captioning sponsored by wnet sreenivasan: on this edition for saturday, september 4: the death toll rises, and loss of power and fuel shortages persist, in the aftermath of hurricane ida. >> reporter: so, basically, the beach that we're looking at right now is kind of manmade? >> oh,eah. yeah, yeah. >> reporter: we only have a beach here because you guys basically just piled up sand. >> correct, correct. >> sreenivasan: and, in our "peril and promise" series, a lakeshore community in indiana faces eroding shorelines. next, on pbs newshour weekend. >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the sylvia a. and simon b.

the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo-smith. leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo and patricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. barbara hope zuckerberg. we try to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no-contract plans, and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. additional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for

public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening, and thank you for joining us. the search for the missing and recovery from hurricane ida continues across the country today, as the death toll rose again. the storm brought intense rain and flooding to the northeastern states of new jersey, new york, pennsylvania, and connecticut, killing at least 49 people. in new jersey on wednesday night, flash flooding overwhelmed roads and basements, killing at least 25 people. many of the people who died were in their vehicles when they were swept up in the water. governor phil murphy said yesterday that six people were still missing. in new york city, at least ten of 13 flood victims were trapped in what city officials said were illegally converted basement apartments. president joe biden is expected to visit new jersey and new york

on tsday. in louisiana, six days after hurricane ida made landfall, the utility company entergy is still working to rtore power to at least 700,000 customers, including in the city of new orleans. last night, the city'sayor said entergy expects most power outages to be restored by wednesday. >> to those residents who did evacuate and as they see power restored, we are saying you can come home. >> sreenivasan: at the height of the storm, nearly one million people were witht power. >> sreenivasan: for an update on the recovery efforts after hurricane ida's devastation in louisiana, newshour communities correspondent roby chavez joined us from new orleans earlier today. roby, last time we spoke with you, you were preparing for ida, and here you are now in the aftermath. what's the last few days been like? >> look, it's been a tough week. no power, no water, no food. it's been very, very tough for a

lot of people, especially our folks who are on fixed incomes and low income. president biden came to town yesterday. that brought some smiles to folks. and he did what he always does: he was a consoler in chief. he spent several hours on the ground, handholding with folks, listening to them. he also brought some good news. he told them that fema was going to pay for their hotels if they had to go out of town. he also gave a warning to insurance companies, saying "don't hide behind the fine print, just pay off those claims as they come." also brought relief to the 20,000 linemen that are in town trying to fix the power here in southeast louisiana. they have been living in hotels without water and without electricity. so, they're going to put them up now in a cruise ship, and set up other shelters. and so, that important work can continue. >> sreenivasan: roby, where are you joining us from? what's behind you, there? >> what we're in the greater new orleans area, and this is a strip mall, and you can see some of the destruction here. it literally ripped the whole

side of this building down. we've seen a lot of that kind of destruction-- thousands of power poles down on top of homes, some of these 300-year- old trees down. and so there's a lot to be cleared out of the roads, which is making it challenging for some of the workers who are working on restoring the power. >> sreenivasan: what's the fuel situation like? i mean, getting these power lines up means that there have to be generators in the interim, or even how these line trucks can get to the places that they need to get to. >> yeah, that is probably the most difficult situation right now, without power, is to kind of get fuel in this area. you know, therwere, some six of the 16 refineries went down during the storm, and that's causing a huge shortage. gasbuddy did a calculation just here in new orleans. some 67% of the gas stations are shut down. and as you might imagine, folks are waking up very early in the

morning stand in these lines. it's been very, very hot. three or four days of heat advisories, feeling like 105 degrees. tempers have flared. there have been fights at gas stations. we've even had one shooting, where a person was killed. we're hoping by mid-next week, a lot of the power will come back on. that should alleviate some of the problems. >> sreenivasan: have people who had an option to leave, left, considering that, you point out, southern louisiana in the middle of summer can already be hot and sticky, but especially bad without any air conditioning or power for it? >> you know, the big concern is the elderly and those folks on fixed incomes and low incomes. they just don't have the money to go. so, that fema support will certainly help folks kind of get through this transition period until the water is on and the power is on. you know, we have some seniors in high rises here in new orleans without air conditioning and without water. the health department had to go in and help them out.

