Five hurricanes and a massive oil spill have taught Louisiana Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser a few things about how the federal government reacts to a major disaster.

“I learned that in the beginning, FEMA told you ‘no’ to everything,” says Nungesser. “You had to really read and learn and understand your options.”

Nungesser wasn’t the president of Plaquemines Parish during Hurricane Katrina. But, on this 11th anniversary of the storm, he has his hurricane story to tell.

“Me and my wife rode out Katrina 14 miles from the eye,” he recalls. “We rescued 30-plus people that lived with me for months–[people] I didn’t even know–and animals for months after that–and never saw a politician.”

He didn’t see a politician. So, he became the politician that would help Plaquemines Parish through the tough times.

Nungesser was elected parish president in 2006. He served two terms, which spanned the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, damage from several other hurricanes, and the disaster of the BP oil spill.

“We had to go to Washington and appeal several things to get funding,” Nungesser says. “We had to jump through hoops in certain cases.”

Nungesser says the process has gotten a lot better today. And, it’s his experience with disasters that gives him the perfect skill set to help with the current post-flooding recovery in the state.

“The governor has asked me to step in and help wherever I can,” Nungesser says.

One of the messages he has for those rebuilding is they will need help. For that reason, Nungesser is spreading the word about VolunteerLouisiana.gov. It is a place for people interested in helping gut homes or lending a hand in other ways.  It has also been upgraded to accept donations which Nungesser says will be stored in Baton Rouge and distributed to areas of need.

There will be many areas of need, according to Nungesser. He says FEMA is awarding an average of $7,500 to flood victims who didn’t have insurance and didn’t live in a flood zone.

“That won’t rebuild your home,” Nungesser points out. “So, unless there is additional federal monies coming down, we’re going to have to rely on volunteers, these non-profit groups that come in to help rebuild your home.”

This is a different role for Louisiana’s lieutenant governor.  Usually, the lieutenant governor acts as the chief promoter of the state, attracting tourists and economic opportunities from the rest of the country and world. Now, his pitch is aimed at volunteers.

But the traditional role has not completely disappeared.

“We’ll be working to make sure we deliver the message loud and clear to America: we’re open for business,” promises Nungesser. “I’ll be reaching out to all the lieutenant governors in every state asking them if they want to help Louisiana, yes, make a donation–or if you want to come volunteer. But take a weekend and come visit Louisiana. Come spend some money here as a tourist. That will help our economy.”

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Jean Joseph remembers that she couldn’t run, because the rubber in the soles of her shoes had melted into the floor.

She remembers the way her friend seemed to have become a human x-ray, because she could see the bones of his skull and spine as if she were looking right through him.

She remembers the nurses who were so rough with her they made her cry, and the ones who were as gentle as angels.

Almost one year after Hurricane Katrina, on August 26, 2006, Jean Joseph got the FEMA-provided trailer she’d been waiting for.  A friend had allowed her to put it in a big yard in New Orleans East.

The inspector for the trailer company showed her around inside and answered her questions.  Jean had been curious about the stove, and the inspector showed her how to start the burners.  Outside, he showed her the propane tanks and had her sign the paperwork.

Photograph by Gus Bennett

In the federal government’s initial disorganized response to the storm, journalists reported on the desperate plight of of flood victims who lacked temporary housing.  As a CNN correspondent, I reported the story of thousands of brand new FEMA trailers sitting in a field in Arkansas.  Later, I reported on the Congressional hearings that raised the possibility that formaldehyde in the particle board used inside the trailers was making people sick.  But I had never heard about the potential for FEMA trailer fires.

According to statistics from the Louisiana Fire Marshal’s office , reported by freelance reporter Mark Robinson in Gambit in 2007, there were nearly twice as many fires as usual between 2005 and 2006 that involved  various kinds of mobile homes.  But current Deputy Chief Fire Marshal Brant Thompson says the numbers may not be accurate.  Thompson says his office has changed its data bases four times since Katrina, and he can’t vouch for the report.

On the day she signed the inspection papers,  Jean waited outside the trailer for about 20 minutes for a friend, Bernard Mabry, to join her. Together, they walked around the trailer, and then opened the door to go inside.  Jean has written a screenplay that describes what happened next.  Reading it is not for the faint of heart.

