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CNN Live Today
The Katrina Hearings; Israelis Clash in West Bank; Reviewing Bush's State of the Union Speech
Aired February 01, 2006 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Coretta Scott King has come home to rest. A hears carrying the body of the civil rights matriarch moved through Atlanta streets this morning. The body was flown back from Mexico where King died on Monday night. Martin Luther King's widow was 78. Funeral arrangements are not complete yet.
And good morning to you on this Wednesday morning. I'm Daryn Kagan at CNN Center in Atlanta.
Let's go back to those live pictures now on Capitol Hill. The hearing on Katrina is just starting. It's going to get started a few minutes after the release of a highly critical report on the federal response. A congressional investigation has found the Bush administration failed to set up a clear chain of command. The report also questions the government's preparedness for another catastrophic storm. CNN's Andrea Koppel is in Washington with more.
Andrea, good morning.
ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.
Well, the chief witness today is New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. A man who's been in the news most recently over his controversial comments this month suggesting that Katrina showed God was "mad at America" for waging war in Iraq under false pretenses. And in another comment he said that the city of New Orleans "will be chocolate at the end of the day."
Now while those comments are probably going to come up, there are a number of key questions that this committee, in particular its chairwoman, Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, want Nagin to answer. Among them, why didn't the mayor or his staff contact FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to request food and water for the thousands of people who sought shelter in the city's convention center.
Nagin and New Orleans police chief made the decision to open the center the day after the hurricane hit. That was Tuesday, September 30th. But food and water didn't arrive until Thursday. That was three days later.
In a prepared statement Collins says, "it appears that no plans were made to provide the thousands of people seeking shelter there with food and water, and that the city failed to request federal assistance for the facility." Daryn, this is the 14th hearing that the Senate Homeland Affairs and Governmental Affairs Committee has held. There are going to be hearings all week long. We know that Mayor Nagin, who I believe is standing there with his back to the door, talking to Collins and to the ranking Democrat, Joe Lieberman. It looks like he's heading around, is going to take his seat, and we will be following the hearing for you, Daryn.
KAGAN: All right. We will be listening in when the mayor begins to speak.
Andrea, thank you.
KOPPEL: Sure.
KAGAN: Just hours after President Bush's State of the Union Address acknowledged concerns in the Middle East, flare-ups ignite across that volatile region. Earlier this morning, Iran's president lashed out at Mr. Bush and the U.S. for trying to rain in Tehran's controversial nuclear program.
In Iraq, a suicide bomber kills and wounds dozens and bombers strike twice more within hours. The attacks come amid more upheaval at the Saddam Hussein trial.
And rioting erupts among thousands of Israelis in the West Bank. Israeli security forces clashed with demonstrators at an illegal settlement. We'll have more on Iraq and Iran coming up in a bit.
But first we're going to begin with this morning's brutal confrontation on the West Bank. With more on that, let's bring in Guy Raz live from Jerusalem.
Guy, hello.
GUY RAZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Daryn.
According to one police officer I spoke to on site, these were the fiercest confrontations between Israeli security forces and hard line ultra nationalist Israelis in recent memory. Now thousands of Israeli police and soldiers were sent to the settlement of Amona (ph) in the West Bank early this morning to dismantle nine homes on land the Israeli government regards as part of an illegal Israeli outpost.
Now more than -- as these thousands of officers essentially converged on this settlement, they were pelted with stones and metal rods by thousands of young demonstrators, many of them teens, most of them believing that the land in the West Bank is their biblical birthright.
Now there were several hundred badly injured, both among the police and among the demonstrators. I personally saw stretcher after stretcher carrying away the wounded. One police officer, we understand, remains in critical condition. Now, Daryn, this is a major test for the acting interim Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert. Under the U.S. backed roadmap for peace, he is required to dismantle all unauthorized Israeli settlement outposts throughout the West Bank.
Daryn.
KAGAN: Let's talk about the other side here and Hamas and the new government that is being formed. While that's taking place, Mahmoud Abbas finds himself in Egypt today.
RAZ: That's right. The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, consulting with Egyptian officials. Now there was some conflicting information coming out about those meetings earlier. Egyptian officials had announced that the Palestinian president would demand that the next Palestinian government recognize Israel and renounce violence. But, in fact, Mr. Abbas did not make those statements.
Later in the week, the Palestinian president plans to meet with representatives from Hamas. Hamas, of course, the largest political party in the new Palestinian parliament. And he will ask those members to form a government.
