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CNN Live Saturday

The Aftermath Of Hurricane Katrina

Aired September 10, 2005 - 12:30   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome back, everyone. I'm Tony Harris from the CNN Center in Atlanta.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Betty Nguyen in Houston where four of the main shelters are. Seventy-three hundred survivors from Hurricane Katrina are being housed here. One of the shelters, the Astrodome behind me. We're going to introduce you to some of them, especially the ones who are looking for loved ones. Tony, that's coming up.

HARRIS: OK, Betty. Thank you. And Mission Critical now. We begin this hour with the latest from the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Vice President Cheney is in Austin, Texas. He's meeting with hurricane survivors and getting briefed on relief efforts. Earlier, he toured hurricane damage in Louisana and Mississippi. President Bush will make his third trip to the region tomorrow.

No more emergency debit cards from FEMA. The agency has scrapped its debit card program for hurricane evacuees switching instead to direct deposits of emergency aid. In New Orleans, the Air Force is launching aerial spray missions to rid the city of mosquitoes and other disease spreading insects. Mosquitoes can transmit diseases like malaria and West Nile virus.

In the meantime, New Orleans officials are still urging people to get out of the city but some stubborn residents are staying put. Still, law enforcement is not using force to get them to leave. And finally, one month -- workers say is how long it will take to pump the water out of New Orleans. It could take even longer to dry out some areas of the city -- Betty.

NGUYEN: You know, one of the biggest concerns, Tony, after the aftermath of Katrina are the number of missing children. There are hundreds, if not thousands of them still needing their mothers and their fathers. CNN's Kathleen Koch is in Alexandria, Virginia with the latest on what is being done to help the children be reunited with their parents -- Kathleen?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Betty, we're here at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. And we'll pan around and show you, this place is staffed by volunteers, former law enforcement. These are professionals who are trained in dealing with people in crisis in all sorts of situations.

And they are here manning the phones practically around the clock from 8:00 a.m. until midnight trying to create these reunions. We have new numbers and as you said, they are difficult to handle. At least 1,830 children they have now listed as missing as a result of Hurricane Katrina. They do have numbers though going up as far as children who have been found, some 366.

Now you would not believe where people are calling in from to identify children. We have a gentleman here, Jack Daniocek. He was was a former agent in charge with the Drug Enforcement Agency. And Jack got a very interesting call recently. Jack, tell us about it.

JACK DANIOCEK, FORMER DEA AGENT: Well, this morning I got a phone call from a warden of a prison in Louisiana who stated that one of his prisoners had been watching CNN and saw pictures of two unidentified children.

KOCH: Now, were these children related to him? How did he know these children?

DANIOCEK: He knew these children because they were the children of his fiancee.

KOCH: And so what was he able to do then? Did he know where she was?

DANIOCEK: No ma'am, but he was able to at least put name to those children, which was more than we had when we started.

KOCH: And hat has been the resolution of this as far as you know at this point?

DANIOCEK: At this point we found out that the children are safe with hr grandmother in a safe location.

KOCH: And, again, how does that feel? You are dealing with a lot of calls right now from really desperate people who haven't gotten much good news lately. How does it feel when you can make something like that happen, create a reunion, make sure people are safe?

DANIOCEL: It makes you just feel wonderful. It makes you feel wonderful. I'm proud to be here.

KOCH: Thank you, Jack, so much. And really the stories of these people -- the volunteers themselves are just so remarkable because, again, these are folks who have retired from law enforcement and there is a call list. They have been making calls to people in the area and the gentleman who has been doing that tells me that almost to a person once they call they say, yes, I'll be right there. Give me the two- hour training and I'm ready to get on the phone and start putting families back together -- Betty.

NGUYEN: Yes, the need is so great. Thank you so much. Kathleen Koch in Alexandria, Virginia.

You know, children of all ages are looking for their parents. In fact, we have one with us right now. This is Laneka Hawkins, just 18 years old. You are looking for your mother and your niece. When did you last see them? LANEKA HAWKINS, EVACUEE: Sunday approximately at 6:00.

NGUYEN: And where were they?

HAWKINS: Uptown in new orleans housing apartments.

NGUYEN: And you said the water was coming in and they weren't getting out? What was the sitation?

HAWKINS: No ma'am. It was -- the water was raising at least to the roof and they was on top of the roof.

NGUYEN: They had to physically get on top of the roof to get out of the water?

HAWKINS: Yes, ma'am.

NGUYEN: And you were you talking to them at that point?

HAWKINS: Yes, I was.

NGUYEN: So, were they asking for assistance? Because you had mentioned there were helicopters flying overhead.

HAWKINS: There was helicopters, there was people in boats but they wasn't stopping. They just keep going. They wasn't stopping at all. They was just going.

