hurricane katrina continues

to be felt here and the damage and flooding are widespread. five years ago, i was there when the levees failed and the city of new orleans became a disaster zone. i met people i will never forget. how would you describe the situation here? >> dysfunctional. >> since then, i've been back to check on the progress of rebuilding battered neighborhoods and broken lives. >> this place where we're standing right now, there were over 1,500 deaths. i got angry. i got really angry. >> i watched a city rise from the depths of that water to triumph. only to be hit with a crushing new blow. >> it makes a grown man want to cry. >> tonight, a return to new orleans to find out how some of the people we met during hurricane katrina are faring today. what's happened in the last five

years? where have you been? to explore why this region seems prone to misfortune. >> this wall could very easily be overtopped. if we had another hurricane katrina, it would be overtopped. >> to explain why what happens here has implications for us all. >> we are the canary in the mine for the rest of the united states. >> i will look at what the future may hold for this unique american city by meeting with some of those chosen to chart its path. >> what do you want to see from people? in the space of just the last five years, new orleans has gone from a city known as the place where we all came to have

a good time to a place known instead for enduring and overcoming hardship. katrina was about a lot of things. a big storm, a big engineering failure, race and class and politics and money, and more. it left us all with lessons to learn and hopefully not repeat, and it left us all with a stake in this place. ♪ oh, when the saints go marching in ♪ ♪ >> it's an american city unlike any other. >> this part of the country had an entirely different colonial history. has different language forms, has different food, has different architecture. >> founded by france, briefly owned by spain, and once the capital of the slave trade, the bustling port city of new orleans has flourished as a multi-cultural haven. >> because there were french, spanish, english, american, indian, african and caribbean influences, you end up with actually different mixtures of

people, names that you don't see anywhere else. >> that's pronounced tchoupitoulis. the allure of the city's rich history and culture has long masked a slew of modern day problems, a persistently high crime rate, corruption, racial and economic tensions and a troubled public school system. >> the big businesses in new orleans are tourism and the port. what do you do for tourism? are you going to say hey, we're crime capital of the world, surrounded by toxic dump sites and we have vicious poverty that you don't even understand but come on down and have a good time? no. you cover it up. >> back up, back up, please. back up! >> the civic troubles here are just one of many endemic problems exposed when hurricane katrina came ashore. five years later, just as the city has started to tackle many of those issues, another one landed with a thud on their doorstep.

the bp oil disaster. >> anger, frustration, depression, disbelief and even now, now that it's been stopped, there's still a sense of what is still to come. >> the difficulties may be easy to dismiss as the problems of a small city in a coastal state, but the implications could be much larger. >> i think we are the canary in the mine for the rest of the united states, and nobody understands that or wants to understand that. energy and rising water is what the united states faces. we stick out a little bit further so we experience it first, so i think it's just a harbinger of what's coming for everyone. >> new orleans is driven and pu geraphic locatn. the gulf of mexico provides one-third of the nation's seafood and 25% of its domestic oil.

but new orleans built on a swamp with the gulf to the south, lake pontchartrain to the north and the mississippi river running through it, is the only major u.s. city that sits below sea level, and it actually sinks a little bit each year. >> basically underwater. it is not an environmentally sustainable place to be. why would anyone have settled here? how did this happen? >> despite the challenges and dangers of its geography, the city has thrived because of its strategic port location on the mississippi, a direct artery right to the heartland of america. >> the city of new orleans was purchased by thomas jefferson because of its proximity to the mississippi river. that river clothes and feeds the

country. >> to protect the city from flooding, levees have been built there since the 1700s, but as the city expanded, it became more vulnerable. catastrophe struck in 1965 when hurricane betsy, a category 3 storm at the time of impact, caused the levees to fail. the whole city flooded, just like during hurricane katrina. after betsy, the u.s. army corps of engineers redesigned and rebuilt the levees around new orleans into a system thought to be strong enough to hold up against the same strength storm, a category 3. >> we now expect katrina's hurricane force winds to reach the louisiana coastline as early as this evening in new orleans before sunrise. >> when hurricane katrina grew into a category 5 with a bull's eye on the city, then mayor ray nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation. >> this is very serious, and it's of the highest nature. >> those who could not get out, were told to go to the superdome. >> at noon today, the superdome will then be opened up as a refuge of last resort. >> this is the superdome, where tonight a crowd of 20,000 to 30,000 people expected. i was among the thousands inside

