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Ophelia Strikes Outer Banks; Pumps Continue to Dry Out New Orleans; Bombings Kill Nearly 150 in Baghdad; Bush Asks U.N. for Unity on Poverty, Terrorism

Aired September 14, 2005 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST: Hurricane Ophelia, battering the Carolina coast. Winds and rain coming on strong. We're your hurricane headquarters this hour.
Mississippi mess. Heartbreaking new pictures from Biloxi showing just how widespread Katrina's damage is.

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Kyra Phillips. CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

Feeling Ophelia. That lollygagging, loop-de-looping, sometime hurricane, sometime tropical storm is making its presence felt this hour and for many hours to come on the beaches and barrier islands of North and South Carolina. Reporter Dave Faherty of CNN affiliate WSOC is on Wrightsville Beach.

Give us a description there, Dave.

DAVE FAHERTY, WSOC CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're getting some very strong winds. In fact, hurricane force winds were actually inside the parking deck of our hotel, in here. We wait in here prior to our live shots.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to walk out with our photographer and just give you a sense what we're facing every time we do one of these live shots. We're going to come out onto the deck here of this hotel.

And you can see the winds. Just look at the rain shooting across here. Woo, man that is rough.

We have a swimming pool over here at the hotel. There's actually white caps in the swimming pool. We had wind gusts, just about 45 minutes ago, of 78 miles per hour, which is hurricane force winds.

And let me just step down here real quick. I picked some of these things up on the other side of the building. Shingles flying around me, being pulled off by -- some of the roofs here. Also seeing a lot of other minimal damage here.

Earlier, I was on the other side of the island, and you could actually see some folks who weren't expecting this storm to be as strong as it was, trying to tie down boats in the middle of the storm. Concerned that the boats were going to lift up and slam onto their docks. Look down here, you can see the surface just whipping up, anywhere from 10 to 15 feet. It still looks like the wind is coming out of the north right now, which would mean that the storm is just to the south of us.

And you can see the wind driven rain coming across the shot here. We have heard of some flooding damage in the Wilmington area, low- lying areas, some bridges washed.

Again, very strong winds here. So far, only minimal damage. I can say that there is some power outages here at the hotel we're staying at right now. They got knocked out of power about two hours ago.

Reporting live for CNN, I'm Dave Faherty. Now back to you.

PHILLIPS: All right, Dave. Thank you so much. We'll continue to check in with you. Can see the winds picking up there, even affecting Dave's signal.

Let's check in with Chad Myers in the weather center. Chad, I think just in time, because I think we just lost the signal. But where is he in comparison to where Rob Marciano is in Atlantic Beach? Because that's where you said it was going to hit the hardest.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, he's about 150 miles down the beach. And I can zoom right in to his location.

Here is the storm itself. Really, the outer western eye wall, already on shore. It is forecast to come right through here and clip Morehead City right where Rob Marciano is, Atlantic Beach right there, Wrightsville Beach right about there.

And then moving on up, and eventually right across Dare County and out probably Cape Hatteras and also into Nags Head.

Let me zoom in, give you a better idea. Wilmington, some of these very heavy rainfalls now, over 10 inches on the ground. Back up here, a little bit farther to the north, getting into Sneads Ferry, also back down to Topsail Beach. And then one more spot getting in a little bit closer.

He is very close to that eye wall. There is Wrightsville Beach. There is -- the hotel he's in is actually right under that "s" in Wrightsville Beach. And that area is kind of sliding off, still surrounded by very warm water.

Although I'm thinking now that this has been here long enough. We're getting upwelling. That's when you mix the water from the bottom of the ocean up with the water from the top of the ocean. You know, if you go deeper and deeper in the water it gets colder and colder.

Well, if you mix that up, a hurricane can't get much stronger, because it loses its energy. It loses its heat engine. So we'll see that. Look at how wiggly the storm has been. It has turned to the left; it has turned to the right. It tried to head out to sea. It was blocked by a big high pressure. It moved back out to the west and then it turned to the north overnight. And that hurricane warning, all the way from Virginia-North Carolina border, right down to the Little River inlet.

