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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Hurricane Katrina Aftermath; Hurricane Rita Preparations; Tom Coburn Interview
Aired September 19, 2005 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN HOST: So, Anderson, we have the hurricane that was and the hurricane that is about to be and we're juggling both tonight.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: We certainly are and the hurricane that is about to be is already affecting here -- events on the ground, Aaron. I'm here in the town of Kenner, across the river from New Orleans to which people were supposed to begin returning today, bit by bit, neighborhood by neighborhood. Street by street.
There was actually a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the area of the city locals call Algiers. But then, as if this part of the world hasn't already had more than its share of terrible luck recently, there came some weather news nobody wanted to hear about and the great New Orleans homecoming was abruptly called off. Aaron?
BROWN: It was called off in part because of Tropical Storm Rita out in the Atlantic. As we speak, it is gathering strength heading towards the Keys. It'll make landfall in the Keys overnight and then move on toward the Gulf and it could cause serious problems by the end or the middle to the end of next week.
New Orleans used to be a town that laughed at hurricanes, just as it laughed at so much else the rest of the country took seriously. But laughter is awfully hard to find in the wake of Katrina. Anderson?
COOPER: Yeah, it certainly is,. You're right about that Aaron, but anger is not hard to muster and there will be a lot of that in evidence tonight. The anger of those who feel they still haven't gotten the attention they need and deserve and have been waiting for three weeks o the day since Katrina struck.
But first, here's a look at what's happening "At This Moment." Let's get you up to date. Forecasters believe Tropical Strom Rita could become a hurricane sometime tonight. The storm is passing by the Bahamas and hurricane force winds could reach the Florida Keys by tomorrow. The storm could hit somewhere along the Gulf Coast on Friday or Saturday.
Believe it or not, Louisiana is a potential target.
The threat of Tropical Strom Rita has led New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin to halt the phased return of residents to his city. Nagin has also called on those who already turned to the city to re-evacuate. The Army Corps of Engineers say heavy rainfall alone could flood New Orleans all over again.
Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco is also urging the people of her state to use caution. In a televised address earlier this evening. Blanco told residents to be ready to leave on short notice and to move north instead of west, since Texas could get hit by this storm.
And the number of people who were killed in Hurricane Katrina has risen to 970. Louisiana alone had 73 8fatalities and that number has been steadily rising.
We are so sorry to have to say this as the residents of the Gulf must be to hear it. But by the time Friday or Saturday, they may have to deal with yet another storm. Tonight, Tropical Storm Rita is on the move in the Atlantic and is expected to gain hurricane strength. A mandatory evacuation has been issued for the Florida Keys and a voluntary evacuation cold be posted for Galveston, Texas.
Right now Rita is about 140 miles south-southeast of Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, and 315 miles east-southeast of Key West Florida, which it may begin approaching Tuesday morning.
Ted Scouten of our Miami affiliate, WFOR, is in Nassau watching the situation. Ted?
TED SCOUTEN, WFOR-TV CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Anderson. Well, when we spoke a few hours ago tonight, I told you that at that point it was the worst that we had seen the waves. Well, I take that back because now the winds have picked up an awful lot. There is a to of bad weather coming through here right now. Mostly wind. We've also been getting some rain.
One thing that was interesting that we noticed tonight is that as the winds picked up people in Nassau began to pay more attention to the storm, obviously. One interesting thing is there was a guy who actually climbed up this huge ladder to go up and take some items down that he was afraid might blow away.
Of course, you should do that but you should do that well before the storm, not when the winds are already blowing. Making it even worse, it was on a wooden deck right over the ocean, so very dangerous but people here definitely are noticing Rita right now as the winds have substantially picked up from earlier this evening.
COOPER: Ted, thanks very much for that. From the view from the Bahamas to the view from Key West. We turn to CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano, who is there on the far-flung outermost bit of the State of Florida. Rob, what's the latest there?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, very quiet here in Key West but I'm being told that the southeastern tip of Florida already starting to get the outer rain bands of this storm. An interesting report from the Bahamas because the satellite picture really has exploded the last couple of hours. Take a look at this as the cloud canopy really has expanded and it looks like this thing is really starting to tap into those warm waters. Not officially yet a hurricane, though. The hurricane hunters reporting back. The winds still are only sustained at 70 miles an hour. But don't let that fool you because it will become a hurricane likely by sunup tomorrow morning as this satellite picture looks pretty impressive.
It is forecast to head our way as a hurricane, so it will rake the Keys, all the lower Keys and that's where a mandatory evacuation order has been put out. Folks who are sticking around and have done the necessary stuff to protect life and property. Namely, shutters. Most every building in this town has shutters because they get storms so frequently.
As far as how many people have evacuated from here? Only about half. Twenty-six thousand people live here. Thirteen-thousand people have made their way out. There are shelters on the Keys but none of them are open because of the mandatory evacuation order. They plan for one category higher than what is forecast. This storm is forecast to come either close or directly over Key West as a Category 2 storm by this time tomorrow night.