the superdome as katrina hit. i was there when it tore a hole in the roof, and rain started pouring in. and it was there on a night i will never forget that i met albert bryant, sleeping on a cooler. how many people did you bring with you? >> three grandchildren, three children, a sister and a wife. >> even though the hurricane weakened to a category 3 when it hit new orleans, the levees failed and 80% of the city flooded. approximately 100,000 people were trapped in their flooded homes and attics, some of them for days. the scenes of human depravity at the convention center and superdome became for many people the emblem of the storm.

>> he's getting dehydrated. >> i had a baby die a year before this. i know how this goes. >> my grandmother is a diabetic. she's 76 years old. she's out of insulin. what's she going to do? >> why can't some of the chinook helicopters and blackhawks that we have heard flying over for days and days and days simply lower palettes of water, meals ready to eat, medical supplies right into downtown new orleans? where is the aid? >> brian, it's an absolutely fair question. the federal government just learned about those people today. >> the simple fact that we could not get water and ice to people who are thirsty and overheated, in crowded, intolerable conditions, represents some substantial breakdown. >> law and order also broke down. >> there was actual anarchy on the streets of an american city. >> new orleans mayor mitch

landrieu was louisiana's lieutenant governor during katrina. >> it was the heart of darkness. >> yeah. it had ceased resembling anything i had ever seen outside of iraq. >> there was actually no civil authority on the ground, and i'm not sure that america ever wants to put herself in that position again. >> people are still dying. people are still trapped. >> i appreciate you calling in. >> veteran new orleans journalist garland robinette fielded calls for days on local radio. >> how can we help you with your family? >> i'm very worried about them. if you all are out there, call us and let us know you're okay. >> we had mothers die on the radio, trapped in attics with their children. >> i called 911, i don't know how many times, and they tell us they can't do nothing for us. >> do you still get driven to anger over it when you see those pictures again after five years? >> absolutely. >> the children, the old folks,

the people suffering in this city? >> you know, i still remember i was in a london hotel room. i had just come back with republican senator lugar on a fact-finding trip on nuclear issues, and we had gotten into london. we were at the hotel, and suddenly we just saw this thing unfold in ways that frankly were a shock i think to many of us who didn't think that something like that could happen in america. >> i've been waiting a long time. just give us a few. >> six days after the storm hit, buses finally evacuated everyone at the superdome and the convention center to cities all over the country. many were relocated, never to return. katrina was responsible for more than 1,800 deaths throughout louisiana and mississippi. the hurricane was the costliest natural disaster in u.s. history, causing an estimated $135 billion in damage. it took three weeks just to

drain the water out of new orleans. slowly, the long process of repairing the crippled infrastructure and buildings started, but rebuilding the lives of those who lived here would be the biggest challenge of all. when we come back -- >> it's not about low income. it's not about rich people, poor people. it's about people. >> faces from the storm five years later. and # 1 lipstain... is covergirl outlast! what makes outlast so great? with outlast, we can go for hours and our lipcolor still looks fresh. no smearing. no smudging. no transfers. so spread the news, not the lipstick. outlast is america's #1! outlast lipcolor and lipstain from easy, breezy, beautiful, covergirl.

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we need help! >> it was the cry heard around the world. why is no one helping us?

