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American Morning

Rebuilding in Hurricane Katrina Zone; Tropical Storm Ernest Picks Up Steam

Aired August 29, 2006 - 08:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: This was the scene a year ago -- August 29, 2005.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like a horror film, you know? A New Orleans horror film.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: One year later, the Gulf Coast is still struggling to recover.

What's been restored? What work remains undone?

Hurricane Katrina, one year later on this AMERICAN MORNING.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning from New York City.

I'm Miles O'Brien -- good morning, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Hey, Miles, good morning to you.

I'm Soledad O'Brien.

We're coming to you live this morning from New Orleans on the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. It was at this time a year ago that people were really -- who had remained in the city -- were absolutely terrified.

The hurricane hitting the region with a very strong force. And, of course, as we well know now, things would not be the same ever since it hit.

Let's take you on a little bit of a tour of what we've been seeing here in the city, Gentilly, where we are right now, on Cameron Street. The sun-has come up and you can already hear and see that people are getting back to work.

We've seen some folks beginning their day already, driving down the street.

However, it's kind of a mixed bag in this neighborhood. Out of hand, you have people who have decided they're going to stay, they're going to rebuild, they're going to fix up their homes. Other homes have been abandoned. People are still trying to decide what exactly they should do, while they wait to figure out what the financial situation is going to be from their insurance companies and what the financial situation is going to be from the government, as well.

St. Bernard Parish, where they were practically -- some homes -- blown right off of their foundations. Because of their location to the levees, for some of these houses, the storm hit and it was describe almost like a tsunami.

But you see here people coming back. Again, it's rare. It's very, very rare, maybe two or three people on a block full of 20 or 30 homes. But some people, even with their kids, say they are going to come back and try to figure out how to make it work.

The Lower 9th Ward utterly decimated, again, right next to the levees there. Things probably there have improved more slowly than anywhere else in the city. You can see abandoned homes. The grass is 10 feet high in some places and shrubs -- just a complete and absolute mess.

The churches, though, say they want to come back and they want to encourage people to come back because they want to organize folks and have a voice, political clout, because it's an area, frankly, that's primarily black, primarily poor, that didn't have much of an economic voice or a political voice before the storm hit.

We went up in a chopper to take a tour. We had done it before, almost a year ago. But we decided to take to the skies once again to get a good sense of how things looked this time around.

We went with the city councilman, Oliver Thomas. He grew up in the Lower 9 and he pointed out a lot of the things that he thinks are better and a lot of the things that he says are not.

People here are bitter, bitter about the levees and they're struggling.

And they're struggling in Mississippi, too.

Dan Lothian is reporting from all along the Gulf Coast for us this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Along Mississippi's devastated coastline, Scott Guinn still has his breathtaking waterfront view, but not the house Katrina took away.

SCOTT GUINN, GULFPORT RESIDENT: Basically, the foundations look exactly the same as they did the day after the storm.

LOTHIAN: He's been living in a FEMA trailer on his property in Gulfport, waiting for insurance money and a government grant.

GUINN: I knew that nothing was going to happen that fast. MAYOR BRENT WARR, GULFPORT, MISSISSIPPI: We lost every significant historical landmark on the beachfront.

LOTHIAN: Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr says so much was taken away from his city, but with sales tax revenue picking up from residents who are rebuilding, the news isn't all bad.

WARR: I'm very optimistic and pleased. Yes, it's too slow, you know? But it would have been too slow if it was three times faster than it's been.

LOTHIAN: In Waveland, 30 miles west of Gulfport, where much of the shoreline was wiped out, it still looks like last year. Eleven communities in Mississippi are still trying to recover physically and emotionally.

JENNIE HILLMAN, DIRECTOR, PROJECT RECOVERY: They've been concerned about getting a house and getting a car and getting their job, getting their life back together. Now, the emotional issues are starting to creep in.

UNIDENTIFIED PROJECT RECOVERY COUNSELOR: Project Recovery.

LOTHIAN: Project Recovery, a FEMA funded organization, has recently seen a sharp increase in suicide calls to its hot line and overall a rise in the number of people seeking assistance. Volunteer counselors like Dick and Marian Brown go door-to-door, offering help and a listening ear.

MARIAN BROWN, PROJECT RECOVERY OUTREACH WORKER: It helps them just to unload.

