full prescription-strength? reduces inflammation? thank the gods. don't thank them too soon. kick pain in the aspercreme. introducing xfinity rewards. our very own way of thanking you just for being with us. enjoy rewards like movie night specials. xfinity mobile benefits. ...and exclusive experiences, like the chance to win tickets to see watch what happens live. hey! it's me. the longer you've been with us... the more rewards you can get. like sharpening your cooking skills with a top chef. join for free on the xfinity app and watch all the rewards float in. our thanks. your rewards. good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters here in new york, i am alex witt. we are with breaking news relative to hurricane ida. it is certainly the story at this hour. 2:00 p.m. eastern, 11:00 a.m. eastern time.

as we track the hurricane it is pummelling louisiana. it is a massive storm. it's a category 4. it made landfall just about an hour ago and port four shun with winds of about 150 miles per hour. as we give you sunning video this is from a flight right into the eye of the storm earlier this morning. you hear about the hurricane hunters? this is what they see. the national hurricane center issuing an update. nbc's meteorologist bill carans will brik break it down for us. we are in new orleans as the sewage and water board reports power out ans at the sewage pump stations at this hour. that's not the kind of news they want to have to deliver to the rents. governor gen john bel edwards will be holding a briefing in the next hour on the state's response to ida. duly noted, this hurricane comes on a historic day, 16 years to the day after katrina devastated

new orleans in louisiana. residents are being urged to stay indoors to stay safe. >> stay inside. do not venture out. no sight-seeing. this is very serious. we need you to stay in from this point forward. all morning. all afternoon. all evening. as it relates to monday morning, we should see some signs that we are moving out of this. but you are not to come out until you receive more information from the city of new orleans. >> we will give you video right now as we have you take a look at the video on board a life boat. that is docked in leeville, louisiana. that is really close to where ida made land fall. look at the power of the storm there, the video is at the top right of your screen. forecasters are warning it will bring life threatening storm surge, catastrophic wind damage,

major flooding and even tornadoes as we get new images of the conditions worsening in gulf port, mississippi. 15 million people in the region along the south that are in the path of hurricane ida. it is expected to carve a path of destruction as the day goes on. we have an excellent team of reporters along with nbc news meteorologist bill carans who himself is excellent covering this for you. let's go to houma, louisiana, southwest of new orleans. wind has picked up. the rain has picked up. last hour you had difficult even speaking to me. what are things like now, morgan sheskey? >> what we expect right now is a very significant powerful hurricane to make its way here in just an hour or two. right now, these outer bands are getting incredibly strong. we are already seeing light debris starting to be thrown around in the streets of houma. this is absolutely the weighs place you don't want to be when this hurricane passes over.

it is incredibly tough to believe the eye may be still an hour or two away when you look at how powerful this storm is. right now, we know that there is still a lot of people who were unable to evacuate from this community here. so the big concern going forward is, how much of a storm surge issue is it going to be here? because we are already seeing how powerful the wind is from ida, just about a half hour after it made landfall. right now -- bear with me. it's only getting more powerful. it's incredibly concerning. we will sends it back to you for now because at this point it is starting to feel we are a bit too exposed to some of these bands that are really moving in. alex. >> okay, morgan sheskey, thank you so much for that. >> i know you are trying to catch your breath. we will get back to you as soon as we can. we now have fema acting associate administrator david beebo joining us. as we ask you and welcome you on

this very, very busy day, let's talk about what fema is doing right now as this storm hits. i know there has been a lot of preparation time. once this storm hits, as it clearly has, where do you stan? what do you tackle first? >> alex, as you can see from your correspondent there and as you heard from mayor cantrall, hurricane ida is a very dangerous storm that made landfall about an hour ago with 150-mile-an-hour winds in port fourchon. people in western mississippi and eastern louisiana need to take this seriously right now. heed the words of the mayor and other local officials who are telling folks to hunker down to stay inside, don't take any risks. if you still have power, make sure you plug your phone in, make sure you are charging your devices, filling up the bathtub with water so you can flush the foilt and do other essential thing.

