New Orleans Police Accused of Looting; Interview With Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington
Aired September 29, 2005 - 22:00 ET

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

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Anderson is in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, tonight. When Hurricane Katrina struck exactly 30 days ago, it nearly wiped Bay St. Louis off the map -- Anderson.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it certainly did, Aaron, Bay St. Louis, also Waveland. We're basically right on the border. You can look behind me. I mean, the devastation is still just all around 30 days on. This is the first day we have come back here. You kind of think, well, maybe a lot of the stuff had been picked up. It hasn't. People's possessions are still laying all around. They're waiting for insurance adjusters to come. They've taken pictures. They've filled out the forms. And now they are waiting for some relief, Aaron.

BROWN: It's unbelievable, actually, that people are still waiting to do the paperwork of all of this. We will get right back to you.

First, a quick look at where things stand in the Gulf tonight. Thirty days after Katrina devastated the region, 1,130 deaths are now blamed on the storm, nearly 900 in the state of Louisiana, 200 in Mississippi. Lawmakers in Mississippi will consider a new law allowing the state's multibillion-dollar casino industry to rebuild on dry land. All 13 of the state's casinos were floating and were destroyed by Katrina's enormous storm surge.

In New Orleans, business owners in eight zip codes began returning today under a new plan to allow people back into the city. Tomorrow, residents in those same zip codes will be allowed to return as well.

And a note about the company whose bus caught fire last week, killing 24 nursing home patients who were fleeing Hurricane Rita. State records show the company was the subject of complaints by three people in 2002. They said the buses wreaked of fuel and were in disrepair.

Investigators have said the fire could have been caused by mechanical problems, possibly within the brakes. The National Transportation Board is investigating the cause of that crash. As of today, at least two lawsuits have been filed against the bus company.

Hurricanes Rita and Katrina have set off lots of investigations, it seems, most of them looking at the performance of people who were supposed to keep others safe from the storm, people including the police. Cops in New Orleans have taken a serious bruising from Katrina, the accusations including everything from desertion to looting.

CNN's Drew Griffin has been looking into them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For a week the New Orleans Police Department called allegations of looting by its officers a misunderstanding. Now the new acting superintendent calls it an active investigation.

WARREN RILEY, ACTING NEW ORLEANS POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: That I have ordered an immediate internal investigation by the department's Public Integrity Bureau, which will focus on at least 12 police officers who are being accused of misconduct.

GRIFFIN: Four officers have been suspended. One has been reassigned. And interim chief Warren Riley insisted all allegations will be thoroughly checked.

RILEY: I want to reaffirm my position that there is zero tolerance for misconduct or unprofessionalism by any member of this department.

GRIFFIN: Among the allegations under investigation, claims that eight officers holed up on the 10th floor of this Canal Street hotel were drinking and eating by day and looting by night. Police confirmed this is one of their officers caught on tape, holding a gun as he appears to be blocking a photographer from entering the 10th floor through this door. This generator is one of the items at the hotel that witnesses say was stolen by police.

(on camera): And they stole this from a hospital?

OSMAN KHAN, HOTEL MANAGER: They stole it from Tulane Hospital, correct.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Hotel manager Osman Khan says the generator was stolen from Tulane Hospital and used by officers, he says, to keep beer cold. Tulane Hospital confirms the generator is owned by Tulane and during the hurricane's aftermath was being used to evacuate patients. (on camera): Those evacuations were taking place on this parking deck. The generator was being used to light up the deck to keep the communications, the radios going, so they could communicate with the helicopters. Tulane was finished with its evacuations, but left the generator and all the communications and gas in place, so that Charity Hospital could continue its evacuations. That is when the generator, now down there on the second floor of this hotel, was looted.

GEORGE JAMISON, TULANE HOSPITAL: It was left on the parking deck specifically fueled up with fuel for Charity Hospital, because we thought they still had people. And we thought that they were going to continue with an exercise to evacuate them.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Tulane security officer George Jamison says he has no proof the taking of the generator cost any lives or even inconvenience. But as for who took it and why:(on camera): ... Jamison, would it surprise you to know that it was taken by officers of the New Orleans Police to cool their beer?

JAMISON: Well, since I'm not running for political office, I can say no, it wouldn't surprise me.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): In addition to the looting allegations, in the last few days, Police Chief Eddie Compass suddenly resigned and another investigation was launched into why or if 249 police officers deserted their posts. The new chief said this when asked if his department is too dysfunctional or disorganized to keep the city safe.

RILEY: No. First of all, this department is not dysfunctional. The more than 2,000 men and women of this agency stand united in not letting a very small segment of members tarnish the great reputation of this department.

GRIFFIN: The truth is, the New Orleans P.D. has a reputation, but not a good one. Two of its former officers are on death row. There have been multiple investigations of corruption. Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington tried to clean up the New Orleans Police Department when he was chief in this city from 1994 until 2002. Today, he, too, says he's not surprised New Orleans police officers are under investigation.

RICHARD PENNINGTON, ATLANTA POLICE CHIEF: I, you know, was involved in arresting many officers in that department during my tenure. And I know for a fact I probably did not get all the officers that were corrupt. And so, I wasn't surprised at all when I heard it.

GRIFFIN: Pennington says the question now, is the New Orleans Police Department capable of investigating itself, while also trying to recover from the worst disaster in the city's history? The city's newest chief of police says, wait and see for yourself.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: How long will we have to wait and see? Aaron, that new police chief of New Orleans wouldn't even venture to guess when all these investigations will be over -- Aaron.

BROWN: Do we know who the four suspended officers are? And do they -- if we do, do they include the fellow we see in the tape closing the door with the gun in his hand?

GRIFFIN: The chief would not confirm any details on who, what or where those four people were suspended or whether one officer was reassigned and wouldn't really confirm many details at all today and wouldn't also, Aaron, take any questions on why Eddie Compass resigned.

BROWN: Let's set the Compass thing aside for a second. So, we don't even know -- we don't know for sure that any of the suspended officers included the officers who were in the hotel; is that correct?

GRIFFIN: That is correct. There's apparently multiple locations where potential or possible looting took place. There's a Wal-Mart. There's a Cadillac dealer. There's the Amerihost Suites. We know that investigations are under way in all three locations. But, as for specifics of who has been suspended, we do not know.

BROWN: Nice work on this story, my friend. Thank you, Drew Griffin, in New Orleans. Richard Pennington, who's now the Atlanta police chief and who you just heard from in Drew's piece, joins us from Atlanta tonight. I was actually a little surprised that you said out loud that you weren't surprised that these allegations have been made. What is it about that police department? Is there something systemic about the police department that allows corruption to flourish?

PENNINGTON: Well, I think that the corruption has been systemic for many, many years. When I took over in 1994, it was a very tumultuous time in that organization. And I remember, my first year in the New Orleans Police Department, I probably got rid of about 38 officers, including seven recruits that were in the academy that had various criminal violations and other things against them. The hiring standards had to be changed. But I think that it's still a good department. You have many good men and women in that organization. And I'm really proud to see that Chief Warren Riley is going to take over, because I know that he'll move swiftly to act against those officers who've been alleged of looting. And I think that that's what you have to do as a police chief. You have to be very forceful, take control, and show the public that you're not going to tolerate corruption in that organization.

BROWN: No matter how you slice this and dice this, I mean, the looting is an unpleasant accusation. But, if -- in some respects, what is more distressing for an outsider looking at the department is that 15 percent of the officers didn't show up to do their jobs at all. Does that surprise you?

PENNINGTON: Well, I was really surprised at that. I don't think there's ever been a police department in these United States where this has occurred. I was really, really surprised to know that that many officers either were unaccounted for or walked off the job. And so, I'm hoping that they will be investigated as well. We should never have officers to leave our posts, especially during a time of crisis, when you have citizens out there abandoned, need help. And so, I'm hoping that the chief will really look into that and take actions against those officers that left their posts without a valid reason.

BROWN: Chief, let me ask you one more thing. Does the New Orleans Police Department have the internal mechanisms to fairly, objectively investigate itself, or does it need to be done, given the scope, by outsiders?

PENNINGTON: No, I think it can be done. When I left -- and I have only been gone three years -- we had an outstanding, aggressive public integrity unit in place. And when I formed that unit, I formed it with the assistance of the FBI. I had three FBI agents assigned to that unit that I created to root out corruption. There were 100 police officers that we knew at the time that were corrupt or there were some forms of allegations of corruption being performed by those officers. So, I know it can be done. They still have some capable investigators in place. And I know that the resources that they have, they can go out and do a good job in terms of rooting out corruption. It's systemic. I didn't get all the corrupt officers while -- during my tenure as chief. And so, there were many officers that we had targeted that we never really ended up getting rid of. And so, I know Chief Riley. He will continue to do a fine job in terms of rooting out corruption, because I know the citizens will not expect anything less than that. And so, I'm hopeful. I'm very hopeful that he will continue to do a good job in terms of being aggressive and making sure that that community is policed in an outstanding way.

BROWN: Chief, it must be an interesting position to be looking back on this, given all the years you spent there. We appreciate your time tonight.

PENNINGTON: Thank you.

BROWN: Thank you, Chief Pennington, who is now the police chief in Atlanta. We say, Anderson, whenever we do this story, perhaps a little self-consciously, but we say, you know, we need to remind you that, by and large, the men and women of the department performed heroically, admirably. They lost a lot. They live in town. Their lives were messed up as well. But 15 percent of the force didn't show up. And a handful, maybe a dozen, were out committing crimes. And that's no small thing either.