RICK BROWN, PROJECT RECOVERY OUTREACH WORKER: It's as important today as it was when we started.

LOTHIAN: A few days ago, they met Gloria Tartovoulle, a Waveland resident who lost just about everything and whose son became critically ill after the storm.

(on camera): A year later now, is it any easier to deal with this or?

GLORIA TARTOVOULLE, WAVELAND RESIDENT: No. As a matter of fact, it seems like it's harder, because you think you should be more ahead than what you are.

LOTHIAN: The threat of more hurricanes, she says, adds even more mental stress.

TARTOVOULLE: You're just sitting there hoping please don't come this way. Please don't come this way.

LOTHIAN: In this hard hit state, the stories of loss can be overwhelming. But even here, there are people who have a lot to smile about.

LINDA MCGLOTHIN, BILOXI RESIDENT: I'm like a kid in a candy store. It is so beautiful.

LOTHIAN: Biloxi native Linda McGlothin's home was renovated after Katrina left it under seven feet of water and forced her and her family into these backyard tents. She had no insurance, no money, but she did have volunteers.

MCGLOTHIN: Well, we couldn't have never did what was done.

LOTHIAN: The gift came from Habitat for Humanity and Boat People SOS, two groups now helping others just around the corner.

NATHAN JOURDAN, BOAT PEOPLE SOS: You put somebody in a house and that's a Band-Aid on their whole life.

PETER SALEMME, HABITAT FOR HUMANITY: It's not going to happen quick. But we're making slow, steady pressure on and getting them done little by little.

LOTHIAN: Dan Lothian, CNN, Gulfport, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: President Bush is in New Orleans, as well, to mark the one year anniversary. He's been meeting with some local leaders.

Let's get right to CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, who's on Canal Street this morning -- hey, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Soledad.

Well, President Bush is going to be going to Warren Easton High School. That is where he is addressing Louisiana residents. And, curiously -- we're on the roof of that school and there's spray painted letters that say, "SOS: water, help." Simply, clearly, this was a place that people sought refuge for any kind of help, local or from the federal government.

You talk to a lot of people here and overwhelmingly they are disappointed with the administration, with this president. Many say they feel those promises he made in Jackson Square have gone unfulfilled.

So what is President Bush going to do today?

He -- this morning, he is meeting with Mayor Ray Nagin. It was last night he met with other local and state officials. The message is going to be clear here. He is going to say that, yes, we have a commitment. He is trying to convince Americans that it is a long-term commitment to rebuilding the Gulf Coast Region.

He will talk about the $110 billion in federal aid. Still much of that, however, Soledad, not getting to the residents who need it most. He will also honor those who have lost their lives, those who've rescued lives in time of tragedy at a service, a prayer service, at St. Louis Cathedral. And he'll talk about the importance of hope and the human spirit.

This trip is really twofold. On the one hand, to deliver this message, to convince the American people we still care, we have not abandoned you. On the other hand, of course, Soledad, it is an image makeover to try to erase those images of a president who was at his Crawford ranch vacationing early on, who was slow to respond, did not change his schedule. And that it something that Democrats here in Louisiana are saying, those are the images people should remember, of an administration they believe that was incompetent and insensitive -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: It's something, Suzanne, we've actually heard from people on the ground, who say oh, the president's finally back. And they don't say it sort of in a welcoming tone, frankly, the few that -- who have mentioned his visit as he pulled in through town yesterday.

I mean, the truth is, at the end of the day, there's a political reason for rehabbing the image.

MALVEAUX: Well, absolutely. And Republicans really do not want to see this Katrina disaster, the slow response from the federal government, have any impact -- or they don't want to pay for it, essentially, when it comes to the mid-term November elections that are happening right around the corner.

The Bush administration does not want to hand that off to them. And the Bush administration is making the case that we are strong when it comes to defense, defending the people, whether it's a natural catastrophe or a manmade catastrophe -- terrorism or weather conditions.

So that it something that they are still trying to prove to the American people.

S. O'BRIEN: Suzanne Malveaux in a building on top of a school on Canal Street this morning.

Thanks, Suzanne.

Let's send it right back to Miles in New York -- Miles.

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

As we pause to remember Katrina one year later, we're taking a close look at Ernesto, currently a tropical storm.

