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American Morning

President Bush Chooses Supreme Court Nominee; Lake George Tragedy; Hurricane Warnings

Aired October 03, 2005 - 09:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This morning I'm proud to announce that I'm nominating Harriet Ellan Miers to serve as associate justice of the Supreme Court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: A surprise announcement by the president this morning. White House counsel Harriet Miers nominated to be the next Supreme Court justice. She's got no experience as a judge, very close ties to the White House. A live report from Washington just ahead as we take a look at the odds of a smooth confirmation.

In upstate New York, divers are back in the waters of Lake George this morning, investigating that tragic tour boat accident. At least 20 people were killed, elderly vacationers on a sightseeing cruise. A live report is just ahead.

And already perhaps the most destructive hurricane season in U.S. history. Now an updated forecast for October shows no relief in sight.

Those stories all ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

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

O'BRIEN: Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. Miles has a couple of days off today.

Much more ahead on the nomination of Harriet Miers to replace Sandra Day O'Connor as the next Supreme Court justice.

Before we get to that, let's first say hi to Rob Marciano. He's reporting for us in Port Arthur, Texas, this morning.

Hey, Rob. Good morning.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Soledad.

The sun coming up. Actually, a really nice day here in Port Arthur. And they can use the sunshine, because at night it's completely dark. But just up the road is a staging area. We don't have the camera to show you the traffic. It's like a daily morning parade that's been going for two hours with utility crews and construction workers, even mail trucks coming in here, being dispatched to try to put the pieces back together at Port Arthur. And it's been 11 days since Rita came ashore, and from when the mayor tells me, they still have a long, long way to go.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Stan is brewing in the Gulf of Mexico. Already to the S's. It's been an amazing hurricane season.

Well, Dr. Bill Gray out of Colorado State University, he's the foremost expert on hurricanes. He has just released the forecast for the month of October, and like the rest of the news, this hurricane season, it doesn't look good. So we'll talk about what his forecast has to say in just a few minutes.

O'BRIEN: All right, Rob. Thanks.

Well, we want to show you some pictures of John Roberts. You can see pictures of him there for pictures. His family right there, some of them.

John Roberts, 9:15 this morning, just 10 minutes or so, he's going to be sworn in as the 109th justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and the 17th chief justice of the United States. The ceremonial swearing in is called an investiture. It's going to be relatively brief, and oral arguments for the October term will begin 45 minutes after that.

How cute are his kids?

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: How cute the little guy with his bow tie.

O'BRIEN: And like the way his wife is watching very carefully out of the corner of her eye to make sure everybody behaves nicely while...

COSTELLO: She's got her fingers and her toes crossed.

O'BRIEN: Now, that is high pressure. Being chief justice, that's pressure. But just have the television cameras roll as your little kids are posing for pictures? How much time do you think they spent, "Behave, behave."

COSTELLO: Oh, I bet a lot of time.

O'BRIEN: Yes, I bet.

Let's get right to Dana Bash. She's at the White House this morning.

Hey, Dana. Good morning to you.

Let's talk a little bit about Harriet Miers as we move away from John Roberts. We'll get more on that in just a few minutes.

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And you know, of course, the president, as we just saw just a little bit more than an hour ago, officially named Harriet Miers to be in the role that he first appointed John Roberts to, and that is the seat to fill the vacancy of Sandra Day O'Connor.

Now, we talked earlier about the fact that this is a pick that is vintage George W. Bush in a lot of ways. Harriet Miers is somebody who has known President Bush for a long time, whom is a close confidant of his, whom he trusts very much, obviously is a White House counsel now, had been with him back in Texas, and is a woman. And you heard the term "trailblazer" this morning. That is something the president is talking about and his aides are as well.

But, in a way, Soledad, does she does not satisfy the part of George W. Bush that likes a partisan fight every once in a while. She is somebody who is being praised at this point publicly by conservatives, by his conservative base. But I can tell you, just in talking to some behind the scenes, there is a lot of trepidation about Harriet Miers because she really has no paper trail, because she has no judicial experience.

She is absolutely not the tried and true conservative that the president's base wanted to put up, especially for that swing seat that Sandra Day O'Connor leaves. And it is essentially perhaps a moment of the times, a sign of the times where George W. Bush is relatively weak.

