President Bush's Speech to Victims; Clean-up in New Orleans; North Carolina Surveys Damage from Hurricane Ophelia
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. And those pictures are so very important. It's definitely a service to be putting those out there and something we're very proud of. Thank you, Soledad. A lot to tell you about today. It is 10:00 a.m. in Atlanta, 7:00 a.m. on the west coast. Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen in for Daryn Kagan.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All who question the future of the Crescent City need to know, there is no way to imagine America without New Orleans. And this great city will rise again.</s>NGUYEN: President Bush vows to rebuild the Gulf region devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and he calls on all Americans to help. The president looked ahead to the massive reconstruction project in his speech last night. This morning, he is remembering the victims of Hurricane Katrina. He'll attend a national prayer service next hour at Washington's National Cathedral. CNN White House Correspondent Dana Bash has more on the president's message of hope.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Not only did the president take responsibility for inadequate government response to Katrina, he conceded he failed his own test.</s>GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Four years after the frightening experience of September the 11th, Americans have every right to expect a more effective response in a time of emergency. When the federal government fails to meet such an obligation, I, as president, am responsible for the problem and for the solution.</s>BASH: That stunning statement in a relatively pristine french quarter of an otherwise devastated New Orleans, part of his first formal address in attempt to regain American's confidence. He learned a lesson from the ill-coordinated government response.</s>BUSH: It is now clear that a challenge on this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces.</s>BASH: Mr. Bush struck a hopeful tone, promising that government will pay for what he called one of the largest reconstruction efforts the world has ever seen.</s>BUSH: We will do what it takes. We will stay as long as it takes to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives.</s>BASH: No new price tag but the president asked Congress to pass several new initiatives, including a Gulf Opportunity Zone, tax relief for small business, worker recovery accounts, up to $5,000 for training, education and child care for Katrina victims looking for jobs. An urban homesteading act to help lower income victims rebuild. The chief White House goal of this speech? To turn around the perception the president was initially detached from the tragedy. He delivered his own instructions for families trying to reunite.</s>BUSH: Please call this number, 1-877-568-3317. That's 1-877- 568-3317. And we will work to bring your family back together.</s>BASH: And tried to move past allegations from some that race played a role in the slow response.</s>BUSH: Poverty has rooting in the history of racial discrimination which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action.</s>BASH: The president set a goal of mid October to get evacuees out of shelters and ordered the Department of Homeland Security to review emergency plans for all major American cities. Dana Bash, CNN, Washington.</s>NGUYEN: Most New Orleansans watched the president's speech from outside the Crescent City. But for those who have remained, the reaction to the president's pledges were positive. CNN's Sean Callebs is in New Orleans this morning. And, Sean, does this positive reaction stem from just the resolve to rebuild?</s>SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I think so. But in terms of getting a whole lot of reaction out of the city, there's not entirely a lot. A, there's not much power and, b, there's only about 10,000 people in the city. But certainly those who are from this area are now in other areas it certainly is good news. The mayor has indicated he wants to get this city open for business soon. We're in a part, however, that really hasn't even been touched by emergency crews, by clean-up crews. We are in the northern portion of New Orleans, right at Lake Pontchartrain. And you can see this marina is just littered, littered with scores of pleasure craft. And, think about it. Louisiana bills itself as a sportsman paradise. Well, it's going to take some time to bring paradise back to life. Crews are getting out here today. If you see that marina back there, we were told at the height of the flood, after Hurricane Katrina came through, the water was up at those beams. So really incredibly swamped area. And joining us now, one guy who's going to have an awful lot of work in the coming days and weeks, probably months ahead, Dave Guilford with Marine Recovery and Salvage. Dave, firstly, how many boats are out here? You had a chance to come out and scope it out before you began work today.</s>DAVE GUILFORD, MARINE RECOVERY AND SALVAGE: By my count, there's probably 150 to 200 here in the parking lot area. They all washed up here, except for those that are at the bottom in the water.