captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, october 29: puerto rico's struggle to turn the power back on. the secession crisis in spain sees a massive pro-union demonstration in catalonia. and in our signature segment: five years after hurricane sandy, how communities are preparing for the next big storm. next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.b.p. foundation. the anderson family fund. rosalind p. walter, in memory

of abby m. o'neill. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. from the tisch wnet studios at lincoln center in new york, hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thanks for joining us. puerto rico is looking for new helping hands to rebuild its power grid, destroyed by hurricane maria last month. today, governor ricardo rossello demanded the $300 million contract between the island's electrical utility, known as prepa, and a montana company called whitefish, be cancelled. later, prepa said that it would, once current work is finished. at a news conference in san juan, rossello called on prepa's board to terminate the deal and said he'll ask the governors of

new york and florida to identify other vendors. whitefish is a tiny, two-year- old energy company based in whitefish, montana, where president trump's interior secretary, ryan zinke, is from. until recently, whitefish had only two employees, though it's hired more than 300 workers for the puerto rico job. zinke has said he had nothing to do with awarding the contract. so did the federal emergency management agency. the department of homeland security, which oversees fema, and congress are reviewing the deal. 39 days after maria made landfall on the island where 3.5 million american citizens live, 70% of homes and businesses don't have power. 20% don't have drinkable running water. just days after the u.s. house of representatives voted to impose new sanctions on iran over its missile program, iran's president is vowing to continue it. iranian president hassan rouhani made the remark in a televised speech to parliament today. >> ( translated ): to defend ourselves, our territorial

integrity and our nation, we will not hesitate to build, produce, store and, when necessary for self-defense, to use any weapon of any type needed. >> sreenivasan: rouhani also met today with the head of the united nations nuclear watchdog agency, who confirmed iran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal that president trump has refused to re-certify. in east africa, the government of somalia today fired its police and intelligence chiefs following the repeated deadly attacks in the capital of mogadishu by al shabaab militants linked to al qaeda. the latest, a car bomb that exploded yesterday outside a hotel near the presidential palace, killing at least 29 people. five attackers then stormed the hotel, killing more people inside, in a gun battle that lasted through the night. somali security forces killed three of the militants and captured the other two. the attack came two weeks after a truck bomb killed more than 350 people. in neighboring kenya today, opposition leader raila odinga appealed for calm after a wave of violent election-related

protests. speaking outside a church, odinga denounced what he called the militarization of politics, and said, "a country cannot be ruled by the gun." in an interview with the associated press, odinga called thursday's low turnout, do-over election "a sham," and called for another repeat vote within 90 days. last week's vote occurred after kenya's supreme court nullified the august election won by incumbent president uhuru kenyatta. >> sreenivasan: today, spain saw its biggest public display of opposition to secession by the catalonia region. hundreds of thousands of pro-union catalans turned out in the streets of barcelona, the capital of the breakaway region. two days ago, catalonia's regional parliament reaffirmed last month's independence referendum, and spain's central government asserted direct control over the region, dismissing its leaders and calling for new elections.

newshour weekend special correspondent malcolm brabant has been covering spain's political crisis and joins us again, from barcelona. >> malcolm, help ition figure o. on the one hand we have cat lonians saying we're free and the government saying no, you're not and we're going to have somebody run this. >> showing how complex this issue is and there were varying estimates how large this crowd was. some saying there was over a million people but the local police saying it was 300,000 people. the main treats of bars lone drns streets of barcelona said, they want spain to exert control over this region, and institute arm 155 which means of that the spanish can have direct control. that is supposed to be happening. >> sreenivasan: tell us how do

they institute direct control? i mine who are their instruments? is it the military? is it the police force? >> the police force are absolutely critical. it's the local force is the mossas, the cial national police force, the guadias deville. absolutely instrumental, if they allow the local police to police the streets that's actually going to help to calm things down. if the g uardia devillee comesvt will e. >> running the cat lonian authority now is spain's deputy prime minister. and the big question on everybody's lips here is world war i he is going to be arrested. there was some sort of thought that he might be arrested tomorrow. and the local independents here,

say theyer going to protect the people around the heart of the independence movement. we were talking to the police union here and they think that perhaps spain won't necessarily go in to arrest mr. pusedemont, to create a sort of great an stag nix. what seems to be hang here is this great sense of limbo, people are waiting for this to happen but nothing seems to be anything really big going on. you wouldn't think this is a country in the middle of a heuj crisis, tourists are walk around, everybody seems to be having fun. no soldiers ton street or anything like that, and maybe this is spain's policy to try make sure there is no increase in tension to do nothing and let things lie, until maybe those elections they called on december the 20th. >> sreenivasan: all right, malcolm brabant, joining us from

