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Mosquitoes Potential New Orleans Threat; Recovery Efforts Under Way in Biloxi; Some New Orleans Area Residents Allowed to Inspect Damage; Officials Consider Spraying for Mosquitoes to Counter Health Threat; New Orleans Police Chief: Police Acted Heroically; Jesse Jackson Blames Feds for Disaster Reaction

Aired September 05, 2005 - 17:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Abbi, thank you very much. Important information.
It's 5 p.m. here in Washington, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM, where news and information from across the hurricane zone arrive in one place simultaneously.

Happening now, state of emergency. New Orleans, gripped by crisis and chaos, but some critical changes are finally taking place. We'll take you there live.

President Bush back in the hurricane zone with new promises and facing new criticism.

And tens of thousands of people searching for missing loved ones. We'll show you what's being done to try to help them.

I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

A week after the storm, there's increased attention and assistance, cooperation and consolidation. But obviously the mission is critical. In the affected areas, they're trying to shelter and feed the now homeless and hungry. Between Mississippi and Louisiana alone, 8.5 million meals have been delivered. For those handing out those meals and other stressed-out volunteers, President Bush visited, thanking them and hoping to boost morale.

And another important mission: repairing the broken levees in New Orleans. At least one water pump is now up and running as work continues on others.

Now a look at the situation in some of the states. After the 9/11 attacks, New York City received support from Louisiana. Now New York is returning the generosity. One hundred fifty New York police officers with military and emergency medical experience left today, headed toward Louisiana, as well as 300 New York firefighters.

In Texas, 1.5 million evacuees are packing the shelters, and the governor is asking other states to help.

In Louisiana, dozens of forensic experts are planning to process more than 140 corpses a day, hoping to identify them. There are now 59 confirmed deaths so far in Louisiana, though that number is expected to rise, unfortunately, tragically, well into the thousands. Some of the latest additions to the emergency crews in New Orleans, teams of morticians at the ready to gather and identify bodies.

Let's get an update now from CNN's Jeff Koinange. He's joining us now live in New Orleans. Jeff?

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. And I'm standing literally in the middle of Canal Street. And Wolf, imagine Canal Street on any given day. Behind me it probably would be chock -- chock a block full of traffic, human, vehicular. People wouldn't be able to move around me.

What you see is stores that have been looted. Those that weren't looted that have been burnt. Look at that Mirage door over there, Wolf. If you zoom in, you see the grill over there. It looks like someone drove a vehicle into it, and pried that grill open and took whatever was inside.

This is typical of this busy thoroughfare, Wolf, a thoroughfare that divides the CBD from the French Quarter. Billions and billions of dollars being lost every day even as we speak.

Well, it's going to take a long time. You say those levees are slowly being fixed. By the time this water is drained, Wolf, and then these streets cleaned, that will take a long time, Wolf.

And the rescues do continue, people coming back into the city, but recovery, Wolf, you can know recovery after any disaster, that takes forever. As long as there's a beginning, Wolf, as long as people slowly start streaming into town, the basic social services are restored, water, electricity, telephones. If those are restored, people will come back. Until that happens, people will stay away, Wolf.

BLITZER: Are people coming up to you, Jeff -- we just heard Donna Brazile tell her poignant personal story about her sister who's still missing in New Orleans. Are people coming up to you and to our other CNN personnel in New Orleans and giving you their names, asking that we convey information that they are alive?

KOINANGE: Every single day, Wolf, no matter where we are. You see people. And those lucky enough to salvage family photographs, they come up and say, look, my father's here. My mother's here. I haven't seen them since the hurricane hit.

Every single day, every corner we turn, you find people who are missing relatives and friends, not able to go back to their homes because the water in some places is six to eight feet deep.. They are very worried, Wolf.

And that's why those people who have been evacuated to other states, by the time they come back and look for their loved ones, that's going to take such a long time.

And you were talking about earlier on, saying why are some people staying? Well, they're staying, A, because they are living in their homes and they don't want to leave their homes. That's their possessions. They don't want to leave them.

And, B, they want to be as close as possible to their friends, relatives and neighbors, Wolf.

BLITZER: And I assume there were a lot of people who didn't leave New Orleans because they couldn't leave. Either they were the elderly, or they had some sort of injuries, homeless, mentally challenged individuals. Are they still visible by any means where you are?

KOINANGE: Some are, Wolf. We've seen some people in wheelchairs, some elderly people who just could not go, and some people literally walking down the streets with a shopping cart, with their world's possessions in a shopping cart, and they're just wandering aimlessly.

For the most part, the police and law enforcement here are trying to encourage people to leave. And they do say they can force them, but that hasn't happened yet. I think they're just giving people time to recover from the numbness, because we're still in the numbness stage.

By the time that numbness wears off and people start realizing the magnitude of this disaster, that's when they'll start realizing what should we -- where should we go from here?

