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CNN Live At Daybreak

North Carolina Coast Takes Pounding From Hurricane Ophelia; Big Picture in Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

Aired September 15, 2005 - 06:00   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is Thursday, September 15.
A hard look at recovering from one hurricane as a new one bears down on America's coastline. The North Carolina coast takes a pounding from Hurricane Ophelia and the storm is not going anywhere for at least 24 hours. We'll get the latest from the coast straight ahead.

The big picture in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina. Some inside details on the recovery effort from the man who used to be in charge.

Plus, New Orleans mayor talks about his new plan for repopulating the city.

And President Bush heads back to the hurricane zone. He will address the nation tonight.

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.

COSTELLO: And good morning to you.

Also ahead this morning, separated during the storm -- we'll tell you about a rescue that could end in an underwater reunion today.

But first, now in the news, it's been another deadly day in Iraq. Within the last two hours, two suicide car bombs reported in Baghdad. Those attacks killed four police officers. Earlier, a suicide car bomber killed 16 police commandos in Baghdad. Other attacks killed 10.

British authorities have detained seven foreign nationals considered a threat to national security. They were taken into custody in raids in London and Manchester about five hours ago.

Judge John Roberts goes back before the Senate Judiciary Committee four-and-a-half hours from now. This is day three of his confirmation hearings to become the nation's chief justice.

To the Forecast Center -- let's check in with Chad and Ophelia.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Ophelia right here, Carol.

Now it has moved away from, let's say, Morehead City, Atlantic Beach, where our reporters have been, and now moving up toward Ocracoke and also into Cape Hatteras. We also have another reporter up toward Nags Head.

But here is the eye of the center itself. I mean this is still 50 to 60 miles wide. The center never really did get all that compact because the smaller the eye is, the more wind speed you have, the more potential wind speed you have, because you have a smaller, let's say a spinning cup.

Remember that thing called Tilt-A-Whirl when you were a kid, you used to go on it? Well, the whole thing spun but then your little ride spun, too. And you could really get that smaller ride going much faster than that big thing, kind of in the big rip going there.

But we never saw that eye tighten up. Still seeing winds now over 70 miles per hour at Ocracoke and about 55 miles per hour at Cape Hatteras. And even up toward Rodanthe and Kill Devil Hills winds are picking up 30, 40 miles per hour.

Part of the problem with this, the Pamlico River and the Neuse River here getting filled up with water, not rainwater, saltwater, because the wind has been blowing the same direction for so very long. It's been blowing the water into those rivers, into Pamlico Sound. And we're seeing about an eight to 10 foot storm surge up those rivers this morning.

Look at the path that this storm took. It took a loop over Florida, at least to the east of Florida. It did another loop here. It did a turn as it tried to get to about, oh, what is that, Myrtle Beach? It turned right and now it's turning again and it's out into the ocean.

Now, this line does take it a little farther to the north and to the northwest than it did earlier today. And that forecast could be anywhere from eastern Long Island all the way over to Newfoundland. We'll have to see where it goes from here, though, Carol.

You need to watch it if you live in the Northeast.

COSTELLO: I will be watching.

MYERS: Yes. This has happened before, where storms down here have actually made a double landfall.

COSTELLO: All right. Well, I hope not.

MYERS: I hope not.

COSTELLO: But, thank you, Chad.

MYERS: OK.

COSTELLO: We'll get back to you.

MYERS: Yes.

COSTELLO: Let's get right to the ground now where Ophelia is being felt. CNN's Susan Candiotti is in the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

She joins us live from Nags Head -- hello, Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

Yes, talk about double landfalls -- Andrew, about 10 years ago, right? Katrina, double landfall. Again, hope this won't happen with Ophelia, but -- and certainly no comparison in strength, naturally, to those two very powerful and killer hurricanes.

But here, not so bad because we are in Nags Head. We're talking about that. And tropical storm force winds, I don't know, maybe periodic gusts. But the wind is relatively light here. Certainly strong gusts from time to time as Ophelia bears down on this area. But it could take hours before we start to feel the worst of it because we are north of Hatteras there.

