a heartbreaking day. >> that was the mayor of lafitte, louisiana. meanwhile, new evacuation orders in plaquemines parish. the national weather service says a levee failed near highway 23 and heading north of plaquemines. >> a tornado warning was issued overnight and much more from the storm zone in a few moments. >>> the other breaking news, several rockets have been fired near the airport in kabul, afghanistan, with hundreds of americans still inside the country ahead of tomorrow's withdrawal deadline. the u.s. military's anti-rocket system was activated to intercept the rockets. abc's andrea fujii has the latest. >> reporter: this morning, america's longest war is quickly coming to an end. the deadline to withdraw troops from afghanistan is less than 24 hours away and as of sunday, the state department says 250 u.s. citizens are still in the country. >> this is the most dangerous time in an already extraordinarily dangerous mission, these last couple of days, and so we will do everything possible to keep people safe, but the risk is very high. >>

lafitte, crown point. the water is rising. people are in their homes and we're getting reports of people with water up to their chest, asking to be rescued. >> and cnn is covering the story of course from all angles. we have brian todd in new orleans. we have ed lavandera in baton rouge and we have the extreme weather center in atlanta. brian, i want to start with you. the power is out. the waters are rising. how bad has it been where you are? >> michael, it's been pretty bad for the last several hours. the past few hours and the next several hours are very concerning here in new orleans because it has been pitch black. the streets are dark. no power. i can step to the side here and our photo journalist will zoom in to bourbon street here in new orleans in complete darkness. the only reason you see light on those buildings is because jake our photo journalist has been able to throw a light from an independent power source on to those buildings and illuminate part of bourbon street. it is total darkness. th

he was concerned the water was rising in the lower lafitte area, barataria area. extensive search and rescue operations with our jefferson parish sheriff's office, firefighters and louisiana national guard, the coast guard, bringing boats in and out of that area. it's deep in, not something that we can access easily. we believe people were in their attacks overnight, the water was rising, they were having to find higher ground within their house. so very difficult 24 hours for us. >> incredibly intense and scary. picking up where you left off, do you know how many people are left who are seeking rescue at this point? can you put a number on that? if it was 200 this morning, what is the number as we speak? >> the night before the storm came our sheriff officer went in with a couple dozen of his officers not door to door in lafitte, not grand isle, the lafitte area and found out who was staying, how many people, their phone numbers and address. that was about 400 to 480 people then. we got calls for rescue and actual calls to 911 into the emergency operations center

we do have a flash emergency for lafitte, and jean lafitte.ing right now, we've had a levee breach. local law enforcement re-reports levy following it over 200 people are in danger, currently we are dealing with a breach in the area, because heavy rain is coming, down we have seen about five inches just in the last hour. even though the system is being downgraded to a category one, the rainfall amounts will continue. this is troubling news as water rises. and it really continues. lake pontchartrain, we are dealing with the rise of about four feet in the last 11 hours. that's going to continue to be a problem in the area, as you can see the storm system continues to make its way north and east, it's -- that torrential rain. that will continue it least for the next half hour. in that area. due to the slow movement of this storm system, since its come onshore, we have only seen the northwest movement, northeast movement, of about nine miles per hour. the crumbling of the eye, and that's why we're seeing it continue being downgraded, in the winds.

the levees have been breached in the little town of lafitte. and a flash flood emergency warning has been issued. the town's mayor spoke about the harrowing circumstances residents find themselves in right now. >> a whole bridge was taken out. our levees were topped. our surge levees were topped. t the school system, government buildings and hundreds of homes. it's never happened before. and all the outside areas were just hit so hard. we suffered storms before, but i've never seen water like this in my life, and it just hit us the worst way possible. it was such a massive storm that it just totally devastated us. >> so all of orleans parish, which includes the city of new orleans, is without power. statewide, more than a million customers have no electricity, and at least one person we know has died in the storm so far. pedram javaheri has been tracking this dangerous storm as it moves across louisiana. where is it right now, and what can you tell us about the strength? hi, pedram. good to see you. >> hey, robyn. good seeing you. the storm sys

