Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Iraqi Forces Praised by Pentagon; Wild Fires Ravage Southern California; New Orleans Residents Return

Aired September 30, 2005 - 14:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR, LIVEFROM: Taming the wildfires, a change in the weather may be just the break firefighters need to get the flames under control. We're live from L.A. County.
And missing woman mystery, her rooftop rescue made front pages around the world, but where is she now? Her family wants your help.

LIVEFROM begins right now at the CNN Center in Atlanta. I'm Kyra Phillips. This hour of CNN's LIVEFROM starts right now.

Cooler, damper and calmer, a recipe for progress in the fight against a monster wildfire that so far consumed more than 20,000 acres just northwest of Los Angeles. It's also consumed a few buildings, including three homes. And it may get more before some 3,000 firefighters can actually get it fully blocked or contain. The weather, unlike yesterday, is on their side. We will get the latest now from CNN's Dan Simon he is in Simi Valley.

Hi Dan.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Kyra. Just when you think you got a grip on the situation, take a look at this, more flumes of smoke. We are here in Simi Valley. And it's been clear all day long. Within the past ten minutes, we saw a hot spot flaring up there. With us is Captain Michael Valley; he is with the Ventura County Fire Department. Your guys are now attacking that blaze?

CAPTAIN MICHAEL VALLEY, VENTURA COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Yes, we have hand crews, dozers and helicopters working that. It's really difficult trying to get to. So our engines are staged right here over here to the right. We're going to be doing structure protection. So we have them staged along these houses to protect them.

SIMON: One of the things that we've seen with this blaze, is your crews are really doing an out standing job, really securing these homes and your putting out the flames every time you see them and just when you think everything is fine, another hot spot. Why does that occur?

VALLEY: Well, one of the reasons why, it's very difficult trying to get to. As you look over here, it's very steep. It has a lot -- a big slope. It's very difficult to get our engines in there. So we have hand crews and helicopters that can actually walk up there and have the helicopters drop the water on to the fire.

SIMON: You've tackled so many wildfires in your career, you've told me. What makes this one particularly challenging?

VALLEY: Well one of the challenge is that it's in such a large, open area and it's difficult to get to, but, however, we have multiple engines here assisting. We have Unified Command with L.A. County, Ventura County, L.A. City, we're doing our best to try and get this fire under control.

SIMON: Well the good news, you were telling me that the weather is certainly cooperating, captain. We appreciate your time. Kyra you know the conditions are ideal for fighting this blaze. The temperatures are cooler today and we're basically not feeling any wind whatsoever. But once again, more plume of smoke here in Simi Valley. No homes appear to be threatened at the moment. Crews from Ventura County are tackling it. They're building fire lines, they are clearing away the brush and making sure that we don't see and danger in this neck of the woods.

Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. That is good news. Dan Simon thank you so much.

We want to take to you New Orleans now; at least a dozen police officers are under investigation for allegedly participating in the looting that followed hurricane Katrina. Authorities say that they've been reviewing videotapes made by news organizations and the probe was announced by acting police superintendent Warren Riley, who took over after Eddie Compass resigned earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ACTING SUPT. WARREN RILEY, NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPT: I stand before you today to inform the public that I have ordered an immediate internal investigation by the Department's Public Integrity Bureau, which will focus on at least 12 police officers who are being accused of misconduct. Already, I have suspended four officers in connection with the investigation and I have re-assigned one officer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And Mayor Ray Nagin's ambitious attempt to bring New Orleans back to life entered a new phase today. The French Quarter, the garden district and several other neighborhoods were officially re-opened to residents. It is not clear yet how many people actually will return but reporter Susan Rosesgen joins us once again by phone. We saw her yesterday, she told us about her home. Because her home is in that zip code. Susie any developments today? Is it getting any better?

SUSAN ROESGEN, WGNO ANCHOR (via telephone): Oh yes and it is getting a lot more populated. The roadblocks have stopped most people from getting into the city, are gone now. I've seen a lot of cars streaming back in to the targeted zip codes. And also Kyra into the nontargeted zip codes. You know once you open that door of course more people are going to come in. In my neighborhood, one of the lucky zip codes, the chain saws have been going all afternoon; I'm our walking around today. My neighbors are fixing their roofs, and hauling away trees and empting smelling refrigerators and enjoying the air conditioning. The power was just restored two days ago after four weeks without it.

