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CNN Live At Daybreak

Picking Up After Wilma; Millions Without Power Across Florida; New Fed Chairman Nominee Has Big Shoes to Fill; Iraqi Election Results

Aired October 25, 2005 - 06:30   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: People all across south Florida are literally picking up the pieces tossed around by Hurricane Wilma. We have several of our reporters there to give us the latest on what's going on.
Let's start in Florida's southeastern coast with senior correspondent Allan Chernoff. He's in Sunny Isles, Florida.

Good morning.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

And what you're seeing behind me is some of the most dramatic devastation from this storm. This had been the Sunny Isles Marina, the largest marina in this town, which is right across the Intracoastal Waterway from North Miami Beach. And as you can see behind me, it is now just a pile of twisted aluminum and steel. And I've counted dozens of boats trapped beneath all of that rubble.

It is also quite treacherous, because there is a power line down right behind us. And so, there are power lines in there, and there is also running water over there. So the power companies are going to have to be extremely careful about this situation before actually getting the power back on. The power remains off in this entire area, of course.

But this is just one example of how a marina made of aluminum, steel simply could not stand up to the power of Hurricane Wilma.

Other buildings in the area, of course, sustained damage. Thousands of broken glass, broken railings, but nothing that we've seen is quite dramatic as this. And one can only guess at the monetary damage involved here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Allan Chernoff reporting live from southeastern Florida this morning.

Well, we've seen the crashing waves, the swirling winds and the debris tossed about all across southern Florida. We saw it in Allan's report.

Let's see how Florida residents are doing the day after the hurricane came calling.

Louie Fernandez is with the Miami-Dade Emergency Management Office, and he joins us live now.

Good morning, sir.

LOUIE FERNANDEZ, MIAMI-DADE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: Good morning, Carol. How are you today?

COSTELLO: I'm fine. I'm sure you're very busy. What's the biggest problem you're facing this morning?

FERNANDEZ: Well, residents of Miami-Dade County are without power, and a whole lot of them. Almost a million are still without power. It's just unbelievable, you know, to see how dark south Florida, Miami and the county are right now.

The good news is we haven't had much activity overnight. There was a mandatory curfew in place beginning at 8:00 p.m. last night. However, people just kind of want to know, when are they going to get the power back?

COSTELLO: And it could be -- could it be days, weeks? What do you think?

FERNANDEZ: Well, unfortunately, it's probably going to be weeks. The devastation is just so large over Broward County, Miami-Dade County, and the number of residences -- this is a large metropolitan area over both counties. So, there are a lot of people that are going to need basic services and, of course, as well electricity.

COSTELLO: As far as damage to structures, what are you seeing?

FERNANDEZ: We're seeing -- you know, down here the buildings codes are very, very strong. Many of the homes are built with concrete blocks. So, we're not seeing that significant structural damage. We're seeing a lot of windows broken. We're seeing a lot of trees down, power lines down. Some infrastructure problems regarding that.

This was a pretty dry storm and a very fast-moving storm. A majority of the damage was due to the wind.

COSTELLO: Yes. We understand that many of the high-rise buildings in Miami, a lot of windows are broken out, hundreds of windows.

FERNANDEZ: Right. We're seeing that all over the place as well. And we're seeing a lot of debris in the roadway, which slows down, of course, emergency responders, FEMA officials, Florida Power and Light officials. And that's one of the things -- you know, today is going to be the first full day we're going to have to go out there and begin and continue to do assessments. And they're going to be looking at all of those things.

First and foremost, how can we get aid as quickly as possible to our residents? Beginning at about 2:00 today there's going to be 11 distribution sites set up throughout the county. And then from there comes the rest of the assessments. How do we get fuel to people? How do we make sure we get food to people? That's a continuous operation for the literally hundreds if not thousands of workers that are going to be working throughout Miami- Dade County just on those issues.

COSTELLO: Louie, are you getting enough help from FEMA?

FERNANDEZ: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. There has been communication from the start. In watching the acting director Paulison's briefings over the last couple of days, you're probably hearing about all of the pre-communication that took place. And that's always important. Where to go, where to stage, and then how to get those resources from the staging point into the community has literally been only what he's been talking about over the last couple of days.

