potential to get woken up if they did not evacuate and have to deal with what is actually occurring outside. it's tomorrow morning when the sunrises when we'll get a full scope of the flooding here. >> and it's going to be a rude awakening in the morning, derek, for a whole bunch of folks. thank you very much. we appreciate your report and be safe. thank you for watching. our coverage is going to continue. chris cuomo and i will see you tomorrow. >> right now you've got robert kurnow. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> hi. welcome to our viewers joining us here in the united states and all around the world. i'm robyn curnow. sow we begin with the breaking news of the most powerful hurricane to strike the louisiana coast in more than 160 years. take a look at the images. hurricane laura made landfall near cameron, louisiana about an hour ago, as don and chris have been saying. it is a strong category 4 storm.

now winds topping 100 miles per hour, or 160 kilometers an hour as the storm approached. the national hurricane center says the storm surge up to 20 feet, or 6 meter, is unsurvivable. well, that unprecedented warning came as flooding already engulfed coastal areas. officials expect the devastation to be immense over very wide area. anyone who did not evacuate is told to prepare for hours of destructive winds, heavy rains, no power, and record flooding that could last days. tom sater joins me now with more on the path of the hurricane as it moves ashore. i know you've had a busy night. the superlatives in trying to describe this hurricane as it makes landfall are also out of this world, catastrophic, unsurvivable, apocalyptic. what do we know is happening right now? >> first of all, interrupt me at any time, robyn, because there

so much to talk about here. >> there is. >> the term "unsurvivable," i'm glad that was used. i've never heard that used from the national hurricane center, probably because the urgency to get people out of here. the words life-threatening seems not toe matter to people anymore. i've lived through that one, i can go through this again. laura is not that other hurricane. use mentioned, it ties as the strongest in the history going back to 1856 before they even named hurricanes. but when you look at the top ten now of hurricanes to ever make landfall in the continental u.s., this is an elite group. storms such as camille and andrew, michael that devastated, of course, mexico beach in florida. we're going have images like that tomorrow. well defined eye making landfall at 1:00 a.m. local time at winds of 150. that ties that storm back in 1856. and again, the town of cameron, where we had landfall, elevation is only about 5 to 10 feet. it's just a few meters.

it's mostly completely underwater. there will not be a chance to get to that area until late in the morning. i want to jump to the forecast first, and we'll go back and look at the radar. this is local time at 2:00 a.m. so we've got it making landfall. lake charles, right now may get into the eye. now that's not a bad thing, because the winds will really lighten up. they're calm inside there. but a little jog in one direction or another will keep lake charles in this wide eye band for several hours. the most destructive part of the storm. this is not going to look the same. lake charles back in 1913 had a level of water of 13 feet. it submerged half of the city. they're looking at tomorrow to be above that about 15.6 feet. so again, with the flooding just from the surge itself and moving northward with the heavy rainfall, sunrise at 6:47 in the morning. first responders, this is 8:00 in the morning. they're not going to be able to get any aerial pictures yet because the winds are too

strong. they're not going to be able to get a plane or even using a drone. first responders may not be able to get through many of the closed roads because they're submerged or with downed power lines. but even at 11:00 a.m., maybe you can get to the coastline. but it's going to take forever to get there. those that decided to stay behind are going through a harrowing night. when you look at the amount of the aerial coverage, you've got a tornado watch. so power is out. and i'll show you the power outages for most, and more will lose power. the dark of night, the winds are howling. there are storm chasers right now that are talking about glass being blown everywhere. but the ears are hurting because the pressure is dropping so low. then the sirens from warning. how frightening is that? the dark of night, 8 to 12 inches falling from the skies above. a few tornado warnings with the bands knocking out the power. then again, right around that core. this is what we call an extreme

