MSNBC - The Situation - 2005-09-08 - 1 of 2

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Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)

[0:00] some of Oregon's the coast of Florida.

[0:01] That's Hurricane Oilia is looming right

[0:03] now ominously. We'll bring you more.

[0:05] First though, a rundown of the day's top

[0:07] news tonight. Congress approved and sent

[0:09] to President Bush a $51.8 billion aid

[0:13] package for relief from Hurricane

[0:15] Katrina. President Bush said Vice

[0:17] President Cheney to both Mississippi and

[0:19] New Orleans today. Cheney laughed off a

[0:21] profane heckler in Gulfport,

[0:23] Mississippi. Then he called the progress

[0:24] of relief efforts quote impressive.

[0:27] Meanwhile, thousands of evacuees queued

[0:30] up at the Astrodome in Houston in hopes

[0:32] of receiving $2,000 debit cards from the

[0:34] federal government. They'd been promised

[0:36] those, or so they thought. Tonight,

[0:38] however, the New York Times is reporting

[0:39] that after a one-day trial, FEMA has

[0:41] decided not to issue those cards after

[0:44] all. Also at this hour, Hurricane Oilia,

[0:46] a category 1 storm looms off the coast

[0:49] of Florida. An update from NBC Weather

[0:51] Plus ahead in the hour. Let's go now to

[0:54] David Schuster who joins us as he has

[0:56] every night live from Canal Street in

[0:59] New Orleans. David, what's the latest

[1:00] down there?

[1:02] >> Well, Tucker, the latest is there's

[1:03] still very much a focus on trying to get

[1:05] the people who want to be rescued. Uh

[1:07] there a lot of talk, of course, about

[1:08] forcible removals as far as people who

[1:11] don't want to leave, but they're still

[1:12] finding a lot of people alive who they

[1:13] simply haven't been able to get to yet.

[1:15] So, in the air, you can hear the

[1:17] helicopters and you can see the convoys

[1:19] rolling out to try to find these people.

[1:21] Uh we actually went with one of the

[1:23] convoys that was run by a National Guard

[1:25] unit from Lincoln, Nebraska. Uh they

[1:27] went in vehicles that are not really

[1:29] equipped for this sort of thing. These

[1:30] are light armored vehicles that can go

[1:32] in about five or six feet of water. Uh

[1:35] they are not designed for anything much

[1:36] deeper than that. And you can see from

[1:38] the video that in some places they were

[1:39] in areas that the water seemed to be

[1:41] deeper. And of course, there was a

[1:42] problem today and that some of these

[1:44] vehicles repeatedly got stuck because of

[1:46] the debris under the water or simply

[1:48] because the water was too deep and they

[1:50] couldn't get much traction. But these

[1:51] are the sort of people, Tucker, that you

[1:53] would trust your lives with. And it just

[1:55] it breaks your heart when you see them

[1:57] spending hour upon hour out there and

[2:00] they're trying to get the vehicles

[2:01] beyond some of the debris. They go into

[2:03] some of these homes, there's nobody

[2:04] home. And beyond that, there are the

[2:06] chain of command issues that these guys

[2:08] have to deal with. The lieutenant

[2:09] colonel was the commander of this

[2:10] particular unit. and he was getting

[2:12] Blackberry messages from the Pentagon

[2:14] asking why he hadn't filled out a

[2:16] particular form or a particular report

[2:18] last night saying that he needed to do

[2:20] that before he went on any more

[2:21] missions. And so clearly there's a

[2:22] bureaucracy that is now in place as far

[2:24] as the military is concerned, but there

[2:26] are also chain of command issues. This

[2:28] very same commander uh at one point

[2:30] wanted to try to get a convoy of flatbed

[2:32] trucks, but that was under the

[2:33] jurisdiction of another commander who he

[2:35] couldn't find. So the flatbed truck

[2:37] simply couldn't go along. But in any

[2:38] case, after a couple of hours of

[2:40] searching through through some of the

[2:41] neighborhoods today, uh they did not

[2:43] find anybody uh to be rescued. But when

[2:46] we got out of the water, we were driving

[2:47] back on Highway 10 towards downtown and

[2:49] lo and behold, two people simply popped

[2:52] up who had decided they had had enough.