COSTELLO: As far as people looking for help, where do they go? Where they start?

FERNANDEZ: Well, it's tough. People, you know, need help now. And here in Miami-Dade County, we've had three mechanisms so that people can reach us. One, we're broadcasting on the Web and on local TV, through also the radio stations. But we've also set up a three- digit call information line, 311 in essence, where people can call from cell phones from their homes if they still have phone service and ask anything and everything about where they need to go, what they need to be doing. And we make sure and get that information out all throughout the night.

COSTELLO: How much damage in monetary terms do you think there is in Miami-Dade?

FERNANDEZ: Oh, it's really, really hard to tell right now, Carol. I've been through many, many, many hurricanes. I just got back from working New Orleans and Katrina and was in Mississippi. It's hard to compare. It's different communities. The devastation is as great. There are thousands upon millions of people affected by this storm just in south Florida alone right now.

And it's hard to say. But we know that people's lives have been disrupted. Thankfully, I think we've only had one fatality in the last 24 hours related to the storm.

But this is going to be a long recovery here for residents of Miami-Dade County.

COSTELLO: Well, good luck today. Louie Fernandez with the Miami-Dade Emergency Management Office joining us live on DAYBREAK this morning. Thank you.

ANNOUNCER: Keep watching CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

COSTELLO: And still to come, other news this morning. What does the Fed chair do? Some details that might surprise you.

But first, here's what else is making news this Tuesday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right, let's head back out to Naples, Florida, to check in with Miles O'Brien. He was there at the height of the storm, blowing in the wind so to speak.

Miles, what's it like there now?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning, Carol. We're in Fort Lauderdale this morning.

Really this city sort of got blindsided by Wilma. As a matter of fact, the East Coast of Florida probably did not expect the fury of Wilma that it received.

I'm standing in front of the courthouse here in Broward County. Court will not in session today. The only lights that are on in there are from an emergency generator.

And a little later when there's a little more light on them, we'll show you some of the buildings, the skyscrapers of Fort Lauderdale, which in many ways looks like dollhouses today. Just about every window shattered out of them as the wind blew through here.

And it's interesting. It's the wind that faces away from the Atlantic Ocean. This storm came through and literally caught them on the backside.

This morning, about six million people are without power all across south Florida. This storm had a huge swathe and a lot of devastation. It's going to take weeks to get everybody back on track here.

And, Carol, you know, it's worth reminding folks, over the past 14 months eight big storms now have hit poor Florida. This is a state that is, unfortunately, used to all of this.

COSTELLO: True. And they've got a lot of cleaning up to do and a lot of money that they need to come in to help in that clean-up. Miles O'Brien, we'll see you shortly on "AMERICAN MORNING."

Your news, money, weather and sports. It's 6:41 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

We are following breaking news. Not a great milestone in Iraq. The U.S. military is just now reporting two more Marines have been killed there. They died in the Anbar Province. That brings the total number of U.S. service members killed in the Iraq war to 2,000.

President Bush refused to give senators access to documents related to the work of his Supreme Court nominee, Harriet Miers. The president says providing that access -- and I'm quoting here -- "would breach very important confidentiality." In money news, Albertsons is popular. Reports say there are at least three businesses vying to buy the nation's number two grocery chain. Those mentioned are Kroger, Walgreens and CVS.

In culture, the legendary rock group Cream is playing at Madison Square Garden for two more shows. It's the only North American appearance for the band, who reunited after 40 years. And, yes, Eric Clapton is back.

In sports, the Atlantic Dolphins jumped out early on the New York Jets and cruised to a 27-14 win on "Monday Night Football." Quarterback Michael Vick ran for two touchdowns. And I think he's very good at it, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, he is. You should have seen the red and black just swarming around this place yesterday when I left. It was tough getting to my car.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: We want to head live to Baghdad for just a moment. We just have this news in. There is now a press conference, a news conference going on. This is the Independent Electoral Commission. And you can see them speaking in Baghdad. They have the results of the constitutional referendum. In other words, they will tell us shortly whether the constitution in Iraq has been approved.

