Original subtitles

( theme music playing )

Father, in the name of Jesus, We come at your hour, lord,

Saying thank you.

Thank you for being so kind With your mercy,

Your love And your grace.

Father, as we waded Through the water,

My mind thought About the song

That my old ancestors Used to sing,

What I was raised up on.

Father, as I walked Through that water,

All I could say was, "Lord, wading in the water.

Wading in the water.

God's going to Trouble the water."

Father, you troubled That water for our protection,

And I want To thank you, lord.

I want to thank you For bringing us through That water.

And as we wade, god,

You was there bringing Us over to destiny.

And, god, you're so Loving, kind and merciful,

And we thank you For it, master.

In Jesus's name we pray. Amen, amen and amen.

( score playing )

( score continues )

( score continues )

( waves lapping )

( playing jazz music )

The hot 8 brass band's A people's band of new Orleans right now.

Yo. Yo! Yo yo yo!

Probably a week After the hurricane, I called benny pete

On the phone Just to check on him

And, you know, he said,

"Lee, you know, Guys are everywhere.

We lost our instruments. We're not gigging.

We're trying To get jobs right now."

This is not what these guys Should be doing.

These guys should Be playing music, Not working in a bakery

Or a store. They should be Playing music, you know?

( singing )

Lee arnold: I talked to benny, And we decided to--

You know, we said we got To get the guys back together.

Man: You're listening To the sounds

Of the hot 8 brass band. We come all the way From New Orleans

- by way of Katrina. - ( crowd laughs )

There's a tradition In New Orleans-- we do Have a tip thing over here.

I don't want everybody To get all excited

And rush all at one time And put something In this case.

Please take your time And hurry up.

We're back tonight, And we're in the capital city

Of the state of Louisiana, Baton rouge.

It's become the temporary home For thousands of refugees

From the gulf coast.

We're told 12,000 people Are going to tennessee,

An estimated 20,000 are finding Shelter in arkansas,

And more than 150,000 Are now making their home

In the state of texas. And most of those Brand new texans,

As you know, Are in houston.

The mayor of houston Is now saying that the number

Of New Orleans people Arriving here

Could actually reach 200,000 By the time this is over.

When you think About the dispersal

Of black americans across,

What now, 49 states-- Nearly every state In the union--

Even when they were Received with open arms--

Think about houston-- Initially, it got kind of Thick up in there.

Reporter: In houston's Toughest neighborhood,

Police on patrol,

Trying to stem A rising tide of violence

Since 150,000 evacuees Arrived from New Orleans.

Police here say The vast majority

Of hurricane evacuees Are honest citizens.

But a small group of violent New Orleans criminals

Is now fighting for a share Of houston's streets.

Evacuees are suspects In at least 15 murders here

Since september 1st.

18 murder victims Had also

Relocated From Louisiana.

What amazes me is that People said-- and even Among black people--

"Well, these New Orleans folk Coming down here, Oh, yeah.

Houston was a hotbed Of civic politeness

Before they arrived here. There was no crime problem."

I guess scarface And the geto boys

Were just making all Of that stuff up:

"Never seen a man cry Till I seen a man die."

Yeah, I guess that was A cartoon character.

The point is that

There was huge racial Tension introduced

As a result of this dispersal That very few people Speak about.

I don't think it would be Much different if it was,

You know, people from chicago Come down to New Orleans,

Or New Orleans evacuees In any other major city.

There's gonna be A conflict.

People are used To things a certain way.

So now they're out there, Struggling to survive.

I think it would be Tough for anybody.

When we look at citizens In this country,

Who are devastated By what happened in Katrina,

Thrown to the four corners Of this nation,

With no relationships,

With no family,

With no place to go, Just be dropped off,

And then told to forage For yourself

Is an overwhelming Experience.

And they got us displaced.

Dysfunctional families All over. Can't get In touch with them.

My grandmother And my uncle are Still missing.

We're still trying To find them. They're From New Orleans east.

These are my stepkids.

I've been raising them Since they was in pampers. ( cries )

I'm looking For my son earnel.

I don't know Where he at.

Mothers separated From their children...

Mommy!

Man: "Where's my mother? Where's my grandmother?"

There's no way That anybody can get Records on all that.

I don't know if you know What that's like,

To go somewhere, And you don't know Where your friends are.

You don't know Where your family is.

You've lost Telephone communication,

Because the cells Are down.

The towers are down. You can't call 'cause The numbers don't work.

And it was like that For months.

How do I feel about A million-plus people

Being just thrown out Of the place

They've lived Their whole lives?

It's indescribable.

I ain't got words for that.

( sighs )

I never thought I'd live in a place

Where that could happen.

And it--

It stuns me To this day.

We're just-- "Ship over here, Go over there."

And we trying to keep some Families strong here.

- we're depressed because we Didn't start this situation. - that's right.

We're stressed 'cause we Don't live in these kind Of conditions.

You walk around the baton rouge Convention center

Or the houston astrodome,

And you hear an almost Uniform outcry

Of "Where's the government? How could they do this to us?"

George bush doesn't care About black people.

I thought kanye west Was blisteringly brilliant,

Even as he stumbled Toward his self-expression.

He was nervous after all. He's going off-script.

George bush doesn't care About black people.

Kanye west's comment Was wonderful.

( chuckling ) I was just like...

You could see, If you really look at it,

He's like, "I'm going to say something.

I'm going to Say something."

And I'm sure He was trying

To think of something Eloquent and wonderful

And politically astute.

George bush doesn't care About black people.

When I went up to nbc, I hadn't planned to Make a statement.

I didn't know what I was going to do.

I read what they wanted me To read, and I felt like--

You know, I practiced, I read the teleprompter,

And I felt like it wasn't Heartfelt enough.

So I knew I was Gonna speak from my heart.

Don't put me in front Of the camera if you Don't want me

To say how I feel.

And he said, "George bush doesn't care About black people."

Now the amazing thing was To turn to mike myers,

Who was sitting there Like a deer caught In the headlights.

Mr. Mike myers, "Dr. Evil,"

Couldn't Even utter a word--

Inarticulate, Rendered mum

And numb.

After I said it,

Just everyone in the room Was polarized.

And it's kind of like I had to show myself

To the elevator,

And mike myers just Looked at me and said, "It is what it is."

And there was a bar

Right across the street From here

Where we went to go have Drinks right afterwards,

'cause it was one of those Ones, you know,

Where you do something, You're like, "Oh, shit.

This might be The last drink We ever have."

My reaction was, A: he's talking For a lot of us.

A lot of us felt that bush Didn't like black people.

And I was happy Because I'd been very Critical of a lot

Of the hip hop artists Who have said nothing Relevant--

In many ways, Have said a lot Of destructive things.

I thought it was A breath of fresh air

That at least somebody said Something constructive

And stood up For their people.

Well, when I was up there, I wasn't concerned About record sales.

I wasn't concerned About...

Sponsorships,

About losing Any sponsorships,

Which, I mean, we did.

But I was More concerned about

You know, if I was In these people's shoes.

Jay scully: I can't even remember What was what, hardly.

There was a hotel Right there.

Ben marble: People who follow hurricanes

Know that the primary amount Of damage from a hurricane

Is from the northeast quadrant, And the northeast quadrant

Of hurricane Katrina Primarily affected hancock

And harrison And jackson counties In mississippi.

There was a ton Of devastation along The mississippi gulf coast,

Which a lot of times seems To go unnoticed By the media.

Scully: This is 2nd street? Oh my god.

Marble: This is 2nd street.

Jay had been Helping me move

Stuff out of my Destroyed house,

And I had actually borrowed a rental van.

So we were shooting Some video, and we got To the train tracks,

Which are literally About 150 feet north Of my house,

And the mps stop us.

So they tell me, "No one can cross here," Quote-unquote.

Those were their exact words. "You have to turn around."

They told me I had to Go this alternate route, 15 minutes out of the way...

- four miles out of the way. - ...And then come back To my house.

So they wouldn't let us Go down to my house

'cause the vice-president's Going down there.

- did you see that, That convoy? - scully: yeah.

Dick cheney was Down the street, Talking to people.

So I was like, "Come on, Jay, let's go down there.

And jay was like, "Uh..."

This is literally, what, 150 feet from your house?

Yeah, I was thinking Of what I was going to say,

Because, you know, Everything that we had Personally been through,

And we'd been hearing Reports of what was Going on

In New Orleans And everything, And just how

Completely incompetent

The response was To this disaster.

- no weapons here. - marble: all right.

I remember what he had Said to senator leahy From vermont

On the floor Of the senate,

When he had told him To go fuck himself.

So I thought it would Be poetic justice If I quoted

The dick to the dick.

Go fuck yourself, Mr. Cheney!

After I said it The first time,

He kind of looked at me, And everybody was like,

"What? What was that? I can't believe I just Heard that."

So I was like, "I'd better say it again To make sure they heard it."

- marble: go fuck yourself. - are you getting a lot Of that, mr. Vice-president?

It's the first time I've heard it.

And then I saw the guy Who had wanded me down

And I waved at him And told him to have A nice day

- and walked back To my house. - ( laughs )

Basically, you told The vice-president to go Fuck himself, man,

In front of About 100 media.

He says it to people In congress,

And then he wants To come down here

To make a photo op For himself,

To try to make himself Look cool or whatever.

This is how we feel.

Look at this, House after house--

Nothing, decimation.

Where was fema

Three days After the storm,

When everybody was dying In New Orleans?

Reporter: It's taken him two weeks, But today the president

Finally ventured Into the center Of New Orleans

For his first close-up look At this abandoned,

Devastated city. People here won't forget

That initially He stayed on holiday

While New Orleans Was drowning.

But the floods have Already done the damage To New Orleans

And to the president.

George w. Bush: Good evening.

I'm speaking to you From the city of New Orleans,

Nearly empty,

Still partly underwater,

And waiting for life And hope to return.

Throughout the area t By the hurricane,

We will do what it takes.

We will stay as long As it takes,

To help citizens rebuild Their communities

And their lives.

And all who question The future of the crescent City need to know--

There is no way To imagine america Without New Orleans.

And this great city Will rise again.

Joseph bruno: When the president came Here in New Orleans,

I passed my office building, Where I practice law--

Lit up Like a christmas tree.

I'm like, "Oh, man, this is--

The power's back on. We're going to be back In business.

This is all right, man! I'm calling my brothers.

The power's back on In our building!"

So the next morning,

I go to the office Fully expecting to be able To turn on the light.

The lights are all off.

No power.

What happened? What happened?

What happened was They needed to create

A media event For the president.

They wanted to make The city look like it Was coming back together.

I make that point Because that's the game

That's been played With us.

Reporter: It is the day-to-day Struggles

That still consume those Living in ground zero

Of america's worst Natural disaster

And kept most from watching President bush's speech

From jackson square.

He did say Last night, he...

- took responsibility for it? - ...Took responsibility for it.

Two, three weeks Into the game

It's a little late to be Taking responsibility.

When you're in a ship at sea Ansomebody screams, "Man overboard!"

You got to move And go save the man overboard.

The bush administration was-- "Oh, a lot of people overboard.

Well, let's check With the lawyers What we should do

And who's going to Foot the bill, and what--

Will fema pay for this

Or will this come out Of the state of Louisiana's Budget?"

President bush Can kiss my ass.

United states government Can kiss my ass.

