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American Morning

Evacuations in Cuba Ahead of Hurricane Wilma; Turbulent Times for the GOP

Aired October 21, 2005 - 08:36   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 just learning, we just found out, as a matter of fact, that the outer edge of that eye wall of Wilma has made landfall. Of course, you know, the eye is huge. Look at that thing. It practically takes up that whole diameter of that numeral one. This is -- there's a little bit of lag in this shot. You can see it's just about to hit shore there, just happened, at the Yucatan peninsula. But it's a huge eye wall. Could be -- if you happen to be beneath it, it could take six hours for it to pass from beginning to end.
Now, where is it headed? That is the question many of you want to know. And what is the direction? We keep telling you about this possible turn that way. Cuba is a possibility; 500,000 people are being evacuated. When they do evacuations there, they do them. Lucia Newman is in Havana.

Lucia, I've heard stories, where, of course, things are mandatory there in those evacuations, they really mean mandatory, they actually roll out the refrigerators with the families.

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Miles. When they talk about evacuations here, they really mean it. They are massive. So far, more than 300,000 people have been evacuated, and the storm is still on the Mexican side of the Yucatan Peninsula, as you well said. Three-hundred thousand people, most of them so far, from Western (INAUDIBLE), the Rio province, Havana province, and soon to be in the city of Havana itself, up to 500,000 will be. And they don't just evacuate just the people, they take their dogs.

And we very impressed to see, in one town, how people were packing up all their things, waiting for a government container to come and pick all that stuff up, take it into some storage area, safe and dry presumably, and then take the residents of those houses to a shelter later on. And then after the storm passes, they're supposed to get it all back. And apparently this is routine and it works very, very smoothly. The Cuban authorities, their civil-defense authorities particularly, are very, very experienced in massive evacuations and getting people and their belongings out of harm's way -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Lucia Newman in Cuba, we wish them well there. We wish you well. Stay safe. What happens to Wilma in Mexico, what happens in Cuba, important lessons for the people of Florida? They're all watching now, we hope.

(WEATHER REPORT) S. O'BRIEN: All right, let's talk about this Tom DeLay mugshot. You've seen it. Maybe we can pop it up here. it's kind of a bizarre mugshot, considering the guy's just been indicted. He's smiling. He's charged, in fact, with conspiracy and money laundering, and this mugshot was taken when he surrendered in Houston yesterday.

CNN political analyst, "L.A. Times" columnist Ron Brownstein is in our Washington bureau this morning.

All this, really, I think, Ron, is a symbol of the turbulent political atmosphere that's facing the GOP right now. The big problem, the leadership that should be managing all this, they're a big part of the problem, right?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Well, first of all, good mug shot is definitely a relative term. You know, it's like successful bankruptcy filing. It's only so good it can be.

Yes. I mean, look at what's happening here with the Republicans in Washington now. They have had a very difficult year, starting with the intervention in the case of Terri Schiavo, continuing with the inability to generate support for the Social Security restructuring plan, dissatisfaction over gas prices, the war in Iraq, Cindy Sheehan.

And you get to the fall and you see, inevitably, the numbers declining on all fronts. Approval of Congress, approval of the president, sense of satisfaction with the direction of the country. Clearly, a need to figure out a way out of this hole for the election, only now one year from now.

But what are they facing now? The very people who would be sort of directing this effort are in extraordinary position where you have ethical investigations underway at the leadership in the House, Tom DeLay, the Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, and of course, the White House under the shadow of Patrick Fitzgerald.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk a little bit about strategy. There was clearly a strategy. We saw DeLay's attorney come out, showing the mug shot and showing the fingerprints, I guess, in a way, to undercut anybody else who would release it online or show it on TV ahead of time.

And you look at the poll numbers, you see something very interesting. The favorable rating for the Republican party, as you know, was back in September, 45 percent now down to 40 percent. Look at the Democrats. The favorable rating was 47 percent, now up to 52 percent. What do you make of the strategy of the Democrats now?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, first, that is the significant, I think, number in your poll. I mean, there's been a lot of polling -- not surprisingly, given everything we've just mentioned, that's showing the Republican party has been taking some hits in their image with the public. They are in charge in Washington and historically, the party that is in charge suffers the most when people are unhappy with the direction of the country, as Americans emphatically are right now. What's unusual and striking in your poll is there have been very few showing the Democratic image improving. And, obviously, it's just one poll. We'll have to wait and see whether it's confirmed by others. But this has to be troubling for Republicans, because one of the ways they had been comforting themselves amid all of the difficult numbers they've been facing is the sense that Democrats aren't making any ground, Democrats are not offering an alternative.

They're still not offering a clear alternative on many fronts, but they are beginning to be a little more aggressive in one area, and that's fiscal spending priorities. You're seeing Democrats attacking the Republican plans to go ahead with tax cuts this fall, and talking about spending more money on areas like subsidizing winter heating oil costs for low-income families, the so-called LIHY (ph) program. So they're beginning to push a little more on that front, but they're still not out there with a full-fledged alternative.

