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Katrina 20 Years Later. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired August 24, 2025 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[20:00:08]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like pressing your face.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Debris is flying from the roofs.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, devastating the region and its biggest city.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Many reports are coming in stating total structural failure.

BLACKWELL: Tonight, we're not just looking back. We're talking about how survivors moved forward and how others were left behind. We're talking comebacks and controversy. We're talking about resilience. A culture so strong it has the power to unite people at their lowest moments with the hope to come out stronger.

I'm Victor Blackwell, and this is CNN's special coverage of HURRICANE KATRINA 20 YEARS LATER.

And we start tonight with CNN's Randi Kaye. Just days ago, she went back to New Orleans to keep telling the story of the city that she saw almost entirely underwater.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening right now, killer on the move. That would be Katrina.

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): August 2005. Hurricane Katrina barreling towards the Gulf Coast.

If New Orleans does become ground zero, the results could be catastrophic.

Katrina made landfall on August 29th, 2005 near Grand Isle, Louisiana, with winds upwards of 125 miles per hour.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just vast devastation everywhere.

KAYE: It was even worse than many had imagined.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Coast Guard just pulled this man off the roof.

KAYE: Cities along the Gulf Coast from New Orleans to Biloxi, Mississippi, were underwater.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see where this levee broke.

KAYE: The levee system that was supposed to protect the area failed, resulting in catastrophic flooding. Katrina shattered all sense of security.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thousands of homes completely flooded.

KAYE: Eighty percent of New Orleans flooded. Entire communities were displaced. Churches, schools and hospitals destroyed. Nearly 1400 people died.

RAY NAGIN, FORMER NEW ORLEANS MAYOR: We're getting reports that there's significant flooding throughout the city, particularly in the Lower Ninth Ward.

KAYE: Robert Green and his family were in his home in the Lower Ninth Ward. Chest deep in water, they moved to his rooftop like thousands of others.

ROBERT GREEN, KATRINA SURVIVOR AND LOWER NINTH WARD RESIDENT: We get on top the roof and now we think we're safe. And the house lifted off its foundation. We floated down the street.

KAYE: His 3-year-old granddaughter and his mother swept away in the storm. CNN first spoke to him in 2005.

GREEN: See my baby no more. I don't see my mother no more. I don't see my neighbors no more. All I can do is just be happy that she's going to be buried.

KAYE: Twenty years later at Robert's new home, a memorial for his loved ones on the front lawn.

GREEN: It means a lot to me basically, it just is symbolic of the day that they died.

KAYE: Could you show me how high the water was?

GREEN: Well, if you look at the top of the flagpole, you see an eagle flying. That's how high the water was.

KAYE (voice-over): These cement steps are all that's left of Robert's original home.

GREEN: I have three pictures of my mother, and everything was lost. It didn't dawn on me until people asked me that I don't have pictures of them, but they're memories stay in my mind.

KAYE: Has the Lower Ninth come back or you think it still has a long way to go?

GREEN: It has -- it's a long way off.

KAYE (voice-over): There is a sense of resilience here, a pride that led people to rebuild, albeit slowly. Like the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Lower Ninth Ward.

REV. DOUGLAS TAYLOR, PASTOR, BETHEL AME CHURCH: This building here has been here since 1963.

KAYE: I first met Pastor Doug Taylor and his wife, Stephanie, 20 years ago.

TAYLOR: Oh, my, my, my.

KAYE: After Katrina nearly destroyed their church.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see the water line at the back of the choir stand?

TAYLOR: Yes.

KAYE: Oh, that's how high up the water.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes.

KAYE (voice-over): The pews destroyed. There was about 20 feet of water inside, too. Today, the church is rebuilt.

What an improvement since the last time I was here.

TAYLOR: Great, great. It is.

KAYE: What did you pray for when you saw what had happened in here?

TAYLOR: Grace to face what has actually happened.

KAYE: What made you decide to rebuild?

TAYLOR: We felt the need for the community. And we felt like God wanted us here. We were happy about coming back. All the signs were saying otherwise because the Lower Ninth Ward in the city of New Orleans looked like an atomic bomb had hit it. Without faith, we would not be here.

KAYE (voice-over): It took two years to rebuild this church, but not everyone returned. Three church members died in Katrina, the pastor says, and about a third of the members didn't come back after the storm.

TAYLOR: We were strong, stronger then than we are now, but we are getting stronger.

