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Life Underground for Miners; Economy Recovery Slows; Katrina: Remember and Recovery; Pakistan's Flood of Patients; New Orleans College Comeback; Fit Nation: Yoga For Type-A People

Aired August 27, 2010 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Live from Studio 7 CNN headquarters, the big stories for Friday, August 27th.

Unscripted and raw, it is the ultimate reality show. Thirty- three men trapped almost a half-mile underground document daily life on video.

Five years after Katrina, New Orleans walls itself off from future hurricanes, but there's doubts about the new levees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have to give the government the benefit of the doubt that the wall's going to hold. I try, but that don't mean it's going to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Yes.

And she is taking orders and pouring coffee, a statistic of a stagnant economy. A new law school grad works as a barista, not a barrister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want potato chips, pasta salad, potato salad?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Wow. OK.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.

Those stories and your comments right here, right now in the CNN NEWSROOM.

We are getting a look at what life is like for those 33 miners trapped deep underground in Chile. The men used a camera lowered into the mind to send video messages to their families. The video also shows the men singing Chile's National Anthem.

(MUSIC) HARRIS: I love that moment.

All right. Karl Penhaul joining us live now from Chile.

And Karl, if you would, do a little bit more show and tell for us. Share more of this amazing video with all of us.

KARL PENHAUL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, first of all, as you look at this video, the man who is giving the running commentary, a 40-year-old miner, Mario Sepuldiva (ph), he hadn't worked long in that company before the cave-in occurred. And he seems remarkably together, remarkably good-humored. And he is leading us through part of the mineshaft and into the shelter, and he's showing us everything just by the light of the lantern on his safety helmet.

He gives a real kind of "Blair Witch" feel to this whole video production. And as he's walking past, you see some of the men putting their fingers up in a "V" for victory sign, a sign that they're staying strong, that they're determined to come out. He's also cracking some jokes with the man.

At one point, he says, "Hey, this guy, he's sleeping on a box spring bed." In fact, of course, he's sleeping on a pile of rocks.

One of his colleagues gets a joke back on Mario later on though, because he says, "Well, Mario Sepulvida (ph) doesn't want to go back up to the surface because he knows when he does, he's going to have to take a good bath."

But it wasn't all jokes and laughs. The men clearly are dirty. They have grown heavy beards, some of them, after three weeks down that mine. And according to their family members who have seen this dramatic video, they say that a lot of them have lost a lot of weight.

And you see in some of those messages, a couple of the men, their strain is showing in their voices. Their voices begin to crack. Others are saying, clearly, "Get us out of here quickly. Get us out of here quickly."

And emotional messages, too, ,to the family. Short messages, they tend to be, and there are other messages that are directed to the families, to the rescue workers, and Chile as a whole. One miner there says, "I want to thank you all for standing by us. I want to thank you all for not abandoning us."

And that is the last thing now on Chile's mind. The whole country seems to be behind this rescue effort.

And the men, I think that is one of their motivations, because at the end, Mario Sepulvida (ph) says to them, "OK, boys, on the count of three." And then they all break into the Chilean National Anthem -- Tony.

HARRIS: Hey, Karl, I understand we might be able to actually -- we see this great video, but there might be some more audio on that tape as well. I think we have got it queued up. Let's look at his role a little bit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I want you guys to know that we're tranquil down here. We want to get out of here. We're not going to stay down here. We're going to get out of here.

Thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): This guy doesn't want to get out of here because then he'll have to take a shower. And this one hasn't taken a shower.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Many thanks to the people who are outside working to get us out. We hear you guys working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: And there you have it, Karl. A lot of that you just mentioned to us. It looks, at least for now, that the men are in amazingly good spirits.

PENHAUL: It certainly does. That's everybody's reading, that they are all pretty much in good spirits.

You also see at one point as well on an upturned crate that they've -- what they say they've invented, a domino game. I don't know whether that domino game was down there already, or if they've carved that out of something, but certainly trying to busy there time.

There is also a medicine cupboard there, and they say, oh, we've been busy keeping that tidy. It's only a very small medicine cupboard, but you can see they've dedicated a lot of time to routine to keep their mind off things.

