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American Morning

Congress, President Work into Night to Deliver $52 Billion in Relief Money; Police Making Holdouts Leave Homes by Force

Aired September 09, 2005 - 08:00   ET

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

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
I'm Soledad O'Brien and I'm coming to you live from downtown New Orleans.

Today, police are facing what could, in fact, be very dangerous work, making thousands of the hardcore holdouts in this city leave their homes by force.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHTON O'DWYER, ATTORNEY: They come to my house, they try to evict me, they try to take my guns, there will be gunfire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Furious residents, some armed and dangerous.

In Washington, Congress and the president work into the night deliver another $52 billion in relief money. Some people call it, though, a drop in the bucket. We've got a live report ahead.

And in Houston, immediate spending power for evacuees and immediate confusion. FEMA handing out those $2,000 debit cards. That story on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning.

Welcome, everybody.

We're coming to you live this morning from the foot of Canal Street and right in front of police command and control headquarters this morning -- hey, Miles.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad, from New York.

We begin with a look at mission critical news.

Washington is sending more emergency relief money to help hurricane victims. Late Thursday night, the president signed a $51.8 billion spending bill. Some of that money set aside for the FEMA debit cards we've been telling you about, up to $2,000. On Thursday, FEMA officials said the debit card program would only continue in the Houston area. Other victims would need to receive their money as an electronic funds transfer or a check. And in Mississippi, about 200,000 homes and businesses without power this morning still. Mississippi Power says it plans to restore electricity to all working customers by Sunday -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right, Miles.

I want to show you a shot of the aquarium, the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, which you can now see a little bit better since the sun has risen and it's brighter out here. Members of the 82nd Airborne walking just below us. They take their posts and start their mission here this morning. A pretty remarkable story of heroism from the employees inside, who rode out the storm right here and continued to stay to help the animals that were in their care, in spite of the looting that went on and in spite of the, really, frankly, danger in the area.

They were able to save the sea otters and the penguins and the macaws and a 250-pound sea turtle, apparently. But they lost a lot, some 6,000 of the aquatic life, of marine animals were -- died because the life support system that keeps them going failed to kick in once they lost power and they couldn't sustain them.

So a real tragedy there. And you've got to imagine for the folks who work there, who put a lot of time into saving some of those marine animals, they are to be congratulated for their hard work.

We want to take you down not too far, really, just down that a way to Dan Simon. He's got a look at this forced evacuation issue, which is a huge issue today, because every day that goes by, it's really the holdouts, the hard core holdouts who are staying.

Dan Simon has a look at what might happen down the road with them -- good morning, Dan.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

You know, the attitude among the remaining residents is one of defiance. You know, the police department has made it clear they don't want to have to use force to get these people out of their homes. But based upon what we saw, they may have to do just that.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

O'DWYER: Has your neighborhood ever been invaded by state troopers from another state sent here by god knows whom?

SIMON (voice-over): Many of the people continuing to stay in New Orleans were told time was running out. Ashton O'Dwyer is an attorney, but says he'll defy any order requiring him to evacuate.

O'DWYER: I will leave when I am dead, OK? Let them be warned. They come to my house, they try to evict me, they try to take my guns, there will be gunfire.

SIMON: With his house intact and with plenty of food and water, O'Dwyer cannot understand why folks like him are being forced to leave.

O'DWYER: Treat me with benign neglect. Get out of my neighborhood, get out of my life, get out of (OBSCENE WORD OMITTED) city.

SIMON: And there were plenty of other fireworks, as officers went door-to-door looking for holdouts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, my rights!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Come on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a constitutional right.

SIMON: The situation got extremely tense when an armed man barricaded himself, threatening to shoot. He was eventually arrested without incident.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are we evicting these people for god's sake, I hope?

SIMON: Officers also arrested the occupants of a suspected stolen truck.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing, man? Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Get him! Put your hands up!

SIMON: They searched it and found a stash of drugs and a handgun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the handgun.

SIMON: It may have been more calm at this neighborhood bar, but the sentiment remains the same, as folks try to figure out how to avoid the mandatory order.

JOANNE GUIDES, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: People can come in and get away from the insanity and get a little normality here.

SIMON: Owner Joanne Guides has managed to keep the place open with generators. Folks were socializing, ordering drinks, pretending everything was normal.

Larry Stam says for now, this is about as good as life gets.

LARRY STAM, BAR PATRON: No way I'm going to go. I don't have no money. Can't get into the bank. I can't use my ATM card. If I leave here, I'm going to be in worse shape than I'm in here. We're watching TV. We've got a place to sleep. We have food.

SIMON: You can see police and soldiers on just about every corner trying to talk sense into the remaining holdouts. But in every case we encountered, residents refused to back down.