That's the latest from here, Anderson. Back to you.
COOPER: Rob, thanks very much. The National Weather Service is running out of names for storms. Literally. Rita is the 17th of the season and will be the ninth hurricane if it becomes one. Whether or not that happens, Rita has already forced a great number of people to change their plans.
Plan A involved a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans this morning. A traditional way to dramatize a grand opening or reopening, I should say. The ribbon- cutting did happen but the grand reopening that was supposed to follow did not.
CNN's Adaora Udoji was there when Plan A became Plan B. Adaora?
ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, and because of that change, every single household tonight right now in New Orleans has to make a very serious decision and that is whether to stay or to go. The mayor earlier today saying that because of the threat of Hurricane Rita, that he is mandating that the East Bank, which includes Downtown New Orleans, that those folks, everyone to get out.
But the folks over here, the West Bank which includes Algiers, he is urging them to leave. Now, these are people who you know today were allowed officially to come back into the neighborhood to take a look at their homes and try to figure out how much damage Hurricane Katrina had caused to their homes.
They came home to find that no stores were open. No stores, no gas stations, no schools. Many parents that we talked to concerned about bringing their children back into these neighborhoods. Again, they were getting their food and ice and water from distribution centers that were scattered around the area and they were here in the Algiers for only a couple of hours, some of them only to get the news from not only the mayor but also from the governor.
Those urging residents to seriously consider leaving before Hurricane Rita heads this way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS, LA: Our levee systems are still in a very weak condition. Our pumping stations are not at full capacity and any type of storm that heads this way and hits us will put the East Bank of Orleans Parish and very significant harm's way.
So I am encouraging everyone to leave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UDOJI: They are very concerned, the mayor very concerned about the vulnerable levees following Hurricane Katrina. We spoke to lots of residents in the last couple hours, some of them saying, hey, I made it through Katrina, I'm not leaving. If Rita heads this way.
Other people saying, Anderson, that they've just had. That if Hurricane Rita comes towards New Orleans, they're leaving and they're leaving for good.
Anderson?
COOPER: Yeah, Adaora, I don't think anyone around here can look at a hurricane ever really again in the same way. As Aaron said earlier in the program, Aaron -- a lot of people used to sort of laugh about hurricanes in New Orleans, but Aaron, you don't hear any people laughing now.
BROWN: Well, if you haven't gotten the message so far, you're probably not going to get the message.
On now to the picture that you see on the left-hand side of the screen. As you probably know by now, we hope you do, they are children separated from their parents by the storm. Helping them find their way back is a work of a good many people around the country and the work full time of the people in Alexandria, Virginia.
Brian Todd is there and Brian joins us now with more on that. Brian?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Aaron. Yes, we are the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. We are now at the end of the 15th day of this operation. It is called the Katrina Missing Persons' Hotline and it has posted some pretty impressive success so far in just the two weeks it has been up.
As of tonight, 883 cases of missing children have been resolved. That includes children who have gone missing and been located but had been missing their parents and children who had gone outright missing.
On the flip side of that, 2,393 children are still listed as missing tonight by the center and obviously they have their work cut out for them. We're going to put a couple3 of those faces up on the screen right now.
One is Tasha Nutall, she is 16 years old, she went missing with her two year old daughter, her daughter's name is Jayshauna Brown (ph), they were last known to be in Laurel, Mississippi. Neither Tasha Nutall nor her two-year-old daughter have been seen since the hurricane hit.
Back to Louisiana. Lindey Dumse, she is 15 years old. Lat known to be with here father in Metairie, Louisiana. The father is still missing and it is not known if she is either her father tonight or not. The center still working on that lead.
Ashley Brown, 12 years old. This is an old picture of her. Last known to be with her mother in Harvey, Louisiana. Ashley Brown has a scar on the left side of her body, she has a scar on her left thumb and pinky finger and she is missing her left middle finger.
If anyone has information regarding either of these three children that we've just put up or any of the children that you've seen on the left side of your screen of your screen over the past few days. You are asked to call this number, this 1-800 THE LOST. That's 1-800 THE LOST or you can go to www.missingkids.com.
How long will they keep operation up? I asked the president of this center that question earlier today. He said indefinitely. In his words, until they have resolved each case or they otherwise know the fate of every child they are tracking right now.
Aaron?
BROWN: Just quickly, in most cases what happened is the child either in a shelter or a child with a family member or a social service agency and I'm just having trouble getting child and parent united.
TODD: That is correct. In many cases it is just what you said. Children had been successfully evacuated, they had been put in shelters, some of the spread out literally all over the country. And it is a process of tracking them, trying to get their pictures and information out so that their parents or main caregivers can locate them.
But it is a tall task. In many cases they have no -- In most cases, actually, they have no pictures of these children. The information they are getting is very fragmented so that it is really a piece of puzzle they have to put together one case at a time.
BROWN: Actually, that's a good point, that I've been struck today just as the TV's been on in my office, how many blank cards, blank graphics there are.
