this is a palm frond that was just ripped off a tree behind me. as this rain comes down, the threat of flooding intensifies in new orleans. i'm dan dwrel lee for nbc news. >> thank you. let's bring in christina loren to look at isaac's position. >> they haven't experienced the worst in new orleans right now. let's show you where isaac is situated. still about 50 miles due south of new orleans. that's where the center of the storm is located. that's where the strongest winds are as well. we have max winds of 80 miles per hour and we get gusts up to 105 miles per hour. the biggest component of this storm is going to be the speed. it is moving a snail's pace, so if we head through the next six to eight hours through most of the day today they will experience hurricane-force winds and potentially just very, very big flood issues because there's a lot of rain coming down, up to 2 feet in some spots. we'll watch that tracking intensity. we'll have the latest upup date at 5:00 and we'll bring you the latest. that's a big storm and not going anywhere anyt

palm tree fronds, bending and swaying in the wind. there was a recommended evacuation, suggestion by the county to all nonresidents yesterday. and we drove down here from miami on u.s. 1, the only way in or out because key west airport is closed. incidentally, 500 flights in and out of miami and fort lauderdale were cancelled today. but the evacuation line, steady stream of traffic, heading north, out of the keys, yesterday afternoon. so a lot of people did take the advice, key west itself, typically crowded on saturday. it was really minimal crowd last night. but the tropical storm is 65-mile-per-hour winds. if it gets up to 74 miles per hour, it's a cat-1 hurricane. so it will be a can the 1 or very strong tropical storm when it makes impact in the keys. a lot of buildings and houses in the area, plywood off on the doors and windows and you can see the key west humor down there, it says get twisted. certainly there are a lot of hurricane parties going on, with those people who did stay down here. but monroe county emergency manageme

his fronds thought he was suicidal and something was off because the conversations did not make sense. the doctor said when he was restored through treatment and drugs he started to express remorse from the shooting, screaming and describing over a nine-year-old child killed in the parking lot. she selfed that he said to her, i especially cried about the child. however, loughner, according to the doctor, expressed surprise that gabrielle giffords survived the shooting to the head saying that he was considered a failure. however, the doctor also said that loughner says that he deserved to be executed, something that will not happen should the deal go through. >>shepard: what happens next? >>reporter: well, next up the judge, if the judge decides and agrees with the assessment, they move immediately to a plea hearing. during that hearing, which would happen today, it is expected that loughner will plead guilty to save his life to spend it in prison but his behavior is key. if he acts out like he has in the past the judge could stop the proceeding or he could change his mine. if it proce

cranes, fronds loaders and handful of workers could be seen up and down the tracks clearing it of spilled coal and wrecked train cars. >> we only live a couple of miles from here and just wanted to see it for ourselves, see how bad it was. >> i knew it was bad. i heard where it was, you know, right by the street. >> reporter: one of the reasons why this cleanup effort will take so long, you can see behind me large pieces of debris. in this case a rail car that has been flipped over. these things weigh tons and crews are moving them slowly little by little. elizabeth nass and rose mayr both 19 were killed when the train derailed. they posted this picture on twitter moments before it happened where they're seen sitting off a nearby bridge. investigators don't know if the teens' presence near the tracks may have led the conductor to slam on the brakes in turn causing the train to derail. ntsb officials will only say a broken airline caused an automatic brake to trigger. >> the three crew members on board i've reviewed their statements. all their statements indicate that they felt nothing and

a lot of palm fronds down, that stuff that you expect to see. but beyond that, no significant damage. you know as well as i do, that is a huge vacation destination and the tourism officials are saying they really believe tomorrow will be a day to assess and a day they are telling us when the people can get their shutters off, get the sandbags away from the doors and they hope they can be open for business again by tuesday. and certainly at the latest on wednesday. but again, yeah. clearly the storm is pulling away from us. and pulling away from us vry quickly. and they were very, very fortunate. >> it looks like the sun may -- if it wasn't so late, the sun might even come out. >> yeah, absolutely. sure. >> the center of circulation, southwest of john right now and the winds and the clouds are going from south to north. he is on the other side of the e eye now. there isn't really an eyewall there. and significantly different damage and we are lucky this is not an 80-mile-an-hour storm and this is a 60-mile-an-hour storm. >> thanks, can you pull u

and i just received if they can't ignore it at fronds, i

you see palm fronds falling from the trees, and we have to be out of the way. you can make out a police car that passed through. we've seen a lot of police cars patrolling this area for several reasons. one, for safety and two to make sure no one is out here and we've heard about rumors of flooding and looting and other parts of the city without power, not here in the french quarter. they're trying to make thur that doesn't happen. at last report nearly half a million people in this city alone are without power. because of the magnitude of the outages, it's likely going to be that way for several days. the emergency crews and energy employees are here keeping track of it, but they cannot do anything about the power outages until the winds down die below 30 miles per hour. another big concern is flooding as the storm sits on us and dumps more sxhor rain. that increases the likelihood that more streets that will be underwater. i can tell thaw the levees in the plaquemines parish are threatened right now, and we have heard of water dumps over the levees. sheriff's

his fronds thought he was suicidal and something was off because the conversations did not make sensector said when he was restored through treatment and drugs he started to express