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CNN Live Today

Hurricane Katrina Made Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer a Rooftop Hero; Internet Scams

Aired September 09, 2005 - 11:31   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: They are paramedic, rescuer and daredevil all rolled into one. Hurricane Katrina made the Coast Guard rescue swimmer a rooftop hero.
Here's correspondent Rick Sanchez in New Orleans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They hang on a wire to rescue those who have no way out, no way but up. Straight up into an awaiting helicopter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These people don't understand if they don't get out, they're going to die. You know, I've had a couple people squeezing so tight that I couldn't get a good grip.

SANCHEZ: Dave Foreman (ph) and Jeff Johnson (ph) part of an elite group of Coast Guard specialists called rescue swimmers. They're the ones we've seen on our TV screens, hanging from cables and plucking people from rooftops.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The water, when we first went out, was about half way up the house in some spots. And we would go back an hour later and the water was literally up to chimneys.

SANCHEZ: Based at the New Orleans Naval Air Station, Foreman and Johnson were among the first rescuers. What they saw, some of it captured on a camera mounted on their helicopter, will stay with them forever. Like the woman who simply couldn't pry herself out of her home. She couldn't do it, so they had to leave to save someone else. They wondered, had they lost her? Was she gone? But they went back the next day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This lady managed to get herself outside the house and she was up to her waist in some mud, but we put the rescue basket down, and thank God she was able to get in there and we hoisted her up. She was very grateful.

SANCHEZ: And then are those they couldn't come back for.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were so many people out there that we couldn't get to everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was this old couple and they basically were just sitting in the bed. And I felt that if I hoisted them with that strap, like Jeff said, that strap is very painful, that I was going to break their bones. And there was no other way to do that rescue. So we decided to try to come back the next day and see if we could get them a better way. I don't know whatever happened to those people.

SANCHEZ: Or the haunting memory of getting to a roof and finding so many stranded and terrified they fought each other and fought the rescuers to get hooked into a life-saving basket.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was such desperation to get out of there that they were faking injuries and faking pregnancies and, so, I saw the best and the worst of people. One guy said you're taking me up or I'm going to shoot you.

SANCHEZ: This is a story about people and numbers. That's how many lives have been saved by Coast Guard helicopters from this base over the last 50 years. Now there's a new number. In fact, they've written in, 6,471 over the last week and counting. And many, many who were trapped inside, the rescuers had to cut escape holes into the roofs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ones that did, you know, get a hole in the roof, enough to get an arm out to where we could see those people, we went down with axes and chopped holes in the roofs and got them out.

SANCHEZ: These men blush when singled out. Praise is hard for them. They say it's just a job. Those of us who watch them know better.

Rick Sanchez, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: People in the Gulf region and around the country are worried about what has happened to their loved ones since Hurricane Katrina hit. We're going to bring the latest on what we know from our victims and relief desk. We'll do that after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Lin at the victims and relief desk.

I want to thank all our crews out in the field who are working hard, but also sending messages back to us like these so that we can get the word out to families.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone is fine now. Everyone is located and everyone is fine, and I'm fine now that I know where my daughter is, and she's safe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mamma love you! What y'all doing? I love y'all. Y'all want to come by me. Y'all want to come by me. I'm so happy. I'm in Houston, Texas. I love y'all so much (INAUDIBLE). Where my baby at? I miss y'all so much.

I found my kids. I'm so happy.

CHRISTY HORNING, HOUSTON, TEXAS: I'm looking for my older sister, Marva Weaver (ph) and my -- the next one to her, Marlene, and my brother John Warrick (ph) and my niece, Nuni (ph), Angela.

So, if you all see this, we're OK. We're here in Houston. We made it out. Everybody's fine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Good news, Christy. And we're still getting results from the pictures that we're putting up of the missing. Adeline Skinner is safe at home. We showed you her picture yesterday afternoon. Her son, Leonard, called in this morning to tell us that his mom is doing really and her family is excited to have her back.

But the sister of Rodolfo "Rod" Rodriguez is asking for your help. His girlfriend was rescued two blocks from their place but couldn't go back to get him. His sister says she called local emergency agencies, but they don't know where he is either.

And Janice Daigle's friends are putting the word out about her. She lived in the Terrytown part of New Orleans. She's about 40 years old.

And friends and family are looking for Sharon B. Jackson. She's got two daughters, ages two and 14. Jackson was last heard from two days before the storm. She had just lost her car in an accident and her friends think she stayed with behind with her parents who didn't want to evacuate.

All right, so this is how we get results. You can e-mail us at hurricanevictims@cnn.com. Let us know if you recognize any of these people, or even if you have a miracle story that you want to share with us. There's also a huge list of resources at CNN.com/helpcenter. But how you can tell the legitimate ones from the scans. Well, that answer coming up.

Daryn's going to be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: There's still some really long lines outside the Astrodome in Houston, Texas.

Our Betty Nguyen is there with more on that part of the story -- Betty.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Daryn.