>> we just need some help. and supplies. >> there was one voice in the crowd that caught our attention because it was heart-felt and innocent and it made sense. it came from a 9-year-old boy, charles evans. >> it is so pitiful. pitiful and shame that all these people out here, they have over 3,000 people out here with no home, no shelter. what are they going to do? what are we going to do? >> charles is one of those i wanted to find five years after katrina, and when i caught up with him, i found a much more subdued 14-year-old young man. what's happened in the last five years? where you been? >> well, when i first moved back to new orleans, i was staying with my grandmother, and last year my grandmother moved back to texas. she moved to houston, so now i'm staying with my aunt. >> when katrina hit, what little

stability this young boy from a troubled home had ever known was completely shattered. after living in the squalor of the convention center for a week, he and his grandmother who had raised him eventually evacuated to texas. they settled in mesquite, and for awhile it seemed as if the disaster may have given charles a new chance at life. his television plea got him attention. he appeared on stage at the emmy awards in los angeles. concerned americans sent money and supportive words, and charles quickly adapted to his new home. >> things were much better for me. my environment was better. my school was better. my home was better. my community, my friends. >> but where charles lives isn't his own decision. in 2007, his family decided he should move back to new orleans. he now lives in the care of his

great-aunt in the upper ninth ward, one of the poorest and hardest-hit areas in the hurricane. some of the houses on the street are fixed up, but too many of them still bear that iconic spray paint tattoo, a sign that rescue crews had searched the place during katrina. >> rebuilding in my neighborhood has actually been very slow. there's still a lot of people that haven't came back to their houses. to me, it seems like this area should be, you know, getting the most help because it was hit the hardest from katrina, but actually, it's not. it's very disappointing. >> charles dreams of one day leaving new orleans. in fact, this inspirational young man is now ready for something much larger. >> have you given thought to college yet? >> yes. >> have you given thought to where you might want to go? >> columbia.

>> wow. that would be awesome. he hopes for a bright future, one where he's no longer defined by his childhood nightmare of katrina, and he finds it tough to think about that terrible time. have you looked back at those videotapes from back then? >> yes, i have. >> what does it do to you? >> i get really emotional, and a lot of times i don't really like to look at them. >> charles is just one of the thousands of children still suffering from the trauma of katrina five years later. >> we've been finding a significant array of problems among the children who live through the storm and are living through the recovery. very significant mental health and emotional problems. academic problems and other issues which we think are serious and may affect these kids and their families for their lifetimes. >> dr. irwin redliner and his colleagues at columbia

university's national center for disaster preparedness have been following 1,000 families affected by katrina. >> we're seeing that for the most vulnerable children down there, we really have not done a very good job. many are still not living in stable communities, in safe communities, in appropriate homes with appropriate access to health care and good schools, still. so i think the report card is not good. >> please put your autobiographies on your desk. >> one of the few bright spots in the city's slow recovery is the new orleans school system. charter schools are taking over failing public schools, bringing a performance-based business model to education. teachers are being held to account, and test scores are going up. >> we may have the prototype of what this country becomes educationally, and if anybody had said that about new orleans or louisiana before katrina, i couldn't stop laughing. but it's come true. >> but the school district still has a long way to go.

30% of schools still haven't reopened after katrina, and while scores are improving, they are still lower than the state average. it's not just families living in new orleans who face a challenging future. while some katrina survivors have established thriving lives elsewhere in this country, many others just can't come back. >> look how hot he is. he's not waking up very easy. >> we first met single mom leeann and her young son, jahan, among the desperate in the crowd seeking help at the convention center. >> if you've ever seen one of those movies where it's the end of the world, that's what it felt like. >> yeah, we like that. >> in a stroke of luck, leann's >> in a stroke of luck, leeann's cousin saw her desperate plea on tv and helped them relocate to wilmington, north carolina. >> i don't really have any family other than her. she's like a second cousin. i could have died and him, too. nobody would have even noticed us. it took me a long time to really kind of get over that.

>> jahan is now a healthy, lively 5-year-old who seems to have no memory of those dark days at the convention center. >> go ahead. >> leeann hasn't returned to new orleans since the storm. she can't afford it, but she's eager to go back. >> it's a voice in my head with a little birdie saying do you want to go back and check it out to give you either closure to not go back, or to go back. and i'm not saying everything was so great before. it's just it was my home. >> coming up -- ♪ heart to heart and soul to soul we'll get through it ♪ >> coming back from disaster. >> these homes have exceeded my expectations. it's illogical to build it any other way. [ female announcer ] what if your natural beauty could be flawless too?

