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CNN Larry King Live

Interviews With Viktor Yushchenko, Suze Orman

Aired September 18, 2005 - 21:00   ET

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

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR: President Viktor Yushchenko disfigured, nearly killed by poison during his election last year. Plus, what do Hurricane Katrina victims have to know and need to do to put their lives back together? Financial guru Suze Orman has the answers. Both next on LARRY KING LIVE.
It's an honor to welcome to LARRY KING LIVE the president of the Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko. We thank him very much for coming. We welcome him to New York for this big U.N. anniversary.

But first about your reaction to what this country has been going through with Hurricane Katrina.

VIKTOR YUSHCHENKO, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): First of all, I think the whole world was watching what was going on in the United States of America during Katrina hurricane and I think you received a lot of sympathy from different countries of the world including Ukraine. And we made a decision to send aircraft -- heavy cargo aircrafts to help in the rescue operations. Of course we would like to avoid these kind of things and because anyway it means pain and it doesn't truly matter whether we're speaking about separate families or we're speaking about people living in the other parts of the world, but it means losses.

KING: There are some who suggest, Mr. President, that because the government's, the American government's initial reaction was so slow, this has somehow caused people around the world to think less of us. Caused you to think less of us?

YUSHCHENKO (through translator): I think every nation can think less of its government and is not that always that a good job has in the continuation, also a good job. That is why those kind of comments were not addressed directly to the American government. There were some reasons for that, but I think the United States of America just perfectly demonstrated how it was able at the patriotic level to respond to such challenges as like terrorist attacks, Katrina Hurricane, and I think people all over the world are more sympathetic with the American nation. They are very much fascinated how America considers this problem, how the nation is being -- is putting the efforts together.

Of course the authorities cannot work perfectly all the time and in general I believe that the nation positively responded to this challenge with dignity.

KING: The whole world knows what happened to you, what they did to you. How are you feeling?

YUSHCHENKO: Well I'm feel right now much better then I felt 12 months ago. Even now when you have some kind of a scale when were in the intensive care and you were not sure going to return to this world, but all the rest which became different after that, so I regard this a success. I'm very happy that God didn't take anything from me, neither my mind neither my force, actually. I'm in intensive care -- it shows, to some extent I'm recovering. It's not that easy, it is very difficult, naturally.

But I know that most of the people who had this kind of experience that I had, most of them just past this world -- left this world. But this is my own kind of measurement and it at least gives me the impression how much I thank both to God and to my family.

You know, when I was in hospital, in all churches of Ukraine people prayed for my recovery. And you know, I just can't imagine how much I should pay to those people, how long I should stay on my knees in order to pay the tribute to all their voices and efforts. Well, of course during that period of 11 months there were some tragic things, there were some unique things, but there were some also very happy things. I'm alive, I'm the president of the country, I won the elections and the nation stays with me. This is a happiness.

KING: Was it a strange kind of poison? What was it that they did to you?

YUSHCHENKO: As the experts say, that was a modernized dioxin -- dioxin which is very easy to be dissolved in water and that is why it can penetrate deeply in you body. And that was its peculiar feature.

And the second thing, actually, it happened so that I didn't drink everything that I was allowed to drink -- oh I didn't eat all that was prepared for me -- what was cooked for me and -- because there were people around me who were telling me not to (UNINTELLIGIBLE). But those where just the circumstances. But probably the day of administration of this poison something went wrong, something didn't work, probably in terms of the amount of poison. Well it was very high, but for my body it wasn't enough to be completely poisoned with lethal results.

KING: Thank god.