TODD: Absolutely.
BROWN: Of kids with no picture and very little information and those kids are going to be very tough to match, sometimes very young. Brian, thank you for your work tonight. Still to come, the ongoing frustration with FEMA. Why they are still having trouble getting aid to those in need three weeks after the storm. We'll take a look at that. Plus the fight to keep alive some aquarium dolphins stranded by Katrina. Their story suddenly took a disturbing turn. We'll tell you what happened.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome to a steamy night in Kenner, Louisiana. It has been more than three weeks now since Hurricane Katrina struck and believe it or not, people are still waiting for aid from the federal government. Well, we heard a lot lately about how the government is trying to right what went wrong with Katrina, and even saw FEMA's boss resign. So why is the agency still having so many problems? We asked CNN's Tom Foreman to investigate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amid the endless wreckage of the Gulf, for three weeks, the chorus has been unbroken. Where is FEMA?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was upset. But now I'm getting angry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How many times have you heard "where's FEMA"?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every day. Every day.
MAYOR BEN MORRIS, SLIDELL, LOUISIANA: We have to find temporary housing for our people. But it's like, where is it? Where is it?
FOREMAN: Even as the new storm Rita bears down, FEMA is struggling frantically to get back on track. With housing, food, money for storm victims. Repairing levees, removing tons of debris, almost $1.5 billion have been spent to help more than 500,000 families. But serious problems persist. Some people, especially in Mississippi, are still living in half-collapsed homes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not as bad as New Orleans, but we need help just as bad as New Orleans.
FOREMAN: One-hundred twenty-thousand are in shelters. Their temporary housing, another month away. Victims complain of spending hours waiting to FEMA's phone lines, or trying to connect to help services by computer. Fifteen disaster recovery centers have been set up, but many residents say they can't find them. And even when they do, results are slow.
MAYOR RUSTY QUAVE, D'IBERVILLE, MISSISSIPPI: I was promised tents yesterday from our people. When I got over there, they said it would be 13 days. I can't wait 13 days. I need tents now.
FOREMAN (on camera): FEMA continues to say Katrina was just so big, did so much damage, getting to everyone will take time. But with another storm bearing down, patience is running out. (voice-over): Ron Mucha lost his house, got so tired of trying to call FEMA, he came to Washington. We met him as he ran into a friendly FEMA worker who assured him help was coming.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely, yes. 100 percent.
FOREMAN: And Ron believed him.
RON MUCHA, STORM VICTIM: They're doing their best, I think. I really think they are.
FOREMAN: But after two more weeks of waiting and stress, this past weekend, Ron suffered a major stroke. His wife, Linda, says he's in the hospital.
(on camera): So what do you think of FEMA now?
LINDA MUCHA, STORM VICTIM (on phone): An 800 number is not adequate. There was no vision, no leadership. I don't have FEMA supporting me to do anything.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, Aaron, also we are going to be hearing, no doubt, in the next several days as Rita becomes perhaps a hurricane and perhaps heads to this region. You are going to hear from FEMA officials on the ground because we are already hearing them on the ground saying whatever's in the pipeline now may get delayed because of this storm and that is certainly a message a lot of people here simply do not want to hear, Aaron.
BROWN: No, I expect they don't and I would imagine that FEMA is throwing everything they can find, every sandbag, every canned good, every bottle of water somewhere near there. They do not want to go through this again.
Oh my. The true cost of Katrina, let alone Rita, just coming and starting to sink in. The estimates now at $200 billion, so guesstimate is probably a better way to put it but the president promised federal funds will pay for the bulk of reconstruction in the disaster zone but he also has said repeatedly that it won't be necessary to raise taxes to do it.
Earlier tonight we spoke with Senator Tom Coburn, who is the junior senator from the state of Oklahoma and a Republican.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Senator, the president said the other day that he is confident we can pay for this is we just cut here and there. Do you believe anybody is really serious about cutting anything to pay for Katrina?
SENATOR TOM COBURN, (R) OK: Well, I think we have to be. We've never -- in my lifetime we've never been in a situation where we have such structural deficits, fighting war at the same time and such a huge calamity to strike our southern neighbors, so we have to do something about trimming the size of government to be able to pay for at least a portion of it.
BROWN: But I don't hear anybody in leadership saying, OK, here's what we're going to do, we're going to cut, and then say this.
COBURN: What we need to do is ask the American people. Do they not think that we can trim some out of the federal government, make the federal government more efficient, order our priorities and I think the American people are leading us on that rather than us leading them.
BROWN: Congressman Delay said the other day that the budget is cut to the bone. There is no waste left.
COBURN: Well. I laughed when I heard that and I'm not sure anybody in America believes that but him.
BROWN: Are you going to support any votes that make the president's tax cuts permanent, the estate tax and others?
COBURN: First of all, I don't think we ought to be talking about those until we've done the hard work of trimming the federal budget.
If you cut taxes and don't trim spending, what's -- at the same time, you're just transferring that debt to your grandchildren.
