Inside Hurricane Katrina Page #8

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There are too many looters

to round up

and too few police officers.

National guard troops are not

handling law enforcement,

because Governor Blanco

has made search and rescue

their top priority.

Rumors begin to spread

of rampant violence

in the Superdome

and the convention center...

Tales of widespread homicide,

assault and gang rapes.

The national media

report many of the rumors

as confirmed facts.

Most will turn out to be either

false or highly exaggerated.

Estimates of 200 dead bodies

in the Superdome

turned out to be untrue.

A total of six people died

in the stadium;

four of natural causes, one from

an overdose and one suicide.

Horror stories of mass murder

inside the convention center

also turn out to be

way off the mark.

Police recover four bodies.

One is a homicide victim.

And I love the press, I mean...

It's just that their perspective

of what they're seeing

and they're hearing,

then it becomes

circular reporting.

One person reported it was two,

the next time you hear it,

it's five.

Narrator:
Nonetheless,

these two buildings.

And the anguished people

inside them

become the public face

of an unfolding catastrophe,

the kind that

most Americans associate

more with the third world

than with their own country.

I don't have a home.

I had a home downtown.

But it's gone.

It's under the water.

I have nothing.

Nothing!

We have over 3,000 people

out here

with no home, no shelter.

What are they gonna do?

What we gonna do?

Narrator:
The plight

of Katrina's victims.

Touches people

all across the country,

including this man,

the owner of a bus company

in a small town

outside Minneapolis.

He and his friends

start a local relief effort.

We collected over 90,000 pounds

of food and supplies in probably

about a 24-hour period.

Narrator:
They caravan down

to Louisiana,

driving through the night,

six buses and a truck.

They deliver their food

and emergency supplies

to hurricane victims

in Shreveport and natchitoches.

Bentonville, Arkansas.

Wal-Mart's emergency

operation center.

What started a week ago

as an emergency effort

to stock its stores

has evolved.

It's now a cooperative

relief effort

with the red cross

in Mississippi and Louisiana.

Man:
We needed to start sending

five trailers a day.

In to support Jefferson Parish.

To provide them water, dry food.

And I remember there was

one load of chainsaws

to help cut some of

the people out of the buildings.

Narrator:
Wednesday afternoon.

Washington, D.C.

President Bush returns

to the white house

and convenes a cabinet meeting.

Bush and his advisors debate

whether the federal government

should try to take over

the relief effort

and take command

of the Louisiana national guard.

According to published reports,

the president calls

Governor Blanco on Wednesday

to float this idea,

but cannot persuade her.

In the weeks to come,

aides to Blanco acknowledge

that the Governor spoke

to the president on this day,

but firmly deny that Mr. bush

made any such offer.

It's an issue of control.

If she had allowed the president

to take over the national guard,

she feared

political recrimination.

Here again is where politics

immediately takes part,

enters into these

considerations.

Narrator:
Confusion

about who's responsible.

For what relief effort

is a problem reverberating

all along the Gulf coast.

FEMA, red cross.

They got a few feeding trucks

into the areas.

But the assistance

that you would typically think

for a storm of this magnitude in

an area that was so hardly hit,

they just didn't show up.

Narrator:
New Orleans.

Wednesday night.

Buses arrive at the Superdome

to begin the evacuation,

but one group

of New Orleans residents

is already being evacuated.

Not by the city,

the state, or FEMA.

This young man,

20-year-old jabbar Gibson,

commandeers a school bus.

He loads it up with people

in need of shelter,

and off they go to Texas.

10:
35 P.M.

Gibson arrives

at the Houston astrodome.

He deposits his passengers

at the newly designated shelter.

TV networks replay the footage

of Gibson at the wheel.

In the midst of a crisis

that's overwhelming government

at all levels,

here, at least,

is a private citizen

seizing the moment,

acting heroically.

But people are wondering,

where are the public officials

who should be doing the same?

Thursday, September 1, 2005.

7:
00 A.M. eastern time.

On abc's good morning America,

President Bush offers a comment

about Hurricane Katrina

that kicks up

a political dust storm.

I don't think anybody

anticipated

the breach of the levees.

Narrator:
Some experts

had in fact warned.

That the levees might fail

if a big hurricane

swept through New Orleans.

The president said

he's gonna lead

the investigation

into what went wrong.

He need look only in the mirror.

Where in God's name

were the people

who were supposed

to get water and support?

People were dying there, what

in heaven's name was happening?

Narrator:
Next target

for outrage:

The slow evacuation

of the Superdome.

It will take three days

to transport all 20,000

stranded evacuees

to Houston and elsewhere.

Have the guys

put it on the ground

and send these trucks

back for another load.

Yes, sir.

Make that happen now.

Yes, sir.

Narrator:

Army general Russel Honore.

Is in charge of the transport.

To many observers, Honore is

the first official on the scene

who seems to be

actually taking charge.

This whole humanitarian thing

comes down to logistics.

You can't get buses in there

because of the water.

Then we could get them in there,

we had to bring them in

two at a time.

Narrator:
The red cross offers

its services in New Orleans,

but Louisiana officials

will decline the offer.

They tell the red cross they

cannot guarantee their safety,

and that red cross vehicles

might disrupt rescue efforts.

Mississippi.

Getting aid to some hurricane

victims is time consuming

because the population

is so spread out.

Woman:
George w. Bush,

get out the white house

and come help us.

Man:
Police ain't helping.

There's been one salvation army

truck come by.

You know, they set up

over there.

They stood there about

three hours, they were gone.

Narrator:
Help can't come

fast enough for New Orleans.

Massive sandbags

start to plug the hole

in the 17th street canal

to keep floodwaters at bay.

National guard troops

now begin to retake the city.

Their mission

is to go door to door

and look for survivors.

Search and rescue.

Call out, make a noise.

We're here to help.

Some of them didn't want

to evacuate with us,

and, you know, we didn't want

to let people back out

into the city.

We didn't want

to have to come in

and rescue again

in those conditions.

Narrator:
New Orleans police

team up with other rescuers.

Narrator:
This officer trudges

through knee-deep water.

To see if anyone

is trapped inside here.

[Knocking]

Good news.

At least she's not there.

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