From “And Still I Rise” by Jean Joseph:

Jean walked over to the bed
and started to empty the overnight bag. She noticed a
strange smell.
JEAN
It smells funny in here.
Suddenly,there is a loud noise behind her.
JEAN
What the hell?
Jean turn toward the source of the noise. (Bernard) is on fire.
He’s moving animatedly like a wind-up toy and yelling. The
yellow and blue components of the fire separated and are
spreading across the trailer’s interior. Meanwhile,
a massive blue ball of fire is hurling toward her. She
glanced toward the door, but the fear of the fire prevented
her from moving. She decided it would be quicker to turn her
back to the fire than to try to escape. She’s
immediately engulfed in flames and began to scream.
They screamed together in pain and agony.
(screaming)
God please, help us! Lord have
mercy!
(Screaming)
Help! Lord, have mercy. Jesus!

In showing Jean how to use the stove, the inspector had inadvertently left the burners open, allowing propane gas to fill the trailer.  When Jean and Bernard stepped inside, the gas ignited, causing the explosion.

They were both taken to a New Orleans-area hospital, then flown to the Galveston Burn Center in Texas, where Bernard died 19 days later.

In the screenplay, Jean says she saw him in a dream, standing by her hospital bed, alive and healthy, telling her goodbye.  But she fought to stay alive for the sake of her daughter, Mijah, who was just a teenager at the time.

Over the course of six months,  Jean endured multiple skin grafts in Galveston and later in the burn unit at Baton Rouge Medical Center.   Today, she jokes that she has had so many surgeries,  “80 %” of (her) body is a graft.”

Still, 10 years after the fire — and on the eleventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s strike on the Gulf Coast — Jean  says her life is “blessed.”

A local law firm sued the trailer contractor and won a settlement that has allowed her to live independently with her now grown daughter and son.  She got a degree in humanities from Loyola University.  And encouraged by her sister to “put her story out there,” she wrote the screenplay that she will pitch, in person, at a movie producers’ conference in Santa Monica in November.

The screenplay  ends with the fulfillment of a promise Jean says she made to God.  If he would heal her enough to be able to walk again, she would “second line” out of the hospital.   On the day she was discharged in January 2007, with Mardi Gras beads and a parasol provided by nurses, Jean kept that promise.

From “And Still I Rise,” by Jean Joseph:

Wait ’til you hear the music before
you come out the room.
Deidre hugged Jean before she left the room. Deidre put the
beads around Jean’s neck and hugged her. When she hears the
music, she dances out her room and down the hallway.

Jean is casting for actors to perform a “pitch reel” of her screenplay. Auditions will be held Saturday, Sept. 10, at 3233 St. Bernard Avenue, from 10 am until 4 pm.

BAY ST. LOUIS, MS (WGNO) - The Waveland Ground Zero Hurricane Museum is full of photos, artifacts, and exhibits telling the story of Hurricane Katrina from the point of view from Waveland, MS. Even the building itself is part of the story.

"It was the old Waveland school. And, it was the only remaining public building in the city of Waveland after Katrina," says Kathy Pinn, director of the museum. "The boy scouts used to meet in here. And, Ms. Connie West, who is a resident of Waveland--she would not let the architect touch this wall."

Pinn points to a wall with peeling paint, covered in drawings of boy scout merit badges. "The boy scouts used to meet in here," she adds. "Ms. Connie West, who is a resident of Waveland--she would not let the architect touch this wall."

The museum includes photos of the devastation from the hurricane. But, it really tells the story of how the community came together to rebuild.

"Some people think it's sad," Pinn says.  "But, I view it as a way to reflect on what happened to us. It's part of history how we rebuilt, how we stayed, how we have become the great community that we are today."

Burnell Cotlon held a grand opening Thursday for the new business. It's a big step for the Lower Ninth Ward.

"Growing up in the Lower Ninth Ward we had everything. There were businesses on every corner. We had funeral homes. We had grocery stores. We had everything. We were a thriving community. And then along came Katrina, taking everything away," said Cotlon. "You have to catch three city buses just to make groceries and that's an undue hardship. The closest real grocery store that we have before they opened the one in Gentilly was in Chalmette. You actually had to leave New Orleans to make groceries."

Cotlon decided to use his life savings to try to rebuild his neighborhood. He started off by opening a barber shop four years ago at Caffin and Gálvez. Then he built a snowball stand. When big chain grocery stores refused to build in the Lower Nine, he went out and bought items on his own and opened up his own grocery store.

"It still is a huge undertaking today. I do deliveries. I pick up my own supplies. I belong to Costco and Sam's. I cut out newspaper clippings to see what's on sale. I'm not a Walmart, but you can come here and get a loaf of bread. You can come here and get a gallon of milk and eggs," said Cotlon.

And thanks to donations from New Orleans native and TV Star Ellen Degeneres, now Cotlon has opened this laundromat! Cotlon knows that the Lower Nine still has a long way to go, and each month he's barely making it out of the red, but he's happy with the progress his community has made.

