Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Behind the Scenes of Hurricane Rita; FEMA Politics; Animal Rescue Missions Underway in the Gulf Coast
Aired September 26, 2005 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Wants to home and will. But he will go home changed some from the experience of this month, changed by the people who took him in.
GERALD MONTGOMERY, NEW ORLEANS EVACUEE: When I get straight, or get my home redone. I'm going to pay a surprise visit. I always say when the leaves turn green and the flowers bloom, I'll make an appearance in Sulfur, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: You're watching HURRICANE KATRINA: STATE OF EMERGENCY with Anderson Cooper and Aaron Brown.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back to this special two hour edition of NEWSNIGHT I'm Anderson Cooper in New Orleans joined by Aaron Brown in New York -- Aaron.
BROWN: Thank you Anderson. We've heard a lot about how lucky everybody was that Rita made landfall as just a Category 3, but as you look at the pictures and you hear from the people who suffered you that like Katrina, Rita has left a mark, will continue to do so for sometime to come and we'll spend much of the hour chronicling that mark -- Anderson.
COOPER: Aaron, and even those who are lucky to have survived the storms like Rita and Katrina find themselves with lives that are literally turned upside down. We're on Stafford Street in New Orleans in the Lake View section, very close to the 17th Street Canal, it's literally just about a block away. Just want to show you some of the devastation that we are seeing all around us still one month after Katrina.
This is a car which has been tossed up into a tree which has fallen over. You can see, in the car, I'm going to shine the light, there's a -- still a little child's car seat, I think it is, in there. And then over here, there's a lady's purse. I don't know if you can still see that. Just the kind -- these are the kind of scenes we are seeing block after block after block in this part of New Orleans. I want to have a little bit -- we're going to take you on a tour around Stafford Street a little bit later on this special two hour edition of NEWSNIGHT, but first, let's get you up to date what's happening right now at this moment.
Here's what's happening. In southwest Louisiana's Vermillion Parish, the sheriff has blasted FEMA for not responding quick enough to resident's needs after Hurricane Rita. At least 200 people were rescued from flood waters in the parish. The sheriff says he wishes FEMA would cut all the red tape and get supplies and services to the people who've lost their homes. We've heard that before, haven't we?
No deaths from Rita are reported in Louisiana. At least six people died in Texas and one in Mississippi. As for the price tag fro Rita, the pulmonary estimate in Texas $8 billion, they've seen double punch from Rita and Katrina. The state plans to ask Congress for $31 billion to rebuild and approve levees and major roadways.
And a sign the region is already rebounding after Rita. The Coast Guard has opened -- reopened, I should say, Houston's ship channel, most of the other coastal waterways to daylight traffic.
Vermillion Parish, Louisiana's sheriff has blasted FEMA as we told you. And there has been a lot of attention out of Washington right now with what is going on with the former FEMA director, Mike Brown.
Mike Brown who resigned his post from FEMA several weeks ago. There's some new developments about a new job he's gotten. For that we got to CNN's Ed Henry in Washington.
Ed, what do you know?
ED HENRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening Anderson. That's right, CNN first reported last week that having -- despite having to resign under fire, Michael Brown was still on the federal payroll for another month for what the Department of Homeland Security vaguely called "transitional purposes" at the time. Well, we've learned tonight as Brown met behind closed doors today with congressional investigators and revealed what he's doing for that money, he said he's helping FEMA assess what went wrong in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
As you can imagine this raising some eyebrows on Capitol Hill where Brown is scheduled to be the star witness tomorrow before congressional committee probing the governmental response to Katrina. Given the questions about Brown's own conduct in the aftermath of Katrina, coupled with the allegations about the head -- the former head of the Arabian Horse Association was ever really qualified to run FEMA -- they are going to be some very sharp questions about whether taxpayers should be paying Brown to help get to the bottom of all of this -- Anderson.
COOPER: And he's going to be testifying. Any word on what he's going to be saying? HENRY: Yeah, in fact, we've also learned that he told congressional investigators today, in a little bit of a preview, that he wishes federal officials had pushed more forcefully and earlier to get federal troops brought in to restore order in New Orleans after Katrina. That's in contrast to the fact that allies of the bush administration had been suggesting the blame lies more with state and local officials in Louisiana for not pushing harder for the military to get in.
The significance, of course, is that when Brown testified about all this tomorrow, it's going reignite this debate about the blame game. The White House has been feeling pretty good over the last day or so about the fact that the image coming out of this weekend was the president as a hands-on commander in chief who was all over Hurricane Rita, but Brown's testimony tomorrow is going to put the microscope again -- once again on the federal government's response to Katrina, not Rita, and the fact that in the early days of this storm, of course, the president referred to Michael Brown as "Brownie" and said he was doing a heck of a job -- Anderson.
