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American Morning

The Difficult Task of Rebuilding New Orleans; Many Evacuees Settle in New Cities

Aired September 29, 2005 - 08:30   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up on the program, hundreds of thousands of people have left New Orleans, spreading out across the country. Many have no intention of moving back. We'll talk to two evacuees about why they've decided Houston is just about right for them. That's ahead.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And right now, we want to get you caught up on other stories in the news this morning.

The Senate is getting ready to vote for the next chief justice of the United States. Cameras caught Judge John Roberts leaving his home earlier this morning. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUDGE JOHN ROBERTS, CHIEF JUSTICE NOMINEE: I'm looking forward to the vote.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you comment on the process, now that you've been through it?

ROBERTS: I'm looking forward to the vote.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you ready for it to be over?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: There he is, not exactly answering the question, as usual. The Senate is getting ready to reconvene in the next hour, and Roberts is pretty much assured confirmation. There's also word that President Bush could announce his pick for retiring judge Sandra Day O'Connor.

A replacement has been named for the House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. DeLay gave up his leadership after he was indicted for conspiring to funnel corporate dollars to state Republicans in 2002. He vows to fight the allegations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TOM DELAY (R), TEXAS: In an act of blatant partisanship, a rogue district attorney in Travis County, Texas, named Ronnie Earle charged me with one count of criminal conspiracy, a reckless charge wholly unsupported by the facts. This is one of the weakest, most baseless indictments in American history. It's a sham and Mr. Earl knows it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: The White House continues to stand by Tom DeLay. Congressman Roy Blunt of Missouri has been chosen to fill in during his absence.

An Amtrak spokeswoman says a rockslide could be to blame for a derailed train outside of St. Louis, Missouri. The engine rolled onto its side, but the car stayed upright somehow. Ninety people were on board at the time of this accident. Some minor injuries are reported.

And what started out as a small brushfire in Southern California has now reportedly grown to a 9,300 acre wildfire. That's according to the Associated Press. These are live pictures we're showing you. Authorities say so far, it's only about 5 percent contained. The fire now heading southwest, threatening some buildings outside of Los Angeles. At least one structure has been destroyed by flames, and evacuations are underway.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Continuing our look at New Orleans one month after Katrina hit, WDSU reporter Ed Reams was inside the Louisiana Superdome as the hurricane passed overhead. Here's Ed on the phone with us that morning, right after a portion of the Superdome's roof peeled off.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ED REAMS, WDSU REPORTER: Authorities are right now moving people over to the other side of the dome and scrambling to try to see how they can address this problem. Oh, now we can see daylight, Soledad. I can see daylight out of the roof of the Superdome, straight up out of the roof. Rain and wind. It's now starting to pour into the roof of the Superdome. This is only going to probably get bigger because we have another two hours before even the worst part of the storm hits our area.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Oh, and his prediction was so true. Ed Reams joins us now from outside the Superdome. Good morning, Ed.

REAMS: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: So it must seem surreal to you now standing there, when you compare it to what happened a month ago.

REAMS: Yes, Carol, you know, it is surreal. It's hard to believe it has been a month, but it was a month ago that I was inside here at the Superdome, listening to Katrina blow over, thinking that this was the safest place in the city. It was the only place that was established as a shelter, the only place where people could go to the last minute to ride out the storm. It's been used as a shelter before, and people have come out of here safely.

But this was something we didn't expect. We heard the winds for hours, thought that we were going to make it through, but then we started hearing those strange noises that we reported to you on CNN, those noises. And then that daylight that we saw, very surreal, Carol.

COSTELLO: And I know things got awful inside, but there were many reports of violence happening inside the Superdome. And right now, the media is being criticized for kind of exaggerating what was going on inside of the Superdome with people getting killed or people being sexually assaulted. Do you think that the media was exaggerating those things?

REAMS: Well, first, I think some things still haven't -- will shake out. I think that we'll still probably hear some new information coming down the road. But I think one thing the media did not exaggerate was the fact that people were desperate to get out of here. I mean, we saw the pictures. The pictures don't lie. The faces, the desperation on their faces. People being stuck here for days with no food, no water, the sewers not working. Hot conditions. We're talking about in the 90s with heat indexes in the hundreds.

The mean, the desperation was very real. And I know there is -- sometimes when you play telephone and when you hear information about people who may have passed away, people may have viewed somebody on the ground and they appear dead, but perhaps they are not.