Yes, the lines were so long this morning. People even came and camped out overnight so they could be first in line to get those FEMA debit cards. We understand FEMA is offering a flat $2,000 per household with these debit cards, and people stood in line for hours. But once the doors opened at 8:30 local time this morning, things seem to be moving really smoothly inside the center. They have about 100 stations set up and people are being processed very quickly. And here's another reason why they're being processed quickly, because many of them have already gone online and registered with FEMA. So that information is in the system. All they have to do is show up and get their debit cards.

Let's talk about schools, if we will. We started out earlier this week talking about how children were finally going back to school in the Houston area.

Well, I have a mother with me, Julie McCrary (ph), whose 14-year- old son was able to make his way to school. Tell me about that first day.

JULIE MCCRARY (ph): Well, he was kind of nervous. He didn't want to go to school. He hated school. And after several days of being out, he was getting really lazy, but when we went to the school, he saw that facility...

NGUYEN: Lazy, that's a mother, right?

MCCRARY: But we went to the school and he saw the facility, he saw the kids that he was going it be with, he got more relaxed and he started accept the fact that now is school time. And the first day he came home, I said, how did you enjoy? He loved it. But he was really happy, and he did his homework, you know, just like normal, had his books. So he enjoyed it.

NGUYEN: You know that's key that you say, just like normal, because that's the purpose here, not only to get them learning again, but get their mind off what they've been through. So are you seeing that happening?

MCCRARY: Definitely. I wanted to put him back into his normal routine, and that's what going back school has done.

NGUYEN: That's good.

But at the same time, you're also still looking for your sister, correct?

MCCRARY: Correct.

NGUYEN: Tell us about her.

MCCRARY: My sister, I'm not sure if she evacuated or not. My other sister that spoke to her last said she told her that was staying in the city. My other sister, Diane, she just got out on last, what was it, last Tuesday, the week of the storm, she came and I picked her up from the bus station here in Houston.

But my other sister, we haven't heard from yet. Her name is Starlet (ph). She's with her husband Joseph and their last name is Chandler. We can not find her. I don't know if she survived it. I don't know if she's in another state. She doesn't have a cell phone. She doesn't have our cell phone number of any of the relatives. If she's out there, if she can hear the sound of my voice, I'd just like her to ask her to, please, check the Internet under FEMA disaster recovery, family members. Somebody will help her with it. Just go to the Internet system, call up FEMA and look for the lost family members. I have a message out there for her.

NGUYEN: So you're registered and your information is out there.

MCCARY: My information is out there, and there's a phone number. If she can get online, she can find us.

NGUYEN: All right, we appreciate your time.

As you see, Daryn, as people are getting back to normalcy out here with students going back to school, there is still that sense of desperation in finding lost loved ones, and numbers are out there and people are always coming up to us out here, can you please help us find this person or that person, and we're doing the best we can to get that information out.

NGUYEN: All right, Betty Nguyen in Houston, Texas. Betty, thank you for that.

Other important information to get out there, how you can give to charity, but not be scammed by the con artists that are out there who are trying to get their hands on your money that you want to go to good causes. We're going to talk about that just ahead with our Daniel Sieberg, after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: The Katrina crisis shows people at their best, and, unfortunately, sometimes people at their worst. Scams are popping up out there, especially on the Internet.

Our tech correspondent Daniel Sieberg has been looking into that. I don't like to hear about this, but good to be aware so people don't get ripped off.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. We're certainly encouraging people to donate money to charities that they would like to donate their money to, or companies. But the scum of the Internet, it doesn't take long for them to rear their ugly head. And there are a lot of sites out there. The FBI estimates as many as 2, 300 bogus Web sites on the Internet that are trying to lure people out there to looking to donate money. It happened after 9/11. It happened after the tsunami. Anytime when they'll cram (ph) people's generosity.

We can show you an example of what one of these e-mail messages might look like when it comes into your inbox. What you're seeing here is an e-mail message that actually says, hey, if you're worried about the legitimacy of this e-mail, click us this link here. Now that's the actual redcross.org link. Up here they've got a bogus link that will send you to a page looking to donate money. Now we can show you side by side an example of the Red Cross page and the bogus site. A quick glance, and, Daryn, you probably have no idea which one it is, right, I mean, just from looking at it, very tough to see. This is actually the bogus page. This is OK. You can see they have the logos. They try and make it look very legitimate, very realistic, the place for you to put in your donation and all that. So very easy to fool people, in a sense. They're trying to prey on people's inability to distinguish between certain Web sites, because it can be very easy to do to set up one of these Web pages.

KAGAN: So basically if someone sending you an e-mail soliciting a donation, that should be a red flag.

SIEBERG: That is the first red flag, because none of these charities or companies will do that, will send out e-mail messages in bulk. Basically what these criminals are doing online sending out messages like spam. They're hope that you'll get one of them and respond to it. And you know, they're popping up and very quickly. Very tough for authorities to track them down. We did a quick search actually on some Red Cross-type domain names, or Web addresses, and we actually found dozens of them, just in this really quick example. You can see some of the Red Cross names that will look like it's a legitimate Red Cross Web site. So if you saw these names, you can see them right there, some of these ones that are listed, Red Cross Shop, helpredcross.com. A look these look like the might be legitimate, but they're not.

