ken graham is the director ofri the national hne center and he joins me now from miami. ken graham, give us a sense of what the storms look like right now. >> right now looking at the satellite he marcis very close to making landfall right here at the mouth of the mississippi river but what is interesting is most of the rain was sheered mff. t of the heavy rain is the southeast u.s. in the florida nhandle all the way up too alabama, georgia and carolinas. so heavy rainfall but we're looking at laura as well. just a large circulation just south of the island of cuba. and we expect it to ma its way into the gulf of mexico and strengthen into hurr>>ane. oodruff: and ken graham, how usual or not is it for two storms to be coming so close together like this? >> yeah, it's very unusual. and it is a situation that it is usual from a meet ro logic perspective but also unusual and difficult from a preparednesss standpointll because you start getting the impact in andain locations from marco two days later you start getting be much stronger hurricane when it comes to laura making

ken graham, thank youch for talking with us. so give us the latest on where this storm is. >> yeah, judy, we're right here in operations, the hurricane eorecasters and specialists behind me constantly getting the vatest information. we 145-mile an hour winds about 155 miles southeast of lake charles, louisiana. just a giant storm, pronounced eye and all theac impheaded for louisiana and texas. tonight we expect the landfall overnight tonight. >> woodruff: give us a sense of where you expect it to hit at this point. >> looks like right now right around the lake charles-port arthur area with a majorri hurne, extreme murk-forceinds. the tropical storm winds alone stretch o5 miles out from the center, so extreme rainfall, and the big thing here is well outside the cone, well away from the center, the storm surgeon survivable storm surge, just incredible amounts of water here, 10 to 15 feet, some eas 15 to 20 feet. some of the storsurge could stretch 50 miles north of the coast. that's an ince rediount of storm surge, a dangerous 'rt

he's been listening to everything that ken graham just said. so about that storm surge, when would we know if we're out of the woods? you were telling us that you had only so far clocked it at 11 feet and so when could you heave a sigh of relief? >> well, for cameron, that number is down now, but we still have sturgorm surges, saltwater going up freshwater rivers. it's still happening right now. so as that surge pushes up, we are now even at lake charles, up to major storm surge numbers at 6 feet. that's a major flood for lake charles. and so although this is a smaller areas of inundation that was forecast, this is still happeni happening. people are asking me, does lake charles look like mexico beach? no, it does not. this was not a water event for lake charles, this was a event event. 120-mile-per-hour gusts or later for one solid hour. that's an ef-2 over your house that sits there for an hour. think about the damage that that would do to any house in america. something else we didn't quite get to yearly. i had a graphic up here and kit disa

. >> let's go to the director of the national hurricane center, ken graham. ken, good morning to you. i understand the storm has slowed down a bit. >> a little bit, victor. from the north, 12 miles an hour. they have a tendency to that. once they get the turn, they start to slow down to make that turn and with time start speeding up again. when they slow down, it prolongs the amount of time for rainfall. you get higher amounts of rain, higher amounts of surge. so we calculate that for the impacts. >> what are you watching right now in the bahamas, ken, that will give you insight into what's going to do in the island area? >> the bahamas, you have hurricane-force winds, you got the torrential rainfall. and wherever the wind blows, you get that storm surge. h 3 to 5 inches. that's what's headed to florida as well. if you notice, it's interesting we have the tropical storm warnings for extreme south florida. when you get closer to the edge is where you get the hurricane warning. that little wobble to the left you bring the hurricane-force winds to the left. a lit

