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CNN Live Saturday

The Aftermath of Katrina

Aired September 10, 2005 - 11:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Don't know how to find their parents, parents don't know how to find them and that's what we've been trying to do here is locate lost loved ones. We've been talking a lot about those who are missing.
And I've got to tell you, next hour we're going to introduce to you a guy who found his son, thanks to the beauty and the power of live television. We're going to get to know him a little bit more and find out how exactly he got that call. Stay tuned for that.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Betty.

And now from the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING, the 10th day of September, and good morning once again, everyone, I'm Tony Harris.

NGUYEN: Three of the four main shelters are housed in this Reliant Park area, including the Astrodome behind me. Many evacuees are still here, although some have found temporary housing, but 7,300 are still here, looking for assistance and looking for loved ones. Tony.

HARRIS: OK, Betty, back to you in just a couple of moments. Let's get this mission critical update. We begin the morning with the latest from the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A grim task in New Orleans, searchers are going from house to house to look for bodies, but there is some encouraging news. Officials now believe the death toll may be lower than they first thought.

In the meantime, workers keep pumping water out of New Orleans, but they say it could take a month to dry out the area. And even longer in some spots. Sixty percent of the city remains flooded.

New Orleans is slowly getting back to business. Officials signed a nearly $31 million contract to rebuild the bridge over Lake Pontchartrain. The bridge sustained major hurricane damage.

And finally, Vice President Cheney arrives in Austin, Texas. He'll meet with hurricane evacuees and get a briefing on the relief efforts. Cheney earlier toured hurricane damage in Gulfport, Mississippi, and New Orleans.

The White House is still taking a lot of heat for its handling of the Katrina disaster. Both Democrats and Republicans have pulled no punches in their attacks. All of this happening as a new A.P. poll shows the American public is not very confident about the federal government's ability to handle a disaster in the future. And people overwhelmingly believe the government was not prepared for a disaster the size of Katrina. Our Elaine Quijano has been tracking these developments and she joins us now from the White House. Elaine, good morning.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Tony. White House officials continue to insist that now is not the time to start investigating what went wrong in the aftermath, in the immediate response to Hurricane Katrina. They say to do so would pull away much needed resources and people away from the region.

But a very telling move yesterday, that public switch in the FEMA leadership on the ground in the disaster zone. That announcement coming yesterday from the homeland security chief, Michael Chertoff, announcing that FEMA director Michael Brown would be pulled out of the region and taking over for him, replacing him, Vice Admiral Thad Allen of the U.S. Coast Guard.

Now Brown, of course, had been under intense fire for appearing to be out of touch, particularly when he said he didn't know that the City of New Orleans was using the convention area as a staging area, despite the fact that those images of the dire conditions there had aired on television.

Now, Brown's credentials and qualifications have been called into question. And while he will remain in place as head of FEMA, unclear exactly what his role will be, he will certainly be far away from the disaster zone. Now, today President Bush in his radio address said that the government, meantime, is doing everything possible to help hurricane victims start over again.

GEORGE W. BUSH, U.S. PRESIDENT (audio clip): We are assisting the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and we'll help the people of the Gulf Coast recover from adversity. Despite all they've endured, the people of that region are determined to rebuild their homes and reclaim their lives, and their fellow Americans are determined to help them.

QUIJANO: Now, the president also noted in his radio address tomorrow's fourth anniversary of the September 11th attacks. The president, by the way, tomorrow, Tony, will be observing a moment of silence here at the White House before making another visit to the hurricane disaster zone tomorrow. He will be visiting a couple of states, we understand it will be the third time that the president has made his trip -- made a trip down there since the hurricane struck -- Tony?

HARRIS: OK, Elaine. Elaine Quijano at the White House, let me thank you.

And back in New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin once said up to 10,000 people may be dead in his city. Now officials are backing on of off from that dire prediction. Let's go to straight to CNN's Dan Simon, he's at the police command center on the riverfront in New Orleans. Dan, good morning. DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Tony. Authorities tell me the focus today is indeed on body recovery. As you mentioned, it's been widely reported that at one time they believed that there were as many as 10,000 people dead in the city of New Orleans, but now we're just not hearing those numbers are so high. If you can call it good news, perhaps it is.

But basically what's happening today is authorities are canvassing the neighborhood, looking for bodies. It is a very grim task. They're taking the corpses to the nearby community of St. Gabriel.

Also today we are told that the pumps are working a lot better. About three dozen pumps are working out of the 174 pumps that they have here had the city of New Orleans. That means that the city could be dry in, perhaps, 80 to -- rather, excuse me. In about a month. Originally they thought it would take about 80 to 100 days to get the city dry.

