pendleton in southern california took a hard lit. nine marines and one sailor losing their life on thursday. the result of a suicide bomber. isis-k taking responsibility. the suicide bomber getting as close as possible to the u.s. military members that were there and trying to secure proper those americans and afghanis who were to be transportsed on those c-17, c-130 planes out of afghanistan. they got as close as they could before detonaing that suicide vest and causing the maximum tragic impact. another dignified transfer. gary, i know you have been following the president and hi

actions. what happened prior to what we're seeing right now. do we know if family members are there to receive the bodies of their loved ones or if they are there to meet with the president, do we know if any are there on base? >> just out of view are members of families watching. after that they will be released to the family. he understands what it means to have a family abroad.

he understands loss and he's burr ripped two children. he understands what that means. he spent two and a half hours this morning with his wife meeting with families and having these conservations. we heard stories of what he understands loss to be. it meeps things to him like looking at the kitchen table and seeing the empty seat at the table. that's the piece these 13 families will be experiencing for birthday, holidays, for special events. it's that empty seat at their table. he has a line that he says that i want to read for you here. he says a time will come when the memory of someone will bring a smile to your lips instead of a tear to your eye. that's something he said in euloies many times. some of these 13 families, they may not be thrilled with the president right now.

directly or indirectly, the elections of this president are the reason these 13 young people are coming home in 13 cases with american flags drapd over them. i'm sure those conversations are closed to press. they were very private conversations but i'm sure some of them had to be tense from media reports we're seeing as well. alex. >> how long was that? you said the president met for two and a half hours. do you know if the families were all together, all 13 soldiers or family members. were they segregated one by one, the different families or do you know how that was set up. >> we're watsing for read out. the fact there's no audio on this feed is intentionalintenti. that was set up by the air force base because they wanted to pay

respects for the family that is just out of frame on the flight line. we do know he met for about two and a half hours based on when he landed here. he was speaking to families. perhaps it was one or one or larger group. i think we'll find that out in doming minutes and hours. let's bring back in peter baker. it's not a ceremony.

there's nothing ceremonious about this. it's the way the united states military honors their fallen before they release the bodies, the remains to families of those loved ones gathered there just outside of view. 13 families mourning the loss o of their loved ones now. heidi, you've been following the president as he was leaving the white house earlier today. is there a sense from within the white house about how heavily this is weighing on president joe biden and the first lady. >> i think it's fair to say incredibly, we're not just in a mourning phase but an active phase of angst awaiting whether we will get our people out without additional casualties. it's fair to say this president is in an immediate phase here where he has to figure out what the tactical strategy is for

getting out our people without more casualties and whether it's going be on the same time frame we have given the american people which is tuesday given that we know, according to the most recent figures there's 250 american who is are still there. we don't know if they are in the airport, outside the airport. all the afghan allies who we will be leaving behind just as polling is now rolling in, it shows that 71% of the american people don't want us to leave them behind even though that will be a necessity based on how this is being executed. then there's the longer term conversation that this white house is preparing for. a lot of these men and women who are coming back in caskets, they don't remember, they weren't around for the conversation that we had about why we went into afghanistan in the first place. yet, it's their generation and a small segment rightfully pointed out of their generation that is paying the price for this, in

this case the ultimate price. there's an estimated 1.8 million service member who is have come back during this 20-year war with some sort of a serious debilitating disability from second and third-degree burns, broken bones, spinal card injuries, paralysis and ptsd, suicide rates going up. this something that the president will need to articulate because this is the withdrawal on his watch about why we were there and whether we feel safer today given that there is some criticism from republicans and other quarters within his own party. whether they have the capabilities to strike us at home again. these are questions that will be posed in the coming days. the most immediate challenge before this president is to honor our fallen heroes and as

much as he can comfort their families even though they are in an inconsolable moment and make sure that whoever the last man or woman standing in afghanistan, they not going to have someone else to have their back when they get out. this is the challenge at hand now. we seek the leave no footprint in afghanistan, not even a diplomatic footprint over the next few days. >> peter, as we see the attack from thursday and the rapid fall of the government of afghanistan and the danger this has put our military men and women in. you have to wonder about the attacks that have come against president biden.

does the image of a draped cassette change anything. can it blunt the criticism. can it stir up the criticism? how do you see this playing out from a political perspective? >> it will be pause as we observe this tragic moment. you'll hear a lot of politicians speak about these 13 fallen heroes. average age 22, the last measure of devotion to cause that is now lost.