This is going to be a big storm when it comes to some storm surge. Already hearing about some water over some of the inland towns. Not really the beach towns. But that water's getting pushed up the rivers as well.

I want to take you now down all the way to the hurricane center. Our Ed Rappaport down there.

Ed, you know it's been a busy day for you already. But what's your major concern with this storm?

ED RAPPAPORT, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: You've mentioned both of them. One is the rainfall. And you're right, we've seen from radar estimates, the NOAA radars are showing upwards of eight inches in the Wilmington area, total rainfall, and 10 to 12 inches just to the west of that. And it's still raining there, and that pattern is going to be moving on towards the north-northeast.

So we're going to see a swathe of rain and potential flooding over the eastern portion of North Carolina.

The other risk is, as you mentioned, is the storm surge. And we have a depiction here we can show if we have a minute. Here are the Outer Banks. We've colorized the storm surge that we're projecting now with near five feet along the Outer Banks.

We should mention, of course, there are going to be large waves on top of that, so the water will progress farther to the west. Flooding the Pamlico Sound area, and as you mentioned, up the rivers here in the orange this is 8, 9, 10 feet...

MYERS: Wow.

RAPPAPORT: ... storm surge possible up the Pamlico River and the Noose River.

MYERS: Now, that also makes a big difference on whether it's high tide or low tide by a couple of feet, too, right?

RAPPAPORT: It does. And unfortunately, they're going to go through probably at least one full cycle, because it's moving very slowly. So you get a high tide and a low tide, and maybe even another high tide. We're seeing the motion that's up towards the north- northeast at only about seven miles per hour. So it's going to take about 24 hours before it clears probably near the Cape Hatteras area.

MYERS: We talked about Cutler Ridge and Katrina. It was a Category 1, moving over southern Miami, you know, South Dade. This is almost a similar situation for Wilmington, isn't it, where the backside of the eye really isn't moving very much because the forward speed of the eye is keeping that heavy rain in one spot?

RAPPAPORT: That's a very good comparison. One we've been using today is that they're going to feel some of the same effects that we had here in South Florida. If they weren't familiar with that, it was prolonged period of strong winds, local flooding, downed power lines, tree limbs down. Definitely want to be inside today.

MYERS: Those rivers you talked about flooding eight feet, maybe 10 feet, are there towns along those rivers? Is this going to be a saltwater flood for them?

RAPPAPORT: There is potential for some flooding in the rivers and the towns nearby. Now the land itself is a little bit higher, but the storm surge is at 10 feet. And you'll subtract out the elevation you're at to get the actual flooding there. But we do expect flooding along those rivers. And again, as we've said, likely along portions of the Outer Banks, as well.

MYERS: Ed, thank you. I know you're busy, I'll let you go. Storm up to 85 miles per hour now. The hurricane hunter plane, the NOAA plane, in the eye wall now. We'll keep you up to date -- Kyra.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

PHILLIPS: "Mission Critical" now. Breathe easy but don't touch the water.

Mixed results from the latest government lab tests on environmental risk post-Katrina in New Orleans. The mayor says air and water quality, or lack of it, will help set the pace for resettlement. Today's report reveals no big dangers in the air but dangerous microbes and minerals in the floodwater still covering 40 percent of the city.

Three western suburbs reopened for business today: Gretna, Lafitte and Westwego, combined population, 30,000. All in Jefferson Parish, west of the Mississippi River, where the flooding was nowhere near as severe as it was, and still is, on the east. Eastern communities, many in St. Bernard Parish, could be unlivable for months.

More than 40 of New Orleans' pumping stations are now on the job. Live pictures right now. Moving more than nine billion gallon of septic slime a day. If all the stations were up, the rate would more than triple, assuming no big setbacks. The Army Corps of Engineers estimates that the city will be dry by early to mid-October, working full force as you can see, 24/7.

Well, drying out, cleaning up, coming back, no longer seems like impossible dreams in Katrina's aftermath. But for the most part, they're not yet reality either.

CNN's Sean Callebs joins me now with a sit rep once again.

Hey, Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, indeed, may not be insurmountable. Boy, it's going to be tough, though.

Look at where we are now. You can see this overpass. This is just one area. I mean, you can see this all over the city.

