This is the first part of an interview WWL-TV morning anchors Eric Paulsen and Sally-Ann Roberts did with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin Wednesday morning.

Eric Paulsen: “A lot of folks understand that the city isn’t ready for people, but they want to come back.

Mayor Ray Nagin: “It’s not just the city, Eric. The entire metro area is not ready for people. In my humble opinion, I think we’re trying to force the issue. But we’ll deal with it. We’re trying to work together as best we can as a region, but there are going to be glitches. A lot of the parish leaders were really anxious about getting people back in. The President is flying in as we speak and maybe that was part of the drive.

My big concern is public safety. We don’t have the hospital situation straightened out. The Entergy situation is a lot more challenging than most people realize, and hopefully, that will get better soon.

WWL-TV

Mayor Ray Nagin on the Eyewitness Morning News.

This morning we had an issue at one of the checkpoints and in the spirit of trying to work with the region, we opened up the checkpoint to anyone that has an ID. You must have an ID that says you are going to one of the parishes in the metro area or into New Orleans. Then you will be cleared to go to your home. If you have out-of-town ID, you will be turned around and not allowed to get into Orleans Parish.

This is going to be a continuing challenge going forward. We’re going to have issues. My advice to everyone is to keep a level head. Some people are going to come home and find trees in their kitchens and that kind of good stuff and just let us know and we’ll try to accommodate you. The key is for everyone to stay calm and deal with the issues as they’re presented and most of all, let’s not play politics with this particular disaster.

I have got people who have come in who are running for office who are starting to go on TV and radio and criticize this. Where were you before? Don’t bring your butts in here starting to play games. We’re not accepting this.

Paulsen: Politics kind of went out the window in planning for this and everybody worked well together.

Nagin: We’re going to have challenges and we’re going to need to make adjustments. My message is to people running for office. This is not your time to try to overcome the fact that this disaster is offsetting whatever publicity you might be getting and I’m going to leave that one alone.

Paulsen: They’ve postponed the election, haven’t they?

Nagin: Well, I hope they do because we don’t need that type of noise right now. We need everybody to keep cooperating, because this is not like Katrina. Katrina was very visible – all the damage. This one was kind of in stealth mode. The transmission lines, the hospitals – everything is not really what you can see. When our citizens return to this region, they’re not going to have gas stations, they’re not going to have grocery stores.

Paulsen: Do you even know a gas station open?

Nagin: I do not and that’s why I’m uncomfortable with this repopulation.

Sally-Ann Roberts: Can people come back now?

Nagin: We are not turning anyone away. If you are on the Interstate and you have jumped the gun – we were hoping to get the businesses in here so they can open, position generators for grocery stores, all of that is going to be pushed back because of gridlock on the roads – we’re just going to deal with it.

But no one will be turned back if you have identification card that you live in the metropolitan area. Now if you’re coming from out of town, if you’re a Tampa Bay fan, we’re turning them around. We don’t need them in our stadium anyway (chuckles). This is just today. Tampa Bay fans can come in tomorrow.

Roberts: The dusk to dawn curfew is still in effect in Orleans Parish?

Nagin: It is in effect, but we’ll relax it for tonight, starting at midnight. If anyone is on the road tonight, we won’t enforce the curfew, but you have to be moving to your home. We won’t allow you to just go sightseeing in the city.

Paulsen: When you talk to the President, the way this thing was handled, that your critics, the President’s critics and the Corps of Engineers critics will all be quieted somewhat because in all reality, when you look at how this was orchestrated, I don’t know anywhere in America where you can evacuate as many people – and as many infirmed people – as this city, the state and the Feds did in this case?

Nagin: I can’t speak for the critics, but I will tell you I’m extremely proud of what we did. This region – from the Federal government to the state government to the local government, all my parish president friends and all the support people – performed at such a high level. I’m in such awe of what we did. No other city in the world can do what we did. We have this down pat. We have a plan. We know how to execute it. I’m just in awe.

We got past that first phase. Now we’re in the phase right after the storm and we must manage at the same high level and so far, so good.

