captioning sponsed by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour night, the deadliest fire in california history, with more than 200 people still missing. miles o'brien explores what fuels these destructive blazes. then, a democrat is declared the winner in arizona's senate race, the georgia governor's race remains too close to call and recounts continue in florida. plus, with teen suicide on the rise, we go inside a school that's taking a proactive approach to counseling avtentially troubled students. >> we figured weto be very public about this. we have to be up-front about it. we have to talk about mental wellness, we have to talk about suicide. we can't hide >>hind anything. oodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour.

>> major funding for tbs newshour has been provided by: >> kevin. >> kevin! >> kevin. >> advice for life. life well-planned. learn more at raymondjames.com. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made possible by the corporation for ibblic broadcasting. and by conions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. dr

>> wf: california firefighters continue the battle to control two massive wildfires today. the so-called camp fire in the north is now the deadliest in the state's history, claiming at least 42 victims. more than 200 remain unaccounted for. the fire covers nearly 200 square miles and has burned more than 7,600 homes and structures. in the southern part of the tate, the woolsey fire has left two dead,burned mon 400 structures, and remains 35% contained. william brangham has our first report. >> brangham: today, search crews led by coroners are going block by block in paradise, california, looking for any trace of those who did not escape the cvep fire. >>body i know lost everything.

it's real sad. >> brangham: the death toll for this deadliest fire in state history could easily go higher. the camp fire sparked thursday, and quickly destroyed the town of paradise and then threatened surrounding communities. more than a dozen search-and- recovery teams are scouring through burned-out cars and the ashes of homes. authorities have requested an addional 150 personnel to help. hare survivors recounted their own owing escapes: >> the fire was above us, the fire was below us, iither sides. i mean, we were totally surrounded and driving through. >> brangham: state authorities are now investigating whethewe sparks from lines might've started the fire. on the front lines, more than 5,000 firefighters are inuing to fight intense flames and bone-dry conditions. asey've made some progress in containing the firt moves east toward the town of fioville. many of thfighters are trying to stop outbreaks in their own communities.

>> we all sustained a severe amount of property damage but fortunately a lot of our structures were left. and then to come out here. i mean this is the calling. >> brangham: the fires are so vast that smoke has migrated some 180 miles south, casting a cloud over san francisco. in southern california, fire crews continue to drop water and fire-retardant as they work to wtend the containment lines around tlsey fire. >> we are not out of the woods yet. we still have some incredibly difficult conditions ahead of us. >> brangham: it also started thursday, destroying homes and businesses across los angeles and ventura counties. authorities are also investigating whether an outage on a piece of utility equipment caused this particular fire. in the seaside town of malibu, still under a mandatory evacuation, residents saw more of the same destruction: incinerated cars and the fieletons of homes. >> it was storm, the

worse i've ever seen it, i've >> houses all around going up in flames. just a horrific, horrific scene. and there was a number of times when they were wondering, "hey, are we going to be able to get out of this?" >> brangham: as fire officials inspect more of the damaged destroyed is also expected tos rise. >> 20 people lost their homes in here. i mean, that's just devastating. that's probably the hardt. >> brangham: president trump approved a federal disaster request from californich will help bolster a dwindling fireudget in a season that h seemed never-ending. president trump spoke about calirnia from the white hous today. >> we mourn the lives of those lost. we pray for the victims. and there are more vicms than anybody would ever even think possible. >> brangham: state officials say there are numerous fac driving this disaster: the lingering effects from the

state's drought, warmer temperatures caused by climate change, and more and more housing being built deeper into forested areas. this combination, they say, will only make the devastation of future fire seasons worse. for the pbs newshour, i' william brangham. william will be back later with more on what's driving these intense fires, later in the broadcast. in the day's other news, amazon ernounced it will split its new second headquabetween two , cations: long island city in queens, new yod crystal city, virginia just outside washington, d.c. the online retail giant based in seattle has plreged to spend han $5 billion on the new outposts, and create at leewt 25,000obs at each site. new york city mayor e blasio welcomed the decision. >> we're going to have an opportunity here for tens of thousands of new yorkers, kids who come up from our public school, kids who go to our community colleges who go to our