And we spent some time there yesterday. I would say that most of the residents -- and this is according to officials, as well -- have hunkered down and are staying put. The tourists have cleared out. Remember, that area, Hatteras Island, is under a mandatory evacuation order. Where we are now there are now evacuation orders. And people here, again, pretty much staying put, as well.

We did get some numbers from the state. So far statewide, more than 100,000 power customers are doing without so far this day and 51 shelters -- yesterday they were talking about 61 -- are currently open. So clearly not as many people have sought shelter as they might have first thought. About 2,000 people in all have made their way to safety at those locations.

Of course, flooding and beach erosion is going to be a major problem. It's just too dark right now to show you the shoreline, but it's just over my shoulder now, so everyone is bracing themselves for some very bad beach erosion here in Nags Head and up the island.

But the 27 coastal counties have declared a state of emergency because they are expecting a lot of rain and a lot of wind. However, unlike, perhaps, Katrina, they have many more people here than usual, let's say, for Ophelia, propositioned -- National Guardsmen, emergency officials propositioned to come in and deliver water as needed, ice as needed, food as needed.

So, Carol, we expect a long day ahead of us.

COSTELLO: I'm sure you'll have one.

Susan Candiotti live in Nags Head this morning.

Thank you.

North Carolina's governor warns that flooding could hit inland areas because of the rain swollen rivers. You heard Susan mention that. One of those communities is New Bern, North Carolina. We're going to talk to New Bern's mayor. That's coming your way in about 10 minutes.

Now for our mission critical update.

New Orleans' mayor is beating President Bush to the punch. He got a plan together to bring his people back to the city. Ray Nagin says his initiative to repopulate New Orleans is moving so fast, it may shock people. He says temporary stores and services will be set up for people returning to their neighborhoods.

Here's what else he told Larry King.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM CNN'S "LARRY KING LIVE")

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: I'm going to announce a phased repopulation plan that is going to deal with some of the areas that were least hit by the hurricane and had less water. And then within the next week or two, we should have about 180,000 people back in the City of New Orleans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Nagin says he now has the resources to begin rebuilding the city. That sentiment was echoed by Governor Kathleen Blanco, who says she will not rest until every evacuee is reunited with loved ones. Blanco also accepted responsibility for some of the slow response in the wake of Katrina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO (D), LOUISIANA: There were failures at every level of government -- state, federal and local. At the state level, we must take a careful look at what went wrong and make sure it never happens again. The buck stops here. And as your governor, I take full responsibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Former FEMA Director Michael Brown is also pointing the finger and he's pointing it right at Kathleen Blanco.

In his first interview since resigning, Brown told the "New York Times" that the governor's staff was incapable of handling the situation. He also says he asked the White House to take over the response effort just one day after the hurricane hit. He said he made several calls. Brown also said, though: "I truly believed the White House was not at fault here."

But, a senior administration official told the "Times" that Brown "did not show them the same sense of urgency he described in the "New York Times" interview."

President Bush is making his fourth trip to the hurricane region today. The president will stop first in Mississippi before traveling on to New Orleans.

CNN Radio's Jim Roope is there. He joins us live -- good morning, Jim.

JIM ROOPE, CNN RADIO CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about this nursing home first. There is another nursing home in the New Orleans area where 14 people were found dead.

Tell us about that.

ROOPE: Well, it's very sad. This time it wasn't the floodwaters, but it was the heat and most likely the lack of proper medication that they needed. But 14 elderly people did pass away waiting to be rescued.

The floodwaters, while they surrounded some of the area there, really cut off this nursing home. It became sort of an island of itself and you could see people pushing -- that have pushed the beds out into the hallway in an attempt to be cooler, even pillows and blankets outside as people attempted to cool themselves off, sleeping outside or staying outside.

But they just weren't able to survive the severe heat.

COSTELLO: So these people died of dehydration and because of the heat. There were MREs there, though, so someone...

ROOPE: Right.

COSTELLO: ... had gotten to them.

