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CNN Live Saturday

The Aftermath of Katrina

Aired September 03, 2005 - 12:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. There's a lot more to tell you about today, Miles. Thank you. And we are going to talk about that in the next four hours, Tony.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Thousands of people are still out on the streets of New Orleans without adequate shelter. The military's priority: Today to evacuate 25,000 people. And good afternoon, everyone, I'm Tony Harris at the CNN Center in Atlanta.

NGUYEN: And I'm Betty Nguyen. Here's the latest developments for you right now. President Bush says more than 7,000 additional troops are on the way to Mississippi and Louisiana. They will join the 4,000 troops and 21,000 National Guardsmen already on the ground.

Military officials say they're focusing on rescuing people in need of medical aid and on evacuating people from the city convention center. But the evacuations at Superdome are now suspended until Sunday, suspended until tomorrow. Some 2,000 people reportedly are still holed up at that stadium.

Now, all patients are evacuated from Charity Hospital, the city's largest public medical facility. The patients were taken late last night to the New Orleans airport or to facilities in the state capital, which is Baton Rouge.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it may be at least a month, possibly as long as 80 days before the levees can be repaired and all the floodwaters pumped out of the city.

HARRIS: In Mississippi, the death toll from the storm has now risen to 147. But Governor Haley Barbour expects that number to rise. Parts of the state are still without fresh water or electricity but the Air Force says it will bring 300 Mississippi personnel home from Iraq and Afghanistan to help their families clean up from the storm.

NGUYEN: Now to Alabama. Federal emergency officials have agreed to open up dormitories at Fort McClellan for the evacuees. Emergency workers will have MREs, which are meals ready to eat, to hand out to storm victims. Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice says she will visit her home state tomorrow to get a firsthand look at damage there.

HARRIS: Now, take a look at this, a live picture of a parking lot in Nashville, Tennessee, ambulances everywhere waiting for evacuees to arrive so they can be transported to shelters in the area, hopefully to homes in the area. A live picture, right there, from a parking lot in Nashville, Tennessee. We have satellite images to show you from New Orleans. This is smoke billowing from those two fires we've been telling you about. The fires are engulfing some warehouses on the east bank of the Mississippi River, and New Orleans levee problem is getting better. The Corps of Engineers says it was able to close a hole in the 17th Street canal but it's still expected to take up to 80 days to drain the flooded city.

Thousands of evacuees still in the New Orleans convention center got a bottle of water and a meal ready to eat yesterday, then spent another night in horrible conditions. For an update on when the thousands of people stuck there will find a way out. We go to Jeff Koinange who is there live.

Hello, Jeff.

JEFF KOINANGE, INTERNATIONAL CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello there, Tony. That's right. Here we are literally right outside the convention center and a couple hours ago, these streets were filled with people. People who had been sitting here five, six days, and this was there home, their living room, their bathroom, their kitchen, their bedroom.

These mattresses here belong to the folks who are now literally lining up because the evacuation is officially underway. Buses loaded, ready to travel to the next destination, and thousands of people out here in this baking sun just waiting to be evacuated. Oh, there are some folks here, Tony as you can see behind me. A gentleman there still waiting. And thousands more still waiting.

This is not going to take one or two more days, it's going to take several days according to officials from the National Guard. And as I walk here, Tony, and you can see behind me there's still thousand of people in the background, those folks, a lot of them old, sick, destitute in wheelchairs. They won't be able to go for a while, because they have to be literally lifted and put onto the buses. This operation is massive. It's huge, but at least, Tony. At the end of the day, it is getting underway.

HARRIS: Jeff, I have to ask you are these scenes that you're seeing, reminiscent of some of the scenes that you cover for in Africa for CNN international as well as CNN domestic?

KOINANGE: I tell you, Tony, it's an eerily familiar scene right here. It's a major deja vu I'm feeling. I feel like I could be Siegfried towns here, or Monrovia, Liberia. It's a United Nations refugee camp right here. I've seen the scenes before, but one would never expect the scenes in the world's most powerful nation. Right here, looking down the street, look at that at that. Look at the garbage, mounds and mounds of garbage piled up across the street.

There's still people, literally making their bedrooms on the sidewalks with the mattresses with the makeshift tents. This is where they've been living the last, five, six days. And the biggest problem, Tony, the biggest problem, toilet facilities. Everyone here has been complaining about that. You can just imagine the stench right here, Tony. It is exactly like a refugee camp in a third world nation.