you'll see this as loss of life as their position. it's proof that president biden has messed up this whole situation and responsible for these deaths because of the way he handled the policy change and evacuation or as proof president biden and allies would say we need to get out and it's time for us to end this war and these 13 fallen troops, just remind us how much pain we endured for too long. the emotions were bred by ideological interests.

we will find out the details about the other two where they are when they will be arriving at dover air force base as we watch all of this. i ask you one more time, peter mentioned the word emotions. when it comes to the emotions of these family members and and the burden they bear sending off their loved ones to face hardship and danger overseas, sometimes as well here at home. how do they even begin processing. you as a medal of honor

recipient, i know you have spoken to families about this. colonel, talk about the motions that these extraordinary american families bear on a day like today? >> you can't even talk to them. thankfully, i've never been in a position to lose a child. nobody should outlive his children. it's difficult to articulate what these poor people are going through. they sent their kids off proud that they were in uniform, proud they were defending the repub basic. you don't expect the worst and you always hope for the best but the law of large numbers says that in difficult situation, this sort of stuff is going to happen and trying to put ones self in the position of parents is impossible.

it's no way we can articulate it and no way anyone can a articulate it. maybe the greek becomes more accuse over time. having been in units where identify lost friends and comrades, with whom i was close, 55 years later, their faces and their names pop up all the time. the older you get, the more you think about them. they will forever be kids in your minds. if one hasn't been in the crucible of war, it's impossible to articulate the kind of emotion that waves over you at first loss and then five plus decades later when you think about them again.

they are raising the flag draped caskets. their emotions, you talk about their trarning and about how they understand the jobs that they have signed up for and this must be an agonizing experience for them as well. >> some people process it very easily. they say this isn't me. it's not going to be me. it will never be me. i can just carry out my job. i just close my eyes. i'll be able to carry out my job without getting emotional about it. for others, it's not like that at all. you see saying it's not going to happen to me. it's not going to happen to anybody i know. for some people it's not enough. there's an enormous emotional component to this duty.

my guess is -- a lot of these are air force people. this has been the kind of war they had no front and everybody knows somebody who is lost. it's difficult to divorce yourself. even a duty like this that's sort of administrative and sort of logistical. for these people it's difficult to divorce themselves from the loss. it's their loss too. >> indeed. as we are approaching what i believe is towards the end of the dignified transfer of these 11 of our 13 fallen soldiers from thursday's attack in kabul, we did count 11 caskets there. flag draped coffins carrying their remains. let me bring you back into the conversation. do you know specifically what happens here? do you know to where these four trucks carrying the remains, where they will go next? >> yes, these trucks will go to the medical examiner's office

which is right on site here at the base. they will be looked at and examed as the medical examiner does and that could takes. that's not going to be just this amp. that could take days from then it would be released. they're from nebraska, indiana, texas, missouri, wyoming. another thing to mention is how young they were. most were in their early 20s. the oldest was 31. the youngest, 20 years old. we heard a couple of these stories of some of the folks that have gone, some of the family members that have gone out and told the stories of their loved ones. up with of them being riley.

riley mccollum, 20 years old of jackson, wyoming. he was three weeks away from becoming a father. that's something notable as well. he was also, nicole lg of sacramento, california. she just days ago posted on instagram a photo of her carrying a young child in afghanistan saying how much she loved her job. these were people saving lives out there in afghanistan, both american and afghani lives. >> they were indeed. we watch the president bowing his head. it would appear the dignified transfer has been completed with the four trucks carrying the bodies. heidi, do you know what awaits the president this afternoon.

do you know what else he has on his agenda? >> we're expecting consignificant updates on the twin crisis that he is facing here. the president saying there will be additional strikes in afghanistan. we heard that explosion which we reported to be a preemptive strike against a group that may have wanted to attack the airport again. the president, of course, saying we are still in this critical period where we have any number of tens of hundreds of even thousands of al qaeda and isis fighters released from prison including skilled bomb makers of tuesday as well. well aware of it and trying to

make their way up to the airport along with american citizens, along with our afghan allies. he will continue to get updates on that and the big question is will there be additional u.s. offensive strikes and what kind of intelligence do we have suggesting that we're able to hit additional targets and secondly, the fema updates. the hurricane is barrelling down, expected to touchdown if it isn't already on the southern coast expected to to be one of the most potentially devastating hurricanes since 1850. he's done, according to white house officials everything that we can in terms of providing the federal supplies that we have. i will note we already had 2,000 fema officials down there to deal with covid. now the federal government has said an additional 500 down to deal with the hurricane and they are trying to herd people into these settings.

