orange is 1818 miles north of port arthur. they are getting the eye wall and they are going to be getting some surge from the sabine river that's coming in. we'll be there hopefully at daylight there. but for the port arthur situation, right now we are getting some gusts, power outages. but you know not what it could have been had the western eye wall touched here in southeastern texas. it stayed a little bit east of us here. >> rick: they definitely suffered and hopefully they won't suffer too much for the storm. thanks for your reporting there. hurricane laura making landfall within the last hour. the most powerful storm this year within the u.s. smashing the gulf coast with 150-mile-per-hour winds, that 7 miles per hour short of a cat five hurricane. laura being called dangerous, catastrophic, unsurvivable with it storm surge. half a million people did flee and it's pushing emergency shelters to its limits. on an update with the storm itself we go back to fox news chief meteorologist, rick? >> if there's any benefit to wher

extreme wind warning from port arthur, does include lake charles. you can see 98-mile-per-hour wind gust in the lake charles area and the extreme wind warning is almost like a tornado type winds all with that northern eye band and some of the strongest thunderstorms and heaviest bands on the northwest side. the back side of this storm. one of the strongest i've ever seen. our doppler radar was estimating 170-mile-per-hour wind gusts. only a thousand feet off the ground which is incredible for the back side of the eye. here's the latest on the hurricane center. 30 miles to the south, southwest of lake charles right now. 150-mile-per-hour winds, still moving at a pretty good clip so if there's one saving grace it's that this storm is going to hit and then it'll be gone in probably about six to eight hours. i'm talking about the worst of the storm. you know, the sun will be out and as we go throughout the morning after the devastation being done right now notice it goes down to a category 2 storm and roughly about five hours from now and then it'll wea

it is a surprise that port arthur didn't sauce tain a lot of damage. you can see the twins bending and our hotel sounded like a sledgehammer with backing into it for hours on end. looking at this building here there was some concern whether this building that's under the construction would make it through the night. so far what we can see some of the construction materials ripped off and some portions of the roof but that seems to be the extent at this point. now, there is was a mandatory evacuation. we heard the mayor of port arthur urging people to get out of here. governor greg abbott sending in

does not include port arthur. and as the storm begins to slowly wide down and weaken, we won't see the strong winds anymore. on the backside of the eye, by the way, down around cameron, paris, one of the tile gauges reported a wind on the southern edge of the storm. so after the eye goes through, you get that calm and then it's going to kick back up again and slap you in the face. that's why they always tell people, don't get outside. look around for any damage or anything. wait till the storm's completely over with. you can actually see, if you look at the radar there, there's not rain out over the open water at all. so i'm pretty confident we're going to have a nice day in southern louisiana, especially in the afternoon. here's where we go from here. by 7:00 a.m., the storm will be between lufkin and alexandria, probably to a category 2 and it will be waepenning as it goes over the top of shreveport and little rock and then as we go out toward friday, it heads toward kentucky and tennessee. by the way, it will b

. >> to brian yunus in port arthur, texas what are you seeing? >> to the west of lake charles and difference is astounding, we are getting ghosts of 70 miles an hour you can see the rain, this is not what they are experiencing in lake charles which was behind me is a construction site behind me still standing, the power lines are still standing so that gives you an idea, we are getting water so 56,000 people, customers homes of lost power, the golden triangle, beaumont and orange and port arthur and they were expecting a catastrophic surge here. we are just 10 miles away from the western edge of the eye wall and we just missed it here in port arthur but bridge city and orange north of us 10 miles, 20 miles, they've gotten some of that, they were hit by part of that wall in lake charles. incredible the differences. we are getting that rain here. the power loss is the big issue. they were concerned about the water and started becoming concerned about the wind, power outages could last for weeks or months but in port arthur i can tell you power line

we did talk to the port arthur mayor, mayor bartie. what he had to say. >> why would someone try to stick this out knowing it's a category 4? >> i don't know. i don't know what frame of thought a person would be thinking, i really don't. >> it's kind of inexplicable. >> right. >> you're warning people to get out. my understanding, these are the last buss. >> yeah. >> this is it. >> reporter: i had conversations with people in their homes not where i am, but within a half mile to a mile of the gulf coast. they said it's fine, we're jt goichk to ride it out. they got luck ycy. they saw heavy rain and winds. it could have easily tracked here and done considerable damage as well. it just goes to show you. i mean at times you can be lucky. be careful. be sayre. and certa be safe. we saw ton s -- tens of thousas evacuating. hopefully we're paying close attention. yasmin? >> better to be safe than soifrmt sam, hsorry, sam. how are we supposed to be social distancing and wearing masks when you have what's going on in texas with a high case cou

