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Evacuations in Florida; Hurricane Rita Update; Residents Return To Algiers; Center From Virginia Uniting Families; Tips for Insurance Claims

Aired September 19, 2005 - 10:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. That's all the time we have for AMERICAN MORNING.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Daryn Kagan's at the CNN Center. She's going to take you through the next few hours on CNN LIVE TODAY.

Daryn, good morning.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to see both of you, Soledad and Miles. You have a great day in New York City.

We're going to go ahead and get started and actually continue by calling attention to the left side of your screen. CNN has team up with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. We're bringing you the faces of children that are still missing or displaced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

And since we launched this initiative on Saturday morning, we want you to know, calls to the center have tripled. And even more importantly, 23 cases have been resolved. We'll have more on that in just a few minutes.

Right now, let's take a look at what's happening "Now in the News."

The White House says it is pleased but cautiously optimistic about North Korea's agreement to abandon its nuclear program. A Bush administration official says Pyongyang must now prove its intention by dismantling existing facilities and must allow international inspections.

A nephew of Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to life in prison. Iraq's ministry of justice says Ayman Sabawi was convicted of actively supporting the insurgency. He was also found guilty of manufacturing explosive devices.

German voted yesterday in parliamentary elections and now Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is fighting for his political life. Neither his social democrats nor Angela Merkel's Christian democrats won enough votes to claim a clear majority. Now both sides are frantically trying to establish coalitions. The final outcome could be decided October 2nd when Dresden (ph) votes in a delayed ballot.

And Vice Admiral Thad Allen is discouraging people from returning to New Orleans too soon. Allen says it is the mayor's call but he warns the levees aren't yet strong enough to withstand another storm. Allen meets with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin this afternoon.

A hurricane warning blanketing the Florida keys this morning as Tropical Storm Rita is turning towards the southern most tip of the U.S. It likely will be a hurricane by then but bigger fears loom later in the week and even more powerful Rita appears headed toward the decimated Gulf Coast.

And with those images of Hurricane Katrina's devastation fresh in their minds, tourists and some locals are streaming out of the Florida Keys. Officials are ordering residents out of the lower keys and Governor Jeb Bush has issued a state of emergency. Our John Zarrella was in Key West. He filed this report just a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The evacuation of the Florida Keys now includes residents in the lower Florida Keys. And that's from the Seven Mile Bridge south through Key West and the Dry Tortugas Island, which are about 70 miles south of Key West.

The evacuation order for non-residents and tourists exist for the entire Florida Keys. From the lower keys, all the way up through Key Largo. And the reason for this extension of the evacuation order to include the residents of the lower Florida Keys is because of the possibility, and it's just a possibility, that this storm, Rita, could intensify to a category three storm before it gets here in the next 24 hours. And it is going to be dangerously close to the lower Florida Keys where we are.

Now, schools, of course, are closed in Monroe County. Evacuation shelters are being opened in the northern part of Monroe County for people who do evacuate. In the wake of three evacuations last year and now two evacuations to one degree or another this year, it is likely that many people will choose to leave the lower Florida Keys simply because of what they've seen from Hurricanes Charlie last year and Ivan and, of course, Katrina this year.

John Zarrella, CNN, Key West, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Well, right now Governor Jeb Bush giving a news conference. Let's let's listen.

GOV. JEB BUSH, FLORIDA: Traffic is moving very well out of the Keys. The other report that we have received is that there's ample gasoline in gas stations along U.S. 1 in the Keys, as well as both in Broward and Dade County. So there's no reason to panic. There's ample gasoline for people to make safe decisions for their families.

School in Monroe County are also closed for today and tomorrow. And four shelters will be open in Monroe County and Miami-Dade by noon today. One of those is the special needs shelter for Monroe County that will actually be at FIU and we have thankfully a good system in place to identify special need folks to be able to get them to safety.

This is a good time for people in South Florida, not just in the Keys, but in South Florida in general, to restock their disaster supply kits with appropriate items to sustain themselves for 72 hours after a storm hits us. This includes water, non-perishable items, prescription medication, and other needed items.

Once again, I cannot say this enough. All storms are dangerous. I think there is since we've been watching the effects and tragedies unfold after Hurricane Katrina and its awesome force, that somehow people might think that a category one or two force storm is something that is not that big of a deal. It is. We have too much experience to know that know otherwise. So I urge people to take the storm seriously.

