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CNN Live Saturday

Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

Aired September 10, 2005 - 15:00   ET

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

ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SATURDAY: Rescue teams in New Orleans search for survivors and for those who didn't make it, as the floodwaters left behind by Hurricane Katrina slowly recede. Welcome to CNN's special continuing coverage of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath and the recovery efforts. From the CNN Center in Atlanta I'm Zain Verjee.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR, CNN SATURDAY: And I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We begin with "Mission Critical." The 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's believed that as many as 10,000 people are still in the city.

Right now, as authorities search the city, they are concentrating on finding bodies. And there's word the death toll may not be nearly as high as earlier feared.

FEMA's debit card program is ending. A spokesman says the cards, valued at $2,000 each, are now in short supply, but FEMA says evacuees can still receive the $2,000 through deposits to their bank accounts or by receiving checks in the mail.

In the aftermath of Katrina a member of the 9/11 Commission says the United States is not prepared for a disaster or 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 of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.

And renewed hope for New Orleans. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers now says draining the floodwaters from New Orleans should be completed next month that is far ahead of the 80 days predicted earlier.

FEMA is getting ready to hold a briefing on hurricane relief efforts. You're looking at a live picture right now out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. When that happens, we'll be bringing that to you live.

VERJEE: We want to begin this hour's coverage in New Orleans. Dan Simons is there watching them look for people who are not evacuating. Dan, is it going to get ugly between those who refuse to leave and those who want them out?

DAN SIMONS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think it might. You know, when you talk to these residents who are sticking around, they clearly do not want to leave. They say they have everything they need to get by; they have plenty of good and water.

I'm coming to you just northeast of town and I'm told this is one of the areas where one of these searches is going to take place and where things might get ugly. If you take a look over there, you can see some of the ambulances that have set up, also some soldiers on hand.

And this is, you know, just a typical neighborhood here in New Orleans. As you can see, still a lot of water. You can tell it's receded to some extent. If you take a look at that building, you can clearly see the watermark and how far the water has gone down. We understand that several of the pumps are working now; about three dozen are active and so that's good news for the city of New Orleans. Zain.

VERJEE: What are some of the reasons people are giving as to why they don't want to leave?

SIMONS: It's a very good question. It kind of makes you wonder, you know, without any power or water you know, why they would want to stick around. In a sense, the authorities are sort of enabling them to stay, because every time they confront one of these residents, they're giving them water and giving them food so they're able to sustain themselves. They just feel comfortable here. They feel like, you know, this is a lot better than going to a shelter, and as long as, you know, they're comfortable in their surroundings, they say what's the point of leaving?

VERJEE: The National Guards there trying to persuade many of them to leave, saying look, the waters are so toxic, there's a danger of illness, you have to get out. Have they been successful in doing that, persuading people to change their minds, so initially said we're not leaving and now saying, well actually, you're right?

SIMONS: Well, not from what I've seen, although I did see a gentleman yesterday, who actually lives in this neighborhood, and he was on a canoe, and he was, had got some of the water on his skin and he developed a serious rash, so he went to the command post on Canal Street and got himself some shots and said no more.

I'm going to evacuate. By and large the folks that I've encountered have no interest in leaving. As you can see a helicopter hovering by, I'm not exactly sure what those folks are doing. Let me show you something else that is kind of sad and you've seen this all over town.

You see that peach house over there? There's a dog, and that dog is lonely. It probably doesn't have any food or water and it's just waiting for somebody to rescue him, and animal rescue, they've done a very admirable job getting hundreds of pets from the various neighborhoods, but as you can see, there's one dog right there, who really has no way out. Zain.

VERJEE: Dan Simons reporting to us live from New Orleans.

Not only are some residents really skeptical of what security forces are telling them, as Dan was saying, they're even unwilling to listen to workers, also from religious organizations, CNN's Jeff Koinange has those details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're from the church. We are not police. We'd like to help you.

