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Nancy Grace

Victims of Hurricane Katrina

Aired November 23, 2006 - 20:00   ET

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


NANCY GRACE, HOST: Good evening a week in Biloxi with my fellow Methodists. By night sleeping on a church floor, by day rebuilding homes torn apart by Katrina.
Tonight the untold, unpublicized story of victims who lost not only their homes, their friends and family, but now their faith in their government. Tonight the survivors who lived through Katrina and now fight for justice.

Tonight, more than a year after Hurricane Katrina devastated the south land tearing apart the Louisiana and Mississippi Gulf Coast, thousands of homes destroyed, waves over 20 feet high. Tonight, the stunning story that has not been told. Thousands still homeless. Attention has vanished. Local and state government sitting on millions, that money not making its way to the victims. Insurance companies finding loopholes, refusing victim payouts. Countless survivors in tents and tiny, cramped trailers -- trailers FEMA now wants back. The people of the Gulf Coast, Americans in need now more than ever.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Biloxi, Mississippi, the outlook is not much better, slammed by a 20-foot wall of water. As the waters began to recede, the destruction has become clear. Entire neighborhoods have been destroyed; dozens reported dead, 30 of them in one place.

The Quiet Water apartment complex was crushed under the force of Katrina. To the west in the town of Gulfport, rescuers struggled to save victims stranded by the storm. Throughout the state of Mississippi it is simply impossible to tell how many people have died.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The devastation is widespread almost everywhere, across the coast. But it`s a lot of devastation all up through the state. I think the structural damage done to buildings is going to be so widespread and in some areas it may just be absolutely universal.

COOPER: All along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana, in Mississippi, in Alabama the destruction is unfathomable. And officials say it could be weeks, even months, before we know how bad the damage really is.

Anderson cooper, CNN, Gulfport, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: The day Katrina hit ordinary people turned extraordinary, one of them Lisa Michiels.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA MICHIELS, HELPED SAVE NEIGHBORS DURING HURRICANE: And the water was over Highway 90 and was beginning to come over the apartment complex -- we have an apartment complex at the end of the street and it was beginning to come over about an eight-foot wall. And I said, "Well, it`s here. This is the worst of it." And as we sat.

GRACE: Have you ever seen water come over the wall before?

MICHIELS: Not that high. Now, I understand it did during Camille but, you know, Camille was 30 years ago and was our benchmark, so we figured that was as high as it would go. And we watched as the water kept rising and as automobiles began to wash up the street and the folks in the apartment complex moved to the second floor, and we all thought that that was going to be it. Surely this is it.

GRACE: How did you know they were moving up?

MICHIELS: I was on my porch watching and we were watching the water. And you know at the time we felt like they might be OK there because the water -- the water was rising but it wasn`t as destructive at that -- that we could tell, at that point.

The water just kept coming and coming higher and moving automobiles up the street and knocking them into houses and by the end of that day the water had risen probably around my house about four feet and the surf was well on top of it. When we got to the Riders home, I couldn`t leave the porches. I needed to se what was happening, and I was watching the water crash and push things up the street. And all of a sudden I saw a person in the water and it -- on the debris, the water was washing the debris and when we say debris it`s really people`s homes and people`s refrigerators and trees. It was people`s lives washing up the street, and it actually was, as we found out, was washing people up the street.

We saw -- I saw the one person and it took me a while to get focused on him and get my husband, Gary. I finally said, "Gary, there is someone there. Look." And he didn`t have a good, clear vision of it but he just called to my neighbor Butch and said, "Come on, there`s someone in the water. Let`s go get them."

And these guys just leapt off the porch, went -- you have to understand what there is crashing about 25 feet over -- I mean, a total of 25 feet up above the surge in the water and pushing all of this debris and the debris is doing this. They jump on it and go and grab this gentleman who wouldn`t come at first because he knew there were other people in the water. And he wanted to help so he -- they were able to pull the first two out.

They literally formed a human chain across this debris and the other two neighbors joined them when they realized there were more than one or two and they pulled six of the eight people who stayed in the apartment out. We lost two.

But they brought them to the Riders` porch and the Riders were truly good Samaritans not only taking in, not only all of their neighbors who stayed, they took all of their neighbors in and all of their dogs. It`s a real dog neighborhood. And they then took in these people that we didn`t know from the apartment complex and nurtured them until they found a place.