</s>CALLEBS: And it's more than just an issue for sportsmen to get out, pleasure craft. You say there's a safety issue out here right now.</s>GUILFORD: Well, sure. I mean you can't have 100 boats sitting in a parking lot with rigging and fuel tanks and septic tanks and so on and so forth with people, you know, coming in. You got to get them out of here.</s>CALLEBS: The big question, how long is it going to take you guys to get this cleaned up?</s>GUILFORD: We're on it now. We're going to be working around the clock. We're going to have it done quicker than you think.</s>CALLEBS: Pretty amazing. Now you had a chance to watch the president's speech last night. You were very bolstered by what you heard. But you had an interesting take on it too, that this area is pretty proud of taking care of its own.</s>GUILFORD: Well, yeah, we're very family oriented down here and it's a very tight community. New Orleans I know it looks like a big city on TV, but it's actually a pretty small town and we take care of our own and this isn't going to be any different. It's going to be a pretty local effort.</s>CALLEBS: Well, good luck to you, Dave. And one interesting thing, too. This boat over here. You were on that one just a couple of months ago down in Mexico.</s>GUILFORD: Yes.</s>CALLEBS: So this isn't just work for you. You know these people.</s>GUILFORD: I do. I know a lot of the people that own these boats in here. I've done my best to contact those that I reach and let them know where they're at. But, yeah, we know them. This is our family.</s>CALLEBS: If you're watching now, we're going to be busy.</s>GUILFORD: Yes.</s>CALLEBS: OK. Thanks a lot, Dave, I appreciate it. Also the major said he wants to open basically four sections of town four sections of the city in the coming next 10 days, including the french quarter which is scheduled to be open a week from Monday. Bring in about 180,000 people into what is now a very crowded area with emergency crews but still the mayor says he wants to breathe life back into this city. It's a very important time. Betty, back to you.</s>NGUYEN: And that's so important. Hopefully David is right, that this recovery process will go faster than you think. We're all hoping for that. Thank you, Sean. In other parts of the Gulf Coast, many people are welcoming President Bush's promise of help. They're just not exactly sure how that help will come to them. CNN's Allan Chernoff is in Biloxi, Mississippi.</s>ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): The president last night said the streets of Biloxi and Gulfport once again will be lined with lovely homes. But for the people who lost their homes, lost everything, they're wondering exactly how is that going to happen now, especially after their insurance agents have been saying that the damage here may not be covered because they're saying it was caused by a flood, not a hurricane, and many of these people did not specifically have flood insurance. They may be looking to the federal government for a bailout and the president did not offer that promise last night. On the economic front, though, the president did talk about an incentive zone in this area to help businesses and up to $5,000 per person to help find a job. So the president certainly did provide hope to this community that is still facing many questions about the future. Allan Chernoff, CNN, Biloxi, Mississippi.</s>NGUYEN: I want you to take a look at this. Flooded streets on North Carolina's outer banks after Hurricane Ophelia's three-day soaking. Now Tropical Storm Ophelia is moving away from the North Carolina coast. The eye of the storm never made landfall, but Ophelia still inflicted heavy damage in some areas. CNN's Rob Marciano is in Salter Path, North Carolina. And, Rob, are you surprised at the damage considering Ophelia never made official landfall?</s>ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Betty. And surprised with a category one storm the damage that you see behind me. And the locals are surprised also. They said that they've had worse hurricanes come right over top of them and haven't seen this sort of damage. Salter Path, by the way, is a community a fishing community, right smack in the middle of both banks. And that didn't bode well for them. Behind me a couple of areas. Basically these are like fish processing houses. Fishing boats would come right in here, unload their catch. They'd shuck scallops right there and put them off into the front part. Look how cinder block walls completely bashed in from the waves in the storm surge. Fire that's a fire department helping out here. They came in yesterday right after the storm to take a look at some of these structures to determine which ones were safe to go in, which ones were not. That blue one or what's left of the blue one, not safe. Continue to pan off towards the west. You see the moorings from what were docks here. That white building with the roof partially torn off, that's a Crab Shack. That's an institution here. Amazing seafood, I'm told. And you can actually eat right on the water. The owner has two shrimp boats that he brings in here. He catches the food himself and then puts it on the table within minutes of bringing it into shore. And then continue to pan you see how all these docks and moorings completely blown out from this storm surge. Now</s>NGUYEN: Yes, it's just so surprising with, as you mentioned, a category one that never made landfall. Rob, Chad Myers, obviously, has been watching this. He joins us now and has a question for you.