His approval rating is very low. And the White House is saying that Harriet Miers is somebody whom Democrats said would be a good choice. And that is very telling as to where the president is right now in terms of the political atmosphere, that she is somebody he thinks, perhaps, Democrats will help get through Congress, not so much somebody who perhaps conservatives, the conservative base, were look for.

O'BRIEN: A clean slate, so to speak, which could be a bad thing or a good thing, depending on your perspective. Dana Bash at the White House for us.

Dana, thanks.

Another story we're talking about this morning, divers expected to go back to work in Lake George on the chance that there could be some more bodies, victims of Sunday's tour boat disaster. At least 20 people died when their boat suddenly capsized.

Susan Lisovicz is live for us in Lake George, New York, and that's about 50 miles north of Albany.

Susan, good morning.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning again, Soledad.

And we're seeing signs of activity here at Cramer's Point in Lake George. Members of the sheriff's department have been on the scene, boats have been trolling in the area where the Ethan Allen sank so suddenly yesterday afternoon. And authorities also held a press conference this morning in which they addressed some of the common threads that we're hearing as to why this boat, the Ethan Allen, sank so suddenly in picture-perfect conditions suddenly.

Among them, that the boat may have been destabilized by the wake of a much larger tour boat in the area. There were lots of boats in the area. And also, the boat was full to its capacity, 48 people in all. It held 50. Some of those people we believe used wheelchairs.

One of the eyewitnesses we talked to this morning who helped rescue people said that the captain made a sudden, abrupt turn just before the boat capsized. When it did keel over, some of the people were trapped underneath, which undoubtedly led to such a high casualty count. At least 20 people dead, 27 survived. And it is clear that there was very little time to prepare.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANK SAUSE, ASSISTED TOUR BOAT VICTIMS: Well, none of them had life jackets on. And there were life jackets floating in the water. My son saw those. Some of the people were just complaining about backaches, and one person was complaining about chest pains.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LISOVICZ: Forty-eight people aboard this boat, close to capacity, as I mentioned, Soledad, and only one crew member. That was the captain. Both the captain and the shoreline crews, the tour operator, have a very good reputation in the area. They've been doing business here for many years. But in any case, the authorities say that they're investigating any possible angle of this story.

In the meantime, efforts to salvage the Ethan Allen continue this morning just offshore from where I'm standing.

Back to you, Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Oh, what a brutal story. Susan Lisovicz for us with an update there.

Thanks, Susan.

There are other stories making headlines. Let's go right to Carol Costello for a look at those.

Good morning again.

COSTELLO: Good morning, Soledad.

Good morning to all of you.

"Now in the News," the Palestinian parliament is urging President Mahmoud Abbas to form a new government, but stop short of a no confidence vote. Members say government officials failed to stop violence in the wake of Israel's pullout from Gaza.

This as Palestinian police officers staged a protest at a government building in Gaza. Take a look. Some 20 police officers fired into the air, demanding help with security because of recent violence from Hamas militants. No reports of injuries so far.

U.S. troops expanding their offensive in western Iraq. American forces are battling insurgents near the Syrian border in what's being called Operation Iron Fist. At least 28 suspects have reportedly been killed in recent days.

One of the country's most accomplished playwrights, August Wilson, has died. Wilson's works dealt with the black experience in the 20th century. His landmark drama "Fences" earned him a Tony and a Pulitzer Prize in 1987. He would go on to win a second Pulitzer and numerous other awards.

Wilson died of liver cancer on Sunday in Seattle. He was only 60 years old.

And a rare sight. A solar eclipse, it's in its final hours. Take a look.

Thousands in Spain and Portugal gathered to watch this annual eclipse. That's where the moon passes over the sun, creating a ring of fire around the moon. It's pretty much over right now, but the reason we couldn't see it here in the United States was because the sun wasn't up.

O'BRIEN: Pretty self-explanatory. Besides that...

COSTELLO: Exactly.

Let's head to Port Arthur, Texas, and Rob Marciano.

Good morning, Rob.

MARCIANO: Good morning, Carol.

A calm day here in southeast Texas. Certainly not what it was like 11 days ago, when Hurricane Rita was roaring ashore.

A little bit of a break, and they'll take it across the southeast coastline of Texas, and across Louisiana as well. It's been an unbelievable hurricane season, as you know.

