Keith: Hey everyone. It is Wednesday, August 26. I am Keith Kocinski and Channel One
News starts right now.
There is a new American hero emerging from last week's train attack in France. Mark
Moogalian is from Virginia, and he joins the three other Americans who were
responsible in the takedown of a gunman.
Moogalian is the man who first wrestled an AK-47 from suspected gunman Ayoub ElKhazzani. He is currently at a French hospital after a gunshot wound.
Spencer Stone: He was squirting blood out of the left side or right side of his neck. I just
stuck two of my fingers in the hole and found what I thought to be the artery, pushed
down and the bleeding stopped.
Keith: Meanwhile, the two American soldiers left France and are now in Germany at
Landstul Air Base. Landstuhl is the U.S. Army's largest overseas military hospital. It is
the center for the treatment of U.S. soldiers wounded on the battlefield in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Airman Spencer Stone looked happy to be back with his military family, as did National
Guardsmen Alex Skarlatos, who also fought off the gunman. All three men, plus
American civilian Anthony Sadler, are being called heroes for stopping the attack on the
train last Friday.
French authorities have now charged the gunman with attempted mass murder as they
believe he had terrorist intentions.
Alright coming up, Arielle Hixson visits New Orleans and takes a look at the storm that
drowned the city 10 years ago.
This week marks 10 years since a monster storm ripped through the Gulf Coast.
Nearly 2,000 people died and tens of thousands lost their homes. It was a defining
moment in U.S. history, and one that changed the historic city forever.
Arielle Hixson visited New Orleans, Louisiana to hear from the survivors of Hurricane
Katrina.
Arielle: The images are haunting. Homes completely washed away, cities under water,
people begging to be rescued. The markings on homes tell the story of how many lived
and how many died there. This was aftermath of one of the deadliest natural disasters
in U.S. history, Hurricane Katrina.
Lauren Weddell: Seeing people on roofs, waiting for helicopters to come help them. It
was kind of scary as a 13-year-old to wonder that could that have been us.
Arielle: It was August, 2005. Lauren Weddell was just 13 years old, living in New
Orleans, Louisiana, a city known for its vibrant culture.
Weddell: My dad came home and told us, ‘You need to start packing. There's a
hurricane coming.’
Arielle: Hurricane Katrina first made landfall on August 25. It escalated to a category 5
storm, bringing heavy rains and 175 miles per hour wind. It left a path of destruction
across the Gulf Coast. But the worst was yet to come.
When Katrina slammed into New Orleans, the fierce winds and rising water led to
dangerous storm surge. New Orleans is 6 feet below sea level, like a bowl. So the city
built a system of walls, or levees, to keep the water from overflowing.
But the surge of water from Hurricane Katrina was so strong it broke over the levees
and walls, leaving the city to drown.
Ray Nagin: The city of New Orleans is in a state of devastation. We probably have 80
percent of our city underwater.
Arielle: Homes were lifted off their foundations, and cars floated like bath toys.
Right now, I am in the Lower 9th Ward, and when the storm hit, this area was flooded
with water that pooled in from the broken levees. In some parts, these houses were
submerged in six to 9 feet of water. Meaning, if I was on this street ten years ago, I
wouldn’t be able to stand.
Weddell: Turn on the TV and this man is standing in water up to his knees, and it's
constantly rising.
Arielle: Lauren and her family had evacuated, but despite warnings, many residents
stayed behind.
Male: I didn’t have no other place to go, really. And um, didn’t think it will be this bad.
Arielle: Those who couldn’t seek shelter in their neighborhoods were huddled in an
unlikely location, the Superdome Stadium.
Male # 2: We just waiting ‘til we ride the storm out.
Arielle: When the storm finally passed, thousands of people were left stranded in their
houses. Many died waiting to be rescued.
Arthur Johnson: It took days for many people to get help and get rescued. Some were
on the roofs, some were in other structures, and some didn't make it.
Arielle: Those who survived were desperate for food and water.
Female: We all are desperate. We need something to eat. We need to feed out babies.
