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American Morning

Hurricane Ophelia Hits North Carolina; Louisiana Governor Takes Blame; Mississippi Towns Destoryed; Salt Lake City Home to Evacuees; Restaurants to Reopen

Aired September 15, 2005 - 07:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It has the feel of a post apocalyptic kind of movie that you might seen. Streets just strew with trash. Empty all you see all night long are just the blue lights of the police officers that are here trying to avoid any sort of looting. The mayor of this city would like to see this place a thriving place of jazz and benyas (ph) in the matter of a couple of weeks. It's an ambitious plan. We're going to probe this morning whether it's a realistic one.
Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Miles, thanks. We'll get bach to you in just a little bit.

And we're going to move, in fact, from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to what could happen with Hurricane Ophelia. The storm is hovering right now along the edge of North Carolina's outer banks. Wind speeds just a category one but the speed which it's moving might actually be the bigger problem. That brings us right to Chad Myers. He's at the CNN Center and has the latest on this storm for us.

Hey, Chad. How's it looking?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know it's been a problem, Soledad, for the past 24 hours. This thing moved from right here on the bottom of the screen to only right here. And that's like five miles per hour. So 150, 100 miles, all the way up here with the battering ram of the eye wall. Now under Ocracoke Island just about to Cape Hatteras and that's about it really.

The rest of the storm losing some intensity. In fact, really losing its eye wall shape a little bit. It could reform a rounder eye wall, maybe a smaller eye wall. But right now it's just not doing that. We just have this large flow of water, waves and wind right on to Ocracoke Island, doing a lot of damage to the beaches there.

Other than that, where does this thing go from here? Well, by 2:00 it's just south of Cape Hatteras, so the winds are still there. But by tomorrow, it's actually moved out to the north Atlantic.

And you say, oh, good. That's great. Well, wait a minute, no, the cone is still here for a possible second landfall from Martha's Vineyard back possibly as far west as Long Island, although I doubt it. It does looks like this thing's still going to wobble. Look at these, twists, turns, up and down, a loop, complete 360. Tried to get to Myrtle Beach. Said, no, let's turn right.

And now it is still moving out into the Atlantic Ocean and eventually, even into some fairly warm water here, maybe a little regeneration. But by the time it gets closer to the northeast, the water gets much colder so therefore we're not going to see that thing turn into much more than what you have now. But look at Cape Lookout, 92 miles per hour. Certainly was a hurricane.

Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Chad, how unusual is it that the hurricanes come on and they're very slow and also have that I mean, I've never I'm not a meteorologist, but I've never seen that loop backwards and then continuing on its path before.

MYERS: No, not really. This really this storm tried to bring the warm water and the warm air from the south to the north and a high pressure got in the way. And that high pressure said, no, you can't go anywhere until I leave. Well, now, finally, the high is getting out of the way and that hurricane's able to get to the north.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: All right. Chad, thanks.

You want to stay with CNN, of course, for complete coverage of Hurricane Ophelia. CNN's your hurricane headquarters.

Let's get right back to Miles. He's in New Orleans this morning.

Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Hello again, Soledad, from Bourbon Street, 17 days after Katrina blew in here and caused such tremendous devastation. In the political world, there is a swirling storm of mea culpas and recriminations. Last night a big mea culpa from the governor, Kathleen Blanco, on the heels of the president's announcement that he takes full responsibility for failures on the federal level. The governor of Louisiana saying she takes responsibility for failures on the state level. Let's listen to the governor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO, 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)

MILES O'BRIEN: The question is, what did she say? Was it the kind of thing that lawmakers wanted to hear? Was it the kind of thing residents of Louisiana want to hear? Did she say enough? Joining us for some reaction, a couple of state lawmakers, state senators, Senator Butch Gautreaux and Senator James Cain. Democrat and Republican respectively. Gentlemen, good to have you with us.

Let's begin with you, Senator Cain.

What was not in the speech? Was there anything in that speech that you wish the governor had said that she did not?

