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CNN Saturday Morning News

Surviving Katrina to Face BP; Glenn Beck Rally Triggers Criticism; Floods in Pakistan

Aired August 28, 2010 - 07:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, one family is, in fact, still struggling to survive after Hurricane Katrina washed away their home on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

We spoke with the Stillwells on the five-year anniversary of Katrina and found them still struggling to cope with the second disaster, that BP oil spill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN (voice-over): Five years after hurricane Katrina, Gulf Coast residents are still struggling to rebuild.

GARY STILLWELL, KATRINA SURVIVOR: Most of these homes have just been built recently, in the last six or eight months. It was three or four years of just watching grass grow.

BALDWIN: For Gary Stillwell, memories of his neighborhood in Biloxi, Mississippi, are still painful.

STILLWELL: Sometimes, I don't like to go back in my mind and think about it. The whole house was completely surrounded with a deck, all of the way around it. And during Mardi Gras, we would sit out on the deck and we had the tables out there and we would drink margaritas.

BALDWIN: But this is what was left of his neighborhood and home after Katrina. Gary spoke with CNN's Randi Kaye as he sifted through the rubble of his two-story Victorian home, a home that had survived every storm since the 1800s.

STILLWELL: Within a span of an hour or so, water just rose. All of our furniture started to float.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And what did you think when that water is coming up as fast as it probably did?

STILLWELL: Somewhere in there, I kept figuring it's going to recede somewhere.

BALDWIN: But it didn't. And Gary, his wife and three pets were stuck, forced to ride it out.

STILLWELL: We watched the tsunami, and we said, look at this. We're the ones that always say, why didn't they get out of town? Some people stay, some people go.

BALDWIN: Gary, who lost his home in one of the nation's worst natural disasters, now faces one of the worst manmade disasters, the BP oil spill.

STILLWELL: BP has beat us up financially. You've got an industry that's probably cause and affect half a million people that are just sitting and waiting. We were anticipating from 2007, 2008, 2009, this was going to be our year. Each year, it grew a little bit better since Katrina. And here again, we're stopped, we're stopped dead in the water.

BALDWIN: With the shrimping industry crippled, he's had to rely on other income, including earnings from his t-shirt business.

STILLWELL: We work a lot of the fishing charter tournaments because here, everything is geared towards shrimp. A lot of people are asking us if we could get shrimp while we were selling our shirts because we sell shrimp. We decided to put the black flower on it and cross out dock direct and shrimp because we are unable to get shrimp. There are no shrimp being caught so there are no shrimp being sold. And therefore, we have no shrimp.

BALDWIN: In five years, Gary and his wife have moved several times. They went from living in a two-story historic home to living in a FEMA trailer.

STILLWELL: Found this down in a mud. This is just an old laundry room.

BALDWIN: Now, the Stillwells live in this cottage provided by state relief agency, 10 miles from the coast. When he returns to his old neighborhood, he sees empty lot after empty lot. It's hard to believe this was once home.

STILLWELL: The soul of the city is gone, the seafood industry. I lost my soul because I thought that Biloxi was the final resting spot for me. There was a great feeling here. And it's gone. It's gone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Now, when Hurricane Katrina churned across the southern tip of Florida, it barely generated enough wind speed to qualify as a hurricane at all. But one abrupt shift in direction changed everything.

We have this one-hour CNN documentary that essentially follows Katrina's progression into what we know was a devastating category 5 hurricane and the details of the suffering of the people who were victims by the storm's sudden fury. You can watch that 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

And as we continue to cover Katrina, the then and the now, we're bringing in multiple correspondents who were there, who saw the destruction firsthand, including our own Jeanne Meserve. And she is there this morning talking specifically this hour about the levees.

And, Jeanne, I hate to ask, if we were to have another storm, this brevity, as Katrina, could they hold?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, $14 billion is being spent by the Army Corps of Engineers to rebuild the levees. They say the city is safer now than it ever has been, and this whole project will be completed in about a year.

But we talked to some people who live near the levees, and frankly, a lot of them are skeptical.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): The long road back from Hurricane Katrina has brought Sonja Hill here, to one of the handful of houses rebuilt right where the industry canal floodwall gave way.

SONJA HILL, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: I'm looking at that wall I'm thinking, what if it breaks again? What if it breaks right here in front of the door and I'm inside with my kids? I don't feel safe back here if a hurricane comes through.

MESERVE: Sonja says she can't afford to live somewhere else.

But Roy Arrigo doesn't want to move. His house is just a few hundred feet from where this 17th Street canal floodwall failed.

