one day, he climbed... >> mitch landrieu: put me out to play? he truth-- you put me in a harness. ( laughter ) >> verna landrieu: well... well... >> mitch landrieu: you tied me to the porch, and put me in a harness out there. >> verna landrieu: well, i tied you down there in the harness, because you... he kept running into the street. but he was just one... you know, he was just constantly moving and-- and friendly. and so, i mean, he's got his hands full, but he loves it. >> pitts: he's always been that way? >> verna landrieu: always, since the day he's born, absolutely. >> pitts: after katrina, the landrieu home, like so many others, stood in nearly seven feet of floodwaters. >> mitch landrieu: the damage that was caused down here was not caused by a natural disaster; it was caused because the levees broke. and the levees were owned, engineered, and operated by the federal government. >> pitts: but this year, new orleans will have added protection when hurricane season starts. the u.s. army corps of engineers is finishing 120 miles of walls and

though mayor mitch landrieu said there won't be water in new orleans, he's been kind enough to join us from his beloved city of new orleans tonight. mr. mayor, we should point out nobody wants a drop of water in that city, and we wish we could wish you sunny skies and no potholes for the next 100 years, buwhat makes you so sure? >> we have been working with the corps of engineers. the levees that protect the mississippi are some of the strongest levees we have. the corps has been out every day almost every second of the day monitoring the levees. the morganza spillway was an important component for us. it's going to relieve a tremendous amount of pressure in the city of new orleans. based on what the corps has told us, we believe the city of new orleans is going to be safe. this is a very tragic situation, really for everybody in america and of course the people who live along the atchafalaya basin and in morgan city, and our hearts go out to them, but we have every reason to believe based upon the information the corpses has given us and the inspections that have been done, that new o

. >>> joining us this morning is new orleans mayor mitch landrieu.e you with us. >> good morning, erica. >> good morning, again. governor jindal saying you're going to be fighting the crest for weeks. hooks like new orleans may have dodged a bullet here. the neighbors surrounding you are taking the bruntd of of it. i know you reached out to the people of new orleans to help the people of the rural areas, right? >> new orleans is safe and dry, the system is working as it was designed. but unfortunately, the folks in the spillway will take a hit. it's important for the people of new orleans who understand this as well as anybody in the world to reach out and to make sure that our friends in the spillway have what they need to get back up after the flood waters come in and go out again. >> do you feel confident, though, that where you are in new orleans and the folks of that city have essentially dodged a bullet at this point? >> we believe so. the levees, we believe, are going to hold. the levees are strong. the system is working exactly the way it's d