Now, when we come back I want to ask you about what's going on in your government and your meetings with our secretary of state. We'll be right back with the president of Ukreaine, Viktor Yushchenko. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with President Viktor Yushchenko, the president of the Ukraine who met recently with our secretary of state, Condi Rice. How did that meeting go? The undersecretary of state Nicholas Burns said that Ukraine is headed in the right direction despite recent upheaval. How do you react to all of that? YUSHCHENKO: This is true. We have a strategic goal, we have a clearcut road map being sure of what we are going to do in the international arena, what we are going to do in our bilateral relations with United States of America. United States of America is our strategic partner. And that is why my answer to this question will be very brief. Let's take four or five following months. We want to achieve those things that we failed to achieve over the last four years: First of all to get the status of the county with the market economy then sign a bilateral protocol with the United States of America on mutual access of goods and services.

Then lifting Jackson-Vannik amendment and you know that American Congress sent to the Senate the relevant petition and we hope that very soon this issue will be resolved in December. We would like to get the membership in the WTO and the second term (ph) at the beginning of the next year, we plan to open the negotiations with the European Union on establishing a free trade area between Ukraine and the EU. But we need partners in order to be this quick (ph). And in this case, bilateral components, Ukraine-US relations is an integral part of this logic and for administration of Ukraine.

And if we speak about North Atlantic Alliance, starting from April we intensified our dialogue with this body and we believe that the pace of the dialogue and the level of understanding between EU-Ukraine, and Ukraine-NATO and Ukraine-United States of America over the last seven months has radically changed for the better.

KING: You would say you're optimistic?

YUSHCHENKO: Yes. Yes.

KING: All right, the recent dismissal -- you dismissed the prime minister and cabinet members. One of them Yulia Tymoshenko was one of the key partners in your revolution. What happened?

YUSHCHENKO: Well, they were partners, actually, in the revolution -- we stood together in Independence Square but despite, this we all represented different political forces. I brought her to power, I gave her a lot of authority. I gave a lot of authority to the prime minister, to the state secretary, to the secretary to the National Security and Defense Council. Then later on some kind of misunderstanding appeared among the members of the team and finally we got like zero level of trust between the members of the team. There were different reasons for that. Some of them believed that what another side was taking too much authority. Some of them regarded that the other side was working actually for public than for the benefit of the country. Some decided to use personal interest, and those personal interests prevailed over state interest. And that was in full contradiction with the ideas that were declared in the Independence Square, and that was not my policy. That was not my type of aspiration.

And when I noticed that this kind of conflict emerged, I dedicated a lot of time in order to make them stretch their hands to each other. Well, to make it shortly, it didn't happen. And that is why I didn't -- I didn't want the crisis of interpersonal relations to be transferred into political crisis or even worse crisis. And that is why with all my respect to them, I told them that the other people should come to the authority, should come to the power. You will remain my partners, you will remain my friends, but what you are doing does not correspond to my concept of the development of the country and to my obligations as the obligations of president.

KING: The cabinet has to agree with the president? Right? That's the way you're looking at it. But Ms. Tymoshenko has said that you fired her because she is so popular. Any truth to that?

YUSHCHENKO: No, it is not the truth. The president of Ukraine is the most popular, excuse me for not being too modest. But it's not -- it's not the case. I just believe that everybody has to do his or her own job. If it doesn't happen, if somebody from the team is trying to use the personal method, but not the team approach, it is potentially, I understand, a serious blow to the team what happened, I mean, but you understand I just faced one choice, either to have Ukraine that I was dreaming of or to deal with the problems of the prime minister, to deal with the problems state secretary or the problems of the secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. Or I shall deal with their problems of interpersonal communication and that was going on for seven months. I got sick and tired of that.

KING: I understand. What's the biggest problem that your country faces?

YUSHCHENKO: The country didn't feel the process of consolidation for a long time. It just happened so that probably over the last 70 years when Ukraine was spoken about, different things were said about Ukraine, like you got nothing to be united for, you are separated, to Eastern and to Western Ukraine. You have different religious confessions, so you don't have one confession. You have different outlooks as for the prospects of the Ukraine, you support European integration, some of you support oriental or Eastern integration. You have different history in different parts of the country and so and so forth.

