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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
President Bush Accepts Responsibility For Katrina Failures; Controversy Over Gathering of the Dead in New Orleans; Did Racism Effect the Governments Response to Hurricane Katrina?
Aired September 13, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: You're watching a special edition of NEWSNIGHT, "State of Emergency," with Aaron Brown and Anderson Cooper.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
And good evening, Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Aaron.
In a moment, decisions made with lives at stake. We will speak with Louisiana's attorney general, who says the owners of a nursing home decided wrongly, criminally wrongly, and 34 elderly people died because of it. First, though, the latest developments in a very busy news day -- Aaron.
BROWN: Anderson, thank you.
We beginning with the nursing home, St. Rita's in St. Bernard Parish, 34 charges of negligent homicide, as Anderson indicated, filed against the owners of the nursing home, Mable and Salvador Mangano. They surrendered in Baton Rouge and were jailed briefly, then released on bond.
Louisiana's governor today lashed out at FEMA for what she said was a lack of urgency and respect in the recovery of bodies. There are many dimensions to this story. And we will explore it in some detail as we go along tonight.
The president spoke out today, saying he takes responsibility for any federal government failures in the Katrina response. He's expected to say much the same thing and a lot more on Thursday night. He addresses the country, 9:00 Eastern time. The president will again be in New Orleans.
And, slowly, a few more bits of normality began returning to the area. A limited number of commercial flights began operating out of Louis Armstrong Airport today. And rail freight is now moving across the bridge into New Orleans, across Lake Pontchartrain.
But we begin again tonight with St. Rita's and the 34 bodies found there. Some day, the courts will sort out what happened in the days before and the day of the hurricane. For now, there are conflicting stories and conflicting reasons 34 helpless and elderly people died.
We begin with CNN's Drew Griffin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By Saturday afternoon, Bryan Bertucci knew Hurricane Katrina was heading straight for St. Bernard Parish and it was time to make his calls.
DR. BRYAN BERTUCCI, ST. BERNARD PARISH CORONER: Just to ask as a doctor, not as any parish officer, are you all evacuating?
GRIFFIN: Five nursing homes are in this parish and they are filled with the doctor's patients. He says he asked each one if they planned to get out.
BERTUCCI: All were leaving, except St. Rita's.
GRIFFIN: By Sunday, the storm was already coming ashore. It was 2:00 in the afternoon. Bertucci was no longer acting just as a doctor. He was a county official, picking up his role as coroner. As 2:00 p.m., he says he called St. Rita's with an urgent message. It was time to leave.
(on camera): And this is around 2:00 Sunday.
BERTUCCI: Around 2:00 Sunday. Now, I told her I had two busses with two drivers that would take them whenever they wanted.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): But, inside St. Rita's, he says the decision was already made to stay. According to Bertucci, five special-needs patients could not be evacuated. Ambulances that would have taken the special-care patients to the Superdome were no longer available.
Bertucci says one of the owners, Mable Mangano, was betting on her experience that this nursing home was on high ground, had never flooded, and that New Orleans had been spared before.
BERTUCCI: She said, I have five nurses. I have a generator, and I have spoken to the families, and they said it was OK to stay.
GRIFFIN: The State Department of Health and Hospitals Officials say they were under the assumption that St. Rita's had filed its required evacuation plan. But, as with all facilities, it was up to St. Rita's to decide when to evacuate. A last-minute desperate attempt by the owners was only partially successful because the water rose faster than boats could arrive. Two days later, Dr. Bryan Bertucci learned what happened. It's the first time, he says, he cried.
BERTUCCI: I think, by the time they tried to come back, since these people are bedridden, wheelchair, walker, some with organic brain syndrome, four feet of water would probably be enough for most of them to drown.
GRIFFIN (on camera): Were they all patients, as far as you could tell? BERTUCCI: As far as I can tell, they were all patients.
GRIFFIN: So, there were no nurses there or any employees?
BERTUCCI: I did not see any nurses or employees.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): The owners saved some residents, their staff and themselves. Those who died at St. Rita's, he says, were completely unnecessary deaths, ones the owners will have to live with the rest of their lives.
BERTUCCI: This was a very good home, provided very good care. The owners are very conscientious toward the patients.
GRIFFIN (on camera): And just made a very dumb decision?
BERTUCCI: I think they made a poor decision.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: A poor decision, Aaron, made under chaotic circumstances, with a Category 5 storm heading right for that nursing home, but a poor decision that, tonight, the Louisiana state attorney general says was a criminal decision -- Aaron.
BROWN: Well, courts will sort out the difference between what was a bad decision and whether a crime was committed. It's always -- it's easier in these things if we can just think of the nursing home owners as greedy jerks who didn't care about anything, and the law as the good guy. But, in fact, this is a little murkier than that, when we look at the owners and the nursing home.
GRIFFIN: It is, indeed, Aaron.