KAYE: Over the years, many here have fought to preserve the tradition and culture of New Orleans. Like music.

[20:05:07]

MICHAEL HARRIS, MUSICIAN: I think that the music has helped the city to recover. The beautiful thing for me about music is just like any other art form, music speaks to the human condition. Music and color, if felt, it can create a mood. KAYE: Food, too. A New Orleans institution, Brigten's Restaurant

closed for months after the storm like so many others. But now Chef Frank Brigsten says the food scene here is more interesting than ever.

FRANK BRIGSTEN, CHEF AND OWNER, BRIGSTEN'S RESTAURANT: What happened in Katrina is about 400,000 New Orleanians left and didn't come back. There was a vacuum. A lot of people came to New Orleans to help. Habitat for Humanity. Other people coming in to help rebuild, and that included a lot of Mexican immigrants, Central American people that came in to put roofs back on houses.

KAYE: So they really changed the makeup of the -- of the city.

BRIGSTEN: Definitely. We have many, many more Honduran restaurants, Mexican restaurants, Latin restaurants, groceries, et cetera.

KAYE: The demographics have changed here in the city's Lower Ninth Ward, too. Pre-Katrina this had always been a traditionally African- American neighborhood, but after the storm, many didn't return or rebuild. And that changed everything here.

HARRIS: That is devastating. Knowing how many families were displaced and everything. You can still see a lot of open spaces where there used to be structures and businesses.

PATRICIA BERRYHILL, REGISTERED NURSE AND NEW ORLEANS RESIDENT: I thought there would be more progress in the Lower Ninth Ward.

KAYE (voice-over): Patricia Berryhill was working as a nurse when Katrina hit. when the hospital shut down and doctors and nurses fled the state.

BERRYHILL: Lower Ninth Ward, Patricia Berryhill, may I help you?

KAYE: Patricia and others opened up a health clinic in her home in the Lower Ninth Ward. CNN visited her clinic after the storm.

BERRYHILL: The first time I saw it, it looked like a time bomb had hit it. Everything was destroyed. Once that clinic opened, even though they were away from their homes and shelters, we had people coming from all areas.

KAYE: How would you describe the health care system today? Is it better or worse than it was at the time Katrina hit?

BERRYHILL: Oh, it's better. It's better to me. But it's still -- there's room for improvement.

KAYE: There are more clinics now than there were before the storm?

BERRYHILL: I would say yes.

KAYE (voice-over): Another improvement. The levee system.

Do you feel as though with this system in place, New Orleans, surrounding areas are much safer? CHRIS DUNN, CHIEF ENGINEERING DIRECTOR, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS,

NEW ORLEANS DISTRICT: Yes, absolutely. Night and day.

KAYE: Chris Dunn with the Army Corps of Engineers gave us a firsthand look at what many call the great wall of Louisiana, a 1.8 mile surge barrier designed to keep storm surge far from populated areas.

DUNN: If this structure were not here, the storm surge would penetrate deep into the city.

KAYE: The project cost upwards of $14 billion in federal money.

There are three floodgates like this one along the surge barrier. And when a storm is deemed too dangerous, those floodgates will close.

(Voice-over): The South Louisiana Flood Protection Authority operates the floodgates.

JEFF WILLIAMS, INTERIM DIRECTOR, SOUTH LOUISIANA FLOOD PROTECTION AUTHORITY-EAST: We know that the elevation of this particular gate is plus 26. So when those gates close, it can perform and stop a storm surge up to 26 feet above sea level.

KAYE: Looking back at Katrina, if this had been in place, what do you think it would have looked like in the aftermath?

WILLIAMS: Nothing like it was 20 years ago, for sure.

KAYE (voice-over): Still, many here are on edge each hurricane season as memories of Katrina run deep.

GREEN: Something like Katrina will to happen or forecast to happen, we know to leave.

BERRYHILL: As soon as I hear that alert, I want my family and I to leave.

KAYE: Despite the concern, for those who did rebuild New Orleans will always be home.

BERRYHILL: I love the culture. I love the people, and I love what I'm doing. There is no place like home, and that's for me. That's New Orleans.