COOPER: Yes. And the other officers, who I have spent a lot of time with over the last couple weeks, they'll be the first ones to say, look, if they were crooked cops, they want them exposed, they want them out. And if crimes were committed while people were wearing a badge, they want those badges removed and given to cops who are decent. So, there's a lot of desire for change in just about all quarters in New Orleans. You know, Aaron, just four miles from where I'm standing here in Bay St. Louis, as the crow files -- flies, I should say -- or files along, I guess -- is the town of Waveland. We were there just days after Katrina hit, 48 hours, actually. And it would be hard to overestimate the damage we saw back then. I mean, Waveland was virtually wiped out. Today, we went back and it didn't look that different.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER (voice-over): One month after Hurricane Katrina swept away Waveland, much of the town remains the same. There's miles and miles of debris, broken dreams, and splintered homes. Amidst the rubble you find American flags still flying, a bathroom sink, a Partridge Family album. We've Got to Get Out of This Place, the first track.

(on camera): I remember helping a woman pull this chair out of the ditch which was here. She was coming back to her house for first time. And she was just completely overwhelmed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's my chair.

COOPER (voice-over): Her name was Pauline Conaway (ph), and I'll never forget her pain. Her home was gone; only a few possessions remained. It was the first time I'd seen someone so distraught and not been able to do anything about it.

(on camera): You find just about any block you go down here in Waveland, especially along the beach, I mean, people are just coming back, one by one, finding the homes just completely gone. And it's -- it's devastating. I mean -- actually, let's...

(voice-over): Today, we found no sign of Pauline, but the chair and the grill and the ceramic bear are all still where she left them.

(on camera): Some people, they come back to their homes and they just get overwhelmed. They think they are going to pick up things, but maybe they find a few plates or whatever, but then they -- they just decide to leave everything where it is.

(voice-over): A month ago in Waveland we also met Myrtle Kierney (ph) and her family. Her sense of humor I'll never forget.

(on camera): You vacuumed my house?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I vacuumed my house to the moon so that when we came back we would have a pleasant environment to come back in.

COOPER (voice-over): At the home of the Kierneys (ph) today, we found work crews cleaning up the streets. Their property, however, is still littered with debris.

(on camera): I'll never forget Myrtle (ph) told me that she collected rocks, and right before the storm, right before she evacuated, that she went around her home and hid all the rocks. I'm not exactly sure why she did that, but she did. And that's one of the things she was looking for when I met her here a month ago. And we just came back and noticed this must be from her rock collection. I'll have to call them and let them know Myrtle's (ph) rocks have shown up.

(voice-over): Everywhere we went today in Waveland people talked to us, glad to see we were back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I was in Guadalajara when this hit. And I knew I could count on you, because you said your dad was from there and you grew up in New Orleans. And I want to thank you for all the hard work all of you are all doing.

COOPER (on camera): How are you doing now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine until I start talking to people.

COOPER (voice-over): One month has already passed, but in Waveland the emotions have not. The memories of what happened here are simply too painful to forget.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: One of the things, Aaron, I have noticed in Waveland is, everyone says they're fine until they start talking about it. And then, I mean, the emotions just well up very, very quickly. And it's -- you know, it's on every block. It's everywhere you go here, Aaron.

BROWN: It's strange, isn't it? I mean, in one sense, if you go day by day, a month seems like a long time. But, in other respects, a month -- it doesn't feel like we have really been doing this for a month. I mean, in very -- in lots of ways, it seems like a couple of days or a week ago. And for people caught in the middle of it, a month isn't very long at all when it's measured against a lifetime in a community. Anyway, we will have more from...

COOPER: Yes.

BROWN: I'm sorry. Go ahead.

COOPER: No, I was just going to say, I mean, in the calendar of sorrow, a month is a blink of the eye.

BROWN: Yes.

COOPER: The depth of pain here is extensive and will continue for a long time.

BROWN: I think that's a great way to put it. In the calendar of sorrow. And that's exactly what people are looking at, a lifetime change. Coming up on the program tonight, the town that would close its doors to the displaced. But, first, at about a quarter past the hour, give or take, time for some of the other news of the day. In fact, it's been a huge news day. And Erica Hill is here to tell us about it. Ms. Hill.

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It absolutely has, Mr. Brown.

And, actually, we start off with a story we have been covering for some time. Judith Miller, "The New York Times" reporter who was imprisoned for refusing to disclose a source, is free tonight. Miller has agreed to testify regarding the leak of a CIA agent's identity, saying her source has now waived her promise of confidentiality. And the "Times" is reporting Miller's source is none other than Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby.

John Roberts sworn in today as the 17th chief justice of the United States. He took the oath of office at the White House less than four hours after the Senate voted to confirm the 50-year-old judge.

Meantime, in Iraq today, a string of car bombs in the city of Balad left more than 60 dead and more than 70 wounded. This and other targeted attacks across the country follow a roadside bombing that killed five more U.S. troops yesterday. Officials expect continued insurgent violence in the run-up to the constitutional referendum next month.

And the Senate wants to budget $4 billion for a supply of bird flu vaccine. The virus has killed about 60 people in Asia and Europe and led to the slaughter of millions of birds. Lawmakers voted to attach the allocation to next year's defense spending bill. And that's all we got for you now, Aaron, but we will have a little more in the way of news later in the show.

BROWN: About a half-hour later in the program.

HILL: Give or take.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWN: Yes. Well, we will try and time it right, too. Thank you very much. We have much more on the program tonight, starting with the refugees from Katrina, and four words, not in my backyard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have been thrown out here, you know, and we feel like they don't want us here.

BROWN (voice-over): A town rolls out the unwelcome mat. Is it just a question of too many people or is it something else? From Texas tonight, an SOS goes out over the Internet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Isn't that amazing? You put out a broken arrow and everybody and the pope shows up.

BROWN: Two thousand stranded refugees, one cry for help answered.

REP. JAY INSLEE (D), WASHINGTON: We could actually send people on six-month cruises for the half the price that we are paying to actually have people sit at the dock.

BROWN: It used to be a fun ship. Now it's a FEMA scandal. And you're paying for it. And later, did money and power trump need? People dying for a new liver, while others allegedly jump to the head of the line.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the hardest part was watching my parents cry and watching my son, knowing that I may not see him grow up. BROWN: From New York and the Gulf and Los Angeles, too, this is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: You're watching a special edition of NEWSNIGHT, "State of Emergency," with Aaron Brown and Anderson Cooper.

COOPER: Welcome back. We are live in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. You've probably seen pictures of people picking through the debris of their house. And we have been seeing that all day here in Waveland and in Bay St. Louis. But just to give you a sense of how difficult it is, for some, it's just too simply overwhelming. Take a look. I mean, what would you try to pick up in this debris field? This is debris from one person's home. And, you know, you wander around and not only is it very hazardous, because there are all these nails sticking up, but where do you begin to try to pick up things? I mean, these are all the, you know, wooden slabs from the sides of houses. You can kind of -- OK, you can sort of maybe salvage this. But how do you -- I mean, we're probably -- 15 or 20 feet off the ground is just this pile of wood. And I just -- when I pulled up this cooler, I saw this in, a little child's toy. It looks like something you'd find in like a cereal box. But, I mean, how do you even begin to try to find anything that you can salvage in something like this? Bulldozers are just going to have to come and dump it all away, whatever was in this pile, whatever possessions. And there are still some 50 or so people missing here in Waveland who they believe might be out there still in debris piles. Those people will be found, as the debris is just lifted up and put into trucks and taken away. And that's what's happening. That's what we're seeing on the streets now, huge bulldozers just coming, picking all of this up and dumping it into trucks and taking it away. This is not the kind of debris you can actually go through and find anything that belongs to you -- Aaron.

BROWN: I suspect everyone has at one point or another in the last month thought about what they would take if they had to flee like that.

COOPER: Yes.

BROWN: This next story deals with two impulses, one humane and the other perhaps all too human. It's playing out in a town that welcomed evacuees from Katrina in the beginning, but now says enough is enough. Compassion fatigue? That and a lack of resources. That's one take. It is not, however, the only take. Reporting for us tonight in Greensburg, Louisiana, here's CNN's Ted Rowlands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The sign says "Welcome to Greensburg," but some hurricane victims say they don't feel welcome at all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can understand, because they're not used to this. But we're not used to it either. So, I don't want to be here, you know, just as much as they don't want us here.

ROWLANDS: Greensburg, Louisiana, is about 80 miles northwest of New Orleans, a small town divided over a possible FEMA plan to bring in trailers for hurricane victims. The city has supported victims since the storm. But the thought of bringing in trailers and possibly more people has divided the town. At the Greensburg Market, everyone we talked to knew about the debate and had an opinion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think we have the facilities here for no more than what's here. It would be -- it would be hectic, no doubt.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think we need to do what we can to help the New Orleans people, I mean, because they can't help themselves right now.

ROWLANDS: With a population of less than 1,000, Greensburg is about 33 percent African-American, 66 percent white. Some people think this debate is about race.

JAMES ODEN, PASTOR, NEW HOPE MINISTRY: It's now beginning to surface. That's really coming out as a result of what has transpired here lately, which it shouldn't be. We are all tied together in one single thread of destiny, and we have got to learn how to come together and work together.

