creating fans from berlin to beijing. >> piers, thank you very much. what can we help you build? i'm here with meteorologist rob nicet kid. marciano and for folks who are the nba around the wor buil the only company that could. cisco. not tuned into this carefully what we are looking at for the next couple of hours. >> we are looking at a hurricane that made one looking at a hur ♪ one of the southern most spots and it's over water and it's about to make second landfall. new orleans on the north side of this, that's the worst side. that's why we've been hit with (train hor these sheets of heavy, heavy vo: wherever our trains go, theconommes to life. rainfall and gusts up to 60 miles per hour. norfolk southern. with that, over 2,000 people one li, infinite possibilities. without power. >> chad, in terms of the big there's natural gas der my town. picture, over the next eight it's a game changer. hours here in new orleans, until ♪ it means cleaner, caper aman-madenergy. 8:00 a.m., i think you were saying before, what are we but we've got to be careful it. looking for? >> on and off, exactly what you design tells to bfe. are feeling right now. thousands of jobs. when a rain band comes over your use the most advanced technology to protect our water. blions in the econo. area, whether it's over biloxi

chevron, t right, we t do itl or mobile, when the rain stops, we'v goto think long term. e've goto ng th rm. the wind literally stops as ♪ well. the eye will travel to the north and to the west, probably right over baton rouge, to the west of when i think of aspirin, i really tnk of it as tt bottle in the back of my parents' medicine cinet. new orleans. that's a bad thing for new finding bayevanced was huge. orleans because that puts new was really surprised by how welit worked. and i'd denitely use it agai put bayer advanced aspirin to the test for ur orleans on the forward side of the eye. you get the movement of the atastreliefchallenge.com. storm, although it's slow, but you get the rain bands filling up new orleans. i just checked, new orleans proper has had 3 inches of rainfall since it started and that was maybe three hours ago. so about an inch an hour or so. there's new orleans, the port of new orleans right there where you are. the heavy band will probably end in the next 15 minutes but there are more -- many, many more bands rotating around the center with their eye on you, anderson. >> chad is saying many more bands of rain expected. this one is going to end in about 15 minutes or so.

chad, are you still expecting 15, 20 inches of rain here? >> i absolutely do. i even have a scarier number for you. this is a map that is kind of difficult to look at. a lot of colors here. let me draw it out for you. here is new orleans proper and as it moves ahead, we have all of this rain down here across parts of the delta. shawn, go ahead and move that. nope. i guess that's not going to happen. we will absolutely get at least 20 to inches now of rain in mississippi delta. >> wow. >> yeah, it's just incredible use the storm simply is not moving. i knew it would veju have to ki. new orleanto slidell all the way up to alexandria, that's ten inches plus in that entire area right there. ten inches covering almost the entire state of louisiana and all of that water has to go

somewhere. it will clearly cause flooding. >> i want to go to ed lavandera in grand island in a moment but, chad, when are you anticipating it to hit grand isle? >> the center of the eye has not made landfall yet so we're not quite there with the eddie lavandera live shot. it's a very, very large eye. you can talk to rob about what that means. the eye, probably 60 miles around which means there's not anything going on in the middle here. there's no rain, there's no wind, and maybe you can even see the sky. you might be able to see the stars and the moves. but as this eye gets smaller and from gulfport, mississippi, smaller and smaller, the winds will pick up as well. where hurricane isaac is this storm, just now an beginning toash on land. an op is live in new 80-mile-per hour storm, we call this land but there's not much land there. there's more bayou.

