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CNN Live At Daybreak

Forty-five bodies Found in Flooded Hospital in New Orleans; Senators Will Begin Questioning Judge John Roberts Today

Aired September 13, 2005 - 05:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It is Tuesday, September 13. The president is promising change.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The storm didn't discriminate and neither will the recovery effort.

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COSTELLO: A vow from the nation's chief executive put race aside, help those in need, and get things cleaned up.

Thousands of students from Louisiana and the Gulf Coast are filling schools across the country, but can their new schools handle the impact? We'll talk with one state school superintendent.

And those left behind, best friends separated from their families. We'll look at the overflowing pet shelters.

ANNOUNCER: From the Time Warner Center in New York, this is DAYBREAK with Carol Costello and Chad Myers.

COSTELLO: And good morning to you. We'll have more on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in just a minute.

Also ahead, it's day two for Judge John Roberts. Will the senators be tough on him today?

And slugger Barry Bonds returns to the plate, so how did he do?

But first, "Now in the News", David Paulison, the new acting director of FEMA gives an update on Katrina recovery operations later this morning. Paulison was picked by President Bush after the embattled Michael Brown resigned. Paulison is the emergency official who urged us to buy duct tape and plastic sheeting after 9/11.

The Louis Armstrong New Orleans Airport will start accepting a limited number of passenger and cargo flights today. Northwest will begin with two flights a day. Part of the heavily damaged airport still being used as a hospital.

All the niceties being put aside today on Capitol Hill. Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are expected to begin asking John Roberts pointed questions. This is day two of Roberts' confirmation hearings to become the nation's chief justice. There's been a third night of violence in and around Belfast, Northern Ireland. Protestant demonstrators have blocked roads and attacked police at several locations. We'll take you live to Belfast in 15 minutes.

To the Forecast Center now to check on Ophelia. Good morning Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning Carol. The new 5:00 advisory right on time. The new numbers, if you're keeping track at home, 32.078.0, about 130 miles just off the southeast coast of the U.S. There is Ophelia right there.

I just wanted to point out that there's really nothing else out there. I just had Ray D'Alessio, one of the sports guys from "Headline News", come up to me. He goes Chad, I'm going on a cruise next week. What does it look like? Well, so far so good.

This is the only thing that we have to worry about and because it isn't moving very much, it may be there awhile. In fact, as it begins to move and turn on up into the North Carolina/South Carolina coast, hurricane warnings now have been posted from the South Santee River right on up to Cape Lookout. That's all part of this.

This is the spin now. We can see it. It's close enough to see it from radar. Remember it was in Florida or off Florida coast. You could see it from radar. Then it moved far away. Kind of moved far enough away that the radars couldn't quite pick it up. Now we have both the west side and the east side of the storm and it is forecast to turn on up toward the North, possibly over Wilmington and then even toward Jacksonville and into the other side.

Here we'll kind of flatten it out for you because here's what's going on today. Myrtle Beach, you're about to get one of these arms, one of these outer bands. So is Jacksonville, Wilmington, the entire area there, right along the Mid Atlantic Coast. Going to see these slapping little storms come by. We call them outer bands -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, I know you'll keep us posted.

MYERS: Oh yes.

COSTELLO: Thank you Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Now for more on the latest headlines from the disaster zone in our mission critical update. The largest group of bodies found so far being removed from a flooded out hospital in New Orleans, 45 bodies were discovered at the Memorial Medical Center. Many of the dead were older patients from a continuing care center. A hospital administrator said some of the people died from the heat while waiting to be rescued.

Criminal charges may be filed in the investigation of a nursing home disaster in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. The state attorney general is investigating the deaths of 34 residents whose bodies were found still inside the home. Authorities want to know why the home was not evacuated, but say they can't find the owners.

FEMA plans to create temporary cities for people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. The head of the agency's housing effort says they could provide housing for about 200,000 people for up to five years. He also compared the trailer home effort to the building of the pyramids.

Reports of a new levee leak in New Orleans turned out to be a false alarm. Water briefly flowed over the repaired levee along the London Avenue Canal, but it was a pumping problem, not a break in the levee. The problem has since been fixed. The pumping operation is expected to have the city almost completely dry by early October.

