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Florida Braces for Tropical Storm Ernesto; Polygamist Leader Captured; New Photos from Comair Plane Crash; Russel Honore Interview

Aired August 29, 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: Well, as storms go, it's certainly not the biggest -- live pictures right now via one our affiliates, WSVN out of Miami. It's Miami Beach, Florida, there that you are looking at.
But Ernesto could still mean big trouble for other big parts of Florida.

Meteorologist Jacqui Jeras watching the CNN Weather Center.

And, Jacqui, you can tell by the movement of the camera and the waves...

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Mmm-hmm.

PHILLIPS: ... it's picking up steam.

JERAS: Yes, starting to -- shaking around a little bit.

In fact, the tropical-storm-force winds now are being located just offshore of the Keys. So, if you live in the Keys, now is the time to go ahead and hang up your head for the night. Get in spot where you want to be, because conditions are going to be continuing to deteriorate pretty rapidly. And those very strong winds are going to be arriving pretty shortly.

Here you can see our Doppler radar picture and how solid the rain bands are throughout the Keys. We are going to zoom in for you and show you some of the wind speeds and some of the winds gusts that we have been observing.

Here you can see Key West, 17-mile-per-hour gusts, sustained winds at 13 miles per hour. We have some pretty heavy squalls which are going to be moving through the Big Pine Key area shortly. In these stronger thunderstorms, you could be seeing some of the wind gusts maybe 35, 40 miles per hour, so, getting strong within these squalls, heading up toward Marathon, 15 mile-per-hour sustained winds there.

And, then, we're going to show you a little bit closer to the southeastern Florida shore. Miami has been doing OK. We saw those strong winds on that live camera. I didn't see the rain just yet. You can see, that's offshore. This band is pushing in towards the westward. And I think it's going to be hitting more of the north side of Miami, and also on up towards Fort Lauderdale area. And there you can see some of these other squalls that are going to be pushing into towards the Upper keys and into the Middle Keys here very shortly. So, be aware that those conditions are going to be going down. And you're really going to be feeling those winds picking up.

So, make your popcorn, get ready to call it a day, get your family all together, and everybody hang out, because this does not have to be a killer storm, certainly for the Keys or South Florida. Just play it smart. Stay inside. Don't venture out. Don't go look at the waves. Don't go playing into the water, all those things dangerous to do. You want to stay inside as of this hour.

Now, where is Ernesto going to be going? It's pushing up to the northwest right now, and will continue in that general motion. We expect it to gradually start turning on up to the north, and then start that gradual turn on up to the north and to the east.

Here you can see the forecast track. We think landfall is going to be some time real late tonight, maybe into the very early morning hours of tomorrow, moving along the peninsula, possibly, and then sliding offshore.

But, really, take note of this cone of uncertainty, because the distance across, between a West Coast form and an East Coast storm, is not all that great. So, the west coast and east coast residents, both, you need to be prepared, as well as central Floridians.

We are talking about tropical-storm-force winds moving in to the Orlando area. We're expecting it to be pushing up into your neighborhood some time tomorrow night. And, then, we have the chance for seeing a second landfall. We will be watching this system. It could be pulling off into the Atlantic again.

If it does that, it could be a stronger storm. After that, we expect it to move through the Carolinas, and then on up into the mid- Atlantic states, and eventually into the Northeast. So, those of you that live, say, into the Norfolk area, and up towards Washington, D.C., even into parts of New Jersey, be aware that this could be a very big flood-maker for you.

This is, Kyra, what I call the QPF map. Basically, this is accumulated rainfall over the next five days -- count them, five days. And look at this big bullet around the Delmarva area, across Virginia, down into North Carolina. That's putting out 15 inches of rain. Take that with a grain of salt, but just to give you an idea of how heavy a flood event we could be seeing down the line.

PHILLIPS: All right, Jacqui...

JERAS: Back to you.

PHILLIPS: ... thanks so much.

JERAS: Mmm-hmm.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's still a tropical storm, but Ernesto is unexpected to pick up steam as it chugs toward Florida.

Monroe County, home of the Keys, has already declared a state of emergency.

