Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

State of Recover in New Orleans; Tropical Storm Ernesto; Karr: No Charges

Aired August 29, 2006 - 08:59   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Tuesday, August, 29, 2006. Welcome to a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
I'm Miles O'Brien in New York.

Good morning, Soledad.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Soledad O'Brien.

Hey, Miles. Good morning to you.

We're in Gentilly, a neighborhood you're very familiar with. Coming to you live this morning in New Orleans as they remember the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

There was a moment of silence this morning. They were marking the time that the storm made landfall, hitting Plaquemines Parish. The ceremony honored those who lost a loved one, lost a home, lost any kind of sense of normalcy here in the area. And that, of course, means a lot of people affected.

Also, a service -- a sunrise service to tell you about in Gulfport, Mississippi. Fourteen people died in the wake of the storm there.

There's also other services to tell you about this morning. St. Louis Cathedral in Jackson Square, the president and the first lady will be attending services there. That's going on right now.

And in St. Bernard Parish this morning, the community is honoring the rescuers, those who risked their lives to try to save people when the storm hit. Only 10,000 to 12,000 people are back in St. Bernard Parish, a community that was at one time about 70,000 people strong.

You can hear probably the clunking pile driver. It's kind of taking place just a few blocks away. That's where the levee is, and that's a really pretty good sign of progress.

They are working on the levees. And some people could read it that way. And then at the same time, you have things like this, piles of garbage.

I mean, take a look at this. I've got to tell you, this has probably been sitting here literally for a year. And if we zoom in on that bottle of deviled eggs, of preserved eggs, you understand how people can be furious in some cases and feel like progress has not been made.

No one has really come to completely clean up the city. And it's been a year.

So progress truly depends on where you are at the moment you're asking.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN (voice over): The last time we did this flight, we were with Coast Guard rescuers, and the water was up to porches in some neighborhoods. This time, Eric Kovel is our pilot, and Councilman Oliver Thomas is our tour guide. And the first thing we notice, of course, is that it's finally dry.

We start in Lakeview, racially diverse. People here say they are tired of waiting for an official recovery plan. They're working on their own plan, getting the people who have come back organized and motivated.

OLIVER THOMAS, NEW ORLEANS COUNCIL PRESIDENT: Let me say this, we don't have any problem that money can't solve.

S. O'BRIEN: In New Orleans East, affluent Eastover looks good, at least from above. Impressive multimillion-dollar homes owned primarily by African-Americans. But just blocks away, no progress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Twelve to 15 feet of water here for two months.

S. O'BRIEN: We fly over Jazzland. The Six Flags theme park is still standing, but it's rusted and abandoned.

(on camera): What's going on with it now?

THOMAS: Nothing. They've abandoned it. They want to give it back to the city.

S. O'BRIEN (voice over): Damage to the marshland is obvious. Much of it's now under water. The cypress trees which would help protect the city in the next tropical storm or hurricane are gone or dying.

(on camera): So this is St. Bernard Parish we're coming up on?

THOMAS: Correct.

S. O'BRIEN (voice over): In St. Bernard Parish, the economy is gone. The fishing and shrimping industry, once successful and very lucrative, is now decimated. At the Lexington Place subdivision, where the water hit with the force of a tsunami, homes are wiped off the slabs. Almost a year ago we walked on those bare foundations. Today, in the air, we found those houses.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not a subdivision. They came from this last row of streets back here. THOMAS: They floated there. Old homes.

S. O'BRIEN (on camera): So that's where these houses ended up?

THOMAS: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN (voice over): There in a marsh a half-mile away.

You can see the indecision in the real estate. Some homes look like the hurricane hit yesterday, others are cleaned and gutted.

THOMAS: Home Depots, Lowe's, Wal-Marts, they are doing well. Now, you're in the Lower Ninth.

S. O'BRIEN: The Lower Ninth Ward is where Oliver Thomas grew up. He points out the repaired levee which the Army Corps of Engineers says is built to pre-Katrina levels. Like most New Orleanians, Thomas speaks bitterly about the levees.

THOMAS: That was category nothing.