At the end of the day, very often the nation didn't look integrated or united -- the nation wasn't identified properly. And during the elections I would say that was the problem number one. When there was competition, not between the ideals how to make Ukraine a better place to live, but there was a competition or kind of a demonstration -- and this is true that we speak different languages, some of us speak Russian, some speak Ukrainian, but we are not different because of that. We can speak any language you want, but we can be Ukrainians in our hearts and in our souls.

Well, for example, I was born in eastern part of Ukraine, but I dream about the European integration. It's not because I do not care about the East. Well, there are Ukrainian interests in the East. It would be a foolish thing to ignore that, but right now we're speaking about a strategic concept of the development of the country; that concept lies in the west of Ukraine. And I can tell you that, that was a kind of a challenge -- challenge that often exists or is visible at the political level. It's not visible the everyday life level. That's why I decided to dedicate my policy to that and whenever I make an interview, whenever I speak in front of a camera, I start my statement that we are all united; we are not divided by language, we are not divided different confessions, we are not divided by religion.

I mean, probably it may sound like common for every society, but America is -- Americans feel united despite the fact they have different confessions. You can go into another block of a city and hear a different language. But the nation looks like it's -- it is a united nation.

KING: What is your relationship with Mr. Putin?

YUSHCHENKO: Normal one. I can tell you frankly and easily. But I understand the bottom line of that. Well, Ukraine and Russian relations have never been very simple. Well, I'm speaking about common history, common traditions and quite a lot of mutual dependency. But if we speak about current status of relations, well, I feel pretty good that president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and his team realize that there is a difference in the level of integration of Ukraine economic area in the East.

In our policy, we will try to protect the national interest. I know that in Russia such a statement, especially made by the president of Ukraine, surprised many people. Some people just rejected that, but I used to tell, Dear friends, if we can see -- look into each other's eyes, let's work together and where we have common interests we will be the partners, we will never betray our partnership. And we will never hurt Russia. We will never work against Russia. Russia is our neighbor and our -- my policy is to teach the nation, to teach the business, and to teach the neighbors how to live respecting each other. It's not that simple. But, I'm pretty convinced that, that will happen.

KING: We'll be back with our remaining moments with the president of the Ukraine. A great pleasure to welcome him to the United States, Viktor Yushchenko. We'll be right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YUSHCHENKO: We highly appreciate the message sent by your country's leadership before the elections and during the Orange Revolution. It was clear and unambiguous. The U.S. condemned fraud and upheld Ukraine's right to freely elect their government.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with the president of the Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko. We thank him very much for giving us this time, for airing tonight. He heads back to his country after a three-day visit to our country.

Back to the poisoning -- no one has ever been charged with this? YUSHCHENKO: Not yet. There are investigations still underway. Since this kind of poisoning does not happen like every year or every five years and there are quite a lot of problems in terms of knowing exactly what kind of poison was used, what kind of impact it has through the period of time -- because it's very -- it's very much important for forensic examination and that is why quite a lot of time was spent on finding these facts. But the investigation is underway. The investigation is carried out by the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine. Of course I would like to see more answers to the question, but not all questions can be answered right now.

But the circumstances around the poison are pretty simple. A late dinner -- normally I do not have any dinner and that was a very late dinner. And the timing, when it happened -- the timing was pretty clear. But of course there is a certain procedures, procedure for the investigation, for forensic examination, and it took a lot of time in order to realize what kind of poison was used, how it could be produced, how it could have been -- could have brought to Ukraine and how it was administered, actually, and so on and so forth.

KING: Do you have any thoughts of your own as to who might have done it?

YUSHCHENKO: Yes. I got some ideas. Because we are speaking about pretty small group of people who -- some of who could have been involved and like stayed next to me and the time period was a couple of hours. And we are speaking about a small group of people, but this is a case for the National Security Service of Ukraine and for the Prosecutors General's Office of Ukraine. Well, in terms of giving specific names I think it is up to the investigation office not up to my emotions.