CNN's Rusty Dornin is there with the latest on preparations for Ernesto -- Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the -- it has been light rain, light winds so far here in Monroe County.

We just talked to the emergency operations center. They said, things really haven't changed. They have got very few people in the emergency shelters here, of course, at Key West. People are taking it in stride. You have got a lot of people out on the streets, wandering around.

You can see, some of the merchants have boarded up their shops just in the last hour. The Crapery Cafe (ph) here just closed down. And you can see, next door, they have boarded up. But here, as is tradition in Key West, many of the restaurants and bars are open to people.

And we have here, actually, a family, a Key West family, the Vincents (ph), who are out here having lunch.

Did you take board up your house or any -- take precautions?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we put our hurricane shutters up. And we have batteries and provisions and all that. And we just listen to the news and wait for them to tell us what to do.

You know, after last couple of seasons, everybody takes this a lot more seriously. I mean, you -- they had the tourist evacuation. And, normally, a lot of the tourists don't pay attention to it. But, the day of the evacuation, you came down Duval Street, and they were gone.

And I think, after Katrina and all that, people are a lot more...

(CROSSTALK)

DORNIN: You are going to finish your lunch and go back home and batten down the hatches?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, not batten down the hatches. I don't think it's going to be anything. We just prepared for the worst, and just going to see how it goes. It doesn't look like we're going to have much of a storm at all. As you can see, there's really not much to report here.

DORNIN: Thank you very much.

Get you -- we will let you get back to your lunch. So, the tourists were ordered to evacuate from the Key West about -- or for the Keys -- two days ago. We have met a number of people that decided to go ahead and stick it out, when they found out the storm wasn't going to be expected to hit directly here in Key West.

But, of course, the Keys are always a concern. They are vulnerable, very low-lying, always concerned about surge. That's the big thing here. But people here are just keeping an eye on the weather and going to wait it out -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Rusty Dornin, we will be checking in.

Well, Cuban -- Cubans caught a break from Ernesto. The storm passed over the eastern end of the island, dumping heavy rain. But there are no reports of death or serious damage. Many of the 600,000 Cubans who cleared out have already gone home.

Now, earlier, Ernesto was a hurricane when it Haiti. The head of that country's Red Cross says two people were killed. The possibility of a third death is being investigated. There are also reports of homes on the coast being carried out to sea.

A wasteland, tons of debris as far as the eye could see. That was Waveland, Mississippi, after Katrina got slammed right in to it.

How far has it come since?

CNN's Kathleen Koch is there. She's moving all along Mississippi. First, it was her hometown. Now she made it to Waveland.

Hey, Kathleen.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, you know, Kyra, Waveland isn't really too far from my hometown, because I grew up on the beach in Bay Saint Louis, in the very last block of Bay Saint Louis. And the next block was where the city of Waveland started.

But, right now, the two towns -- as a matter of fact, all the towns up and down the Mississippi Gulf Coast, look pretty much the same along the water.

And if my cameraman, Rick (ph), can pan off a little bit, basically, the waterfront areas, you see columns. You see FEMA trailers. You see grass that has grown very high. You see a lot of for-sale signs. What is really striking is what you don't see.

And you don't see very much new construction at all. And it's not just the case here in Waveland and Bay Saint Louis and Pass Christian and Long Beach on the beachfront, but even some of the roads leading away from the beach. I just drove down one of the main roads in Waveland, Nicholson Avenue, where it was just covered with debris on both sides last year, a year ago, when we were here -- just stunning, the debris piled high.

Driving down the road was like driving through a canyon. It's all cleared now, but there's not a home -- there's only one home that has been rebuilt on that home. And it's very difficult to drive through what used to be a bustling neighborhood, where I had friends, high school friends, where they lived. And I would spend time with them there.

And just to go back and see, there has still been so little progress. When you get away from the water here, there is a big difference. When you get further inland, you see businesses that have reopened. You see people who have rebuilt homes, people who have gutted out their homes, where they had 10, or 12, or 20 feet of water. And they are now beginning to live in them again.