St. Bernard parish Can kiss my ass,

Even though there's Not much left.

But there's enough To kiss.

The whole way The president And the congress

And the world is treating us Is so frightening

Because it truly Could kill the city.

And I guess, If you could kill This city,

You could kill any city.

And they're not doing nothing For the Katrina victims,

Not the blacks anyway.

I've been here in new york-- Will be two months On the 16th,

And I'm still In a hotel.

Fema's not doing Anything for us,

And the red cross Have pulled out.

Tens of thousands Of hurricane evacuees Will be forced

To move once again Now that fema says it will No longer foot the bill

For their hotel rooms After this month.

Many of them say they Cannot pay for the rooms On their own.

Fema, in the wee wee hours Of the night,

Put 900 people Out of the hotel.

I don't know if two weeks, I'm going to be homeless

- or what I'm gonna do. - ( chanting ) where is The money?

Daina saulny: It's just horrible. It's horrible.

The aftermath, to me, Is worse

Than the actual Levees breaking

Because at least, You know,

You've survived With your life.

But getting back On track,

It's almost like You're stuck.

Thanksgiving was A gut-wrenching,

Heart-wrenching situation. They-- they--

Most of them have had Thanksgiving dinner

With their families For many many many Many years.

They have never Been away from home.

And it just broke my heart To listen to them

Talking about How tough it is.

Everybody crying,

Everybody saying, "I want To go home, but I have No home to go to."

They wanted to really be In New Orleans.

They wanted Their family members.

Phyllis montana leblanc: It's christmas holidays now, The day after thanksgiving,

Black Friday, As they call it.

It's black for me, Because that's all I see right now.

It's black, 'cause everybody's Christmas shopping but us,

Everybody's having Family dinners but us.

I couldn't even Eat yesterday because My mom's in texas,

My sister's in new york. My family's completely Completely gone.

I have my husband. I'm glad for that. But it's not the same,

And I'm not leaving New Orleans, Louisiana,

Because I was born here In 1963 on december 24th,

And this is Where the fuck I'm going to die at,

Whether you try to drown me, Or I die naturally.

I'm going to stay here Until the end.

People of New Orleans Stay here.

Culturally, we stay here. We don't venture further Than the city.

It's always hard To get people to leave.

I want to go back home, Because that's where I was born,

And I wanted to stay there All my life.

And I still want To visit other places,

But that's my main place-- New Orleans.

People from New Orleans-- We're so sick, we don't Even know what to do.

We don't even know Where to go.

We're so used to New Orleans. We were born and raised here.

Where are we gonna go?

You know? I mean, We're like, you know--

They had the nerve To call us refugees.

Tens of thousands Of refugees...

- refugees... - an untold number Of refugees...

- the refugees... - refugees...

- refugees... - the astrodome is Refugee-ready.

Terence blanchard: It's a very strange thing

To see people that look Like people you know,

Or see people that look Like people in your family

On television,

And they're being talked About as if they're refugees

Or homeless people,

And that was hard to take.

When I heard they called Us refugees, I couldn't do Nothing but drop my head.

Because I say, "I'm a united States citizen of america."

Calling me a refugee?

What kind of shit Is that, man-- "Refugees"?

They were referring To people leaving New Orleans--

They were refugees.

Damn, when the storm came in, It blew away our Citizenship too?

What, we forgot-- we weren't American citizens anymore? What kind of shit is that?

In the media, and people On the street--

Refugees.

I thought that was folks That didn't have A country, man,

That didn't have anywhere. You know, that's--

We are calling On the media

To stop calling them Refugees.

These are american Citizens

That in most cases

Were very viable Taxpayers.

And the inference,

The connotation Of refugees

Is like they are Some others

From somewhere lost, Needing charity.

I think the most Shocking display

Of insensitivity That I saw

Was when barbara bush, The former first lady,

The president's mama, Let's put it straight up,

Is touring The houston astrodome

With her husband, Former president bush

And former President clinton.

And in the height Of insensitivity,

If not just Outright bias,

She says, "Well, These people are living Better than they ever did.

Some of them-- It ended up good for them.

They ended up making out All right."

( barbara bush speaking )

I mean, And clinton says nothing, Bush says nothing.

We have had black Leaders denounced

By the u.S. Senate For less.

This woman acted Like this was

Some kind of Social upward mobility.

My phone number is 504-919-8699.

Tell her, call me And say that shit.

Who's better off And why? How?

As you say, I were poor.

Everything I got,

I got it honest.

You are rich.

How did you get there?

504-- and I ain't mike jones. I'm phyllis montana leblanc.

Call me. 504-919-8699.

New Orleans area code. My phone works now.

She's the present Mama of america.

And that's What she thinks

Of the citizens Of New Orleans.

So you wonder why he was Slow to responding?

Well, if he talks To his mother,

He was Doing us a favor.

This is such a rich country.C

It always has the money To do what it thinks Is very important.

If we want to put a man On the moon, if we want To go to mars,

We find the money.

We want to fight a war In iraq,

Which costs billions Of dollars every month,

We do it.

It's really a question Of priorities

And what we think Is important.

Martin luther king jr. Said, "Don't flip a coin to me As a beggar

And expect that to do. That's generosity. That's charity."

King said, "When you're On the jericho road,

Don't just help the brother On the jericho road.

That's good, But that's charity." He said, "Here's justice:

Ask why it is On the jericho road

The guy still keeps Getting mugged--

Not only him, But other people."

He said, "Pretty soon, You've got to transform The jericho road."

That's what we've got To do in america.

So this Dispersal of black people Only highlights the degree

To which we Failed to transform The jericho road.

Oh, my-- Oh, this is beautiful.

Reporter: kathy phipps signed A lease on a house that means A lease on a new life.

Bless your soul.

She's moving into a community That's embracing her

With open arms.

When we first met kathy, She was a hurricane evacuee,

Surprised to find herself In utah.

Utah?

She learned her kids made it To a shelter in texas.

Mama's right here. I'm safe and I'm alive.

I'm not dead. ( sobbing )

I'm coming to get you.

- ( girl whimpers ) - reporter: and kathy Was reunited

With her eight-year-old Daughter

And her 11-year-old son.

- kathy had made A huge decision-- - we got 'em.

--she'd take her kids with her To the state that Embraced her.

The mountains of utah Are a long way

From the bayous Of Louisiana.

Looks like I done went Through this hurricane And came to heaven.

Reporter: heaven is A four-bedroom house On a pristine cul-de-sac

In the aptly-named community Pleasant grove.

Oh, this is a new Beginning for me.

And this is what I've Really been dreaming of

For my kids.

I think people have made A lot of money

From keeping an underclass In New Orleans.

And now those people Who were in that underclass

Are now in atlanta And houston and dallas,

And starting to say, "I got Better opportunities here,

And the schools are A lot better here."

My sister katherine Is relocated

To houston, texas.

It's katherine, my mother

And my nephew nicholas.

Nicholas is nine years old. He's autistic, non-verbal,

So they can't stay here,

Because there's no hospitals In the local New Orleans East area.

He's absolutely doing Wonderful out there.

With the schooling, He's getting close To starting

To actually say words now, Like "Mama" or whatever.

But when I talk To her every day--

'cause I talk to her And my mom every single day,

Seven days a week, At least five to 10 times A day--

Um, you can hear they want To come back,

But there's nothing

To help them To survive here.

So my family is in texas.

I'm not sure where New Orleans Is gonna go from here.

You know, it was bad. We're starting at Negative 12,

And I don't know how we're Gonna get to three.

I really don't know What's gonna happen.

I honestly think that, I'm hoping,

That people who had The mind to work

And were trying to just Give themselves a better Opportunity

And a better situation In life,

I hope that They don't come back.

My uncle james Is still in utah.

He said they're giving him Everything--

Free rent, an apartment, A new tv.

My roots are tied firmly Into this place.

My parents and grandparents Are buried here.

So this is really my home.

But it's hard to stay In a place that you feel

That don't really want you To be here.

I don't even want to be under Their jurisdiction.

I don't want The leadership

Of no one in New Orleans Or Louisiana, nothing.

I don't think I'll ever come back.

There's nothing here For me.

They don't care about us here,

So I got to do the next Best thing

For me and my family, Which is move on.

If they wanted us In New Orleans,

They wouldn't have tried To drown us and kill us.

So I'm not going back So they can finish it off.

Karen carter: Post-Katrina, I think we're doing...

A horrible job with respect To getting people home.

It's very attractive for them To stay in those places

Like houston and atlanta And memphis.

But there comes a time Where folks are like,

"Wait a minute, We were just doing this

Out of the goodness Of our hearts,

As americans who care About americans.

When are you gonna Take care of your people?

And what are you doing, Louisiana, New Orleans,

To bring Your people home?"

Ray Nagin: People have been dispersed To 44 different states

Around the united states

With one-way tickets.

And there's no clear Discussion and debate,

Other than myself having With washington,

About how We get folk back.

The question I've asked Fema over and over again,

My husband has asked fema Over and over again--

"Why don't you give them A ticket back home?"

It could be a voucher. They can't cash it For anything else,

But at least give them The option of coming back.

Pre-Katrina, The murder rate

Was approaching 200,

With african-american males Killing each other Over this city

Day in and day out.

Four or five people getting Killed sometimes a night In the same house.

The school system was one Of the worst in the nation.

Our poverty rate Was double that

Of every major city In the country.

The wages For the common man

Was below The national average.

The wages for professionals Was even below national Average.

New Orleans is Different only

In that 67% to 70% Of people there

Are african-americans,

And that a very Large proportion Of african-americans

Are living in a situation Which violates,

In my terms,

Really violates Human rights

In a wealthy country Like the united states.

A lot of people are Speculating about the crime

Returning In New Orleans,

And I don't think that We have more crime--

And people are pointing Towards the proportion Of the population--

But what we're seeing is It's about the same As it was.

I think some people Had that brief two-three Weeks when it was calm,

And they figured the trash Is out of the city,

You know, the storm came And swept the trash out Of the city.

But what they fail To realize, I'm trying To figure out,

Why they ever imagined This new New Orleans.

Reporter: Early Saturday, Five teens were murdered

In a storm of automatic Weapons fire

On a city street, Just blocks from the central Business district.

Among the dead-- Mona lisa hunter's two sons.

I don't care what they say-- Drugs, retaliation.

- they didn't deserve this. - man: that's right.

- we've had enough. - reporter: so today An angry mayor of New Orleans

Asked for and got Several hundred national Guard soldiers,

And additional State police officers

To try and stem the rising Tide of violence.

- this is our line In the sand. - that's right.

We are saying we're not Going any further.

Reporter: In a city still pleading For residents

To come home, The sell gets tougher,

When crime seems

To be returning faster Than people.

The african-american crime On african-americans,

Particularly Young black men,

Is a direct result

Of the educational system, In my opinion.

If you don't give young Brothers the opportunity

To better themselves Individually

And then also attend To their families,

Then it's going to continue To be a vicious cycle.

Nagin: This educational system Was just killing the city.

Young brothers Were dropping out

At the ages Of 14, 15, and 16.

At a very early age,

They were just Checking out,

And then they would get into, You know, the activity

That we all wish They never would.

Breaking news: The national guard Is called into New Orleans.

No, not because Of Katrina,

Not because Of national disaster,

Because of The crime rate.