COOPER: Yes, and said he was working 24 hours a day.
Just bottom line is, he's being paid by FEMA for -- to be part of this study?
HENRY: Yes, he's still on the payroll of FEMA and their -- the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security that oversees FEMA. He's continued on the payroll since he left. He's basically serving as a consultant among the chief thing he's doing, basically, is to handle -- help handle this review of what went wrong.
There are undoubtedly going to be some people who he's in the best possible position to help figure out went wrong. There others, obviously, are going to raise their eyebrows and say, with some outrage, why in the world is the person who's in the middle of this storm -- the middle of all these problems the one who's now trying to figure out and assess what went wrong -- Anderson.
COOPER: Well, we should also see, is he going to point the finger at himself if he's pointing the finger at other people, as well. That of course remains to be seen. Ed, thanks for following up. We'll continue to investigate that in the days to come.
Aaron, I should also point out that we tried to contact Mike Brown for comment, or to get him on the program. He did not get back to us at this time -- Aaron.
BROWN: Well, it will be interesting to see how he says what he says and what role he takes on himself. It was obviously his job. He was running the show. He can't duck at all. I suspect he won't try and duck at all, we'll see tomorrow.
Now, on to southwest Louisiana and a place called Cameron Parish. Rita landed a direct hit there. The storm basically swallowed up the region. Keep that in mind when you hear that they dodged a bullet. It destroyed 90 percent of the homes there -- 90 percent. Ground zero for Rita. Here's CNN's Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We boarded our airboat and headed straight for the town of Creole in Cameron Parish. This is where Hurricane Rita made landfall. More than 70 percent of the homes were destroyed here. Our driver, Ben Welch is hoping his wasn't one of them.
KAYE (on camera): We haven't seen your home yet. How worried are you about whether your...
BEN WELCH, CAMERON PARISH RESIDENT: Oh, I know it's not there. It's not there. They -- my home's another -- see those group of trees down at the end? That's a bridge that's runs up there. They just told us it's still got about ankle deep, mid-calf deep water over on it.
KAYE (voice-over): We kept on pushing toward his neighborhood. The ride there didn't offer much hope. If Rita could do this, what were the odds Welch's house was still standing?
WELCH: My father and my grandparents always told me about what happened during Hurricane Audrey. I could -- I would imagine it, but I never thought I would have to see it.
KAYE: We'd seen Cameron Parish and Creole by air, but up close the destruction was magnified and morbid. Dead wildlife everywhere, rabbits, pigs, and cows half buried in the brush. Some cattle looked like upside down ointments in a marsh made by Mother Nature.
Those who survived appeared wild, when a cow came running at us, Welch pulled out his gun. Just the trauma of all that what happened and the salt water, they don't have no water to drink, what it is they're disoriented and plus the salt water makes them go out of their mind, they just don't know what to do.
KAYE: This goose appeared disoriented and thirsty. We gave him fresh water, then tried to follow us back to our boat.
WELCH: This is downtown Creole.
KAYE (on camera): Main Street.
WELCH: Main Street, Creole Louisiana. Watch the mud it's going to be real slippery.
KAYE (voice-over): We arrived in Creole to find Main Street destroyed. The only restaurant in town, closed for business, the grocery store out of business, and the mechanic shop in need of repair.
KAYE (on camera): You see that yellow building right there? That's the Creole Post Office. It use to be over there, to the right of that mail box. But when Hurricane Rita come through it spun it around slammed it on the other side of the bank. KAYE (voice-over): These guys just returned from Welch's neighborhood. He's desperate for information about his home.
WELCH: They got a Baptist Church right on this side. Still up?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, well, not that much.
WELCH: Not much?
KAYE: The search and rescue missed him home by half a mile. Welch will have to wait another day. The water is now too low and our airboat won't make it.
KAYE (on camera): How frustrating.
WELCH: Bad. I probably won't get there today.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: Ben Welch's family has really had a rough couple of months, Aaron. Not only is it very likely that he lost his home with Rita, but his mother-in-law lives in New Orleans, or I should say, use to live, thanks to Hurricane Katrina, she lost her home there, as well.
Now in terms of cattle, they're number, right now, about more than 1,000 dead. There is one man who lives here in Cameron Parish who had 5,000 cows. He's only been able to find 500.
BROWN: How long did they think, Randi, before the water recedes?
KAYE: Actually, it's receding quite quickly. Apparently they were able to get trucks in -- big trucks all the way to Cameron, the city of Cameron, which is the farthest point the parish, and even on our airboat today, there were some of the roads, that he was able to go on with his boat yesterday when he was down there, that were already dry today. So it seems to be they've opened up some of the locks and it seems to be receding.
BROWN: And it's pretty dry there today, I don't mean the roads, I mean the weather. Not raining.
