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American Morning

Tragedy at Sago Mine in West Virginia; Bus Line Debuts Tours of Devastated New Orleans

Aired January 05, 2006 - 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: Meanwhile, of course, you know, what caused this explosion is among the series of questions that people have on their minds. They'd like to know a little bit about the safety of this mine in general. They also want to know about the communications snafus which led to the terrible dead-end of emotions when they were -- people were led to believe their loved ones were alive.
Last night, a bit of the beginning of a catharsis, if you will, for this community as they gathered together once again at the Baptist church, which is a focal point for this community in Sago, to light candles, sing hymns and remember those who are lost.

CNN's Adaora Udoji with more on the community reaction. She joins us live now.

Good morning, Adaora.

ADAORA UDOJI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles. As you well know, the Baptist church is right up the street from where you are, was the central point of life 24 hours a day for the past three days, as family and friends gathered together to await a word of the 12 miners. It was the center of hope, the center of grieving and later of outrage.

Last night, as you say, it was about prayers, prayers in honor of the miners who died. And also, Miles, you talked to a rescue worker this morning, and there's certainly a lot more heartbreak to come for these families as they learn exactly what happened during those rescue attempts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE ROSS, COORDINATED DRILLING EFFORTS: Once we drilled into the mines, then we lowered the drill pipe down into the mine, shut all the engines down and listened for sounds, hoping to hear something. We didn't hear anything. Then we took a hammer and were beating on the side of the drill pipe to send out a signal, and we still received nothing back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UDOJI: And as you drive up to the mines, Miles, there are all sorts of signs outside of businesses sending their prayers to the families. And also, today, governor Joe Manchin has ordered that all of the states flags be lowered to half mast so as long as -- until I should say, rather, until the last miner is buried -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: CNN's Adaora Udoji just down the road from me right now at the Sago Baptist Church, thank you very much.

The first miner who was likely killed in that explosion Monday morning was the man they called the fire boss, Terry Helms, a veteran miner, whose job was in part to go in and make sure that conditions were okay for the remaining part of the team to come in. He was separated from the team, and as a result, during the explosion, it is believed he was killed almost immediately.

Just a little while ago, we spoke with his two children, Nick and Amber Helms, who tell us what it was like in that period of time when it was -- their conclusion their father had been killed, they knew that long before the false information was let out, that the miners might have been alive. So for them, that whole ordeal was a very lonely time. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: Nick and Amber, thanks for being with us.

We haven't talked since that whole terrible roller coaster ride that we witnessed there at the Sago Baptist Church. What are your thoughts this morning as you've had a chance to kind of think back on all that has happened here?

NICK HELMS, FATHER DIED IN MINE: You know, the main focus of our whole family has been on my father, just making sure that he didn't suffer. We're pretty sure that he didn't. We're just glad that we found out about our father and knew that he was passed before we got the -- before we got our hopes -- would have our hopes up and then gone.

M. O'BRIEN: yes.

N. HELMS: You know.

M. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you this, I've been thinking about you all through this, because I know during the period when there were all those false hopes, there was one family in that church, that was your family, who wasn't able to share in that. What was that like?

AMBER HELMS, FATHER DIED IN MINE: Actually, I took a lot of comfort in the fact that they were so happy, because that's exactly how my dad would have wanted it. He would have given his life for these coal miners, and I was so extremely happy whenever they were so happy.

I did feel bad that I wished that my dad would have been OK, too, but, you know, he would have given his life for them and, you know, that's how he would have wanted it.

M. O'BRIEN: Even as they celebrated, were they still consoling you all? N. HELMS: They were -- you know, they were -- they had a few. You know, we kind of left the premises. I kind of got in a group together because we wanted to stay out of their way, their joy.

