i want to bring in ellison barber who is there. son, before we went to the president, he was asked can you believe what you are seeing? he said i cannot believe the power of the storm. i have never seen water levels this high. i have seen it we levees break, but never anything like this here. that is the story of manville, new jersey, is it not? >> reporter: this is an area that has experienced flooding before. when you talk to people here, they talk about how the flood line and flood area kept growing over the years. while many have been through storms in the past, they have been through nothing like this. these houses, which i was showing you earlier, the second one that caught fire after the neighbor exploded. if you see it down in the basement. you see a little bit of the magnitude of the water down there. you see the smoke here. it has been burning for days. the destruction here reminds me of what i saw during hurricane dorian in the bahamas. this reminds you of being in the wildfire or a zone where some places seem fine and ot

ellison barber is in manville, new jersey. ellison, good morning. >> reporter: hey, hallie.ents here they need help not just promises. this is one of the places that president biden visited yesterday, one of the homes that exploded, presumably after a gas leak, once hurricane ida rolled through here. just across the street you can see part of their roof, the house that is next to it, that family a mother, her three children. they had to be rescued from the floodwaters out of a top window. they shared video with us of that night. you can see what they were dealing with here. speaking with that family, they said that they appreciate people coming to visit, people asking what they need, but they also say just look around and you'll see exactly what they need. they need everything. listen to what the father of that family, louis, told us. >> everybody comes by and says oh, we feel bad for you. i'm sorry. all good and well. talk is cheap. where i come from, don't talk about it. be about it. don't tell me you know anything you need. don't tell me that, because that's kind of insul

ellison barber with that great on the ground reporting. thanks for that. >> and now, one of the largest confederate monuments is gone. we go live to richmond, virginia, where robert e. lee was taken off of the pedestal. >>> and now, where the strict est abortion law is going to go into effect, there are many protests. >>> and kamala harris goes to support governor newsome in california. governor newsome in california. medicine. i suffered with psoriasis for so long. it was kind of a shock after i started cosentyx. i'm still clear, five years now. cosentyx works fast to give you clear skin that can last. real people with psoriasis look and feel better with cosentyx. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections --some serious-- and the lowered ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor about an infection or symptoms, or if you've had a vaccine or plan to. tell your doctor if your crohn's disease symptoms develop or worsen. serious allergic reactions may occur.

. >> and joining us now from ocean springs, mississippi, nbc news correspondent ellison barber, ellisonto have you with us. what do staffers believe is driving this plateau of cases right now? >> reporter: one of the doctors we spoke to thinks it's probably a combination of rising vaccination rates as well as more people having natural immunity. unfortunately one of the things that happened here that we saw take place in the last couple of months, as the delta variant spread across the state you had a lot of people infected with covid-19. hospital staff had trouble keeping up. this hospital one month ago had ambulances waiting in the bay that's just over my shoulder, sometimes over 45 minutes because there weren't any available beds inside. today they had one empty room in their icu. one of the issues of course of there being more people getting covid-19 is the burden it put on the hospitals. it also led to the state having one of the highest covid death rates per capita in the country. now, though, you look at all of the numbers, and there are positive signs here. there are a lot less,

on in eastern new orleans, but it is a long way from normal or comfortable for most people. >> ellison barber the ground for u and ellison, thank you, and this is going to do it for us this hour, and we will back tomorrow with more "meet the press daily" and our coverage on msnbc will continue with geoff bennett after this break. safe drivers can save using snapshot? -what's snapshot? -what the commercial was about. -i tune commercials out. -me too. they're always like blah, blah blah. tell me about it. i'm going to a silent retreat next weekend. my niece got kicked out of one of those. -for talking? -grand larceny. how about we get back to the savings? [ everyone agreeing ] [♪♪] how about we get back to the savings? if you have diabetes, it's important to have confidence in the nutritional drink you choose. try boost glucose control. it's clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels and contains high quality protein to help manage hunger and support muscle health. try boost today. instantly clear everyday congestion with vicks sinex saline. for fast drug free relief vicks sinex. instan

ellison barber is in new orleans. what do we know?er: we are standing in the lower ninth ward an area that most people know and remember because of how destroyed, how hard hit they were during hurricane katrina. you can see the power lines that are down over here, all the way over here. countless trees are down in this neighborhood as well, this like most of new orleans this area is completely out of power, people are sitting outside because this heat is better than being inside. we met one woman who has lived here since the 1960s, she survived hurricane katrina and said in hurricane katrina was the water in her home, six feet of water with ida it was the wind. listen to more of what she told us. >> i'm going to get myself together and have to go. i realize -- see, when i was younger, i could deal with the heat. since i'm oiled, i can't deal with the heat. katrina that was rough, six feet of water in my house. >> reporter: you came back? >> i came back. >> reporter: how come? >> it's home. they said why are you coming back here? at my

back with us is ellison barber there on the ground.are you hearing from the people there in new orleans about the struggles now that we are four days after this storm hit, and folks still don't have power or the food they need. >> yeah, things are hard, and they are running out of the provisions that they had at home, and people don't have power or light or electricity. they are forced to come like this to try to get some help. there are truckloads from fema hearing loss to try to get people help. pallets and pallets of food to eat. they have mres, and one bag can feed a person for a day. they have come with a box of water, and bags of ice. people are coming to try to get help. and waiting in their cars, and sometimes 30 or 40 minutes or moshgs and some of the -- or more, and some of them are coming by foot. we met a man from jefferson parish where they were hit hard by hurricane eye d.a. he said that a tree limb fell on his house and a limb fell in the house, and so he came to new orleans to stay at the house of a friend, and right no

nbc's ellison barber is there. it is a heartwarming scene in a moment of great tragedy. i appreciated your last hit with us because it warmed my heart to see how everybody is coming together. take it away now. >> reporter: hey, alex. normally these people are lined up outside of this venue. they're usually here because they're coming to see a concert, but instead they're here getting a hot meal of food, all of it free. the only requirement here is that you show up and when you are in line at least they would like for you to be wearing a mask and just that are you hungry. that's the only thing they're asking of people, if you need food, you come here. they are working this venue along with culture aid new orleans to make sure that people are fed. they said they've gotten a bunch of food donated from restaurants, restaurants whose generators, they ran out of gas, they've lost power and the food was going to go bad and they're cooking it here. they have five star chefs working to feed people. i want you to listen to what one person we met in line a little while ago told us

