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CNN Newsnight Aaron Brown
Hurricane Wilma Tears Across Florida; All the President's Men; Rosa Parks Dies at Age 92
Aired October 24, 2005 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
You have to wonder how much of this people can take. And Wilma may not be done with us quite yet.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Hurricane Wilma tears across Florida and now north along the Atlantic Seaboard. How much damage did Wilma leave in her wake and what more can we expect?
Cancun, from vacationers' dream to storm-torn nightmare.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was concerned for family and friends and the fact that, you know, you never know if you are going to see them again.
How the perfect getaway town is dealing with a whole new kind of guest services.
And rumors swirl in Washington, as the special prosecutor seems poised to issue indictments. All the president's men -- what do you really know about those under suspicion? And what happens at the White House in a worst-case scenario?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEWSNIGHT. Live from Hollywood, Florida, Anderson Cooper, and, from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, Aaron Brown.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening from Florida, where some residents are lucky tonight. Their homes were spared from Hurricane Wilma, while hundreds, perhaps thousands, of others face a major cleanup.
BROWN: We will have lots on Wilma tonight shortly -- first, some of the other stories making news at this moment.
At sunset today in Baghdad, three explosions near two hotels housing international journalists and contractors -- at least 10 people were killed, 22 others wounded. Iraqi police say the blasts were caused by two car bombs and one cement mixer truck. But journalists at one of the hotels said two of the explosions appeared to be have been rockets. In Washington, amid continuing criticism by conservatives, Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers had no comment for CNN when she was asked if she was going to request that the president withdraw her nomination to sit on nation's highest court.
Today, Mr. Bush, citing confidentiality, said he won't turn over papers that would reveal what Miers advised him in her role as White House counsel.
And, in the Oval Office, this Bush nominee bows on Wall Street. The president nominated Ben Bernanke, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, to become the new chairman of the Federal Reserve, replacing Alan Greenspan. Wall Street responded with its biggest day in six months, Dow industrials up 169 points, in part in measure of the president's choice. Mr. Greenspan retires on the 31st of January -- Anderson.
COOPER: Well, here in Hollywood, Florida, the winds have finally died down, but the scars of Hurricane Wilma are everywhere.
This is what we know right now. Let's take a look. Hurricane Wilma is still a powerful Category 3 storm churning over the Atlantic, with winds near 125 miles per hour. It is moving northeast at a speed close to 40 miles per hour.
Now, as Wilma moved through Florida today, its fierce winds and heavy rains knocked out power for more than three million homes and businesses, affecting more than six million people.
Miami International Airport is on that list. It is having trouble with several of its power generators. A spokesman for the airport says it is questionable whether it will be able to reopen tomorrow. The airport is one of 19 across the state housing hurricane victims. There are also 124 shelters. And a lot of the people in those shelters will be coming back to damaged homes.
By one estimate, Wilma may have caused $4 billion to $8 billion in insured losses. Tragically, there were also deaths. Wilma killed at least six people in Florida.
All of this, of course, is just the beginning. We probably won't know the full extent of Wilma's impact for days, weeks or perhaps months to come. The storm turned out to be quite a powerful one. And that caught a lot of people by surprise.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Before dawn, no one knew what to make of Wilma. The most intense Atlantic hurricane on record had weakened from a Cat 5 storm, and some doubted its punch. By daybreak, however, Wilma's power was all too clear.
GOV. JEB BUSH (R), FLORIDA: Hurricane Wilma made landfall near Cape Romano in southern Collier County at a Category 3 force strength around 6:30 a.m. this morning. Winds have gusted up to Category 3 all across the state. And the storm remains very intense. COOPER: This is really bad. I think this is the worst it's been.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: Yes, definitely. This is the worst it's been. We were just saying that this sand will just peel the skin off you.
COOPER: With winds whipping more than 125 miles per hour, Wilma made landfall near Marco Island, a popular destination for snowbirds who flock to Florida's west coast for the winter. Scary doesn't describe it, is how the mayor summed it up in Naples, which hadn't suffered a direct hit since 1960.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Look at all this water. This down here was driveways and roadways, and now it is a river.
For a while out here, it looked like Moses parting the Red Sea. There was just a wall of water out here.
COOPER: Although the eye of the storm moved north of Key West, a powerful storm surge washed through the chain of islands, where thousands of people ignored a mandatory evacuation order. The only highway connecting the islands to the mainland was cut off -- heavy winds and rains leaving behind massive flooding from tip to tip.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What may be an issue is standing here. I weigh about 170 pounds. It's not so easy right now. I think if you weighed any less, you might be flying down the street.
