hearing on hurricane evacuees. and then we will review and and thenconference, that brings us to our live coverage of a commemoration event with former president bill clinton. ♪ host: it was 10 years ago today that hurricane katrina hit the state of louisiana and mississippi. -- storm, in addition to resulted in billions of dollars of damage. we want to hear from you, specifically if you were in mississippi or louisiana during the storm, we want to get your members -- remembrance of it, and if you think those parts have recovered. here is how to call. for louisiana residents, (202)

748-8000. for mississippi residents, (202) 748-8001. for those who were displaced by katrina, you had to move to other states, perhaps he moved back, (202) 745-8002. all others, (202) 748-8003. you can post your thoughts on twitter at @cspanwj. .n facebook, facebook.com/cspan if you want to send us an e-mail, journal@c-span.org. a lead editorial take a look at the 10 year anniversary, entitled, "are submerged city has risen, let's reach higher."

host: again, that is from the editorial this morning. editors go on to say, broad statistics do not capture the reality for everyone. new orleans is suffering from a and 27% ofrate residents live in poverty. there are great economic opportunities for some, but many others are being left out. , and despiteorking post-katrina gains, there are rate schools for students.

again, that is out of new orleans today. the 10 year anniversary of the flooding of that city, also mississippi as well. for the three-hour program we have today, we want to hear directly from you. we have no guests. we want to hear your thoughts, remembrances. we want to get your perspective, not only on the event 10 years ago, but where you stand today. again, the number is (202) 748-8000 for louisiana residents. (202) 748-8001 for those who live in mississippi. (202) 745-8002, if you were displaced by katrina, perhaps you had to move out of the state and live in one of the surrounding states or other parts of the country, we want to talk about your experiences. and for all others, (202) 748-8003. the papers this morning take a whatat several aspects of has happened tenures years later. most recently, george bush

visiting a school in louisiana, remembering 10 years ago. he talked about the elected officials of mississippi and the lives lost in the state of louisiana. [video clip] face of thesh: the fantasticthey were leaders. and as a reminder that an major catastrophes, it is important to have strong leadership at the state level to help the citizens of their respective states. haley barbour provided that leadership. for that, the people mississippi are grateful to you, haley. [applause] i am thrilled to be on stage with to find united states senators. a senatorm wasn't jane the spirit of time. awton.as trent lot

the u.s. service to ensure that billions can down here to help recover. i kind of got tired of their phone calls. every time, we need a little more money. .he money was well spent this part of the world is coming back stronger than it was before. we are grateful to be in your presence. [applause] i want to thank mary hughes for welcoming me and laura, the first lady of this important city. last time i was here, it did not look quite this pretty. this place was totally devastated. and then, to see the boats and the cranes is a testimony to the recovery of the gold coast. ulf coast.

when i think about katrina, i think about the lives lost, 238 here in mississippi. i know you will join me in praying for those who still mourn the lives lost. it is important to not stay stuck in the past. it is important to realize how positive the future can be. host: again, that was president bush in mississippi, talking about hurricane katrina, as part newvents taking place in orleans in mississippi because of hurricane katrina. again, your thoughts as far as what the experiences wherefore hurricane katrina and the 10 year anniversary. if you are a louisiana resident, (202) 748-8000. if you are mississippi resident, (202) 748-8001. if you were displaced by hurricane katrina, (202) 745-8002. all others, (202) 748-8003. the president being in mississippi, fema itself has put

out a check sheet looking at the response to hurricane katrina in this 10 year anniversary. in louisiana, 738,000 households displaced. assistance to those states, $5.2 billion went to louisiana. $1.3 billion went to mississippi. when it comes to hazard mitigation services, in $1.3 billion spent, as compared to $300 million and mississippi. way seven 400 projects and mississippi. the federal share of those works injects, $11.7 billion louisiana, $3.1 billion in mississippi. let's hear from patrick and then selangor. again, we are dedicating all three hours to katrina.

patrick from pennsylvania, you're up first. caller: when the people of holland realize they are having major issues related to global climate change, and aspects of water intrusion, they took really bold initiatives, like having floating communities, and articulating technologies that wellknew would be utilized into the future. in louisiana is the complete opposite. miss utilization of over $100 billion of the american people's money. rather than turning marshes into floating communities, where residents could be housed in dynamic environments that we bill would not be encountering this again, which i'm

guaranteeing you right now, on the show, this will happen again, and the entire area will be flooded again. american people have now. they have the worst possible government, and the worst possible implementation of our tax dollars. formerrom illinois, a mississippi resident, this is terry. good morning. you are on, go ahead. caller: my whole thing, and i'm etad you showed that she showing how much louisiana got ssippi got.h missi three fourth of mississippi urths fo -- of mississippi evacuees were from katrina.

all you heard about was new orleans. the weather channel talked about the landmass between new orleans and alabama. i got nothing. we are still pretty bitter about new orleans today. host: when you say bitter, is it because of the attention it got and the money i got, or are there other things? theer: it was the fact that people in new orleans, that's all we heard, new orleans got hit by katrina. no one even recognize the fact that mississippi got hit by katrina. three fourths of mississippi got hit. it actually hit the carolinas and virginia. hear about fidelity of a which is about 45 miles from new orleans. you didn't hear about

hammond, or any of these other places. all you heard was new orleans. that is what all the attention went to. poor people in new orleans. like it didn't hit anywhere else. host: were you in mississippi during hurricane katrina? caller: we left and went to florida. host: when it was coming, you want to florida. caller: you have to understand, at 5:00 in the morning, katrina was category three, no one was leaving. by 8:00, it was almost allegory five, and that is when everyone left. that is why nobody left because when they all went to bed, he was still category three. host: when you went back to mississippi, was anything damaged of yours? caller: housing, yeah. extent? what was the personal house? was a your neighborhood? caller: everything.

yeah. the house. we had to wait for adjustments. i stayed at my daughter's in florida. int: you said you live illinois now. did you beat mississippi because of katrina? caller: no. i got married. host: got you. territory, a former mississippi resident. we have set aside a line for those in mississippi, (202) 748-8001. if you live in louisiana, (202) 748-8000. for those displaced by hurricane katrina, (202) 745-8002. for all others, (202) 748-8003. silver spring, maryland is next, this is eileen. caller: good morning. i just want to tell you that i am very distressed. right before "washington laura bush was on air discussing libraries and

books. , people are suffering, and it is heartbreaking. i have friends from down in that , and where katrina hit their parents are under stress, distress still because they cannot find work, do not have jobs, and cannot even eat on a regular basis. the last thing on their mind is ooks. it is distressing to me that there's obviously a class difference, still, 10 years later, when it comes to what those residents suffer. the last thing i wanted to wake , and finally get coverage, which has been quite great in my opinion, is to here about

library books -- hear about library books. host: the friends that you had displaced, did they come up with you, did they go to other parts of the country, tell us a little bit about that. caller: no, they stayed in that general area. they could not afford to move very far. there is still in that general area. i believe someone to mississippi -- some went to mississippi. no, they did not come up, they could not afford it, and i could not afford to bring them with me, unfortunately. children, andl the last thing on people's minds , when it tried to rebuild their lives are library books, and libraries. int: that is eileen maryland. the tears from regina in louisiana.

caller: good morning. host: where are you in relation to new orleans? about 60 miles from shreveport going southeast. host: on this 10 year anniversary, what do you think about the recovery of new orleans and louisiana as a whole? caller: i think they're are doing pretty good. it could be worse. mean, it could be worse. where you particularly affected by hurricane katrina? i know you were probably outside of, but did you have friends or family in the new orleans area that were affected by a? caller: yes, sir. andister lived down there, when it hit, it center up your. her up here.

host: for how long? caller: she is still here. hast: what has been like -- that been like? thatr: for the first year she was displaced, bless her time, it took her a long to get things in order. it destroyed everything she had. host: why didn't she go back? caller: there wasn't nothing to go back to. that is regina in louisiana, talking about the experiences of her sister. again, you can share your thoughts. this program dedicated to you, your stories and remembrances of katrina. for louisiana residents, (202) 748-8000. for mississippi residents, (202) 748-8001. if you were displaced by katrina, (202) 745-8002. all others, (202) 748-8003.

from south next dakota. hello. james, you are on the phone, go ahead. ?aller: who, me i got through, i can't believe it. i just like to say that i know i wasn't there, i have been through some things in my life. i have been through a couple of tornadoes when i lived down south. i know they had a massive flood here in grand forks, before i ever got here. i never even heard about that in the national news. i think the whole city was under water because of flooding. i saw a sign in one of the parks to that effect. the only thing i wanted to comment on is that our generation, what bothers me is that we seem to have our leaders, and not just obama, this may be started with bush --

is only way we seem to unite our anniversaries are always negative. like, we have ceremonies of tragedies or mass killings in schools, or terrorist attacks, and we rally around these negative things. you know, through the mourning process. we never have remembrances, as a nation, of accomplishments. no one seems to rally or remember the parade when we were thisorious over enemy, or this battle, or the anniversary of the creation of the hoover dam, or the grand coulee dam. we don't seem to have anything positive that unites us. we unite around death and tragedy. i think it is a sign of a declining nation. that's all i think. just a thought i had. host: from mississippi, here is

tina. caller: hi. i just wanted to call in and say that i and 50 miles from new orleans and 50 miles from the gulf coast. beware hit very hard here. my husband and i stayed in our house during the storm. .e had three trees on our house we were lucky enough to still be able to live in our house. i also want to say that a lot of the problems with the hurricane, the ic, is the same problems we have in the government today. there were people who helped themselves, were self-sufficient, and were prepared for the hurricane. if you live in this area, you know what it is like and what you have to do. then, there were people who did nothing, sat back, depended on the government to take care of

them. those are the people that suffered. beautiful.w is the mississippi gulf coast is beautiful. it has been restored. there are a lot of homes that were not built back yet, but there's slowly coming back. the lady who called and said that new orleans got most of the coverage is right. golf coast isi .ctually where the storm hit new orleans has come back. it has beautiful areas anin it now. there was a lot of fraud of government money during that time. it was the inefficiency of the government that didn't take care

of passing out the money, for lack of a better phrase. now, especially the gulf coast isolf absolutely beautiful. anyone who wants to come down, as a taurus, it is a great time. are home sales. is there a market there? hasn't rebounded? haser: i would say it rebounded. hello? host: you are on, go ahead. sells are slow going, but i would say the economy has come back. sufficient,re self they try. it is the same. if you live in this area, you have to prepare for hurricanes. i grew up in this area.