wind warning. it's not very much use. it's seldom used, maybe once or twice before. it's a new product from the national hurricane center to describe sustained winds at 115 miles per hour. only used for hurricanes. not for tornadoes or severe thunderstorms. so it's pretty much just covering that area that will see these winds around this eye wall. the warnings in effect here in red, hurricane warnings, 4.5 million are in this warning. you toss in the blue, tropical storm warnings, that's another 18 million. i fear that the images we're going to see tomorrow are going to be a number of different fronts here. lake charles is not going look the same. in fact, the entire coastline is going to be altered. we're going to see topography change. this is hitting with such force coming right in on a perpendicular angle. not a glancing blow that it's going to create new inlets. it's going to erode some of the birrier islands. but the amount of winds alone are going to destroy houses,

businesses, churches, schools, you name it. and then the winds shift in the other direction. downed trees and more power outages. we have 250,000 when you include texas. but this is just the beginning. it's going to be a long night. and the recovery time, robyn, we're not talk weeks or months. it's going to be years. but i really fear that what we're going to see tomorrow morning is going to be completely jaw-dropping when the surge goes inland some 30 miles. it's just amazing. >> and the scarier thing i think is for all of us. we know we're looking at your images. but this is happening on the ground right now. this landscape-changing phenomenon, this mother nature wreaking havoc. and folks are still stuck in there. they didn't heed those warnings. and you talked about the wind service warning. they told people if they stayed behind that. >> need to get a helmet on, something to protect their head area. get a helmet. a motorcycle helmet, your

baseball helmet, your football helmet and get under a blanket or mattress. that's best case scenario here. we're going check in. i warrant to go to martin savidge next, but i know we're going check with you later on in the show. i do have question, particularly how this compares with katrina. martin savidge is in lake charles, louisiana. hi. you've been there for the last couple of hours. what's happening there? what can you see? >> well we had to retreat. >> you did? wow. >> it became too dangerous to be outside. so oui come inside to the hotel lobby here. and we're waiting for moment that tom is talk about when the eye will pass over. right now you can still hear the wind. it's screaming through the cracks and vcrevasses of the building. when you were outside you felt the entire building shirding under the wind loechltd it's taking a beating. this is one of the strongest buildings in the area. it's why we chose it. it's also up above sea level to

give us some protection from the surge. even though the coast is 30 miles away, we're still projected in a storm surge that could move 40 miles inland so. so far we are managing to keep ourselves safe. but you can tell. as tom was talking, if you're outside in your home, and imagine, the power is out. you boarded up the windows. so you cannot see anything outdoors. and all you hear is the roaring sound of a jet engine. and literally a world that is coming apart outside your windows. and your imagination just runs wild. then you the fear of i need to get into the basement, for instance. but you can't because the storm surge will pour into the basement. and it's the water that's always even more dangerous than the winds in a circumstance like this. if you stay behind and you're trapped in your home, you're in an agonizing position of not knowing which way to go. it's only going to continue for several more hours here. as soon as the eye wall or the eye goes over, and we hope it

does here, we're going to try and get out and give you a sense of that eeriness that suddenly settles in. it's only short-term. but it's a welcome respite even for a few minutes to a half hour. >> yeah. and also you can probably have a cup of tea or something because you have the luxury of being able to have that in that hotel. i see there are people around you. i must ask you also. we are in the middle of a pandemic here. how has that affected the evacuations, and even a hotel where people are lucky enough to be. how has that been managed? >> it's had a tremendous impact. logistically it's a nightmare on a lot of fronts. they had many buss they brought in to take people away. they had to double the number of buses or maybe triple because they could only fit a few people on each bus due to social distancing and the medical requirements. and then on top of that, there are a lot of people who didn't want to leave because they feared the exposure they might potentially get in the circumstances of an emergency in an emergency shelter.