when we talk about wind gusts, 50, you say, okay, then you go to 105 here in port arthur, look at lake charles at 4:00 a.m., 127 miles per hour, even through 7:00 a.m. you have three hours of 120 to 130-mile-per-hour gusts, you are going to have ridiculous damage. that 10 to 20-foot surge could go 30 miles inland, so, lake charles, cameron, louisiana, we anticipate significant problems here. and this is going to all be wrapping up and moving and not going to move that -- it's going to move quick enough, but gosh, it's going to do a lot of damage, all the way up through shreveport, even little rock will feel the winds. i anticipate power outages all the way up into arkansas. david? >> all right, we're thinking of everyone there in the storm zone. and everyone be safe into the evening hours. and we took note of what ginger just said there. this is now a category 4 hurricane. hurricane katrina was a cat 3. we all remember the devastation. i remember reporting right in the middle of it as it was hitting. so tonight, across louisiana, new orleans, points west of there, they're all taking th

port arthur would be about 50 miles to the southwest. >> harris: wow. this thing was wide. tell me this, i know that there was so much prep ahead of time. did people heed the warnings to get out? i talked with the mayor yesterday. he said that he was still talking with people, nick was, trying to get them out, telling them don't stay because it would be a while that dell might before we can come and get you if that's the case. how did that work out? >> i think you would always like for a larger percentage of the people to evacuate then end up doing so. i think that is true in this case, as well. don't forget, initially, this was supposed to be a category 1 or 2 storm when we first started making the evacuation decisions on monday. that was for a voluntary evacuation. a few people said, "yeah, let's go ahead and go." the next day it became a mandatory evacuation, as the storm began to intensify. zen , on wednesday, in the morning,d that it was now a category 4 and still intensifying, then a lot of people panicked, wisely, and left. one of the things that happens, after a sto

en texas estÁ marÍa paula, cuÉntanos por favor. >> paulina me encuentro en port arthur donde se esperabansidad con la que se esperaba, aunque aÚn sentimos los vientos fuertes no hay lluvia, no hay aguaceros y hasta ahora no ha habido ninguna inundaciÓn, hemos visto pocos destrozos a raÍz de este huracÁn, tenemos las tres casas que quedaron completamente quemadas despuÉs que bomberos hicieron lo posible por tratar de rescatarlas quedaron hechas cenizas es con el panorama que se van a encontrar los residentes cuando regresen a su casa huyendo de un huracÁn se van a encontrar con que lo perdieron todo posiblemente a raÍz de un corto circuito, no ha habido muchos destrozos, hemos visto algo de escombros en las calles, Árboles que resultaron caÍdos, techos que si volaron como proyectiles y los hemos visto tirados en los estacionamientos pero por fortuna no ha habido pÉrdida humana, no han tenido que hacer las autoridades ningÚn rescate, los agentes de emergencias y las autoridades han estado recorriendo la zona para recoger escombros y ver cÓmo estÁ todo y hasta ahora no se han topado con nad

taking a live look at port arthur, texas. so where we have been following this photographer looking for storm damage. nothing bad where we're seeing there. but take a look at some of this video we are finding from louisiana. hurricane laura made landfall at about 10:00 p.m. last night our time. bringing very strong winds and very strong storm surge into parts of texas and louisiana. this video from lafayette. this morning, she's packing 100-mile-per-hour winds making it a category 2 hurricane. likely to become a tropical storm before the day is out. and we fond some damage here in lake charles, howling winds battering did inouow glasandeis toth here's a lo at the damage in one man's home. they're going to be inroh toeow

we have pictures of the latest evacuations from port arthur. buses, a number of buses because, you know with the covid outbreak you can't put too many people on a bus. you can't put too many people in a shelter. and so that's another challenge right now people filling up people sandbagging. all coming to a head. irt latest report from the hurricane center 145 miles per hour winds possible before next landfall. when it does, well, we will see what happens. we are hearing that there could be unsurvivable storm surge. what does that mean? i think you know we have all been through storm surge. it's like a hurricane in slow motion. it's like a flood in fast motion but what will that mean along the coast remains to be seen. overnight we will find out and see you tomorrow. >> neil: jeff, i know hundreds of thousands between texas and louisiana have been told to evacuate but some people are reluctant. you know, they think of going into shelters if they had to do that and the covid-19 world they don't want to do it. what are you hearing? >> yeah, a lot

we have several people inside the port arthur civic center building.ey'll load only the buses. the city assembled dozen of them here. they'll be taken to an area they hope is safe, hunter counkou hu, texas, for people to have a place to shelter out the storm and stay saech from a virus standpoint. june smith is the health director here in port arthur. you have a lot of work ahead of you. how do you feel you're handling it so far? you have about 200 people trying to get out of here and you still have the virus to worry about. >> yes, yes. of course it's a challenge. we've done this before but never in the middle of a pandemic. we're trying to make sure as people come in to be triaged, their temperatures are taken. we make sure everybody has a mask on. that's within the challenge. the whole goal is to get people out as quickly as possible. >> you go back just a few years and we are almost under water from the rath of hurricane harvey. how concerned are you about being able to help folks here throughout the storm? >> that's why we believe it's so importan