We need to get our babies some water.
Arielle: Some started stealing from local stores. The city became a dangerous place.
Weddell: I feel like the storm could’ve been handled a lot better than it was. I don't think
people realize that when they’re watching the news, that these are people. These are
human beings who are suffering, who are stuck in an American city with no water, no
help. And it's really sad to think that they had to suffer like
that.
Arielle: After seeing the horrific images, many Americans couldn't believe this was
happening in their country. There was backlash against President George W. Bush and
the federal agencies that were supposed to help.
Mike Walmack: We all were overwhelmed by this catastrophic event. There had never
been a storm of this size hit the United States.
Arielle: There were also reports that officials knew the barriers protecting the city were
weak, and should have been upgraded or fixed years before.
Estelle Robichaux: What New Orleans was not prepared for was the manmade disaster
that followed in the wake of Katrina. This was due to the degraded wetlands, and also
the impaired state of the levees and storm search barriers. They failed in large part
because they were not strong enough.
Arielle: Much of the city of New Orleans was under water for weeks. And in that water,
gas from cars, chemicals from cleaning products in homes and oil from a massive spill
turned the water in what many called a "toxic soup."
When Lauren finally returned, her house was unlivable. Four feet of water sat in her
living room.
Describe what the house looked like when you came back.
Weddell: When we walked into the house, everything was just a complete mess. We
had cabinets which were just coming off the walls. Our furniture had floated to different
parts of the house. My mom gave us a mask, and we had a suit on like a Ghostbusters
kind of suit, which is kind of funny and sad at the same time.
Arielle: Some areas never fully recovered. The clean-up was just too
monumental. Entire neighborhoods left abandoned.
Many residents were forced to evacuate and make a new life in other cities around the
country. Lauren wouldn’t move back to New Orleans for at least six months. Her family
temporarily relocated to Dallas, Texas.
Was there a culture shock of any sort?
Weddell: It wasn't so much as a culture shock as much as it was people weren't as
accepting as I would hope they would be.
The kids, they would say, ‘Well, did you have to swim here? Are you going to have to
swim home?’ I'm sure they thought it was funny, but it wasn't exactly funny when you
don't have a home to go to.
Arielle: Tomorrow, we visit New Orleans 10 years later, finding out how it began its
decade-long journey to the city it used to be.
Arielle Hixson, Channel One News.
Keith: Thanks Arielle. And to check out a slideshow of some behind the scenes pics
from Arielle's trip to New Orleans, head over to Channelone.com.
Alright coming up, hold your nose, because we are about to check out the world's
stinkiest plant.
There is one flower in Colorado that is captivating audiences across the country and
wreaking an assault on your sense of smell. Azia Celestino tells us why this exotic
flower is causing such a stink.
Azia: Thousands came to the Denver Botanic Gardens to see and smell a very rare
flower.
Girl: It’s huge.
Maureen Spieglman: It smells like Indianapolis in the summertime.
Female #2: Very, trash day bad.
Nick Snackenberg: This is our Amorphophallus Titanum, or corpse flower. This plant is
native to Sumatra, an Indonesian Island. And that's the only place it can be found
growing in the wild.
Azia: Curator Nick Snackenberg says the corpse flower releases a signature scent, but
you probably wouldn’t want to bottle it.
Snackenberg: A number of dead mice, maybe rotting in an abandoned gym locker.
Arielle: And it is a process that takes years. This corpse flower is about 15 years old,
and this is the first time it's bloomed. It can take anywhere from two to 10 years to
bloom again.
Snackenberg: It uses that odor to attract carrion beetles or carrion flies that then
pollinate the flowers that are inside.
Azia: Researchers identified chemical compounds inside the flower similar to those in
other odors you may recognize.
Snackenberg: In rotting onions, sweat socks.
Azia: The bloom, and the smell, is short lived, only lasting two days before it wilts.
Azia Celestino, Channel One News.
Keith: Definitely not showing up with that flower on my next date.
Alright guys, have a great one and we will smell you later.