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American Morning

Interview with FEMA Director Michael Brown; Aftermath of Dennis; Baby Fatally Shot in Police Standoff

Aired July 11, 2005 - 07:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It's precisely half past the hour on this special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.
Coming up in the program, more of our special coverage. And we are, of course, following the aftermath of Hurricane Dennis.

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Ahead this morning, we talk to the director of FEMA about the emergency help that's now headed to those cities and the towns that were the hardest hit by Dennis.

M. O'BRIEN: What's Dennis doing now? That's a question you might have on your mind as you wake up this morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Dennis is the fifth hurricane to hit Florida in less than a year. And this morning, Governor Jeb Bush is going to tour the damage, going from Pensacola to Milton to Pace and Shalimar.

Mike Brown ,the director of FEMA, is going to be traveling with the governor. And he joins us from Miami this morning.

Nice to see you, Mr. Brown. Thanks for talking with us.

Yesterday, when we spoke last, you said that so far, so good. It was going pretty well. Now that the storm has fully passed, how do you think it went?

MICHAEL BROWN, FEMA DIRECTOR: Well, extremely well. I mean, we're very fortunate that the damage was not as widespread as we expected. But I don't want to allow that statement to minimize the fact that where the devastation and destruction did occur, those folks are suffering.

So, we've sent in a rapid needs assessment team, our preliminary damage assessment teams, the medical teams. They're all now on the ground assessing and beginning to help people recover from this storm.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, and I think, the fact that it's is less bad than many predicted and less bad than Ivan, some people think it's OK. But I guess it's all relative there. Dozens of counties now have been declared disaster areas in three states. What does that specifically mean they're going to get?

BROWN: Well, it means that, one, I can come in and financially help the states in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. But most importantly, it allows me to come in and help individuals, particularly in the Florida counties where the president said individual systems will be available. That means I can continue to help people rebuild in those counties.

You know, we were in the process of rebuilding last year. I made the promise last year we'd stay in Florida as long as we needed to. And I'm renewing that promise today. We'll continue to stay here as long as we need to, because they were right in the middle of continuing that rebuilding process, particularly in the Florida Panhandle. Now, we have to continue and start that process over in some places.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, kind of interrupted. I think it's four counties that are going to get direct aid, and I guess the individuals get direct aid. Why those four counties? Which ones are they?

BROWN: It's primarily in the far western part of the Florida Panhandle. And we do that because we have determined preliminarily that it appears that there are a lot of individuals who have suffered damage. And according to our threshold and our standards, that allows us to come in and help them.

In some of the other counties and some of the other states, we're still doing damage assessments to see if we can help individuals there, too. So, we're going to continue to help the states and the county governments in all of those areas, and hopefully be able to help individuals, too, in both in Alabama and Mississippi.

S. O'BRIEN: You talked a little bit about mobilizing resources. What time did everybody get out on the road? How far away are they from actually getting in and starting to hand out actual resources that people need?

BROWN: Well, we've actually started that this morning. I mean, we had over 150 trucks of meals ready to eat, cots, water, ice, already deployed and ready to go. Those trucks started rolling between midnight and 4:00 a.m. this morning. So, I imagine actual distribution is starting anytime now.

Our objective has always been, get in there as quickly as you can as long as it's safe for those people to get in there, because the quicker we can help them recover, the quicker that means those communities can come back together and rebuild.

S. O'BRIEN: There is one county, and I think at one point they had 14,000 people living in trailers. It's now down to 3,000. FEMA folks have to come in and examine those trailers, right, to make sure they are secure so they can move back into those trailers. How long is that going to take?

BROWN: Well, actually those teams are in there right now. We sent them in very early this morning to start.

And you bring up a very good point. We were in the process of doing that rebuilding. And so, now we've got to come in and make sure those temporary mobile homes that we had our safe. If they're not, we've got to get new mobile homes in there. Plus, we may have additional people that need mobile homes.

You know, we did our Blue Roof project last year in Florida, where we came in and put blue roofs on to try to minimize further damage to homes. Some of those may be gone. We've got to come in and redo those, plus the new blue roofs.

So, this is a great challenge for FEMA, and I know that all of the people that work for us are up to that task.

S. O'BRIEN: A great challenge, and the season is only just getting started. Mike Brown is the director of FEMA. Nice to talk to you. Thanks.

M. O'BRIEN: Dennis...

BROWN: Thank you, Soledad.

M. O'BRIEN: I'm sorry. Dennis hit the tiny town of St. Marks, Florida, with an awful lot of water. Let's go to the map for just a moment. I want to set this up so that folks can appreciate how far away St. Marks is from all of the focus yesterday. Take a look here as we look at our Titan radar here. OK, first of all, there is the location where the eye went across. That's Panama City. We spent a long time talking to Chad, who was there. All the way over here is St. Marks.

