the parish that baton rouge is partly in, east baton rouge parish, issued a curfew. that's the most populous parish in louisiana. orleans parish where ali is is the third most populous. what more can you tell us about how the city is preparing for the worst of the storm? >> yeah, joshua. curfew is under way for the general public. media is allowed to broadcast outside and keep people abreast of the situation here. i can tell you, the situation is deteriorating over the last couple hours. the winds here began to pick up as we started to hit the front bands of the hurricane. as bill karins alluded to earlier today, and as the mayor of the city told us just a couple hours ago, they expected baton rouge to be in the direct path of this hurricane. now, whether that materializes will still be yet to be seen over the next couple hours, we're expecting the situation here to continue to deteriorate. the city has about a quarter million people in it, nearly no one evacuated from the city. just about everyone, the mayor says, is hunkered down here, riding out the storm. a short

baton rouge up to 47. my rule of thumb is like 45 and above, 50 and above, that's when tree limbs start coming down and power outages start. that's going to begin shortly in baton rouge and for our folks in slidell. the extreme wind warning is issued when the center of the storm comes onshore. if you get winds above 115 miles per hour. they extended this and issued it closer to new orleans. it butts right up against the western portion of the city. and that extreme wind warning will go throughout the next couple hours as the eye heads northwards. we were thinking earlier today new orleans would be just outside of the eyewall. it wouldn't go through the heart of the storm, but because of this turn towards the north, it's going to bring this western eyewall very close to the city limits as we go throughout the next three hours. we easily could get the western portion of the city, 100-mile-per-hour gusts, 110-mile-per-hour gusts. you can see, this black line is the forecast path. it was going on a pretty much

nbc's miguel, in baton rouge. in st. timothy parish, which is about an hour north of new orleans, a parish ride curfew went into effect at noon on sunday. and is expected to say in place until the danger passes. joining us now is the president, michael cooper, thank you so much for being with us. what is the situation right now in your community? >> we are seeing rain bands, in our area that is dropping tens of inches of rain throughout our parish. our coastal force of water coming from lake pontchartrain, is causing flooding in low-lying areas, from madison ville to slide all. we have trees that are down, we have power outages. over 90,000 customers, are without service in thousands of people without power. we are suffering from power outages, trees down, heavy rains, rivers rising, and we are about halfway through the storm. >> with the number one priority always in a storm like, this preservation of life, what is your biggest concern, as you watch the next several hours? >> that of course is our major concern. the pre

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 updat

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 coa

it would encompass baton rouge.u talk about the wind speeds you're starting to look at potential infrastructure damage as well. it there is so much folks in louisiana have done to prepare for something like this in recent years. louisiana, the new orleans area, they invested billions of dollars in rebuilding the levee system. in baton rouge where i am 2 hours west of that, they spent $20 million improving their drainage system and culverts. they did that in 2016 when there was a 500 year flood event. after all that, they lowered things down, brought the water table down. the capital lake here in baton rouge has an extra 2 feet for flood water right now. will that be enough? i'm standing on the campus of lsu which is the largest university of louisiana. some 35,000 students. those students here have been told to shelter-in-place, everything has been canceled through at least monday, if not further. the football team moved out to go train in houston before their first game against ucla. they're going to fly straight t

nbc's reporter in baton rouge. in st.ammy parish about an hour north of new orleans, a paris right curfew went into effect at noon on sunday, and is expected to stay in place until the danger passes. joining us now, the president, michael cooper, thank you so much for being with us. why is the situation right now in your community? >> we're seeing rain bands, in our area, that's dropping tens of inches of rain, throughout our parish. our coastal force of water coming from lake pontchartrain, is causing flooding, in low-lying areas. from madison ville to slide all, we have trees that are down, we have power outages. over 90,000 customers, are without service, in over 3000 people with the washington state. without power. we are suffering from power outages, trees out, heavy rains, rivers rising, and we're about halfway through this storm. >> within the number one priority is always in a storm like, this is the preservation of, life what's your biggest concern as you watch the next several hours? >> then of course's are majo

that's nbc's miguel almaguer joining us from baton rouge.ontinue in baton rouge now with the mayor, joining us is mayor sharon weston-broom. >> good evening. >> madame mayor, how are you? how are things going where you are? >> we are persevepersevering, w have picked up in our area. we do not have the rainfall yet, but our citizens are taking and adheing to our advice to stay at home and be safe. >> talk about some of the preparations that you have made. i saw that on twitter you noted there were some closures being made to underpasses near the mall of louisiana, which is kind of southeast baton rouge. what kind of work has gone on to get your city ready for ida? >> well, of course, a lot of our work dealt with drainage preparation, and now we have moved to opening up shelters to prepare. we've had our collaboration with our energy officials, we do have almost 15,000 outages in the city and parish. and so we are asking our citizens to stay at home as a result. of course, now, we have a curfew in effect. and that way, tomorrow morning, we can