Two things we don't yet have here in this neighborhood Kyra would be really nice to hear, the streetcars rolling again on Saint Charles Avenue, I miss those streetcars. And I'd really like to open my front door and see a pile of mail on the floor, pushed through the mail slot. What is the motto through wind and rain and dark of night, we haven't yet seen a mailman, at least not yet in this area. The mayor is going to have a news conference later today to give us an update on the plan to rebuild the city.

He had said in the past that he expects the city to be about half the size it was before the hurricane, down from roughly 480,000 people to perhaps 250,000 people. The question, Kyra, is who wants to come back and who can come back. Many people can't.

PHILLIPS: You know let me ask you a question about people who are coming in and not coming in. Because I know it is a bit of an honor system. But you mentioned something about the mail. That's an interesting point. How are you paying your bills, how are your neighbors paying their bills? I had a friend tell me yesterday, he got all stressed out. He tried to put something on a credit card. It's maxed out and he try to explain I'm a hurricane victim. He's having a nightmare with that.

ROESGEN: Yes, I think it's a lot of negotiation. That's what you have to do. I had a few bills that I had hanging around that I was able to pay after the hurricane hit. I gave them to friends to take and mail for me in Baton Rouge. That's how I'm still doing it. That's one of the closest places where you can get something mailed. But now that the power is back on, a lot of us can go back online and pay our bills that way.

PHILLIPS: Interesting. The checkpoints that are taking place, guarding the zip codes, if you will, are people going into neighborhoods that aren't supposed to right now? You were saying it was something of an honor system.

ROESGEN: Yes. It is suppose to be an honor system, but again the mayor has pulled those road blocks back to just the most devastated areas, the areas that still have water around the lower Ninth Ward and some of the areas where simply it is not safe for people to get back in. But in other areas of town you don't see the National Guard guys out at the checkpoints that you used to see. I have seen people going into some of the areas that are not as good or not as structurally intact as the targeted zip codes. These are places where people are getting a first chance today, in four weeks, Kyra, to get into their homes and assess the damage.

PHILLIPS: Well speaking of homes final question. Alfonso Jackson, the HUD secretary had this quote today in the "Houston Chronicle." At New Orleans is not going to be as black as it was for a long time, if ever again." You know there's been a lot of talk about the issue of that state of Louisiana not dealing with the poverty levels and then of course there have been other leaders that have come forward, Like Jesse Jackson and others that have said, look, they have this theory that this was the way to get the poor people out of the New Orleans area. I know you talked to a lot of community activists. What are they telling you?

ROESGEN: Well, I talked to one today, a really outspoken black community activist, Reverend Raymond Brown. And he said look you know there certainly a racial element to what is being said nationally and the word gentrification can be a fancy word for racism. But he thinks more than that the future of New Orleans will be an issue of class, income. Many of the people in the wiped neighborhoods were working class African Americans who have lost their homes, and they don't have the means to come back and start over. So the Reverend Brown points out that before Katrina, you know there were a lot of -- there was a lot of black-on-black crime in this city, we had terrible poverty and our public schools, which were 94 percent black, were in terrible shape.

No one, white or black, wants to see that again. But it would be awful if the African American heart of the city could not come back. And here is something to think about. Those working class black neighborhoods were not only part of the fabric of the city they were a powerful voting force. The African American vote is the strength of the Democratic Party in the city and the state, Kyra. And without it, who knows what will happen to Louisiana politics.

PHILLIPS: WGNO reporter and anchor Susan Rosegen reporting for us on daily bases. Look forward to your reports next week. Susan, thank you so much.

ROSEGEN: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: Well a frightening scene today on a major New York City expressway. A school bus loaded with seventh and eighth graders flipped on to its side. And authorities say 54 people were hurt, including 46 children. None of the injuries are said to be critical and there's no word yet on the cause of that accident.

