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CNN Live Today
Aid Streams into South Asia After Quake; Is the Bird Flu Hype Warranted?; President Bush Visits Reopened Mississippi School
Aired October 11, 2005 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning again. I'm Daryn Kagan. Here's a look at what's happening "Now in the News."
President Bush says the federal government will not dictate how the Gulf Coast rebuilds itself from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as we look at a live picture of the most photographed blue door in America this morning. That is Delisle Elementary School in Pass Christian. The president making a visit to the school, the ceremonial reopening of the storm-damaged school. Mr. Bush is on his eighth visit to the region since Katrina struck.
A "New York Times" reporter who was jailed for refusing to identify a source is to meet today with a special prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation. Judith Miller will not appear before the grand jury today, but could be called to testify later. Presidential adviser Karl Rove is due to testify on the 2003 disclosure of a CIA officer's identity, but no timeframe has been given.
Helicopters and boats are now funneling aid into Guatemalan villages, cut off days ago by floods and mudslides. At least 500 people have been killed and hundreds more are missing. Central America's rainy season had prevented delivery of supplies and added to fears of a food shortage across much of the country.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she may extend her previously-planned visit to Central Asia with a tour of the earthquake damage in Pakistan. She says she'll only go to Pakistan if that country's government believes her visit would be helpful. The U.S. has already pledged $50 million in initial aid to that region.
A thin stream of emergency aid is flowing into South Asia's earthquake zone. The needs, though, are vastly overshadowing the supplies for now. A massive response is beginning to fill the skies, as we see now from CNN's senior international correspondent Satinder Bindra, who is at one staging area in Pakistan's Kashmir region.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SATINDER BINDRA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Almost every helicopter in this country is flying in supplies -- medicine, food and blankets -- to some of the worst affected areas of this country. Also helping out now is the United States. Just one day after the Pakistani president, General Pervez Musharraf, appealed for help, eight U.S. helicopters and arrived here. There's five Chinooks and three Black Hawks.
Every day they're now bringing in materials from Islamabad to Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. From here, this material will be distributed to an estimated two-and-a-half million homeless people. These people are still living out in the open. Sometimes the temperature in the day gets very hot, and at night it's getting very cold here.
So far, the United States has already pledged $50 million to help Pakistan rebuild. Several other countries are also helping out. And now international rescue teams have arrived in some of the worst affected areas. They say they're still confident of finding survivors in the rubble.
Satinder Bindra, CNN, Muzaffrabad, Pakistani-controlled Kashmir.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: And now another emerging problem facing the international community. The spread of bird flu in Asia and the threat it could pose to people all around the world. Earlier this morning, health officials from the U.S. and United Nations toured a chicken farm in Thailand. It's touted as a model for other Asian nations because of measures designed to contain the birds and prevent the spread of the bird flu virus. The precautions are as simple as a shoe bath and disinfectant room for workers, and plastic netting for the birds.
From the White House to the corner coffee shop, talk of a potential outbreak of avian flu has stirred much concern. But how much of that is warranted?
Our homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve takes an alarming look at the first line of defense against a possible epidemic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An emergency room physician calls a public health department reporting a patient with symptoms of deadly botulism. He is told, I wouldn't worry too much if I were you. A caller to another health department describes bubonic plague. An employee there says, don't worry, go back to bed. The calls were part of a test. The results, sobering.
DR. NICOLE LURIE, RAND: We have a long way to go to train our public health work force to be a first line of defense.
MESERVE: Experts predict millions could die in an Avian flu outbreak. But, as with other diseases, rapid detection could help curb its spread and lower the death toll. That is why local public health departments are supposed to be able to receive information about a wide range of serious illnesses 24/7. But Rand researchers discovered that some aren't even answering the phone.
In 2003, they made a series of calls to nineteen public health departments claiming to be doctors or nurses reporting urgent cases of illness. Three agencies were dropped from the test after failing to answer or return five consecutive calls. Many departments failed to respond in 30 minutes as mandated by the Centers for Disease Control. And some took more than 10 hours. Only two met all federal deadline guidelines.
