for the pbs newshour, i'm ali rogin, in middletown, new jersey. judy: just heartbreaking.lens with a conversation about how september 11 and its aftermath changed the direction of the country. amna: judy, two decades later, we are still learning how the september 11 terror attacks shaped our politics, military and sense of national unity. graff is the author of the book -- garrett graff is the author of the book "the only plane in the sky: an oral history of 9/11". he also hosts a new podcast called "long shadow" about lingering questions after the attacks. he joins me now. welcome back, when you first read the book and we talked about it you said your goal was not to recount the fact of the day but to remind everyone what it felt like. 20 years later, do you still think it is as important to remember this really what that day felt like? >> absolutely. and i think part of this is, here we are 20 years later, a generation later, we are seeing this event from memory into history. of the 13 marines and the sailor killed in kabul in august, only two of them were old enough to

ali rogin returns to middletown, where she grew up, to see how residents and neighbors coped over the past two decades. >> reporter: middletown, new jersey: a suburb about an hour's train ride from manhattan. it's a community that was deeply affected by 9/11. it also happens to be my hometown. so i returned a few weeks before the twentieth anniversary of the terror attacks, to see how people have moved forward, even as they look back. first stop: a scenic overlook that's now home to the county's 9/11 monument-- an eagle clutching a beam salvaged from ground zero. i'm here at mount mitchill in atlantic highlands, which happens to be the highest point on the atlantic seaboard. people come here to admire the sweeping views of the new york city skyline. but on september 11th 2001, many people, my own family included, came up here to bear witness to the horror that was unfolding across the river. >> it's very difficult to convey the chaos that ensued. the disbelief, the fear. >> reporter: jodi molisani was my fourth grade teacher. >> i can remember being on my driveway days after and smell

as ali rogin reports, that comes as taliban fighters claim to have seized the country's last pocket ofnce. >> reporter: taliban fighters raised their flag over the panjshir valley, declaring complete control of what it calls “the islamic emirate of afghanistan.” fighters in the northeastern province resisted the taliban after their takeover three weeks ago, just as they did in the 1990's. but on monday, a taliban spokesman said they had been defeated. >> ( translated ): the last nest of the fugitive enemy was completely cleared today and last night. >> reporter: now that they control the whole country, taliban leaders are facing the reality of having to govern it. they've repeatedly delayed announcing the new government, and are already denying reports of political infighting. >> ( translated ): rumours about internal disputes in the islamic emirate are false. >> reporter: kabul's main currency exchange reopened for the first time in weeks, sparking a rush of people using afghanistan's informal banking system. but as other banks reopen under taliban control, they are cut off from the w

for the pbs newshour, i'm ali rogin. >> woodruff: power is now restored to most of new orleans. but several hundred thousand people in southeast louisiana are still without. consequently, the death toll has been rising. local officials say nine more people in new orleans have died of excessive heat, bringing the overall death toll in louisiana to 26. our community correspondent in new orleans, roby chavez, has been reporting on the difficult living conditions in some of these parishes. roby, good to see you again. thank you for being there and reporting. you were telling us yesterday you were in the community of lafitte, where they are still digging out. tell us a little of what you saw. >> today we're in st. charles parish, where hurricane ida, its eye came here, it sat for a couple of hours, and look at the damage. you can see these huge r.v.s flipped on their side. one fell on the red truck on the side here. we've seen this kind of damage along the coast where the wind and the surge has been great. we went to lafitte, a small village outside of norms, one of the best places y