KING: But are these people you occasionally run into?

YUSHCHENKO: Well some of them are not on the territory of Ukraine.

KING: But some are.

YUSHCHENKO: Well some are, that's true.

KING: All right, how have you dealt with what it did to your face -- emotionally?

YUSHCHENKO: Well first, it's very difficult because I got use to seeing such Yushchenko every day in the mirror every morning. The most painful thing for me was how my children perceived this, how my family perceived this. Because children, you know, they do not know any diplomatic language and sometimes they can tell you directly what they think. But I'm really grateful to them for accepting me the way I am. It's not -- I'm not in the best shape of course, and -- but the time will go by and I'm just pretty sure that I will completely recover from that. I will find a way from the cycle of this illiness, of this disease because some stages of the program of recovery -- the program of treatment and there are some specific terms when some inflammation process will be stopped and then I will be able to say that there is some kind of improvement on my face.

But it just -- I had to -- we just need to understand one thing that poisoning is not just a simple flu and it's not like you wake up tomorrow and you are absolutely different, because you will remain the same the day after tomorrow and so on and so forth. Probably then, in the future, you will get your initial look, but it takes time.

KING: So the doctors expect it to get better?

YUSHCHENKO: Naturally. Today 50 percent of the poison is removed from my body and such a pace -- nobody had such a pace. I think only three individuals in Europe who experienced this kind of poisoning, but the stages of that poison were different. First case, I think it happened about 10 years ago and that is why some kind of comparison is made, comparison of my case with his case, but in terms of my, like, indicators -- my indicators are very promising because I am the former Kossack -- my family is Kossack family I know that a removement process, or removing the poison from the body is in very good progress.

KING: A couple of other areas, there have been some questions about the lifestyle of your 19-year-old son. Critics complain -- I'm reading this from notes given me -- that he drives a very costly car, a BMW, he has a platinum-plated mobile phone, private bodyguards. You got angry at a reporter who questioned you about this. Is this the public's business?

YUSHCHENKO: Well, I think on the one side, this is the problem of the age. I will be frank with you, because you are also father of children. I am pretty much satisfied with my children; there are five of them. The oldest one is 21-years-old. That is the person who has good moral attitudes. He is the believer, actually. And I would say he is a mature person. His lifestyle is a common lifestyle for the people his age, and I do not think that there are any problems that I could feel pain. You know, but rather some things happen in this life, for example the same mobile phone. I do not pay any attention to these kind of things. I never ask any questions. I think all the phones cost $200 to $300 U.S. This is the impression that I have. I do not know what he has to do, or what he should do in order to pay $1000 U.S. for that?

Well, and it is not my way and I've got no attraction to that. But when it happens, during my campaigning, he was hit by the car, actually. He found another car to rent, and that car was brought into Ukraine and it was brought in by his friend. He's involved in these kind of things and that is his occupation. But it wasn't registered. And I told my son, please leave this car, give it back, repair your old car. And drive your own car. But it happened so that I left Kiev and I live near Kiev. And he didn't have any place to live, so he is rent -- to lease for the period of six months some premises to live until I complete the repair of my living space.

Well, but those are the details. In one case after another case, in such a way the image was created.

KING: The main thing: is he a good boy? YUSHCHENKO: Yeah, he is a good boy. You know I feel pretty calm in my soul. I understand, of course, that sometimes I was over emotions, but I also believe that you need to get used to live in publicly.

KING: Ain't easy.

YUSHCHENKO: Otherwise it's not possible. Well, I think that was the lesson for everybody.

KING: Mr. President, I thank you very much -- an honor meeting you.

The president of the Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko.

Next, Suze Orman, the economist with lots of ideas on how you can help yourself during the tragedy in New Orleans and surrounding areas. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: A pleasure to welcome to this edition of LARRY KING LIVE, an old friend, Suze Orman. She's in San Francisco, "The New York Times" bestselling author, financial planner. She has just posted an entire section on what to do in case of a disaster on her Web site and the Web address, by the way, is www.suzeorman.com.

