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In Parish of Plaquemine, Hurricane Katrina Survivors Brace for Fresh Shocks, Full Realization of Losses; Discussion With Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin

Aired September 08, 2005 - 13:30   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Once again, we continue to bring you these live pictures, via our helicopter cam there in New Orleans. Members of the 82nd Airborne making their way via the rib boat through this flooded neighborhood, of course, looking for people that might be still trapped in these home and these buildings, and unfortunately also keeping their eyes wide open for dead bodies.
You can also see as the 82nd makes its way through the rib boats, you can see a number of the other military trucks there, 1st Army military trucks, lined up on this flooded area, with member of the 1st Army, of course, under General Honore, in addition to members of the 82nd Airborne.

You can see here actually having to transport dead bodies that have been recovered. A tedious process, obviously, handling it with utmost respect there as they are finding these dead bodies, covering them up in plastic, and boarding them up in these army vehicles, and of course taking them to the makeshift morgues that have been set up throughout the various states. Not easy pictures to see. Not easy pictures to talk about; 82rd Airborne right there, dealing with the recovery effort as well, as they keep their fingers crossed, hoping to rescue people as well.

Also straight ahead, we're going to talk about a tiny town coping with a tremendously big problem.

Just ahead on LIVE FROM, we're going to show you how the people of Plaquemines Parish are coping as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Our live pictures continue out of New Orleans, Louisiana. This is actually on tape. I'll show you the live picture in just a minute. But this happened just within a couple seconds ago. You can see members of the 82rd Airborne. As you know, they've been going through via rib boats, through all the flooded areas, in addition to driving their vehicles through the area as well and going from home to home on foot. And this is someone that was just taken -- we don't know if this individual came out of a home or a building, but is definitely someone that has been rescued, being brought out of the 1st Army's vehicle there, on to a stretcher. Thumbs up. This person is definitely one very happy individual as the 82nd Airborne came to their rescue.

What I'm being told is possibly this individual might have had some sort of -- be physically challenged in some way and wasn't able to get out of the situation that they were in. So good news to report as we continue to watch the rescues that still are taking place.

Now back, the same members of the 82nd Airborne, gearing up in this rib boat here, in one of the neighborhoods of New Orleans, Louisiana, getting ready, once again, to takeoff throughout this flooded neighborhood, looking for individuals and, of course, not taking part in any forced evacuations. The military's made it clear that they will not -- members of the military will not be involved in that. But the search and rescue continues, and also, unfortunately, the recovery of a number of dead bodies. We'll continue to follow these live pictures out of New Orleans.

Ad as the floodwaters slowly recede in southeast Louisiana, they're also beginning to reveal even more scenes of devastation and death.

CNN's Gary Tuchman tours the parish of Plaquemine, as Hurricane Katrina survivors brace for fresh shocks and the full realization of their losses.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Route 23, the main road in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, a road that is now being used by the vessels of the sea.

Southeast of New Orleans, sticking out into the bayou, most of Plaquemines now looks like the lost continent of Atlantis, the houses, the businesses, the parks, the memories of life under water.

Three bodies have been recovered here, but dozens of people who are not believed to have evacuated are still missing. The search for them is taking place with local police and the military.

MIKE MUDGE, PLAQUEMINES PARISH COUNCILMAN: I think overall, I mean, we will have our share of the loss. Now, exactly how much that will be, I wouldn't have a clue.

TUCHMAN: Many people have been rescued, including crusty John Woodward, who realizes he's lucky.

JOHN WOODWARD, RESCUED RESIDENT: Well, the more you think about it, if you keep thinking about it, you'll go clean insane. Thirty- foot waves are not fun.

TUCHMAN (on camera): This parish is 67 miles long, from the outskirts of New Orleans in the north, to the mouth of the Mississippi in the south. It's the bottom two-thirds of the parish, the part behind me, that became submerged after Hurricane Katrina arrived.

(voice-over): What you see here is surreal and depressing. Shirts still hanging in the closet of a house that is destroyed, caskets that have washed up from cemeteries and floated away, confused cattle hunting for the last pieces of dry land, and a truck, somehow perfectly balanced on an air-conditioning vent. Russell Gainy (ph) owns an excavating company and volunteers with the sheriff's department. His home and business are gone. He uses his bulldozer, which was spared, to do his small part in the huge cleanup effort.

RUSSELL GAINY, PLAQUEMINES PARISH RESIDENT: It's just -- everything is just leveled. It's like a bomb went off.

TUCHMAN: The water levels are receding and will continue to do so. But the damage is immense.

As the search continues for the dead, the New Mexico National Guard comes across a VFW hall on the water, with Old Glory and a Vietnam POW flag still flying proudly. They present the flags to the nephew of the treasurer of the post.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The building's still there? Look at all this catastrophe. It's unbelievable.

