FEMA Director Michael Brown Resigned Monday; Road To Recovery
COSTELLO: The international markets are mixed this morning. Tokyo's Nikkei is up just over five-and-a-half points, the London FTSE down 33, the German DAX down about 66 points. Now back to Katrina recovery operations. The death toll from the hurricane officially stands at 512. But bodies are still being found around New Orleans. CNN's J.J. Ramberg joins us live from that flooded city. Good morning --</s>J.J. J.J. RAMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. That death toll is expected to rise as people -- as the crews are able to reach more areas that had previously been hard to get to. They expect to find more bodies. And unfortunately, that number is going to rise. Officials are saying, thought, that probably within the next few days they'll have a better assessment of the totals. And on a positive note, when you drive around the streets here in New Orleans, we are seeing some progress of the cleanup efforts. You're seeing trees getting cut down. You're seeing the streets getting cleared. But there is still criticism that the progress is going too slowly, and people are hoping that some changes in Washington will speed that up.</s>RAMBERG (voice over): Under a mountain of scathing criticism over his handling of Hurricane Katrina, Michael Brown resigned from his post as head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Monday. In his place, President Bush tapped David Paulison, a homeland security veteran best known for suggesting Americans stock up on duct tape and plastic sheeting after 9/11. Still facing questions about the federal government's slow response to the disaster, President Bush returned to Washington after his first look at damage on the ground in New Orleans. It was the president's third visit to the Gulf Coast region in the two weeks since Katrina devastated the area.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think it's very important for Congress to take a close look at what went on, what didn't go on, and come up with a series of recommendations.</s>RAMBERG: There's an ongoing attempt to find survivors in New Orleans who may need rescue.</s>CHIEF EDDIE COMPASS, NEW ORLEANS POLICE: Our efforts are still being put to save human life. And, you know, we're still following up on any information that we get. We still have boats out, but it's not the large number that we had in the beginning.</s>RAMBERG: In a small move towards normalcy, the Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans, which served as a field hospital for evacuees, will reopen today for a limited number of passenger flights.</s>COSTELLO: J.J. Ramberg reporting live from New Orleans this morning. Thank you. Three hours from now, acting FEMA Director David Paulison will deliver his first public comments since being named to the position. He and Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff plan to provide an operational update on Hurricane Katrina response and recovery efforts. And you can watch their news conference here live on CNN. As Gulf Coast residents pick up the pieces of their lives after Hurricane Katrina, many are getting down to the nitty-gritty with their insurance companies. President Bush got an earful from one storm victim as he toured the damage in New Orleans.</s>BUSH: She said, "I want to ask you something, Mr. President." She said, "How would you like it if your insurance company said, 'Ma'am, this is a flood event, and therefore I'm not going to cover your house?'" I said, 'I wouldn't like it a bit.'</s>COSTELLO: Not many people would. So, how can hurricane victims make sure they get treated fairly by their insurance companies? Here to help us answer that question is Joanne Doroshow. She's executive director of the Center for Justice and Democracy. First of all, Joanne, is there anything the president can do?</s>JOANNE DOROSHOW, CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY: Well, sure. In fact, what he and FEMA ought to be doing right now is making sure -- pressuring these insurance companies to pay these claims right off and not delay. One of the issues that he just discussed was whether flood insurance or wind insurance or homeowners' policies are going to cover this damage. These claims need to be paid right now, and then the insurance companies and the government can figure out what the allocation should be. Flood insurance is covered by -- is underwritten by the federal government.</s>COSTELLO: Oh. We'll get to that subject a little later. But first of all, I want to talk about the numbers of people calling your organization complaining about their insurance companies. What are you hearing?</s>DOROSHOW: Well, we set up a hotline under our coalition group, Americans for Insurance Reform. And we're already hearing from people who are having terrible problems even getting their agents or the companies on the phone to begin with. But also, most people under their homeowners' policies are entitled to living expenses right off to cover their hotel and food that they are purchasing right now.</s>COSTELLO: And they say they are not getting that money.</s>DOROSHOW: Some people are not. You have situations, for example, with one company, Travelers. They have one office in Baton Rouge. They're asking all of their policyholders to travel to Baton Rouge to file these claims. You know, it's hard enough for anybody to do that, let alone if you're sick and elderly. So, they're unable to get the money that they should be getting right off. So, these are very, very difficult circumstances for people.</s>COSTELLO: I know. Let's get back to the flood insurance, because the insurance companies would say, if you didn't buy flood insurance, then we don't cover you for flood damage. Now, during a hurricane when the wind blows down your house, that's obviously hurricane damage. But if there's a storm surge, and your home is flooded, that's probably not covered, right?