President Bush got a closer look at the damage from Hurricane Katrina touring several areas yesterday in the back of a military truck. He also responded to criticism that race played a part in early rescue efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: The storm didn't discriminate and neither will the recovery effort. When those Coast Guard choppers, many of whom were first on the scene, were pulling people off roofs, they didn't check the color of a person's skin. They wanted to save lives.

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COSTELLO: President and FEMA also have been blasted for the slow response to the entire disaster. Congressional Republican leaders want an investigation. The president also talked about that.

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BUSH: I think it's very important for Congress to take a good close look at what went on, what didn't go on, and come up with a series of recommendations. And my attitude is, is that we need to learn everything we possibly can. We need to make sure that this country is knitted up as well as it can be in order to deal with significant problems and disasters. But in the meantime, we've got to keep moving forward.

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COSTELLO: This was the president's third visit to the disaster zone and apparently they're having an impact. Fifty-five percent of respondents in a CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup poll called his initial response to the disaster poor. But in the last few days only 40 percent called his handling of the crisis poor. Fifty-eight percent now say his response is good.

So let's get the latest this morning on the search for bodies and the recovery effort. Jim Roope of CNN Radio is in New Orleans. He joins us live.

Good morning, Jim.

JIM ROOPE, CNN RADIO CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Carol.

COSTELLO: Frankly, officials really aren't giving us much information about the recovery of bodies, are they?

ROOPE: No they're not and I guess it's with I guess caution that they're doing that...

(AUDIO GAP)

ROOPE: ... describe what's going on too much. It's a very sensitive subject. We were able to...

(AUDIO GAP)

ROOPE: ... a few days ago. It was covered with water yesterday all down St. Bernard Street, North Galvez and those areas. That water is all gone, so those recovery efforts can continue as they search homes and mark the homes, and all of that that's going on. But the big issue now I think because the smell is still there is how contaminated are these areas? Can people come back to live there?

There was still some looting going on as we were watching that. Oh and by the way, you were talking about that levee break or that rumor of a levee break, we were talking with an emergency personnel at that St. Bernard/North Galvez area there when that call came out over the radio, and they panicked a little bit. And then I guess it just turned out that they were pumping out water faster or too fast, and so it was overlapping it, coming back in. But that was a huge moment of panic for a lot of people in that area. Floodwaters had just receded, so that was a little scary yesterday.

COSTELLO: I can only imagine the panic that must have broken out, but again it was not a new levee break.

ROOPE: No it was not. No...

COSTELLO: It was just as you said. OK, let's get back to the recovery efforts because they found 45 bodies inside of this hospital. They found, what, some 30 bodies inside of a nursing home. Have they checked out every facility like that yet?

ROOPE: No, they're looking at all those areas, hospitals, nursing homes, convalescent homes, assisted living facilities, anything where groups of people live. And as they mark them, as they go into them, you can tell the caution with which these guys are doing this. I don't think they are prepared emotionally for things that they might see.

They're a little nervous about what they might see, but they're very professional about it. And that effort just continues. What's encouraging is when they go into some of these places and there's nobody there, that's a sign that more people got out of here than we originally thought. Every time you find a survivor, that's one less potential body count or adding to the death toll, so all of that is encouraging signs. I don't know if I can call it good news because...

COSTELLO: Yes.

ROOPE: ... because the death toll, I mean how can you use that word, but it's encouraging anyway that the more people they find alive or that they find nobody inside a building, then that contributes to the lack of bodies they'll find overall.

COSTELLO: You know there's a really sad article in "The Washington Post" this morning. It talks about families who haven't heard from their loved ones. Family members who stayed in the New Orleans area and you know it's -- the word is traveling about their death through word of mouth. Like one person heard oh yes, we think he died and they pass it along, and that's the only way they're getting any information right now.

ROOPE: Yes, well it's hard to identify some of these bodies that they're finding. I mean I've seen a few that unless somebody told you, you wouldn't know it was a human. So that's probably the toughest part, is trying to determine the cause of death too. I mean the longer they wait with processing these bodies, the harder it's going to be to determine how these people died.