>> thank you so much, rehema ellis in queens and to ellison barber and kelly o'donnell. now the president is with governor murphy. the president's speaking and we've had audio difficulties and let's hear if it's cleaned up. she's done one thing and we've had a great fema director in the past, as well that makes it work when it gets local, state and federal working together it is more than three times -- it's, like, ten times what it would be than just having one moving, and the losses that we were witness to today are profound. dozens of lost lives, homes destroy in manville including gas leaks and damaged by the flooding and damage to infrastructure and my thoughts are with those families affected by the storms and all of those families who lost someone they love and i understand is there two people missing? >> four. >> four people still missing and i especially happened to thank the overused phrase, but the brave first responders. who have exemplified the courage both in new jersey and next door in new york. they've done an incredible job, and they were working closely

ellison barber is in new orleans. ellison, what is on the president's agenda? >> reporter: he is going to be assessing the damage meeting with state and local leaders. people hope he will come to a distribution center to see what they are dealing with. in new orleans, you can't really see what they're dealing with from an aerial view. it is coming to a place like this and seeing people wait withing in line. an hour before this site opened to get cases of water and bags of ice and mres. a lot of people are desperate for ice, not because it is so hot, but they have things at home that have to be refrigerated. new orleans is 13% of the city with any power. we met one woman in line waiting 40 minutes with her mother. her mother's name is paula and her name is aretha. they are waiting for ice because aretha is diabetic and needs to keep her medicine cold. they have no way to do that. they have four little ones. youngest child is 4 months old and needs to keep the milk fresh. i asked them what they want to ask the president when he comes here today. >> we need energy

joining us from new orleans is nbc news correspondent ellison barber, and are people there getting thergency aid they need right now? we talked yesterday, and the word yesterday was that as you reported people didn't know where to go because the phones were dead. >> yeah, that a huge issue is one, figuring out where to go, and other people say, that even if they know where to go, they don't know if there are enough services available right now, and food distributions, and charging stations, and things like that, and there are no emergency shelters open in new orleans, and there are some lights coming on back on as of this morning, and able to get some lights and power back on in eastern new orleans, but not many. for most people, the power company has been clear, because there is extensive damage, it is going to take quite a while. they will focus on getting the power first to the critical places like hospitals and 911 centers and then try to deal with everyone else. some people that we have spoken to, they say it is unacceptable, and they don't have enough help right now, and they sho

joining us now ellison barber and dr. shah. doctor, i'm confused by this.et the booster within two months or in about two months after that first j&j? i suspect most people that got the j&j got it more than two months ago. >> thank you for having me back, absolutely. the data shows first of all good protection six, seven months out. that's probably the big piece of good news. the second is you did see a big boost in immunity if you got the second shot at two moths but actually you see a bigger boost in immunity if you wait to six months out so i think what will happen and see what the fda does on this, most people will be asked to get a second shot of the j&j after six moths after the first dose. probably the longer you wait is better, six months or so after the first shot is ideal but let's see what the fda recommends. >> some people said let me just get a moderna or pfizer because they don't have the data yet on j&j? they should hold off and not go and mix and match? they should wait and what the fda does? j&j is presenting the data but i don't think offi

live to capitol hill, ellison barber is at the capitol, julie is inside. ellison, you were there for january 6th, i was following your reporting as things were getting scary. from your vantage point you didn't know everything that was happening. how are things looking there with less than five hours to go? >> reporter: it is quiet. it is fencing, fencing, fences, as far as the eye can see. there were bicycle racks january 6th. the heavyduty came after the insurrection took place. closer to the capitol an area to the left that was breached by insurrectionists on january 6th, they have that more intense heavyduty fencing that we saw come up after january 6th. this is obviously a big change compared to back then. we do not know what today will bring. the organizer of this event has been adamant in saying he doesn't want to see any sort of violence but capitol police officials are trying to be prepared for anything, because they were not prepared on january 6th. there's more barricades, trucks lined up along the street that will separate where the protesters ar

. >> shannon pettypiece, and ellison barber and yasmin vossoughian, i thank you all. >>> and now, we will go to hear from secretary of state to hear the taliban has full control of the country after eliminating a threat in the final place in the valley. so tell us, courtney kube, about this final pocket of resistance. >> yes, there was a pocket of resistance in the panjshir valley, and this is a historic place where there has been a resistance and led in this case by the old northern alliance group. many people may have heard of ahmed massoud who is a famed guerrilla warfare leader in afghanistan who fought against the soviets in 1980s, and he is well known. he was assassinated right before september 11th, and his son is leading the resistance movement. and the taliban are saying they have taken this area back, but we are not hearing the same from the resistance movement, but it is a small group, and some of them are well trained, and even are actually some members of the ghani government who are part of this, but they did not have any outside support, and the question we have been a