But he's in a very difficult position. Mr. Abbas backing the U.S.-backed road map for peace. Somebody who favors a two-state solution and recognizes Israel. He may have to work with a government that simply does not. It makes it very, very difficult for him. And, of course, there is a lot of speculation that Mr. Abbas may not last in office through the end of this year.
Daryn.
KAGAN: It is interesting times indeed. Guy Raz from Jerusalem, thank you.
Let's get back to talking about President Bush. He goes on the road today to squeeze mileage out of last night's State of the Union speech. His address is traditionally the most important of the year for any president. It touched on some of the most divisive issues of the day. And it did little a bridge the differences. Here so recap the speech is our White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.
Suzanne, good morning.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Daryn.
President Bush, of course, struck a conciliatory tone in his speech, at least in the beginning of this, by recognizing the passing of civil rights icon Coretta Scott King. By also offering and olive branch to Democrats. But soon after, the gloves quickly came off as the president really tried to capitalize off of his greatest strength, that being national security. The president aggressively pushing for his Iraq policy, defending the controversial domestic spy program.
And then he turned the corner. He talked about some modest domestic initiatives. One of them kind of caught the eyebrows of some, raised eyebrows, if you will, because he said that he wanted to support alternative sources of energy. Now, ironically, the former Texas oil man made his case this way. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, Daryn, how did he do overall. We've got the latest CNN/"USA Today"/Gallup Polls showing that among those who watched the speech, their reaction to State of the Union, 48 percent very positive, 27 percent somewhat positive, and 23 percent negative. Should let you know, this is somewhat skewed in the president's favor because ultimately these are people who watched the speech, interested in the president, more likely to be Republican than Democrat.
I should let you know as well, that the president is taking his message, his initiatives, on the road today. His first stop is going to be Nashville, Tennessee. So, well the big question here is, what will Americans do? Will they actually buy some of these initiatives? We'll wait and see.
Daryn.
KAGAN: We will be seeing that.
What about these places that he's going? Tight Senate races in the states on this road trip, Suzanne?
MALVEAUX: Some tight Senate races and also just maybe some places where he's giving a nod to the Republican leadership. As you know, Nashville, Tennessee, home state to Senate Leader Bill Frist. Also another senator, Lamar Alexander, one who really pushed forward one of those initiatives that the president was talking about, making Americans more competitive. So, obviously, close races. Also helping support some Republicans and then highlighting some of those initiatives as well.
KAGAN: Suzanne Malveaux, live from the White House, thank you.
And this reminding for our viewers. We're going to have live coverage of President Bush's speech at the Grand Ole Opry House. It is scheduled for 12:50 p.m. Eastern, 9:50 p.m. Pacific.
We're going to shift the focus now a little bit from the White House to Capitol Hill. Nearly every burst of Republican applause was greeted with silence by the Democrats.
Earlier on CNN's AMERICAN MORNING, we heard from lawmakers sitting on both sides of the aisle.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: I think it gives a boost always when the president has a chance to talk to a lot of Americans. The question is, is do things go well in Iraq, do we handle the Iranian crisis, do we . . .
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So less about words, more about what happens?
MCCAIN: Yes. And, in other words, I think it's going to help him, but, obviously, Americans have every right to expect some follow- through.
JOSEPH BIDEN, (D) DELAWARE: The Homeland Security, the 9/11 Commission on December 5th said, look, the administration still has no plan, no priorities to make us safe. Walk out here, there is no plan for railroads, for nuclear power plants. That's the hard worker protecting the homeland. He has a Homeland Security policy that can be used in one word -- wiretap. Assume it makes sense. It is not sufficient. We've got to get on with it. The American public has lost confidence in our ability to deal with natural disasters, as well as man-made disasters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: Many analysts say that President Bush's address was one of his more forceful speeches. They say he offered no surprises and played to his perceived strengths.
Well, even before the president took the podium, U.S. Capitol Police took into custody one of his fiercest critics. They arrested anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan inside the House chamber after she refused to cover her t-shirt. That shirt bore the message 2,245 dead. How many more? A reference to the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq. Sheehan's son Casey is among the war dead. Fellow anti-war activists demanded her release which came about four hours later. Sheehan was the guest of California Democrat Lynn Woolsey.