It's hard for me To imagine,

After everyone Surviving Katrina,

Now the city is being Brought down by criminals?

And it's so bad, You have to call in The national guard,

For pete's sake?

"Whether grime or crime, I'm going to get mine," As tupac said.

In the city Of New Orleans, no.

When you have a 60% Dropout rate, 55% dropout Rate in the city,

In the public school System,

90 of 116 schools have Been deemed failures,

I mean, What options do you have?

We were in a system Of decline

Because the state revenue Was so low,

We were not able to support Our schools sufficiently

To ensure that every child Got a quality education.

We didn't support Our teachers;

Our schools weren't Air-conditioned;

Our bathrooms Were unsanitary.

Brian thevenot: It was dysfunctional In every single way

That you could imagine it Being dysfunctional.

They hadn't been able To produce

An accurate Financial statement For more than five years.

They had fbi agents Actually stationed

At the school system Headquarters,

Which is quite The rarity.

But the superintendent Had decided that it was So out of control,

That he was just going To open the doors And let them in,

Let them have Anything they wanted.

We've lost children. We can't-- in orleans parish,

We've gone down to 1/6 Of the previous population,

So we can't fund Education here at a time

When it's so critical In the redevelopment Of the community--

Until we get children. And children don't come

Until they have a place To live and parents have A place to work,

And sometimes it's like The dog wagging its tail.

More african-americans got Dispersed than whites.

The issue gets to be: How you bring everybody Back home,

Give them an opportunity To get back but to be safe,

To really fix A neighborhood

So that it's safe And it's sustainable,

So that the schools work.

And this is not Going to be easy, and it's Gonna take a long time.

We have to get the black people Who lived here before--

We have to Get them back.

And we're not gonna Get 'em all back.

But we have to At least

Offer them a chance To get back,

And by that I mean Something to come back to.

The roots run deep here--

That there's music And food

That are unlike

Any other place In the world--

Very very special. You don't walk away From that.

Without black people New Orleans would be A bad version

Of even disneyland.

I mean, the history And culture of New Orleans

Comes out Of the suffering,

The creativity Of black people.

And to have a New Orleans Without black people

Would be To have nothing.

Harry cook: We had social And pleasure clubs

That dress out In streamers and nice suits,

Gator shoes, with fans And dobbs hats

And things Like that.

And it ain't Gonna be the same.

New Orleans is A cultural gem,

A unique place

Where you can say "Only in New Orleans,"

From the cuisine, The music,

The mardi gras indians, The people,

Just the way we talk To each other.

We have a patois that You don't see anywhere else.

It's a very strange place. There's great segregation And ignorance and prejudice,

But there's great integration, 'cause we're creoles.

And the kind of creole, Light-skinned blacks,

They're always trying To fit in somewhere.

They weren't trying To be white. A lot of times People don't know--

Creoles, They only like creoles.

This is a city with roots,

Families, deep,

Way deep.

First, it starts With the whole form Of slavery that we had.

You know how The french people are-- They enslave people,

But they marry them too.

Gralen banks: The mouth of the mississippi, Man, the curve.

The big easy, you know, Crescent city.

It's a hell of a thing To be known for--

As the number one place Where you can buy a nigger.

It was like the paris Of the south.

It was always the center Of vice and gambling and Different types of ignorance,

And that always draws a lot Of people not interested In being prejudiced.

'cause when you get far Enough down on the bottom, We're all here, brother.

Doug brinkley: Tourists come to New Orleans That go to the quaint places

Like lafitte's Blacksmith shop.

Well, lafitte was A slave pirate.

At one point, The french, they had let All the slaves go,

'cause they were starving, They was like, "Man, You all go

And figure out what you Gonna do, 'cause we're not Gonna make it here."

And the slaves, They all went out and stayed With the native americans.

- but they came back. - ( chanting )

Donald harrison: If we look at the tradition Of the mardi gras indians,

They play the bamboula beat. Bass rhythm is...

( singing )

( continues singing )

It's such A direct correlation

To your ancestry,

And culturally significant, Because--

You know, I could take you To the very spot

Where jazz was born-- Congo square.

People chanting: Mother, fathers, Brothers, sisters.

Grandfathers, grandmothers,

Mothers, fathers, Brothers, sisters...

Congo square was a plains,

A green area outside Of New Orleans.

And today It's armstrong park.

And it was the only place In north america

Where slaves Could play the drums

In the african tradition.

Banks: Masters, in their Infinite wisdom,

Or their own hypocrisy, However you want To look at it,

They decided to let enslaved Africans have Sundays off,

Because it went in line With no work

On the sabbath For anybody.

Pierce: They would dance The bamboula,

You know, the oom-bah-bah, Oom-bah-bah, oom-bah-bah.

Turned into Oom bah-bah, Oom-bah-uh, oom-bah...

( humming )

And I mean, It's right there.

Wynton marsalis: If you look at our culture,

Music becomes A part of everyday life. It's not a small thing.

( playing jazz music )

Marsalis: People eat when They play music.

We got songs we eat.

People get on The street, the music is Connected to the dance.

So there you have it.

You got a great church Tradition, sanctified church.

( singing gospel )

Then you got The french people. Man, they love music.

They got the french opera. You could be a slave,

And you could go To congo square,

And you could go To the opera.

Where else you going To do that in the rest Of the united states?

You couldn't do that In boston.

We place a great importance On culture.

And that's something That you see in how We celebrate life

And how we even deal With death.

( slow music playing )

Marsalis: The jazz funeral Is a ceremony.

You bring the body out To the grave, and you play Slow hymns and dirges,

Traditional dirges like "Nearer my god to thee"

And "Free as a bird."

And that's The mourning part.

You give into your grief And you know that you Won't see them again,

But you just were happy To know who they were,

And be a part Of their life.

Marsalis: And then they say Some words over the deceased,

Out at the burial site,

And then you start to play The uptempo, happy songs.

You play a parade From there.

( upbeat jazz music Playing )

Banks: And that's The celebratory part.

It's the whole Yin and the yang Of the beginning and the end.

Because, yeah, I'm sad you're gone,

But damn, it sure was nice To know you.

"Second line" is the dancers That follow the parade.

And the dance that they do Is called "Second line."

The thing about second line Is everybody has their Own style.

Some people just walk. Some people really get down.

Some people get on the ground. You can do what you want.

It's personal expression. There's a certain Freedom in it.

It's one Of our great ceremonies

That has a lot Of meanings.

And the christian tradition-- How it ties in with the African tradition

Is that the afterlife Is rich and full,

And the life on earth Is one of travail.

So this person is dead,

But they're going on To riches, and that's Why we celebrate.

It also-- it's given us The type of way

To not hush over death.

( jazz trumpet playing )

Driving around the city, Man, it was rough,

'cause this Was the first time I had been back.

And I talked to, You know,

A good friend of mine, Wade, and he was telling me,

He says, "Man, you got To prepare yourself."

He says, "You know, We can talk about it,

And you can see it On the news,

But cameras can't Really tell you

The level of devastation That you're going to see."

So I was trying To prepare myself,

But it still Was hard, man,

Because I'm looking At a place that I grew up.

I'm looking at homes That I used to frequent,

You know, hang out With my boys,

You know, And there's nothing here. It's like a ghost town.

When I came Back into the city, I saw complete devastation.

I didn't think I would Ever see anything like That in my life.

It looked like someone Had dropped a nuclear bomb On every part

Possible in the city.

Louella givens: It was as if I had walked Through a time warp,

And I was in europe Following a bombing

In world war ii.

Everything was gray.

There was no green, No flowers, no birds,

No dogs, no people, No children.

Tanya harris: When we first crossed The bridge and we saw

A lot of damage, We were taking pictures

And going, "Wow, oh my god."

And as we came over closer To the north side

Where the breach happened, We stopped taking pictures.

When I saw the lower nine, I saw my neighborhood,

It was like looking At a friend who had Been disfigured.

You know who you're Talking to. You just Don't recognize them.

We are destroyed.

I've seen beirut. I've seen calcutta.

I've seen Downtown jakarta.

I've seen aceh. They have nothing on us.

Wilhelmina blanchard: Look at this.

I'm telling you, Nothing but destruction, Everywhere you look.

- look at over here. - look at the car.

Mmm-mmm.

All of these houses Are empty.

- alice douglas: oh, sure. - mmm.

- how do you feel? - uptight,

Just to see all Of the devastation Get into the house.

Look at this, It's all boarded up here.

This is so strange.

Yesterday, Coming in New Orleans,

I just got so full, Because I knew I was Going to see my house

- for the first time. - terence: yeah.

And not knowing

What I'm going to see,

I'm just at a loss.

This arthritis is Doing me so bad.

Okay, leave that In there.

Take your time.

- take your time. - ( sobbing )

Come on, come on. Come on.

- but you're okay. - I'll be okay.

You're okay. This is all Stuff that can be rebuilt.

What is all of this?

( sobbing )

I'll get it.

- rence: wait wait wait. - wilhelmina: look look look,

This thing's way Over here.

- what is that? - that's the thing you Gave me-- was over here.

- what is that over there? - what is what?

- that. - that's a--

That looks like Your china closet.

The china closet don't Have any business Being over here.

- it's in the den. - I know.

Oh lord, the pictures I had in there.

So, is this picture Still up on the wall?

- there's nothing On the wall. - lord have mercy.

You can rebuild This stuff, though.

( sobbing ) Yeah, that's easier Said than done.

( quietly ) Hey, huh-uh, huh-uh.

- let's move. - ( wailing )

Oh, lord have mercy.

I knew it was Devastation,

But I didn't think It was this bad.

It's unbelievable.

I didn't know How bad it was.

Terence blanchard: Today, you know, when We went into the house,

That was really hard, Because, you know,

It's like I can't go home.

You know what I mean? It's-- it--

I'm sorry.

The house in which I grew up,

The only home I've Really ever known

Has now been gutted.

It's a shell Of what it was.

3511 cecil street

Still has A brick exterior,

But the interior,

Which contained Not just the furniture

And the clothing, But all of the pictures,

The family bible,

All of those things That really remind us

Of what our lives Have been about,

Reminds us Of where we came from--

All of that has been Washed away in the flood.

It pisses you off, 'cause it didn't Have to happen.

And, uh...

I look at-- One of the things that Made me angry last night

Is that you drive Around the neighborhood

And you see All of these homes,

Where people have tried To clean out their homes,

And all of the debris Is on the sidewalk.

So you can see People have

A desire to come home

And a desire To rebuild their lives,

And they can't do it.

They can't come home.

You know, they can't get Their lives back on track.

And you have to Ask yourself why.

I came back to nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

 No help, no home, Nothing.

I'm 59 years old.

My husband is 67 years old.

We've worked hard. We're well-educated.

He's got a master's From ucla,

Undergrad from berkeley.

I have a law degree, An m.B.A., and I had nothing.

I had nothing.

I don't know how To make you understand The despair,

The depression, The anxiety.

It's like somebody Violated your mama.

You don't know what It's gonna feel like,

'cause you might Always prize yourself For not having the type

Of dramatic emotion, Or "Hey, man, you know,

Death is a part of life," Or kind of spiritual overview,

Or whatever you want To call it.

But it rattled me In a way that I could not--

I guess it's kind of what People say when one of your Parents dies--

You think you know How you'll deal with it,

But when it happens To you,

It's not what you think It's gonna be.