Well, Dr. Bill Gray, out of Colorado State University, he is the expert. He is the guy we go to. And he's been right on the money the past several years. He has just released an updated forecast for the month of October, and it's not very good.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO (voice over): It's been a blockbuster year for hurricanes. With 18 named storms so far, nine of them hurricanes, four of those making landfall in the U.S. And we're not out of the woods yet, says hurricane forecasting guru Professor William Gray, who has just released an updated outlook.

PROF. WILLIAM GRAY, COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY: We're calling for three named storms, two hurricanes and one major one, for the rest of the season.

MARCIANO: Gray's laboratory at Colorado State University is a leading center for hurricane forecasting. Using computer models to analyze and predict hurricane behavior, their outlook is more active than normal October, with most storm formation likely to occur in the Caribbean and move into the eastern Gulf of Mexico, or up the East Coast of the U.S.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This month, the probability of a hurricane making landfall somewhere along the U.S. coastline is about 21 percent.

MARCIANO: While much has been said this year about the link between stronger hurricanes and global warming, Gray believes the recent uptick in intensity is part of a natural cycle linked to something called the Great Ocean Conveyor Belt. It's an ocean current that circulates warm and cold water across the globe. And at this point in the cycle it's bringing a strong current of normal than warmer water from the tropics to higher latitudes, making conditions ripe for hurricane development.

GRAY: When it's stronger, as it's been since 1995, we tend to have more major hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin. And when it's weaker we tend to have fewer.

MARCIANO: Gray says it's a cycle that plays out over 25 to 30 years. And if that's the case, we can start looking for the next inactive season in about the year 2020.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: That means we have a long stretch of active hurricane season, and this one obviously is not over.

Right now, all is calm here on the Gulf of Mexico coast, but further down in the Gulf of Mexico, south of us, Chad, Tropical Storm Stan down there, hopefully still posing no threat us to.

What's the latest?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No threat to the U.S. whatsoever, Rob. It moved over Cancun, Cozumel, right over Progresso. Now it's back into the Bay of Campeche, which is this area here.

Now, that's Texas way up there, and there's Florida. This thing is going to move into the mountains of Mexico, cause a lot of rain there, and not be all that far from Mexico City.

Now, there are a few other things I want to show you on the map as well, a few things a little bit farther off to the east that may affect the United States. Notice a little bit of spin with the storm here. You have to use your imagination. It's not a tropical storm or a hurricane. It's not even a TD yet. It doesn't even have a number yet, not even a depression. But certainly that is not out of the realm of possibilities in some very warm water there near the Bahamas.

There's a flare-up here that is north of Puerto Rico, also another flare-up here south of the Leewards. That entire area very active. I mean, you usually don't see this much convection, this much color in the Atlantic or the Caribbean.

So if we go from the next one, which would be Tammy, and then to Vince, and then to Wilma, then we go to the Greek alphabet. Let's hope we don't get anywhere near that -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: How likely do you think, though, Chad, that that will happen, that we will go through the Greek alphabet, or at least part of it?

MYERS: You know, I could probably see this being Tammy by Thursday, and this one down here, a few of the computer models already have that Vince by Friday. So, by that point, even if they're little storms, even if they're 40 miles per hour, it doesn't take much to get to Wilma and then Alpha.

O'BRIEN: So then very likely is what you're saying.

MYERS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: All right, Chad. Thanks.

MYERS: You're welcome.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, the very latest on the nursing home investigations in Katrina's aftermath. We'll check in with the Louisiana attorney general and find out what he's turned up on the deaths of dozens of patients.

And then later, the health risk of mold in homes damaged by Katrina. We'll take a look at just who is the most vulnerable.

Those stories ahead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: Thirteen nursing homes and four hospitals are under criminal investigation for abuse and neglect during Hurricane Katrina. The husband and wife owners of a New Orleans area nursing home are now charged with negligent homicide in the deaths of 34 elderly people.

Louisiana attorney general Charles Foti, Jr. is in Baton Rouge this morning.

It's nice to see you. Thank you for talking with us.

CHARLES FOTI, JR., LOUISIANA ATTORNEY GENERAL: It's a pleasure. O'BRIEN: Give me a sense -- thank you. Give me a sense of how many elderly people do you think across your state have died because of a poor evacuation plan or no evacuation plan whatsoever.