Another piece of good news, as I say, they do have more than that studio-apartment-sized space to move around in. Some of the mineshaft is still available, quite clearly, tens of meters, in fact. And at one point they drive a vehicle that looks to be almost as big as a backhoe up part of that mineshaft.

That is the good news. They have a little more space to exercise, although that mine -- and Mario Sepulvida (ph) did say that they're having an increasing problem with damp, and so that they may have to move their camp to a different part of the mine, what he referred to as sector 75. I guess that's a little bit deeper than where the shelter is now -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes, sounds like it.

All right. Our Karl Penhaul for us.

Good stuff, Karl. Appreciate it. Thank you.

(NEWSBREAK) HARRIS: Turning to the economy now, it is issue number one these days, and with good reason. A new report shows the economy grew at a 1.6 percent annual pace last quarter.

Now, that is down from the original estimate. And look at how it compares to where we were the end of last year. In the fourth quarter we were growing at a five percent pace.

What's happened here?

Patricia Wu is at the New York Stock Exchange with the details.

Patricia, I guess the simple question is, what's pulling the economy down?

PATRICIA WU, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Tony, the problem is it's not just one thing. It's widespread.

We'll start with the sky-high unemployment rate. That's stuck near 10 percent, and there's a ripple effect from there.

The second quarter GDP was revised downward because there's less demand. So people are not buying as much, businesses are not restocking their shelves as quickly. That means they're not buying products from manufacturers.

Two, there was a bigger than expected trade gap. Exports fell while imports surged, and that of course hurts U.S. businesses.

And three, construction spending slowed. You can blame all of that on the housing industry.

You know, we have been talking about those dismal numbers coming out of the housing reports with home sales hitting a record low at the end of the second quarter. Now, part of that is the homebuyers tax credit expiring. That's one reason.

Another thing, back to the jobs. You're not likely to buy if you don't think that you're going to keep your job.

Now, we did see a little bit of a bounce in the stock market after the GDP number came out. Even though it was weak, it was still growth. And one analyst says that that immediate reaction suggests an attitude shifting from the glass half empty to half full -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes.

Hey, Patricia, one more. We're also getting some comments from the Fed chief, Ben Bernanke. He's speaking today, for the first time, I guess, in a few weeks.

What's his take on the downward revision on the GDP numbers?

WU: Well, he certainly is blunt about that. He says that economic growth is less vigorous than expected, but he still expects a pickup next year. Now, some economists are calling on the Fed to take more action. And Bernanke is unusually specific on this. He says the Federal Open Market Commission is prepared to provide additional monetary accommodation through unconventional measures if it proves necessary. Now, especially if the outlook were to weaken significantly.

Now, he lays out some possible actions to boost the economy, such as buying more mortgage-backed securities, which would keep mortgage rates low, but it would also increase the Fed's balance sheet. Also, they may change the language in its post-Fed meeting statement. It always says that rates will stay low for an extended period. Well, they might spell out exactly what that means -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK. Patricia, appreciate. See you a little later in the hour. Thank you.

Walking through New Orleans five years after Katrina, Don Lemon takes us on a tour of hard-hit neighborhoods and previews a new Katrina museum exhibit.

And Reynolds Wolf -- where is that man? -- is tracking weather for us.

Good to see you, Reynolds.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good to see you, Tony.

We're talking about two of the biggest storms on the planet. One happens to be Danielle, a Category 4 storm.

Coming up, we're going to let you know where this massive hurricane is headed and what it may mean for all of us. That's coming up straight ahead.

See you in a few.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Recovering and remembering five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans.

CNN's Don Lemon takes us on a tour of neighborhoods struggling to rebuild, and he previews a Museum exhibit dedicated to remembering.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, in New Orleans, especially the French Quarter, there's always a soundtrack. David and Rosen (ph) are playing back there. We want to go inside of the Louisiana State Museum and the director here, Sam Rykels.

SAM RYKELS, LOUISIANA STATE MUSEUM: One of the things that we discovered is that there were a lot of boats used in the streets of New Orleans, and we looked for a boat that would be kind of the perfect symbol, and we found this boat on Napoleon Avenue. And this boat rescued over 400 people. LEMON (voice-over): Inside, the first thing you'll see, the museum's centerpiece, the great Fats Domino's piano.

RYKELS: And so it's preserved exactly the way we found it in the house. It was up on one side like that.