KAYE: Oh no, it's quite warm, quite warm. In fact, we had some record high temperatures here today.
KAYE: Randi, thank you. Randi Kaye in Cameron Parish.
Anderson, it's just, as we said earlier, it is this reminder that you can on the one hand talk about it could have been much worse and it could have been much worse, but if you're in one of those three parishes in Louisiana that got whacked or in those towns in Texas that got hit very hard, it was plenty bad enough.
COOPER: Yeah it was, and most of the people -- I was out in Vermillion Parish yesterday in a boat, and everyone will tell you, look, most of them are Cajuns, they lived there all their life, someone one said, look, "I have never seen anything like this. My dad has never seen anything like this." If just doesn't flood in that part of the world, so it was quite a shock for a lot of those people who weathered the storm pretty good, but it was that second storm surge with these wind coming up from the south that got them.
Lieutenant General Russel Honore is the commander of Joint Task Force Katrina. He's in charge of the clean up all across Louisiana. Right now he's dealing with Cameron Parish, and Aaron, he says it's completely destroyed. Lieutenant General Honore joined me earlier from Cameron Parish. I began by asking him just how bad things are there, really.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LIEUTENANT GENERAL RUSSEL HONORE, CMDR. JOINT TASK FORCE KATRINA: It is bad. Cameron is destroyed. The only building that's usable in Cameron and Creole combined is the courthouse. All the other buildings are destroyed, sad to day, but that is the situation, with dead cattle and dead rats littered across the road. It is a bad situation (INAUDIBLE).
COOPER: Do you have any sense of -- with the dead cattle, I hear reports of several thousand, is that accurate, and any reports of people?
HONORE: Nor reports of people in this area, but the -- all the infrastructure is destroyed with the exception of the court house. We made to the courthouse today. We're hoping to get light in the courthouse tomorrow and we're in the process of clearing the streets, the main routes, but the city is destroyed -- the churches, the hospitals, none of those buildings are usable anymore. We're in the process of getting basic life support and clearing the roads and making it safe so the parish government can move back to the courthouse.
On the point of the cattle, there's probably 2,000 cattle that need food and water. We're working tonight to figure out how we could helicopters to move the large bales of hay in. He can do the hay and we're working through the problem how do we get water to these cattle who are scared and running around in the marsh. We will work that hard, but if there's anybody out there with a solution, we could use some help. The point of contact here is Mr. Freddie Bushwa (ph), he is a USDA veterinarian in Cameron Parish.
COOPER: What -- how long -- I mean, what do you do now? What do you do tonight with darkness falling, what do you do you do tomorrow? What are the priorities?
HONORE: The priorities is to continue to try and get the -- regroup the government, to get the government back up and running in a suitable place. Right now, this building behind me, we moved in (INAUDIBLE) the telephones last night so they could communicate with the state. We brought in food and water. There are two FEMA trucks here with ice, water, and food for the parish government officials and people who run the electrical power system and the ones who load the infrastructure in the parish. We also brought some medical people forward. We brought in Marine and Navy (INAUDIBLE) team in to start doing initial clearing at the courthouse.
COOPER: I just -- I just finally -- if you could say again, who's the point of contact if there's anyone out here who is listening who has any suggestions on what to do with those cattle who are needing food. Who should they try to contact?
HONORE: Mr. Fred Bushoir (ph) and we'll make sure that number gets flashed out to you later so you can share it. The cattle are sacred; they've been drinking some of the brackish water. It changes their temperament. It causes them to excrete more of their body fluids and they're losing weight. So we could use some help with that. There's some big-brained people out there that can figure it out. We've got helicopters; we got to figure out how we get water to these isolated cattle.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: We've requested a number; unfortunately there is no number for that man, Freddie Bushoir (ph). I guess if any viewers do have any suggestions on the cattle that -- any experience with this, they could e-mail us, cnn.com/360. We'll try to forward those e-mails to Honore's office.
That is what we face now, another massive cleanup operation in that part of Louisiana. Now look at how we got to this point. What it was like waiting for Rita's arrival and the moment of impact. Even when the cameras couldn't operate or when the Seattleite dish was down, the thoughts are mine, the photos are by Jenson Whacker of Getty images.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Waiting for a hurricane, it's often a tense time. You read the latest forecast, try to find a safe location to broadcast from. We set up near the Neches River in Beaumont, Texas. We also had a fallback position for when things got really bad. It got dark pretty quick. The rain was constant, in a matter of minutes we were all completely soaked. By around 1:45 a.m. we'd retreated to our more secure location.
(on camera): It's just miserable out here. It just continues to be sort of nonstop, this pouring rain. Just, you know, every minute after minute after minute without any letup.
(voice-over): As the hurricane approached, the rain increased and the winds shifted dramatically.