My job was to nurture. I held and when they brought them to the porch my job was to hug them and hold them and tell them they were OK. And when Lori, who is a young girl, came to the porch, she was so beat up and frightened and cold and scared and she had -- and she said she had held on in the water -- held on to the apartment -- the railing on the apartment building for about an hour and a half before she finally let go and tumbled up the street.

But she said "My father always told me that during Camille the thing that was left were the steps, so I just needed to get to the steps." So she got to the steps and held on to the rail and the water kept tumbling her. I don`t know how they didn`t drown coming up that street with refrigerators and roofs and things.

GRACE: On top of them.

MICHIELS: And pulling them back under. So -- but they did. Six of them did.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: As Hurricane Katrina gathered speed, many refused to evacuate. Some too old, too feeble, too sick could not evacuate. James Maxey stayed with his parents, 92-year-old Dr. Lewis Maxey, 75-year-old Haditha Maxey as tidal waters surged into their home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES MAXEY, PARENTS DIED IN HURRICANE: My father was always, always preaching. He was always lecturing, you know, always teaching -- always teaching about something. He was so much older than I, of all of us, so he always said, you know I have this -- so much more experience and I -- he knew a little bit about every subject.

My mother, was the same, but she was -- the only way -- when I describe my mother to people, I compare her to like Mother Teresa because she was just that type of person, just kind, just -- she was an angel. I always have said that whatever bad I`ve done in life would be erased when she was in heaven, and she would be my ticket into heaven.

My mother woke me up about 7:00 and told me that the water was starting to come into the house. The wind started picking up and pretty much just -- it was very quick after that, just the doors blew open, all the windows were shattered, then the rain was coming in and so we went up to my parent` room which was on the south end of the house.

Like I remember when we were telling them we needed to move into the room, we were like the windows are blowing in, you know, everything is coming down, and he`s like, no, this house -- this house will be fine. It should be fine because it had withstood before and he wasn`t 100 percent lucid.

He got my father and went across the balcony, and by that time the wind had blown the roof off of the house and then the water started coming in and we were pretty much in the water. The water was -- I mean my legs - - my waist was in the water and that was on the second floor. I told -- I remember telling my mother, we were sitting on the bed and I told them, you know, hopefully we can just float out, you know, but of course if there`s no structure to hold up the roof, you know, and the wind was blowing, the roof caved in on top of us. And first my father went underwater and of course, you know, he`s 92, he couldn`t hold his breath and then (INAUDIBLE) I remember my mother asking me, you know, "Where`s daddy? Where`s daddy?" I mean, I never told her, you know, she knew what happened, but then soon after that she went under.

I was holding my mother`s hand and I was holding my father at the same time and then he slipped under and I still had my mother, but you have to understand, you`re being jerked around. And my mother, I can remember the last thing I told my mother. She told me she loved me and I told her I loved her, because I could still see her and then she was gone.

I think somebody asked me this recently, you know, it was -- I`m sure it was a mandatory evacuation, but a mandatory evacuation is not where they come in and take you, make you leave. It`s more of a -- they`re advising you to leave. You know, they`re saying it`s a mandatory evacuation you should leave. Because there was a mandatory evacuation for Charlie and, of course, we didn`t leave and you know, nothing happened. But, no, nobody came to the house, knocked on the door and said, "Look, you guys need to leave."

I mean, I kick myself all the time. In fact, I can remember hitting the wall saying to myself, "I`m smarter than this. I know we should have left." But, you know, I had no idea.

I feel angry that I didn`t -- I mean, I could have physically, if I had to pick them up, put them in the car and made them leave, you know, but I didn`t do that. So, I mean, of course in a way I blame myself, because I could have avoided it, but I didn`t.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would make an appeal for people not to forget what has happened here and to continue to be generous, to continue to come to Biloxi, and to the whole region that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina. Don`t forget because it`s off the front pages. Continue to remember the people who were here struggling day in and day out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now this area damaging cars are parked and beyond that the trees we keep showing you look like they keep disappearing by the minute. Certainly -- look at that debris. Look at that! The entire thing is coming apart.

Heads up, guys.

This is a good spot.

All right.

Now the framework of that is wood, so I wouldn`t suspect the entire thing would fly away like, say an aluminum overhang after gas stays, but until every piece of that white vinyl is torn off, pretty nasty.

