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American Morning

New Details on What Military is Planning to Do Ahead of Hurricane Rita; Interview with Head of New Orleans City Council

Aired September 21, 2005 - 09:32   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 Gwendolyn Garley has a destination. She's on her way to Atlanta. You met her about an hour ago. We hope you were watching. She was -- there she is, from an hour ago. Twice evacuated now. Once from New Orleans, now from Galveston, and now headed to A-town, because her cousin, who was also evacuated from New Orleans, saw the interview.
Anyway, we're going to check in with her. She's going to call us on her cell phone because she's not wasting any time putting Galveston in her rearview mirror, as they say.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, good for her. You know, I mean, what a heartbreak, and of course her story is so similar to so many others who after they finally get roots somewhere and finally, you know, make it out of New Orleans, then find their lives sort of shattered again as they have to get up and move, and of that's only because of Hurricane Rita. We are tracking that storm this morning, upgraded to a category-four hurricane a little bit earlier this morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: New details now on what the military is planning to do ahead of Hurricane Rita. Barbara Starr is live for us at the Pentagon this morning.

Barbara, good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Soledad.

A number of new developments to report from here. Nobody's sitting around waiting for Rita to hit this time. The latest we've heard now from officials at the U.S. Northern Command in Colorado is that 500 DOD personnel now are essentially earmarked, on standby, ready to go to the region of Rita if it is required, ready to become a military-planning operation to get in there and get things moving. So 500 people now basically earmarked for Rita aftermath.

In addition, the state of Texas has now requested 20 military helicopters to be on standby, to go into the region and conduct operations in the aftermath of Rita, Texas also requesting five active-duty military communications teams for the aftermath of Rita if and when it hits, and hits hard. That's especially important because communications, of course, went down in Katrina, and they are still trying to recover from that. But back in New Orleans, there has now been a firm decision. The amphibious warship Iwo Jima will set sail this morning. It will get out of New Orleans, along with the Shreveport, and about 1,000 marines onboard both those ships. Each though the storm track is aimed at going south, those ships will get under way and get out and go into the Gulf of Mexico near Florida to wait out the storm. There has been a decision that the military simply cannot accept any risk of those ships being damaged in the storm or the personnel being put at risk. What officials tell us, the Iwo Jima in particular will head east into the Gulf of Mexico, and then ride back in behind Rita and head possibly to Galveston, Texas.

But on the issue of communication, Soledad, in Louisiana today, they are now trying to still pick up those military communications. What we have learned is that a new system is indeed being installed. It's what General Honore talked about yesterday. They are installing military-communications terminals in some of the remote parishes that have had their communications destroyed, and that will give them access to both phone communications and the Internet in emergency- operation centers, trying to get that back up and running. They're also going to put this new system in, in the emergency operation center in Baton Rouge.

So if a storm comes through, communication go down again, they will be able to be back up and running. It's one of the big lessons learned of Katrina, and they're trying to get those communications back up now -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ironically, a big lesson, as you know, Barbara, as well from 9/11, and it's only after Katrina that people seemed to get their act together on that.

All right, Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us. Barbara, thanks.

Another check of the headlines, Kelly Wallace has that.

Good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Soledad. And good morning, everyone.

Now in the news, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff urging people to heed evacuation calls ahead of Rita. That hurricane reached category-four status earlier this morning. People in its projected path are filling up sandbags and boarding up and then heading out of town. It's all part of a phased-in evacuation plan. Rita could hit Texas and possible Louisiana on Friday.

American Airlines is resuming flights in and out of New Orleans today. The nation's number-one carrier will make three daily round trips from its Dallas, Fort Worth hub. The airline plans to add flights from Chicago and Miami later this year.

Former President Jimmy Carter has some sharp criticism from the bush administration when it comes to its response to Katrina. Carter created the Federal Emergency Management Agency back in 1979. He blames the Bush administration for failing to maintain its standards, and called the appointment of Michael Brown as the head of that agency, quote, "disgraceful."

And from the Big Apple to the Big Easy, it was a star-studded double benefit in New York City for Katrina evacuees.

Elton John among those performing last night at Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall. All of the money raised from ticket sales and event sponsorships will go to organizations involved with relief and rebuilding efforts, including a fund set up by former Presidents Bush and Clinton. That gets you caught up.

Now to Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Kelly.

About an hour ago, I spoke with a New Orleans evacuee who is now a Galveston evacuee. Her name is Gwendolyn Garley, and just as soon as we finished our interview, she went on her way to her packed car with her family to head to parts unknown. Well, watching that interview was her cousin, James Pitman (ph), who happened to find his way to Atlanta after evacuating from New Orleans. And we might have created a destination for Gwendolyn.

Gwendolyn, tell us, first of all, have you talked to James?

GWENDOLYN GARLEY, TWO-TIME EVACUEE: Yes, I have.

M. O'BRIEN: And he -- first of all, the good news is, you didn't even know where they were, if they were safe and sound, right?