(on camera): The winds are just constant now. They are just whipping and it's like a thousand needles just pricing you as you're trying to stand out here. I'm just going to try to get over there because you can't even look into it -- you cannot look to where the wind is pointing because it's just too extreme. (voice-over): Around 3:30 we lost our satellite truck and could no longer transmit live images. Producers and engineers tried to get us back on the air. It's frustrating to be there and not be able to broadcast. I called into CNN on my Blackberry. A photographer captured what I was seeing in pictures.
The site that I am seeing right, I wish we could broadcast right now. It is a sight that I have rarely ever seen before. It looks like a solid white -- just a solid wall of white that is just sweeping across the entire region. There are just a few trees visible. There's one light, which is actually a car light from one of our vehicles and it is casting an eerie glow to this wall of white wind and water. It is eerie, it is beautiful and it is horrible at the same time.
(on camera): About 20 minutes later our engineers were somehow able to get the satellite dish working again. The winds were nearing 90-miles-an-hour.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have Anderson Cooper back with us who's in Beaumont -- Anderson.
COOPER: (INAUDIBLE) this is, without a doubt, the height of the storm. You probably -- it doesn't really do it justice, what you're seeing behind me. But it is literally this solid wall of white, and it almost -- I mean, when you're here, it looks like you're in the middle of a snowstorm. It is just a blizzard of snow, but it's not, it's just water and wind. I have never seen anything like this.
(voice-over): There comes a point in every storm when you have to decide whether to stay or go. After that live shot, we moved indoors.
We sat inside for the next few hours. Some of us fell asleep. We were all tired and wet, but happy we'd once again made it through the storm.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Those photographs were by Jenson Walker, I mispronounced his name before. I know his mom is watching, so I want to apologize for that. He was also telling me that some of those images which look like they're black and white, they're not black and white pictures, they're actually color picture, there was just no color in the sky, it was such a white out, it was remarkable to hear that.
Coming up, the agony of knowing your home could be destroyed, yet you can't get to it. And watch your wallet, the ripple effect from Rita, oil prices and more could they take a hit? This is a special two hour edition of NEWSNIGHT: STATE OF EMERGENCY from New York and New Orleans.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: And welcome back, we're live on Stratford Street here in New Orleans in the Lake View region. I want to show you, this is a cat, a little kitten which has been living in a house here, which of course has been just abandoned and overrun by the water. Some rescue workers were out here earlier trying catch that kitten, every time we approach it, it kind of runs away. When people originally searched the house, you can see there were no bodies inside, that's what that zero means and then it says "cat." There were actually two cats inside.
The woman who, actually, you're going to meet later on tonight on the special edition of NEWSNIGHT, actually come earlier tonight and removed one cat, she got one of them and brought it to a shelter, but she couldn't catch that little kitten. And we've been -- you know, they've been leaving food out here. They've been leaving out, you know, Friskies's for it, and it's clearly eating the food and drinking water, but it won't let anyone get near it.
And we're seeing, you know, everywhere you go, there -- I mean, there are thousands of animals, rescue workers say, still in need and still out there and a lot of them are so scared, all they can do is kind of leave off a little food for them and just hope, you know, either the owners come or eventually they get hungry enough that they're willing to come forward and let some people who are out here working for them, take them in -- Aaron.
BROWN: Cats can be like that. They can be difficult that way, that's their nature, I guess.
Back to Katrina for a bit. It's been a tough couple of days for the people of Cameron Parish. Not only were they hit Hurricane Rita, local officials say 90 percent of the homes were destroyed, but they can't even begin the recovery process because they're not being allowed to get to their homes to see what's damaged. Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 82nd Airborne has arrived.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you guys going to be doing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fixing the state.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah!
TUCHMAN: Fixing the state and more specifically, fixing Cameron Parish. One of the areas of Louisiana hit hardest by Hurricane Rita. But while the troops go over the bridge into the devastated town of Hackberry, the people of Hackberry are being told by police they can't go because it's not considered safe.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm aggravated, I'm upset. We're getting to the point to where we have to make each other laugh instead of cry, but I understand their job. But, eventually they're going to have to let us in. They're going to have to. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Either that or we're going to have to outlaw to do it, and I know it's going to be hard. I was very tempted this morning to go by boats. And they said they was arresting us, it was almost to that point to say we just don't care. Arrest us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know they're doing it for safety reasons. I understand that a lot. But we're not going in there to take nothing out, we just want to go look to ease our minds.
TUCHMAN: Cameron Parish is where the eye of Hurricane Rita crossed. As a matter of fact, this is the precise spot, on the southwestern tip of the state. Most of the buildings in this parish have been destroyed or heavily damaged. Towns have just disappeared from the map. In the neighboring and also devastated parish of Calkashu, Harold Herman was able to talk his way in. But what he saw was not good. He lost his home and his nest egg.