Roberts: What about the people who were taken out by bus and train?

Nagin: We’re going to start that process. We’re talking to the state right now and they’re responsible for getting them back to the Union Passenger Terminal. We’ve got RTA drivers moving back into the city. They’re positioned. When they’re taken to the Union Passenger Terminal, we’re going to take care of them.

But the problem with those individuals is they’re going to need some kind of sheltering. We don’t have power in many places in the city. We’re trying to, as quickly as possible, identify sheltering options for those individuals and hopefully we can work it out.

Paulsen: You don’t want to come back to no air conditioning, no power, no nothing.

Nagin: That’s most people. If we have 45 percent power in this city, I’ll be shocked.  … (We have) a power grid that shows all of Louisiana from the standpoint of where power is out throughout this state. You are going to be blown away. Most of the state is in a red condition.

Paulsen: We were in Baton Rouge and Baton Rouge had never been hit like this in its history.

Nagin: We heard on a conference call yesterday that this was the worst storm in the history of Baton Rouge. That’s what we’re missing here. God was smiling on us. It kind of made a happy face around New Orleans, but then it took off through the rest of the state. While it was doing that, it damaged critical transmission lines that everybody needs from Baton Rouge to New Orleans.

Roberts: What do you think is the importance of the Saints playing on Sunday?

Nagin: Well, it was fun the last time right after Katrina. And I think it’s going to be fun this time. I just wanted to get through one more day of assessment and one more day of getting Entergy crews in and getting our business in so we’d be totally ready for Sunday and the Saints game. We’re just going to work it out, Sally. When you’re dealing with these storms, you have to firm, but you have to flexible also.

Paulsen: When you meet with the President, what will you be telling him? Will you be saying, Mr. President, you can go out with a legacy of saving this city if you keep on the fast track and keep the Corps funded and keep these projects going on? This is a place that can be saved, especially with coastal restoration. His administration can take credit for helping save an American city.

Nagin: I just talked to him.  He was on Air Force One and he’s flying in as we speak. We talked about the current conditions. He is really focused on this storm like I’ve never seen. Secretary of Homeland Security (Michael) Chertoff was in here yesterday with the Governor (Bobby Jindal) in my office and I told him I needed two critical things – I need for you guys to declare an official declaration of disaster or whatever it’s called so the FEMA dollars can start to flow to our citizens. People were running out of money in the hotels. They did that within like two hours.

I asked the Governor and Secretary Chertoff, I said, ‘Look, you need to work with Entergy to do an assessment because Entergy does not have helicopters.’ Last night, they worked out the fact that helicopters would be available to Entergy today to expedite the assessment so they can do flyovers. I even told Secretary Chertoff, “You’re over Homeland Security. You’ve got spy satellites. Help us with this. Give us pictures. Do something to help us with this assessment to expedite these repairs.’

Paulsen: So, in your opinion, as bad as the Federal government messed up post-Katrina and even pre-Katrina, have they made up for it completely on Gustav?

Nagin: They’re doing good. The first two phases, they’re doing fine. I think it’s a total turn around. I give them high marks for their responsiveness and their ability to move quickly, which I wish I would have had during Katrina.

But we’re still not out of the woods. We’re still dealing with a power issue, we need to get our hospitals up, we need to get our people back and we need to continue and accelerate the rebuilding of this city and that’s yet to be done.

Roberts: Is this going to push forward our recovery as people see all over this country that our levees held during the storm?

Nagin: One of the things I was hoping for when I’m in a quiet moment, which I don’t have many, I was hoping the levees would hold. And we could prove to ourselves and to the world that we’re a safe place. It proved that we can handle a Category 3 storm that was downgraded to a Category 2. But more importantly, the storm surge was still a Category 3. That was huge.

In talking to the President, he said, ‘Look, we’re going to continue to fund the levees. We’re going to complete your 100-year flood protection. The Federal government and state have put at least $1 billion aside for coastal restoration.’

I think this is a pause and reset button, if you will. I think we’re going to start to accelerate this recovery at a level we haven’t seen.

Click for Part II of interview