So, there is progress. And they are celebrating progress here today. They are having a parade. You wouldn't expect that on the anniversary of Katrina. But they do really feel like there's a lot to celebrate, that they made it, they survived, and they are rebuilding.

Again, it will be a very different place than it was, but -- but what makes this place so special, Kyra, is the people. And they are sticking it out -- back to you.

PHILLIPS: You know, Kathleen, talking to some of the folks in New Orleans, they are saying that they are having a lot of reunions at -- at special landmarks there, special dinners, from Mother's to various restaurants there.

What about there in Mississippi? Are people gathering at the local, you know, joints to -- to talk and -- and to eat?

KOCH: People are gathering at local restaurants and things.

People are gathering at friends' homes. I am going to be doing that this evening, meeting with some very dear friends of mine who lost -- one lost her -- her ex-husband. The other lost her father in the storm. And we haven't seen each other over the last year. But -- but he was one of the -- the many people who I was searching for after the storm, to see whether he was dead or alive.

And, so, some of these reunions are -- are joyful. And some are going to be very painful, like tonight's, because it's -- it's tough to have been here after the storm, and had so many people begging you for help, begging you to find the people who they couldn't contact, and -- and just be so helpless to do anything for them.

But people -- it's -- it's about coming together today. That's what it is all about, and remembering what was, and looking forward to what will be.

PHILLIPS: Kathleen Koch, appreciate it.

Well, Louisiana and Mississippi felt Katrina's rage head on, but the storm sent ripples far beyond. Here's where things stand state by state.

Alabama still is home to 21,000 Katrina evacuees. Washington gave the state $970 million right after the storm. About 10 percent of that went to the victims. Right now, in Alabama, almost 4,000 people remain in temporary housing.

Mississippi is sending property grant checks to people who lost their homes, about $150,000 max per homeowner. And, one year later, 16 people in Mississippi are still listed as missing, but there's also progress. The Air Force's second largest medical center, Keesler Medical Center, resumes in-patient care this month.

And, in Texas, more than 100,000 evacuees call Houston home. With the influx also came a spike in violent crime. Storm evacuees were either suspect or victim in almost 20 percent of the violent crimes committed in Houston this year.

And, right now, about 35,000 families in Texas are still relying on FEMA for temporary housing.

Cigar-chomping, tough-looking, no nonsense, that was General Russel Honore then and now. We were the first to talk to the man who became a New Orleans hero in the wake of Katrina. And we are going to talk with him again straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Back and forth, back and forth -- now back to the launchpad. It's an about-face for the space shuttle.

NASA had stopped moving the Shuttle Atlantis toward its assembly building. And -- and it's now sending it back to the launchpad, after forecasters lowered their expectations for Tropical Storm Ernesto.

So, as you can imagine, we will be on top of everything with regard to NASA and this launch, as -- as it happens. We will bring it to you.

Well, wanted by the FBI, done in by the DMV. Top 10 fugitive polygamist Warren Jeffs has been on the run for months. But he was nabbed last night in a routine traffic stop near Vegas. A state trooper first pulled him over for not having tags on his car, then recognized him from a mug shot, and Jeffs' jig was up.

His face -- he faces a number of charges, including unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in two states, and sexual misconduct for allegedly arranging marriages between underage girls and older men.

Well, life on the lam comes to an abrupt stop for polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs. But how did he end up on the FBI's 10 most wanted list in the first place?

CNN's Randi Kaye has chilling details about a man whom thousands of people view as a prophet.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His followers, an estimated 10,000 people, believe he is their prophet. To the FBI, he's one of their top 10 criminals. The prophet, Warren Jeffs, is considered one of the most sinister polygamists of his time, a cold-hearted, abusive leader, the head of a secret society, where men have dozens of wives and small armies of children, where women as young as 13 are forced to marry and start families.

Listen to how the fugitive prophet speaks to first-time brides. This is a rare audio recording of his teachings recorded by a disgruntled member and obtained by KSL Radio.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

WARREN JEFFS, POLYGAMIST LEADER: Many young men, when they receive their first wife, are just so untrained. And the woman, if she's not careful, will be overbearing, and always ask permission for what she wants.

