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Vermilion Parish in Louisiana one of Hardest hit Areas by Hurricane Rita; Some Business Owners and Residents Being Allowed to Return to New Orleans; Iraq Violence

Aired September 26, 2005 - 13:59   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And more pictures now of people returning to Chalmette, Louisiana, and St. Bernard Parish. And helicopter pilot J.T. Alpaugh is flying over the scene, and he describes what he's seeing.
J.T. ALPAUGH, HELICOPTER PILOT: And gathering together and getting through this together, this family looks like they're maybe getting ready to pose for a picture here. And again, this is -- we're going to slide right just a little bit, or go forward just a little bit to get by this transformer pole. Not much.

And you can see the smiles on the faces. But this is -- this is almost just a -- kind of an irony of, you know, they're smiling because that's what you do when you take a picture. But this family are survivors, and they're all alive. And they are together.

HARRIS: Homecoming after two hurricanes. People dealing with the damage in Texas and Louisiana. What's next for these hard-hit areas?

Energy drain. The president announces his plans to keep gas prices down in the aftermath of the storms.

And charity fatigue. Will Americans be able to meet victims' needs after two disasters?

From the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Tony Harris, in for Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVE FROM starts right now.

Grief, relief and disbelief. Where you stand after Rita depends entirely on where you or your house stood during Rita. Not much of anything is standing in a number of villages and towns in the southwest Louisiana parishes of Cameron, Vermilion and Calcasieu, parts of which are still under 15 feet of water.

So far, though, no deaths are being linked to Rita in Louisiana. One death is reported in Mississippi. Six in Texas.

The three million Texans, give or take, who fled Houston and Galveston as Rita drew near are finding the return trip a whole lot easier. Most are ignoring calls from officials to stay away until more electricity is restored and while stores and gas stations are re- supplied. The mayor of New Orleans is welcoming residents of his city's Algiers district who just started coming back from Katrina when Rita forced them back out again. Business owners are also being allowed back into New Orleans' uptown district, French Quarter and central business district, though curfews apply and travel between zip codes is prohibited.

Rita versus the refineries. For a while it appeared the facilities responsible for a quarter of the U.S. fuel supply would take a frontal assault, but the governor of Texas calls it a glancing blow at worst, though more than a dozen are closed and some closer to the Louisiana border may remain that way for weeks on end.

That lesson in conservation here in Georgia. An order, or at least an urgent request from the governor to re-purpose two snow days as stay home from school and save gas days. Parents are less than pumped about it all.

Now the hard part for survivors of Hurricane Rita, the agonizing task of picking up and starting over. Southwestern Louisiana suffered the brunt of the storm. One of many hard hit areas is Vermilion Parish. Our Ed Lavandera is standing by there in the town of Erath.

Hi, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Tony.

We're on the main street that cuts through Erath here. And what we've been telling you all day here, that people are coming back to check on their homes or whatever. And we've come across Thad Brusard (ph) and his family, who might have one of the most creative vehicles we have seen in some time to get to their homes.

I'll come over here and chat with you guys. Were you able to make it home?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we did get home. My house did not have water, thank god. But we came all right. We came out all right.

LAVANDERA: You didn't have any water?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not in my house, no.

LAVANDERA: Really?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It came up high, but it did not get in my house.

LAVANDERA: And you're south of here, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. About a half a mile from here.

LAVANDERA: Did you guys evacuate or did you stick out...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we went to a little community called Moscow with my friend Bobby Breaux (ph). Stayed at his house.

But yes, we left after the hurricane. In fact, I got in my truck after the hurricane, went to Delcombre, got back home, and man, the water just started coming up. I mean, five minutes it was here, five minutes it was higher, another five minutes it was higher. Before you knew it, it was coming into my shop. I mean, it -- that water rose that quick.

LAVANDERA: And with this thing, you can make it all over town.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, when I -- this is what I came out with. I tracked this out the morning of the hurricane. And when I got to the railroad track, it was starting to float on me. I was losing traction. It was starting to float.

LAVANDERA: Wow. What's it like to see your town in these conditions?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the second time it flooded here. I have never had water in my house, and thank the good lord I didn't have it again. But it's a funny feeling to see all this water, man.

It's unbelievable. Unbelievable.

I drive a school bus. I mean, I run all over these parishes. And to see water like this is just unbelievable.

To see water come up as fast as it does, let me tell you what, when you hear people talk of Katrina, that water rose, until you are there you don't believe it. I believe it.

LAVANDERA: Really?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's that bad. It was that quick. Unbelievable.

I'm talking about at the blink of an eye that water would raise and just -- you would see it coming up. One minute I have water in my gravel driveway, the next minute there was water over it. The next minute it was in my yard. The next minute it was -- I mean, it was that quick.

LAVANDERA: When did you decide to take off?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The water started coming up. His son came to meet me in a boat. And I started -- I had started picking things up and started packing things up to get out.