With permission, I'd like to say a few words in Spanish as well.

KAGAN: Florida Governor Jeb Bush talking about preparations the state is making for evacuations in the wake of Rita, which is expected to become a hurricane later today. Also the preparations that individuals should be making in Southern Florida.

Let's get the latest on the storm. Our meteorologist, Chad Myers, has an eye on that.

Hi, Chad. CHAD MYERS, METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Daryn.

You went to work, you kind of left, you didn't pay any attention on Friday afternoon, you had Ophelia and now you've got an "r" storm already. We had Philippe, and I'll show you where that goes. There isn't a "q" storm. There's not a "u" storm. There's not an "x," "y," or "z" storm. Only 21 names. But here you go. You take a deep breath and there's another storm that's less than 300 miles from Florida.

Here's Philippe way out there. It's going to miss Puerto Rico. It's going to miss just about everything, turn to the right and move on up even to the north and to the east of Bermuda.

But Rita is the one that we are the most concerned about. You can see how much larger it's getting even as we speak. The waters in the Bahamas, some of the warmest in the world. At least this part of the world. And as the water moves through the Florida Straits and into the Florida Keys, this storm is forecast to get much stronger.

It is forecast to be a category one, then a category two and then a category three. Yes, yes, just in 96 hours. In four days, this is back up to a major hurricane event again in the Gulf of Mexico.

I still think, though, that this storm could be 100 miles an hour right over Key West. Key West, you're not out of the cone here. And we're going to get a new update from the Hurricane Center at about 11:00 on where this thing's going.

Most of the new computer models are actually taking it to the north. Hurricane warnings for the Keys and also for the Bahamas. A couple of storm warnings to the north of there.

Here's the very latest. We try to show you this spaghetti map every once in a while. Fourteen different computer models. Now, eight of them either from Port Arthur eastward and two of them right through New Orleans. And if that's a cat three, can you manage the damage? And then another one right through here. That's about Gulfport. And a couple that are not far enough out to see yet if they're going to move into Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida or will they just keep going straight and move into Texas.

This is going to be a dangerous storm for anyone in the Gulf of Mexico. We talked about Katrina the same way. We didn't know where it was going to go for a while. We still don't know where this one's going. But, boy, a right turn would certainly be devastating.

KAGAN: Absolutely. And when it hits that coast, wherever it hits along there, what level is it predicted to be at at this point, Chad, or is it too early?

MYERS: It's still predicted to be 100 knots, Daryn. That's 115 miles per hour. So but so was Katrina. No one ever forecasted and they really won't forecast a storm five days out to ever get to be a cat four or cat five. It will be conservative. But as it gets closer and gets bigger, it certainly could be that large.

KAGAN: All right, Chad, thank you. We'll be checking back with you on a regular basis.

Also today today CNN is launching a week long look at a specific zip code area in New Orleans struggling for recovery as evacuees and businesses try to go back. We're calling it "Coming Home." We're going to narrow the focus to specific neighborhoods. So today's zip code, 70114, Algiers, and that is an area of New Orleans. Our Mary Snow introduces us to that neighborhood.

Mary.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Daryn.

And this is the first area where New Orleans residents are being allowed back into their homes. You might be able to see behind me people are going through their yards, their homes, cleaning up. People being allowed in today.

And, Daryn, I just spoke with one man who said he spent three weeks with his relatives. He does have electricity. He said he's turned the TV on and is closely monitoring Hurricane Rita, as you might imagine.

Now we also have someone here with us, a resident of this neighborhood. His name is Sim Nevels.

Sim stayed here for three weeks. Why did you stay, Sim?

SIM NEVELS, RESIDENT: I didn't want to get into the contra plan. I didn't want to get left on a highway. I had a bigger fear of facing the storm on a highway than I had of facing it in my houses.

SNOW: And you told me it was very lonely here for the past couple of weeks.

NEVELS: Well, I was the only one in the neighborhood for about two or three weeks. And then I went up to Algiers and they had about three people up there. And our bigger concern was ice and gas.

SNOW: And you've been getting some of that from FEMA but you were telling me that you really survived on cans of lima bean and water that you stocked up, right?