There's also the continuing challenge of getting the remaining hold-outs out of the city. We know there are as many as 10,000 people in the city who just don't want to leave. And one problem has been pets. People just don't to want part with their pets, and so they're staying put with their animal, but now we are told that the folks who want to leave town, or who have been reluctant to leave town, will now be able to take their pets with them. So that in fact, is very good news -- Tony?

HARRIS: Dan, just a quick question. What do the people of New Orleans say about their city and the prospects for its future? Do they want the city rebuilt?

SIMON: Absolutely they do, Tony. There's a lot of pride here in the City of New Orleans. This is a very old city. And because of the distinctive culture here in New Orleans, the jazz and the art, and I used to live in New Orleans, Tony, so I'm really aware of the distinctive brand of culture here with the restaurants and all of that, so absolutely they feel like they can rebuild, but they're just not sure in terms of the timetable.

HARRIS: OK, Dan Simon, thank you. Thank you, Dan.

Why didn't they come for us? That's what staffers at a New Orleans area nursing home are asking in the aftermath of Katrina. More than 30 residents died at St. Rita's when flood waters took over. Louisiana's attorney general plans to investigate why the residents weren't evacuated, but one nurse says she wants answers, and now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAMMY DAIGLE, ST. RITA'S NURSE: I can't understand, if there was a mandatory evacuation scheduled for Sunday afternoon, why they did not get these people out. I don't understand why the ambulance service didn't go there, I don't understand why the parish officials, the fire department, somebody, anybody didn't go there and get these people out. They know they were elderly, they knew they were incapable of getting out on their own. They were sick. They were infirmed. They deserved to live. They did not deserve to drown. And not know what happened to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Now, that's just so heartbreaking to hear, but they're good questions, why weren't they taken out of there, questions that do need answers.

Along with the lives that were lost, there is a lot of destruction in Katrina's wake. Let's go live now to Alan Chernoff in Biloxi, Mississippi, with the latest on both the aftermath and the clean-up. Alan?

ALAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Betty, we have a major insurance issue here in Biloxi. Have a look behind me. You can see complete devastation, the homes flattened, out on the curbs here. And this goes on for block after block after block.

Well, a lot of people are coming back to their homes today, the fast few days, and they've been assessing the damage and talking with their insurance companies. They're getting some awful news. The insurance companies, generally the residents are telling us, are saying that the damage here was the result of flooding, not a hurricane, but flooding, and a lot of people simply did not have flood insurance.

A few moments ago I took a tour of someone's home just a few blocks away. And you can see over here, totally flattened his house. We walked through where the living room used to be, where the kitchen used to be. Absolutely nothing except bricks and pipes. He actually does have flood insurance, but he spoke to his insurance company, and they said only the flood insurance will apply, which won't be nearly enough to rebuild his home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOBBY MIGUES, BILOXI HURRICANE VICTIM: I want the insurance company to get off their butts and help us people out. That's all I'm asking. I want exactly what my policy covered, even though I thought it covered more than what it did, but I want to get - I want to be able to get exactly what it says.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: The insurance companies are definitely going to be under a lot of heat in this town, and the mayor himself told us he thinks the companies need to be more understanding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR A.J. HOLLOWAY, BILOXI, MISSISSIPPI: This is not a flood. This is a hurricane. You know, we're talking about 170-mile-an-hour winds with tidal surge. A flood is not like that. We're talking about a flood as a heavy rain or a river, and you have time to prepare for it. We didn't have time to prepare for this. It's just a natural disaster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHERNOFF: No question there was lots of flooding coming in from the Gulf on this side. We're only one block away and 10 blocks that way is the bay. The waters did meet, but, of course, the winds were horrendous here, and unquestionably, plenty of wind damage as well. This is going to be an ongoing issue. Back to you.

NGUYEN: Alan, not only there in Biloxi, but here in Houston there's a lot of cries for assistance. Thank you so much. We've been talking about Katrina and all that Katrina has done to these lives, these families. Guess what? We're going to talk about another hurricane, another one out there churning. Bonnie Schneider is here with the latest on that. This is not what a lot of people want to hear, Bonnie.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely not, Betty.

I wish I could tell you this storm is pushing out to sea, but unfortunately Ophelia has strengthened. An air force reconnaissance plane went inside, took a look, and the maximum winds now with Ophelia are now at 80 miles an hour. That classifies it as a Category 1 hurricane so it has strengthened a bit, and as anticipated, it's slowed down. The movement is to the northeast at three miles an hour.