But again, the media got it right on when they showed the desperation of the people, not only here at the Superdome, but at the convention center in Metairie, where they were being evacuated on buses and had to wait for days to get out of town. That was true. That was very accurate, and you could see it on the faces of the people who were here.

COSTELLO: You know, Ed, Mayor Nagin has set a new timetable for people to come back into New Orleans. He really wants business owners to come back and set up shop. But I got to tell you, I just can't see how that's possible because there is still no running water that you can drink. Electricity is spotty. Do you think that many business owners will really come back?

REAMS: Well, I think business owners will come back. I think a lot of people want to try to re-establish New Orleans, want to try to get back in here. And as far as the residents are concerned, people do want to come back. Yes, services are fragile right now. The sewer is barely working. Water won't be drinkable possibly for another week.

But when you look at Mayor Ray Nagin and what he has promised to the city and what his duty is, there's a fine line. And if you look at it technically, yes, it's going to be tough for people to come back into the city because of those fragile services. And will it put a strain on the system? Yes.

But when you look at the human element, the responsibility we have to the people here in New Orleans, the people who have lived here for decades, it is the mayor's -- he believes it's his duty to allow them to come in to get some closure. They've been away for more than a month now. They've been away, been evacuated, been living in shelters, possibly at relatives' homes. They don't know anything about their property. They don't know -- many of them don't know about their family members.

So the mayor feels that it is his duty to allow them to at least come back and look. It's going to be an eye-opening experience when people pull around that corner and see their homes destroyed, their life's work basically in a pile of rubble. The mayor believes that he owes that to the people who live here.

COSTELLO: Well, the big question is, is once they come back, will they stay? Ed Reams of WDSU in New Orleans, thank you.

REAMS: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: All right, in the month that's passed since Katrina hit, many evacuees have started to put down roots in other places. Joining us now are Naticia Allen and her son, Darian Coler. They got out of New Orleans before Katrina hit. I'm sure they're glad about that. Their journey eventually led them to Houston, where we find the, this morning.

Good to see you both, welcome.

NATICIA ALLEN, NEW ORLEANS EVACUEE: Good morning.

DARIAN COLER, NEW ORLEANS EVACUEE: Good morning.

O'BRIEN: And I understand, Darian, you got a little bit of the Katrina illness that we all have. So feel free. If you've got to, you know, wipe your nose, that's OK.

All right, now, Naticia, let's begin with you. You ended up in Houston. Has it all things considered -- there you go. Bless you. When you consider what you've been there, how has the Houston experience been?

ALLEN: Houston has been great.

O'BRIEN: What's been great about it?

ALLEN: Everybody's been very compassionate, very helpful, just -- it's just overwhelmed gratitude.

O'BRIEN: And so far you've got an apartment. Do you have a job lined up? Tell me what kind of progress you've made on getting your life back together.

ALLEN: Just trying to rebuild. You know, we found an apartment that we've been in for about two weeks now. I start work on Monday at one of the local hospitals. And we're just, you know, trying to just move forward.

O'BRIEN: All right. Well, that makes it sound like it was easy. It wasn't easy, was it? ALLEN: No. The lines are long. We've had little to no assistance at all yet, because the wait times and the lines and the form lines are hours and days.

M. O'BRIEN: Well, tell me about that. You've accomplished a lot. You got a job you're starting. You got an apartment. You've had some help with that, haven't you?

ALLEN: Just the first -- the one-time help from FEMA. And we just got that since -- it's been about two weeks they sent that out and it's just getting to us now. And that's where we're -- we've been using so far.

M. O'BRIEN: So, really, you've been kind of on your own there, and yet, it's been -- somewhere along the way, you made the decision to stay. When did you realize this was going to be home?

ALLEN: About two weeks ago when I went back to salvage whatever I could, and there was little to nothing left. And then I decided that you just couldn't live there right now because of the conditions. There was no light, no water, no food. And, you know, so about two weeks ago I decided that Houston is where I'm going to be -- remain at for a long time.

M. O'BRIEN: Yes, time to move on. That must have been a real eye opener. As we've been saying all along, until you see it, it's hard to fully appreciate it, isn't it?

ALLEN: Absolutely,.

O'BRIEN: Now, is Darian up to talking, you think? How's his nose going there?

ALLEN: Ah, look.