four-year colleges to work at amazon. and not just at amazon, but we know that amazon's presence is going to help build the entire tech sector. >> woodruff: in return, amazon is expected to receive nearly $2.5 billion in tax breaks and incentives as part of the two deals. a tense calm prevailed in gaza todaafter hamas and other palestinian militants accepted a cease-fire, brokered by egypt, to end the recent wave of cross- border attacks. foreign affairs correspondent nick schifrin has our report. >> schifrin: in gaza today, a palestinian boy wearing an american sweater played in the rubble of what used tomas' tv station. s at used to be hamas' interior ministryw a giant pile of debris. and a nearby high-rise is gutted, its walls and windows blown out, displacing gazans like mazen tarbaan. >> ( translated ): where we will go to? wawas displaced from in the 2014 war when my houshit. i came and bought in a safe

place. now where is the safe place? chifrin: before today's ceasefire, israel hit 150 targets it said were connected to hamas militants. and as always, the nerals were ublic. men in hamasforms carried a fighter who hamas chief ismail haniyesays was killed by israeli aggression. >> ( translated ): this is an attle between us and the zionist enemy. only he is responsible for this crime and its ramifis. >> schifrin: the bombing mproduced the deadliest at dangerous round of violence in four years. across threeights, and early mornings, hamas releasedanideo of more 00 rockets fired at israel, targeting israeli cities likashkelon, where residents shot cell phone video trying to save a woman from a collapsed house. in nearby sderot, sirens warned of imminent attacks, and residents carried a neighbor,pa who wastinian, killed by a ielestinian rocket.

>> i am terrd. me and my daughter we cried wnfore, a lot of peoplcried on the stairs, going tairs, ndd there is a lot of babies hereverybody was evacuated hotside, must stay outside. i pe everything is going to be okay. >> schifrin: but the attacks continued. released propaganda vide of a missile strike on an anraeli army bus. on monday lt. col. jonathan ninricus showed a building damaged by palesti rockets, and described israeli airstrikes as necessary. >> all of them military targets, belonging to either the hamas, or the palestinian islamic jihad, again signifying the differce here between what the gerrorists do and what we do. they tcivilians and we target terrorist activities. >> schifn: the violence was sparked by a sunday israeli special forces raid that killed two hamas commanders, bualso killed an israel lieutenant colonel, and recent diplomatic progress. both sides have been eager to , dress months of protestsd a humanitarian crisis. 97% of gaza's water is

undrinkable. there are only four hours of electricity a day. so israel recently allowed shipments ofiesel for gaza's power plant, and an infusion of dollars so thousands of hamas civil servants could pick up months of back-pay. but today, that fragile progress must be rebuilt, just like the buildings that both sides know could be targeted again. for the pbs newshour, i'm ck schifrin. >> woodruff: president trump fired off a series of twitter taunts this morning, lashing out at his french counterpart over military spending and trade. they came two days after a tense visit to paris. mr. trump mocked president inemmanuel macron for propan all-european army. he suggested france would ve lost both world wars without the u.s. military's support. and on trade, the president complained about french tariffs on u.s. wine. in a rare move, first lady melania trump publicly called for the ouster of a

innior white house official. statement from her spokeswoman, mrs. trump suggested deputy national security adviser mira ricardel be fired. it read: "it is the position of the first lady that she no er deserves the honor of serving in this white house." the state of maryland filed a legal challenge today to block the appointment of matthew whitaker, president trump's choice to be acting u.s. attorney general. the lawsuit contends that whitaker's appointment violates a federal successionaw, and the post should go to deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, who's already been confirmed by the senate. whitaker had been chief of staff th former attorney general jeff sessions, whpresident fired last week. cnn sued the trump ministration today for

hvoking correspondent jim acosta's whise press pass, claiming his first amendment itghts were violated. the house stripped acosta's press credentials prllowing a heated exchange at thident's news conference last week. in a statement, presetary sarah sanders accused cnn of drandstanding," and insis the white house will "vigorously defend" itself. democrat kyrsten sinema has won the arizona senate contest, g an end to a race that' been too close to call for almost a week. in a pickup for her rty, icnema narrowly edged out repu congresswoman martha mcsally to fill the seat vacated by outgoing republican jeff flake. sinema celebrated her victory last night in phoenix. she's the first woman from arizona to ever be elected to the u.s. senate. >> arizonans had a cice between two very different ways forward: one focused on fear and

onrty politics; and one focused rizona, and the issues that matter to everyday families. arizona rejected what has become far too common in our country: name-calling, petty personal attacks, and doing and saying whatever it takes just to get elected. >> woodruff: meanwhile, in georgia, a federal judge has extended the deadline to certify election results for the state's hotly contested governor's race to friday. and in florida, officials are eccing to meet their thursday deadline fornts in both oe senate and governor's races. we'll get the late florida's recount, later in the program. envoys from itain and the european union have agreed to a ntoposed brexit deal, after of stalled negotiations. british pre minister theresa may will present the terms of the withdrawal to her cabinet aimorrow. but its fate r unclear since it still must be approved