JAMES CAIN, (R) LOUISIANA STATE SENATE: Yes, absolutely. One of the things that we wanted her to talk about a little bit was the insurance problems. We have some terrible insurance problems because the giant insurance companies do not want to pay the flood damage. And the flood damage is the major problem down here. And that's what a lot of people wanted to hear.

We, as a Republican caucus, met before the speech, talked about the insurance. That was our major problem. And she, inadvertently, left that out.

But, overall, we're glad that she took part of the blame. There's plenty of blame to go around for everybody and I admire her for doing that. But we wish she would have talked more about the insurance problem. We have a major problem in Louisiana.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Yes, gentlemen, I'm going to jump in. This is Soledad O'Brien out of New York and I've got to tell you, we have some transmission problems in New Orleans, so I'll continue on, if I may. Let's get to Senator James Cain.

Senator, what exactly would you like to have heard from the governor that you didn't hear outside of, I take full responsibility.

CAIN: Well, I wish she would have talked about the insurance problem. We have a problem here because the homeowner's policy doesn't cover flood insurance. We think it was caused by rain and wind. And we have that problem in Louisiana. And the homeowners are all upset because they're not getting answers from their insurance companies and we wish she would have talked a little bit more about that.

But overall, you know, we're glad that she did say what she said. I think it was appropriate to do that. There's plenty of time in the future to point fingers. Now is not the time. We've got to clean up this state and do what we can. And Louisiana now actually, I believe the whole America will be better after Katrina because we were not prepared for 9/11 and we were not prepared for this. And I think in the future hopefully we will be.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Senator Gautreaux, what we didn't hear from the governor was, I messed up. I'm personally sorry. We heard, I take responsibility. And as you well know, those are two very different things. Do you think that she should have gone farther with what she said publicly?

BUTCH GAUTREAUX, (D) LOUISIANA STATE SENATE: Well, actually, you know, she's torn up on this personally. She's shown many times how compassionate she is to the people that have lost everything. I think that she did a great job in the speech last night. I think that the, you know, the general precepts of what she hopes to happen in Louisiana and in New Orleans in the surrounding area she covered very well last night. Not the details, but the general concept of how we intend to go forward.

But as far as her personal regrets about the way things went, she has said that over and over again. I, too, am glad that she acknowledged, you know, bought into part of the blame on this thing. And as Senator James Cain said, we all own a part of it. But it's something that we've never faced before. There's no playbook that you could go by.

I've lived in hurricane country all of my life in Louisiana, all except for four years I spent in Florida and I can tell you that I've never seen anything like this before, nor has anyone my age seen anything like this before. So, you know, I believe that she's doing a great job given that it's a brand new situation, something we've never faced before.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Before I let you go, I'd like you both to comment briefly, if you can, because we don't have a lot of time, what do you need to hear from the president tonight?

CAIN: Well, I hope that we hear that the federal government will step up and help the insurance companies, help these homeowners pay some of this flood insurance. That's where most of the damage is in New Orleans. We hope they step come up. You know, when we had 9/11, they helped bail out the airlines. And we have a serious problem here and I hope he steps up to the plate and does it. I think he will and I think last night with Blanco's approval, she has said he's done a good job. And I hope that now that he will acknowledge her and they will both get together and let's do what's good for Louisiana and good for America.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Senator Gautreaux?

GAUTREAUX: Well, as Governor Blanco said last night, that she called George Bush a friend. And I believe he is. And I hope that he acknowledges that she is his friend also and he commits, again tonight, to see us all the way through this thing. We don't know what the cost is going to be, but we know that Louisiana cannot bear the cost. We know that New Orleans cannot bear the cost. We're going to have to get the money from the federal government to rebuild and we need it post haste.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Louisiana state senators, Butch Gautreaux and James Cain. Thank you, gentlemen, for talking with us.

CAIN: Thank you.

GAUTREAUX: Thank you.