GREEN: Still here, still pushing, still believing that it will return. I've seen all the impossible happen. So for me, the impossible is not impossible anymore.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE (on-camera): No question New Orleans has made great progress over the last 20 years. But people we spoke with here told us there's still much more that needs to be done. We got an earful about the vacant lots that still exist in some of the hardest hit areas, and there's still not enough grocery stores, we're told. Still, people here have not given up hope on the city they love -- Victor. BLACKWELL: Randi Kaye, thank you.

Joining me now is Mitch Landrieu. He was the lieutenant governor of Louisiana when Katrina hit and later served as the mayor of the city.

Good to see you, Mr. Mayor. I imagine there are some mixed feelings as you watched Randi Kaye's package there. You look back to the pictures from 20 years ago, some progress. Still some work to do.

[20:10:03]

What do you feel about the city now 20 years later, and what has been accomplished and what hasn't?

MITCH LANDRIEU, FORMER NEW ORLEANS MAYOR: Well, first of all, looking back on it 20 years ago, I mean, that's a lifetime for some people that are alive today. From a kid that was just -- probably just graduated from college. But for people like me and my fellow New Orleanians who you just heard from, you could feel their soul. You could feel their love. You can feel their commitment to the city.

You can actually see those old pictures of Wolf Blitzer when he looked young, who was -- who was down here at the time. It's like it happened yesterday. I can close my eyes right now, and I can -- I can see the water. I can -- I can smell the awful thing. I can see the people. Remember, we lost 1800 people, 250,000 homes got destroyed.

The story of New Orleans resilience, resurrection and redemption is a miraculous story. I mean, fellow Americans, it looked like we lost a great American city and the soul of America. So for many people, this week is a very bittersweet time. And we have those remembrance. But it is also a time for us to take stock about how far we will come.

You know, New Orleans wasn't a perfect city when the storm hit. We had had some systems that weren't working for people after the storm. We kind of pulled ourselves up with the help of all of America, and on behalf of the people of the city, let me just thank all of our American, you know, brothers and sisters from across the country that helped us out.

We lost a lot of people from New Orleans who went to Los Angeles and Houston and Atlanta and Chicago and all over the place. People are eating a lot better because people from New Orleans are cooking for them, I can tell you that. But New Orleans has recovered in a miraculous way. But we still have a long way to go.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

LANDRIEU: General Honore really said it best. When it gets hot, the poor get hotter, and when it gets cold, the poor get colder. And so, you know, as we try to rebuild the city, which has been amazing, we still have things that can get better. But people in New Orleans love it dearly. We're going to fight for it.

We're never going to leave. And the idea is, if you love New Orleans, she's going to love you back. And we're just very thankful and grateful in this moment for all of the help that people across America gave us.

BLACKWELL: How much do you think, if at all, the culture of the city has changed because of Katrina in these last 20 years?

LANDRIEU: You know, people ask me that all the time, and I very confidently say there's a little chance that you're going to change the culture of New Orleans before the culture of New Orleans changes you. Clearly, you know, it's different. When lots of people come in and lots of people go out, but New Orleans has always been a melting pot. Our ethos has been really the ethos of the country that out of many, we are one.

We celebrate diversity in New Orleans. We believe in being a melting pot. We believe in being open and inviting. And the culture here as the -- as the folks talked about, Frank Brigsten, about food, the gentleman about music, of course the pastor about faith, all of those things are endemic to us, and New Orleans very much retains the essence of its soul and we'll continue to grow on that. So we welcome new people.

It changes us a little bit, but we change them a lot quicker. And they learn how to eat gumbo before we learn how to eat whatever they're going to bring down here. So everybody is welcome. It was a tough time. We're going to get through it just like we get through everything down here and we're going to be better for it.

BLACKWELL: There are certainly issues of gentrification and income inequality in New Orleans, just as we see in other cities as well. But as we wrap up our conversation, what do you want to see for the future of New Orleans?

LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, I want to see New Orleans grow. I want to see there to be more opportunity in New Orleans. I want everybody to understand that when we work together, when the federal government, the state government and the local governments are working together, not antagonistic, but in partnership with each other, when we include the faith community, the business community, the cultural community, there's really nothing that we can't do.

But New Orleans, as you know, is 300 years old. We're older than the nation itself. We have always been a melting pot, and we always think that we have a really soulful place in the history of the United States of America, and will continue to do so if we just put one foot in front of the next and keep going. But we will not bow down to New Orleans. That is not in our nature. It's not in our essence. And we're not about to start now.

BLACKWELL: Mitch Landrieu, I appreciate the conversation. Thank you.

