. >> techknow investigates katrina...en years after the storm. >> during katrina, a large amount of water rushed in from the gulf. >> the walls were engineered to stop mother nature... they failed. >> do you think that new orleans is safer than 10 years ago? >> now rebuilt - higher, stronger, billions of dollars spent. new tech to predict storms. >> we'll be able to make measurements of the winds as they change very quickly. >> but is this city safe? >> do i feel 100% safe? no. >> marita davison is an environmental bioligist. >> as the waves are coming in, explain to me what's happening. >> tonight she goes inside the lab to bring the latest research that could stop the next superstorm. and i'm phil torres, i'm an entomologist. so how did katrina change the resident's attitude toward nature? now, techknow in new orleans: katrina, 10 years after. i'm here at jefferson parish at the exact spot that was submerged back in august 2005 and i'm 6 foot 2 and if i stretch my hand up to this height... triple that. that's how high s

katrina.ulianek, hud secretary castro and members of the housing and urban development recovery team presented a on the recovery efforts. this is one hour. >> good morning. we want to welcome you for the media briefing ahead of the 10-year anniversary of hurricane katrina. today you will hear from secretary castro and senior policy experts who have worked tirelessly on the gulf recovery from day one. before i turn it over to secretary castro, i want to let you know we will be taking questions from the media as well as viewers on the webcast and c-span2. link urge you to send questions via twitter -- we encourage you to send questions via twitter or by e-mail. that is h.u.d. public affairs at .gov. please join me in welcoming secretary juliÁn castro. [applause] julian castro: good morning. thank you for the introduction. let me begin by thanking all of the journalists here today at headquarters as well as those i know are joining us over the internet. in the coming days, americans will turn to

is katrina, is this place ready for another katrina?no, the important thing is katrina missed new orleans. if we had a storm like katrina that came up the river on the west side. no. they would be -- very significant overtopping of the levee system. this whole definition of the 100 year that is an insurance thing, not an enjip nerg thing. >> people said, we are building levees for a 100 year storm. >> that assumes katrina is a one in 400 year storm. which the corps kepdz claeps cl. there was a one in 30 year storm. >> there have been storms like it 30 years before. >> you can go back, ike, rita, katrina, betsey, camille, then there were other storms in the '40s and the teens. a major storm this louisiana about once every 28 years. >> you have done reporting on this, mark. as you look at the levees as they're blt now. what do you see? >> i see a system that is modern. that is built to new standard that were created in the aftermath of katrina. that are designed to to a standard that is not adequate for a major metropolitan area. >> how t

shortly before katrina, my dad died.nd then katrina happened, and then everything that i knew, you know-- school, work, house, family-- like, it was just completely annihilated. i feel like i was blindsided. everything changed. everything was just ripped away in an instant. my house was only about a block away from where the levee had broke on the 17th street canal. i lived in my house with my little girl marly, who's seven; and my little boy russell, who's two. and i took basically a backpack of clothes for me and the kids and i left. if there's anything to bring, back out. okay, this is where we kind of have to get in. this is what i heard, anyway; this is where you have to get in. oh, my god. wow. oh, my jeezum. look at my room! you can't even get in it. holy-- holy, holy lord. oh, man. >> oh, my god. your bathroom's soaked. damn. >> oh, my gracious. i can't even bel-- begin. there's no way i'm going in there. wow. wow. >> i can't even get in here. let me get out of your way. >> okay. this is-- like, i honestly though

but this here is my post-katrina collection and my pre-katrina collection went with the flood waters.ttle museum but it is great history. the collection, it's about the people, you know, moving your social way of life. and wondering if you are ever going to see some of these people you knew your whole life. you know, once you start surrounding yourself with family, then you start feeling that you are coming back. when you start seeing familiar faces and everything and hearing the sounds of new orleans, oh, i am home. >> keeping that hope and the spirit of new orleans alive. that's a special look at katrina after the storm. please tell us what you think at aljazeera.com/americatonight. talk to us on twitter or facebook and come back. we will have more of america tonight tomorrow. ♪ humanity, but we're doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science... >> oh! >> oh my god! >> by scientists. >> techknow investigates katrina... ten years after the storm. >> during katrina, a large amount of water rushed in from the gulf. >> the walls were engineered to stop mother nature... they fa