And these five special-care patients that probably should have gotten out on Saturday complicated the whole procedure. These are people that need ambulance to get out. So, at that point, on Sunday, the owners had to decide, do we just abandon these five patients and leave or do we try to ride it out with all the patients? And then, the water came, and they realized perhaps it was just too late for all of them.
BROWN: Just on those five, they were supposed to be taken by ambulance, and there was no ambulance to take them? Is that what happened with them?
GRIFFIN: That is apparently the case, but I'm trying to track down the timeline of the ambulances, whether there were ambulances available on Saturday. Remember Sunday, the storm was hitting, and those ambulances were trying to get out of harm's way, so that they could come back after the storm.
So, there's a lot of stuff to weed out here. The attorney for this couple that runs the nursing home says the charges were preliminary and far too fast to be filed to know all the facts, and I think we are all going to have to wait and hear all those facts. BROWN: Well, we will continue our reporting.
Drew, nice job tonight. Thank you, Drew Griffin, in Louisiana.
Anderson, there are -- this is a classic case, I think, that -- where there are two conflicting versions of events, and, in the end, the court or a jury will have to decide whether a law was broken.
COOPER: Yes. And we're seeing so many cases like this.
You know, Aaron, as you and I these last couple nights have been trying to sort of piece together these pieces of a puzzle from all the different people who were there, we constantly are running up against two very different perspectives. I mean, we talked about what happened on the bridge going over to Gretna last night. People who were on the bridge said that police officers shot over their heads and just forced them back.
I just talked to another police officer tonight, who said maybe one shot was fired, but he claims his officers weren't even there. So, you know, still, two weeks into this, there is sort of this fog of war, if you will, that's -- a lot of people either are not just answering questions or not giving responses or they simply don't know. And it's a frustrating thing to try to find out.
We talked to Louisiana's attorney general, Charles Foti Jr., a little bit earlier, who called the nursing home owners' actions criminal negligence. He said, had the patients been evacuated, there is a great possibility they'd be alive today. I spoke to him earlier tonight on "360."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLES FOTI, LOUISIANA ATTORNEY GENERAL: They were in wheelchairs. They could not make the decision themselves and family members could not make the decisions for someone else if they believed they should stay. They should have taken them out. The administrator had a duty, plus the fact that they had a contract with Acadian Ambulance. And they never called them.
We believe that 34 people died unnecessarily. You ask yourself, if this was your mother, your father, your sister, and they were in there and you entrusted them and the government was paying for them to be there, what duty did you owe these patients?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: It sounds like a closing argument of a trial which is yet to happen.
Jim Cobb, the attorney for the owners of St. Rita's Nursing Home, calls Foti's account categorically false. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM COBB, ATTORNEY FOR ST. RITA'S NURSING HOME OWNERS: They abandoned no one. They saved over 52 lives after the water rose precipitously. Under that set of circumstances, the attorney general, to indict them for a crime, is, in my view, out of bounds and a prosecutorial abuse of discretion.
What you need to understand and hasn't been explained to your viewers is, if you evacuate these patients, many of whom are on oxygen, many of whom are on feeder tubes, many of whom won't survive the evacuation, if you pull that trigger too soon, those folks are going to die.
In this particular storm, Ferncrest Manor Nursing Home evacuated in advance. Twenty people died on a bus. Last year, for Ivan, dozens died in buses sitting in traffic, dehydrating and dying. This particular facility had weathered every single storm for 20 years without a drop of water. The difference this year was, we relied on the protection of the levee system designed by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. It failed. Perhaps Attorney General Foti ought to look at them for their negligence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: What is not in debate is those final moments for the people in that nursing home, how horrific they must have been, as the water is coming in, people confined to their beds, people confined to wheelchairs, who gradually realized they had no way out.
The owners of the nursing home, as Aaron pointed out earlier, are out of jail on bond tonight -- Aaron, back to you.
BROWN: Well, I think you're exactly right. We just heard closing arguments from both sides. And now we have to hear the facts in the case, which are much more complicated. Thank you.
BROWN: We don't know yet how many St. Ritas there are out there, situations, where people clearly could not evacuate on their own and then were left for whatever reasons to die in the storm. We know of that one and we know of Memorial Hospital, where 45 bodies were found and many questions still need to be answered.
CNN's Jonathan Freed is at the NorthShore Regional Center in Slidell, Louisiana, tonight -- John.
JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron.
I can tell you we are across Lake Pontchartrain from downtown New Orleans, where Memorial Medical Center is located. Behind me is a helicopter that was part of the fleet that was used to evacuate people from Memorial in the days following the storm. Officials are saying now that -- you're right -- those 45 bodies were discovered at Memorial in downtown New Orleans.
And we talked to doctors about that today. And while they say that that number is, of course, going to be shocking to so many people, they are saying that they are not entirely surprised by it because of what they're calling the scope of the storm and what it can do to what they say are the usual number of very sickly people that an institution of their kind is going to have.
