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Tropical Storm Rita Throwing Monkey Wrench into Plans to Repopulate New Orleans; Over 200 Police Officers Unaccounted For After Katrina

Aired September 20, 2005 - 08:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Live pictures Haulover Beach, Florida. Let's call it Haulover Beach, shall we? My apologies. The wind is whipping in my ear here this morning.
Just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. Coming up, a check on Tropical Storm Rita, which is causing that picture there in Haulover beach, Florida.

But first, Carol Costello in New Orleans, where it's more of a political tempest I guess this morning.

Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: You've got that right. People are so confused. First of all, Mayor Nagin invites everybody to come back to the neighborhood of Algiers, and then he says, wait a minute, Rita is out there now. Maybe you better go, maybe by Wednesday. I'm telling you, people are very confused.

Add to that, you know, they're having trouble getting supplies from anywhere. There aren't many stores open, and the weather has been usually hot. It's going to be 96 degrees today, Miles, so that's just adding to the tension here.

All right, thank you very much, Carol. Back with you in just a moment.

(WEATHER REPORT)

Stay with CNN for complete coverage of Rita's path.

CNN is, of course, your hurricane headquarters.

Now let's check some other headlines. Kelly Wallace is here with that.

Good morning, Kelly.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Let's do that. Good morning, Miles. And hello, everyone.

Now in the news, President Bush taking his fifth trip to the Gulf region since Katrina hit last month. The president is expected to meet local officials and business leaders in Gulfport, Mississippi and survey the cleanup efforts in New Orleans. Mr. Bush has outlined a recovery plan in the wake of Katrina. Experts say estimated costs could topple $200 billion dollars.

In Iraq, eight Americans have been killed in separate incidents. The U.S. military confirms four soldiers were killed Monday during combat operations in Ramadi. The attacks bring the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq to more than 1,900.

And in Mosul, a U.S. State Department employee and three other Americans died in a suicide car bombing.

Former Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski is spending his first full day behind bars. Kozlowski and his former finance chief were sentenced Monday to up to 25 years in prison. They were found guilty of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the company. Both men were also ordered to pay a total of $239 million in fines and restitution.

And the New Orleans saints losing their so-called home opener, more than 1,000 miles away from home. The New York Giants beat the Saints 27-10 at Giants Stadium in New Jersey. The change in venue, due to the New Orleans Superdome damaged by Katrina, but there is some good news here.

All proceeds from the game were turned over to the Katrina Fund, headed by former Presidents Bush and Clinton, and several hundred New Orleans evacuees were at the game, courtesy of the NFL.

So that's some good news there, Carol, but obviously, residents of New Orleans are hoping the Saints will win more than they lose.

COSTELLO: Well, they're 1-1 now so I think that's good enough for now at least.

WALLACE: Sure.

COSTELLO: All right, thank you, Kelly.

Tropical Storm Rita is throwing a monkey wrench into New Orleans Mayor plans to repopulate the city. The mayor has suspended the phased return of residents and ordered everyone out again. Jefferson Parish is just west of downtown New Orleans.

I spoke to the parish president, Aaron Broussard, about Mayor Nagin's decision and his plans for to repopulating Jefferson Parish.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AARON BROUSSARD, PRESIDENT, JEFFERSON PARISH: I think the mayor is making wise choices. The same way I told my residents don't get too comfortable in your damaged homes. Don't start readjusting to permanent fixtures of anything, just be comfortable in sustainable living and be ready to move out, just like Florida had to do.

Like I said earlier, the mayor is making a wise choice here, and I may have to evacuate my people too. We're going to have to get through this hurricane season. Let's use Florida as a role model of stamina, determination, dedication and just diligence to get through it all until it's over.

COSTELLO: Have you gotten together an evacuation plan already?

BROUSSARD: Ma'am, I sleep with my evacuation plan.

COSTELLO: So how will people get out? I mean, if you need to evacuate?

BROUSSARD: All of our arteries are open now. I invited everybody back this weekend. My parish, of 500,000 people, has been miraculously restored as far as its population coming back in three weeks. This is a modern miracle. But it's a victory. And we need to talk about victories of a community the same size as New Orleans getting all of its residents back. Domino's Pizza just opened. Rite- Aid just opened. All of the stores that people normally shop at, they're getting more and more open. Chevy's restaurant. I'm going there now. It's just opened on Veteran's Highway. I'm going to places now that I didn't think were going to be open for two months.

