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CNN Live Saturday

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

Aired September 10, 2005 - 13:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Searching house to house for those that weathered the storm and stayed behind, but will residents on dry ground be forced to leave? An update on the situation in around New Orleans from the CNN Center in Atlanta. This is CNN LIVE SATURDAY. And good afternoon everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
Up first this hour, mission critical. The very latest on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The mandatory evacuation order remains in place in New Orleans but many holdouts are still refusing to leave. It is believed that as many as 10,000 people are still in the city. Right now authorities are concentrating on finding bodies and they say forcing holdouts to leave is not a priority.

FEMA is trying to get the word out to storm evacuees that a debit card program is ending. The cards valued at $2,000 each are now in short supply but FEMA says evacuees can receive the $2,000 through deposits to their bank accounts or checks by mail in the aftermath of Katrina, a member of the commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks says the United States is not prepared for disaster or a large scale terrorist attack.

Former Congressman Tim Roemer says, "We have had our first post- 9/11 test and we have miserably failed." And he blames it in part on the government's failure to implement all the recommendations of the 9/11 commissions.

We begin our coverage in New Orleans. Where CNN's Dan Simon is preparing to take part in a house-to-house search. He joins us by phone. Dan.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony the two headlines at this hour recovery and resistance. Let's talk about recovery. As you mentioned, it has been widely reported that there were at least 10,000 victims of hurricane Katrina. Now authorities say that number is a lot lower. They expressed optimism that it could be in the hundreds and perhaps not even in the thousands. Right now that's the task at hand. It is going neighborhood to neighborhood and trying to collect bodies and taking them to a nearby morgue and then identifying the victims.

Now, in terms of resistance, this is a very tricky situation here in the city of New Orleans. You have several thousand people who just do not want to leave their homes. They say they are comfortable here. In a sense, these rescuers are enabling these folks to stay in town because when they see one, they give them food and water but obviously they can't neglect them so it is a catch 22. The police department made it clear that they don't want to use force to get these folks out of their homes but based upon what we saw and the attitudes out there, they may have to do just that.

There is a sense here in town that things could get ugly. We have seen a couple of examples where residents have been so angry and there have been confrontations and yesterday they arrested an elderly woman so there's a sense that things could get ugly and they may have to take out some of the residents in handcuffs. Tony.

HARRIS: All right. CNN's Dan Simon. Dan thank you.

Another fire broke out in New Orleans today. The U.S. Coast Guard took control of this one. Dumping water by helicopter. Look at this. Lack of water pressure has hampered efforts by firefighters to control fires from the ground. Look at those pictures.

All right. Let's check in now with a reporter Fletcher Mackel. He is with WDSU. He has been out today in New Orleans being escorted by freelance swat team. The house fire was up town, now the flooding shot in the mid town city area.

When you see the pictures from New Orleans you might think the entire city is nothing but a water world. But that's not the case. Parts of New Orleans are still high and dry and the mandatory evacuation order is stirring anger among residents that remain in those areas. The story now from CNN's Drew Griffin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Could this be the same New Orleans? Is New Orleans getting cleaned up? A New Orleans where power is coming on? Where a grocery store stands unlooted and in intact, the answer is yes. It is why the holdouts want to keep holding out and why so many are now wondering why is the mayor still ordering everyone to evacuate. Do you see any reason to leave?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

GRIFFIN: The French Quarter. Urban Street, Reservation Hall, Jackson Square. All fine. The central business district, Kevin Regan runs threes hotels here. He's Sheridan has been powered for nearly a week. He's trying to reopen and wishes the city would do the same.

KEVIN REGAN: That's what's needed in the government. They need to cut through the crap and just start making things happen.

GRIFFIN: And in the garden district yes even the lower garden districts where the poor people live, things are according to James McLaurin are more than fine.

JAMES MCLAURIN, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: I don't want to leave.

GRIFFIN: Do you have water inside?

MCLAURIN: I have enough water for four weeks. I got plenty of water to flush the toilet. I have enough drinking water to last me four weeks and food.

GRIFFIN: The residents here have running water, phones that work. And hurricane damage.

MCLAURIN: I have been here 53 years.

