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CNN Live Today

City Leaders Allowing Residents Back Into New Orleans; 57th Emmy Awards

Aired September 19, 2005 - 11:30   ET

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

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: A nephew of Saddam Hussein was convicted to life in prison today. He was convicted of supporting the insurgency and building bombs. The nephew he faces additional charges at a second trial in November.
And the major candidates in Germany's national election are courting coalition partners today. Neither major candidate's party won a clear parliamentary majority in Sunday's vote. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Challenger Angela Merkel are both claiming mandates to serve.

Once again, as we've been doing throughout the morning, we want to call your attention to the left side of your screen. CNN has teamed up with the center for National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to bring you the faces of children still missing or displaced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Since we've launched this initiative Saturday morning, calls to the center have tripled. Several cases have actually been resolved. Stay tuned to CNN for continuing developments.

I want to show you a live picture we're getting from our affiliate, WPLG. This is looking at Fort Lauderdale, and of course all eyes right now on South Florida and the Florida Keys, in the wake of Tropical Storm Rita, expected sometime in the next 24 hours expected to turn into Hurricane Rita.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: City leaders meanwhile are allowing residents back into New Orleans, zip code by zip code. All week long we're going to report on these neighborhoods. Today, number 70114, the area called Algiers.

Here now CNN's Carol Lin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL LIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Block-by-block, the people of New Orleans are coming home again. As the city moves toward recovery and rebuilding, we're taking you to the neighborhoods, talking with the people and getting a sense of what they're up against zip code by zip code, starting with 70114.

New Orleans, 70114, nestled along the banks of Mississippi, a five-minute ride from the French Quarter, just across the river from Canal Street. A neighborhood of modest Creole cottages, rich in history, spanning from the time of the slave trade through the Civil War. It's home to Algiers Point, the second oldest neighborhood in New Orleans.

Before Katrina, this was an area bustling with young families, three-quarters of them African-Americans, families now coming home to Katrina's destruction. The people who live here, for the most part, rely on the service industry for work. Many are secretaries, administrators, clerical workers and retail sales professionals.

Before the storm, more than a third of the families here relied on public transportation. According to the latest census, 41 percent of the families owned one car. Just 20 percent owned two.

This is a zip code with plenty of local color. Off the beaten path of many tourists, the area is home to the house of the seven sisters. It is also home to Mardi Gras World, which boasts the world's largest fleet of floats. It's now been converted to a distribution center, offering drinking water and ice to those who stayed behind, and those who are just coming back. The courthouse has been here for more than a hundred years.

While the courthouse is old, most of the residents here are young. The average age is just 30, with an average household income of just over $31,000 a year. By comparison, the national average is about $44,000 a year.

Before Katrina, housing prices were just over half the national average. Post-Katrina, well, that's anyone's guess.

Carol Lin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Well, for most of the century's old, live oaks, that graces the Mississippi Gulf Coast, they actually survived the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina, and for storm survivors, as they come home, they are a welcome sight.

More on that part of the story now from our Chris Huntington, who reports from Biloxi, Mississippi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS HUNTINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hurricane Katrina ripped up or ripped apart virtually every manmade structure along the entire coast of Mississippi. But out of this vast zone of devastation there stands mile after mile after mile a sign that not all life was destroyed.

Rising from the rubble are the old oak trees, massive oak trees thousands of them, right along the coast. Their leaves are brown and their bark is scarred from Katrina's salt water sandblasting, but most of them are centuries old and have been through this before, surviving Hurricane Camille in the '60's and countless unnamed storms before that. They are treasured and not just for sentimental reasons. A grove of oaks saved Gary and Lisa Michiels' house in Biloxi and probably saved their lives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And had those trees not been there, our home would have...

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... looked like those across the street.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We would have had the same fate and those are small trees...

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They formed a barrier between the water and the debris and our home.

HUNTINGTON: The oak in their backyard is more than 400 years old.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's always been so impressive to me. It's like a big hand.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And just solid. They stand and almost fight the wind.