the challenge being covid. being the very real concern that in a state that's already seen its highest death rate this past week, they will be moving people into potentially super spreader settings if efb is not abiding the masking and sanitation practices that this administration is urging, alex. >> thank you for that and for those of you watching, clearly we are replaying some of the tape from the dignified transfer of those 13 fallen u.s. service members. we do know that these four trucks into which the flag draped coffins are being placed have already left the tarmac. they are bound for the medical examiner's office there on dover air force base. gary has revealed they will be there for a period of a few days as the medical examiner does what it needs to do before releasing the bodies to the loved ones where they may be interred at the wishes of their

family members. another thing we should tell you about and this happened some 20 plus minutes ago. we chose not to reveal it that indeed the hurricane ida has made landfall. we felt we should stay with the dignity and solemnity of this particular dignified transfer. it has made landfall just a few moments ago. 20 minutes or so ago. bill came and whispered it to me at the moment that it made landfall. let's go to bill, if we can now. he's joining me again in studio. port fourchon is the point. >> no one is there. it's an oil port. this is the satellite view and this clear spot shows you the eye of the storm. you can see it went right over the top there. now it'sgoing over. it's going to hit inland. this is when the destruction is going to begin. i just looked at the power

outage report, there's 104,000 people without power. those numbers are beginning to grow. as far as the radar goes, this is grand where we had the 146 mile per hour wind gust. this is at port fourchon. they been in the eye and now about to go through the back side of the eye. hopefully there's no one there that's left. it's very windy. i've seen reports of seven to eight feet of storm surge in this area up through south eastern louisiana. now as the storm moves inland and the eye moves inland, we have there extreme wind warning. anything in this purple here they have been told you're under extreme wind warning. these are pretty rare. winds of 115 to 150 miles an hour possible anywhere in this zone. it does not include new orleans. just south of new orleans but it does include in that grand isle

area. you have to get about 50 plus to start getting the down trees and that's when the power outages begin. most have been new orleans southward. that will be expanding as the storm system moves on shore. it made landfall with winds of 150 miles an hour. that makes it, it ties it for the strongest ever landfall in louisiana. it ties laura from last year and you have to go back to 1856 for the last one that was 150. you can do the math on that.

the extreme rainfall that's now arriving in louisiana is going to start to really pile up. we have the storm surge. we have the rain. there's water everywhere here for the next 12 hours in southeast louisiana. that's when we start getting into highly populated areas. we start getting into more extreme population losses with power outages. it's still going up as the tide goes out. we don't talk about louisiana.

still that one to two feet can make a bit of a difference. >> how are things right now? look pretty wet and windy. >> you're exactly right. it's tough to hear you. bear with us if you ask a question here. the time of these outer bands is decreasing. that means one thing. the intense eye of that storm is getting closer to where we are. it's tough to believe in just a few minutes time we have seen the winds get as strong as they have. right now this whole entire community has been under a mandatory evacuation.

this is not the kind of positions you want to be riding out with 150 miles an hour winds. with the eye approaching us here in the next several hours it's only going to get stronger. bear with me. even firefighters have taken shelter. that i had say it will be hours before they are able to go back out and help those people who need it most right now. in the meantime, the two biggest concerns here, sustained high winds of 150 miles an hour even if they weak an bit would lead to a significant loss of power in this area for days, if not weeks on end. the firefighters are not so much

worried about the water rescue but have chain saws to cut through trees that may fall on houses. that's going to be what the community is facing in the next 24 hours. just down the road in morgan city we know that the hospital there went into lockdown last night. those nurses and doctors riding this out along with the patients. >> every time a huge wind gust came up and to catch your breath, i did so as well. it's readily apparent you're in the throes of this storm. >> different than what you saw an hour ago. officials are warning about how

quickly things can change. we're kind of in that gap. you still have some wind and you have gusts that come every once in a while. things are pretty calm right now relatively speaking. what that is leading to is what we're seeing in terms of people coming out. people going out to the shoreline you're look at there. driving around a little bit. looking at what they can see and looking at the effect of this storm. that is what has officials concerned. they are saying they know this can change extremely quickly. i talk to the police chief here in gulf port. listen to what he said. >> we turn into more of a rescue organization at this point because people want to get out and see. they don't realize how dangerous it can be and how fast stuff can happen. the storm surge can come up in a matter of mips and people are out looking.