(on camera): And this is the same kind of wall that failed five years ago.

ROY ARRIGO, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: Yes, it is. Yes.

MESERVE: Is that scary?

ARRIGO: Yes, it is. This is a fragile wall.

MESERVE (voice-over): Arrigo was angry at the Army Corps of Engineers and blames it for the destruction of his city.

ARRIGO: We see the work and we're told about all of the progress, but can we trust it? And to be quite honest, I don't think that we can.

MESERVE: In the Gentilly neighborhood near the London Avenue canal breach, Willean Brown believes the engineering isn't what matters.

WILLEAN BROWN, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: They could build a levee as high as they want to. God has the power. So, if he wants to tear down a building there (ph) whether low, high, 25 feet, 30 feet, he can knock it down with his power.

MESERVE: Her faith makes her feel safe here. Not her sister Callie. CALLIE BROWN, NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: I had to give the government the benefit of the doubt that the wall is going to hold. I try. That don't mean it's going to work.

MESERVE: For Callie brown and many others, the shadow cast by the levees is long and dark.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: We did talk to some people who had a bit more confidence in the levee system, but everyone we talked to said if a big storm is heading towards New Orleans, they are headed out of town.

Brooke, back to you.

BALDWIN: Out of town. Some people are still very dubious five years later.

Jeanne, thank you for that.

Also, I want to tell you about a guy whose name we all learned, what, five years ago, New Orleans mayor at the time, Ray Nagin. He really led the city through the disaster. He says he is done with public office. Mr. Nagin was both praised and scorned for his leadership in the days leading up to Katrina and the years in dealing with its aftermath. Nagin who was barred from re-election simply because of term limits says he's already given his pound of flesh, so to speak. He stepped down from office in May.

We're going to have more here as we continue this morning on the five-year anniversary of Katrina. In fact, we're going to tell you all these stories and hear all these different perspectives all weekend. In fact, in two hours from now, our entire 9:00 hour is dedicated to this story, to New Orleans. I'll be talking to General Russel Honore, a household name as well, who many say brought order to the chaos to New Orleans days, weeks, months after the storm hit.

Plus, Scot Craig, a man who rebuilt his restaurant after it was totally wrecked because of the flood waters.

And we'll be looking through some pictures with New Orleans photographer and native Harold Baquet. I'm excited to that with all of them. And he will walk me through more or less the poignant images both of the city -- before the storm hit, during and then after, as he termed it, the war zone.

Our special half hour, we're calling it, "After Katrina," coming up again at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. Hope you join me then.

A lot of people are talking though this morning -- switching gears -- talking Washington, about this rally at the Lincoln Memorial. Have you heard about this? Some civil rights leaders are very much so critical of this.

This is the FOX News host Glenn Beck rallies, the organizer as well. Keep in mind the timing. This is also the same day as the 47th anniversary of Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream Speech," which, by the way, he gave from that very spot.

But here was Glenn Beck last night in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN BECK, FOX NEWS HOST AND RALLY ORGANIZER: Hello, Freedom Works!

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I want to give you some perspective, though. Beck is calling this gathering this morning the "Restore Honor" rally. He says it is not political. He says he wants to honor our soldiers and revive integrity, honor and truth.

Now, he says it's not political, but keep in mind, busload after busload of Tea Party activists will be there. Sarah Palin will also be playing a key role. She'll be speaking at that event.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BECK: It's interest doing me that the media has no problem with people working together on any of the progressive agenda, but they certainly have a problem with us working together for the republic as we all understand it.

(CHEERING)

BECK: Tomorrow -- tomorrow is something that originally a year ago I thought was supposed to be political, and then I kind of feel like God dropped a giant sandbag on my head because as I've been looking at the problems -- you guys are so important, you are so very important for somebody standing in the line and saying, "You shall not pass," being somebody that stands and watches over and connects for political reasons.

But my role is, as I see it, to wake America up on to the backsliding of principles and values and, most importantly, of God. We are a country of God.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So, that was Glenn Beck last night, but a lot of civil rights leaders coming out, calling this rally offensive. One prominent House Dem calling this blatantly political and they are planning a counter rally in D.C. just a couple miles away.

But Dr. King's niece not only defends Glenn Beck's rally, guess what? She's speaking this morning. Here she was talking to CNN's Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ALVEDA KING, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.'S NIECE: You know what? I don't have to reclaim the civil rights movement. I'm part of the civil rights movement. I marched in the '60s. I went to jail. My dad, Reverend A.D. King's home, our home, was bombed. Daddy's church was bombed. And so, you know, I've been accused of hijacking the dream. Well, the dream is in my genes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Coming up at 10:00 this morning, 7:00 a.m. Pacific, I'm going to talk live with two black conservatives. First is Lloyd Marcus, he is a Tea Party activist, refers to Glenn Beck as Brother Beck. We're talking to him about this rally today.