HUNTINGTON: Some lost that fight. This casino barge tossed up onto the shore took out the most famous tree in Biloxi, an oak that shaded the first meeting between European settlers and the leaders of the Biloxi tribe more than 300 years ago. While counting rings can tell you a tree's age, the branches tell you something of its life story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's so much character to them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which storms I think create to give them the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and the twists and turns.

HUNTINGTON (on camera): How does it feel to see that they are standing and frankly most of them looking quite healthy?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they had been all uprooted, I would have been even more devastated because these houses will -- I still have a good bit of years left in me that these houses will be rebuilt...

LISA MICHIELS, BILOXI RESIDENT: Trees will be here forever.

GARY MICHIELS, BILOXI RESIDENT: But if they were to have been all uprooted, I would not see those again.

HUNTINGTON (voice-over): But there they stand, even some young ones coming up to join the ranks. It is perhaps some sort of natural justice.

Chris Huntington, CNN, Biloxi, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: All morning long we've been running pictures of children, children missing in Katrina's aftermath, and they are some of the more than 2,000 children that are still uncounted for. In just a moment, we're getting an update on efforts to track down their parents.

Later, that murky matter, what IS in it, what's not? And what are the real health concerns for New Orleans residents?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Want to get an update now on the effort to reunite children missing or displaced by Hurricane Katrina with their families. We've been showing you the pictures all morning and throughout the past weekend. And calls to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children have tripled as of this weekend.

Our Brian Todd joins us from the center in Alexandria, Virginia -- Brian.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

The numbers stand right now at nearly 2,200 children still listed as missing by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. But there have been more than 850 cases that have been resolved. And we're told that more than a dozen have been as a result of reports that CNN has aired over the past few days and, of course, over the weekend when we've been streaming in these pictures and information on the screen during our reports.

But on the doubling and tripling of calls over the past few days -- each call presents an incredible puzzle for the volunteers who take them. And you're dealing with fragmented information, you're dealing with people on the other end of the line who can't give you complete information.

Right now, we're joined by Tom Shamshak. He's one of the volunteers. Tom, you've been here for several days. We thank you for joining us. On a typical call that comes in, talk about the state of mind of the average caller.

TOM SHAMSHAK, VOLUNTEER: Well, generally, there's either frustration or emotion. And generally, the fathers are very frustrated and angry. The mothers tend to be very emotional. So what we have to do is really engage in crisis intervention. Calm them down, get them to be thinking, you know, about issues.

Now, they're overwhelmed and they admit it, when you ask, what's the date of birth? And they have trouble with that. And you say, well, was it the summer or the fall? And you're helping them along. They're overwhelmed with it. And the little pieces, as you say, puzzles -- and that's really what it is, the little leads that we develop are pieces to a larger puzzle. And that, over time, with accumulation of all of these pieces of information, we're going to be able to assemble a coherent and comprehensive report for each of these stories.

TODD: Even during one typical call where the caller may be very kind of frazzled when they call in, by the end of it, sometimes you have a lot of it resolved, right?

SHAMSHAK: Yes, we do. Well, we've certainly been able to elicit from them factual pieces of information, put them at ease and then provide that for follow-up with other members of the national center team that are doing the additional pieces of research. And the partnership certainly from CNN with the national center is going to go -- will make a big dent in the numbers there.

TODD: We'll try to keep it up. And best of luck to you and the other volunteers.

SHAMSHAK: Thank you very much.

TODD: Tom Shamshak, thank you very much for joining us.

If you need to report any information to Tom or any of the other volunteers here, you're asked to call 1-800-THE-LOST. That 1-800-843- 5678. You can also go to www.missingkids.com and check out all the information on these missing children.

They have a lot more to track, Daryn, a lot more work to do, but as we've been reporting, there has been a lot of progress.

KAGAN: All right, Brian, that's encouraging. Thank you.