NGUYEN: So they were still stuck on the roof.

HAWKINS: They were still stuck on the roof.

NGUYEN: That has to leave you in so much worry, especially knowing the conditions that you last spoke to them -- the conditions that they were in when you last spoke to them. How have you been dealing with that?

HAWKINS: Well, I have been trying to, you know, just be cool about it. I don't really worry about it, because I know that the Lord -- he will help me. You know, he'll make a way for me to talk to them and see how she is doing, where she's at and this and that, but you just got to be patient.

Wait. I can't wait no longer, it has been almost a week now. And I haven't talked to them or seen them. My niece she is four months ...

NGUYEN: Four-months old?

HAWKINS: Four months. She's fourth months. And we didn't talk to her -- the last time we talked to her when she was with her mom and they are on the second floor and the water is to the second floor of their house. We haven't talked to them ever since then.

NGUYEN: Well, if indeed they did make it out, and we pray that they did and they are watching, is there anything you want to say to them?

HAWKINS: I want to tell you, mom, I love you. Hope you can call me. You know my cell phone number. Jamaya (ph), I love you too. Monique (ph), you know my cell phone number. Please call me and let me know what's going on with you all.

NGUYEN: And in case those out there who have seen her mother and her niece don't know her cell phone number, let me give it to you right now. It's 504-931-3729. I hear the phone ringing right now. We're going to let you take that call. Hopefully it is them. We're just trying to reunite people with their loved ones, Tony, and obviously she's very desperate to find her mom and her niece.

HARRIS: That's good word going on, Betty. Thank you.

CNN's Rusty Dornin is on the phone with us right now. She has been traveling with border control officials over New Orleans. And Rusty is on the ground now. Rusty, what can you tell us about the trip?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's just -- Tony, this is the first time that I have flown over New Orleans and it is still an absolutely incredible sight. The devastation, the amount of the city that is still submerged. Even the dry areas look like ghost towns. Of course, the devastation, even if there had not been flooding there has been so much devastation from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

They would have had a huge mess to clean up anyway. But it is something from the air that you just cannot get when you see pictures on TV. It just doesn't portray the enormity of the flooding, of the devastation. We're on our way right now. We're with the U.S Customs and Border Patrol agents.

And what they are doing is going to areas where people call 911. Now, they had to break this up. They are calling the people that called 911 between September 7th and September 9th following Hurricane Katrina to see if people need to be rescued. They have been doing it for just a little over 24 hours.

They have run into situations where they came into the house and there were a lot of guns that were there. Of course, they have encountered dead bodies. It is not their mission to take these bodies out of the houses. They just mark the houses as they go, and it is also not their mission to make people leave if people are in the houses and don't want to leave. They will allow them to stay there but, of course, they will report back those things.

There were also situations where they did encounter some people with guns. Those were arrested. That happened yesterday. So not sure what we're going to encounter this morning. We're on our way right now to our first house. Tony.

HARRIS: Rusy, as you look at these pictures as you reflect on your tour, is it hard to imagine just how long it will take for people to put their lives back together? DORNIN: Absolutely. Absolutely. When you see how much water is in this city and also how much damage and how many power lines are down and that sort of thing and it is just -- it is overwhelming. That word keeps being used. And I think also one of the border patrol agents here just said to me, it's surreal. It just doesn't seem like this could be happening in an entire city like this.

You know, we're driving down the street right now and I can see power lines down, trees fallen into houses. There is no flooding where I am right now but there's not a soul here. There's not a person on the street.

HARRIS: CNN's Rusty Dornin. Rusty, thank you.

There has been a massive outpouring of support to help families separated by the storm. When we come back, the president of the United Way a group with plenty of experience putting families back on their feet. We're breaking. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Well, the road to recovery, it's going long and difficult one in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. And top charity officials say people on the Gulf Coast need a long-term solution. Joining me now from Washington is Brian Gallagher, president of the United Way of America.

Brian, good to talk to you.

BRIAN GALLAGHER, UNITED WAY OF AMERICA: Thanks, Tony. It's good to be here.

HARRIS: A long-term solution. Folks can't get past the short term. Let's talk about the short term and meeting some of these immediate needs. How are we doing?

GALLAGHER: You know, we're -- I think we're doing pretty well. And you're right, it's important to focus on short term. United Way has been a part of that short-term effort. Every we're we put about $300 million dollars into the Red Cross and Salvation Army and lots of smaller organizations. But also right now in the short term, folks need comprehensive services.

We're getting a lot of calls around income assistance, missing persons, job placement, counseling services and we're putting to -- we've put together an easy-to-remember number, 211, that now 18,000 people a day in Texas are calling versus 2,000 before the storm. So, we do have to respond to the short term first, but stay focused on long-term recovery, as well.

