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American Morning

Woman Who Inspired Civil Rights Movement Has Died; Wilma Now on Move With Powerful Punch

Aired October 25, 2005 - 06:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is Tuesday, October 25.
The woman who inspired the civil rights movement has died. Rosa Parks changed the fabric of the nation with one gesture. But there was more to her life than a historic bus ride.

It's over for Florida. Wilma is now on the move with a powerful punch. What's ahead for the Northeast?

Also, Alan Greenspan's successor is named and traders seem to approve.

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello.

COSTELLO: And good morning to you.

We'll have much more on Rosa Parks' life and hurricane Wilma in just a minute.

Also ahead, finally some good news for the nation's major airlines. Carrie Lee will have that a little later.

And a brand new gadget may have a glitch. That's in "Business Buzz."

But first, now in the news, breaking news. A tragic milestone in Iraq. The U.S. military says two more Marines have been killed in Iraq and that brings the total number of U.S. service members killed in the Iraq War to 2,000. We'll have more on this later. Barbara Starr will be joining us live from the Pentagon.

Also in Iraq today, a car bomb killed at least nine people in the Kurdish city of Sulmaniya. And two roadside bombs in Baghdad killed two civilians. Insurgents were targeting U.S. military convoys in the Baghdad blast.

The woman known as the mother of the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks, has died at 92. She is being remembered for her courage 50 years ago, when she refused to give her seat to a white man on a bus in Alabama. We'll have more the civil rights pioneer later this hour.

Vice President Dick Cheney is reportedly directly implicated in the CIA leak investigation. That's according to the "New York Times." It was Cheney himself who first told his chief of staff the identity of a covert CIA officer, before the information became public. The newspaper cites lawyers involved in the case as its source.

To the Forecast Center for more on Wilma and Jacqui Jeras -- good morning.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.

Good morning, everybody.

Wilma is still a category three storm, but it's starting to lose some of its tropical characteristics and it should be weakening a little bit. It's way away from the coast and won't be directly impacting the storm system into the Northeast. But some of this tropical moisture is going to get wrapped up here and kind of amplify the situation. We're very concerned about some flooding. Very strong winds today and also some snow into the higher elevations.

Check out the solid blues and greens and yellows on the map. We are solid wet along the I-95 corridor, all the way down toward Washington, D.C. We've got the snow above 1,400 feet into western P.A. also into parts of Virginia. They already have several inches of snow on the ground. And snowshoes -- starting to think about possibly doing a little bit of skiing already, believe it or not.

Here's what the current wind gusts are, 38 mile per hour in Boston, 41 in New York City, 36 in Philadelphia. When we start seeing wind gusts around 40, even 50 miles per hour, we start getting airport delays. And now we already have some delays in Newark, LaGuardia and Philadelphia as a result of that.

And the low clouds, if it's not raining at your house, it's certainly cloudy into the Northeast. The heaviest of rain expected to be in southern parts of New England. We could see as much as two to three inches of rainfall. And, of course, we're very, very saturated across parts of the Northeast already, from our big flooding event about two weeks ago.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Now for the latest on what hurricane Wilma left behind in Florida.

At least six people died, their deaths being blamed on the storm. Most of those deaths caused by flying or falling debris. More than three million people were left without power. Power crews from several states are in the area to help, but officials say it could still take months to fix all the outages.

Low lying Key West has a flooding problem. Three to five feet of water covered much of the island, but Key West's mayor says all that water should be pumped out by some time today. Some of South Florida's airports may see limited action today. All flights in and out of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach canceled due to Wilma. It could take days to restore full service.

CNN's Anderson Cooper brings us the sound and the fury of Wilma as it dashed across Florida. (BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the 21st hurricane of the season and the eighth to hit Florida in just under a year-and-a-half. Wilma hit the west coast just before daybreak. By the time it had moved out to sea, more than three million homes and businesses were without power. Thirty-six thousand were in shelters. Water was everywhere.

DAVID PAULISON, ACTING DIRECTOR, FEMA: They're reporting a lot of power outages, a lot of coastal flooding, a lot of broken windows in high rise buildings, a lot of roofs that are going to need a lot of repair.

COOPER: The hurricane surge hit especially hard here in Everglades City. And in Key West, flooding left some parts of the city three feet underwater. By the time it reached Florida's heavily populated east coast, cars were lifted off the roadway by gales and so was a crane from high rise building.

ROBERT GLASS, HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA: It just was eerie and the neighbors were like oh my god, look. And it was just spinning and spinning and spinning and it spun too much.

