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American Morning

Dawn of New Hurricane Season; President Bush Looking for Compromise on Immigration Reform

Aired June 01, 2006 - 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: An alleged Marine massacre prompting some stern lectures for U.S. troops in Iraq as the military tries to reel in bad behavior on the battlefield.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And President Bush expected to begin applying pressure on House and Senate leaders today. He's looking for a compromise on immigration reform. Those stories and much more ahead on this AMERICAN MORNING.

Good morning. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Soledad O'Brien.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien. Thanks for being with us.

It is the dawn of a new hurricane season this morning. And the experts paint a not-so-pretty picture. More storms, stronger storms, but perhaps less than last year's record setter. Of course CNN remains your hurricane headquarters with full coverage on this hurricane season.

Standing by in Atlanta, our severe weather expert Chad Myers, Susan Candiotti in Florida with an early look at preparations there, and Sean Callebs in New Orleans, where they're working around the clock to finish some critical hurricane-protection projects.

(WEATHER REPORT)

S. O'BRIEN: And remember, it was late October when we hit the 'w' in named storms. That's when Hurricane Wilma cut right through South Florida. People there still dealing with that damage, as this new hurricane season begins.

CNN's national correspondent Susan Candiotti is live for us this morning. She's in Miami.

Hey, Susan. Good morning.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATL. CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

As a fitting start to the 2006 hurricane season, a very stormy one, we're coming through heavy thunder and lightning right now. And I'm in Miami Shores, Florida, where they did suffer heavy damage after Hurricane Wilma. But here, recovery is nearly complete. But at the time, there were toppled trees, downed power lines, power was out for quite some time, and of course roof damage. Again here, the recovery work and repairs are almost done. But that's not the case in many parts of Florida. And there are a lot of anxious people this season as they wonder about what lies ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY JOHNSON, HURRICANE VICTIM: Up in here, there's mold everywhere.

CANDIOTTI: (voice-over): Mary Johnson can still see and smell the effects of Hurricane Wilma from last year.

(on camera): How can you breathe in here?

JOHNSON: It's very hard. But When you don't have nowhere else to go what choice do you have?

CANDIOTTI (voice-over): In Belle Glade, Florida, Johnson's story is not uncommon. No one will repair her home's interior unless the roof is fixed first. There's no insurance money left to do that, and FEMA turned her down. But condemning homes like Johnson's is not an option.

SHERI TAYLOR, DISASTER RESPONSE COALITION: What is the best thing, to render these families homeless, or to try to keep them there until such time as we can get either volunteers in to repair the homes or until we can find financial resources?

CANDIOTTI: After getting rocked by at least three hurricanes in the last two years, scores homes of homes in Bell Glade here have yet to be repaired.

(on camera): People here face the same problems as others across the state. For example, if you have insurance to get a new roof, more often than not there are not enough building materials or contractors to go around. If you don't have insurance or FEMA writes you a check that isn't enough to cover the cost, well, you're also playing a waiting game.

(voice-over): Blue tarps are a common sight in South Florida. A recent survey of coastal residents says 83 percent have taken no steps to make their homes stronger. Up to 68 percent have no hurricane survival plan or supplies. Florida officials are running TV ads designed to shock people into action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 911.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Water is all in the house. The roof is completely caved in on us. We need emergency assistance, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, ma'am. We can't respond now because of the condition of the hurricane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: If the ads work, all the better.

But what about Mary Johnson?

JOHNSON: I am very worried.

CANDIOTTI: For some, help is on the way.

SHEILA JOHNSON, "WE HELP": We're the last resort when everything else has failed. And everybody has been waiting, actually, for assistance.

CANDIOTTI: We Help is one Palm Beach County group organizing volunteers and donors to get the job done. And it's working. Johnson will get a new roof. Many others are still waiting, as hurricane season gets under way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CANDIOTTI: And, Soledad, we got our very first e-mail from the National Hurricane Center early this morning, and it said, no tropical cyclone formations through this weekend in the Atlantic and the Caribbean. So far, so good.

S. O'BRIEN: One weekend down. Many, many more to go, unfortunately. Susan Candiotti for us this morning. Oh, those poor people there. Wow, what a mess. Thanks for the report -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Big question on many minds this morning, of course, is New Orleans ready for another storm? Has the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers made good on a promise to made the city's flood protection system as good as it was before Katrina? The short answer is no.

CNN's Sean Callebs live in New Orleans with more.

Hello, Sean.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Miles.