Doctors are insisting, Aaron, that they tried to evacuate everybody that they could before the storm. And let's listen to how they explained that when I had a chance to talk to some of them earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. GLENN CASEY, MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: The cream of the crop were able to get out in time. Those patients that truly could pick up and walk out got out of the hospital Friday, Saturday, Sunday, because they had time to make these preparations. So, what we were left with are those more critically ill patients.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FREED: Now, Aaron, the hospital CEO tells us that they really kind of feel that they were left alone in the days after the storm. They were asking emergency officials for help. And they say they were effectively told, look, we can't get to you right now. You are going to have to do what you can to get the remaining people out of that hospital.
So, the administrator says that's the point where they used boats to get them out. That's when they put together the fleet of helicopters. They paid for them and hired them on their own. Now, they're clarifying, Aaron. They're saying that, of the 45 bodies, between eight and 10 were already in the morgue, people who had died before the storm, but, because of what was going on here in town, they were unable to move those bodies out of the hospital.
And they're saying that the rest of that number were all critically ill people, some so much so, they say, that they were in a long-term care unit at the hospital -- Aaron.
BROWN: Right.
But just because we visited this yesterday, the original statement, as I recall it, from the company, from these large companies that owns hospitals was that all of the people who died there -- at least, this is my memory of it -- that all of the people who died there died before the storm. No one is saying that anymore.
FREED: yes, exactly. This is -- that's exactly the stuff that we have been grappling with all day, trying to piece all of it together.
And the best that we can come up with so far is that some people were speaking in the context of those eight to 10 who were already dead and that just some of this was broken telephone and people not having all of the information and all of it coming together. At least, that's as best as we can see it right now.
BROWN: Well, that's one explanation. Thank you, Jon -- Jonathan Freed down in New Orleans, or in the area, tonight. Hurricane Ophelia is on target for North Carolina tonight, clocking winds of at least 75 miles an hour, which, just to keep in context, is about half what Katrina came ashore with, as I recall. Governor Mike Easley has told the residents to expect flooding, power failure, road blockages. And he says those who live in low-lying areas should get out. And we suspect, in the wake of Katrina, more will.
Jacqui Jeras is down in Atlanta at the Weather Center to give us more on that -- Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Ophelia has intensified a bit throughout the day today. And it is making its way towards land. It's now about 110 miles to the south of Wilmington, North Carolina.
We have been pounded along the Carolina coastlines for just over 24 hours now with the heavy rain bands which health care been pushing in, particularly up towards Myrtle Beach and extending on up towards Wilmington. Some of the worst of the weather, of course, has been offshore, closer to the center of the hurricane.
And rainfall estimates -- we are going to switch this over into Doppler radar rainfall estimate mode here -- showing upwards of 15 inches offshore. Now, we have only seen about three to five inches around north Myrtle Beach, extending on over towards Cape Fear. But we are expecting those numbers to be closer to this by the time the storm finally makes its way away from the coast.
We are looking at expansion here on our hurricane warnings from the South Santee River. It's been expanded northward. It goes all the way up to the Oregon inlet now. So, hurricane conditions are possible within 24 hours. We have been dealing with the tropical storm force winds already for quite some time.
The forecast track has shifted ever so slightly on off to the east. And there is a system in the nation's midsection that's bringing severe weather across the Plain states. That's going to help just start to steer this up to the north and to the east, we think slowly over the next 12 to 24 hours or so. And the sooner it does it, that means that possibly we could see the Outer Banks making landfall.
But if it takes its time a little bit, it will be a little bit closer towards the Wilmington area, so still a little bit of a margin of error here as to exactly where it's going. Some of the wind speeds have been pretty impressive already today, one of the buoys just off Edisto Beach around 69 miles per hour, 44 mile per hour over Folly Beach, Charleston, 44 miles per hour as well.
And our computer model forecast, to give you an idea of where we are expecting some of the worst of the winds to begin moving in, we will put this into motion as of 10:00 tonight and spread it inwards. You can see, mostly confined with the power outages to the coastal areas, from Charleston on northward, for the South Carolina coast, but then heading a little farther inland along the North Carolina coast and all across the Outer Banks. But it does stay shy of Raleigh -- Aaron, back to you. BROWN: Jacqui, thank you. We will keep an eye on it.
In a moment, we will take a look at the bureaucratic in-fighting over the gathering of the dead, those who died in the storm.
But first, at about a quarter past the hour, time for some of the other news on this day, Christi Paul again with us tonight from Atlanta.
Good morning, Ms. Paul.
CHRISTI PAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Aaron.
First of all, Judge John Roberts, of course. He dodged the issue of abortion on the second day of Senate hearings for his nomination to the post of chief justice. Roberts refused to say whether abortion should continue to be legal, but he said there is a constitutional right to privacy and a legal basis for the right to an abortion.
