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CNN Live Today

FEMA Village Blues; FBI Joins Beirut Bombing Investigation

Aired September 28, 2005 - 11:30   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are right at the half hour. I'm Daryn Kagan. Good morning once again. Here's what's happening now in the news.
President Bush last hour touted recent successes in Iraq. In a Rose Garden appearance after a briefing from more generals, the president praised Iraqi forces for their heightened role against insurgents, and he noted the killing of Al Qaeda's number two in Iraq.

Two suicide attacks in Iraq today. One took place in the northern town of Tal Afar. A woman blew herself up, killing at least five people.

And in Baqubah, just outside of Baghdad, a suicide bomber killed one police officer at a checkpoint. More than a dozen others were hurt.

Gasoline prices are down a fraction of a penny. AAA saying the average price fell to just over $2.81 a gallon Tuesday, down two- tenths of one cent. Prices increased Monday amid concerns after damage from Hurricane Rita and the lingering effects of Hurricane Katrina.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is waiting to hear the outcome of a grand jury probe in his state political dealings. The panel term ends today. Lawyers familiar with the case say there could be last- minute indictments on conspiracy charges. DeLay denies any wrongdoing, and says the Texas grand jury investigation is politically motivated.

And near Kabul, an apparent suicide bomber on a motorcycle. Nine Afghan soldiers were killed, 26 others wounded in the explosion. The attacker struck an army training facility. Soldiers were milling about, waiting on buses to take them home for the day.

A call for help. Louisiana's governor appealing to Congress for help in rebuilding the hurricane ravaged state. Governor Blanco, Kathleen Blanco, is appearing before the Senate Finance Committee right now, along with governors in Mississippi and Alabama. Blanco chose not to respond to criticism leveled at her by former FEMA director Michael Brown yesterday. In that testimony, Brown blamed state and local officials in Louisiana for the botched response to Hurricane Katrina.

Those hurricanes left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Many may end up in temporary housing provided by FEMA. But for some victims of previous storms, that temporary solution has turned into a seemingly endless nightmare.

Details from our national correspondent Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): FEMA's emergency housing trailers in Punta Gorda, Florida, stretch as far as the eye can see. They were put here as an oasis for last year's homeless after Hurricane Charley. But many residents call it a nightmare.

DOYLA LANE, RESIDENT: It's all identical. You cannot have no individuality.

CANDIOTTI: Doyla Lane is a single mom.

LANE: There is just always something. If you get two nights out of the week where you don't see the blue lights flying in here, a fight out here, somebody trying to stab somebody, something, you're doing good.

CANDIOTTI: Lane and her two children, Kevin (ph) and Rachel (ph), are among about 2,000 hurricane victims shoehorned into 500 mobile homes.

(on camera): Doyla, if you could move out here tomorrow, would you?

LANE: Yes. I would be ready to go in less than an hour.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): But like many other families, Doyla Lane cannot afford to leave. In some ways, FEMA park has been a lifesaver, live rent free for 18 months while looking for a new home. But crime that can be found in any neighborhood, the sheriff, here seems magnified among these hurricane victims.

JOHN DAVENPORT, SHERIFF OF CHARLOTTE COUNTY, FLORIDA: They don't necessarily want to be here. But it's better than not having a home at all. And so, you get a lot of stress and a lot of post-traumatic problems from the hurricane.

CANDIOTTI: It took several months for FEMA to pay for police patrols and a guard at the entrance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anywhere from thefts to burglaries to assaults, batteries, domestics. Pretty much everything that we get on the road, we also get here.

CANDIOTTI (on camera): I have counted up basically 14 attempted suicides since this park opened. What do you make of that number, given the size?

DAVENPORT: Stress. Stress. I mean, I think it's a little high for a community that you would have in a normal community of this size.

ROBERT HEBERT, CHARLOTTE COUNTY RECOVERY DIRECTOR: And there you see FEMA off on our left.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): Charlotte County's man in charge of long-term relocation showed us how the park's isolation makes the problem worse.

HEBERT: As you said, we are about 10 miles away from town. There's no grocery store. There's a 7/Eleven. If somebody wants to just get a Coke, they have got to either get a cab or drive up the road 10 miles.

CANDIOTTI: Isolated from town, but not from each other.

(on camera): There's no room for a yard and virtually no privacy, only about 20 feet separating neighbor from neighbor. Take a walk into the street and this is what you see, row after row after row of trailers. And for many of these residents, nothing better is on the horizon.

GERRY SAWYER, RESIDENT: All five of us were going to live in this little car.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): That was before FEMA came through with a mobile home last Christmas for Sue and Gerry Sawyer and their three children. But, since then, the Sawyers have not found an affordable home. Officials say real estate has skyrocketed since Charley.