And not to be a broken record here, but remember what we said about going to the right-hand side of the eye. That is where the trouble begins. St. Marks, however, probably wasn't expecting quite this kind of flooding in the wake of Hurricane Dennis.

We're joined now, as a matter of fact, by the mayor, Chuck Shields, the city manager, Zoe Mansfield.

Good to see you both. Mr. Mayor, I'll begin with you. Did anyone there think you'd get the kind of flooding you saw as a result of Dennis?

MAYOR CHUCK SHIELDS, ST. MARKS, FLORIDA: No, we did not. I've been here all my life, and this is the most water we've ever had. We had probably at least a 10-foot surge over normal high. And all of the businesses and everything along the river here was completely flooded out.

M. O'BRIEN: That's not good news, Zoe. What have you heard from people? Are they -- while the waters have receded, of course, there's a big mess left behind inside these structures, right?

SHIELDS: Right. It's full of mud. The mud washes out of the marsh grass. And everybody's business probably has somewhere around an inch to two inches of mud inside their business right now.

M. O'BRIEN: Now, Zoe, as I understand it, a lot of people rely on the oyster beds there. And this could have an adverse impact on them. Tell us about that.

ZOE MANSFIELD, CITY MANAGER, ST. MARKS, FLORIDA: On the oyster bed?

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, ma'am.

MANSFIELD: Oh, yes. I'm sure that it does.

M. O'BRIEN: Can you tell us a little bit about what the problems might be?

SHIELDS: It's contamination.

MANSFIELD: Just the contamination.

M. O'BRIEN: OK. Mr. Mayor, maybe you can -- it sounds like you know a little more about this. How does that work? What does it? The fresh water comes into the oyster beds? How does that all work?

SHIELDS: Well, actually, we're not in the oyster harvesting business around St. Marks. But Posies (ph), which is a nationally- named business here that's been serving oysters for probably 40 years, relies on Apalachicola oysters mostly. And any time a storm like this comes in and you get so much runoff down the rivers and things, the health department closes the oyster beds, and they have to go somewhere else to find the oysters.

M. O'BRIEN: Zoe, how did your house do? Did you get hit as well?

MANSFIELD: No. I fared real well. I had some water in the yard, but nothing came in the house, although the neighbors next door did get quite a bit of water.

M. O'BRIEN: And as you walk around town, I know that grocery store right behind you there got hit pretty hard. What are people saying?

MANSFIELD: Oh, yes.

M. O'BRIEN: What are they telling you about their losses?

MANSFIELD: Well, everything is -- has been under water in the town. All of the homes in town have been under water. But they seem real upbeat. And they know that we've got a lot of clean-up to do.

M. O'BRIEN: Do you have...

MANSFIELD: They're not discouraged.

M. O'BRIEN: Do you have enough help?

MANSFIELD: Actually, no. We could use a lot of help here to clean up.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Well, I'm sure it's on the way. Mr. Mayor, I hope you get the help you need from the Red Cross and others as you try to clean up after this mess. We wish you well.

SHIELDS: Thank you.

MANSFIELD: Thank you.

SHIELDS: One of the main things is just cleaning up the streets from all of the mud and then getting the mud out of the businesses and get their -- all of the merchandise and stuff that's not damaged, they had up high enough, put back down. But all of the stuff that's damaged, of course, will have to be assessed. And hopefully, everybody had enough insurance to cover their losses.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. We wish you well. Chuck Shields and Zoe Mansfield, the mayor and city manager, respectively, of St. Marks, Florida, cleaning up a big mess there this morning.

Let's get another check on the headlines and see what else is going on in the world. Kelly Wallace is joining us from our New York newsroom.

Kelly -- good morning.

KELLY WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning again, Miles. And good morning to all of you.

Here are some of those other stories "Now in the News."

Some 1,000 people have fled their homes in southern Colorado after a wildfire about 150 miles south of Denver quadrupled in size on Sunday. Strong winds and high temperatures are hampering efforts to try to contain the 8,000-acre blaze. No reports, though, of any injuries. Colorado's governor has declared a state of emergency.

An extensive search under way this hour for four detainees who apparently escaped from a U.S. base in Afghanistan. Military personnel backed by military helicopters are helping in the search. Local government officials are also taking part.

A siege in Los Angeles ending with the shooting death of a suspect and a toddler, but it's not clear if the baby was shot by police or the suspect himself. Police say a man emerged from his home carrying the 19-month-old girl, then opened fire. Both were killed. A police officer was also shot but is expected to survive. Officers say they did everything they could to hold their fire. More on this story in just a moment.