barbarcelona. >> sreenivasan: five years ago today, superstorm sandy struck the east coast of the united states. its high winds and storm surge was responsible for 60 deaths and caused $70 billion in property damage in the hardest hit states, new york and new jersey. since sandy, coastal communities have been choosing how to fortify themselves in the event of another superstorm. the choice often comes down to whether to rebuild in flood-prone areas, or to retreat to safer ground. in tonight's signature segment, special correspondent stephanie sy reports on that debate from the new jersey coastline. this story is part of our ongoing series, "peril and promise: the challenge of climate change." >> reporter: five years after superstorm sandy devastated the new jersey coastal town of sea bright, it has been rebuilt. many residents, including the

mayor, dina long, had to reconstruct their homes from scratch. >> my first floor is now 13 feet off the ground. >> reporter: new homes are elevated, to meet local post- sandy flood zone guidelines. >> after the storm, when we started rebuilding, we kind of adopted this mindset of-- i call it "never again." we're going to do everything we can to mitigate our risk. >> reporter: property values have rebounded. >> i would say about 95% of the people are back. >> reporter: a new community center and beach pavilion is being erected, and seaside shops and restaurants are open for business in a county that generates nearly $2.5 billion a year for new jersey's $44 billion tourism industry. so, in some ways, sea bright is newer and fresher and more beautiful than it was before sandy. >> yep, it is. >> reporter: but look closer, and there are reminders of the destruction sandy wrought on this sliver of a town, squeezed between the navesink river and

the atlantic ocean. >> there was nothing left. we were actually shocked. >> reporter: it took a year and a half for brian mcmullin to rebuild his ice cream shop. in frank bain's hardware store, you can see the watermark left by sandy's storm surge, which peaked at ten feet. >> it was terrible. it was like a rogue wave came through and just washed out the town. >> reporter: five years after sandy, many new jersey residents stayed put, with support from the state government. it invested federal disaster recovery funds to safeguard residents and property from future storms, including dredging 31 million cubic yards of sand to restore beaches. >> and see, that's our high water mark. >> reporter: ten feet. and reinforcing metal bulkheads meant to contain river flooding caused by typical storms. what'll that do if another sandy-type storm comes ashore? >> if another sandy-type storm comes ashore, bulkheads really aren't going to do much, because the water is going to overtop the bulkhead. >> reporter: in sea bright,

there's one more line of defense: a five-mile-long seawall that dates back to the 1870s and stretches to the neighboring town of monmouth beach. it's 18 feet high, with the top six to eight feet above ground. the parts of sea bright that were shielded by the old sea wall were better protected when superstorm sandy blew ashore here five years ago. construction recently began to fill gaps in the sea wall and make it a uniform height. agency, fema, approved thegement $35 million project, 90% of the tab paid for by federal taxpayers. erick doyle oversees the division of new jersey's department of environmental protection, which designed the wall. >> from fema's perspective, there were significant vulnerabilities within sea bright itself. we did our economic analyses and came up with a cost-justifiable project that would close those

gaps and provide one contiguous structure. >> reporter: while it can't prevent flooding from the river or heavy rains, it can blunt the force of ocean waves. >> the seawall is there to break the wave energy. you know, this is kind of a secondary line of defense for, you know, the sandy-level events. >> reporter: but jeff tittel, the president of the new jersey sierra club, thinks reinforcing a sea wall to block out water is an unwinnable proposition. >> it's sort of the hubris of man that we think we can overcome nature. nature wins in the end. >> reporter: tittel argues, seawalls and beach replenishment not only fail to account for rising sea levels, but are also a waste of tax dollars because a ten-foot storm surge like sandy would go right over it. what do you say to people that have lived in these shore towns for a long time and that's home? they don't want to leave? >> i say to them that, you know, then the taxpayers shouldn't subsidize your community every time you have a storm or it rains. and every time that happens, they get millions of dollars in public money to either rebuild

their homes, to fix the infrastructure, or to repave the roads. >> reporter: the frequency and intensity of major storms and hurricanes like sandy, harvey, and irma have increased since the early 1980s, and the stronger storms coincide with another global warming-driven trend, higher sea levels. a rutgers university study last year forecast new jersey's coast could see a one- to two-foot rise in sea levels by the year 2050. by the end of the century, the study predicts a five- or six- foot rise is possible. but, climate models vary widely and depend on future levels of the carbon emissions which cause global warming. >> in this community, acknowledging that the five-foot sea level rise map could come >> reporter: but it is a conversation mayor long had with sea bright residents after