And when he got there, they got there with the boat. And I took this off first and I pulled -- I had two vehicles behind me. And I had a strap tied to the back of this. If the vehicles quit, I was going to pull them out and come out with it.

LAVANDERA: Well, I'm glad you guys all made it. Thad Brusard (ph) and the family. And I don't even know what you call this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A marsh master.

LAVANDERA: A marsh master is what this is -- Tony.

HARRIS: CNN's Ed Lavandera for us in Erath, Louisiana. Ed, thank you.

Well, due west of Vermilion Parish is another area of devastation, Cameron Parish. Most of the parish remains under water. Thousands of homes were destroyed. Rita's powerful winds obliterated entire fishing communities.

Holly Beach, a popular vacation and fishing spot, was flattened. In the words of Governor Kathleen Blanco, in Cameron there's really hardly anything left.

In southeast Louisiana, New Orleans didn't escape Rita's wrath, but it could have been much worse for the city already struggling from Hurricane Katrina. Some business owners and residents are once again being allowed to return.

CNN's Mary Snow is there with the very latest.

Hi, Mary.

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Tony. And Mayor Ray Nagin, the mayor of New Orleans, saying, with Hurricane Rita behind us, the task at hand is to rebuild New Orleans.

Today, we have been seeing people returning to homes in St. Bernard's Parish. This is an area that was very hard hit. People there are being allowed to go into their homes, collect some of their possessions and leave. Not many people really have a home there any longer.

Now, other parts of New Orleans, the mayor has given the green light for residents to start moving in to the Algiers section. This is a section on the west bank. And it was largely untouched in terms of its infrastructure. It still has running water and electricity. And the mayor had started allowing people to go back there last week and had to suspend the program.

Also, business owners in the French Quarter, central business district and uptown district are also allowed to come in. They are assessing the damage to their businesses.

We have seen some traffic jams coming in today because people are stopping at checkpoints. Police are checking who is coming in and out of the city.

Also, there are restrictions on movements. People are being told that there will be a curfew strictly enforced. And also, people are allowed to stay within a certain zip code but not move outside of that.

Also, the city of New Orleans is warning people that there are certain risks. And the mayor is telling people that he wants to have people make an informed decision about their own reentry plans.

Now, these reentry plans started last week, were put on hold because of Rita and the threat of flooding. And certainly, New Orleans did see more flooding over the weekend when damaged levees -- we saw water over-topping them, most particularly in the Lower 9th Ward.

The Army Corps of Engineers has been working, continues to work to get water out of that area. It just dried out last week. They expect that by the end of this week they will be able to dry that out.

This going ahead -- the city is expected to update us later on today on how plans are going, but the latest from city hall is that so far things appear to be going smoothly. They're getting field reports, and what the mayor plans to do is take a look at this, assess it, see how it goes, and then set a timeline for others in New Orleans to come back -- Tony.

HARRIS: Mary, curious, when you and your crew travel around the city, you go to wherever you go to grab a bite to eat, you talk to folks who are coming back into the city. Are they surprised by what they are seeing? Is it worse than they imagined? Is it even worse than the pictures they've been seeing on television?

SNOW: Well, Tony, just to set the stage, there really is no place to eat. And it really is a ghost town.

There are military vehicles throughout the city. And people who have been back tell me that, you know, their one piece of advice to those that haven't been here is to be prepared, because, you know, if they haven't been here, they may think that things are actually in a better condition than they are. And the warning did go out for people to brace themselves, because, you know, this is not the same city they left.

HARRIS: Yes. Get yourself something to eat. Thank you, Mary.

CNN's Mary Snow.

SNOW: Right, exactly.

HARRIS: Yes -- in New Orleans. Mary, thank you.

There are some bottlenecks, but on the whole, traffic flowing back into Houston, Texas, today is moving more smoothly than when people left. That's for sure. Many evacuees ignored requests for a staggered re-phased reentry.

Our national correspondent, Bob Franken, is watching them drive back home at relatively high speeds I understand -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: As a matter of fact, one could argue that the traffic going into Houston is lighter than normal because the city officials have asked businesses to delay opening. They've delayed the openings of schools. So maybe this is more like a weekend.

And, of course, as you pointed out, people are ignoring the phased return, to a large degree. But things are going smoothly thus far. And city officials and all of the officials in this area want to make sure that continues. So they are making sure that they keep a close watch over it. Literally over it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL WHITE, HOUSTON, TEXAS: We will have helicopter flights that are over -- you know, going over the major highways coming inbound to Houston. And we do encourage citizens to listen to any media advisories concerning traffic conditions. We'll have updates and if bottlenecks or problems occur, and of course we'll be solving those problems as they come along.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: Of course there will be bottlenecks. There always are bottlenecks on a normal kind of driving day. This, of course, is not a normal circumstance. There was what can only be called an historic evacuation of Houston, which is relieved to find out that most of its people -- the people didn't really need to go -- Tony.