but those critical protective actions are really important right now. now, with fema, we have been positioning in support of the states of louisiana and mississippi for days, moving specialized teams like search and rescue into the management assistance teams, power restoration assessment teams and supplies like meals, water, jen righters, tarps, cots to be able to support the louisiana and mississippi teams as soon as it's safe to do so. >> okay. about when do you think that will be, david? i mean, when you say safe to do so, of course you don't want to add any sort of issues that would have to be as a result of fema trying to get into someplace too soon. but certainly there will be folks that will be desperately hoping to see signs of fema and a presence there. what kind of time frame are you looking at? >> with the passage of tropical storm-form force winds generally that's when it is considered safe to go out and conduct operations. we of course will be working closely with louisiana local and

state officials to get out as soon as we possibly can. but we really again want to encourage peeks in southeastern louisiana southwestern mississippi to recognize that the effects this storm are going to be felt far inland, away from coast, hurricane-force winds well inland and soaking rains. it is not just about the winds. it's not just about the catastrophic storm surge at the coast. it's about ten to 15 isolated areas of 20 inches of rain. so the flash flooding threat from this storm is very real. download the fema app, put in your zip code and you can get alerts for when flash flood warngs are affecting you and your area. >> okay. with regard to fema and setting up shelters for folks who have been affected by this, folks who were able to get out of their homes and may need extended places to stay given the damage that their properties may have, how do you go about organizing that? is enough in place right now, to

your thinking, david? >> right now, louisiana and mississippi have shelter capacity in place to shelter thousands of folks who may be seeking refuge. we are not seeing those levels of shelter populations just yesterday. gratefully, we saw people heed those mandatory and voluntary evacuation warnings yesterday. you can see traffic on the roads that folks were listening to knows warnings, which is good. we are hopeful that people did not stay behind because this is a pretty ferocious storm. and it's not -- again, it's not just again about coastal populations. i want to be clear that the effects from hurricane ida are going to be felt well inland, and for days. if you look at the national hurricane center forecast track, states throughout the southeast, the mid atlantic, and even in the northeast need to pay attention to this system as it traverses the nation in the days ahead throughout the course of this week. >> okay, wise advice and updates

from you, david, from people achlt thank you for being with us, best of luck as you navigate the next few days for people along the gulf coast. appreciate it. let's go to nbc's sam brock who is in baton rouge. there have been hours of heavy rainfall there. what are you seeing and feeling, sam. >> i think we are probably three or four hours behind what morgan is seeing at the moment in houma, custom of course is one those areas that is bearing such a brunt of the orderly strength of this storm. 150-mile-an-hour winds making its way, bulldozing right now through southeast louisiana. the reason i am standing here, there have already been 150,000 customers without power so far. that is before it real gets, ida, into the heart of the state. these right here will be deployed eventually, once it is safe to do so. there is a small army of utility vehicles. i would say in ballpark of 50 to 100 just right here. there are more supplies coming. as we mentioned already from fema, the concerns go beyond

just electricity, obviously the wind damage that will occur, and the flooding that happens in an area like this n. baton rouge in 2016 there were some 30 inches of rain dumped onto the area after an unnamed storm came. it sat there for hours and led to 10,000-plus homes flooding and billions and billions of damage. the question is how long will hurricane ida linger? . it is going 15 miles an hour. it was. now that it made landfall, how much will it slow? i am at the mall of louisiana. there are plenty of buildings that aren't necessarily prepared, if you will, for the eye of a storm coming right over it. it could be a category 2 or 3 hurricane force wind coming into baton rouge once it is 60 miles inlands. that's how far inland we are. we asked people, why didn't you

vaccinate? some have relatives they want to look over. oftentimes people don't have the resources to do it. but others say, we are inland, how bad could it be? the eye of the storm is going the come through exactly where i am stands right now. one business here is boarded up. i was driving through downtown baton rouge. i was text to a building on the national registry of historic places. no boarding up of windows on that. stores, none of them with wood on the windows. they weren't boarded up. not many sandbags either. this does not look like at the moment that is bracing for the eye of a hurricane to spread through. however, the mayor says people need to be heeding the messages of their local officials. if that means getting inside and saying inside for days. do not try to get out on the roads right now.

we have seen congestion for miles on interstate 10 getting through this part of louisiana. you kinds of are where you are at this point. >> yeah. >> be safe, be careful, and understand it is going to be get dicey here in the coming hours. >> let's hope the business owners and residences don't regret not further boarding up. i find that to be surprising. appreciate the reporting from you sam brock, there in baton rouge, louis lus. bill carans, we go back to you. hurricane center, a national update a few moments ago. >> the 2:00 didn't change anything. some of the stats over the last couple of years. a report of a 15 --mile-an-hour wind gust at landfall at port fourchon. 15 to 16% of all of the u.s. oil goes through there. let's hope that everything is structurally sound and good to go once the storm is over with. you can imagine what impacts that would have. almost 20% of u.s. oil goes

through the port where this hurricane made landfall. other statistics. a buoy offshore reported a 27 feed when the storm was almost over the top of it. imagine that out in the gulf. 27-foot waves. other statistics. right now, 167,000 people in louisiana without power. that number obviously will grow. if you are wondering, the population of louisiana is 4.6 million. right now at 167,000. of course the big population centers, baton rouge, to new orleans, those are yet to be hit by the hardest winds. new orleans, we are four to six hours of these storm's winds reaching you. in baton rouge, that won't happen until 27h 7:00 or 9:00 p.m. this even when the center goes right over you at 9:00 or 10:00. tropical storm warnings go all the way into central mississippi with this storm. early tomorrow morning for you to the north. wallen deck, alexandria, along with friends in biloxi, mobile, heading almost into pensacola, but not quite.