S. O'BRIEN: The Harriet Miers conundrum really, I think, is a snapshot of the problem facing the administration and the GOP maybe as a whole, which is, do you alienate your base or do you alienate the independents or moderates?

BROWNSTEIN: You know, they find themselves, really, for the first time in Bush's presidency in a boat that is leaking from both ends. Not surprisingly -- again, given everything we've talked about -- the numbers for the administration, for the president, for the Congress, among independent swing voters, are miserable. Your poll out this week had presidential approval rating of only 32 percent among independents. Down in the 20s for Congress among independents.

On the other hand, for the really -- for the first time in his presidency, he is seeing significant turbulence with his base, with conservative leaders, not only over Harriet Miers, but also over the spending that has followed the federal response to Katrina. So you're in this situation where you have to repair your coalition at two ends and that is not easy to do because many of the things that appeal to one side tend to put off the other. And Miers is certainly an example of that.

Obviously, they could reassure conservatives by finding a way to get out of this nomination, putting up someone who is more identifiably conservative, with a more clear record on the issues they care about. The risk of that, of course, is a polarizing fight that further alienates the middle.

S. O'BRIEN: More alienazation (sic). All right, Ron Brownstein, nice to see you as always. We should remind everybody, Tom DeLay's appearance in court's going to be carried live, CNN, 10:00 a.m. Eastern time.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, those claims that Carnival Cruise lines took the government for a ride, so to speak, in the name of helping Katrina victims. We will get into that.

S. O'BRIEN: Also, preparing for the very worst. Our next guest is no stranger to hurricanes. He's helped people through more than a dozen of them. He's got disaster planning tips for you, just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: All right. With Wilma bearing down right now on Cancun and possibly headed toward Cuba and then, ultimately, Florida, once again, a lot of people wondering what to do. Fill up the gas tank, get some water, get out of town? Well, that's the basics. We all know those. There's a lot more to it, if you really start thinking about it. And if you're smart about how this all goes down, you can have a much more pleasant -- if that's the word you can use, because that is a bit of euphemism. But it won't be as unpleasant, put it that way, if you have to evacuate.

Jay Summer is a disaster preparedness specialist for a company called Disaster Plus. He joins us now from Charleston, South Carolina, where, of course, they had Hurricane Hugo back in -- what was that, was that '92? When was that, Hurricane Hugo?

JAY SUMMER, DISASTER PREPAREDNESS SPECIALIST: In '89. .

M. O'BRIEN: It was '99 -- '89.

SUMMER: Eighty-nine.

M. O'BRIEN: And everybody remembers that. And everybody, of course, there pays attention to hurricanes as a result of that. And we are all paying attention very closely, because of what we've experienced this season. Jay, good to have you with us.

SUMMER: Good morning.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about -- you've got a few kind of examples of things you should have and shouldn't have. Why don't we start with this, though. What is the biggest mistake that people make?

SUMMER: Generally the largest mistake I see made is improper preparation to leave and perhaps that would include leaving a little bit late.

M. O'BRIEN: Leaving late.

SUMMER: Yes, sir.

M. O'BRIEN: Because, you know, it's interesting. In Houston, we saw that terrible lineup of cars. Some of the people who waited until it was real late actually got -- the roads were open. You wouldn't recommend that?

SUMMER: No, sir. Primarily, what happens -- and we have a great deal of media coverage right now for an oncoming storm that is very powerful. It's time to make preparations now and to leave as early as you can, especially those with POVs or personally owned vehicles, rather than waiting until the last minute.

M. O'BRIEN: OK. Let's talk, first of all, the basics here on what we want to bring along on these kinds of things.

SUMMER: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: When you say food, that doesn't mean go out and buy a bunch of Doritos, right?

SUMMER: No sir, no junk food. It would be quite a bit better if you used something such as what I have in front of me here. These are MREs, meals ready to eat. Camp food, some that is pre-packaged and ready to go. Don't forget to bring things such as vitamins, minerals. No junk food. Protein bars are good. Things like that are good, because bear in mind, this may be a two week or longer stay.

M. O'BRIEN: So you really have to plan on two weeks, huh? Wow.

SUMMER: Yes, sir.

S. O'BRIEN: What do you think should in the disaster preparedness kit? I mean, like, if you're packing for your family, should you have a bag that's already in the closet full of everybody's stuff? I mean, how does that work?

SUMMER: I've had that for many years. It is very, very wise to do that. The only thing that needs to be recycled through that bag would be your general medicines and remedies you get over the counter, as well as your food. And you can do that once a year. And I believe that that is the best course of action. FEMA, Red Cross, these people all have lists of things you can pack away and have ready to go out the door.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, now one of the things you stress, you stress underwear and socks. Tell us about that.

