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The Situation Room
Rebuilding of New Orleans
Aired September 16, 2005 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Guys, thank you very much.
It's 5:00 p.m. here in Washington and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM where news and information from around the world arrive in one place simultaneously.
Happening now, 4:00 p.m. Central Time, New Orleans, where talk is turning from disaster to rebuilding.
It's 5:00 p.m. over at the White House where President Bush says the economy can handle the tremendous cost without raising taxes. Can it be done?
And coming home from a war zone to a disaster zone. We're there as one soldier returns from Iraq to his home in New Orleans.
I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
Helping the nearly helpless. Despite visible signs of progress, weeks after Katrina, there are still signs of just how critical this mission is. The American Red Cross says it's helped 110,000 evacuees in Atlanta alone. That's almost 40,000 families.
Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security says more than 500,000 households are receiving over $1 billion in federal aid.
In terms of paying for the massive relief effort, new comments from President Bush today. The president says the government will pay for it by looking for ways to cut spending, but not by raising taxes. Let's go straight to New Orleans.
CNN's Mary Snow is standing by live. She has more on what's happening today. Mary?
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, with pledges for money out there, there's also a vow to rebuild this city. Starting tomorrow, some businesses will be allowed back into New Orleans to try to get businesses back up and running. On Monday there, residents will be moving into certain areas. However, it is a monumental task to rebuild.
Today -- earlier today, we took a tour of the Superdome. It was so badly damaged, it is still being cleaned out and decontaminated. And you can see it is still cluttered with miles of debris, filth in there, also, the smell, the stench, still lingering. But it is much clearer than it was even a week ago. Also, this had been the symbol of such despair, as thousands of people went to the Superdomes as a last resort, stranded in there for days waiting for help.
Earlier today, we caught up with the commander of the special reaction team of the Louisiana National Guard, who was in the Superdome immediately following the hurricane, had been there for several days, saying that while it was bad, it could have been worse.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. DAVID BALDWIN, LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD: It would have been, you know, the law of the jungle, the strong survive, and we would have had a lot more instances of attacks. And you know, maybe some of these stories that are going around would have actually been 100 percent truthful, rather than, you know, kind of rumor mill stuff. But it was bad. But it was made a lot better --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: And Commander David Blackwell (sic) saying that it was made a lot better by the Louisiana National Guard and military personnel, who have been criticized. He said that they helped restore some order in what had been described as chaos inside that Superdome. The future of the Superdome really is still in limbo.
Also, the Convention Center. The mayor of New Orleans does have plans for that Convention Center. He wants it to be a sign of life as the city rebuilds. He mentioned yesterday that he would like to see this as kind of a retail center as people move back into the city.
But a long process ahead. And, Wolf, around this city, besides the military here and all the workers, the relief workers, we're also seeing civilians coming in helping to clean up hotels and businesses. One I met earlier today, he's an 18-year-old. He had gone to Houston, said he came back because he feels that he's doing his part to rebuild New Orleans.
Wolf.
BLITZER: Mary Snow in New Orleans for us. Thank you.
Once the troops moved in, they quickly took control of the streets of the city. And from rescue to rebuilding throughout the disaster zone, the U.S. military has clearly made a huge difference. But should the response have been even quicker?
Our Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr has just emerged from a briefing with the general in charge. She's joining us on the phone now, from New Orleans. Barbara, what are you learning?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we've been in a number of briefings today with Vice Admiral Thad Allen, General Russel Honore, have briefed congressional leader and also city leaders together on their plan.
Now, we're not allowed to sit in the entire briefing, but we have talked to many officials during the day who have sat in on those briefings. And both military commanders, congressional leaders we are talking to, and others who were in those meetings, tell us that one of the major topics of discussion today here in New Orleans has been military lessons learned. What did the president mean last night, for example, when he talked about a potentially greater role for the military in the future -- in future disaster situations?
Well, what we are hearing here is that they are talking about a number of changes that they could make that will put the active duty military force into disaster relief situations much more quickly in the future, that the should now -- that was a real problem that they did not get called in soon enough.
One of the things they are talking about is the possibility of an overall military commander next time. Remember, General Honore is only in charge, technically, of the active duty forces, although he has tremendous influence here. They think that maybe they need to change it so next time there is an overall military commander in charge of both the active duty and the National Guard. That's been one of the big topics of conversation.
But on the issue that Mary was talking about, about bringing the city back, getting reconstruction, moving -- bringing people back into New Orleans, getting them jobs and housing, one of the things that Admiral Allen told us today is there might need to be a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the downtown area for some time to come. There is still concern about having enough basic security in the city, and also just the very simple fact of getting the fire department back up and fully running. You can't have businesses open and not have a functioning fire department that can readily move throughout the city.
So there's still a lot of work to be done. A lot of these conversations going on across New Orleans.
BLITZER: All right, Barbara, stand by. We're getting some live pictures. I want to bring those to viewers right now. You were just mentioning fires. This is a live shot we're getting from a helicopter flying over parts of New Orleans. You see this fire that raged -- that's raging right now. Not an unusual situation, unfortunately, over these past 18, 19 days. A lot of fires have erupted in this city. As the water gets out, there's still a lot of oil, there's a lot of debris. A lot of these wooden structures are significantly endangered. And that's why these fires are erupting.