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The power of persuasion in times of trouble. These are members of a Christian organization who have come to New Orleans, all the way from Las Vegas, supported by the National Guard, their mission is to try to talk people like Dave Guitierrez (ph) into leaving his fast deteriorating city.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not the police!

KOINANGE: But the more they talk, it seems, the more Guitierrez resists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, he went back into the house. I'm trying to get him out again.

KOINANGE: They managed to reach Guitierrez's sister on the telephone and get us to hand him the phone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of here and go where?

KOINANGE: But Guitierrez isn't convinced. He retreats inside his house, but comes out a short while later.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to leave.

KOINANGE: Tell me why, Dave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because this is my home. New Orleans is my home.

KOINANGE: He insists, if it comes to forced removals, he still won't leave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They can't do that to people.

KOINANGE: Pastor Raymond Junta isn't about to give up. He's seen his fair share of crises and says he's here to make sure no one gets left behind.

RAYMOND JUNTA, WE CARE MINISTRIES, LAS VEGAS: I was the chaplain at the World Trade Center for three months, the chaplain at Oklahoma City and I've never seen anything like this in my life, to see an entire city annihilated by water and just the despair and the hopelessness in the hearts of the people is just overwhelming.

KOINANGE: In the end, Guitierrez rejects their pleas, but gladly accepts a bottle of water. Such is the dilemma facing rescue teams across New Orleans 12 days after hurricane Katrina left the city under water. In most cases, these teams return to base empty handed. The few stragglers remain and simply refuse to leave. The National Guard are under orders not to forcibly evacuate residents, even as the threat of water-borne diseases mounts.

Those who voluntarily agreed to evacuate are brought here, to a central drop off point. They are searched, checked for injuries by a team of military physicians, and given water and food while they await the next leg of their journey to safety. Lieutenant General Russel Honore is the man responsible for the entire ground operation. He compares this crisis to a football game where his team is behind, but the game is far from over.

LIEUTENANT GENERAL RUSSEL HONORE, CMDR. JOINT TASK FORCE KATRINA: We're still in the first quarter of this operation. If you real the analog to toe American football game, we're in the first quarter. A lot of things left to be done, and we're here to make it happen.

KOINANGE: To make it happen, the general now commands a growing force of more than 19,000 military and police personnel from across the nation and that's besides the army of volunteers that have converged on New Orleans.

Jeff Koinange, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And now to Washington, where we find out more about President Bush's decision to move Michael Brown, the leader of FEMA's hurricane recovery efforts, back to Washington. CNN's Elaine Quijano is standing by live at the White House with the latest. Is there more information on the president's role or was it primarily Chertoff's decision?

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well essentially senior aides are saying it was primarily Chertoff but we should tell you that today, President Bush for the second time in three days has dispatched his number two, Vice President Dick Cheney, with the message that the Bush administration, the government is taking care of hurricane Katrina victims.

The vice president today is in Austin, Texas, meeting with evacuees and emergency officials. In another attempt to erase perceptions of an inadequate federal response. Mr. Cheney today praised the efforts of Texas officials, noting that Texas has taken in a large number of hurricane victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, it was uniformly positive. As I said, things have been rough, when they were trying to get out of New Orleans, the Convention Center and so forth, but it's been remarkable ever since. They are overwhelmed, I think, by the outpouring of support and assistance that's been provided to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP) QUIJANO: Now, his visit comes, though, as a new "Newsweek" poll shows that most Americans, 52 percent say that they don't trust President Bush to make the right decisions during domestic crises. That is a new poll out today. The president's overall approval numbers as well have gone down. Now at 38 percent, according to this latest "Newsweek" poll. Fifty five percent saying they disapprove of how the president is handling his job.

Now, the vice president today was also asked about that decision that you mentioned, Fredricka, the decision to pull Mike Brown, the FEMA director, out of the disaster zone and send him back to Washington, that announcement, of course, was made yesterday by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. The vice president today saying it was Secretary Chertoff's decision. Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Elaine Quijano thanks so much at the White House. Sorry to cut you short. But we want to go, as promised now to Baton Rouge. You're listening to Ambassador Joseph Sullivan and this is the FEMA briefing we've been expecting.