And I guess some of the victims in the hospital was I guess found or at least determined that they died before the hurricane hit. So all of this is just going to take some time and a lot of this word of mouth stuff, I don't know if I -- if I was somebody looking for a family member and just sort of word of mouth trickled down to me, I don't know that I would take that as gospel until I heard it officially.

COSTELLO: Me too. There's always hope. Jim Roope from CNN Radio, reporting live from New Orleans this morning.

On Capitol Hill senators will begin questioning Judge John Roberts when his confirmation hearings resume a few hours from now. He's expected to be grilled on issues like abortion and civil rights. Roberts' hearings to become the seventeenth chief justice kicked off yesterday with opening statements. More on that now from CNN's Bob Franken.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you would raise your right hand...

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Given Roberts' reputation for affability, the betting is that he will glide through these hearings and sidestep any pointed questions about his legal agenda.

JUDGE JOHN ROBERTS, CHIEF JUSTICE NOMINEE: Judges are like umpires. Umpires don't make the rules. They apply them.

FRANKEN: That will hardly satisfy those senators ready to fire hardball questions at Roberts. SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R-PA), JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: You Judge Roberts have the prerogative to answer the questions as you see fit or not to answer them as you see fit.

FRANKEN: Committee Democrats don't see it that way.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: This hearing is John Roberts' job interview with the American people.

FRANKEN: A tough interview by the skeptics who profess serious doubts about Roberts' views on civil rights, abortion rights.

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: One of the most important issues that needs to be addressed by you is the constitutional right to privacy. It would be very difficult, and I said this to you privately and I said it publicly, for me to vote to confirm someone whom I knew would overturn Roe v. Wade.

FRANKEN: Roberts' supporters insist many Democrats are merely trying to goad him into tripping up.

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R), TEXAS: Don't take the bait. Do not head down that road.

FRANKEN: One Republican was almost overcome by passion.

SEN. TOM COBURN (R), OKLAHOMA: My heart aches for less divisiveness, less polarization, less finger pointing, less bitterness, less mindless partisanship, which at times sounds almost hateful to the ear of Americans.

FRANKEN: Roberts, true to form, was less emotional, but in effect was saying in his polite way bring it on.

ROBERTS: Thank you Mr. Chairman. Thank you members of the committee. I look forward to your questions.

FRANKEN (on camera): We'll see how he feels about that after the questions today, which could be the biggest bumps in what many people believe will be Roberts' easy path to that big marble building across the street from the Capitol, the Supreme Court.

Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And Bob will join us live in the next hour of DAYBREAK.

All aboard. We're taken on a tour of New Orleans' newest jail. It is a place where Greyhounds and gray bars live side by side. That's just ahead.

Also reunited families of some of Katrina's smallest victims, bringing them together is a lot harder than it looks, an update on the pet problem. And Belfast these days looks like well Belfast, but a Belfast we haven't seen in years. Another night of violence in the streets, coming up.

But first, here's a look at what else is making news this Tuesday.

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COSTELLO: International markets mixed this morning. Tokyo's Nikkei up just over five and a half points. The London FTSE down 27. The German DAX down more than 51 points. In future's trading, yes it's time to take a look at the price of oil. Oil is trading at close to $63.50 a barrel this morning, up 14 cents, but way down from the $70 a barrel we saw a week or so ago.

Your news, money, weather and sports, it's 5:16 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning.

It is day two of Judge John Roberts' Supreme Court confirmation hearings and he could face some tough questions. Democratic senators want to know his views on some key issues, especially on abortion and civil rights.

U.S. commanders say an offensive targeting insurgents in the Iraqi city of Telefar (ph) is paying off. They say more than 400 suspected rebels are now in custody. The mission's commander says the operation is wiping out terrorist basis in the city.

In money news, Ford is shedding Hertz Car Rental for nearly $6 million in cash. The world's largest car rental company will now be owned by a group of investment companies, but Ford will continue to supply cars to Hertz.