The number of prisoners on hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base is rising. The Pentagon says 128 prisoners are refusing food now, about a quarter of the prison population. This time last month, 89 prisoners were on strike.
A new round in the eminent domain wars. The semi-public company that won a Supreme Court ruling giving it the right to seize people's property for private development has begun to tell residents to vacate their homes. Homeowners say the New London Development Corporation of Connecticut is going back on its promise to wait until the state's eminent domain laws are reviewed.
AAA says the price of gas dropped slightly today. The average cost of a gallon of self-serve regular fell a shade below $3. Gas prices were high even before Hurricane Katrina, of course, and a Senate panel wants the Federal Trade Commission to find out if price- gouging had anything to do with price increases earlier this year.
Much more ahead for that -- Aaron.
BROWN: Thank you. Thank you. I continue to look for the average gas station.
Much more ahead on the program tonight, starting with the fight over dollars, over the dead, and over dignity.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MASTER CHIEF PATRICK O'KELLY, U.S. COAST GUARD: There's bodies out in the street that are -- I mean, animals are chewing on carcasses.
BROWN (voice-over): And what's being done about it?
GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO (D), LOUISIANA: No one seems to be able to break through the bureaucracy to get this important mission done.
BROWN: So, what's being done about that?
And what's being done about this?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Six feet high, above, they cover. Below is not covered, which is everything below is damaged, the whole thing.
BROWN: People who bought insurance that now only covers half a home.
Also tonight, the towns that may never rebuild.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It feels like the end -- the end of the world, you know, how you imagine it would be?
BROWN: And, later, how they eventually fixed the levees.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's probably dropped a little over a foot in 24 hours.
BROWN: From New York and New Orleans, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: There are certain scenes from Katrina that are going to live with us for years to come, the scenes at the Convention Center, for one, and people pleading for help on rooftops of New Orleans. And then there are the bodies, the bodies just lying there in the muddy streets of an American city.
Today, those bodies became another source of conflict between the state and the federal government.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): The already hellish job of collecting bodies erupted into yet another bitter fight between the governor of Louisiana and FEMA tonight, the governor saying FEMA has moved far too slowly in its recovery of the dead.
BLANCO: While the recovery of bodies is a FEMA responsibility, I cannot stand by while this vital operation is not being handled appropriately. In death, as in life, our people deserve more respect than they have received.
BROWN: But FEMA says, no, collecting bodies is not normally a part of its job. It's up to individual states, which only seemed to anger the governor more.
BLANCO: No one, it seems, even those at the highest level, seems to be able to break through the bureaucracy to get this important mission done.
BROWN: Caught in the center of this is the Houston-based Kenyon International Emergency Services Company, which does this grim sort of work for governments around the world.
Homeland Security officials say Kenyon and the federal government had a verbal agreement to do some work in Louisiana, but are now parting company. And they said the state of Louisiana's new agreement with the firm is flawed. "It is a less sophisticated, less detailed and less expensive contract," a Homeland Security official told CNN.
And, of course, while all this back and forth is going on, the bodies of the dead continue to lie there, waiting.
O'KELLY: There's bodies out in the street that are -- I mean, animals are chewing on carcasses. My guys are seeing some stuff that they'll remember for the rest of their lives, without a doubt.
BROWN: Late today, the federal government's new man on the job in the disaster zone, Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, tried to tamp down the fight.
Said the admiral, "We will work with state officials on what they believe to be the best solution for their constituents."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And just a short time ago, the admiral called the governor to try and smooth things over. And the governor responded in kind. In a statement after the two spoke, Governor Blanco said -- quote -- "I'm reassured by his call, as I continue to have great confidence in the admiral's leadership."
So for now, at least, Anderson, that seems to be smoothed over. But we always say, for now.
COOPER: Yes, for now, indeed.
Aaron, while we were listening to that report, a young woman started talk to us. Her name is Anna Stiltner.
Where -- you're from Silsbee, Texas?
ANNA STILTNER, EMS WORKER: Silsbee, Texas.
COOPER: And you're an EMS worker.
STILTNER: Yes.
COOPER: And you actually are involved in the recovery of people who died here.
STILTNER: Right.
COOPER: What is that work like? I mean, it's -- what is it like?
STILTNER: It's heart-wrenching. It's something that has to be done, and I would want somebody to come get me or my parents or my brother or my sister. COOPER: And that's how you think about it?
STILTNER: Absolutely.
COOPER: That these are people, not corpses. These are brothers and sisters.
STILTNER: They are not corpses. They were born. They were children. They were babies and they grew up and they became adults and they were babies. They're somebody's baby. And they need to go home.
COOPER: To me, the saddest thing in a case like this is somebody who lived a good, decent life dies. And no one even notices their passing. No one even knows their names. And their faces are obliterated by this water.
STILTNER: We do. We do.
COOPER: We do.
STILTNER: You know, people in the media, your job is to report this and get this out.