HARRIS: Bob, what's interesting, you're right, that's the point I wanted to pick up on. There were a lot of folks who absolutely had to evacuate, but there were some folks sort of north of the city, 50, 60, 70 miles inland, who really didn't have to leave. And that's what contributed to some of the gridlock that we saw.

FRANKEN: Well, of course the officials would say that hindsight is always 20/20. They had no idea when they ordered the evacuation that this was not going to be a Category 5 hurricane. Of course it really sort of fell apart after that, still causing damage down river.

City officials, by the way, here say this city, Houston, did so well that it is able to spare some of its resources, fire department, rescue, that type of thing, to help some of the communities like Lake Charles, not too far away.

HARRIS: Bob Franken.

Bob, thank you.

Still ahead, cash-strapped drivers can count on some relief at the gas pumps. After a meeting with energy officials in Washington today, President Bush said he's willing to take action to keep gas prices from taking off any further.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll use the petroleum reserve to help refineries with crude oil. We will continue the waivers to allow the winter blends of fuel to be used throughout the country. We will continue the waiver that required -- that allowed broader use of diesel fuel, because we understand there's been a disruption in supply. And we want to make sure that we do everything we can to help with the supply disruption.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Now, the truth is the oil industry suffered a one-two punch from hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The damage wasn't as bad as feared, but the president is urging drivers to conserve fuel by cutting out any unnecessary travel.

Will money given to charities to help Hurricane Katrina victims also help people in need after Rita? The answer might surprise you. We're checking on charities ahead on LIVE FROM.

And insurgents target Iraqi teachers in their latest attacks? We're live from Baghdad after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Three more U.S. soldiers have been killed in two separate incidents in Iraq. In addition, more than a dozen Iraqis have been killed, including six teachers. Six teachers at an elementary school.

CNN's Aneesh Raman is standing by live in Baghdad.

And Aneesh, we're talking about teachers being killed. This feels like a new low.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, Tony. It's not something we have really seen before, a horrific incident involving those six teachers.

It took place south of the Iraqi capital near the town of Iskandariyah. Insurgents disguising themselves as Iraqi police entered an elementary school in the predominantly Shia area just as the kids were leaving. They grabbed six of these teachers, brought them into a separate classroom, opened fire, killing all of them.

It's usually policemen, as well as government officials, that fall victim to this type of insurgent attack. It's worth noting, Tony, though, that in this same southern province back in February, a massive suicide bomber detonated outside a school there. More than a hundred people were killed, including some of the school children. But it is raising serious questions here tonight over the safety of schools throughout Iraq and whether they can handle incidents such as this, as well as the ability of insurgents to get these police uniforms.

We have seen them use this in other attacks as well. Huge security issues for the Iraqi government.

Also today, Tony, a suicide car bomb detonating in the Iraqi capital, in the eastern part of the city at a checkpoint surrounded by a number of government buildings. At least seven people were killed there. Five of them Iraqi police recruits who were in line to join the police academy.

Upwards of 30 people wounded, a majority of whom worked for the ministry of oil. They were in a bus driving by as this explosion took place.

Now, in an attempt to really combat this violence, Tony, project another image, the U.S. military today releasing 500 detainees from the Abu Ghraib prison. They did so at the behest of the Iraqi government, a sign of good faith, good will, ahead of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, set to begin on October 5.

We're told another 500 detainees will be released later this week. All of these detainees, we're told by the military, are not security threats. They're not detainees involved in any of the bombings or kidnappings that we see in Iraq.

These images, though, a clear attempt both by Iraqi and U.S. officials to bridge support among Iraq's electorate, essentially, who is set to go to the polls on October 15 to vote on Iraq's constitution. They want to try to make that turnout as high as possible -- Tony.

HARRIS: And Aneesh, what more do we know, if we know anything more at all, about the incident that left the three U.S. soldiers dead?

RAMAN: Yes, two separate incidents that killed, as you say, three American troops here in Iraq. One of them was a U.S. military police officer killed southeast of the capital city after his vehicle hit an improvised explosive device.

Two other U.S. soldiers died in a similar fashion. Their vehicle hitting an IED in the western part of the city. These IEDs, improvised explosive device, homemade bombs, remain the perennial weapon in the insurgent arsenal, and they are obviously one of the most difficult things for U.S. forces to confront -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK. Aneesh Raman for us in Baghdad. Aneesh, thank you.

A Spanish court has found an Al Jazeera TV correspondent and 17 other men guilty of involvement with al Qaeda, but the court acquitted a man who shot a video of New York's World Trade Center before the 9/11 attacks.

CNN Madrid bureau chief, Al Goodman, has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AL GOODMAN, CNN MADRID BUREAU CHIEF (voice over): Europe's biggest trial yet against al Qaeda suspects. Defendants rushed into the special courthouse to hear the verdict. Eighteen of them were convicted of collaboration with or membership in al Qaeda. Six were acquitted.

Tayseer Alouni, a correspondent for Arabic TV Al Jazeera, was convicted of collaboration and sentenced to seven years in jail. He was perhaps the best known of the 24 defendants, and he interviewed Osama bin Laden shortly after the September 11 attacks.

