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American Morning

What Will Happen To the Superdome?; Saving Cattle In Louisiana; Children and Adults Still Missing After Hurricane Katrina; Minding Your Business

Aired September 29, 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: Roof that is just so scarred, obviously.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. So it will be interesting.

Right now let's get you caught up on some of the other stories in the news this morning.

Judge John Roberts is expected to win easy confirmation today as the new chief justice of the Supreme Court. The full Senate is set to vote on Roberts' nomination later today. A private swearing in ceremony should follow. There's also word that President Bush might announce his pick to replace retiring Judge Sandra Day O'Connor.

Turning to Iraq.

Gunmen across Baghdad have killed at least six people today, including two Iraqi police officers. In the meantime, U.S. and Iraqi forces are building up their defense in the western part of that country. CNN's Jennifer Eccleston is embedded with a Marine troop in the Al Anbar province. She sent us these images just a short time ago. The troops are trying to root out insurgents and cut off their support.

Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco refusing to publicly address criticism from the former FEMA chief, Michael Brown, that her response to Katrina was dysfunctional. Testifying before the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday, Blanco said she wanted to focus on economic recovery, not blame. Blanco had issued a statement one day earlier calling Brown's criticism's "falsehoods and misleading."

FEMA officials are set to reopen a relief center in Houston. The center was shut down early Wednesday apparently after some hurricane victims began fainting from the heat. Hundreds of evacuees had been waiting in line to triple in triple digit temperatures. FEMA says it was caught off guard by the 1,500 people who showed up.

And an unlikely pair teaming up to fight HIV and Aids, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. The women spoke Wednesday at a dinner for the Global Business Coalition on HIV/Aids. They helped raise $1.3 million. Actress Angelina Jolie was also a speaker and probably had something to do with the money raised too.

MILES O'BRIEN: You think? COSTELLO: I think so.

MILES O'BRIEN: Potentially could have had something to do with it. All right.

In the days after Hurricane Katrina struck, the Louisiana Superdome descended into chaos. Now, Soledad, before she lost her voice, returned to the Superdome to see what progress has been made.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR, (voice over): One month later, we've actually been walking through so much mold and mildew that I'm starting to lose my voice. But we're back. The area of the Superdome behind me. Kind of the transition area.

Remember we showed you these pictures where some 30,000 to 40,000 people came right through this way, heading to the New Orleans center so they could board some of those buses. And we showed you the garbage that had been piled up. You can see, it's all been cleaned up. There's no garbage here. And inside these big yellow tubes, they're clearly starting to clean out the New Orleans center. Let's see what they're doing inside.

But this is the area where they brought all the people through. This is the area where the military staged their medics to give people medical attention. Still smells not (ph) very well. But it's empty. And it's, relatively speaking, kind of clean.

The Superdome, for a while, it was inaccessible. They had locked it up. And, in fact, the military was blocking it so no one could get in. No one's out here now, so let's see how far we can get.

And, finally, we make it to the Superdome. The doors are locked. But you can clearly see the people have been inside trying to clean up. There was talk at one point of actually condemning this building, considering the conditions inside, and it will be interesting to see what actually happens.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN: So what does the future hold for the Superdome? Tim Coulon is chairman of the Louisiana Stadium & Expedition District.

Mr. Coulon, good to have you with us.

TIM COULON, LA STADIUM & EXPO DISTRICT: Good morning. Good morning.

MILES O'BRIEN: The Superdome is insured for about $475 million, isn't it? Would it be a good idea to total it?

COULON: Well, actually, that's not quite correct. Actually all the state-owned buildings, the Superdome Commission of which I chair, is one of many state entities who are grappling with the same issues that many of our residents are. There is a total of $475 million on all state-owned buildings. And . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: Oh, so that's for all state-owned buildings? It wouldn't just apply to the Superdome?

COULON: That's correct.

MILES O'BRIEN: I see.

COULON: That's correct.

MILES O'BRIEN: So if you did, in fact, tear it down or decide to condemn it, that could be a big loss for the state?

COULON: Well, certainly it would be but, again, it has to be factored in with layers of insurance coverage, with the FEMA contributions. So I know that the public and those who think we think the world as part of the dome as a symbol of the rebuilding of the city of New Orleans, we're not going to make a hasty decision. We're going through the same due diligence that you would expect us to do if we owned this building.