NEVELS: Right. We filled the tub up with water as this set. But by the second day, the tub (INAUDIBLE) drained all the water out. So what we did was, at least I did, I took and cut the water off to the hot water heater and were using water out of the bottom of that.

SNOW: Are you glad to see your neighbors coming back?

NEVELS: Yes, I am.

SNOW: But you're not really sure if you're going to stay here, right? You told me you have rental properties in New Orleans that have been damaged. You don't know what the future holds.

NEVELS: Right. I have no idea what the situation is going to be here.

SNOW: All right, Sim, thank you very much for joining us this morning.

And, Daryn, people also stopping by a relief center picking up supplies as they head home. Back to you.

KAGAN: What about the conflicting signals they're getting? You know, the mayor saying, yeah, come on home. Thad Allen, the head of the recovery effort there saying, it's probably not a good idea to come back so soon.

SNOW: This is one area that Vice Admiral Thad Allen said he felt OK about coming back to. This is on the west bank of the Mississippi River, across from the French Quarter.

However, I did talk to the mayor's office earlier today. And what they're saying is that they are going to take a look at how this goes today and assess on the plan for other neighborhoods, the uptown district, the garden district, the French Quarter, which are scheduled to start getting residents in the next two weeks. And this afternoon we should get an update on the time line for that because there have been these concerns and not all these neighborhoods have the infrastructure that Algiers has, the running water, the electricity. So that is going to be a challenge.

KAGAN: Mary Snow, live from New Orleans. Thank you.

Our week long focus on the road to recovery carries us through prime time. Stay with us tonight as we continue our look at Algiers and that zip code.

We move on.

Just minutes ago at the White House, President Bush met with his Homeland Security Council to make disaster planning, "a national security priority." And no issue was more pressing for his administration than rebuilding the Gulf Coast. A road to recovery that may be paved with taxpayer dollars and political turf wars as well. Our White House Correspondent Dana Bash explains that to us.

Dana, good morning.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

And the president is still meeting with this so-called Homeland Security Council. That is essentially the president's entire cabinet because pretty much every agency is involved with what the president himself termed one of the biggest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen. But, you know, it's members of the president's own party who are perhaps the most taken aback to hear him say that he wants to spend whatever it's takes without offering specific ways to cut spending elsewhere to sort of offset what many believe will be at least $200 billion to clean up after Katrina.

Now the White House this morning did promise the president's budget director will meet with Congress to find ways to cut spending. But some Republicans on Capitol Hill already have ideas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JON KYL, ) ARIZONA: There's a lot of fat in the current budget. I voted no on this Highway Bill that everybody has talked about. And if we would simply take about a fourth of that in all of the various port projects that were in that Highway Bill and redirect some of that to the Gulf region we would have billions of dollars to help rebuild that area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now another idea that is coming from mostly from the House side of Capitol Hill, from Republicans, is to delay the implementation of a prescription drug benefit for Medicare. Now the president's spokesman this morning made pretty clear that is not something the White House is willing to consider. Scott McClellan said it is an important benefit for our seniors to save them significant money for their prescription drugs. He says it's important to move forward on that.

Now, of course, it's so surprise that Republicans are talking about cutting spending. Most Democrats, when you ask them, they say that it's time to roll back some of the president's tax cuts or at least not to fully implement things like the estate tax which the White House and Republicans on The Hill want to make permanent. The president said on Friday, the White House is saying again today, raising taxes is off the table.

Daryn.

KAGAN: And there will be some interesting talks in the weeks to come. Dana Bash at the White House, thank you.

BASH: Thank you.

KAGAN: Still to come, stories of success. We go live to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children. We'll have an update on the search for those missing or displaced in Katrina's aftermath.

Plus, the game goes on. They may be displaced, but the New Orleans Saints have the home field advantage tonight in New Jersey. How does that work? We'll tell you how.

And later, covering Katrina and losing almost everything. How one New Orleans TV station managed to stay not only on the story but on the air as well. We're back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: I'm sure you've been noticing the pictures on the left side of your screen. Here at CNN we are trying hard to reunite families separated by Hurricane Katrina. As of this weekend, calls to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children tripled. Our Brian Todd is there. He joins us from Alexandra, Virginia, with more on that. Brian, good morning.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

Those calls this weekend actually tripled from last week at about the same time. And it's mostly due to the work that these folks here are doing. These are former law enforcement officers who have been here for more than a week, most of them, donating their time and effort to tracking missing kids.