GRIFFIN: These people have bonded on Constance Street have bonded. Cooking out twice a day. All they wish is to see more or any cleanup crews and fewer armed soldiers trying to scare them out.

MCLAURIN: See what the are doing, they're coming around trying to brainwash for you to go and leave your place so when you come back you don't have nothing to come back to. That's what they are trying to do.

GRIFFIN: (INAUDIBLE).

MCLAURIN: We'll order your body bag. I'll need one any way sooner or later.

GRIFFIN: To say all of New Orleans is like this would be misleading. Large portions of the city are uninhabitable. But many parts had high water; some parts didn't even have damage. While schoolchildren are being displaced. We walked around Xavier (ph) Prep on the evacuated West side and found just two broken windows.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not sure if that's storm damage. It looks like a ball went through there.

GRIFFIN: Today the city held a news conference saying it is too dangerous even to drive here.

SHERRY LANDRY, NEW ORLEANS CITY ATTORNEY: Some streets have broken glass. Many of our vehicles have been put temporarily out of commission by flat tires.

GRIFFIN: As for getting a flat tire, take a look at my tires. We have been driving all around New Orleans for six days and we have not had a single flat. The people on Constance Street are beginning to wonder if their city leaders understand that they are suspicious. Is something else going on?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not one of these houses out here is damaged.

GRIFFIN: Why does the mayor want you out?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know why. He doesn't know anything and the police are doing the looting.

GRIFFIN: These residents aren't leaving unless they get carried out in those supposedly tailor made body bags.

(CROSS TALK)

GRIFFIN: Drew Griffin, CNN, in the dry part of New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: WDSU reporter Fletcher Mackel joins now on the phone. He has been out today in New Orleans with a freelance s.w.a.t. team. And Fletcher what can you tell us? What have you seen?

FLETCHER MACKEL: Well actually this morning we saw a fire. I think you showed some video of it. And what was amazing was the fact that the helicopters that were responding to the fire and dropping water on the area, the reason why they were there is because the fire trucks couldn't get there because of the flooding.

It is amazing that the fact that one of the helicopters, the bag of water that it was carrying clipped a power line and knocked the power line in half and knocked the power line onto our news unit and into the street. But the fire seems to be contained a bit.

That was one of the first ones we covered in a couple days. The New Orleans fire department has gotten some assistance from New York and Chicago and other states. The response time seems to be better and also water pressure seems to be getting better day-by-day here in New Orleans. So therefore the response time to the fires has gotten better.

We were traveling around we saw that house fire. It is one of dozens and dozens that have happened in the last week. We also got a chance to go to mid city in the mid city area of New Orleans by Canal Street. It is relatively a famous street, Canal Street. It is still largely under water at least three feet of water. Those are two things that we saw today. Again, large parts of the city are under water. I just heard a report that you all ran that other parts are high and dry and people are wondering why they can't come back in.

HARRIS: Hey Fletcher you mentioned traveling with a Free-lance SWAT Team. Where is this team from?

MACKEL: Actually they are a great group of guys. Free-Lance SWAT Team is from Tulsa, Oklahoma. There are members of the SWAT Team from Tulsa, Oklahoma and they were hired by our television station to protect us as we went around. We were issued jackets and helmets. I haven't worn the helmet too much but the flag jackets I have wore quite a bit just in case. But they are from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Wherever we go, they go.

HARRIS: A SWAT Team, flag jackets. Are you really that concerned about your own personal safety in that city?

MACKEL: No, I'm a native to Orleanitans so I'm not worried about my own personal safety especially considering they only have 4,000 people left in the city. Most of them are hiding out in their homes. We have had some random acts of violence with people shooting at engineers and a few snipers held up in the housing projects. You can never be too safe. I guess better safe than sorry. I'm not scared driving around. Most of the people you see this definitely an occupied city. There's a large military presence and large police presence. I'm not personally scared but I guess the parent company that owns us feels like they rather play it safe.

HARRIS: OK. All right. I understand. Fletcher Mackel, CNN affiliate WDSU. Fletcher thank you. At Houston's Astrodome confusion today as evacuees who were expected to get debit cards were greeted with signs that read no debit card distribution. CNN's Betty Nguyen joins us live from the Astrodome with the latest. Betty.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony it is another day of debit card distress. It seems to be such a huge source of confusion out here. FEMA says that it is not handing out debit cards anymore here at the four main shelters in Houston and has decided to go with the old method of sending out checks and direct deposit. But it has already distributed 6,000 debit cards in this area. The message of those debit cards not being distributed did not get out to many folks who lined up today to get their hands on those debit cards.