COOPER: The big cities -- Miami, Fort Lauderdale -- were pummeled. Damage estimates ran from $2 billion to as high as $9 billion, meaning in terms of loss Wilma will be bad, but not quite as bad as those storms that raked the state a year ago.

MICHAEL FINE, MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA: First the winds were going east to west. And then about an hour-and-a-half later, they turned when the big push came.

COOPER: People in Fort Lauderdale said they hadn't seen anything like it in half a century. But to official Washington, still smarting from all that criticism over hurricane Katrina, it meant more of the same.

PAULISON: Our teams on the ground in the field are moving very quickly and are rested and ready to go. So, yes, we're tired of hurricane. And, yes, we're all stressed out a little bit, but we're prepared to handle this one, also.

COOPER: Anderson Cooper, CNN, Hollywood, Florida.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

COSTELLO: And take a look at what Wilma did to Havana. Waves, some as high as 45 feet, crashed over the city's seawall, flooding 10 miles of shoreline from downtown to the outskirts. Villages and towns on Cuba's southwest coast also are flooded.

In Mexico, officials hope to reopen Cancun's airport today. At least 20,000 tourists were stranded there when hurricane Wilma hit last week. They've been living in shelters ever since. Some of the tourists were bussed to another airport several hours away in the hopes they could catch flights home. Don't know if they had any luck, but many of those tourists are American.

Many Floridians who fled the storm will be allowed to return to their homes later this morning. The evacuees will come back to extensive damage all across the southern section of the state.

CNN Radio's Lisa Goddard joins us live from Naples with a look -- with how things look now -- good morning, Lisa.

LISA GODDARD, CNN RADIO: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: What are you seeing?

GODDARD: Well, you can't see much here. It's pitch dark. We're in that zone that stretches right across South Florida. Six million people or more out of power. So this morning it's pitch dark. There's just a few cars crawling around. But overnight I could see police patrolling these streets with their headlights, searching, making sure there were no looters, making sure everyone was obeying the curfew, which is in place until 8:00 a.m. Eastern time.

You know, when daylight comes, though, the damage you'll see here in Naples really isn't that bad, especially considering we're just 20 miles away from where the hurricane came ashore. You see shutters down. You see some roofs damaged. Nothing major, however. Lots of trees down, but for the most part residents here feel very relieved.

COSTELLO: Are many residents back?

GODDARD: Yes. They opened up the roads yesterday to some residents and some business owners. Not all of them. But they started their reentry procedures yesterday afternoon.

COSTELLO: Lisa Goddard, CNN Radio.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

We get more now from CNN affiliate Bay News 9.

Anna Tataris is also in Naples this morning -- good morning, Anna.

What are you seeing?

ANNA TATARIS, BAY NEWS 9 CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

We're here at the Iona Crossings in Fort Myers. Just to give you an idea where that's at, we're actually just a couple of miles away from Sanibel and Captiva Islands. And really this morning, all you can hear is the sound of generators because thousands of people are still without electricity.

Now, let me show you some of the damage behind me here. You can actually see behind me this big piece of twisted metal. This is actually the rooftop from one of the mobile homes in this area. Now, over here you'll see this is a piece of awning from someone else's mobile home. That gives you an idea of how strong those winds were yesterday as they were coming through here.

Now, also, there's a lot of soggy ground, a lot of water on the streets and in yards. It's going to take several days to clean this up, mostly debris in the area. But yesterday we did see a lot of sheriff's deputies coming from other counties in Florida. So it does look like there is help on its way.

Carol -- back to you.

COSTELLO: Anna, a question for you. I know there was...

TATARIS: OK.

COSTELLO: I'll let you get your earpiece in there.

Can u9 hear me now? There you go.

TATARIS: There we go, yes.

COSTELLO: All right.

TATARIS: I've got you back.

COSTELLO: I know there was a real effort on officials' part to get people out of mobile homes.

Were they, in large part, successful?

TATARIS: You know, they were successful in getting a lot of people out, but I can tell you that a lot of these people only went to nearby areas. They didn't go too far away, like travel across the state. Luckily, they did get out of their mobile homes. But a lot of the people tried to go just a few blocks away and take shelter.

They really didn't want to leave their places behind. They, you know, were obviously scared because of Katrina and what they saw last year with Charlie. So they wanted to get out of structures like this.

But a lot of the locals really didn't go too far away. When we stopped by hotels in other areas, that's where we found a lot of the locals staying -- back to you.

COSTELLO: Anna Tataris from Bay News 9 in Fort Myers, Florida this morning.

Thanks so much.

Still to come on your hurricane headquarters, live to Hollywood, Florida, where hurricane Wilma left a trail of destruction before speeding off into the Atlantic.