KAGAN: And authorities -- a lot of these things come from overseas, right?

SIEBERG: They do. They come from overseas. Anybody can set up a fake Web site and try to get people to go to it. The attorney general has set up a task force, an anti-fraud task force. The FBI has at least eight investigations into these. It's very tough for them to track them down, but basically, it's something they're very concerned about.

We do have some tips we can offer to people as far as what you should do to -- when you get any of these e-mails. First of all, as we pointed out, no company or charity will ask you for donations over e-mail. It just simply doesn't happen. Delete any of these messages and don't click on any of the links, even to find out if it's legitimate, because that could actually put a virus on your computer.

Also, beyond that, e-mails with photo. A lot of times people are sending out what look like legitimate photos. Don't click on and look at those either. A lot of these scams will have a personal message in them. They might say, I lost some family members. I need your money. Please help me. They'll really try and tug at your heart strings to try and get you to send money. Bottom line, if it's spam, it's a scam, and, Daryn, the best advice is to type in the Web address directly yourself. So redcross.org in that, or CNN.com. You know, in fact, there is a lot stuff on CNN.com where you can, look up a particular charity. We've vetted all of them So you don't have to worry about the legitimacy. And we've catalogued them all in one place. So we're encouraging people, of course, to go out and donate money. Just do it the right way and be careful.

KAGAN: Great service there. Daniel Sieberg, thank you.

SIEBERG: All right.

KAGAN: If it's spam, it must be a scam. I like that. That's what I'm going to remember. Thank you.

Well, Katrina put U.S. disaster plans to the test. Some give the initial response a failing grade.

Our justice correspondent Kelli Arena examines how the lessons of Katrina could affect plans for coping with future disasters, including possible terrorist attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Katrina brought what al Qaeda repeatedly has threatened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have any ailments, broken bones?

ARENA: A devastating blow to a major U.S. city. The results were very similar to what experts had predicted would happen if there were a major terrorist attack.

REP. JANE HARMAN (D-CA), HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: Think about it -- hundreds if not thousands killed, thousands of destroyed buildings, large cities and towns left virtually uninhabitable. An enormous public health crisis, hospitals overwhelmed, roads impassable, no communication system, so that emergency personnel could coordinate or communicate with people.

ARENA: This was the result of a storm we were warned about. Imagine if there were no warning at all. And what about all that disaster training that we've seen first responders go through? Were they just photo opportunities, or are there plans in place?

MICHAEL GREENBERGER: What we're learning is that this is all pieces of paper with writing on it, and it does not correspond to the reality of the federal government's capabilities.

ARENA: Part of the problem, experts say, is there has been more focus on preventing terror attacks than on dealing with the aftermath.

RICHARD FALKENRATH, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: And the idea behind that is that your best options are always to stop the attack before it occurs. Because once it occurs, you're in a race against time to save lives and save property.

ARENA: But there was no preventing Katrina. Four years after the September 11th attacks, both the federal and state governments seem to be grappling with many of the same problems. For example, after the Pentagon was hit, people trying to evacuate Washington, D.C. couldn't. All the major arteries out of the city were clogged.

In New Orleans, officials had time to get people out of the city, but an estimated 100,000 were still there when the hurricane hit.

RANDALL LARSEN, INSTITUTE FOR HOMELAND SECURITY: Evacuation of cities is something that's talked about a lot, but there's very little done to look at it. And this was a case where a properly executed evacuation could have saved countless lives, and unbelievable amounts of suffering.

ARENA: Experts say if there is a bright side, it's that vulnerabilities that can be exposed can be shored up. For one thing, the government did not anticipate the looting or the violence that we saw in New Orleans.

FALKENRATH: I think one of the things that the federal government will be building into its plan more in the future is preparing for civil unrest, for lawlessness. You know, we hadn't really seen unrest in the previous disasters that we had.

ARENA: The government will need to act fast. The FBI just warned its state and local partners that with all the resources devoted to the Gulf Coast, terrorists could see this as an opportunity to strike again. As of now, there is no credibility intelligence that they will.

Kelli arena, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: So after Katrina, are we ready for what might come next? One storm with too many questions, it is time for answers. On Saturday night, a CNN Security Watch special, "IS AMERICA PREPARED?" Saturday, 8:00 p.m. Eastern. You'll only going to see that here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: This just in from the world of sports. The governing body, the world's governing body of world cycling, is now weighing in on the Lance Armstrong controversy. They are saying that they are unable to express any judgment regarding recent doping allegations. They are the UCI, and they say that, to date, they have not received any official information or documents from anti-doping authorities or the lab reportedly involved in the testing of urine samples from the 1999 Tour De France.

Of course, this follows allegations that EPO, a blood doping substance, was in Armstrong's samples from 1999. He denied that, and he is angry. He is even thinking of possibly coming out of retirement.

More on this in the next hour, along with more hurricane coverage.

I'm Daryn Kagan. Our coverage continues here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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