ROOPE: Well, you know, that's -- we're going to have to find out what that's all about. Whether that was -- those were remnants of MREs that were given to those who did survive at the time that they were rescued or whether people -- a patrol did go by and give food and said we'll be back for you, that's unknown yet. We'll have to wait and see what exactly that's all about.

But it's very odd. I think we talked earlier about the fact that if there were MREs there, if people were there, why weren't they evacuated at that moment? It could have been just a patrol and they threw them some food. I don't know. We'll find out as the investigation goes on. And there will be an investigation.

COSTELLO: I'm certain there will.

On another topic, we get a lot of e-mails from people asking a lot of questions. This is from Annie from Terryville, Connecticut. She says her father is buried in New Orleans. "His remains are in a mausoleum in a cemetery off Canal Street. I have not heard any mention of how the cemeteries have been affected by the floods. I really hate the thought of my father's casket floating somewhere down Canal Street and no one is there to retrieve it."

Can you help her? ROOPE: Well, one of the first things I did when I got here was to check out the cemeteries, because you can't really dig a very deep hole in New Orleans without running into water. So, for the most part, people are buried above ground in mausoleums. The crypts are above ground.

I went to several cemeteries, including the oldest one, Cemetery Number One, I believe it's called, and I saw no damage to any of those. In fact, there were people living in the cemetery because a lot of those cemeteries were dry.

And I don't -- I don't want to be indelicate or this doesn't mean to be disrespectful, please understand, but I didn't see any corpses from cemeteries floating or I didn't see any caskets floating about.

So I think the cemeteries held up pretty well through all of this. At least I've not heard nor have I seen anything wrong with the cemeteries.

COSTELLO: OK. Well, I hope that makes Annie feel a little better this morning.

Jim Roope reporting live from New Orleans this morning.

They're.

A programming note now. CNN will have live coverage of the president's address from Louisiana tonight. Tune in for our complete coverage. That begins at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

And still to come this hour on DAYBREAK, having your morning cup of Joe? Even your morning habits could change because of Katrina. We'll explain how.

Plus, sticking together through the worst storm of their lives. We're not talking about humans now, we're talking about dolphins. We're going to talk to a man on a mission to save them.

And later, from TV to airlines and now oil refineries, a familiar billionaire has a new American business venture in mind and it could bring gas prices down.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Thursday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Hurricane Ophelia is an unwelcome visitor to the North Carolina coast and it's the storm that just won't leave, at least not any time soon. And apparently Mayor Tom Bayliss of New Bern, North Carolina is not leaving either.

Mayor Bayliss joins us live now.

Good morning, Mr. Mayor.

MAYOR TOM BAYLISS, NEW BERN, NORTH CAROLINA: Good morning.

COSTELLO: I take it you're inside your home.

BAYLISS: Oh, yes.

COSTELLO: OK, New Bern is near Cape Fear, right?

Tell us what the weather is like now.

BAYLISS: Well, New Bern actually is on the east coast. And the weather right now is gusty, probably 35 miles an hour gusts. We've -- New Bern has been here, it'll be 300 years in 2010. So it's seen its share of hurricanes over its history. And this one has been a, you know, you hear about people or cities or whatever dodging a bullet? Well, we pretty much dodged a big, slow moving bullet, I can tell you.

COSTELLO: Well, there's going to be a lot of rain associated with this storm, though, isn't there?

BAYLISS: Yes. That's what we hear. And it's been a -- we've been pretty lucky. Some of the surrounding towns, from what I can understand, have not been as lucky, and especially out toward the Outer Banks areas or actually up the Neuse River. The Neuse River, I think, is the widest river in the whole United States at its mouth. And we're upstream, you might say, from it some. And I mean we're on the Neuse River, but we're, you know, we're not at the real wide end of it. So we've been pretty lucky.

COSTELLO: Yes.

BAYLISS: We've got, I think, eight feet's worth of water out of this thing.

COSTELLO: So because this is a slow moving storm, though, it will produce a lot of rain and sustained winds over the next day or so. You're really going to take it.

BAYLISS: Yes.