My population right now, What I'm seeing

Is that the children

Are losing weight

Or gaining weight In huge proportions.

They are not sleeping At all.

They're acting out. All the children that Had adhd,

Attention deficit Hyperactivity disorder,

They're all being bumped up On all the medicines They're on,

Because this is A post-traumatic stress Disorder situation.

I've been on six different Medications.

Spike lee: name them.

Seroquil, geodon...

Let's see...

Zoloft.

That's the only ones I can remember right now,

But those are the ones I'm on right now.

Since the storm, I do not sleep

Without a sleeping aid--

Tylenol pm, benadryl,

If it got acetaminophen In it or whatever,

Or dypho-whatever-it-is That is like a mild sedative Or whatever,

I have to Take it every night.

I'd never been On anxiety pills

Or any prescriptions For bad nerves

Or anything before this.

I mean, I've had High stress level, But not like this.

Before I got On the medication,

When I first got up here, I got into an incident

Where I hemmed a guy up And picked him up Off the ground

About three feet With one hand.

The guy weighed About 220.

And that's When I decided

I really needed To get some help.

People lost everything.

And people are really, You know, still struggling With that.

And I think emotionally, You know,

It's something that's hard To deal with,

Especially people That might not have The resources

To be able to go To a mental health Professional,

Sit down and talk, Or are too stubborn to.

Again, we're talking about People who were too stubborn To leave

In the face Of a category five storm,

So imagine going to talk To a doctor about why you're A little more agitated,

Or why you're In bed all day, And why you're depressed.

We are seeing post-traumatic Stress disorders now.

I think we're going to See this

Permeate generation To generation.

Can you imagine being A child on a rooftop

And watching your mama Washed away and drowned?

Can you imagine being a mama And seeing that,

And people holding you back And not letting you jump in?

By definition, You're not gonna Forget that.

You're gonna play That over in your mind, Have intrusive thoughts.

There are things that are Going to remind you of that

10, 15 years from now, Because there's no closure.

And it does, It catches up with you.

And I find there's a lot Of us who live here who--

You know, We find ourselves weeping

Or we just find Ourselves

At inappropriate moments

Just kind of going Into these very dark holes

And very dark places Where the things we've Seen catch us.

And they catch us unawares, And it's hard to deal with.

So I'm sitting there thinking, "You know what, phyllis?

If you kill yourself, Then you won't have to deal With this shit anymore.

If you just Disappear from the face Of the fucking earth,

The pain stops, The tears stop,

And everything else That's going to bother you

For the rest of your life, Which is life's issues,

Is gonna stop."

And I'm thinking Different ways of how I could kill myself

Without it even looking Like it's suicide, like, Say accidental.

So that way nobody says, "Oh my god, she punked out,

And the system got To her

Or big brother Or whatever the hell They call him nowadays."

I had a lady from texas Call me, and says,

"I want you to know I want my brother listed As a hurricane victim.

He was evacuated out.

He has no medications, And he shot himself

In the head In our hotel room."

And you know what? She's right. That's A hurricane-related victim.

Dr. Minyard and I met And tried to come

To some agreement as To what a hurricane-related Death was,

Because, again, Nothing like this Has ever happened.

We certainly looked At some c.D.C. Criteria,

Center for disease control Criteria,

But there were no criteria For something like this.

In post-Katrina, There's a number of people That are dying

That's related to Katrina But did not actually die

Within the hurricane.

Five weeks ago, march 28, My father passed away,

63 years old.

Six days before that, His wife passed away,

Which was 20 years His junior. She was 43.

Two weeks before Katrina,

My dad was diagnosed With lung cancer.

This was a man Who started a business

Right here in New Orleans, Mackie roofing--

One of the largest roofing Companies in the city, In the state,

For the longest time; Employed 100 african-american Males in the community.

So to get sick during The middle of Katrina

Was actually Even more sickening.

We evacuated. It took us five weeks

To get him back Into the system.

Once we got him back Into the system, they didn't Know who his doctors were.

They didn't have any records, 'cause everything Had been flooded.

So it was six weeks Before he could start His treatment again.

His wife was Taking care of him.

Sometime in january, We noticed that she began To lose weight.

She had been diagnosed With cancer, like, Six years ago,

Breast cancer, And her cancer had come Back with a vengeance

And spread All over her body.

There's no doubt In our minds that the stress And strain

And the pain of Katrina Aided to their sickness

And the recurring Of her cancer.

A lot of people Are losing hope.

The number of obituaries In the paper supposedly now

Is running at a rate Of 30% higher pre-Katrina.

People are coming back, Looking at this despair And dying.

And that was the pain When I had to bury my dad.

Because everything That he built was destroyed

Because of the failure Of the united states Army corps of engineers,

This government-- Not the mayor, Not the governor,

But this government.

My name is kimberly polk.

I am serena polk's mother.

Serena was here In New Orleans

Across the lower Ninth ward

On tennessee street With her father,

His girlfriend And his two kids.

And she and her father And his family did not Evacuate.

She came to me In a dream.

I woke up sweating Out of my sleep.

She came to me in a dream, And she was saying,

"Mama, I'm Falling, I'm falling. Mama, I'm falling."

And all I could see was Water that she was Falling into.

I think it was, Like, april,

They called me And let me know--

First I'd Seen it on the news,

Where I'd seen A little girl

Between the ages Of six and 10 years old

That they found In the lower ninth ward

That had a backpack On her back.

And serena Was known to everyone, My whole family,

Everybody that knew her,

To have always A backpack on her back.

Reporter: The coroner is trying to Identify a child

Found buried in debris In the lower ninth ward.

This is the ninth body The fire department has Found this month.

This child could have come From anywhere.

I mean, she could have Floated from miles away.

This is My daughter serena

Who drowned

During hurricane Katrina.

She was Five years old,

And I never Got a chance

To say goodbye.

And I miss her

So much.

( congregation singing )

( singing continues )

Kimberly polk: I didn't want to have The service in New Orleans

Because I blame New Orleans For her death--

The way they went About doing things.

I think if it Would have been done A little bit different

I would feel different,

But it's just not-- I don't think

New Orleans is fit For me to live in.

( chanting ) Father, here I am Being down on my knees

Before thee And the holy throngs Of angels.

- woman: yes, lord. - man: preach, sir.

...Father, I bow down here Because I feel so righteous.

Father, I bow Because I feel so holy.

O a long time ago, My heavenly father.

( all singing )

( singing continues )

...Ashes to ashes, Dust to dust,

And torments previous,

To commend her soul

To our maker, father, And redeemer

In the confidence Of hope

For the coming again

Of our lord and savior Jesus christ,

The resurrection Of the body

From the grave

And a joyful life Deserved

- in Jesus's name. - congregation: In Jesus's name.

- amen. - amen.

( wailing )

( continues wailing )

( mournful jazz music Playing )

Dinerral "Dick" shavers: This is what's left.

You know, Your whole history just...

Somewhere under A pile of rubble.

It's really nothing.

It's like you got Things on your mind To remember where it was at,

But when you come Down here, there's no landmarks Or nothing to make you remember

Even where you're at. You might go up a street

That you've been going up All your life and get lost.

'cause you don't Know where you're at, You don't know nothing.

It's sad, man, I mean, The church you went to

All your life, The school you went to.

A lot of the old men Used to always hang out Right here on the corner,

Drinking their beer. I mean, this is a--

A-- a good neighborhood That's--

It's gone, man, I mean gone.

( man singing Jazzy hymn )

It's just unbelievable.

There's no way possible That you can even say

You checked these Houses to find people.

I mean, people coming home, Going to their houses,

And they're still Finding dead people In these houses.

Just the other day,

There were five people Found in the attic of a house.

Who knows? Somebody might Be in there right now, Laying in the rubble.

I mean, who is we to-- To know that?

But the military say They checked every house.

This house here Has iron bars on it.

But they have Numbers on the window, As if it'd been checked.

I mean, come on, You got to keep it real, man.

I mean, they didn't Go in none of these houses.

( crowd cheering )

Hey!

( upbeat jazz music playing )

Gralen b. Banks: You know, a lot of people Around the country

When they heard New Orleans was going To do mardi gras again,

They was like, "Well, Why you all doing mardi gras?

You all got to rebuild The city."

You all got stuff that's bad," This, that and the other.

But you got To understand, baby.

We need mardi gras, For our city.

This is our healing. This is how we do. It ain't For the rest of the world.

If you don't understand, That's all right.

We invite you To come down here, Have a good time,

Do like we do, You understand?

And we just want you To come and have some fun.

Today is my grandfather's Last day as grand marshal.

He's right up front, He's been the grand marshal,

Unopposed, For about 35 years.

I come from new york To come here every year,

To parade with him.

Louella givens: I am so happy that We had this celebration,

Because it Brought us all back.

I saw so many people Who were in california,

They're in houston, they're In atlanta, memphis,ashville.

It was the best thing That happened to us,

Because it let us know That New Orleans is still here,

And home is still here.

Woman: We are waiting for insurance,

And look what fema Did to my baby.

Is this a shame, or what?

Nine years old-- Six months,

Look at him... Old man. We're still waiting for fema.

If they don't come, We're not going to have Another mardi gras.

I know people questioned whether We should have it or not.

But for those people That came, saw it, felt it And touched it,

You found out something really Serious about this city, which Is the city's going to live.

It's got a heartbeat. It's got a soul to it

That's so vibrant That you can't kill it.

( bluesy pop music Playing )

Hey!

Hail, zulu!

- ( crowd cheering ) - hail, zulu!

Hail, zulu!

Donald harrison: After you leave the areas Where mardi gras is,

You look around and you leave Mardi gras in a different way.

I was actually Looking at the trash,

You know there's a huge Buildup of trash after a parade,

Which they Clean up immediately.

And I felt The weirdest feeling.

I was like, "Okay, When you leave this trash,

You're usually Going to a clean area."

But you leave That trash, and you go

To an area That looks the same.

Emil dumesnil: It turns out the corps Of engineer, for some reason,

Is in charge Of debris removal.

And it took the corps

Probably four months Before they even showed up

With their contractors here, To start moving debris out.

Calvin mackie: When you really look around, If you were to arrive today,

You would think That the hurricane might Have hit yesterday.

But as of february 1st, We had removed

Debris equivalent to 25 World trade center disasters,

And we were not At 70%, yet.

Trymaine lee: The city is still Struggling.

Outside the city limits, People are still unsure if They can ever come back.

We still haven't Seen that big rally.

We haven't seen The three-mile-long

Caravan of trash trucks Coming to clean up the city.

I find it insulting That the streets are Not even cleaned up.

I'm not expecting To come back and see

New Orleans as I knew it before, but...

I expected to see a little More progress than this.

Right now, we had several dogs

Confirm that there still is The scent of human remains

In those structures.

We've searched that house As extensively as we can,

Without bringing Danger to ourself,

And we didn't find anything.

And that's what They're doing right now.

We've got guys on lookout As the excavator

Peels the construction Debris away,

Looking For human remains.

Ruel douvillier: The first slash of the x Signifies

That a team Has entered the building.

Once the team exits The building,

They complete The x with another slash.

At the 12:00 position is The date that the building Was searched.

At the 3:00 position is The number of hazards found.

At the 6:00 position Is the number of victims found.

And in this case, The team found none.