These are live pictures that you're seeing right now. It looks like some sort of apartment unit complex. You see a swimming pool up in the upper part of the screen. You just saw it a second or so ago. And you see these people, workers there. I don't know if any firefighters are on scene yet. I haven't seen any yet. Normally, the firefighters will get there as quickly as they possibly can. I don't see any operating right there. Helicopters have been coming in and dropping, literally, these huge buckets of water on these fires that erupt as well.
This looks like some sort of garden-style apartment complex with the pool in the middle and the roof clearly on fire. This fire spreading. These are live picture we're getting in from New Orleans right now. Another fire that is under way. Our Tom Foreman's coming over here. We're going to talk a little bit about this, because he knows New Orleans very, very well. He's been there on many occasions. He worked there as a younger reporter. Tom, as you see this fire, it does look like an apartment complex, doesn't it?
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes it does, Wolf. And I'm guessing from all the appearances here, this is somewhere in New Orleans East.
BLITZER: Here the firefighters have arrived. You see them preparing to deal with this problem.
FOREMAN: Yes. This will be -- I believe, this is going to be somewhere in New Orleans East. I don't know that, but it has sort of a look of New Orleans East to it in some ways, which is some of the areas that were flooded hard. Although, obviously, this area was somewhat dry here. Obviously, with firefighters like this, you know what they're going to do. Their job right now is just to protect these other buildings here, because you can see the degree of fire there. When you've been to a lot of fires like this, you know that basically --
BLITZER: You have to contain it, because otherwise it can spread.
FOREMAN: Yes. You have to contain it. And this whole area -- that whole side over there. That's gone. Even though part of it's up now. You see the smoke in the other parts, there's not much they can do about that. What they can do --
BLITZER: They've got the hose. Some of the problems we've seen, though, earlier, in recent days, is they arrive, they've got the hose, but guess what, the water isn't working, they can't pump it.
FOREMAN: Yes, it's a huge problem. They're getting this all worked out. But this is the thing that everybody's been so worried about down there. And I think it's really a heartbreaker for a lot of people now right now, because they're saying we survived the flood, maybe we survived some of the looting, maybe we survived many things that have gone on, and now this kind of thing is going on.
This is one of the reasons why they're trying to get people back into town. I know a lot of people are critical of the notion of how quickly you bring people back. One of the reasons they want to get back, many people, is they're saying look, if I'm there tending to my property, maybe I can keep this kind of thing from happening. This is an apartment complex, clearly, and what is this, going to be the home for anywhere from 12 to 20 different families. Maybe, depending on how big the units are in there.
BLITZER: Right.
FOREMAN: So the notion would be for many people, look if some of us were back there maybe we could do something about it. And frankly, some of the people I saw roaming around there looked more like residents than any kind of workers so ... BLITZER: They looked like people who were there. We see the firefighters in the back. And they've got the hose. I don't -- I haven't seen any water coming out of that hose yet. It will be interesting to see if they can actually start dousing that fire with some water, getting some water into this situation.
These firefighters, a lot of them, by the way, as you know, are not New Orleans firefighters. They've come in, they've volunteered. They've come in from all parts of the country, including New York City. A few hundred New York City firefighters have come into New Orleans. But they're coming in from all parts of this city to deal with this situation.
I can't tell where that fire truck is from, but a lot of times, they come in from neighboring states and some not so neighboring states. They bring their own equipment. It says St. Rose -- I think it said St. Rose Volunteer Fire Department on the back of that truck, at the bottom of the screen.
I couldn't see what it said on the other truck. But these are live pictures via a helicopter that's flying over the city. It's got a camera mounted on that helicopter and it's bringing us these live pictures.
FOREMAN: I'll give you a sense on the satellite view of what we're talking about here if we can bring that out. We can show you the area generally we're talking about when we talk about New Orleans East. This is one of the hardest hit ...
BLITZER: A lot of wooden structures in all of New Orleans.
FOREMAN: A tremendous number. Now, these are newer ones here.
BLITZER: Here comes the water. You see the water is now coming out of those hoses, which is very, very good news.
FOREMAN: And they'll just try to do exactly what we talked about. They'll try to knock down some of the heavy heat, get the flames contained, don't let them jump to the next one. They're not going to put this out as such because that's a hard thing to do -- at least not immediately. They'll just try to get it under control a little bit, keep in all in that area, and not let it jump to these building over here. But this is -- this looks in the New Orleans East area, which is one of the hardest hit area.
We'll talk about the water because that's one of the things they're having to deal with in terms of solving all this. Right now the areas that still have a lot of water in them or significant amount of water -- right here, over in -- as you get to New Orleans East and into St. Bernard Parish down towards Chalmette, there's a little swath in here with a lot of water.
This part of New Orleans East up in here still has a lot of water in it. And out here toward Mid City and the Lakefront, there's still a good bit of water up in these areas. A lot of other areas have some water, but it's coming under some control. So that's going to help them get in and work on these pipes and electricity and the things they have to get to. Because even in New Orleans where so little goes underground, water pipes go underground and that's one of the difficulties, when the ground is covered with water, dealing with it.
