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Fire Burns Out of Control In French Quarter; New Orleans Airport Serves As Triage for Critically Ill, Maternity Ward

Aired September 02, 2005 - 08:30   ET

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

SOLEDAD, O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. Let's show you some pictures. We have aerial pictures we want to show you this railroad fire. It looks as though Hazmat teams are being sent up. Now at first light you can really get a better view of the situation this. This is apparently just across the river from the French Quarter. You can see how big this fire has gotten.
We were told by earlier reporting from Chris Lawrence that the owner of this facility says there are no hazardous materials inside. That, in fact, it does not require the Hazmat team to be on the scene. If you can remember the chaos inside that city it doesn't look like the fire will be put out any time soon. That are some of these new aerial pictures coming to us right now.

It's just after half past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. Ahead this morning we are going to take a look at the political fallout from the response, or as some people are putting it, the lack of response to this catastrophe, which is growing more and more desperate by the hour.

Miles is at the airport in New Orleans, which has really been turned into essentially a kind of MASH unit. Let's check in with Miles about the scene there.

Miles, good morning again.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Soledad.

We're here at the New Orleans International Airport. As I said a little while ago, I just keep scratching my head and thinking about this lobby, which I walked through on Sunday, the business travelers and just your typical airport scene, is now a triage set up. It's not MASH per se like you think of military army surgical hospital, there is no heavy surgery being done here.

This particular center is a disaster medical assistance center, DMAC. It is designed to respond (AUDIO GAP) to terror attacks. This is one of the thing that FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, came out post 9/11 in order to provide a good response to some sort of terror attack.

They're getting a drill that they never intended. I think, in general, the overall response to this particular natural disaster will be used for really coming up with one would hope new plans for responding to terror attacks. (AUDIO GAP) We will be back with a little bit more. We'll talk to a couple of nurses. (AUDIO GAP) One nurse who was transporting a patient to Baton Rouge, she left with one patient, she arrived with three patients. We'll tell you her story in a moment.

Let's get other news, though. Carol Costello is in New York with that.

Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN NEWS ANCHOR, AMERICAN MORNING: Good morning, Miles. Good morning to all of you.

"Now in the News": The president is expected to leave for Mobile, Alabama in the next hour. He's getting a closer look at the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. The president will also make stops in Mississippi, and possibly deliver remarks from the Louie Armstrong Airport where Miles is. There's been some criticism that the president's response to the disaster is slow and lacking.

The situation in New Orleans is deteriorating quickly. Thousands are waiting for food, water and relief from the heat. Earlier this morning, I spoke with Alan Gould on CNN's day "Daybreak". He is one of the people who has been at the convention center the past three days. This is how he described the experience.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAN GOULD, SHELTERED IN CONVENTION CTR.: There is more or less genocide going on. They more or less corralled us in two places, the convention center and the Superdome. No food, no water. Like I said, almost 90-degree heat inside. Small children, and sick and elderly people dying every day.

Small children being raped and killed. People running around with guns. I'm scared for my life. We need to see somebody -- somebody here to help get us out of here! I mean, we have nowhere to go. The city is underwater. Our homes are gone. We have nowhere to go. We need help. We need to be out of here today!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Mr. Gould says they are kind of controlling the situation themselves, so it's one of a vigilante justice kind of system. In fact, when they see anybody with a gun they just sort of surround him and force him out of the building. As you heard, they desperately need more help now. The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency also spoke with us this morning. He blames a lack of communication on the dire situation in the city.

In other news this morning, the Arabic language network Al Jazeera has aired a videotape showing a man who appears to be one of the suicide bombers in the July 7 London attacks.

On the tape, the man Osama bin Laden as one of today's heroes. But U.S. officials warn against assuming Al Qaeda is behind the bombings. The CIA is working to verify that videotape.

More U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq. Military sources say two task force Baghdad soldiers died Thursday after their patrol struck a bomb. The incident is under investigation. A third soldier died Wednesday from small arms fire.

And Boeing machinists are on strike. More than 18,000 workers walked out after the company and its unions could not agree on a new labor contract. The strike shuts down production at the company's commercial air plants division. Let's say the move could cost Boeing as much as $70 million a day. Andy will have more on this.

Let's head down to Atlanta now to check in with Jacqui Jeras, she in for Chad this morning.

(WEATHER FORECAST)

S. O'BRIEN: President Bush is going to tour hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast this afternoon. Also today, the House is expected to take up a $10.5-billion disaster relief bill. The Senate approved that bill on Thursday.