There was a huge crowd that showed up. I don't know about 50 or 60 people. They were angry because they weren't being let into the park. They weren't being told any information about where to get these debit cards. It has basically just been as you mentioned a source of confusion.

But here to sort it out, FEMA is done with the debit cards in the Houston area. It has distributed 6,000 of them. For those that still need to get their hands on the $2,000, which those debit cards provided. They have to register with FEMA and that money will still come in the form of check or a direct deposit.

Tony.

HARRIS: OK Betty. Thank you.

Toxic, putrid, filthy and dangerous all words used to describe the water that is swallowed much of New Orleans. Residents that waited are they now at risk? Every day efforts. How Americans are mobilizing to make a difference and how you can get involved. Find out where your help is most need now.

And later abandoned dogs and other family pets trying to survive in the aftermath of Katrina. We'll take you inside a mission to rescue some of the animals.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The Army Corps of Engineers now believes they can have New Orleans mostly dried out by October. Nearly 80 percent of the city was flooded following the storm and levee breaks. And health officials worry about disease and illness festering in the standing water. Medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen had some water samples analyzed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This water is so filthy that the centers for disease control are telling people who have been in it to get vaccinated against hepatitis a. The New Orleans police force including the Chief Eddie Compass are getting vaccinated against Hepatitis a and Hepatitis and tetanus. Of course you don't really need a test to tell you this water is contaminated, but we had one done to figure out how contaminated it is. The analysis of this New Orleans water shows it is full of bacteria from animal and human feces. Full meaning this test by Louisiana State University shows it has more than 20,000 colonies of fecal chloroform per 100 mill liters. Water run off into rivers is normally supposed to be no less than 200. That's why Mayor Ray Nagin gave this warning on Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: We would like everyone to get out because of the health risk. There are toxins in the water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So what does this mean for the people of New Orleans who were in this water day after day? A week later the water still smells. It is full of trash and debris but of course what is really dangerous is what you can't see. Viruses and bacteria.

Dr. William Shaffner who serves on an Advisory Committee to the Center for Disease Control says the signs of Hepatitis A won't show up for about a month. He says the vaccine can still work even if it is given after someone has been exposed to the virus. A more immediate concern, some people could become severely ill if they swallow the bacteria and viruses in the water.

DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, ADVISORY COUNCIL, CDC: Older people, people who are frail and of course the tiny infants, they don't have the margin of safety. Any kind of illness can be really serious and potentially deadly to them.

COHEN: For everyone else being in this water could mean acute diarrhea.

SCHAFFNER: We are hearing about small outbreaks of gastroenteritis, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

COHEN: Bacteria and viruses aren't the only concern. Johnyup Kim is an environmental engineering PHD student at L.S.U.. At our request he is also testing the water for various chemicals. Results should be back within the next few days. The government says they're working on it.

JOHNYUP KIM, STUDENT, LSU: (INAUDIBLE).

COHEN: All of the people that spent days in the water are waiting to find out what it could mean for their health now and later. Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Joining us now from New York is Dr. Marc Siegel he is an associate professor of medicine at New York University Medical School and the author of the book "False Alarm." Dr. Marc good to see you. DR. MARC SIEGEL, N.Y. UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL: Good to see you Tony.

HARRIS: All right. We heard some of those concerns in Elizabeth's piece. Specifically, what are you concerned about these days?

SIEGEL: The first problem is that people are stressed down there. There's a lot of post-traumatic stress that is building up. People are in denial. They are probably depersonalized, having nightmares. It is very, very expectant and understood. It puts them at greater risk of exposure to that water and possibly to getting injured from debris.

Just the casual exposure to that water would be OK but you may not realize it and get in it longer than you realize. Then you can end up with skin problems and if you get some in your mouth, as Elizabeth was saying you can get diarrhea and in a climate where it is so hot and we don't have a lot of portable water, the dehydration is especially problematic for the very young and the very old.

