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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Hurricane Ophelia; Nursing Home Deaths Probe; Missing Children; Dolphin Discovery; Inside the Superdome; Rebuilding Biloxi
Aired September 14, 2005 - 22:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: We spent some time now in the small towns away from New Orleans. Many have lost a lot. Some have lost nearly everything, even those who stayed behind are just as displaced as those who have scattered around the country. They didn't go, but their homes and their towns did.
Here's NEWSNIGHT's Beth Nissen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATE SPERA, ST. LUCIE COUNTY, FLORIDA, FIRE DEPARTMENT: They've always warned about the damage storm surge could cause, and we're really seeing it now.
BETH NISSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seeing it in Pearlington, Mississippi, one of hundreds of small 'tween towns in Hancock Country slow to get help, attention.
SPERA: They are sandwiched between New Orleans and Biloxi. And they're only a county of about 40,000 people.
NISSEN: There were about 400 households, homes here, were.
KIM JONES, FIRE CHIEF: And there's nothing that has happened, nothing, no place in Pearlington that is habitable at all. Most likely the insurance companies will pay more, probably to them, everything in town.
NISSEN: The glaring eye of Hurricane Katrina passed right over Pearlington, right over Earl Bennett's (ph) street, picked up his neighbor's house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It floated across this yard, underneath these power lines, down this road, (INAUDIBLE) that driveway and set down right there.
NISSEN: His family's house looked like this the day before the storm. It looks like this now, mangled, broken, the family living room a rough chop of furniture, branches, mud.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's three generations on my family that's been raised in that house. You can't replace that. But no matter what you build there it's not going to put that back.
NISSEN: He and his family and some friends are living for now in a tent and borrowed trailer in a neighbor's driveway. National Guard units have cleaned out a nearby elementary school, set up 200 cots in the gymnasium. But the Bennetts have water, food and a noisy but working generator, think they'll stay where they are for a while.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three months is what me and my wife put a limit on. Anymore than that's I can do better somewhere else.
NISSEN: Pearlington has no running water, no power.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Power will be nonexistent here for at least three months. The substations were totally 100 percent destroyed and basically every pole in town is damaged and going to have to be replaced.
NISSEN: So will the pillars of this community, of any community, the stores, the bank, the post office, the public library, the churches.
Emergency response teams got here late last week, are working hard now to take our debris, bring in reassurance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For now, this is the new normal, and there will be another normal to come.
NISSEN: That's hard for Earl Bennett, Sr. (ph) to believe at the age of 73.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I try to start over again, I'm never going to live to see it finished.
NISSEN: Hard for his son, too, to know what's left of the family home will be bulldozed, then pulped, like a neighbor's house just was.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Them people whole lives are in that pile of garbage. And we'll never be able to (INAUDIBLE). They'll haul if it off (INAUDIBLE).
NISSEN: So much here is just too hard to face, so hard to try to face forward.
(on camera): Do you pray?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, every minute.
NISSEN: What do you pray for?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For what I had.
NISSEN: Beth Nissen, CNN, Pearlington, Mississippi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: You are watching Hurricane Katrina, "State of Emergency," with Anderson Cooper and Aaron Brown.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening again at the top of the hour. Welcome to this hour of "State of Emergency." I'm in New Orleans, a city that continues to clean up and unfortunately count its dead -- Aaron.
BROWN: Anderson, it's strange, isn't it, that on a day when the mayor talked about people coming back in, there are also new death counts to note and to report on. And in it all we are reminded the hurricane season is hardly over. There is another storm, and it's working its way up the U.S. coastline tonight -- Anderson.
COOPER: Yes. And, Aaron, in a moment we're going to go live to the coast of North Carolina, where Ophelia is about to make landfall.
But first, let's get you caught up on what is making news at this moment.
Ex-FEMA chief Michael Brown speaks out for the first time since he resigned from his post on Monday under intense criticism. Brown told "The New York Times" that just hours after the scale of Hurricane Katrina became clear, he placed frantic calls to his boss, but did not get the urgent response he was looking for. Brown's boss, of course, was Michael Chertoff, secretary of homeland security. Brown says he believes the White House is not at fault the slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
The number of confirmed fatalities from this storm so far, Aaron has mentioned, 707; 474 people died in Louisiana alone. Those numbers still expected to climb.
Louisiana's governor, Kathleen Blanco, says there were failures at every level of government in the immediate response to Hurricane Katrina. And she says she takes full responsibility for her state's failures. Blanco spoke before a joint session of the Louisiana legislature tonight.
And there are still thousands of children separated from there parents in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Imagine that; 2,024 children to be exact right now not knowing where their families are. That figure comes from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. We're going to take you there live in a moment for one happy reunion that we brought to you last night.
Also ahead tonight, much more on the aftermath of Katrina. But fist, a stark reminder that hurricane season is still packing a punch. Right now at this moment Hurricane Ophelia pounding eastern North Carolina, maximum sustained winds 85 miles per hour, and heavy rain as well, of course. The category 1 storm is moving very slowly, just 8 miles an hour. That is just creeping along. The wet, windy and dangerous conditions are going to slam the coast for hours.