BROWN: It's hard not to hear that as a terrible indictment of your party, which, after all, has both houses of Congress and the White House.
COBURN: Well, I think it's an indictment of careerism, Aaron. It's not an indictment of either party. Both parties are spendthrifts, both parties use the spending mechanism through the appropriation process to enhance their political careers rather than order the priorities and do the oversight that's necessary to make sure we're not wasting money.
BROWN: Do you feel comfortable that the American people, after all this talk, all these years, are prepared to sacrifice and government just doesn't think Americans are prepared to sacrifice?
COBURN: Well, I -- first of all I think they are. Number two I think that's our heritage. And number three is we don't have a lot of choice. If we look out around 2009, 2010, 2011, this country is borrowing well over a trillion dollars a year.
BROWN: Going to be an interesting situation to watch play out for your party, for the Democrats, for the White House and for the country.
It is nice to meet you, sir. Thank you.
COBURN: Nice to meet you, Aaron. Thank you. I think the American people are counting on us to doing the hard choices.
BROWN: Thank you, sir.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Tom Coburn, the Republican Senator from Oklahoma. He said he'd support delaying the Medicare drug benefit. Would you?
Coming up, they were spotted last week but now they're going. What happened to four dolphins loose in the Gulf since Hurricane Katrina and Tropical Storm Rita continues to make her way rather briskly toward the Florida Keys. We'll update that. This is a "State of Emergency."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: You're watching "Hurricane Katrina, State of Emergency with Anderson Cooper and Aaron Brown."
COOPER: Over the last three weeks of our coverage of this catastrophe, we spent a lot of time focusing on the plight of people but we also tried to continue to hold a spotlight on the plight of animals.
Tonight, a story about some dolphins that we told you about early last week. In the Gulf of Mexico there's a frantic search for several dolphins from a Gulfport, Mississippi aquarium.
Some have been rescued, but now with another tropical storm headed for the Gulf, there are fears about the fate of the others. With the latest on the search, here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eight aquarium dolphins swept out to sea, four of them captured with the hope the other four would be captured by today. But in the Gulf of Mexico, all is quiet, no sign of the other four. The man in charge of the destroyed aquarium is Moby Solangi.
DR. MOBY SOLANGI, DIRECTOR MARINE LIFE OCEANARIUM: They've been here for a week. Something has happened that even the wild animals have gone. There is some sort of environmental change or something has happening, they're sensing. This is weird.
TUCHMAN: This was the scene when we were out last week, but the government biologist from NOAA and the dolphin trainers, all eight of the dolphins frolicking in the gulf. Four of the sea mammals were pulled up on a floating station and hugged tightly and wrapped up in a stretcher that wrapped up the rescue of these animals that cannot live indefinitely in the open waters because they have spent most of their lives in captivity. Even though all eight were swimming around, the difficulty of getting the dolphins on the floating mat along with increased afternoon winds have limited the rescues to no more than two a day.
Jackie, Tony, Kelly and Noah, ranging from ages five to 30, are safe and being taken care of at a naval facility in Gulfport. But Shelly, Elijah, Tamara and Jill are missing.
(on camera): For days these people have gone out in the waters and seen the dolphins almost constantly, playfully swimming in the water. Now it's very quiet, and there's a profound sense of disappointment and much unease.
(voice-over): Then a brief glimmer of hope. Dolphins are sighted. But the excitement doesn't last long. They're swim ago way from the people they know on this boat. These are wild dolphins.
Sheriff's department pilots fly the aquarium president in a chopper to see if they can see the missing dolphins by air. Just after we passed the devastated Mississippi coastline we see dolphins.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (radio): Yeah, yeah. Looks like it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (radio): Yeah, look at him. He's freakin' playing around.
TUCHMAN: The boats are radioed to get closer to the dolphins. And once again disappointment. They, too, are not the aquarium dolphins.
SOLANGI: Next up is to go constantly keep being-h going back to the feeding station and wait for them to come. And we'll keep looking for them as well.
TUCHMAN: And just hoping for the best.
SOLANGI: We certainly are.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: That was CNN's Gary Tuchman reporting. We'll keep you updated on the progress.
Still to come, a city very much in need of help after Katrina, one that is now boiling over with some anger and frustration. We'll take you into what's happening here in Kenner, Louisiana.
Plus, when a city's plans to recover after a brutal hurricane are halted by another storm. A disappointing day for New Orleans. We'll take you there.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: The police chief of the town of Kenner here and his town manager almost came to blows, or at least they had a heated argument the other day over shelters here in the City of Kenner. Don't get the impression that they are particularly volatile men, that certainly is not the truth.
The truth is it is hard to keep your cool when things are this bad. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Step inside an apartment in the Redwood Park housing project in Kenner, Louisiana, and you'd better hold your breath.
(on camera): As you can see, I mean, there's a lot of water damage. There's mold all over the ceilings. And the smell, it's incredibly musty. It's hard to imagine anyone actually living inside here.