But all of us who are out there getting all these people in, we notice. We don't treat them like they're just a body. It's not. And I have never seen another EMS worker who has treated them just like a body.
COOPER: And do you wish they had been picked up sooner? Because, I mean, we have been going out there. You have been going out there. It's two weeks now and they're still there. You're still finding people in cars, right?
STILTNER: Right. They're still in -- there's still some in cars that are submerged. We have to wait until the water goes down because of the toxins that are in the water. We have to keep ourselves safe, so that, when we go home, we don't give things to our families, too.
So...
COOPER: But you wish they had been picked up sooner.
STILTNER: Yes. I wish they could have been picked up sooner, but I understand the dilemma that they do have. There are so many people. And this is a large city, that we're separated into grids that we have to search through.
COOPER: Systematically.
STILTNER: Right. And...
COOPER: Anna, I know you were not -- doing that today. I know you were doing that doing. And I just wish you all the best. And God bless you for what you're doing.
STILTNER: Thank you.
COOPER: Thank you.
Anna Stiltner, one of the many EMS workers and first-responders who are working here.
With the departure of Michael Brown as head of FEMA, the agency's acting director has a lot more on his plate than simply the worst natural disaster in the nation's history. Critics say he inherits a dumping ground for political cronies and hacks. So, in effect, he'll have two messes to clean up.
Here's CNN's Tom Foreman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Survivor in the basket.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Against a backdrop of tragedy and accusations of government failure, the reins of FEMA have been taken up by David Paulison, who pledged to make the agency do what it has struggled with ever since Katrina.
DAVID PAULISON, ACTING FEMA DIRECTOR: We are going to be focusing on the victims of this hurricane. We have had a hurricane of unimaginable proportions. And we're going to deal with it.
FOREMAN: Paulison is a firefighter and certified paramedic with 30 years experience in emergency services. Those credentials set him apart at FEMA these days, where critics say political appointees have taken over too many top jobs.
Paul Light has studied FEMA for years.
PAUL LIGHT, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: I Think you've just got to clean house from the top to the bottom at FEMA and make sure that the people there are experienced in what they're doing. They can still be Bush loyalists, but they have got to know the job of emergency recovery and response.
FOREMAN: More than a half-dozen current or former FEMA managers under the Bush administration had little or no major disaster experience before taking their jobs. Even as Katrina hit, the person FEMA sent out to reassure the nation was Chief of Staff Patrick Rhode. His FEMA resume shows zero experience with disasters, but points out he helped out with the president's political campaigns.
PATRICK RHODE, FEMA CHIEF OF STAFF: And we need everyone to stay put. Help is on the road.
FOREMAN: Accusations of rampant political patronage were growing long before Katrina. A government employees union released a letter last year saying, "Professional emergency manager at FEMA have been supplanted by politically-connected contractors and novice employees with little background or knowledge." That union wanted George Bush out of office, so the letter was largely dismissed at the time as political rhetoric. Now, however, many former FEMA staff staffers like Morrie Goodman are complaining of the same problem.
MORRIE GOODMAN, FORMER FEMA OFFICIAL: I think it's very repairable with the right leadership, the leadership from the top. The career people at FEMA do a great job. They just need to have the opportunity to do their job.
FOREMAN: In the late '80s, after Hurricane Hugo, FEMA was brutalized by Senator Fritz Hollings.
SEN. FRITZ HOLLINGS (D), SOUTH CAROLINA: They're the sorriest bunch of bureaucratic jackasses I have ever worked with in my life.
FOREMAN: Hoping to avoid such tough words again, Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff, who oversees FEMA, is talking up the experience of the nonpolitical appointees.
MICHAEL CHERTOFF, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: They've obviously got a lot of experience. And so, I'm going to be doing a lot of canvassing of experience both within FEMA and other parts of DHS and elsewhere, as we continue to decide what we need to do to move forward.
FOREMAN: The White House clearly hopes it works. The president has approved sending tens of millions of tax dollars to the Gulf. And the agency in charge of spending it is FEMA.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, just ahead tonight, the towns that may never rebuild, is there hope for any of them?
And the levees up close for the first time.
This is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT, "State of Emergency."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The story like this produces dozens, maybe hundreds of smaller items that don't quite rise to the level of a full package, but need to be reported anyway. Deb Feyerick works that part of the story at the Status Alert Desk -- Deb.
DEB FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Aaron, there are a lot of things going on, especially St. Tammany Parish. There's going to be so much rebuilding that the sheriff there is taking every precaution to make sure that every contractor who enters that neighborhood is credentialed. They're checking licenses. They want to make sure that no body takes advantage of this very desperate situation. He -- the sheriff there has actually brought in five different deputies. Their sole mission is simply going to be to make sure that the contractors are legitimate and that nobody is doing any bad business. And you can bet that that's going to be happening in other parishes as all of them seek to rebuild in all the Gulf states, not just in Louisiana, but, of course, in Mississippi and Alabama -- Aaron.
