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American Morning

Look at President's Response to Rita; Rita: The Aftermath

Aired September 26, 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: Also, coming up on the program, we'll look at the president's response to Rita, and how it compares to Katrina. Has he successfully started repairing the political damage? We'll get into that.
But first, let's check some other headlines. Carol Costello here with that.

Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning, everyone.

Now in the news, the alleged leader of Al Qaeda network in Spain has been sentenced to 27 years in prison. Two other suspected Al Qaeda members were acquitted. This morning sentencing is part of a major trial in Spain. The accused were linked to 9/11 here in the United States, but the court did not find them guilty of charges related to those attacks.

A bloody attack in Baghdad. Police say a suicide car bomber blew up near a checkpoint close to some government buildings. At least seven were killed, including some police recruits.

In the meantime, the U.S. military is starting to release some 1,000 Iraqi detainees from the Abu Ghraib Prison. Their release comes at the request of the Iraqi government, ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

A major earthquake rocking northern Peru. The magnitude 7.5 quake struck some 400 miles north of Lima. Civil defense officials say at least four killed, and there are reports of damage.

Georgia's public schools are closed today and tomorrow to conserve gas in the wake of Rita. Governor Sonny Perdue estimates the closures could save about a quarter of a million gallons of gas that would be used by school buses. Some say the move could cause a panicked rush to gas stations, though. It will also cause some concern for parents who had to find backup child care.

And there is word this morning that Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher have tied the knot. According to "US Weekly" and "People" magazines, the two walked down the aisle Saturday in Los Angeles. Some 100 guests reportedly wished the newlyweds good luck, including Moore's ex-husband, Bruce Willis, and their three children. So it was real, Chad. She's 42, he's 27, and they're happily married now.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: We've been talking about the repopulation plan, some people eager to get back, some people very worried about what they're going to find, especially the folks who live in the lower Ninth Ward as we've seen. It flooded again, and St. Bernard Parish as well, where things, in some ways, are worse.

Let's talk to our guest this morning about that. They're quite angry. We've got Oliver Thomas. He is the president of the New Orleans City Council. He's in Baton Rogue, but he grew up in the Lower Ninth Ward. And also Joey Difatta. He is the chairman of St. Bernard Parish.

Gentlemen, thank you.

And, Joey, let's begin with you. When you look over, I mean, just a stone's throw, and you see the flooding, what goes through your mind?

JOEY DIFATTA, CHAIRMAN, ST. BERNARD PARISH: Absolutely. Well, obviously, it's complete devastation. St. Bernard Parish, it was 100 percent. And I sympathize with Oliver; for the Lower Ninth Ward, it was 100 percent.

Now obviously, there are pockets in New Orleans that had dried and these folks are back to a lifestyle that they're used to, but for the Lower Ninth Ward, and for all of St. Bernard Parish, it will never be the same.

And I guess at this point, I'm going to capitalize, the insult to the injury is I'm not able to get my folks into St. Bernard. We have a large portion, about 80 percent of the parish now, that's is dry. And some of the areas to get to St. Bernard are being blocked off.

So I'm going to ask Oliver to help us with that, which he has been doing for the last three hours.

S. O'BRIEN: Oliver, are you frustrated, because Joey is clearly very frustrated.

OLIVER THOMAS, PRESIDENT, NEW ORLEANS CITY COUNCIL: Well, yes. I mean, anytime one of our neighbors, especially in this crisis, doesn't have an opportunity to let his people access the parish, yes. You know, I think hopefully these things can be worked out by the time the day is over, because we're both in the same situation. We don't need St. Bernard and New Orleans at war over who gets access to their property -- I mean, to their memorabilia. Some people, that's the only thing that they have left, is an opportunity to see what happened to their property. So hopefully in the next hour so -- we've been working on this all morning -- we'll have a solution so that St. Bernard residents will have access through Orleans to get to their parish.

