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American Morning

Fires Rage Across Texas and Oklahoma; Severe Weather Out West

Aired December 28, 2005 - 07:00   ET

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

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Miles O'Brien. Raging fires rage across Texas and Oklahoma, burning down homes. There are more strong winds in the forecast today. Will more towns be in danger? We'll have a live report.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello, in for Soledad today. Severe weather out West, powerful storms hitting the coast. The snow will get even deeper today. We'll have the forecast for you.

O'BRIEN: And new information this morning about that police shooting, fatal shooting in New Orleans. A man waving a knife is killed. The city's police superintendent tells us what happened, on this AMERICAN MORNING.

COSTELLO: And good morning to you. Welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. It's 7:00 a.m. Eastern straight up. And I guess we're going to talk about those fires to top it off.

O'BRIEN: Yes, lots to talk about with those fires, and they don't call them wildfires for nothing. It is a wild scene. We start with those fast-spreading wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma. More wind and dry weather will make it another dangerous day. In Oklahoma, nearly two dozen homes burned Tuesday in towns near Oklahoma City. A lot of wind grounded helicopters that could have dumped water on those fires. More fires in Texas as well. Gusting winds have spread the fires and forced hundreds of people to evacuate. One death is reported. Several homes are destroyed.

Yolonda Walker of our CNN affiliate WFAA is in Arlington, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YOLANDA WALKER, WFAA REPORTER (on camera): We're standing in front of two mobile homes in the Arlington, Texas area that were destroyed by the gas fires. Six mobile homes in all were destroyed, including two other homes in this area, 13 people left homeless and fire crews are standing by this morning to make sure nothing else happens, and the people who live on this block are safe today.

Five counties west of the Dallas area experienced a rush of grass fires. Two of those counties had about 40 grass fires apiece, and there was one death just north of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area in Gainesville.

Some areas of Kinnendale suffered from grass fires and homes lost in that area, but firefighters worked quickly to make sure it stopped short of a apartment complex that would of destroyed several units. This all started as a small grass fire. Fort Worth, Mansfield and other fire departments assisted the Arlington area. Fire crews hampered by two other fires in the area had some difficulties, getting to other structures, so they had to let some burn in order to get to some other areas.

Pinpointing the cause will have to wait until later on today. No one seriously hurt in the Arlington area, and a lot of these mobile homes were being rented, and those renters had no insurance.

Reporting from Arlington, Yolonda Walker, WFAA.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Mother Nature is getting nasty on the West Coast as well. Another strong Pacific storm barreling toward the coast. Heavy rain expected from the California-Oregon border to the San Francisco Bay area. Flooding is possible in some areas. Rusty Dornin is in San Francisco this morning.

Rusty, you call this latest storm part of the pineapple express? What does that mean?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, local forecasters began calling it that, because of the normal weather pattern during the winter where you get the storms that originate in the tropics. By the time they get here, they're very wet and they're warm. I mean, the temperatures are in the 50s and 60s here, even now sort of in the middle of the night. So you get a lot of moisture associated with this storm. So the thing is, you don't get a break usually. They just come one after another, marching across northern California.

Now we had a little rain off and on last night. We're supposed to get some intense rain showers this morning, and then it's supposed to taper off Thursday, and then back again slamming us on Friday.

Coming with these storms, heavy surf. A very popular area to surf under the Golden Gate Bridge. A lot of surfers out late afternoon, last night. The heavy swells, 20 to 25 feet at times, are supposed to continue through today. Of course, up in the Sierra, there is a lot of snow. More than two feet of snow is expected in the next couple of days. Of course that's going to create a nightmare over the New Year's Eve holiday weekend when those folks in the Sierra start coming home. The usual thing on that -- and it's gridlock coming back -- because people really have a hard time getting out when they get snowed in up there -- Carol.

COSTELLO: It's great when you're skiing, but terrible when you're driving home. Rusty Dornin live in San Francisco, thank you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

O'BRIEN: We showed you that dramatic video yesterday, a man in New Orleans waving a knife confronted by police. Now some increasing criticism of police response. A police investigation under way. Officers say they shot to death 38-year-old Anthony Hayes after he lunged at them with a knife. Police superintendent Warren Riley is standing behind his officers, saying the officer's lives were in danger. He'll be holding a news conference a little later this morning. We will speak with him before that, about 15 minutes from now, so stay tuned for a that.

The Red Cross is vowing to change the way it makes grants to individuals in the wake of a huge Hurricane Katrina scam. As we first told you yesterday, 22 former Red Cross workers among 49 accused of defrauding the organization of $300,000, money that was supposed to help Katrina victims. We got more on that from AMERICAN MORNING's Bob Franken joining us from our Washington bureau.

Bob, this is a huge tragedy, difficult to get all the money to the right people without some kind of fraud. But in this case, why was the Red Cross so susceptible do you think?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Red Cross is inherently susceptible, and officials of the organization will say that, because of the autonomy of its local chapters. So much of the work, so much of the collection is done at that level, and there have been over the years, criminal investigations or questions raised about conduct in states like Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and now, of course, what we saw going on in Bakersfield, California.

