but another reporter asked me the question, and then ray nagin was on the today show yesterday in the an interview with matt lauer when this question came up again about race. and how did race and social economics effect what took place in katrina. and i am astounded that that issue still comes up when you think about the men and the women who worked for the federal emergency management agency and dhs and, for that matter, the entire federal government. now, i know if you take x number -- i don't know what the number in dhs is now, when i left it was 180,000 people. so i'm sure now it's at least 200,000, right? that's just the nature of government. but i'll tell you something, that population within dhs is no different than the general population, and i'm sure somewhere in that general population or in that specific population of dhs, there might be a bigot, there might be somebody who was thinking racially, i don't want to help those people, i don't want to do this, or they're poor and stupid. i can just imagine all the bigoted kinds of things that someone like that might be saying.

. >> when hurricane katrina grew into a category 5 with a bull's eye on the city, then mayor ray nagined a mandatory evacuation. >> this is very serious, and it's of the highest nature. >> those who could not get out, were told to go to the superdome. >> at noon today, the superdome will then be opened up as a refuge of last resort. >> this is the superdome, where tonight a crowd of 20,000 to 30,000 people expected. i was among the thousands inside the superdome as katrina hit. i was there when it tore a hole in the roof, and rain started pouring in. and it was there on a night i will never forget that i met albert bryant, sleeping on a cooler. how many people did you bring with you? >> three grandchildren, three children, a sister and a wife. >> even though the hurricane weakened to a category 3 when it hit new orleans, the levees failed and 80% of the city flooded. approximately 100,000 people were trapped in their flooded homes and attics, some of them for days. the scenes of human depravity at the convention center and superdome became for many people the emblem of the storm. >> he

thank you, ray nagin. >> thank you so much. >>> when we come back, we will go to maryland. [ grandmay do relationships matter? [ grandpa ] relationships are the basis of everything. [ grandma ] relationships are life... if you don't have that thing that fills your heart and your soul, you're missing that part of your life that just fulfills you. ♪ [ male announcer ] for us at humana, relationships matter too. the better we know you, the better we can help you choose the right medicare plan. that's why humana agents sit down with you to figure out your medicare options. and we have nurses you can call anytime, even at 3 a.m. because when you're on the right humana medicare plan and taking good care of yourself, then you can be there for the people who matter most. [ grandma ] my family is my joy, my hope... they are my heart. it's the reason we get out of bed in the morning... [ grandpa ] the reason we fall into bed at night sometimes. [ grandma ] yes. that's right. [ male announcer ] humana. it's pro-cool technology releases armies of snowmen masseuse, who cuddle up with your sorenes

. >> mayor ray nagin. good to see you. >> hopefully you'll get through this storm as we did katrina. >> thank you. >>> here with me, craig fugate. give us a sense where you are right now, where the preparations are along the east coast. >> right now, basically north carolina through maine. hurricane warnings out to new england. so, again, the evacuations are starting to move up the coast. we've had north carolina evacuating and they're expecting to storm to make impact and early in the morning hours. we're rapidly moving to prepare to be ready to respond after the storm makes landfall. >> the former hurricane center director, the legendary max mayfield, told the a.p., this quote read a million times today. unbelievable. max said, one of my greatest nightmares was having a major hurricane go up the whole northeast coast. so what are you going to do? how are you feeling about making sure that this which clearly is a massive storm and has the potential to wreak so much devastation is going to be minimized as

nobody wants to become another ray nagin or another george w. bush, who had appointed michael brown, a man with little background in handling emergencies and a recent job with an arabian horse association to lead fema." let's go to a resident of new orleans. mary, democratic caller. caller: hello? host: you are on the program. caller: i'm from new orleans. irene was overexposed. 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: warn