Take a look at this, this picture, the damage Ophelia has already caused in Atlantic Beach just a few hours ago. The end of this fishing pier was simply swept out to sea.
Braving the conditions in Atlantic Beach, CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano.
Rob -- what's the latest? ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: The winds have turned to the north now, Anderson, with the center of the storm off to our south and east now, heading towards Cape Lookout, North Carolina.
As you mentioned, wind, rain and waves have been pounding us all day long. The waves have receded with the low tide and now with the offshore winds. So that is a bit of good news.
But earlier today, east winds really was piling up the water across Babaco Sound (ph), and the inland rivers earlier could very well have seen a serious storm surge. We're going to have to check that out tomorrow to see what happened.
Certainly today big-time beach erosion and some wind damage also. There has been debris flying around the streets now that the winds have turned, and we're going to have to see what happens tomorrow.
But it's far from over. We're getting the back side of this system now with a north wind and the northeastern part of the eye wall coming through Atlantic Beach and Morehead City. So, it's going to take a while. As you mentioned, a slow-moving storm as it continues to parallel the coastline, raking it with 80-85-mile-an-hour wind and heavy, heavy surf. A category 1, yes, not Katrina for sure, but North Carolinians are going to have their own set of problems when they wake up tomorrow and actually when they wake up the day after tomorrow.
That's the latest from here. Anderson, back over to you.
COOPER: Rob, from what you're seeing, I know your vantage point is limited because you can't move around in a storm like this. Do people seem to be having heeded the mandatory evacuation orders?
MARCIANO: Most of them, yes. There were six counties that had mandatory evacuation orders at least in parts of the country. Carteret County, the county we're in, had a mandatory evacuation for down east part of the country. So not necessarily here.
There were 60 shelters set up, and the word we have is they filled up pretty rapidly for special-needs folks, for folks who have pets. A lot of the issues that, you know, were problems back in Katrina.
Also on top of that, FEMA had an unusually large amount of folks staged and ready to roll, 250 FEMA workers in the first storm this size, I'm told. That's an unusually large amount.
So, if not the residents, certainly the government authorities have taken the precautions maybe a little bit more so for Ophelia.
COOPER: OK, Rob, the storm is moving very slowly, 8 miles an hour. We're going to check in with you throughout this hour to make sure, you know, we're tracking the progress as much as we can of this storm as it comes ashore tonight.
You know, a lot of people have moved out of the path of Ophelia, and that is certainly good news. There a few who are doing whatever they can to get directly into Hurricane Ophelia. They are doing it, well, for all of the rest of us, they way, because the more we know about the deadly winds they chase the better.
CNN's Rick Sanchez went along with these hurricane hunters into the first storm to threaten our coast since Katrina. Here's an exclusive look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yesterday afternoon, Tropical Storm Ophelia is hovering off the coast of North Carolina. Her winds are less than 75 miles an hour. Her eye is not well formed.
On the heels of the monster Katrina, that's good news. The last thing anyone wants is another hurricane strike.
With Katrina in mind, CNN has learned President Bush has called North Carolina's governor to be sure the state is ready for anything.
CAPT. JOHN WAGNER, FLIGHT COMMANDER: This little arrow right there is pointing toward Myrtle Beach. We're going to go right up to about right here.
SANCHEZ: Captain John Wagner will pilot this C-130 J. Hercules from Atlanta to an area off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, then off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina. It's a crisscross maneuver designed to collect data that will be passed on to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. The findings essential for forecasts.
TINA YOUNG, FLIGHT METEOROLOGIST: Try to figure out how far out we would need to be to do that drop safely.
SANCHEZ: Flight meteorologist Tina Young confers with her commander on the best angle of entry into the storm. The plane will descend from 10,000 feet to 8,000 to better deal with the expected drop in pressure.
YOUNG: We're looking at the steering winds all the way around the storm, so we'll be doing drops in the max wind bands around the storm. We call those feeder bands.
SANCHEZ: That information is acquired using these drop songs (ph), tubes that are released from the plane with small parachutes attached. What they find is the temperature at the water level below Ophelia is 83 degrees. The heat creates energy and strengthens the storm. The millibar pressure is at 989. That's a substantial drop, which means the eye is forming into a tighter spiral.
The hurricane hunter also finds that Ophelia's winds have increased to 75 miles an hour. The information is immediately e- mailed to the National Hurricane Center. The conclusion is unanimous, Ophelia has gained power. It's once again a full-fledged hurricane.
WAGNER: As we just found out, the Hurricane Center upgraded it back to Hurricane Ophelia. SANCHEZ: I asked the navigator, Jim Jeter, why the continual crisscrossing of the storm. He explains it's about creating a grid to mark the center of the storm and track its movement.
JIM JETER, FLIGHT NAVIGATOR: That's right, the winds are circulating. And at some point in the center there is no wind, and that's where she parks it, and that's where we hope we find the lowest pressure.
SANCHEZ (on camera): That's almost eerie, isn't it?
JETER: It is.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): One of the things that's different about this hurricane is that it doesn't seem to want to move. Charts show it moving at zero to three miles an hour. They hardly get much slower. But after Katrina, it's hard to take this or any other hurricane for granted.
