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American Morning

Rosa Parks Dies; Wilma's Wrath In Florida; Iraq Constitution May Be Approved

Aired October 25, 2005 - 07:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: 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. Six million people in the dark this morning. And the storm, well, back to being a Category 3, out in the Atlantic, and may, in act three of its play, cause major problems for New England. We'll have all of the details on Wilma and its aftermath coming up -- Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Miles, also this morning, a look back on the life of Rosa Parks on this AMERICAN MORNING.

O'BRIEN: Good morning from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I'm Miles O'Brien.

Wilma is still a Category 3 storm. And we are covering the stories in every quadrant, all the way from the tip of Key West in the Florida Keys, all the way up into New England this morning, as Wilma causes some battering there, some high winds and rain as well.

We have reporters in Key West. We have them in Naples, Florida, on the west coast of Florida, where Wilma first came ashore 6:30 in the morning yesterday. Here in Fort Lauderdale, where I stand, as well as others along the east coast of Florida. And of course Jacqui Jeras who is in the Weather Center for us watching all of this for us as it unfolds, perhaps laying the groundwork for yet another so-called perfect storm.

Let me just set the scene for you here briefly. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, lots of damage here to the courthouse. Several high-rises with windows blown out. It'll be a long road to recovery here.

In for Soledad all this week is Zain Verjee in New York.

Good morning -- Zain.

VERJEE: Good morning, Miles.

All morning, tributes to Rosa Parks. Congressman John Lewis joins me in just a minute to talk about her death and what she meant to the Civil Rights Movement -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Zain.

This is a town that really got blindsided by Hurricane Wilma. We focus so much on the southwestern coast of Florida. But as the storm moved across Florida yesterday, taking seven hours to traverse the peninsula, it didn't weaken quite as much.

It is still a Category 3 storm this morning. We will have a little bit more on what may lie ahead for New England in all of this.

But we will tell you this, that there are six deaths now attributed in the United States to Hurricane Wilma, at least 20 others in the Yucatan Peninsula before.

Three million customers of Florida Power and Light without service this morning, about six million people in the dark. Could take four weeks, or perhaps even more, to get everybody back on. Fully three-quarters of the customers of Florida Power and Light are without service this morning.

Damage in the $4 to $8 billion range. If you tally up all of the storms that have hit Florida over the past 14 months, big storms, eight big storms, it comes out to on the order of $55 billion in damage, and climbing.

And here in Fort Lauderdale, let me just set the scene. This is the courthouse, no court in session today. That's just an emergency generator giving some light there.

Across the street, we have a separate camera showing you that is the school administration building for the Broward County. And there's not really a window left on this side. What's interesting about it, as you look at the sunrise in the distance there, this is the western-facing side of the building.

Typically, in a hurricane, you would expect, on this coast, the eastern side facing the Atlantic, to be given the brunt of it. But, as you know, this was the backside of the storm as it came through here with a lot more force than many people expected here. And, as a result, these three counties, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach really on their knees this morning. It's going to be a long time, Zain, before things get back to normal here.

Back to you.

VERJEE: Miles, thanks so much.

We want to focus a little now on Rosa Parks. She died last night. She was 92 years old, and one of the towering figures of American history. Many people say the Civil Rights Movement began 50 years ago in Montgomery, Alabama, the day that Rosa Parks, an African- American, refused to move to the back of the bus.

Gary Tuchman looks at her life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Historians point to the courage Rosa Parks showed as a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement. December 1, 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: And the driver wanted us to stand up, the four of us. We didn't move at the beginning, but he said, you all (INAUDIBLE). And he says, let me have those seats. And when 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 taxies 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 moral 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 order, the Congressional Gold Medal, marking that December day when Rosa Parks said no to a bus driver and no to segregation.

Gary Tuchman, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VERJEE: In just a few minutes, we're going to talk to civil rights leader Congressman John Lewis about just what Rosa Parks meant to him, how she inspired him and also millions of Americans -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Thank you very much, Zain.

Fort Lauderdale, this is the courthouse, Broward County Courthouse, lots of superficial damage down here on the ground and the awning. Lots of windows blown out here. And there is all kinds of debris on the streets. Downtown Fort Lauderdale will not be anywhere close to normal this morning.

