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 tension

katrina herrador. kron 4's reggie kumar says police are trying to figure out if there are more victims out there. >> reporter: katrina herrador became a counselor for the city in may. officials wouldn't give us the camp location but we found an advertisement for it. it's called teen x-treme summer camp. that's where katrina herrador became acquainted with a 14- year-old boy and authorities allege katrina herrador had sex with a teen at her home. residents didn't want to go on camera. they said katrina herrador lived there but moved out. police say the boy's parents discovered suspicious tex messages and called authorities. she says when they interviewed katrina herrador she confessed to the crime. >> when we met with katrina herrador she did give us a statement as to what occurred that night. >> [ inaudible question ] >> yes, it was. >> at this point it doesn't appear any criminal activity occurred during business. >> reporter: officials say she is no longer employ would the city. >> we don't have any

brown says that hurricane katrina was a disaster on many levels. every participant has his own version of the almost heroic personal actions taken in a desperate race to beat the storm, protect the people and then ultimately blame fema. he feels that most people do not know what should have happened and that there were many self-serving spin books written in the aftermath. but mr. brown believes that people don't know the planning that was involved or the options available and rejected by high officials whose frequent indecision and occasionally bad choices changed a serious situation into a needlessly deadly one. secondly, he talks in the book about the lack of available documentation during katrina, but i'm going to let michael brown explain all that to you because he is the author of this book, and he knows it a lot more than i do. so, please, give me a warm press club welcome for michael brown. [applause] >> hi, everybody. thanks for coming out. i appreciate it. i was just thinking that, jan, as you were talking, one of the things that struck m

that's part of the reason why katrina was able to be forgotten.s hitting down in new orleans it's not d.c. or new york. it's not when the political and media power brokers live and work and have to ride the transit. >> today, the sixth anniversary of katrina. while there are those who say, maybe the media hypes this stuff, there's a real case for saying, you just can't be too prepared for crisis of these magnitude when you saw the devastation that that city is still trying to dig out from. >> i agree, matt. but i'm more with tim on this one. i would give the politicians an a on hurricane irene, and i would give the media a b-minus. i think we were guilty of playing it a little bit too big and what's unfortunate about that, i do think that we could have confirmed this, you know, views, critics of the media have, we are navel gazing, a problem in new york, or washington, it's a disaster for the world. the coverage tended to confirm that. >> imogene, your thoughts, six years after katrina? something that must have been, i think you were in the uk at

she and her family have moved ten times since katrina.st time in six years, they get to go to home. cindy dellaveja's house was destroyed when the levees broke. six years later, she has been living in mississippi, hoping that one day she could return to new orleans. last christmas, she got a phone call from st. bernard project. >> i called my daughter up and said guess what we're going next christmas and she is like what? and i said we're going to be having christmas dinner at my house. and she was so excited. >> our differences are less important in the face of disaster. a storm like katrina, like irene, does not discriminate. but people come together in this city, despite that gulf of difference. here, the spirit of volunteerism is alive and well. >> they are working in here. taking pride in what they're doing. and i was just amazed that these young kids could care so much about, you know, someone they don't even know. it's amazing. >> got to think if something happened to me and i lost everything, to have people from wherever coming in

but learning short-term lessons from katrina is not enough. six years later, the longer-term lessons about public policy, mutual investment, are what we as a people are still refusing to learn. and that does it for us tonight. i'm melissa harris perry in for rachel mad do you. we'll see you tomorrow tonight. and i'll see you next hour o he ed show" which starts right now. >>> good afternoon, americans and welcome to "the ed show" tonight live from new orleans, louisiana. as people along the east coast are either recovering or still feeling the effects of hurricane irene, six years later, residents in this city of new orleans are still dealing with the blow from hurricane katrina. over 1,000 patients lined up here at the convention center to see a doctor today and get free health care. and while this free clinic is almost over, we still need your help. and we'll tell you how. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> it's going to take time to recover from the storm of this magnitude. >> hurricane irene caused loss of life and billions in pr