orleans. anderson, we just talked to billy ngesser. he's in a home not far from you, clrlfeeling the effect. he said it's by far the worst storm they've had their since katrina and he was feeling the same effects on his home fro it's not going to slow down at the wind andain when he was there with katrina. >> yeah. you know, everstorm is all. >> ed lavandera now. diffent. i think chad myers pointed out you just lost anderson with some someg impoant whwa that there was a wind gust more of the rain bands. eddie, you are in the eye. than miles an hur recorded how many eyes have you been in out on anil platform not fa in your lifetime? >> reporter: a handful. from plaquemines parish. and i tell you what, after the long evening that we've had here that's a cat 2 windstorm. today, chad, seeing the stars even though it's not a cat 1 and the moon perhaps would be a very welcome sight. stor tha cat wds wat you know, the home th we're inside and have been hunkered likely -- >> we just lost aerson there. it's gettg increasingly windy down in, the watat doesn't mean the water hasn't been swirling and rain-driven, as you can imine. all around us. for now we to 'lgoeutenant russell honore. it's starting to come up. if you look there at the house, he wasin charge in response to you'll see a couple of lines of bricks and then where the siding katrina. from what you're seeing tonight, of the home starts. water right where we're standing over is the garage to the house

dohow his compare with what u had toeal wi in katrina? >> well, anderson, the efcts which is already taking in water. if that water reaches up to that what we dealt with after the siding, then the house on the ground level starts taking in water. when we were at the peak of this storm. is pre-s the first half of this big event storm just a short while ago, that water was starting to creep up very close to that siding, which was a little bit obing at th time, it's disconcerting at this point. almostlaye drama we're on the second story so we'll be fine. associated with katrina. but that's what we're watching. the difference is that we did and now things have sort of settled down. it was amazing to see just how evacuation.ew orleans in a quickly the water was going up. and i'm talking in the matter of so this is a lot more people in about 30 minute the water had gone up about a footwear we are. the city than we have in so we will continue to monitor katrina. >> are youonfident thith that as we get closer to this eye, i'm hoping that gives some time for the water to recede or all he reiorcements, the at least stop rising for a billions and billions drs that wpentare yo little while and then we'll see coident 're not gointo see what the back half of this storm appalling scenesha w sawlik has to bring to the area where inkatrina? we are at. you know, chad, it's just >> i wou skay that the levee is impossible to kind of tell and get a real sense of how much a loetter shape. damage the hurricane here has caused. iwill not speculate until this we know that there's some city officials, we've seen trucks convinced now anything built with lights on making passes now

that things have settled down a little bit. we have heard reports of roof damage and that sort of thing. it doesn't sound terribly by man can be destroyed by extensive at this point. mother nature. i think we're in a wait and see mode. i think we could see tidal surge the storm surge and level around the island is an issue as we damage. i think we could have a lot more wake up tomorrow morning. water in the cy from raining, 12 to 20 inches is predicted and >> so it came from the bayou? it was actually coming out of that could still be a problem for the city of new orleans. the swamp because that's the >> what is the key thing for the people there to do now as the wind direction you had. next few hours unfold and the rain lashes hard and thewind now that the wind surge hhas ch lashes harder, expecting up to 20 incheof rain to fall in a very short period of time. you're going to get another what is the best aice that you would give them based o a of surge. >> reporter: yes. you were talking about this a your experience from krina? while ago. the angle that the storm was coming across and cutting across the coastline here, the wind >> this storm and the way it's came from the north the entire coming through the city, it's time blowing in everything from the bay. spin out the wind gih as w >> yeah. as toadoes. >> reporter: and that caught a peoe need to bewarew lot of people by surprise here. >> it sure did, eddie. i'm going to let you go. that side tsrm can be

i'm going to let anderson -- i very strong windam a see you standing there getting wet, anderson. toado warnings have been given it's really blowing where you are. fo the area. >> reporter: yeah. it sure is. and chad was talking about the eye of this thing being really so they need to stay aare an big. what's the significance of that? move to thesafest place in the >> well, pretty much the m.o. of house ty get that warning the storm has been the big coming. >> ifeople e hit quite hard in their home and they want to circulation and it's downfall, if you were looking for this thing to explode in intensity, get ou they fear for their the circulation was so broad and livehat is theadvice? once it got closer to land, a little bit of friction helped their cars? what do youo if your home i bring its arms in kind of like a beginning to fall apa? >> g to the saft place in e home, gather everybody andput figure cater. i don't know what it looks like someypf aattrs on the satellite. thing y and your it looks like the classic eye family and then call 911 and get aholmergency ser because it's not that strong of a powe line most likely wille a thunderstorm but we're just at wn outside and it's in the the fringe of where the it's bestohunker dn the hurricane force winds extend, safestlace that you ca in a about 60 miles out from the center. so new or len might not get home or go your hbor's home.