the shelters are all set up to plan for covid. but even still, the mind sa-set many people is it far nor dangerous. the storm is far nor dangerous than the possibility of exposure in a shelter. again, people are worried about it. but the reality is this storm is far more dangerous. now that station has already been made. there is no way anyone could move at this point. but it just shows you in every step of the way from the evacuation process when it was going on to the mind-set of those that stayed behind, covid-19 weighed very heavily ahead of all of this. the truth is the state has had to stop testing. so we don't know what the impact is. the coronavirus is still out there. it's still likely to be growing. we'll only find out when testing begins how bad it has been. >> okay. so i know you are safe for now, marty savidge. thank you so much. keep us posted when you go back out and any new developments. thank you so much. okay. so i want to take you now to austin lewis. he is actually riding out the

hurricane on a tugboat in hackberry, louisiana. please, sir, tell us how you're doing out there. what are you seeing? >> it's not so bad at the moment. we're in the eye now. right before we got into the eye, it was the highest gauge we got here was 137 miles per hour. we had a couple of buildings around us come loose. a couple of satellites off of some boats. >> so you feel like you rode out the easy bit of it? what are you waiting for? what next? how safe do you feel in terms of what's coming? >> the force of it i'm sure. once the eye gets past, we'll catch another gust of wind and everything. but should it pass 6:00, 7:00 in the morning. >> who are you with? and why you still on the tugboat? were there calls to evacuate? give us a sense of the actual location where you are.

>> no. yes in phackberry, louisiana. there are fleets and barges and plants here. they'll need assistance pulling barges away from docks, just organizing and getting everybody where they needed to be. >> and what are people around you saying? have they seen anything like this before? >> yeah. it's fairly common for people to stay. they always have boats in the area. most people that are here volunteer to be here. nobody -- everybody knew what they were getting into before they got here. >> okay. austin lewis there, i really appreciate you sharing your moments and experience on the ground. i want to go to tony guillory. tony is the police jury president of calcasieu, a parish in louisiana. and he spoke toe cnn's chris cuomo a short time ago.

the fact that a lot of people haven't formed evacuation has come up. take a listen to this. >> oh, we fighting this hurricane out here. very big one. >> what are you seeing so far where you are? >> a lot of winds. a lot of big heavy winds. it is blowing really heavy right now. the building that we're, in you can hear it outside. it sounds like a train is coming. >> were you able to get the people out and get people to safety that you needed to? what do you know about people who got out and who stayed? >> we called them mandatory evacuation yesterday. most of the people got out, but a lot of them did not. we also had a bus bring them to another area in louisiana for their safety. but some people did not get out. we are getting calls in today, tonight, i mean. we're getting calls in saying people that are out there. there are some people still out there. >> it's too late now, though, tony, right? >> it's too late.

it's too late. the only thing we can tell them is find a place in their house where they could go to a good safe -- >> okay. so more than 1.5 million people we know are under some type of evacuation order across parts of texas and louisiana because of this hurricane. still ahead, we're going have much more news on this. you're watching cnn. i'm robyn curnow. don't go away. only mask odor? secret aluminum free helps eliminate odor instead of just masking it. and is made with three times more odor fighters. with secret, odor is one less thing to worry about. secret.

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this is cnn breaking news. >> welcome back. i'm robyn curnow live from cnn center here in atlanta. so back to our top story this hour, the u.s. gulf coast is experiencing now one of the strongest and most destructive storms in years. hurricane laura came ashore in louisiana near the texas border. winds we know topping 100 miles per hour. that's about 160 kilometers an hour with gusts much, much higher. now the national hurricane center says the storm surge is up to 20 feet, or 6 meters, and that it is, quote, unsurvivable. now that unprecedented warning came as coastal areas are already under water. anyone who did not evacuate is facing hours of punishing winds

and rain and a high probability of no power. well, tom sater joins me now again with more on all of this. tom, i know a little earlier i wanted to ask you about the comparisons here between laura and katrina. >> okay. >> what are we looking at? >> that's a great question, because everybody remembers those images and how harrowing they were, and we'll probably see some of those images tomorrow, believe it or not. 2005. it was a crazy season. not only did we have katrina, we had rita. many locations, this took the same path as rita. rita left in its wake not only the loss of precious lives but $18 billion in economic losses. that was 15 years ago. same year we went through the entire alphabet. we went into the greek alphabet for six letters. the forecast for this year is to be just as bad if not worst. we're breaking records for the earliest fifth named storm,