hurricane katrina hit new orleans and the gulf coast six years ago today.cane katrina hit new orleans and the gulf coast six years ago today. ties. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans, many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... for greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it's the at&t network... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. from flooding, to power outages.. the damage left behind on the east coast. and how things are getting back to normal today. the final pieces of the puzzle.. on the new bay bridge span. how today's milestones are speeding up construction. more threats of commute disruption for bart riders today. the other agency that's taking a huge hit from all the protests. and.. the top school official taking a 200 thousand dollar pay cut. join us for cbs 5 early edition, >>> on the "cbs morning news

>> katrina is a turning point. every executive, every governor, every mayor has to be seen as being in control. that's a searing moment. >> we'll see him flying over the flood soon. >> that's your job. you're president. fema has generally gotten good mash on the tornado in joplin, local officials have given a positive reviews. it is expected. this is what you do. some of what we do in washington is about the debate. it's about the ideology. every once in a while, we have to run something. military has to run something, fema has to run something. and people expect that. as i say, it's not sufficient to see you as a strong leader. if you fail on that test, it can hurt you. >> the president, this president is captive of a superstition he didn't invent but has made perhaps even worse. that is the cult of the modern presidency. the belief that the president is central, is all powerful. this is, after all, the man who, on june 2008, the night he clenched the democratic primary, said people note this is the moment when th

and i think katrina is a big reason for all of this. you know, everybody remembers, "brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," and all of the things that the government was saying back in the wake of katrina. but the fact is the government was very, very slow off the mark after that disaster, and people at every level this time around, scott, were determined that that wasn't going to happen again. we always have the so-called lessons learned after these kinds of things, and i think in this case you can say the government learned something from katrina, and it worked out pretty good. >> pelley: bob schieffer, chief washington correspondent, thank you very much. we all remember those scenes from hurricane katrina, where so many people were trapped in the superdome during that time, many without food and water, trapped there for days because the evacuation was not underway early enough to avoid the breaching of the levees. as we continue to track irene, we want to take a look back now at some of the images from the storm's journey up the eas

look at what was happening in katrina in the first 72 hours. once you got past that point, there's not much you can do to change the outcome, and things were cast getting on top of each other. >> [unintelligible] >> i think there were a lot of things at the federal level that congress addressed in the reform act that made it easier to work in the team environment. >> [unintelligible] >> not today. earlier in the week. we are around -- we had gone below $1 billion, at and i'm not sure what today's figure is, but that was why we implemented immediate needs funding. a lot of people thought, well, the people that been impacted by the tornadoes and floods, we will take money away from them. the survivors eligible for assistance are still getting funds. individual assistance programs were not affected by this, nor were any protective measures or any project that had already been improved. the only thing we have postponed its new projects that are permanent work that had not been started when we go into immediate needs funding. that is the concern, is

katrina made land as a category four storm.at followed was the result of a man made disaster. the region is still feeling the storm's impact. over half a decade later, the city of new orleans still struggling. bill quigley measured that what he calls the katrina pain index. among the startling statistics, 70% more people are homeless in new orleans since katrina hit 34% of the city's children live in poverty. access to good quality health care is so essential for those folks and for those who are lucky enough to have jobs but still can't afford care. a reminder again that the ed show and msnbc is teaming up with the national association of free clinics and hosting a clinic new orleans this coming monday august 29th. i'll be broadcasting from new orleans on monday night to make a donation or to learn more about volunteering and it's so cool to see volunteers come from all over the country. i ask you to go to their website, freeclinics dot us. joining me is a person that makes it all happen. she is the executive director of the n