. >>> joining me now is ken graham, the director of the national hurricane center. thank you for so much for being with us. i know you share that same concern -- life threatening storm surge. what do you see? >> i was listening to chad and, john, i'm getting the latest information handed to me. i was trying to think of the right words -- catastrophic, life threatening. it's so important that everybody really pays attention at this point because if you're told to leave you have to get out because some of the storm surge can reach these areas even before landfall. the water gets there first and that can cut off the evacuate routes. 10 to 15 foot of storm surge, sebring state park, over the intercoastal city. these are huge numbers and so important to look at it's not just coastal. even lake charles, 35, 37 miles inland could still see storm surge so a life threatening situation. >> look at that map. that does illustrate the worst, and -- >> you start looking at this and just for reference if you take beaumont over to areas of lake charles, i'm drawing i-10, draw that

ken graham.th us is ali velshi in beaumont, texas, where he's going to get the unusual circumstance of winds blowing from the north even though a hurricane is passing from the south to the north, to his east. you could probably be a better job explaining that than i can. >> reporter: hurricane runs counter clockwise and the net effect is the wind that is blowing on beaumont. the track has changed a little bit to the east. we're going to get the counterclockwise winds blowing the water towards the gulf of mexico. i'm at interstate 10 right now. the water will be forced back -- it's a reverse surge. it's like a really low tide in the ocean. you see the force of the wind pushing the rain out. there's rain coming down and that's the detrimental part. the flooding that you're going to see in western louisiana is going to be very different than what we're going to be seeing here in eastern, north eastern texas. we're not far away from where the worst is going to be. however, we're still about two hours

now we want to bring in ken graham. he's the director of the national hurricane center to get different insight. ken, i have a question for you. i think it's on a lot of people's minds. what are the limiting factors with this storm that would prevent it from getting back to hurricane strength? >> yeah. there's been a -- around the -- looking at the radar it's been a lopsided storm. it's been a battle. the warmer water help things out. this is 25 knot shear the entire time. the convection is having trouble filling in around the center. it's lopsided. it's going to wiggle or wobble. the bahamas continue to get battered with the wind and the rainfall. with time, we're still going to see that storm surge. whether it doesn't look as the typical hurricane, we've got to concentrate on the impacts. it's going to have the dangerous rainfall and flash flooding in areas. plus storm surge. >> you kind of mentioned there, too, getting that message across. truly, what are the differences in terms of impacts between a high-end thunders

for the latest now, we have kens graham with the director of the national hurricane center in ami. ken, welcome to you. thanks for making the time. you used th phrase earlier an unsurvivable storm surge. what is the latest with hurricane laura? >> the latest is now we have 150 miles an hour winds continuing to get stronger. i'm right here in our we have the meteorologists getting the latest information around me frothe aircraft. the latest is still such a strong storm. a catastrophic event. that storm surge again, that term is so appropriate in this situation. just not survivable these values, 10 to 15 foot of lorm surge. some areas alouisiana could see 15 to 20 feet of storm surge. ths not including waves. surge.ill be on top of the heard warnings of extreme winds and flash flooding and two what is it people on the ground are seeing right now and what ll they see in hours ahead? >> they're going to see the water come up. already seeing it. it's not just on the coast. with time, you'll see the water thward. up going even nor in these area think about exactly where we have interstate

we are well on our way. >> rick: we hope people heeded your warnings, ken graham. we appreciate you staying up late for us, sir. >> thank you. >> rick: to port arthur, texas, were mandatory evacuation order has been infected since since that tuesday afternoon. ordering massive c 1:30 one planes to help residents leave safely. port arthur sits west of residen hurricane laura's pa. how are things going? >> we just lost power in our hotel at port arthur. 25 minutes ago. as a matter of fact, the winds, the gusts are as high as been gone this far. the golden triangle, about 50 miles away from that western eye wall. but you can see the big concern here in the southeastern part of texas is actually the wind because of the direction in which hurricane laura to look with that i. that's what they are hoping, the storm surge is a bigger issue were lee linde is. let's talk about the power loss. one of the few things you can see here is the oil refineries. you can see them lighting up the sky in the back. that is big here. this is gas country and the largest oil refinery in the