(voice-over): But hundreds of people are living in and around these apartments. They are poor, mostly Hispanic, and they have no where else in Kenner to go.
NICK CONGEMI, KENNER POLICE CHIEF: Not only is it a situation where they have just been forgotten, but they are exposed to these type of dangers to their immediate family and their children.
COOPER: The residents here get daily supplies of food and water, but Kenner's police chief, Nick Congemi says what they really need is shelter. Michael McMyne, a city councilman says the mayor of Kenner should simply open one up.
MICHALE MCMYNE, KENNER CITY COUNCIL: We have military in buildings, we have other police officers in gymnasiums, we have city workers with portable showers at City Hall and we can't do something for our people?
COOPER (on camera): So you have -- There are shelters in Kenner for first responders, just not for actual citizens?
MCMYNE: Yes, absolutely. Correct.
CONGEMI: For some reason, there's this reluctance to open up gymnasiums or any other public building around here to house these people.
COOPER (voice-over): On Friday, the chief got into a shouting match with the city official. Accusing him of racism for ignoring the needs of Hispanic residents. The mayor declined to speak with us about the confrontation, but his chief of staff says they are doing all they can.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We opened up another shelter. The City of Kenner doesn't have the resources to maintain it. And FEMA has already told us that they will not be open in supporting shelters inside the affected areas. They have state shelters set up they are supporting right outside of the community.
COOPER: But the residents here don't want to be sent outside the community. In Kenner they found jobs, helping city businesses rebuild. On Saturday when the mayor's office sent a bus to relocate residents to a shelter, some 50 mile as way, no one got on. The bus left empty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're making it too political now, you know. We've been here for, what, three weeks now? And we haven't seen no action, you know? What we want is a place to live.
MCMYNE: We can point fingers to FEMA and we can point fingers to the president, but it matters what we do here. They don't control our gyms, they don't control our facilities. We control them. All we have to do is open the door and get these people there and let them in, protect their health. My God, what's it going to take, someone dying?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, a lot has happened just in the last few hours since we first aired that piece. I am joined now by the sheriff ...
CONGEMI: Chief of police.
COOPER: Chief of police, I'm sorry.
CONGEMI: That's OK.
COOPER: Nick Congemi, who we talked to. Appreciate you being with us. I know it's been a long day. First of all, what happened here a couple hours ago? The owner of this place came out and said these people have to move tomorrow.
CONGEMI: Yes. A representative of the mayor's, Mayor Capitano's office, as well as the manager, informed them that they would have to move tomorrow. They said that the fire marshal had visited and inspected and said that it was a fire hazard and ...
COOPER: And they sort of blamed it on the coming storm, on Rita, they said if there's another storm here, that makes it all even more of a hazard.
CONGEMI: Yes they did. I think all of this has been very well- orchestrated. As you can see, this is probably the only place in the city that's in complete darkness and they don't have power in this one area where we have 500 families, which I think is very unusual.
COOPER: And you've been saying all along, really, that the city, that the mayor doesn't want these people to remain in Kenner. Why?
CONGEMI: I have no idea why he wants to force them out but I think your mind can only conjure up certain thoughts. We have 500 families which equates to about 2,000 people that have a serious economic impact on this area. There are a lot of Hispanic restaurants and stores and things like this in this area ...
COOPER: Most of the people here are poor, they're Hispanic, they don't vote. CONGEMI: So, when these people are gone, actually the businesses will fall also and we have some deep concerns. Now you have some people that are now trying to attract residents back into their area. Here in this city we're doing just the opposite. We're trying to put them out.
COOPER: And there are shelters for, as we said in the piece, for first responders, for military personnel ...
CONGEMI: Yes.
COOPER: And you say there are empty buildings that could be used as shelters here.
CONGEMI: We have several gymnasiums in the City o Kenner that can be used for temporary housing. We have done it before. We did it during the initial storm stage. We now have a National Guard unit in one gymnasium. We now have police officers from another state in another area.
They are now even starting to put more people into Musburtalina (ph) playground for construction workers. So they're creating another city there already.
COOPER: And where are these people? Are tomorrow, buses going to come and take them away, what, to Hammond, Louisiana?
CONGEMI: Yeah, they're supposed to come tomorrow and take them away to Hammond, Louisiana, which is about 50 miles away from here and obviously they are all reluctant to go.
COOPER: You were a real gentleman and a professional earlier tonight -- we've got some video that tomorrow we will play. You basically spoke to the crowd and just calmed them down and said, look, I wanted you to stay here, I wanted you to have shelters, but this battle is lost For your own safety and the safety of your wives and kids, you need to go.
CONGEMI: Yes.
COOPER: You think the battle's over?
CONGEMI: Yeah. Well, I don't think the battle's over, I think that they have a temporary defeat here. I think they need to move on, they need to find temporary shelters for the families in case Rita does come through here.
I think it's unsafe for them to continue to live in structures like this that where they will be exposed to mosquitoes, rats and other infestations that may come into this area and I do think when you look around this area, this is the only section of the city that is in complete and total darkness and you have to wonder why.