HAROLD HERMAN, CALKASHU RESIDENT: It's like where do you start? You know, what do you do first?
TUCHMAN: His gas station convenience store, a business he built years building up, destroyed.
(on camera): What do you think the monetary damage is?
HERMAN: You know, this place is worth a million dollars and right now I don't think you could give it away.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Back at the bridge they wait in the blazing sun, hoping police change their minds and let them see what happened to their homes. In the back of their minds, though, they know the news will likely not be good.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Cameron Parish, Louisiana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Gary's going to go back to the town tomorrow to try to see if he can get in. It's so frustrating for those people who feel like they got to know somebody, the right person, in order to kind of slip past those lines. Let's hope they get back home soon, as well.
Coming up tonight, the latest on an animal search and rescue effort here in New Orleans. You're going to meet a woman who's just come on her own to try to help and says, maybe that's what you all should, as well.
This is NEWSNIGHT: STATE OF EMERGENCY. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: A lot of you have been sending us e-mails about the stranded animals that we've been showing you in TV. Pets that were left alone in the hurricanes or left behind by evacuees for one reason or another. Hundreds have been rescued, probably thousands, though there are still many more out there. Earlier I spoke with a woman named Michelle Rokke who's a vet tech who just decided to come here on her own to try to see what she could do to save animals lives.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: You just decided to come on your own.
MICHELLE ROKKE, ANIMAL RESCUE VOLUNTEER: I did. I drove down to Louisiana about a week-and-a-half ago, almost two weeks ago, now, because I heard they needed help down here. A donor at home rented a van for me and I just hit the road. So, took the time off work and here I am.
COOPER: Who's this?
ROKKE: This is a little beagle that came in today. A fire emergency worker found him, south of Saint Bernard Parish and brought him in to us just in time really, I mean, he's pretty thin. We've -- he's been eating and drinking really well. She's a female, actually. She's been eating and drinking really well, so I think she's going to be all right, but sure am glad we got here in.
COOPER: She's got a little cut there.
ROKKE: Yeah, she's got some marks. We're seeing a lot of the animals that come in covered with this sort of toxic sludge and we're doing our best to decontaminate them, get them cleaned up and then send them off to facilities where they can get really good care, good veterinary care and then hopefully be reunited with their owners.
COOPER: And the Marines are helping you out.
ROKKE: Thank goodness for the military. Colonel Diamond and the 4th division, the 4th Civil Affairs Group have been marvelous. They've been giving it as much as any of our other animal volunteers.
COOPER: What have they been doing?
ROKKE: They've been cleaning cages for us, they've been getting us through roadblocks when we need to get into rescue animals, they've hauling animals for us, doing a lot of the heavy lifting for us, because we don't have the volunteer power to do it, so I hats are really off to the Marines. They've been very helpful.
COOPER: And for all the animals, you think you've, what, rescued probably 200 or 250 or so?
ROKKE: We brought in about 250 in the last week.
COOPER: That's just your group operation?
ROKKE: Just our group. And we think it's really just the tip of the iceberg. I'm sure there are thousands left in the area that need to come back... COOPER: Thousands of animals, still.
ROKKE: Thousands of animals that need to come in. Some are still confined in house that need to come out. Some are running the streets. We're really worried about making sure that the animals that are on the streets, if they are getting aggressive, there are some animals that are packing up, some of the fighting pit bulls are posing a bit of a problem. If I might mention.
You know, systemically, there really needs to be a focus on getting animals included in disaster relief efforts so that we don't have to do so much rescue and we can make sure the animals get out with the people.
COOPER: Yeah, there are a lot of people saying they want to see shelters that animals can got to.
ROKKE: Right.
COOPER: Because a lot people are staying, it becomes an evacuations problem, people are staying because of their animals.
ROKKE: A lot of these people didn't make the conscious decisions to leave animals behind in an unsafe situation. It really just became an unsafe situation rather quickly. But we absolutely encourage people, if there is a disaster, to free your animals. Make sure they can get out if you have to leave them behind. If it's not safe for you, it's not safe for your animals.
COOPER: And often, animals on their own can do better than animals trapped in a house.
ROKKE: Absolutely, animals trapped in a house have virtually no chance for survival.
COOPER: And all the animals that you find you put on petfinder.com?
ROKKE: If you look at petfinder.com, you can find them. We have hard copies of photographs of animals that we've taken at our shelter on Press (ph) Street.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, a number of you have been wondering how you can help these animals. I wanted to give you a couple organizations who are doing work out here. At the shelter where Michelle has been a volunteer, you can call them 1-800-524-2996. Or you can go to their website at www.lvma.org.