by her cabinet and the british parliament, and ratied by the e.u. the u.k. is set to leave the bloc on march 29th. there's word airplane manufacturer boeing failed to tell pilots about a software issue th's believed to have played a role in the deadly crash of an indonesian jetliner. "the wall street journal" reported pilots weren't informed until after last month's incident, which killed all 189 people on board. experts said a new flight- control feature can, on rare toccasions, cause the 7take a nose dive or crash. boeing is working to fix the software. the trial of notorious mexican drug lord joaquin "el chapo" guzman got underway today in new york, amid tight security. opening statements were delayed after a juror had to be dismisse

guzman has pleaded not guilty to charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy to murder, and money laundering. if convicted, the 61-year-old thuld face life in prison. environmental protection agency today announced new plans to limit pollution from hey duty truck its one of the trump oradministration's first e to regulate the industry, rather than roll back environmental rules. the e.p.a. hasn't updated its standards for nitrogen oxi emissions for big rigs in nearly two decades. and stocks extended their losing streak on wall street today, led a steep drop in oil prices. the dow jones industrial average lost 100 points to close at 25,286. the nasdaq gained a fraction of a point, and the s&p 500 spped four. still to come on the newshour: what's fueling california's deadliest wildfire. several key races too close to call in florida and georgia.

how one school district is taking a proactive approach to preventing teen suicide, and much more. >> woodruff: as we've been reporting, in california, talk of a defined fire season is giving way to a more permanent william brangham is back with more on what's driving this new, dangerous condition. >> brangham: thaass right judy. e reported before, three major fires are causing havoc in california, including the most deadly a destructive in the state's history, the camicfire, whis still burning in northern california. over the passix months, our science correspondent miles o'brien has been shooting a film about wildfires for the pbs science series "nova." it's called "inside the megafire," and will air next spring on pbs.

this past week, miles was there in cifornia filming just as the camp fire broke out. it joins me now. miles great to see you safe and sound, but i'm just curious what that was like when you're there on the ground when that enormous blaze broke out. >> well, william, our day began in reading, california. we were there to interviewsome shrivers of the car fire back in july. on thursday about 6:00 a.m. we got word there was a fire about 100 miles away. we had no idea what we were going to be getting into. we made our way down, an we approached on the northern side of the fire in the unincorporated settlement of magalia. there was fire everywhere, houses on fire, trees on fire, smoke everywhere. there was no humanly possible way to stop what was happening. it was terrifying. it was horrifying.

it was frankly mesmerizing. >> brangham: i know that by all accounts this was a tly extraordinary event. i believe it burned 80 acres ate mit the very beginning. it's now consumed over 100,000 acres i believe. i guess the technical term for this is megafire, an my understanding is we're seeing more of these events. why is that? >> well, megires are much more common than they have been. just t give you an idea, the seven largest fires in cafornia history have occurred since 2003. so this is a growing trend.we ere meeting up with a fire meteorologist om san jos state university, craig klemens. he and a team have a truck that's rigged up with all kinds of meteorological gear, including a lydar system, whic is basically radar with light. he points it at the plume of the smoke.

and he's also to see through the smoke and determine the wind direction and speed and understand some things about the eaather. fires their own weather, and they're also impacted by the am bee yentd weather around them. this is of great interest to rearchers to help them understand how these big fires propagate. they sort of develop a life of their own. iaaig points out that califowhen you consider its train, the amount of fuel available, and the weather, it's the perfect place f these megafires. n, brangham: when you have that hapry fuel, real strong winds, dry air, and warmer temperatures, that's the combination for extreme fire behavior, and california has stltiple mountain ranges, multiple wind ms and all sorts of different fuel types. we have the most ecosyanstems of other place in the united states, and they all burn >>hot. rangham: so he's describing this incredible amount of dry tinder to fuel these fires. what are some of the other main factors that drive tse big

blazes? >> well, we shouldn't overlook one important factor, which is many more human beings are moving into 2t woods. there are now 100 million americans who live inhat is known as the wildland urban interface or so humans are there. then they're causing the fires. that's big part of it.is but therlso the issue of climate change. there is a big stack of reserch now that links the climate to the incidents of fire. it stands to reason that if it's warmer and drier, you are going to have a greater likelihood of fire. we met up with a researcher at columbia university's lamont doherty university, park williams, who has authored a lot of these papers, and h evidence is fairly clear. >> so in the last 40 years or, so we've seen the amont of forest that burns any given year in the western united statehas