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how would you describe the situation here?

>> dysfunctional. i don't think it was thought out. >> when we first met albert bryant and his family in the superdome, he had no idea then that he would end up spending six days inside, trapped in the heat, the stench and the violence. >> we was living in a city within a city that was lawless. it was the only way -- they did what they wanted to do when they wanted to do it. >> like so many families, the bryants relocate in the wake of katrina, settling in san antonio. much of new orleans was unlivable. 70% of the occupied housing was damaged. after the waterlogged houses dried out, they became infested with toxic mold. most people lost everything they owned, and many had nowhere to live but in trailers purchased by fema. that's where albert was living a year after the storm, in 2006. he was divorced and back in new orleans. >> the tour of the fema trailer.

to your left, there's the master bedroom. the living room, the dining room, the kitchen. >> now five years later, albert has reunited with his wife and returned to texas permanently. he's among the 20% of former new orleanian residents who offer katrina no longer call that city home. but he makes frequent trips back to the city he loves and that's where i had the pleasure of catching up with my friend once again. >> this katrina thing is still going on. >> albert is a professional substance abuse counselor, but the clinic he helped start in new orleans doesn't pay him a salary, and he's currently unemployed. when people ask you how you're doing today, how do you answer that question? >> partly cloudy, like the weather. sometimes i feel good about what's going on, and sometimes i don't. >> for those who have returned to live in the city, the

struggle to rebuild their lives has been monumental. houses have been abandoned in droves. >> i'm always stunned to see high water marks still and roofs missing. that must drive you crazy. >> it does. it's a very, very long process to rebuild a very intricate network and fabric of our lives. >> building houses to replace the blight is a mantra in new orleans. one of the people leading the charge is brad pitt. >> this place where we're standing right now, there were over 15 deaths. it was unnecessary. shouldn't have happened. i got angry. i got really angry. now, on the flipside, i have a lot of friends who are -- who were involved in architecture, know a lot about it. >> brad pitt's make it right foundation is building 150 solar powered homes for low income residents in the hard-hit section of new orleans, the lower ninth ward. >> these homes are elevated above katrina floodwaters.

they are stronger. they will take a category 4. they all have egress to get out on top, so none of these homeowners will suffer those horrors. last month, these homes, every one of them but one was producing more energy than they were eating. that's an amazing story. and there's no reason now to build any other way. >> you can see the changes in new orleans. you can also hear them. new orleans musicians have been fiercely dedicated to bringing the music that helps define this place back to the streets where louis armstrong grew up and jazz was born. >> i think it's very easy to be overwhelmed when you see so much devastation, but we just said let's focus on musicians, let's see what we can do to bring that part of the community back. >> local musicians harry connick jr. and branford marsalis, who both trained under branford's legendary dad, ellis marsalis, started the musicians village,

one of the first construction projects in the upper ninth ward after katrina. >> it was just complete devastation. it was the strangest, most surreal experience i had. >> i first visited the village when it was just a concept. it is a planned community the size of five city blocks, a musicians village, where right now, there's nothing. today, more than 80 houses have been built by habitat for humanity and have been sold to musicians through interest-free mortgages. ♪ heart to heart and soul to soul we'll get through it ♪ >> jesse moore and chip wilson are two local musicians who became neighbors in the village and then decided to work together. >> i'm not sure there was a design in terms of how this was supposed to work. but it worked. >> but bringing life back to the streets of abandoned neighborhoods would require a lot more from a city government already broken before the storm hit. coming up, the issues laid bare by hurricane katrina.