seventh, katrina in the same year, katrina was a strong category 5, stronger than laura, but it was way out into the gulf waters here. when it made landfall, it made landfall as a category strong. so not as strong as landfall. however, because it was category 5 and a strong one, it kept all that energy and power and water upwelling underneath it and brought it with it toward bay saint louis and mississippi. so it was a larger storm because the storm grew outward. all the parishes of louisiana, making its way towards slidell and lake ponchartrain and the levees broke and it was chaos. that's a big difference. this is actually stronger. when you go back to look at the records since 1851, robin, you look at all the landfalls, the greatest number of landfalls the u.s. has seen through august, the record was six. it happened in 1886, in 1916. and then it happened about 55

hours ago when marco moved in as a tropical storm. we're now breaking it. the greatest number of landfalls in a season through the end of august. now we had landfall as mentioned. it was 1:00 a.m. local time. still have our tornado watch box. but you are talking about in the darkness of night. you've got no power. you're hearing sirens from tornadoes. a couple warnings that were here earlier. there will be more. you were talking about how they were telling residents who are staying behind to find a helmet. a football helmet, a motorcycle helmet there are other areas where we've heard local authorities tell those stays behind to write their name and their date of birth on their arm. that's when it really sinks in. they told them get a piece of party, put down your social security number and the list of your next of kin. put it in a ziploc bag in your pocket. that's really strikes home what's happening here. the winds are going to continue to be off the charts. we lost the radar in lake charles. and it's hitting with such

force, this could still be a category 1 well up into the state of arkansas. they could lose power in little rock as well. one for the books. i can't tell you how much i fear what we're going to see when they're able to get up there and give us an image of the entire surrounding area. especially areas like port arthur and lake charles. >> just amazing how far inland this is going to be knelt. that gives us a real understanding of how big and a monster storm this is. tom, thank you so much. we'll check with you again. i do want to bring our viewers an update on other news we've been following here at cnn. the u.s. vice president is pledging the trump administration support for those in the palo alto of hurricane laura. mike pence spoke on the third day of the republican national convention, delivering a law and order message. he denounced rioting and looting at racial justice protests in the u.s. but he did fail to mention the police shootings of unarmed african americans. take a listen. >> the violence must stop,

whether in minneapolis, portland, or kenosha. too many heroes have died defending our freedom to see americans strike each other down. we will have law and order on the streets of this country for every american of every race and creed and color. . >> so i want to get more on all of that from kaitlan collins. katelyn? >> well, night three of the republican convention featured vice president mike pence making the case for donald trump's reelection saying this fall law and order are on the ballot as he sought to frame the violence you're seeing play out in american city news, saying it could only get worse under a joe biden presidenciment at the last minute, we were told that the vice president added a reference to what's going on in wisconsin and the unrest you have seen unfold there. but it was only a passing reference from the vice president saying that kind of violence is not what they want

to see happening across the nation. but he did not address the substance behind what's going on in wisconsin, which is of course that black man was shot bay police officer seven times in the back, and now his attorney says he is paralyzed. instead, the vice president continued to try to humanize donald trump in a way we hadn't seen in the other two nights of the convention, talking what the president is like and saying essentially this message that you should take the president at his actions and ignore some of his words sometimes, saying we all know donald trump likes to keep it interesting. that's how mike pence put it. i do want the note after the vice president finished his speech, you did see the president and the first lady melania trump descend the stairs of the stage and go and interact with several of the crowd members who were not wearing masks, and several that we had spoken to had not been tested. it's not clear if some had been tested, if they had been closer up to the president and the stage. but we have not caught a comment from the campaign yet. we know several have not been tested like the reporters here