miguel almaguer there in baton rouge. finishing out our nbc news coverage down in the area of ida, and many, boy, you see all the different phases of what ida can do to each and every location as it makes its way inland. >> it is truly scary, and props to our reporters on the ground there standing in the middle of some of that stuff. we'll be returning to you and then as the hour progresses. thank you, richard. >> earlier this month, president biden held a meeting with fema to discuss how the current spike in covid-19 infections would complicate preparing for the next hurricane. >> let me be clear. if you're in a state where a hurricane often strikes, like florida or the gulf coast or into texas, a vital part of preparing for hurricane season is to get vaccinated now. everything is more complicated if you're not vaccinated in a hurricane or a natural disaster hits. >> yet as louisiana and parts of the gulf coast are right now being inundated with the winds, rain, and storm surge of a now category 3 storm, many of those st

you are in baton rouge now. where is your focus in the state right now as the storm slowly moves across it? >> obviously as the stronger part of the storm approaches baton rouge this area of the state has never seen a category 2. usually they die out before they get this far north. and a lot of the homes and structures and mobile homes in this area have never been tested. and so there may be some major failures in these homes in this area that have not been tested by a hurricane before. you know, hearing that transmission problem in new orleans is just another punch in the gut for new orleans at a time when businesses were struggling with covid and shut down. to see that delayed maybe weeks of getting back open, the french quarter and people back in town is just another blow. so this thing is going to be measured for years. we always talked about before and after katrina. this will be a new set in history that we will gauge further storms on. >> are you getting a sense of the scope of damage across the state fro

bit on the high end, i would say, for a hurricane for baton rouge. seems to be the biggest thing so far, and as a hurricane, that's everywhere, it's all over the place. as far as flooding, the amy river basin which is to the east -- >> mr. mitchell, i'm sorry to have to interrupt you. i apologize for interrupting you, and we are having a problem with our connection with alley velshi all night long, and we're getting to him now. can you hear us, ali velshi? >> we have all a lot of experience doing this, and we are constantly evaluating the safety. when i was talking to you earlier suddenly things got very windy around where we were to the point where we wanted to reposition, and we are still on canal street just to give you perspective. the harrah's casino is over there and was behind me, so i just moved about a block over, so this is downtown louisiana, the french quarter is behind me, and i heard you talking about the power company, and for the purpose of high voltage when there's a load imbalance it's the equivalent of a fuse or breaker going on, a

ed lavandera, cnn, baton rouge, louisiana. >> and just southeast of baton rouge, the situation in jeffersonapidly deteriorating. the parish president spoke to cnn's pamela brown earlier, and gave a disturbing update about the rising water there. >> right now, my concern is, we've lost contact with grand isle, so that is the island right on the gulf of mexico that i've been very, very concerned about. we lost contact with them. we have not been able to reach them, so i don't know what they're going through. closer up here, outside the hurricane protection system, an area called lafite, crown point, the water is rising. h people are in their homes with water up to their chest asking to be rescued. we just can't get out yet. is that is is dire. what else are you hearing from people calling in? that is horrific. >> it is horrific. we're almost -- the electrical dwrid i grid is almost out. a lar vrery large transmission power came down. so trees are down, tree roots pulling up, damaging water mains. so now our water pressure is going down. so we're also responding to a condominium where there's

let's cross live to heidi ger castro who is in the regional capital baton rouge. hello there, heidi you've been speaking to local say, and why do you think people are so resistant to getting vaccinated? right, emily, it is a number of factors here. as much of the u. s. south would be where you're seeing the vaccination numbers lagging across the country. there are still more than a quarter of american adults who have not even received one dose of the vaccine. that even as a white house is expected to announce this week, that american should get a booster dove. but here in louisiana, the hospitals are filling and this state governor has warned that the state health care system may be approaching a major failure. political 62 year old bobby burdette has just emerged from the covey intensive care unit at our lady of the lake hospital in baton rouge,

right over baton rouge, just west of new orleans. the closer we get to the dirty side, the eye wall the worst it's going to be in new orleans. i think homa, anybody south of there, a couple little towns that don't have levee protection or water able to pump out, that's where you'll see live-threatening storm surge. the damaging winds from new orleans even up to mississippi. jackson, you're included in that range. guys, this is something don't want to mess with. unfortunately the window to leave has closed. guys? >> we'll keep track of that, ginger. now to the evacuations and other preparations going on right now in new orleans. abc's victor oquendo is there. good morning to you, victor. >> reporter: good morning, eva. the national guard has been activated ahead of the storm. er ground and here are some of the 164 high water vehicles already in place and they also have helicopters ready to assist in search and rescue. at this point, there is no time left to evacuate, and there was a lot of concern for anyone who's going to be riding o

