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CNN Saturday Morning News

Reuniting Families After Hurricane Katrina; Path of Hurricane Ophelia; Cost To Rebuild New Orleans; Prince Apologizes For Remarks; Robots Built For Human Tasks; Author Aron Ralston

Aired September 17, 2005 - 09:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. From the CNN Center in Atlanta, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING, the 17th day of September. I'm Tony Harris.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Betty Nguyen. We want you to take a look at the left side of your screen, because for the next two days you will see pictures of children who have been missing or displaced since Hurricane Katrina hit nearly three weeks ago.

HARRIS: Betty, we are working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to help bring Gulf coast families together. Some parents didn't expect to be separated from the children so they don't have readily available pictures. If you recognize any of the children, please call the number on your screen right now. 1-800-583-5678. That is 1-800-THE-LOST. A live report from the center's headquarters is coming up but first a check of the headlines this morning.

At this hour, business owners in three parts of New Orleans will be allowed to return to check things out but they must abide by a strict curfew. Starting at 8:00 a.m. through 6:00 p.m., people will be allowed into the French Quarter, the central district, and the uptown district.

They're advised not to drink the tap water and most services are not restored. People in New Orleans are bracing for Tropical Storm Ophelia. It picked up speed and it is heading that way after soaking low-lying areas of North Carolina. With 18 inches of rain, the storm packing 60 mile an hour winds is less than 200 miles southeast of Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Vice President Dick Cheney will have surgery next weekend. Aides say he will have an aneurysm in an artery behind his right knee removed. It is an elective procedure that will require a local anesthesia and a short hospital stay.

NGUYEN: Now, to the missing children, forced into a world of uncertainty in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Hundreds of children are listed as missing or separated from their parents in the wake of that storm. But with your help, we are trying to reunite them with their families. CNN's Kimberly Osias is here to tell you how. And Kimberly we need to mention though that in the rush of evacuating, some of the parents didn't grab pictures of their children so as you see right now, they are just a silhouette and a name. KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. And sometimes there aren't even pictures at all Betty. I mean take a look at this. Hundreds and hundreds and pages and pages of names from a to z with scanned information. That's why it is so important to really key in on these faces. It is important for the public to help and to make a difference to help these investigators really put those pieces together. It's a jigsaw puzzle.

Take a look at this face. This is Terrell Lewis, he is just one of many children that are separated from their parents. They are seeking parents and I'm not a parent yet. And I do know what it was like to be separated from my mother or from my father for hours or minutes or, you know, it is an awful, awful feeling. And this panic for these kids goes on and on and on.

Terrell Lewis, African-American, little boy, 11 years old. Believed to have been in New Orleans when he was last seen. Believed to possibly be in a shelter. Very important to really -- we are asking the public to help really key in on all of these names, faces, because when there is a lead, they call in and they're able to really follow up.

They're here, volunteers, former law enforcement officers answering those calls, working in concert with the official soldiers on the ground. Joining me is Ernie Allen he is the director for the National Center for Missing and Exploited children. Ernie, you have been at this a long, long time doing amazing work. This is unlike anything else we have ever seen before.

ERNIE ALLEN, CEO, NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING AND EXPLOITED CHILDREN: It really is. I mean, we usually work cases in which the taking of the child is a crime and following very specific clues and leads. Here, the field of potential leads is the universe and so we're trying the reach out that one person who knows, somebody out there knows where these children are and what we need them to do is call this hotline number and give us that key piece of information that reunifies this family.

OSIAS: Ernie what are the biggest obstacles that y'all are facing right now? I mean obviously cell phone service is very difficult. Often times not available in some areas. Computers often are going down. What kinds of things are you hearing from the front line that is folks are battling?

ALLEN: Well, this is a low-tech investigation. It would be great if there were unified national database of everybody who's online. If we could search -- we usually find children through the use of images and information. Here, we've got to find that one tiny lead and use our foot soldiers and work with state and local law enforcement and social services agencies and follow them to their conclusion. It's tough work. But 760 families have already been unified.

OSIAS: And that is a great moment and, you know, I know even just being here for times when you hear those tips, nothing like it. That's what kind of keeps you going, keeps you emboldened. ALLEN: It is inspiring and I think it's a great commentary on the fact that so many people care. The fact that you're here and that CNN is running these photos and providing this information all weekend, I think it's a great example of community service and a commitment to people.

OSIAS: Well, it is a time also that other people can actually take action and hopefully make a difference. But you know, Ernie, it is not really -- we think about the south, we think about Mississippi, we think about Louisiana. We think about those areas, of course, that were very, very hard hit. But it's not just limited to the south.

I mean these folks are scattered really everywhere. I mean it is the greatest scattering that we have ever seen. I was here when one of the tips came in from California. A child that had been in Mississippi that possibly was in California. I mean, can you speak to sort of the vastness of this problem?