"This is the only laundry room in this part of town. This is the only grocery store in this part of town, the only ATM machine in this part of town. There's still so much that we need here - and that's why I can't stop," said Cotlon.

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) - New Orleanians probably know Chris Rose’s name from reading his legendary work in The Times-Picayune, or maybe from "1 Dead in the Attic" his New York Times best-selling book of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

That’s why Rose was a natural choice for LBJ’s Gone Fishin’ series.

Rose spent most of his professional life commenting on the state of our city, but these days he's got a new endeavor.

"There's only two things that I know to do, and one of them is not fish.  I know how to write and I know how to talk, and I have no other marketable skills whatsoever,” he says. “What I have learned is that you make more money in this town talking than you can writing.”

Rose has started a unique take on French Quarter tours.

"The tour is - and I gotta get this right because sometimes I mix up words - basically it's called The New Orleans Magical Musical History Mystery Tour.  What it is, the first thing is, every word of it is true. That's the first tour that can guarantee that,” he says.

Some business owners would try to map out a marketing plan using traditional methods, but not him. He decided to capitalize on folks who were already in touch.

"You know I used to be famous … I used to be famous,” he says. “Back then, I got myself a lot of Facebook friends, and I held on to them, because one day I'm gonna need these people for something.”

Want to take a tour? Email Rose at chrisrose504@gmail.com.

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The group Levees.org announced on Thursday (Oct. 20) that it has received support needed from the New Orleans City Council to create a Katrina monument in Gentilly.

According to the group, the monument will be in the 4900 block of Warrington Drive in the Mirabeau Gardens neighborhood.

The monument will actually be a house that was flooded to its roof after Hurricane Katrina breached the nearby floodwall on the London Avenue Canal.

As part of the monument, the exterior of the home will be preserved to show how it looked after the storm.  Levees.org plans to create a display inside the home that shows how it would have looked six weeks after the storm.  The group wants to replicate the mud-covered, toppled furniture and the mold that was found growing on walls in virtually thousands of Katrina-damaged houses after the storm.

The group hopes to get help from artists and craftsmen to replicate the storm damage.

Creating the monument required the council’s approval of a zoning change for the lot.  The Levees.org group is dedicated to educating the public about the impacts of the storm.

Anyone interested in helping is asked to email the founder of Levees.org, Sandy Rosenthal, at sandy@levees.org.

The ribbon cutting for the monument is planned for March of next year.

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Seventeen plaintiffs involved in civil lawsuits over police shootings that happened just before and during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will split a $13.3 million settlement, Mayor Mitch Landrieu announced at a press conference Monday afternoon.

Landrieu said the settlement brings an end to “a very dark moment in the history of New Orleans.”

The mayor was joined by the families of James Brissette, Ronald Madison, Henry Glover and Raymond Robair, all of whom died at the hands of NOPD officers.

“After all the work we’ve done, we come here to do the hardest thing as a city … to say I’m sorry, and to say I forgive you. Both are pathways to healing for individuals and families,” Landrieu said.

Brissette, 17, and Madison, 40, were shot and killed by NOPD officers Sept. 4, 2005 on the Danziger Bridge. Both were unarmed, and Madison was mentally challenged.

Glover, 31, was shot and killed by officers outside a strip mall after Katrina. Officers then burned his body in a car.

Robair, 48, was beaten to death by an NOPD officer about a month before the storm.

Five officers were charged in connection with Glover’s death, but only one, ex-NOPD officer Gregory McRae, is serving prison time for Glover’s death and the subsequent cover-up.

Five former officers also pleaded guilty to their roles in the Danziger Bridge shootings and cover-ups. Four of them received seven-12 year prison sentences, while a fifth got three years for his role in covering up the crime.

“We have come to the conclusion of a very painful episode,” Landrieu said. “When these individuals were looking for people to protect and serve … they got the complete opposite. Money can never fill the hole, but I am hopeful that an apology on behalf of the city and forgiveness from the family … I’m hoping in some sense the strength of these families will help the city find peace in our future.”

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – A nonprofit whose sole mission is to help rebuild one of the neighborhoods hit hardest by Katrina is in need of #smallchange.

You see, it’s #smallchange that leads to big impact in the Lower Ninth Ward, where Katrina recovery lags behind other neighborhoods due to widespread poverty and the sheer level of devastation that hit the area 11 years ago. One hundred percent of homes in the Lower Ninth Ward were deemed uninhabitable in 2005.