We're in the Seventh Ward. Now earlier today, some testing was going on. I'm going to get to that in just a minute. But I want to take you to some live pictures, aerial views of the city of New Orleans.

This is where pumping is going on. You mentioned 40 pumps are working. There's actually -- there are actually 22 large stations. Each station has between three and six pumps. Where we are here, we're in front of pumping station No. 3. There are three pumps in here. Only one is functioning right now.

And what kind of water are they dealing with? Well, it is nasty. Earlier today, the 82nd Airborne was out here, both engineers and infantry, doing sampling of the water, the soil and the air, something they've been doing basically around the clock.

You talked about some of the pollutants, Kyra, in the water. They're finding high levels of a substance found in coolant. Also, the sort of stuff that is associated with fuels, gasoline, things of that nature, which can cause burning of the eyes. And we know our crews have reported that as well.

Really, the big question, PCBs. Because if you look around you can see all the electrical -- the utility lines that came down. Many of these transformers slamming into the ground. They washed away in floodwaters. So if the PCBs, a highly carcinogen, if they get out in the water, that could be an extreme mess, as well.

A lot of work left to do here. Let's get back to pumping station No. 3. Because right now, the water is being sucked from the city. It is going underneath and it goes into this canal first. And then this water goes into pumping station No. 3.

Usually it's filtered and pumped back into the canal right behind the area. Well, they simply can't do that. It's come out and going in as quick as they can do it, trying to reduce the floodwaters in this area.

You can see a number of workers pulled up here in the last bit, last hour or so, because the power supply for this pumping station is actually down low, so when the floodwater came up -- you can see the debris line. It swamped this pumping station. It knocked out power. And they've been trying to restore it for the better part of two weeks.

So they have one pump up today. They're optimistic to get more running in the future. And hopefully can reduce the amount of floodwaters in here, because it is certainly causing a huge problem. The smell, the concern, just goes on and on -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: And, Sean, tell our viewers what you -- what's been found in the water there, in the canals, I mean what's been clogging up the waterways.

CALLEBS: Yes, exactly. This is another problem. Even once the water does get in here -- and it's supposed to just be rain water. But, instead, it's a mixture of sewage, garbage, debris, rotting animals, everything you can imagine from this catastrophe.

If you look, there's lame from a giant tree that blew down in. And basically, there's a filter right there. And that tree limb is blocking the filter. And as more and more debris comes in, it catches more and more. So eventually, officials are going to have to go down there, pull it out, and then hope that nothing else comes through and clogs it.

We know other that pumping stations, a sofa blocked one. Another, a big utility poll came through. So there are all kinds of obstacles that they've never had to deal with before, but they're learning lessons quickly in the aftermath of this hurricane.

PHILLIPS: Yes, so are all of us. We are all learning a lot of lessons, too. Sean Callebs there at the Seventh Ward, thank you so much.

Well, force of nature, act of God or human neglect, sorting out whom or what to blame for scores of deaths in Louisiana hospital, nursing homes and elsewhere is mission critical for the state attorney general. And the first major charges are already filed.

Salvador and Mable Mangano are free on bond this hour, awaiting prosecution on 33 counts of negligent homicide. They own St. Rita's Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish, where the rising waters trapped and drowned 34 people, most of them believed to be patients, but possibly also family members or staffers. The state maintains that the Manganos shrugged off numerous opportunities to get everybody out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES FOTI, LOUISIANA ATTORNEY GENERAL: If you and I decide to stay there, we're big enough, responsible enough to make that decision. Where you have the -- trusted with the lives of other people, you cannot take those chances. Yes, there are risks anytime you move people that are receiving health care, but to not to move them is to condemn them to death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The couple's lawyer calls the allegations categorically false. He says that the parish never issued a mandatory evacuation order, without which the couple feared moving St. Rita's most fragile, most vulnerable residents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM COBB, MANGANOS' ATTORNEY: Our view is that we absolutely had an evacuation plan. That plan was of record with the Department of Health and Hospitals. It was of record with St. Bernard Parish. That plan -- they had it. PAULA ZAHN, HOST, "PAULA ZAHN NOW": Why didn't they execute it?