ALLEN: Well, the real success that has been brought about by the Red Cross and others is that very quickly the evacuees have been dispersed. So they can be in anybody's community. We handled a call the other day from a CNN viewer in New York State who has seen the photo of a child and called us to say his father was on CNN the day before. That brought the family together. So, everybody needs to pay attention.

OSIAS: All across the country. Ernie Allen thanks you very much. Ernie Allen with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Betty.

NGUYEN: He's right, everybody needs to pay attention. And those pictures and names will be up all weekend long. Kimberly thanks you.

OSIAS: Thank you.

HARRIS: Two hundred billion dollars, that's just one estimate of how much it will cost to rebuild the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. President Bush says it will cost whatever it costs. And promises no tax increases will be needed to foot the bill, so how do you make the numbers add up? For more on the president's plan, we turn now to White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux. Suzanne good morning.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning Tony. Of course that is the question of the day, how do you make those numbers add up? Of course President Bush putting out some ideas about here about at least how that money is going to be spent.

He talked about the Gulf opportunity zones or go-zones, those are tax credits for small businesses, in the area, and he also talked about the Homesteading Act. That, of course, free land for low income families to try to help rebuild and then he also talked about these recovery accounts, up to $5,000 to help with job training, education, child care, things like that.

But this announcement really is unprecedented in the amount of spending here. Some estimate as much as $200 billion and the question is where is this money going to come from? And has reinvigorated the debate here in Washington about whether or not to raise taxes. President Bush making it very clear he doesn't believe that that is the right option. As a matter of fact, he believes that those tax cuts should remain permanent and that is what he is pushing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's going to mean that we have to make sure we cut unnecessary spending. It's going to mean we don't do -- we got to maintain economic growth and therefore, we should not raise taxes. Our working people have had to pay a tax in essence when buying higher gasoline prices and we don't need to be taken more money out of their pocket. And, as we spend the money, we have to make sure we spend it wisely. We have inspectors general overseeing the expenditure of the money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So Tony of course what is all of this mean? White House economic adviser Al Hubbert said that it does mean that the spending, of course, going to come from federal taxpayers. He also says that it means it's going to be an increase in the federal deficit. So far, we are talking about an estimated federal deficit of $314 billion for a 2006 budget but that could swell by $200 billion. Where are these cuts going to come from? So far the White House has been mum on that, but there are some fiscal conservatives who have their own ideas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: We're going to end up with a highest deficit probably in the history of this country. So we need to try to find ways to impose efficiencies. One of the ideas that we're kicking around is to take the $25 billion that was added in highway pork some way and help that -- eliminate that and put that towards paying off the disaster relief efforts in the Gulf States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: So Tony, so far, there are this debate is going to continue, of course. There are many ideas that people throwing out now. The White House refusing to say which way they are going to go on some of those cuts. We know already in the budget there were significant cuts when it came to social programs. President Bush, of course, also returning to the damaged region and Tuesday, he'll talk a little bit more about his plan. Tony.

HARRIS: Suzanne Malveaux at the White House for us. Suzanne thanks you.

NGUYEN: The devastation in New Orleans has been well documented but what about the dozens of smaller cities and towns all across the Gulf coast that were also badly battered? D'Iberville, Mississippi is one of those towns. But the mayor says his town has been forgotten by the very people who promised to help. CNN's Erica Hill reports. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Angela Ellzey's family still sleeps in the shed behind their house.

ANGELA ELLZY, D'IBERVILLE RESIDENT: That's our bathroom and the toilet paper. That's how we do it. It's sad. I mean, we're not as bad as New Orleans, but we need help just as bad as New Orleans.

HILL: This is their living room. A dirt floor, a blue tarp for a roof, over here, plastic bags in place of a sewer system. No one expected damage like this and then afterwards, and perhaps more surprising, no one thought they were living like this three weeks later. But the Ellzy say this is their only option. In fact, six out of ten homes here in D'Iberville were destroyed according to the mayor. And that left some 4,000 people homeless. And they still are.

MAYOR RUSTY QUAVE, D'IBERVILLE, MISSISSIPPI: For the last two weeks, FEMA has promised me trailers or tents. Just give me a pop-up tent for my people to live in. That's the most important thing in this community.

HILL: This neighborhood is basically gone. Some folks like Dolores and Tom Moore have friends to stay with. But not everyone is so lucky.

RICHARD ROSE, CITY MANAGER, D'IBERVILLE: We don't have a shelter in D'Iberville for any of these people, quite frankly, and that -- they want to be near their homes and why the people are not going to these shelters outside of the city.

QUAVE: It's hard to see a family of five living in a car. It's hard to see them living under overpasses, walking the streets.