HARRIS: Jeff Koinange. Jeff, thank you for that perspective.

NGUYEN: Yeah, it really paints a picture fro you there.

Want to move over now to Houston, Texas, and CNN's Peter Viles outside the Astrodome where many of the evacuees have been taken -- Peter.

PETER VILES CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty, the news here is that the Astrodome itself is full and has been full for a couple of days, but they have plenty of room in Houston for the evacuees who are still yet to leave New Orleans. They have two large convention centers. They have cleared the schedules in both of them, actually have canceled some pretty big events to make room. And they have about room for about 14,000 people yet to arrive.

There's been a little lull so far today, we haven't seen any busses come in this morning. But they're bracing for a wave of buses, and when those buses come in, this place really starts to hum. Just to give you one idea, when the buses come, in doctors and nurses here start seeing 150 people an hour. That's what they're bracing for, but this morning, so far, no buses arriving from New Orleans. When they get here, they have quite a bit of room left here in Houston -- Betty.

NGUYEN: That is definitely some good news. Now for those who are in the Astrodome you talked about the buses and the nurses and the emergency personnel waiting for those still coming to these other convention centers, which are available. But for those in the Astrodome, what's the medical situation like there? Are people in desperate need?

VILES: No, not at all. We've just had a briefing from the doctors who are overseeing a big team of volunteer doctors and nurses. And what they tell us, and we have to take them at their word is, that of the 19,000 people who have come in, 3,000 have been seen by doctors. The others have not wanted to be seen or have not deeded to be seen. Of those 3,000 only 100 needed to be hospitalized. Now, 100 is a lot of people to have to take to the hospital, but out of 19,000 that's a pretty good number.

And the problems they're seeing are essentially preexisting conditions, hypertension, high blood pressure, asthma, some kidney failure, these are serious things but these are issues that a lot of these people brought with them from New Orleans. A lot of people don't have medication, they need medication. Of course, the No. 1 problem is an easy one to fix, and that's dehydration, but not a medical emergency here by any stretch and they have a pretty good medical team here -- Betty.

NGUYEN: That's good to here, Peter Viles, thanks for the update.

HARRIS: Some New Orleans residents evacuated to Baton Rouge are wondering what next and they're frantically searching for missing family members. One of them is Dorian Browder. She joins us on the phone from Baton Rouge. Dorian, hello, how are you?

DORIAN BROWDER, RELOCATED TO BATON ROUGE: Fine. Hi, how are you doing?

HARRIS: I'm doing well. Dealing with the how are you part of the question, the how are you part of the question, how are you?

BROWDER: Not well at all at this time.

HARRIS: All right, tell me what the last day or so has been like for you?

BROWDER: A living hell, a living hell. That's putting it mildly. A living hell.

HARRIS: So describe for us your living hell.

BROWDER: OK. One of the first things I want bring forward (PH) is I've treated like I was less than human. It has been a very, very inhumane treatment. Everywhere I try to turn for help, no one is helping me. Be it FEMA, the American Red Cross, whatsoever.

They have treated me like I was not even a human being. You go there for any type of assistance, I was turned away. I went to the main facility here in Baton Rouge on Mayfair. They had boycotted the place and everything, I was inquiring about my elderly mother that's been left in New Orleans and was missing. They said they couldn't help us, that they had no database. However, I had just came from the state troopers here in Baton Rouge, and they said they had the database. It's been a back and forth chaotic situation, no one knows nothing.

HARRIS: Dorian, how did you get to Baton Rouge?

BROWDER: In a car. I came in a car.

HARRIS: Where are you staying now?

BROWDER: I'm staying at a motel called Baymont Inn and Suites.

HARRIS: Do you have children?

BROWDER: Yes I do sir, I have two sons.

HARRIS: How old are they?

BROWDER: I have a 23-year-old and a 17-year-old. And it has been a devastation to them.

HARRIS: Do you have food and water?

BROWDER: No. No. Someone donated some moneys to us, and that's how we've been serving.

HARRIS: Someone donated money to you and that's how you were able to live?

BROWDER: That's how I was able to -- be able to get to the room. Up until last night, I was sleeping in a car.

HARRIS: So, you were sleeping in a car?