Was it a design, was it a plan, to not restore the power here?
COOPER: For these people. CONGEMI: Now when you look at this, you probably don't understand because you've not been involved in situations like this, but a lot of that mold and mildew is actually caused because of lack of electricity. If they had air conditioning in there to dry it out, they probably wouldn't have ...
COOPER: And move the air along.
CONGEMI: Yes.
COOPER: Very briefly, the argument you got into on Friday. The gentleman, his name was ...
CONGEMI: Cedric Floyd. The CAO.
COOPER: Cedric Floyd. Right. He worked for the city. What's happened to him now?
CONGEMI: Well, since then I understand that the Associate Press has done a story on him where they have revealed that he had been -- he used property improperly where he was delivering it to city employees improperly which begs the question, were these people denied of those resources that they should have received here when he was directing them to his friends?
And I think you understand why the argument took place a few days ago. He was trying to defend himself in a position that he had taken because it probably diverted the resources that were originally intended for these people.
COOPER: Chief of police, appreciate again you joining us ...
CONGEMI: Pleasure to be here.
COOPER: ... and all the work you've been doing. I know you've been having a lot of long hours. We continue to follow this story and again, we've asked them mayor to come here, we've asked the mayor's representatives to come. Five times we called them today. They didn't call us back.
Still to come on 360, a reversal of fortunes for one part of New Orleans. Instead of people returning home, they had to leave again. We'll take a look there.
Plus the properties in the Big Easy may be all wet but they are suddenly also very hot. A lot of bidding and buying going on in New Orleans. We're going to tell you about the boom that's following the bust and the real estate agent who is positioned well either way.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back to Kenner, Louisiana. As we told you at the top of the hour, Tropical Storm Rita is hitting the Bahamas right now, could hit the Gulf Coast by the end of the week. By then it could be a strong hurricane. Here is CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras with the latest forecast. Jacqui? JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, Anderson, it is almost a hurricane right now. In fact, there's not a lot of difference between 70 and 74 miles per hour and we think we'll get to that hurricane status even overnight for tonight.
It's about 270 miles east southeast of Key West, or about 120 miles south-southwest of Nassau.
Hurricane warnings are posted all across Southern Florida from Golden Beach extending around to East Cape Sable, down through the Keys and into the Dry Tortugas. We are expecting this to strengthen throughout the night and become possibly even as much as a Category 2 hurricane before it reaches the Keys. It will likely make landfall over Key West but it may just brush on by.
Either way, it's still going to bring a big hammering here with six to nine foot storm surge, we think, and rainfall of six to 10 inches. Into the Gulf of Mexico, then, and some additional strengthening, become a major hurricane, we think, on Wednesday and holding that status at least through Friday before making landfall probably late Friday or into Saturday. Still a lot of uncertainty as to exactly where it's going to go as we're talking a good four days out before we could see a second landfall.
Louisiana is a possibility but the focus, we think, is going to be into Texas. Anderson?
COOPER: It is hard to believe. Jacqui, thanks very much.
Aaron, I can't sort of even think that far ahead, but I know we are already planning, CNN's already planning and certainly the authorities here are already planning what to do if in fact this thing does hit Louisiana.
BROWN: Be kind of glad when October gets here, though, won't you?
COOPER: I know exactly ...
BROWN: Rita made it a little bit easier for the mayor of New Orleans to back off his plan to repopulate the city. The federal government wasn't very impressed with the plan. President Bush talked about it. The Coast Guard admiral who is running the recovery operation talked about it.
Their concerns centered around lack of drinking water, a lack of hospital medical services, lack of 911, so with Rita moving towards the Gulf -- we certainly wouldn't say it's bearing down on New Orleans, but certainly moving towards the Gulf.
Mayor Ray Nagin decided maybe it's not such a good idea to bring a third of the population back into the city. For more on how he handled all of that, here's CNN's Adaora Udoji.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UDOJI (voice-over): Karen Pryor started the day thinking this was a new beginning in the city where she was born after imagining the worst.
KAREN PRYOR, ALGIERS RESIDENT: We have the lights working.
UDOJI: You want to turn that on?
PRYOR: Let me check the water. It's coming out brown.
UDOJI: Like so many west of Downtown New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina's wicked wind and waves broke windows of her home, downed trees, scattered everything she and her husband have worked for but the house was standing.
Her big worry they was about bringing home her husband, a butcher who has found a job outside Atlanta. Her four month old daughter, their son, now in high school there.
PRYOR: Nothing's open. I didn't see any grocery stores. Nothing. And I don't know why the mayor is rushing us to get back home when there's no school and nothing else for the kids.
UDOJI: So she decide to salvage precious pictures of her two older kids in college outside of New Orleans and of her deceased other.
Hours later, Mayor Ray Nagin was urging people to leave, facing Hurricane Rita's potential strike. She headed back to her family in Georgia.
Others like Don Campos who stayed through Katrina don't plan on waiting too long if Rita comes.
