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American Morning

Small Brush Fire in Southern California Reportedly Now 7,000- Acre Wildfire; Senate Two Hours Away From Vote on Nomination of Judge John Roberts

Aired September 29, 2005 - 09:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: We're expecting to get a progress report on Iraq this morning. A congressional hearing is expected to get under way on Capitol Hill. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, outgoing chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers, and the two top U.S. commanders in Iraq are set to testify before the Senate and House Armed Services Committees.
The back-to-back hearings apparently part of a White House effort to boost slipping support for the war -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: What started out as a small brush fire in Southern California has now reportedly grown to a 7,000-acre wildfire. These are live pictures. The fires threatening four Los Angeles-area counties. We have a closeup view using our technology to show you exactly where we're talking about. In this area hundreds of people have been evacuated and there are homes. This area is north of Los Angeles, in the suburbs, near the Ronald Reagan freeway, and let's zoom in there. Hundreds of people live in the Chatsworth area. They have been evacuated. Some of those people are coming to the scene, wondering what to do, because they cannot get any information.

Joining us now is Captain Mark Savage of the L.A. County Fire Department.

Good morning.

CAPT. MARK SAVAGE, L.A. CO. FIRE DEPT.: Good morning.

COSTELLO: You had this fire five percent contained, but you're worried. Why?

SAVAGE: We're worried because we have an abundance of fuel. This is a time of year that we have a lot of high winds, what are called the Santa Anna winds, and this is very high temperatures, low humidities and high winds. We're battling these severe conditions, very difficult for firefighters yesterday, and the same conditions are expected today. The fire grew rapidly to 7,000 acres. We've got many areas of concern, a lot of homes in the area, and really, the priority of firefighters is to, obviously, protect life and property, make a defense around some of the homes, because the fire behavior we had yesterday and what we had last night. We're not going to stop this fire until we get a break in the weather.

COSTELLO: You took unusual steps last night. You actually did air drops from helicopters at night. That's a pretty dangerous thing to do.

SAVAGE: Yes. Our aircraft -- many agencies involved, but we had several aircraft dropping water last night. If it's safe to do so, the pilot's decision. It's dangerous to do in the smoke and the high winds, and then when you do it at night it's even more dangerous, so it was safe to do so. Pilot's discretion. We were making some water drops around some homes that were being immediately threatened by fire, but this required an air attack and a ground attack. We'll have over 1,000 firefighters here today and with more on the way, and really to try to make a stop on this fire that really we have a lot of work to do, and Mother Nature, we really need a break from Mother Nature. We need the wind to decrease and really to give us a chance to make a stop on this fire.

COSTELLO: I understand one firefighter was hurt battling the blaze. Can you tell us more about that?

SAVAGE: Yes, he was struck by a rock, a 40-pound rock. He was airlifted to a local hospital, and the good news, he is doing better and actually was released from the hospital yesterday, but that was a scary moment. He was actually knocked unconscious. So it's very dangerous, steep terrain, inaccessible terrain, but we've got a very organized attack with many resources. We've got firefighters and our fire officers have been battling these wildfires for many, many years and have many years of experience, and everyone's putting their heads together to come up with a plan to obviously protect life, defend the structures, but to try to get a handle on this fire.

COSTELLO: We're looking at live pictures. This is KTLA, our affiliate out in Los Angeles, and we can see the fire is just burning seemingly out of control, because you only have it five percent contained. Tell us about the homes around this area and the steps taken to protect them?

SAVAGE: Well, there's several things we do. We are flying in from the air also to see what the threats are. There are many sporadic -- well, there's sporadic homes in there, some housing tracks.

But the amount of open flame that we have, we've got a lot of work to do to try to put line construction in, but there are homes in the fire's path, and with the winds kicking up, expected to be first thing this morning, it's going to make a very big change for firefighters to get in ahead of the fire, to protect the homes as the fire comes by, because there is no stopping the fire when we get the high winds that we are expected today. So really to let the residents know that if you're in fire is area, be ready to evacuate, identify two ways out of their home, and identify what they're going to take if they're asked to evacuate, because it could be on a moment's notice. And we need people to cooperate with fire officials. If they're told to evacuate, do so. It's for their best interests. And we'll not put firefighters in anymore danger with them moving around in the fire area if they don't need to be.

COSTELLO: Yes, because sometimes they go back and try to protect their homes, nearly an impossibility sometimes. Captain Mark Savage from the L.A. Fire Department, we'll check back with you.

Thank you -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Thanks, Carol.