There's probably no greater cultural icon living, or culture icon that than Fats Domino. And the fact that his house was in the Lower Ninth Ward, it was flooded. Fats had to be rescued. And we really believe this piano really speaks to that.

LEMON: So does an ax survivors used to escape through a roof, religious heirlooms, a waterlogged clarinet from the legendary Pete Fountain, seats from a crippled Superdome.

RYKELS: This is where people actually sat during the evacuation.

LEMON (on camera): Actually sat and slept and whatever, and lived.

(voice-over): Also on display, those haunting photographs. But you don't need a museum to see that.

(on camera): These pictures show what the hardest-hit neighborhoods were like in New Orleans. One of them, the Lakeview neighborhood. This house used to be right here. This picture was taken by CNN iReporter Eileen Romero.

You lived two doors away from here and you started documenting. Why?

EILEEN ROMERO, CNN IREPORTER: Because after Katrina, I had a hard time expressing how I felt about what I saw. So I just got a camera and started trying to express it through my pictures, what I saw and felt.

LEMON: Yes. This is your neighbor's house.

ROMERO: Yes.

LEMON: And that house was right here, right next door to yours. Where is he now?

ROMERO: I never saw him again after the storm at all.

This is where I lived prior to Katrina. I was so happy here. You know, for me, my whole way of life was wiped out that I knew.

LEMON (voice-over): And over in the hard-hit Lower Ninth Ward.

(on camera): How long before you came back after the storm?

LEBLANC: I came back in 2007.

LEMON (voice-over): Seventy-four-year-old Gertrude LeBlanc, here 46 years, lost everything. GERTRUDE LEBLANC, KATRINA SURVIVOR: This is like a miracle, this here.

LEMON (on camera): The Virgin Mary.

LEBLANC: That statue was still as is after Katrina.

LEMON: You're sitting on your porch, you're swinging. There's no place like home?

LEBLANC: Yes, because there's my steps that's all that was left of my house. I say it's like a little memorial to let us know what we went through. I take one day at a time. I enjoy it one day. Tomorrow, I'll look at another day and enjoy that day.

LEMON (voice-over): Days that bring challenges and surprises five years after the storm.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: So in the neighborhoods where people live, really the heart of New Orleans, that's where it's really close. People still really feel it.

They go about their day and think about Katrina every single day. Some of them say it's really not really an hour or a moment that goes by that they don't think about it.

When you come down here to the French Quarter, the place where visitors and tourists all come together and buy art, as you can see here, listen to some jazz, people think about it. It's like, you know, going to a museum where you go and visit. Hey, this is a city where that big hurricane happened, but they don't live here and they're not feeling it -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes.

Hey, Don, we know that the overall population is down about 100,000 or so from the pre-Katrina levels, but what about the trend line there? Are people continuing to return? Are the neighborhoods filling up again?

LEMON: They are. It's actually back to -- there's one estimate that says the metro area is back to about 85 percent, 90 percent. But really, in New Orleans it's back to about 78 percent of the pre- Katrina population.

It is filling up, but it's not like -- you know, they had the little homes, Tony, in the neighborhoods, and they were right next to each other on these little plots of land. You don't see that.

You see these wide gaps. You'll see a house, a very modern house, maybe a Brad Pitt-style house. And then you'll see an older house and then an empty field.

So, it's starting to fill back up, especially in the Ninth and the Seventh Wards, but it's going to take time. It really is going to take some time. You know, it's a cliche, only time will tell, but it's absolutely true when it comes to New Orleans.

HARRIS: And it's not a generation. We're just talking five years after the storm.

All right. Don, good to see you, and can't wait to see your reporting from New Orleans this weekend. Appreciate it.

After Hurricane Katrina, a massive job to rebuild the city's levees and flood walls. Authorities say the city is safer now, but not everyone is buying it.

We will hear their concerns at the bottom of the hour.

And a flood of young patients overrun Pakistan's hospital. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Some of the children around here look very sick, and you have at least two children per bed, some on the floor. Are you going to run out of space eventually? I mean, there are hundreds of thousands of people out there? What happens to them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At the moment, we can't do anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Pakistan's catastrophic flood sweeps south.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

HARRIS: In just the last two days, the United Nations says floodwaters have forced another million people from their homes in southern Pakistan. Relief operations complicated after the Taliban's veiled threat to target aid workers.