(on camera): But there's no electricity, no running water. MICHELLE LARANGER, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: Didn't you ever camp in your life? Didn't you ever go wilderness camping? Do you know what that's about? That's what we're doing right now.

SIMON (voice-over): Paramedics tried to convince Bill Stenson to leave, but he told them to take a hike. He's worried about being separated from his dogs.

BILL STENSON, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: My dogs are not going into a shelter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, I (UNINTELLIGIBLE)...

STENSON: They are not going away from me.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SIMON: So the question is will there be an eventual showdown between the police and the remaining residents and at what point will things have to be escalated -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, it's interesting, Dan, you point out the guy talking about his dogs. We ran into a lot of people who actually were interested in evacuating. But early on when they couldn't, because they weren't taking animals, they would turn right back and go into their homes and say forget it. I'm going to stick it out with my dogs. I'd rather have that alternative.

Dan Simon for us.

Dan, thanks a lot.

Let's get right back to Miles in New York -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Thank you, Soledad.

Late last night, President Bush signed a $51.8 billion aid package for hurricane victims. FEMA will get most of that money.

Bob Franken live at the White House now -- Bob, how do those numbers break down?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, of course, we're talking about massive amounts, but we're also talking about amounts that are going to increase, maybe triple before all of this is said and done. Of the $51.8 million that will be an expenditure over five weeks of almost $1.5 billion a day, $1.4 billion. $50 billion is going to go to FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has come under such criticism. And there is concern from those who are the critics that some of this money could be squandered if it's not properly administered.

The Department of Defense and the Pentagon is going to also get an additional $1.4 billion. Of course, as we've seen, there are so many boots on the ground, to use the expression everybody else is using, that's expensive. And the question comes up, Miles, what is going to be the method of paying for all this?

This is a massive, massive hit on the budget. We're talking $150 billion before things are through, maybe $200 billion. And the answer is the options are limited.

Vice President Cheney says that for now nobody is considering a tax increase. We know how the administration is really opposed to anything like that. Offsets, that's the word here in Washington. And that would mean budget cutbacks. But every one of those cutbacks has a politically popular constituency, so that becomes tough.

They're going to have to come up with some way, and nobody has really started talking about that right yet. You can certainly understand that, with the horror that still continues in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

M. O'BRIEN: Someone is going to have to pay when the bill comes due, one way or another.

Bob Franken, thank you very much.

About an hour from now, at the Houston Astrodome, FEMA claims it will be distributing those debit cards worth up to $2,000 to help evacuees cover urgent living expenses.

Betty Nguyen live at the Astrodome in Houston -- and, Betty, I say claim because we have been talking about those cards for quite some time, have yet to see them.

I assume that people are already lining up.

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes, they are.

We just drove over to Reliant Arena and folks have already lined up by the hundreds. We talked to a few people out there who said that they actually slept there overnight. Some got there around 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning. And they say they did that, one, to ensure their place in line. But, two, to after the chaos they experienced yesterday with the Red Cross debit card system, that line, too, is forming, I must tell you, Miles, today.

So we've got two lines still forming today for two separate debit cards. But the latest information is that FEMA is distributing its debit cards, up to $2,000 per family, today here for the Reliant Park evacuees. It will start tomorrow for the evacuees in the Houston area.

But we've also been told by the regional officer with FEMA that because of all the chaos yesterday with the Red Cross, it is deciding that in other areas outside of Houston that it wants to go back to the old method of sending out checks and doing direct deposit, because there was so much chaos here yesterday. In fact, we had to undergo a temporary lockdown because of the crowd control that was needed out here -- Miles. M. O'BRIEN: Well, Betty, we're kind of scratching our heads this morning, because the debit cards seem like such a good idea.

Is it too good an idea for the bureaucracy?

NGUYEN: You know, that's a question for them. But I know that it caused a lot of confusion. I think a lot of it has to do with information that's being put out there. Evacuees have come to Houston by the thousands. Not all of them are staying in these four main shelters. In fact, some of them have found temporary homes.

But when they hear that debit cards are being distributed, they're all flooding in here to get their hands on those debit cards, to get in line to fill out those applications. And for the most part, those debit cards are just starting with the evacuees who are only housed in these four main Houston shelters.

It is a great idea because a lot of folks don't have a permanent address. Many people are really concerned about getting a check mailed to them because how long are they going to stay there? Also, there are folks that would like to see it go into a bank account, but not everybody is signed up with that.

So there are a lot of logistical problems.

M. O'BRIEN: I suspect quite a few people don't have access to a bank account right now.

NGUYEN: That's true.

M. O'BRIEN: And the mail, of course, is an issue.

So, anyway, well, maybe that debit card program will be expanded. Let's hope so.