BROWDER: Yes, sir, for several nights.

HARRIS: Where will you go? Where will you turn to begin to put your life back together? What is the next thing you will do in this effort to put your life back together again?

BROWDER: Sir, at this time, I don't know. I have no home to go to. I have no job. I have nothing at this time. Nothing that I can see.

HARRIS: All right, here's -- they're small but they're important questions. Do you have a bank account?

BROWDER: Sir. I had a small savings of maybe $8 in the account.

HARRIS: All right. So, FEMA, FEMA will ultimately have to help you. That's where you have to turn for help, you understand that, correct?

BROWDER: OK, sir, we called and I did -- I gave them some information, but at this time, we haven't had no response.

HARRIS: And no family -- I'm trying to help you move forward. Do you understand what I'm trying to do here?

BROWDER: Yes. I'm understanding.

HARRIS: I'm trying to help you move forward and get some help. You have been able to contact any family member in other states?

BROWDER: No, sir. None that can help me. I have no members outside of this state that can help me. They're not financially able to help me.

HARRIS: OK.

BROWDER: So, it's like I'm between a rock and a hard place.

HARRIS: All right, continue to think. All right, continue to stay in the moment. Continue to think and continue to find ways. Think of ways to move your individual situation forward. I'm sure there are people in Baton Rouge, if you can reach them, who will be able and willing to help you. Stay positive, and keep moving forward.

BROWDER: That's the only thing I keep (UNINTELLIGIBLE), the thing is, it's like every time you try to move forward here to go to these facilities for people to help you, they're not really helping you.

HARRIS: All right, where are you staying right now? Just quick. BROWDER: At the Baymont Inn and Suites.

HARRIS: All right, maybe someone will hear this, maybe we can make a call and get help to you and the others who are in a similar situation. Dorian, thank you.

BROWDER: Sir, I -- OK.

HARRIS: Thank you, Dorian.

NGUYEN: I can you hear the desperation in her voice. We've go some information, very important information that we want to put out right now. Reid Barns who is with the New Orleans Airport Emergency Operations Center wants people to know that despite radio reports in New Orleans that say people can go to the report to refill prescriptions and pick up loved ones, that is not true.

If you're in the area and you hear on New Orleans radio that you can go to the airport, which has been set up as a triage center to refill prescriptions and pick up loved ones, now that that information is false. That information is not true.

If you show up, you will not be able to refill your prescriptions and pick up loved ones. It's a triage area, it has been set up for the critically ill. So, we wanted to put that information out, and this information is coming directly from Reid Barnes who is with the New Orleans Emergency Operations Center.

Got a lot more to tell you about today, many developments yet to come. Want to stay tuned to CNN as we continue our Katrina aftermath coverage.

HARRIS: And you certainly won't want to miss a special three hour edition of "LARRY KING LIVE" beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. It's all about helping. Find out how can you help, Larry is joined by Eric Clapton, Magic Johnson, Harry Connick, Jr., Celine Dion, Sela Ward, Bill Cosby, Terri Hatcher and many more. It's all about how you can help. That's "LARRY KING LIVE" tonight at 8:00.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: We are getting some new information from the New Orleans fire department and the situation that they are facing. On the phone is senior international correspondent Nic Robertson who is embedded with the New Orleans fire department.

Nic, what's the latest?

Obviously, that line is down. I understand we got some important information from them that we do want to tell you about. As soon as we can get Nic back on the line, we'll bring that to.

HARRIS: OK, let's bring in now the CNN military analyst Brigadier General James "Spider" Marks and he's joined by CNN's Tom Foreman.

And gentlemen I see you have the plasma there. We'll get to that in just second.

But, Spider, let me ask you. I hear a lot of praise being heaped already on Russ Honore, for the folks who are just joining us, tell us about him, and tell us why he seems to the right man for the job in New Orleans right now?

BRIG. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, U.S. ARMY (RET): Tony, Russ Honore is a three-star general U.S. Army active general, who commands the 1st Army Fort Gillem there in Atlanta. Russ is a native Louisianian; he has family that lives in New Orleans. We certainly pray for his family like we do for all the others.

But, Russ is a man of action, he has focused in on the details. He's a broad thinker but doesn't let the details escape or become the domain of somebody below him. Russ is into that level of detail and he's very, very focused. But the key issue right now is this is a statement of leadership, presence, understanding where the key demands are and being there, being present, being visible, suffering and uplifting. Suffering with the folks as well as uplifting them around them.