At the 9:00 position is The team that did the search--

In this case, The florida task force one team, Which is a fema team.

You can see The markings on the houses, And the markings mean nothing.

People are coming back home And finding corpses

And mummified bodies In their houses.

So it seems like people Just walking down the street And looked at the house,

Said, "Oh, it doesn't seem Like anyone is in there."

It's so weird to go Through my neighborhood And see the markings:

No bodies, no bodies. Then all of the sudden When you see that number,

On the shell of a house, You know, two,

You're like, "Wow, man.

Right around the corner

Two people died In this home, you know."

And it's just So deafeningly quiet.

Paris ervin: My mother decided to stay In New Orleans,

And I left.

First time I came back was October 4th and 5th,

And it was a few days After they opened up the city.

I found out A few days earlier

From getting in contact With people in the search And rescue teams

That they had gone To the house,

And they wrote a zero,

For-- meaning no body Was found in there.

So I was thinking "Okay, At least she made it out.

She may be sick, but she's not-- She made it out."

When I went to the house, All three of the doors Were locked

So there was no way for them To go into the house

To search the house.

I had to bust Through the doors.

There were a few lines Where you can tell the water

Was at-- between Seven and eight feet.

I just searched As best I could,

But I didn't Find her in there.

After the floodwaters Let down, they were saying

That people were Finding their relatives And loved ones in their house,

And that their house Had not been searched.

So I called 911,

And within a few minutes

Some police officers Showed up,

And they searched the house, And they had, in fact,

Found my mother's body In the house.

I...

It was a...

The initial flood Certainly caused

A lot of deaths, But people were dying Long before that.

They were dying because The electricity was out.

There was no respirator.

They were in their homes,

Dependent on oxygen-- No more oxygen,

No way to get out, Essentially smothered to death.

People died of heat stroke,

Dehydration, A lack of medication.

People drowned.

People went up into attics And drowned there

As the water rose And they couldn't get out.

I can just tell you,

I've been up in those attics Recovering those people,

And you can tell that they took Their clothes off because they Were either delirious

Or that the heat was Getting so high.

They would look Into the area they came up And it was just water.

So you had this Toxic sludge there at The entrance into the attic,

And you had nowhere to go When the heat's getting Terrifically high--

110, 120°, Whatever it gets--

The people would try To go by the vents,

And you could see The people were trying to Have their faces by vents,

And ultimately Fell back and died.

She was in the kitchen

Under the refrigerator.

Cataldie: I think it's horrible For a family member

To go home and find a body. That's horrible.

Because it was either Missed in the search,

Or overlooked, Or the house wasn't searched,

Or the search criteria was So stringent that they Couldn't search it,

The bottom line is when you're Talking to that family member, None of that matters.

Justin hite: So many houses they really Haven't checked yet

To see what Exactly's in them.

This woman came Down the other day,

And they were just Gonna go out and check Her daughter's house--

I think the woman thought That her daughter had evacuated

And hadn't been able To get in touch with her.

But they went into the house, Started looking around and they Found her in there.

That was yesterday. In two Or three days is the six-month Anniversary of the storm,

If you can call it An anniversary.

When the police came out And found my mother,

They took a police report And said it'd take about Two weeks or so.

They said it wouldn't Take as long

Because they Knew who she was,

And that it wasn't just Somebody that they found.

And that I was The only other person Living there with her.

But it turned out to take Much longer than that.

"You found That body in that house, It must be my mom."

Well, unfortunately, That's not true.

That's not true For several reasons.

There was a lot of drift, And a lot of flood and people Did drift in and out.

Some people Ran to other houses.

Perhaps if you were In a one-story, you ran To a two-story house.

Houses were moved Everywhere which way.

I also had people that-- There were no street signs Left.

So people couldn't Really tell me exactly What house they came out of.

The only way they were Releasing bodies at that time

Was with fingerprints,

Dental x-rays Or dna samples.

Dna testing didn't Start until december.

I can tell you That in september

When this mission Was given to me,

The first thing we did Was have a meeting with Louisiana state police,

Because our crime lab Has the dna resource.

At that point in time, We knew we needed dna,

But we did not get funding And the ability to move forward On dna until december.

Lee: You asked for it In september?

We needed it in september, We were several months behind--

And right now, We're several months behind.

From november 11th, It took till january 10th

To get my mother released.

This is a picture Of me and my mother,

Mary johnell morant.

According to the medical log, She did drown.

In her own home.

( helicopter whirring )

Cynthia hedge-morrell: I tell people all the time.

Katrina didn't do in New Orleans, the corps of Engineers did in New Orleans.

If they had built those levees

Really to category three

All of the residents Of New Orleans would Still be here.

Joseph bruno: As a child I grew up At the lakefront,

And we watched The levees go up and up. They raised them every year.

And every time A hurricane would come, We'd go out to the levee,

And watch the waters lap up Against the top and it was fun

To see how close to the top The waves were going to get.

We never ever thought that there Would ever be a levee break.

Robert bea: We arrived here In late september,

A group of about 20 engineers,

In an attempt to understand What happened here.

The first major area That we visited

Was out on The 17th street canal.

It was obvious Something had happened That shouldn't have happened.

Since that time, We have been working to fill in

The pieces of the puzzle To understand

What about the hurricane And what about the levees

And the soils-- That had backgrounded What is, in fact,

The most tragic failure Of a civil-engineered system

In the history Of the united states.

This is the failed Sheet pile and I-wall

That failed during The hurricane itself.

And then, you can see Right here behind me, What's left standing

Is the existing sheet pile From the hurricane. So it's about 20'.

And you can imagine, This is 17' into the ground Below sea level.

The force of this water, Pushing against this levee,

Against this sheet pile, It forced this sheet pile over.

Anwhen the wall collapsed, It let the storm surge--

Lake pontchartrain-- Into the city itself.

It was very important To us that we knew

And we find out exactly Why did this happen.

This is one of Three failures we had In and around New Orleans.

The other two were On the orleans avenue canal And the London avenue canal.

Arthur Morrell: One of the breaks was Two blocks from my house:

The london avenue canal.

And we went there And they had some people there From the corps of engineers.

They were saying how the water Went under the levee.

They were only 10' deep.

They should have been 17' deep.

( clanking )

Setliff: The way we actually Build the floodwalls here

Along the outfall canals Is we have sheet pile

Driven 17' below sea level,

And then they are Actually integrated Into an earthen levee.

That didn't happen.

So the levees just Fell down like dominoes.

The only thing that Were holding these 13' x 25' slabs

Was a piece of plastic. I call them rubber bands.

And that was in the dirt--

In the levee part--

Which had been Washed away.

And you realize that That was the only security

To holding those Panels together.

I wouldn't build a fence For my dog like that.

We didn't know Why these things failed.

There's basically three ways: You can have water go over,

You can have water go under, Or you can have water go Through a flood wall.

There were so many breaches Throughout New Orleans.

And ultimately, We found out

There was 170 miles Worth of damages.

The hurricane protection System did not perform as We would have liked.

The army corps Of engineers

Is under heavy fire For a report it released today

6,000 pages long.

It says, in part, That the work was bad.

The work of humans And not an act of god

Was what led to this Awful destruction here.

We will begin here tonight With my colleague martin savage Of our New Orleans bureau,

Who is with us Here this evening. Martin, good evening.

Good evening, brian. This turnabout on the part Of the army corps of engineers,

This report is A huge about-face.

What the corps Is saying is that The flood protection system

For the city of New Orleans And southeast Louisiana

Was a system In name only.

This is the first time That the corps of engineers Has had to stand up

And say, "We had a catastrophic Failure of one of our projects."

Savage: The $19.7 million review

Pointed out details Of engineering

And design failures that Led to Katrina's storm surge

Overwhelming the city's Levees and floodwalls.

According to the report, The walls failed

When the water pushed The walls enough to create A crack between them

And levee soils, Allowing the water

To seep below the walls, And push them aside.

You know, somebody Needs to go to jail.

Somebody needs To go to jail.

Because those levees were never Really maintained the way They should have been,

And now it's too late.

Bruno: This is the greatest Engineering firm in the world.

You designed a wall

Which is supposed To hold back water

That you know will fall over If the water goes over the top.

Now as a lawyer, I'm sitting there thinking,

"Are we gonna have to sue The corps of engineers?"

And we find, "Oh, man, wait a minute. They're immune."

Meaning, you can't sue The corps of engineers.

The statute says, "The united states of america

Is not liable For damage from floods."

The next sentence says "Provided that,

Where there is Insufficient land

To build a levee, you have To expropriate the land,

Or you have to buy The flood rights."

So why is there an I-wall And no levee?

Well, an I-wall Is something you can build

On a tiny piece of ground, So here we go again.

They didn't want To spend the money

To buy the land To put up a levee.

So they put up This chinky I-wall. And by the way, what's a levee?

A levee is this earthen Piece of work--

Four feet wide For every one foot of height.

That's what Holds back the water.

( exhales deeply )

The levee--

It's the same thing, man. I mean...

They better knew That this could happen,

You know what I'm saying?

They knew it, before-- When I was a child,

They knew if A hurricane came through

Or large mass like that, That it could happen.

And I'm wondering, You know, damn, I mean...

Why nobody never fixed it

Or nobody never-- Not only fixed it

Or made an attempt, You know,

Just if they didn't Have the money or whatever,

Make some noise about, "Hey, this could happen."

I ain't hear nothing About this from the government

Or anyone from our town, The mayor

Or anyone ever say Something like, you know,

"We need money because Hurricanes always come

And they're always a threat And we need help to fix this."

So it's like, to me, If they knew it could Have happened,

It's almost like They let it happen.

( crickets chirping )

John barry: To understand the situation New Orleans is in,

You've got To understand the power Of the mississippi river.

As the river deposits sediment In the delta,

This creates, often, sandbars That block shipping channels.

To get through These sandbars,

The engineers Built jetties

That go two miles Out into the gulf of Mexico

And drop all the sediment Into deep water

So it is no longer Building up land.

The main reason That New Orleans

Has become vulnerable To hurricanes

Is because the wetlands Have been eroding.

Ivor van heerder: Those wetlands are Responsible

For reducing storm surges When a hurricane comes along.

To expand oil and gas Infrastructure,

We've dredged thousands Of miles of canals

For pipelines, for drilling And for navigation purposes.

If you imagine, In the old days, we had All these distributory channels

That were kind of like The arteries in your hand.

Man came along, And cut off that supply.

So over the last 70 years,

We've starved our Wetlands to death,

Like putting a rubber band Around your hand.

Michael schlacter: On top of that,

We have global warming, Which is a very big issue.

It's causing Sea level to rise.

It's basically making These coastal cities

More vulnerable To the storm surge

And the eventual flooding When these storms come.

Today the government Will release its national Hurricane forecast.

And so far, It's not looking good.

The next hurricane season Is bearing down,

And forecasters said today It could be a bad one.

Male reporter: Worse than usual, again.

That's the prediction From every respected Forecaster out there.

After 24 hurricanes

And 11 making Landfall in the united states In the past two years...

Today's prediction For this year's atlantic Hurricane season

Is unsettling: 13-16 named storms,

Eight to 10 becoming Hurricanes,

Four to six becoming Major hurricanes

With winds Of 111 miles per hour Or higher.

The research meteorologists Are telling us

That we're in this Very active period

For major hurricanes

That may last at least Another 10 to 20 years.