ROWLANDS: People we have talked to say they don't know of any specific incidents of hostility, but, during a heated town meeting, some residents said they didn't want evacuees from New Orleans, because some might be rapists or murderers. Brad Graves, who is the county director of emergency preparedness, says he was surprised over some of the things he heard at the meeting. He thinks a rumor that FEMA wanted to bring in 25,000 hurricane victims whipped some people into a frenzy.

BRAD GRAVES, DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS, ST. HELENA: It's a concern that this is going to cause racial diversity. But it's -- I don't think that's going to happen. I think, once everybody gets the correct information and understands what's going on, that everything's going to be OK.

ROWLANDS: Graves says the correct information is that FEMA hasn't decided anything and Greensburg may not get any trailers at all. Meanwhile, some evacuees, like this woman, who even has a job in Greensburg, are worried that they may never be accepted.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very frustrating, because not all of us are like that, you know? And we have been thrown out here, you know? And we feel like they don't want us here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLANDS: We want to emphasize that Greensburg has opened its arms to many evacuees since the hurricane. People we talked to today, of those, nobody said they didn't want people there for any racial reasons or any prejudice. The main concern was, we just don't have enough space. One thing to note is that, if FEMA does come in there and find some land, there's really nothing the town can do about it if they think it's going to work out fine. And a lot of people are hoping that this does happen. They want the evacuees there. I do think this will play out in many other communities, though, in this region in the weeks and months to come -- Aaron.

BROWN: Almost -- almost certainly. Ted, thank you for your work today. Just ahead, why is FEMA -- I love this -- paying twice as much to house hurricane victims on a cruise ship in port than you'd pay for a real-life cruise? Well, actually, you are paying for it. That's the beauty of this one. And, later, the fire lines of California, the flames kicking up. It's fire season now. What's next? This is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Thirty days after Katrina and five days after Rita you'd think that most places in these storms' wake would be getting some kind of relief by now, some sort. But there are still pockets of distress. CNN's Randi Kaye was in one today in Texas. No food, no water. The only thing they had was a cell phone signal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We are on the start of what will be a three-hour journey. CNN received an alarming message. Call it an Internet SOS. They need help in a remote area of Texas, San Augustine County.

(on camera) We started out in Cameron, Louisiana, made a right at Beaumont, picked up Highway 69, then 96 all the way to San Augustine. We should be there in just a minute. See what we find.

(voice-over) The e-mail says 2,000 evacuees from Hurricane Rita are stranded and starving.

(on camera) This group is supposedly camped out at El Pinones Estates at Lake Sam Rayburn. They've been there for a week. They're running out of supplies. And they haven't had any federal help at all.

(voice-over) The e-mail directs us to look for Mike McQueen. He's the man who sent out the SOS.

(on camera) Where can I find this Marine, Mike McQueen?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the second street over, turn left. It will be on your right.

KAYE: OK. So that way down there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you'll see a sign on his gate.

KAYE: It says "McQueen"?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

KAYE (voice-over): Sure enough, McQueen is in his front yard. (on camera) You sound pretty darn frustrated with...

MIKE MCQUEEN, CALLED FOR HELP: No, ma'am, I'm pissed as hell.

KAYE (voice-over): angry because he thinks this corner of Texas has been forgotten, if not abandoned.

MCQUEEN: When an old lady comes up and you have to estimate her in her 80s and she says, "I need the Albuterol inhalers because my oxygen tank won't work and I've been going through about one a day." Because she doesn't have electricity and she's staggering like a drunk and you've got to take her inside and put ice packs on her, how bad do you think it is?

KAYE: McQueen is a former Marine. He fled his home 100 miles away and came here. But he didn't escape the hurricane. No food no, water for a week. He climbed this tree to get a cell phone signal and call a friend, a retired New York City policeman, who sent the Internet SOS. This place is especially at risk because of who lives here most of the year. San Augustine is popular with snowbirds and retirees. Elderly left without food, water medicine. And the gasoline to get supplies for some reason dropped more than an hour away.

MCQUEEN: Isn't that amazing? You put/out a broken arrow and everybody and the pope shows up.

KAYE: McQueen is thrilled. His cell phone to Internet SOS worked. In fact, he says, he hopes President Bush is listening. He says the president's plan to respond to the so-called Golden Triangle communities closer to the water completely overlooked this community.

MCQUEEN: I'd take him and I'd show him all this, and then I'd kick him right square in the butt and we'd sit down and drink a beer. And I would explain to him that these people are out here eating tree bark while everything that he's got pre-staged is ready to go into the Golden Triangle and not coming in to these people. KAYE: What infuriates McQueen is the government, he says, trying to have it both ways, telling evacuees stay where you are but not getting them vital supplies and medicine. McQueen's neighbor, a diabetic, passed out. He's now borrowing insulin from a friend. About an hour after we arrive with our cameras, so does the Red Cross. Is it a coincidence? Or did they get the same Internet SOS?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How'd you do this so quick? I just talked to you an hour ago and now you've got the Red Cross out here.

KAYE (on camera): Is this the first you've seen the Red Cross?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: First I've seen the Red Cross.

KAYE: Since the storm?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

KAYE (voice-over): So why did it take the Red Cross so long to get here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been up in Lufkin for three days without any food or any water. First we didn't have any trucks. Yes, it's just logistics, I guess. KAYE: But people here wonder how it is their community got so completely overlooked in the planning for the second hurricane and why it may have taken an Internet SOS to get them help. Randi Kaye, CNN, San Augustine County, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, you know, it's often these little communities that kind of get lost out in that initial response. We certainly saw that here in Bay St. Louis and Waveland, Mississippi, in those dark terrible days right after Katrina hit. If we've learned anything out here, we've learned that no matter what people left behind most would go back in a heartbeat if they could. No one likes to be displaced, of course. Life in a shelter is survival, nothing more. That said, shelters come in all shapes and sizes, and not all of them are providing the bare minimum. CNN's Chris Lawrence checked out one that is making some waves.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You're looking at one of the most expensive cruises money can buy. And you bought it. Your tax dollars fund FEMA, which paid more than $230 million to Carnival Cruise Lines. FEMA bought out three cruise ships for six months, expecting close to 10,000 evacuees to live on board. There's fewer than 2,000 people still there.

REP. JAY INSLEE (D), WASHINGTON: So it actually costs the taxpayers about $3,500 a week. And you can go on a cruise for $599 a week.

LAWRENCE: Congressman Jay Inslee is one of many officials calling for a chief financial officer to oversee Katrina spending.

INSLEE: So we could actually send people on six-month cruises for half the price that we're paying to actually have people sit at the dock.

LAWRENCE: Before you blame Carnival, consider this -- the price wasn't calculated on a per-cabin basis. It was based on what Carnival would have earned if the ships were kept in regular service: all the money they normally get from casinos, liquor, and shore excursions that are not open to evacuees. Carnival says, "In the end, the company will make no additional money on this deal versus what we would have made by keeping these ships in service." We left several messages for FEMA officials and finally went down to the port ourselves.

(on camera) We're doing a story on the FEMA contract. Trying to talk to some evacuees up on the ship.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You won't be able to do that, sir. We'll have to get some authorization from FEMA.

LAWRENCE: We had better luck talking to this family, a New Orleans firefighter living on board with his wife and kids.

DERRICK JONES, NEW ORLEANS FIRE DEPARTMENT: There's a lot of the guys, you know, been there since the storm. We hadn't seen our families. You know, we had no whereabouts where our family was.

LAWRENCE: The FEMA contract put families back together. It allowed first responders to go to work and come back to some sort of home. They have free use of the ship, 24-hour meals, and activities for the kids.

JACQUELINE JONES, DERRICK'S WIFE: You know, words cannot express. They really can't. I mean, it is -- it's excellent. I don't know exactly what they paid, but it's worth every dollar. Every dollar.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE: Now, to be fair, FEMA signed those contracts early on while thousands of people were still crammed into the Superdome and the convention center. But critics want to know why it didn't negotiate contingency deals before the disaster at what could have been much cheaper prices -- Anderson.

COOPER: Damned if you do, damned if you don't, I suppose. Chris Lawrence, thanks very much. Still to come, the fire. This time a lot of pictures here of a field of wildfires. Southern California, it is that time of the year. The people caught in a scandal that could cost them their lives. A transplant program, also tonight. A transplant program is shut down. Doctors fired and patients waiting. A break first. This is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT from Bay St. Louis and New York and points in between: STATE OF EMERGENCY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: You're watching a special edition of NEWSNIGHT: STATE OF EMERGENCY with Aaron Brown and Anderson Cooper.

BROWN: In truth, we don't have the slightest idea how a liver transplant works. But we do know how a line works. And going from No. 52 in line to No. 1 in line says something. For people waiting for a new liver, it ought to mean that the patient either got a whole lot sicker or the potential for finding a matching liver got a whole lot better. What it ought not involve is clout or connections or money. The scandal surrounding St. Vincent's Medical Center in Los Angeles includes all of those allegations. This is more than a breach of faith. It is a matter of life and death. And not just for the patients at St. Vincent's. In Los Angeles tonight, CNN's Thelma Gutierrez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every day Colleen Mawas must fight to stay alive, with a breathing machine and 14 different medications. Colleen's liver is shutting down.

