Catastrophic Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; President Bush Tours Gulf Coast
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is 12:00 noon in the East, 11:00 a.m. along the Gulf Coast. You're looking at downtown New Orleans. That's where at least two major fires have been burning this morning. Welcome back to CNN's continuing live coverage of the catastrophic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the state of emergency that grows worse by the hour. I'm Daryn Kagan, at CNN Center in Atlanta. At the top of each hour we are going to update you with specific information about the critical issues that are changing literally hour by hour, minute by minute. We call it "Mission Critical." We are focusing on security, food and water, medical help, evacuation, relocation, and the levees. First to New Orleans. Security rapidly continues to go downhill there. Several thousand National Guard troops are in the city. The mayor, though, says many more needed to be added in order to restore order to that city. Meanwhile, doctors at Charity Hospital are begging for food, water and medical supplies. There is, however, one bit of encouraging news. The Army Corps of Engineers believes it's close to plugging up the breach in the 17th Street Canal. And that's one of at least three levee breaks that must be repaired before the city can be drained. One of the few relatively safe and stable locations in New Orleans today is actually outside the city in Kenner, Louisiana. It's the Louis Armstrong International Airport. It has become a major staging area for medical evacuations. And that's where we find our Ed Lavandera, covering today's comings and goings. Ed, hello.</s>ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Daryn. You know, to be honest, I've struggled over the last couple of days just to try and put in perspective how many people have been coming through here. We've tried over and over the last couple of days to get an idea of the numbers of people that have come through here. And just a short while ago, I spoke with one FEMA official who said all of these people who are being airlifted into this airport area here and are in the process of being taken out of New Orleans, they have in the last day -- 40,000 people have come through this -- this little area right here, and have been taken either in to get medical attention here in the terminal of the airport, or on to flights out of New Orleans. A massive operation. The medical teams here are treating about 800 patients an hour. When I first arrived with the commanders of this -- of this particular field hospital, they felt they were equipped and they thought they were going to be able to deal with about 250 patients an hour. They're at 800. And to make matters even worse, I asked, "How long are you expecting to see this kind of traffic?" There are helicopters constantly landing and taking off from the ground here. They say at the very earliest, this will last until Sunday. I've heard others estimate that this, what we see here at the airport, could last another six days. Basically, all these helicopters touching down, dropping off the passengers that they were able to pick up in the city somewhere, and bringing them back here. And as we've reported over the last couple of days, a very -- many of these folks in critical condition. They are plucked from hospitals or from nursing homes around the area. I also want to share with you another story. My colleague, Nic Robertson, and his crew that were making their way into New Orleans yesterday were driving in when they came across police officers that had pulled over three cars. And there were 14 men in the cars. The cars turned out to be stolen. They were full of merchandise, clothing, CDs, DVDs, and that sort of thing. They found out that the cars belonged to a car dealership in New Orleans. The car dealership owner said that he just wanted the cars back and was not going to press charges against any of the 14 men caught with those cars. Nic spoke with the officer that was there at the scene.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We arrived to assist the New Orleans police officers and saw that three Dodge Stratuses were stolen out of the New Orleans area.</s>LAVANDERA: Now, back here at the airport, as I mentioned, this process here expected to last possibly until Sunday. Some others estimating another six days of this. Daryn, it is a constant flow of people flowing through here. And it's gut-wrenching to see many of these people being dropped off on luggage racks, holding their belongings in trash bags. Many of them walking barefoot along the tarmac here, just hoping to catch a flight out of the city -- Daryn.</s>KAGAN: Ed, let me ask you about some of those people that we're seeing moving around the airport. Clearly, all of them not in need of medical attention. Are people just showing up at the airport, knowing that this is one of the few facilities that is functioning and did relatively well during the storm?