COOPER: Islamorada, sports fishing capital of the world, also took a direct and drenching hit. Around southern Florida, 36,000 folks displaced in hurricane shelters.
At one point, 3.2 million homes and businesses were without electricity -- phone service, even mobile phone service, out in many areas -- and many communities without running water. In Washington, the president responded to Florida's latest weather nightmare.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I signed a major disaster declaration today. We have prepositioned food, medicine, communications equipment, urban search-and-rescue teams.
COOPER: The first of several Wilma-related deaths was reported near Fort Lauderdale. A man died when a tree fell on him in Coral Springs.
J. BUSH: Residents in South Florida and the Keys should continue sheltering in place and remain inside. We cannot say it enough. It is more dangerous after a storm than it is during the storm.
COOPER: This storm wasn't quick to leave. By 1:00 p.m., it had weakened to a Cat 2, with 105 mile-per-hour winds. But as the center moved offshore, the eyewall spread, continuing to slam the eastern shoreline. In fact, it could prove to be the strongest storm in Miami since Andrew in 1992. In Broward County, windows were blown out in county buildings, but glass not the only thing shattered here. This storm shook the confidence of many who thought Wilma would be a weakling.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think any of us expected this. This is -- this is horrendous.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, one of Wilma's first strikes on American soil happened early this morning, about 140 miles southwest of where I'm standing right now, in Hollywood, Florida. I'm talking about the Florida Key West.
Parts of that city were left under three to three to five feet of water.
CNN's Gary Tuchman was there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In the days before Noah took the animals two by two on his ark, you wonder if this is what he experienced.
The torrential rains have been coming down straight now for about three hours, horizontally, vertically. You guys, it will not be hard to hear you. We have got a real good setup. So, that is not going to be an issue today.
What may be an issue is standing here. I weigh about 170 pounds. It's not so easy right now. I think, if you weighed any less, you might be flying down the street.
And, indeed, in many areas in Florida, people have evacuated, but not here in Key West. There are some who evacuated, but there's no doubt that that -- that most people are still here.
Power went out at 12:30 Eastern time, and has now been out for two-and-a-half hours. And I think that put the scare into some people who are sticking around with us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, boy.
TUCHMAN: Whoa -- watching us through our reports. They ended up going home. So, we think the people are home now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: Tonight, the Florida Keys are a very dark place. There is some generator power, but, for the most part, the electricity all over the Keys is gone.
The good news, nobody in the Keys was killed, no serious injuries. But, here in Key West, population 28,000, about 60 percent of the homes were damaged from water, some severely flooded.
We just talked a short time ago to a man.
(YELLING)
TUCHMAN: We have some people who are yelling to our side here, a lot of people still having some revelry. Some of the bars have reopened up.
But we just talked to a gentleman who is in the store right next to me. And he said, his house is so damaged that, right now, he has to live inside his store -- Anderson, back to you.
COOPER: All right, Gary, thanks very much for that.
I'm -- although I'm in Hollywood, Florida, right now, I began my day on Marco Island, which is nearly 120 miles west of where I'm standing now. It is close to where Wilma made landfall this morning. If you saw any of our coverage this morning, you probably watched me get walloped by the 125-mile-an-hour winds.
Take a look. But I -- I -- actually, I didn't have as rough a time as this guy did. He was just trying to get down a hallway. The storm would not let him. You can clearly see him trying and trying. But Wilma kept on knocking him down. He even tries to slide himself forward at one point, using the railway for support -- gets nowhere -- a great example of just how powerful the storm really was.
CNN's chief national correspondent, John King, also spent the day at Marco Island. He tells us about one man who fought those brutal elements to save a bunch of crabs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For Richard Warrenburger (ph), staying the night in Everglades City as Wilma roared through was, in his view, the only option.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I got a heck of an investment here. And I just wanted to be here if I could save any of it.
KING: Two boats worth more than $100,000 each, a 300-foot dock and a waterside cafe with a stockpile of the local cash crop, stone crabs, $20,000 worth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, these here sell for $19 a pound, which is a crazy price, but...
KING (on camera): Well, not if you're selling them.
(CROSSTALK)
KING (voice-over): The roof was damaged. And the water is creeping in, but Warrenburger (ph) came here after his house started shaking in the middle of the night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, Val (ph). Yes, you take care.
KING: He laughs now, as he fields another phone call, someone else checking in the morning after.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All my kids are -- they just -- they thought I was nuts staying down here. And I probably was.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But they're all checking to make sure their dad is still around.
KING: The area around City Hall is a mess. There are trees and power lines down -- the storm surge, in some cases, leaving water three feet deep. It rose at least a foot in the hour we were in the center of town.