And, ladies, build up your husband by being submissive. That's how you will give your children the success. You will want your children to be obedient and submissive to righteous living.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

KAYE: In Jeffs' fundamentalist world, men are kings.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JEFFS: Dear wives, realizing happiness is only being a part and a strength to your husband. Get close to him. Confide in him. Don't let your former family be your total confidence. It should be your new husband. Turn to him with a full heart, and give him the opportunity to lead you right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: For the documentary "Colorado City and the Underground Railroad," filmmaker Michael Watkiss visited the Colorado City compound dozens of times.

MICHAEL WATKISS, FILMMAKER: He has this sort of preacher-like nice deep voice, and this sort of nulling -- or this numbing sort of presentation. But it's just this over and over sort of rote communication to these young people: This is what you do. And everything else is sinful.

The little girls, from the moment they're born, are deprived of any meaningful education, any sort of opportunities or outlook for opportunities. They are told that their one and only role in life is to be the obedient wife of a polygamist man.

KAYE: And, like most cults, there is an us-vs.-them mentality. Jeffs controls his followers by steering them away from the outside, what he calls a wicked and immoral world.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) JEFFS: You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, or rude and filthy, uncomely, disagreeable, and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all of the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

KAYE: Watkiss says Jeffs, and his father before him, controls the followers from cradle to grave.

WATKISS: You see this guy preaching this doctrine of complete obedience, and -- and letting the young women know that their only role in life is to do what he says.

KAYE: Watkiss says it's no coincidence, the compound is one of the most isolated areas of the country, chosen, he says, for that very reason.

WATKISS: They went there very intentionally, because they have long understood that the light of day is not their friend. If they're going to practice this stuff, they need to be in secret and in hiding.

KAYE: Watkiss calls the emphasis on selecting wives and baby- making assembly-line polygamy, with no end in sight.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Cigar-chomping, tough-looking, no nonsense, that was General Russel Honore then and now. We were the first to talk about the man who became a New Orleans hero in the wake of Katrina. We are going to talk with him again straight ahead on LIVE FROM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We are getting these pictures just in, out of Lexington, Kentucky. These are the first time we have really seen, up close, the wreckage from the Comair commuter jet that crashed at Blue Grass Airport.

You will remember that 49 people died in this plane crash. The first officer survived. The bodies have already been removed, but now investigators are going in, moving through the debris, as part of the investigation.

The cockpit section, we are told, has been completely rolled over by investigators. It's the first time that we have actually had cameras that have been able to get in there and get up close and personal to the wreckage, since it went down, not long after takeoff, from Blue Grass Airport.

We will continue to follow the investigation and bring you more information.

Well, forget the deadlines. How about a debate? The latest tact from Tehran, two days before the U.N.'s ultimatum to stop enriching uranium, or risk economic sanctions.

CNN's Aneesh Raman is the only U.S. television reporter working in Iran's capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Iran's president, perhaps not surprisingly, remaining defiant ahead of a U.N. deadline on Thursday to stop his country's nuclear program.

The latest comments came in what was only his third press conference since taking office. I asked President Ahmadinejad if Iran had any plans in talks that they have called for to suspend their nuclear program.

He said, no, that it's Iran's right, and they will pursue it, and that decision has been made.

The surprising news came in an offer from Iran's president to his U.S. counterpart -- Ahmadinejad saying he wants to debate President Bush live on television. The only condition is that it cannot be, in his words, censored or cut short in any way for the American public.

Later on, he conceded the point that, essentially, that live debate might not happen. Instead, he said that the debate would go on between the leaders, with the world and the reporters in the middle. His statements were, by and large, directed not just to the world community and the U.N., but also directly to the U.S. administration.

He said that the U.S. and Britain were the root causes of all the evils in the world, given special allowances that they have been afforded by the U.N. And he said that Iran is not only rising in stature in the Middle East but, essentially, in his mind, is becoming the alternative power to the United States, saying that Iran's diplomacy has been adopted worldwide.