of hurricane katrina, can you speak specifically about what was learned then that helped you in thegovernment to be better prepared? >> well, you have to give credit to congress who one, passed the post hurricane katrina legislation to give clarity to the fema mission, but also cleared up issues that are considered issues if we should wait for the governor to deplete all of the resources before federal assistance and then at this point respond or get it going earlier and not wait for the declaration without waiting for the state to be overwhelmed to be ready. this is one of the keys that we have learned is that when we know there is a disaster that could occur, and again, we are working off of the forecast, is not to wait until the state says that we are going to need help. part of it but i getting the team into the state was the counter parts of the governors' teams getting ready and getting there earlier we have a better time to know what to anticipate and get the team in place if we have impact to go right to work. that is as well as repositioning resources to mo them in to areas

very impressed with the administration reaching out. >> katrina was an f you would still give this an a. >> i would give it an a or effort for sure. >> in terms of the aspect of compassion people standing up to the plate helping neighbors. >> never been stronger. >> i hope to see you in our 9-11 special. we are doing our special the we are doing our special the counter attack thast: could swio really save you 15% or more on car insurance? host: do people use smartphones to do dumb things? man 1: send, that is the weekend. app grapgic: yeah dawg! man 2: allow me to crack...the bubbly! man 1: don't mind if i doozy. man 3: is a gentleman with a brostache invited over to this party? man 1: only if he's ready to rock! ♪ sfx: guitar and trumpet jam vo: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. the two trains and a bus rider. the "i'll sleep when it's done" academic. for 80 years, we've been inspired by you. and we've been honored to walk with you to help you get where you want to be ♪ because your moment is now. let nothing stand in your way. learn more at keller.edu.

wants to be katrinaed.ry dog gets one bite. every politician after katrina was put on notice, not on my watch is this going to happen to me. it's interesting, though, in former vice president cheney's book, as opposed to what former president bush wrote, he blamed governor blanco, and he uses a word that when you know dick cheney uses this word, it's a firing offense. he said the governor "dithered" in asking for help. >> well, and it's the same point, katty kay. we saw it in new york. we're talking about the response in new york city earlier this year huge snowstorm, and what happens? a slow response. >> right. >> you had people stranded, emergency vehicles not being able to get through, top aides to the mayor were away. again, that idea of dithering, notein as prepared as you can be. everybody stied that. they studied katrina, they studied that response and they were determined to avoid it this time. >> you could see mayor bloomberg in the press conference, surrounded by experts. he made sure he had all t

. >> tonight, katrina's wrath. >> hurricane katrina came ashore just a half hour ago. >> some believe he was in charge and not responsible. >> make sure you've got your vice president under control. >> dick cheney's memoir are already causing controversy. >> what the hell is going on here? >> you have failed me for the last time. >> this is really dick cheney unapologetic. >> no apologies. >> no apologies. >> this is his last political will and testament. >> to pump a book out by saying heads will be exploding with a condescending tone. >>> good evening from los angeles. today as many federal officials remain focussed on the cleanup and recovery efforts of hurricane irene, president obama turned his focus back to jobs. >> even as we deal with this crisis of the moment, our great ongoing challenge as a nation remains how to get this economy growing faster. our challenge is to create a climate where more businesses can post job listings, where folks can find good work that relieves the financial burden they are feeling, where families can regain a sense of economic security in their liv

. >> i mean, are your being overly cautious, post-katrina?would possibly blame you for doing that, but some people are suggesting as a slight overreaction this time to make sure that that kind of thing couldn't possibly happen again? >> well, i don't know about that. this is how i've always been operating. this is how we did it when i was in florida. this is what we do in the present administration as we bring the team together. we get the team ready. prepare for the worst and hope for the best. we don't wait to find how bad it is before we get ready. >> what's the biggest concern for new york city? is it structural damage or potential flooding? >> really the concern in new york city is going to be how much storm surge we get. i think that's the factor that for the mayor and his team been looking at why they are ordering evacuations. we could get wind damages and power outages. in the borough areas those areas susceptible to flooding is of concern. >> mayor bloomberg ordered some evacuations and the governor as well. clearly there are section