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta is in southern Pakistan, where hospitals are overwhelmed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): A fighting chance here in Sindh, Pakistan. It is all they can hope for.

Rehamt Chacher, a farmer, didn't get any warning when the floods came.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

GUPTA: "We just ran," he says. He grabbed his wife, his kids, and he ran. And they took all they could. You're looking at it here.

They are staggeringly poor, but they wanted a fighting chance. Escaping the flood, they thought they made it.

"She started to get a fever. She couldn't keep anything down. She had lots of belly pain."

She's talking about her 3-month-old daughter, Benazir (ph). A few days later, she describes the same exact thing happening to her son, 2-year-old Wazira (ph).

(on camera): They brought both Benazir (ph) and Wazira (ph) here, to Civil (ph) Hospital. And doctors right away knew that these children were sick. But with such limited resources, there is only so much they can do.

Let's take a look.

You have two to three patients per bed in this hospital. Do you have enough beds? Do you have enough resources?

DR. G.R. BOUK, PAKISTAN CIVIL HOSPITAL: No. Because of this, there is no resources, because of the huge (INAUDIBLE) population and there is some population from (INAUDIBLE).

GUPTA (voice-over): The problem -- bad water, everywhere. With not enough good, clean water to go around, well, many -- too many -- have started to drink this, millions. Diarrheal illness, cholera, dysentery, typhoid.

(on camera): And some of the children around here look very sick. And you have two, at least two children per bed, some on the floor. Are you going to run out of space eventually? I mean, there are hundreds of thousands of people out there.

BOUK: Yes.

GUPTA: What happens to them?

BOUK: At the moment, we can't do anything.

GUPTA: What are the chances this child is going to survive?

BOUK: I think 50 percent chance to survive.

GUPTA: Fifty-fifty?

BOUK: Fifty.

GUPTA: Wazira (ph) and Benazir (ph) wouldn't get that fighting chance. This is their obituary. They didn't even make it to the hospital. Both children died on the way there.

The two-year-old Wazira (ph) weighed just eight pounds. And the three- month-old Benazir (ph) just two pounds. I don't want her to cry. It's OK. See, her belly is very distended. That's the problem. And it's hard. It doesn't really push in.

Give her some formula so she can keep some calories down and they give us medicine as well, mainly for nausea. But really, no antibiotics -- which is just concerning because that's one of the biggest problems here, people getting infections.

(voice-over): Ola (ph) and Rehamt are just two of the millions affected by these floods. This is their new normal. Living among dozens of strangers on mats, incredible, unimaginable loss. Two children dead in just one week.

But now their mission: to not lose another child. To save this child, Godi (ph), who is already sick. And she wants to give Godi (ph) a fighting chance.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Sindh Province, Pakistan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Got to tell you, we are heading into peak hurricane season, and the Atlantic is bubbling with Danielle and Earl, and a new tropical wave could become Fiona.

Reynolds Wolf is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Despite a 20-year ban, sea turtle poaching is still a big problem in Mexico, particularly along the northwest Pacific Coast.

This week's CNN Hero, Oscar Aranda, is literally losing sleep in his fight to protect these endangered animals.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

OSCAR ARANDA, DEFENDING THE PLANET: In a way, the turtles are in danger because of us. Last year we can have 200,000 turtles coming to lay their eggs, but this year we are 50 percent less.

In Mexico, (INAUDIBLE) and the people are not supposed to poach them, but people believe the eggs are an aphrodisiac, so this is happening always and everywhere.

My name is Oscar Aranda, and I'm patrolling the Puerto Vallarta the beaches to protect the marine turtles.

Many animals depend on marine turtles to survive. When I saw how the poachers take them for selling in the black market, that was really the spark that showed me how important it is to help them.

You have to be there all night. A turtle comes and if you are not there, the poachers will say, well, let's take it.

After they lay their eggs, that's it and the babies are alone. She returns into the ocean.

We find the nest, we get the eggs and we bring them into a safe place, like a turtle hatchery.

As soon as the babies hatch, we want the people to see them and learn to give that opportunity to be part of releasing a baby turtle or something that they will never forget.