But it's important, Wolf, in places like Canal Street and beyond, that these waters are drained, because this right here, Wolf, is a recipe for diseases.

BLITZER: And you're familiar with those diseases, having covered so many of these huge problems in Africa. But so far the disease, I take it, widespread disease has not erupted in New Orleans? Do you see any indications that it has?

KOINANGE: Not yet, Wolf, but you know, the mounds of garbage you see -- I think the one disease that would probably pop up in a minute, Wolf, would be probably cholera, because people aren't taking that kind of precaution. Probably you know better of the experts know better, but that is the biggest disease. Once that starts, it spreads like wildfire.

And you're right; I'm used to covering these stories. And I've seen refugee camps in the poorest of the poor countries, Wolf. And when I walked into that convention center yesterday, it was just like I had walked into a refugee camp in Darfur, in Niger, Monrovia, Sierra Leone. It was unbelievably eerily familiar. And to see that happen in the most powerful nation on the planet, Wolf, that was a heartbreaking scene.

BLITZER: One final question, Jeff, before I let you go. I spoke yesterday with the former surgeon general of the United States, Dr. David Satcher. And he suggested that mosquito-borne diseases could be a huge killer, God forbid, in New Orleans. Are you seeing any evidence that mosquitoes are forming along the waters of New Orleans? KOINANGE: That's a very good point, Wolf. Because most of our workspaces are actually out in the open. And in the evening when we're out there working, you find a lot of our colleagues spraying mosquito bug spray, and others who don't spray, they end up getting bitten.

But you're right, these waters are mosquito-borne, Wolf, because of the hot climate, the humidity, the stagnant waters, the filthy smelly waters. That right there is where mosquitoes like to breed.

So the surgeon general -- former surgeon general is probably very right in saying that malaria or mosquitoes will be infesting most of these waters, and if this isn't drained, that's going to spread throughout this city, Wolf, and that's going to be a catastrophe.

BLITZER: And one of the fears, West Nile Virus, as well.

Thanks very much, Jeff Koinange. Be careful over there, and get yourself -- make sure you get yourself sprayed as well. All of our CNN personnel, all of the people on the scene, very, very critical indeed.

President Bush finished up his second visit across the region. The president and first lady made their last stop in Mississippi. Mr. Bush acknowledged there's still much work to be done, and he promised the federal government will do whatever is necessary to continue saving lives.

There's growing military presence in the hard-hit area of Biloxi. Navy and Marine Corps personnel are on the ground the. CNN's Ted Rowlands is joining us now live from the scene.

We see some of that presence, Ted, right behind you.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They're calling this Camp Restore, Wolf. And it's 500 members of the Marine Corps from Camp Lejeune, and up to 4,000 Navy shipmen here as well, helping the effort to rescue and then to rebuild, not only Biloxi, but the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast, or at least this region of it.

Their mission right off the bat, they just got here today in force, but already they are working on trying to get the water system, the treatment systems back up and running, and the sewage systems up and running so that the same problems that are feared in New Orleans won't be as difficult here.

However, there is real concern about the potential of disease as well because of the fact that the sewage system has been down for so long. The crews have been coming in by the hour, and it continues to grow here, and they are here to do the work. They say they'll be here until the work is done.

Wolf.

BLITZER: And there's no indication how long that will be. This could be weeks, months, maybe even years.

ROWLANDS: They're expecting to have forces here for at least months. That's the indication we got from the commander we talked to. He said his biggest problem is getting his folks to realize that. He says they're chomping at the bit to go out there and do as much work as possible.

He says this is not a sprint, it's a marathon. And there's so much work. He was flabbergasted when he took an aerial tour of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It truly is devastated. Building after building, home after home, completely demolished. And this help is much needed. They're bringing in heavy equipment and personnel to deal with this cleanup.

BLITZER: Ted Rowlands on the scene in Biloxi for us, thank you very much.

We have heard only recently from former presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush, but they have very different views on how the government responded to Katrina. CNN caught up with Bill Clinton in Houston. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our government failed those people in the beginning, and I take it now there is no dispute about it; 100 percent of the people recognize that, that it was a failure. And I personally believe there should be a serious analysis of it.

I have my own ideas about what caused it, and -- but I don't think we should do it now. I think that in a few weeks we should have some sort of Katrina commission, should be a bipartisan, nonpartisan, whatever. We ought to really look as this, as I always try to: what is the best structure and what are the best kinds of personnel decisions you can make to be good at emergency management?

You know, nobody ever thinks about this in a political campaign. It's never discussed in an election. But if it happens to you, it's the most important issue in the world. So we should look at that. Right now our goals should be on not failing them a second time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And the former president George Bush, the father of the current president, has a very different view. He spoke with our Larry King within the last hour.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, HOST, LARRY KING LIVE: Even the president said the reaction should have been faster, that he wasn't satisfied.

GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sure, I'm not think -- certainly I'm not satisfied, but I'm just talking about the blame game. And there was one particularly vicious comment that the president didn't care -- was insensitive about ethnicity, insensitive about race. That one hurt. I know this president, and I know he does care. And you know, what can he do? He can go out and do what he's doing today, showing that the federal government's involved, has been involved, will continue to be involved. Huge numbers of dollars have been appropriated or signed off on for the Congress, both Senate and the House, and he had to push for it. He cannot listen to every critic from the editorial page of "The New York Times."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You can watch the entire interview with former President Bush tonight on "LARRY KING LIVE." That airs 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 Pacific.

So many people are still missing, and so many are desperate to find the people they love, especially the children separated from their parents. Coming up, what's being done to try to bring families back together? Is it working?

Plus, a hidden threat lurking in the floodwaters. The military may move in. We'll get details from the Pentagon, the dangers of disease breaking out in New Orleans.

And instead of luxuries, cruise ships are set to become lifesavers.

You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Let's head over to the runways at the New Orleans International airport. Those runways now clearly being used for planes loaded with supplies and grounds for emergency medical services.

CNN's Rick Sanchez is joining us now live from that airport with more. Rick, what is the latest?

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All types of hardware, all types of personnel and certainly a lot of different aircraft bringing people in and bringing people out here as this massive airlift continues, Wolf.

But it's only a couple blocks away from where I am right now where something else is going on. I want to show you some pictures, Wolf. I want to call your attention to something that's been developing here since yesterday, and part of today, and it will be taking place part of tomorrow as well.

This is Jefferson Parish, as you come in to the west before you get into Orleans Parish. And Jefferson Parish's President Broussard has told the people, the residents there, that they can go back into the community and survey the damage.

What he's telling them is that he wants them to get in and then he wants them to get out. But he wants them to have an opportunity to go back in there. Perhaps if they can get in, if they're not blocked by either water or trees or telephone poles, to retrieve whatever it is that they have, and then hopefully get out.

He's telling them, look, you'll be gone for at least a month, maybe more until we can put the city back together.

Of course, that's causing a little bit of friction with the feds, who are saying that what that is doing is blocking the roads. Airline Highway in and of itself was blocked this morning when we went out there.

We talked to several officers, and what they told us that these people have to be in 6:00 p.m., have to be out by 6:oo p.m. And that yes, it's another burden for them, because now National Guardsmen are being posted along the entryways into Jefferson Parish so that they can patrol the seats and try to somehow get the people in.

Remember, there's no traffic lights in this town, so essentially, you have National Guardsmen at all the major intersections, coming in all the way into causeway to be able to control that situation. And it's obviously an added stress.

As for Aaron Broussard, Wolf, he's the gentleman you may recall, Wolf. You had him on your Washington show yesterday, your political wrap-up. He's the gentleman who cried on the air. And he's been very critical of the administration throughout the week. At one point he said he's going to rename the Jefferson Parish Jeffersonia, because he wants it to be a foreign country, because he thinks that way he'd be able to get more relief for his residents there.

Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: All right, that was very dramatic there. Aaron Broussard, he was on "Meet the Press," but we replayed that exchange with Tim Russert. It was a powerful, very, very powerful moment. Rick, as you know, anybody that saw that, our heart goes out to all those people.

Rick, thanks very much. We'll get back with you.

As time passes, concerns grown about the risk of disease from conditions in New Orleans and elsewhere. Standing water, for instance, is a breeding ground for disease-carrying mosquitoes.

Our senior Pentagon correspondent, Jamie McIntyre, is joining us live from the Pentagon with more on what the military is doing about this. Jamie?

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, you know, it's a federal holiday, Labor Day, but there are still hundreds of people in the Pentagon here working on what they can do.

And one of the things that Air Force planners are looking at is the possibility of using big C-130 cargo planes to spray for mosquitoes over this standing water over New Orleans and other parts of the area to try to keep down the mosquito population, again potentially a hazard of West Nile virus. Again, no decisions made yet, but just another example of the things the planners are looking at here to try to make things better, or at least keep things from getting worse.

Wolf.

BLITZER: And do -- when they talk about spraying, they bring in those planes to do it? And they just fly low? What is the actual way they go about spraying a huge city like New Orleans?

MCINTYRE: One of the things that they have to be concerned about and why they would have to let people know is these are pretty big cargo planes. They'd be flying low over populated areas, even though most of it has been evacuated. It could be a little scary if you didn't know what's going on. But that's what they're looking at. Again, no decision made yet.

BLITZER: Jamie McIntyre at the Pentagon. Jamie, thank you very much.

We're going to take a quick break.

Much more of our extensive coverage, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It's been one wee -- one week since that disaster occurred. We'll stay with the story.

Much more in THE SITUATION ROOM after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Superintendent Eddie Compass with the New Orleans Police Department, together with the Reverend Jesse Jackson, speaking out right now. Let's listen.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

CHIEF EDDIE COMPASS, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: ... protection of human life. We were the first boats in the water for the life saving efforts.