CAIN: Thank you.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Looks like we have fixed our technical problems with Miles. Let's get right back to him. Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, sorry about that, Soledad. It's kind of difficult, still, 17 days after Katrina, communication's still rather dicey. That's all part of the picture here in this region that it's been so harshly affected by this storm.

In neighboring Mississippi, there is some concern this morning, concern that is in the governor's office, Governor Haley Barbour, upset that there isn't more shelter for those who have been forced to flee their homes, don't have any homes in many cases in the wake of Katrina. He has so much concern he has chartered a cruise ship to try to help solve that problem. And this morning many shelters are still full in Mississippi. CNN's Allan Chernoff joining us now from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, with more on that situation.

Allan, 17 days later, I imagine these evacuees would like to at least have some sense of when they might move on to something a little more permanent.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Miles, as a matter of fact, the situation is getting worse, not better, and here's one reason why. More than 10,000 people right now are in shelters. The Red Cross has 122 shelters. Many of those are in schools and the state wants to clear out those schools. They're hoping to get the kids back to school early in October. So there's a real housing crisis going on here.

In addition, the state is estimating more than 100,000 people from this state are staying either with friends, family or in hotels. And keep in mind, a lot of hotels also were destroyed. The governor has arranged for about 2,000 mobile homes and trailers. They're hoping to get 10,000 into the state. That still will not solve the problem. The state is turning to Homeland Security the Homeland Security Department for help here.

Part of the reason that we've got such a crisis, of course, the absolute devastation. There are small towns just west of here where everything, almost everything, is completely decimated. Long Beach, Pass Christian, another small town where 70 percent of the homes are estimated to be uninhabitable, Bay St. Louis, and Waveland. These four little towns, 5,000, 7,000, 8,000 people living in each, are just completely almost completely destroyed. It's very, very sad. And it's going to take a very long time to rebuild.

Miles, this state is having a huge housing crisis right now.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right, that's troubling news, and we hope they find a solution there because there are a lot of people who need a little bit of hope this morning.

Thanks, Allan Chernoff.

Back to you, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: All right, Miles, thanks. Well, many Gulf Coast residents were evacuated in such a hurry that they got on planes without even knowing where they were going. Some of them wound up in places that they had never been before. CNN's Kelly Wallace caught up with a group of evacuees in Salt Lake City, Utah, to find out how they're doing now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): It is a long way from home, 1,900 miles from New Orleans, mountainous Salt Lake City. A strange new world for hundreds of evacuees like Sierra Jones (ph) and her mother Helen.

HELEN JONES: When we go here they said, you know, congratulations or something.

SIERRA JONES: Welcome to Utah. I was like, Utah?

HELEN JONES: I said what? I'm thinking we're going to Texas.

WALLACE: When they landed here more than a week ago, Utah rolled out the red carpet.

HELEN JONES: Everybody was clapping, you know. I said, we ain't no celebrities. They said, oh, yes, y'all are. You're all our celebrities.

WALLACE: It was a lot to take in.

VALERIE THOMAS (ph): I was scary, to be honest with you, because we stepped off a plane and it was nothing but whites. It was scary. Scary and what's the word I'm looking for. Hopeful, I guess.

WALLACE: Valerie Thomas, a mother of seven, whose's son Racheen (ph) is autistic, says it's difficult living in a state where less than 1 percent of the population is African-American according to the last census.

THOMAS: It's very strange because we went to Smith's Grocery Store and we were the only blacks in there, me and my two sons.

WALLACE: Their temporary home, a national guard camp 30 miles south of Salt Lake City. They sleep in the barracks and eat in the mess hall. For lunch this day, burritos and mixed vegetables. Oh, how they all miss the food back home.

Valerie says she's taking her family back to New Orleans as soon as she can.

How come?

THOMAS: That's home. That's home. I don't think I could ever make this home, you know. I could make the best of a bad situation, but this will never be home for us.

WALLACE: But Sierra and Helen Jones plan to make this home. They found an apartment. Sierra is now trying to bring her four-year- old son here.

