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American Morning

Tropical Storm Rita; Coming Home; Mayor vs. Admiral; State of Emergency

Aired September 19, 2005 - 08:59   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A state of emergency already in south Florida and the Keys. Tropical Storm Rita is heading that way, gaining strength, possibly becoming a hurricane later today. We're tracking her path. And we're live in Key West.
When should New Orleans residents go back home? The mayor says as early as today for some. FEMA, though, says not so fast.

And the New Orleans levee system, it's now severely compromised in Katrina's wake. Is another disaster imminent? We'll get into that just ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.

S. O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome, everybody. Looks like it's shaping up to be a very nice day.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Beautiful day here.

All right, let's cue the picture, bring it in. Want to call attention to the screen.

S. O'BRIEN: Right there.

M. O'BRIEN: There you go.

S. O'BRIEN: Late cue, but that's all right.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, I'm not the director, obviously.

Want to call your attention to this, because these pictures -- this one is a silhouette. We don't have the photographs of all these children. But as many photographs as we have, we are sharing. And of course even the information can be helpful, as well. CNN teaming up with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to show you the faces of missing children in the wake of Katrina.

S. O'BRIEN: We began the effort on Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. Calls to the center over the weekend tripled. Twenty-three cases were resolved happily, 15 of them with CNN's help.

M. O'BRIEN: And we hope there will be more today.

To help locate one of the children, please call the phone number at the bottom of your screen. That's 800-843-5678, or, as Soledad pointed out, 1-800-THE-LOST.

S. O'BRIEN: Much easier to remember that one.

M. O'BRIEN: It is, but you've still got to figure out where the letters are on the phone, but anyway. All right. We hope we have more happy stories to tell you about tomorrow.

Let's talk about Rita. We've been talking about Katrina. Rita, the next tropical storm, which is causing us to take pause here, it is gathering strength as it moves near the Bahamas right now. A hurricane warning remains in effect for the Florida Keys, as we speak.

John Zarrella joining us from Key West, Florida.

John, tell us about, you know you've been down there for so many evacuations over the years, is this one any different?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think this one will be -- well, it's going to be a little different right now because the evacuation order, as we speak, is changing now. Not only tourists and nonresidents, that evacuation is in place for the entire Florida Keys. But the lower Florida Keys, from about mile marker 40, which is the Seven Mile Bridge, south through Key West, including the Dry Tortugas, now includes residents of the Florida Keys in this lower portion of the Keys. That is because of the possibility, and it's just a possibility, that Rita could strengthen beyond a Category 2 to a Category 3 hurricane, and, before it gets here, and is going to be moving dangerously close to the lower Florida Keys.

Now local officials here did begin to lay the groundwork for this evacuation yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JIMMY WEEKLEY, KEY WEST, FLORIDA: We asked people yesterday to start planning for the hurricane and to start putting together their storm shutters and their packages of protecting their properties and to make sure that if the notice was given that they do take notice of that and leave. However, Key West, being the way it is, a lot of people you know want to stay here and fight out the storm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: And, of course, we are still seeing a lot of joggers on the road here, a lot of bicyclists, a lot of walkers. But this word now, this latest evacuation order is going to just start to filter out, so we're likely to see a change in the numbers of people leaving the Keys. They're stubborn down here and it's tough to get them out.

But back in 1998 when Hurricane Georges, a Category 2 hurricane, crossed the middle Keys, and that is up around Marathon, and affected the lower Florida Keys, that sparked a massive evacuation. And people we talked to after that storm went through, locals said they would never put themselves through that again. Now, the evacuation order, again, does include even the Dry Tortugas, which is way down south, about 70 miles from the Key West, and beautiful Fort Jefferson, all of that area being evacuated as well. So again, evacuation orders now extended to include residents in the lower Florida Keys -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: John, is that a mandatory evacuation or voluntary at this juncture?

ZARRELLA: It's mandatory. It is mandatory. But again, as we all know, mandatory doesn't mean they're going to pull you out of their houses. They're just telling you get out. That's the wise and safe thing to do -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: John Zarrella, Key West, thank you very much.