But bear in mind, the heavy lifters are all the law enforcement agents and the firefighters and new soldiers that are arriving on the ground, both National Guard and active, and the Marines that'll be coming in and all those great aviators that are making things happen. So, Russ will say, "Hey look, it's not about me, everybody. It's about all those guys out there doing good stuff." But, that's a mark of Russ Honore.

HARRIS: All right, and Tom, I see the plasma screen there. What can you show us, what can you tell us about the situation on the ground there, and what the U.S. Army and Russ Honore are able to do and where they might be right now?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Spider and I have joined ranks here, because he understands how the military works and I lived for a very long time in New Orleans and the south. So, I know this whole region very well. One of the things we're starting with here is actually south of Memphis, and Spider can explain why this matters right now?

MARKS: Russ Honore's headquarters is being staged, at least initially, out of Camp Shelby, Mississippi, which is essentially due north of New Orleans. So, it's a great place to be. He can have a commanding presence and can fly into and be present where he needs to be, whether that's as far as to the east in the panhandle of Florida, whether that's coming west towards Pascagoula or Biloxi or into New Orleans itself.

So, it's a great place to be. But, I can tell you again, the type of leader that Russ is, is he will be present on the ground primarily, and he'll leave behind, at Camp Shelby, those folks that will maintain the command and control architecture, the enterprise that will help information flow, feed the beast higher so we can notify the folks up above, as well as try to allocate the appropriate resources on the ground. So, when you go for the map, if we can, Tom, if we can then fly into New Orleans, and it gets a sense of the distance that you cover from Shelby into New Orleans, that's probably about a five to six, seven hour drive, under the best of conditions. Now...

FOREMAN: We're starting way up here, just for reference again, and it's flying all the way down here, and you got to come around the lakes down here, because you can't come in on this side.

MARKS: And bear in mind, that road of infrastructure, those lines of communications, in many cases, are cut off and you have the isolated pockets. So key decision are being made by those young noncommissioned officers and young officers on the ground in charge of these resources to make sure they can get on where they need to go.

HARRIS: That's great, gentlemen, thank you both. Thank you both, very much. That's great information. Great visuals for us, it helps to see the situation a lot more clearly. Thank you.

And federal emergency officials plan to meet with reporters and provide details on the latest relief efforts in about an hour and a half, 90 minutes from now we'll bring the briefing to you live.

NGUYEN: Well, hospitals up and down the gulf coast are overwhelmed with patients. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina there have been countless instance of newborns evacuated from hospitals without their mothers or fathers. Parents agonize wondering where their child is, if they're even OK. CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This helicopter arrived with precious cargo, 29 newborn babies rescued from a downtown New Orleans hospital. Most of them without their mothers. Jordan Abrams was one of the lucky once. His mother, Tory, made it onto the same helicopter to women's hospital in Baton Rouge. She gave birth a week ago at the Louisiana State University Hospital in New Orleans. She tried to explain her ordeal to us on camera, but it was too difficult.

TORY ABRAMS, MOTHER: I'm trying to recuperate now.

COHEN: She told us the conditions inside the hospital were miserable. No electricity, no air conditioning, no working toilets. The nurses warned that soon they would run out of formula for the babies. She was worried for her son.

In New Orleans, conditions were so bad, the hospital staff was unable to check out the strange lump behind his ear. Doctors here in Baton Rouge did an ultrasound and admitted him for more tests. This hospital secretary reassured her, while others did well for the parents of babies who'd arrived alone. Doctors say all the 29 babies survived the ordeal, the harsh conditions in New Orleans, the transport to Baton Rouge, surprisingly well, even the preemies.

DR. STEVEN SPEDALE, NEONATOLOGIST: The babies are all in good condition, they're all very stabile.

COHEN: Dr. Steven Spedale. and his neonatology team examined the babies when they arrived.

SPEDALE: Babies are very elastic, you have to bend them a lot to break them, and they've had very good care. People have not slept in days down there and they have done everything they can for the babies. And that's why those babies are here, so the credit goes to them.