neil: ken graham, national hurricane center director.ows this stuff inside and out and every little nuance as well. so, we are well-protected with his expertise. we're also following another storm and that's in washington d.c., but it's a storm that offers at least some promising talk between top democrats and republicans who are hashing out another stimulus measure to deal with the coronavirus and the economic fallout. right now the principal players, including the treasury secretary, the white house chief of staff, nancy pelosi, chuck schumer. trying to get whether, a, we continue those $600 a week unemployment checks and b, whether to extend anything else, like aid to cities, states, and businesses directly in harm's way as a result of these coronavirus escalated incidents that have slowed down recovery efforts pretty much across the country. we're on that a lot more after this. (mom) come on, hurry up! all systems go? (mission control) 5 4 3 2... and liftoff. (vo) audi e-tron. the next frontier of electric. get audi at your door remo

was just slightly east of what had been forecasted and according to conversations that i had with ken graham of the hurricane center that is why we didn't get as much storm surge pushed up into lake charles because the eye of the storm never crossed over the ship channel and so that very strong north wind or i should say southwind was never pushing that water of the ship channel and it had been forecasted to track further to the west which would've pushed much more water up or whatever the reason is we are very thankful because there is widespread and very significant damage because of the winds and some because of the rain and we are thankful we didn't get more storm surge than we did. just about the entire state sought tropical storm force winds and everything except for extreme southeast louisiana and the north shore and that is how big and powerful us storm was. after i finished the press conference i will leave with many of the officials you see with you to join some local officials and lake charles and do an oversight over at least cameron and we believe vermilion parish is so we can p

ken graham yesterday and ended that this was going to be catastrophic. and then about two hours later, the words came out from the national hurricane center that said unsurvivable. so that was just one step up. i think that they got to catastroph catastrophic, but people didn't really realize it and the unsurvivable part, where did that word come from? it came from the national hurricane center. in is the eye right there, lake charles moving to the north. and on the east side of it, there will be tornados through the bayou and the water is still rising there. significant surge well east of this storm. there could still be 10 to 15 feet surges east of the storm. made landfall as a strong category 4. we're to we're down to 130 miles per hour, but you won't notice the difference. everywhere you see murder spell, that is 110-mile-per-hour or greater. and it is probably from side to side 30 miles wide. that is a 30 mile wide ef-2 tornado that is hitting everyone in its path. and then the surge with it as well. things, roofs -- when you look at an ef-2 tornado

. >>> joining us now is ken graham, thanks for being with us. what's your biggest concern at this hour? >> yeah, well, i was listening to the broadcast and you started to look at this eye around ft. polk so you still have hurricane-force winds. 100 miles an hour so well inland you have the hurricane-force winds. look at this fetch of moisture, i can zoom way out. even areas away from that center as you move northward we have the movement. even a hurricane, even towards shreveport, look at this fetch of moisture back to corpus christi. as long as we're moving in that direction, these bands of rain continue to flow in the same areas. so this is an ongoing event. you're going to see areas with tropical rains and flooding and even tornados in some of these bands. >> ken, yesterday the biggest concern was going to be storm surge. the fear was that it would be so high it would be unsurvivable was one of the words. did the storm pivot a little bit to the east? is that what's kept it from being at that 20 foot point? >> yeah. it's interesting with that

ken graham, who is head of the national weather service, is a guy that's from my area that we've workedrever. he's never used the term unsurvivable storm surge before. and the reason they say surge instead of flooding is because, as you said before, it is a wall of water that comes in very, very quickly. if you're not where you're supposed to be, and that water hits you, you're going to drown. there's really no way to survive that. i'm very, very afraid of the people that did not evacuate. if you are in lake charles, which is further away from the shore than cameron parish, which is the parish below that. you're in a better situation. but after rita hit, which as i said, was weaker than this storm, there was no building, maybe one or two, left in cameron parish when this hit. this storm now is probably one of the ten worst that's ever hit the united states and, certainly, louisiana, since really louisiana was founded. and it's going to require a huge rescue effort. i know 4 million people that are in -- around the beaumont area, the lake charles area, are all at risk. covid complicates