HARRIS: Maybe I've missed your involvement. Are we just getting the United Way involved or have you been involved from the beginning?

GALLAGHER: No. We've been involved from the beginning, but it's one of those things that, you know, early on -- and I think this is the right thing to do. The Red Cross, Salvation Army, small, immediate relief organizations are on the front lines along with FEMA and federal government, state government and so forth. But what we do early on is, like I say, we put hundreds of millions of dollars into those organizations but now we're getting toward mid-term and long- term effort.

HARRIS: You know, let's take look, if we could, at some of those new pictures that we're just getting in. We're seeing some of the boats actually going into some of these neighborhoods and it makes me think, Brian, when folks actually get an opportunity to see the damage done by the storm, emotionally it may just be completely overwhelming for them.

GALLAGHER: It can be. And it's -- one of the things we learned -- I talked to a counselor who worked after September 11th. He was at our 211 call center in Louisiana when I visited. He said right now in New York they are getting the highest number of requests for mental health services from police officers and firefighters in New York.

So, we know that this is emotional for a lot of people. The other thing I would say, Tony, is that, you know, we're going to put billions of dollars into rebuilding the levees and buildings and so forth. We should. We need to put billions of dollars into rebuilding the human infrastructure in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

You know, there's a lot of conversations about who's going to come back and who's not. Mixed-income housing and service in neighborhoods and development funds that allow people to buy homes and get kids to school and so forth, if we rebuild it that way, I think folks will follow the human instinct and want to come home.

HARRIS: Yes. That's interesting. I have to ask you -- people need cash it seems to me. The few folks that I've talked to here in the Atlanta area who are evacuees, they need money. They need cash... just cash in hand. Fast cash, if you will. Are you a bit disappointed that FEMA has decided to cancel this debit card program? Because it seemed like that was a program that could get you cash in hand in a hurry.

GALLAGHER: Well, in fact, they are not abandoning the cash program as I understand it. Debit as the vehicle to get cash.

HARRIS: That seemed an easy way to do it though.

GALLAGHER: Yes. It is an easy way to do it. I think one of the things, though, that is troubling is how do you to -- how do you get those cards to distribution, if you will, because folks are scattered everywhere.

HARRIS: Yes. Yes.

GALLAGHER: As you reported -- you know, I was just down there and there are 200,000 evacuees in Baton Rouge and Houston is well documented, but there's 40,000 in Atlanta. There are 25,000 in Memphis. There's 10,000 in Wichita. It is a huge effort, but you are right. Cash is immediate. Folks in Houston were telling me that they're overwhelmed with in-kind contributions... HARRIS: Yes.

GALLAGHER: .. That it's hard to take anymore at this point.

HARRIS: How do you keep fatigue from setting in here?

GALLAGHER: It is a tough one. One, you have to rotate people through. You know, a lot of the advice that we've been giving to our volunteer leaders and all volunteers and professionals working on this, is that you have to rotate people through because there is physical fatigue. There is also mental fatigue and -- that's why at some point we have to start focusing on what folks are going to need over the long haul. Because again, we learned after 9/11 and Oklahoma City and hurricanes in Florida last year, that this is a long-term effort...

HARRIS: Right.

GALLAGHER: ... That will require a lot of people.

HARRIS: Hey, Brian. Again, how do we access the United Way?

GALLAGHER: You go to UnitedWay.org and you can find an easy way whether to give cash, volunteer your time over the long haul or give in-kind contributions over the long haul.

Brian Gallagher, president of the United Way. Brian, thank you.

GALLAGHER: Thank you, Tony.

HARRIS: Let's send you back to Betty in Houston now. Hi, Betty.

NGUYEN: Tony, gut-wrenching 911 calls are being released in Biloxi, Mississippi and these calls became more desperate as people realized that this was going to be the last call that they would ever make. Here's CNN Ted Rowlands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

911 OPERATOR: Biloxi Police and Fire.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When the hurricane came ashore, 911 dispatchers in Biloxi, Mississippi, had been moved to the city's storm-proof operations center. They were ready for a long night, but had no idea what they were about to go through.

DESIREE DUFRENE, 911 DISPATCHER: The calls kept getting worse and they kept getting more serious with people actually starting to die and starting to drown in their own homes.

911 OPERATOR: Your house is underwater?

ROWLANDS: At the height of the storm police and fire crews were pulled off the street. It was simply too dangerous for anybody to be out.

911 OPERATOR: Just get to the safest part of the house, sir.

ROWLANDS: Unable to send help, dispatchers tried to get people to save themselves.

911 OPERATOR: They need to get as high as they can... OK, but I mean they -- you know it's just, right now we can't get out.