TUCHMAN (on camera): Getting those flags must make you feel good, though.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It does.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Mississippi River barges are on land. And towns like Home Place are now places in the sea. Life has given all here a detour.

Gary Tuchman, CNN, Port Sulfur, Louisiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, this week, we've heard a lot about who should have done what before Hurricane Katrina hit, and who's to blame for the chaos that followed. For communities outside the disaster area, the pressing concern is how to help the thousands of evacuees right now, and making sure that their emergency plans are in order in other cities as well. Joining me now the mayor of Atlanta Shirley Franklin.

And we'll talk about that, mayor. Great to have you with us. But I've got to say, it's tremendous to see so many people coming here to Atlanta, and seeing how you and so many other people are responding to the needs of thousands of people now, right?

MYR. SHIRLEY FRANKLIN, ATLANTA, GEORGIA: Thousands of people are here, some say as many as 100,000, many of whom came on their own. They drove. I met families who went to Texas then drove to Atlanta, and said that if they were going to relocate, they wanted to be in our community.

PHILLIPS: Well, tell me what you've done and what you've been able to set up, because I've been reading, unfortunately, there are so many people, they can't get into all the shelters and you've had to sort of improvise.

Tell me what you're providing for these folks with regard to just immediate assistance right now.

FRANKLIN: Well, many, many people in Atlanta, all over the metro area, have opened up their home and their churches. This are examples of churches going down into the Gulf area, along the Gulf Coast, and bringing busloads of people back and opening up their shelters and their homes. So there's a great outpouring of support from the faith community and from private citizens. The city of Atlanta opened its service center Tuesday, nine days ago, and basically have been providing the connection for those who are finding the road to Atlanta, either for shelter, or for toiletry, moral support and ideas about jobs.

PHILLIPS: You bring up a good point, and that's what I want to talk to you about, because I was reading about the Atlanta Workforce Development Agency, and it's offering up job training, computer access, resume assistance, Internet and local phone service. I mean, this is what we're talking about here. I mean, this is what these people need.

FRANKLIN: Well, many people have stood in line, even at Adamsville and at Atlanta Workforce Development, to go into our cybercenters, and they can immediately connect with the Internet. They connect with the Internet. Some have opened new bank accounts. Some are connecting with their relatives and families. We've also had a job fair on Tuesday, 700 people came.

PHILLIPS: Wow.

FRANKLIN: We had over 16 companies who were hiring on the spot. Now, not everyone got a job, but everyone got encouragement. They got assistance in identifying jobs. And at the Atlanta Workforce Development Office, just near Turner Field, we have a clothes closet that's been opened since last Wednesday, Wednesday a week ago.

So we've had an outpouring of support. Volunteers have been helping out. Elected officials came down yesterday to help size the clothes. And we expect to help just about everybody who comes our way.

PHILLIPS: You know, mayor, let's talk a minute -- and we're looking at live picture, continuing to get live pictures out of New Orleans. This is Canal Street. I'm sure you've been there a number of times. You know that city well. So as we watch these pictures and watch what's happening there on the streets of New Orleans, you know, I was telling you, I worked there and I lived there, and what was so frustrating is for years and years and years, you know, there's been this horrific issue of a tremendous poverty level. And now, you see this natural disaster hit and you are really seeing the underbelly of this nation, and something that we have got to deal with as Americans, and that is the issue of poverty.

And these are individuals, probably a lot of them, that you're helping here in Atlanta, that have never been able to get a job and have been struggling for such a long time, and now are being forced to be put in a different environment, and hopefully will get some sort of blessed opportunity to earn a skill or to get a job. I mean, let's talk about that for a minute, because it really is revealing something that has been ignored for a very long name this part of the country.

FRANKLIN: Well, there's no question that people who are left in New Orleans, many of them, and along the Gulf Coast, either didn't want to leave because they're -- all of their possessions were there and they were afraid to leave, but the vast majority couldn't get out. Someone asked me why they didn't just catch public transportation. I said, takes them to the end of the line. So we now have a chance to right that wrong, to ensure people get job training, to ensure that people get a fair chance to get employment and a fair chance to build a career for their families.

It's going to take a lot of federal aid, though. And I know that the president is speaking later. But our estimate just on the small flooding that we had in Atlanta in 2002...

PHILLIPS: I know, is this city ready? I'm wondering, if this happened to us here, could we handle it?

FRANKLIN: Well, I don't know of anyone that's ready. I know Atlanta is not. So I won't speak for everyone else. Some have more experience with flooding than others. We had a city that flooded with 200 residents. And our calculation is for every 10,000 to 15,000 newcomers who come as a result of these hurricanes -- the hurricane, it's going to cost in federal dollars in excess of $100 million for every 10,000 to 15,000 people. And in that costs, are housing cost, rent subsidies, assistance with transportation. In Atlanta that means a transit card for the month. And it will take some 12 months to do that. Health care is not in that cost. Expansion of city service, police and fire services, not in that cost. And public education not in that cost.