We had started the day at Marco Island, some 30 miles north, as the storm made landfall. This flooded road blocked us from getting to Goodland, a gritty fishing village.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flooding and again...
KING: And the storm started whipping again before we moved on.
(on camera): ... small fishing village called Goodland. We tried to get through it. We can't make it through in our vehicle.
(voice-over): Much later in the day, the road to Goodland is passable. But we find, the village has been hit hard.
During a visit Sunday, packing up was the order of the day. The house is modest, lined neatly along the canal -- now twisted metal and other debris, the trailers, no match for Wilma's wrath.
Corporal Craig Marshall (ph) patrolled, looking for any storm holdouts who needed help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There hasn't been any injured people down here. It looked like most of the folks got out of here prior to the storm.
KING: Gary Foltze (ph) was just back, and expecting a lot worst.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. And I thought that we were going to have these things all moved around everywhere, you know? I thought -- I thought it was going to be a big mess. But it's not quite as bad as I thought.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: John, what surprised you most about the storm this morning?
KING: Well, I think what surprised us most is how minimal the damage was, compared to what they expected the day before. But the water, as you have noticed in Rita and Katrina, again, here just the power of the water, the way it comes in, washes -- and many of these people -- of course, Florida is more prepared for hurricanes, Anderson. They live right on the edge of the water. They live near the sea -- but the -- just the power of the water and how it can just take things and throw them across -- this storm, at least from what we have seen of it, not the destruction anywhere near Katrina and Rita, but quite a bit of devastation -- one more surprise, how quickly -- remember, when you left Marco Island this morning, it was dark here -- one sign of quick progress, the power back on tonight.
COOPER: Oh, well, that's certainly great news. John King, thanks for that.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Aaron, for -- for me, the surprising thing was the -- the power of the back part of the eyewall. I had never really -- you know, we were standing around in the eye. Everything seemed fine.
And then, literally, within a space of about two or three minutes, we just got walloped with these sort of 100-mile-an-hour winds and -- and -- and this back wall of the -- part of the eyewall just -- it seemed to last on and on. Chad Myers kept saying, it's going to be another 15 minutes. And it would go, it seemed like, at least, you know, another hour. It was -- it was unlike anything I had ever seen, at least that part of the storm.
BROWN: Just in -- in the last, what, seven, eight weeks, you have been through three of these, Rita, Katrina and Wilna -- Wilma. How are they different? Or were they essentially the same?
COOPER: You know, every time -- I -- this time, I was just sick of it. I was really dreading this and -- and -- and kind of -- I'm just sick of all of them.
But, every time, you find something different. For me, this time, also for John Zarrella, who I was with, I mean, we -- neither of us had ever seen anything quite -- the back part of the storm as powerful as it was. And -- and, I got to say, it caught me, certainly, by surprise. I kind of thought the worst it was -- the worst was over. And in -- and -- and, in fact, the worst had only just begun.
BROWN: It was something to watch this morning. We will get back to you in just a minute.
Still ahead on the program, looting and flooding homes, hotels, roads in ruins -- you're getting a taste of it -- residents complaining the government isn't doing enough to help. Is Cancun now the new New Orleans?
And rescuers in Cuba also looked all too familiar -- people piling up in boats, as the floodwaters hit. We will get a report from Havana as well, as NEWSNIGHT continues around the world. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: We note a sad passing tonight out of Detroit. Rosa Parks died. She had been unwell for quite some time. She was 92 years old. And she died not far from Dearborn, Michigan.
Back in 1955, she rode the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. And, in many ways, the civil rights movement began on that December 1st, 1955 day. Rosa Parks had been suffering from dementia for the several years, living in the Detroit area. And she died tonight in Detroit.
Here's more now from CNN's Gary Tuchman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Historians point to the courage Rosa Parks showed as a turning point in the civil rights movement. December 1st, 1955, Montgomery, Alabama, a seamstress, Parks was on her way home sitting in the so-called colored section of a crowded bus. Several white passengers got on. But she refused to give up the seat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROSA PARKS, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: The driver wanted us to stand up, the four of us. We didn't move at the beginning, but he said, you all (INAUDIBLE) And he says, let me have those seats. And when the other three people moved and I didn't...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: Driving the bus was the same man who ejected her from a bus 12 years earlier. Parks was arrested and fined $14. She recalls, as the officer took her away, she asked, "Why do you push us around?" The officer's response, "I don't know, but the law is the law and you're under arrest."