BROWN: Deb, thank you.
This is going to be a field of dreams for every, I suppose, every swindler, Anderson, on the planet will see the opportunities there.
COOPER: Yes. And they're trying to get people in so quickly. Some no-bid contracts, so there's a lot to watch out for especially as we're on the ground here and we see this thing get mobilized. It's so strange, Aaron, you know, in this live shot location -- we're actually outside the Hyatt, this was an area that was underwater. The Hyatt is where the mayor is been holed up with the chief of police for the last two weeks.
But the waters have receded around here, but you just find the oddest things. I was just looking around and there was this little child's doll that we found. It was literally just over there. There's a child's shoes over there. There's just all these things you see around you in these neighborhoods that have officially recovered, but still, there's so much clean-up left to be done. For every block that we visit there are entire neighborhoods close by where getting back to normal won't happen next week, or next month, or even next year. From St. Bernard Parish, here is CNN's Sean Callebs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Virtually every house and business in St. Bernard Parish has been damaged or destroyed. Twenty-seven thousand homes gone. People here have nowhere to live or work.
AL BOUDREAUX, ACCOUNTANT: Total devastation.
CALLEBS: Al and Linda Boudreaux are partners in an accounting business. And came back for the day to salvage what they could. Their humble office building still stands, but it doesn't stand for much.
LINDA BOURDREAUX, ACCOUNTANT: It feels like the end of the world. You know how you imagine it would be?
CALLEBS: St. Bernard Parish is 30 minutes east of New Orleans. Damage here is so severe residents have been told they can't return for months. If ever there was a beacon in the night for storm victims, this is it. The St. Bernard Parish courthouse.
JUDGE KIRK VAUGHN, 34TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT, ST. BERNARD PARISH: Thank goodness it was the island that saved a lot of people.
CALLEBS: Judge Kirk Vaughn is the senior judge in the parish. He says the night Katrina blew in, as many as 500 people sought solace in his courthouse. Today, Vaughn and some emergency personnel still call this building home. VAUGHN: On the 29th, where you're sitting, you'd be under water. Your head would be under water. The water came up to this courthouse like that, and it's never done that before.
CALLEBS: Many of the town leaders have always called this home. When they talk about disasters, they don't refer to certain years. They recall names, like Betsy, and Camille. In times of crisis, citizens always come here for safety from the storms. Now judicial leaders are looking to set up a temporary courthouse, perhaps in the town of Slidell.
JUDGE WAYNE CRESAP, 34TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT, ST. BERNARD PARISH: There's no chance of anybody getting back here to conduct any type of business for the foreseeable future.
VAUGHN: We're trying to submit our plans to the Louisiana Supreme Court, so we can begin functioning and getting the criminal justice system back in order.
CALLEBS: At best, the judges in St. Bernard Parish expect to have modular buildings, instead of the stately old structure that dates back to the great depression. As the accountants squeeze remnants of three careers into two vehicles, all agree to sharing one dream, the day when residents once again brighten the streets of their rural parish. Sean Callebs, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Still to come on the program tonight, an exclusive look at the levees, with the man in charge of rebuilding them.
And the home owners who say insurance companies are leaving them high and dry. This is a Special Edition of NEWSNIGHT, State of Emergency.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Of all the complicated questions the response to Katrina raises, questions of race and class in the country rank right at the top. We have on the program, on three different occasions, talked about issues of race and Katrina, and the other day we recalled a race baiter by a conservative media website. Needless to say we don't agree, which made our conversation with the piece's author Brent Bozell that much more interesting tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Brett, just dealing with the column you wrote on the 7th, the other day, to me a fair reading of the column is that you don't want us to talk about race at all, probably class at all, but surely not race at all, ad it may or may not relate to people's perceptions of the relief effort.
BRENT BOZELL, PRES., MEDIA RESEARCH CTR.: Well, I think the problem is that the perceptions, which are wholly false, are being created, on the one hand, by demagogues, and on the other hand, by some in the media who are giving the demagogues a hearing on this.
The fact of the matter is that two-thirds of New Orleans is black. Katrina didn't aim for that. Nor was the federal relief response as inadequate as it was inadequate because they were blacks. You know, in 1992, Hurricane Andrew decimated the East Coast. The response from the federal government was terrible. It was mostly whites. Was that racism?
BROWN: You've decided, which is absolutely your right, that there is no -- there is no truth to anyone's belief that race is somehow involved in how people were treated in the week after the hurricane. Fair enough. I don't disagree with that. But perception is powerful and perception is important, and what we know from polls is that black Americans do look at this differently than white Americans, as they look at a lot of things differently from white America.
BOZELL: And Aaron, perception is dangerous if it's not rooted in reality, which is my point. If anyone had come forward in the last 15 days with any tangible proof to back up the suggestion that there may have been racism at place, I'd like to hear it, and then report it. But there's no evidence. It's just this accusation that's being thrown out.