</s>LAVANDERA: I haven't -- we haven't seen a lot of that. We're kind of inside the airport terminal grounds. I haven't seen a lot of people walking in. Basically, what we're seeing are people landing here. And what happens is, literally, when they come right below many where I am right here, it's determined whether or not they need medical attention. For example, these folks that were just dropped off, they will walk underneath here, and if they need medical attention, they will be taken into the -- into the terminal, where they will be checked out and get whatever they need. Granted, this is a field hospital. There's only certain things they can do here. This isn't a full-fledged hospital. And then if you don't need medical attention, you are basically shuttled to the other side of the airport, where there are flights taking people out of the city.</s>KAGAN: Ed, I want to show our viewers, if you'll stay with me just a second, a picture that I believe you cannot see, but a picture -- and I believe it's from within New Orleans. It's a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter, even all these days later, attempting -- do we still have that picture to go to? Oh, this is it. OK. Still attempting to make rooftop rescues. And if you look at that roof, a number of people who are still waiting all these days later to get some kind of relief and be taken from a building where they have ridden out Hurricane Katrina, and trying to get out of an area that you can see is still completely flooded surrounding that building. Ed, from where you have been, watching the story unfold, helicopters and the pilots and the crews that have been staffing them playing a key role in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.</s>LAVANDERA: Absolutely. In fact, I was told a little while ago by the director of the airport here that he estimates that there are about 75 helicopters now circling the New Orleans skies on these missions. I've been told that the Coast Guard helicopters are the ones that are actually going to what they call the hot rescues. That is, people who are probably from the picture that you were showing there, people still trapped in their homes and in the more intense situations. There are people, a military unit that was flown in here that is experts in these types of evacuations that have been flown in as well. And then many of the other military choppers are actually hitting the areas where people are sitting on the side of the roads, hospitals, nursing homes, or wherever they might be in neighborhoods just waiting for someone to come pick them up.</s>KAGAN: We're also -- I don't know if you're able to see from where you are, but another aerial picture we're looking at shows a lot of smoke along the river. Yet another fire breaking out. And something, I would say, to deal with in New Orleans, but clearly there is no one available to deal with these fires. Earlier -- well, first, let me ask you, Ed, are you able to see any of the smoke or flames from where you are?</s>LAVANDERA: We did see some flames -- or some smoke, actually, that was coming just off the horizon over here to our side a little while ago. That has gone away. So I'm not sure if the fire has just put itself out, or if there are actually crews here in the Kenner area that were able to go fight that. I'm unable to see the ones closer to the river from my vantage point here.</s>KAGAN: Well, there is one closer to the river. Then there's this one, which I'm sure you can't see. It's in downtown New Orleans that we have been watching. This is actually the central business district where this fire is taking place. I believe we've been seeing this for over a couple of hours now. This follows an explosion that took place earlier this morning. Our Chris Lawrence says he was awakened by this blast about 4:30 a.m., 5:30 local time. Initially thought to have originated in the city's southwest district. But it later determined to be across the Mississippi river. A chemical fire. Officials saying that they don't believe that there were any chemicals there that were going to be dangerous or toxic at this point. Even if there were, there's nothing that -- and there's no one that can really do anything about it.</s>LAVANDERA: Absolutely. I think if what's happening here -- and this is a rather controlled situation at this point, since the crews have been here on the ground for so long -- if this is as chaotic in a controlled situation, I can only imagine what's going on when you start venturing away farther from the airport, start getting several miles away. I imagine it starts -- it becomes an even more difficult situation. And situations where, as I mentioned, you know, a lot of these officials and first responders on the ground have to make decisions at this point. They are faced with two disasters, and they have to decide which disaster to go to first. And the humanitarian disaster, at this point, is probably taking precedent over any kind of building that might be on fire.