LANDRIEU: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right. Coming up this hour, the moment that changed two young lives. CNN revisits the story of twin baby boys who were once in the arms of the man leading military relief efforts after the storm.

Plus, from clinging to hope to giving hope, how this survivor is motivated by her past to give others a healthier future. And next director Spike Lee on his work to keep telling the story of Hurricane Katrina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPIKE LEE, FILM DIRECTOR: The reason I feel that we needed to do this is to remind people 20 years later, what happened 20 years ago and how little progress has happened to save American citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[20:15:08]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Welcome back to our special coverage.

Acclaimed director Spike Lee has covered the consequences of Hurricane Katrina from so many angles. His award-winning documentary, "When the Levees Broke," was filmed just months after the hurricane hit. That captured the raw destruction of the storm, the impact on families and culture.

[20:20:03]

Well, now, years later, Spike has directed the third episode of the new docu-series on Netflix, "Katrina, Come Hell and High Water." And the trailer says it all. This isn't a retelling. It's a reckoning. And I spoke with Spike about the new project.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: What does the scope of time tell you about the impacts of not just the storm, but everything that happened after that?

LEE: In my opinion, New Orleans has never recovered from that loss. They've lost a large base of the black population moved to better lives in Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte, and it's a national shame that New Orleans is still struggling 20 years later. And so I was asked to come aboard on this with my brother Sam Pollard, who's leading the way, and it was heartbreaking to see people still struggling two decades after that. It's a national shame.

BLACKWELL: Is that the failure of leadership or is that the consequence of displacement?

LEE: It is a whole gang of people that could be pointed at. And this is, excuse my language, was a goddam shame. You know, a great culture, so much culture comes out of New Orleans and it's, you know, it's like the reason I feel that we needed to do this is to remind people 20 years later what happened 20 years ago. And how little progress has happened to save American citizens.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Yes, Hurricane Katrina had an outsized impact on black and low-income families. When the storm hit, black people made up 69 percent of New Orleans' population, and black evacuees face five times the level of unemployment compared to whites.

Author and professor Michael Eric Dyson wrote the book on this very topic "Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster." And the professor joins me now.

Brother, it's good to see you. Let me talk about this because, you know, we talk about this in two beats often. There's the storm and then there's the failure of government response. But you write in your book that that's too narrow. And I want to read a line here where you say, "Our being surprised and disgusted by the poverty that Katrina revealed is a way of remaining deliberately naive about the poor while dodging the responsibility that knowledge of their lives would entail."

Pull that thread for me.

MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, AUTHOR, "COME HELL OR HIGH WATER": Yes, sir. It's always great to be with you. We can't pretend as Brother Spike just said, that poverty was already at the root of so much disaster and hurt and pain in New Orleans, an incredible culture, a vital culture, a resilient people. But at the same time, systems of government had failed them. Systems of finance and economics had failed them. Systems of education had failed them.

And as a result of that our, you know, pretending not to have known that this poverty was endemic to that culture and therefore they couldn't make easy egress and escape. You know, when people say, get in your cars and leave, well, a lot of them didn't even have cars. And then where were they going to go? Because they lived closely to their relatives. They lived around the corner or down the block or two blocks away.

It was a very family oriented community, and as a result of that, it left them vulnerable when it came time to escape the horror of the hurricane. And so pretending that we don't know that the economic inequality, the social injustice, and the racial oppression are there in New Orleans in very palpable and visible fashion, and that's something that we have to continue to wrestle with, that the storm laid bare, but continues to aggravate so many people in that wonderful city.

BLACKWELL: And so how much progress has been made in the last 20 years?

DYSON: Well, you know, it's a tale of two cities. On the one hand, of course, the attempt to recover is there. And in many instances in ways there has been profound recovery. But as Spike Lee said, he thinks they're still suffering. They're still not recovered totally. People who couldn't come back, not because they didn't want to come back, but they were pushed out. Other industries came to roost.

[20:25:03]

Other populations came there to take jobs. And as a result of that, the displacement of the storm matched the displacement of the economic and the social and the political orders that continue to hurt and harm those folks. We've had progress in many ways in terms of trying to create a political atmosphere where the will of the people could prevail. And on the other hand, the economic inequality that continues to bewitch that city is as real as it ever has been.