There's a new advisory out. It has about 45 mile an hour winds. But it could very well pick up steam as it goes across open water.

Chad Myers, our severe weather expert at the Weather Center, watching it every step of the way -- hello, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Miles.

Three different scenarios with this -- and I know we're really not that far from Miami and the Keys at this point. But this storm now at 45 miles per hour. The hurricane hunter aircraft even having trouble finding that wind speed right now. But it is now the same numbers that you see up there on the screen now -- 22.8 and 79.3. It is moving into the warmer water now, Nicholas Channel really, right through here, just north of Cuba, the old Bahamas Channel right through here.

Notice the huge flare-up in this storm, but not near the center. In fact, the center is way back here. Now, that's one thing that could happen. This actually could form a new center. The old one was so torn up by Cuba, by the land mass, it could form a new center somewhere farther to the north or to the east.

That would make the east coast of Florida more in play.

We're already seeing a couple of squalls coming through the Keys right now.

If that does not happen, the next scenario that could actually happen is a storm that continues on its current path, goes over the Lower Keys, maybe close to Key West, and then turns and does a Charlie on us back up toward the west coast of Florida. This is one of the models that's running here up now, all the way up into North Carolina.

That would actually be a bad case scenario for Punta Gorda, for Naples, for Port Charlotte, simply because it would have a longer time over water and that longer time over water would make it stronger. The more it's over land, the more it dies. The more it's over water, the bigger it gets.

So notice this cone. This cone still includes the west coast and the east coast of Florida. The most likely? Somewhere in the middle. But both scenarios on both sides of this storm not out of the question yet because the storm was so torn up over Cuba.

We're going to have to wait for it to form its new center as it gets back into the water.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Back to you.

MYERS: Chad, I am reminded of the lesson of Hurricane Wilma last year going over the Everglades, Lake Okeechobee. It didn't lose a lot of strength.

MYERS: No.

M. O'BRIEN: we have to remember, that's not really terra firma.

MYERS: No. It's actually very warm swamp.

M. O'BRIEN: So...

MYERS: And that's water.

M. O'BRIEN: So people north of there need to be paying attention to this.

MYERS: Yes. Absolutely.

M. O'BRIEN: It's not necessarily going to break up like we think.

All right, Chad Myers, thank you very much.

MYERS: You're welcome, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: The JonBenet Ramsey murder mystery is back at square one this morning. That odd drifter, John Mark Karr, who confessed to the crime on TV, is not her killer. DNA tests have cleared him of murder charges.

That doesn't mean he walks free, though.

CNN's Susan Candiotti live now from Boulder, Colorado with more -- hello, Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles.

It's been just a stunning case. It really boils down to this. As you said, John Mark Karr confesses to killing JonBenet Ramsey. In fact, he goes into great detail about it.

However, without any hard forensic evidence to tie him to the murder scene, there simply is no case against him.

But he remains in jail for now. California authorities want him back. He's been on the run-for years after skipping out on misdemeanor child porn charges. And there is an extradition hearing for him later today.

Now, the Boulder district attorney, on the other hand, said that she didn't want to wait around for forensic evidence before she went to Thailand to pick him up. And as evidence of that, last night she released a 98-page long arrest affidavit that includes all kinds of confessions that turned out to be pure fantasy by John Karr. He even talks about molesting little girls in Thailand. And this was part of an e-mail release and taped phone calls between Karr and a Colorado journalism professor who turned him in.

Now, you're about to hear an except from one of these phone calls. It is not graphic or gruesome in nature, but it indicates his obsession with JonBenet Ramsey.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JOHN KARR: Number one, first and foremost, that's my little girl. I mean do you understand what that means to me? Do you know what that means to me, to establish that she is mine? That she's mine. That's my little girl. And I'm going to tell you something, Michael. I have -- I have (OBSCENE WORD OMITTED) tolerated this (OBSCENE WORD OMITTED) world, little twisted (OBSCENE WORD OMITTED) running around amok thinking I'm a monster. They don't even know who I am.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Now, later today, the Boulder district attorney will meet with reporters to try and explain why she handled the case the way she did.

However, as things stand, this nearly 10-year-old murder investigation is back at square one -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Susan Candiotti in Boulder.