S. O'BRIEN: In the Lower Ninth Ward, areas once dotted with homes are replaced by high grass. Some homeowners are happy the city has carted away the debris. At least they didn't have to pay for it. But there's no plan in this area, and the future here seems so certain.

Lots of people were renters. Many were poor and black and lacked financial and political clout.

Then it's off to Plaquemines Parish, a swathe of land that sits between the Gulf and the Mississippi River. Devastated by Katrina, then practically ignored by the media in the aftermath, people here are struggling.

This was the brand new jail.

THOMAS: That was the jail.

S. O'BRIEN (on camera): You see pictures like this in Plaquemines Parish and you say nothing has been done.

(voice over): Back at Lakefront Airport we fly over a plane that lies upside down on the runway. It's been sitting just like that for a year.

The sign at the airport says it all.

(on camera): "Welcome to New Orleans." The building is kind of falling apart.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Take a look at this house behind us. You can see clearly nothing has been done here. And no one has probably even gone into this house ever since the last date that's on the wall there, 9/25, when it was searched. The weeds are high and, you know, I've got to imagine when they finally do knock this house down or open up the door, or whatever they end up doing, it's going to be exactly the same as it was in the moments after the storm.

The big question here, of course, is what exactly is the plan? What's the plan for Gentilly? What's the plan for the Lower Ninth Ward? What's the plan to hand out the money?

There's a process, we're told by the folks at the Louisiana Recovery Authority, but not exactly a plan exactly yet. We put the question to the mayor, Mayor Ray Nagin, as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAY NAGIN (D), NEW ORLEANS: The big problem that I got into with some people with this so-called "We don't have a plan" is because it's not their plan. And what they have been trying to get me to do is shrink the footprint of the city of New Orleans and basically say, a community like the Lower Ninth Ward cannot come back.

We have restored utilities to half of the neighborhood. The other half is in such disrepair that we're working on repairing that. And we will get it done.

The Lower Ninth Ward will come back. Our street grids are fine, and it's just a matter of getting the money to the people so that they can rebuild their homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: It's kind of like a chicken and an egg scenario, if you think about it. You heard the mayor say half the neighborhood has services in the Lower Ninth Ward, and the other half, well, it's in too much disrepair.

Well, how will people come back if they don't have services? It's a story, frankly, we have seen in St. Bernard Parish, here, in Gentilly, in Lakeview. How do you possibly start rebuilding if you can't even get the city to guarantee you're going to have services?

What comes first, the chicken or the egg?

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

M. O'BRIEN: Well, a lot of people would say what comes first is a comprehensive plan that people understand. And the mayor says he has a plan, but nobody knows what it is.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, what comes first, the money or the plan? The plan or the money, is another way to put it.

You know, there's a bunch of plans, and there's a bunch of plans about housing and a bunch of plans about recovery, a bunch of plans about the levees. A bunch of plans.

And I think the hardest thing for people here is really how confusing it is. Remember, in some cases, some of these programs that would free up the money have only just opened their doors. Because you couldn't really figure out what the plan would be until you knew how many neighbors would come back.

Well, how many neighbors will come back if they don't know what the sewage system is going to be? And is there going to be police protection and fire protection? You know, and so on and so on and so on.

M. O'BRIEN: It's a city that needs a lot of very clear leadership at the moment.

Soledad O'Brien in New Orleans.

Back with you in just a little bit.

While we are focusing on a year ago in Katrina and what's happening now along the Gulf Coast, we're also focused on a storm that's out there right now. It's headed toward Florida, Ernesto, a tropical storm currently, formerly a hurricane.

Chad's watching it in the severe weather center.

Hello, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Miles.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Chad.

You know, in Florida they have been there, done that, and they got the T-shirt again and again. But, of course, it isn't T-shirts they need right now. Right now they need batteries and water and maybe a generator.

CNN's John Zarrella is at a Home Depot. North Miami the location.

John, busy place this morning?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Miles. You know, quite frankly, not as busy as I thought it would be, but there's a couple of reasons for that.

I think, one, yesterday, is when most people were out doing their shopping. The Home Depot here absolutely packed, as were gas stations, as were grocery stores.

And the other reason, the threat kind of lessened yesterday evening when it was thought that maybe this storm was going to be a hurricane when it got here. Then the thought was, well, it probably will only be a tropical storm. So the threat lessened.