In protest, a new minister in town organized what would become a 381-day bus boycott. That minister was 26-year-old Martin Luther King Jr.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: This is a nonviolent protest. We are depending on moral and spiritual forces, using the method of passive resistance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: Black people walked, rode taxies and organized carpools. The boycott severely damaged the transit company's finances. It ended when the Supreme Court ruled segregation on public transportation illegal. Parks lost her job at a department store because of her activism.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PARKS: I only knew that, as I was being arrested, that it was the very last time that I would ever ride in humiliation of this kind in segregation and being arrested for just wanting to go home and wanting to be comfortable and wanting to be treated as any passenger should.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: She and her husband left Alabama for Detroit, where she worked for a congressman for more than 20 years.
She would remain an important force in the civil rights movement until her death. Parks co-founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development to help young people pursue educational opportunities, get them registered to vote, and work towards racial peace.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PARKS: As long as there is unemployment and while crime, and all the things that go to -- for the infliction of man's inhumanity to man, regardless, that there's much to be done and people of goodwill need to work together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Thank you.
TUCHMAN: Even into her 80s, she was active on the lecture circuit, speaking to civil rights groups and accepting awards.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wow. It's beautiful.
(APPLAUSE)
TUCHMAN: Including Congress' highest order, the Congressional Gold Model, marking that December day more than 40 years ago, when Rosa Parks said no to a bus driver and no to segregation.
Gary Tuchman, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: It doesn't seem like long ago, does it? I mean, it's 50 years.
And courage is a funny thing. But it was an act of courage to refuse to get up out of that seat. And I worry sometimes that kids today don't know the Rosa Parks of the world. But she was there, literally at the beginning. And she changed her country. And that's something we can all be grateful for.
Rosa Parks is dead tonight in Detroit.
Here are some of the other stories making news at this hour.
Erica Hill joins us from Atlanta.
Nice to see you again, Ms. Hill.
ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you. Nice to be back, Mr. Brown.
We start off in Iraq today -- three explosions rocking Baghdad today just seconds from each other. You can see it here in this incredible video, the images caught by security cameras. At least 10 people were killed, 22 injured. Now, the deafening blasts happened near the Palestine and the Sheraton hotels. That's where most international journalists are based. Police say they were caused by suicide bombers using two cars and one cement mixer truck.
From Afghanistan to the U.S., a dangerous and powerful drug lord has been extradited to face trial in the U.S. -- Baz Mohammad accused of conspiring to smuggle more than $25 million of heroin into the U.S. Mohammad was arrested in Afghanistan in January.
Some good news if you want a flu shot this season -- unlike last year's shortage, the CDC saying at least 70 million doses of the influenza vaccine will be available this year. That means basically everybody who wants a flu shot can get one.
And, finally, an amazing sight in Ecuador. One of the largest volcanoes of the Galapagos Islands, known for exotic wildlife there, started erupting on Saturday afternoon. Now, it has since produced three lava flows. Luckily, though, officials say it does not pose any risk to the population, which is, of course, what the Galapagos Islands are so well known for.
BROWN: Nature is not in a particularly good mood these days, though.
(LAUGHTER)
HILL: I don't think so, no.
(LAUGHTER)
BROWN: Thank you. It's good to see you again. It's been a week.
Anderson, nature is not in a very good mood, is it?
COOPER: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: It is certainly not, not only here in Florida, but -- but, certainly, in Mexico, where the stories just coming out of Mexico, that continue to come out of Mexico, are just terrible.
I mean, while people here in Florida are assessing the damage, in Mexico, even storm season veterans can't believe the destruction they're seeing. Wilma's fury was ugly to behold. It unleashed a -- a dark side of the human nature, similar to what we saw after Katrina in New Orleans -- desperate, hungry people stealing everything, from food to pizza delivery motorcycles.
A curfew is in place to restore order. Mexico's president toured the damage today. But it is very rough going.
Our Susan Candiotti rode out the storm there. But, as you're about to hear, even getting her report filed to us by telephone was difficult.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Desperation setting in after four days without power or water in Cancun and Cozumel. Mexicans cuing out in seemingly endless lines for something to eat and drink. President Vicente Fox told CNN help is on the way.
VICENTE FOX, PRESIDENT OF MEXICO: The supply of food, the supply of medicine -- right now, we have just come out of a meeting. We do have all the merchandise. It's totally available. The problem is logistics to move fast, to move very, very fast, to have all of this products in the hands of people.
CANDIOTTI: However, tourists said they're worried how long supplies at shelters will last.
PHILLIP GODDARD, TOURIST: Supplies are running short. Really short. We don't know what's going to happen today. But everybody is starting to get very hungry.