who were tested beforehand. kaitlan collins, cnn, traveling with the president in baltimore. >> thank you for that. now in kenosha, wisconsin, new video see merging from the unrest surrounding the police shooting of jacob blake. this video shows an unarmed man as he walks past law enforcement on the streets of kenosha, past curfew, his arms raised, moments after three people were shot on thursday -- on tuesday night. two of the victims we know died. 17-year-old kyle rittenhouse was charged. >> persons who were out after the curfew became engaged in some type of disturbance. and persons were shot. everybody involved was out after the curfew. i'm not going to make a great deal of that, but the point is the curfew is in place to protect. had persons not been out involved in violation of that, perhaps the situation that unfolded would not have happened. >> meantime we are following a

fourth night of protests on the streets of kenosha sparked by sunday's shooting. omar him ness is thejimenez is >> fourth night in a row since we had seen the video of jacob blake shot seven times in the back. but wednesday night things went a little differently than what we had seen in different nights. things started peaceful demonstration wise and they ended peacefully as people gathered in front of the kenosha county courthouse as they have over the course of the past few nights and marched a few blocks and dispersed peacefully. this came in stark contrast to what we saw last night where things started the same way. they were peaceful, then things got a little more contentious. on the other side of the protest, we saw gunfire ring out where two people were killed and a third person was injured. and over the course of wednesday, a 17-year-old suspect out of antioch, illinois, kyle

rittenhouse was arrested and charged with first-degree homicide. we continue to investigate that. we also got details on the officer who pulled the trigger seven times while holding the back of jacob blake's shirt, pulled the trigger seven times into jacob blake's back. that officer's name is rusten sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the kenosha police department. we got that as part of new communication from the wisconsin department of justice who is leading the investigation into what happened at this point. they also dropped new details saying that jacob blake admitted that he had a knife. however, they did not elaborate on when exactly he admitted to having that. they also say they found a knife under the floorboard of the driver's seat. those are all things that are going play into this investigation as it moves forward. they've set a deadline of about 30 days to refer their investigation over to the kenosha county prosecutor's office here and they will be the

ones to determine whether charges are filed against this officer or any others when the time comes. omar jimenez, cnn, kenosha, wisconsin. >> thanks, omar, for that. so pro sports events here in the u.s. have been postponed as enraged athletes threatened and took action following the shooting of jacob blake. the milwaukee bucks basketball team boycotted their gym on wednesday, walking off the court as you can see here. a player's statement said a focus could not be on basketball when overwomhelming pleas for change have gone unheeded. take a listen. >> all you hear donald trump and all of them talking about fear. we're the ones getting killed. we're the ones getting shot. we're the ones that were denied to live in certain communities. we've been shot.

all you do is keep hearing about fear. it's -- it's amazing why we keep loving this country and this country has not loved us back. >> former president barack obama commended the bucks players, pro basketball leagues and coaches for setting an example. he tweeted it's going to take all our institutions to stand up for our values. and the democratic presidential nominee joe biden praised the bucks for standing up and speaking out as well. he said now is not the time for silence. in other sports, tennis star naomi osaka announced she would not play on a semifinal match. she posted watching the continued genocide at the hands of the police is honestly making me sick to my stomach. when will it ever be enough? and members of the san francisco

giants baseball team congregate quietly on the field after their game was delayed. the league postponed three games. and the far right terrorist who killed 51 muslim worshipers last year in new zealand has received the maximum sentence, life in prison without parole. he pleaded guilty to opening fire at two mosques in christchurch. he chose not to address the court at his sentencing on thursday. the goug said tarrant showed no mercy and was empty of any empathy to his victims. 91 survivors and relatives of victims gave wrenching testimony at the four-day hearing. the prime minister said the world must never see from him again. well, back to our breaking news in just a moment. a potentially catastrophic storm is striking the gulf coast of the southern u.s. we'll have the latest on the details of this hurricane after the break. stick with us. you're watching cnn.

