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Bay St. Louis: Six Months Later; Dashboard Cameras Catch Dramatic Police Scene

Aired February 17, 2006 - 10:30   ET

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

(WEATHER REPORT)
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're talking Hurricane Katrina. It hit close to home for our correspondent Kathleen Koch. You might remember that she took us on a tour of her hometown in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Well, it's six months later, and she goes back to find displaced families still waiting for trailers, denied insurance claims and frustration with bureaucracy.

It's a CNN special "PRESENTS" report. Kathleen takes us with her on a mission that she calls "Saving My Hometown."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's been nearly six months since the worst natural disaster in U.S. history, and not a single destroyed home, not a single grocery store, not a single business on Beach Boulevard, has been rebuilt in Bay St. Louis.

Some places, it's as if time stood still. And there is a growing sense of betrayal here in Bay St. Louis among residents who have been paying for home insurance for years. Now many of these insurance companies are refusing to pay.

TOMMY KIDD, BAY ST. LOUIS RESIDENT: I've talked to people that have not even seen an adjuster yet. And they're not asking for what is not theirs. All they want is to be put back whole, be paid the insurance that's due them.

KOCH: Even Bay St. Louis congressman, who, like so many here lost everything, is finding his insurance company.

REP. GENE TAYLOR (D), MISSISSIPPI: I had a tin roof on my house. There were pieces of my tin roof 20 to 30 feet up in trees behind where my house used to be, kind of wrapped around it all like a taco shell. When they came back with my claim and said there was no wind damage to my house, I point to the tin and just kind of shrugged.

KOCH: So he is suing.

TAYLOR: There ought to be a national registry of child molesters and insurance company executives, because I hold them in the same very low esteem.

KOCH: He's not alone. In fact, the state of Mississippi is suing the insurance companies on behalf of all its residents. No insurance company we contacted would talk to us on camera, so I went to see a spokesperson for the industry.

(on camera): It sounds like many insurance companies are trying to say this is the first hurricane in history that came with no wind, that sustained 125 mile-an-hour winds can do no damage. I've stood in 70 mile-an-hour winds in a hurricane and watched a roof blow off a hotel. How can they say 125 mile-an-hour winds can do no damage?

CAROLYN GORMAN, INSURANCE INFORMATION INSTITUTE: I think that they do know there was a 28-foot storm surge that came through. Also, there are many...

KOCH: Six hours after the 125 mile-an-hour sustained winds.

GORMAN: Well, it's a difficult situation.

KOCH: Of course, insurance isn't the only problem. Small business loans are being granted at a snail's pace. And after all this time, there are still residents waiting for FEMA trailers. Almost everyone here is waiting for something to make their lives whole again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KOCH: And, Daryn, that is a look at what's left of my hometown and where things stand now six months after Katrina. And federal aid is coming in slowly, and it's helping. We're getting a lot of volunteers also into Bay St. Louis, and that's making a big difference, as well. But a lot more work lies ahead.

KAGAN: Well, ironically, Kathleen, we find you at a windy day at the White House.

KOCH: Quite so on the White House lawn.

KAGAN: You kind of attract it, I guess. The reason that this was important for you, as we said, this is your hometown. I'm wondering on a personal note, what was the most emotional part of what you see or don't see six months later?

KOCH: I think the most emotional part of it is just in areas like where my house was, on the beach, and other areas of town where people have nothing left but slabs, where there's not even a trace of a home, that there just has been no progress. I mean, progress there is just that the bricks have been pushed back off the slab and maybe there's a little tin shed there that someone is going to use to begin storing items and begin to try to rebuild.

Again, but the fortunate people were the ones who only had two or four, ten or 12 feet of water in their homes. And they are making some progress. You know, they are ripping out the drywall and the insulation and beginning to repair the interiors of their homes. But just -- it's just so exasperating to look around at so many parts of my town and just see them look exactly as they did on August 29th.

KAGAN: Yes, and we're coming around the bend again, because we're months away from hurricane season beginning on June 1. Do you think that your town will come back? Will it be a functioning town once again?

KOCH: It will, it's just going to take so much time and it's going to take so much help, and it's going to take an influx of volunteers that we really had there from the start. And we talk about that in the documentary. And that is what has made such a difference. How many people, you know, from all around the country have really rallied.

And the town, I think, will come back. I mean, these are amazing people. They are the most optimistic people who are so committed to this place. So many of them have spent not only their entire lives there, but generations before them and their family have. And they're not going to walk away and they're not going to give up. But it's just going to be such a long haul. But we're in there with them -- in it with them -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Tell us again when we can see the full documentary.

KOCH: We'll be -- it will be on at 8:00 and 11:00 Saturday and Sunday nights, and also airing tonight at 11:00 on part -- as part of "ANDERSON COOPER 360."

KAGAN: All right, well, good work. And good luck to your town.

KOCH: Thank you.