you moved there after hurricane katrina. what advice do you have to people who are trying to recover from an event like hurricane irene, given what you have seen in new orleans? >> that -- well, the first piece of advice would be the one that governors across the east coast were making. when they tell you to evacuate, get out of there. they're not kidding about that. the second piece of advice i think people understand since katrina is there is an element of personal responsibility. we see these things coming, don't rush out to the grocery store at the last minute. people should be prepared if you live in an area like this, you should have flashlights and take care -- and james' favorite, the ice chest. you can do things to be prepared. but at the end of the day before any element or level of government can get to you, your neighbor, you should be in a position to help your neighbor and in your neighborhood. that's the very first line of defense. >> james, what about the rebuilding process? even psychologically when you see

and then of course there was katrina. >> the most devastating was katrina. i've had nightmares about it. >> storm surge. >> reporter: he was right there in gulfport, mississippi on august 29th, 2005. katrina's ground zero. >> these walls are going to start coming in. >> are you taping this? >> yes. >> reporter: he witnessed firsthand the historic 28-foot storm surge from his hotel room at the beachfront holiday inn. >> here we are. it's crazy. >> reporter: while everyone else is evacuating, theiss seeks out the belly of the beast. as furniture floats around like pool toys. a car comes crashing through the lobby. water follows them up to the second floor. >> currently on the second floor. the surge is already coming up the staircase here. >> reporter: during katrina, mike also debuted h h patent pending theiss device. it's a camera but built more like a thank. >> bulletproof glass on the front. it's got a gps tracker built into it. >> reporter: as waves of water demolished the hotel, the theiss device kept rolling. the video is just one of mike's many contrib

sure you know i was with color of change we first started we were focused on katrina and then once we got that up and running i've went back to work on the ella baker center and eventually created something called green for all because of fuel talk about james kept growing that organization and took it in different directions and he did take on glenn beck and fox news for. that being responsible abusing i would say the airwaves and putting out things that were not true about me but probably about you know so many other people and eventually. i think that it's a been occasioned of our system of our system of american society you can't just abuse the airwaves and can just abuse the public trust and expect the american business community to stand with you and pay for ads on your show when you're saying things that are not true they're defamatory and that are misleading the american people so it wasn't just a james rucker stood up and said the american business community stood back and said we don't care how many eyeballs you can get with this type of programming we're not going to put mo

with the failures of the katrina response shadowing the response to irene. their leaders are already being judged on whether the preparations were worth all of the effort. louisiana governor kathleen blanco never recovered from mistakes made during katrina. appearing in press conference after press conference, east coast governors were determined to learn from the kathleen blanco model and not to fumble the response by underreacting. >> yeah, i saw some of these i've been watching upstairs of people sitting on the beach. get off the beach and get out. you're done. it's 4:30, you've maximized your tan. get off the beach. >> president obama returned from his martha's vineyard vacation a day early and toured fema. shadowed by those images of president bush who remained at the crawford ranch after katrina hit. and the president was intent to be hands on. >> you need to know that america will be with you in your hour of need. i continue to meet regularly with secretary napolitano and the administrator and the other members of my team to assess our response and en

been a part of move on dot org and helped out of katrina build an african-american version of move on but org using some of those high tech tools and techniques to amplify the voices of people who are concerned about what was happening to the victims of katrina but also after americans in general are very proud of that also proud of the l a baker center for human rights which is also still going forward you know we discovered in california. bed the state was spending one hundred fifty thousand dollars per year per kid to lock a kid up and we didn't have the decided you could send four kids to yale for the cost in one kid the jail we said is ridiculous these kids in the classroom don't have books they don't have chalk summer programs are being cut but we're spending one hundred fifty k. per year per kid locking them up and then these kids come out eighty five ninety percent of them wind up in adult prison so when we run a hundred fifty thousand dollars a year fred schools for adult present we said look give the community that money you give any community leader one kid and hundred to t