BLACKWELL: Yes. I've got Craig Fugate, the former FEMA administrator, coming up in a few minutes, and I'm going to ask him about resiliency and how prepared we are for the next big storm. Let me ask you that same question in this social responsibility context. How prepared are we as a country for the next big storm?

DYSON: We've got a fascist administration that is incapable of acknowledging the legitimacy, the validity and the centrality of FEMA, whether FEMA should even exist. We are attacking the very institution or at least administration that might be able to administer some relief. So we're fighting on two ends again. On the one end, we're fighting for FEMA to do its job. On the other end, we're fighting for FEMA to even exist.

In a government or administration that doesn't believe in those people, or the necessity of bringing them relief is itself a hurricane of intense proportions that needs to be resolved.

BLACKWELL: And for those people who now have the responsibility of that knowledge, what should they be doing?

DYSON: Well, you know, we should speak up. We should think about the people in New Orleans. You know, when we used to -- when I went to New Orleans long before the hurricane, long before the storm, and you know, I would -- you would see the festivity, you would see the vibrancy of those people. And they weren't people asking for handouts. They were looking to have a favorable encounter with people who were touring their city.

We should return that favor by going there, spending our well-earned money to make sure that that city, that population continues to thrive. And we should put pressure on both local and federal government to pay attention to those people who are most vulnerable to the economic downturn from which they have scarcely recovered.

BLACKWELL: Professor Michael Eric Dyson, always good to talk with you. Thank you.

DYSON: Great to see you.

BLACKWELL: All right. Coming up, a chance encounter in the aftermath of Katrina changes the future for these little boys.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXANDRIA WHEELER, MOTHER OF THE KATRINA TWINS: He was like God's angel. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be here today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:32:04]

BLACKWELL: I want to show you a moment now that would change the course of two lives. This was 20 years ago. The head of the U.S. Army, Lieutenant General Russel Honore, scooped up these twin baby boys. They were on the verge of starving after Katrina.

CNN's Stephanie Elam has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From hurricane evacuees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations, Class of 2024.

ELAM: To high school graduates. For twins J'Mari and A'Mari Reynolds, this moment last year seemed improbable at the beginning of their lives.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now Hurricane Katrina looks --

ELAM: In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, survivors fought challenging circumstances to stay alive.

WHEELER: We hadn't eaten in maybe six days.

ELAM: Alexandria Wheeler, knowing she needed to find help for her six and a half month old sons, waded through the water. Her feet encountering unspeakable horrors in the turbid waters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was two bodies collided like this.

ELAM: When the trio finally made it to the convention center turned makeshift shelter in the muggy heat, they were starving and dehydrated. The infants nearly limp. That's when Lieutenant General Russel Honore, the decorated commander who led the military response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, came to their aid.

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Folks in Washington they were looking at calendars, and we were looking at a clock.

ELAM: It was a moment CNN caught on camera.

WHEELER: He was like God's angel. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be here today.

ELAM: For years, Wheeler says she tried to get in contact with Honore to thank him for his kindness, but it would take another storm, Hurricane Harvey, threatening their new home in Houston in 2017 to bring them together again.

HONORE: Who that boys over here? Who that?

ELAM: Wheeler sent Honore a message on social media and he responded. WHEELER; We don't even have words to put into our mouths to thank you

enough or to repay you back for what you did.

ELAM: Nearly 20 years after their life-altering encounter, Honore celebrated the young men on their graduation day.

HONORE: Larry affectionately referred to you as the Katrina twins because the world got to meet you that day.

ELAM: J'Mari and A'Mari, after a lifetime made possible in part by the man in uniform, chose to honor Honore each in his own way. A'Mari joined the Marine Corps and is currently deployed overseas.

A'MARI REYNOLDS, TWIN RESCUED AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA: I chose to be in the Marines because I watched over the video and I kept watching and it inspired me to want to help people a lot more.

HONORE: You got to learn how to say that word hurrah.

ELAM: Turns out J'Mari will have to learn the lingo, too. After about a year and a half of studying automotive engineering, he's also enlisting in the Marines and will head to boot camp later this year.

J'MARI REYNOLDS, TWIN RESCUED AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA: I would like to thank you so much for your bravery and your help that I was able to survive.

ELAM: How do you feel hearing that these two young men are pursuing these careers that have been inspired in part by you?

[20:35:05]

HONORE: I feel so gratified. I mean, there's no greater service than the service to others.