Nice job, Mike. I got you. I got you.

Word out of Biloxi, the police are not coming out. They`re down. They`re hunkered down. They are not going out to any calls. We`ve got reports of boats, now, that are floating down Highway 90 six miles to our south and to our east.

And this piece of structure continues to come unraveled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Katrina`s winds 160 mph, pounding winds and waters as high as the roofs and the treetops. Johnnie Oakes survived.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: So you were in Gulfport when Katrina hit?

JOHNNIE OAKES, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: Right.

GRACE: What did you see in Gulfport?

OAKES: Trees breaking, water coming up, buildings coming apart. But it`s strange because it doesn`t really dawn on you because you`ve been through it so many times (INAUDIBLE). I was young when Camille hit, but you still don`t expect it. Nobody expects the entire area to be covered with water. Where you`re sitting right now interviewing me was under water.

GRACE: Miss Oakes, I`ve been reading your book and it is very powerful, especially when you describe the first time you saw your house after Katrina hit. What did you see?

OAKES: We had evacuated several times from hurricanes and when I came back it was as if though god had left me. Everything as far as you could see was gone. Everything was turned on its side. Everything was turned -- covered with green slime.

Nancy, I want you to imagine, in your home, you walk into your home -- and I know you`re younger than I am, but everything you have ever known for 30 years, you look around it, you see all your things and then you close your eyes, you open them and it`s all gone.

It`s strange because when you`re -- you pass these people and they`ve got these dogs and they`re digging in the debris. It never occurred to me what they were looking for. I thought they were looking -- actually, I thought it was people out walking their dogs. That`s what I thought. I said, isn`t that nice they`re taking their dogs for a walk among all this stuff. And it didn`t occur to me until later they were actually looking for my neighbors` bodies.

For five days we had nothing but peanut butter. And in my book, in particular, there was a grocery store that was going to be open until 5:00. I had a jar of peanut butter and I stood in line for two hours waiting to buy a loaf of bread. And just as I got to the door, the man that was running the store said "We`re closed." And I said, "But I`m next in line. I want to get my grandbaby some bread to make a peanut butter sandwich." And he said "Lady, what part of no bread, no closed, we are closed, do you not understand?" That had to be the most hurtful part.

GRACE: I also read where you had been going so long, living off peanut butter, that you went into a gas station and they had hot chicken on a stick, and that was one of the first hot things you had had.

OAKES: In about five days.

GRACE: At a gas station?

OAKES: My husband had a Chevron credit card and my son stood there and looked at it and I was crying, you`re so grateful for a piece of chicken on a stick.

GRACE: How have your values changed?

OAKES: I appreciate everything, especially almost dying from cancer. I appreciate the sun. I appreciate the moon. I appreciate anything I can get, but I don`t expect nothing for free. I am very glad to be alive. Free. I am very glad to be alive.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Too many stories to count. Lionel Burbridge tries his best not to remember how he and his sister tried to ride out the storm. Seventy-year-old Marie held his hand.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIONEL BURBRIDGE, SISTER MARIE HILLARD DIED IN HURRICANE: She had turned 70 on the 29th -- 24th, Hurricane Katrina was on the 29th. That`s the day I lost her. We had decided to ride the storm out. Me and my neighbor -- me and the next door neighbor (INAUDIBLE) was a very close friend. They decided to ride it out together.

But when we were making plans, I heard them in the living room making plans to stay there, and I knew I had to stay with them. The storm come in, the winds started blowing real hard, real hard, and raining, through the back door, the water just pooled in the house just like that.

I ran and had to get them, try to help them. I got them on the table and I thought they were all right for a while and I happened to turn my back, my sister left my side. That`s when all that water I know she was gone. Right then and there.

We had a big dining room table, and I figured, well, I had it down where we could stay there for a while. If we both stayed there, we might could have made it. I`m trying to -- I`m all right with that, I turn around, just like that, for the moment and my sister left my side.

GRACE: The water just took her?

BURBRIDGE: I don`t know what happened. All I know when I looked around she was gone.

GRACE: But how high was the water at that point?