SUMMER: Yes, sir. Well, because, where you're going, and perhaps you all saw this in the shelters, where you may be going to our own place, you may have relatives, or friends or hotels far away where you can stay, but if you end up in shelters, you may not have the area where you can change clothes quite so often, or laundry facilities or bath facilities, but bear in mind, that which you wear under, socks especially -- you may be doing a lot of walking -- and then underclothing, things that need to be changed, you may not have laundry facilities to clean them. So I tell people, please, remember that is more important than what you're wearing on the outside.

S. O'BRIEN: It was amazing to me how many people in Hurricane Katrina who got out didn't take any of their medications and took water, but didn't take enough water. What do you recommend as far as that goes?

SUMMER: Well, it's probably impossible to take enough water for a two-week stay, unless you have a very large vehicle. However, water-purification tablets, water sources, filling water bottles along the way as you can would be wise, because the water itself, it will be available the further away you get from the zone. This is why I stress in the transportation mode, pick a place as far away as you can, more things, more medicine, more doctors, more food, more things will be available to you far away from the zone.

M. O'BRIEN: And if you are in a jam where you're out of water, you know, you can get those tablets at camping stores. But I notice that you actually can use plain old bleach? At long as you don't use too much, right?

SUMMER: That is correct.

M. O'BRIEN: Just a couple of drops. How does that go?

SUMMER: Yes, a couple of drops of bleach between two quarts of gallon would be fine. And in light of that, it may taste slightly like pool water, if you've ever swallowed that. And this is why people bring along dry drinks, such as Tang, or Kool-Aid or things that they can mix with it to make it taste better.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, that's a good idea, gets rid of that taste.

And then finally, you say this, you know, one of the things they tell us to do is clear debris, board up the house. You've got to be careful how much time you spend doing that, right?

SUMMER: Generally speaking, those type of things should be done already right now. We know this is an approaching storm. And whether the storm is approaching or not, that things need to be cleared up and cleaned up anyway. So do those things right away. The things that are most important is getting life out. The things you cannot replace are life and time. And those two things seem to take some time for some people a second place when they're trying to protect their property. They should not.

M. O'BRIEN: Jay summer is a man who spends a lot of time thinking about disasters. That's his business. Thanks for your insights, very helpful.

SUMMER: Yes, sir. Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely. It's nice to sort of think about it way ahead of time before you really need to. You don't want to be packing the day you're evacuated from your house.

M. O'BRIEN: No, that's a bad idea. Yes, and you really have to think out all these little things that you don't -- you know, wouldn't occur to you. We take so many things for granted about civilization.

S. O'BRIEN: The number of people in Hurricane Katrina when we went to New Orleans who had no idea what dose of medicine they took was pretty shocking.

We're going to take a short break. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Business news now. We're talking about Carnival Cruise Lines. Is the company really gouging the government, making big bucks after the Katrina disaster? Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: You'll remember this was in the news weeks ago when it first was revealed that the government was paying $236 million to Carnival Cruise Line for three ships for six months to house evacuees. Seemed like a lot of money.

S. O'BRIEN: Sounded very expensive actually.

SERWER: And then it turned out that the ships weren't completely filled and on and on.

Now new news about this deal. Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, has sent a letter to Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff, investigating this deal, and saying it's actually even richer than we thought. He says that, ordinarily, this company would be getting $150 million of revenue for that six months for those three ships, As Opposed to $236 million. You know, the company said $236 million was basically cost. He is saying they get $150 million. So, you know, it's a lot richer, in fact, than we thought originally.

S. O'BRIEN: It would be very interesting, I think, to hear from some executives at Carnival Cruise Lines, because if that is true that they are gouging for almost $100 million.

SERWER: Right. Now hears how they respond to that, Soledad. They're saying that the numbers he uses were from a 2002 study when rates were low right after 2001. But even if you ratchet that up, say, by another $10 million a month, it's still way off. And so back and forth we go on this one.

S. O'BRIEN: Interesting. All right, Andy, thank you very much.

SERWER: You're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: I want to see this, Ed McMahon, of course, Johnny Carson's longtime sidekick, close friend, well, I had a chance to sit down with him, because he's written a book about his life with Johnny. And I asked him if there was one moment he could define over the 30 years they spent together that sort of was the definition of the show.

Here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED MCMAHON, AUTHOR, "HERE'S JOHNNY": The one I like was an ad- lib I came in with, because people kept -- everybody wrote and said, Johnny is cool and aloof, and that bugged him, bugged the hell out of him. So he would say cool and aloof. He looked at me on the monologue cool, and he says, cool and aloof? Get in the paper today, Ed. Did you see it, cool and aloof? You've known me for how many, 18, 20 years? am I cool and aloof? And I said, no, my Lord.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: He's so funny. It's a great interview. We actually have the whole interview with Ed McMahon coming up in our next hour. Ahead, though, next this morning, a look at the day's top stories, including more on Hurricane Wilma. We are tracking that storm, new information in fact coming to us in the last hour. We put it altogether in a forecast just ahead. Stay with us. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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