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American Morning

Many Katrina Survivors Uprooted Again as Rita Nears; Can Relief Agencies Keep Up With Demand?

Aired September 21, 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: Just about half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. Coming up, as Hurricane Rita heads toward Texas, many Katrina survivors that are kind of reliving a nightmare. Imagine that, you know, having to evacuate yet again. In a moment, we will talk to a woman who was rescued from a roof in New Orleans. She is now facing an evacuation because she is in Galveston.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, can you imagine? I mean, what a psychological kick in the stomach, to mix metaphors. To be saved once and then to have to pack up whatever you own now and do it again is just really horrific for these folks.

We've been showing a picture of the radar of Hurricane Rita. In fact, let's take a look at it once again, as we check in. CNN, of course, is your hurricane headquarters.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Time to get another look at the headlines this morning. Kelly Wallace has that. Hey, Kelly, good morning again.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Soledad, and good morning, everyone. These stories "Now in the News."

Galveston, Texas, is getting ready to clear out. A mandatory evacuation is in effect. Some 80 buses are in place to shuttle out hundreds of people who cannot leave on their own. Rita reached Category 4 status just a short time ago. It could be headed towards Galveston on Friday.

Louisiana's governor, Kathleen Blanco, has declared a state of emergency ahead of Hurricane Rita. Governor Blanco is strongly urging coastal residents to be prepared to get out. Engineers warn the levees are not strong enough to withstand heavy rains of three inches or more.

President Bush is sending an additional $2 billion to the National Flood Insurance Program. The president signed legislation on Tuesday after a trip to the hard-hit Gulf Coast region. The measures will boost how much the program can borrow from the Treasury to pay all of those Katrina-related claims.

And from the Big Apple to the big easy. A star-studded double benefit in New York for Katrina evacuees.

(MUSIC) Elton John among those performing last night at Madison Square Garden in Radio City Music Hall. All of the money raised from ticket sales and event sponsorship will go to organizations involved with relief and rebuilding efforts, including the Bush/Clinton Katrina fund. Lots of celebrities doing what they can to raise money -- Miles, now to you.

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks very much, Kelly.

Thousands of evacuees from New Orleans were taken to Texas in the days following Katrina. You're familiar with that story. Many were vowing to settle there for good. In fact, my next guest had just decided to make Galveston her home. She got an apartment. But, now, sadly, she and her family are being forced to flee because of Rita.

Gwendolyn Garley joins us now from Galveston. Gwendolyn, good to have you with us. Can you believe you're going through this again?

GWENDOLYN GARLEY, EVACUEE: I can't believe it at all.

M. O'BRIEN: You were getting comfortable. You had some friends, you had an apartment. Tell us how things were going up to this moment.

GARLEY: Oh, things was going great. Galveston opened their arms, they opened their hearts to us. Ms. Kathy Brown (ph), she did all she could to help us. We got up every day, we helped ourselves, we got an apartment, we registered our kids were in school. We were setting up roots. We was ready to move on with our lives. And this happened, evacuate again.

M. O'BRIEN: It must have been so nice to see things going in that direction. You must have had some optimism. And then this. So what is the emotion? Are you angry, are you sad, or both?

GARLEY: Well, last night, it was anger. Today, I'm just going through the motions. I feel lifeless. I'm just going through the motions. We just going to get our family out of Galveston. Hopefully, we have something to come back to. Because we had set up a -- you know, set up home here. And we just hope we have something to come back to.

M. O'BRIEN: I mean, I -- how old are your kids?

GARLEY: I have a 17-year-old, Gabrielle (ph), a 9-year-old, DeShawn (ph).

M. O'BRIEN: You know, and it's tough for those kids at those ages to adjust. And here they are off on the road again. Let me ask you this. Let's assume, as you say, that everything goes well for Galveston and the house is intact. Do you still want to live on the coast?

GARLEY: I love it. It is so beautiful! But it could turn so vicious in a blink of an eye. But, yes, I do love the coast. That's my downfall. M. O'BRIEN: So it's worth it to you? In other words, it's worth it to you. I mean, you're paying a big price for that beauty.

GARLEY: Yes, I am.

M. O'BRIEN: And for whatever -- you know, all that goes along with being by the sea.

GARLEY: Yes, I am. But this is my life. This is what I know. This is what we're familiar with. You know? And it's hard to just pull up and say no more.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, let me ask you this. If something bad happened to your Galveston, your apartment, and you couldn't go back to it, what would you do then, do you know?