</s>KAGAN: Ed Lavandera joining us from Kenner, Louisiana, at the New Orleans International Airport. Ed, thank you. We'll be back to you later in this hour. Meanwhile, all these people who are trying to get out of New Orleans, their first destination was to be Houston. The folks there opening up the Astrodome, saying they can take 25,000 evacuees. Well, at about half capacity, they said, enough, we can't take anymore. Our Sean Callebs is in Houston to tell us more on why they shut the lid and where now the people who are leaving New Orleans and coming to Houston, where they are being sent -- Sean.</s>SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Daryn. Both very good and relevant questions. We just came out of a news briefing from Houston Mayor Bill White, and he was asked repeatedly, "What happened?" We were told for days that the Astrodome was prepared to hold as many as 24,000 people. Basically, they said, you know what? This is an untried position, what we are doing. We thought we could get that many cots in, we realized that we couldn't early yesterday afternoon. At one point yesterday afternoon, the fire marshal apparently tried to close it down to any further people in the Astrodome, and the mayor overrode that decision. However, around midnight Easter Time, they simply decided there were too many people in the Astrodome. Now, they are not turning away and have not turned away any buses. Those people that are still coming in are being taken to the Reliant Arena, which is only several hundred yards to the left of the Astrodome. There's a queue of buses right now waiting outside, and it takes, once these buses get here, about an hour for people to go through that process, go in, and go through all the procedures they have to, to be registered. They get medical attention at that point. Certainly some frustration last night. Some very upset, angry individuals who had made a bus ride of close to 12 hours, only to be told they couldn't go into the Astrodome. However, the mayor right now is pleading for people here in the Houston area to open up their homes, to open up any kind of apartments, whether it be garage apartments, anywhere, to try and house some of these at least 100,000 evacuees they expect they're going to have in this area. Now, what are they finding once people get here? A number of people simply traumatized. They say some people simply were so frightened once they saw the Astrodome, they didn't want to go in the building. To them, it symbolized the Superdome in New Orleans and exactly what they had gone through in the past several days. And they were terrified and didn't want to go inside. We can also tell you two people have passed away since they have been brought here. One, an elderly woman who had cancer. She died last night as she was being attended to by a physician. Another individual was taken to a hospital suffering from what doctors called a preexisting condition, chest pains. That individual died at the hospital yesterday as well. Inside, we have had some pictures that were shot earlier, very early in the morning of the Astrodome. You can see just how crowded it is. People crammed right next to each other. Now, while they are preparing for this to be a long-term transition, they are trying to get these people out of the Astrodome, out of the Reliant Arena, as quickly as they can. We know they are trying to open up facilities as well in San Antonio, Dallas, and Huntsville, but just how quickly they are going to get those individuals loaded up and how many more buses they can expect to make that 350-mile trip to the west, Daryn, they simply can't answer at this time.</s>KAGAN: Sean, meanwhile, we heard something incredible earlier that the Astrodome has now been given its own zip code because so many people are staying there?</s>CALLEBS: That's a pretty fair assessment. We had representatives from the post office here. And anybody trying to reach the 12,000 people that are going to be in the Astrodome for the foreseeable future, they can write their loved ones, their family members here, and then give a zip code. And I think I wrote the zip code down. I certainly hope I did. If I didn't, I know we called it in. It is 77230. Once again, the Astrodome zip code, 77230. There are just so many tales that we are hearing from the people, Daryn, coming out of this. We have had people stop by, and it's simply heart-breaking. They've been separated from their families, separated from their loved ones. They have no idea where they are. At least two couples have come to us, saying that they got separated from their newborn infants.</s>KAGAN: Yes.</s>CALLEBS: Children born much earlier, and then the mother discharged from the hospital. But when the hurricane came in, mother and father had to evacuate. And we know that one couple fount their infant in Ft. Worth, and we hope to bring you that story later today. The other one, they are simply trying to find their child at this hour. And it is heartbreaking to see the tears come to their eyes and hear the emotion in their voice.</s>KAGAN: Continues to completely blow your mind. On the zip code issue, what makes me wonder, though, is, I thought with the Astrodome, the idea, they really didn't want people to stay there that long. The idea that they're putting out word that you can receive mail here, that would seem counter to what their intent is.