Coming up, we're going to check in on Pearlington, Mississippi. It's a town we've been watching very clearly for the past year, since Katrina. Not one home has been completely rebuilt since the storm. Not a single home. We'll see how they're coping there.

Also, a look back at Katrina with the man who led FEMA's botched response. The former FEMA director, Mike Brown, will be with us live. We'll talk to him.

And Katrina's effect on how people build houses on the Gulf Coast -- simple building code changes could save a lot of heartache in the future.

That's ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: The public face of the botched federal response to Hurricane Katrina, rightly or wrongly, became Mike Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

One year after the storm, he joins us right here to talk about lessons learned personally and for all of us, for that matter.

Mr. Brown, good to have you with us.

MICHAEL BROWN, FORMER FEMA DIRECTOR: Thanks, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Let's roll the tape, if you will.

A few days after the storm, Mobile, Alabama, we've heard it a million times.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Again, I want to thank you all for -- and, Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job. Our FEMA director is working 24 -- they're working 24 hours a day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

M. O'BRIEN: You had a little bit of a grin there. But something else was going on in your head.

What were you thinking at that time?

BROWN: Well, I was concerned because the president and I had just spent about three or four minutes in the holding room and I was trying to explain to him exactly how bad it was and that things weren't working.

And the other thing that was going through my head was there's only one person in the world who's ever called me Brownie, and that was the president. And it was like, you know, why do we have to do this publicly?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

At that time, though, did you almost want to say, Mr. President, actually, no, there are some problems?

BROWN: Oh, listen...

M. O'BRIEN: That would -- you'd be fired immediately, but maybe that would have caught some people's attention.

BROWN: And I have said that was my biggest mistake and it's my biggest personal regret, is not having done that, is not having stepped up to the plate and said, you know, this isn't working and I need to get some help here. You know, I can't seem to get the 82nd Airborne and I can't seem to get the president's attention. Come on.

M. O'BRIEN: Do you think if you had done it over, would you have said something publicly right in the middle of the storm like that?

BROWN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: I mean because that's...

BROWN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: That would be considered, in some quarters, very disloyal.

BROWN: Right. But let me tell you, it was -- it would have been the right thing to do. And I still beat myself up personally for not having done that.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. You've attained a certain pop culture status that few get, a sort of punch line status.

What's that like going through life?

BROWN: Well, it's surreal because, you know, one, I didn't -- you didn't ask for it and you never expect that. And so it's strange to go through airports and have people stop and talk to you and want to know what it was like and, you know, pat you on the back and that sort of -- it's just -- it's very strange.

M. O'BRIEN: And people are supportive of you when they see you? They pat you on the back? They say (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

BROWN: Oh, no, Miles, don't act surprised.

M. O'BRIEN: Well...

BROWN: But, yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Really?

BROWN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: Why?

BROWN: Because I think 90 percent of the American public sees that, one, I was scapegoated; two, that I was trying to do everything I could. And I really took the sword for the president on this one.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, scapegoated.

Let's talk for a moment about qualifications for this job.

BROWN: Sure.

M. O'BRIEN: Your successor, David Paulison. He comes to the job with a tremendous background in emergency services. He was the U.S. fire administrator. He was director of preparedness for FEMA, chief in the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department, 30 years of fire rescue services in Miami-Dade, a really long resume in this realm.

Frankly, no matter which way you slice it, yours was a lot thinner in this realm, as far as the number of years and the breadth of experience.

Do you sort of wish you hadn't taken the job?

BROWN: No. And let me tell you why.

First of all, I think this whole notion that I wasn't experienced or qualified is just -- is a non-starter. Over 20 years of public service in both state and local government, which is where it really happens, in emergency services, and in practicing law for 20 years. And I came to FEMA as the general counsel and worked my way up.

And then what the media never talks about is the fact that I handled 160 presidential disasters successfully.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, but general counsel -- is that the kind of person you need leading FEMA?

With all due respect to lawyers...

BROWN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: ... lawyers are concerned about rules.

BROWN: You know... M. O'BRIEN: Isn't it time -- those are the times when the rules need to be bent a little bit, don't they?

BROWN: Yes. And let me tell you, we were very good at bending the rules, because we bent the rules on 9/11 to make sure that Lower Manhattan got what it needed. We bent the rules lots of times...