To Iraq now and what seems like a deadly daily routine. A car bomb blew up in a crowded market in a town about 60 miles from Baghdad today, killing at least eight people, including women and children. Dozens were wounded. That attack apparently was carried out by Sunni insurgents in the mostly Shiite town of Hilla. It's the second attack against Shiites in as many days. The death toll from yesterday's three car bomb attacks in Balad just north of Baghdad has risen to 102. All four attacks appeared to target civilians.

Well as the upsurge in violence in Iraq continues with no apparent end in sight, military pomp and circumstance serves as the backdrop for a changing of the guard in this country. Joint chiefs chairman Jim Richard Myers steps down with marine General Peter Pace taking over. Myers ends 40 years in military service. Both men are veterans of the Vietnam War. As for President Bush's war on terror Pace bows to show no (INAUDIBLE).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEN PETER PACE, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: We have a lot of work to do. This moment in history is one where we have an enemy whose stated public intent is to destroy our way life, 2.4 million American men and women in uniform say, not on our watch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And not long after that ceremony defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the top U.S. Commander in Iraq defended the skills of Iraqi Security Forces. Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now with more on that. Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well Kyra, both of them finishing up a press conference here just within the last half hour after a full day of testimony on Capitol Hill yesterday. The questions somewhat the same. A lot of questions about the readiness and capability of Iraqi security forces, because it is the capability of those forces, of course, that will determine when U.S. troops can withdraw from Iraq.

Both men making the case that Iraqi forces are getting better, not worse, that they are taking on more responsibility and that they expect improvement and progress over time. But both men also making the case that insurgents are increasingly engaging in what they call a test of wills. Trying to discourage the Iraqis and trying to shake the will and support, they say, of the American people. General Casey, indicating he is well aware of the political polls.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GENERAL CASEY: You guys read the polls just like I do. And this is a terror campaign. And they are trying to create the impression that we and the Iraqis cannot succeed in Iraq. And what do you think? Is it having an impression back here at home, the levels of violence? I think it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: General Casey indicating he believes that insurgent effort is having an impression in the United States, but, again, both men making a very strong case, they believe the strategy is working nonetheless, General Casey also sounding a note of caution, expecting more violence in the weeks ahead as Iraq, again, moves towards elections.

Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Barbara Starr live from the Pentagon, thank you.

A "New York Times" reporter Judith Miller out of prison finally and talking to a grand jury investigating the White House role in the leak of a CIA operative's name. Miller was released yesterday after spending 85 days rather behind bars. She was locked up in July for refusing to identify her sources in connection with the leak of the name of Valerie Plame, you remember, the covert CIA operative. She says that her decision to testify today came after her source released her from a promise of confidentiality.

"The New York Times" identified Miller's source as Lewis "scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. Plame's name was first revealed two years ago by cinticated columnist and CNN contributor Robert Novak. It's a crime under federal law to deliberately reveal the name of a CIA operative. A short while ago Miller finished her testimony and explained why she decided to break her silence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDITH MILLER, "NEW YORK TIMES:" As soon as I received a personal assurance from the source that I was able to talk to him and talk to the source about my testimony, it was only then and as a result of the special prosecutors' agreement to narrow the focus of the inquiry to focus on that source, that I was able to testify.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And you'll recall that Valarie Plame is the wife of a former U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson, a staunch critic of President Bush's claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Wilson contends the Bush administration leaked his wife's name as retaliation, something the White House denies.

We want to take you to live pictures right now, this coming in to us from one of our affiliates, WCVB, this is Bristol, New Hampshire, a three-bus -- a three-bus accident, school bus, as can you see. We're just getting information in right now. Do we have word on any injuries? Eighteen injuries. Eighteen students have been taken to the hospital. Obviously investigators on the scene. You see firefighters and police officers. Not quite sure when this happened. We're just getting these live pictures. As you know, we have our helicopter pilots in the air with reporters on a regular basis, paying attention to the scanners. We just got word of these live pictures.

