Expansive Katrina Damage Seen by Helicopter

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

President Bush was in the Gulf Coast today to see Hurricane Katrina's devastation for himself. Before boarding his helicopter, Marine One, on the South Lawn, the president responded to criticism of the federal relief effort.

President GEORGE W. BUSH: The results are not acceptable. I'm headed down there right now. I'm looking forward to talking to the people on the ground. I want to assure the people of the affected areas and this country that we'll deploy the assets necessary to get the situation under control, to get the help to the people who've been affected and that we're beginning long-term planning.

SIEGEL: One of those who briefed Mr. Bush when he arrived in Mobile, Alabama, was Coast Guard Captain Jim Bjostad. We've spoken to Captain Bjostad several times. His pilots still are running rescue missions across the Gulf Coast. I asked him what he was hearing from the men and women under his command.

Captain JIM BJOSTAD (US Coast Guard): Well, sir, they tell me a number of stories. First, they're holding up very well. These are the finest professionals that I've ever had the privilege to work with. They are saving people right and left. They're chopping their way through roofs to get to people that are trapped. They're finding elderly folks that have been holed up in their houses for four days and have nothing but a cell phone, and they're actually helping us find them by telling us to look for a big flag next to a Dunkin' Donuts sign. And then we can vector a helicopter in to them and they come outside and they wave to us.

SIEGEL: When you spoke to me on Monday, the Coast Guard had already, I think, rescued about a hundred people and you had had a list of 200 addresses that you were trying to pinpoint and get to. Do you still have a list, and how many addresses are there on that list that you still have to get to?

Capt. BJOSTAD: Well, since we spoke this operation here has expanded exponentially. I don't know how many there are. I know that I have people working 24 hours a day to receive phone calls, to receive information from any source possible and frequently it's phone calls from family that are receiving phone calls around the country from people that are trapped.

SIEGEL: The first time that we spoke this week you said that after the rescue mission, beyond that the Coast Guard's mission was to clear up the shipping channels along the coast so that commerce could resume. Is there any progress on that front at all, or has that all been really put on hold while you deal with the rescue operation?

Capt. BJOSTAD: Well, actually there's been substantial progress. And while we have to--the primary mission of search and rescue, which is always the Coast Guard's primary mission, we also have plenty of boats and boat operators that we put out to survey the channels. I expect to have the Port of Mobile fully functional by close of business tomorrow, and should have the Intracoastal Waterway from New Orleans all the way to Carrabelle, Florida, open probably by tomorrow, certainly no later than Sunday. Gulfport was absolutely hammered. Pascagoula took a major hit as well, but we believe we may have them open by early next week, which is essential because there's major industry there, including a refinery that supplies a great deal of gasoline to Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

SIEGEL: Mississippi is in your patch. There--I mean, if there are people who are still stranded, is the main problem figuring out where they are, the numbers of them merely or the inability to get the helicopters down on the ground near them?

Capt. BJOSTAD: In coastal Mississippi, for the most part, most people are not cut off and have probably been reached by ground crews, certainly by today. The one--and this is coastal Mississippi; I can't speak to interior Mississippi. But there's also still individual small groups in individual houses that have some water around them but they're still able to stay inside, and we're still looking for them as they call in.

SIEGEL: Do your crews come back and describe finding dead bodies in buildings where they've done searches?

Capt. BJOSTAD: Yes, sir.

SIEGEL: This is--is it commonly or--I mean is it...

Capt. BJOSTAD: I do know that a number of them have seen some people that are deceased. I know that it affects them because we're a humanitarian service. We like to save lives. That's what we do. That's why we suit up and go to work every day. But I tell them all the same thing. I say, you go over there, you do the best you can. You save all the lives that you can. Know that you are an American hero. And get some rest and we're going to send you back again until you tell me you can't do it anymore.

SIEGEL: That is Captain Jim Bjostad of the US Coast Guard in Mobile, Alabama, who was one of the Coast Guard officers who briefed President Bush there this morning.

Thank you very much for talking with us once again.

Capt. BJOSTAD: Thank you, Mr. Siegel.

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