HILL: Daily life for people up and down the Gulf coast. And the reality of the limits of a system never tested to this degree.

DELORES MOORE, RESIDENT: I'm getting angry. I was upset. But now I'm getting angry.

QUAVE: I need tents now for these people to get some type of satisfaction and some kind of -- some kind of end to this terrible tragedy.

HILL: CNN spoke with FEMA; the agency said it's working with the governor of Mississippi to better serve the needs of the people here and also, working to streamline its response system, which is severely overtaxed. We have also learned that the Red Cross opening a shelter here in the D'Iberville at the Civic Center.

Erica Hill, CNN, D'Iberville, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Hungry and helpless in New Orleans. Hundreds of animals are still stranded. Anderson Cooper takes a look at some rescuers trying to save them.

NGUYEN: And literally between a rock and hard place, that was Aaron Ralston two years ago. He tells us about his unbelievable ordeal. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Still ahead, we go to Holland to see how the Dutch are dealing with the city surrounded by water, much like New Orleans. What are they doing differently? And what can they teach New Orleans? We'll find out in our 10:00 a.m. hour this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was all smiles when Crown Prince Naruhito of Japan wed his bride in 1993. Crown Princess Masako was a modern woman, a Japan standards, a former diplomat, educated at Harvard and Oxford. She initially turned down the prince's proposals of marriage before being hailed Japan's Princess Di but like Diana royal life proved to be anything but storybook.

In 2001, her daughter, Ako, officially called Princess Toshi (ph) was born. Two years later, Masako dropped out of public life. The official reason, adjustment disorders. Last year the crowned prince stunned the nation with an unprecedented explanation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The princess completely exhausted herself. She has been denied her career as well as her personality.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Earlier this year, the 45-year-old crown prince apologized to his parents for his controversial remarks. His 41-year-old wife remains out of the public spotlight. Their only child who turns 5 in December is now at the heart of debate over succession. According to imperial law, only men can go to the Casthanthrama (ph) throne. Yet the Princess Toshi is permitted to assume the throne of the world's oldest monarchy, it will be the first time a woman has reined in over 200 years.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's check in now with Jacqui Jeras and get the latest information on Tropical Storm Ophelia. Good morning Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. Ophelia is still a tropical storm packing winds around 60 miles per hour but should become extra tropical likely later on today. The closest approach basically to the U.S. mainland, 95 miles away from Nantucket, it is moving up to the north and east very quickly, 21 miles per hour.

So we're just looking at a little bit of rain, some rough surf today and some occasional gusting winds. By mid afternoon, it is going to be well up to the north and east of there and then heading towards Nova Scotia. It should be making landfall there we think late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

We have a new tropical depression to talk about. We have been watching this for a couple of days now and it has developed into a tropical depression as of about 8:30 this morning. T.D. Number 17, it does have the potential to be a tropical storm over the next couple of days. It is also a little disturbance to the north of Puerto Rico. It could become a tropical depression in the next few days.

A cold front moving across the east coast, it is hoping to kick Ophelia away from the shorelines. bringing in some occasional rain also to the north and east and some strong thunderstorms into the southern plain states and temperatures pretty moderate across the country. A beautiful day in Chicago, with a high of 79 degrees.

More CNN LIVE SATURDAY MORNING right after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Nearly three weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, there are still hundreds of children waiting to be reunited with their families and for the next two days you will see pictures of those children. But some parents didn't expect to be separated from the kids so they don't have pictures and you only see a silhouette, which is on the screen right now.

HARRIS: CNN is working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to help bring Gulf Coast families back together. If you recognize any of the pictures, please call the phone number you see there on your screen. There it is. 1-800-843-5678. That's 1- 800-THE-LOST.

So many of us rely on insurance but can it help after a natural disaster? Many victims of Hurricane Katrina say their insurance is leaving them high and dry. So tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. Eastern on "CNN Sunday Morning," we'll get answers from Louisiana's state insurance commissioner. That's live on "CNN Sunday Morning" 9:00 a.m. Eastern. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mother Nature holds many secrets, even about robots. And James McLurkin is using the swarm project to reveal them.

JAMES MCLURKIN, MIT, GRADUATE STUDENT: Then inspiration for the swarm comes from nature. Ants, bees, termites. All these insects produce very complicated group rejaviers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And as these group behaviors that McLurkin is looking to imitate by creating software he hopes to understand how to program large numbers of robots to perform tasks that are complicated and dangerous for humans.