Also, Fort Lauderdale is reeling. It hasn't seen damage like this since 1950. We'll also have a live report out of there coming up.

And we'll check in with emergency management officials in Miami- Dade.

That's all ahead this hour.

But first, a look at how Boston is bracing this morning for high winds and heavy rains, as Wilma moves north and collides with another weather system. Oh, it's going to be a nasty day in the Northeast.

You're watching DAYBREAK for a Tuesday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALTER UPDEGRAVE, SENIOR EDITOR, "MONEY": An investment club is basically a group of people. They usually get together on a monthly basis and they contribute a certain amount of money, typically $20 to $100 a month, and they sit around and they pick investments.

Ideally, the club should be a way for people to learn how to research stocks, to learn how to evaluate companies and the best clubs actually work that way. And when you present your stock or the company to the group as a whole, you should be doing it in kind of a disciplined, systematic way, talking about why you think this company is a "buy."

It does give you a good education in terms of how to value stock and also how to look at the market.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Your news, money, weather and sports.

It's 6:14 Eastern.

Here's what's all new this morning.

We are following breaking news. A milestone in Iraq. The U.S. military says two more Marines have been killed. Their deaths come on a Friday, but are just now being -- actually, the report of their deaths just came in now. It brings the total number of U.S. service members killed in the Iraq war to 2,000.

In money news, Cendant plans to split into four companies. Cendant owns well known brands like Century 21, Orbitz and Days Inn. The CEO says that some of the parts will be more valuable than the current stock price.

In culture, you'll have to shell out even more to see top Broadway musicals. Ticket prices for shows like Monty Python's "Spamelot" $110 apiece. And that doesn't even count the fees some theaters tack on.

In sports, USC is no longer number one in college football. The new bold championship series rankings put the University of Texas on top. Southern Cal drops to number two.

To the Forecast Center and Jacqui Jeras.

JERAS: Hey, Carol.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: She helped to change a nation with a simple act of protest. We're remembering Rosa Parks this morning. The civil rights pioneer has died. She was 92 years old.

CNN's Gary Tuchman takes a look at her life and legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Historians point to the courage Rosa Parks showed as a turning point in the civil rights movement. December 1st, 1955, Montgomery, Alabama, a seamstress, Parks was on her way home, sitting in the so-called colored section of a crowded bus. Several white passengers got on. But she refused to give up her seat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROSA PARKS, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: The driver wanted us to stand up, the four of us. We didn't move at the beginning. But he said, you all make a (UNINTELLIGIBLE). And he says let me have those seats. And then the other three people moved and I didn't...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Driving the bus was the same man who ejected her from a bus 12 years earlier. Parks was arrested and fined $14. She recalls as the officer took her away, she asked, "Why do you push us around?" The officer's response, "I don't know, but the law is the law and you're under arrest."

In protest, a new minister in town organized what would become a 381-day bus boycott. That minister was 26-year-old Martin Luther King Jr.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: This is a nonviolent protest. We are depending on moral and spiritual forces, using the method of passive resistance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Black people walked, rode taxis and organized carpools. The boycott severely damaged the transit company's finances. It ended when the Supreme Court ruled segregation on public transportation illegal. Parks lost her job at a department store because of her activism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PARKS: I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind, in segregation and being arrested for just wanting to go home and wanting to be comfortable and wanting to be treated as any passenger should.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: She and her husband left Alabama for Detroit, where she worked for a congressman for more than 20 years.

She would remain an important force in the civil rights movement until her death. Parks co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development to help young people pursue educational opportunities, get them registered to vote and work towards racial peace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PARKS: As long as there is unemployment and while crime and all the things that go to -- for the infliction of man's inhumanity to man, regardless, that there's much to be done and people of goodwill need to work together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Thank you.

TUCHMAN: Even into her 80s, she was active on the lecture circuit, speaking to civil rights groups and accepting awards.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. It's beautiful.

(APPLAUSE)

TUCHMAN: Including Congress' highest honor, the Congressional Gold Medal, marking that December day more than 40 years ago, when Rosa Parks said no to a bus driver and no to segregation.

Gary Tuchman, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(END VIDEO TAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It's time for a little "Business Buzz."

A new study indicates consumers could have saved more than $20 billion last year by using generic drugs. The pharmacy study found generic drugs cost about $60 less for a monthly prescription than a name brand medicine, not to mention lower co-payments for generics.

Apple Computer being sued over its iPod Nano. Apple unveiled the tiny portable music player last month, promoting it as 1,000 songs in your pocket. Consumers complained the device's screen scratches too easily, so they have to pay more to fix it, and they say Apple knew about the problem before its release.