That’s in addition to toxic mold, toxic FEMA trailers, toxic Chinese sheetrock, fraudulent contractors, insurance and mortgage companies and a host of other setbacks residents have had to overcome.

Photo courtesy lowernine.org Facebook page

Since its inception, lowernine.org has rebuilt 83 homes in the neighborhood and helped with repairs and renovations of more than 200 other homes in the Lower Ninth Ward. That’s more rebuilding in the neighborhood than any other single organization.

But as of this year, only 36.7 percent of the pre-Katrina population has returned home.

Before Katrina, the Lower Ninth Ward was home to one of the highest rates of black home ownership in the nation.

FEMA has set a Katrina “closeout” date for 2025. According to lowernine.org, it will take until at least 2035 to finish rebuilding the Lower Ninth.

This holiday season, the local nonprofit has launched a #smallchange campaign. The goal is to raise $11,000 by Dec. 31, all with the help of small donations that will add up to make a big difference.

As of Christmas Eve, the #smallchange campaign had raised $9,680, just $1,320 short of its fundraising goal. Click here to help.

lowernine.org was started by Rick Prose, a boat builder from Maine. The nonprofit served as a spinoff of the Emergency Communities organization, which provided early post-Katrina disaster relief in Orleans, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes, as well as Waveland, Mississippi.

The group’s rebuilding efforts depend on skilled supervisors overseeing countless unskilled volunteers from around the country.

Photo courtesy lowernine.org Facebook page

WASHINGTON – A  report from the federal Office of the Inspector General claims that FEMA should not have awarded the City of New Orleans and the Sewerage and Water Board $2 billion to repair streets and water lines after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

And the report says the federal government should get that money back– an amount equivalent to $5,200 for every man, woman, and child in the city.

“Even though FEMA attributed the damages to the water distribution system directly to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005,” writes Acting Inspector General  John McCoy, “we concluded that FEMA did not have sufficient documentation to support its decision.”

In fact, the OIG report says FEMA agreed to repairs that go far beyond the amount the federal government– and ultimately American taxpayers– should have to pay.

” Evidence shows,” writes McCoy in the report, that the city’s “infrastructure was old and in poor condition even before the hurricanes…. and it is the applicant’s responsibility to show that the damages are disaster-related.”

While the Inspector General’s report claims that FEMA should not have awarded the money in the first place — $758 million dollars initially and $1.25 billion in the years since then– the report puts part of the blame on New Orleans officials for not providing “credible evidence” to justify putting the federal government on the hook for the repairs.

“Neither the City nor the S&W Board provided evidence that the disasters were the direct cause of the infrastructure damages,” says the OIG report and, “since FEMA worked directly with the S&W Board to return the water distribution system to its pre-disaster condition, it was unable to independently evaluate or validate the documentation that demonstrated the damages were directly caused by the hurricanes.”

The OIG report noted that some damage, like water lines pulled apart by uprooted trees,  could be directly linked to the hurricanes but alleges that the “broad scope of work” agreed to by FEMA basically means the entire replacement of “an aging and poorly maintained system of sewer, water, and roads” — on the federal government’s tab.

How much is too much repair work?  The OIG breaks the number down to an eye-popping amount. “This massive investment,” says the report, “represent(s) almost $5,200 for every man, woman, and child in New Orleans.”

Still, the OIG report pits one branch of the federal government against another, and, not surprisingly, FEMA’s response to the report is thanks for the review- but no deal.

According to George Robinson, FEMA Regional Administrator, “FEMA believes accepting the OIG recommendations would result in an unjustified de-obligation of funding for eligible City (of New Orleans) infrastructure projects.”

While acknowledging the “complexity” of proving “causation,” the response does not suggest that any money will be leaving New Orleans– to go back to the federal treasury.

NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans native Christine Vincent just moved back to her hometown from Houston.

She's five months pregnant, and Saturday, she was one of hundreds, if not thousands, to lose her vehicle to the flood.

Vincent said she had just picked up her boyfriend from work downtown Saturday afternoon, when the rain started coming down harder and got too deep to drive through.

"I started crying," she recalled.

They pulled onto the neutral ground near the Carver Theater and thought they would just wait for the water to recede.

When it started going into the car, Vincent's boyfriend said they had to get out.

The two stood on the steps of the Carver Theater for a while, then Vincent eventually remembered that her cousin lives about 10 blocks away from where they were stranded.

They made the 10-block trek to her cousin's house, through water that was waist-deep.

"It was raining, pouring. We were soaking wet. There was trash all over. Everything floating around," she said. "My boyfriend stubbed his toe on a brick, because we couldn't see past the water. Everything was so dirty."