COHEN: A tribute to the heroism for the doctors and nurses who cared for these babies under the worst of conditions. A tribute to the spirit of the 29 of the tiniest survivors.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Now, once baby Jordan is discharged, of course, he and his mother will not able to go back to their home in New Orleans. A local church here in Baton Rouge has taken them in -- Betty.

NGUYEN: That's a little bit of good news in this long road ahead. Elizabeth Cohen in Baton Rouge, thank you.

HARRIS: Our victims and relief desk is up and running.

NGUYEN: We are helping you find friends, family members, whoever that you're looking for stranded by the hurricane.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: CNN is helping to link family and friends to missing or stranded hurricane victims. We've created a victims and relief desk. Veronica de la Cruz is at that desk today -- Veronica.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah Tony, we're still getting lots of phone call and e-mail on people that are still stranded. A situation we keep hearing about, as many as 300 people are reportedly trapped in a church on the east side of New Orleans, at one point in sewage water up to their necks.

We're looking at animation pinpointing their location, right now. Most are Vietnamese immigrants who live in the neighborhood. They are running out of food and water, and though helicopters were rescuing people from the area, they hadn't yet evacuated this group. We're making calls right now, Tony, to find out if the people are still there.

And like we've been seeing, our reporters are making every effort to help people get word out that they are OK. Here are the people we've spoken to most recently.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CRUZ: How is she holding up?

SIMONA SMITH, LOOKING FOR FAMILY MEMBERS: She holding up pretty good. But it's kind of difficult because the family is split up, she want her father, her brother, and the rest, my mother-in-law, my nieces and nephews.

CRUZ: Now, you're totally separated?

SMITH: Yeah, we totally separated. So, I'm staying here until I find my family, and I'm not going to leave until I do.

CRUZ: What makes you think they're going to come here?

SMITH: I just have faith, hopefully just praying that we get a chance. I'm not going to leave here until I know where they at.

EARL SMITH, LOOKING FOR PARENTS: We have no idea where my parents is at and that's where we been looking for my parents. We've been back and forth from Baton Rouge to here looking for them, stopping at family members living along the way just getting a little shelter every now and then. But, we have not been able to find them.

STEPHANIE FAYARD, LOOKING FOR BROTHER-IN-LAW: This is really, really frustrating, and we just want to see if we can find my brother- in-law. We understand that there are some casualties, but we don't care, dead or alive, we would like to know, it's six days. This is pathetic.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CRUZ: And that is the story we are hearing all too often. Tony, we're receiving thousands of e-mails of photos of missing loved ones. We want to share those with you, Lance Rickets turned 26 Wednesday. His mother, though, writes that she has not had any communication with him since Sunday. He was going to the French Quarter to visit a girlfriend.

Five-year-old Jadarious Johnson is missing in New Orleans. His last known location was the Cog Hill Accelerated school in the city. If anyone has seen him, please contact his grandmother or let us know here at CNN.

And we want to tell you about a happy ending for one daughter. We first posted a picture of Dan Lukers on Wednesday. His daughter was desperate for news. She now reports several people let her know his photo was aired on CNN, and one of his co-workers contacted her to say he was seen safe in a shelter in Chaumette (PH), Louisiana. So some good news to report.

Our Web site, Tony, isn't the only one doing something like. The International Committee of the Red Cross has also set up a Web site called the Family News Network. It is a simple three part system for families anywhere in the world to check on friends and loved ones. First the link it is FAMILYLINKS.ICRC.ORG/KATRINA.

It recommends you check the list first for someone you're looking for. They may have already registered to say that they are safe and survived the storm. And here at CNN, you can e-mail us at HURRICANEVICTIMS@CNN.COM. We have tremendous resources available to you as well as a safe list that you can also register with, it is all online at CNN.COM/HELPCENTER -- Tony? HARRIS: That's wonderful, we can't do enough of it. Veronica, thank you.

NGUYEN: So many people looking for loved ones.

Well, still to come, a look at enormous challenges that lie ahead if the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, including finding enough food, shelter and clothing to last for months.

HARRIS: And don't forget to join us tonight at 8:00 Eastern for a special three hour edition of "LARRY KING LIVE." Find out how you can help. Larry's guest include: Eric Clapton, Magic Johnson, Harry Connick, Jr., Celine Dion, Bill Cosby, Sela Ward and Terry Hatcher. It's all about how you can help. That's "LARRY KING LIVE." We'll be right back.

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