a lot of this was the mechanics that we learned from katrina. but i think some of the other things that was directed into legislation was we needed to look beyond just what fema's role is; that we're not the team, we're part of a team. we really had to look at things such as how do you better integrate the volunteers and the ngos and their capabilities, as well as the private sector. i mean, i was in florida doing a lot of hurricanes. and quite honestly, when you get to the point where you find yourself setting up distribution points in the parking lot of an open grocery store because they brought a generator in, brought in emergency crews and got their store open, but you weren't talking, i could have probably gone where there was a greater need. so right now one of the things we've done in this administration is we brought the private sector into fema's headquarters. we have a representative on a rotating basis in the private sector representing them, so we work as a team. and so right now we're getting reports of stores opening -- first in pu

woodruff reports on the new orleans police officers found guilty of killing two people after hurricane katrina. >> they took the twinkle out of my eye. the song out of my heart they blew out of my candle, but it's going to be all right. because justice has been served. >> brown: mark shields and ross douthat-- filling in for david brooks-- analyze the week's news. >> lehrer: and fred de sam lazaro looks at the ethical questions raised by western couples hiring surrogates to carry their babies in india. >> if the woman suffers an injury, if the woman has a health problem due to childbirth, if there's a long-term chronic condition, then what? >> lehrer: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> well, the best companies are driven by new ideas. >> our history depends on new ideas. we spend billions on advanced technologies. >> it's all about investing in the future. >> we can find new energy-- more cleaner, safer and smarter. >> collaborating with the best in the field. >> chevron works with the smartest people at leading universities an

a lot of this was the mechanics we learned from katrina.nk some of the other things that was directed in the legislation was we need today look beyond just what fema's role is. that we're not a team or part of the team. we had to look at things such as how do you better integrate the volunteers and their capabilities, as well as to private sector. i was in florida doing a lot of hurricanes. quite honestly, when you find yourself setting up distribution points in the parking lot of a grocery store, got their store open but you weren't talking, i could have probably gone where there was a greater need. right now the things we've done in this administration, we've brought the private sector into fema's headquarters. we have a representative representing them. so we work as a team. so right now, we're getting reports of stores opening first in puerto rico when the initial storm hit. looking at big box stores able to get open. had a better sense that a lot of the things we were concerned about, the private sector was able to get up and running s

i remember doing katrina. i had to basically not threaten people, basically say, look, if you're going to decide to stay, you better have an ax with you so that you can go up to your, in your attic and then chop out in case the water comes up. that kind of got people's attention and stimulated them to move, but they really need to understand the reality of it before they move, unfortunately. >> back in new orleans, maybe three, four weeks ago and saw parts of the city they're doing absolutely fantastic and parts of it that are still really suffering and have not been rebuilt. they're not expecting, we're not below sea level here, the kind of devastation obviously, that you folks saw, because of katrina, but what should people really be prepared for, and do you think that there are lessons learned from katrina that can make this one not so bad? not so painful? >> there are tons of lessons that were learned. i can see fema is better prepared. prepositioning supplies, water and ice and what have you. i think that

hurricane katrina, more than 1000 people. in this recent hurricane, 20 people.seem that there is a scale of the more victims, the more money allocated. i had also heard, when katrina was here, this woman from new york said that the reason we are so devastated by hurricanes is because we are too simple to move away from the coast lines. i wonder if this last hurricane made people living in new york city move away from the coastline? guest: and the irony now is, in the after effects, n.y., off pretty lightly, but upstate new york, inland, unexpectedly, has serious flooding, series power outages. vermont, for example, prior to the hurricane, the president made declarations of emergencies as a predicate to funding. so far as i can see, not vermont. it was not expected that they would have this damage. he has now declared eight emergency -- an emergency in vermont. the state that seem to be most affected by this, north carolina, virginia, and surprisingly, vermont has gotten hit heavily. you never know in these situations, even with the best science, the exact impact