the hurricane warning stop at the border of louisiana and mississippi, then down to the south. here's the latest on the storm. this is the latest image that we got in from radar out of the new orleans area. the well defined eye. we have dual eye walls. we have the inner one, and then we have this outer one. if you were watching us at the top of this hour when we checked in with morgan and his crew in houma, louisiana, he's starting to get towards that outer eye band. the winds are going to really pick up. gusts to 80. when you go through this outer band that's when the power outages become widespread. the power is going out in chauvin and soon in areas like houma. and when the inner band goes through, there could be 130-mile-an-hour wind gusts. that would be a second hit where morgan and his crew is. that will be about two or three hours from now. we will stay with him and his crew as long as we can. as long as they are safe. the extreme wind warning is

south of new orleans. not into new orleans. but we will see if they extends it north towards morgan city this afternoon and into tomorrow morning. galyano russia is had a wind gust at 82. that's with the outer band that we have been talking about. the inner band will have stronger winds than that when it reaches houma. 150 miles per hour is the official highest gust we have with this storm. by 7:00 p.m. it will take the storm due west of new orleans. by 10:00 p.m., over the top of baton rouge. then the storm will head northwards into mississippi overnight. when we wake up tomorrow morning, it is jackson into nachs and winds will be dropping low enough that we shouldn't see a lot of significant damage. from jackson mississippi northward i don't think you will see power outages. storm surge, rainfall, all the important information we will be tracking throughout the rest of the day. >> let me ask you about port

fourchon where it made landfall. it is populated with oil refineries but not with respects, right. >> no. it is a working area. if you look on google maps and you go down and look there is not a lot there. looks like the ships pull in, they unload, and then they leave. but we need to it operate. >> 15 to 20% of the nation's oil supply goes through there? >> that's what i was reading. two concerns. a is obviously for our oil supplies and gas prices. the other one, if that's damaged, what are the environmental impacts is this right. >> i am not saying it high pressure. >> no. >> people are just saying, it is a bad spot for a strong hurricane to make landfall. >> absolutely i think a lot of people are focusing on that and trying to get us video as to how things stand in port fourchon. we will see you again shortly. now to shack brewster from gulf port mississippi. shaq, i think i see a little bit of sunshine behind you? but still lots of wind.

am i wrong? i can't see you, you are in a smaller box there on the screen. >> you are exactly right. we go from periods where you have the sun, then the winds, then the rain. you are confused about what is happening and the real intensity of this storm. 20 minutes ago you heard the roar this storm where the wind was whipping the rain pretty much horizontally. you saw, despite that cars driving around, peeking around. in a couple of seconds here you might see this car of people just looking out taking pictures and spectaing to see exactly what is happening. that is what officials are trying to avoid as best as they can. there have been police cars going up and down the shore here to enforce the curfew that has been in effect since 8:00 a.m. this morning. officials knew the effect of the rain that was coming, the impact of the wind. of course there is still a threat of not only the tornadoes but the storm surges that can

happen when you go, especially by the coast in these low lying areas. also when you get to the river and the river flood warnings that are also in effect. despite this sun that you might see peeking through it is still very dangerous out here and it can turn even more dangerous extremely quickly. i had a conversation with the mayor earlier today in the emergency command center. the fire chief, the police chief were there, all the local officials nall one place. it was essentially a bunker that was created after hurricane katrina, which devastated this area back in 2005. it wiped out hundreds of -- thousands of homes, killed hundreds of people in this county. one thing he said to me, this storm is faster moving. it is not expected to linger as long as katrina did at the time. it is expected to really just go through. but, he said, the thing he has been telling residents over and

over is the idea that every storm is different. every storm has its own personality, he said. and his words, complacency kills. that is what officials are trying to avoid. when you look at the sun and see the wind died down a little bit from a couple of minutes ago they want people to avoid that sense of complacency that you can get easily by coming out and looking at the current conditions. 20 minutes ago conditions were drastically different. in 20 minutes from now it could be even worse. >> that sense of complacentsy, shaq, i want to address the fact we are seeing cars moving behind you. we should also tell people -- >> right. >> -- reminds them you do not go out in your car thinking you can weather the smallest amount of water. cars can stuck, can be taken away in small flash flooding. how much water is on the road behind you? how much water is there?