but there were efforts made earlier today in and around jean lafitte and grand isle. does anybody have more specific information? we are not aware of any loss-of-life in grand isle, but it was only accessible by air today and so we were able to finally get some air assets up. i know we've been able to get some people on the ground to inspect facilities there as well. i am quite certain any needed rescue's have been made and we will get back with you if for some reason that is not the case. >> [indiscernible] gov. edwards: first of all, any additional deaths would be unconfirmed, and until a coroner officially confirms a death and attributes of the death to a hurricane, i am not going to get in front of them. i had a number of conversations overnight and today with parish presidents and other officials who believe the death count attributable to the hurricane will go up because they see catastrophic damage in certain places that they have every reason to believe were inhabited at the time the damage occurred. it is certainly possible, and i have prayed that by some mir

we got boats in the water and working with the jefferson parish sheriff's office and the lafitte firewell with national guard started working into the area. >> and what did you see? we're seeing some video that you took. obviously, there's extensive flooding. did a lot of folks need to be brought out of their homes? ? yeah, so when we got there there was flooding up to be windows in houses. we had some areas down there it was all the way up to the roofs. it was mostly a lot of the folks had come out already and they were making their way down to the fire department when we got there. there was a lot of people on their upper balconies, at their front doors, just hollering, asking for help. so we kind of worked our way through. street by street. and picked them up aas they came. and once that wrapped up it was a lot of wellness checks in the area of people they hadn't heard from. but it was pretty bad down there. i mean, the wind damage was like nothing i've ever seen. and the flooding just was unreal. >> what's been the biggest challenge? first of all, you've all got to be exhausted. b

they have never seen water come up that high in lafitte.y lived 30 years, john sandra, and she's making sure t. she said that they could last for about a week there, even though they have taken water, they are on stilts. but you just see the airboats waiting to come in. i was in the command of the booth earlier watching some of the jefferson parish officials look at the maps of the area. this is essentially the bayou, swamps, so they are looking for a way to come through. this incredible amount of rain and wind come everybody went for it yesterday. a full force and effect, and looking behind the camera, more vehicles and sounds are coming, and choppers about to buzz us here, john and sandra. >> sandra: robert, i want to say a big welcome, by the way, to fox and fox are they. you and i worked together use ago in the chicago area. i know you and i know storms, you don't run from them, you manage them. sort of put this in perspective, what we are seeing on the ground there compared to storms you covered in the past. >> first of all, thank you.

and then closer up here, still outside the hurricane protection system an area called lafitte, the water is rising. people are in their homes and we're getting reports of people with water up to their chest they're asking to be rescued. very, very dark situation and we just can't get out yet. >> that is dire. what else are you hearing from people calling in? i mean, that is horrific. >> it is horrific. the electrical grid is almost out. we're probably 95% out of electricity. we were a very large transmission tower came down and set a lot of the community. we're getting reports of roof damage, roofs, trees down, tree roots pulling up and damaging water mains. so now our water pressure is going down. so, you know, we're also responding to an assisted actually a condo where there is elderly people living there and their roof partially collapsed. trying to get them out to a church across the street. so it is very, very busy here and we're -- we just can't respond yet. >> right. i mean, so what are you doing in these cases when you get a call like that with these senior citizens or the person

north between there in the bio between new orleans and grand aisle is jean lafitte. and we are hearing perhaps as many 200 people who are trapped there and in need of rescue. cajun navy and others are in search of -- once it's safe to do so, once the winds come down, we don't know when that will be, there are people, there are 9-1-1 systems that are out across the state. in part because of the electricity. energy company says that it has provided power to the sewage and water system here in new orleans, so we don't have new problems. so far the levees in and around new orleans, many of them newly built since hurricane katrina in the city 16 years ago today, are holding up. we do have word of levees that have been over topped in some surrounding parishes. but not yet in new orleans. that's we know for now. this is still a city that is in danger. chris. >> ali, he obviously can't hear me, but we are glad we are able to hear and see him. we will continue to check in in new orleans. now i want to go to nbc miguel l maguire in baton rouge, where winds of it picking up spe