they are trapped by water. we have to get them out of there. we have seen officers enforcing that. telling people to get off the shoreline. this is an area not only the tropical storm warning which talks about the winds and tefkts of the winds there but also dealing with river flood possibilities, tornado watches and warnings that are in effect now. there are multiple issues that can come for people who are out right now just because they think it's a lull in the storm and that's why officials are saying it's time to hunker down. if you need to get to the shelter, do that now. get off the streets. things can change very quickly. alex. >> we're definitely noting between you in gulf port, mississippi, morgan in louisiana. we have seen al roker in new orleans as well. he went from lake ponchatrain which was brutal with the winds. we were thinking he should hold onto a sign post.

we saw him lashed with rain. we saw the ankle rising up to almost his knees. thank you so much. i appreciate you in gulf port. we're going to be staying with our coverage. let's go to an nbc special report right now. >> rewe are coming on the air amid several breaking news stories. hurricane ida just made landfall. an extremely powerful category 4 hurricane. forecasters are warning of catastrophic storms. we'll have the latest on the storm. let's go to hallie with the other major stories we're following. >> we have new developments on

the crisis in afghanistan. the remains of 13 service members return tods the u.s. president biden and first lady dr. jill biden joining the families of the fallen whose loved ones were killed thursday. 11 of them were marines. one an army soldier. another, a navy sailor. marine corporal hunter lopez. marine lance corporal dylan. marine humberto sanchez. david espinosa. nicole gee helping in the huge air lift mission to evacuate out

of the country with the taliban taking over. president biden warned more terror attacks is imminent. they had u.s. military forces conducting a drone strike that took out a suspected isis-k threat. what can you tell us about strike? >> reporter: forces were bracing for a possible isis attack. a little after 5:00 p.m. local time, the u.s. military carried out a drone attack on an isis vehicle headed towards kabul airport. it was latent with explosive and happened in a neighborhood. the explosion happened near houses and there are reports from the ground in afghanistan that a child was killed in that explosion. the u.s. military says it is aware of those reports but has no indication, at this time, of

any civilian casualties. there's no reports of injuries to u.s. military personnel and the evacuation from kabul airport appears to have continued uninterrupted ahead of president biden's deadline for withdrawing all u.s. forces. >> thank you. you were many the thick of it. >> conditions are getting worse by the minute. my colleague and friend sam brock is in baton rouge, louisiana north of us. what are you feeling there? it's starting to get very ugly down here in new orleans. >> reporter: tom, good to be with you. the wind is starting to pick up here a bit. we are in baton rouge. this storm at 150 miles an hour is strong as any hurricane that's ever struck the state of louisiana. you're feeling more of those effects now. give it a few hours. walk with me for a second. you'll see all of these bucket

trucks that are staged here. hundreds of them. i'm at mall of louisiana. you can see they are ready to jump into action as soon as the storm has passed over baton rouge. here is the problem, tom. baton rouge has 220,000 people in it. no one here was given mandatory evacuations. most of the places don't have windows boarded. there's a restaurant across the way here that has some boards up. as i drove through downtown, nothing was boarded up. it will be a cat 3 coming over baton rouge in the coming hours and we'll have to wait and see what happens. back the you. >> just be careful. what's coming for you in is incredibly dangerous. i want to show our viewers what we're looking at.

lightning poles are starting to be bent. hurricane ida is starting to impact the gulf coast but the worst is definitely ahead. al roker is tracking ida for us. what's the latest on the storm's path and what has changed so far? >> i got to tell you, tom, this will be the first time any state has two back to back in successive years, 150 miles an hour plus hurricanes hit. if you look right now, you can see wind gusts of over 75 miles an hour and 50 to 8 miles an hour wind gusts. ida is about 100. about 57 miles south of new orleans. 150 miles per hour winds. northwest at 13th and that movement. this thing will start to push its way inland. as it does it will still be category four storm for another few hours and drop down to a two