And you can see plenty of supplies available here in the Home Depot. And somebody who is here, Timatao Chiarelli (ph). And Tim Mateo, first of all, I've got to ask you, last-minute shopper. How come last minute?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it's not really last minute. I've been trying to get gas for the last day and a half. But finally I got some gas, and now this is basically...

ZARRELLA: So you didn't have gasoline in your car to get here to do this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. Right.

ZARRELLA: It's been tough to get gasoline.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I would say yes and maybe no, because some -- some stations...

ZARRELLA: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... are really doing well. They filled up...

ZARRELLA: Their tanks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... their tanks.

ZARRELLA: Let me ask you -- tell us what you bought here. Give us a quick look at what you get.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got a radio, and...

ZARRELLA: And that's got a TV.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... with a TV.

ZARRELLA: A radio and everything with it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. And I got batteries, torches, and bought gas just in case.

ZARRELLA: Propane, that's important in case you've got to cook on the grill.

Timatao (ph), thanks very much for stopping by and helping us out here.

I want to take a quick look outside at the Home Depot, at the loading dock area. That's where all the plywood is stacked. Plenty of plywood supplies here and at other home improvement stores all over for anybody who is planning on boarding up at the last minute -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, John Zarrella. Thank you very much. I expect it will pick up a little steam there just like the storm is picking up steam.

Another strange turn in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case. John Mark Karr, who confessed on television to the killing, is no longer a suspect in the case. The case is still open, the mystery now 10 years old, still unsolved. His DNA not found on the 6-year-old girl's clothing. But he's not out of jail just yet.

CNN's Susan Candiotti live now from Boulder, Colorado, with the strange twists and turns of this saga.

Hello, Susan.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Miles. How are you?

Because John Mark Karr is a fugitive from the law because he skipped out on misdemeanor child pornography charges years ago in California, he won't be getting out of jail any time soon. There is an extradition hearing for him later today. And soon he'll be heading back to California.

So who is John Karr? Well, clearly, it turns out he is a man who is obsessed with JonBenet Ramsey. Obviously we now know that he fantasized about her murder. A lot of what he knew was now, we learn, previously known information already published in the media, in newspapers, in magazines, in movies, and the D.A., it turns out, apparently used his alleged confession in e-mails and in taped phone calls between Karr and a Colorado journalism professor, along with admissions that he had molested girls in Thailand to get an arrest warrant and find him in Thailand.

And even though they did take a DNA sample from him there, the D.A. said that that was not good enough. She wanted to wait until he got to Colorado to get a DNA sample, test it, and then find out that there was no match and therefore no case.

The public defender calls that a bad move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH TEMIN, ATTORNEY FOR JOHN MARK KARR: We're deeply distressed by the fact they took this man and dragged him here from Bangkok, Thailand, with no forensic evidence confirming the allegations against him and no independent factors leading to a presumption that he did anything wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Yet some supporters defend what she did, said she had no other outlet. She did what she had to do. However, critics say the district attorney did not do enough legwork before spending a lot of money on this investigation -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Susan Candiotti in Boulder, Colorado.

Thank you very much.

Back to Soledad in New Orleans -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Miles. Thanks.

You know, if you look at a pile like this you might say this is progress, right? Somebody is obviously gutting their home. They're planning maybe to move back in, or at least sell it, or at least do something here. And, in fact, on this boulevard many people have come back.

We're going to check in this morning with Julia Reed, our old friend. You know we've talked to her many times over the last year.

Also, we're going to talk about recovery when it comes to a cultural perspective. Wynton Marsalis will be our guest talking about what the musicians are doing and are trying to do as they recover as well here in New Orleans.

A short break. We're back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

You think things look bad here? You think this pile of debris is depressing? Well, think how the folks in Mississippi feel.

In Pearlington, Mississippi, specifically, they have a lot of the same problems and just a fraction of the media attention. We spent a lot of time over the last year in Pearlington, Mississippi, where they've got no grocery store, they've got no post office, they've got no school, and they're starting to lose hope, too.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN (voice over): In Pearlington, Mississippi, everybody is focused on the devastation. Five-year-old Lisa Swanson is focused on three kittens who disappeared when Katrina plowed through her house. She thought they would come back when the house was rebuilt, but the house was torn down and Lisa's bedroom became a kitchen shelf in the family's FEMA trailer.