BLITZER: Well, they're making progress but that's a stubborn blaze. Other times we've seen those helicopters fly over and sort of precision-drop buckets of water. Is this the kind of fire you think that's suitable for that? Or should they do it this way with the hoses, from the bottom up?
FOREMAN: Well, I mean, certainly you can do that, but you're getting a lot of water on a fire with a hose like this as opposed to a bucket drop which is one big splash. Maybe you've hit it right, maybe you've done a great job. But nonetheless, you now have a 10-minute delay while you get back.
You see how these fires settle in. A lot of times what firefighters try to do in a situation like this is they try to overlay the fire with the water because partially it creates a blanket and the fire smothers itself beneath the blanket of water. You can't do that with a bucket drop. A bucket drop is explosive, a lot of water comes down. You may put it out, you may not. But the bucket drop is important because it lets you get to the areas you can't otherwise get to.
But look at that. See, the water's actually going up over the fire. And what that does is create that blanket that helps smother the fire. They want to put some at the actual source of fire. But a lot of it is about smothering the fire out, and they're actually controlling this a lot quicker than I would have expected.
BLITZER: Yes, the flames are still there but they're certainly less than earlier. But you're going to still need some significant amount of water to completely end it, and then at some point they actually have to go in there and make sure that it's out once and for all.
FOREMAN: I think these things terrify all these many people who are all over the country now from New Orleans, seeing this. And yet I know from talking to many friends they are taking some solace from exactly what saw happen here. Big fire, it broke out, but the firefighters actually got there. They actually had water and they're actually tending to it. So there's a sense the town is coming back to a workable level, I think, which is important to a lot of people.
BLITZER: But some residents see this and they say you know what? Maybe I'm better off living in Dallas or Shreveport or someplace else.
FOREMAN: Yes. You know what we don't have a good count on yet? We have a count of, like, people in the shelters. They've done a poll indicating what? Forty percent or so may be coming back, 40 percent not, and some others undecided at this point.
What we don't have a good count on right now -- which will really matter -- is all the people who did not go to shelters but who went to relatives' homes, to friends' homes, to hotels, all over this country. And, again, I think they're in every state of this country right now.
Those are many, many, many people who are more middle class, upper middle class, people who will run a lot of these businesses. We don't know yet how many of them are coming back. And they're watching all these pictures too and trying to decide when it would be good to get back in.
BLITZER: I want to bring in our Ali Velshi who is watching this together with us here in THE SITUATION ROOM. Ali, we don't know if this area was under water, if the water has been drained. And if there -- it looks like there was some water there and maybe there was some oil, and maybe there was some sludge and stuff that really could make fires worse than would normally be the case. But I'm interested in what you think.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: What I'm kind of looking at here is the juxtaposition between this and what else we've been hearing about how parts of New Orleans are getting back to normal, because this, as we've known since the first days of the flooding after Katrina, has been a serious problem. It contributes to -- it continues to add to the devastation.
And yet, what we've been hearing is there are other parts of New Orleans where things are starting to get back to normal. We're going to start to see people repopulating. I just heard from FedEx. They are resuming deliveries in New Orleans starting tomorrow. The kind of things that have to happen for businesses to get back up and running are going on.
So normalcy starts to arrive in some parts of New Orleans. And then you look at things like this and you realize this is still a city that, you know, we've heard on our air, Wolf, described as looking like a war zone in some places or deserted. This continues to be a challenge.
We just heard word that the New York firefighters that were sent to New Orleans to help out have returned to New York after 10 days there. A lot of cities sent firefighters to New Orleans. So now we're back to this is the New Orleans Fire Department, in most cases, trying to handle this themselves.
This is a fire department whose members have had their homes devastated and have to suffer through this as well. So this continues to be a challenge. This city, as normal as some things look, is not by any stretch of the imagination normal.
BLITZER: All right. We're going to watch this effort to put this fire out. We're going to go back there. We'll take a quick break.
We're also getting some remarkable video -- get this, we're going to show it to you when we come back. Nineteen days after Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast there has been a rescue. And we're going to show you the video of what happened just a little while ago. By the way, that fire is about three miles, we're told, southwest of the New Orleans International Airport. That's the Louis Armstrong International Airport.
Much more of our coverage here in THE SITUATION ROOM right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: These are live pictures you're seeing. A fire about three miles southwest of the New Orleans International Airport, a fire that's been continuing now for, I'm guessing, about 15, 20 minutes or so. Firefighters on the scene. They've been pouring lots of water on it. But those flames still there. It's a lot less significant than it was only a few moments ago.
Tom Foreman's here in THE SITUATION ROOM with me. We're watching this effort by these firefighters. We don't know if they're local New Orleans firefighters or firefighters who have volunteered to come in from other parts of the country who are dealing with this problem. Unfortunately, it's been all too regular in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina, 19 days now, to see these fires erupt
FOREMAN: Yes. And I was totally wrong about where this was. I kept thinking this was New Orleans East. It's not. If it's southwest of the airport, let's take a look at the city right here. This is the part of the city we all know down here, where you've got the Superdome and the French Quarter and all of it. This is right downtown here. So when you go out to the airport you're actually going west of town, quite a distance up the river here, 15 miles or so to the airport itself. And that's the airport. So when you move southwest of that, that's down here. And there's not a whole lot out here. This is an area that also we haven't heard much reportings about the flooding from or the hurricane damage.