Eventually, they realized that her car was not going anywhere on Saturday afternoon, so they had to get a ride home to Harahan and leave the vehicle for two days.

When she got to the tow lot Monday, her vehicle wouldn't start.

"I'm trying to hope for the best, hope that something dries out. That's the only car we have," she said.

She said it brought back painful memories of Katrina and reminded her that "we have a lot more left to do."

"From all that we suffered from Katrina, I thought that we would learn our lesson," she said. "The city and the people both could have done better. There was trash everywhere. People throw their trash on the ground."

NEW ORLEANS — Twelve years ago today, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, and Houston welcomed evacuees with open arms.

As New Orleans remembers the storm that forever changed the city, Tropical Storm Harvey is still wreaking havoc on Houston and Southeast Texas, while also bringing heavy rainfall to South Louisiana.

The annual wreath-laying ceremony and prayer service at the Katrina Memorial in Mid-City has been postponed. The city has not announced a new date. It was supposed to start at 8:29 a.m.

The Katrina second line and march that was supposed to happen this morning also has been postponed. It has been rescheduled for Sunday, Sept. 3 at 10 a.m. It will start at the corner of Jourdan Avenue and Galvez Street.

On this day in 2005, Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 storm between Grand Isle and the mouth of the Mississippi River.

Roughly 80 percent of New Orleans flooded, mainly because of levee system failures. Orleans and St. Bernard parishes were hit the hardest.

More than 1,800 people died in Louisiana and Mississippi, and more than 1,500 of those deaths were in Louisiana.

So far, Harvey has claimed the lives of at least nine people in Texas, though Fox News has that number at 14.

There are flash flood watches — and some warnings — in effect for the New Orleans metro area through Thursday.

NEW ORLEANS -- Five years after what some call  the biggest manmade disaster this country has ever seen, the Presbytere opened the doors to its exhibit "Living with hurricanes, Katrina and beyond."

Combining eyewitness accounts, historical context, immersive environments and in-depth scientific exploration, "Katrina and Beyond" enables visitors to understand the 2005 storms, Katrina and Rita, and their impact on Louisiana, the Gulf Coast and the nation.

It is a story of how a culture – the rich, varied world of New Orleans and coastal Louisiana – has learned to live with the fragility of its environment and how the storms of 2005 gave rise to a new vision for the region.

Now, 12 years later, on this rainy anniversary of Katrina, do we want to keep dwelling in the destruction?

"Even 12 years later there's lessons to be learned from history and I think the exhibition helps us to ponder another question, which is, 'Are we ready to move on?' It's been now a dozen years, and we want to move forward and picture New Orleans for what it will become in the future," said museum director Steve Maklansky.

Throughout the galleries are compelling artifacts, including music legend Fats Domino's baby grand piano found in his flooded Ninth Ward house, a Coast Guard rescue basket and seats from the heavily damaged Louisiana Superdome, where thousands of people sought refuge and rescue. The objects serve as touchstones in recalling the days after the storm.

The museum costs just $5 to enter and is open year round.

NEW ORLEANS -- For eight years, a  special boat sat in front of the Louisiana State Museum in Jackson Square.

This boat helped to rescue more than 400 people during Hurricane Katrina.

Suddenly, this boat has been removed from the front of the museum.

On the 12th anniversary of Katrina, News with a Twist Reporter Kenny Lopez talks with the "hurricane hero" who drove the boat and rescued all those people.

Kenny Bellau became a hurricane hero during Katrina.  For 14 days, he rescued over 400 people using this boat that he jump-started using only a screwdriver.

"This was the key to the boat that I used to start the boat with every day," Bellau said.

This boat became a symbol of the heroic search and rescue missions during Katrina.  It was placed right in the front of the Louisiana State Museum in Jackson Square, where it sat for eight years until recently.

"They gave me no reason why the boat was removed, I just don't know.  It seems like the boat is a victim of politics.  They probably just wanted to put something new there," he said.

Bellau understands that times change, but he says it's sad because the boat is a piece of history that shouldn't be forgotten.

"We're missing an educational opportunity for people to learn about Katrina," he said.

"12 years on and it is still kind of weird.  We are still worried about the same things when Katrina hit.  We're worried about the pumping stations.  We're worried about flooding.  We're worried about the levees.  All of the same things seem to be repeated," Bellau said.

The boat is a reminder of our history, but will it ever be on display again?

"It was a very popular exhibit, it grossed a lot of money for the museum.  It's just sad that its no longer there.  It was a good ambassador for New Orleans and a good ambassador for the resilience of the New Orleans people," he said.