Well, against the backdrop of Mr. Bush's comments on a U.S. addiction to oil, lawmakers this morning are holding a hearing on surging gas prices. The Senate Judiciary Committee will also look at the effects of consolidation in the oil industry. The hearing comes as oil prices have flirted with record levels and the nation's largest oil company, Exxon Mobil, reported its biggest-ever quarterly profits.
Critics of those profits may have something new to scream about. Oil refiners cut fuel production in some states this week. The reason? Those profit margins are slipping. Gas prices nationwide are about 50 cents higher than they were this time last year.
We're at 10 minutes past the hour. They're accused of running Enron into the ground. And today, founder Ken Lay and former Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling face former colleagues as the first witnesses are called to the stand in their trial. We're live from outside the court in Houston.
And little mention during President Bush's State of the Union about the hurricane devastated Gulf Coast. The frustration and feelings of betrayal for residents is mounting.
And, is it possible to hold a trial without the main defendant or his lawyers in the courtroom? That's exactly what happened today in Baghdad. The latest from Saddam Hussein's trial coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: All right. I guess we're looking at live pictures from Capitol Hill here. Senator Joe Lieberman. These are the Katrina hearings. We do expect to hear any minute from New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. He will be testifying before this committee today. We'll have more news in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: Live to Capitol Hill. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The topic, Hurricane Katrina, managing the crisis and evacuating New Orleans. Let's listen.
MAYOR RAY NAGIN, (D) NEW ORLEANS: That took the lives of 1,300 people in the region and stole the trust in the safety of our city. To Senator Collins as chair, Senator Lieberman as ranking member, and to all members of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, thank you for the opportunity to be here today to speak directly to you on how we managed this crisis and evacuation of New Orleans.
I also want to thank those of you who took the time to come, those committee members -- or committee leaders, to New Orleans, to see first-hand the devastation we suffered and are still suffering and the determination of our citizens to rebuild their lives and our city. I encourage each one of you who have not yet been to New Orleans to come see it yourself. It would blow your mind if you took the time.
I would like to take this moment to again thank the American people and our friends from around the world for the compassion, support and generosity shown to our city and our residents over the last several months. The outpouring from private citizens, governments, and corporations all around the world have been remarkable.
I begin my testimony, ladies and gentlemen, by painting a picture of New Orleans before Katrina. Our city government was transparent and fiscally sound. We had more than $3 billion in construction- related activity going on simultaneously in the city. Our real estate market was on fire. And even the infamous Donald Trump had just announced the latest Trump Tower in New Orleans that would grace our skyline.
We also had a starring role as the Hollywood south of the nation with hundreds of millions of dollars in films being made in our area on an annual basis. Tourism was better than ever with a record 10.1 million visitors coming to our city and thousands of people cruising in and out of New Orleans. Equally as important, about 38,000 people moved from the poverty rows, many into new jobs created in 2004 and 2005. New Orleans and its port continues to supply raw goods and our nation's energy supplies.
But one day, on August 29th, everything changed for this wonderful city. Please allow me this time to walk you through the preparation and evacuation process, along with events that followed the landfall of a very dangerous storm. A storm that will go down in history for many years to come.
The Friday before landfall, August the 26, 2005, Hurricane Katrina crossed Florida into the Gulf of Mexico. Although the path was still projected to hit the Florida panhandle, I notified the citizens that we needed to watch this storm very, very closely. I then activated essential staff and asked that each department begin to prepare their staffs for a possible evacuation, with some to stay to provide necessary services during and after the storm if it came our way. I also worked with regional and state officials to enact our emergency plans and contraflow to prepare what would turn out to be the most successful pre-event evacuation in our country's history.
On Saturday, August 27th, the models, the forecast models, started to converge, showing the path of the category three storm had changed and placing New Orleans in the middle of the projected cone. I called for a voluntary evacuation, urging all citizens that were able to evacuate the city to leave following the contraflow plan created by the state of Louisiana and implemented on the parish by parish basis. This was very critical because we had to make sure that the lower lying parishes evacuated first in order that we wouldn't have the kind of gridlock that you saw in Texas when they were trying to evacuate for Rita.
I reminded citizens of how important it was to prepare for the worst. Many New Orleanians boarded up their homes, packed up, and got on the road to safety. Our region had one of the most successful mass evacuations in the history of the United States. Over 90 percent of our residents evacuated. Over 1 million people left the region within 24 hours. We were successful in saving thousands of lives and avoiding the horrors of the Pam exercise.