In culture, bronchitis has forced singer Kelly Clarkson to cancel several concerts. The former "American Idol" winner will miss the final three shows of her tour this week, but Clarkson did manage to take part in MTV's Hurricane Relief Concert last week.

In sports, Barry Bonds is back after knee surgery and the Giants' fans could not be happier. Bonds hit a double at his first at bat of the season. That was his only hit of the game, but the Giants still won 4-3 over the Padres.

MYERS: Oh, but Carol, it went into the stands. It was a homerun.

COSTELLO: Whatever.

MYERS: Oh, no, fan interference made it...

(CROSSTALK)

MYERS: ... a ground ruled double. Oh, he couldn't believe it. He goes where's the ball? And then they flashed up on the screen, 704, 704. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) not so fast, only 703 1/2. Good morning everybody. Rain showers moving into Wilmington now. There's Cape Fear. Look at that big band. That's an outer band of what will be part of the -- now the newest part, the most western part of the hurricane or Tropical Storm Katrina. It is now. It's still at 70 miles per hour. There you go, 2:00 in the morning, still in the middle of the ocean coming up here in about 23 hours or so. But then making some landfall very close to Wilmington, Moorhead City and then right on off through the Cape.

Carol, more to come on that a little bit later.

COSTELLO: We'll be listening. Thank you Chad. That's a look at the latest headlines for you.

It has been another night of rioting in the streets of Northern Ireland. Let's head live to Belfast and CNN's Nic Robertson.

Nic, it's like a terrible case of deja vu.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is Carol. Northern Ireland has been through this before. What's making it different now is just the viciousness with which the rioting has been going on. Automatic weapons fired at the police. That hasn't been seen before.

If you look over my shoulder here, you can look over to the western side of Belfast. Last night you could see clouds of smoke coming up from there, from fires. Right now it looks very calm, but that third consecutive night of rioting took off in the city right over there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): Homemade blast bombs thrown by Protestant protesters rained down on police as a third consecutive night of rioting begins in Belfast.

(SOUNDS)

ROBERTSON: Other policemen in riot gear watch from a safe distance as petrol bombs are thrown. In a nearby street a bus burns, the mobs' grievance, the re-rooting of an Orange Order. Protestant community march away from a Catholic neighborhood, forcing a deviation in the march's traditional path. The backlash has been ferocious.

(on camera): Northern Ireland's police chief says the rioting is some of the most dangerous his police have had to endure. Already more than 50 have been injured. What makes this rioting more dangerous than in past years is that rioters are using automatic weapons and throwing homemade bombs.

(voice-over): Police blame Orange Order leaders for failing to control their members. As well as the attacks on police, dozens of vehicles have been destroyed. Buses hijacked. Banks and stores burned. Although there are more than 50,000 Orange Order members, rioters have only numbered in the hundreds. Their ranks swell police say by hard time Protestant loyalist paramilitaries. Political reaction has been divided along sect-terrarium (ph) lines, Protestant leaders blaming police for heavy-handed tactics. And Catholic politicians claiming the Protestant unionists are not doing enough to condemn the violence.

Past rioting over Orange Order marches has tended to fizzle after a few days. No one expect the current violence to derail an expected IRA disarmament in the coming weeks. However, it does underscore tensions as British and Irish politicians figure out how to reconvene. The province has suspended power sharing government.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: And the rioting wasn't just here in Belfast. It was to the north and to the east, but if there is a silver lining to the cloud at the moment as far as the security forces are concerned, and there have been 1,000 police and 1,000 members of the army out on the streets here at night, is that the rioting last night does seem to have been at a lower tempo than on Saturday and Sunday -- Carol.

COSTELLO: You know to west of the United States, this just seemed to come out of nowhere, Nic. I mean we thought all of these peace plans were in effect and we haven't heard violence between Protestants and Catholics for such a long time.

ROBERTSON: Carol, I think a lot of people here felt that way too, that they're really surprised about the way that the violence has taken off and just how violent it's been. But it seems that a small member of the Protestant community particularly within the Orange Order, who have seen some of that parade re-rooted or they've been told that they can't have some of the parades. They have 3,000 parades approximately every year.