When Wilma came through here, it was Category 2, which is under 110 miles an hour. But the wind just hit and it kind of did a wind tunnel effect and hit some of these buildings. You can take a look at the headquarters for the Broward County school system there. The windows just shattered. They've already gotten a lot of the plywood up there, but there are several high-rises in downtown Fort Lauderdale that met with a similar fate.

Now, 150 miles down the road, down Route 1, past Miami and down into the Keys, Key West. When the storm went through there, it was Category 3. Many people in Key West decided to stick it out, perhaps 90 percent of residents there. It's a hardy group down there, to say the least.

And Kareen Wynter is there this morning. They've had some fairly serious flooding.

Kareen, are those waters receding at all?

KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're receding rather quickly, Miles. But it remains definitely an issue today, because you're talking an entire area here. Key West is surrounded by water, so they will be digging out as well.

But for right now, all is quiet here in Key West, Miles. And that is because of a curfew that went into effect late last night. That curfew just ended a few minutes ago at 7:00. And the reason for that, well, the city is in the dark. Power here knocked out as a result of Wilma. And so officers didn't want people out and about roaming the streets.

Now, at the height of the storm, about 60 to 70 percent of the city was under water, three to five feet deep in some spots. As a result of that flooding, that water has receded, much of it. But as I mentioned at the top, it will definitely be something that they have to keep an eye on today, especially with the airport, which isn't open. The runway was flooded yesterday. Debris filled that area.

Another concern, the hospital, because of this lack of power. The police chief says that's a top priority right now getting that power back on.

But for residents yesterday it was such a tedious task. We saw people out in boats on their own streets trying to get from one end of the street to another. We saw some stranded vehicles. Those who were brave who were trying to venture out.

And so while that water has receded, the damage remains behind, they'll be digging out as well -- Miles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hang on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got the camera mike on.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much Kareen Wynter in Key West, Florida.

Let's go right on up to Naples, Florida, where we weathered the storm yesterday.

CNN's Jeanne Meserve.

Jeanne, when we left, awful lot of flooding on the streets, but I didn't see any really big structural damage. What did you see yesterday?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, what you saw matches what I saw. You can see behind me, the water is still in the streets here, many streets. But it isn't very deep, only about 8 to 12 inches. And because the city is built, many of the structures, homes and commercial buildings seem to have escaped the water. It's mostly in the roadways now.

The big issue here were trees coming down. Boy, did a lot of them come down all over town, including some really huge old Banyan trees. Some of them when they came up disrupted water lines, and so water service to parts of the city has been very problematic. And the trees and the winds also brought down a lot of power lines, and so 90 percent of the city this morning is without power. As you mentioned, no major structural damage. You do see roofs off and awnings blown away, but nothing major. And a lot of people were actually surprised at how minimal the damage was, including some people who have seen an awful lot of hurricanes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER TEAHEN, AMERICAN RED CROSS: It's really remarkable in the Naples area that there is street flooding, there is trees down; but structurally, most of the homes and the commercial buildings seem to be intact. It's really remarkable for this powerful of a storm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: Of course there are some people who are trying to make the most of the situation. We came across, yesterday, some young men tooling around in their ATVs in the water, obviously, having a great time.

But things are not back to normal here. Collier County has now extended a curfew that has been in effect. It's continuing indefinitely from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., and not just in the evacuated areas, but in the entire county.

Miles, back to you.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Jeanne Meserve, appreciate that update.

Let's give you -- as -- excuse me, as the fire rescue goes through here in a very vacant otherwise Fort Lauderdale this morning with most of the lights off, people being told to boil their water.

Let's backtrack and tell you a little bit about what Wilma did as it passed by Cuba. It was a glancing blow, but that island nation suffered at least four people who died, three of them foreign tourists in a bus accident. There was a series of evacuations and some floodwalls and levees actually broke in Havana. They've had to rescue about 250 people from their homes there.

And Alpha, Alpha, the tropical storm, tropical depression, and now not even a named storm, and not a threat to anyone, did, in fact, cause some real problems on the island of the Hispaniola, which of course Dominican Republic and Haiti shares. At least eight people dead on Haiti, 10 total on Hispaniola, 2 in the Dominican Republic. Homes destroyed there. Those storms causing a series of problems.