Then when the fire department started to put out fires, they started firing upon the fire trucks, so we had to dispatch our officers to go to those locations and protect those firemen.

I was in a Black Hawk helicopter that was supplied to me by Sheriff Harry Lee, spotting for the search and rescue when my SWAT team was fired upon. I had to leave that mission to go and spot for snipers.

We had to use so much of our manpower to fight this criminal element instead of using it to save human lives. I don't know what kind of individual would shoot at an individual trying to save them. I had officers in boats being shot at, and they were pulling people out of the water.

With Captain Tim Bayard, we saved thousands of lives in a boat, pulling people out of water. These are police officers, ladies and gentlemen, using their own boats, doing these types of things. This is the real story. This is the story of what went on out there on that frontline.

We were sleeping on the streets. I had the same underwear on for five days. There were no rest room facilities. There was no way for us to get medical attention.

I have an officer, Gary Flot, that has an infection in his leg that I don't know what's going to be the results of that, because he was wading around in that nasty water.

I had two of our officers commit suicide because they were worried about their families.

The human sacrifice that this police department made is unprecedented in the annals of our country. And I really think America really needs to know that, instead of trying to find a few cowards who walked away. They need to really look at all the heroic acts that was done in this city. Reverend Jackson?

REV. JESSE JACKSON, RAINBOW COALITION/PUSH: Most certainly, we have met with the police chief, met the governor, sought to bring some measure of calm and order and system to what was a chaotic situation.

As we put this together looking toward the next phase, we knew by meteorologists last Wednesday the storm was coming, knew even better last Thursday, and last Friday we saw the eye. And by that time the most able were able to get away, evacuate. The least able stayed. We know who was least able, who was least mobile.

In a strange way, Chief, if it had hit New Orleans frontally, the risk base would have been a Superdome. It would have been a floating tombstone. Or actually, the worst part, the front would have hit the Mississippi, picked up in some sense some of the back end of it, as tragic as this has been.

What is astounding to me is that, in anticipation of New Orleans' location, that the federal government did not move in with a master plan for the region.

By Tuesday there was a Louisiana plan, an Alabama plan, a Mississippi plan but not a federal emergency plan. So we've had -- there was no preparation, though we had sufficient warning on that dynamic (ph) for rescue, mass rescue, mass relief -- much relief was, in fact, was turned away, and mass relocation.

BLITZER: All right. We're going to continue to listen to the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the superintendent of the New Orleans Police Department, Eddie Compass, making an emotional statement -- we just watched it live here on CNN -- defending the record of the New Orleans Police Department amid suggestions some of those police officers simply abandoned their jobs under horrendous, horrendous circumstances. But he was very powerful in defending the record of the New Orleans Police Department.

We'll watch this news conference, bring you any additional information as it becomes available.

We're also going to go to the Houston Astrodome. Opera Winfrey has made an appearance there. We'll tell you what she's doing -- what she's trying to do to help.

Also, our Mary Snow is looking into one of the most heart- wrenching parts of this story: children who have been separated from their parents, and how efforts are being made now to try to reunite them.

Much more of our special coverage. This state of emergency, we're not going away from it. We're here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Oprah Winfrey went to the Houston Astrodome, together with Illinois Senator Barak Obama earlier today. They made an appearance to try to reassure so many of those evacuees who have been moved to Houston from New Orleans, Oprah dedicating herself right now to try to help so many of those victims on her program and elsewhere. We'll continue to monitor what Oprah Winfrey is doing. She was there today with Senator Barak Obama.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina are left with enormous uncertainty about the fate of missing relatives and friends. Some of the most difficult stories, though, involve missing children.

CNN's Mary Snow is joining us once again with more on what at least one group is doing to try to mobilize help. Mary?

MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, what is one of the most heartbreaking tasks right now that is helping people who are desperate to find missing relatives. Just how many are missing is unknown but it's expected to be in the thousands.

At Houston's Astrodome signs are being put up on a huge bulletin board with messages that read "Please help me find my family. I haven't seen them in six days."

People hold up signs in the hope someone will see their name. Others are making appeals on television telling relatives they are alive. Now, that is in addition to scores of messages that have been posted on the Internet.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which usually helps find victims of crime, has been brought in to help organize this massive effort. It says it has teams going through shelters in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas taking photos with digital cameras and working with law enforcement to try and find those who are missing.

Now, one success story -- seven children who were found in a shelter in Baton Rouge. They were separated from their parents and family members when helicopters rescued the family from a rooftop in New Orleans. The parents were taken to San Antonio to a shelter there. The family has now been reunited.

Now, there is also a very grim job ahead for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which estimates -- which the group says will be working with law enforcement and forensic specialists to identify bodies. As those bodies are recovered, they are being taken to collection centers. A team of medical examiners, corners and funeral directors from across the U.S. has been formed to process the bodies and identify them. And identifying those bodies will be crucial for relatives and family members who have no idea what happened to their loved ones.