M. O'BRIEN: But did you during Katrina?

Did you during Katrina, like it should be?

BROWN: Yes, we did.

But you know what the problem was?

In Katrina, we had this cataclysmic event where you had a failure at the local, state and federal level. And it was like no matter how many rules we broke or bended, it wasn't going to work because we didn't have the plans in place.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

Let's not forget for a moment here that people died...

BROWN: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: ... for mishandling -- because the government failed them.

BROWN: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: Do you owe them an apology? Do you talk to the families? Have you reached out to them? What do you say to them?

BROWN: Yes, one of the things that I'm doing in that regard is doing pro bono work for St. Bernard Parish, one of the hardest hit parishes in Louisiana. And the other thing is, I think the person who really owes the biggest apology is the mayor. I mean I'm astonished that the mayor is out now talking about if there's another storm, he's going to evacuate everybody.

Mayor, you should have done that last year.

M. O'BRIEN: You don't owe an apology, though?

BROWN: Well, I owe an apology for whatever mistakes we made. But, look, I'm trying to explain to the public that this was a failure of government at every single level.

M. O'BRIEN: But will you apologize to these families?

BROWN: Oh, absolutely. And I've done that.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

BROWN: And I would continue to do that because, look, to extent that I feel like I've made a mistake, absolutely, I owe them an apology.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, you would -- a lot of people would expect you, you certainly would be forgiven if you shied away from the limelight in the wake of the storm, go find a cabin and write your book or whatever.

Instead, you're very public about this. You point a lot of fingers and you also have a consulting business for disaster preparedness.

Why are you so public? To bolster the business? Or do you feel like you're trying to change something?

BROWN: I'm trying to change something. If you go back and look, in March -- I remember the exact date, March 3, 2003. I told Secretary Ridge this country has to do catastrophic disaster planning. I wanted that to be my legacy at FEMA.

He spurned me. Chertoff spurned me. In January of '05, I sat in the Oval Office, after having come back from the tsunami, and told the president of the United States that we were not ready for a catastrophic event.

M. O'BRIEN: Are we ready today?

BROWN: No. But I do hear that we're going to start doing that planning now, five years after the fact.

M. O'BRIEN: Mike Brown, former FEMA director.

Thanks for dropping by on this anniversary of Katrina.

BROWN: Thank you, Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up on the program, building codes revolutionized by Katrina. We'll look at some changes that could save a lot of money and heartache in the future.

Plus, Katrina's impact on cities that took in evacuees.

How are they handling the thousands of new residents one year later?

We're going to check in with the mayors of Atlanta and Houston ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

You're looking at just one of the many, many, many abandoned cars left in various neighborhoods all around New Orleans. And that's led to a lot of frustration here.

Why after a year is that car still here? It's obviously not going to go anywhere any time soon. On the other hand, you have some signs of progress. Like this guy here. Clearly, he had lost a big chunk of his house. But you can see, he's got some new wood up and he's stripped it and really has gutted it and is obviously working on it.

So there is some progress to report.

What's probably the most frustrating for homeowners is the red tape that they have to go through. It is tough. It makes them furious.

Ali Velshi takes a look for us this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY JONES, DIRECTOR URBAN DEVELOPMENT, GULFPORT, MISSISSIPPI: this is a great example of the way this neighborhood is going to look when it's rebuilt. Instead of houses sitting virtually on the ground, you're going to see houses elevated.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Larry Jones is the director of urban development for the City of Gulfport, Mississippi. Jones says the city is adopting the 2003 International Building Code. That means all the new buildings in Gulfport will be built to the most up to date standards. They'll be able to withstand up to 130 mile per hour winds and storm surges far greater than what Katrina offered up.

JONES: We're looking at doing things like smart codes and smart growth when we rebuild.

VELSHI: For starters, new homes in Gulfport will have to be off the ground or at higher elevations, based on computer modeling.

JONES: This is a good example of a house, a structure that's been -- that was destroyed during the storm that has been rebuilt by the owner, actually, in excess of the new flood base elevations.

VELSHI: Even without the new building codes, this owner built higher and he installed these hurricane vents.

JONES: It would allow water to pass through underneath the house and then come back out of the house again.