Rick Sanchez, CNN, on board hurricane hunter off the coast of North Carolina.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: As I said before, we're watching Ophelia through the hour tonight. We're going to continue to talk to our reporters along the coast.
But for now, let's go back to Aaron Brown in New York -- Aaron.
BROWN: Anderson, thank you.
And back to Katrina. Even as this newest hurricane, Ophelia, hits the Carolinas with the rain and the storm surge, we continue to learn how much we did not yet know about the days surrounding Katrina. The latest discovery, another nursing home, this one in New Orleans proper, and 14 deaths.
Here's CNN's Drew Griffin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Even today, getting to Lafon Nursing Home is difficult. The streets -- Broad Street, Gentilly, Chef Menteur Highway -- are littered with debris. Two underpasses remain flooded.
But, when you arrive, you quickly learn no one drowned here. The water never reached the nursing home, but it did get high enough to strand it. Those who died had not been evacuated. They were waiting for rescue. The sidewalk to the front door, the parking lot strewn with pillows, walkers, and wheelchairs, all shadows of the people, the elderly baking for days after the hurricane under a hot sun.
(on camera): Of everything we have seen, this is probably the saddest sight of all. These nursing home beds pushed to the lobby, out here in the open, water bottles, meals ready to eat, wheelchairs where people sat waiting to be rescued, struggling to stay alive until help arrived. And, on the wall, the sad number of the people who could not wait long enough.
(voice-over): Sister Augustine McDaniels (ph) was the administrator of Lafon. By phone, she confirmed 14 died here before she was evacuated to Texas. She said she could not give us more details about what happened, because she wanted to keep the phone line open for victims' families. There are signs at least one more may have died in her parking lot.
(on camera): Put it inside this van, one dead.
(voice-over): Should Lafon have evacuated its patients before the storm? Is there someone to blame for this?
Yesterday, the attorney general of Louisiana filed charges against the operators of another nursing home, St. Rita's in St. Bernard Parish, where 34 residents drowned. They were not evacuated either before the storm, and the attorney general called that decision by St. Rita's owners negligent homicide. He vowed to charge anyone who during this hurricane neglected the elderly.
CHARLES FOTI, LOUISIANA ATTORNEY GENERAL: We will investigate each and every one and will not hesitate, either civilly or criminally to bring a prosecution or file a lawsuit to protect the interests of our senior citizens and those people that are not able to care for themselves that need round-the-clock care.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We absolutely had an evacuation plan.
GRIFFIN: The attorney for St. Rita's said the owners now charged are actually heroes who did nothing wrong. Dr. Bryan Bertucci, the coroner of St. Bernard Parish, says those who take care of the elderly make difficult decisions every day. He pulled every body out of St. Rita's. Almost all had been his patients. He believes they died in the hands of caring people, who, in the days and hours of the approaching storm, were making life-and-death decisions on when and how to evacuate and at what cost.
DR. BRYAN BERTUCCI, ST. BERNARD PARISH CORONER: And the fact people don't understand that we have evacuated several times where the hurricane didn't even come near us. And two to three of our nursing home patients, each time we transport them out, die.
GRIFFIN: What happened at Lafon is now under state investigation. The 14 dead are being identified, their families notified. But with no flood, the killer here appears to have been the wait for rescue.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
We do know that some of the residents of Lafon Nursing Home did evacuate before the storm. We don't know how many. We don't know the criteria for those who got out. We also don't know, Aaron, why so many stayed. BROWN: Do we know when the nun you talked to today and her colleagues left the facility?
GRIFFIN: They left, they say, after all of the residents got out, after those people died. The nun was talked to was so distraught she couldn't remember how many days it was. So, she does not have a recollection at this time when that happened.
We are trying to check with whomever the rescue was with when they got there.
BROWN: Drew, thank you. There's a lot of interesting questions still to be answered there. Drew Griffin.
There were MREs, so there had been some contact with authorities at the very least.
Coming up, the missing children after Katrina. We showed you these two kids last night, a young boy, a very young boy, and girl. Tonight, an update on them.
And later, the aquarium dolphins found washed out to sea after the storm. Can they survive until the rescue?
This is "State of Emergency" on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: In North Carolina, Hurricane Ophelia is just off the coast. They're getting the wind and the rain. It is low tide now, a somewhat less dangerous but no less unpleasant time for the people who haven't evacuated there. Mandatory evacuations in effect, and the reports we're getting from Rob Marciano in the area is that people who are under orders to get out have for the most part left for the most part. There are, in our experience, always stragglers in these sorts of things.
One day -- not tonight -- but one day the complete story will be told of the migration and the dislocation caused by Katrina. People making new lives in new places, families torn apart and eventually reunited.
For now, though, we're still telling what will certainly amount to an epic story, one reunion at a time, kind of the retail version. Some of them playing out tonight with the good and great help at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
CNN's Kimberly Osias has pretty much moved in there over the last few days -- Kimberly.
KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boy, Aaron, that is true. But I tell you, as heartbreaking as these stories are, there is the euphoria when there is that connection that has been made. And it is exhilarating just being here at that moment.
Just 30 minutes ago, we got word about Jayden Gioven (ph) reunited -- not yet. That moment hasn't exactly happened. But his mother saw his picture on the Web site on www.missingkids.com. Had that ah-ha moment. You can't imagine what that's like. Just being here is incredible.
And some of you all that have been following this may recall just last evening we introduced you to Chase and Kaylee Cannon, adorable little brother and sister, blonde hair, amazing. Since we reported that, they have been found. And it is better than getting a Christmas present being part of that knowing the power of television.
Some children that have not had that successful reunion just yet, we want to introduce you to, to see if somehow it can connect in your brain, and you can help these investigators and caseworkers put these pieces of the puzzle together.
Take a look at Jasmine Valencia. This is the only photo that they have available. It's very blurry, because oftentimes these folks just left with what they had in their wallets and what was on their back. It makes the job here very, very difficult. From Mobile, Alabama, 5 years old, brown hair, brown eyes. And one distinguishing feature of Jasmine is a birthmark on her right thigh.
Take a look at Jayda Valencia, little sister, 3 years old, brown hair, brown eyes. A distinguishing feature of Jayda is a scar over her right eye.
And also, take a look at John Harbarta. John Harbarta was missing in Kiln, Mississippi. Last known to be at his grandparents' house when the hurricane hit. Blonde hair, blue eyes, weighing about 70 pounds.
Incredibly important because the calls are really making a difference, helping these caseworkers to really step out and put these pieces together. That number is 1-888-544-5475 -- Aaron.
BROWN: Kimberly, thank you very much.
Do we know how we found -- or how they found -- I'm not sure we found -- found those two kids? Did somebody just call in and just say we know where they are?
OSIAS: Well, they have -- what happened is it's really sort of getting the word out. People seeing, calling in. Caseworkers on the ground. It's not just here. There are a number of caseworkers on the ground working as well. And it's sort of a combination. But it is amazing. When we finish, the phones start ringing again. And it's really as all of that information goes into a database and really helps make a difference.
BROWN: Kimberly, thank you very much. Kimberly Osias.
So, I was thinking about this, Anderson, last night. Why don't instead of just doing a telethon, just take all of the networks one night, slowly go through all of these pictures, all of the stories, and see if we can't resolve all of these cases in one fell swoop? That's my contribution. COOPER: It's a great idea. No, it's a great idea. And it's one of those things that, you know, you kind of shake your head. It's been two weeks now, and there are still, you know, some 2,000 kids out there who don't know where their families are. It sort of boggles the mind. And that's a great idea. Or even, you know, running a scroll on the bottom of the screen that just has kids' names and their location and contact point, something like that. You think we could do. You know, we should talk about this off the air and see what we can do, maybe even tomorrow.
Here in New Orleans, just a couple of hours ago Mayor Ray Nagin talked about the cleanup effort in his city on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE," saying that now everything seems to be falling into place. And that the death toll in the city will be a lot lower than expected. At one point he had said 10,000.
Of course, everything is not great here, and here is what he told Larry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: What went wrong?
MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: The storm hit New Orleans.
KING: What's your biggest problem right now?
NAGIN: Trying to get the FEMA dollars flowing down through the state to the city of New Orleans, so that we can pay firefighters and policemen who are absolute heroes and she-roes (ph).
The second thing is continuing to manage expectations of citizens who want to come back to the city.
KING: That's not going to be easy, is it?
NAGIN: Well, I think we've worked out a plan, and we're going to shock some people. Tomorrow I'm going to announce a phased repopulation plan that is going to deal with some of the areas that were least hit by the hurricane and had less water. And then within the next week or two, we should have about 180,000 people back in the city of New Orleans.
KING: Mayor, what do you want to hear from the president tomorrow night?
NAGIN: Well, I want to hear that he's continuing to focus on this particular tragedy. I want to hear that he's going to provide the resources that we need. And I want him to basically assure the nation that whatever it takes, there will be a full analysis of this situation and this will never happen ever again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, just to add tonight, another emergency rescue. This time, dolphins, eight them washing from an aquarium into the Gulf, where they may not have the skills to survive. Gary Tuchman has that.
Plus, another live update on Hurricane Ophelia lashing North Carolina right now with wind and rain. Very slow-moving though. We're going to check in again with Rob Marciano.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We have told you quite a few stories about animals that have needed to be rescued in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Tonight, an unusual story about eight dolphins that actually survived the hurricane, but now they're fighting to stay alive after floodwaters washed them out of the aquarium and into the sea.
CNN's Gary Tuchman reports tonight from Biloxi, Mississippi.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): We're on a rescue mission. Before the hurricane, this was Gulfport, Mississippi's Marine Life Oceanarium. Now it's destroyed, and eight of the dolphins were washed into the Gulf of Mexico.
But take a look to the left of the boat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're coming!
TUCHMAN: The dolphin trainers and experts from NOAH have made an amazing discovery. The dolphins not only survived, they're all together in the Gulf.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just shocking that we found all eight of them together, because even at the aquarium they weren't all housed together.