the verdict is in on new orleans cops who opened fires on refugees from hurricane katrina. and $25-- that's what an i.e.d. costs in afghanistan. david martin is with the troops surviving the surge in roadside bombs. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. after the dow's high-speed drop of 512 point yesterday, wall street was looking for something to put the brakes on a two-week slide. it found it in today's unemployment report. it shows that the unemployment rate fell a tenth of a point in july, and there was an increase in hiring. it was small, but better than expected. in a volatile day of trading, the dow shot up 171 points, then dropped 244, and finally closed with a gain of just over 60. it is a long way from the high that it hit back in april. since then, the dow is off 1,365 more than 10.5%. we're covering this story in chicago, london, and washington. first, here's anthony mason. >> reporter: scott, finally, some relatively good economic news. it wasn't a blow-out number, but it was the strongest job gr

how about a fire to further darken the sixth anniversary of katrina in new orleans? this is a marsh fire burning in eastern new orleans. a swampy marsh out there. once these fires start they usually burn themselves out to the water line. they're hard to put out. but look at the air quality in new orleans today. mayor mitch landrieu decided to fight it from the air and declared a state of emergency. now four blackhawk helicopters from the state national guard, with buckets of water affixed to them have been deployed. they'll fight it 500 gallons at a time. the wind has swept into to several louisiana parishes. a lightning strike started this fire and it may take until next week's predicted rains there to finally put it out. >>> switching now to news from overseas. we have no idea where gadhafi is. while he's no longer in charge in libya, there's a huge search for him under way and as they go about the search, they're discovering more about how lavish a lifestyle he maintained. stephanie gosk has the report from tripoli. >> reporter: tripoli is theirs but as long as mo

i went through katrina. ok? um -- and i traveled miles and miles and miles to get out of the way of katrina. the people who stayed in new orleans -- i saw people dead, people on their rooftops. we had -- in new orleans, there was no one to come help the people who stayed. people on their roofs. and it was horrible. there was a woman in a wheelchair at the superdome who was dead. dead. for over a week. i was lucky enough to be in houston finally. and all we saw was nothing. and ray nagin begged the president, begged him over and over to get us to help. host: mary, thank you for sharing your personal story, which i am sure that the e -- short cannot be easy -- caller: warned -- host: what do you think at everybody learn from that experience? caller: to get the heck out of here. host: and the federal officials -- caller: with irene? of course, because it was going up the east coast. i want to know where our perfect president was when irene w = going on -- when irene was going on. host: the president did go back to

when we had katrina going into new orleans, they needed ice. so fema ordered ice from the northeast. they ordered 211 million pounds of ice. it traveled for two weeks and they finally ended up in nebraska. and they never got it. that's a typical way of how fema works. if you want efficiency, why don't we look at how thing were handled before we had fema. now the department of homeland security, and they just don't -- but really, my big -- go ahead. i do have another bigger gripe. >> let me just say. we reported, i reported extensively on the failings of fema during katrina. the trailers, the ice. they also had body recovery teams on the ground very quickly before other people. that was a fema response. they do have expertise in some areas that some states don't. if you had left everything up to louisiana officials during katrina, probably more people would have died. >> well, that remains to be seen. >> the louisiana official were certainly not up to the task. >> the thing of it is, you create more hazard by saying, you 98 and the government wi

when we had katrina going into new orleans, they needed ice. so fema ordered ice from the northeast. they ordered 211 million pounds of ice. it traveled for two weeks and they finally ended up in nebraska. and they never got it. that's a typical way of how fema works. if you want efficiency, why don't we look at how thing were handled before we had fema. now the department of homeland security, and they just don't -- but really, my big -- go ahead. i do have another bigger gripe. > let me just say. we reported, i reported extensively on the failings of fema during katrina. the trailers, the ice. they also had body recovery teams on the ground very quickly before other people. that was a fema response. they do have expertise in some areas that some states don't. if you had left everything up to louisiana officials during katrina, probably more people would have died. >> well, that remains to be seen. >> the louisiana official were certainly not up to the task. >> the thing of it is, you create more hazard by saying, you 98 and the government wil