And we just want to mention again that a hurricane watch has been posted down through the Savannah River in South Carolina. That separates the two states of South Carolina and Georgia, up towards Cape Lookout in North Carolina. Now, a hurricane watch means that conditions are favorable for hurricane conditions, hurricane-force winds, winds greater than 74 miles an hour. That will occur likely in the next 36 hours. So as we look at our updated track, we can show you that the storm is likely to take that turn sometime tonight, into the early hours of tomorrow, back towards the U.S. coast.

Now, where will the storm strike? It looks like at this point that's where the hurricane watch is so wide, all the way from South Carolina area up towards North Carolina because we're watching very closely this storm is likely to come in, according to the hurricane sister, center somewhere around South Carolina. But as the storm gets closer and after it makes its turn we'll have a better idea of where the storm is headed.

Another note that's been changed since we've gotten this recent advisory is now Ophelia comes in as a Category 1. So I guess that's some good news. It doesn't strengthen to a Category 2. But still a Category 1 hurricane is very strong. It does cause a lot of damage, and there will be some very strong winds and also some heavy rain.

And if you just take a quick look at the radar, I want to show you the rain right now is not coming in for the Carolinas. It's still offshore. The storm is still a couple hundred miles from the shore line so we're not getting rain right now, but we have the hurricane watch posted for this area. Tony?

HARRIS: OK, Bonnie, thank you.

It was a prescription for disaster in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Hundreds trapped at New Orleans' Charity Hospital where the flood waters rising and chaos in the streets, and the saving grace, the staff. We'll meet one of the doctor heroes in a few moments.

And later, the jail inmate who could have gotten out, who might have even escaped, instead, he stayed behind and even helped save others. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: There are so many heroes not to be forgotten in the aftermath of Katrina, they include doctors and nurses who stayed behind in hospitals to provide care for their patients. Beyond the deplorable working conditions. No power, water, or relief. Some also had to deal with violence and sniper fire.

One of those is Dr. Norman McSwain. He's the chief of trauma at New Orleans Charity Hospital. Dr. McSwain joins us live from Cincinnati this morning. And, doctor, good to talk to you.

DR. NORMAN MCSWAIN, CHARITY HOSPITAL: Good morning, sir, how are you?

HARRIS: Well. I have to ask you, oftentimes it takes a few days after you've been overwhelmed in the way so many have been overwhelmed by this storm to sort of get a sense of what you're thinking, what you're feeling. Have you given any thought to what your emotions are a week and a half almost after Katrina made landfall?

MCSWAIN: Well, not really. I haven't had a chance to do that because after we got evacuated out, the next goal was to work with the National Association of EMTs and pre-hospital trauma life support program to mobilize some EMS personnel to go back in and replace and relieve those folks that had worked so hard on the streets, and work with the, as I said, National Association of EMTs and PHTLS to do that.

And now I'm in the process of trying to find educational homes, if you would, to the residents, the medical students and the surgery residents that are in training to get someplace to continue their education.

HARRIS: So you're still very busy?

MCSWAIN: Yes. I've still got a pretty full week ahead of me.

HARRIS: Dr. McSwain, take us back, when did your situation on the ground at Charity Hospital become dire?

MCSWAIN: Well, we thought for a while that evacuation was coming in to move us out, the water was up. And the evacuation didn't come and didn't come. Then I went across the street to Tulane Hospital and got to talking with their people, HCA was evacuating -- beginning to evacuate the Tulane patients out. And I said, hey, can we get some of Charity's patients out, too? And so they said, sure. And so we got the ICU patients in the line from Charity to be moved out.

But the problem was, there was a large expanse of water in trying to get the patients by boat or by truck or something of that nature, across that expanse of water. And unfortunately, there were not many boats available, and the trucks didn't come as they should have.

HARRIS: Doctor, how -- I don't know if angry is the word these days, but how disappointed are you, were you in the response?

MCSWAIN: Well, I was extremely disappointed in the response that the public hospital was able to mount for its people, but I was extremely pleased by the fact that the private hospital across the street said, come on, we'll be happy to get as many of your folks out as we can. And started with the ICU people. And then I was involved in the command center at Tulane to get all of the Tulane folks out as well as many of the Charity patients as we could get across the street in a convenient time.

And then HCA turned over the heliport that we had created on the top of the parking lot with all of the resources to move those -- move the rest of Charity's patients out after we had been evacuated.

HARRIS: Did you ever lose it or did you pretty much, I don't know, keep your cool throughout it all?

MCSWAIN: Well, you know, I'm trained as a trauma surgeon, and as a trauma surgeon, you can't lose your cool, because once you lose cool, you've lost control of the situation and the patients are going to suffer. So that's part of our heritage, I guess, is to make sure you never lose your cool.