And she'll host a special on CNBC on September 24th, called "Disaster, Are You Prepared?"

What do victims generally, in this kind of thing, not that this kind of thing is ever normal, need to know? First financially, Suze?

SUZE ORMAN, CNBC: First, financially they have to know how they are going to make it tomorrow when they don't have any money right now with them whatsoever. They also have to know their most valuable asset, Larry, their home, the contents in their home, were they properly insured? Were these insurance companies even honor these insurance policies.

So they really have got to understand who to call first, where to go for help, what's going to be paid for, what's not going to be paid for and what to do right here and right now.

KING: Would you bet that many of these people in the lower income areas don't have the situations you just explained?

ORMAN: Yeah, they don't have the situation -- Many of them if they are there, they were renters so chances are they have lost everything inside of their apartment and they did not have renters' insurance so therefore, everything is gone.

However, for those who have no insurance, for those who don't know what to do, every single one of you need to call FEMA. You need to call them first and then the SBA, the Small Business Administration will allow you, if you can show income verification, allow you to get a loan for a low percent age of an interest rate of 2.67 percent to pay for you to get by, your personal needs and things like that.

So there is money for everybody, Larry. They just don't know where to go to get it.

KING: And you get the loan in Houston even if the home was in New Orleans?

ORMAN: That's right. If you are in disaster and you home is in New Orleans, it is gone. It's in Mississippi. It is gone. They are there for you. The first call is to FEMA. Next call after FEMA says, hey, we can't help you or whatever it is, then you go to the Small Business Administration, the SBA.

KING: What did you think of the president's economic statements on Thursday?

ORMAN: Well, you know, I try not to become political and while it's wonderful that he's saying this is what we're going to do. Now we're going to find this out. He took the blame for the whole thing. The problem is this. There are tents and tents of thousands of people who do not have a place to live. They have absolutely no money to buy food. They don't have a way to get by right now and they are facing a situation where if they did own a home, their insurance companies most likely are not going to own up to the insurance to pay for things because they're going to try to get out of it.

We're going to see this start to happen all the time, Larry, so what I really want to do is not focus on what we're going to do in the future. I'd like to say what are we going to do for these people right here, right now, who really are about to find out that insurance is not going to back them up the way that they thought they were going to be backed up.

KING: Indeed, Mississippi's attorney general is suing seven insurance companies. Why do insurance companies seem to like you until there's a problem?

ORMAN: Yeah, and not only do they like you until there's a problem, there is at times insurance agents that will not sell you the adequate insurance that you need so that the premium is lower.

Therefore when there is a competition, you look at it and go, oh, this policy is $500, this policy is $700 and I'll go with the cheaper one because they're all the same. Insurance is not the same. You have got to understand what you're covered for, what you're not covered for and what's so very said is everybody saying, hey, you should have also had flood insurance.

Do you know that flood insurance does not cover your contents? So even if these people had flood insurance, everything inside their contents, if that is what they hazard was deemed to be that their house was destroyed, their contents, Larry, would not be covered. Additional living expenses would not be covered

So flood insurance wouldn't have even been enough to help these people. KING: The credit card companies that are offering waivers on fees and time to pay, can you still charge?

ORMAN: Sure, you can still charge as much as you want. You can do anything you want, but be careful when you are charging. Eventually, even if it's a 90 day deferral, you are going to owe that money back.

For those of you that have mortgages, it may be true that your payment will be deferred for 90 days or more in this case, but you are going to have to eventually pay that mortgage payment. Even if you get an insurance settlement while you're rebuilding that house, your mortgage payment has to be paid every single months.

Also your student loans after the 90 day deferment. Insurance, property taxes and all of you, by the way, should be calling the county assessor and saying, I don't have a home for her anymore. Let's lower my property taxes because why should you want to pay property taxes on a home that isn't there?