>> not only the cars, alex, but look at what you see on your screen right now. three men who are standing right there along what was the beach. now the waved created more of a shoreline at this point of right there, there was a -- there was a group of people who were there maybe an hour ago at this point. that's when you had the police coming through and on their bull horn saying you need to clear out, you need to go home. this is not safe for you to be on. that is what officials don't want to see. like i said, these conditions here will change very quickly. even right now as i am talking to you, the wind is picking up ever so slightly compared to when we were first talking and having our conversation. that's the thing, you have cars going back and forth. we have people that are going to venture out. hopefully they are just going to their house. there are a couple of houses right there. but that's the concern. but for the historical comparison, alex, we know the path of this storm is much different than the path of hurricane katrina.

hurricane -- gulf port got a direct hit, close to a direct hit with hurricane katrina. i tell you, this area there was more than 20 feet of storm surge. they are not expecting to see that in gulf port this time around. they are expecting something closer to three to six feet. but it's the idea that when you see something not as bad as it was before, you become comfortable with it. and that's what has officials concerned and what they are warning against. the mayor, with those words, complacency kills. it is a hint of complacency. you feel some of the gusts coming in right now. you see how quickly things can change. >> i am glad you are hanging onto that railing. clearly you need to. winds are picking up. shaq brewster in gulf port mississippi thank you. let's go to kelly chandler, the regional director of the southeast louisiana flood protection authority. kelly, thank you for joining me. big word to focus on is flood. a major return for many

louisiana respects. talk about what you have done to try to combat in anticipation of ida, the amount of flood water you would have to be dealing with? >> first of all, it is not lost on us that today is the anniversary of hurricane katrina, a storm that changed this area forever. but i think it is very important for everybody in this region to know that we are much better protected than we were during katrina. the levees are strong e they are higher. there is much greater protection today than there was 16 years ago. the army corps of engineers has spent $14.6 billion improving our flood defense system. and we feel very strongly confident that the system will perform as designed. we may have some local street flooding. we will have widespread power outages. we have already started experiencing that. we are on generator power. but we are much better protected from storm surge than we were 16 years ago. >> very, very good news.

is this the first time that you have had a storm of this magnitude that really tested the efficacy of those newly built levees. >> every storm is different. we had a hurricane barry when we had a high river and a hurricane threatening us. this time the river is much lower, custom is a good thing. but, yes, this is a very intense storm. it is unique. every storm is different with you we are confident with the performance of the system. >> with regard to beyond just the rebuilding of the levees when you talk about a storm like this, experts said ida could be one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the louisiana cost, in over a century, you have to go back to the 1850s to find a storm to compare it to. >> katrina taught us a lot, when the corps designed the system that we have today, they modelled after hundreds of previous storms to complete the design. they reviewed historical events.

they improved their engineering design. now it's one of the most technologically advanced systems in the world today. >> well, that is good. with regard to this being the 16th anniversary of hurricane katrina, how is this particular storm different? do you think also because of experience nag and the tragic aftermath of that, are people taking advice of officials, people like you, to evacuate or hunker down? do you get a sense that the city is much more emotionally prepared to deal with this? >> yes. katrina changed everyone's lives. mine. the people that work here. the people here. it's something that drives our worketic every single day. residents are aware we are a resilient community. we do listen to local and state officials. we have had most of the people evacuate and only essentialel personnel have decided to stay. >>cally chandler, for the most part, it has been good news from you. we hope it stays that way as the

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if you have been watching us for the last 90 minutes or so, you know that hurricane ida has made landfall in louisiana as an extremely dangerous category 4 storm. we are bringing you live pictures right now from gulf port, mississippi. officials across the region are begging those who did not yet evacuate to not try to do so now. instead, stay inside, hunker down, and stay safe. look at that as we bring in nbc news meteorologist bail karins. the churning seas, high tide. >> the storm surge has come in. it peaked at about seven feet.

that's where they were nailed by katrina at 20 feet. >> there is no comparison. >> i am happy to see it started to go down a little bit. that was good. also just to show you an champl of how dangerous the storm surge can be. there is a tidal gauge inland along one of the rivers. in 18 minutes. it rose five feet. that's how the storm surge rapidly can come in and the water rises. then you are caught offguard. you can be trapped -- if you are in a lower level building you can be trapped inside. you have to get up to the radio. five feet of water coming in in 18 minutes. one of the fastest i have ever seen. here is the landfall. i want to show you what it looks like. port fourchon. satellite imagery, the eye going right over the top. that's the landfall. let's zoom into google earth.