HARRIS: Do you feel like your staff acted heroically?

MCSWAIN: Oh, God, it's unbelievable. Not only heroically, they worked themselves to death to do everything they possibly could to protect the patients. In the fact of decreased personnel, decreased food and decreased water, no lights, temperatures up to 110 degrees, taking people down blackened stairs, using flashlights. Everybody just worked themselves to death.

HARRIS: Doctor, do you feel like you acted heroically?

MCSWAIN: Well, I'm not sure I acted heroically. I was doing my job.

HARRIS: I knew you wouldn't accept that. Dr. McSwain, good to talk to you. Thank you.

MCSWAIN: Thank you, sir.

HARRIS: It was a star-studded night across the nation as entertainers came together to raise money for Katrina's victims. And talk about coming together, a Houston church rallies behind a New Orleans couple to help make their dreams, their dreams come true.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (MUSIC)

HARRIS: Legendary singer and New Orleans native, Dr. John, one of the entertainers helping raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina. He performed at the shelter from the storm concert just last night. It was one of three telethons broadcast to benefit Katrina survivors. Unlike last week, when rapper Kanye West lashed out at the president, this time musicians stuck to the script.

CNN's Sibila Vargas reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MORGAN FREEMAN, ACTOR: Tonight we call upon the soul, spirit, and the compassion of the American people.

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): America's top entertainers came out to support Katrina relief efforts in a trio of high-profile fund raisers. The Shelter from the Storm Concert, simulcast on all six of the nation's broadcast networks and numerous cable networks, took a somber but hopeful tone.

Highlights include a surprising pairing of Mary J. Blige and U2, Louisiana songs from Foo Fighters and Paul Simon and a few songs with a very gospel like feel, especially Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" reworked with new lyrics.

(MUSIC)

VARGAS: Like 2001's Tribute to Heroes 9/11 telethon, Hollywood's biggest names manned the phones as viewers were encouraged to make donations to the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army. Queen Latifah and Steve Harvey hosted the SOS Saving Ourselves telethon on Black Entertainment Television.

It gave voice to the suffering of hurricane victims, many of whom were African-American.

SEAN COMBS, ENTERTAINER: This on our telethon, our phones, we have to take care of our people.

VARGAS: Political figurers including Senator Barack Obama and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made taped appearances, and former President Bill Clinton phoned in. While Patti Labelle and Jill Scott sang songs echoing the plight of Katrina's victims.

(MUSIC)

VARGAS: Tim McGraw kicked off CBS' Fashion Rocks (ph) which included performance by Destiny's Child.

(MUSIC)

VARGAS: Sibila Vargas, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HARRIS: Storms like Katrina always produce some silver linings. Wendell Edwards of affiliate KHOU has a story of one couple's long march down the aisle from New Orleans to Houston.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'll have one song right here.

WENDELL EDWARDS, WHOU CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Courtney Coubarous thought she would be nervous, instead, she's anxious. After all, she's getting married. She and her fiance Reginald Fournier were supposed to be married in New Orleans, but Hurricane Katrina changed all that.

COURTNEY COUBAROUS, BRIDE: We have been saving. We were on a strict budget. And so when everything was gone, once this happened, we were like, well, we don't have any money anyway so let's go to the justice of the peace.

EDWARDS: But that quickly changed when the sister and brother- in-law told their Houston host family about the meager wedding.

DANNY MEYER, KINGSLAND BAPTIST CHURCH: I was like, guys, you all just need to get married in our church. Our pastor would just love to do that.

EDWARDS (on camera): Just two days ago this couple from Louisiana had given up on having the wedding of their dreams, but now thanks to a outpouring of generosity, they're having a wedding they never could have dreamed of.

(voice-over): In a matter of 24 hours everything came together, the photographer, the flowers, the music, limousine, the reception, all donated.

REGINALD FOURNIER, GROOM: It's just a blessing. You know, I couldn't ask for any more than everything that's been coming to me.

EDWARDS: There were some hiccups.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need some directions.

EDWARDS: The bride's family got lost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to go south.

EDWARDS: But in the end, they made it. And Courtney and Reginald made it to the altar in a wedding they didn't plan or expect, but one they say turned out even better.

In Cady (ph), Wendell Edwards, 11 News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: With the desperate evacuation comes separation. Hundreds of children are still reported missing. Kathleen Koch updates efforts to reunite separated families. And if you have got a computer, you can Google new aerial photos of hurricane damage. Daniel Sieberg shows us how to do it in just a couple of minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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