HARRIS: Dr. Marc what is the denial aspect of this at this point?

SIEGEL: Well you know when you go through things with such great shock, you lose your home, you lose all power, it takes a while to really get accommodated to that and to feel the emotions of despair. It takes a while. That takes about three or four weeks. The initial response is usually denial. And I think that's what we are seeing for people that are refusing to leave.

HARRIS: Dr. Julie Gerberding heads up the CDC here in Atlanta and she says boy if you have been exposed to this and if you are down there, you really need to get out of the water, get out of the city. Do you second that advice?

SIEGEL: Yes she's absolutely right. There is a risk for those bacteria and for swallowing things, but also Hepatitis A is a possibility and you really need two vaccines for Hepatitis A to be immunized but getting the first one helps a lot. We won't know if people get the Hepatitis A, that is a possibility.

More remote diseases like cholera, typhoid are very unlikely because they are uncommon around there but the mosquitoes are starting to breed and we have to worry about some degree of West Nile virus. No malaria though, there really isn't any malaria in this area.

Hepatitis a, what are the symptoms? How do you know if you might have it?

HARRIS: Hepatitis A what are some of the symptoms? What do you know if you might have it?

SIEGEL: Well Hepatitis A usually you just start to turn a little bit on the yellow side. You get a lot of abdominal cramping, nausea, vomiting. You start to develop a fever of about 102 to 103. As you can manage it is very bad to have something like that in this environment.

HARRIS: You know there's a threat if you are exposed and there are the threats if you swallow it, what about casual contact? We're seeing a lot of folks just wading in the water trying to get from point a to point b.

SIEGEL: You know Tony I don't think that getting from point a to point b is a particular problem except that we don't have a real ability to wash off. If you develop a wound and you are in that water with all of that bacteria it can get easily infected. Well you could also clean it out at that point and have an antibiotic cream but there's not a lot of that around. That's the biggest problem with the water getting this toxic is we don't have the ability to treat it if anything happens.

HARRIS: What about (ph) E. coli and Norwalk Virus?

SIEGEL: Well E. coli and Norwalk Virus both give you a lot of gastrula intestinal symptoms. Both of them make you very sick and very dehydrated, you get a lot of diarrhea, which you can't tolerate, in the heat.

HARRIS: How about after the water drains? What are you left behind? And how toxic is that sludge; sorry that's left behind?

SIEGEL: Well it is going to have a very high concentration of bacteria and it is going to have a lot of chemicals in it. There is also found a lot of lead in that water. That again is more of a problem for long-term use. And the other thing that is going to happen when the water drains is you are going to see a lot more of that debris. We have seen in prior catastrophes that if you bang into some of this stuff you get injuries and wounds that just don't heal that easily. So that's what people have to be careful of. People under stress don't tend to be that careful.

HARRIS: Tetanus?

SIEGEL: Well if you had a tetanus shot within five to ten years, you are probably protected. It is a very good idea to give a tetanus shot to someone that hasn't had one in five years in this situation.

HARRIS: You know what we are going to rule in a lot of people aren't we just to sort of deal with the psychological scars of this.

SIEGEL: I think that's the most important thing and that will take a lot of time and a lot of counseling. We're not seeing it right away. Because again people are very tough at the beginning but then later on they need a lot of emotional support.

HARRIS: Dr. Marc Siegel. Dr. Marc good to see you. Thanks for talking to us.

SIEGEL: Thanks Tony.

HARRIS: Danger looming in the Atlantic. Hurricane Ophelia swirling off the South Carolina coast. We're tracking her movement and potential impact. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Surveying the damage from the air, CNN's RUSTY DORNIN just took part in an area inspection tour with a U.S. border patrol. And Rusty, we talked about it a bit last hour. But for everyone just joining us, fill us in on what you saw.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just amazing the enormity of the city that is submerged under water. It is just -- it is mind- boggling when you see the extent of the flooding and how much devastation there's been. Even in the areas we have been driving around dry streets. There is a lot of wind damage, a lot of trees on houses, a lot of power lines down. A lot of people lost their roofs. Buildings have collapsed. There's a lot of damage that just don't see.

