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New Orleans Mayor Unveils City's New Hurricane Plan; Life During Wartime

Aired May 02, 2006 - 15:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The countdown is on, just 30 days to the Atlantic hurricane season. And it could be another busy one.
And, if you caught the first hour of LIVE FROM, you heard the mayor of New Orleans saying his city is ready, at least in terms of disaster plans.

Our Gulf Coast correspondent, Susan Roesgen, joins us with all the details.

Hi, Susan.

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra.

The plan from the mayor today is to get everybody out of the city 36 hours before a hurricane hits, a big hurricane, Category 3 or stronger. And this chart behind me shows how the city hopes it will work this year. This is the Convention Center, the Morial Convention Center.

The plan is, people who don't have their own transportation to get out of town, people who don't have their own cars, would get on city buses from their homes, be taken here to the Convention Center, and then bused out of town to a shelter out of town.

Also new this year, Kyra, the city has asked the federal government to ask Amtrak to supply Amtrak trains to evacuate the elderly and people with special needs. But what you don't see on this chart, what is not part of the plan this year is the Superdome.

For years and years and years, the city has always said the Superdome is the shelter of last resort, the shelter for people like the elderly, people with special needs, people who don't have anyplace else to go and need help. And, yet, tens of thousands of people show up there, not just the special-needs people.

This year, the mayor says, no, we're not going to use the Superdome. It will not happen this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAY NAGIN (D), MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: Read my lips. This is a plan for getting people out of the city. There is no shelter of last resort. And we are going to communicate that. We are going to use PSAs. We are going to use print. We are going to use everything. And we're going to try and get as many people out of here as possible. Now, in the event there are people who have -- who have come at the last minute, we are going to still try to move them out of the city. There be no shelter of last resort in the city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROESGEN: And, Kyra, the mayor says he will call for this mandatory evacuation in conjunction with Max Mayfield, the head of the National Hurricane Center.

We will be watching hurricanes this year. You know how it works in the Gulf of Mexico. Just by a few days, or even a few hours, a hurricane can turn and go someplace and -- and force an evacuation in a different area altogether.

So, the mayor says he will call for a mandatory evacuation when he thinks there is this serious threat, when he wants people to get out. But he also says he can't force people to get out. If they decide to stay, he won't use the National Guard or police officers to round them up and force them out.

PHILLIPS: Hmm.

A couple of questions, Susie. We're talking about a -- a pretty big difference in numbers now, right, since the last hurricane.

ROESGEN: Mmm-hmm.

PHILLIPS: How many people would be evacuated?

ROESGEN: Well, actually, the mayor said today only about 10,000, does he think, would need the city's assistance. We have got about 200,000 people in the city now, down from 465,000 before Hurricane Katrina.

And the mayor says, the people who are here now, most of them are here because they have their own transportation. They have been able to drive back to town. So, he truly believes that only about 10,000 people would need the city's help to get out this year.

PHILLIPS: Do you think there will be any practice simulations in -- you know, trying to go through this plan before an actual event?

ROESGEN: Well, they are planning one for the end of this month, Kyra.

On the 23rd of May, they are going to have what they call a tabletop exercise, you know, just going over the paperwork. And, then, the next day, on the 24th, they plan to have an actual evacuation drill of some sort. They didn't give the details today. They didn't talk about whether people will actually get on the road and participate in this, ordinary folks here in New Orleans.

But they do plan to have a drill, in conjunction with federal authorities and state officials, at the end of this month. PHILLIPS: Now, the NOPD took a lot of heat, because a number of officers were involved with looting, allegedly involved with looting, didn't show up for the job. How is the NOPD going to make that sure everybody remains intact and also is confident that he or she can -- can do the job?

ROESGEN: Well, the police superintendent was here today. And he made some remarks. And he said: I don't want anybody not to leave this city because they are afraid that their belongings won't be there when they get back.

The chief says he's going to have a real grid-like pattern. His officers will go grid by grid across the city, protecting the city once the hurricane has passed. He says that he's going to work with the National Guard, get 3,000 National Guard troops here, 150 National Guardsmen in each police district to help the police.

He also says, Kyra, that, when the winds reach 55 miles an hour, that it isn't safe for police officers to be on the streets, that they will hunker down in their districts. They will be required to stay, as they -- as they were last year. They will stay. And, then, after the storm passes, they will get out on the street. And he says that people will see a much stronger police presence this year than we saw in Hurricane Katrina.