[2:53] They crawled up onto the highway and

[2:55] essentially asked for a ride. Here's

[2:57] what one of them had to say.

[3:00] >> The rescue people, you know, coming by

[3:01] and asking we wanted to leave and we

[3:04] refused. So they were giving us food and

[3:06] we had water. We had a lot of water. It

[3:08] was just that we we was eating

[3:10] food, you know, better food like that.

[3:12] And we had plus we had can before we

[3:14] start going that in order can good.

[3:18] >> That was Thomas Coleman. He's actually a

[3:20] veteran of Vietnam. He apparently had

[3:22] plenty of supplies and rescue workers

[3:24] over the last couple of days had been

[3:25] bringing him supplies and finally said,

[3:26] "You know what? I'm going to honor the

[3:27] request that I leave the city." He

[3:29] realized the water wasn't going down

[3:30] very fast and he was running out of

[3:32] materials, but that's how it's been

[3:33] going here. Tucker David, can you

[3:35] clarify the conflicting the still

[3:37] conflicting reports we're getting about

[3:38] the nature of the evacuation? Is it

[3:40] forced or not? From from our vantage,

[3:42] it's not clear. We keep hearing it is

[3:44] and then it's not. Is it?

[3:47] >> Well, from what we can tell, Tucker, it

[3:49] it depends on the neighborhood. There

[3:50] are some neighborhoods that were

[3:52] apparently pretty dry that are some

[3:54] pretty tough neighborhoods where they

[3:55] fear that a lot of people there have

[3:57] guns and that they're not going to leave

[3:58] under any circumstances. So, for

[4:00] example, at this very hour, there are

[4:02] SWAT teams using night vision goggles

[4:04] and using helicopters with infrared

[4:06] sensing to try to figure out where are

[4:08] these groups of people and those areas.

[4:10] There may be some sort of forcible

[4:12] removal or at least removal at the end

[4:14] of a gun. As far as the stuff you see

[4:16] during the day, though, it is pretty

[4:18] much sort of focused on trying to grab

[4:19] the people, uh, trying to get people and

[4:22] essentially encourage them to leave,

[4:23] saying, "Look, we're here. here. We've

[4:25] been bringing you supplies as that last

[4:26] man had supplies for the last couple

[4:28] days, but now is the time to leave. The

[4:30] water is simply too hazardous. And when

[4:32] you have somebody armed to the teeth who

[4:34] knocks on your door and says, "You know

[4:35] what? It's now time for you to go." Most

[4:37] of the people that they can get to are

[4:39] agreeing that they should go.

[4:41] >> Yeah, automatic weapons are persuasive

[4:42] that way. David Schuster, great reporter

[4:45] and a good guy, joining us yet again

[4:47] from Canal Street in New Orleans. Thanks

[4:49] a lot, David.

[4:50] >> Thanks, Tucker. Take care.

[4:51] >> Thanks. NBC News reporter Ron Blom was

[4:53] up the coast in Buxy, Mississippi, where

[4:55] many residents are still waiting for

[4:57] help. Ron,

[4:59] >> that's right, Tucker. The vice president

[5:01] joined many other administration

[5:02] officials who've been visiting the

[5:04] hurricane damaged Gulf Coast of

[5:06] Mississippi. The president, of course,

[5:07] has been here twice. Uh Condi Rice was

[5:09] here over the weekend and the Secretary

[5:11] of Veterans Affairs was here just

[5:13] yesterday. All of them trying to show

[5:15] concern for the administration. The vice

[5:16] president said he really wanted to come

[5:18] in and praise the efforts of those who

[5:19] were getting it done right. He was

[5:21] talking about the 28 states that have

[5:23] fielded National Guard units here, about

[5:24] all of the local law enforcement that

[5:26] have been coming in from around the

[5:28] country and all of the aid groups. And

[5:29] on the way there, we saw another aid

[5:31] trailer. It was coming in from Montana.