AMBASSADOR JOSEPH SULLIVAN, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: To facilitate their access, their ability to contact their own citizens and, should -- up until this moment, we really don't have any confirmed report of foreign citizens who have perished in the hurricane Katrina disaster.

Should there be any, we will work closely with foreign governments, so that they are able to be quickly notified, and have access to the remains. We're working constantly with foreign representatives to facilitate their access to pursue their interests in accounting for their own citizens.

There have been some of you undoubtedly following specific cases; for instance, there was a Spanish Parliamentarian and her family that had been evacuated to the Superdome. It took some time but we helped facilitate access by the Spanish embassy to that Parliamentarian and her family. They were reunited in Baton Rouge and have now returned to Spain.

The other principal national issue we've been working is with respect to foreign assistance being offered for hurricane relief. The United States is tremendously grateful for the tremendous outpouring of assistance arriving by air, land and sea, from the world community.

As of today, 115 countries, and 12 international organizations have offered money, food, and technical assistance to the recovery effort. These generous offers will do much to alleviate the human suffering caused by this destructive hurricane and its aftermath. There have been already some $460 million in cash assistance received.

Some of this assistance is pledged to private voluntary organizations, such as the Red Cross, some it pledged to the Clinton- Bush fund, which in turn distributes to affected states, and -- but it's all very, very welcome and very much appreciated. The assistance has included things such as fuel, technical expertise, other equipment, some relief supplies have been arriving at a central distribution point in Little Rock, Arkansas, two of the flights from the day before yesterday contained 20 tons of relief supplies from Tunisia.

There are inevitably, particularly with respect to assistance in kind, issues of coordination, and we're working those issues. I think already, the coordination is working better, and we have USAID. Office of foreign disaster assistance people working closely with FEMA to make sure that the needs are identified clearly, that they're transmitted to foreign governments, the right type of assistance comes, and is put to use quickly.

Canada and Mexico have been extremely generous and we deeply appreciate the care and concern of the people in the governments of both of those countries. There are -- I won't try to enumerate the types of assistance that have come inevitably, I'll leave a lot out so I'll give a few examples. The Republic of Korea, for instance, has offered two tons of disposable diapers and other supplies as among the many items that it is willing to provide, and a lot of this I think probably one of the important things to remember this as a human face.

It's not just government to government. It's people helping people, and there's, I don't know for sure that she's little but an older lady in Lithuania who remembers the assistance that the United States provided to her country and her people at various stages and she has sent her life savings of 1,000 euros to assist people affected by the hurricane.

In Mississippi, relief supplies donated by the Italian government, are being distributed through the Mississippi emergency management agency. There are 14,000 displaced people that are going to, that are benefiting from this assistance, which includes hundreds of cots, blankets, sheets, chlorine tablets, basic health kits.

There's a 99-member team of civil protection specialists, which include experts in flooding, who have arrived from Germany and Luxembourg and they are assisting with large pumps that can pump out 15,000 liters of water per minute, and they're setting up in northeast New Orleans.

I wanted to just sort of put a little bit of context. I've worked in the U.S. Foreign service for 35 years, and a fair bit of it has been in countries in crisis, recently, in Angola, during their own civil war, and most recently in Zimbabwe, and so I've been part of much of U.S. assistance to people who have been starving, displaced, hungry, and I know that, when we provide that sort of assistance, it's very much appreciated, now things have turned around and others are assisting us, and we are very, very grateful for that.

I might also say that over this past year, I have been diplomat in residence at Tulane University in New Orleans. And I've come to know and love New Orleans, and the area, and so when I see this assistance brought to a city that is so precious, and that at the moment is so needy, and so much unlike that New Orleans that I came to know and love, I think it's particularly touching and important, and it's very, very much appreciated by the people of the area. By Americans, and by the U.S. government. Thanks very much. I'm happy to take your questions. Yes. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it true that if you were a foreign worker here in this country, here legally but not a citizen, your note entitled to assistance from FEMA?