everybody has a katrina mentality. we talk about pre-katrina and post-katrina.hat happened before and how it is not happening now. there are some changes, it is rebuilding. it will take a couple generations for us to get back to where we were before. host: you said it's not the way it used to be. give us some examples. caller: new orleans has always been a city of neighbors. whenever you talk to someone, you ask them where they came from. they would tell you what neighborhood they were from. those neighborhoods are gone. the boundaries are of secured, the lines are blurred. are gone.ndaries longer get to know your neighbor. new orleans has always been a neighborhood city. with the area in which you came from. that is gone. i see no effort to try to solidify the neighborhoods again. there are several houses all over this city that have not been rebuilt. you have many cases like landlords buying this house, i live in another state -- i don't care whether or not it gets rebuilt. i have no response ability for it. neighborhood, the whole neighborhood concept has cha

does it take a katrina? other lessons here that apply to cities everywhere, or is this just new orleans being its eccentric and peculiar self? >> can you make it a little outer? >> is this better? >> yes. >> we will try. >> to waste answer that because i should preface it by saying, this is my 5th book about urban change. i have been writing about how cities grow, fall apart, recover, how they stay urban for a long time. and when i watched katrina on television i said to myself, how is this going to play out? there were two ways to go. was this going to be another one of those post- disaster attempts to reshape the city? in a sort of robert moses image from the top down, big project planning? big-money? always this going to emerge in the way that i have seen every success in every city in every neighborhood that has succeeded, they have succeeded from the ground up with citizen led, citizen initiatives. which way was this going to go? so my immediate feeling was i havei have to get down they're. i did three

the framework was developed in response to hurricane katrina, the post-katrina emergency reform act called for national strategy, and fema led the development that it was really a partnership of interagency partners including nongovernmental partners like the red cross. some of the key elements of the framework are that it promotes partnership, planning for disaster recovery in advance, and the development and establishment of an organizational structure and leadership in advance that focuses on disaster recovery, not just response. one example of this is at the federal level. we have developed the economic recovery support function. is led by the department of commerce, economic development administration, and key partners include sba, the department of treasury, the department of agriculture. fema is also a primary partner. all of these agencies work together to support communities and states, and more portly, businesses, and grow businesses after devices -- disasters to get support they need together businesses up and running. some of the strategies the economic recovery support functio

prior to katrina the year before katrina in the st. bernard neighborhood, surrounding neighborhood there were 479 attempted felonies. one year after the development of columbia park there were only two. so we're changing we're not only changing the bricks and mortar of public housing but we're elevating the lifestyle. we're elevating life. we're elevating the quality of life for families that's living in public housing. so it went from one of the most notorious neighborhoods in new orleans to one of the most desirable neighborhoods in new orleans. if you vacated city of new orleans 10 years at the time of katrina and came back now and exited i-610 at paris avenue you wouldn't know where you were if you hadn't been back. that is testament to change. that is testament in changing lives and redevelopment. >> post-katrina we also invested in redevelopment after fifth development of choice neighborhoods program. this is the brazil transformation here. >> in 2005 a combined the thousand households lived in public housing or received vouchers

nothing of the scale of katrina. is important to emphasize and reemphasize that walls on theood drainage canals, and the wall along the industrial canal were large and pivoting factors to the flooding that took place after hurricane katrina had passed by the city. we face to that. it was indeed a challenge. i made it my business during the years i was mayor from 1994-2002 to be briefed extensively on hurricane preparedness. each and every may, i wanted to make sure the city was indeed fully prepared. there was nothing of the scale of katrina. and i would emphasize that in a major disaster, federal, state, and local cooperation is essential. and it isn't that one branch of government or the other is fully responsible. because the assets you need, the response required requires a tremendous effort if there is going to be an evacuation. certainly if there will be the kind of humanitarian response needed from people who may be stuck. i think now, the lesson learned is that there has to be a transportation plan to help of

innovation after katrina. before we got there, you told me that it will bring me to my knees, and in many knees, it will. the highway literally ends. it's a one-way highway from new highway.a pipeline and 2100 residents of new orleans are permanent residents of angola. what post-katrina innovations are you most pleased with in the city that is going to stop that pipeline? what are the specific things your administration has done that you think will cause that jail to be closed from disuse, and what will actually reduce the population of people from new orleans in angola? all, landrieu: first of it's not just my administration. a lot of responsibility is spread out over a bunch of different it's too shall frameworks. if it's the city of new orleans or the school district, which , what i'mdoes not run most proud of is the level of coordination between and amongst all the different entities. i call this the new orleans way because it's literally true that nothing has happened in the city in the last 10 years with