baton rouge is at 23 miles an hour. the wind damage portion of the storm is starting to come to an end. that's good. as far as the strongest winds, down along the coast. 150-mile-per-hour wind gusts. there was a boat that was docked in the area. the boat was a higher elevation than the ground surface. they had a wind gust of 172 miles per hour. that's where the extreme wind damage is going to be. that's also where the highest storm surge was. new orleans had a gust at 87 miles per hour. that was enough to peel a roof off. we still have our tornado watch that goegs from new orleans to biloxi and covers pensacola. pretty far over to the florida panhandle and hattie'sburg and biloxi included. by 7:00 p.m. thisevening the storm is down by jackson, mississippi. then the storm system, it's going to be bringing heavy rain all the way through the mid-atlantic and even into areas of the northeast by the time we get through wednesday night and thursday morning. all this means is a chance of significant flash flooding as we go thr

i am baton rouge the wins are picking up. to see the strong of a hurricane this far north is something they have never dealt with. some are predicting category two in baton rouge there is a lot of homes that have never been to that kind of wind. they will be tested as well. we are definitely not out of the woods and how it leaves the wheezing and i. jon: what are your biggest needs going to be tomorrow morning when you wake up? what will you need? >> probably deactivate all rescue crews the cajun navy, wildlife, national guard, first responders, their equipment and the firefighters to get in there to those areas that people may have stayed and need help. getting out and hopefully they can get to high enough ground to survive the storm surge. jon: have you heard any reports since the storm came ashore of any particular problems or rescues that have you concerned? >> there is a dock in grand isle one has said his whole business is gone and he had people staying at his house and part of the house has been torn away. he was conce

you're right up the road from baton rouge. are you seeing this mask mandate or is anything punching through or making a difference in new orleans? >> it's beginning to. the mayor today and i don't know if the governor is going to follow, basically is requiring people to have proof of vaccination before they go into public spaces. the jazz fest folded the other day, as other major events. when people start hearing that, they start waking up a little bit more, albeit a little bit too late. >> thank you, mitch. thank you, dr. reiner. >>> the u.s. is getting more diverse and the white population is shrinking for the first time. the census is out and it tells us a lot about why racist voices in this country have gotten louder. that's next. ♪ [band plays] ♪ a place where everyone lives life well-protected. ♪ and even when things go a bit wrong, we've got your back. here, things work the way you wish they would. and better protection costs a whole lot less. you're in good hands with allstate. click or call for a lower auto rate today

you are right at the road from baton rouge.k ma mandate, is anything punching through and making a difference of new orleans. >> it is beginning to. as you know the jazz fest fall and major ervents, when people start to hear that, they start to hear a little bit more and it will be a little too late. >> thank you, mitch and dr. riner. >> the u.s. is getting more diverse and the white population is shrinking for the tirshe fir time. it tells us why racist voice in this country gotten louder. that's next. it's time for the biggest sale of the year, on the new sleep number 360 smart bed. it helps keep you effortlessly comfortable by sensing your movements and automatically responding to both of you. and, it's temperature balancing to help you stay comfortable all night. it even tracks your circadian rhythm, so you know when you're at your best. in other words, it's the most energy building, wellness boosting, parent-powering, proven quality night's sleep we've ever made. and now, all smart beds are on sale. save 50% on the new sle

ed lavandera in baton rouge for us. let's go across to our meteorologist joining us with the latest. give us a sense of how this unfolded as it barreled in, where it is heading. it was smaller than katrina but strong and crucially slow moving wasn't it? >> very concerning. the progression, the forward speed, the lack of movement after landfall, all of those going to play a significant role in how this particular storm plays out. the damage that is going to be left behind. if it made landfall right now at 100 miles per hour it would be six miles shy of a major hurricane. it has been on land for upwards of ten hours. that is remarkable. you don't see that often. this landscape very conducive to allowing systems to maintain intensity because of the southern tier. just essentially a continuation of the gulf of mexico. very warm waters that are going to energize and continue fueling the storm system. it left some of the warmest water on our planet. water temperatures along the gulf coast the northern tier closing in on 90 de

reporter: we're in baton rouge. orleans is on the dirty side of the storm. as it is called. that is northeast quadrant. that is often the strongest where the most storm surge is. yesterday whether we did live shots talk -- when we did live shots talking about sandbagging and preparation its look like baton rouge would be on dirty side of the storm but it did shift to the east, we're getting outer bands of rain here in baton rouge. it is nothing like we have been seeing all day long. afternoon long from our colleagues in new orleans area. but what is really remarkable about this, baton rouge is under a hurricane warning right now. it goes through the morning. and that is pretty rare to be 70 miles inland. i heard your interview with lieutenant governor of the state billy nungesser, he said he too was here in baton rouge, right now wind gusts of 40 miles per hour, the bulk is still coming our way. as this monstrous system continues jogging to the north, really making a crawl as we have been saying, but it is going to