as it makes it was inland bringing more heavy rain. we're looking for storm surges of up to 16 feet in some section along the coast of louisiana. we're going to be looking at the dangerous winds. wind gusts of over 100 miles an hour in some sections. we're talking isolated amounts. two feet of rain. that's going to cause big problems because the ground is already saturated here. as it makes its way up into the ohio and mississippi river valley, it's going be bringing three to five inches of rain as well. we are nowhere near through this thing yet. the eye wall making its way into new orleans. we'll continue to have big problems. >> we thank you for that. stay safe. it's hard to believe but this is the 16th anniversary of

hurricane katrina. hurricane ida hitting on the same day. the new levee system will be put to the test. every one hoping they will work. for the latest head to nbc.com. this has been an nbc news special report. >> you heard it. that was an nbc news special report. the breaking news continues here. hurricane ida has been landfall. this is a category 4 hurricane with winds of 150 miles an hour. flooding is a big problem. let's go right to nbc news meteorologist. let's see what the track is. where does this stand right now? >> as we go throughout the afternoon and into the evening, we'll be tracking the eye. that's where the most extreme wind damage will be occurring. we'll bring you any pictures we get in of the storm surge damage that's moving into many areas of

southeast louisiana and southern mississippi. you can see the eye here. we have about another two, maybe three hours until we start getting the eye and whatever intensity it's at when it gets there. the destruct i winds that will look like a tornado. let me give you a wider view of the storm. that's the inner portion of the eye. we have a dual eye wall. we have is the center eye and we have this outer ring which is about 50 to 55 miles wide. the inner one is the one that has winds that can get up to 150 to 160. you don't want to get either. the other is still the stronger

one. the big question is will new orleans get into this. that's the band that will have up to 150 miles an hour. as of now, it's expected to stay just ouz of new orleans. that's what we'll be track throughout the day is how close does new orleans gets to the 100 miles an hour wind gusts that's with this band to the south. this whole mess is heading in this general direction right over the top and that's the biggest population center south of new orleans with 30 to 33,000 people that live there. current wind gust is the highest i've seen at 60 miles an hour. kind of makes sense with the wind coming off of the east. it's now really in the heart of the storm. we'll see how how long that continues to give us wind gusts. probably one of the last time i'll check our computer model to see where the storm is going.sat

over. very close to going over the top. significantly weaken into midnight. your strongest winds will be about 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. that will be the best chance if you lose power, that's when it will occur. we'll see the winds slowly weaken. as of now, still 150 miles per hour winds. that's a strong category 4 hurricane which ties it with laura from last year. here is the forecast from the hurricane center. they think by the time it's die west to the even, it goes to 105

category 2. by the time it gets to baton rouge, it should be category one. a tropical storm as we wake up early tomorrow morning. the storm surge will be one of the huge issues. storm surge, say you go to the beach and whatever that level is, that's the ground level. notice you get up to 9 feet and 12 feet, it goes up and up. most of the structures in louisiana have to be 10 to 12 feet above the ground level. on top of that, you get the wave action and winds and that's when you can have problems with the water even going into structures that are a little higher. as we go throughout the evening, once the wind start to come down, we're not done with the

destruction from this storm. some of the historic aspects of this storm could be the rainfall, the flash flooding and how much water will come down. the storm has slowed down and even new orleans, those pumps, there's 99 of them. last i heard 97 were working and functioning. they will be tested with this storm. they said they don't expect to be keep up. there will be roads flooded. when all the pumps are on, they have to get up to 20 inches of rainfall at a fast time out of the city. new orleans is below the sea. all reports are that's working. the pumps will have to do their job too. they will be tested with 20 inches of rain. as far as the wind potential, the 100 miles an hour winds are in the swath. we don't think they will get into the 100 miles an hour winds. extreme power outages through this region. we're up about 110,000 power outages in louisiana.

every one in red should expect to lose power and that includes the new orleans area to bay on the rouge and southern portions of mississippi. we're getting into the portion of the storm where people will start to really see it moving in. we're starting to have some of our population centers starting to get into the heart of the hurricane. that's when you lose power and the destruction begins on your property. >> our producer says there's reports that sewage and water board reporting power outages at some of the pump stations there in new orleans. it's not to be unexpected. that only complicats matters if you have the flushing of the system and you're looking at biohard ard. >> when you're below sea level, you have water coming from everywhere and water coming from the sky and you have to pump it

out, try to, power outages that affects the pump. only makes sense water everywhere and that includes sewage. >> we went through henri last weekend, nothing compared to this storm but tell those who did suffer with damage or power outage. how long do you thip lit be until the remnants of ida move toward the mid-atlantic area. >> there are computer saying we could get four inches of rain in new york area on wednesday. it won't be even a tenth of the damage in louisiana but even our friends in tennessee valley, kentucky. i mention mississippi a lot, west virginia. >> tennessee doesn't need this. >> it's been a very wet summer in areas of the east and every one in the west with the fire s like give us a little. we're going to be dealing with flash flooding and river flooding. the concerns are the immediate now because this is when the storm is the most dangerous but we got a long ways to go.