AHMED AL SHEIK, AL JAZEERA EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: I think it's regrettable and unfair that he was convicted to seven years in jail, because the whole trial from the very beginning was, as I said before, was politically motivated. GOODMAN: He said Alouni would appeal with the backing of Al Jazeera.

The stiffest sentence, 27 years, went to this Syrian-born man, Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas. Twelve of those years for leadership of al Qaeda in Spain and 15 years for conspiracy in the planning of the 9/11 attacks. But the prosecution had asked for 74,000 years as an accessory to murder in 9/11.

JACOBO TEIJELO, YARKAS DEFENSE LAWYER (through translator): This is really a farce that cannot be supported either by logic or by the evidence or by anything else.

GOODMAN: This Syrian-born man, Ghasoub Abrash Ghalyoun, was the main defendant among the six who were acquitted. He avoided a potential 74,000-year sentence as an alleged planner of 9/11.

He shot video in 1997 of the World Trade Center towers and other U.S. landmarks which the prosecution called a 9/11 scouting tape. He said it was vacation video, and the court apparently agreed.

(on camera): The verdict comes in a case that began about 10 years ago, when the police started surveillance for terrorists activities of some of the men who have now been convicted. It did not prove a strong link between the key defendants in 9/11, showing again that the fight against al Qaeda in the courts is not easy.

Al Goodman, CNN, Madrid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And a milestone today in the long-running struggle to end Catholic-Protestant violence in northern Ireland. International monitors say the Irish Republican Army has kept its promise to give up its arsenal. The monitoring commission says it believes all of the IRA's arms have been put "beyond use." British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern both hailed the announcement, but hard-line Protestant leaders in northern Ireland say they're still not convinced the IRA is completely disarmed.

And is there a truce between the pope and one of his most outspoken critics? Details on a significant meeting of the minds at the Vatican. That is straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Pope Benedict XVI met with one of his fiercest critics over the weekend. The pope and dissident Swiss theologian Hans Kueng have a long personal history. The pope has criticized Kueng's writings, and Kueng called Bededict's election as pope an enormous disappointment.

For more on the significance of their meeting, let's bring in our Vatican analyst, John Allen, in New York.

And John, the pope is the pope. He didn't need to take this meeting. So why did he?

JOHN ALLEN, CNN VATICAN ANALYST: Yes. You know, in the old days we used to say that being pope meant never having to say you're sorry.

HARRIS: Right.

ALLEN: But look, I mean, the only way I can express the wild implausibility of this meeting is saying it's a little bit like George Bush sitting down for a friendly chat over dinner with Michael Moore.

HARRIS: My goodness.

ALLEN: I mean, Hans Kueng was deprived of his right to be a Catholic theologian in 1979 by John Paul II, and ever since he has been the leading thorn in the side of the global stage of the Catholic Church.

Now, at one level, this is, I think, a meeting of the minds between two old friends. The pope and Kueng were both theologians in Germany together. Kueng actually hired Ratzinger at a German university in the '60s. And then, of course, they had a very bitter falling out.

At another level, I think this is a move on the part of Benedict XVI to say to all of those Catholic liberals out there who feel alienated and marginalized that, look, we may not -- we may not agree on a whole lot of doctrinal points, but I want to be your pope, too.

HARRIS: Maybe -- does that feed into what we're speculating in terms of the timing of the meeting? Is this timing significant?

ALLEN: Yes, I think it's timing -- the timing is significant, number one, because it comes very early in the pope's pontificate. In other words, we're still within roughly the first six months. And therefore, everything that happened sort of sets the tone for what's going to follow. And I think it's significant that Benedict XVI wanted to have this meeting up front.

I think the other point, of course, is that in much of at least the developed world, a story is kind of making its way through the system right now that certainly has angered and disappointed a lot of liberal Catholics, at least, which is the story about this forthcoming document on homosexuality that would have, in effect, banned gays from the priesthood. And I think the decision to have this meeting now, to some extent, perhaps, they are hoping will take some of the sting off that story.

HARRIS: You know, let's talk about -- what do they fight over? It feels like it was personal. So what do they argue, what do they fight over, what do they disagree over?

ALLEN: Well, in a statement that the pope and Kueng have put out together after the meeting, they said basically they did not discuss their doctrinal differences.

HARRIS: Ah. ALLEN: Kueng has criticized any number of things over the years, from the whole idea of papal infallibility -- that is, when the pope speaks on faith and morals, he can't make mistakes to the teaching on birth control and a wide range of things in between. What they concentrated on instead is where they are in agreement. And the two fundamental things there would be dialogue among the world religions and dialogue with science and the secular world, and the idea to try to build a common set of values that would, in effect, kind of humanize globalization.

I spoke to Kueng just maybe 30 minutes ago, and he is enormously excited about this meeting. He thinks what it means is that this is a pope who wants to emphasize areas of agreement rather than areas of disagreement. Of course we're going to have to see how that plays out.