President Bush has made his choice to replace Alan Greenspan as the head of the Federal Reserve.

Carrie Lee joins us now with more on the nominee and why that's such a big deal -- good morning.

CARRIE LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a very big deal for the markets yesterday. The Dow and Nasdaq really rallying after the White House nominated Ben Bernanke to replace Fed chief Alan Greenspan when he retires January 31.

Bernanke is 51 years old and he's been one of the president's top economic advisers since June. Before that, he was a Federal Reserve governor.

Now, Bernanke was seen as the leading candidate for the post. If he is confirmed by Congress, he will replace a man who many regard as one of the most effective Fed chiefs in history.

Alan Greenspan is stepping down after 18 years as Fed chief.

Here's a look -- or there was a look at Bernanke.

Now, Bernanke's monetary policy is likely to look a lot like Greenspan's, with low inflation as the central bank's primary goal. The number one criticism of Bernanke is that he doesn't have experience in the real world dealing with financial markets. He's never actually worked on Wall Street.

But traders clearly gave him the benefit of the doubt yesterday. The Dow up 169 points, the biggest one day rally in six months, so.

COSTELLO: But what a tough act to follow.

LEE: Yes.

COSTELLO: And, you know, the markets had a lot of confidence in Alan Greenspan and if the confidence is shaken when -- if Bernanke takes over, it could mean trouble for the economy.

LEE: Well, the markets don't like uncertainty, certainly. The fact that his policy, his monetary policy regarding inflation similar to Greenspan's, that's what the market likes, that consistency. So we saw a nice rally yesterday. This morning we could see a little bit of a pull back. Airline stocks in focus. They gained some ground yesterday...

COSTELLO: Really?

LEE: ... on lower oil prices. And oil down a bit today. So we'll see what happens.

COSTELLO: Yes, $0.26, to $60.08 a barrel. LEE: You know it by heart.

COSTELLO: You're impressed, aren't you?

LEE: You are a numbers person, see?

COSTELLO: Well, maybe not.

Carrie Lee, many thanks to you.

We'll talk more about the new Fed chair, the nominee, later this hour on DAYBREAK.

And after the break, the latest live from Florida on the aftermath of hurricane Wilma.

CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello.

COSTELLO: And good morning to you.

Thank you for waking up with us.

Jacqui Jeras will be along in a minute with your forecast, as hurricane Wilma still a category three. It's now moving toward the east.

Also coming up this half hour, more on what Wilma left behind down South. We'll have several live reports from Florida.

But first, now in the news, we are following breaking news this hour. The number of U.S. service members killed in the Iraq War has hit 2,000. The U.S. military reports today two Marines were killed Friday in the Anbar Province. Two other servicemen were also killed in that incident, but their deaths were reported during the weekend.

In Iraq today, a car bomb killed at least nine people in a Kurdish city and two roadside bombs in Baghdad killed two civilians. Insurgents were targeting U.S. military convoys in the Baghdad blast.

Rosa Parks, the Alabama woman who sparked the civil rights movement, died last night in Detroit. She was 92 years old. Of course, you remember she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white man in 1955.

And we're getting new pictures this morning of a heartbreaking sight in southern Australia. Nearly 60 pilot whales have died after stranding themselves on a remote beach. Rescuers managed to save 10 whales, but they couldn't save them all.

To the Forecast Center and Jacqui. JERAS: Well, Carol, we're keeping our eye on Wilma still. A category three hurricane, 115 mile per hour winds, but it's well away from the coast. A little bit of this tropical moisture is getting wrapped up with the system across the Northeast, but it's not going to all come together and create that perfect storm scenario.

Either way, though, it's still going to be quite a doozy here into the Northeast, with heavy rain all across the I-95 corridor. It's coming down pretty light at this time in Boston, but the winds are really beginning to pick up. Gusts right now at 40 miles per hour and sustained winds 26 miles per hour.

We'll head you down toward New York City. Some light rain coming down there, as well, this morning. Temperatures only about 50 degrees at this time. Your wind 18 miles per hour sustained, but you're seeing gusts on the range of 20 to 25 miles per hour.

So all of the Northeast Corridor affected by this storm system. It's going to last you a good 24 plus hours. And then we'll quiet it down throughout much of the rest of the week. But by the end of the weekend, believe it or not, Carol, another Nor'easter may very well be on its way.

COSTELLO: Oh, you've got to be kidding.

JERAS: It's going to be a fun week.

COSTELLO: Yes. It sounds like it's going to be a fun, fun winter, too.

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