Chad Myers watching things from the Weather Center. And I guess that is a good piece of advice for folks down there, don't take it lightly. And given Katrina, given what happened with Georges, I suspect there are very few that do, but there probably will be, nevertheless.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'll tell you what, I got married in Key West, Miles. And I'll tell you, there are a lot of folks that just have these little mopeds they ride around. They don't really even have cars because they only go four miles one way and two miles the other. That's the size of the whole island.

So I would be curious to see, after we've seen what happened in New Orleans about not getting the people without vehicles out, what the mayor has planned to get those people that don't have vehicles, don't have any transportation, how he's going to get them out of there. Like maybe ask him that question later on in the day.

There it is. There is the storm. That is Rita. This one back here, that's Phillipe. That developed over the weekend before Rita. That's how it got the P rather than the R, the Phillipe name. But otherwise, here we go.

Rita is what we're worried about, because the Phillipe is just going to be in the middle of the Atlantic. This storm is gaining size. Gaining strength. Getting a little bit less organized this morning, although because it's getting larger, it's now getting into some very warm water. And that warm water is going to pool itself right in the middle of the storm. And it's going to really pick up some energy here between Ocean Reef and Key West. Even though it's not a hurricane, hurricane warnings are already in effect.

This is the track through the southern Bahamas, right very close to Key West, Category 1, maybe Category 2. I would suspect that by 4:00 tomorrow this could be very close to a 100-mile-per-hour storm. And if it travels, literally, one degree farther north than what it's forecast to travel right now, that is right over Key West and the lower Keys. So that's why that evacuation plan is in effect.

High pressure for you, Miles, high today in New York, 84. M. O'BRIEN: We'll take it. Chad Myers, thank you very much.

Stay with CNN for complete coverage of Rita's path. CNN your hurricane headquarters -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Back to New Orleans now. Some of the first evacuees to return will reenter the city this morning. And now that people are coming home, CNN is going to keep you close to the story by looking at the recovering neighborhoods zip code by zip code.

This morning's focus is on zip code 70114. That's the Algiers neighborhood.

And that's where we find Carol Costello this morning.

Good morning, again -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

I'm actually inside a warehouse at Mardi Gras World. We've been talking all morning about a distribution center. It's been set up here at Mardi Gras World. So outside is where they're handing out food and water and ice and medicine to the residents coming back today.

But as you can see around here, all of the floats are stored for the coming Mardi Gras. Looks kind of spooky in here. In fact, the rumor was they were shooting a horror film inside here or they were scheduled to the night the storm hit. But, of course, New Orleans was dealt a nightmare of its own, a real nightmare.

We're going to talk to the owners of this warehouse in just a minute about the future of Mardi Gras and also about how they're helping the recovery effort in their neighborhood of Algiers. Which is a far cry from what's happening across the river, because across the river the electricity is still out and you still can't drink the tap water.

And that's where we find Ed Lavandera. And he's going to talk about the rift between the mayor and the federal government. The feds saying maybe it's not a good idea to come back right now and the local government saying, come on, we've got to get this city up and running -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well here in the Garden District where we are, this area is supposed to be opened up in the next couple of days. We understand that the mayor is going to meet with the vice admiral about reassessing, depending on what happens in Algiers, and the latest information that they have, just when people will be able to start moving back into this neighborhood.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD PHILLIPS, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: The water entered this house, and it went about two inches on the first floor only. ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Richard Phillips couldn't wait any longer. He wanted back inside his uptown New Orleans home, even though this neighborhood is two days away from officially reopening. Phillips is embracing the New Orleans mayor's plan to get people back quickly.

PHILLIPS: Well he's trying to bring people, get the business going, food and basic services, so that the people like myself could come in here and live a normal life.

LAVANDERA: Mayor Ray Nagin acknowledges people aren't returning to what they left behind, but he wants 250,000 people back in three months.

MAYOR. RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: Because I envision us building an incredible city that is so livable, so unique, with all of the New Orleans wonderful things that everybody appreciates, that everybody is going to want to come.

LAVANDERA: But the top man in charge of the federal reconstruction effort worries it's too soon. Emergency services, like the 911 system, are crippled. Hospitals aren't working. Water is undrinkable, and electricity in most places is out.

VICE ADM. THAD ALLEN, U.S. COAST GUARD: There are significant challenges to bringing that number of people back into New Orleans.