You can also help the lost animals through these other organizations that we're showing on the screen. The Humane Society of the United States can be reached by calling 1-800-HUMANE1. The number for the ASPCA is 866-275-3923. And you can reach Noah's Wish, another group we profiled, at www.noahswish.org. Some of the groups who are working here. There are many others, and a lot of people just coming, trying to do what they can. They don't need people necessarily going out trying to pick up animals, but just helping clean cages and things like that.
Coming up next tonight on this special edition NEWSNIGHT, caught on camera: a photographer capturing the first moments of Hurricane Rita. He keeps rolling, as the water rises all around him, even supplying commentary as the waves wash over him. Remarkable pictures. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Well, when everyone was running away from Hurricane Rita, an amateur photographer named Cliff Schoke (ph) was running towards it, capturing images that take your breath away. It's video from the front lines of the story. When the storm surge came crashing onto shore, his camera was on, and here's what he got.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): At around 5:00 a.m., Cliff Schoke woke up thinking that Hurricane Rita had left him and his dad, Boyd, unscathed.
CLIFF SCHOKE (ph), AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: I got up, I looked in the back yard and it looked like the yard was moving. So I ran in the house to tell my dad that the water was coming.
BOYD SCHOKE (ph), HURRICANE SURVIVOR: Ooh, it's up to the windows. We can wait down here until either the door busts or whatever, you know? If the door busts, we're going to have to get up there. There isn't really a whole lot they can do for us, son.
C. SCHOKE (ph): We tried to get everything we could in the attic, stuff to break the ceiling open with and food, water, stuff like that, and the camera.
B. SCHOKE (ph): It's starting to come back in at the door. We've got major damage.
COOPER: Despite the rapidly raising water, Cliff and Boyd (ph) remained remarkably calm.
C. SCHOKE (ph): The rain picked up. The water was already 4 feet in the house, 4 and a half feet. And then the waves just started pounding the house.
B. SCHOKE (ph): After it gets up a ways, it's going to bust those windows.
C. SCHOKE (ph): At about that time, my uncle called and said they were having boats ready, people trying to come in.
B. SCHOKE (ph): Haven't seen any snakes yet.
C. SCHOKE (ph): The house was breaking apart, so I made a decision. I crawled to the north side of the house and took my shotgun and blew the wall out. Just in case it fell, we didn't want to be in the attic. I jumped out the window, and I swam across the road, to the neighbor's house and got a boat, I mean -- and as I was swimming across Highway 82 in about 6 feet of water, the Coast Guard helicopter was coming over. And I was like, "Man, that's good news."
COOPER: The Coast Guard choppers were rescuing dozens of stranded residents in Vermilion Parish, but Cliff had a boat and thought he and his dad would be OK.
C. SCHOKE (ph): I had the boat started, and we were in good shape then. So I went to pick up my dad.
COOPER: They weren't sure where to go. Every place they looked was flooded. That's when their problems really began.
C. SCHOKE (ph): We were just trying to get north, anywhere, to where we could walk or, you know, anything. Just to save fuel, we turned the motor off, and we started floating. And I was like, "Man, Dad, the boat's leaning." So I ran to the back of the boat, and I opened the hood, and the engine was almost under water. So I grabbed a trash can and I started -- anything that could go wrong was going wrong -- I started bailing it out, bailing it out, as fast as I could.
We were sinking right there. So we turned the motor back on, and we got up against a tree, I finally got the water back down. I was like, "Dad, we need to turn around and go, try to make it in." When we turned around, the boat ran out of diesel. So, by that time, the helicopter was coming back around. I flagged them down, and they came and picked us up. That's all there was to it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: "And that's all there was to it." I can't get over how calm both of these men were during this. Cliff, Aaron, I told you earlier, was in Iraq for 15 months. He was a scout in the Army. He just bought a new boat, he bought a new pick-up truck with the money he'd been saving up. And of course, those are all gone right now.
BROWN: There's a certain presence of mind, if nothing else, that's required to keep shooting tape through all of that. It's one thing for professional news photographers to do it. It's another thing for a guy who's basically in the process of losing his home and trying to save his life to keep shooting.
COOPER: Yes, and the narration throughout is fascinating to me. I mean, I've heard this now many times, as we're editing it. Phil Littleton (ph) edited this, our cameraman. And there's a moment when a shoe floats by, and the father just says, "Yeah, here comes a shoe." It's just one of those moments. You can't make this stuff up. These are two guys who kind of knew there was nothing they could do, and they were just kind of watching it happen and doing whatever they could to get out of there.
BROWN: But there's no moment where they sound panicky. COOPER: Not at all. In fact, I mean, he shoots a shotgun through the wall, he swims across Highway 82, and at no point is he panicky. I mean, yes, the camerawork is a little bit shaky, but you know, I shoot on a camera. My camerawork's probably about as shaky as his is. So, I was incredibly impressed with these two. I don't know that I would have had the presence of mind to do what they did.
