public comments since being named to the position. He and Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff plan to provide an operational update on Hurricane Katrina response and recovery efforts. And you can watch their news conference here live on CNN.

As Gulf Coast residents pick up the pieces of their lives after Hurricane Katrina, many are getting down to the nitty-gritty with their insurance companies. President Bush got an earful from one storm victim as he toured the damage in New Orleans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: She said, "I want to ask you something, Mr. President." She said, "How would you like it if your insurance company said, 'Ma'am, this is a flood event, and therefore I'm not going to cover your house?'" I said, 'I wouldn't like it a bit.'

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Not many people would. So, how can hurricane victims make sure they get treated fairly by their insurance companies?

Here to help us answer that question is Joanne Doroshow. She's executive director of the Center for Justice and Democracy.

First of all, Joanne, is there anything the president can do?

JOANNE DOROSHOW, CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY: Well, sure. In fact, what he and FEMA ought to be doing right now is making sure -- pressuring these insurance companies to pay these claims right off and not delay.

One of the issues that he just discussed was whether flood insurance or wind insurance or homeowners' policies are going to cover this damage. These claims need to be paid right now, and then the insurance companies and the government can figure out what the allocation should be.

Flood insurance is covered by -- is underwritten by the federal government.

COSTELLO: Oh. We'll get to that subject a little later. But first of all, I want to talk about the numbers of people calling your organization complaining about their insurance companies. What are you hearing?

DOROSHOW: Well, we set up a hotline under our coalition group, Americans for Insurance Reform. And we're already hearing from people who are having terrible problems even getting their agents or the companies on the phone to begin with.

But also, most people under their homeowners' policies are entitled to living expenses right off to cover their hotel and food that they are purchasing right now.

COSTELLO: And they say they are not getting that money.

DOROSHOW: Some people are not. You have situations, for example, with one company, Travelers. They have one office in Baton Rouge. They're asking all of their policyholders to travel to Baton Rouge to file these claims.

You know, it's hard enough for anybody to do that, let alone if you're sick and elderly. So, they're unable to get the money that they should be getting right off.

So, these are very, very difficult circumstances for people.

COSTELLO: I know. Let's get back to the flood insurance, because the insurance companies would say, if you didn't buy flood insurance, then we don't cover you for flood damage. Now, during a hurricane when the wind blows down your house, that's obviously hurricane damage. But if there's a storm surge, and your home is flooded, that's probably not covered, right?

DOROSHOW: Well, there's going to be wind and rain damage to your home before the storm surge. So, whatever percentage would come under the wind damage should be paid by the insurance companies.

But what we're saying is they need to pay these claims right now. Then figure out what the allocation is, instead of waiting and going through a long process. Meanwhile, these people are not going to get any money at all.

You know, and there is... COSTELLO: But you know there is going to be arguments. You know that a lot of homeowners will be emotionally distressed anyway. A lot of them will be stretched very thin financially. And they've got to, you know, look at this insurance agent and say, look, this damage was caused by the hurricane.

I mean, what can they say? What should they say to get the insurance agent to understand their point of view?

DOROSHOW: Well, what's very, very important, first of all, is for everybody to keep very good records of everything. Now, those people that are back in their homes or never left -- I mean, there are many people in damaged homes. They need to document everything. They need to immediately list what all of their possessions were, anything that was damaged. They need to get as much justification for that as they possibly can.

And then, if the insurance agent or claims adjuster denies the claim, they need to ask exactly what in that policy is causing them to deny that claim or lowball it.

COSTELLO: So, what if they say, you know, you didn't have flood insurance; there's nothing we can do?

DOROSHOW: Well, then -- you know, then we can complain to the -- if that's true, that's one thing. It may not be true. There may be all kinds of abuses going on. In fact, we're asking the government to step up and exercise some oversight here, because of the potential for abuse here.

The reason there is potential is because if you're an insurance company, and you know the federal government is covering the flood insurance claim, and your reserves are covering homeowners, well, there's a real conflict of interest there. And you can see a lot of abuse where they're going to be over-declaring things as flood as opposed to wind damage.