the katrina trailers were wonderful.husband and i lived in a trailer for two years rebuilding our house. my husband is a handyman so we basically did it ourselves. we were 60 years old. we were in our 60's. i am a 71. -- i'm now 71. host: did you get money from the government either state or local to help with that rebuilding? caller: we held -- we had insurance so we did get a little bit but not a lot. but i felt sorry for the people who lost everything. there were people who are getting like $150,000, and they were walking away from their house. they were not using the money to rebuild. if they could rebuild anywhere else in the louisiana they could get that money and rebuild, but i have to tell you. i am an air force brat. i have lived in far east, central america american people do not appreciate what we have. we should all be so grateful, because of this happened in any other country we would not have had all the benefits that we got. so many people were helped. the faith-based organizations, so many people that cam

katrina's legacy. george w. bush returns to new orleans ten years after the storm. >> we are the resilience of a great american city whose levees gave out but whose people never gave up. >> tonight we look at the rebirth of the big easy and how far it has to go. >>> plus our special report often the 10th anniversary of the big storm, katrina ten years after the storm. >>> thousands are dying to reach europe. the escalating refugee crisis and the faltering response. hard sell. president obama pitches the iran nuclear deal to groups undecided in congress. former president george w. bush returns to new orleans today to deliver a message. he declared that the city is back and better than ever ten years after katrina. >> it is a story that goes like this one and others that we see the determination to rebuild better than before and it's a spirit much stronger than any storm. it's a spirit that's lifted communities, laid low by tornadoes or terrorist attacks. it's a spirit that has saw new orleans ten years ago. that

we talk about pre-katrina and post-katrina. that is how we live our lives. what happened before and what is not happening now. our changes, it is rebuilding, i think that it will take a couple of generations for us to get back to where we were before. host: let's go with that. it is not the way that it used to be. give us examples of they are in new orleans. caller: new orleans has always been a city of neighborhoods. whenever you talk to someone you ask them where they came from. they would tell you what neighborhood that they were from. those neighborhoods are gone. the boundaries are skewered, the lines are blurred, and these same people who had lived there for generations are not there anymore. we are no longer -- you know your neighbor. i know how it is -- i don't know how it is another cities, but new orleans has always been a neighborhood city. you identified and where identified with the area you came from. that is gone. i see no effort to try to solidify the neighborhoods again. once again, there are several houses all over the city, in many of the

then katrina.ith only 16 of the 128 school buildings left unscathed, the city and state were forced to re-invent a system, the louisiana legislature turned over most of the city's schools to charter school operators kicking off the largest scale experiment in u.s. history. today nearly 100% of public schools are charters. it has been called one of, quote, the most radical education overhauls in the country. joining me now is sarah carr, author of "hope against hope" that tells the story of new orleans schools and john white, superintendent of education for the state of louisiana. so a lot of folks visiting the city over the past few days have been focused in on the schools as kind of the emblem of success, but i hear from other people that is not an appropriate way to be thinking about what's going on in the schools. >> well, i don't think you have to have it one way or the other. melissa, you can tell the story about pride and what's happened to date and humility about how much further there is to

katrina taught us that was not good enough. katrina was the size of the storm and the surgeon that was brought in that nobody had imagined, and so we took instead 152 both past storms and potential storms. we literally generated 6300 hydrographs for storms anywhere from a 25-year to a 25,000 rate of return. we designed for those storms and we added a risk of uncertainty on top of that and projected out 50 years for sea level rise in climate change and that's what we designed and built to, and what does that mean? it means the system is resilient. the amount of surge for the 100-year storm, the 1% event, it's 25 to 30 feet tall right now. when that system -- when katrina hit in, some of those areas are over 30 feet. what it means if you have the storm the size of katrina or bigger, part of the system along the big surge barriers could be over topped so you could get some interior flooding, and there's room to hold the water that may come in, and basically what we have done is put in a parameter, and then there is an incredible d