ginger zee is live in port arthur, texas, tonight, with the latest track and guidance for us. what do you expect? >> reporter: david, the words unsurvivable storm surge were used by the national hurricane center from my point here in port arthur, east through southwestern louisiana. this all comes just a couple of days before the 15th anniversary of hurricane katrina, which obviously hit a c nl southwestern louisiana. now, i want to take you into what we are looking at, right? so, this is the lake behind me. the hurricane is about 120 miles to the southeast. this is a very shallow deck that leads up to all of these homes right here along the gulf. 10 to 20 feet, that's going to overtake these homes. and that's why a satellite image like the one you see here is really frightening. we are just hours from the winds starts to p land. . when we talk about wind gusts, 50, you say, okay, then you go to 105 here in port arthur, look at lake charles at 4:00 a.m., 127 miles an hour, even through 7:00 a.m. you have three hours of 120 to 1 130-mile-per-hour gusts, you are going to have ri

my wife worked for the port arthur transit. worked diligently over time, under time, and to get people lined up, give people the information they needed. they had to work well into about 3:00 a a.m., 4:0:00 a.m. i in te morning answeringng phones to gt all thee peoeople at neededd ris situtuated. and they still fell short becacause it wasn't enough transportation because of the situation wherere they had to separate people. amy: and you're largely talking about these areas that are overwhelmingly unities of color. can you talk about the oil industry, the largest refinery in the world there? when you had this can of hurricane, the combination of the hurricane come the climate crisis, and the extreme heat and now w a fire? >> when you add it all u up and add insult to injury, whenever in have a huge storm coming an additional community like portrt arthur, texas, whwhat you find is s many of these industrs go into shutdown mode. whwhenever they going into shutdodown mode, that means they can prococess the oil a amid ale products t

charles watson in port arthur there. doesn't seem like a lot of damage in port arthur because it was on the clean side of the storm and came across cameron and would you anticipate seeing more damage in those areas where the storm came in and maybe just to the right of cameron? >> certainly. it is always the northeast quad rant of the storm that gets the worst of the storm surge and rains and winds. i will mention that a lot of reporters can't even get into the areas that have been completely annihilated. i think we'll see a coastline completely changed from this storm. >> trace: janice dean, thank you for the update. >> sandra: for more on this let's bring in white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany. great to have you here this morning. we saw you late in the evening last night at the rnc. you've seen the damage that has been done so far from hurricane laura. we know it's still a dangerous storm. has the president been in contact with the governors of those two states, louisiana and texas this morning? >> yes, he ha

as we discuss storm surge at the moment, 10 to 15 feet is what al just said for port arthur. we see we have rocks that i'm standing on top of. this is part of the seawall that's been built and fortified over the years the can blunt some of that storm surge, but when you get above 12 feet, this is not going to cut it. not only will it come over where i'm standing in the gulf of mexico and sabine lake, just over my shoulder, but there's homes directly on the other side of the street here, and it's going to be continually rushing forward. what we heard from the mayor of port arthur is that city's two miles from here, beaumont is about 18 to 20 miles from there, these are major population centers. we hear this thunder right now, and over 100,000 in beaumont, 500,000 plus mandatory evacuations between texas and louisiana. the whole key here, when you talk about harvey coming up here, having just experienced the three-year anniversary, is getting people out in time. governor abbott said there have been more called for mandatory evacuations at this point than there ever where for hu

we are right near port, arthur also near lake charles will likely see that storm surge continuing their but watch what happens in maintains lot of strength throughout a good part of the night category 4 strength right along the texas, louisiana border, all the way up into shreveport by later on this evening. we're strong winds there may be hurricane force extending outward about 60 miles from the center of that storm system a wide area of devastation, some of those places that see storm surge may not see that water recede for several days just being back to you. thank you so much lawrence and for chase and logan break down the latest on. >>boycotts that are coming in. the giants have now made an official decision will have that as soon as we come back. plus hillary clinton's message to joe biden >>in political news house democrats will investigate secretary of state mike pompeo is decision to speak at the republican national convention. texas congressman joaquin castro says it's highly unusual unprecedented and possibly illegal for a sitting secretary of state to speak at a buy pot a pa

track here tonight and probably make landfall little bit later on this evening, somewhere near port arthur winds. we're that's we're expecting the big storm surge and we're looking to possibly that storm surge of maybe 15 maybe 20 feet right around that eye wall comes on shore and that could extend as much as 40 miles all the way inland. so you can imagine a swath maybe 50 miles across of water just stretching all the way up maybe not receding for several days before that all begins return and make its way back in the ocean so certainly you can see some of that storm surge all the way up in lake charles will lake charles this going to be a devastating storm system as it moves on shore, here's the very latest on the track we've got sustained winds now of a 150 miles per hour making its way on shore this evening here comes may be making landfall 7. between about 7, 9, near a port arthur and then working its way up and look at the strength here maintaining category 4 strength all the way until 8.30 tomorrow morning all the way near shreveport we're talking about an extremely dangerous storm s

the last few buses out of the port arthur dead center in the cone. we're dead set the eye of the storm could come ashore. if it is a cat-4 storm that comes ashore, and you're in the wall, you will get quite a ride. you point out unsurvivable water in terms of storm surge. we talked to some folks that stayed in other hurricanes but after their experience, this time they say, i'm out of here. >> trying to stay, when they said it would be category, would end up being a category 4, the possibility we would be in the eye, that is kind of scary. with harvey, we went through it with harvey. no. let's go. let's get out of here. reporter: harvey, rita. they have seen it all here in this area of the country. the only positive, you talk about katrina being a catastrophic event. because it was over such a huge population area. this isn't a huge population area but anybody who is here, in addition to the oil and gas is going to get quite a ride. we'll be here, neil. neil: you know, i'm curious, jeff, have they talked about shelters? i'm just thinking of covid-19