so, it's going to be a tough time. we expect that new orleans area will get power on very shortly. but we're along the coast in southeast louisiana, lafourche, terrebonne, and grand isle, some 62% of the homes down there are destroyed. and so they're not exactly sure where they're going to go or how th're going to rebuild. >> sreenivan: roby, when you're talking about the elderly, what about the nursing homes in the region who have also lost power? what have they been doing? >> you know, one of the extreme challenges during this hurricane was to move some of those folks in nursing homes to a safe area. well, some 800 folks were housed in a mass shelter, in deplorable conditions. this week, the health department went in, shut it down, and had to transport a lot of those folks from-- all of the folks to a different facility. and so those are some of the extreme challenges that folks are just going to have to keep an eye on, especially for those who have some medical challenges. >> sreenivasan: i know last week we spoke briefly about your

relatives. how did they fare through this? >> like everyone else, because i live here, spent a couple of days witut phones, without internet, without any way to communicate, completely shut off. and so i didn't hear from family until mid-week when i was able to go down there actually with a crew to do some shooting. they're doing well, they're safe, their house is intact. but a lot of their neighbors are hurting. you know, the hard part is, you know, this is an area in southeast louisiana that kind of stays the same, and that brings some comfort when you go home, you know? nothing changes. and when you get tired of kind of the busy city life, you can go home and kind of just relax, and everything stays the same. certainly dsn't look like that anymore. >> sreenivasan: newshour's roby chavez joining us from new orleans tonight. thanks so much. >> thank you, hari.

>> sreenivasan: there is a report today that refugees from afghanistan who do not pass initial screenings to enter the u.s. will be sent to kosovo. the associated press, quotin an unnamed u.s. official, said the afghan refugees will be allowed to stay in kosovo for up to a yearuring additional processing. in afghanistan, anti-taliban militias say they continue to battle for control of afghanistan's panjshir valley region, days after the united states completed its withdrawal from the country. the national resistance front of afghanistan released its own video from the remote, mountainous region yesterday. afghans in the panjshir valley have historically resisted taliban control even before u.s. troops ousted the taliban government in 2001. the taliban have not said they control the region yet. in kabul today, taliban special forces broke up a women's rights protest-- the second women's protest in two days. one protestor said taliban fighters fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and hit women with tasers. new cases of coronavirus

infections are still rising across the u.s., causing the centers for disease control and prevention to urge unvaccinated americans not to travel on this holiday weekend. just under 53% of the eligible population is now fully vaccinated. no vaccine is authorized for children under 12. yesterday, the c.d.c. released two new studies showing a close to five-fold increase in hospitalizations for covid-related cases among children and adolescents from june through mid-august. as students and teachers return to in-person learning this year, the c.d.c. is urging universal masking in schools along with ccinations to help reduce transmission. the highly-contagious delta variant is spreading most rapidly in areas where vaccination rates are lower. a judge in texas has granted a temporary restraining order, blocking the state's largest anti-abortion group from suing planned parenthood under a controversial new abortion law.

district court judge maya guerra gamble's ruling yesterday bars texas right to life and anyone associated with it from pursuing lawsuits against planned parenthood until september 17. governor greg abbott signed the new texas abortion law in may. it went into effect earlier this week. under the law, abortions are banned in the state for any pregnancy over six weeks-- a period during which many women may not know they're pregnant. in response to yesterday's restraining order, texas right to life tweeted that the rulin“" does not stop other individuals not associated or working with texas right to life from suing” planned parenthood. >> sreenivasan: for more national and internation news, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: forecasters and scientists are predicting that

the devastation caused along ocean coastlines from severe weather like hurricane ida will become more frequent, and they are also drawing attention to the impact the earth's warming climate is having on non-coastal rivers and lakes, including the habitats and communities that surround them. newshour weekend's zachary green visited one national park that's trying to adapt to the new environmental normal. this segment is part of our ongoing series, "peril and promise: the challenge of climate change." >> reporter: on a typical summer day at indiana dunes national park, beachgoers sun themselves along the shore or take advantage of the warm coastal waters. children run along the sand or up the enormous dunes that surround the beach. this isn't the ocean. it's the southern end of lake michigan, an area known for its steel factories. but it's also home to a unique ecology. paul labovitz is the park's superintendent. >> we continue to be one of th most biologically-diverse places in the national park system, and in north america. a couple miles from here, i can take you to a place where

there's prickly-pear cactus growing next to bearberry, which is an arctic plant, side by side. >> reporter: the most eye- catching feature of the park is the sand dunes that have run through the area for more than 10,000 years. they are the product of a natural process called erosion, when outside forces transport rock and soil from one place to another. >> the sand dunes you see here are the product of water and wind over time, eroding sandstone into smaller and smaller particles, and then that sand moving around with wind and ter. the grand canyon is a product of erosion. the badlands is a product of erosion. it's really kind of a cool thing to think about, d it's not necessarily a bad thing. >> reporter: but over the last few years, erosion along the dunes and in the surrounding area has increased in speed and intensity. >> four years ago, we would have been under 20 feet of sand here. this dune was continuous the whole way across. >> reporter: wow. >> and it's now back there as flat surface sand. that's-- that's-- >> rorter: wow! >> this is a notch that was