DON CAMPOS, ALGIERS RESIDENT: The first one was a disaster and the second one, if it comes, it's going to be worse.
UDOJI: He's had it. If it happens, he's headed to Tennessee for good. But over at Dry Dock Cafe, owner Maureen Peinona who had been cleaning up her bar all day was more flexible. A Canadian transplant, she's rolling with the hurricane punches, backing the mayor.
MAUREEN PIGNONA, OWNER, DRY DOCK CAFE: I guess you've got to be more safe than sorry. Levees break or something happens and it's all on him so -- I think it's jumping the gun a little bit right now.
UDOJI: She's going to keep cleaning the bar, wait and see what forecasters say on Wednesday. Her friend and die hard like so many in New Orleans already has a plan.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I didn't leave last time. I'm not leaving this time.
UDOJI: It's been a devastating three weeks for New Orleans. The threat of a new storm just prolonging the agony. Before the mayor's announcement, Karen had no idea her thoughts could apply to so many thousands of her neighbors.
PRYOR: Lot of decisions to make and I'm going to take one day at a time. And just wait and see.
UDOJI: She is determined, though, to come home one day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
UDOJI (on camera): Lots of confusion here tonight in Algiers for those who made the trek into their neighborhood only to be told hours late as we just heard, that they have to leave. So many of course not deciding to bring their children, many were concerned anyway based on the fact that schools weren't open and gas stations and stores and not much was very open here so many people tonight having to make a very serious decision. Those who did come in as to whether or not they're going to stay if Hurricane Rita heads this way.
BROWN: Adaora, thank you. Adaora Udoji in New Orleans tonight.
Anderson, where we are right now, at least, is Rita is making her way towards Florida and will turn across the Gulf and the money is it will probably make land in Texas and not Louisiana and we can hope.
COOPER: Yeah, it will be, again, something we are following very closely and hard to believe that some level of storm may happen to us again here. There are a lot of people here who are simply just fed up of New Orleans and are trying to sell their homes here, move elsewhere, but surprisingly we found, Aaron that there are a lot of people who actually are wanting to move into New Orleans, or at least buy property here even though they themselves will never set foot in this city.
They are bargain hunters and they think this is the primetime to buy property on the cheap in New Orleans. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice over): Even here, even now, in devastated New Orleans, if you listen close, you'll hear the sound, opportunity knocking on the door.
BRANDY FERRIS, CENTURY 21 FARRIS & ASSOCIATES: Century 21.
Try to give her a call, Leslie.
COOPER: Brandy Ferris is a Century 21 real estate agent and she's never seen anything quite like this.
FERRIS: Did y'all have a lot of trees in the yard? No? Did y'all have water? Did it flood? It came all the way in the house? Wow. OK.
COOPER: It's not just the devastation that surprises her on her first trip back into New Orleans, it's how hot the real estate market here has become since Katrina.
FERRIS: Yes, ma'am, we are. Do you have a home for sale in New Orleans? Where was your property located? What is your address?
COOPER (on camera): Brandy's phone is ringing off the hook. You can't really talk to her for more than a few minutes at a time without the phone ringing and someone either calling wanting to buy a property here in New Orleans or sell.
(voice-over): In the past few weeks, Brandy estimates Century 21 has sold some 1,500 homes in this region, a big rise she says from what the company would normally sell.
Who's buying? In Baton Rouge and New Orleans, it's those looking to relocate or investors who specialize in scooping up storm- distressed properties at deep discounts.
(on camera): Pick up some properties now?
FERRIS: They want to buy some land, sight unseen. They want to buy houses, sight unseen.
COOPER: And they can get a good deal right now.
FERRIS: Yeah. And when it comes back strong, the values should go up. We'll find out.
COOPER (voice-over): Not all the calls Brandy takes are from buyers or sellers. Some are hostile, people who say she's profiting from other's pain.
(on camera): Some people are going to say you're taking advantage of people, you know, that the prices are going to be low and that you've got these investors circling like sharks looking to buy distressed property.
FERRIS: And that's true in any situation. You're always going to have the vulture investors. But there's something for everyone here, I think.
COOPER (voice-over): Brandy is nothing if not optimistic.
(on camera): I mean when you're trying to sell a place, how do you get over sometimes the smell of rotting animals?
FERRIS: We have to take one case at a time and see what happens. Everybody's got a different need right now and it's very emotional and it's very traumatic.
COOPER: Is it hard to walk in the rubble with these with your shoes?
FERRIS: No, it ain't. I'm used to this. No, not at all. This is normal.
COOPER (voice-over): She'll list this two-story pale green house at $750,000. The house itself weathered Katrina, the seller did not. To say the least, New Orleans is a risky real estate market. Environmental damage is unknown and many of the ownership records may have been lost.
FERRIS: I assess the damage. See when we can even change title from the courthouses. We don't even have ways to file anything at the courthouse. A lot of people here, their paperwork is underwater. They have no way to show who they are, what their mortgage is. So we have a lot of unknowns.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (on camera): A lot of properties to be had. A lot of properties being sold.