And we'll juxtapose that with Lenny McAllister. He's a hip-hop Republican, Republican Party analyst. And he apparently was invited to speak at this thing this morning and said, no thanks. Want to know why? We'll find out.

We'll get both perspectives on the rallies today in Washington, again at 10:00 a.m. this morning, Eastern.

Also, scenes of desperation from the flood zone this morning, more help is on the way. We're talking about Pakistan. Have you seen the video coming out of this flood ravaged country? Millions of victims like this little one very much so in need of help.

It is 12 minutes after the hour. I'm talking to Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the ground in Pakistan -- next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We are looking back this morning on how Hurricane Katrina just totally ravaged the Gulf Coast five years ago, but Pakistan is facing -- some are calling its own Katrina, right now. More than 1,600 people have died. That number we're hearing will likely go up.

And guess who's there covering it for us? Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is there on the ground in the flood ravaged region.

Sanjay, good morning to you. Give me a quick preview of what you have coming up in 15 minutes live from Pakistan.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this has been going on for a month, as you know, Brooke, just so much water in this country, a fifth of the country really of Pakistan underneath water. And the thing is that it is still going on. There are still areas that are being flooded. There are towns that are at risk of being flooded just over the next few hours here.

Exactly how do you brace for this sort of thing and what's being done for the people who are being displaced, Brooke? Up to 17 million of them just with no home, no resources. And, really, they don't know what their future is at this point. So, we're really sort of dissecting how -- what has happened over the last month and what is likely to happen as well.

One of the big questions, obviously, that comes up is aid. How do you get aid to these places? So difficult. The helicopters, for example -- there's been a huge request for those -- simply trying to drop off aid in these areas that aren't accessible by car. We saw that firsthand today, exactly how that works. It's helping but there's so much work to be done.

You're going to meet some amazing people who are living this, Brooke, in just a few minutes.

BALDWIN: Yes, looking at pictures of you in the thick of things -- man, Sanjay, stay safe. We'll see you live in 13 minutes now, looking forward to it.

Meantime, thousands of people in our nation's capital today. And Josh Levs is joining me now with more on these two marches in the controversy, if we can call it that, this morning, surrounding one of those events.

Hi, Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke, and we're going to be taking you to those events and we're also going to take you back in history to show you the significance of this location, the Lincoln Memorial. We're going to show you a major civil rights event that took place on those steps decades before Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEVS: We're back in the newsroom. We've been talking to you about two major rallies happening in Washington today. One of them is going to be here. I believe we have some live pics now at the Lincoln Memorial led by talk show host Glenn Beck. It's called the Restoring Honor rally.

There will also be a counter rally taking place not far from it today. But while we're looking at that Lincoln Memorial, let's talk a little bit about the significance of the location. It was 47 years ago today, this day, back in 1963 that we saw this, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivering his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. We have pictures from that.

The National Parks Service says back at the time there were 200,000 people that took place -- part in that march and rally there. But that was actually not the first major civil rights event on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Something big happened 24 years earlier.

I believe we do -- we have some video here of Marian Anderson who sang 24 years earlier there on the steps. There you go. Let's listen.

(VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: She had been denied the right to perform at Constitution Hall because of her skin color. And it was on Easter Sunday, 1939, Marian Anderson performed on those steps. The National Parks Service says 75,000 people were there.

But now, the Parks Service doesn't actually give crowd estimates anymore ever since this event in the next video, which is 1995, the Million Man March. There was a lot of controversy after that event in 1995 over how big the crowd really was. And ever since then, they actually stopped doing crowd estimates.

So, we won't be hearing from the National Parks Service what the turnout is today. There might be some other agencies. We will be keeping an eye on that.

And also, a counter rally being led by various groups including the NAACP, which is going to end up, Brooke, at the Martin Luther King memorial future site, which is just around the corner from the Lincoln Memorial there.

BALDWIN: A lot of people have been waiting for that. Josh, thank you. We'll be talking D.C. all morning.

Meantime, guess what we're talking next? My favorite topic, shopping. And might we be out of control? Might we have a spending habit?

Clyde Anderson will be talking about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right. So, it's Saturday morning. And perhaps you have some shopping to do, hmm? Lots of us have been cutting back because of the recession and we're trying to. But some shoppers don't exactly know there are boundaries. That's a fair word, Clyde Anderson.