So, what we're doing is we're trying to maintain a database of complaints to make sure that these kinds of abuses don't occur, and report these abuses to state insurance departments. Keep the interest hopefully among the media in all of this, because I think having the oversight is the only way to keep them somewhat honest in all of this.

COSTELLO: Well, I'm sure in the weeks to come we're going to be hearing from many angry homeowners, because there's bound to be problems. Just out of curiosity, how many calls are you getting?

DOROSHOW: Well, we opened our hotline yesterday, and we immediately got 30 calls. We expect that we're going to be getting many, many calls today and for the rest of the week. People are having a real hard time right now with their insurance companies.

COSTELLO: Well, we'll keep in touch. Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Center for Justice and Democracy. Thanks for joining us this morning.

DOROSHOW: Thank you.

COSTELLO: The latest Gallup poll is a poignant example of the racial divide in this country even in terms of perceptions. Gallup asked if the federal government was slow in rescuing the people of New Orleans, because many of the victims were black. Twelve percent of whites and 60 percent of blacks said yes, while a whopping 86 percent of whites and 37 percent of blacks say no, race did not play a role.

The highest-ranking African-American in President Bush's cabinet is adding her voice to the debate. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tells "The New York Times" the images of the hurricane victims are evidence that -- quote -- "There are still places that race and poverty are a huge problem in the United States, and we've got to deal with that." Rice says it's a vestige of particularly the Old South in this case.

Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 6:45 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

It is day two of Judge John Roberts' Supreme Court confirmation hearings. And he could face some tough questions. Democratic senators want to know his views on some key issues like abortion and civil rights.

In money news, Oracle says it's agreed to buy rival Siebel Systems for more than nearly $6 billion. The company said the deal should be done by early next year.

In pop culture, Michael Jackson is lining up the talent for a song to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Among those on board, Mariah Carey, Snoop Dog, James Brown and Mary Blige.

In sports, Barry Bonds is back after knee surgery, and the Giants fans could not be happier. Bonds hit a ground rule double in his first at bat of the season. And that was the only hit of the game. But the Giants still won 4-3 over the Padres.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh, Carol, it was a home run.

COSTELLO: Well, but it was fan interference.

MYERS: Yes, but -- I don't know. I don't think he reached over far enough to get the ball. It should have been a home run. Give him -- oh, whatever. It could have been 704. I could have been a contender.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: You know, yesterday we were wondering what the New Orleans Saints were going to do for their home games. Well, now we know. The team says they will play three games at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. That includes the game on the day before Christmas. But they'll keep four home games in their home state. For those, they'll play at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Of course, the first home game is scheduled for this coming Monday night at Giants Stadium in the Meadowland. Still to come on DAYBREAK, one of CNN Radio's correspondent, Ed McCarthy, is just back from the disaster zone. He'll share his stories of Katrina's aftermath.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Back to hurricane coverage. Miles O'Brien is in New Orleans this morning with a look at what's going on now and what's coming up on "AMERICAN MORNING."

Good morning -- Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Carol.

By now, most of our viewers know what the 17th Street Canal in New Orleans means. It's an important canal that was designed to handle floodwater in the case of a hurricane, moving it from the Mississippi River into Lake Pontchartrain. But it didn't work out that way, as we well know, during Katrina.

And I'm standing on the most significant breach in the flood wall of the 17th Street Canal. It's been temporarily patched by the Corps of Engineers. But this morning there are lots of questions about the temporary fixes. There was a levee not too far from here that sprung a leak that had been similarly repaired.

How long will it take to get that water out of here? Lots of questions about that.

And finally, there is word that the damage to the levees all around New Orleans may be much greater than initially anticipated. Lots of implications to that, Carol.

So, we're going to talk to levees. We're going to talk to the man in charge of the Corps of Engineers for the New Orleans district in just a little bit.

COSTELLO: We look forward to that. Thank you, Miles.

The EPA is under fire for its handling of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The Society of Environmental Journalists accuses the EPA of being slow to release details, especially about water testing and the environmental consequences of Katrina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PERRY BEEMAN, SOCIETY OF ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISTS: We think the people deserve to be able to look at all of the information, and they have the information from week-old data now and week-old samples. EPA is sampling every day. Where's the rest of it? We'd like to see it. People deserve it. Americans deserve it. And certainly journalists would like to take a look at it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And they filed a Freedom of Information Act, and they want more information from the EPA. We'll keep you posted.