M. O'BRIEN: You were thoughtful enough to say, you know what, maybe we shouldn't be here?

A. HELMS: Well, after we found out the initially that everybody was OK, we pretty much left not only for them, but for us. We didn't want to kind of rain on their parade, because we knew they felt bad for feeling so good. And they took a collection for us and I hope that the church will split that collection they already gave just for us and I hope they split it among the others as well.

M. O'BRIEN: What are the unanswered questions in your mind this morning? You know, we heard from the president of the mine company yesterday with an apology for the miscommunication. Still a lot of questions, though, about what happened underground.

N. HELMS: You know, I want to know exactly what happened. Our whole family does. And I don't want to hear it from the news, I don't want to hear it from reporters, I don't want to hear it -- read it in the newspaper. I want it to hear it from Mr. Hatfield. I want him to call me personally and I want him to tell me exactly what happened.

And you know, I'm furious. Sad. Happy for the one survivor. Hopefully and God willingly, he gets through this because as soon as he does, I want to be there to talk to him. But I want a lot of answers. And I want them personally to me by the people that made the mistake.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

M. O'BRIEN: That was Nick and Amber Helms, couple of very strong people. As Nick Helms told me as he left after we did the interview, Soledad, "I feel that my father's strength is with me."

Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Tough, tough for that family. Really, I thought remarkable, Miles, how they are holding up. Thanks, Miles.

Want to take everybody to New Orleans now. And this is a story -- a follow-up, really, on a story we told you about a couple weeks ago. One of the worst disasters in American history, Hurricane Katrina, can now be viewed up close. Some people are calling this viewing timely; others say no, it's just tasteless. Gray Line Tours is now offering a look at the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.

And joining us this morning from our New Orleans bureau is Greg Hoffman. He is the vice president of Gray Line Tours in New Orleans. Greg, thanks for talking with us.

GREG HOFFMAN, V.P., GRAY LINE NEW ORLEANS: Thank you, Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Yesterday was the first day. How did it go? HOFFMAN: It went very well. We had the tour at 1:00 p.m. and we had two vehicles go out at 1:00 p.m. And a lot of news crews went out also, but we also added on a 9:00 departure yesterday morning, which was about half full. So, with the media publicity, we had quite a few takers yesterday.

S. O'BRIEN: Give me a sense of where exactly this tour takes people?

HOFFMAN: Well, we stay on the major thoroughfares. We're very sensitive to the residents of the neighborhoods that we must travel through, so we stay on major thoroughfares, we operate the doors on a mini-bus versus on a large motor coach. People are not allowed to get off of the bus, to take any pictures. They must stay on the vehicle. We have a step-on guy that accompanies and gives a full tour narration.

It goes down West End Boulevard through Lakeview, it goes down Lake Shore, it goes through some of the other neighborhoods in Lake Vista and Lake Terrace and, you know, comes back in through City Park and on down into the central city of New Orleans.

S. O'BRIEN: We're showing some of those pictures, in fact, as the little bus goes by. As you well know, there's been a whole range of responses. And there's sort of one side that says, this is possibly the most tasteless thing anybody could do in the wake of a disaster that's really wrecked your city. What do you make of those responses?

HOFFMAN: Well, we had the same consternations at the beginning as they did and we thought long and hard about it. And it really wasn't until we realized that congressmen from other states were not backing the efforts to financially rebuild New Orleans until they actually came to New Orleans and saw the devastation firsthand.

And that was our turning point. That's when we said that we will do this tour, we will send a message and that's what we're doing. We're not only providing transportation to devastated areas, but we're telling why New Orleans needs to be saved, you know, why we have the second largest port in the country and we provide so many raw goods to the rest of the country. Our oil and gas production. We provide 30 percent of the seafood for the lower 48 states.

So we have a message to tell. And at the end of the tour, we actually ask our people on the tour to voluntarily sign a petition that we send to ranking members of Congress supporting the rebuilding effort, and we give them a copy of that to go home and hopefully send to their senators and congressmen.