Here to talk shopping, shopping addiction, financial analyst Clyde Anderson.

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: Yes.

BALDWIN: So, we're doing this this morning. I'm like, OK, I'm going to be listening to you. So, what would you tell -

ANDERSON: Yes, let you know something.

BALDWIN: Might, just a little bit.

What are the telltale signs that somebody may have an addiction to shopping?

ANDERSON: Well, really, you've got to look at it as a compulsion usually. And people take it for granted a lot of time. They think it's just women and it's -- BALDWIN: And it's not. It's not just women.

ANDERSON: And some people are really addicted to shopping. And it's really one out of 20 Americans have this problem. So, it's really -- I mean, we're talking about 15 million people that have this compulsion to just shop. And it's the psychology of it -- the psychology of spending.

BALDWIN: And what are some of the questions if perhaps we made on that category? What are we asking ourselves?

ANDERSON: Yes, some of the questions that we have to ask ourselves -- one, I think we have to ask ourselves: are we shopping to really get over the blues?

BALDWIN: Right.

ANDERSON: Is it the quick fix, you know? Did you have a hard day? Is it something I need to get over?

BALDWIN: A little pick-me-up.

ANDERSON: A little pick-me-up, it's that. And are we spending more than we can afford? I mean, that's a big thing, you know? Are you looking at it at the end of the day, can you say that, should I just use my charge card, I really can't afford that? I mean, also, are you hiding things? Are you hiding some of the purchases that you've made?

BALDWIN: That's not a good thing.

ANDERSON: That's not a good thing.

Or if you found out that you haven't worn some of the things you purchase at other times. You know, you go back to your closet and you see all those price tags on it, you realize that maybe I really didn't need these things.

And we talk about this before -- really don't buy unless you need it. And really, you know, needs versus wants. That's what you have to look at here.

BALDWIN: So, what do you mean when you talk about this opportunity cost when it comes to shop?

ANDERSON: Yes. There's an opportunity cost for everything. You know, a lot of economists talk about the opportunity cost. That dollar you spent could have bought something else. Or the time that you spent finding something could have done something else.

And for example, I think we have an example where we looked at -- really what you have to do is look at your gross income, first of all. Look at your gross income, divide that by the number of hours you work, and you'll get your hourly rate. So, if your hourly rate is $50 an hour and it takes you three hours to find a shirt that costs $20, you know, you're talking about -- you spent $170 to find this shirt that you paid $20 for. Could you have done it in a different way?

BALDWIN: That's bad news.

ANDERSON: That's bad news.

BALDWIN: That's not going to match.

ANDERSON: That's bad news. You really got to use your time wisely and people don't think about that opportunity cost a lot.

BALDWIN: So, if we may fall in this category, prevention tips? I mean, if we have the clothes with the tags a year later, how do we stop this?

ANDERSON: Yes. So, really, what you've got to look at -- I mean, you got to look at really what is the issue. I mean, is it really a problem? Do you have a lot of these things with the tags on them?

You know, there's Debtors Anonymous. There's really different people we can call to really try to find out what's going on. And there are a lot of things that are available on the Web site, but I really recommend Debtors Anonymous.

I mean, there are several different types that even bulimic shoppers that go and shop and shop and then take the things back. So, some people just do it -- not because they wanted things, because there's something that's inside of them that's driving them to do it. And we got to uncover what that is.

BALDWIN: Bulimic shoppers, that's a new phrase to me.

ANDERSON: Yes.

BALDWIN: So, quickly, where to find help? Recovery Connection, 1-800-993-3869. And you mentioned Debtors Anonymous.

ANDERSON: Debtors Anonymous as well.

BALDWIN: OK.

ANDERSON: Exactly. First step is admitting that we really have a problem.

BALDWIN: You're always looking dapper.

ANDERSON: Thank you very much, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Clyde Anderson, thank you so much.

ANDERSON: A pleasure to be here.

BALDWIN: We don't have shopping problems here.

ANDERSON: Not here.

BALDWIN: Stay here. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right. Well, we have a whole lot more for you at the top of the hour, including commemorating the five-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. I'll be talking to Russel Honore, General Russel Honore about the then, the now. Also, a restaurateur who has rebuilt. And we will be walking through pictures with a professional photographer as he tells the story here five years later.

But, first, I'm going the hand the airwaves over to my colleague, Sanjay Gupta, who is in the thick of things in a flood-ravaged Pakistan -- over to Sanjay.