</s>DOROSHOW: Well, there's going to be wind and rain damage to your home before the storm surge. So, whatever percentage would come under the wind damage should be paid by the insurance companies. But what we're saying is they need to pay these claims right now. Then figure out what the allocation is, instead of waiting and going through a long process. Meanwhile, these people are not going to get any money at all. You know, and there is...</s>COSTELLO: But you know there is going to be arguments. You know that a lot of homeowners will be emotionally distressed anyway. A lot of them will be stretched very thin financially. And they've got to, you know, look at this insurance agent and say, look, this damage was caused by the hurricane. I mean, what can they say? What should they say to get the insurance agent to understand their point of view?</s>DOROSHOW: Well, what's very, very important, first of all, is for everybody to keep very good records of everything. Now, those people that are back in their homes or never left -- I mean, there are many people in damaged homes. They need to document everything. They need to immediately list what all of their possessions were, anything that was damaged. They need to get as much justification for that as they possibly can. And then, if the insurance agent or claims adjuster denies the claim, they need to ask exactly what in that policy is causing them to deny that claim or lowball it.</s>COSTELLO: So, what if they say, you know, you didn't have flood insurance; there's nothing we can do?</s>DOROSHOW: Well, then -- you know, then we can complain to the -- if that's true, that's one thing. It may not be true. There may be all kinds of abuses going on. In fact, we're asking the government to step up and exercise some oversight here, because of the potential for abuse here. The reason there is potential is because if you're an insurance company, and you know the federal government is covering the flood insurance claim, and your reserves are covering homeowners, well, there's a real conflict of interest there. And you can see a lot of abuse where they're going to be over-declaring things as flood as opposed to wind damage. So, what we're doing is we're trying to maintain a database of complaints to make sure that these kinds of abuses don't occur, and report these abuses to state insurance departments. Keep the interest hopefully among the media in all of this, because I think having the oversight is the only way to keep them somewhat honest in all of this.</s>COSTELLO: Well, I'm sure in the weeks to come we're going to be hearing from many angry homeowners, because there's bound to be problems. Just out of curiosity, how many calls are you getting?</s>DOROSHOW: Well, we opened our hotline yesterday, and we immediately got 30 calls. We expect that we're going to be getting many, many calls today and for the rest of the week. People are having a real hard time right now with their insurance companies.</s>COSTELLO: Well, we'll keep in touch. Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Center for Justice and Democracy. Thanks for joining us this morning.</s>DOROSHOW: Thank you.</s>COSTELLO: The latest Gallup poll is a poignant example of the racial divide in this country even in terms of perceptions. Gallup asked if the federal government was slow in rescuing the people of New Orleans, because many of the victims were black. Twelve percent of whites and 60 percent of blacks said yes, while a whopping 86 percent of whites and 37 percent of blacks say no, race did not play a role. The highest-ranking African-American in President Bush's cabinet is adding her voice to the debate. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tells "The New York Times" the images of the hurricane victims are evidence that -- quote -- "There are still places that race and poverty are a huge problem in the United States, and we've got to deal with that." Rice says it's a vestige of particularly the Old South in this case. Your news, money, weather and sports. It is 6:45 Eastern. Here's what's all new this morning. It is day two of Judge John Roberts' Supreme Court confirmation hearings. And he could face some tough questions. Democratic senators want to know his views on some key issues like abortion and civil rights. In money news, Oracle says it's agreed to buy rival Siebel Systems for more than nearly $6 billion. The company said the deal should be done by early next year. In pop culture, Michael Jackson is lining up the talent for a song to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Among those on board, Mariah Carey, Snoop Dog, James Brown and Mary Blige. In sports, Barry Bonds is back after knee surgery, and the Giants fans could not be happier. Bonds hit a ground rule double in his first at bat of the season. And that was the only hit of the game. But the Giants still won 4-3 over the Padres.</s>CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh, Carol, it was a home run.</s>COSTELLO: Well, but it was fan interference.</s>MYERS: Yes, but -- I don't know. I don't think he reached over far enough to get the ball. It should have been a home run. Give him -- oh, whatever. It could have been 704. I could have been a contender.</s>COSTELLO: You know, yesterday we were wondering what the New Orleans Saints were going to do for their home games. Well, now we know. The team says they will play three games at the Alamo Dome in San Antonio. That includes the game on the day before Christmas. But they'll keep four home games in their home state. For those, they'll play at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. Of course, the first home game is scheduled for this coming Monday night at Giants Stadium in the Meadowland. Still to come on DAYBREAK, one of CNN Radio's correspondent, Ed McCarthy, is just back from the disaster zone. He'll share his stories of Katrina's aftermath.