COSTELLO: But now they might have to close again.

BROUSSARD: That's OK. They can close again with the knowledge that they haven't invested a lot of money in total permanent restoration. They're doing enough just to be open. Everybody is doing enough just to arrive at a plateau of sustainable living conditions. And I'm asking everybody, tolerate sustainable living conditions until we get through hurricane season. Don't start repainting. Don't start fixing up with new shingles. Don't start moving in the new furniture. Hold tight. Remember Florida last year. We might be the Florida of 2005.

COSTELLO: What lesson did you learn as a leader from what happened?

BROUSSARD: I'm still learning it, ma'am. Ask me when it's all over. I'm learning something every minute. I'm learning good things, and I'm learning awful things. Sometimes they tell you that chaos and tragedy brings out the best in people.

I want to tell you, it also brings out the worst. And unfortunately, I'm seeing equal good brought out and I'm seeing equal bad brought out, and I'm seeing incompetency all over the place. If this thing has shown me anything, that a storm like this, this is the posterboard for the Peter (ph) principle. People that have been promoted to levels of incompetency. And, boy, unfortunately, it showed at the wrong time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: I must say, he was refreshingly open and honest. Jefferson Parish, by the way, has been open since Sunday. A strict curfew does remain in place from 8:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. It will remain in effect indefinitely.

And you know, Miles, one of the problems that Jefferson Parish is having, and I'm sure the city of New Orleans is having, too, is the amount of garbage. You go up and down residential streets. Garbage is piled as high as you can see. It looks like a yard sale gone terribly wrong. Refrigerators and sofas. People literally have to get rid of everything on the first floor of their homes in Jefferson Parish.

O'BRIEN: Yes, I mean, the landfill issues are hard to even comprehend. Where does all this stuff go? It is a huge problem...

COSTELLO: Well...

O'BRIEN: ... that nobody really, I think, has fully addressed just yet.

COSTELLO: Well, we're going to do that story tomorrow, so people will have to tune in to AMERICAN MORNING.

O'BRIEN: All right.

We successfully segued you to the tease! Thank you very much, Carol Costello in New Orleans. Back with you in just a little bit.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children working feverishly to reunite parents with their children, missing in Katrina's aftermath. During the past few days, CNN has been showing pictures of these kids over here.

Kimberly Osias is at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria with a progress report for us. There were a few more families reunited yesterday, weren't there, Kimberly?

KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there were, Miles. Of course, that is what keeps these volunteers going. There are still a number of first-time callers calling in. Two thousand three hundred and ninety-three, to be exact, children are still missing. Now, when we use that term missing, it could be that children are not with their primary caregivers are or in shelters or in various foster homes, just depending on the situation.

Remember, I mean, the scope of this problem is unlike that that we've ever seen before. And, really, it's not just limited to the Southlands. I mean, there are leads that are coming in from California, from the Midwest, you name it. But these folks, as you mentioned, really are working quite tirelessly to get that resolution. In fact, there have been 883 so far.

One just in the last several hours. Take a look at her. This is little Kalise Jones. She was transported from her home in New Orleans to a shelter in Oxford, Mississippi. Now, just to give you a little bit of an idea what have these case workers on the ground are up against, they really didn't know her full name or her last name because she really wasn't even able to tell case workers that.

Now, this is an interesting story. I was talking to Ernie Allen (ph) this weekend and he said, you know, some of the case workers go in with a digital camera. And talk about the power of one image. Amazing. One little girl actually saw her picture, couldn't tell any kind of case worker what her name was, then when she saw her picture, she pointed to it and said Gabby. Then they knew it was Gabrielle (ph) so and so and they were able to kind of link it up and put those pieces together that way. It's really truly remarkable. And his gut feeling is that most of these children will, in fact, be reunited.

I want to show you one that hasn't been reunited yet. Take a look at little Sherry McRae. Little Sherry McRae, four years old, believed to have been in Gulfport, Mississippi. Brown air, brown eyes.