LISA SWANSON, PEARLINGTON, MISSISSIPPI, RESIDENT: This is where I sleep and that's where my brother sleeps.

S. O'BRIEN: Lisa has nightmares about the kittens drowning.

L. SWANSON: I think about it because they died.

S. O'BRIEN: Town officials say an estimated 4,000 people used to live in Pearlington, but a year after Katrina only 800 remain.

DENISE SWANSON, PEARLINGTON, MISSISSIPPI, RESIDENT: I thought things would be close to normal. But there are still houses that need to be torn down and some that are piled up that need to be picked up. There's just debris still everywhere. And just nothing is going on anymore at all.

S. O'BRIEN: Officials say not a single home has been completely rebuilt and reoccupied. There's no post office, no schools, no grocery stores.

RODRICK PULLMAN, PRESIDENT, HANCOCK COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS: The problems are just as bad as they were a year ago. We're still living in FEMA trailers. I think we will be for the foreseeable future.

S. O'BRIEN: Every morning Lisa and her older brothers, Darian (ph) and Destin (ph), are up at 5:00 preparing for the one-hour ride to their new school. Eleven hours later they are back.

There is some progress. The Swansons got a second trailer. Lisa is no longer sleeping on a shelf. She's on a bunk bed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wish that we had a house.

S. O'BRIEN: Much of the help is coming from volunteers like Angela Cole (ph), a public health nurse from New York who has been working in Pearlington since September, and from churches. Parishioners from the Methodist Church of Red Hook, New York, are donating school supplies and uniforms and money.

LOIS CHENKUS, UNITED METHODIST CHURCH OF RED HOOK: The town itself, having lost everything, and literally no one available or no agency available to help them, it's all going to be in the hands of those of us who just feel that spirit of god that says, you know, take it up and go with it.

S. O'BRIEN: Even the smallest residents of Pearlington know exactly what everyone in the Gulf Coast who has been hit hard by Katrina needs.

L. SWANSON: A better life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: A better life, that's what a lot of people here need. And a little faster progress, too, I think, could be put on the wish list, as well.

Ahead this morning, we're talking to our good friend Julia Reed. We've been checking in with her throughout the last year. It's been a tough year full of ups and downs and more downs, and some more downs, but she will assess for us the situation, how things are in New Orleans on the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

A short break. We're back in just a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: It has been a rough year for all New Orleanians. And Julia Reed is one. A year full of ups and downs.

It's nice to check in with you again. How are you doing?

JULIA REED, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "NEWSWEEK": Thank you. It's great to be back here. It's great -- I'm so glad you all are back here, more importantly.

S. O'BRIEN: I guess I should say you don't look like you're dressed for -- like a woman who is about to gut her house out or even do any kind of repair work.

REED: No.

S. O'BRIEN: You're going to one of the memorial services.

REED: I'm going to some of the events today just because I think it's important to sort of mark this day in some kind of slightly somber way. But, you know, I'm glad to know that also in New Orleans we're celebrating -- we're not celebrating, but we're marking the anniversary with music and slightly less somber celebrations as well, although not the fireworks that the mayor had originally planned.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. You know, in a way, even that statement sort of takes you between the good news, bad news.

REED: Exactly.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's do a little walking tour of this neighborhood. And you say, so, does this strike you as progress or lack of?

REED: Well, this is -- I mean, there's no way you could really call this progress, although, like the couple you interviewed earlier, I mean, that's -- that's moving and that's wonderful, except in neighborhoods like this it's so piecemeal. These people are really suffering from the fact that we have no plan in the city and have had no plan in the city.

But, you know, if you drive -- you know, when people ask me what it's like in New Orleans, I say it depends on what side of the street you look on. If you drive just, you know, several blocks or a mile, it's a whole other city.

You know, if you come -- you know, I hasten to just say the tourists out there. If you come to the parts of New Orleans that you're used to visiting, the French Quarter, the Garden District, the people that -- you know, the places that out-of-towners see, it looks like nothing happened.