sandy, with the help of steve nelson, who was a recovery planning manager for the nonprofit new jersey future. >> it's very low-lying. it's very vulnerable to the ocean where the seawall doesn't exist, and to the river, even though there are bulkheads there. so sea bright is really in the crosshairs of the sea level rise dilemma and issue. it will be severely impacted by sea level rise if the scientists' estimations are true. >> reporter: sea bright doesn't require a major storm to flood. even typical rainy days can leave pools of water on its low- lying streets. nelson advocates a policy of" managed retreat," which means identifying properties most vulnerable to flooding and encouraging people to move to places that don't frequently flood. >> it's a very hard thing for me to say to someone, you shouldn't live here anymore. but in the long term, rebuilding the seawall, building up the

bulkheads, razing homes. they were not the longer-term sustainable solutions that i think is needed. >> reporter: which is to leave? >> which is for some people to leave. >> reporter: one factor working against that is the national flood insurance program, run by fema. it offers homeowners in flood zones affordable insurance, and continues coverage no matter how many times their home is damaged. >> there is an incentive to rebuild, there's a disincentive not to rebuild. and the way the flood insurance policies work now is counterproductive to long-term resiliency and sustainability. >> reporter: what do you say to critics that say, why should we be putting taxpayer money toward building a wall for sea bright, when we know sea levels are going to rise and the place is going to flood again the next time there's a big storm? >> well, the investment that we make today pays off in terms of not having to pay for repairing of damages in the future. there are numerous communities up and down the coast, not only in new jersey, but in the u.s.a.

i mean, do you want to talk about the florida keys? there are lots of places that are vulnerable. and i think anybody who's not doing everything they can to protect themselves from future storms probably deserves criticism. >> reporter: unlike in the tourism-generating coastal towns, after sandy, hundreds of new jersey residents along the state's rivers and back bays did leave their flood-prone homes. in the town of south river, 30 miles inland from sea bright: >> this spot actually was the former location of my house that i bought. >> reporter: jim hutchison is among the dozens of residents who were enticed into managed retreat by a state-run, federally-funded home buyout program called blue acres. hutchison's home, which flooded with four feet of water during sandy, once stood on this empty lot. under blue acres, the state bought his house at its pre- sandy market price, demolished it, and banned new development on the lot. >> it definitely was a loss to the town, without question.

it was a financial impact. it's, you felt, every year, you felt that way in perpetuity. >> reporter: while hutchison moved to higher ground in south river, he says he was one of the exceptions who took the buyout and stayed. >> people on the other side of the house here, they moved out of town. so the only one out of the four that were taken down here, that stayed in south river, was my wife and myself. >> reporter: do you regret the buyout? >> do i regret it? personally, no. absolutely not. i'm, i'm thrilled by it, because, again it took us out of harm's way and it gave myself a sense of ease with my family. >> reporter: the buyouts are visible when driving through the town next to south river, sayreville. the empty lots where homes once stood have been reclaimed by nature. they are now overgrown green spaces that may act as a buffer the next time the river overflows. new jersey has bought out more than 600 flood-prone homes since

sandy at a cost of $159 million. with another $141 million in federal funds allocated for the program, the state has hundreds more buyout offers in the pipeline. but on new jersey's ocean coast, buyouts have been a tough sell. >> they hurt a community, in terms of taxes. property taxes, right. municipal governments run on property taxes. >> reporter: mayor long acknowledges the ocean may one day swallow her town, but probably not during her lifetime, and as long as staying put is an option, she will. >> when you look at 100 years from now, the five-foot sea level rise projection, that's troubling, because it does show a large part of our area inundated by water. you know, that's the one that makes you lose sleep at night. >> sreenivasan: new yorkers took to the streets, questioning whether the region is prepared for climate change.

read more at pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: the increase in severe weather events, from superstorm sandy to hurricane maria, have come at a time when the amount of carbon dioxide emissions in the earth's atmosphere have soared, and when the planet's average ocean temperatures have warmed. in his new book, "the water will come," "rolling stone" magazine contributing editor jeff goodell writes about how communities all over the world are coping with climate change and preparing for sea level rise. jeff goodell joins me now, from baltimore. >> first, what are the estimates? what do we know so far? i know that these things change as scientists get more information. but what are they looking at? >> the efforts for sea level rise they keep climbing. basically every time they rethink them. but we are looking at the high end now of six to seven feet by the end of the century. and if you think about what the implications of that are for coastal cities around the world, it's enormous. >> sreenivasan: and you also

go to great lengths, even to top of glaciers to point auto how this is all interconnected. increased sea level if one part of the world ends up affecting climate in another one. >> you know that's one of the big thinks about climate change and whether we're doing with the atmosphere by pumping it up with co2, it is all connected. so i went up to greenland and felt very powerfully these giant glaciers craish into the sea. the direct impact that is going going to cause the sea to the rise and is causing the sea to the rise in miami and norfolk and galveston and all over the world. >> sreenivasan: one thing that is depressing. is if so much is being soaked up by the ocean that this is going to continue. >> that's true and it's a really important point.