So you're talking about a fire here that clearly wasn't an area that wasn't hugely affected, at least from what we know --
BLITZER: At least by floods.
FOREMAN: Yes. Exactly. And this may be one of the reasons we're seeing people around there who look like residents of the area, because you may be far enough out past Kenner, which is one of the western suburbs, for it to be an issue -- may not be such an issue with the people being in there as it was in other areas. It will be interesting, whether this had anything to do with the hurricane or flood, or whether it was something else entirely?
BLITZER: Occasionally those live pictures flash to black for a split second. That's because these pictures are coming live from a helicopter, and they're sent to a relay station, and sometimes they have that little flash in order for the microwave system to work.
It looks like it's almost contained. At least we don't see huge -- there's still some flames coming out of that roof. But it's by no means, not as serious -- there's some smoldering that's, clearly, still going on in that apartment complex. We saw the swimming pool there. And the good news is that the water is working in that part of town, so the hoses can work, and these firefighters can get the job done. The most important thing is to prevent this fire from spreading, because clearly there are a lot of wooden houses in that area.
I don't think it's rained much over the past couple weeks in New Orleans, but there's been a lot of water and, unfortunately, a lot of debris and a lot of oil, a lot of fuel that, literally, can fuel these kinds of fires if they're going in the wrong direction.
FOREMAN: I think that when this whole hurricane is done, one of the things we're going to hear, aside from the Coast Guard, which everybody says from the beginning, they've just been complete champions throughout this. I think there's going to be an awful lot of praise for the firefighters of this city. Because, you remember during some of the first days, there were fires in the middle of the flooding, and time and again they seemed to find a way to get a fire boat near it, to get a firefighter near it, to get somebody near it and to do something about it.
I think we're going to be surprised at the end, the tremendous stories that come out of what firefighters did throughout this region to keep that very problem, you know, an explosion in one part of town that just goes from one house to the next and next. That really saved a lot of New Orleans.
BLITZER: I think firefighters, we could praise every single day for the work they do, the work -- the courageous work, the important work they're doing here. And we're seeing this helicopter move on a little bit away from the fire. The smoke though, clearly evident, even over these trees.
FOREMAN: Yes. That's where I said -- when I said there wasn't much out there, look at this. I mean there's basically woods around here. It's really quite a distance out there.
BLITZER: It looks like a nice little garden-style apartment unit with swimming pools in each little condominium section or if it's a rental -- it's a nice little area. But if you're seeing, you can see the area -- maybe we'll see that airport, which is only about three miles or so away. But we --
FOREMAN: Here we are. We're by the river here. Now we have an idea of where we are. Yes. And you see some of the river traffic, which we've been talking about coming back into play.
BLITZER: Oh, yes. Here, they're coming up, you see that. That's a bucket that's going to be used. They're getting some water from that river. That would be the Mississippi River, right?
FOREMAN: Yes.
BLITZER: And this helicopter is going to take that water. Let's watch this play out. You see the helicopter hovering at the top of your screen, and you see that bucket being filled up.
FOREMAN: They have two of them working here. That's right. They've got two.
BLITZER: And looks like those helicopters may be getting ready to take that water from the Mississippi River and simply dump it on that complex, unless there's another fire that we haven't been seeing. You see how it scoops up the water down there? I hope this water is clean. I'm sure it's not too clean.
FOREMAN: Not too clean out there.
BLITZER: But it's probably good enough to put a fire out, if that's what they're going to do. These live pictures that we're getting in. You see this helicopter hovering over, it's going to lift up the bucket of water and take it over.
FOREMAN: You know, it's amazing, Wolf, because there's so many cities where this would not even be possible. The Mississippi River -- it was the origin of New Orleans in many ways. Still is critically important. It's actually in some ways, as somebody who lived there and loves the city, it's fascinating to see how the river time and time and time again plays a critical role in New Orleans' survival. And this is something, you know, a lot of cities you couldn't even do this in. But here, it's possible under these circumstances.
BLITZER: Usually you use those helicopters for forest fires or something in a remote -- I don't really remember in an urban setting, seeing these helicopters come in, and trying to put the fires out like that. Do you?
FOREMAN: Yes. I've never seen it tried in an urban area like this. I've seen a lot of wild land fires, forest fires, grass fires, that sort of thing. And there, usually, the issue is getting a source of water close enough. They'll grab a pond or lake or something. But often you're talking about a big flying distance. We can see from the high shots here, you know, this is, what, a half mile from the water, maybe a mile.
BLITZER: You see a lot of smoke, but we do see still some flames inside. And you got to get those flames out, before you can move in and start dealing with this fire. Look at this. The helicopter's bringing some water. Let's see where they're bringing it to. We'll stay with this picture and show viewers what's going on. We've seen this whole new -- is there a technical term that is used for these helicopters, these buckets of water? I'm sure there is, but I'm not familiar with.