DR GEORGES BENJAMIN, EXEC. DIR., AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH: That's not acceptable at all. Absolutely not. We now, in today's environment, we have to have 24-hour emergent contact in the public health system.
MESERVE: When the calls were answered, the quality of advice was sometimes poor. When researchers described small pox symptoms, none of the health departments suggested isolating the patient or using personal protective equipment, though the dangerous disease is highly contagious.
(on camera): Since September 11, an estimated $3 billion has been spent on public health. If the tests had been conducted before that spending, experts speculate the results might have been even worse. If they were conducted now, the results might be better.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: In the days following Hurricane Katrina, CNN's Kathleen Koch filed some unforgettable pieces from her hometown of Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Well, coming up, she is checking back in. Several weeks have passed, but is the situation any better?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: President Bush is in Pass Christian, Mississippi, today at the reopening -- oh, and look, there he is. What about that timing? This is Delisle Elementary School. President and Mrs. Bush. And there's Margaret Spellings, the secretary of education there making a visit to the Gulf Coast. It's Mr. Bush's eighth visit to the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina. And there is Mrs. Bush. Delisle Elementary School is just reopening. This is a ceremonial reopening after six weeks since Huricane Katrina.
Let's see if President Bush is going to have some words. Let's listen in.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: This is Kay Rendfrey, part of our school district curriculum (INAUDIBLE).
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Kaye, how are you?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: District curriculum coordinator. And this is an honor.
G. BUSH: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: And we have all the children waiting to see you.
G. BUSH: Hey, everybody.
(CROSSTALK)
G. BUSH: Good to see you.
STUDENTS: Good morning, Mr. President and Mrs. Bush.
G. BUSH: How's everybody doing?
STUDENTS: Good.
G. BUSH: Glad to be back in school?
STUDENTS: Yes.
G. BUSH: It's exciting. Thank the teachers.
Thank you all. Hang in there. Be tough. Thank you for doing this.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Thank you for coming.
G. BUSH: Thrilled to be here. Great school district.
Good to meet everybody.
Want to meet my wife?
STUDENTS: Yes.
G. BUSH: Hey, Laura? Laura? Come on over and say hello.
(CROSSTALK)
KAGAN: You're watching live pictures Pass Christian, Mississippi, Delisle Elementary School. President and Mrs. Bush making a visit to this elementary school, having a ceremonial reopening six weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit. This of course will have a special place on the part of Mrs. Bush, a former school librarian. Looks like someone was standing in front of the camera there.
OK, more from President Bush later. By the way, this is his eighth visit to the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina hit.
Now we're going to move just a little bit to the west. As we do that, I want to tell you about our Kathleen Koch. She grew up to the town -- the next one over to the west, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
Well, let's see if President Bush has anything else more to say, and then we'll get to Kathleen Koch's piece in just a minute.
G. BUSH: Good to meet everybody.
STUDENTS: Thank you.
G. BUSH: God bless you all.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: God bless you, too.
(CROSSTALK)
KAGAN: As we continue to look at these live pictures from Pass Christian, Mississippi, President Bush is there at Delisle Elementary School, making a visit to the children and teachers.
Let me explain there used to be a bridge that connected Pass Christian with Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. That was washed away by Hurricane Katrina. In fact, Bay, St. Louis was one of the hardest -- Mississippi -- was one of the hardest areas hit by Hurricane Katrina.
Our Kathleen Koch is from Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. She took an emotional trip there after the storm. I hope you saw those pieces, and then she just went back to see how residents are doing now. She found ongoing hardships, but she also discovered a spirit of renewal.
Here now, Kathleen Koch.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In places the rubble sits untouched as if time is standing still, but in other parts of my hometown, Bay St. Louis, they are beginning to move the debris, to empty the contents of a few homes and businesses not destroyed by the 145-mile-an-hour winds and the 35-foot storm surge.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Of course, you've got the leather. That was a school satchel for one of the kids.