HARRIS: You know, you just mentioned the Vatican to issue that document, new rules on gays in the priesthood. As a practical matter, what does it really mean? Where does it take us?

ALLEN: Well, Tony, let me say very quickly, first of all, that if someone wants more background on Kueng and his situation with the Vatican, I've got a lengthy piece on my Web site...

HARRIS: Oh.

ALLEN: ... of my newspaper, the "National Catholic Reporter," that's available now.

On the document about homosexuals, what does it mean, I think that's very much an open question, because this is -- although a lot of people don't realize this, it's by no means a change in policy. The Vatican put out a document in 1961 saying that homosexuals should not be admitted to the priesthood.

They reaffirmed that in May, 2002. And so in this sense, this repeats what has already, in effect, been on the books.

The question really is will the follow-up and enforcement of this document...

HARRIS: Yes.

ALLEN: ... be different than those two previous occasions, or will it be the case that five years from now or 10 years from now, when people have kind of forgotten that this document came out, will it have made any difference? I think it's too early to answer that question.

HARRIS: OK. John Allen, we appreciate it.

Got to run to a FEMA briefing in Louisiana. Let's take you there now to Louisiana, and vice admiral of the Coast Guard, Thad Allen.

VICE ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN, U.S. COAST GUARD: My goal here today is to come down on what we call on ground, or forward deployed, take a look at the damage that's been incurred. Moreover, take a look at the response operations that are ongoing.

Mr. Paulison, who is the acting director of FEMA, is with me. We landed by helicopter a little earlier today, looked at food distribution sites.

A couple things I want to make sure is that the logistic lines for the food, the water and the ice are flowing, that trucks are coming in. I want to make sure that we can sustain the amount of commodities that are being provided to the people as they come in to the lines there.

Our intention when we finish here and we get a briefing on what's going on in Lake Charles is to go down and view the vicinity of Cameron. If you've seen the pictures from down there, there's pretty much utter devastation along the coastline down there. We need to get a handle on the extent of the damage down there, which we know is already pretty terrible, and talk to local leaders down there about what their needs are.

I've already talked to the emergency management officials here in Lake Charles. We are diverting some command and control vehicles and to give them more capability in an collaborative environment to operate the emergency management center. These are air-conditioned vans that FEMA will provide that will allow them to conduct unified command meetings and increase their command and control and communications.

We have urban search and rescue teams in the area that are poised to help and have been deployed and are ready to be deployed. And in general, just making sure that all the preparations that were done, not only at the federal, state and the local level come together to the maximum benefit of the citizens of Lake Charles and Cameron and surrounding parishes.

I would like to congratulate the citizens, the local leadership in the parish in the towns and the state for their proactive stance in advance of Hurricane Rita. The ability to evacuate these low-lying areas in advance of the storm significantly reduced the potential for loss of life or injury. You can all be proud of the manner in which emergency officials have acted. You did it well.

We look to work forward from here, making sure that we're providing the right services on ground. The lessons learned from what you all have encountered here that we can make our services better in the future, we will do that.

Again, my intentions today, after we leave here, are to go down and take a look at the Cameron area, move east to Vermillion and accomplish as much as I can today with the Director Paulison in just dealing with what's on ground, making sure we understand the conditions.

And to the extent that there are barriers, red tape or anything we can expedite from the positions we hold, as a principal federal official or as the acting director of FEMA, to do that. We've already been able to take care of a couple small problems because we're here, and we're told about them and we're able to intervene. But that's our intention today. We will to continue to do that.

Dave, did you want to make any comments?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) I guess we can ask questions together, if you want to do that.

ALLEN: Go ahead, take a couple questions. And we may have to bolt here in a little bit, but we'll take as many as we can. Thanks, folks.

QUESTION: Yes, well, try not to bolt too soon because our people in this area are having horrible communication problems, obviously. Many of them don't have access to TV or radio or that sort of thing. So I promised them that I would ask these questions and they're all trying to get to radios so that they can hear, you know, this type of information.

Let's see. In particular, homeowners from Cameron Parish say that they're being asked ridiculous questions when they call FEMA, like where to mail the application when they don't have homes because, you know, they lost their homes. As well as, you know, everything is up in the air as far as where they're staying. They may be staying in Monroe today and then they may be staying in another neighborhood, you know, in a couple of days.

And one lady said that a FEMA worker told her that her computer was only set up for Katrina and not Rita. As well, one woman who is fairly well-known in this area by the name of Kathy Kearns (ph) is staying in Arkansas. She was told by FEMA she doesn't qualify for help because she can return to her home safely, which, obviously, is not true. It was Barbara (ph) 2287 (INAUDIBLE). Anyway, that's just a start.

ALLEN: I was writing down the specific examples that you mentioned. It's hard for me to give you an exact solution for those individuals without knowing the exact circumstances. A lot of the services that FEMA provide are based on where individuals are from and where their residence are at. We will take all of this, we will turn around. We've got an official statement and -- giving people guidance on what they need to do if they are not located in their residence and how to deal with FEMA on that. I will give that to you just as soon we're done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Miss, we're going to take questions afterwards.