Of course, on any of these children, of course, we have been showing them all weekend for the last several days, in fact, on the left side of your screen, in fact. I mean, this is something where people can take action, can do something. I mean, everybody really wants to do something. This isn't a matter of giving money. It's a matter of sort of searching your memory bank, searching your heart, seeing if there's any kind of connection that can, in fact, be made.

On some of these, you'll see a silhouette. And all we have is really a name. Now, one teacher over the weekend called in and she recognized the name, sent in a picture. We got the picture up. Hopefully, we'll be doing that more of that, Miles, as the days and the hours continue.

And, Miles, take care of yourself. It sounds like you're getting a cold there.

M. O'BRIEN; Oh, I -- little congested with something. Thank you, Kimberly. Appreciate that. Yes, and we have -- we should point out, if you can get a picture to us, call that same number and we'll get the picture so we can get rid of some of those silhouettes. Thank you, Kimberly.

Still to come on the program, meet one of the New Orleans police officers who went AWOL in the aftermath of Katrina. Does his reason for leaving hold up? It's a tough job on a good day. Imagine what it was like with Katrina bearing down. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The city of New Orleans is still trying to track down about 200 police officers. Immediately after the flooding, the police force discovered that up to one quarter, about 400 of its members, were unaccounted for.

Jason Carroll is following up on that story. So what happened to them?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they went AWOL. And this obviously is a very sensitive topic with the police department here. A lot of these officers choosing their personal lives over the badge. And we spoke to one officer about the moral consequences of his decision.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing, man? Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!

(CROSSTALK)

CARROLL (voice-over): In the days of lawlessness, looting and flooding, something happened few people in New Orleans imagines was possible. Hundreds of police officers, like Lieutenant Henry Waller, abandoned their fellow officers and thousands of evacuees when they were needed most.

H. WALLER: I defend it by saying that I left them in a bad situation, but I have would have been leaving my wife in a worse situation.

CARROLL: Waller explained how it happened, saying, Tuesday, August 30, the day after Katrina hit New Orleans, the situation was grave.

H. WALLER: We listened to the radio. And we're hearing the things, the water is still rising. The water is still rising. The water is still rising. The looting is this. The looting is that.

CARROLL: That Tuesday, as 80 percent of New Orleans lay under water, Waller says he told another officer he would get supplies. Waller drove an hour away to Baton Rouge, where stores were open. It was also where his wife was staying with his family. She was upset, fearing something had happened to her father in hurricane-damaged Mississippi. Still, after getting the supplies, Waller says he went back to New Orleans, where he heeded a state trooper's warning at the city's checkpoint.

H. WALLER: And I started thinking. I said, well, you know, we have been hearing this story about the levees breaching all day. What if they're right and I get stuck in this car? I'm no good dead. And so, we will go back tonight. You know, and I will head back in the morning, once we have a better grasp of what is going on.

CARROLL: But Waller did not go back Wednesday morning. He stayed with his family and canceled plans to return to New Orleans Thursday, when his wife got news her father may have drowned. He's listed as missing.

CYNTHEIA WALLER, WIFE OF NEW ORLEANS POLICE OFFICER: I need my husband. And if they want to blame somebody for him leaving, tell them to blame me, because it was me who was literally begging him to stay. Call me a coward. Call me selfish.

H. WALLER: In a time of ultimate crisis, who needs me more, the police department or my wife? And it was a no-brainer for me.

CARROLL: Lieutenant Troy Savage says officers like him, who stayed, resent fellow cops like Waller, who didn't.

SAVAGE: Everybody had a wife. Everybody has got families. Everybody needed to see them. But we didn't. We all didn't flee. We all didn't run in a time of crisis. And he did that.

CARROLL: Two hundred AWOL officers like Waller have asked to or already have returned to work.

EDDIE COMPASS, SUPERINTENDENT, NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPARTMENT: I knew who the warriors were and who wasn't.

CARROLL: Police Department Superintendent Eddie Compass says all AWOL cops will have hearings to determine whether they can keep their jobs.

COMPASS: We are going to evaluate our whole police department and after-action program. The heroics will be rewarded and the cowardice will be punished.