O'BRIEN: I'm curious, how is it going there? How is the school situation? How's the friends situation? Do you feel like you're almost at home?

COLER: Yes.

O'BRIEN: Tell me about it a little bit. Have you met a lot of kids?

ALLEN: Yes, I met a lot of kids at school, a lot. I met the whole school.

O'BRIEN: You met the whole school?

COLER: Yes.

O'BRIEN: So you're like a popular kid. That's great!

COLER: The whole school had talked to me.

O'BRIEN: That's nice. And how are the teachers? Are they real nice to you or are they mean?

COLER: Yes, one of my teacher gave me a book, saying -- and one of the teachers -- we book fair at school and the principal...

O'BRIEN: Yes, go ahead, put that in there. That's all right.

COLER: The principal had bought me a book. It's a car book that you draw cars. And the other teacher was trying to give me clothes. But that's when Hurricane Rita came and then we left school.

O'BRIEN: So everybody's been real nice to you. Do you want to stay in Houston or would you like to go back to New Orleans if you had a chance?

COLER: I don't know yet.

O'BRIEN: You don't know. You kind of miss your friends and your neighborhood and stuff?

COLER: Yes.

O'BRIEN: All right, final thought, Naticia. Just, you're not alone. At least half, maybe more of the people who have been through your situation, especially with kids, are making this same decision. In a way, does it make you sad? Because the New Orleans you left behind will be not the New Orleans that you left behind ever again.

ALLEN: At times it does. You know, it kind of gets to you, but you've got to look at the positive side, too, and just look ahead. But it can get kind of rough on a day-to-day basis.

O'BRIEN Well, we wish you well in the days ahead. And I'm sure there will be some tough ones ahead. But congratulations on getting everything in place. And bless you one more time there, Darian. I hope you can get rid of that mal de Katrina or whatever it is. Naticia Allen, Darian Coler, joining us from Houston, their home. Thanks a lot.

ALLEN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: That was cute.

Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, we'll catch up with a New Orleans resident we met a few weeks ago. Back then, she refused to leave the city. So how is she holding up now? We'll explore that next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: One month after Katrina, Delia LaBarre still won't leave New Orleans. When we met her a coupe of weeks ago, she told us why she refuses to evacuate her city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DELIA LABARRE, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: My ancestors were original colonists of the city, and they didn't tuck their tail between their legs and run.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: Hardy stock she is.

She is still committed to staying her home. She's concerned about what could happen in other historic neighborhoods, however. She joins us again this morning from New Orleans. Delia, good to have you back with us.

LABARRE: Good morning. Thank you.

O'BRIEN: You know, we just had on a mother and son. I don't know if you saw it or heard it. Who -- they left, and they're in Houston now and they're not coming back. As a New Orleanian who is obviously very committed to your city -- you've proven that -- it must be hard to hear those stories.

LABARRE: Well, it is, but -- and what's also very hard to hear is that there's a lot of misinformation being sent out over the waves, broadcasted, that most of the houses that have been underwater are going to be condemned and torn down. And that is just not so. So I'm really concerned about the people who have been displaced that are hearing these stories that there may be more for them to come back to than they realize.

I've been speaking to some experts, and we know that houses, especially here in New Orleans, they can go underwater and they can be salvaged, they can be cleaned up. A lot of them are made out of cypress wood, which can withstand that kind of mistreatment. And so, I'm really very concerned about that. We want people to come back, of course.

O'BRIEN: Well, now, of course, what you're talking about are some of the more historic homes. When you talk about that cypress and some of that old construction, right?

LABARRE: Well, but there are also, you know, some -- there are a lot of places in New Orleans that are historic, but they're not protected by the federal government. And those are the ones that are most at risk right now, because the local government could pretty much do what they want, you know, in collusion with developers.

O'BRIEN: Let's pick up on that point. Because I know there is in recurrent theme and concern in New Orleans, post-Katrina, that this would be -- word would go out, the homes are no good, the bulldozers would come out and in would come the developers. What do you think about that notion?

LABARRE: Well, I think it's appalling. We don't know -- there's no official word on it yet. But there have been so many rumors and so many people here on the ground, from National Guardsmen, to developers and some council members. I hear that, you know, they have -- they don't understand -- they have no respect for preservation in the old part of the city. And they just -- they're misinformed, for one. Some of them are under the influence of developers. And we say -- we have a little motto here that the developer is not your friend.