katrina was not a bad storm. until the corps of engineers made disaster a man , that the corps of engineers and the portland's gas industry industry,eans gas with all the canals dug out of the wetlands. on thesed to be islands outskirts that would slow down out of some of the brunt the storm. the islands are not there anymore. they are gone. the wetlands need to be restored. levees, rtant than the wetlands, restore the please. host: thank you. then durham-aguilera of army corps of engineers. host: thank you for calling in and for living here and doing everything you are doing for the community. asked a lot of different questions. essentialof faerie topics we worry about. after katrina, our chief of engineers was lieutenant general stock. tookmediately responsibility for what the u.s. army corps of engineers aid. the way we had a series of projects that were not held -- were not built the way they should. he commissioned a study called ped, api review of over 150 people from different federal,'s date agencies, aca

katrina. role inailed hud's support for displaced residents who wanted to return after the storm. hour.s almost an >> we want to welcome you here for this media briefing ahead of the 10 year anniversary of hurricane katrina. today you will hear from secretary castro and senior policy experts who have worked tirelessly on the gulf recovery from day one. before i turn it over to secretary castro, i want to let you know we will be taking questions from the media as well as viewers on the webcast and c-span2. we encourage you to send questions via twitter or by e-mail. that is hudpublicaffairs@gov. please join me in welcoming secretary julian castro. [applause] julian castro: good morning. thank you for the introduction. let me begin by thanking all of the journalists here today at headquarters as well as those i know are joining us over the internet. in the coming days, americans will turn to you as we commemorate the tragedy that the felt our -- befell our nation a decade ago. a disaster so terr

almost five years after katrina. all of the mcdonalds grim survey of new orleans east began in a large board room down the rawl. five years after katrina on the sixth floor of the bank head quarters the flood seemed like it happened 12 months earlier. the east facing stretches looked out on to the empty area that was a mall where stores used to be. reed boulevard the next exit up the highway was lonely. he pointed out a building the same height called the methodist hospital. the hospital next door was borded up as was an office tower that was once filled with black doctors. a pair of large empty parcels on the other side of i-10. the former site of a wal-mart and sams were giant wounds on the landscape. the building next door was shattered and mcdonald pointed out several buildings that were empty. before katrina, more than a dozen were open and he is still the only one. five years later his building sits half empty. he continued the tour behind the battered sedan. a trio of strip malls that were all occupied before

prior to katrina i was handling mostly drugs and alcohol.fter katrina, for two years, i dealt with a population that had never had a mental health issue, that was now suicidal, helpless and hopeless. >> today, for maybe, they remain. they were at times played out on the streets of new orleans. oftentimes there's correlation between homelessness and the mentally ill. here in new orleans, the homeless population diminished. that doesn't mean that people are not living in pockets in streets. for those mentally ill. dash >> reporter: those that live on the streets have seen what it means when there are fewer places for the mentally ill to go. >> here, on this part of the bridge, she has a mental state. they'd take her to gaol. keep her in gaol. and determines where she's standing. coming back out. picking up what and living like she was living. >> and while conditions in new orleans have improved for many after the storm. there are more and more words about those who may be left behind. >> david joins me now. david, the opening university medica

katrina was a game changer. we game into katrina with the laws we had and practices we had. now if we have another katrina, you would see federal assets surrounding this area before the storm. that's a lesson learned. >> reporter: honore is unapologetic to the government's response to katrina but says officials are better prepared today than they were ten years ago. >> i just want to set the record straight. you're never going to be on time. for the people standing there waiting, in a disaster, you will never be on time. >> reporter: sad tales of those days but so many stories of resilience and people like general russell honore who came to right the ship. you think about 30,000 people rescued from their homes during katrina, and in large part due to the efforts of general honore and volunteers and local and city officials. a lot of sad tales but also tales of hope and resilience and strength that come out of those days. >> i want to ask you, obviously some people have tried to sort of spin this idea, there's a silver lining of katrina, new orleans was able to rebuild. i don

katrina after the storm. this time on the program, i spent a lot of time in new orleans in the weeks and months after katrina. a lot of the rebuilding i saw was smart strategic and effective, a lot of it was confused and bureaucratic. at the distance of a decade what was the result of alt those recovery efforts? joining us, tracy ross, and emily are chumley wright. george mason university. she's an author how we came back voices from post-katrina new orleans. emily let me start with you. money poured into new orleans a lot of it from the pockets of people who were trying to fix up their own lives. how do you measure what worked and how far we've come? >> one of the most important things for us to consider is how essential it is to tap the capacity within community to rebound and to repild. rebuild. the public policy in new orleans was so clumsy directly after katrina was so clumsy, the attempt was to top down replan all of the recovery all at once from a kind of bureaucratic and political setting rather than