FOREMAN: I'm not familiar with it either. I know the planes are often called Slurry Planes, because of the material they drop which is different than water. Planes are often used to drop a fire retardant over a large area, which of course is more suited for a forest fire or a grass fire, than what you're talking about here.
BLITZER: And you see this helicopter bringing that huge bucket of water over. I assume it's coming to that apartment unit, but maybe not, maybe they're going to another fire someplace else. Unfortunately, these fires are erupting in various parts of the city. This one looked pretty much like it's out of business. What do you think?
FOREMAN: Yes. It looks pretty good. Of course, they have to tend to the whole inside of the building here, because you have smoke and hot spots. That's what they'll have to tend to. But they've got it largely under control at this point.
I'll tell you another group of heroes in this whole thing, are these helicopter pilots.
BLITZER: Yes, a lot of them are Coast Guard pilots, too.
FOREMAN: Well you know how -- you know from your dealings with helicopters. Helicopters require a very specific skill. A certain mindset. And when you have as many helicopters as they have flying in that area, hundreds of them in that airspace, they try to keep them separated by certain ways.
But really a lot of times you're relying on the expertise of these pilots. And some of these pilots have been working hour after hour after hour and doing just an extraordinary job, because it's not an easy trick to drop down with a chopper, scoop up water, get that enormous amount of weight, carry it, deliver it, all in areas that have all sorts of above-ground power lines and radio towers and all sort of things they have to watch out for.
BLITZER: You know, as we look at this, it looks like it's pretty much -- I don't know if that bucket's going to even be needed, because these guys on the ground, these firefighter have done a very good job in putting this fire out, and I'm sure, if it isn't out yet, it's going to be out very, very soon.
FOREMAN: You think it looked like maybe they waived off the last one. It looked like it went away full.
BLITZER: They may have gotten word to that helicopter pilot, not necessary, go do something else. We'll watch this fire and continue to see what's going on.
FOREMAN: Well you mentioned earlier, Wolf, the -- Ali was talking about the return of business there and what people are doing there. One of the things that's very interesting, and it seems like a strange thing to talk about now, but it really does matter in New Orleans. All this talk now that there may actually be a Mardi Gras in 2006. Now that sounds like a big party. If you're from somewhere else in the country, you think, well why would you be talking about a big party and all that?
Mardi Gras is so essential to the economic health of that area and to the sense of how people are there, that the more they get this under control, the more these neighborhoods are repopulated, people are talking about that, and saying maybe so, maybe life in New Orleans can get back to something like normal.
BLITZER: All right. Tom, stay with me, because we're going to continue our coverage, not only of this fire. We've got some new video we're going to show you -- a rescue of a man 19 days after Hurricane Katrina hit. There's been a rescue operation. And we're going to show you what happened.
Unfortunately, we're also getting word from Beirut, Lebanon, a huge explosion has, once again, rocked that troubled city. We'll tell you what's going on.
Much more here in THE SITUATION ROOM. News continuing to unfold even as we speak.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN BREAKING NEWS.
BLITZER: We have a story emerging from Beirut, Lebanon. A huge explosion, a powerful explosion, unfortunately, has rocked that city, once again. It occurred in the eastern part of the Lebanese capital. That's the largely Christian section. The cause, not immediately known. Injuries, not immediately known. It occurred just before midnight. These are pictures that are coming in from al Jazeera. And you can see the aftermath of this powerful explosion.
Since February 14, there have been a string of bomb blasts that have rocked Lebanon. That is when the former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was slain in a car bombing on a Beirut street. That was on February 14. Since then there have been several other terrorist attacks, explosions, car bombings. This explosion comes after a UN investigator visited Damascus to set up interviews with top Syrian officials over Hariri's assassination.
There have been allegations that Syria may have played a role, or at least pro-Syrian Lebanese officials may have played a role in the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister.
We're watching this story carefully. We'll continue to monitor it and get it to you.
Let's immediately go over to the White House. Our White House correspondent, Dana Bash is standing by. She has another very important story, just coming in to THE SITUATION ROOM. Dana?
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Wolf, well, the vice president's office tells us that he's going to have what they call elective surgery, to remove an aneurysm in the artery behind his right knee, and that is going to happen next weekend, according to top aide, Steve Schmidt. He says that this is something the vice president wants to address so it doesn't become a problem over time. He says that this procedure will be performed under local anesthetic. He will be in the hospital, but they say he will return to work shortly thereafter.
Now, of course when we hear about the vice president and we hear about health issues, it sort of -- it does raise concern because of problem in the past with his heart. There is no indication that this, at this point it is related to his heart problems. But at this point, it's still very early and none of us are physicians, so we're tying to get more information about that.
BLITZER: Did he say, Dana, Steve Schmidt, how long the vice president would be in the hospital for this procedure?
BASH: No, he did not say how many days. He did say it would be a short hospital stay. Unclear exactly how long that will be. But he did seem to indicate this would be a quick return to work. Again, he will be under local anesthetic to get this done. Again, it is to remove an aneurysm in the artery behind his right knee.
BLITZER: We know his cardiologist and heart team is affiliated with George Washington University Hospital here in Washington. I assume that's where he'll go for this procedure. That's where he's gone for all of his other checkups, all of his other procedures in recent years.