we were out at the civics center in port arthur. stacks and stacks of buses, a couple dozen of them, people getting on to those buses having no idea where they're going. it could be austin, could be san antonio, could be dallas. there are a couple different locations where they've spread them out. and covid we discussed earlier at the top of the newscast, such a sort of wrinkle in all of this. everybody has to get a temperature check. everybody has to have a mask. everyone needs to register. the actual capacity of carrying people on these buses is reduced by 50%. so you need more buses. there are images we saw today of people coming in with their belongings in bags, one woman clutching a bible. to quote the mayor in port arthur, come 5:00 or 6:00 today it is going to be you and god and that's it. they are not planning on sending in first responders once there are 35 to 40-mile-per-hour sustained winds. that is not happening. this is going to escalate and get dangerous very quickly. hopefully people are heeding the warnings, chuck. >

i'm in port arthur. if you go to beaumont, you're talking about 95% of oil capacity all over the united states, 40% of the u.s. oil refining capacity in the u.s. gulf here shut down right now. and they have their own emergency plans, but between the flooding and the rain and, of course, the high winds, you're looking at a trifecta of terror bearing down on the gulf coast. hallie? >> it is scary to listen to, scary to think about, sam brock, i know you'll stay on top of it. we'll bring you updates on the hurricanes at this hour. al roker is finishing up the "today" show, he'll join us in a couple of minutes. >>> more breaking news this morning, the chaos in wisconsin. you have protests escalating there, some people arming themselves against protesters. "the new york times" reporting on fights outside a gas station near where two people were killed. the protesters are demanding justice for jacob blake, whose family is pleading for peace and confirming devastating reports about his condition. blake is now p

we got a lot of win the aftermath here in port arthur, texas. a lot of roofs blown off of homes and plenty of trees down. good news is that we did not get any storm surge that we thought that we were going to get on the text side. there is a seawall here, they were concerned that the water might flood downtown, that did . and there is no major flooding on this side of the state line. but the wind was the real story. roofs off of houses, frees across roads and limbs down in just about every yard in town. it was a strong wind storm and we saw gusts of around 70 to 70 5 miles per hour in port arthur. >> had most of the people left in time, were s o it out? >> reporter: in any storm you will get some people who stay. i can tell you it seems like most people here left town because there is no one on the road right now. typically when the sun would come up, you see people driving around and looking at damage. we haven't seen anybody moving except for city vehicles. and city workers say this is the worst that they have seen. again, roofs off and trees

charles watson in port arthur, texas, charles, can you show us the damage there, please?, port arthur was able to evade a brunt of what laura caused because it's surprising because throughout the night we were experiencing winds of 75 to 80 miles per hour. you could literally see trees bending and winds howling. this building right here, there was some concern whether it would be able to make it through the storm. right now you can see construction material ripped off, portions to have roof but that seems to be the extent right now. it is still standing. now yesterday evening governor greg abbott sent 2c130's in for last-chance rescues to evacuate people from port arthur but now the evacuation order has been lifted for jefferson county which includes the towns of beaumont and port arthur, more than 600,000 people between texas and louisiana are without power. that number could grow and folks are probably going to have to wait a while for crews to restore that power safely so they are going to have to rely on hurricane kits for a little while longer, stuart. stuart: i call

port arthur, 72 miles per hour was your peak wind gust. so let's play this out. are now. storm is about 400 miles wide, max winds at 140. here's the wind forecast, the peak winds heading from lake charles towards shreveport. could see wind gusts up to 60 to 70 miles per hour. the flood threat, 6 million people impacted. that's where the eye is currently. here's the rainfall forecast. you notice shreveport, you could see five plus inches of rainfall. that will mostly occur during the day today. that's why we'll see the possibilities of you are banal flo -- possibilities of urban flooding. doesn't look like lake charles is going to go through the center of the eye, so we're not going to see our reporters standing in that eerie calm, but they're close to it, richard. >> bill, this was huge early on when it was over the gulf eight, nine miles high. how big is laura right now? put it in context for us in terms of how this fits in recent time we talked about rita, katrina. how is laura looking right now? >> so we know now that this is the second or first most intense -

in that triangle is port arthur.ned about that surge and given the direction o the hurting for there also really concerned about these winds. so we are going to be experiencing these high winds u until 2:00 a.m., 2-3-4:00 a.m. this morning local time. the big concert concern obviously for our colleagues an others in lake charles with tha surge, this texas area, they have got crews standing by coul you can see we have power here in port arthur, but we've got about 9,000 power crews that will be ready to come in here because they are expecting hundreds of thousands of people without power, if not millions because the storm is going to b wreaking havoc your along that border of louisiana. again, we still have power, strong tropical force winds and nearing hurricane i would imagine as the wall makes its way along the border now. we have seen some to downed threes in some parts that a fallen off. some parts of the construction site that of also come off. this is what we are experiencin right now. the hope here in southeas