Now, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children went online. They set up a hotline at noon today. The group says within two hours they have 350 cases of missing children and about 150 of missing adults.

Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Thank you very much, critically important information, Mary Snow with that, appreciate it.

The search for the missing children is happening online. Our Internet reporter Abbi Tatton is monitoring that situation. She's joining us now live. Abbi?

ABBI TATTON, CNN INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. I wanted to look at what Mary was just talking about, that Center for Missing and Exploited Children what they are trying to do online. The site is missingkids.com. They're looking to reunite children with their families in three states, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi.

In Louisiana, currently 16 pictures of children there who have been found from New Orleans trying to reunite them with their family, children like Marisa Ceasar, four years old. Marisa was found at New Orleans Airport. Very little is known about Marisa other than she may or may not have an older brother and she also has scars on her arms.

Also, children who haven't been seen since the hurricane, another New Orleans resident this is 6-year-old Dylan Bethancourt, usually goes to work with his father, has not been seen or his father since August 27. That site again, Wolf, missingkids.org.

BLITZER: All right. This is a heartbreaking story indeed. Thank you very much Abbi.

I want to go back to J.T. Alpaugh. He's the helicopter photographer, reporter who has been bringing us, together with his team, amazing live pictures from what's going on. Let's listen to what he's seeing right now.

J.T. ALPAUGH, POOL PHOTOGRAHER (voice-over): You can see the homes behind him in your background still flooded out, see the rotor wash as we push into the sandbags, rotor wash, the immense power of the weight.

You can see these helicopters are really heavily loaded right now. They create more of a downwash. They'll put this buoy right on top. He puts it right where he needs to put it and flying out below us here. We're going to stay with the dam here just to show you how the dam looked.

There's another one right behind him so when he comes in we're going to give you that shot, CH-46 landing. OK, there. Another Army National Guard Black Hawk helicopter, number 319, you can see the air crew there, pilot in the left seat there flying the aircraft and his co-pilot in the right seat scanning his instruments, giving him the information he needs.

They're going to place (ph) the sandbag now and show you the drop. Well, it's gone in already. That's another great job. We're going to come around to show you. He's coming around pretty fast. I can't get a shot. These guys aren't wasting much time. They're dropping and getting out of here and going and picking up another bag and doing a lot of great work.

We're going to pan right, pull out and show you the weather picking up. We've been showing you a lot of the bag, the sandbag drops but now we want to show you, pan right over here Dave, about our ten o'clock, this sling-load work is one of the most strenuous tasks (ph).

You can pull it back out, David. I'll get you to where the Chinook is dropping the bag right over there, if you look out your window real quick. The Chinook will go get them. The Chinook is getting into position. You can see the crew is just hovering.

They're just standing right under that helicopter that hovers connecting up those cables and that's, again, a very dangerous area to be is under a helicopter when he's hovering but that's what they need to do. They just get down low and these guys just hook up these cables and away they go.

We're going to stay at this area after this Chinook pulls out with this, as he pulls out with this bag we're going to -- we've got two of them waiting in line right behind him to get in.

This operation there is really, really moving. At least we can see five or six helicopters coming in one after another. We're going to come back to the bag, stay with the bags and this next Black Hawk is on short final approach. He's going to come into this stack and he's going to basically just hover right -- I'm not sure if he's going to set down here or not.

I know the Chinooks have been setting down. But look he's coming right under. Tuck down, Dave, a little bit, stay tight though, push down (INAUDIBLE). You can really see these guys get right under that helicopter and hook up that sling-load and get out of there, a very dangerous place to be under a hovering helicopter.

This Black Hawk pulling out. You can see there's hundreds of bags stacked up ready to be picked up. We're going -- after he gets out of here we're going to pull out of here and we're going to show you the CH-46 coming in on the left. It looks like he may be landing but we're going to follow this operation in right behind one. BLITZER: All right. These are remarkable pictures we've seen. J.T. Alpaugh narrating what he's seeing, reporting on this mission to secure those levees that have been breached there, bringing in these 2,000 and 3,000 pound bags, sandbags to literally fill the holes, the breach in this levee. And they're doing an amazing job. People don't realize when you're in one of those Black Hawk or Chinook helicopters -- Tom Foreman, he's here to help us understand what's going on -- how dangerous potentially this is, close quarters, high wires in a city like New Orleans.

Show our viewers where they're dropping these sandbags. And as you do, I want to keep this video up, these live pictures, show our viewers how these military personnel are securing these sandbags one after another after another to try to fill those holes.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well this is where we're flying into, Wolf. We've sort of turned the corner here as we put Lake Pontchartrain on our right, the city here. This is one of the levees we're talking about right here. This is the 17th Street one. They've been filling a break right along in this area.

I want to show you what we pointed out a little bit earlier just because it's good to see. This is the flooding. This is before the hurricane. Afterward you see how this entire side gets dark. That's big flooding area so they're trying to fix that.