increased by about 1,000%. that means there's about ten times more forest burning this year than the was in a year in the 1970s and 1980s. this is a huge increase. and that increase has been driven by warming. >> brangham: president trump, who we know is a real sceptdic about the science behind climate ange has blamed a different factor. he has repeatedly said th california wildfires are driven by bad forest management. how true is that? what does your reporting tell us about that >> well, bad forest management is a problem, however, that's pretty simplistic. the blame should not be pointed at california in particular, and incidentally, environmentalists, as is part ofhat whole argument. really the story goes back about century and the effort to protect timber and timber interests in thenited states. that's really how the forest service began. and it began a century of very aggressive fire supression. and what it has done, it has

left forests all acroous nation as dry tinderboxes filled with a lot of underbrush, a lot of dead trees, and a lot of diseased trees. it is worth pointing out that these forests overhe'ons have involved with fire as a natural way to prnlg things and rejuvenate themselves. so what's the solution? the researchers will tell you the best way to handle this problem, and it's not an easy one to solve, is to start thinning out forests, not clear cutting them for timber, but thinning them out and introducing so-called prescribed burns. i met up with a researcher with the u.s. foresrvt ice in missoula, montana. we went to a couploe plopts f land where she's running an interesting experiment. they have the plots let it be. 100 years of growth. ot's thick. you barely walk th it. right next it to, 16 years ago, they thinned it out and they burned it. it's lying night and day.

>> the poerosa pine forest evolved with very frequent fires. we think they burned every two to 14 years on avege every seven years. so that's really frequent. so removing fire for 100 years allowing all these little seedlings to get established. they start growing, and if firings were coming through here routinely, they would kill those seedlings, creating open conditions. >> brangham: it sounds like it's working in this demonstration she's showing you, but the west of the united reates is so vast. is it reallistic that we could thin and clear the o hundrethousands of acres that is the united states out west? >> wellt it cernly won't be cheap and easy, william, that is a fact. if you look at t u.s. forest service budget now, over 50% of the money they spent is just to battle fires. so there's really not even any money for them to go in the preventative ideas that sharon

hood would suggest. but there is a growinitg recon that this is the only way out of this problem. but there islso a lot of opposition to it. here's the irony, the opposition, the most heated opposition comes from the people most affected, the people living in the woods who don'tant to have their view changed by thinning or to havee the sm that's caused by the prescribed burns. but what the expertsill tell you is the fire is inevitable. we need to learn to live with it. it's a question of whether we want to do the fir onur own terms or wait for something as horrible as the camp fir. if the trends continue, we're ast going to see more and more and bind bigger fires. >> brangham: all right. miles o'brien, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. >> brangham: the "nova" documentary "inside the rigafire" will air in the g of 2019 on pbs.

>> woodruff: results from florida's senate and governor's races remain unclear after the polls closed. ree state is once again mired in unts and lawsuits. at the center of the drama is so.h florida's broward coun officials there are working around the clock to re-count more than 700,000 baots ahead of thursday's deadline. adam smith is the political editor for the "tampa bay times" and he joins me now. adam, you have been following thistory as you have all of florida's recent elections in recent memory. remi us what triggered thi recount. >> well, it's a virtually tied election. three of them really statewide. you've got all within one percentage point, the governor's race, the senate race, and there's an agrculture commissioner race. under state statute, if you get within hf a percentage point, you have to have a machine recount, and that's 67 different counties.

so that's what they're doing now. the deadline to complete that is thursday afternoon. >> woodruff: so the recount is across the state, but so much focus on broward count why? >> because broward has a track record of just botching these elections, election after election a election. palm beach county to a lesser extent, too. so after the votes seemed to haveeen counted on elecion night, it turned out there were . lot more coming from broward coun that's why bill nelson didn't concede. that's why andrellw um, running for governor, took back his concession. un woodruff: we should say again, broward , the home to fort lauderdale. a lot of focus, adam smith, on overvotes and undervotes. explain the sfinince of that and what the ballot itself looked like. okay. one of the big questions in broward county and really the great ho of the democrats and bill nelson pulling this out, he's down by about 13,000 points

so far, i mean 13,000 votes so far, and there are about 25,000 tr so ballots that show no vote for that see race. so the question is was it a problem in the design that people just skipped over it, or was there some prob with the machine that they're not reading votes that were really cast? the nelson campaign ihong and supposedly expecting that it's going to turn out to be a giant machine f:afu. >> woodrou have monitors following all this. if it's close enough there would be a manual recount, is that what we're looking at heress ly? >> if it then gets under a quarter of a percentage point, there will be manual recount. that seems like a given that that's goingo happen in the senate race and probably also this agricultural race. then there are a fewi lslative races that aren't statewide. so that's where we'll really