But job re-training, re-orientation to a new community -- Atlanta's a wonderful city, but it's not the Gulf, along the Gulf Coast, so we have a different style of living here, and people need to be acquainted with that as well.

So we are hoping that we will hear from Washington, either today or in the coming days, that they're going to be sufficient federal funds so that people have a fighting chance to re-establish their lives.

PHILLIPS: Well, we're going to follow up with you, because I want to hear about these individuals that you're helping to get jobs. And will you keep in touch with us, because we want to talk to those people, OK?

FRANKLIN: Absolutely, thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, mayor.

Well, straight ahead, there are tens thousands of victims, as you know, from Hurricane Katrina, and one in particular who stand out in our minds is Hardy Jackson. You'll remember him, the tears and the pain as he told of his wife's last moment. Well, it touched us. It touched the world. And now safe with other family members, we talked to Mr. Jackson about his life and love that he left behind. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: He is but one of the victim among thousands, but for many of us, he will forever symbolize the heartbreak of the catastrophe. We first met Hardy Jackson just hours after Katrina slammed into his Biloxi neighborhood, shell-shocked, not knowing where to turn.

Well, here he is a week later with CNN's Tony Harris.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TONY HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His face is etched into our collective memory.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who was at your house with you?

HARDY JACKSON, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: My wife.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where is she now?

JACKSON: Can't find her body. She's gone.

HARRIS: And so is Hardy Jackson's story.

JACKSON: I hold her hand tight as I could, and she told me, You can't hold me.

HARRIS: Before the true nightmare of New Orleans was known, Katrina devastated Biloxi, Mississippi, and made Hardy Jackson's anguish one of the images of this disaster.

JACKSON: Everybody see me now, they walk up to me, oh, with tears in their eyes, oh, and sorrow in their heart.

HARRIS: Today, Hardy Jackson is trying to fulfill the promise he made to Toni, his wife of 29 years, to take care of their three children and three grandchildren.

But it has been a struggle in so many ways. This is the only picture that remains of Toni and Hardy together.

JACKSON: That was my wife, that was my best friend, that was my mama.

HARRIS: Jackson's sister Sharon and her husband, in an Atlanta suburb, are trying to stabilize the family. But a small three-bedroom house is now a home for 10 people, including the seven newcomers, family members who survived a horrible ordeal and have nowhere else to go.

SHARON MACK, HARDY JACKSON'S SISTER: Well, I just thank God, I thank God for them being safe. HARRIS: Food, clothing, and shelter will bridge the short-term crisis, but coming to terms with the shambles Katrina made of Hardy's life will take a very long time.

JACKSON: It was a knock of death, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I said, Oh, baby, things don't look good. I said, Baby, please don't let go, please don't let go. Nobody around to help. Nobody, just me and her.

And she said, Hardy, she said, let go. You can't hold me. Oh, God, I said, Please, baby, don't say that. I said, I'll save you. Please, (INAUDIBLE), don't leave me. She said, Take care of them kids and take care of them grandkids. She look at my eyes just like I'm looking into your eyes, man, and let go.

And she went back to the north, man. That water, man, took her back out there in the sea, man, somewhere.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Throw the ball.

HARRIS: Hardy Jackson made a promise to his wife to take care of the kids and the grandkids. It's a promise he plans to keep. He just needs some help to get started.

Tony Harris, CNN, Palmetto, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And if you need help locating family members from the hard-hit areas or just want to help the storm victims, log on to our Web site at CNN.com/helpcenter.

We're going to check in with other tropical storms that are brewing. Our Rob Marciano is in the Weather Center. We'll check in with his live forecast next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Live pictures now. Just incredible pictures that we've been getting actually within the past hour or so through this roving helicopter, throughout the city of New Orleans. We've been seeing rescue crews. We've been seeing live pictures of the 82nd Airborne. We've actually seen people being rescued. Unfortunately, we've had to see that daunting task of recovering dead bodies as well.

But right now, you're getting a bit of an aerial shot for the east side of New Orleans, not far from the I-10 that kind of loops through this area, and you can kind of see off into where a number of these areas still, in Kenner and Meteri (ph), are still submerged and underwater in New Orleans. We'll continue to follow these live pictures.

And you know, it really help us get a bird's eye view to what's happening on the ground from an aerial perspective. We've been able to see the military. We've been able to see the New Orleans Police as they're working these areas, once again, going door to door, looking for people.

PHILLIPS: Well, our extensive coverage of Hurricane Katrina continues when LIVE FROM returns. You've opened your hearts and wallets to victims of the storm, but how can you make sure your money is going where you want it to go? We're going to show you, maybe ease some of your concerns, as soon as we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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