VELSHI (on camera): Now, building improvements aren't necessarily high science. Look at this hurricane strapping. Instead of just screwing or nailing this roof structure to the house, they've used this hurricane strapping, which means that this roof will resist winds of up to 200 miles an hour.

JONES: You'll notice that the nails had pulled up on the roof structure.

VELSHI (voice-over): Something as simple as using screws instead of nails, construction experts say, would have prevented many Gulf Coast roofs from ripping off. SERGIO PRETE, FM GLOBAL: All you're talking about is screws. And they're $0.19 screws. And that's really what you're screwing that roof on. And it stays on during the hurricane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, one, two, three, drop.

PRETE: If you focus in on the roof and other components of your building, you will do very well after a hurricane.

VELSHI: Sergio Prete is with M Global, a commercial property insurer that tests building codes and practices. And it advises large corporations about their buildings.

PRETE: Four out of five companies have taken that advice and put in the extra screws to make sure the roof stays down. And what we found, the studies after Hurricane Katrina is that they reduced their damages by 85 percent.

VELSHI: Prete says the same practices that keep businesses safe can keep homes safe, too.

PRETE: No, we can't stop the hurricanes and you can't prevent the losses. And what we found is with a very minimal investment, you can really be in business the next day or just a few days after the hurricane.

VELSHI: Ali Velshi, CNN, Gulfport, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Ali reports for us tomorrow on homeowners who are waiting for that oh, so elusive insurance check. They're done in, he says, by turf and surf. The turf is the red tape. The surf is when you get washed out of the system with nothing to show for it. That's coming up tomorrow with Ali's report.

We're going to take you next to Pearlington, Mississippi. You might remember, we spent a lot time in Pearlington over the last year. There's no post office, no schools, there's no grocery store; and yet, hundreds of people live there. How are they doing it? A look ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Welcome back to the program on this anniversary of Katrina's landfall on the Gulf Coast. We'll get back to Soledad in New Orleans in just a moment, but first, Carol Costello with some other headlines.

(NEWSBREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Hey, Carol, good morning to you. We're in the Gentilly neighborhood, where we've been kind of camped out all morning. Talking to some folks who have made the decision that they're going to stick it out, that they're actually going to stay.

I want to introduce you to Albert and Anita McKay. Nice to see you. Thanks for talking with us this morning.

ALBERT MCKAY, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: Good morning.

S. O'BRIEN: Give me a little rundown here of what your situation is. It's a nice trailer, but it's not the biggest I've ever seen.

ALBERT MCKAY: No, this is one of the biggest ones that FEMA gives out for families.

S. O'BRIEN: How big is it?

ALBERT MCKAY: It's a two bedroom, living room, bath and kitchen.

S. O'BRIEN: And had you, at one point, eight people living inside?

ALBERT MCKAY: That's correct.

S. O'BRIEN: How was that?

ALBERT MCKAY: Well, it was cramped.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, yes, I can imagine.

ANITA MCKAY, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: But we was back in New Orleans, so -- we was back here in New Orleans. That was the good thing.

S. O'BRIEN: Tell me a little bit about what the situation is with the house. I mean, if we can see behind this trailer, we see no house.

ALBERT MCKAY: That's beachfront property back there.

S. O'BRIEN: Beachfront property?

ALBERT MCKAY: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: That is an optimistic way to put it. But what's the plan going to be?

ALBERT MCKAY: Well, we plan on rebuilding. We raised a lot, four feet, and I'm planning on going up eight feet after that.

S. O'BRIEN: Tell me a little bit about the money. What kind of financial help are you getting from your insurance, from the city?

ALBERT MCKAY: Insurance, we're waiting on them on the final phase of the rebuilding portion. They came out, they issued a (INAUDIBLE) check within about six month. But I did all the paperwork to rebuild, get the rebuilding portion, because in my policy I had replacement costs. So that's the monies I'm waiting on now, this replacement costs so I can go ahead on.

S. O'BRIEN: Unravel your plans for me, because I want to see kind of what the plan is here. You've -- you're going -- oh, here we go. You're going up here. The land's being raised four feet?

ALBERT MCKAY: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: And then the house is going to be how up, again?

ALBERT MCKAY: Eight feet.

S. O'BRIEN: So you've got 12 feet now extra elevation that you didn't have before.

ALBERT MCKAY: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Do you think that's going to be enough?