Now Jacqui Jeras is in the Weather Center for us this morning.

The thing that has me most intrigued, Jacqui, is this notion of Wilma, a separate storm from Ohio and a high pressure system creating that thing we all know, if we saw the movie or read the book, "The Perfect Storm." Do you see the makings for something like that in New England?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Not really, Miles. And it's mostly a timing issue. It certainly could have happened, but I think that Wilma is going to kind of maintain its own identity and be out ahead.

There you can see Wilma on the satellite imagery. If you look way down there, that was Alpha, and that just kind of got absorbed on up into Wilma, really not a factor any longer. And if you can see that little curlicue here across the Ohio Valley, that's the upper level system. And so they're just going to be too far apart to bring all of the energy together and make one big monster storm.

However, we do have this mid-latitude system, as we call it, that is going to be riding up the coast. And it's basically going to be a noreaster. And some of this tropical moisture from Wilma will get caught up in that and help to bring the rainfall totals in here a little bit heavier. So we do have some flood watches in effect across the northeast.

Gale force winds expected in all of the coastal areas, especially off Massachusetts. Out on the Cape we're expecting to see wind gusts that could reach hurricane strength. Boston, itself, probably around 50, 55 miles per hour, heavy rain through the interior. And you head up into the higher elevations, and we're talking about some very wet snow. Above 1,400 feet, we're talking about the heavy wet stuff, makes good snowmen, but doesn't make for good travel -- Zain.

VERJEE: Jacqui Jeras, thanks so much, Jacqui.

In Iraq, the results are in. Officials announcing just within the last few minutes that the country's draft constitution has been approved by a majority of Iraqi voters.

CNN international correspondent Nic Robertson is in Baghdad. He joins us now.

Nic, a significant political milestone?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Significant political milestone. From here it moves to elections December 15, keeping the sort of democratic momentum or the momentum of democracy moving here in Iraq.

What the constitution and the referendum hung on was just one province in the north of Iraq today. It was a swing province. If it had voted two-thirds no, that would have brought down the constitution. As it was, just over half of the people there, 55 percent, voted no. That was not enough to block the constitution. So it has passed. In some of the provinces around the country, more than 99 percent of the people voted yes, voted for it.

The people voting against the constitution were the Sunnis. Officials here will tell you the fact that they took part in the elections is good. It means they have entered the democratic process. The hope is they will stay involved for those elections December 15. And those elections will set up a government here for the next five years -- Zain.

VERJEE: Nic Robertson, our senior international correspondent, reporting to us from Baghdad.

Thanks, Nic.

Of course one of the major questions, what impact passing of that constitution is going to have on the insurgency?

Still to come, the life of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks just ahead here on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VERJEE: Welcome back.

Rosa Parks died last night. She didn't stand for civil rights, she stayed seated. In 1955, one African-American woman refused to give her bus seat to a white man and an entire nation was moved.

John Lewis was just a kid then. Today, he's a longtime congressman from Georgia.

Thanks so much for being with us. How did Rosa Parks inspire you?

REP. JOHN LEWIS, GEORGIA: Well, I can remember so well, December 1, 1955, I was 15 years old, and I heard about what Rosa Parks did. And I followed the drama of what was taking place in Montgomery. By sitting down, refusing to move, she was really standing up for all of us. She inspired us. She inspired us to find a way to get in the way.

I met Rosa Parks two years later in 1957. And a year later, I met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And I wanted to find a way to get involved in the movement, and I became part of that effort...

VERJEE: Right.

LEWIS: ... to help desegregate the American South.

VERJEE: What was it about her and her action that inspired and fueled an entire generation?

LEWIS: Well Rosa Parks is a quiet, unassuming woman, with so much pride and so much dignity, was the right person. She was the right person to take a seat and refuse to move. And Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. emerged as the spokesperson for that effort in Montgomery.

So to see Rosa Parks and more than 50,000 African-American walk the streets, ride cars and station wagons, church buses, organizing the boycott, carpooling, it was a source of inspiration. And people started saying if Rosa Parks can do it in Montgomery, then we can do it in Nashville, we can do it in Birmingham, we can do it in Tallahassee.