CANDIOTTI: An estimated 20,000 tourists remain stranded in temporary shelters in Cancun and the island of Cozumel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every day, they keep on telling us tomorrow, five days. The next day, they say, no, four more days. No, nine more days. They just -- I wish I had an answer. That's all I want to know, is when I can get to the hotel or get to the airport.
CANDIOTTI: After visiting a shelter and touring the region, Mexico's president promised tourists would be bused starting Monday from Cozumel and Cancun to Merida, and flown out of Mexico on chartered flights. He said Cancun's airport might reopen late Tuesday.
FOX: As of tomorrow, the latest at 9: 00 tomorrow, the local airport, the Cancun airport will be at service again.
CANDIOTTI: But on Monday, roads to Merida were flooded, and it remained unclear how buses could get out. Mr. Fox said he had about 450 federal police sent to the region to prevent further looting that's been going on for days.
Tourism makes up 75 percent of the region's economy. That made hotel repair an urgent priority.
FOX: I'm absolutely sure and convinced that if today we're at zero, at zero, not one single operating; in the term of two months, you will see this up to 80 percent, 75 percent or maybe higher.
CANDIOTTI: Regardless, the government promised to make sure everyone keeps getting paychecks, a lofty goal for a recovery with an as yet undetermined price tag.
Susan Candiotti, CNN, Cancun, Mexico.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, the beaches of Cancun and the diving at Cozumel draw large number of tourists to the Mexican Riviera. And some of them didn't make it out before the storm.
The U.S. State Department has advised Americans stranded in Mexico to call this number, 202-501-4444, 202-501-4444. Americans in the U.S. wanting to know information about their relatives who are stranded in Mexico should call a different number. The number is 888- 407-4747. That's 888-407-4747.
When NEWSNIGHT continue, Mexico and Florida are not the only places to feel the force of Wilma. It is more of the same in Cuba, where the seas are swamping coastal cities, including historic Havana.
And, later, a different kind of storm swirling through our nation's capital, one that is expected to hit full force later this week.
From New York, and Florida, and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: That video out of Cuba, where the Wilma swollen tide caused pretty of trouble today.
Welcome back. We are in Hollywood, Florida, tonight.
Wilma has moved out of the state. It is not expected to make landfall again in its current form. Wilma will did not make landfall in Cuba. But look at the massive waves. The storm swept north of the island, before hitting Florida, sending the ocean gushing over a protective seawall, some waves up to 45 feet high, stormy water, scrambled rescue crews. It is not over yet.
Here's CNN's Lucia Newman.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF: (voice-over): The waves nearly reached the top of Havana's Morro Castle Lighthouse. No one had ever seen anything like it, not even what Cubans call the storm of the century 12 years ago -- Wilma's storm surge turning the city's avenues and streets into saltwater rivers in a blink of the eye.
Donna Raquel (ph) barely had time to get out of her basement apartment in the middle of the night. It was very quick, very fast, the sea is full of surprises, she says.
Cuba's civil defense is using boats and anything else that floats to rescue people. While the army joins in with Soviet made amphibious vessels. These alleged looters who are among the passengers.
The flooding extends along the shoreline for at least ten miles from downtown to midtown to the fifth avenue tunnel to the Santa Fe area on the city's outskirts where these homes were covered by the water.
Elena (ph), a hairdresser, takes us to see where she lives. Everything she owns is now underwater. Down there, there's nothing left, not even the walls, but I have to keep on living there, she says.
These soldiers rescue a sofa. In Cuba, items like these are too often once in a lifetime purchases, impossible for many to ever replace.
(on camera): These people are taking advantage of low tide to cross here. The current is very, very strong. In a few hours, the water level will go up again.
(voice-over): It's a race against time to get the sick, the young and the elderly to dry ground, to save as much of what's still salvageable in a country where people already have very little.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWMAN: And Anderson, it's been now nearly 24 hours since the sea began penetrating Havana's city walls. The air, the wind is still howling. The seas are still very rough. The waves, however, are much lower.
And if there are no official statistics yet about how much damage has been caused in money terms or how many people have been left destitute. One last thing I can say, though, if you see behind me, that big black hole there, that's old Havana, where we saw those big waves coming in. It is still without power at this hour, Anderson.
COOPER: All right. Lucia Newman, thank you very much for that.
Still to come, the guessing game in Washington. A whole storm of a different kind. What's the next move in the CIA leak investigation? Will two of Washington's most powerful men be indicted? Big developments could happen soon. We'll have the latest for you tonight.
Plus, a city normally at sea level, three feet under today. We'll take you to the Everglades show what it was before Wilma hit and what it looks like now. From Florida and New York, and the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: The breaking news tonight is a piece of history, Rosa Parks, the mother of the American Civil Rights Movement has died.