My motivation is how brave the turtles are to survive. Against all odds, they continue coming.

It's amazing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Got to tell you, since 2004, Oscar and his group have released more than half a million baby sea turtles back into the wild. If you'd like to see Oscar in action protecting sea turtles, just go to the website, CNNHeroes.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Five years after Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers is rebilling New Orleans system of levees, floodwalls and pump stations -- a $14 billion project, 220 miles of levees and floodwalls built so far.

Authorities say the city is already safer, but not everyone agrees. Here's CNN's Jeanne Meserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The long road back from Hurricane Katrina has brought Sonja Hill here to one of the handful of houses rebuilt right where the Industrial Canal floodwall gave way.

SONJA HILL, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: I'm looking at the wall and I'm thinking, what if it breaks again. What if it breaks right here in front of the door and I'm inside with my kids? I don't feel safe back here if a hurricane comes through.

MESERVE: Sonja says she can't afford to live somewhere else, but Roy Arrigo doesn't want to move. His house is just a few hundred feet from where the 17th Street Canal floodwall failed.

(on camera): This is the same kind of wall that failed five years ago?

ROY ARRIGO, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: Yes, it is. Yes.

MESERVE: Is that scary?

ARRIGO: Yes, it is. And this is a fragile wall.

MESERVE (voice-over): Arrigo is angry at the Army Corps of Engineers and blames it for the destruction of his city.

ARRIGO: We see the work and we are told about all of the progress, but can we trust it? And to be quite honest, I don't think that we can.

MESERVE: In the Gentilly neighborhood near the London Avenue canal breach, Willean Brown believes the engineering isn't what matters.

WILLEAN BROWN, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: They can build a levee as high as they want to. God has the power, so if he wants to tear down a building or whatever, whether it low or high, 25 feet, 30 feet, he can knock it down with his power.

MESERVE: Her faith makes her feel safe here, not her sister Callie.

CALLIE BROWN, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: I have to give the government the benefit of the doubt that the wall is going to hold. I try, but that don't mean it going to work.

MESERVE: For Callie Brown and many others, the shadow cast by the levees is long and dark.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Singer and actor Harry Connick, Jr. -- love him -- he is among New Orleans' most recognizable faces. He was in the water in the days after Katrina helping his neighbors and he is talking with CNN's Larry King tonight.

Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, CNN HOST: It's five years later, what do you see and feel when you're there, Harry? What's it like now?

HARRY CONNICK JR., SINGER/ACTOR FROM NEW ORLEANS: It's really exciting now. Things are really turning around.

From what I can see, I think generally things are really improving. I think New Orleans has a long way to go, but certainly if there were lessons to be learned from Hurricane Katrina, I think the people here, the government, the citizens, everybody's learned those lessons and they seem to be moving along.

It's -- you know, you couple that with the Super Bowl victory in February, it really has a positive energy down here now. It's pretty exciting. Something I didn't think I would feel in five years, that's for sure. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Entertainer Harry Connick Jr. talks with CNN'S Larry King, that is tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific only on CNN.

Go to tell you, Katrina destroyed many buildings on college campuses in New Orleans, but five years later universities are experiencing a big comeback. I'm going to talk to two student government presidents about why they wanted to return to the Big Easy.

TEXT: Seven in ten New Orleans residents say the rebuilding process is "going in the right direction."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Checking top stories now.

Former President Jimmy Carter is due back in the United States in a couple of hours after getting what he wanted in North Korea. He won the release of American Aijalon Gomes. Gomes was convicted of illegally crossing into North Korea from China and sentenced to eight years of hard labor.

Chicken feed tainted with salmonella at two Iowa farms is being blamed for the big egg recall. Federal investigators say the feed could have been contaminated by birds, rodents or residue on shoes.

And Hurricane Danielle, a hurricane category 4 storm right now after muscling up overnight, it is headed in the direction of Bermuda. While not expected to hit land, Danielle could whip up surf along the U.S. East Coast as soon as today.

And New Orleans universities are getting plenty of applications five years after Katrina. I will talk to two student government presidents -- Do we have shots of them? Are they ready? Are they standing by? OK -- about why they chose to return to this amazing city.