arthel: we're showing live pictures of baton rouge right now.that's just -- there's a lot to follow with that as you well know, mayor broom. covid hospitalizations in baton rouge are at record levels, nearly all of the icu patients there are unvaccinated. how is hurricane ida impacting or challenging the plans at area hospitals? >> yeah, our hospitals are filled. they're full to capacity almost and so we are putting a strain on our healthcare workers, our hospitals. we're dealing with dual emergencies. we're dealing with covid-19 and now a hurricane. and so we are establishing a pre-storm shelter right now as i speak in collaboration with the red cross and what we're having to do is isolate those individuals who have been tested covid positive. so we're in the middle of a pandemic and we're in the middle of a major weather event. but this is what preparation is all about and managing emergencies. arthel: indeed. i know you said you're red stick ready. how prepared is the city to help residents after ida passes when power will be out possibly for

ed lavandera, cnn, baton rouge, louisiana. >> thanks to ed for that. now i want to bring in a louisiana state official who lives in new orleans, democratic state representative mandy landry joins me now. she's riding out the storm from her home. she joins us by phone. you heard ed lavandera there in baton rouge. what's the situation like where you are right now? he said it's terrifying. it's dark. there's no power. what are you feeling? >> it's all of the above. so the worst of the wind has passed new orleans thankfully. we had several hours of intense, terrifying wind today, branches flying around, outdoor furniture flying around that people didn't tie down. but that is over for now. but what's also scary is that we can't quite see all the damage because it's so dark. i wish i could join you by video but as you said, there's literally no electricity in the entire city. we're all sitting here in the dark just hoping for the best tomorrow. >> are you able to talk to anyone? we know in some areas there are rising waters, worrying about flash flooding. we

put that in perspective and the greatest concerns for baton rouge. >> baton rouge has been through a number of storms, flooding experiences, even recently this year and great flood of 2016. and so we have become more resilient. my greatest concern is making sure that people are safe and sound and listening to the messages that we have been communicating with them. that is my greatest concern with people adhering to that. as we say here in baton rouge, that they are prepared and ready to deal with this tropical storm ida or hurricane ida. >> you know, madam mayor, it's not as if it's the only thing of to you right now. let me show viewers something that you tweeted yesterday. you're dealing with two asults really when you think about it. you wrote that baton rouge is facing two emergencies and major hurricanes and a pandemic. please prepare for both. we don't want to lose any of you to either threat and we need to work together to stay safe. when you think about potential injury from a storm like this, add that to the hospital loads already filling up with covid-19. how concerned are

the storm moved east and kind of saved a lot of baton rouge, i think.is much better than i anticipated. still pretty strong. but that is going to probably be the big thing i want to get out of here and start to help others that were more affected than we have been. trying to get around the trees and the power lines and things like that. >> you are very lucky to be sitting there with your power. of course the residents were told to evacuate the area but some did not. they will need to be rescued in the morning. that is part of your task ahead. how do you decide who to go to first and what is the whole process involved with rescue operations and how you work in with other groups that are doing the same? >> i have my teams ready and on stand by and i just monitor or we monitor where the storm is coming and what is being affected. we figured out quickly on where we will be needed most just by people reaching out there and asking for our help. from there we see what areas we might be able to get to and where others are helping as well so that we can best con

it is a wind event for baton rouge.t heavy rain, and the worst time for our community is expected from now until about 3:00 a.m. early tomorrow morning. so we just want everyone to hunker down, stay in place, and i believe that our citizens, as we often say, are red stick ready. >> they've been through hurricanes before, but this is especially powerful and packing a very powerful punch. as you noted, 13,000 residents in your city are without power. keep us posted, mayor sharon weston broome. best of luck with everything. thanks for joining us. >> thank you so much. >>> up next, we're going to check in on a community just south of new orleans to see how they're coping with ida right now. >>> plus more retaliatory strikes at afghanistan as president biden honors fallen american heroes. you're looking. (announcer) visible is wireless that gets better with friends. pay as low as $25 a month. or bring a friend and you both get a month for $5. so the more people you roll with, the more you save. visible. unlimited data as low

we're going to see it cross over houma and baton rouge and become this huge rainmaker. we're going to be talking about this today and also for days to come as we're looking at torrential downpours, the threat of tornados, thunderstorms all the way up into the mid-atlantic until wednesday. overnight tonight and, of course, for the rest of the week. 150-mile-an-hour winds, search miles away from a category 5. michelle grossman and sam brock, stay safe, thank you so much. >>> joining us is congressman troy carter representing louisiana's second congressional district which includes new orleans. congressman, good morning. obviously the start of a busy day for you, possibly a sleepless night tonight as well. we're talking about these mind-boggling numbers, 150-mile-an-hour winds, surge flooding up to 16 feet in some areas. what's being done now in the hours before ida hits and can people still get out? >> yeah, it's probably not a good idea to try to get out at this point. we know that the traffic is horrendous and that gasoline is at -- has a shortage. the time to get out h

i'm two hours west in baton rouge. if it were to wobble any closer at that wind punch catastrophic in the city center not just in the rural areas and swampy areas of louisiana. we're all watching that track so closely. the students on campus right now are being told by the administration to shelter in place. everything at lsu canceled through at least monday. that could change. the football team has already moved to houston. they have their first game of the season coming up next weekend. they're going to be flying out directly from houston to los angeles for that game. no one is coming back here. we're hearing pa announcements all of this playing into effect as we're waiting a serious situation in baton rouge and certainly into texas or i should say the other direction to mississippi and alabama. the last thing i would leave you with, alex. if you want to get out of town, i was lucky enough to find a gas station that i could find gas to fill up and top off. gas stations are all out of fuel. you can't fly out of here.