the katrina foundation was started right after hurricane katrina. seven booksof the we have.sk people, where were they after katrina? -- you can visit us online. got your plug-in. thank you very much. >> speaking as someone who moved here 10 years ago and immediately fell in love with the city, i moved here to run the second harvest food bank. i would like to ask questions about the paradoxes you have all been describing. how can we have this incredible , and yetresurgence have completely recovered, even having lost population rates. >> i think our measures of progress are based on how quickly rich people are getting richer. [applause] we need new statistics. >> a nice, brief answer. >> i just wanted to give a shout out to the artist of the city that came back very early along thatthe restaurants believed we would come back. the first time we went to a restaurant, there was a jazz band there. the first time you went to a parade. and with a visual performing media, film, all of them have been hand in glove with everybody else. there has been involved. at the same time, we don'

i meet him eleven days after katrina.i counted i got together with him 20 tiles over the last ten years. i don't know why he's not sick of me. but i would use him to both talk about a single business trying to rebuild. he's on the back commissions significant. but he's a significant figure here in new orleans that gave me a parascope into the planning process and what was going on in the center of town and city hall. and also just kind of his personal story. i had this experience, it was really hard experience of being with several people as they saw their home for the first time after had flooded. and with all of the mcdonald's, i told the story of someone seeing their flooded home through him. so you know, if there was a protag protagonist one man character in the book it is mcdonald i'm going to read a message from 2010 so five years almost 5 years after katrina. all of the mcdonald's grim survey of new orleans east began in a large boardroom down the hall from his office. five years after katrina, on the 6th floor of

his life has changed a lot since katrina.orm and struggled to support himself. he's turned his experiences in to poetry. >> the trucks loaded with supplies, probably more than we needed. they didn't let the trucks through i still can't believe it. third world with country is how we were treated. i wrote this piece. even when i'm dead and gone and the lord calls me home, remember this poem. poetic song inside the super dome. >> reporter: new orleans wasn't the only city to suffer from the storm. in the days of katrina, i was in waveland, mississippi, a town that saw its own share of destruction and grief. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ wi noticed benny right away. , i just had to adopt him. he's older so he needs my help all day. when my back pain flared up we both felt it i took tylenol at first but i had to take 6 pills to get through the day. then my friend said "try aleve". just two pills, all day. and now, i'm back for my best bud! aleve. all day strong and try aleve pm, now with an easy open cap. in the nation, what's precious to you is prec

in katrina, think about 2000 people lost their lives. personal story site, i had friends who literally died in their beds. the water rose, they drowned in their homes. people would wait on the rules of their homes until the coast guard, which you have to give some credit to, ran helicopter air-based rescues. that are those for whom trauma and shock was so bad that they couldn't withstand being on the roof stranded for two or three days waiting to be rescued. then, there was the aftereffects. that is that the trauma was so that diabetics were separated from their medicine. those who needed dialysis did not have dialysis for several days. because of the effects of the store. this was one of the great human tragedies in modern american history. and the reason why it is a strategy, and i will tell a asked the was saturday after katrina to go to a meeting at the white house. i went to a meeting at the white house, and i will say this because it is absolutely true. thehat point in time, secretary of homeland security had just been named. he sa

but this here is my post-katrina collection and my pre-katrina collection went with the flood waters.ttle museum but it is great history. the collection, it's about the people, you know, moving your social way of life. and wondering if you are ever going to see some of these people you knew your whole life. you know, once you start surrounding yourself with family, then you start feeling that you are coming back. when you start seeing familiar faces and everything and hearing the sounds of new orleans, oh, i am home. >> keeping that hope and the spirit of new orleans alive. that's a special look at katrina after the storm. please tell us what you think at aljazeera.com/americatonight. talk to us on twitter or facebook and come back. we will have more of america tonight tomorrow. ♪ >> when i arrive in new orleans it's pouring rain, but the taxi driver is still confident. "you are gonna love this city!" but does the old new orleans still even exist ten years after hurricane katrina, its worst disaster in 100 years? how has everyday life changed? how have the people and the music evolved