When you see it on TV you get that small picture and flying over it, it is just mind-boggling. We finished a tour with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol going to homes where people have called 911 within the last three days. We finished going to a 69-year-old woman's house. They did not find her inside. There was concern because one of the agents did see money lying on the bed. They did enter the house to make sure that she hadn't been robbed and that she wasn't on conscious, there was no one in the house.

Right now we're on our way to a 16-year-old crippled man who his parents say they have not heard from him in two days. We are going to see if he's OK. These men are here to check on people and see if they want to be rescued or if there are bodies in the house. They will be marking the houses as well. So it is a big job. There's over 800 911 calls just in the last few days alone. Which is pretty amazing Tony when you think about it that there are city able to call 911 but they can't get out.

HARRIS: But they can't get out. Hey Rusty just curious. You go and you find these people and check on them in their homes and you're asking if they want to leave. If they don't want to leave do you have any kind of supplies that you can give them if they decide to ride this thing out?

DORNIN: No. They don't have supplies with them. There's a case of water. I'm sure if they wanted a few bottles of water, these guys would be more than happy to give it to them, but there are no supplies. They want to convince these people it is time to come out.

If they dialed 911 they are in trouble and hopefully they so want to leave at this point. We'll see this 16-year-old boy that's crippled. Don't know anymore about the situation why his parents haven't heard from him and whether he had a cell phone or what the situation is but we'll find out.

HARRIS: OK, Rusty. Thank you.

DORNIN: Thank you. HARRIS: Forecasters are closely monitoring Hurricane Ophelia right now it is churning off the South Carolina coast moving parallel to shore. But the storm's direction and intensity could change very soon with the latest information we go to CNN's Bonnie Schneider in the Weather Center on what happens to be -- we're smack dab in the middle of hurricane season Bonnie.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right Tony. Today September 10 is the official peak of the season. It wards the 10th through the 13th. And as we take a look at hurricane frequency this is why we're so active this time of year. It has to do with water temperature. We have warmest waters right now. The waters in the ocean accumulates, the heat accumulates all throughout the summer and then right now September, the peak of hurricane season.

Luckily things should wind down from this point on but you wouldn't know it looking at these maps. Hurricane Ophelia, maximum winds at 80 miles per hour. The storm is still moving to the north- northeast at three miles an hour. A slow movement. Eventually this storm will slow down and come to a stop and eventually start working its way back to the coastline as high pressure builds in from the west and slides further to the east.

This storm will get caught up in the winds of that high and this upper level winds will push Ophelia back to the mainland which is bad news. The original trough that was helping to push it out to sea will dissipate and the tide takes over and that is the way the weather pattern is emerging just like the computer models had said it would, so we are expecting that turn to occur late tonight or early tomorrow.

There is a hurricane watch posted. Hurricane conditions in the next 36 hours from Cape Lookout southward to the Savannah River, which divides Georgia and South Carolina. The track of Ophelia, watch closely as we get closer into Monday and Tuesday, the storm gets a little bit more intense and comes back down to category one with winds at 80 miles an hour. Landfall expected anywhere in this vicinity. The Hurricane Center has the track coming close to Myrtle Beach. But we are going to be watching this closely. Because this track may wobble a bit.

If you are wondering about category one intensity, what can we compare this to? It is certainly isn't Katrina but it is nothing to take lightly as well. Category one hurricanes means winds 74 to 95 miles per hour with storm surge four to five feet. No real damage to building structures. Damage primarily to unanchored mobile homes, trees, shrubbery, and poorly constructed signs. Some coastal road flooding. And that's certainly what we're looking at.

We talked about storm surge with Katrina. We had storm surge there of 20 feet. This is four to five feet. Still, this wind is strong enough to cause power outages. That's going to be a concern as well as flooding. And also Tony as the storm comes inland it makes a sharp turn to the north so we are going to see some heavy rain for the Piedmont of North Carolina on to Virginia as we start working our way through the week. HARRIS: OK, Bonnie Schneider. Thank you. Helping Katrina victims in places most in need of volunteers. Learn how you can make a difference.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you know what happened to your house? What happened?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It broke.