MCLURKIN: You have an earthquake; this is the task that humans are particularly ill suited for. We can have 20,000 cockroach sized robots and they scurry through the pile looking for survivors and they send a signal out to get a rat size structural near and then that robot will assess the structure site of the building. Figure out how to pull the rubble off the survivor. It is almost impossible for us to do now with current technology.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: McLurkin the 2003 winner of the $30,000 Lemalson MIT student prize says there are still many technical issues to be worked out like power sources for these energy hungry robots.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: Well, Aron Ralston's story is one that you simply cannot forget. Back in April of 2003, he had got his hand trapped under a huge boulder while mountain climbing in Utah. After five days of waiting for help, he actually amputated his own arm in order to survive.

And we have heard so much about surviving the adversity of disaster in the past few weeks that we just had to talk to this guy, and of course, we are talking about Aron Ralston, the man who lived to tell about the ordeal aptly titled "Between a Rock and Hard Place." Which is now is paperback.

Aron joins us in our Atlanta studio this morning to talk this. You know your story really highlights the sheer will to survive, which we have been talking about a lot lately. But remind us of exactly the ordeal you were facing, how you got into that predicament.

ARON RALSTON, AUTHOR, "OUTDOORSMAN": It happened on a vacation that I was out in the Utah deserts. I was by myself on a Saturday afternoon, April 26th, back in 2003. And I was climbing down through a slot canyon. One of these sunken hallways of rock.

NGUYEN: Tight area.

RALSTON: Very tight area and I was climbing off of a ledge. Using a boulder sort of as an intermediate step to get down to the continuing canyon floor and I was dangling from that boulder, my body weight dislodged it. I fell down underneath it and tried to get my hands up to block it as it was coming for my head and my right hand became trapped in and alongside the boulder between the rock and the canyon wall, as it rewedged itself between this very tight walls of this canyon.

NGUYEN: Now no one is around?

RALSTON: Right.

NGUYEN: You are thinking I'm in this all alone. Did anyone know where you were?

RALSTON: No. I made a key mistake in the set up to this story which was I didn't tell anyone where I was going and when I'd be back. That's something I had to come to terms with. And recognizing that I made a mistake, it gave me the power to make new choices about what I was going to do and I think that's perhaps one of the major lessons that I have taken out of this.

NGUYEN: A choice to live. And what you had to do in order to live was actually amputate your arm. You didn't do it with a knife because you had a knife. It was too dull. So what did you do then? So painful the hear but go ahead.

RALSTON: The key was that the bones in my arm as they were trapped there, that was really holding me. The knife can get through the softer tissues but not through bones and because of that, finally. An epiphany came on the sixth day as I was trapped after running out of water, drinking my urine, the desperation that was there with me led me to the moment then when this voice shouted out to me that I could break the bones and then use the knife to get through the rest of the tissues. It was something that I looked forward to as the greatest idea, the greatest possible idea.

NGUYEN: You looked that forward to it?

RALSTON: Yes.

NGUYEN: Which just shows that when you are in those desperate conditions, when you see a light no matter how bleak it is as the end of the tunnel, you are going to get excited about that.

RALSTON: Oh, yes. It was everything that represented hope and even as there were no guarantees about being an able to get out and survive from that point forward, because I was still eight miles from my vehicle, which was still two and a half hours from a land line telephone that I -- I had to do something. I had to take some action and that was -- that was what ultimately would give me my life back.

NGUYEN: It gave you your life back and as we watch Katrina come ashore and all that the aftermath has caused, and the desperation that so many people went through, what advice do you have to victims and survivors here? Because like you, they have somewhat of an uncertain future.

RALSTON: Certainly. And I think that we also have to realize that there's a lot of fear. There's a lot of fatigue and just in some ways people are getting tired of this. And I can identify with all of those -- the uncertainty but we are given gifts and we are able the adapt.

We are able to summon courage in the face of fear and to rely on our faith in uncertainty and to find the perseverance to do one more thing to reach out and it wasn't just what I did. But realizing I wasn't alone in the situation just as the survivors of Katrina are not alone either.

There are people around the country and for me, my family, my friends, just we come together in this to find the capabilities that perhaps we don't think we have but are, indeed, in us in order to get through adversity and turn it into possibility even -- they're not just going to survive down in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region but flourish as the president said on Thursday night. The New Orleans of the future will be an even better place.

NGUYEN: Did you imagine that your story would maybe provide a sense of hope to people who face so much adversity as of lately?

RALSTON: I definitely understood in the days after my accident how it came to affect people and how it saved peoples' lives struggling with depression. Gave them the light in the darkness as you mentioned and that was -- that was why I decided I had to put this down and to create a legacy of this in the form of a book and to be able to still go out and share this, to fulfill the obligation that came into my life.

NGUYEN: You turned a tragedy into something positive and we want you to keep sharing the stories of hope. Thank you Aron.

RALSTON: Thank you very much.

NGUYEN: Tony.

HARRIS: Whether it is man-made terror or natural disasters. Just how prepared are America's cities and states? We'll find out how California gets ready for its next calamity.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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