katherine johnson worked at time when it was difficult for african-americans especially women to get jobs in the science field. panly a tradition for the first lady michelle obama and the help of a local children's group and the national park service is harvesting and replanting the vegetable garden. >> i am a big believer in this living. >> a man whats with rescued by nypd air and sea officers after fall 15 miles out to sea is expected to survive. the department's aation unt and helicopter south of prey point and the man fell more than the story on the deck of a ship. he was taken to the house. that is a look at the headlines we're chasing today. >> so aaron hernandez back in the news as his family bers a law sut against the nfl and the patriots income now it me thinking after we taked to the former giants' player about whether or not you should let your kids play tackle football. as a parent, i think football is outstanding. i think it shows and teaches leadership. and the ability to work on a team, and work as a team. every kid has to work together to win that game. you know? with

but because katherine johnson, as a mathematician in that full hierarchy, was the central character, they really created a plot in the movie that that hinged on math. and her viewpoint -- it was really, and this was something that i didn't even really learn until after the movie was produced and had all these questions about, you know, how particular part of the script had come together. but they made this very interesting decision to really make it a movie about math as opposed to about the engineering -- >> right. >> -- which the book is a lot more about engineering than the minutiae of the -- >> of the math, yeah. yeah. and about their lives. >> and about their lives. >> you detail their lives a lot more than the specific projects that they worked on. i wanted to ask you real quickly to talk about the human computer project that you're work on. this is something you have continued past the life of the book. could you talk a little bit about what you're doing there and how it's succeeded since the book and the movie have come out? >> so. yeah -- so, yeah, the human computer project

and nasa has bestowed a new honor upon katherine johnson, the african-american mathematician whose lifepired the hit feature film "hidden figures". a ribbon-cutting ceremony officially opened a new research facility bearing her name, at nasa's langley research center in hampton, virginia. the 99-year-old-- who calculated the trajectories for america's first space flights in the 1960s-- was on hand for the festivities. what an inspiration. still to come on the newshour: hurricane maria's wrath moves on after ravaging puerto rico, search for survivors stretch into the fourth day after mexico's deadly quake, senator tim kaine on health care reform, and much more. >> woodruff: hurricane maria continued its march across the caribbean, still as a powerful category 3 storm. puerto rico is dealing with a dam failure in the western part of the island. 70,000 people are in the process of being evacuated. damage estimates have already reached $45 billion for the caribbean islands in the storm's path. and all told, at least 27 have been blamed on maria. john yang has more. >> reporter: across water

country, we want to introduce you to monumental americans who may be deserving of a statue, katherine johnsonand math me tigs whose brilliant mind led america into space. born in 1918 and showed early froms in math but had to attend a special high school because they only taught until the eighth grade. she graduated at 14. graduated college at 18 and eventually she worked for nasa where she made pioneering calculations and was nicknamed the human computer. her work led to the success of the apollo moon landing program and space shuttle program. she received a medal of honor from president obama in 2015. today she's 99 years old. >> looking for somebody to build a monument to, for, that's your lady. from the first moment you met it was love at first touch and all you wanted to do was surround them in comfort and protection that's why only pampers swaddlers is the #1 choice of hospitals to wrap your baby in blanket-like softness and premium protection mom: "oh hi baby" so all they feel is love wishing you love, sleep and play. pampers it's about moving forward, not back.t. it's looking up, not

. >>> and nasa opens a new research facility named after katherine johnson whose work helped send men into space and inspired the movie "hidden figures." >> do your best and like it. >> solid advice. september 23rd, 2017. >> great advice. >>> as we told you earlier this morning, puerto rico, a u.s. territory is struggling mightily today in the wake of hurricane maria. we were on board with one group that's taking tens of thousands of pounds the food, water, and other necessities to residents there. nbc morgan radford went along with them. >> this is one of the first relief missions to go into one of the hard hit areas since hurricane maria. this was a special one for me because that plane left my home taken of greensburrough north carolina with people who said it wasn't just an honor, it was a duty to be there. people scrambling to rebuild in the darkest hour. hope and help are on the way. >> we know when people near these kind of disaster situations they're hopeless and they need to know that somebody cares. >> reporter: which is why staff members from a nonprofit based in north caro