CARROLL: Compass suspects many officers will be fired. But Savage think there's a worse punishment.

SAVAGE: If I had done that, how do you face your children and try to make them do the right thing ever again? Where is your moral authority over your children or your spouse or anybody? You have -- you've lost it.

H. WALLER: People are going to have their opinions. I can only hope that, over time, people will understand.

CARROLL: Maybe, over time, some people will find understanding. But forgiveness might be more difficult.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: You know, I have such mixed feelings about this, Jason, because I understand where he's coming from. But first of all, I was shocked that he was a lieutenant and made that decision, and secondly, if he does go back to work, how will he work with the officers who stayed?

CARROLL: Well, in the beginning, I can tell you he's not going to be treated well, not from the officers that we talked to. I mean, they are really, really angry. That's why they told them not to come back.

COSTELLO: We're on the air now. I don't know if you knew that.

CARROLL: Oh!

COSTELLO: But tell the audience what you've just told me, that...

CARROLL: Basically, what Carol was saying, was you were saying you don't know how this officer can come back to work, given the environment there. And I was just basically telling Carol that the officers that we spoke to are so very angry about the whole thing. I don't know how he would be able to come back and be accepted by these officers who did stay on the job.

COSTELLO: Yes. Tough, such tough decisions, tough decisions for a lot of people -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: That is not an easy one. That is not an easy one. But you know, they raise their right hand and they swear to protect and defend the people of New Orleans. Wow.

O'BRIEN: We will think about that one and press on.

Still to come, Andy is "Minding Your Business." He says U.S. airways found a new way to save money. It is pulling the plug on plugs.

We'll explain that. Andy Serwer with us after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: All right, you're on a long flight, and you want to plug in your laptop, right? Not on one major airline, because this actually saves money. Andy Serwer is here to explain.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: They will go to great lengths to save money and cut costs. A couple of airline things to talk about this morning. First of all, for those of you considering traveling to South Florida or the Bahamas, forget about it.

The good news is, however, all major airlines are easing travel restrictions at this point, allowing you to change your flights. Here are some of the airports affected, just some of them. There are others besides these. You can see these South Florida destinations, Nassau, other points in the Bahamas as well, and so that's some good news there, a bit of a break from the airlines, which we don't get very often.

O'BRIEN: That truly is news.

SERWER: It truly is news. And that gets us to our second piece here. First, they got rid of the free meals, then they get rid of the pillows, then they got rid of the free magazines, then they got rid of the free pretzels. Now they are getting rid of the power. "Wall Street Journal" is reporting this morning that U.S. Air is deactivating its power strips on its planes, you know, the ones where you plug your laptop into or your cell phone maybe to be charge in to? Saying it's a cost-saving measure.

O'BRIEN: I love those kind of things. I love those things.

SERWER: Well, you can forget about them.

O'BRIEN: How much does that save?

SERWER: They're not saying how much it would save, but you can imagine it saves several cents or dollars and every time those planes take off, so U.S. Air seeing fit to do that.

O'BRIEN: I think the other day one of them eliminated butter pads, and that was, like, $6 million, for one butter pad.

SERWER: Yes, that's right.

Cocktail olives.

O'BRIEN: Pretty soon, you're talking about some real money here/

SERWER: That's right.

Let's talk about the markets here a little bit, Miles. Yesterday, stock retreated. This because the spike of oil spiked. We told you that. you can see here, red ink across the board. This morning, though, the price of oil is down a dollar, and stock futures are up nicely. The word on Wall Street is -- maybe we should let Chad know this -- that the belief is the storm will not hit Houston. Now how people on Wall Street know that at this point is a mystery to me, but that's the word on the Street at this point.

O'BRIEN: We'll have to check in with Chad on that.

SERWER: Ask Chad.

O'BRIEN: All right. Thank you very much, Andy Serwer.

In a moment, we will go live to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Tropical Storm Rita is bearing down on the Florida Keys, and we'll ask them what they think about the stock trader prediction.

And the wind and surf whipping on the mainland. This is Haulover Beach, Florida, Miami area. The latest on the storm's path is ahead.

And thanks, by the way, to WFOR for that picture.

Back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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