Back on the first of December in 1955, she inspired the civil rights movement in this country when she refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man in segregated, Montgomery, Alabama. It was a case that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Before segregation on the public transit in Montgomery was ruled unconstitutional.
Rosa parks was 92 years old. Congressman John Lewis joins us by phone. Congressman Lewis a 15-year-old kid in, not far from there, growing up not far from there. Do you remember, congressman, when you heard the news? Was it big news to a young, black kid?
REP. JOHN LEWIS (D), GEORGIA: Well, when I heard the news in 1955, 15 years old, it was big news. I followed Rosa Parks and later the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I followed the unfolding drama. It was so unbelievable that this woman, this one woman had the courage to take a seat and refuse to get up and give it to a white gentleman. By sitting down, she was really standing up for all Americans.
BROWN: It is not just what she did. It is everything that happened afterwards, the boycott of the bus system, the ability of young blacks and old blacks, I guess, in Alabama to organize and stay organized for a long time, more than a year.
LEWIS: For more than 381 days people walked the streets, rather than ride segregated buses. They organized car pools but Rosa Parks' action inspired a mass nonviolent movement, a movement of massive resistance against segregation and racial discrimination not only in public transportation but public accommodation, the sit-ins, the freedom rides, the whole drive for the right to vote.
She must be looked upon tonight as one of the founding mothers of the modern America, really.
BROWN: I'm in my mid-50s. You're a little bit older. We lived through this. For younger people, particularly younger African- American people who -- for whom she may be just a name, what is it that they ought to know?
LEWIS: Well, people should know that Rosa Parks, this single individual committed this single act struck a blow for justice. And by doing so, she inspired an entire generation to stand up, to speak up, to speak out and do what I call getting away.
During that period in Alabama, it was against the law for blacks and whites to sleep under the same roof, to sit together on a bus, on a train, to eat together in a restaurant. You saw the signs back in 1955 and 56, white waiting, colored waiting, white men, colored men, white women, colored women. And because of Rosa Parks and the leadership of Dr. king, those signs came tumbling down.
BROWN: Congressman it is sad, it is a sad day. She was a great American. But we celebrate her life and we appreciate you joining us for a few minutes. Congressman John Lewis, who was a young man was very active in the American Civil Rights Movement.
It would be a decade until Congress passed the historic '64 Civil Rights Act, but it all started that day, December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama.
Some late developments now in the CIA leak matter. "The New York Times" will report in tomorrow's edition that Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, learned about Valerie Plame not from journalists, as he reportedly told a federal grand jury, but from his boss, Mr. Cheney, a month before Ms. Plame was outed by "The Washington Post," this according to lawyers involved in the case citing notes of a conversation between the two men.
Though, not illegal for Mr. Libby and the vice president to discuss such matters, the discrepancy between what the notes say and Mr. Libby purportedly told the grand jury may be spell trouble for him. More on that in a moment.
First, though, who is Scooter Libby? Here's CNN's Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Scooter who? It was once a common question around this town. Libby is at the center of power, one of those high ranking officials who sits in at cabin meetings when his boss, Dick Cheney, isn't available.
But, Libby is now a very public political target because of questions whether he blew the cover of a CIA operative. His name spoken derisively by Democrats.
HOWARD DEAN, DNC CHAIRMAN: The problem here is not just that Karl Rove and Scooter Libby had something to do with the cover-up and may have lied or whatever they may be indicted for. The problem is, this happened because the president wasn't truthful with the American people when we went into Iraq.
JOHNS: For Republicans, the prospect that someone so close to the vice president of the United States could be indicted is awkward to say the least.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I guess I'm just not comfortable speculating on what might happen, or whether anything will happen at all.
JOHNS: Libby has been in and out of government for decades. He was a lawyer, skilled at getting people out of legal trouble, which makes it puzzling how a man with Libby's background could get mixed up in all of this.
Libby is one of the White House hawks who helped convince the president to take down Saddam Hussein. But after the war started, Joe Wilson, the husband of CIA Agent Valerie Plame, publicly slammed Vice President Cheney and President Bush on one of their main arguments for invading Iraq: To stop Saddam from trying to get nuclear weapons. According to published reports, Libby was furious and recommended that the White House press office respond aggressively to Joe Wilson. A word often used to describe Libby is intense -- intense in his work, in his loyalty to the vice president, and passionate in his writing. He's the author of a historical novel, but it was one of his letters that's raising questions in the investigation.
