Atlantic City mayor gives Al Roker tour of damage

>> much. al roker is 70 miles south in atlantic city . that city took a major hit as well. al, good morning to you.

>> well, good morning, matt and savannah. you want to talk about nostalgia nostalgia. you can't think of atlantic city without thinking about one of its most iconic features, the boardwalk . well, i'm on the boardwalk , but the problem is the ocean where the boardwalk should be is about 200 yards that way, and that's the danger here when you have the power of water and it meets a force and something like a boardwalk , even though as sturdy as this thing has been, and it stood for 80 years, it was no match, and it is now pushed as far south as parts of the casinos that make this city famous as well. but, even though it has been destroyed, the mayor here says they will rebuild. people think atlantic city , they think the boardwalk , and you're looking at -- you're looking at part of that boardwalk . what do you do when you see something like this?

>> well, again, you know, this can be replaced. human lives cannot be replaced, and so we'll do what we can and what we must and what we should do to regroup and pull ourselves together. we'll rebuild this boardwalk , no doubt about it.

>> you see you're going to be a direct hi. you're in the command center . things pass, safe to go out. what do you see when you get out there?

>> to be honest with you the damage is pretty extensive so it could have been a lot worse. i see the glass as half full and not half empty . given the catastrophic nature of this storm, i certainly expected it to be a lot worse than it was.

>> there was a back and forth, well, the governor of your state, called you out saying that you countermanneded a directive from him to make sure that people were evacuated, and you dispute what he said.

>> i'm extraordinarily disappointed in elected officials who decide to tell people to directly contravene an order from the governor. that's going to cost people significa significantly.

>> i can tell you, said on a number of occasions, both in the electronic immediate why and print media residents should heeded clarion call and get out of the city. we said it repeatedly and consistently.

>> what lessons were learned from sandy?

>> well, again, you can never be too prepared, and the other side of that coin is no matter how prepared you, are you're always going to get thrown a curveball, so the best thing that you can do is to stay prayerful, stay diligent and try to do better than you did this time the next time.

>> and long-term challenges?

>> to rebuild this boardwalk and other parts of the city and make it bigger and better than it was before.

>> and savannah, what's amazing is all those scenes of streets under water, well, 24 hours later there's almost no flooding here. the waters have receded, and the cleanup is now under way, even as we're speaking.

>> what a job it is, al roker in atlantic city ,