So it's jangly to live here, at best, because you're sort of assaulted by these different images all day long.

S. O'BRIEN: We took a tour of the Lower Ninth Ward, and one thing you saw on the post that used to have street signs was actually hand-painted street signs.

REED: Sure.

S. O'BRIEN: And I wonder, well, isn't that good? Because that means the people are organizing, getting it together. They're the ones who are really going to bring their community back. Or is it bad? REED: Well, it's -- you can only say it's good, because the best thing that's happened in this storm -- and I've said this to you a bunch of times on this show -- is that I have seen a level of civic activism, whether it's poor folks in a blighted neighborhood, or, you know, rich folks in the Garden District who are finally, you know, looking past Mardi Gras balls and really, really leading -- leading some civic movement for the good.

I mean, across the board there has been civic activism like was not before here. And that was one of the reasons we were in bad shape pre-storm. And so that -- that has been great, whether it's lettering, you know, street signs, or rallying to get our levee boards consolidated and hopefully rallying on Capitol Hill to get Category 5 levees. It's all citizen-driven, and that's -- I mean, with the local government we have it's pretty much the only way you're going to get anything done.

S. O'BRIEN: At the same time, also across the board, a host of emotional problems. I mean, you can see it really clearly.

REED: Yes. I mean, I did a piece for -- for "Newsweek" this week about the fact that we really have what can only be described as a mental health crisis. I mean, there -- you know, accounts waver, but there's about a dozen psychiatrists for an entire city that I would say is a little crazy.

You've got homeless people returning with -- you know, a great majority of them have addiction problems, mental health problems. We've got mental health centers that are just strapped. I mean, today, instead of, you know, going to a memorial service, the central city mental health center is offering free tests for depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is, in fact, maybe the most fitting way to celebrate this anniversary today.

You've got a health system that's just stretched. Charity Hospital doesn't exist anymore. They used to have 100 psychiatric beds. So if you are suicidal, you're going to a hospital emergency room and wait two or three days behind the guy that's having the heart attack or the guy with a broken arm. So it's a problem.

But, you know...

S. O'BRIEN: So, hopeful or not hopeful for not necessarily next year, but five years, 10 years?

REED: Well, I mean, it's the only way -- you know, those of us who are here, I mean, you've got to hopeful. And like the nice overburdened psychiatrist at the central city -- I mean at the mid city -- depression -- who has giving these depression tests out, said, "You know, listen, when I tell people who aren't really suicidal, who aren't really, clinical -- you know, hard problems, you just have to think of yourself as a survivor and not a victim."

And it's -- you know, it's hard to do that day in and day out, but it's the only way to get through. And if you get really depressed, you know, go help somebody gut a house, because it will make you feel a lot better about the way your own house is.

S. O'BRIEN: And there are lots of houses to gut, that's for sure.

Julia Reed, nice to check in with you again.

REED: Thank you so much, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks for talking with us.

REED: Thanks for being here so often.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, I would say our pleasure, but more like our duty to help out.

Thanks, Julia -- Miles.

REED: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: All right.

Thank you very much, Soledad.

Best to you, Julia, as you all rebuild there in New Orleans.

On the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, keeping a close eye on yet another storm. Tropical Storm Ernesto bearing down on Florida.

We'll have the latest on its path ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien in New York.

Good morning, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Hey, Miles, good morning to you. I'm Soledad O'Brien. We're live in New Orleans this morning.

Miles, I think it is fair to say, outside of all the citizenry that got out into the water and helped pull people out and rescue people, there were very few people considered heroes in the aftermath in the recovery really from -- the early recovery from Hurricane Katrina, so I probably have the only two guys who are considered heroes, General Russel Honore, you know well, commander of the -- general of the First Army, and also Major General Bennett Landreneau from the New Orleans National Guard join us this morning to talk.

First, before we even start talking, I want to run the clip of you on the ground the Thursday after the storm struck, general. This is you on the ground. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, COMMANDING GENERAL 1ST U.S. ARMY: Put those damn weapons down! I'm not going to tell you again goddammit! Get those goddamn weapons down!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: You were yelling at people. Put those god-bleeping weapons down. What was it like when you got on the ground first, sir?