SULLIVAN: I think that's a FEMA question and I'll leave it to FEMA.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ambassador do you have official estimates on how many foreigners are missing at this point?

SULLIVAN: At this moment, I don't have a number. I think initially the numbers were well over 1,000. Now, it's in the low hundreds, and we hope diminishing rapidly. As I say, there's nobody who is confirmed to have perished, no foreign national who is confirmed to have perished. Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said $460 million was cash, in addition to fuel.

SULLIVAN: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have a value on the in-kind contributions?

SULLIVAN: I do not. I'll give you one other number, although frankly, I'm not the -- the math gets a little complicated. There is a number out there of about $700 million. So if you use that number, but you don't try to identify precisely how it fits with the 460 to 700 is, I think, some estimate of, let's say, let's say international contributions to date with other things being pledged and promised. Any other questions? OK. Thanks very much.

WHITFIELD: That out of Baton Rouge there, you've been listening to Ambassador Joseph Sullivan who described his extensive experience with the U.S. foreign service for 35 years, and talking about how meaningful it's been that so many people from across the world have helped New Orleans. Let's listen in to the American Red Cross.

JOHN DEGMAN, PUBLIC AFFAIRS SPECIALIST WITH RED CROSS: The survivors of the disaster. Red Cross is currently operating 675 shelters across 23 states in the District of Columbia, and we're sheltering more than 160,000 survivors. We're also providing hot meals.

We're approaching the 6 million mark for hot meals, and last night, we served more than half a million people in the shelters. Red Cross has about 36,000 volunteers in the field, both here in Louisiana, Mississippi, and across the Gulf states. In addition to working throughout the United States with people who have been relocated into other areas.

At this time, we'd like to announce a new program that Red Cross is going to institute. This is a disaster of such scope and significance that it's not going to go away in a few weeks or even a few months. Red Cross is going to be there for the survivors and for the people in the Gulf States until all of the last problems from the hurricane are solved. And to do this, we're going to need more people.

And Red Cross is putting out an appeal to people in the United States to step forward, volunteer at your chapters, so that you can be trained, and be prepared and we are going to need more people. Red Cross in the next three months is looking at recruiting and training 40,000 new volunteers that have never been a part of Red Cross, to come into the Red Cross ranks and be brought into the Gulf States to continue the work that Red Cross is doing.

They will work in Red Cross shelters; they will work in Red Cross feeding and delivery sites throughout the Gulf States and other areas in the country where people have been relocated. Right now, we're in the process of trying to establish a way to help families link up with their family members, many of them relocated to other places in the country, and I want to make sure everybody knows about the family registry, which is 1-877-loved-1s.

So we're looking for people, wherever they are in the United States who would want could come forward, join the Red Cross, become trained in their local chapters and to come to the Gulf states to work with the survivors of hurricane Katrina.

The initial wave of Red Cross worker who is have come, most of us are here for the three-week deployment and after the three weeks is gone, we have to replace at least another 10,000 new people coming into the Gulf states, and three weeks later, an additional 10,000 people coming into the Gulf states. The goal is to recruit 40,000 new Red Cross volunteers who can come and help at shelters and serve meals and help at health sites and help at delivery sites throughout the affected area. Thank you and I'll take your questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many are here right now?

DEGMAN: In Louisiana, there are almost 4,000 volunteers. Nationwide, there are almost 36,000 volunteers involved with people. It might be in a shelter in Washington D.C., in a shelter in Massachusetts, in a shelter in Tennessee, spread out across the country, but also here, here in Baton Rouge, we are operating a number of large shelters.

Really like operating small cities and if any of you have been to the Riverfront Center and seeing an operation created overnight to house 5,000 people, and all of the things that happen, the personal things that happen, like sharing your house with 5,00 other people, and you know, I said to somebody the other day, it's -- it takes 10,000 diaper changes a day in Riverfront Center, just to keep the infants there.

