This is the place where we remember the young women and you know sons of my. My kids and my mom here five girls i took boys. Remember. I love my house and im going to stay now until i die. Rizzi new whitfield has lived in this house in Houston Texas for nearly seventy years than Hurricane Harvey melancon and august twenty seventh tea. When the water started coming in the kitchen and i went in and i was walking in the garden i suppose it is and i couldnt believe it i looked at the bank though and it was just like a lake out there so much as. One trillion gallons of water bill in the houston area over a four day period by far the most rainfall in u. S. History more than ninety people talk to the ring with the stuff like we were at noahs ark or something. Really. Its just pretty good at. This time we had and we lost everything again. For. A day that i am on the list and open to me that i have writers. Thats the most high its the most determined that not only. In houston her kid herbie hit everybody but after the waters receded will there be an equal recovery. You cant go with a clean slate assuming that harvey affected everybody with you because of that. Have you gotten help from the red cross or fema or the city you know we have a witness who. Lied to the red cross and i havent heard from him and the money has denied me so youve received no assistance in the assistance. Are you worried about losing your home just. As i. Believe that were going to recall them. Have to see these haves and have nots that awful translates into who gets the best of things when it comes to flood protection and who gets left out. A month after her be hit when Media Attention had moved elsewhere faultlines travel to houston just to the storm will deepen the citys social and economic divide. Does something remember that my last but i mean you know i want to have the last time i will give up now but i will. Also you must come to me at this time last time im going to leave us again i mustnt i want i mean if i was still with us on that i mean now. This is Clayton Holmes its a Public Housing development for some of houstons borst residents. A real an heiress and her family lived here. She was nine months pregnant when the hurricane hit she escaped with her husband mother and four kids days after evacuating she gave birth and where you living now said one of the most. Of these houses were some of the worst hit. Residents were left to look for a new place to live. To go home to reverend James Caldwell is a Community Leader whos helped residents clean up their homes. The health study funded by the New York Times found that floodwaters of one home here contain toxins. The levels of eco life bacteria were over a hundred times higher than whats deemed safe. In one familys kitchen they also found high levels of lead arsenic and other horrible metals. During the hurricane twenty million gallons of sewage water overflowed from plants all over the region. Reverend caldwell took us to see various house floor well read here take a look at in this hall what youll see here is just like every unit in this area in this section. People death had to get out they they left everything. That they had and you about. What that was. You see what a lot of levels. Three to four feet easily what when you look at this one this is someones life is. Everything now who they are the identity of a while for a while longer while she have a lot of good options in terms of where to go or where to move to. That is still up in the air one and its not just for her of of the thousands of others i will they become one their life to live with everything is gone i would hear it. And i mean how do you read purchase regained some of. What how did you do that one on me without any assistance and invited thank oaken youre being denied by the head crossing team but if thats going to help you. Maintain a normal way of life why will you be able to move back into the home. Do you know where youll go. During the hurricane cleaned homes was especially vulnerable because it sits on the edge of this waterway the buffalo by you. Might say ever so before. Further downstream is manchester a majority Latino Community one third of the residents here live in poverty. Its located near houston shipping channel one of the largest petrochemical complexes in the world. Well over a dozen plants in the region reported spills or leaks gerry harvey. Dr Robert Bullard is known as the father of the Environmental Justice movement. Hes found that minority neighborhoods are at more risk to industrial pollution than other communities its ok to put a landfill incinerator garbage dump refinery in black and brown communities to say somehow that even in a city like houston where we dont have zoning but if you look at and map vulnerability and proximity of these dangerous facilities theyre not randomly distributed. Race maps with vulnerability and pollution maps with race and class and race is the most potent factor that determines where these facilities a located. This is where houston and. Channel me event are you know works for the texas Environmental JusticeAdvocacy Services or take up to see the tanks the storage tanks that are lying flat thats manchester the Group Believes that environmental protections are not in place for the People Living here you have huntsman chemical on the chemical. Refining texas port recycling and then twenty six lanes of Union Pacific rail transporting chemical and crude oil products. This is. It houses over ninety three steel Carbon Storage tanks of nothing but chemical and crude products you can notice the tanks themselves are right next to these homes there are homes all around these tanks were here there are so