camille, i was 15 years old. it destroyed this town then, and we came back. it is because people are self-sufficient. you should be, if you live in this area. is tina in mississippi. we will go to the pages of "the washington post," this morning. it has pictures of the lower theh ward, showing what neighborhood look like before, and afterward. if you go back to 2004, you will see pictures of hundreds of homes. homesmany of those underwater, or destroyed, ,articularly in one block highlighted in orange. if you go to 2008, you see the start of rebuilding, some homes being built. it is the same situation in 2000

10. if you take it up to the present on, this picture being taken january 31, 2015, several homes one block inand on particular, eight or nine structures. that just gives you the idea of one area affected. those stories could be told all across new orleans, i suspect. if you watched earlier on c-span, the atlantic magazine held a form from experts on hurricane katrina. one of the decedent was the mayor of new orleans, mitch about thetalking recovery efforts. here are some of his thoughts. [video clip] we -- therieu: federal government, the state government, the local government -- have money coming in. we have 73 neighborhoods in the

city. you will be surprised, african-americans, who don't live in the ninth ward, or wealthy people uptown, or in new orleans east, are saying, go ,ive the ninth ward everything and give us ours later. they are saying, and give us ours now. it is not a racial argument. it is that they want stuff in the neighborhood tomorrow, mayor. from neighborhood to neighborhood, the one universal blight fast. we have taken down more bl ight equipment. tip o'neill, all politics is local, it doesn't matter if we are taken down faster, is the one next to the house is it down, you haven't done anything. we have tried to manage the allocation of these resources by neighborhood and by need. , the poor getot

hotter, when it's cold, the poor get colder. we has that $500 million in the addr ninth ward, when you it all out. the lower ninth ward will say, you did not give us as much as everybody else. that is not true per capita. the damage is so significant, it will take a lot more money to do it. i will remind you though, because i feel like i am on the side of begging and demanding more, we had about $50 billion of damages in the city of new orleans. we got about $71 billion in reimbursement. when you have that gap, not everybody gets everything all the time, and you can do everything all at once. i'm completely committed to the lower ninth work, but i'm committed to every neighborhood in the city too.

host: that is mitch landrieu, the mayor of new orleans. to give you an idea of the cost of living, legislators put taxeser that prope property have doubled, water bills now more than double by 2020. home prices in some historically black neighborhoods have doubled, and louisiana, has no minimum wage. let's hear from lane, her mother was displaced. of foremost, i appreciate c-span. i am a longtime watcher, i never called, but this is very personal to me because of what happened to my mother, and being in atlanta, and seeing all the people from the new orleans area. my mother, like so many people from mississippi, was also displaced.

the types of things that were done, by families to help other family members can never be calculated and dollars and cents cents.ollars and the gentleman who said that we rally around tragedy, the fact is that some of the things we did, like with my mother, she was a senior citizen. i don't think the story has been told of the number of senior citizens who may have thought that insurance would cover the hurricane damage that came, and it didn't. that is what my mother was a victim of. she had moved out of house, which was approximately 150 miles from the gulf coast.

if we just took the senior thezens, who lived within airpath area, erro and the value of their homes, and what the insurance covered, and did not cover, and think about, i am still paying a second mortgage off on the property that my mother left, and she has passed. i don't know how many senior citizens, whose children and family members are still paying for the impact of trying to keep property that was impacted by that loss. host: that was lane, telling us his story from atlanta, georgia. be with your lake charles, louisiana. you are on.

caller: thank you for c-span. i want to comment on the previous callers with the housing conditions. onene, i have not heard no mentioned the conditions for the people who were renting apartments, but have lived there for up to 50 years. that was my case. i lived there for over 50 years. new orleans,for and wish i could be back there, but it is impossible because the have takenlandlords advantage of the people, and especially senior citizens. there is no way that the senior

citizens can afford the rent that they charge there, it even e surrounding areas. most of the landlords put the people out, and slapped a coat on the walls, and re-rented the apartment for much .igher they called the painting, remodeling. host: do you recall what you were paying in bed to before, and what rent would have been like if you went back to new orleans? caller: yes. i was paying a little over $600 per month before. they had started this renovation , and promised me that they would leave my apartment to be

the last want to get done, and i could move my stuff out for one redoingile they were whatever they were going to redo in the apartment, and then i could move back in. well, they did not keep that promise. the rent had gone out. it was going to be something between $800-$900 per month. it was sufficient, as far as space and everything, and had a nice layout, but it was not anything fancy. as a matter of fact, if you went along the buildings outside, and i have been told by people that i know there are still there, existme conditions still to where the subsidence of the

gaps underde huge the slab of the building. now, they have rats running in and out of those holes and everything. it was not a new property. it was not anything that would the rape of a fancy apartment. it was not fancy. it was acceptable, but not fancy. host: got you. said he telling her story this morning, as we invite you to do, talking about this 10 year anniversary of hurricane katrina. if you lived in louisiana at the time, (202) 748-8000. mississippi residents, (202) 748-8001. if you were displaced by hurricane katrina, (202) 745-8002. .or all others, (202) 748-8003

on this ten-year anniversary, a public commemoration and ceremony set to take place in new orleans this evening. c-span,watch it on listen to it on c-span radio. it will be live today at 6:00. go to our website at c-span.org for more information on the service and new orleans. let's hear from mary in louisiana. caller: i had to call about your previous caller. coincidentally, my house note went from $800 per month to $1200 after katrina. it is not any mortgage balloon, or anything like that. it is strictly due to the storm. that is have read this to me. host: is this insurance on the actual mortgage itself? .aller: the mortgage the mortgage people blame it on the insurance people, and the insurance people blame on the mortgage people. it is the same thing as what

that woman was saying about the reds. people took advantage of katrina , the landlords and even the mortgage companies. host: did you question the increase? what kind of response did you get? caller: i got, it is the , or the companies fault insurance, they said it was good mortgage company and the mortgage company said it was the insurance. no answer. host: on this ten-year anniversary, what do you think of not only the area hardest hit, but louisiana overall, how has it recovered? caller: i think it has done great. i'm still concerned about the crime. you can say what you want about mitch landrieu, but he is not addressing the crime. he is more concerned about these confederate statues, and such. we have a major crime issue in new orleans. i would not go to new orleans for anything. host: when you talk of crime,

give us a snapshot. what is going on? caller: the shootings, midday, in the french quarter. host: ramona is next. thank you for waiting, go ahead. caller: i too am a c-span junkie. let me see. oh, dear. the -- er very clearly host: i will tell you what, why don't you get your thoughts together, i will put you on hold and we will come back to you so you can get yourself -- we will far as your you as thoughts. let's go to dr. d in louisiana. you health with the recovery, what did you do? caller: i came down with church

volunteers. there were thousands of church volunteers who helped put up driver, and stuff like that. they were desperate for teachers . i went home, applied, and was hired by the recovery school district within 24 hours. i went back down, took a test, and was put in the classroom within a day. i taught in the upper ninth ward in one of the recovery school district schools. i learned quickly that the local teachers were all fired en masse after katrina. you talk about an injustice. perpetually, teachers have been blamed for the faults in the school system, when it has always boil down to politicians and contractors stealing the money that should go into the classroom. host: what was it like teaching students in those days?

caller: in the recovery school district, in the first phase, they had more police that teachers. yet, there was still fights constantly. for children in that building were murdered by the end of the year. not exactly in the school, but out in the street. they would have an argument at the bus stop, and by the end of the day, someone would be dead. , oneone school -- four school. there was a bad teacher at another school that was murdered . the problem at that time and to this day is that the so-called recovery school districts, and the charters, they are not held accountable for making sure that all children are in school. they are not held accountable for making sure that children parents.their about 40% of the kids that we

talk, their parents were in another city. there were living in a trailer, on the streets, or going from couch to couch. we did what we could to take care of them. it was so frustrated because katrina was used, not only to fire the teachers en masse, but to extremely segregate the schools. although blacks, who -- all of the blacks, who were very poor and low achieving, were put into the recovery school district. all the whites were put into the parish or charters. sleeping on the floors of churches because there was no place for us to live, just like the people who live there. local teachers were either taking a bus and from baton , but then, i was able to,

with a bunch of teachers, go in y a ro and byu om for a month. was servingtractor our kids in the upper ninth ward sugar water, and calling it juice. host: as far as the actual teaching, how long did you do that? caller: i went from school to school, and when i found out there was a local teacher who wanted to come back, i moved on. i spent the first year in the calledinth, what was douglas high. the second year, i spent a short time at lafayette academy, which i've already the charter

schools, it was the best. they took care of their minority children. i worked on the gulf coast of mississippi. they had public schools, and did it right. host: thank you, i appreciate the comments. we going to kay in georgia. caller: i have been enjoying the coverage this week. it is detailed, unbiased, and at some point, you have the katrina of the residents who came to washington after the storm, and one of the allegations that had never been answered is -- again, i'm calling with a unique perspective because 20 years ago , i went through a hurricane, i am from the u.s. virgin islands. my take on this is how is it possible that a hurricane could

devastate a territory, and with an hours, the military was on the ground with meals ready to eat, water, and supplies, and yet, i moved to georgia about three years after that hurricane, and this .appened with katrina i'm looking at it and saying, as a u.s. resident, i aware that the federal government can step in with an hours. hours later, no one is helping these people? my question comes to where these residents testified before congress and said, we knew the up.es were blowing anyone ever investigate the fact that the residents that it was not just the storm, but in fact a purge the effort to city of blacks by blowing up the levees? i think it is controversial that yes, itr heard back --

happened, or no, it did not happen. that was something that was brought to light, and frustrated me. dismiss people who say something like this happened. did we ever have any official coverage from the government that there was an explosion, or was it disproven? i heard the engineering report that it was overwhelmed and could not sustain that amount of water, but that did not answer the fact that residents, some residents said they heard the levy blown up. again, i heard that on c-span, revived again this week. within three months of the storm, they told congress. to me, it was someone's responsibly to investigate the allegations. host: stay with us because at she0 this morning --

referenced that hearing that took place in 2005 with katrina froments -- we will hear one of the participants in that hearing back in 2005. also, we will talk with her not only about what she talks about then, but what she talks about currently. again, if you are just joining us, our three hours are devoted to katrina, on this 10 year anniversary of when that storm hit back in 2005. we want to hear rectally from you. no guests today, just phone calls. louisiana residents, (202) 748-8000. for mississippi residents, (202) 748-8001. for those displaced by katrina, (202) 745-8002. for all others, (202) 748-8003. many stories about the recovery .fforts unles and lessons learnd this is from "wall street

journal."