And we have even more information about how you can become involved. You can just log on to CNN.com's Help Center. It contains links to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as well as other links to help locate the missing. That's CNN.com/helpcenter.

In our "Daily Dose" of health news, the latest concerns in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The floodwaters in New Orleans are receding. Concern, though, is shifting from disease outbreaks to other dangers. Emergency doctors say the greatest dangers are from accidents as residents return to damaged neighborhoods. Cuts and lacerations, injuries from falls and carbon monoxide poisoning from generators are among the major concerns.

A grim assessment of the state of hospitals in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The vice president of the national hospital accrediting organization says -- excuse me -- several facilities appear to be damaged beyond repair. He says the health care infrastructure in New Orleans is now essentially gone.

Environmentalists are saying the threat of severe pollution from Hurricane Katrina is not over. Green Peace says the Gulf region is home to more than 400 refineries, chemical plants and other facilities. Environmental groups warn of the long-term danger of contamination from hazardous materials.

For more on the health concerns in Katrina's aftermath and for your "Daily Dose" of health news, logon to our Web site (INAUDIBLE), CNN.com/health.

We're going to check in on business news next. Plus, which stars and shows shined the brightest? We'll look at the big winners at this year's Emmy Awards.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: Emmy winners are celebrating this morning. There are losers perhaps that are nursing their egos. It was the 57th Annual Emmy Awards, took kind of a sober tone last night due to the Gulf Coast catastrophe from Hurricane Katrina.

With a wrapup of the winners, here is CNN entertainment correspondent Sibila Vargas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELLEN DEGENERES, EMMY AWARDS HOST: Come on, if you don't win tonight, it doesn't mean you're not a good person, it just means you're not a good actor.

(LAUGHTER)

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Emmys featured plenty of one-name stars, between Ellen, Whoopi, The Donald and Conan. But it was another name that loomed over them, Katrina.

DEGENERES: Our thoughts and our prayers go out to everyone affected.

VARGAS: The hurricane was a recurring theme during the telecast. Some stars wore magnolias, the state flower of Louisiana and Mississippi. And CBS pointed viewers to its Web site where they could donate to hurricane victims through Habitat for Humanity.

Presenter Jon Stewart drew laughs with the rant that he pretended had been censored by CBS.

JON STEWART, ACTOR: There's something I'd like to say to the government officials in charge, thank you all of you local, state. Local and state. The most confident, acceptable, shockingly ept response ever.

VARGAS: A couple of the night's winners also referred to Katrina.

PATRICIA ARQUETTE, BEST ACTRESS-DRAMA: And I really want to send my respect and gratitude to all the volunteers who are helping out right now.

VARGAS (on camera): With Hurricane Katrina hitting just three weeks ago, the disaster wasn't far from people's mind, whether it was on the stage or here on the red carpet.

HUGH LAURIE, BEST ACTOR NOMINEE: This is not a problem that is going to be solved in a matter of weeks or months. This is something that is going to affect people's lives for maybe a decade.

GLENN CLOSE, BEST ACTRESS NOMINEE: I think it was shameful. I think it was shocking that it was handled so badly.

VARGAS (voice-over): Some stars were not shy about expressing their political opinions.

NAVEEN ANDREWS, BEST ACTOR NOMINEE: It's now obvious to everyone what this government's priorities really are.

VARGAS: The real purpose of the Emmys, of course, were to hand out trophies. That went ahead as planned.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Lost."

VARGAS: Newcomer "Lost" won for best drama. And veteran sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," which ended its run last season, won for best comedy.

Backstage the consensus was that the show struck the right note.

TONY SHALHOUB, BEST ACTOR-COMEDY: It is a night of celebration. And I think it really had a perfect balance. For us in the audience, it was a lot of fun.

VARGAS: Sibila Vargas, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: And Ellen did a fine job hosting as well. My two cents there.

I'm Daryn Kagan. CNN LIVE TODAY continues with me, another hour, right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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