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Quick Guide & Transcript: Hurricane Katrina, Week in Review
RELATEDSPECIAL REPORTCNN STUDENT NEWS(CNN Student News) -- September 2, 2005 Quick GuideTeachers: Please prescreen this program, as it contains some disturbing images that may not be appropriate for all students. Hurricane Katrina - Observe some of the worst effects of a disastrous hurricane. Relief Efforts - Get a firsthand account of the desperation faced by refugees at the New Orleans Convention Center. Week in Review - Review the events that threatened, lashed and laid waste to a region of the United States. TranscriptTHIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. MONICA LLOYD, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Hey, thanks for checking in with Student News for this Friday...I'm Monica Lloyd. From bad to worse... The need for help hangs over thousands of refugees in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. But signs of relief are appearing from all directions. From the Superdome, to the Astrodome. Hundreds who sought shelter in one stadium, are moved to another with far better conditions. And from a threat, to a disaster. We'll backtrack over the past few days to show you how we got from a dangerous storm to a desperate situation. First Up: Hurricane Katrina Aftermath The scope of destruction from Hurricane Katrina is gradually coming into focus. Louisiana's governor said on Thursday that though no official count has been made, she expected the death toll to reach into the thousands. And parts of Mississippi's Gulf Coast are unrecognizable, with entire cities nearly leveled. Adora Udoji has our first report of the day, in which you'll see some of the worst effects of this disastrous storm. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REFUGEES: We want help, we want help. ADORA UDOJI, CNN REPORTER: Three days after Hurricane Katrina, and the situation is getting more desperate by the minute. Thousands are still stranded in misery. REFUGEE: No food, no water, helicopters flying over our heads. This is ridiculous. We got to go. The city's mayor issued a desperate SOS, saying: "Currently the convention center is unsanitary and unsafe, and we are running out of supplies for 15 to 20 thousand people. We are now allowing people to march." They are marching in search of food, water, and relief. They are surrounded by a crumbling city and dead bodies. Infants have no formula, children no food. Nothing for adults. No medical help. REFUGEE: New Orleans is hot. We can't take this. We've been out here for three days. We've been asking for help. UDOJI: Just to the northwest, signs of hope. A convoy of buses continued to ferry the more than 25-thousand people sheltered in the Superdome to their new home... the Houston Astrodome. Some lined up outside the stadium, desperate to escape. The buses stopped rolling, at least for awhile, after reports people were shooting at rescue workers. Those buses began arriving in Houston, filled with refugees, who are at once resigned, exhausted and shell-shocked. EVACUEE: I'm tired, I need a bed. I need a bath. I'm just overdue for everything. UDOJI: For those left behind in New Orleans, there is anger and fear. Looting and violence are now rampant on the streets. Some took only what they needed to survive. Others took whatever they could: appliances, clothes, guns. Police abandoned their rescue and recovery operations to try to restore order, a seemingly impossible task, with too few officers and communication that is sketchy at best. The governor could only say help is on the way. GOVERNOR KATHLEEN BLANCO, LOUISIANA: Looting and utter lawlessness will not be tolerated. I have instructed all our law enforcement personnel at the state and local level to strictly enforce Louisiana laws and to use necessary force. UDOJI: While it's hard to take your eyes off the horrors happening in New Orleans, other towns hit hard by Katrina are struggling, too. In Biloxi, Mississippi, the grim task of searching for the dead goes on amid unfathomable destruction. The town of Gulfport has all but disappeared under piles of debris that were once seaside homes. While these desperate people beg for help, the government struggles to answer the question why? Why is help so slow in getting the victims of Katrina? All they can say is, we're doing all that we can. MICHAEL CHERTOFF, SEC. OF HOMELAND SECURITY: We continue to pour in additional supplies every hour in this area. Massive quantities of water, ice and food, 5.6 million MRE's, over 13 million liters of water. We have 2,800 National Guard in New Orleans as we speak today. 