host: from shreveport, louisiana, this is scott. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to give a great complement to the united states military. at the time, i was serving in , and after my training, i was transferred to another base. there were so many people i've met from new orleans who were displaced, so they join the military. i want to give a great round of applause to the military for excepting those displaced members who qualified to join the service. a give them room and board and financial money to give back to their families. in all of this, there are some great things. the military played a great part. host: from new orleans, this is

cicero. good morning. caller: i was calling about katrina, the situation. first of all, i would like to give a great things and mighty welcome to the united states military because my mom, she was a national guard member, and recently passed. as far as like most disasters that did happen and calamities, as far as the levy breaking and not having enough shelter for the people, you would think that they would have prepared for this. they were prepared -- weren't prepared. they tried to do what they could do for people. lost everything. myas out of town, visiting

uncle, and i saw the calamity on tv, and i was in disbelief. , andked up the bulk happened to open of the national geographic, and you won't believe it, it was my mom and sister there. i said, where is the president, where is bush at? it took bush a week to get in there, but they had the people in the superdome, and that caused a lot of problems. basically, in new orleans, they tried to do what they could do, and it was a lot of people helping the people come together. the situation down there could have been done better, you know? i lost everything. everything that had. i basically have nothing, but myself together. i think it was really the military that really helps out and kept anarchy from spreading

out. people really didn't have nothing to start. not only that, they had to make their way. i don't know what else they could have done. host: still being there, but is it like living in new orleans now? caller: i have been down there and visit. i do ministry, i travel. as far as now, they are getting it kind of together, but as far as i heard one person say, the crime rate, there is crime. the thing is, it has always been like that, kind of separate here, i do my thing, you do your .hing the woman said about the charter schools and separation -- -- -- that has always been a facto. i do ministry, so i know i talked to all kinds of people, but the thing here is that they could have did better with the

levy systems. love, new orleans is a great place -- look, new orleans is a great place, and it could be greater if they sat down and talked to some of these places from like the ninth ward. i have seen a lot of houses dilapidated, but a lot of them have been moved. i still have a lot of people still displaced. you asked them, what's wrong? how are you still suffering? well, because i lost everything, and it never got back on my feet . it was a sad situation. host: here is jake from lafayette, louisiana. go ahead. caller: i just was trying to make a point that nothing has really been discussed about all the people left in the cherry hospital during the storm. the workers and the patient's

that were there. they were there for four-five days before anyone came to their .id i had individuals that were actually working at the hospital lafayette,lled me in wanting people to get somebody to give the people out of the hospital down there. there was so much suffering going on that no one knew about. the governor totally ignored the whole situation. there was a lot of loss of life because of the incompetence of the government that was in place at that time. it was like they just forgot about these people. there were a lot of other places that were wiped out because they were just left without any support to help them get out.

everybody talks about the and the riverfront center. the heart of the city was the hospital system. they just forgot about it. nobody knew they were there. host: jake in louisiana brings up the superdome. you may remember pictures that we have shown you of the superdome. you may remember that many residents of new orleans ended up there, as part of the recovery effort. in next call is from rose texas and says that she was in the superdome, is that the case? caller: yes, i was. all those people from cherry hospital where there. i just want to say that hopefully, if this ever happens again, the federal government or whoever, the state government,

should have a place where sick areple, first of all, i pu put away. they should have something in place right now for all the .eople in the hospital i have people down there right now who are very sick, on dialysis, and i never want to see them go through what i went through in the superdome. they were killing people and raping people, and all kinds of stuff happened in the superdome. i witnessed a. i'm a christian, i would not lie. we had no food, no water. the national guard was pointing guns at us, telling us they were going to kill us because we were walking around. the national guard didn't treat us right. they beat my son up twice. it was a shame -- i can't really

get mad at them. told my son, you stay with me, every time he went looking for water. he said that they beat him. know what will happen, hope for the sick hingle, they get somet in place. i am in texas, and if they want to bring them here to me, they can come for dialysis, but don't wait until it is too late. i got $5,000, and i'm still not -- i just bought a new car, and . got no recovery or nothing from texas, and the government sent me about $3000,

and i have never recovered. i'm going to be 60 years old. i used to work, and they said they were going to send me money, and they never sent me nothing. did you move to texas after katrina? wantr: yeah, and i don't to go back because they don't treat black people right down there. , and they don't give you raises. if a white person's family member needs a job, they will put you out and tell you the business -- the hours are getting cut back. i go back, and see a white person sitting there, and they , i found outd-so that one of the managers i had -- it is really sad how they

treat black people. i would never go back, unless bring me in my tomb. i have family buried in mississippi. that is not louisiana. i don't even want to go down there and be buried down there. it is sad. i looked just as white as how they look. distinguished somebody from white and black, half of my people are right. how do you distinguish who you will give a job to? host: that is rose, who was in the superdome, telling us about her experience. luis in florida. caller: god, that moment, heart wrenching. it is criminal what happened in louisiana. 35-40in new orleans,

years ago, and it was a precious jewel. the music, the food, the fe els. that is because of the black heritage,, the creole and the people, mostly haitian, who settled there. hips being lost now to restaurants, shiny and new. watching the weather channel, and it was the biggest storm, and i have been in a few in florida -- the biggest storm i have ever seen. .t filled up the gulf of mexico i turned to my husband and said, that is a killer. the woman who called earlier that said the people weren't self-sufficient and had to depend on the government -- have a credit card,

and a car you can get into, you can go spend 10 days in a motel. these people, on minimum wage, they had no money, what were they supposed to do? most of the buses were underwater, even before the .arning came too late as far as george w. bush saying that he never heard the levees could be breached, he live. two years previous, first responders did a trial run to show what would happen in is aiana and new orleans large storm hit. he said it would be a disaster. i believe an official from the national weather -- i forget the name -- called and told bush that this could be breached. he knew it. i will tell you something. bush west said that george doesn't care about black people.

yet, he probably doesn't care about porch people. if that was a rich area, the hovercrafts, and the boats that can get on the shore, they would have been there. people whohe severed, and the people who still want to come back. please, come back. luis in florida. statistics tell us, look at population numbers, in 2010, the city population pre-katrina was 455,000. the decrease and white population due to katrina, 24,000. black population due to katrina, 118,000. that is according to "the new york times." william in indiana, you are up next. say,r: yes, i just want to

know,me others said, you we had never seen a storm like that, but it didn't matter. -- youple down there know, a lot of them lost their homes. host: here is charles from alabama. you are on. caller: i think one of the greatest tragedies is the lies told related to president bush. number one, everybody knows the protocol was it was up to the from therequest help governor. it turns out the mayor was a criminal. the governor was completely

without a clue. by the time the governor requested help from the federal government, the place was under water. the news media went out here and demonized george bushthey nevere and put the real blame for what the delays and things not getting done on the locals, because the media loved those democrats down there. it is anomething -- honest statement. george bush was demonized from day one. the protocol says the governor requests help. by the time the u.s. government got there the place was underwater. the news media has never come out here and told the honest truth. that is the sad part. inc. you. ust: if you're just joining we have devoted this program today taking a look at the 10th anniversary of hurricane katrina, particularly how it impacted louisiana, mississippi.

we have been showing you video and pictures of new orleans, particularly the hardest hit by these events including the dysfunction of the levee system. we are inviting you to call us to give your thoughts and experiences. those lean air their -- louisiana residents, (202) 748-8000. (202) 748-8001 for mississippi residents. (202) 748-8002 if you are displaced by hurricane katrina. (202) 748-8003 for all others. two thousand six c-span said cameras to new orleans to take a look at events that were going on there. it was a documentary that we put together which you can still see on our website. in the documentary you met a lady named sue sperry. during the documentary you heard her talk about the markings that were used on the buildings that were going on during the search and rescue effort there. here is a little bit of that documentary. [video clip] >> this is search-and-rescue

markings. this is such a painful reminder for everybody who lives here -- here. i we just love it when people come back and the first thing they do is paid over. over.nt on the left side is the agency ,r unit who did the inspection maybe a troop number there. 118, i'm not sure what that is. means that no entry, they could not gain entry to the house. the bottom quadrant is how many were found dead. they are still finding bodies weekjust about every because there could be somebody stuck in that attic or the house collapsed, or it is really unsafe. the phoneing us on right now is sue sperry, 80

world is resident, joining us to talk about the events from 10 years later. thank you for joining us. guest: thanks for having me. host: where do your thoughts center on these 10 years? guest: i have to say i am kind of mixed about it. there are so many good things that have happened, but then i just deliver my grandparents didn't celebrate the depression, you know, with -- we have just come a long way. i said that during the documentary, as i have to say i don't think i was right with a lot of the things that i said. for those who did not get a chance to see the documentary, give us some thoughts. what did you think that and how has that board itself out? guest: i think the one thing that i talked about -- i talked for a while about neighborhoods and liability, and neighborhoods

needing to get organized and improve their viability and get involved. if you want commerce in your area you have to get involved and go out and get it. the same thing with bringing .esidents home cantrell is a good example, she is on our city council right now. when i first met her she headed the improvement association and they were supposed to be bringing green space to the whole neighborhood. she led the fight. backneighborhood has come and it is better, but it is not gentrified. it is not that much different, it is just restored and it has some additional services. you've got to fight for your neighborhood. as neighborhoods go, talk a little bit about the neighborhoods. where are some of those neighborhoods that are still hardest hit, we still see clear evidence of what happened 10 years ago?

guest: some neighborhoods, yes. say someld neighborhoods have been surpassed -- have surpassed what anyone could imagine. the whole area of the lower ninth ward, that is where brad pitt has built all those homes. side, or close to the levee side, where mark and i , therer the documentary is really not much going on there. not many people came back. that was a lot of older people. retired, elderly, multigenerational families lived in the family homes, and once everybody dispersed they did not come back. host: you talked about gentrification. talk a little bit about that. where is it happening within new orleans? is that a good thing or a bad thing to you?

guest: it's good and bad. an economico have , tax dollars. it is good to have services and in the but right now -- city's original footprint, rents are very very high. home prices have skyrocketed. it has become expensive to live in new orleans. because so many people came here and fell in love with the city and not leave. but it is a delicate balance having a good tax base, having good residents, and attracting commerce, and then the flipside which is it prices people out of their traditional neighborhoods. orleans younew don't have to have a car to live

here. a lot of people don't have cars. don't have a car and you are forced to go to a suburban location, how do you get to work? who canen it comes to afford to live in new orleans, how does that deal on the racial aspect? are people able to afford rent or live in communities that have been restored after hurricane katrina? becoming a bigger , andof their income devoted to housing. more than 30% in some cases. our racial makeup is similar to what it was before. you can't afford to live in places that you might want to live. no sue sperry, you did not escape personally. your home was damaged. in fact we have photos of before and after. talk a little bit about the extent of the damage or comes up. what is happening now? flooded.

