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American Morning

Season of Devastation; Marble Falls from Supreme Court Building; National Zoo Panda Cub Introduced to Media

Aired November 29, 2005 - 08:31   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A reminder to everybody: we start at 6:00 in the morning now.
MILES O'BRIEN: 6:00, which would be good for construction workers on the renovation there at the Supreme Court. 6:00, good time for them. So join us, please. Every day. For the indefinite future.

(NEWSBREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Hurricane season officially ends tomorrow. CNN your hurricane headquarters all season long. And John Zarrella has put together a three-part series about the historic hurricane season. He is in Pembroke Pines, Florida, which was hit very hard by Hurricane Wilma.

John, good morning to you.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad. Boy, not soon enough when it's over tomorrow. You know, when Hurricane Wilma hit here in October, it was -- hurricane fatigue had already swept the nation. There was a lot more damage than many people realized here at this Pembroke Pines Park. Sixty FEMA travel trailers, people displaced by the storm. This was the hurricane season that people will not soon forget.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK ANDERSON, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: You want some apple juice?

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Mark and Summer Anderson (ph) know they are lucky. Their little boy Luke (ph) has a backyard to play in. Their home has a roof and power. An island in the midst of destruction.

Down the block, around the corner, everywhere here in New Orleans, are painful reminders of Katrina on that last Monday in August. Reminders in the shape of debris piles and high water marks.

ANDERSON: Come hurricane season, you know, we probably are going to be a little apprehensive, you know, when the first hurricane gets in the Gulf. But, you know, we'll just -- this is home, you know? you got to stay here.

ZARRELLA: The Andersons, like so many people from Texas to Florida, were victims of the most ferocious, destructive hurricane season on record. According to the Insurance Information Institute, insured losses alone from this year's storms are $56.8 billion. That's more than double last year's record amount.

Katrina left nearly 1,300 people dead. The Gulf Coast hadn't witnessed this much death from a hurricane in more than 100 years. And the destruction was unprecedented. Between Katrina and Rita, which struck the Texas/Louisiana border a month later, 300,000 homes were lost and more than 290,000 jobs lost.

As Rita approached, the haunting images of New Orleans and Mississippi were still raw. The people of Houston wanted no part of this one. Millions rushed to leave by car, only to be stalled in highway gridlock. Twenty-four people died before the storm ever hit when the bus evacuating them caught fire. In Cameron Parish, Louisiana, Cliff and Lloyd Choate (ph) captured these images as storm surge surrounded their home.

By late October, there was only one letter left in the hurricane alphabet, W. Wilma raced across south Florida, three million left without power, mobile homes destroyed. And thousands like Juanite Bilek and her family spent weeks in shelters after their roofs collapsed.

JUANITE BILEK, FLORIDA RESIDENT: He saw the pictures and he said, mommy, look at our house, it's ruined!

ZARRELLA: Every storm brought tears. A young girl in Pensacola. A boy at New Orleans Convention Center. So much heartache, so many futures still uncertain.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: Twenty-five named storms in all formed this year. Four major hurricanes hit the United States. All unprecedented numbers -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Gosh, really brings it all back. John, thanks for the update. Tomorrow, John's going to take a look ahead to next year. The predictions for 2006: another heavy hurricane season. Will lessons learned from this year's historic storms help people prepare the next time around? We're going to take a look at that tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: It seems the Supreme Court has lost a little authority, quite literally, as we told you a few moments ago. Yesterday, a chunk of marble fell from the authority figure atop the Supreme Court building. Insert your jokes there, folks. As you can see, it is the punchline du jour in Washington. AMERICAN MORNING's -- what?

S. O'BRIEN: Did it fall from -- it looks like it fell from...

M. O'BRIEN: No, it was the dental above authority.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. It didn't really fall from the authority figure. M. O'BRIEN: So, obviously, the dental had a problem with authority. I don't know. Bob Franken is there.

S. O'BRIEN: Bob's laughing at your joke, but nobody else.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Bob. Bob always laughs at my jokes. Thank you, Bob. Where's your hard hat, Bob?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm otherwise known this morning Al Legory. I want you to feel free to chip in, Miles!