FOTI: Well, it's over -- it may be over a hundred. We're looking at it right now.

In the St. Rita nursing home, as an example, just this weekend we found another body who we think is a nursing home patient, a lady that had a feeding tube in her stomach. So we're almost positive. We're going through that right now.

We have been sending out -- requesting information and search warrants to various locations as we -- as we continue this case. We also -- at the same time that this happened, Hurricane Rita hit us in the western part of the state. But because of some of the things that we did earlier, both the -- both the governor of Texas and the governor of Louisiana, when Rita came into it, said we're going to move the nursing home people first.

What we hope at the end of all of this is to have a report that talks about what should be done in cases of natural disaster for nursing homes and hospitals and/or terrorism. This is all under homeland security. So if this is what happens, we should make better use, not only of our medical personnel, but know where the patients they're treating are so that we can not only treat the patients that are already there, but the patients that are coming at the same time.

O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a couple of questions here. Back to the St. Rita's nursing home, you found a body over the weekend? Where did you find that body?

FOTI: It was right outside St. Rita's nursing home. So we're going through the identification right now. So that's just the latest we have on that.

O'BRIEN: You've got 13 nursing homes overall and four hospitals, too, that are now under a criminal investigation. I know you can't speak to specifics, but can you give me some circumstances, why you're investigating them?

FOTI: We are investigating. As we said, we investigate every death that occurred in a nursing home or a hospital during this time. So we'll have a true overall picture of what happened.

They're investigations right now. They have not reached -- those other ones have not reached the criminal stage as of yet.

So it's an inquiry into why. It's an inquiry to learn what happened, what did not happen, and also what should have happened. At the conclusion of this, besides any criminal charges that would be filed or civil actions that would be filed, we will give a report, not only to our governor and our legislature, but to the United States, to say, in the event of a national disaster or terrorism attack, these are some steps that should be taken and these are the requirements that should be taken, and make sure that we can protect the people in the home and also treat the people that would be coming in as a result of either a disaster or a terrorism attack.

O'BRIEN: Is there a state law that a nursing home or a hospital has to have an evacuation plan approved by somebody?

FOTI: Absolutely. The evacuation plan is approved by the parish government. In the rest of the United States, that would be county government. We want to make sure, and it is also approved by the Department of Health and Hospitals.

But right now they don't keep a copy. They just approve it and it goes back. I want the copies to be kept back at the central office of emergency planning up here in Baton Rouge with records about who is in the hospitals, the nursing homes, and what's their condition, so we can move them.

O'BRIEN: There's a guy with the state's health office that -- a gentleman named Dr. Jimmy Gidrey (ph). He says the mandatory evacuation order that came the day before the hurricane struck, really that it was up to each individual nursing home to decide what to do.

Is that not the case?

FOTI: Well, I don't think that's the case. I think if you go back and look at your own news footage, you will see that they made mandatory evacuations. Any nursing home, any person has to use reasonable care.

A nursing home is entrusted, or a hospital is entrusted with the lives of their patients. That's why they're there. They can't do it for themselves.

So they have a higher duty of care that -- than you would have. You decide you want to leave a hurricane, that's fine. That's your decision. But when you have the custody, you have -- somebody's been placed in your care, you have to use reasonable care to protect them.

Each one of the parishes involved issued mandatory evacuation. They did voluntary evacuation, which put you on notice. And you should have moved them. And you use mandatory.

And if you look at this storm, this was the worst storm that ever came up this area in a long time. And you knew or should have known that you were in imminent danger.

O'BRIEN: Well, we'll see how those 13 nursing homes and the four hospitals that you're now investigating actually fare and turn out. And you'll come back to talk to us about that another time.

Charles Foti, Jr. is Louisiana's attorney general.

Thank you for talking with us.

FOTI: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: Still to come this morning, we keep hearing about the dangers of mold in Katrina's aftermath. So how do homeowners protect themselves? We'll check in with an expert coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: It's a mess that any homeowner who has had a flooded basement or a leaky roof has faced, mold. You can imagine the size of the problem that New Orleans homeowners are dealing with now that some of them are returning after Hurricane Katrina.

Joining us this morning is a mold expert, Jonathan Bernstein, a doctor, associate professor at the University of -- Dr. Bernstein.