BURBRIDGE: I know all that water, about six feet of water in the house and I know I can`t swim. And it was there and I know right then and there my sister was gone. I know that. About two hours that water stayed in the house and after (INAUDIBLE) leave out the house, the water left and then after all that gone out the house, I find my sister by the front door on the stump. I knew she was dead. There was nothing I could do. I just had to wait until they come and get her.

That was the hardest thing I ever done in my life was to sit there and wait for somebody to come -- they decide to pick her up. And they didn`t pick her up until eight or nine hours later. The next morning when I walked out of the house, I had nothing but the clothes on my back. I thought "Everything is gone." And I (INAUDIBLE) look at what happened to me now, (INAUDIBLE) heaven, why he do this to me? Why he hurt me this way?

We moved in that house I was separated from my wife and we decided to live together, since `72, that`s over 30 years I lived with her. I watched her kids grow up. They all on they own now. I didn`t have no clothes to go to the funeral. Well, I put anything on.

GRACE: Do you remember what (INAUDIBLE)?

BURBRIDGE: I had blue jeans on. My nephew gave me a white shirt and a tie and that`s what I wore. My boss bought me a pair of shoes to put on.

I always say never take anything.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: Big insurance companies are now refusing to pay victims` claims after Rita and Katrina. It`s hard to believe. Oh, yes, I pay premiums just like you all the time.

I`m going to go straight out to Richard Scruggs, trial attorney. He has filed a lawsuit on behalf of many Katrina victims and this guy, don`t want to be modest, didn`t you handle some of the tobacco litigation?

RICHARD SCRUGGS, TRIAL ATTORNEY: Nancy, I had a hand in it, of course, and I was one of the core group that took on that challenge, which was monumental in a different way from this one.

It`s unfortunate, quite frankly, that lawyers, it looks like, are going to be required to force these companies to do the right thing and to stop them from evading the same contractual liability they had to the victims of 9/11. They`re trying to do to the victims of Hurricane -- hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

GRACE: Regarding the tobacco lawsuits, as a nonsmoker, I want to thank you for that.

SCRUGGS: Right.

GRACE: What got into you? Why did you feel that you had to take on the insurance companies after Rita and Katrina?

SCRUGGS: Well, you know, this is not something I sought out. This was sort of a draft, but it`s become an issue of passion for me. My -- the boys and girls, now men and women that I grew up with, our family, photographed right here is my brother-in-law Trent Lott, of all people, the rubble of his home. And he`s being jacked around by the insurance companies just like everyone else.

The same guys that tried to evade the contractual obligations to the victims of 9/11 are doing the same thing now here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: The legal battle. After Gulf Coast residents paid premiums for decades, why did insurance companies refuse to pay? Even now, where is the money state and federal governments promised and allocated?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Biloxi resident Reng Tai (ph) venting to his neighbor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How did the water get into the house? Six feet high, eight feet high, and now nothing covered.

CHERNOFF: An insurance adjuster told Tai (ph) it was a flood not a hurricane that caused the bulk of damage to his home. Tai`s (ph) policy does not include flood coverage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He already came this morning. It`s six feet high above is covered. Below is not covered. Which is everything below is damaged. The whole thing.

CHERNOFF: The same devastating news is being heard up and down the demolished streets of Biloxi. Many homeowners here did not buy flood insurance because the area is not designated as flood zone.

(voice-over) Tai`s (ph) insurance company, Nationwide, tells CNN it can`t speak about individual claims for privacy reasons but industry regulators confirm standard homeowners` policies exclude damage from flood, surface water, waves, tidal water, overflow of a body of water, or spray from any of these, whether or not driven by wind.

Nationwide says for flood coverage, homeowners have to have flood insurance through FEMA. Less than 5 percent of Biloxi`s residents have such insurance.

BOBBY MIGUES, BILOXI RESIDENT: You are standing into the kitchen area right here. This is the kitchen.

CHERNOFF: Bobby Migues has flood coverage. His insurer said only that portion of his insurance will apply.

Migues: If you look around and you see parts of my roof in trees, parts of my roof over here and there, parts of my roof is sitting way over there, OK, which shows you that wind had to take that roof. My insurance company has let me down. They have let me down. Put my money together and pay me what I`m due.

CHERNOFF: FEMA`s flood insurance has limits: home coverage only up to $250,000. Mississippi`s insurance commissioner today told CNN Washington must help.