so it is just after 30 minutes past the hour. we're live from cnn center. i'm robyn curnow. happening right now we have this historic and vicious, vicious storm striking parts of the u.s. gulf coast. we know hurricane laura made landfall early thursday morning in southwestern louisiana. with the ferocity the state has not seen in more than 150 years. we heard the winds are tearing up boats, but the fear is much more could be lost before the storm is over. forecasters have warned the storm surge of water will be unsurvivable and could stretch up to 40 miles inland. and officials in lake charles, louisiana, fear too many people have ignored the warnings and

decided to stay home to try and ride this out. well, the punishing winds, the rain, the storm surge are all happening in darkness right now. sunrise is about four hours away, and that will certainly give us and folks on the ground a better idea of just how much damage the hurricane is doing as it sweeps inland. i want to go back to tom sater. tom, this is happening right now. we are trying to monitor events on the ground. it's difficult, of course, because it is hitting and slamming this coast. what are the kind of conditions on the coast specifically that we're looking at here? >> let's back up to the inception to landfall. remember the video we were getting out of the caribbean? you've got to go back to august 20th here when this thing was just in its birth. and the video of the massive landslides, the loss of life, the mud slides, the tremendous flooding that we've seen taking a path like rita did. and of course as a category 4.

this is amazing what we're going find here. i cannot stress enough what we're going to see here are images like with hurricane michael in mexico beach, like we saw in harvey in houston. family after family in boats being rescued or even with katrina with people on the rooftops. mentioned that earlier. that staggers the imagination enough. landfall of course has taken place. but now we're losing weather instruments in lake charles. the radar is out. we're not getting the winds now. lake charles is in the eye. so they're getting a little bit of a break where the winds are calm there. if this would have shifted westward a bit, they would have been in that eye wall, which is about 15 miles wide. these are not thin eye walls. but still, that's not every community. when you look at this brighter color of pink, that's where all the water underneath has been building. it's like a vacuum, upwelling of water. and that wall is being slammed now into the coastline, changing the topography and being slid all the way inland for some 30

miles. some good news, some areas of the coastal areas in this region are sparsely populated. but, again, there are people that live here. there are over 600 oil and gas platforms. this is the heart of that industry. most have been evacuated. over 80%. but the inundation alone, that's the killer. the problem is how frightening it has to be right now without power in the darkness of night. you're hearing nothing but sirens from possibly tornado warnings. you're hearing the debris hitting the home, possibly losing shingles, trees uproot and snapped. and then you get the surge moving in that is going to be historic tomorrow i think for city of lake charles. port arthur as well. all the communities in between, all the way towards shreveport. it's going to look much different tomorrow than it has for the last several years. and that's frightening enough. >> yeah, it certainly is. tom, thank you so much for that update. i want to go now to our derek van dam. he is on the ground in beaumont, texas. derek, hey, gad to see you.

describe where you are and the conditions. >> yeah, good morning, robyn. >> hi. >> we are getting battered here in beaumont, texas, but they are getting absolutely crushed 50 kilometers to our east in the lake charles region. you heard tom talk about it a moment ago. they're in the center of the eye. that's the thing about this hunting hurricanes or chasing hurricanes. it's a game of miles. and really we are on the outer fringes of the strongest part of major hurricane laura as it continues to move inland. this has been an extremely scary storm for residents here. just because of the potential of the storm surge. we know about the fact that it could push onshore by 40 miles. that is significant. a stronger storm than what was a benchmark here, rita back in 2005. so lots to think about. but we saw so much coordinated effort in this region within the past 24 hours. there is national incident command centers set up by fema

with buses and charter buses ready to take people away from the region. there are ambulances lined up ready to be deployed. the skyrocketing numbers of power outages and the customers here is just a testament to the type of winds that we are experiencing across extreme southeastern texas. i mean, just look up around. you can see the trees and the flag poles here getting completely battered by the strong winds at the moment. but really, truly, where i'm at right now in beaumont, texas, we have been spared the worst part of major hurricane laura, but it's just to our east. you travel down that major interstate, interstate 10, which by the way is closed near the texas and louisiana border. that's where the weather, the hurricane means business. that's where it's really, really started to pick up in intensity. robyn? >> as you say, folks there getting crushed. i want to talk about your expert tiegs as a meteorologist. this picked up speed very, very quickly. is that because of the warm