HONORE: Well, General Landreneau and I set our command posts up at the Superdome, and prior to that operation he and his staff that worked through the procedures on what we're going to use, and he and I spoke that morning about 4:30 and said maybe we ought to go weapons down. We put the word out, but as always is the case it takes time to get to the troops. Many of them were already moving from miles away coming into the operation. And obviously, the word hadn't gotten to the lead troops, and that was the effect we had on the ground, but all of that, General Landreneau and I talked. He had his rules of engagement for what we wanted the troops to do. That was the moment in time, as you saw over time, the National Guard showed a lot of compassion, and did all they could to help the people in New Orleans.

S. O'BRIEN: I think there was a sense when you guys got on the ground finally someone was in a leadership position, leadership position that I got to tell you there was a vacuum people were kind of waiting for. Certainly those poor folks at the Superdome. Remember the mayor saying we got this John Wayne dude who arrived, and that was the first we sort of knew you guy were on the ground. Should you have been called in much earlier.

HONORE: Well, we are deployed, the National Guard was already deploying it to the state, and the storm had a vote. The storm took the airports from us. It took many of the roads coming through Mississippi and Alabama area. You know what the roads looked like there. So it took time to get here.

And before the storm, we had to move some of our assets out, our helicopters out, brought them back in after the storm, which goes to preparation local, to have two or three days of food, water and medicines on hand. But in this case, who would have known the levee would have broken.

When the city flooded we are lucky. If a category storm had hit, we would have been looking at a lot different casualty toll more than the 1,300-plus that did die, God bless their souls. We got hit with a three and a tidal surge bust the levees.

S. O'BRIEN: Major General Landreneau, I had a chance to talk to a lot of the National Guard troops that were here, and I have to tell, you some of the guys have been in the service a long time, they were crying, and they said, you know, I just can't believe Americans are being treated this way, I mean, people who had been in Baghdad, who had just seen a lot.

What have they told you about their experiences here?

MAJ. GEN. BENNETT LANDRENEAU, LOUISIANA NATL. GUARD: Well, you know, the government mobilized over 2,000 Guardsmen on the Friday before the hurricane. The day of the hurricane we had 4,000 Louisiana National Guardsmen mobilized. And when the levees broke and we had now the greatest catastrophic event in the history of our country, we needed more resources and more personnel, and National Guardsmen, the governors from throughout the country, adjutant generals from every state and territory in this nation poured soldiers and airmen into this state very quickly to the point that we had 30,000 National Guardsmen from across the country very, very quickly into this state.

S. O'BRIEN: If, God forbid, there was another big catastrophe to hit really any region, what would your advice be to whoever it is who takes charge, who gets on the ground, who's the one saying, put those weapons down, you know, I'm the guy in charge! What would your advice -- what lessons have been learned?

LANDRENEAU: Well, certainly the first thing is saving lives, and that was -- the governor had us focused on search and rescue, on saving lives, and the first responders, the Louisiana state police, the wildlife and fisheries, all of the agencies, the Coast Guard, the National Guard, were focused on rescuing people and saving lives. And again, with a catastrophic event, you need more resources, and that's where prescripted agreements EMAC agreements with other states are very important, and the need to bring in all the federal resources we can muster.

S. O'BRIEN: Only a few seconds left, lieutenant general, but progress when you look around? You see piles? Do you feel good about this, or depressed about this.

HONORE: Hey, look, it took over 200 years to build the city.

S. O'BRIEN: It's only been a year. Is that your point?

HONORE: It's only been a year, and that's progress. To the person who owned that house, it's not fast enough. But if you started building this house today it would take eight to 10 months to build it, four or five months to get a permit. There's a lot of work to do. A lot of these houses were rental houses, 53 percent of them, and renters are in a different category.

So we've got to get those people back into the city, because you talk about infrastructure, but the soul of this city is its people, and over time that will happen. The government is committed to it from a national level, the state level and the local, and the media keep reminding us.

S. O'BRIEN: We keep pulling you back, don't we? We don't anybody to forget.

Lieutenant General Russel Honore and also Major General Landreneau, thank you very much for talking with us this morning. We sure appreciate it. It's nice to see you.