GARLEY: We don't have the slightest idea. As of now, all we know is we're getting in the car and we're driving. We don't know where we're going, because we just don't know. The future is not known. We're just taking it one day at a time, one hour at a time.

M. O'BRIEN: Got your car packed up. When are you going to be leaving?

GARLEY: As soon as I leave you.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, really? The car's all fueled up and...

GARLEY: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: ... ready to go?

GARLEY: We ready. We are ready! We will never...

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, you finish up. Go ahead. Will you never what, now?

GARLEY: We will never, ever stay through another hurricane as long as I live. Never!

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, you were on top of a roof waiting for rescue, all that. That's something, I'm sure, you're never going to want to chance.

GARLEY: Never, ever. I would never ever put my family through that. Never.

M. O'BRIEN: So from a hotel rooftop to the Astrodome to now, who knows where. I guess one thing you might have learned through all this is the importance of your family and how strong your family can be?

GARLEY: Exactly. That is so true. And I would never put my family's happiness in the hands of someone else. We just have to stay together.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Gwendolyn, here is what we'd like to do, if it's OK with you. Will you keep us posted on your journey?

GARLEY: I sure will.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, just dial in and let us know how you're doing. And maybe we can track your odyssey, hopefully right back to Galveston and your seashore apartment soon.

GARLEY: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: And we really wish you and your family well. And so sorry you have to go through this again.

GARLEY: Thank you very much.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Gwendolyn is -- she's going to go pack the car and get in again. Gwendolyn Garley, on the road again. Not the kind of road trip you want.

Let's move a little to the east now. New Orleans, where Gwendolyn began her odyssey a couple of weeks ago, three weeks ago now. Carol Costello's at the convention center there, where yet another evacuation is underway there.

Carol, good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Morning, Miles. Not many evacuees showing up this morning. We just saw one man approaching the M.P.s behind me, where the buses are parked. And he didn't really want to get on a bus, he just wanted some food. Because as you know, nothing is open in the city of New Orleans. And the M.P.s were kind enough to get him a can of Spaghettio's. And he seemed happy with that and on his way.

You know, New Orleans is now, essentially, dry, which means the recovery mission can start in earnest. In fact, we were in the Lakeview neighborhood yesterday, a neighborhood with eight feet of water. And a crew from Minnesota going house-to-house -- I'm sorry, let's let those trucks pass by. A lot of military trucks in this area because the Iwo Jima is parked not far away.

But back to what I was saying. We were in the Lakeview area, where the floodwaters were eight feet high. I mean, just a week ago, people were only -- could only travel there by boat. We met with a team from Minnesota and they were going house-to-house, seeing if there were bodies inside. So that recovery effort has started in earnest.

People in other neighborhoods were going through their homes, trying to salvage whatever they could. Ed Lavandera experienced that, too. He's live in the New Orleans Bureau to tell us more about that.

Hello, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. You know, many firefighters and police in this city have been working round the clock over the last couple of weeks. But over the last few days, many of them are starting to get some days off to rest, but they're also finding out that going home is painful.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is not a drive New Orleans firefighters do alone. Chris Michael and Ronnie Baulieu, best friends, are returning to their homes.

CHRIS MICKAL, NEW ORLEANS FIRE DEPT.: It's not just a matter of opening a door; you got to kick it in.

LAVANDERA: Stepping into Michael's home hits you in the gut.

MICKAL: I was trying to be prepared for it and it still shocked me.

LAVANDERA: Michael is a 26-year firefighting veteran. Still struggling with what happened, his home is two blocks away from the 17th Street Canal levee break.

MICKAL: You can look in this room right here. This was my bedroom. The water was up to here.

LAVANDERA: Ronnie says don't be fooled by his buddy's boisterous Louisiana drawl, he feels serious pain.

RONNIE BAULIEU, NEW ORLEANS FIRE DEPT.: Everything in his life is right here. I mean, that's it. When we first went in the house, I mean, his knees were buckling. He just couldn't believe it.

LAVANDERA: Mickal has salvaged what he can.

MICKAL: A lot of what you're looking at right there is cover shots that I've had in fire magazines.

LAVANDERA: Memories of a career photographing fire are ruined, but one thing that he deeply cherishes did survive.

MICKAL: This here is actually a dried rose from my father when he passed away 15 years ago. This was in my bedroom. You just saw it. I didn't see it before. You saw where I found it, up on top -- I found it on top of the medicine cabinet.

LAVANDERA: This is why even the toughest and bravest men don't make this journey alone; seeing homes wasted and lives disheveled is too much.

BAULIEU: We don't let anybody go out by themselves to their houses, because, you know, the first impression when you get in there, you need the support, you need somebody there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at this. I might be able to get to it.