waters in the gulf? >> well, the warm waters in the gulf of mexico gave it its energy. it gave it all of its momentum. now it's starting to get picked up by the westerlies, and this thing is going to skyrocket out of here. and that's good news for the residents, because we want the storm to move on as quickly as possible. but you got think forward by the next four or six hours, forward by the next 12 hours. just because it's moving so quickly doesn't mean we're out of the woods just yet, especially as you look up stream. you start talk about arkansas, northern louisiana. you start talking about the mid mississippi river valley into tennessee. those areas are going to be impacted by at least tropical storm-force winds, if at least not hurricane-force winds if the storm has the ability to hold on. and robyn, i think it's really important for people to understand too as this eye wall moves overhead, that is so dangerous, because a lot of times it lures people into a sense that the storm has come to an end. but meanwhile, it's just the center of the storm.

as they step outside to assess damage, perhaps, the winds will pick up at a moment's notice from the other direction, take whatever debris has been knocked over on the front half and whip it in the other direction. those are the concerns here on the ground going forward as the storm continues to race across the region. >> and it just want to ask you, in all your years of covering these sorts of storms and crazy welcome, have you ever heard authorities say a storm surge is unsurvivable? >> that was an adjective that was completely new to me. i think they needed a word to capture people's ears, to capture people's attentions amongst this backdrop of covid-19. there is so much news happening right now that they needed people to heed the warnings of this major hurricane, because sometimes it can get overshadowed by the daily news that's occurring. so when the national weather service uses words like "unsurvivable," at least for me, as a professional meteorologist,

it sparked my ears. it sparked my attention immediately. and i think other people were the same. they take it very seriously and many of them evacuated. >> okay, thank you so much. keep safe over there. derek van dam, always good to speak to you, my friend. thank you. so we have a lot more to bring dwlo you on this powerful hurricane when we get back. you're watching cnn. stay with us. neuriva's clinically proven ingredients fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. take the neuriva challenge with our money-back guarantee! it's kind of my quiet, alone time. audible is a routine for me. it's like a fun night school for adults. i could easily be seduced into locking myself into a place where i do nothing but listen to books. i never was interested in historical fiction before, but i'm obsessed with it now. there are a lot of like, classic and big titles

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wright now this powerful hurricane laura is pummelling louisiana, after it made landfall about an hour and a half ago, mere the border with texas. along with intense winds, it's bringing the threats of massive flooding. we've already seen warnings of catastrophic storm surges the national hurricane center saying it could reach over 40 kilometers inland with floodwaters not receding for several days. now water levels along part of the louisiana coastline rose rapidly hours before the

hurricane actually hit land. nine oil refineries handling about 50% of u.s. processing are closed as the gulf coast rides out this hurricane. and that's on top of around 300 oil and gas production platforms already evacuated from the gulf of mexico. so i want to go to john defterios. he joins me with more on all of -- joins me with more on all of this. it's certainly been a busy evening here, john. i mean, you've watched the markets. you watch the oil numbers. what do you make of this and sort of the consequences of what we're seeing playing out right now? >> well, there is no doubt about it that laura will wreak havoc on america's energy belt going forward, robyn, and that could last for a long while. let's take a look at what's in harm's way to put it in context. you talked about the 300 oil and gas platforms and rigs that have been shut in. that means the production is off line, and they've been evacuated. that represents about 1.5

million barrels a day. it's sizable. but what i'm watching more closely is a refining capacity in the united states right now. along the gulf coast, it is the heartland for oil and gas and that refining capacity. we're looking at places like the sabine pass in louisiana, lake charles, port arthur in texas, which is in east texas. if we have this storm surge and the flooding going in 40 miles or 65 kilometer, it could knock out the refining capacity for a matter of weeks. we already see that gas prices and on the retail level, they'll probably stay high four to six weeks. that's what history tells us. the silver lining, if you will, robin, we see global oil prices and u.s. oil prices pretty stable. they're right near a five-month high of about $43 and change in the united states and nearly $46 a barrel internationally. this is because of covid-19. we've seen a historic drop in demand because of the recession of about 9% or 10%.