The chances of finding 9-year-old Dylan Groene alive are now gone. FBI officials indicating they have positively identified human remains found in a remote campsite in western Montana. Dylan Groene and his sister, Shasta, were apparently abducted two months ago by a registered sex offender. Shasta has since been reunited with her father. The suspect is set to appear in court later this month.

And there is a new bundle of joy to tell you about. That's at the National Zoo in Washington D.C. The zoo's giant pandas have a new cub, born over the weekend. You can't see it too well, but take a look at the panda-cam. It's providing the first pictures of mama and cub. Get this: The cub is about the size of a stick of butter and weighs just ounces. It won't make its public debut for at least three months.

That gets you caught up. Back to -- go, Miles. Is that it there?

M. O'BRIEN: I cannot see the panda-cam.

S. O'BRIEN: I kind of see it.

M. O'BRIEN: We have not seen this panda this morning. Have you, Kelly?

WALLACE: No. We're told it's really, really hard to see.

S. O'BRIEN: That's the ultrasound.

M. O'BRIEN: I think that's in-utero there.

WALLACE: That's the ultrasound.

M. O'BRIEN: I know that much.

S. O'BRIEN: Imagine, if you will, a little stick of butter that looks like a panda.

M. O'BRIEN: You know, they are very cute when they're born. That's one thing. They become cute later.

WALLACE: And they're going to get bigger.

S. O'BRIEN: To their mothers, they're cute.

WALLACE: And bigger and bigger so quickly.

S. O'BRIEN: They're cute to their mother...

M. O'BRIEN: Yes.

S. O'BRIEN: ... e even when they're born kind of ugly.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes. I think it's kind of dicey, though, right? The captive panda breeding.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes. No, actually it is very risky.

M. O'BRIEN: So, we'll hold our breath and hope all goes well for the stick of butter.

S. O'BRIEN: It's got to get bigger than a stick of butter.

M. O'BRIEN: All right, Kelly, thanks.

S. O'BRIEN: Thanks, Kelly.

Ahead this morning, the aftermath of Hurricane Dennis. We're going to get a firsthand account from a CNN photographer on the devastation left behind by Dennis in Florida, and also ask him why he is willing to risk his life, really, being outside during a hurricane. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: In Los Angeles, police officers are said to be taking very hard a tragic shootout on Sunday with an armed suspect who was holding a baby. The little girl died in the gunfire. It wasn't clear if she was killed by the shots that were fired by the police or shots from the suspect.

CNN's Ted Rowlands is live in Los Angeles with more on the investigation.

It's an investigation now. Ted, what exactly is going on here?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, really, truly this is the worst-case scenario, Soledad. A police standoff ending with a 19- month-old little girl ending up dead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLANDS (voice over): A two-and-a-half standoff between a gunman and an LAPD SWAT team ended tragically Sunday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About a good 12 shots is what I thought I heard. Pop, pop, about 12 shots.

ROWLANDS: Police say they were negotiating with the suspect, Jose Paul Lemos, when he suddenly started shooting and using a 19- month-old baby as a human shield. Police say they returned fire after an officer was wounded. Lemos and the baby both died in the exchange.

JIM MCDONNELL, LAPD: We're saddened to say that the infant was struck by gunfire and also died at the scene. Our deepest sympathies go out to the family.

ROWLANDS: The incident began Sunday afternoon in south Los Angeles, when police responded to a report that Lemos was behaving aggressively and erratically, and had barricaded himself in a house with a number of weapons. The outcome was one police say they desperately wanted to avoid, but they say there was no choice but to take down the suspect.

MCDONNELL: Anytime you go to a scene and you have a young baby killed, it takes a tremendous toll. These officers are all family people, and they can picture their own kid in that same circumstance. So, they're taking it to heart. They're taking it tough.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLANDS: And the investigation is under way as to exactly what happened, who shot this little girl. It is expected that an officer shot this little girl, but that has not yet been determined.

An LAPD officer was also injured in the exchange of gunfire, shot in the shoulder. He is expected to survive.

But it's safe to say, everybody involved in this is taking it very hard, the loss of this little girl -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Well, Ted, I've got to ask you a question. You said in that spot the officer said that there was no choice but to take down the suspect. I have to ask, isn't there a policy that, actually, if someone's got a baby and they're armed -- and I understand we're waiting for the investigation. I mean, if that had been a hostage, would they still have taken down the suspect?

ROWLANDS: Well, you know, here's -- if you visualize it, here is a guy, who has got a gun, and he's coming out of the house and he's shooting at officers. He hits an officer. And officers are trained to shoot to kill. So, once they make that decision to shoot, and they make that decision only when they believe their life is in danger, they are instructed to shoot to kill. And with a 19-month-old, you can see how she could be hit.