as janessa said, there are people trapped, in lafitte.here are 200 people who are subject to rising waters. we don't know what that means. whether they're trapped or not trapped. but they need to get to higher ground. there will be search and rescue efforts launched as soon as first lady is up. >> let me go back to those million plus people in the state of louisiana who don't have power, and the problems that causes. and how that can get exponentially worse as the days and potentially weeks go on. i know you've been talking to folks and so what did you see first of all when you came into the city, in terms of the staging of trucks and what have you learned from both city officials and power company officials about how prepared there. what kind of spread they have, to get people back on power. online as quickly as they can? >> the one thing that authorities of been saying here is that they were prepared, yeah i don't know how that fits into the catastrophic failure, in the energy company. but they were prepared for the size of the storm in

and this is lafitte today. water covering cars there. the parish president says crews have rescued more than 100 people so far. in houma, southwest of new orleans, a roof flying off a building >> oh, that roof is -- holy [ bleep ]. >> the governor calling the storm catastrophic state health officials say two people have die d from the storm and the governor says he expects that number to rise. it has since weakened into a tropical depression. right now in central mississippi, heading toward middle tennessee, that is super saturated. you see in the end by wednesday or thursday, into friday, from washington to new york and beyond, millions of americans in its path we begin cnbc coverage with valerie castro live in louisiana, west of new orleans, and in the middle of energy country. valerie? >> shep, the storm may be long gone from louisiana. here in norco, you can see the floodwaters still remain it has been like this all day long i'm standing in about 18 inches or so of water the further you go down this road, this is apple street, it doe

. >> reporter: jean lafitte mayor tim kerner told wwl they're trying to get boats to reach people trapped in their homes now that the eye of the storm has passed. >> you can't -- you can't look left, right, back or front without seeing high water. >> reporter: further south in and is, 40 people defied a mandatory evacon and rode out the storm. >> first responders cannot get to you. so those folks are just going to have to hunker down. >> reporter: here in new orleans, the entire city lost power after all transmission lines were down. still, officials remain confident that the changes they made since katrina could prevent a repeat of the disastrous results we saw 16 years ago. >> now is the time that we have been preparing for. >> reporter: the city spent $14 billion upgrading its levee system to handle storms such as ida. the national hurricane center says ida will continue producing heavy rainfall today throughout the southeast. >> around that center area, some areas 10 to 20 inches of rain. >> reporter: president biden approved emergency declarations for louisiana and mississippi. and r

wind and floods sweeping through towns like houma and lafitte.er an hour outside of new orleans. >> the initial focus will be going to lafitte area. we have had a lot of rescue requests there. >> reporter: in laplace, about 30 miles out of new orleans, tiffany miller and her family got trapped inside their home. miller, who spoke with our local station wdsu before she was later rescued, said when the weather conditions began to deteriorate, she and her family frantically retreated into their home's attic. >> we're just kind of sitting on a beam in the same area just trying to hang tight and hoping and praying that and praying that the winds will die down because the house is shaking really, really bad >> reporter: craig, hoda, i just spoke with a woman a little while ago who said she is waiting to try to reach her friend right now, has been unable to do so. the 911 communications in new orleans and in laplace right now are very challenged. social media is the resource for folks. one family tweeting there are five people inside of their home, incl

parishes, but also conducted a helicopter hoist and lift operates in -- operations in laplace and john lafitte. a task force of about one 900 individuals from different states have been conducting primary search and rescue operations in collaboration with local first responders. worked a little differently today because for the first part of the day, they were responding to 911 calls and calls for help that had come in overnight that could not be responded to because the weather would not allow responders to go out. the mission now is to go back and do the very organized grid search where they do a primary search and they come back and do a secondary search to make sure any survivors need to be rescued are in fact rescued. in addition to the task force currently on the ground, we have 200 additional individuals on the way from new york and massachusetts. i can tell you that task force checked on more than 400 homes today. the vast majority of people were found to be unharmed, but a number of individuals did require rescuing and there was one that had damage and water and electric issues, three