G. SAWYER: Some of the apartments we have applied for which have guaranteed $625, $700 a month, they have got a two-year waiting list.

CANDIOTTI: While daughter Cassandra (ph) donates pennies to the newest hurricane victims, her parents worry they're running out of time. In four months, the leases on all these trailers expire.

(on camera): Come February, what are you going to do?

SUE SAWYER, RESIDENT: I don't know what we're going to do. We're living hand to mouth right now. Every time I think, you know, I have got some money saved, something happens. My car dies. I'm going to lose my job if I can't get to work, so I'm paying for a cab.

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): FEMA says it's done what it can.

MILDRED ACEVEDO, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: They had signed a contract, so it's not like it's taken them by surprise. They had 18 months to work, to look for permanent housing, to save up money, which is one of the reasons why we do it rent free.

CANDIOTTI: Critics call these big isolated FEMA parks a mistake. Housing policy expert Ronald Utt says, use residential vouchers for victims of Rita and Katrina, go smaller and closer to communities.

DR. RONALD UTT, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: There's a lot of cities in the Southeast in Texas and Alabama and Mississippi and over into Florida and Georgia that were not devastated, which have active, lively rental markets with lots of decent apartments and lots of vacancies. CANDIOTTI: Small comfort for Doyla Lane, who just got a job as a security guard and wonders what's ahead for her family.

LANE: It's not that I'm ungrateful. I just want my own place.

CANDIOTTI (on camera): Where would you like to live?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a big, huge mansion.

CANDIOTTI: And if you couldn't get a big, huge mansion, what would be your second choice?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little small house.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: That's our Susan Candiotti reporting.

Federal officials say that they are working to meet the need of those left homeless by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The secretary of housing and urban development was a guest on CNN's "PAULA ZAHN NOW."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALPHONSO JACKSON, HUD SECY.: Last week, we approved a voucher program for up to 18 months. And in that voucher program, it gives the -- those persons who have been displaced the right to find the apartment complex, the home, a single-family home, or duplex, as to where they want to live.

Therefore, they're not being forced into an area that in six or seven months might be the same as we've just talked about the trailer parks.

The market is very, very soft in most of the -- most parts of country, other than really the East and the West Coast. So what we will do is make sure that the fair market rent in each one of those cities -- it might be $725 in Dallas, but it might be $825 in Chicago. We will adjust that amount so we make sure they will be able to get an apartment that is decent, safe, and will meet their needs to live well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: The government is also providing families with $2,000 in emergency assistance.

To world news now, in Lebanon, a prominent journalist severely wounded by a car bomb. Was she targeted for her opinions?

CNN LIVE TODAY is back with that story in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The FBI has now joined a car bomb investigation and it happened in Beirut today. The target, a popular TV anchorwoman. It was the latest in a string of attacks since the assassination of Lebanon's prime minister last winter.

Here now, Beirut bureau chief Brent Sadler.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRENT SADLER, CNN BEIRUT BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): A solemn vigil in Beirut for the latest victim in a merciless campaign of violence. Paying tribute to May Chidiac, a face known to millions in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East. A television news star, survivor of a bomb attack Sunday, the explosion wrecking her car. She's undergone life-saving surgery, but suffered grievous injuries.

MIRELLE HAJJ, SISTER: She lost an arm. She lost a leg. But May is a big survivor.

SADLER: A survivor, they hope here, in a battle for meaningful Lebanese independence after decades of control by neighboring Syria. Sarkis Naoum, who writes for a newspaper often critical of Syria, was May Chidiac's last chat show guest, appearing just hours before the attempt on her life. Syria and Lebanon, their topics of debate.

SARKIS NAOUM, NEWSPAPER COLUMNIST: I talked to her after the program. I said, are you take precautions? Because everybody is threatened in this country, and we are all threatened. She said no.

SADLER (on camera): Parts of Lebanon's media and many of its pro-independence politicians, some who sought temporary refuge in Europe, say they're no strangers to threats and intimidation.

(voice-over): Unknown assailants fired rockets in Lebanon's future TV station some two years ago, a station owned by former five- times Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Hariri, the victim of a Valentine's day bomb attack that killed him and 20 others, sparking an international probe to find the murderers. An inquiry that's nearing its end, stoking tension and uncertainty.

Front page columnist Sameer Kashir (ph) fell victim to a some blast four months ago, a bomb similar to the one that almost killed Chidiac. And it's almost a year since telecommunications minister Marwan Hamade, a strong critic of Syria, also fell victim to a failed assassination attempt. Nine surgeries later, he is still recovering from injuries and claims there's a clear motive for the media onslaught.