LAVANDERA: Phillips has stopped listening to all of the official statements. Too many mixed messages, he says.

PHILLIPS: This is what happened in the very beginning, nobody was coordinating, nobody was head honcho and called all of the shots.

LAVANDERA: He has taken security into his own hands and says he can sustain himself.

PHILLIPS: People who aren't healthy shouldn't come back to the city. People who will need services, but people who are willing to go do their own work should have the opportunity to come in and restore their lives.

LAVANDERA: As we were about to leave Richard Phillips, two Louisiana state officers showed up next door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're just following up on some 911 calls and just wanted...

PHILLIPS: Today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, it's been a couple of days old, a couple weeks ago.

PHILLIPS: No. No, I just came here to...

LAVANDERA: These days, emergency response time is measured in days, not minutes, a reminder of what awaits people who return to New Orleans anytime soon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

You know, over the weekend here in the Garden District and uptown area just west of the French Quarter, business owners were allowed back in to begin the cleanup process. And quite honestly, we didn't see a huge influx of people coming in to clean up. It was kind of spotty in a lot of places. Traffic on the streets was generally pretty light. But despite that, the mayor says that everything went pretty well -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, things are going pretty well here in Algiers. But as far as the business owners here, the banks aren't up and running, and that's making it very difficult to carry on a normal business day. And plus, the employees aren't coming back. So they have very few people to, you know, come in and do the work. So it's very difficult even here where there's running water and the electricity is 98 percent back on.

But again, I'm in Mardi Gras World, Soledad. And when we come back at 9:30, we're going to talk to the owners of this warehouse about the future of the next Mardi Gras scheduled for February 28, 2006.

S. O'BRIEN: Many people, of course, share those questions, Carol, because, of course, many people come to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. It will be interesting to see what the plans are now.

Thanks, Carol. We'll see you in just a little bit.

Let's head over to Kelly Wallace now. She's in for Carol. She's got a look at the headlines.

Hey, Kelly, good morning, again.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, again, Soledad, and hello to all of you.

"Now in the News."

A life sentence for a family member from former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Iraq's criminal court has convicted and sentenced Saddam Hussein's nephew for funding Iraq's violent insurgency and other charges. It is apparently the first verdict against a family member of the ousted leader.

Germany in somewhat a political limbo this morning, neither candidate won a majority in Sunday's parliamentary election, and that means it is unclear who will be leading the country in the future. Conservative challenger Angela Merkel had been expected to become the first woman chancellor, but her party won only three more seats than the party headed by Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The whole thing, though, could be decided on October 2, and that is when the city of Dresden votes.

Former Tyco Chief Dennis Kozlowski is expected in a New York courtroom this hour. Kozlowski and Tyco's former finance chief were convicted back in June on charges, including grand larceny and securities fraud. Each could get up to 30 years in prison. Andy Serwer will have much more on this just ahead.

And a last laugh for "Raymond." The show, "Everybody Loves Raymond," won an Emmy for outstanding comedy series for its ninth and final season. Meantime, newcomer "Lost" also grabbed top honors. That show was honored in the best drama category. And Felicity Huffman became a first time Emmy winner for her role as one of the ladies of Wisteria Lane in "Desperate Housewives," and congratulations to her.

A bit of surprise, Miles, but she has the Emmy.

S. O'BRIEN: You say that like Miles watches it.

M. O'BRIEN: I am so...

WALLACE: I'm assuming...

S. O'BRIEN: Sorry.

WALLACE: I'm assuming he might be a "Desperate Housewives" fan.

M. O'BRIEN: That's me, edge of my seat, is she going to win?

WALLACE: Come on -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: I was kind of desperate for her.

S. O'BRIEN: I like that.

M. O'BRIEN: It's not my show, sorry.

S. O'BRIEN: So not your show, but that's all right.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Still to come on the program, let's talk about New Orleans and the damaged levee system. Could it protect against even a few inches of rain at this point? They say a few inches of rain could equate to a few feet of water. That sounds like new math, but that's the reality. Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Just as some residents are heading back to New Orleans today, a new storm could also be heading into the Gulf. We've been telling you about Rita. The Army Corps of Engineers says there is no guarantee the levees can protect the city, or its people, from another storm surge or, for that matter, a heavy rainfall.

