Host lets talk about the health aspect of Hurricane Katrina and the role of the department of health and Human Services in the shortterm and longterm. There are several categories. His Public Health. That would be the immediate. Watere you have standing and warm temperatures, disease can become a factor, particularly if you have mosquito borne diseases. I am confident Public Health officials are concerned about the. The second is the medical infrastructure. In katrina, it was destroyed. Harvey, it may not be to the full extent but it has been disrupted. I am aware of circumstances, where people had important medical procedures that were nd and confident that is certain. The second is to keep people healthy, food. All of those im sure have been part of their recovery process. Host what are the lessons from Hurricane Katrina . What was your take away during that storm . Guest the first lesson is that no government, whether state or federal, is decision and to either prepare or recover on its own. Recoveryaration and are the jobs of everyone, every business, family, church, Community Organization needs to be involved. Clearly, we are seeing that in the recovery of harvey. We have seen that in church organizations, nonprofit organizations, businesses, volunteers. Affects an area of the United States as big as a responsequires from humanity, not just government. About the water supply, which you indicated is the leading source of illnesses. Contaminated, is what has to happen over the longterm . You can provide bottled water for the short term, but what needs to take place in the longterm and had you event illnesses how do you prevent illnesses from spreading . Guest it is a good time to appreciate how remarkable the infrastructure of the United States is that we have come to expect we will have sewers that healthy, water delivered to our home, and suddenly we do not. The difficulty longterm is creating or recreating the infrastructure that would have been destroyed or rendered inoperable. That takes time. Is tosly, the immediate get the water away from places you should not allow people to inhabit their homes. We have not touched on the difficulty that comes when you have millions of people who have sought shelter other places harry at or at least tens and thousands of people who are sheltering in place. Ofave strong memories talking to shelters in houston, ironically, where entire cities up insaid up set arenas, where people lived or weeks, all without any of the things that made them safe and healthy. I remember sitting next to the cot of a woman who had lost her medicines. She told me the story of seeing her life literally washed away. These are people who have been traumatized. There without basic needs. There are chemotherapy patients, for example, whose medical records were destroyed. This is a disruptive time for people and requires all of us to be empathetic and it is disheartening to see it is heartening to see the American People step up the way they have. A lot of different entities involved in rebuilding. One of the longterm concerns is alled and the impact mo is mold and the impact it could have on health. Guest the issue of standing water is an environment where microbes can prosper. Best of an enemy in the conditions. When you have a catastrophic situation, the initial wave is being able to find safe too. After that, it becomes being able to deal with the microbial world and it is a formidable enemy. Host lets get to phone calls. For those who live in texas and louisiana, the number to call is 202 7488002. We are dividing our phone lines regionally. George from virginia. Good morning. Caller good morning and thank you for cspan. What i want to say is what i think the federal and local is taking all the precautions necessary but i think we can do more. Also, when this is over and cleared up and everything, we should do more to protect all so if Drinking Water, these disasters happen again, they would not get contaminated. We should build more walls to keep this kind of stuff out of the Drinking Water areas, the reservoirs will he get Drinking Water, and i would like to say to all these multimillionaire people, movie stars, foot wall and baseball players, and whoever are making a great sum of money, take down deep and those people help who did not have Flood Insurance. They are going to be hurting and hurting bad. Host george, thank you. Dummy go back tears earlier point as head of the epa, what about the let me go back to his earlier point as head of the epa, what about the government do water supply . Guest the governments job is to assure the cities and states are put in place, essentially an umbrella to say it they do not do their job, we would do our best to make sure people know it and enforce basic standards. Fundamentally, the federal government does not have the capacity or reach to assure there is safe infrastructure in every town. This goes back to what i think we learned from katrina, which is there is no government on its who haseral or state, the ability to do everything, so it is everyones job. While i was secretary of health, i spent a lot of time trying to pandemicreparedness on disease, another catastrophe that could affect everyone. No government has the ability to do it all. Preparedness is everyones job, and it has to be done in advance. When we have moments like this, george is right, we ought to be inventorying the things we did not do well enough because they will come again. Disasters happen periodically. Fortunately, there are spaces in between to recharge but this is everyones job. Host is Climate Change a factor with katrina or with Hurricane Harvey . Guest i am not scientist and if to know. I hear that argued. It certainly seems there is a redundancy in these events. I heard news reports this nepalg that the floods in , india, and other places, we are focused on harvey, 1300 lives this week and flooding. I do not know the answer, steve. Im sure there are those who would have strong opinions. Host 202 7488000 in the eastern and central time zones. 202 7488001 for those of you out west. We have a line set aside for texas and louisiana residents. Let me ask about medicare and medicaid. Had you ensure those funds continue to flow . Guest i have less worry about medicaid and medicare being able to do its job to pay. About,am more concerned and what people in houston and surrounding areas are concerned about, is are there places to get care . In katrina, the hospitals and clinics were rendered inoperable. The first job is to make certain there are places people can seek care, even if they are original stations with that would occur are destroyed. Orleans,going into new taking 100 million from taxpayers to deploy into that infrastructure. I might add in the situation with katrina, over time, i think improving effect of the situation. Also offerters opportunities, not things he would seek, but when they come to improve the medical infrastructure. Ist from baltimore, nat next. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to compliment your guest on his astuteness and lack rumors whichstate are of no consequence. Changeiness of climate is always happening. Manmade Climate Change is not a fact and has never been proven. As stated before, i am a former director of science and technology for the navy. We studied the problem for 10 years. We had the observatories and we found no answer for manmade effects. Host thank you. Did you want to respond . Guest well, thank you for being kind to me, but i will say that i think we do know there are some backs. One is the surface temperature of the earth this increasing. Men and womenat of mankind have some affect on that. We do not know the extent to which that is affected overall the climate, and the truth is we do not know a lot about how to resolve that. I do not tonight the fact i do not deny the fact that there have been impacts but i do not feel i am qualified to determine if it is a factor in Something Like harvey or katrina. Your reactionet to the current secretary of health and Human Services said this week about Hurricane Harvey and his departments response. [video clip] our responsibilities are medical, veterinarian and mortuary. Hey will be all of the above the challenge in the longterm is that most individuals who suffer, suffered from not being able to get the medicare care medical care when the sun comes out, so trying to make sure we have pharmacies set up, make certain folks are getting electricity to their homes, utilized,d able to be and then just chronic disease. Making sure books get to their doctor went making sure folks get to their doctor in their hometown. We are ready to go. We have four medical stations that are up and running, and the two on the way and another four or five beyond that were folks need it. Host that was secretary tom price. Michael leavitt, reiterating what you said earlier, based on what you know around houston and the area, is it possible to go back up to speed to treat those in need of dialysis or other care . Guest my knowledge of houston is not complete, but from what i have observed in red, it appears they are moving rapidly. There was a circumstance where a complicated medical procedure was scheduled for the time of the flood and had to be deferred. I know many were rescheduled to other hospitals around the country, but to my pleasure and delight, i learned the texas Childrens Hospital has been able to stand back up and this procedure was made possible. It is obvious to me that not all areas will be the same but there are great progress is being made and i note this will be a high priority. Truth is, we are Getting Better at this as a country. If you look back, 9 11 was a wakeup call, not just from the geopolitical standpoint but an acknowledgment that there were things we needed to do to improve. Between 9 11 and katrina, the entire National Response plan was reexamined and lots of changes. Katrina turned out to be a bit of a shakedown of the new system. Much was learned. I merrily, i think we learned this past primarily, i think we learned this has to be done but everyone. In subsequent disasters like harvey, we will learn from this one, too. Host this program is carried on the Bbc Parliament channel, so we welcome our viewers in Great Britain and those of you want cspan radio app sirius xm channel 124, the potus channel. We welcome you. We are talking with michael leavitt, he served as the secretary of the health and Human Services secretary under george w. Bush. He is joining us from salt lake city. William from lakewood, ohio. Good morning. Caller good morning, gentlemen. Thank you particular call. Guest our pleasure. Caller my question or comment what the predict pretty good certainty that these types of catastrophic level storms will hit certain places . If so, what does that tell us about where we can build or if we can build in places like this, where it will be 200 billion in damage, to we have to build differently so it is more resistant to this type of storm you would expect . I do not know is that this may be outside of your sphere, but it seems like it would not be a good idea to be there. I will take my comments. Host thank you. Guest earlier in my professional life, i spend time in the discipline of risk management. Int i learned was that managing risks, there are a number of different options. One is you can avoid risk. By avoiding risk, there are circumstances where we know it is editable in a and overtime, events will occur. Frankly, it would be smart for people in society to do our best to avoid creating infrastructure that will be damaged. The second and support is you can minimize those exposures. We have seen this now in katrina and in harvey, where people have continued to rebuild because it is their home and what they know. Goodhe caller makes a point. I think they were decisions that have to be made after katrina, where we did not rebuild. It is just impossible over a long amount of time to protect. We had these things like 100 year floods, a mathematical calculation someone has made that there is a 1 chance every year there will be a catastrophic flood in that area. We deem it to be a warranty that will never happen. Clearly, harvey broke the warranty. There is a 100 year flood the area, it turned out to be, a, not impenetrable, and 1 have been of the unexpected happened. We cannot be completely confident we can predict them, but where we can predict them with some reliability, the caller makes a good point. Host lets go to danielhost in california with health and Human Services secretary under george w. Bush with michael leavitt. Caller good morning. I agree with everything you stated in regards everyone must contribute to the safety of the community, but the city of houston, according to Rice University professors, developed a property on the flood plans of paris county that were once the basis for the capture of water in the event of significant floods. Houston, and to developers, and in order to exploit land that should have been mistaken. Everyone should be prepared to contribute to the safety of the community, but there is no way thingovernment does this like in flint, michigan, or in new orleans under the George Washington bush, there were efforts to lift the floodwall around new orleans, but they did not do it in time. If we look along the Missouri River in iowa, we have cities along the river that were in the when misery flooded, so the government said we are not going to rebuild the citys unless they move backwards and i believe it was moved backwards a significant way. We have the situation in utah, where we had at st. George the Nuclear Weapon