And that is despite they have been working for months. Now the city here has a pretty ambitious plan to try and get some rebuilding going this summer. But even if they do, all that construction could be for naught if this elaborate system of levees, floodgates and pumps doesn't work. Well, we spent time with the graveyard shift working around the clock to show you what they are doing to try to protect the city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS (voice-over): It's 9:00 at night. John Dassau is three hours into a 12-hour graveyard shift. The foreman leading his team in a race against time to finish the massive floodgates at the 17th Street Canal that could mean life or death for an American city.

JOHN DASSAU, WELDING FOREMAN: This is very important. I mean, without something like this, if another Katrina would happen hit, I could kiss New Orleans goodbye. I've been out here all my life.

CALLEBS: Dassau Likes to boast his Louisiana roots stretch back nearly 300 years. This student of history knows if water races down the canals again from Lake Pontchartrain, ripping through levees, it could mean the end of the city he loves.

DASSAU: I got to do what I got to do to make it safer for me and to help my family rebuild, you know.

CALLEBS: His crew is working seven days a week, 12 hours a day, part of the round-the-clock operation. They will admittedly miss the June 1st deadline to wrap up. Now it's a battle to finish the job before a hurricane hits.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Since day one we've worked as fast as we could work done it as fast as we could.

CALLEBS: Ninety percent of the people working here are locals. Most either lost homes or suffered heavy damage. For the time being, personal loss is pushed aside to focus on the task at hand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is where we live. OK, what we're doing is going to protect and hopefully save the places us and our families live the next time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We actually feel this is where we are trying to correct what happened to us.

CALLEBS: Engineers say close to 80 percent of the flooding that devastated New Orleans came from two canals, areas where some 10,000 tons of steel are now going into place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, I'm going to hook you up some air.

CALLEBS: The night is a barrage of noise, sparks and seemingly endless work. Somewhere over the months, Dassau found what he needed to move on.

DASSAU: I feel at peace with it. I mean, I don't know, I can't say I'm religious, but things happen for a reason.

CALLEBS: A sense of peace maybe, but only the harsh reality of another punishing hurricane will decide if the months of work and billions of dollars have been worth it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: I had a chance recently to talk with an independent engineer who did a survey on all the levees and floodgates, and I asked him if he would feel comfortable living in the city. He said sure, if he was renting a second floor apartment. Well, the crews working on the flood-protection system say that isn't fair, and they're confident it's going to be at least as good as the Katrina system was last year, but that doesn't sit well with a lot of people living here in this area -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: It sure is a lot of open questions there, Sean. Give us a sense, when will the work be done? Are they coming up with further deadlines, or are they reluctant to do that? CALLEBS: Well, it's interesting, because the corps brought a lot of brass today. They were on one of the levee systems down there in near Miss-Go (ph), the Mississippi River Gulf outlet, and said, you know, we're done. This city is prepared.

But at the same time, you see these crews working around the clock, and they tell me that they are going to be working for the next couple of months at least, around the clock. So you're going to see a lot of work in this system. And certainly, no date -- no one is looking forward to the fact that eventually the system is going to be tested, and that's a time that no one here wants to see.

CALLEBS: Boy, that's for sure. Sean Callebs in New Orleans, thank you very much. In our next hour, we're going to check in with the director of the National Hurricane Center and the new FEMA chief. We'll see how ready they are. Our coverage continues all day long here on CNN. And tonight on "ANDERSON COOPER 360," Anderson live from New Orleans once again.

S. O'BRIEN: Turning to the Haditha investigation, it's starting to move up the chain of command. "The Washington Post" reporting this morning that a Pentagon investigation will say that Marine officers gave false information to their superiors. A report is due this week on just how those commanders handled the news that Marines had allegedly killed 24 civilians in Haditha last November.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was asked yesterday if this incident was worse than Abu Ghraib.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD RUMSFELD, DEFENSE SECY.: There's two investigations going on. One is to determine what happened. And the second is to determine what happened after whatever happened happened. And the Marines are working diligently on that. And at the appropriate time when they have gathered the facts they will make them available to the public, and then we'll know more and we'll know answers to questions like that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

S. O'BRIEN: Orders are expected today that all U.S. and allied troops in Iraq undergo core values training. Also, a promotion has been put on hold for the top Marine commander in Iraq at the time. That's Major General Steven Johnson.

The Bush administration is putting the full-court press on immigration reform today, trying to sell its plan of border enforcement, a guest worker program and a path to citizenship, as they've been calling it, for undocumented workers. The sales pitch begins with President Bush himself in less than two hours.

Ed Henry is live for us at the White House.

Ed, good morning. What's the president doing today? ED HENRY, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, he'll be speaking to a friendly audience, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of the biggest supporter for the president's push for comprehensive immigration reform. So the president will get just a warm reception like he got last month when he spoke to a restaurant industry trade group. Businesses need cheap labor, obviously, that's why they are vehemently opposed to some conservative pushes for some sort of massive deportation of the 11 million to million to 12 million illegal immigrants already here and working. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is very much on board with the president's approach. Border security, plus some sort of path to citizenship for those workers already here. So the president is not really likely to gain any ground today. This is sort of like preaching to the choir.