KAGAN: Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Kathleen, thank you. Kathleen Koch. We found a windy White House today.

We have a lot more news coming up. We'll be back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Take a look at these pictures over here, officers getting hit during traffic stops. The dashboard videos have become kind of the staple for reality police shows. They also reinforce the law enforcement adage that there is no routine pull-over.

Our Jason Carroll has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dashboard cameras in police cruisers dramatically capture the growing danger for officers on patrol.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy crap.

CARROLL: This officer didn't see the car coming. Neither does this officer, who is about to give a ticket when:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. Ma'am, are you OK? You OK, ma'am?

CARROLL: Safety groups say, accidents like this happen more often and are more deadly than most people realize. Police statistics show the number-one killer of officers isn't gunfire. It is car accidents. The number-two killer is officers being struck outside their cars during routine traffic stops.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You OK?

CARROLL: The statistics are not surprising to Cincinnati policeman Jerry Enneking. He says that, in his 16 years on the force, he made more traffic stops than he can remember. But, some, he will never forget.

JERRY ENNEKING, CINCINNATI POLICE DEPARTMENT: As I put the car in park, I was struck from behind.

CARROLL: Enneking says, the driver who hit his cruiser wasn't paying attention. Fortunately, Enneking wasn't badly hurt during the initial crash, so he got out of his patrol car to check the scene. That's when he says another driver, also not paying attention, came out of nowhere.

ENNEKING: As I got to the front of the -- of my cruiser to get away, I was struck from behind. It was like a white blur. And the next thing I knew, I was on the ground. I kind of sat there stunned for a minute, kind of checked, make sure everything was still attached.

CARROLL: Enneking spent a year-and-a-half on light duty because of his injuries. His kneecap was knocked off during the accident.

Then, two years later, on November 15, 2005, Enneking was hit again during a traffic stop. He suffered two lacerated disks in his neck in that accident.

ENNEKING: I did everything I could, as far as turning on the emergency lights to warn people behind me.

CARROLL (on camera): The problem has become a major concern for the International Association of Police Chiefs, so much so, the organization put together its own training video to show officers how to be safer on roadways like this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: Your patrol vehicle is most likely to be struck while parked at the scene of a traffic stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL (voice-over): The DVD reminds officers to avoid pulling people over in obscure locations, if possible, to try and wear reflective gear when it is dark, and to keep an eye out for oncoming traffic.

MARY ANN VIVERETTE, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CHIEFS OF POLICE: There is no routine traffic stop. At any time, someone can pull a weapon on us, but, then, as this video shows, that it is not just the offender that we're pulling over in traffic that can be a hazard to us. We also have to be very aware of what is going on behind us.

CARROLL: The training video shows, even when officers take precautions, it sometimes isn't enough. Listen to this patrolman, who advises a woman he pulled over to step away from the roadway.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you're up here ,and anybody hits the back of my patrol car, there's a good chance you are going to get somewhere in between that car and your car.

Just like that. See? Just like that.

LARA FEINBERG, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, FAMILIES FOR ROADSIDE SAFETY: Pay attention. Slow down.

CARROLL: Lara Feinberg is working to make drivers more accountable. Her husband is a North Carolina State Trooper. After two of his partners were killed in separate accidents by passing cars while writing citations, she helped drafted the move-over law. It requires drivers to slow down and move away from officers stopped on roadways. Thirty-eight states have adopted it.

FEINBERG: Reducing your speed could be a matter of life and death for them. Whether they get hit at 80 miles an hour vs. 40 miles an hour, the 40 miles an hour might get them a chance to still make it home at end of the day.

CARROLL: Officers like Jerry Enneking say, drivers need to remember a few simple rules.

ENNEKING: Slow down and just to pay attention, I mean, that's -- that's the main thing, is just pay attention and -- and to use common sense.

CARROLL: That, he says, is the best way to avoid more scenes like this.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: That story first aired on Paula Zahn's show, PAULA ZAHN NOW. You can see Paula's show at 8:00 p.m. Eastern every weeknight right here on CNN.

Ever get off a plane and find out your luggage is nowhere to be found? Happening more and more often. We'll tell you who is doing the worst job of looking after your bags and what they have to say about it.

And caught on tape doing a double take. Hello. Why this Maryland state official is in hot water.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: Wait until you hear what this seventh-grader came up with the science project? It might have you thinking twice about what's in your drink from a fast food restaurant. Ice samples were taken from five Tampa-area restaurants, as was the flushed toilet water from those fast food place. This was the brainchild of 12-year-old student Jasmine Roberts. She compared the bacteria level found in both samples. Guess what? Jasmine found that 70 percent of the time the ice had more bacteria in it than the toilet water.

Jasmine's unappetizing study and conclusion earned her first place in a regional science fair worth $800, hopefully enough money so that she doesn't have to eat in a fast food restaurant.