But when it comes to assessing the effectiveness of the emergency response, officials either say it's terribly slow or ineffective, or they say it's going well when you consider the circumstances. Let's get right to Ron Brownstein, CNN's political analyst.

Ron, good morning. Nice to see you.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: When you look at some of these pictures, you hear the Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to say that the relief efforts have been magnificent. I have tell you magnificent is a word that most people who have been covering the story would not think about using. Who takes the blame? Who bears the brunt of the blame that, if it's not starting now, will follow soon?

BROWNSTEIN: And has begun. I think will accelerate. Look, the magnitude of this is such that no matter what the federal response was -- and the response from other levels of government -- it would have seemed inadequate in some ways.

But no one -- no one can look at the scenes we have witnessed in New Orleans for the last few days. The breakdown of public order, the inability to get food and water to people who are stranded. The deaths literally piling up in the streets, and be satisfied with the federal response.

Soledad, we're approaching the fourth anniversary of 9/11, the nation is preparing to commemorate that in the next few days. This has to raise enormous questions about how prepared we are to deal with not only national but man-made terrorist disasters.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about that, because it begs that very question. If we can't manage a disaster, that frankly many people knew the hurricane was coming in; 48 hours before it was going to be big, knew the levee system is a huge problem in New Orleans.

So, this was a disaster that kind of the writing was on the wall to a large degree, how is the United States going to handle a terror attack? I mean, you're talking to the Secretary Chertoff yesterday, I believe. He said well, you know, the cell phone towers failed. We thought, of course, they failed. Does this mean there's nothing in place because, of course, communications systems are going to fail. Who -- to what degree do these agencies have to sit down and refigure a plan? I'm shocked by this.

BROWNSTEIN: You're asking exactly the right questions. The ones I think we all have to hope that people inside the administration, and in Congress, will be asking in the weeks ahead when we get past the immediate life-saving activities here.

Look, this is perhaps -- perhaps along with the San Francisco earthquake, the most anticipated natural disaster imaginable. There have been studies of this, as you point out. There was a simulation in 2004 and 2001. FEMA identified this as one of the three most likely catastrophes. And yet, here we are Friday after the event, and still a sense -- on the ground, as you broadcast from the mayor -- of an inadequate response.

Certainly, you have to ask the question of why more wasn't ready beforehand and what this means about our ability to respond to other challenges of this nature. You would hope that the natural instinct of any administration is as to circle the wagons, but you would hope the president would be the first one asking these questions in the weeks ahead.

S. O'BRIEN: Why so many of the elected officials -- and we've seen this time and time again -- praising their response? I've been actually been -- the mayor today, Mayor Ray Nagin today, was almost the first elected official who sounded very angry, who is currently in office. We heard from previous mayors but currently in office.

I was sort of surprised. I don't know if you saw Senator Mary Landrieu's with Anderson Cooper. And she said, well, you know, I got to praise the response. I have to praise the money coming in. He said, I haven't noticed because there have been dead bodies and they are being eaten by rats, so sorry for not noticing that.

I mean, why that tone? Is it because the dollars won't get to their communities if, in fact, they raise these issues?

BROWNSTEIN: I think there are a couple of things on the table here. First, from the point of view of those doing the responding, this is a massive effort, right? There's no question that enormous amounts of material, money, people power are being thrown at this problem. So I can understand how someone like Secretary Chertoff says we are doing a vast amount here. But the need is so vast that is still seems to pale by comparison.

The other thing on the table, as you suggest, I don't think you're going to see many elected officials, particularly the federal level, wanting to criticize the response while they are still hoping to generate as much help as they can out of Washington.

The issue is not only how much is being done it's really how that compares to the need. I don't think that anybody looking at this week is going to come out with a great feeling of assurance that we are prepared to deal with this sort of catastrophe.

As I say rather than circle the wagons one would hope both the president and the Congress, which often been reluctant to do oversight of this administration, will be asking these hard questions. Not in the spirit of blame assigning, but in the spirit of preparing us for future challenges, which we know -- we don't know exactly what they will be -- but we know there will be some.

S. O'BRIEN: Certainly, much less warning for those future challenges than maybe you had in New Orleans.

BROWNSTEIN: Exactly right.

S. O'BRIEN: Ron Brownstein, as always, thanks a lot.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Let's get back to Miles.

Miles, good morning, again.

M. O'BRIEN: Good morning again, Soledad.

We should tell our viewers the President of the United States, George Bush is headed in our direction here in the city of New Orleans. He'll be leaving in the White House in about 15, 18-minutes' time frame.

We do expect the president to make remarks before he boards Marine One, ultimately, Air Force One, and makes his way down here to New Orleans for his aerial tour. You'll of course hear those remarks live here on CNN.