HONORE: And on behalf of everybody, thanks to the people of America for taking care of our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines as their deployed in the war, and the people of New Orleans are displaced all over America. God bless you.

LANDRENEAU: And the great support they've shown to the Louisiana National Guard and all the Guardsmen here, we thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, you're most welcome, on behalf of everybody else.

Thank you, sir.

All right, let's get right back to, Miles.

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

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: We just heard from the Kennedy Space Center, they have in fact decided to roll back the shuttle. It's Going to take about 10 or 11 hours to go four miles from the launchpad to the hangar, to button it up, and that all but precludes a launch during this narrow window, which lasts until September 7th, which means it's very likely the shuttle will fly in October, unless there can be some agreement with the Russians, who are going to be parking another spacecraft at the International Space Station, which would allow the shuttle some space to dock there. As it stands right now, it looks like this decision puts them out play for a launch until the next time they can go, daylight launch windows, in October. That just in to us. By the way.

(NEWSBREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: The subject of New Orleans. Soledad, a couple things. We've been talking all morning about how slow the recovery is there. And I'm reminded of a very (AUDIO GAP) -- Orleans is a very provincial town. As a matter of fact, of all the cities (AUDIO GAP), number of people who were born in that city still living there. In other words, people live there from generation to generation, and they stay there.

And in many cases, many people have had houses which have passed down through the generations, which they own outright. They have a higher percentage of homeownership, occupied ownership, for -- particularly among lower-income people than any city in America. All that sounds like great news, except it's made it difficult for a lot of people to come back because, in many cases, these homes, they pass down through generations, have no mortgages, no insurance, no flood insurance. And in many cases, they are having a difficult time even thinking about the possibility of rebuilding.

It's just one little tidbit here. And it's a little bit of an irony in the whole thing that a successful community like this, with a lot of homeownership, more than other cities, is having more problems rebuilding because of it.

S. O'BRIEN: And, you know, Miles, I think the story of the struggle is made up of all those little tidbits, all those little stories that make New Orleans a little bit unusual. We wanted to know, you know, where is the money? We talk about the money, the homeowners ask about the money. The people we meet say, where is my money?

Here's a look, basically, at where some of the money is. You start with that overall figure of $110 billion, approximately. But remember, that's going to all five states that were damaged. Available to Louisiana is $25 billion. And for housing, that number goes down to about $7.5 billion. They've got this Road Home Recovery Program. Those figures, by the way, come to us from the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

They're also running this Road Home Recovery Program. That's capped at $150,000 per homeowner, minus whatever insurance you have. It's a tough little calculation. And all that money can only go if you decide to rebuild. Actually, you're penalized if you decide you're going to leave the state.

So, in a nutshell, you don't really know if you can rebuild until there's a plan. You can't get the money until there's a plan. You can't really get a plan until you know who's coming back. You can't really figure out how many people are coming back until you know where the services are. The homeowners say, well, what's the levee system going to look like? Is one going to have insurance? Am I going to be able to move back in the house and pay for insurance?

And I'll leave you with a story of what's happening in Lakeview. The folks in Lakeview, they don't have a fire station. And they're raising money, selling t-shirts -- literally, $20 for a t-shirt -- to raise money for their fire station. If they don't have a fire station, they can't get insurance. Should the government be taking on that cost? Local government would say we can't afford it, we cannot do it for each and every place that needs it. It is the crux of the problem. Where's the money, why isn't it here to the people fast enough? And why, after a year, does this place still look like this?

Much more coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, as we continue our special coverage on this one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Short break. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: A few moments away from "CNN LIVE TODAY." Daryn Kagan here with a preview of what lies ahead over the next few hours.

Hello, Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Miles, good morning to you.

We're going to do a lot of what you've been doing on AMERICAN MORNING, and move the story forward as the day goes ahead. It's a year after Katrina, and we're going to talk about that. President Bush attending a Katrina prayer service next hour. Live coverage from New Orleans' historic St. Louis Cathedral.

The state of recovery 365 days later, anger and outrage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know that I own that property and you sent me a tax bill, but you can't send me no help to get the property back up and running.