ginger starts us off from port arthur, texas.morning, ginger. >> reporter: george, here in port arthur, texas, we were on the west side of the storm. we escaped the worst of it. close to half a million customers are without power and that number is going to grow and i'll tell you why. let's first go to this stunning image of when this category 4 made landfall. houston on the left was spared from the storm. the worst of it fell in southwestern louisiana, lake charles. that's where we see the unbelievable pictures of damage today. but we still have a hurricane circulating through northern louisiana and arkansas is going to get into tornado watches and eventuallyough later today. that outer band is going to have heavy lightning and gusts. we are not going to be done with this for a while. some of the highest wind gusts reported, 137 miles per hour at lake charles. that's the preliminary report and we may see even higher. some of the storm surge up to ten feet so those numbers could still climb as the water pushes but for the most pa

. >> reporter: i'm sam brock in port arthur along the gulf coast tonight it's not just the winds, but water they're fearing from the catastrophic storm surge. >> the hurricane, i covered this island. >> reporter: the impact can be devastating even from small surges, at three feet the flood waters are life threatening, at six feet the waves can smash through windows and doors. at nine feet entire neighborhoods could be destroyed. laura's storm surge could top out at 20 feet. >> this has been categorize as a storm surge where it will be hitting. >> reporter: the national hurricane center warning the waters can push 30 miles inland in the texas city of port arthur i'm standing on top of a levy that's built up and reenforced to handle storm surge, but not 15 to 20 feet worth of it. the mayor here is deeply concerned about what's to come. >> about 5:00 it's going to be you and god. >> reporter: we found people scrambling to get out, remembering the ruthless rising waters in hurricanes past. >> i've been through harvey, and i ain't going to chance this i've decided to get on out of here. i

it takes the storm towards port arthur and lake charles with a landfall possibly wednesday evening.our american model is not far behind it, just to the south of that at about 8:00 p.m. wednesday. there's pretty good agreement of where the storm will be headed, yasmin. tomorrow's the day that we find out how strong laura can get. once it gets over the warm water of the gulf of mexico, it will have about 36 to 48 hours to try to become a big, intense hurricane, and, you know, right now, from houston to new orleans, you need to be preparing, as if a possible major hurricane could head your way wednesday night. >> i know you'll be tracking that for us, bill. thank you. >>> still ahead, everybody, we're going to go live to cnbc for an early look at how the promise of new coronavirus treatments is moving markets. this story is driving your business day, coming up next. inr business day, coming up next did you know that some aluminum- free deodorants only mask odor? secret aluminum free helps eliminate odor instead of just masking it. and is made with three times more odor fighters. with s

the city of port arthur, texas, is already evacuating.americans, it's right on the coast where louisiana and texas meet and squarely in the path of hurricane laura. peak winds gust in the city may reach up to 125 miles an hour. with me now the mayor of port arthur. mayor, thank you so much for joining me. based on what we know right now, port arthur, texas, is going to be in the direct path of the hurricane. what are your priorities right before the hurricane hits? >> right now it's to be sure that all who have had a desire to get out have gotten out. i think we have probably until about 4:00 at the airport that's available there. but citizens will have to drive to the airport and they will be flown into dfw. getting people out of harm's way. we've been at this really since saturday. and we've made it mandatory on monday. we are doing everything we can to make sure that the citizens are not in harm's way because this storm is going to be packing a real big punch. >> are you confident that enough of your citizens are taking the storm serio

port arthur as well. all the communities in between, all the way towards shreveport. it's going to look much different tomorrow than it has for the last several years. and that's frightening enough. >> yeah, it certainly is. tom, thank you so much for that update. i want to go now to our derek van dam. he is on the ground in beaumont, texas. derek, hey, gad to see you. describe where you are and the conditions. >> yeah, good morning, robyn. >> hi. >> we are getting battered here in beaumont, texas, but they are getting absolutely crushed 50 kilometers to our east in the lake charles region. you heard tom talk about it a moment ago. they're in the center of the eye. that's the thing about this hunting hurricanes or chasing hurricanes. it's a game of miles. and really we are on the outer fringes of the strongest part of major hurricane laura as it continues to move inland. this has been an extremely scary storm for residents here. just because of the potential of the storm surge. we know about the fact that it could push onshore by 40 miles. that is significant. a stron

well right now what they're looking at is the truck and all the models have it coming in around port arthur which is right on the state line between louisiana and texas they are all low lying communities lots of oil production in port arthur but up into those barrier islands in louisiana and in texas they're very very low lying indeed so as 600000 or so people have been moved out of that area you always get people that stay behind want to ride these things out but the language being used by officials and by forecasters is something i haven't heard in years this may be the most powerful storm to hit this region in more than a decade and remember what our again harvey did back in 2017 when there was severe flooding in houston and 68 people died of course in 2005 hurricane katrina killed almost 2000 people so they are not taking any chances here at the moment but the sheer scale of this storm it is mind blowing to see you're talking about winds of at least 175 kilometers an hour that all an ever present danger of storm surges this is been taken extremely seriously even by residents who wanted