So it's not just a devastation and seeing devastation. It's what we going to do after that? We need to rebuild New Orleans. New Orleans is a wonderful city and anybody that visited New Orleans knows that they need to come back and we need to rebuild.

S. O'BRIEN: You know, one thing I know you're not super public about is you lost your home in Hurricane Katrina. And as you do this tour and take people through, in some ways isn't it sort of like picking at a scab? It's just -- you never let yourself get over it?

HOFFMAN: Well, whether we like it or not, Katrina is part of our history and that's what we do as a company. We tell the history of New Orleans. And certainly going through the devastated neighborhoods, every time I ride a bus through there, you know, it is -- it is very provoking and very sad. And that is a part of the tour, to understand the devastation that's there.

Unfortunately, the world either thinks New Orleans is still underwater or that we'll rebuild, and neither of which are true. You know, we have a long rebuilding road to go. And we're dedicating this tour to, you know, those people that were victims of this tragedy. You know, fortunately, none of my family perished, but there were families that perished. We're dedicating this to them, the first responders, the firemen, the police, the security from other states that came and helped us, the National Guard, et cetera. So this is who we're dedicating this tour to.

S. O'BRIEN: Greg Hoffman from Gray Line Tours, thanks for talking with us, Greg.

HOFFMAN: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: Business news now. What you got coming up?

ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: Soledad, last night, the University of Texas won the college football national championship. But the Longhorns are big winners in another way. We'll tell you all about that, coming up next on AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

S. O'BRIEN: We've got this news just into CNN. According to U.S. military news release, five U.S. soldiers have been killed in Baghdad. They were part of a Task Force Baghdad patrol, apparently killed by a roadside bomb.

As we've been reporting all morning, today is the deadliest day since the elections. Two suicide bombings, one in Ramadi and one in Karbala, have killed at least 92 people and now, five U.S. soldiers also dead. We're going to have more on this story as we continue through the money.

(MARKET REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: Coming up later this morning on "AM Pop" -- be still my heart -- Pierce Brosnan is going to join us live in the studio. Of course he's been 007. He's been Remington Steel, you'll recall as well. but his new role as that guy right there, Julian Noble, kind of icky guy, but it's the role that's getting him some pretty terrific reviews. That's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) O'BRIEN: All morning, we've been updating you on Israeli prime Minister's Ariel Sharon's condition. Well now, you have the ability to be on top of every new development on the story, even if you're at work. It's with CNN's Pipeline. It's a special new service from CNN.com.

Veronica De La Cruz is one of the Pipeline anchors. She joins us from the CNN Pipeline control room, going to walk us through some of the features.

Hey, Veronica. Good morning to you.

Give me a sense of how people can do this.

VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Soledad. Good morning to you.

Let me show you how you can follow a developing story like the Sharon story. Pipeline actually is the perfect option to do something like that, because let me show you how it works.

First of all, we're looking at the pipeline player, and this is what is playing in the main pipe. You have four different viewing options, all showing different feeds. And in pipe number three right now, we are looking at live pictures of the hospital in Jerusalem, where Sharon has been hospitalized. And you can monitor those pictures on your own.

Also, Soledad, you can also search for video by typing in Sharon, click there on this button, and immediately you have hundreds and hundreds of different video options as far as Sharon is concerned.

Another thing that's very interesting, Soledad, is you can see what different Pipeline players are watching by clicking on most watched.

Now, it ranks them in order, and it seems a lot people are looking at this story, "Sharon faces revolt within Likud," and that's brought to us by our own Guy Raz. And there you see the video has been called up in that box right there -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: All right. Good ways that folks can get an update on this story.

Veronica, thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

I want to mention, of course, you get to Pipeline right from our Web site, which is CNN.com, or go right to CNN.com/pipeline.

Ahead this morning, hard to imagine that the pain felt in the Sago mining community right now. How will they heal in the wake of such a terrible tragedy? This morning we talk to a pastor. He's been with the grieving families. He's got some insight for us, ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.

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