On Saturday evening, the governor called me to tell me that she had just spoken to Max Mayfield with the National Weather Center and that I should call him. After calling him, he told me that in his over 30 years experience in tracking hurricanes, he had never seen a storm like this. He had never seen conditions like this.
I immediately called my staff and visited every television station in the city to further alert the citizens and to reinforce the need for an evacuation. To provide a safety net to seniors and other citizens who relied upon public transportation, I took another very important step, by encouraging our faith-based communities to reinforce evacuation through buddy systems within their community. I encouraged them to contact the individuals in their congregations and in their neighborhoods around their churches to make sure that they had an evacuation plan and they could implement it and if they needed help to provide it.
On Saturday night, the National Weather Service reported that Katrina was now a category five hurricane and was approximately 250 miles away from New Orleans with 190 miles per hour sustained winds. Katrina had increased in size within hours and had a predicted storm surge of at least 15 or 20 feet. After a Sunday morning state-wide conference call, I elevated my prior calls for voluntary evacuation to the first-ever -- the first- ever mandatory evacuation order in the history of the city of New Orleans. We evacuated as many special needs residents as we safely could to a state shelter and then opened the Louisiana Superdome for the remaining special needs population. Later that day, we opened the Superdome as a refuge of last resort for all citizens who had not, or could not, evacuate the city, and used buses pre-staged throughout the city to transport those individuals to the Superdome. I set a curfew for dusk, which is when we expected gale-force winds to begin.
There were hundreds of thousands -- there were thousands, I should say, of residents that did not leave, including those with means, who chose instead to ride out the storm like their parents had done during Hurricane Betsy. When reality set in for many on Sunday, they made their way to the shelter of last resort.
On Monday, August 29, 2005, Katrina, the most powerful category four hurricane to hit the region, made landfall. We began to receive reports of levees breaking. Water rose as high as 18 feet with 80 percent of our city receiving some levels of flooding. This was over 61 square miles of our city was impacted. That would cover the entire D.C. region and would cover the entire Manhattan region.
Thousands of people were stranded on their rooftops, or in attics, needing to be rescued. Hundreds died in the waters that engulfed our city. The fact that thousands did not die was a blessings, because all scientific predictions estimated that at least 10,000 people would die.
Primary and secondary power sources, sewer and drainage systems, and communications and power lines were incapacitated. Later that evening, we provided FEMA with a priority list identifying commodities and equipment needs and a strategy for the initial phases for rescue, recovery and rebuild. Marty Bahamonde, the FEMA senior representative, told me after that meeting that he had never seen a public official to prepare such a concise plan. And it was one of the best plans he had seen in such a short period of time with a disaster of this sort.
In other parts of the city, our first responders were jumping into water to rescue people as 911 operators were consumed with traumatic calls for rescues. They received thousands upon thousands of frantic and desperate calls. I ordered all resources to focus on rescue efforts.
As the days passed, the growing number of people in our streets needing shelter required us to open the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center as a second refuge. There were no other options that we could see at that point in time. The convention center was the only facility that was available and that had the square footage and was high and dry in order for us to put people that were being rescued. Not only from New Orleans, but from the surrounding parishes.
The 350 buses promised by FEMA on Monday still had not come. The strain on our limited resources intensified as people desperate for necessities and others taking advantage of the unstable situation caused a serious security problem. Fires were breaking out in the city and firefighters had very little means to contain them. The lack of utilities and communications crippled our city and our efforts. We faced a serious set of new challenges daily and even hourly. We faced them head-on, ready to do whatever it took to save our city.
I directed our team on a number of occasions to stay focused on a couple of key priorities. First, search and rescue of people who were trapped and stranded. Second, to figure out ways to evacuate ultimately the Superdome and the convention center and individuals that were being dropped off on bridges as helicopters were rescuing them. Thirdly, the patching of the levee breach, though at that time was still flooding and pumping water into our city. And, fourthly, draining the flood waters once we stabilized that. And then fifthly, the recovery of dead bodies.
We were getting reports on a daily basis. I personally saw dead bodies in the waters. So we knew we had to handle those bodies in a respectful manner. And that was one of the things we wanted to focus on.
Every day requests were made to state and federal authorities for emergency assistance needed to save lives and restore order. We requested search and rescue assistance. Buses for evacuations, assistance in patching the levees, food, water, medical supplies, police and fire equipment, and pumps to drain water. I don't know if I can convey the desperation, but I was looking at my city with thousands of people who were on the streets, or on bridges, or in the water, in the Superdome, at the convention center, people from the lowest lying parts of the region, being dropped off in our city from other parishes. We were in the most desperate need for assistance.