test. I think government was a sponsor both to protect the people in utah, when there was a nonunknown situation. Professorsthat two at the university or Rice University in houston stated that there has to be some strength like government to protect the people and stop environments as they would occur along the snake river. Host thanks for the call. We will get a response. Guest the caller makes a valid point. It is governments fundamental job to help protect the welfare and safety of its citizens. With always juxtaposed liberty. The ability for people to do what they want. Where that comes together is in the subject we spoke of earlier, . Ho bears the risk the question repeatedly comes in these settings. Does it make sense that the government then steps in and tries to make everyone whole . It does not make sense for the government nor does the government have economic capacity to make everyone whole. When people want to accept risk by building in a 200 year floodplain, that is the reason we have created Flood Insurance and so forth, some of which is federally supported, some of which is not. The increment of risk is formed by the ratepayer instead of the taxpayer. Callersart of the theing was when people make decisions, they need to bear the responsibility, but government does have a basic responsibility of we will make an ageold study of trying to determine where to draw that line and people will drive differently. Host in new york, michael, you are next. Good morning. Caller good morning. My question is in regards to what is the federal health and Human Services department, as well as state and federal department role, in interacting the ptsd and other trauma . . Specially with children if you have never been through a hurricane, tornado, how do you combat the mental trauma not easily seen and therefore combated . Thank you. Guest the caller raises an important component of our help. We have learned over time that Behavioral Health and mental factorsre substantial in the wellness of people. When they are confronted with has lasting it impact, not just on their mental health, but their physical wellbeing, as well. Have a rolent does to ensure that in the early stages of these disasters, we are able to provide them assistance. I have mentioned the time i spend in and around shoulders during katrina, listening to stories about having their home washed away, sometimes losing members of their family, other momentum does of their past, those are traumatic experiences. Once the Recovery Period is over, some linger and we have to have medical infrastructure that will acknowledge it is part of their lives and find ways to help people when they need it. Host what is the biggest challenge secretary price will be basing over the year two with regard to houston in louisiana . Guest if katrina is an indicator of what we will see in harvey, it takes a long time to rebuild the medical infrastructure, to make sure there are certain clinicians and facilities in place to serve when they are required. It is also important to remember we will exhaust stockpiles we have created. The United States has a sophisticated system of stockpiling, so we had the ability to move in with supplies and will have to replenish them now and what becomes compounding that you have disaster followed by disaster. Many will remember after katrina we had hurricane rita and there were threats of others happening. The two are rebuilding and stockpiling. Host do you have any sense of a price tag overall involved in this is to work with it exceed katrina . Guest that is not something i feel authority of about. I can say katrina covered a wide area geographically and affected harambestates, and concentration and harveys concentration, while not insignificant, may be smaller. Host our final call is from bethesda, maryland. Marine, maureen . Caller why where people not warned to leave several days in advance so they can prepare, which is what i did before heavy rains on saturday . The issue of whether evacuation is the right course will be continued to be debated. Andes were evacuated traffic things happened. There was the movement in the traffic, and there was a bus that caught fire and a couple of dozen lives were lost. This is not an insignificant call to make. Made ahoustons mayor decision and secondguessed. We will review that in the context of history and learn from that. Host former governor, secretary of health and Human Services, michael leavitt, to a happier time and expertise. Guest good morning. Host we will update you on the situation in north korea and Sarah Sanders with a statement saying the president has been in touch with his National Security team and there will be a white house meeting later today with the president s National Security team to monitor the situation in north korea. Three tweets earlier today from the president. Lets share he said, north korea has conducted a Major Nuclear test. Their words and actions continue to be hostile and interest United States. North korea is a rogue nation which has become a great threat and are spent to china, which is trying to help, but with little success. Finally, south korean a south korea is finding that their talk with peace with north korea will not work. They only understand one thing. That is from the president this thisng and we will monitor situation and have more on tomorrows washington journal. You will talk about the right to work and talk about the impact of minimum wage laws. Newsmakers is next. We hope you enjoy the rest of your extended Holiday Weekend and have a great week ahead. Next, it newsmakers with the president of the American Federation of teachers. Then, a discussion on the future of the republican party. After that, see sans profile interview with Mick Mulvaney and linda mcmahon, administrator for the Small Business administration. Live today at noon easter, author, speaker, and radio host is our guest. America is not defined by a ethnicity. Every ethnicity exists in america. Is not trying defined by religion. Every religion exists in america p where the only country in the world it was refined and created by an idea. Therefore, to keep the republic as franklin enjoined us to do, we must know those ideas, understand those ideas, buy into those ideas, and liberals out. His books include bike fees on wilberforce, and his new book. Join our lives very conversation with your calls, you males, tweets, and imo questions live today at noon eastern on book cspan two. H on on this Labor Day Weekend and as students are heading back to toool, newsmakers is proud randi weingarten, president of announce the American Federation of teachers. She has been on a multicity to learn aboutols to how schools are faring in their new year, and she is also an active member of the Democratic National committee. We will talk to her abouho