S. O'BRIEN: Uh oh! I'm afraid!

FRANKEN: First, the -- excuse me -- hard news. And that is that there are lines, as you can see, once again, waiting to get outside the Supreme Court. But their mamas did not raise no fools. They are standing behind some barricades that the police put up, which shows that the police are keeping people at a safe distance from what happened.

And you can see now that we're going up the building to where there was a bit of a chipping away of authority, as you put it. You can barely see it. It didn't really do much to the feng shui of this building, but it was a chunk that came down. And yes, Miles, that is the scientific term.

A chunk of marble did come down careening, and it landed here on the plaza. The plaza, by the way, where we're not allowed to go with our cameras, and as you might imagine, did not put up much of a fight about not being allowed on the plaza this morning.

But the only thing I will tell you, first of all, nobody was hurt, and that is the really good news. But this could have been a lot worse, because up there a lot of pigeons hang out, too. So as I said, this could have been a lot worse.

M. O'BRIEN: There could have been all kinds of things coming down! This isn't the first time something like this has happened, though, right?

FRANKEN: No, no, no. In fact, very recently, a light bulb shattered in the court building here and it scattered all over Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, but nobody has hurt. But it does beg that old question, how many justices does it take to change a light bulb. And the answer is, of course, oh, about five to four.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Bob Franken, obviously...

S. O'BRIEN: His jokes are so much better than yours, it's not even funny.

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE; That was funny.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, the whole thing was funny.

SERWER: Five to four, that was very cute.

(CROSSTALK)

S. O'BRIEN: ... and he knows it.

M. O'BRIEN: I was surprised he didn't talk about the chip on his shoulder, but he got that one out.

SERWER: There's the difference.

S. O'BRIEN: You see, right there. Need I say more? You've just kind of...

M. O'BRIEN: He's here all week, don't worry.

S. O'BRIEN: Try the veal.

Thanks, Bob.

Andy is "Minding Your Business" just ahead. What are you talking about?

SERWER: Good news, Soledad. Maybe the office Christmas party is back. That means you've got to break out the company mistletoe.

(CROSSTALK)

No, no, no, stay tuned for all that. You won't get a bonus if you do that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Swans are swimming. Geese are laying.

S. O'BRIEN: You're supposed to sing it.

M. O'BRIEN: No, no, no.

S. O'BRIEN: No, please!

M. O'BRIEN: Could the bird flu take a toll on "The 12 Days of Christmas." For this, we can only turn to one person, Andy Serwer.

SERWER: I know about these things, Soledad, come on. We've got the Christmas holiday business story special here. First of all, the holiday party, the office holiday party that is, is back. This according to Challenger Gray and Christmas. I love the name of that company this time of the year, that outplacement firm. Eighty percent of companies intend to have parties this year, as opposed to 70 percent last year. They have some tips here about Christmas parties. Avoid making alcohol the focus of the event.

S. O'BRIEN: Then why go? No, I'm kidding.

SERWER: What are you supposed to do? Get (INAUDIBLE)? I mean, never mind. Entertain guests with music. Limit the number of drinks attendees can have by distributing drink tickets.

S. O'BRIEN: Back to the alcohol.

SERWER: Yes. I mean, I don't know about some of these ideas.

S. O'BRIEN: Read the fourth one.

SERWER: Oh, the fourth one: offer nutritious and appealing foods to slow the effects of?

S. O'BRIEN: Alcohol!

SERWER: Alcohol. Maybe they should go to illegal drugs. I mean, they've got alcohol on the brain over there.

All right, you know this survey they do every year. This is PNC, the old Pittsburgh National, on the cost of actually doing "The 12 Days of Christmas," if you're actually going to get all of those things and do it yourself.

M. O'BRIEN: How much does it cost them to do the survey? I mean, this is a lot of time involved.

SERWER: Not a whole lot.

M. O'BRIEN: OK.

SERWER: All right, by the way...

M. O'BRIEN: Onward.

SERWER: Onward. It's up this year six percent to $18,338. Let's go through the screens to show you which costs have gone up. Drummers are the same. The pipes are piping, the lords -- this is actually how much it costs to get lords to dance around, ladies a dancing up a little bit. I don't know why. Maids-a-milkin'.