Right now, they are currently looking for a new spot to put the boat.  Most likely it will be placed somewhere in the French Quarter or Warehouse District, but there are no definite plans.

The boat means a lot to Bellau.  He proposed and got married to his wife, Candy, in front of the boat in 2014.

We reached out to the Lt. Governor's office to find out why the boat was removed.  They said, “While the importance and significance of this boat will never diminish, it is time to find a new exhibit for the front of the Presbytere that will increase interest and visitation while also coinciding with the 300th Anniversary of New Orleans.”

Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré drew a stark distinction Saturday when asked about President Donald Trump’s tweets accusing San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz of “poor leadership” in her response to the humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.

“The mayor’s living on a cot, and I hope the President has a good day at golf,” said Honoré, who led the military response in 2005 to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Honoré made his remarks during an interview on CNN Newsroom.

Trump tweeted after Cruz criticized the White House’s response to Maria’s disastrous impact on the US commonwealth. During an interview Friday on CNN, she cast the situation as “a story of devastation that continues to worsen.”

Cruz also said she and her family are staying at the Coliseum in San Juan, along with more than 600 people. They’re sleeping on cots and eating the same food as everyone else after their house flooded.

The President is spending the weekend at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. On Tuesday, he’s due to visit Puerto Rico, where Maria killed at least sixteen people and left many of the island’s 3.4 million residents without power and water.

Much more work must be done to meet Puerto Rico’s critical humanitarian needs after Hurricane Maria, the US territory’s top official said Saturday, while also emphasizing that the federal government is fulfilling his every request — striking a conciliatory tone minutes after President Donald Trump lambasted a mayor who criticized the US response.

“We need to do a lot more in order for us to get out of the emergency,” Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló said in San Juan. “But the other thing that’s also true is that the administration has answered and has complied with our petitions in an expedited manner.”

Eleven days after Hurricane Maria rammed Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm, millions in the US commonwealth remain without regular electricity service, and many have limited access to gas, cash and running water. At least 16 people died there as a result of the storm, the government has said.

Earlier Saturday, Trump — who plans to visit the island Tuesday — used Twitter to criticize San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz and the “leadership ability” of some in Puerto Rico who “want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.” Cruz earlier had criticized the distribution of aid and said the feds needed to do more.

Rosselló, while updating reporters on recovery efforts, tread carefully on the back-and-forth.

“I don’t feel that (Trump’s) message was sent in general,” Rosselló said. “I am committed to collaborating with everybody. This is a point where we can’t look at small differences. We can’t establish differences based on politics.”

Rosselló acknowledged many of the island’s 3.4 million citizens could leave for good, and more people could die, if conditions don’t improve soon.

With most of the power transmission grid destroyed, more than 95% of customers are without regular electricity service. Only 10.7% of the island’s cell phone towers are working. People are waiting in hours in line at gas stations and thinly supplied groceries. Some communities are isolated by phone outages and blocked and damaged roads.

“My invitation … is to recognize what the important issue is: Helping the people of Puerto Rico. Everything else is fodder to the side,” he said.

Trump: Some leaders ‘want everything to be done for them’

Trump’s Twitter attack on Cruz came after a day after she stepped up criticism of the federal response, saying aid wasn’t being distributed efficiently.

Wearing a black shirt that read, “Help Us, We Are Dying,” she appeared Friday night on CNN to say the situation was desperate.

“People are drinking out of creeks here in San Juan,” she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “You have people in buildings, and they’re becoming caged in their own buildings — old people, retired people that don’t have any electricity.”

“We’re dying here. We truly are dying here. I keep saying it: SOS. If anyone can hear us; Mr. Trump can hear us, let’s just get it over with and get the ball rolling,” she said.

On Saturday morning, Trump responded.

“The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump,” the President tweeted.

“Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job,” his tweets read.

Cruz said she and her family are staying at the Coliseum in San Juan, along with more than 600 people. They’re sleeping in cots and eating the same food as everyone else after their house flooded.

She also pushed back against acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke, who said this week that the government’s response in Puerto Rico “is really a good news story in terms of our ability to reach people.”

“It’s not a good story when people are dying, starving, thirsty, when people can’t go back to work,” Cruz told Cooper on Friday night. “I don’t know who in their right mind would say this is a good story to tell.”

Duke, who traveled Friday to Puerto Rico, said she was referring to how well everyone is working together.

“The end of my statement about good news was, it was good news that the people of Puerto Rico, the many public servants of the US and the government of Puerto Rico are working together, and … it’s nice to see communities together trying to recover and support each other,” she said.