my whole neighborhood flooded because the parish president of the time it all of the pump operators to where you could not get them back. know, allople don't of the water that new orleans has to be pumped out of the city. because there was no one to turn the pumps on when the water started rising from the levee breaks, everybody flooded out. thee i live, which is on northwest part of the city, it's kind of like a shallow bowl. the bowl filled up. no one was here to pump the water out. far as your personal home, we just saw pictures. what was the extent of the damage dr. -- what was the extent of the damage? guest: everything that i had.

it flooded, there was no way to get here for such a long time. no power. when i came home like two months there was laundry that was wet, still wet from two months before. everything was moldy. apart, iture had come was everything. everything i own. the first thing i had to do with pitch a tent in the backyard and lived there until i could get the house gutted. and then i took my time with workingng because -- at the preservation resource center, i was really helping other people. i was from what experiencing that if i could tolerate waiting, and i had a trailer also, a few months after that, then the chances of me getting quality work done was going to be greater if i wait. sperry, youat is to

met her in our 2006 documentary taking a look at events in new orleans and talking with us today about how the city has recovered 10 years later. any final thoughts before we let you go? are, imy final thoughts think we have an awful lot to be proud of. nothing does that has ever happened anywhere in the united states. i think everyone learned a lesson from it, and the city has recovered. people really thought we never went. but we did. it's not perfect. go, but have a ways to living here you just have to be proud of what has been accomplished. host: sue sperry, resident of new orleans. they do for your time. guest: thank you. host: our next call is from washington dc, go ahead. much.nk you so

i am a fellow journalist, hello? host: you are on. go ahead. go ahead. i tell you what, we will put her on hold. then we will move on to keith -- i'm sorry, this is michael. south carolina. five. caller: hi. how are you doing? host: great thanks. caller: good morning. good morning to america. have a few quick points and that if you have any questions for me i would be happy to respond. first of all, the military leveeers that build that dam structure and whatever, they should be held to a standard. i know that the military builds better structures than that, and

i really think that somewhere along the line somebody let that ball slip. live here inat, i florence, south carolina. i volunteer with the red cross. i was not employed at the time, to go to houston and help them with hurricanes following katrina. i'm sure you guys can find records on that. thinking they wasted money in getting volunteers in their just to get the help done. we got into beaumont, texas. provideded meals, we .edical opportunities but here is the point of fact that i really want to wing out, and please forgive me. i have a little sickness.

coughing and take ups so i will try to get this out as smooth as i can. itself was a natural disaster -- event. but our government should have before then and hopefully by now and for the days and years in the future -- have a plan for how we help our shouldd indigent people it come to such an event as this. that time i was quite able-bodied. here's my point. i don't appreciate my government's response, the untimeliness of its response, of its expression of any possible care or concern. i'm not going to name call, i really don't feel good about the

person that had the hand on the helm at that time. they do seem to say to me, they n.n't give a dam there every nationality here in america trying to survive. we have all got to stand together and be there for each other and get beyond the sum of these things that are still yet to come. with that, ip don't want to talk all day, but i'm very opinionated. michael in florence, south carolina. we move on to scott in new jersey, he was on a response seen. go ahead. caller: hi, how you doing? host: good. caller: we were in the inflatable boats in the 82nd airborne at katrina, so i was somewhat involved down there.

i have been amazed at the number weekticles in the last that are revising history and talking about how bad it was, and that we did not have as many casualties as we did. work they proud of the military was doing and the way they treated the people of louisiana. i realized that our national , but was not up to the job our regular military was and was just proud of the constitution and treating people with the importance of their civil rights was preeminent for our forces. we were actually given orders not to shoot unless one of our people was hit. as police and sheriffs from all over the country, not to mention just in louisiana and new orleans, had

no fire to dublin. spaceere just firing into at night and not really knowing who they were firing at. often firing at each other. i was very upset at all the revising the are history of what happened down there. that was my initial call. i also put it up on your facebook site. host: you can post on our facebook site by the way, your thoughts on this 10 year anniversary. cspan.ok.com/ forget, public ceremony taking place tonight in new orleans. that will be live on c-span at 6:00 this evening. the residents in that city come together to reflect on 10 years. you can see that live on c-span, also listen for it on c-span radio. you can go to our website for more information, we go next to keith and princeton, new jersey. caller: hi. i am an officer in the military, i am retired now.

there are a couple things you have to recall in rethinking what happened. evacuation plans. the city really had no effective evacuation plan, and they were informed by the federal government, this hurricane is coming. the city was told you have got to get the people north, out of town. once the hurricane hits, they are going to be trapped there. mayor hagan, and i am not blaming him, it just requires planning. the city attorney said we don't have the authority to force , to evacuate them by force. came back and said put them in buses, put them in trains, get them out of town. once the water hits they are trapped.

there was not a plan in place. levee, the corps of engineers specified how deep the pilings of the levee were to be. decades and decades ago. but the construction company cheated the u.s. government by deliberately not making those levee pilings as deep as possible, to save money. but that's however never properly inspected the pilings the levee wasso breech from the bottom, not the top. it was breached from the bottom, out by the pressure of the water. that could've been avoided. that was actually criminality on the part of the construction company but they were long out of business. i was in the 20's and 30's. i was in canada when this thing went down. was arst thing you saw small helicopters like you see in the vietnam era movies. they were great for pulling people off the tops of roots and all that, but should have been used -- what should have been

use are those heavy lift helicopter. marine corps, navy, ch 43's. those were never part of the plan, once again, they had no planning. those could have gotten food, water, medicine into the city. instead you saw small helicopters just plucking people out. again, bad planning. the other thing is that even the u.s. government and the department of defense did not this is about evacuation versus getting to the assistance of the city. what happened at the time was get the national guard and the military into town to help the people. of course there was a wall of water all the way around the city, so for days the national hours fromasically town unable to even get into town. once again, the best situation

would have been heavy lift helicopters. this was a comedy of errors, and it was unbelievable. host: that's keith in princeton, new jersey. he mentioned the levee system. on this program yesterday you heard from karen from the army corps of engineer's, she talked about improvements that were made to the levee system and where it goes from here. [video clip] >> the levee system around metro new orleans has been built stronger and better than we could have ever imagined in the past, and not only is it an incredible system for the people of new orleans, but it is also great for the nation, because it shows that we can do. all week long i have been hearing about other people talk about calling it a world-class system. host: how much has been spent on this levee system? enoughwe were fortunate to have the cooperation of two

administrations and the u.s. congress to provide for nearly a $14.5 billion program. about $11 billion of that has been for the hurricane system around new orleans alone. there were other parts of that program to further make improvements such as interior area to here in this replace the temporary pumps and closure structures that we installed in 2006 around the canals. the permanent replacement of those are going on right now. there are other things that were done. storm proofing the numerous pumping stations that were owned , a lot ofal parishes other components around there to provide for environmental mitigation. overall, just an incredible piece of work. if you live in louisiana the number to call is (202) 748-8000. for mississippi residents, (202) 748-8001. if you are displaced by hurricane katrina, (202) 748-8002. all others (202) 748-8003.

we are taking your calls on hurricane katrina, 10 years later. all three hours of this program. baton rouge, louisiana, gregory. hi. gregory, good morning. you are on. caller: oh, yes. what i would like to say is good morning. thank you for taking my call. like new orleans is a unique city. hit it is like -- home but itto come is the growth that is slowing us down. i am in baton rouge now. i wants to come home. but after the storm there was a lot of price gouging. that is what is stopping people from coming home. i would like to say this too. , they outside looking in

don't understand the whole situation. ifwould love to go home everything came together financially as far as price guide -- price gouging. host: how long have you been away from new orleans? caller: i have been away from new orleans since the storm. sunday and i went to sunrise, texas, outside of dallas. gonzales,me back to now we reside in baton rouge. we have been in baton rouge since january 06, 2006. host: what were you paying for left, whatore you would you have to pay now to move back? during well back in -- the storm i was paired through -- paying $350 in new orleans

east. the rest has gone up and i am on social security. i can't afford that. i would have to be on the housing program. host: and it's you have family still in new orleans and how are they doing? caller: yes. i have two brothers, and nephew down there. if i could work i could subsidize that, you know, but it's just like i'm saying. i would love to come home. i would love to come home. it would be hard for me to move back, you understand? and try to find affordable housing. host: that is gregory talking about his fight -- experience. the financial times tickle -- takes a look at some of the prizes that are going on, saying that a construction boom fueled by the $120 billion of federal aid has resulted in many of the

neighborhoods left underwater for weeks and the crumbling infrastructure become one of the most bright spots -- is the rising market for real estate. home prices are up 43% since 2009 according to the new orleans metropolitan association of realtors. the upper end of the housing market is also robust. or the 100 properties priced above $1 million of sold in the 12 months to august, a rise of 50%. -- 15%. priscilla from new orleans. hello. caller: hello. thank you for having me and doing the work you are doing. i was born and raised in new orleans, so as a teacher in wasveport my first call from an old high school friend who was desperate and stuck in jackson, mississippi. had a terrible time getting there. she had a group of 10 and they

came first. i of course had to go to work here in shreveport, but a friend of mine found a place near black lake, and people actually gave gatherings soy people from new orleans could stay there. it was a wonderful condo area near douglas, and they gave up their place so my people, as they came from new orleans -- my brother was on a cruise. his family was spread out all over. they evacuated to houston and they met here in shreveport. we weren area -- affected, of course, except by bad weather, but they had to come and meet someplace and have the family together.

aria, everybody had reservations for celebrations, fourthey gave me for -- condos because my first set with 10 people. they stayed about 10 days. a teacher friend of mine told me and the firstce said we drove over here about an hour on highway 71 to this black lake area, and the first group i had stayed there for $50 a week. thinkwere bedrooms and i the station they got was w w l on the tv. wassecond set that came first 10, my teacher friend cooked, brett stakes over. brought stakes over.

my son works for a catering company. he parked outside my house and fried fish. i just can't think all the people as my teacher friend who cooked and found time to bring food even at the camp near black lake, i don't know the name of it now. so those family members who ended up in shreveport, have any gone back to new orleans dr. -- new orleans? yes.r: my brother had an electrical business at slidell, he went back. he had the wherewithal to get some generators and things in course most ofof them had to stay away for weeks. they spend their every moment on my computer watching the weather ledger -- service because it was such a

long time. they cannot go back to the city. my one sister lost everything. she has lost everything. displaced to baton rouge, and that is where they reside now. understand, new orleans is really a unique and special place. and here's your mama, and who's your daddy, where you from? you know. what part of the city. they really do try to take care of each other. it is not just the food and the music. all the efforts of people like brad pitt and many people took the time and send money to new

myeans, especially -- sister still cries because she can't find a place back in new orleans. she is in baton rouge. her husband was in real estate. they settled there. when you lose your friends and your community it is so hard ice -- i still cry for her. her grandfather, her son who lived near city park in an apartment, he has lost everything. nobody takes care of single guys. i have two sons. he had to follow her. but the people in shreveport and louisiana did a lot to help me .nd my family as soon as the house was empty i had some of the outcome. host: thank you for sharing your experiences about you and your family.