Look at these pictures. This is the city of New Orleans now. A fire that is burning clearly out of control. Apparently, in some sort of freight yard or some sort of rail car. Just another indication of the devolution of civilization in New Orleans. Chaos continues to reign there, and no one seems to be in charge.

I'm standing in New Orleans International Airport, the Louis Armstrong Airport, where they are trying to bring some order to the chaos and trying to help those least fortunate among us, those who are aged and elderly and infirmed. It is truly a heroic task that they are dealing with right now as they try to help the people who are ill, who have, obviously in many cases, been made sicker by the ordeal they've been through. And get them on to medical care elsewhere where they still have things like electricity and running water.

I've got two nurses with me who have spent a lot of time here taking care of people.

Good to see you both. With us, Robbie Prepas, did I pronounce that right? And Kris Benvenuto. So, sorry. Been a long morning.

Start with you, Chris. Just give us the range of kinds of cases you've been seeing. In many senses, is it sort of a typical sort of emergency room setting?

KRIS BENVENUTO, ER NURSE: Yes, in many senses, it is. We are seeing absolutely everything. We're seeing minor injuries, bumps and bruises, people who have been rescued off of roofs. Who have -- who tried to rescue other people and gotten injured. Or who have had minor injuries that sort of have progressed to more serious injuries and conditions as a result of not being treated at first.

We have seen also a lot of patients being transferred from hospitals who are in the midst of some sort of acute care. And they are coming very much in the middle of their treatment course. And we're trying to figure out what that treatment course is and sort of pick up the pieces.

M. O'BRIEN: Clearly, you don't always have the file? Do you? You're having to do a little forensics on this whole thing?

BENVENUTO: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: Robbie, tell us about this experience you had. Left with one patient on your way to Baton Rouge, arrived with three. Tell us how that happened.

ROBBIE PREPAS, NURSE-MIDWIFE: Well, we've had several obstetrical patients that have come in, in labor. I've sent most of them to Baton Rouge. And last night I had a woman come in, who had twins. She was completely dilated and ready to have the babies.

So I hopped in the ambulance with the Arkansas Children's Hospital ambulance. The paramedics took me and en route she delivered two healthy boys, one in the head-down position, one in the breech position, both around 5 pounds, both healthy. One is named Duane, one name is Lee. They are in the women's hospital now in Baton Rouge and they're healthy. So we are just seeing more and more of these obstetrical patients.

M. O'BRIEN: And we saw, just the other day -- we met a woman who in the midst of being transferred, her baby went one direction, she went the other. There is a lot of that where families are being separated. How awful would it be to give birth, your baby goes on somewhere else. I assume there will be a concerted effort to reunite everybody?

PREPAS: Yes, that's correct. I had a woman yesterday who was in labor and she was with her young children. They wouldn't take the young children in the ambulance and so we didn't know what to do. So we finally convinced her to go to the hospital. But she had to leave the young children here. There are so many families that are separated from their siblings, their husbands. They don't know where they are. They were in the Superdome, they have no idea where they are.

M. O'BRIEN: Kris, what is the biggest challenge? You referred to people coming in without their files. That's a huge thing. What else is making it difficult for y'all to do your job here?

BENVENUTO: Well, there are an awful lot of people who have been affected by this and being able to have enough people to do the work. We have a number of DMAC Teams here. And we are all working very hard. We also have the military here and they've been helping -- they've been tremendous help.

We still just don't quite have enough people to manage everything. The city of New Orleans is being evacuated and we're getting everything, including those people who don't need to be treated, including those people who are out there making trouble who are rioting, so we're getting it all. We getting, yes, we're getting it all and

M. O'BRIEN: It must be a little more than you bargained for in the medical field. All right.

BENVENUTO: It is.

M. O'BRIEN: All right. Kris Benvenuto and Robbie Prepas, keep up the good work, ladies. I know you're not getting any sleep at all, but please know we all appreciate your efforts.

BENVENUTO: Thank you very much.

M. O'BRIEN: We're going to take a break. As we leave you, take a look at the pictures of the city of New Orleans. This rail fire that continues to burn uncontrolled. Clearly, this is another indication of what is going on in the city of New Orleans now. Chaos, confusion, a very, very dangerous place. Hard to believe we're talking about the United States. Back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: The Baylor College of Medicine is overseeing the care of thousands of evacuees from New Orleans, now being housed in the Houston Astrodome. Baylor's Doctor Stuart Yudofsky, a psychiatrist, is leading a team that is tending to their mental health needs. He's in Houston this morning.