. >> the town of lafitte has one way in and one way out and that one way is covered by water. their levees were overtopped during the stop. >> reporter: rescuers doing everything they can to reach survivors. >> from house to house, going past them and if people want to be evacuated, we put them on the boats to get them out. >> reporter: president biden declaring a major disaster in louisiana, promising a vast federal response. >> that's our job, if we work together, we're going to stand with you and the people of the gulf as long as it takes for you to recover. >> reporter: tonight, the concern in the hours ahead is the people still stuck in their homes without 911 and without power. many now turning to social me media. >> right now, we checking on everybody that we can. >> reporter: concerned families messaging vincent over facebook, asking him to check on their missing loved ones. and stranded residents reportedly giving a thumb's up to the coast guard, waiting to get out. >> and matt gutman, just extraordinary reporting all night long, all day long. he's with us from houma,

phone poles and light poles are down roads are impassable as a result of all of that the town of lafitte highest water in at least 34 years 500 people in lafitte informed the fire department before the storm that they were staying behind and we watched this morning as they sent out rescue boats to try to find people in their attics or on their roofs who desperately need to be saved from those rushing waters, which are still extremely high there the company intergee deelectrified the city of lafitte so nobody would be electrocuted they didn't want any live wires. and in new orleans the great news from the storm is the levee held more than $12 billion in federal money went into shoring that up, modernizing it 1 of the most modern levee control systems in all the world in new orleans, and the early world all systems go the levees held. the city is intact nbc's jay gray is there for us now. the that's not to say there was no damage, jay. >> reporter: no, shep, you are absolutely right while the technical issues learned from katrina did seem to p pay off, it was the water with katrina, the wi

our next concern is with lafitte an area north of that but outside the hurricane protection system.e know there's standing water and we're hearing reports of very high water. people trapped in their attics. we could not go out last night because it was just absolute pitch dark last night. this is an area if you want to think of it like swamp land there's alligators out there. conditions, just could not go out in the dark with the downed power lines, it's very dangerous, so all of our first responder teams are ready to go do that search and rescue effort. the other major issue we're dealing with this morning is we've had a lot of water main breaks. our water system is losing pressure and so, in order to be able to fight fires, that is a very critical element so we're trying to clear roads to do those water repairs, so i would say those are the very pressing needs that we're facing as soon as the sun comes up. >> you said you have had no contact with grand ido you have people were on the ground in grand isle? >> mayor camardelle told me two nights ago that he thought that, you know, p

some wind damage, but the folks in grand isle, lower lafitte, we're very concerned with storm surge for those citizens. >> yeah. listen, we've heard that, you know, looking in the long term, this -- parts of the state could be, you know, uninhabitable for weeks or months. how prepared are you to cope with the potential long-term effects of this? >> well, you know, i know that the whole country is dealing with covid, but here where we are, we are in our fourth surge of covid since probably the middle of july. so, you know, up until this point we are concerned with hospital capacity. we have a lot of patients in the hospital with covid. so we're coming into the storm very vulnerable from that perspective. that's going to be difficult for us. you know? it's very hot in louisiana in august. so without air conditioning and modern amenities, very difficult for elderly folks, for people medically vulnerable to live here, if this is what -- you know, if it's catastrophic for us. we're hoping there can be some change. we're prepared, search and rescue are prepared. we're a strong people here. we

is just coming up, so they will get an assessment, and our priority up here is trying to get into lafittea lot of rescue calls for high water, so i'm told people were in their attics, i've talked to the mayor, probably late afternoon and he was getting reports that the water was rising in that area, so that is critical for us. grand isle is further south. we've lost contact with them. probably late afternoon. we have not made contact with them. so these are the things that we have to deal with today. but now, that the sun is out, we're finally getting an assessment of what is there, but it's search and rescue, our water system is down, we have a lot of water main breaks, so we need to make those repairs as soon as possible, obviously that is our ability to fight fires, we need water, hospitals need today, on today's list is, to address these needs. i just issued a mandatory curfew, so our first responders can have full use of the roads. and i want them to be able to do their job as unimpeded as possible. >> to me, the scariest part is the not knowing, how you are saying you can't get in t