That's not good news, And the message is very clear

We need to be prepared.

Schlacter: With global warming,

You're now making A new york climate

More like A north carolina climate,

And we know how often They get hit,

And how warm The waters are there.

So the prospect Of a severe storm

Hitting the d.C. To boston metroplex corridor

Is very high In the ensuing decades.

Jeffrey david schultze: When you have a storm surge From Katrina,

Say, of 20 feet Above sea level,

It's not going To help things when you Have global warming

Throwing in an extra 12" on top of that.

Barry: 25% of all The natural gas

Produced In the united states

Is actually produced Offshore of Louisiana.

20% of all the oil Produced domestically

In the united states Is produced off the coast Of Louisiana.

And it's ironic,

'cause one of the few things In the country

That environmentalists And the oil industry agree on

Is that you have To rebuild the wetlands

Around New Orleans.

Not only to protect New Orleans,

But even if New Orleans didn't exist,

You would need To rebuild those wetlands

To protect The production of energy.

I understand, in a way,

Why they're going To abandon us--

No political power, Very little money, black city.

We can't influence much.

And then I thought, "But how stupid

Does a president And a congress have to be

To say, 'oh, wait a minute.

They control 30% Of our oil and gas.

If it doesn't Come to us,

Our security Is threatened,

And $6-a-gallon gasoline Is there overnight'?" Nobody can argue that.

Do you know that

Because these Offshore oil companies

Go more than three miles Off the coast,

We don't get a dime In this state?

The federal government Takes it all.

Do you know That if Louisiana seceded From the united states

And started collecting All the royalties from these Oil and gas companies,

We'd be like saudi arabia? We'd be riding around In bentleys.

We wouldn't need anything From the united states.

So we're pumping this money Into the government.

We're not asking for a handout. We're asking for a return on What we're handing out.

The state of Louisiana Has long been used

As almost a colony or a place To extract resources

By the rest Of the united states, Particularly texas.

It's extremely oil rich, Has natural gas,

And if you can Deal with the ragged Boot heel of Louisiana,

You have The seafood coming in,

It's where The oil platforms are.

But the money Doesn't stay in Louisiana. The money goes out of state.

It goes to anywhere else In the so-called "New south" But Louisiana.

I mean, cities Like memphis, now,

Have federal express, And they're booming and--

And the carolinas have All this banking going on.

Atlanta's got the home depot And delta airlines.

Texas has halliburton And other construction,

And oil companies. There's nothing left here.

Up the mississippi In st. Paul and minneapolis,

You have at Any given time

About 18 Fortune-500 companies.

We had one pre-Katrina-- Entergy-- and now that Company's bankrupt.

If they'd give us Our percentage

Of oil and gas Like texas gets,

New Mexico gets, Wyoming gets, colorado gets,

Alaska gets, If they'd give us that,

We can build Our own wetlands,

Rebuild them, we can build Our category-five levees.

We can, instead of Having to cut out

The neighborhoods That are our culture

Because we no longer Can afford them--

We could bng those Neighborhoods back too.

Give us our Goddamn money.

Give us our Oil and gas money: We'll help ourselves,

And you can Kiss our ass.

Governor blanco Is making good

On a promise to play hardball With the federal government.

Today the state Filed a lawsuit to prevent

Offshore oil and gas Lease sales in the western Gulf of Mexico.

Blanco says The sale would damage

Louisiana's Coastal environment.

The state hopes The lawsuit forces The federal government

To share profits from the sale To protect wetlands.

It's about our Federal government

Sharing the royalty Revenue stream

From the exploration

And the production That occurs

In our coastal waters.

If we don't get Significant help,

Louisiana people are In danger for a very long time.

Woman: I want to come home.

I was born here, and I always Said I wanted to die here.

But things been so rough, I almost had two heart attacks,

Had to go to hospital, But you know what?

God is good. He's able, and I'm Going to keep my faith.

Brinkley: I've never seen Such a time

When the u.S. Government Turned its back on people In need to this degree.

To have a people In such dire need

Getting such little help From the federal government

While they're Screaming for help, I think it's unprecedented.

We need lights, Water and houses. I got a little daughter

She asks me every day, "Dad, when can we go back To New Orleans?"

- Nagin: which section Of the city do you live in? - east New Orleans.

Let's get rid of All the bureaucracy. I don't understand.

- the government can go to iraq And help people in iraq-- - ( applause )

--and we can't take Care of New Orleans. And we have a problem.

Woman: I need somewhere Where they can put

And place me And my grandkids at.

'cause I'm living here In the shelter.

Parking $14 a day,

We can't afford.

We got to Survive on food.

You got to eat out, 'cause there's nowhere For you-- no icebox,

No stove, no nothing, So you're bringing the kids out

And you eating Every day it's $60.

So I need some kind of closure, That's all I'm asking for.

This was my home Prior to Katrina.

It was a two-story home. I've only been living In it for two years.

Just recently Finished remodeling it.

This, all over here, Along here,

This wall here Was bookshelves, my tv,

My couch and everything.

Over here was My refrigerator,

My stove, my sink.

Up the stairs, You went up the stairs here,

You go up-- You went up this way.

- woman: duck your head. - duck your head, It had a low beam, yeah.

And then It went up here.

Nagin: Probably the biggest challenge We have right now is housing.

There's hundreds Of millions of dollars

That have been raised, And we still have people

Out around the country, Still haven't gotten their First fema check,

Nor can they get A travel trailer on their home.

We're still homeless. We still have nowhere to live.

The lady called me again, She said "We have a trailer." I said, "Okay, I'll take it."

"Okay, give me An address to put it."

"Anywhere, just put it somewhere So I can go live in it."

"I'm sorry, we'll have To put that on hold and list You as 'still pending.'"

Of course, I've been pending Since august 29th, bitch.

I mean, I have nowhere to live.

- ( sighs ) - reporter: 62-year-old Florence jackson

Has been waiting For help from fema.

Where is my government?

I'm so disappointed.

Reporter: She has called fema Day and night,

And is told her application Is still pending.

And I want Somebody to know...

( crying ) That I'm suffering.

Our idea was, man, After the storm,

They would have trailers On every lawn,

And you'd Get up in the morning, Wave at your neighbor

Coming out their trailer And you'd just hear A cacophony of like

Hammers and nails All day long. We still Don't have any trailers.

When you fly in To New Orleans,

You look Across the street

In the extended Parking lots,

Nothing but trailers, Just sitting there empty.

Sitting there empty.

Barry: in mid-january, Both New Orleans And mississippi

Had asked for about 40,000 trailers from fema.

In mid-january Mississippi had 33,000,

Louisiana had 3,000.

Now some of that is because Of some internal politics

In the city Of New Orleans itself.

But most of that Is because of fema.

You can call fema Five times,

And ask them The same question, And get five different answers.

You're constantly Going back and forth.

"Come back tomorrow, The computers are broke." "Oh, we lost your application."

- fema's a disaster. - "We tried to get in touch With you on your cell phone,"

Which 3/4ths of the time, Our cell phones don't work.

- fema's a joke. - "We called you, You didn't respond,

So that means you No longer need any help."

Blah blah blah blah. You'd call every couple of weeks And try and be nice.

You don't want to scream At them, and--

"Your trailer's being ordered," And all that.

And I finally Found an apartment,

And called them up and told Them I didn't need the trailer,

And I'll be damned If the trailer didn't Show up the next day.

Fema's a dirty word. It's just a four-letter word.

I just say fema now instead Of the other nasty words.

And now, still, here it is Six months after the storm

And there's still no help.

Now I've lost all my-- Every bit of information

That could have proved That I owned this home,

That I've ever lived here.

I had to-- I had to--

Put-- I had to get Duplicate copies

Of utility bills

Stating that I had utilities here, That I lived here.

I had to go to The clerk of courts office,

And get whatever information They had to say I owned this.

Then I had to go To an attorney--

Who actually did the sale--

And he had to swear-- I had to swear in an affidavit That I owned this.

Who the hell goes Through that?

Who goes through that crap?

I mean, my god, this is-- Would I come here and say I Owned this, if I didn't?!

You know, We need help. Look.

See these little pink flags, These little orange flags here?

I have been marked For a fema trailer.

I'm still waiting For a fema trailer... Six months, six months.

People got trailers Over on that side. Give us a trailer.

Look how big This yard is.

Get us a little Raggedy trailer, You know.

Well, we'll need A few of them.

- for the ole crew. - ( laughs )

You're all big enough. The sewer right there. It's big enough

For like about Four good trailers.

The people in the block, I can call them, they can Come home.

That is my fema trailer Right there.

I still have no power.

I do have water, And I do have sewage,

And I have a toilet That I could sit on

Rather than A five-gallon bucket.

Lee: When is the power coming?

Uh...

Whenever I decide to give Somebody a blowjob, I guess.

( laughing )

- why you say that? - because that's the way I look at it.

When you get a fema trailer--

Which I'm fortunate To have one,

And most people In this neighborhood That have one,

I would say 1% Of them are usable.

- they don't have electricity Connected to them. - ( scattered applause )

And I've called City councilmen,

My senators, Jay blossman,

I left a message With the pope even.

And I'm thinking That may be the answer.

We're here in my Fema condo trailer.

It took us--

We put in for it In december,

And we got it, I think, one, two, three,

About four months later, Which is really not A long time to wait.

'cause, I mean, There were people that Waited longer than that.

So four months Really wasn't that long,

But it was long enough. We've been in here two months.

It's not bad, But we had a couple

Of mild thunderstorms Last weekend,

And it's not too stable.

I mean It's sitting on bricks,

So light winds Or mild-to-strong winds

Are kind of like Run-for-your-life shit.

But we do have a house In the back of us, in case We need to run out of here

And run into A solid foundation.

Shawn kael: Me and my father

Have been living here Since about december.

Come on, I'll take you On a tour of the fema trailer.

It's so well-made. There you go.

Luxurious, spacious cabinets,

One of the doors to separate The room, you know.

It used to stick up here, But now we just have it

Held on with safety pins And twine.

This is the-- The dining room table.

It's not very well-built.

- it just-- comes-- Comes apart, and-- - ( clanks )

You know, this is A bed area.

This is where I sleep. You know--

I'll show you the view.

Look!

Another fema trailer.

( drum rolling )

Fred johnson: It's straight bullshit.

These people have been sitting Out here for nine months.

( playing jazz music )

Johnson: I think these politicians Forget who they work for.

They work for the people. They think it's about Themselves.

There's no reason in the world We should have this.

Louisiana is still Ass-backwards,

And we still Have people

Who are scattered To the wind,

And don't understand What's next

Or what's coming next Or where to even find it at.

So it's a lot Of bullshit, man.

It's a lot of bullshit, And it's time

For the politicians To quit the bullshit

And understand Who they work for.

I don't care who you are. I don't care what color you are.

You could be orange.

You've gotta remember Who you work for,

And you working On the backs of poor people

Who work everyday, Pay their taxes.

Ain't everybody here Looking for welfare.

People are working, And working two and three jobs.

And these fools Running around here, They don't know their head,

They don't know four dogs Got four assholes.

Can we move Onto something else?

'cause this-- This is not working for me.

- ( crew laughing ) - fuck.

I think that this is a great Moment in american history

Because I feel That in this moment

We see a lot Of what's wrong with us. It's a signature moment.