KING: More in a moment with Suze Orman, the "New York Times" bestselling author is on CNBC on September 24. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're back with Suze Orman. If the house you own a mortgage on in this catastrophe is no longer there, do you still owe a mortgage?

ORMAN: Well, I got to tell you, you do.

KING: On what?

ORMAN: On what? That's a good question. On the fact that you have a loan out with a mortgage company, with a bank, and if you do not pay that mortgage, you then go into default and then they own the property, the land.

KING: All right, so they repossess nothing.

ORMAN: They repossess nothing. However, that then goes on your credit reports, which hurts your FICO score and essentially you come away with nothing.

KING: What if your -- all the financial records, what if they're all lost?

ORMAN: If they're all lost, this is why it is extremely important that you have memorized your Social Security Number because, for instance, let's say you call FEMA. Now you're going and calling the SBA to get a personal disaster loan and you have no records. If you just give them your Social Security Number, the SBA has a direct link into the IRS records.

They will, in a day or two, have all of your information and at least you'll start to be able to reestablish your identity that way. If you get your credit report and all of you can get your credit reports, it will give you a list of every credit card company that you have so at least you can reconstruct that.

Obviously there are ways to put back your birth certificate, your driver's license and things like that but everything will stem from your Social Security Number so anything, all of you, tattoo it right now into your mind because you absolutely need that.

KING: You're helping a lot of people. Aren't there adjustors who will come out and trying to say, here's a check right now? Looks good.

ORMAN: Yes. They will come out and they're also going to try to get you to sign something. Everybody, please be careful of this if this has happened to you now within this disaster area. They're going to try to get to this disaster area. They are going to try to get you to sign a form, a piece of paper that says, you acknowledge that your disaster happened because of a flood. That you lost everything because of a flood.

If you sign that you are essentially signing away your right to your homeowner's insurance so please don't sign anything at all without knowing what you're signing, a professional looking at it. It is better just not to sign anything and don't take quick settlements because that isn't what you want to do in this circumstance.

You can get more. This happened in the Oakland Hills when 3,000 homes went and we went to it, we fought for it and you can all get a lot more money but you have to know what you are doing and you have to get a consumer advocate out there to start helping everybody.

KING: Are you confident FEMA will react?

ORMAN: React how? Financially or be there ...

KING: You said call FEMA first.

ORMAN: Yes, you call FEMA first. It is just how it is done. You have to follow a certain thing. No I am not confident FEMA is going to react as much as we wanted to think that they would have reacted to even help save a lot of people. We want to think they're going to react financially. A lot of these people aren't going to be able to be helped by FEMA to the extent that they need and that's why SBA, Larry, has been set up.

Do you that you can get a $200,000 loan from the SBA 30 years for 2.68 percent interest. You can get a $40,000 personal loan for them. Two point six eight percent interest.

If you are reestablishing your business up to $1.5 million and four percent interest so the SBA is there not just for Small Business Administration people, not just for that but for each and every one of you if you don't have insurance, if there is enough money to rebuild your home even if you do have an insurance, the SBA is where you're going to end up finding your most help.

KING: And when you get it do you have to have something to tell them you're going to do with it?

ORMAN: Well, what you have to do, you can't just take that money and do anything. Obviously that money will be coming in to do certain things. Rebuild your home, replace your car, be able to possibly feed yourself, clothe yourself, rent an apartment, things like that. That is what that money will be for.

KING: We will be back with some more moments with Suze Orman. We've still got to meet tonight. Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko, the president of Ukraine here for the U.N. meetings. We'll be right back with more moments of Suze Orman after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: We're talking to Suze Orman, a "New York Times" bestseller. Her Web address, by the way, is www.suzeorman -- one word, S-U-Z-E-O-R-M-A-N dot com. Look for her disaster special, "Disaster, Are You Prepared?" on CNBC at 8:00 and 11:00 on September 24th.

What is -- I know you're an economist. What's the effect of Katrina on the total economy?