MARWAN HAMADE, CABINET MINISTER: This was aimed at terrorizing and stopping these media from taking over any subject related to the dictatorship.

SADLER: May Chidiac is not the first and perhaps not the last in a long line of victims, singled out by persons unknown.

HAJJ: She represented the beauty in this country. She represents the intelligence of this country. She is the perfect woman.

SADLER: And for whoever planted the bomb that maimed her, a valuable target.

Brent Sadler, CNN, Beirut.

KAGAN: We're going to check on weather and business come up next. Plus this, the high price of real estate. What homes are now becoming more expensive? Does yours cost a million bucks? We'll check in, just after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Professional sports on the hot seat once again, answering new questions about steroid punishments. This morning, there are representatives from professional baseball, football, basketball and hockey. They are discussing penalties with the Senate committee. Bills in front of Congress would make punishment uniform across professional sport. Two-year suspension for the first offense, lifetime ban for the second. Congress would rather the big leaguers police themselves, but the self-imposed penalties aren't strong enough for many lawmakers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JIM BUNNING, (R) KENTUCKY: It is impressive and amazing what you can do. You can come to agreements on collective bargaining and salaries and aspects of free agency and trading a host of other agencies, but forever -- whatever reason, some of you just cannot strike a deal on testing and penalties for illegal drug use. And I, and millions of fans, think that's pathetic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Baseball commissioner Bud Selig brought in five hall-of- famers to back his position on steroid penalties. Right now you see Donald Fehr, the head of the players union, testifying. Among them there today, home run champ Hank Aaron.

All right, you home owners, it's a milestone for the millionaire club. The folks at the Census say for the first time the U.S. has one million-dollar plus homes. The number of high-end homes has doubled in just the last few years. Keep in mind, a million dollars in Manhattan may get you a one-bedroom on the upper east side. A million dollars in Phoenix or Dallas could buy you a villa with a pool, a spa and a four-car garage.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: It is almost a month after Hurricane Katrina, and Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish remains largely under water today. It IS located on the southeastern tip of the state. Today, entire chunks of it still cannot be reached or recognized.

Our Ted Rowlands has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The occasional bird and creaking boats are all you hear. There is no rebuilding, no Red Cross shelters, no people sifting through debris. This part of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, has been virtually sealed off since hurricane Katrina.

After traveling two hours by boat, we arrive in the town of Empire. Boats are littered along the shore, some mangled together, others resting in spots that showed the horrible strength of the two hurricanes.

On shore, St. Ann's Church is one of the few buildings still standing. Scattered headstones from the adjacent graveyard are sitting in water. Most everything else here is flattened.

(on camera) We're now entering the town of Buress (ph). This wall used to keep the water out of the town. Hurricane Katrina took care of this wall and allowed all of the water to come in. As you can see, you never know it but right now we're actually on top of Highway 23, which connects all of these small towns together.

(voice-over) Farther south, near the city of Venice, there's a black bull stranded on a small strip of what used to be a levee. It is unclear how he got there and or how he'll survive.

Venice is the lifelong home of David Mills and Carl Halloway. It's David's boat that we're using to get here. Both men fish for a living, and both lost their homes.

CARL HALLOWAY, VENICE RESIDENT: I have nothing. Nothing at all. I have two kids and a wife, plenty of bills. You know? Starting over. Scary feeling.

ROWLANDS: Twenty-eight thousand people were living in Plaquemines Parish, many fishing or working in oil for a living. Only one of the oil rigs we passed had any sign of life. It will be awhile before production gets back to normal.

GEORGE MOSS, HILLCORP OIL: We've got some tank barriers (ph) that are completely destroyed. We've got to pull them out and start over. It will be about a year, time to get back up and running.

ROWLANDS: The prognosis is worse for the fishing industry. Oil spills have polluted the oyster beds. Some estimate it may take up to four years to get them back. Most of the boats here are destroyed, and the processing plant has been wiped out.

Everywhere you look is another image of destruction. The devastation here is as bad as anywhere we've been. The difference is that this place seems dead with no sign of coming back to life.

David and Carl hope their home isn't lost forever.

HALLOWAY: We're no different than everybody else, you know? It had the same effect.

ROWLAND: Help that right now seems a long way off.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: There's a lot more ahead in the next hour of CNN LIVE TODAY, including we're going to check in on Capitol Hill where the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama testifying before the Senate Finance Committee. They're talking about what they need to rebuild the economies of their states. That's just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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