[5:32] Truly a nationwide response to the Gulf

[5:35] Coast. The vice president didn't talk

[5:37] about FEMA too much other than to say

[5:38] that they had thousands of trailers that

[5:40] they were positioning to get into the

[5:42] coast. After all, 18,000 people are

[5:44] still in shelters in this state. And the

[5:46] death toll in Mississippi has now topped

[5:48] 200 as they continue to sift through the

[5:50] debris and wreckage. And as much

[5:52] progress as you see here in Mississippi,

[5:54] the lights are on, traffic flowing

[5:56] normally, almost all the way out to the

[5:58] coast, you still hear things that make

[6:00] you realize that they are very much in

[6:02] the stages of of that early recovery and

[6:05] finding people. A Mississippi highway

[6:07] patrolman who was at an OES briefing

[6:09] today said that their helicopters flying

[6:11] a little further inland are still seeing

[6:13] people who were waving them down with

[6:15] sheets and flags and trying to signal

[6:17] them and when they land they're finding

[6:19] people who are still cut off from

[6:20] supplies and they're dropping off water

[6:22] and ice and marking the position on the

[6:24] map so they can try to get rescue

[6:25] officials in there. Also, the National

[6:27] Guard and FEMA is finally getting into

[6:30] some of the smaller communities on the

[6:31] coast like Purlington and Pass Christian

[6:34] where some of the relief had been held

[6:35] back for a little while. They are still

[6:38] uh promising to have most of the

[6:40] electricity on here by the end of the

[6:42] weekend. And today, some international

[6:44] help arrived. A couple of plane loads of

[6:46] CS and clothing and blankets from

[6:48] England and from France came in on some

[6:50] Airbus Airbus freighter airplanes. So,

[6:53] all in all, the Gulf Coast, while

[6:55] devastated, is starting to bring it back

[6:56] together, but but don't want to tell you

[6:58] or suggest that all of this is uh is in

[7:01] any way completely put back together.

[7:03] There's so much to be done. So many

[7:05] people still in the shelters. That's the

[7:07] latest from Buxy. Back to you, Tucker.

[7:09] Thanks, Ron. NBC's Ron Blow in Buxy,

[7:11] Mississippi. Well, all week we've been

[7:12] bringing you the stories of ordinary

[7:14] Americans who stepped up when government

[7:16] didn't offered their help, volunteered

[7:18] to help the thousands displaced by

[7:20] Hurricane Katrina. One of those joins us

[7:22] tonight. His name is Bill Omen. He's

[7:24] from Maine. He is offered his house in

[7:26] Maine outside the town of Bethl, one of

[7:28] the prettiest towns on the planet to a

[7:30] family, the Dhakans from New Orleans. Uh

[7:32] he joins us now along with Jay Dak. And

[7:34] thanks a lot uh for joining us both. Uh

[7:36] Mr. Man, first tell me, how did you a

[7:40] decide to do this and b find a family in

[7:42] New Orleans to whom you could offer your

[7:44] home?

[7:45] >> Hi Tucker. Uh I was reading the New York

[7:48] Times about a week ago and there was an

[7:51] article that the only uh media running

[7:53] in New Orleans was the Times Pikyune. So

[7:56] I went to the website and uh I posted a

[8:00] little note saying that there was a

[8:02] house available in Maine um for a family

[8:05] for the school year and that uh there

[8:10] were good schools and not too much in

[8:13] the way of job opportunities, but

[8:16] threeline note and I just left it there

[8:19] and I got a couple of calls back.

[8:22] >> That that is amazing. Did was there did

[8:24] you go through authorities? I mean was

[8:26] was did government intersect with this

[8:28] process at any point or was it just you?

[8:31] >> No sir, I did that just on my own

[8:34] impulse.

[8:35] >> And so no one from FEMA or the state of

[8:37] Louisiana or the state of Maine or the

[8:39] White House has gotten in touch with

[8:40] you. You just did this by yourself.

[8:42] >> That is correct.

[8:43] >> Good for you. Now, Jay Dhakan, um, how

[8:46] did you hook up with Bill Oman?

[8:49] >> Uh, my husband and I, the only

[8:51] communication we had with New Orleans

[8:53] was through the internet. And while

[8:55] going on the internet, through the

[8:57] services of the hotel, uh, we picked up

[9:00] on the, uh, offer, and went back to the

[9:03] room, made a phone call, and went from

[9:06] there.

[9:06] >> Had you ever been to Maine before?