QUESTION: Well, bear in mind, these people are -- we asked them to all tune in and listen to you. So if you have a message for them, they are listening.

ALLEN: I understand. You want to have -- are there other speakers?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.

ALLEN: OK. I will end with a message. Thank you. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, what we're going to do, we're going to change -- we're going to go ahead and let everybody speak and we want to take questions at the end and we'll see if we can streamline stuff. I'd like to introduce the FEMA director, David Paulison. David's going to come up (INAUDIBLE) -- David.

DAVID PAULISON, FEMA DIRECTOR: Thank you very much. And a couple things I want to say. One particularly, I want to praise the state and the local government, especially the local emergency management people here. What an outstanding job they did evacuating this area. And I agree with what was said earlier, that I am crediting the loss -- lack of loss of life and major injuries due to those evacuations. It was tough, it was difficult, and some rough edges around it, but folks, it worked. It got people out of harm's way and now we can work on getting them back in their homes.

I flew over earlier with Coast Guard helicopter and saw the damage out there. I know somebody told me earlier, said that, you know, we only got a Cat 2 or Cat 3 storm. I'm here to tell that you, there are people out there that lost everything. They lost their homes, they lost all of their possessions. And we are going to stay here and help them and make sure that we get them back on their feet and back on the way to recovery and get their lives back where they should be.

That is widely important for all of us to focus on, that's what the issue is. You know, it's not about FEMA, it's not about anybody else. It's about those people out there that lost everything they have.

We've got a couple things that -- first of all, Admiral, I want to thank you for being here. You folks are -- I think we're lucky to have somebody like Admiral Thad Allen on the ground. He has just done a phenomenal job with keeping this thing together and providing the service directly to the people. He gets involved, he gets around. He doesn't sit behind a desk. And he just does an outstanding job for us.

The issue that's really made this whole thing function is the coordination and communication and partnerships that we've had or we developed in this storm, from the locals to the state to the parishes to the state and to the federal government. With the military, with the Coast Guard, with the Department of Defense, there has truly been a partnership that has worked better than I have ever seen it work. And that is the model that we're going to be using for sessions in the future.

A couple things. A question was asked about the people on the road. If you call 1-800-621-FEMA and register, we can start getting money out to the door to you as soon as possible. The question you ask about addresses, if you have a bank account information, we can direct deposit those checks in your bank account (INAUDIBLE) address. But if you don't have that, we have to mail the check somewhere. That's why they ask those questions.

And I know it gets tedious on the phone sometimes. But it's important that we have enough information to be able to reach you and get you the assistance that you need. We can process the individual assistance very, very quickly. We could not do it quickly during Hurricane Katrina because of the amount of people and the amount of the evacuation. We can do it with Rita. So we're going to get those moneys out the door very fast.

And also, yesterday, the president announced our transitional housing plan. And just in two days, a day and a half actually, we have had distributed $625 million to 260,000 households of rental assistance for transitional housing that you can get back into your house. So that is ongoing. The bulk of those dollars -- the bulk of those dollars have gone to Louisiana residents. So that's important. We're doing that, we're moving on with that.

You know, this is not going to be easy, folks. It's not going to be fast. Recovery is a slow, methodical process we have to go through. And we are going cut through the red tape and -- but I'm here to tell you and I can tell you this right from the director of the words of the president, FEMA will be here until we finish this project, until we get everybody back where they need to be.

So with that, I want to say thank you for being here. And you guys out here have done an absolute phenomenal job. The amount of time you put in, the amount of hours you put in. I know I talked to people that say, have you gotten any sleep, they go, yes, here and there, here and there. I know what you're doing. I know the hours you put in. And I want to personally thank you for your hard work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, director. And thank you for being (INAUDIBLE) Parish. And we are going to get a lot of things here in the Parish. At this time, I'd like to call up Senator Landrieu. She's going to visit with us. And I want to just tell you our congressional folks have been on the ground with us and these guys are here and our governor, too. So we got federal, state and local all working together -- Mary.

MARY LANDRIEU (D), LOUISIANA: Thank you, Hal (ph). I'm just going to be very brief, because of course, most of the questions that are coming in to the news media are about specific and immediate needs today, tomorrow, next week and next month.

But I do want to just say a few broad things. Our state, Louisiana, has been devastated by these two very tough and vicious storms, Katrina and Rita. The southeastern part of the state was devastated by Katrina and now the southwestern part by Rita. Not only have parishes been hit very hard with water and wind damage in urban areas and rural areas, but our whole state has been impacted, as over a million people have been dislocated, out of their homes into other parishes that were not in the direct eye of the storm, but have been on the receiving end of a fleeing population for safety, for jobs, for housing.

I want to thank Thad Allen for his leadership. He has stepped into a very difficult situation. This is not a local problem, as I have said. It's not a regional problem. It's a national challenge. This is an unprecedented natural disaster, Katrina and Rita together. And it's going to take an unprecedented national response. So Thad Allen has stepped in. He continues to give leadership and anchor our efforts.