S. O'BRIEN: But you know, I was going to ask, are you frustrated when you look over and you see that where you grew up is flooded yet again? THOMAS: Yes, it really is. You know, I did a special with "National Geographic" the other day, and I went down to look at the house that I grew up in. And you know, I keep telling people, I've shed all my tears, but once I saw the water line, and it was about 10 or 11 feet, I really broke down, because it really brought back a lot of memories of waiting on top of that roof ledge, waiting for Coast Guard and other people to come get us when I was a child. And we were able to recover after that. I don't know if -- how easy or how difficult it's going to be for people to recover after this.

Now, the depressing thing about what happened the last couple of days is that, you know, we were just getting over Katrina, and then Rita...

S. O'BRIEN: You were dried out essentially.

THOMAS: Yes, right, Rita just spilled more bad dreams on us. And it took people back, it really did, took us back a couple of weeks. It was very hurtful. Yesterday was very difficult day for me and most of my friends. And I know it was the same for our friends in St. Bernard. So you know, the only thing we have is each other right now, and we really have to make sure we don't have problems like we had this morning about access. We have to hold hands, work with the state and work with the federal government, because those are our neighbors. I don't want to see the neighborhood that I grew up in destroyed. You know, I want to see it come back. I want to see other children -- hello?

S. O'BRIEN: I mean, you look at the damage. Can you hear me, Oliver?

THOMAS: Yes. I mean, gosh, San Francisco, after the Great Fire was rebuilt. I mean, you know, the earthquake, the floods, the Midwest floods, you know, the tornadoes that wiped out so many cities and towns in the early part of the century, I mean, those places were rebuilt. Homestead was rebuilt. To say that St. Bernard and the Lower Ninth Ward cannot be rebuilt is absolutely crazy to me, because look, Holland is right next to the North Sea, one of the most volatile waterways in the world, and they can protect themselves.

The thing that has to happen is the Corps cannot give us a band- aid levee system. The Corps has to give us a levee system that can withstand a category 10. And if you look at the engineering of those -- of that levee system, it's even different than the levee that's adjacent to the Mississippi River, not as wide and not as thick. We need to make sure we have a world-class levee system that's just good as the ones they have in Europe.

S. O'BRIEN: I want to ask another question of Difatta. The mayor now has sort of called for the repopulation to begin. And you've got 80 percent of St. Bernard Parish that's dry, but that means 20 percent that's not, and it's actually under a lot of water.

Are you concerned about people who are going to come back, and just emotionally how tough that is going to be? And then also, I mean, they're going through glass and debris. DIFATTA: Surely. And what we're looking to do is get that water pumped out as quickly as possible. Actually, we're helping the Lower Ninth Ward to remove some of their water by pumping out the portion of Laraby (ph) that still has water, and we're happy to do it, because I think we're all in this together.

But I'd like to capitalize a few moments on an issue, and I'm sure Oliver Thomas will agree with this, is it appears as though the repair of the Industrial Canal Levee was less of a repair than what was done at the 17th Street Canal?

S. O'BRIEN: Meaning when they put the steel curtains in?

DIFATTA: That's correct. If you notice, you look over here, you don't see that here.

S. O'BRIEN: You see sandbags.

DIFATTA: You see sandbags. And by design, I think that to relieve the pressure of the break of the water coming in and to break again in New Orleans was left to the Lower Ninth Ward and all of St. Bernard Parish.

S. O'BRIEN: Meaning they opened this up to (INAUDIBLE) the area that would flood?

DIFATTA: That's correct. Absolutely. And this is America. I can't imagine that we would choose to protect some folks more adequately than we choose to protect others.

S. O'BRIEN: But you know the Army Corps of Engineers, when we asked them that question, said that, in fact, the curtain wouldn't work here. It's too deep. It's too wide.

DIFATTA: Well, let me tell you, I thought the Corps of Engineers was smart enough to figure that out prior to this event, and should of known, because we've been telling them for 35 years, that this would happen. You'd think after 35 years of planning they'd have it right by now.