There's Chelsea. There's Devin. We will talk to them after the break. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

TEXT: For the 2009 school year, New Orleans had a little more than half of its student population back in school.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: In the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, universities were literally battered. Libraries and laboratories were destroyed and students went home. Some wondered if they would ever return.

Now on this fifth anniversary of the storm, the schools are getting more applications than ever. Is that the case? Is that true? Why the comeback?

Two student government presidents can answer that for us. Chelsea Cipriano is SGA president at Tulane University and Devin Sasser runs student government at Xavier University.

Ladies first, Chelsea, good to see you. Devin, good to see you. Thanks for your time.

DEVIN SASSER, SGA PRESIDENT, XAVIER UNIVERSITY: Thank you.

CHELSEA CIPRIANO, SGA PRESIDENT, TULANE UNIVERSITY: Thank you.

HARRIS: Chelsea, look, you moved from Connecticut to attend Tulane after Katrina. Why on Earth did you choose Tulane?

CIPRIANO: Why did I choose Tulane? I get asked that all of the time, especially at the time that I did choose go to Tulane. Why not? I wanted to --

HARRIS: Do you want me to answer that question? Do you want me answer the question of why not?

CIPRIANO: No, no, no, thank you. I have plenty of reasons why, plenty of reasons.

New Orleans is an infectious city. I came to visit right after Katrina, right when the students were going back to Tulane, and I just fell in love. I fell in love with the city itself, the sounds, the smells, all of the service that was going on, and I wanted to be a part of it.

It gets under your skin and you just -- it's infectious. Like I said, you just want to be part of it.

HARRIS: Chelsea, the city, 80 percent of the city was flooded, flooded out. I mean, come on, it was devastated. And that's the city you choose to go to college in? Are you kidding me?

CIPRIANO: You know, I saw an opportunity to go to a city that not only needed help but could also provide me with a brand new experience unlike anything that I experienced before.

Tulane academically is a fantastic school and I just couldn't pass up that opportunity up. I wanted to help and I wanted to be part of it.

And yes, even with all of those feet of water, when I came it was perfect. It was the city I wanted to be in for the next four years. And now I'm staying for grad school, so six years.

HARRIS: Nice.

Hey, Devin, you moved from Dallas to attend Xavier after the storm. Why on Earth did you do that?

SASSER: Yes, sir. I chose New Orleans for several reasons.

One of the reasons I came to New Orleans is because Xavier. We have a huge legacy of excellence as far as our interests in the sciences. And me, wanting to be a future optometrist in the optometry field, I decided that Xavier was the best place for me to attend in order to achieve my goal.

In addition, like Chelsea said, New Orleans is an amazing city. Every city has a downfall , every city has natural disasters, every place -- things are going to happen everywhere, but the thing is you have to know how to overcome some situations, and New Orleans has done that very well.

So that's why I'm here in support of everybody in New Orleans.

HARRIS: So, Devin, describe the New Orleans you found on your very first visit.

SASSER: Wow, OK, first visit.

My first visit, I came down for a summer program before I actually got into undergraduate at Xavier University. I came, the first street I hit was Canal Street because I heard about Canal and I heard about Bourbon, but I wanted to hit Canal Street first.

The spirit here was just amazing. People were all -- everybody was friendly, everybody was shaking your hand, everybody wants to know who talk to you. You don't even know some people and they want to stop you and talk to you.

It was kind of weird at first coming from Dallas where people kind of go their own separate ways. Here, it really is infectious, like Chelsea said. It's amazing here.

HARRIS: Hey, Chelsea, tell me about -- I don't want to lose you guys before I ask you about Outreach Tulane and what's being accomplished through that program.

CIPRIANO: Yes, absolutely. Sure.

Outreach Tulane is actually this Saturday. It's a huge service day for Tulane University students, faculty, staff, anyone can participate. There are over 1,500 people participating this year, that's their estimate, and we're really excited.

This is in its 20th year, Outreach Tulane is. There are service projects all over the city from cleaning up cemeteries to painting to cleaning City Park. Really anything you want to get your hands dirty of get involved in, we have it for Outreach Tulane.

And that's this Saturday for the Fifth Anniversary Commemoration. We have a lot going on on campus, and it's going to be a huge event. We're really excited.

HARRIS: Hey, Devin, talk to us about Mobilization At Xavier.