>> i think it's very difficult to deny the effects of climate change when you see the extremes this country is going through, around the world. you've articulated et well. the wetness of the south and the east and the dry, the drought in the west. >> there is a trend in the last couple years of a will the of these gulf storms have been rapidly intensifying all the way up to landfall. there was a period before this where a lot of them got to land and then they kind of weakened a bit as they made landfall but talk to the people in mexico beach that had a deal with michael. that storm intensified up to a category 5 up until landfall. laura was intense up to landfall. now we have this example. the warmer planet is, the warmer the oceans will be. the oceans are the fuels for these storms. every degree of warmth makes a difference to help the storms get stronger. climate change is not helping.

>> i think you reference these gulf waters are among the warmest anywhere on earth right now. >> this storm -- you need 80 degree waters is what you need for the storms to get stronger. this storm went over water that was 86 to 90 degrees. if you ever go to the beach and the water on top is kind of warm and you dive down a bit, it gets cooler. this storm went over water that was 80 degrees all the way, 150 feet down. like these storms churn the ocean and the waves and that brings up the cooler water. it's a storm stall, it's less fuel because it's cooler water. this was over such deep, hot water that as it turned it up, it was turning up warm water. this storm went over some the most extreme water, not just how hot it was but how deep that water was too. this could have been a category 5. if the storm hasn't been

interrupted, over cuba kind of interfered with the circulation, this could have been a category 5. >> okay. i know you're getting more information so you can go back to the weather center and we'll see you shortly. that's where our colleague has been throughout this day. just a short while ago in you have been with us, we saw shaq and the winds had diminished. looked like it was a better picture. is this will reflect what we saw from shack this morning. just because you have a live shot that shows you what something likes like in one moment in time, it's a smap shot.

leets talk about the united navy. that's something very unique to this country. it's been activated and ready to respond to hurricane ida. he was talking about your rescue efforts and helps people as the storm passes with the things they will fleed. what are you focussed on right now. what is your pry your tie. ? >> it's always rescues and keeping people safe and immediate aftermath of the storm.

>> we're looking at live pictures of downtown new orleans. we're getting a clear look at the amount of water coming down there. lots of wind as well. real quickly, let me ask you about two days from now, what will you be focussed on? will you be in recover efforts there? >> hopefully not. we'll kind of regroup and put the boots away and pick up our assets. everybody can start getting it to go. >> off some semblance of normalcy to the folks afktsed.

how many with who whom do you work directly? dpl directly, there's about ten of us this, i have literally worked with thousands and thousands of people and companies that have helped us and let us do what we can do. >> the fleet captain of the louisiana cajun navy. jordy, thank you for your time. best of luck in your efforts as you try to help those around you there. good on you. and well done. joining me right now, ken graham, the director of the national hurricane center. ken, we have seen each other too often lately, but i am glad to have you here. what is the very late west ida? has it gotten to be as bad as you anticipated now that it has made made landfall? better than anticipated? right on the line? or worse than you anticipated? >> i think, alex, it's one of

these situations that we have made landfall -- the readings we got, at 150-mile-per-hour winds. it is going to take time to see what happened in those areas. but with that kind of wind there is catastrophic damage around grand isle, port fourchon. it is not over, though, it's just starting. >> what are your concerns about what happens next? i know we will have power outages. that comes with the territory. when you weigh the ravages of flooding versus the wind, what do you focus on first? >> you look back in history and look at hurricanes in the past. 90% of fatalities in these tropical systems comes from the water. we are going to have wind, hurricane-force winds, baton rouge, metropolitan norris, it is going to cause power outages. but it is the storm surge that