TUCHMAN: But now it's a race against time. These dolphins have always lived in captivity. They can't survive more than a couple of weeks in these waters. They are skinnier, and were injured in the hurricane.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's on the net, right?
TUCHMAN: The trainers jump out to feed the dolphins and provide antibiotics.
(on camera): The goal is to get these dolphins on the mat behind me. But right now even if they got them on the mat they couldn't bring them back, because the waters here are too deep.
(voice over): They're trying to coax the dolphins into shallower waters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, the most important thing is to try to keep them comfortable. They recognize the training staff. They are comfortable with the training staff.
TUCHMAN: There were six more dolphins at the aquarium. They are safe, because they were put in hotel swimming pools a little farther inland. The hope was the other eight could survive in this 30-foot- tall tank, a tank that made it through Hurricane Camille. But it was no match for the 41-foot storm surge. So the dolphins got swept out to sea.
(on camera): What are the names of the eight dolphins who are still out there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we got Tony, Kelly, Shelley. We have three captive ones that are Elijah and Noah. And then, of course, we have Jill.
TUCHMAN: Of course.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jill is the oldest one. She's 40 years old.
TUCHMAN: Forty years old.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In human terms, it's about 90 years.
TUCHMAN (voice over): They were not able to capture the dolphins Wednesday. So they will try again Thursday, as they spend another night in the contaminated waters among predators they know little about.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Gulfport, Mississippi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Another story about animal resilience tonight. This time it's a horse that was put in a very precarious position in the wake of Katrina. It got thrown into a ditch to be exact. Thanks to the handy work of the National Guard troops from Oklahoma, the horse is free.
Joining me tonight is Specialist Max McGelgot (ph) and Specialist Chris Gordon (ph), who shot the video you're about to see of the stranded horse.
Guys, thanks for being with us.
How did you find out about this horse?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead, Chris. No, the morning that we got here the New Orleans Mounted Police Department showed up in our area and talked to our 1st Sergeant Smith and Captain Ballinger (ph). And they told us the situation that they had found a horse in a canal that was stranded for seven days.
COOPER: So, how do you get a horse out of a canal? I mean, it's not an easy thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, what we did was we procured some sandbags not too far from our area. And we basically built a stair step. And...
COOPER: In the water. So it actually just stepped out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. That was the plan, because we hadn't seen it or been there. But...
CHRIS GORDON, PHOTOGRAPHER: It wasn't just the two of us. We came back, and we got the mess section.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
COOPER: Oh, yes?
GORDON: Yes, they're the ones that helped.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some of the guys from transportation too.
GORDON: Yes.
COOPER: It was a team effort.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was very much a team effort.
GORDON: Yes.
COOPER: Chris, you're a cab dispatcher.
GORDON: Yes.
COOPER: And, Max, you're...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a (INAUDIBLE) engineer for Ralph Jenson and Associates (ph).
COOPER: OK. And you -- we were talking before when we were on camera, you said being here is a little bit like -- what happened here is a little bit like "Lord of the Flies." In what way?
GORDON: Well, in "Lord of the Flies" when the children kind of take over the island, they don't have any parental guidance. And they just lose all control. And I think when the hurricane came, it gave these -- or more importantly the floods came, it gave these people sort of an excuse to kind of go nuts. And they just lost it. And it didn't take much to put it back into order. It just took somebody coming along and saying, you know, this can't happen this way.
COOPER: Does it -- I mean, it always interests me that in any kind of conflict zone, no matter where it is in the world, you know, some people step up and become heroes, and some people who you thought would behave one way don't behave that way at all and, you know, become desperate and become monsters. I mean, is that what you've seen?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes, it's very much the situation.
GORDON: Yes. And, I mean, right from the start, when we first showed up we were a little bit nervous, because the situation was chaotic. But then it just -- it was just a matter of time that it sort of dissipated. And it was because of the fact that they knew that help was here, help had arrived.
COOPER: And things had changed very quickly and continue to. Gentlemen, appreciate what you've done and continue to do and all of the troops with your unit. Thanks very much.
GORDON: Definitely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We applaud to the New Orleans Mounted Police Department.
COOPER: All right, there you go. All right, thanks for rescuing the horse as well.
GORDON: Thank you.
COOPER: There have been a lot of rescues of people and animals.
Up next, whatever happened to the Superdome now that thousands of stranded people have moved on? What's going on inside what was once New Orleans premier convention center? I'll have a firsthand account. We'll take you inside the Superdome.
Plus, a hurricane one-two punch. First Katrina and now Ophelia bearing down on North Carolina with 85-mile-per-hour winds. We're going to have the latest and a live report. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: As we continue to report the story of Hurricane Katrina, Ophelia is writing one of its own, the early chapters churning, a slow churn, though it is, just off the north coast, starting to make life miserable for days to come.
Not very pleasant right now for CNN's Rob Marciano, who is in Atlantic Beach tonight -- Rob.
MARCIANO: Hi, Aaron. Not pleasant at all, you're right about that. As a matter of fact, all day long it's been a constant pounding from Hurricane Ophelia as the storm continually raked the coastline. Not really officially making landfall, not just yet at least, as it just passed to our south and to our east.