COSTELLO: Now, is there a mandatory evacuation order for your town and surrounding towns?

BAYLISS: I think it may be in some of the surrounding towns. We don't have one here. We've had, you know, water rising in what we would call the usual places. In fact, right here where my house is, is one of them. And I'm pretty well surrounded by it right now. But, you know, it's nothing that we haven't seen before in that sense. It's just been a very, very unusual situation because of the slow moving. I mean this thing just keeps on pumping.

COSTELLO: Oh, it does.

We have heard that there were -- there was extra help called in. You know, in the wake of Katrina everyone had just wanted to be sure. In fact, we've heard shelters are open, there are more National Guard troops on standby. What are you seeing?

BAYLISS: Well, we don't really have that situation right here in New Bern, as I was saying. We have been pretty lucky insofar as the effects from the storm. I mean we've got the high water and we've had power on and off during the night.

But I'd like to brag on our city workers a little bit. We've got some absolutely excellent people in all of our different departments and they're used to this sort of thing over time. We don't have a lot of them but they just get better and better at it. And I'll tell you, I wouldn't be anywhere else when it -- these kind of situations come.

And so they know what they're doing and they can handle it pretty well.

COSTELLO: Well, let me ask you this, Mayor.

As you looked at what unfolded in the wake of hurricane Katrina, what went through your mind?

BAYLISS: What, you mean when we saw what happened to them?

COSTELLO: Yes.

BAYLISS: Well, you know, when you -- North Carolina had what was called a 500 year flood here about four or five years back. And, you know, when you get hit by something that's once in 500 years, you kind of wonder, you know, why you were marked, so to speak. And I think the folks down in Louisiana were hit with something they'd never seen before. And it was of such an overwhelming, you know, situation until they, you know, probably couldn't handle it as well as they would have because they'd never seen anything like it.

And so we've been pretty well blessed, at least in this city, in New Bern, that most of what we have seen, we've seen before, except in the case of this particular storm with -- I don't think we've ever seen anything that moved as slow as it did and just continued to pump at a slow, steady rate.

In fact, I think the water may be at the point now that it may be turning and going back. But I can't swear to it. The thing has been pumping all night.

COSTELLO: I know. Chad likes to show us these strange computer models showing the spaghetti pattern that he likes to talk about. And also 100,000 people throughout the State of North Carolina now without power.

Mayor Bayliss, thank you for joining us this morning.

We appreciate it.

BAYLISS: Well, we appreciate the interest.

COSTELLO: Still to come on DAYBREAK, rescuing the dolphins left to fend for themselves, something these particular mammals have never done before. We'll tell you about the latest on the rescue effort on DAYBREAK.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A little "Business Buzz" for you now.

There are signs that things are slowly getting better in New Orleans.

But as Carrie Lee will tell us, hurricane Katrina is effecting consumers around the country in some unexpected ways.

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And this is important for earlier risers like us and our viewers. Right here, your coffee cup.

COSTELLO: Oh, yes.

LEE: Katrina might make it harder, of all things, to get coffee. The hurricane damaged Procter & Gamble's Folgers plants in New Orleans. P&G says that could cause shortages of Folgers and Millstone coffee, which together account for about 40 percent of the U.S. coffee market. And tight supply, well, you know, what that typically means for prices, too.

The company is taking the first steps to get its production facilities back up and running. More than 100 employees and contractors are working to repair damaged equipment and phone lines.

Now, one good sign in the recovery efforts, airlines are starting to resume flights into New Orleans. Northwest Airlines flew the first commercial flight into the city yesterday, carrying about 30 people, including some emergency workers. Also, Continental Airlines plans to resume flights Monday with four daily round-trips between New Orleans and Houston. And American, the biggest U.S. carrier, still plans to resume service November 1, but that date could be moved up.

Speaking of airlines, Carol, following up on our story yesterday, Delta and Northwest did both file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last night.

COSTELLO: But they assure customers the tickets are still good. Frequent flier miles are still good.

LEE: Still good. Now, you might see some things like fewer flights, some delays, things like that, as they sort through this -- the details. But, yes, technically they are still flying. They are still honoring Frequent flier miles.