PHILLIPS: Susan Roesgen, thanks so much.

You knew 2005 was off the charts, hurricane-wise, but it takes an expert to fully appreciate those storms, oddities and quirks.

In a report you may have seen on "THE SITUATION ROOM," CNN's John Zarrella went back in time at the National Hurricane Center in Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Last year's hurricane season was, in fact, filled with oddities and firsts.

ED RAPPAPORT, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: Every storm turns out to be different. Perhaps the surprise is when there's no surprise.

ZARRELLA: When Hurricane Wilma reached Florida, the storm's eye was so large, that tiny Hurricane Charlie from a year earlier could fit neatly inside of it. When Hurricane Dennis hit just east of Pensacola last July, Saint Marks, Florida, 180 miles to the east went underwater.

How could storm surge propagate so far from the center of a hurricane? It turned out the be a unique phenomenon.

STEPHEN BAIG, HURRICANE RESEARCHER: And here is where the shelf- trap wave starts to develop.

ZARRELLA: This computer animation shows what happened. The hurricane's path ran right along the edge of the continental shelf. The path, coupled with strong winds along the coast, created a wave that travelled parallel with the hurricane going inland near St. Marks.

(on-camera): And you had never seen anything like that before?

BAIG: Never seen anything like that before.

ZARRELLA (voice over): This animation, these psychedelic flowing lines of colors, represent wind from Hurricane Rita, flowing toward a radar site in Beaumont, Texas, and then away from it. The different colors represent different wind speeds.

PETER BLACK, NOAA HURRICANE RESEARCHER: Blue indicating high winds of around 75, 80 miles per hour.

ZARRELLA: What scientists are finding is the existence of horizontal powerful streaks of wind embedded in the hurricane. Wherever these streaks occur, the wind can be five to 25 miles an hour stronger than in the overall storm. The streak may only be 100 yards wide.

BLACK: It can make a difference between one house suffering, you know, very bad damage, losing a roof or something, and an adjacent house, like a couple of houses down, feeling minor damage.

ZARRELLA: Streak winds from Hurricane Andrew leveled the community of Naranja Lakes near Homestead.

(on camera): And forecasters warn that, in terms of strength, we did not get the big one last season. On the 1 to 5 hurricane scale, Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina, Rita and Wilma were all Category 3 storms when they made landfall. And that, too, is a first.

John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: We are less than a month away from the 2006 hurricane season. Stay with CNN, your hurricane headquarters. And join Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM" this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. Eastern and for the live prime-time edition at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

Booze, boors, and bad behavior -- a faculty report says that Duke University lacrosse players who drink excessively act deplorably, but not to the point of -- quote -- "racist behavior, sexual assault, or sexual harassment." The report recommends the team be strictly monitored, but allowed to resume play next year.

Duke canceled this year's season after a stripper alleged that she was raped by three players at a team party. The grand jury has charged two players with rape, kidnapping and sexual assault. The faculty report coincides with primary Election Day for district attorney Mike Nifong. Defense lawyers accuse Nifong of using the case to win votes, a charge he, of course, denies. Seeking peace in Sudan -- high-ranking U.S. and British diplomats are in Nigeria, trying to help seal a deal before midnight. That's the latest deadline. The Sudanese government has approved a first draft, but rebels from Darfur are holding out for more representation and more autonomy.

Civil war has torn apart that region of Sudan. In the past three years, almost two million people have fled across the border to Chad. About 200,000 others have died in the violence or just simply starved.

Arrivederci, Berlusconi. Weeks after voters in Italy narrowly favored his center-left opponent, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has finally resigned. Berlusconi was elected in 2001, the longest serving prime minister in post-war Italy. He has been asked to stay on until his successor, Romano Prodi, forms a new government.

Close, but not close enough. Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi may not have been a stone's throw away from a house that U.S. forces raided last month, that news supposedly from detainees captured in the raid southwest of Baghdad. The U.S. is offering a $25 million bounty for al-Zarqawi's capture.

And, in the midst of all the fighting, all the dying, millions of Iraqis are somehow making a living.

CNN's Arwa Damon has the story of one Iraqi family and the American troops who are helping them survive.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Not far from Baghdad, where the city quickly disappears into farmland, Majid (ph) has just planted his cucumber crop. It will be reading for picking in about a month.