HEAHTER GRAF, 911 DISPATCHER: And then you get the same people calling back over and over and they keep saying the water is rising. The water is rising.

911 OPERATOR: You need to do what you need to do to save your life.

DUFRENE: Well, they were begging for their lives. They were saying you have to come get me out of my house. I have children. I'm elderly. You have to come get us. We're drowning.

ROWLANDS: At one point a dispatcher had to explain to a caller that it was even too dangerous for police boats.

911 OPERATOR: We can't, ma'am... We were in a boat and the wind gusts and the waves got too much for our boat to put our officers at danger and we're taking addresses and as soon as it calms down a little bit, we're going to try to get back out. We have about 60 homes that people stayed in.

ROWLANDS: Dispatchers say the most difficult calls came from children.

GRAF: You know, there were a couple of children that called that you could hear the mom in the background just screaming.

911 OPERATOR: Are you only 12? Where's your parents?

ROWLANDS: It got so bad according to dispatchers, that some people knew they were going to die and asked that the dispatchers contact their loved ones.

DUFRENE: They were giving us their next of kin. They were telling us, you know, call this -- to call this family. This is my mother. This is my father. This is my aunt or uncle. You'll need to tell them that I said good bye.

GRAF: There was no help to send them. We didn't have anything. That's the toughest thing that we have to live with. And you feel like it is your fault. What could have you done.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Knowing that you're the last person that they talked to and -- sorry. And I hope their families understand that we tried, and that we did the best we could.

ROWLANDS: Ted Rowlands, CNN, Biloxi, Mississippi.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: And we are keeping an eye on Hurricane Ophelia, a storm that can't seem to make up its mind as to where it wants to go. Bonnie Schneider, why has this storm now decided to head back toward the mainland?

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, Tony, we're anticipating that turn back to the mainland I think later tonight into tomorrow. Right now the movement is to the north-northeast at three miles per hour. The storm has really slowed down over the past day or so. And we're likely to see it make a abrupt halt and then come back.

And there's a reason. It has to do with the weather pattern that's emerging right now. We have our upper level winds or steering winds that are helping to kind of shift Ophelia to the north- northeast. And that's what's happening at present. But watch what happens as this high pressure system builds on in. Well, we lose that upper airflow that was taking it to the northeast and the exact opposite happens.

The clockwise flow of the high takes Ophelia back to land and, as you can see, getting closer to South Carolina. And that's the pattern that will emerge over the next 12 to 24 hours that will bring Ophelia back to the shoreline. I'm sure something a lot of folks don't want to talk about or see, but that's the track.

And here's -- if we take a closer look at that you'll see the storm is likely just to intensify slightly, according to the National Hurricane Center. Right now, maximum winds are at 80 miles per hour. At one point towards Monday, they'll get up to 85. And then when the storm comes in, the latest advisory has it coming in as a category one hurricane, and eventually becoming a depression.

It's interesting the turn quickly to the north, so we're going to be talking as well about the potential for wind and rain and flooding through the central area of the Carolinas toward the Piedmont, Greensboro and then back our towards Raleigh.

I think we'll see some heavy rain as we work our way into this coming week. So, keep that in mind. Landfall is expected as we work our way from Monday into Tuesday. Still difficult to pinpoint the time, and we do have a hurricane watch posted from the Savannah River northward toward Cape Lookout. The Savannah River divides South Carolina and Georgia. So that gives you a barometer of where it is.

And this means that hurricane force conditions will occur within the next 36 hours. So be prepared if you live in the coastal section of the Carolinas for some battering waves and wind. We're already getting those waves now but the winds certainly will pick up and we'll keep you up to date on Ophelia's progress. Tony.

HARRIS: Very good, Bonnie. Thank you. And now back to my co- anchor in Houston, Betty Nguyen. As you know, vice president Cheney is in Austin. If he changed his plans and made a stop to where you are in Houston, what would he see?

NGUYEN: You know, Tony, I think he would see thousands of people who are grateful to the food, the shelter and compassion that is being shown here in Houston. But I think he would also see some confusion. Confusion over those debit cards. A lot of people are in distress, still trying to figure out how to get their hands on them.

Here at the Astrodome and the four main shelters in Houston, those debit cards have already been distributed. There are no more debit cards. But FEMA wants to make sure that people know that just because the debit cards aren't being handed out today that the money, that $2,000, will still be handed out, only in the form of cash and direct deposit.

So there is a lot of people that are grateful but yet there is still a lot of people who are looking for that assistance.

HARRIS: OK, Betty, see you next hour. Take a look at this. It's the water in New Orleans. Coming up next hour the question of the day, when will it be safe to drink? We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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