GARLEY: I did not know. I was worried sick. I did not know nothing.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, so that's the first piece of good news. The second piece is, there might be a place for you all to stay, right?

GARLEY: Yes. Yes, we will meet up with my cousin Jim in Atlanta and we're going to start new there.

M. O'BRIEN: Oh, really? So you think you might just settle there, huh?

GARLEY: Yes. We think we're going to do that. We want to keep the family together. We're so glad that you allowed us to connect and we just want to stay together.

M. O'BRIEN: Now, Gwendolyn, just a few moments ago, you told me how much you love living near the water. Atlanta is about five hours away from the water. Are you going to be OK there?

GARLEY: I'm going to be OK. As long as my family and I are together, that's my strength. And that's going to get me through everything we're going through. M. O'BRIEN: Well, you can always visit, too. Boy, you are riding such a roller coaster, Gwendolyn. I can't even imagine the emotions that are just colliding in your life right now.

GARLEY: Exactly. Exactly.

M. O'BRIEN: I assume you're quite pleased right now, though.

GARLEY: I very -- I am. I am so happy. I mean, me and my cousin Jim, we are more than cousins. We grew up in the same household. My grandmother raised both of us. We're more like sisters and brothers and the connection -- oh, God, thank you, Jesus. I'm just overwhelmed.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, we're glad we could play a small part in all of this, Gwendolyn. Thank you for sharing your story with us. And we still want to stay in touch. So keep us posted on your journey and let us know now how thing go for you in Atlanta. It's a great town, a welcoming town, and I'm sure you and your family will be comfortable there.

GARLEY: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: You there still? OK. Good luck.

GARLEY: Bye-bye.

S. O'BRIEN: I think she's a little overcome.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, I think she is.

S. O'BRIEN: Good for her. And, you know, she's right, as long as you have your family, that's all that really matters.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. You can take a trip to the beach.

S. O'BRIEN: You can drive the five hours.

M. O'BRIEN: Get a plasma screen TV with surf crashing.

S. O'BRIEN: Get -- jump in a pool, you'll be fine.

M. O'BRIEN: Whatever, it will all work as long as you're with your family. That is the most important thing.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, that's nice.

Still to come this morning, another major hurricane coming frighteningly close to New Orleans. Should residents be allowed to return once it passes? Got a closer look at that ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: In Louisiana this morning, they are bracing for a possible hit from Rita. Even a glancing blow would be a problem, of course. The governor has already declared a state of emergency. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin is renewing evacuation orders.

Oliver Thomas, president of the New Orleans City Council, he joins us from the Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge. Mr. Thomas, good to have you back on the program.

OLIVER THOMAS, PRES., NEW ORLEANS CITY COUNCIL: Good morning, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning.

THOMAS: And...

M. O'BRIEN: Do you think New Orleans is ready?

THOMAS: Well, of course not. I mean, not after what we've gone through with Katrina. Our levee system is so -- you know, the one thing that's real -- I'm real conscious of is the professor from LSU and some of the things that he said about if the water has burrowed up and put holes, kind of like little ground holes, inside of the levee. You don't know the condition of those levees.

So I think everyone has really been as cautious as they need to be in asking people not to return and not to come back. But my heart goes out our friends in Texas, who have been magnificent in this time for our friends and our families. And anything that I can do personally or that we can do for our friends in Texas, we stand ready to do that. We're ready to help our neighbors.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes...

THOMAS: No matter what our condition is, if Texas needs us, we're there for them.

M. O'BRIEN: I've got to say, without Texas, Louisiana would be in a bad way. If you can reciprocate, I'm sure that would be great. Right now might not be the best...

THOMAS: The government and the mayor there. I understand that, but, hey, you know in times of trouble and turmoil, the best, not the worst, has to come out in human nature. So whatever we can do, we'll do it.

M. O'BRIEN: Do you have any idea how many people are in New Orleans now? And do you think the mayor's effort to -- that thwarted effort to repopulate the city might have made matters a little worse now as you look toward reevacuating?

THOMAS: Well, you know, I pray for our mayor, our great mayor and our general and our governor and the president and all our leaders. You know, the mayor didn't know that Rita was going to come this way. It's unfortunate. He did the right thing in asking people to leave or not to return. But the one thing that...

M. O'BRIEN: But did -- Mr. Thomas, did he do the right thing in telling them to come back, even in the middle of the hurricane season? Even if he didn't know about Rita, he knew there were other hurricanes out there.

THOMAS: Well, many people have questioned that, but when I talk to people around the country, when I talk to other political leaders, the one thing that they'd like to see is a joint re-entry plan with the admiral, the general, the president, the governor, the mayor and all of our leaders on the same page. We can't have the admiral saying come back in two months, the mayor saying come back tomorrow, the president saying, hey, look, be careful.