The other ones that I think you have to look at here are a little bit further back. There's another break right up in this area on another little canal, or excuse me on this canal right here, if you see that one there's a break right there.

And then over here on the much bigger industrial canal this is another area where there was another big break and, again, I'll show you where the flooding is in all of this.

You see how this is a city park right over there. You may notice up in here there's a little place up in here, a little stadium that was completely put under water. This is a stadium out in City Park where the Beatles played many years ago.

So, this is an idea of what we're talking about. Here's what really matters about it. Look again at the darkness all over here and the lightness over there. This is all Orleans Parish. That is all Jefferson Parish, Metarie, Kenner and all of that.

And here's some very important news. As people have gone in this afternoon, I know earlier on you were talking about some of the difficulties people have with letting them in and having enough troops out there to do it.

The people who live out here, as people in here as well, but certainly there are a lot of people out here who are the people who keep New Orleans running through business. They run many of the big firms there. The operate many of the important businesses.

If those people find out today, as many of them seem to be finding out, that their neighborhoods are largely OK because the flooding is over here that their supermarkets may reopen in a reasonable times. Their schools may reopen. They may be able to have a life. Those people can rebuild the city in a substantial way.

BLITZER: Look how those sandbags are being dropped at that break in the levee system. Show our viewers where that is right now. We see sandbag after sandbag being choppered in and simply dumped there and that sand is being used at least as a temporary stop gap measure to stop the waters from flooding this city.

FOREMAN: That break I believe is the one that's over here on the Industrial Canal. Let me make it -- let me take the flooding off again so you can see it more clearly where it is. This is the Industrial Canal here. I believe this is the Industrial Canal break right here. You see this.

You use the Industrial Canal if you're trying to get from Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi River. You go up and down this canal, so that's where that is happening.

This, by the way, is another important place for many people in New Orleans. That's the fairgrounds where the Jazz Fest is held, so you can see how close that is to where this water is going by.

And, of course, we had our flooding earlier on. This is a sense of New Orleans East, all of this area, all of that tremendous number of people out there, tremendous number of folks, big water problems throughout that area.

The ability of people to make this all work to get the -- in a sense to get parts of the west side of town and downtown working to help support the east side of town is going to very, very critical because, as you know, with those levees you're pointing out all that repair when it's done those are the areas you have to clear out and the key to it has to be marshaling forces over here and in New Orleans working that way.

BLITZER: And eventually they're going to have to spend billions and billions of dollars if they want to see the city come back to life to simply redo this entire system and make sure that New Orleans can withstand a hurricane Category 5.

FOREMAN: Has to be in and it has to be a comprehensive approach. You can't cut off one side of town, one part of town and say well this part doesn't matter or this part won't matter. You got to get the whole town up and running again because that's what made it run in the first place.

BLITZER: It's a long term project and let's hope as they're doing it and -- I'm sure they will -- there isn't a hurricane that endangers New Orleans in the meantime.

FOREMAN: I don't even want to discuss that.

BLITZER: Take a look at this live picture. We see water being pumped out of the city of New Orleans. Do you have any idea where they're sending that water?

FOREMAN: I can't see it in this picture. You're going to send it two places. You're going to send it to Lake Pontchartrain or you're going to send it to the river. You might send it to Lake Borgne if you were far enough over but that's where you're sending it back to where it came from.

BLITZER: Let's listen to the helicopter reporter J.T. Alpaugh. Maybe he'll explain what's going on.

ALPAUGH (voice-over): This pipe is being -- is pulled water from the other side of the levee, the flooded areas of the levee and pumping it, hold that right there, pumping it out of this water. And we're going to go back in tight for you to get an idea of the amount of volume of water.

Right now the water pouring from this area that's just outside the break in the levee in the 17th Street Canal. You see the volume of water coming out just amazing. Let's push in tight to that, Dave, just right tight on that pipe. I just really want to get a good look at this water coming out, just flowing and that's a great sight right there that they're actually starting to get some of this water out of the most flooded areas here pumped out.

Again, the 17th Street Canal area at the mouth of Lake Pontchartrain and we're going to try to come around on an orbit here if we can. There's a lot of air operations working in here so we're going to try to come around to show you where they're pulling that water out and we're also seeing -- pull up, pan right just a little bit. We're going to show you the barge. That's a good focal right there. Just pan right for me, Dave.

We're going to push in and show you this backhoe that's pulling this barge through the water back towards the bridge. He's been taking sandbags himself. He pulls up to that area and there's a crane sitting on the bridge here that lowers sandbags onto that barge.

He basically takes that backhoe, which he's using right now, to propel himself northbound up the canal back towards the bridge to load up. He's driving this barge. You can see another unsung hero driving this barge, driving this barge through the water.

I want to give you a good look at these guys because these are the guys that really are the unsung heroes of these operations, this guy probably working well into the night again just trying to get this stuff done here.

