manuel bojorquez talks to orchard owners counting up their losses. and new meaning to the phrase "a dog's life." michelle miller takes us inside a new luxury pet hotel. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news." >> reid: good evening. i'm chip reid. of the 38 days remaining until election day, the most important of all may be this coming wednesday when president obama and mitt romney meet in denver for the first of three debates. the stakes are sky high, especially for mr. romney. running mate paul ryan made the case for a mitt romney presidency today in the toss-up state of new hampshire. >> we have got to stop spending money we don't have. >> reporter: vice president joe biden campaigned in battled ground florida, where he argued that the obama administration inherited trillion-dollar deficits from the bush administration. >> they put two wars on a credit card, not paying a penny, not paying a penny. >> reid: meanwhile be president obama and mitt romney were hunkered down today cramming for next week's debate showdown. both sides a

manuel bojorquez is there. bill whitaker is in california where new wildfires are burning out of control. and on this labor day, sharyl ontkisson meets some people atying to survive as the jobs vanish. >> yeah, i'm going to try to work. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> axelrod: good evening, scott's off tonight, i'm jim axelrod. it's a question a president is asked every time he runs for reelection: are you better off now than you were four years ago, a question president obama's team should have seen coming but didn't. today as democrats gathered in charlotte for their convention, sh the campaign faces the distraction of trying to set the record straight. nancy cordes is traveling with the president tonight as he surveys the damage from hurricane isaac. good evening, nancy. >> reporter: jim, this is a quick trip for the president, less than three hours. he is touring a damaged neighborhood, meeting with state officials, officials, like governor bobby jindall then

that's where manuel bojorquez is. >> reporter: well, chip, officials in st. tammany parish has ordered a mandatory evacuation for residents living near a canal. they fear a lock could breach, and they're actually picking up uvacueees on the highway there. in other parts of the state, people are starting to come home. in parts of plaquimines parish, the only way to get around is by boat. it's how lonnie and angela serpas got to see what's left of their home today. >> i just want my family to be safe and to have somewhere to go, which nowhere. we're homeless. >> reporter: 50 miles west, neighborhoods in st. john the baptist parish remain submerged. residents like jennifer brown are surveying what's left. >> everything i had i lost, everything. >> reporter: there were long lines throughout the day at distribution centers across southeast louisiana where national guard troops handed out supplies. >> do you need any ice? >> reporter: for many, it's the fourth straight day without power. shawn richardson's home took on a foot of water. >> we need as much help as we

manuel bojorquez has more. >> reporter: six days after making landfall, isaac is the uninvited guest who just won't leave. in plaquemines parish, the flood devastated lives and livestock. 62-year-old carolyn sills and her daughter have to take a canoe to see what they could salvage. >> this is our land, you know. you want to be home, but you can't. >> reporter: while the reinforced, $14 billion levee system kept new orleans dry, the complaint here is it pushed more water into the smaller, poorer towns. >> we're getting ready to get washed away here. >> reporter: isaac walloped plaquemines parish. this video captured the torrent unleashed by the storm. ten feet of water submerged entire neighborhoods. in st. johns parish, 30 miles west of new orleans, calvin and constance woods saw their home had taken in five feet of water. >> this total ironing board is wet. >> reporter: it might not look like much damage, but the floors are soaked. even the doors are swollen shut. the woods lost their previous home to katrina. there is a reason they waited until today to see the damage. the woods s

he'll assess the damage from hurricane isaac and recovery efforts as manuel bojorquez reports, five days later, floodwaters remain high, thousands of people in shelters and power out for almost a quarter million people. >> oh, man, we're getting ready to get washed away here. >> this video shows isaac's wrath as a category 1 hurricane. water drowning neighborhoods in plaquemine parish. >> people don't realize how fast water rises and how fast it can turn into rapids. i was terrified for the people in this area. >> he's a flood manager for plaque pin parish. he was behind the camera and spent the weekend assessing the damage. >> a lot of homes totally lost. a lot of people's lives totally lost over here. >> more than 6 feet of water remain in parts of plaquemine parrish. new orleans levee system kept the city dry but 12 parishes experienced flooding, two of them severe. >> we faced hurricane katrina and even hurricane isaac, it was the lord who stood by our side. >> at greater liberty baptist church in new orleans ninth ward, this pastor led his congregation through a sunday service witho

. >> axelrod: manuel bojorquez in louisiana, thank you. in the west, a fire is eating up part of the angeles national forest in california. it's burned through six square miles so far. bill whitaker shows us why this fire is so hard to fight. >> reporter: the fire keeps extending its grip, long fingers of flames stretched up mountain sides, blazing paths deep into the angeles national forest. the pushback by firefighters was just as aggressive. >> we haven't got a lot of rain this last winter and everything's really dry out here. >> reporter: 500 firefighters are battling the blaze, the heat and the steep terrain, trying to contain the fire and you have? it out. they're encircling it on the ground and hitting it hard from the air. this big d.c.-10 dropped 10,000 gallons of retardant each pass. >> access is our biggest challenge right now. >> the steep, rugged terrain we have out here is hard for our firefighters to get into. you have a slow bend of anywhere to 40 to 90 degrees in angle. folks standing on the side of the hill, it's here is

manuel bojorquez is in la place, 30 miles west of new orleans. manuel, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning. the water has receded in la place. stacks of ruined furniture line the streets as people begin to clean up. in hard-hit plaquemine parish some residents will have a first chance to see their homes today after enduring some of the worst flooding in the state. new video shows isaac's wrath as a category 1 hurricane when it hit plaquemine parish. >> that water is coming on top of us. >> this torrent left entire communities underwater, while new orleans was protected by a $14.6 billion levee system, the 12 surrounding parishes experienced flooding. 3,000 evacuees remained in state-run shelters. in st. john's parish, one of the hardest hit, the water has receded. labor day is the start of what is sure to be antibiotic long cleanup. >> isaac took everything. my home, my car. everything is gone >> at the home of this woman, family members are helping. including 9-year-old enrique who struggled to put into words how he's feeling. >> terri

manuel bojorquez is in laplace, louisiana, west of new orleans. manuel, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. early damage estimates here top $1 billion. that figure is expected to rise, and it's easy to see why when you take, for example, a one-story house like this one. it took on ten feet of water. that ruined everything -- their dining room set, their living room furniture, their children's toys. president obama got a firsthand look at the damage in st. johns parish monday, nearly a week after hurricane isaac blew through louisiana. >> we're here to help. >> reporter: he tried to reassure local residents, offering federal aid and promising to get to the bottom of why the area, so rarely flooded, got hit hard this time. >> at the federal level, we are getting on the case very quickly about figuring out what exactly happened here, what can we do to make sure that it doesn't happen again. >> reporter: there has been some speculation that a new, $14 billion levee system, which helped keep new orleans mostly dry, sent more water gushing into outl

>> manuel bojorquez in louisiana. >>> mitt romney will visit the swing states of ohio and florida today. he was in louisiana on friday to see damage from hurricane isaac and president obama will visit the area on monday. but first he begins his march to the democratic national convention today. nancy cordes is in des moines, iowa and is traveling with the president. nancy, good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, rebecca. the president will be in battleground states, three of them today. governor romney will be in two. the president is starting in des moines, iowa, looking to build momentum this coming week while governor romney is looking to capitalize on the attention he got for his speech. governor romney took a brief detour to check the damage from hurricane -- bobby jindal was his guide. >> it's going to draw some attention to what's going on here. >> a few hours before romney touched down in the gulf, the white house announced the president will also visit the hurricane zone on monday. instead of campaigning in cleveland as planned. yesterday president obama paid a visit to