COLLEEN MAWAS, WAITING FOR A LIVER: When I first was diagnosed, my son was 12 years old. I wanted to make it to his graduation. And that was my motivation for living.

GUTIERREZ: She desperately needs a liver transplant.

MAWAS: And they said I would have -- this is in October. I would have one by Christmas.

GUTIERREZ (on camera): That was how long ago?

MAWAS: That was seven years ago.

GUTIERREZ: Seven years you've been waiting.

MAWAS: Seven years I've been waiting.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): In those seven years Colleen says she's been close to death three times.

MAWAS: I think the hardest part was watching my parents cry and watching my son and knowing that I may not see him grow up.

GUTIERREZ: Colleen is one of more than 17,000 Americans currently on a national organ registry, waiting for a liver transplant. It's a complex system that ranks patients according to need, a system that, for patients, is based on trust. For Colleen and others like her, that trust has been breached. Breached if allegations of favoritism and record falsification within the liver transplant department at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Los Angeles turn out to be true.

GUS VALDESPINO, CEO, ST. VINCENT'S MEDICAL CENTER: We are conducting a very thorough investigation in order to restore the trust and credibility in this program.

GUTIERREZ: The investigation goes back to 2003. A donor liver arrived at St. Vincent's for a Saudi citizen known as Patient A. Oddly, the hospital says that patient was traveling and not available. So the liver is transplanted into Patient B, another Saudi, who's actually 52nd on a regional waiting list. According to the hospital, the medical records were then falsified to cover it up.

VALDESPINO: The first thing that went through my mind is shock and sadness.

GUTIERREZ: St. Vincent's CEO, Gus Valdespino, recently closed the department, sending 75 patients scrambling for a new transplant center, and said the responsibility lay with the men who ran it, Dr. Hector Ramos and Dr. Richard Lopez, seen here on the hospital's web site. VALDESPINO: Dr. Ramos and Dr. Lopez both were part of making the decision to transplant Patient B. And knowingly circumvented UNOS policy.

GUTIERREZ: Valdespino says according to UNOS, the federal agency that oversees organ procurement, if Patient A wasn't available the liver should have gone to a dying patient at another hospital. Dr. Richard Lopez could not be reached for comment. But Evelina Serafini, attorney for Dr. Ramos, says her client was trying to do the right thing.

EVELINA SERAFINI, DR. HECTOR RAMOS' ATTORNEY: Dr. Ramos had a patient who was very sick and dying and believed that he was dying and would die at the time. He maintains that he's done nothing wrong either in transplanting the man or -- and had nothing to do whatsoever with any falsification of records.

GUTIERREZ: Neither the hospital nor UNOS will reveal the identity of Patient B. But the hospital says the Saudi royal embassy paid $339,000 for the transplant, some 30 percent more than an American citizen with insurance, but not unusual for a foreign national.

VALDESPINO: The hospital has no indication that there was motivation to pass -- to go to this patient for monetary reasons.

GUTIERREZ: We checked with the Saudi royal embassy. A spokesman there said medical bills for any Saudi citizen brought to this country for treatment are paid by the embassy. But the embassy is still trying to figure out who these patients are. Colleen says whatever the reason passing over people on the list is unethical. But she says this incident has rocked the confidence of some transplant patients in her support group.

MAWAS: Tell them, you know, when your time's come, it -- you know the system will work for you. If you're next -- if you're the sickest, you'll get the next organ. And now, you know, we all feel like we've been deceived.

GUTIERREZ: Colleen says she hopes this is an isolated case and that someday she'll get her liver. After all, she's already seen her son graduate high school. Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Still ahead on the program tonight, the other headline out of Southern California tonight. Fire. Acres and acres of wildfires burning. We'll update that. Much more ahead. Take a break first. This is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Too much water in one part of the country. Not enough in another. Still to come tonight, fires burning outside of Los Angeles. We'll have a live report there. But first, at about a quarter to the hour, time once again for some of the other stories that made news today. Erica Hill again in Atlanta -- Erica.

ERICA HILL, ANCHOR, HEADLINE NEWS: Hi, Aaron. And starting off, despite widespread condemnation of his provocative racial comments, we're learning that Bill Bennett is saying tonight he has nothing to apologize for. And if you're wondering what this comes on the heels on, it comes after Bennett, a Republican with ties to both the Reagan and the first Bush administrations, said that aborting every black baby in the country would reduce the crime rate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL BENNETT, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I was putting forward a hypothetical proposition. Put that forward, examined it, and then said about it that it's morally reprehensible; to recommend abortion of an entire group of people in order to lower your crime rate is morally reprehensible. But this is what happens when you argue that the ends can justify the means.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: And as you heard, he said that act would be morally reprehensible. Children who are taking a drug for attention deficit and hyperactivity may suffer suicidal tendencies. The FDA has sent a warning to doctors about reports linking the drug Stratera and suicidal thoughts. Drug maker Ely Lilly said it would add a warning to the drug's label. And it turns out wild gorillas just as handy as their chimpanzee cousins. Biologists have seen now the great apes using sticks and other simple tools in their natural habitat. Scientists had previously thought they only picked up those skills in captivity, Aaron.

BROWN: Well, that's good. Now I know I've got somebody else to hire to do some stuff around the house.

HILL: Send them my way after you're done with them.

BROWN: Thank you very much. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Still to come, Mother Nature not appeased. If it's not hurricanes, it's something else. This time it's southern California fires. Probably locusts next. We'll take a break. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Wildfires are to the West Coast what hurricanes are to the Gulf Coast. Tonight a fast-moving wildfire northwest of Los Angeles is threatening dozens of homes. It began yesterday. It's nearly destroyed 17,000 acres and six buildings, including one home. Hundreds of people in its path have been forced to flee so far, a decision that certainly does not come easily. Here's CNN's Rusty Dornin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The fire above Patty Leonard's house is just over the ridge, about 400 yards away. The winds have shifted. No one quite knows where the fire is going now. (on camera) You can see the flame coming over that ridge. I mean, if the wind shifts, are you going to leave?

PATTY LEONARD, RESIDENT: No. It would have to come much closer.

DORNIN (voice-over): It's too close for many residents here, who have already fled the neighborhood. L.A. firefighter Ken Coneval (ph) fought fire all night protecting other people's homes. Now it's getting close to his.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So right now it's blowing the fire to us, instead of away, which is a bad thing.

DORNIN (on camera): Are you planning on leaving?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No. Not at all. DORNIN

(voice-over): Bravado? Maybe. But it's also plenty of experience around southern California wild land fires.

(on camera) Some residents here describe it like a dance. The fires don't come every year, but the decision to evacuate doesn't come from the fire department. For them it comes from their gut.

(voice-over) It's a waiting game.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the last minute you just -- you know when you have to go. And so far that hasn't happened. We're still here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's much darker over there now.

DORNIN: Less than an hour later again the wind shifts, the sky blackens. And now people here begin to change their minds about what's safe. (on camera) You and I were talking earlier and you were not concerned about leaving.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

DORNIN: What about now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now it's getting to the point where it's a wind-driven fire, and the fire is generating its own wind.

DORNIN (voice-over): We can feel the heat of the fire now. It's about 200 yards away. Down the hill we're about to talk to evacuee John McLaughlin when the fire trucks race up with a warning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to blow up.

DORNIN: And we're told we have to make a decision.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys need to either hunker down in place or leave now.

DORNIN: A decision from the gut. One that could be a life saver.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DORNIN: The decision that people in the neighborhood we are in now made about an hour ago, on the ridge behind us there were flames roaring 50 -- 40, 50 feet high. As you can see, now that's died back. Typical wild land fire behavior. It flares up and then dies down. The difference being the residents in this neighborhood have only been here for about a year and a half. These are million-dollar homes. They are not familiar with the behavior of the fire. They became frightened very quickly and decided to evacuate tonight. So the neighborhood we're in now is pretty much empty. But Anderson, the amazing thing is still only one home has been destroyed by this fire. At one point there was a ring of fire all around us. It has since backed down. They say that one of the reasons is the fire is not being pushed by wind, which is usually the case. It is being pushed by the amount of fuels. There are so many -- so many dry shrubs that the fires kick up, create their own wind, but then they die back down, because the winds are just not pushing them -- Anderson.

COOPER: And Rusty, how long is fire season?

DORNIN: Fire season usually lasts from May through -- sometimes through the end of October. And of course, September and October usually very dry here in California, Northern and Southern California. There's no humidity in the air. What they're hoping for is that the marine layer comes back in, those marine winds from the ocean, and that puts some humidity back in the air, and that really helps the firefighters.