Betty Nguyen in Houston at the Astrodome.

Thanks very much.

Let's get some other headlines in.

Carol Costello with that -- good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Miles.

Good morning to all of you.

Now in the news, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is in Washington this morning. The Iraqi leader is set to answer questions about the security situation in Iraq and the plans for an October vote on the country's new constitution. He'll hold a news conference at the Voice of America headquarters later today. President Bush is expected to meet with the president in the next week.

FEMA coming out in defense of Director Michael Brown this morning. A new "Time" magazine article claims there are inconsistencies in Brown's official biographies. Brown's resume reportedly says he was an assistant city manager with oversight on emergency services. But "Time" cites research that says Brown was only an assistant to the city manager. FEMA claims the report is based on false information.

Those insulin shots may soon be a thing of the past. An advisory panel is recommending the approval of an inhaled form of insulin. But there are still concerns about how effective it would be for people who smoke. The Food and Drug Administration will make a final call on whether the drug can be sold in the United States.

And forecasters like Chad are downgraded Ophelia to a tropical storm as it loses strength off of Florida's Atlantic Coast. But who knows if it will strengthen again -- good morning, Carol.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Carol.

It sure could. It gulped a little dry air overnight. The air has been extremely dry over parts of Georgia and the Carolinas the past couple of days, really, making it feel more like fall than the end of summer.

But here is the storm itself right here, still spinning around, blowing some rain showers onshore into Florida, but it has moved farther offshore, about 115 miles offshore now. It's still in very warm water. It still could get -- and it is forecast to get stronger. Right now 65 miles per hour. There are the coordinates, 29-3. And then from the west it moves off to the east. Then it goes almost completely east and then due south and then to the west again, a complete loop with this storm. And forecasting it back up to 85 miles per hour as that water -- that's the same warm water we talk about Gulf Stream all the time, making huge waves all the way from North Carolina down to Florida this morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, more on that flooded nursing home in St. Bernard Parish. The son of one victim tells us why his 92-year-old mother never had a chance.

Plus, there are many charities online if you'd like to help survivors of Katrina. But beware -- beware of the scams. We'll have some tips on what you should look out for ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.

One of the more tragic stories to come out of this disaster is the story of what happened to the residents at St. Rita's Nursing Home, as we told you on Thursday. More than 30 of those residents died when the floodwaters got just too high.

Eva Rodrigue is believed to be among the dead. She was a resident at St. Rita's. And her son Tom told us that he was helpless to get his mom out of the way because he, in his position in the office of emergency management, was dealing with the oncoming hurricane himself.

Here's his story.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

TOM RODRIGUE, VICTIM'S SON: At the nursing home was around 9:30 Sunday night and the storm was approaching. You could imagine how panicked I was, but here I am, I'm torn between two things. This is what I do for a living and the nursing home people know I work for Jefferson Parish emergency management and they know that I can't come and get my mother.

She was 92 years old and I don't I know even if she would have got out whether or not she could have physically withstood this ordeal. But she deserved a chance and she didn't get a chance. So, I mean, she drowned. I mean, you know, they left her to drown.

I lost my house, my mother. I mean this is rough. This is rough. But we're going to be OK. We'll be OK and we'll move on and we'll recover from this. I don't think I'll ever forget it. I don't think it's something you could ever forget, you know? I mean this storm here is the one we hoped we never would have to deal with.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: There's a report this morning in the "Times- Picayune," which is the local paper here, and they quote a guy named Bryan Bertucci, who is the local coroner. And he says that, in fact, he called the owner of St. Rita's within 24 hours before the storm struck and offered two of his buses in order to transport some of those nursing home residents out, and that offer was declined by the owner.

An investigation is now underway locally into that event -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Do we know why the offer was declined, Soledad?

S. O'BRIEN: No indication. And we heard also from Tom Rodrigue, who we spoke to, as well, and he said he kept checking in and they told him on Saturday that they were not going to evacuate, but Sunday a mandatory evacuation would have kicked in. And all these nursing homes actually have to register with the state their evacuation plans. So, in his words, they had to have a plan. That plan obviously, and tragically, was not implemented -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: So tragic that they turned down some assistance.

Soledad, thank you very much.

Still to come, if you donate to hurricane relief online, make sure you don't get scammed. We'll have tips on picking out the legitimate charities from the frauds. The short answer is if you get an e-mail, be very wary about it.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: Since the hurricane, a countless number of charities have popped up online. But the FBI says beware. The majority of them are scams.

Technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg is at the CNN Center to help us sort through it.

I guess if they popped up since the hurricane, that would be the first thing that would be slightly suspicious -- Daniel.

Do we have any idea how many of these scams are out there right now?