On Wednesday, the situation in the Superdome was tenuous at best and no food or water had yet arrived at the convention center. Rescue efforts by air were only beginning to get underway because communications channels were down and inconsistent (ph). We found creative ways to communicate via text messaging to a communication staff person in Houston. We were trying to get a message to anyone we thought that could get the buses we needed to evacuate people.
Little help had arrived as the day turned to night and you could feel the heaviness in the aftermath. Imagine the nights, pitch black, no power, intense heat and people crying out for help. It was a horrible, horrendous situation. And Wednesday night was definitely touch-and-go for the city.
On Thursday, conditions continued to deteriorate. I received word from the National Guard and the New Orleans police that the suffering in the Superdome and the convention center were becoming inhumane. There was increasing pressure to leave the buildings and incidents of violence were escalating.
As the days passed, I sent out more urgent pleas for help. Finally, on Friday afternoon, we began to see passengers loading into buses. Late Friday night, I watched the last bus leave the convention center. Saturday, the final bus left the Superdome. Many people had been there in those locations for seven full days.
I should point out that at the Superdome, the New Orleans Police Department and the National Guard -- a small contingency of National Guard -- held security intact. That Guard unit and those officers are heroes. People could not leave the dome, as it was surrounded by water and there were no buses. The rations were stretched. There was no power and sanitation. Good people suffered needlessly.
In the end, it was a horrible lesson, but one that I am hopeful we will learn from. By far, most of the people showed tremendous compassion to their fellow man, and heroism existed in the waters at the Superdome, at the convention center, on the bridges and on the streets.
Since the storm, we have been a financially crippled municipality, struggling to bring our city back. Hurricane Katrina, like 9/11 and other disasters before, has taught us that improvements in planning for disasters must be made at all levels of government. Our plans for the future include enhanced evacuation routes, staging necessary resources out of the city and not being as dependent on the rescue efforts of other levels of government. This storm has challenged us and we are responding.
Consideration must also be given to the financial resources that should be available for jurisdictions that experience this type of major disaster. I urge this committee, as you're doing these deliberations, to take a closer look at the Stafford Act. Our first responders and essential personnel worked primarily around the clock responding to emergencies. Yet under the Stafford Act, assistance is provided for only the overtime component of this very critical work.
Then I was forced to drastically, radically, cut our budget and lay off over 50 percent of our work force when our constituents need the services that hard working public servants provide more than ever. This is another effect of the inadequacies of the Stafford Act, which only allow for a loan of up to 25 percent of lost revenue, regardless of the severity of the need. The Stafford Act should be amended to address these other issues.
As I conclude, I need to recognize our emergency response team, led by Colonel Terry Everett (ph), my director of homeland security, who appeared before you earlier this week. Their work has gone largely unnoticed. Despite tremendous personal loss, police officers, firefighters, National Guard, EMS workers, my personal staff or my executive staff, as well as other city workers, experienced horrific tragedy and stayed true to their task. They are all our heroes.
I want to once again thank you for allowing me to be here with you today and for your work to ensure that we as a nation are better prepared to respond to future disasters like Hurricane Katrina and beyond. My hope is that our collective work to rebuild New Orleans and its region and the Gulf Coast will provide a model of how a nation restores one of its jewels.
Thank you very much.
SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), COMMITTEE CHAIRWOMAN: Thank you for your testimony.
Mayor, you decided on Saturday morning, August 27th, to issue a mandatory evacuation order. But the order was not actually issued until almost 24 hours later, on Sunday morning. These 24 hours were critical. During that time, people with the means to do so left the city. But those who were left behind faced dramatically fewer options once people with cars had left.
The evidence suggests to me that the delay between when you made the decision and when the order was actually issued was caused by your staff debating such issues as whether nursing homes and hotels and hospitals should be included, how the order should be enforced and other pretty fundamental issues.
My question is this -- shouldn't those kinds of questions have been worked out in advance? Shouldn't your emergency operations team have already prepared a mandatory evacuation order, worked through the legal issues, so that once you make the decision, it could be issued without delay and without the need for further research?