GEORGE DALE, MISSISSIPPI INSURANCE COMM.: It`s going to require some type of federal bailout by our government to be able to make these people whole.

CHERNOFF: President Bush heard such requests when he toured in Mississippi on Monday but made no promises. Local authorities say they may have to sue the insurance companies. Meanwhile, people now without homes hope their insurance companies will make good on the policies they thought were protecting them.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, Biloxi, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Why are state governments sitting on millions? I, along with Natalie Chandler of "The Mississippi Press", want answers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATALIE CHANDLER, "MISSISSIPPI PRESS": The problem is that we have $5 billion that the federal government approved last December that`s taking its sweet time to get to people who needed it yesterday.

The first part of this money was supposed to help homeowners who got flooded in Katrina but lived outside the flood plain. Seventeen thousand of those people apply for these grants in April. As of November 1, 2,500 had received any money.

The state agency in charge of distributing this money is the Mississippi Development Authority. Their boss is Governor Haley Barbour. He`s the only one they answer to.

Let me tell you about some of these people that are waiting on this money. The people waiting on this money are people who are paying mortgages on homes they can`t afford to move back into. They`re people living in FEMA trailers, and FEMA is now coming to take away those trailers, and the people can`t afford to move back into their homes, so they desperately need this money.

They are depending on this money to rebuild their lives. And all they want are some explanations about why it`s taking so long for this money to get to them.

At this point the only one in charge of the money is the Mississippi Development Authority. People call the hotline and they don`t get the answers they`re looking for. They don`t get specific answers.

And they call their elected officials to ask what`s the deal? Well, their elected officials don`t know either. They`re just as frustrated. They`re questioning it just as much as the homeowners are.

I also want to tell you about three state lawmakers who are profiting off this money. Senator Tommy Robertson, representative Jim Beckett, and Representative Jim Simpson. They`re in the state legislature, and they won a million dollar contract from the state to finalize these grants for people.

The state is treating these grants like a loan, like you have to go to these attorneys, who are also state lawmakers to, you know, sign all the documents, and they deliver it back to the state. They`re making $250 a pop to do this, and they`re saying, "Hey, it`s legal. You know? This is federal money. This is not state money. We never voted on it in the legislature. It`s fine."

The politicians that are finalizing these grants and making the million-dollar contract off it, the contract is with the state. They`re telling people when people go to finalize their grants, they`re telling them you`ll get your check in 10 to 14 business days.

For some people that was seven weeks ago. Well, the state has started speeding up the process but only since we started reporting on these homeowners who are looking for this money. They want to know where it is. They needed it yesterday.

And so they have -- the state has started speeding up the process, but it makes you wonder would they have done that if people hadn`t started asking questions?

Governor Barbour himself has said that, you know, this is too slow. People need the money faster than they`re getting it. And so they have made numerous changes since we started reporting on this, but there needs to be some kind of middle ground between protecting against fraud and getting people this money faster. I mean, people can`t afford to wait on this money. They need to rebuild their lives and they need to do it now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANA VELA, MISSISSIPPI RESIDENT: None of the property -- I mean, a lot of them are all mortgaged. If they required flood, then obviously the mortgage company would have required people to carry flood.

But as so many people, so many thousands of people whose homes got destroyed, they weren`t required to have flood, so you don`t carry it.

(END VIDEO CILP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

ANDERCON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): In Waveland, Mississippi, the water is gone. The waves of sadness have just begun.

(on camera) Are you all right now?

(voice-over): We found Pauline Conaway (ph) clutching a picture she found in the rubble.

(on camera) What is that a picture of?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was my mother and it survived. I don`t know who -- who it is.

COOPER (voice-over): This is the first time Pauline has been back to her street.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s gone.

COOPER: Her street, her home is destroyed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s my chair.

COOPER: A chair. A grill.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s our grill.

COOPER: Precious reminders of a life lost.

Reporters are supposed to remain distant, observers. There is no distance in Waveland anymore.

(on camera) Just about every block you go down here in Waveland, especially along the beach, I mean, people are just coming back one by one and finding their homes just completely gone, and it`s -- it`s devastating. I mean -- actually...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s from our room. It`s from our room.

COOPER: It`s hard to know what to say to people when they see their homes destroyed and they`re coming back for the first time. And you know, you try to help them pick up some of their possessions but, you know, what do you say to someone whose life is gone?

