New Orleans Is Sinking

New Orleans May Sit In The Gulf Of Mexico In 90 Years

(CBS) 
Another thing that gives you pause is the fact that one of the world’s largest pumping systems can’t keep the city dry with broken levees.

60 Minutes was there in September during Hurricane Rita. Crews were fighting with everything they had, cooling a pump with a hose and a coat hanger. When the station flooded during Katrina, Gerald Tilton dove under water to open valves.

Since then, Tilton and his men have been living at the station. “Most of us, our homes have been destroyed but a large number of us are still here doing the job that we get paid to do,” says Tilton.

Tilton says he hasn’t seen his home since the storm hit and only took one thing from the house when he left: his diploma. “I graduated from Tulane last year and that was the one thing that I wanted. I know it might sound crazy.”

But sharp minds and heroism couldn’t stop a second flood.

It took another two weeks to dry out and count the losses. Now, inspectors with laptops are identifying ruined houses.

“Every house in New Orleans is loaded into this database,” explains Centineo. The reports are sent instantly to a computer at city hall, where the database is linked to aerial images of every address, both before and after.

When the reports are in, they will know how many billions it will take to rebuild, but not where that money is coming from.

Mike Centineo showed us, at his house, that you can’t appreciate the loss until you walk through the door. He lost pretty much everything in his home. “We’ve lost a lot. What hurts is family photos. They went under water and I pulled them out to try to salvage what I could,” Centineo says.

Centineo says he understands, probably better than any building official ever has, what the victims of Katrina are going through. “I’m one of them, that’s true, I’m one of them.”

He is one of about 400,000 people still unable to come home. That’s the worst part now, the deflation of the Big Easy.

There are too few people to pay taxes or keep businesses going. The world’s largest domed stadium doesn’t have a football team; In New Orleans, these days, not even the Saints go marching in.

Meffert has some clear feelings on whether the nation should commit billions of dollars and several years to protect the city.

“Is it commit or invest? I mean this is the thing that that people miss. The country has to decide whether it really is what we tell the world what we are. Or are we just saying that? Because if we are that powerful, if we are that focused, if we are that committed to all of our citizens, then there is no decision to make. Of course you rebuild it,” says Meffert.