Did you tell him he's going to Utah?

SIERRA JONES: No.

HELEN JONES: No, he don't know.

SIERRA JONES: He don't know. He don't have to know.

HELEN JONES: He didn't know.

SIERRA JONES: He'll get here and he'll love it as long as he's with his grandma and mama.

WALLACE: Making a new life in an unfamiliar place, but over time it may even start feeling like home. After all, tonight it is New Orleans jazz and Mardi Gras night.

Kelly Wallace, CNN, Salt Lake City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: According to the Red Cross, about 540 of the nearly 600 evacuees in Utah went to the national guard camp. As of Wednesday, 226 were still there.

Other stories making headlines this morning. Let's get a check of those with Carol Costello.

Hey, Carol, good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

Good morning to all of you.

"Now in the News."

Three more suicide bombings in Southern Baghdad to tell you about. Police say at least 30 people were killed, many of them police officers. A series of attacks on Wednesday left more than 150 people dead, making it one of the most violent days ever in that country since the start of the war.

President Bush expected to unveil a federal aid plan for Katrina evacuees. Aids say the president will announce his reconstruction plans tonight for communities across the devastated Gulf Coast. He'll deliver a nationally televised speech from New Orleans. CNN will have live coverage of the president's address at 9:00 Eastern. Our special coverage will begin at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

New Orleans residents may start returning to the city soon. That's the word from the mayor of New Orleans. Ray Nagin tells CNN some 180,000 people will be brought back in what he calls a "phased repopulation plan." That will happen in the next week or two. Nagin says people will be brought back in a controlled manner so they don't run out of resources. The Senate Judiciary Committee is getting one last crack at questioning Chief Justice Nominee John Roberts. On Wednesday, Roberts told lawmakers the Supreme Court should try to reach some "consistency in dealing with church versus state disputes." The panel is set to vote on his nomination one week from today. CNN will have coverage of the Roberts confirmation hearings this morning. A special "Situation Room" set to begin at 9:00 Eastern.

And word this morning, Brittany Spears is a mommy. "US Weekly" is reporting Spears did indeed deliver a baby boy by c-section Wednesday afternoon in California. But there's no confirmation as of yet from her publicist. The baby would be the first for Spears. Her husband, Kevin Federline, has two other children from a previous relationship.

Back to you, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Did they check with the baby's publicist for confirmation of that breaking news?

COSTELLO: He probably has one already.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: I'm sure. You know he does.

Carol, thanks.

Much more to come this morning. Lots of New Orleans businesses working hard to reopen after Katrina. But what if the customers never come back? We'll take a look at a restaurant that's facing just that very dilemma. That's head on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Well welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.

Live pictures now as you look at the heart of the French Quarter. That down there is Broussard's Restaurant. Broussard's Restaurant, just one of several really all of them here in the French Quarter that are closed up this morning. No power, no potable water, no reasonable prospects for any customers any time soon.

Take a look at Bourbon Street. It's hard to believe you can shoot a cannon down Bourbon Street. Nothing going on. You might wonder what all these cars are all about. These are basically CNN vehicles and federal and state law enforcement, some local law enforcement. This has become a bit of a hub here because there are about a half a dozen hotels that have pulled together generators and actually have some air conditioning running, including the Royal Sonesta. That's where we're staying. But we're very happy for the efforts they've made to make us a little more comfortable here.

As it turns out, many more hotels are going to begin the process of reopening. Ultimately, this is the drawing card for a tourism industry that brings in about $5 billion a year, about 10 million visitors. And the mayor would like to see it start to come alive before to long. Now yesterday we caught up with one restaurant owner, as a matter of fact, the owner of Broussard's, who happens to be the father of one of our producers here at CNN, Andreas Preuss (ph). Meet the Preuss family and hear what they're up against.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUNTER PREUSS, RESTAURANT OWNER: This (INAUDIBLE) coming off too, already upstairs.