but the mayor of jean lafitte says help can't come soon enough. >> there are no roads, it is water with houses poking out. highways are rescue water ways now. so first step is rescue. second step, get the water out and third step is going to be trying to get back the power and trying to give these people some relief. i've never seen water that high, never seen a current push in so fast. just be so relentless. certain points 9 1/2 feet, other points 8 feet, 8 1/2 about in one area it created such a major swell, once that swell started moving, it came off a little bit, but still nothing that we've ever seen or even dreamed of seeing before. just mega powerful storm hit us in the absolute worst spot. it is a once in a 100 year storm. >> and now people across louisiana are describing the fear they felt as hurricane ida came ashore and the devastation they woke up to monday morning. take a listen. >> reporter: 49-year-old dart stowall lives here and dart was inside the house when it was destroyed, when it collapsed. he was on the second floor of the house and plunged 10 feet to the bottom of

in lafitte, the water is very high, and from the louisiana national guard and others are there doingaving to get the boats in and out, and we are sheltering the people at the park playground, and then the state is going to coordinate the pickup and move them out to alexandria is the plan. and our systems are down and we have no communication and the water systems are down, and we are losing pressure and we had to do the boil advisory, and we will have the backup systems there with the sewage, and that is a hygiene problem, and encouraging the residents w

in lafitte louisiana, a levee was overtopped. >> you know, unfortunately this is a situation where the water is living on us. they have a great quality of life down here these fishing communities. you know, we want to make sure we can protect their livelihood and a great place to live here in southeast louisiana. >> now back here in new orleans, the flood water pumps which are essential to keep this city dry as it sits below sea level, they work off of individual turbines. the sewage pumps work off the grid. one thing city officials noted that that power system is not worked out, the sewage pumps will be a problem soon. >> martha: thanks, mike. very much. we'll check back in with him as that story continues to grow today. marine lance corporal riley mccollum just one of the 13 united states service members that lost his life in kabul. he was killed there. the 20-year-old from wyoming was married, he was about to become a dad in a couple weeks. his heart broken mother spoke out very passionately this weekend about her grief and about her anger. >> yesterday i knew my son was dead. i cal

letting a serious problem in the southeastern part of the state to levy failing near the town of lafitte. the whole area inundated and today flood waters from ida covering streets in mississippi, too. >> that was lauren lister reporting for us this afternoon. >> coming up today here on kron, 4 news at 3. a deadly weekend in the east bay p to visit the sites of the shootings. we're live with details. and after the break, a mountain lion attacks a child in southern california. need long-lasting freshness? try new febreze unstopables touch fabric spray. it doesn't just eliminate odors... simply shake and spray to unlock the breakthrough power of touch-activated scent technology. that lasts, even hours later! that's because febreze touch stores scent in your fabrics so you get bursts of freshness with every touch. your whole world will come alive. welcome home to fresh with new febreze touch. welcome to the place where the aroma of authenticity turns into the scent of home. where cacique inspires you to add your own flair. and the warmth of friends and family is in every bite. cacique. your

well, the hardest hit areas you have to look at grand isle, you take jefferson parish, look attal at lafitteg i will say is the levees, the $14 billion investment we made into levees and surge protection for the new orleans metropolitan area held. and it shows we still need further investment in the west shore project to protect st. johns, st. james, st. charles, and the river parishes. but it worked. and so this was a massive storm. it lived up to its fears. and so now our priorities are, one, to continue with search and rescue. we have over 17 urban search and rescue teams down in different areas looking to help people escape from their predicament and then if you look at the next phase of this will be to restore power, to make sure we can get that done. today we had great success in restoring communications when we woke up this morning a lot of cell phone carriers didn't have necessarily coverage for people. and now that has improved remarkably. 911 was down when we talked to the mayor earlier of new orleans and we had our dhs on the ground helping. it's now been restored. we'll go also i

