Katrina evacuees cross the Industrial Canal.

Tom Darden
Special to CNN

Copenhagen, Denmark, is 5,000 miles away from New Orleans, Louisiana. But representatives of the 192 nations gathering this week at the climate change conference need to keep the memory of a flooded New Orleans in mind.

Two years ago this month, the Make It Right Foundation was launched to help the families of New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward rebuild their lives and community. That was already two years after Katrina, and the once-vibrant neighborhood was still in ruins, failed by government and frustrated by a lack of progress.

Working with the Lower 9th Ward community, with families who lost everything in Katrina, with cutting-edge architects and inventive builders, we learned some truths and made some discoveries we would like to share with the climate change negotiators in Copenhagen:

We need urgent action. Climate change is real and happening now. The world already is reeling from the consequences - rising sea levels, more violent storms, more frequent flooding and prolonged droughts. Hurricane Katrina, the killer heat wave in Europe, China's floods and the enduring drought in Australia are not anomalies, they are harbingers.

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Program Note: Anderson is reporting live from Chicago tonight. More on what's being done to curb the violence. AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan speaks during a news conference in Chicago on Wednesday.

Mishan Afsari
AC360°

I watch AC360° report on youth violence in Chicago, and it’s the most thought provoking national news for me since Hurricane Katrina. In fact, I see strong parallels between the two stories. And the question I’m always left with is: how can they be helped?

In late August 2005 when I heard a hurricane was threatening to hit hard in the gulf coast, I admit, I thought – it’s a hurricane – it happens, but it wasn’t going to affect me. I imagine many of us thought the same. But only days later, the whole country was wondering when the help would arrive to the people suffering from that devastating natural disaster.

Now it’s Chicago. It’s not natural, but it’s a disaster by most standards. So far this year, 57 kids aged 18 and under were victims of homicide in Chicago, according to the Chicago Police Department. Last year, 100 kids were killed.

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Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

Stephen Flynn, Frank J. Cilluffo, and Sharon L. Cardash
AC360° Contributors

Katrina, the costliest hurricane in U.S. history, roared ashore on the Gulf Coast four years ago on August 29, 2005. The images of floating corpses and storm survivors stranded on rooftops and at the Superdome will long be seared in our collective memories. Even today, many families throughout the Gulf region are finding the road to recovery to be a long and arduous one.

For those of us during the late summer of 2005 who were fortunate enough to reside outside of harm’s way, we should pause on the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina to reflect on this sobering fact: 9 out of 10 Americans live in a place that faces a moderate to high risk of a natural disaster. North America is a beautiful continent, but Mother Nature is not always very kind to it. Earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, wildfires, hurricanes, flooding, blizzards, and high-wind damage are always in the offing.

While Katrina serves as a forceful reminder of the inevitability of natural disasters, it underscores another important lesson: the risk we will become victims will rise dramatically if we neglect infrastructure. We now know that New Orleans should have survived the storm largely unscathed. The city’s flood protection system was supposed to withstand a direct hit by a powerful Category 3 hurricane. But New Orleans dodged the worst of the storm because at the last minute, Katrina’s center veered east so that the winds that buffeted New Orleans were barely above Category 1. Tragically, because the levees had been so shabbily maintained, they started to fail even before the full fury of the storm had arrived. In the end, it was not an Act of God that doomed so many New Orleanians. It was the neglect of man.

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Alesia Crockett, who suffers from bipolar disorder, ended up in a hospital hours outside New Orleans.

Stephanie Smith
CNN Medical Producer

As the storm raged outside her hospital room four years ago, an equally consuming force hijacked Alesia Crockett's mind: deep depression.

For days, Crockett lay in darkness and a tangle of sweaty hospital bed sheets, one among hundreds of desperate patients trapped inside Charity Hospital in 2005, while outside, Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath battered the city.

Crockett had been admitted to Charity's inpatient mental health unit after having a psychotic episode. She had struggled for years with bipolar disorder, an illness that causes her to volley between euphoria and profound depression.

She said she barely remembers Katrina.

"Most of the time, I was in a fog, but I do remember some things," Crockett said. "Where my room was, I could see thousands of people wandering, and I could see the waters rise."

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Harry Shearer says the White House isn't getting actively involved in protecting New Orleans from flooding.

Harry Shearer
Special to CNN

I spent much of this month in my adopted hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana. Uncharacteristically for August, the streets and restaurants and galleries and music clubs were largely full and throbbing with energy.

There are hubs of entrepreneurs all over town trying to invent the future. And thankfully, Mayor Ray Nagin's term is only months away from its end.

Between my weeks in the Crescent City, I joined some local folks in traipsing up to the Aspen Institute to share the news of New Orleans with interested outsiders. One talked about the progress in rebuilding homes. Another discussed the reform of the public-school system, the decoupling of the schools from a centralized board, resulting in the city becoming the leader in charter-school enrollment.

A third talked about the move to neighborhood medical clinics, an effort to replace the hospital beds missing in the flooding's wake.

A fourth reported the good economic statistics, marred only by the continuing shortage in affordable rental housing (80,000 units were whacked by the flood). And a fifth discussed the citizen activism that is helping, along with a determined U.S. attorney (who's just sent Rep. William Jefferson and his brother Mose to jail), to clean up local politics.

After all, it was New Jersey pols, not New Orleans ones, who got snagged in a scheme involving black-market kidneys. Wish we'd thought of that.

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Anderson is anchoring from New Orleans tonight where he’s talking to locals about what the city is like today, four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area.

Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy tries to rebuild. Anderson will also meet up with New Orleans native James Carville for a tour of the city.

@andersoncooper: From ac: just landed back in new orleans. Its great to be back here. Four years since katrina. I'm meeting up with James Carville shortly.

@andersoncooper: From ac: just finished shooting a tour around new orleans with james carville. Its great to see the growth in the life of the city!

Follow his tweets today here.

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.

AC360°

Anderson is anchoring from New Orleans tonight where he reports on how locals are coping four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the area. Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Earlier today, Anderson met up with CNN Political Contributor and New Orleans native James Carville for a tour of the city. Check out this photo gallery of where they stopped.

Anderson and James Carville sit down at a Pascal Manale's restaurant in New Orleans.

Anderson meets a New Orleans resident who tells him she's glad he came back and shares her own story.

Outside of Pascal Manale's restaurant.

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AC360°

Anderson is anchoring from New Orleans tonight where he is reporting on how the city is rebuilding four years after Hurricane Katrina.

Tonight we look into the work being done by New Orleans Habitat - an affiliate of Habitat for Humanity – which builds affordable homes in partnership with sponsors, families and volunteers.

Since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans Habitat has built 242 homes in Orleans, Jefferson, Plaquemines and St. Bernard Parishes, and more than 46 homes are currently under construction.

One project under way is the creation of the Musicians Village - a site that will consist of more than 75 homes for musicians in the city who, because of Katrina, are in need of affordable housing. The project was conceived by Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis. Its centerpiece will be the Ellis Marsalais Center for Music, dedicated to the music education and development of homeowners.

Learn more about the Musicians Village and the work of New Orleans Habitat here.

Program Note: Four years after Katrina, what is New Orleans like now? Some residents continue to face challenges as the Big Easy keeps trying to rebuild. Take a look at In Depth: After the Storm. And to learn about ways you can make a difference, visit Impact Your World.