port arthur mayor told me by noon today that's when the last couple of buses are going out.is begging, imploring, pleading people, get out of town. there is a triple threat we're expecting here. incredible storm surge, steph, of 1 or 13 feet, which is basically two of me stacked one on top of another. howling winds that would reach 120-plus miles an hour, and tons of rain that could cause flooding throughout the southeastern part of texas here. major concerns. governor warning people leave now. this is your final window. >> reporter:. >> here is what's concerning me. those exact people, are they listening to evacuation orders? >> reporter: many are. some are staying behind, saying they have storm fatigue or think they can ride this out. jordan price in galveston. >> we know there will be a lot of aftermath and clean-up to do afterwards. we feel it's important to stay around, if we feel safe where we're at, to help everybody with that. we're going to stick around and see what happens. we feel safe where we're at. >> reporter: there is one really important point i would like t

thank you. >>> joined by the mayor of port arthur, texas, mayor bartee.orning. >> thank you all for having us. >> your city, mayor, is home to about 54,000 people and home to the largest oil refinery in north america. can you talk about how that's doing during the storm, any damage to what is the critical resource? >> well right now, we have folk still out assessing and what we are finding out is that we felt we were actually blessed. we don't have any loss of life, but there are many downed trees, power is out, from what i can understand we may have over half of the energy customers in port arthur may be out of power at the moment. about 2:00 today we'll probably be able to make an announcement about the assessment that is going on now and even allow citizens to understand and know when it would be safe for them to return. i would ask them please don't try to return today. may not be safe for you. >> why is that? >> well, because we had power lines that are down, trees that are down, and we want to clear some of this debris before citizens will be able t

beaumont, port arthur, lake charles. this is oil country.hey've already evacuated platforms and they'll have to shut down refineries after that, the storm moves north as a rain event across little rock, and kentucky. the european computer model, typically, the most reliable, this one takes the storm almost over the top of galveston and houston and beaumont you can see how serious a situation. we have a rapidly strengthening hurricane approaching land we have mass evacuations continuing today and tomorrow. >> amazing we still have our maps available. 40% of u.s. oil refinery is somewhere in that colored model there in the eye of the cone the yellow, the green, about 2 million barrels of oil production are off line right now. all of the off shore rigs, of course, you've got to get the women and men off those rigs people are expected to drive so much less because of the storm talk to us about the storm surge. i got an email from a big oil company and their projections. talking i talking ike and rita, twin storms as well given the rain from marc

steve: jeff flock down at port arthur in texas.est storm threat to u.s. oil outputs in 15 years. janice dean joins us right now. janice, yesterday, you presumed it was going to be a cat 3 before it made landfall. now, it looks like according to the model, could be a cat 4. janice: right. it is rapidly intensifying. and continues to do so over the next several hours. let's take a look at the track as of the 5:00 a.m. advisory from the national hurricane center. moving towards texas and louisiana. 110 mile-per-hour sustained winds. 111 makes it a category 3. and we do expect this storm to become a category 4 and then weaken as it makes landfall. we think landfall is going to happen overnight tonight into thursday morning around 3:00 a.m. and this is going to be a catastrophic storm now predicting storm surge of upwards of 15 feet. 15 inches of rainfall attached to this in isolated amounts. we are also going to be the potential for hurricane force winds well along the coast line. not just where the center comes ashore. but, you know,

we just left of civic center here in port arthur where dozens and dozens of cool buses were lined up.re loaded on to go about 100 miles north of where we are. behind me is one of the c-130s from the texas air national guard. it's been deployed to this area, standing by for its mission. this could be a mission of sending supplies, helping people evacuation if the buses aren't enough. that's the kind of scale we are looking at especially with the fact that laura has intensified to a category 1 hurricane as it's expected to make landfall as a category 3. folks who live in this area have very vivid memories of the pain of hurricane harvey which came here and dropped nearly 60 inches of rain, creating flooding that was of biblical-like proportions. so the deja vu element is a very painful one for a lot of these folks. fortunately that's why we're seeing people be response everyone, the storm surge that laura could bring up to spoke feet high could be incredibly dangerous as it rolls its way inland. we know back with prior hurricanes, particularly in lake charles, louisiana, which is about

here's where we see the winds, lake charles, beaumont, port arthur.asmin, will last days, maybe even weeks after landfall. for the houston area, it has not improved for them. it's not shifted your way. we're not going to completely ease up on that forecast and tell you that you're completely safe yet, but it is looking better by the hour. >> thank you, bill. i know you'll be watching this throughout the day. >>> still ahead, everybody, we're going live to cnbc as the tech industry gears up for one of the biggest market debuts of the year. also major earnings for one of the biggest additions to the dow. the stories driving your business day, coming up. i'm a verizon engineer, and i'm part of the team building the most powerful 5g experience for america. it's 5g ultra wideband, and it's already available in parts of select cities. like los angeles and in new york city. and it's rolling out in cities around the country. with massive capacity, it's like an eight lane highway compared to a two lane dirt road. 25x faster than today's 4g networks. in fact, i