BASH: He has, for his heart. We know, over the summer, that he actually was in Denver, Colorado, for what we were told at the time, and still could be the case, looking at what they called an old knee injury. So he does have other doctors to deal with other ailments if you will, around the country. But you're right, G.W. is where they dealt with his heart. It's unclear, we don't know where he will get this particular procedure done, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. We're going to try to check in with one of our medical correspondents, maybe Dr. Sanjay Gupta, get a cardiologist, another specialist to get a little better feel of what this means. Dana, if you get some more information, let us know. The vice president going in for some surgery next weekend to deal with an aneurysm behind his knee.
The former secretary of defense, our world affairs analyst, William Cohen is here. When you hear that the vice president of the United States is going in for this procedure, he's got a series, a history of heart attacks, what goes through your mind?
WILLIAM COHEN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND FMR. U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Well, obviously, you want to make sure he has the best possible medical attention. This is a serious issue. And one that I'm sure the doctors will deal with effectively, having detected it early. That's on the plus side. So I think it's serious, but obviously if it were -- if it were an emergency, we'd know about it right away.
BLITZER: In his recent interviews that I've seen with him, he's always asked, how do you feel? He says great, doing well. And he said that on many occasions. Let's hope he is feeling well and he's doing great. To a layperson like me, you hear "aneurysm behind the knee," that sounds serious, but we're going to get some medical expert. You're not a doctor, I'm not a doctor, you're not a doctor, so we don't want to speculate on that, I know.
COHEN: I've had my share of surgeries, but not with aneurysms.
BLITZER: You don't want to deal with that.
Let's talk about what's just happening in Beirut, even as we speak right now. We're getting these pictures in from al Jazeera in Beirut, a powerful explosion has once again shaken the city. You can see the pictures behind you, Mr. Secretary.
In the eastern part of Beirut, East Beirut is largely Christian and those -- the Christian -- the Lebanese Christian by and large, at least many of them have been among the fiercest in the opposition of Syrian occupation, which now over in Lebanon.
COHEN: Right. And this just point out the kind of turmoil that we're likely to see again in the future, this kind of split on the religious basis poses a problem for stability throughout the region. Just one more example of how dangerous that entire region is and one more example of why it's going to be very important for the United States to, quote, try and stabilize Iraq if we possibly can.
BLITZER: We'll get some more information on what's happening in Lebanon and bring that to our viewer, get some more information. The other breaking news, the vice president will have surgery for an aneurysm behind his knee.
The president last night in his speech on the Katrina disaster said, you know what, one of the lessons I've already learned is the United States military is sort of the best positioned to deal with these disasters. And we got to learn how to use the military better. You heard those words. You are a former Defense secretary, former U.S. senator. You know the subject well. Was he right?
COHEN: Well, I think right in the sense that the United States military is the only institution in the United States that has the capacity, the logistical capacity, the medical reinforcement capability, providing beds and assistance to those who are either wounded or, in this case, damaged by the hurricane and the winds. But we have to go fairly carefully here.
The so-called posse comitatus statue is there for a reason. Historically, Americans are very suspicious of having a standing army that that standing army can be used for oppression and for tyranny. And so there have been very strict, very strict restrictions on the use of that military. We've seen some erosion of that act over the years. For example, we use the military for counter-drug activity. You could have the Insurrection Act being applied here, where the president could act to put down a rebellion at the request of a governor or such. So ...
BLITZER: But you need a governor to sign off on that?
COHEN: Right, you've got to be careful on that because, yes, the military could take over and control that very effectively, but then the question is, is the military in charge or is civilian authorities in charge? So it's something that needs to be looked at. Senator Warner, for example, has written to Secretary Rumsfeld to ask for review of all the legislation on the books to see what the role of the military should be in the future.
In my judgment, this was not an issue of the lack of the military being prepared, but rather, a failure of leadership, certainly, within the Homeland Security and on down, through state and local government.
The military was prepared to act. But you've got to have the kind of training, exercises, planning, to be able to move quickly in a situation like this, coordinating with the governor of the state and the local mayor and not wait until two or three days later then say, send in the Marines. That's a situation we found ourselves in.
BLITZER: One element of the U.S. government that worked very well was the United States Coast Guard, which is technically not military, not part of the Department of Defense, not part of the Pentagon, it's part of the Department of Homeland Security. But the Coast Guard worked well with the military. A lot of our viewer don't necessarily understand the relationship between the Coast Guard, on the one hand, and the army, navy, air force, Marine Corps, on the other.
COHEN: Well, they've always worked very well together. The Coast Guard has been there to protect our coast, to engage in a number of civilian activities, as well as drug interdiction, other things.
The thing to keep in mind in this particular situation, now Homeland Security has to consider massive damage caused by Mother Nature -- her weapons of mass destruction being wind, water, possibly earthquakes -- as well as attacks by terrorists. Whenever you have catastrophe on a massive scale, you should have the same kind of planning in place. And we didn't have that.
Secondly, we shouldn't look at this -- this as a regional problem. This is a national problem. If we weren't prepared to deal with this issue with all of the forewarnings we've had, not only the studies of the past but the hurricane warnings that this was going to be Category 3, 4, or 5, what does it mean for a massive earthquake in California or some other act of nature which causes catastrophic harm?