ELAM (voice-over): The twins now thriving after surviving hell and high water thanks to an undeterred mother.

HONORE: They're here today because of you and your tenacity.

ELAM: And a compassionate commander.

HONORE: That these young men will be game changers. I'm so proud of you.

ELAM: Stephanie Elam, CNN, Hampton, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Oh, wow. Our thanks to Stephanie Elam for that story.

Coming up, how this devastating storm changed America's emergency response to disasters.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:40:30]

BLACKWELL: Welcome back. Hurricane Katrina changed how we prepare for natural disasters, but also how we track these life-threatening storms.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar joins us now for a look at how weather forecasting has gotten a lot more accurate over 20 years.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: In the two decades since Katrina, weather forecasts have improved dramatically. We now have access to more model data, especially higher resolution data, which allows for more detailed forecasts of hurricanes and tropical cyclones. For example, take a look at this model data back from 2005 during Katrina. Now fast forward to now. This is what that model data would look like. Definitely more precise and more robust.

Now, the biggest improvements have actually come with forecast tracks specifically the forecast cone. It keeps getting narrower, shrinking every few years as the accuracy improves. For example, here's a look at Katrina. The black outlined area was the forecast they had back in 2005. That same cone would be this much narrower red version today. This is important because better forecasts come with more precise watches and warnings, so officials can focus on specific areas instead of issuing broad alerts.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Allison.

This storm also exposed major flaws in the U.S. emergency management system. FEMA and its then director Michael Brown faced fierce criticism for the lack of preparedness, slow aid deliveries, insufficient coordination.

Craig Fugate was the director of the Florida Emergency Management Division during Katrina. He was later appointed the head of FEMA.

Craig, good to see you again. As I said, Michael Brown was the FEMA administrator during the storm. Came under a lot of criticism. And, of course, there was that infamous comment, the compliment from then President Bush. Let's get a reminder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: The immediate concern is to save lives and get food and medicine to people so we can stabilize the situation. Again, I want to thank you all for -- and Brown, you're doing a heck of a job. The FEMA director is working 24 --

(APPLAUSE)

BUSH: They're working 24 hours a day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: I wonder from an emergency preparedness perspective, what lessons were learned from that era? CRAIG FUGATE, FORMER FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Probably the biggest lesson

is you can't wait for the assessments to find out how bad something is. Your most precious commodity in response to disasters is time. And I think that's why we learned this lesson in Florida. And I think Congress recognized that when they reformed the Stafford Act and FEMA is we can't wait for the governor to sign paperwork and formally ask for help. If you know it's bad, you need to go and work as a team.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And so that was the lesson learned. Are those lessons being applied? Are there changes 20 years later that show that on a state level and a federal level, that the lesson was learned?

FUGATE: You know, sometimes I think we have to repeat history because a lot of the things that occurred 20 years ago are occurring now. FEMA has lost a lot of senior leadership. You know, in 2005, Secretary Chertoff was doing a stage to review, was actually taking FEMA apart. Senior leadership had left. We had a new governor, new mayor, active hurricane season forecast. So as we go into this hurricane season, you're always concerned we didn't always learn the lessons.

And things like $100,000 review on purchasing in Department of Homeland Security will definitely slow down decision-making if that -- is what has to happen when you're facing a disaster response.

BLACKWELL: Yes, I have to say that it's pretty striking to hear you say sometimes we have to repeat history, considering the pictures we've been looking at over the last 45 minutes or so. If a storm happens like this again, what keeps you up at night? What is the fear?

FUGATE: Well, the fear is we're too slow. You know, when you looked at Katrina, as bad as it was, we weren't going to stop the devastation. But the response could have been much bigger and faster. I mean, Florida, we sent over 6,000 responders in the Mississippi under mutual aid agreements that we had with the states. And nobody can tell me there's not enough resources in this country to respond to a disaster like Katrina.

[20:45:02]

The key is they got to be mobilized early. We have to coordinate it. Disasters are locally led, state managed, and federally supported. But I think sometimes we put so much emphasis on the three different roles that we forget the survivors don't really care. They just want us to be a team and be there when they need us.

BLACKWELL: Yes. You talked about FEMA being prepared, but the administration now says that this should be a state issue, that the state should lead here. Are states equipped to handle storms and responses of this size?