We're the victims.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: I'll ask a member of the Louisiana Recovery Commission, where's the money?

Plus, the bureaucratic boondoggle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: From what I'm hearing, many average Americans think this was a colossal waste of their money.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some people may feel that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Miles and miles of FEMA trailers, but nobody calls them home.

Also coming up later today, live on CNN, the D.A. in Boulder holds a news conference to talk about what the governor is calling the most expensive and extravagant DNA test in Colorado history. The Ramsey case and what happens to John Mark Karr. That's all ahead on CNN LIVE TODAY. Back to you.

M. O'BRIEN: The Ramsey case, back to square one after all that.

KAGAN: Yes. Boy, oh boy.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Daryn Kagan. We'll be watching. Thank you very much. And we'll be back with more from Soledad in New Orleans in just a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

For folks who live here in New Orleans have what might be called the big problems -- did your FEMA trailer arrive? Are you going to gut the house and stay? Or are you just going to leave the state altogether? What's your insurance situation like? Are the levees going to hold?

Then you have what might be considered the smaller problems, like piles and piles of garbage, problems that after a couple of weeks start seeming like very big problems.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here is my house. S. O'BRIEN (voice-over): Cecile Tebo is back in New Orleans. She's committed to fixing up her home and bringing back her neighborhood. She's finally got power and a sewer system. But other services are slow and spotty.

CECIL TEBO, HOMEOWNER: One of the problems that we continue to have is trash. To this date, there has not been one regular garbage pickup.

S. O'BRIEN: That means everyday trash and debris from gutted homes can sit and sit and sit for days even weeks, and that means roaches and rats.

TEBO: We live with filth, and flies and maggots.

S. O'BRIEN: Part of the problem is it's confusing. The city picks up the household garbage, the Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for the Katrina debris. And if it's not left just right, it needs to wait for a special team. There are only three in the whole city.

VERONICA WHITE, DIR., N.O. SANITATION DEPT.: What you see here is the commingled piles. This consists of sandy materials, construction material, as well as household garbage, a mixture of household hazardous material. This looks like a person just gutted their homes out and did not separate the material.

S. O'BRIEN: Veronica white has a big job. She's the city sanitation director. We asked to us meet with us for the interview at this pile in the Gentilly neighborhood. Been sitting and rotting for about three weeks. Garbage trucks showed up, too. And we asked Veronica if they were here because of us.

WHITE: No, no, that is not the case that if you weren't here we would not be picking it up. Nine times out of 10, it's already on the list.

S. O'BRIEN: The workers were carting it away when we left.

WHITE: I understand the people's frustration. Everybody wants things done instantly, but it's a process that's in place, and everyone has to be patient.

S. O'BRIEN: It's typical of recovering New Orleans, a mixture of good news and bad news, and definitely not fast.

TEBO: My husband said, you know, well, let's look at it as piles of progress. And I thought, well, that's a thought. OK, we'll try that. We're going to try real positive. This is a pile of progress, but you know what, after two weeks this is debris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: And after more than two weeks, that debris starts drawing rats, and in some parishes snakes and other kinds of creepy crawlers. You might say, well, you know, garbage low on the priority list, but the truth is for many people in all these parishes, until you clean up you can't draw people back. It's a real big problem. It's more than just a small annoyance. It's a real big problem. It's part of the solution, frankly, to bringing people back to the city of New Orleans -- Miles.

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

We have a little bit of news that just came in to CNN, via the Associated Press. The FBI in Las Vegas, Nevada is announcing it has arrested polygamist and self-described prophet Warren Jeffs. Jeffs was linked to a group called the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints, said to be the leader of that with an estimated 10,000 followers. He had ties to many states in the western part of the United States. He was wanted and on the ten most wanted list for alleged sexual assault on a minor in 2002 and wanted for one kind of conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a minor in 2002. Those alleged offenses took place in Colorado City, Arizona. Presumably he would be taken there ultimately.

But just to underscore the lead here, we don't have too much information, according to the Associated Press, the FBI says it has arrested the polygamist and self-described prophet Warren Jeffs, who was on the 10-most wanted list. We'll obviously have more details for you on that story as it develops.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

M. O'BRIEN: Back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com