we're going to go back to ginger who is tracking the latest in port arthur. i will not want to be standing here in less than 18 hours when this storm makes landfall. we now know a category 3 hurricane, the latest update from the national hurricane center, has it moving northwest at 15 miles per hour. it's making a beeline for this texas/louisiana state line. exactly where i am standing up to lake charles and i want to point out that the rapid intensification with some of the strongest we've seen since irma in 2017. this is a strong one moving up and should be a 4 at some point today, but that cone has sluhru a little bit, but remember even if you're on the edge of the cone, you still have to watch for some because each wobble matters. the impacts important. storm surge could be 10 to 15 feet. you realize that is a 10 to 15-foot wall of water that can push homes off their foundation. the storm surge could move 30 miles inland. that is intense. so even if you are not right at the coast you could see impacts like that and winds in excess of 120 possible. so we'l

we got a lot of wind and rain and this is the aftermath in port arthur. lot of roofs blown off of homes and plenty of trees and tree limbs down just about everywhere you look around town. the good news is we did not get any storm surge that we thought that we would get on the texas p th, eye concerned that the water might come over the seawall and flood downtown. that did not happen. we did get a lot of rain, but not any major flooding on this side of the state line. but the wind was the real story here. again, roofs off of houses, awnings down and trees and limbs down in just about every yard in town. it was a powerful wind storm, we saw gusts of around 70 to 75 miles per hour in downtown port arthur. >>> now your voice your vote, president trump will take center stage tonight to close out the republican national convention. last night it was vice president mike pence's turn trying to put a positive spin on coronavirus. >> to bring america all the way back, we need are four more years of president donald trump in the white house. joe doesn't seem to unde

jha janessa, good morning >> the track is really starting to come into agreement those folks in port arthur, they're doing the exact right thing. we're seeing the forecast shift out of houston and the galveston area and it is headed toward chasm ron parrish. overnight though, hurricane laura has intensified. now a cat 2 be sustained winds after 1205-mile-per-hour and that will increase throughout the afternoon. right now's about 300 miles off the coast of louisiana i think when you see this forecast from the national hurricane center and our 5:00 avm update that's going to change you'll see the impacts and a potential landfall tonight but the impacts are going to be widespread even though that he we are another going to see a wide hit, tropical storm winds, the storm zij, i i'll talk about that coming up. >>> the republican national coop vengs is mount the case for a second term. speechers kouted president trump's economic accomplishments and a softer tone from first lady melania trump >> since march our lives are changed drastically. the invisible enemy swept across our beautiful country.

he is live in port arthur in texas which is to the west of louisiana.d morning. >> hey, guys, you can hear that winds rustling right now. the intensity of the wind and rain has sloan down in the last hour or so according to the national weather service, we are seeing about 55 mile-per-hour winds gusts right now. let's take a look behind me because you can see these shingles here on the ground. they have been blowing around all night long. we haven't been able to see a lot because it's still dark out here. a little survey of the hotel that we're at right now, they are blowing around all over the place. you see these bushes they have been blown around. right now we know that more than 400,000 people between texas and louisiana are without power right now. our hotel is without power. >> we have been without power for several hours at this point. the intention city of the winds was powerful throughout the night. inside of our hotel it sounded like a sledge hammer was continuously banging on the walls. so a good thing that the wind and rain has sloan down ri

the center of the storm will be going over port arthur texas and also close to lake charles, louisiana. that kinds of looks to be ground zero for this hurricane. a storm surge of the coast of 10 or 20 feet. family or friends living on the coast they have to evacuate because of the storm surge. rain 6 to 20 inches and flooding and huge danger and wind gusts of 150 miles per hour. we'll have more on nbcbayarea.com, let's go ahead and move back to our bay area weather. air quality is the best it has been since the fire started at this moment because of that fog helping to ak lict like a big f and pushing the smoke out of here. you can go outside and breathe it in. no problem. moderate air quality from napa and san jose, that's a drastic improvement for us. tomorrow i do think there is a chance we could see some locations back into the unhealthy category in the north bay and east bay and south bay. if we get better containment, all of these numbers will be going down and that would be some good news for us again. fires, three of them, you all heard it. if you have been watching us or track

also with us now, jeff flock who is in port arthur, texas. looks windy.>> reporter: well, we're right in the center of the cone, stuart, right where janice said, right on the border. we came over, you asked about the biggest refinery in the u.s., that's the refeignly right there -- refinery right there behind us. it's shut down, you can still see they're flaring gas off the top of it, they can't completely shut the crackers down, but skeleton staff. in addition to that, we've got water right here behind us. this town and this area of texas and louisiana surround by water. half of it's bayou, it's all low lying, and so what janice said so articulately about you've got to take this seriously, i know there's a lot of news these days. you've got the convention, you've got covid, oh, jeez, everything. well, if it wasn't for all that, i'd tell you, people would be freaking out. the positive on this, i will say, we had a katrina situation in a huge population center. most of the folks have gotten out of here, and this isn't a big population center to start with.