as the rains were hitting all of these tanks the floodwaters were flushing their way into peoples yards. This chair here still a mystery and yes in the top one percent of most toxic schools in the entire nation so all those kids theyre going out playing during recess are completely exposed. To whats going on right next to them. During Natural Disasters emergencies maintenance and start up and shut down events you have just a reckless amount of the missions that make their way into the local communities. Weve basically tracked her have been tracking. Over five Million Pounds of the missions that were released in the impacted areas and Hydrogen Cyanide so for dioxide one three including all of these are extremely toxic and hazardous to human health there absolutely no permissible amounts. Of things like benzene the Valero Energy refinery is streets away from where children play. After the hurricane this facility reported to the state Environmental Agency that it leaked chemicals including cancer causing vincy. But no ones going to get to take it no ones going to get a fine no ones going to. Look for because of any of these emissions. In communities near the shipping channel theres a feeling that theres little accountability when leaks happen. And after the hurricane there was a sense of urgency to change that. We call this company right here the stinky one because every time you drive through here youll smell how bad it is ive been here for thirty seven years and i how many how many years of my life ive lost i mean i here in this in this environment but its home like you here one florist works for a group that wants to start training residents to test air quality for themselves during Hurricane Harvey there was a big build a happen right over here and ill show you right now from my g. L. And dana just billion almost half a Million Barrels of gasoline gas bill in the area and that goes back to what people were smelling during harvey was a very heavy petrol gasoline smell that we have never smelled before an area magellan said that they contain the spill but they acknowledge that there were arab Missions Including been seen are there are known respiratory issues for kids who grow up in this area theres a lot of people who would say their kids have asthma as was a big big thing i hear and i can feel bad for some of the people who live in these apartment complexes quite a few people who live here and a lot of times people dont really understand whats going on or dont know what the dangers are. The bucket we were doing are testing because its our our planet trying to educate the residents and how they can do samples at home and get those samples to us and we can find out exactly what it is theyre smelling and whats. Going on so its a vacuum. Then ill just say dissolve. You see the areas is. Weve got more than enough in there right after you can see this definitely. The right to breathe is a basic human right to talk about every day occurrences and thats what makes harvey and Environmental Justice issues and that we have to address some of the preexisting. Conditions that that many communities had to grapple with. How fast you recover from a Natural Disaster has a lot to do with where you live. Low income and minority neighborhoods a Pure Resources to help them. When you talk about who has resilience who has the money the resources and who has historically had the level of investments that go to protecting very wealthy neighborhoods you can see that theres imbalance. Greens point in North Houston is one of the pores neighborhoods in the city. The Shopping Mall here has turned into an emergency relief center. This lie which goes on and on and on can only be measured in the thousands and thousands of people have it out here in the sun for hours waiting to get basically food stamps this isnt the normal for Stamp Program all these people to qualify had to be affected by Hurricane Harvey. I mean its nice to kind of want to be. On t. V. In the situation like i mean you. Have to understand how much right now to lose their license when. Were not home has been three weeks just three weeks then you got hardly headaches its problems stress were you surprised you came out all the yes i was in shock and im still upset and hes going to take you cant i didnt realize we had that many people and we dont really line up i mean everybodys heard. Many of the people lined up hope you seem to that in this line will close in just days whatever oh. My i feel you i know. Marina and her stepchildren have been doing what they can to help people affected by the hurricane when. Theyre sick and my friend is in the line he takes me simmering a call. I have a lot of people they need water and i dont know how to say dont nobody shes an undocumented immigrant so she can apply for the food Disaster Program or self even though this is the second time brought home is flooded and shes lost everything i get donations move forward and when i do i think my my people food off. Me not good enough that you know. What. Im. Getting really really no american running around are you serious at. This to have that uniform and be honest that. Its close to eight oclock tomorrow. Night im not going to do that until i did because they would have let me find hard that. Brainless in greens point because they were in here is cheap but that comes at a cost the majority of apartment buildings here like inside the flood so. The areas flooded at least five times since two thousand and one. Im thinking im. Going to have dinner together the way hes going there right here. And i like a river out here. Thats when i started coming in. The water to start the rice. I mean my husband we were sitting outside watching