Forgive me, Dr. Bernstein.

Associate professor at the University of Cincinnati.

Thank you for talking with us this morning.

I've got to tell you, the mold in New Orleans is not to be believed. It is a range of colors, and hanging, literally growing down from the ceilings. I'm sure it doesn't surprise you. It was pretty shocking to me.

What are the biggest risks associated with breathing in mold for all those homeowners who come back?

DR. JONATHAN BERNSTEIN, ASSOC. PROF., UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI: Well, there's a number of things that can happen, and it really depends on what your susceptibility is and what the level of exposure you have. Certainly, the people that are going to be most likely affected are susceptible sub-populations, like those who experience asthma and allergies. The elderly, children, or people who are having, you know, certainly a large exposure because their homes or businesses were significantly affected by the flooding.

O'BRIEN: In addition to the worsening, as you point out, of the allergy and asthma symptoms, and other respiratory problems that might come up, and also any other kind of infection, too, is there a long- term impact of breathing in mold and mildew?

BERNSTEIN: There certainly can be a range of health effects that can occur with long-term exposure. And again, depending on the extent of the exposure, many of the predictable things would be people who have allergies and asthma, and with exposure, and they don't necessarily have to have very high exposure. If they're sensitized to molds, they can have relatively modest exposures and have clinical symptoms.

But there are also byproducts of molds. And as a matter of fact, in our studies, we've seen many individuals who are not allergic to mold that still have upper and lower respiratory problems due to byproducts of molds. And these are typically chemicals that are released called volatile organic compounds that can cause a spectrum of upper and lower respiratory problems.

O'BRIEN: While you've been talking we've been showing some of the pictures of some of the homes that we've seen in and around New Orleans. And you can just see how bad the problem is.

Can these homes be salvaged? I mean, can you go in? This particular one we're looking at doesn't look so bad. This one looks a little bit worse.

Can you -- can you save these homes? How do you clean off this mold?

BERNSTEIN: Well, just from what I've seen, many of them look not very salvageable. If there was just a modest exposure, you can do remediation and certainly preserve the structure. But when you've had submersion for this long a period of time, I would -- I would anticipate that many of these are not salvageable.

O'BRIEN: The mold, once it gets into the wood, I mean, obviously you can see that you can knock out some of the -- you know, the walls. But can the molds get into the wood? And once it's in the wood is there any way to save the structure itself?

BERNSTEIN: Well, again, probably it depends on the extent of the damage. But when it gets into the wood like that it might be very difficult.

If you have metal and, you know, hard surfaces, you can certainly try to clean that. I think it's important to point out, though, that with this type of damage you really need experts who are down there to do this type of remediation, assessment and remediation, because of the potential health effects, one would need to really put up proper containments and use respirators and air scrubbers and so forth to really prevent unnecessary exposure.

O'BRIEN: Yes, we didn't see a lot of that. You've got some 160,000 homes, though. I don't know that you're going to have that many experts and sort of do it professionally.

When you wear a paper mask, like those HEPA filters that a lot of us were wearing when we walk through these homes, does that protect you at all?

BERNSTEIN: Well, they should be niosh-rated (ph) masks that would really help filter out the mold allergens, the mold spores, and also the byproducts. So these are, again, niosh-rated masks, and that's what they should be looking for if you're -- if people go into this type of environment.

O'BRIEN: Dr. Jonathan Bernstein -- Bernstein.

I've mangled your name twice, Dr. Bernstein. Thank you for talking with us. I tell you, I spent so much time knee-deep in mold, and it gave me really bad allergies and some asthma as well. It was really -- you wonder what the people who are going -- who are going to be living in those homes again one day are going do.

Thank you for talking with us.

You're looking at some live pictures now. This is the chief justice, John Roberts, hugging his family and kissing his wife.

He is now officially beginning his first day, although he was officially sworn in on Thursday by President Bush. Today is the actual ceremony this morning. And really, it's a pretty brief ceremony.

In about 45 minutes or so he's going to get right down to work hearing a case about assisted suicide out of Oregon. They've been doing a photo-op, and his children have been remarkably well behaved, we've seen so far this morning. And we, of course, are going follow the chief justice's very first day as the John Roberts era begins for the Supreme Court.

Looking at some live pictures there.

We're going to take a short break. AMERICAN MORNING is back in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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