The Senate is about two hours away from a vote on the nomination of Judge John Roberts to be the chief justice of the United States. Roberts should be easily confirmed, as a matter of fact, kind of a foregone conclusion at this point. He will take his place on the bench when the high court convenes Monday for a new term. There may even be a swearing-in ceremony as quickly as today, who knows.

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins to talk to us about the Roberts court.

Good to have you with us.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: First of all, I have the sense that John Roberts has been preparing for this job since he was about six.

TOOBIN: He looks it.

O'BRIEN: So it's not like he's been doing, you know, a lot of cramming in the interim period. So what's he been doing? Has he been going to the office, thinking about clerks, studying up?

TOOBIN: Well, you know, it's a delicate protocol, because there's very much a tradition of the court that you don't assume anything. You don't want to be measuring drapes, and then something comes up and you don't get confirmed, so he has not been going into the court. He has not been, you know, getting administratively ready to take over. Intellectually of course he's been thinking about it.

But you know, one of the difficult issues when you get on the court for the first time is catching up. The briefs have been coming in, and some justices have a really difficult time adjusting early on.

O'BRIEN: Do you suspect that, in a kind of informal way he's been reading in on this one way or another?

TOOBIN: I think probably he knows the first cases to be argued because he's going to have to preside on Monday, the first Monday in October on Monday, the arguments start, and he's going to have to preside, so I bet he's looked at the briefs.

O'BRIEN: So some back channel kind of stuff?

TOOBIN: I would imagine.

O'BRIEN: And he of course was a clerk, a clerk for Rehnquist, so I'm sure he's spent some time thinking about his clerks. That's an important thing. TOOBIN: Well, he is a judge on the D.C. circuit, so he has clerks.

O'BRIEN: And they come with him?

TOOBIN: And usually they come with him. Also Chief Justice Rehnquist had hired clerks, you know, obviously he didn't know he was going to die, so his clerks will probably be taking care of as well. Justice O'Connor is preparing to leave, her clerks -- usually if you get a Supreme Court clerkship, they take care of you through one justice or another.

O'BRIEN: It's a pretty good gig in the legal world, yes.

TOOBIN: Yes.

O'BRIEN: And Justice O'Connor will be there because she vowed to do so. Let's talk about her replacement, which could be more contentious than what we've seen thus far.

TOOBIN: I think almost certainly will be more contentious. The replacement of Chief Justice Rehnquist is one conservative replacing another, the balance of the court not really affected at all. Justice O'Connor, who we said so many times a swing vote on abortion, on affirmative action, that seat is going to be very fought over, and also, you know, the political context is different. The Democrats are feeling a little more feisty now. President Bush has all sorts of problems on Iraq, on Katrina, the Republicans in Congress. So the stage is set for a confrontation, but there are still 55 Republicans in the Senate. That gives then an enormous automate of control.

O'BRIEN: The president yesterday when asked about it said, somewhat cryptically, but tipping his hand a little bit, that diversity is an important part of our nation. And I'm paraphrasing. So can we expect perhaps a Hispanic, perhaps a woman? What do you think?

TOOBIN: You know, it seems like that's in the cards. Alberto Gonzales has been talked about from the beginning, very close friend of President Bush, the attorney general, former White House counsel, not liked by conservatives, and the president is close to the conservatives in his party. Harriet Myers, the White House counsel, is now getting some sort of buzz in the world. But you know, if you remember last time, we heard a lot about this Judge Joy Clement, and it really seemed almost an intentional misdirection.

O'BRIEN: Yes.

TOOBIN: So I think, you know, we're in a situation where those who know don't tell, those who tell don't know, so.

O'BRIEN: It's judge herring, red herring.

TOOBIN: Yes!

O'BRIEN: So we didn't talk about John Roberts in advance, and that's worth pointing out to our viewers.

TOOBIN: It's sort of at the bottom.

O'BRIEN: We listed him, oh, by the way, there's this next tier. So the White House does a good job of keeping their counsel on these kinds of things.

TOOBIN: They really do, and there's really no percentage in making a clear leak of who's going to win, who's going to get the nomination, because that would allow the opposition to coalesce. This way everybody's disorganized, hunting around. It's -- we're almost certainly going to know either tomorrow or early next week, so the suspense will be over soon.

O'BRIEN: Do you think the senators, though, have a general sense of where it's going?

TOOBIN: I don't. I really don't. I don't think even the senior Republicans know. They get tipped maybe a couple hours before the rest of us, but this White House, this is a White House prerogative, and this White House jealousy guards it.

O'BRIEN: Jeff Toobin, thank you very much.

TOOBIN: We'll be covering the vote live at 11:00.

O'BRIEN: Of course we will, and you'll be here. A long day for you. All right, take care -- Carol.