BROWN: That's something. Just ahead, it's not quite as exciting as all of that, but it could hurt you anyway. The economic fallout from Rita. We're seeing it already. You're seeing it. You know it if you're buying gas for your car. The wintertime will likely be worse, and we'll explain why.
But first, CNN presents a look at the hurricane that changed the country, Katrina, and the chaos that followed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I begged the cops to stay here and help us, give us some spotlights, and help us. Don't leave us alone.
BROWN (voice-over): The city's police chief seemed as powerless as he was frustrated.
EDWIN COMPASS, NEW ORLEANS POLICE CHIEF: We had to use so much of our manpower to fight this criminal element.
BROWN: It's hard to know how bad, and how widespread, the unrest was. But this much is clear: it was not predicted, it had not been drilled, and it badly complicated rescue efforts.
SUSAN NEELY, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY ASSISTANT SECRETARY: Well, the big concern is the huge diversion of first-responder resources to contain the civil unrest.
BROWN: Susan Neely was assistant secretary for public affairs at Homeland Security, under Tom Ridge.
NEELY: What's the main thing that we say to people when something happens? Help the first responders help you.
BROWN: But that didn't always happen in New Orleans.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People need help, we try to help them. We don't get there fast enough, so they shoot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE CNN CORRESPONDENT: New Orleans is forcing many in the homeland security and emergency management business to rethink how they train, plan and prepare.
ELLEN GORDON, NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL: Having the disaster victims themselves turn on the first responders isn't necessarily something that we've discussed and talked about in the past, at any length.
BROWN: Ellen Gordon is a former emergency management director from Iowa. She led the state's efforts to recover from the disastrous floods there in 1993. Now, she travels the country as part of a team from the Naval Postgraduate School, teaching governors, Homeland Security officials and first responders. She says there's not been a lot of focus on how social breakdown plays out in a disaster.
GORDON: But I believe now that there will be many of us that will say, "We've got to take time out to discuss this and say, 'Are we prepared to respond to this type of situation in the future?'"
BROWN: So the training manual itself may need rewriting. The Department of Homeland Security's own 15 planning scenarios, from nuclear terror attack to category 5 hurricane, barely mention serious civil unrest, or the possibility that significant numbers of first responders can't or won't respond.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The effect of Hurricane Rita on the oil industry, the refiners and supply lines, not as bad as feared. Texas Governor Rick Perry described it as a "glancing blow." Still, the president said today he's prepared to use the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to cover any shortages, in the form of loans to oil companies. And he encouraged drivers to conserve fuel. But with oil prices going ever- upwards, drivers may not need much prompting. Here's CNN's Ali Velshi.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's true: most refineries were spared the worst of Hurricane Rita. But your wallet might not be.
TOM KLOZA, OIL PRICE INFORMATION SERVICE: The hurricanes are going to haunt us for, really about four, five, six weeks or so. And then, we'll be OK in November and December.
VELSHI: At a national average of about $2.80 a gallon, gasoline costs nearly a dollar more than it did a year ago. If it stays around this price, that's $500 more per year for the average American driver. Five hundred bucks seems like a deal compared to what you'll soon pay to heat your home, especially if you live in one of the more than 50 million American homes that use natural gas.
The government said if it's a cold winter, it could cost you 71 percent more to heat your house this year than it did last year. That's $600. If you use heating oil, you'll pay about 30 percent more to heat your home this winter. For most Americans, it's still hundreds of dollars that you won't have to spend on other things, the other things you buy that make America one of the strongest economies in the world. And that's if nothing else goes wrong.
PHIL FLYNN, ALARON TRADING CORPORATION: We are extremely vulnerable. If we have another tropical storm that shuts down production, I fear for the economy.
VELSHI: The president knows it's a real fear. For the second time in a month, he urged Americans to conserve. GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can all pitch in by being better conservers of energy. We can curtail nonessential travel. If it makes sense for the citizen out there to curtail nonessential travel, it darn sure makes sense for federal employees.
VELSHI: Oil companies are urging conservation, too. Exxon-Mobil is buying full-page newspaper ads encouraging drivers to save gas by reducing trips. Why would Exxon ask drivers to cut back? Because for some Americans, high fuel prices are making conservation an economic decision, rather than an environmental one. And if Americans get serious about conserving fuel, it'll hurt the industry a lot more than the hurricanes did. Ali Velshi, CNN, New York.
BROWN: And of course, not just the industry. If you're spending that money on gas -- gas Monday was three and a half dollars for regular today, a gallon. It means there's less money to go to the grocery. There's less money to go to the movies, less money to go to the Wal-Mart or the Target or whatever. There's less money to spend.