Struggling for basics

For many in Puerto Rico, trying to get the basics, like fuel, has become a grueling, all-day affair.

More than 710 of the island’s roughly 1,110 gas stations were working as of Saturday morning, according to the Puerto Rican government’s website for information on the recovery.

But stations often are closing in the evening, ahead of a government-mandated 9 p.m. curfew designed to limit looting. And lines in the day are long.

In Loíza, residents waited for more than 10 hours Frida for gas. The town’s deputy mayor, Luis Escobar, summed it up as a broken chain. “No fuel, no work, no money.”

Without gas or transport, people can’t get to their jobs. Without work, there is no money to buy necessities.

After spending an entire day waiting for fuel, the next days are spent trying to get food and other basic supplies, residents say.

There’s also a cash scarcity. Many of Puerto Rico’s businesses, supermarkets and gas stations will accept only cash because credit card systems are down.

At least half of all bank branches remain shuttered, in part because they can’t get enough armored trucks with gas, or truck drivers, to deliver cash safely. Roughly 90 open bank branches are limiting the amount people can withdraw per day, the governor said Friday, to ensure everyone can get some cash.

All phone landlines working; cell service largely down

Recovery efforts this weekend may be hampered by rain.

Puerto Rico is under a flash flood watch until late Sunday, as between 2 and 4 inches of rain could fall, the National Weather Service said. Low-lying areas are at risk for flooding as drainage pumps aren’t functioning at full capacity.

“(The rain will be) a problem — a lot of the rivers and streams in Puerto Rico have yet to recede to normal levels,” CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar said Saturday.

Rosselló and FEMA officials gave the following updates on recovery efforts Saturday:

• All phone landlines are now working, but cell service still is mostly down. Only 10.7% of cell towers were operational Saturday morning.

• The government still is in the process of buying a few thousand crates of private-sector goods — such as food meant for grocery stores — that have been sitting idle at the Port of San Juan. Companies that can’t access the port and deliver the goods will be forced to sell the items to the commonwealth, which will distribute them, Rosselló said.

• About 10,000 people are in roughly 230 shelters.

• About half of the island’s customers have regular water service.

• Millions of meals and liters of water are being sent from ports to 11 distribution points throughout the island, where local governments can pick them up for distribution. In some cases, FEMA or other agencies are delivering directly to isolated communities.

• Fifty-one of the island’s 69 hospitals are open. Nine of the open hospitals have regular electricity service; the rest are powered by generators.

Homes and streets still flooded

About 45 miles from San Juan, in the town of Florida, fish swim in the streets that are still flooded after the hurricane.

Though the town is nowhere near the coast, the storm backed up a nearby creek, causing the flooding and forcing families from their homes.

Despite the total collapse of utilities, residents are cleaning up and clearing debris from roads.

Officials from FEMA arrived in town Friday, and residents peppered them with questions: When will supplies come? How long will it take?

“FEMA’s not going to forget about this community,” the agency’s Caroline Cuddy told CNN’s Ivan Watson. “FEMA’s not going to forget about the needs that they have, and we’re going to work with our people back in our field office in San Juan about what we’re going to do.”

NEW ORLEANS -  At the New Orleans Museum of Art, it's about time.

About time for a 200 year old clock that finally gets the spot it deserves. It's a spot in the spotlight.

WGNO News with a Twist features guy Wild Bill Wood notices something about this clock that's now in the spotlight.

This clock is much more than a clock. It's a miracle.

New Orleans Museum of Art curator Mel Buchanan agrees that the clock, this clock is in fact a real miracle.

Mel Buchanan is more than a musuem curator.  She's part of the team that saved the clock which was donated to the museum.

The gift was given in pieces, practically. Hardly a whole clock.  It was a whole mess.

It was in a New Orleans clock shop getting fixed when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.  Katrina left the clock underwater and a mess.

The clock was in a real fix.

Then the clock took a real trip back in time.  It went back to London where it all started.  In the England where one of the world's top clock doctors brought the clock back to life.

Now, it's ticking and tocking and chiming on the hour the way it was when it was born back in the 1800's.

It's guilded with gold and bronze and what looks like diamonds and emeralds and rubies.

It's at the New Orleans Museum of Art on the second floor for you to see.

It's simply, timely.

NEW ORLEANS-- Today, First Grace United Methodist Church will be celebrating their 10th anniversary.  It's a milestone for this diverse and somewhat unorthodox Methodist church.