otherwise, we'd see oil prices spiking. and they're already making calculations in terms of damages in insured and uninsured damages. the tally already $25 billion. about a fifth of that, or $5 billion in the refining sector alone. so we have all this flooding. you can see it's going to be very difficult for people to rebuild and go back to work and keep the wheels of commerce moving when it comes to energy. and finally, we have to think when you're trying to rebuild or recover, and these are early days, of course, you have to think about the power sector and power outages. the reports are we already have 100,000 people without power. and the state of louisiana, the governor there saying we're going need help from all the surrounding states to re-ignite that power sector as we go forward. >> john defterios there, thank you so much. live from london. thanks, john. we'll be right back. this is cnn. more on our top story. ♪ love them, hate their laundry, protection.

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olay's new serum is so powerful, won. shipstation. the #1 choice of online sellers. it renews skin better than $300, $500, even $600 serums. pretty amazing. olay. face anything. welcome back to our viewers joining us from around the world and here in the usa. and our top story, louisiana right now being battered by the most powerful hurricane to strike the state in more than

160 years. hurricane laura made landfall near the texas border, just about two hours ago. the storm could potentially break flooding records from 100 years ago. now we've already seen warnings of extreme winds and catastrophic storm surges. more than 275,000 people in texas and louisiana are without power right now. no electricity. the eye of the hurricane is moving over the city of lake charles, louisiana at this moment. we know also just a short time ago winds of more than 130 miles per hour. well, the united states is also feeling the grim reality of the coronavirus as it nears 180,000 deaths. and now in a stunning reversal, the centers for disease control and prevention is changing its testing guidelines to suggest fewer people get tested. here is nick watt. nick? >> get that testing. >> on the testing piece. >> that's been a mantra, test, trace, isolate.

not anymore. the cdc just changed its testing guidance from testing is recommended for all close contacts of persons with infection to this, if you've been in close contact but do not have symptoms, you do not necessarily need a test. >> shame on the people in the cdc. what possible rationale is there to say. you're in close contact with a covid positive person and you don't need a test? >> it's coming from the top down. one senior federal health official tells cnn, from the white house. >> our surge testing sites really look for asymptomatic individuals. we're trying to get appropriate testing, not less testing. >> i think it's more likely this is an intentional effort by the administration to conceal the true extent of transmission and the numbers. >> reporter: already in just the

past month the average number of tests per day has fallen 17%. >> you want to decrease cases by decreasing transmission, not by decreasing testing. >> reporter: nationally, the number of new cases is also falling even faster. 20 states holding steady. 20 more seeing average case counts drop. >> while we're coming down, we're nowhere close to where we need to be. and again, when people say we're coming down, we're coming down from a very high peak. >> and right now actually record high average case counts in parts of the midwest, iowa, kansas, both dakotas, and yesterday, a record high death toll down in mississippi. >> don't have parties with 150 to 200 people there. that's not going to work out well likely for everyone else. >> reporter: thousands of cases now on college campuses, and hundreds suspended for breaking rules around social gatherings. montclair state in new jersey just texted students is the next

message you want to get pack your bags and go home? and regarding that new cdc guideline that asymptomatic people might not necessarily need a test, well, the governor of california just said he disagrees with that, period, full stop. and in fact, california just announced a new initiative to double the number of tests being carried out in the state. here in the united states, another day and another politicized spat surrounding this pandemic. nick watt, cnn, los angeles. >> thanks, nick, for that. so the news continues on cnn as always. i'm robyn curnow. thank you so much for joining me. i'll see you same time, same place tomorrow. christine and laura join you now from the early start studio. i hand you over to them. enj enjoy. another day, another chance to bounce forward.

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the world. >> and it is thursday, august 27, 4:00 a.m. in new york, 3:00 a.m. in texas and louisiana. breaking this hour, the strongest storm to hit louisiana in a century making landfall in the last two hours. te