COBB: Ma'am? They did execute it. They sat and waited for a mandatory evacuation order from the officials at St. Bernard Parish. It never came. I just heard Dr. Patusi (ph) indicate that he called them and told them to evacuate. That is not the recollection of everybody at the nursing home. And they were in the facility, not someplace else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The A.G. is also investigating the 40 plus corpses found amid the ruin of a New Orleans hospital. The St. Rita's charges carry maximum penalties of five years in prison apiece.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Later on LIVE FROM, devastated home owners...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you see parts of my roof in trees.

PHILLIPS: ... getting bad news from their insurance companies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did the water get into the house six feet high, eight feet high? And now they say it's nothing's covered.

PHILLIPS: Why a lot of damage will not be covered.

Later on LIVE FROM...

MAYOR RAY NAGIN, NEW ORLEANS: We're bringing New Orleans back. We're bringing this culture back.

PHILLIPS: But just what are the big plans for the Big Easy? The daunting task of rebuilding a devastated city.

Next on LIVE FROM, Baghdad bombings. A wave of attacks. More than 100 people killed. Will the violence affect Iraq's steps for self-rule?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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PHILLIPS: In Iraq, suicide bombings, ground assaults and drive- by shootings claimed the lives of some 150 people today and wounded 300 more. Most attacks happened in the capital. All happened on the day Iraq's draft constitution was submitted to the United Nations.

From Baghdad now, Jennifer Eccleston has more on the relentless violence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A string of deadly attacks across Baghdad. The latest, a suicide car bomb at the entrance of an Iraqi Army base in central Baghdad. The bomb followed by a ground assault by insurgents. Three Iraqi soldiers and one civilian were killed; 25 were wounded.

But it was a day of relentless violence against Baghdad's Shiite community. Suicide car bombers targeted two Shiite neighborhoods. The latest in Shulete (ph), northwest Baghdad, four killed, 22 people injured.

But the most deadly was a morning bomb attack involving a mini bus. According to police, the bus exploded near a meeting point for day laborers in Katamiyah (ph), a Shiite neighborhood in north central Baghdad.

Now witnesses say when that van pulled up, the driver called workers to his vehicle and detonated his bomb. We have at least -- over 100 people killed and more than 200 wounded.

Now, Iraqi civilians bearing the brunt of today's violence but the military also targeted this day. Suicide car bombers targeted Iraqi Army convoys. Three soldiers were killed. Six U.S. military convoys were attacked today by insurgents. Five soldiers were injured.

And as a backdrop to this violence, word today from the national assembly a final draft on Iraq's constitution. It's ready with amendments, aimed at appeasing Sunni objections. The main point, we're being told, the amendment says Iraq is a multiethnic, multi- religious society. Part of the Islamic world and a founder and active member of the Arab League.

Now, the Sunnis wanted that draft to describe Iraq as part of the Arab world. It doesn't appear that that is addressed. We are awaiting Sunni reaction. But Sunni leaders have long maintained that without concessions on that issue and others, including the issue of federalism, they will ask the Sunni community to reject the draft.

The final draft will now go to the U.N., who will help print it and distribute it to some 5 million families across this country in advance of the October 15 referendum.

Jennifer Eccleston, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: In the wake of the violence in Iraq, President Bush calls on world leaders to put terrorists on notice, in part by cracking down on nuclear terrorism.

Senior United Nations correspondent Richard Roth -- Richard Roth, rather, is live with more on the president's address at the opening of the U.N. General Assembly.

Hi, Rich.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, hello. Terrorism, one of the main themes for President Bush in his annual appearance at the U.N. General Assembly, this one getting more attention because it's the 60th anniversary of the U.N. and there are 153 heads of state or government on site.

Don't try to get a lunch invitation or reservation at the U.N. today. You're looking at where all of these world leaders are going to gather and sit down for some smoked salmon, smoked trout and some lamb.

They had to chew on President Bush's remarks in two settings, inside the general assembly earlier and a special high-level terrorism summit in the Security Council, where the 15 nations approved a resolution to curb the incitement of acts of terrorism.