Coming up, Aaron has the morning papers and more from here in Kenner, Louisiana.
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BROWN: A quick check of some morning papers from around the country and around the world. Some good ones today.
"The Washington Post," three stories worth mentioning. We'll probably mention four. "British smash into an Iraqi jail to free two detained soldiers." That's in the southern part of Iraq in Basra, where things are really good and the Brits and the Iraqi soldiers are fighting each other.
"Startech (ph) helps return to New Orleans." But this is the story I love. "Immigration nominees' credentials challenged." It seems that the administrations person to head the U.S. immigration service has no experience in that. Not that anything could go wrong on our borders, but some people find that a little distressing.
"The Washington Times." "North Korea to Halt Nuclear Programs." Well they made a little change in that tonight, saying, yes, if you give us a coldwater nuclear reactor. Tomorrow they'll ask for four bombs.
This is my favorite headline of the day by far, the "New York Daily News." "This little piggy went to jail. He stole 600 million and lived like a king, now he'll make license plates." That's Dennis Kozlowski who ran Tyco International. There's actually a lot of controversy about whether sending these guys to jail for as long as they have. Argh, he's going to do eight and a half to 25. Makes any sense? I'll worry about that tomorrow.
The weather, by the way, if you're in the Chicago area according to the "Chicago Sun-Times," my favorite newspaper in Chicago, "Snazzy."
So's the music in New Orleans and it's coming back. We'll tell you about that in a moment.
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COOPER: Here's another sad thing. We have been here in the birthplace of so much American music for weeks now and have hardly heard a note or hardly had a reason to bring you even just a little of what New Orleans is so famous for.
Rusty Dornin is here to change all that tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A brass band leading smiling, dancing people down the street. It happened every Sunday in New Orleans. But this is Baton Rouge and these parade participants haven't had much to smile about lately. They're evacuees who've taken refuge at the Southern University shelter here.
Like pied pipers, Hot 8, a well known brass band in the Big Easy, lured evacuees out of the shelter, bringing a bit of home to those who don't have any. Something New Orleaneans call "the second line."
LEE ARNOLD, "SAVE OUR BRASS" COORDINATOR: ... the first line, which is the band, and the second line, which is the people in the neighborhood. They walk through neighborhoods. Uptown, downtown and they represent -- the whole neighborhood comes in and joins us and parties. Look at it!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they help us. The 8 were bringing back some New Orleans tradition of second line. And it brought tears to my eyes.
BRUCE DAVE, EVACUEE: Bless them. Because they give everybody a little diversion from their everyday situation which we have in the shelter.
DORNIN: The band knows firsthand how people here are feeling.
DICK SHAVERS, HOT 8 DRUMMER: We are no different from them. I mean, we lost everything, too. So we have something that everybody is going to have and it is our music and we're using the music to the best of our ability to show our appreciation, to show that New Orleans won't die.
DORNIN: All the band members lost homes, belongings and some of the most precious things in their lives.
Drummer Harry Cook was rescued off the roof of his house.
HARRY "SWAMP" COOK, HOT 8 DRUMMER: They told me that I couldn't put my drum on the helicopter and I told them, well, it's my life right here, it's my job. So I had to leave it back in the projects.
DORNIN: LSU music students loaned them some instruments and others were donated. The band has already played for evacuees at the River Center shelter downtown.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in traumatic times right now so the music is something that uplifts the people, keeps their spirits up and ...
DORNIN: Keep your own spirits up. WILLIAMS: Yeah, it keeps our spirits up, too, when we see the people happy, enjoy themselves by listening to us play the music, make us feel good also.
DORNIN: Hot 8 is part of a project known as "Save Our Brass" organized by local music lovers. It's designed to reunite the brass bands of New Orleans.
(on camera): The whole idea is to keep this circle of giving and music going. They're asking for instruments and donations. They plan to pass those on to other musicians from New Orleans who have nothing to play.
(voice-over): The band members didn't find each other until last week. They aren't taking any money for shows at the shelters. These gigs, they say, come from the heart. A way of making sure the spirit of New Orleans lives on one note at a time.
(MUSIC)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Aaron, I don't think any of us can wait until we hear music in New Orleans and I've never been a big fan of Mardi Gras but I got to tell you I plan to be here when Mardi Gras happens next in New Orleans. It's going to be quite some party.
BROWN: Yeah, it'll be quite some party. Get a little gumbo and it'll be a really good night.
In the meantime, we keep an eye on Rita, which is making her way across the Florida Keys tonight. Tropical Storm as we speak will strengthen likely to a hurricane by early tomorrow morning. Across the Keys into the Gulf, strengthen again and make its way probably to Texas.
COOPER: Well, you don't hope a hurricane heads anywhere, but I know the people in Louisiana just hope it does not hit a direct hit here. Aaron, thanks very much for the coverage tonight.
Our CNN special coverage of the hurricane and its aftermath continues now with Catherine Callaway.
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