And so the movement spread all across the South like wildfire. But Rosa Parks became the symbol of displaying nothing short of raw courage. By sitting down, she was really standing up, and she inspired all of us to stand up and find a way to get involved in the movement.

VERJEE: And being that symbol, she's known as the mother of the Civil Rights Movement. Did she see herself that way?

LEWIS: I don't think Rosa Parks saw herself as the mother of the modern day Civil Rights Movement in America. But many of us said she was the mother. But today, I look back, she was not just a mother of the modern day Civil Rights Movement. But she was -- must be looked up on as the mother of the new South, the mother of a new America, because she helped create what I like to call a nonviolent revolution in America. She gave people a way out.

VERJEE: And what she did at the time, we've got to point out, was also pretty risky. It was something dangerous for a woman to take that stand that she did back then. I'm wondering, in closing, what is your most special memory of Rosa Parks, something that we, who didn't know her personally, wouldn't know?

LEWIS: Well, when I was much younger, I was in a meeting with her in Montgomery and later in Nashville and other parts of the South. She was so quiet, but she kept telling each and every one of us to continue to fight, continue to use the philosophy and the discipline of nonviolence. She loved young people. And she wanted to inspire young people to get involved, to continue the struggle for a just and open society.

VERJEE: She gave one of her last interviews to the "Detroit Free Press" back in 1995. And she talked about what she would actually like people to say about her once she passed. Congressman, she said this, "I'd like people to say that I am a person who always wanted to be free and wanted it not only for myself; freedom is for all human beings" -- Congressman.

LEWIS: Well I think that is what she wanted. And what she said and what she did, by that simple, simple act, said that freedom is a driving force that it's designed for freedom, just desire to be liberated of all human beings, it is beating in all of our chests.

VERJEE: OK. Thank you so much, Congressman John Lewis.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VERJEE: Investors are keeping a close eye on President Bush's choice to replace Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan.

Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business."

It's good to meet you finally in person. You know I never get to meet...

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Likewise.

VERJEE: ... half the people we work with.

SERWER: Right. Right.

VERJEE: You've got some good furniture in here, as well. It's nice to...

SERWER: Well thank you very much. And it's nice to see you here as well, Zain.

We want to talk about the president's pick to replace Alan Greenspan as Fed Chairman. Bed -- Ben Bernanke, excuse me, 51 years old. And the good news here is he is a well-respected and well-known economist, a former professor at Princeton, a Fed governor, a chairman of the Presidential Council of Economic Advisors.

Of course he will be replacing the legend there on the left, Alan Greenspan, on January 31, if confirmed, which I think will happen very easily. The Fed chairman's job is important, because it's all about fighting inflation, Zain. And what that means is that that's about interest rates and that's about the health of the economy.

VERJEE: And Wall Street, how did it react to this news?

SERWER: Loud applause.

VERJEE: Really?

SERWER: I think it's safe to say. The stock market was up almost 170 points, you can see here, and rallied, especially after the announcement was made at 1:00 p.m. And we'll have more on Ben Bernanke later in the program, including a bit of his lighter side as well.

VERJEE: Is this somebody who can appeal to both financial analysts, as well as politicians?

SERWER: I think so. And you know...

VERJEE: Yes.

SERWER: ... the thing is...

VERJEE: Yes.

SERWER: ... it's not a political job. It's all about being in charge of the economy. And I think that this is someone who people on Wall Street, and business leaders as well, respect and know.

VERJEE: Andy Serwer, thank you so much.

SERWER: Thanks -- Zain.

VERJEE: Nice tie.

SERWER: Thank you.

VERJEE: Good clasp.

SERWER: Thank you very much.

VERJEE: We want to go now to Miles O'Brien -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: Hello, Zain.

Yes, coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, take a look at the streets here in downtown Fort Lauderdale. This is the scene, typical, debris all over the place. Then look up there. That's the school administration building.

When we come back a little later, we will talk to the mayor. And he'll tell you that some things blew out of that building right into his yard. And that is the scene all throughout this city this morning. The story from Fort Lauderdale after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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