ORMAN: Oh, God. It's almost as if it has created his own financial hurricane. What's so very, very sad is that at the exact same time this has hit, we're about a month away from not being able to claim bankruptcy in most cases. We also have it where the credit card companies are about to raise their minimum payments due from two percent to four percent so for those of you who owe $9,000 on your credit card, which is most people today, rather than your minimal payment being two percent of that, $180 a month, it's now going to be four percent, or $360 a month.

All of that is happening with gasoline prices skyrocketing, your heating fuel is going to go up dramatically, insurance goes up, everything from coffee to what goes through the porch right there in New Orleans.

We are going to see a dramatic increase in how people live. What it costs them to buy the exact same things, Larry. And nobody is seeing more money coming in. It is going to have an incredible, horrible effect in my opinion on the lower class, the middle class, obviously the upper class. It doesn't matter what happens to them, they always got the money, but it's not good and then when you look at our deficits, not only do we have the Iraq War, but we have this. Can somebody tell me how we are going to pay for it if we don't do something with taxes?

So it's not good and there's no other way to say it.

KING: Other tips you give preparing for -- and by the way, there's still a hurricane season.

ORMAN: It is.

KING: Take pictures of them. List everything you own. Check on the terms of your debit card. Gather important documents and send them to a relative or a friend out of the area. Have a spare set of keys for your home, car, boat, RV, safety deposit box. Put everything in a waterproof, fireproof box and know where it is. Most people never thought of that.

ORMAN: Well, people don't think it's ever going to happen to them. It's just our nature. People don't prepare not because they're lazy, they just think, not going to happen to me. It'll happen to the next person but every single person out there needs to do what Larry just said and you need to think that it's going to happen to you and you know, floods today -- flood insurance isn't just if you live in an area near the coast.

We now are building more and more and more. Real estate, as you know, has boomed. We are building these huge condominium complexes on places where only two or three single family residences happen to dwell before that so our sewer system can't take all the water that's going down there.

Therefore, when there is a big rainstorm, you see now water coming up so we have flash floods happening more and more. If that happens to your home you are not covered by your insurance so please, everybody, flood insurance is something that you all really, really need to look into.

KING: Now, are you confident that people are going to be taken care of? People who don't have. This is not a political question, it's a feeling as an American for other Americans.

ORMAN: I think they'll be taken care of by other Americans. I do not -- I am not confident that they will be taken care of by the system. They will be taken care of by one family bringing in 17 people to live with them. So people are good. People have great hearts. And people will help people. Look at what happened and how we opened our hearts for 9/11. We opened our hearts for Katrina. We opened our wallets as well.

I think people will take care of each other. I think the system will not. I'm so sorry to say.

KING: Are you fearful that people will take out more credit?

ORMAN: Yes, people are going to have to take out more credit because to qualify, for instance, for an SBA loan, you have got to demonstrate your ability to pay back that loan. Larry, what are these people going to do? They don't have jobs anymore, so they can't necessarily demonstrate the ability to make money. They don't get a loan.

The same thing with rebuilding their homes. They are going to get some money from their insurance companies but not as much money as it's going to cost to actually rebuild their homes because there'll be ordinances that are going to be put into place because building costs are going to skyrocket, so where will they get that extra money? They are going to have to go further and further in debt.

Credit cards? Loans? All of those things are going to escalate even more than they have in the past.

KING: Thank you, as always, Suze. Great talking with you.

ORMAN: Anytime.

KING: You help a lot of people.

ORMAN: Thank you.

KING: Suze Orman. www.Suzeorman.com.

We'll be right back. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Thanks for joining us on this edition of LARRY KING LIVE. We'll be back again live tomorrow night. We certainly thank our guests, the president of the Ukraine, Viktor Yushchenko and Suze Orman. We hope you found it as informative as we did.

Thanks for joining us. Stay tuned for more news around the clock on your most trusted name in news, CNN.

Good night.

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