(voice-over) Block after block, homes destroyed, lives ruined. Only the suffering remains.

Anderson Cooper, CNN, Waveland, Mississippi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: We need hammers. We need nails, supplies, most important, people. Volunteers now doing the hard work. Many of us taking vacation to rebuild.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some people down here that have -- that have taken of from work. They`re not getting paid for this time that they`re here, so they`re losing their income from the week, and they`re like, it`s OK. I`m OK with it, because the rewards for going and stepping outside of myself and giving yourself away is just a priceless blessing that you`ll receive and the people that you work with receive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I read about -- I heard about the disaster here and the impact it`s had on people. It`s something that I knew I really wanted to contribute to and try to help out in a way.

But at the time I just didn`t have a way of getting down here and have a means for something organized to come back -- to come down here and to give back until the Christ Church, which is the church that I`m a member of, planned an organized trip down here through the United Methodist Church to -- you know, with specific plans for families to help rebuild their homes. So once -- once I had the opportunity to do that, I was one of the first to sign up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all have like a calling inside of us to do something, an impetus in this world to use the skills that we have and whatever it is you have available inside of us to give back to the world. And, you know, for me this particular project resonated to me because of my skill sets and where I came from.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a need here. I don`t know necessarily what these people need, specifically. And in some ways they might not know what they need in particular, but I`m here to do what I can do. And for me, that was the physical labor involved in putting together someone`s house.

REV. EDWARD MOSES, UNITED METHODIST CHURCH: What has really touched me is the dedication of the volunteers as they come down. It`s -- that does tend to think about persons coming down to do something, to give something, to make things happen and the amount of energy and emotion and passion they put in it.

ANIL SINGH, VOLUNTEER: I have to tell you I`m about as average a guy as you could possibly get, and if I can do it, so could anybody else. You know, anybody sitting out there on your couch or in your living room, you can do this, too.

I`ve never done construction work before. I`ve never put up sheetrock or, you know, cut -- cut sheetrock or any of that stuff. I`ve never worked with insulation. But you come in and you learn from more experienced people, and you do it enough times and you get pretty good at it.

So I think it`s -- it`s something that average people can do. And if enough average people can get together and do it, they can accomplish really great things in a short period of time.

EMILY CRAWFORD, VOLUNTEER: First of all, stop making excuses because it`s so easy to, and you do have the time, you do have the money, you do have the resources to do it. So just stop making excuses.

Find an organization. There are so many. You can probably Google, you know, "Katrina relief" and come up with 10,000 ways to do something.

You know, there`s a difference between thinking about it and doing it, and you just have to really search within yourself and find that bridge, you know, between those things.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The people in the town that call this place their spiritual home. We pray for those who continue to struggle to keep it alive, bless this place.

REV. JAVIER VIERA, CHRIST CHURCH NYC: There is no better way to express our sense of faith than by what we`re doing here. You know, I think as I understand my own faith, that it calls me to be with those who are suffering, with the poor, with those in greatest need.

And -- and that`s in large part why we`re here, because it`s not that we necessarily want simply to do good, although that`s part of it. We also, as a spiritual person, as a Christian, I don`t know how else to live that life faithfully, except by doing this kind of work.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m here to serve the Lord, and I`m here to show the other people God`s love for him and then try to get their houses fixed again. And we`re in the kitchen cooking for everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming from Florida we had our own siege of hurricanes and that kind of thing, and we want to give back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my third trip to Biloxi, and I`m here to support the people to bring their lives back to where it was before the hurricane.

(MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Worked a lot, slept a little, and had a lot of fun at the same time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just like you, this is what`s making everything possible, and we thank God for all of you -- all of you. You know that.

(MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Those people who come down, volunteers, thanks to every one of them. And they are not -- they are very appreciated, even though they didn`t do it for me because I didn`t have anything for them to do but they sure asked.

(MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is it. I guess I just figured, like I said, I`ve been through them before but nothing ever like this. Water never got this high.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRACE: Thank you to all of our guests, but especially to our new friends of Biloxi and Pascagoula, Mississippi. And to St. James Methodist, I hope we meet again.

Tonight our biggest thank you is to you for inviting us into your homes. Nancy Grace signing off. See you tomorrow night, 8 p.m. sharp Eastern. And, until then, good night, friend.

END