Inside the courtyard, the family tends to the livestock, and the little ones run about. There are around 100 family members living off the land and livestock here, all part of one tribe, a tribe that is taking a calculated risk in how it protects itself from the surrounding violence.

(on camera): These fields and farmlands can be dangerous. Until recently, U.S. forces say there were an average of three roadside bombs a day. And, in the building behind me, back in February, they found 18 bodies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were lined up exactly where I'm standing, right here. You notice, on the wall, there's bullet holes.

ROESGEN (voice-over): It has been fairly safe since then, in part due to relationships like this.

Lieutenant Colonel Tom Fisher (ph) meets with Sheik Rashid (ph), the head of the family, to discuss security and services.

"We are all brothers," the sheik says. "We want everyone to come together."

The sheik has been keeping an eye on insurgent activity in his area, risking retaliation against himself and his family, as they go about working the farm. The cucumber farmer's niece, 20-year-old Halah (ph), is about to lock up this chicken, so that it will lay eggs. She's a little camera-shy and doesn't want to talk.

But the younger children do. Nine-year-old Miriam (ph) is bored on the farm. She wants to go back to school.

"We got halfway through the school year, and then the teacher stopped coming," she says.

Threats, kidnappings, and fear has school closed for about half these children, which is making 12-year-old Omar (ph) happy, although admitting that earns him a playful whack from his older cousin. Their future is in the hands of their elders and risks involved in the company they keep. It's a tough choice many Iraqis face, even in the farmlands.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Diyala Province, Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Biding their time, trapped in a gold mine -- two Australian miners are said to be having cheeky conversations with rescuers.

LIVE FROM goes down under, way down under, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Back to the Gulf Coast, where a big factor in post- hurricane rebuilding and preseason planning are volunteers.

On the phone, Lou Rizzardi -- he oversees volunteer efforts in Christian, Mississippi.

What is the biggest challenge right now, Lou, as you're getting ready for hurricane season?

LOU RIZZARDI, VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR: Well, I think the biggest thing getting ready for hurricane season is cleaning up what is already here, so it doesn't become missiles for any new storm that might come ashore.

We have many volunteers in town. And we have to try to protect them, as well as our citizens who remain, and as well as some of the structures that have been put up and aren't quite as hurricane-proof as they might have been before the previous storm.

PHILLIPS: How many people are -- are still living in tents and still living in trailers?

RIZZARDI: We have about 800, 850 trailers in town now. And those could be individuals, to families of four. In the tents, we -- we don't have any citizens in there anymore. They have all been moved out to trailers. And, so, right now, we're housing volunteers in the tents. We have about 74 tents. And they can hold upwards easily of -- of 10 people per tent. So, we -- we have the ability to house a lot of volunteers.

PHILLIPS: All right.

So, what are you telling those 850 people in those trailers? How -- what are you -- how are you telling them to prepare for the hurricane season? Are you getting -- telling everybody to leave? Are you going to give them a warning to -- to leave? Are you telling them just to leave everything behind? What is your advice?

RIZZARDI: Well, the fire chief has been going around to the various places where folks, say, aren't living in -- in accommodations that they normally would have had.

The -- the tents, or the -- I'm sorry -- the trailers themselves are -- let's say, they are -- they are battened down. They are tied down. And they will take a storm probably up to I would guess about 100, 110 miles an hour. Beyond that, the issue is in doubt.

It -- we're advising folks that -- take whatever you would take ordinarily and leave town. There's -- you do not want to stay in those -- in those trailers. You don't want to stay in those tents during a storm.

PHILLIPS: Now, those that are there that have homes, maybe they are still rebuilding their homes, like they're -- they are not completely finished with their projects, are those folks able to get insurance, and are they insured -- insured for the next hurricane that could be coming?

RIZZARDI: They are not really insured, unless, of course, they have gone out and gotten their own personal insurance, which I would hope most of them have.

I know FEMA, government agencies, are all recommending everybody, but everybody, get storm insurance, even though you are on higher ground. It just makes sense. So, it -- it depends on what your accommodations are. If -- if you qualify for insurance -- and not everybody does. I think there might be some rules and regulations about what is not insurable.

But I would believe everybody who lives in anything that looks like it could be subject to a storm damage ought to -- ought to get insurance, certainly if they qualify.