In the letter to "New York Times" reporter Judy Miller, who said she spoke to Libby about the Wilson matter, Libby wrote, "the public report of every other reporter's testimony makes clear they did not discuss Ms. Plame's identity with me." That's raising questions of whether he tried to influence her testimony before the grand jury. And powerful though he is, Libby is also a very private person, with a small circle of friends. If he's indicted, the spotlight will be hard to avoid.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
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BROWN: Just ahead, the prosecutor. Who is Patrick Fitzgerald? For starters, he is one tough cookie.
Later, we go back to South Florida and Wilma, the damage done and the incredible moments as the Category 3 storm came ashore. We'll take a break first. This is NEWSNIGHT on CNN.
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BROWN: Remember those old commercials for the American Express card, a guy turns to the camera and says, do you know me? At this point in the Lewinsky scandal, the idea of Ken Starr asking such a question would have bordered on the absurd. Of course we knew him. But Patrick Fitzgerald?
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BROWN (voice-over): Just two weeks ago, President Bush praised Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the man in charge of the CIA leak investigation.
BUSH: The special prosecutor is conducting a very serious investigation. He's doing it in a very dignified way, by the way, and we'll see what he says.
BROWN: The president hasn't spoken since about the man who may -- and we underscore may -- indict two White House power players, Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Fitzgerald was appointed to the post nearly two years ago, after the attorney general of the time, John Ashcroft, recused himself from the investigation. Ashcroft had ties to one of the targets, Mr. Rove.
It seemed Mr. Fitzgerald is a man with ties to no one. Those caught in the crosshairs of Fitzgerald's investigations have called him zealous, relentless, extremely aggressive. Back in December of '04, "The New York Times" editorial page said of him, "In his zeal to compel reporters to disclose their sources, Mr. Fitzgerald lost sight of the bigger picture." But then, he was investigating one of "The Times'" reporters.
Fitzgerald is said to be apolitical, but he has prosecuted his share of politicians, former Illinois Governor George Ryan, a Republican, for one.
FORMER GOVERNOR GEORGE RYAN (R), ILLINOIS: The federal government has torn apart my personal life with the intrusive and overbearing investigation.
BROWN: And he's indicted more than 30 of Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's associates, for corruption and influence peddling. But the man who tapped Fitzgerald for the job of U.S. attorney in Chicago, former Senator Peter Fitzgerald -- no relation -- sees him as something different: A fearless crime fighter, a prosecutor's prosecutor, a modern-day untouchable.
FORMER SENATOR PETER FITZGERALD (R), ILLINOIS: He's somebody that can't be bought, can't be cajoled, can't be pressured, can't be controlled by anyone.
BROWN: The 44-year-old son of Irish immigrants, born and raised in Brooklyn, who worked his way through college as a janitor and a doorman and began his career as a prosecutor in New York. Unmarried. His friends describe him as driven. A former rugby player who's never been afraid to fight it out in a scrum or a courtroom.
He convicted the so-called blind cleric, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He put away four defendants accused of involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa. And issued an indictment against a then little-known terrorist named Osama bin Laden.
We may know by the end of the week whether anyone will be indicted in the Plame affair. Either way, Patrick Fitzgerald is likely to take some heat. But it's his ability to take that heat and his lack of political patronage that makes him, according to former Senator Fitzgerald, the right man for this job.
FITZGERALD: My guess is he will do the best job humanly possible, and bring as objective as is possible a mind to the whole set of facts and evidence that's before him.
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BROWN: Jeffrey Toobin is with us now, our legal analyst. "The Times" story tonight, tomorrow's paper, Scooter Libby gets the name of Ms. Plame. We don't know precisely if he got his name, but it sounds like it, from the vice president. The significance of this is?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Two-fold. One is, Libby apparently has said all along he got Valerie Plame's name from reporters.
BROWN: Right. TOOBIN: So, his story is questionable. Perhaps perjurious. The other part is, it gets Cheney into the middle of the story, and that may be even more significant. It's certainly...
BROWN: Criminally significant or politically significant?
TOOBIN: Who knows? It's certainly politically significant. Criminally, we're a ways from there.
But remember, this all started with President Bush saying, you know, no one in my administration had anything to do with this. Now we have Cheney talking to Libby about it. There's nothing wrong with that in and of itself...
BROWN: Right. Cheney apparently gets the name from George Tenet.
TOOBIN: Correct.
BROWN: Calls Tenet, said who is this person and what's going on there?
TOOBIN: And what is going on. Nothing improper about that.
However, Cheney has been questioned about this, I think. I believe under oath by Fitzgerald.
BROWN: I don't think -- I'm not sure about under oath, but he's been questioned.