What I see is whites and blacks helping each other in New Orleans. I don't see any racism.
BROWN: I don't support the notion that race as such is the issue here, though I'm less sure honestly about class. I wonder the degree to which class played a role in how the government responded -- governments, plural, responded. I don't know. But I am interested in what people think, and I think it's my job to ask.
BOZELL: Well, but you know, it is appropriate to ask, Aaron. I don't question that. But when someone is making a very dangerous accusation -- and by dangerous I mean an accusation that splits the seam of the cultural fabric in this country...
BROWN: If it's appropriate to ask these questions, which is how you began that answer, why do you call me, little old innocent me, you know, why do you call me a "race baiter" for asking the question...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Do you think black America is sitting there thinking, if these were middle class, white people, there'd be cruiseships in New Orleans...
REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D), OHIO: No, wait, wait...
BROWN: ... not the Superdome?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOZELL: You may say, well, I'm just a questioner, I'm just a reporter, I'm just asking questions. But in fact, when people hear you, they believe that what's coming from you is not a question, but a statement of fact. Now, you may say that's unfair because I don't mean it that way, but that's the reality.
BROWN: So, journalists ought not ask these because their questions are perceived as statements?
BOZELL: I think journalists ought to be careful that they not create perceptions that are based on falsehoods.
BROWN: How do you know it's based on a falsehood unless you ask questions?
BOZELL: Well, I think that somebody making the acquisition ought to have some evidence before making the accusation.
BROWN: No one makes -- Brent, there's no accusation there.
BOZELL: Oh, sure there is. Sure, there is.
BROWN: No.
BOZELL: There are public policy leaders in New Orleans right now, and they've been there for a week, who have been making this accusation. I'm not saying the press is. I'm saying they are. But if the press' role, I think, ought to be to go to those people and say, put up or shut up.
BROWN: I think it is the role of the reporter to ask the question, even when the question is uncomfortable, and here I think that's all we did.
BOZELL: Well, Aaron, but when I see a reporter say those infamous words, "some people say," and then you go on to continue with the sentence, I'm always wondering who those some people are. You know, if somebody's saying something, put that person's name on the record.
BROWN: I actually think it's possible this would be a moment for us...
BOZELL: Holy moley, here it comes.
BROWN: There really is an opportunity to discuss a complicated and important American question about race and class and poverty, and how they fit together. And Katrina gives us that opportunity.
BOZELL: There's something else, Aaron, yeah, but there's something even better than that. There is the opportunity to celebrate the colorblindness that we saw after 9/11, the colorblindedness that we saw after Hurricane Katrina in so many quarters. That ought to be celebrated.
BROWN: I'll give you the last word on that.
BOZELL: Thank you, sir.
BROWN: It's nice to see you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Brent Bozell earlier tonight. Ahead on the program, what insurance covers after your home is destroyed and what home owners are discovering, much to their chagrin, is not covered. This is a special edition of "NEWSNIGHT: State of Emergency."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In a moment, insurance that covers the roof but not the basement. How does that happen? First, though, some of the other news of the day. We go to Atlanta, Christi Paul with some of the headlines -- Christi.
PAUL: I'm wondering how that happens, too. I'll stick with you.
All right, starting off, though, in the Middle East, Iraq's President Jalal Talabani has backed away from suggestions that the United States could bring home as many as 50,000 troops by the end of the year. At a press conference with President Bush in Washington, Talabani said Iraq would not set a timetable for withdrawal.
Envoys from six nations, including the United States, have arrived in Beijing now to try and persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons. Pyongyang is insisting on maintaining a peaceful nuclear program and has denied that it has a secret uranium weapons program. This is the fourth round of talks since 2003, and a U.S. representative says little progress has been made.
Ohio police have freed eight children who'd been caged by their parents. The children, who were fostered or adopted, were kept in wooden cages about three feet by three feet, if you can imagine. No charges have yet been filed.
And listen to this, Shaquille O'Neal turned crime fighter in Miami's South Beach last weekend. Apparently, the basketball superstar helped collar a suspect accused of attacking a gay man with a bottle. O'Neal witnessed the incident, followed the suspect's car, and then flagged down a policeman. No word, Aaron, whether that accused suspect asked for an autograph on the way.
BROWN: Well, probably not, though.
PAUL: No, probably wouldn't get one.
BROWN: They rarely do. Thank you. See you tomorrow.
Coming up on the program next, does insurance hold up any better than the levees around New Orleans? Take a quick break first. This is a special edition of "NEWSNIGHT: State of Emergency."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: As they turn to insurance companies to recover their losses from Hurricane Katrina, many homeowners are finding that the answer is no deal. At issue is flood insurance, and the tricky matter of where the water came in and exactly why. Here's CNN's Allan Chernoff.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THAI SANG (ph), BILOXI RESIDENT: When he tell me it's flood, in no wind and storm bring it in, how did the water get into the house, six feet high, eight feet high. And now they say nothing is covered.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Biloxi resident, Sang Thai (ph), venting to his neighbor. An insurance adjuster told Mr. Thai (ph) it was a flood, not a hurricane that caused the bulk of damage to his home. Mr. Thai's (ph) policy does not include flood coverage.