>> genel ss hone,hank sustained winds like that but we're getting gusts for sure. >> i think the lights on the bridge just went off. all night -- let's walk over much, indeed. there a little bit if we can. we're going to go to john whois whoa. did you see that? that was a transformer that just live you're right in the middle of it. it's going to get w. u deribe f me what is blew. but the lights on the bridge going on now? over the mississippi here just went off. they have been on. and you could -- i don't even know if you can see that bridge >> reporter: you can see we really are in the midst of what anymore from your vantage point is the most powerful rn band that we've had here a ay. take a look out there, piers, as on the tv but i guess half of i walk out a little bit, you probably won'te able to see me. but that is the horizontal rain the bridge lights went off. being whipd by the tropical >> that's a huge span that storm-force winds. we're seeing a lot of debris connects a greater downtown new orleans with the southeastern falling, small pieces of branchesand tree limbs that extent of the city and parishes. we're seeing fly around here now. en't seen anything this intense at all throughout the course and as i step out, piers, you sure enough, the lights went can probably see i'm moving away from the hotel, that it does get out. >> i talked to some folks about much morentense as i move th way. in the distance, piers, that's 45 minutes ago, they still had

highway 90 which runs all across power. so it will be interesting to see how much of new orleans and the gulf coast here in mississippi. beyond that, the gulf of mexico and as the wind shifts direction downtown new orleans has power. and begins to move more inland, that when they eect ee a last we heard, about 200,000 little bit morestorm rge people without power. >> yes. and we're near the mississippi here. that was one of the biggest river which is not going to concerns thad here, was water. and as you know, talking to everytop the levees here. the river itself has been low because we've had this terrible drought. anderson and billy nungesser and chad, that you've got st so that's created its own sort surge flooding andou've got inland fresh water flooding. of problems. those are always the two biggest the outflow from the mississippi has been much less and we've killers in any hurricane and seen the river back up much less those are the two suat, of course, we are dealing with. than it normally would. it's flowing against or upstream. a number of rivers that flow and peteiv ather an ta aoo into the gulf of mexico are ot. gi anohotf that wind whipping through the trees acting the same way tonight. and through the lights there. we have a storm surge pushing into those rivers that is making yh, you can see it. >> reporter: people walkin for the flow that is not throh the dtae there. allowing them to drain like they you can see that. it's really blowing n here. should in the gulf of mexico. >> reporter: the storm is still again, definitely the strongest yet to come. we're going to take a quick of the winds that we have seen and o reason for that, break. our coverage continues on the other side of the break.

we also want to talk about what this storm means for baton rouge of course, pie, is that the storm is moving away from us. and elsewhere. you know, it's moving to the northwest and wee east of it. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] does your prescription medication give you the burden of constipation? t's puing away from us as it moves steadily inland in louisiana towards the new orleans area. bu again, as i move out here, pis, you can see that it'sot in up at all. anythi, it's just as a re sady squine that we are in rightow. okay. i want to bring back in chad myers the cnn weather cent ch you'veeen following this r a few daysis i now unfolding how yo expeed ahañ we ally expecty overhe nexfew hour i thk what peoplneed locally is some sense of pepective here. >> this is going t longerm event, piers. this isn't going to stop. if you're seeing something b righnow, tt bad could contue for four to six hours no kidding. john zarrel right here.

