An Evening with Anderson Cooper

March 17^th

Quote of the Day:

They rebuilt the levees to their pre-Katrina condition. By not making any structural improvements the levees are just as susceptible as they were during hurricane Katrina. The reason is political- the national government does not want to pay for rebuilding them and the state government does not want to pay. So they were just put back up the way they were. –Daniel (One of our Site Supervisors)

Today we continued working with St. Bernard Project. Groups continued with their previous day’s work. Two of the groups went on a levee tour along the Mississippi river and MR GO- Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. The group learned about the canals that were built throughout the city. They learned how MR GO has decreased the amount of wetlands near the city and allow hurricanes to intensify. We also walked along the levees and saw where they broke in the lower ninth ward. Many people in the group were taken aback by the fact that the levees were not rebuilt stronger.

During the evening the group went out to eat dinner at Kosher Cajun. Kosher Cajun is one of two kosher restaurants in the New Orleans area (the other being Casablanca). Kosher Cajun has taken very good care of us all week, catering our dinners, and they are proud of the fact that they return to New Orleans so quickly after the storm.

Finally, as most people know, we had a great opportunity to watch the taping of Anderson Cooper 360. We arrived just in time and got front row position in the audience and got to hold our signs up for the nation to see! Cooper spent five minutes talking to our students before the show, signed autographs for anyone that asked, and took a group photo with us. We left buzzing from the excitement, but we still need to get some rest as we have another full day of work ahead of us.