HARRIS: Katrina's impact on kids. Hear how some of the youngest storm victims are adapting to life in a shelter. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Routine. It is something that makes children feel safe and secure but the routine of many children in New Orleans and Mississippi disappeared the day Hurricane Katrina hit. Thousands of kids were instantly thrown into an atmosphere of uncertainty and places far away from anything familiar. Here is CNN's Gary Tuchman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In a smoky men's room in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, a little boy gets a haircut from a man he doesn't even know. Little DJ is now living a life he has never known. As a boy without a home. He, three brothers and sisters and his mom are now residents of this sports arena. Thousands of people sleeping on cots and on the floor. It is confusing enough for the adults. Imagine being a kid.

How old are you DJ?

DJ: Four.

TUCHMAN: Four years old, I'm 44.

DJ: Forty-four.

TUCHMAN: Nice haircut by the way. How do you like my haircut?

DJ: You got a bad haircut.

TUCHMAN: DJ is on of about 600 children here who have lost their homes, their schools and many of the things they knew. Here they are having to get used to being frisked by armed members of the National Guard. Do you know what happened to your house? What happened?

DJ: It broke.

TUCHMAN: It broke. Most of the school age children here just started their new school year in the New Orleans area. Arnie Olson (ph) is five and was just getting into the swing of kindergarten. Now he too has to find a new house. What don't you like about being here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't go to sleep very good and because the floor is hard and because people be spitting all over.

TUCHMAN: People be what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spit all over.

TUCHMAN: Spitting on the floor?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

TUCHMAN: That is not to good is it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And throwing trash on the floor too much.

TUCHMAN: That must be hard. You don't do that at home, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nope.

TUCHMAN: What's your favorite part of it here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is kind of fun because I have new friends.

TUCHMAN: There are plenty of kids to play with but the fun comes amid chaos little kids shouldn't have to deal with.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch out.

TUCHMAN: A woman is on one of the few pay phones too long. She gets warned about it and angrily leaves the shelter with her young son.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Turn it off.

TUCHMAN: This environment is not conducive to normalcy. The sadness is everywhere. This little girl was told to draw pictures to let her feelings out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is hurricane Katrina.

TUCHMAN: Ten year-old Maya Isadore (ph) is here with an aunt. Her mother Debra Isadore (ph) was at work when the hurricane struck. And Maya doesn't know where she is now.

What kind of lady was your mom?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A caring mom, a nice mom, and a nice mother. She cared for me a lot. She's beautiful. She's nice.

TUCHMAN: Children who gained and understanding of adversity while losing some of their youthful innocence.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: CNN's Gary Tuchman.

Volunteer groups across the United States are pitching in to send aid to the storm battered Gulf Coast. Chuck Gould is with us now from Washington. He's the president of Volunteers of America. Chuck, good to see you.

CHUCK GOULD, PRESIDENT, VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA: Thank you for having us in.

HARRIS: A couple of nuts and bolts here. How many people on the ground in the affected areas right now?

GOULD: Well Volunteers of America has been on the ground providing services in New Orleans and Mobile and the Gulf Coast communities for over a century. So we have a network of volunteers and supporters across that region that we have been drawing on and actually one of the success stories in that has been the whole work with the local churches.

We work through part of the faith based initiative that the president launched a few years ago to work with churches to get them involved in outreach and provide some kitchens and some of that work was with some of the first responders. There's an active core there and we're in the process now of bringing in volunteers to relieve some of the stress that you can imagine.

HARRIS: Yes. You have a network there but what are your folks saying to you? Have they seen anything like this on this kind of scale?

GOULD: No. Of course this is unprecedented for us. This is obviously stressing our system, as it is many of the organizations. Volunteers of America's focus are in particular on those who are the most vulnerable. That's our focus throughout the year and that's our focus now. So that is (INAUDIBLE) elderly, people with developmental disabilities. People who were homeless before this even occurred and are perhaps are the least prepared to recover.

HARRIS: If I could grant you three wishes right now, what would they be? What do you need more of? What would help you and your mission and the mission of your people right now?

GOULD: Well, prayers from everybody are certainly one key request. We always look for it. Funding is critical. As you can imagine the support system across the Gulf that we rely on to provide our services every day has been scattered and those people of course are very focused on their own priorities and needs. So financial support is a very real issue.

And then we are staging volunteers and asking people to stay very focused long-term. This recovery will take a while. We don't want the energy that people have right now to dissipate.