(MARKET REPORT)

KAGAN: Let's go ahead and take a look at other stories making news coast to coast.

The Maryland State Comptroller William Donald Schaefer is in hot water for his apparently ogling at some -- that some say borders on sexual harassment. It stems from this public meeting two days ago. Listen and see for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM DONALD SCHAEFER, MARYLAND STATE COMPTROLLER: Walk again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: Well, Louise Hayman, Schaefer's communication director says, quote, "Schaefer did not mean the make the office worker uncomfortable. The comptroller has often promoted women to influential positions while he was Baltimore mayor and governor. He has a huge and strong group of female supporters and always has." All right then.

OK, from the Florida panhandle, a former gym teacher faces six felony charges for allegedly allowing students to cut class for a dollar a day. Twenty-eight year-old Terence Braxton resigned last month after two years on the job. Investigators say may have received as much as a thousand dollars from that school.

Lisa Marie Presley has taken another trip down the aisle. The 38-year-old daughter of Elvis Presley has tied the knot with guitarist and musical producer Michael Lockwood. The couple married last month in Japan. It was a traditional Japanese ceremony. Also, it was Presley's fourth marriage. In fact, her first husband, Danny Keough, was best man at the wedding. How Hollywood.

OK, Westminster may be over, but there's no need to go into doggie withdrawal. Coming to theaters this weekend, a story about friendship loyalty and dogsledding. Can't beat that, right? Mr. Moviefone will be along next with a preview.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Counsel, you at least got a photo of who you're looking for?

SAMUEL L. JACKSON, ACTOR: Ain't that many pictures of jackers in the book.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: We have some drama, some comedy and some just plain cute for you today. There's something for everyone at the movies this weekend.

Mr. Moviefone, Russ Leatherman, is here with a box office preview.

Hi, Russ.

RUSS LEATHERMAN, MR. MOVIEFONE: Good morning, Daryn. How are you?

KAGAN: I'm doing great. It looks like you have a good variety for us today. Let's start with this film called "Freedomland."

LEATHERMAN: Well, we're sort of in the garage sale period of movies, Daryn, just so you know. You know how you go the garage sale, you pay a couple bucks for sort of a piece of junk and you're OK with it? Well, now, you get to pay $10.50.

And let's start with "Freedomland." Samuel Jackson, he's back, he's yelling at people. He's plunged into a race war after Julianne Moore claims a black man from the projects kidnapped her son. So here's what you got. You got Sam Jackson, the steely detective, where we've seen that before. You've got Julianne Moore, the mother in distress.

Now, the question is seriously, how many times do we have the watch the same actors playing exactly the same roles? And Daryn, is it just me, but if you're going to pay $10.50 to see a movie, doesn't it have to be better than what's on TV already?

KAGAN: Well, I would think. You know I don't see movies like this, because they're bad dream movies for me.

LEATHERMAN: Yes, good choice, by the way.

KAGAN: Thank you. Let's move on to "Date Movie." I don't think we're talking a romantic comedy this time.

LEATHERMAN: Well, we're talking about a spoof movie. You know the scary movies, really spoofing every horror film in the world. Well, this is spoofing every romantic comedy you've seen. Now, here's the deal. Again, like most movies shown specifically to teenagers right now, they're not letting us critics look at us. I use the term critic very loosely, actually. But the fact is, if they're not going to let me see it, we don't have time for it, Daryn. So "Date Movie" is dead to me. Shut the video. KAGAN: No "Date Movie." Forget that. Let's go to the doggies. "Eight Below." You know I'm an animal lover. This one looks cute to me.

LEATHERMAN: Well, you know what, this is a pretty good movie. And it's got to be the pick of the week because it is the one movie I think you can take the family to, spend your $10 and enjoy. It's really a story about survival. It's a group of dogs, they're abandoned in Antarctica and have to find a way to survive on their own for months through the freezing water.

Now Paul Walker plays the dogs' wrangler, who desperately wants to mount a rescue effort and get back to his animals. Now, it may sound just like another dogsled movie, but the dogs are really beautiful, fantastic. The visuals are really stunning in this movie. And the best part about it, Cuba Gooding Jr. nowhere to be found in this movie. So I'm in. I really like this movie.

KAGAN: Such high criteria. Thank you, Russ.

LEATHERMAN: Well, you know, I'm just trying to keep it safe out there for moviegoers, Daryn, you know that.

KAGAN: I appreciate that. I really do. We'll see you next week at the movies.

LEATHERMAN: Have a great weekend.

KAGAN: Thank you.

Well, by this time Sunday, you could be $340 million richer if you play your numbers right. We'll have a Power Ball tip expert, coming up.

And if you're waiting in line for a lottery ticket, isn't that the way you want to spend your weekend? We have an alternative. It's time for the great backyard bird count. Find out how you can be part of this nationwide science experiment.

The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right now.

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