S. O'BRIEN: Whew, you're angry.

DIFATTA: I'm very angry. My people have endured over the last several years. This is our third flood: 1965, four weeks ago and last week. This is not acceptable to the people of St. Bernard Parish.

S. O'BRIEN: Do you think everyone's going to rebuild? I mean , we heard Oliver say that...

DIFATTA: We're going to encourage it. We're going to do it. I think the fabric of the people in St. Bernard is very strong. They will be back in force. We have a very great community, and I think it will be better, as long as the federal government and Corps of Engineers gives us the protection we need to protect our people.

And what we're asking for is 25-foot levees on the (INAUDIBLE) that they built 40 years ago that has flooded us three times in the last 40 years. It's time to stop. Build a levee that will protect us.

S. O'BRIEN: Joey Difatta and also Oliver Thomas joining us this morning. A couple of gentlemen who, understandably, Miles, are very angry and very frustrated today -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: It is understandable. Thank you very much, Soledad.

Stung by criticism of the federal response to Katrina, or perhaps lack thereof, President Bush is taking a more publicly active role in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita.

CNN political analyst Ron Brownstein, also with the "L.A. Times," joining us from Washington.

Ron, good to have you with us once again.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POL. ANALYST: Good morning, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's take a look at two very distinct pictures. As Katrina rolled through, the president of the United States riding bikes, I believe, with Lance Armstrong. Not bad. That's a good bike ride. But probably not the best picture to be out there. Versus pre- Rita, he goes to Colorado, to Northern Command, and a briefing. What a difference those two pictures make.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, and of course the intervening event was extraordinary storm of criticism in this case. I think there has probably been no event in the Bush presidency that has received such unequivocally bad reviews as their response to Katrina, and you saw that they were very clearly stung by that, and had a very, very different tone, very different emphasis from the president leading into this storm.

M. O'BRIEN: It's interesting. It has -- you would think something like this wouldn't be a partisan fight, but in Washington everything is a partisan fight, including this. And what it comes down is Democrats on the one hand saying let's bring back the New Deal, works progress and all of that, and Republicans say, it's time now for a flat tax, or privatizing Social Security. So really it has set the groundwork for yet another partisan political debate, hasn't it?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, to some extent, I think there's a sense in the political world that the response to Katrina and the rebuilding of the Gulf, which is than an enormous challenge, one of the greatest governmental challenges in American history, is sort of the last train out of Dodge, in terms of domestic policy for the second Bush administration. We have big federal deficits. We're going to have to spend an awful lot of money doing this, so you see both sides trying to attach their ideas to the rebuilding. Democrats, as you say, are talking about reaching back to Roosevelt-era precedence. Ted Kennedy wants to have a modern version of the Tennessee Valley Authority to direct the reconstruction. Republicans are talking about trying to revive the region with ideas that they have long favored, like tax enterprise zones, like aid that could follow students to private school, as well as public school.

And I think you will see a big ideological battle, not only over how much is spent, but how the money is spent.

M. O'BRIEN: So it's the same old cargo on a different train, essentially, just packaged a little differently, set in a little different terms, but the same old debate. Interesting. There you go. That's Washington for you, I guess.

Interesting thing, on the president's right flank here, I'm sure you caught this, Tom DeLay, when the president was talking about, you know, we need to federalize all of this, because it overwhelms state and local authorities, Tom DeLay said this, "I don't want the federal government to take over disaster response, believe me." And then he was asked why. His response is, "Bureaucracy, bureaucracy, bureaucracy." The interesting thing is among conservatives, the idea of the federal government taking more power is anathema.

BROWNSTEIN: There's a lot of cross currency. You're right, Miles. I mean, the idea of federalism and relying primarily on state and local authorities to respond to problems is deeply embedded in Republican thinking for at least the last 50 years.

On the other hand, there's a lot of trust in the military among Republicans, and that's what the president is talking about.