And now coming to us fro WCVB one of our CNN affiliates, you can see the whole scene but it is three school busses as we watch the camera pull out just a bit, you'll get a feel for where this is. Obviously one vehicle, one individual possibly coming down the other side of the highway there, two busses, we can see right know, the third one just slightly behind. Eighteen students taken to the hospital there in Bristol, New Hampshire. We'll keep you updated on all the developments as soon as we get more information. We will let you know.

Meanwhile, straight ahead, we're talking about hurricane survivors feeling stranded.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These people are up here eating tree bark while everything that he has pre-staged is ready to go into the golden triangle and not coming in to these people.

PHILLIPS: Wait till you hear this guy's story.

An SOS from a small Texas town with big needs after devastating storms. We'll take you there just ahead.

And they risked their own lives to help their patients during the hurricane. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins me live to talk about some pretty daring doctors.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A month after hurricane Katrina, much of New Orleans is still without power, drinking water is scarce and the sewage system doesn't work. But as we've reported, quite a few evacuees are returning to the city today. There's something else they may find in short supply, medical care. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta was in the New Orleans in the aftermath of both Katrina and hurricane Rita. He joins us now with a bit of a debrief.

I guess maybe overall, I remember Admiral Thad Allen saying he didn't want people coming right back into New Orleans because he was concerned that hospitals were not up and running and if someone got hurt, there would be issues with 911 and hospital care.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes and I think that is in part probably true. I mean Charity Hospital where I was, a big hospital for that particular of community. They took care of a lot of the indigent population. Being inside that hospital I can't imagine it will ever be able to start running again in the structure that it was before. I mean I was just completely deplorable; the conditions in there will take forever to try and clean all that up. I imagine they are just going to have to knock the hospital down and rebuild it at some point.

You need hospitals like this certainly for it to work. One of the things I'll point out as well Kyra is that it was a lot different in Lake Charles the Christies Hospital where I was at compared to Charity Hospital. They learned a lot of lessons there; they got the generators up above sea level. They were prepared for a flood; they evacuated the patients ahead of time. Just a couple of weeks later in a totally different situation. So I think Lake Charles on the other hand will continue to be up and running as they have been for some time. Charity Hospital, probably going to knock that building down at some point

PHILLIPS: Really, that's how bad it is?

GUPTA: It really is.

PHILLIPS: Now you were there when the sniper fire happened. Right? Give us a feel for how crazy and dangerous it got.

GUPTA: Yes you know it was really interesting. As a reporter, you know this. We heard about the sniper fire. The chopper that was supposed to take us into Charity Hospital had just come under sniper fire, in fact bypassed us in Baton Rouge, did not pick us up because they weren't going to go back in. We talked to another helicopter pilot that said, I know there's sniper fire but I still want to go back in. And he actually flew us into Charity Hospital. So I mean I don't know who the snipers were and why they were shooting at doctors and patients. They were simply trying to leave the hospital. But it was a chaotic situation out there. There was a lot of spirituality as well in the hospitals here. I don't know what people turn to in situations like this but we actually came across these nurses as they were singing hymns, no darkness, no plumbing, and no water. Just anything to try and get by.

PHILLIPS: Can we listen for a minute, is it possible?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I need you to survive it is his will. I love you. I need you to survive

PHILLIPS: Oh, my gosh. That's amazing.

GUPTA: This was a singing of hymns.

PHILLIPS: It's so New Orleans if you live there. Music is a part of everything.

GUPTA: It is. And I think people turn to this. It was dark; again, there was no light at all, no water. You could see the expressions on their faces. They were sure they were going to get through this. These are really, truly heroic people. They stayed and took care of the patients in the hospital. They made sure patients got out before they did. It's remarkable.

PHILLIPS: Their music is a form of prayer. Let's talk about the every day heroes. I know you witnessed a lot. Do I even ask -- I don't know if you know, we talk about police officers that hung in there and we talk about a lot of police officers that bailed out.

GUPTA: That's right.

PHILLIPS: Did you witness some saying you know what, can't take this, gotta go or --

GUPTA: Let me tell you what they went through. Still, to this day, it's remarkable to think about. It was flooded all around Charity Hospital. They had to take these patients out who were critically ill on backboards, put them in a canoe, canoe them across this flooded, dirty water into a parking deck, carry them up eight flights of stairs on to a makeshift parking deck and wait for a helicopter to land and take them away.