So, I'm going to pull back out here and we're going to show you, as you pan left, what's happening here and he's making his way back to the bridge. I can't show you the bridge that he's making his way to where they've got sandbags staged and ready to be claimed in the lower left hand corner of your screen on (ph) down.

We're going to push in and show you that they're pulling these sandbags off the back of these trucks and loading them onto that barge that you saw and he's propelling himself through the water back and forth between here and the levee break, which is about a quarter of a mile further south down the canal, so these operations continuing.

I just can't help but think about the good news that we're seeing there of that water pipe. It looks to be like a four-foot diameter, well maybe a two, three-foot diameter pipe that is just pouring water from the flooded areas back out into the canal, back out to Lake Pontchartrain.

This is the pool helicopter feed. My name is J.T. Alpaugh, along with the pilot Alan Perwin (ph) and today helping us on the camera Dave Arnold giving you these images of the 17th Street Canal levee break operations using this very long arm of the backhoe, for lack of a better term but I don't really know the name of that piece of equipment but that's what it looks like to me, so hopefully I'm technically correct.

But you can see some of the workers onboard this barge that are coordinating this effort with their personal floatation devices. He's got himself into position now and you can see the crane operations hoisting sandbags, the first one going on right now, hoisting them back onto the barge.

He's going to drop it right in to place here and he'll probably put what we've seen about, oh, 15, 20 of those loads down on that barge and then they move this barge back over to position it. He uses that same -- that same piece of heavy equipment to push them. He just simply pushes them right off into the water. He puts that barge where he needs it strategically and just kind of pushes it right off.

You can just see, watch the water. You can see the weight of this thing as it sets down, these guys working hard. Let's push in and get a good look at these guys, Dave. I'm sure their families should be very proud of the work they're doing here helping to stop the flow of waters and start the flow of hope into this area that's been filled with water.

So, and these guys here again more unsung heroes hooking this crane up. Hopefully their families are watching right now and seeing the hard work that they're doing. More helicopter operations going on as they fly in to pick up and take out these sandbags.

We're going to tilt up and pan left just a little bit, Dave. I want to show that pipe again. I really want to. We got a good profile shot here. Alan's put the helicopter in a really good position to see the water just flowing out of here.

And, again, I love the shot because it just shows really how much is going on here and how much water is actually flowing out of the area. This is progress to me. This is actually a sign that things are going to get better hopefully here just a turning point in getting this water out of this area that's below sea level, this whole area that's south of Lake Pontchartrain.

BLITZER: All right. This is a beautiful sight, relatively speaking, water being pumped out of New Orleans, Tom Foreman. It's a sign that those floodwaters can leave eventually but it's nice to see that this process has clearly started. Show our viewers on these images that you have where this is taking place.

FOREMAN: This is taking place right here. Look at this bridge. That's the same one they're on there. The houses are right there. If we start pulling out, you see them those houses you watched. This is where it's happening right there and if you see that, that's Lake Pontchartrain there. This is New Orleans over this direction.

We sort of turned the picture to make it fit properly but if we turn it back the other way you'll get the reference we've had all along. You see that, the city is down here, Lake Pontchartrain to the north, very big news.

BLITZER: It's good news indeed that the water is at least beginning to flow out of the city of New Orleans. Let's listen in a little bit more.

ALPAUGH (voice-over): A good look at the intake on this pump and see, I don't know, obviously that's got to be pretty deep down in that water so it's very -- pretty deep down at that water. But I'm not sure how far it sticks out but I'm going to slowly pull out to show you, pan right on the right side here keeping that just to see where, kind of see the immediate area around where this intake pump now is getting any lower.

In fact, let's go ahead and push, come right for me, Dave, and push into one of those houses on the top part of your screen right in there. I'm going to make a visual reference mark here. The water line is just below the garage level of these homes, about a foot or so below these garage levels.

So, we're going to come back. When we come back later or tomorrow morning, I want to use a visual reference here to figure out how far this water has gone down. And this is the area directly next to, as we pull back out here and show you directly next to that pump that's taking the water out of this northwest quadrant of the flooded New Orleans area, the quadrant right next to the 17th Street Canal.

So, again this is excellent news. We're just really happy to see this going on in the 17th Street Canal project for lack of a better word, these private corporations that are down here, these military operations working together to stop this water flow.

You can see some bulldozers here is pouring down asphalt, smoothing that out to create roadways and access to work some of the infrastructure around this area to make these operations easier to get it down.

And it's been a very educational process at least for me to watch this go -- to happen, because we didn't know what the plan was. We kind of came over day by day ever since day one to see what was happening here. We were -- we came into this area about two hours behind the hurricane.

BLITZER: So there you see some dramatic, dramatic pictures, Tom Foreman. I think we could call this breaking news. Water is being pumped out of New Orleans, clearly an encouraging sign that there might be some light at the end of this tunnel. We see the heavy flooded areas. We're going to keep these live pictures going, J.T. Alpaugh reporting for us. You see these helicopters bringing in these huge sandbags to fill up that breach in the levee.