It's like, sometimes you Walk past a mirror

And you see yourself In a position you don't like?

"Damn. Man-- I know I was--

I thought I was 10 lbs overweight, I'm 50.

This is like you stayed In front of the mirror

And you couldn't Turn away from it.

You stayed In that pose.

And everything in that pose Shows us what's wrong with us.

Blanco: I'm here today because Louisiana needs your help.

Most homeowners' policies Will not pay flood losses.

We have an estimated $20 billion to $30 billion

In uninsured losses.

If congress Fails to help,

Our people will have No money to rebuild.

The first lawsuit we filed was The insurance lawsuit.

And that was born

Out of the idea

That most Of the insurance companies, We knew in advance,

Were not going To want to pay the claims.

And as an aside,

20 years ago, There weren't many exclusions.

As time goes by, After the big cold war,

They started putting in "We're not going to pay For nuclear war."

Then they said they weren't Going to pay for asbestos.

Then they said they're Not going to pay for lead.

Then they said they're Not going to pay for pollution.

Now they have something called They're not going to pay For "Water damage."

In mississippi today, The opening moves

In a landmark lawsuit That pits victims

Of hurricane Katrina against Their insurance companies.

As you may know, This is a hot issue In the storm zone.

The question At the heart of this

Is whether water damage From Katrina

Is classified As hurricane damage Or flood damage.

The stakes here Are huge.

$75 billion in flood And storm-surge damage

Was reported in 1.7 million claims.

I was told by my agent That I had a policy

That would protect me For hurricanes,

'cause I asked Specifically for that.

Reporter: But nationwide mutual Concluded

That most of the damage Was caused by flooding,

And because leonard Did not have a separate Flood insurance policy,

Denied most of his claims.

We think The facts clearly show

That the coverage That the leonards purchased

Did not cover flood, But the damage was Primarily flood.

This groundbreaking trial Over wind-versus-water damage,

And which policy Covers what,

Could affect thousands Of other families along The gulf coast

Who were denied Their insurance claims

And have also Filed suit.

( laughs ) Insurance companies Are another joke.

I mean, you pay Your premiums,

Don't ever be late paying The insurance premium,

And then you say, "Well, I'm covered.

I've got flood insurance. I've got wind insurance.

I've got loss of use. I've got loss of income."

Oh, insurance companies...

Insurance companies has--

Been playing hell with me The whole fricking time.

The argument could be made,

Which came first, The chicken or the egg?

I think it rained Before the levees broke.

So it's quite possible That your house was flooded If you had no roof

Before the levees broke On Monday evening.

And the insurance carriers Are not honoring

Their promise To cover you.

Those "Good hands" people And the "Good neighbor" people,

I don't believe Anything they say because They're the worst offenders.

Pierce: My street, it's like A ghost town.

Nobody's here.

It's hard to see

A neighborhood So full of life

Without any life In it anymore.

My father, I knew it was Going to be hardest for him.

He came back From world war ii,

Took his $10 To hold that contract,

Took all that 30 years to pay That $13,000 for that house.

And he had broken His leg, so he was

Shuffling around the car.

Then he turned And he saw the house

And he just broke down.

And he said, "My whole life."

And that's the moment that I-- I'll always remember,

Because...

To see--

To see my father, You know,

In his 80th year of life

Go through...

His darkest hour, It was hard.

This is it.

This is my Childhood home.

It's totally wiped out

By Katrina.

I could care less About the house, almost,

It's just the fact that,

You know, I saw This young man,

Young black man Come back from world war ii,

To take his last $10--

He'd always talked about The day he bought the house.

He came back To my mother and said,

"I bought a house today For $10 to hold the contract."

So for him, he said, "I've-- I have--

I had all my sons In this house here."

Jesus.

The insurance Companies are...

There's a special special Circle in hell for them.

Dante would--

Would promote them To a very special place in hell,

Because...

You know, you sit there, And you see everything damaged

And they just come up With any way to say "I'm not Going to pay you."

So luckily We had flood insurance,

But the way they sell it is, "You have homeowner's insurance.

So get a little Flood insurance.

Between the two, You'll be made whole."

But when it came to it, It was just flood insurance.

Thankfully, We had a little bit,

But it was like maybe 40, 50% of the value Of the house.

Then they said, "Well, we'll give you wind

On your homeowner's insurance Above the water line."

Then they came back and said, "Everything above the water Line was damaged

From the flood anyway. We're not going to cover that."

I said, "Well, we had $12,000 insurance

On the shed In the backyard.

There's a tree fallen on it, Totally destroyed."

They came back and said, "It's repairable.

So we're only going To give you 25% of that.

Then we're going To take the deductible Of the full value of the house,

And your check For $670 is in the mail.

Along with the check for $400 For the time you were out.

You know, it was 10 days, $40 a day, so it's in the mail.

So thank you very much."

My father's Hard of hearing,

So...

The adjustor was there

And as he was leaving, He goes, "Hey, man"--

My father-- "I-I can't hear,

But I just Want you to be fair.

Be fair with me." You know?

And the guy had Already told us,

"I'm not paying you Anything."

So the guy turns beet red And he goes,

"Just be fair, thank you." So we drive 70 miles To baton rouge.

I said, "Wait until we get To baton rouge to tell daddy."

So we said "Listen,"

I said, "Really, we got To explain to you,

The insurance company's Not going to pay you anything.

You are not 'in good hands With allstate.'

You're done." My father said, "What?

No, man.

I've been paying them people For 50 years, no."

I said, "No, daddy, They're not giving you." He said, "What?"

He said, "Man, Don't tell me that, man.

I-- why you didn't Tell me in New Orleans? I would have killed that man."

I said, "That's why I didn't tell you."

Pastor pullings: The master plan For New Orleans

Is to bulldoze down The 9th ward.

The 9th ward Is a place

Of predominantly Black people,

And you got these Land grabbers down there,

The trump land grabbers

Who want to go down there And buy up all the land,

And you know-- regentrification, You know how that goes, And urban renewal.

In the name of those things, Take this place and change it.

Hewi People, basically, Are being told

What you have Is of no value.

You won't have an opportunity For the intergenerational Transfer of wealth,

Of property, of assets, From one generation to the next.

And this is particularly Affecting african-american Communities in New Orleans.

As soon as The planning process is done,

Which I say to you, Should have been done by now.

Other communities that have been Devastated along the coast

Have already done that, So that people can Make their own

Individual property decisions Based on fact.

This is 2310 delery street,

And these are the three lots

That my grandparents Bought in the late--

Like in 1949 to build Their dream house.

When we came down, My sister and I snuck in

And we were looking left, Looking for the house.

We were like, Do you see it? Did it move?

Did it crush? What happened?

We didn't see the house And that's odd because The house is big.

I want you to know this:

The persons Who live in the lower 9,

They were homeowners.

- I was a homeowner. - ( person applauding )

35 years I worked

To pay for the property That I own, plus my rentals.

Not only that, I paid my tax bill.

I got the tax bill In december,

And I paid it january-- Before january 31st.

And on the back of that It said police and school,

- and now I can't even get A school open in the lower 9. - ( crowd applauding )

This is what's Left of the house.

The house actually lifted,

And floated across The street over here. We were like, "Oh my god.

I don't know how I'm going to break This to my grandmother,"

That the house that She loves so much,

That my grandfather built, Is like--

At this point, It's not going to make it.

What really Bothered me was this risk,

"Building at my own risk."

Do you know--

I just want to call this To your attention--

The geography?

New Orleans Is surrounded by water.

If you go north, It's the pontchartrain lake.

If you go west,

It's the bonnie carrie Spillway.

If you go south, It's the mississippi river.

And if you go east, You've got lake bourne

And all of The little tributaries

In the wetlands out there. So who's at risk?

I pulled my grandmother To the side and I said,

"Nee, listen, sit down. We have to tell you What's going on."

And she says, "What's going on?"

I said, "Well,

The house is gone. It moved."

And she said, "What do you mean The house moved?"

I said "The house-- it's-- Floated across the street."

And, you know-- And I said, "I don't think--"

I said, "It was kind of tilted, So I don't think that

It's going to make it. I don't think it's Going to stand."

And she said, "Where is it?"

I said, "I don't know. I think it's in Mr. Johnny's yard."

I couldn't see From where I was,

And mr. Johnny's yard is Down there, but I thought It was in his yard.

But I really couldn't tell. I said, "I think it's In mr. Johnny's yard."

And my grandmother Just paused for a second

And she sits down.

And she looks up at me And she says,

"Well, johnny Can't never say

I ain't gave him nothing. I gave him a whole house.

And I thought, "Oh g--" I mean, we're standing there Nervous and laughing

'cause we're Relieved that she Didn't fall to pieces.

New orleanians And louisianians Are a resilient people.

And so they're going to find A way to come back home.

I'm telling everybody Hold tight,

Don't give up your Property for anything.

We fought too long To get our property,

So even if you Don't do anything with it, Gut it and sit on it.

Everybody knew The property value in The 9th ward was going up.

And when this Disaster happened,

They went "Here's our opportunity."

So developers Are now getting in bed

With politicians To come up

With all these schemes To take people's land.

Harris: Nine months after Katrina And the lower 9

Still looks like A bomb hit it.

I think that it's Meant to discourage

The neighbors From coming back.

I mean, most people Have lived in The lower 9th ward

With a solid... Thought...

In the back Of their minds

That, "Straight up, We're not wanted here,"

In some way, Shape, form or fashion,

That this area could be used For industrial purposes.

We live on a waterway. There are a lot of companies Who could use this area

For industrial purposes, Warehousing and things Like that,

And so a lot of people Have always felt like

That's been the goal For a long time.

But most of the lower niners I talk to are like "Hell no.

You're not going to take Anything from me.

You're not going to run us Off like that. You're not Going to just shoo us away."

The people try To buy us out.

I'm not going nowhere. I'm keeping my little Raggedy house.

I'm going to stay right there And get me some sheetrock And I'm going to be there.

Now they can come Visit me if they want,

But I'll be right there On the front porch,

Waving at people when They pass like I always do. "How you all doing?"

We're probably going To end up a small city,

Gentrified, Primarily white,

Primarily well-to-do.

I think the rest Of the united states Thinks that's just fine.

I have publicly said, And I will continue to say,

We plan to rebuild Every area of this city

Including the 9th ward.

And we're going to do it Regardless of

If there's A small group of people

That may have other plans And other agendas.

New orlean Is not New Orleans

Without the mix of people That were here before.

And it would not be The kind of city

That I think Most people would treasure.

But it's all Predicated upon what The corps of engineers

Is going to do as it Relates to levee protection.

June 1 is A very significant date To the people of New Orleans.

It's the beginning Of the next hurricane season

And task force guardian, The corps of engineers--

We are trying To make these repairs

To provide a level Of protection that Existed prior to Katrina,

Before the hurricane Season starts.

Bea: The army corps of engineers

Has been Promising the people

They would have The levees back

To pre-Katrina conditions Prior to the first of june.

When we heard that, A cold chill ran down our back

Because we knew pre-Katrina Conditions were not okay.

New Orleans, as we begin The hurricane season '06, Has lego levees.

I mean, these things will Crumble with a strong wind.

Our obligation to the public Is to base our conclusions On science,

On facts, on engineering And tell the truth.

Do I trust them? No.