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new orleans has always rejoiced in its diverse culture. blacks and whites coming together in a shared love of music and celebration. but katrina laid bare the

reality of a city segregated by race. those hit hardest by the storm, because they were less able to evacuate or maybe their neighborhoods were closest to the broken levees, were largely african-american. part-time new orleans resident melissa harris-lacewell is an associate professor of politics and african-american studies at princeton. she says researchers discovered public reaction to the disaster was also often divided by race. >> white americans looked at what was happening and said this is a bureaucratic failure. this is a failure of the system. black americans for the most part looked at what was happening in those days and said this is racism. black people have been left to die because they are black. black people are suffering for days on television because they are black.

>> the storm also exposed underlying long-term tensions between the african-american community and the new orleans police department. >> a lot of african-americans very early on said we got hurt by the police during katrina, and everybody dismissed it. well, you know what? they turned out to be pretty right. >> in those first chaotic days after katrina, nopd officers responded to a call on the danziger bridge over the industrial canal. they started firing at unarmed, innocent african-americans. nbc news cameras were there and witnessed the shooting. two people were killed, four others injured. >> today, six new orleans police officers stand charged in a 27-count federal indictment. >> according to the federal indictment filed this july, the police then conspired to cover it up, including the creation of

fictional witnesses and claiming to have found a revolver at the scene. the indicted officers have pleaded not guilty. is the danziger bridge going to go down as the low point imagery for the nopd? >> yeah, it will. it's become painfully clear that this police department has gotten out of control. it has lost its way. >> chief, congratulations. >> mayor landrieu has appointed a new police chief and has requested the u.s. justice department help clean up the nopd. it's clear that danziger bridge won't be the only black eye for the department. indictments have already been filed against officers accused of other crimes. >> the new orleans police department, on the eve of katrina, was the worst in the country. you got what you expect when you have a corrupt police department. >> i'm doing my job. >> cops stealing cars, taking advantage of the situation, loads of police just abandoning the city. >> immediately after katrina, just great acts of heroism and

stuff that was mind-numbingly painful to watch. it's not katrina that caused nopd to be like it was. it just manifests the dysfunction. katrina didn't cause new orleans' problem. it just made everything that we had much clearer. >> many police officers worked hard to secure the city and rescue survivors during the storm and the aftermath. but more than 200 overwhelmed nopd officers deserted their posts while others did little to help their desperate fellow citizens. >> can you do anything to help these people? >> we have people coming and helping, sir. >> who's coming? >> five years after katrina, there's still little public trust in the police department, and new orleans' murder rate remains the highest in the nation. but there are signs the divisions exposed by the storm are beginning to heal.

>> mayor landrieu won with a majority of every racial group in the city, of every single neighborhood in the city. in this sense he's a consensus leader at a time when the city truly needs consensus on something. >> and then there was the new orleans saints' stunning last minute triumph in the 2010 super bowl. giving this battered city a chance to come together and celebrate a sorely needed, soaring victory. >> we played for so much more than just ourselves. we played for our city. we played for the entire gulf coast region. we played for all the entire who dat nation who was behind us every step of the way. >> i really think that that infused the people of new orleans with a new sense of confidence, a new sense of purpose. you know what, we're going to survive. i think they got that from the saints' season. >> you found redemption, and it's wearing a gold helmet. >> yes. it's fabulous. pretty good.

>> when we come back, big oil. big money. >> if there wasn't oil, there wouldn't be a louisiana. >> and big problems. >> this is like a cancer, a big disease. how can we remedy this? [ woman ] welcome back, jogging stroller. you've been stuck in the garage, while my sneezing and my itchy eyes took refuge from the dust in here and the pollen outside. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. it's the brand allergists recommend most. ♪ lily and i are back on the road again.