have deéjaà vu from 2000 where you'll have these canvin boards looking at all of these ballots. there are no lon, r chadst there are things like did they properly mark the ballot. did they x out one vote and cast another vote? there will be some interpreting of what really constitutes a vote. >> woodruff: so president trump, a number of republicans have been talking about fraud, unfairness in the way this has been conducted. is there evidence of that? >> there i zero evidence of frtd or stealing or packing ballot boxes, as scott and the president have been saying. there is a lot of evidence of incompetence and vie -- violating proper protcol, but so far both the state law enforcement agency and the eavision of elections, these are two bodies thaty report to republican elected o they say there is zero evidence ng far of any actual fraud or tro steal an election, as the president says.

>> woodruff: so for those of us who were around in 2000 and remember that recount that went on for day, we remember the republicans were particularly aggressive on the legal front, the public statementront. how would you compare the two parties right now in how they' handling all of this? >> very similar unfortunately in some ways. sou have the republicans very much casting t as an effort to invaidate and steal a valid election, and you have thes democring all they can to have a very liberal interpretation of what kind of ballots should be counted as votes, et cenura. so far er of these lawsuits, the governor tried to impound the voting maines at one point, to sort of raise doubts. that was tossed out. o there are about at least seven lawsuits thacan count off the top of my head that have been filed so far. >> woodruff: there's so much on stake, as there always is in every elec we know so much at stake

narticularly from washington's standpoint in the e race, because of what's happened there. ad schiff, how confident can florida voters be, can american voters be that when all said and done these votes are going to be counted correctly? >> i don't know the answer to e'at. i thinke so polarized right now that i think certainly ifti the el were overturned, i shouldn't say overturned, but if nelson pulled ahead'm sure we'd have half the country very, very, very doubful. so the problem is when you get elections that are this closeit, ind of shines a spotlight on how problematic our votin technology and processes often are. >> woodruff: well, we're going juto remember your answe now and as we watch to see what happens. adam smith of the ttaampa baypay times," thank you. >> thank you.

>> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: how a small town in north carolina rebuilds after hurricane florence. and author susan orlean looks back to a fire that ravaged los angeles' central library. but now, suicide is now theau second leading of death among people aged 10 to 18, according to the centers for disease control and prevention. how to tackle the problem? the research points to schools. special correspondent lisa stark, of our partner "education week" visited a high school in virginia to see if their approach of teaching mental health can work. it's part of our ongoing education series, "making the grade." >> reporter: this is the kind of lesson you don't often hear in a high school classroom. >> every single one ofs.ou matter we care about every single one

of you, so if you're not feeling great, if you're concerned about friend who might also not be feeling great, please, please come tell us. >> reporter: the subject, preventing suicide, taught by ol counselors at freedom high in chantilly, virginia. >> we're going to go over some .of the signs of depressi maybe you can identify some of the signs of depression that you've seen or recognize? >> we figured we have to be very public about this. we have to be up-front about it. we have to talk about mental wellnesswe have to talk about suicide. we can't hide behind anything. >> reporter: pncipal douglas fulton has made mental health education an essential part of the curricul at this high- stress, high-performing public school outside washington,.c. >> if we're not working on building our mental wellness for all of our students, wre

missing a piece of education. >> molly is a recent graduate of freedom high, now in college and doing well. it was a school guidance councilor who fir realized molly could be suicidal and told her mother, kim. molly was in sixth grade. >> usi was shocked. she totally floored me. she said the reason molly would be the one kid that you really have to wah is because she was very popular, great grades, nothing pointed towi issueth molly, nothing stuck out. except she was ald.ys >> reporter: therapy hmoped. y has never tried to hurt herself, but she says she hit rock bottom in 11th grade. >> i wasn't doing my school work, my grades were dropping and i care a lot about my studies so it was really difficult. and then more emotionally i got hit pretty hard.

>> reporter: you don't have to continue. >> i mean it needs to be said, sometimes you come across like heerything is completely fine and there are daysyou just want to die and you feel really, really b and no one can see it and you're waiting for somebody to see it. id reporter: molly's older sisteree it, and went to a school counselor. >> and the counselors at the kehool were the first person to hop on it and are of me and screen me and make sure i was doing okay, and give me options. >> when it comes to educating oungyouth, the important t to teach them is that mental health struggles are common to human experience. there should be no stigma or shame in that. that asking for help is a od, strong thing to do, not a sign of weakness.