Now the Red Cross is answering quite a bit of significant criticism. It is a congressionally mandated charity, the only one. A hearing a couple of weeks ago in Washington, the House committee that oversees this type of thing, members were saying that perhaps, perhaps it's time to revisit that, to give a larger role to organizations like the Salvation Army. The new head of the Red Cross, the interim head is saying that, yes, there are problems, but they're working on them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE COOPER, AMERICAN RED CROSS: What we found is that while we did, indeed, put safeguards in place, they were not fully adequate to prevent 100 percent or insure a hundred percent of the money that was very generously donated by the American public reach the intended victims of Hurricane Katrina.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: So the Red Cross is once again going through a leadership change, Miles, a leadership that is promising to make things better.

O'BRIEN: Bob, what are they saying about what they might do to stop this from happening again?

FRANKEN: Well, in effect, clean up their act. What they're hoping to do is to take away some of the autonomy, to come up with more coordination.

What is so strange for many people is an organization of that size, of that magnitude that has such a coordinated advertising effort, for instance, oftentimes has a very disorganized operational effort.

O'BRIEN: All right, thank you very much, Bob Franken.

In just a little bit, we'll talk to the interim head of the Red Cross, Jack McGuire, and ask him a few questions about this. And by the way, that interview you saw briefly in Bob Franken's piece is "PAULA ZAHN NOW," which airs weeknights on 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time right here on CNN -- Carol.

COSTELLO: The latest on the wiretaps authorized by President Bush now. Questions about some U.S. terrorism convictions. "The New York Times" is reporting that convicted and suspected terrorists want to know if they were spied on and not told about it before trial. Elaine Quijano live at the White House.

Elaine, the White House responded to the NSA story Tuesday, but it was really more of the same, wasn't it?

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Still no comment, essentially, Carol, from the White House about the reports. First, over the weekend, published by "The New York Times," that the National Security Agency is collecting and analyzing large amounts of information with the help of American Internet and telephone companies.

Now in the meantime, the White House is continuing to defend President Bush's use of the program. In fact, yesterday, White House spokesman Trent Duffy telling reporters, quote, This is a limited program. This is not about monitoring phone calls designed to arrange little league practice or what to bring to a potluck dinner. These are designed to monitor calls from very bad people to very bad people who have a history of blowing up commuter trains, weddings and churches."

But critic argue that determination of who exactly should be wiretapped should be made by a court. And some members of Congress have expressed some concerns about the domestic, this secret domestic spying program. They are concerned about privacy rights and civil liberties. And it's mostly coming from Democrats, but also some Republicans as well.

In fact, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Arlen Specter, says he plans to hold hearings on this early next year -- Carol.

Let's talk about the Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito for a second, because the National Archives are going to release some documents. What do we expect to be in those documents?

QUIJANO: Well, we're told about 300 documents, nearly 300 documents in all, released from the National Archives, apparently from the same batch that was released on Friday. Now a Justice Department official tells CNN, they appear to be papers from Reagan administration officials with the Justice Department in the 1980s. Unclear what they'll contain, but no doubt those opposed to Judge Alito's nomination will be combing through, hoping find some ammunition ahead of his confirmation hearings next month -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Elaine Quijano live at the White House this morning, thank you.

Coming up on AMERICAN MORNING, the latest the arrest of a former baseball star, Jeff Reardon. Did heartbreak over his son's death start a downward spiral?

O'BRIEN: It sure does break your heart thinking about it.

Also a possible plea deal in the Enron case. And if you're that man, Ken Lay, you are very nervous about this one.

COSTELLO: You got that right.

O'BRIEN: Plus, an emergency landing pressure drop after a hole ripped open the side of that jet. How did it happen?

First, though, a holiday message from our troops overseas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STAFF SGT. JASON LUDLAM, DAYTON, TEXAS: Hi, my name is Staff Sergeant Jason Ludlam from Dayton, Texas. I just want to wish everybody a happy holidays, say hi to my son, Hunter, and my mom and dad, and my best friend, John Paul.

PFC MICHAEL MARKHAM, KILLEEN, TEXAS: I'm PFC Markham from outside of Iraq. I just wanted to say hi to my wife, Marissa, and my newborn baby, Giovanni, and my son, Julian, and wish everybody a happy holidays. And I love you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MARKET REPORT)

COSTELLO: Coming up, our special series on the top newsmakers of the year, five in '05. Today, it's Cindy Sheehan, and how her one- woman war protest grew into a nationwide movement. That's just ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

O'BRIEN: In New Orleans this morning, another internal police investigation in under way, another round of criticism, this in the wake of that deadly shooting by police on Monday. Thirty-eight-year- old Anthony Hayes brandishing a 3-inch knife, shot dead after a confrontation with at least 16 police officers. Now was that a justifiable use of deadly force?