COOPER: And it ripples outward and outward. Aaron, thanks very much for that. That's definitely a story we're going to have to follow up on a lot over the next couple of days and weeks and months, no doubt. We've been getting a lot of emails about a woman you met earlier, Michelle Rokke. She is an animal rescue person here, working on her own.
We showed you a little bit before. Rescuers have come in here. They didn't find any bodies in this house, but they did find two cats. She actually came earlier. We have some video. After we did our interview, she actually came up to this house. Let's roll that video if we're not already. She came up to this house and did what a lot of the people here do. She actually entered the property, which is probably technically illegal. But, they're going to the properties and looking for the animals inside.
Oftentimes, these animals are very scared. She's trying to find two cats. Ultimately, she was able to find one of the cats inside this house. The other one is still out here, roaming around. It took her a little while to find that cat, but she was finally able to exit the house with that cat. She's brought that to her own shelter, which she's manning with the help of the Marine Corps around here. They've given her some officers for help here.
But you really get a sense, when you walk around this neighborhood, of just the complete devastation. I mean, you know, there's this car that we've been looking at all night. It's just so surreal. It's in a tree, the tree has fallen down on a house, and you know, you just see this block after block. I mean, you sort of try to piece together the pieces of it, like a puzzle. Try to figure out, did the car get into the tree and the tree fell?
You try to sort of reconstruct what happened. There's still a child seat, it looks like, in the back of that car, but it has been checked and obviously there is no one inside. This whole area has been checked and cleared of anybody who may have passed away here. When we come back, a lot more from New Orleans and from New York. Aaron has Morning Papers and more of the day's top stories. We'll be right back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): Elizabeth Smart was not a little girl lost, she was a little girl stolen. In the summer of 2002, she was taken from her bedroom in suburban Salt Lake City during the night. It was the anguish of her parents that touched the country.
ED SMART: Please let her come home.
LOIS SMART: We need her, and she needs us.
BROWN: Thousands mobilized to look for the 14-year-old, in what seemed to be a hopeless search. Then, nine months after being taken, she was found.
E. SMART: It's real. It's real.
BROWN: She had been taken and held by a man who once worked for the Smart family. Elizabeth is now 17, a high school student, talking very little about her ordeal. Elizabeth Smart is now a quiet activist for missing children and was present at the White House for the signing of the national Amber Alert bill. And her parents say she really is just a normal teenager, who dates and drives and spends time with friends.
E. SMART: Focusing on herself and moving forward is a tremendous example for others.
BROWN: Elizabeth Smart has received honors and awards for her courage, and even today, people still recognize her.
E. SMART: Essentially, at the end, came about, a girl that belonged to everyone. And that was how she was found.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: A quick check of the morning papers, give us a chance to look at some of the other things that made news today, by the way.
"The Washington Post". Reservist convicted in abuse of Iraqis. This is Lynndie England, not surprising that she was convicted. Could go to jail, or the brig, for 10 years.
Frist, that's the Senate majority leader. Bill Frist says he had no inside data on the sale of stock. He owned a lot of HCA, Hospital Corporation of America stocks, kind of a family business. And he managed to sell it at the high. It dropped about 9 percent the next month, but he didn't realize that was going to happen when he sold it. Never happens to me, but it can happen.
"The Washington Times." Bush seeks to federalize emergencies. This is an interesting national conversation, whether the Army should just, sort of, automatically go in when we have Katrina-like situations. They'd have to change a lot of laws to do that. "Times Herald-Record" in upstate New York leads local: Rampage, fired manager shoots three then kills himself. In New Windsor factory, he had been fired for viewing, I think it was child porn, on his computer at work. Don't be doing that.
"Cincinnati Inquirer." Judge guilty of public indecency. Seventy-one-year-old judge was having an affair with a 35-year-old probation officer. I don't think that's actually the crime. I think they were messing with witnesses.
Weather tomorrow in Chicago, please: mellow. A mellow day would be pretty good. We'll wrap up this mellow couple of hours in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Before Aaron and I go, we wanted to get you the number that we discussed earlier with Lt. Gen. Russel Honore. If you have any information, ideas or resources on how the military and rescuers can help stranded cattle in the region, in southwestern Louisiana, in the Cameron Parish, call a man by the name of Fred Bourgeois, of the USDA, on his satellite phone. The number is 011-88-167-632-4382. Again, only if you know some way that might help. Aaron?
BROWN: Is he going to get a lot of calls, because the Web site has gotten a lot of suggestions, from dropping -- I'm serious about this -- dropping portable hot tubs filled with water down by the cattle, and about a hundred others. Mr. Bourgeois had best be up right now. His phone's about to ring.
COOPER: Well, let's hope it's only serious suggestions, because this is a deadly serious situation.
BROWN: Good to see you. See you tomorrow, and we'll see you tomorrow. Larry King's up next. Goodnight for all of us.