They knew those Levees had issues 10, 15 years ago.

The corps of engineers knew it, The federal government knew it,

The state government knew it, The city government knew it And they turned their head.

We've been honest With the public and we Have to tell them,

"Look at what we're building. It's stronger than what You had before."

I want to caution All residents

That after much probing And questioning,

The army corps of engineers Has warned me

That some of our lowest-lying Areas of New Orleans east

And the lower 9th ward Will have some flooding

From levees overtopping

If another hurricane travels

Along the same path As Katrina.

The fact of the matter is

That no one really Takes it very seriously.

All right? They just--

"We're going to put A little paste on it,

Put a little band-aid And we're going to deal With it that way."

The reason why they're Doing that is because

Our president Sees us as

Not quite Much of a threat. You know?

( mimics bush ) "Louisiana, I'm going To get them anyway,

Because they Buying my bullshit.

So why should I Spend billions of dollars Fixing these levees

Given the political Environment that we're in?"

We need A different government.

We need Somebody in there

That actually Really and truly cares

About the people, About their property,

About their homes.

You know? Somebody who Really and truly cares. But who's it going to be?

Van heerden: After Katrina, I had The opportunity

To go to the netherlands To look at their Defense system.

And I was actually Embarrassed

To talk about ours, When you look at their system.

Number one, They've built substantial Levees and they armor them.

They protect them From waves and overtopping

And all the problems We saw at Katrina.

But more importantly, This is a very small country.

It's 14 million people.

65% of the netherlands Is below sea level,

But they have The will to go out

And build high enough And strong enough to withstand

A one-in-10,000-year Storm-surge event.

We can do the kinds of things The dutch engineers have done,

And, in fact, We should learn from them.

But we haven't Mobilized the will.

The army corps of engineers Had 40 years to build A protective system

Around the city Of New Orleans.

The hurricane Hits august 29th.

It takes them approximately Eight weeks to two months To drain the water out.

So you mean to tell me, They're going to repair--

What they couldn't Build in 40 years,

They're going to repair it In eight months,

Or 10 months, To be up to a point

Where people Should feel secure?

I would caution people

To not be delude

To go forward in a way

That they understand,

Not to buy promises That could be false promises,

Because it could mean That they could lose their Lives and their homes again.

Reporter: with the tropics Heating up, the work at The 17th street canal

Can't move quickly enough. The gates are in place,

But the pumps still Aren't operational.

New delays make Old deadlines dicey.

Unfortunately, to a large Degree, our fate is In the corps' hands.

Reporter: The corps is now blaming rain, And not enough working space,

And they say residents Need to keep their guard up.

I do believe that they should be Concerned, because...

We don't know what kind Of hurricane event we could See in this year.

Reporter: With the temporary Pumps on the bridge,

The corps can pump less than 15% of the canal's capacity,

If it needs To close the gates.

The corps says it's getting Little sleep too,

Having put in place $1 billion worth

Of flood protection Since Katrina, a work Still in progress.

- lee: what's going to happen When hurricane season comes? - we're screwed.

They don't have to tell me 19 hours anymore,

'cause if it's Predicted on Monday, I'm leaving Friday.

I'll admit, I'm scared. You don't know what's Going to happen.

Be prepared to run And have your place To run to.

Lee: If someone came to you,

Has a house That's near the lake,

Or a levee, Or a floodwall,

And says "Is it safe For me to move back in?"

- ( laughs ) - is it safe? Remember "The marathon man"?

Oh, I remember.

- sir lawrence olivier? - yep.

- is it safe? - the answer is no. It's not safe.

( score playing )

"Not just the levees broke, The spirit broke,

My spirit broke.

The families broke apart.

I want my mama back,

I want my sister back, I want my nephew back.

The auction block broke

From so many African-american bodies.

The sense of direction Was broken

Because of the darkness.

There was light From time to time,

But they broke away And left us.

My being together broke

When I fell apart.

The smell broke away From my skin

When I came Out of the waters.

The waters That came and stood,

Still, with the bodies Of my people,

The dogs, shit, piss,

Rats, snakes, And "Heard of" alligators.

The broken smiles, The broken minds, The broken lives.

And you know something?

Out of all of this Brokenness,

I have begun to mend.

With god

And my deep deep Commitment

To infinite strength,

To never give up, I am mending.

I am coming back,

God willing, For a long long time.

So when you see The waters,

When you see The levees breaking,

Know what they really broke Along with them."

( playing uptempo jazz Music )

Banks: When you were Born in this,

And your first breath When the doctor slaps you

Is tinted with Magnolia blossoms,

And you drink Mississippi river tap water

In your first formula, It's a thing that you won't Find anywhere else.

And folks who Had to evacuate know

You might go somewhere, And you might have a good time, But it's nothing like home.

And when you can call New Orleans, Louisiana, home,

Baby, you know what it means To miss New Orleans, trust me.

( jazz music Continues playing )

Darleen asevedo, born in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Jay asevedo, born in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Shelton shakespear alexander,

St. Bernard parish, Violet, Louisiana.

Lee arnold, tour manager, For New Orleans' own Hot 8 brass band.

My name is Gralen bryant banks,

Born and raised In New Orleans uptown

In the 13th ward.

I'm the director Of safety and loss prevention

At the hyatt regency New Orleans,

At Louisiana superdome.

John barry,

Author of "Rising tide, The great mississippi Flood of 1927,

And how it Changed america."

I'm professor robert bea,

University of california At berkeley,

Department of civil And environmental engineering.

Actor-activist Harry belafonte.

I'm wilhemina blanchard, I'm terence's mother.

And I'm terence blanchard, And we're both born and raised Here in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I'm kathleen babineau blanco,

Governor of The state of Louisiana.

Douglas brinkley, American historian.

Joseph bruno, I live In a section of the city

Called carrollton, And I'm a trial lawyer.

State representative Karen carter,

District 93, New Orleans.

I'm doctor louis cataldie,

I'm the state Medical examiner For the state of Louisiana.

Judith morgan, yscloskey, St. Bernard, Louisiana.

Cheryl livaudais, yscloskey, St. Bernard, Louisiana.

Will chittenden, Born and raised In New Orleans,

Lower 9th, St. Bernard projects.

Eddie compass, Former superintendent,

New Orleans Police department.

How you doing? I'm harry "Swamp thing" cook,

And I'm the bass drummer For the hot 8 brass band.

Sarah dean, St. Rock, New Orleans.

Petri laurimaa, St. Rock, New Orleans.

Emil dumesnil, From the lower 9th ward,

New Orleans, Louisiana.

Michael eric dyson, author Of "Come hell or high water:

Hurricane Katrina And the color of disaster,"

Professor at the university Of pennsylvania.

My name is felton earls,

I am professor Of social medicine at harvard Medical school,

And professor Of human behavior And development

At the harvard school Of public health.

I'm paris ervin. I'm a resident of New Orleans.

My name's Sylvester francis,

I was born and raised In New Orleans, Louisiana.

My name is Herbert j. Freeman, jr.

I was born In New Orleans, Louisiana,

In the garden district.

Dale girard, gentilly, New Orleans, Louisiana.

My name is Louella givens,

And I'm a lawyer In orleans parish.

Anita gupta, Assistant counsel

At the naacp legal defense And educational fund.

My name is glenn hall, I am 10 years old, and I play The trumpet.

I'm tanya harris From the lower 9th ward.

I'm josephine butler From lower 9th ward.

Donald harrison, Jazz musician from Uptown, New Orleans.

Darnell harrington,

Born and raised In New Orleans, Louisiana.

Dr. Corey hebert Pediatrician,

New Orleans, Louisiana.

Damon hewitt, Assistant counsel,

Naacp legal defense And educational fund, And a native of New Orleans.

Freddie hicks, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Justin hite, Berkeley, california,

Common ground In the lower 9th ward.

Fred johnson, born in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I'm michael katz, Walter h. Annenberg Professor of history

At the university Of pennsylvania.

Michael knight, Lower 9th ward.

Mitch landrieu, Lieutenant governor, State of Louisiana.

My name is Mrs. Phyllis montana leblanc,

Born and raised In New Orleans.

Trymaine lee, Staff writer,

"New Orleans times-picayune," From south jersey.

Brendan loy, blogger And hurricane buff, Irishtrojan.Com.

Dr. Calvin mackie, professor Of mechanical engineering

At tulane university,

Member of the Louisiana Recovery authority,

Born in the 7th ward In New Orleans, Louisiana.

I'm dr. Ben marble.

I'm an emergency room physician Along the mississippi Gulf coast,

And I live In long beach, mississippi.

Wynton marsalis, Pigeontown, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Kevin a. Martin,

Pumping and power plant Operator,

Melpomene pumping Station number 1, New Orleans, Louisiana.

My name Is hassan mashriqui.

I'm an assistant professor

At Louisiana State university Hurricane center.

I'm mother audrey mason From New Orleans,

Born and raised, 63 years.

Betty mchale.

And charles mchale, Three park island, City of New Orleans.

I'm david meeks, city editor Of "The times-picayune" In New Orleans.

Yes, my name Is joseph melancon,

From New Orleans, Louisiana.

I'm from The 3rd ward, which is Called the magnolia project.

Gina montana,

Mid-city, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Henry morgan, St. Bernard, Louisiana.

I'm marc morial, Former mayor of New Orleans,

A son of New Orleans,

And now the president Of the national urban league.

My name is Cynthia hedge-morrell.

I'm the newly-elected Councilperson from district d,

New Orleans, Louisiana, Born and raised.

I am arthur morrell, State representative

From district 97, In New Orleans, Louisiana.

I was born and raised In New Orleans.

My name is joycelyn moses.

My name is anthony dunn.

And we both are Residents of New Orleans.

We've been here All our life.

Ray Nagin, mayor Of the city of New Orleans.

My name is linda novak, And I live in holy cross,

Lower 9th ward.

Soledad o'brien, co-anchor, "Cnn american morning."

- sean penn. - my name is benny pete

And I'm a tuba player For the hot 8 brass band.

Wendell pierce, Born in pontchartrain park,

New Orleans.

Kimberly polk, I lived in the bywater community

Of New Orleans, Louisiana.

Pastor james pullings, jr.,

Of the leviticus church of god In christ, queens, new york.

Garland robinette, Wwl radio,

New Orleans, Louisiana.

Robert rocque, Born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Junior rodriguez, St. Bernard parish president.

Daina saulny, Born and raised,

New Orleans, Louisiana, 7th ward.

Michael scott schlacter,

I am the founder And chief meteorologist

Of weather 2000 In new york city.

Jeffrey david schultze, Chief climatologist At weather 2000.

Jay scully, Long beach, mississippi.

Mike seelig, Uptown New Orleans.

I am colonel louis setliff, Commander task force guardian,

U.S. Army corps of engineers, Here in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I'm reverend al sharpton,

President of national Action network.

Brian thevenot, staff writer At "The times-picayune."

I live in uptown, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Charley varley, Photojournalist,

Citizen of the world, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Ivor van heerden, Deputy director

Of the Louisiana state University hurricane center.

My name is Elder william walker, jr.,

Pastor of the noah's ark Missionary baptist church,

Located in central city, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Rhonda Washington, Registered nurse,

High-risk ob/gyn, University hospital.

Kanye west, artist.

Roy Williams, director, Louis Armstrong New Orleans International airport.

( '50susic playing )