You know, I think the president outlined one of the greatest plans for recovery that I've ever seen. And his speech was one of the best that I've ever seen. But there needs to be some consistency amongst leadership. And right now, the mayor isn't the only leader in the city. There are several leaders and there's military control. So we need everyone...

M. O'BRIEN: Well, and you are one of those leaders. You are one of those leaders.

THOMAS: That's absolutely correct.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm curious what the mayor -- has he consulted you at all in this whole process, or is he right now, quite frankly, a bit of a loose canon?

THOMAS: No. He has not asked the city council for their advice on this evacuation.

M. O'BRIEN: But he should. Don't you think he should?

THOMAS: Well, I mean, of course. You know, the first thing a general does is you get -- you marshal all your political, all your business, all your social forces and you say, hey, look, guys, what do you think? You know, and he's been real busy dealing with this and maybe he hasn't had time to do that. But I'm sure he'll get around to it.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, that's not good enough. This is a time of crisis and you expect more from your leaders, don't you?

THOMAS: Well, what we expect is that everyone is consulted in a time of crisis and that all your troops are marshaled and used. We can't have anyone working in isolation. I'm not going to make an administrative decision about the city without talking to the administration.

And I would hope that the mayor, the governor, and all of our generals and admirals would say, hey, look, let's all get in a room and let's talk about what's best for New Orleans. The city council, our state senators, our state legislators. These are some of the most committed people that I've ever worked with.

M. O'BRIEN: Has the mayor...

THOMAS: They deserve to be part of the plan.

M. O'BRIEN: Has the mayor made matters worse?

THOMAS: Well, you know, I'm not, you know, just like I'm not going to criticize our president, or FEMA or the Corps anymore, I really don't want -- I don't think this is the time to beat up on the mayor.

But what we say here and what we stand ready to do here, we are ready to support him and give him our sound advice as leaders in this community, so that if he's made mistakes, he won't make them again. If we can help him do it better, we'll help him do it better. The time for pointing fingers is over, but look, things do have to change. We can't make decisions in isolation of one another.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, obviously, your phone is working. I'll bet you'd like to get a call from the mayor.

THOMAS: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Oliver Thomas -- get that call now -- president of the New Orleans City Council, thanks for your time -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: "CNN LIVE TODAY" is coming up next.

Daryn, good morning to you. What are you working on?

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Soledad.

At the top of the hour, we're going to have, of course, much more on Hurricane Rita. People from Galveston, Texas already evacuating. I'll talk live with the mayor, Lyda Anne Thomas, about how her city is getting ready for Rita, and we're going to taken an opportunity to have a lighter note. Rock 'n' roll legend Paul McCartney, he is on tour. It sold out like in 20 minutes. I had a chance to sit down with Sir Paul to chat on everything from his days as a Beatle to his new album, and even Hurricane Katrina.

Back to you.

S. O'BRIEN: I'm looking forward to that. Thanks, Daryn.

Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, Andy is "Minding Your Business." He's going to tell us how a traffic accident caused a huge headache for the IRS, and taxpayers, too. No surprise there.

Stay with us. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Guess what? The check is not in the mail. The IRS says it's lost taxpayer checks, dumped them in the bay. For more on that story plus a check of the markets, Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Inadvertently, we should say.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, well, that is... SERWER: That's what they're saying. We'll get to that in a second.

S. O'BRIEN: What's the market look like?

SERWER: Yes, let's talk about that first off, Soledad. Stocks trading lower this morning, down 43 on the Dow Jones Industrials, you can see there. And it's all about Rita, and it's all about oil. The price of oil is up $1.90 to over $68. We are poised to go towards that record of $70.80 a barrel hit the day after Katrina, and you what that means. That means the potential for $3 again. I don't want to get people's fears up.

Actually, the price of gas now lower. It's $2.76 a gallon on average nationwide, but you know how that lags the price of oil, and if this thing hits those refineries in Houston and Galveston, you know, watch out.

S. O'BRIEN: It will be a disaster. I mean, huge problems in Galveston, maybe even more so than you saw in the refineries in New Orleans.

SERWER: That's right, there are more there.

S. O'BRIEN: Tell me about this IRS story. How did they drop the checks in the Bay?

SERWER: Another story of a different sort, Soledad. This is an accident on the San Mateo Bridge over San Francisco Bay right out of San Francisco. A highway accident dumped 30,000 quarterly estimate checks going to the IRS from taxpayers.

S. O'BRIEN: Taxpayers in the bay area.

SERWER: Right. Well, no, it's 13 states in the West. If you sent in your form to P.O. box 5100004 San Francisco the first 10 days of September, sit tight, see if your check clears. If it doesn't, you're going to have to write it again.

S. O'BRIEN: Wow, do those people -- you know, because you get fined if you don't get send your quarterly checks.

SERWER: They're going to waive the fines, they say.

S. O'BRIEN: A doubt in your reports today, Andy.

SERWER: Sorry. Sorry.

S. O'BRIEN: Andy's got business news for us, thanks.

A short break, and we're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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