What's interesting, I think another cross current in this, will be if the president, in fact, pushes to have the military, as he suggested yesterday, take a larger role in these responses, it's going to reopen another debate, which is about whether the military is large enough. You've had a lot of Democrats, interestingly, kind of hawkish Democrats, arguing that the military is overstrained by the deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, and if we're talking about adding another greater domestic mission, I think, you're going to see that debate ignite again as well.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, and then, will it also focus more of a debate on the war in Iraq in general then?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, yes. I mean, we saw some of that with the National Guard, and the question of whether sufficient National Guard troops were available. The local officials said yes, although some specific expertise may have been drained somewhat by Iraq.

But I think, again, if you are talking about giving the military a larger role at a time when they are already overstrained and people are going back from multiple deployments into combat zone, I think it's going to push the issue that the administration has resisted of a permanent increase in the size of the active-duty force.

M. O'BRIEN: Ron Brownstein, with the "L.A. Times," and political analyst for us, thanks for being with us again. BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, the mayor of Port Arthur, Texas will join us live. His town, among those hard hit by Rita. We will talk to him about the devastation there, next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: All right, retail stores getting back to business already. Unlikely group benefiting, benefiting from high gas prices. Andy Serwer is here to tell us about all that.

Hello.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Hello.

Retailers in southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana trying to get back online this morning. As you can imagine, a lot of them closed down because of Hurricane Rita. A lot of them opening up this morning. Wal-Mart shut down 155 of its stores initially. This is a Wal-Mart Sunday open in Houston. You can see a little bit of debris in the background there, but they are open for business. One hundred and fifty five shutdown initially, then 52 on Sunday shutdown. This morning, we just spoke with people there in Arkansas at headquarters, and they told us that 32 are still closed, but they're still gathering information.

Other stores shutdown. We have some pictures showing you from Sabine Pass, Texas as well.

M. O'BRIEN: I've got to say, we've said it before, but Wal-Mart has done an extraordinary job keeping the stores open until the last minute, opening them up soon. It's really incredible. Give credit where it's due.

SERWER: Exactly, and getting supplies in there, getting the right people there. It's a lot of logistics. You know, that company is very good at logistics.

But we should also mention that Target and Walgreen, Home Depot doing a lot of that stuff as well.

And there are some stores in Houston, some food stores reporting shortages, but that is just because everyone went in there and tried to get stuff previously on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. But they're getting food back in, delivered this morning. The situation in other places in Louisiana, not as go as you can see from the pictures we've been showing you all morning. Look at that feed store there. That's going to take some work, obviously.

Now interesting story here regarding people making out with the high gas prices. Obviously, oil companies doing very well. But what about credit card companies? They get a 2 1/2 percent fee every time you buy gasoline with a credit card at a gas station. Americans buy about 382 million gallons of gas every day. When gas was $1.87 a gallon last year, they were makes $12 million a day. Now with gas at $2.75, they're making $18 million a day. That's six million more a day, 183 million more, more a month, and nearly $2 billion a year more in those fees.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, I love the free market. It's wonderful. But that could help out a lot of people who are without a home right now. Maybe they should set up a Katrina Rita fund.

SERWER: This story is in "The Washington Post," Miles, and they were unable to get any comment from the credit card companies, so maybe they're listening now.

M. O'BRIEN: We'll start it here right now. Why don't you give some of that money to the deserving people there in that region.

SERWER: Give some back.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come in the program, we'll go live to one of the towns hardest hit by Hurricane Rita. For a look at the devastation there, the mayor of Port Arthur Texas will join us, next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. We are standing right by the Industrial Canal, and of course that's been a big focus because of the breaches and the overtopping since Katrina, several weeks after that, with Hurricane Rita as well. We have invited the man really who is in charge of all of this, the fixing and taking a lot of the complaints, too, I should say. Colonel Duane Gapinski is back us.

It's nice to see you, sir, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

First, let's talk about what's being done today. Yesterday, we saw the choppers coming in with the sandbags. And right back there where all those white sandbags were setup, that was sort of finished with 400 bags, right?