>> reporter: the ame foundation for suicide prevention says even though schools don't have enougrsh councind psychologists, many are trying to make mental health a prio trity. y have eyes on our youth of america noand cace changes in their behavior and ort to save lives really. >> rr: nearly one in five high school students will seriously consider high school in a 12-month period according to the centers for disease control.pt 7% will attet. suicide is now the second leading cause of death for those aled 10 to 18. rates are espe high for gay, lesbian and bisexual students and native americans. >> reporter: suicide experts say therare two key roles that schools can take, first to identify students who may be at risk of harming themselves, and then to connect them to the mental health services they need. mental health issues can start at a young agend more than

half of all cases start before age 14. teenage years can be even more stressful, perhaps even more so nowaday, affecting students of all race eand allnomic level, including those who arely relatiell off at freedom high. >> i'm taking classes with a large workload. >> social media really takes takes a toll on a lot of u >> deadlines we have, things that we feel obligated to accomplish. >> mental health got put on the back burner unfortunately, and it shouldn have. >> reporter: at freedom, the goal isn't just to help students in a crisis but to prevent the crisis in the first place. they're working to make students feel connected to each other and to the staff. noeasy in a school of,100. so the school puts every student into an advisory, small groups of 14. >> you guys are freshman, so you guys are learning the ways of high school. >>r reter: freshman advisories are led by seniors to help create aondetween the newest students and the most

experienced. teacher debie savage runs the program. >> our overall goal, again, is about relationship building andi bu relationships. because if you have strong relationships you're going to feel good about yourself. >> would you like a lollipop? >> reporter: there's also a big effort to create a senool environmthat's welcoming and supportive. the students on lollipop duty are part of a suicide prevention program, called sources of strength, used in about 10,000 schools nationwide. counselor monica belton oversees the effort at freedom high. the meat and potatoes of sources of strength is really talking about strength stories, talking about what other kids are doing to get through the hard times and how it's working for them. so that's what we're asking people to do is share their stories of strength. i want you to write down, draw, picture, do whatever you want to do to let us know about things that you do that give you strength.

>> reporter: the fdius is on buil coping skills using resources such as family support, positive friendships, mentors, healthy activities. >> so we're going to take turns, everybody present their poster. >> when we feel sad, or we feel blue, these are some of the things we do. >> my name's alex, i like to zzive. >> my name's iy and i like to ercise. >> taking long walks, music in th earfriends all here. rap is short, it's not about length, we hope you like our sources of strgth. >> reporter: students are they will become peer leaders, suicide prevention.mbassado >> i think slowly but surely we've brought anxiety and suicidal depression, like those feelings have become part of our everyday conversation, which i great. la reporter: for the principal

doug fulton, this is personal. >> i was the parent who got the phone call, your kid is in the hospital, they tried to kill themselves. it's scary. it's a time you really question every. good morning. >> reporter: his child is doing well. >> reporter: his child is doing ffll. fulton hopes hists may help prevent another parent from it did for mly. >> they saved me. they did save me. >> reporter: and the staff here at freed ss it is determined to stay vigilant. in just the first month of school, councilors screened five students, for "education week" and the pbs newshour, i'm lisa stark, in chantilly, virginia. >> woodruff: tomorrow marks two lomonths since hurricane fnce

made landfall in north carolina. the storm drenched the state for days leading to record-breaking flooding and an estimated $17 billion worth of damage. special correspondent cat wise recently traveled to jones inunty where one hard-hit town is still strugglwith the messy aftermath. >> reporter: at the end of a quiet rural road in pollocksville, north carolina is a catering business normally bustling this time of year with ecddings and corporate events. but on a rt morning, owners vel and mel chapman headed into work and instead of putting on aproons, they grabbed brooms sweep out the kitchen where they've been cooking classic southern food for nearly 20 years. the chapmans are among more than 750 families in pollocksville and jonecounty who lost erything when the trent river flooded during hurricane heorence. like man, they did not weve flood insurance. >> we thine lost about $100,000 with merchandise and

equipment. t so much food, we lost thousands and thousands of dollars' worth of food. >> reporter: their home, just edyards away, was also flo but perhaps the biggest loss they attribute to the storm: vel's 90-year-old mother passed away the day the family returned after being evacuated. >> i think she couldn't stand the idea of seeing us flooded out, because she really loved working back here with us. that sunday she passed away, she had a massive heart attack. >> reporter: this was inllocksville during the height of the flo r's a small, working-class community with 3idents. about half of the town's homes and businesses sat underwater for several days. and this is pollocksville nely two months after the storm: block after block strewn with household possessions and cherished keepsakes destroyed b ood waters. the town post office, motel,