We are ill-prepared. That's a failure of the department itself to think about these issues in a coherent and comprehensive way.
BLITZER: We're going to spend a lot of time on Sunday on LATE EDITION discussing that specific issue, how well prepared or ill- prepared are we as a nation? Secretary Cohen, thanks very much for joining us.
We're watching three important stories that are unfolding right now here in THE SITUATION ROOM. Huge, powerful blast in Beirut. We'll tell you what's going on in East Beirut right now.
The vice president the United States, Dick Cheney, his spokesman just announced moments ago he'll undergo surgery for an aneurysm behind his knee. We'll tell you what that means.
Also, we'll go back to New Orleans, that fire that we've been watching. We'll show you the latest on that.
We also have some videotape of a man rescued today, 19 days after the hurricane struck. We'll get much more on this, right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: We're watching self-stories here in THE SITUATION ROOM. The vice president, Dick Cheney, is going to undergo surgery for an aneurysm behind his right knee. We'll go to that and get some more information on that shortly.
We're also watching a huge explosion that's rocked East Beirut. Joining us on the phone, Anthony Mills is a freelance journalist. Anthony, what do we know?
ANTHONY MILLS, FREELANCE JOURNALIST (on phone): We understand, according to a security source here in Beirut that a car exploded in a powerful explosion, as you say, in this East Beirut neighborhood. It caused damage. It caused serious damage.
Of course, there are pictures of firefighters battling blazing vehicles. A very powerful explosion. According to the security source, there are reports of injuries. We don't know exactly how many at this stage. There are no confirmed reports of death. But a very powerful explosion and a significant one in the sense it is in the east part of Beirut, the Christian neighborhood, but right in the heart of the city.
BLITZER: The Lebanese Christians by and large, or at least the political leadership, with the Syrians or against the Syrian, as far as these allegations that Syrian intelligence may or may not have had anything to do with the assassination of Rafik Hariri?
MILLS: Well there really is a split right down the middle almost. There are Christian politicians, Christian players here in Lebanon who say that this is the work of Syrian intelligence agents who remain in the country and who are orchestrating these attacks now that the Syrian forces have withdrawn and an anti-Syrian former opposition has gained the majority in parliament.
On the other hand, you have loyal pro-Syrian Christian figures here in Lebanon who say one mustn't jump to conclusions, it's too easy simply to point the finger and say, this is the work of Syria. And they point to other possibilities.
We know that President Emile Lahoud of Lebanon has in the past pointed to, for example, the dangers posed by Islamic fundamentalism. So people, the pro Syrian figures in this country do offer alternative theories, or at least say let's not jump the gun.
But in recent days, though, a UN investigator did formally accuse at least four senior Lebanese security officials in carrying out a Syrian policy in connection with the assassination of Rafik Hariri, and since then -- that was on February 14 -- there have been a series of bombings and explosions, car bombing, assassinations, in Lebanon. What's it like to be there now?
MILLS: Well, certainly, for several months now, the country has been remarkably tense and for a while when we had a bomb him every week, people were shutting off the street fronts in front of their stores. They were putting up thing to prevent cars from parking there. And there really was a sense that something could explode at any moment.
Then things calmed down for a little while. And they appeared to have sort of heated up again now. There was the hope after these four security chiefs, four -- well, three former security chiefs and the head of the presidential guard, were arrested as suspects in the murder, there was the hope that maybe they might have had something to do with it and, therefore, their arrest would put an end to these attacks. But this explosion tonight clearly shows that people are out there orchestrating these kinds of attacks and they've not in any way been affected by the arrests of these very powerful Lebanese pro- Syrian figures.
BLITZER: Another powerful bomb blast in East Beirut in the Achrafieh district. Anthony Mills, helping with us this story, thank you, Anthony, very much.
The other breaking news we're following, word now from the vice president's office, one of his top aides, Steve Schmidt, specifically, that the vice president next weekend will undergo surgery for an aneurysm behind his right knee. We're going to get back to the White House, cover this story, right after this short break.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Busy news day here in THE SITUATION ROOM. We want to update you, first of all, on the fire we saw in New Orleans just a little while ago. It look like it's pretty much out right now. These are pictures that just came in to CNN from a helicopter flying over the city. It was pretty bad. It looks like a garden-style apartment unit about three miles southwest of the New Orleans International Airport. The good word is that the firefighters managed to get that out.
Elsewhere in New Orleans, I want to show our viewer some videotape we also got in. Nineteen days after Hurricane Katrina hit, there was a rescue operation. This individual -- this man on the stretcher there, he had been holed out for 19 days. He survived. He's being taken care of right now. But this is new video that we've gotten in, only a little while ago. Someone saved after 19 days, effectively being alone.
We don't have a lot of details. But we do know this individual who is being put on the stretcher right there, right now, is OK -- at least we believe he's OK. The medical personnel going to take good care of him. Emergency medical personnel on the scene, 19 days after this hurricane struck. He's alive and well, we hope. We'll continue to watch this story.