Until he starts converting conservatives who are opposed to comprehensive immigration reform, it's still going to remain stalled on Capitol Hill -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: What's the Chamber of Commerce's main sticking point in the president's plan, Ed?

HENRY: They're concerned about the employer-verification provisions. Basically a lot of conservatives are saying one big thing is to make sure that employers are actually checking to see whether their workers are documented. Business groups do not want to see that in any final package. But the president realizes the political reality. It's going to be hard enough to get any guest worker provisions into a final bill. So at least to make it somewhat palatable for conservatives, there will have to be some sort of strong employer-verification provisions where there will be some stiff fines if employers don't do a better job of figuring out whether their workers are really documented -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: They're just beginning to hash out that compromise, aren't they? Ed Henry for us at the White House. Ed, thanks, as always.

HENRY: Thank you.

S. O'BRIEN: We're going to bring you the president's address on immigration live from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. That's this morning at 8:50 a.m. Eastern Time.

Coming up on the program, a day after she announced a dramatic turnaround, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice huddles in Vienna with European leaders. Could she be on track for a solution to the Iranian nuke crisis?

S. O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning, an attorney found safe and sound after a surveillance camera caught her kidnapping at gunpoint, on tape. We'll show you police tracked down the suspect, and then made that dramatic rescue and arrest.

M. O'BRIEN: And later, the new FEMA chief, David Paulison, Will be with us live. We'll ask him if FEMA has its act together this year. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

M. O'BRIEN: In Alabama, a high-stakes rescue mission for a kidnapped woman. This morning, she is safe and a suspect is in custody. A good ending to a harrowing nine-hour ordeal which began with her abduction at gunpoint in a parking lot.

Amanda Rosseter live now in Birmingham with more.

Amanda, good morning.

AMANDA ROSSETER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.

That suspect's name is Dedrick Gream (ph), according to officials at the Birmingham City jail. We spoke with them just a few minutes ago. They confirmed that he is there in custody this morning. As for Sandra Eubanks Gregory, she is also safe and sound this morning. But what a terrifying ordeal she had yesterday. She's a local attorney. She's a single mother of a little girl. And she was simply on her way to work when she was carjacked, kidnapped and then held at gunpoint throughout the day.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSSETER: A dramatic end to a day-long manhunt, as Birmingham police and U.S. marshals pulled the suspect from this second-floor room at the Comfort Inn.

MARTY KEELY, U.S. MARSHAL: It went down quickly. It went down very quickly. Information was developed quickly. And once it was developed, the officers here acted on it.

ROSSETER: They rescued 34-year-old Sandra Eubank Gregory, who was found bound on the hotel room floor. Police said she had no apparent injuries, but was taken to a local hospital to be examined.

KEELY: We did find a weapon in the room, and there was not much resistance.

ROSSETER: The ordeal was caught on tape as it began, around 8:30 in the morning. A surveillance camera at a downtown parking lot caught the gunman as he approached Gregory outside her car, then forced her into the passenger side and drove off. A statewide manhunt ensued as Gregory's ATM card was used at three locations to withdraw cash. Then the suspect checked into the Comfort Inn, showed his I.D., gave a cell phone number, paid with cash and used a coupon.

The hotel manager described the scene to Nancy Grace on CNN's Headline News.

VALERIE, COMFORT INN MANAGER: He walked in alone. He came in. He asked for a room. I checked him in, took a copy of his driver's license. I gave him the room key, and he left.

ROSSETER: Three to four hours later a tip to police from a male caller gave the name of the hotel and the room number.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROSSETER: And that suspect, Miles, who is in custody is now expected to face three counts of robbery and kidnapping. We understand this morning that the judge in the case has granted detectives an extra 48 hours to gather all of the evidence they need -- Miles.

M. O'BRIEN: Amanda Rosseter in Birmingham, thank you very much. Stay with us. Later this mourning, in our last hour, we'll give you some tips on how to stay safe in potentially dangerous places like a parking garage -- Soledad.

S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, Andy Serwer's "Minding Your Business." He's tell us which car companies want to give you free gas if you buy one of their cars. There's always a catch. That's ahead.

Stay with us. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

M. O'BRIEN: Coming up, a tragic mix-up after a deadly car accident. One college student is killed. Another left in a coma. But authorities tell the wrong family that their daughter is dead. How could that happen?

And later, new FEMA Director David Paulison joins us live. Did the agency learn its lesson after last year's hurricane debacles? Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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