Now winds have turned northerly offshore. That's been kicking up debris and pieces of -- actually roof pieces have been flying off of some of the buildings right over the top of our head.
Earlier today, when it was high tide and a bit of a storm surge, the waves were just pounding, 15 to 20-foot breakers rolling in here. We were standing on a pier pretty close to land.
Check out some of the video that if you missed it earlier, it's pretty amazing how the end of this pier, which protrudes probably -- I don't know -- 60-80 yards into the ocean, and the last 20 yards of it ripped off by the Atlantic Ocean and carried out to sea. Unbelievable to watch that piece of pier floating down like a raft down rapids. Well, that storm surge and waves, they have subsided now that it's low tide and the winds have switched. And now this storm is heading off towards the Northeast. Nagshead (ph) will be one of the areas of concern tomorrow morning.
As far as inland storm surge, that will be interesting to see. The bay to the south is filling up with water with that persistent east wind not allowing this rainfall, which has been a tremendous amount, to release from the rivers.
So, as you point out, Aaron, that maybe you try to put a positive spin on this, there has been a lack of rainfall in this part of North Carolina this year. So, they're getting it all at once, and they're replenishing the rain gauge, so to speak. I'm sure they'd rather have it come at a slow, steady rate. But they were well below average for rainfall. They're making up for it real quick here today.
Back to you.
BROWN: You're a half-full kind of guy. The cup is half-full, not half-empty. Thank you.
Yes, they are making up for a lot of rain, Anderson, right now.
COOPER: Yes, they certainly are. And we'll continue to watch that storm. We'll check in with Rob a little bit later on tonight.
Here in New Orleans, the cleanup continues, of course, from Hurricane Katrina. Every day the water is receding. Every day the streets are getting a little bit cleaner.
At the Louisiana Superdome, however, there are still marks of the chaos that went on inside when at least 25,000 people became victims of the failed rescue efforts, stuck in squalid conditions to say the least, unbearable heat.
I went inside the Superdome earlier today. Here's a look at what I saw.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Entering the Superdome two weeks after the storm, you still are warned: wear gloves, wear a mask, don't stay too long.
(on camera): This is incredible.
(voice-over): The Superdome is now empty. The evacuees long gone. Left behind, piles of waste, mountains of trash.
CAPT. CASEY GEIST, 82ND AIRBORNE: It's horrible.
COOPER: Captain Casey Geist of the 82nd Airborne has been to Iraq, but he's never seen anything like this.
GEIST: But I thought this was a hundred times worse than Iraq. The Convention Center and the Superdome were just horrid, you know.
COOPER: Two weeks ago, some 20,000 evacuees were living here with no electricity and no way out.
(on camera): Things here in the Superdome were relatively calm, relatively peaceful until the air-conditioner broke. And when that happened, and it started to get hot, people started to get desperate and terrible desperate things happened.
GEIST: The facts that people were here, they were doing drugs, people were having sex out on the floor, shooting up, raping. I mean, it just seemed like, you know, just madness, uncontrollable madness.
COOPER (voice-over): City officials failed to provide enough police protection, failed to get buses to evacuate the people until days after the storm.
(on camera): It's hard to imagine anyone living here for a day or two, let alone, you know, three and four and five days. I mean, the smell now is pretty terrible after two weeks. You can only imagine how bad it was on that first day.
(voice-over): Cleaning crews are now working around the clock, sweeping and raking, cleaning up the mess. The work is dirty, conditions disgusting. Amidst the refuse, hints of the horror, cans of juice, empty wheelchairs, a football left behind.
GEIST: Mardi Gras football.
COOPER: Officials are trying to decide what to do with the Superdome. There is so much damage it may get torn down.
(on camera): A lot of people who were here I think are concerned about is that they don't want this to be forgotten. They don't want this place just to be cleaned up and everything swept away and the memories swept away. What happened here is horrific. And the people who were here want it remembered, because they never want it to happen again.
(voice-over): The Superdome, long a symbol of this city, is now a symbol of something far worse, of flooding and failures, of promises made and people let down.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: So many people let down. You know, what happened at the Superdome and the Convention Center certainly stirred up a lot of emotions throughout this country, and a lot of questions about what exactly went wrong. How can local and state and federal authorities let it happen? Who ultimately should get the blame?
There has also been a question of race. Would relief have come faster if this disaster happened in a mostly white community?
Tonight on "360," I had an exclusive interview with Illinois Senator Barak Obama. He started off by talking about why today he asked the president to appoint a watchdog to oversee the federal cash being spent on the reconstruction effort.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARAK OBAMA (D), ILLINOIS: We just voted for $60 billion worth of funding to go down to the Gulf Coast. And I think that one of the good things about this past couple of weeks, in the midst of this tragedy, is seeing how generous the American people are. They don't begrudge spending that money, but they want to make sure that it's spent well.
And right now, we've got $50 billion of that funding going to FEMA, the same agency that did a less-than-impressive job right after the disaster. It would be 12 times their existing budget.