causes so many fatalities, 12 to 16 feet of storm surge. port fourchon -- to the right side, is where you see peak areas. you hope everyone was out of the area. once we start to see the storm surge becoming less of a problem we get into this problem here, the rainfall. that's not just on the coast. it is well inland as well. we don't have many forecasts for ten to 20 inches of rain. from mobile to the mississippi coast, six to ten inches of rain. you will have flooding well away from the center. moving north, central mississippi up into ohio valley you will see places as far as ken condition seeing tropical rains. we will watch it over the next days. >> it was told by our nbc meteorologist in the new york area where i am we could be looking at four inches of rain come wednesday. i know that is long track. let me ask you to reit rate

something that is so important. it bears repeating every time that we have a storm, that is people who want to leave now. maybe the wind sub sides somewhat and they think they have a car that can go through water and get where they intend to go. >> yeah. >> not a good idea. >> alex, thank you for making that point. it is so important. we talk about storm surge being the leading cause of fatalities but number two is the inland rain and flooding. turn around, don't drown. especially at night, debris, you can can't tell how much water is on the road. never drive your car into a road that is covered with water. now is the time to be in a safe place, not going outside. the other part that we have to remind folks. in the eye you are going to have the center of the storm moving inland. it is not safe to go outside in that eye. you have debris from the front end of the storm and then the

back end pack as punch. stay inside. indoors is the best place to be. >> how long until we can get to the back side of the storm. the eye just made landfall. given the enormity of the storm, it suggests that's a very large eye. we are not out of the woods. >> just getting started with this. if you think about the intense winds at fort fourchon. houma, places like baton rouge, we have forecast even as far north as baton rouge, getting close to the mississippi line we are still talking about hurricane force winds. you have hurricane force winds, then you put all this rain on top of it, you saturate the soil, you are knocking down a lot of trees, there are going to be power outages. it is going to take time for this system to get out of here. monday evening portions of the mississippi delta will have this system. then look to tennessee and company ken. we need to be mindful of some of these impacts over the next couple of days. >> ken graham, the director of the national hurricane weather

center. thank you. we appreciate your time with us here on msnbc. let's go from nbc's sam brock, joining us from baton rouge, louisiana. how are things will? i can barely see the trees moving and the wind behind you. safe to say, a little bit better than other places? >> yeah, it's definitely been better. so far, alex, the wind has started to pick up. we are getting occasional gusts. outer bands are starting to reach us. we know it is going to change significantly in the next hours. what ken was saying about baton rouge is apropos. this is likely the largest metro area in louisiana that's going to ends up under the eye of the storm assuming the track holds. i am next to a bucket truck right now to give you how a sense how they are ready for power outages. 150,000 or so customers according to the state website already lost power. that's before ida, as a category 4 bulldoze its way. we have 50 to 100 of these

trucks here right now which will be deployed once things die down. what is odd about this situation. 220,000 people, baton rouge parish is the post populous in the state. a jewelry store here, no signs of being boarded up. hotel over here. no signs. this red lobster just put up those boards after yesterday. et cetera the only place that i have seen alex that has windows board up. driving down downtown baton rouge, nothing. nada. it is empty. there is people outside standing in the mississippi river hours away of potentially ida coming right through baton rouge and doing all sorts of damage with wind speeds of 110, 115 miles an hour. we spoke with folks at nearby gas stations yesterday to ask them, what is your level of emergency receipt now. here's what they said. >> we are just going to stay and pray and hope it works out and the that we don't have a repeat

of 2016. >> probably about a week and a half, no power. so we will go from there. generator, gas, we're good to go. plenty of beer. >> so praying is one thing. but actually taking action right now, there has been no mandatory evacuations. so many of the people that we talked to decided we are just going ride it out. it's louisiana weather. i think it is worth noting as we await what is a monstrous storm coming through here there has been investment of $20 million or so to clear out the drainage and culverts to avoid the flooding that we saw if baton rouge just six years ago. >> we know you will keep a close watch for us. sam brock. thousands of fema members are getting ready to tee employ to areas hit very hard by

hurricane ida. we will check in at the top of the hour and ask about all of their preparations for those beleaguered residents. we will right back here on msnbc. ght back here on msnbc. [engine revs] now let's go borrow a boat and make some bad decisions. [engine revs] time to go incognito. [zippers fasten] [engine revs] i love you, ricky! i love you, cal! what's the next stop? it's time for your extracurriculars. ¡vámanos, amigos! woo-hoo! i've got moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer. ♪ ♪ i feel free to bare my skin yeah, that's all me. ♪ ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand nothing on my skin, ♪ ♪ that's my new plan. ♪ ♪ nothing is everything. ♪ achieve clearer skin with skyrizi. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months.

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