Someone who trudged through that dirty water and may be wondering what effects he'll see is here with us now. Ed McCarthy of CNN Radio joins us from Atlanta to share some of his personal experiences covering Katrina.

Good morning -- Ed.

ED MCCARTHY, CNN RADIO: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about that dirty water, first and foremost. Will you ever know exactly what's in that water, you think?

MCCARTHY: So many things are in that water, and the smell was just incredible. Jim Rufe (ph) has been describing it, too, as indescribable. You just can't get the feeling of what that water contains when you're there, but you know that you really don't want to touch it or get near it in many cases.

We were all through New Orleans. And with that smell, you wonder exactly what is coming through your senses. So, of course, people are being urged in that area to get their shots and seek medical attention, because of the toxicity.

COSTELLO: Well, Ed, let me stop you there, because I'm sure that you trudged through that water, because at some point you must have had to. I mean, I would be wondering what the future holds as far as your health is concerned, because you don't know what's in that water right now.

MCCARTHY: We really don't. We've just been told that -- we got tetanus shots, the hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and we'll be getting a regiment of booster shots. So, we'll find out later.

There is a vast unknown here, but we were doing our jobs in getting through this water, as you say, and doing the best we could so we could get our reporting done. In many turns the water was so high that we had to turn away and look for different locales to get around. Of course, some of our CNN journalists were trudging through, and they were in boats getting through. And a lot of people touched that water as well.

So, you know, we are concerned. But we'll see what the future holds for us.

COSTELLO: And the many people still there they've got to be concerned as well and very courageous to stay. And the rescue workers working in all of that water, kudos to them.

I want to ask you what your most poignant memory is.

MCCARTHY: I've had many, so many of them. Each and every day the people that I met down there, people that -- one gentleman that I met in particular. Antonio Douglas, I believe, was the gentleman's name. And he told me that he had 15 people from a senior citizens' home under his wing. And they were at the airport for medical treatment, and he took care of those people.

And we hear about the horrible stories about staff members that left and left the senior citizens unattended, and they were not able to survive, many of them trying to jam wheelchairs against doors to hold back the raging floodwaters.

So, when you meet people like this, there are so many heroes amongst the crowd in New Orleans and in Mississippi.

And I must say that these people are just so hardened and just so resilient that they will bounce back.

I met a gentleman yesterday at a Salvation Army refugee evacuation shelter in Atlanta. And he was telling me that he'll be going back, because he's in the construction trades business. And he said that he'll eventually make out fine.

He also told me that his son was in high school here now in Atlanta. And the coach asked him if he played football, and he said he did down in New Orleans. And he said, well, you'll be playing here. So, he was pretty happy about that. It was an excellent opportunity for the children at least to get into some semblance of normalcy.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Atlanta has been very generous, especially the state of Georgia school system just outstanding. More than 7,000 students are being absorbed by the school system in the state of Georgia.

Ed McCarthy, thank you for joining us, and thank you for your fine reporting. We appreciate it.

MCCARTHY: Carol, thank you for having me on. I appreciate it this morning.

COSTELLO: Oh, any time.

When we come back, more headlines and a look at your travel forecast. You're watching DAYBREAK for a Tuesday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Before we sign off, a quick travel update for you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: "Now in the News."

Some residents along the Carolina coast are being told to evacuate voluntarily as Tropical Storm Ophelia inches closer towards them. The erratic storm is expected to make landfall late Wednesday or early Thursday.

David Paulison is stepping in as acting FEMA chief in the wake of Michael Brown's resignation. Paulison brings to the job 30 years of experience in fire and rescue work. He and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff are expected to hold a briefing on the hurricane recovery later this morning.

And all of the niceties are being put aside today on Capitol Hill. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are expected to begin asking John Roberts pointed questions. This is day two of Roberts' confirmation hearings to become the nation's chief justice.

From the Time Warner center in New York, I'm Carol Costello along with Chad Myers. "AMERICAN MORNING" starts right now.

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