Now here's the interesting part. Swans a swimming up 20 percent. Why?

S. O'BRIEN: Bird flu.

SERWER: Bird flu. It's true! These birds, these swans, these fowl.

M. O'BRIEN: Why aren't calling birds equally affected?

SERWER: They're not affected. They're not the same kind of birds. You can see here the geese are a part of it. And then we get to the gold rings. The price of gold soaring, over $500 an ounce now. That's a big problem. French hens not a part of the same -- the turtle doves is a different part. See, it's like roosters, chickens, turkeys. You understand.

M. O'BRIEN: So the turtle dove bubble has burst, is what you're saying?

SERWER: No, you're thinking about your...

(CROSSTALK)

M. O'BRIEN: I'm obsessing.

SERWER: You are, you're obsessing.

Anyway, Miles, if you want to throw this whole thing at your manse, at your house, it would cost you $18,338.

M. O'BRIEN: But I'm sure I can find a site on the Web that could do it for $36,000 by tomorrow. That's how I shop!

SERWER: The candy gal, right?

S. O'BRIEN: Why save money online is what he always says.

Thanks, Andy.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Andy Serwer.

Tickets for the panda viewing at the National Zoo, they were going to a hundred bucks on eBay, is that right?

S. O'BRIEN: And they're free. Those are the free tickets!

SERWER: I was going to say, that didn't sound bad! But they're free.

M. O'BRIEN: That's my kind of deal. Now you understand how I shop!

S. O'BRIEN: Wait a week, Miles. It should be $200 in a week.

M. O'BRIEN: So what's the fuss about. It's this little animal that looks like that dog we saw yesterday. It's a panda. It's almost time for the panda to finally meet the public. Actually, I think he is right now. We've got a little inside scoop on all of this. We're going to go live to the National Zoo, and we're going to talk to somebody who on their business card it says "associate curator for pandas. What a great thing to have on your business card.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Let's go right to the pictures. There is Tai Shan. The National Zoo's panda had his official -- well, official media coming out. He'll be meeting the public on December 8th. Goes on public display. It's nice to be able to see how he has grown over time. We've had Panda Cam for a while, but today we have the first actual real TV quality qualities of Tai Shan.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, and remember when he first was born? He looked like a stick of butter. And that's about...

S. O'BRIEN: And we couldn't really quite find him in the videotape. But now look how big he is.

M. O'BRIEN: He's looking good.

S. O'BRIEN: I think he weighs 21 pounds now. Let's check in. From the National Zoo, Lisa Stevens the assistant curator for the pandas. Hey, Lisa, nice to see you. Good morning.

LISA STEVENS, CURATOR, NATIONAL ZOO: Good morning, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Update us on all of the stats of little Tai Shan. Twenty-one pounds, right?

STEVENS: He's 21 pounds. He managed climb on the adult scale yesterday all by himself and we confirmed his weight.

S. O'BRIEN: And how long is he? And he's weaned off his mom so he's trying solid food now, is that right?

STEVENS: Well, he's still nursing. He's still totally dependent on her for nutrition. But we're beginning to introduce bamboo, and it's really great to watch him rehearse all the adult moves. He'll slouch back and hold the bamboo like an adult. He'll pull the leaves through his mouth and chew on the leaves and stock. But he's not eating bamboo yet.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, he is so cute. Now, you had today the media sort of come and take pictures in preparation, I guess, for the public getting a chance to check out Tai Shan. Let's talk about how it went today. Was it just sort of pandemonium? Oh, you knew I was going to use that in there.

M. O'BRIEN: You set yourself up, you knock it out. All right.

S .O'BRIEN: Was it craziness or not?

STEVENS: We had a lot of press here this morning starting in the wee hours of the morning. We started with a press conference and then the various media outlets had timed opportunities, just like our visitors will, to see the cub. And everything, as far as I know, went smoothly. I think everyone got to see him awake at least part of the time.

M. O'BRIEN: Now, his name, Tai Shan, that in Chinese means peaceful mountain, right?

STEVENS: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Now, I'm curious, though. Do they have kind of, you know, personalities? I mean, is there something about Tai Shan that separates him from other pandas?

