Hurricane Katrina (2005)

Host and Fresh Air TV critic David Bianculli comments on television programming in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

From 1992 to 2000, Kristina Ford was New Orleans' director of city planning for seven years; she also headed the New Orleans Business Corp., an agency created to develop city-owned property through public-private.

Dick Polman, a political analyst for the Philadelphia Inquirer, evaluates the response of FEMA and other federal and local groups to Hurricane Katrina.

Robert Shaler, former director forensic biology at the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, led efforts to identify remains at the World Trade Center attacks. He discusses the challenges that lie ahead for those responsible for identifying the bodies of Hurricane Katrina's victims.

Linguist Geoff Nunberg considers the language that's been used the describe the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. What words do we use, "looting," "finding" or "foraging"? "Refugees," "evacuees" or "the displaced"?

Jim Amoss is editor of The Times-Picayune in New Orleans. The newspaper's staff has been publishing online from Baton Rouge since evacuating its New Orleans offices last week. The paper has criticized the federal government's response to the hurricane and published an open letter to President Bush calling for the firing of all Federal Emergency Management Agency officials -- especially director Michael Brown.

An investigative reporter for The New York Times, Christopher Drew has been on the ground in New Orleans and provides a firsthand account of the situation he witnessed in the Superdome and the streets of the flooded city.

Eric Lipton of The New York Times has been reporting from Louisiana on the hurricane and its aftermath. He is co-author of a recent article chronicling the flawed response to the storm.

Margaret McLaughlin, director of Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital's veterinary technicians in New York City, is part of an ASPCA rescue team that is finding and treating lost animals in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. She talks about the plight of animals in the battered Gulf Coast states.

Trumpeter Gregory Davis has been with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band since its inception in 1977. The group, known for revitalizing the New Orleans brass band sound by incorporating funk, jazz, gospel and rock, will play at the upcoming "Big Apple to the Big Easy" Benefit Concert at Madison Square Garden Sept. 20, 2005.

Historian and author Douglas Brinkley teaches at Tulane University and was displaced by Hurricane Katrina. He has since returned to New Orleans and begun to document the catastrophe by gathering oral histories -- he hopes to collect as many as 20,000 -- for a book, tentatively titled The Great Deluge.

Rev. Willie Walker of Noah's Ark Church in New Orleans helped with rescue efforts.

Father Anthony De Conciliis, a Catholic priest, was inaugurated president of Our Lady of Holy Cross College in New Orleans on Aug. 26, 2005. He spent two days and a night in the Superdome after the hurricane.

Kevin Judice is a lieutenant in the Narcotics Division of the New Iberia, La., police department. He spent eight days rescuing people in New Orleans.

Trumpeter Gregory Davis has been with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band since its inception in 1977. The group, known for revitalizing the New Orleans brass band sound by incorporating funk, jazz, gospel and rock, will play at the upcoming "Big Apple to the Big Easy" Benefit Concert at Madison Square Garden Sept. 20, 2005.

Faced with a need for massive rebuilding in the Gulf Coast, President Bush has refused to estimate how much the effort might cost -- or to raise taxes to pay for it. To discuss the president's economic policy, we speak with columnist Paul Krugman and Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation.

Musicians Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis, two New Orleans natives, have been friends for years — back to the days when Connick took piano lessons from Marsalis' father, Ellis

The newsroom Jim Amoss leads was widely praised for its unflinching coverage of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. In a piece one month ago, Amoss said "New Orleans has become two cities -- an enclave of survivors clustered along the Mississippi River's crescent and a vast and sprawling shadow city where the water stood, devoid of power and people."

When Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, it also disrupted the education of thousands of students. While many schools remain closed, Benjamin Franklin High School is one of the few operating charter schools in New Orleans. We talk with two teachers.

Louisiana State medical examiner Louis Cataldie was the coroner for the East Baton Rouge Parish in Louisiana from 1998 to 2003. When Hurricane Katrina hit, Dr. Cataldie helped to evacuate patients and set up field hospitals. He also aided the injured and investigated deaths.