[9:09] >> Never. So it's sort of a I mean Bethl

[9:12] Maine or west of Bethl Maine where you

[9:14] are right now is not at all like New

[9:15] Orleans where you

[9:17] >> No, we're totally out of our climate.

[9:20] >> So the the weather there is about

[9:22] comparable to what January in New

[9:23] Orleans. How you liking it?

[9:26] >> Well, that's what they woke up yesterday

[9:28] morning. It was 49°

[9:30] and they said, "This is January. Turn on

[9:32] the heat."

[9:35] >> Now, how many children did you bring

[9:36] with you? How many children do you have?

[9:37] >> Uh I I have one child. Uh she's 13

[9:41] >> and she is at Telstar High School, one

[9:43] of the great high schools in the

[9:44] country. Is that right?

[9:45] >> Uh Telstar Middle School, seventh grade,

[9:48] and yes, it's an excellent school. Ex

[9:50] excellent curriculum.

[9:51] >> Now, did you uh Mrs. Dean at any point

[9:54] go through the government or did you you

[9:56] just saw the ad and went? Did you talk

[9:58] to authorities?

[9:58] >> Oh, yeah. My husband and I just saw the

[10:01] ad. We we discussed it. Uh our main

[10:03] priority was trying to get our daughter

[10:05] back to some normality and a schedule.

[10:08] Uh that's what Bill was offering. Uh

[10:10] basically after speaking for about an

[10:13] hour I guess we were on the same page

[10:16] and without anyone but our instinct and

[10:18] our will to you know rise from all this.

[10:21] We headed out.

[10:22] >> So when you wake up in the morning and

[10:25] you open your eyes and you realize

[10:26] you're not where you used to be but

[10:28] you're someplace you've never been

[10:29] before. How do you feel?

[10:31] >> Um a little distant. Uh, but Maine has

[10:36] been just incredible. They've opened

[10:38] their homes, their hearts, the

[10:40] generosity. It's just overwhelming. So,

[10:43] even though I do miss home a lot, I am

[10:47] beginning to become very, very

[10:49] comfortable here. Bill, how I mean, how

[10:51] is it candidly to have a family of

[10:53] people you've never met before move on

[10:56] to your property, into your home? How is

[10:57] that is it what you thought it would be?

[11:01] >> Well, there are two answers to that,

[11:02] Tucker. One is I'm in the very lucky

[11:05] position which most Americans who want

[11:07] to help folks are not in, which is that

[11:09] I've got a totally separate guest house

[11:11] on my property. So, they're not living

[11:13] inside my four walls. And that's kind of

[11:16] important because that's tough to do

[11:17] with a with a family. Um, the second

[11:21] part of it is, uh, no, this is really no

[11:25] interference with my life. Uh, these

[11:28] folks will get their lives together over

[11:30] the next six or eight months. and uh it

[11:33] won't be a big strain on me at all.

[11:36] >> Bill Oman, Jay Dakin, if I can just add

[11:39] a piece of editorial advice here, stay

[11:41] there. It's really one of the great

[11:42] places in the world. I used to live

[11:43] about 8 miles from where you're

[11:44] standing. If you can find a job,

[11:46] >> I read about

[11:47] >> I would never leave.

[11:47] >> I read about that.

[11:48] >> Yeah.

[11:49] >> Yeah. We're really we're really we're

[11:50] really starting to really acclimate and

[11:53] and feel like home.

[11:56] >> That's terrific. Well, congratulations

[11:57] to you. And God bless you, Bill Alman,

[12:00] for being so generous. Thanks for coming

[12:02] on.

[12:02] >> You're kind.

[12:03] >> Thank you, Tucker.

[12:04] >> Thanks.

[12:05] >> Still to come in the situation, there

[12:06] are hurricane evacuees all over America

[12:09] by now, including Washington DC. And

[12:11] today, some of them marched in protest

[12:13] at the White House. One of those

[12:14] protesters joins me next. Plus, it's now

[12:17] been 10 days since Hurricane Katrina's

[12:19] deadly landfall. Will Hurricane Oilia

[12:22] deal the US yet another disastrous blow?

[12:25] Latest from our Weather Plus center as

[12:27] the situation develops.

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