SASSER: Mobilization At Xavier, we term it as MAX. And what Mobilization At Xavier does is we have several different subunits of volunteer services where we go and do different things such as teaching young children or rebuilding their town or rebuilding the Ninth Ward. We do several thing.

It's a weekly thing. Some people do it all through the week and some people just do it on Saturdays.

It's a way to get the entire school and the entire New Orleans community involved in community service, and it's been going on for several, several years and it is productive. It goes along with our motto of Voting a More Chaste (ph) and Humane Society. So that's what we're trying to do in doing all this community service.

HARRIS: One more for each of you. I should wrap it up, but I want to talk to you guys a little bit more. You guys really do represent the best of who we are in this country. Boy, it's just so obvious to me.

How much, Chelsea, is Katrina's aftermath a part of your daily life there in New Orleans?

CIPRIANO: I think that the Katrina aftermath is as much a part of your daily life -- as a student at Tulane, as much a part of our daily life as much as anyone else's. We feel it in the city. The school itself has done a lot of rebuilding within the university and within the city.

And I think that students come to Tulane to get involved. And that was before Katrina, but even more so after. They want to be hands-on in the city, they want to become New Orleanians . They don't just want to be visitors here for four years, they want to be here helping, especially since Katrina.

So this weekend with the five-year commemoration, we will see a lot of that. And as for daily life, you know, people don't just stop at Outreach. People do outreach activities and community service every single day as Tulane students and as other New Orleans university students as well.

HARRIS: You are on fire, young lady. You are on fire.

Devin, same question to you. How much of the aftermath of Katrina is a part of your daily life?

SASSER: Well, Tony, I think it's part of everybody's daily life. As you can see, if you go around the city in certain parts, some things haven't been revised back to the way they were before Katrina, so that's why it's our mission as students to fix these problems ourselves instead of waiting for other people to fix them for us. We take initiatives and we do things to make sure that the revival of New Orleans is happening, and it's every day.

As you can see, if you come down here, there are areas you would never know Katrina came. So we're really trying to make sure that all of New Orleans looks that way and that's what we're doing through Mobilization At Xavier and Tulane's program, as well.

HARRIS: I tell you what, it's in your hands. You guys are amazing ambassadors. It's great to talk to both of you. Now get out and do some work, all right?

Have a great weekend. CIPRIANO: All right, thanks.

SASSER: Thank you.

HARRIS: We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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HARRIS: So you think yoga is not for you because it's too earthy-crunchy. What does that mean? Earthy-crunchy?

In today's "Fit Nation," Dr. Sanjay Gupta finds a yoga instructor in California who has turned her studio into a no-om zone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA (voice-over): This isn't your mother's yoga. This is the new face of yoga, irreverent yoga.

KIMBERLY FOWLER, FOUNDER YAS YOGA: My tag line, no chanting, no granola, no Sanskrit.

GUPTA: Kimberly Fowler, the founder of YAS Yoga in Venice, California, says the om is out and new yoga for the type-A, busy professional is in.

FOWLER: To the beginner, they walk into a class and the teacher is teaching Sanskrit and wrapping themselves up in pretzels, and you just go, oh, not for me. It's a shame to have that experience.

GUPTA: Combining traditional yoga poses with fast-paced modern music and stretches designed to help athletes develop better stamina, Fowler's style of yoga is developing quite a following.

LUIGI LOPRESTI, YAS YOGA PARTICIPANT: Yoga to a lot of people is kind of -- I don't want to say weird, but intimidating. This place has always been super welcoming and allows people to come in and do their own thing and work at their own pace.

STEPHANIE ARCULLI, YAS YOGA PARTICIPANT: It's open enough that I think everyone can take what they need out of it.

GUPTA: If this popular YouTube video isn't proof that the traditions of yoga are falling by the wayside, Fowler says her seven new brand new franchise locations might be.

FOWLER: When I first opened YAS, I got like hate e-mail. Now everybody is trying to do yoga for athletes.

GUPTA: For the type-A in all of us.

FOWLER: It calms you down and gives you energy at the same time, which is a huge benefit.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And for more on living healthier just go to CNN.com/FitNation and be sure to watch "SANJAY GUPTA MD" this weekend at 7:30 a.m. Eastern, Saturday, Sunday morning, right here on CNN.

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