this is the porgt here. you can see shipping channels in here. you don't see any really houses and stuff like that. >> yep. >> this is an industrial complex as we would call it. there is really a couple roads in and out and that's about it. so this is directly where the landfall was. the reason we were showing you this is because we have been reading 16 to 18% of our oil in our country comes in through this port. obviously f that's closed down and that's damaged, it has ripple effects that are widespread. we hope it is intact and was able to withstand the 152--mile-an-hour winds. there is a weather gauge there, the report was 152 miles an hour when it made landfall. this is updated. they have moved it forth to the west and to the north. it still does not include new orleans. we don't think the core peak of this storm is going to go through new orleans. that will try to minimize a little bit the wind damage in new orleans.

but the winds are howling at 60 to 65 miles per hour. but anywhere to the west, you are now in the extreme wind warning. i will update the graphic the next time around. there are the gusts. as soon as you get above 50 you start to have power out ans. at the lake front, gusts at 62. at the airport, 58. now the winds are going to start to spread. so will the power out ans into areas not just where the landfall was, but into south central portions of louisiana and up towards baton rouge. winds will start to increase with the next band's go to come on sure. the hurricane center i will still has it at 150. we will see if they bring it down now that it is over land. but it is so swampy in southern louisiana it is not like it is over land as if it had come on shore in other pourings of the country. we have five hours to go of it being a major hurricane moving all way through areas just to the south and to the west of new

orleans. tomorrow morning it will be a tropical storm and just a big huge rainmaker. the story that we have been dealing with now is the storm surge. we have seen reports of up to seven to nine feet of storm surge. that's the maximum we have seen so far. we haven't seen the 12 to 16 reports. we will go when the storm is over with. they installed tile ganls in remote areas before the storm comes in so they can go back in and see what it was like. with laura, none of the official tidal gauges showed us it was so bad. but when they collected the tiles they put out we found out it was exactly as bad as the hurricane center predicted. the rain is going to be a big issue as we go throughout the rest of this storm. tornadoes, too. we haven't had any tornado reports today but some tropical storms produce a lot of tornadoes. tomorrow all through mississippi the most damage in mess miss if we get it would likely be from tornadoes tomorrow.

it is a decent threat, too. >> talk about the mechanics of the tidal measurements. among the many alerts that i have read, i can't pinpoint in my mind the last five hours i have been anchoring here where this one came from. there was a wind gauge in louisiana, it measured 148 miles per hour and it broke the measuring device. that wasn't even at full strength. >> it is rare that most can measure up to that point. we usually lose a lot of these meters when they get up to 80, 90, 100. rare ones survive up to 100. >> 148, all right, we are good on that one. let's go now to al roker. al joins us once again from new orleans. we see you in the top right corner of our screen. al, your bants are blowing in the wind. it has picked up. you have got the hang on. talk about the wind gusts and the rain that you are seeing there. >> well, it kind of comes and

goes. it unundulates. we are in a good blast right now. we just got a forecast from one our meteorologists that for new orleans around 6:00, 7:00, we could be looking at winds here in new orleans of 100 miles per hour. that could certain cause some major problems. i look down canal street. the street lights are still on. there are a lot of folks -- there aren't a lot of folks out on the street. but that's -- like my buddy there is getting blown down. he's all of a sudden trying to hold on. you know, we are going to be watching this very closely because we are hearing some people yelling. there may be stuff going on down a little further down right now. but winds are picking up. the rain is picking up. and i think we are going to be

looking at a sustained period of time where you know, there is going to be a lot happening not just south of here, west of here, but here in new orleans proper itself because these winds really are now starting to powell. and they are doing it at a more sustained basis. alex. >> yeah. al, i know you always remind us that you don't tang chances. got to tell you it is hard to believe right now given the wind gusts -- i am worried you are going to blow away. if i keep you on screen, can you find a lamppost or something to hold on to? >> no, no, alex -- >> you are fine? >> i'm fine. see -- here's the deal, i'm bahamian. i'm built low to the ground like most of my people. i have a low center of gravity. there was that issue. actually, back in 2005, wilma, after katrina had hit, i was on

a balcony in naples and got blown down. but i had been -- i had had some surgery. i wasn't quite -- i didn't have my sea legs. we see a fire engine, a fire truck going down that way. i think there is some activity that's happening because we are hearing some hubbub going on. and there is a lot of rain and a lot of wind. you know, and unlike earlier, we saw some stragglers on the street. it's pretty empty right now. again, not to make light of it. but we take this -- we take our safety very, very carefully. if we think that it is -- for example, we were -- for nightly news, we were going to go to another locate. we said, no, we are not going to do that. because as we mentioned the 100 100-mile-per-hour winds. it is not safe to be out on the

streets. when it is dangerous, alex, you will not see us out, believe me. >> if there are fire trucks, is it the kinds of thing where you could have power lines down and fires could spark? a lot of people could think how could there be a fire, because you have got the rain tumbling down. but there could be, correct? >> sure, transformers could be blowing. lined up on canal street, you can't see it here but they have already amassed literally tens and dozens and dozens of power trucks, utility trucks, to make sure that they are ready once the winds die down. so, you know -- again, like i said, we have power. i see power down on canal street. but it doesn't mean that it's not -- i think in or leans parish there are about 38,000 people without power right now. >> okay. al roker -- >> we have got some lightning and thunder.