FUGATE: Well, I don't think anybody expects states to handle storms like Katrina all by themselves, but they should be in a position to manage that response, supporting local governments. And the federal government supports the states. And again, some of our states are much more capable, more experienced. Others are less. And that's why FEMA has to be flexible and adjust to the needs of the state. We cannot allow a state to fail. And with our federal resources,

federal partners and other states, we should never have a governor fail because there wasn't enough resources to support the response.

BLACKWELL: Craig Fugate, I appreciate the conversation.

FUGATE: Thanks for having me.

BLACKWELL: All right. Coming up, the heart and soul of New Orleans, how music played a major role in rebuilding the city after Katrina.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:50:53]

BLACKWELL: Now you know the city of New Orleans comes with a soundtrack. Music is the heart of the Big Easy, and it played a crucial role in rebuilding and uniting people in the years after Katrina.

CNN's Randi Kaye is back with that part of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE (voice-over): Music is part of the soul of this city. And when Katrina flooded New Orleans, the music stopped.

HARRIS: It went silent for a minute. It did, it did. Who had money to go to the club or whatever?

KAYE: Was it even open?

HARRIS: Really, really. There was no place to go.

KAYE (voice-over): Musician Michael Harris grew up in New Orleans, in the city's Lower Ninth Ward. He plays bass and acoustic guitar. He was out of the country touring in August 2005 and came home to find his house had been destroyed.

HARRIS: I was like about three or four blocks from where the levee actually broke. And that barge came through and my house wasn't where I left it.

KAYE: Did you find any belongings?

HARRIS: I found one piece of paper. How paper survived. A piece of paper and a license plate from a vehicle that we had.

KAYE (voice-over): Still today, the memories of Katrina remain.

HARRIS: It's still -- they still lingers, you know. We're coming up on the 20th anniversary, and it's still, those memories are fresh, you know. One of the things I really remembered that really shocked me was the smell of death in the air. You know, that, I don't know about the body and the mind or whatever, but it's still there. It's still there.

KAYE: How much did music help you through some of the really the darkest times after Katrina?

HARRIS: That was my therapy. The music was therapeutic because there were so many mixed emotions and everything, and that was my release. It helped me to be even more grateful and appreciate music even more.

KAYE (voice-over): Music was medicine in a city blessed with such rich history. The sounds of Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino and Louis Prima, to name a few. So for Michael, there was no doubt music would bring the community together.

HARRIS: I think that the music has helped the city to recover because it's like they sing Psalms in the bible, you know, make a joyful noise unto the Lord. And that's what that was, making a joyful noise.

KAYE: This is Musician's Village. It's a neighborhood located in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Musicians Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr. partnered with Habitat for Humanity to build this and provide housing for musicians who had lost their homes in the storm. The goal was to preserve the city's unique musical culture.

(Voice-over): The first keys were given to homeowners in 2006.

HARRY CONNICK JUNIOR, ACTOR/MUSICIAN: Let's go over to the car.

KAYE: Today, Michael Harris lives in Musician's Village.

HARRIS: New Orleans is home. I just knew that for me, in my heart, it was here in New Orleans, in this city, I had to come back. And this is pretty much the story of my life since Katrina.

KAYE: As the city continues to bounce back, so has the music.

HARRIS: We are recovering. We are resilient. And this too shall pass.

KAYE: Randi Kaye, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Randi, thanks again.

Coming up, the faces of Katrina not defined by the past and changing the future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COURTNEY JACKSON, KATRINA SURVIVOR: There has to be a purpose, a greater purpose of why I'm here and why I'm a dentist, why I'm in Wisconsin. It has to be a greater purpose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[20:55:03]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: The survivors of Katrina were forever changed by those moments, but not defined by them. Some even inspired by them.

Our CNN affiliate WDSU in New Orleans highlighted their stories. Now, this is Courtney Jackson back then. She was rescued from a flooded home. But here's Courtney now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACKSON: I'm Dr. Courtney Jackson and I survived Hurricane Katrina. That's something like I would never, never forget.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it's still hard for all of us to forget her. The teenage girl in the attic. Courtney finished Xavier and then Howard University School of Dentistry. She set up her practice in Wisconsin.

JACKSON: I'm just grateful to be alive. I'm grateful to be, you know, walking in my purpose because obviously there must be a reason that I'm here, because, otherwise there has to be a purpose, a greater purpose of why im here and why im a Dentist, why im in Wisconsin. It has to be a greater purpose. So im grateful. Im happy. Im blessed.