Meanwhile, members of the Louisiana National Guard have been coming home from combat duty in Iraq. Many have no homes left and have yet to learn the fate of family members.
CNN's Alex Quade spend some time with 141st Field Artillery. That's a unit based in Downtown New Orleans. Alex takes us along on a journey right now, a journey of one soldier who went from Baghdad to New Orleans.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Combat mission is complete. Dismissed.
ALEX QUADE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Staff Sergeant Scott Anders is one of the lucky ones. His family is here to welcome him home. But after 18 months fighting in Iraq ...
STAFF SGT SCOTT ANDERS, IRAQ VETERAN: Meant everything to get home to my family.
QUADE: He's wondering if he has a New Orleans home to come to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, it's really sad these guys don't know what they're coming home to.
ANDERS: Hi, mom. How you doing?
QUADE: In Iraq, Anders was a forward observer, calling in air support and artillery. He survived firefights, a suicide car bomb which killed one of his men, and a grenade attack on his Humvee.
Does your wife know about any of this?
ANDERS: No, I told my wife I worked in an office the whole time.
QUADE: His first night home, he and his wife camped with his parents at an RV park turned evacuation shelter.
Everything that you own that's left is what you have right here, what you brought back from Iraq.
ANDERS: Everything, all my clothes, everything I know right now that I own is in these bags.
QUADE: We drive to New Orleans to see if his home is still there.
ANDERS: How far out do they start putting road blocks up?
QUADE: Through checkpoints like in Iraq.
ANDERS: How you doing, sir?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How's it going, guys?
ANDERS: Pretty good. Trying to make it in by my house right now. I just got in from Iraq about two days ago.
QUADE: And into his neighborhood. Their home ...
ANDERS: So far, OK.
QUADE: It did OK.
ANDERS: I'll check on my car. I was in Iraq watching news and saw guys come down in row boats, coming by the street. So I didn't expect ...
QUADE: On your street?
ANDERS: Yes.
QUADE: You expected the water to be basically at roof level?
ANDERS: I expected the first floor to be gone.
QUADE: At least the first floor?
ANDERS: First floor to be gone. I expected my car to be gone. I expected a lot. You can smell like a mildew smell in it.
We got lucky, you know that?
QUADE: Only water damage to the basement.
ANDERS: I have no clue whose canoe this is. No clue.
QUADE (on camera): The water was probably about stare height, it receded, left the canoe, somebody else's canoe.
ANDERS: Yes.
QUADE: But you've had very, very little damage.
ANDERS: My father lost his business. My brother lost his house. My aunt lost her house. My wife's -- pretty much her whole family lost their houses. It's a lot knowing we're probably the fortunate ones out of our whole family. Now it's just going to help everybody else and my family and the community, who lost everything.
QUADE: These were some of the first things that you grabbed when you went back into your house.
ANDERS: I'm worried about looters trying to get there. I'm worried about when we start coming back in, people said it's such a gasoline shortage that people are actually robbing people for gasoline. Like when you go in Iraq, you don't know what's going to happen, you don't know what to expect. And it's the same thing, it's like going to the next step, not knowing what's going to happen, what to expect.
QUADE (voice-over): Another thing he didn't expect, soldiers in his neighborhood.
Who are they are with?
ANDERS: They're with the Puerto Rican National Guard.
QUADE: Puerto Rican National Guard?
ANDERS: Yes, ma'am. They're out here patrolling.
QUADE: Your brothers in arms there, huh? ANDERS: Yeah, felt good.
QUADE: Sergeant Anders' new mission -- Katrina relief duty with his Louisiana National Guard unit.
ANDERS: We've helped out the people in Iraq, now we can focus on the state mission, help out these people. Looking forward to helping them out, because not everybody was as fortunate as I was.
QUADE: For Sergeant Anders, from major combat operation to major cleanup operations.
Alex Quade, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: With so many in need after Hurricane Katrina, there's an outpouring of support from around the country. Now there's a new Internet site that will tell you how to help. Our Internet reporter Jacki Schechner checking the situation online. Jacki?
JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET CORRESPONDENT: We have been bringing you opportunities online for weeks now. President Bush mentioned this one specifically last night. We want to show it to you very quickly -- USAFreedomCorps.gov. If you click on it, it is searchable by state. It has become a clearing house to match volunteers with opportunities and people who want to donate goods and services with the people who need them.
What it will do if you click on it and you search, it will take you to other sites. It will take you away from the government site to other organizations. Some of the opportunities. A very wide range of things that you can do. For example a Bay Area food bank that is boxing up food to bring down to Mississippi. Another one is Aidsale (ph) where you have medical teams that can help in the area. And then the local Red Cross chapter, where you can volunteer in your area specifically. Again, Wolf, it's USAFreedomCorps.gov.
BLITZER: Thanks, Jacki. We'll take a quick break. When we come back, we'll update you on the condition of the vice president, Dick Cheney. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Stay with CNN throughout the night for continuing information. The vice president of the United States, Dick Cheney, will undergo surgery next weekend for an aneurysm behind his right knee. We'll have specific details. That's coming up. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington.
LOU DOBBS TONIGHT starts right now. Kitty Pilgrim sitting in for Lou. Kitty.
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