We have a new FEMA director. We needed a new FEMA director. We have a new FEMA director, and that is providing new leadership to this agency. The agency is struggling, but making progress every day, taking a step at a time to give people immediate relief and intermediate relief and long-term relief. I'm very happy to see the new director, who is an able man, who said FEMA will be here for the long run because this is going to be a long run.

We'll have some people back in their homes in a week or a few weeks, some people in a few months. Some people, it's going to take a few years to get back in their homes, depending on where they're living in Louisiana and how extensive the damage was.

But I will say, in conclusion, to Randy Roach (ph), to Hal, to the other local officials. And particularly to my brother Mitch, who was on the ground here as lieutenant governor a few days before the storm, Paul Rainwater (ph) back there. And a lot of our local national guardsmen. Because of your great effort together, your great effort, lots of lives were saved.

We can't stop the water from going into every home. We can't stop the wind from howling. But because of your great effort, we really minimized the loss of life. One thing we can do in the long run to stop water from coming into our homes is to invest in coastal restoration and we will do that...

HARRIS: And you've been listening to a briefing, a FEMA briefing in Louisiana by Vice Admiral Thad Allen, the acting FEMA director David Paulison. And also, you heard there at the end from Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu.

A couple of things were touched on there. You heard a lot about the efforts ongoing right now to work through a lot of the logistical issues that people are facing, getting food and water into the areas. And some of the problems that people are having connecting with FEMA, much of it being done online, as you know. And there are still some problems that people are facing in trying to connect with FEMA, get into the system and get their checks.

You also heard that a lot of praise is being heaped on the local officials for the evacuation plans that were implemented in Louisiana and in Texas. And the evacuation plans being given a lot of credit for the lack of a loss of life in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita. And Thad Allen, moving on now to Cameron and Vermillion, Louisiana, to get an assessment there. As you know, those two areas, as we've been showing you in pictures all day here on CNN, absolutely devastated by Hurricane Rita.

And we want to give you this bit of information, just into CNN. There's been a shooting and three people are reported dead. And CNN has confirmed this. Three people shot dead. This is in upstate New York, in Westchester County, New York. Three people shot dead at a perfume and nail polish factory by a gunman who then turned the gun on himself, killing himself. The shootings happened at the Verla International Plant. And that, again, is New Windsor, New York.

We understand that the shooter was a former office employee who was fired about a year ago. That's according to -- CNN has confirmed that. The victims included at least one woman. And some of those shot were company officials. And this is perhaps probably most disturbing of all of this. Some of the victims were actually shot in the back of the head, seemingly execution-style, at close range.

Once again, this just in to CNN. Three people are dead, shot to death at close range, in the back of the head in a couple of cases here. And the gunman turned the gun on himself, killing himself. And this happened in upstate New York, in Westchester County. We will continue to follow this story and bring you the latest developments.

Still ahead, helping the victims of Hurricane Rita. Will there be anything left to give after the devastation caused by Katrina? We'll break down your donations with our Charity Navigator. That's next.

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HARRIS: We're going to come back to the story we were just telling you about a moment ago. And I may have gotten ahead of myself in the reporting on this story.

Let me just sort of clarify this. What we know now is that three people have been shot. I believe I said that they were killed. Let me back off of that and clarify. Three people shot at this factory in New Windsor, New York. That is in upstate New York, in Westchester County, New York. The one person confirmed dead is the shooter. The shooter in this case, a former office employee, has been confirmed dead. And he -- allegedly at this point he shot three people and we don't have their exact conditions at this point.

But I don't want to get ahead of the story and suggest that the three people who were shot were killed. We have not confirmed that at this point. The gunman turned the gun on himself at this perfume and nail polish factory in upstate New York and killed himself. We'll continue to update this story.

Americans have given generously to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Now with Rita, many are opening their wallets again. We want to help you to make sure your donations get to those in need.

Trent Stamp is the head of the nonprofit rating agency, Charity Navigator, in New York. Trent, good to talk to you.

TRENT STAMP, CEO, CHARITY NAVIGATOR: It's a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

HARRIS: Well, Trent, we have two storms, two disasters. And I guess folks are wondering, when you give to the Red Cross, when the president says open your wallets, open your hearts and give generously to the Red Cross, is all of this money going into one big hurricane pot? STAMP: No, absolutely not. What happened after September 11th, when most relief charities actually raised too much money, considering that there wasn't the relief and recovery effort that they anticipated, they went ahead and they tried to spend that money on other causes, because they had too much money in their coffers (ph). And donors became inflamed, enraged and felt like they'd been betrayed.

So most relief charities have gone to, for lack of a better word, a pay-as-you-go disaster relief system. One disaster, one fund. And so money raised for Katrina, for the most part, is going to have to be spent on Katrina's victims.