HARRIS: So you are concerned about fatigue?

GOULD: We are concerned. I was in the town of Palestine, Texas yesterday just north of Houston where we have relocated about 70 developmentally disabled adults and children who evacuated from New Orleans. The staff and volunteers in Texas in particular are just doing a remarkable job but we're now bringing in volunteers from Oklahoma to provide relief for them. It is night and day work for people there.

HARRIS: Hey Chuck tell me, I know you have talked to people on the ground. What are they saying to you about what they are seeing?

GOULD: Their hearts are breaking. At one point of course a lot of these people are wondering where their own families are and what their homes will be like if they can return to those. In the midst of that they are also dealing with people who obviously need support just to get through the day. They are remarkable stories of people who are rising to the occasion in spite of not knowing what their own situation is going to be like.

HARRIS: You have some heroes in your group?

GOULD: There are heroes across the entire system. There's the fellow who heads up all of our work in Texas who is on the ground night and day making sure that these people who are displaced in Houston and across Texas are finding a place to stay. There are volunteers who have just opened their homes. We have a Methodist retreat camp in Palestine the group I was referring to that without hesitating offered their space and they brought in volunteer doctors and nurses to provide the medical care for the fragile individuals there. Without even a second thought.

HARRIS: Chuck Gould, thanks for taking the time to talk with us.

GOULD: Thank you.

HARRIS: An act of desperation and an agonizing decision. A mother leaves her young sons behind in the midst of rising waters in order to save her unborn baby. The story next.

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HARRIS: This weekend we're looking at some of the heroes of the storm and in Baton Rouge we found two who went the extra mile to help reunite a family. In fact CNN's Elizabeth Cohen reports that this couple went 540 extra miles to reunite a mother and son.

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ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Roszina Jefferson's story is a story no mother should have to endure. On Monday, August 29 as hurricane Katrina surged through her New Orleans home, she frantically grabbed her 5-year-old son Ashton, left her fiance and headed to higher ground. She was nine months pregnant, her due date just 48 hours away.

As the waters in New Orleans continued to rise, her situation only deepened. Arriving at a friend's home, her son suffered an asthma attack. Then she went into labor and had to make a quick decision. What did you tell your 5-year-old son?

ROSZINA JEFFERSON, NEW ORLEANS EVACUEE: Mommy's is going to get us some help. COHEN: In the midst of contractions she leaped from a window leaving her son and friend behind swimming 30 minutes in search of help the Coast Guard eventually found Roszina on a bridge and air lifted the laboring woman to Women's Hospital in Baton Rouge. Throughout the rescue she told the story of the son she left behind and prayed he would be found.

JEFFERSON: I know I'm going see him again.

COHEN: On Wednesday, August 31, 8 pound two ounces Keith Hall Jr. was brought into the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Perfect heart, perfect lungs. Can't do better than that. He's perfect.

COHEN: But the birth was bittersweet. Two days had passed and there was no sign of five-year-old Ashton.

JEFFERSON: I'm happy because I got this baby but I miss my other baby.

COHEN: Shannon Easily was about to enter her life. A mother of four and deeply religious she was helping to open a shelter in her church in nearby Walker, Louisiana. In the coming weeks this make shift home would welcome some 25 families.

SHANNON EASILY, SHELTER VOLUNTEER: I went to Social Services and said our church wants to open up the shelter. There will be moms and babies that need place to go. She gave me a couple names. Ms. Jefferson was one of them.

COHEN: Shannon also worked in the very hospital where Roszina gave birth seeking out Ms. Jefferson, a friendship formed.

EASILY: I'm going to help you so you won't be alone.

COHEN: On Thursday, September 1, incredible news. Roszina's friend the woman she left her 5-year-old with saw her story on CNN and relayed a message to the hospital. Young Ashton and fiance Keith were safe at the Houston Astrodome.

JEFFERSON: I found my baby.

COHEN: With that news a mother wept and Shannon Easily devised a plan then dialed her husband.

EASILY: I called Willis immediately and I said Willis guess what they found the baby. He said really? Where is he at? I said he's in Houston. And he said are you thinking what I'm thinking?