we have got thunder going right now. so it is a very active part of the storm, alex. >> 100%. lightning certainly can strike and start a fire that way as well. it could be a transformer, lightning. whatever you noted those fire trucks down the street are standing to. i am going to let you take cover as need be, to the best self described bahamian i know, al roker, nice to have you with us and giving us a sense of things on the grounds in new orleans. let's go to sam brock, in downtown baton rouge. how are things there? >> to put pieces of your last two reports together, good afternoon, alec. bill said once you get to 50 miles per hour or stronger you are seeing power lines going down, people losing electricity. al mentions it is going to be potentially 100-mile-an-hour winds in nornls. that's a lot of power outages. the last time i talked to you,

30 minutes ago there was 150,000 customers in the state of louisiana without power. now that number has grown to 230,000 customers. as you look around, all of these trucks, as al was describing are standing by so once things are safe they can deploy and restore people's power. between now and then there could be exponential growth in terms of the number of people losing power. at the same time i am as you mentioned in baton rouge. this is about 220,000-person city. and the county, east baton rouge parish is the most populous in the state of louisiana. 400,000 plus people. as i drove through downtown baton rouge 15 or 20 minutes from where i am now alec, you see this video, you have hotels, restaurants, and apartment buildings and all of these places that are empty but there is no window protection. i was watching people hanging

out on the mississippi river hours before a potential hurricane barrels through. brunl looks to be the largest metropolitan area that's going to be hit directly by this storm. you look at things that cost human beings their lives in storms. waters, number one. it is the most powerful force on planet earth. kills more people than lightning, tornadoes, wind, cold, all of it. so as we talk to people right now to find out what they are feeling, their psychology after experiencing something in 2016 where homes flooded during a 500-year event were they taking this seriously. one couple said we have parents in their 80s. we don't want to leave them. we have jobs here. we are staying put where we are right now. here is a snippet of that conversation. do you worry you could be looking at another scenario in which you are seeing all of these homes -- >> i definitely think there is plenty of homes that will be affected by this. we are opportunity that we aree

on very high ground? exactly. >> we think ours will be okay. but we will be helping all of our neighbors. >> alex, right now the wind is starting to pick up again here. as we look at what sorts of plans the city here at put into place to try to protect people i spoke with the mayor yesterday. she said they have invested $20 million to try to improve the drainage system because when ponchartrain gets backed up and the lake next to that, it affects the tributary of creeks and rivers that go all the way out to baton rouge. that is their primary concern. the mayor told me they have drained a couple feet of water in capital lake in baton rouge that can store a couple of feet in surge flood waters. hopefully that doesn't come into play and it is adequate to handle what happens here. ida, if itlingers and dumps all kinds of rain water on all of these pockets, these communities that have had trouble historically draining the water,

that could spell trouble. back to you. >> indeed. sam brock thank you so much. in baton rouge. you have spoken with the mayor. aye we are going to do that as well. i am joined on the phone by the mayor of bruin sharon westin broom. mayor, we spoke earlier today. >> yes. >> how have things unfolded since you and i spoke around 9:00 a.m. or so eastern time? has this storm played out the way you expected it to? >> right now we are seeing increased winds. we have told all of our residents to shelter in place because we are expecting an impact between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. with the heavier impact taking place around 6:p.m. as i drive the streets of baton rouge, it does appear that our citizens are adhering to the shelter in place message. >> okay. that's good news. talk about what you are seeing on the roads as you drive. it has been noted that people should, if they see water, not

try to traverse that with their car. there are so often tragedies about flooded cars or people think they can make it past a certain vantage point and they end up getting stuck. loss of life can happen as a result. how flooded are the streets there in baton rouge? >> right now, we don't have the rain and water impact at this point. what we are seeing as i said is increased winds. we have been told that the majority of our experience will be more winds than rain. nevertheless, we have to prepare for both. both are emergency situations. you are absolutely right. in case there is potential flooding or flooding, our citizens are always encouraged, don't try to go into the water no matter what it looks like. especially don't ignore barricades. we don't want anyone to drown in the process of trying to get through high water.