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly doesn't take long for the scum of the Internet to rear its ugly head, Miles. It happened after 9/11. It happened after the tsunami.

The FBI estimates there are about 2,300 Web sites out there that are suspicious or considered bogus. They send out e-mails in bulk just like spam, trying to get you to go to these sites. They're basically preying on people's generosity at the time like this and the fact that it's really so easy to donate money online these days.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, you've talked a lot about over the years, so- called phishing, P-H-I-S-H-I-N-G, where people send out e-mails and they look really legitimate. And there's one circulating around that looks like a Red Cross appeal, doesn't it?

SIEBERG: Right. We can show you this e-mail here as an example of one you might be getting in your in box. Here's what you're seeing on your screen right now. This basically looks like a legitimate e- mail. You can see they're saying hey, if you want to check out the legitimacy of this e-mail, you can go to the link that looks like the Red Cross page, and that's the Red Cross link right there.

Now, the link up here you're seeing, this is the bogus part of this e-mail. And if you click on that, we can actually show you a side by side of what the bogus site looks like. This is the bogus site here on the right. And on this side is the actual legitimate Red Cross page.

When you glance at that, it's very hard to tell which is the right one. They have all of the logos here that look very similar. The donations that you would put in. But basically this one on the right, you do not want to go to. This one on the left is OK. We got to the one on the left by typing in the actual address, redcross.org.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, boy.

SIEBERG: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: There, I hope, is a special place in hell for these people that do this in the wake of something like this.

SIEBERG: Yes.

M. O'BRIEN: It's just awful.

And you touched on an important point here. You really should look at that address bar up there, because that will give you a clue. If it doesn't say redcross.org or whatever their site is, if it has some funny thing with all kinds of ampersands and stuff in it, it's probably fraud, right?

SIEBERG: It is. It's probably fraud. I mean basically the first clue when you're looking for whether this e-mail is fraudulent or not is the fact that you've even gotten an e-mail. To put it bluntly, no company or charity is sending out mass e-mails in bulk to try to get you to go to a particular site. They just don't operate that way.

So if you want to find a place to go and donate, you can go directly to the site, open up a new window on your computer, a new Web browser window, and type in the e-mail -- or the Web address directly from there. Don't go from a link in an e-mail.

M. O'BRIEN: Always initiate it. Do the Google search on the site, whatever the case may be. Get your own -- get to the site under your own steam, I think is a key.

SIEBERG: Right.

M. O'BRIEN: OK. So that's number one on our list of tips. Legitimate companies don't do e-mails.

Number two, don't click on those links. Those links are -- it's like stepping on an electronic land mine, if you will. And then once again, type the charity name into the Web browser. Those are three key important things.

If you get an e-mail, Daniel, what do you do?

SIEBERG: If you get an e-mail just simply delete it. Because beyond just being sort of disgusting that these people are preying on people's generosity at a time like this, the e-mail itself, the message, the link, maybe some photos, it might contain a virus or a way to get into your computer. So beyond just not being the place where you want to send your money, there's the potential that somebody could also break into your computer, as well.

M. O'BRIEN: So they'll steal your money and then hack your computer in some way and give you a virus. Isn't that delightful?

SIEBERG: Right. It's a double whammy.

M. O'BRIEN: What can the -- what, if anything, can the government do about this?

SIEBERG: Well, it's very tough because these Web sites pop up and down very quickly. We did a quick search for some Red Cross Web sites that are out there, some examples of some of the domain names. There are so many of them that are out there that people can go and get very quickly, sign up, create this fake looking Web page and then shut it down.

There is an anti-fraud task force being set up by the attorney general. The FBI says they have at least eight investigations to look into these different claims of bogus Web sites.

But this is going to go on for a while, Miles. I mean as long as people are looking to donate money and as long as this disaster is continuing and there's also the relief effort, this is going to go on for weeks.

So people really have to be wary of these types of things coming into their in box and just delete them as soon as you see it come in. Go to a Web site, like cnn.com, for example. If you want somewhere to go that has a lot of different places where you can donate, you can go to cnn.com. They have a list of different Web sites there that you can donate from, very easy. Cnn.com/Katrina.

M. O'BRIEN: And you can trust our links there, properly vetted.

SIEBERG: Absolutely.

M. O'BRIEN: And, if nothing -- if something good comes out of this, maybe it'll remind people it's a good idea to donate. But just do it the right way.

SIEBERG: Right. Exactly.

M. O'BRIEN: Daniel Sieberg, who watches technology for us, and the Internet, thank you very much.

SIEBERG: You bet.

M. O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, a closer look at New Orleans' cultural heritage, from Mardi Gras to music. We'll look at what it will take to bring the city back.

Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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