First Grace United Methodist Church is actually two churches that combined to form one.  You see, Hurricane Katrina left two congregations on Canal Street in dire straits. Those two churches were: First United Methodist and Grace United Methodist. Neither church could've survived on their own.  First United Methodist Church was primarily white and elderly, while Grace United Methodist was primarily black.  The two congregations decided to combine rather than disband.  They combined despite any cultural or societal  tensions that may have existed.  Both congregations have worked together to form a united place of worship for all.  They are very inclusive and open to all people.

Their website states: "First Grace is an urban community of faith embracing all of God's children as persons of sacred worth, regardless of station in life, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity."

"Literally every type of person comes to church here.  Everyone's welcome here all the time.  Both of these churches were rooted in tradition, but Hurricane Katrina forced a merger.  Of course there were a lot of what if's, but the result is absolutely beautiful," Rebekah Bradshaw with First Grace United Methodist Church said.

First Grace United Methodist Church prides itself on being "an urban community of faith embracing all of God's children as persons of sacred worth, regardless of station in life, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

First Grace United Methodist Church is located at 3401 Canal Street.   Shawn Moses Anglim is the Pastor.  Prior to Katrina, both congregations were a mile away from each other.

NEW ORLEANS — The New Orleans attorney who represented the owners of a St. Bernard Parish nursing home where dozens of residents died after Hurricane Katrina is now representing a Florida nursing home in a similar case.

Jim Cobb is known locally for his work on the case of St. Rita’s Nursing Home, where 35 elderly residents perished in Katrina’s floodwaters.

The nursing home’s owners, Sal and Mabel Mangano, were charged with 35 counts of negligent homicide, but a jury in West Feliciana Parish acquitted them on all charges.

Fast forward to 10 years later, and a similar case in Florida has made headlines in recent months. Four residents of the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills died in the first three days the nursing home was without power after Hurricane Irma, with another four dying shortly after the nursing home was evacuated.

Six additional were deaths reported in the following days and weeks. Several of the deaths were heat-related.

Some of the residents’ families have filed lawsuits against the Florida nursing home. Cobb told WGNO in a phone interview that no criminal charges have been filed in connection with the deaths, though the criminal investigation is still active.

Jim Cobb

The two cases are very similar, Cobb said, particularly when it comes to “politicians trying to scapegoat” the nursing home employees and owners instead of focusing on the government’s own failures.

“The whole notion of trying to blame people criminally when they did the very best they could in an emergency situation was rejected by the jury here,” Cobb said. “The jury said it wasn’t fair to blame just Sal and Mabel when so many mistakes were made on so many different levels.”

Staff members at the nursing home made numerous phone calls to the utility company and 911. Cobb said each time they called, they were told that help was on the way.

“Do you believe them when they say that? Or do you try to move a bunch of elderly people out?” he  said. “You’re sort of damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”

He also pointed to research that shows elderly people and other more vulnerable populations are more likely to die during an evacuation than they are if they shelter in place.

“If you move them, you lose them,” he said.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott had harsh words for the nursing home, saying that “no amount of finger pointing … will hide the fact that this healthcare facility failed to do their basic duty to protect life.”

Cobb countered that government officials in Florida, with an especially large population of elderly residents, did not have procedures in place to adequately deal with the threat of power loss for nursing homes after the storm.

“The government is the best finger pointer of all time,” he said. “They ought to stand in front of a mirror and ask what we could have done better to prevent this.”

Cobb authored a book, “Flood of Lies: The St. Rita’s Nursing Home Tragedy,” which told the story of the nursing home from the moment the tragedy unfolded in St. Bernard Parish to the jury verdict two years later.

NEW ORLEANS - The Orleans Levee District Police celebrated a major groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday morning at their new headquarters in Gentilly.

The new state of the art police complex will be built at Elysian Fields and Lakeshore Drive, just across the street from the University of New Orleans campus.

The site actually housed the Levee District police department before Hurricane Katrina, but the old building has sat vacant since then.

Local leaders, board members, and officers stood by golden shovels and construction equipment during Tuesday's event, touting the new 10,000 square foot headquarters, which cost roughly $3 million.

The site is easily accessible and strategically located for the department.

It includes a modernized dispatch and communications center, training room, holding cell, locker rooms, and break room. It will also be secured with fencing, and there will be a storage garage for police vehicles.

"The old facility was worn down insufficient for modern policing and this has been a long time in the planning so we are glad the day is finally here," Board President of the Flood Protection Authority East Joe Hassinger said.

The Levee District Police provide security and law enforcement along hundreds of miles of barriers that make up the flood defense system. They also work with the NOPD, JPSO & more.