On Thursday, Iran does face that U.N. deadline to stop its nuclear program -- no sign it will do so. So, what happens next really is up to the U.N. Iran has suggested new talks. That has been embraced by countries like Russia and China. They could be the countries that prevent, if not slow down, sanctions that are now seemingly set to take place against Iran.

Aneesh Raman, CNN, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, he's not really a general, but Attorney General Alberto Gonzales turned up in Baghdad today. He meet with Iraq's deputy prime minister and U.S. Justice Department staffers who are helping rebuild| Iraq's legal system.

He also faced tough questions from reporters about the conduct of U.S. forces. Gonzales said, the vast majority meet the highest ethical standard, and those who don't will be prosecuted. Five thousand by Friday -- soon after visiting U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon today, U.N. chief Kofi Annan said he hopes to double that force of 2,500 troops by the weekend. Eventually, a force of 15,000 is called for to enforce a truce between Israel and Hezbollah.

Annan traveled on to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for meetings with Israeli leaders, as well as the families of two Israeli soldiers whose kidnapping set off the war in Lebanon. He also plans stops in Syria and Iran.

Italy is on board with the Lebanese peacekeeping mission. Hundreds of Italian troops set sail today on a five-ship fleet that includes Italy's only aircraft carrier. They should reach the Lebanese coast some time Friday. Italy's defense minister says it will be a long and risky job. He will eventually send a total of 3,000 troops to the region.

A new census report measures the nation's poverty problem.

Susan Lisovicz, live from the New York Stock Exchange, with all the numbers.

Susan, what does the report say?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the Census Bureau is reporting that 37 million Americans were living under the poverty line last year. That's 12.6 percent of the population, statistically unchanged from 2004.

But it is the first year since President Bush took office that it has not increased. Meanwhile, the median household income increased faster than inflation, the first rise in real income, in fact, since 1999. But the number of people without health insurance jumped to nearly 47 million people -- report important, because the poverty rate helps shape the debate on the health of the nation's economy. And it could be especially significant, because the economy is likely to be a major campaign issue during the congressional midterm elections, which are just two months away -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, so, how are the numbers being interpreted?

LISOVICZ: Well, the fact that the poverty rate did not increase can't be a bad thing. The Bush administration has been touting the fact that the economy added about two million jobs last year, and nearly a million so far this year.

But critics point out that job growth has been uneven across the country, and that many of those new jobs are low-paying ones. Some states, especially in the Midwest, have fewer jobs than they did when President Bush took office in 2001 -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. What's happening on Wall Street?

LISOVICZ: Well, we have turned around since we last spoke, Kyra.

Stocks have rebounded, after investors found no red flags in the minutes from the last Federal Reserve meeting. The minutes showed that policy-makers were still worried about inflation, but saw little risk in leaving interest rights unchanged, what they did for the first time in more than two years.

That report came out at 2:00. And stocks cleared their losses and, right now, are modestly -- very modestly -- on the plus side -- the Dow right now up 10 points. The Nasdaq is up 5, or a quarter of a percent.

And that's the latest from Wall Street. I will be back in a half-an-hour with a wrap-up of the trading day.

Stay with us. LIVE FROM will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right.

Now, I'm convinced that Jacqui Jeras came forward and said, do not go into the water. And, therefore, these guys decided to venture out, Jacqui, and start surfing in Miami.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well hold everything, space shuttle Atlantis going back to the launch pad. Live pictures now as, you know, to weather the winds of Ernesto, it's going to actually. NASA doesn't expect those winds to be as fierce as first thought. A launch is still possible next week but the astronauts will have to come back, too. They were sent home to Houston, earlier today. We'll stay on top of it.

David Mattingly is actually covering it for us, he'll join us. All right, well what caused the wrong turn? Investigators still want to know how Comair flight 5191 ended up on the wrong runway in Lexington, Kentucky early Sunday morning. Our David Mattingly now joins us from Lexington with all the new developments -- Hey, David.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi Kyra, some new pictures to show you and they're really not something you really would like to look at but we need to show these to you. This was video that was taken by a pool camera that was allowed into the crash site today by the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board.