that's robably, i don't kn, a go- right here. gulfport, biloxi. that's jusone the ;nd coming on shore now and i'm not kidding you wh i tell you,t's more than 100 milfr t center. so if it'sogressively wors ery couple ofes you get toward center, you can imagine what's happening in plaquemines parish right now. turn to senokot-s tablets. that's why there was a mandatory senokot-s has a natural vegetable laxative ingredient evacuation for all23,000 plus the comfort of a stool softener for gentle, overnight relief people. of occasional constipation. there's no way to safely get go to senokot-s.com for savings. these people out of there. they didn't want to put the emergency services men and women in danger trying to save these people. if you're going to take this storm or drive up here towards baton rouge, it's going to take 24 hours to go from here to here. of occasional constipation. it's a slow-moving storm. you're going to get pounding wind, pound, pound and then the those little things for you, life's about her. but your erectile dysfunction - rain in with the surge. i've already seen surges at 11 that could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use

helps you be ready anytime the n'right. feet out by shell beach. you can be more confident that's east of lake in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of, pontchartrain. the water is coming up. like needing to go frequently or urgently. the difference between this and what was katrina, for the people our doctor of mississippi, alabama, and about all your medical conditions and medications, florida, as this is a completely and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis iyou take nitrates for chest p live throughable storm. you don't do something stupid, you will live through it. as do not drink alcoholsafe droin excess wiialis.e. this is completely okay. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. it's a blow. it's 40 to 60 miles per hour but to avoid long-term injury, it's just a blow. stay inside and stay safe. seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than four hours. the people in south plaquemines if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, parish, you are in danger if you or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, are not in the right place. that's why nine parishes do y or sll ask your doctor about cialis for daily use or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, and a 30-tablet free trial. r here said get out, mandatory evacuation. when they say mandator they real fruit pieces. 12 grams of whole grains are not kidding. piers? >> it's a serious situation. we're going to take a break again. when we come back, we're going and a creamy yogurt flavored coatg. to get to the real crux of new orleans and the levees, are they holding up? quaker yogurt granola bars. a very expensive refurbished levees. are they doing their job? treat yourself good. we're going to fd out after the break.

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isaac. i'm anderson cooper in the port area of new orleans. you may remember from the bp oil spill, billy, his house, the roof or at least part of the roof has blown off. he joins us now on the phone. billy, what's going on with your house? >> well, i stopped to change clothes. we were wet from going down river and the couple that was staying there with my fiancee, we have about a two-foot hole into the roof. the back wall of the house actually buckled and the water is coming through the light sockets. i'm gloen away that that sort of damage from this supposedly category 1 storm, i was just shocked when i stopped there to change clothes and saw the damage that the siding's all off the house and i've got a brick

home and to see the water -- to see the wind pushing the water through the wall is just incredible. >> how much water do you think you have in your house now? >> well, it's pouring in through the ceiling. i didn't get up in the attic. there's somebody there trying to patch up the area where is coming in. but i just stopped to change clothes and had to head up the highway. but the whole front yard is covered with debris and it's very hard to see because the wind and rain is blowing so hard. we've got power poles all over the highway all the way down south. i couldn't make it any further south because we had had reports that the mississippi river was coming over the banks. and it was starting to come over but it peaked at 7:00, 8:00 and the river will stop dropping. you know, anderson, we had had

an historical low river right before this storm arrived. we never dreamed it would push it up the mississippi river and be a foot or two from coming over the banks. >> reporter: even before the storm you had a problem with salt water coming over the n chances are, you're not made of money, mississippi, right? >> absolutely. so don't overpay for motorcycle insurance. to see the water -- this storm pushed that much water up the mississippi river to bring it to geico, see how much you could save. the top of the levees, we were worried about our back levees, never dreaming that we would look at the mississippi river, waves washing over this river levee for this type of storm. >> reporter: billy, you've seen a lot of storms. you've been through a lot of storms. how does this storm compare so