NAGIN: Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Let me just point out a couple of really key points that I'd like the committee to also understand as they try and evaluate this mandatory evacuation order. First off, we had earlier issued a plea to our faith-based community to do a buddy system. And we felt as though we had gotten a significant number of people out of the city, including the individuals that may or may not have had the necessary transportation to get out.
And then as further clarification, I'd spoke with Max Mayfield on Saturday afternoon or evening -- it was probably about 7:30 or 8:00 in the afternoon. And that's when I made the final decision and called my city attorney to get her to finalize the mandatory evacuation for the next morning.
Prior to that, I had also -- already asked her to look at all the legalese and to prepare a draft mandatory evacuation, which she had done. The only thing that we wanted to make sure of, as we issued this mandatory evacuation, that we had the legal authority to do it, number one, but we also did not create any other problems with a mass evacuation of the hospitals. Because we felt as though a lot of patients would not be able to get the proper care to be transported where they needed to go.
And then, finally, Madam Chair, in order to do an effective evacuation in the city of New Orleans, we had to take into account the region's needs. And everything we do as it relates to evacuation is coordinated with the state and with the other parishes.
And that morning at the 5:00 a.m. conference call on Sunday morning, we told everybody what we were getting ready to do so that they could coordinate and make sure the lower parishes knew exactly what we were getting ready to do so that they could make sure that if they had anyone else to evacuate, they could get them out quickly. COLLINS: But time was lost, critical time, deciding issues like whether or not nursing homes should be covered. We heard testimony about that. Wouldn't it have been better to have resolved those kinds of issues about the coverage, who was exempt, how it would be applied, prior to the storm as part of the planning process?
NAGIN: Well, you know, Madam Chair, we tried to cover all of those issues. But this was a real time, real life situation that had never happened before in the history of the city of New Orleans. We made the decision based upon the information that I got from Max Mayfield, which was Saturday night. And just like this nation has made adjustments after 9/11, we will make the proper adjustments going forward.
COLLINS: Well, I do -- just before leaving that -- is you want to point out, that in interview with your staff, your staff said, quote, "the mayor said it in the Saturday morning meeting, make it happen." Saturday morning. "He said if there's any way to make this happen, the mandatory evacuation order, make it happen. I don't care what you have do. Make it happen. "
NAGIN: Right.
COLLINS: That's Saturday morning, not Saturday afternoon. Yesterday, we heard extremely troubling testimony that the evacuation of nursing homes was simply not a priority for the city or for the state. And the reason -- the speculation was -- that nursing homes were required by law to have evacuation plans.
Yet the evidence is very clear that many nursing homes did not evacuate their frail, ill patients, and that they pleaded for help over and over again from the city and from the state. Search and rescue efforts were haphazard and uncoordinated. And the result was the needless and tragic deaths of dozens of these nursing home patients.
When it became evident to you that the nursing homes had not evacuated, and when you got these reports of the pleas for help, what actions did you take?
NAGIN: Well, Madam Chairman, we had requests for evacuation and support from a lot of different individuals throughout the city. I can only speak for the city of New Orleans. I cannot speak for the rest of the state.
But if we had someone to request from a nursing home that they needed the support, we tried to prioritize that based upon the information that we were getting and the available resources that we had. And we tried to get to those individuals as quickly as we could.
COLLINS: Did you ask city workers to check on all the nursing homes?
NAGIN: Well, the -- prior to the actual storm hitting, Madame Chair, we had all of our police officers to comb the city, and they went out with their lights on, and they went throughout all the neighborhoods in the city to make sure that people understood that we were moving toward a mandatory evacuation. They visited nursing homes and hospitals in various institutions throughout the city to try and help them to make sure that they had what they needed to evacuate.
COLLINS: But that's prior to it becoming evident that the nursing homes had not evacuated, that their patients were in grave danger. Did you call the Louisiana National Guard to come help? What did you do when you started getting those pleas for help?
NAGIN: We were calling everyone, Madame Chair. We even had some pre-staged boats at the National Guard's offices, and we had at least 30 or 40 boats pre-staged. And after the event, you know, we only had seven or eight that were available to us.
So we started to make calls to the state and to the federal government to try and get more resources. The deal would not only -- with not only the nursing homes, but the individuals that were on roofs and in their attics.
COLLINS: Senator Lieberman.
SEN. JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (D-CT), COMMITTEE RANKING MEMBER: Thanks, Madame Chairman. Thanks, mayor.