Show our viewers once again, you've isolated this on the satellite imagery, where this is Tom.

FOREMAN: Sure, these are the houses we were seeing just a moment and when you pull out you'll see some of the other ones that he's flying over right now. You see this. There's the big canal. That was the big, big break that started nailing the east, the mid part of town, Lake Pontchartrain on the north there. So, again, this is big, big news. I mean we've been hearing about it for days and finally we can see it with our own eyes the water moving out.

BLITZER: It's really an amazing, an amazing development to see how this process really gets going. I don't know if they had planned this in advance that they would be able to fill those breaches with the sandbags if they had those sandbags in place or if they just improvised and said in the last few days let's get these sandbags ready that is needed to fill up the breach and then start pumping that water out.

FOREMAN: One of the great advantages they have here, which may be overlooked by a look of people, is along the Gulf Coast, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida you have the most skilled people in this country at doing this kind of work because they routinely do some of this kind of work all the time. So, this is extreme but it's not skills they don't have. You saw the guy moving the barge with his crane there. That's a skill you learn by doing it many, many times.

BLITZER: All right, Tom Foreman thanks very much.

As we continue to show our viewers these pictures, let's talk briefly with Karmen Blanco. She's the daughter of the governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco. Karmen thanks very much for joining us. A quick question, how's your mother holding up?

KARMEN BLANCO, DAUGHTER OF LOUISIANA GOVERNOR: Oh, she's a trooper. She's a trooper. She's doing absolutely great, you know, her resolve. She's made a decision she's going to continue to save the lives that we can save and clean up that city and get this job done, so she's got a job to do and she's doing it.

BLITZER: And all the criticism that's being leveled against her what about that? Is she paying attention to it?

BLANCO: I don't think so. I mean why would she? It's unwarranted. She's doing an absolutely incredible job. The whole, you know, beginning of this operation was her and the National Guard and they went in there. They took control of the situation. They were saving people left and right with the limited resources as you know, Wolf, how much of the 256th and our equipment is in Iraq. They had limited resources. They utilized every single resource that they could come up with down to school busses, private helicopters, you name it. They pulled it in here.

Wherever they could find help they got it in here and didn't hesitate to use anything that they could find to save lives and get people out of there. So, why would she pay attention to the criticism? She knew what she -- she knows what she's done.

BLITZER: Karmen Blanco, give our best to your mom and wish everyone in Louisiana all the best from us. Thank you very much.

Clark Kent Ervin is the former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, your department under enormous fire right now. Was it a blunder to make FEMA part of the Department of Homeland Security?

CLARK KENT ERVIN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: I'm not convinced, Wolf, that that really is the issue here. The FEMA director reports directly to the secretary of Homeland Security, who reports directly to the president.

BLITZER: So, why did FEMA apparently miss the boat here?

ERVIN: It's inexcusable. There's absolutely no excuse for it. This is the kind of thing that ought to have been planned for. Whether it was a terrorist attack or a natural disaster, the consequences would be the same. There would be survivors who would need to be tended to so there should have been pre-positioned supplies of food and medicine and water. Not only was this foreseeable but it was actually foreseen by people within FEMA and outside FEMA.

BLITZER: Some are suggesting incompetence at the very top, a political appointee Michael Brown, the FEMA director, with limited experience coming in. What do you say?

ERVIN: I know Michael Brown and I think he's a wonderful fellow. He's actually been praised for the response to the hurricanes in Florida last year. So, I must say that I'm rather surprised by the response at this point. This was, as I say, not just foreseeable but it was actually foreseen, so it's inexcusable.

I just don't understand it and I think what we need to have is leadership in place that does have the managerial expertise to deal with a crisis like this so this kind of thing doesn't happen again. I don't think it's a structural issue. I think it's an issue of leadership.

BLITZER: Because the argument has been made by critics that the president appointed a political ally, first Joe Allbaugh, his campaign manager in 2000, then Michael Brown another political ally in effect to allow FEMA to hand out goodies, if you will, to various states that have suffered for political purposes. That's the charge that is made. What do the career professionals at FEMA say about that?

ERVIN: Well, I think that's an unfair charge. I don't think that Michael Brown was put in charge for political patronage reasons but it's clear frankly that he's in over his head. There is no question but that this should have been anticipated. There should have been preparations in place. There weren't. That's inexcusable. I think there does need to be a change in leadership there.

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Clark Kent Ervin, our analyst for that.

I just want to update that question I asked Dana Bash about the half staff for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. On Sunday the president did issue such an order at the same time basically that he issued an order that the government should fly at half staff for William Rehnquist, the Supreme Court justice.

Why the president waited until Sunday for Hurricane Katrina victims is a question I don't have an answer to right now.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM. Lou Dobbs tonight picking up our coverage in New York, he's starting right now. Lou?

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