COOPER: All right. Rusty Dornin, thanks. Coming up in the program tonight, no joking. Chris Rock helping out on hurricane relief. A break first. No joking here, either. This is NEWSNIGHT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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New Orleans Police Suspected of Looting; Wildfires Rage in Southern California; Speculation Over Next Supreme Court Nomination

Aired September 29, 2005 - 23:00 ET

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

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: John Roberts is now the 17th Chief Justice of the United States. He was sworn in this afternoon just a few hours after the Senate voted 78 to 22 to confirm his nomination. There is still another spot on the court open and administration officials tells CNN that President Bush will announce his nomination to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as soon as tomorrow."New York Times" reported Judith Miller is out of jail tonight after spending nearly three months behind bars protecting a confidential source. The source gave Miller permission to break their confidentiality agreement and testify before a grand jury about the leak of a CIA operative's name. Miller will appear before the grand jury tomorrow.The New Orleans Police Department is investigating allegations that 12 of its officers looted stores after Hurricane Katrina. Four of those officers have been suspended and another was reassigned. We'll have more on that story in a moment as well. And some of the thousands who evacuated New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina, returned today. Mayor Ray Nagin opened several neighborhoods to business owners. Some residents will be allowed back tomorrow.Now let's take it to California and the developing story. A raging wild fire northwest of Los Angeles, going to show you these live pictures, the fire has destroyed nearly 17,000 acres, threatens dozens of homes, many worth millions of dollars. Now so far just 5 percent of the fire is contained. We're going to have more on the developing story ahead in a live report. The key is whether or not these winds pick up. Right now the fire is not really being carried by winds. Our Rusty Dornin was reporting just a short time ago but there is an awful lot of debris on the ground, a lot of very dry ground, dry underbrush. That, of course, is causing this fire to move quickly. That is what is really fueling this fire. There is a lot of fuel on the ground but again it's not really the traditional problem of high winds which can help these fires jump from one hill to the next. It makes it very difficult for fire fighters to battle. This one seems a little bit more orderly, a little more contained. Again, as I said we're going to have a lot more from California in just a short amount of time. I want to tell you more now on the 12 New Orleans police officers being investigated by their own department. They stand accused of looting during the chaotic first week after Katrina. Now we know that four of the officers have been suspended, another was reassigned. CNN's Drew Griffin joins us live from New Orleans for more on this scandal.

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, after a week of calling these looting allegations misunderstandings, the new police chief did come out today and announce there is an internal investigation by his department into these allegations. At least 12 officers, as you said, in several different incidents being investigated for looting. And it came up, Anderson, with these new allegations of an investigation going on there that 249 possible officers who deserted their posts are being investigated for that and a change in command structure. Is the City of New Orleans Police Department capable of policing this city? Here's what the new acting chief had to say:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN RILEY, ACTING CHIEF OF NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPARTMENT: First of all the Department is not dysfunctional. We have 1,400 plus officers that are on the street. I want to reaffirm our position that there is zero tolerance for misconduct or unprofessionalism by any member of this department. When allegations surface, there will be a complete and thorough investigation. If the investigation determines the members violated departmental policy or any laws, swift and decisive action will be taken.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: The Department did have to say though that they didn't launch these investigations until videotape surfaced of the possible misconduct. These investigations now underway and, Anderson, no word from the chief, not even a guess when the investigations will end.

COOPER: Drew, it's fascinating. I mean, over the course of your investigation over this past week or more the response by the department has completely really shifted. I mean, in that first report you did they were basically saying, "Look this was a misunderstanding. This material wasn't necessarily being looted. It was being returned from looters." They clearly now seemed to have changed their tune. Any idea exactly why?

GRIFFIN: You know it's a chaotic situation, Anderson. As you know, they've had a complete command changeover, the chief resigned, they're just trying to hobble along, their precincts are down in many locations across the city. I think you can chalk up some of this to the disorganization and the disarray that this department is currently suffering. But indeed the allegations came with videotape of some of these incidents. Some which we aired here on CNN and I think in the end they just could not go on without launching their own internal investigation. In fact, last night we announced that the attorney general of the State of Louisiana is also launching his own investigation into police looting so I think they had to act today and that is what took place.

COOPER: Drew, thanks very much. I appreciate that. Again, the allegations are about a couple of handfuls of officers given a police force of 1,400 plus officers. It is a very small percentage. But a lot of the officers you talk to off duty will tell you, look if there are bad cops, if people did do this they want them charged and prosecuted as much as anybody else. You know, it's been five days since Rita struck. In those five days it's fair to say that state and federal officials haven't received the kind of criticism that they did after Katrina, certainly true. But it doesn't mean there have been glitches. Relief hasn't reached everyone. Consider the plight of one town in Texas that Randi Kaye found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are on the start of what will be a three hour journey. CNN received an alarming message. Call it an Internet S.O.S. They need help in a remote area of Texas, San Augustine County.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We started out in Cameron, Louisiana; we're on our way to Beaumont, picked up Highway 69, then 96 all the way up to San Augustine. We should be there in just a minute. So we probably...

KAYE: The e-mail says 2,000 evacuees from Hurricane Rita are stranded and starving.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This group is supposedly camped out at El Pinion Estate at Lake Sam Rayburn. They've been there for a week, they're running out of supplies and they haven't had any federal help at all.KAYE: The e-mail directs us to look for Mike McQueen. He's the man who sent out the S.O.S. Where can I find this marine Mike McQueen?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the second street over turn left, it'll be on to your right.

KAYE: So that way down there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, you'll see a sign on his gate.

KAYE: Says McQueen?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

KAYE: Sure enough McQueen is in his front yard. You sound pretty darn frustrated...

MIKE MCQUEEN, MARINE FROM SAN AUGUSTINE: No ma'am, I'm pissed as hell.

KAYE: Angry because he thinks this corner of Texas has been forgotten, if not abandoned.

MCQUEEN: When an old lady comes up and you have to estimate her in her 80s and she says, "I need albuteral (ph) inhalers because my oxygen tank won't work and I've been going through about one a day," because she doesn't have electricity. And she's staggering like a drunk. You have to take her inside and put ice packs on her. How bad do you think it is?

KAYE: McQueen is a former marine. He fled his home 100 miles away and came here. But he didn't escape the hurricane. No food, no water for a week he climbed this tree to get a cell phone signal and call a friend, a retired New York City Policeman who sent the Internet S.O.S. This place is especially at risk because of who lives here most of the year. San Augustine is popular with snowbirds and retirees. Elderly left without food, water, medicine and the gasoline to get supplies for some reason dropped more than an hour away.

MCQUEEN: Isn't that amazing, you put out a broken air and everybody and the Pope shows up.

KAYE: McQueen is thrilled his cell phone to Internet S.O.S. worked. In fact, he says, he hopes President Bush is listening. He says the president's plan to respond to the so-called Golden Triangle Communities closer to the water completely overlooked this community.

MCQUEEN: I'd take him and I'd show him all of this and I'm kick him right square in the butt and we'd sit down and drink a beer and I would explain to him that these people are up here eating tree bark while everything that he's got pre-staged is ready to go into the Golden Triangle and not coming in to these people.KAYE: What infuriates McQueen is the government, he says, trying to have it both ways. Telling evacuees stay where you are but not getting them vital supplies and medicine. McQueen's neighbor, a diabetic, passed out. He's now borrowing insulin from a friend. About an hour after we arrived with our cameras, so does the Red Cross. Is it a coincidence? Or did they get the same Internet S.O.S.?

KAYE: Is this the first you've seen the Red Cross?

MCQUEEN: First I've seen the Red Cross.

KAYE: Since the storm?

MCQUEEN: Yup.

KAYE: So why did it take the Red Cross so long to get here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been up in Lufkin for three days without any food or any water. At first we didn't have any trucks. Yeah it's just logistics, I guess.

KAYE: But people here wonder how is it their community got so completely overlooked in the planning for the second hurricane and why it may have taken an Internet S.O.S. to get them help.


(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: Now right after that story aired earlier tonight on AC 360 we got a call directing us here to Cleveland, Texas to check out the situation, telling us it was very much the same and sure enough it is. They are without power in many areas here. This gas station behind us here is dark. We spoke with a woman named Jackie Campbell, Anderson, who lives here and she told us that there is a group of about 30 women and children who have been without food, without water, since Hurricane Rita. Yesterday there was a heat index here of 118. There was a man who came by with his truck and allowed the elderly to cool off in the cab of his truck so that they could cool. And then he let them do that until he actually ran out of diesel fuel so it's certainly to be appearing to be somewhat of a dangerous situation here in Cleveland, Texas. Anderson?

COOPER: And I know you just got there, Randi. Is there, are there relief groups there? Is the Red Cross in Cleveland now?

KAYE: We have not seen anything. We haven't driven around town much. This side of town is dark, that side has a little bit of power. We have not seen the Red Cross, we have not seen FEMA and even just standing here waiting to do this live shot, Anderson, a gentleman came up telling us he's a diabetic, his brother is also sick, he's running out of medicine and he needs help now.

COOPER: Well hopefully someone is watching this who has some control over where these trucks go. You know, clearly someone needs to look into Cleveland, Texas. Randi Kaye, thank you very much. Aaron, it's amazing and frustrating to a lot of people in these small towns, not just in Texas. We saw this here Bay, St. Louis and Waveland, you know. And those days after the storm when you need them most it's often the small towns that get passed over.

AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: It's the lucky ones that get in contact with TV reporters. I worry about all the ones, frankly, who don't hear from TV reporters and don't get attention. Back to what you were talking about at the top of the hour in Southern California tonight. A potential disaster or an annual event, it's hard to know at this point. In any case, evacuations are under way, shelters are setup, not a hurricane, of course. These are the California wild fires and they are raging in Los Angeles and in Ventura Counties to the North of Los Angeles, 16,000 acres scorched so far. CNN's Rusty Dornin is in L.A. County and she joins us live with the latest. Rusty, good evening.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Aaron, at one point about an hour and a half ago we were ringed by six different fires and the flames were 40, 50 feet high. They have died down, literally, across all the ridges. The good news is there is no wind that's really pushing these fires. It's the fuel. It's all the underbrush; very, very tinder dry underbrush that is kicking these fires up. But the fire line itself is 25 miles long, to give you an idea. And, of course, keeps it spotting in certain areas. They've got more than 3,000 firefighters trying to get control of this. It's only 5 percent containment so far. The most amazing thing is that only one home has been destroyed that we know of so far. Their concern is if it jumps what's known as Highway 101 they're afraid that it will make a run to the Pacific Ocean through Ventura County. Of course there are multi-million dollar homes scattered all through this area. We're in line where the people fled about, I'd say, an hour and a half ago when the flames really kicked up. They were very fearful it was going to come in to here. These homes where we are were only built about a year and a half ago and they're not familiar with the behavior of these wild land fires. Earlier in the day we'd been in neighborhoods where people were waiting, literally, till it got up to their backdoor, about 200 yards away before they were deciding to leave. They said they knew when the winds would shift how the fire would behave and they felt comfortable doing that. But clearly not everyone feels that way, especially in many of these new home developments that are being built in areas that traditionally burns nearly every year. So Aaron, they're feeling fairly optimistic right now about being able to get a hold on this fire because of the weather conditions. Unless the winds do come up, they're pretty certain they're going to be able to get a hold on this fire by sometime tomorrow.So far they said they have saved 2,000 homes, which is really pretty incredible. Aaron?BROWN: It's amazing Rusty, to talk about them feeling optimistic while we're looking at a picture of this building, I'm not sure it's a house whatever it is, that's burning down. To a certain extent there is only so much they can do. They need help from the weather. The good sign is they're not getting hit by the Santa Ana winds which can move these fires along. Is it dry there? Is the air dry? Is the marine layer helping or not helping at this point?

DORNIN: There's no marine layer that has moved in yet. It's very dry right now, but apparently they thought the Santa Ana condition was beginning yesterday but it sort of flip-flopped. The winds started going in a different direction. They do feel that there will be some marine layer coming in, a little bit more humidity in the air which really helps the fire fighters here because the fire just doesn't spread as quickly when there's a little bit of humidity. So right now it's still very dry but the winds have just not kicked up as they usually do in a situation like this.

BROWN: For which we can be thankful, thank you Rusty. Rusty Dornin in Southern California tonight. Just ahead, a month after Katrina, torture treads. We return to Waveland, Mississippi and see the progress being made, or not made, in rebuilding the town. And later, dogs left behind. They were helpless to begin with now we['re getting reports they were hunted down and shot. My goodness. Take a break. This is a special edition of NEWSNIGHT: "State of Emergency."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back. We are in Bay, St. Louis. Just to give you a sense of what people here have to deal with, you know, you talk about debris and you've seen video of people picking up the pieces of their homes, but some people that's impossible to do. I mean, this is just this pile of someone's house that we've kind of picked randomly. I mean, you can find this on just about any street between the railroad tracks and the water here in Waveland. You know, you can pick out a few possessions. You know, picture of a sort of a still life but in something like this, I mean, there is only so much you can possibly find. It is just -- it is like a lumberyard here and you realize this is just probably one or two houses which has just been clotted together. All of this will just have to be picked up. I talked to the mayor of Waveland a short time ago who said they're still searching for bodies here. I mean, they're anticipating -- I think there are about 50 people, I don't know if that is the exact number, I think it was 51. But there are dozens of people here who are still missing and they're not sure if those are bodies that have already been recovered and just not identified or if somewhere in these miles of debris fields there are people still underneath this rubble. And of course those people are going to be found when the bulldozers come and just pick all this stuff up and put it into trucks. And they're going to try to find those people who are still missing. They simply do not know at this point how many people have died here in Waveland. When I was here a month ago within a space of about two hours, we found six bodies. I was with a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue team from Virginia. And today I went back to the home where we found four bodies to find out who's living there now and to find out their story. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: One month after Hurricane Katrina swept away Waveland, much of the town remains the same. There's miles and miles of debris, broken dreams and splintered homes. Amidst the rubble you find American flags still flying. A bathroom sink, a Partridge Family album, "We Got To Get Out of This Place," the first track.I remember helping a woman pull this chair out of a ditch, which was here. She was coming back to her house for the first time and she was just completely overwhelmed.

PAULINE CONAWAY, HURRICANE KATRINA VICTIM FROM WAVELAND: That's my chair.

COOPER: Her name was Pauline Conaway and I'll never forget her pain. Her home was gone. Only a few possessions remained. It was the first time I'd seen someone so distraught and not been able to do anything about it. Just about any block you go down, here in Waveland, especially along the beach, I mean, people are just coming back one by one and they're finding their home just completely gone and it's devastating. I mean -- actually let's...

CONAWAY: That's part of my room.

COOPER: Today we found no sign of Pauline, but the chair and the grill and the ceramic bear are all still where she left them. Some people that come back to their homes and they just get overwhelmed. They think they're going to pick up things. Maybe they find a few plates or whatever but then they just decided to leave everything where it is.A month ago in Waveland we also met Myrtle Keirney and her family. Her sense of humor I'll never forget.You vacuumed your house?

MYRTLE KEARNEY, HURRICANE KATRINA VICTIM FROM WAVELAND: I vacuumed my house to the moon so that when we came back we'd have a pleasant environment to come back in.

COOPER: At the home of the Kearney's today, we found work crews cleaning up the streets. Their property, however, is still littered in debris.I'll never forget, Myrtle told me that she collected rocks and right before the storm, right before she evacuated, she went around her home and hid all the rocks. I'm not exactly sure why she did that but she did, and that's one of the things she was looking for when I met her a month ago and we just came back and I noticed these are -- this must be from her rock collection. I'll have to call them and let them know Myrtle's rocks have shown up.Everywhere we went today in Waveland people talked to us glad to see we were back.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I was in Guadalajara when this hit and I knew I could count on you because you said your dad was from there and thank you for helping New Orleans and I want to thank you for all the hard work all of you are doing.

COOPER: How do you feel now?

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine. When someone starts talking to me...

COOPER: One month has already passed but in Waveland the emotions have not. The memories of what happened here are simply too painful to forget.

(END VIDEOTAPE)


COOPER: They certainly are. Just ahead tonight, a gruesome discovery, you know, we've been bringing you a lot of stories about animals in danger or animals that are out there. Well several dogs have been found shot. Some more than once and wait till you hear some say are responsible for these killings. You will not believe this report coming up tonight. If you care about animals at all you will want to see this.Also ahead, comedian Chris Rock's special mission to help some victims of Hurricane Katrina. This is NEWSNIGHT: "State of Emergency."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Well comedian Chris Rock is in Houston tonight helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. He and his wife are working closely with a shelter called the Benita House of Hope where evacuees have found a home far away from their home. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS ROCK, COMEDIAN AIDING HURRICANE KATRINA VICTIMS: How you doing, Chris?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, how are you?C ROCK: Doing pretty good.COOPER: On this, his second visit to Houston's Benita House, Rock is king.


UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chris came the first time and he was helping us with the boxes and I was cracking jokes with him. Yeah, I'm glad he came back.

MALAAK ROCK, COMEDIAN CHRIS ROCK'S WIFE: Yeah, we want to say hi to everybody.

COOPER: He came back just three weeks later and this time brought his wife Malaak.

C ROCK: Now I'm here at the Benita Street House of Hope.

COOPER: His first trip to the family shelter was for an Oprah Hurricane Relief show. He says the experience and the people he met changed him.

C ROCK: You know, I thought I was going to go all over in Houston, and go, you know, to so many places and make so many stops. But right here at the first stop there was just so many people with so many stories that just wanted to be heard.

COOPER: Benita house had been overwhelmed by the influx of evacuees, according to its president.

TYRONE EVANS, BENITA STREET HOUSE OF HOPE PRESIDENT: When Katrina struck we were going to sell this place and the same day Katrina struck, the next day, we were full.

ROCK: Tyrone seemed to know what he was doing and, you know, there's a lot of nice, cool people.

M ROCK: How old did you say you were?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was 21.

COOPER: More than 100 Louisiana residents moved in here in Katrina's wake putting a financial burden on the charity.

EVANS: Chris Rock was aired on the Oprah show when Oprah was in town and people all over the world saw what was going on and we began to get calls from everywhere. People were calling us and saying what can we do to help.

COOPER: Meanwhile, Rock enlisted Malaak in the effort.

M ROCK: When he came back and gave me Tyrone Evans's card and said call this man, he is doing great work.

COOPER: The two of them have adopted the shelter.

M ROCK: Chris and I literally got on the phone and cold called Bed, Bath & Beyond and Crate and Barrel and some of the others and just said this is what we're doing, can you help us?Diane? I'm Malaak. Nice to meet you.I live by the motto that "Service is the rent you pay for living. When you give you get it right back."

C ROCK: I didn't get, you know, where I'm at without some help.

EVANS: It's been one good thing after another since I met Chris and Malaak.

COOPER: The goal is to eventually move all the residents into permanent housing and the Rocks have been asking their friends to sponsor families.

M ROCK: You have to be in it really, really for the long haul. That's a really important message to get out.

C ROCK: Oh you can have a lot but you ain't having that hat. Reggie Jackson autographed that hat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reggie Jackson?

C ROCK: Yeah Reggie Jackson and Joe Torrey.