the payoff, no fatalities and no injuries we're aware of in the port arthur region.an see some of the destruction left behind namely from the water and wind combination. the high water level on sabine pass, all the deb pushed up to this location shows you the force of nature. we rode out the storm last night in beaumont, texas. we got battered around but it was nothing that compared to 30 miles from here, win toes blown out of buildings. we saw structures compromised, trees and power utility poles snapped like twigs. we saw several utility workers ready and prepared to restore power to 100,000 people who lost power last night, including us. >> all right. so glad you're okay. we're following a ton of breaking news. joe biden, kamala harris, local officials speaking amid the unrest in wisconsin and the covid pandemic. we're covering all angles of these major stories. that's next. stay with us. wayfair has everything outdoor from grills to play sets and more one of a kind finds. it all ships free. and with new deals every day you can explore endless options at every pri

and beaumont and port arthur, a mile shift east or west makes a huge difference.xpecting from an event like a hurricane, a category 4 or 5, expect a period of winds that are life-threatening. as far as the storm surge, we're watching the tidal gauges, the water level is coming up now. we expect that to happen in the next two or three hours. you see to the right of there, it's where we'll see the highest storm totals. we're waiting to see what will happen in the lake charles area. and you hear storm surge, that kills the most people. it kills more people than the winds do in a hurricane. three feet of storm surge, that's considered life-threatening. six feet, on top of that, we don't count it in addition to waiv wai waves. the waves are what destroys the houses. and the peak wind gusts, 120, 130-mile-per-hour gusts taking place shortly. and tomorrow morning at about 11:00 a.m., shreveport could have 60 to 70 wind gusts. it's been a dry summer throughout this portion of the country. we'll locally have flash flooding, and the surge in the wind is what will give the d

coastal section where comes on shore you can see it now getting very close to cameron also in the port arthur lake charles not that far away and i think all of those areas are going to be severely affected look at the strong core you've got 60 mile an hour winds or 60 mile an hours across that you've got hurricane force winds we're tracking the eye very closely looks like it wants to track very close to port arthur make its way right along the coastline there and possibly that storm surge moving as far as 40 miles inland, so you can imagine all the damage that we're going to see by tomorrow afternoon guys back to you thank you lauren still ahead of the box surprising new guidance from the cdc regarding coronavirus testing why the nation's top infectious disease expert says he was caught off guard plus we hear from the sonoma county couple forced to evacuate because of >>in sonoma county the walbridge fire which is part of the l in new complex is still threatening structures on for us we've got sells us and families in healdsburg who are evacuated last week are now returning home to either che

veteran hurricane chaser jeff flock on the ground in port arthur, texas. >>> as convalescent plasma treatments and vaccines get fast-tracked at lightning speed, ucla epidemiologist anne rimoyne on what's working and what's not. less than an hour to the closing bell, let's start "the claman countdown." liz: all right. breaking news. in this final hour, it's wall street calls that are popping, not so much the stocks. analysts are falling over each other to play catch-up to the market's highest flyers. let's start with reaction at this hour to jeffery's super-charged price target call on tesla of $2500 per share. right now, tesla stands up 5.5% to $2132. the firm says despite increasing competition, elon musk's baby has brand leverage but what's the catalyst to move shares up to $2500? the highly anticipated so-called million mile battery. >>> flip it over to wedbush's piping hot price target call on apple. analyst dan ives raising it to a street high of 600 bucks. right now it's at $502.63. what will be the catalyst to get it to 600? he forecasts an iphone 12 super cycle. what won't be on your c

there have been buses evacuating people from here in beaumont and port arthur. that ended a couple of hours ago. anybody -- and, look, i've been watching the local news here, there is nothing but messages going out to people to say you have very little time. don't get stuck. all the highway signs that are electronic say if you come to a flood, you come to a puddle in the road, turn around and don't drown on it. they're warning people, you got a little more time to make this decision as you can see, very little rain, very little precipitation right now. but at some point, people are going to have to stay home and the case of beaumont, like harvey, they could lose their power for many, many days, and they could be cut off from transportation to areas around them. >> stay with me for a second. i want to bring in al roker for the big picture on this. al, what time will it start to get dangerous for the folks down there in texas and louisiana? >> well, here is the thing, ayman. we're already seeing the feeder bands now just making their way into louisiana, lake charl

where i am in orange, you can draw a line sort of southwest of beaumont and then down southeast of port arthur, and it makes a triangle. it's called the golden triangle. this is the heart of oil production and oil refining in the country. so we had all those rigs and platforms in the gulf of mexico. 85% of them were evacuated. the refineries were shut down. the folks in this area in many cases depend on work related to oil refining, oil products, oil servicing. that is a major industry that's not just shut down but it's going to affect everybody else because of gas prices. >> ali, i was talking last night overnight with a few people that are environmentalists. they were talking about the possibility of these spills out of all these major oil production facilities. that storm surge, could we also get an ecological disaster on our hands throughout that region? it doesn't look like that storm surge went up into sabean pass or the kalka shoe river area. it doesn't look like they had water problems. we'll have to see if they had wind damage. those buildings are built to withstand storms like this,