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another harsh blow, the bp oil disaster. for three months, millions of barrels of oil poured into the gulf of mexico, coating wildlife, blackening beaches, poisoning louisiana's precious seafood. less violent than a hurricane, it was more like a slow strangulation of hope. >> this is like a cancer. this is a disease. how can we remedy this? the oil's on the bottom with the shrimp, the fish, everything. >> and what happens in the gulf directly impacts the people of new orleans. the city's economy depends on the millions of tourists attracted by its unique cuisine. >> the food culture really does revolve a lot around the seafood. they say in new orleans, you know, we don't have the traditional seasons. we have crab season, oyster season, crawfish season. >> before the oil crisis, new orleans chef susan spicer was

thriving. tourists were returning to the city in droves, and business in her popular french quarter restaurant was booming. things were going so well, she decided to open a new restaurant in her home neighborhood of lakeview. lakeview was under water during katrina, but unlike some of the poorer areas of new orleans, rebuilding is well under way. >> i thought well, why not have a nice restaurant here, one where i could maybe try to recreate some of those great old new orleans seafood dishes. >> susan was feeling positive about her future and that of the city. >> i felt like five years after katrina, we were really on a roll. starting off the year with the super bowl victory. >> i, mitchell joseph landrieu -- is going on to having a new mayor, and then the oil spill has really been kind of a smackdown. >> chef spicer joined a class action suit against bp to claim damages for lost income from the oil company.

so many small business owners in louisiana and their employees have been decimated by the disaster. >> the question is what happens next? where are people going to make a living? do they stay there? do they have to leave? the psychological trauma which is basically the second major trauma after katrina in five years is an overwhelming challenge for people. >> oil is one of the biggest industries in louisiana and a big source of tax revenue for the state. >> louisiana needs the oil industry to survive, and to some extent, the oil industry needs louisiana, because louisiana generally has pretty lax environmental laws and very lax enforcement. it has a very good infrastructure to support the oil and gas industry. >> critics claim big oil has thrived in the state's notoriously loose and corrupt political system.

>> there's this whole rich cultural heritage down here that's being destroyed because of political corruption and oil and gas not putting anything back. >> bp agreed to pay at least $20 billion to clean up the gulf and reimburse people here for lost wages, but some say this won't cover the damage they've caused. >> what do you want to see from bp? >> this is what would help me trust bp. for bp to say listen, we did something wrong, we were negligent, we shouldn't have done it, we admit what our mistake was, and secondly, we're going to manifest our commitment by relocating our fortune 500 company into the city of new orleans, employing people in that area and become the focal point for coastal restoration. >> but landrieu says the problem is a lot bigger than bp. he says the survival of new orleans depends on a change in a long-standing policy that would allow the states to get a bigger share of the revenue that's

generated from those lucrative leases for oil exploration and gas drilling, more than six miles offshore. currently, all of that money goes right to the federal government. >> the people of louisiana have been the tip of the spear in this nation's fight for energy security and national security, and the nation has sent us to war with no bullets, no guns. and not only have they done that, they're actually taking back what they gave us. >> in 2017, gulf states will finally start to receive a share of those offshore royalties, as much as $650 million a year for louisiana alone. landrieu says they need their percentage of those revenues now, to start restoring the wetlands destroyed by decades of oil production. >> there's a historical reason why the gulf coast was positioned to suffer from a bp oil spill, 40 years of the state of louisiana abusing the natural

resource and not restoring it back to where it was. >> in mid-july, the gusher was finally capped. oil has receded from the surface faster than most expected, but scientists aren't sure how much remains underwater. the fallout from the disaster could last for years. >> i think that we're really looking at long-term repercussions. i believe that eventually the fisheries will come back. we'll have oysters again. i really don't think we can say right now what the long-term effects are going to be. >> coming up, the levees are almost repaired. but does that mean new orleans is safe? >> this wall could very easily be overtopped. if we had another hurricane katrina, it would be overtopped. >> and is the country prepared for another catastrophe? >> forget louisiana and new orleans. forget us. think about the rest of this country. america can't respond.

hurricane katrina exposed serious deficiencies in our nation's ability to respond to disaster. >> i spent two days in a shelter trying to do first aid, basic first aid with nothing. i had nothing. where is it? >> there was no clear command and control. there was no good coordination, and there was no good communication. as a consequence, as a nation, we were not able to respond. >> five years later, a lot of concerns remain. >> i can tell you right now that this country is not prepared in terms of emergency response to respond to a catastrophic event.