Dan Hitchings is with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Dan, good to have you with us. Give us a sense of how much of a storm would be required to cause significant flooding right now in New Orleans. DAN HITCHINGS, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Well, good morning, Miles. Thanks for having me on here to talk to you about this.

You'd need -- you know the current levee system has various breaches that were either naturally made or resulted from our work in trying to de-water the New Orleans area. So, essentially they only have protection levels up to tidal level. So if we have any storm that's going to push a storm surge above five feet level, and that's approximate, we will start having water re-enter the city. Of course it's not going to be a violent overflow. If the surge would increase in height, it would just begin to overflow those areas.

And we're also currently in the process...

M. O'BRIEN: Well, and, Dan, you can't see this now, but as you've been talking, we're showing some sandbags being dropped into the breaching gap there at the 17th Street Canal.

HITCHINGS: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: Excuse me, that's London Avenue.

HITCHINGS: Correct.

M. O'BRIEN: And those sandbags, while I was there standing on the 17th Street Canal last week, they were already kind of being undermined. In other words, they were constantly being patched. So even the places that have been patched are a potential source of trouble, aren't they?

HITCHINGS: Yes, they're not nearly the strength that they need to be for the long term. And as we -- every day that goes by, we continue to re-enforce them, and also to increase that level of protection. Now with the storm coming potentially into the Gulf now, we're really redoubling those efforts to increase that level of protection at the 17th Street and also at the -- on London Avenue Canal.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, now there you see 17th Street before this was -- you know this, of course, has been filled in quite a bit there. But the same situation exists there. Sandbags are a temporary solution. And then you have, of course, on the eastern flank over by St. Bernard Parish, an entire levee system that is gone. I am told that three to six inches of rain could yield as much as two to four feet of floodwaters. Explain how that happens.

HITCHINGS: Well, the water inside is a result of the local run- off. Every drop of rain that falls within the levee system in the New Orleans area has to be pumped out. As you know, the pumps were underwater for a while. Some of them have not been restored to pumping capacity.

For example, in the Orleans Parish area, we're only at 44 percent of the original pumping capacity there. So if we were to have a three-to-six-inch rain, you could experience ponding and low-level flooding in some of the areas up to as deep as four feet. M. O'BRIEN: So if you were a resident of the city of New Orleans, would you move back right now?

HITCHINGS: Well, it sort of depends on where I was a resident of. And I certainly, if I ever came back in that area, I would have my news ears listening and be ready to pack up and get the heck out of there. And then, you know, the other part of it is the risk associated with large numbers of people, the information that comes in. With this storm coming, I would stay out of here.

M. O'BRIEN: And so is it a mistake then for the mayor to push this right now, the timing?

HITCHINGS: Well, the mayor's got a lot of things to consider. And we're giving him the information on the flood throughout, and he's working, you know, very closely with FEMA and the vice admiral to come up with his decisions.

M. O'BRIEN: But is it a mistake, I mean, to push people in there? Are you concerned about the people who will be there as a result of the mayor's effort to put people in their homes now?

HITCHINGS: Well I can't say whether or not it's a mistake, Miles. There's a lot to be considered in this. And those factors, if considered appropriately and not large numbers of people, could mitigate the risk.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Dan Hitchings, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Baton Rouge -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, people started returning to New Orleans today, but at least one resident who's toured the city says the re-population plan is a recipe for disaster. We're going to ask her why coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Some New Orleans residents are already beginning to venture back into the city. What kind of city are they going to find, though? Is it all too much too soon?

Julia Reed is a contributing writer to "Newsweek." She's written extensively about New Orleans and the south and has a home in the city, as well. She's in New Orleans this morning.

Julia, nice to see you again. I know you spoke to Miles while he was there last week, as well. As you well know, Mayor Ray Nagin has a timeline for bringing people back into the city, which begins today. We have heard the man in charge of the federal response say that he doesn't exactly agree with that timeline. Who do you support?