the roof ripped off a shipyard building this is near lafitte, one of the hardest-hit areas. homes surrounded by water after flooding took over streets now, galliano, louisiana hurricane ida ripped through that town, destroying these mobile homes with debris everywhere the message from the governor today, if you evacuated, do not come home. there is no water. there's no electricity, and making the crisis even worse, extreme temperatures with heat indexes soaring into the triple digits cnbc's valerie castro begins our coverage in bridge city in jefferson parish south of mississippi river. valerie, some say getting power back on will be a marathon, not a sprint. >> reporter: shep, the work really does seem endless we want to show you why it's so difficult to get the power back up and running take a look behind me. this is one of the transmission powers damaged during the storm along with eight vital transmission lines getting all of that infrastructure back up and running is vital to getting the state back on the grid drone video shows you the kind of work that power crews have

good ascension parish reports one man died when a tree hit his home 20 miles south of us in jean lafitte the mayor is reporting that 350 to 500 people are now stranded from emergency contact after a bridge collapsed one million people here. approaching one million are now without power but we won't know the full extent of the damage until sometime after dawn. julie caroline you've been there throughout the day when the storm was much stronger what was it like being there earlier today when things were just ripping it was much worse than what we thought. forecasters were certainly surprised we went to bed last night, thinking this thing would hit late and maybe be a strong category two. it roared on shore, so much faster than that here on canal street the lucky thing is, we are still not seeing that much flooding here. but you have to remember we are 10 ft above sea level here much of the city is below the city is basically shaped like a bowl. what they are, depending on is those levees holding the federal government. the local government has poured money into this in the 16 years that ha

you look at lafitte. you come down to new orleans in terms of the power.e $14 billion investment that we made into levees and search protection for the new orleans metropolitan area. it held. >> yep. >> and it -- it shows that we still need further investment in the west shore project to protect st. john's, st. james, st. charles and those river parishes. but it worked. and so, this was a massive storm. and it lived up to its fears. and so, now our priorities are, one, to continue with search and rescue. we have over 17 urban search-and-rescue teams down in different areas looking to help people escape from their predicaments. and then, if you look at the next phase of this will be to restore power. to make sure that we can get that done. today, we had great success in restoring communications. when we woke up this morning, a lot of cell phone carriers didn't have necessarily coverage for people. and now, that is improved remarkably. 9-1-1 was down when we talked to the mayor earlier of new orleans and we had our dhs on the ground helping. it's now been re

i was able to get to the lafitte area, the area where the mayor called me and said i think water is risingr was rising. so our teams, i'm so proud of our first responder teams, our jefferson parish's office, they went out as soon as day break happened. i mean, as soon as they had any light, they had a strategy. last night, they rescued 27 people. tonight, over 100 people. and it's not an easy rescue. it's way into liken it to a swamp. you have to go in way deep. the water comes out of that area for about a mile. it is, i hope we can get some cameras on there and the footage on there because you can't appreciate how much water it is if you don't know what it looked like before to see how far the water has come out of that area. >> how much of that community is in and around the parish do you think have still not been contacted? >> well, i think the people who were able to get out of their house and ask for help, they got out. believe it or not, there's a lot of people still in there. the boats were going back and forth, and they were just waving to us. and they're going to stay. so you know

going to stay behind in areas that were flooded in jefferson parish, specifically port fourchon or lafitte, louisiana, began setting out dozens of boats to try to account for everybody and start rescuing them this morning the jefferson parish president cynthia lee sheng said this morning unfortunately the worst case scenario seems to have happened she says that some houses are flooded with water that is up to chest high, though some of it is receding at this point and high water rescues are under way. port fourchon of specific interest to viewers. this video was taken sunday 6:00 local time, yesterday evening, and not a lot of contact in there since. highest wind gusts there, 172 miles an hour where ida came ashore port fourchon is a critical hub for u.s. oil and gas infrastructure 9 we just got an update from royal dutch shell saying they're assessing the damage to their norco refinery and chemical refinery chemical plant and the gieseman chemical plant. no word on how bad it was. in new orleans, the levee system upgraded since katrina more than $12 billion in taxpayer money, the levee sy