we're not going to sea level rise -- to stop sea level rise. to cut carbon pollution, it can potentially stop sea level rise, but we have it sort of baked in to the heat that's already in the earth's atmosphere. >> sreenivasan: you also said in several cities around the world, in different ways, think they can engineer their way around this. >> every city and situation is different. in the netherlands comfortable who believe they have engineering themselves to protect against water influx, a network of dikes and things like that that have been erected to keep the water out. we have places like york after hurricane they are doing a lot to improve infrastructure, and lower manhattan. there are things that can be

done, certainly but also other places that are far more vulnerable. places like miami, very low lying, built on a porous limestone, you can't really build seawalls. the hard truth for this is for many plates, it means retreat, that's a very complicated idea. >> sreenivasan: finally, one of the things you mentioned is we are almost genetically incapable of responding to things that are long time frames. what you you're talking about is things that will happen to us over decades and centuries and we can't even get to the next election cycle. >> that's true, and sea level rise is a long term problem but it's important to realize that it is a near term problem. i've tboan miami beach walking through water knee high. norfolk is already inundating

the streets. >> sreenivasan: the book is called the water will >> this is pbs newshour weekend, sunday. come. jeff goodell, thank you for joining us. >> this is pbs newshour sunday. >> sreenivasan: today in myanmar, there was a public show of support for the army that stands accused of ethnic cleansing directed at minority rohingya muslims. more than 2,000 supporters, including buddhist nationalists and monks, marched through the country's largest city, yangon. one monk told the crowd, "only if the military is strengthened will our sovereignty be secured." myanmar's army has asserted that its crackdown began in august in response to attacks on soldiers by rohingya insurgents. myanmar's de facto civilian leader, nobel laureate aung san suu kyi, is facing international criticism for her relative silence on the atrocities. more than 600,000 rohingya refugees have fled into neighboring bangladesh, many describing the razing of their villages, indiscriminate killings of civilians, and mass rape. in thailand today, an elaborate, five-day funeral pageant for a revered king came to end.

hundreds of thousands of mourners lined the streets of bangkok as the ashes of the late king were brought to their final resting places in two royal temples. when he died last year at 88 years old, the king was the world's longest-ruling monarch. he reigned for 70 years. the year-long period of mourning ends tonight. thailand spent $90 million on royal funeral events. long-time adviser to president trump roger stone says he plans to sue twitter for suspending his account. the company's move follows stone's profanity-laced tweets on friday about cnn anchor don lemon and "new york times" columnist charles blow, both of whom have been critical of the president. twitter did not comment on stone's account, but has policies against abuse and harassment. stone tells "politico:" "the battle against free speech has just begun." read new findings from a study of "year-in-space" astronaut scott kelly and twin brother mark on our website, www.pbs.org/newshour.

tomorrow the justice department faces a court deadline to explain why an american citizen health 50 u.s. military in iraq can't see a lawyer. the american civil liberties union has challenged the decision, the pentagon won't release his name but said he was fighting for i.s.i.s. and surrendered six weeks ago to a syrian rebel group that turned him over to the u.s. ruled americans and others captured, may have an opportunities to contest the charges again them. that's it for the pbs captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan, good night.

>> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: bernard and irene schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. sue and edgar wachenheim, iii. dr. p. roy vagelos and diana t. vagelos. the j.p.b. foundation. the anderson family fund. rosalind p. walter, in memory of abby m. o'neill. barbara hope zuckerberg. corporate funding is provided by mutual of america-- designing customized individual and group retirement products. that's why we're your retirement company. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. be more-- pbs.

you've started out-- your father was a stockbroker. did you ever consider going into banking? i knew more what i didn't wanna do. i didn't wanna be a lawyer, didn't wanna be a doctor. david: you chose to go work for sandy weill. it was a hell of a run, and he fired me. [audience laughs] david: you've had a lot of jobs, i think you were offered the ceo of home depot. i look at business like i wear the damn jersey. i'm not a hired gun. david: think the country's better off for having dodd-frank? the system has completely recovered. part of that's dodd-frank. you would never consider running for office, would you? [audience laughs] woman: would you fix your tie, please? well, people wouldn't recognize me if my tie was fixed, but okay. just leave it this way. woman: and they-- all right. [♪] [david reading on-screen text]