This is the Katrina missing person's hotline. And as Daryn mentioned, the calls here have really gone skyrocketing in the last few days. And it's because the word has gotten out.

Now let's talk about the numbers. They've got nearly 2,200 children that they still list as missing. This is according to this center. However, more than 850 cases have been resolved. They resolved more than 20 of them over the weekend, 15 of those are as a result of the work that CNN has been doing in putting those pictures and information up on the screen that you see here.

Now, a problem that they're running into here, however, is the lack of pictures. You're seeing some pictures but they tell us here that in the vast majority of cases, they do not have a picture that goes along with the child missing. And earlier today on CNN, the president and CEO of this center, Ernie Allen, told us how they're dealing with that problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERNIE ALLEN, NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING CHILDREN: The reality is that many of these families lost their photograph from the flood waters or the storm. They didn't take everything with them. We've sent people on the ground into these shelters with digital cameras to take as many pictures as we can. But we want people to look at the pictures. We want them to go to missingkids.com and search that list of names. Our premise is, somebody knows where these children are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: And they're saying that if you know where any of these children are, they are asking you to dial 1-800-THE LOST. That is 1-800-843-5678. And as Mr. Allen mentioned, you can also go to www.missingkids.com for more information on these cases. They're going to be updating the numbers very soon, Daryn, and we'll have that for you a little later.

KAGAN: All right. We'll look forward to that and to more happy endings.

Brian Todd, thank you for that.

For more on how you can become involved, log on to cnn.com's help center. It contains links to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as well as other links to help locate the missing. That is cnn.com/helpcenter.

Still to come, deciphering the cause of damage. Was it flood, waters, wind or a combination? A fine line that is leading to a big fight between many hurricane victims and their insurance companies. Up next, getting the most out of your claims.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Let's take a look at the markets. They have been open just a little under an hour. We'll talk a little bit about what's going on here. So you have this storm, Rita, out in the Gulf. That is spurring on some fears with oil and the oil markets. So oil goes up $2. The markets come down. The Dow is down 49 points. The Nasdaq is also in negative territory. It is down 9 points.

Concern along the Gulf Coast. Firefighter in New Orleans are concerned that some Katrina victims might set fire to their own flood-damaged homes as an effort to cash in on insurance policies. You see a lot of homeowners don't carry flood insurance and even those who do often find out that they are not fully covered. Our Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis has today's "Top Five Tips" for getting the most out of your homeowner's insurance policy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right now thousands of adjusters are beginning their task of determining how much money insurance policies will pay to homeowners who were victims of Katrina. Here's how to get the most you can out of your insurance claim.

First of all, understand the basics. While a typical homeowners policy does cover damage from wind, fire and theft, it doesn't cover damage from flooding. But if rain entered your home from damaged windows, a standard policy will cover that damage. Damage from water that comes up from the floors is typically not covered. Assessing wind and water damage is critical but even the experts say understanding the difference is more art than science. So be prepared to fight your case if you're not getting the answers you want.

Number two, itemize your losses. When disaster strikes, you want to be able to document your personal losses. This is your responsibility, not that of the insurer. The Insurance Information Institute has an inventory checklist at their Web site, iii.org. If you have photos of your home before the deluge, this is the time to pull them out. They can serve as evidence of your lost belongings.

Also, get professional help. If your insurer isn't making good on your claim or maybe they don't want to pay as much as you think you're due, consider hiring an independent insurance adjuster. Beware, they can be expensive, costing as much of 5 to 15 percent of your settlement. Independent adjusters have to be licensed. Do your homework at your state's insurance department or contact the National Association of Public Adjusters at napia.com.

Don't give up. Even if you've already received a check from your insurer, you can still ask for more. If you've forgotten important costly items, call your insurance company, reopen that claim. You have a right to do so.

You have a long window to add additional information as well. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners will mediate disputes. Some states are even known to twist the arms of the insurers to get results. Have patience and be persistent to get the results that you want. That's five tips.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: So get this, another hurricane could be headed for the Gulf. Chad Myers has that and your complete forecast coming up.

Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And when I saw that we were just missing some roof shingles, I felt like the luckiest person that ever lived.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Coming back to life, residents in one New Orleans neighborhood count their blessings and their losses as well. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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