With some answers, joining us now from New Orleans, police superintendent Warren Riley.

Superintendent Riley, good to have you with us.

What is your first take on this? Do you think it was justified? SUPT. WARREN RILEY, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: Well, it was justifiable. This was an unfortunate situation. Mr. Hayes, there was an incident where he actually committed a battery on a store manager, a store clerk. Our officers were summoned. Two of our officers arrived and attempted to hold a conversation with Mr. Hayes about the incident, at which time he attempted to engage in a fight. He pulled out a knife. They called for assistance, and that's where see on your video where a number of officers arrived on the scene. They attempted to form a perimeter around Mr. Hayes, and unfortunately, it evolved into a situation where he attempted to strike one of the officers with a knife, and he was fired on by three other officers and subsequently died.

O'BRIEN: Superintendent, a couple of things come to mind here. It seems to me, just looking at this, with 16 police officers ringing around him, all of them with their semiautomatics drawn, that police escalated this situation somewhat. Would you agree with to that?

RILEY: Well, you may look at it like that way as civilian. but what our officers was attempting to do was put a perimeter around Mr. Hayes so that there were no citizens that could have taken as hostage, so that he could not run into another business and escalate this into a hostage incident where some innocent citizens would have been held hostage or injured. So that's what our officers were trying to do.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it's a little more than just a perimeter, though. I think we would all agree on that.

Let me ask you this, it's a three-inch knife he was brandishing. These days you can carry that on an airplane for gosh's sakes. How much of a threat really was that knife, and how much of a threat was he?

RILEY: No. I think you need to ask those pilots from united, and you need to ask the relatives of other people who have been killed by three-inch knives, and I think you'll understand how dangerous that situation is.

And not only that, any time you're within 21 feet, tactially street survival shows that you any person with a knife, even a three- inch knife. This wasn't just a pocket knife; this was hunting knife. That within 21 feet, that you're in danger.

O'BRIEN: A lot of people look at this would say why wasn't a taser used? As I understand it, you are not equipped with them. Why not?

RILEY: Only a SWAT team is equipped with tasers, because there are still many investigations going on by many law enforcement agencies, especially I believe the International Chiefs of Police are reviewing this, because a number of people have died either from being shot with a taser -- there are other circumstances involved, medication, heart disease and other things that are involved. But there's nothing to say that a taser will not, would not have caused severe or fatal injuries. O'BRIEN: But there's nothing to say that a gun is nothing more than a deadly weapon, so at least you might have an opportunity to take a person down without taking their life.

RILEY: Well, I think what's being missed here is one Mr. Hayes' condition, and the fact that these officers gave Mr. Hayes many, many options, many verbal instructions to put the knife down. Mr. Hayes was not, in fact, fired upon until he attempted to stab a police officer, and I think that's what's being missed here. This is an unfortunate situation for Mr. Hayes, for his family, but also for the police officers who are in this situation.

O'BRIEN: You know, you mentioned the SWAT team with the tasers. Were they called?

RILEY: SWAT team was not notified at that time. This entire thing happened within three minutes.

O'BRIEN: Which would be a good argument for allowing at least patrol supervisors to have those tasers with them.

RILEY: Well, we are not totally comfortable with tasers yet, and it has not been proven. What has occurred is that well over 140, 150 people have died as a result of that, so that is not necessarily the solution.

O'BRIEN: All right, your three officers actually fired shots in this case. They have been put on reassignment pending this investigation. I know that's a routine matter.

In the meantime, just last week, you had to fire two officers who were involved in that videotaped beating in the French Quarter back in October. Then there was the whole -- we could go on and on about the looting issue in the wake of Katrina. It's a tough time for the New Orleans Police Department.

The general question here is, are these officers under too much stress, superintendent? Sixty percent-plus have lost their homes, they're living on this cruise ship, which is kind of a miserable situation, working ridiculously long hours under tremendous stress. Are you asking too much of your men and women?

RILEY: Are we asking too much of them to step up and perform during a time of tragedy and this catastrophe? Absolutely not. That's what we get paid to do. Are they working under tremendous amount of stress? I would say not. This was...

O'BRIEN: Not? Really? You wouldn't call it a stressful situation there?

RILEY: Was that situation stressful? Yes. You asked me, are police officers working under tremendous amount of stress. This is what we're trained to do. These officers should be -- I'm not talking about the shooting on Saturday. You asked about the police department.

O'BRIEN: Right.

RILEY: These officers have been through a lot, and they have dealt with it tremendously well, those that are still on the job. Those who have had problems, those who are not here, those who didn't conduct themselves appropriately are not longer members of the New Orleans Police Department, so these officers that are here are doing with very well.

O'BRIEN: Warren Riley is New Orleans superintendent. Thanks for being with us this morning, superintendent -- Carol.

RILEY: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Coming up, more on the arrest of former baseball star Jeff Reardon. Did depression drive him to commit a crime? Stay with us, on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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