formed by erosion. >> reporter: last year, lake michigan experienced record-high water levels that washed out beaches all around its southern coast. that's not surprising, as the lake typically rises and falls throughout a0-year cycle. but an increase in the number and severity of storms over lake michigan caused the water levels to rise much faster than normal. so much so that the beach we're standing on now didn't exist last year. >> we basically rebuilt the beach probably from where this metal fence ends, straight across to where those rocks are piled. >> reporter: so, basically, the beach that we're looking at right now is kind of manmade? >> oh, yeah. yeah, yeah. >> reporter: we only have a beach here because you guys basically just piled up sand. >> correct, correct. >> reporter: scientists believe that one of the effects of global warming is an increase in volatile weather, like the storms over lake michigan. labovitz says that, since 2014, those storms have contributed to a dramatic increase in t water level. >> the change in lake elevation from '14 to '19 was five feet. so, think about the volume of

ter in lake michigan at that time. i don't even know what the trillions of gallons conversion would be, but the lake level changed five feet in five years. >> reporter: and it's not just the rise and fall of water that's eating away the dunes. a warming climate also means less ice in winter. >> so, when the weather gets cold but the lake's not frozen, we'll get a gigantic layer of ice built up on the beach. could stack 40-, 50-feet high. that ice protects the lakefront from erosive forces of waves through the winter. well, if we don't have it and you get a big storm that whips up in the winter, there's nothing to protect the dune from tho-- those waves. >> reporter: but labovitz says the biggest factors speeding up erosion on the dunes are residential and commercial structures built on the waterfront that change the way sand flows into and out of the lake, such as the two large harbors that sit on either side of the park. >> those two projections into the lake have interrupted the way sand moves naturally from east to west on the lakeont to replenish the beaches.

we actually put sand here artificially to replace some of that sand that wasn't being deposited there naturally. >> reporter: all along the coasts of lake michigan, homes and buildings are literally sliding into the water due to a combination of lake level rise and the eroding shoreline. labovitz says that climate change cou actually play a role in stopping further construction along the lakefront. more intense weather from the warming climate could cause water levels to not just climb higher but stay higher for longer, although he says it could also have the opposite effect. >> the good news is, well, if it gets that high and stays high, maybe people will learn and stay away from it. but if it comes down low and stays low longer, the memory lapse kicks in, and we could build up to the lake a then repeat as necessary. >> reporter: labovitz says that the staff at indiana dunes national park are working to educate visitors about the behavior of lake michigan and about how limiting development along the shore can actually he the dunes weather the changing climate.

>> the dunes are made to erode and build up over time to absorb that change in lake level and lake energy. >> reporter: mm-hmm. >> so, again, the most resilient lakefront is a natural lakefront. and so, we as people continue to try and test that, and i joke and i say, "the lake always wins. always." >> sreenivasan: minnesot democratic representative ilhan omar is among a group of progressive representatives urging president biden to halt work on the line 3 pipeline this weekend. in a minneapolis press conference yesterday, the group said opposition from ingenous groups and environmental risks were cause tohut down production. republican congress member pete stauber gathered with other minnesota republican lawmakers and union members in the u.s. capitol yesterday in support of the pipeline, citing its economic benefits. the democratic representatives

are visiting the pipeline site today, and meeting with indigenous leaders. for more on the line 3 pipeline, i spoke with minnesota public radio reporter kirsti marohn. kirsti, for our audience members kirsti, for members of our audience who haven't been paying attention, refresh us on what line 3 is about. >> sure. so, this project is a replacement to the existing line 3 pipeline, which is a crude oil pipeline that runs from the oil sands region of alberta, canada, cuts down through northern minnesota, and ends at enbridge's terminal in superior, wisconsin. so, that pipeline was built back in the 1960s. it's corroding and aging, and needs extensive maintenance, so it's been operating at about half capacity recently. so, enbridge wants to repla-- or, is replacing that pipeline with what they say will be a safer pipeline. it's newer construction, thicker steel, but it also follows a slightly different route through northern minnesota, and that's where some of the conflict has been coming in. >> sreenivasan: so, what is on that route that's controversial?