ALBERT MCKAY: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Really?

ALBERT MCKAY: Yes. Because, you look at the posts over here. The red flag -- the red flag over there on the post, that is the -- if it floods again, that's what it said the water will go. So I'm up over that.

S. O'BRIEN: Anita, I'm going to bring you back in. She's kind of hiding back here a little bit. When you look down your street here -- and you know, I feel like it's -- you guys are working, and this green house next to you, they're working. And then the one -- you've got a trailer hooked up and then you have kind of debris and then you have sort of a mess and then you have a little work. Do you feel hopeful? Do you feel like there's progress or not?

ANITA MCKAY: Well, on our block, I feel that it is progress, because when we initially came back, we were just like two people on the block. Now we have eight families back. Five are actually inside the trailers. We got a couple of families going to tore down their houses, and we know they're going to rebuild. So, to me, that's progress. Being back in New Orleans is progress, just being back. So it's a good thing, just being back here.

S. O'BRIEN: Nice to see how everybody's optimistic. Really, I think the ones who I've run into here seem the most optimistic, but they're just going to have to do a lot the work themself.

ALBERT MCKAY: Yes, that's correct. Life do go on. So -- we make the best of the bad situation here. So we decide to go ahead and move on. There's a local company that -- New Orleans Demolitions, a local company that tore my house down. They got in on the ground floor with this ICC money, and they do the whole process. All you do, you give them your name, your insurance company, your...

S. O'BRIEN: You've had a pretty good experience in this whole thing?

ALBERT MCKAY: Yes...

S. O'BRIEN: We're out of time. I want to wish you guys good luck. Thank you for talking with us this morning.

ANITA MCKAY: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: We appreciate it. And the McKays, who are rebuilding and back in New Orleans. Let's get back to you -- Miles.

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

And still to come in the program, Katrina didn't affect just the Gulf Coast. It had a huge impact on cities that took in the diaspora, the evacuees. How are they holding up one year later? We're going to check in the mayors of Atlanta and Houston, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. s

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M. O'BRIEN: Hurricane Katrina created big ripples, actually strong waves, far beyond the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi. Two of the cities most affected are Atlanta and Houston. Atlanta took in 80,000 to 100,000 evacuees from Hurricane Katrina, Houston 130,000 to 150,000, most of these people from New Orleans. In both cities, most of those people are still there, no homes to go back to. They've moved on with their lives in many ways.

Joining me now from Atlanta is the mayor, Shirley Franklin, and from Houston, Mayor Bill White. Good to have you both back with us. We've talked to you all throughout this process.

I want to begin with you, Mayor Franklin. Let's talk about this group of people, and the allegation or the insinuation that they brought with them a crime wave. Has there been a crime wave in Atlanta as a result of people from New Orleans being there?

MYR. SHIRLEY FRANKLIN, ATLANTA: We have not seen that. In fact, crime was down in 2005, and we are experiencing still crime on the decreasing level. So we didn't see a crime wave as associated with evacuees, either from New Orleans or the Gulf Coast.

M. O'BRIEN: Mayor White, would you set is the record straight on that front as well?

MYR. BILL WHITE, HOUSTON: Well, the vast majority of people who came here are hard-working people, retired people, but there was a small group, usually gang members, that brought with them some crime, and we've been dealing effectively with that crime. Houston's a safe city. Our overall violent crime rates per 100,000 are down from a few years back, but we do have a small group of, especially from the New Orleans area, that have been breaking the law, and then we've been catching them and convicting them.

M. O'BRIEN: So, Mayor White, have they worn out their welcome in Houston?

WHITE: Well, the people that commit violent crime were never welcome in Houston. We said that from the beginning.

M. O'BRIEN: No, but generally, New Orleans evacuees...

WHITE: Yes, we don't stereotype people in Houston, Texas. We're a proud, diverse group of people here, and we don't paint with a broad brush. Most of the people that are evacuees were retired people, students, or people who are working in New Orleans, and they're working here now or looking for work.

M. O'BRIEN: Mayor Franklin, we've talked a lot with you about the need for some assistance, the fact that at first blush, Atlanta wouldn't be considered a disaster zone in the wake of this hurricane, but, in fact, because of the number of people you've received reserved it should be. Have you gotten the federal help you sought?