Now, we're monitoring this news conference. And when they get to the results, of course, we'll pass them along to you.

This, sadly, comes on the same day that -- well, the U.S. military reached a tragic milestone in Iraq. Two thousand U.S. service members now have died in the Iraq war.

And, again, when they give out the results, we'll get back and tell you if the Iraqi constitution did indeed pass.

Let's head on to economic issues right now. Do you know Ben Bernanke? Well, you'll want to get to know him, because he might have a big impact on your wallet.

President Bush has nominated the White House economic advisor to be the new Federal Reserve chairman. If Bernanke is confirmed, he has some big shoes to fill. He would succeed longtime Fed chief Alan Greenspan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN BERNANKE, NOMINEE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Our understanding of the best practice in monetary policy evolved during Alan Greenspan's tenure at the Fed. And it will continue to evolve in the future. However, if I am confirmed to this position, my first priority will be to maintain continuity with the policies and policy strategies established during the Greenspan years.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: Let's see how the choice of Ben Bernanke is playing in the world financial markets.

Here with some insight is Steven Bell, global chief economist with Deutsche Asset Management. He joins us live from London this morning.

Good morning, sir.

STEVEN BELL, DEUTSCHE ASSET MANAGEMENT: Good morning.

COSTELLO: You know, Senator Chuck Grassley said, Chairman Greenspan's success was that people had confidence in him. The markets also had confidence in him. So, how will the change affect the markets, do you think?

BELL: Well, Greenspan was a legend. And everyone knows him. Everybody is familiar with him.

But Ben Bernanke is a very impressive fellow. I mean, first of all, he's been at the Fed, even though he skipped out there for a short while. But he's highly regarded academically. He's very articulate. He's very good at explaining his points. He's spent a lot of time with other economists.

I mean, if you look at the responses to this appointment, they are very positive. And someone had to replace Greenspan, and I think he's a very, very good choice.

COSTELLO: He is said to be a longstanding advocate of inflation targeting. What does that mean, first of all? And what does it mean to the consumer?

BELL: What it means is the Fed would give an actual number that it's aiming at. So, in this country we have 2 percent, and it would be probably a similar number. And the idea is that if inflation in any month were higher than that, but over a trend, then they would be raising rates. And if it were below that, they'd be capping it.

So, you'd have a much better idea about what sort of inflation rate to expect over the long term. And it's a more transparent system for running the interest rate setting system.

COSTELLO: OK. So, we know that Alan Greenspan's plan to control inflation in the economy was to raise the interest rate, key interest rate slightly. Will Bernanke do the same thing?

BELL: I think that the policy under Bernanke, had he been in charge a year ago when this interest rate rising strategy was started, would have been identical. So, he made almost his first utterance since he was nominated was to say he would go for continuity.

So, there will be differences of presentation, differences of emphasis. But I think that until he's really tested and decides how he wants to be different, the idea will be that the actual decisions on interest rates will be set in very much the same way as they were under Mr. Greenspan.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about President Bush's tax breaks, because he wants to make many of his tax breaks permanent. Alan Greenspan seemed to be in favor of that. What about Bernanke?

BELL: I think that Bernanke would be in favor -- is in favor of the tax breaks. I suspect -- and I'm slightly guessing here -- that he will want to avoid taking an overt political stance. Greenspan, after all, had the years of majesty and experience and did want to get involved in these things.

I suspect that Bernanke will want to stick to the job that he's -- assuming he gets successfully through it -- the job that he's paid to do, which is to set interest rates, sort out any financial crises as and when they occur. And when it comes to the budget, you know, there are plenty of people talking about that.

I think in the early period of his office, he will be reluctant to say anything more than broad, general statements, like, you know, low taxes are good for the economy, high deficits are not, and that obviously is really inconsistent if you can't cut spending.

So, I suspect he will go no further than those basic principles.

COSTELLO: Steven Bell, thank you for joining us this morning, live from London. Of course, Ben Bernanke still has to be confirmed. So, he doesn't have the job quite yet.

What does the job of the Fed chair entail, though? Here are a few Fed facts for you.

The Federal Reserve was created by Congress in 1913. It is independent both in the political and economic sense. That means no one in the executive, legislative or judicial system gets to sign off on the Fed's decisions.