LAVANDERA: Baulieu and Mickal have been friends 20 years, working their way up the fire department ranks. Ronnie is a captain, Chris a district chief. But the two have never experienced anything quite like this. BAULIEU: My worldly possessions and some of Chris' possessions we were able to get from his house. I have a little bit of clothes to go to work with.

I've been trying to explain to Chris, you know, that -- and I know how much it hurts him, but he's not the only one that will go through it. We're going through it together, everybody. It's the only way that you can. If you try to handle this all inside, it will eat you apart.

LAVANDERA: Chris is divorced, and Ronnie's wife and children evacuated before the storm. For now, he's glad their not here.

MICKAL: If they see this, this is the first they've seen of it, and it's just hard to express to them what it is. It's like going to the Grand Canyon and trying to explain what it looks like; you can't put words to it until you see it for yourself.

LAVANDERA: Despite the sludge and rot, Ronnie finds an unspoiled memory: family pictures still stuck to the refrigerate door.

BAULIEU: This is perfect. So we are able to get something from this house that we can hold on to. Hey, Chris. The pictures off the Refrigerator, they survived.

LAVANDERA: It's the little things that seem to raise their spirits, like sharing a ride to a place that was once home.

BAULIEU: Add that to the pile of stuff we have to live with now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And if you do see Chris and Ronnie around New Orleans, all of their belongings fit in the back of that pickup truck. And firefighters are staying here in New Orleans a compound together on the other side of the Mississippi River from New Orleans, and that's where they'll be calling home for several more weeks, and they're not sure when they will be able to return home -- Carol.

COSTELLO: And the other thing is most of those homes are going to have to be knocked down, especially the houses where the water was standing inside, you know, eight feet up the ceiling. Structurally, those houses are no good anymore, so they're just going to have to bulldoze them.

So to me, you go in, you gather what few things you have left, and then you're going to lose your home. It's just so many heartbreaking things to come.

Ed Lavandera, from our New Orleans bureau, thank you.

Back to you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thanks very much, Carol. Appreciate that.

Still to come. Hurricane Katrina was bad news for the oil industry. Hurricane Rita could be even worse. Andy will explain, "Minding Your Business."

S. O'BRIEN: Plus, how is the Red Cross preparing for Rita while dealing with Katrina's aftermath at the exact same time? We've got a closer look ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Hurricane Rita just three days from the Texas Coast. By tomorrow night, there will be thousands of evacuees added to the thousands of Katrina victims. Can relief agencies keep up with all of the people who need help now? Peter Macias is a spokesman with the American Red Cross. He's in Houston, Texas this morning.

Peter, thank you for talking to us.

PETER MACIAS, AMERICAN RED CROSS: Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: With your resources stretched now in many directions, can you provide for the people who may be victims in the wake of Hurricane Rita as you deal, at the same time, with the people who are victims in the wake of Hurricane Katrina?

MACIAS: It's a great question. Yes, the American Red cross is prepared to do just that to help both of those folks. Right now, the Texas Gulf Coast, the American Red Cross is focusing on ensuring that all of the residents have their evacuation plans in place, their emergency family communication plans in place as Rita comes bearing down upon the coast. So we're hoping that all of those residents heed the warning of the local and state governments. And when they say it's time to evacuate, we hope those residents evacuate as quickly as possible.

S. O'BRIEN: The last number that I heard as far as funds raised for the American Red Cross, $764 million dollars, three quarter of a billion dollars collected. There are some critics, Peter, as you know, who say the Red Cross is not spending that money fast enough. How much of that money have you spent? Do you feel that criticism is valid?

MACIAS: You know, the Red Cross is working as fast and as hard as it can to get that money, all of that financial assistance out to the people who need it. And actually we've taken in probably about $80 million in donations from the generous people who live in the United States, and we're doling it out as quickly as possible. It takes time to get out there. The magnitude of Katrina was so huge that it's taking us a little -- it's face -- we're facing some challenges to get the money out.

S. O'BRIEN: What do you mean by that? When you say $80 million, are you saying that the cash essentially that you've gotten and everything else that was promised? And what are the challenges? Can you be more specific?

MACIAS: That's cash and pledges that have been made to the American Red Cross. Some of the challenges are, we are still working through infrastructure on how to get that money to the folks who need it. We have the 800 number that's up for the financial assistance. There are some Red Cross chapters around the United States who are actually doing case work and providing instant debit cards and instant checks for the people who need it as well. It's an overwhelming number of people, and we're working really hard with all of the volunteers that we have to make that happen.