1,400 additional National Guard military police trained soldiers will be arriving every day. UDOJI: Adora Udoji, CNN, Kenner, Louisiana. (END VIDEO CLIP) Relief Efforts LLOYD: Now we'd like to bring you a close-up on the desperate situation facing refugees at the New Orleans Convention Center. This is a place where people with nowhere else to go have gathered, surrounded by filthy trash and raw sewage. Chris Lawrence gives us a sense of what it's like to live beneath the overhang of a roof. CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN REPORTER: It is just heartbreaking that these people have just been sitting there. Without food, without water, waiting for these buses to take them away. And they keep asking us, when are the buses coming? And you just have to say, "I don't know. I really don't know." What these people are saying basically is, 'give us some water, give us some food. Don't leave us here to die, or get us out of here.' They're saying, 'we're stuck here. We can't leave. They don't send the buses, they won't take us out of here and yet they won't come in with truckloads of water and food to feed us.' And you've got sick people there, old people there, and these young babies are there. And they're saying, 'what are they going to do, are they going to leave us there to die?' FEMA Efforts LLOYD: But on Thursday, relief did begin to drop in. A National Guard helicopter delivered bottles of water and military MRE's -- meals ready to eat -- to the thousands stranded at the convention center. In addition, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, says it has deployed 14-hundred medical personnel to the region... As well as 18-hundred search and rescue workers. And the Army Corps of Engineers was busy closing up a breach where a canal was flooding into the city. How to Help LLOYD: Private donations help keep relief coming to those who need it. And if you have the means, here's how you can help: Call the Red Cross at one-800-help now. Operation blessing can be reached at 1-800-730-2537. And America's Second Harvest is accepting donations, at 1-800-344-8070. Week in Review LLOYD: We'd like to take a moment now to bring you up to speed on some other stories that made headlines this week. In Iraq, lawmakers announced they had approved a draft of the country's constitution, over objections from many Sunni Arabs. The document was largely supported by majority Shiite Arabs, as well as the Kurdish ethnic group. A national referendum, or vote on the document, is scheduled for October 15th. And though it can't be amended at this time, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq implied that there could be more editing of the draft constitution, in an effort to increase support for it. Grim news out of the country's capital soon followed. That's where millions of pilgrims were celebrating a Muslim holy day, when a stampede broke out. The chaos reportedly began when the rumor spread that there was a suicide bomber within the throng of pilgrims. There wasn't, but the suggestion caused panic and led to the deaths of almost a thousand people. But much of our focus this week has been on Hurricane Katrina, and its aftermath. Here's Deanna Morawski with our look back at the storm as it came ashore and the crisis that has developed since. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DEANNA MORAWSKI, CNN STUDENT NEWS REPORTER: As Katrina spun toward shore last weekend, authorities issued urgent warnings for the Gulf Coast. The mayor of New Orleans ordering a mandatory evacuation for his entire city. RAY NAGIN, MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS: I do not want to create panic, but I do want the citizens to understand that this is very serious, and it's of the highest nature, and that's why were taking this unprecedented move. MORAWSKI: This was the scene as residents fled - highways jammed throughout the region. Some 25-thousand who didn't leave sought shelter in the Superdome - considered by some the safest place in New Orleans. Monday morning, Katrina stormed ashore between Grand Isle, Louisiana, and the mouth of the Mississippi river... A ruthless Category 4 hurricane with 140 mile-per-hour winds. The force of the storm completely destroyed much of the Gulf Coast, leveling buildings from Louisiana to Alabama. MAN ON THE STREET: I'm lost. That's all I had. That's all I had. MORAWSKI: A storm surge toppled New Orleans' levee system, leaving most of the city under water, in some places, as much as 20 feet deep. More than 2 million people lost power. U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: We are dealing with one of the worst natural disasters in our nation's history. MORAWSKI: Rescue teams scrambled to help stranded survivors, many forced to wait out the days in unsanitary conditions... Without food... Without water. Many are still waiting. And many on the outside are waiting for word that loved ones are ok. MAN ON THE STREET: If anyone knows anything about any of my family members. Please. Help them. Help them get to a phone, help them get to a computer. MORAWSKI: Making the situation even more desperate... Rampant looting and other crimes. MAN ON THE STREET: It's like a battle zone. You gotta survive. MORAWSKI: It's too early to know how many people perished, but Louisiana officials believe it will be in the thousands in their state alone. As for the tens of thousands of evacuees, it may be weeks - if not months - before they can return. Even then, they have little to return to. For CNN Student News, I'm Deanna Morawski. (END VIDEO CLIP) Goodbye LLOYD: A quick reminder, we'll be off on Monday for Labor Day but we'll return on Tuesday right here on Headline News. See you then. 
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