baton rouge general says it's not quite ready for that step. dr.celle: i do think that mandating vaccines would be helpful when it comes to increasing the vaccination rate. william: pediatrician dr. dawn marcelle is the public heah director for the region that includes baton rouge. she works with hospitals, clinics, the national guard, and many others to increase covid testing and vaccination. she says, in addition to more mandates, this surge in cases and deaths is already motivating some to change their minds about getting the shooting. -- the shot. the state saw a fourfold increase in first doses received in the six weeks from mid-june to late july. dr. marcelle: we have seen increased traffic at our parish health units across the state. people are calling n like they were at the very beginning of vaccine availability. so, we are seeing a definite uptick in interest in vaccines and people getting vaccinated. william: back on the icu floor, staff have already built two additional units and are planning on a third. dr. brierre: you're already down

casey siegel is live from baton rouge, with how they're making preparations.i, casey. >> reporter: hey, eric. you can see what a stark contrast to my background versus my colleagues down there in new orleans. we are 81 miles to the northwest of new orleans where the storm is clearly making its landfall and moving inland. but it's on the way, you can see not even raining here at the moment in baton rouge. look at that live shot now you of the mighty mississippi. you see a little bit of white caps out there but nothing considerable yet. as i said, it is on the way. this will not last long, the bulk of this storm will pass right over us tonight and in the overnight hours as either a category 2 or a category 1 storm and that is after being on land for some 70 miles. usually safe from the real brunt of hurricanes, thousands evacuated baton rouge, fearing what hurricane ida will bring. thousands of others decided to stay and hunker down. then there are those who have to stay because they have a job to do. we met these guys, railroad workers who say they will ride ou

dawn marcelle is the public health director for the region that includes baton rouge.she works with hospitals, clinics, the national guard and many others to increase covid testing and vaccination. she says in addition to more mandates, this surge in cases and deaths is already motivating some to change their minds about getting the shot: the state saw a four-fold increase in first doses received in the six weeks from mid-june to late july. >> people are calling now like they were at the very beginning of vaccine availability. so we are seeing a definite uptick in interest in vaccines and people getting vaccinated. >> brangham: back on the i.c.u. floor, staff have already built two additional units and are planning on a third. >> you're already down to 80% oxygen, and i'm going to decrse it some more. >> reporter: >> brangham: dr. brierre, nurse miller and the other staff are stressed out and stretched thin, just hoping more people will hear their pleas to get vaccinated. do you think if i come back here six months from now, we're going to still be having this debate?

joining me now is the mayor of baton rouge, sharon weston broom.w you have a lot on your plate this morning. i wonder if you and the search and rescue teams have a handle now on how many residents are in need of help. >> actually, we believe baton rouge was largely spared and we don't see a large number of folks involved in search and rescue, but we are assessing the situation this morning search and rescue teams are out as well as our other departments that are assessing all the damage. the truth is that we are really sending a lot of our resources, including our search and rescue teams out to our neighbors in the surrounding parishes, recognizing that they received more devastation than our parish did. >> good for you, for sharing those resources. they're precious in times like this. where are you hearing what was hardest hit? >> we're hearing places between new orleans and la place specifically, st. john parish, st. james parish. we're sending our members out there. and we want to be help ful to or neighbors, who really received horrific devasta

mike tobin is in new orleans, and casey stegall is in baton rouge. we begin with adam klotz who's tracking the storm from the fox weather center. adam: hey there, yeah. tracking a storm that continues to at this point slowly weaken but not weak by any stretch of the imagination if, hanging on to a category 4 storm, winds at 130 miles an hour. when this initially made landfall, it was moving at 16 miles an hour, it's now slowed down to 10. it means if you're in the path of this, you're dealing with the winds and heavy rain, you're going to stick with it a little bit longer, it's going to move out of your area just a little slower than hours ago. the center is moving up to the north and west, new orleans off to the eastern side of this storm. it's east side, the right quadrant, is where you see typically the worst conditions, and that has been what we're seeing with where all the action has been. very heavy rain, everything here in this red polygon, that is a tornado warning, it means the ingredients are there for tornadoes to spin up. i think that'll