so our citizens, we believe, are ready with all the information we provided. hopefully at the end of the day we will be safe and sound and headed towards a strong recovery. >> yeah, let's hope so, indeed. that red stick ready that you just mentioned. what does that mean for the residents of baton rouge? >> red stick ready is our emergency preparedness mantra. it includes a text message system. if you text red stick ready to a number, 2439991, then we will consistently stay in communication with you. we will give you alerts. we will let you know where there is high water. we will tell you what is going on in your commune. and you can also reach out to red stick ready for assistance through our 211 system. >> okay. mayor of baton rouge, louisiana,

sharon weston broome, do stay safe as you try to do your best to keep the residents of that large metro area safe as well here in the wake of hurricane ida. we are learning that the president is at fema headquarters at washington, d.c. right now. he's getting a briefing. we will get a report from the white house on all of that in just a moment. before we do, let's go to msnbc's morgan cheskey, who is in houma, louisiana, southwest of new orleans. morgue arngs how are things looking right now? you have run the gamut on this day from being literally unable to speak to me because the wind has caught your breath to where you stand right now. how do things look? >> alex we had to move to a more secure location. we have a concrete reinforced parking garage that is kinds of our safe haven throughout this storm. we came down to the bottom floor. we got a chance to see some of the damage that has already been caused, just the beginning of what's to come from ida. as we pull out on this shot here you can see a carport started to

be torn apart by high winds. we have tree branches littering the streets here. this is only going to get worse because we know the eye wall is making its slow steady approach to houma right now. morgan city also in the path. these are cities that, you know, have about 30,000 people living in each, give or take. and we know that a lot of the people, they don't want to take the chance with ida and they went ahead and evacuated. many either couldn't afford to and are choosing to say. one story in particular struck me. we know a family here in houma. the father had gotten his first vaccination shot about three weeks ago. he was set to get his second tomorrow. unfortunately, he came down with covid just a few days ago. and it forced the family into this very difficult choice, alex. in that they couldn't go to a shelter because the father had tested positive. hotels wouldn't take them in either.

as a result of that, they chose to hunker down and ride this storm out at home despite the mandatory evacuation order to get out. that's just one example of what so many people face who are having to ride this storm out firsthand. i can tell you, it's going to be a long right because it is only getting more powerful here. if that's a glimpse of what's to come, get ready. >> absolutely. okay, morgan cheskey, thank you so much, from home achl thank you for correcting me on my mispronunciation earlier. i endeavor not to do that again. i am glad you have moved to a better safer location since our last reporting. we have learned that president biden is at fema headquarters in washington, d.c. getting a briefing. let's go there fo. what do you know about the briefing. what a day for this president. >> so many challenges as the storm touches down. the president just arriving at

fema for another briefing after he was briefed yesterday by fema now on the reality of what is actually going on on the ground. here's what we know. they have deployed about 2500 fema officials. now, 2,000 of those were already on the ground helping with covid relief efforts. they sent an additional 500. they are trying to provide as much as they can in the way of freshwater, generators, other resources as well as staff and personnel. but as we have discussed alex, the challenge here is that they are not just dealing with a standard hurricane evacuation and supply isue here. they are trying to mitigate the tread is of covid in an area that has seen its most devastating situation yet in terms of covid deaths. many people asked to evacuate are being asked to go into congregate areas, not a place

where you want to send anyone in a state experiencing a surge in covid. the administration is working with fema to make sure that all the supplies, the standard supplies, in addition to masks and sanitation equipment as well are getting into the hands of the people who need it as well are getting into the hands of people the most. i'm sure we'll get details later, but really it's an all points on getting the equipment and the personnel into the places where they need to be. >> heidi, you may be a ware, but we are getting word that the president will speak from the fema headquarters. i believe the president will be speaking and give some specifics about what fema is doing to help them in the present tense and

certainly with the days to come. we're going to stay with a very close eye on that. once the president takes to that podium, of course we'll take you there as well. and i notice heidi will be following it as well. it's been a day of multiple stories of tremendous significance for the president of the united states, as we move to get more breaking news from afghanistan. nbc news is reporting that the u.s. has begun evacuating its diplomatic personnel out of kabul. this was a memo object tainedb nbc news, though the state department itself is not yet commenting on this report. nbc news has learned that the u.s. has secured all locally employed kabul embassy staff. it is right now, as we broadcast in the process of evacuating 2800 employees and their families. this is coming mere hours after the military carried out a new drone strike today against suspected members of isis-k. of course, the group that

claimed responsibility for the dreadful attack on thursday that killed 13 u.s. service members in kabul. let's go to matt bradley. he joins me from landstuhl, germany. welcome. let's talk about the strike. what do we know about that? >> reporter: we saw earlier today, alex, a plume of smoked rising from a house. we all woke up this morning expecting to see the next adak. it was only as recently thatted biden administration was warning there would be another catastrophic attack right around kabul's airport. we were all expecting the worse. instead, that attack turned out to be, according to centcom, and the taliban itself, turned out to be a drone strike. a couple hours we got this from captain bill urban. u.s. military conducted aself defense unmanned over the horizon air strike today on a vehicle in kabul eliminating an