We have a team I heard Soledad mention the cleanliness of the building. That was the first phase. We, as a commission, authorized a substantial amount of work yesterday at a meeting where we're bringing in a team of consultants, engineers, to make sure the building is structurally sound, environmentally safe. And from that point, over the next 30 to 60 days, we'll have an estimate of the value of the repairs as compared to the insurance coverages. So there the negotiation process will probably begin.

MILES O'BRIEN: What's your best take, then, on whether it's going to be worth repairing the Superdome. Do you have any sense of it yet?

COULON: No. It really would be premature. I mean, I'm not an expert. You know, we understand. I'm very concerned about assuming and repairing a sick building. And what I mean by that, you cannot see what's behind the walls. Soledad mentioned mold and mildew. All of those things are going to be dealt with over the next 30 to 60 days in doing an assessment. We're going to go through this process, we're going to do it expeditiously but we'll do it safely as well, work with the Office of Risk Management and the state of Louisiana in trying to come up with an estimate.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. What about the it is a symbolically sick building, isn't it? What do you do about that?

COULON: Well, I think time heals a lot of wounds. While it is probably symbolically sick in many ways, it also saved many lives. You know, there were many lives this was a refuge of last resort. It was never intended to provide anything other than a safe haven. Obviously the storm had some significant impact on the roof and the story goes on.

MILES O'BRIEN: Well, no, Mr. Coulon, we know it did of course it saved lives because people were there and protected. But you know how it will be remembered.

COULON: Well, you know, you know how it's remembered because it's fresh in the minds of the public as we stand today. Will a newly re-engineered dome be felt be considered the same way? I don't know what the future lies. But you cannot condemn a building that for reasons other than making sure it's not publicly safe. That will be the mission that we have over the next 30 to 60 days, as I pointed out.

MILES O'BRIEN: Let's talk about . . .

COULON: I certainly would like to see . . .

MILES O'BRIEN: Can we talk about the Saints for one quick second here?

COULON: Sure.

MILES O'BRIEN: How much does the Saints and their future have to do with all of this? Because if, in fact, is the building is rendered unfit to be used for whatever reason, the Saints can kind of move on to San Antonio or wherever pretty much scot free, without paying back some $81 million in tax credits they received initially. Is that going to factor into the decision?

COULON: Well, I think, unfortunately, it is a factor in the decision because we have some contractual obligations, not only to the Saints here at the dome, but to the Hornets at the arena, which is damaged as well. So the first mission was to stabilize the Saints and have their presence in Louisiana, which the commissioner and Mr. Benson (ph) and the Saints have committed to play a certain number of games at LSU. From this point on, we'll be talking about long term. However, we can't talk about the long term until we know how we're going to address the needs of the dome.

MILES O'BRIEN: Tim Coulon, chairman of the Louisiana Stadium & Exposition District. Thanks for your time and good lucking.

COULON: Thank you. Good luck to us all.

MILES O'BRIEN: All right. Carol.

COSTELLO: Lieutenant General Russel Honore is leading the military effort in Louisiana and he's also leading a cattle drive. The cattle industry suffered major losses in the storm. In Louisiana, cowboys are working to wrangle thousands of cows who are scattered and stranded. And on Wednesday, General Honore joined them by horse back. CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon.

Good morning, Barbara.

You spoke to the general about doing this. How big of an undertaking is this?

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's a huge undertaking in this very rural area of Southwestern Louisiana, Carol. As you say, cattle is a way of life down there. It is vital to their local economy. And a lot of people don't realize, maybe, perhaps the level of destruction in Southwestern Louisiana.

As we begin to look at some of these pictures, thousands of head of cattle apparently drowned in the flooding down there. Thousands more are, indeed, stranded. So there is now a very significant effort underway.

And General Honore went out yesterday with some Louisiana cowboys on an effort to begin to round up some of these cattle. He is an avid horseman. But this was no joy ride. This was a real effort to try and bring some attention to a very, very serious problem in this area that has suffered greatly from the storm.