Three hot meals a day, and that's three times 5,000, that's 15,000 hot meals a day. Red Cross, right now, and for the last ten days or so, has been in the business of providing a safe, secure environment for people, in Red Cross-run shelters, making sure that they have food, making sure they have water and their basic needs are served. We're in the process of putting together a comprehensive program to help people recover and move on with the recovery and try to normalize their lives. That program should be announced very soon in the next few days.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you spell your name and give your title?

DEGMAN: Yes, my name is John Degman. D as in David, e-g, n as in Nancy, a-n. Degman. And I am public affairs specialist with Red Cross.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) can locals get in their car and come down here?

DEGMAN: No, everybody's concerned that they would like to help and there have been tremendous outpouring of support from the people in the United States. Both in things that they've donated, funds that they've donated, to the Red Cross, and other agencies.

What Red Cross needs to do is make sure we have trained people who can come down here. It may seem like a pretty simple thing to come into a shelter and help out, but when you're dealing with large numbers of people in a congregate housing situation, you really need special training.

You need training on how to deal with people, how to prepare meals, how to set up bedding and all of the other skills that go with that. If you're working in a health environment, you have to have the kind of training that goes with that health environment.

You're doing financial or individual assistance with people, you have to be trained in that, so it's not just people coming to load or unload trucks, and even that takes training, but it's also people who need specific training to implement disaster relief.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) 36,000 figure, that's just people involved in the Katrina relief effort or for all other efforts?

DEGMAN: No, in the Katrina relief effort alone. Red Cross throughout the country every day responds to hundreds of local emergencies, such as residential house fires, and apartment buildings and such, and their disaster action teams respond to those, continually respond to those, in addition to the Katrina relief.

One of the things that hasn't gotten mentioned and I know when the ambassador was speaking about relief from other countries, there's a sizable contingent of Red Cross people, international Red Cross people here in Baton Rouge who responded from other countries.

We have volunteers from Belgium, and Germany, and Italy and Mexico and Canada, from all across Europe, who have responded, trained Red Cross people who have come here, brought their own equipment, brought their own supplies. They're out working in shelters, out working in feeding kitchens, and they're making contributions.

Red Cross has developed partnerships with a variety of different agencies to integrate their services into the program, and a special note, a special mention should be the southern Baptist Conference, which is a key partner with American Red Cross in providing food services in many, many of our locations the Southern Baptist Conference provides the food kitchen and they're the cooks, the excellent cooks that provide good food so that Red Cross can bring it out to people in the field, bring it out to people in the shelters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So how does this recruitment drive in the past, in terms of size?

DEGMAN: We've never had a recruitment drive in the history of Red Cross where we've tried to bring on 40,000 new volunteers, not only to recruit them but train them, prepare them and get them ready to travel, to come to an emergency, in the history of the organization.

This is unprecedented in terms of its impact, and scope, and in fact, it is responding to a disaster that's unprecedented in the scope in the United States. It's going to take very special people for a very long time to get things back to some sense of normalcy for these people. I asked the people in the United States, to think about what it would be like for you, personally, if you woke up tomorrow and your house wasn't there, and your car wasn't there, and your job wasn't there and to personalize it and understand what would happen personally.

I was in the Riverfront Shelter the other day, and there were a couple of high school girls from the New Orleans area, talking about the fact that they had bought prom dresses already looking forward to next spring's proms and the prom dresses were gone, and not only were the prom dresses gone, but their high school was gone, and all of those things that people in this country take for granted, to be there for them, their schools, their houses, their homes, their jobs, for many Americans, are now gone, and it's not going to happen, we're not going to be able to fix this overnight. It's something that's going to need a long time, a lot of people and a lot of our resources to fix that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Degman, how long does the training take?

DEGMAN: It depends on the specialty that people will be going into. Red Cross has almost 30 different specialties in terms of its services.

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