the katrina foundation was started right after hurricane katrina.ne of the many books we have inside the katrina museum. 10,000 families were trapped in the convention center. you ask people, where were the people after katrina? they were in the superdome, because you put that in your mind. does anyone know about the katrina less? we have a museum in the historic trieme area. you can visit us online. you got your plug in. thank you very much. >> speaking as someone who moved here 10 years ago and immediately fell in love with the city, and moved here to run the second harvest food banks, i would like to ask you about the paradoxes you have all been describing. how can we have this incredible economic resurgence that we all love, these great, hopeful signs in our community, yet have poverty rates as high as we did, even having lost population? poverty rates just as high as before the storms? lolis: i think our measures of progress are based on how quickly rich people are getting richer. [laughter] [applause] we need new statistics. gwen: nice, brief

the framework was developed in response to hurricane katrina, the post-katrina emergency reform act called for national fema led the development that it was really a partnership of interagency partners including nongovernmental partners like the red cross. some of the key elements of the framework are that it promotes partnership, planning for disaster recovery in advance, and the development and establishment of an organizational structure and leadership in advance that focuses on disaster recovery, not just response. one example of this is at the federal level. we have developed the economic recovery support function. is led by the department of commerce, economic development administration, and key partners include sba, the department of treasury, the department of agriculture. fema is also a primary partner. all of these agencies work together to support communities and more portly, businesses, and grow businesses toer devices -- disasters get support they need together businesses up and running. some of the strategies the economic recovery support function undertakes -- economic asses

after katrina, it was do or die. the storm laid down a gauntlet, and with this huge tragedy came a huge responsibility to make it right. during katrina, many died. and for many more, the storm was a near-death experience. it changed us. and those who have endured such pain will tell you that when everything is slipping away, the natural instinct is to tighten your grip on that which used to be secure, struggling to hold on to just what was. but here's the thing. the people of new orleans took up the challenge that fate had laid at our feet, resolving not just to rebuild the city we once were, but to create the city that we always dreamed she could be. to do it, we had to fight through the agony that comes with disaster and change. there is no doubt that our progress has been anything but a straight line. and lord knows we have a very long way to go. after all, the storm did not create all of our problems. our issues are generations in the making, and are shared by every other part of america. after katrina, i've ofte

built in the shape of katrina's eye.t actually houses the remains of the unclaimed, unidentified victims. we are going to take you back in the next hour to some of the place that we reported on in 2005. you are going to moot survivors who say for them in so many ways katrina really is the storm that never stopped. >> how are you doing, sir? what happened? your house split in half? >> we got up on the roof. all the way to the roof. and water came and just opened up. divided. >> who was at your house with you? >> my wife. >> where is she now? >> can't find her body. she's gone. >> you can't find your wife? >> no. i tried. i hold her hand as tight as i could. she told me. you can't hold me. she said take care of the kids. and the grand kids. >> what is your wife's name in case well can put it out there. >> antonia jackson. >> what is your name? >> harvey jackson. >> where are you going? >> wa have nowhere to go. no where to go. i'm lost. that's all i had. that's all i had. >> reporter: like so many others harvey jackson did

was extremely robust and was decimated by katrina, struggling to get back to pre-katrina levels.t the same time, there is an extraordinary amount of engagement and grassroots organizing. in new york, looking at what occupy sandy has been doing, a lot of the groups working together to keep the story of post-sandy rebuilding even on the radar, because for many it is a different story, not sort of falling off that unified narrative radar. >> what has occupy sandy been doing? >> they are working with a lot of the folks still trying to get back on their feet. especially some residents, inbred, for example, who -- residence, in red hook, for example, who are thinking about resilience from a grassroots organizing level. >> i would like to ask the crowd, how many people here are new yorkers or new jersey residents, reformer -- or former new yorkers or new jersey residents? a surprising amount. some of the story has been more interplay between the community and new orleans. more people moving back-and-forth, settling, resettling, returning to new orleans if they are from here, maybe they

during katrina i was a helicopter rescue pilot flying the 860.ake from two to three minutes, typically, once we start getting a pattern in place. once to get five or six people in the aircraft it may take 15, 20 minutes. the folks that i rescued appeared very grateful that we were there to help them out. i could see in their eyes their distress. and there was oftentimes where we would pick up part of a family or portion of a family. we had the moral obligation once we dropped off half the family to come back and get the second half and try to reunite them at the dropoff location. >>> these people have been trapped inside their homes or on this bridge for two days. i want to show you what we found when we went to the edge of the projects. at the beginning of the water that's contaminated with sewer and human remains. >> we need help. we really need help. the mayor and governor need to do something about this. we're drowning. >> clear to me they were der licked in duty. >> not only behaved badly during katrina but behaved badly after it and he's pa