COSTELLO: One month later, many survivors displaced by hurricane Katrina are debating the same thing, whether to move back home or start fresh in another place. Betty and Lionel Daggs decided on the latter, choosing to call Denver, Colorado their new home, and the couple joins me from Denver.

Welcome to both of you.

LIONEL DAGGS, EVACUEE LIVING IN DENVER: Thank you.

BETTY DAGGS, EVACUEE LIVING IN DENVER: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

Lionel, you spent two days in your house, and then you spent two days at the Superdome. You're both diabetic. You were without your medications. What were those days like for you?

L. DAGGS: It was horrible at first. We survived the storm, but we didn't survive the water that came into the house from underneath the house. So the first two days in the attic was terrible, but the following two days at the Superdome were even worse, because we had three classes of people. We had those who evacuated, we had those who stayed in their residences and also those who came to prey on us, the thugs and the criminals who were in the Superdome, so those first four days were horrible. COSTELLO: You know, Lionel, we're hearing stories that some of the reports of violence inside there were exaggerated. What do you say to that?

L. DAGGS: I say that that's not true. The story that was not told, the rapes, and the things that they had done to these little kids in the toilet facilities were terrible, and the people who did it were not evacuees. They had no intention of relieving the city. They just came to prey on the people who were in the Dome.

COSTELLO: Betty, I'm just curious, how did you hear of incidents like that? Did just you hear of them, or did you actually see them?

L. DAGGS: We saw after the guy raped the little girl, we saw thugs and guys gathering things to use to kill this guy, so we saw the people who was trying to chase the guy who did the rape. There were three rapes in the Dome that we knew of, and we saw this firsthand.

COSTELLO: You guys don't live far from Lake Ponchartrain.

Betty, do you plan to go back home?

B. DAGGS: No.

COSTELLO: And see the house?

B. DAGGS: He's going to go back. I'm going to stay here. He's going to see whatever there is to be seen, but I'll wait for him here in Denver. I'm not going back.

COSTELLO: Why not?

B. DAGGS: I think it's hard on me, you know, to see the loss, and I don't think I could handle it. So I'm going to stay here.

COSTELLO: Denver seems like such a different place than New Orleans. How are you adjusting?

B. DAGGS: Oh, very well. It's not so much different than New Orleans, except for the climate. We have humidity, where you guys don't, but as a people, we're all the same. You know, we're very friendly. You guys are very friendly, and we're most appreciative, because you open your arms and your hearts out to us, and you welcomed us, and I feel very comfortable.

COSTELLO: That's terrific!

B. DAGGS: And I'm staying. And I'm staying.

COSTELLO: There are kind people in America, aren't there?

Lionel, I wanted to ask you about your sons, because I know they evacuated, and you haven't heard from them, or have you?

L. DAGGS: We picked up on a Web site and one of my sons in the Astrodome just before Rita, and we assume that they may have evacuated to Arkansas, because of Rita. Now, where they are now, I have no idea.

COSTELLO: You're still searching then.

L. DAGGS: Yes, I am.

COSTELLO: Well, my best to you, and good luck in your new home in Denver, and Lionel, I know how hard it is to go back to New Orleans just to see, you know, your house and whatever you have left.

Thanks to both of you for joining us this morning. Lionel and Betty Daggs.

B. DAGGS: Thank you.

L.. DAGGS: Thank you so much.

COSTELLO: It's nice to hear about that, the way they're welcomed with open arms. It really is. That's really nice.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, we check in on some of the tiniest and most vulnerable hurricane evacuees. A roller coaster journey from New Orleans to Houston, and then back again, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: When Katrina hit, New Orleans hospitals got help from medical centers outside the city for their most critical patients, including babies in the neonatal intensive care unit at Oschner Hospital. Then when Rita threatened Houston, Oschner welcomed the chance to lend a hand as well.

Soledad has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the days following Hurricane Katrina, doctors at Oschner Hospital in New Orleans were forced to evacuate their tiniest and most vulnerable patients.

DR. HARLEY GINSBERG, NICU DIR., OSCHNER HOSPITAL: It was a lot more difficult to watch babies leave than I ever thought it was going to be. We had babies down between a pound and a half all the way up to about eight or nine pounds that were all paying the price for what Katrina had brought us.

S. O'BRIEN: Two dozen newborns rescued from the neonatal intensive care unit and taken to regional hospitals have since been reunited with their families.

NANCY DAVIS, CHIEF NURSE, NICU OSCHNER: All of us have learned a lot of lessons going through a storm of this magnitude. So I think that's why we reached out so quickly to the hospitals to the west of us, because we knew that it would be in their patient's best interests to perhaps be somewhere else.