let's go to a new orleans resident. 10 at three there 10 years ago? -- kenneth were you there 10 years ago? caller: yes i was. host: what is it like for you since then? caller: let me clear something's up about the devastation we had. . was there family members were there. bridge.on the a lot of family members were devastated also with these catastrophes. there were many people that were in the water -- actually i have a younger brother. back after his life all this time about three years ago. he was here when they were covered people -- were covered people -- recovered people.

i am kind of tough -- touched, because sometimes people do all they look at the food, the tradition, but they forget about the struggle that we have to go to to get back. the united states government stepped in, they did a great job , but there are so many things that we need to do to get back where we have to go. do you think is the number one thing you have to do to get back, as you say? caller: the infrastructure part. in new orleans east after 10 years, just one year ago we just got a walmart. downtown new orleans after 10 years we just got a t.j. maxx. companiesese major are on the outskirts in other cities, they look like they ran. they went out of slidell.

but they did not come downtown to the ninth ward. they didn't get into the city. it took years for recovery. if you did not have transportation that you had to rely on other people to help others -- you had to rely on others to just do the basic shopping. papersf you go to the this morning, there is a picture in the paper of the ninth ward, as you heard our viewer talk inut how it was flooded back 2005. this is september. if you go to the new york times, this is the ninth ward and now. this is 2015. of course the water is gone, some of the interceptor has been built back. some of what our viewer was talking about. you're joining us right now, 10 years ago hurricane katrina hit.

it affected new orleans primarily, louisiana mississippi. we wants to get your thoughts. week -- -8000 for the new orleans residents. (202) 748-8001 for louisiana residents. (202) 748-8002 for mississippi residents. (202) 748-8003 all others. we have heard stories about what housing is like now compared to then. there are other stories as well. take the line at best herbs and you and give us a call. irene is up next, montgomery, alabama. hello. caller: good morning. we know about the infamous corruption that took place in louisiana when the pilings were built. that is a long story. forward, we know that there was no real coordination and planning for disaster.

i hear people saying we wants to go back to new orleans. i have news for you. if you are poor you are not wanted back in new orleans. the public housing projects were closed even though they were not damaged, because they were properly built even though they might have been 70 or 80 years old. there is something else i wish your viewers would talk about. property, where your family might have had that for 200 years, 250 years. if you don't have a clear title on it. so you are not allowed to rebuild their. city is sitting on the land and turning it over to developers and declaring that nobody owns this land. let's hear about that. many, many minority people in rew orleans had -- have hei property that belongs to family

members that they cannot lay claim to it. i'm just sorry to say that teachers were put out of jobs. the commercial people who run places -- run charter schools have taken over, and they are not interested in educating people in the inner-city. they are interested in making money. host: irene, you say you are from alabama. do you have ties to new orleans or were you a resident of dorland straka -- of new orleans? caller: never. it's just you said you had a line for others. host: no, it's fine. i just got you may have ties there. caller: no, it has nothing to do with my life but i read and study things. someone can explain to you what property.heir that is having a major impact on minority people. host: if viewers out there can

expand on irene's thoughts on heir properties, call the line that best evidence you. we will go to gregory next. thatr way, she mentioned the cost. new york times has some evidence -- estimates when it comes to cost of living now. two of the highlights is that property taxes have doubled and insurance rates have tripled. other costs have gone up as well as you can see there on the graphic. if you are there in new orleans and louisiana and can speak directly to how those things affect you when it comes to housing, feel free to do so. gregory from maryland, hello. caller: good morning. i want to thank c-span and i want to thank the cell phone and technology that brings us all these images, first-hand account of what it was like. it is very informative. and here's my point. this is all my opinion, however

there is a great parallel to recovery. it did not work, it did not help, and the contractors made a hell of a lot of money. secondary to that point is the fact that we are seeing global shake thecreasingly global table of equity and economics. the 1%, in my opinion, are being in.en alternatively the bottom i would go 30%, possibly more if you to the rest of the world, but of american concern i think maybe 20%, 30%, shaken out. what it boils down to is something that eisenhower talked about, and that was the military-industrial complex and

d.c.he fact that currently is run by lobbyists. , the currentthat election. it is election season. finally, i want to end on a kind of poetic note, and that is, occasionally in my opinion, america bleeds black. it is all too apparent now with .ell phones and everything else america bleeds black and i think it is totally unfortunate. host: ken in florida, says he assisted with the recovery. what did you do? caller: first thing, what we did is we organized. event we took money and food and clothing.

it group called the williams brothers out of mississippi, we got together and went down as assistant. that was after. my point is that we were so devastated and katrina was so widespread. man ofretired military 22 years. i'm from florida, orlando. katrina just devastated the whole coast. it was so devastating no one knew what to do. secondly, there was no one to organize until the president .ppointed general russell he took control and things started happening. afraid, my friend, we are in the same condition right now. it's another hurricane of that

magnitude hit our coastline again, we are going to encounter the same thing because we are still ill-prepared with no one in charge. charge put someone in that are not afraid to do what needs to be done. our response has nothing to do with the levy, basically. it had everything to do with what we would do when it happens. an ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure. it is coming again. i'm not trying to use a fear tactic but i am telling the truth. if it happens again we will have the same occurrences. someone has to be in charge. host: that was ken in florida. let's move onto susan, new orleans, louisiana. hi. caller: good morning. host: hi.

caller: can you hear me? host: i can. caller: what had happened to us .s we live in the lakeview area we were taken off of our roof to the superdome. but the lady y'all road around with nine years ago, she was in the ninth ward and gentilly, and she was saying these houses are fine. people can come back. when a lot of people don't realize is there were no schools for the children. there were no doctors. there was no public transportation. all of that was going on, and a lot of people had to deal with that. the second thing is about the lady that called that was well -- , talking about airships heirships, you know the people that inherited property. what happened in a lot of the ethnic neighborhoods, -- a lot

if a grandmother would die no one would take possession. they would just keep paying the bills in the grandma's name. they did that for decades. when this happened and they were trying to get help, the government was helping a lot of people. the katrina trailers were wonderful. my husband and i lived in a trailer for two years rebuilding our house. my husband is a handyman so we basically did it ourselves. we were 60 years old. we were in our 60's. i am a 71. host: did you get money from the government either state or local to help with that rebuilding? we had we held -- insurance so we did get a little bit but not a lot. but i felt sorry for the people who lost everything. there were people who are $150,000, and they were walking away from their house. they were not using the money to rebuild. if they could rebuild anywhere else in the louisiana they could get that money and rebuild, but i have to tell you.

i am an air force brat. i have lived in far east, central america american people do not appreciate what we have. we should all be so grateful, because of this happened in any other country we would not have had all the benefits that we got. so many people were helped. the faith-based organizations, so many people that came down, and i have to complement the coast guard. that young man that took us up in the helicopter, they were all young people helping us. the coast guard was fantastic. so you were lifted by helicopter off your roof to the superdome? caller: yes. it was the 17th street canal that the levees broke, close to our house. host: what was it like in the superdome? caller: what had happened was, we had a dog. you could not go in there with an animal.

so we went to the door, they dropped us off in a helicopter. we go to the door and there are all these young army people, they are all dressed in army fatigues and things. lights inside the superdome. you could not see anything. it was packed with people. dog,they found out i had a a little chihuahua, they said we could not go in. but what they did is they gave us bottled water and rations and they just said wait outside by the door. we werefamily -- brought there by helicopters, but we had a family member brought there in a truck. earlier that day we had parked our car -- she works for a law firm. so we parked our car on the 10th floor of this building in new orleans. we slept outside the superdome on cardboard, and when we woke up -- remember, we are all in our 60's.

woke up next morning we started to see water knew the superdome that we had not seen before, so we started walking about 15 blocks to where we had parked our car and we just left from there. we went across the river to my son's house. he had evacuated to northern wassiana because his wife eight half months pregnant and he had to get her out of town to find a hospital. host: how long did you stay at the sons house? we stayed there three days. and then the plutarch people were coming around and these people were coming around -- a tree had my son's roof. it was not leaking but there were roof damage. and these people that i guess were contracted with i don't know who, a put a blue tarp on his roof. my husband was off on the roof, 60 years old, helping them. there was someone in the neighborhood that helped it, and evacuated, they did not know what had happened to us. they had been watching it on weren on all of that, they

watching the flood and they saw where the levee broke and they knew where our house was. they did not know what had happened to us. it is like three days later when somebody who knew what -- where my son was and called him. we all met up in vicksburg. that is what happened to us. then we came back. lent is a trailer and we were able to hook up on someone else's electricity across the street, and we lived in that until we got our fema trailer. then the contractors came around and put the electrical pulled up so you could work on your -- electrical pulled up so you could work on your house. it was a long time. the street lights were out at night. it was pitch black as night. you did not go anywhere at night because it was dark. host: got it. susan from new orleans giving as her experiences being a resident there. ted and gain sound, kentucky, who assisted with the recovery. good morning.

what did you do? caller: i was a truck driver. i was retired. i had eight years in the ministry and when i retired from the ministry i got a job driving a semi-. got a job driving a truck. i was driving for a small trucking company here in russell springs, and when hurricane katrina hit the government was saying -- sending services down there for the people. got a job with the a load of iceing down to the people to help them because they did not have anything down there. everything was destroyed. i went down there with another driver and we went down there. we sat in a holding lost for quite a few days -- holding lot . finally they moved us down to new orleans and then they

finally got a policeman to guide us into where we were going to unload our truck. i sat there for quite a few days. finally i got a place where i could unload my semi. it was quite an adventure. i have never seen such devastation as there was there in new orleans. i just felt for those people. it was so devastating. i felt for them because i knew they were suffering terribly. justs quite an experience to be there and to see it all. i didn't realize there could be such devastation. thank you for taking my call. host: next up is al, from lydia, louisiana. hi. caller: how are you doing today? host: fine. go ahead please. caller: i live in a little town called louisiana, -- a little

town in louisiana, it is called lydia. all of these people were getting all kinds of help in new orleans, over here we got hit by hurricane rita which flooded our house. we had the church fix it up. at which point, a little bit -- we lived 10 miles , and of vermillion bay what i want to mention is i just got laid off. i was working to go ahead and ,et my house completely fixed and i went there yesterday. everybody is working except for a few people. like i said, we got hit by the hurricane. is because ofing the hurricane plumbing is bad, and now we have got to come up with 2000 or $3000 for that.

