E-mail a friendSen. Mary Landrieu
airdate August 28, 2008
Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu is part of a political family—her father was New Orleans' mayor and her brother is the state's lieutenant governor. Considered a moderate, she's the state's senior senator and first woman elected to a full Senate term. Her committee assignments include Appropriations and Energy and Natural Resources. Landrieu, whose home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, is on a mission to keep the Gulf Coast rebuilding effort alive for both the Democratic and Republican parties.
Louisiana senator discusses what needs to be done in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (2:26)
Full interview. (3:40)
Sen. Mary Landrieu
Tavis: We close out our week here in Denver with our thoughts and prayers very much with the people of New Orleans. Tomorrow is, of course, the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and now another powerful storm may be headed toward the Gulf Coast.
Earlier this week I spoke to Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, following her speech to this convention.
[Clip]
Tavis: Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu's addressing the convention here in Denver. Senator Landrieu, nice to have you on the program.
Sen. Mary Landrieu: Thank you, Tavis.
Tavis: Nice color, by the way. (Laughs)
Landrieu: Thank you very much.
Tavis: Tomorrow - all jokes aside, tomorrow is the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Your assessment of how we're doing?
Landrieu: We have a long way to go. This recovery is still very much underway and, as you know, because being from Gulfport, having visited it and covered it so extensively, the scope of this catastrophe is still not really quite understood, and it's going to take us several years.
But there's hope. A new school system is being built in New Orleans that's going to be better for every child. We have federal housing vouchers that just came in, but we still are so short on the kind of housing we need to get the region back, and that's really the hope of this next president, to be able to build the muscle, the boldness we need to get the job done.
Tavis: You're very kind to say the region, because you technically represent the great state of Louisiana. But Mississippi, where, as you mentioned, I was born, in Gulfport, was hit awfully hard. The Gulfport-Biloxi area.
Landrieu: Absolutely.
Tavis: Can you contrast and compare for me how New Orleans is doing and what's actually happening on the Gulf Coast, Gulfport-Biloxi area?
Landrieu: Well as you know, there were really two different catastrophes. The one on the Gulf Coast was really caused by a hurricane, by substantial, long winds, high winds. But New Orleans, Tavis, and our region around New Orleans was really a massive flood, because the federal levees broke. New Orleans actually survived Katrina very well.
What we couldn't survive was the failure of the levee system that put 80 percent of the city and the region underwater. And so that really was the problem from the beginning. This White House never would acknowledge or understand the difference between the two and provide one system of help to Mississippi and a whole different one to Louisiana.
We were actually forced to fit into a Mississippi model that was inadequate, as you know, and wholly inadequate for us, because they just didn't believe in a muscular, bold government. Now I'm all for the private sector - I'm for faith-based and I'm for nonprofits. But I'll tell you, Habitat, which you know well, Habitat for Humanity has built more homes than any nonprofit. They've built over 200.
But we lost 250,000. So you see the scale is what we need, and I think Barack Obama knows this, I know he understands it, and when he's the president I think we will see a whole new approach.
Tavis: I've got just a quick 45 seconds here. What would you say tonight on the eve of the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina to the nation as we head into this election season, a nation that may be exhausted by this Katrina conversation?
Landrieu: I would say, Tavis, I know if the nation is tired, just imagine how the people in Louisiana and Mississippi that lost their homes, their schools and their churches. But I want to say thank you to the thousands of volunteers - 500 students from Howard University, literally hundreds of volunteers from small towns in Massachusetts and Seattle, that have come down. Thank them.
Please keep coming, and know there is hope on the way, that we're going to have a new administration in Washington, a strong Democratic Congress that's going to step up and do their part and meet at least the volunteers halfway. So please stay with us. Louisiana and Mississippi, parts of Texas and Alabama will come back, and then we'll start contributing building America and not just asking for help at this time.
Tavis: Nice to have you on.
Landrieu: Thank you very much.
Tavis: Good to see you, senator.
Landrieu: Thank you, Tavis.
Tavis: Thank you.
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