Nice to see you, doctor. Thank you very much for talking with us.

First and foremost, the people who are coming in, what kind of shape are they in? What kind of conditions are you seeing, both psychologically and physically?

DR. STUART YUDOFSKY, PSYCHIATRIST: Well, in both cases, Soledad, neither is great. We have all ranges of medical problems. We're dealing first with the emergency problems, classical medical triage. I'm part of the mental health response which is extraordinary.

There are people who have been on psychiatric medications for severe psychiatric illnesses, such as bipolar illness, schizophrenia, depression, Kant (ph) disorder. They haven't had their medications. We're able to diagnose this. We've set up a pharmacy and addressing these needs directly.

There are those who have been incredibly traumatized by the experience. I can't imagine anything more overwhelming to the human emotions and people walking around the Astrodome, it's cool there, they are getting plenty of medications that they need, plenty of food and water.

However, they are dazed. They need information. They've lost everything. So this has, as you can imagine, a profound effect.

S. O'BRIEN: Is there any kind of registry? Not only for doctors as they take sort of the medical histories and knowing who you're dealing with, what kind of population, but any kind of history so you can connect some of those people with their families? Which I have to imagine would be a good first step in bringing them back to the road to recovery.

YUDOFSKY: That is almost the first thing that people ask me is have you heard about this relative of mine? I know they're getting medical help or that? They might be in Baton Rouge or New Orleans. And I have to tell them I haven't. That is not done. Just developing the medical records is an enormous challenge for us.

We need to know what they've been taking in the past. What we have given them -- and we are doing our very best to organize this -- but the information component is not good right now.

S. O'BRIEN: I can imagine. What kind of resources are you dealing with? How many people do you have on your team? Are you understaffed?

YUDOFSKY: No, not woefully understaffed at all. We are two miles away from the largest medical center in the world, the mental health component of this medical center is enormous. Our community has pulled together. We have plenty of psychiatrists, residents, social workers. One area we have a deficit of this time are nurses and that is pretty much happened before this disaster.

S. O'BRIEN: I tell you, that's how well-staffed you are.

YUDOFSKY: It's a national problem.

S. O'BRIEN: Some of the only good news that we have heard this morning, Doctor Yudofsky.

YUDOFSKY: We are --

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, sir?

YUDOFSKY: Soledad, we are very well-staffed. We are digging in. We have on-call schedules for several months now, so we do not expect these problems to go away quickly. And we are in it for the long haul.

S. O'BRIEN: We are very glad to hear that. Doctor Stuart Yudofsky from the Baylor College of Medicine, thanks for talking with us.

Still to come this morning, hundreds of thousands of Gulf Coast residents without jobs now because of Hurricane Katrina. We'll take a look at what impact that could have across our nation coming up ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. President Bush is going to make his way to the heavily affected areas around the Gulf Coast this morning and this afternoon. We're going to follow that, of course. We expect to hear from the president as he leaves the White House. We're going to try to bring his remarks to you as live as well as soon as he makes comments.

Business news now to tell you about. Hurricane Katrina wiping out hundreds of thousands of jobs, obviously. What is the overall employment outlook? Andy Serwer is "Minding Your Business" this morning.

This is going to compute into the national employment figures.

ANDY SERWER, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, "MINDING YOUR BUSINESS": It absolutely will, Soledad. The impact is unclear at this point.

Let me just tell you, we just got the jobs report for the month of August. Just came out; 169,000 jobs added to the economy. The unemployment rate drops to 4.9 percent.

The reason why this is important is because this is going to be our last number before the impact of Katrina. This will be sort of a bench benchmark. A half a million to 1 million people are out of work in the Gulf Coast region. That is expected to make the unemployment rate, regionally there, climb from single digits to perhaps as much as 20 percent -- 20 percent there.

This even, after the rebuilding that will take place. Normally, you actually get a little bit of a bump up after a hurricane, say, in Florida because there's so much rebuilding. Unemployment benefits typically last 26 months (ph), they may get extended.

Just another quick note here, the price of gasoline has now averaged $2.86 a gallon, climbed yet again this morning. But good news on the way, wholesale prices falling this morning as the pipelines get on speed and also the Japanese and Europeans are saying they will help us. The wholesale price of gas falling for the first time in a week, that is good news.

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, a little bit of good news. Andy, thanks.

SERWER: Yes, you're welcome.

S. O'BRIEN: We will take a short break. When we come back in just a moment we'll update you on this rail fire. It is happening near the French Quarter. It was described as explosions early this morning. You can see how it is looking now. We'll be back in just a moment on AMERICAN MORNING.

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