And we spoke to General Honore a little bit about what he's trying to do down there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, JOINT TASK FORCE KATRINA: The cattle are isolated. Many of them are scared. And they get spooked very easily. So these ranchers, they know what they're doing. And what we've been able to do is try to use some of our heavy trucks to take water in and to get hay to them. And yesterday we used helicopters to try and get some in. But whatever it takes to try to help them save the animals is what we're working on now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STARR: The military expects to be in this rural area of Southwestern Louisiana, this indeed was Cameron Parish, for the least the last several days trying to help the people out there. Again, no joy ride. It's a real effort to try and save the local economy down there.

And we want to tell you, our own CNN photographer, Jerry Appleman (ph), saddled up along with the general, got on a horse to take all of these pictures. As we understand it, Jerry held on to the horse with one hand and his camera with the other.

Carol.

COSTELLO: Good for him. You know the problem is, you gather all these cows together, but where do you put them and how do you find out who owns them? And where are the owners?

STARR: Well, that's all what they're working on right now. And as you see, what the military is doing with General Honore and his troops is bringing in some trucks, brining in some equipment, also trying to get water and hay to the cattle in return. It's really a desperate effort because these cattle get spooked, they get scared, they start running around. And so they have to rustle them all up and then figure out where they go, how they can keep them safe and get them back to their ranchers and get that water out of there so they can send them out to graze again.

COSTELLO: Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon.

Let's check in let's go to Atlanta to check on the weather.

Chad, good morning.

(WEATHER REPORT)

MILES O'BRIEN: Still to come, thousands of children are still missing one month after Katrina hit. We'll get an update on the efforts to reunite families divided by the storm. That's next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: In the months since Katrina came ashore and separated countless families from loved ones, many have been reunited, but thousands of missing persons cases remain this morning. More than 1,600 children have been found, but more than 4,400 were reported. More than 11,000 adults have been reported missing. More than 3,300 adult cases have now been resolved. Ernie Allen is with the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children. He joins us live from Alexandria, Virginia.

Good morning.

ERNIE ALLEN, NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Ernie, 2,600 kids are still separated from their families due to Hurricane Katrina. That's just mind boggling to me.

ALLEN: Well, Carol, I think we need to understand that these are really not the traditional missing children. These are kids separated as a result of fractured families so that many of them may be well cared for, they may be with their moms but they don't know where their father is. Or they may be with an other extended family member but don't know where their parents are. But if you've ever been separated from your child for 10 minutes in a store, you know it can seem like a lifetime. And for some of these families, it's been almost a month.

COSTELLO: It's unbelievable. We're going to put some of the pictures of the missing children up on our screen while we're talking in, you know, in the hopes of reuniting families.

So many evacuees went to Houston and other places throughout the country. How has that complicated things for you?

ALLEN: Well, it's been very complicated. The sheer enormity of this catastrophe and the fact that there are now evacuees in shelters and temporary housing in 48 states. But we're trying to deal with it one child, one family at a time.

COSTELLO: And some of those . . .

ALLEN: And the public has been . . .

COSTELLO: Oh, yes, go ahead and say that because the public's been terrific.

ALLEN: The public really has and the work that CNN has done and other media in putting this information on the screens. People are calling us. People want to help. So we want them to go to our Web site, missingkids.com, look at the pictures, look at the names. Somebody knows where these children are.

COSTELLO: Some of those evacuation centers have now been closed down. So where would those kids go?

ALLEN: Well, we've worked numerous cases in which children have been in multiple shelters, multiple centers. We were involved in a case of a little boy who started in a hospital in Baton Rouge, ended up in a shelter in Baton Rouge, then was moved into Texas. So this is old time investigative work. You have to take a clue and follow it to its conclusion. But the good news is, as you pointed out, nearly 1,700 children have been reunited with their families.

COSTELLO: Let's talk about the adults that are still missing, some 8,000. And, you know, you were working on that after Hurricane Katrina and then Hurricane Rita comes along. How did that complicate things for you?

ALLEN: Well, it complicated things because people who had reached a position of relative stability, they were in a shelter, in a facility in Texas, suddenly were on the move again. Many of them are just now returning to their earlier location. And we're working with groups across the country, with the Center for Missing Adults in Phoenix, with law enforcement, the social services, with the Red Cross. But we are convinced that this is an information challenge. And if we can just tie the information sources together, we believe we can bring many of these people back to their loved ones.