COOPER: Well if you'd like to contribute to Chris and Malaak's organization you can send an e-mail to Benitahouse@sbcglobal.net. The phone number is: (713) 691-0900. The address: Benita House of Hope, 2605 Parker Road, Houston, Texas 77093. A lot of people trying to help out in ways large and small, doing what they can, Aaron.BROWN: Yeah, but they say kids don't know who Reggie Jackson is. He's a little young for that. On to other matters for the day. John Roberts today became the 17th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court with hardly a glitch. He's just 50 years old. He's going to affect your life for a long time. For the president, one confirmation down, one to go. Opponents largely choosing not to make this one a fight. This one. From the White House tonight CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Smooth sailing for President Bush's pick for Chief Justice John Roberts.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All Americans can be confident that the 17th Chief Justice of the United States will be prudent in exercising judicial power, firm in defending judicial independence and above all a faithful guardian of the constitution.

MALVEAUX: The vote was 78 to 22 in the Senate, 22 democrats sided with all the republicans to confirm him. But political observers don't expect as easy a battle for President Bush in his next critical decision: who to nominate to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor? O'Connor served as a key moderate swing vote on the nine- member court. Democrats and even some republicans want Mr. Bush to choose someone similar.

SEN. MINORITY LEADER HARRY REED, (D), NEVADA: We wanted the next nominee.

MALVEAUX: Conservative republicans are pushing for a nominee closer to the late Chief Justice Rehnquist.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I hope the second person that he picks that he will fulfill his campaign promise to send us a strict constructionist...

MALVEAUX: And there are those pressing for a minority or a woman.

LAURA BUSH, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: As a woman myself I hope that there will be a woman.MALVEAUX: Sources close to the president's election process say a wide range of candidates have been vetted and the president may make an announcement as early as Monday. But political analysts question whether Mr. Bush can afford to alienate the democrats.

RON KLAIN, POLITICAL STRATEGIST: There is no question that in a very real sense the president's much weaker politically than he was when this process began a few months ago.

MALVEAUX: President Bush has faced blistering criticism over his administrations handling of Hurricane Katrina, while gas prices continue to soar and violence in Iraq continues to escalate.While his party's leadership in Congress faces accusations of corruption and his job approval rating, including from this new CNN poll, stands at 45 percent.Shortly after Robert's swearing in, the public leaders met with Mr. Bush at the White House to strategize how to push forward their legislative agenda. But how successful they are in doing that may depend on who the president picks for his next Supreme Court nominee.

KLAIN: Presidents have only so much political capital and if he ties up the Senate with a protracted, difficult, hard fight, that just lessens the chance that there's going to be progress on other issues here at home and overseas.

MALVEAUX: But how successful they are in doing that may depend on who the president picks for his next Supreme Court nominee. Susan Malveaux, the White House.(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Quickly here, an update on a developing and continuing story, the wild fires in the northwest part of Los Angeles County.

Live pictures you're looking at.

The fire has already destroyed 16,000 acres, blazes threatening homes and it's forced hundreds of people to evacuate. We talked about these as million dollar homes.

These days it seems that all homes are million dollar homes, aren't they? Officials say at least one home and five other structures were lost but 2,000 buildings have been saved and so far, and this -- and will be the bad news -- only 5 percent of this fire is contained.

We're in the middle of the fire season in southern California and they need some help from the humidity. They need the marine layer to come in. They've gotten some help from the winds. It's not very windy there and that's helping fire fighters a good deal.

In a moment, hurricane victims who can't speak for themselves. We going to take a look at Pats dogs this time. They were supposed to be protected. It didn't turn out that way. Take a break first. This is a special edition of NewsNight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back from Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. You know, we've done a lot of stories over the last few days on -- actually the last few weeks I should say -- on animals abandoned and left behind in the wake of Hurricane Rita and Katrina. The stories are about the efforts to try to save them and there are a lot of good people trying to save these animals. This is a much different report to tell you about. It is of dogs left behind by their owners and then shot to death. Tonight, some say, police officers may have actually pulled the trigger. Before we show you this, we've got to warn you that some of the images you are about to see are graphic and disturbing but we think you need to see them.


(BEING AUDIOTAPE)

COOPER: You can't tell from the outside of this middle school but inside a slaughter took place.

KIM DAVIS, ANIMAL RESCUER FROM OKLAHOMA: Three dogs, a large one and two small ones, all lying in a pool of blood. Looks like they all may have all been gathered together and shot together. It's hard.

COOPER: Kim Davis came from Oklahoma as an animal rescuer. She never imagined she'd find a scene like this in a middle school that was used as an evacuation center after Katrina hit.

DAVIS: When dogs are shot like this, too, they don't die instantly as you can see from the large amount of blood. They bleed to death.

COOPER: In all there are 14 dogs. Some shot once, others several times. Some were tied up. One looks like it tried to run. All are badly decomposed. They have apparently been dead for weeks. People came to this place to be evacuated. They had to leave their pets behind. You can even see where one woman tried to make sure she wouldn't lose her dogs; writing her name and phone number on the wall before she left. Others did the same thing.

KIT BAUER, EVACUEE: A lot of people, about 50 or 60 people evacuated to that point and brought their animals with us because they told us we could bring our animals.

COOPER: They were here for three days before evacuating and then the rules changed.

BAUER: They up and told us then that we couldn't take any of the animals with us, which everybody really went ballistic on and, you know, because that was like leaving your kids behind.

COOPER: One floor is littered with dog biscuits. We don't know how long after they left that the dogs were shot. But law enforcement and security experts say these bullets are the type used by law enforcement. The animal rescuers blame Saint Bernard Parish sheriff's deputies.


JACK STEPHENS, SHERIFF OF SAINT BERNARD PARISH POLICE DEPARTMENT: My reaction is disgust.

COOPER: Sheriff Jack Stephens said he did not give the order to exterminate any dogs but admits it's possible one or more of his own deputies might have done it, so he's handing the case over to the State's Attorney.

STEPHENS: The cards will fall where they may in this thing.

COOPER: Stevens does say his men left as residents evacuated, so it's possible some other group or some individuals in the chaos of the disaster shot these dogs.

STEPHENS: I'm certainly not prepared to say without reservation that it wasn't one of our officers that did it, but what I do know is it's a despicable act. And someone who did this has some imperfection in their psyche and if that someone is a law enforcement officer then they can't be in this business. They're in the wrong business.

COOPER: Another tragedy uncovered where the only thing certain right now is the innocence of the victims.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well since we recorded that video another site of dead, decomposing dogs was discovered and it looked like those dogs had bullet wounds as well. CNN has seen pictures of the second site, just pictures, but they are just too graphic to show you right now. Joining me now with more, animal rescue volunteer Kim Davis, who you just saw in that report. Kim, how did you find this place?

DAVIS: Actually, yesterday we were out doing rescues. We called a lady that was down in Saint Bernard Parish who has previously that day, asked for some help with some boat rescues so our group called her and asked if she still needed us to come down. She said that she had just been in that school and told us what she had found so we went on in there and discovered it all for ourselves and that's how we found out about it.

COOPER: And it's hard to sort of understand exactly what you were seeing. I mean, you saw animals without a doubt that had been shot, correct?

DAVIS: Absolutely, yes. Absolutely. The amounts of blood around --we saw shell casings from bullets all over the place. Bullet holes were in the dogs. You could see them in some of the legs, but primarily the amount of blood. The pools of blood were just horrific and they were obviously shot, obviously.

COOPER: And some of them were tied up at the time.

DAVIS: Yes. We saw two or three that had been taken into a room, they were tied up with mini-blind cords from the windows so that they were tied into a corner, I guess, and then it was able to hold them there so that they could be shot. And the cords were still tied to the collars as of now.

COOPER: And these were all animals that had been left behind by people who had gathered there, been told to gather there to evacuate. Correct?

DAVIS: Yes. They had gone there as an evacuation point. They had spent three days there and they all had their animals with them. This was a three-story building. Most of the animals were on the second and the third floors and according to what we've heard the water had receded enough to where when they came in three days after the storm they were told they had to evacuate. They could not take their pets, but the people absolutely had to leave. They were able to leave in trucks. They didn't even have to be boat evacuated; large trucks that could have accommodated the pets with them as well.

COOPER: It is mind boggling and disturbing and we are going to continue to follow this no doubt tomorrow. A lot more people will have heard of this and let's see what happens. Kim, I appreciate you bringing this to us. Thank you very much.

DAVIS: Thank you so much, Anderson.

COOPER: Well just ahead tonight, your tax dollars at work. FEMA paying out more than $230 million for cruise ships that are only about half full. There is more to the story than meets the eye, however. We'll show you all the sides.Plus a Waveland, Mississippi resident who lost everything to Katrina reflects on what's happened to him in the 30 days since his life changed forever.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Some expect relief for FEMA. It's a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. The agency paid hundreds of millions of dollars to rent cruise ships for the evacuees of Katrina, but now the ships are half empty and some people are wondering if your dollars have been wasted. Here's CNN's Chris Lawrence.

(BEING VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You're looking at one of the most expensive cruises money can buy, and you bought it. Your tax dollars fund FEMA which paid more than $230 million to Carnival Cruise Line. FEMA bought out three cruise ships for six months expecting close to 10,000 evacuees to live on board. There's fewer than 2,000 people still there.

REP JAY INSLEE, (D) WASHINGTON STATE: So it actually cost the taxpayers about $3,500 a week and you can go on a cruise for $599 a week.