O'BRIEN: Oh, go ahead and hold that up a little more. You got a bumper sticker already. Let's see. Developer is not...

LABARRE: Yes it is. Well, this is actually pre-Katrina, so the preservationists in this city have just had a long, hard struggle to save historic buildings. This is nothing new. So, I mean, we've had to struggle to save the French Quarter, believe it or not, from developers and the tourism industry.

O'BRIEN: That's hard to believe, but you know how that can be.

LABARRE: It is. Well, it's completely vulnerable.

O'BRIEN: When we talked to you last, you were concerned about the city leadership. And in other words, the people that gave us the Superdome fiasco, in some respects, are still -- you know, the mayor and so forth, they're still there. Does that concern you?

LABARRE: Well, I think it concerns a lot of us here. And I mean, it concerns the world. But, you know, we don't have confidence in a lot of our local leadership. There might be one or two who are competent and who are -- have the public in mind, the best interest of the public. But we need new leadership. We cannot go forward without having almost a clean slate. We haven't even seen our council member of this district I'm standing in now, which I live in, as well. We don't know where she is. She's not been in touch with any of her constituents.

So, you know, this is not a good sign. And they're talking about so much money coming into the state and the local level. And there's been so much corruption. And right now, we just don't have a firm footing in city government or anything. This whole thing, to me, was more -- it started with a disaster in leadership, and that's why the whole disaster of the mistreatment of the displaced people happened, the evacuees. It never should have happened that way.

M. O'BRIEN: Delia LaBarre, we didn't get a chance to talk -- I know you got your power back on. Congratulations for that, and I'm sure you don't have a single regret gutting it out there in New Orleans. We wish you well.

LABARRE: I never regret it. Thank you very much.

M. O'BRIEN: Our pleasure -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Still to come, we're "Minding Your Business." Who has the world's most competitive economy? Andy has the answer, and it's a stunner. That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The American economy is not the world's most competitive, and the $10 bill gets a makeover. Andy is "Minding Your Business" this morning. Really? ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: Yes, really. Really, we're going to have a new $10 bill and really, we're not the most competitive people in the world.

Let's talk about the new currency, first of all, Carol, shall we. They redid the 20, they redid the 50.

COSTELLO: Beautiful.

SERWER: And, of course now, of course, now they're redoing the 10. Yes, they're keeping Alexander Hamilton. Everyone knew this Alexander Hamilton is on the 10. And the color, of course, is to thwart counterfeiters. This will be coming out early next year. The cost of this new bill -- what is the $10 bill? Eight cents. That's what is costs to make. I think it's kind of interesting. You know, the 10 is kind of a forgotten bill. You see a lot of 20s and a lot of ones.

COSTELLO: The ten is the forgotten bill?

SERWER: It is the forgotten bill. And I know Chad Myers might not like 10s, or the new 10s.

COSTELLO: I don't know, but he had some problem with the design of this new bill this morning. I couldn't figure it out.

SERWER: Well, I think maybe it's because he wasn't consulted. We'll have to ask Chad if that was the really problem. Let's move on, shall we?

COSTELLO: All right.

SERWER: Americans consider themselves to be hypercompetitive and, you know, we don't take much vacation. So you'd think that we'd be the most competitive economy on Earth. We're not. A new ranking by the World Economic Forum puts Finland -- Finland. There are a bunch of Scandinavian countries there. See Denmark and Sweden? 100 percent literacy rate. The first country to give women the right to vote?

COSTELLO: Yes!

SERWER: In 1906. The leading book publishing company -- excuse me, country, in the world. More books per capita published than anywhere. The home of Nokia, the phone company.

COSTELLO: Or Nokia.

SERWER: Nokia, depending on how -- but I have a theory here. I think the reason why Finland is so competitive is because it's so cold. Everyone has to work really hard to stay warm.

COSTELLO: Because what else is there to do?

SERWER: Yes, yes, you knew that was coming.

COSTELLO: That's so cruel.

SERWER: That's bad.

COSTELLO: Andy, thank you.

SERWER: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Miles.

O'BRIEN: I think the Finnish Embassy is on line to speak to you both, yes.

SERWER: Yes, sorry.

O'BRIEN: In a moment, the latest on the developing story in Southern California. Wildfire burning out of control there. Hundreds of people forced to evacuate. We'll have a live update for you ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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