>> brownie, you're doing a heck of a job. the fema director is working -- >> the federal emergency management agency, fema, widely criticized for mishandling hurricane katrina, has been revamped. >> fema is far more focused and prepared and professionally run than it was five years ago. that's one agency. who's in charge? state government, local agencies, federal government. the inability to resolve that question of leadership leads to chaos. >> the federal government was put to the test again during the oil catastrophe with mixed results. you're familiar now that it's getting baked in a little bit in the media that bp was president obama's katrina. and it's also getting baked in that the administration was slow off the mark. is that unfair? >> it's just not accurate. if you take a look at our response, the only thing in common we had with the katrina

response was thad allen, who came in and helped organize rescue efforts and he did so under katrina, he did so for us, but if you look, we had immediately thousands of vessels, tens of thousands of people who are here, and what we're seeing now is that we've got a lot more work to do, but the fact is because of the sturdiness and swiftness of the response, there's a lot less oil hitting these shores and these beaches than anybody would have anticipated. >> but some see a bigger problem, a nation fumbling as it responds to emergencies. >> forget louisiana and new orleans. forget us. think about the rest of this country. america can't respond. it's just -- it's beyond belief. >> still, new orleans remains one of the most vulnerable cities in the united states. >> i hate to say it, but i believe there's a strong

possibility that either new orleans or the greater homer area will go under. >> long before katrina struck, south african-born scientist ivor van hierden, deputy director of university of louisiana's state hurricane center, warned officials the city's levees were faulty . he's warning them again. >> this wall could very easily be overtopped. if we had another hurricane katrina, it would be overtopped. >> after hurricane katrina, congress authorized the army corps of engineers to redesign and rebuild the levee system to be able to withstand a one in 100-year storm, the rough equivalent of a category 3 hurricane. the $14 billion hurricane and storm damage risk reduction system is on track to be completed by next june. but if a strong enough storm strikes, everything people in

this city have worked so hard to rebuild could be gone once again. >> i think we're in big trouble, even with a category 2 or 3. i don't know how much trouble, but big trouble. category 5, we're in big, big, big trouble over again. >> the ballpark figure for protecting the city from a category 5 hurricane, the so-called one in 1,000 year storm protection, is somewhere between $70 billion and $140 billion. >> all things are possible, given the mission and the financial backing to do it. >> building bigger levees isn't the only solution. to succeed, any plan needs to include coastal wetlands restoration. the island's marshes and swamps absorb a hurricane strength and the storm surge before it reaches the city. >> the barrier islands protect the wetlands. the wetlands protect the levees. the levees protect us. >> but louisiana's wetlands are

disappearing at an alarming rate after decades of mismanagement of the mississippi river levees, as well as ever-expanding oil and gas production. >> as a consequence of that river being leveed, the marshland is not getting fed, and it starts to deteriorate. that's reason one. the second reason is oil and gas companies cut canals through the marsh. because of those two very things, a piece of america vanishes every day. >> now the oil catastrophe threatens to kill off even more of these vital marshlands. locals think this rapidly deteriorating piece of our ecosystem should be of national interest, and if it were happening elsewhere, the theory goes, it would be. >> if i took a football field out of manhattan, what do you think would happen? how about a football field every 40 minutes? you think the world would be horrified?

you think they would do everything in the world to stop that? >> since katrina, the city has received tens of billions of dollars in federal aid, but a full comeback is going to require more. the mayor here says if we can spend it on others overseas, we can spend it here, on americans. >> in afghanistan and iraq, our military is doing nation building, and we were spending $7 billion a month to rebuild a nation. and yet, we were very begrudging in how much money we gave back to rebuild our own nation. >> new orleans always has and always will have to fight for its own survival. its future is clouded with challenges, both natural and man-made. but the people here are beyond resilient, and like their cherished football team, they've proven to have that fighting and triumphant spirit. >> we're pretty tough. we have kind of been to hell and back twice now, and come hell or