>> well, this is a very water- rich region of northern minnesota. there's a lot of rivers and lakes and wetlands. it's the headwaters of the mississippi river. the-- the pipeline actually will cross the mississippi twice. so, there's a lot of concern about whether the pipeline is putting sort oa new region of the state, the waters of that region, at risk of a potential spill or leak. there's also several indigenous tribes in this region of minnesota that have treaty rights to hunt and fish and gather wild rice on these lands. and some of those tribes oppose the project because they feel like it's a violation of those treaty rights. >> sreenivasan: what are the protesters that have been out there now trying to accomplish? this has been a process under review by several different agencies for years now. >> yes, the process took about six years to go through the multiple different agencies and approvals that it needed. the protesters are really hoping to stop this project before it's

completed. that's not looking very likely. it's more than 90% complete at this point, there. enbridge is expecting to have it operation by the fourth quarter of this year, but they're really trying to raise the national awareness of this project. we've seen national politicians here in minnesota, celebrities, and they're really trying to, i think, put pressure on the biden administration to intervene in this project. and they would like the administration to get volved in a challenge of the federal water permit for this project, which was issued by the u.s. army corps of engineers. that project was necessary because the pipeline goes through wetlands and waterways. that's not looking particularly likely at this point. the u.s. army corps of engineers has defended that permit, and we haven't seen any indication from the biden administration yet that-- that they do plan to intervene and stop this project. >> sreenivasan: what are the repurcussions beyond minnesota for the pipeline? obviously, this is carrying fuel from-- well, across the international border, but where

does this all go? >> what we've seen nationally, this pushback in recent years against oil-- natural gas and oil pipelines, there's been a lot of concern about the impact on climate change, because these are fossil fuel infrastructure projects. a lot of the opponents of line 3 and these other projects would like to see more of a transition to cleaner energy. they're saying that these projects are sort of locking us into fossil fuel, the use of fossil fuels, into the future. but, you know, companies like enbridge say that as long as there is demand for oil, these pipelines are needed to transport oil safely. they say this is a safer method than other forms of transportation, like rail or truck, which also have a carbon footprint. >> sreenivasan: is there any indications that the protests would stop if this project was completed? >> no, i thinke are likely to see the protests and the legal challenges continue.

we've seen that in recent days. there's also a few other legal challenges out there still remaining. there's one really interesting one that the white earth nation of ojibway has filed in tribal court. it's actually filed on behalf of manoomin, or wild rice. it's parof this kind of expanding area of law known as the rights of nature. and they're saying that this oject ishreatening the-- the rights of wild rice to exist and thrive. so, that one is going to play out in tribal court, but it's-- it's being watched, you know, across the country by proponents of this area of law, and i think that's going to be an interesting case to watch. and i think we're likely to see other challenges in the future. these protesters and opponents of this project would like to see a result, something like what happened with keystone xl or dakota access, where even-- you know, even though the project seemed like it was on- track, it was eventually halted. >> sreenivasan: kirsti marohn from mpr news, thanks so much. >> thanks for having me.

>> this is pbs newshour weekend, saturday. >> sreenivasan: finally tonight, the arc de triomphe, t 19th century arch on the famed champs-elysees in paris, is about to be masked-- in an artistic way. the monument will be wrapped with recyclable plastic, a project long dreamed of by the artist christo, who died last ye. tourists are seeing scaffolding on their way to the top of the arc de triomphthis summer. 's preparation for wrapping the fad attraction in a plastic covering next month, a project overseen by the late artist christo's nephew. >> now we have another month to go before the opening, so most of the steel, as you can see, the steel to protect is installed, the cable system is installed, the vaults are installed, the weights at the bottom are installed. right now, we are placing the protection for the little

corniche where the cherry picker is there now. >> sreenivasan: christo and his late wife jeanne-claude worked together for decades on massive public art installations that included: covering the pont neuf bridge in paris in golden yellow. wrapping germany's parliament building in silver-gray. and, erecting a series of bright orange gates throughout new york's central park. the arc de triome will get a silvery-blue wrapping, as chsto imagined it. >> christo said, "i would only like to wrap the arc de triomphe in paris. that's really the one thing i would like to do." hopefully, christo would be most happy if somebody looks at it d says, "it looks just like the drawings." >> sreenivasan: tourists will still be able to visit the monument, built to honor napoleon's military victories, once the wrapping is in place. if all goes as planned, the wrapped arc de triomphe will be on view from september 18 through october 3.

>> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of pbs newshour weekend. for the latest news updates, visit www.pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy, and have a good night. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family. the anderson family fund. the estate of worthington mayo-smith. leonard and norma klorfine. the rosalind p. walter foundation. koo anpatricia yuen, committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities.

barbara hope zuckerberg. we try to live in the moment, to notiss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow can help you make the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs. possibley a grant

from the a.j. fletcher foundation. the north carolina-based foundation supports social justice, public broadcasting, education, the arts, and human services throughout north carolina. [soft music, piano leads] ♪ ♪ - [gay] there's a saying that without knowledge the people perish. education is key in that because it opens your eyes