All of this in the wake of potential sniper fire. Two patients actually died on that parking deck as these guys were pumping air into their lungs for hours and hours on end. It was one of the most incredible things I've seen. They certainly saved lives but it took an amazing amount of courage to do what they did. And they weren't getting out of that hospital until they got all the patients out.

PHILLIPS: What did they do and how did they respond when the patients did die?

GUPTA: I mean, to say they were depressed or despondent is too light. It completely changed the way they sort of approached everything at that point. In some ways it was catastrophic that they had gone through all this and despite this, they lost patients. On the other hand, I think it empowered them to get the rest of the patients out there. You know, I saw things; I know a lot of people saw things that they just had never seen before. It's impossible to sort of imagine what they were experiencing.

PHILLIPS: Is there something that sticks out in your mind? You've seen a lot as a doctor. You do brain surgery. Is there something you will never forget?

GUPTA: The conditions inside Charity Hospital, the moment I walked in that hospital, the flooding that was going on, the smell, the loss of power, it was unbelievable. Kyra when people died, they had no place to put them. Because the morgues were flooded, the morgues are in the basement, typically. They had no place to put them. So there would be a sign that would go up, that would say stairwell between floors 12 and 13. And you know what that meant? That meant the dead bodies were going in the particular stairwell between floors 12 and 13. You should avoid that stairwell. That's the sort of condition it was. I've been to Sri Lanka during the tsunami, I was in Iraq during the war, and I think carefully saying but honestly say that this was as bad as anything I've ever seen before.

PHILLIPS: I remember you had to step in in Iraq and actually help operate on a little girl. Did you need to help at all when you were in New Orleans?

GUPTA: You know the resource in terms of doctors were actually there. The doctors did stay to take care of the patients. I point that out because you asked me about heroes earlier. These doctors didn't leave. So they didn't really need more doctors. But I would have loved to have been able to bring supplies for them, bring antibiotics, and bring whatever it was that they needed, bring power. Because they needed that probably more than anything else.

We tried to help as much as we could. I do think, honestly, just reporting the story. There was all this news out there that Charity Hospital had been evacuated. It was only after the reporting started that the helicopters actually came in to evacuate the patients. They were just stuck there for a few days.

PHILIPS: My producer just telling me, this just came in. Tell me again Vicki, FEMA disaster relief teams, they came out and said they treated more than 100,000 patients so far. Isn't that unbelievable?

GUPTA: It's remarkable. Think about what a big city does in terms of treating patients at any given time. That's a huge number. For one organization to sort of take that on, it's got to be a lot. A lot of these patients didn't have any of their medical records or their medication. You didn't know what their illness was.

PHILLIPS: And you know how technical that has to be. Because you don't want to make any mistakes, give the wrong medication; treat the patient in a way he or she should be treated. And I can't imagine not having medical records. GUPTA: I know. Just the very basics weren't there. But the good news is Kyra they learned a lot by the time Rita hit and in Lake Charles it was a totally different story. I think a lot of lives were saved.

PHILLIPS: Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Well our Dr. Sanjay Gupta will be one of the reporters this weekend on a special "CNN Presents," tracking the storm. That is tomorrow 8:00 p.m. Eastern. I'm on the wrong camera, I apologize. 5:00 Pacific. Right here on CNN. As he smiles and says, yes, that's me. I will be doing that special. Anything you want to say about it?

GUPTA: No. It's called "Monster, Tracking the Storm." Really I think sort of an urgent sense of what really happened during that hurricane there.

PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks Sanjay.

GUPTA: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Am I allowed to go to camera three now? I'm sorry.

All right her photograph was on Websites and newspapers all around the world. And the days after hurricane Katrina, but where is Grace White now? Here's the picture. Her family desperately wants to know. Her sister joins us live, just ahead.

KATHLEEN HAYS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kathleen Hays at the New York Stock Exchange. Coming up why computer problems could be hurting relief efforts for Katrina's victims. LIVEFROM continues after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com