i isis-k threat to the kabul airport. the taliban went and investigated the situation and determined that, yes, there had been a drone strike. you know, this is the second drone strike against isis-k, you can tall this a retaliation or prevention. that's really what looks like happened here. it was almost an-movie type of situation. this drone struck, according to centcom and sources talking to nbc, a car full of jihadis, potential suicide bombers, it sounds as though they were on their way to the airport to conduct that same attack that u.s. intelligence and president biden had warned about. so the question now becomes, you know, if this attack was neutralized, will there still be another isis-k attack at the

airport? you mentioned now the u.s. officials are wrapping up their eye vac ways efforts, trying to get diplomats feverishly out of the country before the deadline hits on tuesday. that's when the u.s. is expected to get out. that's also when the taliban inherits the full security scope, the full security operation for all of afghanistan. that's when they're hoping to form their own government, the u.s. will be gone, and then, you know, that's going to be the taliban's problem. >> okay. matt bradley there at landstuhl, thank you so much for that, as we again are covering that which is happening in kabul, but that which is happening along the gulf coast here in the united states. giving you a look at grand isle, louisiana, an area that is very low lying. bill karins described it earlier as a strip of land like a small island. am i correct in that, bill, as you're sitting across the studio

from me? >> very narrow, one road in and out, very low elevation. >> and we're looking at this video which is pretty darn dramatic. that was, bill, i believe have i close to the eye of the storm, correct? >> yeah, we know for a fact that 27 people at grand isle said they were going to stay pus, and 23 fire and police. so we know there's approximately about 50 people on the island. >> bill, if you can look at this video, this is the kind of thing you talked about with an mace earlier, where you see a surge of water. this is pretty deep right there. you can see the power of that water moving right there, that's the thing that can very quickly overtake a residence, any kind of property, even potential moving it off its foundation. >> yeah. this video is obviously from one of the people who stayed behind, christine, her name is in the

upper left corner. they're in elevated extrusion with pie loans deep into the earth. that's the lower level. that's expected to flood. that's usually where people park their cars. they don't put anything down there that they -- anything they move to safety if it's coming. so they are expected to get the storm surges like this. i can't imagine what it would be like waiting and seeing it as you're sitting in there, because you are surrounded -- your house is your own island as the water rises. yes, you have the forecast that says 12 to 16 feet. you know your house is at 18 feet, but it must be nerve-racking. this was right before landfall, i saw this first about three hours ago. we haven't heard reports of, you know, that the surge was any worse than expected, but this was before the power went out. obviously once the power goes

out and cell towers go out, we can't get that video. this was as the storm was arriving. >> when you look at this amount of water, bill, how long does it take for the water to recede? >> hours? days? minutes? >> it can be minutes. >> really? that quickly? >> i saw a gauge that dropped in 15 minutes, the water level dropped three feet, because the wind switched direction, all of a sudden the water was pushing the water out. it all depends on where you are in the storm. areas toward gulfport, bay st. louis, waveland, they'll have 24 hours or so, that water will be slower to go out, but near the center of the eye, the winds can completely switch direction. of course in you're on an island, it comes from the ocean,

but also can get to you from the bay, too. those people chose to stay in there. they probably spent a ton of money to have the pie loans driven, and for their sakes, i hope they were right. >> thank you, bill, for this little bit. governor john bel edwards will hold a briefing at the top of the hour. meanwhile, president biden is getting a briefing at fema head cars. heidi pretty heidi. >> reporter: at this point we would expect short remarks. the president is very aware of

the history of the natural disasters, 16 years to the date that hurricane katrina touch down. 1800 people were killed. it became a very indelible kind of memory for those of us who were around at the time that the president was confabbing with his fema director at the time, and he congratulated him on what a great job he was doing. i'm sure we all remember that as being a disastrous moment for that president, president george w. bush, so this president will want to show he is out ahead of this. he's doing everything he can to pour resources into that region. already we're getting the emergency declaration with details about supplies being sent down, personnel, 2,000 staff, an additional 500 staff today totalling about 2500 fema staff. look, he's got not just a hurricane, but also the covid calamity, which is really

complicating this effort. >> 100% it is. thank you, heidi. we know you'll stay on this. for all of you, that will do it for me on this edition. a lot of breaking news. i look forward to seize you all against next week. good afternoon, i'm lindsey reiser in for yasmin vossoughian. hurricane ida made landfall hours ago. we also got an union date on the storm, and it's currently packing winds near 150 miles an hour, and still stands as a category 4 storm. any moment now, governor john bel edwards is expected to hold a bg