EVELYN PREUSS, RESTAURANT OWNER: (INAUDIBLE).

MILES O'BRIEN: Gunter and Evelyn Preuss are looking for signs of hope. Their family-owned restaurant in the heart of New Orleans' French Quarter escaped serious damage from Hurricane Katrina. A single fallen tree on the patio and only a smattering of mold on the carpet means cleanup will be relatively easy. But that's just the beginning.

GUNTER PREUSS: We need power. We need water. And we need somebody to give us provisions. We don't know where we're going to get our provisions from. We don't know where are the seafood dealers, what's happened to them, where are the meat providers (ph), where are the produce people.

MILES O'BRIEN: Local seafood from the Gulf is one of Broussard's specials. On the Saturday before Katrina hit.

GUNTER PREUSS: That particular evening we had fresh trout, fresh pompano (ph), fresh ratfish (ph).

MILES O'BRIEN: Now this long-time chef says he might have to rely on frozen fish for a time. But filling the freezers may prove easier than filling the restaurant's tables.

GUNTER PREUSS: Because we did lose all of our convention business, which really drives the French Quarter. We lost the employees. We're looking for our employees. So it's like a beginning again for us.

MILES O'BRIEN: But Preuss vows he won't abandon his restaurant or his city.

GUNTER PREUSS: We are not going to move out of New Orleans. We are not. We are here to stay. We are going to open up our business. We are going to survive.

MILES O'BRIEN: He wants to open the doors on October 1st. His wife wants them to open sooner.

EVELYN PREUSS: We want to get all a little bit of the crew in tomorrow and clean up and feed the people in the quarter. They need to eat somewhere and we're going to feed them right here at Broussard's.

MILES O'BRIEN: Preuss believes in time customer will return. GUNTER PREUSS: We're going to get a lot of convention business in here. Maybe not right now, but starting maybe in January or February when people, in a sense, want to see what's going on, then they'll feel maybe a little sorry for us, so I think everything is going to work out for us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: I don't think there's any question the French Quarter will come back, Soledad. The real question are those outlying neighborhoods that are, this morning, still under water. Tremendous damage there. What happens to those neighborhoods? How will that impact the future growth of this city?

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: How fast can they come back.

Miles, thanks.

Still to come this morning, one state could be ready to take on insurers who refused to cover flood damage caused by Katrina. Andy is "Minding Your Business." That's coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Business news now. Mississippi is looking to take on insurance companies on behalf of its storm-stricken residents. Andy is "Minding Your Business" and has a look at that this morning.

I guess that's a glimmer of hope for some of the people who really feel like their insurance companies have let them down.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a huge issue. And you know the whole point here is that insurance companies cover wind damage but not flood damage. But where does one begin and the other end? That is the issue. Later this morning, Mississippi State Attorney General Jim Hood is holding a press conference where he is expected to announce that he will be suing the insurance companies over this issue.

Flood insurance is extra. You have to get that with the federal government. But what if your house is knocked down and there's water in there? Is it rain? Did it come from the storm surge? Is the storm surge caused by wind? These are issues that are going to be settled case by case, but it's a very distressing situation. If you're there on the ground, your house is trashed and the insurance companies say, we're not going to pay for this.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: You've lost everything and now you might have to go to court in order to get your money.

SERWER: That's true.

Also, the attorney general may be looking into instances where insurance adjusters are offering individuals $3,000 if they sign a waiver saying they won't go after the insurance companies. That's rather pernicious sounding.

And, finally, another development, plaintiffs' lawyers in that part of the world are apparently organizing a network to gather homeowners also to sue some of these insurance companies. So a lot of action here on that front, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: No surprise, if you ask me.

SERWER: That's right.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN: Andy, thank you very much.

In a moment, a developing story that we're telling you about. Take a look at this loop here, Hurricane Ophelia lashing the Carolina coast. Forecasters said it might be a while before the storm moves on. We're going to track Ophelia's path just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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