like i said, hurricane katrina was bad but there were a lot of .urrounding people that got hit we are not getting the help that we should get. simone lives in slidell, louisiana, close to new orleans. we are asking people to share their experience about this 10 year anniversary of hurricane katrina. good morning. caller: good morning. host: you are on. go ahead. caller: i am from slidell louisiana which is about 20 miles outside of new orleans. with our and i along dog, we evacuated sunday morning around 3:00 a.m.. we did not get a lot of traffic so we were headed towards memphis tennessee. while in memphis we checked into a hotel and we just watched the devastation. i'sas my husband and wedding anniversary. it was a really interesting time

to celebrate our anniversary. then we traveled to chicago where my family is from. we lived in chicago for an entire year. the school was great. they allowed the kids to register with no documentation. .owever we all long to be home my mother was with us and she was in her 60's, the only thing she wanted to do was come home. my biggest concern with the recovery was that many people of color in the disadvantaged neighborhoods were not giving their fair share of the money. in addition to that, our insurance rates skyrocketed. in our home in slidell before we left, before the storm hit, our annual insurance rate was about between $1500 to $2200 a year. the insurance rates have skyrocketed to almost $8,000 a year. this has increased our house and

our mortgage by about an additional $750. if i can say anything else about the hurricane, i am so glad we have come so far. however we still have quite a bit to go. i am very proud to be a resident of louisiana. i was born and raised in wurlitzer, -- but with in new orleans -- but we still have a bit to go. host: i want to show you this map of where people ended up. you heard some owns a story -- simone's story about moving to chicago for a while. as far as people who get transplanted and move out, as the city, alabama, arkansas picking up a lot of that. southern oklahoma. texas. a good deal of people going to texas. our next call is jerry in pittsburgh, texas. hello. caller: how are you.

louisianaouple from that the only place they could find was a motel. our church had to take care of them for a few days until they could go back, but prior to the hurricane what i was wanting to texasbout was in marshall , before the storm came in that had been predicted, they were ready to go down there immediately after the storm went through to feed 5000 or 6000 people. they were also at the pentagon when they were bringing people there. the red cross has taken credit, but there were people and marshals getting ready to go in to help before the storm ever came. after the storm there is also a

group of veterans that go around and cut out the trees that fell on houses and everything like that, help people after the storm. there is help available after the storm. i lot of volunteers who are retired -- a lost of volunteers. host: anna is in texas, de soto texas. tell us more. caller: yes. 18,ine, who at the time was she is still in the reserve. she was aot called up little fearful. she thought she was getting ready to be shipped to iraq because her first cousin, my great-nephew, she is my great, had just been killed in iraq on may the 19th, 2005. jasmine said when they were called up at barksdale air force and told were flown in they had to report to the superdome.

they said when the hurricane hit, people worry -- were screaming. there were six people. she said it was just major chaos but they were told by general honore that you better not shoot one person because these people, these businesses that you are greedy peoplee are going to get their money. if a person goes in and get a loaf of bread, let them get it. . texas, i have to say, governor rick perry at the time he opened up texas, austin. they opened up the dome that was old in houston to let people come in. still rail from people from katrina. one of the ladies that said they barely got any money, that is incorrect. when they opened up the convention center down there they had people lined up. , worked for a major retailer

and a lot of the money was spent on very expensive things. yes, some of them did get some homes. one is down the street from us, and we are not used to people .arking their cars on the lawns a lot of times we did have to call code enforcement and to be persistence to say guess what guys, you can't do this. it tok when they tell have got to tell the whole story. have heirrs, i know i property from my mom. we have to change that. another thing, you have to pay taxes. in a neighborhood when it is devastated like that, taxes are going to up. insurance is going to go up. we as black people have to understand that. if you want to go back, you have to pay the taxes. you have to pay insurance. one of the most important

things, i am 57 years old. you have got to vote. host: peter in florida, hi. caller: hi. i am listening to this. you know, we have the government that we deserve. we elect idiots who don't respond to anything. the executive at that time should have -- instead of waiting to be asked by the governor or the, what do you call it, mayor of new orleans, he should have said the military in there. it is funny that we can go and help everybody around the world but our own people are screwed .ver left and right it is disgusting when you drive through new orleans today, you still have to laugh at a buildings. we have not done anything to fix of the flooding problems, and we need to get some intelligent people. when i hear bush talk, i guess he talks today. i still hear the world's -- ards, brownie, you are doing

wonderful job, as people are dying in the city. that is part of the united states. they keep telling us that the president is there to protect every american citizen. they seem to have forgotten this. i think people need to elect some intelligent people instead of these idiots that we have in washington. host: the head of fema at the time, michael brown, posted an op-ed in politico giving his opinion of the events of hurricane katrina. even see those online. one of the things is that if the mets had -- dated fema ordered the evacuation of your love? yes, it had waived posse invoked thed had insurrection act, which congress ultimately amended in 2006 to prevent -- permit deployment of troops in response to natural

disasters. that unprecedented action was actually contemplated days after the landfall of air force one and i advocated for it. i advised the president to federalize the response. he sat with the governor of louisiana and new orleans mayor ray nagin on air force one and outlined his plan. you can read more in the pages of politico. that is from michael brown, the head of fema at the time. teddy in baltimore, maryland. caller: thank you for taking my call. orn add that you just ran that section that you just read brings me to the point of the governor. there was an opportunity for the governor to relinquish autonomy for the state of louisiana to allow the federal government to take over. she refused to do so. in the interim, they made it all

the more worse. character did not have any experience whatsoever in coordinating such a horrendous disaster. as a matter of fact, his lack of experience had nothing to do with the government prior to in the bushted administration. thank you very much for taking my call. host: we have devoted the show taking a look at the 10 year anniversary of hurricane katrina. no guests today, just your calls, particularly if you live in regions affected by it. louisiana, new orleans, mississippi. those numbers have been on the screen and we want to hear from you during the course of our time. four louisiana residents.

202-748-8001 four mississippi residents. 202-748-8002 if you were displaced by katrina. 3.l others, 202-748-800 2000 five when congress held a hearing taking a look at the response of hurricane katrina. the invited residents of new orleans to come participate and give their testimony. keeler was the new orleans resident who testified before congress on her experiences with the recovery. we will hear from her and talk to her on the phone and what you things about it 10 years later. this is from 2005. [video clip] citizens of norlin's have endured hurricanes forever. it is very difficult to convince senior citizens to leave. if a mandatory evacuation had been called earlier, it would have made it easier to move seniors out of the area and many lives would have been saved. it took me 24 hours to get my in-laws leave.

the severity of the storm was .ot discussed had officials told citizens the potential of destruction, i would have done more to secure my belongings. i would have placed belongings on the second floor of my home, taking pictures and mementos with me. i unplug electrical equipment and placed items on shelves as i've always than. as i've always done. there was no continuity of services or information. red cross services varied from state to state. i relied on information from friends on what services i could get. i did have to go to the red cross several times seeking assistance. this took days and i only received assistance from florida. ,hile i was out of new orleans the only sources i had to rely on for information was the

internet and national media. the national media broadcast stories of homes covered in water. given onation was private services or what was going on in specific areas on instruction from elected officials. access to the internet was the only way to attain non-sensationalized information. the rich of government was prepared for this disaster. -- no branch of government was prepared for this disaster. they started with confusion and migrated to finger-pointing. the mayor is saying that all of new orleans will be rebuilt while the news is saying that may not be possible in all areas. the governor is saying help is but theo the area federal government is not releasing funds. fema says they will put trailers on affected properties but thousands are still waiting. host: joining us on the phone, doreen keeler, the new orleans resident you just heard from,

giving her testimony back in 2005. thank you for joining us. what do you think about the event and the recovery efforts now? what has happened in 10 years? caller: many of the problems i stated when i testified in front of congress are still present. there is still a lot of abandoned property come everyone's property value has gone down mainly because you and your neighbor may have rebuilt but the third house from the corner may be still abandoned. and boarded up. there is some progress, we do have some people who have come back. one of my main concerns when i testified was the lack of information given to people, especially with native new orleans who had endured storms and we had no idea the severity. it was difficult to get the elderly out and i saw no effort

to help the elderly affected by to make them able to move back into the city. the city lost out on a lot because we no longer have this people with us. host: as far as the information you were getting, you see that on all levels? caller: yeah. i blamed everybody. everybody had a responsibility for the entire disaster. nobody was prepared for it. i always knew there was a possibility of this type of storm coming through. frankly come i never thought it would happen during my lifetime. it caught the government by surprise. they should have had some type of plan in place for such a disaster. if i have to point the finger at one place, it would be the federal government. host: we've been talking a lot

about recovery. let's start with that. what do you see happening as far as the recovery? how much is the federal government involved now in this recovery effort? are they fixing what was damaged in the last 10 years? caller: it is still confusing. when we came back, we fully learned that you had to rebuild your area. that is different from day-to-day. what was available one week was not available the next week. believe how some much money could be wasted. some money was given out without any way of tracking who got what. some people got some and others were denied. some people who did not live in affected areas were actually receiving funding while those who were in affected areas have to go through hoops in order to get anything.

the city is coming back slowly. it is not the way it used to be. i often wonder if it ever will be. everybody has a katrina mentality. we talk about pre-katrina and post-katrina. what happened before and how it is not happening now. there are some changes, it is rebuilding. it will take a couple generations for us to get back to where we were before. host: you said it's not the way it used to be. give us some examples. caller: new orleans has always been a city of neighbors. whenever you talk to someone, you ask them where they came from. they would tell you what neighborhood they were from. those neighborhoods are gone. the boundaries are of secured, the lines are blurred. are gone.ndaries

longer get to know your neighbor. new orleans has always been a neighborhood city. with the area in which you came from. that is gone. i see no effort to try to solidify the neighborhoods again. there are several houses all over this city that have not been rebuilt. you have many cases like landlords buying this house, i live in another state -- i don't care whether or not it gets rebuilt. i have no response ability for it. neighborhood, the whole neighborhood concept has changed. host: we have seen pictures of the ninth ward.

neighborhoods like that or are neighborhoods toward apart?-- torn caller: even those who weren't greatly affected by the storm itself are being affected by the rebuilding of the city. all the neighborhoods have changed. the ninth ward is the worst. they have been neglected more than any other neighborhood in the city. they barely have services. i don't take my car down there because you could literally fall off the street. it is just that bad. before hurricane katrina, there not many services available to the lower ninth ward. it's a lot worse now. what did you lose as far as your home? what was rebuilding like for you? caller: it was rough.