</s>CHAD MYERS, METEOROLOGIST: Rob, I know exactly where you're standing because I was there last year for Alex. Now, have you been on the other side of the bridge? Is there any damage in Morehead City when the wind was blowing from the south?</s>MARCIANO: We haven't been over there to analyze the situation. Although, I'll tell you this, the power barely went down over there. So the officials that have hold us you know how we were concerned about the rivers, the Neuse River, the Pamlico River being filled up with water and serious surge going there. From what I've been told, not as bad as Hurricane Isabel which came on shore two years ago as a cat two. So it looks like, because Bocsound's (ph) so narrow and all that water got fished in here from that persistent east wind, it almost had nowhere to go but up and then in and that's what happened here.</s>MYERS: Well, Rob, the thing is, you had 25 hours of wind blowing one way, then all of a sudden the wind changes direction and the water tries to get out all at the same time when it took 25 hours to get in there, right?</s>MARCIANO: And I tell you what, the winds were strongest when we went off the air two nights ago at midnight, and those winds turned northerly, that's when it was really ripping through here. Not so much the east and on shore winds. It was when its winds turned northerly. So after experiencing that and not being able to sleep that night because the winds were so strong, it doesn't surprise me to see this sort of damage I suppose. Chad.</s>MYERS: Yes, I know the feeling. When the producers say, go home go back to the hotel and get some sleep and the wind's blowing 80 and your hotel is shaking, like you're really going to sleep. But, hey, great reporting out there, bud. Thank you very much. The storm is moving away from you now. It is moving to the north at about 10 miles per hour. You can begin to see the big flare-up as it's just churning in the Atlantic Ocean. And it is moving to the north-northeast. Now, this motion is of some concern to people in New England. Look at this. This is Tuesday, September 6th. This is when tropical depression number 16 formed. And then it moved up to the north, did a loop, became a tropical storm, got a name, tried to move out to the east. High pressure said, no, wait. Then it finally moved back into North Carolina. It was here yesterday. And by tomorrow, we've zoomed all of the way up. This is Plymouth, Massachusetts. Remember, you know, the pilgrims? Plymouth, Mass, all the way through Cape Cod, back to Point Judith. This right here, a tropical storm watch. I expect this will even be upgraded to a tropical storm warning because look how close the line of Ophelia gets and then right over Halifax, Nova Scotia, with winds at 60 miles per hour. Could really see storm surge there. I mean, this is the Bay of Fundy right here. This is one of the areas of the world that has some of the highest tidal surges on a regular day. Sometimes 40 feet from low tide to high tide just on a regular afternoon. Here's the latest pictures, though. The latest Ophelia's radar. We are still seeing the storm offshore. Eventually it's going to get too far offshore for our radars to pick it up. But right now we still have it there. Back to you, Betty.</s>NGUYEN: It is far from over. We'll be watching. Thank you, Chad.</s>MYERS: You're welcome.</s>NGUYEN: Checking stories "Now in the News." Ten Iraqis were killed today in a suicide attack outside a Shiite mosque north of Baghdad. Twenty-one others were wounded in that attack. An Iraqi army officer says his troops were able to capture another suspected suicide bomber who was targeting that same mosque. Chief Justice Nominee John Roberts is likely welcoming a day away from Capitol Hill today. The Senate Judicial Committee wrapped up its three days of questioning yesterday and Roberts skillfully side- stepped his personal views on abortion and assisted suicide. The committee is expected to vote next week and the full Senate the week after. Well, there's more good news for motorists today. AAA reports that the average price of a gallon of regular gas has dropped. It's just under $2.89 a gallon. That's about three cents from yesterday. Three cents below yesterday. And it's down about 17 cents a gallon from its all-time high. The Lundburg survey reports many refineries damaged by Hurricane Katrina are now back up and running. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is set to announce his re-election plans today in San Diego. He has been dropping numerous hints that he will, indeed, seek a second term in office. That announcement of the 2006 bid comes as Republicans gather for a state party convention and amid rising Democratic opposition to several ballot initiatives. Well, they had one task at hand, trying to house thousands of Katrina victims. But was such a task a mission impossible? We will go inside the operation. Plus, there are no welcoming signs in Slidell, Louisiana. Find out why this city is having such a hard time getting the relief it needs. And Katrina's kids, children still separated from their parents. How Mrs. Bush plans to help reunite them.