In my opening statement, I referred to a letter that our staff came across, October 1st, 2002. It's in your book there as exhibit 21. But it's a follow-up to a meeting that our colleague, Senator Landrieu, apparently called after Hurricane Isadora hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. And it's just another piece of evidence of the fact that people in the region really were on notice and knew, lived with the fear of the big one coming.
What's really striking in this letter is that the -- your response to Senator Landrieu after that meeting. I presume you wrote to other members of the congressional delegation about what was needed. And it goes right to some of the things that we saw the systems were not capable, more pumping stations, electric generators.
Emergency communications and technology systems must be improved, you say, asked for money to do that. Hospital generators must be elevated above basement level. That's what we talked about that yesterday. Light rail system necessary to evacuate New Orleans residents. And a shelter of last resort, critical for safety of the residents of the southeast Louisiana region.
You know, as we look back to it, as I said earlier, it's this question of what might have been. One of the what might-have-beens we heard yesterday was from Dr. Stevens of the health department, where took it on himself, I gather, to try to negotiate for transportation assets to move people out of harm's way before a hurricane hit.
Did that, mayor, ever reach you? Were you aware of his efforts? Frustrating to look at it now, because it looks like he was negotiating for more than a year, had agreements, and then they never just came into being. NAGIN: Right. Those negotiations were started by the previous head of our EOC, which was Chief Touey (ph), and he resigned. And there was an interim period, a period of time, when we were searching for his replacement. And during that search, Dr. Stevens got involved and talked to a lot of different entities. And then right before -- a couple of months before the storm, Chief Matthews was hired as being the head.
But getting directly to your point, we tried to do some memorandums of understanding with various entities, whether they be the regional transit authority or the school board, or some paddle- wheel boats.
LIEBERMAN: And again, these were for transportation assets hopefully to move people out who otherwise could not get out before a hurricane.
NAGIN: Absolutely, and we were trying to make sure that we had every tool available in our tool box that we need -- we felt we needed in the event of an emergency. Those agreements never got done for a lot of different reasons.
LIEBERMAN: When you look back -- I don't have a lot of time -- why do you think that happened? Why didn't they get done so the resources were there?
KAGAN: We have been listening in to these Senate hearings, looking at Katrina and the aftermath. As you can see, testifying today is New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, gave a very colorful account of everything that he thinks he did right as mayor, and now he's being challenged by senators on the panel, challenged by things like when the mandatory evacuation order for New Orleans was actually put in place, how nursing homes were handled and other matters as well.
If you're interested in listening to more of this, just go to CNN Pipeline. We'll continue our live coverage there.
Meanwhile, with we'll get to other news here on CNN, especially we're going to talk about these health care savings accounts. President Bush referred to them last night in the State of the Union Address. How do they work and how can they help you? We'll do that just ahead, after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: These hearings continue on Capitol Hill. That's New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on the left part of your screen testifying before a Senate committee about what happened before and after Katrina.
On the right side, Andrews Air force Base, you can see Marine One pulling up into the middle of the screen. President Bush onboard there. He will climb onboard Air Force One. He is heading to Nashville today, trying to take advantage of any buzz he might have had off of last night's State of the Union Address.
(MARKET REPORT)
KAGAN: In his State of the Union Address last night, President Bush called for more tax breaks for Americans with health savings accounts. But are those the right accounts for you?
Our personal finance editor Gerri Willis checks out the program in today's "Top 5 Tips."
Ger, hello.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Good to see you, Ger.
Well, health savings accounts are really simply something like the 401(k) that you might have. You set aside pre-tax dollars, they grow over time, bunt instead of going to your retirement, they go to your health care instead.
Now, here's what you need to know. If you use one of these health savings accounts, you'll pair it with a health insurance program that you're company offers with lower premiums.
Here's the good news: 20 percent lower for individuals, 40 percent lower for families. But for that big fat tax break, you pay, and you pay big in terms of the deductible. The average deductible in these plans can be about $1,000 for individuals, $2,100 for families. That's whole lot of dough. Now, you can use the money out of the HSA, but obviously, there are down sides.
KAGAN: Well, so who is it good for, Gerri?
WILLIS: The young and healthy people. You know, young people spend about $700 each and year of year on their health care. This plan makes sense for them. It's portable, you can you take it to other employers. You can you move it around. And if you're not spending a lot of dough for health care, it may work for you.
KAGAN: So who, though, is it not good for?