The pictures that are coming back to us show a wreckage of an aircraft, very, very badly burned. We can see how 49 of the 50 people on this flight surely were not able to get out alive. There are several major portions of this plane scattered throughout the wreckage site. Most of them again, very badly burned. The part that is in most -- seems to be most intact, actually is the cockpit.

And of course that is where the one survivor, the first officer, his body was pulled to safety by rescuers who arrived on the scene shortly after the crash. But they say that the flames were much too intense for them to try and get back in there to save anybody else on that plane. So, again, our first look, actually, on the ground, where the plane actually crashed on Sunday morning as it attempted to take off on the wrong runway here at the Lexington Airport. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: All right, David Mattingly, appreciate it.

Well, haunting images from America's worst natural disaster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS JORDAN, SEATTLE PHOTOGRAPHER (voice-over): The things that were supposed to be inside the houses like bath tubs and toilets and shower stalls were outside, and the things that were supposed to be outside, like mud and debris and plants had been forced inside people's houses by the water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Ahead on LIVE FROM, one man's chronicle of Katrina.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well one year ago this week, we were all glued to the images of Hurricane Katrina washing ashore, ripping up lives on the Gulf Coast. Seattle photographer Chris Jordan saw those same images and he decided he had to go there and take his own pictures. His are now in a book called "In Katrina's Wake" and here's some of the images and thoughts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JORDAN (voice-over): The experience for me was one of just overwhelming shock, you know. The things that were supposed to be inside the houses like bath tubs and toilets and shower stalls were outside and the things that were supposed to she outside like mud and debris and plants had been forced inside people's houses by the water.

And the things that were supposed to be up in the air like water towers and lamp posts and things were all crashed down on the ground. Things that were supposed to be down on the ground like refrigerators were up in trees and things that were supposed to be in the water, like fishing boats and yachts were washed right into the middle of neighborhoods. And things that were supposed to be on land had been washed into the water.

It was this immense frightening chaos. One morning late in my first trip there I was photographing in the Ninth Ward and I was photographing this destroyed home. It was just a pile of rubble. There was nothing left of this home but just a pile of stuff and this car pulled up right next to me and the door opened, and an elderly black man got out. After he shook hands with me, he turned and he looked at the devastation of his home and his neighborhood and I just -- I saw him just snap right there. He just broke and he bent over and started screaming and started waving his arms in the air.

Everywhere I looked in New Orleans in the surrounding areas, there was evidence of children and sticking out of the rubble I'd see a rocking horse or, you know, I'd find a skate board smashed in the mud. So terrifically sad to see these little lives that had been kind of torn up and thrown about at such a young age.

I went into a school there that was at the edge of the Ninth Ward. The cafeteria also served as their auditorium. It was a big stage at one end of it. And across the back of the stage was this giant sign that said "Welcome to the New Louis Armstrong School." And so just before the hurricane struck, they had renamed their school and now the school is completely devastated and may never open again.

Another thing that I saw a lot of down in New Orleans is evidence of churches and people's religious faith and there are these little tiny places, but in every single one of the churches they had this big sound system like the kind of sound system you see in a jazz club. As I walked into these silent, empty destroyed places, I just felt this powerful spirituality and imagined the coming together of all the people on the block every Sunday and it's so sad to think that these people are now scattered around the country.

One person might be living in a trailer in another state or someone might be sleeping on someone else's couch and they'll never all come together into that one space again. I think the one thing that hit me the hardest about this tragedy is my realization that it isn't something that just the victims lost. It's a loss that our entire nation suffered. America, to me, is a different place now that this has happened.

(MUSIC)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We will never forget this time last year. It didn't take long for the world to realize just how deadly and damaging Hurricane Katrina had become. We saw dead bodies on the streets of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana came to the mics with a desperate plea. It all happened right here on LIVE FROM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Help is on the way in massive proportions. These are the numbers that I wrote down. She said by tomorrow, 12,000 National Guard troops, she said Louisiana state troopers on the way, other police officers from around the U.S. are coming in from Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky and even sheriff's deputies from Michigan are coming in to help. And she said all of these individuals, no matter what state they are coming from, will have arrest powers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, the man who was called to lead that response, Lieutenant General Russel Honore, the tough-talking, cigar-chomping general who didn't take flack from anyone. We were the first to talk with him back then and we're talking to him again one year later live from New Orleans.