the first sunday after katrina, sunday, september 4-inch. five or six days after landfall in new orleans. a beautiful morning, that morning, and so everyone went out. and then the chronology, ten years later, still active. if you want me to -- >> if katrina is a week, why are buildings still being flooded? you said people were -- wasn't the decision to go, no go, week earlier. >> these families had stayed in new orleans, yes, and were just trying to survive, and some of them couldn't get back to their homes. >> thank you. >> you're welcome. >> hi, ronnie. >> hi, katherine. >> i think the u.s. attorney was at -- seemed to be a good guy from everything i read and know about him. could you talk about vacating the verdict? wasn't it his office? >> what happened, just to give a real quick overview, is that there had been a couple of prosecutors, one who was not involved in this case, who happened to -- local stories about police wrongdoing, a couple of prosecutors would weigh in with anonymous comments, and a lawyer in an unrelated case found out

his latest book is, "katrina: after the storm."and joining us from los angeles, wendell pierce, new orleans native, acclaimed actor, tony award-winning producer, and community activist. he may be best known for his "oles in "the wire" and "treme about new orleans and the musicians and the storm. his new book is " "the wind in the reeds: a storm, a play, and the city that would not be broken." the story and part tells the story of his great-grandfather who came to new orleans as a slave in the 1850's. we welcome you all to democracy now! we would like to start by asking each of you your thoughts on this 10 year anniversary of new orleans. wendell pierce, why don't we begin with you? new orleans native. where is new orleans today? where does it need to be? >> i will start in the words that dickens gave us centuries ago, "it is the best of times, it was the worst of times, it is a tale of two cities." new orleans 10 years after katrina is definitely coming back. it is definitely thriving. it is definitely bringing in new generation of

college life after katrina.he joins us from new orleans tonight, and we appreciate you joining us, yasmin, if you don't mind me calling you by your first name? >> no, sister. i appreciate you guys having me. >> you were in school in new orleans when katrina struck. not only did you complete school. you went on to law school. can you tell us what it was like to have to persevere in the aftermath of this storm? >> there were a lot of mixed emotions after hurricane katrina for me personally, and just knowing that i had an education, i had a future was one of the things that kept me moving forward. so, it's been kind of reflective to look back 10 years later and realize i wish i could talk to myself 10 years ago and say, you know, things are going to be okay, and that you guys are going to persevere. it's exciting to be a part of being back in new orleans today. i have been up and down all day thinking about being home and talking to you guys today. so, it's just been interesting. 10 years later. >> what were some o

after katrina, jenny left new orleans. was forced to leave. she started a website called warren easton in exile. students.eunited jenny returned, the first-place she went was not her house. it was the school. ratherputs it, i would see my own house burned down than the school. jenny would give anything for warren easton and today we give teachers like her our sincere thanks. [applause] amazing what happened in the city after the storm wiped out the school system. decided to do something about the devastation and the failure. i have met a lot of them when i was president and subsequent to my presidency. one person took a leadership role in new schools for new orleans. he worked with others to launch dozens of schools and turn ideas into reality. as a theoretical exercise, it is important to look at new orleans and realize it is an exercise of implementing a plan that works. he was so encouraged by what he saw here, he is talking up the reforms to other cities. the storm that nearly destroyed new orleans. new orleans is the beacon for school ref

congress actually recognized this in the post-katrina reform act. if we need help, why do we have to wait for them to ask for help before we start moving? the thing we lose when we move in disasters and that we never get back is time. the decision is made that you're going to commit to resources and you have to commit to those quickly. you might not have assessments, you might not have formal requests, but if you wait until it gets bad, you will lose time. and you can never get time back. we see hurricanes coming. so what we have learned and what we have done in this administration is that we will not wait for the storms to get close or to make landfall. we start to plan for how bad it could be, we start assembling resources, and then we try to get them there in time. the government might not ultimately need them -- governor might not ultimately need them. you have to be prepared for what you need to do and then move quickly. you cannot wait for requests. the levees broke. at that point, you need a search and rescue. if that is when requests are com