</s>CALLEBS: Perhaps. But they have cleared the Astrodome schedule until December. They know this is going to be a long-term situation. They may want to move these people out as quickly as possible, but reality is something entirely different. And the Houston mayor is also appealing to the rest of the country to reach out to these evacuees, these refugees as he referred to them at one point, to try and find other areas of the country where a significant number of people -- think about the more than million people that have been displaced. And also the stories we heard from the buses that it left. There were tens and thousands of people on bridges, on overpasses as these buses began making their way through. People pleading, beating on the sides of the buses, throwing objects, trying to get the bus to stop so they could get in. This situation certainly sounds as though it is going to get more dire, because the people that are coming here after only a few days are already dehydrated. They haven't had medication that they have been on. And if you think about it, the city -- 23,000 people. How many they expect to have on the grounds here within the next 24 hours, it's a small city. The doctors say, two, three, to five deaths every night is not going to be out of the ordinary.</s>KAGAN: Sean Callebs in Houston, Texas. Thank you for that. Meanwhile, all this is taking place as President Bush is touring the hurricane-ravaged areas along the Gulf Coast today. He's going to be in the air. We saw him take off just a little while ago. Also on the ground. He arrived in Mobile, Alabama, within the last hour. Our Elaine Quijano is at the White House with more on the president's trip. Elaine, hello, once again.</s>ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Daryn. It was in Mobile, Alabama, that the president met with emergency officials. In fact, we saw the president, along with those emergency officials, as well as the governors of Mississippi and Alabama. They went before the cameras, and with an aircraft in the background there, a Coast Guard aircraft, the president listened as they each commented on the latest efforts. But the White House clearly trying to send the message not just with the president's words, but also with images that the government is in charge. But, of course, even before he left Washington, the president himself took a strikingly critical tone when talking about the government's response, saying the results were unacceptable. And in Mobile, Alabama, the president pledged the government would do better.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have got courageous people risking their lives to save life. And I want to thank the commanders and I want to thank the troops over there for representing the best of America. I want to congratulate the governors for being leaders. You didn't ask for this to happen, but you are doing a heck of a job. And the federal government's job is big, and it's massive, and we're going to do it. Where it's not working right, we are going to make it right. Where it is working right, we are going to duplicate it elsewhere.</s>QUIJANO: So President Bush there, vowing that the government will, in fact, get on top of the situation. But, the president today will be getting his first up-close look at some of the damage left behind by Hurricane Katrina. This, of course, though, also a chance for the president to thank those who have already been involved for days now in the relief efforts. The president doing that in Mobile, Alabama. But the president will also be taking an aerial tour, as well as a walking tour, in Biloxi, Mississippi. And we learned late this morning that a change to the president's schedule has been announced. The president will in fact be taking a walking tour of some parts of New Orleans. Now, this was something that was not originally planned. The president was going to just depart from the New Orleans airport, perhaps make a statement. But now we understand in some parts of New Orleans, the president will actually be on the ground doing a tour. We'll look for more details on that -- Daryn.</s>KAGAN: All right. Elaine Quijano at the White House. Thank you. Want to go back to live pictures. These coming in from New Orleans. These incredible pictures. It would appear some firefighters and at least one civilian trying, or perhaps the firefighter who couldn't get to his gear, trying with a single hose to go and attack this fire. We have been watching this fire develop and ravage this building in the central business district in New Orleans for about the last couple of hours now. When we first went to it, it was on the first or second floor. Clearly, it has made its way all the way up to the fourth or fifth floor of this structure as it begins to crumble. And the firefighters trying to go at it with just a single hose. At this point it might be an effort to keep the fire from spreading to other buildings that are packed so closely in this business district. We'll get more information as it becomes available from that part of New Orleans. And more ahead. Right now, a break. We're back after this.