in lafitte system, the levee was overtopped. north louisiana, some people were trapped on their rooftops. >> we got trees down, lines down. lucky i made it here. this is very bad. >> now, the big impact is power. more than two million people are without power now. that means everyone in no, sir lines and significant portions of the population across the state. neil? >> neil: thanks, mike, very, very much. mike tobin following those developments. back to what is happening with all of these refugees coming from afghanistan. we broke it down for you. roughly 115,000 have been airlifted out of the country. the fact of the matter is 6,000 of those were americans. so the overwhelming majority of these afghan nationals that have to find a home and make a home. what is the vetting process like? greg palkot has more from germany. greg? >> neil, yeah, basically we're in the final hours of the u.s. war in afghanistan. there's a lot of lives hanging in the balance. take a look at what we saw today at a major u.s. military hub not far from w

then in the lafitte area, which is further north in grand isle, but again, outside of the levee protectionheriff, joseph lupinto, went out with a few of his officers la night, went door to door in the community to try to, you know, get an assessment of who stayed, where they live, how many people there are. probably trying to talk them into leaving, obviously, last night. but just, you know, to do that is a strategy to be really ready to do search and rescue when the storm passes us over. >> can you give us a sense, we have been asking this question all day, about why people choose to stay or feel they may not have the option to leave? >> well, you know, i think in a mindset, a lot of people, you know, they have -- they want to defend their home. you know, they're very proud of their community. these communities are communities that, you know, when we need help, they're out laying sandbags themselves. they're not communities, and these are not people who wait for government assistance. they'll start rebuilding their homes, they'll tart doing whatever it takes to defend their property. that

in lafitte, the water is very high, and from the louisiana national guard and others are there doing the search and rescue. they are having to get the boats in and out, and we are sheltering the people at the park playground, and then the state is going to coordinate the pickup and move them out to alexandria is the plan. and our systems are down and we have no communication and the water systems are down, and we are losing pressure and we had to do the boil advisory, and we will have the backup systems there with the sewage, and that is a hygiene problem, and encouraging the residents who are out of the area, not to come back, and to stay out, because we don't have the modern amenities to take care of them. and the people who stayed there in the storm who are okay, they may want to get out, and it is the best idea for them to get out, because it is going to be difficult life for quite some time. >> thank you, madam president. >> thank you. >> cedric, what about the oil port? >> well, the governor or president sheng could talk about that. the president is inquiring about the oil port

of those places due south of us in south of lafitte, us grand isle, grand apparently up 40 people, aisle though they chose about 40 people to stay, there so chose to stay there. they are somewhat they are prepared to write it out somewhat prepared to ride it. this is not out. so this is the catastrophe that not the catastrophe that all a lot of people were of people were worried worried about. it's an about. it's an entirely different entirely catastrophe. different catastrophe, and we can only and we could only hope in hope, in these hot these hot, muggy nights, that muddy nights that people in the city get people in the city get their their power back very power back fairly soon, soon. >> lawrence. >> ali,, is there any is there any temporally plan temporary plan on power on power. or is? it just sit and or is it just sit wait until the and wait until the system begins to work system begins to work again? >> again? >> yeah the mayor is actually said, if you the mayor is actually, left the city don't come if you love the back, do not come city, don't come back. you are just back. do not

but knowing that so many people stayed behind, places like grand isle and lafitte where flood watersevastated thoeds -- those areas, we expect there will be more people found who have passed. too many people always ride these storms out and take their life in their own hands. >> yeah. as we're -- we're looking at these images and they're so striking, lieutenant governor. i know there are people at this hour who need rescued. but we've been talking about how there are so many issues with power and phones how do you even know where to go to find the people who need you? >> well, i know some of the people called in through the storm and they've identified those places but they actually go the first responders, the national guard, firefighters go house to house checking attics and as the water goes down, checking those homes out. they make a first pass looking for survivors and then a second pass, obviously, looking for anyone that may have died in those homes or in those attics it's unfortunate that people stay behind and the first responders do a great job of getting there quickly to r