u beds occupied heidi joe castro reports from baton rouge, louisiana, one of the worst effect and staying up a little bit 62 year old bobby burdette has just emerged from the coven intensive care unit at our lady of the lake hospital in baton rouge, louisiana staff have nicknamed him there miracle patient. most havent been leaving the i see you alive. i feel really well my breathing has really gotten under control. burdette was never vaccinated and says he still has no regrets. his wife also tested positive. they're part of the dramatic surgeon co good cases in louisiana. only 39 percent of the state is fully vaccinated. strictly individual decision, the governments and anybody else. but there's, according to the louisiana health department, the unvaccinated make up more than 90 percent of hospitalized cove at patients. on 3 nurse, laurie douglas has been carrying for them, many of whom are young and otherwise healthy. she says most do tell her they wish they'd gotten, the vaccine is to know that this was preventable and that this didn't need to happen. and that, you know, there's a girl

yes, some live there, but i know the as bad as the west or toward baton rouge. this track could shift just a little bit eastward. that would put the strongest eye wall winds into metro new orleans. remember when harvey made landfall -- >> tom, we're going to go to the governor of louisiana right now. here's the governor of louisiana. >> so we're still looking at a very strong category 4 hurricane making landfall likely in tear bone parish, tomorrow, afternoon, or evening. now the forecasted landfall is for 7:00 p.m. what i want to make sure people understand is that's the point at which the leading edge of the eye wall will cross from the gulf onto land. at that point in time, about half of the storm is already over land. so don't listen to that and think you have until 7:00 tomorrow evening, but before the storm itself is going to be over land, that is not so. the wind speed at landfall is projected to be sustained in the neighborhood of 140 miles per hour. this is a very strong storm. ben shot of the national weather service is not here today. he's in new orle

i'm thinking of tonight about a man i met in must hometown of baton rouge last week. his name is jim. he was in the hospital where i was born. he and his brother both got covid-19. both were unvaccinated. the brother went home last week. jim passed away on sunday. and our deepest sympathies go out to his family. jim shared a message with days before he passed telling everyone to get vaccinated. and i want you to hear that. >> how you doing? >> doing good. >> yeah. >> doing a lot better. you and your brother were here? >> yes, sir. >> we got sick and went to the hospital. and they didn't have no place for us. he came down two days before me. he left yesterday. i've been here for three days. >> how is your brother? >> he's doing good. he actually got out this morning. he was at home. first night at home last night. >> what does it feel like? >> feels like you got your lunged clamped down. you can't get the air. >> why didn't you get vaccinated? >> just -- didn't have time. you know? i guess just didn't do it. >> so you're not anti-vaccine? >> no, sir. no, sir. >> just k

it in the us hydrogen castro al jazeera, baton rouge, louisiana. you zealand has gone back into lockdown after detecting its 1st curve at 19 infection in 6 months. while astronomy has put more police on the straits to enforce its wakes, long locked down elsewhere in the region, thailand continues to battle, increasing numbers of new cases and deaths. while japan is extending in state of emergency. scott handler reports from bangkok, additional security forces are deployed across the street is biggest city, sidney, to enforce a covered 1900 lockdown in its 8th week. the city registered its largest one day increases infections on monday. officials are telling people to prepare for the search to continue and in new zealand. the announcement that an area where the country's 1st cove at 1900 case in 6 months with sound faces a snap locked down for a week. we have made decisions on the basis that it is, be sure to start high and go down levels rather than start to load not contain the virus and see it move quickly. we've seen the die consequences of taki

even as far as baton rouge.which if anyone remembers, gustav brought mostly wind damage. right now what's going on is 140-mile-an-hour winds well inland. that's pretty strong. and, you know, roofs are coming off of these buildings and houses well inland. still with 140-mile-an-hour winds, there's a lot of damage left to be seen. >> and todd, give us a sense of the status of your operations right now. what will your team do? what will your teams do when they fan out across this area as soon as it's safe to do so? >> you know in louisiana, we have a lot of guys that are commercial fishermen in these areas. some of them stayed down there to be with their boats. they figured if the boat goes down, then they just don't want to be around anymore. right now we're getting word from them what's going on. the winds are still too high to do any kind of serious rescue operations. right now we're just kind of gathering facts. we have a few people that are hunkering down because the weather is really, really bad there. we're

>> i'm in baton rouge. we survived in pretty good shape. little east of baton rouge.to the east. a lot of our citizens as you saw, million people without power. i have seen this before, stephanie during katrina, there was no lights on at night from just outside baton rouge through new orleans up to hattiesburg. the area was dark at night. we're back playing the same song. loss of power, right now, number one job is search and rescue to try to continue to save lives. last time i saw this place without electricity there were very few people in this region because we had a successful evacuation for katrina, with about 80% of the population that's without power are gone. now a reverse situation. city didn't flood but most of the population is still in place, dealing with search and rescue today without electricity. i'd like to go through a quicky. search and rescue, water and sewer, maintaining the hospital, transportation, communications is going to get bad. transportation, imagine a city of this size and community nearly over a half million people without lights working