before iwait a while could go back to my home because i wanted to see if any of the neighbors were coming back. when we were first able to get back into the city, the whole city was completely dark. streetlights, the only time you had lights was during the daytime, even though even if you could fight to get a trailer on your property, it was so deserted in the area. it took a while to come back. some of my neighbors came back and some of them did not. we have the problems with abandoned houses. a lot of the housing behind me was rental property and it was rental property by people who did not live in louisiana. the houses they -- directly behind me, they had a .ign it was there so long, the sun had completely bleached the contact information. storm took out the

entire bottom half of the house. wood righte of behind me. that went on for years. you had things like mice and rodents from abandoned property. years, they finally level the place. that's what many neighborhoods are still dealing with. bringing houses property values down, having the derelicts, rodents living in it ruining the entire neighborhood. guest: we've heard from others saying in some cases neighborhoods were rebuilt, mortgages are a problem in some of the housing now is priced out of the range of people who lived there 10 years earlier. the people who lived there could not come back because they could not -- their homes were either destroyed or

they could not afford to rebuild. many people who lived in areas -- many who lived in the areas could not have keep the house. and takingcoming in over and they could not afford to go back to the homes they lived in. a resident of new orleans joining us on the phone. you saw her testify back in 2005. updating us on her experience. thank you for your time and thank you for talking to us on c-span. caller: you are welcome. host: back to your cause. lafayette, louisiana. oliver from new orleans. toler: i was listening , concerned about the lower ninth ward area, the

recently opened a walmart out there. the lower ninth ward needs some supermarkets because there aren't any grocery stores out there. the dope and the drugs ran into the residential areas. maybe that's why they have not opened any supermarkets because have to run over to parish.sh -- another i can't understand why they don't put a supermarket out there like these to have years ago. -- like they used to have years ago. host: you are breaking up a

little bit. washington, d.c. lee was involved. go ahead. caller: for six weeks, i volunteered with a small grassroots group doing animal rescue work. morning and evening and during the day, i helped folks in st. bernard parish take their destroyed items out of their homes. one day, this young woman came with a dog tucked under her jacket. she was looking for a vet and she had all kinds of stories about the night before the storm hit. she worked at a bar and she described how the people -- they do the storm is coming. -- they knew the storm was coming in the were paralyzed.

she knew a forecaster who was going up in a helicopter. flying around in this helicopter, they would see the waters gushing in and they saw -- they would see cars, inilies and cars swept up this onrush of water. herself helped evacuate elderly people peered on a gurney, she described how she would wield this gurney across this bridge. at the end of the bridge, the people there would turn the back because they did not want these people entering that area. she herself was wiped it i gather the people she was assisting were black. white.herself was

it's a painful chapter. many people know about it. i don't know why i have never heard about that. if someone knows, i would love to hear it. host: mike in indiana. hello there. about: i'm calling louisiana. they got help -- the police department went down. out.wo months, they helped in theme in later current mayor -- and the current mayor, then the police chief said we don't need you.

i wish people in other parts of the country had come in and helped new orleans the way my men helped out. we will be there to help them out. they are a sister city. host: from burlington, north carolina, this is leslie. you are on. i just wanted to make three points, two quick points. notes a notebook full of because i was buried his did in what was going on down there. all the different problems arising. the caller before the lady you just interviewed said he was complaining about the fema director. saying he had no experience.

hityear before, florida got by five hurricanes back to back to back and he was the fema director then. -- theydid not go coordinated with the federal government. the local mayors did things quite a bit better. -- iveryone to get on recognize the whole system was messed up from the beginning. i blame the governor more than the president. if you are going to put blame anywhere, she was a new governor and this was way over her head. paler -- failure of engineering that caused the city to flood.

if anyone remembers the whole situation with the levee board down there and how corrupt the levee board was, for years and , they after katrina pilfered money, the levees they were supposed to be building stronger, that's why the city a poor site.s i pray for louisiana to this day. arkansasm katrina in who was displaced by hurricane katrina. go ahead. caller: good morning. i'm a little nervous. host: tell us about your story. what happened after the storm? where did you had to? caller: i was in the city during the storm. i was sent to the convention center. ,he group of people i was with

we were the first ones there. the very first people at the convention center. when we got there 10:00 the morning after the storm, the new orleans police department marched out and went towards the casino and we were able to enter the convention center. i found a bench in the hallway and sat there and fell asleep. i woke up and it sounded like mardi gras around me. that had many people came there. i have so much to say. first of all, my name is katrina, i was born and raised in new orleans. a lot of people during the time of the storm never evacuated or left because we might have had a

power outage and maybe some water from heavy rain and everything and then it passes by. you sit on your front porch and talk to your neighbors. i do miss new orleans. host: you live in arkansas. why didn't you go back to norlin's? -- new orleans? caller: a lot of the things happening, people that were affected by the storm started getting sick and passing away in dealing with so much stress and everything. i raised five children there. my main concern was the crime. all of a sudden, it was ridiculous. ofng with all the memories watching the city deteriorate --

it looked like a bomb dropped when i was able to go back there . i took it hard. it was hard. i wanted to close the door to that chapter. a lot of memories and everything. i miss it a lot. i feel like i cannot move back there. host: katrina sharing her story with us. we hear from another displaced by katrina. this is dorothy in mobile, alabama. caller: how are you doing? i was born and raised in that we had the water, it was come aboutighway 90 5-6 miles from the beach.

the water came up over my mother's hospital bed. i worked at a nursing home. after theyo back relocated but i heard that he got flattened. -- it got flattened, the nursing home where i work. worked. i out while iget drove back because of my mama. we were going to go to a shelter. she changed her mind and went to macomb. weres about a week, people trying to get back. that's when i discovered the water was up over my mama's hospital bed.

i took a few pictures. i had put down the tv expecting winds and stuff. we don't have any of our pictures of the family. we have what clothes we had taken on her backs. -- we did stayul with my sister. a couple days until someone gave us a lift. we found a small double wide and we took it. we slept on our air mattresses until i could get us a bid. h's hospice was just

north of biloxi. months her about three before she could get another hospital bed. moved a couple blocks. i got a job there. we built back a little bit. in 2009.my mama died i came to work in mobile at a nursing home and that's how i've in a nursing home because i had a stroke. that wehe main things did not tell each other how much shocked we was placing a few pictures. , we bothrs later

became very, very depressed. our family was in shock and finally, it hit. that's what katrina did to my mama. you what ito tell learned, what we both learned. you really don't need nothing but food, clothing and shelter. christians and we've both been through other hurricanes before. bad ones. , camille, so we know

what that hurricanes are like. -- bad hurricanes are like. god displaced us so we could recover. we will never forget the memories there. appreciate everything that i have. i don't ask for a whole lot because i think back that we were lucky that we got food, clothing and shelter because god will provide what we need. from mobile, alabama. virginia helped her family recover. tell us about this recovery. son who lived a

in new orleans at the time and a sister who lived in mississippi at the time. i found that my son was going to evacuate but my sister was not. arkansasvacation in when the storm hit and i knew i could not reach her. out for memphis and by the time we got to memphis, stores were being cleaned out of ice and toilet paper and staple things you knew you would like to take to somebody in an emergency. we gathered what we could and got as far south as jackson. at that time, there were reports of roads being closed. i was not sure if i would make it to see her. we got to jackson and had to stop for the night. i remember the lobbies of the hotels were full of people sleeping. just letting them sleep anywhere. we had to get up at 4:00 in the morning to get gas.

there were very few gas stations that were open or had gas. themember how weird it was early morning hours, walking through this gas lane asking any word from lumberton. word.was no we got on the road and drove down to my sister's house and she and her entire family were sleeping on mattresses on the front porch because it was so hot in august in mississippi. she just cried, she did not know i was coming. so sad to see this happening in our country with no help. all the way down, pickup trucks were flying past us full of generators. helping the poor desperate people who needed to get some help. if people can go down there with trucks full of generators, what is wrong with our country?

the saddest thing with my weter's daughter-in-law -- could not take her very much stuff. the stores had been emptied out but she cried when she saw the ice in our cooler. we had a couple hundred dollars we were able to give them. it was so sad. what angered me so much was turning on the radio on the way down and hearing george w. bush with his news conference praising browning and talking about how wonderful his crew is doing and he did not realize that there was that he was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. despicable than an despicable now how he could show his face in the city yesterday is just a mystery to me. i will never forget what a horrible president he was. the people that stayed and the people that went back one and

two they had to come and they loved it. it is a wonderful city. regardless of the corruption and misuse of funds, people that need to get back there had better get back there because it's new orleans that will make it good again. the rest of us are thankful for the wonderful city and what recovery the husband -- there has been. host: the current fema administrator was asked about the recovery efforts. what is being done by the current obama administration. [video clip]er.com/cspanwj >> >> i've been in this business for a while. we have seen this pattern over and over again. we nation prepares for what think will happen and when something worse happens, we are

not prepared for it. it goes back to hurricane andrew and hugo. this tendency that we plan for what we are capable of doing, not what can happen. and then we scale up. there's no mystery -- we had the national hurricane conference that urine april talking about these risks. in april talking about these risks. we talked about them. , you don'tot execute plan for what can happen. >> you had a discussion before katrina hit. april of that year. that basically simulated what might happen. things.oked at worst a major hurricane coming up the river channel overflowing the mainline levee system. it was not that we did not know that new orleans was one of the more vulnerable areas. if you look at a lot of the plans, they would plan for what

had happened in the past, what people thought was reasonable to plan for. mother nature is not reasonable. what you had was everybody thought it is worse than that, we will scale up. it did not. it was a very disjointed eachnse and that you had local government having to fail before the other kicks in. host: you can watch the whole event on www.c-span.org. let's hear from sally in new york. hello. caller: good morning. in the midst of all of this sadness, i have a happy story to tell. my daughter went to mississippi in october 10 years ago. from aatrina relief jewish center outside of jackson. that was calling churches all along the mississippi coast asking what they needed. diapers and water and ice. she met a handsome young man

running a camp and that is my son-in-law. when you ask my daughter and son-in-law about their marriage, they say our family is the result of the hurricane. talking about her experience and her daughter -- cheryl in louisiana. caller: hello. there was a lady that called a short time back asking about the people blocked on the bridge. n one of the major news channels. there was a lady and her husband who were both emts that had been in one of the hotels. they went up on the bridge and had -- there were a bunch of people up there with her. there,ere 100 people up some of them have bottled water and they were trying to get

across the bridge. the greater new orleans bridge which runs right past the superdome over to the west bank. they were blocked by the algiers police from going over that bridge. people --ne of the errifs wrote up to the people and took their water bottles and drove off. the attorney general brought charges against him. unfortunately, everything was eventually dismissed. no repercussions. was open on the other side of the river, elevated to about 15 feet above the ground. there was no water over there. people could have been taken that way. i saw something the other day that was terrible about charity hospital.