the lessons of katrina were critical lessons.rina exposed the consequences of our aging and inadequate infrastructure. the floodwaters also revealed the long-standing racial and economic differences that made an entire population vulnerable to disaster. and how long did those lessons last? did our priorities as a nation change in any profound way? whatever momentum our renewed sense of responsibility brought has been halted by this recession. right now, even as the wealth gap between white americans and americans of color widens, the argument in washington is over how much of the social safety net we must cut, while not raising taxes on the rich right now, even as the president reminds us time and again that we need to spend on fixing our crumbling infrastructure, he's being met with opposition from republicans who say we can't afford it. right now, as we try to prevent more disasters that are made worse by environmental degradation like the erosion of our coastal wetlands, republicans want to gut the epa. it's clear that in resp

there, and we will bring in our retired general russel honore, and you were there when hurricane katrinad new orleans. and you are checking with the sources up and down the coast that you have been working with emergency response. right now, i would say we are halfway through the entire event, and how are we doing? >> well, we have two quarters of the game left to play, because the storm is so big. the first thing in the morning, north carolina and the virginia, they will be doing extensive search and rescue and reaching out to people who have lost power and people who might be isolated the vulnerable population, and the elderly and the disabled, and in the northern part of the storm up in new york an new england area, they will be seeing the worst of the storm hitting them. so we will have a two-phase operation as we might use a military term in responding to the storm tomorrow by doing recovery and search and rescue in the south and still dealing with the effects of the storm way into the evening tomorrow once we determine what that tidal surge impact will have on new york. that is is

caught back during katrina.and the media has changed, too. you're right about that. >> bill: all right, bernie, thanks very much, as always. reality check on deck. tonight, al gore compares anti-global warming people to racists. and colin powell slams dick cheney. check moments away. n me to stay. so i take one a day men's 50+ advantage. it's the only complete multivitamin with ginkgo to support memory and concentration. plus it supports heart health. [ bat cracks ] that's a hit. one a day men's. what's vanishing deductible all about ? guys, it's demonstration time. let's blow carl's mind. okay, let's say i'm your insurance deductle. every year you don't have an accident, $100 vanishes. the next year, another $100. where am i going, carl ? the next year... that was weird. but awesome ! ♪ nationwide is on your side >> bill: reality check and we begin this evening with dick cheney's new book that slams people like condaleeza rice and colin powell. mr. powell doesn't like it. >> mr. cheney has had a long and distin

military response to katrina.eral, when you see us get ready for storms, hurricanes, do you look at it and say, that's a post-katrina preparation? >> oh, very much so. >> we learned a lot. >> we learned a lot, been applied to governors, national guard working together, working with national guard teams from other states, collaboration between first responders. there's a lot of capacity right on the edge of this storm from red cross all of government is prepared to respond. as i see this picture right here in and the disturbance along the coast, what's p happening 60, 80 miles inland right now, trees are falling, lights are going out on people, and it's at this point in time over the next few hours national guard in north carolina is all set to go. right now they're hunkered down waiting until the weather passes so they can go in and start helping people, opening roads, getting first responders in. my biggest concern is the elderly and disabled people who would be isolated at home and really have not paid a lot of

and i think if you think back to the lessons of katrina, right after katrina, there were essentiallyategory disasters, fires, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes, major stress tests that occurred under the bush administration, everything from the worst tornado season in u.s. history to the major midwest floods in 2008, to the san diego wildfires and then lastly a repeat of almost a replica of katrina, which was gustav and ike as we mentioned on the program. all of those we saw the same type of forward leaning, better coordination. now whether it's the tornado in joplin under president obama or in this case, irene, we're seeing again the same type of learning from the past, leaning forward and hopefully having a much more proactive response. >> you know, let me tell you, ron paul came out this weekend attacking fema, calling it deeply flawed and wasteful. you remember a time when those allegations could be made and sounded fair. what do you think about ron paul making them today? >> well, i respect congressman paul, but i would say he's just dead wrong on this point. lives have been save