JULIA REED, "NEWSWEEK" CONTRIB. EDITOR: Well, I think that Vice Admiral Allen is probably more prudent. I mean I understand the mayor wants to sort of kick-start the city and get people you know sort of pumped up about coming back. And I feel the same way. But I think that his estimate of 180,000 people in here over the next week and a half is as much of an exaggeration as the 10,000 body bags. You know very little is working right now.

I mean, you can't ask people to come into a city where there's not a hospital or a grocery store and no traffic lights work. You know we still don't have electricity in places where he's -- I mean you know the plan is to have it today and Wednesday and you know and by Friday, I think, but I think that's unrealistic. I mean I'm happy to see all these energy trucks around my neighborhood, but there's still as many lines down in the middle of the road as there are in the air. I just -- I don't see it happening.

And also what nobody is mentioning is, you know, if you come back in the city, you better be single and childless, or at least you know a couple with no children, because the schools won't be running until January, and people kind of are forgetting that.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, and you know there's no water and there's no 911 system. I mean we kind of could do a list. How come nobody steps up and says the mayor's plan is not a good plan? I mean, we've talked to a couple of officials now who sort of dance around any kind of conflict, parse words over whether it's a rift or not a rift between the two. Explain that to me.

REED: Yes, well, you know, I can't really explain it except, you know, Nagin came under a lot of attack the first couple of weeks for not displaying perhaps the greatest leadership qualities. Perhaps people want to lay off him a little bit. And like I said, part of it is you don't want to say, look, the city's uninhabitable, don't come in, because that will scare everybody.

But I think that what you do need from a mayor is information. People want to know if I come in, can I bathe? Do I have to -- you know obviously you've got to boil the water to cook, you know to drink it or to cook with it, but, you know, you just need to know information. And if nobody's giving it to you, it adds to the general sort of feeling of unease and disarray. I think it's more of a disservice than saying, hey, come on, pump up, get back in the city than, you know, just this total lack of information is probably worse. And I just think he's making a mistake.

I mean, you know, I'm -- I mean, listen, I've been in and out of here now over the last 10 days and I'll continue to do so. But I'm working here. I've got a reason to be here like all of these folks on this roof where I'm standing.

And you know a lot of restaurateurs that I've talked to are champing at the bit to get back in here. I mean, my god, they've got you know as many workers to feed as they did tourists. So I mean a lot of businesses have, you know, a stake at getting started up. But I think for the general population it's insane to say, come on in, we'll have like close to 200,000 people in here in a week and a half. That's not going to happen.

S. O'BRIEN: You toured your house with the National Guard. Then I know you went back by yourself as well. How's everything?

REED: Well, I mean, we're really one of the lucky ones. I mean, you know, I've said before, this is like a tale of two cities. On the side where I'm standing now where my house is, the French Quarter, all the places that the tourists know as New Orleans are, you know, look pretty good. And you think, well, you know we could be up and running any minute now.

But then you go -- like last weekend I went with the Guard just across Claiborne Avenue, which is maybe 10 blocks from my house, and it was like you know there were bodies still there and water was still very high and sludge where the water had drained off. I mean that's drained off a lot.

It's a huge difference between last week and this week, but you know half the city still looks like a war zone. And it's easy when you're driving up and down St. Charles Avenue to think, well, you know, New Orleans could be back any moment, but it's the reality is much more gruesome when you get out to those areas.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, I think really empathize -- yes, empathize, as we hear the choppers going right over your head, because of course there are still search and rescue choppers.

REED: I'm sorry.

S. O'BRIEN: No, I mean that's, you know, the minute you think it's all coming back together, you hear the search and rescue choppers or the you know...

REED: Right. And you still hear horrible stories from the Guard going out in the water. You know they're still bringing back bodies and they're still -- or identifying bodies. I mean there's still lots of bodies to be picked up, as you know. So you know you've got a serious health risk still. I mean I'm not standing here scared I'm going to catch cholera in the morning, but I definitely wouldn't drink the water.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, that's a very good instinct. Julia Reed joining us this morning. Thanks, Julia, we'll continue to check in with you throughout the next couple of weeks.

We should mention she of course is a contributor both to "Newsweek" and "Vogue" magazine.

REED: Thank you -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come in the program, meet a 73-year-old grandmother who is accused of looting and jailed in the aftermath of Katrina. She says she's innocent. Her story is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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