That said, you know, it is tough to fathom officers shooting a little girl, who obviously is an innocent victim in all of this.

S. O'BRIEN: I guess shoot to kill. But, you know, maybe shoot to injure is -- I mean, the investigation -- we'll wait for the results. Who knows?

ROWLANDS: Right, right, yes.

S. O'BRIEN: Maybe the guy shot this baby himself. But, you know, it's shocking. Shocking.

ROWLANDS: Indeed.

S. O'BRIEN: Ted Rowlands for us. Thanks, Ted.

M. O'BRIEN: Dennis turned roadways into rivers in some parts of Florida. In a moment, some of the most dramatic images of what the storm left behind. Stay with us for a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING as it continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: St. Marks, Florida, is starting to dry out today. Parts of the tiny fishing village were under water Sunday after Hurricane Dennis delivered a 10-foot storm surge. And this is about 300 miles due east of where the eye of Dennis came ashore.

To the right side, though, as we've been telling you, that's the bad side. Officials will make a full assessment of damage today.

CNN photographer Mark Biello is in St. Marks. And, believe me when I tell you, we never call him St. Mark.

Good to have you with us, Mark. Tell us what you've been seeing there.

MARK BIELLO, CNN PHOTOGRAPHER: Well, this morning, Miles, you know, the water has dramatically gone down and receded here. As a matter of fact, it's back to normal, where the original river level was.

Yesterday, when we came down on the boat, the area was flooded to the point where the bottom of the sign of this restaurant behind us, this cantina, that was the highest level that flood stage went to. So, you can see it's probably dropped a good 8-10 feet from the level at about 5:00 p.m. yesterday afternoon.

M. O'BRIEN: Of course, looks can be deceiving, Mark. Even though that water has gone away, I'm sure it's left behind a huge mess. How are people coping this morning?

BIELLO: Well, that's what's happening now. All of the shops are opening up. The shop owners are coming down. There's considerable damage on the floors of all of the businesses. You know, you got the muck, the mud, the dead fish and algae and whatever else has soaked in. You know, it's your typical flood damage to these businesses where, you know, again, the water stages rose so fast that it threw these people off guard. I mean, it just came in. And the feeder bands of rain that spun off the hurricane on the east side, I guess, just rose the levels to the point where it hit them so hard, they didn't have any time to prepare for it or, you know, put up sandbags or anything. It just came and it went that quickly.

M. O'BRIEN: I suspect most everyone there was caught by surprise. The mayor said he never would have suspected it. Now they're fishing off their front porch there for a little while. I'm curious, we were talking about the oyster industry, which is big in that general part of the world. Is there some concern this might adversely impact that?

BIELLO: Yes. You know, some of the residents yesterday were fearful that the damage to the oyster beds offshore here or in the bays, they're very worried about that. That's their livelihood. That was a big staple here. And the beds apparently were wiped out in 1985 by Hurricane Kate. So that's their biggest fear and concern that most of these oyster beds have been affected by this storm.

M. O'BRIEN: Mark Biello, our seasoned photographer who is there in St. Marks today. Be safe, OK?

BIELLO: Thank you.

M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Oil production in the Gulf Coast was shut down as Dennis passed. So, how are the prices looking now? A look at that and the market as well with Andy Serwer, who's "Minding Your Business."

Hey, Andy, I guess the good news is not as bad as many predicted. But the bad news is there will be an impact, right?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Absolutely, Soledad. I think the financial markets are overall breathing a sigh of relief this morning. But as you suggest, obviously not the worst-case scenario that many had feared would come to pass with Hurricane Dennis. We are getting some preliminary numbers on the damage. The insured cost of the storm, the first numbers back are 1 billion to 2.5 billion. One billion to 2.5 billion.

And just to give you a frame of reference, last year Hurricane Ivan, that very damaging storm, was $12 billion of insured costs. So, you can see not anywhere near the league of Ivan.

Oil and gas production was shut down for the most part, about half or a third of it actually in the Gulf, reopening this morning, and the price of oil, as you might imagine, is backing off below $59. A giant refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi, for instance, a Chevron facility there is reopening up.

Shifting gears a little bit, let's talk about markets. Last week we actually ended up doing pretty well, which is remarkable, a nice recovery from the bombings in London. The Dow was up 145 points, most of the recovery coming on Friday afternoon. And the good news seems to be continuing this morning, Soledad. Futures are up as we clean up from Dennis. And that seems to be the watch phrase of the morning.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Andy, thanks.

In a moment, back to our top story, the aftermath of Hurricane Dennis, right now a tropical depression. We're going to take a look at the forecast and look at how the remnants of Dennis might affect your Monday. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING. Stay with us.

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