restaurant, and historic buildings along main street, all wiped out. pollocksville is no stranger to erooding. the scenic trent ras overflown its banks three times in the past 20 years, but hurricane florence's deluge shocked everyone. >> we had a nine foot storm enrge that came in from hurricane flor in the first day, and before that surge could retreat, we got somewhere between 25 and 30 inches of rain >> reporter: jay bender has been the mayor of pollocksville for 36 years. he's working out of a temporary office, an old pharmacy, surrounded by soggy records and equipment he and his staff tried to salvage from the town hall. it's a historic former train depot which sits right next to the trent river. >> just be careful. >> reporter: so how muu water did yove here? >> well i'm figuring 20-plus feet. >> reporter: inside, bender showed me his office where mold is now growing on the walls, and

a meeting room filled damaged city memorabilia. >> well we lost everything. '2 lost minute books that date back to the s we have no ordnance book we have no copies of contracts we have no personnel records. so we've really had to create a wivernment in exile. nothing. >> reporter: among the many issues confronting mayor bender and the city now: more than $500,000 in damaged infrastructure costs. a nonprofit in the state gave ene city a grant for sewage treaplant repairs and the mayor is hoping to get federal and state support for other reirs. the recovery process unfolding now in pollocksville is a familiar one for manmesmall, low-inommunities hit hard ou extreme weather events. those with few reses before ime storms have a harder t getting back on thei. h pollocksville, a new faith- based nonprofit ping to meet the biggest needs of the

community. the "filling station" is an old propane gas company that was recentlyurned into a food pantry and resource center with support of localhurches and others. since the hurricane, it's been a hop where residents in need are loaded up with donated items. >> dear holy father we thank you so much for the privilege to come here and serve in this way. >> reporter: mary ann is the volunteer president of the organization. >> primarily the newspapers are gone, news crews are gone, and now the hard work begins. >> reporter: what do people need most? >> first and foremost they need hope. thy need people helping to habuild the houses. ing sheetrock, putting in r:oors, even mucking out houses. >> reporte one of those coming in for supplies while we were there was michelle parker. parker and her husband ken own a 60 acre produce farm on the intskirts of pollocksville. it's beeen's family for

three generations. eneir home was flooded along meth ken's pars and their son's they also lost $30 to $40,000 in isll crops. >> thihere would be growing strawberries. all this was under water eeerything you can see out here was probably waistor so. >> we had sweet potatoes we were getting ready to dig. they're gone. o that's kind of fall/winter crop we live on. >> reporter: the parkers, who have so fareceived a $20,000 rebuilding grant from fema and $6,000 from a gondme page a friend established, are now facing a hard choice many others are confronting as well: whether to continue to livand work along the banks of the trent river. >> it's a good possibility that we may not continue. if we do it's like starting from scratch. the future is unknown as far as how it's going to go. >> when you're seeing flooding

omppening again, and again in the same location,nities need to make smart choices about how they rebuild. >> reporter: john mills is a fema spokesman who h been stationed in north carolina arnce the hurricane. thusmore than $4.5 million in state and federal grants have been gen to some 600 homeowners and renters in jones county. they money is for home repairs and temporary rental assistance no.covered by flood insuran >> if you live in an area that is near where flooding has happened before, yin need flood rance. when you get 10, 20, 30 inches of rain in some areas, it's ering to flood in that area, no mahat it says on the map. fema programs are not designed to build back people's homes the way they were before t disaster struck. he reporter: mayor jay bender says he realizesown has challenges ahead. >> i had a colleaguee one day, am i going to have a town to govern. if we have a good number of folks who decide they're ne going to comck, then i have

no property tax revenue. i have no water and sewer revenue. i'm convinced there's going to be a town, it's just not going to look the way many of us, li me, a native, remember it when we were younger. >> reporter: for their part, vel and mel chapman hope to get cooking again soon with the help of fema grants, small business administration loa hopefully some volunteers who foow how to install sheetrock. the pbs newshour, i'm cat wise in pollocksville, north carolina. b >> woodrufore we go, we want to return to california. but look back to an earlier fire in los angeles. jeffrey brown explores a true- life story of books, libraries, destruction and revitalization.