And so we've just got to make sure that this money is well-spent helping the victims of this tragedy, as opposed to lining the pockets of contractors.
COOPER: Wanted to return to the hurricane response for a moment. A recent CNN/"USA Today poll, when asked if efforts were slow because the victims were African-Americans, there is a glaring disparity between the way African-Americans in the United States and white Americans in the United States see this. Twelve percent of whites say yes; 60 percent of African-Americans say yes.
Why is there still that huge divide that still exists?
OBAMA: Well, listen, there was, obviously, a lot of anger and anguish across America among whites and blacks, but it was particularly acute in the African-American community. Some of the response, I think, has to do with the anger and concern of what happened.
But I also think part of it is a definitional problem. Because in the African-American community, there's a perception that even if there was an active malice on the part of these various agencies, there seemed to be a general indifference towards how people without automobiles, people who did not have the ability or the resources to check into a hotel, how they would get out.
And I think that in the African-American community, at least, there's a perception that inner city communities have generally been abandoned. This is just one more bit of evidence about indifference. And part of what I think our task is...
COOPER: But let me...
OBAMA: ... is to rebuild the trust. And that's something that I think the president still has the opportunity to do.
COOPER: Some who are listening will say, well, look, the mayor of New Orleans is African-American. He knew there were 100,000 people in this city, in his city, who didn't have access to automobiles. And yet didn't really have a plan in place to get the buses that they had to pick up people and get them out of town. I mean, I know you say you're not about pointing blame. But should he share in that in -- I mean, do you think he's cut off from the realities of the African-American populations in his city?
OBAMA: Well what I can say is, is that local, state, federal officials working together did not seem to have a good plan to get those folks out.
One of the things that we've done, I introduced legislation this week to say that every state, local official working with the federal government has to have a plan to get out folks who are disabled, folks who are poor, folks who don't have access to automobiles and typically use public transportation. So, I think there's enough blame to spread around.
We do have to get it right. What I was trying to explain is I think the general response that came out and the reason that there might be some discrepancies between how blacks and whites perceive the problem.
COOPER: Senator Obama, we appreciate you being on the program. Thank you very much.
OBAMA: I really enjoyed it. And you've done a great job reporting, Anderson.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, just ahead, the missing children. The latest on the efforts to reunite them with their families. So many kids are still missing, separated from their parents.
Plus, Biloxi, Mississippi, hit hard. Its casino industry which was on the water was badly damaged. We're going to take a look at the rebuilding plans. And a live shot of the storm we're tracking, Hurricane Ophelia, off the coast of North Carolina, Atlantic Beach. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back. We're live in New Orleans.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says that a little more than 2,000 children are still separated from their parents. Think about that: 2,000 children. It's been more than two weeks now, alone, separated from their parents in shelters and foster care. These kids need to get reunited with their parents.
Tonight, a glimmer of good news against those grim numbers. CNN's Kimberly Osias joins us now from the center in Alexandria, Virginia.
Kimberly -- what's going on?
OSIAS: Well, I'll tell you, Anderson, it is an active situation. Just as we last spoke on your show, we introduced you to a little 6- year-old boy from Mississippi, missing since the hurricane, named John Harbarta. Amazing. Since we got off the air and now there was a telephone call that came in, a lead from a woman in California, believing that she felt strongly that she could identify him on a scale of 1 to 10, she felt that it was an 8.
So obviously these workers who have been tirelessly, diligently working to put these pieces together will hopefully help make that connection.
I want to show you two other children that have not had successful reunions yet. Look at little Paul Bodin, see if anything jogs your mind. He is 5 years old now. Now, obviously this picture wasn't taken recently, because, you know, they are dealing with whatever they have. I mean, these families left so quickly. They just had sometimes one photograph, maybe not even that. That is what's making this effort so difficult.
He has blue eyes, Caucasian, missing from Waveland, Mississippi.
Take a look at Tierra Oliver Marshall, a little girl missing from New Orleans, 5 years old. She was reported missing by her mother. She is still in a shelter in Houston. And she is hoping to be with some sort of relatives. They're still not sure again.
You know, there is little cell service. It is very difficult to put these pieces together. And they are working tirelessly to do that.
And a glimmer of hope. In the past 24 hours, more than 100 children have, in fact, been reunited. Hopefully more will happen -- Anderson.
COOPER: Kimberly, let's get this straight though. I mean, these children, we know where these children are. They are safe in shelters. Is it their parents who -- I mean, do we know their parents are also in shelters, and it's just a matter of getting them together? Or who is missing from whom?
OSIAS: Well, it is. I mean, sometimes it's parents missing from children, and children missing from parents. It just depends on the situation.
In this particular instance, Tierra Oliver Marshall is missing, reporting missing by her mother. The mother hasn't hooked up with her. The mother is in a shelter in the Houston Astrodome. And she is hoping that Tierra is with relatives. So, she's just not sure.
They have an enormous database, trying to make those connections and trying to put those pieces together.
COOPER: All right, Kimberly, appreciate that.