TOOBIN: He's been questioned about it. Well, certainly Martha Stewart wasn't questioned under oath.
BROWN: No, but my recollection is he and the president were questioned at the same time. Isn't that...
TOOBIN: No. That's a different -- they were questioned at the same time in the 9/11 investigation.
BROWN: OK, 9/11, right.
TOOBIN: They were -- I don't think they were questioned under -- they may not have been questioned under oath, but they were questioned...
(CROSSTALK)
TOOBIN: Yes. And, you know, this puts Cheney right in the middle of this story, and what he testified to and whether it's consistent with the notes, it starts to be significant for some -- for a prosecutor looking into this.
BROWN: What is your sense of why this emerged right now?
TOOBIN: Well, because we're almost -- we're at the end game.
BROWN: No. Who's leaking this?
TOOBIN: Well, see, I was trying to figure that out, because it doesn't really help any of the people involved. I don't believe it was Fitzgerald. That office -- believe me, I've tried, that's a tomb.
BROWN: They don't leak anything.
TOOBIN: They don't leak anything. Defense lawyers, on one side or another, perhaps Cheney's lawyers, perhaps Libby's lawyers. But it certainly doesn't help Libby. I don't get what Libby gets out of this. Cheney's lawyers? I wouldn't think they were involved in a lot of leaking either. You know, I never know what people leak. And fortunately, they do for people like me. But I don't know where this came from.
BROWN: One way or another, I think we're going to know something this week, one way or another.
TOOBIN: Before the end of the week, I think.
BROWN: Before the end oft he week.
TOOBIN: It expires on Friday. But no -- no prosecutor waits until the last day to issue an indictment. That's too risky.
BROWN: Thank you.
TOOBIN: All right.
BROWN: Nice, good work.
Coming up, the Everglades, how did the Everglades fare when Wilma came through?
And Iraq, what it will mean when the U.S. death count hits 2,000? It's very close to 2,000 as we sit here tonight.
From Florida and Iraq and New York and around the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
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COOPER: Well, the Florida Keys didn't wash away. Isla Morada is still there. But you look at this, and wonder why anyone would dare to ride out the storm?
And there are similar scenes up and down coastal Florida as the Gulf of Mexico once again just rose up and moved inland.
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COOPER (voice-over): This was Everglade City yesterday. City Hall, the town center and home to the mayor's office and library. This is Everglade City today.
Normally, the city is at sea level. Today, it is 3 feet underwater. The historic Rod and Gun Club, once visited by Presidents Nixon, Eisenhower and Truman. It sat on the banks of the Barren River. Now it's an island.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I tell you, I've been on that for a week.
COOPER: Locals worked until late last night encouraging the 800 or so residents who call this town home to get out. Some stayed, some out of stubbornness, others out of duty.
MAYOR SAMMY HAMILTON, EVERGLADE CITY, FLORIDA: I'm staying in town because I'm the mayor of the city. I want to see what happens to the city. And I want to be there. And if something -- if there is anything I can do, I just got to be there. That's my city, my people, I'm going to be there.
COOPER: Everglade City is the self-proclaimed stone crab capital of the world. The stone crabbers set up shop along the river. Today, some traps remain today, but thousands have been swallowed by the Gulf.
Richard Wahrenberger is the owner of City Seafood, a popular local restaurant.
RICHARD WAHRENBERGER, CITY SEAFOOD: Stone crabs is our number one seller. And I own my own boats. And we catch them and we cook them, and serve them right here. And every crab I catch, we sell through our cafe here.
COOPER: This was City Seafood yesterday. This is it today. Wahrenberger took nine years to build the cafe, drove every nail himself. He chose to ride the storm out here.
WAHRENBERGER: I was sure it would be all right, and it was. There's no problems at all except the roof, took off part of the roof. So I'm fine, yeah. Ready to go again. Just another -- another experience.
I'll give you a call after a while.
COOPER: Mayor Hamilton expects other residents to do the same.
HAMILTON: Less than a month, about a month from now, three weeks from now or in a month, this city will look like brand new again, because we jump right on it. We don't play.
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COOPER: Well, a lot more to come tonight. The sound and the fury of a hurricane, as heard and seen from places where even a camera has trouble catching it all.
Also, the people who live and die by the weather forecast and the growing business of bringing it to them.
And the CIA leak investigation. Karl Rove and Lewis "Scooter" Libby and a new report by "The New York Times." Around the country and the world, this is NEWSNIGHT.
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COOPER: Good evening again. This is NEWSNIGHT, and we begin with Wilma.
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ANNOUNCER: Florida digs out after Wilma races across the state. Left behind, death, destruction, and millions without power.
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