>> brown: apl 29, 1986: fire raged through the los angeles central library, destroying or damaging more than a million books. >> it was such a huge event, such a singular event, being the hirgest library fire in the ory of the u.s., i was shocked that i had never heard about it. >> brown: you didn't know about it. >> i had no clue. >>ndrown: it's a true story. now, in "the library book", author susan orlean resurrects the almost forgottenistory of the los angeles fire, and explores the emotional attachment so many of us have to books and libraries. >> there's something about the burning of a library, partly because of our associations in history with what it means to burn a library, partly because we relate to books as something that's so near to us. it's essentially us taking what's in our mind and our soul and preserving it in some

fashion. and to destroy that feels almost like an attack on humanity.or >> brownan's book is part history: of a beautiful building in downtown l.a., filled with architectural and artistic detail, that first opened in 1926, and the colorful characters who were key to its development. and it's part who-dun-it?, focused on a would-be actor named harry peak with a pencha fo86lying. the 19ire, orlean tells us, started in the fictirea, and spread through the building, burning for seven hours, reaching temperatureof more than 2000 degrees, before fifighters could put it ou the rare books room where orlean and i met looked like this. 32 years later, some of the books ck on the shelves are still scarred you can see the soot. >> the soot and they smell.

but a lot ofhe books were as badly damaged by the water being used to put out the fias they were by the fire itself. >> brown: for lean, a long time staff writer for the "new yorker" and acclaimed author of eight books, including "the orchid thief" and "rin tin tin," this was also a personal story: of childhood visits with her mother to her local library in the cleveland suburbs, and of her mother's growing dementia and then death as orlean was writing this book. >> thiwas an irony that of rturse i couldn't have anticipated and nly was a painful irony. just as i began thinking about dthose trips that we'd sp together and remembering how precious they were, how much they marked my childhood, my mother was diagnosed with dementia and very quickly began to a point where she actually y opped recognizing me. and she passed awabefore i

finished the book. >> brown: orlean embedded herself on and off fore than two years, to study the inner workin of the library and bring a day-in-life feel. this ithe library as you've never seen it, as here in the shipping department, what she calls "the bloodstream" that passes books throughout library branches. >> it's a little like prying the back off of a clock, and seeing the mechanism, you know? it's amazing, to make a library work requires a lot of different wneces and you know, if you were >> borlean is a writer known for putting herself in the story, showing us her own sense h discovery and puzzlemen a dless curiosity. >> the reason i'iter is to satisfy that endless amount of curiosity. >> brown: as a reader reading your book, it's interesting to watch when and where you bring

yourselforn. are you coble doing that, abes it just come naturally? >> it walutely liberating. >> brown: to break that down and to say, "i ame h." >> and to acknowledge that i was the storyteller and i was now going to take them to another part of the story. >> brown: inevitably, there is this part of the story-- the library today: part learning and community center, part shelter for the homeless. eve stacks and circulation desk, as the library evolves in ore digital age. an came to see a new importance for libraries in our culture today. you say: "the publicness of the public library is an increasingly rare commodity." >> and that is somhing precious, to have a space that

is shared openly by everyone. as we've become individuate and moved away from these communal experiences, the places at offer us a chance to be in an open space with other members of the community. >> brown: people we would not often mix with. >> exactly. i think that that is really valuable, and there's an >> brown: the fire here closed the library for seven years. but the larger community rallied around it, raised money for reconstruction and even helped restk the shelves. the history of libraries, orlean reminds , is a history of destruction but also a rebirth of knowledge and she found a personal re- awakening as a writer. >> to write a book about books, and about the agont of hearing aboks being destroyed, and

so human, and being a writer, then made me think, so what is the value, what is it that i'm doing? ued what is the enduring v of writing a book? what is it so compelling? had also appreciating the kind of hopefulnesswriting a book entails or telling a story. it's this statement to the world that your memories and perspective and impressions have a value that can be taken from your internal memories and shared with the world. and that to me sms very optimistic. >> brown: for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown at the central library in downtown los angeles. >> woodruff: so important as we're watching these terrible fires right now in california. and that's the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you d see you

soon. ur major funding for the pbs newshoas been provided by: >> the ford foundation. working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. >> carnegie corporation of new york. supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security. at carnegie.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. >> this program was made possible by the corporation for

public broadcasting. ld by contributions to your pbs station from viewee you. thank you. captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

♪ - this week on milk street we start with a road trip ew toexico for the perfect recipe for carne adovada, a pork stew with lots of chilies. then we head down to mexico for a mexican chicken soup. this is a green pozole with tomatillos, hominy, d chicken of course. and finally we end up with one of the great recipe ingredients of mexico-- chocolate. we do a steamed chocolate cake, it's made on top of the stove for an incredible silky texture. so stay tuned for new mexico meets mexico, right here,