HARRIS: How do we assure that? How do we know that for sure? Is there a way that we can perhaps designate, hey, I want my money to go to Hurricane Katrina?

STAMP: Right. Well, that's what people have done is that they've gone ahead and they've started designating their checks. They've said, I don't trust you completely to spend this money appropriately or in your best interest, so I'm going to give it to you, but under the condition that you only spend it only on the victims that I've seen on TV. That may work in most cases, but when you have another disaster on the back end like this, the organization is hamstrung (ph), is not able to extend the money over to another cause.

It's important to remember that with Katrina, I don't think you can possibly raise enough money. And it's not like they're going to be diverting funding away because they have too much and spending it on Rita. They don't have enough for either disaster, to tell you the truth.

HARRIS: Yes, and Trent, can you do this? Do you write it if you're just sending in a check -- do you write it on the check -- do you, if you're doing this online, can you -- is there a space online where you can designate where you want this money to go?

STAMP: Yes. Charities are very receptive to this now. They understand that people who give after disasters are not their normal donors. They're not people who are normally affiliated with the charity. They're people moved by what they see on T.V. or in the newspaper. So you can write it right there in the subject line on your check or on the credit card form online. You can go ahead and put what disaster you want these funds to be spent on.

HARRIS: You a little concerned about giving fatigue, if there's such a thing?

STAMP: Oh, I think it's inevitable in this particular case. You know, most people don't realize that with the tsunami giving, that is actually accounted for in 2005. We've got Katrina, now we've got Rita, rising fuel prices. Most charitable giving by individuals is done between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's the time of the year when you feel the most benevolent. You want to help the most, you have an idea of how money you have left in your budget, and you have to give then to give to get the deduction in the calendar year.

I think there's going to be a lot of local charities, a lot of animal shelters, a lot of homeless shelters, after-school programs, who are going to have really, really lean years because there just isn't going to be the funding that a lot of them had counted on.

HARRIS: Trent Stamp, good to see you. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

STAMP: It was a pleasure. You all take care.

HARRIS: We'll take a break and come back with more LIVE FROM, right after this.

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BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: I'm Brooke Anderson with entertainment news.

This just into CNN. The man we all came to know as Maxwell Smart has passed away. Actor Don Adams has died of a lung infection. He played in the 1960's T.V. series "Get Smart" and was the voice of Inspector Gadget. Adams died late Sunday at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 82 years old.

And in other Hollywood news, lovebirds Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher reportedly tied the knot. Twenty-seven-year-old Kutcher and 42-year-old Moore married on Saturday in L.A. This is according to "US Weekly" and "People" magazine. About 100 guests are said to have been in attendance, including Moore's ex-husband Bruce Willis and their three daughters. The girls all call Ashton "Mod," short for My Other Dad.

Moore and Kutcher first began dating in 2003. This is the first marriage for Kutcher, the third for Moore. Before Willis, Moore was married to rock musician Freddy (ph) Moore. The high-profile pair did manage to keep their wedding plans under wraps. In this month's "Harper's Bazaar," Moore calls Kutcher her soulmate, but said they had no plans to marry. I spoke with Kutcher on the subject a few months ago. He told me the same, saying he had no intentions, no plans to marry Moore. Funny how things work out, right?

And moving on, the gritty, award-winning police drama "The Shield" is beefing up its cast. Emmy-winning actor Forest Whitaker will be a regular in the series' upcoming fifth season. Whitaker will play a detective investigating Roe Cotton Ackey (ph), played by star Michael Chiklas (ph). Now, last season, Glenn Close joined the cast. She was actually nominated for an Emmy for her work on "The Shield." The new episodes kick off in January.

One of Oprah Winfrey's secret dreams is becoming a reality. The actress and talk show host is bringing "The Color Purple" to Broadway. Winfrey told "The New York Times" it's been a dream of hers to be part of the great white way. Winfrey is reportedly contributing more than $1 million of the musical's $10 million production costs. The musical, which, of course, is based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize- winning novel, will be called "Oprah Winfrey Presents: The Color Purple." The show has been revised since last year, when it wasn't received too well when it opened in Atlanta. And you may remember, Winfrey, of course, starred in the film version of "The Color Purple." Tony, that was back in 1985. Back to you. HARRIS: OK.

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HARRIS: Just an update now on the breaking news story out of New Windsor, New York, in Orange County, New York. Three people shot there. And pictures just into CNN now, just outside of the Verla International Plant. It is a perfume and nail polish factory. That is in Orange County, New York.

Three people shot there. The gunman then turned the gun on himself, killing himself. The shooter was a former office employee who was fired about a year ago. And the victims include at least one woman. And some of those shot were company officials and some of the victims, we're being told, were shot in the back of the head at close range.

Three people shot. Don't know their exact conditions at this point, but three people shot at the Verla International Plant. This is in upstate New York, a perfume and nail polish factory. The gunman turning the gun on himself.

That wraps up this Monday edition of LIVE FROM. I'm Tony Harris at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Now Wolf Blitzer is live in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

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