Inside the general assembly, President Bush talked tough again on terrorism, saying the world must unite against terrorists. He also called for broader liberalization on trade and tariffs.

And he also said the United Nations must improve its own effectiveness and efficiency. He criticized those countries that have thus allowed abusers of human right to sit on the Human Rights Commission, declining to reform that organization.

There were weeks of intensive frenzied talks that culminated last evening in a watered-down, compromised document that these world leaders have agreed to.

So far at this lunch, we've seen President Musharraf of Pakistan, President Fox of Mexico. They're waiting for President Bush to arrive. He's usually, for reasons including security and protocol, he will be there along with Kofi Annan, and the two will toast the organization here at the United Nations. It's an annual setting.

On the sidelines, all of these leaders get to talk one on one to each other. Or sometimes they're surrounded by 2,000 people and it's hard for them to even hear each other -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: OK. Live pictures right now. We can actually see, they just went past the president of Mexico, Vicente Fox there. As we watch these live pictures, Richard, tell me more about this compromise document.

ROTH: Well, this is something that Kofi Annan had high hopes for, something to restore credibility to the organization and really commit the nations of the world to some of their promises made, in areas such as poverty reduction, things like that.

But there was squabbling among all factions: rich countries, poor countries, west versus east. So they really weren't able to come through with some of the stronger language, even though some advocates for the poor are saying that President Bush went further than previously expected in promising commitments on aid to developing countries from the U.S. gross national product.

They've been -- the rich countries have been under intense heat in recent years to give more. Some have. Some haven't.

Also hanging over the whole event here for some is the oil-for- food scandal. But that hasn't been mentioned really or touched. Only in vague terms by President Bush and others, talking about internal reforms.

PHILLIPS: Now, I've seen Michael Bolton (sic) sitting behind the president. Obviously not now; we're looking at different live pictures. Are we going to hear from him? Or have we heard from him?

ROTH: Well, you're not going to hear him sing. I think you said Michael Bolton. John Bolton is the ambassador.

PHILLIPS: John Bolton. Richard, thank you so much. You're taking me back now to what, the early '80s? My goodness.

ROTH: Yes, and this ambassador has much shorter hair.

PHILLIPS: And no relation, right? Maybe we should make that clear.

ROTH: No relation. Though some of his remarks have caused some hair-raising reaction from advocates for some groups.

Though Jeff Sachs, a leading advocate for the so-called millennium development goals, one of Annan's dreams, that the country agreed to, promises to reduce poverty in half by 2015. He says that President Bush's remarks on poverty reduction and other reforms, quote, "put the wind in our sails."

He was quite critical in recent weeks of hundreds of late amendments the U.S. added, saying it was gutless by Washington to try at that late hour. But other countries, Russia, China, you name it, Egypt, Pakistan, they all had different core concerns and they dug in their heels.

So in the end, it was a watered-down document, which high U.N. officials still say is progress. It's a step forward. Kofi Annan said, "We tried to get everything. Obviously, we all wanted more." He didn't get it.

But he had some frank talk today, Kyra. He said that the organization needs to do more. That they really didn't coalesce around major reform. And he's warning, in effect, that they'd better get on it. Of course, he's only got a year and few months left, but it's not great for his prestige, his clout. The oil-for-food problems regarding his son didn't help him in his drive to convince these nations. He was almost pleading in many of his remarks.

PHILLIPS: All right, Richard Roth, keeping me on my toes. Stay tuned and with us. Let us know what happens. And definitely let us know if you have any sightings of Michael Bolton. I truly would appreciate it.

ROTH: All right. How about Kenny G or anyone like that?

PHILLIPS: There you go. Hey, a little sax. OK, that would work. Thank you so much, Richard.

Well, tons of trash everywhere. We've been talking about this, of course. After Hurricane Katrina, boy, the damage is mission critical for sailors aboard the USS Baton. We're going to talk with a captain about what the Navy is doing to help with that massive cleanup. It is not an easy task.

Also ahead two airlines may be flying into bankruptcy as early as this afternoon. What will it mean for your next trip? We'll tell you.

ANNOUNCER: You're watching LIVE FROM on CNN, the most trusted name in news.

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