far to other storms you've seen? i think we lost billy nungesser. we will try to re-establish contact with him. we have chad myers with us. pictures here from gulfport, isaac wreaking havoc over that you heard billy nungesser saying water pouring through his walls like it was a spigot. whole region. not clear how much water is we're going live to rob actually in his house but he marciano, up to 25 inches of seemed very surprised, given the strength of this storm, to see rain. we've lost the shot, actually. that much water in his house. >> let me tell you exactly what it's getting very rough down happened to our friend mr. billy there. there was a squall that came off there. we're going to go to the army of an eye that was trying to corps of engineers in new orleans. mr. holder, can you hear me? >> i can hear you. thank you. >> the key question for people form south here of the river, the mississippi delta. is, how are the levees holding this is the end of the mississippi. that squall was right there and up? put down ap a wind gust at an these are reinforced levees put oil platform of 106.9 miles per in seven years to the day from hour. that was the wind gust there. and then that cell rotated right hurricane katrina, how do you believe they are holding up? >> they are holding up like we in to plaquemines parish. anticipated that they would. they were designed by the army

corps team here and they are holding up like we anticipated that they would, which is, we are seeing nothing that he got hit by cat 2 winds for indicates any sort of danger. you know, you brought up a really good point and you talked about how most of the system wasn't here during katrina and now that it is in place and is sure. >> piers morgan is also joining us from tampa. piers? >> anderson, this h really working. >> they are saying -- the local taken over from events here. what is it like -- where you are now, i think i heard you say three inches of rain so far. people we've talked to say it's i think you're expecting 20. the worst storm, quite comfortably, since katrina, but no one senses, from an expert how have you seen in the last point of view, that this is as hour the atmosphere changing big as katrina. around you? >> reporter: and let me bring in is that the way you're reading rob mars yan know for that. it? >> absolutely. we've taken a good, hard look at see the atmosphere changing in it and said, this system is designed to stand up against a 100-year storm and this is no way, shape, or form a 100-year storm. piers, i don't know if you're the location that we are in. pis.s give you a littltour, familiar with some of the work right now we a under an outdoor patio that's been that was done. protecting us from the rain. one of the most important key let's just step outside here for features is during katrina, of a little bit. and you get a sense of the kind course, a lot of the flood fighting had to be done within of wind we're seeing. the city and that's just not the

case anymore. the mississippi river is off to we have the surge barrier out at our left. lake born, 13 miles from the new orleans itself is more-- heart of the city. so -- and then there's a 32-foot downtown new orleans, thefrench quarr is in that direction. levee that's out there as well that ties in and that keeps the storm out of the city of new in looking at the light, you get orleans out of the ninth ward a sense of how much water is and then, of course, we put in pouring through here. it's kind of -- because of the buildings, it's kind of a whirlwind created by the various buildings. >> yeah, it does redirect the three gates and pumping stations wind. it ak sell rates it in spots and where we can now take the water from the city and pump it out knocks it down in others. but i can tell you just when you were talking to billy nungesser, and it also keeps storm surge from lake pontchartrain from the wind was shifting a little bit. the rain that was pouring off the one piece of shelter that coming into the city and our equipment was able to be everything is working great here. under, now it feels like it's >> are you getting any reports from local people yet of injuries or any extensive serious flooding? >> we haven't heard any yet. what we have is also a sear coming from this direction as opposed to this direction. to be basic, whether you stand with your back to the wind, you point left, that's where the rus -- one of the things we learned after hurricane katrina was to make sure we had our folks out and embedded where they should have been embedded. center of the storm is. so we have corps of engineer