COSTELLO: So, like, 10,000 people are still missing. I mean, it's realistic to say that some of those people might never be found or reunited.

ALLEN: Well, we do know that some number of this total did not survive the storm. And as the work continues to identify the total toll of the dead and to identify them, that's going to resolve some of these cases. We know that some of them are in the company of someone with whom they should not be, whether it's a non-custodial parent or something else. But we are convinced that the vast majority of these people are simply separated from loved ones and it's just a matter of building the kids of systems and working through these one person at a time until we can reunify these families.

COSTELLO: Well, thanks for all your fine work.

ALLEN: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Ernie Allen with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Miles. MILES O'BRIEN: Still to come on the program, stunning new pictures of Hurricane Rita's wrath. Just wait until you see what the storm did to one of the biggest oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Stay with us for more AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Chevron is facing some heavy losses after Rita tore through the Gulf Coast. Rita, it sounds like, Andy Serwer, might have been tougher on the oil rigs than Katrina in some respects.

ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think we're really finding out that is the case, Miles, and it's surprising to people out there. Reports of the damage done to the oil industry by Hurricane Rita continue to come in. The news really isn't good.

We want to talk to you about a Chevron platform, aply (ph) named typhoon. This is a $250 million deal here. We're going to do a before and after. This is a before. OK. That's a standard. This is after.

MILES O'BRIEN: Whoa! Where did it go?

SERWER: The whole shebang tumbled off into the water.

MILES O'BRIEN: It sunk?

SERWER: The top part sunk. It fell off. And this part, this platform, drifted 70 miles off its location. It has now been secured. You add the cost of that onto the $350 million that Chevron's already said it lost to Katrina, and this starts to be real money here. And I think the salient point here is that most oil production in the Gulf of Mexico is still offline, which is something that's getting lost here a little bit as we're talking about getting back up to speed in Texas and Louisiana. The oil business is still really taking a blow.

MILES O'BRIEN: But as you have pointed out repeatedly, the bottle neck has been, up to this point, at the refineries. As long as there's some crude that can go through the refineries. But this eventually could cause problems, right?

SERWER: Yes, I think that's a good way to look at it. And we're just going to have to wait and see on that one.

I want to talk to you a little bit about the markets and what happened yesterday on Wall Street. Another mixed session Wednesday, just as there was on Tuesday. And I think it's safe to say, Miles, that the fallout from the two hurricanes is still weighing heavily on Wall Street. And we're still trying to sort all this out with regard to energy prices and the like.

MILES O'BRIEN: It's weighing heavily on us all in many respects.

SERWER: That's right.

MILES O'BRIEN: Andy Serwer, thank you.

Carol.

COSTELLO: In a moment, the latest on the developing story out west. A big wild fire is burning out of control in Southern California. Seven thousand acres have been scorched so far. A live update is ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Still to come, Hurricane Katrina, one month later. The Coast Guard saved thousands of lives in the storm's aftermath. We'll talk to two lieutenants about what the experience was like for them ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MILES O'BRIEN: Wildfires burning out of control this morning near Los Angeles, doubling in size overnight. Some evacuations ordered. More could be coming.

In New Orleans, Katrina, one month later. Despite health concerns over the water, the air, and the ground itself, the mayor is bringing some residents back.

And Republicans in Washington trying to regroup after a conspiracy indictment against Congressman Tom DeLay. A look at the next move for the GOP on this AMERICAN MORNING.

ANNOUNCER: From the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is AMERICAN MORNING with Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien.

MILES O'BRIEN: Good morning to you. I'm Miles O'Brien. We're glad you're with us. Soledad under the weather this morning. No voice.

COSTELLO: Oh, she is under the weather. The mold go to her in the city of New Orleans and we do have a lot to talk about, though, from New Orleans.

But there is another dangerous situation we want to talk about first that's developing out west.

MILES O'BRIEN: Let's start there.

Wildfires in four Southern California counties raging out of control this morning. About 700 firefighters desperately trying to gain an upper hand.

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