S. O'BRIEN: Then came Hurricane Rita, and with it a chance for doctors and nurse at Oschner to return the favor.

GINSBERG: When Rita showed up in the Gulf and started heading toward Houston, I felt compelled to at least make the phone call to find out if there was anything we could do for them, since they had helped us out in such a dramatic fashion, and as it turned out, we were able to pick up a set of twins from Houston and bring them back here.

S. O'BRIEN: Those twins, Joshua and Jacey (ph) Hall were among seven babies taken in from Rita. They were supposed to be born at Oschner, but the parents, Tara and John Hall, were evacuated during Katrina, and the twins, who weren't due until November, entered the world in Houston, Texas.

JOHN HALL, FATHER OF TWINS: I just keep waiting for her to open her eyes, and she's just so beautiful.

S. O'BRIEN: Now both the parents and the hospital staff are breathing sighs of relief after weathering two storms.

DAVIS: It's been an emotional roller coaster, as you could imagine. We have gotten through what we hope is the worst, although it's still storm season so we don't know what else is out there, but it's been an incredible experience, really a life-altering experience.

TARA HALL, MOTHER OF TWINS: It's an amazing story. You know, who has this many things happen when they're, you know, born? So it's -- we have a lot to tell them. They have a lot to be thankful for.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Plenty of stories to tell. Soledad O'Brien, before she lost her voice, with that piece.

"CNN LIVE TODAY" is coming up next.

Daryn, hope your voice is working OK.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is this week. Soledad lost her voice?

O'BRIEN: Yes, I'm coming off a cold. Carol said she was feeling -- I mean, I think going to New Orleans is bad for your health.

KAGAN: It is, but there's something going around. I was out for a week two weeks ago. There's our (INAUDIBLE) health report there.

Getting some news that people really care about, top of the hour, more on the fast-moving wildfires outside of Los Angeles. Hundreds of people have already been evacuated and dozens of homes are threatened. We'll get a live update from Southern California.

Also, bestselling author John Grisham takes us on a tour of his hurricane-ravaged hometown. Find out how he and his wife plan to rebuild Biloxi on CNN LIVE TODAY.

Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: Thank you, Daryn. See you then.

Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, we are "Minding Your Business" coming up. One state could be in really big trouble if the housing bubble bursts. Oh, please say it ain't so, please say it ain't so. Andy will tell us why ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A gloomy forecast for California's economy. With that and a check on Wall Street, Andy is "Minding Your Business" your this morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: All right, I'm getting tired of the word "gloomy" being associated in my segments. We're going to put a stop to that. Miles has been doing that to me all week.

Let's go down to Wall Street where things are a little well...

COSTELLO: Down.

SERWER: The Dow Jones Industrials down 24 points. Some positive economic data being ignored by the stock market this morning. Instead they're focusing on higher oil prices now at $67 a barrel, and we've been talking about production problems out in the Gulf.

Also, new jobs report out this morning, saying an additional 60,000 people have lost their jobs because of Hurricane Katrina. We're now up to 279,000 job losses because of the storm.

COSTELLO: That's unbelievable.

SERWER: And there's probably more to come, Carol, but the numbers are big.

COSTELLO: And you wonder, where are they going to get jobs?

SERWER: Right, well some of the jobs will come back, but you know, it's at the very least, it's going to be months.

COSTELLO: Absolutely.

OK, let's get to the gloomy.

SERWER: The gloomy part of my report? OK. I want to talk about the state of California, where housing prices have been, you know, soaring for years, and a new study out by UCLA economists suggesting that it may be topping out. More homes are on the market. Sales are slowing, and people are taking all kinds of exotic mortgages to afford homes. That slowdown could produce a recession, they say, in 2007. Carol, in 2002, the average home in California, $266,000. Today, the average home in California, $456,000. That's a 71 percent increase, and I don't know if it's going to end right now, but at some point... COSTELLO: It's got to burst.

SERWER: it's got to end, because that is just a tremendously high rate of growth.

COSTELLO: Who could afford to buy a house?

SERWER: Not too many people.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Andy.

SERWER: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Live pictures now. This is yet another structure appears to be some sort of farming structure. I'm sorry, there's this tape. This is tape, my apologies, of a farming structure burning there in the northern portions of Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley. And we've been telling you now about 7,000 acres in the midst of this wildfire, and some concern about those very strong winds today, which might make it more difficult for the firefighters to do their job. We're going to be watching that all day.

COSTELLO: Hopefully not. And of course Daryn Kagan is going to be watching it in just a few minutes.

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