in baton rouge there's 220,000 pop in this parish. that storm is coming this way. you look over my shoulder, you see some dangling of the street lights here. the wind is picking up periodically. we have not seen that hammer fall down, which we know is coming. it's about 400,000 customers in the state of louisiana with no power. over my how would, if you look carefully, you can see dozens and dozens of utility trucks back there that will be deployed. the bucket trucks, as soon as it's safe to get out, will start restoring power. they have the meals ready, as well as 2.5 million liters of water, 139,000 tarps. that's just fema right now. the concern at this point certainly will be not just electricity and not just the wind damage, but possible loss of life. therefore teams ready to jump into action when it's safe. gas is another potential issue. you asked about preparations, people were trying to get out of the town yesterday. all of the gas stations were empty. i luckily found one place this morning where i could pop off. colonian pipe

stretching over close to baton rouge and then a whole lot of moisture is going to run with this, running up the mississippi river, eventually getting into the ohio river valley and then up into new england, that's still a couple days away but flooding is going to be one of the major concerns from the mississippi delta and getting up into mississippi, even over portions of alabama, flooding a big concern, it's going to be a busy next 24 hours and of course we will be watching it. mike and jackie, back to you. mike: 20 inches of rain in new orleans, sounds like the biggest test of the levee system since katrina 16 years ago. >> reporter: it will be. mike: adam, thanks very much. heavy rain could make for major flooding in the big easy as hurricane ida comes ashore there. this is one of the biggest hurricanes in recent years. jeff paul is on the ground in new orleans. jeff, what's the latest on the ground this hour? >> yeah, mike, hurricane ida made landfall not too long ago but pretty significantly far away from new orleans, but things here are already starting to get really bad. you can h

here in baton rouge, half of the city is without power. and crews are just getting out into some of these hard-hit neighborhoods, because unlike new orleans, the storm came in here last night under the cover of darknple aft new s. hearing anecdotally this morning that the hardest-hit areas are in east baton rouge, where trees are down, and authorities are trying to get into some of those neighborhoods. to make sure right now there is no loss of life. this storm has been compared to hurricane katrina, 16 years ago. that came in as a strong category three. this was a cat four yesterday. but the difference was the levee system. they completely failed. and as we know, 1800 deaths during hurricane katrina, tens of millions left the city and never returned. in the aftermath, there was a complete re-do of the levee system. it took years from the army corps of engineers, they did the levees, the flood gates, the pipes, all to withstand a flood water rise of up to 30 feet. and as omar mentioned, we are .back here in baton rouge, half the city witho

i am in baton rouge right now. and what we've been doing, we've seen the community coming together to really get people prepared to help keep them safe. however, we're hearing folks are going to stay behind. that means preparedness is more important, really, than ever. >> are you expecting casualties? and with that in mind, how concerned are you then about hospital emergency capabilities? particularly, because louisiana is already -- is already struggling with -- with -- with covid. >> when we think about safety, it's safety for -- for people who are going to be affected by the storm. it's safety in the world that we live in with covid, right? and it's gonna be something we're focusing on and we're prioritizing. now, to speak to the other stuff that's really hard to say. what we are doing right now, taking care of people. enhanced safety measures, right? how can we work with our local community partners whether that's -- um -- government agencies, the hospital systems, and really be a partner in this response for w

that storm will be near baton rouge around midnight, and as we mentioned, we have to deal with this thing all the way through wednesday, maybe even into thursday. thursday over connecticut. >> incredibly long tail on that storm. >> yes. taking a week off after this one. >> we'll keep watching. i'll keep you with me, bill karins. thank you. >>> today, louisiana's governor urging those at home to stay in place long after the storm passes through. >> once the storm has passed, you need to be prepared to shelter in place for the first 72 hours. we have every possible resource ready to go to help you. we'll get there sooner than 72 hours if at all possible in order to rescue people across the state of louisiana. but this is the window of time that it may take in order to get first responders to you

we go now to the mayor of baton rouge. sharon, thank you for joining us. how your city is prepared, or is preparing for this, and what concerns you have as the storm nears? >> mayor: thank you. we have prepared on ever level from a city preparedness point of view, and our city partners and residents have received the word for days now, and have started to make preparation in terms of supplies for their families and food, medicine, and fuel. we are asking people right now to take shelter. it is not the time to try to evacuate. we're anticipating the storm will be in our area around 3:00 p.m. today. >> o'keefe: and you have a -- you've got a lot of things going on in baton rouge. among other things, you have a lot of universities there. are you concerned at all about the student population that may be from out of state and doesn't appreciate the power and importance of getting out of the way of these storms. >> mayor: well, i think our student population has been schooled, if you will, in terms of taking this very seriously, hurricanes. so i'm confident they

peter, you're in baton rouge.eporters out -- we have reporters in their homes right now. we have reporters at the emergency operation center. we do not have someone in grand isle right now. >> good. >> which i think makes sense. but we've had reporters out in boats in hurricanes in the past. >> peter, thank you very much for being here. dave, thank you as well. cnn's coverage is going to keep going all day and all night. we're live for the foreseeable future n. a few minutes wolf blitzer will take over for a special edition of "the situation room." where exactly hurricane ida will make landfall is unclear. you can see where it's coming ashore. one of the strongest hurricanes in louisiana history, one of the strongest anywhere in the united states coming ashore between grand isle and coke degree. mostly marshland. as you get inland, there will be residents experiencing 100-plus-mile-per-hour winds. another advisory coming in from the national advisory center. wolf blitzer takes over our coverage now. >> announcer:

donaldsonville, baton rouge. overnight -- dangerous overnight when you have hurricane force winds. they are going the see those even in baton rouge. that's going to cause significant power out ans. the rain is adding up, too. as this storm slowly moves to the north, these rain bands haven't moved much. the rain totals are going the add up quick. >> katrina had storm surges like a cat 5. every storm has its own personal. what is the personal of ida? how might this hurricane surprise you? >> i think the continuation of these winds. it's just -- you have had hazards associated with the wane. you about the winds continuing, i mean to have -- still have well after londsfall 130-mile-an-hour winds is significant. it's damaging. that points to this as well. you think about our storm surge. we are not done with that yet. you have some of the storm surge ahead of the storm. but with that flow out of the south -- review the landfall point here and the location of the storm here. you still have that on-shore flow. you still have those hurricane-force winds. as longz as that stays strong you a

we haven't seen incredible winds in baton rouge. we're at 44.ast, i think hammond will have more winds. the winds with more potential will in the hammond area. the levees have protected the new orleans area. we're getting the heavy rain tonight. match winds 80 to 100 miles an hour, that should be just about over with. most of the damage has already occurred and there's the category 3, 120 miles an hour. once the winds begin to knocking down, we'll start to switch over to tracking all the flooding problem. >> all right. you're staying with me. thank you. >>> communities across louisiana are hunkering down as hurricane ida brings rain and heavy winds to the area. this morning crews in one parish closed flood gates to frequent area south of new orleans. joining us now, kirk, thank you so much for being with us. governor john bell edwards warned of significant storm surge in your area. what is it like the there? >> reporter: you see the parish is 65 miles long from the top of the bottom. and our lowest part which goes out toward the gulf. that's it.

the storm is already over the top and almost heading to baton rouge. baton rouge, 10:00 p.m. this evening, you could have hurricane gusts even in baton rouge. extreme power outages. new orleans, your peak winds are expected 80 to 90, right around 6:00 p.m. this evening and then the storm heads north wards and a huge rain threat. covering flooding the next three to four days because of the storm through mississippi and eventually some of the mess into areas of the tennessee valley and the mid-atlantic. right now the life threatening weather is the storm surge. that is coming in. we're still expecting the 12 to 16 feet which is incredible right to the east of where it makes landfall. we think the levees were built. we spent $15 billion after katrina for storms just like this in new orleans. so that's the test that we're going to go through over the next couple of hours and through this evening. and there's also levees that protect morgan city, that protects houma, louisiana. we'll see if those levees hold up over the next 12 hours because that's the test for anyone that stayed

. >> en la capital del estado, la ciudad de baton rouge tambiÉn se siente con toda su fuerza el pasono evacuar, donde estÁ francisco cuevas con lo Último, cuÉntanos, adelante. >> quÉ tal, muy buenas tardes, nicole, en efecto, ida se comienza a sentir ya en baton rouge, todas las emergencias estÁn ya en puestos estratÉgicos para cualquier tipo de rescate que se pueda necesitar, la alcaldesa ha dicho ya que hay un toque de queda hasta el dÍa de maÑana, todos los vuelos han sido suspendidos, desafortunadamente muchas personas han quedado en vecindarios como este, en su mayorÍa son hispanos, el dÍa de hoy visitamos este lugar de casas mÓviles, y muchos verdaderamente estÁn corriendo un gran peligro. en la comunidad se preparan para lo peor, cortando ramas que ponen en peligro sus viviendas y limpiando escombros que cubren los drenajes, todos trabajan hombro con hombro con una tormenta encima de ellos. >> mucha gente tiene temor porque las noticias dicen que va a ser mÁs fuerte que katrina ¿verdad? pero como les sigo diciendo, confiamos en dios de que esto suavice. >> un gran nÚmero de la

we spoke to a meteorologist in baton rouge, about an hour north of new orleans. us an date from there. all along we were kind of concerned that a lot of what's hit new orleans would head up our way, in baton rouge. and really, it has gotten worse at new orleans and benefited us. and it was expected sort of the core of the storm, after making landfall, would really track right, over baton rouge. instead, after it made landfall, it took a bit of a jog to the right and what that has done is bring more of the core into new orleans, and it has been hours on end of hurricane force winds and the heavy rain and all the impacts that come along with it. new orleans is largely below sea level and the water has to be pumped out. rainwater on a normal summer day — any rain that comes down has to be pumped out. those pumps are dependent on power. they had backup power systems. the main power grid, as you mentioned, is down. they are having catastrophic failures, as you talked about. the sewage and water board that's in charge of that pumping system has been providing some upda