S. O'BRIEN: There are some places the Red Cross did not have shelters and did not really have people on the ground to help. And in those cases, some local churches stepped in. Will you reimburse the churches and others who stepped in to help people where there was no Red Cross? I mean, I'm sure they need the money, too.

MACIAS: You know what, we're going to work very closely with all faith-based organization to ensure everybody who needs help gets it, and we'll work really closely with those faith-based organizations to make sure that they get reimbursed.

S. O'BRIEN: And how about the database? When I was at the Red Cross shelter in Baton Rouge, I was surprised to learn the Red Cross shelters within the state could all communicate and share information on the database about who was where. But once you got outside the state, that actually, the Red Cross shelters couldn't communicate, that you really couldn't share information. Has that been fixed? I would imagine, in a storm like Katrina -- and if Rita's anything like it's predicted to be, displaced people is a huge problem that confronts the Red Cross.

MACIAS: It is a huge problem that confronts the Red Cross, but what we're asking is people who are in the wake of a storm, whether it's Rita or any other future storm, that they have their emergency communication plan in place. That way, they can let their families around the states know that they're safe once they've evacuated to a safe location.

S. O'BRIEN: But as you know, realistically speaking, you could have an emergency communication plan and then be in a situation where you have just the clothes on your back and no way and lose your family in the middle of an evacuation, getting on a bus, not knowing where you're going. I mean, that's the reality that we saw, certainly, in Katrina. So one would imagine that just checking people into a database at a local Red Cross shelter might be a little bit easier. Will you have those plans in place soon?

MACIAS: We're working very hard to make sure we get all those plans in place. And we're probably refining that as quickly as possible and sure we can make sure we have people communicating with each other as quickly as people.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, you sure have your hands full. Peter Macias is a spokesman with the American Red Cross. Good luck as this storm approaches. Good luck with all the work you have to do in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, too. Thank you.

MACIAS: Thank you so much.

S. O'BRIEN: Miles. M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, Andy, "Minding Your Business." Oil companies gearing up for another blow, this one from Rita. We'll look at what they're trying to do right now to avoid a disaster. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Well, Galveston, Houston. Once again, we're talking oil country there. And we've got refineries, we've got oil rigs out in the Gulf. Andy Serwer is here. I guess the rigs were kind of batting down for Katrina. Were they back in business already, some of them?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: Some of them. Really only about half of them, but it depends where you are in the Gulf. And the real problem here could be the refineries. Yet again, we're talking about the Galveston and Houston area, bracing for the possibility of Hurricane Rita coming that way. You know, of course, by now it is a Category 4 storm.

Significant damage there could be a huge problem for the economy yet again, Miles. There are ten giant oil refineries there. This, for instance, is Exxon's Bay Town refinery, which is the largest oil refinery in the nation, right up there from Galveston, up Galveston Bay. There are ten refineries there, 13 percent of U.S. capacity. And that compares with the New Orleans area, which is 10 percent of capacity. And you remember what kind of havoc that created when the storm came in there. That's the bad news.

The good news is that oil experts say the refineries in the Galveston and Houston area are much better prepared. Number one, they're on higher ground, all of them above sea level. And they also have a lot of walls and protection from storm surge. Of course, this is an area that's seen hurricanes before. Alicia, Carla, and of course, that horrible hurricane in 1900 in 1900 that destroyed Galveston. So let's just hope they're prepared and hope that the hurricane doesn't hit that area.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, but what this has laid bare is how stretched the supply system is right now. It really can't afford even the slightest perturbance.

SERWER: And the other thing is that the refineries are all in harm's way. I mean, they're not in the Midwest, they're not in the middle of the country. Price of oil up this morning. $1.66 to $67.87. Gas prices down to $2.76 a gallon. But we know how they lag oil rises. So let's see what happens later in the week.

Another thing I want to mention here. Eight Democratic governors have sent a letter to President Bush and congressional leaders, demanding an investigation into price gouging in the wake of Katrina, saying that the $3.00 a gallon price of gasoline was not supported by higher oil prices. That there was gouging taking place. So we'll be following that story for you, too.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. We saw that mostly in Atlanta, but I suspect it happened elsewhere.

SERWER: All -- yeah, pretty much nationwide.

M. O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer, thank you very much.

SERWER: You're welcome.

M. O'BRIEN: Watching Rita very closely, of course. Category 4 storm, headed to 5, according to Chad. Churning through the Gulf of Mexico at this hour. We'll have the latest on its path, its strength and everything you need to know. So stay with us. We're your hurricane headquarters, on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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