There's been a high level of disappointment, but a small member of those have been re-rooted or changed and it is a very, very small number of those members that have decided to take to violence. But what people say is that they're frustrated -- the Protestant community is frustrated. They're not saying -- they say the economic dividend, the economic bonus from the peace process that they're not seeing the changes they were expecting from the peace process.

But they think the Catholic community is perhaps getting the political and economic benefits, and that's what they're saying. This is pent-up frustration and this was sort of straw, if you will, that broke the camel's back, Carol.

COSTELLO: Nic Robertson reporting live from Belfast this morning.

Our coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina continues, but as we go to break, from CNN's Victim and Relief Desk, some of the missing and their contact information.

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COSTELLO: Talk about bad P.R., Camp Greyhound isn't a camp for kids, but the new jail in New Orleans, you see the jail system in the city has become a shambles, so they're using the Greyhound Bus Station and Greyhound doesn't much like that.

Ed Lavandera has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As chaos fell over New Orleans and floodwaters filled the first floor of the city jail, police became increasingly desperate for ways to get the looters off the street.

BURL CAIN, PRISON WARDEN: That's why we had to have a jail. There was no place to put these people, so the jail became a passion for us. That it was essential that people could be safe...

LAVANDERA: Burl Cain usually works as the warden of a maximum- security prison. He was brought in to help overwhelmed local officials solve the problem. Three days after the hurricane struck, Warden Cain and others walked into this Greyhound Bus Station and where buses once pulled in and out, they saw a new jail.

CAIN: Hell of a jail. I mean it really worked good. Beautiful, couldn't be better.

LAVANDERA: Of course, the prisoners aren't enjoying the experience. There aren't beds, so they use shoes and water bottles and pillows.

MAC MCKASKLE, PRISONER: I'm 51 years old and my old bones does not tolerate sleeping on concrete floors too good for two nights in a row.

LAVANDERA: The warden and his team took 24 hours to turn the station into a primitive justice system. They put up chain link fences and razor wire, added portable bathrooms to create jail cells. Captain Chad Darbonne makes the inside of the bus station work like a police station.

(on camera): So this is just like a booking station.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. Same thing as in a police station. We stand up -- stand them up right here against this wall and then we take their photograph.

LAVANDERA: You got a booking station already...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Booking station...

LAVANDERA: ... mug shot...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... mug shot...

LAVANDERA: ... fingerprints...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... fingerprints, everything. LAVANDERA (voice-over): The District Attorney's Office has moved into the bus station's gift shop. The jail medic works from the ticket counter and an Amtrak locomotive powers the building. This makeshift jail has been opened more than a week. About 275 people have been held here so far. The majority were arrested for looting, but there's been a rapist and a murderer. But people here will never forget the first inmate.

CHAD DARBONNE, JAIL CAPTAIN: We opened for business Saturday and our first customer was an unfortunate fellow. He found the station was open. Well he drove up in a stolen car.

CAIN: We gave him a ticket right on into here. He got a ticket all right, but it wasn't where he wanted to go.

LAVANDERA: Cain is passionate about this jail.

CAIN: This is the only jail in this whole area and so we had a jail. Without the vision to have the jail, you can't have reconstruction, so it's a wonderful thing.

LAVANDERA: Burl Cain has spent 24 years working as a Louisiana prison warden. Amid the destruction and confusion here, that's what makes his jailhouse built out of a bus station look like a masterpiece.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And as I said, the jailers affectionately call their makeshift prison Camp Greyhound, but that name did not seem to sit well with the bus company, so they have asked the prison's department to stop calling that. In public they're now calling it Angola South. Angola Prison is the main maximum-security facility in southern Louisiana.

It is the toughest kind of hands on civics lesson. Thousands of children from the hurricane zone are relocating to new schools across the country. Find out how one state is coping with the influx next.

And they're wet, hungry and tired, but at least they're not alone. The fight not only to save pets trapped in the wake of Katrina, but also to reunite them with their families. Coming right back.

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