KOCH: My high school friend David Trutel (ph) lost his home and the insurance agency his family has run for three generations. He's frustrated how few of the clients have gotten help from insurers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got lots of people who have nothing left but slabs, and I'm hoping that we get a better response.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything is gone. Pews, the door has been destroyed.
KOCH: Katrina wasn't kind to Our Lady of the Gulf Church, where two of my sisters were married. But a parishioner, a builder, has begun to repair the roof.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) another piece of good news, because there's so much tradition, so much history is here, so much loyalty to this place.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No later than we come up and I come back to the room, it just...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shannon Evans says she's staying, though she lost much of he room in the hurricane. She's hoping she'll get a FEMA trailer for her and her four daughters. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to sign up for it. They say that you can keep it for a year.
KOCH: Many, though are in tents.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no place left to go. I'm here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have an air mattress here, and I'm sleeping right here in the office.
KOCH: Veterinarian Wadi Labugouis (ph) lost his practice and his home. He's working and living out of a friend's office.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My practice, I can build it back, but there's nobody down there.
KOCH: The town of just over 8,000 has lost more than half its population. The mayor worries about the struggles ahead.
But he believes the character of the citizens will bring the town back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They've lost everything pi, but they still smile. They still believe that everything's going to be OK. And every day, as long as it's a little bit better today than it was yesterday, we're on the right track.
KOCH: Though the going won't be easy.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: And as we continue to look at live pictures from Pass Christian, Mississippi, President Bush is there at Delisle Elementary School, making a visit to the children and teachers. I want to tell you about a question we put up our Web site. It's about New Orleans. Should it be rebuilt? we have a lot of responses and I wanted to share a couple of them with you.
One wrote, "Of course it should be rebuilt. Living in the hurricane zone myself, I believe it is not practical to abandon the entire Gulf and Atlantic Coast. Did we abandon Miami after Hurricane Andrew? As a nation, we have a tremendous opportunity to rebuild New Orleans as a great modern metropolis. The question is, do we have the foresight and leadership to improve and not just replace the city on the cheap? unfortunately, I doubt it." That is from Dave in Jacksonville.
And then there;s this one from Andrew in New York: "We should not encourage people to live there. Instead of giving incentives to move back and rebuild, we should instead offer grants to those who do not go back. The town will never completely disappear. It has too much history, but it should not attempt to become a viable American city. It should be a tourist city able to evacuate at a moment's notice. It's like building on an active volcano, not very well thought out." (STOCK MARKET REPORT)
KAGAN: We're going to check in on a U.S. congressman. He is in trouble with the law. That is ahead when CNN LIVE TODAY returns.
And out with the old, in with the new. A historic bridge, kaboom! Gone, but a beautiful new bridge already in place. We'll tell you more about where that was, just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Let's go ahead and take a look at other stories making news coast to coast this morning. A Texas Congressman could face up to $1,000 fine and a year in jail after being charged with driving under the influence in South Dakota. A state trooper had stopped Representative Kevin Brady for a problem with his taillight. The 50- year-old Republican was attending homecoming at his alma mater, the University of South Dakota.
In Charleston, South Carolina, history comes tumbling down. Minutes ago, demolition crews brought down a 500-foot section of the Silas Pearman over Town Creek. Barge crews have now a bigger task. They're supposed to recover all of the 11 sections of the bridge in the river within 24 hours.
Move over, Charlie Brown. This great pumpkin looms too large for any Halloween cartoon. And the only animation is from the Washington state grower, who captured this prize at this year's pumpkin weigh-off in Half Moon Bay, California. The gigantic gourd tipped in the scales at more than 1200 pounds. That is a lot of pie.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KAGAN: A lot more ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY, including a behind- the-scenes look with this man, director and actor Spike Lee. He is no stranger to controversy. He'll be spending some time with me. Will recent scenes from Hurricane Katrina inspire him again? I'll ask him just ahead as the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now.
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