And more surprisingly, it actually pays for itself with interest it makes off of investing government money in the open market and interest it makes off loans to regular banks. Any money left over goes into the U.S. Treasury.

The Fed's Board of Governors has seven members, including a chairman and a vice chairman.

So, how much does the chairman make? Greenspan's salary is $180,000 for this year. But, of course, he's a very wealthy man, isn't he?

Still to come, today's mug quiz. But first, it's time to say happy birthday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Welcome back. It is 6:53 Eastern. Here is what will be making news today. Fewer than 5 percent of HIV-positive children get treatment. And the United Nations says that is a disgrace. Its relief agencies are now launching a global campaign to help kids affected by AIDS.

Bird flu tops the agenda in Luxemburg, where European Union ministers are meeting for a final day. The deadly virus has spread to Europe, and the union wants a one-month ban on imports of live birds.

And finally, it's moving so fast it could get a speeding ticket. Wilma remains a strong category 3 hurricane this morning. It's now off the Carolina coast, moving northeast at 53 miles per hour. Wilma could dump even more rain on New England, which has already seen weeks of flooding.

Oh, Jacqui.

JERAS: Yes, I know. It's (INAUDIBLE).

COSTELLO: No, it's not. But this next segment is.

JERAS: It is. You know, a lot of people in the Northeast are going to be wishing they had a DAYBREAK mug today, I think. It's a good morning for a cup of java. Yes.

COSTELLO: True.

JERAS: Maybe a little hot cocoa if you're not a coffee fan?

COSTELLO: Oh, yes.

JERAS: It looks like of good, doesn't it?

COSTELLO: Oh, yes.

JERAS: A few marshmallows maybe?

COSTELLO: Yes.

JERAS: Well, here is how you can get your official DAYBREAK coffee mug. E-mail us the answers to these questions. What year was the Federal Reserve created by Congress? And according to one study, how much money would Americans have saved last year by switching to generic drugs?

Submit your answers online. The address, CNN.com/daybreak. And tune right here this time tomorrow morning. Find out of you're the big winner -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Those are tough questions this morning.

JERAS: Yes, they are. You've got to pay close attention. You can always try a Google search maybe.

COSTELLO: Or look up the transcript. But I shouldn't have said that. Thank you, Jacqui.

When we come back, more headlines and a look at your travel forecast. This is DAYBREAK for a Tuesday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We are following, this news just in to CNN. As I told you just a couple of minutes ago, Baghdad officials were holding a news conference to announce the results of the constitutional referendum. We believe we have those results now.

Let's head to Nic Robertson live.

What can you tell us, Nic?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, the headline here is that the new constitution has passed in the referendum. Really the results were just hanging on one swing state -- one swing province here, rather.

What it takes is three provinces to vote by a two-thirds majority against the referendum to knock it down. That didn't happen.

Two provinces did. There was one everyone was waiting to hear about. It did vote no, but not by that two-thirds majority.

So the constitution here is passed. These are the final yet to be certified results. But that's just expected to be a formality -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, this is great news, isn't it?

ROBERTSON: It is. And what people will tell you here is that the great part about it is that Sunnis got involved in the referendum. In the elections in January they didn't come out and vote. In this referendum, they did come out and vote. The vast majority voted no.

The hope is now they're now involved in the political process and the elections that are now planned for December. That's the next key point here, the 15th of December, new elections. Sunnis come out and vote. That's what everyone was hoping for -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Now, is this a temporary constitution that they voted on, and another one will come up down the line?

ROBERTSON: They can reopen the constitution. That was part of the deal to get the Sunnis on board. They can change elements of it. But that's all going to depend on the representation in the new government -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So many more things still to be worked out, but the constitution referendum in Iraq has passed this morning. Nic Robertson reporting live for us from Baghdad.

Of course, we'll have much more on "AMERICAN MORNING."

From the Time Warner Center in New York, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you for joining us.

Let's join Miles now. He is in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Good morning -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning, Carol. In Fort Lauderdale this morning. They're saying it's the worst storm to hit this city in 55 years. We'll tell you what Wilma did as she moved across Florida.

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