the oldest charity hospital in the country. those people were in that building and all that heat with no electricity and it took one week for the last patient to be lifted out of that hospital. host: emily from mississippi. good morning. thank you for calling and. caller: good morning good i wanted to give -- a lot of the focus is in new orleans. i live 60 miles from the gulf coast. my father was the director at hancock medical. he had to go down there for the storm. i want to share stories from hattiesburg. we have a pretty large hospital here. it also lost power, lost water.

walking aroundes with ivs because they were dehydrated. a lot of people don't hear about stuff like this because new orleans took over. even here in hattiesburg, we had thousands of patients that did not have water. we finally got a huge tank. someone stole our water. you cannot do dialysis without water. kids were coming from new orleans because we have a dialysis unit on highway 49. here. not have water even that's where fema ruined it for us. even in mississippi, we did not governorf up until barbour told them if you do not send medical supplies to these people, you might as well send

body bags. that was the truth even here. department, we have a base here in hattiesburg, and shall be. -- in shelby. two 18 wheelers ofe ice. there andjust sitting they were not giving it, so he went to the base install those 18 wheelers. i remember getting ice. i wanted to give you all some stories about places that you probably have not even heard that were majorly affected. governor barbour stepped up and told them, ice or body bags. basically was was one of the places very hard hit.

it was like a fish bowl in that hospital. that place has really come back because of the love that people have for mississippi. i wanted to share our story on that. it wasn't just new orleans affected. we were really hit hard in mississippi. host: emily from mississippi giving her perspective. the lines for the remainder of -- time, we as residents louisiana residents, mississippi residents come if you were displaced. glenn from alabama in new orleans during katrina. tell us about your experience. caller: good morning. busd the experience of the -- we were getting out early. there was a gentleman and some people with pets. ,hey were getting on this bus

try to take their pets with them. they were saying you cannot take these pets on this bus. one man told his dog, go home and the dog stood there. after they got the water levee down and everything, he went back to go home and guess who was there? the dog was there. he called his dog and he come running to his master and he jumped into his arms and said i told you i was going to come back and get you. there.d a bus he was able to get on the bus and leave new orleans and come back to his new home. his new home was in tuscaloosa, alabama. some of it was on the news come a lot of pets were so dedicated,

they went back to their own home . i don't know how they survived, but they did. they were able to find some of their pets and bring them back home with them. that was such a heartbreaking story. america should be like norlin's. -- new orleans. america is a big gumbo. a big dysfunctional family. we all have to come together with all of our talents to pull our nation up. child talking about no behind. we cannot afford to leave anybody behind. we are competing with the world and we need all of our talented children in music, science and everything else. this is a big gumbo we are living in and new orleans showed america we can come together and work together and make this nation great. thank you. host: carolyn in new orleans.

we hear from her next. carolyn from new orleans? caller: good morning. i wanted to talk about my experience with katrina. mead a 90-year-old lady with that i worked for and she had nowhere to go and i had five kids my own. we had to evacuate before katrina. it took us so long to get to where we were going, which was nowhere. we did not know where to go. i was the only one that could use my head to take care of everyone in the car. i drove and drove and we went to alexandria. i could not get a hotel there. the lady i was with was caucasian. they would not give it to me because of my race. she went in, they gave it to her

and she brought all of us in with her. andtayed there overnight then found a place with my cousins up in lafayette. we went to lake charles. then we had a good arkansas. innk god, we came back home october. nothing was wrong with our house. i went through a lot and i could not take it, to see the people the way they were. every time i think about it, i get so full -- the people did not understand what we were going through. it hurt so bad. god bless everybody that went through katrina. host: willie from austin, texas. your cousin was involved

somehow? caller: yes. my cousin, bobby, down there in the superdome. ory did not have any water food, nothing. it was a mess. men,lined up all the giving them shots in the arm. they said they were vitamin shots. my cousin said the women should take the shots. they were only giving them two men. -- to men. he took the shot and it was ok. three days later, he noticed something changed. he did not quite understand. he said the shot turned him gay. host: stevie from flint, michigan. on our line for all others. go ahead. caller: how are you doing today?

i just want to say god bless the people of katrina. i wanted to mention something the minority -- that is false. do it toasian and they us, too. this is not a black and white thing, this is a poverty thing. they are try to do a poverty control kind of thing because they are doing it in flint, michigan, wiping out whole neighborhoods, bulldozing them. .is is a bigger thing that service taking a look at hurricane katrina on its 10th anniversary. you can see that live on c-span and c-span radio. find more information that

www.c-span.org. new orleans is where wayne is coming t. go ahead. gentilly.lived in we had a lot of water from the canal. we left lake that sunday. -- late that sunday. we left and went up to baton rouge. my brother-in-law lives in baton rouge. we were able to stay there. lafayette with some boats to help the people that were drowning. it was unbelievable, it really was. host: barry also in new orleans. thank you for joining us on the phone. caller: good morning, pedro. covering very much for

the real deal on hurricane katrina. i would like to share this story with all the american people. thank god for the churches and all the volunteers. i get emotional about it. [indiscernible] the infrastructure, they did not help the local people. they talked about that? when you lose everything, everything you own -- i witnessed this. the local people did not have jobs. fired 700,000 schoolteachers. , theave 35 miles north arerity parish, the schools

being operated by the state of louisiana. we should never forget that. host: john from new hampshire. you were in new orleans during the storm. caller: yes, we were. part of the first response team. doctors, paramedics, pretty much anything you can think of, engineers. i was a paramedic. my partner lived in the tulane.a at dispatched.diately the flood began and we were blocked from entering the city.

to lend aid. four days, we were not allowed to get near the area. for myfrustrating partner because he has family down there. it was a sad, sad story. until bush came down, that's when we were allowed to enter the city with water and anything they needed. i want to thank everybody. was thereone else who in new orleans, gerber from alexandria, louisiana. louisiana now because you did not return to new orleans because of katrina? caller: right. i'm in alexandria right now. because ofeturn having to rebuild and everything. first off, i would like to

thank all of the american citizens that came down to help. hispanics,dents, documented and undocumented, american citizens as far away as michigan and california and oregon. all these people came down and actually helped us. and our own government did not come down until six days later. called in a community train parked comfortably black -- predominately black, middle class. we flooded. a fee plus of water. my brother and i were there and my mother was confined to a wheelchair. -- eight feet plus of water. we were waiting for a band to pick her up, they never came, so we had to write about.

we were on the rooftop trying to black helicopters. finally, my brother had to swim out and get on a levee and walk and found some of our dear friends that we grew up with -- they had the foresight to boot take boats.ats -- who we were simply people at a funeral home that we managed to get into. -- assembling people at a funeral home that we managed to get into. we had over 100 people in those homes that we were caring for. from infants all the way to 90-year-old people. it's a shame what the government, how the government failed us in this situation. we lost everything. we were going into the stores just to survive, not to loot, but to survive.

we had to get medicines for the people. we had to get food, had to get beds that they could sleep on, couches, whatever we could do, we did. that group of people that came and did that for their neighbors , those are the true heroes. those are the people that have earned their way into heaven. if we had more people like that in this country who cared for each other, regardless of their color, regardless of their economic status, we would be a fantastic country. situation.st a poor i sure hope that no one in america allows that to happen again. host: mississippi. good money. caller-- good morning. my brother lost his home.

he was able to get out. a heart broke because i had radio. even during the storm, i could hear calls of people from new orleans calling in for help. mothers with children who had not been a backward it because the buses had not gotten their. -- who had not been evacuated because the buses had not gotten there. later, i heard how the levees have broke and i knew some of those people did not make it. i want to express my condolences to all those who lost their homes and their families. praise god that all people, black and white can get along this a betterake world. i hope the people of new orleans are never forgotten again if this happens. they need to have a good plan to get the poor people out of there as soon as possible.

their lives are worth just as much as everybody else's. allk you and god bless who survive. host: angela from washington state. caller: good morning. -- i.e.st calling ev evacuated. i'm listening to everyone sharing their stories and it's wonderful to hear about their stories. enough with the stories. what is going on now? what are our structures like now to continue the process? when i left and went down to visit, i had family members down there right now that have rebuilt their home in the lower ninth ward. you don't have that support. right now, i don't even know who the governor is now. i think it is bobby jindal. what is their plan for the lower ninth ward?

levee up there. when i went down there to visit, the roads are horrible. you cannot even get to some of the neighborhoods. there's no transportation. schools, no, sewer, supermarkets. what is the infrastructure like? who is responsible for putting those things back for people to come back? host: alan from mississippi. you are on. go ahead. i worked at the navy base. ,ll kinds of trucks and stuff we had a medical system set up in the hangar. i think they had done pretty good work. they had a considerable traffic jam. it just stayed, it never left.

we went to work on a saturday and we were released on a thursday. home and my house was tore up. let's take one more call. phenix city, alabama. go ahead. caller: i just wanted to call and say i was there for katrina. we left saturday. went to little rock, arkansas. went to my sister's house with five people in the house. there was 11 of us and we had to get air mattresses to sleep on. , greater thank god fellowship christian church, they helped us

tremendously. we could not go back to norlin's poor to check out our damages. -- back to new orleans. everything was gutted out. it was horrible. it smelled ridiculously nasty. i don't know how people stayed there. it was bad. i feel so bad for the people that got left hind because the buses were supposed to be at the dome and convention center but everything up flooded. i stayed in arkansas for five years trying to get back to new orleans. never made it. now, i'm here in phoenix city, alabama. i don't think i could ever somen back until they fix things. i've been back to visit many times and it is still houses

boarded up, businesses boarded up, places gone. i have some family that did return, but they rebuilt. i'm just not ready to return until they fix a lot of things. as far as the crime down there, they have all these cameras everywhere. they need to have somebody manning these cameras and they consumer is going on in that city. give the people some jobs to look at those cameras on a daily basis to see what's going on in the city. the crime is just ridiculous. that's another reason people don't want to return. you him a think anyone else who participated in this program today. -- think anyone else who participated in this program today. the commemorations are money takes place norlin said to the clock tonight. -- commemoration ceremony takes place in new orleans at 6:00

tonight. tomorrow, we will be joined by michael bender. the democratic candidates running for also, we will take a look, a roundtable taking a look at the issue of climate change. the president is heading to alaska. zer of the heritage foundation and daniel weiss of the league of conscious voters will join us. program starts tomorrow at 7:00. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]