To Biloxi, Mississippi, now, where before Katrina hit there were 13 floating casinos, accounting for half of the state's gaming industry. Now, they are so badly damaged, many of them pushed inland, literally brought onshore. They're going to be out of business for months, if not years. It's something that could drastically affect the state's pocketbook. That's why rebuilding is going to be a top priority.
CNN's Erica Hill is there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): By now, it's an all too familiar scene, residents restocking food, water, clothes. These supplies trucked in from Iowa to help the more than 1,100 people who worked at Biloxi's Isle of Capri casino.
ROSE HERRON, ISLE OF CAPRI EMPLOYEE: And let me tell you, we should not expect this. But I think this is wonderful what the Isle is doing for us now, because everybody is in dire need of supplies and food and -- but you know what? We can come back, and we'll be better than ever.
HILL (on camera): And it's a safe bet they will. After all, over the years Biloxi has shown an uncanny willingness to roll the dice. As a fishing port, it lost out to cheap foreign imports. So then it bet on tourism, but lost again when the interstate came through whisking tourists past Biloxi straight on to Florida.
(voice over): So, in 1990, another bet. This time, gambling, and the payoff here has been huge. Nearly 23 million a year in local taxes and school budget came from the casinos. But all that was before Katrina hit.
RICH WESTFALL, DIR., COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: I think probably a 10th to 20 percent of the state's budget comes from gaming. A lot of it comes from here on the coast. There are 14,000 employees that work here directly to casinos. And obviously it's exponential when you start looking at vendors, suppliers and all of that. So it's a big chunk of the economy.
HILL: In fact, nearly half the state's casinos were badly damaged. Before Katrina, Biloxi's Isle of Capri was bringing in more than $100 million a year in revenue. The hurricane spared the hotel, but wiped out the casino.
For every day the Gulf Coast casinos remain closed, it costs the state of Mississippi $500,000 in tax revenue.
(on camera): In a perfect world, how long would it take to rebuild just this stretcher and make it operable?
WESTFALL: I can only estimate. Probably a year to 18 months.
HILL (voice over): And that doesn't take into account rebuilding these bridges and roads to get tourists and gamblers back to the tables.
So, did luck run out for Biloxi's casinos and the thousands who work here? For many, it's too hard to look too far ahead.
HERRON: The Isle, you know, they're paying us for three months. So that helps a lot, and that's great. And after that, we'll just -- right now, we'll just take one moment at a time, not even one day. One moment. So, we'll be good. We'll be good. I have faith.
HILL (on camera): Getting from one moment to the next is a little easier for these Capri workers, because of the help they're getting from their employer. The casino has said its first priority is to rebuild the community, and then it can focus on rebuilding itself.
Erica Hill, CNN, Biloxi, Mississippi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Just ahead, an update on Hurricane Ophelia. And also Aaron has a look at the morning papers. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: It's time to check the morning papers around the country, around the world. More and more newspapers are moving off Katrina as the lead, but not completely.
We'll start with "The Washington Post." "Insurgents kill 160 in Baghdad." That would be my lead. But their best story is a -- they have tried to piece together what happened at the Convention Center in New Orleans. "It was as if all of us were already pronounced dead" is the headline. Convention Center left a five-day legacy of chaos and violence. We may never know precisely everything that happened there. In some cases we may not want to know. But they're trying to piece it together. It looks like a pretty good piece in "The Washington Post" tomorrow.
"Washington Times." "Bush hits U.N. corruption" is their lead. But look at this picture. Can you get a tight shot of that picture? Doesn't the president look happy to be there? That's how you looked in algebra class when you raised your hand. All right, I've got to move on.
"San Antonio Express News." "San Antonio Saints tickets are a big easy" -- that's a pretty good headline -- "big easy sell." The New Orleans Saints will play some of their games, I don't think all of their games, but play some of them in San Antonio. So they put that on the front page.
Also, the airline story, Delta and Northwest filing for bankruptcy goes on the front page where it's a huge story.
In Cincinnati, Delta has a hub, so they play it big. The "Cincinnati Enquirer." "Bankrupt. Is Delta's $28 billion debt too heavy a load?" I would think so. Yes.
How much? Really? OK. Cool. According to the "Chicago Sun-Times," the weather tomorrow in Chicago, if you're traveling, Chicago would be a good place to travel to. The weather tomorrow will be splendid.
CNN's coverage Hurricane Katrina and now Hurricane Ophelia continues 24 hours a day. And we'll update that after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The coast of North Carolina tonight, Anderson, Hurricane Ophelia with winds, what, 75-80 miles an hour, making its way. It's just creeping along.
COOPER: Yes, it's a very slow-moving storm, 8 miles an hour, which, as you know, is very slow compared to the storms we have seen really this entire season. Also even last season's storms were much faster than that.
We continue to watch it. And, of course, CNN will continue to cover it.
I don't know about you, Aaron. I look at it differently now given what we have seen with Katrina. You can't help but look at this storm and just have memories.
BROWN: Well, you see it differently, and you also keep in mind that 75-mile-an hour winds are not 145-mile-an-hour winds. But 75- mile-an-hour winds can cause plenty damage enough. And that's why will keep track of it all night long.
Our coverage continues on CNN. Catherine Callaway in Atlanta.
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