STEVENS: Right now his personality is just emerging. What we're seeing, though, is we're seeing that he's beginning to become assertive. He's beginning to act more like a bear. And so he struggles when his mother holds him and when we try to move him, he'll struggle. He's beginning to chase us when we go in the enclosure like he chases his mother. And so basically we see a little confident, assertive little bear cub.

M. O'BRIEN: Confident, assertive. We have live panda cam shots. Let's put them right now. Because this was tape that -- it was fed a little while ago. This is what's going on right now. You can go to the National Zoo site and do this for yourself any time you like. That's the mom. Is that the mom?

STEVENS: Yes. He's still with his mother.

M. O'BRIEN: Cuddling with the baby, right? Can you see it right now, Lisa? Can you see what we're watching?

S. O'BRIEN: I don't think she can see the shots of his mom.

STEVENS: I cannot. But if you see him with another panda, it's probably his mother.

M. O'BRIEN: Is there a lot of nurturing? You say he's still nursing and everything. Do they nurture them like, you know, cuddle them and stuff? You know what I mean?

STEVENS: Pandas are excellent mothers. They're very protective of their cubs. They'll pick them up and clean them and hold them and nurse them. And then once she's done with those jobs, she puts him down and goes back to her bamboo. But she's very efficient.

S. O'BRIEN: Sounds just like a human mother. Let me ask you a question, Lisa. Because you know about all this drama over getting tickets for the public to get a chance to see Tai Shan. You know, those tickets, some of them are going for a hundred bucks on eBay, which I know was not the plan originally. It was supposed to be free tickets. How does somebody who missed out in getting a free ticket and doesn't want to spend $100 on eBay get a chance to see Tai Shan?

STEVENS: They will get to see him eventually. I would just advise them to be patient, to go to our Web site and monitor the availability of tickets. As Tai Shan and his mother are used to these visits, we'll expand the hours. And we just want to do it slowly and make sure that everything goes smoothly for everyone involved. And certainly, just watch our Web site. More tickets and more times will become available as he matures.

S. O'BRIEN: Oh, we're looking at the Web site, Lisa. So cute. You can see Tai Shan on the right and his mom...

M. O'BRIEN: That is cute.

S. O'BRIEN: Absolutely. Just cleaning him, nurturing him, kissing him, snuggling with him.

M. O'BRIEN: That is cute as can be.

S. O'BRIEN: Panda cam, by the way, you cannot get enough panda cam.

M. O'BRIEN: Now, you can just leave that on all day long.

S. O'BRIEN: Lisa Stevens, the assistant curator for pandas at the National Zoo. Always nice to check in with you, Lisa. We'll check in with you again.

STEVENS: Thank you. Nice speaking with you.

M. O'BRIEN: She's got a good job. Doesn't she have a good job? That's a good job.

S. O'BRIEN: Best job, best job.

Much more ahead on AMERICAN MORNING, including Senator Joe Lieberman just back from spending Thanksgiving in Iraq. He had a chance to check in with some of the troops. We'll talk to him live, just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Sunday night, 8:00 Eastern, our "Then and Now" special with Larry King will take a look at some of the newsmakers of CNN's first 25 years and see what they're doing now. Here is a sample.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know when you're growing up you have lots of things you want to do. I always assumed I would go into space.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ignition and liftoff!

M. O'BRIEN (voice-over): On September 12, 1992, at the age of 35, Dr. Mae Jemison boldly went where no African-American woman had gone before.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was really after we got into orbit that I had a sensation that I belonged anywhere in this universe.

M. O'BRIEN: Jemison makes it her life mission to explore the universe in every way she can. This high achiever is also a chemical engineer, Peace Corps veteran, physician, author and teacher.

In 1994, Jemison started an international science camp for teens called The Earth We Share.

These days, Jemison is the founder and president of the BioSentient Corporation, where she is working on a device that provides mobile monitoring of people's nervous systems.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We think that there are real applications in the future for trying to identify certain diseases. It can also people monitor how effective drugs are.

M. O'BRIEN: In addition to her work in the sciences, Jemison says she may one day explore the field of politics.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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