we know the storm is moving in that direction towards the south central coastline. people in every area that is >> it's that easy? i didn't know that. >> sometimes it can be that easy. affected. so we have them out, we have that wind shift tells us that the center of the storm is them working. we hear what is going on right away and we're able to help and adjust and simply we haven't heard that yet. passing us to our south. we knew this hours ago that we wouldn't get the core, center of certainly billy nungesser is the storm. grand isle is getting that. it's good in that we don't think facing a challenge and his team the hurricane-force winds which is meeting that challenge. he can tend 60 miles out or 80, he had the foresight to close highway 23 yesterday and started 90 miles from the center, we won't get those sustained working on it and finished up today. had he a foresight of building a hurricane-force winds. ramp. the rainfall, my goodness, we're that allowed people to stay as long as they possibly could to getting that. >> and piers, we've been seeing see and assess the situation for the transformers blowing in the last 40 minutes or so themselves and then they were able to come over the ramp more than likely, you know, today. so we were able to put flood protection in place and they were able to use ramps. every time you see that, there's probably more people losing power. the last count we had was more than 200,000 people without so it's working together as a power. who knows how many people will seem that has paid off. >> and your advice to local be without power by the morning. people who perhaps a little bit terrified tonight and wondering what is going to happen, stay inside. but if they start to suffer >> we'reoing ttake a break. i think the key thing when i come back, anderson, is talk to serious structural damage to you, robert, and talk about what their homes, what is the best the people in new orleans could thing to do then if they can't stay in their homes? >> well, certainly the parishes

in which they live all have emergency places where you can go and you can evacuate. face over the next few hours and also how the new reinforcements i would assume -- and most are holding up to what is going to be bigger and bigr ag we're backfter this break. people have made those -- know all energy development c with some where those are within their parishes and now how to get there. i have to tell you, as a but prov technolgies allow naturas producers communicator, which is what i do for a living, i have never seen such an amazing effort by the to supply affordable, cleaner energy, parishes, all of them in this protecting our environme. area to make just a tremendous effort to make sure their people across ameca, ese technologi proct air - knew where to go in case of an by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions.. ...prote water - throh conservation and self-contained recycling systems... emergency. >> well, it's fantastic that the ... and protect land - by reducing our footprint community is responding so well. obviously you all are in our and respecting wildlife. america's natural gas... thoughts and prayers for people new orleans and that whole domestic, abundant, clean energy to power our lives... region coming under this prolonged attack now from hurricane isaac. it's good to see that everything that's smarter power today. so far is working as you guyed planned it and i congratulate you and your team. so thank you very much. >> thank you very much and i can't say enough about the role that the media has played, especially cnn. your crew has been there to let people know what to look out

for. you had crews on 17th set last night rni  al different -- >> we appreciate that. we're going to have to go now. in that time there've been some good days. mr. holder, tha youd f and some difficult ones. your time. we'rgoing to take a short but, through it all, we've persevered, break and continue with coverage from cnn supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. for now, that's the end of our so why should our anniversary matter to you? spia tonig because for 200 years, mpanies have to inst in making things. we've been helping ideas move infrastructure, construcon, production from ambition to achievement. we net now more than ever. chevron's putting more than $8 billion dollars and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ back in the u.s. economy this year. in pipes, cement, steel, jobs, energy. we need to get ths tuing. i'm p making real things... for real. ...that make a real difference. ♪

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welcome back to our breaking news coverage of hurricane isaac. you're looking at gulfport mississippi where the rain is beginning to lash very ferociously. the heart of the impact is being felt all over. let's go to rob mars yan know. what can people expect over the next few hours? how bad is this going to get for the people and i suppose how do you think these reinforcements, which are multibillion reinforcements, are going to hold up to what is now going on? >> reporter: there's no doubt the system that is in place now is better than it's ever been. the levees that were here before

were not constructed in some places and we saw failure. it wasn't a matter of the water pouring over the top. it was a matter of the levee actually failing and breaking and the water going through and that's what flooded much of the city. so they poured $10 billion into this system. you know, it hasn't truly been tested with the same power of the storm as a hurricane katrina. this will be a test. there's no doubt about it. but i think it's going to be a long night for people here. there's going to be a lot of people without power. it's going to get very uncomfortable for people. folks here have been through storms before. they know what to expect. they've hunkered down and they have done what they can to prepare for this. generators, if they have them,