COSTELLO: A quick look at the futures?

LEE: Things looking up for today's session. We will get a key gauge of inflation at the consumer level. It's expected to rise for August because of -- you can probably guess -- high energy prices.

That's the latest. COSTELLO: Yes, I was just looking to see if I got the latest on the average price of a gallon of gas. It hasn't come in yet.

LEE: Oh, but we're still below $3, I believe.

COSTELLO: Yes, we are.

LEE: So that's good.

COSTELLO: Yesterday we were about $2.95 a gallon.

LEE: The psychological threshold.

COSTELLO: Yes.

Thanks, Carrie.

Appreciate it.

Let's talk about the plight of the dolphins. I guess you could call it that. Trainers and scientists are trying to rescue eight dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico. They were washed out to sea, so to speak, after Katrina hit the aquarium in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Aquarium director Moby Solangi joins me now.

He's live in Gulfport.

Good morning, Moby.

MOBY SOLANGI, MARINE LIFE OCEANARIUM: Hi.

Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Oh, when you see these dolphins, I mean it just does, it touches your heart. I mean these eight dolphins suddenly appear in the Gulf of Mexico, all huddled together.

How surprised were you?

SOLANGI: Well, it's just been a miracle. I mean they just came right back to our front door. They were gone for about 10 days and, you know, they had been out there with no food and no protection. These are domesticated animals. Some of them were captive born. And they have no hunting skills and they were, I think, delighted to see the trainers.

We spotted them with a helicopter on Saturday and we've been feeding them right outside the harbor. And hopefully today or tomorrow we'll be able to recover some of them.

COSTELLO: Before we get into the rescue effort, how do you think they managed to survive after they were washed from their aquarium?

SOLANGI: Let me tell you, if they could speak, we would really find out the truth. But it has probably been a very incredible journey for them. There was a lot of debris, a lot of problems in the environment. And our initial efforts really didn't show that they were there. And so where they went and how they managed to come back in such a vast environment, it's just an enigma.

I mean I have no words to explain how they could come right back to the aquarium after they lost.

COSTELLO: They're hungry.

I can see your trainers out there trying -- getting the dolphins on a raft, it looks like. And that's where they feed them fish and things. But why can't you tempt the dolphins to come closer to shore so you can get them out of the water?

SOLANGI: Well, we are trying to do that. They're really nervous. What we did was we put some mats and platforms in the sea so that they have some sort of homing area where they know they're going to be fed in this area. We're going to move the mats slowly. Some of them can beach on the mat and we may be able to recover them that way.

We will move the mat toward shallow water and then hopefully be able to rescue them that way.

COSTELLO: How long can they survive out there?

SOLANGI: I think, you know, we are very concerned. You know, there are concerns about the environment and some of the pollutants. You know, we would like to do it as soon as possible, but we would, you know, I think they would probably do OK for another week or two.

COSTELLO: You know, some of the most touching pictures that I saw is some of the dolphins were jumping and doing their tricks out there for your trainers.

SOLANGI: Yes, that was amazing. I mean, I know the first time the trainers got in touch with them, I mean they were just all over them. I mean they were feeding, they were hungry, they were really -- I mean they were just jumping and flipping. And I mean it was just an incredible sight. And I think that teaches us that these animals that are dependent on us, you know, really need us. And I think the trainers have spent an enormous amount of time making sure that these animals have company.

COSTELLO: Well, we're going to check back with you to see how the rescue effort is going.

We appreciate you joining us this morning.

SOLANGI: Thank you very much.

COSTELLO: Good luck, Moby.

SOLANGI: Thank you, ma'am.

Bye-bye.

COSTELLO: Bye.

Still to come on the last half hour of DAYBREAK, cleaning up after Katrina's mess and the mayhem. Two live reports from New Orleans, where the physical part is taking place, and Washington, where the political side is unfolding more clearly this morning.

Also ahead, accused of a lowly deed in the wake of a disaster. We'll have the low down on these alleged impostors.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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