SANG (ph): He already came this morning. About the water line inside, six feet high, above is not covered, below is not covered, which is everything. And below is damaged, the whole thing.
CHERNOFF: The same devastating news is being heard up and down the demolished streets of Biloxi. Many homeowners here did not buy flood insurance, because the area is not designated as a flood zone. Thai's (ph) insurance company, Nationwide, tells CNN it can't speak about individual claims for privacy reasons. The company says flood insurance is needed to cover damage from water that enters through the home's foundation. Nationwide says a home owner's policy will cover flooding if water comes through the roof by a tree falling.
Flood insurance adjuster Dan Wiley of CNC Insurance Adjustors has been handing out checks to people who have flood insurance. He says there's no doubt flood caused much of the damage.
DAN WILEY, CNC INSURANCE ADJUSTOR: We know for a fact there was a 20-foot surge here, so we know it was done by water. That on the beach up there, you have to assume it was done by water, because the water had a 20 to 30-foot surge.
CHERNOFF: Bobby Migues has flood coverage. His insurer said only that portion of his policy will apply.
BOBBY MIGUES, BILOXI RESIDENT: If you look around and you see parts of my roof in trees, parts of my roof over here and there, parts of my roof are sitting way over there. OK? Which shows you that wind had to take that roof. Give me what I'm due. I want the insurance company to come in here and give me what I'm due.
CHERNOFF: The mayor says insurance companies need to have a heart.
MAYOR A.J. HOLLOWAY, BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI: If they're not in business to help the people, then they need to get out of the business.
CHERNOFF: President Bush heard the complaints when he visited Monday, but was noncommittal. GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I said I would find out the process that determines whether or not it's a wind or water event.
CHERNOFF: There are calls for the government to help insurance companies cover flood damage, but so far, there's no sign that will lead to changes in the law. Local authorities say they may have to sue the insurance companies, while home owners, now without a home, are hoping their insurance companies will make good on the policies they thought had been protecting them. Allan Chernoff, CNN, Biloxi, Mississippi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Up next the levees as seen for the first time, from up close.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We learned a lot about levees in the days and hours immediately following Katrina. We're learning a whole lot more now. The Army Corps of Engineers says the levees sustained heavy damage up and down the system around New Orleans, not just in and around the five main spots where they failed. CNN's Miles O'Brien toured one of the levees with the colonel in charge of fixing them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): We walked along the patched section of the 17th Street Canal floodwall. It was the gaping breach that covered much of New Orleans in water. The hole plugged with huge sandbags, some of them weighing as much as two SUVs.
(on camera): So no one had ever tried to plug a breach like this with these bags?
COL. RICHARD WAGENAAR, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: Never ever.
O'BRIEN: Were you surprise it worked, or were you pretty confident all along?
WAGENAAR: I was pretty confident it would work. It took a lot more sandbags than we thought it would take.
O'BRIEN: Do you know how many?
WAGENAAR: I'd have to estimate this hole right here, well over 2,000.
O'BRIEN (voice over): And now the task is pumping the city dry, or de watering in Corps of Engineers parlance. And Colonel Wagenaar is becoming impatient.
WAGENAAR: So it's probably dropped a little over a foot in 24 hours, which is good news. I mean, I'd like it to drop a lot more, but it's -- I mean, you can only do so much so fast. O'BRIEN: Three times faster if a key pumping station was up and running, but the vintage 1920 pump motors were inundated by Katrina, and will not be baked dry and restarted for at least two more weeks.
(on camera): If you had it on, this would be gone by now?
WAGENAAR: It would be much closer. Mush closer if we could have gotten it on. It would probably we wouldn't see water here. There may be water in some of the deeper parts that it's pulling in, but we wouldn't see water right in here right now.
O'BRIEN (voice over): And as time goes on he worries more and more about what the foul, putrid water is doing to house after house, neighborhood after neighborhood.
WAGENAAR: Considering what's in the water and how bad it's really been and the length of time they've been underwater -- I don't know. I'm not sure that they can be repaired or cleaned or anything. It's, I mean, it hurts the soul. I mean, it really does.
O'BRIEN (on camera): How many houses do you think might be unsalvageable?
WAGENAAR: I've heard estimates of 160,000. I mean, this is going to be the next tragedy right here, when these people try to come back when the water's gone. It's coming, it's coming, and it's -- in the next week or two someone's going to have to figure out how they're going to control and deal with the people's emotions as they try to get in here.
O'BRIEN: Hope they're putting some thought into that.
WAGENAAR: I do, too.
O'BRIEN (voice over): Miles O'Brien, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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