Good to see you, General. What's it like to be there one year later? LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, U.S. ARMY: Well, it's a lot different today than it was. And we were hoping in the middle of that crisis that one day we would be able to look back at it and reflect on what we did and what we would do differently the next time. And a lot of that has happened in the next year, over.

PHILLIPS: What did you want to get across in that prayer service that you just walked away from?

HONORE: Well, to take that moment of pause for people to come and collect themselves and say, you know, things were bad but it could have been worse, and to reflect on the lives of those people that were lost and those who are far away from home now, who are feeling very homesick, wanting to be back in New Orleans, but at the same time reflect that it could have been worse.

You know, this thing came ashore about a Category 3, and we are blessed in the fact that it didn't come in a Category 5. Based on the 70,000 people or so that were rescued, and some 40,000 from their homes, God knows what would have happened if it did come into the Ninth Ward on the right front of this storm as a Category 5. So as bad as it was, we are blessed that it wasn't any worse, over.

PHILLIPS: Well, I know when you were in that church service today you were remembering all the lives lost and how many lives you did try to save and the lives that you did save.

I just want to go back to last year, sir, when we had that first chance to talk to you when you were en route and then you finally landed there in New Orleans. And just prior to talking to you, our Chris Lawrence had brought us the first images, the first pictures of dead bodies on the streets in New Orleans. Let's just go back to that part of our conversation last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Sir, I have got to ask you, we've been seeing some really dramatic videotape come in within the past hour-and-a-half and we are seeing dead bodies on the street in New Orleans, people that just are not getting their medication, do not have the resources to survive.

How are you going to respond, sir, to the dead bodies? Because I'm sure what we've been seeing thus far is just a small number of the dead that are out there.

HONORE: Well, I would just like to qualify a bit. The observation -- and it's a sad thing to see and it hurts all of our hearts that this has happened. But in some cases, some of the people perished as a result of the flooding. And those that we found and all of the people you see at the Superdome now and at other locations in New Orleans is a success story that their lives were saved.

In some cases people couldn't get out in time and this caused a lot of perish, and it was a sad sight to see. And we are pushing hard now with hundreds of buses collecting people from New Orleans and moving them out of that area to a safer, a secure, and a more healthier environment.

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PHILLIPS: Sir, when you got there and saw this devastation, and saw that people were dying, by the second, by the minute, how did your mission intensify?

HONORE: Well, we immediately assessed the immediacy of what was going on and tried to focus our efforts on keeping our helicopters doing search and rescue, because as bad as it was at the Superdome and at the Convention Center, those people, we knew where they were.

Our initial efforts in the first 36 to 72 hours after the storm was to optimize the helicopters to go find people who were stuck on their roofs. We knew well we had to complete the evacuation of the hospitals but, again, those people were under care and they were with somebody looking after them.

So that priority of work, of search and rescue -- and some people stood on the freeway, or the exchange for two or three days, but they had dry feet and they were very patient until we could get the capacity in terms of buses and airplanes to move everybody out, over.

PHILLIPS: Sir, and you let us go with you on those rescue missions and it was amazing to see how many lives you saved. But I also tried to go with you on those recovery missions and you wouldn't let me. You said, no. I want the dead to be taken care of with absolute dignity, no cameras, no exploitation. Tell me how you went about making sure that those that lost their lives were protected.

HONORE: Well, one of the things we feared is that someone would see by means of the television, that people could recognize their houses and there were a lot of people that didn't know where their relatives were. And we did not want them to find out by looking at it on television, or seeing it on the front of a television, that Aunt Lily had passed away and we were removing her remains from the house. That was the purpose of doing that.

And, oh, by the way, we did get sued over that particular act and thank God for good lawyers. Everything got sorted out. But that was our intent. It was not any means of suppressing the First Amendment. But there are some things just because you can know it, it may be best that you not know it.