LAWRENCE: Congressman Jay Inslee is one of many officials calling for a Chief Financial Officer to oversee Katrina's spending.

INSLEE: ...folks that we can actually send people on six months cruises for half the price we're paying to actually have people sit at the dock.

LAWRENCE: Before going to Carnival, consider this. The price wasn't calculated on a per-cabin basis. It was based on what Carnival would have earned if the ships were kept in regular service. All the money they normally get from casinos, liquor and shore excursions that are not open to evacuees. Carnival says, "In the end the company will make no additional money on this deal versus what we would have made by keeping these ships in service." We left several messages for FEMA officials and finally went down to the port ourselves.

LAWRENCE: We're doing a story on the FEMA contract. We're trying to talk to some of the evacuees up on the ship?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uh-huh. Well, you won't be able to do that, sir. You will have to get some authorization from FEMA.

LAWRENCE: We had better luck talking to this family, a New Orleans fire fighter living on board with his wife and kids.

DERRICK JONES, NEW ORLEANS FIRE DEPT: A lot of guys, you know, have been there since the storm. We hadn't seen our families, you know, we had no whereabouts where our family was.

LAWRENCE: The FEMA contract put families back together. It allowed first responders to go to work and come back to some sort of home. They have free use of the ship, 24-hour meals and activities for the kids.

JACQUELINE JONES, DERRICK'S WIFE: You know, words cannot express, it really can't. I mean, it is excellent. I don't know exactly what they paid but it's worth every dollar. Every dollar.

LAWRENCE: Chris Lawrence, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well the problem is, I mean, I know, Anderson, on the one hand, I mean there was this chaos and people had no place to live and they had to do something and you understand that, but it does speak to the need for someone to be watching how money is spent. There is so much money out there right now, so many billions of dollars out there and it's inconceivable to me that anyone's actually sitting there with a ledger keeping track of how it's all spent and whether it's all spent smartly and carefully and appropriately.

COOPER: Yeah and that's one of the things. And I think Chris did a good job on that piece kind of showing all the different sides, showing Carnival's side of the story, but you do, you want someone smart who's done contracts before to be watching over these things and not in a rush, often, that doesn't seem to be the case.You know, we have some other stories out of Waveland, Mississippi to share with you all tonight. First, perhaps one of the saddest ones that we've come across in our time in the last month in the Gulf Coast is about a family profoundly changed by this storm. The family survived but in a much smaller form. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: One month ago in Waveland we went along with a FEMA Urban Search and Rescue team from Virginia. They'd been told there was a family who had drowned inside this house, discovered by a neighbor, Sally Slaughter.

SALLY SLAUGHTER, WAVELAND RESIDENT: We went up in the attic and nothing. You know? So I looked out and they're right there, I mean right inside the window.

COOPER: The team found four members of the Bain family inside, Edgar and his wife Christine and their two disabled sons Carl and Edgar, Jr. In those first few days after the storm there were so many bodies in Waveland, so much work to be done, all the searchers could do is take pictures of the dead and mark the door.Today when we arrived at the house, the markings on the door were no longer visible and the Bain's two remaining children Laura and Serena were visiting inside.

SERENA BSIN: And this is the kitchen. This is where they had died.

COOPER: Laura is 25, Serena 18. Neither were at home when the storm hit but Laura had to identify her brothers' bodies.

LAURA BAIN: The only way we knew how to tell who he was from his feet. You know, we just knew what their feet looks like. I mean as far as looking at the face and the bodies, you just couldn't tell.

COOPER: So even looking at your brother's face you couldn't tell?

L BAIN: I couldn't tell who he was. I did not know.

S BAIN: All you could see is their lips.

COOPER: The storm washed away most of their family photos. All they have left are their parents' drivers' licenses and their brothers' high school IDs.

DEREK BAIN, SON OF LAURA BAIN: This is my aunt here named Christy and that's my Uncle Carl behind there.

COOPER: Laura's son Derek is just 5. He doesn't quite understand what's happened to his grandmother.

D BAIN: No, cause my maw-maw died, that's why I got to talk to her.

COOPER: When you talk to them what do you talk to them about?

DBAIN: I tell them a lot of stuff. I tell them I love them too. I tell my maw-maw I love her too.

COOPER: Laura and Serena are struggling not just with the death of their parents and their brothers but they're also struggling to find a place to live and a way to rebuild.What's going to happen tomorrow?

L BAIN: We don't know. We're just basically living day-by-day because we can't tell you what's going to happen tomorrow. We can't even -- I couldn't even tell you where I'll be, you know, who I'm going to be with. I mean it's just -- it's terrible.

COOPER: Both women try to remember their parents as they lived, not as they died. But it's hard for them not to imagine what happened when the water came in.

S BAIN: It's like I'm imagining what happened, what my mom was thinking, what they were doing at the time, you know when the water was coming, what they were thinking.

COOPER: Yesterday was Christina Bain's birthday. She would have been 45 years old. Her daughters say they'll try to celebrate somehow, but the memories of her death are hard to forget.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Two survivors of the storm who are of course forever changed. In Waveland, after Katrina, like in many other towns and cities, there were a lot of heated questions. You might remember an interview I had with Charles Kearney whose home was destroyed by Katrina. Listen to what he said in those days right after the storm.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLES KEARNEY, KATRINA VICTIM FROM WAVELAND, TEXAS: Well the hell are the people? Why are people dying, you know, because -- don't tell me because -- I'll tell you why. Because there's not enough National Guard troops to come here. They're all already dispersed. You know, I hate to go there but I mean, why else can it be?

COOPER: You mean they're dispersed in Iraq?

KEARNEY: Yeah. Iraq and everywhere else.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Well, that was earlier this month. As I said today we caught up with Charles to see what's happened to him over the last thirty days and what may happen in the future. Here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEARNEY: The response from the private organizations has been phenomenal. There is a church that has set up in the K-Mart parking lot that has set up showers and cooking three hot meals a day. Forgive me I don't know the name of it and I should because they've been a Godsend to this community. In terms of FEMA and the America Red Cross, they are here now and they are trying to help now but in terms of actual response time immediately following the storm it's frustrating. We have taken care of ourselves here and I really, you know, am deeply upset with the response that this town has got.COOPER: Still immediate anger having worn off in the cold light of day you still think it was slow and not nearly fast enough?

KEARNEY: No question about it. No question about it. We had people living in parking lots with absolutely nothing. I'll say this, the National Guard got here and delivered as much ice and water as people could carry and that was great. My family and I were fortunate enough to get out, but we drove back in everyday which is when we met you and we bring as much food and water as we could afford to bring at the time. By the fourth day everyone had all the ice and water they needed, but in terms of any kind of living, I mean tents, anything. No, I don't even think that's here now.

COOPER: Last time I saw you it was with you and your wife. You were going through your home looking for some videotapes. You found the videotapes, you were trying to play your guitar, not very well I might add, but I didn't want to say so then. Do you go back to the house? Have you been able to salvage more?

KEARNEY: I've gone back to the house several times and it's crazy because even it's -- it's devastation it's still a very comforting place to be. I mean, I am sort of moved on to the second phase of this and looking forward to getting home and rebuilding our lives here in Waveland.

COOPER: How does this work, though? I mean, the logistics of it all. Are you still paying your mortgage on your house, which is destroyed?

KEARNEY: At this point I've gotten a 90-day reprieve from my mortgage and it remains to be seen what's going to happen based upon the insurance settlement, if in fact that actually goes through. I'm optimistic about that. However, at this point I don't know.

COOPER: At this point what should people know about what you have been through, what your neighbors have been through in this community?

KEARNEY: Be prepared to get out. Take everything that's important and we are very resilient community here and this is home. We will be back. We are the South. We will live on. This is our home. It's a great place to be.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Charles Kearney. As we go to break, a look at the wild fire raging in southern California. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Okay a quick check of the morning papers from around the country.

If you don't have anything to be annoyed about today, here's something. Comes out of Stars and Stripes, military newspaper: "GI Still Waiting for Armor Reimbursement. DOD (Department of Defense) now ready to pay troops for equipment they purchased."

Come on.

These guys went out and bought armor because you didn't. Pay them.

No criminal charges in alleged swap of gory war pics for porn.

How sick is that?

Yikes.

Washington Post: Roberts confirmed that this is the right lead. Like they need me to clarify that for them. "Roberts confirmed the 17th Chief Justice."

Story of note to those in our business, "New York Times reporter Judy Miller released from jail. Miller to testify in CIA leak probe." It turns out her source, to no ones surprise, Scooter Libby as the Chief of Staff of the Vice President. So the source on this was, this was the plain thing he got. He got Carl Rove and you got Scooter Libby. And whoever was talking about Bob Novak? He ought to tell us what that was about too.

Here in Chicago tomorrow the weather will knock your socks off and that's because the White Sox clinched the pennant.

We'll wrap up the hour in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Does it seem like 30 days you've been on the road?

COOPER: You know it some ways it does just because I fell -- I'm pretty tired and all of us are pretty tired. We have a great team that has been working hard. But it some ways it's been a blink of an eye and it's been an honor and a privilege, I feel every day to be here with these people.

BROWN: Well it's been an honor and privilege to watch the work that you and everybody did. You've done a terrific job. Travel safely tomorrow. I know you're traveling. We'll talk and we'll see you all tomorrow night. "LARRY KING" is up next.

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