WILLIS: Well, boomers. People who are aging, people who have families. People who might have big health care problems, it probably will not work for them in the long run. Remember, about 10 percent of the people use about 70 percent of all the health care dollars. If you take all the young and healthy people out of the corporate health care plan, there is less money to go around for 10 percent who need it.
KAGAN: And then you really do need to read all that fine print, don't you?
WILLIS: You do need to read the fine print. Look, there are fees associated with these plans, as much as $150 a year. You need to understand what you're paying for, what the additional costs will be.
KAGAN: And what about what it costs? That sticker shock.
WILLIS: Well, there is sticker shock, and here's why. You probably got an HMO. Maybe you're paying co-pays of $20, $30. And if you're thinking to moving to one of these plans, understand, you're going to have to pay for all of your health care out of it. That means if you get a sore throat, you're paying for each and every one of those tests.
You may not understand how much money that really is. Let me tell you, it can add up quickly, very quickly, indeed. So I think a lot of people are curious about these things. Not a lot of people using them yet, but they could catch on. Corporate America loves them.
KAGAN: All right, Gerri, thank you.
WILLIS: You're welcome.
KAGAN: Coming up next, modern medicine offering new hope to women with breast cancer? We'll explain just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAGAN: These pictures just in to CNN a few minutes ago. President and Mrs. Bush climbing aboard Air Force One there at Andrews Air Force Base this morning, as they do that. They just landed aboard Marine One. They're heading to Nashville, Tennessee. President Bush heading there to talk about many of the points that he talked about in his State of the Union address last night. And eventually, he'll end up at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Well, this week CNN is beginning a year-long look at the future. Today we turn to the future of the fight against breast cancer. This year, more than 210,000 women will be diagnosed with the disease.
Our Miles O'Brien shows us technologies of tomorrow that could save lives.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had a mastectomy. I had 28 lymph nodes removed. I was in my 30s! You know, no family history. Why is it that so many women are still afraid to take care of it? To test you have to go in, and the technique of doing mammograms, it would be so great if it could be something that they can tell if you're susceptible to cancer if it's maybe just a DNA testing, you know, come in with a saliva swab or maybe just do a blood test, if they could just identify it, deal with it and not take away your quality of life.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Mary's message is supported by this sobering fact: Every two minutes, a woman is diagnosed with breast cancer. But there's some encouraging news from medical search. Better ways to predict it, detect it and treat it. In the fight against breast cancer, the future is now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's never been better to have breast cancer than now. O'BRIEN (voice-over): That startling statement is will also backed by facts. The survival rates for breast cancer have never been higher, and new therapies to fight the disease are unfolding every year.
Dr. Clifford Hudis is chief of the breast cancer medicine service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He says we should think of breast cancer not as one, but as a collection of diseases, each with different causes requiring different types of treatment.
The most exciting breakthrough, a drug called her Herceptin. It targets a particularly aggressive form of cancer that affects one in five breast cancer patients. When added to chemotherapy in the early stages of the disease, it cuts the chance of a relapse by half.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the question for us all is how many other targets are there like that? How many other drugs could we develop like that? How many subtypes of breast cancer will there be?
O'BRIEN: Also on the horizon, blood tests which better predict families that carry genes that could trigger some types of the diseases. Add to that better understanding of the effect of diet and exercise, advanced imaging techniques that can discover small cancer sooner, less invasive treatments to treat them and in the next ten years...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Maybe you have an imaging test that makes a diagnosis of cancer and you actually can deal with it that day and be done with it. And I really think by 2016, we'll be able to say to patients this is the kind of breast cancer you have and this is the most effective therapy for it. And I'm confident that the outcomes that we offer patients in 2016 will be even better than they are today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm still here. So my work isn't done. We've got a way to go, but we're getting there. Just keep turning on the light.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: Now we want to tell you a little bit more about Mary Bryant (ph), the woman you just saw in that piece. She has been cancer-free for seven years now, and she's an advocate for breast cancer research. She also is back to her old hobby of running marathons. In fact, she ran one just a week after her fifth chemotherapy treatment. Quite a lady she is. We wish her well.
President Bush is on his way to Nashville to talk health care, but first the Democrats get their turn. We're waiting to hear from Senator Harry Reid and Congressman Nancy Pelosi. We'll bring that to you live.
Also ahead, a controversial run-in with police leaves an Iraq war veteran seriously wounded. We'll show you home video of the incident, as the second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins after a quick break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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