FRANKLIN: We have gotten some federal help with resettlement, nearly there million to help resettle families. The city of Atlanta put up general funds to help with resettlement, a million dollars. And the private community really stepped up with $10 million to help with resettlement. We know that we have to continue to work with people who are evacuees, as they're trying to resettle in our community, get jobs, get their children settled. So we haven't given up yet with helping through our United Way and other service agencies.

M. O'BRIEN: So the citizens of the city of Atlanta, have they been forced to foot the bill a little bit for this?

FRANKLIN: Well, we gladly footed the bill. We didn't shirk from that. Within days after the levees broke and people came to Atlanta, the city council and I set forward a plan to work with our local agencies so that we -- we weren't worried about whether we got reimbursed. We'd be glad to get federal money to reimburse us, but we did that out of a sense of caring, just as Mayor White and other mayors did around the country.

M. O'BRIEN: Mayor white, what about your city? Have you gotten the federal funding, the help you wanted?

WHITE: Well, first, I'll say we've had tens of millions of dollars of private charities and churches, corporations, that have helped. The federal government has helped support the housing program that we initiated, but there's holes in the safety net, particularly the health care needs of the uninsured and in public safety.

M. O'BRIEN: How are you going to fill those holes?

WHITE: Well, we've been making due. The doctors and police officers have been working harder. We're adding police officers to the force, and we're telling Congress that, hey, this problem has not gone away. It may be off the news for a little while, but we are still in the business of rebuilding lives. And the aid should go not just to the rebuild places, but to rebuild lives, where we have 100,000 people plus that cannot go back to their jobs and have no house to return to.

M. O'BRIEN: Which begs the question, Mayor White, are they most likely permanent citizens of your city? Do you have any sense of what percentage will stay? WHITE: Surveys have shown consistently about over about half of those remaining say they'll stay, not because they dislike New Orleans, but because their kids are in school, they have jobs here, they've put down roots, they've become part of the community looking forward. Many want to return, but as you know, there's a housing shortage in New Orleans, where a two-bedroom apartment is trip what it used to cost. And especially a lot of the seniors, they want to return to their neighborhoods, simply can't afford to do so because there's not enough housing available.

M. O'BRIEN: Mayor Franklin, is it the same story in your city? Do you think at least the half the people will remain in the city of Atlanta?

FRANKLIN: I think people will stay in the city of Atlanta, at least half. But Mayor White has raised an interesting point, which is some own property in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast, and they're having difficulty reclaiming their property. So even if they wanted to rebuild, it's very difficult. And I appreciate that, the challenges that these families have in trying to resettle. They came with nothing. They're building from scratch. A year is not enough time, and frankly, they didn't get all of support they needed as quickly as they needed it.

M. O'BRIEN: Mayor Franklin, at this point, would you call this group a drain on the resources of your city? Or as they move in to jobs and become productive members of the community, are they a net- sum gain for Atlanta?

FRANKLIN: Well, they're a gain for Atlanta. Atlanta is a very fast-growing community, and many people move, some 60,000 net gain every year. So we increased in a few weeks that number with those from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, but we are hoping that they will find jobs, go to school, settle in to our communities, and we're determined to work with them and help them.

I think it's important to note that, I mean, this is a one-time situation. If it were to happen over and over and over, and if the federal government were not to step up in a more aggressive way, it would become a drain.

M. O'BRIEN: Final thought from you, Mayor White -- drain or gain?

WHITE: America is a nation for the people. Our citizens are not a drain on the country. The reason to have a country is to support the citizens. In Houston, if you work hard and play by the rules, you're much a Houstonian as anybody else, and we're glad to be in America's first line of response, along with Mayor Franklin and the other cities in the area, who are taking care of our fellow Americans.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you both, Houston Mayor Bill White, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin.

Up next on our program, Andy, "Minding Your Business." Stay with us. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Behind us, you can smell the bodies, frankly, and grimly, in the water, and that's not going to be the focus today, because recovery of the bodies is not the primary responsibility. Some of the rescuers have just arrived with their boats. They're going to put those boats in the water, get back out there again today to be able to look for people who may be trapped in their homes, see if they can get in to some of these homes and maybe pull some people out who need help.

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