COL. DUANE GAPINSKI, UNWATERING TASK FORCE COMMANDER: That's right. As you can see -- well, you may not be able to see from here, but the water has receded enough. There's no longer flow over that rock dike. So today -- right now we're loading pumps on barges. We're going to float them up the canal, put them near where that blue bridge is and start pumping.

And so they'll go through that damaged pump system, sort of the infrastructure, work around the damaged pumps?

GAPINSKI: Right, yes. We'll put the -- where you suck the water out, we'll put it where the fixed pump station does, and we'll put the outlet by that outlet, and then start pumping.

S. O'BRIEN: How much has the water gone down here now?

GAPINSKI: Well, it looked like, from the imagery, by about two feet. Well, the canal has gone down about four or five feet. But actually in the Lower Ninth Ward, the water is dropping because they're pumping in the next parish over, and that's sucking some of that water out. So it looks like it's dropped about two feet already.

S. O'BRIEN: So you're kind of working it from both ends?

GAPINSKI: Right.

S. O'BRIEN: There's still a fair amount of water in the Ninth Ward. And just a moment ago, I don't know if you were able to hear it, the chairman of the parish and also the New Orleans council member, president of the council actually, was very angry. They basically said, you know., you've had 35 years to fix this problem -- not you specifically, but the Army Corps of Engineers. And what's here is substandard to what's, you know, downriver a little bit, where there's those the big earthen levees. You know, here, the wall here is only like this big, the floodwall.

GAPINSKI: Well, it's just a different design. It's meant to afford the same level of protection. I mean, and this is not the only place where a floodwall was breached. So, I mean, I'm not sure what their point is, I mean, because there are other places where we had floodwall failures. We had a floodwall failure on 17th Street, two on London Avenue Canal. So, I mean, the storm was very forceful and caused some damage.

S. O'BRIEN: I think their point is sort of poor people live back there, and maybe, historically, no one has kind of really worked to fix the problems, because poor people live back there. It's not the wealthier part of the community, which might get more of the focus. Lets talk about those steel curtains and the steel pylons that were put in at the 17th Street Canal. When do they come out? How do I manage that?

GAPINSKI: Well, we're doing, is we're watching the level in Lake Pontchartrain. As soon as it gets down to about two-and-a-half feet, we'll pull the sheet piling and start pumping water out. We, obviously, don't want the level in the lake too high, or we'd just be pumping against that wall of water and really not making any difference.

S. O'BRIEN: It must be sort of frustrating, because I know you're getting criticism, some of what I've mentioned, and you also have people here who've also lost a lot, if not everything.

GAPINSKI: True.

S. O'BRIEN: If not everything.

GAPINSKI: Sure. I mean, obviously, the human tragedy is immense. So certainly you can understand that anger, because people literally have lost everything.

S. O'BRIEN: You've got people, I think I heard 400 of your folks here, who are working are among those who have lost everything?

GAPINSKI: Sure. There is a very significant number of the folks that work in the New Orleans district. Of course, I'm not -- there is another colonel that commands that district, but his folks, there is upwards of 400 people that have lost, if not everything, then nearly everything.

S. O'BRIEN: How much more time before the Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish are dry, do you think?

GAPINSKI: We hope within a week to have that completely dry again. I mean, we were done, what, like, by last Tuesday or Wednesday, so you know, we'll do it again.

S. O'BRIEN: Hurricane season is not helping you out with this at all.

GAPINSKI: No.

S. O'BRIEN: You've got six weeks to go.

GAPINSKI: Well, we're going to continue to work. We will be bringing rock in, should arrive today. If not today, tomorrow. And we're going to continue to build up this and the northern rock dike to afford more protection. You know, it was between seven and eight feet. We're going to get up to 10 feet, and that should get us through hurricane season.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, let's hope so.

It's nice to talk with you. Thank you very much for your time, Colonel Duane Gapinski, with the Army Corps of Engineers.

Let's get back to Miles.

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

We're going to take a quick break. In a moment, we'll give you the latest on the damage done by Hurricane Rita. Take you live to one of the area's hardest hit by the storm. Hundreds of people had to be rescued there.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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