PHILLIPS: So, Lou, the homes that are being rebuilt right now, are they being built higher? Are -- are -- is the construction different? I'm curious what changes have been made, as people are -- are trying to rebuild before the next season hits.

RIZZARDI: One of the problems we have had is that we're trying to build our town back quickly. And -- and FEMA has not yet come up with the required height -- height restrictions or height minimums that they are going to require.

So, we, as a city, voted oh, gosh, several months ago to say, look, if you come back to 13 feet, which was pre-Katrina compliant, you can get a permit and build. And we have had -- we have had probably about 60, 70 people certainly have applied for home-building permits.

Many more are waiting, though to find out what FEMA is going to require, because FEMA -- even though we are saying 13, FEMA is probably going to come in at -- oh, we are estimating anywhere between 17 to 21, 22 feet.

So, you will still get insurance. You will be grandfathered in at 13 feet. But if -- if -- I think we're telling most people, if you're wise, you will go to what we think FEMA is going to finally require. But we can't wait for a year for FEMA to tell us what that is going to be. So, we're really guessing at this point.

PHILLIPS: Yes, that could put a lot of pressure on them.

Lou Rizzardi, thanks so much for your time.

RIZZARDI: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: CNN meteorologist Bonnie Schneider now joins us to talk to us about Pass Christian.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Mmm-hmm.

PHILLIPS: Why is it so vulnerable?

SCHNEIDER: Well, let's take a look at our Google Earth image. If we put that behind me, I will show you the way it is set up and geographically. And you can see that it is always going to be vulnerable, because of the way it is set.

Here is Pass Christian, and here is the Bay of Saint Louis. And, as you can see, just to the south, we have the Mississippi Sound. So, when you have a storm coming onshore, especially if it's moving on -- even on either side of this area, not a direct hit, you will get that storm surge coming into the bay.

And all these communities that are right along a bay area like Bay Saint Louis right here, which was about 95 percent submerged under water when Hurricane Katrina struck -- so, unfortunately, these areas right along the bay in Mississippi, and really anywhere along the Gulf Coast, are particularly vulnerable to storm surge, as that he water would pile in and affect these communities.

Now, speaking of hurricanes, we're doing a special program here at CNN called "Hurricane 101." And this is a special thing. We're going to be showing you some factoids for "Hurricane 101."

If we can go back to our graphics now, what we're showing you today are certain factoids that have to do with just preparing yourself for hurricane season. And, as we take a quick look, what we are going to talk about today is the Gulf loop current.

This is very important to know, because, when we were talking about big storms, like Hurricane Katrina, coming through, we saw the storm system ignite to a Category 5, due to the Gulf loop current. You're probably wondering, what is it?

Well, taking a closer look at the Gulf loop current,you can see that it's -- forms a loop shape. What it is, is some very warm, deep water, water that has a temperature of 80 degrees 60 feet below the surface. That is pretty deep warm water. And it comes around like this.

And, also, what happens is, it spins off to small areas known as eddies, these circular areas here you see on the map. Now, these pools of warm, deep water do spin off. And any time a tropical system comes in contact with either the eddy or the Gulf loop current, it ignites it.

It can take a storm from a Category 3 to a Category 5. That's what we saw with Hurricane Katrina last year. And that's what we're going to be watching for.

Now, today, in the weather, we're watching for some strong thunderstorms right through Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and northern Texas. And these may turn out to be powerful, as we work our way through the afternoon hours. So, we will keep our eye on those for you for today -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Bonnie.

SCHNEIDER: Mmm-hmm.

PHILLIPS: Not killed in action but, killed by inaction? Up next, who is to blame in the drowning death of an Iraq war veteran?

LIVE FROM has the news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Not my car. A would-be thief picks on the wrong woman at a gas station near Los Angeles. Check this out. You have got to see the video.

The woman had just filled up, when the man with a gun demanded her keys. Well, she refused. He tried to grab them and body-slammed her. But she kicked and punched, until, finally, he let go and took off. Police are hoping someone will recognize him from this tape.

A bold move from the new president of Bolivia -- ExxonMobil and BP face possible eviction, after President Evo Morales placed his country's natural gas industry under state control. Troops are occupying Bolivia's gas fields and refineries a day after the decree. Foreign companies have six months to agree to new contracts or just leave the country. Morales says this is just the start. He promises, Bolivia's mines, forest resources and land are next.