COHEN: As mother and baby Keith left the hospital and headed to the shelter, a surprise awaited them.

EASILY: I was so excited I didn't want anyone to know.

COHEN: What Roszina didn't know was that Shannon had driven ten hours through the night and picked up her precious cargo. And when the exhausted mother arrived at the church shelter --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have something else for you. OK.

JEFFERSON: My baby!

COHEN: Finally mother, baby and big brother reunited.

JEFFERSON: I was so surprised. I would never in my life thought he would have been there.

COHEN: Two mothers, two heroes and the happy ending continues. On Tuesday Shannon's Easily's town opened its heart and doors once again as little Ashton Jefferson attended his first day of kindergarten.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You get to meet new friends, don't you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good job!

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HARRIS: How great is that story?

We are just getting word of a 3:00 p.m. just over an hour from now, a 3:00 p.m. FEMA briefing from Baton Rouge. At that time we may get more information on the debit card program that has now ended amid a lot of confusion for people particularly those on the ground in Houston. Once again, a 3:00 p.m. this afternoon, a briefing from FEMA, from Baton Rouge and of course we will bring that to you live.

Animal lovers to the rescue to save the many pets left behind in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. We'll take you inside the often dangerous mission to rescue stranded animals next.

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HARRIS: Help is on the way for hundreds of abandoned dogs, cats and other family pets left behind in New Orleans. Animal rescue teams from all over the country are fanning out across the city to rescue starving pets. CNN's Adora Udoji has the story.

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ADORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Pat Bozman is living one nightmare after another. Her city is flooded. Now she's frantically searching emergency animal shelters for her two dogs.

PAT BOZMAN, HURRICANE KATRINA VICTIM: That's not him. That's not him.

UDOJI: On New Orleans waterlogged streets you can hear the dogs for miles. They are trapped on boats, roofs, porches surrounded by black and putrid water.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One block that way is General Persian. UDOJI: But the cavalry led by Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has teams from as far away as Boston tracking them down.

CRAIG WARREN, SAN DIEGO, CALIF. SPCA: Do you have an address on your list? It is a Forte (ph) Street address for the vet clinic?

UDOJI: Chief Craig Warren sent his four teams out with inflatable rafts armed with handful of hundreds of addresses that pet owners have called in. The work is hot and pain staking for this volunteer San Diego team we followed. The first dog we see, a lab mix is not on their list so they keep going. The dog follows us four blocks to the team's first address where they find nothing. So they pick the dog up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good boy.

UDOJI: The lucky lab turns out to be a female. The team's rescue two dozen this day which are set 50 miles north to the Lamar Dickson Center where every day hundreds of people come looking, some like this man, forced to leave his pet when he was evacuated. It is a sweet reunion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know he's happy.

UDOJI: Who do you think is happier, him or you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably both.

UDOJI: So far 600 animals have rolled in. Dog, cats, pigs; surprisingly most in good shape say animal workers. The rescued lab from earlier comes in on one of them. Like all animals she's photographed, checked and then decontaminated so dehydrated she laps up her shower. All stations fully manned.

MELANIE PARKER, VOLUNTEER: I'm volunteering to help the animals.

UDOJI: Why?

PARKER: Because it is a fun thing to do and to help save them.

UDOJI: Dozens of volunteers are caring for the animals feeding them from tons of donated pet food but a crushed Pat Bozman doesn't find her dogs here.

BOZMAN: I hope they are here somewhere.

UDOJI: She moves on driven by faith that her family pets will be found.

Adora Udoji CNN, New Orleans.

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HARRIS: Well the effort to save family cats and dogs isn't the only one aimed at rescuing non-human victims of the hurricane. At the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans, surviving fish, birds and sea otters are being evacuated to Texas and California.

Members of the aquarium staff stayed through the hurricane to take care of 6,000 animals including a 250 pound green sea turtle that made it through the storm alive but unfortunately most of the animals died after the facility lost power and keepers had to evacuate across town at the Audubon Zoo some of the 1400 animals also were lost but many are OK. Zoo keepers say the staff is too busy caring for the survivors and evacuating some of them to take accounts.

I'm Tony Harris at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Fredricka Whitfield and Zain Verjee pick up our live coverage of CNN as CNN SATURDAY continues.

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