And that's what we were trying to protect, as we do in the military. We protect, when we loose a warrior, the identify very closely until that next of kin get to know. And that's what we were trying to portray and to practice in the city of New Orleans and all along the Gulf coast, over.

PHILLIPS: Well, as people got to know you, I think they understood exactly what you were trying to do and protect those, sir.

Now, you challenged politicians, you challenged reporters. You told us not to get stuck on stupid. You were that John Wayne dude, according to the mayor, that went in there. You didn't take any slack from anybody, you didn't kiss up to anybody, you yelled at soldiers and police officers and told them to put their guns down. Why did you take such a hard core approach?

HONORE: Well, at the point in time we were dealing, there wasn't a lot of time for discussions. We had our priority at work from the Department of Defense. We had our priority at work from the governor and the mayor. And what we wanted to do was to ensure that we stay on that priority if work and we treat the people with dignity and respect, over.

PHILLIPS: Well, I know there's still a long way to go and I know you are still very involved with that city. I know you meet with everyone from the religious leaders to the community leaders, to the people. You go to the shelters. What is the biggest challenge right now, General, with regard to rebuilding this city. What is it you are still fighting for, for these people?

HONORE: Well, not so much fighting for, but cheerleading, because we are actively involved in our active duty military, doing our nation's work, fighting the global war on terrorism. And every soldier, sailor and marine, Coast Guardsman and reservist and National Guard, I'm trying to make that happen.

So we're in the cheerleading mode, watching those who make things like that happen, which are all politicians, and the great industrial base, our people who build houses, build roads, put in sewer systems. And all that is coming together.

So we don't have an active participation in that, other than encouraging them and being there when they asked us to be in support of what they are doing, to recognize those who died, and to give them encouragement on what they are looking like facing in the future, and ensuring the people that have evacuated that things are being done to try and get them back home, over.

PHILLIPS: General Russel Honore, thanks for your time, sir.

HONORE: Good day.

PHILLIPS: Thousands of people sought shelter in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and Stevie Wonder provided it with his voice and piano and heart. Here's just a taste of the anthem that Wonder wrote in the time of a personal crisis, and recorded for benefit of Katrina victims a year ago. He gave us this very first live performance.

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PHILLIPS: And this just into CNN. The Bush administration is going to give almost $800 million to farmers and ranchers devastated by the drought. The drought has hit farmers in western cornbelt states like Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota, particularly hard. Now approving $800 million to farmers. It's going to be blocked out for grants for hard-hit states and then emergency conservation funds, grasslands conservation program. Two sources have confirmed the details on this. We're working the story. We'll get you more information. But good news for farmers that were hit hard by the drought in those particular cornbelt states in Minnesota, South Dakota and North Dakota.

Well, Florida awaits an unwanted visitor. Tropical Storm Ernesto is heading toward the U.S. We're going to have the latest on where and when. Stay with CNN, your hurricane headquarters.

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PHILLIPS: Well, it's Columbus Day in the world of Little League Baseball. These kids from Columbus, Georgia, are world champs. They won the Little League World Series title last night, coming from behind to beat Japan 2-1. Cody Walker drove in both runs with a homer, and pitcher Kyle Carter struck out 11 Japanese batters to bring the U.S. its second straight championship. Well, those champions are on the way home and can expect a heroes' welcome later this afternoon.

All right, we want to get straight to David Mattingly. I'm being told in Lexington, Kentucky, new developments on that Comair crash out of Blue Grass Airport. What do we know, David.

MATTINGLY: Some new information for you, Kyra. We're finding out that the tower, the air traffic control tower at the Lexington airport, was staffed in violation of FAA policy by having just one air traffic controller on duty. According to FAA policy, that tower should have had a minimum of two air traffic controllers on duty, one to handle radar and one to handle the ground movements of the aircraft.

We do not know, however -- and it's impossible to say -- if having two on duty at that time would have prevented this crash on Sunday. But we do know there was just one air traffic controller on duty when FAA policy says there should have been two -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, David. We'll stay on top of the investigation. Appreciate the new details. Now, the closing bell about to ring on Wall Street.

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