have extra gas for the generators. you don't know what is out there in the dark swirling around in the air. the question is, how much water -- where is the flooding going to be from this rain? even if levees -- you know, the levees will likely hold, given the power of the storm but how much water is going to be pouring on the ground? chad myers said 20 to 25 inches in this short amount of time, as rob marciano points out. >> anderson, no one knows better than you do from katrina the total breakdown in authority and inability for people on the ground to know who was in charge and the ability of those in charge to make decisions which are going to help. from what you've seen since you've been backthere, do you believe that th authorities have got their act together? do you get a sense of a proper line of command, peopltaki the right decisions? what dyou feel? >> reporter: wl, you kno every disastersifferent and, you know, until people are tested with the kind of level of

storm they had with katrina, it's hard to compare. certainly the level of leadership that we've seen at all levels, at the local level here, there's a new mayor at the state level, bobby jindal, it's a different story than it was seven years ago. it's a very different city that it was seven years ago and different leadership of the state and government. we're seeing much more organization, a much better flow of information. joint press conferences with the governor and with the mayor. there seems to be, without a doubt, more coordination and perhaps nobody could talk to that than the president of plaquemines parish. i don't know if you can get him back on the phone but -- >> i've actually got him right now. i'm going to go to him straight away. billy nungesser, you actually

lived through katrina. tell me what is happening in your home right now. >> well, my home is seeing the same damage. i actually rode out katrina. i ran for plaquemines president because nobody knew that we were even alive. my home being the same damage, the roof being blown, there's a three-foot hole in my roof. i'm seeing the same type of damage for a category 1 than i saw for that. that's not an indication on the bill spent on levees. for instance, we have over $1 billion that i signed with the colonel of the court last month to stock the levees in our parish. it took that long to get them engineered, designed, and get right of ways. that work will be done in the next three to five years.

we needed time without storms to get them in place, much like what was done in new orleans. >> billy, explain to me what exact legal is happening in terms of the water coming into your house. explain the power and describe actually what is going on with your brick work. you were telling me on the break quite dramatic details about that. >> yeah. the wind -- the gust of wind blowing against the back of my home which sets right above the mississippi river, you can hear the boards cracking and the water -- the wind is blowing the water through the bricks, through the wall, and the light sockets in the wall are spraying you like you had a hose there. and that's what we saw from katrina, that that water -- that wind was pushing that water so hard t. was going through the cracks in the bricks and coming into the home and that exactly what we're seeing and with every gust of wind, that back wall moves a foot or so like it was breathing in and out. and we had to completely rebuild after katrina and we're seeing the exact same thing happen for

a category one storm. so the winds obviously a lot gh >> and tell me, is this the worst storm that you have seen in new orleans sincekatrina? >> yes, it absolutely is. all the power lines are down all th way south and we couldn't en make it down to south plaquemines. katrina crossedplaquemin plaquenesh before it h new orans so we're taking the brunt of this storm ke d tone. >> do you tnk the local people obviously more warning than l time. do they fe conde in the local, state,eder and authorities everything has been done th can ceould b torote them? >> anderson saw after the bp pill, the cooperative effort thate all got together as a team. der all of t hurricanes and

this one aset several timeseadingup t this storm. we helped each other out parish to parish. we've got a great team effort and that's how we attacked the bp spill and that's how we're attackingthese storms so anderson is exactly right. it is a lot better cooperated spirit among the government officials. >> billy, stay on the lin wee chad m our severe weather cer. he's going to tell you exy what is happening in your area. chad, tell billyirectly. 's there. he's experiencing this power now, this surging power. what is going on? >> billy b. three hours ago era wind gust at a little oil platform just south of plaquemines parish. the wind gust was 106 miles per hour. you can't believe that what you're seeing is category 1

because what you're seeing is category 2. if that wind gust went over your house in plaquemines parish, that was the direction it was going, not a 75 mile-per-hour wind. this was a big gust from a very large cell right in the center at the time. the storm has now since jogged to the west a little bit and is now going to turn up towards the rthwes moving away from plaquemines parish with the north side of the eye wall. piers? >> very dramatic stuff. we're going to take a short break. when we come ck, we're going to talk to generous sell. great shot.

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