Shopping for a new car? So, you're -- well, you're the one.

Automaker showrooms were just pretty empty last month, right, Ali Velshi?

I am sorry. I kind of butchered that intro into you.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No. This is true.

PHILLIPS: I really actually don't know what the hell I read.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: Not at all. That was -- that's totally true.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: We -- we got our numbers in for April.

The automakers report their sales pretty quickly, actually. And, in the case of the three big U.S. automakers, Ford, General Motors, and the American division of Chrysler, the Chrysler Group, all down. Ford is down 7 percent. GM is down 7 percent, and DaimlerChrysler down 6 percent.

Some interesting stats in there -- in -- in Ford's case, their hybrids are way up, up 68 percent. Now, this is April vs. the previous April. It's the best way to measure, not one month after the next, but one month vs. the same month last year.

Cars are up 11 percent -- the Ford Explorer down 42 percent, the Freestar minivan down 40 percent. But, you know, Ford has got other divisions. Land -- Land Rover was actually up 19 percent, Jaguar down 30 percent.

So, the story -- the interesting story is at Ford -- clearly, a lot more of the smaller or fuel-efficient cars selling -- the Ford Explorer, their big -- you know, the big SUV, the -- the big-selling SUV, 42 percent lower in sales.

PHILLIPS: Well, gas prices playing a huge part in these numbers.

VELSHI: Gas prices are the big driver. And, of course, we have just started to see the big push into $3, or $3-plus gas. So, at Ford, you look at the SUV sales being lower, but you look at those hybrid sales, up 68 percent year over year.

I did a little research into that. The Ford hybrid, which is the Escape and the -- the -- I have forgotten what the other one is, but it's the same model -- they started in April offering zero interest on those cars. So, that may have helped. And that's part of the -- the thing, that carmakers are getting back into the incentives business to try and push some of these cars off the lot, because they know people will be thinking twice now -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: What about raising fuel-economy standards? Wasn't -- the president was talking about that, right? VELSHI: Right.

You know, a while ago, the president raised fuel-economy standards, or ordered the raising of fuel-economy standards. And that will happen starting in 2008 for light trucks and SUVs.

He, for some reason, is not allowed by Congress to raise the fuel-economy standards on regular cars. So, last week, he asked for the permission to do that. But now 10 of the states are suing the federal government, saying even the -- the increase in fuel-economy standards for trucks and SUVs didn't go far enough. And they are suing to try and actually get the federal government to force an increase in fuel-economy standards.

For cars, by the way, Kyra, we haven't updated fuel-economy standards for cars in 20 years.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, you talked about the best fuel efficiency is coming from hybrids. But some folks say that you don't save enough on the mileage to offset the extra cost of buying a hybrid, right?

VELSHI: Yes. Yes. In most cases, hybrids are a little bit more than a regular car, a few thousand bucks more.

There are some tax breaks available for hybrids. But a lot of people who do the calculation figure that, unless you're a pretty heavy driver, depending on your lifestyle, you may get the benefit of a cleaner car that burns less fuel, but are you actually going to save money?

I might -- I kind of think that, at $3 or higher, you do. But, in some places, there has been a particular advantage. And that -- and that is that individual drivers, solo drivers, can drive in the high-occupancy lanes in certain places now. Virginia has decided that that's not going to be the case.

So, in the next couple months, they are going to phase that out. That alone would have been worth the extra money to some commuters. So, hybrids still have -- have some way to go before they catch on in public consciousness -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We will see you in about 25 minutes.

VELSHI: Yes.

PHILLIPS: All right, Ali, thanks.

VELSHI: OK.

PHILLIPS: The news keeps coming. We will keep bringing it to you -- more LIVE FROM next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're finishing your MBA and are headed out into the job market.

Which companies do MBA candidates say they would most like to work for? You can log on to CNNMoney.com for the list.

According to "Fortune" magazine the research firm Universum, the number-one most popular company to work for is McKinsey & Co., a global management consulting firm headquartered in New York, with offices in 45 countries.

Also in the top 10, Google, Goldman Sachs and Apple Computer.

When it comes to money, check out this list for what MBA grads say they expect to earn. A venture capitalist is at the top, expecting to earn at least 100 grand their first year out of school.

To compare the different industries, companies and wages, and to view that entire list, you can log on to CNNMoney.com.

For the dot-com desk, I'm Veronica De La Cruz.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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