just the water gore. And i was crying. That the state. We were just. Recovering from the last we. Heard. By the name. Of your wife. Or girl. Youre worried about staying in this apartment and being flooded again. For your stuff. Were not punishing you doing little girl so really she. Started playing. Dress up her clothes where every have it ok you dont ok. Because my husband you know this is my husband my husband. And i never have the most of those three. A month i. Never saw and i. Know. You would love to see if the world she used to if you noticed but theres not like Affordable Housing choices go over to. Places that dont get flooded flying. Theyre. Going to higher income. It will be a good choice for us from wadi or. Better find children better environment. Raise point is a poster child for vulnerability when it rains were not talking rain we talking when it rains flash floods they get flooded. For the last three years were talking about a community that has been disrupted where people are losing you know everything and when you start losing everything in a repetitive way you have to ask the question why isnt something die. In some areas or greens way over one third of the population lives below the poverty line. If the aftermath of harvey is anything like that of Hurricane Katrina new orleans in two thousand and five housing prices will go off low income residents will be pushed out and inequality will grow. Houston is already one of the most segregated cities in america and it could get worse what about bring to reflect they dont have the house thing choices in houston to move out of the flood plains and thats why were building Housing Units now there are several that will be coming online you know. Late on this year and next year the citys mayor Sylvester Turner the Democratic Campaign going to promise to provide more Affordable Housing im the mayor of the fourth largest city in this country to be the third city is doing very very well but theres still twenty four percent of the people in my city of working poor. And they are living in the shadows of this. And when i said when i came in as a man twenty two months ago is that i didnt want to be the mayor of two cities i have and have not now what we have to do is that we have to move with a greater sense of urgency. To me the need thats meant as abated by by harvey and to put people in a better place and then. So you know you can run away from it storm the bisque so you cant ignore it you cant turn a blind eye to it. After the hurricane questions were raised about what if anything officials could have done to mitigate the flooding and some of the hardest hit areas. In houston people look to the Harris CountyFlood Control district which is one of the agencies tasked with reducing flood risk for the larger metropolitan area. Since harvey its been focused on recovery clearing debris making repairs and preparing for the next door. Hoping you know. Well we were in town the agency which is headed by a judge at image held a press conference for those residents who experienced the flood in two dozen fifteen a flood in two thousand and sixteen and now flooding two dozen seventeen are you doing enough for those residents no thats our hope or. Should the county prioritize efforts to help communities who have a harder time recovering from a party like its you know i think recovering is one thing mitigation is Something Else recovery there are prioritized but in terms of mitigation you know its a question of making our Community Safe and so were people who live in this more question of hydrology you know we need to look at. But critics say that approach focuses on scientific technicalities and ignores the reality that some communities have been historically neglected. Because the judge is saying theres no equity lands then those of us who are out here in the public are saying that must be an equity lens because we cannot reproduce the any quality we cannot allow money to follow money and money power when it comes to. The investments that have only made in flood protection that would be not only in morrow on ethical but we think would be illegal. Harvey was the third major flood to houston in as many years but it was far more destructive than the ones before it. As the city tries to recover theres fear that the worst is yet to come knowing that another storm will come and another storm will come and the intensity of the strong seem to be getting getting a greater we have to change course. And we have to be on in this case a city thats more prepared and out a lot more reason the next time around. We kind of have a code word for Climate Change in texas called weird weather so you hear people in texas talking about weird weather this and weird weather that because we really dont feel comfortable talking about Climate Change frankly houston hadnt seen the worst case storm the worst case storm is one that has a surge that comes in from the coast. The last texas was hit with a major storm surge was hurricane ike in two thousand and eight which hit the coastal city of galveston a surge storm is for horrifying because it would come up to Houston Ship Channel and we have projected at least a twenty five foot surge in the shipping channels only protected to about fifteen feet so theres forty four hundred storage tanks for all and Hazardous Substances there we think twenty two hundred of them would be flooded and we think it would be the worst environmental disaster in United States history which shut down the economic engine of the region so its a big do. You talk about thousands of lives that will be lost because of the flooding and the surge in the ways that would hit those communities that are low lying